Author's Note

Go check out DisplacedWriter's story "[Displaced] Dark Fantasy", they have such a wonderful story set up and I'm really glad that they were willing to reach out to me to do a crossover. DisplacedWriter, thank you for reaching out. I really hope people enjoy this :)

The Calm after The Storm Part 1 (cross-over with DisplacedWriter)

Leon begins to wake up the next day, having been resting in the farmhouse after his encounter with a very aggressive alien lifeform in the midst of a storm, Leon seeks out what will soon be a rare commodity… a free day. A time to himself so he can explore and get used to living amongst talking pastel colored horses while wearing an alien watch.

Leon was motionless, he was in a bed he never knew felt so comfortable. He felt like he was sleeping on a mattress, handcrafted and specifically tailored for cushioning the stress of a deity. He stared up at the ceiling with confusion, seeing the small details in the pattern of the wood above him reminded him of a time he felt.

‘Was all that a dream? Had to be… a world of pastel colored ponies, magic, and then all of a sudden, aliens and crazy killer robots? Heh… I think I lost my mind.. Then again, why does my body feel so sore? Feels like I fought a man shaped boulder… and won.’ Leon mentally thought to himself as he continued to gaze up at the wooden ceiling.

Leon’s attention was drawn by the sound of some sort of gentle hiss that faded in volume, causing Leon to stir up in his bed, curious of what he just heard. Upon looking around and eventually the floor, Leon notices a glowing sign that gently sparkles with white particles floating about on the hardwood floor, written in some sort of language he did not understand. Leon was understandably confused, rubbing his eyes as he looked to see the sign still on the hardwood floor. “Okay, a dream, this may not... Unless..” Leon mumbles. He quickly pinches his arm as hard as he can, obviously feeling pain from the pinch, and could at least confirm to himself that this was no dream.

“I really hope this isn’t gonna summon a demon or something… everything else has already been crazy enough, I need a breather.” Leon tiredly said, slowly sitting up as he continued to eye the glowing sign on the floor. There it still remained despite Leon’s objecting that it truly wasn’t there, taunting Leon with its glowing presence and that no matter how long he waited nor how long he stared, it would still be there. Knowing that he’d rather do this now, rather than wait or put it off, leon sighed and slowly got up, standing up straight as he slowly walked towards the sign, already reaching for the Omnitrix’s dial in case this went wrong. As Leon got close, the sign would waver, soon fading and rewriting itself, as if an invisible hand was doing so. New words formed now in a language Leon could actually read, glowing in onyx black letters surrounded by orange energy to Leon’s eyes.

'Do not fear the sign, friend. I am Noel, the ashen one of another world, and I've come seeking those who have met with an unfortunate fate, either forced into a body not their own, or given powers unwillingly. If you hold your hand over this sign for just a moment, you'll be able to summon my white phantom into your world. In this form, I will be able to explain what has happened to you. However, if you've already learned who and what you've become, I understand if you seek companionship or you need an ally to fight against a powerful foe.'

Leon read out the letters on the floor, and felt compelled by a strange wave of curiosity and intrigue wash over him. Leon slowly moved towards the bedroom door, opening it a bit as he looked around carefully, listening for the sound of steps being taken or talking. After a few minutes, nothing or nopony seemed to be around to hear the hissing or notice the glow.

Leon closed the door and walked back over to the sign. “Powerful foe? Companionship? Well, powerful alien device aside, I need to know how to fight anyway, in case this watch ever fails me. Which it might.” Leon said, cautiously moving his right hand over the sign, hoping that something would happen. The letters return to the previous language then slowly faded away. A moment of silence passed until a glowing white ring started to circle round where the sign was previously, and from the center of the ring rose some sort of faded white specter that at first, looked like the being was being pulled up by invisible strings. As its form fully manifested into being, Leon can finally see clear features on the phantom. Other than the white glow, they were wearing what looked to be heavy draconic like armor, in fact Leon thought it was some sort of dragon-like creature due to the head having horns and two sets of glowing serpent eyes. With a fist on his chest and a bow, the dragon started to speak. “To whom do I owe the pleasure of being summoned?” he said, his voice having a slight echo. Leon is met with confusion due to the muzzle not moving.

