Author's Notes:

Can you spot all the references I made? There's quite a few, and they are very obvious.

Also, if this chapter felt kinda weird, let me know what you think could be done to fix it instead of whining about how much you hate the chapter.

Chapter 5 Alt Title: In Which I Tour the Multiverse and Bring Back Souveneirs

Friday morning, June 3, Year XXXX

Alright, today, I leave on a sort of vacation in the Void and possibly other Universes. It'll probably dangerous, since some places and entities are less than hospitable, but I shouldn't have too much of a problem, given my whole 'I-can-touch-you-but-you-can't-touch-me' thing going on. I really hope that I don't enter any other Displaced's Universe on accident, given that me directly forcing my way in usually results in the 'Invader' phenomenon.

It isn't very fun.

Well, given that I don't really need supplies, I suppose I'll just leave a note in Twilight's house so she doesn't think I ran off like a bitch.

Alright, time to go! All preparations finalized, standby for launch.
Launching in T-minus 5...4...3...2...1...GO!

Leaping into the air, I twisted and coiled around myself as I shifted back into my serpent form, long paradoxical arcs of Void energy crackling around me and turning my shadow tunnel into a Void Gate. The world twisted and blurred, fading out and with a jarring sound that can only be described as VWORPLE-trust me, the italics and all-caps are necessary-I popped out of established, finite reality and blurred the lines into weird, infinite void.

As I looked around, I whistled appreciatively at my surroundings and began my trek into the depths of the multiverse, well, not before I put a marker on "my" Universe first. T'would not do to lose track of the Universe I kept all my bits in, even if I could still get them...it's a matter of preference, okay?

That aside, I immediately began my search for interesting things to do, sightseeing and such, y'know? After looking around some more, I noticed it. Not like IT, or any other such derivation, oh no, this was merely a small, but interesting, thing I had noticed about some of the Universes in the "Equestria Cluster"; that being a strange, almost tunnel-like connection between some Equestrias and what appeared to be...EARTH!?(And quite a few other worlds as well)

"Holy shit! I think I could find my way home with those! But the question is, should I? Okay, debate mode, activate; Topic: finding Home, Y/N?
I think we should go for it, our friends are still there and probably miss us
I don't think we really need to, but all our stuff is there, maybe we could get some new stuff
Alright then, let's go home!"

My voice echoed through my immediate surroundings as I rocketed back to my starting point to find my space-time tunnel.

"Oh look, there it is...much easier than I thought it'd be. I guess now I could...ride it back? Maybe? No sense in wasting anymore time, then. Let's GO!"

Diving into the tunnel, I was immediately swept up in the unexpected current within said plot-device and carried through the Void and SLAM right into a Universe that strangely felt like...myself? But also weaker, less shadowy, more...real...I guess.

'Oh hey look, I can see my old dorm room from here!'
Now is not the time nor place for such inane thoughts, what time, day, month, and year are we in? We, rather, I and you-also-me, need to know, so we can get all our crap before someone decides to sell it.

With that thought in mind, I broke into my own dorm room-'I hate the fact that I really need to do this, the hell happened to my stuff when I transformed anyways?-and looted my dorm for all the stuff that I thought I'd like to keep. Though, I did have the presence of mind to check the date first.

It was the exact date that I had left, three minutes after noon, to be exact. I suppose that by now, Seth will have told them that I just disappeared into thin air. Oh well. It's not like I could just show up in front of them, I never really trusted them enough for that. Well, they'd also freak out, but that's not important. Okay, let's see...textbooks, check; various self-defense/anti-zombie weaponry,check; various bits of technology, check; all my drawing supplies, check; alright, that's everything, let's get out of here.

VWORPLE

Alrighty then, let's see what else I can find in the "Earth Cluster"... "Wait...is that the Justice League Watchtower?...Yeah, no way in hell."

VWORPLE

"Ponies living among humans...nice...unexpected, but nice. But the relative technology level is still at approximately early 2000's level. Granted, so was my home-verse, but then again, it was only 2020...Next"

VWORPLE

"Oh shit, the conversion bureau!"
"Halt, who goes there!?"
"Shit!"
"By the order of Princess Celestia, I order you to stop!"
"Nopenopenopenopenope! Move, bitch, get out the way!"
I'm running like a bitch here, and Mr. Useless-Ass-Solar-Guard apparently found some level of competency and is trying to gun me down with an assault rifle...and deadly laser beams from his horn.

