It was a beautiful day on the final day of Duncan’s three day weekend. The sun was shining, birds were singing.

They were both endeavoring to keep him from sleeping in.

“Mm...go away sun and song….” Duncan mumbled, adamantly trying to hold on to his sleep in vain for a few minutes, before sighing and sitting up, rubbing his eyes, still feeling tired from recovering from Gilgamesh’s harsh training and then the party he went to yesterday.

“Ugh...that party is insane. Can’t believe I managed to go several hours straight before calling quits.” Duncan had attended the massive party that Pinkie and Boom had organized yesterday. The party had started yesterday after he captured the Song card. They started planning it the evening after Twisted and Duncan had decided on a truce, and it’s been going strong so far.

The party not the Truce, Twisted was extremely off when Duncan saw her yesterday, the little dragoness seeming eager yet anxious around Pinkie, yet would often switch between hanging on Pinkie’s every word and snapping at anyone besides Pinkie out of nowhere, only to get chastised by Pinkie and instantly apologize.

That little femme had such a raging crush on the pink party pony. It almost made Spike’s crush on Rarity seem tame with how clingy the usually violent and lonesome dragoness was.

“Duncan! I’m home!” Came Mistress’s Morning Glory voice after hearing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a mere moment before.

“In here MC.” Duncan groggily called out, and Mistress poked her head in. “How did-.” Duncan paused, Mistress seemed...off somehow. “Are you okay?”

The Mistress of Change blinked at her brother’s question. “Yes, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Mistress deflected, getting Duncan to leer at her.

“You did Pinkie Promise about talking. So spill, something is wrong.” Duncan stated sitting up on his bed.

“Kinda got stabbed with an anti-magic blade. It sucks being reminded about your own mortality.” She stated showing the still red scar that she hadn't been able to heal yet. “The attack knocked Jeff out for a while. So we are kinda just emotionally drained from that. Well, that, and I got to watch my friend die, and violently be reborn from his killer’s corpse.”

“Ah well I wish I could help, what about Avarice, he doing ok? Dying has to suck, but you just said he’s still alive.” Duncan asked.

“He died, came back, is stuck as a girl now. It was a busy weekend. One of these days we will have a proper vacation.” Mistress stated sitting on the end of the bed. “What about you anything fun happen?”

Duncan told mistress about his weekend, including all the details about the song battle, and then the capturing of the song card. He also told her about what was happening with Twisted Spear and Pinkie Pie.

“Oh that sounds like a hoot. Reminds me of a time a Unicorn noble fell in love with a pegasus named Surprise. Man he tried to court her for weeks, before he finally just blurted it out that he liked her and asked, and I quote, ‘How in tartarus’ name do I win your hoof?!’ Maybe I should talk to Twisted about it some time. Give him some ideas.”

“Please don’t, I can only imagine how much of a plot hole she will be if we started interfering in her life.” Duncan pleaded as he stretched a bit and moved to the edge of his bed.

“Fine ruin the fun.” Mistress pouted with slightly puffed-out cheeks in jest.

“Anyways so about home, tell me. Whats going on you said you knew things and have been vaguely avoiding it. I assume to build up suspense for readers.” Duncan implored with a fourth-wall-shattering statement that suddenly had Pinkie Pie putting duct tape on one of his bedroom walls before trotting out the door.

“...You are annoying. However yes, I know things. So to make it simple, after being Displaced I made friends with Starswirl. I explained to him some of what I knew happened at the time. We started researching and tracing any connections I had to universes. Now the Academy I am fine, I could return at anytime, and my time relative is locked in at three days. So I left on a Tuesday, I’ll return on Friday. However that is only for the portion of me that is Mistress. This,” Mistress pulled out a glowy orb with runes on it. “Is our world.”

Pressing a rune on the orb the room was enveloped in an illusion, the background was a black void, with thousands of bubbles floating around, each with a unique, sheen, color and shape.

“So this is a 3d representation of the multiverse. Now obviously there are flaws with that, however for sake of explanation let's go with it.” Mistress explained gesturing to some bubbles. “Assuming each bubble represents a ‘Core’ universe we can see that we are in this one here on the floor. All FimFiction Displaced are in this bubble, it's the My Little Pony core universe. Time progresses so on everything is fine.

