Chapter 1
Ripe For The Picking
When you’ve spent a whole millennia with your interdimensional powers locked away, you get bored. So bored that you just don’t know why you even bother, or you just want to break something. That was what Saul had put up with. It was supposed to punish him for his carelessly cruel abuses of power over his empire. But all it really did was teach him to be sneaky about it. Trying to subjugate the lower breeds of his own kind had been a stupid idea from the start. It was something to work up to not something to do once you worked up the nerve , after your urges for power became too much.
Being locked away for so long satiated his tastes to rule over something once again. Instead of sulking over his punishment he took the freedom he had locked in his chamber to plan. After his few experiences with the humans living in the world he was stuck in he decided to use them. The more years he spent only confirmed this decision. Now someone who watched him in the many centuries after would eventually have to admit that as time passed he became progressively madder. By the time he was able to get out his plan had taken several disturbing turns. But he was also a clever genie; he knew how to fool people into letting them think he had been reformed. The game was about patience.
His patience paid off once he gained his power back. It was less then he was originally given, seems trust was lower. But fine enough, he did not intend to rule in the world of the genies. He found a remote place and finally began his work-remembering one fact he had learned that had been the first step in his thousand mile journey of madness- a genie could watch and reach into multiple worlds. This was going to be grand.
At least a century and a half later, one project had run its course. He had collected only adults, many with equally high or middle status and placed them on an island. All “good people”. The result was the kind of drama that soap operas could only dream of. Infighting, scandal, cheating, murder. It all eventually ended in disaster, leaving the few that remained wounded, scarred and shaken by their experience. He learned that if you got a bunch of humans together they would cut each other down until few were left.
Soon after, to test his theory he decided to repeat it , this time with young people, children, teenagers and some young adults. Recalling that much of the fighting and backstabbing had been over the quickly depleting resources. It seemed too predictable- too boring. Everyone knew any creature would backstab and kill for a scrap of meat. The best way to test whether or not his theory was correct was to remove a variable. Would there still be such drama if the island was a stable source of food and nourishment? Ensuring that food was always there might run over his ability, as it required complex magic. Though he didn’t need his own magic when he could always find a way around that little problem. Putting all his plans together he prepared for an encore of his little island game with four worlds chosen.
The train to Hogwarts was buzzing with whispering most of the students raised in magical families knew that something big was supposed to happen this year. The Ministry had be very particular about not telling the students for whatever reason, though a few had been told anyways. Some, like Lucius Malfoy’s son kept the information to his circle of friends, and some kept quiet for fear of getting their parents in trouble.
Three certain students who were marked with an invisible magnet to trouble sat in their car trying to work out the clues they had gotten-annoyed by Draco Malfoy’s bragging in the other car. The talk eventually turned to the boys’ favorite sport –Quidditch – and Hermione chose to tune out.
“Gran didn’t want to go” Their hapless classmate Neville sighed, “Wouldn’t buy tickets, sounded amazing though”
“It was” said Ron. Harry rolled his eyes. Ron may have been brilliant at tactile ploys in chess, but he fell short on tact. Ron showed Neville a mini-figure he had bought at the world cup. “We saw him right up close as well”
“For the first and last time in your life, Weasley” Draco Malfoy burst in their cart with his two sidekicks.
“Don’t remember asking you to join us , Malfoy” Harry said coolly.
“Weasley… what is that?” said Malfoy, pointing at Pigwidgeon’s cage. A sleeve of Ron’s dress robes was dangling from it, swaying with the motion of the train, the moldy lace cuff very obvious. Ron made to stuff the robes out of sight, but Malfoy was too quick for him; he seized the sleeve and pulled.
“Look at this!” said Malfoy in ecstasy, holding up Ron’s robes and showing Crabbe and Goyle, “Weasley, you weren’t thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean - they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety…
“Eat dung, Malfoy!” said Ron, the same color as the dress robes as he snatched them back out of Malfoy’s grip. Malfoy howled with derisive laughter; Crabbe and Goyle guffawed stupidly.
“So… going to enter, Weasley? Going to try and bring a bit of glory to the family name? There’s money involved as well, you know… you’d be able to afford some decent robes if you won…”
“What are you talking about?” snapped Ron.
“Are you going to enter?” Malfoy repeated. “I suppose you will, Potter? You never miss a chance to show off, do you?”
