(Edge Clearing in Everfree, Shining POV)

The mystery light turned out to be from a portal ringed with stones etched with Norse runes and had a short stone path running through the portal. Not knowing what I was up against, I kept myself out of view as best I could while approaching. As I did so, I could hear some voices from the other side of the portal.

“Huh. I thought the world’s time was synchronized…” I was barely able to hear from a female.

“Wait, I don’t think this is your world. Look, the Equestrian Moon.” I heard from a similar sounding female voice. I shifted my position in the bush I was hiding in and I saw...Two Celestias? My shock nearly froze me in place, but I had to quickly thrust out an arm to keep from falling over...and said arm was in view of the two Celestias. ‘Please don’t see my arm! Please don’t see my arm!’ I thought frantically to myself as they spoke further without me paying attention to their words.

I turned my attention back to the portal and saw that one of the Celestias looked through the portal with a look of concern on her face, more than the other one. I then noticed a number of differences between the two Celestias. The concerned one looks like Celestia (and you can’t deny the Celestia look), while the other one has her flowing mane done up in a ponytail and had some makeup on as well.

My hand suddenly began to slip a bit, and I tried to reorient myself in the bush, but I ended up slipping up and landing face first out of the bush with a slight yelp. I looked up at the portal and saw that they were now staring at me. “Well shoot me with a spitwad, I’ve been caught.” I muttered to myself. Neither of the Celestias moved or said anything, and I took that as an opportunity to carefully stand up, so as to not scare them anymore than they probably were.

I stood up at my full height and they kept staring, as I matched their shared height. “...Is it just me, or does that version of Shiny look like Spiderman’s Juggernaut?” The ponytail Celestia asked the regular Celestia.

“You’re right...How odd.” Regular Celestia commented. “Excuse me, but I don’t suppose you’d be willing to have a chat?”

“Sure, but just to clarify, I’m not a Juggernaut hybrid, and isn’t Juggernaut an X-Men thing?” I asked. I suddenly realized what I said and clapped my hands over my mouth with wide eyes. “Shite, I accidentally let it slip!” I muttered in frustration.

“Guess just about any Shiny is still a nerd in some capacity...wait, X-men? You know the human version?” Ponytail Celestia asked in surprise.

“Cat’s out of the bag, might as well go with it.” I muttered. “Well, when you die as a twenty four year old human gun fanatic, only to wake up in a void, talking to a few choice characters and then waking up as a four year old anthro Shining Armor and live twenty years, you sometimes long for some old time nostalgia...and all of that while being one of only two anthro ponies among regular quadruped ponies.” I let out with a bit of a sigh. I then looked around the clearing and saw a few berries on a bush in their view , thankfully raspberry, and I took and ate them.

“...Oh. Well, I’m kinda in the same boat. I turned into her in a fiery explosion at school and spent a year on Earth before being sent to Equestria, but...pretty much the same ex-human boat really. I guess.” Ponytail Celestia said awkwardly.

Celestia rolled her eyes and stepped in. “We still have that demon problem on Earth to take care of.” She said. “As interesting as an alternate Equestria is, we have our priorities.”

“Oh yeah. Think we got the wrong runes?” Ponytail Celestia said, starting to look at the ruins on her side of the portal.

“Wait, demons on Earth? I’m lost and confused on that bit.” I said, concern showing on my face. I then noticed Ponytail Celestia’s bag...it looked like- “And why does that bag look like something...I can’t put my finger on it...right on the tip of my tongue…” I began rambling a little.

“Oh yeah, I brought my laptop from Earth with me and I can still contact some friends of mine from here. It’s how I know there’s demons invading my home.” She said, answering my unasked questions. “Oh yeah, you go that rune wrong. It’s got a third kinda-leg here, you missed that part.”

“Oh! Strange, how did I miss that?” Celestia asked as he lifted up new stones and setting up a new portal.

I stepped through the portal once the other one was set up and working and placed a hand on Ponytail Celestia’s withers as she was cringing from the air pollution from Earth. “Do you mind if I tag along, Celestia?” I asked her.

