I had no idea how long I had been falling, but it must have been for a while now. I regained consciousness just when it seemed I was heading towards a non-existent ground in an eternal darkness. The only clue I had to know that I was actually moving were the lights in the far distance that were slowly fading out of my field of vision. My first assumption was that I was somewhere at the corner of the universe, but I found no proof for that and didn’t even want to. Would my body have been here, it would surely have immediately succumbed to the nothingness of space. My hopes were now lying with Twilight and the others noticing that something went wrong and that they would try to get me back. With my limited knowledge of magic, and without the possibility to further study it right now, it was unlikely that I would solve this problem on my own.

I didn’t know how long I had been floating through the nothingness, but the lights had disappeared a while ago and somehow my surrounding felt thicker, as though I was falling in some kind of solid fog. To top it all off, I had that awful feeling of no longer being alone when I was supposed to be.

“Hey, how are you doing?” came a voice from nowhere. I looked around, but I could have also searched with my eyes closed; it wouldn’t have made a difference.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking. How about you?” A better response didn’t come to my mind, but I should also consider myself lucky that whatever that thing out here was, it seemed to be friendly.

“I’m fine as well, just taking a break. It’s quiet out here… usually… What’s your name?” the unknown presence asked.

“Depends on who you ask. You may choose; I have Timo, Tio, or Blue Light to offer. The latter being the most recent.” I really had to decide at some point. I was starting to get confused about all my names myself.

“Phew, what a choice… I’m going to take Timo then. I don’t really like the pony names… I’m Steve; nice to meet you,” the voice said in a very relaxed tone. At first, I imagined the god that we loved to praise on my world, sitting there in the nothingness of space with dreadlocks while casually watching over us while smoking a joint. The name seemed fitting as well. At least it was better than Jehovah.

“Now that you know what I am, what the he— heck are you?” To mention hell in the presence of a possible god didn’t seem like that good of an idea.

“I am death!” The voice now sounded raspy through the nothingness.

“Really?” I asked with careful interest. If this was death, he shouldn’t be able to harm me. My body wasn’t here, so he couldn’t take my soul.

“Nah, the idea’s good, but unfortunately wrong. Death is not there to kill you, just to take your soul into the next world…” At least I now knew that he wasn’t death, though he liked to search through my head just like Celestia.

“Could you leave my head alone? It’s enough that my mother does that.” I had never caught Luna doing it, but I couldn’t know for certain.

“You have problems… but okay, I’ll stop. However, you have a bigger problem right now!” And with that, Steve, whatever he was, threw me back into the reality of my state again. I was still floating through the darkness, barely snatched from the jaws of death, and I even wanted to go back there.

“Yes, I noticed. You wouldn’t pick up a hitchhiker, would you?” Through the galaxy and such.

“First of all, two things. Firstly, you are no longer falling. Secondly, your soul will vanish in the next two or three hours since you no longer have a solid body and the universe sees you as dead.” He was right. Much to my surprise, I was really no longer moving even a single millimetre. It was the latter that worried me.

“Is there a way to fix this?” If he knew that much, he would surely know that too, but he somehow seemed to want to avoid the subject.

“There are thousands of ways, but unfortunately for you, there is only one for you… me.” As he finished talking, a human stepped out of the darkness as though he had pushed a curtain aside. He was about one metre eighty tall, which was hard to tell without reference, had shoulder-length white hair, and his eye shone in a bright blue. I had no idea why I liked that colour combination. “We are in the nought, the construction site of the existence, and only around seventy creatures can access it.” I let out a surprised ‘aha’, but my interest for these things was honestly kind of low, aside from the fact that it was astonishing to be here.

“Well, I know a unicorn that would really love to talk to you. I would just have to go home and get her.” I just couldn’t figure the guy out, but it seemed like the best thing to do was to not make him angry.

“She would probably annoy me to death. But like I said, bringing you home might get a bit… complicated due to the lack of time.” He moved his hand to his mouth and took a puff from what could only be a joint. I wouldn’t have been surprised. “But I could help you, but you owe me a favour. Tell my brother he has two months left.” I could live with that, literally.

“Okay, and how do we do that now? I mean we are still in the naught.” I had the feeling that this guy would be capable of shooting me through space in a cannon just like the one Pinkie had.

“Just like this.” He flicked against my head, and my view turned blurry. This was starting to get annoying.

The park bench in the Canterlot gardens was really comfortable. The sun in the sky bathed the surroundings in a comfortable light. Jonas was undoubtedly around somewhere and amusing himself with the power to push the employees around. Little Luna was sleeping her room, and Celestia… was doing something weird.

I watched with interest as some nameless, replaceable ponies stepped through the picture. The joint in my hand was glowing silver, a clear sign that Steve was following my example.

