As we twisted down the green walls to save Gabriel and Zaanne's friends, I couldn't help but think through what has happened.So far I have done more impossible feats than most ponies could do in their lives. I've had an alien space ship crash into my school. I've ran at super speed to save my friend and teacher, then healed Applebloom right after. I transformed into a species i barely knew about, then i shot fire from my new hands at an army of police officers.

As of turning human, i had expected to have trouble with walking or moving my fingers. As it turned out, Ship had thought of that, and gave me the knowledge of how to control my new form. Since i was only on two legs, i felt much taller than i usually am.

Zaanne had set up the clothes, which he said it "-was a mix of the cutie mark crusaders and a street kid." I wasn't too sure what he ment, but it looked cool, so I went with it.

Gabriel, well, you don't need magic to tell he's either lost his marbles or never had any to begin with. First off, he never stopped moving. He would try to, but his fingers would constantly twitch and his head would begin darting about randomly. When he spoke, he would finish by mumbling to himself, as if he wasn't sure if he had said what he did.

His baby blue eyes would dart around, staring at everything for a few seconds before becoming completely engrossed in a new item. As he was talking to me in the elevator, you could see him scanning every detail on me before registering the lights, then the buttons, then the floor pattern as he mumbled stuff about multiplication. If i didn't know he actually had voices in his head, I'd keep my distance.

His hair was spiky green, with blue and yellow highlights under his bangs. The crystal was definantly the one i had, only with a leather necklace holding it instead of a chain. When we used magic, it blared almost a neon green. When Zaanne or the ship spoke through it, the rock would flicker to match their voices.

Back to the story. Me and Gabe barreled down the halls, being directed by Gabriel's guidance. Somehow, he was able to find out exactly what rooms to enter, when to avoid traps and when we would have to shoot off the random cop. I didn't have wings as a human, which should have freaked me out, but I made good time on my scooter. Having fingers gives an amazing grip.

"We're almost there!" Gabe yelled to me. Right after, I heard him mumble again under his breath, "There, almost? We are?". He sprinted close to me with great speed, so I figured he was using crystal magic to run.

"Duck!", Zaanne yelled, and we both hit the floor. With our momentum, we cleanly slid under the axes that spun out to decapitate us.

"I thought we were avoiding the traps!" I shrieked as the blades disappeared into the walls.

"Every hall has traps from here, raised defense for the-" his sentence was cut short by the bucket of acid that missed by a few feet. It splashed, hitting Gabriel's jacket. I thought it would disintegrate, but it just absorbed it like a super-duper powerful sponge. "That was too close!"

We spent the rest of the time dodging traps. We shot fire down both sides of the hall every so often to break the eternal darkness spell. We broke through random knives and darts that would fire at us. Gabe and Zaanne would yell an order, and we would dodge or blow up any trap coming near.

"Hit the deck! Fire to your right!"

lightning to the front! i still hadn't gotten down the lightning, but Gabriel had a pretty good knack for pulsating with that stuff, so he took care of that as i heated them up. It was too cold, anyway.

After a few more traps, we made it to the room their friends and family were at. The place would have been spectacular if it weren't so creepy. It was the size of Twilight's library, but had pitch black walls, as if someone had created them from obsidian. The whole room glowed in green lines that gave most of the light. Wires were tucked into the corners, which tangled themselves around the room and all attached to random computers on desks.

The creepy part: the circle of bodies in the middle of the room. There were a little more than half a dozen people, all on their backs, heads toward the midpoint of their little group. In the center stood a rectangular pillar, with a circle on each wall the size of a stallion's hoof. Something told me they were large buttons, and I felt tempted to press them, just to see what happens.

Gabriel gasped when he saw the people and ran to them, shaking then gently. "Mom!" He said as he poked an older looking girl, or at least i figured it was female. "Jakey!" He inspected a kid about his size next to his mom. "Rayden?" The one he was looking at had red flame-like hair, with a ring that i could swear on my life looked familiar.