“Eh, I don’t see why not. Just be careful. I don’t want some Hellhound turning you into a meal. If you’re coming with us though, introductions are in order. My name’s James Solaris, but you can call me Celly.” She said.

“Sounds fair, and my previous human name no longer means much, if anything, to me. Especially since by now, I’m now probably registered as dead. So, just refer to me as Shining Armor.” I told her.

“Alright Shiny. Let’s go hunt some demons.” Celly said, before standing on two legs and cartwheeling into the portal. Celestia only facehoofed and shook her head at her “twin’s” antics. She then spread her wings and entered the portal. I followed behind the two and took a deep breath of the smoldering and polluted air and coughed a bit.

“Yep, just like Earth for humans to be idiots with the environment.” I said through a cough.

“More like, just like cultists to summon asshole demons that wrecks the shit out of everything in sight. Don’t blame humans for the actions of one cult.” Celly corrected with a scowl on her face.

I cracked my knuckles and formed shields around them. “So, where to first?” I asked. Celly didn’t answer and simply looked around, as if she was looking for something. An explosion happen a few blocks South of our position. I took off in that direction at a respectable pace, allowing Celly and Celestia to follow, the former kickin up dust doing so.

Arriving at the source of the explosion, we found some demonic looking minotaur. It had Ashen black skin, no hair of any kind, a red face, glowing green eyes, all sorts of blade shaped bones protruding from its arm, and it was tall enough to stare into a 4th story window at full height.

At the current moment, it was holding a car with an unconscious woman in it, readying to throw it at a tank that was coming towards it. I wasted no time and rushed to the Demontaur and fired a pulse projectile spell into it’s leg, right at the knee joint. This caused it to fall into a one kneed kneel, and to drop the car. I rushed under it and managed to catch it, just barely. I carefully placed the car down and placed a shield around it and cast an armor flesh spell on myself.

The Demontaur was pissed when it stood up and readied to stomp me, but a combination of a Light blast and a tank round took it by surprise. Leaving one half of itself with a nasty looking sunburn and a hole through its chest. It fell down dead and the tank then pointed it’s turret at us. I immediately kneeled on the ground and placed my hands behind my head. “Celly, Tia, stand down, let them take us into custody. It’ll be easier to establish trust with them if we-"

"No need. They know me." Celly cut me off.

“Hwah?” I looked at her confused. “No offence, but if you were in your current form for a year, wouldn’t many want your existence kept secret so as to not upend this world’s perception of reality?”

"Surprisingly, the scientific community actually took my existence as proof of Multiverse Theory. It didn't take long for my transformation to get on the internet anyway, since I literally blew up a high school during lunch hour." She said. “And with my face already on the internet and going viral, there was no reason to hide me away...beyond tests that explored my limits.”

A man wearing the stripes of a lieutenant exited the tank and walked up to the three of us. “Welcome back to Earth, Solaris. I see you’ve brought company.” The man greeted.

Celly smiled. “Glad to be back, bro. Though I wish it were for different reasons.” She said, giving him a salute. The man looked at Tia and I.

“Princess Celestia. Shining Armor. Glad to have your aid. The two of you should be commended on your swift action. You saved a life and also helped eliminate the demon my men have taken to calling Wrath. It’s nature made it nearly invincible in the heat of combat, and that made it the biggest problem. With that one out of the way, we can focus on actually finding the remaining six.” The man said.

I stood up and saluted as well. “No thanks necessary. I’m just doing my job as a member of the Equestrian Armed Forces. And when you called that thing Wrath, are you talking about the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ kind of Wrath?” I asked the soldier.

“I am. In fact, all seven demons unleashed in the city correspond to each of the sins. Pride hasn’t made any destructive moves, but seems to be commanding the others somehow. The commander has suggested we save that one for last, since we have no idea what unrestrained chaos the city would face without Pride’s control. Thankfully, Pride seems to have taken up residence in an abandoned church, so we know where it is at all times.” The solder added.

“I see. Do you have any leads on the others?” Celestia asked.

“Only that they’re following their natural instinct right now. Pride seems to want to make this a game, and promised information in return for killing the other sins.” The soldier said.

