Beyond the Portal
After I had bumped into this world’s version of Celestia, I immediately flinched and teleported out of their little circle. I knew better than to stand in the middle of enemy lines, after all. I brought a hoof up to the side that I had bumped Princess Celestia with, and hissed. It actually burns. The fur that was there was black, almost ash just from me touching her. Celly… Celly was a lot warmer than the average pony, and Luna was a tad bit colder than the average pony, but… Celly was always pleasantly warm unless somepony angered her. Luna… I shivered, this world’s Luna was influencing how cold it was and I was a good ten feet away from her.
I took in the sight… Twilight Sparkle, or rather, Princess Twilight… was actually relatively short. Compared to the other three, she still was a bit pudgy, but that hardly seemed to matter to her. Her coat was prestigious. My world’s Twilight was already well groomed, and well… Princess Twilight looked like a war princess. Her mane and tail were largely the same, if you ignored some of the dried blood in it. There were no scars on her, a sign that nopony’s managed to touch her yet.
Princess Cadance… Oh god, Cadance is horrifying. Her eyes were blood red, a horrifying contrast compared to Cadance’s warm, friendly eyes. My world’s Cadance was always so happy, so nice to anything sapient, and also somewhat reserved. No makeup, nothing done to her mane besides the usual princess treatment of getting groomed by a bunch of professional groomers. Usually what you saw Cadance for, is what she was, and she still managed to be beautiful; my Shining Armor is a lucky stallion.
This Cadance… She was standing there, basically posing, like she knew exactly what she was doing. If I had to guess, she probably just toyed with a stallion, making them feel all sorts of things before coldly killing them.
Now Princess Celestia and Princess Luna… both of them were wearing rather… interesting armor. I know I’ve seen both sets before, even if those sets looked old and unused; Celly wore it once just to show me, and she looked amazing in it. In this case, Princess Celestia looked horrifying. Her hair was tied back, as well as her mane, and she was carrying a sword that was on fucking fire in her magic. She looked so much like Celly, so, so damn much, yet the look in her eyes that she was giving me. That warm, loving smile that I’ve grown accustomed to seeing on that wondrous face of hers…
Was cold, grinning maniacally, as she giggled to herself.
Princess Luna… I think it’s more terrifying to see her just like this, as she was, and not as Nightmare Moon. It told me off the bat that… These alicorns were simply the way they were. Horrible people that likely just slaughtered a village full of people. Like her sister, she wore a set of armor that I’ve no doubt that Luna had already shown to Tale, which was similar in style to Princess Celestia’s, where it was clearly meant to be ‘appealing’ rather than ‘protective’. With who they were, however, it made sense as to why they did not need to actually wear something that protected them.
“Aw, sister, he smells like you!” Princess Luna said while giggling.
“I know. Perhaps I slept with him, and he slipped away in the morning? It would have been odd; he would’ve been killed as soon as I was done with him,” Princess Celestia laughed. I shivered; that was so, so wrong. I do not like hearing Celly’s voice laughing like a psycho.
“Uh…” I started backing away. “How about we pretend like I was never here, and you guys go about your day?” I asked.
“Or,” Princess Cadance said sweetly. “We find out why you smell like my aunt, and we kill you?”
“That sounds fun. That sounds really fun, actually. Hey Cadance,” I said. She blinked a moment, being shocked at my suddenly ‘calm’ demeanor. “PADDY WAGON!” I shot a high powered, Stun with a Pierce and a Telekinetic Blast mixed into one, and struck Cadance in the face, sending her flying into a tree. Thanks to the Stun, she wasn’t getting back up. Huh, like back home, Cadance isn’t very strong with magic. It probably helped that I used fear to drive the spell. I waved at the other three.
“LATER!” I DragonFired into Princess Cadance, taking her along with me to use as a hostage. I would’ve killed her, outright killed her, but… she literally looks like Cadance, she is Cadance. I couldn’t bring myself to actually hurt her. Luckily, the other alicorns were just shocked at how I knocked one of them on their ass, and then used a spell I know they’ve never seen before to fly off into the distance. I was driving the spell as hard as I could, so I was going as fast as Rainbow Dash.
On the way, I found a cave, and headed on down. I may not be willing to kill Cadance, but I wasn’t going to be nice to her; she did want to kill me, after all. . I skidded to a stop in the cave, and dropped the alicorn on her head, while she was still basically unable to move. After a moment, I pulled out a magic prohibiting ring, a standard thing most royal guards carry on them, and slipped it on her horn. I casted a spell that I’ve tested a few times, one that hides magical signatures, on the two of us. I named it ‘Ghost’, since nopony gave it a name; nopony really ever used it anyways.
I sat down, and took a deep breath. “Okay,” I laid on my stomach and took another deep breath. “Okay, Source, you’ve been through this before, just now there are four magical gods that want you dead for some reas-” I stopped and blinked. “-son. I just pissed them off and took one with me…” I whispered. “Shit.”
