"Careful. Careful..."

With my tongue sticking out and sweat forming big beads on my forehead, I channeled the last bit of Mana into my Dimension Door Chalk, patent pending. Opposite of me sat, clad in her deep black cultist get-up, Lyra with her horn aglow as she kept the runes etched into the chalk stable. The Unicorns muzzle was a picture of concentration as well. Both of us had our fair share of exploding chalk and wildfire Mana to the face so we could gladly do without any more of that in the closer future.

"Aaaand done!" I let out an exhausted sigh and canceled the flow of magical energy, leaving my equine minion to carefully put the unassuming piece of white chalk into a box that already held a good dozen of its brethren.

"Amazing." Lyra gushed, despite her own exhaustion "You are getting better and better at this Master. Soon you will surely be able to do this on your own, without little, old, superfluous, unimportant..."

As much as I came to appreciate Lrya´s self-demeaning ramblings, I stopped her by holding up my hand. My head was positively pounding from Mana withdrawal. "Lyra, be a doll and put this batch of the DDC to the others on the shelf, then fetch me a snack and something to drink from the kitchen, will ya?" I asked, plopping down on a chair and whipping my face with a cloth. "Get yourself something too. You did well in assisting me today servant."

Minty Horse nodded eagerly and left my arcane lab, doing lots of curtsies and talking her mouth fuzzy... well, fuzzier with an seemingly endless stream of praise for me and emphasis of her own unworthiness.

After Lyra left, I spend quite some time with my head simply planted on the burned, chipped and in general very hard surface of the sturdy table that took up most of the space in the room, feeling the Tower Heart doing it´s damn job and refueling me with fresh, ambient Mana and making the Shub Niggurath damned headache go away.

"Ah yiss, that feels good..." I half moaned in a low tone as I sat back up, eying the shelf that held at least twenty four pieces of magically charged chalk amongst other, more obscure things, like glasses full of newt eyes, frogs in alcohol and all other kinds of alchemical ingredients that I scrunched together, partly with Lyra´s help and partly with the help of Patches. It was surprising what a successful mine could produce beside ore and gems. Also the Gobs from the Hayseed Swamps had been true to their squeaked words and delivered literal baskets worth of all kinds of ingredients. I felt quite a bit of satisfaction rising in me.

True, the past week or so had been rather uneventful, but there was plenty to keep me occupied at the tower. Yeah, when I played the games it was all 'go to tower, get mission from walnut, kill stuff, rinse and repeat'. Turns out, it's a little more different in real life.

It wouldn't be so bad if the Minions didn't keep on coming at me for the littlest things. "Ooh, master, the latrines are filling up. Should we keep on using them or build new ones?" "Master, it seems our chickens and cattle have died due to neglects. What does your Eminence want for dinner tonight?" Ugh! It just went on and on and on and on! Capable as the kobolds could be in battles, they had little more than two brain cells to rub together in order to generate thought when it came to maintaining a big-ass tower.

Gnarl helped out where he could, but even he was but a single Minion among hundreds. In the end I was forced to rope Onyx and Lyra into helping me keep track of what the kobolds needed.

Lyra, she went at it with her usual eagerness.

It seemed she was rather fond of ordering around the kobolds and more than a few came complaining to Gnarl about the 'loud, annoying, bossy pony'. Yeah, you don't want to get ordered around? Then think for your fucking selves, you little idiots!

Onyx... well, she got results, but the minions were quite scared of her. Surprisingly enough, none complained, and I wasn't about to investigate the matter further. Although... just to be sure, I kept an eye on those under her watch and had been pleasantly surprised to see none had mysteriously gone missing. Huh.

Well, that's how it was. I was set to keep on minding my own business when, wouldn't you know it, all of a sudden the pull of "the Call" made itself known once again. To be honest, I was quite surprised, seeing as Zinnia and I by now nearly exclusively used the magic chalk to visit each other and the other Displaced I had met so far had not called upon me for quite some time.

"Well, looks like my snack will have to wait." I said to no one in particular as I geared up and stood up. Just as I heard the clip-clop of four smallish hooves coming closer, the light swallowed me and off I went away to another episode of Multiversal shenanigans.

