Collision Code

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 9: The Truth Comes Out

Corey wasn't sure what to do any more. First, Leo sent the whole Skype group to Equestria, where dangers were far more prevalent than they were back home. Second, pretty much every former human wound up paired up with a member of the Mane 6, in relationships ranging from low-key, like Ivan's, to painfully awkward, like his own. Then there was the break-in. Now, this whole mess with Zer...The truth had to come out.

He and Ivan entered a large room. It appeared to be some sort of private chamber, complete with a window that lead to a balcony. The window was open. The room was large enough to house the mares, colts, and dragons that occupied it. And, to his added anxiety, both of the princesses were there, studying the scene before them with very serious looks on their faces, not at all the affable expressions they'd worn when he'd accidentally teleported himself in not too long ago.

The others seemed fine, for the most part. Leo and Dash looked a little bruised, and Rarity was still trying to style her mane back to its normal luster with a little help from Spike. The others seemed to be crowded around John, who was more or less fully covered in bandages. The former human turned dragon appeared to be at least conscious.

"Oh, thank God..." Corey whispered to himself, seeing that, aside from John, none of the others involved in the fight were seriously hurt. The guilt was momentarily lifted from his shoulders, but he knew he had a monumental task ahead of him, particularly when Twilight noticed him and Ivan entering the room.

"Corey!" she gasped, immediately trotting up to him as fast as possible. The Princesses turned their heads to regard the new arrival, and their expressions momentarily softened, but he could feel the underlying suspiscions. "You're awake!"

"Yeah..." He responded, not sure what emotion to put forth. "Still a little sore, though..."

She looked at him with a stern look, and the former human felt his tongue hit the back of his throat. Her face soon softened again, but Corey continued to hold his breath, more nervous than ever.

"Please, don't ever use that much magic at once again until you can better control it!" Twilight scolded, though she was clearly more worried than angry with him. "If I hadn't..."

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I made you worry..." The green unicorn fidgeted, becoming tormented with his emotions again. They usually flew out of control whenever he was stressed, and right now, his stress was at its peak. "I know..." His voice was coming out at a lot higher pitch than he was intending, almost like a whimper. He didn't know what else to do-this entire situation was completely alien to him.

"Corey..." Twilight said, apparently at a loss for his behavior once again. "It's alright..."

"If you want, we could tell them the truth another time..." Ivan cut in. Corey shook his head.

"No. I said it before. They need to know everything now..." He gazed past Twilight, over to the Princesses.

"I only told them what just happened. After what you said about Zer, though, they decided to stay to make sure things didn't get out of control." Twilight cut in. "'Not in the flesh'...what does that mean?"

With a heavy sigh, disheartened at what he would have to do, Corey stepped forward.

"You'll find out, Twilight, but the truth is going to be even harder to believe than the first truth..." The green unicorn responded, trying to keep his voice and demeanor calm. His mind was racing, and he could already feel his heart pounding as he stepped forward, not even sure where to go. "I talk to the Princesses, right...?"

"Yes," The purple mare answered, seemingly surprised that he would ask such a question.

"Just had to make sure before I made a mistake..." Corey responded, his hooves feeling made of lead the more he stepped forward. Even with Ivan backing him up on this one, it was all Corey could do to take deep breaths and count the tiles.

Once they find out about who Zer is....what will happen to me...and the others...?

As soon as he saw hooves of white and dark blue, he looked up. He took a deep breath.

"W-we're...ready..." the former human stuttered, his nerves at complete overload.

Rainbow Dash knew one thing, that last battle was strange. First, Corey and Ivan both look like they were ready to jump out of their fur at any given moment. Then, when the green unicorn and Twilight both got chucked, everypony sprang into action in their own ways. Yet, all of them couldn't stop him. The cyan mare gave a quiet snarl as she thought about what Zer had done.

Next time I meet that pony, I swear I'm gonna--!

"My little ponies," Princess Celestia broke in, cutting off the pegasus's internal thoughts on the matter. Her voice was stern, but given the matter at hand, it wasn't so surprising. "There is something important that Corey and Ivan have to tell you..."

