Princess Celestia’s Private Quarters
Discord

“Hmm…”

“What’s wrong Discord?”

I glanced over at Tia before I rolled out of bed, turning the lamp on with a simple snap of my fingers. “Do you feel it?” I asked.

“Feel what?”

“A tingling running down your spine, like something’s amiss… Or if something’s going on that’s outside your control.”

Tia was silent for a brief moment before I felt her shift in bed and sit up. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“The news.” Another snap of my fingers turned the television on, and the bedroom was lit in the pale light of the changing images.

“My god…” I can’t blame her; the image of a smoking factory in some corner of Manehattan, coupled with the streaks only capable of being created by some sort of rockets meant one thing and one thing alone.

Someone was out causing a fair bit of chaos, and I’m not involved for once. “Tia dear, I need to step out for a bit.”

“Discord, wa-”

Another snap of my fingers led to a drastic change in scenery; from the solace of a simple bedroom the world around me morphed in an instant to the chaos of total war. My own shadow seemed to dance on the wall of the old factory in the crackling light of the fire. “Well this is something…” I muttered to myself.

“Indeed it is old friend.” Out of the corner of my eye a human-like creature stepped out of the shadow, decked out in some strange black and grey attire.

“And why would you be here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He asked as a dim visage of a purple unicorn began to grow from the smoke-filled air. “I’m calling a meeting.”

***

Canterlot, Blueblood’s Manor
Prince Blueblood

To say I’m getting tired this evening is an understatement. My dining room has been trashed and now the nightly news is plastered with images of unholy destruction at the very doorstep of Manehattan.

And here I thought I’d have a relatively quiet night.

“Let’s see…” I muttered as I fished around the cupboard in my library. “Ah, apple ale!” I grabbed the bottle and the glass that I had filled with ice and sat down in my chair. I set both the cup and bottle down on the table next to me and sighed contently. At least now I’ll have some-

SCHMM!

I wiped what little crust was in my eyes away and realized that the glowing green portal that had opened in my library was in fact real. “What the fuck!?”

That’s when an old man carrying a small gun and a silver flask stepped through, and the portal collapsed. The old man stuffed the gun into his lab coat, took a sip from the flask and tucked it away into some unseen pocket. “Sup.” He said as he leaned up against my bookcase.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Rick Sanchez.” He replied. “From Earth dimension C-137. You probably don’t know me but that’s fine… Because I’m a genius.”

“How does your intelligence make that fine?” I asked. “Better yet why are you in my house?”

“Because this where we’re meeting.”

“Who’s-” A flash of light blinded me for a moment. When I opened my eyes a table with four seats situated around it was in the center of the room. This Rick character was off to my left, while a more familiar pain in the ass was off to my right. “Discord…” I groaned. “You’re behind this?”

“Nope.” The Dragonequus spat. “Well… Ok, I’m partially responsible.”

“Discord, what did you do?”

“He didn’t do anything.” Another human, this one a bit more well dressed at down opposite of me. “We’re here to discuss some of the recent issues that involve reality as we know it.”

I blinked at the human for a minute before I instinctively laid my head down on the table. I got up a few moments later to stares from all three of my ‘guests’, assuming you could call them such. “Why the hell are all of you in my house?”

“It was Q’s turn to pick the meeting place.” Discord pointed out.

I looked over at the well-dressed human and rolled my eyes. “Right… Q... “

“Yes, moi.” Q droned. “The very pillar of greatness. Oh, and did I mention that I’m omnipotent?”

“Multiple” braap “times.” Rick added. “You say it enough where the average person might think you have some sort of complex.”

“And you’re an alcoholic Sanchez.” Q jabbed. “Now let’s get over ourselves and get down to business-”

“Then lay your cards out!” I yelled. “What’s going on in ‘reality’ that you three bozos need to take over my home?”

“Dusk.” All three groaned.

“Dusk?”

Discord patted me on the shoulder and materialized a glass of chocolate milk on the table in front of me. “Yes, Dusk. That rascally little stallion with a penchant for breaking down the walls that separate the different parts of reality.”