“And you think you can win,” Princess Cadance said sweetly. “You know you’ve pissed the four of us off,” she giggled. “I will look forward to killing you myself.”
“...Fucking christ.” I sighed. “Good thing…” I pulled out a spell crystal, one I was going to use, but Pinkie had a crystal on her for some reason… Did Pinkie fucking predict this? I wouldn’t be shocked, but holy… if she did, I am going to kiss that mare on the cheek, or let her throw me a big, stinky party in my name that I’ll probably love anyways. I enchanted it with a Stun, just as Princess Cadance got up.
“Do you understand why we alicorns are so dangerous?” Cadance asked. “Why are we superior to the other tribes?” She asked. She grinned. “Stun spells don’t last long on me, fool.”
“That’s cool. I’ve got a proposition for you,” I said, fiddling with the crystal. Princess Cadance blinked.
“Why do you think-”
“I am not from this timeline. I don’t give a damn about Alicorn Superiority or whatever, but what I do care about is going home. I’ve met another version of you, one far, far nicer than you. She’s happy, going to get married, and will probably be readily accepted by her in-laws as family. Twilight Sparkle adores her, everypony adores her. But I do know this,” I chuckled. “You aren’t trained for combat, are you? Just coasting off the fact that you’re so much stronger than the average pony?” I chuckled darkly. “I’m no average pony, Cadance. I could’ve broken your neck on the way here, I could’ve killed you. But I, frankly, don’t think I could bring myself to outright kill anyone. Not somebody that looks so close to somebody I love.
“I don’t wanna fight, I don’t want to get involved with whatever you, your aunts, and Twilight are doing. I may not approve of it, but I can’t do much to stop four alicorns.” I chuckled. “I’m sure you’ve married before, correct?”
“I have. He passed away over a decade ago.”
“Shining Armor?” I asked.
“How do you know that name?” Princess Cadance said, seemingly forgetting what she wanted to do.
“As I said, I’ve met another timeline’s version of you, Princess Cadance. Shining Armor, Cadance and I were pretty good friends, well, Cadance and my world’s Shining Armor were just about to get married and were planning out their wedding. But that brings me to my next point,” I sighed. “Seeing the mare I love, being so cold and heartless hurts a lot, you know?” Princess Cadance raised an eyebrow. “I think the four of you alicorns noticed how much I smell like Princess Celestia?” Cadance nodded.
“Back home, I was Princess Celestia’s consort. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but one day I woke up in a crater after a magical accident. No clue if I’m actually another being’s mind inside that of a pony, or if I got turned into a pony, all I knew is that I woke up as a pony when I wasn’t before. If the magical accident erased what once was inside this body, who knows? But… I met Princess Celestia, my Celly…” I sighed. “Oh, I love her, so, so damn much. We’re planning on getting married ourselves and are basically engaged at this point. We even have a little colt, through adoption, that we love with all of our being.
“All I want is to go home. I don’t care if I gotta kill you and this world’s versions of Luna, Celestia, and Twilight, but I will find a way home…” I noticed Cadance actually flinched for some reason. “I don’t want to hurt you, I’ll letcha go and everything, but I want to make sure Luna, Celsetia, and Twilight do not try to cause me any harm.” I think I’m getting somewhere, since Cadance laid back down, and decided to not try anything for the rest of the night.
When I woke up, Cadance was gone. I think she left to try and get the rest of the alicorns to kill me or something. I don’t know, I don’t care. I simply got up, went outside and had some grass. Sure, it wasn’t exactly… tasty, or good, or anything that tasted like anything, but there’s a reason why most guard kits don’t carry rations. If the ground’s covered in grass, you don’t need rations, if you find a bush with berries in it, you don’t need rations. Plants have water in them, so you’re covered on that, and ponies typically live off of plants, so if you’ve got plants, you got water and food.
Just not good food or water.
I grazed for a while, before changing my coat to and mane to the same shade of green as the grass. So if an alicorn flies overhead, I’ll be fine. I casted another Ghost, got a Light Shield active and enchanted my bones, fur, and skin to be tougher in case I needed to fight, and started walking forward. I know I probably should go back to where I initially came into this world, but I don’t think I should; mostly because it was in the middle of a field. A random field in the middle of nowhere. I obviously was nowhere near Canterlot; there wasn’t a mountain in sight, and a city jutting out the side of a mountain would be pretty hard for me to miss.
I kept on marching forward, knowing that if I stop, Cadance may show up again, and I don’t know if she’s a friend, but I know that if we meet again, we are definitely going to be not very friendly. I did drop her on her head, and said I would kill her and her aunts, and Twilight should they come after me again. Luckily, this world was just as colorful as my Equestria, even if I was feeling a sense of dread and anxiety from having to watch my back.
