Chapters Author's Note
Formating suggestion: Intented, Non-Justified
A MAGICAL MIRROR
In the magical land of Equestria, the Princess of Friendship prepared herself for another special event, that doesn't come across too often. Princess Twilight was very special in this regard. She was born a lavender coated Unicorn with dark blue straight hair, that had a pink highlight in the middle, adorning her horn. But due to her vast knowledge of magic and her ability to fix friendship and spark hope in the hearts of her friends, she became an Alicorn, gained wings and the status of Princess. Only four Princesses were known to the lands of Equestria, ruling Pony-kind, which made Twilight rare enough.
What separated her from the other princesses though, was her usage of the Magic Mirror. It was a while ago when Twilight discovered that the surface of the mirror wasn't merely glass, but could become a gateway into another world, a world unlike her own and yet somewhat familiar. Her friends and even herself had a Human copy in this strange world, living similar lives with similar friends, sharing similar needs and a similar pace of day. Only that they were Humans instead.
Twilight needed to take every chance she had, to get away and use the Mirror, so that she could see her other friends, the Human copies, that she missed just as much as she would miss her Pony friends. Merely hands she couldn't wrap her head around.
The usage of the Mirror brought the strange Unicorn magic of Equestria into the Human world and wrecked minor chaos here and there, now and then. It was a problem that slowly oozed over the threshold and that needed attention. Otherwise it could destroy both worlds.
It was first when the Mirror activated from a Star Constellation and ancient magic, that Twilight discovered this gateway. By now though, she managed to abuse its magic and tear open the rift whenever she pleases. With this abuse, the gateway slowly faded, which is the cause of the magic ooze, unknown to Twilight.
However, Twilight was about to use it once more. She stood in the great hall of the Crystal Castle, which was adorned by colourful rocky formations and shiny, smooth surfaces all over. It was coloured mostly in pink, the floor was in a darker shade and almost blue. Every single one of the high, narrow windows was made from multiple shards of light blue crystals, which still had their cutting edge to show if ever touched.
The Princess strode down the echoing pink hallway, her hooves clapped on every step. Her wide smile was accompanied by a wrinkly forehead, when she heard the voice of her friend and apprentice.
"So it is time again, huh?", Starlight asked with a similar look on her face. "Back through the mirror, visiting Sunset Shimmer."
Twilight stopped and turned, so Starlight was able to catch up with her. She saw, that she didn't look too happy and she had an idea, why.
"Don't mind me. Just tell her Hi from me, okay?"
"I'm sorry you can't come with", the princess smiled on in regret, "But I don't know anypony better to watch over the school while I'm gone. That and the Elements. If it wasn't for you, the Shadow Pony would have been banished. It was you who saved him."
Starlight looked at the floor, "I know." She took a deep breath, "Trust me, I know. I just wished there was a Sunset Shimmer here in Equestria too, you know? Kinda weird, come to think of it."
Twilight chuckled restrainedly. "You have no idea. I bumped into myself once. That! Was weird." She raised her hoof to pull Starlights chin up, "Don't worry. I'll only be gone for a few hours", before she evaded her look herself and turned her head, "Well, maybe a few days. You never know what will happen!"
"Whatever it is", Starlight smiled more confidently, "I will face it. We will face it together. You go ahead. Probably nothing will happen anyway."
"Yeah right! Like that ever happened before."
Together they kept walking through the hallways until they arrived at the castle's library. The long and high ceiling halls where filled and stacked with all sorts, shapes and colours of books, from the floor up to under the roof, with no spaces in between. From the ceiling glass windows, dim daylight sank through the dusty air, illuminating every grain of dirt and every hair that floated about.
Opposing the gateway, next to some shelves, a cupboard and a desk, there stood the weird contraption including the Magic Mirror in between. A metal frame adorned the pink crystal gateway, holding turning tubes and scrolls of paper above the actual Mirror.
When the Princess got closer, her horn that pierced her forehead and peaked out of her straight, blue hair, started to glow in a rather pinkish fashion, accompanied by white sparkles that were dashing around like falling snow.
The glow and its wondrous magic infected the machinery as well and brought frame, scrolls and magic spellbook to life.
"Yep, still works", Starlight Glimmer chuckled when they beheld the opening of the rift.
It was Twilight's own design. The Mirror didn't usually allow travel at any time, but with her vast knowledge of spells and artefacts, the princess was able to work around that problem. She used the magic contained in a special book to power the machine and the Mirror. This diary had an unbreakable bond to the other side of the crystal glass and was able to tear this gateway open whenever abused in the right amount.
When the light show had faded and the rift was supposedly enterable, the two horned, off-colour Ponies took a last glance at the magic crystals before them. The Princess took a few steps ahead when she suddenly stopped. "I almost forgot!" She looked worried over her shoulder back at Glimmer.
"Pinkies cakes!"
"Pinkies cakes?", Glimmer asked with a raised brow up her face.
"She made a cake for each and every one of her friends on the other side."
"You shouldn't have told her about them. Shouldn't have taken that bet. That Pony can drink!"
"Oww", the Princess sighed, "I know. I don't even remember telling her."
"That's because you can't handle the cider. At all."
"I promised I'd take them."
"Oh, do you need me to grab them?"
"Yes?"
"You don't remember where they are at."
"They are either still in the kitchen or at Pinkies seat in the Table Hall. Would you mind checking the kitchen?"
"Sure. I mean, no. I mean, on my way." Glimmers smile vanished when Twilight disappeared in a pink flash of light and left behind only a few sparks that sank to the floor before they dissolved. "Of course, why bother walking, right?! I guess." She turned and pulled herself down the long hallway.
Behind her, unseen, the mirror glowed stronger once she had left and a rainbow shimmer crawled over its gateway before the colour changed for good. The crystal surface was replaced by watery waves and a blue, summerly shine.
It was a wide hall as well, though not of pink but of copper, gold and blue-grey steel, that held the almost magical device, that the humans used to travel between worlds. The Arrival & Departure Room of the vast vessel Atlantis was clean all over, slick and polished, and crowded.
Narrow white windows adorned the wall on one side of the room, while the other side lead upstairs on some wide yet tiny steps, that were copper all over. Silver railings pretended treacherous safety for the staff upstairs that sat and stood by the controls of the device.
A handful of men and women, all in grey uniform, poked around on panels made from glass that glowed in a bright blue light. Everyone seemed to have a place and a job, none was looking up.
None but one, the Commander. "Where're we at, Walter?"
Walter, an older man with thin glasses and no hair, responded motionless, "Chevron five dialing, Sir."
"Carter!", a male voice yelled from downstairs, "Why don't you come down here? Stick to your crew, y'know."
"I do stick to my crew. This facility is under my command, Mitchell", She smiled and nodded boasting down to him from the railing.
Commander Carter had Atlantis under her control for quite a while now and was hugely participated in flying it from a galaxy far far away over to earth, where it crashed into the Atlantic. Fitting. The ship was not just a vessel capable of bending spacetime, but also a city made from countless rooms and buildings under seven main towers, that topped every man-made thing on earth in height and elegance.
The keystone of the facility however was the device the Humans called a Stargate. They had a few of those on earth already, but only one can be active at a time. Since Atlantis arrived, it took dominance. Since then every departure was to hustle through this plain, cold control room and under Commander Carters watchful eyes.
Only when the last Chevron was to dial in and the gateway was almost complete, Carter came down the stairs to join the other travelers.
Next to Carter stood a man her age. He had round glasses and short, brown hair. Other than the rest of the travelers, he wasn't in uniform. Instead he wore a somewhat expensive black suit with a white shirt that had its first two buttons open. Planet earth knew this man as Doctor Daniel Jackson, a civilian and brilliant mind.
He looked down on Carter and frowned. "What's with the gun?"
The others in the row joined his look and some of them wondered. Carter had a P-90 strapped to her chest, the usual gear for exploring new planets.
"Yeah, we're going to a Gala on Delta Base, the safest place in the galaxy, right after Stargate-Center. You won't need a gun", Rodney explained with a pinch of doubt in his voice, as usual. Rodney McKay didn't wear an uniform either, but a brownish suit that didn't look too expensive. His brows under his receding brown hairline rose in suspicion of a bad omen. He straightened his back again, focused on the way before him and tried to keep his cool, which was an ambitious task for the nerv-wreck of the group.
Cameron Mitchell chuckled next to Daniel and Carter, "I really hope you won't have to regret saying that, I really do, but I had my share of crazy and I'll never go through that", he pointed at the Gate before him, "unarmed." He was taking a last check on his pistol holsters. Overall Cam had three pistols on his body.
Daniel dropped his brows, "You too?"
"You know?", Carter smiled in disbelief, "Cam has a point. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? If we get there, we don't need it and I put it away. But if anything happens, and you know that it could! We will need it."
Daniel shook his head now in disbelief, "But ... a P-90?"
"There is no harm in carrying it, Daniel. Not all of us can use magic."
Daniel looked back at the Gate. "It wasn't magic, and I only had that for", he wiggled his shoulders to put the suit back on straight, "A little while."
Rodney was out of his patience, "Why does the dialing take so long?" He turned around and waved at Walter, so he'd speed things up.
A deep voice behind them startled McKay, the others turned around, "The dialing speed is the same as always, there were no changes made."
The huge and old bloke that was Teal'C came with his old and grey friend General O'Neill to join the gang. He had shoulder long dreaded locks, his two meter staff-weapon in his hand and wore lose clothing with tribal symbolics adornment. The snake shaped staff that was able to shoot balls of plasma to make enemies and walls explode, was a relic from his past life, when he was a soldier and slave for the false gods. That, and the golden ornament tattoo on his forehead were the only reminders of this times of war.
The General on the other hand was dressed in parade uniform, black and adorned by gold rims, countless medals and stripes. His years of battle were behind him and even if he still had the fire in his blood, his knee wouldn't allow him to run or sprint.
"They waited for a year, they can wait a minute longer, don'cha think?", he said jokingly.
"Sir?"
O'Neill shook his head, "Samantha, please."
She smiled and turned away for a second again, "Habit."
Mitchell greeted the General as it was fit, "Sir."
"General O'Neill", Rodney wondered, "I didn't know you'd be coming."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world. Ever since those kids got lost out there, we were trying to get them back, and today's the day."
"Are we even sure, that it's the Destiny?", a young woman's voice asked the bunch. "Could be anyone, really."
"So you made it", Daniel welcomed her.
"Oh", Vala smiled, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
Jack O'Neill complained immediately, "Hey!"
"What? It was a good line."
"That's true."
Vala was the newest member of the gang and yet part of it for years. Her long, black hair were subdued with two braids that hung down her back. She wore the same grey uniform Sam Carter and Mitchell had on, plus the widest smile in the city.
"Huh", Daniel judged when she was putting herself into the line of the travelers.
"What?"
"So you think it will be a disaster too."
"Oh, no. I just couldn't decide what to wear. So I chose this to show unity and maybe I can even get lost in the crowd. There will be food, right?"
Suddenly the Stargate lit up. A watery surface emerged from the ring and when it collided in the center, it brought forth a storm-like splash that pierced the room. Only a second later it collapsed and left behind a shimmering water pool that emitted a summerly shine.
"Connection stable", Walter informed, "Sending message."
Rainbow colours started to take over the water of the event horizon. They crawled over it from top to bottom until the ring was filled with them like an oil-spilled puddle.
"Do you guys see that?", Daniel asked.
"I do", Mitchell joked, "But I don't want to."
Carter turned around to the control center, "Walter?"
But then the coloured disappeared and the water looked as blue and plain as it did before.
"What was that?"
Walter checked his panels but had to shrug it off, "The charts don't show any change, Ma'am."
"Alright, let’s put this show on the road", Vala strode ahead and was through the Stargate before the others even had the chance to respond.
"Bother", Daniel replied and walked after her.
Soon after them the rest of the departers joined them, walked into the gateway and let their bodies be disintegrated into atoms, so they can be warped through the universe to Delta-Base, countless of lightyears away.
When the gang was gone and the gate was meant to shut itself off, instead it turned full rainbow again and started to flicker. The certain sign of failure made the control center panic. But they couldn't do anything, they didn't know what was happening.
Before they could react or even gasp in horror, the gate shut down and every attempt to redial Delta-Base ended in the collapse of the gateway.
Where the gang had gone or if they had survived was now in the hands of the gate.
The dark and forgotten catacombs under the castle were as dead and rotten as it was the king, after he was separated from his head.
"More rooms, nothing but more secrets", an old, sick and penetrating voice complained angrily.
A young and bolt voice followed, "Agreed. Castles like this are used to have catacombs, but this is ridiculous. There's like an endless number of rooms down here."
They both passed the entrance and lay their eyes upon the everlasting darkness before them. The young was a tall Lizard with grey-green skin and bright orange adornments around his neck, throat and eyes, that went by the name of Hati.
After him was the old Doctor Kältezorn that was easily twice is age. Once he was Human but for the last year he put up with a fiery curse that consumed his body. He didn't carry a torch, he was the torch. Merely a skeleton was granted to him, submerged by a body of flames. Out of shame he tried to cover it up with a wide tunic made from non-flammable tissue.
"That's an overstatement, but I get the idea." The third voice that echoed through the stones was smooth, deep and charming all over. It was Rex's, a blue coloured Lizard that had adornments of lighter shades of blue at the typical spots, the snout, throat, eyes and down his neck. While Hati was wearing only khaki shorts and a bunch of leather belts and bags, Rex was dressed mostly in black leather. His skin-tight black leather pants and his blue pinstripe vest were covered by a wide black leather coat, that almost scraped the floor and not only had a wide collar but also a hood hanging down the back.
"Let the walking torch go first, we need some light in there", Krator joked, who saw himself as the muscle of the enterprise. His young and strong voice was only a taste of his strength and fitness. Krator, also a tall Lizard, was titled Highpriest and Templar. With his bright orange skin, his big red eyes, his wings, according chest muscles and a long, wide yet flat horn on his head, Krator was quite the sight to behold. Since his wings occupied his back, he only wore his Templar gear, a fancy loincloth made from noble red fabric and adorned with gold around the frame. Golden runes in the middle of the long tissue that hang between his muscular legs told of the Three Temples he served and protected. The only other thing he carried with himself was his two golden gauntlets, that were adorned with runic carvings. Those metal fists were his weapons he used to bring justice to everyone asking for it. And he urged to use them again soon.
"Yes", the old skeleton-man cynically replied ,"Let the immortal trigger the traps."
Highpriest Krator smiled with his wide frog-like mouth, "I knew you would understand." He had no snout like the other, raptor-looking Lizards of his group, because he was of another gender. His face was flat without any visible nose. His two big eyes sat at the side of his skull and the wide flat mouth directly underneath. His flat skull peaked in his hollow horn, that looked more like a finn used for swimming. Looked closely enough one could spot his nostrils in its sides.
Eventually the walking torch made way and they covered some distance through the maze of dark stone. The ceiling was quite high and not visible in the flickering fire. Maybe, Hati thought, it was simply too dark to see.
When the rest of the enterprise followed, the mood dropped sensibly.
"Pretty dark if you ask me", the weird voice of their blacksmith stated.
Hati turned shortly, "You might want to take off your glasses."
"Oh, yeah", Rook pulled down his thick tinted glasses, "That's better", before he looked around once more. "Pretty empty if you ask me."
"No one did!", Morty yelled. Rook had a tendency to rid him of his patience rather quickly.
Rook was not a fighter and not much of an adventurer. He was an inventor and blacksmith, a chemist and an insane, mental sociopath. He liked to dress in style, a white shirt, that arms he pulled up to his elbows, a purple vest with pinstripes, similar to Rex's, and purple shorts to go with it.
After a minute or so, they had crossed the first corridors and ended up in a wide hall that was mostly blank, dusty and empty.
"Nothing else here but this", Hati was looking for the right word, "Ring? That's not of the Dark Gods, is it?"
For them to behold and in the middle of the hall, there was a wide metal ring erected right side up at the end of a few steps. It looked like a fancy gate that didn't lead anywhere.
Morty stood in front of the steps and laid his bony finger on his bony chin, "It shows none of the characteristics. It looks nothing like the usual artefacts."
Many of the Dark Gods relics were grotesque in their appearance, relics that the adventurers hunted for a matter of life and death. But this ring was plain, it was boring to look at and didn't fit into the style of the Gods of Spiders, Flesh or Fire, who ruled their world.
While they beheld the room and the ring, Rex took a good look around himself. His enchanted eyes should reveal any kind of magic to him, but,
"There's no magic in this place."
"And no traps", the Highpriest added while he stood by the door with his muscular arms crossed.
Finally the last two of the enterprise caught up and came into the hall. The cursed son of Doctor Kältezorn, Knom Kältezorn, and a little wood elf that stuck around, named Elisa.
Knom was a young man that didn't age anymore since he was twelve, caused by an early death and his fathers attempt to resurrect his body. While much of his flesh was replaced by artificial parts and experimental contraptions, he also lost most of his emotions and humanity. Nowadays he is mostly described as efficient and calm, but also random and evil.
He mostly wore the same clothes, at least since the adventurers got to meet him. His thick rimmed and tinted glasses were always covering his dead eyes. They were strapped to his hairless skull via leather straps and pretty much pinned onto him. The rest of his face was covered by a dark leather mask that had a nod in the center, containing some air filters. The gasmask was strapped onto him as well and couldn't be removed easily.
The small thing-man looked up to the tall Highpriest and nodded. He could sense that there were no traps nearby. His inhuman body allowed him to feel vibrations, a Human could never notice. Only those senses allowed him to orientate himself also, since his eyes were almost blind.
Elisa was seen as the weakest link and had to come in last when it was sure that all was safe. The little girl had lost her parents in the war and grew up in the streets and woods of the harsh lands, surviving by stealing and lying.
"Why's that not making me feel better?", she asked her group. No traps, that’s fine, but she knew something was off. It always is.
Her mess of hair was a long carpet that hang down her back and into her face, covering most of her red shaded leather jacket and her black shirt underneath. Her skin tight black leather pants were stuck into her knee-high leather boots that tried to make her look taller with their high-heels but didn't help much.
As so often she had her hands resting on her two dagger pommels, that she had strapped onto the outside of her legs. One of the daggers was fancy, made from jade and gold. The other was rusty, from leather and blue steel. She didn't pay for either of them.
Hati was sure, "It's a storage. Even the King didn't know what to do with it." He got excited over the discovery, his eyes widened, "I can't believe it, we found something completely new."
After a second of silence, Morty the flaming skeleton spoke out, "I want to run it."
Immediately Rook joined in, "I'm game!"
"You guys are insane." Hati shook his head in disbelief. But he should know better by now.
"I get that a lot", Rook nodded soberly.
By that chance, Rex climbed the steps and had a closer look at the flat ring and it's subtle adornments. Hardly visible in the flickering light, but more so in the mages gaze, the wall-less gate was wearing carvings of runes. Runes that were out of this world. "I never saw these runes before", the blue skinned mage admitted. "Wait, this one, I know this one."
Hati joined him by the steps and Rex sat down, so they could look each other in the eyes. "What is it?"
"It's not a rune, it's a constellation", Rex explained but his green friend didn't understand. He rolled his eyes and sighed, "Stars."
Rook was already up and about to take the artefact apart and put it back together again. He managed to find a latch in the back of the stone steps and tried to figure out what magic lay beyond it. "I need a power source", he ordered.
Interested the old skeleton came over to take a peek, "What did you find?"
Together they looked at the mysterious mechanic beyond the stone steps and Rook explained, "There's some system of crystals and gems." Many crystals and many gems were crowded together into some transparent frame. It looked very much like some sort of system behind it but no one but Rook was able to understand it.
Rex looked over their shoulders as well. "Pretty", slipped over his lips, as he was amazed by everything shiny and rich of gems. His infamous title King of Thieves had to come from somewhere.
Rook looked up to Rex, who sat on the steps, "My head tells me that it needs zapp-power."
"Electricity?", Morty clarified.
Rex smiled and was happy to help, as long as it benefitted him. He freed his spellbook from his wide coat, it was held in a blue leather holster and some blue belt around his hips. He browsed through it for a bit before he stopped at a particular page and smiled.
When his magic ignited, the page before him started to glow in an unnatural shade of blue and green, a cyan shine that Rex had made his own. His three fingered dragon claw reached into the light and when it retreated beyond the rift, it held an artefact the others usually described as a Bug in a Tube. The cylindrical canister was sealed by two wide golden screws that were adorned and pierced by nails and a single ring on each side. Beyond the glass floated a thick, black bug as big as a fist in a mysterious fluid. "That should do the trick." He handed the glowing artefact to the half-bird wacko.
The wacko nodded as a thought struck his brain, "Don't touch the ends, I remember that one."
A devilish smile snuck itself onto Rex's face, "Oh, so you remember, that's nice."
"Hahaha! Can't trick me twice, bud'."
"I'll keep that in mind."
After the shared and at least half honest laugh, the sparsely feathered Lizard pushed the Powerbug into the system of crystals and gems, glass and shine. Only a moment later the lights started to ignite, the glass shone in a white shimmer and the gems started to buzz with a noisy chime.
"Guys, it's moving", Hati beheld in awe.
The old Mortanius could only cross his arms and wait, "Master of the obvious."
The little wood-elve Elisa grabbed onto the strong arm of the Highpriest, who swore to protect her with his life. "I got a bad feeling 'bout this."
"You kidding?", he smiled, "This is thrilling."
The inner ring shortly stopped and another angled metal piece on the side made its noisy move. The first light of the first angle stayed on as the ring ran on.
"Wow!", Hati yelled, "Guys, is it supposed to do that?"
Rook shrugged as they stood in front of the steps and beheld the show, "I hope so."
The runes made their moves and when it stopped again, another shape bit the metal, another red light appeared and stayed.
Krator wiggled his heavy arm and smiled down to his elf, "Exciting, don't you agree?"
"How often will it do that?"
It happened a third time and a third light stayed on before the ring ran on.
"Counting these lights", Rex calmly stated, "I would say, nine times."
When the gate reached its seventh light, lightnings started to strike and crawl up and down the rings. But also it seemed to reach its limits.
"We need more energy!" Rook yelled and waved his hands, "More bugs!"
Rex grabbed his blue spellbook and handed him more bugs. He pushed them into the crystal pile as he reached them over until it was a pile of plenty that shone and glowed with an dangerous magic aura.
More lightning reached out for the rings. A stable flow was installed and the bows of unholy light moved less and less. Like in a frame of spikes the rings were embraced and the cycle went on and on.
The Lizards stood beyond the steps and in the cold light of the flickering power surges. Hati had his arms casually crossed, this wasn't the weirdest thing he's seen, as exciting as the discovery was.
He bend over to Rex next to him, "What you thinkin'?"
"It's not magic." Rex had something on his mind, as usual. And as usual only Hati was there to ask what it was. "Whatever it is, it's more advanced than anything else on this planet."
"You say, it's a machine?", the green one raised one of his thick, scaley brows.
But Rex shook his head ever so slightly, "Impossible, I know."
"There!", Rook yelled, "The nine-eseth lock!"
The final shape glowed on the cenith of the ring and with it, the lightning bows came together for a final flash. When they transformed into invisible power, they started a reaction within the rings.
A magical blue light emerged from the edges and filled up the ring until it reached the center, where it collapsed into a fountain of magical shining water, piercing the hall.
For a moment it stayed there, raging a storm of light and water, a vortex bound by the metal rings. But before the adventurers could react to it, the fountain retreated.
The four Lizards, the burning skeleton, the undead son and the little rebellion elf beheld the tender waves of the magical rings. It looked like it was filled by water, but it was a wall, which was weird and magic. The light illuminated the hall, even the flames of the Doctor went dark in comparison.
Eager to find out what magic this was, the Highpriest took a step forward and reached out his armored hand. For a second he gazed at the water until Rex asked disappointed, "What are you doing?"
"It may sound weird, but that's not water. I have no connection to it." As a Highpriest it was Krator’s duty to bring balance to nature. Making use of the elements is one of the basics of his sorcery. If it would have been water, the Templar would have had command over it.
"What made you doubt it?", the dark dressed mage teased him, "Maybe the glowing or its revolting manner against the law of gravity?"
Krator shrank his eyes when he threw him an evil gaze, "You should go first, because you know everything."
"I think it's pretty, it's sparkling." Elisa dared to smile, "Does this make me a girl now?"
"Oh yes, totally girly of you", Hati said in an ironic tone and smiled.
To their surprise, Morty walked determined through the watery wall and disappeared.
Everyone was stunned. Well, some more than others. Hati was the first to talk, "What the-", but couldn't finish his sentence.
At once Rook charged after the undead Doctor, "Wait for me!", and was lost in the mysterious gateway.
"NOO!", Hati yelled. "What the hell?!" But all his waving couldn't bring them back.
Master of his emotions, and mostly quite reserved anyway, Rex thought of a solution before he acted. He stuck his hand into one of his blue pages and pulled a fat, black bug from its light. Since the creature was his creation, born from his mind, he had a connection to it and was able to see through its eyes. So when he threw the fist sized insect into the water, he was able to tell if it died or not.
"Look", he turned to Hati, "It's safe."
Even Krator got closer and reached his hand through to the other side. "It's cold." He turned to Hati as well, "I say we go."
The young secret leader of the adventurers threw his arms into the air from frustration, "Because what's the worst that could happen, right? Am I the only sane in here?"
"Wherever they are, they can't come back." Hati knew that Krator was right about that. "They need our help", the Highpriest added.
With a confident smile, Elisa took his golden armored hand and dragged him through the gate. There was no returning now.
Rex stood by the water and reached out his hand to his friend. "Take my hand, dear", he smiled heartly.
Only after a frustrated sigh he took it, grabbed Knom's hand as well, and went after his insane group.
Once they were all gone and left the darkness of the catacombs, the water vanished and the rings died of all magical life they had. The glow ended and the Powerbugs collapsed into sparkly dust that dissolved into thin air and the sand of the grounds.
The light pass the water was blinding but it was impossible to close the eyes. Sparkles rushed by the travelers, streams of light, and with them, the eons. Without any sense for body, time or mind, they rushed towards the final tunnel end and its white grace.
A refreshing gasp brought them back to life and their senses. Hati’s skin felt cold and hot at the same time. He never felt such sensation before.
"Oh, no. No!", Hati startled and checked his body in panic. What if he was gone for good now and cursed entirely, like Morty?
"Are you fine, dear?", Rex's deep, smooth voice accompanied him and he looked up. Hati was on his knees, the blue claw in front of him was reaching out to his aid.
Hati sighed, grabbed the hand and stood up. His body was cold and stiff. He never experienced winter before, never snow. He wouldn't know how it was to be frozen.
"I'm alright", Hati looked around. His friends were all here.
They were tossed into a somewhat dim lit hall with a high and bright ceiling. Hati didn't bother checking the details, but he was pretty sure the books meant, it was a library.
Everyone looked into the same direction.
There were a bunch of Humans in the library, facing them in a similar manner. The two groups opposed each other.
Hati didn't take his eyes off the Humans. "Is anyone hurt?", he addressed his friends.
Rook readjusted his vest, "I feel a little cold, is all."
"I'm fine", Rex calmly stated while he was readying his spellbook. A well-tossed lightning strike would surely mean the end for the threatening Humans. How dare they pointing their filthy mechanics at Rex? They clearly never heard of him.
By then, Krator was done checking on Elisa. "We're okay too."
"I can't feel my legs", Morty joked, "Does that count?"
"Knom", Hati asked, "You're alright?"
Next to them, the little half-naked Knom raised his thumb. He was okay.
"Okay", Elisa cynically said, "So we didn't die, that's nice."
One of the Humans spoke out loud. "The Stargate doesn't kill. Well", Mitchell shook his head slightly, "Seldon." He stood in front of the unarmed and aimed at Rex. There was something about that dark coated Lizard, something in his look, that felt threatening.
"Yet", the blue skinned mage said, "We didn't die, yet."
The older man with the grey hair and the black parade uniform was calm, he had seen situations like this before. Well, not exact-ly like this. He tilted over to his well-suited friend, "Daniel?"
"Jack?"
"You saw some of those yet?"
"I'm not sure. Could be some form of Unas."
"Sir, the gate." Carter, even while aiming, couldn't resist to take a glance at the gate. They might have another problem, other than the Lizards in front of them.
Mitchell stated the obvious, "That's not really a Stargate, now is it?"
Jack, who was unarmed, took a few shy steps forward, "Who are you?" He stood now next to Mitchell and Carter, who were the ones aiming their black, boxy guns.
"And do you carry any weapons with you?", Teal'C loudly asked them from further behind. He casually aimed his Staff-Weapon in their direction, didn't really have the intention to shoot anyone today though.
"Well", Hati sighed, "I got a sword." His reach to its usual spot ran into nothing and so his hand kept touching and looking for his trusted bar of sharpened steel. Soon he started to look down on himself and twisted his back to search all angles. "Somewhere."
Rook nodded, "I got a gun", but saw no sense in using it now.
Rex's smile was long gone and his look pierced Mitchell, "Bullets can't harm us anyway. You're wasting your effort."
The Colonel didn't flinch. "I'm willing to give it a try if necessary."
"Look at him", Rex was pointing at Morty, "You think you can do him any harm?"
"I am NOT an example, I categorically refuse." With greater anger, the flames of the skeleton grew, and so it was just for a second that his fire waved all the way to the ceiling.
Daniel spoke up, "Jack, Mitchell, guys?"
"What?", they both asked simultaneously.
"Let's show them some trust, we might earn some in return."
Rodney had his doubts, "They look dangerous to me, don't you think?"
"Don't you think, we could look dangerous to them as well?"
"We could need their help, to find out where we are", Teal'C claimed, and his idea wasn't off too far.
Sam added, "And to operate ... this ... thing." She pointed her P-90 at the Magic Mirror.
Hati was confused. He wrinkled his forehead and bent over to his nearest friends, "You have any idea what they are talking about?"
"Nope, not a thing", Rook slightly shook his head.
"Okay", Jack signed Mitchell, Sam and Teal'C to lower their weapons.
Daniel went past them and a few steps closer to the Lizards. "My name is Daniel Jackson, this is General Jack O'Neill, Colonel Carter, Teal'C, Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell, Vala Mal Doran and Doctor Rodney McKay. We're visitors from another planet and we usually do this a lot, but this time we have no idea how we got here. Can you help us?"
All the weapons were pointing downwards, but they didn't put them away just yet. Everyone seemed calmer than before and they dared to relax a bit.
Suddenly Vala walked up to Elisa and shook her enthusiastically, "Hi, aren't you a sweetie? I'm Vala. What's your name?" The adorable little Elf with her long, adjustable ears and her big green eyes was too much for her to handle. She couldn't resist cuddling her.
Krator's instinct kicked in. With a frown, he ripped her off his Elisa and pushed her gently into an arm's length distance. "What is wrong with you?"
"Oh", Vala started a little curtsy and smiled, "I'm so sorry. I just couldn't help myself." Slowly she stepped back, feeling only a little ashamed as she does.
"We do not own this", Hati started to explain, "We are not at home here. We stepped through a magical gate. I can only assume the same happened to you?"
"A magical gate?", Mitchell asked, "It didn't happen to look like water, but standing upright?"
Morty concluded, "That must mean, there's a number of these rings. Scattered all over the place."
"You have no idea", O'Neill added.
"Alright", Mitchell said, "You know our names. How about you tell us your names now?"
Hati immediately lost his smile and looked over to Mitchell, who still clutched onto his pistol. "We are the music group named Whirly Dirly. This's our drummer, Skipdick, and our bassist Skadaddlepaddle"
Rook joined in and pointed at his friends, "And those are our children Sicklip, Chiplick, Picknick, Sippchick and Crocodile-boy."
"Crocodile Boy?", O'Neill wondered.
"To break the rhythm", Rook explained calmly, "Say that names out loud, reader, I dare you!"
The look on Sam’s face bore cynical anger, she felt slightly kidded, "That's a joke, right? Those aren't your real names."
"Could be", Rook shrugged.
Hati added, "But that would be horrible."
"Except for Crocodile-Boy. Sounds pretty rad if you ask me." Rook had a point, Hati admitted.
"Now y'all play fair", Mitchell applied. "A name for a name."
"We don't have to know their names, Mitchell", Teal'C stated as he went closer to the strangers, "Finding out where we are is of much greater importance."
Daniel looked at Hati, since he looked like the leader of them, "We came through the water gate just as you did. This isn't our home either. We're from Planet Earth. And I think we're stranded here, the same way as you are."
"Wait", Hati got a confused look on his long face, "If they're from another planet, how comes we're talking in the same language?"
Rook asked him to, "Just roll with it", and Hati nodded it off.
"My name is Doctor Mortanius Kältezorn", the skeleton said. "And this is my son, Knom." Knom nodded slightly.
"Well, alright then. This is Rook, Krator-"
"Highpriest Krator!"
"Yeah. Then Elisa, Rex and I'm Hati."
"Well", Mitchell smiled, "Nice to meet'cha. I hope."
Even though the situation has cooled, Rex didn't take his gaze off Mitchell. He was still up and about to make use of his spells. "I say we get rid of them, get it over with."
"No?", Hati slowly turned to him. "Why? Why would you do that? And why would you say that out loud?!"
"Why, just a fair warning. You're all about fairness, aren't you? Let them know what we can do and then watch them flee."
"Wow! We do not want to fight", Daniel claimed, what made Rodney join in, "Yes! That! We really just want to go home."
"Then you don't mind holstering your weapons", Krator stood in front of Elisa and showed off his chest muscles. He was taller than Teal'C and with tail and wings offered an intimidating sight.
"Yes, of course. Right, Mitchell?"
Cam looked around his friends faces, "Right. Right." The black gun disappeared in its holster but he didn't dare to trust them just yet.
"Alright. Let's think about this." Hati went to the Magic Mirror and kneeled down at its mechanical mess. With his finger on his chin he made quite the smart pose, but sadly didn't understand a thing. "I have no idea what this is."
"This must be where we came out of", Morty was sure of it.
"Yet it is no Stargate", Teal'C stated.
Elisa stole herself away from her Highpriest guard, "What's a Stargate?" She stood in the middle of the Humans and looked at their gear, "And what are those guns?"
"HEY!", O'Neill yelled and for a moment, everyone was frozen. "Those are dangerous."
She didn't let the old man out of her sight while she moved away from him and around the group. Finally she stood by a tall bookshelf and got distracted. When she bent her neck to look up, she was amazed and couldn't help but to smile. "Wow, look at all them books." Giggling she ran down the hall, pulling her hand down the book backs.
"You come back here!", Krator yelled and ran after her at once.
"She got a point though", Hati was intrigued, "What is a Stargate?"
"Well", Mitchell tried, "It's a big ring, and a wormhole, with water inside, bringing people to other planets."
Rodney chuckled, "That's almost it, yes."
"Well, then you do it, Mister Stargate."
"A wormhole?", Morty asked. "Must be some worm."
"No", Sam smiled, "We use the word Wormhole to describe a rift in Spacetime that allows us to cover vast distances."
"Why the worm though?", Hati asked.
"I didn't make the name. But yes, the name is confusing."
The smooth and deep voice of Rex hushed everyone, "Why, this rift, you say it brings you to other planets? Then it truly is a magical gate."
Hati shrugged, "No wonder I don't understand it."
"I wouldn't call it magic", Sam joined Hati by the Mirror, "It's science. Physics."
"Why, isn't everything?", Rex smiled. "Magic just comes along easier."
Even Rodney checked on the pink framed Mirror, but kept his distance to the green Lizard. "But this is no gate. It's some sort of-"
"Mirror", Teal'C finished McKays stutter, "We dealt with magical mirrors before."
Sam agreed, "Yes, but I don't think this is the same kind. Look at all the mechanical parts."
Hati added, "And there's a book on it. Might be interesting to read."
The Lizard stood up and stretched himself, stood on his toes even, to get a look at the books pages. "By hell. I can't read this."
"Considered we're on another planet, it's not surprising", Morty had a point.
"May I?", Daniel asked and checked on the lettering himself. But even he never saw those writings before. "This is new."
Sam used her time to look at the Mirror. She touched the glass but it was solid. There was no gateway. It simply reflected the room.
Slowly Rex walked up to the Mirror and his friend Hati, who made space for him. His eyes started to glow stronger as his magic pierced the matter and Ether of the Mirror.
The Humans all took a step back. Glowing eyes never meant good news in their experience.
"You think he's a Goa'Uld?", Sam asked O'Neill.
"You tell me."
"I didn't feel anything. There's nothing in his blood."
"Well, then he's clean, right?"
"Right."
"Still", Mitchell added, "I wouldn't get too close."
"And?", Hati rushed the blue one, "What is it you see?"
Rex smiled and almost giggled, "Magic, wonderful magic."
"Wait", Rodney was stressed over this more than he was anyway, "You can see what? Magic?"
The gaze of the mage jumped onto him and he was shut up at once. "Yes", Rex claimed, "Quite."
"And the Mirror, Mister Rex?", Morty pried.
Rex closed his eyes and the glow weakened. He readjusted his black leather coat and turned, "It's a wicked combination of the Mirror and the Book. Whoever made this knew quite well, what he was doing. I suggest looking for this genius, it’s our best chance."
"Great idea!", Vala yelled far in the back, already half way through exploring the castle.
Daniel rolled his eyes and went after her at once. Also Mitchell sighed and proposed, "Alright, we split up. Whoever finds this genius first, brings him here and starts working on the Mirror, alright?"
"We meet here again in an hour." Mitchell set his alarm and they all went their ways. The library had two entrances and so the groups split and used one each.
In the door, Hati turned and yelled, "Wait! What's an hour on your planet?"
"Sixty Minutes!"
"Alright", Hati said and turned before he turned again and yelled once more, "Wait! What's a minute on your planet?"
He didn't know how to answer it and so Rook took out his golden watch he carried on a chain in his vest. He walked up to them and showed it to the Humans. Cam met him in the middle next to the Mirror and showed his wrist watch to them.
They held their chronometers next to each other and they didn't look quite the same.
While the watch of the Humans had twelve numbers on its face and three fingers that run over it slowly, the clock of the half-bird had thirty numbers in three colours, separating them into blocks of ten, and one finger ran fast into the opposite direction, cycling around within seconds.
"How", Mitchell was speechless, "What?"
"Time is an illusion, dude", was Rooks short answer.
"Well, just count to ...", Cam did the math but wasn't too fast in it.
"Three thousand six hundred", Sam yelled from afar.
"Right! Just count to that and then come back here, alright?"
"I'm not sure I can count that high."
Mitchell turned around and strode back to the entrance, "Screw this. Come back here whenever! Alright, folks, let's move."
He closed the wide door after him and went down the hallway, leading his team.
The Lizards first had to collect Elisa and Krator down by the shelves before they could go on their way.
She held a book in her hands and showed its pages to the adventurous Lizard. "Look at that. These books are all crazy."
Hati took the book and browsed a bit, "Owww! Don't tell me those are letters, because that joke ain't funny. Do all them books look like that?"
"Yep. This's no joke", Elisa showed him, "Looks like every book was written by a child, that doesn't know its words yet."
"So many books", Hati almost teared up, "And all of them unreachable."
"What's going on at the Mirror Front?", Krator asked seriously. He didn't look too happy, probably because he had to watch a herd of cats named Elisa.
"We will split up and search the castle for its owner. Or someone to help us", Hati explained as he put away the book back into the shelf.
With Elisa on Krators hand, the group went down the library and down the other entrance hallway. It was a long way down and so they had the chance to talk about things.
Rex was still mad at the Humans and proposed, "I say we put them into stasis and load them off back at home. They will cause some trouble, I'm sure of it. One of them had slight traces of magic in his body, leftovers of great spells."
Hati tried to keep Rex’s murder lust in check, "They want to get back home as much as we do. We shouldn't pass on their muscles and brains."
"Hmm", Rook twisted his tongue, "Tasty."
"You're hungry again?"
"Am I ever?"
"Did you bring anything?"
"You think they got a kitchen around here somewhere?"
"I'm sure of it", Morty said, "But we shouldn't just run after our stomachs."
But Rook already put his beak into the winds, "I smell something. Follow me!", and ran ahead.
"I really wish he wouldn't do that", Hati sighed.
"Why, can I put at least him into stasis?"
"I'll consider it, alright."
They passed the hallway and got to a crossway. Rook stood in the middle and spun around to sniff out the way. Hati reminded him of the dangers ahead.
"We don't know who lives in this castle. There might be guards around any corner. Could be demons inside." Hati looked up to the high ceiling and the noble, rich crystals that were all over the place, "Whoever lives here must be very powerful."
CAN WE BORROW SOME SUGAR?
"Oh, yeah, of course. Here it is." When Glimmer entered the kitchen, it was obvious, that the baked goods were waiting here. The counter of the vast castle kitchen was covered in colourful boxes, all filled with Pinkie’s treats.
"Cakes in the kitchen, that makes sense." Glimmer was stepping forward and looking around, "And yes, I'm talking to myself again. Good job, Starlight."
The boxes in various colour were surely supposed to represent her friends, Starlight was sure of it. She used her magical horn to open the nearest carton. It was yellow and contained a mix of carrot- and strawberry cupcakes. Certainly it was meant for Fluttershy on the other side of the Mirror.
Starlight had no idea Pinkie baked this many goods. Thank Celestia carrying them all was no problem, due to her magic.
It was only when she turned around with a smile, when she was delayed.
A weird stranger stood in the door, holding it open with his long arm and his three blue fingers. Glimmer looked up into his alien face, at his beak and at her reflection she saw in his round purple sunglasses. Her levitation stopped at once and the pack landed roughly back on the counter.
"I knew I smelled something", Rook plainly said. "Didn't know it was horse though."
"What the fu-"
"Now now", Rook interrupted her. "I trade for a cake. It is cake, right?"
"Who are you?", Glimmer asked with tilted head and a raised brow. It could well have been, he was a visitor from a foreign land, looking for the Princess. Which would be half true.
"Oh, me?", Rook smiled. "Just me. But he!", he pointed back into the corridor, "He's not me."
"What?"
More faces and more voices went into the kitchen. Hati, Krator and Knom stepped in, scattering all over the place. Krator was eagerly checking the cartons, smiling while doing so.
Hati on the other hand turned to the rosé Pony with the cyan highlights and reached out his three fingered claw. "Hey there, I'm Hati." Soon he noticed that reaching hands was probably not custom here and retreated.
They all made space for Rex when he majestically strode through the door and looked down at her ever so arrogantly. "Why, a little talking horse, colourful too."
"Hey!"
"Somewhat mannered, I hope?"
"You ... what?", she looked at the weird folks that searched her kitchen, "Who are you guys and what are you doing?"
"Can I eat this?", Krator asked, pointing at the boxes.
"What? No! Get away from those!"
Even Elisa opened the doors and cupboards, looking for something to bite. "Whaaat?!", she yelled when she grabbed the jackpot. "Guys! Look at this." The Elf dragged a sack of sugar out of the kitchen-counter.
"Wow!", Hati said loudly, "You guys have sacked sugar?! Amazing!"
Like savages, Hati, Elisa and Rook sat around her sack of sugar, licked their hands and dipped in, to then lick their sweet hands again. In the meantime, Krator stole some of the baked goods behind the Unicorn's back.
Hectically Starlight’s head jumped and twisted, her eyes searched for a solution. Just when she yelled "STOP!" and used her magical glow to freeze the aliens in motion, the kitchen got silent again.
That is, until Rex opened his grin. "Why, isn't that interesting?"
Even though Morty and Hati were framed by the glow as well, the magic didn’t exactly freeze them, which might have been a side effect of the curse they were bearing.
"I'm sorry", Hati apologised, "I forgot to ask. Can we borrow some sugar? We kinda left without food."
"If you're hungry, don't eat sugar!", Starlight explained yelling, "You're gonna get a tummy-ache!"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Everything was under control.
"Hi! I'm Starlight Glimmer! Welcome to Ponyville! Or ... Equestria. I don't know where you're from, so. Please, let me bring you something to eat."