“Either explain what you’re on about or go away, Malfoy,” said Hermione testily, over the top of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4. A gleeful smile spread across Malfoy’s pale face
“Don’t tell me you don’t know?” he said delightedly. “You’ve got a father and brother at the Ministry and you don’t even know? My God, my father told me about it ages ago… heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then, Father’s always associated with the top people at the Ministry… Maybe your father’s too junior to know about it, Weasley… yes… they probably don’t talk about important stuff in front of him…”
At that moment there was the sound of a great RIP behind them. Harry heard Hermione squeak and point out the window. They were no longer looking out at the English countryside-all that greeted them outside was a vast pale nothingness. He looked out a window and saw that the train was almost floating in midair- at least part of it. The front cars had been removed. A dull roar of muttering screaming and panicking of other students could be heard. Looking back on the train he realized it suddenly looked far more spacious than he could ever remember there were no divisions between cars-and the roof was missing. It was strange-it had looked normal just a moment ago. In all his experience with magic he couldn’t think of anything that he could compare to this sudden tear in reality itself.
“Calm down” A large mist-creature floated down into the car. The voice that came out of his mouth could have made Harry’s blood run cold.
“I demand that you set everything right NOW” Draco started, “My father-“
“Can’t do anything to me” The creature, which now that Harry thought about it looked like a sort of genie, like one from a movie that played on TV when he was with Mrs. Figg, leered at Draco. “I’m a bit out of his jurisdiction, you see”
“What did you do to the train” Hermione asked. Her voice was still high pitched; she got out her wand and pointed it at him. Harry and Ron followed suit.
“Go ahead, it won’t hurt me. You can even try a killing spell but I’m sure the people across from you might not appreciate that.” He floated upwards as a few people threw stinging hexes which went sure enough, right through him at the people across from them. “Now to answer your question, all I did was pluck away the part that I needed. The rest of the train is headed back to your school just as planned. “
“Why?” Harry asked.
“I have something far more interesting in store for you than some silly tournament. “ A few of the students looked at each other in puzzlement and Draco went pale. “I have chosen Hogwarts for a game of mine. “
“Take us back” Harry kept his wand pointed at the creature.
“Back? After all the preparation I’ve gone through? Don’t be ridiculous. Besides why would you want to go back to a world that holds nothing but danger for you?” He said. “You will return after you finish my game …if you finish it. “ The creature vanished in a swirl of mist and a pop, and then Harry felt as if he was falling in midair.
CRASH
It hadn’t been long after the reformation of Discord and Twilight was still keeping an eye out for the chaos-maker. She was still wary of him, even if his change of heart had caught her off guard. She wasn’t going to show hostility unless she had darn good reason though. She’d hate to be the one to ruin Fluttershy’s hard work-if Discord was genuine. Her thoughts at the moment were far from that, she worked on her studying. She had started reading one of the new books she found about mythology. She had just gotten it back after Lyra had turned it in and it caught her interest.
After flipping through it last night, she had gotten deeply into it reading about the long forgotten mythological tales and couldn’t wait to pick it up again in the morning. She was hesitant to let Spike off to roam about again after what happened last time, but eventually agreed-after he promised to stay away from the Everfree forest. Day passed to afternoon as Twilight read through the book, including the subject of Lyra’s passion. Most people tuned her out when she spoke of humans and a handful of people teased her about it. While Twilight thought Lyra could be a bit over obsessive and tended to be critical of her, she thought it was cruel and certainly not necessary to pick on her about it. After seeing the delight on the green unicorn’s face when she picked up the book and flipped through, Twilight had to admit it would have been hard to criticize her then.
The stories of humans were an interesting but some concepts being a bit hard to fathom, the thought of giant, mostly hairless sentient primates with no magic. Still their stories were interesting. She passed on to other mythological creatures. How a world without magic could function made her curious. What made the sun rise and fall with the moon with no one who could do it? Her reading was interrupted by the sound of the door slamming open. Four little fillies were at her door, she recognized three of them and the fourth somewhat. She was that little cousin who came to Ponyville during Harvest week. Odd, hadn’t she been giving the girls a hard time? Ah well, good to know it worked itself out in the end. Twilight sighed as she noticed the marks on her floor.
“Scootaloo, your scooter doesn’t belong indoors” she said.
“No time for that, there’s something going on outside!” Scootaloo said, “The sky was suddenly flickering…and now it’s GONE!”
“What?” Twilight asked. She looked out the window and saw nothing but an eerie whiteness. “…..I knew he couldn’t be trusted!” She set her book aside and ran at full speed out the door grabbing the elements of Harmony on her way out. Discord couldn’t have gone that long without causing chaos could he?
“DISCORD! “ Twilight yelled, with all the anger that she had been holding back. She heard the sound of chuckling and a red misty being floated down to them.
“Good guess, my dear but not quite.” He said. It wasn’t Discord but the voice sounded just like him
“Who do you think you are?” Rainbow Dash yelled, “We have a job to do!”