While I was walking, I saw a huge mountain, like… oh, oh shit. That’s Canterlot Mountain; I could see the city. Granted, the sun’s going down, and I think I’ve got to get through what may be the Everfree Forest, but I can probably find Ponyville and stay there. I know I’d probably be safer in the Everfree, with some natural cover, than out and about in the fields. While I… If this is in another timeline, and possibly in the future of that timeline, I don’t think I will be running into anyone I would notice any time soon.
I DragonFired into the sky and took off until I landed roughly where Fluttershy’s cottage should be. I've never been, back home, but I was told where it was. It was pretty hard to miss, but given that it still had a road leading up to a peaceful little cottage, that was right on the edge of the Everfree Forest, I landed on the pathway, right in front of a small bridge that went up and over a cute little stream, before trotting on up to the door. With some hope, maybe I’ll… I knocked on the door, hopefully I’ll at least find Fluttershy’s kid, or something.
Instead, I was greeted by a weird looking snake thing. “Oh, dear Celestia! It’s that stallion that me in another universe didn’t get the chance to meet because he was stuck here! Come in, come in,” he coaxed me inside. It wasn’t hard, since as weird as what he said was, he did seem like a pleasant individual. “Fluttershy! I know it’s late, but we have a guest, a guest of honor!” I suddenly had a crown on my head and necklace. A Fluttershy, looking no older than when I met her, trotted downstairs. She was wearing a cute little sleeping cap and was rubbing her eyes.
“Yes dear?” Fluttershy asked. Her eyes landed on me. “Oh! One moment, I’ll get some tea going!”
“What the fuck?” I asked as I watched as Fluttershy clapped her hooves and magically ended up walking out of the kitchen with a teapot and a set of teacups.
“Discord told me all about you, a pony from another world that is just a well of chaotic magic.” She smiled. “And no matter where he’s from, an apparent friend of Discord is a friend of mine.”
“...Okay, then. I’m Source, dunno if you know-”
“Oh, I know. This is my husband, Discord,” Fluttershy patted the weird blend of animals, who had coiled up around her and was acting like a bed for her. “This is Discord, a Draconequus, or the spirit of chaos. The-”
“The one and only D-D-Discord!” The John Cena theme was playing. “Now, my little pony, you. I believe I know why you are here.” I couldn’t help but smile slightly at how bumfuck crazy these two were, or how much more confident Fluttershy looked right now. “You got dragged out a timeline, one where you existed and changed some things. Such as making a young colt, who is usually an earth pony in other timelines, a unicorn, in yours. Or perhaps in yours, I would’ve already been redeemed and ‘hooked up’ with Fluttershy had I met you next week like I should’ve in your timeline.”
“Wait…”
“Yes, by the time you get back, about a month will have passed!” My heart dropped. “I know, I know, so much time lost. But!” I tilted my head. “I’ve a deal for you,” Discord said. “I can control portals very easily, I might add. I can send you home, if you do a small little favor for me.” He patted my head. “I just powered you up, a lot. You see, this timeline’s version of Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadance, and the Royal Pony Sisters went mad recently, Twilight from watching all her friends die, Princess Cadance from watching her husband die, and the Royal Pony Sisters were never particularly good ponies in this timeline, and figured Alicorn Supremacy is the way forward…” Discord nodded to himself.
“I want you to protect Ponyville, as it is my home, and I hate seeing it get destroyed no matter the timeline we're in. If you do that, and put on a good show, I’ll send you home. At the start of February, you’ll be back home, received very warmly, and loved and cared for until the Canterlot Wedding that will take place during April. By the way, the alicorns are on the way and they are angry.”
I looked at Fluttershy. “Aren’t you upset by this?” I asked.
“No, me and Discord don’t really follow a timeline anymore. We would be from what you consider… ‘Cannon’. In that, my friends are still alive and kicking; we decided to go somewhere a little dangerous on our honeymoon, and this was the place.” I blinked a few more times. “Yes, Discord taught me how to use chaos magic, and I have seen a lot, Source Code. I must say, it has its perks, but this one pony named the Doctor, and his assistant and wife, Derpy Hooves, tends to bump into us and make our brains hurt…”
Discord shivered. “They use logic to solve their problems. Something so against what the two of us have stood for for the last ten years… has it been ten years?”
“I’m not sure anymore,” Fluttershy shrugged. “Well, if you want to stay the night, you can take my bed. Discord has a built-in reclining system, massage machine, and serves a nice, warm glass of milk right before you go to bed, so I don’t need the bed.” What? These two are starting to make my brain hurt just a little bit.
“Alright then… don’t let the bedbugs bite?” Fluttershy nodded, before nuzzling into her… husband, I guess.
