Chapter 7
When in doubt, Shift it out

(The Void)

“Well that could’ve gone better.” Katie said as she pulled herself up from the ground. “Glad I landed on something soft, otherwise it would’ve hurt my ass a lot...Hey, where’s Raven?”

“Ahem?” coughed a familiar voice from underneath Katie’s feet.

“Hm?” Upon looking down, Katie notice that she was standing on top of Raven’s back. In a fit of panic and fear, she quickly moved herself from off of the older shifter. “Um….sorry.”

Raven grumbled as she pushed herself up and off of the ground. She brushed off her jacket and pants before readjusting them to better sit on her body. “Forget about it,” she said curtly before looking at Katie with a slight glare, “Literally. Forget it ever happened.”

“I’ll do that…anyway to the matter at hand. It looks like I was right about the hole in Sugarcube Corner.” Raven didn’t answer, simply taking the chance to observe their surroundings. “So where do we go from here? Because I don’t really know where to start looking.”

“Well, if I know Kat, and I do, then we go where the most destruction is.”

“And where might that be?” Katie asked as a gust of wind blew past her and Raven. Looking to her left, the young shifter could see a mushroom cloud standing off into the distance from where they are. “Scratch that, never mind.”

“Kat’s never been one for subtlety.” Raven jumped into the air and started for the mushroom cloud. “Come on, before there’s nothing left.”

“I hope she didn’t cause any damage to the place we’re looking for.” Katie said as she followed after Raven to where the mushroom cloud came from. As the duo made their way to where the explosion was coming from, Katie notice Paula yelling at Kat while carrying what she could tell were four ponies. Two under her arms, while the other two were hold onto her back. “I get the feeling something just happen that got Paula pissed.”

“Kat probably got too eager, again. She’s quick with the punch, but doesn’t always think beforehand. Let’s get down there and see what’s up.”

“Heh, kinda reminds of how I am sometimes.” The young shifter said as she lands a few inches next to Kat and Paula, who were still arguing with each other. Mainly, Paula.

“Seriously, do you even think before doing something crazy like that?” Paula asked, glaring at Kat.

The elder shifter simply shrugged. “Hey it got the job done and no one was hurt. I made sure you had everyone out of the blast range.”

“Yet the blast range was bigger then you told me it was! Do you just shoot first and ask questions later when doing crap like that!? What would happen if I didn’t get Twilight and her friends out of your range of fire!?”

“Don’t worry. I have a backup for everything.,” Kat waved off.

“Yet rarely does it work, sis,” Raven interrupted, getting both of their attentions.

“....Wow, talk about looking in a mirror.” Paula said as she placed the knocked Twilight and her friends down. She soon noticed Katie next to her and quickly walked over and hugged her. “Katie, thank god you’re alright!”

“Nice to see you too Paula. Did you get a new pair of clothes while I was away?” Katie asked as she looked at Paula up and down.

“You can thank Kat for that one.” She said, pointing a thumb at the older version of friend. Katie pulled herself away from Paula’s hug as she walked over to Kat with a questionable expression on her face.

“So...you’re another displaced dress up as Kat from Gravity Rush 1 & 2 huh?”

“They made a sequel?!“ Kat and Raven both shouted, roughly mirroring each other. “When did that happen?!“

“Hm, what year on earth did you two got displaced?” Katie asked as she tries to crunch in the numbers in her head.

“Twenty-thirteen,” they simultaneously spoke again.

“Let’s see...about three years later after Gravity Rush 1 came out for the ps vita. I pretty much got twenty-seventeen as a birthday present from Paula. I will say this...The game is so amazing, especially seeing how they have it on the PS4. Too bad they don’t have it for the PS Vita, but meh.”

“Besides that. We’re kinda the new versions of you two in a way.” Paula said as she scratched the back of her head. “Well, Katie is in more ways then some.”

“Look at that, sis, they’re already trying to replace us,” Kat said, softly patting Raven on the chest with the back of her hand.

“The nerve,” Raven said with a shake of her head.