He inspected the rest of the bodies: Tristen, Kenneth, Dylan, Sleepy (which sounded like a pony name), Jaden and Mason (who looked like children). He eyed the wall and computer screens and seemed to be processing what was going on when a new voice entered the room.

"Nice for you to come, Zaanne", the human in a karate gi said, "We've been awaiting for your arrival."

Gabriel looked up to them, his face creepily darkened from his hood. "What have you done to them?" He rose, hands glowing brightly with intense fire.

I backed to him as the business man began. "They're ready to help with our great achievement; to create the ultimate world!" As he said it, he rose his hands. The lines on the walls brightened to white, giving a better look to them. Both of them looked the same, tall and slightly wide, with half closed eyes and a small mouth. Their hair was different, one being short and spiky brown and the other long and stringy black. Both had tiny green eyes, but they were glassy and straight, giving no expression or emotion.

"What is an 'Ultimate world' to you anyway?" Zaanne asked.

"A world of imagination, one that we can maintain and control, of course." He waved his hand to a wall and it opened. We were next to a giant road of concrete, with metallic boxes riding along it. They looked a lot like small trains, but didn't need a track. It was loud, with honking noises and the sound of screeching rubber. "This world is contaminated with disorder. Nobody respects the rule of others anymore, therefore, we shall remake the world, make it perfect."

"Nothing is perfect", Gabriel said, stepping over the bodies."Let my friends go, now."

"Of course, we'll let them go. Once we are done with them, you can all go merrily on your ways, we just need one thing."

"That would be?", I asked.

The wall closed and the karate guy pointed to Gabriel's chest. It might have just been me, but it looked like he pointed abit to the left, where i assumed the human heart is. "We need our ship back, thank you."

Gabriel looked at his friends, then around the room quickly, deciding to change the subject. "Well we've already been through that, and I already answered, so... What's the pillar for?" I'm not sure if it was because he got nervous or he has bad ADHD.

"It takes the thoughts of us to create the world," the business man explained,"but we need the full ship for it to work."

At that, they looked at me. Then I thought of something. Hey ship, do you think you could wake Gabriel's friends up?

With the magic barrier set, my abilities are limited, so I could only wake one or two.

I scanned through the fallen friends. None of them seemed to be in any great body shape to be fighting, except Rayden. He was just as athletic looking as Gabe, even without magic. A shock went through my body when i realized he wore the element of loyalty on his finger; it looked exactly how Rainbow had explained it to be. Wake the red head up.

His body started to glow. The karate guy noticed it. "What are you doing to him?" Gabriel seemed equally confused, and Zaanne had gone quiet, though it seemed he was talking in Gabe's head.

"Breaking your dream circle." My hands lit up, illuminating the area around me.

The process will take about thirty seconds, Ship said.

"It could be worse" Gabriel thought aloud. He didn't break eye contact with the aliens, like he was having a staring contest that he couldn't afford to lose. "Scoots, keep them from Rayden."

"Not much else to do right now." I said.

Well, we could stall, Zaanne added, but I vouch for some good ol' fashioned ass-kicking right about now!

"So," one of the aliens interrupted, "will Gabriel or Zaanne control?"

Gabriel paused, thinking it through his head. Apparently we were stalling without trying. "If I can get Zaanne to fight for me, I'd prefer that. I'm not the greatest at it and he loves it. Unfortunantly, I still hav-" Suddenly his body straightened. He looked towards the roof and shook slightly. His eyes glowed green. When they stopped, he regained mobility. His eyes had become aqua, squinting slightly over the most insane smile I've ever seen. It wasn't the oh-wow-that-guy-is-crazy smile. More like the oh-sweet-celestia-he's-going-to-sadistically-skewer-me kind.

"Ah, aliens. We meet again." His voice was deeper and scratchier than before. He laughed. It sounded like a knife was being scraped across a chalkboard. Apparently he didn't know how to use vocal chords correctly. The flames in his hands became white-hot. The lightning came back too, just to add an overpowered feel to his aura.

"Well, what an entrance." Tuxedo alien said, looking at his assistant. "Do you want the kid or the teen?"