The next day, I woke up to pure, unfiltered disappointment. When I felt the comforts of a nice, soft bed, I was excited, that maybe, just maybe whatever the fuck just happened was all a dream. Then I woke up in Fluttershy’s bed to the smell of pancakes. They weren’t Celly’s pancakes, there was no Celly laying her wing over my back, a moment away from waking up. No Celly to watch raise the Sun. I felt my heart drop when I didn’t feel my son laying against the side of my belly, asking for five more minutes before we hopped in the chariot and went to Ponyville for school.
I sighed; it’s only been two days for me so far, but it’s likely been a week for them.
If what ‘Discord’ said, my world’s discord was going wild right now… and I can’t be there for Button to keep him safe.
With a groan, I got up, stretched, and walked downstairs.
“Good morning, my little chaos master, how did you sleep?” Discord greeted me… he put salt inside his pancake mix.
“I miss my fiance,” I said. I sighed. “Any clue until those psychos show up?” I asked.
“Oh, they’re going to show up when they show up. You’ll know when you hear Ponyville’s residents start screaming,” Discord shrugged. “All I know is that I will be absent, since I moved Fluttershy somewhere far away from the alicorn carnage.”
“Water has a better chance at existing in the Netherlands than me being able to take down one alicorn, let alone four.”
“Oh please, I saw you take down Princess Cadance, but then you didn’t kill her.” Discord chuckled. “Now,” he sat down and offered me the best tasting pancakes I’ve had that weren’t Celly’s. There’s salt in this, and I frankly don’t care that much, it just somehow tasted good. “There’s also grape jelly in there; the salt helps bring the flavor out if I do say so myself…” He chuckled. “But seriously, my little chaos master. What are humans best at?”
“Killing each other?”
“Besides that.”
“Killing the shit out of animals?”
“And?”
“Thinking?” I asked.
“Yes, that there! Now, I don’t expect you to outright overpower any alicorn besides Princess Cadance with your fancy smancy use of a never seen before spell system, so!” Discord clapped. “Play smarter, not harder, Source Code. You’ll know what to do…” the weirdo started laughing. “Oh, being a good guy and giving advice sure does make me feel tingly inside. And I get to watch the chaos that comes from what you come up with? Ohoho!” Discord sighed. “Also I evacuated everypony to where Princess Cadance was held during her wedding.”
“So in the castle?”
“No, I would give you more details, but I want to also watch what chaos could ensue from what happens during Cadance’s wedding. It’s not something your Celestia actually accounted for, so don’t get mad at her. Seriously, I love Fluttershy more than anything, and I see you feel the same for your Celestia; don’t get mad at her for something she didn’t plan.” Discord dumped a shitload of jalapeno juice on his pancakes and started eating them. “Being seriously out of character sure is fun, isn’t it, Source?”
“The fuck you on about, mate?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Hey, guess what? I know that the princesses are coming here due to the new Bearers also living here, along with one of their few threats, and a hundred and ten year-old unicorn that doesn’t look a day over thirty being living here… So!” Discord smiled. “They’re here, by the way.” Before I could even blink, a spell blasted right through the cottage, and would’ve hit me if it weren’t for the Light Shield. Discord was gone.
“Shit.” I said as the Light Shield forced me to teleport just outside of the blast radius. The cottage was just a crater when my vision caught up with me. Standing before me were… well, Luna, Celestia, Twilight, and Cadance. The last one looked pretty pissed off.
“Aunties, Twilie,” Princess Cadance said as she stepped forward. “Allow me to take this one on, alone. He humiliated me, dropped me on my face, and told me a stupid, ridiculous sob story about how he’s from another world. I want to kill him.” Well, so much for thinking that Cadance was going to be on my side after telling her about missing somepony I love. The other three alicorns looked each other in the eyes, before nodding.
“If you believe you cannot win, you know what to do,” Princess Celestia said. “The rest of us will split up; Twilight go teach your old student a lesson about defying your wishes, would you?”
“Of course, Princess.” Twilight was off in an instant while Luna and Celestia ran off to probably kill some of the ‘fake’ ponies in Ponyville.
Princess Cadance and I stood face to face, a good ten meters away from each other. The Princess started smirking as she started walking forward, with a lot of emphasis on her hips. I think she was trying to distract me and go for a mean blow. I mean, they are nice, but in my world, Cadance is technically my niece, and also… Celly’s were nicer and attached to a mare that was actually a nice pony. I don’t fuck with crazy hoes.
I shrugged and decided to go on the offensive; if this Cadance is anything like my world’s… her defenses leave a lot to be desired. I threw a Lightning at Cadance, before running in. I know, a wise idea to take on an alicorn in a melee derby, but… I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. Cadance blocked my Lightning; her shield cracked a little. As soon as I was in striking distance, Princess Cadance punched me in the face, but didn’t realize that I tend to enchant my head with the most defensive spells possible. I took the punch in the face and felt like the equivalent of a bee sting, before headbutting her.