“And you will, once I am through. I have a job for you” the creature said. Twilight remained on guard. She looked over the being’s form and remembered one of the things she had read last night. The creature was something she read about last night, a genie. Genies from what she had read were far more powerful than most ponies except the Princesses maybe. . The stories claimed that they were in charge of the many worlds, much like Celestia and Luna rose the sun and moon. Genies that fell to the mortal world were usually troublemakers. But nopony had ever seen a genie in ages. “Congratulations, I have found you to be most enthralling creatures, fit for a special honor- this town is home to the heroic Elements of Harmony is it not?” His words were very flattering, but something seemed off about him.
“You bet it is!” Pinkie said happily.
“Pinkie, he’s just trying to trick us” Twilight said.
“Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic and Her Majesty’s most favored student. “ the genie said, “I have chosen your town to take part in a little challenge of mine. “
“What kind of challenge?” Rainbow Dash looked torn between anger and curiosity.
“A challenge of survival. I have designed a special little place in a pocket universe for you. Your natural abilities will be required to manage the weather and the plant and animal life. You will not need these” Suddenly the Elements including the one on Twilight’s head popped out of existence. “I’ll just hold on to them until you’re done.”
“Don’t we even get a choice?” Applejack asked.
“Why would you turn down such an opportunity” the genie asked, “Think of all you could learn, after all. I have recruited some other curious creatures to take part. What a learning experience. Wouldn’t you agree, Miss Sparkle?” Twilight was caught unaware and the genie used that moment to finish things, vanishing with a swirl of mist and a ‘pop’. Ponyville-or-a part of it started falling.
One thing was left on Twilight’s mind. The Elements of Harmony had just lost.
CRASH
“Just my luck”
That’s what teenage high school student, Danny Fenton was thinking all the way to the colonial reserve. Well he did have to admit it was lucky getting Jazz to drive him here at least. But that still meant a long car trip listening to Psychological lectures on tape. He just had to get this stupid form signed so he could go on a stupid field trip to some stupid colonial reserve with the entire sophomore class.
“Oh stop sulking, Danny” she said on the way there. “Maybe you’ll learn something cool.”
“Maybe I don’t care” he said, “I was so close. I could have just thrown away the permission form.” His sister just turned the dial up on the radio and listened to a lesson on diffusion of responsibility. He just looked out the window. It was a bit of a drive to the reserve, long and boring. He fell asleep hearing the sound of professor’s lectures weaving in and out of his consciousness.
“Wake up we’re here” He felt himself being jostled awake a short time later. Jazz prepared to get out. Danny groaned. “If I have dreams about Freud and Jung, I’m blaming you.” He got out and made his way over to the bus where his best friends were waiting.
“How was your trip” Sam asked, “You’re looking awfully down for someone who didn’t have to ride the bus.”
“I spent the whole trip listening to psychology lectures” Danny muttered back. Jazz already knew he didn’t care for such things so she wasn’t terribly bothered by it.
“Hey FEN-TARD!” He and Tucker winced at the sound of the quarterback’s voice. Dash started on his way over but faltered at the cold look of disapproval Jazz was giving him. He quickly backed up and decided it wasn’t worth it. It made Danny feel a bit better about his sister coming with them. Dash apparently still had a thing for Jazz, and her being a college student seemed to make her more desirable.
“Thanks” Danny said.
“Anytime.” Jazz said, “And by the way, you can let him know that he so does not have a chance with me.” The three friends shared a bit of snickering as they followed after her towards the building. After the sign in it was the beginning of a long stream of boring lectures. Sam and Jazz were interested while Danny and Tucker played paper football. Danny caught bits of information here and there. He noticed some people around were dressed in time period clothing and felt silently grateful he didn’t have to wear that. As they walked to the next exhibit Sam and Jazz were in deep conversation about what they had learned.
“This is fascinating stuff guys”
“Yeah, maybe” Danny said , “wake me up if you see a ghost of John Proctor or something.”
“You know you might actually meet a ghost of one of these people, if ghosts really are the spirits of dead people.” Sam said, “Wasn’t Desiree the ghost of a harem woman who died of a broken heart?”
“Or old age” Tucker said, “The lady at the fair wasn’t sure.”
“Yeah, well I don’t think it was old age. Her anger at Danny fighting her, especially the comments about him being a man, and her vindictiveness in granting wishes, I think it’s more likely that something happened to her.” Sam said.
“How did you know all that?” Danny couldn’t remember Sam being there that time he tried to confront Desiree. She was home sick.
“You told me everything afterward” Oh, right. He and Tucker caught her illness afterward. That had been a long and boring few days. He might have mentioned it.
“Anyway?” Jazz said, “I hope you’re paying attention, you’re going to have a paper on this. Trust me; I had Lancer in my sophomore year too.”
