Every Time…

Part II of a crossover with cyber5555’s “A New Point of View”

Once again, I ducked back and said, “I don’t know who Arcana is! Dude, chill out!”

The crazed Pegasus swung at me again, and shouted, “LIAR!”

Alright, screw this.

Instead of waiting for him to attack me, I jumped forward, and crashed my head into his. He stumbled back, but quickly recovered and sent a buck towards my side.  I let myself get pushed back, wincing slightly.

I fell to the ground, pretending to be wounded. The Pegasus thought he had me, and with a cocky smile on his face, he charged at me again…only to get a swift uppercut to the chin.

“SHORYUKEN!” I shouted.

The silver winged Pegasus was sent flying backwards, where he crashed into a tree. Taking advantage of the moment, I galloped forward, summoning my Traveler’s Blade in whip form. A quick flick of my head sent it spiraling around the tree, effectively wrapping up the Pegasus.

“Now, are you willing to listen to me?” I asked, cracking my neck.

He struggled against the whip even harder.

“LET ME GO!” he shouted.

“Just shut up and listen,” I repeated. “And don’t bother trying to break that whip. Unbreakable stuff, so-”

Suddenly, he disappeared in a flash of light.

“…Or you can teleport. That too.”

Stars exploded in front of my eyes, as I felt myself get slammed on the back of my head. I fell to the ground, where the Pegasus placed a hoof triumphantly on my neck.

“Now, you’ll tell me-”

I smiled, and interrupted him by saying, “You should learn the first rule of pinning your opponent.”

Before he answered, I brought my back legs up, and launched them into his groin.

“Always protect the jewels.”

He groaned in pain, and rolled off of me, and onto the grass next to me. In an instant, I was back up again, and I had my hooves wrapped around his neck in a full-nelson.

“Now, calm down, and we can get something worked out,” I calmly said.

He flailed about wildly, before I felt the warping sensation kick in again.

“Oh, come on!” I shouted.

The next thing I knew, both of us were hundreds of feet off the ground. The Pegasus rolled in the air, flinging me off of him, and I plummeted towards the ground. Thinking quickly, I flicked my whip at a tall pine tree, hooking it onto one of the upper branches. I yanked on it with as much strength as I could muster, and used it to slingshot myself back into the air.

“What?! How did you-”

I collided with him in midair.

Thank you Equestrian physics!

I slammed my forehead against his, and shouted, “STOP! FIGHTING! ME!”

The Pegasus tried to say something, but I wasn’t in the mood. We were falling at high speeds, he wasn’t listening to me, and I never got to finish my cornflakes from earlier! I am NOT a happy Traveler right now.

This time, I shifted into human form, and started spinning us in the air.

“Atomic…”

I bent his head towards the ground, and forced us to fall faster.

“PILEDRIVER!”

His head collided with the ground, and I pushed off of him, landing a bit unsteadily on my feet.

He groaned in pain, and stirred feebly on the ground. He muttered something about Arcana, causing me to sigh regretfully. I placed a hand on his shoulder, and rolled him over onto his back. “Sorry about that, buddy,” I said while he lost consciousness. “I had to do that to calm you down.”

I heaved him over my shoulder, straining a bit under the weight, and hauled him to the nearest place where I could successfully explain everything without getting assaulted. Of course, there weren’t very many options.

“Hope Applejack doesn’t mind entertaining guests,” I muttered.

XHXHXHXHXHX

“So yah mean to tell me that this feller,” Applejack said, nudging the unconscious Pegasus’ unmoving body, “is from another universe?”

“Yep,” I stated, scratching my beard. “Seems to have rookie control over Space magic, and he took some pretty hard hits.”

Pinkie Pie nodded sagely, munching an apple tart. “Is that why he thinks he knows us?”

Before you ask, Pinkie Pie was there because she had to work out some apple treats with Applejack. Not just because of plot convenience. I know, shocking, right?