Only now did Rainbow fully notice that Corey looked completely nervous. In fact, he looked green...well, even greener than normal. He looked like he was going to be physically ill, but what was it about Zer that made him and Ivan act the way they did?

All of a sudden, the mare's doubts about the four newcomers began to surface again. But why? They'd just proven they weren't against them, so why...?

"Alright..." The green colt spoke up, at first, barely above a whisper, but he seemed to find only a small amount of confidence in himself, enough so that he could speak up. He seemed to be staring out into space behind the group, but before Rainbow could ask why he was spacing out, Corey continued to speak. "Something's got to be said right now. If any of what just happened is to make any level of sense, it's time for some truth."

Rainbow Dash felt like she'd just been kicked square in the solar plexus. What was this pony hiding and why did he look so...guilty?

"Truth?" Applejack asked. "Is this about that 'fifth' Twi was just talkin' about when she reported to the Princesses?"

Corey hesitated to speak, and Pinkie piped in with her own two cents.

"Are there four others out there as bad as that guy?" Now Rainbow noticed that both Corey and Ivan looked nervous about that statement. Corey ran a hoof over his face, appearing to fight to maintain what little composure he had.

"Girls, please let him explain!" Twilight seemed eager to hear this too. The room fell quiet, and Twilight gave Corey a nod. The pony in question breathed out, and started to speak, though some of his vigor was gone.

"What I have to say isn't easy for me to say right now given the situation, but..." The green unicorn stopped looking towards the back of the room and took a deep breath. "We may look the part, Leo, John, Ivan, and me, we may look the part, but we're not from here. We're not even from this universe. Normally, we'd be...humans..."

Again, Rainbow felt the wind was knocked out of her. She didn't quite hear what her friends had to say, though Applejack turned to John, who could barely even nod given his condition. Pinkie seemed to be looking at Ivan, while Rainbow mentally recalled something she had almost forgotten.

So...when they first got here...! She wasn't sure whether to express the anger she felt at being lied to all this time or to remain silent. It was such an unbelievable story that Dash didn't even want to believe it. Yet, the behaviors of Leo and Corey in particular on the first day now really stuck out in her memory. Corey didn't use magic...because he couldn't...? And Leo couldn't fly because...he really couldn't...?!

"D-did you see that coming?" Pinkie seemed to be copying Corey's tactic of staring off into space with that remark. She'd done this before, but Rainbow had no idea why she did. Speaking of the chubby pony--no, former human, he looked at Pinkie like she'd just sprouted a pair of wings for a few seconds. He shook his head to clear whatever clouds had passed into his vision.

"So then...how did you get here?" Rarity asked. Ivan took over while Corey took some time to recover. Rainbow just now noticed he still looked guilty, like a foal that had gotten caught with his hoof in the cookie jar, only even sadder.

"Why don't you ask..." Ivan responded, hesitating for a second. "Leo, over there? He's the one that sent us the code, after all."

Leo snapped to attention, apparently in a trance-like state up until this point. Rainbow didn't get why, her mind too preoccupied with the truth of the four newcomers. Of course, the fact that Leo was the reason why they'd come here was just another object on the fire.

"I got my codes mixed up..." said Leo. "Got us all sent here..."

"'Codes'?" Applejack asked. Everypony except for Twilight and the Princesses seemed confused by this. Rainbow was honestly confused as to why they weren't. Did they already know? And if so, why didn't Twilight tell her? It would have saved her just a little bit of wondering about Leo in the long run-would have explained some of his and his friends' strange behaviors!

"I-I'd better explain, Ivan," Corey was once again barely audible, but he seemed to be struggling to find the words he needed. The cyan mare felt like she wanted to say something, but she couldn't, transfixed by the flood of truth. "You see...in the human world, we have devices known as computers."