Wait...why am I still running? Oh yeah, despite my comments, it's really impossible to harm me directly...with the exception of things that destroy darkness in any form, purify anything they touch, are made of what basically amounts to pure light, etc etc. So really, I'm only running because I feel like it. Man, this guard has stamina. It's been about thirty blocks and he's still chasing me, even at my current pace of about 20 mph.

Okay, bored now.

VWORPLE

Outside the Conversion Bureau universe, I noticed that the Equestria-verse the Earth-verse was connected to was (relatively) so close that the barest edges of the two were mingling.

"Hmm, that's interesting. I wonder what happens when they collide? Then again, the connection itself seems to be keeping them apart...I wonder what'd happen if I just...sorta...-"
Shifting my perception of the universes into beach-ball sized bubbles instead of the house sized bubbles they were before, I pushed the two bubbles together-one chrome silver with red veins (Earth), the other sparkling and prismatic with black clouds (Equestria)-and immediately recoiled back from the massive shockwave produced by two paradox-linked Universes collapsing into each other.

"OH, SHIT! I did NOT mean to do that! Oh fuck, now what do I do? Shit shit shit. Okay, I don't think anyone will miss that Universe anyways..."

Okay, how about this Universe?

VWORPLE

Oh look, it's Peter Pony Parker, also known as Spider-Mane. Well, looks like he's got everything under control.

VWORPLE

Is that...no, it couldn't be...holy shit, I managed to find my way into The Doctor's Universe!

"Holy shit, I need to take pictures of this...camera...camera... oh hey! my iPhone! T'was wondering where this damn thing went."

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK

"I wonder if I could find a sonic screwdriver for a souvenir? Even a laser screwdriver would work... hmm...this idea needs some thinking...."
PLAN IN PROGRESS; PLEASE STANDBY...
PROCESSING...

PLAN COMPLETE; OH, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU MISSED ALL THE ACTION WHILE YOU WERE LOOKING AT PHOTOS, SUCH A SHAME

Seriously? Were all of you staring at my photos the whole time? I got three sonic screwdrivers and a laser screwdriver in the time it took you to scroll down here.

Alright, let's GTFO before anyone notices.

VWORPLE

Alright, I think I can call it a day. Let's just go home and– "WHOA, SHIT!" –nevermind.
Oh. It's Fausticorn. And she doesn't look too happy. Oh dear.

"If it t'were not for the fact that thou hast gained dominion over thine own dimensions, I would ask for some form of reparation for the destruction of one of mine creations. However, due to thine dominion over one Equestria and one Earth, thou hast gained the partial dominion of both the "Earth" and "Equestria" Clusters. Then, I ask you but a single question; why in my name wouldst thou Destroy an entire Realm, one with TRILLIONS OF INHABITANTS WITHIN ITS CONFINES, NO LESS!?"

"Whoops?"

"...Children."

And with that, she left, gliding along on a non-existent breeze. I, however, got the distinct impression that she was facing a very bitter and harsh truth, one that was apparently very difficult for her to accept; that being the lesson that kids are idiots, no matter how old their chronological age, if a being is new to its body, it is still a child and will thus do stupid things to test their capabilities. Well, I hope she's not too pissed off at me, I was planning on asking her to be my mentor in all things relating to the whole 'dominion' thing.

It can't be that big of a deal, right? Actually no, it probably is a big deal, and it'll probably punch me in the balls later. I sincerely hope it doesn't.

...Shit I'm screwed.