Only, this time, I did not simply appear on my summoners location, instead I found myself back into the weird space-time rift that initially had brought me to Equestria. For a second a small spark of hope that I was about to get home came to life but was just as fast stamped out again. That would be just to much luck for me.

Finally, after what felt like several minutes of floating around in the area between dimensions, the swirling vortex of magic and otherworldly energies finally saw it fit to spit me out in the world of whoever it was that found my token.

No, it literally spat me out. No gentle landing for me, no siree. I was promptly dropped at some point in midair and wouldn't you know it, I was so surprised that I landed face first. I was that close to biting off the tip of my tongue and if that wasn't bad enough, I also landed hard on my stomach. Hard enough to get the wind knocked out of me.

While I waited to regain my breath and allow the pain to abate, I gave the multiverse some choice words of what exactly I thought about it at the point and none of them were nice. Hmm, maybe I can lodge a complaint against it for its lousy travel methods and slow rate of service. Really, would it kill it to at least put out a snack bar or soda machine while traveling? Hell, I would even go for a tomato juice! Well, it certainly beats those family vacations we took back in the day, mom stuffing ungodly amounts of luggage into dad's mini-bus, all of us cramped inside and my little brother who seemed to make it his mission in life to literally annoy the hell outta me. Ugh.

"Whoever summoned me here better be dead or dying," I muttered darkly and slowly got back to my feet. "Or else they're gonna wish they were."

Where was here, anyway? Oh no. Oh, nonononononono! God fucking naw! Am I in the fucking Badlands again?! Yes, it looked that way. The harsh sun, the dry air, the barren earth ripped straight out of a post apocalyptic film... I was indeed back in this hellhole again and this time, with no well stocked tower in sight.

With a cry of frustration, I unhooked the Beast from my hip and swung it at the nearest object which turned out to be withered remains of a tree, all gnarly and stuff. Just looking at that thing briefly gave me the best Sleepy Hollow creeps, half expecting to hear the heavy thundering of hooves any moment now, followed by a searing pain biting into my neck. Or Johnny Depp suddenly popping up from nowhere. But just as the Universe liked it, nothing of those happened, the only thing that happening was the Beast colliding with the dead tree and turning a huge part of it into toothpicks in a very satisfying manner.

"Alright, whoever is out here, you better come out!" I screamed into the open terrains, consciously deepening and distorting my voice to make it scarier than it really was. It was a trick most Overlords used early on, but as they got eviler, their voice naturally took on a scary as fuck quality. Certainly helps cow lesser enemies.

>>It really better be a fucking good reason for coming here.<<

And... nothing. I nearly facepalmed. Where was this person? I looked around, and for the first time noticed behind me the base of a particularly steep cliff that soared hundreds of feet into the air, and right in front of me was a cavern dug into its rocky depths.

Ooookay...

Clearing my throat, I opted for a more diplomatic approach and spoke in my normal undertones. "Alright, buddy, look here. Sorry for the whole display, I apologize if I scared you and yada, yada, yada. Now can you please come out here?" I crossed my arms and waited for my summoner to make the next move. To pass the time, I began humming Ode to Joy. Classic music was always a good way to show your cultured side and make you seem less psychotic. I find that less psychotic is good for first impressions.

Well, I didn't have to wait too long. The scraping of dirt resonated somewhere between the cavern and from behind one of the sides of the entrance poked out a head. The short hair kinda made me think it was a dude, but closer inspection revealed my summoner to be of the female persuasion, if the features were anything to go by.

>>Hey, another girl. Wonder what she can do. Time to put on the winner smile.<<

Relaxing my stance, I flashed her said smile showing just enough of my newly acquired Alucard teeth not to totally freak her out and waved with one hand. "Hallo auch [Hey there]. Nice weather we got, ain't it?" Yes, the weather. I talked about the weather. What? It's a perfectly good opener, even if you talk about a skin scorching and bone bleaching day in Faust´s ashtray.

The girl looked at me questioningly and cocked her head, but her features were very much wary. Not surprising, she did look kinda young after all. Agh, and then I realized I still had my helmet on, which more than did its job of both protecting my precious mug and making me look awesome. I promptly removed it and allowed her to see I was... well, that I looked humanoid, at least.

"Oh come on now, please don´t give me this frightened squirrel look, come out, despite looking like it I won´t bite." It took every ounce of willpower in my body not to add a 'hard' at the end. Perviness was something that could botch up first contact like a lead pipe to the face.