“How many teachers does this school have?” Tucker asked. His question went unanswered as they went ahead. The next few stops were the same until they got to one building, the Witch Trial Museum. The teacher who was leading their party had stepped out and they were instructed to follow the tour guide. The tour guide seemed rather unorganized, Danny wondered if she was new. They followed along looking at the sights until there was a shriek in the next room. Danny Sam and Tucker all exchanged looks ….ghost? By this time even Jazz knew about the secret so it wasn’t that hard for Danny to get away to restroom stall and transform.
“At least something interesting happened on this trip” he muttered to himself. He flew out to the source of the scream.
There was no ghost after all. What greeted him was a cluster of students around a plaque and a rather gruesome looking picture of woman in a torture device. The title on the plaque led “The Inquisition”. On one wall was a small warning that the pictures contained “shocking content”.
“Maybe they should have made that a bit bigger” he muttered. He turned intangible to get a better look at it, moved by grim curiosity. What could make even the quarterback of the football team look like he was going to hurl?
“It’s not pretty is it?” Sam said, “This is what people used to do when they saw someone different from them. “ Danny only got to the second paragraph and had to look away. The detail was disturbing. Behind him there was the sudden sounds of a RIP. Did he want to look..should he look?
“Oh my GOD!” he heard one student cry out. He heaved a sigh. What now? However when he turned around a strange sight greeted him. The floor and a few of the walls were all that was left. All the rest was whiteness. He blinked back into sight and the students all gasped.
“Danny Phantom?”
“What’s going on?”
“DID YOU DO THIS, PHANTOM?” Figures. Does that girl’s grudge ever end?
“In order. Yes, I am. I don’t know, and for the last time Valerie, no I didn’t!” He said, looking obviously agitated, “I don’t know what happened, but there’s no way I caused this. “ He looked around, the tour guide wasn’t here. Jazz. Where was Jazz? He breathed a sigh of relief when she turned around a corner, looking panicked. “Danny….Phantom…you’re here!”
A voice above them could be heard as a red mist thing slowly descended. Danny stared at him in puzzlement wondering why his ghost sense wasn’t going off.
“Hello children.” Danny’s heartbeat would have been beating at twice its speed…if ghosts had hearts. He had a hard time finding his voice. It couldn’t be him; Clockwork had him in his tower. He would have given a warning
“YOU?” Jazz’s shriek rang out and everyone stared at her. Only Danny, and maybe Sam and Tucker understood the significance of that voice. No one else, it seemed –had seen calm, collected and super smart Jazz Fenton lose her cool like that. They all started muttering.
“I am not who you think I am, girl. My name is Saul and I have a challenge for all of you.” He started.
“Well we’re not interested” Danny said, locking eyes with the …whatever-he was, “Good. Bye.” Saul reached out and grabbed Danny by the collar of his uniform.
“Nice try. You don’t speak for all of your classmates, Danny Phantom” he flicked Danny across the room into the wall. “I have a challenge of survival for you, a break from your pathetic monotonous teenage lives.” The crowd was speechless except for two students.
“What part of ‘not interested’ do you not understand?” Sam said.
“I understand it, my dear. But I do not need your consent, only your obedience. It’s time you learned that in some things you do not have an option.” Danny pulled himself up again, forming a ball of ectoplasm in his hands. He charged at Saul -only to be thrown back again just as he made contact. All it once he felt his power hit bottom and as he tried to fight the throbbing headache he was blinded again when he got a glimpse of a great white light.
“See? Even your glorious hero Danny Phantom can’t beat me. ” He heard the strange enemy sneer. There was a loud gasp and the sounds of whispers all around him and when he got his sight back, all eyes were on him.
“Fenton?” Valerie said quietly. She looked angry but there were tears in her eyes.
…today was not a good a day. Before he could react Saul disappeared with a pop and everything fell.
CRASH
It had been a long trip to the annual convention, where Psi –kind could get together after pretending all year. They talked about what they had done business deals they had made, family business ,gossip and the like. People got together, made allies, sold goods and did power demonstrations. It was like a great reunion of Psi-kind…and Dex Toyaka hated it.
He was never a social person; he much preferred to keep himself a good distance away from everyone for his sake and theirs. At every stupid convention there was a bunch of arguing during the political debates which took place before and after the voting. In his opinion it should be a social taboo to ask people what they voted. But the others didn’t’ seem to see it this way and the politics brought out a beast in some of even the most high status people.
Worst of all there was them. The Stryke family. They were the staunchest supporters of the Traditionalists. They were also bunch of politicians, “debate artists” and professional sleazeballs. They loved to push the idea that his family was crooked, which, admittedly it was in some places. Still they were hardly any better.