“That’s no way to treat a lady,” Cadance growled, stumbling away while holding her nose. God damn, Cadance is fucking frail. It probably didn’t help that you can essentially use magic as steroids to empower your muscles and hit harder than you should, but… Hey, I think I broke her nose. “I was only going to give you a nice, loving kiss, and make you my slave. Or the kiss would melt you down to the bone; it just depended on how I was feeling, and you go and attack me? Do you not enjoy kisses?”
“Celly and I kiss whenever we are able, yeah. That’s your problem; you ain’t my Celly.” I teleported out away from Cadance. “God, did losing Shining Armor fuck you up that much?”
“Try that and several miscarriages, you fool.” Cadance growled. “Stop bringing his name up, or I will kill you slowly and painfully.”
“So…” I hummed. “You were supposed to use a Flare to call for help, yes?” I tilted my head. “That’s standard ‘I need backup’ in the guard, at least. Somepony had to have taught you that, eh?”
“Like I will need it; you only get by off of cheap shots; there’s no honor to your fighting.”
“You tried to seduce me so you could kiss me to death. That’s hardly any better.” It wasn’t much of a show, either. Again, I don’t fuck with crazy. Well, at least not this kind of crazy, because Celly is definitely a bit crazy… Fuck me. Two beams of magic, Twilight’s magic was immediately noticeable, and another magic that straight up, is the strongest magical signature I’ve felt besides Celestia’s. The magic quickly dissipated, and me and Cadance stopped whatever we were doing. Twilight was facing down some unicorn I’ve never seen before.
She almost looked exactly like Twilight with lighter colors, and a different mane style.
The unicorn quickly noticed me. “GET OUT OF HERE!” Twilight launched a spell at the mystery unicorn while said unicorn was trying to get me to flee. The spell looked like it could kill a pony… It was a Telekinetic blast of the highest caliber. hmm. I used Levitate on Cadance’s tail and wings. I broke the wings, earning an audible snap that made me almost flinch and a yelp that hurt to hear, before throwing Princess Cadance, by the tail, in the path of the blast. I teleported to the mystery unicorn, and teleported us both out of the way.
I looked up to see the result of my labor, and almost threw up.
Let’s just say… imagine a deer after it got hit by a semi-truck going a hundred down the freeway. What’s more fucked up is that Cadance is still conscious since the spell seemingly only hit half of her body. I grabbed a stick, closed my eyes, and drove it through her head to put her out of her misery… Right as Princess Twilight tried to heal Cadance from something you literally can’t heal somepony from.
“You…” Twilight Sparkle growled. “You killed Cadance!” She snarled as she started digging at the ground with one hoof. I immediately shrunk myself down to the size of a colt; I’ve watched Star Wars a few times, like a nerd, and got an idea from watching Yoda during the first episode lay waste to an army during the Clone Wars.
“Hey!” The mystery unicorn shouted. “Leave him out of this! He was just defending himself!”
“He had the option of surrendering!’
“Just as Thorax had, Twilight. You slaughtered his Hive in front of him, before Cadance finished him off.” The unicorn growled. “At this point, I think it’s deserved if you get killed.” The unicorn glanced at me. “Starlight Glimmer,” she said.
“Source Code,” I said, my voice being notably squeakier. “We’re going to die, aren’t we?” I said I had an idea from a T.V show. That should tell you how screwed we are.
“No, I don’t think we will be. I can match Princess Twilight, and you seem to be… creative in your fighting style.” We both tried to not look at what was left of Cadance. I had Light Shield up and ready as soon as I noted that… Celestia and Luna had landed. They… were not pleased at seeing Princess Cadance with a stick going through her head.
“We’re fucked…” I hummed and DragonFired away Starlight. If I’m going to die, I ain’t dragging her into this; she had nothing to do with what was going on. “Alright guys,” I said, my now colt-sized body made everything seem so much larger. “I can probably guess that all of you are pretty angry,” I nodded to Twilight. “However…” I teleported out of the way of a spell. The fact that these guys haven’t just grabbed me with Levitation and choked me out or something… Huh.
I could try to Force Choke one of these guys… That sounds like a cool spell name. Yeah, keep thinking of what you could name, choking somepony out with magic, Source, it’ll help you ignore the fact that you just killed somepony. I landed behind just in time for the Light Shield to eat up another attack and actually DragonFire me away. I landed behind Twilight as she got ready to launch another spell at me. Celestia and Luna lit their horns, but held their fire when I teleported onto the purple alicorn’s back and casted a Mirror on her horn.
Essentially, Mirror launches attacks back at you. I did it right as Twilight shot another blast of telekinetic energy to try and get me off of her. The Light Shield luckily saved me from also taking the blunt of Mirror's counter, but Twilight… Mmm, do not turn around, Source. Behind you is not a pretty sight. I sat there, feeling my horn starting to ache again. I haven’t outright attacked anypony yet, but Mirror that redirected that much magic? Along with the Light Shield? I am being driven beyond my limits, and I haven’t even attacked yet.