I waited her out, keeping my friendly smile and trying not to lose my patience. Sure enough, she hesitantly stepped out. Heh, my winning personality works, who cares what my BFF used to say? Now that she stepped out, I could see she was in dire need of some sun. Seriously, the girl looked pale as a ghost. A bit more and she might would become see-through. She wore jeans and tied around her waist were the sleeves of a gray hoodie and on her torso was a plain sky blue shirt. To sum it up, she looked like a picture book example of a background character. Maybe she was from some kind of Indie game?

"'Sup," I said. "Name's Umbra, the Overlady and one of any number of Multiverse trekkies. And who might you be?" Yepp, I´m smooth as fuck.

She eyed me up and down, no doubt awestruck by my presence and amazingly cool armor.

"What are you supposed to be, some kind of demon?" She asked bluntly.

"Tha... Wha... some kind of demon?!" I spluttered. "Look, squirt, I'll give you a pass because you're obviously not aware of who I am, but don't compare me to some common, everyday 'I'll possess you and make you do evil shit!' Demon. I´ll have you know that I, Fräulein, am a bona fide Dark Ruler, otherwise known as an Overlord or in my case, the Overlady."
If she was affected my outburst, she did not show it, but now that she gave me yet another once over, a look of realization began to dawn on her features.

I couldn't help but smile and answered her unspoken question. "That's right, I am a Displaced who dressed up as the Overlord. Pretty sweet armor, eh?" I said smugly and half turned, taking a pose to show off said armor.

"Displaced?"

I nodded. "Ja, I got sent here by that asshole merchant, same as you. Now, what exactly did you go dressed as, lonely wandering girl? You have this distinct Indie game vibe to you." I asked cheekily.

By the way she looked at me, you'd think I'd just professed my undying love for her. "What are you even talking about?"

I sighed. This girl was really putting a damper on my mojo, and I'd been working on my introduction to other Displaced for days! Well, maybe more like a couple of times in front of my bathroom mirror, but I put a great deal of thought into it.

"Okay, let´s do this slowly then, kay? I give you my name, how about you do me the same courtesy? I'll start, my name is Umbra. What's yours?" I said pleasantly and held my hand out to her.

It took her but a brief second of indecision before grasping my armored gauntlet with her own hand. "I'm Jacqueline."

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" I said with a smile. "So tell me, Jackie, can I call you Jackie?" I continued, channeling my inner Disney Hades masterfully.

"No."

"Anyway, was it you who summoned me here? Did you find my token, a small iron pendant on a leather string?"

Her brow furrowed. "Token? You mean this thing?" She said, holding up said token after pulling it out of her pocket.

"Yep, that's the one." I smirked, giving the pendant a small tap that made it swing gently. "Seeing as you don´t know fluff bout the whole she-bang you are in, let aunty Umbra tell you about it. Ahem, when a Displaced channels some of his or her inner power, chi, ki, mana, mojo or however you wanna call your spiritual and magical juice into a small object that represents them best and sends it out into the Void between the many, many, maaaaaaaaa~aany Verses the Multiverse is composed of to be summoned by other individuals, this little thingamajig is called a Token. Think of it like the soapstones in Dark Souls or if you want it really simple, an invite for Co-Op during an online match. Normally, these invites are used by other Displaced when they are in a pinch and need some extra oomph to show whoever is on the receiving end not to mess with us Displaced or if they are in need of advice, are curious what the little talking thingamabob does they just found or when they feel like having something else but little technicolor ponies or anthro ponies for company. You with me so far?"

"What's an anthro pony?"

I swear, I very nearly did an anime facevault. "You're kidding. You're kidding, right?"

She shrugged, looking as clueless as ever. Oh, for the love of... "They're ponies, only anthro. You know", I made some sort of gesture with my hand. "They stand upright, have bodies like people, only with hooves instead of feet. Fur covering their skin and muzzles on their faces, tails, horse ears, all that jazz."

"That sounds... disgusting," she said, her face twisted into a grimace.

"Don´t knock it till you laid it." My mouth blurted out before my higher cognitive functions could prevent it.

She opened her mouth to say something, but she was prevented from doing so and looked at me with something akin to horror. "Wait, what?"