While she was shooing Krator away from the cupcakes and collected ingredients, Rex talked to his savages. "That concludes it. I'm certain of it. We're not on Xerexarea anymore."
"Xerexarea, the continent?", Hati asked concerned.
"Xerexarea, the planet."
He pointed his finger at Rex and his look changed into a tired one, "You know what? I had a hunch."
Morty finally joined them and he brought his heat with himself. "Wasn't that clear?", he asked cynically. "Only the gods know now, whereto the ring brought us."
It rendered Hati slightly mad, "Did you really think a magic portal, that looked like water, would what, extinguish your flames?"
"Not like I had anything to risk. I'm immortal. You didn't have to follow me."
"Well, but now we're here", Krator hammered his plated fist onto the kitchen-board, "Let the Princess make a portal to bring us back, why wouldn't you?"
Glimmer turned around, her ears twitched, "Princess?"
Rex walked up to the board, "Why, yes! Let's try, shall we?"
"Bring it, Princess!", Krator met the mage’s gaze with his own. Their rivalry has always been a wildfire within the group, despite an actual burning skeleton in its midst.
Rex took his book and ripped out one of the pages. After it was tossed onto the floor, the magic did it's work and created a ring of light, a doorway through space.
The conjurer looked down at it with concern. It should have shown the world on the other side. But it didn't. Instead the portal within the glowing ring was black. Something about this didn’t feel right with Rex either. His magic usually never fails.
"Well", Hati sat at its edge, "This looks odd, right?"
Rex nodded.
Starlight levitated a plate in front of herself, bringing it to the aliens. On it were fruits, bread and a carafe of milk.
As soon as Rex spotted the plate near his portal, he hit it casually, so the meal would fall into the portal and into the void. Shocked and finally grumpily, Starlight looked after the stuff, into the portal and back up to Rex. "I guess you weren't that hungry after all."
Rex had his arm laid around his hips and grabbed onto his cloth, so it wouldn't slip. His other arm was resting upon it while he was rubbing the two horns on his chin with his three fingers. It was his usual thinking pose.
"Do you see this black carpet, Unicorn?"
"You mean the portal?"
"Why, yes. It is a portal to our home."
"That doesn't look very cozy. But, you do you."
"It's not working for some reason."
"Maybe someone turned off the light?"
He looked down to her with tired eyes, "Tell me, is there anyone in this castle, that might be able to help us. Someone that isn't stupid, or a horse, or both?"
Her eyes said it all. She was done. She tried not to be insulting. So rather than losing her temper, she decided to leave.
"Wait!", Hati stood up and followed her, "He didn't mean it."
She stopped and he walked up to her. "Well, he did", he added. "But he's just one of us. Maybe you can help us, help me? I'll talk to him. You don't have to."
She turned, slightly smiling. "I'm Starlight."
"I know. You said earlier."
"Right! Right."
"I'm Hati."
"I know. You said earlier."
"Right! Right."
Both chuckled.
"So, tell me", she came closer and looked up to the tall, green Lizard, "What are you doing in Equestria? Or in this castle for that matter?"
"I'd say if I knew. I have no idea. We found some artefact, some gateway, and the end of it was in your library. That is most of the story. And to put all cards on the table, we weren't the only ones. There's some Humans searching the castle. You know what a Human is, right?"
Her eyes told that she knew. "Oh no. Twilight has to know!" She ran off before she remembered, stopped hard and turned. "But I can't leave you alone."
"Oh? Alright", Hati understood, "We can totally follow you, it's alright."
And so Hati collected the insane, the hungry, the silent and the grumpy ones of his friends and made them go back to the library, but this time on official business and guarded by a little Unicorn. The cupcakes weren't exactly forgotten either. The rest that wasn't eaten already, Krator took along to share with his Elf and his Hati.
"Man, this place is huge", O'Neill stated while they were following Twilight down the hallways.
Which she commented, "I guess it's quite spacious. It looks a bit bigger on the inside than you'd expect from looking at it from the street."
"I’m sure it's easy to get lost", Cam said and naturally looked at his compass, that he had on his wrist.
"Do you always carry a compass?", Daniel asked Cam bluntly.
"When you get shot down behind enemy lines once, you get used to carrying around one of those." He checked the needle and it was steadily pointing. "The compass works."
"So does the watch", Vala added, but Daniel’s look told her, that her joke ain't funny, "Sorry."
Rodney thought about it, and he was worried as usual, "But how would we know which way is north or south?"
"And how would we know if they're even named that on this planet?!", Vala joked.
"Doesn't really matter", Cam ignored her, "It will do."
"Some time to explore this castle and world would be nice", Daniel said without thinking. At once Cam stopped and turned to him, "Don't jinx it."
Jackson pressed his lips together, "Sorry." And with that, Vala smiled at him. He rolled his eyes while the others were walking on.
Near the library, Twilight asked the Humans to "Wait here." She had to check the portal for herself first and also make sure nopony saw the Humans. If anyone would see creatures like them, they would definitely freak out, and that wouldn't help anypony.
While the Princess was escording the Humans, Starlight was escording the Lizards and their more or less Human friends. They couldn't help but to discuss while they were walking.
"You know how to turn on the gateway, right?", Hati asked his mechanical gifted friend, Rook. "I mean, you made the ring run in the first place."
"Nope and Aye", he answered. "But also Nope. I only gave the ring the power it lusted for. I didn't turn it on or anything, or made any adjustments to it. What happened with it, what it did, it was doing a long time ago anyway. It just never finished cause it ran out of power."
"The Mirror is more of a magical thing anyway", Morty claimed. "I doubt a Blacksmith could handle such a thing."
"You're not free to tell me what I can handle and what not, Doc."
"I'm sure Rook can figure it out."
"Sure", he answered Hati, "How many years you wanna stay?"
Elisa crossed her arms, "I'm sure the Doctor doesn't mind!"
"You didn't have to follow me. It's your own fault you're stuck here."
Krator stopped the skeleton by putting his gauntlet on his ribcage and yelled, "Sometimes people care for their friends!"
"Friends?", Morty said like he didn't know the meaning of it.
"And they do stupid things for them!"
Morty evaded his look, "Are we friends?"
"Of course we are! Stupid old man. How long have we been on this together? Huh?"
He looked up to the tall Highpriest, "Four weeks."
"I could have sworn it was more."
They moved on, passing windows and adornments. "At least now we know, why every bit is about horses", Hati said, looking at the coloured windows. He grew up in a city that was famous for horse breeding and he could understand the obsession over it, but this castle was over the top with the Pony love. If it was made by them, then at least it made sense. Those weren't some horses, those where their heroes, their chronics.
He shortly stopped in front of a wide window that caught the afternoon sun. It was mostly blue, but in the middle there was an edgy depiction of a purple Unicorn with wings, firing lasers from its horn. At least that's what Hati took away from it. This must have been a great legacy, maybe even hundreds of their years ago. It was quite impressive.
The library wasn't far ahead and Starlight could already see the Mirror through the gate. Then Twilight passed the gap and Starlight felt relieved. She told the Lizards to "Wait here, please" and went ahead. She didn't want Twilight to see all of the visitors at once. Maybe she could ease in the surprise.
She was mumbling while she approached the gate, "Hey Twilight, there's intruders in the castle, and they are all super tall Lizards and, oh yeah, a burning skeleton, no biggy, right? Sure, Starlight, you tell her that. What could go wrong?"
Eventually she joined Twilight in the library. She was looking around the Mirror and trying to figure out any obvious fault.
"Starlight", she said once she noticed her, "We have visitors."
"Oh, yeah, I know. I showed them the kitchen, kind of. Made sure they didn't get lost. This place is too big, even for me."
"You met them? But I was with them the whole time."
"Really?" Starlight chuckled, "I didn't see you."
"Are you sure?" Twilight shrank her eyes, "Didn't you freak out when you saw them? I mean, it must be your first time."
"Nah, come on, Twilight. I've seen much worse. They don't look too bad, considered most of them are Lizards."
"Lizards?" Twilight wrinkled her forehead, "They're not Lizards, they're Humans."
"Oh!", Starlight got the idea, "You met the Humans! Hati was mentioning something about that."
"Hati? Who by Celestia is that?"
"One of the Lizards? Right! There was another group coming through the Mirror."
"You're telling me, that there's even more?!" In a loud sigh, the princess lost her cool, as it was her usual manner under pressure. "It's all good. We can fix this."
"Did you find out what's wrong with the Mirror?"
"Nooo...", the Princess complained, "It doesn't respond anymore. Everything is at its place, doing its job, but the passage is closed. Something drained the magic completely."
"Maybe their arrival. It must have taken a lot out of it."
"Maybe. We'll have to make some tests on this to fix it."
"Why, maybe I can be of assistance." The two purple Ponies paused and turned to the gate. Rex stood in the entrance, straight as a candle, with
After a second, Twilight shook her head, "Yes, of course. Who are you again?"
"Oh, this is one of the Lizards", Starlight explained. "I call him Blue."
He came closer, "The name's Rex."
"That works too."
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. Nice to meet you?"
"Certainly." For Rex, Twilight looked very differently under his enchanted sight. His eyes were altered, so that he could see the Ether of magic, hidden spells and auras, so that he could read them and see what they were made out of, so he could copy them and destroy them if needed.
To numb the pain in his eyes, he reached into the side of his coat and when he pulled it out again, he held a pair of shades in his claw. With that cool accessory on his long raptor snout, he didn't only look twenty percent cooler, it also allowed him to look at Twilight.
"Are you the creator of this fine Mirror, fair Twilight?" Her magic surely was all over it, even if it was invisible for the most.
"No", she smiled, "I didn't make it. But I was using it lately. The idea with the book was mine."
Rex turned to the Mirror and checked it from top to bottom, as he did before. "You have any idea why it might have done, what it did?"
"Well, no."
The adventurers Hati, Elisa, Rook, Krator, Morty and Knom joined them, as did the Humans, O'Neill, Vala, Sam, Cam, Daniel, Rodney and Teal'C. They stood opposed as before, near the Mirror.
"We found a Unicorn", Cam bragged and pointed at the purple Pony.
Krator claimed, "As did we", and pointed at the purple Pony. He leaned over to Elisa, "Which one is ours again?"
"The one without wings."
"Holy Mother of Earth, she has wings!", Krator yelled.
Cam smiled, "Pretty cool, right?"
"Well", Rook commented, "We found a sack of sugar."
In the meantime, Twilight, Starlight and Rex had a look at the Mirror, but couldn't find a solution for it just now. They had to do more research and find out, what caused the overload.
"It is conclusive", Rex informed the crowd, "We will stay a while. Make yourselves comfortable."
"No, no, you're kidding", Rodney was mad, maybe mad of fear, probably even. "We have to be somewhere. We are missing. We are missed!"
Glimmer turned to them, "I'm sorry. But it cannot be changed. But look at the bright sight. You get to stay at a castle, joined by a real Princess. Is that good or what?"
Hati was surprised, "You're a princess?!"
She chuckled. "No. But Twilight is."
"Gee, thanks, Starlight", the Princess mumbled.
"Was that a secret?"
"Oh, I don't know. Was it?"
Morty stepped forward, "In that case, I'd like to talk to the king."
"There", Twilight shook her head, "Is no king."
"Queen."
"Nope."
"Well, take me to your leader then."
"You're talking to her."
"Really? Hmm", the Doctor was thinking, "No wonder this place is as run down as it is."
"Hey!"
"Well, I'd like to make a request, your Highness", Sam applied.
"Oh, please, no. Call me Twilight."
"Well, Twilight", Sam walked up to her, "I think we should have a plan that doesn't require the Mirror, in case it doesn't work anymore. I'd like to take a look at your stars. It is evening now, and soon will be night. If you have stars, there might be some that we know. Then we know at least where we are."
"You could do that?", Cam asked.
"Of course she can!", Jack said.
Twilight put on her thinking face. "Yes", she nodded. "If you can do such a thing, then I don't want to stand in your way. I do have a telescope right upstairs."
"We follow you to it", Sam concluded and rested her hands on her belt.
"Oh, yes. Yes! The castle can be quite the maze." The Princess went ahead to bring the Humans to their telescope of hope. But before they left, she turned to Glimmer."Don’t get into trouble while I'm gone, okay?"
"Trouble? When would I ever get into trouble? You know me."
"Yeah, that's why I said it!"
Alone with the Lizards, Glimmer didn't really know what to do with them now.
"So", she said, "Are you some kind of Griffon?"
Rook looked down on himself, "Maybe, I don’t know. Not that I knew of."
Hati rolled his eyes, "You're not a Griffon!"
"How would you know? I could be!"
"Your skin! You're not covered in feathers, dude."
"I could happen to have a condition. Quick!", he turned to the Pony, "What does a Griffon look like?"
The Pony wrinkled her nose, "What?! You don't know?"
"What the hell!", Hati yelled, "You're a Brass'Ka! Like me!" He kneeled before the small Pony creature, "We are Brass'Ka. And Krator too, and Rex. But Morty is a Human.”
"Was a Human."
"Yeah! Was. And Elisa is a Vendah."
"Half-Vendah, excuse me?"
Hati cautiously smiled, "Hell, I never had trouble introducing before."
"I wonder what it tastes like", Rook mumbled while he stared at the Pony.
Glimmer’s eyes widened and her face froze. "Let’s get you some food. How about that?"
"Excellent idea!", Rook jumped up. "I already know where the kitchen is!" He went ahead and the others got a move on as well.
"I'd rather follow you", Morty said to Glimmer while he seeked her nearness. "Lead the way, Pony."
"Lead the way?", she stopped. "What?"
"Lead the way, quick! My servants need provisions."
She didn't look anything amused, "Did you never learn the Magic Word?"
"The magic word?", Morty wondered. "Some summoning of spells, I assume. No, I had no idea!"
"There is only one Magic Word around here."
Morty tried, "Simsalabim?"
Hati helped him, "No, Morty, you gotta use the words of power."
"Fus Ro Dah?"
"That's not what I meant", Hati shook his head.
"Open sesame, maybe?"
"It's Please!" Glimmer lost her temper for a second before she continued calmly, "The word is Please."
"Oh!", they both sighed in surprise, before Hati added, "I haven't thought of that."
She rolled her eyes and went ahead. The aliens followed her eventually.
Only Rex caught up with her and strode by her side with his arms on his back and a vicious smile on his lips.
"I didn't mean to insult you", he finally said to the little Unicorn.
"No", Glimmer tried to uphold her smile, "You did."
"Why, yes", Rex confessed. "I do apologize. The Princess holds you in high regards, it seems. I can sense your magic is powerful. Your knowledge must be vast."
"Well, yes. I guess you could say that."
"And yet, you are, what? A servant, a maid?"
"I'm the School Council. And her friend. I help where I can."
"Why, a school? Interesting. A school of magic, perhaps?"
"Ehm, no. It's Twilight’s School of Friendship. I'm not sure if that makes sense to you."
Rex looked around while they went on. "It's not in this castle, now is it?"
"No. No, it's not. It's next doors, kinda?"
They made it to the kitchen and Rook already waited in the door.
"Good", Rex added, "Because a Castle would make a terrible school building."
"Don't let Rowling read that", Rook smiled.
Glimmer entered and checked for supplies. She didn't exactly know what aliens eat, so she had to show them their options.
They stood bent over in a ring and whispered. "These Ponies might think we belong to the Human-Pack, that it's a trick of some sorts", Rex conspired. "We don't want to get involved with their doing."
"Why not?", Hati asked. "They need the same help we do."
"They are Humans. They are not to be trusted. And more so. They have guns, guns I never saw before."
They looked at Morty and waited for his reaction. "No, I agree. I was Human and I was not to be trusted. Or would you say otherwise?"
They nodded and Hati commented, "Good point."
"You think they can find out where we are just by the stars?", Krator had his doubts.
"Why, even if so, they have no way to travel to the stars. Unless these Ponies have some sort of gateway or vessel."
"Nothing I'd know of anyway", Glimmer added. She stood part of the circle and whispered the same way they did.
But instead of being surprised, the maniacs just rolled with it. "Can you tell us more about the Mirror?", Hati asked silently.
"Not really. I used it once, or technically twice, but I have no idea how it works or who made it."
Suddenly little Elisa jumped on Hati’s back and put her head in the middle of the crowd. "Why are you guys still whispering when the Unicorn is already here?"
Hati whispered, "Because it's fun."
"By the way", Glimmer digressed, "I can make you eggs, a salad or bake a cake. But the cake takes a while and we don't have any meat. What's the deal with that anyway?"
"Well", Hati informed her, "We are carnivores", and grinned so his huge raptor teeth were visible.
"Oh-Kay!", Glimmer broke out of the circle. "Eggs it is!"
They were made quickly. While cooking, Starlight used her Unicorn-magic constantly, to levitate pans, spoons and incrediences. Her blue glow was all over the place, which got Rex very curious and impressed.
Eventually they got served and sat around the kitchen table, swallowing their cooked eggs one by one.
"So", she said while she sat down with a little distance to the carnivores, "Maybe we can find out how to help you, if you can tell us what happened to you exactly."
"Us?", Elisa wondered.
"Me. I mean me. Where do you come from? How did you get here? There wasn't some mage using a timespell to change your destiny, or something, right?" She silently added, "We already been through that."
The aliens shared some looks until Krator nodded and Rex rolled his eyes. And so Hati explained to her. "I think we're from another planet. Everything here looks different. The colours are stronger, the clouds have weird shapes and everything has a strange magical outline."
"Really? I never noticed that", Glimmer commented.
"Our world is Xerexarea. Aaannd ... well, we are archeologists. Kinda. Well, I am."
Elisa said, "I'm not."
"And we found an artefact in some forgotten catacombs."
The Pony leaned forward, "Interesting."
"A big metal ring on the end of some steps."
Morty said, "We usually find rings like that, because it's a common artefact of the fire god, but those look differently."
"Yeah", Hati continued, "The fire god’s rings are grotesque, shaped like bones, snakes and monsters. This one was plain, almost boring."
"And what did you do with it?"
"Well, I didn't wanna do anything with it. But someone overruled me."
"We fed magic to the ring's crystals", the burning skeleton explained to her. "It activated a portal, which must have brought us to your Magic
Rook, still stuffing his beak, added, "It was most likely a rift in spacetime, created by a super dense and supermassive force of gravity, something like a Dark Star. Then the crystals coordinates must have fired a beacon into the cosmos, leaving behind a passage that reflected light the same way water molecules do, hence the resemblance. Stepping over the edge of that rift must have effectively split us into bits and transport us here. Only thanks to this Mirror we got reassembled. Otherwise we would be a gooey red mess."
The others were speechless until Rex took a sip from his water cup. "Why, I do despise those kinds of portals. Not to imagine what happens to your body in the process."
Glimmer concluded, "It does sound dangerous."
"Oh, nah, we do that all the time", Cam explained to Twilight, who asked them about their journey here. "Going through the Stargate is our job."
The Humans were scattered in the study and on the balcony of the castle. Sam and Rodney were taking turns on the telescope but they had more trouble adjusting to the low position of the looking glass than they had anticipated. Eventually Sam kneeled down before it, something Rodney didn't lower himself to do.
"And this Stargate, is that a common thing on your planet?"
"Well, yes and no."
"It was on Earth for thousand of years", Teal'C explained.
"Yeah, but it was buried most of the time."
Daniel tried, "The people buried the Gate to protect the planet from evil invaders, parasitic creatures that pretended to be their gods."
Twilight got worried, "But those are not coming here, right?"
"No", Daniel said, "We took care of them a while ago. The universe is pretty safe now as far as we know."
"The universe is also damn big, Jackson."
Twilight had her thinking face on, "I think I never saw a Stargate before, nothing I read about meets your description."
"Well", Cam mentioned, "We came out of a Mirror. Maybe there's no Stargate on this planet."
"Or it is buried."
"If so, Daniel Jackson, there might be a way to find it."
"Ancient temples, carvings, fairytales, books?"
"Books?!", the Pony ears readjusted and she turned her head. "Did you say books?"
"Carter", Jack asked her over by the contraption, "Can you really tell by the stars, where we are?"
Carter pouted shortly while she nodded sideways, "I happen to carry the Starmap Database with me. It was meant to go to Delta to complete their
"Or?", Jack worried.
"Or it's all nothing and we're lost."
"You happen to carry a Starmap with you while you strand on another planet?", Twilight wondered while she came over to them, "Wow, that's lucky."
"Yep", Mitchell added jokingly, "That's how we roll. Get lost on a planet that tries to kill us and then we get lucky."
"Kill you? Did anything try to kill you?"
The Stargate Team shortly exchanged looks. "Well", Mitchell begann, but Vala finished, "Those Lizards. Not sure what they were doing but they were definitely trying to kill us."
"Or just defend themselves from our guns", Daniel argumented.
Rodney took his turn on the scope and bent down the furthest way while Carter was in discussion. He had a hard time seeing anything and the stars he saw didn't mean much to him.
"Anything yet, Doctor McKay?", Teal'C pushed.
"Yep!", he said loud, "It's exactly what I thought it would be."
The others turned silent and listened to him. "What is it?", Sam asked and came closer.
Rodney stood up and looked her in the eye, "A wiggly dot!"
Carter nodded, "Funny."
"Yes, I know. Because this", he pointed at the telescope, "Is a joke. Oh, no, wait! This!" He pointed at everything around him in a spinning manner,
Cam pushed him away from Carter and the looking glass, "Calm down, Rodney. This is not the time."
"Oh, then what better time?!", he yelled. With everyone looking at him, he felt ashamed immediately, turned around and walked around in the room.
"We're sorry, your Highness", Daniel apologised.
But Twilight only smiled, "No, it's okay. You're away from home and under a lot of pressure. Believe me, I know how that feels. But, if the telescope isn't enough, what else could I provide? What would you do, if you were home?"
"Well, a telescope is fine and all-"
"It's not. Really", Rodney interrupted from the background.
"- but ours are way more precise. And bigger. I doubt you have any that is hooked up to a computer?"
"A", Twilight hesitated, "Computer? Hooked up? To a telescope? The only bigger telescope I know is the observatory in Canterlot, which I'm sure we're allowed to use when we ask nicely? But I don't know anything about their ... computers?"
"Is every sentence of yours a question?", Rodney boldly asked.
"No? I mean, no!"
"This Canterlot", Jack asked, "Where is it?"
"It's a day’s journey by train. But the trains don't run by night. So we'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'm sorry."
"Great!", Rodney yelled and tossed his arms into the air. His face was red from his madness.
Cam threatened him, "Rodney! I have a gun."
"Maybe you would like to get some rest. There's plenty of rooms in the castle. You won't have to sleep on books. I know too well, that isn't too great."
"Before that", Daniel kneeled down to the little purple Pony Princess, "I'd like to take a look at your books."
By now, the aliens were fed and the purple Pony Starlight was save from their carnivore teeth. They demanded to have a look at the Mirror, even if it was late already and the stars were visible on Luna's black canvas.
Dim moonlight shone through the upper windows, while the ground was illuminated by candles and blue glowing crystals, that were imbedded into the dark purple crystal walls.
Morty and Hati were sitting by the sides of the Mirror, looking at it, touching it, smelling it. They weren't the greatest experts on magic stuff, but they figured that something simple had to turn on the portal.
"Where does this portal usually lead to?", the Doctor asked.
And Glimmer answered cautiously, "To a school? With Humans, yeah. Basically copies of everyone, but Human? Somehow. I only been there once, I'm not exactly the expert on it."
"Wait", Hati digressed, "You been to a school full of Humans? Were talking horses a regular thing there?"
"Ehm, no. I was turned into a Human too."
Hatis eyes moved up and down the naked horse’s body, before his forehead became wrinkly.
"With cloth!", she added.
"The Mirror is adding clothing", Morty concluded, "Very convenient."
"What kind of clothes?", Hati asked.
"Does everyone get the same?"
"No", Glimmer answered Morty. "I don't know. It was nice clothes. For, y'know, Human clothes."
The two by the Mirror nodded and looked at each other.
"You get the feeling too?"
"What feeling?", Morty asked Hati.
"That everyone here is crazy. And I mean, beyond helping."
"You know I can hear you just fine?"
Hati looked at the Pony, "Yeah, yeah I do."
(Un-)Admittedly, Starlight had to agree with him. Everyone here was crazy, indeed. But she'd never tell that to anyone. And not aliens at that!
In the meantime, Rex was taking a stroll through the library and getting a look at the castle. He was not only memorising the layout, in case of a situation, but also marking the pillars by the shelves with his magical Runes by scratching them in with his index claw.
Those Runes were anchors for his spells. He could summon a portal here to return, or combust them into a blast that brings down the castle. His magic was only limited by his imagination, really. Well, until his arrival here anyway.
He wouldn't tell anyone, but he noticed a strange feeling ever since they arrived. There was something very off with this world, and it had nothing to do with its inhabitants. Or, well, maybe it had. Rex wasn't sure. He had to make more testing.
But for sure, so he knew, something changed about his magic. He felt it strongly when he opened his portal home that eventually only lead into the void.
The whole planet must have been gone.
Maybe it was even a natural cause. Probably. Rex had to try something. Time for an experiment!
Slowly he went down the library, into the last and darkest corner he could find. Here he would use a powerful spell, something that would drain his power vastly.
He took his spellbook and browsed. "Yes", he said happily, "This is it."
"What are you doing?"
Spooked he turned around. The voice of the Elf already told him, who it was. "What are you doing here?", he asked Elisa.
"Spying on you. Krator told me to."
"How nice of him."
"And you?"
"Experimenting."
"Something evil?"
"I hope not."
"Please. Half of what you do is evil."
"Half of what you know of anyway."
"So", she waltzed around him and leaned onto the next shelf, "Should I tell them?"
Rexs gaze pierced her soul and she was silenced at once. "It's not wise to threaten me."
"Okay. Not then. Can I watch? I'm still your apprentice, y'know."
"Oh, is that so? I almost forgot about that. We hadn't had a lesson in days."
"Those were busy days."
"Fine", Rex ripped the page out of the book, closed it and turned to have more space.
Between all the shelves and book piles, Rex let go of the sheet and watched it sink to the floor. Once it touched down, it started to glow. The Runes and markings on the paper started to move and crawl away.
They created a ring that expanded beyond the page and across the slick floor. A wide circle was drawn around Rex, easily a man's height wide.
When it stopped growing and remained glowing, Rex smiled at Elisa and sat down in the center. "What is it?"
"This, child, is the experiment." He kneeled, rested his hands on his knees and closed his eyes. This spell used to take a lot out of him. And it does now again, for some reason that lacked explaining yet.
"And", the Vendah wanted to know, "What does it do?"
"Why, did I ever tell you the story about how I broke Time?"
She wrinkled her forehead, "No?"
"Then this is a good start. I'll break it again."
Hardly said, the spell already did its work. The Runes lit up and spawned glowy sparks, that floated through the air, soaring into the heights. Markings on Rex's dark coat lit up too and shared the similar cyan coloured glow. A row of squares on his seam, alongside a ring on each shoulder usually meant, that he drained power for his magic.
But something was wrong. The glow on his coat vanished, yet the ring on the floor was still going. Rex concentrated and pressed is lids together, as if he was in pain.
With the growing light of the runes, Rex raised his voice. After a few seconds his lips opened and his yell broke through his locked teeth.
After a moment, not even a minute, the shenanigan was over. The light of the ring vanished and so did the sparks. Once it was dark, Rex was silent and took a deep breath while he pressed his fists.
"You okay?"
After a second, Rex returned, opened his eyes and looked at the young Long-ear, Elisa, in front of himself. His voice sounded thin and tired.
"Success", he whispered.
Elisa looked around, "Nothing happened."
"Nothing visible, no. But time, by nature, isn't visible." He fought himself up on his feet, his body was weakened. Out of breath he leaned onto the next table, that was loaded with books, as everything in here was, really. "But I know now. I know."
"Know what?" She joined him by the table and sat next to him, pushing aside the books.
He looked at her with a gentle smile. "Your collar I gave you, remember what it does?"
"You said it was enchanted, so it would provide me with power for my spells."
"Why, yes. It's a well."
"A well spell, that you did well."
"Humor, good. You'll need it." He explained, "The collar opens a passage to the cosmos, which is rich in power, ready and easy to be drained. Usually. Otherwise the spell would take from your body and mind."
"And?", she guessed, "That spell just now took from your body."
"Why, yes. Very good. You're learning indeed." He took a few more deeper breaths before he returned to his regular rhythm and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He did look worried, which made Elisa go insane in silence. If Rex, who was close to be a god, was worried, then what mess did they get themselves into?
"My coat is enchanted in a similar way. It provides me with a Well. But it broke up half way through the spell. Which means?"
"Which means, that the connection is blocked?"
"Yes, maybe. Or?"
"That there is no power on the other side."
Rex nodded. "If it was blocked, we have to find out by whom. But really, why would anyone block this kind of magic? As far as I can tell, it is different from what the Unicorns use. No, I think we're out of power."
"Out of power? But, isn't the cosmos huge and endless?"
"Why, yes. Endless, maybe, probably, who knows, really? But not ageless. The cosmos is drained, which means, that it must be old. Dying. Or in a better term, dead."
She leaned forward and looked at his face from below, "You're kidding me, right?" But he evaded her sad, cute gaze. Kidding was not his usual manner. Well, at least not on an adventure like this.
"It's not that bad", he lied with a tear in his eye that he quickly disposed of. He stood up, "Come. We got a Mirror to fix", and went back to his green friend.
For a moment she remained on the table, "You're kidding me", before she followed him. She wouldn't be able to tell anyone about this. She wasn't even sure what she had learned just now.
The cosmos was dead? What would that even mean?
FAR, FAR, FAR, VERY FAR FROM HOME
The library got crowded again, when the Humans came to observe the Magic Mirror as well as the aliens.
McKay looked at it and thought about it. He walked away determinedly, "No."
"There's nothing to fear", he yelled after him and stood up, what made Rodney stop and turn around. "That's not true and you know it."
"Yes", Morty nodded, "It's more of a phrase than anything else." He walked up to him and reached out his hand. "My name is Doctor Mortanius Kältezorn."
"That sounds german."
"I have no idea what that means."
"Well", Rodney was about to shake his hand when he noticed the heat and twitched.
"Oh, yes", Morty apologised, "I'm sorry. I forgot."
"Or did he?!", Hati yelled from the background.
"You're a Doctor?", Rodney wondered. "Oh, I'm also a Doctor. I'm Doctor Rodney McKay."
"Mek'Kei? Sounds Brass'Ka."
"I have no idea what that means."
"So, then you are the Medicus of your Lance? But you carry no gear."
"A what of my what? Oh, no, I'm not that kind of Doctor." Morty's glowing eyes made him more than simply uncomfortable. "Would you please, maybe, if you wouldn't mind, not look at me. It's really disturbing. Pleasedontburnme."
"What kind of Doctor are you then?" Morty didn't bother looking away. Even more so, he slowly came closer.
"I, ehm", Rodney was missing the words and looked away, "Am a, well, a, one of those ... I'm a Physicist. I'm using math and all kinds of-"
"I know what a Physicist does. I might be missing my brain, but I'm not dumb."
Cam joined them and stood close to Morty. "Do we have a problem here?"
Jerkily and quickly Morty's skull turned up and over to Cam. Morty wasn't tall at all. All of the Humans were taller than him by at least a head. "I don't know. Do we? Your", Morty leaned to the side and looked past Cam at the Humans, "Lance looks run down. I don't trust you."
"My Lance doesn't trust you folks either. And what in tarnation is a Lance?"
"A Lance is a group of soldiers, usually four in number. That a Medic and a Sorcerer are added isn't unusual", Morty explained, while Hati still sat by the Mirror, bored. "You got a better name for your group?"
"We call them Teams. And who in your Lance is your Sorcerer, and who is your Medic?"
"I'm the Medic and the Sorcerer", Morty bragged, raised his hand and let a flame ignite around his bone fingers.
Cam's face became dead serious, "You should not do that. We do not respond very pleasantly to threats. Got it?"
"I don't fear death, why should I fear you?"
"Alright, that's good, good!", Hati stormed along, grabbed Morty at his arm and dragged him away from the Humans. "Everything is fine. FINE! No one gets burned. No one has to die today, alright?"
While he did that, Cam noticed that Hati might have used his right hand, which was armored from fingertips up to his shoulder, but must still have gotten too hot to handle. He did reach it into the flames after all.
After the moment cleared and Morty went his way to the Mirror, Cam walked up to Hati. He sounded concerned, "You alright? Your hand isn't burned or anything?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that."
"We do have medicine, even if it's not a lot."
"No, thanks." Hati knocked his knuckles onto the steel of his arm plate. "It's pretty thick. Didn't get hot or anything, really."
"He said my Lance looks run down.”
“Well, you do look fairly stressed, which I can understand, really. Your name was Mitchell, right?”
“Cam. Cam Mitchell."
"Hati", he smiled heartily, "From Beibergen."
"Sounds german."
Hati chuckled, "I have no idea what that means."
Cam looked away shortly, "There's really no good way to explain it."
"So", Hati asked, "Do you come here often?"
"No", Cam laughed and looked at his boots, "But this isn't exactly new to us."
Hati hooked his thumbs into his belt, "Do tell."
Sam didn't join them and their books but remained with the telescope. Vala wasn't into the books either and came back into the darkened room by the balcony. She sat down on the pillow next to Sam and looked up into the night sky. "I thought the telescope isn't good enough."
"It's not", Sam smiled, "Rodney was right, even if he went all out. But this one reminds me of the one I had a teenager."
"Ah", she understood, "You do it for fun."
They looked up, "They are pretty, aren't they?"
"Sure, but not if you look through there", she pointed at the telescope. "It's not more than a dot, isn't it?"
"Yes, some are. But some aren't. We don't know these stars, some of them might be planets that could be visible."
"And you'll try them all out tonight?"
"I couldn't. It's too many. But I can point out some that I think are pretty and then focus on those."
Vala smiled, "That's a good plan."
For a while they sat silently and gazed at the star lights, the shooting stars and the weird alien moon. "Y'know, this is how porn starts", Vala commented, "If only the boys could see us now."
"We can not possibly go through all these books, Daniel Jackson."
Teal'C, Daniel, Jack and Twilight were standing in front of the high shelves that were freakishly loaded with books.
"You don't have to", the Pony smiled. "I read most of them already. Just tell me what you're looking for and I can lead you to the right books."
They were sharing looks before Daniel explained, "We need to find out if there was a Stargate on this planet. Something about a gateway, a portal to other planets in your history, or a temple for weird snake gods."
"Hmm", Twilight had her hoof on her chin and was looking through the shelves, "I don't remember reading about any of that, but I guess we could start with history then. The Mirror is the only portal I know of."
Teal'C spoke up, "We do believe that there is a Stargate hidden here. It happened before that the wormhole was redirected to another address, even when the Stargate was not active. It does not usually redirect to mirrors, Twilight Sparkle."
Her horn glowed in pink magic, that wobbled around it. The light was transferred to a book that was pulled from the shelf and with that magical light framing, it floated in front of the Alicorn. "It's not an ordinary mirror, really", she claimed. "It's very old and very powerful. Nopony knows what it might be capable of."
Jack asked her in his tired, calm fashion, "How do you", while he typed in the air, "Y'know, tell the Mirror where to go?"
"The Mirror doesn't go anywhere."
"Anyone else wants to try?", he looked at Teal'C and Daniel.
"Where does the Mirror lead to? It's a gateway, isn't it?"
"Oh! Yeah, that", she chuckled. "Sorry. It usually leads to a Human world. But you know that better than I do, right? Isn't it your world?"
"What world?"
"It leads to Canterlot High. You must come from there, right?"
"You mentioned that name before. It sounds very similar to a name we know, maybe you heard of it, Camelot?"
She looked at his reflecting glasses, "No, it's Canterlot. Celestia has her castle there, and well, Luna too, of course. The Canterlot High in the Human world is more of a school."
Daniel broke it to her, "We are not from Canterlot High, and I doubt that it's our world. We met Humans all over the Universe. There's a lot of places it could be in."
She looked down hopelessly, browsed through the book in a hurry and sighed, "Oh." She closed the book harshly and reached it out to Daniel, "Then opening the Mirror will do you no good."
He took the book and the glow vanished. "I was trying to tell you. We need a Stargate."
Jack shrugged, "Or a spaceship. You don't happen to have one of those around?"
Twilight looked at him over her shoulder before she went ahead and dragged her helpless body to the next chair where she sat down and let go of her hopes.
Every action she could take, wouldn't bring them home. Whatever she did, didn't get them any solution.
Suddenly a spark ignited her brain. She cannot deal with that, not alone. She needed help.
"I don't know how to help you", she said determinedly. "But I know who might."
Daniel used the time to get a look at the book. It was a short ride since the lettering was a mess and did him no good. He faced the princess, "Who?"
"My friends! But", she looked at the moon above her, "That will have to wait."
Jack was thrilled, "Does that mean we get to see our beds now?"
Krator, Knom, Rook and Starlight stood as pack at the long end of the library and had their eyes on the mess their friends made. Krator had it out for Rex especially. He never trusted that Conjurer, he knew he was a murderer, an assassin and thief. If he wouldn't need his help, he would beat him up, or try to anyway. He knew he had some scheme up his sleeves when he walked down the library and Krator observed the magical light. His eyes were very good, much better than any of his friends’ eyes. Since he had wings, that went in his family, he had eyes to come with it, that were able to zoom into great distances and see in great detail.
Knom wasn't trying to do anything. He was silent and remained dormant until his fists and powers were needed. He was a soldier, a warrior, a fighter, a nightmare, but he was no researcher. Even if he read all the books and memorised every word of it, he couldn't tell anyone or put it into action. He had to wait and put his trust into the others.
Rook was fed and tired and ran out of jokes. He leaned on the shelves the same way Krator and Knom did, with crossed arms and a serious gaze upon the room. While he looked sleeping, he was hatching ideas about the Mirror and this Stargate the Humans were looking for. His mind was racing and playing through a world of scenarios.
He had a good idea how the Ring worked, and maybe the Mirror worked in a similar fashion. There was something to activate it, a key. The question remaining was simply, what was it?
For the Black Rings of the Fire God back home, the key was a blood sacrifice. They might wanna try that. Could be fun. Maybe Pony blood will do. What does Unicorn blood look like anyway?
For the Stargate, the key was the coordinates in the crystals. A number gets dialed in and has to obey. A very boring way of traveling, if you asked Rook. Riding a giant Rhinoceros beats that anytime.
But he saw no crystals for the Mirror. There was no system to dial. Or was there?
What about that book above it? The paperwork, the scrolls? What about that Unicorns? Unicorn blood? Was Rook still hungry?
"You know it", he said out of the blue.
"Know what?", Starlight asked beside him.
He looked down to her with his faceless gaze that was hidden behind his purple shades, "I need your blood."
With the shock on her face, Starlight vanished in a flash to reappear near Twilight in a similar flash of magical light.
"Oh, I get it", Krator said calmly. "For the gate. Like a Kreturer-Gate. That's clever."
"Thank you. You think it might work?"
"No. Freaking. Way. This is nothing near it. Did you look at it? It's a pink crystal mirror."
"Yeah, that's why I wanted to use Unicorn blood."
He shook his head, "I'm sure they won't allow it. Everything is pink, packed with hearts and flowers. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't had any crime or violence in forever."
"Or!", Rook raised his index, "It's a disguise. Ever think 'bout that, ey?"
"I'm not buying it." They observed how the Ponies did conversation and how they both looked at Rook. Soon they walked over to him. "And here comes the Princess", Krator said. And they didn't look too happy.
Twilight flapped her wings to float on Rooks height, so she can look him in the eye! Kind of. "Did you threaten my friend here?"
"Depends. I was just asking for a donation."
"A blood donation?! Are you crazy?"
"Yes, yes I am."
Krator nodded.
"You stay away from her and everypony else, you got me?"
For a moment, Rook looked at her and didn't do anything. But then he took off his glasses and revealed his yellow bird eyes that stared into the yonder. Slowly they focussed on Twilight while he was standing up to face her. "Fuck you."
"Excuse me?!"
"No. Fuck you. You heard me."
"Dude", Krator applied to him, "Better not go on with this."
But he didn't stop, "You think you're helping us? You're not. You think this is our beer? It's not! Your Mirror made this and you don't know jack about it. What are you even good for? If you just stand in our way, well, don't! Kay?!"
Twilight didn't know what to say, but her face was turning red. Krator stepped in to separate them. "If you wanna kill'im right now, trust me, that's a common feeling in his presence. I know I've been there before. Every day, sweetheart."
Her furious eyes went down on the golden gauntlet of the Highpriest that was on her fluffy chest. Madly she pushed it away, turned and fluttered off.
When she was gone, Krator turned and pulled his metal fist through the face of the blue half-bird behind him. "That's for stepping out. We do not insult princesses, even when we're on alien planets, got that?"
"Didn't have to hit me though." Rook was leaning against the shelves again and rubbing his beak.
"You never learn otherwise", the priest said and Rook nodded, "Right. Maybe the hit was needed. Physical stimulation does remarkable things for the memory."
At once, Krator pulled him back up, very gently to show his love for the stupid thief and mad-bird. "Here", he laid his gauntlet onto his chin and let his magic flow. A cool mist dripped from his fingers and a thin layer of ice formed upon the swelling. "That should cool it. You know that I'm sorry."
"I know. Just doing your job. Thanks."
Ever since Jack heard his name out of the corner he was watching the Lizards and the Princess. Now, after observing the beating and love between them, he was certain, "Did you notice, they are all insane?"
Daniel and Teal'C nodded silently.
Twilight tried her best to calm down, but she was just too mad over this. Even Starlight could not bring her down. Her complaining was echoing through the library.
"But that's just one of many", Starlight yelled up to the flying Princess, "Do you let everyone down, because one stepped out of line?"
"I would very much like to, yes."
"That isn't very princessy, is it?" She looked down and put her hoof on her chin, "Or friendshippy?"
"That's not a word!"
"And that's not how to act! What did it even mean, what he said?"
"I have no idea, but I know it was rude!"
Starlight made use of her glow to grab her Princess and pull her down to the ground. She wouldn't look at her and cross her arms, but she was ready to listen.
"The sooner we help them, the sooner we get rid of them?", Starlight grinned. "Maybe push through it then?"
"Can't do anything for them before tomorrow", she mumbled.
"That's a great idea!" Glimmer let go of her and she dropped like a wet towel. "A good night sleep with set everything straight, you'll see."
"Fine." Twilight stood up, "But somepony needs to guard them, and I won't do it. Maybe the dungeon will do for the Lizards, what do you think?"
"Isn't that unfair?" Starlight lowered her brows, "The Humans get rooms in the castle and the aliens a cold stone floor?"
Twilight was walking off, "Maybe they'll like it."
"Wait, I didn't know the castle even had a dungeon!" Starlight was following her to the stranded.
When they arrived beyond the Mirror, the Lizards were all standing together in a circle and discussing their next step. Rex, Elisa and Hati had joined them just a moment ago to conspire.
The Humans were ganging up in a similar fashion, though they weren't all here.
"I'll bring you to your rooms now", Twilight addressed the Humans and while she was walking past them, she looked back at the Lizards, "And you wait here. Please."
Glimmer on the other hand did her best to keep her distance to them and to fake a smile, while she quickly trotted to the exit.
While the two purple Punicorns and the Humans were gone, the Lizards were ready and free to act. "What do you think she'll do to us?", Hati asked Rex.
"Why, how would I know? But nothing fun, I'm sure, not after his step-out."
"I'm not very sorry", Rook added.
"You never are."
"I heard something about a dungeon", Elisa informed them while her long ears were twitching still. "And a stone floor."
Krator was instantly mad and punched his fists together, "That traitors! They will pay. I'll rip the castle apart!"
"No need for that, your Grace", Rex assured the Highpriest. "Our best option is to take our temporary leave and come back tomorrow when no one is present."
"So, out of the castle then, right?", Hati suggested.
"Yes", Rex smiled, "And no." He pulled out his blue spellbook and opened a particular page. After he ripped out the sheet, he pushed it against the next plain wall he could find. The Runes did their job and worked their magic. With a cyan shaded glow they formed a round-framed door where the spot had been. Of course it was blue, and of course it was magic.