“After tracing my ‘Soul Link’ or imprints in my aura and spirit from the part of me that is your twin, we eventually found home.” The ground shifted and the bubbles flew by to a new one. It was a little different in size and shape and had a different feel. “This is the Earth cluster as many call it. Again everything seems to be moving just fine except if we expand the cluster.”
The bubble popped replacing the illusion with a new scene everywhere around were onion skinned bubbles.

“These are the various ‘Earths’ that exist. You will note that one is different than the others.” Mistress stated pointing around the room.

As Duncan looked he found the one different one. Pointing to a spot on the roof he asked, “This one? It isn’t flowing, it's locked in place and seems dull.”

“Yup, that is our home verse. It has been put in a temporal lock. You can look but you can’t touch, no going forwards or backwards. No moving items, nothing complete lockdown.” Mistress emphasized the point by opening the bubble and zooming in on the Milky-Way galaxy, then the Sol system and finally Earth.

Inspecting the orb it was noticed that the clouds weren’t moving, the moon was in the same spot, looking closer Duncan could see specs that were satellites stuck in place. Even a meteorite in mid burn across the atmosphere.

“Wow that is impressive. What could have caused this?” Duncan asked.

“No idea, not many beings have the power, let alone reason to timelock a universe. Also to prove a point, let's zoom in on our con.” Mistress manipulated the world zooming in on the town down to the event center where the convention was being held. Shifting over the vender room there was a black portal on the ground, and the merchant in his trench coat and mask, was laughing.

“Wow they trapped the merchant? Isn’t he immune to these kinds of things?” Duncan asked looking around at the frozen figure.

“Sort of, this is just one merchant, one of his many shards, besides if time were to pick back up he would be freed once again there is no lock on him, we can’t place one either.” Mistress explained.

“Be sure to mention the futility of binding interdimensional beings.” Came the wet, bloody rasp of an entity that made their skin crawl.

“S-sure Eminent Lord Hastur, King In Yellow!” Mistress nervously replied, making the presence vanish.

“What was that about Hastur? Isn’t he a void dweller?” Duncan asked oblivious that the whisper was going to be heard anyway.

“Yes apparently I have earned his notice. He wished I mention the futility of binding interdimensional beings. They can only change states, not cease to be. Avarice is apparently fated to become one of them due to Merchant and one of Hastur’s siblings making a deal about that.” Mistress mentioned worriedly.

“Wait, thanks to Avarice, you’re siblings to Elder gods? Oh that is rich, aren't you lucky.” Duncan laughed at his twin’s predicament.

“Just wait for the wedding! I’m planning their honeymoon to be so~ delectable~.” Came a sultry and inappropriate woman’s voice. “Oh, and there’s the whole inducting her into the family part, that will be a little iffy, haven’t forced a mortal into one of us before.”

“Slaan, I just told you before when bothering Ava’s boy-toy to leave her friends alone.” Hastur returned, sounding angry, and instantly Slaanesh’s presence faded. “Sorry, running damage control, carry on.”

“Ugh...future in-laws….” Mistress groaned as she rubbed her face with a hoof. “We haven’t even talked about marriage and already Avarice’s new family have taken a shine to me.”

“You seem relaxed for having them for in-laws.” Duncan remarked.

“I’ve worked for a few dozen elder-gods for one reason or another, they don’t really scare me. Except when they do that creepy voice thing out of nowhere to remind you that they are watching, that creeps me out.” Mistress stated shivering several times, causing her coat to change colors. “Besides, worst Hastur will do is invite me to a bloodbath, and Slaanesh might make me her new harem toy for a little while.”

“Gotcha, well I’m about done with chaotically aligned beings of power. So go ahead and finish what you were saying.” Duncan asked, trying to reconcile the potential relation to elder gods in his mind.

“Oh? Right, yes, that. Anyway, with this chrono lockdown, we can’t go home, however home will be waiting for when we can release it. Also now that we have access to the multiverse, gaining immortality, youth power seals and more are only a few void jumps away. So don’t worry because one day I know we can get home.” Mistress explained with a smile as she turned off the sphere and returned them to the simple room. “All that aside, life isn’t terrible, so, even if we never do get home...we still have happiness if we want.”

“I want Terra, that’s all there is to that, and you know it.” Duncan stated matter of factly. “Right let’s go check on Twilight and see what she has learned about the book.

“Ah~! The horror! THE HORROR~!” Came the signature over-the-top screaming of Daisy, Roseluck and Golden Harvest, getting Duncan and Mistress to give long-suffering sighs at one of the many telltale signs of yet another Ponyville Catastrophe. Followed by a siren that caused Duncan to sigh again.