My mind drifted by like a warm summer breeze. What the hell was going on with me? Damn, I should have gone to sleep last night. Luckily, a call caught me out of my gloomy thoughts.

“Sup, whatchya doing?” Jonas, who must have stood behind me, asked.

“Chilling, what else?” Sarcasm, but hey, what else could you expect?

“Killing time, sitting on your hands, or how about something useful for a change?” Somehow, he seemed disappointed of me, but there was a note of resignation from having to witness my laziness in all its glory too many times.

“Hmm… nah. What has this world ever done for me that I should give something back?”

“Your life.” The answer was short.

“Nah, that was another world.” I turned around on the bench, and he looked at me with half-closed eyes. “But whatever. What have you been up to?”

“Talked with Celestia.” Now I was interested… really.

“And what did she say?”

“Not much, just that she had a mental breakdown…” I raised my brows.

“You know that you are trying to fool the king of the trolls?”

“Yep, and it almost worked.” Jonas smirked at me.

“Yeah… sure… Come on, you tard, we’ll get some dessert.” I stood up from the bench and was about to get going.

“Okay, le—” He was interrupted as something happened. A shiver ran down my spine for the second time in this world. The problem was that Jonas stood in front of me, and he obviously didn’t summon the sword.

“That is bad,” Jonas commented dryly.

“Amen to that!”

It was disappointing that I couldn’t get more out of those two humans, but that book was at least a start, if I could understand it. With the help of some other books, I would surely be able to understand a few bits, but for that, I would have to get back to the library first. While we were trotting down the main road, occasionally stopping because Rarity wanted to take a look into one of the shop windows, I felt something like a shockwave catching me and giving me a good shake.

The next thing I saw were the faces of Fluttershy and Applejack that looked worriedly at me. “Everything alright, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“Yes, but something just happened. That was an enormous magical shockwave.” I stood back up and saw Rainbow and Pinkie standing next to Rarity, who seemed to have been caught by the same shockwave.

“My mane! A disaster!” she screamed and ran over to the next store window to fix it again. A look over the road showed me that we weren’t the only unicorns who had felt that shockwave.

“Oh my… what was that?” Fluttershy asked, concern etched on her face as she helped another unicorn back on his legs, who was lying a bit next to us on the ground.

“I don’t know, Fluttershy, but something this size can only come from Princess Celestia… or Toby. Come on, girls, we have to get to it!” Everypony nodded at me, and we were soon on our way back to the castle. Fluttershy let go of the unicorn, who just fell to the ground again.

Canterlot, definitely Canterlot. That was clear just by seeing the castle that rested at the side of the large mountain that I was hurtling towards. The ground quickly advanced upon me, and for the first time in my life, I wished for a plane. Somehow, the fall into the nothingness hadn’t been so scary, probably because I couldn’t see the ground, if there even had been one.

A cone slowly began to form around my hooves that were wildly beating around. I went past the first tower of the castle, which must have been Luna’s quarters, and headed towards the garden. If I was going to land rough, I at least wanted it to hurt someone, and so I aimed for the pavilion that belonged to Blueblood. I crashed through the roof, then the floor, and then I just saw dust and dirt.

Much to my surprise, the pain that I had been expecting didn’t come as I was still just a projection. I had expected to have my body back, but it must have been better this way. Now I had to get back to Ponyville so that Twilight could stop the spell and put me back into my body. I crawled out of the debris and was immediately greeted by some guards who pointed their spears at me.

“Hey, guys… just a little accident. Can somepony help me out of here?” None of the guards made a move. I quickly checked the seals on their armour to make sure that they weren’t Blueblood’s guards, but they all wore the symbol of Celestia. “Oookay… if you are too comfortable to help me, can you at least get Haste? And while you’re at it, prepare a chariot towards Ponyville?” The guards looked over at one pegasus with strange looks on their faces.

“I don’t know that guy!” I heard Haste out of the crowd of guards. Now their attention was back at me as I finally had freed myself from the debris.

“Would you tell what is wrong today? Is it the Ignore-All-Orders Day?” I raised a hoof and held my hoof band under their noses. It was just as pale and translucent as I was. The guards eyed it and finally took their spears out of my face.

“What is going on here?” I heard Celestia shouting and saw the white alicorn stepping out of the castle. She soared over the ground, and the guards made room for her so she could inspect the scene.

“Hello, Celes— mother.” I quickly corrected myself. Who knew what mood she was today? “Could you please tell me why everyone is looking at me so strangely?”

She seemed surprised, if not distraught, and nopony even dared to breathe. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that she tried to make sense of this all in her head.