“He does know you, actually,” I cheerfully replied, shifting back into pony form. “The thing is, he only knows alternate reality versions of you two. That Arcana he keeps mentioning is probably one of his friends, possibly his special someone if my hunch is right.”

The three of us sat there in silence, as we waited for him to wake up. Thoughts raced through my head in a blur of ideas. I needed to think of a good way to break this to him gently. None of us need him to go bonkers and try to hurt anyone.

Which is why I had Pinkie make a Pinkie Pie promise to keep him there. And nothing escapes one of those. NOTHING.

“Looks like he’s getting up,” I muttered. “You two can deal with him first. Let him see some familiar faces, and we’ll ease him into it.”

I let the girls talk to him for a moment. The poor sap was pretty confused, not really helped by the fact that Applejack was starting to get in his face.

“Alright girls, you can lay off the guy now,” I finally intervened. “He’s just been through a lot. Apparently, he lost someone close to him.”

At the sound of my voice, his eyes widened, prompting me to step out in front of him. “S’up?” I casually asked.

He started flailing about even more, struggling to get a word out. Thankfully, Pinkie had pulled through for me again, and had remembered to Duct-tape his mouth shut.

“Guess I’m lucky you have that on,” I commented dryly. He glared at me in anger, silent fires behind his eyes. Clearing my throat, I continued. “Well, anyways…Name’s Omnius. I’ll be your guide to the multiverses today. Oh, and before I forget, sorry about the nutshot.”

The bound and gagged Pegasus started thrashing about violently at the mention of the low blow to his nads. Hey, all’s fair in love, war, and comedy. Obviously, this was the third option. I opened my mouth to say one of my trademark witty zingers-

Only to get interrupted by the sound of Big Macintosh opening the door to the barn. A look of surprise shot across his face, and he said, “What are you…”

“Therapy,” I cut in, a large smile on my face. Dashing over, I began to shut the door again, adding, “Don’t worry, Pinkie, Applejack, and I know exactly what we’re doing. In fact, AJ, GET THE ROPE!”

Big Mac’s eyes widened, and he backed away a bit quicker. Smart move. Don’t wanna confuse any more ponies than necessary.

“Now then, enough joking around.” I cracked my neck eagerly. Meeting the captured Pegasus’ eyes, I slowly said, “Okay.  I’ll try to explain what happened to you and this ‘Arcana’ you mentioned before, but I need to know that you’ll calm down and not attack me again…Or I’ll suplex you again. Got it?”

Reluctantly, he nodded.

“Alrighty then.” I smiled cheerfully again, and ripped the duct-tape away from his mouth. He gasped in pain, soliciting a pang of sympathy from me. Okay, don’t mention the small patch of fur that got torn off. “Now, let’s start with your name.”

He glared, and growled out, “Can you let me go first? Because I’m getting slightly uncomfortable sitting in this chair for so long.”

Should’a thought about that before you attacked me.

“After you answer some of our questions,” I compromised. “And don’t try to lie, because the Element of Honesty is here.” I pointed towards Applejack, who grinned deviously, like we had rehearsed. “And when you answer truthfully, I’ll take another bond off.”

He sighed, but nodded in agreement.

“Now, I repeat: What’s your name?”

“Star Streak,” he answered.

At this, Applejack frowned. I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “What’s wrong? He tellin’ the truth?”

“Well…yes,” she hesitantly said. “But it feels like he’s hidin’ somethin’ else.”

Hmm…Normally, that implies another name in these kind of scenarios.

“Do you have another name?” I asked, voicing my thoughts.

“Yes I do, but I rarely use it though,” Star admitted. “My other name is Eirc Moore.”

“Ah ha,” I nodded triumphantly. “Just like I thought. Right, this will make things a lot easier. So, I presume you’re a human in pony form then? Well, you’re not the first I’ve met who’s been in that situation.”

“What? What are you talking about? There’s no way you can possibly know what I’ve been through,” he spat out, obviously still pissed at me.

