"What say you, Scissorwhip?"

A distracted grey pony looked up from his book, pushing his red square glasses back into place. He had almost forgotten he was at a meeting with the High Council Of Unicorns. "S-Sorry, Mister Starswirl. I was just looking over these plans for the portals. They're fascinating!"

Sitting at a round table in a dark room were six unicorns, one of them being the famed Starswirl who had recently come back from his thousand-year absence. It was a difficult week, seeing how there was a recent string of murders, something that had not been done in almost a hundred years.

Starswirl stroked his beard as he looked out among his fellow magic users. "Our reports say it was a zebra, but we have no record of recent immigration from their homeland."

One unicorn, Starlight Glimmer, spoke up. "They rarely move away from family, so I have reason to believe the zebra used either a potion, or a unicorn's spell for temporary travel."

"Then we can't rule out the possibility that one of our own citizens betrayed us," Starswirl commented.

"How do we approach this? Surely we can handle this without panicking the population?" Scissorwhip implied.

"It will be difficult," replied Starswirl in a serious tone.

"What if," a green pony with an orange mane named Jumper Cable spoke up, "we block off immigration. If we can keep the zebra trapped here, we can find him in time."

"Were you not listening just a moment ago?" questioned an albino pony with red eyes. No one ever knew her real name, but she preferred to be called Bloodshade. "I swear, you're so scatterbrained sometimes, it's like talking to a brick wall. If he's working with someone who teleported him here, he can just as easily get back out."

"I think we should put up a magical barrier around all of Equestria and declare war on the Zebras! It's obvious they've always been jealous of our magic!" a gruff voice shouted. Warhoof, a light brown pony with a scar across his left eye, was itching for some action, and this was the perfect opportunity to get it.

Unfortunately, Starswirl wasn't having any of it. "Warhoof! This is the fifth time this week you've wanted to declare war on a foreign land! Why are you even in the council?!"

"Because my tactics are second to none in times of war!" Warhoof argued.

"But this is not a time of war!" Starswirl argued back.

While the two elderly ponies argued, Scissorwhip looked at his book, enamoured with the plans for interdimensional travel. It was a dream come true for him to be working with the legendary Starswirl on the future project.

Before the argument could continue on even longer, Bloodshade pounded the table with her hooves. "Enough! This is foalish! I did not come here to listen to two old ponies behave like foals!"

Starswirl and Warhoof both became silent. Then Scissorwhip spoke. "What if we hired a professional bounty hunter?"

"Celestia made her stance on pony hunters very clear. It would make us look bad if he or she were caught, and it could encourage other ponies to take up the profession," Starlight intervened.

"Well... what if it wasn't a pony doing the hunting?" asked Scissorwhip. "That way we wouldn't have to look bad. No one would even have to know we hired him."

Starswirl scoffed at this. "Who else could we hire? Our allies aren't going to help us at their own risk. If word gets out that our allies sent their own bounty hunter to catch someone in our nation, it could create controversy, straining the trustful bond between our citizens and theirs."

"And if it were to be someone not from our world?" Scissorwhip asked, regretting his question immediately.

"I know where you're going with this, Scissorwhip!" scolded Starswirl. "I'm not going to let it slide!"

"Let what slide, Starswirl?" asked Bloodshade. They had her full attention.

"It's none of your business, and it's none of his, either!" argued Starswirl.

Bloodshade's face turned serious. "If I find out you knew of a way that could protect our nation and didn't mention it to us, I will speak with the royal sisters personally to have you removed from the council. I told them before that your age was reason enough, but they said I needed a better reason than that. I'll make sure they have their reason... Just imagine the headlines: 'Starswirl fails Equestria.'"

Starswirl stared back at Bloodshade with determination on his face. "You think you can threaten me? This could kill all of us. I won't take such a chance with it. It's happened before, but it won't happen again."

The meeting ended right then and there as Starswirl stormed out of the room.

Scissorwhip sat alone in the Canterlot library in the middle of the night, his nose buried in a book on quantum mechanics. Although he wasn't allowed to carry out his experiment, he could at least continue fantasizing while he read his books.

A voice, however, decided to interrupt him. "I want to know what Starswirl was talking about."

Scissorwhip turned his head to see Bloodshade. He quickly shushed her before she could say anything else. "We're not supposed to speak in the library. Follow me."

Scissorwhip led Bloodshade into a private reading room where no one could hear them. It was very small, but it could still fit two ponies.

"I'm not really sure I should be talking to you," confessed Scissorwhip. "I only led you back here to keep the library quiet."

"Is this really what you do all day, just read?" Bloodshade trotted over to a small table and picked up a book from it. "'How to Quantumize Your Magic?' What is this supposed to be?"

The nerdy pony Scissorwhip pushed his loose glasses into place. "Well, it's about making magic happen, even when you're not casting a spell. It's the Schroneigher Effect. Schroneigher gave a very famous example with his cat in the box experiment. See, he'd put a cat in a box with poison in it. No one knows if the cat is dead or not, and so the universe becomes unpredictable. An observed universe is different from an unobserved universe, and if we were to apply this to magic, we co--"

Bloodshade threw the book at Scissorwhip. "Shut the buck up, please. I didn't come here for smart talk. I came here for information."