Celly chuckled. “That’s a deal with the devil nobody will want or need. Tia and I can hunt them down or lure them out ourselves.” She bragged. “Isn’t that right?”

Tia nodded. “Locating demons is almost child’s play for me. Fighting on the other hand...it’s difficult to face a primal sin without succumbing to it.” She stated.

“And what does that make me? A Butterball turkey?...actually, bad analogy.” I said, feeling embarrassed at what I said.

“Well, that shield spell looked pretty powerful. Seems like you’re the designated tank.” Celly pointed out to me.

“Fair point. Also, I had a thought that makes me laugh and feel bad at the same time.” I said. “Facing the Seven Deadly Sins means dealing with Sloth...and I personally hope it isn’t represented by an actual Sloth, because I would have a hard time killing something like that.”

“Don’t worry. Sloth actually has no physical manifestation. It’s reportedly a dream demon that takes the shape of your fears when you go to sleep. Be warned, if you do find Sloth in your dreams, it will be able to kill you from there.” Soldier Boy said.

“So basically Freddy Kreuger.” Celly summarized.

“Yes.” Confirmed Soldier Boy.

“We should have brought Luna then.” Tia groaned.

“Then who’s fat arse is gonna go and get her?” I asked, putting on my ‘Captain face’. “The longer she isn’t here, the more time Sloth has to mind *BLEEP* more innocents.”

Celly rolled her eyes at me. “I’ll go, since I’m virtually useless in a real fight compared to you two.” She said before trotting off to the portal.

Tia stayed with us, and I looked around. “So, what city is this?” I asked Soldier Boy.

"New York City. We're in Manhattan." He answered.

“Huh. If I was any other pony, I would have tried to correct you on it’s pronunciation.” I commented. “I guess that’s a perk for being a former human like Celly is.”

The soldier merely raised an eyebrow. "A story for another time I suppose. Let's worry about the Sins for now. The next target is going to be Envy. Her power has her stealing weapons and skills right out of a soldier's hands. We can't get close anymore with that rpg she's gotten a hold of."

“Well, that’s not good...unless…” I thought out loud.

"You have an idea?" Celestia asked.

“It’s simple and probably stupid one that relies on Envy’s kleptomania and a theory of if she can return skills...and physical attributes.” I started explaining. “If Celestia, Luna, and/or Celly placed a type of safeguard on my magic, we can let Envy steal my physical strength...and when she goes to use ‘her’ weapons, she ends up breaking them. And with my safeguarded magic, I can keep myself alive and maybe encase her in a shield bubble.”

“Sounds simple enough. We can try, but I think we’ll need divine magic to make it work.” Celly said, having returned from the portal with Luna in tow.

“That was quick.” I stated in amazement.

“I had already been on my way to investigate the portals Celly created. It wasn’t difficult to find.” Luna said. “Now then, Celly tells me we have a dream demon problem. I may need to bring the demon into reality for it to be harmed.”

Soldier Boy spoke up. “If it’s anything like the Nightmare on Elm Street, it might be better to find it an eternal prison. I can provide firepower, but if it just escapes into the dream world when it dies in reality, then it’ll just become an endless cycle of killing it over and over again.”

“How surprisingly astute. That is correct, but for a prison to work well, we will have to weaken the demon first. I’ll take it to Tartarus personally.” Luna said.

“While you are there, maybe check and maybe reinforce the security to make sure you don’t have problems in the future.” I said, thinking of the catastrophes that could happen if their hell residents escaped.

“I already spoiled everything to Celestia. She knows Tirek is going to get out at some point, but I also told her how that event will finish Discord’s reform and give the Element bearers new powers. Anyway...let’s get to work on them demons.” Celly said.

“I’ll share some counter arguments later, as we need to focus on the here and now.” I said with a sigh. “So, what do you mean when you said divine magic?”

“It’s known that demons have a weakness for holy powers. Paladins are known for smiting the shit out of demons, demons are known for their unholy power.” Celly said, placing emphasis on the demon’s unholiness.

