Chapter 2: Looking Around
Alex and Jesse made it to the doors of the vendor hall while Alyssa and Mordecai were just walking down the stairs toward the same double doors. The two teenagers went toward the doors and showed their badges to the security guard blocking the entrance into the hall. The guard gave the clear, a smile, and moved aside to let them into the bombarding sight that was the vendor hall. Everywhere they looked, there were people window shopping, navigating, and buying things at the various shops. They both were marveled at the size, colors, and the people who occupied the hall. There were art booths, souvenir booths, and even clothing booths. They walked in and looked around, navigating through the large amount of people.
"Wow, the vendor hall is packed!" Alex said, smiling.
"I know! It's amazing!" Jesse said back, smiling.
"Where should we go first?" Alex asked.
"Hmm… Ooh! How about to this shop… Chaotic Brony?" Jesse suggested, reading the vendor hall map.
"What does it sell?" Alex asked.
"Not sure, but I have a good feeling about that shop. Let's go!" Jesse said, pulling Alex over to the location of the shop.
They two newfound friends came up to a booth that had many different pendants and dog tags. And sitting behind the booth was a casually dressed man, smiling as the duo came up.
"Hello! What can I do for you?" the man asked.
"Oh, we wanted to see what you had to sell." Alex said, with a smile.
"I have Silver Pendants and Dog Tags of characters from the show." The man explained. "Hope you guys find one that you like."
"Ooh! There's a Pinkie Pie pendant, a Fluttershy Pendant, a Doctor Whooves Pendant! Wow great selection!" Jesse enthusiastically exclaimed.
"Haha, thank you." The man thanked the chipper teenager.
"Hmm… May I have a Fluttershy Pendant?" Alex asked.
"And I'll have a Pinkie Pie pendant!" Jesse asked with sheer enthusiasim.
The man's eyes gave off somewhat of a sparkle, like he knew something they didn't. He went into the pendant case, and saw 12 pendants all specially hung on the case's ceiling, when he opened them, he noticed the many different colors shining in the silver etching of these unknowingly magical artifacts. He smiled as he took the cream-colored silver pendant, which lost its color as he took it out, making it look like real, smooth silver. On that pendant was a shy sighted, female equine, with straight hair that was curled at the end. He took out the raspberry-pink colored silver pendant next to it, which also lost its color with his touch. On it was a smiling, bubbly, female equine with puffy hair. He closed the case and gave the boys the pendants they wanted.
"Here you are. That will be forty dollars in total." The man said with a smile.
"Alright, I got this." Alex said as he took out his wallet.
"A-Alex, are you sure? I can pay for myself." Jesse said, surprised. No one had ever done something like this for him.
"I'm sure, Jesse. After all, you are my first convention friend, this is what friends do." Alex said, smiling as he gave the man two $20 bills.
"W-Wow… Thank you, so much, Alex! I'll make it up to you!" Jesse thanked, grateful to his new friend.
"Don't worry about it, Jesse. It's my gift to you." Alex said with a smile.
"Thank you for your purchase, I hope you have a good Bronycon experience." The man said with a smile.
"Thank you, sir. I hope you have a good day." Alex said politely, smiling.
"You're welcome. I hope you have fun. And good luck to you." The man said, smiling as they walked away and looked around the vendor hall.
"He was nice." Jesse said, smiling.
"He was, wow… these pendants are wonderfully made." Alex said, admiring them.
"I know, they are very pretty." Jesse said, smiling.
"Come on, let's go to a panel." Alex said, moving toward the exit of the vendor hall.
"Military and Ponies must still be going on." Jesse said, smiling, following.
"Alright, onward to the Hall of the Sun." Alex smiled, walking out of the vendor hall.
Meanwhile, Alyssa and Mordecai happened at the same shop, they looked at the pendants.
"OOH! Morde-chan! There is a Dr. Whooves pendant! I'm gonna get it!" Alyssa squealed, fangirling at the pendant she picked out.
"Nice…" Mordecai said indifferently. "And don't call me Morde-chan."
"I'll get you a Twilight pendant, so you can have a pendant of your own!" Alyssa said, smiling, knowing that Mordecai was happy that he would have a pendant of Twilight.
"…Whatever."
"Can I please have the Doctor Whooves pendant? And he'll have the Twilight pendant." Alyssa said with a smile.
"Sure, that will be $40." The clerk said with a smile, as the girl gave him two twenty dollar bills.
