The four looked at each other, then back to the strange pony that kept threatening them, "We just spent the last several weeks fighting things a lot more powerful than you or your 'Queen', so begone from our realm!" Celestia said in an authoritative voice. Then all of their horns let up, and the next thing Shadow Wing knew, he was in some desolate, dead town at the bottom of the Canterlot Cliffs that, in many places, was covered in a deadly Pink Cloud. (welcome to a small part of the Fallout Equestria universe.)
Shadow Wing surveyed the area around him, taking in the desolace of the area. "...Well #&!@, that didn't work out as I'd planned...though then again it could be that they know just as little as i do about what's happened, in which case I should really have seen that coming." He flew up to the cliffs to get a better vantage point of the area, smoothly dodging the clouds as he went. "If this is the result of the foes they've fought, they've got nothing on the queen. Heck, i could probably take down any of them if they were on their own...or if i could sneak up on them..." Shadow Wing alighted on the cliff and kicked a rock with his hooves, irritated at the whole situation. "If only I knew where the queen had gone. Heck, i'd even settle for finding mirage, then we might be able to fix this world, or at least the palace. At least that way I could have my dungeons back." Shadow Wing found himself reminiscing. "Aaah, How i miss that place. The traps everywhere, frightening the guards out of their wits, and best of all was those ponies that trespassed in that got caught, especially the ones that I was allowed to go all out on...Good times." He let himself return to reality, and found himself needing to let his anger out, even if it was only on cold rock. "Then i got brought to this $&*!(#@ world." He slammed his hoof into the group, and flew up as the cliff crumbled below him, a satisfactory landslide of rocks cascading down to the ground below. "Well at least my power hasn't left me."
Karl groaned and tiredly lifted his head to the sound of the beeping warning panel. The red flashing light blinded him until his eyes readjusted and he could actually read what was on the panel. "Massive power fluctoations in 33s realms - designated destination: Equis. The bloody hell's happenin' over there and why should i care about it?" He asked out into thin air, touching the holographic screen and zooming in on the issue. He leaned back with widened eyes at the spectacle infront of him. "Oh, i see. The Equiseseseses have all collided. That's nice, then all the ponies can meet themselves and cause mass timeflow efficiency dropdown!" He then remembered and sighed, spinning around in his comfortable armchair. "Oh yeah, i got to attend the meeting because of my stupidly high position over everything else and my unnecessarily higher pay grade than EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE BUCKING GALAXIES!!!" He smashed his face in the desk angrily. "So...bucking...tired..." He groaned. He squirmed out of the armchair and lazily walked over to a outfitting station, which promptly opened as he approached. "Hello sir! Would you like to take some other clothes or remodify your molecular level to create another body that fits with your current task?" The AI core happily answered. "Just get my flippin' gauntlet, Steven." Karl answered, grumbling out the words from his mouth. "Ah yes! Most fortunate!" The machine quickly began materializing a modification to his front crystallite leg, laying down scales upon scales the seemed to move on their own. Once the machine was done, it put a blazing core on Karls chest that punctioated right through the nonexistant heart and instead began pumping the Timeflow through Karl. The dark-red pony turned around lazily and began walking away from the machine. As Karl walked, the enviroment faded out of existence and a new took its place. Soon, he was walking through the crowd that had stationed in New Canterlot, just passing by the three Tyros as the scales on the crystallite arm stood up and closed down as Karl breathed. He was heading towards the royal podium towards the royal siblings with a stern expression on his face. (My god, that became longer than it was supposed to...)
Dark Shine woke up, a bit late than he shouldv'e. Something felt... Off. He looked out from his balcony. First North. As far as he could tell, the Kingdom was still there. He couldn't see as far, but it was. Then to the grove, also still there. Was something else there? He looked out. Something felt odd... He was determined to found out what. He flew around, maybe the Ancient guardians would know... He had to investigate.
Two black, evil looking alicorns stared at each other somewhere in the twisted world of the combined Equestria's, it looked like they were staring in a mirror, "So, please tell me you did this?" one asked. "I was about to ask the same of you." the other said. "Hm, that means there's stronger than the two of us out there. What could it be?" the first one said. "Right behind you." an ancient, gravely, and extremely terrifying voice said, the two Black Night's looked towards the source, and then the last thing they ever saw was the twisted being responsible for the whole mess...