Celestia nodded. “A similar analogy can be made for Dark and Light, but frankly it wouldn’t be true. Thankfully, I have access to an order of paladins in Equestria. The public doesn’t know about them, but they should be a great help.” Celestia proposed.

Luna nodded as well. “I’m surprised you kept them around. They weren’t terribly useful before I was corrupted.” She said.

Celestia scuffed a hoof, looking a bit bashful. “The creatures you stirred up from the moon made them necessary.” She explained.

“Oh. My apologies.” Luna said with a look of realization.

“So, we can get these Paladins of the Brotherhood of Light or whatever and we can pull off the ‘bait and switch’ on Envy. Sounds like a plan.” I said, before my stomach growled a little. “But first, some food and rest for all of us. We’re gonna need it.”

“...Eh, debatable.” Celly said with a shrug.

Soldier Boy took out an MRE from his pack and held it out to me. “Bacon flavor without any meat. Don’t know if you miss the taste or anything, but I sure would.” He offered.

I took the tiny MRE and did the proper heating preparations for it. “It’s not a concern when you had to grow up again from age four. And there is no such thing as a true herbivore, as on my Equestria, we do eat meat, but we call it protein and more often than not, it is imitation kind of stuff.” I explained

“I see.” Soldier Boy said.

Celly then summoned a cupcake and ate it, causing Celestia to look on in envy. “Oh yeah. And no way is Celestia gonna mess with Gluttony. He’d probably lure her in with cake and eat her.” She said, causing Luna to burst out laughing and Celestia scoffed.

A heart chilling hiss came from all around us and yet nowhere, causing us to freeze on the spot. “̸̊̐s̴̳̀e̵͒̀n̸͓͑s̴͐̽é̷̘ ̶͖͝E̸͔̊n̷̩̈v̸̀̃ȳ̸̗.̷́͘.̵̌̃.̵́́” A voice hissed with a demonic distortion. Okay, now if I didn’t have control over my bladder, I would have pissed myself. Celestia cast some sort of spell, Soldier Boy went back to the tank, and Luna cast a spell that revealed that both Princesses were armed and armored. I quickly cast a stronger flesh armor spell and readied a sword and shield construct.

“Show yourself, Demon.” Celestia demanded, using a magically enhanced voice.

“If you insisssst…” The demon responded. A wall nearby then started to decay and Envy crashed through it. The demon had a crow and Naga look to it, and stared at us with hateful jealousy.

“You know, of everything you could have looked like, I’m very disappointed.” Celly teased, causing it to look at her with a scowl. “Darksiders 3 did a better job of portraying you really. At least then you looked competent.” That insult only made it mad and it dived at her. I quickly stepped in front of Celly and caught it from landing it’s attack, causing me to slide back with it’s fanged beak only inches from my face. I then noticed that Celly wasn’t even behind me, having teleported at the last second.

“Oh, yes. Make fun of the demon known for jealousy.” Luna said sarcastically. She replicated her swords and began launching a flurry of blades into the demon’s side.

“Do you three have a telepathy spell channel or something?” I asked as I held the pissed demon back. “Because if we can voice our ideas instead of acting on instinct like I did and not knowing Celly would move....” I left the sentence unanswered to let them fill in the blank. I pulled the demon’s head down and put my full weight onto it, causing it’s head to get pinned to the cement. The neck suddenly snapped and it froze for a second and went limp.

Celly had a look of shock as she stared at what I did. “...Did you just kill it by sitting on it?” She asked incredulously.

“It was my intention to pin it, not kill it.” I said as I got off the dead demon. “And I constantly underestimate my strength, weight, and the Equestrian building codes for floors above ground level.”

“You can say that again…” I barely heard from Celly. “Though honestly, I was about to telefrag it when you stepped in.”

“Which is why we need to have a means of communication that the demons can’t tap into.” I said. I then noticed the demon’s chest still moving. “One moment.” I then turned to stomp it’s chest, but it’s serpentine tail suddenly swept me off my feet and onto my fat arse. The tail then came around and hit me, sending me rolling like a ball. I heard the sound of a teleport followed by exploding flesh. I was then caught in golden magic before I did any damage to anything.