“Didn’t expect that today… I owe you a beer, Jonas.” Next to the guards stood two humans that seemed to have appeared out of thin air. One was a tall guy who looked to be around twenty and had short blonde hair and green eyes. The other one looked scarily familiar since he looked almost exactly like Steve, only that his hair was black and his eyes were red. I was hoping that he wouldn’t begin to sparkle in the sunlight. With a snap of his fingers, a beer appeared in the hand of who I suspected to be Steve’s brother, and he gave it to his friend. Aside from the guards acting so strange, it was the presence of two humans that really was discomforting.

“Okay, Celi, take a deep breath and count to ten,” the one with brown hair said and took a sip from his beer.

“Is this your work, Toby? What kind of magic is that? Why is that pony wearing the sigil of the royal family?” Celestia snapped at the black-haired one, and her look grew darker. I was now completely flabbergasted and decided to wait and see what would happen next.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. I have nothing to do with this. This was Steve’s handiwork. He sent him here. His energy still sticks at him like… like… like… whatever. It’s just the way it is. Why don’t you ask him yourself what he is doing here?” Toby raised his hands into the air as to show that he was innocent, but it was another question whether the ponies would understand that gesture.

“Yes, that Steve sent me here—”

“Guards!” Celestia interrupted me, and immediately the spears were only centimetres away from my face again.

“He said he would send me to someone who could help me,” I finished my sentence and looked at Toby. “In return, he wanted me to tell his brother that he has two months left or something like that.”

“Oh, cool, he sticks to the bargain. Celestia, he’s harmless. You can send the guards back home. Also, he is just a projection without body. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t do anything,” Toby explained calmly.

“Except he’s a soul eater!” his friend threw in.

“Yep, except he is a soul eater. Are you a soul eater?” Toby’s sarcasm could be smelled ten miles again the wind, and there wasn’t the need for a hint.

“No,” I replied shortly.

“See, Jonas? Everything’s alright. Guards, you are dismissed!” Toby ordered, but they seemed to care about his words as much as they did about mine. With an annoyed sigh, he swiped with his hand through the air, and a moment later, all the guards disappeared, their spears falling to the ground with a clank.

“Hey!” Celestia shouted. “What have you done with my guards?”

“Nothing bad, they are in the next bar,” he assured her and grinned. This all seemed very strange to me. This was not the Equestria that I knew, especially not with these two guys in it.

“Would someone mind explaining to me what is going on here? I have been up all day, saved the farm of my marefriend from a flooding, or what is left of it. Then she had to get to the hospital because her ribs were hurt, and I couldn’t stay with her because my new job as a teacher began. In the middle of the first hour, Luna comes along and drags me into the library, and I had no choice if I wanted to see my family again. Then I find out of that nightmares—” I pointed a hoof at Jonas “— your damn soul eaters attacked my old world, and god knows where my family is, if they are even alive. And to top it all off, these things hunted me straight through the forest before I appeared literally into nothing and got sent here by some weed smoking joker!” I was completely out of breath as I finished my little exposition twice as loud as necessary.

“And you are dissolving,” Jonas added calmly.

“What?!” I looked down my body and saw that my tail was saying goodbye. “And I’m slowly dissolving,” I added, less surprised now.

“You know that there is a solution for that? It’s called a body,” Toby noted dryly.

“And you don’t happen to have one that is no longer needed?” I was annoyed. These two didn’t seem to bother the least that my life was just turning to dust.

“Yes. Say please.”

“Please…” I said quietly, very quietly.

“Okay… this will hurt a bit… Ah, who am I kidding, this will hurt like hell.” He grabbed my projected horn, and immediately an unbelievable pain shot through me from wherever it came from, but nothing happened. “Damn, the line is busy… You haven’t swapped or given away your body recently?” This guy was just as much as a comedian as his brother.

“Swapped, but the other one died in my body and well, this projection represents my body,” I briefly summarized. My tail had almost completely vanished.

“Ah… that makes things easier.” A surge of pain shot through my body, and in the next moment, I was thrown to the ground. However, this time I felt the impact, not just this pain, but the pain from Toby’s magic. I could only clench my teeth and try to breath. Toby took a step back and looked over his work.

“Done, problem solved.” He rubbed his hand together in satisfaction and then snapped himself a beer.

“Could someone please explain to me what is going on here?” Celestia piped up, having silently watched the scene.

“Okay. He is a human that got transformed into a pony, then got sent into a parallel Equestria, and from there…” Toby looked briefly into her eyes. “Yeah… just go back inside and tend to your duties again. We got this. But could you be so kind as to offer another guest room?” It was clear that he had no interest in repeating what he had just dug out of my head. As often as someone had dug about in there, I had gotten a feeling for it already when someone was in there.

“And why did he call me mother?” She stomped her hooves on the ground, and all eyes shifted on me.