The two Breezes exited the boarding-pod and entered the captain's hanger, fit only for carrying Captain's ship. "Welcome to the Victor, the head ship of the Flames of Trial." Cap said. "My goodness, this is amazing!" Breeze exclaimed. "Come on, kid," Captain said, "We can program the map in my quarters." Firebreeze nodded and followed, the door to the captain's quarters slamming behind them.
They exit the Ponyville library, spirits low. "Well, I've got nothing..." Tyro 1 said while the three of them walk away. "The one possible cause of inter-dimensional rifts and she's been catching up on her reading for a week. That leaves us with what's I think it does, doesn't it?" Tyro 2 asks, looking at his other instances. "Up a creak without a lead. Where do we go now?" adds Tyro 1. A new suggestion comes from Tyro 3 after much thought: "Oh, wait! What about the other students Celestia has? They could have been messing with the fabric of space and time." The other two foxes dwell on this as they continue to walk through town. "Does, does she even have other students?" asks Tyro 2. They all rack their brains, trying to remember if they've ever seen another pony address themselves as Celestia's student other than Twilight. Tyro 1's face lights up, believing that he's found the answer: "We could ask O.P.I.A.T!" The other two draw blank faces. "O.P-whut?" "It's a super-computer. We use it all the time." Tyro 1 explains. "There's a super-computer in Equestria? Equestria!" Tyro 2 said, unsure whether to laugh or not. "The most dangerous and advanced technology around here is the machine they use to measure wing-power. Where the buck did a super-computer come from?!" Tyro 1 shrugs: "Magic?" Tyro 3 scoffs: "Seems to be the answer for everything round here..." "It just sounds stupid..." Tyro 2 continues, "If they can build a super-computer in your universe, why aren't you a technology-laden super-cyborg or something? Where's the lasers and stuff?" Tyro 1 has nothing to answer with other than more shrugging. "I'm too busy trying to keep up with everything that's going on to figure that one out." admits Tyro 1, "Snow rushes off about yet another evil alicorn, Karl whines about the last Clockmaker screwing things up for him, the Princes act like I have no life at all and I'm at their beck and call, all while I'm in the middle trying to understand things that happened ten minutes ago. Seriously! Most of the time I spent trying to fight Black Night, I was wondering what the heck I was supposed to do. Or even what she's done to deserve it." "Huh...I'm glad I have only the one member of royalty to deal with." said Tyro 3. "'Deal' isn't the right word. All she does is just keep us busy." Tyro 2 adds. They all laugh as they agree before silence falls over all three for a short time. "So..." Tyro 3 begins. "Where's this computer?"
OPIAT hovered slowly over the strange new world that had occurred, slightly muttering long lines of code so complex that none would be able to even comprehend it. His muttering a grew louder when he passed over doubles and other anomalies, "Well, I think that about sums this world up!" He said to himself. Even he himself had been caught off guard by the combination, and from the moment it happened, his irresistible drive to know everything compelled the floating ball of super smart information and A.I. to explore it. He floated over just one of the many Ponyvilles and picked up a friendly signature inside it. He floated down to see three Tyros all sitting around talking to each other, "Ah, hello Tyro, Tyro, and Tyro, how are you today? Oh, seeing the confusion you must be having Tyro and Tyro, I am OPIAT, the universal depository for all things that have happened and could happen."
Tyro 2 looks to Tyro 1, pointing a paw at the glowing ball that had just arrived. "Once again: Why are you not covered in gadgets and able to fire lasers when this is available to you?" He asks firmly. "This! You come from a universe where this exists! This is far future stuff and your only addition from us is that you summon armour. Not 40-foot mecha armour that has a rocket launcher in the arm, no! Lucky armour. Lucky. Armour. The name alone suggests it should be made from socks and undergarments." Tyro 1 cringes under the assault: "I dunno! It all just sorta happened! Why is this such a big deal?" "You know why!" "No." Tyro 1 replies, "I'm an alternate version of you, not psychic." Irritation rising further, Tyro 2 rolls his eyes: "No, come on...What would irritate us about this?" Tyro 1 thinks for a moment. Suddenly, the light of revelation hits him. "Oh yeah..." said Tyro 1. "I dunno. Some how, O.P.I.A.T is the only computer I've ever seen round here." Tyro 2 wasn't going to stop any time soon: "That's pretty suspect to me...Why is he the only one?" Tyro 1 shrugs again: "Magic?" A dull growl emanates from Tyro 2 as he grinds his teeth. "I'd kill you if it actually did anything permanent." Tyro 3 clears his throat, distancing himself from his parallels. "So, O.P.I.A.T, was it? We're not really sure where to look for anything meaningful in regards to this whole time mix up thing. You got any ideas where we would most likely find out more about all this? Any leads you got would be great."
