I mentioned this once before (maybe twice, I can't remember), but one thing I secretly pride myself on is my tendency to randomly picture myself in ridiculous scenarios that I once would've never thought possible. I kept the habit going so that if on the off chance the impossible ever actually did become reality, I'd be prepared for it—or at the very least I wouldn't be completely caught off guard.

Admittedly, while that kind of mentality has helped significantly in keeping me sane despite my rather harrowing situation, it hadn't really been doing much to keep the rug from being ripped out from under me so far. That was in part why I felt a small sense of relief somewhere in the back of my mind when the 'me' sitting before myself and a very confused and aggravated human Twilight introduced itself.

I felt that small sense of relief because when the initial surprise wore away, I realized that this situation right here was actually more or less a scenario I had already envisioned to some degree. It didn't really hit me until I heard the name 'Apparatus' and thought about what that could mean given what the doppelganger calling itself 'Apparatus' said.

A few different ideas about what Apparatus actually was and what was going on began floating around in my mind as I looked him up and down. A thoughtful grimace pulled at my features and seeing that—and no doubt reading my mind—Apparatus smiled a wry sort of smile.

"I'll give you points for one of your assumptions, as it is half correct," he said suddenly, amused, "but I can't go revealing the whole picture. Not yet anyway," he shrugged somewhat apologetically and returned his focus back to his ceaseless work, "I can assure that you don't need to worry about what I'm writing. It isn't your story, nor is it Twilight's or even DIscord's for that matter."

"But it is a story," I surmised, positing my response as a statement rather than a question.

I briefly saw Twilight look from me to Apparatus out of the corner of my eye, the strain of trying to make sense of the current circumstances clearly visible on her face. She looked liked she was literally ready to explode with the effort of holding back her questions and for an instant, I thought she was going to just let them fly and damn the consequences, but thankfully Apparatus spoke first.

"I guess you could technically call it a story, sure. Yeah... just a very long and tedious story," he replied casually. He cast Twilight a side glance, briefly locking eyes with the distraught mare-turned-woman, "hey, feel free to come and take a look if you're that curious. It's not like I'm transcribing some ancient forbidden eldritch text or anything."

"W-What? Me? But I..."

Twilight, obviously unprepared for the invitation, turned to give me an apprehensive look. Her demeanor shifted immediately from frustrated confusion to something more wary and indecisive. I could understand how she felt and could really only shrug my shoulders in much the same way as my furiously typing counterpart.

"There probably isn't any harm in just looking," I replied, answering Twilight's unspoken question, "call it a gut feeling, but I think you'll be okay."

It wasn't like I didn't have my own reservations—the guy was wearing my face after all, but something in the back of my mind was telling me that Apparatus was relatively benign. Of course, there was always the chance that his request (demand?) could land us in another pile of shit, but I didn't think Apparatus himself meant us any harm. I had no basis for that notion other than a hunch, just like I'd told Twilight, but... well... there it was.

Twilight took in my words silently and her frown turned pensive for a long moment. Then, evidently deciding my input wasn't good enough, she took a deep, calming breath, turned back to Apparatus, and replied with a healthy dose of skepticism in her tone.

"I think I'll just take your word for it and keep my distance if it's all the same," she said, shaking her head and fixing the still bespectacled me with a level stare, "more to the point, you said you needed us to do something, but I think it's only fair that you answer at least a few of our questions first."

I raised an eyebrow at the rather bold demand but didn't say anything, deciding to see how things played out. If this guy wanted to roleplay as me, I figured he'd most likely give the same answer I would've in this instance, and sure enough...

"Yeah I guess that is only fair," he conceded without any kind of hesitation, "I brought you here unannounced after all. Granted you both probably would've died immediately after Discord sent you on your way had I not intervened, but that's neither here nor there," he gave another shrug, this one dismissive, "alright, go on shoot, what do you wanna know first?"

Oh, don't act like you weren't gonna explain our situation all along, asshole.

A small smirk crossed Apparatus' face as he once again read my thoughts. The expression somehow went completely unnoticed by Twilight but I saw it, and I recognized it as the smirk of someone who knew they were making things more difficult than they had to be just for laughs. It gave off the same sort of vibe as when I'd tease my sister and her kid, my niece, just to get under their skin.