Tuesday, June 7

Alright, I think I should head back, it has been about four days after all. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I synced myself into the localized time system of Equestria so I could tell how long I had been away, based on their perceptions. Well, aside from that, I also collected a vast amount of materials and souvenirs; maybe I could open a shop or something. But for now, here's a small look at my inventory:
>My trans-dimensional Omnitool, capable of browsing the internet via no less than fourteen different subspace connections across the void
>One pony sized Iron Mare suit, modified with and internal Arc reactor (Thank you Sparkle Industries for your generous...donation)
>One specially modified pony-operated Gunmen
>Thirty thousand Basilisk eggs (Never visiting that Universe again)
>The entirety of the US military's weaponry, down to the very last bullet
>Several snow-globes containing miniaturized planets
>Several gemstones containing the reversed souls of various canon villains (Alignment swapped, not gender swapped)
>More gems with the gender swapped souls of various canon villains (In a separate bag, thank god)
>Those sonic screwdrivers and single laser screwdriver
>A different TARDIS model from Gallopfrey (Thanks, Doctor Whooves)
>Three whole stacks of Netherrack
>The Autobot Matrix of Leadership
>A random Logia fruit
>Prince of Void regalia
>A spool of Life Fibers
>And six hundred thousand kilotons of Orichalcum-Mithril-Adamantium alloy (A literal mountain made entirely out of the stuff)
And where exactly am I keeping all this crap? Well...actually, I don't know, I think it's some sort of pocket dimension within my form, but it carries an apparently infinite amount of stuff, so I can't complain.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot:
>An entire empty Universe in it's beginning stages (About the size of your average volleyball, really)

Yeah, every scientist on Equus is going to flip out.

As a distant side note, I recently discovered that the planet was called Equus because Fausticorn made the planet itself, and imprinted its name into the minds of every creature that she made. Fausticorn is damn scary when you think about it, but she's pretty nice, at least.

A few hours later

Hey, is it just me, or is my Earth closer than normal? I hope it doesn't crash into Equestria.

...I'm sure it's nothing to worry about...

...Right...

VWORPLE

Hey, wait a minute, I was sure this was Ponyville, but where's the Library? And the hell is up with that...giant...crystal...tree...

Goddamn it, I missed Tirek's return. Damn damn damn. Oh, and I probably lost all my stuff too, but that's sort of irrelevant. Y'know, since I didn't really have anything worth keeping that wasn't already on me. Well, I guess I should go see what's up; I wonder what Twilight's doing right now?

WHOOSH

And here I am in Canterlot, hiding in the lavender Princess's shadow, listening to a damage report. I guess the attack must have happened fairly recently then.

Oh hey look, Princess Celestia's talking.

"...-nd the damages from your battle against Tirek ended up destroying most of the countryside outside of Ponyville, and of course, your library."

"Do not despair, Twilight Sparkle, at least you have a new castle to live in."

"Pr- Luna, that doesn't help much, all of my books are gone too."

Should I cut in?...Fine, I will.

"I leave for a few days and this is what happens? What, did something crawl out of the Everfree while I was gone?"

Twilight gasped at my sudden entrance, "Umbra! Don't do that!"

"Apologies; but seriously though, what the hell happened here, I've a good idea, but it needs confirmation."

"An old enemy by the name of Tirek returned, but Twilight Sparkle managed to defeat him", Luna cut in, "as you may have heard, the damages to Ponyville are immense and shall require quite some time to repair."

"...Fine, I'll go get started..."

"What are you talking about? We didn't tell you to start anything", Princess Celestia interrupted me before I could leave, "I thought your job was to keep ponies safe from the creatures in the Everfree Forest."

Oh, I guess I don't need to fix this mess by myself.

"Ah, okay then. Well, I almost forgot, I brought back souvenir's from my travels. Let's see...ah- here we go."

Reaching into myself, to the others' slight consternation, I pulled out a truly massive stack of books. How massive, you ask? Well, enough to fill the Golden Oaks Library completely...several thousand times over. When the library was still standing, of course.

"Twilight, for you, a collection of approximately three hundred thousand books of varying genres and topics, ranging from scientific studies on aardvarks to fantasy stories set in a universe populated entirely with zebras; and everything in between, of course. Oh, and here, a gemstone containing the accumulated knowledge of thirty different versions of you, give or take."

Whoops, I think I broke her. Hey, what's that in her eyes...a turning hourglass symbol. Cute. Well, keep going, don't stop at Twilight.