I cleared my throat. "Anyway, I take it you've already met the ponies?"

"Ponies? As in small, pastel, bug-eyed little shitbags?"

Well, that's certainly a new way to refer to them. "Well, I would call them 'plate eyed' since their eyes are so fucking huge but yes. But hey, that´s the way Hasbro and Miss Faust made them. After all, it’s a show for what, twelve years old girls? You should know it, all other Displaced I met so far do."

"And why do you keep calling me a Displaced? I'm not Displaced. I'm here because some greasy creep used some powers or something and plunged me into this cursed ponyworld."

"Those weird powers are called magic dear," I said, casually letting my Corruption flare in my hand before extinguishing it as fast "and the greasy creep was some eldritch abomination that likes to rip humans from their cozy lives and toss them into all kind of different version of the Saturday morning cartoon 'My little Pony'. Thus the name Displaced, cause we all hail from another place or something like that. Zinnia never really explained the origin of the name to me. And since you, my dearest Jaqueline are clearly from good old Terra, this makes you a Displaced." I punctuated the last sentence by playfully bobbing the girls nose. "Also, from how you speak about your version of Equestria, name of this whole land by the way, the Ponies put you through some kind of wringer or gave you shit for just being different hn? That seems to be the norm in most 'feral' or 'classic' Verses. Hypocritical little shits, all talking bout Love and Tolerance but only as long as you are a Pony yourself. Be another race and they shun you or even unleash the Orbital Rainbow Cannon at you, turning you into a lawn ornament for the next millennium, give or take," I huffed a bit after my mini rant before I managed to collect myself again. "Wanna talk about it? Tell me a bit about your version of the show?"

"...What?"

This time I could not hold back a full fledged facepalm. "Sweet black fucking Sabbath, girl. What am I, talking in another language or something?"

She crossed her arms, scowling.

I sighed. "Alright, look, let's just start with the basics and see if I can catch you up. Have you met the Mane Six?"

"Mane... six?" She asked lamely.

"Really, not even them? What kind of pegasister are you?"

She looked even more baffled than before.

"Are you even aware of My Little Pony?"

A shake of her head.

"Then how did you even wind up in this world?"

"I ask myself that question every day," she said without a trace of humor.

I sighed yet again. This girl just seemed determined to make things difficult. "Alright squirt, I'll tell you again, and pay close attention because this'll be the last time I explain it. There is such a thing as the Multiverse and within that Multiverse are any number of infinite universes that are parallels to your own. You with me so far?" She nodded. "Alright. Now, within many of those alternate universes there exists a show called My Little Pony, specifically the fourth generation created by the lovely Lauren Faust and which has spawned a cult following of men and women of all ages throughout the world. Still following?" She nodded again, though there was clear skepticism on her face. "So the dealio here is that in several of the universes there are people like me, called Displaced. At one point in time we were average Joes and Janes, but be it by fate or coincidence, every single one of us attended a fateful convention where this 'greasy creep' as you call him, took us from our world and plunged us into this fictional cartoon universe based on a show for little girls. Now here's where it gets interesting. In doing so, the 'creep', us Displaced call him the Merchant since he usually poses as one, gives us powers that correspond to whatever we went dressed as. Since I dressed like the Overlord from the same game, I now have access to all of his abilities. If you were to dress like, say, Supergirl, you would have access to all of her abilities after the Merchant sent you here. Do you understand now?"

She looked down, her expression ponderous. Heh, she was kinda pretty. "I think so," she murmured. I guess if she really wasn't aware of all this by now, it must have been a lot to take in. "Multiverse, Displaced, little girl's show... what the hell," she said probably more to herself than me.

"You know what the weird thing is?" She asked rhetorically. "That explanation actually kind of makes sense. After everything I've seen..." She trailed off.

"Let me guess, it's the cartoony state of things that got you at first, wasn't it?"

She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, tell me about it. First time I opened my eyes here I thought I was high or something."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Really now? You get high a lot? I mean, no offense but you look kinda young. Are you even old enough to drive?"

"Yes I am. Shut up. And if I thought I was high, it's because this Merchant creep of yours ambushed me in a greasy alley, injected me with some sort of eldritch, psychedelic drug and next thing I know, I wake up in this pastel colored, ponyworld infested with all sorts of freaks, idiots and hedonists." The way she said it, all in a deadpan monotone made me question whether it was all true or just her way of being sarcastic. Couldn't tell which.

