Summary, Part III

Luna has located the last missing human, trapped in the universe pertaining to the Pokémon series of video games. Zach, Twilight, Rainbow, Spike, and Fluttershy travel there, and find that they have appeared in one of the in-game regions, Unova. As they journey through Unova, they find that the resident criminal organization, and one from far away, appear to have teamed up in an attempt at world domination, or something like that. In a hostile encounter, Zach loses his laser rifle, having it confiscated by police.

Later on, Zach and company are given a Pokémon egg by a passer-by, and meet the human they are looking for, a girl named Elise, in the region's largest city. They find out that there is a criminal presence in the city, and the team plans to help Elise by raiding it while she tackles another presence in another city. Elise gives Zach a Pokémon temporarily to bolster their chances of succeeding in the raid, and they do. The egg hatches into a Blitzle, a zebra-like Pokémon that Fluttershy adopts. After that, Elise returns with news that the Pokémon League, which is also where an abandoned criminal base is located, is under attack by criminal forces, and the team departs to bolster the defense. They succeed, and the attack is crushed.

In the aftermath, Elise leaves her Pokémon in that universe before she goes home with Zach's assistance. Fluttershy keeps Blitzle, and the team's primary goals are accomplished, leaving Zach with no need to go on adventure anymore. He goes to sleep that night, relieved.

Part IV: Chapter Twenty-One: A Purpose Fulfilled

We were running. The six other Elements of Harmony were running ahead of me. What were we running from? Something terrible, something unstoppable, something the Elements could not face down with their combined strength. Their- no, our- first defeat, our first failure, and it was reduced to this. Running.

"We can't outrun it!" Twilight shouted.

"Rainbow! You can make it! Go!" Applejack shouted at the blue pegasus keeping pace with the others overhead.

"No! I'm not leaving you here!"

"Go on, I'm sure we'll be okay!" Pinkie Pie half-lied. Whatever this was, we had all given in. We'd lost.

"Never!"

"Stop being such a stubborn pony! We can't stop it, you can still escape!" Applejack tried to convince her. By the way she said it, and the Element she represented, Applejack was sure; we couldn't do anything to stop it.

"We have to distract it somehow!" Rainbow changed the subject. My heart pounded in my chest as adrenalin kept me from falling too far behind the ponies, who were simply faster than I was.

"Hey!" I called out between heaving breaths. They didn't seem to notice me. I looked behind me. Nothing was out of the ordinary. They were running from me. Why? I noticed something was resting on my head. It was a crown, the crown of my Element, but instead of a grey stone, like it usually held, it was a blood-red, pointed star. I wasn't the Element of Order anymore, this was something different. Something... opposite.

"Run faster!" Rarity cried.

"You'll never be one of them. You never were. They don't care about you, they just think you're great because you saved the universe..." A voice was slipping into my mind. I couldn't pinpoint it.

"...But it wasn't you. It was me. I saved the universe using you, and now that you, my pawn, have played your favorite games, I will play mine, and you will fulfill a different purpose."

"But this doesn't make sense!" I cried out. "Why would they be running from me? Why are you doing this? I just want to return to my normal life!"

Your life isn't normal anymore, Zach, and you know it. I've been hanging around in here for about four weeks, and from what I've seen and heard, your life is just not normal anymore." The voice laughed maniacally.

*****

I woke up in sweats. Why was I so uncomfortable? What happened? Oh well, bad dream. I was bored. Very bored. I got out of bed and rooted through my backpack. I had to go to school. Did I have to? Probably. Did I want to go? Nah, but I'd go. Why not? There was a crown in my backpack. I tossed it across the room. I didn't need that. Was that my Element? Probably. I changed my clothes, putting my shirt on inside-out, putting on my sweater. It was at least a little bit less boring that way.

At school, I was given detention for throwing pencils. I had been bored, the very nature of the classroom was boring. So structured, so... ordered. Throughout the rest of the day, I did a whole bunch of things to make the day more interesting. "You've always been such a good student," they'd say, "we'll let you off the hook this time." Sure, not that it mattered. I was just trying to make it more interesting for me.

At home, I felt a strange urge to go to Equestria. I didn't bother taking off my backpack, I just left my universe and went to that one. There was always something to do there. I looked around. Okay, I was in the middle of Ponyville. Some of the ponies waved at me, happily. I was something to them, apparently. One of them stopped me and told me my eyes were a different color, orange, they said. Oh well, at least they weren't the boring blue they usually were. I decided to go to Canterlot. Why? Because it's less boring there than it is in Ponyville. I started walking. I didn't use the well-travelled path, that was too boring. I went through the brush. It'd take a while, but I had a while to get there, it was fine.

Canterlot came into view a few hours later. Two, at least. It was a pretty tiring journey, and very boring, not enough interesting things happened. In fact, nothing interesting happened. Or did I not consider anything interesting anymore? Oh well. Canterlot was kind of bland, ordered. That was fine, I might be able to change that later. I passed through the front gate. The guard seemed to recognize me. I couldn't tell, all the types of guards looked the same. Pegasus night guards, pegasus light guards, unicorn night guards, unicorn light guards. Not enough variety. Too boring. I might be able to change that too. How? I wasn't sure. I just wanted to go here for some reason. It wasn't too much less boring than Ponyville. I thought about going to the castle. Yeah, that was a good idea.

Navigating the streets was hard, but I arrived at the castle. The guards greeted me again. What was up with that? I might've saved the universe, but I wasn't the one to blame. I went into the garden. A familiar statue sat in the center. Well, it was Discord, of course. I walked over and touched the statue. I felt my viewpoint shift to that of the eyes of the statue. Man, it was going to be boring in here.

"Thank you for your willing cooperation," my body said, before laughing and walking away. As he did, he was wreathed in an orange glow. Well, this sucked. I wondered how Discord got inside my head. He mentioned four weeks in that weird dream I had. It must've come with the portal powers. Maybe I should've read the fine print.