“Can’t you just read my mind as you have done so often already?” I had enough of telling my entire life story. She came a few stops closer and began to search in the corners of my mind for the answers. “Could I have a beer as well? Salted? Please?” I asked Toby who just took another sip.

“Mix, Früh, Veltins, Kölsch, Guinness, or Öttinger?” He laughed out loud at the last one.

“Veltins if you don’t mind.” I almost sounded like Fluttershy now, but this was a very disconcerting situation. He snapped his fingers, and a bottle appeared in front of me, only to shatter on the ground since I couldn’t hold it in my hooves. “Another please, but this time directly on the ground if you can.” Confused, they looked down at me, but another bottle still appeared. “Don’t you have to snap?”

“Nah, just a habit, or rather an unnecessary effect. But seriously, can’t you levitate?” he asked curiously.

“Not really. I managed to do so for the first time this morning but only with the help of a second magical source.” One I had to question Twilight about later.

“There is only one source of magic in every creature. The only alternative would be your soul… and to use that would be more than just stupid,” Jonas told me. “If a spell… it gets nasty.”

“Yep,” Toby agreed and clicked glasses with Jonas. I concentrated and found next to what had to be my soul the other orange essence as Changer had called it. If the soul was too dangerous for me, he surely wouldn’t mind me using his essence. What worried me more was that the essence had disappeared halfway in my soul. The beer slowly rose from the ground, this time in an orange aura.

“Oh, lucky sad has two essences but doesn’t have to use either since you have enough power to,” Toby turned around and pointed at the pavilion, “lift that pavilion over there… or what’s left of it at least.” I looked at him and thought it to be a bad joke.

“I’m happy that I can lift the bottle.” I took my first sip. I wasn’t holding back on the salt. “If I tried to do that, I’d be out for days.”

“Because you’re doing it wrong. You blast around ninety-nine percent of your energy into the air,” Toby explained, looking bored. “You try to focus a lot of energy in your horn, but you forget that your horn is a medium and not a battery. A lot of magic is gone before you even cast the spell… and come on, you’re a human; do you really have to degrade yourself to use pony magic?”

“Since I didn’t have any before, yes.” Like normal humans could use magic. I still wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t just begin to sparkle.

“I’m talking about the method. There are way better variants.” He snapped against my forehead. “Like this!” I didn’t know what he did, but some of the runes in my memory seemed to have changed. Unfortunately, that loss of concentration caused me to drop my bottle and spill my beer. Immediately, I reached for the bottle, and it rose from the ground in my usual white aura without me even having to concentrate or drawing the runes in my mind.

“Awesome!” I just said and grinned like a child on Christmas.

“Yes, it is. And remember that when you learn something the next time. Split it into all its parts and put only the important bits together again, meaning energy requirement and your desire. And not step by step. If you do that in a fight, you have already lost. Who even taught you that nonsense?”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

“Of course…”

“So… you are my adoptive son in another dimension and came from another world where you used to be human?” I nodded at Celestia’s question, seeing as she seemed to have finished with my head. “But why Blue Light? In your memory, you are called Timo or Tio.”

“You’ll have to ask my mother about that,” I said with a grin. Somehow I could understand why Celestia liked to see dismayed faces— it was fun.

Jonas coughed loudly. “I’m starting to get hungry. How about you?” My stomach answered the question itself, and Toby nodded at his friend.

“To the kitchen and beyond!” With another snap, we found ourselves, with new beers, in the dining hall of the castle.

The sun was setting slowly as we finally reached the castle. We had to stop multiple times on the way since Fluttershy insisted on helping every unicorn we found on the way. Much to my surprise, no guards stood at the archway to the castle, making me very nervous since that only happened if something serious had happened in the castle. “Quick, girls, I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

We stepped it up a notch and found ourselves in the large entrance hall of the castle. “Empty,” noted Rainbow Dash. “I mean, where are all the guards? This morning they barely wanted to let us in, and now they are gone!” She flew up to the ceiling and disappeared in one of the long hallways, only to reappear on the other side. “Nothing, nopony’s here,” she shouted down to us.

“Uh oh… I know, we’re playing hide-and-seek!” Pinkie cheered and bounced to a large pot plant, lifted it, and searched underneath it for something that wouldn’t even be able to hide there.

“It is a bit strange that nopony is here, don’t you think, Twilight?” Rarity carefully looked around.

“Come, we’ll split up and search for clues. Rainbow, you and Applejack search the ground floor. Rarity and Pinkie, you take the first floor up to the astronomy tower. Fluttershy and I will take the basement.” I was about to go towards Fluttershy, but she had hidden behind one of the large curtains already. “Come on, Fluttershy, this is the castle. What danger could be here?!” With a bit of magic, I pulled her over to me, together with the curtain she clung to.