“Games wise, not in real life. I mean after seeing what your sister can do...I’m pretty sure we can’t top that.” Paula said with a worried expression on her face as she looked back at Katie. “Katie, help me out here-.”

“Hey, does anyone feel a bit lighter for some reason?” Katie asked, as she notice Paula looking at her in shock. “What? Do I have something on me or something?”

“Take a good look at yourself.” She suggested as Katie did so, only to be surprised by the blue glowing bracelets on her arms, wrists, and legs. Only with the gold part of her clothing turned blue.

“Well...that explains it.”

“Um, Raven? What am I looking at here?”

“I wish I knew, sis,” she replied, staring at Katie in shock.

“That would be her new power that she unlocked the other day in Canterlot.” Dusty said as he appeared next to Katie while she was float in mid air. “Or in certain terms, the character that she’s dressed up as has a new power.”

Kat did a sharp inhale at seeing Dust, putting a fist to her heart for a moment before letting out a ragged breath. She felt Raven’s hand on her shoulder, but didn’t need to look to know the face Raven was making. “I’m fine. I’m fine. So, what does this power do, exactly?”

“Lunar, allows the user to be agile, light as a feather sorta speak.” The cosmic cat said as he walked over to Kat. “Think of it as being fired out of a gun only much faster. It quite helpful when dodging attack or traveling from place to place. That and allow her to wrap around her enemies.”

“I see,” Kat stammered, taking a few steps back from Dusty.

“Um, could someone get me down from here?” Katie asked as she tries to maintain her balance. “Not used to the whole gravity control without some assistance.”

“Right, of course. Excuse me.” Dusty hopped into the air as he returned back inside Katie. Causing her cosmic ear and tail to return back onto herself as she lands back on the ground.

“Much better. I was starting to get a little dizzy from spinning around in the air like that.” Katie said as she looks over at Kat. “If I can figure out how to get jupiter, then that would be very useful.”

Kat blinked at Katie a few times before turning to Raven with a finger pointed at the other girl. “Am I seeing things or does she have cat ears and a tail?”

Raven sighed. “It seems to be a new function of their familiars. It’s rather… annoying.”

“Says the woman who has one herself~.” Katie said in a singsong tone as she point to the pair of bunny ears and tail on Raven’s body. “See, she has one as well.”

She looked up, seeing the ears again. “Oh dammit, this again!”

Kat began to snicker, covering her mouth to hide her mirth. “You always said you wanted to be a playboy.”

“I will end you,” Raven said with an icy glare.

“Not to ruin the little party that we’re having, but let’s get back to the task at hand please?” Paula asked as she looked around at her surroundings. “We need to figure out how to get….parts of Ponyville back to Canterlot.”

“What do you mean parts of Ponyville?” Katie asked as Paula pointed at the somewhat remains of Ponyville. “Oh...Celestia is not gonna be happy about this.”

“You can thank Kat for that one.”

“Hey it was either blow it up or let everyone get eaten. At least we haven’t had any casualties since I showed up,” Kat said in indignation.

“Little warning would be nice next time you gonna as you quoted “Nuke the fucker” to dust.”

“I actually said ‘Nuke the enfoiré’,” Kat offhandedly corrected.

“That’s Kat. You can see where people get the confusion on which of us the eldest. I’m supposed to be, but little miss time skipper here cheats.”

“Hush, Raven. Now’s not the time for your pettiness.”

“Petty?!“

“Focus ladies, we have a what remains of a town to bring back.” Paula said as she placed a hand on her chin. “Any idea’s on how to do that? Because as of right now, I got nothing.”

Kat and Raven looked at each other for a moment before nodding to one another… and then they both shrugged. “Not a clue!” they said in perfect harmony.

“B-But aren’t you both Shifters? Shouldn’t you have an idea seeing how you’re more experienced in this sort of thing then we are?”

With a shake of her head, Kat said, “We’re experienced in fighting gravity monsters.”

“But we’ve never dealt with a gravity storm before,” Raven finished.

“I do have a few ideas, but as of right now the best I can give any of them working is a forty-percent success rate. The other sixty percent resulting in death and destruction of the whole town.”