Rainbow Dash's first instinct was to tune out the human's technobabble on the subject. Though she'd never seen a "computer" in her lifetime, the fact Corey was able to at least sound the way he did when talking about them definitely did make him comparable to Twilight. All she really got out of most of what he said was that he'd never seen his fellow humans until this happened; due to the invention of a computer, it was possible to communicate with one another.

"So, that's how the four of us are here..." Corey finished.

"It does go a way toward explainin' some things," said Applejack, "but then, what about Zer?"

"Is he human as well?" Rarity asked.

"No..." The green unicorn's guilt suddenly returned full force. "No, he's not...if you thought us being humans was hard to believe...this will make that seem completely believable by comparison. I can't even believe how he escaped my head..."

What...? Rainbow was almost sure she didn't hear him correctly, but given the looks of everyone save for Ivan, it was a surprise indeed.

"I...I do a lot of writing back home. It's one of my favorite hobbies..." The former human was once again staring at the wall, trying to focus on some spot. He was clearly talking to all of them, given the volume of his voice. "Zer...shouldn't even be here. He's...he's...he's a character I made up for one of my stories. I wrote it two years ago."

The entire room fell silent, save for the gasps.

"That's why we went into shock," Ivan continued, Corey suddenly appearing to find the floor very interesting. "Neither of us could believe that he was actually here. As for how I know about Zer...I read the story in question."

"So that's...that's how you knew him?!" Twilight screamed in shock. To say Corey flinched was an understatement. He was flat on his rump from how she'd said it. Rainbow's mind suddenly raced. No one was contradicting him, and Applejack didn't seem to be calling him out on either of their behaviors either. Which meant...he was being truthful about it.

Noel could not believe what he'd just heard. He knew of Corey's writing, and was vaguely aware of some of his projects from two years ago considering they also had some influence on other projects. But Zer was from one of them? The former human could see why his friend would go into shock like that. The silver pegasus surveyed the room. The Princesses appeared to be quietly taking what just happened into consideration, and John seemed equally confused (not that Leo could see most of his face from the angle he was at). The mares all had varying looks of surprise etched onto their faces, but none of them seemed to doubt what Corey was saying.

"That's correct..." Corey said. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry for everything. From the very beginning, I wasn't sure if we could be believed. But after what just happened, everything needed to come out."

The pegasus colt felt his ear twitch. Just a moment later, he could see Rainbow with clear anger in her features. Far before anyone could notice or stop her from doing so, she made a beeline for where Corey was, hovering in his face.

"So, you brought that thing here?!" If it were possible to experience a sort of vicarious deja vu, the former human was definitely having a moment like that now. Leo remembered how Rainbow Dash had acted upon seeing Twilight's knowledge of Nightmare Moon, how she'd accused her of being a spy. It was the exact same thing, only the character was male and had far less of a backbone to show. Corey flinched, his ears folding completely down in a manner similar to Ivan. The earth pony in question, meanwhile, looked over to Rainbow Dash, annoyance clear in his features.

"I-I--" It was hard to watch him flounder about in the face of the angered cyan mare. No one seemed to know what to do about her anger, though.

"You endangered my friends!" She shifted the blame onto him, and Corey visibly shrunk, almost like a turtle retracting into its shell.

"Rainbow, wha--" Twilight was confused. Dash turned her fury onto Twilight for a split second, before shaking her head slightly. But the mare was far from done. Now, she turned to Leo next, but the look was just as harsh as the one she'd given Corey. She was in his face.

"And you...you're the reason that it's here in the first place!" Now the blame was also on him for it. Noel couldn't say anything, paralyzed as though he were suffering a near-death experience. "You gave it the way here! I..." She appeared to be conflicted with her inner emotions for a moment. "I trusted you!!"

"Rainbow, that's enough!" Twilight said sternly. The cyan mare's red-violet eyes trembled for just a few seconds, before she huffed and flew out the window.