“Eeeep!”

“Okay, we’ll meet back here in an hour. If one team finds something, just call. I think the castle is quiet enough that that we should all hear it.” Just as I finished talking, a clank sounded through the corridors. “See?”

Crap. Just as my vision went clear again, I crashed against the next candle stand, causing it to fall with a loud clank to the ground.

“Sorry…” I grumbled quietly.

“Uhm, where are all the servants?” Celestia asked. All eyes went on Toby, who just raised his arms.

“Oh… it seems I was a bit… unclear… with my spell. Heh.” He put on his usual grin while I buried my face in my palm.

“Oh god…”

“And how shall we get something to eat now?” Celestia asked, who seemed to be about to throw a tantrum.

“Uhm, what do you want?” Toby simply asked.

“How about pancakes? I could use a second breakfast,” Blue Light said. He seemed to be handling the situation quite well, at least compared to how I reacted when I was thrown into all this shit.

“I’ll take an escalope with fires.” Toby gave me a nod.

“I’ll take the same. And you, Celly?” As usual, Toby showed no hint of respect.

“I… uhm, take a fruit salad…” Before Celestia could even finish the sentence, the table was already laid and the ordered dishes were ready.

“One thing you have to explain to me. What the heck are you? I have never seen a human with red eyes, let alone one who can use magic. The only creatures that fit that description would be vampires, but I don’t think you are one since you eat normal food,” Blue Light asked as he sat down by the table like he owned the place.

“Oh, that old story…” Toby began as they all sat down. “Long story short, I am the seventh son of the seventh son of the seventh son,” he explained quickly.

“Uhm… is there another short story?” The pancake stopped in the air in front of his mouth.

“Yes, there is…” I intervened. “Look, you know that we humans can’t use magic, right?”

“Yes, which didn’t stop my mother from reading cards…” Light responded. His name rang a bell in my head somewhere.

“Yeah, that’s not correct, not at all… but the average human just has enough magical power to stop a fly from lifting off, and the ones who are able to control their magic usually just get illusionists. Like Chris Angel, that fool…”

“Or Uri Geller?” Light asked.

“No, he just primes the spoons. My point, or rather Toby’s with the seventh son thing, is that his grandfather was a magician, who… nah, that would take too long, here’s the short version. He is a Krativer Magnus,” he summarized.

“Like from these Terry Pratchett novels?”

“Yeah. He’s one too. Has built his own reality and writes down the stories that happen there into novels.” His eyes, what could I say, I just loved to see something shatter inside others.

“I shouldn’t even be surprised anymore…” And with that, the last pancake disappeared. “I mean, I already entered another reality. Why not again?”

“Really? Nothing surprises you anymore? You know, because of the probability of an infinite multiverse, everything that happens here had just been written by someone.” Toby looked up. “I know that you’re writing that! You still owe me forty euros!”

“Uhm… yes. Who’s he talking to?” he asked confused.

“With one of his parallel selves. Met him once, was good time. Nice party but can’t remember half of it, just that my parallel self was female there… believe me, that is sick.” I almost said too much, but to my dismay, Toby pressed on the subject.

“Are you talking about before or after making out with yourself?” I would have praised to any god out there that the new one wouldn’t have heard that, but unfortunately…

“Good, thanks, now I have a new nightmare in addition to the others…”

“Okay, let’s make it fair,” Toby yawned next to me. I wanted to stop him, but it was too late. A blue unicorn mare with the same cutie mark as Blue Light’s appeared in a puff of smoke next to the table.

“What the?!” she screamed in a shrill voice. “What’s going on here?”

“Who’s that?” Blue Light asked, a bit of panic in his voice. Unfortunately, Toby noticed that part.

“May I introduce, Blue Light meets Blue Light.” He had this tendency of handling such situations very calm, and I wanted to shoot him for that.

“I should watch what I say…” Blue Light sighed, the male one. “Nice to meet me. Can you answer a question? What are you eating?” He seemed to hint at her stomach.

“Hey! I don’t have to put up with you! Or with me? AHHH…” She seemed frustrated. “Can you send me back? My coltfriend is waiting.”

“Please, shut up! I don’t even want to know. Please, Toby, send her away!” None of them seemed to have been looking forward for that meeting.

“Okay.” She disappeared again, this time without special effects.

“Uhm, there are two things we would need to get sorted, but first things first. Your name is, or was, Tio, right?” I began to remember, and this was starting to get really funny, at least for me and Toby.

“Yes, that was my nickname; got it from an ex.”

“Brony? Active in the forum and such? Two siblings, basically living at home? I suppose you have never written a fanfic?” I wanted to go somewhere with that, but I wanted to see if he figured it out himself.

