What the ever-loving fuck was happening? At one moment Wade was right in front of me, the next he was... Oh!

"Guess that was his taxi home then hn?" I asked the empty chair in front of me. Then my eyes fell onto the chessboard. "Damn, he got me good there. Damn you Copy Belle for your distracting cuteness!"

"Umbra, the Overlady! I call upon thee, to right what has been wronged! We must finish our fight, of that we must be certain! Come, Overlady! Come and face your DOOOOOOOOM!"

"Who said that? Wade?" A little frantic, I looked around the lounge as suddenly a feeling of weightlessness began to envelope me and blue light burst from the ground underneath me.

"Oh for the love of..."

Light blinded me, my blood roared in my ears and suddenly I felt like I had pulled an emergency break maneuver while driving 80 kilometers per hour.

I hate this feeling, always feels like I was about to puke.

The light around me faded and my hearing returned to me. Disoriented I looked around.

Hmm, some kind of small room. Kinda cozy. Hey, are the walls made of diamonds? Am I in the Crystal Empire? Then my eyes fell on something familiar. Or rather someone. Just below me laid Wade and I was straddling his waist in a totally not compromising perfect Cowgirl.

"Wade?" the voice of an annoying boy/the daughter of Quasi-Satan/an arachnoid robot and many more could be heard from behind us.
Oh Gods above, this was…

This was...

Aw man!

Just the moment I regained most of my orientation, nopony else but OCD Mc Sparklebutt herself came crashing into the room, promptly fired up her magic and dragged the two of us of to some kind of living room.

This short levitation trip gave me a few useful info’s about Wades verse. First, Twilight was already an Alicorn and two, her Friendship Palace was already out so that meant Tirek was back in Tartarus. Goody, less competition. Third, I was missing my helmet and my mace, so I guess you get called in your momentary state if your token is activated. Good to know, that meant no more sleeping in the buff.

With a good amount of interest, I watched Twilight produce a quill and a notepad from somewhere after more or less gently placing us at different ends of a couch and sat herself on a chair opposite of us.

Hm, had something of an angry Parent. Shotgun talk, pony style. Hey, she´s talking!

"Seeing as you're currently living in my house, I feel I need to lay down a few ground rules. First and foremost. My home is not a place you can bring your otherworldly friends for some 'wedlock loving', if you insist on doing stuff like that then do it at their houses. In a word?" She wrote something on her pad, then turned it to face us. It read ‘No Hanky Panky.’

That did it. I quite literally exploded into hollering laughter.

For the next few minutes my whole world consisted only of laughing my ass of and gasping for air. Finally, with aching sides and cheeks, I managed to get somewhat of a hold of myself. Whipping a tear from my eyes, I addressed the obviously not amused Alicorn.

"Wow, you thought we where about to fuck? Seriously? Well, I have you know that I neither putt out nor let anyone into my panties before the third date. Plus," I put on a devious smile and looked over to Wade who seemed to try and merge his face into his hands "IF, big if mind you, Wadey-kins here where to make a homerun on me, there would be a lot more things involved. Chains, cuffs, a ball-gag, a blindfold, a nice and tight corsage, some nice thigh high boots, candles, a riding crop..."

I went on for a while, casually listing a few of my tamer kinks until Twilight looked like a steaming tea pot and Wade like he was this close to suffering a shame induced facemeltdown.

Heh, this is fun. >:3

"Stop stop stop stop!" Wade pleaded, waving his hands "I actually want her to like you, not think you're some kind of sex fiend..." He sighed and continued. "Twilight, she just came by to finish a game of chess, NOTHING NSFW was happening, I SWEAR."

Aww, you no fun Wadey-kins.

We spend a minute or so watching Princess Purple hyperventilate before she finally calmed herself. I halfway through expected her to start breathing in a paper bag. Ah well.

Suddenly a weird glint appeared in her eyes and all my senses screamed RUN at me simultaneously.

"So then, are you from another Equestria? What is it like? Is there another me there? What are you, your skeletal structure looks similar to Wades, but your skin and other..." she stopped to check out my armors chest area, "areas appear different. Are you a female? Are you the standard template of what a human female looks like? Are you dating Wade? To be honest for a while there I thought he was a colt-cuddler, but I guess that clears that up... Are you a warrior? What’s your armor made out of? I sense a strange magical index from you, would you mind if I gave you some tests?"

Feeling already a bit dizzy from the barrage of questions, I raised a hand and thank all dark Gods in existence, she stopped.

I took a deep breath.

"Yes I am. I am afraid I can´t really say that. Until now I was stuck in the Badlands, giving my best not to be eaten by Dragons and avoiding being cut to giblets by a mad Unicorn Scientist named Crystal Flask to achieve some obscure 'Unicorn Supremacy like in the time of the three Tribes' Bullshit and liberating a stolen Minion Hive from a pack of Diamond Dogs. Is there another you? Given the Multiverse´ tendency to fuck me over, probably. I had not the pleasure to meet her yet. If it is a her. Maybe my Equestria is a Verse with swapped genders and your counterpart is a guy? For what I am? I am... complicated. Yes, I am similar to Wade in many aspects and yes, I am indeed a female. Women would be the term you are looking for. The things you seem to find so interesting at my chest are my breasts. Hmm, change my skins color to one similar to Wades and replace my eyes for some like Wades, make me one or two heads smaller and then you have pretty much the standard human female. No, I am not dating Wade. Not yet at least. For now, I just enjoy antagonizing and embarrassing him."