OPIAT made a humming noise then said, "Nope, for some reason, massive amounts of this world are blocked out from my automatic information gathering systems, I have to go to the areas directly to learn about them, and I'm not to keen on doing that." OPIAT then remembered what the Tyro's had been bickering about, "Well, you see, I wasn't actually made by the ponies, they just kinda inherited me after they came about after the last occupants of our world left, never to return, except once, then the combined force of the Elements of Harmony an Elements of Ancients repelled them."
Tyro 1 sits back and upright, crossing his forelegs. "See! Magic! Ancient Element magic too." "That explains where he came from, not why there's nothing else like him." Tyro 2 counters, "I dunno why but your universe sucks because your royalty sat on something that could have propelled the whole of Equestria forwards by centuries." As Tyro 1 grumbles under his breath, disarmed with that last argument, Tyro 3 continued to try and concentrate on O.P.I.A.T. "All right, so you can't help us all that much right now but is there anything you've seen so far that looks like it would? Anything would be good, even if it's from your universe."
Shadow Wing tried to calm himself down, getting mad at the landscape wouldn't help him. There had to be some way of finding the queen, or at least somepony he knew, and preferably not one of the ones who wanted him dead. He didn't know how this world worked, and frankly, he didn't really want to, as long as he could get back to his own he was happy. ...However, he did notice that he was having trouble thinking. A small buzzing in his mind constantly irritating him, for some strange reason it seemed...familiar, yet alien, as if he was having his thoughts invaded. There was only one pony he knew who could do that. Mirage. As Shadow Wing concentrated on the buzzing he became aware that it was actually very far away, purposely reaching out to him and...somepony else. He didn't care who, he had a way to find a familiar face, and he was going to take it. After flying about a bit to determine where the buzzing was strongest, he set off to try and find the unicorn, and hopefully find a way to get back to normality.
OPIAT hummed a bit more, "Well, just a few hours before the combination, Discord disappeared from his stone prison, he literally just vanished without a trace." OPIAT suddenly seemed to glow intensely for a few seconds before returning, "Woah, that was a lot of info right there." he remarked off-handedly, "Anyways, I'm sure you already know this, but inside another 'realm' or 'universe', whatever you like to call it, you cannot harm its native inhabitants, however they can harm you. And also this:" suddenly a holographic projection shot out from OPIAT and onto the ground in front of the Tyros. It was a map of the conjoined lands, with borders and bright letters showing different universes and where they had been scattered. To each of the Tyros, they saw their home the clearest, and the more different an area was, the harder it was for them to make out. For OPIAT however, he could see the entire map clearly and without hindrance, "Oh, if you are wondering why our universe isn't super advanced is because I am a machine of peace and knowledge, not of war and advancement. As much I would like to help out, my internal Energtic Software Nanoprocessors do not allow me to change the course of history directly. I can give advice, but not provide schematics and knowledge and the whole schbang. However, I would be willing to beat our universe is still more advanced than yours. Are steam engines in full use yet?"