“Uh… Hi. I’m Leon. Uh… I’m the wielder of the Omnitrix, in Equestria, I guess? Could I kindly ask what and who you are?” Leon hesitantly asked, still trying to get used to most of the very little that just happened within the last minute.

“As I’ve written on the ground back in my world in the same exact location, my name is Noel, a Displaced of the Ashen one from Dark Souls 3, or rather a heavily modded version of him involving the Cinders mode that my Displacer chose for me to have. What you see is just my phantom, while you can touch and hurt me, I’m not a hundred percentage whole. The only one for me to be here in person, is if I had your token in order to make a more effective link to here.” Noel explained as he reached up to remove his head- no.. That was a helmet! As the helmet was removed, Leon could see a man in his thirties with his black hair tied in a ponytail, red eyes, and having a five o’ clock shadow upon his face. Leon could clearly tell that this guy looked like a natural born badass, and had the armor to prove it.

“Okay, first of all, the hell’s a token? Second of all, I pity and respect you for having the balls to be a character in a very difficult game. Third of all, the hell’s a Displaced?! Oh and fourth of all, do you have a map of this place?” Leon asked, still marveling at the elite warrior clad in armor.

“In the order of your questions. A token is what a Displaced uses to travel across worlds via being summoned by another, second I didn’t choose to be this as my Displacement was a bit sudden and unpleasant; death by truck ramming into my car. Third, a Displaced is what you and I are; beings altered by a void dweller or the merchant to serve whatever purpose they want, but most times out of amusement, boredom, to be an asshole and see if we survive or go mad from our sudden shift in reality. Fourth, yes and no of having a map.” Noels said as he raised his hand, causing some sort of status screen to appear and showing the surrounding area. The small map was only revealing where he or Leon had been.

Leon was quite impressed, but still confused on how any of this worked. He looked at the black parts of the map, assuming he hasn’t been there before, and will have to eventually seek out those places in due time. “Impressive, but I was kinda hoping for a physical paper map. I don’t know how the hell you did that at all, but it was still pretty cool. Maybe the Omnitrix has something like that… questions for another time. Anyways, what exactly am I doing in the land of magical pastel colored talking horses, anyway? I get that we’re here by random, but I wasn’t brought here by a merchant or whatever the flying hell a Void Dweller is, but I was brought here by an animatronic gypsy woman in a fortuneteller’s booth. Take your time, you’ll figure out what that means.” Leon explained, still dumbfounded by that of all things.

“I guess that machine was a Displacer, or a void dweller’s proxy, but as to why though? You’ll need to learn on your own. You’re going to be here for a very long time…” Noel said with dread in his voice of having to tell Leon the truth.

Leon felt a number of emotions. Anger, because he didn’t want to be told he couldn’t find a way home. Shock, to know that there may not be a way home after all. Denial, wanting to cling onto hope. “Tell me you’re fuckin’ joking. How many of us Displaced have actually gotten to go back home? And don’t lie to me, I can’t stay here! These ponies are willing to help me find a way back, tell me there’s some kind of way!” Leon exclaimed.

“...Weeell, according to the many written sign messages left by the multiverse of my world, the chances of returning home have been slim…” Noel explained as he rubbed the back of his head. “Those who have not gone home either haven’t found the power to return home, or they chose not to go home due to the new lives they’ve formed in their new world. Now, take note I've said ‘my world’ meaning they found ways of manipulating their white or red soapstone token to allow it, I don’t know if you can find a way home with your Omnitrix, not unless Alien X is somewhere in there.” Noel said as he looked down at the watch around Leon’s wrist.

“Please, any and every version of this alien timepiece will have Alien X. It’s just the matter of if the voices in Alien X’s mind will agree to let me go home. And I really don’t want to find out what’ll happen if I find out that something else is here. I already had to face Frankenstein’s Monster 2.0 yesterday, and that took a lot out of me, pal! I’m gonna be a damn liability if I can’t properly fight back! I’m not a fighter, I know how to box, but not against Frankenstein’s Monster on Steroids!! Here I thought one of Vilgax’s Castle sized drones would’ve done me in. No, an alien Frankenstein’s Monster almost fries me with red lightning! I’m a dead man if I can’t withstand these attacks…” Leon stopped shouting and soon dropped to his knees.