“Should I just write ‘Library’ on my head? Everyone comes and goes as they please.” I could only smile at that reaction.

“I can’t read minds. I know that because…” I seriously had to hold back a laugh “… I often Skyped with your parallel self from our world.”

“Okay…”

“And this Tio has written two fanfics. One of them is a self-insert with the name ‘Blue Light’.” His thoughts were almost spilling out of his ears.

“Wow… now I know how Twilight must have felt when I told her about the show.” He emptied a glass of water that stood on the table in one go. “Strange to know something like that…”

“You have to see, it’s just a coincidence. Due to the probability, there has to be everything somewhere and sometimes. But enough of that for now before we talk more nonsense. I suppose you want to get back into your reality, right?”

“That was at least the reason why this Steve had sent me here. He said someone here could help me.”

“Toby?” I looked over at him, and he grinned and nodded. He stood up and went over to Blue Light, who looked at me with a look that could only say one thing: ‘Why me?’ Toby ignored that deliberately.

“Okay, hold still for a moment. I have to see where you came from and how…” He touched Blue Light’s forehead, and white light began to flow out of his body and formed pentagrams and formulas. Toby studied them for a few seconds. “Puh, you screwed up big time… Recently there was… oh, you have broken a projection spell too soon at the wrong place. That is bad and very complicated. Who does that? There are over three hundred ninety thousand and forty unnecessary spell constellations.” Celestia looked up from her meal from the first time. It seemed like she could read the drawings as well.

“I think I know that spell!” she exclaimed.

“It was you who taught it to Twilight, Luna, and Trixie since you weren’t in a good shape.”

“That is not good. This spell is extremely complicated, and if something goes wrong, it is almost impossible to reverse,” she explained. It was evident on her face that the destiny of her pseudo relative was getting to her.

“The problem is not to find your world, since I already have, but the connection is cut, and it would take around a hundred years to fix that…”

I have never seen a face go from hope to desperation so quickly.

“Ah, who am I kidding, I’ll do it in seventy two hours…” The door swung open, and everyone saw how Toby was thrown through the room in slow motion by something looked like a blue cannonball.

“Everything alright, your Highness? We were worried.” Applejack came into the room and joined the ponies that sat on the other side of the table.

“AJ!” Blue Light was about to throw his hooves around her neck but was stopped by one of her hind legs. “Different universe…” he mumbled from underneath the table.

“Aua…” Toby grumbled while lifting himself out of the remains of a wooden cabinet, together with a furious Rainbow Dash.

“YOU! What have you done with the guards and the princess!?!” she yelled at him.

“Nothing to the princess, and the guards are… busy…”

The auxiliary troops were trying to widen the door to Pony Joe’s donut shop. “I still have no idea how they all got in there,” one of the unicorns said to another. Through the shop window, you could see just about every guard in Canterlot cramped into the small shop, so that their faces were pressed against the windows, and the horns of some were dangerously close to the flanks of their fellow prisoners.

The basement of the castle had always been dark, but now, without guards… it was a bit scary down here. I wasn’t bothered by that as much as Fluttershy, who jumped from cover to cover, ran away from every noise, and hid from every shadow.

“Oh, come on, Fluttershy, nopony’s here.” I groaned loudly. Fluttershy was just way too scared for my liking.

“But… it is— eeep!” Another breath of wind went through the halls, and not half a second later Fluttershy had disappeared behind the nearest armour.

“Keep it together, Fluttershy, for me and the princess!” I tried to wake her often underestimated self-confidence.

“Uhm… okay… I-I will try…” She clearly tried to pick herself up.

“Come, we haven’t checked this hallway yet.” I went ahead, followed by Fluttershy who was taking cover behind my flank.

For minutes, we wandered through the dark hallways of the cellar without finding even one soul. The armours threw threatening shadows into the corridors. Behind every corner lured suspicious-looking shadows, but unfortunately it was only shadows. But did we really want to find something? After a while, I had enough, and just as I wanted to turn around and go back with Fluttershy, I heard a voice.

“Hello? Who goes there?” I felt a pegasus behind me trying to hide underneath my tail.

“Hello? It’s Twilight Sparkle. Who are you?” I shouted back towards the voice in the dark corridor.

“Twilight? Oh, I’m so happy that you are here! It’s me, Cadance!”

I was still lying underneath the table and held a hoof at the place where the truck had just hit me. “That really wasn’t necessary,” I said towards AJ while supporting myself on the table to get back on my legs.

“Don’t get me wrong, sugarcube, but who the hay are you?” I saw Jonas wanted to answer, but I beat him to it.

“Blue Light, but I believe this is a misunderstanding. I’m sorry, miss.” I hated to be stuck in half-truths.