Rex took the handle and opened it for the others to behold.
It lead to a cozy room with fancy interior and a warm fire's flicker. The room was beyond time and out of this world, literally. "Please, enter."
One by one they went through. When Elisa went last, she stayed by Rex and whispered, "But what about the cosmos?"
"Why, don't worry, dear. This room has its very own source. It's independent. I made very sure of that."
She shrugged, not really knowing anything about this, and went in. After Rex took a final look back to make sure they weren't seen, he closed the door behind himself. Now it was sealed, only by him to be opened.
Rex was old and he learned to be careful, cautious even. He was far beyond paranoid and tried to be prepared for every event. His clothes were enchanted not only to withstand blades and bullets, but also to return to him, so he could resummon them. His book was similar. No one must ever or could ever read it but Rex, he made sure of that. He tried everything, did what had to be done, so in case of defeat or loss, he had options to come out on top in the end.
But this world, this was new. Nothing weakened him like this before.
The rooms upstairs were comfortable, for Ponies. The beds were a bit small, especially for Teal'C. It didn't stop them from falling asleep though. They were in worse shapes before. This castle and this problem they had, it was a vacation compared to the war they had fought.
Jack knew it could take a while. But he was okay with it. He remembered the farm he used to have, the alien wife he left behind. He couldn't stay then, there was a war to win after all. But the war was over now. Maybe he could stay now. Maybe it wasn't too bad here. The others, however, he had to bring home. He just had to.
The next morning was right on time and sooner than expected. For soldiers no problem. A few hours were enough to go on. Not like they had any choice.
And even though some of them had rations in their uniforms, that they willingly shared with their Team, it was about time for a breakfast.
"Good morning!", the familiar voice of the Princess sounded from the door. With her was her young dragon assistant, holding a tray. He walked into the room and put it down on the small table in the middle.
The boys shared a room and the girls another. They both got their trays, plates and food, which in today’s case were waffles.
"I remembered Humans didn't exactly eat Daisies, so I made waffles. You do eat waffles, right?"
Rodney sat up first and grabbed his plate. Cautiously he smelled the waffles. "You didn't put any citrus- or lemon-like fruit in it, did you? I'm allergic to lemons."
"No", she assured, "It's just waffles. And butter."
"Did I hear butter?", Cam jumped up and went for the waffles. "Are those for us? You shouldn't have."
"Well, I can't let you starve. So, eat up. We got a train to catch."
And so they got ready, fed on the glorious royal waffles and went to the station bright and early. At least, that was the plan.
A group of tall Humans walking through Ponyville isn't exactly something one would care to explain.
"Are you sure about this?", Cam asked her after she told them her plan.
"I’m ready. I know I can do this", she took a few deep breaths and readied her horn.
The Humans were standing together closely by the wide gate of the castle, waiting for her spell to work. When they were hit by the pink ray, they were looking at their hands and each other, watching their bodies slowly disappear. The invisibility-spell didn't last forever, less so on multiple targets. So they had to hurry.
Twilight ran ahead down the road. The Humans were not visible, so they had to look out not to run into somepony. For better or worse, they made it to the station and entered the train to Canterlot.
The train clattered down the track, through forests and by the fields of Equestria.
"That's some nice train you got here, Princess."
"Thank you."
"The hearts and all, very nice."
Vala complained, "Isn't it a bit much?"
"I have no idea what you mean", Twilight ignored her. "Best to be quiet. We have the wagon for ourselves, but the conductor could be here any minute. And I cannot exactly be seen talking to myself. Again."
"Mitchell", Teal'C called him. "Come see this. Out the window."
He stepped to the open window and put his head out. Beyond the forests and the horizon lay a mountainside. And crowning the highest mountain, there was a white city sitting by the side of waterfalls and steep cliffs.
"So, how are the Lizards?" Starlight stepped up to Spike, the dragon assistant.
"How would I know? I didn't see them yet."
"You mean, today."
"Ever." Spike was cleaning the trays and bringing them back to the kitchen. Starlight was following him.
"But didn't Twilight make you watch them tonight?"
"Hey, Twilight doesn't make me do things. I'm just trying to help. But no, I didn't find them, so I went back to my warm bed. It was calling my name."
Starlight shook her head in despair, "Oh, no. No-no-no-no, that can't be happening. They are gone!"
"Please", Spike arrived in the kitchen and put the trays in the sink. "They are huge Lizards and a burning skelton? It's not like they could hide in Ponyville."
"And what if they can?" With that, she got him worried too.
He dropped everything. "You search outside, I'll check the castle again. Come on!" He ran down the hallway and turned around the next corner.
Spike went to the last place he knew they were seen, to the library. But it was clearly empty. But when he turned around, he discovered a door he never seen before. It was round and in a darker shade of blue, untypically for the castle. Instinctively he knocked.
"Hello? Anypony home? Anyone?"
After a moment, the door cracked and opened slowly. Above the small purple dragon, Rex's head peeked through the gap.
"Oh my, another little purple thing. Do tell me, little one, does your kind come in other colours as well, hmm?"
"Who is it?", Krator yelled from beyond the door.
"Another purple one."
"The one from before?"
"Why, no, it's a new one."
"Let me see." The tall yellow Lizard ripped open the door and looked down at the puny little dragon. His wide, frog-like face was frowning and looked mad. "You look like a Brass'Ka!"
"I have no idea what that means."
"No, no. You're too small to be one of us. What do you call yourself?"
"I'm Spike. Spike the Dragon?"
"A Dragon? Hardly. What is it you want?"
"I know why he's here", Rex interrupted. "He was sent to watch over us, so we wouldn't run riot."
Krator snorted from disgust, "You couldn't stop us, please, don't make me laugh."
"Probably not. But why would you even want to run riot? There's no reason for it, right?"
"We're stuck on an alien planet crowded by hostile Pony-creatures and Unicorns. How is there no reason for a riot?"
"I can bring you breakfast."
Krator shrank his eyes, "Do you have beer?"
"We have cider."
Suddenly he grabbed the little dragon by his feet and reached him out. "Lead the way, little Spike." Driven by hunger and addiction he followed the pointing of his little hand.
The other adventurers were following. When Rex left the door last, it fell apart into sparks and dust that vanished with the wind. There was no trace left of their hiding spot.
They headed down the hallway. The way was familiar, as it lead to the kitchen. Only there Krator would let go of the Spike, so he'd serve him well. He carried together what he could, Cider at first, bread and fruits after.
Then he looked like he lost something. "I could have sworn there were a few waffles left." He looked at Rook, who had his face stuffed and huge cheeks. He shook his head and shrugged, but it was clear what happened here.
Once the aliens got served, Spike held on to his very own breakfast, a bowl of colourful gems.
"Why, what do you have there?", Rex smiled intrigued.
Spike sat down at the table and reached him a heart-shaped ruby. "Just gems. You don't happen to eat gems too, do you?"
Rex took the gem and looked at it. It went right into his black coat. "No", he said.
"Then", Spike hesitated, "Can I have it back?"
"No."
"Well", he looked down into his bowl, "That's not very nice."
"Nice is for weddings and funerals."
Hati suggested, "Better not push it. He seems alright. He can make waffles."
"And Cye'Da!", Krator raised his mug so hard, it spilled.
"I didn't make the cider, and I didn't make the waffle either. Twilight made the waffles. And Applejack made the cider. You should thank them. In fact, you should be nicer to them. They are trying everything they can to help you guys, and they don't have an easy time doing so. Trust me, it alway ends in tears."
"Trust me", Elisa told him, "I know. You're the only Dragon around here, aren't you? Kept small, under their hooves. Serving them. Away from your parents. I know that feeling."
Spike kept smiling, "But I never met my parents. Can't miss what I never had. And Twilight raised me. So, I didn't really miss out on anything."
By now, Rook managed to swallow all the dough and hammered his mug into the table board. A fountain jumped up and went everywhere, just not back into the mug. He raised it about all again at once. "To that! I d-r-r-r-r-ink!"
"Hossa!", Hati yelled and joined him. All together drank to that in the end.
"You guys are crazy", Spike smiled.
Hati bent over the table to tell him silently, "You're not the first to tell us that."
"And he won't be the last!", Elisa yelled. Due to her size and elvish condition, she didn't handle the alcohol well. Even one mug of Cider robbed her of her senses.
Spike had to ask, because it was serious, "Do you guys have a plan? What do you do next?"
"Well", Hati answered, "We need to get back home. If not, then we just stay here to rule the land."
"Yeah!", Krator yelled, "We'll conquer it for the glory of battle! And then rule the land of tiny horses!"
"That's a joke, right? Please don't do that."
Rex smiled wickedly, "Is it? Or maybe it is." He stood up, grabbed the little Dragon under his arms and set him down on the table before him. "Do tell, dear Spike, what do you know about the Unicorn-magic?"
It didn't exactly take a day's ride, but a few hours still passed until the train of hearts and invisible Humans stopped at Canterlot-Station, high on the mountain and deep within the heart of the city of white and gold.
The sight put the Humans into awe. Understandable. Not only was the city no comparison to the village they've seen, with muddy roads and timber houses. Canterlot was the capital of Equestria, and with that, probably the most important city on the planet. The stone streets, the white walls, the high towers, the city walls, the guards with their golden armor, the golden lanterns and the overwhelming number of Unicorns all were an unmistaken sign of wealth and importance.
"Is this a city, or a temple?", slipped over Cam's libs.
"Shh", the Princess shushed him, "Stay behind me, and no word. We need to get to the castle."
"You mean the big tower at the end of the stairs?"
"Yep, exactly that. Now, come, quick!"
She trotted on and the Humans did their best to remain behind her, but there were a lot more Ponies on the streets than in Ponyville and it wasn't long before the group was separated.
Carefully and ever so slowly, the last of the bunch, Rodney, Daniel and Vala, made their way to the stairs. They knew where they had to go and they were hoping, the spell wouldn't leave them hanging.
But something was obviously wrong. More of the colourful little horses swarmed the places and stairs. Something attracted them to a crowd.
In the center of the mob, Twilight tried to stay calm. She was the Princess, she was famous and popular. Too much even, if you asked her.
A pink bubble of pure willpower and strange horse magic kept the fans in check and away from her invisible guests. Cheers and greetings of love mixed into a noise, that made talking difficult.
Cam thought out loud, "Might be a good idea to use that Invisibility-Spell yourself."
"You know what? That's a great idea."
"What?"
Hardly said, it was done. She raised her horn above herself and when the sparkly dust covered her, she was vanishing into thin air. Shortly after a disappointed sigh from the crowd, a flash brought her and the Humans closer to the stairs and out of the clutter.
Confused the Ponies scattered and looked for the Princess, while others were returning to their businesses, sad and somewhat angry.
"Alright, is everyone here?"
"I'm here."
"Who is I? Is that Sam?"
"Is that Jack?"
"That's General O'Neill for you still."
"Sorry."
"Who is missing?"
"Now, that voice is Teal'C for sure."
"Can you keep it down? We're not up and away just yet."
"Sorry, Princess."
"Come, up the stairs." She went ahead, not knowing if the Humans were all complete. But the spell couldn't last forever and they had to make it
The great castle gates were tall and wide. They were also guarded. Slowly her magical glow opened a gap, so the Princess could slip through. Once the guards noticed the gap, they were already inside.
All of them but the three left behind. In a hurry they ran up the stairs and just when Daniel was grabbing onto the metal ring to pull open the gate, their cover was blown.
In the castle hallway, Twilight was sure they'd be save from here on out. If they were seen here with her, she could identify them as her guests. It wasn't the greatest of plans, but it was Twilight after all.
She took a breath and released the magic off their bodies. Instantly they returned visible and instantly it was clear, they weren't complete.
Daniel fell right to her feet with a guard's spear hanging over him.
"What?", she looked at the guard, "Hey! What's the meaning of this?"
"Princess Twilight?!", the white Unicorn was shocked, "I ... we ... caught this trespasser."
"He's not. He's my guest. He belongs to me."
"But he's ...", he was looking back and forth between them, before he raised his spear off his chest again, "Very well."
While Rodney and Vala helped Daniel back on his feet, Cam and Teal'C closed the gates behind the Princess and shut out the guards. "That would be all", she smiled through the last gap before the clunk echoed through the plain walls.
Once the gates were sealed, Twilight turned around and was out of her mind. "How am I supposed to watch all of you by myself?"
"Especially when we're invisible", Vala joked and reached her hand high for a High-Five, but Jack beside her wouldn't comply. Only Teal'C next to her sealed this deal, emotionless as usual.
"I'm terribly sorry, Princess", Daniel apologised, "There were just too many horses to go on."
"No, it was my mistake. I'm not enough for this. I should have told my friends sooner. I just hope Spike was able to do, what I asked him to."
As ordered by the Princess, Spike was looking after the Lizards. Somehow he convinced them to follow him on a tour through Ponyville.
While Elisa was trying to catch herself a young Unicorn she could cuddle to death, Rook and Krator were rampaging around the market stands, trying to get a sample of all the local foods.
Hati gave it up long ago, to try to restrain them. He stuck to Rex, Morty and the Dragon Spike, while they were taking their stroll between the timber frame houses.
Weirdly enough, no one had eyes on the young Knom, but they were sure, he'd show up again eventually.
Rex couldn't avoid noticing the magic around him. This world was imbedded in it, drunk from it and infested. But where did it come from? What was it made of? He wore his shades now not only to face Twilight, but to see anything really. Everything around him overloaded him with the treacherous glow of the ether.
The center of it was found, when Rex was looking up. There was the sun upon the world, shooting her power down to the planet.
He turned to Hati and pointed up, "Look at the sun, does it look natural to you?"
Hati just shrugged. He couldn't look directly at it, but he didn't see anything unusual, other than that it was indeed an alien sun. "It's a bit bigger than ours, isn't it?"
"Why, yes", Rex nodded, "That's right. But trust me, I cannot see how it works, or understand it just yet, but this celestial body is no mere sun. It's made from pure magic."
Hati didn't know that their sun back home wasn't magic, but apparently that was meant to be an unusual thing. "Don't suns get made by gods?"
"Why, yes. But they are fire and light, heat and soul, not magic, not this", Rex waved through the air around him, "This mess."
"What are you talkin'bout?", Spike asked him from below. "What mess? It's a beautiful day."
"Speak for yourself, little Dragon. And do tell, who is your god? Who made your sun?"
"Or your world for that matter?", Hati added.
"Or your species?", Morty added.
Spike wasn't sure what to do. He never heard of a sun or the world being made. "Ehrr, I don't know! Celestia raises the sun everyday, and Luna the moon every night. But they already been there long before they were born."
Hati stopped in front of Spike, "Wait, what? Did you just say, they raise the sun and the moon? Like, manually?"
"Manually? Nah, they use their fancy Alicorn magic for that trick. Actually Twilight had to do that job too for a day or so, but that's kind of a long story."
Hati's brows dropped deep into his face when he turned to Rex, "Alright, I think you're onto something. This doesn't seem right to me."
"Not like the sun and moon would move on their own."
Silently they looked to the Dragon and then at Morty who had a comment on his libs, figuratively. "No, they really should. That's just how the cosmos works."
"Well", Spike went on, "I don't know where you came from, but it differently works here."
For a moment they stayed behind, "No kidding, alright", before they rejoined him on the tour.
A few steps further down the road the tourists and their Dragon went around a corner onto one of the few wider places of Ponyville. In the middle of the place they saw a tall building, looking somewhat edible with a cupcake on top.
"Aww", Rook sighed, "You took me to the candy shop, nice. But I don't have no fifty cents." His swag from the market was an apple that half of already went down his throat.
Spike waved at the Ponies he found there and while smiling they began to come closer. Spike went ahead, so the Ponies wouldn't have to pass the crude Lizards and the skeleton. As soon as they got a better look at them, they became slower and more hesitant.
"There you are, Spike", Rarity greeted the Dragon, "Is this why you needed us?"
"I didn't ask for it, Twilight did. I mean, sure I need you Rarity. I mean, I need all of my friends!"
She chuckled a bit, "Now, dear, do you want to introduce us?"
Alongside the white Unicorn Rarity, that had long, purple and curly hair and blue eye shade on, stood an orange Pony with blond hair and a hat.
"Welcome to Ponyville, I guess? My name's Applejack. This is Rarity."
Behind them stood a yellow Pony with long pink hair that touched the floor and wings she didn't care for using much. "And this is Fluttershy", Applejack rushed the introduction.
"Hello", Fluttershy said silently and tried to smile. The tall Lizards made her a little anxious and she didn't even dare to look at the skeleton.
Rex did curtsey before them in his best behavior. "I am Rex of Karinthor. These are my friends, Hati of Beibergen ..."
"Hey there, y'all."
"... and Doctor Mortanius Kältezorn."
"Did you just describe me as a friend?"
"Honest mistake, Doctor, I assure you."
"And then there's Rook", Hati mentioned.
Rex nodded, "Of course." And Rook waved.
Elisa rushed off the market to Hati and the folks. Her arm was wrapped around a pink Pony's neck, that seemed pretty okay with being dragged around. "Look!", she yelled most happy. "I caught me a pink one!"
"Sure did!", the pink one replied. "Hi!", she waved at the others, "I'm Pinkie Pie. Did you meet Elisa yet?"
Rarity shook her head, "I most certainly did not." She took a step towards her and Elisa's big eyes grew even bigger. "You look somewhat different. You're not a Lizard, are you?"
"You are pretty", Elisa stared at her, what made the Unicorn smile and agree. "I like her."
"Where's the Highpriest?", Morty asked her.
Elisa pulled on the pink one because she started to slip off. "Around here somewhere. He challenged some Rainbow-dude to a race or something."
But Applejack understood and didn't look too happy, "Rainbow Dash."
Elisa shrugged. She usually didn't keep names anyway.
"What is she up to now? Challenging strangers to a race like it was the first idea?"
Rex assured, "I'd assume it wouldn't take long. Krator is a pretty fast traveler."
Suddenly a thunderstrike rolled over Ponyville and from afar one could see the streams in the high air. "Right on queue", Rex smiled.
Next to a rainbow dash familiar to the folks of Ponyville, there was a second dash in the sky, flaming in red and blue glimmers. Once they reached the marketplaces, they descended like meteors.
Laughing sounded from the cloud as the dust rolled over the group. "Ah-haha! I win. Again. As I always do."
"You suffer from ill judgement, Rainbow!", Krator yelled. A flap with his great wings freed everyone from the cloud and gave away the racers.
"Well", Rainbow was evading, "I wouldn't call it suffer."
Morty yelled, "Is it really that important, who won?!"
They both looked at him simultaneously, "Yeah!"
For a second the racers stared at each other in hot competition when Rex caught their attention with his deep, smooth voice, "How was your view, Priest?"
"It's Highpriest and you know it!"
Rex didn't flinch, "Well? Seen anything interesting?"
Krator stepped away from the black coated mage and looked for excuses. "I didn't exactly pay attention to the landscape."
And so Rex turned to the blue one with the colourful hair, "You, Rainbow?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you care to tell me about your land?"
"You mean, right now?" She turned to her friends in whispers, "Who are these guys?"
Applejack explained her, "This one is Rex, that one is Hati and Mortanius."
"Doctor Mortanius Kältezorn."
"Whatever. Plus Elisa and Highpriest?"
"Highpriest Krator of Anthera!", the tall Lizard yelled, "But Highpriest is enough."
"Twilight asked me to ask you to look after these guys until she's back from Canterlot", the little Dragon informed.
"Excuse me!", Rex sounded insulted, "We don't need maids to look after us."
"I agree", Mortanius nodded. "We're no children."
Applejack's brows went down, "Alright then. In that case we'll just make sure nopony gets hurt or scared of y'all."
The Lizards shared a short look and Hati shrugged, "It makes kinda sense."
"Very well then", Rex applied to the Ponies, "As you may. And now tell me more about this Celestia."
"The observatory should be down this next corridor", Twilight informed the Humans on their way through the castle of Canterlot. They nodded off every guard they met and remained silent for most of the way. No one wanted to cause any trouble or draw attention as long as they had a free pass as the Guests of the Princess.
Whenever Twilight spotted other guests or Ponies of greater importance, that she didn't feel like elaborating her trip here to, she cast a short term cloak of invisibility over herself and the Humans and waited near the wall until everything troublesome had passed.
The door to the tower was opened a gap to answer the Princess's knock. "Hello, there", she smiled.
Behind the dark threshold, an elderly Unicorn guarded these halls. "Princess Twilight?", the old voice asked.
"Yes? May I use the observatory for a bit? Or are you busy?"
"I? No, I'm not busy." The gate opened further and it revealed a tall wizard with beard, hat and grey fur. "But I'm very glad you came by."
Twilight cheered, "Starswirl!", and they attempted a hug, but without arms it is never much of one, not by Human standards anyway. "I didn't know you were back in Canterlot."
"Yes, dear. I came here to study your books. Celestia gave me this room, since it was yours a while ago." He chuckled, "Now it is I that goes in your hoofsteps."
Finally he looked up and past his young teacher to spot the Humans. "Who are your friends?"
"Humans that came through the Mirror."
"Oh, I see", he nodded, "Is it malfunctioning again. I told Celestia to keep it hidden, but then again, it taught you a lot."
"You know about the Mirror?", Cam asked boldly.
"Why, yes. I made it."
"Then you're exactly the ... Unicorn we need to talk to. Can we come in?"
When they entered, they found a tall and wide tower hall, that had multiple floors on the walls but a round space in the middle that gave free view through the glassless window ahead, that was pierced by the gigantic telescope.
It was the first thing Rodney saw and he was in cautious awe. "Now this is what I call a telescope."
They were all scattering and looking around in curiosity. Sam went to the window and looked outside. It was quite the sight, a great overview over the white city of horses, but there was a problem. "It's still too bright outside. We won't see a thing. No clouds though, that's good."
"You think we can wait here to nightfall?", Jack asked Twilight.
"You won't have to. I know our time runs out, so I'll ask Luna if she might give us an early night."
Starswirl was confused, "An early night? What could possibly be that important?"
"You know the Mirror better than anyone. If it brought them here, it can bring them back, or lose its power and never activate again."
The grey one understood and nodded, "Yes. Then I'll tell Celestia."
"No!" Twilight smiled awkwardly, "I mean, I need you here to look after them."
"Oh!", he winked at her, "I understand. You go ahead."
She trotted outside, "I'll be back in a bit. Play nice." And so the Humans were left with the Unicorn most skilled in ancient magic.
Jack looked at Starswirl’s pointy, blue hat and his beard. "So, you're a wizard?"
"Yes."
"Didn't expect that."
"What did you expect then exactly?"
"Well", Jack shrugged, "Unicorns are one thing, but then a wizard? Fine. But a Unicorn-wizard? Isn’t that a bit much?"
"Said the Human in the parade uniform."
"Ouch. I don't get it."
Daniel tried, he had some experience with wizards after all. "We were on our way to a gala when we were transported here. The uniform is adequate for a man in his position."
"Help me out, I'm just an old Unicorn, but what were you trying to do with the telescope again? Isn't it the Mirror that needs fixing?"
Sam turned to him and showed him her little black box that was meant for Delta, "This case contains all the stars and constellations we know. I hope I can compare them to your sky and recognise some familiar. That way I could calculate where we are and maybe find a way back home, or find out why we got here in the first place."
"Constellations? I don't see how those would help you find your way."
Sam opened her case and showed it to him. In it was a little keyboard and a little screen that turned on to show white signs in a black void. On the side of a starmap the signs appeared that were visible on the Stargates.
"These are the coordinates we need to go to. We call them chevrons. They resemble constellations of stars. A pack of them form a sequence that leads to another Gate and another planet."
"Constellations of stars?" Starswirl looked at the drawings, "I've never seen or heard of constellations like these before."
"That is very much likely."
"No, you don't understand. It is Luna's task to make the constellations. Drawing a map of them and using them to navigate, more so through the cosmos even, wouldn't make a whole lot of sense."
"I don't understand", Sam raised a brow and Rodney was worried, as usual. "What do you mean, make?"
The wide pink gate opened with a silent creak. Twilight took a peek before she entered.
Twilight whispered, "Princess Luna?", and received a mumbling grunt. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Hmm?", the hump turned around and peeked out of the dark sheets. Twilight walked up to her and talked to the blue snout and horn, which was the only parts she could see. "Twilight, is that you? What is it?", the snout mumbled half drunk.
"I have to ask you for something. It's a bit of an emergency?"
"Keep talking, I'm listening."
"We have alien visitors that lost their way home and to see it they need to see the stars. Long story short, can you make it night early today?"
"Early?"
"Like, right now?"
The Princess pulled back the sheet from her head to reveal her messy yet magical hair and her blue fur. She looked up to Twilight with a furious gaze that froze her blood. Not only was this highly unusual and an abuse of power, she was also very tired. And you know what they say about tired Princesses.
"You want me to use my ancient magic to bring night early, so you and your friends can see the night sky?"
"Sort of? They are not my friends, they are lost travelers."
"And why can they not wait until tonight? It's already past noon, a few more hours won't hurt them."
"Well", Twilight looked to the side in an awkward smile, "They kinda came out of the Magic Mirror and there is always kind of a time thing attached. So if we're too late, they might never get a way back."
For a moment Luna stared at her and thought about it while Twilight's smile started to hurt. It hurt them both.
"Fine."
Twilight was already thrilled but had to stop once again when Luna added, "But! I cannot bring night while the sun is still up, and it is not mine to lower it."
"You don't mean ..."
"You have to talk to Celestia first." Luna turned around in her bed and pull the sheets back over her head. "Tell her I'm Okay with it, if she asks."
And so Twilight left to talk to another princess. But where Celestia might be at this hour was incredibly hard to tell, if you're anyone else but Twilight. She knew her everyday schedule by memory. It is Twilight after all.
She rushed through the castle once more, up the towers and stairs, down other towers and other stairs, through halls and by colourful windows she's seen plenty of.
She was lucky, considered her circumstances. Celestia had her throne-hall-audience-hour, which is basically a chance for bringing up requests towards the Princess.
When Celestia saw her precious Twilight, she quickly finisher her business with the grey Pony in line, granted her muffin related request and excused herself for a minute. She stood up from her throne and walked a few steps towards her. Her smile was promising.
"Twilight! How great to see you here. You didn't come to save me from the Request-Day, did you?"
"Ehm, no", Twilight smiled awkwardly and Celestia already knew what that face meant. "Actually, I was here to make a request."
"Oh?", Celestia chuckled, "I guess a Princess doesn't wait in line."
"It's a bit of a hurry. I need you to lower the sun, right now. If you don't mind, of course."
"You want me to end the day early?"
"That would be nice."
"But Luna isn't up yet. Nopony would bring the night. And anyway, why would you ask for such a thing?"
"Luna is already Oh-kay with it, so she tells me. She only needs you to lower the sun before she can bring up the stars."
"Why, now, what is this about, Twilight?"
"Long story short! There's Humans in the observatory and they think they can find their way home by looking at the stars, and we're running out of
Celestia was shocked and hid her mouth behind her hoof and its golden horseshoe. "The Mirror, no", she whispered. "It's changing paths again?"
"Celestia, what's wrong?"
Suddenly she ran down the stairs and hurried through the hall. Everypony in the request-line was confused and shocked to see her stressed like
Twilight tried to hide her worry behind a wide smile and told everypony, "Request time is over. Everypony can go home now. Please come again
Celestia's secretary understood and even if she wasn't amused over the changes, she followed her example and lead everypony outside.
Twilight hurried to follow Celestia in the meantime. Her way lead her straight to the ancient library, where Twilight discovered that the secret passage behind the shelves was open. She knew this path, she used it before. Down these dark stairs, that were directly carved into the rock Canterlot rested on, lay one of the laboratories of Starswirl.
The torches in the caves were lit and here it was where Twilight found Celestia again. She stood in front of a wall grown from blue crystals. Her eyes stared into the flickering shine of the playful reflections.
Celestia let her head down, "It wasn't this Mirror, wasn't it?"
"No, I'm sorry. But, isn't this Mirror sealed for hundreds of years already?"
"When you told me that the Mirror would lead into another world, I was worried, but I was happy at the same time."
"Happy?"
"I was hoping to see my Sombra again. But that time seems to be over forever."
"Sombra? Why would you want to see him again?" Twilight came closer and looked up into Celestia’s sad face. She was even breaking a few tears. It rested heavily on her heart.
"A long time ago", Celestia told her, "This Mirror lead to many worlds. Starswirl was experimenting with it, but I snuck in when I could, to travel into one specific world myself. It was a world very much like our Equestria, but with the difference that everypony's heart was reversed. It was terrorized by an evil Celestia and Luna, that were hungry for power, and it was protected by a Sombra, with a heart bigger than anypony else's. But the Mirror had proven dangerous, it was tearing apart the frames between our worlds, leading to chaos. So I had to save us both, say my last Goodbye and seal this Mirror. None of Starswirl’s other mirrors lead into this world ever again. Even your pink one, that Sunset Shimmer found, only lead to so many places. One of them you know well."
"Canterlot High. But the Humans didn't come from there. They must be sent back where they belong, don't they?"
Celestia dared to smile and wiped the tears off her face. "Yes, yes they need to go back. They must be missed by whoever they left behind." She turned and walked towards the stairs. "Come, let's lower the sun to show them Luna's stars."
When the day sky was turning darker and the sun rapidly started to run down her path, the Humans in the Observatory were still on the argument about the made stars.
"Ah, here she comes now", Starswirl greeted the night sky. "Now, look. Luna is making the stars."
The Humans gathered around the big window by the telescope and looked amazed at the changing sky. Soon after it was dark, one star after another appeared on the black canvas, like someone spread glitter all over the place.
"It's pretty, isn't it? I taught her that. I think."
Rodney was angry at him and pointed at the sky, "What is that?!"
"Stars."
"Stars don't just appear!"
"Now", Sam said and went to the telescope, "Let's have a look at them, shall we?"
Soon after she took a look through it, Twilight came in and with her she brought the tall, white mare Celestia, who almost angrily looked down at the Humans.
They were in awe and even Starswirl was rather surprised to see her here. "Celestia, dear, you look well. You didn't have to come here, I have everything under control. See?"
"It's good to see you too, Starswirl, old friend. I didn't know you were here. I just came to have a look at the Humans myself."
Cam approached her, kept his distance though. "I'm Cam Mitchell, these are my ... Humans."
"I am a Jaffa."
"Yeah, anyway. How you're doing? And you are?"
Twilight came down the few steps to Cam, "This is Princess Celestia. She raises the sun."
"Oh, then we have to thank you for the early night. Thank you. That's very kind of you."
"I do what I can to help Twilight. I have no say over whom she helps."
Twilight smiled in her usual fashion. Her face must have hurt by now from smiling all day.
"Ouch", Daniel joked, "Sounds a bit harsh, doesn't it?"
"I'm sorry", Celestia looked frank but serious, "But we don't have the best of experiences with alien visitors, with Humans especially."
"You're saying you seen Humans before?"
"That was some time ago, but yes. I know your kind."
Cam defended his group, "We don't try to do anything here, really. We just need to go back. We have a job to do, y'know."
"And this job, it requires guns?"
Twilight wondered, "Guns?"
Immediately Cam put his hands on his pistols to cover them up. "Just for self-defense, you understand. We never know where the trip ends, alright?"
Celestia came down the steps and put herself face to face to Cam, who had to look up to her. Her great appearance was impressive and even more so threatening. "I will do what I must to protect my subjects. Don't think your guns will do you any good against my Magic."
"I promise you, we're harmless. We're friendly. We're just lost, is all."
"Oh, boy!", Twilight yelled, "Look there, stars! Amazing."
"But rather useless, if you ask me", Starswirl commented.
"Twilight!"
"Yes, Celestia?"
"Would you mind, if I took a look at the Mirror in your library?"
"Ehm, no! Of course not!" Other than it was occupied by a horde of alien Lizards that she didn't tell her about yet. What could go wrong?
"I'll leave the Humans to you then", Celestia finally said and went out.
Twilight almost turned blue before she remembered to breath. "Oh, boy! Ohhh," she grunted, "Nooo! She's gonna find the Lizards and then she's gonna kill them and then she's gonna kill me!"
"No, come on", Cam comforted her, "Would she really do that?"
Vala joked, "I think she would."
And Daniel agreed, "Oh, she totally would."
"Did you see that she was wearing a crown?", Jack asked them.
Ignored by everyone and ignoring everyone, Sam was busy on the scope. After she noted a few things down, she came to a conclusion.
"Those are not stars."
Everyone was listening to her and Twilight approached her, asking, "What do you mean, not stars?"
"Well, I don't know what they are but these lights are only about two miles above us."
Teal'C looked down to the little Alicorn, "What is wrong with your stars, Princess Twilight Sparkle?"
"Wrong? There's nothing wrong with the stars?! Luna made them all herself perfectly."
"As I told you before", Starswirl added.
Daniel was fascinated, "But what does that mean, made?"
"Well, she made them. With her magic. I actually know a few of those spells myself but I'd never steal away Luna's job. I mean, that would be rude."
"You'd probably also take a lot longer to do it." And the old stallion was probably right.
"So, to be clear", Daniel said, "Luna flew up there into the sky and made those stars herself?"
"Of course!", the Pone smiled, almost laughing in the end, "How else would we have stars?"
"Well then", they heard Rodney complain in his regular manner, "They're not real stars then, are they? What now?"
"You're gonna think of something", Mitchell told him, "Because that's what you always do."
"Excuse me", the Princess now complained, "What do you mean, they're not real stars? I saw them being made with my own eyes. Luna makes them anew every night. You can't just deny Luna's work?"
"Aww, Honey", Rodney pouted, "If they are made, then they are just lights. A star is a ball of gas that ignites under its own weight, forming nuclear fusion and DEADLY radiation." He yelled, "They are huge! And they float in a space that is unimaginably huger! And there's countless amounts of them in this space. With their billions of years old light, that we can see from our planet, we can make a map TO TAKE US HOME!"
Mitchell grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it, "Calm down, Rodney. It's not the Princess's fault." He looked at her and added, "I'm sorry. I apologize for my friend here. Again. He has no nerves. At all."
Twilight looked baffled. Should she believe his words? Could it be true, or just another form of reality? "It's okay", she smiled eventually, even though it was forced.
Rodney took a stroll and ran out the door. Jack nodded to send someone after him and Teal'C, Daniel and Vala followed him through the castle halls.
Cam stood by Sam and looked at her notes, that he didn't understand at all. "So, there's nothing usable here?"
"No. Those lights are not even outside the atmosphere. Those will do us no good."
Starswirl besides them mumbled, "That does sound familiar."
"Well, what now?"
Sam already had an idea. "We need a real star." She turned to Twilight, who looked troubled. "Is there a star that you can see by day?"
After a moment she knew what she meant. "Actually", Twilight nodded, "There is."
"How would that help?"
"If it was visible by day, that'd mean, that it wasn't made, but is natural. I have to take a look at an actual star, if you want any results from me."
Twilight went to the shelves in the corner of the hall and started looking for a specific scroll. When she had it, she unrolled it on the floor.
She set the scope into position, turned the wheels and adjusted the angle. When she looked through, she saw a bright star in the middle of the night sky's dazzling glimmer. "Here", she told Sam. "Have a look at this one."
Carter bent down to the scope and had a look. She adjusted the zoom and saw, that it wasn't a simple light, but a shape, which was promising. After a few minutes of calculations, she informed them, "It's real, alright. Looks like a galaxy far, far away."
Twilight never heard the word, "A galaxy, what’s that?"
"It's what we call huge clusters of stars and planets that are packed together. They are often very bright and visible on the sky."
"Wait a second, there's other planets in the sky?"
"Well", Sam nodded sideways, "More or less. Actually, yes. But a planet isn't emitting light, so it's not visible."
"Carter", Jack asked from a few steps away, "That's not by any chance the Milky Way, is it?"
She looked at it again to be sure, but, "No, it's not the right shape." She checked her little black box and looked up the galaxies known to the database. It were only a few thousand and she could filter them by type, so she did some guesswork and came to a conclusion quickly.
"This galaxy shouldn't exist."
"What do you mean by that, Carter?"
"Sir, the database has thousands of galaxies and millions of stars registered, it goes as far as we can look, as far as the Stargate System goes."
"And?"
"Well, there's just no way that the Stargate System could have brought us this far out, Sir."
"Are there no other galaxies to look at?", Cam asked.
Sam checked the map and Twilight helped her adjust the scope, "Only a few. I'll have a look."
Rodney was leaning on a low, white marble wall in a long corridor on the outside of the castle and looked up into the sky. The corridor had pillars every few steps that supported the roof and the rest of the castle above.
When Rodney noticed Daniel had joined him, he had already calmed down a bit. "It's fake. It's all fake. None of them are real."
"But they do look real."
"And pretty", Vala added and sat down on the little wall.
"I know this is not your everyday adventure", Daniel explained, "But it will work out in the end. Everyone is putting their trust in you."
"I can't do anything. There’s no tools, no computers, no Stargate. What am I supposed to do?"
"The Stargate brought us here, so there must be a reason for it. There has to be a Gate on this planet."
Rodney sighed, "Even if we find one, where would it bring us next?"
"Home."
He looked at Daniel, "Why do you think there's no stars in the sky. Why would they have to make them?"
"You mean, they don't have stars in the first place", Vala asked. "So, why make stars, right?"
"The only reason why the sky would be black, would be because space", he gasped, "Is empty." Suddenly he rushed back down the corridor on his way to the telescope. After sharing a few looks, the three companions followed him.
Rodney almost broke the door when he crashed into the observatory. He looked stressed but not mad and so Sam, Cam, Jack, who felt sleepy already, and the two Ponies paid attention to his idea.
"Sam! Sam-Sam-Sam!"
"Rodney?"
He stumbled down the steps, "I know it. I know why there's no stars. But you won't like it."
"Y'know, I found out something too, and all by myself." She showed him her notepad and he read it in panic.
"But that's-"
"Impossible?", she asked him.
Cam yelled, "We don't know the meaning of that word!"
Vala went over to Jack, "I'm gonna stand by the dumb people, thank you."
"Hey!"
"Sorry."
O'Neill leaned over to her, "You have any idea what they're talking about?"
"Do I ever?"
"There's a few actual stars on the sky. Three of those are galaxies that I never saw and one seems to be some massive Blue Giant. But there's nothing in between, nothing behind it."
"It's all gone!", Rodney yelled. "The stars, they died out. Burnt!"
Daniel wrinkled his forehead, "What would cause that?"
He looked at him with is wide, panicking eyes and said, "Time. Simply time."
"Carter? Care to fill me in?"
Vala cleared her throat, so Jack added, "Us. Fill us in, please?"
"We didn't just travel to another Planet, Sir. We traveled in time, into the future. So far even, that the universe expanded so vastly, that no other stars are visible, cause nothing is close enough. We're at the end of the universe."
"That means we're late for the Gala on Delta?", Jack asked.
"A little, Sir."
"Wait", Rodney mumbled, "That could mean, we're the last Humans."
"Well, I don't know", Cam joked, "We're a tough bunch."
Twilight tried to understand all of this. She listened to it all but had a hard time wrapping her head around it. "So, you're from the past?"
"So, then the Lizards could be from another time too", she concluded.
"Talking of which", Daniel wanted to know, "What are we going to do now?"
"Sam?"
Carter sighed and put some thought to it. "Even if we find a Stargate, I'd still need a sun eruption for us to travel back in time. And even then, we couldn't know how far we went."
While the Humans were arguing about their options, Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. "A time traveling spell, hmm?" She looked at Starswirl and he already deemed to know his future.
"Hm-Mh", Hati nodded after he listened to the Ponies' tales. "You think that's possible?", he asked Rex.
"Why, if she is moving the sun, it would make sense if it was made from magic. Just imagine it had the size of the planet, then who would move whom, really?"
Morty had an idea, "There was even the possibility, that they are stored on the planet somewhere while they are down. Like giant lanterns."
"Hold on a goddamn second!", Hati applied to Applejack, "Does that mean there's one place that has sunlight everyday, and the rest doesn't? If y'all are making the daylight, how are you not ruling this planet?"
Jack didn't know what to reply, "Uhm", but Pinkie knew, "Who said we didn't?"
"Fair enough."
The Ponies had lead the Lizards on a short route around town, until they brought them back to the library. Here they wanted to take a look at the Mirror and some of the books, in hopes to find something about the magic, the sun and the history of the Unicorns.
While Morty and Hati were looking for books, Rex was joined by Glimmer and Rarity by the Mirror, to investigate from there.
Applejack, Pinkie and Fluttershy helped them to translate the books and reach the shelves, while Rainbow was having an eagle's eye on the whole situation. She was soon joined by Krator, who had it out for her.
"This Mirror, it usually leads to a set place?", Rex asked the two mares by the Mirror. He checked on the detail this time but still, nothing had changed since yesterday. The Mirror was dead and its magic drained. How and by whom, he couldn't tell yet.
"Yes", Glimmer smiled, "I mean, probably. I've only used it once but Twilight tells me, that it's always the same place. And I wouldn't even know how to change that."
"Are you sure there's no spell for that?", Rarity asked her. "You usually do have spells for everything."
"Well, yes, and no. This Mirror is ancient. Twilight knows best how to handle it. I think it's best if we wait for her."
"Why, we wouldn't know what to aim at anyway", Rex said. "On our side, there was no mirror, but a Ring. And by the looks of it, this Mirror has lost its magic, it's drained."
"Drained? How can you tell?"
He smiled at Glimmer and his eyes glowed up under his shades, "Enchanted eyes, hence the shades."
Rarity charmed him, "Oh, and I thought you'd wear those because they suited you that well."
"That too, my dear, that too."
"Well, when you say it is drained, how do we recharge it?"
"Why, how do Unicorns power their spells?"
The two mares shared a look and both raised a brow. "I have no idea", Glimmer admitted.
"Why, neither do I." Rex sighed, "If only there was someone to help me figure that out."
"But we're here to help you", Rarity assured him. And Glimmer asked, "What do you need?"
Rex took a second to think and let his look wander through the library. There were plenty of books. If he could learn to read them himself, he could do research on his own, in secrecy.
"Why", he then smiled, "Would you help me find a book?"
Happily the Ponies assisted the blue Lizard Conjurer and went with him down the shelves.
Hati turned to notice Rex looking through the book titles, assisted by the two cute things besides him. "Alright, what should we look for now?", he asked the Conjurer.
"Why, I'm just browsing. There might be an artefact or spell that could benefit us, dear."
"If only we had some god to help us, some deity to answer our prayers", Hati sighed. "I'm sure Kathathrahn wouldn't let us down like this."
"Why, you can try praying to him. I stay by the magic at my disposal."
"Ugh", Rarity sighed, "Why didn't we think of this sooner?"
"Uhm, what exactly?", Applejack asked.
"Asking Discord for help, dear."
Fluttershy smiled, "I'm sure he'd be glad to help."
Pinkie looked somewhat concerned, "Is this a good idea? Discord makes things kinda messy, and not in a fun way."
"So, this Discord is a god that might help us?", Hati asked.
"God of Chaos, he calls himself anyway."
Hati looked at Applejack, "That doesn't sound very encouraging." Hati thought of the Chaos Gods of his world, the blood bathing mutations that drag poor souls into their realms of agony and orgy. He wouldn't want to ask one of those for help. On the other hand, this is a land of Ponies and rainbows, maybe here the Chaos was a bit more digestible.
Applejack lowered her brows in anger, "Playing pranks is what he's best at."
"Now now", Fluttershy defended him, "He stopped playing pranks a while ago, and you would know that, if you'd come to our tea parties once in a while."
"You?", Morty pointed at Fluttershy, "Having tea parties with a chaos god?"
"Only once a week, really."
"Whatever a week means for this place." Rex walked by them, he kept his eyes on the books. "Do you see any dictionaries? I'd really like to learn reading your letters."
Glimmer didn't really know what to make of it, but, "Okay, sure." She turned and searched the titles. A few seconds later her glow pulled a big book out of the row. "That should do it. But, what you want with it? You can't read it."
