Collision Code

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 10: The Stones...?

"You somehow released an evil character you created..." Twilight started, clearly confused. "How could this get any more complicated?"

Corey looked to Twilight, still somewhat ashamed he'd allowed himself to break down like that in front of her and everyone else. He supposed he could come clean about the "stones" as well, given they too were his creation, coming from the same story as Zer himself.

"Well, you see..." the former human began. "There's a little more to the story with Zer than what...what was previously stated. You see, earlier drafts of the same story weren't original enough by my standards. They'd borrowed a concept that I didn't make, so I opted to make my own concept in the final draft."

The room seemed to become more silent again, and once again the former human found himself having difficulty breathing.

"So, what Zer meant by 'stones'..." The purple unicorn said in response. "He was referring to something else you made from the same story he's from?"

"He's referring to a concept I made called the 'Dimensional Stones'." Corey continued. "There are five total, four of which represent an element: Earth, Water, Fire or Wind. In essence, their backstory is that each of the stones control time and space."

The others collectively winced, but they soon returned to normal.

"Is that to say he believes those things are here in Equestria?" Rarity asked.

"Exactly, but I don't know if they also came out or if it's because it's part of his character." The former human responded.

"A-and the fifth, stone...?" Fluttershy cut in, bringing Corey's attention back to the problem at hand.

"Right..." he responded. "The fifth one could be considered dangerous. Due to its non-elemental nature, I just called it the 'white stone'. However...its power makes it the most powerful of the stones...It's able to travel between dimensions, as well as summon things from other universes to you."

There was another collective wince, and once again, the former human felt guilty.

"So..." Twilight started, "So he was referring to those." She noticed the way he acted again, and immediately moved forward again. "Corey, we don't even know if those are even here, and if they are...we just have to find them..."

Corey sighed. He supposed it was payback for him trying to keep her spirits up when she was stressing out over the sun princess's visit on the second day. Now that he was the one stressing out--

He pushed a forehoof into his face again.

C'mon, keep it together. I'm sure this announcement hasn't changed anything...

"That's right, but...after Zer's gotten out, anything's possible." The former human summarized his thoughts on the manner. "I still don't understand how it happened to begin with."

"Perhaps..." Twilight appeared to go deep into thought, and began mumbling to herself about different theories as they popped up. Finally, she seemed to settle on the one that seemed the most logical. "Perhaps the wormhole created by that code had such energy that when you changed bodies, it allowed your imagination to literally run wild. Somehow, a villain you'd created was given a physical form and was launched in with you."

"That..." Corey started. "...that sounds..."

"It's only a theory," Twilght's face fell slightly.

"No, I mean, it sounds like it makes sense. I mean, this whole thing's far-fetched to begin with, never mind this whole bit with Zer. Like I said, anything's possible." The green unicorn responded again. Now the purple unicorn's face bunched up in a way that Corey found adorable again, yet he had a good feeling where she was going with that.

"You're going to be up all night, aren't you?" The human-turned-pony asked of his...girlfriend, marefriend, whichever she preferred.

"...Maybe..." Twilight responded. "If anything about this is going to make sense..."

Corey sighed. "Well, I guess I'd better stay up with you too..."

The sun princess couldn't quite withhold a giggle, and as soon as Corey heard it, whatever tension he'd had about the whole situation eased; for the most part. At the very least, he didn't feel like he was about to be royally judged on the grounds of unintentionally bringing dangerous things into the dimension.

"You two really have gotten close over the past few days," she remarked.

"Sister," Luna's voice suggested concern, "shouldn't we be worrying about whether or not the human's brain has spawned those magical objects, too?"

"I'm sure that something will turn up, but you are right, sister." Celestia said. "We should start watching out for those. But first, I believe that our unexpected audience must return home."

Though he couldn't lie about the fact that he was relieved he wasn't about to be prosecuted on the grounds of bringing something dangerous into Equestria (possibly twice over), Corey felt the need to question it anyway.

"Are--" The question was already out, so he reluctantly finished it. "Are you sure we can be so calm about all this?"

Princess Celestia fixed him with a stern look, and Corey instinctively tensed up and held his breath. His lungs began to burn already, and he was trying his hardest to not pass out.

Nice going, jackass!

As soon as the stern look broke, the white alicorn's mouth began to move again: "Don't worry about it so much... You're starting to sound like my student..."

Corey blew out an exhale so fast he became lightheaded.

Trolled again...