To say that Corey felt like utter shit was a huge understatement. He felt like he had eaten some poison fruit and needed to throw it up, but his body wouldn't allow him to do so. He was utterly at war with trying to keep his emotions under wraps, at least until the others' questions were over, and losing. Rainbow Dash pretty much putting the blame on him for the whole mess didn't make things any easier, even when he considered it shouldn't have been surprising. When she'd yelled at Leo, it took all the words right out of the former human's mouth, leaving him utterly speechless.

The room fell completely silent. Not even the Princesses knew what to say, and the former human feared the worst from them. He feared all those fanfics of Princess Celestia being some tyrant were completely true, even though said fear was irrational to have, and he knew it was an irrational fear.

But nothing could have prepared Corey for the storm to come. After staring at the receding trail Dash left behind for what seemed like forever, Noel turned to the unicorn, his red eyes betraying fury. His wings shot open, and he rushed him.

"This is all your fault!!" he screamed, rushing straight at him.

"W-wha..." Corey was at a loss. He shrunk further, falling down on his stomach, utterly consumed with his emotions. Now Leo was blaming him too?!

"It's not his fault this happened, Noel, and you know it," Ivan said, stepping in front of him. "Back off."

Corey couldn't see anything. He could feel the water already starting to leak from his eyes from the stress the event was causing him, as well as the guilt of the whole event weighing down on him. In the face of this event, he was starting to emotionally regress, and he couldn't stop himself. He heard the sound of somepony flying off, but Corey didn't care who anymore.

Damn it...damn it...damn it...everything's falling apart...!

No...no...no!

I won't have it!!!

Twilight's mind was whirling faster than it had when the humans had first actually announced they were humans. So not only were the four former humans from another world, Corey's hobby had spiraled wildly out of control and spawned the fifth visitor. It was out of left field, even given all that had happened since the former humans' arrival. Yet, it did go a long way in explaining things, and why Leo and John didn't have the same reaction to Zer as Ivan and Corey did.

The earth pony cast a disgusted look after the pegasus.

"He's the one who lost his temper and mixed up his codes that badly..." It was a rare sight, Ivan showing any sign of emotion aside from the occasional happy-go-lucky surges he'd display, usually when he was about to let loose a joke or some other things. But he was clearly disgusted. "How was he to know--"

"I won't have it..." The voice sounded like a mumble more than anything. Corey, who had been almost in the fetal position, got back to his feet, and Twilight was disturbed by the expression on his face. His eyes were bloodshot, though one could see the tears still freely leaking from them. "I can't let him run loose!"

"Corey, what are you--" Ivan started, but Corey wasn't hearing, already running past him.

"Zer is my responsibility! I can't...I can't let him roam!"

There was a collective gasp as the others realized what he was about to do. Twilight's eyes closed, rapidly extending her telekinetic hold to him. Her horn glowed its usual magenta color, and within moments, the escaping former human's movement was halted completely. She opened her eyes to see him still moving relentlessly against her hold. She didn't know what to do right away. Right now, he was acting like the sort of foal that was likely drowning himself unnecessarily in guilt. Or had been drowned unnecessarily in guilt. Either way, the mare could only stare at the former human as he continued to struggle.

"Corey...don't be stupid..." John weakly groaned, trying to force himself up to a sitting position.

"Let me go...!" He was trying to keep his emotions veiled, but much like when he'd tried masking his fear right before Zer showed up, it was failing miserably. In the past six days, if Corey was trying to hide his emotions, he'd never gotten it completely down. It was that trait that tipped her off to the greater problem in the first place. "I can't just let it be like this...!"

Twilight felt something boil within her. She didn't know if it was frustration or care, but she felt she had to say something.

"Corey, please, listen--"

"T-Twilight," Whatever fragile shield he'd had up around his already disturbed emotional state began to shudder along with his speech pattern as he turned to her, still enveloped in her levitation spell. Twilight was starting to feel the strain. "It is my fault." Twilight looked up. "I created that thing!"

The purple unicorn sighed to herself. So he really was bathing in his own guilt ever since Zer announced his name. She began to levitate him down, but just as he was about to turn away from her and take off again, she reached out and pulled him in close. He shivered so violently that Twilight felt shivers rake through her own body just from contact, but she continued to hug him.