Watching him do that to Twilight, I felt a pang of... something in my stomach. It wasn't sadness or nostalgia or homesickness or anything like that. Yeah, it had been a while now since I was chaos spirited away by Discord, but I'd already been living apart from my family for some time before all this madness. I couldn't describe what I felt but I didn't think it was exactly a negative emotion, whatever it may have been.

I was still trying to mentally sort out those feelings when Twilight's response pulled me back to the conversation.

"This place," Twilight began, sweeping a hand over the room as if to indicate everything within, "this world... it's not real, right? It's something you created?"

"In a manner of speaking," Apparatus replied, "the pieces were already there, I just... y'know... put 'em together. Figured it might be better for Sal to have something familiar to wake up to," he glanced over to me for a second, "although I guess it kinda did come off as a bit creepy with no people around to greet you, huh?"

"Kind of, yeah," I answered before pulling out the phone I'd taken back from Twilight, "and what's the deal with this? Everything else here is clearly fake, but this?" I nodded towards the laptop and the other electronics, "all of this? It's all functional?"

"I mean, I wouldn't call it all fake exactly," Apparatus said, sounding somewhat offended for some reason, "the world outside is real, but it's all just... stripped down to its most basic framework so to speak."

"And what does that mean exactly?" Twilight asked.

Her expression and tone were still cautious but I could see her eyes light up with thinly disguised curiosity at his explanation.

"Sorry, you're gonna have to figure that one out on your own," Apparatus answered. He ignored Twilight's incensed response and nodded in my direction, "as for everything in here, I pulled it all directly from your room back in the Tucson you came from... well, minus the phone and headphones. Those I managed to swipe back from under Discord's snout."

"Ah... so the son of a bitch did take my shit," I frowned in irritation as I looked at the device, then I turned that frown back to Apparatus, "and I suppose you're not gonna tell me how you did all of that?"

"Got it in one," he replied a little too enthusiastically for my liking, "and let's be honest, you don't really care how I did it, you're just glad that I did it, right? Tell me I'm wrong."

"No, I suppose not," I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck, "and you say that, but you're still wearing my headphones."

"Right, right," he replied lazily before using one hand to pull the headphones in question from his neck and toss them over to me. He continued speaking as if I hadn't been gracelessly fumbling to catch the bulky headphones, "and before you ask, no I can't send you back to your own world. It was enough of a hassle just setting all this up and getting your stuff back."

"Really?" Twilight suddenly pressed, "you can take all of this from his home but you can't bring him back?"

Hearing the obvious dubiety in her tone, Apparatus frowned in annoyance.

"Look, if I could, I'd send Salvatore back to where he came from in a heartbeat. I'd put your Equestria back together and I'd even go so far as to put you in a position to stop what already came to pass even before Salvatore showed up... but I can't," he groused, then sighed, "yes, I have the power to do all of that and more. I've got mystical godlike powers the likes of which neither of you or even Discord could possibly hope to comprehend, but those powers don't exactly belong to me."

Then, before either of us could reply, he stopped typing altogether and fully turned in his chair to face us. Just like that, the room suddenly filled with tension so palpable it literally made me sick to my stomach. My entire body started to shake and I could feel myself breaking out in a cold sweat. Next to me, I could hear Twilight let out a small whimper, but that was it. I couldn't turn to face her, I couldn't say anything, I couldn't do anything.

Twilight and I were both frozen like deer caught in the headlights, unable to take our eyes off the unfathomable being posing as a simple fanfiction writer. Though his expression was more serious than I'd seen it so far, it was still far from severe, and when he spoke his tone was only mildly annoyed, like someone having to explain a simple concept for the third or fourth time.

"As I told you before, I might as well be a slave, and I'm on a very tight leash," he began, speaking slowly and clearly, "I want to help you two, I really do, but my options—like yours—are extremely limited right now. Hell, the two of you aren't even supposed to be aware of my existence. If the Almighty Powers that Be catch wind of our little get-together... well... the consequences don't really bear thinking about."