The others, save for Twilight, laughed openly at this. The laughter did quite a bit for Corey's tension, though. It confirmed that, perhaps it was at least somewhat of a good idea to take it easy. He'd already had it confirmed that he had no reason to feel guilty, nor did he need to beat himself up over it any further.

"Oh, ow, ow...ow..." John groaned, stopping his laughter. "I still hurt all over..."

"I should be able to fix that..." said the white alicorn, shifting back into her fully benevolent mode, not showing any signs of being the same pony that had essentially teased him twice. It was refreshing, sure, to see she could still be somewhat patient even at a time like this, but it really made him wonder what her limits were. Her horn lit up a golden color, and soon, John's more or less inert body was lifted in the same glow. "This won't take too long..."

Immediately after she made this observation, the body of the dragon began to sparkle slightly. Corey bit back the urge to reference a certain book series pertaining to vampires, since, knowing his tendency to stick his hoof in his mouth, he'd only upset Twilight if he did so. The black and blue dragon's bandages almost seemed to melt away, along with that nasty bruise that he'd incurred earlier on. A few moments later, the dragon was back on his two feet, wobbling a little as he was released from the grip of the alicorn.

John seemed to feel great about it, proceeding to crack a few joints that made any of his bone cracks sound tame by comparison. The others collectively winced, and even Applejack rubbed at her neck out of sympathy.

"Please, John, refrain from doing that again," Rarity scolded.

"W-what about R-rainbow...? And Leo?" Fluttershy asked, bringing the group's attention to an unaddressed problem.

"I...wouldn't worry about them too much," said Applejack. "Sure, Rainbow sometimes gets really judgmental an' all, but she'll come around."

The former humans all didn't look convinced. Twilight and Fluttershy also seemed worried.

"But Leo's not gonna be so easy to find!" Pinkie finally spoke up again. It had seemed so odd to have her mostly quiet for so long, but hearing her pipe in was almost a relief, even if she had a chronic case of sugar rush. "I mean, he fought a manticore and lost! He could be doing anything right now!"

The room fell silent, and Corey felt his heart sink a little.

Even if Dash isn't that reckless... the green unicorn thought. Damn it, Noel, don't kill yourself over this!

Rainbow Dash didn't know what to do. Finding out Leo and company were humans was a shock, but that alone didn't shake her up as much as it should have. The bigger shock, and what had her so shaken, was the fact that Corey had created the very monster that had put everyone in danger, and the fact Leo gave it the path to send here.

She knew she was tougher than this, but it didn't matter. The barrier that she'd worked so hard to put around her more tender emotions had fractured under the pressure of the moment. The mare had trusted them, especially Leo, and look what had happened!

She should have guessed...she should have guessed...

Tears stung her eyes as she finally made it home. She threw the door open, not caring if the cloud in question was knocked clear off its hinges or not, and made her way to the bedroom. She needed a place to vent her emotions, and fast. But looking at her bed only served to remind her of how much she'd trusted him.

I let him sleep here! The anger stung, but all it did was fuel her mirth more. Rainbow collapsed onto her stomach. What did it matter if the others managed to track her down or not? Her barriers finally gave way, and she uttered a choked sob in a feeble attempt to hold some part of her composure intact. She didn't know or care about the effects of pegasus tears and clouds, so she let the response to the events come.

"Why...?" She asked herself over and over again. Nothing about this was adding up at all. But before she could chase those thoughts and try to make sense of the situation, there was an all-too familiar male voice breaking into her thoughts.

"D-Dash...?" This was, as luck would have it, Leo. He sounded disturbed, almost as if he'd been through some emotional trauma.

Not that Rainbow could pick up on whether or not it was genuine. Not even caring if she was still leaking, she immediately leapt onto her feet, and followed her basest instinct in the situation.

"What do you want?!" Her voice wavered, but her anger was just as clear as it had been back in the royal castle. "Haven't you already done enough?!"

Leo flinched, but didn't back off.

"Dash, please, listen..." His voice sounded calm.

"Do you think you can fool me again?" It was driving her insane, just listening to him. "You can't! You already did once!" She stepped forward, ready to throw him out like a bad piece of trash, but something in her was preventing her from doing it. It was just like when Twilight had first showed up, only the situation was worse; namely, Nightmare Moon was about eternal night; this "Zer" seemed to be out for destruction.