“What-”

“His wasteland trip from a few years back.” Q answered. “That was the first one from within this timeline. After that… Look, it gets really weird. And I’m friends with an old bald Starfleet captain with no sense of humor.”

“That buddy of yours showed up in a few dozen realities at different points in their timelines.” Discord added. “But here’s the kicker. It was Dusk, but not Dusk. It’s almost as if they’re copies of him, and they grew from young child to full grown adult before either dying at a ripe old age or going out in a blaze of glory. Then there’s that one messing with the timeline he’s in…”

“Look the point is that your buddy seems to have found a way to be in multiple places at once, or at least he does eventually.” Sanchez said as he pulled his flask out. “And that in itself should be impossible.”

“It obviously isn’t.” I snapped.

“Which is why we’re here.” Q pointed out. That’s when a sizable holographic display formed over the table. Many of the images were of Dusk. Some showed him as a human, others as he normally is, while some showed him looking far more equine in nature.

Two images stood out simply because they were clear as day. One was a gritty visage of Dusk tinkering away in a dark bunker, lit by the light of the monitor over him. The other was Dusk seemingly in the middle of some sort of rant with the familiar face of Starlight Glimmer, one of Princess Sparkle’s students. “What am I looking at?”

“You’re looking at two of the strongest echoes that presently exist within the multiverse.” Said Discord. “Instead of performing just a single action as many others have done before disappearing, these two seem to have been anchored within those realities. Both grew up calling their universe home. The ‘tinkerer’, as I like to call him, has Dusk’s sense of right and wrong. The other does as well, but he has a bit of a difference…”

I studied the image of the ranting pony for a moment before the truth hit me. “To the average pony, he comes across as crazy.”

“Exactly.” Discord made a curt motion with his left hand and the image of our raging lunatic grew to encompass the whole projection. “While our friend here grew up within the reality he found himself in, a number of Dusk’s more traumatic memories began to assert themselves over the last few years.”

“And instead of just plain crazy he comes across as a-” braap “-raging lunatic.” Rick added. “I’m no psychologist but that can’t be healthy like, at all.”

I levitated a bottle of ale out of the cabinet behind Sanchez and flipped the top off with a minor flick of my thumb. “Can the three of you just tell me what you’re getting at?”

“We’re trying to say that your friend has managed to break the very basic laws of reality.” Q said with a slight inflection of annoyance. “The very alignment of the multiverse has changed so the timelines of these few doppelgangers line up exactly. Universes have been ripped away from their parallels and rearranged simply because of the presence of a duplicate.” That’s when Q snapped his fingers. The table disappeared and we were all standing around in the center of my study… While Q had conveniently taken my bottle of ale and was drinking it himself. “You know how difficult it is to rearrange reality?”

I offered a shrug, but said nothing. “You can’t expect him to.” Sanchez pointed out.

“Fine.” Q spat. “It’s impossible!”

“It obviously isn’t.” I muttered.

“Which is exactly why this is concerning!” Q downed the rest of the ale and tossed the bottle in the wastebasket behind him. “Still don’t see what you get out of that dreadful liquid Rick…”

“It’s plausible deniability my man.”

“Look-” I finally stepped into the middle of the group as my frustration kept growing. “-I have had a very long day. So just tell me what the three of you want so I can get on with what’s left of my day.”

Q glanced over at Discord before he finally held up his hands in defeat. “Alright, fine. We need to stop the proverbial thread from getting pulled anymore than it’s already been. To that end we need allies, associates, and a few persona non grata individuals to keep tabs on things.”

“Which is why we came to see you Blueblood.” Discord mumbled. “You’re one of the best negotiators in Equestria. You can learn how to deal with some of the toughest ponies around with just a glance, broker complicated trade agreements-”

“Alright, I get it.” I groaned. “I’ve got an eye for detail.”

“Which makes you precisely what we need.” Discord concluded.

“What?!”

“Is there an echo in here or something?” Sanchez asked. “You’re exactly what we need.”