“...Well, now we know it’s dead.” Celly said. I recovered from my dizziness to notice that Celly was laying on her back and some of the joints of her legs looked a little off. She tried using magic to do something to them, but flinched in pain. Luna then activated her magic on Celly and popped them back into place. She took some heavy breaths through her teeth in pain.

“Next time, use a shield first.” Luna said to her in a stern but caring tone.

Celly nodded as she tried getting back on her hooves. “Maybe a rest would be nice…” She conceded.

Soldier Boy spoke up. “Let’s get you all to a checkpoint my squad set up. We had the local church set up holy wards to keep the demons out.” He said, gesturing for us to follow him. He also gestured to the tank to lead the way.

Tia turned to head to the portal. “I’ll be right with you. I’m going to fetch my paladins.” She announced, and flew back to the portal.

(Military Checkpoint, Shining POV)

It took us a few minutes to arrive at the checkpoint and upon arrival, Luna took Celly to the nearby infirmary tent, probably to check for damage on her barely fixed legs. It took a bit of a longer time to wait for Celestia to return with her paladins, so I took the opportunity of time to interact with the soldiers and if it weren’t for the fact that they somehow had a surplus of rations and other food items, I would have eaten all of their food. Heck, a couple minutes before Celestia showed back, some of the soldiers decided to entertain themselves by tossing hard boiled eggs (without their shells) into the air for me to catch in my mouth when they came down.

Celestia then arrived with her paladins. “I managed to ward the portal to my world. Let’s hope none of the demons slipped into my world before I could do that.” She said, glancing at the egg game me and the soldiers were doing briefly. “Now then, let’s get down to business.” I stopped the egg game, accidentally spearing the last egg on my horn. I followed Celestia to the command tent, and on the way, I saw Luna allowing Celly leaving the infirmary tent with Luna close behind. She saw my horn and had a hard time not laughing.

We all got to the command tent, where Soldier Boy and two other people were waiting for us. “Dave, Jackie. I’m surprised to see you two here.” Celly greeted the two, using a poker face when looking specifically at the woman, presumably Jackie, who had a rather questionable t-shirt on.

“I tried to talk her out of it, I swear.” The guy, presumably Dave, said with slight panic in his voice.

“I’m more surprised humans are aware of this side of my sister despite it never appearing on the kids show.” Luna commented, evidently amused. Tia, on the other hand, wasn’t and Celly patted Tia on her back in reassurance.

“Moving on!” Soldier Boy interrupted harshly. “We still have five high class threats to discuss. Lust, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Pride.”

“And Pride, for now, is on the lower end of the high class spectrum, right?” I asked, getting into business mode. The two princesses glanced my way and Tia took the egg off my horn. “Thanks and sorry. I forgot that was there.”

“Yes, but Pride has made it abundantly clear that she still poses a threat. She tells us she plans on ‘Testing humanity’s worth’ and ‘weighing humanity’s sins’ in a sort of judgement.” Soldier Boy informed us. “But she’s leaving us alone for now to let us play her game.”

“Okay, so, no matter how we slice this cake, it’s a horrible mess to be dealt with.” I said. “So, which of the other four is our next target?”

“Preferably Sloth. The wards don’t protect our dreams, and several of our men have been forced to inject adrenaline to avoid death by sleep.” He answered grimly.

Luna growled in hate. “I’ll hunt that fiend down immediately.” She said with a growl. “No one should be forced to avoid sleep. It’s too important to neglect.”

“Will we need ‘bait’ of some kind?” I asked. “Because if we can’t find volunteers among the soldiers for that, one of us here has to do it.”

“There will be no need for that. I’ll challenge it directly. But I’m going to ask you all to join my dream to challenge it with me.” Luna told us.

Celly seemed to get excited. “Ooh! Just like the episode where you pull Ponyville together to take on the Tantabus!” She said with a great amount of glee.

Luna looked embarrassed at those words. “Oh. That explains why Tia suddenly got onto me about that last week.” She said to herself with a pout.