I took a steadying breath to control my own temper. Sometimes it’s hard to be the guy who has to explain things to an idiot. Fortunately, I’ve had experience at both sides. The only thing I can really do now is calmly walk him through this.

For now, I’ll have to ignore that insult.

“Okay, Star Streak. You’re more comfortable with that name because a lot more good things have happened to you while you’ve been a pony, right?” I started, taking a seat across from him. “Maybe your life was normal, or maybe it wasn’t, but either way, you consider Equestria your true home now. Right now, you’re not mad at me. Right now, you’re scared because you don’t want another home ripped away from you. That’s why you blame me for everything that’s going on.”

I sighed, and brushed my mane out of my eyes.

“You have to understand though; I understand what you’re going through. You’ve just got a life you want to get back to as soon as possible, and I assume that Arcana is who you want to get back to? Since you’re worried, your home must have evil in it. It must have some form of monster you’re used to fighting. That would explain your lack of hesitance to attack me. Since you could barely handle me when I was holding back almost everything, you’re somewhat arrogant. That means you’ve fought some major-league villains, and come out on top.”

“H-how do you know all that?” Star Streak muttered, shocked that I had guessed all of this.

“Your scars and the look in your eyes tell me everything,” I replied gently.

“What scars? How can you see them on me?” asked Star, confusion apparent on his face.

“I don’t need to see them to know they’re there. The way you talk, and the way you’re holding yourself tell me something about you. But that’s not what you really want to ask. You want to ask me how I can read all of that, and how I can tell you where you really are, right?”

Star glared at me for a moment, before faltering slightly. His anger was finally starting to fade away. He hung his head, and asked me, “Where am I?”

I undid one of the bonds on his wings as a sign of good faith. “You can do some pretty impressive teleportation magic. In fact, it seems related to the element Space, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve guessed.”

Another one of his wing shackles was removed.

“I’m gonna say that you overcharged one of your warps, and ended up in an alternate Equestria,” I stated bluntly. “That’s the only logical explanation, as you didn’t blame Twilight or Arcana for this.”

He flapped his wings a bit in relief, then frowned. “I wouldn’t ever blame Arcana for this!”

“Ah, so she IS a unicorn then,” I asked, confirming my thoughts.

“Yeah, she is. Why?”

“Just curious. She’s a human too, isn’t she?”

He got a thoughtful look on his face, as if he were considering denying it, but then sighed again. “She is. Her name is Brittney.”

“Okay then,” I nodded. This time, one of the leg bonds came off. “You’re being very calm about this,” I observed.

“How do you know about all of this though? I mean, nopony should know about alternate dimensions, or Space related spells like that!” he half-shouted, his impatience getting the better of him.

“Right…okay, bear with me for a second,” I calmly stated. “What I’m about to say will sound like total bullshit. But if you want to go back home to Arcana, and the rest of your friends, please listen to me.”

“…Alright…” he hesitantly answered.

“Okay. So, let me tell you a story.” Applejack and Pinkie Pie sat on the ground next to me, already familiar with this explanation. “There are Gods and Goddesses, capitol ‘G’…”

And I lunched into a short summary behind the Travelers. I even mentioned to him that I can use Time/Space/Matter magic, and that I was really human. I didn’t even hide the immortality and inability to die factors from him.

“…Are you being serious?” he finally said when I had finished.

“Eeyup,” I smiled.

It was his turn to be blunt.

“You’re insane,” he stated, eyeing me as if I needed to be locked away.

“Well, that’s not a new one,” I sorrowfully said.

Applejack made a move as if to smack some sense into him, but Pinkie stopped her with a quiet look. Both of them understood how much pain it caused me to hear that when people were talking about my Traveling. They also knew that I would deal with the person saying it in my own way.

For instance, I shifted into human form spontaneously.

“What the buck!?” he shouted, scrabbling backwards in his chair.

“Boo,” I deadpanned.

That reaction never gets old.

Oh, it’s good to be The Traveler.

Next Chapter: Homeward Bound Estimated time remaining: 42 Minutes