I was forced to pause here to replenish my oxygen reserves. Damn, how does she and Pinkie manage those question salvos like it was nothing?

"Yes, I´m pretty much a warrior but also a practitioner of, until now, combat based magic. Hmm, what does that make me effectively? A Witch-Warrior? No, too much armor. Dark Paladin? Hell no! Deathknight? Nope, my heart is still beating. Anyhow, my armor. It’s mainly made of the best steel you can get on the market, infused with the souls of one hundred Brown Minions and fifty each from the Reds, Greens and Blues. You want to do some tests? Feel free but I cannot guarantee that you will like what you eventually find. Oh, my name is Umbra by the way."

Twilights eyes had actually gone blank near the start of my little rant and you could almost hear all the little gears turning in her head. Finally, she responded.

"But...I've met Crystal Flask, he's a nice guy..." Twilight slightly halted, looking at me slightly worried but continued just the nonetheless "He's the head of the CCR, there’s no way he could be a supremacist or anything like that!"

"Seriously Twilight? She says all of THAT and the only thing you take away from it is THAT? Who cares what her world version this guy is, obviously it’s different." Wade threw in his two cents.

"Nice Guy? NICE GUY??" I all but roared, jumping straight up "And he is still alive? Where is that fucker? What´s this CCR?"

I felt the oh so familiar flames of hatred igniting in my stomach again. My hands clenched and opened up in short intervals, causing my gauntlets to creak and the urge to annihilate this fucker again in this universe began to creep in my mind, pushing everything else in the background. Kill him. Maim him. BURN HIM!

Hitting the mental brakes with both feed simultaneously, I slowly forced all my tension out of my system in overly controlled breaths, before slumping down on the couch again. "Y´know what, I don´t care! He´s your universes problem, I already took care of mine." I managend to press out. Yep, don´t need another bloodbath right now, had my quota for the next day’s already.

"He's not a problem! Whats the matter with you?!!?" Twilight yelled at me, levitating her upturned chair to an standing position after crawling back out from underneath it. "Professor Flask is the leading herpetologist in Equestria! His findings have advanced medical study by decades, and after all that, he's dedicated his time to bettering pony-changeling relations! Why, I ask you, would somepony like that POSSIBLY be some sort of wackjob 'tribalist'? Obviously you got the name wrong in your world, cause there’s no way somepony like Professor Flask would ever be like that. You're wrong!"

Twilight stalked off, mumbling to herself, before settling once more into her chair.

Trying my best not to melt a hole into Twilights face with my glare I huffed. "Hm, you know Twi, let me tell you one thing: the brighter the Light, the darker the Shadows it produces. Maybe your Crystal Flask is a nice guy, maybe he is just a brilliant actor. He wears small, round glasses, his mane and tail are of a light grey color, his coat is somewhat ochre-ish and his eyes jade green. He has an assistant, a Unicorn mare by the name of Dawn. She has a cream colored coat, her mane and tail are chestnut brown, she dons her mane in a braid and has beautiful aqua blue eyes."

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Just telling you this in chase the good Prof suddenly starts hiring Griffin mercs and the mysterious deaths of dragons and other exotic beings starting to amass, so you can´t say I did not warned you."

With a deflating sigh, I gave a weak smile. "It´s just hard to sympathize with someone who tried to gut me and my best friend like fish. Can we… change the topic? Please?"

Twilight had a look of concentration on her face, like she was trying to remember something very, very hard. "Are you sure her name was Dawn? It wasn't ANYPONY else? It couldn't possibly be some OTHER Unicorn mare with a cream colored coat, brown mane and tail, and aqua blue eyes?"

In the blink of an eye (maybe she really blinked herself), Twilight was on top of me. Quite literally. She was so close to me, I could smell the Dandelion Sandwich she must have eaten earlier. She was literally crawling in my face, pinning her front legs on my shoulders while her wings were beating so fast that they were but a lavender blur. Reminded me of a hummingbird, he he.

"TELL ME!"

This outburst instilled a minimal grain of fear of the purple Alicorn in me.

"Yes. Her name was Dawn, as sure as Celestia raises the sun and Luna the moon. No mistake possible." I rasped.

"I'm...I'm sure thats just coincidence... Yeah! It has to be...or you simply met an earlier version... a DIFFERENT earlier version! YEAH!" The slightly manic mare was on the verge of rambling. I think a saw a few strand of her mane going Sproing already.

"Twilight?" Wade asked, causing her to whip her head threateningly towards him.

"WHAT!??!"

"Do you really have to do this from a position that makes it look like you're trying to rape her?"

After a bout of sputtering, she lowered herself to the floor once more.

"So who the heck is Dawn, and why are you having a panic attack?" Wade asked, probably intending to defuse the situation. All he did was transferring Twilight attention to himself.