“What am I supposed to do to prepare for the oncoming alien hell that’s about to invade?!” Leon shouted in a panic, worry and devastation filled his mind.

“You have the means, all you need is knowledge and experience to use it.” Noel said as he gave the side of Leon’s watch a gentle tap. “I can help train you, but of course we’ll need to go somewhere out of sight. Tell me, have the ponies of this world seen more humans or are you the first?” Noel asked curiously.

Leon didn’t seem to know how to answer that question, and that kinda rubbed him the wrong way. “I don’t know… All I know is that ponies like to stare at something, that something being me, they haven’t seen before…” Leon stated, not knowing exactly if there were actually more humans or if he was the only one.

“..Ah, that raises some complications if I’m going to train you. Will you allow the pony here to see me, or would you prefer to keep me a secret? My token will not be the only one of its kind, so depending on what you plan to do, you’ll either need to avoid summoning more Displaced in the future, or explain to the ruler of the sun of this land about us so that when you do summon another Displaced to help you, the ponies will be less likely to freak out.” Noel explained to Leon.

“Trust me, I’m already worried about how I’m supposed to explain giant killer robots, Frankenstein’s Monster’s Jacked Mutant Cousin, and an alien watch that can turn its wearer into one of a plethora of alien species… to explain there’s a multiverse for Displaced is another can of worms I’m not ready to open willy-nilly! Plus, I’m pretty sure I already quite literally spooked one of the native ponies with my abilities already… So, let’s keep this Displaced thing a secret till I deal with Tia and whatever else might be lurking.” Leon stated firmly.

“Fair enough. You’ll need to sneak me out of the house, either that or build a bonfire out there so I can use it to warp to.” Noel explained as he went to sit down on the floor. Leon nodded, sighing as he exited the bedroom. Leon quickly made sure he wasn’t being followed when he went outside and quickly ran into the orchard, and saw a couple sticks laying around. He quickly gathered them up and looked for a secluded place.

‘Shit, I didn’t think this through… Where do I even go without being seen?’ Leon thought to himself, already starting to panic again. Leon took a deep breath and looked around, noticing that he could just run into the woods nearby, and be back before anyone could be none the wiser. As he started to run towards the thick woods, he could’ve sworn that he saw Applejack just now coming out of the barn, which obviously felt a bit counterintuitive to him, considering what happened yesterday. Without thinking, Leon quickly made a dash for the woods, bracing himself for anything that might just scratch him up a bit.

...

As Leon runs through the wooded area, trying to keep the sticks in his arms as he tries to look around for a small and secluded clearing, he carefully listens to hear if anything might be around, probably hunting him. Soon enough, Leon would soon find himself in a clearing he was looking for. He quickly laid the sticks down and went to find a couple rocks to surround them, lifting up a couple rocks and moving them over to surround and contain the sticks.

Leon popped the core up and began to carefully select one of his forms as he knew which one would be the better option for starting fires. Leon carefully pushed the core down, and was replaced by Swampfire, carefully igniting one of his fingers to start burning the sticks.

As the smoke rose into the air, it started to build out unnaturally quickly. With a grey flash, Noel appeared in a swirl of smoke. Reach over the bonfire, he made the flames flare to life brighter, but not burning harder. “There we go.” Noel said with a nod. Swampfire stood firm, looking around as he brought his attention back to Noel.

“Alright, so you said you could train me, right?” Swampfire asked.

“Yes in some weaponry and combat. Due to the dark sign that curses this body, you can fight me as hard as you’d like, even if you kill me. I’ll always come back to this bonfire that will burn for all eternity.” Noel explained as he reached back to pull out what appears to be a coiled sword that burned with embers.

“Ok, that’s pretty cool, but are you sure I can go all out? If I did, I think I’d be accidentally setting a forest on fire. Too bad I don’t have Master Control on this thing, so maybe I’ll try to restrain myself, so as to not raze anything to the ground just yet.” Swampfire stated, cracking his knuckles as he generated blue fireballs in his palms. Swampfire took a few steps back, and dimmed the flaming balls of fire as he looked back towards Noel.