"Only Leo and Rainbow are really blaming you for it..." She blinked, realizing she may have spoken too soon. She turned to the princesses, wondering what they had to say about all these recent revelations. All eyes immediately turned to the princesses.

"Twilight is right," the sun princess said sternly. She felt the former human tremble at this, "But I can say this; Zer's release is a catastrophe not even you could have saw coming when you'd created him all those years ago. Leo, or...Noel..."

"He prefers Leo," Corey almost robotically said, almost out of left field. Were it not for the fact that his voice still subtly wavered as though he were about to break down, Twilight would have released him then and there in confusion.

"Leo could not have possibly seen this coming either," Princess Celestia continued. However, it was her sister who took over.

"As my sister said, none of you humans could have possibly seen this coming, any of this, let alone..." Princess Luna paused, as though trying to find the right words. "a character you created for your own story run amok in a different world with you, let alone an evil one."

"You can rest assured," The white alicorn's mouth curled up just enough that whoever looked upon it would know it was a smile. "That neither of us harbor ill-will toward you, or your friends, for this accident."

Corey shook violently again, and was either trying to argue why he should have been punished, or offer his thanks for the condolences. Whatever he was saying was too garbled and quiet for Twilight to make out, even given the fact he was pretty much at the nape of her neck when he was. She could feel he had taken comfort somewhat in the statements.

"Can't say I believe this is happenin'," This was Applejack, finally able to speak. "You were all strange when you first came in...but if you'd really meant us harm, you'd have already done so by now!" She threw a not-too-subtle glance to John.

"That is correct," Rarity said, having finally at least restored her mane and tail back to their normal curls. "Were it not for the way you'd acted these past days, as well as in that skirmish just now, I would have reacted almost the same way as Rainbow did following that reveleation of yours."

"Sometimes, things just get out of your control!" Pinkie squealed. "There's nothin' wrong with that! Not everything that gets out of control is hopeless, though! We know that better than most ponies in Equestria!"

"I-I'm...sure of it," Fluttershy stuttered. "If you'd meant us any harm, you wouldn't have gone through the trouble of actually fighting off that alicorn with us. And...and I'm p-positive Rainbow will eventually see it the same way w-we do..."

"See, Corey?" Twilight finally said. "We're not blaming you for what happened. Can I say I wish Zer had never been created? Yes. But what you write is part of who you are, and how could you have known any of this would have happened?"

Corey couldn't say anything in response straight away. He was shaking, and since he was resting his head on the nape of her neck, Twilight could just feel his jaw starting to quiver.

"I-I...I never imagined..." he choked out. Twilight could feel something warm soaking her where his head was resting, and given how he was trembling, it wouldn't be too long before he was overcome by emotion.

"What did you say to me after the break-in?" she asked. "You wanted 'to be able to help me if I needed it'..."

Corey didn't say anything, but his head tilted.

"Corey, I can tell you this now," Twilight continued. "Now that everything's sorted out, we're all going to stand by you, human, pony..." She looked at Spike, who seemed almost insulted, and corrected herself, "or dragon!" She dropped into a whisper. "And I'm going to help you if you need it, just like you said you would for me..."

Corey's entire body quivered. He couldn't hold himself back upon hearing that. He was trying his hardest to not sob, but when his tears started to pour, he started making weird grunting noises, as though he didn't like the idea of just breaking down on the spot in front of everypony. Yet he couldn't help himself, and Twilight felt her fur start to get soaked with his tears. She looked past him, to see some of the others looking toward the scene, while John seemed to be trying to look away awkwardly, and Spike, unsurprisingly, once more pulling a face on the matter.

"I guess that's settled..." John mumbled, still pointedly not looking toward Corey and Twilight. Either he was starting to get sick of seeing them like this, or it was the fact that his friend was trying his hardest to not cry and failing, producing sounds similiar to that of an animal. Not that Applejack could really blame either of the former humans for their reactions, of course. She'd never written anything, but if she'd created a character, then got transported to another world and--who was she kidding, the bottom line of it all was, she'd probably be plenty sorry too.