"Dawn Delight was Proffessor Flask's research assistant, back before he came across his first dragon corpse and truly started his research into their biology. Some account say she left with him on that expedition, but she didn't return with him...From his own reports they had a falling out before his expedition, and that was the last he ever saw of her..."

"So? whats that have to do with anything? So they had a spat, and never talked to each other after that-" Wade tried but Twilight continued in the slightly hushed tone of conspiracy nutcases.

"You're missing the point, NOPONY ever saw her again, she left a note saying she was tired with life, and was just going to walk into the Everfree forest to end it! And after? When they showed the note to her mother?" She leaned in close, her voice dropping to a whisper, "It turns out it wasn't her hoofwriting."

Listening to Twilight and Wades conversation, ice began to spread in my stomach where a few moments ago an inferno was raging. This was oh so fucked up on every imaginable scale! I don´t know why but somehow I had hoped Twilight had been right with her accusation that I simply had been mistaken. You did not need to be a Horatio or a Sherlock to put those puzzle pieces Twilight was presenting us here together in the right order.

Fuck you Muliverse!

"So they had a spat about working ethics, Chrystal Flask had his goons off his assistant or he even offed her himself to keep his terrible, little secret a secret, buried her body in an unmarked grave somewhere and then he a faked a suicide note. You know, now I am really glad that I killed that bastard. That means at least in my Universe, I have done one good deed and saved a live." I summed my thoughts up in a flat, nearly monotone voice.

When exactly slipped this from a nice, if slightly awkward conversation into this?

Twilight gave me a disgusted, downright horrified look. "No. I refuse to believe that of him. He may be a bit of a loud mouth, but he is not a murderer. I don't wanna talk about this anymore, have fun with your sadistic… woman of a girlfriend, I'm going to go organize my files." She turned and walked off down the hall with a huff, disappearing from sight.

With Twilight out of sight, all my remaining anger zizzled out in a matter of seconds.

I slumped backwards into the couch with a silent groan. >>Fuck me sideways with a broomstick lit on fire with napalm!<<

"So then! How bout that chess game?" came Wades voice from besides me.

"Wow, you really are an anti-confrontational guy, aren’t you?"

"I'd rather stay out of the way of confrontation, yes. There’s not much I can do about...that whole mess right now, so why stress about it? So whadaya say about that game?" he asked with a hopeful smile.

"Yeah, why not?" I agreed with a sigh "But I may be not at my best though because at the moment I feel like a prisoner on the death-row waiting for the fire squad. Heh, wanna bet how long it will take until Celestia will show up to A) banish me to Tartarus, B) turn me into stone or C) jumps straight to reducing me to a smoldering pile of ash because Twi send her a nice letter about me?"

Wade grimaced visibly at that "If she sent you to...wherever Tartarus is, you'd just poof over to your world eventually. She couldn't stop that. Or at least I don't think she could. Second, aren’t the elements of friendship or whatever needed to enact the 'stoning' ritual? As far as Twilight's told me, they're gone, used to make this castle or whatever. She and her friends can still become imbued with the magic or whatever, but they all have to gather in the castle first. In that one room with all the REALLY uncomfortable looking thrones. So if it comes to that, all you gotta do is bar the front door," he joked. "And if Celestia comes a knocking, you can always just be REALLY friendly and on your best behavior? No sense in antagonizing someone face to face, is there?" Wade asked with a hopeful tone.

"Stoning eh? Think we could maybe talk Sunbutt into sharing her blunt with us if she eventually shows up? Been a while since I had a good one." A small chuckle stole itself from my lips, followed by a shudder at the thought of the pink Demon herself. "Yeah, better not antagonize the Being that has a freakin´ Star as a power source... Hmm, I wonder who would win a match between Last Order Alita versus Celestia?"

Wade stood up and managed a smile. "All~lrighty-then, now where´s that chessboard? We still have a match to finish!"

After a moment of thought Wade yelled down the hallway "HEY TWILIGHT! YOU GOT A CHESS SET??!!?"

No response.

"I...uh...guess we'll have to see if we can find one on our own?" he said with a sheepish smile.

>>You´re lucky that you´re funny and cute Mister.<<

In the following hour we wandered through the freakin labyrinth that was Twi´s palace and boy, did we see some weird shit. Between dozens upon dozens of empty rooms, we stumbled over some really bizarre stuff.

A whole room filled with what looked like... claw clippings? Da fuq?

Another one was filled with really arousing paintings galore of none other than good, ol´ Celestia . God damn, that one over there in the upper corner was really hot!

The last room we checked was filled to the point of bursting with bowls, filled with all variations of pasta. The room was even fully climatized!

"Okay." Wade muttered, sliding into a sitting position with is back against a wall, "I don't think we're going to find a set here. Twilight might actually have one, but seeing as we can't find her, I don't think we're going to find it anytime soon." After looking out of a Window, his face lit up. “I could just go and get Sweetie Belles set, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we borrowed it..."

Leaning against a wall myself, I wiped the sweat from my forehead. "Sounds like a solid idea. Now shoo, of with you. I guess I just wait here. Don´t want to risk a panic eh?"

"Unless you have some sort of transformation power I don't know about, or can become a living shadow or have super snake skills, that might be for the best." Wade nodded.