“So, what is it that you can do? I only know that the Ashen Ones are undead of sorts, but that’s all I really know... then again, if I ever do run into an Ashen One villain in this world, cause it can’t get any weirder than this, any tips?” Swampfire inquired.

“Quite a lot of Pyromancy spells with a little bit of Miracle spells.” Noel explained to Leon.

“Alright, I don't know anything about Miracle spells, but pyromancy would probably benefit me if I needed Swampfire at any given moment, but the Omnitrix would fail at that said moment.” Swampfire stated, feeling the plant life around him feel at ease.

“I won’t be most of them here, my firelink sword’s flame will remain inactive for the time being.” Noel said as he swiped it across, causing a loud pop and a crackle to erupt as it changed from sword to a coiled up spear.

“Woah… weapons are like a necessity in your line of work. Then again, I’d like to have some armor.” Swampfire said, the Omnitrix timing out as Leon reverted to his normal form. “So, what’s the first thing you plan to teach me, Noel, the mighty spirit of Dark Souls 3?” Leon asked, smiling as he waited for an answer. Noel let out a short chuckle of amusement.

“Dodge.” Noel said as he suddenly did a fake-out thrust with his spear toward Leon. Leon narrowly yelped out as he ducked, tucking into a ball as he attempted to dodge the spear. Noel pulled his spear back and thrusted again at a faster speed, once again performing a fake out to keep tricking him. Leon quickly got up and started to run in a circular motion around the bonfire that Noel stood in, trying to avoid the spear that way.

“Dodge, huh?! What’s next, you gonna throw me into a tree and tell me to dodge?! Stupid watch, just had to turn me back!!” Leon griped as he kept his focus on the warrior and the spear.

“That watch’s cooldown is a moment of weakness.” Noel said as he thrusted the spear again to force Leon to dodge. “So when it's off, you gotta keep on your toes.” Noel said before thrusting the spear again, causing Leon to duck. Noel was forcing Leon to work on his reaction time and train those leg muscles. “Use your small size to your advantage so that bigger foes.” Noel paused to thrust the spear again, Leon just narrowly dodging it. “Especially the really angry ones.” Noel said as he suddenly leaped into the air to thrust downward toward Leon.

“Really wish I hadn’t shirked leg day during the mile run in high school now, who knew it would’ve helped me dodge a Dark Souls mini boss?!” Leon yelled, rolling out of the way as he tried to get back up to his feet. “Plan, plan, plan… that’s what I need, right now! Think, Leon! Think!!” Leon gritted, looking around for a way to turn the tide, already feeling his lungs at their limit.

“Just be glad I’m not embered out, then I’d definitely be of a bigger size!” Noel said as pulled his arm back. Leon grimaced at that thought, feeling sweat pour down his forehead as he kept on running in circles. “Yeah, sure, cause I wanna imagine a kaiju sized Ashen One chasing me through PonyVille with a spear. How reassuring.” Leon remarked, frantically twisting the dial on the Omnitrix.

Noel twirled his spear around. “Not THAT big, I’d only be twice your size.” Noel said. Leon eventually noticed that due to all the dodge, he had been forced into an area with a lot less nature. With a mighty swing, Noel sent out a ring of fire that came dangerously close to Leon. Leon quickly slammed on the Omnitrix’s core, right as the flaming ring made its connection as a Cyan light shone through the blistering flames, revealing that Leon had another form to utilize. In his place was a sentient bipedal mass of Cyan and blue-green slime with a small mechanical device hovering above it, and resting on it was the Omnitrix itself.

“GOOP!!” The mass of slime had exclaimed, morphing its body in an elastic or malleable manner. “Woaahh… I didn’t think the watch had any power left! Well, I’m not gonna complain right now, but I will have to test this out in my off time…” Goop stated, facing Noel.

“Let’s test that fire resistance!” Noel said as he held his hand out as a literal flamethrower sprayed out from his palm. Goop, upon instinct, made his body split in half, letting the fire pass through onto the green grass as Goop delivered a couple direct punches to the gut, however due to the draconic armor that covered Noel, it didn’t do much other than make Goop’s body wiggle from the punch. Goop tried to grab the lance’s very blade, in an attempt to snatch it out of Noel’s hands. “Let’s see how well you do without the powerful fire weapon!” Goop stated confidently, pulling at the lance in his general direction. Noel suddenly pulled on his lance, then slammed an outstretched hand into Goop’s chest, he would start to feel a dangerous warmth build up in Noel’s hand.