"Yeah. Well..." I chuckled awkwardly, fidgeting, not that she seemed to notice, for her gaze turned introspective, her scowl deepened, probably recalling her first memories here. I'm guessing they weren't very pleasant.

"So," she said, shaking herself out of her musing and returning attention to yours truly. "Displaced, gender-bent Overlord, huh? Were you from Earth too?" Man, the way she looked at me, you'd think I was about to prove or disprove the existence of God. She looked at me with intense focus and scrutiny, her eyes searching mine for any sign of deceit.

"Of course I'm from Earth, girl. Didn't I just tell ya?" I said with a laugh. "Germany, to be exact, hence the accent, in good old Nordrhein Westfalen. And you, what city do you hail from, squirt? I'm guessing you're one of our neighbors over the Atlantic?"

Weird girl was weird. She stepped forward, hesitantly, and the features of her little mug shifted as she looked at me in a completely new light. Like a starving man looking at a stuffed crust meat lover's pizza, or a pirate leering at a mountain's worth of booty. She took a step closer and I couldn't help but notice the difference in height between us with me being my awesome one meter eighty tall (plus boots) while Jackie seemed to be a whole head smaller. Then, the corners of her mouth twitched upward, slowly stretching until there was an honest to goodness smile of pure joy on her little face.

"You... you're like me?" She chuckled. A small, disbelieving sound. "I didn't think I'd ever see someone else. I... I thought I would die in this wretched world and never see someone else again a-and you... you're here and..." The poor girl looked so overwhelmed that words failed her. I admit, I'd never seen anyone look at me quite like that. Like a precious treasure she had only dreamed of, but thought unattainable.

Then she did something I honestly never would have seen coming. She grasped my shoulders, pulled me down and met my lips with hers, enveloping me in a fierce, passionate kiss. So stunned was I that my brain momentarily shut off for the moment and I reacted on pure instinct. I kissed back, with quite a bit of skill, mind you. Heh, I don't think she realized what she was doing. She held the position for about five Mississippi's before a dawning look of horror spread throughout her features. Her attitude then made a full one-eighty, and where not a moment ago I was enjoying her eager, if unskilled smooch, I now found her hands shoving me away with enough force to send me flying backwards by quite a smidge where I landed heavily on my back.

"Oh... oh, god. I can't believe I just did that." I heard her choke out and sure enough, she promptly began spitting to get 'me' out of her mouth. I might have been offended had it not been so funny.

Suppressing a massive grin, I deftly got back to my armored feet and busted myself off. The poor girl had her back turned to me, arm furiously rubbing at her mouth and muttering a number of things under her breath. So busy was she freaking out she did not notice me sidle right next to her."Oh my, Fräulein [Miss] Jacqueline," I tried to say in a sultry tone, though it came out as mirthful more than anything. "I´m quite flattered but I'm afraid I am already taken. Not that my girlfriend would mind. I am pretty sure Zinnia would be all in for a threesome with a cutie like you but I somehow have the distinct feeling that this was a spur of the moment thing and you normally don´t bat for the other team. Still..." I trailed off, making sure she was looking at me and used the tip of my tongue to slowly give my lips a once over and smacked them like a connoisseur assessing a particularly fine wine. "I´d give this kiss eight from ten possible points. Would smooch again." I quibbed, a mischievous grin etched on my face before I clasped my hands behind my back and leaned forward, shooting little Jackie my best shit eating smile.

"What? You sound like a pervert for Chrissakes!" Her voice cracked and backed away a good distance from me.

I could not hold it back any longer and burst out in a full bellied laugh. Man, was this girl inexperienced. "Oh, come off it, squirt. I'm only joking. Besides, you're... what, fourteen?"

"I'm sixteen!" She snapped irritably.

"Still, a whole ten years too young for me. Now, do you understand what I tried to explain to you? Displaced, tokens, multiverse, all that jazz?"

She grimaced, eyes closed shut, obviously trying to put what just transpired to the dankest, darkest corner of her head. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Hard to believe it makes sense," She mumbled.