"Hmm, no to all three and I highly doubt that a cardboard box skittering around would fool even the Ponies." I admitted with a smile. Seriously, the whole Snake in a Box sneaking mechanism, it made just no sense.

"Okay then, I guess I'll head out and try to secure our battleground. Just go back to that library room or something, and waste some time. I'll be back when I can." Wade said before he took his leave.

"Kay, will do. Surely Sparklebutt has some nice books that I can read. Been a while since I read something good. Toddles."

With that, I began my trek back. For a moment I considered trying to find my way back to the what I dubbed ‘the Porn Room’ to maybe "acquire" some decorations for my private quarters but sadly I could not find that room again.

Instead, I found my way back into the cozy living room thingy to where Twilight had dragged us of earlier with uncanny precision. After confirming that the Purple Menace was not around, I inspected the room more closely.

A big couch, a small coffee table, the chair that Twilight had occupied during our initial conversation, a very decorative fern in the corner and of course, lots of books, neatly situated in shelf’s integrated into the walls themselves.

Absentminded, I started to fly over the books backs. Hmm, lots of interesting and sometimes pretty funny titles. Brave Hearts Of Monsters and Mares, Dusty Tomes Equestria during the Ages, Restless Walkers Over the Horizon - Equestrias Neighbors, uuuhh Illousionspells for the daily Use by Mirror Mirage.

Picking the last book, I slouched on the couch and began reading.

"... in order to function, the caster must always maintain a constant flow of Mana. Albeit small, this constant strain can be drain untrained spellcasters very quickly. So the author advices the much appreciated reader to have a small rest and at least a light snack before casting this spell for the first time, in order to have access to a full Manapool."

I rubbed my temple with one hand. Urgh, friggin mini horses and their big words. To describe one, one lousy spell, this Mirror Mirage took nearly ten pages. Ten! I set the open book on the small coffee table, standing up.

The primary thought behind the spell I was reading up was simple enough. Create an Illusion of what you want around you, much like a costume. Sounds simple enough.

Okay, the spell was marked as "Advanced" but what the hell? I´m the fuckin´ Overlady bitches, I can shot fuckin´ brainwashing Sith Lightning’s from my damn hand. An illusionary bodysuit should be a piece of cake, right?

Besides, I hate just sitting around. Plus not looking like me meant I could go out for a bit, stretch my legs, maybe get something sweet to bite. Oh gods above, I so needed something sweet!

"Alright bitches, let´s get this party started!" I mumbled to myself and began to cast. Just like Gnarl had instructed me on our little trek to my future citadels place, I envisioned my body as a river bed, my Mana as the river itself and my hand as a Watergate (however the old Fart had come up with such a Zen sounding way of instruction was beyond me. At least it worked).

Opening the gate, Mana began to flow out. Now for the tricky part. I had to will the Mana to coat my whole body in order to create an Illusion. Easier said than done. After what felt like a literal bucket of wasted magical energy, I finally managed. It felt not like the description in the book (a warm feeling, much like a blanket, it was more like a thin shirt) but that would do for now.

Now for the shape. I closed my eyes for effect and envisioned the form I wanted to take. Four legs, a cute snout, a body with a tiny amount of pudge, nibbleable ears, the manestyle, the tail and my coat. I felt my Mana coating shiver and opened my eye. "Okay, I still see my own nose, not sure if that is supposed to be like that. Now, where is a mirror?"

Oh, the walls are made of crystal, that should do the trick. Hnn, let’s see...

"Gah!"

The thing that looked back at me was a horse. A life sized, slightly distorted, horse! "Well, okay, the black coat and the light brown mane looks good so far but I need to cut the size down." I commented my reflection. Huh, the lip synch was a bit of too.

After several attempts to bring my illusionary body down to regular pony size, I ended up with a body slightly smaller than Big Macintosh, just as a mare with a half-length bed head and a likewise styled tail. After consulting the spellbook once again, I realized that everything I picked up seemed to float as long as I used my disguise so I added a small horn with a fitting light yellow magic aura to my Illusion. The only two things that irked me at the moment were my eyes and my cutie mark. My eyes were still the Overlady style whisps and my mark was the same outline of my helmet that I used for my token. In a bloody red on top of that!

Meh, I could fix this later.

With a nod and a smile, I decided to put my new ability to a test by leaving the palace. Not far, maybe just outside the gate? I could wait for Wade and prank him a little. With a "Avast!" I trotted of. Hmm, my steps still sounded like footsteps instead of hooves. Another thing to fix for the list.

After another round of seek-and-get-lost I managed to find the entrance. Lucky me the big doors were already open. The things looked heavy like hell. With a devious smile, I stepped outside.

Ffffuuuu~ Forget waiting, I´ll go and stretch my legs a bit. The weather was just too good not to.

After the first few steps, I noticed a familiar silhouette vanish between two houses. Wade. I quickened my pace, ignoring the fact that I bumped into a plain beige earth pony stallion that was tending to a cart.

"Hey, watch it! My cabbages!" he yelled after me. Dejá vu.

Nearing the alleyway, I hit the brakes as suddenly Fluttershy emerged from the shadows. Wait, something was of... her mane looked slightly disheveled and she had... bat-wings? Flutterbat, what the ever-loving fuck?