“I can agree that self-harm and hate like that is not a good thing...even in the name of punishment.” I said, before sitting down on the concrete. “Whenever you’re ready, let’s give Sloth a non-sloth worthy beat down.

Luna, Tia, and Celly looked at me with a questioning look. “Uh. Are you sure you don’t want a bed first?” Luna asked.

“Luna, first off, unlike your Shining, I’m part of the Equestrian Military, not a part of the Royal Guard. I’ve been trained to sleep on almost any surface. Secondly, if you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit of a tubby, so the only thing a mattress is going to do is go flat instantly, if not shank me with metal springs.” I said with a flat tone.

The three alicorns shared a confused look. “There’s a military beyond SMILE and the Royal Guard?” She asked for them all.

“Yes, but we can discuss world similarities after the ugly Sloth is taken care of.” I said before laying down on my back and closing my eyes. “And don’t even think about using my gut as a mattress or pillow! That privilege is exclusive to my wife!” I then on personal command, fell asleep.

(Dreamscape)

When I supposedly woke up, it looked like we were still in New York City, but without the damage and most of the demons around. I stood up and looked around and saw the rest of the group just barely waking up as well, but I couldn’t see Celly…until I looked up towards the dream sun and I saw Celly in rather impractical and skimpy armor...and she looked like Demon hunter from a game I never really played..

“Dear Goddess, you just had to look like an armored super model that wants to look badass and also attract unwanted attention?” I asked rhetorically while holding my head.

“Unwanted?” She scoffed. “Please, I *BLEEP*ing rule my dreams! Sloth hardly stands a chance.” She stated with an air of cockiness and arrogance.

“Well, she’s not wrong.” Luna said with a shrug. “I’ve seen it first hoof.”

Soldier Boy facepalmed. “You’d think she would try being a guy again with the power over dreams she has.” He said in annoyance.

Celly flew down to our level and blew a raspberry at his face. “You’re just jealous.”

Soldier Boy rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, changing his attire to that of a Spartan from the Halo series. “You wish” He said with a smirk as he checked over his new Equipment.

Luna took the opportunity to change her form and equipment and she took on an anthro form with more practical armor.

“So, you decided to join the bipedal club?” Celly asked teasingly.

“Indeed.” Luna answered. “This battle is going to be unpredictable, and in a dream, anything works if you believe it will. Not to mention, your dreams have convinced me how much more effective and creative a bipedal combat style can be.”

Celly looked at Tia, who looked back with an expression that seemed torn between exasperation and inspiration. She then sighed. “Fine, if I must.” She then clapped her hooves and became bipedal and was wearing heavy looking Paladin gear.

Seeing all the creativity around me, at least with those four, I felt left behind, and so I snapped my fingers and...well, let’s just say, ‘fat’ and ‘itty-bitty living space’ shouldn’t work together. “You realize you can break the rules, right?” I barely heard Celly say.

I forced one of my hands out of the lamp nozzle and...let’s just say, did something crude and rude, before I tried waving someone over. The lamp suddenly vanished and I ‘exploded’ out of the lamp’s confinement, and I was larger than normal and was wearing Arabian themed clothing. “Ooh, Robin Williams Genie. Good choice.” Soldier Boy complimented.

Before I could say anything, a shadow seemed to start hovering over us. Looking up, I saw the demon we were hunting. Sloth had taken a combined appearance of Godzilla, a radroach...or cockroach, and an almost uncountable collection of bugs. “Okay, that is ugly.” I commented before I changed my outfit to that of an exterminator while still maintaining my Genie look. I pulled a simple gas mask on and began spraying huge amounts of chlorine gas strength levels of pesticide at him.

Soldier Boy started going ham on Sloth with a grenade launcher while Celestia and Luna began conversing amongst themselves on how to fight. Celly then went Giant Magma Slime, seeming to scare Sloth. “Oh shit. I hate lucid dreamers.” It said just before Celly jumped on him, causing it to scream in pain.