Just as he was about to walk right up to them, the world once again blurred around him. He stopped and looked around as the enviroment stopped spinning around him. "The bloody?" He said to himself as he continued walking forward, seeing as the only good way to go is forward. He stopped though as he found an obstacle in his way, a large statue of something. It was almost completely dark in the room he was in, so seeing wasn't an option. He still looked up though. His gaze was met with a distorted face, a wide and evil smile accompanying it. Karl stepped back, his eyes darting all over the figure as it emerged from the stone, darkness all consuming it. "No... you... why?" Karl managed to stammer out of his mouth as he continued backing up from the dark, slender figure. "Oh, hello there. I suppose you still remember me as Clocky did, hmm?" The figure said, grinding its fingers together as if there was money nestled in between them. Dark energy poured from the claws that was its fingers and slumped down on the ground, forming into creatures with weapons of complete darkness in their claws. Karls gauntlet lit up and roared, throwing him back into a rift. He tumbled into an ice wall, followed by long ice shards tummeling down and almost impaling him. He looked up as the rift closed and bayed view to a magical landscape covered in snow. A small, weak smile emerged on his face as he watched the sun shine down upon him. His trusty gauntlet had thrown him into Winterglade. But now he had a bigger problem. Simon was on the loose, and if he didn't do anything, then all would perish. Then again, it could happen that Simon had changed and stopped destroying worlds, but that was highly unlikely. Karl threw a quick look to the left as a ice blue pony slowly came towards him in a slow and methodical walk. He looked back and chuckled lightly as his eyes closed and he fell into the realm of dreams. He still had Simon to fight, and his parallel part to find, though.
The figure of pure evil made its way across the world, invisible to all. It considered itself the true destroyer of worlds, and that meant wiping out the competion.
Dark Shine flew towards the frozen kingdoms. But not before being teleported there by Eclipse. "Prince Eclipse. Something is wrong. Tell me." Eclipse sighed. Dark Shine was in that mood where he would not stop until he got what he wanted to hear. "Something has changed. I tried contacting Celestia, and she started complaining to some other Celestia about who was real apparently." Dark Shine tilted his head. "Do you know wha-" "No." Eclipse cut Dark Shine off. "I want you to go out, find others, see if you can figure it out, before the Frozen kingdom falls due to a lack of an Eclipse. Surely some others must be in the exact same situation." The frozen corridors gleamed as an eerie dark light emmited from Eclipses horn, sending Dark Shine outside the Castle's interior.
Tyro 2 frowns, wondering why steam power was the computer's first choice. "Yeah, there's steam powered stuff. There's an entire kingdom to the east, I think, that uses that almost exclusively." "There's a Steam Peaks in your Universe too?" Tyro 1 asks. "Huh...I can't say I've had any new trouble from there." "Neither have I. There was this problem with dreams and stuff in my universe but I can't remember ever looking into it..." "Huh?" Tyro 2 shrugs: "I dunno. I fell asleep and remember nothing else after a while. I sort of woke up here and there we go." "How about you two shut up and look at this?" Tyro 3 barks over the top of the other two, pointing at the map. "Discord's statue is meant to be in the Canterlot gardens so we need to get moving so we can try and pick up the trail from there. Come on!" With that, Tyro 3 begins to walk towards the train station, soon followed by his alternate versions. "Still sucks that the robot's programmed to do nothing." Tyro 2 adds. "I still got magic armour out of the deal." Tyro 1. "That's quite cool. I've survived the explosion that destroyed Canterlot wearing that." "Tyro," Tyro 2 said, "Everytime you open your mouth, your universe gets that much worse."
OPIAT sighed, "How about you three all shut up and let's try to figure out what has happened? Now, I am going to ask, not demand, that you kindly go into some areas of this place and record some information for me? Even the tiniest bit can be expanded upon, I would myself but I'm not too good at defending myself and it's kinda hard to miss a giant ball of floating energy."
The three Tyro's don't stop but Tyro 1 does call over his shoulder. "All right, mate! We'll be your eyes and ears till we get this sorted out. Talk to you later!" "He get's touchy?" Tyro 2 whispers to Tyro 1. Tyro 2 quietly replies: "You have no idea...Don't ever suggest turning him on and off again unless you actually want him to sulk."
As the Tyros stepped onto the platform, their world suddenly distorted and sifted, and found themselves in a very strange place. They found themselves standing a a ledge like a door, overlooking a massive battle below. Below them rode strange bipedal figures riding ponies(MLP ponies) into battle, while one side was covered in a weird assortment of animal hides for armor, the other wore metal armor. It was pretty easy to see this was a strange version of the Monguls attacking another army, in some strange, twisted human history were the common horse was replaced by the ponies they knew. Tis was a strange place, and they were one step away from being truly inside it...