He sat at a table listening to the fellow next to him click his pen while two people on the Traditionalist and Modernist platform argued. Dex worked on paperwork while idly listening and noting good points on either side. A shame that the competitive party system they had made it damn near impossible to combine the good parts. Instead it brought out the extremists on both sides. He noticed that his first cousin Shiro and a distant relative Sylvester were there as well exchanging snickers, whispers, and smug looks as they made notes. Dex turned around and shot them both a warning look.
“If you’re not going to take this seriously then leave.” He whispered. It was like telling children that if they asked “are we there yet” or pinched their neighbor one more time you’d turn the car around.
“We’re not doing anything wrong” Shiro snapped back.
“Then keep quiet.” Dex jabbed a pen at them and then turned back to working on his own thing. He had brought things from the office to look over. The debates went on a long time. Only one bit stuck out in his memory and that was the suggestion of power based regulation laws. It seemed innocent on the surface, and would perhaps be useful under a good governing board. Unfortunately they did not have a good governing board. Under the Traditionalists such a thing would probably lead to ability based rules and discrimination. Pyrokinetics and shape-shifters being punished harsher than those with more passive or ‘harmless’ powers. It was a worrying thought for him. Their society already had a problem with telepaths and empaths…the problem being that society considered their existence a personal insult. Infighting based on powers would tear them apart. The hours dragged until the head chairman finally announced it was time to vote He saw his two cousins high fiving and laughing and wondered what, in that three hours of terrible debating and ridiculous ideas, did they have to be so excited about? He figured he’d ask later.
The vote only took a few moments, looking over the candidates he found himself wishing “none” was an option. So he chose the best options. Only five more hours and it would be all over. He waited in the corners reading and looking obviously busy so he wouldn’t be bothered when family “friends” swung by. (The Toyaka family claimed to have friends but the only had connections. Outsiders couldn’t be trusted, Mother taught him).
“Dexter, is that you?” He winced as he heard a voice, a lady his mother knew.
“Mhmhmm” he said working on his paperwork.
“Kagami tells me you’re a CEO at Capula Mobile now.” He nodded still focusing on his papers, “Well what a promotion! I’m sure that’s why you’ve been working yourself so hard, as you always do, you look positively pale.”
“Mhmm.” he nodded again looking at his papers, making notes.
“…wh-your hair is so long, you really should get it cut. It’s a little odd for a fellow like you to be walking around with a pony tail.” Dex looked up and shot her an exasperated look.
“Its fine the way it is” he said, “Now I’m sorry I have work to do.” He turned back to his paper ignoring her indignance. He really didn’t want to look up until he knew she was gone. Why some stranger’s expression of displeasure intimidated him, he did not know. It just did. He kept to himself most of the time and eventually moved to another room in the building wondering why his mother had to be so social anyway. Thankfully there the only people who approached him were family members.
He noticed Shiro and Sylvester sitting at one of the tables sharing drinks. He considered going back to his papers but he felt that as the head of family’s son it was up to him to prevent disaster. To most people it wouldn’t make much difference, but in the old families like his the head of family was the absolute boss. Which made him the deputy boss.
He approached the two boys noting that the substance they were drinking was poorly disguised alcohol. On the table was the thing they had been working on. He picked it up and looked it over, and had to repress a snort. It was a makeshift bingo card filled out with different sorts of argument fallacies and bad arguments that the Traditionalists were infamous for.
“We were listening.”Shiro pointed out.
“I see….juvenile tactic, but amusing.” Dex said, “Who won?”
“That smug bastard.” Shiro jabbed a thumb at his cousin who was lounging back in his chair looking pleased with himself. Dex slammed the card down in front of him, causing the younger of the boys to jump and nearly fall back in his chair.
“Don’t lean backwards or you’ll break your head.” He said, “and no more than one glass. We can’t have you coming home pissed.”
“Meh? Takes more than two to do that” Sylvester said leaning back again, “Oh and Z wanted a word.” At that moment Dex could have felt the hairs on his back stand up. “Keep her away from me.” If Zorah was looking for him, he decided he would be safer outside away from everything. He needed a smoke anyhow. He got a breather, several minutes blessedly free of the loudmouthed bat, only coming in when he heard a commotion inside and recognized the voices.
Strykes. Damn. He waited a few more minutes hoping it would pass, but when he heard the voice of one of the more boisterous of the Stryke cousins it was clear that this would get rather messy if he didn’t put a stop to it now. He returned to find the table the boys were sitting at cleared and broken glass on the floor. Felix had his hands on Shiro’s shirt.