“.....You two make Katie look like a saint at this point.”

“I don’t know if I should find that as a complement or an insult.” Katie said as she picked up a piece of rock and threw it into the air and bounced off a floating rock. Just as the stone was about to hit another floating rock, the stone suddenly phased through it and landed a few feet away from the group.

“That’s worrying,” Kat slowly said, looking at the rock that had fallen to the ground.

“What makes you say that? It’s not like this place will disappear or something….will it?”

“Um… if I say ‘yes’ will you start to panic?”

“....Well shit.”

“What do you mean this place will disappear!?” Paula yelled, causing Katie to cover her ears.

Kat instantly moved and clapped her hand over Paula’s mouth, shushing her. “Quiet!” she harshly whispered. “If anypony hears that, there’s gonna be a full riot on our hands.”

“Man, talk about being pressed for time. Hey Dusty, any ideas on how to get out of this place before we fade into nothingness?” Katie asked as she felt Dusty pop his head from out of her chest.

“Try finding something that you would not normally see in a place like this. Something that would be common where you four come from, but not something that the ponies here would know.” The cat said as he goes back inside Katie. “When you find it. It’ll lead you to where you need to go.”

“Thank you Dusty.” The young shifter said as she looked over at Kat and the others. “New Shifters one, Old shifters zero.” Giggles as she starts looking around for something out of the ordinary.

Kat took her hand off of Paula’s mouth before glancing at Raven who nodded in return. Raven started looking around as well. “Now the question is, what is it that would be out of the ordinary?”

“Well it could anything that the ponies haven’t seen. So I’m gonna guess it has to be something from the human world, or from the game.” Paula said, looking around to see said object or item.

“Based on my travels, that could very well be anything. If it’s a police box, though, I’m going to scream.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “Let’s just look for this oddity. For whatever reason, these familiars know more about the gravity storm than we do. Maybe even too much, but that’s a talk for another time.”

As Katie continued her search for the oddity, she then notice a sacred gem floating in the middle of nowhere. “Well what do we have here.” She said as she reached for the gem. Just as she touched it, a trail of sacred gems appeared as it lead toward someplace else. “I think I might have found what we’re looking for ladies!”

“Okay, that’s new,” Kat blinked, looking down the trail of gems.

“New shifters two, old shifter zero.” Paula said as she started following the trail of gems along with Katie. “Better step up your A game ladies~.”

Raven stepped up to Kat as the new shifters walked after along. “Should we tell them?”

Kat just smiled. “You know the rules, Rita. We’d better keep up.” Kat floated into the air, with Raven following after her towards Paula and Katie.

“So...mind telling me why you seem a bit uneasy around Dusty?” Katie asked as she floated over to Kat as they continue following the tail of gems.

There was silence among the group, Kat just crossing her arms as if giving herself a hug. “Just… memories.”

“Oh…” Thinks for a moment before an idea pops into her head. “Want to hold Dusty? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if it’ll make you feel better?”

“No,” she quickly responded, shaking her head. “I… I can’t do that. It will just hurt.”

“Um..okay...well the offer still stands if you want to hold Dusty anytime you want.” Katie said as she flew up ahead of the group. Moments later after following the trail of gems, they appeared in front of what was the remains of town hall. “Guess this is the place?” The young shifter said as she landed in front of the door along with Paula.

“Town hall?” Raven asked, looking at the decrepit building. “Just what could be in there that could help us?”

“Don’t know.” The young shifter said as she pulled out her metal pole from off her back, knocked the doors down with a mighty swing. “But standing here like a bunch of idiots not going to help us, so let’s go in.”

Kat hummed a little as they ventured inside. “Yes, let’s definitely go into the broken down building in the middle of a storm. Pray for the souls of any side characters venturing within.”

“Side character?” Paula asked as she walked over the broken doors and began to look around inside the building. “What does that suppose to mean?”

“Spend time with her brother, and you’ll figure it out,” Raven said. She lifted her hand and fueled it with energy, providing light for all.