I nodded concedingly. "Ja, I know what you mean, kiddo. But hey, at least you know you're not the only one. There's many more like us out there and who knows, you may yet get to meet some of them."

"Wait," she said suddenly, looking up at me with a newfound spark of hope in her eyes. "If you can do all this dimension hopping thing, does that mean you could get me back to Earth?"

I sucked in a breath through my teeth. "Ahh... no, Fräulein. I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. There's no way to get back, as far as I know. Sorry..." I trailed off lamely. Girl looked disappointed, that's for sure, but not as much as I'd have imagined. She looked bitter, more than anything.

"Typical. Just my luck," she mumbled darkly, more to herself than to me. "So, do you maybe know a way out of this desert? I really gotta get back."

"Let me guess, to Ponyville, right?"

She looked at me strangely. "Uh, yeah. How did you know?"

I scoffed. "Please, girl. About ninety percent of all Displaced wind up somewhere in that little horsetown. It's like a magnet for strange and unusual, don't you know?" I clapped my hands loudly but suddenly, I felt the familiar tug of an opening portal inside my mind "Well then, looks like the Universe thinks that you don't really need me to stick around, seeing as it is about to get me back into my own Verse. Fucking random summon timers. But hey, I like you, kid. Gimme a holler if you ever need a helping hand with a baddie or a beastie or anything of the sort, ja?"

"W-wait, wha... you're leaving?"

I sighed and looked back at her. "Well, yeah. The whole point of the tokens is for you to summon me whenever you're in a pinch. When you got a monster or a baddie or something that needs an extra set of hands to take down. The only drawback is that the summons have a rather random timer that I can not influence and right now, I am about to get sucked back because reasons. Anyway, Jackie, it's been a pleasure to meet you. Let's do this again sometime, ja?"

"B-bu... wait!" She yelled out and in the blink of an eye, she was there, right next to me and clasping my forearm with her two small hands, her eyes looking up at me in panic. "Where am I supposed to go? I-I can't find my way around these badlands. I'll get lost and starve to death!"

I couldn't help but chuckle and tousled her already messy hair, making it even more spiky. "Oh, don't worry, kiddo. Believe it or not, I actually do know where we are, more or less. See where I'm pointing?" She followed my arm west. "Just keep on heading that way. About an hour or two and you'll see Appaloosa just on the horizon. Just ask for help or whatever and the ponies'll take care of you. Now if you'll excuse me, momma's got to get on going."

Removing my hand from her grasp, I walked a little distance away as I felt the portal open up that would take me home. Huh, this was odd. Where it normally would appear under me, it now stood at least twenty meters in the air and its... I dunno, gravitational pull or something grabbed ahold of my body and I found myself steadily floating off the ground.
I chanced one last look at Jackie. The girl was looking up at me, her face the epitome of anxiousness. She continuously wrung her hands and bit her lip. D'aww, was she worried about me or something? That's sweet. I was about to raise my hand and wave goodbye to assure her nothing was wrong when the squirt exploded into action.

Before I knew it, she dashed forward and jumped, latching on to my ascending midsection like a koala. A rabid one!

"What in the...! Get off me, girl! You're not supposed to come! You don’t have a token out so I will maybe not be able to send you back. You would be stranded in my Verse!" Yikes, so apparently freakish strength was one of the girl's powers. I literally felt her steadily crushing my spine.

"No! Please take me with you! If I have to remain the only sane person in this heathen horse land I will literally die!" She cried out in desperation and tightened her hold on me.

With a growl escaping my throat, I did what I could to pry her off. One armored gauntlet went for her head while the other headed straight for her collarbone. "Fuck, let me go already you crazy, goddamned Gör [Brat]! I can't fucking breathe!" I gasped out with as much venom as I could.

"No!"

"Get off!" I tried a judo chop at her head. In retaliation, the crazy strong little girl reared back and socked me with an honest to goodness headbutt in the gut. The wind was literally knocked out of me, even through my thick armor. Fuck, that hurt! So much so that I hung there limp in midair, gasping in desperation and tried in vain to clutch at my poor stomach, only there was a head where my aching gut should be.

And all the while we were still heading into the depths of the portal. Jackie herself looked none too sure about heading deep into it, but her hold did not waver in the least.

