Crossing Over

Part 2: Laughter and Loyalty - Chapter 2: Invitation of a Lifetime

"Who, exactly, are you?" I asked the chained red pegasus mare in front of me, her messy green hair covering her eyes.

She shook her head to get the hair out of her eyes, and looked at me. Her right eye was black and blue. There were several bags under both of the pegasus's brilliant blue eyes. After staring at me for a couple seconds, realization dawned on her face and she smiled.

"I'm... you."

Those simple words took me by surprise. However, upon looking at myself and her again, I saw that she was right. We looked exactly the same! Except for the black eye, of course... and the laser beam cutie mark on her-- his flank.

All around us was a black, seemingly endless void. The only things in the void, that i could see, were me, the other me, and the chains holding the other me's forelegs above his head.

The other me was now looking around at our surroundings. As he did, he kept nodding.

"I remember this," the other me said. Turning his gaze back to me, he added, "Slightly."

"You remember this?" I asked, gesturing all around us. "This dream? How?"

The other me snorted. "Because I'm you from the future. If I met a future me, why wouldn't I remember that?"

"So nothing more interesting than this happens to me after this?"

"Are you kidding? So much interesting stuff happens to me-- you-- after this it's not even funny." Apparently this actually was funny as he started laughing. "After this dream, things take a right turn down crazy street. This dream is the beginning."

I wanted to argue that things had already taken a turn down crazy street, but I decided against it as I had other, more pressing questions. "This dream, huh? Tell me, what happens between our two time... periods."

The other me looked at me a second before bursting out laughing again. "You think I'd be stupid enough to tell you that? One of the first rules of meeting your past self, besides not doing just that, is to not tell your past self their future. It could end with tragic consequences."

I glared at me. "Like what?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Well... the future could change, something I very much do not want to happen. Other than that, I don't know. Anyway, I don't remember my future self telling me anything about my future when I had this dream. So, yeah, no thank you. No future telling from me."

In all honesty, I hadn't really expected him to say anything different. That's not to say I wasn't disappointed. I had been hoping he'd conveniently forgotten about that rule. Still, I wasn't leaving this dream without something of use. "Can you at least tell me why you're chained up?"

The other me looked up at the chains around his forelegs. "I am chained up, aren't I?" He sighed and looked back at me. "I can't tell you exactly why, but I will tell you this: Equestria isn't the same place as it once was. Not by a long shot."

Well, that was better than nothing... but still not helpful.

"Wait, how far into the future are you?" I questioned, feeling as though my time for questions was running out. Glancing at his flank and the cutie mark residing there, I added, "And how exactly do I get my cutie mark?"

The other me raised an eyebrow. "What did I just say about--"

Suddenly, the temperature dropped, and I felt as cold as an icicle. Whatever dream air I'd been breathing turned to ice. Not only was the air cold, however, it was filled with menace. A vibrant aura of evil enveloped us. I involuntarily shivered.

Then, just as suddenly, a voice rang out. It wasn't just any voice, though. The voice radiated evil and power. It's deep, gruff tones sent shivers down my spine.

"Wake up, Jordan Bush. You and I have so very much to talk about. So... very... much."

The other me's eyes widened in fear. He looked at me with those eyes and I noticed something. Behind the immediate emotion of fear, I could see a deep, echoing sadness. What could he be so sad about?

All of a sudden, with quick wrench in my gut, I woke up.

I woke to the loud sound of pots and pans crashing to the ground.

"Spike!" I heard Twilight yell. "Be careful! We have a guest. You could-- I don't know-- maybe try to be considerate?"

"I was just putting the pots away!" Spike shouted back.

"I told you to keep those out! Jordan might want breakfast."

"Why can't Jordan cook it himself?"

"Did I at some point forget to say he was a guest?"

I decided I'd heard enough and got up. I shook off the blankets and hopped out of bed. As I started walking towards the stairs, I had to stretch and get used to walking on four legs again. Apparently doing it for an entire day wasn't enough to drum it into my brain. Not only that, but my wings were still sore from the previous day. Hopefully I didn't have to do any heavy duty flying, something I wasn't entirely sure I could do in the first place; I'd never truly flown before, after all.