“She has a brother?” The thought of her thinking that Kat’s brother was a shifter that she a sumed he’s like her caused Paula to shiver. “I hope he’s not like Kat.”

“Not really. He’s much worse.”

“....Yeah I was right. Katie is a saint compared to you two.”

The older shifter just smirked. “As you progress through your years, you’ll discover a few things.”

“Like I haven’t heard that one before.” Paula said as she turned her attention at Kat and Katie. “See anything that might be weird or odd?”

“Nope, can’t say that I see anything odd or weird.” Katie answered as she lean against the wooden wall of the building.

“Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place,” Kat said, her chin resting on her fist. “Is there a basement here?”

“How should I know? It’s not like I’ve been here long enough to know if this building does have a-.” Just as Paula was about to finish, the floor underneath her gave way as she fell through the floor and into the basement. “....found the basement...ow.”

“You okay, Paula?” Kat called down, looking into the darkness below.

“Oh I’m just fine. Nothing but gumdrops and penny whistles down here in this dark basement.” Paula said in a sarcastic tone.

“Can you see anything at all down there?” Raven asked.

“Can’t see shit if I don’t have a light! Toss me something like a lighter or something!?”

“Oh, I think I have something!” Kat exclaimed. Immediately she went rifling through her jacket, searching for something. A moment later she made a declarative shout and pulled out a small glow torch. “Incoming!” she shouted, tossing the glowing cylinder down.

“Incoming wha-!” Just as Paula looked up, the glowing cylinder hit her right in the forehead. “OW! Motherfucker!”

“Language,” Kat chastised.

“You threw a glowing stick at me! What did you expect!?” She said, rubbing her forehead as she picked up the glowing cylinder. Just as the room was starting to lite up the basement a little, a certain item caught her attention. “Hey! I think I might have found what Dusty said!”

“Alright, we’re coming down!” Raven called, dropping into the hole while using her powers to keep her descent smooth yet quick. Kat quickly followed without a word.

“What do you guys see down there!?” Katie yelled as she popped her head over the hole in the floor.

“....You gotta be fucking kidding!” Paula yelled. “You mean this is the thing we’re looking for!?”

“What? What is it?” Katie asked as she saw something heading towards her. Pulling a hand in front of her, she immediately grabbed the item that was about to hit her. Looking carefully at it, the young shifter was a bit surprise at what she had in her hand. “An apple? That’s it?”

“That’s not very out of the ordinary. Apples are one of Ponyville’s biggest exports,” Kat pointed out. “Could it be we’re missing something?”

“Well the trail leads here and this was the only thing that you were able to find down there right?” Katie said as she bit into the apple, only for her to pull away from it due to it feeling hard as a rock. “Ow!”

“What’s wrong?” Raven called out.

“I think the apple you guys found might be the oddity we been looking for.”

“What makes you say that?” Kat asked.

“Because the apple is pretty much glowing.” Katie said as she showed them what she means by displaying it through the hole.

“Now things are just getting weird.”

“You can say that again,” Raven said with a nod.

“Well at least we found what we are looking for.” Paula said as she turned her attention at Katie. “So what do we do now?”

“Give me a second.” Katie soon backed away from the hole as she called out to Dusty. “So what now Dusty?”

“Have Kat pour a huge amount of energy into the apple and it will teleport the town of Ponyville back to Canterlot.”

“Alrighty then.” Katie nodded as she walk over to the hole in the floor as she tossed the glowing apple at Kat. “Dusty said to pour a lot of energy into the apple, and it will teleport Ponyville back to Canterlot.”

Kat’s brow rose just a bit. “And just how does that work? What isn’t he telling us? What is this thing?”

“Look I don’t know. That’s what the talking cosmic cat said. If that’s what he’s saying, then I trust him seeing how he has more knowledge about stuff like this then we do.”

“Actually, why don’t you and Paula do it?” suggested Raven.

“Because Katie can’t do that due to the fact that she can’t stay in control of her powers without the assistance of me.” Dusty said as he appeared next to Katie. “You should know that after what happen back in Canterlot with that Navi.”