This seemed to inspire Luna and Celestia, as Tia also became a magma slime, and Luna transformed into some kind of Black Wendigo. I also shifted size and changed into a German WW1 flame trooper outfit, complete with a functioning, multi-setting, flammenwerfer. I then saw Luna and Celestia start to go after the fleeing demon.

“What the *BLEEP* are you freaks?! No one can face a nightmare like this!!” Sloth seemed to scream in fear.

Luna laughed evil like. “You? A Nightmare? Don’t make us laugh. All you are is a collection of phobias. But me? I am the Goddess of the Night. The Dream Warden. And your worst Nightmare!” She declared, seeming to go all villian on him.

In the meantime, I was using my flammenwerfer to clean up stray bugs that sloth left behind. “You like my Flammenwerfer!? It ‘Werfs Flammen’!!!” I shouted as Celly and Tia began corralling the survivors of my ‘German Rage’ towards Luna for her to freeze into a frost statue. They all then shrunk down and reverted to normal, with me following suit. “You know, when we wake up, I’m gonna need a beer or something to get that ‘German moment’ out of my mind.”

Celly chuckled. “Told you Sloth didn’t stand a chance. He’s used to weak prey who fear him for his power over dreams. He didn’t know how to handle fearless lucid dreamers.” She said.

Luna laughed a hollow and echo sounding laugh. “I suppose the logic can’t be refuted. Though us all together made the battle rather boring, wouldn’t you say?” Luna said.

“To some extent. Now that we’re somewhat relaxed, I should mention that you three look good as Anthros. Maybe I can talk with Caddy and Twily about making that Anthro Enchanted jewelry for you three, once this is over and you are okay with that kind of gift.” I offered.

Celly seemed to freeze and stare at me in scrutiny. The others groaned. “Oh, boy. Now you’ve done it.” Soldier Boy stated. Celly then had a giant grin on her face, but before she could do anything else, she vanished from the Dreamscape.

“Wake up!” I shouted to the others. I then willed myself awake.

(Military Checkpoint)

Waking up, I saw Celly looking at her hooves in disappointment. However, she had a brief glance at me that seemed to reawaken her excitement. “Uh, yeah. I’d be happy to accept the offer.” She said to me. “I really miss having hands. So many missed opportunities to raise a middle finger have passed me by.”

“Well, when I get home, I’ll set Caddy and Twily on it.” I said to her. “And do the Royal Sisters have any objections to the offer or the fact that Celly is going to go Anthro?”

Both sisters shook their heads. “I’ll admit, it...it felt rather interesting, and I’m interested in trying it out.” Tia said.

“And I look forward to trying out the practical side of it.” Luna added.

“Then I’ll get that going when I get home. Also, I hope you don’t mind that when I get the items for you-” I pointed at Celly. “-It’ll be the permanent version....unless you say otherwise. As for you two-” I pointed at the two princesses. “-Will get a reversible version...unless you say otherwise.”

Celly shrugged. “Sounds good to me. I still have that ‘reset to default’ illusion spell that makes me look exactly like you, so a permanent version is fine by me.” She said, pointing at Tia when mentioning the spell.

The Sisters nodded in content. “I believe that is acceptable then.” Luna said for both of them.

“Alrighty then...and now, I need that beer I mentioned and I need to let my feet out of my boots for a bit...and don’t worry. Lemon freshness enchantment on and in my boots to prevent that typical bad shoe smell.” I said, stepping out of the tent and pulling my feet out of my boots, revealing my odd looking feet to the three alicorns.

“Oh. Hey. When you make mine, keep the feet out of it. I like my hooves.” Celly called out.

“Duly noted. Fill me in later on if Tia and Luna have the same reservations on feet vs. hooves.” I called back as I went to the mess hall area of the checkpoint and grabbed a beer to drink and sat on one of the more sturdy seats (aka, the side of a tank). After I sat, some of the soldiers came up to me and gave me some of the less liked choices of food (like Pickles) and to thank me for helping secure safety for their sleep.

A few sets of thanks and pickles from the soldiers later, and most of the camp had pretty much shut down. Everyone, except for the ponies, had been several days without sleep and they needed it badly. I noticed Celly looking at the sky, as if she was contemplating something. “Hey, Celly. You okay?”