Well, I was too out of it to do much. Our trajectory led us into the portal, which closed immediately and we were there, floating aimlessly in the space between dimensions. Well, at least when I got back to my tower I could give the little brat a lesson or two on respecting her elders and send her on her way. Maybe putting her over my knee and giving her a long due spanking would do her some good!

Of course, that cunt Fate and her pimp Murphy reared up their heads again from the putrescent cesspool of bad luck and broken dreams that they dwelled on and saw it fit to render those plans moot.

Something happened. I'm not sure what it was. The dimension around us warped and distorted, flashing in a myriad of colors, not unlike the effects of dropping acid. Jackie could see it too, and she looked nervously all around her. Her grip slackened and though it was relieving to be free of the crushing pressure, I knew this was not the time to celebrate.
Something was wrong. There was a force that interfered with the delicate balance of the energies that governed the space between worlds.

I tried to concentrate and extend my senses, which was particularly hard to do when you have a stabbing pain in your gut. It hurt nearly worse than my first period! I did not have to look far to see the cause of the problem, and that very same problem was currently latched onto me. Looking at Jaqueline's small frame, my eyes stung from what I saw. Where I normally would see a single dominant or main mass of Ley or Life Force, sometimes with another, underlying color I was greeted with a pure hurricane of chaotic colors. It was like watching a broken kaleidoscope. Not only the were the main colors yellow/brown, red, blue and green swirling around in Jackie like a pissed of swarm of killer bees, there where also amalgams like purple, white and even black. The Ley was shifting constantly, sometimes a single color, sometimes dozens over dozens. It was... pure chaos.

Fuck, whatever it was this girl had inside her it was majorly screwing up with the fabric of space and time. If this kept on going then... well, comic book law dictates that messing around with this was probably bad for the Multiverse. Like in the end of all things existing bad.

If I didn’t do something then we would be well and thoroughly screwed.

I closed my eyes and breathed, trying to calm, focus, and harness the reserves of Mana within me. I closed my arms around the increasingly freaked out girl, holding her close to me, even going as far as gently stroking her messy mob of hair to soothe her. Her grip shifted to hold on to me more securely.

I used my own Manaflow to absorb as much of the magic that leaked off the girl and that was screwing up the space around us. Gott im Himmel [God in heaven], it was hard. The stuff leaked off of her like water off a broken faucet. Not to mention that it felt like I was guzzling down gallons of rancid fish oil! Never before I literally tasted Ley but the first time I did, it nearly made me puke. Typical!

The space around us stabilized, but there were trickles that escaped despite my best efforts. We were like that for a while, Jacqueline tried asking questions in regard to what was going on, but I didn't answer. I was a little busy trying to keep the Multiverse from imploding! Also, speaking through gritted teeth, nah, does not really work.

If that wasn't bad enough, our return trip wasn't exactly fast and the more time passed, the lower my Mana reserves got, the more tired I was and the more likely it was that the energy leeching off her would escape my attempts to contain it.

Sure enough, it happened. More of that cursed power leaked off of her. My head was pounding. Stars danced across my eyes and all around us, the corridor between worlds grew more unstable.

I'm not all that clear what happened next. Maybe the Multiverse knew that prolonging our trip would be catastrophic. Who knows. But whatever it was that was inside this girl, the Multiverse wanted it out as quick as possible. So it did.

We were meant to appear back in my tower, but somewhere along the way we got derailed. We reached my universe, the portal opened and we were spat back out.

The first thing I noticed was the cold. The next thing I noticed was the white all around us, and the next thing I noticed was the fact we were falling from the sky.

Jackie had let go of me at some point and there she was, barely visible over the vicious snowstorm, flailing her arms and cursing. Me, I was drained. I knew I was in danger of becoming a bloody smear on the increasingly growing blanket of white beneath us, with a miniscule chance of being revived afterwards. I wanted to something, anything, to help stop our fall, but I had overexerted myself. My Mana reserves were depleted and it was all I could do stay conscious in spite of the pounding headache.

Well, not the way I imagined I'd go, but it probably wouldn't hurt. Too much.

I was half conscious at this point, but somewhere through the haze, I could hear Jackie's voice crying out my name. I felt two small, but strong hands grip me and she held me close, shouting any number of things I could barely make out. Only thing I managed to do in my dazed state was to bring my arms around Jackie, in the vain hope that I might be able to act as some kind of cushion for her to soften her impact.