There was a beat of silence in which Apparatus seemed to be expecting a reply of some sort. He must've realized the effect he was having on us because a moment later he rolled his eyes, gave an exasperated sigh, and returned his hands to the keyboard. The instant his fingers hit the keys the overwhelming pressure completely dissipated.

"Messing around with electrical devices and other inanimate, inorganic objects is one thing," Apparatus continued as I struggled to catch a breath I hadn't even known I'd been holding, "but there are a lot more rules when it comes to living creatures like you and Twilight."

What the hell is... no, you know what? I don't think I even wanna know what kind of thing this guy is anymore.

"I brought all this stuff here mostly due to boredom while I waited for you both to show up," he explained, sounding more nonchalant than I would've guessed given his own circumstances, "think of me returning the phone and headphones as a sort of gesture of goodwill."

"A-And..." I coughed once and started again, "and... the whole doppelganger bit? What's that all about?"

I decided not to dwell on the implications of what I'd heard and the potential scale of even meeting who or whatever Apparatus was. I didn't want to think about these 'Almighty Powers that Be', nor did I want to know what consequences Apparatus was talking about. All I wanted to do was take Twilight and get the hell out of here before Apparatus got in trouble and by extension, somehow screwed us over.

Unfortunately, I was pretty sure we were completely at his mercy and even if we could escape, I had no idea where we'd go or how we'd get there. So, in light of the situation, I did what I could to shove my unease down as far as it would go and trusted that Apparatus wasn't so incompetent as to get himself caught. There were still questions to be answered after all and Apparatus seemed to be all too happy to provide, well... some answers anyway.

"Ah, asking the important questions I see," Apparatus chuckled, "part of the reason I look like this is that I kind of need the disguise. The reason I chose this form specifically was to fuck with the two of you... but y'know..." his face suddenly turned thoughtful, "your body feels oddly comfortable... like slipping into a nice, warm, expensive bathrobe fresh out of the dryer."

I grimaced at the last bit and Apparatus laughed at my bemused and frankly disturbed expression.

"Just take it as a compliment, though I doubt you will," he said before shifting his focus over to Twilight, "and as for you..."

Twilight hadn't said anything since her last question, and now that I could actually turn to get a better look at her, she still looked pale and just overall visibly shaken by what had happened earlier. Though now that all attention was on her, she finally spoke again. I was thankful to hear that she sound more steady and confident than she looked.

"My magic," she blurted out before wincing and starting over, "what happened to me, and why isn't my magic working? Did you—"

"Your magic doesn't work here," Apparatus interjected, "not for either of you—and yes, Sal, Discord has deigned to bestow upon you a modicum of his own chaotic magic... magic that you can actually use."

"Holy shit, seriously?!" I asked, my eyes widening and my voice incredulous, "I can actually use it? Like I can snap my fingers and shit happens?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't go getting too excited," Apparatus warned, "I don't think I need to tell you this, but I will anyway just for emphasis: Chaos magic is unpredictable, and this particular boon comes at a price."

"A price," I grumbled with severely reduced enthusiasm, "of course it does."

"Naturally," Apparatus nodded, "ain't no free lunches here, my guy. Yeah, you can use chaos magic now, but by choosing to imbue you with his power, Discord essentially ripped out your humanity and turned you into what we in the business call a 'lesser chaos spirit'."

"A lesser chaos spirit," I repeated, rolling both the words and his implications about what Discord did to my humanity around for a moment before turning to Twilight, "any idea what he's talking about?"

Twilight, for her part, had sunken into a thoughtful silence, brow furrowed as her curious amethyst eyes moved from Apparatus to me, then to the carpeted floor. Both Apparatus and I watched on for a long moment as the gears in Twilight's head continued to turn. It didn't take more than a minute or two for her to give a response though, thankfully.

"Most of what I knew and what most ponies knew about chaos magic weren't much more than theories about how it could work," she explained, "up until now, I thought Discord was the only being who could actually use chaos magic," she shook her head and raised her head to meet my gaze, "I didn't know anything about these 'lesser chaos spirits', but it does make sense, and it might even explain a few things about what was happening to you."