After exiting the bedroom and making my way down the stairs, I noticed Twilight had placed a small table with two chairs in the center of the library. twilight was sitting in one chair, drinking something out of a mug, and I assumed the other chair was for me. As soon as I saw Twilight, my heart went into overdrive, beating itself into a frenzy.

"How are you today, Jordan?" asked Twilight as I plopped myself into the empty chair across the table from her. it was kind of uncomfortable sitting human style as a pony, but I did it anyway.

"Uh..." Upon hearing her voice, my overdriven heart jumped into my throat, disabling my ability to speak. Great. I had talked with her just fine yesterday. Stupid dream. "Um... fine?"

She smiled at my unsure answer, making it harder for me to concentrate. "Hungry?"

Despite being extremely hungry, and my annoyingly growing feelings for Twilight impairing my speaking abilities, I answered immediately, "No."

Suddenly, there was a very, very loud grumbling sound. It took me a few seconds to realize it was coming from my stomach.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You sound hungry."

"Well," I began, regaining my speaking abilities somewhat, "okay, I actually am. But-- and this is a very big but-- I know what you ponies normally eat and it's not for me." I instantly regretted saying that, afraid she'd be offended or something.

She frowned. "You're hungry. You need to eat. Maybe... maybe we could make something you like?"

I shook my head. "come on, Twilight, you've seen my memories; you know what I eat. Do you honestly think you could make-- let alone want to make-- the food I eat?"

Twilight deadpanned, probably trying to remember what exactly I like to eat, and then grimaced. "Oh, yeah, right. Yuck."

"Yeah, you ponies don't eat meat. I, on the other hand, love it," I said, slightly surprised she didn't react worse to me haven eaten meat before. I thought she'd have denounced me as a savage or something similar. "Of course, us humans don't eat flowers or stuff like that like you ponies do... at least, most of us don't. Meat may be disgusting to you, but to me flowers are the nasty stuff. Dandelion sandwiches? Yuck!"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Whatever. In any case, you're not going hungry. That'd be just cruel. Honestly, you probably haven't eaten in over 24 hours." She paused in thought, her hoof gently tapping her chin. "I remember from some of your memories that you eat breakfast cereal. We have that here. You want some?"

"Sure," I said hesitantly, feeling both relief and suspicion at the same time; relief for the food, suspicion of whether or not this cereal would actually be any good.

"Spike!" Twilight shouted. "Bring out that 'Chocolate Balls' cere-- what's so funny!?"

I couldn't help it. As soon as she said 'Chocolate Balls', I burst out laughing. It was the way she said it and the fact that someone would actually name a cereal that. It just sounded dirty. At least, to me it did. I began laughing so hard in fact, I fell out of my chair.

"Chocolate Balls!?" I exclaimed in between fits of laughter. "Who actually-- hahaha-- names-- haha-- their cereal that!?"

It took me a couple minutes to recover and sit back down on the chair. I glanced at Twilight's face. She wasn't amused. "Sorry, but that was funny. Just think about it.'

She thought over it for a second and grinned. "Okay, it was a little funny. But still immature."

I shrugged. "Yeah, immature... but funny."

She shook her head, the grin still on her face.

I stared at her and smiled. This was nice. The butterflies in my stomach had subsided, and we were just talking. It felt good. Talking to this girl that I was starting to fall in love with, even if I didn't want to fall in love with said girl, was fun. I remembered feeling the same thing when talking to the girl I had loved back in my universe. I missed this feeling.

Spike appeared in the doorway that probably led to the kitchen. his eyes passed over me as if I didn't exist and focused on Twilight. "What were you saying Twilight? I couldn't hear you over all that annoying shrieking."

This dragon was, ever so slightly, getting on my nerves. "You mean my laughing?"

His eyes stayed on Twilight. "That annoying shrieking," he repeated.