"Why", Rex smiled, "You're going to read it to me."
"Wait, what?!"
"Please", Applejack criticized, "She can't possibly read that book to'ya. It will take all day. And all night."
"Not to mention that I'll tire."
"Allow me." Rex came to her and drew his book. Anxiously she took a few steps back until she knocked against the shelves.
"What are you doing?", Hati asked.
"Just a Circle of rapid Time, to speed up the reading. Nothing harmful, I promise. You'll read all the words in a few seconds, but for you it won't feel longer than the blink of an eye, I promise."
"Wow", Hati gasped. "He never makes promises."
"Never, ey?" Glimmer dared to smile and came back to Rex. "Okay. What do I do?"
"Just stand still." Rex ripped a page out of the book and let it go in front of Glimmer. When it touched the floor by her hooves, the Runes lit up and crawled over the floor until they formed a ring around the purple Pony.
It completed and time within the circle started to speed up. Glimmer took the book and flipped the pages. Her voice started rambling and went faster and faster until it was but a humming sound. Her face became a blur, and so did the pages that started to swap places from one side to the other in less than a heartbeat.
Soon it was done and Glimmer slowed down. The book in her glow was closed and the Runes on the floor disappeared.
"Now, was that so bad?"
"Not at all", Glimmer smiled, "I didn't even notice it."
Applejack felt the need to comfort her and put her hoof on her shoulder while he looked up to Rex. "And now, what was the point of that?"
The mage took the spell out of the book and showed it to them, "Why, for this of course." It was an empty sheet of paper adorned by an inked frame. He reached for the dictionary and opened a random page.
"Uhm", Jack looked down at it, "Not for me, it ain't."
Rex handed her the heavy dictionary and went on with the spell page in his hand.
He beheld the shelves and held the page to his face. Everything between his eyes and the shelves was inked on the paper, all the shelves, the crystals and the books. All their titles were translated. Now Rex was able to look for interesting titles by himself, and this library wasn't short on interesting titles.
While he looked for books and was quite pleased with himself, the Ponies behind him wondered. "What kind of spell was that anyway? You sure you're alright?"
"Why, yes. Of course I'm alright. It was nothing. A bit tired maybe."
"You should sit down, we can help them."
And so she did. "Sure, okay. I think I can do that." And sat down by the nearest table. At the same also sat Knom with a pile of books he somehow seemed to read. Either boy-wonder didn't need any translators to understand the curvy mess of the books, or he didn't need to understand them to memorise them. It was an unsettling picture either way.
"If only Twilight was here, she knew how to handle it", Fluttershy muttered.
Rook had his arms crossed and walked around the library. He had an eye on the scene and Ponies. When he walked by Fluttershy, he also muttered, "Y'know, that Twilight of yours is really strange."
"Well, you come from another planet, don't you? For you, everything here must be strange."
"That's not wrong. But that Princess, she's off, more off than y'all. She knows something, hiding something. I got a nose for that. Like Rex, Rex is hiding something too, but he's always hiding something, so that's just his usual stank."
In the meantime, Rex found quite a few books he born interest in. He gave them for Hati to carry, who already had a pile in his arms. With a smile and the page in his hand, Rex gave the next book to the pile. "Elements of Harmony, doesn't that sound nice?"
"Elements of Harmony?", Hati asked, "Is that some sort of chemical element?"
Rarity besides him just answered, "That's kind of a long story."
"And that's something you say, when you don't wanna talk about it."
"Be a dear and carry the books to the table, yes?", Rex asked Hati. And while they turned around, Rex held the page up by routine. He was surprised when the room in front of him was inked by the page but the Ponies were translated too.
The little pictures they carried on their hind legs held not only some meaning he didn't realize but also the mysterious magic he seeked. The ink on the spell showed them changed, translated into Brass'Ka. Overall they all remained the Ponies' names.
The gems on Rarity's flank translated into a character that meant Rarity, which, considered that gems were rare, made sense.
Even Glimmer's mark was put into Brass'Ka lettering, but her name seemed to be special. Starlight and Glimmer were magical elements in the world of Brass'Ka and were sources of power and energy. Rex was immediately interested how these markings formed and what made them.
He checked on the others and to his advantage, they were busy helping Hati sorting the books he picked. And so Rex came to Glimmer, sat down next to the tired Pony and hoped he could borrow her help once more.
"Dear, how are you feeling?"
"Better. That spell made me tired."
"I'm sorry for that. I'm guessing, you're not up to help me anymore then?"
"No, no, I can try. What is it?"
"I'm in need for your sorcerer's skills, dear. Do come along, please."
Slowly he walked down the library and Glimmer followed him willingly. Only when he passed a corner and vanished behind a bookshelf, she became leery.
But then it was too late. She passed the corner in good hope and didn't notice the ring of runes on the floor.
He beheld the colourful Pony and walked around the ring in thoughts. All around him was another ring of runes, creating another field of standing time, so that he could linger here as long as needed. And he would, until he found out what he wanted to know.
"Now, dear", he said for his own amusement, "What is it, that makes your magic run?"
Whatever it was, the same well powered her markings.
It couldn't have been the cosmic radiation, none of the celestial powers that Rex used to drain from. No, something on this world, on these Ponies, worked independently.
Rex pulled down his shades to get a better look at the magic that radiated from the creature. Similar to Twilight, Glimmer had a body of white light. Too much noise really, to see what was going on within.
Though this one wasn't here or used to harm anyone, no. It was enchanted. He threw it into the runes and it remained floating in the air.
"Now, this is more like it", he said when he leaned in.
The markings were clearly to see now, and so was the flow of magic in Glimmer’s body. Rex discovered a system of power within the flesh, that spread out like veines. Many of them clustered around her magical marking.
But, "What is this power?", Rex asked himself. How does it spread in a body like this. It's almost like it was chemical, or biological. Frankly he didn't know too much about those fields of science.
He wouldn't learn more from staring at her, no. He had to do something. "Splinters must fall."
He kneeled down by the runes and scratched a few new ones into the floor, adding them to the magical effect of the field. Now he had full control over the reality within it.
"First, we need to get rid of that skin." He pointed his claw at her and drew a line into the air. Simultaneously to his thoughts and intentions, a bloody cut made its way across the Ponies skin. The edges ran across her belly, legs, neck, everywhere really, so that the coat could come clean off.
But still, Rex couldn't make out the power veines just yet. The markings were still showing, hence their appearance had nothing to do with the skin itself. They were projected by the power within. "Curious."
More gestures by Rex’s hands lead the field to pull on the flesh. The muscles were separated and unfolded. No blood flowed or dripped, it was a clean procedure.
Rex gasped when the light showed itself. "There!", he beheld the cadaver, the bones and nerves intertwined. The veins of power were blue and shiny.
He reached out for it and the field broke a bit of it out the skeleton for him. It came to him and he got a closer look at it while it was spinning above his hand.
Like glass, a stone struck and molten by lightning, the vein had mineral characteristics.
His magical gaze could now at last reveal its nature to him. It was a stone and it was growing, slowly but steadily.
"Can it be?", he muttered and looked at the Unicorn's horn. "It must be!" Once again he reached out his hand and the horn was broken off the skull, ripping a hole into bone and brain.
But now he could see, that the crystal was growing in the horn. "No, no, that's not right. The crystal was here first." Yes, it must have been that way, of course. Not the horn was filled by the crystal, but the horn grew around it.
"But then", he asked himself, "Where is it? Where does it come from?"
He tossed the pieces back into the time field where they remained floating. He quickly took his book and rushed through the pages. "A spell, yes, a spell. Eating, drawing? No. A bug, a bug of ...", he slowly looked at his Bug of Darkness.
It was shining stronger by the minute, radiating the white light of the Unicorns. "Curious." Rex smiled. He had it. He finally had it solved out.
It was in the air. In the water. In the food. This powerful material was everywhere. But then Rex had some in his body as well. He and his friends were infested.
But if it was enough for Rex, only one test could show. Again he grabbed the horn from the air. He held it close to his heart and closed his eyes. A spell was needed, a powerful one, simple enough to cast from the mind. No help from the book. The test needed to be unbiased and clean.
Soon the horn glowed in the Unicorn fashion Rex was accustomed to. The light collected itself on the floor by Rex’s feet where it started to spread into a bright ring. The ring remained small but it worked.
Rex checked on the horn. It was dark. Drained. But the crystal now pierced the tip. While magic was used, it grew. Now it all made sense.
"Ih'Na'Ji'Sh Haff'Fa'Sha'Mr'Ah Zuh'Vin", he said. "That shall be its name." The name was fitting, even if hard to pronounce. It was Brass'Ka and meant simply Blue Crystal, sounded a lot more sophisticated in Rex's opinion though.
If a short piece of it, like the rest of a Unicorn’s horn, was enough to find the connection back to his planet and back into his home-time, then more of it could bring them all back. If he could collect enough of this Inaji, he could find his old strength back and save his friends.
"Oh, not only that", he laughed. "The planet is made of this, it's swimming in it. Imagine the power. I could go back in time even further. I could save Hati from his curse. I could save Morty's wife. Even make Knom Human again."
With a tear in his eye he tossed all the pieces back into the ring and started the process of resurrection. The horn reattached itself to the skull, the muscles came back on. The organs fled back into the chest and the skin hugged it all to wrap it up. Time was reset in the field and Glimmer was reassembled back to unhurt.
"As good as new", Rex whispered and terminated to field. The runes vanished and Glimmer came to live again.
"So", she said, "What was it you needed help with?"
"You already helped me, dear. A lot. Thank you for that."
She nervously smiled, "Oh-kay then." And went back to the others, where she felt save. "I'll check on the others then. You'll be fine? Sure, sure you will."
After she was gone, Rex remained a few moments. He was pleased. He not only found a way back home, he also found a source of power that could potentially make him the god he always sought to be.
"These books make no sense to me", Hati complained to Glimmer when she came by him. "Where's Rex? I could really use his smart paper."
"Oh, he's", she hesitated while she tiredly passed the table, "Doing a thing, back there, somewhere."
Fluttershy snuck up to her on quiet hooves. "Is something wrong?"
"No, just the usual." Glimmer didn't look very happy and was exhausted.
"Yeah", Hati admitted, "Rex can have that effect on, well, people."
Suddenly the deep, smooth voice of the mage startled the bunch and they all turned around. "I hope you found something of interest?" Rex stood by the table with his arms on his back and a very cool aura dripping from his black coat.
"Ehm, no. Not really." Hati shrugged, "Can't read it, remember?"
And so Rex drew his spell page from the coat and handed it to Hati between his two, blue fingers. "Would you mind, reading them to me?"
Slowly Hati took the page, "But not all of them, surely, right?"
"Why, no. Merely what you deem interesting on my behalf."
"Alright then", Hati opened the book on the table, "Let's start with the Elements of Harmony."
Applejack chuckled, since she stayed in hearing distance. "We could tell you something 'bout that."
"Yeah", Hati cynically nodded, "But then again, it's a long story."
While Hati used the spell-page to go through the fairytales of ponyland, Rex grabbed a book himself and browsed it unhurriedly. He had his own spell-page and was able to conjure as many of them as needed. Like a pair of reading glasses, he held them over the pages to decipher them.
"So", Rook talked to Rex from the side, "What are we reading now?"
"Why, you're not up for a good read?"
"You know me, dude. This is nothing I can help with."
"Or want to help with."
"Need something blown up, I'm your bird."
"I remember."
"But this, this is bullshit, dude."
"Why, what did I tell you about calling me dude?"
"A world of pain awaits you."
"So you do remember."
"What are we even doing here?"
"Have a look at this book", Rex showed the cover to Rook. "It's a book about legends and fairytales. In a place like this, it might as well be a historical record."
"And?"
"We need a way home, don't we?"
"I don't see myself growing old married to a horse."
"Frankly, I don't see you growing old."
"What I said."
"Frankly, these Ponies are not much help at all. So we have to look for artefacts and spells on our own. What we need is power, you understand?"
"And this", Rook pulled on the book in Rex’s hand to have a look, "Book of Creation, is one of those?"
Rex smiled, "Why, it sounds interesting, doesn't it? Imagine, a power to create reality from the mind."
"Can't you already like do that anyway?"
"Why, usually, yes. But not here, not now. This place is working differently. My magic is no good here."
Rook crossed his arms and leaned onto the near shelf. He slowly nodded and began to grasp the seriousness of their mess. "So", Rook raised his finger and pointed at the Mirror, "What about the Mirror?"
Rex seriously took a moment to think. Not everything Rook said was nonsense. Sometimes he was able to see the little sparks within the chaos that no one noticed.
"The Mirror had a malfunction. He did something he wasn't designed to do, and no one here seems to know why."
"Can't you ask the Mirror?"
"It's dead, drained by all magic. I doubt it will ever work again."
"Why?"
Rex shrugged, "The Ring must have used it up." But then he had an idea, "No, no wait. The Ring was already powered. Something here stole the power away. But where did it go?"
"Nothing is lost, ey. It needs to be somewhere. If only there was a way to know what the Mirror did."
"Why, hold on a moment there, friend." Rex's gaze fell on the contraption framing the Mirror. The magic book on top and the paper scrolls were intact and untouched.
Driven and mad he walked up to it and yelled, "What does this book do?", without taking his eyes off.
Rook remained at his spot, "Glad I could help."
"This's Twilight's book", Applejack explained, "Y'all better not touch it."
Pinkie Pie got startled, "Twilight's back?", and fell over. She had fallen asleep leaning on the wall next to Krator. The yelling woke her up rather unpleasantly. "Wha-what? What's happening?"
Rex stood by the contraption and had his eyes on the book. Carefully he laid his hands upon it, grabbed it and opened it slowly.
"I told you not to touch it, hey!"
"Hush now, Hat Pony, I need to see this." But what Rex read was merely a diary. "No, not a diary. It's letters."
Rarity explained, "Twilight and her friend Sunset Shimmer are using the book to communicate. She lives in the other world but the book somehow works for them both."
"Interesting, but useless."
"What do you think about this then, Mister Rex?" Morty was looking at the scroll. It hadn't made sense before, since the wavy lines couldn't be read. But now they were able to decipher them.
The inking page revealed, it was, "Some kind of protocol."
"This is it, Doctor. The clue what the Mirror was thinking."
Rook hadn't moved an inch but commented, "Glad I could help."
Violently Hati ripped the scroll from the metal frame and laid it out on the floor. While the Ponies were upset and couldn't stop arguing, the six busy eyes of Hati, Rex and Morty discovered the flaw in the Mirror.
The gates of the library were struck open, accompanied with a loud clunk and the Princess of Friendship in its midst. Behind her the Humans checked the scenery and looked at the scattered Ponies and Lizards between the shelves, the table and Mirror.
"Rarity", Twilight yelled and trotted in. "I have an idea but I need your help."
"My help? Dear, surely you have it, but what could I possibly help you with?"
Now the library was cluttered with people. Ponies, Lizards and Humans were standing around, whispering, observing each other. No one trusted the other fully, no one wanted to give in or share their plans.
It was only Twilight, that spoke out, and everyone listened. "The Humans told me about their Mirror."
"Stargate", Rodney complained, "It's not that hard, is it?"
"Their Star-gate. They said, it had imbetted gemstones. Do you think you could find those with your gem-finding-spell?"
"My spell? Why, yes, I think so. If there was gems in there, I could surely try. That's the least I can do, isn't it?"
"But y'all can't just walk across Equestria lookin' for that star-thing." Applejack had a point.
"That's why we're here. We might find a clue where to look here."
Sam stepped forward, "We think there might be a Gate here on this planet. In fact, I'm sure of it. The Gates sometimes redirect their wormholes to other Gates. If our Gate brought us here, then only because there's another one here."
"Nonsense", everyone was looking at Morty, who stood up from the scroll and stepped away from the Mirror.
"Excuse me?", Sam asked slightly pissed.
"Non-Sense! Your path wasn't redirected here, because there's some Gate on the planet. It got disturbed by Unicorn Magic."
All the Ponies gasped. "What?!", Twilight yelled confused.
"It says so here, secured in ink."
"What?!"
Sam went to the scroll, "Let me see this." But when she stood above it, she couldn't read it.
"How do you even -?"
Immediately Hati put the spell-page into her hands and the ink upon it translated the scroll on the floor into their Human letters. "Oh, wow. That's really handy."
Hati showed her the part, that tells of the disturbance of space-time. "I don't know what that means", Sam chuckled.
Rodney was shocked, "What?!"
"It's really not that hard", Rex explained calmly with is deep, dark voice. "This protocol, the protocol that you, Princess, established in the first place, tells of a powerful magical radiation, sent out into spacetime. It ripped a hole into the ether and left this very place as the only destination for everyone traveling beyond it."
"What?!", Twilight yelled again.
"Please, Princess, try to keep up."
"Let me see this!" The Alicorn went to the scroll and looked grumpily at the wavy lines. "This wasn't some radiation. That was", she stopped and gasped. "Oh, no. No-no-no. That wasn't ... I mean. We didn't mean to. I mean -"
"So you did cause it", Rodney concluded. "What did you do?"
Twilight was looking at her Pony friends. "Remember when we freed the Pillars and the Shadow Pony with them?" Her friends nodded and shared worried looks. "When we banished the Shadow into the void, we used the Elements of Harmony."
Hati mumbled, "That sounds familiar."
"What are you sayin', Twilight?"
"It wasn't some radiation ripping a hole in the ether, it was us. The Rainbow caused by the Elements shot into the sky!"
"And up into space", Morty added. "Where it might still fly, and some day, maybe even in the far future, fracture the edge of the cosmos, so that the ether leaks inside."
Cam leaned over to Rodney, "Is it just me or does that make no sense whatsoever?"
"Well, it's phrased like someone from the medieval times would put it, but I can see what they mean. If I'm right, then we have a big problem on our hands."
"You mean bigger than being stranded on an alien planet thousands of years in the future?"
Rodney nodded nervously to the side, "Relative terms, really."
Morty pointed at Twilight with his bone finger and despite his grinning skull, he looked even angrier than before. "You caused all of this mess. Your thoughtless acts not only ripped us from our worlds, it might destroy your cosmos as well. How do you attempt to fix this?"
Twilight’s eyes were jumping, nervously looking for answers, "I ... I don't know. I'm sorry. I didn't know! I would have never done this, if I knew what would happen."
"Now, now, Twilight", Glimmer came to her with a tired smile on her face. "You had to do it, otherwise the world would be in shadow. We saved the day that day. This is nothing. This is fixable. Some elbow grease, some spells, done. No problem."
Cam stepped forward and spoke up, "I say we look for the Gate now. It might not only help us, but you as well."
Rex crossed his arms. "Even if you had the Ring-Gate, you would still need a powerful time-spell to counter the ether."
"That's why Starswirl is in his archives. He'll bring us the spell we need, as soon as he found it", Twilight promised.
Rarity stomped her hoof onto the hard floor. She did look very determined. "We will make it up to you. Let's find this Star-Gate, shall we?"
"Any idea where to look?", Cam asked the Ponies.
"If the Gate is that important", Glimmer thought out loud, "It could be in a temple or ruin."
But Applejack considered, "But if it's that old, it might be buried deep under rubble or forgotten entirely."
"That's what I will help for, dear Applejack."
While the Ponies where hacking out plans, Morty was making his own. "While you look for the Gate, we will try this Starswirl-spell on the Mirror. It might reset its function."
"And if it works", Teal'C said, "You surely won't hesitate to use it, to travel back home."
"And we're staying behind." Cam was shaking his head, "That's not a good deal."
"I take you got a better idea then?", Morty asked him while he came closer.
"Yeah, I do. It's not a great plan, but it might be what we need."
"Why, what a shocker", Rex joked, "A Human with a plan. Why don't we let the pink one make one while we're at it?"
"You got a problem with Humans?"
"Why, not at all. As long as they stay in their place."
Suddenly everyone was yelling. The Humans and the Lizards were standing on opposing sides, engaged in heated argument and with their hands on their weapons.
"There's nothing wrong with Humans!", was said on the one side, and, "Then why do you keep murdering everything?", was said on the other.
Insults were exchanged and soon no word was to be made out from the noise.
Twilight's "STAAHP!" put everyone to shame. Her magical glow framed everyone to freeze them in stasis. Everyone but Hati, Morty and Rex, who remained glowless but joined the silence anyway.
They looked at each other and already had an idea why they were spared.
Twilight too was confused over their immunity. Her spell ended and everyone was freed, when she came to the aliens. Her horn glowed once more but no spell was cast upon the skeleton Man, the green and the blue Lizard.
"That must be the curse", Hati said to Morty.
"Yes, yes", he nodded, "Quite possibly. Interesting, highly interesting."
"And of course", Hati turned to Rex, "The enchanted one, immune to all."
"Was there any doubts, dear?" Rex walked up to Twilight, but she didn't back down. She looked angrily up to him. "Now, dear", he said,
Krator raised his gauntlet to a fist, "I second that! Freezing people is mean!"
"Did you really just say that?", Elisa smiled.
"You know what I mean!"
"Hey!", Cam yelled besides Twilight, "You're not threatening the Princess, alright? It is due to her help, that we might get to see our homes again."
"It is due to her that we're stuck here in the first place." Rex looked down to her, "You and your vast use of magic is ripping the ether apart! Do you even realize what you're doing, when you use that horn of yours?"
"She does what she can, so chill and take a pill."
"I could make you one", Morty commented Cam's threat.
Suddenly Glimmer stood between them and her horn glowed bright. All the Humans were framed by the spark and moved towards the wide library door. When they were brought outside, the door closed and the groups were separated. "There", she said tiredly and sat down. "Now we can talk. Twilight, you talk to the Humans. I'll handle the aliens."
Twilight nodded, "Okay. Good luck." And when she went outside, Applejack and Fluttershy accompanied her.
"Wouldn't you rather talk to the Lizards?", Applejack asked Fluttershy. "Y'Know, being animals 'n all?"
"Oh, I rather not. Their teeth are very scary."
The Humans in the hallway were upset, understandably, and asked the Ponies, what that was all about.
"Starlight thought, it would be best to talk to you separately. Sorry if it was rude."
"Rude?", Rodney yelled, "That wasn't just rude, that was abusive."
"Calm down, Rodney. We gave them no choice."
"And no one was harmed", Daniel added. "So that's good."
Vala commented that with, "Yet."
"But you do still help us finding the Gate", Jack mumbled, "Right?"
"Rarity said, she will. And I will help too", Twilight assured. "Do you think, that, if the Gate redirected to another Gate, as you said, that another one of those Gates is close by?"
Sam nodded, "That could very well be."
"Then let's search the nearest ruins first."
"An’ caves."
"And foh-foh-foh-forrests", Flutters squeaked.
"What about them Lizards?", Cam asked. "How do we know, they ain't tryin' anything funny?"
Twilight put her thinking face on.
But Applejack was faster. "Why don't we just mix up the groups? That way everyone gets to see what the other is doing."
"That is a great idea. What do you think?"
The Humans shared looks, then Cam nodded, "As long as that blue one isn't coming with me, we're good."
"But who gets to go?"
"We'll draw straws", Applejack smiled.
"No need for that." Everyone was looking at Fluttershy. "I figured it out."
In the meanwhile, the Lizards were negotiating with the other Ponies on the other side of the door.
"Y'know, when Twilight told me to come to the library, I was like Yawn, what she want now? But I was not disappointed. This mess is worth watching."
"The Rainbow one is right", Rook nodded while still leaning onto the shelves, "This is humble entertainment."
"You!", Glimmer said to Rex, "You can not just do what you want. Stop treating everypony like dirt."
"Oh, no", Hati tried to persuade her, "He usually does. Don't bother."
Rex came to Glimmer, "Or what? I like you, Unicorn Starlight Glimmer, but don't mistake me for someone with a heart and compassion. I will make a way back home, into our time, into our world. And I won't shy away from any chances."
"You're doing this for your friends, I get that. I would do anything for my friends."
"Then we have an understanding."
They stared at each other in silence, ready to do something rushed and stupid, until Hati came between them.
"So, this Starswirl thing, right? Is that like a method or a place?"
"Starswirl the bearded is but Equestria's most powerful sorcerer", Rarity explained. "If anypony knows how to operate the Mirror, it is him."
"I doubt that a timespell is all that we need", Morty shared his concern with them. "We need to travel through space as well. Who knows how far off we are from our sun."
"Yes", Rex smiled but never let his gaze off Glimmer, "That is why you will go with the Humans. They have the knowledge about space that we need and you will get it from them."
"And how am I gonna do that, huh?"
Rex turned his head and looked at the skeleton, "Why, you're the only one understanding numbers like they do. Or would you rather have me send Rook?"
"Chaos would be the result of that."
"Y'know", Hati concluded, "That's actually not a bad idea. I'll look after Rook and Morty and keep an eye on those Human folks."
"Hmm, very well. Yes, do that." If they were busy hunting, Rex surely would find some time to collect more Inaji. And that is really all they needed to fix everything.
Hati went to the door to inform the Humans. "Then that is settled."
He pulled open the door in a rush, only to find Fluttershy on the other side. "We'll shuffle the teams!", they both said simultaneously.
"That's a great idea!", Hati smiled.
"Why, thank you."
"Then that's settled", Cam said and walked in.
And Rook commented, "That sounds familiar."
Fluttershy floated above the groups in the library. She was happy to share her plan for the search.
Cam Mitchell, Teal'C, Rodney, Vala and Daniel would go with Hati, Rook, Morty and Knom, to find a Gate in the ruins. Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow and Twilight would go with them to keep them safe and Equestria safe from them.
Jack, tired and old, loves to stay by the Mirror and watch Sam doing tests with it. Rex, Elisa and Krator would protect the Mirror from her science and make sure she didn't destroy it, while waiting for the timespell of Starswirl. Fluttershy, Pinkie, Starlight and Spike would stay at the castle to protect the aliens from each other and Equestria from them all.
"I appreciate your effort, but your work won't be necessary, dear." Rex stood above Sam, who was kneeling by the Mirror. She had her tablet computer in hands and checked the crystals for spots to connect to.
"And what is your problem, Mister?", she barked back at him. "You want to sit around and wait, be my guest, but I can't do such a thing." She continued sticking cables to the Mirror's frame while she hoped for some readings of her instruments.
"Why, no, of course not", Rex said calmly when his eyes fell upon Glimmer. She was patrolling the library. Tired or not, she had to keep an eye on that blue, sneaky Lizard. "I'm actually working on a solution, believe it or not."
He walked away before Sam was able to say, "Yeah? And what's that?"
Glimmer stopped when Rex cut off her way. "I'm sorry", he said.
"For what?"
"For my behavior. I apologise. I shouldn't have lost control like that."
"You actually seem very calm all the time."
"Well, it is a troublesome situation. And you're just trying to help."
"I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing this for Twilight, because she asked me to."
"Let me make it up to you."
"I'm listening."
"You need to get some rest, dear."
"No can do. Got to keep watch."
"Yes, I know. I prepared a spell for you, to energise you."
"Are you serious? I'm not stepping into one of you circles ever again."
"Oh, no. My, nothing like that. Here", Rex reached into his coat and brought forth a cup filled with a dark drink. "Have a beverage."
She sniffed it and the scent alone gave her back some of her strength already. "What is that?"
"Humans call it Coffee. It's not magic, it's organic. It will give you back hours of sleep."
"So it's a potion?"
"You can call it whatever you want."
She still hesitated, because she didn't trust the Lizard. And she shouldn't. But Rex proved his point to her. "Look, darling", he took a sip from the cup, "It's perfectly fine. I'm merely concerned over you, dear."
"Okay, I'll try it." Her blue glow framed the cup and she drank from it. It was warm and the taste pleasant. "Hey, this isn't too bad."
"I hoped you'd like it." He walked away, smiling.
And Glimmer went on her way while drinking sip by sip of the black stuff.
He went back to the Mirror, watching Carter doing her useless science.
"Did you give her Coffee?", she asked him. "You know, that horses can't break down caffeine, right? That cup could kill her."
"Why, don't worry your little head about that. It won't be a problem."
Carter shook her head slowly before returning to her notepad. "Something is really off with you."
Elisa took this quiet time to satisfy her curiosity. The little Elf sat down next to the old General Jack O'Neill, who was frankly too old for this shit.
"Are those medals you earned from battle?", she asked him in the cutest way she could think of, which might not been all that cute at all.
Jack shortly looked at her before he mumbled, "I'm not looking for friends."
"Why are you wearing an uniform and the others don't?"
"Carter?!", he yelled over to the Mirror. "Little help here?"
"Sorry, Sir", she smiled, "I'm busy already."
Highpriest Krator, the tall yellow Lizard with wings and golden gauntlets, who never let Elisa out of his sight, made a halt in front of the General.
"Those are from battle, aren't they? You must be a great warrior of your tribe. It would be an honor to meet you formally."
"Formally?", he asked confused.
Krator hit his fist onto his muscled, naked chest. "I'm Highpriest Krator, Templar of Karinthor. This", he pointed at Elisa, "Is the Ki'Ti Elisa Sternklar, the Vendah I've sworn to protect. Hiji'Xaji Roki'Tacho?"
Jack shrugged and shook his head.
"I don't think he speaks Brass'Ka", she said. "And calling me a Ki'Ti is really not nice."
"Maybe", Krator admitted, "But it's fitting." He looked down at Jack, "I was just greeting you, that is all."
"Alright", Jack stood up and reached out his hand to Krator, "Name's General Jack O'Neill of the U.S.A. Air Force."
Krator shook his hand, what lead Jack to twitch in slight pain. "Pleasant, General."
"It means that I'm ordering people around." They let go of the hands.
"I know what a General does. Humans in our world have them too."
"So you have Humans too. Why don't you tell me a bit about your world?"
"My world?", Krator didn't know where to start. "It's vast, beautiful, but also horrifying and cruel. People are at war, fighting the armies of evil, devils and demons."
"Demons like your friend, the skinny one?"
"Morty? Yes, you could say that. But he's on our side."
"He's really only on his own side", Elisa commented.
"I'm making sure he doesn't harm anyone, as it was my oath."
"I can see, you're the protective type. A guardian of sorts."
"That is right, General. I am Highpriest. I am justice, I bring order."
"Or havoc."
"Since when do you know such words?"
"Morty used it sometime."
"So, this war", Jack asked the big guy, "I hope you're winning."
"I do hope so too. We do our best, even Rex. It might not look like it, but he cares. He might be a murderer and a thief-"
"Wow, what?"
"Rex is a legendary assassin, one that reaches into myth and legends. I wish I could rid the world of him, but he is way too useful for the war at hands."
"Not like you could beat him", Elisa smiled.
"You haven't seen me try, Cupcake."
Jack turned to Elisa, "What's your deal, you like this Rex?"
"He's my Master."
"Come again?"
"He teaches me the ways of magic."
"As do I!", Krator pointed out, "I'm her Master too."
"As is Hati for showing me fighty things. And Rook for showing me my way around the anvil."
"Aren't those like too many Masters?"
"Meh", Elisa shrugged, "A girl has to learn, doesn't she? Without their help, I could have never revenged my father or beat my mother."
"I hope she deserved it?"
"Oh, yes", Krator nodded, "She was a witch in league with the Blood King."
"I take that's bad."
"Blood King, wow. That sounds scary." They turned their heads and saw the little Dragon besides them. He joined the cluster for a listen. "But, you beat them too, right?"
"We burned down his kingdom. We haven't seen of him since. But Manus, as he was named, was immortal by nature. One can never be sure of his death."
"Glad he's not here then." Spike smiled at Jack, "Hi, we haven't met yet. I'm Spike."
"Hello?" He wrinkled his forehead, "I'm Jack."
"Yeah, I know. I heard you before. Do you guys need anything? Water, a pillow, a toothbrush?"
"We're good, little one. Be on your ways."
"Actually."
"Yes?"
"You guys have bathrooms?"
"Sure. Upstairs, or ... It's probably best if I brought you."
"Lead the way."
Spike went ahead and Jack stood up with a grunt. "Are you hurt, General?"
"Just old. Be right back." He went to Sam. "You're alright by yourself?"
"You mean between talking Ponies and Lizards?"
"And an Elf."
Sam smiled, "I have my P-90. I'm good."
Jack nodded slowly and turned. Spike made a halt in the door. "Anypony else need to use the bathroom?"
Elisa sighed, "Well, now that you said it."
"In that case, I accompany you", the Highpriest insisted.
Fluttershy shook her head and Pinkie yelled, "I'm good. But do have fun!"
"Ehm, sure. Thanks, Pinkie?", Spike said and closed the door behind himself. He lead the aliens down the hallways so they wouldn't get lost.
The library turned quiet. Pinkie was just reading up some of her favourite books, absolutely unrelated to the crisis they had at their hooves. Fluttershy on the other hoof, felt responsible and floated up and down the shelves, looking for more books that could help them fixing the Mirror.
Rex standing over her, watching her work, didn't help. At least he stopped commenting her failures.
A loud snore startled them all. Everyone was turning to the table in their midsts to see what happened. It was Starlight, resting her chest, arms and head on the table, deeply asleep. The cup lay on its side next to her, it was empty.
"Didn't you give her coffee?"
"I did", Rex answered to Sam. "Seems like it didn't work." But it did. Rex caught himself smiling and forced himself to stop.
"That looks like fun!", Pinkie yelled, tossed her head onto the table and snored as loud as she could. "It looks better than what it feels like", she said disappointed.
"Oh, my." Fluttershy floated down to her, "She's so tired, she can't even hear us."
Rex came to her. "We should bed her to rest. Is there a camp near by?"
Pinkie pointed up, "She has a room upstairs."
"I carry her", Rex gently picked the little Pony up, "And you show me the way, pink one."
"Oki doki loki!" The pink one bounced ahead and they left the library together, leaving Fluttershy and Sam alone.
When Sam looked at Shy, she just forcibly smiled back, flapped her wings and rose back to the books. If she looked busy, she might have been able to avoid a conversation.
Sam just shook her head and smiled before she looked back down to her screen.
A minute later, Rex and the pink one reached the door to Glimmer's room. He bedded her like promised. She didn't wake, like it was planned. But Rex couldn't act while the pink one was watching him.
Casting a spell on her wouldn't suffice. She would see him casting the spell and know something was wrong. He didn't have time to lay a trap, but he had the option to summon servants.
"That is some deep sleep!", Pinkie said louder than she should. "Wish I could sleep that well."
"Why, I'm sure of that."
She laughed, "What a creepy thing to say. I like you, Mister."
They left Glimmer upon her bed and headed for the hallway. Pinkie was ahead of Rex and he had the chance to close the door. But before he closed it, he quickly shook a page out of his spellbook. Even while the door was closing, the page floated to the ground. There it lay waiting for them to cover some distance.
Rex smiled while he was walking down the castle hallway. He followed Pinkie, and since he wasn't watched now, he concentrated upon his spell.
First it was only one of the big, black bugs, that crawled out of it. These magical bugs were of Rex's design and suited for many tasks. They were robust and quick, small and silent. Talented in so many ways.
It was no time to be hesitant, no need to play it save. Rex went all in and did what he had to, to get what he wanted.
Chip by chip the jaws of the insects broke the Inaji apart. Its pieces were carried down the castle hall, bit by bit. A street of bugs snuck along the corners and down the stairs.
The only thing left now, was her skeleton.
They entered the library, joining Sam and Shy. "She's in bed now. Best to let her rest", Rex informed them.
"Not like she could help with this thing", Sam mumbled.
And while Pinkie was checking on Fluttershy, Rex went down the library. Facing the books, he reached into his coat to take out a pebble of Inaji.
The coffee he poisoned was affecting him too. But his body was larger than one of those Unicorns. Now that he held the Inaji in his fingers, he was able to recharge his power and counter his tiredness.
The magic of the pebble was sucked dry, and with power to spare, Rex felt as well as he didn't since he came here.
"Starswirl is here!", he heard the pink one yelling and he turned to see what it was.
The dead Inaji went back into the coat when Rex took a look at the bearded Unicorn from the distance.
His magical gaze revealed to him, how much Inaji was stored in the bones of this one as well. "My-my, look at that", Rex smiled, "I'll be busy all day."
It's been about twenty minutes, since the task-group entered the Everfree Forest.
"I still don't understand, what we're doing here." Morty was grumpy as usual. Since he was cursed and technically undead, he didn't tire. He did grow impatient quickly though, especially if he was left in the dark of things.
"You remember that Ring we saw in the catacombs?", Hati asked him.
"Yes, of course, I'm not retarded!"
"Well, these fine folks think there might be one of those Rings in the forest, alright?"
The plants didn't make it easy for them. And even if they went down trails that looked like made my repetitive animal usage, the tall Lizards and Humans had branches in their faces with every step they made.
"I think that's far enough", Twilight said and the group stopped. She turned to Rarity and nodded. She nodded back and turned on her glowing horn.
"We're close to the Tree of Harmony, that's as good a place to start as any", Twilight added.
Humans and Lizards looked around but didn't see anything magical. Cam was curious, "Is the spell turned on already?"
It made Rarity chuckle, "Why-hy-hy, yes. Of course. There are simply no gems around, darling."
They all got moving, always towards the castle hidden beyond the treetops and its cave underneath.
"Gems, huh?", Morty mumbled and started to collect ideas. "Interesting."
Soon, only a few steps down the trail, a beacon turned up in the ground. The spell of the Unicorn worked after all and they all beheld the glowing gemstone that was visible through the ground. Like the earth was made of glass, it opened a window to the buried treasure.
"See?", Rarity said, "It works after all. But I doubt that's the gem we're looking for."
"Okay", Rodney admitted, "I can see how that is handy. We might just find a Gate."
"Told you. Never give up. We'll find a way, always." Cam went ahead, following the Unicorns on their path.
Morty rushed by the groups straight to the head of things. He stopped Rarity and showed her a treasure of his. Beheld within his fiery claws the Doctor had just a chip of a green gemstone. It had a mysterious glow and a whispering nature that was hard to grasp with a mortal mind.
"Can you locate this gem?", he asked her excitedly. She was mesmerised by its moving shine. "It's called the Shamrah Ashamir. By that, it simply means Green Fragment. All my life, I'm looking for the rest of it, and I'm still missing a good way of tracking it. I was hoping you could be the answer."
Rarity shook her head to free herself from its alien affect. "Doesn't hurt to try."
She pointed her horn at the fragment and her magic shone upon it, but the green glimmer surrounding it wasn't replaced by anything else. It remained as it was.
"Maybe it is because it's glowing already?", she chuckled. "I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem to work. Where did you say, did you get this fine gem?"
Hati caught up with them and explained in calm fashion, "It is just a piece of a magical artefact, a prison, holding a powerful sorcerer. At least, that's what we think it is."
"Maybe", Morty concluded, "It needs to be whole, but then we don't need the spell anymore."
"Maybe it's, because it's from another planet." The crowd looked at Rook, who went on, "Think about it. Cutie MacBeautiful here has a spell for gemstones, that, weirdly enough, are perfectly cut and polished the moment she finds them in the soil. It's perfectly clear."
Everyone was waiting for him to finish but he didn't say another word. Hati pried, "And? What is clear?"
"Isn't it obvious? The spell and the gems know each other. They were made by the same person."
"That makes no sense at all."
"Now-ow-ow", Rarity chuckled, "I made this spell myself, Darling. No one showed me, it just happened. And the gems always look like this, they always have."
The blue skin feather head pointed his index at her, "Exactly."
"Come!", Twilight pushed the group, "Let's get going before it's getting dark again."
Rook looked up and lifted his shades, "I thought it already was dark. Weird. Your days are weird. Might have forgotten to write a sentence there earlier, mate."
Hati put his hand on Rook's shoulder, while the rest got a move on. "You're alright, right?"
"Aye, sure. Was just wondering, how it could go on, y'know? All this search for some Gate that probably isn't there, feels like stalling, man."
"It was a drag since we got here, yeah, I feel the same way. These Humans make it harder than it had to be, alright. Just give Rex a spell to bring us back, or fix the Mirror, right?"
"This Gate is supposed to be like the one we found. But imagine how old this planet must be, if all the gemstones you can find are already cut. How many civilisations does it take to harvest and cut every last bit of mineral?"
Hati was speechless for just a moment. He took a second to process Rooks idea. "You're serious? That would be insane." He turned and looked at the sun through the leafs above him. "But then again, Rex said, there's something strange about his planet, about this sun."
"Shit!", Rook cursed suddenly.
"What?"
"We made a mistake, dude."
Hati thought about it and he caught the idea from the air. "Ohh hell, no. You're right."
They both looked at the group ahead and said simultaneously, "We left Rex alone."
"Well", Hati wrinkled his forehead and chuckled nervously, "He's not exactly alone, right? Krator is there."
"That actually makes it worse. Imagine they start a fight."
"Don't they do that all the time anyway?"
"A fight with magic and spells?"
"You think the Princess would notice if her castle was missing?"
Slowly they followed the pack on their trail. Rarity found a few gems here and there, lost in the soil of the curseth forest. Twilight already stood on a field, free from the shades of trees. And while they were discussing the new vector, the Humans were whispering amongst themselves.
"This isn't that bad, right?", Cam asked his team. "Hiking through a forest, we had worse."
Daniel nodded but his tone was cynical, "Yeah, remember when we took on the empire of gods that spread through all the galaxy? Those were the times."
"They were false gods, Daniel Jackson. Also, we defeated them and the Ori too."
Vala joked, "It beats getting burned alive, I can tell you that."
"I have a question", Rodney asked out loud, "What if we actually find a Gate? How would we get it running? And how, HOW? Would we get back into our own time, huh? Because, do you have a supercomputer on you, somewhere in your bag? Cause I don't and I don't see how we could possibly calculate a sun eruption without it."
"One problem at a time, Rodney. We'll get there. Just don't lose your shit just now, alright? We got a long way to go."
The group came together by the edge of the forest, between the last trees and the cliff of the gorge, that lead to the cave bearing the Tree of Harmony. It was still sunny, a bit too sunny actually. The Humans and Lizards weren't used to such bright light.
Only Morty, who had no eyes that could be blinded, and Rook, who was wearing shades, had a clear view. Even though, Rook only had eyes for a white Unicorn.
"She's one fine Pony, don't you think?", Rook sighed while he stared at Rarity doing her spell while pointing her horn into a few directions.
Hati wrinkled his forehead, "Are you?", and looked at him from the side, "Into Ponies?"
Rook slowly turned his head at Hati, his reflection was clearly visible in his plain, emotionless glasses. "Anatomically? No. I'm talking about her heart here, man. She has a good heart."
"Well", Hati shrugged and looked back at Rarity, "I guess love really is blind. I mean, looks come second, right?"
Rook startled for just a second, now they both looked straight ahead at the Pony at work. "I hope she thinks that way too!"
"If her heart is as you say", Hati laid a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Then I'm sure she doesn't mind."
After a moment of silence Rook asked, "Ponies hatch from eggs, right?" Of which Hati could only respond in stepping ahead.
"Now, which way do we walk down next?", Hati asked the Princess.
"The Tree of Harmony is down this gorge. And the castle ruins are beyond this bridge. We'll have to search both to be sure."
"Let's get a move on then, alright?" Leading by example, Hati crossed the bridge to the castle, forcing them to search it next.
Twilight might have rolled her eyes but she still followed him, alongside with Rarity and her friends.
The Humans were curious about the castle as well, to say the least. They followed them with pleasure.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, HIDE IT WELL
The library was quiet. The few holding the fort here weren't much of a talker, except for the pink one, who was bored to death.
Rex listened carefully to the grey Unicorn's explanations about how the spell worked. Sam on the other hand didn't believe one bit of it. She tried to come up with a scientific explanation of her own.
"It's not your fault, you don't understand it", Starswirl comforted her. "It takes many years of studying magic to get even the slightest grasp of its nature."
Sam didn't try to get into an argument. She nodded and smiled, looked away and let them do what they had to do. She would just watch. "Be my guest."
"Well, technically, you're the guest. But, anyway. Let me fix that Mirror for you."