“Well you’re right there. So your logic doesn’t make much sense,” Kat pointed out.

“Would you rather stay here and disappear along with possibly 10,000 ponies, or would you want to leave with 10,000 ponies?”

Kat groaned, flying up to Katie and Dusty. “Fine. But if this happens again, you’re gonna have to figure out how to do this on your own.” She put her palm over the “apple” and ignited it with power, flooding into the supposed fruit.

“Understandable, now then toss the apple outside into the air above Ponyville and it will teleport us along with the town back to Canterlot.” The cosmic cat said as he disappear back into Katie.

“And I thought my Dusty was cryptic,” she muttered. She grabbed the apple out of Katie’s grasp with a twist of her wrist. Kat tossed the apple up just a bit to judge the weight before grabbing the fruit and tossing into the air with her best baseball throw, sending it flying high above the surface.

“You might want to brace yourselves.” Katie said as she felt herself body change from normal to red from Dusty being in control. “Dusty said things might get a bit….bumpy on the way home.”

“What does her mean by that?” Paula asked as she floated out of the basement as she to felt herself beginning to feel heavy. “Oh, I see.”

“Well something is starting to happen,” Raven said, following Paula up.

(Canterlot)

“I wonder how Katie is doing.” Scootaloo said as she threw a rock off the broken bridge. “She’s been gone for about an hour...Wish there was a way for me to help her out.” Just as Scootaloo was about to throw another rock, a pillar of gravitational energy spewed up from blow causing the orange filly to fall onto her back. “W-What the hay was that!?” She asked pulling herself up as she saw the pillar beginning to disappear. Once it was gone, her eyes widen in surprise at what she saw floating above her. “Ponyville! But how!? It got sucked up in a gravity storm!”

“Ugh...I think I guess got whiplash.” said a familiar voice, causing Scootaloo to turn around to see Katie stuck in a tree.

“Katie! You’re back!” Scootaloo said as she ran over to the young shifter as she fell out of the tree she was in.

“Hey, Scootaloo. Brought back Ponyville just like I said I would.” Katie said as she tried to pull herself up from the ground. “Had a little help from...huh. Where did Kat, Raven, and Paula fly off to?” The young shifter asked as she looked around for them. “Crap, don’t tell me I lost them during the ride here?”

“I’m here,” Raven groaned. Katie and Scootaloo looked up to see that initially Raven had tried to land on a cloud, but it obviously didn’t work as there was a woman shaped hole in the cloud leading to the actual woman in the ground.

“Well we found one. Now where did Paula and Kat fly off to?”

“I think I might know where she is,” Scootaloo said as she pointed over at Paula who was hanging from a flagpole by the back of her pants.

“Hang in there Paula! I’ll get you down as soon as I can get feelings in my body!” Katie said as she started to stagger to her feet, only to fall face first onto the ground. “Geez, I feel like my body is made of lead or something.”

“You really need some training. It took all of my strength to keep you from flying off during the travel from the void back to Canterlot.”

“So you’re saying I’m pretty much have no more strength left in me?”

“Pretty much yeah, not to mention you still haven’t recovered from that Navi attack from yesterday.”

“Great as if this day couldn’t get any worse...wait a minute, where’s Kat?”

Just as asked, Kat suddenly appeared, literally out of nowhere, staggering and spinning in her steps. “Okay… for once! I should have listened to him; that was a bad idea!” With that said, she spun on one heel with the other leg in the air, only to fall on her back. “I have fallen! And I choose not to get up!”

“What the hay happen to you guys?” Scootaloo asked as she leans Katie up.

“Ugh...I’ll explain everything later...once my head stop spinning. But right now we need to head back home before Celestia gets here.” Looks over at her fellow shifters. “Can anyone move and carry us out of here? All you have to do is follow Scoots over here, and she’ll lead you to our home.”

“I can walk,” Raven said, prying herself free. She stretched her back, causing it to loudly crack before she relaxed. Walking over to Kat, she noticed that her sister was in no condition to walk, let alone even fly. With a sigh, she bent down and picked Kat up, heaving her over her shoulder. “Ready to move.”