“Hey, let me down!” Toby climbed out the debris at the other of the room and held Rainbow Dash at her tail at just the distance so she could no longer hit him. “I’m gonna kick your flank, you… something!”

“Nah…” He let go of her, but gravity didn’t have her back yet. It seemed like she was still being held in the air by a spell. Rainbow kicked around and continued to curse.

“Maybe you should let her go. You are only making her angrier.” I knew Rainbow, or at least the Rainbow from my world, and she couldn’t even sit still for three seconds, yet alone being held in place for so long.

“No, I’ll let her hang until she apologizes!”

“Never!” she shouted, still kicking around.

“Fine, have it your way. But maybe you should know that I can let you hang there until all eternity. But if you want to, I’m tired, so I’m going to sleep soon.” You could see her mind slowly processing the information.

“Help! AJ, do something!” In her panic, she turned to her friend who still stood next to me and looked at the scene with confusion.

“What can Ah do? Ah don’t know anything ‘bout magic, sugarcube. Ya gonna have to wait for Twilight or Rarity.” As if on cue, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Cadance entered the room. Only now did I notice that I had never met Cadance in my world, only Shining Armor, who was now god knows where with the other guards.

“Twilight! Help me, this… thing won’t let me down!” she almost pleaded.

“What’s going on here? Toby, what have you done? Where are all the guards and who the hay is that?” She pointed at me, an angry expression on her face.

“She didn’t want to stop beating me, he is your student, and the guards are… busy…” He smiled innocently at her.

“To his defence, she really came in here and directly attacked him,” I assured Twilight. She just groaned in annoyance before her usual purple aura formed around her horn.

“I… I can’t get you down there. The spell won’t break,” she said in surprise and tried another time. “I’m sorry, Rainbow…”

“Of course you can’t. The spell has a direct connection to my magical source. It was like a fly tried to squash an elephant,” he said indignantly. She nodded quickly and…

“MY STUDENT???” She noticed that quickly. At least some things never change.

“Twilight, my faithful student. Do not let yourself getting fooled by these three. They are… different, or rather from a different world. I have not fully understood it yet, but Blue Light here,” she pointed a hoof at me, “is even from a different world than these two. We have members from three different worlds here. No one is asking that you immediately understand.” She deliberately let out the ‘son’ part at my introduction to not deep fry the rest of her mind. “If I am correct, Blue Light will stay here for around three days.” Twilight was seemingly confused.

“Oh, my… that is confusing,” Fluttershy said quietly, having hidden behind the door.

“Hi, Fluttershy!” Jonas shouted out.

“That would explain why he knows me, but would ya mind explainin’ why ya tried to kiss me, sugarcube?” Fluttershy turned red at Applejack’s words, and Rainbow, still in the air, had to hold back a laugh. Twilight instead seemed even more confused.

“Well… uhm… in my world, or rather the world I came from… How should I put it? We are together, and after all I’ve been through, I was just happy to see your, her, your, her… face.” Applejack stared at me unbelievingly before she burst out into laughter like Rainbow.

“Hahaha, don’t take it personal, sugarcube, heh heh, but me and a unicorn? Pffft, that’s something ah could never imagine,” she finished, her words trailing off into laughter. I could only roll my eyes. If there was one thing I learned from this whole world-travelling experience, then it was the following:

“It’s okay - everyone is their own being. You are not the AJ from my world, and she is not you. That could very well fit for you.”

“Yeah, okay, you guys keep going. I really have to go to sleep now. Jonas, heel!” With those words, he grabbed Jonas’ arm and dragged him through the room. Jonas didn’t seem to mind, instead just waving at Fluttershy who was still standing behind the door.

“I think I have to agree with our guest in this case. It has been a long day, and we all need time to handle what has happened.” Twilight nodded at Celestia’s words. “I would love to have you shown your rooms, but all the guards are unfortunately unavailable. Twilight, I would like you to show your friends their rooms. I will bring Blue Light to his.”

“As you wish, your Highness,” Twilight said, her mind still elsewhere as she went off without caring about the others. Fluttershy and Applejack followed her directly, and I could hear them trying to calm Twilight just as they were out of the door.

“Come, Light, I will show you your room.” Celestia rose from the table and went through another door at the end of the hallway. Now that it was quieter, I realized how tired I actually was and followed her directly. I didn’t want to spend three days here; I had my own world to be in with Applejack and my friends. They surely were worried, especially since my body had suddenly disappeared, but I had no choice.

“Hello? Anypony here?” a desperate Rainbow Dash shouted, who was now alone in the dining hall. “I should have apologized…” she snivelled. “I’m sorry, okay?” she shouted and fell to the ground.