Dex knew Felix had far more personal issues with his branch of the family than any of the others. There was a tangled knot in the two family trees between the Toyaka ‘head family’ and the Strykes’ former head family. Felix’s was raised by his grandfather after a gas line blew one night and lit up the house. Dex would later find out that his mother had a complicated history with Felix’s father and was once married to the man’s brother.
Other people were drawn to the drama, like flies around trash. A few people looked unsure of whether they wanted to get close. Things like this caused more than drama, in the past little fights were sometimes followed by acts of revenge if they got bad enough. Dex hardly had to make his presence known.
“I’d suggest you move off and quickly. “ Dex said. The boy next to Felix, someone Dex remembered from the few encounters he had with his estranged father, looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t have the courage. “Only a cheat or a coward fights someone younger and weaker than him. “ He could see Shiro looking indignant. The truth hurt.
“I’m sure you know all about cheats and cowards.” Felix said, “You’d be nothing without your big tough friends.”
“A bit lukewarm tonight, Stryke. For what it’s worth I can assure you that we may be crooks, at least, but we’re not cowards. Most of our dirty work we do ourselves.” Dex said. “You don’t want to cause a scene tonight.”
“How do you know?” Felix demanded. Dex could have bruised his forehead with the force of his palm at that level of stupidity, if he wanted to. Damn teenagers.
“Do you usually go around and deliberately cause embarrassment and strife to everyone around you?” He asked, giving way to exasperation.
“No but I heard you do.” The young man fired back. That did it. In a moment Dex had Felix up against the wall, weapon out and pressed to his skin. What he appeared to lack in his lanky appearance he made up for in training. Powers couldn’t be completely depended on. But he had that tiny little problem of his temper. There was a commotion behind him and he backed up. Somehow in the time that they had been struggling. Something had happened.
The floor and walls were there but in one section that was missing there was a huge white nothingness. The people around him…something was missing. It took a moment for him to realize…they were all adolescent and they were all members of the Stryke and Toyaka family. The only adults were himself and Zorah, and Felix and one other Stryke cousin.
“Did I interrupt something?” A red mist creature entered the room and the voice reminded Dex of someone…or something he overheard his mother talking to once. It seemed fairly normal but something about it was not human. Maybe the slight echo in the voice?
“Sylvester!” A dark haired girl dressed in purple, dark red and black stormed over to Sylvester. “Knock this off.”
“I’m not doing anything!”
“This isn’t an illusion. The red mist creature said. “Your party seemed to be drying up so I decided to invite you to my own. “
“This is one hell of a freaky party.” Even the normally playful Sylvester looked disturbed,
“Well it hasn’t really started yet. “ The creature said. Dex approached him, weapon out but it –whatever it was-just plucked the weapon out of his hands. “You have initiative, boy, I like that. Now…I don’t think much needs to be said, you’ll find out with the rest of them. “ He disappeared in a swirl of red mist and a pop.
The last thing Dex remembered was the horrifying sensation of the floor vanishing from underneath him.
CRASH
Now the game was set. It was time to play.
A Few Provisos, A Couple of Quid Pro Quo
******
The sound of the resounding crashes echoed around them. The respective surroundings they were trapped in as they were torn from their worlds were left behind. They were replaced with an unfamiliar sight, a great mass of land surrounded by water from every side (at least it could be presumed, the sight of water illuminated by the sun could be seen far over the horizon.). Once the teenagers noticed their predicament mutters and groans turned into panicked whispers. One Danny Fenton opened his eyes, and upon seeing his surroundings murmured “I think on second thought, I would have taken Freud and Jung,”
After a few moments as the ponies registered the creatures before them, there was a cry of “HUMANS!” from a sea-green unicorn. “I told you they were real! I knew it!”
“Lyra!” her girlfriend hissed, “Not now!”
The group of ponies being the one who had youngest children, had to deal with the sounds of frightened crying. The Cakes were having a bit of a time trying to calm down Pound and Pumpkin, partly because they were quite nervous themselves. The Cutie Mark Crusaders huddled in a little group, also worried about being in such a strange place…and surrounded by such strange looking creatures. Babs Seed swallowed a lump in her throat telling herself she wouldn’t cry, not in front of all these ponies.
She had no idea what this place was but she had a feeling that Manehatten was even farther away now. Her parents, her big sister and the other Manehatten Cutie Mark Crusader. Well at least she had Apple Bloom and cousin Applejack. It was reassuring to have the Crusaders –her new friends.
******
The island was very wide and seemed to be perhaps a little bigger than Ponyville. They had landed in a spot in front of the island allowing the rest to be seen if some of them looked backwards. There were buildings outlining the land mass and a great big lake in the middle surrounded by little huts. Behind the lake huts there was a woods area that obscured the back end of the island. The same red mist creature, Saul appeared before them all, looking smug.