"Princess Celestia, I bestow upon thee: one very sharp magical blade with properties including, but not limited to: light production, innate flame abilities, purification of all things, magical boosting, and last, but not least, looking really goddamn magnificent when you use it. Oh, and fifty some crates of tea blends found only in different Universes, Time Periods, and Planets. And some golden battle armor. And these spell books."

Shit, I broke her too; shit shit shit. placing the gifts down by her hooves and turning to Luna. Princess Luna, on the other hand, looked like she'd rather be somewhere else.

"Princess Luna, I give you this: a blade forged in moonlight, made from the core material of a dying star, encrusted with comets, blessed by various deities related to the stars and night. Thin, fast, and deadly, it is the antithesis of your sister's blade, ice to the flame. Hers was blessed in sunfire, yours in moonlit plains. It also possesses many of the attributes of its twin, although it makes ice, not fire. Still looks goddamn magnificent, though. Also: more spell books, and a really awesome pair of sunglasses. Have some Orichalcum and Mithril alloy battle armor too."

Bam, three for three. Oh wait, that's a bad thing. I'm just going to go now.

WHOOSH

And here I am in the shadows of the burnt out library. Wow, it's even worse up close. I mean, seeing it from the skies was bad enough, but right here, at the front door? Just awful. Hmm, I wonder what'd happen if I just kinda...

Oh.

So that's what happens when you artificially expand a shadow. Apparently whatever is attached to the shadow grows to match. I suppose it only makes sense, considering what happens when I steal a shadow. If you didn't remember, it involves whatever I steal the shadow from dissolving into mana particles and dispersing out into the Universe. Well, at least the tree's back to pretty much normal shape and size, but... It's now just a normal tree, without anything special that mad it the Library. Hm? Oh, the citizens are staring at the new, familiar landmark. I hope they don't...shit, they noticed me.

"Uh...hi! I'm just gonna leave now..." I waved and turned, finding myself back in Canterlot where all three present Princesses were finally shaking themselves from their daze.

"Well. That was interesting. Oh, hello Princesses, I see you're awake. How were your naps?", They blinked and shook their heads nearly simultaneously, god that's friggin cute, and Twilight spoke up, "Where exactly did you get all these books? Some of them I've never even seen or heard of, and some don't even look like they were written by pony hooves."

"Well, Twilight, I got them from other Universes, if you must know. I could get more, there's a Universe out there made out of an infinite expanse of every book written in every other Universe, ever."

Twilight gasped and her pupils dilated, "That's a lot of books."

"Quite"

Next Luna, "We have to admit, when Twilight came to us four days ago to inform us about your departure, we did not expect you to bring back gifts of such...splendor. 'Tis truly amazing, how much you can carry."

"I've got a lot more if anyone wants any, although a lot of it I was planning on donating so that they could improve the state of the Nation; as it is, this is one of the less technologically and scientifically advanced Equestrias that I've seen. Thankfully, not many of them have perfected space-time magic yet, so we're still mostly safe from extra-dimensional invasion. Anyways, Twilight!"

"Yes, Umbra?"

"I put your tree back, although currently it's still a tree, not a library. But, with a copy of the blueprints from city-hall, I should be able to put things back mostly the way they were before...or I could steal an exact replica from a different universe to save on bits and effort, your choice."

Ah shit, I broke her again. Huh, now it says Twilight.exe has encountered an error. Processing error. Please stand by...
I guess now we just wait...
poke
"Twilight? You okay in there? Yo, wake up! Shit, not working. Uh...crap, this'll be awkward."

"What are you planning on doing to my former student?"

"Just...well..."

SMACK

"Hey! What was that for!?"

"You were spacing out a little"

"Oh...So what's this about a tree? I think you said it was my tree, or something."

"The library has had its upper portion nearly restored, all it'll take is a bit of work and the rest of it will be up and running again. Or, I could pop down to a different Universe and ste–GAH!"

Twilight just tackled me and is apparently trying to hug me to death. Wow, didn't think she'd be so attached to one tree.

"Oh thank you! Thank you! Pr-Celestia, did you hear that? I can get the library back!"

"That's wonderful Twilight!"

"You know what, I'm going to go leave some more souvenirs outside, come out to the main courtyard when your emotions have stabilized."