I was breathing heavily, watching Luna and Celestia as they started calculating their next moves; they’re being cautious now.
“We can still talk this out.” I said calmly. “Because for all your superiority with magic, spells, and combat knowledge… there is something you will never, ever understand…” I placed a hoof to my chest and took a deep breath. I think it’s time to pull something out of my ass that hopefully sounds like something from Doctor Who. “I am Source Code. I’m not a pony. I want to go home and see my future wife and play with my foal. If you get in the way of me doing that, I will move you aside, peacefully, or violently. You decide."
“You seriously think that you are going to talk your way out of this?” Princess Celestia asked. “You killed my niece and my old student. Do you really, really think you will be able to make me calm down?”
“I know I won't. I’m from another timeline, lady. I’m friends with those two in my timeline. Do you think I wanted to see one of them blasted to shit, or the other one blowing herself up? No. No I didn’t. Did I want to? No. You aren’t giving me much of a choice in what I want to do, though. I tried keeping Cadance, peacefully, but she decided to leave a tracking spell on me, and you guys found me a few days after she fled.” My Light Shield moved me out of the way of a Fireball.
“I know how you fight, Princess. I’ve sparred with my timeline’s you. I know she held back a lot, a lot. This time, I have to try extra hard to not get hit…” I chuckled humorlessly. “I’ve found a way to never, ever get hit by a spell unless I run out of magic, or fucking get my horn blown up.” I hummed, before picking up a rock, and casted a Teleport on it and myself to experiment. Experiment done, I know how I’m going to off Princess Luna, now… God, that does not sound good to me, man.
I love Luna, she’s the cutest little dork I’ve ever met.
This Luna is a horrible pony, though.
Sure, neither Lulu or Celly are saints, but they are still good ponies at the end of the day. I literally met Luna and Celestia after they genocided some random village for fun.
“Come at me, bro.” I said, preparing two Teleports. Both sisters started fighting as a well powered team, one would go in to melee me, then back out as the other launched a spell my way. The only thing keeping me alive was the fact that I was so small as a colt, my Light Shield being pushed beyond what I expected it to stop, and well-timed teleports to get out of the way of their swords. I started watching their attack patterns. So Celestia goes in first, most of the time to try and hit me with a sword and backs out. Luna blasts at me with magic, and then follows it up with her own onslaught.
…
“Huh.” I hummed as I landed, all three of us paused.
“What? Did you realize that fighting back is futile?” Princess Luna asked.
“No. I just thought of something… rather cute, even if it kinda isn’t as cute because of who is doing it.” I wasn’t gonna say it, don’t wanna fuck my own plans up but… Even in a universe where Celestia is a fucking psycho, she still fights in a manner that effectively only puts her in danger. And Luna does her best to keep Celestia out of danger… I think that’s how Celly and Lulu fight, except they work way better as a team because they aren’t psychotic, and genuinely want to make sure that the other is unharmed after a big fight.
I’m assuming that at least.
“You think this is cute?” Celestia asked. She pointed her sword at me. “Try this.” She ran in, getting ready to probably stab me in the head or something… Just as she brought her sword up, I casted a Teleport on Luna, and teleported to where Luna was standing… Ow. Ow. Ow. Fuck. Teleporting alicorns is not good for your horn, as it turned out. Princess Celestia and Luna stared at each other, one in horror, the other was in shock. Well, a fading shock. Princess Celestia watched as her sister’s life left her eyes, like it was the only thing going on… right as I took Luna’s sword in my own magic and jammed it into the back of Celestia's head as well.
Princess Celestia slumped over, leaving Princess Luna, who was somehow still alive, even if she couldn’t do anything to overcome the sword in her chest.
“I am so, so sorry, Luna.” I said. “Truly, this hurts me more than it hurts you…” I sighed as I yanked the sword out of the Moon Princess, and turned around to walk away. Only to fall upon the sight of the severely mangled bodies of the other two alicorns… I teleported away from the battlefield and started throwing up. I leaned against the side of a wall, I don’t know what the fuck it was, but… Holy shit. I started trembling; I killed four people! But they were awful people! I could’ve talked them down… if they were willing to listen. I… I threw up some more and started coughing.
My horn hurts, that’s the main thing I noticed aside from my tears.
Watching as Luna, no matter what timeline Luna is in, watching the life leave her eyes as she’s in too much pain to do anything other than stare ahead at nothing in shock… Stabbing Celestia in the head… I don’t even want to think about what I did to Cadance or Twilight. Oh… my god…
“I’m alive at least,” I coughed. “God damn,” I hope I can get Celly to wipe my mind by two days; I don’t want to remember this. I don’t even like fighting that much, and I like to think I can be relatively peaceful and nice… And I just killed four people that were literally just alternate reality versions of the ponies I loved. I shivered as I felt Starlight standing behind me.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“...You took down four alicorns,” she pointed out.
