I did a pretty good zombie impression by shambling toward the train. It took me longer than I would’ve liked to admit to get down from the tree. My subordinate had stolen a few more veggie sticks from my bag and left to get help… I think he committed mutiny but I had no proof, yet. When I had asked for help Spike ignored me and left with his friends after convincing Flickercoy out of the bush. I think I got her name wrong but I had almost no energy left to care. They seemed to want to leave only stopping so Wingbeat could heal Rainbow Sortie. Probably didn’t help that I was trying to chew my way out. What my arms were tied up at that moment. After I had gotten free it was already nearing sunrise so I didn’t have much time to find the Aegis shield, which was sitting by the hole, and make my way to the train station.

“Wow you look like shit,” My new slave driver said upon seeing me. I gave a grunt as I approached. “Oh, I found this really nice hotel, I had to examine the beds because they were some of the comfiest, I ever felt.” My eye twitched as he said this. “So, what was that technique you used last night, Terra Bane or something.”

“Terra Bane allows me to turn what should be one attack into three,” I mumbled as I slumped into the bench. My hand went to the bag and pulled out a small trinket. It resembled a small pin with a triangle in front of a hexagon. This was an artifact, you remember Gods Arms, an in-game item that allowed one to learn non-class techniques. The one in my hand was Mars Bane, I never got Terra Bane because I didn’t see the point when the upgraded version was easier to get. “Catch,” I tossed it to him. “If you put it on, you’ll learn Mars Bane, the next stage of Terra Bane.” Seeing him staring at the pin for a few seconds I took my chance to ask a question. “So, what was with the Gate of Babylon recreation?”

“That was the lost magic Arc of Embodiment.” My sluggish mind went blank for a second before rebooting.

“How do you know Fairy Tail magic?” I asked the very reasonable question. Ed attached the pin to his clothes before it glowed and disappeared. The Arc of Embodiment was a magic that allowed one to create anything they could imagine. Couldn't remember the limits if there were any.

“I now know how to break reality. Got any more?” My hand again went to my bag to fish around in it. “To answer your question, I came across a Displaced Levi who taught it to me.” My hand came away with three more in my bag. Mana Recovery I & II along with God Arms, all which I thought I had equipped, must have some spares. Since he was an ally of some kind, I passed him them to him.

“Those three are passive skills. Two of them are Mana Recovery, one restores MP while you walk the other while you fight.” I don’t know how would one measure MYS so I didn’t mention it. “God’s Arms allows you to dual wield any weapon except bows.” Ed took the pins and was quick to put them on. “The only problem with them is you can only have five equipped at a time.”

“Thanks, I’ll have to try them out at some point,” Ed said as the train slowly started pulling into the station.

“Don’t worry about, you did promise to help train me after all,” I mumbled as I tried to stay awake. I felt my eyes start to flutter close.

“Sir Edward is that you?” A familiar voice jarred me away from dreamland. No, come back captain Nemo.

“Ahh, Rarity it is good to see you.” The alchemist polity bowed to her.

“Keep acting like that and I might have to steal you away from your wife.” Rarity teased, as the others walked up.

“Hi, people and dragon we kidnapped,” I muttered while trying to focus on the conversion.

“You did what?!” Purple and pink hair yelled helping me wake up more.

“We helped him meet up with his friends like he wanted to do,” I mumbled while looking at the dragon on the shoulder. “Oh, hi Spike, did you get the night you wanted.”

“Yeah after we left the party, we went to donut joe’s and had a great time,” Spike said looking really happy but my sleep deprived mind was on something else.

“Why are you naked.” Unlike last night Spike now wore no clothes. Everyone seemed caught off guard by my question. “Though it is good that you had fun with your friends.”

“Wait you can hear Spike?” Pinkie asked appearing next to me. I gave a nod as my answer while Ed seemed intrigued.

“So are we not supposed to not hear him.”

“No, as you noticed Spike can’t yet use his vocal cords so instead, he uses a simplified telepathy that all dragons can.” Ed nodded along like what she just said made sense. Wait what was her name? Did I ever introduce myself to her?

“Hi, names Oz, you remind me of this Captain I met.” I stuck my hand forward properly cutting off whatever nerd conversion the two were about to have.

“Twilight Sparkle, apprentice to Princess Celestia.” I heard Ed chuckle while saying something about how some things never change.

“Oh, how is she, I hope we didn’t cause her to much trouble last night,” Ed said while we loaded onto the train.

“Think nothin’ bout it.” A southern drawl answered. “If what the girls say is anythin’ to go by you did the right thing putten that prince in place.” As I fell into the first seat, I finally took notice of who was speaking. She had long blond hair done up in a ponytail and emerald green eyes with a few freckles dotting her face. “Though I’m sorry I was too busy to see ya’ spar.” Please don’t bring that up.

“Oh, that was so awesome. You should have seen it AJ we were going back and forth. I even got to fight Spitfire!” Rainbow said as she flew up to us. “Though why the princess had us split up like that I still don’t get. Though how I wish I was up to see the end.”

Hearing a squeak, I turned to see the pink haired girl from last night. When she noticed my look, she seemed to try and melt into the train seat. Thankfully for her, my mind went to what I was trying to remember. “Now I know where I heard your name!” I said pointing at Twilight. “Your Shining Armor’s sister!” More head turned toward her and away from me.

“Twilight you have a brother?” Pinkie asked confused. Twilight answered with a nod while still staring at me.

“Yeah, he’s captain of the royal guard. But how did you know we were related?” Ed seemed happy with me talking with the group.