Now I’m starting to feel it; a pulsing in my temples as the reality of what was being said began to sink in. My study has been invaded by an alcoholic, a god of some sort from another universe and the clown prince himself. All because they want me perform some obscure task.

“Something wrong Blueblood?” I heard Discord ask.

I barely acknowledged the question as I felt the anger in the back corner of my mind grow steadily larger. “Get out.” I growled.

“I’m sorry, but what was that?”

I didn’t pay the question any mind. Hell, I didn’t even pay heed to whoever had asked it. I just looked at Discord and fired off a bolt of white-hot magic that smacked him in the side of the face. “I said get out!” Sanchez grabbed the dragonequs and dragged him over to Q on the other side of the room. “You three want an informant? A spy? Well go find someone else!”

“He’s right you know.” Came a whisper on the draft that rolled through the room. “Why do you three need an associate when you know what is really at risk here?”

“Dusk…” I heard Discord mutter, drawing my own attention. “What the hell is this?”

As Discord was questioning the empty air in the room some mist began to swirl around on the ground at my feet. And from that mist a form, a body clad in what appeared to be shattered armor as worn by some of the human’s commandos. “Hello Discord, it’s been a while hasn’t it?”

“You’re not the real Dusk.” Q spat. “You’re another echo. Now explain what you’re up to, all of you!”

The so called ‘echo’ shook his head in disbelief. “Like I would know? I’m just a fragment. I assure you I’m just one of many, but I have an important task to handle.”

“And what would that be?” Sanchez asked, starting to look more concerned as the seconds ticked by.

“These changes in reality? They need to happen.” The echo insisted. “I know that you three don’t trust it now, but believe me when I say that what I’m doing is necessary… Now be gone.” The echo simply waved it hand and Discord and his associates disappeared in a flash of light.

“What did you do?” I asked as the reality of those brief few moments set in.

“Sent them away.” The echo said as it turned to face me. I studied the scorch marks across its face and realized that I was looking at my old friend. “Look, I have a favor to ask of you.”

I shrugged briefly. “Fire away.”

“Watch out for Archer. I’m going to prepare her the best I can for the road ahead but the odds are good that she’ll need a good pep talk now and again.”

“And I’m just the best person for the job?” I suppressed a chuckle and took a step back. “Now why are you telling me this, what’s going on?”

“I can’t tell you.” The echo said with a sigh. “Blueblood, you’ve been one of my most trusted friends for the better part of a decade. Please, just trust that I’m doing the right thing.”

I felt my head nod as if I was operating on instinct. “Of course.”

The echo sighed and began to flicker. “Thank you.” The flickering started to speed up before the echo raised his hand, and I felt a cold tingling along my horn. “Now get going.”

***

An indeterminate amount of time later…

“Ugh…” I slowly pushed myself off the ground in my study, pausing briefly as the sunlight streamed through the window and partially blinded me. I rose further and cleared my gaze of the glare. Looking around confirmed my worst nightmare; the study was thoroughly trashed. Broken glass littered the ground and long-dried liquor had stained what was left of the cabinet. ‘How long have I been out?’

I stumbled out of the study and broke through something at waist height. I reached down and grabbed the black and yellow ribbon that had blocked the door to my study. “Guard tape?” I dropped the ribbon and made my way downstairs to the front door. I opened it and found another piece of guard tape draped across the entrance.

“Hey, isn’t that Prince Blueblood?” I heard some pedestrians mutter as I started walking at a brisk pace towards the castle.

“Hey, look-”

“-was missing?”

“Has anyone seen my wallet?”

The constant chatter of other pedestrians was the sole companion to my thoughts as I entered the edge of Harmony Plaza, a large open market at the base of the castle. After I passed through one last group of quiet pedestrians before I noticed the piles of rubble on the far side of the plaza that lined a sizable hole in the ground. Sitting on the edge of the crater was a young mare. As I got closer I saw a few scorch marks in her brown mane that she was fiddling with. “What happened?”