“Calling you in?” Mistress asked Duncan.

“Yes, apparently it was a once a week thing before I got here, now they have used it around six time in just two weeks of being here. Shall we?” Duncan asked holding the door open. Mistress nodded, only to see the town being slowly overrun by roots.

Dodging the growing plants Duncan and Mistress ran as quickly as they could towards the Guard’s office. Along the way they spotted Zecora coming out of the forest.

“Zecora, what’s going on?!” Mistress asked the frantic zebra as she dragged a giant sack of her belongings out of the Everfree.

“I am unsure of the Everfree’s sudden actions, I’ve no clue as to what is causing these reactions.” Zecora admitted her ignorance to the cause of all the vines, trees and undergrowth rapidly growing out from the dark forest. “The forest has overgrown my home, and is even pushing other creatures to roam.”

They heard the sound of several beasts roar coming closer to town.

“Kay time limit, Zecora, please head for the guard station, Duncan and I will investigate. Please let them know what has happened. Tell them Morning Glory sent you.” Mistress nodded to Duncan to get moving. Zecora nodded to them and continued running.

Mistress and Duncan began running through the underbrush. The roots, didn’t seem to be malicious in anyway, just growing at an alarming rate. However they quickly ran into the first problem, a pack of timber wolves rushing their way. But oddly, they weren’t attacking, just running as fast as possible, their rotting auras weak and flickering.

“Ah, great, Duncan! Help pin them in! They’ll run straight into town if they’re not looking for a fight!” Mistress directed.

“Kashin Shourai!” Duncan called out, directing his sword to lay a path of fire in front of the wolves. Afraid of the fire they quickly stopped and back peddled and began barking at them from across the fire, only to yelp as vines ensnared them, and they cried out in fear as their dark green magic rapidly faded, and their twig and detritus bodies solidified into healthy, if misshapen, trees.

“Well that was interesting. Something doesn’t like decay.” Duncan commented. The fire putting itself out as they ran past the wolf trees.

“I’ll say. So you’re the expert with cards, care to share?” Mistress asked dodging tree branches.

“What makes you so sure it's a card? Also my bits are on Wood, but I don’t get where it is getting so much power from.” Duncan asked as he thought on it. “The Everfree itself is clearly an extremely potent source of natural mana. All The Wood Card would need is a suitable font of both magic, and water. Anyplace come to mind?” Duncan asked as they both dashed through the rapidly growing jungle, the formerly dark and scary trees growing higher, their boughs thicker with leaves and vines, their scary gnarled trunks seemed happy as they gained a healthy luster to their bark.

“Plunder vines aren’t for another season. Geography has changed in a thousand years, I would head for the mountains and look for a waterfall maybe?” At Mistress’s suggestion, a massive quake shook the whole forest, and they both gawked at seeing Everfree Castle rise on its plateau, a great weeping willow tree of massive size growing along and around it.

“Uh...I think that might be where it is.” Duncan commented, “Now to weaken it for sealing.”

“Not to doubt you Duncan, but I’ve never seen nature magic this strong, how can you seal something capable of this?”Mistress asked watching the tree continue to grow farther and farther up.

“Well it is being fed water from somewhere, so we need to find the source, and then…” Duncan paused looking despondent, “We need to go swimming.”

Dodging around the great tree, they began circling uphill in hopes of finding the source river. Looking under the larger roots Jeff glimpsed a train of water. ‘Mistress below the roots there!’

‘Good Eyes Jeff,’ Mistress responded, “Duncan get low under the roots, think we found it.”

The trio quickly stopped running, and jumped down getting below the roots, underneath the freshly covered brush was eerily quiet. The tight growth forced them to wade into the river before following it down the stream. Mistress activated a bio-luminescence, allowing them to see.

“Cold, wet, and dark, MC why can’t we ever go anywhere nice?” Duncan asked wishing he had the water card.

“We do, just not with you.” She answered giggling with Jeff.

“Well sorry, someone made me a guard, and I’m not a fan of third wheeling on someone’s dates.” Duncan scoffed as they had to dive under a tightly woven mangrove-like root system and were rocketed upwards through a sort of geyser system and resurfaced for air in a large underwater reservoir that was directly under Everfree Castle with numerous buckets hanging down from the ceiling that were clearly for wells in the cellar of the castle above. “So the tree lifted the castle and the plateau up, but kept the reservoir connected.”