"Yup," Apparatus chimed in, "normally, chaos spirits are born, not made. Even if a mortal like Sal has an affinity for chaos magic, it should've never been able to manifest in the way it did."

"And I suppose that explains the nasty side effects I've been suffering," I surmised, thinking back to what happened on the ship, Discord's excuses when he pulled me back into the Chaos Realm, and the warping of my senses. I gave Twilight a wry grin, "so I guess all those theories you were crafting about the effects of chaos magic on my body were pretty spot on."

"I don't know about that," Twilight replied, casting an uncertain glance in Apparatus' direction, "suddenly I feel like I missed a major step somewhere along the way."

"Eh, you were close enough," Apparatus said, waving a dismissive hand, "the fact of the matter is that Discord had already sealed Salvatore's fate from the moment he turned the poor bastard into a world-destroying nuke. Now you, on the other hand, Miss Sparkle, are a somewhat different story."

"Me?" Twilight's eyes widened and her grown deepened with apprehension, "w-what about me? What did Discord do?"

"I have no idea, to be honest with you," Apparatus said with a look I couldn't quite place. It was something close to interest or curiosity, but somehow not really either of those things, "I'm fairly sure he bound you to Salvatore in some way, but I'm not sure how, nor do I know what effect it'll have on you or Sal once you both arrive at whatever Equestria he's sending you to next."

"Wha—bonded?" Twilight repeated in clear confusion. She gave me a bemused frown—one I returned with a bemused shrug—then turned back to Apparatus, "what does that mean? And how can you tell?"

"I don't know, it's a magic thing," Apparatus shook his head, "you'd be able to tell if you could use magic here, but like I said, your magic is a no-go right now."

"Alright, fair enough, we'll figure that out when we can," I replied, cutting off Twilight's next response in an effort to move things along, "can I also assume Twilight's current form was your doing? Or was that also Discord?"

"That was probably me," Apparatus answered after a moment of thought, "I created this space to act in a very specific way, and her human form is most likely a side effect of the process."

"So once we leave, I'll be back to normal?" Twilight asked hopefully, "I'll be a pony again?"

"Unless Discord did something else to alter your appearance, then yeah, most likely."

Twilight let out a small sigh of relief, but I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed. Twilight looked good as a human—damn good even. I didn't expect to fall in love or even lust with the former mare despite her looks, and I didn't mind her as a mare rather than a human. No, that wasn't the issue, it was more that I found it nice to have another human companion with me on this insane journey.

Maybe it was something like a kinship formed from being the same species in a multiverse gone mad? I don't know, but I couldn't help but be a little sad to see human Twilight go. Still, it was what it was, and I wasn't going to complain about it if Twilight preferred her equine form.

Then again, if Discord did do something...

"Now I think it's about time we move on to why I brought you both here in the first place," Apparatus announced, "I've given just about all the answers I can give right now, and thanks to how long it took you two to wake up, we don't have a lot of time left."

"And we'll be sent back to wherever Discord meant to send us when this is over?" Twilight guessed, to which Apparatus nodded without taking his eyes of the laptop's screen.

"This place is just a stopgap that exists outside the multiverse, kinda like the Chaos Realm only more temporary in nature. Once I dissolve it, you'll be back on your merry way to the next hell Discord has in store for you."

Something nagged at me regarding what Apparatus said about the Chaos Realm being outside the multiverse, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was before he spoke again. And what he mentioned pushed the budding thought from my mind entirely.

"So you know those volatile violet crystals you've been ignoring up until now? Yeah, I'm gonna need you to not ignore those anymore."

I blinked.

"O... kay?" I replied uncertainly, "why?"

"Alright, so long story short," Apparatus began, "each of those purple crystals is a shard of a much, much larger construct called the Multiversal Needle, or the Linchpin—whichever name you prefer.

"The Multiversal Needle was made by the Almighty Powers that Be to keep the multiverse from collapsing in on itself—a sort of 'linchpin' meant to hold it all together. Someone or something with not-so-nice intentions tried ages ago to destroy that construct but failed... for the most part. I'm pretty sure you see where I'm going with this?"

Yeah, I've got a pretty good idea.. unfortunately.