“Something tells me you think you got me on the ropes… well, you’d be right if Goop couldn’t do this.” Goop stated. If he had a mouth, he’d be smiling the smuggest smile he ever did see as Noel can feel his hand starting to sting and burn, as well as notice the lance’s blade begin to corrode and melt at Goop’s touch. “Hehehe! Gotta love acid powers, useless until you need to melt something! Perfect!” Goop stated, looking like he could grin if he had a mouth. The lance suddenly vanished in a rush of cinders as Noel yanked his hand back. Noel’s weapon came back in a rush of cinders again, but in the form of a bell as he raised it above his head, allowing it a gentle toll. Slowly, Noel’s hand is healed up.

“Let’s see how much heat you can take.” Noel said as he raised his fists into the air, fire brimming into the palms of his hands. Slamming his fists into the ground, fire exploded from under Goop and all around him.

“Oooohhh… shit.” Goop muttered. Goop’s miniature device immediately sped off, trying to avoid the heat, taking a small blood with it as what remained of goop began to slowly collapse as it tried to withstand the firestorm that was generated above it, obviously failing. The flames quickly faded as fast as it erupted.

“Hmm, perhaps that was a bit much.” Noel said as he looked down at Goop’s shrunken form. As whatever small drops of Goop laid there on the scorched earth, they suddenly started to shift, slowly slithering towards the floating device as Goop reformed his blobulous physical state before the Omnitrix soon returned Leon to his normal form in a flash of red light.

“A bit much? You almost gave Goop the Pompeii treatment! Good thing I remembered about the gravity projector this damn watch provides, otherwise, if I hadn’t saved a piece of myself while everything else was close to being turned to ash, I might’ve just activated the failsafe on this thing too early… if this thing did have a failsafe to keep me from dying, that is!” Leon stated, nearly mortified, or just suffering from too much adrenaline rushing through his body.

“Well, the lesson was to dodge and keep moving. Don’t take the blunt of the attack when you lack the means to survive it.” Noel said as he inspected Leon’s body to make sure the injuries didn’t carry over.

“Well, aside from my attempt to either fight back or make sure I didn’t have a lance sized hole in my body, how’d I do on that front? I could use a bit of refining in my approach, but it’s a start, not necessarily a good one, right?” Leon asked.

“Just work on your foot work and your reaction speed. Think of yourself as if you’re Sans, minus the low health points.” Noel said half jokingly. Leon chuckled at that remark, and reached out to shake Noel’s hand. “So what’s next for my training, Mr. Praise the Sunbutt?” Leon asked, smiling cheekily.

….THWACK, Leon got bonked on the head by the bottom blunt of Noel’s spear. Leon rubbed his head as he glared a bit at Noel. “And this is why most bronies, me included, worship the moon. Now what’s next on the training schedule?” Leon asked.

“...Bronies- actually, answer that later. Now, do you have any forms that use a sword?” Noel asked curiously.

“Well, I do have Diamondhead, he can morph his arms into blades. That close enough?” Leon asked.

“Good enough.” Noel said as he resummoned his weapon in sword form in a rush of embers. Noel reaches back soon pulling out an ancient bronze looking great shield that had a dragon silhouette. Leon looked at the Omnitrix, seeing the cyan color be a bit dim, but still prominent. Leon popped the core up and selected Diamondhead’s icon, pushing the core down carefully as he was transformed into the Petrosapien.

“Alright, how does this work?” Diamondhead asked, morphing his arms into jagged crystal blades. Diamondhead wondered if anything with magical enhancements could be stronger than his crystals, but it’s fairly clear to see that everything looks stronger than it shouldn’t be, so regardless, Diamondhead was already on his guard. Noel slid his hands across his Firelink sword, causing it to ignite on fire.

“Now, try to hit me.” Noel said as his distance relaxed. Diamondhead lunged forward, slamming both of his arm blades towards Noel with all of his might. All of a sudden, Diamond’s blade was knocked away with a powerful explosion of energy he could out see, causing Diamondhead to be staggered back.