He never got an answer as Zaanne, at least I thought it was Zaanne, extended his arm. His entire body became a sillouette of light as he fired tendrils of pure energy at the aliens. They rose their hands, but the impact shook the building. I was thrown to the floor next to Rayden.

"I think he has this under control" the crystal spoke in Gabriel's voice. He was right. The aliens were knocked into the wall so hard, they left figurine dents in the metal when they sprawled out to the floor.

"Stand up, weaklings!" Zaanne taunted, walking to the oppisite side of the room. "Two on one and you can't manage to fight back?"

The aliens staggered to their feet. Their skin was smoking and their eyes started to glow. "You underestimate us, boy.", They said in unison.

Zaanne leaned back onto the pillar and grinned wickedly. "Yep, the old 'bad guy says he's stronger than I can imagine' cliche. Don't you remember how i creamed you guys last time? We didn't even have the crystal then. But now-" he stood straight, walking slowly towards them, as if he had all the time in the world. "-now i have the ability to be me, which just might be your worst nightmare, as if you ever could dream to begin with."

The aliens showed no emotion, but they took a step back, getting closer to eachother. "What will you do when the crystal runs out of energy?"

"Huh?"

The business man smiled. "The ship has a lot of power, but even it can get tired. And with that last attack, I'd say you could only do that one more time, adding in your journey up here, and you awaking the boy."

As they spoke, Rays eyes fluttered open. He started to groan, but i covered his mouth and put my finger to my lips, guessing that to be the human "shh" signal. He nodded and sat up slowly, looking at the glowing walls and Zaanne.

Zaanne paused, frowning down in quick thought before smiling again. "Then I'll just make something that doesn't require a constant energy depletion. If Ship can make clothes and bodies, why couldn't he make weapons?" He closed his eyes and concentrated, reaching his hand out. A three and a half foot stick of fire suspended itself in midair, right in front of Zaanne. As i watched, the fire began to solidify, slowly becoming more of what looked like metal.

Apparently the aliens knew what he was up to. They charged him, but i intercepted. "Sup? I'm still here."

They stopped, and i got the feeling nobody was really going to fight anytime soon, which was kinda boring. "Ah yes. Hello." The karate guy said. Now that I had their attention, I wasn't sure i wanted it. They stared down at me, and the shadows made a creepy smile play on their mouths. "Who exactly are you? You're not on our list of Zaanne's friends. Did you two just meet or something?"

"How could they have met, he's been escalating the hospital since he woke up!" The guy in the tuxedo pointed out before turning to me. "Also I must also ask, how did you find the engine? We lost it on our way here."

"It crash landed on my world, in Equestria." I didn't think about keeping my home arcane to the bad guys until after it slipped my mouth.

"Equestria eh?" His voice rose to a slightly shrill pitch. He gave a slightly cocky look to his face and squinted at me, as if I were some cute mouse he was playing with before he stomped on it. "Maybe I'll stop by on my way to the ultimate world. Grab some space eggs, some space milk, then blow it the ___ up!" there was a harsh squealing noise when he tried to say that word.

"Don't you quote Freiza," Zaanne yelled, "you don't even know Team Four Star!"

I had no idea what they were talking about, as usual. I took the moment to look behind me to see Zaanne inspecting the thing he created. It was a sword, though I'm not sure how i knew, since I'd never seen one before. A double-edged steel blade with a metal hilt that spiked forward, with an emerald gem halfway down the flat of the blade and the butt end. The blade was glowing green, like it was about to shoot fire from it.

"Woah, how'd you make that?" I knew the answer, but i couldn't help busy ask.

"I just thought of the design for the blade and it made itself, well balanced too." He swung it around, leaving a green streak behind it. The noise of it slicing through the air sent a chill down my spine.

Rayden had gotten up and was leaning on the pillar. His hair was over his eyes, but it was obvious he was confused. He looked me up and down, regarding my shirt, then he looked at Zaanne and the element on his ring. "What's going on?"