It was bright day and as far as I could remember the Flutterbat would only appear at night and only to hunt for Apples so who was that? A changeling maybe? Or did Fluttershy became Flutterbat permanently in this Verse?

My curiosity sparked I decided to follow her for a bit before I would try to find Wade. If I should not find him in the streets, I still could look for Carousel Boutique, seeing as Wade mentioned that he would get a chess set from there.

We were trotting for a while now, Flutterbat moving with determination while I took the opportunity to take in the sights. We just had left ‘Mane Street’ in a sharp left, leaving the bustling marketplace behind us. It was pretty much like the show depicted it, ponies wandering to and fro, going after their business. I think I even saw Applejack behind her stand, selling apples to a random pony.

The hybrid continued a brisk trot towards, heading directly to an unmistakable building that looked like a merry-go-round. Carrousel Boutique! Now it clicked. That must be Wade, he must somehow had gotten his hands onto this form and probably choose it to not cause a mass panic or something.

Keeping my distance, I followed him/her, using the opportunity to ogle the shapely piece of ass my new friend was shaking around. Yumm, yumm.

Flutterbat disappeared into the clothes shop. I decided to wait outside, a nice little prank already forming in my mind.

While I was waiting, I looked around a bit. To my left, a peculiar shop caught my eye. It was discreetly situated in the alleyway, a rather plain sign over the door proclaiming "Lingerie & Refrigerators” in simple italics. Directly next to a pair of refrigerators that looked like they had been taken straight out of the Sixties an also rather plain poster in the shops window proclaimed proudly “Yes, we have exotic cuts and matching socks too!”

Taking a mental note to check my Verses Ponyville for this store for possible shopping, I did not bother myself at all with the sheer absurdness of a shop that sold lingerie and kitchen furniture in the same place and returned to my original goal.

After a while, Flutterbat reappeared with none other than the genuine Sweetie Belle in tow! The moment I saw her, it took an epic amount of willpower and discipline not to sweep up and hug the stuffing out of that filly instantly. She was every ounce as adorable as Wades copy. All of a sudden, a real Bat appeared from somewhere and latched itself into Flutters mane.

"Ferdy! Did you come to wish me a swift victory on the plains of battle?" Sweetie chirped adorably at this. Even with the distance between us, I could hear the slight cracks in her voice.

"So, come to spend some time with me?" I heard the Copy Fluttershy ask, to which in turn the Bat nodded which somehow caused it´s perch’s whole head to bob and that seemed to amuse Sweetie Belle very much.

Okay, time to enact my devious plan. I took a step forward.

Sweetie Belle went silent as she noticed me first, ducking behind the larger mares legs for protection. The Bat also tried to hide in the vast mass of pink hair it clung to. Finally Wade noticed me and with an immense satisfaction I saw his/her eyes go wide.

Not breaking my silence nor eye contact with Wade, I took two more steps and lumbered over the yellow hybrid. After a few seconds (I just could not bring myself to terrorize the cute white filly behind her any longer), I slowly lowered my head, stuck out my tongue and dragged it deliberately slow from the tip of Flutterbats nose all to way up to her forehead. To my surprise, it was silky and clean. Smacking my mouth a few times, I gave a toothy smile. "Hiya."

"Nyaflgaf...sass...fras.....gyufol...naaaaaaaa?" Flutterbat warbled out in an extremely amusing way.

"Umbra," he managed to choke out, "I thought you said you didn't have any transformation abilities?" Meanwhile Sweetie Belle pried herself from behind Wades legs to get a better look at me.

Giving a chuckle, I twirled around on the spot to show of my disguise. "Well, Twi had a book on that subject lying around so I thought I give it a try. You like?" Additionally I felt the burning desire to wiggle my illusionary rump in his face but seeing as a foal was present I passed on that.

Instead I did my best to look friendly as I noticed that Sweetie slowly left her hiding place to look at me. Crouching a bit I smiled at her. It was just impossible not to, that filly was cute incarnated. "Hey there lil´ one." I cooed, my glee barley contained.

"Umm...hi?" Sweetie Belle started, getting a better look at me now. "Are you... a friend of Wade's?" She asked, cocking her head to the side like a confused puppy. Hnnng!

Oh gods, the cuteness! She´s so precious.

"Why, yes I am." Gently I ruffled Sweetie Belles mane. "My name is Umbra, nice you meet you."

A sudden lightheadedness alarmed me that my Manapool was reaching a dangerous low level. Shaking my head to get rid of the unpleasant feeling, I turned to Wade. "He, not to be rude Wadey-kins but I think we really should go back to Twilights place. I´m running pretty low on juice and the last thing we want now is a panic hn?" I informed with a bit urgently.

"Think you can keep it together till we get back to Twilights?" Wade asked me while picking up Sweetie Belle after what seemed like a moment of musing and slid her onto his back.

I gave a nod and we dashed off to castle Books-a-lot, just to arrive just the moment my last ounce of Mana went up into smoke and the illusion went out right the moment Wade slammed the door shut.

We stood a good while on Twi´s foyer, wheezing our lungs out until Sweetie Belle broke the silence. "How come yours can't be cool like his?"

"Hers." corrected Wade.