Starswirl took a stand in front of the Mirror and everyone and -pony were watching him casting the spell. A cyclon of wind formed around him when his great horn started to glow. But once the beam of light emerged from it and hit the Mirror, the wind vanished.
Immediately the nature of the spell revealed itself to Rex and his magical gaze. Learning from other people's spells by watching, was what he enchanted his eyes for in the first place. That, and discovering traps.
The beam stopped and Starswirl went to the Mirror. It was shining and alive. The glass was replaced by a moving, swirling light, and the crystals in the frame were glowing all together.
"What time were you from again?", he addressed Carter.
She thought about it, "To us the Universe was thirteen point four billion years old. But then again, what is one of our years to you?"
"The Universe, somewhat billions of years old?" He started to laugh because he sincerely thought, she was making a joke. "That one was well thought of. I have to remember that one."
"Just go back in time, okay? I'll tell you when to stop."
"Yes, of course." Spell after spell ran through the Mirror, setting the picture within back in time, a period at a time.
Everyone was distracted. Even Krator was looking at the Mirror in the hope to find his own timeline. The opportunity for Rex, that he was looking out for.
Nobody noticed him vanishing in the back of the library. Nobody saw his smile.
There were a few books that caught his attention before. One of them spoke of a Book of Creation, the Inspiration Manifestation. A magical artefact of such power was surely what Rex needed to add to his arsenal.
He held the book that told of it in his hand, and his blue spellbook in the other. The page of his book showed a ring of runes with adornment all around but nothing in its midst.
It was a spell, runes ready to cast a conjuring ritual. Whatever was displayed in their midst, was called upon and summoned through spacetime.
Once he put his spellbook away, he started to summon the book he wanted. The runes started to glow and soon, a white portal appeared in their stead. Rex reached into it and from it, he pulled the Book of Creation he desired. It remained stolen from the place of its holding.
Another chip of Inaji lost its glow. The powerful portal drained it and left it dark.
"That's fine, really", Rex said to himself. "We have another way to cast our magic now."
The book he summoned was fancy, with a pinkish cover and golden trimming, adorned with plant-like designs. It smelled good too, almost like,
"Rarity. You're an Unicorn of many secrets, darling."
Another book Rex showed interest in, told him about a place called Tartarus, which held the prisoner Tirek. Tirek was boring all together, seeking power for wealth and to comfort his ego, like some poor, beaten soul. But regardless of Rex's disgust for him, he had an interesting ability.
Rex reached out the Book of Creation and Manifestation and in front of him the shelves moved aside. Like doors they opened to the Tartarus, with the gates of the prison appearing on their hind sides.
Once the mage stepped in, he was charged by a great, black beast with three heads. But the sneaky Lizard didn't flinch. No, he smiled instead.
Up the stone stairs, that rose upon a glowing cliff, stood the cage of the Tirek he seeked.
"That's an interesting cage you have there", Rex told the prisoner while he was looking at the magic within the metal bars.
They annihilated the usage of magic, may it be from the inside out, or the outside in.
Tirek turned to the visitor, "Well, yes. Thank you, but it's not exactly my cage, you know?"
He looked down at the black coated Lizard, "Who are you? What earns me the pleasure of a visitor so rich on", and licked his tongue, "Magic."
"My name is Rex." Rex curtseyed. "The pleasure is mine. You are Tirek, are you not?"
"Yes, yes, I'm Tirek. Why?"
"You have something I want."
"That makes two of us."
"I'm sure of that."
"What do I have, that you could want?"
"I will open this cage, then I'll open your skin, your bones and your heart and then you will die."
"What? You can't be serious."
When Rex showed him the Book of Creation, the look on Tirek’s face turned to panic. He cowered in the back of his cage and asked him of mercy.
But there was no room for mercy in Rex's plan.
The platform they stood upon was framed by the green light of the runes, burned into the stone. The corners of the cage opened and the bars fell apart and to the ground. The magic of the metal was gone and Tirek froze in time immediately.
Framed by the green glow of the treacherous book, his body floated back into the center and up a few steps into the air. His skin opened like a coat, leaving the body behind.
Chip by chip they broke apart and floated over to the mage's book, until the bones were depleted and wrecked.
The blue Inaji however was placed upon the cover of the Book of Creation. The shards covered the face of it and laid themselves all around it, until it was emerged in the crystal and shine. It was no longer a fancy Book of Creation, framed and adorned, but a Crystal Book, the Book of Inaji.
"Now", Rex held the Inaji-Book in his hands and smiled, "We'll end this misery."
"Halt!", Krator yelled at the Unicorn, "This one maybe?"
"Oh, I think it looks nice", Fluttershy liked what she saw. No wonder, it was a sunny field crowded with bunnies and other wildlife.
"The bunny-fields of Medfosst?", Elisa asked half joking.
Krator looked puzzled, "I've never heard of such a place."
"We'll move on then." Starswirl zapped further through the times and they had surely a few hundred thousand years more to go through.
When Rex joined them from the shadows, everyone was looking at him and listening to what he had to say. "Where does this spell lead to?"
Starswirl shortly looked at him, "Through time", before he returned to the Mirror.
"Why, I understand that part. But time never comes by itself, does it? How do we know, the other time on the other side of this Mirror isn't simply on this planet? How can we tell, where it leads to?"
Sam nodded, "You know, that is actually a good question."
"Why, of course it is."
"Well", Starswirl mumbled, "To be frank, we don't. I don't know where you come from or what time that was, so we have to check them all."
The look on Rex's face turned into silent rage. Krator knew that look and it usually was followed by a massacre. "Are you trying to tell me", Rex calmly said with a voice like the fresh ice of the first winter’s day, "You want to check every possible planet in every possible time of every possible reality?"
"Uhm, yes. Why, yes. That was the plan. There's really nothing else we can do."
Rex slowly laid his hand on the Mirror's frame and at once, the magic started to fade from it. He shut down the fool's spell and caught his attention.
"Hey, what are you doing? That spell was hard to cast!"
"Excuse me for a moment, will you? Please, I want to show you some ... alternative."
"Oh, alright", the grumpy Unicorn grunted. And together they walked down the long library hall.
"Wait here, it won't take long", Rex ordered his servants. And while they were vanishing in the dim lights of the distance, Krator had a really bad feeling about this.
"I have a really bad feeling about this."
"Yeah", Elisa nodded, "So I've heard."
"Don't you think Rex acts ..."
"Cold, distanced, mad?"
"Stranger than usual?"
"More suspicious than usual?"
"Yeah, that."
"Yeah. I noticed. But isn't that kinda his thing?"
"Wait here."
"Oh, no, you don't leave me behind like that."
Krator looked at Jack, "Take care of her, General."
He nodded, "You got it. Come, no need to be stupid now."
Elisa remained with Jack, but she was close to tears. Whenever Rex and Krator clash, nothing good is gonna happen. "Don't fight him, Okay, big guy?"
"I'll try." And so Krator went down the dim light alley, to have a serious talk with the mage.
"What is here? Here is nothing. You have nothing to show me."
"Patience, grey one." Rex brought the Unicorn Wizard into the darkest corner of the hall, behind shelves and books no one ever read but the Princess herself.
He took out the Inaji-Book for the Bearded to lay his eyes upon it. "Here, have a look at this."
"What? What is this?"
"This", Rex was petting the book, "Is the infamous Book of Creation, the Inspiration Manifestation."
"No, you're not allowed to ... hand it over so that I can put it where it belongs."
"You know what this is, old one? This crystal?"
"What about it?"
"You never seen it before? Have you no anatomical studies?"
"Anatomical? You're insane! The body is sacred. Studies on Pony anatomy are outlawed for centuries."
"Why, that's what I thought. It's a shame really. This crystal, I call it Ih'Na'Ji'Sh Haff'Fa'Sha'Mr'Ah Zuh'Vin."
"Inajish-what?"
"It's a name from my people's tongue. The Inaji however comes from your people."
"What are you saying?"
"What I'm saying is, that this is the answer, the solution, the salvation. You Unicorns have this crystal imbedded into your bones. What did you think
"Wait", he shorty looked away, "When it is in the bones, where did you get it from?"
Rex opened the book and immediately the magic of the Bearded started to fly into it, sucked from his body and mind.
Powerless and exhausted the Unicorn fell onto its knees once the process had ended. "You monster."
"A monster? It wasn't me ripping the ether apart. Don't you see that I'm the one who will save everyone and everything of existence? How self centered can a Pony be?"
"You'll never get away with this."
"Oh, but I already have."
The Inaji-Book was steaming from a magic overload. The blue ether contained in it was leaking, the Inaji saturated. "Now, look at that", Rex smiled.
"Tirek had his use, but it looks like, without his body, there's no more growth."
"Without his body?" Starswirl coughed, "What did you do?"
"Oh, please, not like you needed him." The Lizard stepped away for a moment to think. The Inaji of Tirek was absorbent, but it didn't grow with the magic contained, like it would or should have, when he used it.
"Because it is dead now. Not alive."
"You are insane."
"Don't you get it? It's a corpse. Which means, that, with the amount of magic I gain, I need to stock up more Inaji as well."
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
"Because I know, you won't tell anyone." With a swing of his book, the runes appeared around Starswirl and he started to float above ground.
"Let me give you a lesson in anatomy, dear."
"Are you back here? Hey, Rex!" Krator was walking through the dim lights of the library's backend. "Ey! Princess! I'm talkin' to you, ey!"
Suddenly his dark, deep voice startled the Templar and he turned around only to see his smug smile. The blue Lizard was leaning onto some shelves, like he wasn't doing anything suspicious. "Your Grace got lost in the shelves?"
"No! I'm having an eye on you!"
"Why, isn't that nice of you. Caring so much for me, don't you?"
"For everyone around you, yeah! Where is the Unicorn, Princess?"
"The Unicorn Princess? Why, I believe she's still outside."
"Don't play games with me, thief! I'm on to you. What are you planning? Are you raging havoc on these sweet little horses? How dare you, when they are trying to help us?"
"HELP US?!", Rex yelled with his eyes opened wide.
Krator never heard Rex yell before and even for the brave Highpriest, that was always the first into battle, it was a frightening thought to behold.
"You don't know anything, do you?" Rex stood up and walked to the almost naked, yellow skin Bat-Lizard. "They! Were the ones who made this mess. Their Mirror, their magic brought us here. You think they are helping us? They can't even fix their own, rotten Mirror."
"Well", Krator turned to a more silent tone of voice, "Not like you could fix it."
"Oh, but I will. You ask me what I'm planning? I'm planning to fix everything and save the cosmos."
"Come on, mate, no one has to get hurt. We can do this together and we can do this right."
Rex turned from him, "Too late. It has already begun."
Krator took a step and clenched his armored fists, "You can't just-"
"What?!", Rex faced him with the Inaji-Book in his hands.
"What is that?", Krator pointed at the book.
"This? This is the answer, our way home."
"Hey, where did you get that from?"
"I made it from spare parts. It is mine. Do you want to claim it?"
"No, I just thought-"
"Do you wish to fight me?"
Silence raged between them. Krator knew that Rex's methods were brutal at times and he feared that he might bring annihilation to Ponyland. But he also knew, that fighting him would lead to just this annihilation.
"No!", he strongly responded. "But I wish to ask you of mercy. Show compassion for a change, will'ya?"
Rex smiled and shook his head, almost chuckling. "I'll consider it." And then went back to the Mirror.
Krator lingered a moment longer. He had to at least warn the others about Rex's schemes before it was too late or someone did something utterly stupid.
A SPARK OF HOPE - NEVERMORE
The Castle Ruins were interesting, but fruitless. Rarity assured everyone, that there cannot be a hidden Stargate in the halls, even though it was rigged with countless hidden entrances and rooms.
They took a few minutes to search it anyway and followed Rarity's spell through the dusty halls.
"We can look another place!", Twilight assured them.
"Where?", Cam asked. "You said, if anywhere, it would be here.
Hati went past them, followed by Rook and Morty. "Well, I know I'll check out that cave anyway." He waved the Humans without turning around. "You're invited to join."
The undead boy Knom was already waiting for them by the stairs, that lead into the gorge.
Morty himself was excited to see such an artefact. Beholding the white, glowing Tree of Harmony, he was silenced by awe.
"Something about this looks weirdly familiar", Hati thought by himself while mumbling with his finger on his chin. "Or is that just me?"
Rook beside him knew what he meant but was trapped in his mind, as usual. "You mean because the branches bear the signs that the Pony-folks got on their butts? Nah, it's probably something else. I wonder what the backside of it looks like."
"No, you're right. That is curious."
Morty turned around to face the purple Princess of puny Pony people that came down the staggering stone stairs followed by her friends and the suspicious Humans.
"What is the meaning of this?", he barked at her while his flames sparked for the moment.
"The Tree of Harmony?", she smiled nervously, "It's protecting Equestria from Chaos, Discord and the forces of evil."
"Why does it have the images of your butts?"
"The ... our Cutie Marks?"
"Whatever you call them. More secrets of your kind. You're trying to fool us once again, Princess?"
"What?! NO! We are the wielders of the Elements of Harmony. Every single one of my friends and I represent one element. Applejack stands for Honesty."
"That's right."
"That's why her Cutie Mark is on the branch of Honesty." They were listening to the Princess. "Generosity, Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, they are all there. And mine, Magic, is in the center."
Hati was counting them elements on his fingers but soon ran out of fingers. "Hold on! You're telling me, this is a magic artefact, and you're the warden of it?"
Twilight's eyes were jumping, "I guess you could say that. Yes."
Morty was walking up to her, "Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter and Magic? Those are your elements?"
"The Elements of Harmony."
"The Harmony is like a huge part of it", Rainbow boldly added.
"You're the chosen ones?"
"Yeah!", Rainbow flew down to the skeleton to face it head on. "Got a problem with that?"
"More magic, more secrets", Morty calmly said in a cynical tone. "Does your treachery never end?"
"Now hold on there a second", Applejack yelled, "We never told any lies to y'all."
"I didn't mention it", Twilight explained, "Because I didn't think it was important. The Elements can't help us helping you. They only restore Harmony. They are not making portals through time and space."
“But you did use them to bring us here!”, Morty yelled. “Your little accident wasn’t that much of an accident after all, was it?”
Cam had something to say and everyone was turning to look at him. The Humans were standing by the stairs and showed little interest in the Tree or the Magic of Ponykind.
"That is all nice an'all, but seriously, what are we goin' to do now? You're out of options, Princess?"
"I", she hesitated, "I'm not sure. We can look for the Gate in other places."
"Enough promises", Teal'C loudly said.
"Yeah", Cam agreed, "He's right. Enough of that bullshit, alright, Princess? We've been here for two days now and you have clearly no clue what you're doing."
"All I'm doing is trying to help you."
"No, you're just tryin' to get rid of us."
"Yeah!", Rodney yelled, "Wait, what? Really?"
"Yeah. Did she try to find another way? No. Did she fix the Mirror? Also no."
"That is not fair! The Mirror wasn't meant to work that way. I couldn't have known what would happen!"
"This", Cam was pointing his hand at the gorge and the tree, "All this magic, that is the cause we're here. Forget the Gate. We need a time machine, alright?"
He turned to Rodney, "You think you can do something to the Mirror to bring us anywhere else but here?"
"I can try."
"Mitchell!", Daniel stood up to him.
"Jackson?"
"Don't you think this goes too far?"
"It ain't goin' far enough, is what it does."
Cam went on and up the stairs, when Daniel yelled after him. "We need to respect their ways!"
"Then do that, Doctor Jackson, you do that. I'm planning on taking matters into our hands now."
Vala shrugged when Daniel looked at her. She went after Cam and so did Teal'C, Rodney without a word as well and at last even Daniel.
When the gorge was silent and everyone left was looking after the Humans, Hati casually pointed his index at Cam and nodded, "I like him."
"Quite the temper."
"Said the flaming skeleton with anger issues."
"Yes, I guess. What do you think, boy?"
"He's right, y'know."
Twilight's shocked look went for the green Lizard, "Not you too."
"I'm sure Rex already found a solution. We'll get back to Xerexarea, even if it destroys the Mirror."
Rarity was shocked too, "You can't be serious."
"No", Rook added, "He's Hati. I'm Rook. Hi."
"And farewell", Hati grumpily said and went to the stairs.
"Wait!", Twilight yelled. "Please! We can help you!"
Hati stopped on the steps while his pals were bypassing him. His furious gaze went down to the Princess. "You had this!", he presented the Tree, "The whole time. You have super powers, magic to fix everything, to restore Harmony. And you didn't even try to use them. Who says that bringing us back is not an act of Harmony? You had the power all this time, you have options. But you let us wait and rot here. This is an alien planet, who knows what it will do to us! You got any idea how dangerous this is? No. No, you don't."
The Ponies were alone in the gorge. "What a bunch of bozos."
"No", Twilight rejected Rainbow's comment, "They are right."
She went to the tree and her horn started to glow.
"What are you doin', Sugarcube?"
Framed by the pink glow, the gemstones separated from the white tree and came down to her.
"But what for, Darling?"
"We have to try, don't we? I can't give them up if there's still an option. But I can't do it alone."
Applejack and Rarity came closer to her and smiled, "Of course we help you."
"Can't let you mess this up all by yourself, can we now?"
"Yak", Rainbow above them stretched her tongue, "Let's go then, before I change my mind about this."
And so the Ponies hurried through the forest back to the crystal castle.
The gates of the library were busted open by the boot of the fearless Human Mitchell. "Rodney get to work. Teal'C cover the door. Vala, to the other side." He tossed her one of his pistols and everyone got into position.
"What's going on?", Sam asked.
And even Jack was excited, "Wow-wow, what?! What are you doing?"
"Sir, these Ponies are not playing fair. Like my granny said, Never trust a horse wearin' makeup."
Daniel shook his head, "Your granny is nuts."
"She might have been, but in this case, she was right."
"Someone cares to explain?", Jack asked.
Daniel walked up to him, "Cam thinks the Ponies are hiding something from us."
"Well, duh."
"You think?"
"Of course. Is there anyone not hiding anything?"
"Fair point."
"What are they doing now?"
"Cam wants Rodney to make the Mirror work, anyplace. Just out of here."
"Well, that sounds like a plan."
"Really? You too?"
"Why not? Someplace might be better than here, right? We might find someone who is actually competent enough to help."
Rodney took Sam's PC and checked a few things. He changed the spots of the connectors a bit and went for different crystals on the frame. At once he started to hack down into the screen and the Mirror actually changed colours.
"I did it!", he happily claimed.
"No, you didn't", Sam corrected, "A Unicorn came by earlier and activated the Mirror."
"Well, that's great! Now all we need to do is find the right channel."
"Channel?"
"Metaphor. Come on, Sam." Together they changed the settings on the screen and with it the colours of the Mirror. They flipped the channels and worlds on the other side over and over again. Most of them looked inhabited and not able to sustain life.
"Incoming!", Cam yelled. "It's just the Lizards."
Krator stood behind him, taller and wider than Teal'C. "Let them in, if you know, what's good for you."
"I was goin' to anyway."
When Hati, Rook, Morty and Knom entered, Krator intercepted them at once. "I have to tell you something."
"What? What is it?" They were moving away from the Human ears and Krator was making sure, Rex wasn't around either.
"Rex is planning something. I don't know what but he's taking reckless action. We need to be aware and cautious."
"Yes, yes indeed, you need to be", Rex's deep, smooth voice caught their attention, "But not because of me."
Morty asked, "And what does that mean?"
Rex strode around them, more smiling than usual. They caught him in a good mood, so it seemed. "I have a solution."
"I knew he would get it", Hati happily stated.
"Why, yes. But the Humans and these Ponies might not like it. They will certainly try to stop us."
"Now, why would they do that?", Morty pried.
"Oh, I don't know", Elisa commented boldly, "Maybe because he's gonna destroy shit like he always does?"
"Why, a bit of damage is the usual result of hard work. The Ponies do not understand that."
"You're sayin', you can get us home?", Hati asked him, "But to what price?"
"Never mind that, dear."
"You will destroy the Mirror, won't you?"
"The Mirror? Why, no, not at all. In fact, we don't need that old thing anymore. Let the Humans have it. We will need something else though."
Finally the Pony Princess arrived in the hallway and Cam yelled, "Contact! Stay where you are or I will open fire."
For a second, Twilight stopped, but then went on determinedly.
The loud, metallic bang echoed through the plain crystal walls. The copper shell was tossed from the mechanism and fell with a chink to the stone floor.
"I'm warning you!", Cam yelled. "Not one more step!"
Shocked the Ponies stopped in the hallway. Only Applejack and Rainbow went on to stand by Twilight's side. "Now listen 'ere!", Jack yelled. "This 'ere is Twilight's home, her castle. You can't just make threats like that and use that ... that thing!"
"HEY!", a piercing voice behind Mitchell almost robbed him from his hearing. When he checked, it was the Pink Pony and it looked fairly mad. Behind her stood the yellow one with a similar expression. "Did you just shoot at our friends?! Fluttershy?!"
"Yes?"
"Tell me he didn't just shoot at our friends."
"I ... but ...what?"
"Get down for the thundaa!", Pinkie yelled and charged the Human. Hindhooves first she jumped him, buried her legs in his stomach and tossed his paralysed body out into the hallway. His black, boxy gun flew off and slid spinning over the smooth floor.
Coughing Cam stayed down and before the other Humans were able to rush for help, the rest of the herd was standing in the door.
"Hey, gurls!", Pinkie said with a smile, as if nothing just happened. "How did it go?"
"Not well", Twilight told her with a face and tone as pissed as a Princess of Friendship should never become.
Rodney and Sam raised their hands and stood up from the Mirror, slowly backing up into Teal'C's direction. He had his Staff-Weapon raised and aimed at the Princess.
"More weapons?", Twilight grunted through her teeth just before her pink magic ripped the staff of the Jaffa's hands. It flew off into the dark library space and left the Humans unarmed.
Vala laid her pistol on the ground and raised her hands as well.
"Friends?" Twilights gaze became fiery, "You're no friends of mine."
Rex couldn't be more happy about the situation. And with the sentence, "Now, this is our queue to leave", he aimed the Inaji-Book at the next wall and jumped through the portal that appeared there. His friends and servants followed him without hesitation. And before the Ponies noticed they were leaving, the portal was closed behind them.
Jack near the side chamber of the library was sitting casually next to the herd. When they spotted him he raised his hands and shrugged. "I'm just an old man. Don't make me stand up, please."
Daniel put himself into the line, between his group and the horns of the Unicorns. "That was dumb. We're sorry. We shouldn't have tried to take the Mirror. And he shouldn't have shot at you."
From the hallway they heard a thin voice, "That was really stupid!"
"You can lock us up", Daniel continued, "But it was your Mirror, your magic that brought us here. This is your mess. We were just trying to fix it. Our behavior can not be excused, but we did what we thought was right."
Twilight took a moment to think, her friends where waiting for her judgement.
"So do I", she said and her pink magic tossed a ray at the Humans before her. The glow framed them and they stopped moving all together. Frozen in stasis they would remain this way until Twilight had found a solution.
Only Jack remained on his spot. "You didn't kill them, right?"
He was met by the fiery gaze of the Alicorn. She walked up to him and yelled, "What is wrong with you Humans?!"
"I'm asking that myself every day. Seriously."
After she caught her breath she explained, "They will remain frozen until I know how to get rid of you."
"Isn't that a nice thing to say?"
"And you! You can guard them, if you want. But don't do anything funny."
"I'm never funny. Almost never. Hardly. Sometimes."
"But Twilight", Applejack brought her back to Equestria, "How do you want to bring them back home now?"
"I don't." She went to the Mirror and tossed her Magic at it. "We'll just find a place they can survive in and then just send them off. Bye-bye Humans." The channels of the Mirror changed just like before.
"I see the Mirror is working. But where's Starswirl? He ought to be here by now."
"Oh", Fluttershy squeaked, "He was here, yes. He made the Mirror work and then he went to talk to the blue Lizard."
"To Rex?" She turned to look around. "Where by Celestia are the Lizards now?!"
NICE DAY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD
"And what exactly is he doing here?"
"Yeah, what am I doing here?", Spike asked the Lizards. He found himself in the hands of the blue shaded Rex, the mage dressed in black, and in the company of the other alien Lizards and the barely-Humans they were traveling with.
They were gathering in the dusty ruins of the old castle of the sisters on the other side of the Everfree Forest and above the Tree of Harmony. In particular they were standing in the hall that once held the Elements of Harmony in a solar-system-like contraption.
"Why", Rex was happily answering the little Dragon, "You are the key for our next step."
"Does Twilight know about this?"
Rex chuckled. "The Twilight Princess? You're fun, little Spike."
"What is the next step, while we're on it?", Krator asked him seriously. If he was frank with himself, he wanted nothing more than to end this madness, but he also had to save everyone from this damned planet. And so he was relying on Rex's power to bring them back, and only then he could make an end of him.
Rex was drawing his Inaji-Book from his coat, "See this, your Grace? This is our way home."
"What happened to your book?", Krator pointed at it in suspicion, "What is this?"
Even Spike was unsure, "I've never seen gems like this before."
"Somehow I knew that already, little Spike", Rex smiled. He gently petted the cover of the blue glowing book. "I'm calling it the Ih'Na'Ji'Sh Haff'Fa'Sha'Mr'Ah Zuh'Vin."
"A growing crystal blue as the rain?", Krator wondered. "Growing how?"
"That is the trick, you see. This stone is unique to the planet and responsible for its magic properties. One can find it here and there in larger clusters but really it is everywhere around us. It's in the air, the water, the food. Even we got infected with it by now. Well", Rex looked at Morty,
Hati stepped up to Rex and reached out for the book, "And you want to use it to get us back home?", but waited for Rex to hand it to him.
"Why, yes. You see, the Inajish Haffashamrah Zuvin has the ability to store this world's magic and grow from it. Since the cosmos is depleted, the power of this stone is the only source I can use to create a portal through time."
Hati was looking at Rex, but when he touched the Inaji with his right hand, his curseth hand, it ignited into flames. Immediately he let go and gave the book back to Rex, while shaking off the flames until they were gone. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's use it and get out of here, before the Twilight decides to genocide us."
"I need more of it."
"How much more?", Morty asked.
"A lot more. This amount will suffice the portal of the size of a fist for two seconds. If you don't want anyone to stay behind, we need at least window size for twenty seconds."
"And how much is a lot?"
"Why, Doctor, it's no amount one could carry, I'm sure of that."
Spike pulled Rex's coat, "That still doesn't explain, why I'm here."
But the mage merely opened his Inaji-book and from cloudy mists that swirled around the little Dragon, a chain and collar were born into reality. "You're bait, little one."
"Wow-wow, what?!", Krator pushed Rex and he was little amused about it. "Bait for what? You said you needed Inaji!"
"Why, yes, your Grace!" Rex walked a few steps to the next glassless window and presented it. The others were joining him and looking through it. "This is what I need."
"The forest?"
"The clouds?"
"THE SUN!", Rex madly yelled before calming himself, "Its core is of pure Inaji, a moon-sized powercore of raw magic. This, Doctor, is the right amount, this is what we need."
"You're insane!", Spike yelled.
And even Hati shook his head, "But you can't steal their sun away, really."
"I'm not planning to keep it, dear. I'll just borrow some of its magic to sustain the spell. It goes back into the sky right after. A few thousand years of sunlight less won't harm anyone."
"No, the Dragon is right, you are insane", Morty claimed. "You can't possibly think to control the sun. It's way too far away for starters."
"Our sun would be, surely, Doctor. But this here is made. It's only a few thousand miles above ground and significantly smaller."
Rook was mumbling in the background, "A balloon. No, no air. A plane! No, again, no air. Also, where would we find a duck at this hour? A cannon? Yes, a cannon. I wonder how much explosives the Horses got on stock. It might just crack the planet in halves."
"Seriously though still", Hati asked him, "How would you get to the sun?"
And Rex was pulling up Spike on his chain, "That's what the bait is for, dear."
"I know it's been a hard time but I need to talk to her." Twilight was followed by her friends on her way to Starlight's chamber. Pinkie told her, that she was resting here after the work in the library tired her out.
"But I'm warning you, she was reeeaaally tired, so tired in fact that you couldn't even talk to her anymore."
"I'm sure she's fine now, Pinkie."
The magical glow of the Princess's horn opened the door and they stepped in. In her bed they found a bulge, but when Twilight was pulling back the sheet, it was only pillows.
"She's not here!"
"But I saw her right there."
Applejack shrugged, "Maybe she woke up sooner and made herself some snack."
"Yeah", Rainbow agreed, "She's probably just in the kitchen."
"But wouldn't she have come our way?", Fluttershy added.
"I'm tellin' you, guys. I didn't see her around since Rex put her to bed."
"Did you just say, Rex put her to bed?", Twilight was slowly turning to Pinkie and her fiery gaze clashed with Pinkie's nervous smile. "Yes? Why?"
She was storming passed her friends and out into the hallway, "That's it! Where is that Lizard?!" Then she stopped in the hallway and yelled, "SPIIIKE!", but he was not showing.
With a flash of her horn she summoned a teleportation spell and from a flash of light appeared a note before her. Confused she unfolded and read it. Her friends were there to listen to her mumbling. "Dearest apologies, but the Dragon you tried to summon is unavailable to this very moment. Please try again at a later moment in time. Yours truly, ReeEEEEX?!."
"Don't worry, darling", Rarity assured her, "We'll find him and this Lizard too, I'm sure of it."
Rainbow shrugged, "And how we're gonna do that?"
"Why, with a little investigation of course!", she halfway sang in high pitch. "Now, let's think about this. Where would Rex be? What does he want?"
"To go back home?"
"Wherever that is."
"But the Mirror is here. So why isn't he?"
Twilight turned around to them, "Because he doesn't need the Mirror anymore." Everypony was waiting for her explanation. "Rex is a wizard too. He might have found another way to get back home. What did he do here, while we were gone?"
Fluttershy was thinking, "Hmm. He was reading an awful lot of books. He wasn't interested into the Mirror much. But he did talk to Starswirl."
"Starswirl! Where is he?"
"Now that you mention it, I didn't see him since he talked to ... uh-oh."
"What in tarnation does he want from them?"
"Starlight Glimmer and Starswirl are powerful Unicorns that know a lot about magic after all", Rarity concluded, "They might have simply stood in his way."
"Or he uses them for his own magic. We've seen this before." Whatever it was, Twilight had to find them before any harm came to them. "Quick now! We need Celestia's help."
"Excellent idea, darling!"
And so they ran down the hallways to catch a train. This time the train would run faster in the service of Harmony Security.
"Now be a good little Dragon and send this letter to the Celestia."
"It's not the Celestia! It's just Celestia. Princess Celestia actually." Spike refused to do the bidding of the Lizard, knowing now that he is a villain.
"Do it", Rex asked him, "And this all will come to an end. Don't you want us to leave your Ponies alone? Do you even know what Brass'Ka eat?"
"Ehm ... Ponies?"
Rex was throwing Spike back to the ground, "Now do it. Use your magic or I'll take it and use it myself. I'm trying to spare you, little Spike. I'm not the enemy here."
"You're a bit harsh to him."
Rex turned to Hati, "Why, if you think you'd do a better job, so please, educate me."
And so Hati kneeled down by Spike and helped him up. "Look, Kid. You don't want this ashole to stay here, do you? If you help us, he goes back to where he came from and between us, we're gonna kick his ass right after. So, what do you say? It's not like there was much of a choice here."
Spike wiped his nose with his arm, "And he gets punished, once you're back?"
"I'll see to it in person."
"Alright." He went up to Rex and reached out his hand, "Give me that letter. Let's get this over with."
And once Rex handed the scroll to him, Spike burned it with his green Dragon fire. The magical smoke traveled through the air and into the sky, to deliver the message to Celestia.
"I still don't get what we need this Celestia for", Krator commented.
"She controls the sun", Rex explained, "We're going to ask her nicely, if we could borrow it."
Krator had his arms crossed and leaned onto some wall by a window. "I'd think that it was a decent plan, almost, if I wouldn't know you that well. Asking nicely isn't a thing you usually do."
"As I told you, I'm considering it."
"I'm asking you, Rex", Krator used his name to show respect and sincerity, and Rex noticed that gesture, "Don't harm them. Don't overthrow this kingdom. You don't have to."
After a moment, he looked at him and said, "I'm-"
"-Considering it", the others finished his sentence in a choir.
Rook mumbled, "I'm seeing a pattern here."
It wasn't long until the smoke made its way to Canterlot and it didn't take long for the white Princess to teleport to the castle. In a great flash of blinding light she appeared in the hall. She was obviously confused once she saw the crowd. Her first look went down to Spike, who was in chains still. "Spike! What is going on here?"
"It's Okay, they just want to ask you for a favour."
Her furious look turned to Rex, who was walking up to her. "Let. Him. Go!"
"Oh, sure, sure", Rex assured her and waved his hand at the chains. Immediately they puffed up into smoke and the Dragon was free to go. He wasn't going anywhere though, but grabbing Celestia's leg in search for safety. "I have no interest in him."
"Great Celestia", Hati was kneeling down in front of the white winged horse, "We don't mean any harm to your kind or kingdom. We got stranded in your time and all we want is a way home. But for that, we need to borrow your sun."
"The sun?!"
"Please, mighty white horse, I mean, Celestia! We are lost without you."
Rook leaned over to Morty who was standing near the walls with him, "Now that is how you ask nicely." And Morty nodded in agreement.
"The sun is not for bargain. And you have no right to ask of such a thing in the first place!", white horse yelled. "Your schemes and foolishness has gone far enough. You and the other Humans will be banned back into the Mirror from where you came!"
A laser as bright as the sun itself shot forth from the long horn of the mighty Alicorn. It passed the smiling Rex without harming him. Confused she shot again but again it went through him.
"I'm really sorry it had to come to this, but I really do need that sun." Rex took his Inaji out of the coat. The pure sight of it shocked Celestia's soul, since she was the first to recognise the nature of the crystal.
"No. What did you do? Where did you get that from?"
"Oh, why, do you know what it is? This?"
"There's only one place where you could have gotten it from." The angry eyes of Celestia began to wet. "Who was it?", she asked calmly.
"A donation from Starlight, Starswirl and this fool Tirek."
"You're never getting away with this!" In an act of pure madness, Celestia was about to charge the blue mage. She startled when she found her hooves stuck to the ground.
"Now she's frozen. What's next?", Hati asked. "She didn't give us the sun."
"I can get it myself. There's merely something I'll need from her first."
And as before, the fur and skin of the horse in the magical field was cut open and moved from the body like a winter's coat. Muscles and organs made way for Rex to reach the holy skeleton.
The others didn't trust their eyes, since the bones were covered with the Inaji the same way the book was covered in it as well. Now there was no question where Rex got the stone from.
"Is that what you have been doing?", Krator yelled.
"I can't look!", Elisa cried and cowered in some corner of the stone hall.
"Rex!", Hati yelled at him, "I'm not asking Why, I'm not asking How, I know the answers to those questions. But I ask of you, please, don't murder these fine horses."
Rex turned to his servants. "You're fools, all together! Do you put the life of some animal, or some Unicorn from a planet of the far future, before your life or the fate of Xerexarea? What do you think will happen to your home, to your family, the Temples and kingdoms, when the Flesh God wins the war?"
Hati looked away, squeezing his eyes to avoid a tear. "How many Unicorns did you need to get your book covered?"
"Not much, I assure you. Merely two, plus a Centaur."
"Are those the sacrifices of war, the casualties we have to take?"
"It's not like they would remain dead, dear. Once I'm done, I can fix everything."
While Hati and Krator were making up their minds, if they stood up against the Lizard Wizard's hazard, Rex was casting his spell to the end.
Calmly he went to the window and gazed upon the sun. With the grasp of his hand up into the sky, the sun started to shake and move in the ways of his claws.
Chuckling Rex shook his head. He actually managed to do it. After so many trials. The sun was his. Now he could finish this misery.
Embracing the power, Rex floated out of the window. The sun was his anchor on which he was able to hang on, granting him the ability to fly.
The heat was rising quickly. Plants started to lose their colour and clouds vanished into thin air.
Rex, as heartless as he might have been, saw the problem clearly. He needed a box to stuff the sun in, so he could work on it safely. The castle beneath him wouldn't do, it was crumbly and cluttered with holes.
With the book in his hand, he summoned a round portal in the air, frameless like a mirror and leading to another place. Elegantly he flew through it and when it closed behind him, Rex was gone.
Hati was coming out of the castle, watching him leave. Beholding the sun together with his friends, he knew they screwed this up. "We might have screwed this up."
"Aye", Rook nodded, "So I've read."
"You know he will ruin their sun, probably forever", Krator worried. "A few deaths for a greater war isn't that much of a deal, though I promise you, the bastard will pay for it. But fiddling with their sun, their nature, that's messed up. Just look around you. The planet is dying."
"It was dying anyway", Morty commented.
"Then it's dying faster now", Krator grunted. "While we're still on it."
"I know that we can't", Hati turned to his friends, "But we'll have to try and stop him. Getting home is great and all, but this price is too damn high. What do you say?"
Krator shrugged with his arms crossed, "What do I say? I wanted to punch the crap out his this bitch since the first time he opened his filthy snout."
"He can fly now. He probably won't let you."
"Then I will die trying, if needed."
Hati nodded, Krator was on board. Morty shrugged, he had nothing to lose. Even Rook gave him a thumbs-up.
Elisa had concerns, "But we'll need help", and she was right.
Hati turned and looked over the treetops into the far distanced Ponyville, crowned by the pink castle. "And I know just who to ask."
On the other side of Rex's portal, he reached the pink castle. Basically owning the place now, he got rid of the gates and floated through the hallways.
As soon as he arrived in the center hall, the hall of the crystal table, he started to cast his spell. Draining on the Inaji of the Alicorn, he pulled on sun and earth alike. A ring of runes appeared around the castle's ground. And soon, accompanied by an earthquake, the granite split into cliffs. Like an island, the castle started to rise up into the sky, floating away like an airship.
The floating fortress then set course to Canterlot-Mountain while steadily soaring.
The rocking hoofsteps of the herd echoed through the halls of Canterlot Castle. They hurried to see Celestia and beg her for help in the times of near war.
In search for her they asked around, servants and secretaries. "She had to head out, I'm afraid", Raven Inkwell told them, "She got a letter from Spike."
She showed them the letter and Twilight was shocked to read it. It didn't read anything in specific, but was made to lure Celestia into the old castle. It was very clear to Twilight, that it was, "A trap by Rex."
While her friends looked at the letter, they started to worry.
"You don't say, he has Celestia, do you?", Fluttershy shivered. And Applejack asked her, "What are we gonna do now?"
Twilight took a moment to think. Her look wandered across the coloured windows that adorned the hall. When her eyes fell upon the idol of Discord, the light shone brighter, the day became whiter and Twilight had an unfortunate idea.
"It's time to ask Discord for help."
"I'm sure he's happy to help", Fluttershy assured.
"Are you sure, Sugarcube? He ain't always the sharpest tool in the shed, if you know what I mean."
"I know", she turned back to her friends, "But we need his magic."
With a glow of her horn, the Princess summoned him. And in a white flash he appeared in the hall.
Discord was known as the god of chaos, whatever that was worth in a dying world like Equestria. He was not of Pony-kind but a dragonic figure, with a long flexible body covered in grey fur on the torso part and dark red scales on the parts beyond the hips. One of his legs was hooved, one was of reptile descent. One of this hands was of a lion and one of bird anatomy and clawed. His face was long but his mouth tiny, adorned by but a single fang. His goatee and bushy brows where white and showing his age. His eyes were yellow and might have been revealing an illness undiscovered to Pony-kind. Two long ears and two long horns adorned his head, and yet again, they weren't the same. One horn was curved and bumpy, grown from rings and of the capricorn family, but the other was branchy and forked, like deers have them.
When he appeared in the hall, he was covered by foam, holding a brush in his hand and wearing a thin cap on his head between the horns. His fur was wet and dripping.
"What is it, that doesn't have time until after my bathing time?", he asked the Ponies with his wacky voice.
"There's an emergency and Equestria needs your help."
"Emergency, hmm? Equestria? Or do you mean, you, Princess Twilight Sparkle?", he bent down to her, smiled and poked her nose with his lion paw.
Since they don't have the best relationship, Fluttershy picked up from here and went up to Discord. "Discord, there's a villain in Ponyville. Ponies went missing and now Celestia is missing too."
Discord was immediately excited, "What?!" His gear disappeared and he was clean and ready. "Where is this villain?"
"First you have to try to save the ones that went missing", Twilight commanded.
"Alright, who was it?"
"Starlight Glimmer, Starswirl the bearded and Celestia."
"And Spike too, dear!"
There was powerful magic roaming within Discord. With a single snap of his fingers he could have done anything he wanted, even bring balance to the universe, as all things should be. His personality prevented him from great heroism though, at least for most of his time.
Since he was friends with Fluttershy, he tried to make a better use of his powers. And this was one of those trials.
But only Spike appeared.
Everyone was confused. "Where are the others?", Twilight asked.
"This is weird." Discord snapped the finger again and again, but none appeared. "It's like, they don't exist anymore."
Fluttershy hid her crying face behind her hooves, "Oh, no." And the others were shocked as well. Only Twilight was mad. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, they might be ... be ... dea-"
"NO! It can't be! It mustn't!" Twilight's eyes started to glow white, magic was oozing out of her body, squirting from her horn. The air around her was charged and sparking. The charged air soared and created suction, turning the halls into a windy place.
Applejack fought her way through the wind, she didn't stop until she held Twilight in her arms. Her hat flew off under the ceiling but she couldn't let go of her. "It's alright, Twilight!", she yelled. Her voice was carried away but Twilight heard her. "We can fix this!"
They were soon joined by the other mares and the wind weakened.
Once they all had the Princess in their arms, her magic seized and her eyes returned to be teary.
"You're right", she sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "We have to fix this. We're the only ones that can."
"Fix what exactly?"
The loud voice of the Princess of the night made every head turn around. Luna walked into the hall on her search for her sister. "Why is it still day outside?"
She looked at Discord, "And why is he here?"
"A great day to you too, Luna."
"Princess Luna!", Twilight yelled happily and trotted her way. "Thank Celestia, you're still here!"
"Talking of her, where is she?"
"We don't know. We think she was captured by one of the aliens."
"The Humans?!"
"No, the other ones. One of the Lizards."
"There were Lizards too?"
"Humans, Lizards", Discord sounded bored, "What's the difference? Let's just go there and get Tia out of there."
"Why don't you teleport her here?"
He shrugged, "I can't. I know, right?"
"Very well then", she looked down to Twilight, "Where is this Lizard?"
"No!", Spike yelled. "Don't go there. Please! He'll get you too!"
"Spike?! What happened?", Twilight asked while the Dragon clinged onto her leg.
"Rex, he took her magic away! And now he controls the sun!"
"Ehm, guys?" Rainbow floated by the window and caught eye of something peculiar. The gang checked for themselves, but didn't exactly take it well.
"But", Twilight yelled, "Hey! That's my castle!"
They beheld the flying pink castle that slowly approached Canterlot. "At least now we know where he is", Rainbow shrugged.
Luna turned Twilight around and ordered her, "You go ahead, stop this madness before more Ponies come to harm. I'll get help. I know somepony with experience in unusual situations like this."
Twilight nodded, "Fine", and turned to the window. She gazed at her castle, "Let's get him head on!"
"Aww-yeah! Now you're talking my language."
"Discord! Can you get us in?"
"Puh-lease", he sighed and snapped his fingers. Luna was left alone when the mares, Spike and Discord disappeared in a flash.
Immediately she hurried down the hallways to get her friend for help.
In the meantime, the Elements of Harmony, or the bearers anyway, found themselves in a slightly redecorated crystal castle. The crystals were almost black and every other colour darker overall.
The light was dim around them and their eyes didn't catch where they were.
"Do you like it, Princess?", the smooth voice of the Lizard Wizard echoed through the darkness.
"Show your face and I tell you what I'm thinkin'", the Princess grunted through her teeth.
"I'm growing it bigger. Since, you see, when it comes to castles, bigger is better."