The mare looked up at me for a moment before turning her attention back to the hole in the ground. “Some of us were starting to think you were dead.”

I sat down with the mare and stared into the dark abyss. “So who’s ‘us’?”

“My father, Dart, Cloud Runner-”

“Alright, I get it.” I said, cutting off the young mare. “You’re with Dusk and his merry band of misfits, aren’t you?”

The mare chuckled and kicked a rock down into the crater. “You mean the misfits I inherited from Dusk… Well, you wouldn’t know. You’ve been missing for what, a week?”

“I’m sorry, I’ve been missing for a week?” Well that would explain the guard tape and the dried alcoholic beverages staining my study.

“Ya… Dusk did stop at your house after the guard had finished looking for evidence. That was what, two days ago?”

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Archer.” She said. “I was at Dusk’s party last week at your house.”

“That’s right, you were…” Wait that’s the girl that the echo told me to watch out for, isn’t it? “So what happened, where’s Dusk?”

“He’s dead.”

Did I just hear that right? “He’s dead?”

Archer nodded. “It happened last night.” She said, motioning to the crater. “Kovac, the madman that crashed the party lasts week… He stole a bomb and took it beneath the castle to a room called the nexus.”

“I’m familiar with it. It’s the portal beneath the castle.”

“Right… He took a nuclear weapon and planned on detonating it in the room. Dusk wouldn’t let him, so he killed him. But when he fell back into the nexus… He armed the nuke and left us to deal with it.” I watched as Archer wiped a sole tear from her cheek, the only sign of her emotional condition. “Dusk did the only thing he thought was reasonable… The nexus was a portal, and it was the only way to get the bomb out of the castle before it went off.”

“He took it and dove in, didn’t he?”

Archer nodded again. “And the bomb must’ve gone off. After the light faded and we dug ourselves out of the rubble we realized that the portal was gone… There was nothing in the pit except old and worn boulders, and what memories I picked up from the orb he left.”

Ah, Dusk’s failsafe… Now I see why the echo was saying watch out for this girl. “I told him that thing was a bad idea from the start.”

“Glad you agree.” Archer muttered. “I can live with what Dusk did… It was either take the bomb and run or we would all get vaporized. Sure he left a failsafe in the orb to help me deal with the memories-”

“Failsafe? Dusk never put a failsafe in the memory orb.” I pointed out. “Did it look like Dusk with cracked and scorched armor?”

“Ya, why?”

I cracked a smile and picked up one of the pebbles off the edge of the crater. “Well then you and I must have a good taste in friends.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” The young mare snapped. “I’ve got a bunch of his memories rattling around in my skull! I’m a writer, not a killer. How do I cope with that?”

I shrugged and patted Archer on the shoulder. “No matter how hard it is… Whether you’re standing tall or falling to pieces, just be yourself. That’s all you can do given the circumstances.”

“Easier said than done Blueblood.” She muttered as we both got up and stepped down from the edge of the crater.

“It’s not supposed to be easy.” I pointed out as the two of us started walking across the plaza towards a group of faces that I found familiar. “Those memories are a burden whether you like it or not. You just need to figure out what to do with them.”

Out of the crowd I saw one stallion press through and run up to Archer. It took me a moment to realize it was Cosmo, her adopted father. As he wrapped her in a tight hug I decided it might be a good idea to leave… Which is exactly what I did. I just strolled down the sidewalk of the rebuilt districts of Canterlot, even if it was only to help clear my head. How do you help someone who can’t readily be helped through conventional means? And better yet, why is this my problem?

“Prince Blueblood?”

I turned and saw a courier staring up at me, a young colt who couldn’t be more than ten and had yellow eyes that seemed to pierce through my soul. “Yes, what can I do for you?”

“Got a letter for you sir!” The colt gave me a pale white envelope and took off down the street before I had a chance to ask him anything else.