Not to the same extent that the green colt was, but it would still be humbling. Now that her mind was off everything, the orange mare tried to retrace what had happened during the fight itself. Zer was apparently very powerful, evidenced by the fact he'd learned all those spells in four days. They seemed basic enough, but used in combination like that...it was a wonder all of them managed to make it out mostly unharmed. Applejack didn't know why, but she'd had a nagging suspisicion that there was a lot more to Zer than just being a character, now that he was in the flesh and all.

"Ivan?" Applejack asked. The brown earth pony looked up.

"Yeah?" he asked, any evidence that he'd been angry over Leo's outburst gone.

"I'm no reader, that's Twilight's thing, but I know enough about stories to know that there's more to this than that." The farmer pony continued. "Since Corey's still...letting it all out over there..." She motioned to the still quaking colt, who by now had finally returned Twilight's hug after what seemed like a huge mental lag on his part. "and you've read that story, I've gotta know something..."

"Zer isn't even human like us," Ivan said, referring to his friends, "He's formless. The best way I can describe it is an energy being made of pure negative energy. Corey wrote him to be a buildup of all the negative energy of defeated villains."

Applejack blinked. That certainly sounded somewhat...convoluted, to say the least. But it did go somewhat of a way in explaining what he'd said during the fight.

"Well, see, Ivan," Applejack continued, "while ya'll were tryin' to snap Corey out of his shock, Zer said somethin'...interesting..."

Applejack could only feel her anger with Zer growing following the attack on Corey and Twilight. Ivan, Spike, and Fluttershy went immediately to assist them; Leo soon following. It was like he was some kind of monster, walling even a teenaged dragon's attacks with little trouble. And if it wasn't bad enough, when he was in the air, the alicorn was practically untouchable save for the very rare hit Rainbow managed to get in. From the start, the orange mare wanted to capture him, and thus began preparing another lasso.

"I wish my wings were full-grown!" John snarled, letting out torrents of smoke from his mouth out of his anger at not being able to fly up there himself. Applejack had almost forgotten the fact he'd had budding wings, but sure enough, his wings were just as stubby now as they were when he'd first arrived.

While Zer continued to be airborne, defending himself using magical bursts, he began to address the gathered ponies and dragons.

"You should be honored," the evil pony sneered, dodging yet another one of Rainbow Dash's charges via teleportation. "As soon as I get the stones, this world, and all others, shall finally be cleansed!"

"What are you talking about?!" Rainbow shouted in response, though Zer never answered with anything more than an ire-raising chuckle. The cyan mare charged once again, and the white alicorn of evil responded with a shockwave-causing spell, sending the tomboyish pony flying back once again.

This in turn, brought Leo back to the site of battle, and the fight continued exactly as the others remembered it.

"He said somethin' about 'stones', and 'cleansing', but I ain't got a clue as to what he was yammering on about," Applejack continued. "But now that I know what he was, what he said might make more sense."

Ivan blinked, his eyes widening. Were those "created" too...?

"If he's referring to what I think he's going to, we might have some hope, but if he knows they're here...!" The former human grunted, showing genuine emotion.

"Ivan, I've never seen you this excited!" Pinkie popped in, causing Ivan to jump only a little when she'd literally almost materialized right next to his side. "What about?"

"You'll see soon enough..." responded the brown earth pony, turning back to the unicorns, the male of whom had finally seemed to be pulling himself together. "Corey!"

"W-what...?" His tone indicated some embarrassment at having completely lost control of his emotions.

"Applejack just said Zer mentioned 'stones'!"

Corey blinked several times, turning completely around. It took him a few seconds to realize what the once-imaginary villain was referring to. As soon as he did, hope returned to his eyes...and then it soon left.

"And just like that...this whole mess got even more complicated..." Corey observed, drawing a forehoof over his face in an excessively tired manner.