“Just thinking about our next target.” She answered as she moved closer. “Not sure who we should target next.”

“A dilemma that’s better than having to deal with the ‘Golden Standards’ mucking up their jobs on almost a daily basis.” I said, holding out an unopened pickle jar. “Pickle?”

“No thanks.Celestia’s body seems to hate vinegar for whatever reason. Much as I liked adding pickles to my burgers, it sucks.” She responded.

“It’s okay.” I said, putting the jar down. “Now, let’s look at this a bit methodically. We, us two ponies, have no proper Intel on these demons, but we can piece together some scenarios based on their names and potential traits.” I put my chin on a fist. “We have Greed, Gluttony, Lust and maybe Pride.”

“My best guess, Greed has taken over a museum or corporate building, Lust is running a strip club, and Gluttony is eating everyone’s house and home.” Celly joked with a sans worthy grin.

“You’re not wrong, but we can leave room for error just in case.” I said. “Greed, the sin, not the demon, takes many forms, but in my mind, it’s probably worse when it goes criminal. Lust...the strip club thought has merit, but I would hate having to pull a ‘Dead Rising 3’ just to beat that. As for Gluttony, I’ll just hang back with that bit.” I gave my belly a bit of a pat before eating another pickle.

“Oh yeah, DR3. Forgot there were Psycho Bosses in that game that represent the sins.” She said with a thoughtful hum. “But let’s not forget Lust could potentially be a Succubus or Incubus. As far as I’m aware, those things are cursed so that lust is a biological need rather than a sin, however, so...maybe not?”,

“You make it sound like we could ‘rehabilitate’ lust so she can satisfy her biological needs in peace and without killing her.” I said. “Because I’m okay with that...and I’m not okay with that.”

“I mean, I did read a fanfic story where Diamond Tiara and Spoiled *BLEEP* were succubi, but Diamond Tiara hated it.” Celly said with a slight shudder of sympathy.

“I’m curious, but at the same time, I don’t want to know.” I commented. “So, we’ve thrown around a few ideas, our confidence is boosted, and my belly is full of pickles. Good talk...by the way, you want to know why I ‘trapped’ myself in that lamp when we were in the Dreamscape?”

Oh yeah. I just dismissed it as stupidity.” She smiled at the memory with a maliciously trollish grin.

“I was trying to get some Robin Williams Genie imitations/quotes in.” I stated. “I never had a true chance to do them in the past twenty years as Shining.”

“Yeah, it’s a shame...it really helps if you’ve got human tech with my Omniversal Internet enchantment. I kinda created that on accident, but it’ll give you permanent internet and you never have to pay a dime for it.” She said.

“In all honesty, I’ve never had need of the Internet for twenty years, so I’ll pass for now on that.” I responded. “Also… ‘Ever since those dancing mushrooms, have we seen this much intensity?’” I quoted from some of Robin Williams’ Genie outtakes.

Celly looked at me confused for a moment. “I...uh...I dunno what the heck you’re talking about.” She admitted bashfully.

“An old outtake of Robin Williams when he was doing his thing for Genie.” I explained….and then I quoted another outtake. “‘Time for Jafar cheer! Gimme a B, Gimme a B, Gimme a B-B-B, Gimme a B-B-B-B! What’s that spell?’” I then answered the quoted question by blowing out a raspberry sound.

She laughed at my silliness. “I haven’t watched the movie in ages, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the outtakes.” Celly told me, giving a look of shame.

“Well, you’ve got your Internet, so after this crisis is over, you can watch the movie as a little treat for yourself. Heck, have Tia and/or Luna watch with you.” I told her.

“I think I will.” She said with a smile. “But for now. I should help the Paladins keep watch.”

“Sounds fair.” I answered. “Oh, and something to think about when you get back. Herds usually work with one male, but can it work with one female?” I said before I laid on the tank and started to snooze.

Author's Note

Part 1 Crossover with Switchlock's story Celestial Disposition.

If you don't like the crossover, dislike my story, not Switchlock's story.