"D-Dash..." Rainbow glared up at him, preparing to lay into him for trying to appeal to false pity, when she saw something in his red eyes she didn't notice the first time she'd looked at him. They weren't gleaming like normal. In fact, they were bloodshot, almost as if he'd been...

"Leo...?" She asked, not quite believing it herself. The loyalty she'd had to her pony friends was still driving her judgment, but slowly, logic was beginning to break through that barrier. "W-were you...?"

The silver colt looked away, seeming to try and gather himself. Rainbow took a few steps forward, clearly not believing it. Yet, when the shoulders of the pony before her began to quake along with the rest of his body, the cyan mare knew she'd messed up, big time.

In that terrible moment, Noel had sincerely believed he'd lost everything that made Equestria preferable to Earth. After almost attacking the terrified-looking Corey, he'd flown about, trying desperately to lose the steam that had built up inside of him. He'd only found the path that the two, along with Ivan, had landed on. They'd realized they were ponies in Equestria. He unconsciously found himself retracing the steps the trio had taken to get to Ponyville. By chance, he'd flown by the library on his roundabout path, and remembered when he'd "saved" John from falling.

All of the memories of those events, however, did little to massage his true concern. It was the cyan mare who seemed ready to take him down for real. Not like the spar they'd had earlier; no, she was aiming to finish him off now, either emotionally or physically. More than likely, what would come next would be an accusation of crying crocodile tears and a forceful eviction.

Leo could not handle that. He knew he would not have been able to. His wings flapped, and he started making a break for it. Perhaps he'd hunt down that manticore again, and get himself stung. Without the others around, he would not survive it. But that was what he was going for in the first place.

He had just reached the very edge of the cloud platform that was the main part of Rainbow Dash's cloud castle home, and was just about to leap off and go do something extremely harmful to himself, when a strong set of teeth clamped down around his tail.

"Leo, stop!" This was Dash, holding him back. She dug her hooves firmly into the cloud.

"What?" Leo's reply came out with a lot more force than he'd expected. "Everyone hates me now, there's no need for me to stick around! I'm sure Corey's going to find his own way home!" Even as he said this, he'd had his doubts, given how utterly emotionally frail the fat former human seemed to be under pressure.

"I--" The look in the pegasus mare's eyes faltered, as though hesitant to say it. Noel found himself compelled to stay and listen. "I--I messed up."

Leo blinked, unsure if he heard her correctly.

"What?" the silver pegasus asked, continuing to unintentionally lubricate his eyeballs as he gaped.

"You heard me..." Rainbow lifted off, clearly unamused at the fact she'd had to admit she was wrong about the recent revelation. "I had no idea...I should have thought more about what was going on...ever since I first met you guys, I knew something was off, but I didn't think it'd be like this..."

"How could you have expected something like this to turn up?" Leo asked. "That was the exact same question we were asking ourselves when we first arrived."

"I know...it makes sense," Dash said. "But why didn't you say anything sooner about the human thing? Or Zer? It would have saved us some worrying!"

"We didn't know who it was until now, the 'fifth guy'," Leo continued, starting to relax only a little bit. "And...well, I...I wanted to, but Corey told us to keep quiet. Twilight and the Princesses knew, but I guess they didn't want panic."

"You listened to him?" Clearly, Rainbow didn't exactly trust Corey after that last revelation, or at least, that was the vibe the silver colt got from her.

"Hey, he's not--he didn't know this would happen..." Leo said. "You should have saw how sorry he looked before you flew into anger..."

Rainbow blinked, as though trying to recall various details about the way the green unicorn handled breaking the news to them. A light passed over her red-violet eyes, and the shape of her frown changed.

"Oh..." she said. Now she definitely looked sorry. An entirely different Rainbow Dash than the one that had launched those hurtful accusations at himself and Corey showed. "I-I didn't know...I'm sorry. I...I didn't mean it that way. It's just...my friends were in danger...and I...I...I..." She went back to the stuttering, almost awkward mare. Leo waited patiently.

"I hate stuttering!" She dashed forward, connecting her lips to his before he could react. A foreleg grabbed him, followed by another, pulling the two pegasi into a bipedal hovering position. It was here, the former human's mind screamed a very simple truth to him.

Kiss her back, stupid!

He followed her lead, recovering from the sudden shock of her apparently realizing that it wasn't exactly the former humans' fault that Zer got loose and wrecked stuff. It lasted twenty seconds, but it sure felt a lot longer. When they finally broke apart, Rainbow cracked a smirk, still holding him closer than he thought she would.