“Looks that way.” Mistress said looking around.

‘Mistress look to the bottom of the lake.’ Jeff told her.

“Duncan down.” Mistress said looking where Jeff was indicating. The siblings looked down and saw a glowing humanoid figure at the bottom of the reservoir.

“Looks like the wood there.” Duncan said nodding, “lucky us she has a gentle temperament.”

“Question how do you plan to seal it don’t you have to recite the sealing spell?” Mistress asked, “I don’t think you’re good enough yet to speak it under water.”

“Jeff, still learning the limits of your abilities, but can you change into a dive helmet and air supply?” Duncan asked looking at his brother’s hair.

Mistress and Jeff blinked several times in confusion. It wasn’t that they hadn’t split up before, just they had never partnered with someone else in such away.

‘Up to you Jeff. I know it's weird sense you don’t know him as well as I do, but we can trust him.’ Mistress stated. She was a little bit uncomfortable with the idea.

“Jeff can do. Not like, but will do. Remind Jeff speak about manners.”Jeff said as he slid off of Mistress leaving her without a mane and tail. He didn’t bother with a form as a kaleidoscope of color and flesh he slithered up Duncan taking the form of an old diver's helmet and a manual air pump.

“Jeff do simple, limited range, be careful.” Jeff explained with a mouth in Duncan’s ear.

“Thank you Jeff.” Duncan said shivering slightly, as he was just starting to get used to the mimic, “Mistress wanna make some gills and join us?”

“I need to stay hear to operate the pump, Jeff is going to be stretched thin with this… Damnit” Mistress cursed at her accidental pun. Smacking her hoof to her face.

“Bad Mistress. Jeff and Duncan go now.” Jeff said out of a mouth on the side of the helmet.

“Thanks Bro, thank you Jeff.” Duncan said and started walking down the slope of the lake in the direction of the glowing figure. Mistress leaned back on her hind hooves and started to press on the pump feeding Jeff and Duncan fresh air.

Swimming deeper into the cavern Duncan was on his own.

“So how is it being attached to MC’s head?” Duncan asked trying to make conversation.
“Good. Mistress give Jeff purpose, dreams, joy.” Jeff replied, a hint of joy in his voice. Duncan felt that Jeff might have wanted to say more, however the mimic left it off there.

“That’s cool. Hey thank you for helping out seriously, and not just with this but with things around the house and for helping my brother.” Duncan said gently patting the side of the diving helmet as he sank further down. As they got closer the wood card turned to look at them, she had a gentle smile on her face. Duncan waved awkwardly as he sank, lifting his sword he smiled and tapped it to the face shield of Jeff’s helmet form.

Wood seemed to understand the intent and bowed her head allowing him free access.

“Wood Card, I command you to return to your power confine, Wood Card!” Duncan yelled his voice muffled by the water. He brought the flat of the blade down on the top of Wood’s head magic spilling forth and returning her to a card form.

Reaching for the card there was a blindingly bright flash and a sharp jerking sensation. Blinking several times to clear the spots from his eyes Duncan took in his surroundings and the distinct lack of a floating feeling. Jeff slithered off him forming into his small ball form with stubby legs. The room they were in was heavily damaged, stone debris lay about everywhere. To Duncan, it appeared to be the inside of a castle.

“Jeff you ok?” Duncan asked getting to his feet, looking around he saw Mistress trying to stand up. She stumbled a few times before getting her balance back.

“Jeff good. Mistress good.” Jeff answered as he walked over to Mistress and encased over her. Extending tenderals along her legs to provide some support. After shaking her head a few times Mistress finally was able to look up at Duncan.

“Well that wasn’t expect what the hell happened D?” Mistress asked looking around the room. “And how the hell did we end up in the Castle of the Two Sisters?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I sealed the card, there was a flash, a yank and now we are here. However isn’t here up now? Like really far the wood raised it clear above the treetops?” Duncan asked looking out a window, it the trees were now at a normal level reaching high above the roof.

“Ya this is the sitting area to my old room in the castle. Its on ground floor so that I could get to what is hidden beneath.

“Which would be what?” Duncan asked.

“...The Displaced Insurgents Special Controls Operations and Repairs Department…” Mistress answered sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
“Say what?” Duncan asked.

“D.I.S.C.O.R.D. for short, it's everypony who knows about Displaced and partners. Many ponies in the Ponyville guard are a part of it. Stone Wall, Boom De-yada, even your commander…” She answered walking to a secret door hidden by a decayed bookshelf.