“How do you like the place? The party before yours managed to leave it, well mostly together. They were quite the lively group, and I can only hope that you’ll prove just as entertaining.” He said. Some of the teens started to pull themselves up while others seemed to stay where they are convincing themselves this was all just a dream. His voice had changed from what they all remembered sounding somewhat refined, arrogant and rather cold.
“Entertain you?” a drawling snobbish voice demanded. “You brought us here so we could entertain you?”
“That’s one reason. As you can see, you are far from home. I have prepared a nice little home for you in an abandoned pocket dimension. Usually when a world like yours or someone else’s ends, it leaves an empty dimension , which most of my kind tend to avoid, a bit of a waste in my opinion but they are very strict about their rules regarding not playing God. As I see it designing a world and putting existing people in it shouldn’t really count. “He started, “Following their rules is boring, and I’ve gotten far too accomplished to just follow the status quo of the average loser.”
“So you think the rules are too good for you?” A dark haired young magic student in oversized clothes demanded.
“No.” Saul said, “I am certain.” He looked down over them all. “I see that you’re all quite angry but I think that, once you think about it, you’ll eventually be honored, to be chosen for my challenge. What are the odds of such an astounding thing happening to you?” There were murmurs of disbelief and a few ‘you’ve gotta be kidding me’s.
“He’s mental” Ron Weasley muttered. “Barking mad.” Hermione shushed him worriedly, fearing what might happen if Saul overheard and took offense. They could very well end up dead with all the power he seemed to have. Thankfully he didn’t seem to notice.
“What do you want?” A tall young man with dark hair pulled in a small ponytail demanded. He looked to everyone else as if he had been at some formal even like church, wearing a collared shirt and tie. He was surrounded by a bunch of teens with similar features. A little ways away from the cluster with dark hair and olive and tanned complexions was a group of fair skinned, freckled and light haired teenagers who once they awoke were eager to get as far away from the former as they could.
“Good question. I will be leaving you here on this island to see how you survive. Lucky for you I’ve done this once before, and decided that I’m going to be nicer this time and cut a deal with you. I will provide you with weekly supplements of cooking supplies and renewals in things like basic hygiene and perhaps a few more animals, so long as you do not try me.” He looked over to the huddle around the tall ponytailed man. With a rather detached expression he held his hand out and one of the relatives, a skinny Asian teenager with tinted glasses who had been whispering to his neighbor, levitating him up in the air and surrounding him with a bubble.
“ OI BASTARD WHAT WAS THAT FOR?” the boy yelled. He gave a few fearful glances at the ground a few feet below him. The other relatives reached out towards him and cried out while others looked on in shock.
“Shiro!”
“So, Toshiro. You’re awfully confident aren’t you? Think you can break bonds created by a two million year old genie?” The boy looked down again nervously. “Ah, afraid of heights? Oh dear, that is a problem. But since you’re obviously so powerful, I’m sure you can get out before it gets too high for your liking.” Shiro looked down again as the bubble rose higher. “Go ahead, show us your power.”
Shiro continued to look down and flex his fingers, perhaps out of a combination of fear of heights and what most would call stage fright. But when the bubble continued to rise up to five feet above the ground he was moved into action. Claws grew from his fingers and he stabbed at the bubble furiously. Many onlookers were shocked as his bones began to move and shift around into the more powerful form of a bear.
Panicked whispers came from the crowd in cloaks and black hats murmuring about werewolves. . The high school students looked sickened and the ponies were just in shock. The bear desperately tried to free itself, and crying out in frustration while Saul watched still unemotional. Beneath him, a curly haired girl watched looking pale and shaky. An older girl in dark clothing came over and put a hand on her shoulder giving support.
This went on for a few more minutes until a voice from the crowd of high-schoolers cried out “KNOCK IT OFF!” A teenage girl in a black top and dark plaid skirt stepped out calling out to the genie. “You’ve made your point already. If you're so big and powerful, why us? Why choose to pick on people so many orders of magnitude beneath you, if you're so big and smart? Or are you just a kid with a magnifying glass and an anthill?"
Saul turned on her furiously and for a moment her friends stood protectively around her expecting him to try and harm her. But he just looked over to the bubble with the struggling bear and frowned. “…so I have. “ With a wave of his hand he freed the bear from the bubble and the crowd scrambled to part allowing him to land. He did, with a thud and cried out once more in pain. The crowd of relatives surrounded the bear obscuring it from sight. “As you can see, none of you can out-power or outwit me. My abilities are far above your magic, your unnatural abilities and your mind. I expect you not to try. If you try to test my boundaries you will not only waste your time, but you will waste the resources of your fellows. For every attempt to escape you will lose everyone a replenishment of resources for one week.”