"How's that for an apology?" she asked. Leo smiled.

"Makes it hard to turn down," he responded. "I'm sorry, too, for what it's worth."

"Ah, don't worry about it..." Dash said, finally releasing her hold on him. "What can I say? I jumped to conclusions again...here, let's go inside."

"I hope the others aren't worried about us..." Leo responded, looking back towards the ground.

"Well, I don't know," The cyan mare said. "You were the one that tried fighting a manticore and lost..."

As if he needed to be reminded about the scar under the afflicted eye. The silver colt snorted, blushing as he followed the mare into her home. One thing was clear: She really did represent the Element of Loyalty very well.

"And, Leo?"

"Yeah, Dash?"

"...We're still not sleeping in the same bed!"

One thing lead to another. The others had managed to return to Ponyville via a much more controlled mass-teleportation spell, and each of them went their own seperate ways. Ivan and Pinkie left for the Sugarcube Corner. Spike, Twilight, and Corey returned to the library, but it seemed the mare had no intention of sleeping that night. Knowing her, everyone pretty much figured she'd be trying to investigate why things happened the way they did. Fluttershy and Rarity went back to their respective homes.

"Guess studyin' all night ain't your thing, huh?"

And John resolved to walk Applejack home.

"Yeah," the former human turned dragon observed. "Plus, him spending alone time with Twilight now would probably only do him good."

"What makes you say that?" Applejack asked.

"I haven't really known him personally enough to know for sure," John responded, "But a female touch is probably the best way there is to calm the nerves..." Given what the orange earth pony had been able to do for him when he was raging, it certainly made sense. The farmer could only nod in response, before her face pinched in concern.

"Aren't ya'll worried about Leo, too?" she questioned, turning to face him directly as they continued on the path.

"Everyone has their own ways of dealing with stress," responded the former human turned dragon calmly, keeping pace as he turned to the moon. "I may not know what he does to cope with it, but I just hope he doesn't do anything reckless." The memory of the manticore incident came rushing back to him, but John did not break his stride in the least.

"Well, then how do you deal with it?" the orange farmer mare said.

"Me? Heh," John responded, cracking a smile as he briefly turned to her, "I'm not stressed, really."

The pony's trot slowed in pace ever so slightly, "But...how can you not be stressed out, even a little, over what just happened to you?"

The memory of being struck by lightning filled his mind's eye now. He stood in front of the recently recovered Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and had taken a direct attack. By all accounts, he should have been--

"Yeah, that hurt...a lot," John responded in a serious tone. He smiled again and looked back to Applejack, whose pace seemed to have slowed a little more. "But now I can say I survived being struck by lightning!"

The reaction he got was not at all what he was looking for. Applejack's hoofsteps came to a dead halt. John walked about five steps more before realizing this fact, and turned to her. Her head was lowered, hiding her eyes.

"How can you even joke about that?!" She stomped her forehoof on the ground, looking up to him now with clear anger in her eyes. "If Corey and Twi hadn't--you could...you could have--" She quickly appeared to lose steam, her head lowering back to the ground. Though it was hard to tell, her body quaked, and a moment later, a silvery shine made its way to the dirt below. It was obvious to John she was crying now, and he frowned.

He immediately felt horrible about being the cause for her emotional disturbance, and immediately went to correct it. He closed the distance between them, kneeling so he could be on her eye level.

"Applejack, I'm sorry," It was barely a whisper. "Nearly getting killed is no laughing matter, but it's my way of showing I'm just fine." Humor had always assisted his own stress relief in the past. And so far, it seemed to be working. The orange mare didn't look at him, but it was obvious she was less upset.

"But how--how can you treat it like nothin', sugarcube?" Applejack asked. John reached out, slowly, with one clawed hand, and cupped her chin in his hands. The fur was soft. For a moment, he'd considered scratching her back, but decided against it. He lifted her head up as gently as he could until she was looking directly into his eyes.

"Because I got to protect you..." He flashed a much more tame smile compared to the one he'd shown just a few moments ago trying to make light of his near-death experience to drive his point home. Applejack's eyes widened, and they seemed to glisten with fresh emotion. She blinked, and smiled to him.

"Yeah, well, don't count on me needin' it all the time," she said. John dropped his hand so that she could move her head freely. "I can take care of myself."

"I wouldn't imagine you'd always be in need..." John said, finally standing up. The two continued onward without many more words between them until they got to Applejack's home.