"Where is Princess Celestia?! Where is Starlight?! What did you do to them?"
"Why, you came for the Unicorns? And there I thought you were concerned about the Humans."
From the dark background, the Humans appeared around the mares. While still frozen like statues they were put around them in a circle. Only Jack O'Neill was alive and thrown onto his injured knees. His hands were in chains but other than that, he was unharmed.
The Ponies gasped upon their mistake. They left the Humans in the castle and now they were in the hands of the mad Lizard.
"Take them, they are yours. I have no use for them", Rex said.
And so Twilight collected them with her pink framing magic, eventually to unfreeze them from their spell.
Rodney yelled immediately and twitched. His high pitch scream was for all to hear. Since nothing was happening to him, he dared to look up.
Ashamed he straightened his back and clothing and cleared his throat. "Hello there?"
Cam and the Humans looked around, "What is going on here? Did the room change all of the sudden?"
"Not really", Jack grunted. At once they came to him to help him up. "What happened, Sir?"
"Long story short. While you were frozen, one of the Lizards went insane. He's all powerful now and we need to stop him."
"Why", Rex sighed, "You cannot imagine how sick of this sentence I am by now. No, you don't need to stop me. And no, you can't if you tried."
"If I could see him, I could give it a shot", Cam joked while his eyes tried to pierce the darkness.
Fluttershy whispered, "Discord, light."
"Oh, right, right!", he nodded and raised his hand. Everyone was blinded when he made the night of the hall into a bright day.
What it revealed was horrifying. The ceiling and walls of the great hall were swarmed by gigantic eels. The black, slick bodies seemed endless and intertwined in an everlasting motion. Here and there a head peeked out of it to hiss at the self proclaimed heroes and heroines, to then go back into the pile.
While they were in awe, they heard the laughing of the blue mage.
"You're trying this every time. It's getting boring."
"Darkness, please", Fluttershy squeaked and the light disappeared again.
"Every time?", Twilight muttered.
Rainbow just said, "You know you're crazy, right? I mean, we have fought bad guys before, but this is just over the top."
"No, actually", Hati said, "This is just another Ri'Sh-Day."
The cluster of Pones and Humans beheld the hall entrance and the Lizards that stood in it.
At once, Cam opened fire and sent three rounds their way. Krator jumped in front of Elisa with his gauntlets risen. Two of the rounds ricocheted from his golden metal into the hall, one went through Morty's lifeless skeleton body. "Are you done now?", he asked plainly.
"Wow! Hey!", Hati yelled madly, "Don't do that, man! We're here to help you guys!"
"Oh, yeah?", Cam asked, "I'm sorry if I'm not that quick to believe you, man."
"Cam Mitchell! What, if they tell of the truth?"
"Teal'C is right, you know", Rex explained. "It has always come to this, you see. But now that we're all complete, we can move on already."
Everyone that had a weapon was drawing it. Rook drew his pistol and so did Cam, Sam and Vala. Teal'C was aiming his staff weapon into the void.
Hati was drawing his steel blade from his belt, "We don't have to do this, Rex. We can just finish your thing and walk away. Just walk away, right?"
Only Morty didn't make any effort, he had his arms crossed and rolled his eyes. "This is getting us nowhere."
"The Doctor is right. The changes you're making are minuscule."
"Oh", Hati mumbled, "I have a hunch. And it's bad."
"What are you talking about?", Jack yelled, "What changes?"
"Why, you never remember it. Certainly didn't remember it the last time. I confess, I was quite rude the last time. Maybe that is the reason why you are so angry about it. Why, now, there's an interesting issue I have to experiment on, once I'm done here."
Pinkie's pitch voice shred the darkness, "Everypony hold onto each other!"
And with an echoing laugh, magical runes appeared around the hall and every each one within. The floor opened beneath them and they all fell through the conjured portals, everyone through their own.
"I hate when he does that." Hati stood up and dusted himself. Close by he found Princess Twilight, her friend Pinkie and the Human woman Carter. They all looked rather rattled by the fall through the castle ground.
They checked if everyone was okay and then where they were. The castle was far in the horizon on the other side of a wide forest, above the top of the Canterlot-Mountain. The four lost adventurers were placed on top of some grass hill at the far end of Ponyville.
The daylight was off, the sun straight above the pink floating castle and slowly sinking lower. Soon it would reach the castle halls and then Rex would be unstoppable.
"You're telling me he did that before?", Twilight yelled at the green Lizard.
"Well, the portal thing, not the castle thing. Or the sun thing."
"Or the murder thing", Sam added.
"No, he actually does that a lot." The three ladies looked at Hati, speechless. "What?", he shrugged, "It's not like I'm asking him to do it, alright?"
"But you will help us to stop him?", the Princess sincerely asked.
Hati nodded, "Yeah, of course. Wouldn't be the first time either. He gets lost, sometimes, y'know? He's not a bad guy. He saved my life more often than I got fingers on both me hands, alright?"
"Probably took more lives than that too."
Hati chuckled nervously, "Haha, yeah, probably. I'm really sorry about all of this."
"Save it for after the battle", Sam said while checking on her P-90.
While they walked down the hill, he asked her, "Is that a gun? Can I have one?"
Mitchell found himself in the company of young Elisa, her friend Knom and the two natives Rainbow Hair Lightning Butt and Spike the Dragon.
"The name's Rainbow Dash, got that?"
"Dash, alright. Where's your horn?"
They all fell into some dark place covered by tree tops, deep within the forest and no visuals on a way out. It was wild and undiscovered territory, a danger zone no Pony ever entered.
"Ehm, I'm a Pegasus, I have wings. Horns are for Unicorns."
Cam checked on her from head to hoof with a slightly confused look, "Right! I thought I heard about stuff like that before."
Elisa was some steps further off and landed in a treetop, where she was stuck, because it was too high to jump down and too slick to climb.
When the two on the ground stood under the tree, Cam held his arms wide open. "Jump, I'll catch you."
She looked around but only saw those two. "Where's Krator?"
Cam turned and whispered, "Do you know who that is?"
"One of the Lizards, right?", she whispered before Elisa answered, "Yes, the yellow one!"
They froze for a moment and looked at her before Dash whispered again, "You think she can hear us?"
"Yes, I can!"
"Hmm", Cam nodded, "Maybe."
"Certainly! I have excellent hearing."
"Look, Honey-"
"Elisa!"
"Look, Elisa, Honey", Cam yelled up to her while she rolled her eyes, "Krator isn't here, alright? We got separated. It's just us. But we'll find him together."
"Then go find him, I'll wait here. Bring him to me."
Cam slowly nodded, "Alright. Right."
"Bad idea", Rainbow whispered while floating on Cam's shoulder height, "If this forest is somewhat like the Everfree Forest, it's haunted by monsters and magical creatures."
"Monsters?"
"Yep."
"Magical Creatures?" Cam looked around.
"Yep."
"I don't care!", Elisa yelled, "Better find him quick then! Go hurry."
"Harry?"
"Hurry", Rainbow explained.
"Oh, alright." Cam turned to the tree again, "My name is Cameron. Cameron Mitchell. I'm a soldier. You can trust me, alright?"
"Soldiers killed my father!"
"I'm sorry about that." Cam looked at his feet and pulled his nose, then looked up again, "Look, Kid."
"Elisa!"
"Look, Elisa, Kid. We should really get out of here. This isn't safe. And we need to save the world still, right? Today, probably."
"I will not jump into your arms! You're crazy! Look at your size, you're tiny!"
Cam caught Rainbow nodding. "What, what's that supposed to mean?"
"She's not wrong about that, y'know."
"You're a tiny Pony, you're the one to talk. Don't even got a horn."
"I can fly, and I'm fast."
"Oh, alright. Then why don't you fly up to her and get her down, alright?
"I'm still waiting for Krator."
Which made Cam yell in frustration, but he couldn't leave her here. He calmed down and danced nervously on the spot.
"Elisa", Cam smiled, "I don't wanna be that guy, but you gotta come with me, if you wanna live."
That sentence sounded familiar to her and so she accepted. "Okay, but I'm not looking after him", she pointed at Knom and started to slip down the branch.
"Him, what?" They both looked at the expressionless boy Knom and almost missed Elisa.
Only thanks to the fast reaction of Rainbow Hair Lightning Butt she was caught savely and placed back onto the forest grounds.
Once Elisa smiled again, Spike came around and told them about a path way he found.
Together they walked by the never ending trees and across the leaves' shade, in hope to find some kind of direction soon.
"My friends call me Cam."
"I'll stick to Cameron."
When Krator looked around to grasp the situation, he almost broke his oath that bound him not to curse. Not only had he to defeat the Master of Thieves, Rex, that revealed himself to put up another one of his villainous schemes, but to top it all, none of his friends made it to the other side of the portals. Especially Elisa, who he had sworn to protect, was out of his sight.
They were brought to a cave that was only lit by the magical glowing gemstones imbedded into the surrounding granite. Multiple types of gems shone a variance of colours into the chamber. And Rarity knew them all by heart.
A few steps down the tunnel, Rarity and Krator could find Applejack and the Humans Jack, Vala and Daniel.
"Your friend needs to be taught a lesson", O'Neill said to Krator.
"He's not my friend. I tolerated his schemes for the sake of our mission. But you're right, this is going too far. He will take the sun of this planet away, so it might not shine ever again, and then leave to return back home. A dark rock, covered in eternal night, is all that will remain of this place."
"My, didn't we hear that story before?", Applejack cynically added. "What's so special about the sun that every villains wants to get rid of it?"
"I'm not sure", Krator answered her, "It has something to do with how the magic of your world works. Rex isn't used to it and he needs a powersource native to your world to compensate for it."
Daniel wrinkled his forehead, "But you're not sure?"
"How does he look like if he's sure?", Vala commented jokingly.
"Then do come along, y'all. We need to get back to the castle if we ever want to stop this Rex." Applejack followed Rarity down the tunnel, who knew her way around here.
They came along, but Daniel had to ask, "You seem to know this place."
"Oh, yes, dear. I come here hunting for rare gems whenever fashion demands it."
Krator shorty stopped by a gem and ripped it out of the wall. "Are these gems magical?", he asked while he went on.
"No, not at all, just regular gems", Rarity explained, "I'm making them glow with my magic, dear."
"That is quite interesting. I wish we had time to learn more about Unicorn Magic."
"We did start on the wrong foot, didn't we?", Jack asked the Templar, "All this huzzle with the Mirror and the Gate, finding a way home. It really robbed us of learning from this place."
Daniel was surprised, "Curious to hear that from you."
"Yes, well, I'm getting older and once you do, you start to think more about those things, y'know?"
"Yes, General", Krator nodded, "We never did take the time to just breath in. Even though breathing this air might kill us someday."
Vala grabbed Krators muscular arm and smiled at him, "How old are you, Mister?"
"I'm not Mister, Lady. I'm Highpriest Krator, Templar of Karinthor, and to answer your silly question, I'm counting sixteen glorious Harvesting Seasons."
She chuckled, "You're sixteen? You're a child."
"If I were a Human, then yes, even though a Human that age would be married with children where I come from. It's not my fault your bodies grow as slowly as your minds."
She let go of his arm. "Ouch." And fell back to Daniel.
"You're making friends?"
"Shut up you."
Soon they arrived at a dead end in the tunnel, but Rarity assured that this was the way.
"There must have been a cave in. Clearing his path will take ages", she complained.
"Pathetic", Krator barked and went up to the wall of pebbles and rocks.
Powerful he rammed his gauntlets into the rock and ripped it apart. The wall split in the middle like a secret entrance and made way for the group to pass.
"How did you do that?", Jack mumbled, "How did he do that?"
"I'm Highpriest Krator!"
"Yeah, we got that part", Applejack said.
"Master of the elements!" He went up to Rarity, "I'm surprised you possess magic but are unable to bend the elements to your will."
"Why, you see", she nervously smiled, "I never tried to, I mean, I'm more into fashion, really. The magic stuff is more Starlight’s and Twilight's cup o'tea, you see?"
And so they went on through the chambers, leaving less gems behind than they encountered on arrival.
"Are you clinking?", Daniel asked Vala.
"No?"
When they finally saw the light of day again, they rushed to the outside, but what they saw there was unsettling. On the other side of the wide fields and forests of Ponyville they saw the castle swallowing the low setting sun.
"We must hurry!", Krator yelled and expanded his bat-like wings on his back.
"Wait, this isn't right." Discord looked around but saw himself in the same dark, eel infested hall, that he came from.
"No, it is", Rex's smooth voice claimed. "I made the mistake to send you off with them before. I'm not tending to make the same mistake twice."
"If you want to dance!", Discord added boxer's shorts and mittens to his outfit and threw a few punches, "You picked the wrong opponent."
From the darkness around, Rex stepped into the light in front of Discord. He had a smile on his face and his hands behind his back, which held the Inaji.
"Playing with you could have been amusing, if I wasn't so short on time. Look up, it's over."
"Nice try." But suddenly a beam of light shone down on Discord and the middle of the hall. The ceiling started to open and welcome the massive sun core. The night of the hall was turned into pure white.
Rex and Discord both had their shades on and faced one another. "And now what? What's next?"
"Nothing", Rex shrugged, "I merely have to wait."
"Then allow me", Discord snapped his fingers. Since nothing happened, he snapped them again. But still, his spell didn't work. "Now, that's a first."
"A second, actually, but never mind that." Runes on the floor lit up and revealed a ring around Discord. "I might not be able to get your magic for myself without more Inaji to store it in, but I can rob you of it to leave you powerless."
"You ... you took my magic away? That's impossible, only ... only Tir-"
"Tirek? Yes, he was very cooperative. Well, more or less."
Exhausted Discord fell to his knees. "Do you have any last words?", Rex asked him while he got closer.
"Last words? What do you want to do to me?"
"This", the runes darkened and with them the floor in the circle. The ground disappeared and Discord fell into the void beyond. Standing on the edge, Rex looked after him and watched his powerless body freeze solid in the eternal cold.
Once the portal closed again, Discord's remains were out of this world.
"Okay, I know this looks bad, but if you cooperate, I can promise you a puppy! You do want to have a puppy, aye?"
"A puppy?", Fluttershy rubbed the tears off her cheeks, "What kind of puppy?"
Rook looked confused and straightened his back, "Puppies have kinds? The more you learn."
"You didn't just bargain for another puppy, did you?", Morty asked him in an angry tone. The flaming skeleton had his arms crossed and his fire was an indicator for his bad mood.
"It made her stop crying, didn't it?"
Morty hissed through his closed teeth, "You don't have any puppies."
"She don't need to know that, savvy?"
"It's okay", she stood up on her hooves and even smiled again. "The thought of puppies alone cheered me up. Thanks." Fluttershy reached out her hoof, "We haven't really met yet. I'm Fluttershy."
Rook grinned, sat down and shook her hoof, "Name's Rook. And this is the Doc."
"Ugh", Morty grunted, "It's Doctor Mortanius Kältezorn."
"A doctor?", Fluttershy wondered, "I wouldn't have guessed."
"Hey", Rodney yelled, "I'm a doctor too, I let you know. Doctor Rodney McKay, physictis."
"Not a real doctor then", Morty mumbled.
"Oh yeah? What", Rodney nervously asked, "What are you a doctor in, medicine?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, wow. I hope I'm not getting sick."
Rook whispered loudly to Fluttershy, "He's more of a surgeon anyway."
"That's", Rodney mumbled, "Actually really creepy."
"You could say he worked himself to the bone", Rook joked.
Morty rolled his glowing eyes, "Funny. Never heard that one before."
Fluttershy smiled, "Really?"
"No", Rook explained, "I'm making that same joke every day."
"Great", Rodney walked around the dark room, "We're doomed. I'm never getting home ever again. I'll die here. Some villain is taking over the world and I'm sitting here in this dungeon with a bunch of morons, great! Just great!"
"Hey!", Rook yelled, "No one's calling Fluttershy a moron, pal!"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Morons plus a talking horse. My apologies!"
"Doctor Rodney McKay!" Teal'C came back from his scouting. "This way leads to the outside. Follow me."
"Yes, yes!", Rodney cheered and followed him.
Ever since the portal brought them here, they looked for a way out. They got trapped in a maze of walls and dark chambers. Dust piled up in the corners and spiders’ webs hung from the ceilings. But there was no light, no windows and no torches. Only Mortanius provided them with a fire's flicker while they walked down the shady pavement.
At the end of some narrow corridor, there was finally a light shining down some stone stairs. Once the group climbed up the stairs, they reached a fine hallway, made from white marble and decorated with red carpet.
Rodney knew this scenery. "This looks like we're back in Canterlot."
"Indeed."
Checking back on the entrance revealed that they came from a secret entrance hidden behind a door sized painting of some Pony general in uniform.
The windows in front of them born an unsettling picture. The light of the sun was dimmed and low in its angle.
"The thief really done it now", Morty grunted with his high, sick voice.
"We need to stop him, now!", Teal'C added. But Rook and Morty shared a look and only shrugged.
"I have no idea how to stop him", Morty explained, "He was a legendary mage before but now he's provided with unlimited power. I'm immortal but fighting him would still remain madness."
"Madness?", Fluttershy gasped. "This is Equestria! And we never give up, never give in. You go up into the castle now and put your friend into his place or Celestia help me, I'll drag all of you off this planet myself!"
They looked at Fluttershy hovering above the floor. Their faces showed the awe they were put in and they remained silent for a moment before sharing some looks.
Teal'C nodded eventually and went on down the hallway. Rodney skipped after him.
"Impressive", Morty admitted, "You remind me of my late wife."
"Oh, I'm sorry", Shy apologised.
"No, it's fine. You didn't know. We all have our luggage that pulls us down, don't we? Now", he went on down the hallway, "Let's put Rex into his place, shall we?"
"Wow, mate", Rook went after him and Fluttershy, "I didn't think I'd die today."
From a pink flash of magic, Sam, Pinkie, Hati and Twilight appeared near Ponyville. Only a few steps down the dusty road, they could see the first buildings that surrounded the marketplace.
"We're almost there", the Princess said.
"Wow!", Hati looked dizzy, "Enough of the teleports, alright? This cannot be healthy, come on!" The green Lizard was fighting to stay on his feet and waited for the world to stop spinning.
"But it's the fastest way. Look, he already has the sun hidden in the castle."
The land beyond the Canterlot-Mountain was sparsely lit by sharp rays of white daylight that pierced the windows of the pink, reshaped castle. It was now bigger and owned a dome that born the sun.
"Like a disco ball, nice", Pinkie liked how it looked. "Indeedy."
Hati eventually bent down, supported his hands on his knees and took deep breaths. He really didn't want to throw up now but his stomach had become his enemy, thanks to the Princess's spell. "If we get there first but half dead, it won't do us any good."
Sam used the pause to check on something but her hand that went for her belt grabbed nothing but her butt. "Dammit", she sighed, "I lost my computer."
Hati spit into the sand of the pathway, "What does that computer do?"
"It has a library of our maps, it knows where we live."
"In that case", Hati stood up again, "You didn't lose it. Rex took it."
"That can't be, he never touched me."
"Lady, he's a thief, King of Thieves actually. He just stole the sun while we were watching. Trust me, if you're missing something, Rex has it."
Twilight was watching her world falling into misery. The strong wind of the upcoming storm was waving through her long mane and shook her feathers.
"What did he mean earlier?", she asked Hati. "He said something about this time and remembering."
"Last time", Pinkie said, "We didn't remember it last time, he said."
"Yes, that. Do you have any idea what that was about?"
Hati sighed, "Yes, sadly I do. Rex told me once about this teacher he had in his youth. He was teaching him forbidden magic and therefore was executed by the Templemaster."
"But that's terrible", Sam commented.
"The Master is a tyrant, it's not surprising. To save his teacher from death, Rex used his magic to go back in time."
"I know what that feels like."
"Me too", Twilight sighed, "But it never works."
"I guess every time traveler has to learn his lesson", Hati continued, "Rex got stuck in a year’s time. It kept repeating, so Rex had the chance to train and retry. But whatever he did, he couldn't save his teacher to an acceptable price. But when he wanted to end the spell, he couldn't. He spent six hundred years figuring out how to end the spell, while mastering magic. That's why he's that powerful, but also that cold hearted."
"He doesn't look his age."
Hati smiled at Sam and chuckled, "No, he really doesn't."
"And you think he did that spell again", Twilight concluded.
"Yeah, I think he's looping us. That way he can control the outcome to his likings. That's why we had no chance. He knew what we were going to do."
"Aww, come on now!", Pinkie wrapped her arms around Twilight and Hati and pulled them together, "We can still do this! We just have to act unexpectively!"
"You mean unexpectedly?"
"Ex-actly."
"That's", Hati admitted, "Not a bad idea. But how would you do that?"
"We also have to break his time spell", she ripped herself free from Pinkie's grasp. "What do you know about Time-Spells?"
"Me?", Hati looked confused, "All I know? Time is a valuable thing, watch it fly by as the pendulum swings. Watch it count down to the end of the day. The clock ticks life away."
"Yes, yes", Twilight nodded at first but then realised, "No. That's", and shook her head, "Not what I had in mind."
"Cool", Sam gave them a thumbs up, "We're all going to die." She shook her head as well, "No, you know what? I've lived through so much bullshit, I'm not going to die here on this piece of shit of a planet."
"Hey!", the two Ponies rebelled.
"Sorry. No offense."
Twilight turned to the castle again, "If only Starlight was here, or Starswirl -"
"Or anyone else with Star in their name."
"- They knew how to counter his spell."
"That's probably why Rex took them out first. They were his greatest threats", Hati explained.
"Well", Sam said, "We're still here."
"Yeah, right! Because he knows that we can never defeat him. But", Hati nodded seriously, "That doesn't mean we can't try."
Twilight's brows sank down onto her eyes, giving her a murderous gaze, "Let's go kick some serious butt."
"Wow", Hati chuckled, "That sounded almost badass, gurl."
"Are you ready to teleport again?"
"Yeah, but, let's jump as far as we can, alright? Straight to the city, if you can."
"I'll see what I can do", Twilight assured him and cast her pink flashy spell to relocate them into battle.
Rex's eyes glowed in a bright green tone when he cast his spell. Above the groups he sent into the four winds, a floating glass marble was carried by black bug. They were following their progress and decisions, since everything the marble reflected was visible to Rex.
Behind him was the sun's core floating under the ceiling. The white light was slowly dimming, the more magic was drained from it. "Very well", Rex monologued with his eyes upon the groups, "Time to slow them down, just a bit."
And while he was making his preparations, Elisa was leading Spike and Knom out of the forest. Cameron and Rainbowmane Pinkeye were following them.
After the next tree, they were able to see the sandy pathway that lead to Ponyville. And Spike was already up and about to rush to it, but Elisa grabbed his tail to stop him.
Her ears twitched, "Hold on, cutie. Something's wrong."
Cameron mumbled, "Why is he the cutie now?"
"Hush", Rainbow Buttzapp put her hoof on his mouth.
Elisa was looking around. She had a bad feeling about this.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
"I don't see anything", Spike said. "Everything is quiet."
"That is exactly what I'm afraid of", Elisa explained. "There's no wind, no birds, no rattling of the leafs."
She let go of Spike and he dropped to the ground. Staring straight ahead she took a branch from the grass and tossed it at the pathway.
A few steps in it stopped in the air and was frozen in time.
Cameron walked up to Elisa in awe, "I've seen this before. It's a riddle."
"No, it's really not. It's just a trap", she sighed. "I wouldn't be surprised if the pathway was fake too."
"Do we", Spike asked, "Walk around it?"
"Well, we can't go through it. So", she shrugged, "Yes, I guess."
"Or we just fly over it!", Painshow Bash flapped her wings and dashed into the clouds, catapulting her quick body over the forest in a wide bow. Until she was stuck in the timefield.
They could see her from the ground, just standing still in the air, with her cocky smug on her face, probably forever. "Yep", Elisa nodded, "There goes one."
She turned and went on her way around the field, when Cameron grabbed her arm, "Hold on, we can't just leave him like this."
Elisa looked up to him with tired eyes, "Uh-huh? And how would you help her?"
"Her? I don't know. But we have to do something."
Elisa pointed her index up into the sky, where Buttface McCrack got herself caught, "She's stuck."
"Yeah, she is."
Spike pulled Elisa's jacket, "Please."
"Aargh", she grunted and rubbed her face, "I'm just fourteen, why do I have to be the adult here?"
Spike rose his hand, "I'm nine."
Elisa slowly started to nod. Then she sat down to talk to the little Dragon. "She's stuck, but she's safe. She's unharmed, just frozen in time, okay? We can help her by making Rex stop the spell. So let's go do that."
Spike nodded seriously, "Okay, let's go then."
And so they walked further around the forest, taking the long way around. Repeatedly Elisa would throw something into the field to see where it was.
Morty, Teal'C, Rodney, Rook and Fluttershy were standing on the great balcony of the Castle Canterlot, with their necks bent and their eyes directed upwards at the floating fortress of the Lizard Wizard.
There was still a lot of mountain between the highest tower of the castle and the end bits of the fortress.
"How are we getting up there?", Teal'C asked mainly Rodney.
Morty jumped at the question, "I could fly up there but I can't carry anyone."
"Oh", Fluttershy added, "I can fly too. But someone has to hold my hoof. Flying that high is getting me scared."
"A Pegasus", Rodney sighed, "Scared of heights. Great." His eyes fell upon Rook but he defended himself.
"Don't look at the beak, mate, I can only fly down stairs."
"OUT OF THE WAY!", they heard a gigantic scream and without even a second to turn around and check, they were pushed off their feet.
Humans and Ponies fell from the sky and rolled across the balcony marble.
But once they all came to a rest and looked around, they felt most happy. Fluttershy rushed to Applejack and Rarity and hugged them nearly to death. And Teal'C too came to help the old General.
Eventually Krator landed gently in between the crowd and folded his gigantic wings. He had a vine in his hand and started to roll it into a ring.
"So", Morty walked up to the Brass'Ka, "Did you have a good trip?"
"Nothing we couldn't overcome. What about you?"
"I'm fine", Jack said. "In case anyone wondered." The group gathered around.
"We were just wondering how to get up there. But now that you're here", Morty explained to Krator.
"I cannot carry that many people. Not because I wouldn't be strong enough."
"No, of course you would."
"It's a matter of safety, you see."
"Yes, yes", Morty nodded.
Teal'C spoke up, "Then we'll find another way."
"No, no, I can get us there", Krator admitted. "But you have to say it."
"Say it?", Morty wondered.
"Ask me, how we are going to get up there."
Morty shrugged, "How, in all of Vox's power, your grace, are we ever going to get up there?"
Krator grinned and smashed his gauntlets together, "With vigor and valor!"
He bent down like a whip and rammed his fists into the balcony floor. A shockwave went through the stone that cut out a platform around the group. Once it started to get a move on and rose from the rest of the ground, a cliff started to form. The pillar of rock shot upwards into the sky, leaving the castle behind and catapulting the heroes alongside the mad Templar in a matter of seconds into the floating fortress.
Before they crashed into the cluster of earth on the bottom of the fortress, Krator rose his fists against the granite. His will commanded the rock out of the way and so, while the pillar was shooting them upwards into the guts of the pink castle, the will of the Templar created a tunnel in front of it. The loud rumble of the rocks rubbing together was only interrupted by the high pitched screams of panic of the Pony folks and Rodney.
It only stopped when they reached a hall in the lower parts of the castle and the earth-magic came to a halt.
"Next time you’re planning doing something like that", Vala grunted in pain, "Please don't. Okay, big boy?"
"As long as it works, I cannot afford to hesitate." Krator wandered off, "Let's move. We need to find our friends."
"You mean, we need to find Elisa."
"Yes, old man. That is my quest."
On their way through the dark halls of the pink castle, they didn't notice familiar places. It looked essentially like the old thing, but bigger and darker. However, the corridors did change. The ways they used to take to get around, didn't apply anymore.
"So", Jack asked his team while they were following the yellow Lizard-Bat, "Do we have a plan how to beat this Rex?"
Teal'C was showing him his staff-weapon. "Yes", Jack nodded, "That's a good start."
"I don't think it will be that easy." Daniel was worried how a fight with a basically god-like wizard might end. "We should try to talk to him."
"And ask him to stop?"
"Yes, Jack. Why not?"
"Please, Rex, Wizard of Oz, spare this world, spare our lives and go forth in peace."
"Well, not like that, but yes. I don't think we can fight him."
Vala commented, "It's just goin' to make him mad."
"Yes, that."
"It's not like we had the weapons for it anyway."
"I got a pistol", Vala grinned.
"And what good will that do you?"
"You know what?", Jack admitted, "Daniel is right. If the talking fails, we can still blast his ass."
The tip of the group, the first to walk down the dark halls in sparse flickering light, had to stop in the meantime. Rarity shrank her eyes in suspicion and the bad feeling that something was moving in the shadows ahead. "What is that?"
"Oh, no", Krator yelled, "Prepare yourselves!"
Teal'C joined him with his weapon aiming ahead, "Incoming!"
But they all startled when not a trap or some guard appeared to stall them, but the floor got covered by thousands of black bugs, crawling at them in stunning speed.
Rarity stumbled back in panic, Rook grabbed her and ran behind the line of fire.
Teal'C and Vala shot at them but her pistol was soon out of ammunition. Krator waved his arms and legs in a fluent dance while his magic bursted out with every powerful swing. Ice and Fire formed at his will, burning the bugs and stunning them in a shell of frost in wide cones ahead.
Morty stood in the swarm and fed his flames with anger. His heat ignited the air around him and the bugs alike.
Fluttershy's attempts to talk the bugs out of it, weren't fertile.
Soon the two fire mages noticed that the bugs had a high resistance to heat and flames. Of course they had, they were made by Rex and he knew that Morty was all about fire.
Krator switched to ice entirely and kept sticking the bugs to the floor.
Every bug that made it past them was squashed by Applejack's hooves. "Stomp them, y'all!", she yelled and gave Krator an idea.
"Of course!" The Highpriest reached out his hands and concentrated on the rock beneath his feet. When he kneeled down and smashed his fist into the marble, the ground reacted to his magic. The marble plates separated from the stone below and clashed into each other like folding hands, squashing the bugs on them in the process.
"That works", Jack commented.
"Quick!", Krator barked, "There might be more coming any moment." And once they heard the tapping sound of countless little legs in the distance getting closer, they all got a move on in the opposite direction.
Once the bugs were visible in the flickering light and catching up to them, they started to spread their wings and take off the floor. The hall was now filled by the buzz of countless little wings. And the heroes in despair had a problem they could only run away from.
In their panic they chose to run down another hallway. Right into Rex's trap.
Planless they fought off the bugs, everyone for himself. But soon the air was blackened by their little bodies. Aimlessly the group was pushed towards the eels and soon they started to leash out.
And that left Krator in the eye of the storm, casting his magic at bugs and eels alike. His ice shards pierced their shells and cut their bodies open. His stones boxed them back into their corners. The Highpriest had quite the experience in working his magic on a battlefield, but what he couldn't do while he was busy, was protecting the others.
Angrily Applejack throw her glance at the eels and yelled at the others, "We need to push through! Come on!" And once she jumped into the slick wall of black, moving eels, she started to punch a pathway into it.
"Excellent plan!", Krator yelled, smashed his fists on the ground and sent a spiking wave of ice crystals her way. They ripped their edges into the eels and tore their flesh apart. Soon the floor was covered by black, oily blood.
And Rarity stepped in it.
When she started to slip and lose her stand, she looked down in disgust. Like on a frozen lake, she drifted off into the eel-wall.
"Rarity!", Rook yelled when the teeth of the eel surrounded her, and it caught Krator's attention.
With a clap of his hand he summoned a supersonic wind to rush through the room in a spherical wave. It pushed all the bugs aside and made way for the Highpriest and his friends to rush forward.
The snout of the eel had already closed when Krator pushed his hands between its teeth. But only when Rook sent a bullet through the eel's brain, it relaxed enough to let go and Krator broke apart its jaws.
"I can't reach her, she's gone!", Krator yelled in despair while his arm and shoulders were buried in the black, stinking cadaver.
"No! That's not supposed to happen!", Rook screamed and pulled Krator aside. He started to crawl down the throat but was stopped by Krator. He didn't let go of his foot and held onto it while the crazy bird slid into the eel.
A muffed "Eyegoder!" commanded Krator to pull him back out. But the first relief he felt when he saw that Rook had the white Unicorn, died off once he noticed that she didn't breath.
Stunned and silent they looked at her, how she was sleeping ever so peacefully in Rook’s arms.
The darkness returned for a second to then be replaced by a shining spark a moment later. Krator, Morty and Fluttershy looked at the blinding light that started to come closer.
Soon Hati stepped out of the white curtain, angrily looking down at the Unicorn and the bodies of the Humans. "He crossed the line this time."
Krator nodded and walked up to Hati. "Glad you could make it."
"Oh, no! No-no-no!", Twilight cried when she came to Rarity. Even Pinkie was stunned.
"What happened?!"
"The eel", Krator calmly explained, "Ate her."
"I'm a doctor!", Morty said and started to check on her. His bone fingers were deaf to the touch but his expertise on examining bodies was unreached. "Her ribs caved in", he concluded, "She couldn't breath."
And while Twilight's rage was paralyzed by her tears, Morty offered a solution.
"I might have a way to save her." Twilight was all ears. "But you won't like it."
"Do it, please!"
"Boy!", Morty looked at Hati. "Help me, she needs ... the fire."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Quick, before her flesh becomes too cool!"
Hati took a deep breath but then kneeled down by Rarity. Morty took her into his arms and Hati revealed his curseth hand to the Princess by laying it onto Rarity’s head.
Flames started to consume Rarity, her colours vanished into black. The ash crumbled off and fell onto the oily floor. A moment later, there was nothing in Morty's arms but the bones of a Unicorn.
"What?!", Rarity asked in shock and started to wiggle her way out of Morty's arms.
She stood between her friends but she saw no smiles on their faces. "What happened? Why do I feel so ... warm?"
"You'll get used to it", Morty assured.
She looked down at her hoof. It was pale and in flames. Screaming and dancing around she tried to shake off the flames.
"Stop, Rarity! It's okay!", Twilight said.
"What is this, Twilight?"
She looked at the aliens, "They saved you."
"Saved me? Look at me!"
"It doesn't matter. You're still here!"
"I'm a monster!"
"But you're alive."
"Well", Morty commented, "More of less. Undead is a term that comes to mind."
Hati walked up to the flaming Unicorn, "I know this isn't easy." He reached out his bone arm to her. "But you can use this as opportunity. Use your rage to beat the one that took your life. Help us avenge your world."
In the meantime, Sam was checking on her team. Except for Teal'C, they had all died in the bug swarm. She came around with Teal'C leaning on her shoulders. His skin was covered in bites and bleeding all over. Only because of his Jaffa healing powers, he managed to survive the attack. And still, he never let go of his staff.
"Can you do the same for my team?", Sam asked of Morty.
"I'm afraid they are gone for too long now. The body needs to be alive or having just died that moment."
She swallowed her grief and nodded, "Alright, thanks."
"Let's go", Hati said and went on through the opened wall of eel cadavers.
"Where's Applejack?", Rarity asked the group and they all went for the search.
Step by step the group stumbled over the slick, black tubes of eel bodies, sliding down their backs and wading through their slime and blood. They called out for Applejack repeatedly until they heard a grunt from the messy battlegrounds.
They uncovered the orange coated appletree bucking machine from underneath a dead eel. She was exhausted and looked unharmed.
Morty rushed to her, "I can help you with that", but everyone yelled "NO!" in a choir.
Twilight used her magic instead to stretch the leg out and fixate it with binds. It had to heal on its own terms however, since they had no healers with them.
Applejack was now ready to go on and the group went down the hall again, cautious for the next trap. "What happened to you?", she asked Rarity.
"You know, the usual. Died, came back to life, cursed by fire. What happened to you?"
"Y'know, the usual. Fought, kicked in some teeth, got bitten by an eel."
They both laughed and walked side by side, while the Lizards lead them into a new battle.
A stone was cast into a field and rolled through the grass.
"I think that's it", Elisa guessed, "The end of the field."
The small group of Cameron, Elisa, Knom and Spike had their share of the forest for today. Miles over miles they had to walk around Ponyville to evade the magical field of the Lizard Wizard that already froze Rainbowmane Hurricane in time forever.
On their path down the fields and shady woodlands, Knom managed to grab the flying eye that was spying on them, and crushed it.
Following their procedure of throwing things around, they had managed to make it into Ponyville, where from now they had a great view of the end of the world.
The pink castle dome was pierced by beams of sunlight while the rest of the world drowned in a skyless night.
"Knom!", Elisa shouted at him. "You see that flying castle?"
Knom nodded.
"You think you can bring that back down to earth?"
Knom shortly looked ahead and nodded back at her.
"Then don't wait for us."
Knom nodded and sprinted ahead.
His inhumane body was enhanced by mechanical parts of the latest Kältezorn design, what gave the boy that had died access to speed and strength that no Human could ever reach.
"Alright", Cameron slowly nodded, "And how are we gonna get up there now?"
"Easily", Elisa smiled and pointed the right way. "We'll take the train."
The next minute was passing with Elisa throwing off everypony from the heartly train of Ponyville and hijacking the locomotive. Once the train rushed over the trails and passed the houses and trees like the wind, Cameron realised there was a child on the engine controls and that he really, really hated trains.
TIME TO GET SCHWIFTY IN HERE
Since the main hall was bigger now to hold the sun’s core, the options of corridors the adventurers could take was highly limited. It wasn't long after the last casualties that they bashed in the giant gates of the Core Hall. The gates were nearly ripped from their foundations and tore fissures when they collided with the walls on the other sides.
It was Hati standing in front, it was him who kicked that gates open with his foot.
The others behind him, the Ponies and remaining Humans didn't see Hati in action yet and were amazed by his inhuman strength.
Angrily he gazed at Rex who was standing high above the ground on a bridge that hung on the walls around the round hall. "Sorry about the door, it goes a lot easier than I thought."
In the middle of the wide hall, the blue crystal core was sending its light up into the sky and dome. The room was drowning in a blue tone glow, changing every colour into a magical shine.
Rex turned away from the core he was observing and looked down at Hati and the group behind him. "Hati, dear", he calmly said, while his voice was carried through the dome, "I would have expected you to show up sooner, but then again, you tend to surprise. Do you remember what I once told you, that I was always prepared?"
"Yeah, alright. But we will stop you regardless, we got a plan."
"Why, let me guess, you plan to teleport me into a strange location, so my advantage was in vain." His look fell upon Twilight and she was intimidated immediately. Shily she took a step back. "Can you imagine what traps you are already standing on?"
Hati yelled, "Why you're telling us this? Just do it already and be done with it!"
"Why, because I like you. I give you one last chance to turn around and just walk away. The spell will be ready soon, our portal is almost done. Then we can leave this world behind and save Xerexarea from the curse of godly war. Isn't that what you desire, dear?"
"You stole our sun!", Twilight yelled.
"Yeah!", Pinkie joined in and Applejack added, "Give it back and we might be able to forget what happened."
"What?!", Sam yelled, "Never!" She pushed Hati and Twilight aside, aimed her P-90 at the Lizard upon the bridge and released its hellfire. The muzzle flash flickered in the blue light, leaving warm tones that vanished in less than a blink of the eye. The ratched sound echoed against the marble and the bullets stroke against the bridge, its railing and the Lizard Wizard himself.
None of the bullets actually made it to Rex, as they all got buried in the wall behind him.
"Are you done now?", he asked boredly.
"No, no!", Hati yelled at Sam and pushed her gun down. "That never works!"
"Dammit, I can't just let him get away with this. Fire, everyone, open fire!"
And while Hati sighed and grunted his objecting, "No!", the Princess and Teal'C started to fire their lasers at the Wizard.
But they all passed him. Once they entered the field around him, they skipped his personal space and reappeared behind him, to hit nothing but the marble walls.
Rex rolled his eyes and sighed. "Why, you're quick to kill. Is the life of others of such little value to you?"
"You're the one to talk."
"Every. Time. You never learn. But I take that as my mistake, after all, one cannot learn anything when they are robbed of their memories, wouldn't you say?"
The fire stopped and the last laser sci-fi sound vanished in the wide hall.
"He was bullet proof even before we got here", Hati explained, "That never worked on him."
"Then what do we do now?", Applejack asked.
Twilight shook her head, "If I can't hit him with my spell, I can't teleport him either."
"And even if so, I simply teleport back. I did lose the power of the cosmos, but now, with the Inaji, I'm back without limitations. It feels nice, to say the least."
Hati took a step towards him but Rex rose his finger, "Na-ah, the traps. You better stay where you are and don't move around too much."
"Will you give it back, the sun I mean, once we're home? What will you do to repair the damage you've done?", Hati asked him.
"I wish that I could, I truly do, but sadly, that's not an option. You see, casting a fire to warm the day is simple enough, the core would have lasted for thousands of years performing that task. Creating a portal through time and space, big enough for people to enter and with enough duration so no one is left behind, that, dear, takes a formidable amount out of it."
"So, you'll break it to get us home."
"No, no. It will still work its task, but not for much longer, I'm afraid. A few hundred years tops. After that?", Rex shrugged, "I’ve heard there's people here that really like Eternal Night."
"You can't be serious", Twilight gasped. "You're insane!"
"Oh, please. It's not like you'd live to see the day. You might live long enough to see the downfall of Unicorn Magic however. That will be a time to remember."
"What ... what do you mean?"
"What do I mean, Princess?", Rex asked slightly angrily. "Didn't you ever wonder where the energy for your magic comes from? Especially since your cosmos is dead and your stars are fake?" He turned to the core, "Look at your sun! Did you ever think about how it would look on the inside? You would have never guessed it was made of Inaji, I'm sure of it."
"Ina-ji? What are you talking about?"
"Oh, surely, no one told you. Your planet is infested by a blue crystal, that I discovered. Look at your flaming friend who once was Rarity the white Unicorn."
They all looked at the mare that was naked to the bone. The attention made her flames rise higher since her heart started to pound. Figuratively.
"Don't you see the crystal in her bones?"
Twilight looked closely at her bones and indeed there was a curious glow upon them.
"No one has, I'm sure of it." Rex explained, "Your kind frowns upon anatomy studies, not much unlike the Human colleagues of the Doctor. Isn't that right?"
Morty nodded, he had to agree, "That's correct. I was one of the first to cross that line."
"But what does it do?", Twilight asked.
Rex laughed, "Isn't it obvious? It grows inside of your bodies and powers your magic spells. Your horns are merely a result of the crystal piercing the skull, nothing more."
"Enough of the blue crystals, Heisenberg", Rook yelled, "If that even is your real name."
"Is something bothering you, Mister Rook?", Rex asked.
"You are my problem, pal."
"What did I tell you about calling me nicknames?"
"You've outdone yourself here", Rook drew his pistol and reloaded the drum with rounds, "Remember these?" He held up one of the rounds, it was coloured.
"The enchanted bullets I gave you? You know those won't work on me."
"No, I know that. I'm not stupid."
Hati commented, "You're sure 'bout that?"
Motionless he looked at Hati. His big, round shades didn't allow any facial expression.
"Sorry", Hati shrugged, "It was too easy."
Without turning his head, Rook reached out his gun and aimed at the sun core. Rex's eyes widened and he drew out his Inaji-Book to stop him. But Rook already squeezed the trigger and the enchanted bullet pierced the floating core under the dome.
"NO!", Rex yelled, "That enchantment will ruin us all!"
"Y'know", Rook calmly said while he put away his pistol back into the belt. "I don't care." He reached into his vest and took out a cigar that was already lit. "I'm just really pissed right now." He puffed a smoke cloud before he turned to Hati and the crew. "We should probably run now."
Rex was busy casting a rune-ring around the core to keep the damage at bay, but the decay had already started. He didn't bother with the maniacs running out into the hallway.
"What bullet did you use?", Hati asked Rook while they jogged down the dark castle halls.
"Deconstruct!"
"Isn't that the one that takes things apart, so you can see what they are made of?"