“Children…” I muttered. Instead of going on with my walk I felt a rising urge to open the letter and determine who sent it. I found a bench not far from where I was standing and slid down into it, tearing the end off the envelope before I hit the seat. I unfolded the old and wrinkled looking letter and recognized the handwriting as Dusk’s from the get-go. “Now let’s see what you thought I needed to read…”

Blueblood, my old friend… If you’re reading this letter that means I’m gone. I know this is a bit cliched, but I felt it to be well worth it. I’m writing this headed to what might be my final hours alive. Kovac…

The letter stopped briefly at some scribbled out words before picking back up again.

Look, the long and short of it is that I want you to take care of Cosmo’s kid, Archer. I know it’s weird that I’m asking you to watch out for someone with a nominally solid family relationship, but she’s important. More than I can comprehend as I sit down to write this. Something tells me that my journey won’t end tonight and I think she’ll be important somewhere down the road. So please… Just be there for her, give her a shoulder and an ear. You did the same for me when we first met so don’t stop to think you’re not capable of doing what Archer will need.

It seemed as if that was the end of the letter… But why so vague? I sat back into the bench and pondered what Dusk could be talking about when I saw a flash of light in the alleyway across from me. That normally wouldn't have held my attention, but the colt that had given me the letter walked into the light where I could see him… And then he changed, growing from a young boy to a fully grown man. One wearing armor that was a marker of what chaos that he had suffered through. “Dusk?” I heard myself mumble, seemingly on impulse. But the apparent echo simply nodded before… Dissolving, into what looked like a cloud of dust.

“Blueblood, you alright?” I must’ve been staring at the now empty alleyway, because Cosmo had managed to find me after I left him and Archer.

“Did you see him?” I mumbled.

“Who?”

“Dusk.” I muttered. “He was right in the alleyway.”

Cosmo looked down the alley before I saw him shake his head out of the corner of my eye. “I think you’re seeing things.”

I rolled the words around my head for a few minutes before I sat back down on the bench and fished out the letter. “Maybe I am… I mean I’ve had one hell of a day.”

“Has it really been a day for you?” Cosmo asked as he sat down.

“Thank Discord for that… I think.”

“Couldn’t be.” Cosmo droned. “He’s missing too.”

I offered but a simple and effective groan as I slumped back into the bench. “Of course he is…”

***

Location Unknown

“Ugh…”

I felt a set of hands hold me down as another started tearing at broken pieces of armor. “Hurry it up, we need this stuff of him now!”

Finally I managed to open my eyes, which leads to a good question. Do you know what it’s like to wear an eye patch, say for a stupid costume? Well unless I missed something, I haven’t had much time to put an eyepatch on the right side of my face. “There’s something wrong with my eye…”

“I noticed.” A red-headed human said as she pushed me back down into the bed. “You know, it’s not every day we make first contact with an alien that knows english…”

“You mean equish?” I retorted.

“Sure, if that works for you. Now do you have a name?”

“Ya…” I forced myself up in the bed and caught the first look of my face in the mirror opposite the end of the bed. Half of the dark purple fur on my face had been burned away, the flesh underneath looking black and charred. My left eye was still where it should’ve been, but the right one… Well it looked just like the skin around it. “Hey, shouldn’t I be in agonizing pain?”

The doctor rolled her eyes at the comment. “Pain killers. They’re a wonder of modern medicine. Now what’s your name?”

“Dusk.” I said as I laid back down on the bed. “My name is Dusk.”

Author's Note

And there's the one shot I've been planning... Dusk has echos and doubles running around the multiverse, Blueblood's got one hell of a mess to clean up, there's a gaping hole in the side of Canterlot Castle, and the original Dusk is... Come to think of it, where is he? That last part was left vague on purpose, as I haven't put much thought into the story of the Mirrorverse post-Broken Mirror Part II.

As for Q and Rick Sanchez, I've been on a sci-fi bender lately. That's about the best I can tell you...

Like my other stories, this one takes place in the Mirrorverse that I've created. You can learn more about it in the codex that I created. In the mean time, feel free to like, favorite and comment away on the stories in this little universe I've crafted. Until next time gang!
-Striker.