"So, what are you going to do now?" asked the mare to the dragon.

"I'll probably get back to the library later. I guess I'll take a walk for a bit first," John responded.

"See ya tomorrow then," Applejack said, quietly shutting the door behind her. The dragon sighed his own "see ya" in response.

He turned around, and began walking. He wasn't taking a random path; the former human knew exactly where he was going. It was the same path that he, Rarity, and Spike had taken to the area where John had recovered the gigantic diamond. After getting there, there was something off about the former human turned dragon's tone.

"Alright, this place should be good enough..." John said. His breathing, which had been slow and even during his walk with Applejack, began to quicken, and he visibly started to sweat. Though he'd been able to play off the fact he'd almost died so well, he was unable to hide it any longer.

His body may have been extra-durable and draconic, but inside, his heart and mind were still human. The dragon went down on all fours, his heart racing as he hyperventilated. He tried to calm the storm inside. No smoke came out of his mouth yet, for he did not feel rage, only pure stress from the near-death experience. Eventually, his breathing evened out enough so he could stand.

"I need to let this out...now..."

The dragon proceeded to go to town on nearby rocks, just as he had after Rainbow Dash and Leo had pissed him off following that funny little "prank" that involved dropping pebbles on his head. It was the day he'd almost died, but he secretly vowed to never be that close to death again. He had classes to finish up once he got back home, after all.

The walk back to Sugarcube Corner was done in a surprising amount of silence. Pinkie hadn't said much on the trip home, which was strange to Ivan. Usually, she was incredibly talkative. Even though he did prefer the silence, his concern far outweighed the fact the silence was more suitable following all those revelations. He turned to the pink pony on his left, and began to speak.

"Pinkie, you're not speaking a whole lot," Ivan responded. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, Ivan, don't you worry your little--" She halted, realizing where she was going. "Don't you worry your, um, uh..." Inexplicably, the chatty mare was at a loss for words.

"You can use the word 'tall' in this case, Pinkie," Ivan said. Now that he thought about it, how did he wind up being the smallest of the former humans turned ponies? He was only in his mid-teens, and he was tall for his age, standing at almost six feet. He still had time to grow, too, so what was the deal?

"Don't you worry your tall human head, Ivan, I'm not mad about it..." There was a different emotion entirely in those cyan eyes. "I'm just, thinking, is all...I feel like I should have seen this coming! I think my Pinkie Sense might have been 'off' that day!"

There that term was again. She hadn't explained it at all, but the others seemed to be concerned when she had mentioned it.

"I have to ask...what is 'Pinkie Sense'?"

This question got the mare back into full-on bubbly mode again. She began running down a laundry list of all her known twitches, spasms, and jerks, and had been able to remember what each combination meant. There was one for opening doors, one for falling objects, one for just about any kind of common catastrophe a pony or person could imagine.

The talk about her condition had reminded Ivan that in all the commotion, he hadn't quite figured out what his own sense was. By the time she had finished her list, however, the two ponies were already at Sugarcube Corner, and were quietly making their way to Pinkie's room. Only after they entered did Ivan finally get a chance to get a word in.

"But if you know I'm human," Ivan didn't really like having to say it now, "you have to know what might happen after all this is over..."

"I do know," the natural-born pony said, almost too simply for her. She had a serious look on her face despite the rather sappy smile that had almost always occupied it. "I know you're all gonna have to go back to where you came from and probably never come back...but..."

Ivan took a step forward.

"But with you around, it makes everything super-de-duperly fun!" Pinkie continued, going off on one of her usual ramblings. "I had fun earlier when we had lunch! I've always found it fun to make you smile, sort of like when Rainbow Dash takes on a challenge that's a lot bigger than she is!"

The former human turned brown earth pony could not hold himself from smiling at all this information. If she was going to be so accepting of the prospect, why should he be a downer about it?

"I have a lot of fun, too, Pinkie." Ivan responded. "I guess we'd better go to bed, though. Otherwise we'll wake up the others here!"

"That's no fun..." The party pony continued, looking over behind her. "If we're quiet, I can show you what I do for a midnight snack!" Her cyan eyes glistened. Ivan knew with the amount of sugar in her usual preparations that he'd have trouble sleeping, but it was hard to say "no" to those eyes.

"Why not, Pinkie?" Ivan responded, "Why not?"

And once more, the former human was dragged around by one of his forehooves, a feat which should have been impossible. But then again, Pinkie was always the one running on toonforce...