“I don’t like what I did.”
“But… they were committing genocide! They went mad, and thought about trying to exterminate all of Equestria because they were bored! You saved ponykind!”
“I know,” I whispered. “I fucking know. I also know this is not my reality, and that I’ve killed four people that I call close friends, or even a lover in the case of Princess Celestia.” I shivered. “I think it’s just the fact that I killed anyone at all. I really didn’t like…” I almost threw up again at the memory of Cadance.
“...Oh.” Starlight whispered and wrapped a hoof around my neck. “I see.” She nuzzled me. “If we can’t send you home, would you consider taking up the mantle?” She asked.
“Why?” I asked.
“You… have a pair of wings and a horn. Those weren’t there when you teleported me away with thst odd spell.”
“Oh…” I looked down at them and shrugged. “Well.” I said. “I suppose, but only if I cannot go home. I need to go home, and I just want to curl up into a ball under my Celly’s wing, and possibly get some therapy.”
“...Alright.” Starlight sighed. “Well, when you’re ready, come find me, and we’ll begin trying to find your home timeline.”
I lied underneath an apple tree. It's been at least a week since I fought and killed the four previous rulers of Equestria in this timeline. I didn’t feel any better; Discord hasn’t made due on his promise of sending me home, and Starlight is struggling to find my timeline. No Apple Jack; she’s apparently long dead in this timeline. No Big Mac, no Pinkie to make me feel better. Nothing. I took a whiff of the air as Fluttershy laid down beside me.
“Hello, Source.”
“Heya Flutters.” I waved. “Sorry if I’m not very talkative. I…”
“I know. Would… Would you like a hug?” She asked. She lifted her wing, and… you know what? A hug sounds great right now. I nodded and Fluttershy wrapped her wing around me and pulled me close. “It couldn’t have been easy, physically or emotionally, could it?” My silence was the only answer I could give. “I… I have had to put some animals down when they get sick, and it never felt good. Taking a life never feels good, Source, even if it might have been necessary for survival, or an animal is too sick to keep going and only knows pain, or if it’s a life or death situation… When you get home, please, please seek help. Don’t have somepony erase your memory of these events; they are what makes a pony a pony.”
“I won’t… Where’s your husband?”
“Right here,” Discord’s lion paw came down on my head. “I see you…” he cleared her throat. “Were a lot more violent with your approach to resolving the issue than I would have thought.” The fucker patted my head, which admittedly felt good; I needed some sort of comfort right now. “I’ll send you home. As my wife said, seriously go seek some help. You can tell your timeline’s Celestia, Luna, anypony. They will understand and be there for you, as friends should.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Discord.” I got up from under Fluttershy’s wing. “And… Even if I don’t like the results, or the process of meeting my end of the deal, thank you for at least giving me a definitive way out of this nightmare of a timeline.”
“You may say what you want,” Fluttershy started. “But Discord makes due on his deals.” She glared at Discord. “Even if he ends up sleeping on the couch for getting a poor stallion traumatized over them.” She nuzzled me. “Take care, Source Code. When you see your fiance, give her the biggest, warmest hug you can muster; I am willing to bet that she’ll need it.” Discord snapped his paw, and I simply nodded. I gave a hug to Fluttershy, even if she wasn’t my Fluttershy, Fluttershy looked like she could use a hug no matter the timeline.
“See you two around, hopefully.” I walked through the portal as the world around me started to fade to white.
The first thing I noted was… I was back in the Mage Tower. Celestia was in the Portal Room, every portal had been shut down, apparently, save for the one I had just walked out of. I had my wings folded up, so she wouldn’t immediately notice them. I was so fucking relieved to see her; Button wasn’t here, but I would make damn sure to let my colt have a week off from school if he desired it, just so he and I can catch up again.
“WE DID IT!” One of the Portal Ponies cheered. “WE BROUGHT HIM BACK!”
“SOURCE!” Celestia broke into the Royal Canterlot Voice before tackling me. “I checked in every single sun forsaken day to see if it was wonderful…” She looked me in the eyes. “Where did you get sent?” She knew something was wrong with me immediately. “You’ve grown wings, yet you look… distant. You look…”
“I…” I cleared my throat and started crying into her chest. “Oh my fucking god. Thank the lord that I have you back in my hands.” I cried into her for a good thirty minutes while I sloppily and tearfully retold what had essentially only been a week for me. I know that a month’s definitely passed, according to Discord, for Celly, but she seemed so… attentive to listening to me, and refused to let me go after I told her the full tale.
“...I see.” Celestia hugged me tighter. “I am making sure you get therapy for this, Source. No putting it off, or asking me or Luna to do it for you. I am booking you an appointment with the royal therapist, and I am forcing you to go, alright?”