“I am never doing that again.” Paula said as she walked over to Katie after pulling herself off the flagpole. “Thank god I join the military at a young age.” She said, picking up the young shifter as she carried her bridle style. “Okay….Scootaloo was it? Mind leading use to your home? Because odds are none of us are in any condition to be dealing with this world’s police force.”

“R-Right, follow me. I know of a quicker way to get to my hideout.” Scootaloo said as she walked over to a manhole cover and pry it open. “Down here.” She said as she jumped into the sewers.

Raven followed quickly, keeping Kat secure on her shoulder the whole time. “Shouldn’t Celestia be glad that Ponyville is back now? Why should we run?”

“Because after getting thrown off into a tree and possibly open up my wound from yesterday. I am not in the mood to deal with Celestia’s shit as of today.” Katie answered as she felt Paula jump into the sewers. “I’ll deal with her lecture when I go meet her later on during the day, or possibly if she sends Spitfire to get me.”

“Do I even want to know what you been doing while I was off in the void?” Paula asked. “You know what, never mind. I’ll ask you about this later once we get to some place safe.”

“On the bright side, we were able to get Ponyville back so that a win in my book.” Looks over at Raven. “Thanks for the help Raven. Is your sister going to be okay?”

“Yeah, she’ll be fine. Just stretched herself too far by manipulating time.”

“....Wait, she can control time as well as gravity?” Paula asked as she looked over at Kat. “I don’t know if I should be worry about her more then ever now.”

“Actually I’ve been able to do it too, but not like she can. Kat’s got a… special relation to time. But gravity as a power itself can alter both time and space. As Kat one told me, gravity is a force of creation; it can do many things no one would ever think of.”

“Huh, I’ll have to look into that later.” Katie said as she yawned. “So what will you do now seeing how Ponyville is back in Canterlot?”

“Well, unless you two need any help with the royalty around here, we might as well scram out of here. We’ve done our part in giving you two the leg up you needed.”

“Fair enough, we’ll give you a call if things begin to turn south on our end. So the gem I got will let me contact you correct?”

Raven nodded. “Yup. The white one is mine, and the black one is Kat’s. It’s actually been pretty nice seeing you two. Even if we did have to step back to let you two figure things out on your own.”

“Feel free to stop by if you want to have a chat with us.” Paula said. “It’s nice to find out there are other people like us in the multiverse. So how do you get back home to wherever you came from?”

“For any others like us, just say, ‘Our contract is complete’. Though, for some of the more powerful Displaced like us, we do this.” Raven snapped her fingers, ripping a hole in reality behind her. “We make our own exits.”

“Wow...very impressive. I’ll have to ask my partner to teach me how to do that. But it was nice meeting you Raven. When Kat wakes up, tell her I said thank you for the assistance...even though she went overboard.”

“Hope to see you again Raven.” Katie said as she chuckled weakly. “Hope you and your bunny friend enjoy each others company.”

As if on cue, Raven’s bunny ears return at full length, causing her eye to start twitching. “We’ll work on it,” she said with a forced smile. “Try not to need us in the future you two; you’re far more powerful than you think. Trust me on that.” With a small salute, Raven stepped through the portal, taking Kat with her, said portal vanishing into nothing only a moment later.

“Well that was an interesting turn of events. Now then Katie, mind telling what you been do-.” Just as Paula turned her attention at Katie, she notice that the young shifter was passed out already. “Guess I’ll have to ask her when she wakes up.” She said as she looked over at Scootaloo. “So this hideout of yours….does it have any food that I can eat?”

“I actually restocked on some food supplies the other day.”

“Perfect, because I haven’t eaten anything in the past three days and I am hungry to the point that I’ll eat anything. Lead the way Scootaloo.”

“Yes ma’am.” The filly said as she lead Paula through the sewers.

Author's Note

Final chapter for the three part cossover with Gravity of the situation by DJSkyWalker and Gravity of the Odd Situation.