Admittedly, I very nearly laughed at that. It was funny. However, that didn't excuse the fact that he was being a dickwad to me for no reason. What had I done to him? Nothing, that's what. Well... besides being a little mean to him when I arrived, but his current behavior was uncalled for.

"You know," I began, "no matter how much you ignore me, I'm still going to be right here."

"Would both of you stop!?" exclaimed Twilight, glaring at both of us. "Seriously!?"

I glanced at her incredulously. "Don't look at me! I think Spike is awesome! It's not my fault he hates me for no reason!"

"It is not for no reason!" shouted Spike, finally looking my way. "I don't like you because--"

Whatever Spike had been about to say was interrupted by a cyan pegasus bursting through the front door of the library.

"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flying over to the purple unicorn and holding up a piece of paper to her nose. "Guess what!? The Wonderbolts have invited me to audition for them! How cool is that!?"

Twilight's eyes moved back and forth, scanning the paper pressing against her nose. "This is... this great news Rainbow Dash!"

Spike nodded. "Yeah! Congratulations Rainbow Dash!"

Hearing Spike give the rainbow maned mare praise, I felt compelled to do the same. The only problem was, I couldn't think of anything to say. Spike and Twilight had already said what I would've said, and Rainbow Dash didn't even really know me. Saying 'Congrats!' or something would've sounded hollow.

So, instead of saying anything like that, I said, "Well, it's about time. You're the best, and fastest, flyer in all of Equestria, not to mention the only pegasus to ever do a sonic rainboom. My only question is why they didn't ask you to audition sooner."

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. "Y-you really mean that?"

I nodded. It may have sounded a little corny, but I really, truly meant what I had said.

"It says here that the auditions are tomorrow... in Cloudsdale," said Twilight, taking the letter out of Dash's hoof with her magic and rereading it.

"Yep. That means we have to leave right away," replied Dash, floating down and landing on the ground.

Twilight looked up from the letter. "Do you want the rest of us to come with you?"

Dash thought about that for a moment. "Well, I already checked with most of the others. Applejack has that family reunion, Rarity has a huge order for dresses she needs to attend to, and Fluttershy says that Angel's gotten sick and she needs to look after him."

I noticed right away that she had neglected to mention Pinkie Pie. I was about to point this out when something very strange happened.

There was a bright flash of cyan light right next to the stairs that led to the bedroom. Right where the flash of light had been was a small, yellow cube-shaped robot. Strapped to its chest was a circular cyan device. After a couple of seconds, the robot looked around, taking in its surroundings. Once it was done, its eyes focused on me, tilting its head as if confused about something.

Spike, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and I all stared at the robot, speechless. Out of all of us, I was probably the only one to recognize it.

Then, in another bright flash of cyan light, the robot was gone.

Silence reigned. After a few moments, Spike spoke.

"What was that?"

"That... that's Cubot," I muttered, still staring at the place where the robot had been. "He's from... Sonic Colors. Eggman built him."

"A robot built by Eggman?" asked Rainbow Dash, glancing at Twilight. "How'd he get here?"

Twilight shrugged. "I'm not sure. The only two ways I know of traveling between universes is via a crack in time and space or the Doctor's TARDIS. The way that thing got here didn't look like either of those." She looked at me expectantly. "Any ideas?"

"Hey, don't look at me," I said, "I'm not an expert on this stuff. All I know is that he's from Sonic's universe."

"And how exactly do you know that?" questioned Dash, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Well, in my universe--"

At that moment, Pinkie Pie bounced through the front door and into the library, interrupting me.

"Congrats, Dashie!" exclaimed Pinkie, bouncing up to Rainbow Dash. I noticed that she made sure to keep a little distance between herself and the rainbow maned mare. "I hear you're going to audition for the Wonderbolts!"

"Yeah? how'd you hear about that?" asked Dash, looking less than thrilled to see the pink pony.

"That's not important," said Pinkie, waving off the question. "What's important is that this is great news!" There was something wrong with the enthusiasm in her voice. It sounded kind of... faked? "And that me, Twilight, and Jordan will be there to cheer you on!"

"What about me?" Spike asked.