The clerk received the $40, and opened the pendant box. He smiled as he took the glowing brown pendant, which lost the glow with his touch, showing the smooth silver. On the front of the pendant was a male equine with a spiky mane and a face that looked like he knew everything. The other pendant he took out lost its lavender-ish glow, revealing a female unicorn with a sweet smile and a sparkle in her eye. The man gave the two pendants to the convention goers with a smile.
"Thank you for you patronage, and I hope you have a good weekend, and good luck." The man said with a smile. Mordecai raised his eyebrow.
"Good luck to what?" Mordecai asked.
"Come on, Mordecai! Let's go and look for Doctor Whooves stuff!" Alyssa said, putting the pendants in her pocket, running through the vendor hall, looking for something to spark her interest.
"Alyssa! Wait!" Mordecai called out, going after her.
Meanwhile, in another part of the convention, a young man was walking through the halls. He had red hair that covered one eye, wore skinny jeans, a red t-shirt, and brown boots. He was walking with another young man with black hair, and a black jacket.
"Well, here we are, Chase. What do you want to do first?" the man with the jacket asked.
"…Zack… I don't think we should be here… I mean, what if mom and dad find us?" Chase asked, with an anxious look.
"Chase, they are in Oregon, they aren't gonna find us, and plus, I wanted to take you down here." Zack said, smiling. "You're my brother, I want you to have a good time. Come on, let's go to a panel. Hmm… Let's see, what would be a good one?"
With that, the two brothers walked through the convention hall, looking for a good panel to go to. But below the floor they were on, there was a glow coming from the stairs. A sudden glow, and a sudden growl…
Alex and Jesse walked out of the Hall of the Sun, and went over to a spot with tables and sat down. They got lunches out of their bags and placed them on the top, getting ready to chow down.
"Ah, that Military and Ponies panel was very cool, who knew that the military likes My Little Pony?" Jesse asked, smiling, taking out some pizza slices.
"I sure didn't." Alex said, taking out a sandwich and some chips.
"Oh, put on your pendant, I want to see how it looks on you." Jesse said enthusiastically.
"Alright." With that, Alex took out the pendant and undid the chain, he put the chain around his neck and then locked the chain back up. He looked down to see the engraved Fluttershy looking to his left with a cute smile.
"Ooh! I like it! And now for me!" Jesse said, as he put his pendant the same way. He looked at the engraved Pinkie Pie smiling at him.
"I like it too." Alex said, smiling.
"I do too…" a feminine voice said. The two boys looked up to see a girl with rainbow-dyed hair tied in a side ponytail, wearing a dark blue button down shirt, a brown skirt, deep blue leg warmers and blue converse. She was also wearing a Doctor Whooves pendant and a fez. Behind her was a well-built young man with brown hair tied in a spiky ponytail, wearing a black t-shirt, blue baggy jeans, and brown boots. He was wearing a Twilight Sparkle pendant. "The name's Alyssa, Alyssa McNeil, and this is my friend, Mordecai Knox. May we eat lunch with you guys?" Alyssa asked.
"Of course! Sit anywhere you like!" Jesse said, with a smile so bright, Mordecai squinted, although Alex thought he was looking at Jesse distastefully.
"Thank you!" Alyssa said, smiling, as she sat down next to Jesse, while Mordecai sat next to Alex. The two pulled out their lunches, and opened their packages.
"So… where are you guys from?" Alex asked, taking his sandwich out.
"We're from Maryland." Alyssa said, taking out a burger and fries.
"…Yeah." Mordecai said, placing a hot dog and fries on the table.
"Hey, I'm from Maryland too." Alex said, smiling.
"I'm from California, but I was raised in Texas." Jesse said, eating a piece of pepperoni pizza.
"You're from Cali?! Wow! That's so cool!" Alyssa said, her eyes shining.
"Yep, born in Napa, raised partly in Austin." Jesse said, smiling, eating.
"Wow… that's so cool." Alex said, also eating.
"Yeah…" Mordecai said, about to eat.
"I've always wanted to go to California!" Alyssa said.
"Hehe, it's a very beautiful state. I mean the city, the people, the mountains, the coast, and the food. I loved it in California." Jesse said, reminiscing about his memories of California. "Then my family took me to Texas… I hated Texas." He thought.
"What was Texas like?" Alex asked.
Jesse blinked, caught off guard by the question. "I… I loved Texas too… I liked the fashion, the food, the entertainment, and the people." Jesse lied, but he was somewhat of a good liar. "The fashion is repetitive, the food was over seasoned, the entertainment was boring, and some of the people are ignorant and provincial, just like my parents." Jesse thought as he smiled at Alex, lie-answering his question.