“Again.” Noel demanded. Diamondhead grunted as he ran towards Noel and attempted to strike him harder, only for the same result to occur, him getting knocked away by some sort of energy he didn’t understand.

“One more time!” Noel yelled. Diamondhead gritted his teeth as he ran as fast as he could towards Noel, both arms drawn back as he lunged forward and slammed the bladed arms towards Noel, yelling aggressively as he tried to at least land a solid hit. Noel once again knocked Diamondhead’s blades away, however instead of demanding another attack, he thrusted his sword at Diamondhead. At that moment, something started to click in Diamondhead’s mind. Diamondhead quickly moved his left arm blade to counter the thrust of the sword. A kinetic rush of energy exploded from Diamondhead’s arm blade, forcing Noel to be staggered back.

“There we go, you’ve learned how to parry. When you use it to knock your target’s weapon away, you’ll gain a short burst of energy built up in your weapon, however you only have a moment to attack back, resorting in a riposte. In short, this is dark souls mechanics brought to life.” Noel explained as the flames faded from his firelink sword. Diamondhead chuckled as he changed his blades back into arms. “Pretty badass if you ask me. Could come in handy when Tirek shows up eventually.”

“Funnily, it can work on bigger targets, but the timing is more tricky.” Noel explained as he tapped his chin in thought. “Well, I think this will help a lot. I don’t exactly know a lot about this Displaced stuff, but that’s for when we can relax after a bit of teaching.” Diamondhead stated, smiling as he looks around.

“There’s alot, and I do mean alot. Displaced follow no logic nor laws other than whatever their Displacer gave them, so keep an open mind if you meet another Displaced.” Noel said as he went over to the bonfire to sit down, allowing the radiant flames to restore his stamina. “I’d like to gift you a little something, but tell me… Have you killed anything with a soul?” Noel asked curiously.

“Well, I killed a huge fuckin’ robot, but I didn’t see a soul in it… unless it’s still there because I had to worry about one of the ponies being severely injured. Should be out in the fields, a day, maybe two or three from this location. Can’t miss the giant robot that’s been cut in half.” Diamondhead stated.

“Might be a lot less if you’ve got a big flying form.” Noel suggested. At that moment, Diamondhead’s watch started blinking red. In a flash of red light, Diamondhead was reverted back to Leon, finally settling into recharge mode again. “Well, I can’t fly for sure, but Ghostfreak can float in a way that’s kinda similar, it’s merely just the fact that I don’t know what you’d want with a soul… you’re not gonna make me a ghost rider, are you?” Leon asked, a bit unsure of why he’d want to know if the robot had a soul.

“...It’d be best if you don’t choose that form, my Dark Sign might try to consume you thinking you’re a lost soul that needs to serve me. No, I'm not going to turn you into a ghost rider, I'm going to convert the robot’s soul into a weapon, shield, or ring that contains one of its powers or any powers that keep it protected or buffed.” Noel explained. Leon thought about this, and knew that if anything important needed to be done, he needed to at least have some form of armor for protection.

“What can you turn the soul into in terms of armor? Like a chestplate or even boots?” Leon asked.

“Whatever armor the robot had before its death.” Noel explained as he paused to think. “Think of it this way. If I were to convert my soul, it would become whatever is unique to me. In short, it’d be my pyromancy, my firelink sword. As a ring, your fire would be stronger. Or a copy of my dragon armor. Sure, you’re probably thinking you could take it off of my dead body, but it would just cease to be once my soul is removed.” Noel explained to the best of his understanding. Leon thought long and hard, knowing of two common abilities the huge robot drone had.

“Well, the drone I fought had the power to fire lasers from its wrists due to laser cannons being built into its forearms, but it also had the ability to jump or spring upwards nearly hundreds of feet into the air and slam onto the ground to create shockwaves. From those two options, I can either have gauntlets/gloves that fire beams of energy that will require time to recharge if overutilized or overheated, or the possibility of having boots that give me a hefty and really neat jump boost… hopefully fall damage won’t be an issue if that’s the choice to make.” Leon explained.