"Throwing precious vessels of knowledge is not the way to get information from me!" Scissorwhip scolded. He picked up the book that had been thrown at him, looking over it to make sure no damage was done.

"I don't understand why you even listen to that old fool. Starswirl is no longer in his era. He's in OUR era now." Bloodshade sat down in a leather chair and stared into Scissorwhip's eyes. "We are the future, and I'll be damned to Tartaus if I let another pony get killed because of his old thinking. Now tell me what you know."

Scissorwhip looked at one of his books, the name Starswirl on the binder. "He's taught us so much, though..."

"Think of what YOU could teach HIM, Scissorwhip," replied Bloodshade. "If we pull off whatever this thing is, Starswirl will have to admit he was wrong, and he'll have to look up to YOU."

"T-To me?" Scissorwhip's head began to fill up with visions of Starswirl praising him for his actions. "I..." He shook his head, making those thoughts flee. "It's a p-portal!"

Bloodshade grinned at Scissorwhip's answer. "Now I get what you were saying back there. If we had someone from another realm, we wouldn't have to claim him as our responsibility, and we'd save ponies in the process. Perhaps you're not a waste of space in the council after all..."

Gemini Realm

Michael awoke in his crudely made shelter. A few branches taken from trees and bent over to keep the structure in place, and some palm leaves placed over said branches for a roof, and it was done. He poked his head out to see the familiar beach littered with bones. As he walked out, he kicked his boot against a horned skull, smashing it. "Fuckin' bugga... Not so lively now, are ya?"

He remembered last night, when the skull used to be attached to a body. He had to kill several dozen skeletal soldiers before he could settle down for the night. It was easy though with his new holy claymore. One swing and they'd go down, never to get back up again.

"You're up early," a female voice commented from behind.

Michael turned to look at a light grey cat with red stripes running down its back. Her yellow eyes gazed back at him.

"Was that sarcasm?" Michael walked over and picked up the feline by the nape of her neck.

"No way. Whatever gave you that idea?" The smartass cat batted her paw at him. "Put me down, please."

Michael simply dropped her, allowing the feline to land on her feet. "You're very annoying sometimes," he commented as he began to stretch his arms.

"I'm the reason you're still alive, you know. Only I can tell you an enemy's weakness. I know almost everything about monsters." The cat made her way to the crude shelter and poked her head inside. "Nope, no monsters. You're safe."

"Cut the crap, Flora," he commanded. "I took out them skellies without your 'wisdom and knowledge.'"

"If I knew about danger, I'd tell ya. You have that fancy new sword though, so there wasn't any," the feline named Flora replied.

"You're lazy," Michael began walking along the beach, exploring more of the area. The sun shined down on his black hair and hurt his green eyes a bit. He was always a healthy guy, measuring at 6'5", but he could never really stand anything bright. It was his main weakness. It was why he always did his missions at night.

Flora climbed up Michael's back, perching herself on his shoulder. "Where ya goin, big guy? Can't leave just yet. I see something."

"Fuck yer future sight. I'm bored, and I'll take a walk whenever I want," Michael argued. He continued walking, despite his companion's advice.

"I'm serious. Yer not gonna like it," she warned. The feline's hair began to stand on end.

"Shut up already," Michael began to run, making it hard for Flora to stay on his shoulder.

"I'll scratch you! I mean it! I don't want ya bitchin' when ya see what's ahead!" Flora wrapped her tail around Michael's neck to anchor herself.

Before Michael could reply, the spot in front of him began to shimmer and flash. "Shit!" He tried to stop, but it was too late. He fell into the shimmering mass, and everything went black.

Canterlot Dungeon

"It's waking up!" a voice shouted.

Michael held his hands to his head and screamed in agony. "It's like a fucking rock bashed against my skull! Flora! Healing magic!"

No response...

"Flora, I'm sorry okay? Please make with the healing!"

Michael was met with nothing but silence. He opened his eyes. It was dark, so his eyes adjusted quickly, allowing him to see that he was in some sort of small prison cell. Grabbing onto the bars, he peered outside to see two equine creatures with spears.

"Hey," he called out. "What'd I do, huh? Whatcha do to my fuckin' cat? She gets cranky when I don't feed her, and trust me, she'll be on you like ugly on an orc if she's cranky."

"You're being held by orders of High Mage Scissorwhip," one of the creatures replied.

"That's a really ridiculous name," Michael commented, rubbing the smooth bars of prison cell.

"Hold your tongue," the other equine demanded.

"Whaaaaaaat? I'm just tellin' the truth," Michael replied. "Anyways, where is this Whizzer Snip?"

"I believe you're talking about me?" a grey pony asked as he trotted into the dungeon.

"Snot Whip!" Michael cried out. "About time! Can you please get me out of here, get me my cat, and I'll be on my way?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Scissorwhip replied.

"Why's that?" Michael asked.

Scissorwhip looked Michael in the eyes. "Because we need your help."

Author's Note

I've always wanted to write about Michael and Flora. They've always been personal favorites of mine.