"Wow, that's cool!" Alyssa said, smiling.
"Yeah… Glad you liked Texas." Mordecai said, eating.
"Ah… that was good. I'm gonna go wash my hands, I'll be back." Alex said, getting up, throwing his trash away, and he walked toward a bathroom. But he couldn't help but feel that someone was following him.
"Alright, I'll be here." Jesse said, smiling as he finished one slice and began eating a piece of extra cheese.
Alex went into the bathroom, and went into a stall, realizing he had held it in for the Military and Ponies panel. He sat and saw a large shadow outside, from below the stall door. He got up, anxious about what lied behind the stall door. He reached for the handle and pulled open fast screaming.
"AHH!" Alex screamed.
"AH!" a feminine voice screamed as the owner of the voice raced into another stall, and locked the door. Although Alex saw a flash of cream go into the stall, he recognized that grey-ish rose-colored mane anywhere. Could it be…? No… It couldn't have been…
"P-Please don't hurt me!" the voice shivered behind the bathroom stall.
"Wait a minute… are you… no… I must be dreaming…" Alex said, blinking in surprise.
"I-I'm nopon- I mean nobody!" the voice whimpered.
"You were about to say nopony… You are… You're THE Fluttershy!" Alex said, eyes widening.
The owner of the voice stopped shivering and opened the door, and revealed herself to be the one and only Fluttershy. Grey-rose mane and tail, cream colored coat, emerald eyes, and a cutie mark of 3 butterflies on her flank. Not even an robot could perfect this legit look.
"You're really Fluttershy?" Alex asked, walking toward her slowly.
"Y-Yes I am…" Fluttershy asked with her signature soft, sweet voice, her hair swooping over one eye in a modest manner.
"Wow… I am such a big fan! You are my favorite pony!" Alex said enthusiastically.
"I-I am?" Fluttershy asked, blowing her hair out of her face, blushing.
"Yes, you really are… But where did you come from?" Alex asked.
"Your pendant…" she said, pointing at the silver pendant around Alex's neck. Alex looked down and saw that the engraving of Fluttershy was gone. It was as if it was never engraved at all.
"What the…" Alex said, looking at his pendant with wide eyes. "How is this happening?"
"Umm… I-I don't know." Fluttershy lied. But unfortunately, Fluttershy was as much as a bad liar as Applejack.
"Please… tell me." Alex said, looking at Fluttershy.
"Oh… alright… You see… Princess Celestia gathered Twelve Essences and made them into pieces of silver which were made into pendants. Those twelve Essences were of twelve ponies, six of them were me and my friends… I don't know all the details of why… but I imagine that it is a response to something dangerous…"
"What? Did she tell you that?"
"Yes… she told all twelve of us… we agreed to give our Essences, and then… I found myself following you… maybe something went wrong…"
"Well, what is going on that something like this has to be done?"
"I was told to give these instructions… You have to repeat after me…"
"Huh? Repeat what?"
"Umm, can you please bear with me? Umm if that's okay with you…"
"I'm sorry… Go on ahead."
"Okay." Fluttershy closed her eyes and began to recite some words.
"Element of Kindness, lend me your powers." Fluttershy recited, while Alex repeated.
"Give me the powers of my partner." Fluttershy recited more.
"Let me use this power to save our world." Alex repeated after Fluttershy said it.
"Give me the strength to wield your element… Come Forth!" Alex recited. With those last words, the pendant started glowing a cream color. Three grey-rose colored butterflies appeared and flew around Alex, who looked at them flying beautifully around him. He rose his arms and one of them flew near his hands. When it touched his hands, the butterfly split and turned into bracers on his wrists. The second butterfly flew onto his back, turning into cream-colored wings which spread out wide. The third butterfly went up above his head and formed into a short staff. On his forehead appeared one small pink butterfly, he opened his eyes and grabbed the staff, which grew as long as his leg if kept straight. He twirled the staff around his body and head before he made the final pose of him holding the staff with one hand in front of him, with a look of readiness.
"Whoa… this is pretty weird…" Alex said, looking at his appearance in the bathroom mirror.
"I know it is, but you've been chosen by Princess Celestia to bear the Element of Kindness." Fluttershy said.
"P-Princess Celestia, herself?" Alex studdered.
"Yes, now we don't have much time, if I came here now, there must be something dangerous coming…" Fluttershy said.
"Dangerous? There are plenty of dangers at a convention, what could be more dangerous than Maryland?" Alex asked, and then there was a sudden roar.