"From what I can gather, the asshole managed to break at least some of this Linchpin and the pieces were scattered across the multiverse," I guessed, "now you want me to get them back rather than destroy them?"

"Bingo," Apparatus replied, "and don't give me that look. I'm not expecting you to wander the multiverse for eternity looking for the crystals like a certain scheming draconequus. We already have others sent by the Almighty Powers scouring the cosmos for the pieces and they've already found most of them.

"No, I just need you—and Twilight I guess since she's here—to continue on as you have been for now. We won't see each other again, but you'll hear from me once all is said and done."

"Once all is said and done?" Twilight asked with a frown, "what does that mean?"

"Once all the crystals have been collected," Apparatus answered, "once you have one in your possession, just think of my name and I'll take it off your hands."

"Sounds simple enough," I admitted, "but that raises a couple of questions—namely, what happens to us once we send it? Do we still get shipped off to another Equestria? And for that matter, what's to stop Discord from catching on? If he has some ulterior motive like I think he does, I doubt he'll just sit back and let things be as they are."

"Was he the one that tried to destroy that Multiversal Needle?" Twilight added.

"The trigger for your teleportation from one Equestria to another is the removal of the crystal shard," Apparatus replied, "it doesn't matter if it's destroyed or removed by other means, so long as it doesn't exist in that world anymore so you'll be good to go... literally."

"Wait, now that I think about it, this all means Discord was lying about the universe being bound by those crystals," I surmised, wondering just how much of what Discord told me back then was complete bullshit, "he never expected me to hop from universe to universe forever, just until I destroyed the remaining shards."

But why not just tell me that in the first place? I probably would've been a bit more willing to cooperate if I'd known for sure that there was an end in sight.

Then again, I wasn't—and still am not—cool with the idea of casual universal obliteration...

"Well, you're right about the second part, but the first... not really, no," Apparatus corrected, "I mean, not the crystal shards individually no, but as a whole yeah, that's kind of what they're for. Sort of. Multiverse, not just universe, but that's splitting hairs at this point."

"And what about if Salvatore dies before he finds the shards? What about if I die?" Twilight asked, giving me a worried look, "would that still trigger—"

"Well, I've got good news and bad news where Salvatore is concerned," Apparatus replied with a sigh, "I'll give you the bad news first. The bad news is that yes, Salvatore is still a walking, talking universal nuke, and like I said, you two are bonded. Your fate is tied to his, so if he goes, you go."

"And if for some reason she dies before I do?" I asked.

Apparatus didn't speak for a moment. He kept his eyes on the laptop screen, typing away in silence long enough that started to wonder if he hadn't heard me, but just as I thought that—

"Well now that's an interesting question," he finally replied, "I can tell you she won't stay dead... but that's about I can tell you. And before you go complaining, I mean that's literally all I'm able to tell you. Again, Discord did something weird to Twilight and because of that, I don't know all the details. I'm powerful, but even I don't know and can't see everything."

Twilight and I looked at each other and I grimaced at how desperately she was trying to fight down her growing anxiety. I wished I could do something for her, but this situation was so far out of my hands that it was almost laughable. But then, as I thought that, the beginnings of an idea came to me.

Or maybe it isn't all that impossible...

"So what's the good news?" I decided to ask.

"The good news is that you're a lesser chaos spirit that now has access to the chaos magic within," Apparatus answered, "sure, you can't warp reality to the extent that Discord can—not by a long shot—but if you're clever, you should be able to at least find a workaround to the whole living nuke thing."

Then he turned to look me in the eye.

"And I really suggest finding an alternative ASAP," he warned, "because every time that trigger activates, it sends ripples across the multiverse and everything goes a little more out of whack," he turned back to his work, and continued in a surprisingly spot-on impression of Lumbergh, "so... if you could try a little harder not to die while you're still a walking bomb, that'd be great."

Well, at least there's some hope. Don't know if I could figure out how to get around that on my own, but hopefully Twilight and I could think of some kind of solution...

Oh, who the hell am I kidding? Hopefully, Twilight could think of some kind of solution.

"Getting back to the subject of Discord finding out, you can leave that issue to me," he chuckled, "I can't do much to help you two directly beyond what I'm already doing, but thankfully, that asshole somewhat falls within the limits of what I'm able to interfere with."