Zaanne seemed to notice him awake. "World's gonna blow up, Equestria exists, that's Scootaloo over there-" he pointed the sword at me. "-and we need to take care of these guys before we go."

At the word "Equestria", Rayden's eyes shot forward. He had a startlingly earnest stare compared to Zaanne, who seemed to joke around with everything he looked at. "Really? What can I do to help?!"

"Wait, you had like, two seconds to register what he just said. You're seriously gonna risk helping two strangers with super powers just so you can get to Equestria? What's with you guys and my home?!"

There was an akward pause before Zaanne spoke up. "You don't know the show, do you?"

"What show?!"

"Let's just say Princess Celestia's kinda a creeper." Ray said.

The mentioning of her startled me. "Huh? How do you know her? What kind of a world is this?!" I backed to a wall and looked at all of them. It wasn't just the ship telling Zaanne about equestria, like i first thought. They knew the place, and apparently would give their lives to get there. "You know me, too, don't you Ray?"

He looked at the ring, smiling lightly. "Mhm. Though I didn't think of ever get to meet you." His voice had a light accent to it, close to Rarity's but more... Masculine. "Are you ok with that, Scoots?"

The aliens had sat back to listen. Apparently they had all the time in the world now that he was awake. "So," the one in the gi started, addressing to Zaanne, "are you ready to help us?"

"Help you?" He said. The sword had it's tip pointed at them, though nobody made any attempt to back away. "Why the hell would i help you?"

"Well, when we take the crystal that you so generously brought to us, we can start up the machine, make you a better world."

"What will happen to this one?" I couldn't remember if we asked already, but it felt like a valid question.

"It's umpure, so it shan't be remembered."

"Remembered as?"

The business man said "it just won't be remembered. We will blow it up and send a wave out to erase the memories of anyone that knows of it's existence."

"So, again, why should i help you?" Zaanne walked towards them slowly, tightening his grip on the hilt.

The man in the suit spoke slowly, softening his voice to a gentle hum. "Well, first of all, you won't have to live in Gabriel's head anymore. You could live in a world all on your own, with absolutely nothing you need to do. Nobody to say no to. Nobody to tell you what to do."

Zaanne stopped walking. Apparently he'd considered that before. A lot. To the point that he started to mumble to himself like Gabe. "An entire world to myself? Nobody to tell me what to do..."

I was certain that Gabe was telling him how sad that sounded. First off, it was a complete lie. The aliens would just wipe his memory and enslave him. Second, Ship could make him a body whenever he wanted. Even so, he looked at his hands, or Gabe's hands.

Then he did something only the brightest of idiots would do in front of twin aliens. He laughed so hard he doubled over. When he straightened back up, he pointed to the roof, though he used the wrong finger for some reason. "You think i dislike being in Gabriel? He's my best friend, I'd never leave him hanging. Besides, they still need me to kick your green asses!" He closed his eyes and put a hand to his chest. And preached, "'I'd rather die of passion and love than to boredom and solitude!'"

That last line hurt my head. It was the exact line from my scooter, word for word. I didn't know when he had the time to read it, but it was no doubt that he didn't just make that up. He spoke it like it was his own famous quote, something he's rehearsed a hundred times.

I found myself murmuring, "Dad..." The only one that heared me seemed to be Ray, but they were too focused on the aliens for me to tell.

"Ship, disable the pillar." I said.

It will take at least ten minutes. Hacking into the hospital's mainframe will take longer with all the magic.

Only problem: we didn't have ten minutes. "Do you really need to hack through the entire hospital to shut down one object?"

"Yes" it said aloud, sounding like princess luna.

"And if we break stuff?"

"It might work."

Then let's break stuff. Get me a weapon." I tapped Rayden on the shoulder. "Um, Mr. Rayden, do you want a sword or something."

He gave me an interesting smile and pointed to Zaanne's blade. "That one will be fine."

Two more blades started to form, one about two feet and one the same size as Zaanne's.

"You know how to use that?" Zaanne said.