As I stepped through the empty halls and dragged Jonas with me, my thoughts drifted to Steve. ‘You have two months left…’ Two months, in two months there would only be one of us. The question is: what was I worried about? Jonas? No, he was set. Steve would care about him just like I did. My death? No, I’m not a religious man. And hell would be a nice change for me, rotting there for a million years or two… Blech, why was I wasting my thoughts on that.

“Jonas, get it together, you little pervert…”

“Mhh, let me; you already had your fun!” he murmured. He was right. Why did I tell him about dimension ‘666’…

“Nah, come on, what are you even going to do with her?” I wasn’t actually being serious.

“Marrying?” He looked at me with a serious expression.

“Oh god…” Jonas slowly got back up and wiped his pants clean with his hand. I didn’t even need to look to see what he needed now. I pulled my Bigbox out of my pocket and handed him a cancer stick before lighting up one for myself. I leaned against the window and blew a stream of smoke into the night.

“What are you thinking about?” Jonas asked in a serious voice now that we were alone.

“Clarice…” My voice was flat, lost in the past.

“Mhh… you know that it wasn’t your fault?”

“Yes, yes it was, and it forever will be. I could have turned the guards into dust, the walls in to water, and the fire into butterflies… but instead I…” Jonas took a big swing and gave a strong blow into my face. Our equivalent for a slap.

“Now listen here, you ass, that was a long time ago, and you can’t hold yourself responsible for that shit. And we have other problems now…”

“You mean Blue Light?” I looked at him disbelievingly.

“Yes,” Jonas replied smugly.

“You’re joking, right? I mean, have you forgotten what happened in Las Vegas when I was completely pissed and summoned the same girl from hundreds of dimensions, and then the thing with the succubus…” Jonas rolled his eyes.

“She was hot…” he commented.

“Yes, she was…” That was all the talking I wanted to do for today. “I’m going to wake Luna and then go to sleep…”

“Okay, but just one more thing, I have an idea…” He came closer and whispered something into my ear. My grin turned wider.

“Settled… see you tomorrow.” I began moving towards Luna.

“Night, you turd,” he said while walking into the other direction.

A few minutes later, I stood in front of the large doors to Luna’s quarters and nudged her tiredly. With a well-meant kick, I woke her up.

“Ah… wake up you sleepyhead, I want to sleep.” She had just opened her eyes as I fell on the bed sheets next to her.

I went down one of the corridors to the guest quarters with Blue Light. The entire time, he said nothing. It must have been uncomfortable to walk next to someone who looked so close to his adoptive mother but was still so different. However, it wasn’t much different for me. I didn’t know what caused my other self to take him into the family, but I only knew a part of the story. “You know, even if I am not the same Celestia, you can still talk with me.” I tried to cheer him up a little. He was home but yet as far away from it as possible.

“I thank you, your Highness, but there is nothing that can help me.” Worry filled his voice.

“You are talking about these nightmares?” He nodded. “I have never met one of those creatures, but I believe that you will find a solution. There is always a way, something you learn when you live as long as I do.” He smiled, even if it was forced.

“What’s the deal with this Steve and Toby? I know what they are, but why are they here?” Was he worrying about this world as well now?

“That, my little pony, is a problem that you will leave to us. Like I said, we will find a way.” We arrived at a room at the end of the hallway, not far away from my tower. “Here our ways part for today. I wish you a pleasant night’s rest.”

“Thank you, your Highness. I wish you the same.” He opened the door with a hoof, and it fell back shut behind him, a sound that wasn’t often heard here. Did he not trust us or was he scared?

Pinkie looked behind every curtain, into every armour, and under every plant that we found in the castle. “Pinkie! Watch it! I’m going to get dirt on my coat!” She just didn’t know how to behave properly.

“Sorry, Rarity, but these guards are really good at hiding.” I could only roll my eyes and hope that my mane was spared from Pinkie’s antics.

“Pinkie, I do not think that they are hiding. And the hour is surely gone already. We should get back to meet the others.” She put the amour, which must have been way too heavy for her, back onto the ground.

“Oh, okay.” She bounced in her usual fashion back the way we came from, and I followed her. It didn’t take long before we were back in the entrance hall. It seemed we were the first ones.

“If the others are taking so long, they must have found somepony,” I said to Pinkie who happily jumped in circles.
“Oh, oh, I know! We surprise the others! That’s going to be super fun!” She dragged me with her, and somehow we both had found room in one of the large armours that were standing around in the hall. “So, now we just have to wait…” she said eagerly and pushed a hoof in my back.

Author's Notes:

This chapter is made to confuse the reader. So don't worry if you don't understand everything. Blue Light doesn't either.
(Remember, we are in a multiverse.)

Thanks to Gron for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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