I turned around just to see the Unicorn filly give me a big once over before Sweetie Belle nonchalantly statet "Sorry, you just look almost exactly like Wade...different coat color and mane length though...do you have a tail?"

Would I had been drinking something, I would have a showered Wade and the filly with it.

"Pffff... what... I... no, I don´t have a tail. Wade, what ideas gave you these ponies?" I half glared at the shapeshifter.

"I give them no ideas. They make them all on their own." Wade stated, trying to catch his breath himself. Then he started morphing back, disturbing the bat from its perch. The flying mammal clung to the back of his head, transferring to Wades shirt collar once he was done.

"Come on, I wanna try something."

"Try what?" chirped Sweetie Belle.

"I got a couple magic crystal thingies from another version of your sister. Apparently they use them as mana potions." Sweetie Belle perked up at mention of her sister, but didn't interrupt. "I can't use them for some reason, but maybe Umbra can..."

"Sweet..." I half moaned. Crystallized mana potions? Count me in! Being OOM sucked balls, majorly so!

It pretty much felt like a hangover after a week of non-stop drinking combined with the mother of all migraines. Ah and for some weird reason my mouth felt like it was full of cotton.

Plus the fact that, no matter of many vases, crates or other storing objects I checked (meaning smashed them or have my Minions smash them), I never found as much as the peeled off label of a Healing or Mana potion. Guess me and the Minions are the only things transferred into "my" Verse. So I followed Wade, silently cursing God and the world for the motherload of pain that was maltreating my poor head.

"A nice bat you have there by the way" Words pressed themselves out of my mouth for the sake of getting rid of the feeling that it was stuffed with cotton.

"This is Ferdinando-"

"Ferdy!" chirped Sweetie Belle.

"Nickname, but whatever," Wade continued on, finally reaching his room. "Okay so just give me a minute, and we'll see if these work."

"A pleasure my fine Chiroptera." I nodded towards the bat and observed the room for the first time properly. It was pretty minimalistic. A bed (pony size, poor guy), a view shelfs, a bedside table with a lamp.

He started rooting through the chest at the foot of the bed.

"Hmm, what do we have here?" A certain shelf caught my interest. On a single board, sat in an orderly line a single bit with a weird engraving (must be this Auric guys I deducted sharply) a gem of sorts, red so I would say a ruby, with a Tri-Force engraved in it, next to some sort of green bouncy ball, a blue glowing vial that made my skin crawl just by looking at it, a metallic stick that somehow reminded me of a lightsaber, a small silver bell and a honest to goddess pokeball!

Turning to Wade again, I saw him handle some small crystal without any visible result. "That´s one of those mana gems?"

"Yeah," He tossed one over to me, "See if they don't work for you, the way it was described you just have to concentrate on it, and it activates."

After catching the small gem, I took a closer look at it. There was Mana inside, alright but it seemed so miniscule. >>Well, can´t break anything hn?<< I thought and focused on the ge... HOLY HELL! All of a sudden an invigorating feeling rolled over me and banished the army of nasty, little midgets with pickaxes which where torturing my poor brain instantly.

"Wo how Wade, this is rad! My Manapool is re-fuelled to the max and they cured my magic hangover too. These things are the biggest thing since the invention of Toast!"

"Glad they work for you. Here, you can have these too, they don't do anything for me." Wade handed me the other two gems, closing the chest. "Hey, do you find yourself in combat situations often?" He suddenly asked, opening the chest again.

Do I find myself in combat situations often? Well, let’s see: Crackle tried to turn me into coal, Crystal Flask wanted to play real life Dr. Bibber with my organs and hey, let us not forget Steel Fang the Diamond Dog Alpha and his merry gang of mangy mutts that wanted to use my Reds as firelighters and my bones as chew toys! So a big, fat YES to that and somehow I had the feeling that a dozen more battles were still lurking beyond the horizon.

"Why, yes. I think you could say that loud."

"Here." Wade threw me a golden banana. A banana literally made of gold!

I eyed it suspiciously. Hm? Bongo drums? Somehow I recognized the rhythm.

"Ooooooh, banana?" I gave my best Molestia impression.

"That’s a token I can literally think of no use for unless you need a distraction. It belongs to a Displaced who was cosplaying as Donkey Kong, by wearing nothing but a hat and a tie. Not even body paint, if he can be believed. He's a raging..." He glanced at Sweetie.

The filly puffed her cheeks in annoyance "What? My sister is Rarity, she leaves her crummy romance novels EVERYWHERE, nothing you have to say will be able to surprise me." Oh honey, do not challenge me here!

I shuddered due to the lovely mental image of some random guy just dressed in a hat and a red DK tie. >>Ehhwähäää, that´s nearly worse than that one Pinkie Pie cosplayer and her costume consisted only of a wig with ears, a tail-plug and a bucket worth of pink paint.<<

"Well alright then, to not offend delicate ears," Ferdinando the bat got some ear scratchies at this point "I'll simply say that Donkey Kong is one of the biggest perverts you'll ever find. He'll chase anything that moves with the express interest of...having fun with it. And the inhabitants of his world aren't much better in that regard. He has a magic coconut that probably among other things, can summon an unlimited supply of whipped cream. I'm never going to call him, but maybe you can use him as a distraction while you're running from a dragon or something?"