"Aye, that's the one."
"What would happen to a sun under that enchantment?"
"Something messy."
There were no traps on the way out and no barriers to keep them in and so the crew had soon made it to a window that lead outside.
Twilight took Rarity, even though she was hot, and Fluttershy Applejack, even though she was heavy, and followed the Highpriest.
Teal'C and Rook climbed down the spine.
Morty just jumped and clashed into the mountain side. His bones flew apart but he was quickly reassembled.
"I didn't know you could do that", Rarity commented. "Good to know."
They hurried down the mountain since they still were too close and in the way of the bursting core. Even if the core was holding, Rex's revenge was soon to follow. Getting some distance between them and him wasn't that bad of an idea.
"Wait!", Krator yelled. His eagle eyes made out something in the forest underneath. "What is that?" He pointed into the valley and soon Hati saw it too. A spark in the forest that quickly rushed towards them. "That looks like-"
Knom jumped from the valley, leaving a trail of lightning behind him. He catapulted his body into the sky and up the mountain.
"Knom!", they both said while they beheld his flight towards the castle.
With his amazing speed, he created quite a charge in his mechanical parts. That power now oozed out of every metal bit that was piercing his skin.
Hati and Krator laughed at the sight but soon realised in shock, "We're probably in a bad spot."
"Come on, let's go-go-go!"
And while the crew was trying to get down the mountain fast, Knom, the boy that had died, was ending his ascension. Running out of wall, he took a last leap into the darkened sky, so he would float above the dome for just a second, before his heavy body came down to it again.
Rex screamed when the lightning was released into the hall. It blinded him for only a moment but it was enough to destroy his runes. The containment he had set up failed and the core released itself into the dome and beyond.
For a moment that felt like an eternity, Equestria was covered in white. Just white. Everything. Nothing was, no one thought anything, no one did anything. Existence took a pause.
Once the lands returned and darkness took hold, the beholders saw rocks tumbling down Canterlot-Mountain and crushing the castle and city beneath. Towers fell under the bombardment and balconies joined their fall into the forest.
Half the mountain came down upon it. Only an edgy scar of the earth would remain in the rock. The pink castle and the white city of Canterlot were annihilated. Thousands of Ponies died, crushed in the rubble.
Krator put the crew he had saved from the mountain down on a hill outside of Ponyville. Twilight joined him, bringing the other half of them framed in her pink spell.
The Princess and her followers were shattered in soul and mind. They gazed upon their lands and observed the slow moving cloud that crawled down the horizon where once their capital city had been.
Hati had his fleshy hand on his mouth to keep his words locked up. He was responsible for two city annihilations already. And even though he was somewhat relieved it wasn't actually his fault this time, he feared the wrath of the Unicorn once she realised, that it was Rook and Knom that just killed thousands of her kin and probably and properly ruined what once was a famous landmark.
Twilight sank down to her knees and cried her eyes out and even Applejack, who wasn't known to cry, had saltwater dripping from her chin.
It was Pinkie who stood up to the Lizard folks. "Now what? This isn't done with an apology, you know. This is serious business."
Hati hesitated, "I didn't think otherwise of it. Look, I'm sorry. I truly am. But at least Rex is now stopped."
"Or am I?", his voice startled them but brought Twilight back from her paralysis. He stood on the same hill under the single tree that grew here.
"Next time?", Hati's brows fell down onto his eyes, giving him a grim look, "So you'll just go back in time and restart this?"
"Of course. I can't leave a mess like this. Thanks to you the sun is gone, sunlight is gone, the city is gone, more had died than ever before. And our portal through time, gone as well."
"Oh, no, you don't put this on us!"
"Oh, no? Who shot the sun then, I ask you. Who destroyed the castle? It was you actions, your resistance that brought us into this mess. If you were just to let me do my job, I could save us all, bring us home and help you saving Xerexarea."
"And to what price?", Hati yelled.
"You cry over those creatures? For these Ponies? They are far beyond our cosmos, dear, far beyond our time. Their world is dying. A few thousand years more and none of this will remain. They are doomed anyway."
"If you think so, then what's the difference between you and the Flesh God?"
Rex smiled and shook his head in disbelief. "In this world, with this book?", he held the Inaji-Book in his hand, "Nothing. I am a new god. Am I mercyful? Yes, dear."
"Mercy? Their friends died, the Humans are dead. Their city is ashes. You call that mercy?"
"Mercy, yes, because I will recycle and fix it. Nothing Kathathrahn or Gauduhn could do. I'm sorry that it had come to this. I was merely trying to slow you down, to give the spell more time! But if you need me to be the villain, so be it. Make it my responsibility. But then don't stop me from making it right."
"Wait", Rook spoke up, "When you go back, do you let it rest, or do you do the same thing again?"
"I won't make the same mistake again, that's for certain."
"In that case, I can't just let you leave, man." Rook drew his pistol and aimed at the Lizard Wizard. "You will have to answer to our punishment while we're still remembering what you did."
"My punishment? You shot the sun, you pathetic fool. What about your punishment?"
"I managed to beat you with it."
"Beat me?", Rex chuckled, "You're dreaming again."
By this point in time, it didn't matter anymore who was safe, who died or lived, since Rex was about to reset the whole shananigan anyway. The loop-spell was approaching no matter what, soon it would be upon them. It was a fail-safe in case Rex died, then the spell would bring him back to life. It wasn't powered by him and it was out of his hands, like an emergency spell should operate always.
He could have just waited for it to wash everyone away, erase their minds and give him the freedom of another chance.
"No", Rex whispered, "Not now. This time I'll teach them a lesson, even if it doesn't stick."
Quickly Rex reached out his hand into Rook’s direction and threw a page with it.
The sheet of paper flew like a razor sharp blade and with sonic speed at Rook, passed him and shredded the woods and trees behind him. But before it splitted the barks and shook the leafs around, it had penetrated Rook's clothing, his skin, veins and spine.
Shaking of pain, Rook struggled putting his cigar into his beak before he dropped down to his knees. The rocking from the impact shook his head lose from his shoulders and it rolled through the grass down the hill.
Hati bit his tongue and rushed to his friend but there was no helping him. He fought his tears and tried to channel his sadness into his rage. Soon he looked up at Rex again, showing his sharp teeth like the animal he was.
"He was your friend", Hati cried out loud.
"And he will live again. I have killed all of you before. It's all the same to me, dear. However, killing you always hurts the most."
Hati stood up and freed his cursed bone arm from the cloth that hung down his shoulder and covered it. His cape now waved in the wind and down his back. Slowly he opened the belts of the armor around it. To transform the arm, it had to be unrestrained.
"NO!", Krator yelled ferally. "He's mine." He walked between Hati and Rex and kept his eyes on the wizard-thief. His golden gauntlets already glowed slightly in a heavenly blue that was visibly well due to the nighttime they had now. Cold air turned to mist that crawled down the armor and dropped into the grass.
Sam raised her P-90 at Rex and assured Krator, "I'll cover you."
"Thanks, but no thanks." Krator explained, "This is a duel of magic, your copper bullets will have no impact here."
Rex chuckled, "You're calling that magic? Throwing with dirt and ice?"
"I'll ignore your insults for now, there's a lot more you have to answer for. I'll kill you, if I have to. Your corpse will then answer for your crimes."
Rex rolled his eyes at the Templar while he got into position. His wide stance was an indicator for his elemental magic he was about to use.
Usually Rex had to throw one of his spell pages onto the floor or carve the runes into the ground himself to make use of a spell of his, but thanks to the Inaji-Book and the Inspiration Manifestation within, he simply had to think of the runes he needed and they appeared on the soil.
The rocks froze and so did the grass. And Krator.
A wide ring around the foolish Highpriest stopped the time of his and left him motionless in a dynamic fighting pose. He probably didn't even notice what happened.
"What a fool. The elements are useless against a timespell. What do the Temples teach those kids these days?"
"And now you kill him too?", Hati asked him angrily.
"Already have." The runes disappeared and the field collapsed. Everything within shattered into pieces like glass. The fragments of the Templar Krator mixed with the green shards of the grass and the pebbles of the rocks. A second later every piece was resting on the soil.
"Morty!", Hati yelled at the skeleton that idly stood by.
"Hati?"
"Are you alright with this?"
"Of course not. But look what he can do. I just don't think we have the power to teach him a lesson. And why at all? If he can reset the time, wouldn't it be wise to let him restore all the lives he took? Think about it. If we kill him, Krator and Rook remain dead."
"It's not about that!"
"Oh?"
"Of course he will have to reset the time. I don't want to kill him. But he has to stop with his experiments! Don't you get it?!"
"Oohh!", Morty nodded, "Yes, I do get it now." He walked up to Rex. "Let's have a word, Mister Rex."
Rex crossed his arms and tilted his hips, so he rested mainly on one leg. "I'm listening, Doctor."
"That experiment of yours."
"Yes?"
"Is it really necessary?"
"You see, Doctor, I'm draining the cosmos for power. But his cosmos is dead. It's on the end of its existence. In order to create a portal way to Xerexarea, I need the power of the sun core. There is no other source of power big enough for the spell. And in order to get the sun, I need the Princess's powers. And to capture her, I need a little storage of Inaji first. You see? One leads to another."
Morty nodded, "Yes, yes. But the problem is, you're destroying this world. And the others are not fond of that."
"The others? What about yourself, Doctor?"
Morty shrugged, "My heart, despite it is on fire, turned cold a long time ago. I've seen my son die in the sun just a few minutes ago. I'm not losing a tear over it."
"And still you can't see the point of my actions?"
"Oh, no, I can. But I ask of you to consider your options. Imagine we would ask the Princess for a little bit of their power, so you can cast your spell. Imagine they would agree, what would happen then?"
"You think I haven't tried that already? This is the eighteenth loop, Doctor. I've wasted the first three with asking my way around. No, Doctor, those racist Ponies are not helpful when asked."
"Hey!", Pinkie yelled, "Who're you calling things here, Mister?!"
Rex smiled and took a few steps into Pinkie's direction, passing Morty. "This one is curious." He pointed at Pinkie, "Somehow she survived every loop."
He bent down to her with his arms on his back. "Why can't I manage to kill you, Pinkie?"
Pinkie frowned and hissed through her teeth, "Because you're not trying hard enough."
Rex smiled and straightened his back. "Let's try then."
When the runes appeared on the floor again, Hati, Rarity and Sam rushed to Pinkie to help, while Teal'C aimed his staff, Twilight was still messed up and Fluttershy was cowering. Applejack wanted to jump for her, but her broken leg slowed her down.
The field rose above them all and froze them in time.
"Mister Rex", Morty asked him, "What is this spell doing now?"
"What?", Rex turned to him with wide eyes. He was standing inside the field but was still moving. "Why are you still moving?"
Morty looked at his hands. "The holy fire of Vox is beyond your command, so it seems."
Rex turned once again, "But then, that would mean, that-"
"It does!", Hati said and grabbed him by the arm.
While Sam, Teal'C, Flutters, Applejack and Twilight were frozen in time, Morty and Hati were free of the spell, as well as Rarity, who shared Morty's fire. And "Pinkie? You too?"
"What can I say?", Pinkie shrugged, "I'm curious. You're still not trying hard enough."
Hati grabbed his other arm as well and pulled him in closely. He looked deeply into his eyes. Rex was still shocked and thought of something else to do.
"We can still get out of this", Hati applied to him. "You have the power to stop this. Don't waste your opportunities like this." He let go of his arms and hugged him tight instead. "I can't stand us to be apart like this. I don't want you to be the villain. I know you have a heart too. Because I gave you mine."
Rex blinked a tear off his eye and gave in to the hug. Calmly he laid his hands on the wide back of the Lizard Hati.
"I tried", Rex whispered, "So many times. I died, trying to get you home, my dear. I went mad eventually. These Ponies-"
"Are insane", Hati smiled, "I know. Let's just go home, alright?"
They widened the hug and looked at each other. "How? I've tried so many things."
"Well, did you ever try to ask your friends for help?"
Rex chuckled and evaded Hati's charming look, "No. Not yet."
"Let me ask the Princess this time around, alright? I have a way of talking to white Unicorns with wings that rule the planet."
"Oh, my dear has ways, that's good to know."
Rex laid his hand on Hati's neck, pulling him slowly towards him while his eyes closed. When the front of their snouts touched and their lips wettened each other, there was an aura of peace emerging from the two lovers.
"I have his book!", Rarity yelled, "Quick, what should I do with it now?"
Rex ripped himself off Hati and turned around, "What?!" And indeed, the cursed Unicorn used the distraction to steal the Inaji from the Wizard.
Shocked Rex looked at Hati. "You!"
"What? No, I didn't know-"
"It was a setup!" With a tear in his eye he slapped his claw through Hati's face, stepped backwards and reached into his coat.
From it, he took a shard of Inaji, a piece that was left over from Starswirl or Glimmer. It wasn't the most powerful source but it would be enough to get his book back.
He showed the crystal to Hati. "You couldn't have hurt me more if you used your dagger."
"Did I ever lie to you?" Hati was between tears and rage, "Am I ever lying at all?!"
"Not in this time, no."
The field around them dropped and the frozen people returned to their former selves.
"One more loop!", Rex yelled. "Then I'll bring you home, dear. I promise."
"Promises are made to be broken, love."
"I'll let you ask her, I'll ask you for help, I'll tell you everything."
"I wish I could believe that."
"You're right. I'm a liar." Rex smiled but his eyes remained sad, "I'll make up for it."
Rex startled when his crystal snapped out of his fingers. A second later everyone heard the gunshot and turned around to spot the source.
Elisa commented, "You should have aimed for his head."
"I did."
"Twilight!" Spike flew as quick as he could to his Princess. His voice brought her back to herself and she turned around slowly.
He threw his arms around her neck and they were happy again in a time of despair.
"You!", Rex turned to Rarity. "Give me the book."
"What?" Rarity stepped back, "No!", and started to run away with the book in her magic bound.
And when Rex was about to run after her, the Humans rushed into battle with him.
"Oh, no, you don't!", Cameron yelled, "Open fire!" And Teal'C, Sam and himself shot their unholy fire at the blue Wizard.
But since they were all standing behind him, all they could hit was his long coat. Once the bullets touched the leather, they lost all their momentum and dropped absolutely intact to the floor. The fire shots of the staff weapon however changed their direction and returned the way they came.
"I'm still up for a try!", Elisa said and ran up to Rex. While on her way, she conjured her sacred weapon. Her chest lit up in a blue glow and she was able to reach into the magical light. Beyond it she pulled the long handle of a longsword, then the golden guard and eventually the blue blade that was almost her own length. She grabbed the handle and swung the blade at Rex, while her light disappeared.
Slowly he turned around to her. It didn't even cut into his coat.
"Did you really think this dull blade of yours would do me any harm?"
"It's dull alright, but it's magic too."
"Why, it needs to be powered. Did you see a lightning strike somewhere?"
Elisa put the blade away from his coat and pointed it at Rex's face. "Okay, so I'm not up to powering it."
"It's because the cosmos is dead, dear. Here your magic is as powerless as mine."
"BUT MINE ISN'T!"
"Oh!", Pinkie held her ears shut, "Royal Canterlot Voice."
The blue Alicorn of the Night, Princess Luna came down from the sky to the crowded hill.
"I have many artefacts up my sleeves!", Rex yelled and reached into his coat. The Princess's lasers only hit a knight's shield of his, that he held high in defense.
"No!", Hati yelled at everyone, "Don't. He was about to make it all right again!"
Rex looked at Hati, "No, dear. It's too late for that." He reached into his coat and tossed a vase into the sky that burst into shards on the highest point. Out flew a swarm of bugs that chased Luna around. "The spell is due soon", he said to Hati, "I might as well give them a good last run for their money."
"What money? You didn't-"
"You think I'd leave without taking a souvenir?", Rex smiled but was soon shot by the Humans again. Now he held his shield against their bullets.
"Luna!", Twilight yelled and shot her lasers at the black swarm. And soon those were eradicated as well.
Rex was cornered. His blue spell book was useless without the power of the cosmos. Without that power source, the spells would drain his own body, possibly killing him in the process. The Inaji-Book had no Return-Spell yet. A mistake Rex would correct the next time around. The shards he still had wouldn't work for that many spells.
Ultimately, all he had to do, was to wait for his loop to restart. But in the meantime he really refused to die. He died too often on this planet already. He would not give those idiots the satisfaction to be beaten by their foolish attempts.
A blue and a pink laser shot down at Rex, held back by his silver shield that held an unknown enchantment. Cameron and the Humans took this opportunity to toss their last magazines at the foe. There might be an opening they don't know of and they were ready to take that chance.
Elisa was about to swing her longsword at him but Hati stopped her. She would not only get harmed in the fire, she wouldn't be making damage anyway. And she shouldn't. Killing Rex was no valid option and no one but Hati seemed to understand that.
"This annoyance!", Rex yelled. With his shield raised against the lasers, he reached out his claw into the direction of the Humans. Suddenly the night was made to day for just a second, when a lightning storm emerged from his claws, lit up the hillside and wrapped itself around the bodies of the Humans. They were brought to their knees but still alive.
The next lightning strike went into the sky, to end one of the flying pests. But it missed the one and only hit the magical shield spell of the other.
"Stop!", Hati yelled up at them and lost control of his cursed bones. The spine-snake showed itself. It was a living collection of back bones that had a claw at its end. It was half sentient and able to make up its own mind. Quickly it reached up, grabbed Twilight and picked her off the sky. She was smashed into the ground but turned out to be mostly fine. A magical sphere that surrounded her took most of the hit.
"Why?"
"What is it good for?"
"Who-ha!", Pinkie yelled.
"Not now, Pinkie!"
"You're only making him more angry. He will return it all into the way it was, if you let him do his thing!"
"And then he'll murder my friends again?! I don't think so!"
"He made a promise to me. I think we should trust him."
The next laser of Luna hit Hati, but other than the Wizard, Hati had no enchantments to protect himself. He did just pick Twilight off the sky, so the attack was in order. But it was more devastating than the Princess expected.
The laser pierced Hati's green body and left a finger deep hole in his back. The next time Hati took a breath, he spit blood.
As a cursed soldier, he had worse. He wiped the blood off his chin, turned around and waved Luna, "Thanks dear! That was really nice of you. Not."
"Luna, NO!", Fluttershy yelled and rushed between her and him. "He didn't mean it!"
Twilight asked her, "Are you sure about that?"
"Can't we talk this out?"
"I did hope we can", Hati said to Fluttershy. Then he turned to Twilight, "What do you think?"
Twilight took herself a second to prepare an answer. She would love to see Rex in chains or worse. She would love to get her friends back more. But if he changed the time, Twilight wouldn't remember what he did. She'd forget her anger.
"You have to make sure that he will get what he deserves! If you can promise me that Rex will be punished, I will let him go."
Hati hesitated, "I can't do that. I have no say over magic like that."
Pinkie walked up to them, "I will remind him of it."
"This is not the time, Pinkie. This is serious."
"I know that. Trust me on this. I got it."
"If you have nothing to give, step out of the way."
"You cannot win", Hati told the Princess. "The more you fight, the more you will lose."
Before Twilight soared again, she turned to him and said, "There's nothing left to lose."
Hati looked after her and how she returned to fight Rex. Pinkie stood beside Hati and Fluttershy. "You know her element is hope."
"The what now?"
"The Elements of Harmony. It's called magic, but it really is hope."
"In that case", Hati said, "If she's hope, that's grim."
In the meantime of the fight, Rex held not only a silver shield in his hand, but a longsword in the other. It was blue and enchanted without a doubt. When Twilight shot her lasers at him again, Rex yelled "Enough of this!" and stuck the blade into the ground.
Silently he spoke a prayer and Hati, who was watching the mess, mumbled to himself, "Oh, no, that's not a good idea."
But there was no way to stop it. Rex had prayed and his god answered.
A thick lightning bolt emerged from the dark clouds above the Princesses. They were almost hit by it, but then again, they weren't the target.
The tree was pushed up and aside when the ground started to change. A gateway emerged from the stone, a dark hole that lead deep into the planet. The gate grew until it was huge. The grew stone framing it was adorned by carvings and pictures of battle and bodies in pain and pleasure alike.
From the gates that could only be leading into the realm that a Pony would know as the Underworld, the great guardian of the gates, the ruler of the underworld and master of metal stepped onto Equestrian soil.
Every edge of the armor plates was sharpened and where space was left, a pointy spike threatened everyone who got too close. Chains hung down his back and hips and mail covered joints and crouch.
"Kathathrahn!", Rex yelled up to him to greet the god. "What glory is granted to me, that your grace walks among us?"
The dark, heavy voice of Kathathrahn echoed through his armor and the cold air of the night, "What can I say? I’m a very simple God, I just like to bash in some skulls and taint my metal with blood of mortals. You promised me prey and your word held true."
In the meantime, Cameron used the distraction to catch up with his team. Exhausted but alive, he asked them, if they were alright.
"Yes, we are. But not everyone made it."
"Made it, why, what? Where are the others?"
"They are all dead, Mitchell."
"Daniel too? What is that, his fifth time?"
"What is the plan, Cameron Mitchell?"
"Well, my big friend, that Wizard is about to reset the time. That means that everyone that died will return to life, right?"
"Right!"
"Now he summoned some giant knight. Carter, how many bullets you got left?"
"One full and a half magazine."
"Alright. We can still make him remember us. Let's leave a scar, alright?"
"You are fools", Morty said to the Humans. He stood near by and watched the mess the thief made that he's paying to get his work done. Or used to anyway. "If you fight Kathathrahn, you will die."
"Oh, yeah?", Cam asked.
"Yes."
"What makes you so sure 'bout that? He's just ... gigantic, in armor and ... has a ... what is that? A hammer?"
"He's god of the underworld. Other gods fear his fury. Mortals are, well, mortal, and die rather quickly. His battlecry alone might split you in half."
Cam nodded and forced himself back onto his feet, as did his team. "Alright, then we'll take on the smaller one, the Wizard."
"You mean the bulletproof wizard that talks to the god of the underworld about how to best get rid of you? Yes", Morty rolled his eyes, "I can't see any flaw in that plan. Well thought of."
"I might have an idea", Hati said when we walked past the Humans and Morty. His glance was fixated onto the God of Metal. Proudly and obviously with a deathwish he walked up to the giant.
"So, Mortals", Kathathrahn said, "How do you want to do this? I can take on all of you, or one after the other. I feel grateful today, so you may pick the way of your death."
Hati yelled, "I'd like to be the first to face you in a duel."
Rex didn't understand, "You're insane, dear. Don't do that."
"You said it doesn't matter, right? You will recycle the time anyway and this never happened. So don't cry for me." He then yelled up to the god again, "But I may ask of one thing."
"Speak."
"I'd like to pray before we start."
Kathathrahn laughed. "Very well. Go ahead."
And so Hati drew his saber, kneeled down and put the point of the blade into the ground before him. He put his forehead to the pummel and closed his eyes.
Rex didn't understand, Hati wasn't religious and he never saw him pray before. "What are you doing?"
Hati stood back up, "Calling for aid."
Suddenly the night sky above them cleared up and the stars lit up strongly. Millions of new stars were added to the firmament and the picture of it was so flawless that the Humans thought, they were in space again.
"Aw, shit", Kathathrahn sighed, "What does the faggot do here?"
"When the god of bones, blood and fire is calling out my name, I have no choice but to answer it", the shadow replied.
"What? He was the one that called you." Kat pointed at Hati and the shadow looked down at him.
Hati waved up to the giant cloaked god and smiled nervously. "Yes, that is him, Hati, in his mortal form." The shadow looked at Kat, "Do you not recognise your master when you see him?"
"To be honest, I'm not getting out a lot."
"Alright", Hati admitted, "Now I'm confused."
"I'm sorry", the shadow asked, "But what did you call me here for?"
Cameron asked Morty, while Hati was negotiating, "Who is the new guy?"
Morty sighed, more or less, since he had no lungs, "The new guy is only the god of night, hunt and cats, Gauduhn. How do you Humans not know your gods?"
"Excuse me! But there’s only one true god, and I’m sure he doesn’t dress up like that!"
Morty shrugged, "I heard that story before. Didn't end well."
In front of them, by the tree of the hill, Hati bowed before Gauduhn.
"You want me to fight my brother, Kat?"
"Please", Kat begged, "Don't use that name in front of the mortals."
"Ehm, no, I can take him on myself", Hati said.
Rex yelled, "What?!"
Hati continued, "But could you please keep Rex from hurting more people?"
Gauduhn looked back and forth between the Lizards, "Did you say, Rex? From Karinthor? Rex Bra'Kan van Karinthor? You want me to fight the vessel of time? You wouldn't live to see the end of it."
"The what now?"
"Oh!", Kat laughed, "That is him? That is hilarious that we meet up like this. This reminds me of the great convergence we had fifteen thousand cycles ago."
"I'm sorry, once again, Master Hati", Gauduhn said to him, "But I can't fight other gods. It never ends."
"You mean it never ends well."
"No, I mean, it has no end. Gods don't die and they don't tire. The only thing that will get lost is the battlefield."
Hati nodded and looked at Kat, "Alright then. Then make sure no one else dies."
Kat took a few steps towards Hati. "You want to fight me with that stick of yours?"
Hati raised his sword against him but it melted away in a second. Merely his handle remained.
"Well, that's not really fair, is it?"
"Fair?", Kat laughed while he raised his hammer to strike, "Fair is the loser's cry."
"HATI!", Elisa shouted and threw him her longsword. Hati rolled out of the way of the hammerstrike and picked the sword off the air.
With flowing motion, Hati turned the catch of the sword into a heap and drove the enchanted blade through the long handle of the godly warhammer.
It was cut through and separated which left Kat obviously impressed.
"Now that's a fine sword. I've seen it before, yes. But not in the hands of a Brass'Ka, no, but of a Raptor, a servant of the Za'Ir." He laughed while his handle and hammerhead reunited with liquid metal reaching out to the parts. He lifted the hammer onto his shoulder, "It shall serve you well in this fight!"
Again and again they exchanged strikes and swings. The Eral's Blade, how the enchanted sword was named by Elisa, was up to the task and kept Hati save from the spikes and strikes of the Metal God. On the other hand, he had no means to hurt Kat. Cuts made closed shortly after. And he was immortal after all. All Hati could do, was to put his head onto the line for the others, so no one else had to die.
Whenever spikes or a wave of metal, chains and blades leashed out into the area, Gauduhn took care of it and let it vanish into smoke before it reached the bystanders.
It went on a few minutes like that, until the fight was interrupted by a royal voice. A royal canterlot voice.
"ENOUGH OF THIS!", with lightning and power oozing out of her horn, Luna got between the fighters and so they stopped.
"An Alicorn", Gauduhn concluded, "That must mean, I am in Equestria. But then", and turned to Pinkie, "You! I didn't know you were here too, forgive me for my intrusion."
"It's okay", Pinkie said, "I've been monitoring this whole thing for quite a while now. Before it can end peacefully, I first have to do one more thing. Or two. Or, you know, things. Plural anyway."
Twilight didn't understand, "Pinkie, what are you doing?" She could only watch her walking up to the Metal God. "It's time, Twilight, it's time."
"An Alicorn", Kat concluded, "That must mean, I am in Equestria. But then", and saw Pinkie approach him. "You! I didn't know you were here too, forgive me for my intrusion, Master." He kneeled down and put the hammer down.
"Ehm", Hati was confused and raised a brow, "Pinkie, Master?"
She looked at Rex, "You thought no one would remember your loops, you thought you had it all under control, that you had no one to fear. But I do, you didn't and there had always been me."
Rex stepped forward, "Who are you?"
"I carry many names. You know me, even if you don't remember. I'm a part of you, even if you don't know it."
"You are insane."
"Exactly my point. And you", her eyes fell upon Kathathrahn, "Are a chicken."
Suddenly the mighty giant disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced by a chicken that wore a metal spiked helmet.
"What the", Hati walked up to the chick and picked it up onto his arm, "Hell?"
"Not quite."
Twilight walked up to her and Luna, she was followed by Spike, "What's going on? How did you do that?"
"Don't worry your little head about it, you won't remember it and you never understand it. You're never taking it well."
Gauduhn went to Hati and reached out his pitch black claw, it was dripping of black goo and mist and Hati hesitated. "I'll take him home."
"Hmm, alright?", Hati handed him the chicken. "But he'll be himself again, right?"
"Of course, those spells never last forever. A few hundred years of your time maybe."
Without any word of farewell, Gauduhn went into the gates of the underworld and they closed behind him, leaving behind a pile of rubble and nothing more.
"That doesn't make any sense", Twilight insisted when Pinkie told her of her powers.
"Nothing here ever does", Applejack commented.
"You know how sometimes it's fun to dress up for Nightmare Night? Sometimes it's fun to be a pink Pony. Don't overthink it."
Then Pinkie walked into Rex's direction. He now stood alone, without any allies, even though Hati didn't want anyone to kill him.
"You remind me of someone. I should introduce you to each other. How about we make it a duel, what do you say, hmm, Rex?"
"A duel?", Rex reached into his coat to get his hand on another Inaji. In the other hand he held his blue spellbook. "What are the stakes?"
"Survivor lives."
Rex nodded, "Sounds fine to me."
From another puff of smoke, a person appeared, dressed in green cloth and golden armor, with a golden helmet that had long, curved horns, that reached almost all the way from this forehead to the back of his neck.
"Where am I?"
"You were brought here to duel!", Pinkie cheered, "Loki of Asgard."
"How dare you bring me here? You foolish", he turned around to Pinkie, "Pink ... Pony?"
"How's your neck? Feeling better? Last time I saw you, you were looking quite under the weather."
Loki straightened his clothing and turned to this opponent, "Who is my duel partner?" He spotted Rex who bowed to him and Loki started to grin. "Oh, this is already over."
Cameron was curious. "Now, he looks Human."
"That is Loki, a Norse God, equivalent to the devil and apparently bringer of the end of the world", Teal'C explained.
"You hang out with Daniel too much."
Sam brought up, "But we already know a Loki, the Asgard."
"What else would I be?", Loki said from afar. He had excellent hearing after all.
"Little grey alien guy, big eyes, huge brains, no?", Cameron commented.
Teal'C calmly explained, "Loki is also a villain in the Marvel Comics universe."
"You read comics now?"
"The movies are quite enjoyable."
Rex addressed his opponent, "Why, another god, one of magic, illusions and cheap tricks?"
"Cheap tricks?", he started to yell, "I am a god! I am Loki! Better not to test me, mortal."
"Why, you should start to wear a name tag then. All the repeating must be tiring."
"And who are you, a comedian, or just a fool?"
"Why, did you think I was funny? Did you see me smile?"
"Then what do people call you, just so I'd know what to write on your tombstone."
"Expectations, my dear", Rex sighed, "Nothing but expectations. If you seek to be successful in what you do, you should stop to presume."
"YOUR NAME!"
Rex smiled, "Rex, and please, don't overuse it."
"You think you're that great, a hot shot as humans say, ..."
"Carter, did I ever say Hot Shot?"
"I don't know. I don't remember. Maybe."
"... But you're just a mortal, an insect that I will crush once I get bored of your games."
"Look who's talking. I can't say I care for who you are or this conversation, so if you would excuse me, I have more important issues to attempt to. Like saving the cosmos."
"So have I. Unfortunately for you, my issue is you."
Rex looked at Pinkie besides Loki. His gaze cut deep into her soul. "Do you think he can defeat me?"
"I will", Loki smiled while he took his first steps towards the blue mage.
Rex shortly looked around, observing the hilltop. "Your tricks are cheap and not very clever. Not clever at all."
He held his magic book in his hand and aimed its pages somewhere behind him without taking his gaze off Pinkie. A blue lightning-storm jumped out of the pages, that cooked and burned all next to Rex in a wide cone. Soon the lightning strikes started to focus onto a single target, contorted like snakes and much like they were alive.
The bow of light continued and a few moments later, a figure started to become visible under its grab. The rainbow coloured invisibility cloak started to fail and Loki's true self was revealed. He couldn't move under the power of the spell and flinched in agony. His shadow picture vanished.
"I. Am", he stuttered under great effort, "A. God."
"Why, immortal, yes", Rex smiled at him, "I didn't forget."
While the lightning storm was ongoing, he ripped the page off his book and threw it over into Loki's face. As he was bound by the spell, Rex now had time to browse his book once more. The next second he threw another page to the god's feet, which cast a new spell. A ring of light expanded under him and when it was big enough, the colour changed to pitch black. Immediately Loki fell into the void while still bound by the page in this face.
When the portal closed and the god was banished, the hill became silent and Rex looked into the teary and angry faces of his opponents.
"Oh, no", Spike said, "What are we going to do now?"
Luna was of good hope, "I have called for help. I'm still hoping it may arrive in time."
"Nowhere left to go", Rex looked at the crowd while taking out one of what must’ve been his last Inaji. "Let's put an end to this misery, shall we?"
Hati stepped forward in front of the crowd. "Then I shall be your opponent."
"I'd hate to hurt you, dear. But if that's your wish, then I shall grant it."
Suddenly a frame started to appear around Rex. It was see-through and pulsed on and off. Everyone but the Ponies had a hard time to recognise what it was.
Luna started to smile of relief, "Just in time, as always."
Rex didn't know what happened to him, he was trapped in this pulsing box, that slowly appeared out of thin air. "What is this? That never happened before!"
"We do have a Master of Time on our side as well", Luna yelled proudly, "Not a God, but a Lord!"
"It's Time Lord, darling, Time Lord. And the name's The Doctor."
They turned around to the tall man in their midst.
"Doctor!", Luna said surprised, "Why are you not in the Tardis?"
"It's remote controlled. Makes for a much better entrance, don't you think? I'm still working on that."
Soon the box around Rex was complete and stopped pulsing. The returning sound of buzzing air was killed off by a heavy hit of tons of steel finally resting on the ground.
The box was blue, with white little windows in the upper half and a light bulb on the top.
"Cam", Sam said, "Is that", but hesitated, "Doctor Who?"
"The who-now?"
"You never watched Doctor Who?"
"I'm not watching a lot of stuff, Carter."
"Please!", the tall man said, "It's just The Doctor. Or Doctor if we're out of time."
"That might be confusing", Morty said.
The man wore a brown suit with a fine shirt underneath, shiny shoes and a red bowtie around his neck. He walked up to the much smaller Morty and checked him out. "Oh, hello, and what are you?"
"I'm not feeling. I'm missing the body parts to feel."
"Now, why would that be confusing calling me Doctor?"
"I'm a Doctor too. Doctor Mortanius Kältezorn."
"Sounds german."
"I know. So I've heard."
"Let's just roll with it, if people say Doctor, we assume they mean me. Okay? Okay!"
Hati looked concerned, "What happened to Rex?"
"Oh, Rex, this Rex, yes, he's in the Tardis now. That's the Tardis, it's my", he shrugged, "Ship. Yes, I think that analogy works." He walked up to Hati, "He's fine. It's like a cage now, I locked it. He cannot get out, unless he's made out of time." He laughed shortly, "Seriously, he's not made out of time? That would be horrible." He turned to the Ponies, "Sometimes a little of the time leaks out. Nothing serious, I'm looking to get it fixed, but I just don't find the ... time. Funny."
"Doctor!", Twilight shouted at him, and so he smiled down at her.
"Yes, Twilight, or Princess Twilight now, isn't it? It's good to see you again."
"Be careful with this Rex. He killed many of our friends."
"A bad finger, that Rex. But as I understand it, this time thing in the orbit, it will reset the time to three days ago. So you'll see them again, don't worry about the details. I'm here for the details."
In the Tardis, Rex turned around to face the room behind him. It was a shiny room, full of contraptions and lights that blinded him. In the center of the round dome, there was a pillar of glass and light, surrounded by consoles, levers and a grill bridge above the ground.
Most amazing though was that on the bridge, near the steps that lead to it, stood another Rex. "More trickery? No, you're no trick. You're me."
"I'm a tad older in fact, but yes."
"But I didn't summon you."
"No, I summoned you. I'm the older one. I'm trying to make this right. Don't resist, don't explain yourself. I already know what you are going to say."
And once the Rex downstairs opened his mouth, the future self repeated every word of his, what got him interrupted. "BBuutt tthhiiss iiss rriiddiiccuulloouuss ... SSttoopp iitt."
The old Rex smiled. "Sorry."
"So, what is it that you will make yourself do? I don't have to tell you that the time spell is upon us soon."
"I will make you stop."
"Stop?"
"You will give me your Inaji, all of it, and then stop using your magic on this planet. Entirely."
"If you had this conversation before, then you know what I would be asking you."
Old Rex sighed, "You don't have to make the portal anymore. Your experiments are not needed anymore."
"This is hard for me to accept."
"I took some seconds to take it in myself."
"What is this box? What is this room?"
"This is a time traveling device. It's your ride home."
"A device?"
"I know, we despise those. But this one runs on magic. You'll find some time to look into it, later."
"Very well. But the Inaji, is that really necessary? I'd like to keep some for study."
"I don't have any anymore", he opened the coat to show him. His enchanted eyes revealed that he was telling the truth. "I gave them all away when I was in your position. Only that way the story can find an ending."
"But that would mean that I can keep the Inaji."
"I can keep the Inaji. You have to be patient. Look, I gave them away when it was my turn, so it already happened. It's not like you have a choice."
"Yes, that makes sense." He walked up the steps and handed him the last of his crystals.
"Now I'm powerless."
"Not for very long."
"Not long indeed!", the Doctor swooped through the door of the Tardis, "I see you two already met."
"The worst part of this joke is, that I will have to hear it twice."
"Ho-Ho! A critique! Alright, folks, let's spin this like the Groundbreaker record."
His joke was met by bored looks of two blue skin Lizard mages.
"What? It's really good."
Pinkie stood in the door and cheered, "Can I come?"
"Pinkie!", the Doctor waved her in, "Of course, you crazy Pony ... god thing", while he was switching levers and pushing switches on the console. "Finally some life in this room." He looked at Rex who rolled his eyes. "No offense."
Pinkie joined them on the bridge and smiled, loaded with anticipation. "Allons-y or Geronimo?", she asked.
"Be my guest."
"In that case, Cowabunga!"
"Oh, that's a good one." He pushed the last lever up to eleven and the buzzing noise of the machinery returned.
From the outside it looked like the blue box was vanishing into thin air. The last thing that faded was the light on the top that twinkled a last goodbye.
Cameron shrugged disappointed. "What was that about?"
But the next second, he lost his memory. The Planet returned to the state of a few days ago. The time spell drowned the world and stole away all harm that Rex had caused upon it.
Rex sat in the library again, in the dark end behind the books nopony ever read. He sat in his rune ring and tested his spell, felt the power of the cosmos and weakened his body with a final effort. Near him, Elisa sat on the table and watched his doing. It was a few days ago again when Rex opened his eyes. Yet, he remembered all that had happened, the battles, the Doctor, the Tardis, everything about it.
"Are you okay?", Elisa asked.
Rex stood up and the runes around him vanished. "Yes. Let's go to the others, come."
They headed back to the Mirror where the crowd waited for them.
Near the Mirror stood the blue boxy Tardis, Ponies, Lizards and the team of the Humans gathered around it. In the middle of them all, the Doctor smiled and shared a word or two with the crowd. Next to him stood another Rex.
"I'm taking the Doctor explained our situation to everyone?", Rex asked.
"More or less", Hati smiled, "Probably."
While the Humans went into the Tardis, and some of the aliens too, Twilight stepped up to Rex. "He didn't tell us everything about what happened, but from what I’ve heard, it must have been very hard for you. And for me too. I do hope you will find your way home now, and that you will never return here."
"No offense?"
"I didn't say that."
Rex smiled, "Is it so hard to consider me a friend? To forgive me?"
"You're a killer. You've murdered people."
"So did you, dear. Of what I've heard, not everyone gets to be lucky. Some of your villains get imprisoned forever, some may be", Rex looked up to pick a thought, "Let's call it: Resocialized. While others end up as shards at the bottom of marble steps under a balcony. How do you dare to judge, how do you dare to make such a decision?"
"I'm not. It's not up to me. And it shouldn't be up to you either."
"You have been quite the opponent. I will remember you, Princess Twilight Sparkle. And may it be merely for that ridiculous name." He went up to the Tardis and joined the crew within.
When the door had closed, the journey started, accompanied by the characteristic sound of the Tardis.
"So", Hati laid his left arm around Rex's shoulders and smiled down at him, "I've heard some things. You made quite the mess of things this time around."
"I tried to do what I thought was the right thing. I was saving not only you, us and Xerexarea, but also the cosmos. Now that nothing will be done, the future of the Pony-World is bound to be doomed. A few thousand years further and their sun will die out, leaving their land in eternal night. I was able to do something about it. I had to try."
Cameron spoke up to him, "Only because you're able to do it, doesn't give you the right to do it."
"Why, no? Is that not so? No one was able to stop me, I had free reign. Even killed most of you Humans the one of other time around. I might as well have been their leader and ruler of this world."
"That's not how leadership works", Vala commented, "Not the most powerful is bound to lead, not by fear anyway. We take the most suited, the wisest, the one with the biggest hearts."
Rex laughed and looked at the Humans, "Is that so? What about your leaders? How do you pick them?"
"What she said!", Mitchell yelled.
"Then tell me, how much money does a leader have to offer for the chance of election? You're telling me, that every poor man, child or woman can be chosen a leader out of their pure heart and ideas?"
"Are you breaking the Fourth Wall?!", Rook yelled and Rex yelled back ferociously, "I'm making a point!"
"As interesting as this is", the Doctor interrupted them while pulling a lever, "We're here. First stop, Delta Base." He looked down at his console, "That was the year two thousand and?"
"Twenty one", Cameron answered.
The Doctor adjusted another wheel, "Twenty one", and the noise returned just for a second. "As I thought."
The Humans said their goodbye to the Doctor, ignored the Lizards and went out the door. They returned to their kind and arrived a bit early even. Just in time for their Gala to start.
The Tardis took off once more, heading for the time and place of Xerexarea, home of the Lizards and other Human-like aliens.
"A bit of a shame, isn't it?", Rex sighed. "All the time at my hands but I never managed to handle the situation with grace and care. It always ended up in bloodshed. Sometimes mine, mostly theirs." He looked at Hati who sat on the console beside him, "Sometimes yours."
"You know", Hati smiled while he crossed his arms, "Not everyone can be your friend. Out there are enemies too. Some that only want to use you, people that want your money, sweat, ideas, life, heart and dick. These Ponies just don't understand friendship. It's really not your fault."
"But, dear, doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?"
"Chances, yes. But friends? I don't think so. If I get to know a person up to a certain point, then I can tell if we're gonna be best buds or not."
"You still manage to surprise me. Sometimes."
The noise of the machinery silenced and the clunk of the landing echoed through the metal dome.
"Xerexarea!", the Doctor yelled, "Did I say that right?"
Krator and Elisa opened the door and laid their eyes upon the wide desert of Karinthor in the south of Xerexarea. In the far horizon, houses pierced the blue of the sky. White towers behind a high city wall, in the middle of a green spot of fertile land, reflected the sunny day. Behind them, one could easily spot the great white pyramid, the temple of the Brass'Ka.
The Doctor came to the door and looked outside. He was impressed, "What a lovely place. I should visit sometime." He slapped Krator onto his muscular shoulder, "You show me around the place then?"
Krator skrank his eyes at the Doctor, "How is your drinking condition?"
"Ehm, fine, I think. Masses, I guess. I'm not really sure, actually."
"Excellent!", Krator cheered. "We shall test your condition on your next visit."
"Me too?", Elisa asked.
"No, never you. Drinking doesn't suit you, sweetheart."
While everyone was leaving the Tardis but Pinkie, Hati looked behind at Rex, who also stayed by the console. "Are you not coming?"
"Not me, dear. I'm taking another spin. Go with him instead, this is your Rex." He nodded in the door's direction and there was Rex as well waiting for Hati. "I'll be him in a few hours. So there's no need for goodbye or farewell."
Hati smiled and threw him a last look before he turned around, "Alright then. Have fun!"