WHOOSH

"Alright, let's see... boulder made of Orichalcum... Iron Mare suit...Gundam...AK-47...wait, not that one...iPhone 8... wait, no, that's mine...iPhone 4...Macbook pro...Lenovo Ideapad Yoga...James Bond Watch...Koenigsegg CCX...Chevy Camaro...Ford Mustang... F-22 Raptor... Lagann?...not Lagann... B-2 Spirit...A10 Warthog...Chainsaw...not the TARDIS...72" Flatscreen television... Batarang?...Kryptonite...Great Leonopteryx skull..."

Am I unloading too much?...nah can't be.

"...Spartan Armor...humanity crystals...Noble Phantasm...Sonic Screwdriver...Laser Screwdriver...Eldritch Abomination 'blood', willingly given...Changeling corpse, perfectly preserved...Elements of Harmony-wait,what!?...nevermind...Sorting Hat–"Hey!"–...Godzilla blood...Fluffle Puff? Go home!...right...Megatron's dead body...Reaper corpse, shrunk..."

Is the courtyard getting smaller?

"...three gallons of liquid magic...room temperature super conductors...Kitsune fur...health potions...M-1 Abrams tank... the Vimana... Ea, Sword of Rupture...Excalibur!?...Mirror of Erised...Philosopher's stone...Elder wand?...nah...Tensa Zangetsu... Durandal... Gae Bolg... Gar Dearg... Gae Assail... Massive Axe Sword... Caladbolg?... Anaklusmos... Golden Fleece...Omnitrix Core?...no way in hell...Chakra steel...Sword of the Storms...Orb of Tornami...Sapphire Dragon...nope..."

The sounds most prevalent in the courtyard:

CLING CLANG CRUNCH THUD CLACK THUMP

"...Eye of Ender...Core Drill...DTR...Bakuzan...Rending Scissors...Pokedex...Pokeball...Helix Fossil...Dome Fossil...Cerebro Helmet...Sylladex Modus Cards...Pop-a-matic Vrillyhoo Hammer...Kanohi Hau...Kanuhi Kakama...Kanohi Vahi...Kanohi Olmak... Rail Gun...Let's just stop with the Hurricane Megazord...shrunken down to about ten feet tall."

Oh wow, that is a lot of stuff around me, most of which is either magical or some form of weapons tech. Let's put some of this stuff back...oh look, there's Luna, Celestia and Twilight; they look broken again.

Okay, now it's mostly safe stuff with a smattering of lower end weapons tech; namely, communications technology, entertainment technology, and transportation technology, along with a few things to advance the military. Oh, and a few contact-gems containing the knowledge on how everything works down to the subatomic level.

Four months later
October 3rd

Well, on the plus side, Equestria now has enough magical and non-magical military might to rival that of the US military...from 2020. Well, to be honest, I actually only expected maybe enough advancement to take on early 1900's America, so that's a lot of improvement in a really short time. I guess those gemstones did some really good work, even if most of the information was centered around more harmless stuff.

On the other hoof hand...actually, most of the factories and stuff that would have caused serious damage to the environment were shunted into a pocket dimension once the tech was all studied. So really, there aren't many problems at hand. Most ponies now have access to things like the Internet, although it's still not all that useful (sorta like ours in that it's mostly a time sink with some relevant info, though less than ours), TV, modern game console derivatives, PC gaming, frickin' laser beams I-shit-you-not, and spaceflight. One thing that really interested me is that, astronomically, Copernicus would have hated it here. Equestria is about six times the size of the giant magic fireball that makes its sun. Yes, magic.

So weird.

Oh, and apparently the sky is literally colored blue, and some weird magic-y/science stuff I barely comprehend makes the light reflected from the surface of the moon deactivate whatever crap is in the upper atmosphere and show the stars, which explains how raising the moon brings night, instead of just putting the moon in the sky.

On another note, Celestia and Luna move the sun and moon because they're in geosynchronous orbit, so if they just floated there, well, bad things happen.

...I'm getting off topic.

Well, the thing is, I think I need to leave for a while, hone my abilities and all that. Well, that and if technology keeps advancing so quickly, I won't really be necessary anymore.

I leave tomorrow, after I put a note somewhere.

End Chapter 5
End Arc 2