"Oh my… I know that roar anywhere…" Fluttershy said.
"Wait… What?" Alex asked, scared.
_
Meanwhile, Alyssa, Mordecai, and Jesses were finishing their lunch. They had just gotten into a conversation about Princess Twilight.
"I personally like the change into Princess Twilight, she deserves it with all that she has gone through to save the day, and keep Equestria together." Alyssa said, smiling.
"Are you kidding? Twilight won't be able to hang out with her friends anymore because of her new title." Jesse argued.
"But you already know that they're all going to become princesses when the series is over." Mordecai said.
"It will never be over, Mordecai. It never will." Jesse said, looking at Mordecai.
"Okay, what is taking that boy so long?" Alyssa asked, looking down the hall.
"I don't know. I'll go check." Jesse said.
"No, I got it, you continue your conversation." Alyssa said, getting up, and going over to the bathrooms while Jesse and Mordecai kept up their heated discussion. Alyssa walked toward the bathrooms, but while walking there, she felt like someone was following her. She looked behind her, and saw no one there. She turned back, and went toward the bathroom, but stopped, and turned around suddenly to see a brown pony with darker brown spiky mane and tail in a red tie, his cutie mark was an hourglass.
"Ah! I-Is that… A-Are you?" Alyssa stammered, looking down at the animated equine.
"Yes, I'm the Doctor. It's nice to meet you, Miss." The pony said.
"Oh my gosh! I'm such a huge fan! Wait, why are you here?" Alyssa said, smiling, but then she went into question mode.
"It's a long story, but the point is, I'm here, and you have been chosen to save the world with my help." The Doctor said.
"Save the world? Oh my, are we going into the TARDIS?!" Alyssa asked, excitingly.
"Sadly no, we're going to be in the convention. But I shall give you something cooler." He said, smiling.
"What's that?" Alyssa asked.
"Not here, go into the bathroom." The Doctor said. Alyssa stepped into the girl's bathroom, and checked to see if there was anyone in there. It seemed no one was in there.
"Alright, we're clear, now what is it?" Alyssa asked.
"Repeat after me." The Doctor said, smiling. "Element of Wisdom, lend me your powers. Give me the powers of my partner, and the strength to wield it." The Doctor recited, and Alyssa repeated.
"Come Forth!" Alyssa said, as she said that, her pendant glowed a light, warm chestnut color, there appeared an hourglass above her. Suddenly, the hourglass broke, releasing sand that swirled around her wrists, her skirt, and her neck. The sand around her wrists became bracers, the sand around her skirt became an hourglass cutie mark-like design on her skirt, and on the back of her skirt hanged a brown cloth belt end, that functioned like a tail. On her neck, there formed a pair of goggles. On the left of her, the hourglass came back together, and formed a huge hammer. She took hold of the hammer, swung it 360, and then stopped and put the hammer over her shoulder with a thumbs up pose.
"Whoa… What was that all about?" Alyssa asked.
"I'm actually glad I caught you before it happened." The Doctor said.
"Before what happened?" Alyssa asked, then came the roar. "What the heck was that?!"
"This is bad… you know that boy you had to check on? Find him, and go to the escalator near the hall of the moon." The Doctor said.
"Umm… Okay…" Alyssa said, as she went outside the bathroom, which was the same time that Alex went outside the other bathroom.
"Oh, Alex!" Alyssa said.
"Alyssa, you needed to go to the bathr- why are you holding a hammer?" Alex started.
"I could ask you the same thing with your staff." Alyssa retorted.
"…Touché." Alex said. The roar sounded again, but this was followed by a scream. Those two sounds made the two teens jump and look at the escalator. Two women came up the escalator screaming and running. Then, up came up a lion's paw, and lion's head, followed by a lion's body, a pair of dragon wings, and a scorpion's tail. Then, he roared loudly.
"I-Is that a Manticore?!" Alyssa shouted.
"It sure looks like it!" Alex said, frightened.
"Whoa! A Manticore! This is so fantastic!" the Doctor said, laughing with delight and intrigue. "Well come on you two, fight that, we can't have it killing any civillians." The Doctor added.
"Wait, first off, you're the Doctor, I'm a huge fan…" Alex said, looking in awe at the equine doctor, "Second, we can't fight that thing!"
"Yes yes, of course you can. You're in your powered up mode, go on, and show it your power!" the Doctor said, shooing them into battle.
"What?! No!" Fluttershy said, eyes widening. "You can't!" But by that time, they were too far away to hear her soft, sweet voice.