"And just how you'll be able to help is on a need-to-know basis, I assume?" I asked.

"You assume correctly, my friend," Apparatus confirmed before nodding to Twilight, "as for your question, no, it wasn't that or any other Discord, but I'm pretty sure the Discord who approached Salvatore is probably working with who or whatever messed with the Linchpin."

Thinking about it, that made sense assuming Discord lied about what he wanted me to do. I had my doubts that the draconequus really expected me to take care of every single Equestria in the 'Grimverse'. If what Apparatus said was true, that only confirmed my suspicions about Discord's motives. Well, only insomuch that I suspected he was lying. I had no earthly idea what he was trying to ultimately accomplish by helping 'Mystery Being X' destroy the Linchpin.

Hell, for all I know, Apparatus is that Mystery Being X.

"I heard that, from both of you."

I looked over to Twilight and raised a brow at the wincing woman. From her reaction, it was clear that I wasn't the only that forgot he could read minds. I was surprised not because I'd again forgotten that Apparatus could read my mind, but rather because Twilight and I were evidently on the same wavelength. Apparatus, for his part, simply gave another exasperated sigh.

"Look, I can't really do or say anything to convince you guys that I'm on the up and up right now—nothing that won't get me in trouble anyway," he said with a hint of an apology in his voice, "but just... if you give me some time and collect at least a few shards for me, I can prove I'm on the level."

There was a tense moment of silence that filled the air. Twilight stared at Apparatus, still looking unsure. I, on the other hand, gave a sigh that sounded very much the same as my inhuman counterpart.

"I don't know what kind of twelfth-dimensional being you are under that skin suit and I don't know how you're gonna pull all this off without getting caught by the 'Powers that Be'," I began, "but that shit's all way beyond me and I've evidently got my own shit to worry about, what with me not technically being human anymore apparently among other things."

And that wasn't even counting Twilight's situation. I mean, the current state of her existence was still up in the air. Once we left this place, who knew what she'd become? I wasn't sure, but I'd bet Twilight herself was scared out of her mind, even if she wasn't showing it outright. But still...

"You're right that I don't trust you after hearing all of this, and I still have a billion other questions that need answering about a lot of things, but I'll at least trust that you know what you're doing... for now."

"It doesn't really seem like we have a choice, Sal," Twilight murmured despondently before addressing Apparatus, "is there anything else you can tell me about.... well... me? Anything about what's going to happen to me once we leave?"

Apparatus continued to type away on the laptop and didn't answer right away. In fact, he took so long to answer that Twilight and I shared concerned glances. She was about to say something, likely to break the uncomfortable silence, but Apparatus finally spoke just then, his voice both serious and sincere.

"The most I can promise you is that you'll have access to your magic again once you leave this place. Whatever Discord did, it was really something else."

Well... that's not ominous or anything.

I gave Twilight a sympathetic look that did nothing to put any color back into her pale face. Before I could even think about giving any words of encouragement, Apparatus continued. This time there was a sense of finality to his words, and those words—somehow more than anything else he'd said so far—filled me with a sense of dread that shoved aside and drowned out the innumerable amount of questions I still wanted to ask.

"I know there's more that you both wanna ask, and truthfully there's more I want to tell you, but we're out of time so I'm sending you on your way," he said, then paused a second, turned to face us, and said almost as an afterthought, "oh, and you've been extremely lucky up until this point, where crystals are concerned, Sal. You might get lucky again, but don't expect those crystals to just be sitting in plain sight for you to nab every time."

I wanted desperately to press for more information. I wanted to ask if he had any idea about where we were going. I wanted to ask just how much he knew about what was going on. I wanted to know more about my evident transformation into a lesser chaos spirit. I wanted to know what the hell he'd been writing about all that time... but I missed my chance.

Before I could give voice to any of my burning questions, Apparatus hit one last key on the keyboard with particular intensity and my world went white for a brief moment. All sound vanished save for a distant, painful ringing, and then everything fell into absolute darkness another instant later.

Wanted to give more info, but I figured there was enough for the moment. Might spread a few more revelations over the course of the next few chapters.