“Now you’re getting the idea. I’m basically allowing you to use one of the powers they had, whether it was an attack, or whatever their body’s main strength was. So what’ll be? A copy of their gauntlet that shoots lasers, or a copy of their boots that’ll let you jump high release shockwaves upon landing?” Noel asked curiously as a moment of silence passed. “Remember, only one power, armor, or ring per soul.” he said, causing Leon to think carefully. Leon mentally considered the pros and cons of each item carefully.

‘Let’s see… on one hand, the gauntlets would prove to be extremely useful to keep up ranged attacks in my human form, but if something short circuits the gauntlets themselves, it could get somepony or me extremely hurt or in critical condition in the midst of a fight. On the other hand, the jump boost would help immensely if it means I can get to Cloudsdale without having to resort to using a hot air balloon or a flying form I can potentially unlock later on, but the fall damage could be enough to kill me with the velocity of falling alone… jeez, my options aren’t looking too hot, but I know what won’t kill anyone by malfunction.’ Leon looked at Noel and took a deep breath.

“Gimme a pair of those Jump Boosting boots, please.” Leon requested.

“Alright, all we need to do is find the robot.” Noel said with a nod as he got up from his resting spot. “..Actually, don’t you have some kind of speedster form?” he asked curiously.

“I haven’t had the time to properly check. Plus, recharge mode. I’m not using this thing for another few minutes or so, Though I do know where the fight was, it was somewhere nearby where I woke up in this world. Problem is, it’s gonna look really weird trying to carry a bonfire to where I woke up, which is on the far outskirts of PonyVille.” Leon stated, kinda worried.

Noel let out a chuckle. “Just say it’s a school project, like to see what fuel would make the flames last the longest.” Noel suggested with a grin. Leon would’ve put his hand to his face if he wasn’t feeling a bit sore from the training, but rolled his eyes a bit. “Well, maybe I can get some help setting up a bonfire near the robot’s location. I’m sure Big Mac’s not busy, I hope. Plus, I already graduated, man, school project just feels a bit like a lie.” Leon suggested.

“Hmm.. fair. You could say you want to go on a camping trip if they ask where you’re going.” Noel pointed out. Leon agreed with this, but did wonder if anypony started to salvage that thing for any particular reason. “We might wanna go, Twilight looked eager enough to learn about my human form and Swampfire, so before she can get the idea to try and find me, we need to get that soul, if there is one.” Leon stated, Noel nodded in agreement.

“I’ll wait here for the time being since it's too much trouble trying to bring me along.” Noel explained as he sat back down near his bonfire. Leon nodded as he looked back at the Omnitrix, still noticing that the recharge mode was going to be a bit of a pain he was gonna have to get used to. “Should I extinguish this before a wildfire starts and Applejack will have an excuse to tan my hide if she thinks it’s my fault?” Leon asked sheepishly, gesturing to the bonfire.

“Oh, no. This bonfire doesn’t burn.” Noel said as he held his arm over the fire. The flames moving along his arm almost like water going around a solid object. “It will only harm crazed undead, and I doubt you have any of that in your world.” Noel explained as he pulled his arm back. “Those are the embers of the first flame that I carry within me. It will burn eternally like a beacon in the darkness. In fact, considering how the everfree forest is a little chaotic.” Noel said as he pulled out a replica of his firelink sword, Noel pushed it into the center of the bonfire, causing it to brighten. “Let it be a guide if anyone, or anypony gets lost, all they’ll need find the light.” Noel explained. Leon was very impressed by Noel’s knowledge and power, and nodded. “I guess I’ll be off then, since I guess it’ll only be me who can see you for the time being, right?” Leon said, slowly walking back to the farm as he kept eye contact with the noble warrior. “Exactly. May the flames guide thee on your way there, Leon.” Noel said with a smile as he reached up to place the dragon helmet back onto his head.

...

Leon continued to go through the thick woods, hopping over holes in the ground his foot could get stuck in if he wasn’t careful. How he got through this the first time without getting stuck in a hole is beyond his knowledge, but he was at least thankful he didn’t get stuck this time either. Leon quickly made it to the other side, noticing a small pack of ponies being led by Applejack.

‘My luck keeps getting better and better…’ Leon thought to himself sarcastically, slowly walking over as he called out for them.