Once the Tardis was emptied and only the Doctor, the Rex and the Pinkie were left, Rex sighed of relief.
"What's wrong?", Pinkie asked.
"It's a heavy burden to know the things I do."
Pinkie and the Doctor looked at each other and started laughing.
"It's funny to you?"
"You're still so young. Nothing to be ashamed of."
"I'm over six hundred years old."
"Exactly", the Doctor said, "I'm in my nine hundreds and boy, that's still nothing." He turned to Pinkie. "How old were you again?"
"Only a few eons older than the universe. It was so cute when it was but a single atom. We called it Tiny Spark, or just Tiny for short."
"Can we get this over with already?", Rex applied.
"Yes, of course!" The Tardis stopped and Pinkie went for the door. "That's my stop."
"See you later, Crazy Pink Pony ... thing."
"Just Pinkie will do. Or Sheo if you wanna be formal."
Rex said his farewell, "You always meet twice, Pinkie." And with a last twinkle of her eye, Pinkie cheerfully trotted outside.
A few moments later, Rex appeared in the doorway of the Tardis, as he did before. The events that had happened before, happened yet again. Rex would take the Inaji from himself, calm him down and force him to surrender. The Doctor brings everyone home and no harm comes to anyone.
And yet, Rex noticed something. He walked through the sands of Karinthor with Hati and his friends by his side. For a while he held the Inaji in his hand and stared at it.
"Time is a curious thing", he mumbled.
"Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings."
"Not now, Rook", Hati insisted. "What are you thinking?"
"This crystal grows in the bones of the Unicorns. They collect particles of the crystal that literally drops down from the sun within the sunlight. And it adds up to worrisome amounts that simply infect the body. It even tries to break down the alien element and radiate it off into the environment, what leaves a colourful mark on the Pony's hips.
"But didn't you say once, that time already happened? You didn't do it now, but you did do it earlier. Since you have memory of it, it was a part of time at some point, right?"
"Very, my dear", Rex smiled. "Like I said, time is curious."
"Y'know what’s buggin' me?!", Rook yelled, "This Doctor dude will have a Rex in his ship forever. As soon as brings the one home, he goes to pick up another. Then he has two and only one goes home again. That job is never ending."
Rex stopped walking and laughed hard. So hard in fact that it scared Hati, who never saw him laugh like that before.
Once he calmed down again, he wiped a tear of his eye. "I'm glad I don't have to do it."
"There's only one way to free him of this task."
Hati looked at Rook and asked him, "Yeah, and what would that be?"
Rook stopped in front of his friends and struck a pose, "By making the story end."
THE END
"See?"
Complete Title: A wacky Read about Fandoms and Originality introducing Crossovers and Wallbreaks for the Sake of Literary Studies and of course Fun.
“Man, that is some ... some title! Right there”, Hati nodded.
“Aye, thanks. Y’Know we just broke the wall for the first time.”
“Oh ... is that ... bad?”
“Nah”, Rook waved his hand, “It might happen a few times later anyway.”
“I got an alternative title, y’know. Twily Wiley and the Lizard Wizard.”
“Ooh, I like that one. Not sure if it carries the right tone, though.”
“You’re starting the story now?”
“First we’ll put on some prologue, first of all The Disclaimer.”
Disclaimer
Dis Prolog will contain spoilers, in which so far, that it gives a list of characters that ought to appear in the following pages. This first chapter will merely be a introduction and technical details. If you don’t want to bother with the ways the author made up to waste your time, you would do well jumping to chapter two, where the experiment actually starts. This is not a story, it is not a fiction, it is a field experiment containing fictional elements. Out of author’s lethargy there might be a lack of apostrophes, which usually are contained within the english language a lot. It will contain none of the grammatical rules and standards you might be used to from fiction, novels or school education. The author knows and decided not to mind. In the experiment there will appear different characters from multiple fandoms and fictional universes, however, they might share certain characteristics in personality, apparently, obviously, accidentally or otherwise. The author’s mind is free and doesn’t belong to anyone, occasionally not even to himself. Some characters appearing in the experiment are not owned by the author. This experiment is not for selling purposes. Fandom characters can be owned by companies that are not owned by the author either. Those companies may or may not lie in countries that the author never visited. This experiment may appear in a story-like appearance. Do not let yourself get fooled. Everything contained in the experiment never happened, it never happened to any character that appears in it, and will have no influence to cannon theories, my butt, or official lore of the universes the fandoms are made from. Daniel Radcliffe is not included.
“How unusual, alright.”
“You like it?”
Hati shrugged, “We’re gonna be the narrators the whole time? Because that’d be soooo ....”
“Awesome. But no. We have a narrator. We gotta play our parts after all, y’know.”
“Alright then”, Hati looked around, “Then, what’s next on your list?”
Rook reset his glasses while he looked down on the piece of paper, “Introductions. Wait, does that mean, we’re gonna have a description an’ lore of all characters in front of the story? That seems wrong.” Rook was slowly shaking his head in disappointment.
“Only the main cast, but yeah, looks like it. You know, like they have’em in the MLP Issues. Just keeping the reader on speed.”
“Drugs are bad, mhkay”, Rook stuffed his pipe.
“Yeeaahh ...”, Hati shrunk his eyes, “Right. You wanna go first, or shall I?”
“Well, who was first?”
“You made the title”, Hati looked up into the story’s words, “And then I said something.”
“Well then you go first, don’cha?!”
“Wow, alright, no need to get puffy”, Hati smiled.
“Puffy!”, Rook started to laugh and swallowed his smoke, he started to cough and took a while to catch his breath again. With thin voice he added,
“Funny.”
“Alright”, Hati knocked at the 4th Wall with his knuckles, “How does this work? Is it ... magic or something?”
“It’s mental.”
“Whut?”
“It’s a mental issue. Here, let the narrator do it.”
Main Character Introductions:
Hati: This lizardman from another world grew tall and wide, and shows great pride in his fitness and muscles. He has grey-green leathery skin, bright orange marks on his back and face and shows no decorative horns, scales or feathers anywhere on his body or head. His right arm though is cursed by an evil spell, that left his flesh in flames and only his mere bones remained. He can move the magical cursed bones like a normal arm, it is numb however. In moments of great anger and danger his bones can shift shape and grow into blades and all kinds of medieval arms. Hati is constantly worried, about everything, but tries to stay optimistic and look at the bright sides of things. He is far from sadness but close to anger, mostly cheerful though, and loyal to his friends. He knows war and fighting, he knows killing and doesn’t shy from it, but he is also a scientist, an archeologist, and knows how to follow logic. His voice however is young and strong, what can put him into a more likeable, yet naive light when experienced together with his beasty appearance.
Rook: As a crossbreed between lizardmen and bird(men?), Rook is a weird visual mix of those two species. He has bright blue leathery skin and the body of a lizardman, but a yellow beak in his face and a few long, bright red feathers on the tip of his long tail, on his elbows and knees and on the top of his head, all aligned from his forehead to his neck, like a mohawk. Rook isn’t tall, he isn’t strong, but he’s no weakling either or fat. He’s an inventor and blacksmith, hence he got some muscles from heavy lifting and a few screws loose from the one or other discovery of his, that blew up into his face. Rook is downright insane, as you might have noticed. He shows no empathy and cares only for himself, and maybe his friend Hati. He’s no stranger to killing, but he’s not a fighter. Usually he carries guns with himself to do the job for him. His urge to survive is strong though, he does what needs to be done to evade pain and scars. His voice is fairly far back in this throat at times, but changes constantly to higher pitches, depending on Rooks current emotion and mental state.
Krator: Another lizardman from a far away land in another dimension, but this time with wings. Krator is a yellow skinned, tall fighter for justice, who takes great pride in his believes and well trained body. He has great muscles around his chest, mostly because of his wings on his back, but not so many around his lower areas. Walking is not really his thing. His bones are hollow, and so is his flat, curvy horn on his head too, that reaches about two Hands high and makes his appearance even taller than he actually is. It reaches from his flat forehead all the way back to his backside of his skull, forming a wide area that is covered with strong red coloured skin. On the sides of his horn one can make out his six nostrils. His face is also flat and frog-like, with wide, big, red eyes on the sides of his skull and a wide mouth beneath them. He also has a figurative wide mouth, a cocky attitude and enough fist for everyone to go around. As a templar for justice and a crusader for his holy believes, he serves the world in all things of justice. Beating up bad guys is pretty much his job. He usually uses his evasive martial fighting style for these things, his fists or whatever is standing in grabs reach. Krator also knows some secrets of the universe and is able to use elemental magic, mostly ice to lock down his targets, shackle them or take them out from afar via knife-like shards. As fighting crime is basically all he does, he is not the smartest, or most patient. Taking a problem by its head is his usual approach, what sometimes leads him into trouble. He can be rough and naive, but he means well and is capable to great compassion and sacrifices. His voice is deep, throaty and sparks of his great energetic personality, what may be enough already to shy off some of his foes.
Mortanius: Once a successful and rich doctor of medicine and alchemy, Mortanius Furius Kältezorn went a little too far with his experiments and ended up transforming himself into an undead, probably immortal skeleton, that’s ignited almost constantly. Suffering from the same bone-curse as Hati sews them together, makes them partners in crime and in the mystery addressing the magic of those flames. Mortanius body is numb, he can’t sleep, nor eat or do anything else normal humans would do. He was an old man once, not the tallest and not the most handsome, but now the curse freed him from his health issues - kinda what he was trying to do, when he got himself cursed. Whenever he is calm, he manages to kill the flames surrounding him and is able to wear clothing and touch things. Whenever he is angry and loses his temper though, his flames rise high again, leaving his surroundings in ashes. A mood killer for sure. Due to his desperate and angry personality, some parts of him, mostly his head, are ignited at all times. He grew cynical over the years, cold hearted - so to speak - and cares only for his science and his search to lift the curse and maybe even find his long sought cure for death itself too. He has a strong accent that lies behind his teeth and stresses the vowels. His voice is old and high, sometimes even squeaky, and not too pleasant to listen to.
Knom: As the son of Mortanius, Knom Kältezorn fell victim to his father’s experiments quite early, hence his body never aged older than twelve. In an inhuman procedure Mortanius tried to save his life, after a lightning struck him and took it away. Many of his organs were removed, some replaced by contraptions, running on electrical power provided by his own body and friction. This power though can spike and cause sparks that grow immense power, form a bow of light across a room or toast people he touches. Knom is a small, hairless man. A young and at the same time old man, who read countless books and remembers everything, just everything, he ever experienced. He is mostly silent though, due to his lack of vocal organs, that had to be removed. When he speaks, what doesn’t happen a lot, he can only whisper with a rough, crackly sound. His face also had to be removed, such as nose, lips, ears and eyelids. Mostly blind and deaf, Knom can orient himself with shockwaves and electrical fields, that every creature provides. Thanks to his constructed body, he is stronger than every mortal man and faster by far. As well as he is lacking organs, he is also lacking emotions. He has none. Everything he does has to have a reason, has to be logical, or a challenge. Knom is on the search for a new challenge, for a new enemy to smite down, and nothing more. Fighting, serving and honor are his whole life now.
Rex: Also a lizardman from the other world, Rex is a well known and powerful villain/avenger/angel of death in his homeland. He takes on bounties and steals on demand, or assassinates. He is not bulky and he isn’t tall, he’s actually fairly slim and graceful. His skin is slick and dark blue, with bright blue spots in his face and on his back. Blue scales, starting at his upper forehead, cover his neck, back and tail. His appearance is not adorned by hornes or feathers, except for the two finger-sized spikes that hang from his chin. Having a deceptive young, pretty body, but an old mind, that’s seen far over five-hundred years already, Rex had enough time to become a great mage, assassin and thief. Bending reality after his will, teleporting himself around and summoning serving creatures straight from his mind, are only some of his simpler talents. Luckily for most universes and their inhabitants, Rex is sophisticated, follows his own rules, honors his contracts and loves a good conversation over a bloody fight anytime. He’s a charming gentleman who rejects violence when unneeded, but isn’t scared of it when necessary. He knows that no one can oppose him and tries to talk his enemies out of their deaths before it’s too late for them to regret. He still has manners and holds them high, there is no need to act like a beast when you already look like it. Rex is greedy though, for riches and power. He is far from partnership, something that comes with his age in the trial to protect himself from pain. Still he cannot resist to throw an eye or two at his companion Hati, something that doesn’t even qualify as queer for a lizard like him. When he finds a mystery, he will try to solve it, and when he feels magic near him, he will try to collect this magic into his spellbook, no matter the cost. His charming voice opens him many doors for his quests. It is deep and soft, laid out well and pleasant to the ear.
Elisa: As a crossbreed between a weird interdimensional version of elves and the races of men, Elisa is hated in the lands she comes from and lived on the streets after her father was murdered. Her mother is an elven priestess, that she lost out of sight somehow after she left in her search for her father, who was a soldier and died in battle. Years later, when she discovered the murderer of her father, she was found by Krator, who has sworn to avenge his death for her, so she wouldn’t have to carry the burden by herself. Only fourteen years old and still a kid, Elisa doesn’t know much about the world or her own place in it. She has wide, green eyes, black, curly hair and long, pointy ears, that she can turn into the wind. Elisa draws a lot of attention to herself due to her clumsiness and amount of inexperience, that shows on a daily basis. She is mighty curious though and always asking, solving riddles and prying into things, that she has no business with. As a girl close to adulthood, she is emotional unstable, always switching from compassion to anger and from bloodlust to remorse. All she wants is to have a good world, to be good for the world and make it better. She has a big heart and is still trying to figure out what to do with it. She’s trying to help wherever she can, but becomes cruel once she’s dealing with villains. Her voice is soft and mostly quiet, reflecting her young and shy personality, that mostly shows when dealing with strangers.
“Oh, wow, that was easy.”
“And so long, dude. What voice was he in your head?”
“Ehm? I heard it, I didn’t have to-”
“Mine was Jeremy Clarkson, he has a great voice.”
“I don’t even know ...”
Rook looks down on his list, “Do we really have to introduce the fandom cast? I mean, come on.”
“We started it, we might as well do it right. And besides, not like you had to get your ass up or anything.”
“Hmmm”, Rook nodded deep in thought, “Proceed.”
Twilight, voiced by Tara Strong: Born a unicorn, Twilight Sparkle made it to a princess and Alicorn, using that big, fat brain and heart of hers. That means, that she not only is a pony with a spiral horn growing out of her forehead, but that she has feathery wings on her back as well. Fairly rare, Twilight is one of four Alicorn-princesses of her lands and therefore bound by responsibility and trust. Her fur is somewhat light-purple/lavender and her hair (or mane) dark blue, perfectly straight and long enough to reach her chest. It’s adorned by natural highlights of bright pink and purple. Once a loner and dweeb, Twilight had her head in the books of her personal library, learning all there is to know and even more about the talents of magic. Being a unicorn enables her to perform all kinds of spells using only her mind. Teleporting, messing with time and gravity, and shooting lasers hotter than the sun, are only a few of her talents, that she uses almost on a daily basis. She’s a fairly nervous pone, always in worry and stress, that she mostly made herself. Only in presence of her most beloved friends and family she can find to herself and be the leader and princess they need her to be. The whole land and the other princesses count on her to fulfill her destiny. And shoot lasers.
Rainbow, voiced by Ashleigh Ball: As a pegasus, Rainbow Dash is a natural flyer. Her fur is light blue and she has feathered wings on her back. Her hair radiants in all the rainbow colours, thus her name. She claims to be the best and fastest flyer in the world and ever, and so far didn’t fail to deliver. Using that power of speed, Rainbow can break sound barriers, lay out quite some punch and even ignite the air near herself. As fit as she is and as great as her powers are, as great are the flaws of her personality though. She is overly into herself and probably the most cocky hero in her lands. She can do what every other fails to do and she knows that. Gloating is one of her few hobbies, what doesn’t always make her popular. But whenever there is someone in need, or in need of a frank commentary, she is there to help. Her heart beats strongly for justice and fighting, for competition and thrill. But as every hero, she knows how to appreciate a moment of silence and rest.
Fluttershy, voiced by Andrea Libman: Although a pegasus, Fluttershy is afraid of heights, amongst everything else. Holding her name in high regards, she couldn’t do a step outside without being startled, when she was younger. Only ever since she made friends with Rainbow and the other servants of Twilight, she grew more confident and stronger. Even so, that she takes problems and villains head on and snaps in moments of rage. Mostly though she’s a gently soul, who never speaks too loud, never first and never last, only says nice things and really cares for manners and everyone’s feelings, even those of people she never met. She only wants the best for all, what also shows in her daycare center for animals that is her home. Her special ability to communicate with wildlife and creatures of all kinds and sizes makes her valuable in homeland security.
Applejack, voiced by Ashleigh Ball: As an earth pony, Applejack has no wings, nor can she use magic. What she lacks in abilities, she gains in strength and tenacity. Applejack in particular is extremely fit and ably in acrobatics and all kinds of acts that require a certain amount of meat on the bones and heart in the chest. She got orange fur and messy, blonde hair and never goes anywhere without her trademark stetson. She is most happy when she can do her chores on her family farmland and look after her two siblings, whose mother figure she’d become. But whenever there is a quest to save her friends, her land or apples, she stands willingly in the frontline to take the first blast. Sometimes she’s not the most trustworthy pony around, sometimes got secrets better told out loud, but in her core she’s honest and honorable and her friends know that.
Rarity, voiced by Tabitha St. Germain: A unicorn with white fur and dark purple hair, all neat and silky, is most certainly a Rarity. With her curly fitted hair, her fake eyelashes and makeup, she’s one of the more sophisticated and classy ponies of her kin and lands. As a unicorn, she can use magic, but not much more than gravity and illuminating spells. She’s not particularly skilled in the schools of magic, other than in craftsmanship. Heavy or light tools, she can do all, preferes light though and takes all chances to stay neat and clean. When there is need at hand, she pushes through her neurosis and takes matters into her own hooves, no matter the cost. For beauty and her friends and family, she goes all the distance and does what is necessary. She shows a talent in jewelry as well and can categorize many types of gems with her bare eyes, as well as locate them in the ground via her unicorn magic. Though not very acrobatic or strong, she is considered fairly pretty and attractive in pony standards, what also reflects in her charm and lulling voice.
Pinkie, voiced by Andrea Libman: As an earth pony, Pinkamena Diane Pie shows no magic or wings, but great traits in abilities addressing body and strength. Pinkie is amazingly acrobatic and can lift a weight multiple times of her own. This bodily power also shows in her enhanced speed. The energy she requires forces her to urge for high amounts of sugar, of which she consumes many dozen pounds every day, which is one of the reasons she’s called a Sugarcube by Applejack - a running gag that soon made its way around. Pinkie has pink fur and darker pink hair, that pile up in a curly mess all around her head and tail, sometimes with food inside or her pet crocodile Gummy, that can see the future but never tells anyone. She can sometimes see the future herself too, but only in a sudden warning of her body twitching and shaking in various ways. Depending to the muscle contractions, she learned how to tell the signs and can call out if an object is going to fall or a swarm of bees might be coming her way. She has no explanation of this phenomenon and rejects to be scientifically checked by her princess, Twilight. Pinkie can easily be told to be the happiest and saddest pony of her lands at the same time. She can see all the good in everything and hold her incredibly up cheering spirit high, as long as she’s loved. As soon as she feels alone or betrayed, all willpower leaves her and she transforms into a shadow of herself. Luckily for her, that almost never happens. Her friends love and need her and her perfect memory. Alongside with seeing patterns, leaving reality behind her or even breaking it, Pinkie is packed with tons of abilities yet to be discovered. The only sure thing about her though, she’s not always quite “there”.
Spike, voiced by Cathy Weseluck: As the only dragon born in captivity, Spike never experienced what it means to be one. He grew up alongside Twilight, that made him her servant, or slave, or pet, or really just anything between those. Being not particularly old and a slow growing dragon, Spike isn’t very big and looks a lot younger than he actually is. He has a light lavender coloured, leathery skin and grows hard and sharp-edged scales down his spine, that penetrate his skin in a bright, toxic green colour. He might not be as tall as a pony, but therefore can ride them without being a burden. Although he is a dragon, he seems to be liked by all ponies, not knowing that he lives amongst his natural prey. Instead he survives by eating gems and minerals that he is given by Rarity and his princess, Twilight. He cannot sleep and/or eat ice cream all day as he’d like, since his duty is to provide Twilight with thumbs and mental assistance. He is one of the few in his lands that can actually write and read, what makes him very valuable for his princess. Once written, a letter can be teleported if it gets burned by his green fire breath. A technique never tested on living creatures. This way his princess Twilight keeps in touch with the other princesses of the realm.
Starlight, voiced by Kelly Sheridan: Born a unicorn, Starlight Glimmer possesses a spiral horn on her forehead and the natural ability to summon magic by will. Once betrayed by her friend, she worked on her magic to become powerful and change her destiny by leading a sect hidden in a mountainside village. Once princess Twilight came across her doing, she broke up her sect and exiled her into the mountains. Seeking revenge she used time travel magic to destroy the universe. After Twilight resolved her issues with her and fixed the timeline, Starlight was very sorry she had destroyed the universe. Now a student and slave-friend of the princess, she learns all things friendship and even surpasses the princess doing so. Starlight has lavendel coloured fur that in some light might look pink. Her mane is dark purple, shows cyan coloured highlights and is somewhat curly and shoulder long. With her villainy days behind her, she is often a voice of reason amongst the insane servants of the princess. She’s very thankful she was spared from punishment for destroying the universe and tries to make it up, pay her debts and be a good pony, all mistakes considered.
“Wait, Twilight has servants?”, Hati wondered.
“So it says about Rex too, y’know?”
“Well, I can’t deny it. It often feels like it.”
“Who’s next?”
Hati looks down on the chapter and reads ahead, “Uhm, who are those guys?”
“You never watched Stargate, any of it?”
“Should I have?”, Hati shrugged, “It’s not like I’d know all shows there are.”
“You’re gonna love them guys, promise.”
“For some reason and all of the sudden I get a really bad feeling about this.”
Dr. Samantha Carter, voiced by Amanda Tapping: Following the expectations of her father, who was a great deal in the military service of her lands, Samantha joined the Airforce and made her doctor in physics, what means that she’s really smart. Being in the Stargate-Programme from very early on, in fact being in the team that made the gate work in the first place, she saved a high rank for herself in a line of success that wouldn’t rip off. She can easily reprogramme a DHD, a spaceship or an alien race of robots, or shoot them to bits with her amazing aim. As weapons- and surviving-expert, she’s viable in every situation and not to fool around with. This blonde is a forgiving soul and follows logic whenever she can, but getting on her bad side mostly means that you’re a dead man. In all of this skill and shifting emotions, she is always following orders like a good soldier. Be it the detonation of a star or the genocide of a culture, Sam is your girl.
Dr. Daniel Jackson, voiced by Michael Shanks: Being the very man, that rediscovered interplanetary-wormhole-traveling, Doctor Jackson carries a heavy weight on his shoulders. He is said to be one of the smartest minds of mankind and never failed to deliver so far. His specialty is not math or technology though, Daniel knows cultures and languages. He not only speaks over a dozen languages, half of them aren’t even from earth. In his time he died seven times and cheated death every single time in the one or other way, be it being revived, cloned or ascended into a being of energy. Having seen many horrible things and even carrying the knowledge of the universe in his mind for a while, the universe doesn’t leave Daniel surprised. He grew cynical over the time but tries to stay optimistic. That he lost his parents and wife and even his longtime friends one by one took a lot out of him. But whenever he fell, Daniel stood up again and grew even stronger, on some points of his life even being god, though that didn’t last.
Teal’C, voiced by Christopher Judge: Born into slavery, Teal’C always tried to overthrow his masters. With the help of his friends and the forces of planet earth, and after three decades of war, he managed to not only destroy his masters, but to free his people and become a leader of their new republic. Teal’C isn’t completely human, his DNA was altered so he was easier to control but also stronger, faster and healing more rapidly. Now, after the revolution, he is addicted to a synthetic drug, which without his organs would fail. Being able to become many hundred years old, Teal’C is almost two-hundred years old already and yet only in his middle ages. He is tall and wide, strong and fast, well in shape and sharp in mind. He takes great pride in his fighting and hunting skills and grew wise over his many years. He’s very silent and patient, up to a point when he snaps and kills dozens of his enemies within a few seconds with his bare hands, rifles or laser weapons that he usually carries around. And he’s black.
Cameron Mitchell, voiced by Ben Browder: Following into the footsteps of his father, Cam became a pilot and was soon to be a fighter-pilot for the force. As the best of the best, he got the chance to lead the Stargate-Team, once O’Neill retired/was promoted. Not being able to do math or lift double his bodyweight, Mitchell exceeds in tactical strategy and combat situations. Not being able to help others, to do anything, is torture to him. He’s not exactly laughing into the face of danger, but tends to make jokes in dark times, mostly to piss off an enemy. He is honorable and true, never tells a lie and always comes around for his friends and team. There is no challenge too great and no enemy to vicious for him, he takes them all head-on. In his team, especially to Carter, he stands out with his unconventional thinking and ideas, that often work when everything else fails.
Vala Mal Doran, voiced by Claudia Black: Born a slave, Vala was soon put as a host for a parasite that controlled her life for hundreds of years. Not being able to tell how old she is today even by herself, she stopped counting the years and went to war against her masters as soon as she was freed from the parasite - where she met Daniel and fell in a weird kind of love with him. This love never grew to more than flirt and arousing though, except for the one time they married but the time got reset and it never happened. This black-haired lady has been to all kinds of planets and fought countless battles, got burned alive and revived and was even mother of an evil messiah, that she watched dying laughing. That surely means that she has some reason to be as crazy and distanced as she is, always plotting a new scam or thinking of a new lie to tell. She was once a thief and a really good one too, but now has troubles to stop. But in her heart she feels compassion and tries to do the right thing, she just needs some help to keep her on the path.
Jack O’Neill, voiced by Richard Dean Anderson: As the best of the best, and after countless missions behind enemy lines, Jack got the chance to lead the Stargate-Team in its very first mission. Driven by depression and grief for his dead son, he thought it was a suicide mission and was well trying to die, but making friends with Daniel made him cancel that idea. Not being able to do math or lift double his bodyweight, O’Neill exceeds in tactical strategy and combat situations. Not being able to help others, to do anything, is torture to him. He’s not exactly laughing into the face of danger, but tends to make jokes in dark times, mostly to piss off an enemy. He is honorable and true, never tells a lie and always comes around for his friends and team. There is no challenge too great and no enemy to vicious for him, he takes them all head-on. In his team, especially to Carter, he stands out with his unconventional thinking and ideas, that often work when everything else fails. He had his share of combat and grew old though, even got a new knee. He saw himself in all kinds of situations and was possessed by various kinds of lifeforms. He never saw himself as a leader, not even when he was put in charge of the whole programme.
Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay, voiced by David Hewlett: Being the smartest human being of two galaxies, and knowing so, makes Doctor McKay mighty full of himself, but not really happy. Letting everyone around him know how smart he is, is one of his most favourite thing to do, right after Not-dying. He was in the team that made the gate travel possible in the first place and managed to rediscover a whole forgotten culture and its technology. He is always scared of something though, mostly of death, and most of the time he’s actually quite close to it, but manages to cheat it every time. Everyone of his team knows that he works best under pressure, what makes them carry around lemons, which he is allergic to. If it addresses technology or physics, he is the man to ask, fighting or literally anything else though, not so much. The anxious young man is always good for a surprise, but is also very likely to be the first one to surrender.
“Ah, alright”, Hati nodded, “I see. They’re a band of soldiers. And they are all serving the Overlord of the Stargate.”
“Uhm”, Rook shrugged, “Aye, something like that, I guess.”
“So, now we’re through? Was that everyone?”
“Aye, we can start the story now.”
“Alright! Onward to the beginning!”
YOU'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE
"Alright, stay behind us. We do not know what's around the next corner." Mitchell, Sam and Teal'C were leading the group, since they were the ones that were armed. In their casual military fashion they went from corner to corner and from one corridor into the other.
The pink walls and the bright, cheerful radiation of the castle's insides didn't exactly call for danger or hostility, but they knew better. Looks could be deceiving.
"I told you, we'd need them guns, I told you so", Cam bragged while he looked around the next corner.
Daniel stood behind him and put the blame on him, "And you're happy about that?"
"Not in the slightest."
They made their next move and snuck down the next long, pink corridor. Different than the others so far, this one had some armor displayed alongside its way, on the opposite wall of the windows.
Vala stopped in front of some of the steel plate armor and looked at it from a weird angle.
"Don't you think the shape is weird?"
Rodney was concerned, "Why, what's wrong with it?"
"Looks like horse armor", O'Neill observed, "Nothing wrong with that."
Daniel stopped by as well, "Except that I never saw a full body armor for a horse that small before."
"Maybe they just love their little horses", Jack looked at his old friend with tired eyes.
"Weird enough they even have those", Vala claimed.
"Why is that?", Daniel asked her slightly cynical.
"She means", Rodney shouted, "That you would not expect to find horses on another planet."
Teal'C disagreed calmly, "Planet of the Apes had horses."
"But that was earth too. It was the same planet", Rodney ever so arrogantly corrected.
"Was it?", Jack asked, "I never understood that movie."
They moved along while Vala stayed for a few more seconds. "Even for a horse that's some weird shape."
The next door they saw was a high gate to a wide and great hall, made from blue, icy crystals. In its center they found a wide, round table of similar blue nature and cutting edges, surrounded by a couple of thrones.
"Daniel", Mitchell asked, "Does this look somewhat familiar to you?"
"Looks like the Round of Camelot. But more ..."
"Cheerful?"
"That's one way to put it."
They got startled and took a step back when a young voice echoed through the hall. "Oh, no. It's not here? Come on!"
A purple creature walked in and around the thrones, before it suddenly disappeared in a pink, sparkly flash.
The flash returned by the gate and with it the creature. "I guess that means, it's in the kitch-", when Twilight looked straight ahead, she saw the bunch of Humans in her gateway and dropped her words plus jaw, "-en?"
Mitchell noticed she was gasping and he was afraid she could scream out loud, "No-no-no, no! Don't! We're friendly. Don't be afraid. Please?"
"What? I mean, what? Who are you? And why ..."
"Why we are?", Vala asked.
"Why are you here? What are you doing here?" In a sparkly flash she disappeared and put some distance between her and the intruders. She returned by the thrones, with her dangerous horn pointing at them. Her wings spread out in excitement and she showed off her tall Alicorn nature.
The creature was a weird sight for the intruders. She looked somewhat equine, but she was purple and small. Her head was huge and her eyes even more so. Her face looked somewhat Human, in a strange, alien way. Her hair was long and looked treated, shiny and healthy. Obviously she had powers and was intelligent. She was talking. And more so, she was talking their language.
The Humans reached their hands out, holding them spread in a defensive fashion. "Wow!", Mitchell applied to her, "We're no enemies. Don't do whatever you want to do, alright?"
"We're lost!", Daniel yelled. "We came out of your Mirror and can't find our way back."
"My Mirror?", Twilight calmed and broke up her furious gaze.
"Can you help us?"
Twilight’s eyes jumped back and forth while she was in thought, "Humans. From the Mirror. But that never happened before." She started to turn around and walk around the thrones and table, oblivious about the reality around her.
While she was unreachable, the Humans whispered under the gate.
"You think she will help us?"
"I hope", Daniel answered Mitchell. "If she can teleport, who knows what else she can do."
"Well", Vala was smiling, "At least now the horse armor makes sense."
Suddenly the winged Unicorn was facing the pack, only a step away, "Are you from Canterlot High?"
"Uhm", Mitchell thought about it for a second, "No. What is that?"
Again she looked away, mumbling to herself. "But that is impossible. It never worked. And the book." She took a few steps and mindlessly walked off. "It's set to Canterlot High. It cannot be. It's impossible!" She turned to the Humans, "You! Are impossible!"
Mitchell raised his palm towards her, "Wow, Lady."
"Lady?", Daniel asked him.
But Vala passed them, "Let me try, boys." She walked up to the little Pony and sat down in front of it. She smiled while she chew her gum, "Hi there. I'm Vala. What's your name?"
"Oh, sure! Yes. I'm Twilight Sparkle. And you shouldn't be here."
Vala pressed her lips together, "No kidding." She turned and pointed at her gang, "This is Mitchell, Daniel, Sam, Teal'C, Rodney and Jack."
"It's O'Neill. With two Ells."
"Yeah and can we settle on Doctor McKay? I'd prefer that."
Sam looked at him, "Really?"
"What? I worked for that."
Vala looked back at Twilight, "Sweetie, do you live here?"
Twilight looked up and around the hall, "Why, yes. Yes, I do. Though not in this hall exactly. The castle is quite big."
She started to trot on and past Vala, "Now, let's have a look at that Mirror." She stopped in front of the pack in the gate. She could have teleported past them but prefered for them to make way. It wasn't a practical thing, it was a psychological tool. She was the owner of the Mirror, it was her castle. Unknowingly or not, Twilight was showing them who's boss.
After a moment, the Humans stepped aside and the purple Pony Princess past per trot. She led them back to the library, where the Mirror was the cause of all these problems, supposedly.
First of all I want to thank everyone that made it this far for reading through the whole thing.
I wrote this as a summer break from more serious writing projects and I hope some of you had as much fun reading it as I had writing. Which one can only hope for, really.
Frankly I think writing fanfics is a bad idea. If you can write, putting time into a fanfic is a poor choice made. I only wrote this fanfic so I can illustrate a point. And I will not write another.
I put so many characters in that story, that on one hand they were hard to juggle, but on the other hand, they were replaceable.
Like in Doctor Who, if they wanna make a ghost story, they just make a ghost story. They don't need to drag the Ghostbusters into it and dig out poor Harold Ramis, may he rest in peace, they just go and write their own fanfiction with their own characters in their original world.
If you got a great idea of a story, just go a little further and flesh it out and don't just pull it's skin over the already fleshed skeleton of a fandom.
It wouldn't be that hard to come up with an original world and names, but instead people are relying on other people's creation. They could just make a young girl wizard travel back in time to become the mother of the empress, or even become her own mother, but no! They throw away a decent story idea and smear a fandom all over it. What's so bad about a fantasy based land with two queens that control the weather, raising a wizard to take their legacy? I wouldn't know.
I took a few fandoms for this and drew parallels. All three of those teams have seven essential group members, and they all share some traits or another. It's always the same concept when it comes to groups and that's why crossovers with Ponies work so well. There's always a smart nerd, always a cocky fighter, a nice lookin' one or a strong one, a shy one or a submissive one. Groups never really change all that much and if you expand your tolerance on those traits wide enough, they simply fit everything.
Who is to say what a real Twilight is, how she acts? She's different from writer to writer, and so is the rest. Many viewers thought the Ponies were out of character in their Movie. So is that a fanfic? Nope. Is it believable? Shrug-Meh.
If you were to make your own character and give them your idea of their personality, no one will care about it or hate you for it. There's certain tropes that we like, that are cultural beneficial. We can point them out here and there in this story or the next one, but that doesn't make the trope less effective.
Just try to make your own, something that is fully yours. Sure it is fun to write a fanfic sometimes, as it is to draw fanart. But that's not saying anything about you. It's not showing who you are. You're just playing around with stuff that is already there. You're not adding anything new to the world. Other than maybe a story.
So if you have the means to come up with a great story, just walk the extra mile. Making something original might not draw in the crowds as fast as a fandom-related piece does, but it might benefit you in the long run.
That's at least what I'm trying to do.
Those original characters of mine, Hati, Rex and that bunch, are the protagonists of my fantasy series that I'm working on for quite a few years now.
Whatever happens to the books I write, I'm not stopping. I have more stories in store than I can write down in a lifetime and all I can do is trying to do it anyway.
Of course it also was a challenge to write in english. The style had to change, sentences don't work the same as they did before.
I'll leave you now with a few more treats.
Between the cities of Ponyville and Canterlot, in the uninhabited realm of the Everfree Forest, a green portal opened by a lonely tree on a blank hilltop. The Visitors that came forth from the gooey, green pancake had a great view over the valley, the forest and the mountainside in the horizon, that born a great, white city.
"This is it?"
"Well, Morty, you wanted to see the end of the universe, this is it. That's the last planet left in this universe. Chances are good it ends the same way in our universe, or any really", the old man shrugged.
It was a bright summer's day and the little boy in the yellow shirt was impressed and excited, "Oh, wow, Rick, I didn't expect it to look this nice. Look at it, there's trees, mountains and even a town. There's people living here for christ's sake. That's amazing."
"If you say so. But I wouldn't call them people. They're a bunch of asholes, Morty."
"What. Wh-what'ta'ya mean?"
"I've been here before. It's a planet ruled by Unicorns and Pegasi."
"Oh, wow."
"Yeah-yeah, no, Morty", the man burped, "It's not as cool as it sounds, trust me. They don't like Humans. At. All. They are like, super racist. I don't know why, what happened to them, but my guess is, that they had some really bad experiences with visitors from other planets or dimensions even."
Suddenly the sun moved and was lowered. The moon rose up in a matter of seconds.
"Wha-what was that?"
"They changed the day into night."
"Wh-what?!"
"Yeah, Morty! Those Unicorns are super powerful. They can control the sun and make it day and night whenever they want. The-the-they can shoot lasers from their horns, Morty, lasers through your heart if you piss them off."
"Oh-oh-oh-okay, Rick, that sounds scary. Let's get out of here, okay? I wanted to see the last planet alive and now I've seen it. I don't want to die on it."
"Yeah", Rick shrugged, "Sure." And drew his portal gun to get them out of there.
"There's no one here!", Bonbon yelled when the two Ponies came up the hillside.
"I know I've seen them. You callin' me a liar?"
"Lyra!"
"I'm not crazy!"
The first draft of the story, which is oooooold as fuck, was a whole lot different from the new version. In this first draft, there was only OCs and Ponies and the arc was more humorous.
TWILIGHT EXPLAINING HER CASTLE
In this scene, Twilight was explaining the Lizards how the castle was built, since it had an unusual shape.
Twilight: We brought the Elements of Harmony back to the tree, that turned out growing them in the first place. The tree then helped us defeating Discords twines, freed the princesses and gave us a box with six keyholes.
(Silence)
Rx: We need to get off this planet immediately.
H/E/K/Ro/M: Uh-huh!
Twy: Sorry, all this must seem really crazy to you.
M: Oh no, please, HE (pointing at Rook) is crazy. This is beyond everything sane!
RARITY DRESSING UP MORTY
R: You're going to look fabulous!
M: Is that a promise or a threat?
R: A lady like myself doesn't spell any threats.
Morty stands on the stage, Rarity walking around, doing her thing.
M: A lady? You consider yourself a lady?
R: Of course, Darling, isn't it obvious?
M: Was it surprising I considered myself a gentleman once?
R: A gentleman? Oh you mean a gentlecolt, but how can a monster be a gentlecolt? Sorry.
M: No, no. You're right. I'm a monster, and now I even look like one.
R: Don't be silly, dear. I've seen far worse than you.
(Sp: He wanted to cut me open!)
R: Spike! What are you doing here?
Sp: I thought you needed some help, and someone who was watching the creep here.
M: Now you're making yourself look ridiculous, Kid.
R: But he got a fair point there, what was that about anyway?
M: Just helping a friend. That's all.
R: That doesn't sound so bad, hmm?
Sp: Cutting me open sure does.
M: Oh please, you're the one eating gemstones, it's like your begging to be cut open.
Sp: Breakfast, it was breakfast.
R: Spike eats gems all the time, sometimes a little to much even. That's really nothing unusual, dear.
M: It sure woke Rex's greed. That man's addicted to fortune.
R: Man? He sure doesn't look like it.
M: Whatever. I'm not sure about anything myself anymore.
Sp: So, what kind of demon are you?
M: I'm not a demon, stupid. It's a curse.
R: Watch your language, darling.
M: Doctor! I'm a doctor.
Sp: What kind of doctor?
M: Medicine, duh!
R: A cursed doctor? Why, how did that happen?
M: Tried to save someone, made a deal with a god, didn't turn out that well, okay?
Sp: Did you ... save the someone?
M: No.
Rarity cries, but keeps on working.
Spike got tears in his eyes too.
Sp: Rarity?
R: I'm fine *sniff* I'm fine.
M: Oh please.
R: Hold it, I'm nearly done.
:There! Voilá!
Morty looks in the mirror.
M: How does the fabric not melt down?
R: I used a little enchantment, nothing special.
M: You have to tell me your secrets. Tell me!
R: *giggle* A master doesn't reveal his secrets. Do you like it, or love it?
M: I nearly look like my former self. Like the suits I wore when I was rich and famous.
R: So, you love it?
M: It ...
R: Yes?
M: It ...
R: Yes?!
M: It makes me ...
R: Indescribable happy!
M: Sad.
Sp: Sad?
R: I don't know what to say, but Why?
M: It remembers me of a time and all the things that I lost.
R: I'm so sorry.
M: But it looks really gorgeous. Thank you.
R: You're most welcome. (with a tear in her eye)
The doorbell rings.
R: One moment, I'll be right with you.
She turns around.
R: Oh, it's you.
K: We stay in the castle tonight.
Morty comes down the stage and walks up to them.
R: Enjoy your stay, Darling, I mean, Doctor.
SHE’S THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP THAT PUKES RAINBOWS
When in the first draft of the story, the Ponies separated the Lizards from each other for the night time, to have a better control over what they were doing, they started to share a few things about Princess Twilight. She didn't have the most warm welcome to the aliens and so they were wondering what her deal was.
PP: Twilight's just worried. She doesn't want her friends or anypony to get hurt.
Rook: Must be tough, to be a ruler, a princess.
Rarity sets up Sweetie's bed for Morty.
M: So she hasn't always been a princess?
Twilight and Rex are sitting in her studying room, by candlelight.
Twy: No, I haven't always been a princess.
Applejack and Hati are laying on a sheet on the field, watching the stars.
AJ: Neigh, she earned it.
Rx: So, you married a prince?
Rx: Then what was your quest to achieve a royal title like this?
Rainbow, Fluttershy, Elisa and Krator were sitting on their beds and sleeping places in a circle, with little light on.
K: That's disappointing little of a story.
PP: There was this spell that mixed up our Cutie Marks, Twilight did it, but didn't know that the day before. And we were all on the wrong places messing up everything we touched.
AJ: But Twilight showed us our destiny and we got our Cutie Marks back. The next thing I remember is that we all shoot her with a magic beam or something and burned her down to a stain on the floor.
H: Wait, what?!
Twy: I was teleported to a magic realm and princess Celestia gave me this wings.
Rx: Oh please, no, this is quite interesting.
H: This is really confusing.
Rx: I'd love to experiment with these marks, extract their magic, try to craft an artificial mark.
Rx: But I'm not making promises.
Rara: In the same night she appeared in a bright star, floating down to us. And there she was, with wings! An Alicorn *sigh* Her coronation was the next day. Celestia had everything prepared and spared no expense. It was such a wonderful day, but then again, you don't get to become a princess everyday.
R: You make it sound so bad. Celestia and Luna protect us, lead us, they'd do anything for Equestria.
PP: But that's not all! She was a princess, alright, but of what? She was basically same old Twilight, but then, the Tree of Harmony made her this chest, and long story short, the rainbow powers made her the castle.
Ro: Yeah, she mentioned something like that.
K: So this Celestia sounds like a big deal.
Krator and Elisa share a look.
H: So, Celestia is the Princess of the Sun, and therefore the big boss, Luna is princess of the moon, then there was Cadance that was princess of the Crystal Empire, what is basically just one city.
H: Then what is Twilight princess of?
R: As for, as shown, our friendship can accomplish anything, she's
R/RD/FS/PP/Twy/AJ: the princess of friendship.
Hati laughs.
H: Nothing, it just -
Rx: - sounds ridiculous.
MOST AWESOME PONY
AJ: It's okay to be scared, Rainbow.
And that was the last of me here. I’m glad you made it all the way down here. Thank you for reading once more. Have a nice day and hope to see you on the book market someday.