Suddenly a mini-wormhole opened up at face level and a second golden banana made violent contact with Wades face, leaving a bright red, banana shaped print. With a tiny tad of schadenfreude I watched him squirm around on the ground for a while.

"Okay then. I guess that one really is yours now."

"Well then, thanks I guess. Having a scapegoat slash decoy up my sleeve could come handy in the future I guess, if it saves my butt from being horrible mutilated." I stored the token away with the two mana stones into my pouch. "So then, how about we finish our little game now?"

"Allright with me, Sweetie Belle gets winner, that alright with you?"

With a squeal of delight, Sweetie Belle whipped the chessboard and pieces out of her bag with a burst of emerald sparkles. In a few seconds, the game board lay in the middle of the floor with all the pieces in their places. Hnnn, cuteness overload! And hey, Sweetie can to magic pretty well here. Nice.

Wade looked at the board before voicing his confusion. "Ummm, I don't remember where our pieces were...do you?"

"Yes, in fact I do." One of these moments that I was thankful for my visual based memory. I placed what pieces our little massacre had left on the field and took a seat.

"Well, if I recall correct, you just sacked my Queen (internally I cringed at how fast I adapted the pony slang for the pieces so fast), so now it is high time for some sweet, sweet revenge." I stated in a sing song voice and moved my own castle, taking out Wades last one. A pleasant smile formed on my lips as I observed that I now was in a position to thread his King. "Check."

Sweetie Belle looked at the board and back to us, as if confused as to why I had moved my piece there. After a few seconds, Wade slid his knight into position, and watched me with a satisfied smirk.

>>Gah! Okay, stay calm girl. Next shot!<<

"Aaaaaaaaand now you've lost. No matter what you do now, she's going to bottleneck your princess into a checkmate with her scribes and castles." Sweetie Belle pointed out casually.

"Noooo, I could still make a comeback, I still have my queen-" Wade protested.

"Royal knight, and maybe, if you didn't have it way on the other side of the board, pinned against the wall wih your other guard," She pointed at the remaining knight, "As it is, it'll take you two moves to get your royal knight back into play, which you can't really do while you're in check. She's just going to keep herding your princess from this point, until its checkmate."

Wow, I somehow aced it even better than planned!

"Fine, apparently I lose by default, " Wade shot me a look "Looks like you're up to take a beating from her. I shall watch on in muted horror. You were a valued companion, and I shall deeply regret your passing."

Sweetie Belle looked back and forth between us. "I'm not...that good, I swear..."

I resisted the urge to pat her mane reassuring. If I ever learned something, that is to never trust anyone who said 'I´m not that good at XYZ.' Instead I gave my own best grin and retorted "Woe is me, for you to have such sublimal trust in me. But alas, I shall face my demise in the way of a true warrior and so the Gods are willing maybe even prove the neigh sayers wrong." Setting the pieces back into place, I smiled at the Unicorn filly "Now, have at thee oh cute one."

The first half a dozen or more turns were made in concentrated silence as Sweetie and I prepared our respectives strategies. Myself being a fan of a solid pawn wall defense combined with mobile head pieces , I noticed that Sweetie Belle postioned her pawns in some kind of fence without moving her big pieces.

Oh ho ho, that filly WAS good! No wonder Wade got a spanking every time he played with her. Inside that cute, fluffy head of hers hid the brain of a master tactician (or at least that of a very good chess player).

>>Well then, here we go.<< I silently moved a bishop in striking distance to my adorable opponents pawns.

Sweetie Belle in turn moved a pawn forward, looked dead at me and said "Now we begin. Have at thee and may this be night of thunder." Wow, for such a fuzzy bundle of cuteness, that came of pretty intimidating.

"Heh, Hajime!" was all I had to say as I snagged her pawn.

Sweetie Belle retaliated, her face unmoving. Now that was a Poker Face.

The following turns soon became a flurry of movement, piece after piece our armies were set aside the board as both of us followed our specific tactics, the small Unicorns horn at one point was permanently lit with her magical aura.

>>Ha! Okay, easy now, two more turns and I have her!<<

A chess piece was moved by a small magic cloud a squeaky voice suddenly announced "Okay, Royal Knight please."

"Hä?" I looked down at the board. There, on my side of the board stood one of Sweeties pawns. How did that get there?!?

The eldritch horror in a fillies coat gave an adorable smile as she replaced her pawn with her queen that I had managed to capture only one turn prior.

"Check and mate I guess."

"Wat?"

"Yeah, you see, my Royal Knight is threatening your Princess which is blocked by your last castle and my own. No matter if you move or nor, my next turn is my win." she explained in a way that left no room for doubts. I had been shown up in Chess by a filly!

Suddenly (and pretty conveniently) the now familiar feeling of weightlessness spread through my body.

>>Time to go home hn?<< A mischievous thought flashed through my mind.

I starred at the chess board, then at Sweetie Belle, opened my eyes in a dramatic fashion and threw my hands up. As blue light began to emanate from the ground I gave my best to sound like a certain bird-headed, dark god.

"Sweeeeeeeeetieee Beeeelleeeeeeeeeee~"

"~eee!"