“Uh-hu, and you were going to tell me about this when?” Duncan asked with a deadpan stare at his sibling. The passage was taller than most pony structures and well spaced. Easily large enough for a pony, human, or even minotaur to easily enter.

“He, he,”Mistress nervously laughed. “There has been so much going on, and I kinda maybe forgot?”

“How the tartarus do you forget something like this?” He asked.

“To be fair I spent several decades in the Crystal Empire. Also the organization was self sufficient years before that.” Mistress defended herself coming to a stop at a large steel doorway. She reached up and pulled a lever hidden as an unlit torch. The steel doors slowly opened, with the faintest of sound. Duncan noticed that the torch was clear of dust. Also with the way the bookshelf was most ponies would only have to lightly step around it to get in.

“Ah, still no excuse.” Duncan said playfully. Understanding that for Mistress a lot more time has passed, but not wanting to apologize to his brother. “So looks like the entrance is well maintained. Still used?”

“Jerk. Also yes, yes it is. There are specific orders to everyone here to let the castle fall into disrepair. Less ponies poking noses where they don’t belong if they think it is just a old castle in the Everfree.” Mistress answered. She was currently guiding them down another stone passage, thankfully this one had no stairs. However it was darker, it was only thanks to her bio-luminescence, that she still had going from earlier, that Duncan was able to see.

“Cool so who has been running it while you have been out?” Duncan asked, clearly curious, a fair bit of surprise betrayed on his face, when he noticed the passage had changed and was now steel plating with bright florescent lights kicking on. “When did we?”

“Ya so we haven’t been on Equestria since we walked past the bookcase. Its an extremely well disguised portal, that leads to another world that is uninhabited except for us. Supplies are brought in from all over the multiverse.” Mistress morphed a tendril out of her shoulder with a thumb on it. She pressed it to a keypad at a door they approached. After a beep the door clicked. Jeff followed by forming a tendril and thumb out of a batch of hair. The door beeped a second time and opened to reveal a large room.

The room was huge, filled with computers, screens, and holograms. Duncan even saw what appeared to be some arcano-tech for users to directly connect with the system. Everything was arranged in tiers facing the center of the room where six screens were fixed in a hexagon shape. At each terminal was a being, all kinds, he saw a large portion of ponies, and an almost as large portion of humans. However there were many others, manticores, dogs, goblins, robots, cyborgs, he even saw what appeared to be an angel and demon, sharing tea.

“Oh, they expanded. I like the layout, very modern earth feel. Almost like the old pictures of NASA. Well it has been a few hundred years for them. Expanding was planned for, now let's go meet the one in charge. The creatures with the features. The, quote ‘Man’ with the plan.” Mistress stated clearly as she skipped down the the walkway directly to the center consul.

The moment Mistress stepped past the first row of computers the entire room went silent. Prompting Duncan to jog and catch up with her. As he walked past he heard whispers, faint ones, questioning who he was, questioning who Mistress was.

“Well well well, finally brought your little toy along to play?” A familiar voice called out, seemingly from all directions. It was a voice Duncan had been waiting for, but hadn't expected yet. Looking around he saw all the screens had gone dark. Except for the one of the six in the center. It glowed with white noise. Stopping a dozen feet away from the massive screen, Mistress just sat there smiling. Duncan didn’t trust it, anytime Mistress smiled this much was trouble.

“Ya ya, I know you love the theatrics, and I didn’t leave you time to prepare. Blah, blah, blah. I wanted to stop by in person. Could only get so much info from Stone and the others.” Mistress respond, she saw Duncan looking to her, still smiling she pointed to the screen, indicating he should pay attention.

“Aw why do you always to try and ruin the… fun.” The voice answered, it punctuated the word “fun” by centralizing itself from the large screen and displaying the figure Duncan had dreaded and hoped to meet. If not a few episodes to early. The figure was thin and serpentine. The limbs a patchwork of pieces, each from a different creature. The most noticeable feature was he red eyes, floating in a yellow background.

Duncan jumped enough to trip over his robes,(which had mysteriously dried at some point) landing on his backside. The figure in the screen roared with laughter.

“Hello, Discord.”

Author's Notes:

Dun Dun Dun....

Ya... Thank you for your patience^-^ I have many chapters in the works. Many cross overs. However my goal is to clear those out and focus on just the story.