Ray apparently did. He showed it by grabbing the sword as soon as it was finished and ran to the aliens. The karate one took out two crystal staffs and spun them. Immediatly they changed into katanas, one edged with green and red dragons printed on the hilt. It looked like the Hearths Warming Eve dragon. Before he could toss one of them to his lawyer partner. Ray and Zaanne were right in front of them.

"Yeah, I do" he finally answered.

I didn't. As soon as i grabbed it, i knew it wasn't my style. Mine looked a lot like an oversized dagger, with the same style of theirs. "Ok, no. I'll just stick with magic. Got anything good for that?"

"You have to think of what you want." Zaanne called as the twins equipped themselves with their blades.

I figured id be better off with the magic, but i wasnt sure how charged it was after Zaanne's first blast and the weapon designing. I grabbed my scooter and readied the weapon.

As i started forward, the fight began. Karate guy, I'm going to call him Gi Guy, charged rayden. Busy the business man went for Zaanne. I figured Zaanne had good enough backup with Gabriel, so i went after Gi Guy.

Rayden was doing better than I imagined with the sword. He let Gi come at him, dodging and blocking his swings, letting him tire himself out. Gi was too focused on hitting him to make any strategic movements, which feel right into Rayden's hand. He saw me coming and parried Gi's swing, punching him in the chest with the butt. When Gi staggered back, I rode at him, sword pointed straight forward.

Unfortunantly, he saw me too. As soon as I got within stabbing range, he swung at my head. Fortunately, I saw it coming. I leaned backwards, the sword passing inches from my head. As i hit the wall, i pulled the handle back. I'd done this once before, in a ramped wall in ponyville. The momentum of the scooter hit the wall and flipped me upwards, straight on the alien's head. He hit the floor, but rolled out of the way before wood and wheels flattened him.

Zaanne went with a magic/weapon mix. He swung first, hitting his blade onto the other as hard as he could. On contact, lightning shook the floor. Heat seared Busy's fancy tuxedo, but he held his ground. The alien came at him, them sharing blocks and swings like they were just playing with eachother, which they might have been.

Each strike caused outside collateral damage. I could hear windows shatter, things hit the floor, and about a thousand females scream at once. A small part of me was confused on how Gabe's family could sleep through this.

We continued to fight, me going X-games cavalry mode, Zaanne going wizard warrior and Ray just being awesome, until it started to go downhill. The small light in the crystal faded more and more from every hit Zaanne did. Before i could tell him to stop, he stabbed the floor.

The blade magically went into the ground like butter. He yelled, and the ground around him glowed, then erupted. A circle ten feet wide shot through the roof. Busy up with it.

Gi took the moment to watch his friend go up in flames, literally. Gabriel and Zaanne's crystal light faded, and when the fire fully died, Zaanne staggered to the wall. I got tired too, really tired, and the alien nearly had my head if Ray weren't there to block the attack.

Then Zaanne winced, though he now sounded like Gabriel. He grabbed his chest, then hit the floor with a loud "thunk!"

"Zaanne!" I rode over and left Ray to Gi, since he had it under control. A block, twist of the hilt, and a quick press downwards, and the alien's weapon skidded out from his hand, changing back to a crystal staff.

The alien was close enough to set him on fire, but Ray stabbed the blade through his jacket sleeve, sticking his right arm to the wall. He started to raise his other hand, but Ray gave him a punch that even Rainbow Dash would approve of, and the Gi was out cold. He then ran to accompany me.

Gabe was out, too. Ray knelt down and pressed his hand to his chest. "His heart's not beating..."

My blood froze and I stared down at the green body in horror. "D-does that m-mean... Is h-he's-"

Before i could say "dead", his chest started to move up and down heavily, like he was asleep. "He's alive!"

Rayden checked his heartbeat, then his wrist, then his neck. With each part, his face became more and more concerned. "Just one thing."

"Yeah?"

He looked up to me, his eyes staring straight into mine. "His heart's still not beating. He should be dead right now."

Author's Notes:

Longest chapter award goes to the one with waaaay too much pre-fight dialogue. Also, hi Ray.