"If me and Jordan go," Twilight began, looking at Spike, "then somepony's got to stay and watch the library."

Spike scowled, a look I suspected he'd been wearing a lot lately.

"Hold on," I said, slightly confused. Did they actually want me to come? "You guys actually want me to come?"

"Of course!" said Twilight and Pinkie simultaneously.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Why not? You seem cool enough to me."

I smiled. That was nice of them. Letting someone they didn't really know go with them to an important, life-changing event? That wasn't something I expected.

"Well, I think it's time for me and Jordan to get our balloon ready!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, rushing over to me and grabbing my hoof with her hoof.

"Wait-- what!?" I cried as she began pulling me toward the door.

"I need to talk to you!" Pinkie whispered frantically in my ear.

"Pinkie!" I heard Twilight shout.

But it was too late. Pinkie Pie had already whisked me out of the library into the warm new morning.

Twilight stared after Jordan and Pinkie, wondering what those two were up to. It was obvious they were up to something, she just couldn't figure out what that something was.

Rainbow Dash was staring after Jordan and Pinkie as well. "That was weird."

"Yes," agreed Twilight, "it was."

"That Jordan girl--"

"Guy," Twilight corrected.

"--guy seems really odd," Dash pointed out, rolling her eyes. "But nice."

"Yes, he is pretty nice," said Twilight. Then she noticed Spike was still in the room. "Spike! Go clean up the pots and pans in the kitchen."

"But you're the one who wanted me to keep them out!"

"Well, we don't need them anymore," Twilight replied. "Now go!" Once the grumbling purple dragon had left the room, she turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash. "Can I confess something to you?"

"Um... sure," said Dash, taken off guard by the question.

Twilight looked around, making sure no one else was within earshot, and whispered, "I think I'm starting to develop a crush on Jordan."

Dash's eyes widened. "Seriously!?"

"Shhhh!"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Dash apologized, lowering her voice. "Are you sure, Twilight? I mean, you only me her--"

"Him."

"-- him yesterday. Not to mention he's from another universe!"

"Yes, I know, but... I don't know. During that memory spell, we didn't just see our memories, we also saw our personalities," explained Twilight. "We had a lot in common and, not only that, but he just seemed like the type of guy I like. He's funny, and cute, and..." She shook her head. "I just don't know!"

Rainbow Dash could've said a lot of different reason as to why Twilight having a crush on this gir-- guy was extremely irrational, not to mention stupid. Instead, she smiled sympathetically.

"Hey, don't sweat it. Everypony has an irrational crush at one time or another. If you and him are meant to be together, then it'll happen. You'll see. And, even if it doesn't, there's still other fish in the sea. Am I right or am I right?"

Twilight stared at the cyan pegasus next to her. What she had said was extremely out of character for her. But the words had their intended effect. She felt comforted, even if it was only a little bit.

"I... guess you're right."

Dash grinned and slapped Twilight on the back. "That's the spirit! Now, come on, let's see if Pinkie and Jordan are done with the balloon. I've got an audition to get to!" With that, she took off into the air and zoomed out of the window, the same one from the night before.

Twilight sighed and bit her lip. She had vowed to never fall in love again. Yet, here she was doing just that, with a guy from another universe, no less. This was probably going to end in heartbreak, just like last time.

But... maybe not.

Maybe this time, it'd work out. Maybe this time, the guy she like would return her feelings.

Twilight smiled. Yeah, maybe this time would be different. Things couldn't really happen the same way twice, could they? No, she had to believe that, this time, things would work out. She just had to. Otherwise... otherwise bad things would happen. But these things wouldn't happen, because Jordan would be hers.

She remembered the girl from Jordan's memories. She remembered how much he had loved that girl, and also how much pain that girl had caused him. That was an obstacle she had to overcome if she wanted Jordan to fall for her. It was going to be tough, but she could do it. Since when did Twilight Sparkle ever fail? Never, that's when. She'd make Jordan forget all about that other girl, and make him fall in love with her.

This thought in mind, Twilight raced off through the door, determined to make that happen.