“Oh, he lent me a couple books. Some of the very questionable subsistence.” Once again who puts walls of texts in COMIC books. People should try to minimize the number of words in comics not take up pages with it! Rarity went red-faced while Ed almost fell over. “I couldn’t finish a few of them because of how descriptive a few of them went. I don’t need to know every little thing.” Twilight had adopted a look of sheer horror while AJ looked like she was reevaluating something. “And that's not even getting into the mess supposedly mess left behind by them. I mean I guess it's realistic but I don’t want to hear about every little stain-” I felt something hit me in the back as my vision went black. Oh, guess its nap time now.

The cart fell into silence as Oz’s word vomit was ended by Ed knocking him out. They stayed in awkward silence for a few seconds. “What’d you do that for,” Applejack asked as Oz was placed comfortably on the seat.

“He was obviously tired, so I’m letting him catch up on his sleep.” Ed defended/explained himself.

“Wow, you really know how to handle the guy.” Rainbow chimed in while poking Oz stunned how deeply he was sleeping.

“Comes from experience.” Ed chuckled glad the previous talk went down with Oz.

“Oh, how much experience do you have?” Twilight asked also happy to bury the past with cement.

“Around two thousand years,” Ed explained. The occupants of the car were quite while holding a silent debate about whether he was telling the truth or not.

“Yes, come my minions we shall overgrow the flower kingdom,” Oz said aloud in his sleep while a grin broke out on his face. “Joahn shall be the first in line for the feast.”

“Um, I don’t mean to interrupt but, um, should we be concerned about what he said?” Fluttershy asked peeking out from behind her staff.

“Not really,” Ed said while relaxing in his seat.

“But he said he was going to take over the plant kingdom!” Pinkie exclaimed popping up near the group.

“Half the stuff the guy says is just a smart-ass remark, just ask AJ and she'll confirm he means nothing by it," Ed explained alleviating any concern they had.

Rarity cleared her throat to get the groups attention. “I’m with Sir Edward on this one, these two have proven they are more than trustworthy.”

“I’m with Rarity on this one,” Spike said as he moved over to sit on Edward’s shoulder.

“Just call me Ed, I’m not too fond of titles.” He said giving his best-relaxed smile.

“So, where you two goin’ anyway?” The paladin asked glad the ice was long gone.

“Oh, I wanted to check on the Castle of the two sister ruins.” The car once again fell into silence at this. “Is something wrong?”

“Well the castle isn’t off limits per say, but, no offense by this, are you sure you're ready to go through the Everfree?” Twilight asked awkwardly.

“Yes, I’m quite sure I can handle what that forest has to offer.” Ed wondered what this version of the Everfree had.

“Well, I do owe you for helping me.” Ed turned to look at the dragon on his shoulder. “So, to fulfill the dragon code I shall help you get there safely.” As Ed was about to object another voice cut him off.

“Well, I do suppose I too need to repay my debt. It would be nice to see Steven again, oh I hope his wonderful mustache is doing good.” Rarity chimed in.

“Well, you did let me show my stuff to Spitfire so I guess I could take some time to give you a tour through the forest.” Rainbow said before her grin went atomic, “If you're lucky I might even tell you about how I took down Nightshade.”

“Well, shucks if they're going, I guess I might as well come to. How about Flutters?” The Apple asked turning to the druid. “From what I hear you do owe that Oz guy.”

Fluttershy turned atomic at the reminder of what she did one night ago. “I guess I could go. I mean if that's okay with you.”

“Oh my gosh, best idea ever!” The cotton candy haired trickster yelled while pulling out multiple notebooks. “We could have a picnic at the castle. I’ll pack a whole bunch of food like cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, ice cream cakes, and maybe even ice cream cupcakes!” Already Pinkie had filled out four pages of the notebook. “But where would we fit the coolers maybe behind the freezers. No, the freezer keeps saying that the cooler is a prick.”

“Well, I guess it’s settled.” Twilight chuckled at her friends' antics. “We’re all going into the Everfree with you.”

Ed let out a sigh at this. If these girls were anything like the ones from his home dimension then he knew there was no point in trying to convince them not to come.

“Oh my gosh, we’re going to have so much fun!” Pinkie yelled while putting away a full notebook.

“Doom flags, so many doom flags,” Oz mumbled as the train continued on. “The Flower Kingdom is sure to fall. Nothing shall be forgotten.”

******

Sunset paced angrily near Celestia in the courtroom. Shining had left not long ago to grab Oz for his trial. This morning had been a disaster in every sense of the word. Not only did she have to share her time with Twilight the damn girl had actually forgotten about her. HER rival had not even known she existed! Not only that she had a bigger team than her. Twilight had insisted that they were her friends but Sunset knew better. She knew that someone like Twilight was incapable of making close friends. If Twilight was going to add more to her team then so was, she.

“What do you mean you lost him!” Shining yelled at two sun guards.

“Sorry, sir we were heading to the palace when he escaped.” The two idiot guards said going stiff. “We have patrols ready to find him.”

“What seems to be the problem here?” Sunset’s mentor cut in.

“It seems Oz somehow escaped,” Shining muttered. Sunset felt part of her crush under the realization that the person she hoped to recruit had left.

“Hmm… this Oz wouldn’t happen to have black hair and different colored eyes, would he?” Everyone turned toward the sun princess at this. “Because I believe I met him last night at the party last night.” A mischievous grin grew on her face, “But still please do put out that search warrant I would very much like to meet this man.”

Author's Notes:

Setup Chapter I know. But I should be able to get the next part out soon so sit tight I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter though.