With a 'plompf' I landed on top of the seat I had occupied during my game with Wade.

>>Ah, Milady! There you are again. I was going to be a bit worried there. We had lost the connection to you for a moment. What happened?<< Gnarls voice buzzed in my ears.

"Gnarl? How long was I... disconnected?"

>>Only for a few seconds, not even a minute.<<

"Oh." So the couple of hours in Wades Verse were just a few seconds in mine. Interesting. "Well, I just escorted my guest out. No reason to worry."

I stood up and walked over into the study/tactical room and towards the big table that held a detailed map of my dark dominion. Prepping myself on the table’s edge, my gaze wandered over to the spot where the den of Clan Pyrite was located. Someone had planted a small banner with my crest there, marking it as my possession now.

>>Aahh Milady is already planning future conquests, yes?<< Gnarl commented jovially via our mind-link >>Before we do that however, I would like to humbly suggest to pay our latest territory a visit to ensure that these mangy mutts remember who their new ruler is. And maybe to collect the first tributes, hä hä.<<

With a sigh, I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "Sure Gnarl, fire up the portal. I´ll be at the throne room in a minute."

[POV third Person]

Ticket Stacker let out a silent sigh and gazed through the window of his small ticket booth, nicely situated under the big roof of the Dodge City train station.

Today was a boring day for the stone grey colored earth pony stallion. It was Wednesday. Nopony traveled by train in the middle of the week if they could help it. Adjusting the cap that proved his identity as official employee of the Royal Equestrian Railroad Company, he mused if his boss would notice it if he would take his lunch break earlier today.

Oh, who was he kidding? Of course Pea Counter would notice. That creepy mare seemed to have a downright nose for any neglect of the official lunch time rules by the employees.

A sudden, metallic ping caused Ticket´s mind to return to his duty.

A disheveled looking unicorn mare with a chestnut brown mane and a cream colored coat that was stained with big patches of red dust stood on the other side of his counter, a somewhat hunted expression in her aqua blue eyes as she nudged a hoof full of bits over to him.

“E-express ticket to Canterlot pl-please, sir.” Dawn Delight managed between two huffs.

“That will be ten bits miss.” Ticket Stacker replied in an automated monotone, collected the money and hooved the ticket over to his customer. “Next train will go in one and a half hours. Enjoy the ride.”

With a tired nod, Dawn took her ticket and trotted over to a bench. Plopping down, her sore muscles sang ‘Thank thee Celestia!’ in choirs and caused a small moan to escape her dried lips.

She had spent the better of the last nearly four days galloping non-stop after the expedition of her former employer Professor Crystal Flask had meet such a disastrous and traumatizing end. Nearly four days were she had been haunted by the images of the deaths of Professor Flask, these two griffins mercenaries and of course, her. This scary, bipedal creature that had annihilated two
battle-tested warriors with contemptuous ease and brutally murdered one of Equestrias brightest minds.

Sure, Crystal Flasks ideas of which lengths one should be willing to go to achieve a goal had clashed with Dawns own over the last few months but nopony deserved such a horrible end.

Fighting back a sob, Dawn tried to compose herself. She had to go back to Canterlot, back to the University. She had to let everypony know what had transpired in the Wastelands. She dared not to imagine what might happened if that creature might find her way into civilization.

Maybe Dawn could go to Princess Celestia herself.

“Oh dear, is everything all right?” a concerned voice came from her right. Turning her head, Dawn found herself face to face with a beige colored earth pony mare. A blue mane with a pink streak sat upon her head. “You look like you had been through a rough time.” Genuine concern colored the mares voice.

“Heh, more like somepony mobbed the floor with her Bon Bon. Repeatedly. Or totally kicked the living daylight out of somepony dear to her.” A mint green unicorn mare with a light grayish mane quipped from behind the earth pony.

That remark caused Dawn to cringe.

“Now Lyra, that was uncalled for. You are making her uncomfortable, can´t you see.” The mare called Bon Bon chided the one called Lyra before turning to Dawn again. “You have to excuse her. Sometimes her mouth is faster than her brain.”

Managing to produce a thin, albeit fake smile Dawn said in a low voice, more to herself than to anypony else “Even though it´s pretty spot on.”

That however elicited a shocked gasp from Bon Bon and a worried look from Lyra. The earth pony brought a sympathetic hoof up to Dawns shoulder. “Oh… oh, I´m so sorry. What… happened?”

Her shoulders slumping, Dawns eyes meet Bon Bon’s. “Would you believe me if I told you that a strange bipedal creature attacked my expedition?”

Two things happened near simultaneously. Bon Bon let out an audible groan and facehooved and Lyra all but popped into existence right before Dawns snout, nearly climbing over Bon Bon in the process. A predatory glint in the minty unicorn’s eyes made Dawn feel uneasy as those big, amber eyes transfixed themselves on her.

With a strange strain in her voice and barley controlled breathing, Lyra demanded “Tell. Me. EVERYTHING!”

Author's Notes:

And this is the second part of my work with Flutters is Shy and the crossover with Applegate.

I do appologize if the chess scenes are a bit confuzzling, it wass kinda hard to write. Hope you still could enjoy it.^^

Ta~ta.