“That would be the best course of action for me, Celly… Though it’s been a month for you and Button. Tell me about it; it’ll at least take my mind off of everything, and I genuinely want to know. You put so much time into just listening to my problems, Celly. Tell me yours, please.” As Celly began to retell how she and Button had been taking the news of me being involved in yet another magical accident, they definitely took it horribly. Apparently, in my memory, since I could’ve been as good as dead, my students all took to their studies and worked on their magic like hell in my honor; they knew I wouldn’t want them to stop magic as a whole.
Button had improved so much, and… I simply just listened, and soon, it was my chest being cried while Celestia tearfully told me how scared she was during the Discord incident. Somehow, Button was entirely unharmed or phased; Discord left him alone for some reason. Overall, the two of us had been through Tartarus and we were both happy to just be done with it. Celly promptly brought me to the castle’s therapist, where I spent a good two hours in.
It didn’t help initially, but I knew therapy was a long term thing.
When I saw Button, the tears that I thought I could no longer shed from me crying so damn much ended up falling. “I missed you, Dad…” Button whispered as we both laid on the couch, I was on my side, holding my son up to my cheek as the two of us snuggled. Celly had joined us shortly afterwards, and moved everything off schedule for the next week so we all could spend it together, and so she could make sure I could get those therapy sessions. Pinkie stopped by at some point and said she would host a party during that week…
Pinkie’s never failed to bring me out of my funk with her parties, since I’ve only gone to one party so far, but… I was willing to give it a try. Anything to make me just feel better. I’ve got my Celly, I got my colt, Luna even came by when she figured out I was home and took a week off of ruling as well… She knew what happened, Celly told her at some point while I was having therapy.
Having everypony I loved, since Cadance and Shiny stopped by too, certainly helped. It felt so much better to be seeing the ponies that I love in one piece, and not completely evil, unredeemable monsters… I am going to need this week with all of them, after all.
For my first night back, though, I was feeling just a lot better to be in a pony pile with Cadance, Celly, Shiny, Button, and Lulu. Pinkie even joined us, since she also made it her goal to get me to genuinely smile throughout this week.
“And that’s why the chicken crossed the road…” Pinkie said.
“You didn’t even…” I chuckled, heartily chuckled. “Okay, just saying that out of the blue, Pinkie, good one.” Pinkie did a cute little hoof pump; she succeeded on my first night back at getting me to smile at least once. With Pinkie, therapy, and pony piles… I still won’t mentally recover, but I think I’ll be able to move on.
“I’m going to host two parties this week, by the way. One for welcoming you back to our timeline, and then the next for you being the newest alicorn! I would roll it into one big party, but it’s going to be two, big parties. That way I get two, huge opportunities to make you smile!”
…I forgot that I grew wings.
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Ah yes. Giving characters ptsd. Source needs many warm fluffy hugs. He's gonna need them.
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I’m very impressed that Source was able to outwit some overconfident and incautious alicorns, but I’m also a little sad that he missed Discord’s rampage.
Yay Pinkie.
Two months in-story till Cadance’s wedding then his own. Lots of ponies to reacquaint with, healing to start doing, research to do with the Mage Tower, and big events to encounter… will Source notice changes in his surroundings now that he’s experienced the battlefield? And what will he do with an invasion now that he’s beaten some alicorn-level enemies? …Should we be worried for Chrysalis?
Thank you for the action packed chapter!
I have to say, not a bad chapter. Also welcome to the male alicorn club Source Code.
Combine Light, Teleport and Gravity in exactly the wrong way, without the safeties, and you basically just crossed Maud Rock throw with Portals.
Alicorns have very large lungs.
He didnt eveen have to go Merlin vs Madame Mim on them.
WOW I was wright almost he had to kill me them all and got wings
...Fuck.
That's a lot of emotional damage there for Source Code. And the price for it is being granted Alicornism and more.
Wings. His repertoire of throwing himself at the ground and missing is growing.
Besides wings and agelessness did he get any boost to his magic etc? Another thought, what he will be Alicorns of?
Liking the story, had minor nits on typos in the story description:
Short description: Source Code, once an amatuer game developer is transported to Equestria by unknown means.
Should be amateur, see https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amateur
Long description: "Disclaimer: 'coding' id being used very loosely."
"'coding' is being", I think
Well certainly a different chapter, well written though so congrats on that. I was honestly curious how you’d make him an alicorn and you most certainly did it in a very unique way that it was enjoyable. Great chapter well written and action packed, very much looking forward to the next one!
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All I have to say is; for Chrysalis' own good she better not have changed her plan on account of the most loved pony in Equestria getting married. Oh, who am I kidding? She did.
So do you think the dumb intern that opened the portal was
1. Sent to the dungeon
2. Banished
3. Sent to the dungeon in the place he was banished too
Also Twilight needs to join in on the pony pile
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At this point I'm going to go with "Alicorn of Find Out"
I miss my wife tails..
That mess was not necessary, you know
Source Code makes the 24 good male alicorn that I know.