Suddenly, my body shook violently and explosive sound resonated all around me, like crushed stone and from the corner of my eye I could make out pebbles, boulders and debris that resulted from whatever had happened. Huh, I think we hit the side of a mountain or something.

...And we were not dead.

Well, what do you know?

Regardless, we were still falling. Jackie's hold on me slipped and I went flying from her grasp.

Finally, I hit the ground and everything went dark.

Author's Notes:

SK: Howdy, hallo, salut and welcome to all of you wonderful peeps and peepettes. Today, I have a special treat for you with this chapter, or rather we have a special treat for you, ain´t that right Arre?

ACC:Yup, yup. Arre here, pony fiction writer extraordinaire... hey, why are you laughing, Katze?! Smartass...

SK: Hey, I'll have you know that my arse has a PhD in Jigglyness, Bouncyness AND Humina humina humina!

ACC: Now, now, Katze. You should know by this point that I do not longer fall prey to you and your sweet lil' rump. Let's at least pretend to try to appear professional, shall we? We don't want to give your poor, innocent readers an idea of what we get up to away from prying eyes.Getting back to our main topic; for the past several months, this lovely German maiden and I have been plotting and scheming in secret, bringing our collective--and slightly demented--noggins together to bring you this, one of a multi part collab between Overlady and my own story, The Heartless Renegade. But I'll let my co-author fill you in a little. Take it from here, would ya?

SK: Ehrm, I mean, yes indeed my dear Arre. Allow me to explain a bit.
So as most of you know, my person is a rather prolific author in the Displaced genre with my story Overlady - Loot Equestria. It was an admittedly rough start but thankfully, somewhere along the way I happened to meet this wonderful example of a `Murican Gentleman going by the pen-name of ArreClonClipo who was willing to act as my proof reader for my numerous horsewords and as an advisor for the more grim aspects of my story since I initially sorely lacked in that department.

As time went, I decided to give Arre's very own story a read which is a take on the still very popular YHaY (or Your Human and You) genre which tends to be rather grim by nature so I in turn volunteered to act as an advisor for the comedic and in general more lighter aspects such a story could entail and after a while, I came across the question "Hey, what ever could happen if my very own Umbra the Overlady and Arre's Jacqueline the heartless Renegade where to meet by crazy cosmic chances?" and this thought soon gave birth to numberless childs which never one second ceased to harass me.

So I proposed to Arre... stop snickering you Vollpfosten! As I where, I told Arre of my idea and lo, he was all "Sure, let´s give it a whirl" after a while.

This means that you, oh esteemed readers of silly horsewords, will be able to hopefully enjoy a full arc of silly shenanigans, comedic character development, bloodsoaked battles and d´aww inducing bonding scenes between our girls, for now. And in the future, there is a good chance that little Jacqueline will now and then rear her pixie cut decorated head in Umbras little corner of the Multiverse to pay her new friend a visit, wreak all kinds of havoc and bestow the one or another grey hair on Umbra.

All these adventures will be full on canon in my story Overlady and to yet not defined degrees semi to full canon in The heartless Renegade.

Also, Jackie, despite technicaly fitting the description of a 08/15 Displaced, is NOT one of them. So no token per se for little Jaqueline.

Yes, that means no one else in the wide, wide Multiverse is going to get playing with Jackie, except Umbra.

ACC: And so, for the past several months, Katze and I brainstormed on how to make a good, believable crossover that(hopefully) won't grow stale and so our efforts resulted in this little lovechild of a collab--which will be long, by the way--that's sure to keep you entertained throughout its many, many horsewords. Countless hours, frustration on both parts and more than a few bouts of mental fatigue were endured to bring about this final product and maybe a temporary fit of dementia or two(but damn if it wasn't fun) but we both managed to stay relatively sane through it all. The mindlink can be a bit unnerving at times though...

SK: Yes, the mindlink... Weird psychic connections aside, I wholeheartedly agree on every aspect. Working with Arre soon turned into the highlight of my week and will continue to be that hopefully for quite some time.

ACC: Well, I think we will leave it at this for now seeing as our screentime is almost over again.

SK: I am Schrödingers Katze.

ACC: And I am ArreClonClipo.

Both: Good Fight, good night!