*****
There were whispers throughout the crowd. Many were frightened, and some were angry. There was shuffling as many of the parents amongst the ponies had shielded their children from the frightening sight of the struggling bear-human.
One of the fair haired Strykes stepped forward after remaining quiet for a long time. He looked a tad nervous to address the genie perhaps fearing that he too might be dangled in the air like his rival.
“Is there anything we can do to convince you to let us at least send the youngest of children home?” He asked. Saul scoffed.
“Your youngest children are at the very least, what, eight years of age? Hardly helpless and certainly capable of working to survive.” He said coolly.
“What about ours?” Mrs. Cake shakily stepped forward. “We have foals not even old enough for school.”
Saul looked over her and the rest of the little family in consideration. Then with a sigh he spoke again.
“There is no pleasure in causing the death of infants. Very well, you may leave “He snapped his fingers and the Cake family disappeared. As did a few other families with babies. “Any more questions?” Some of the groups huddled together talking.
“Can we at least have some of our things?” One of the magic students asked. She looked constantly at her feet, shaking violently. An older student stood nearby her protectively.
“Yeah,” a girl from the high-school group asked, “You expect me to walk around in one set of clothes all the time…like do you even realize how gross that is?” Her friend, a blonde girl with tear streaked eyes nodded. To their surprise their captor didn’t dismiss the point.
“Yes, that is true. We wouldn’t want this becoming a nudist colony now would we?” he said with a smirk. One girl amongst the magic students eagerly raised her hand but someone next to her pushed it down with a groan ,looking quite embarrassed. Saul snapped his fingers and several large piles of luggage popped up, one for every group minus the ponies. “Let no one say I am incapable of generosity. Now anything else?” He was met with silence, it seemed like many people did not want to try Saul’s patience after his demonstration.
“Good, now that everything is squared away” He turned to the ponies, “Is there a Miss Rainbow Dash here? I believe she is the unofficial captain of the Weather Squad?”
*******
After she made it in Wonderbolt boot camp, Rainbow Dash had gotten an increase of respect at her day to day job, not that she wasn’t respected before. But when she returned, a Wonderbolt recruit, many people started regarding her as the captain of the Squad. She had gained some command, and now she had the discipline to exercise it properly. She stepped forward, facing Saul with distrust in her eyes.
“Good. , Miss Dash, You’ll find that the island is designed to work with your methods of weather control.” He said. “If you could, please, fly up to that cloud above you and give us a little rain”
There were some mutters in the crowd of humans. A few people scoffed and surmised that it was impossible. But Rainbow Dash just flew upward and jumped on the cloud making rain come down. The humans were quieted, stunned. After the cloud was emptied she flew back down onto the soaked grass.
“Wonderful, thank you.” Saul said, “I shall take care of the sun and moon since your princesses are not here. But I think you can take care of this one thing for everyone. I have studied your kind and I have confidence that you little ponies can keep this island’s ecosystem alive.”
“Wait!” one teenage girl stepped forward. “How long do you intend on keeping us here? What about our lives? What about our parents?”
“I’m not certain yet, but rest assure your parents will be informed”
“So we’re just going to sit around here and play Gilligan’s Island for you until you get bored of us?” One of the high-schoolers yelled , “You’re nuts!” Saul scoffed.
“I can promise you that it will be far more interesting than that. If things get boring I’ll just throw something-or someone- in the mix to stir it up. Cosmic powers remember?” As he leered at them something in his eyes gleamed mischievously telling them that he was not afraid to make things unpleasant. “Take care not to get too rowdy, I had quite a time cleaning the blood splatters away from the last group, and you wouldn’t want to alarm the group after you too much do you? “ He vanished in a swirl of mist leaving several people and ponies muttering in confusion and alarm. The mutterings soon grew into arguing, crying and yelling. Most of the strife came from the humans although a few of the ponies were starting to catch the panic as well. Diamond Tiara buried her face into her hooves as Filthy Rich and Diamond Treasure argued. She had been so excited for her mother to come visit and that stupid smoke monster ruined everything.
*****
The two groups of Psi were split even farther than before and were only coming close to yell and point blame at each other. The words they exchanged were harsh, brutal even, and they seemed to pay no mind to the young ones who were upset by it. All that seemed to matter to them was who got the last word. It seemed the same for all the other groups of humans. Spells were flying between the four groups of wand holding students. Some of the ordinary teenagers were looking at alarm at these other two groups while their fellows were placing the blame on one individual surrounded by two friends. With some of the football players going at him, his ‘guards’ didn’t stand much of a chance.
******