Alyssa and Alex looked at the huge Manticore, looking down at them, growling. Then Alyssa and Alex got into battle stance.
"Alright, so since I'm the only one with the harm inducing weapon, I should do the fighting." Alyssa said.
"A-Alright, I'll support you as best as I can." Alex said, holding his staff in two hands.
"Thanks." Alyssa said.
With that, Alyssa rushed at the Manticore, swung her hammer up, and caught it in the shoulder of its left front paw. The Manticore was hit, and it roared, and swiped with its paw. Alyssa jumped away, and tried to hit it again, the Manticore dodged and hit Alyssa with its scorpion tail, knocking her into a pillar.
"No! Alyssa!" Alex shouted, then he looked up, and saw the Manticore above him, it raised its claw, ready to strike. "NO!" Alex screamed, closing his eyes, as he jumped up, away from the Manticore. But he realized he hadn't hit the ground yet, he opened his eyes to see he was flying.
"I-I'm flying!" Alex shouted, smiling. He looked down to see the Manticore going on a rampage. He couldn't help but notice that the Manticore wasn't putting as much weight on its left front paw. In fact he noticed that he only stepped up the escalators with its right paw.
"Wait a minute… It's probably as scared as we are of it… being in mysterious new world… I wonder what's wrong with its paw…" Alex said, flying toward the Manticore.
Meanwhile, Alyssa was getting up from being tossed into the pillar. She looked up, and saw Alex landing right next to the Manticore. "A-Alex! Get away from that thing!" Alyssa said.
"Do what my companion says, she knows more about that thing than you do!" the Doctor said.
"No… he's doing it." Fluttershy said, smiling.
Alex went up to the Manticore slowly.
"It's okay… what's wrong with your paw?" Alex asked, looking up at it.
The Manticore looked at Alex, sniffed him, and he recognized Fluttershy's Essence on him. He laid down, and showed him his left paw. It had big splinter in it.
"Oh my… that looks like it hurt. Now, I'm gonna just pull this out. This might hurt, so bear with me." Alex said, as he pulled the splinter out, there was some blood coming out. The Manticore winced and growled in pain.
"Alright, alright, its fine, I'm not gonna hurt you." Alex said, taking up his staff
Alyssa and the Doctor were baffled, but Fluttershy was impressed that he had figured it out so fast.
"Oh, Light of Kindness, heal us." Alex incanted, as he used a spell to mend the opening on its left paw, as well as the dislocated foreleg. The Manticore smiled, purred, and rubbed its head against Alex.
"Hehe! Aww, you're a good Manticore." Alex giggled, petting it. With that, Fluttershy flied over to them.
"I think he wants you to take him with you." Fluttershy said.
"B-But how? I can't keep him here." Alex said.
"You are able to store him in your staff." Fluttershy said, smiling.
"Really? How?" Alex asked.
"I'll show you." Fluttershy said. "First you must repeat what I say:
"Great Element of Kindness, lend me your strength to form a bond between me and this creature I am in the presence of." Fluttershy recited, with Alex repeating, then Alex started to do the ritual by himself.
"Playful Soul of the Everfree, give me your trust, and I shall give you mine. When I call upon thee, please help this humble being with your power, and abilities. Come forth, Great Manticore!" Alex said, as he twirled the staff around, and rose it up high. The Manticore went into Alex's staff with a red glow of light. He looked on the staff and sad a tiny garnet adorning the wood.
"Success!" Fluttershy said, smiling.
"Wow… I never would have guessed that." Alyssa said.
"Sometimes you have to show a little kindness." Fluttershy said. "Now, we might have to do something about the traumatized convention goers…" Fluttershy added.
"Ah, allow my companion to deal with that." The Doctor said, smiling.
"What?" Alyssa asked.
"Because I am the Doctor, I can go through time, and with you to use my element and all, you have the ability to control Time and Space!" the Doctor said. "Well once every transformation, of course."
"Really? Wow…" Alyssa said.
"You want to reverse time before this happened? All you have to do is twirl the hammer 540o, then slam the hammer down into the ground. All with an incantation of course." The doctor explained.
"I see… well. I'm ready." Alyssa said.
"Alright, and don't worry, now that the deed is done, it won't repeat itself when you wind back time. The events still happened, but it will be like, no one knew what happened. Except the ones who were involved or protected by their magical pendant, if they so have one at the time."
"Got it."
"Now, you just say, 'Oh, Great TARDIS, rewind to a better time.' And afterward, I would say Allon-sy." The Doctor said.
"Why?" Alex asked.
"Umm, I want to know that too." Fluttershy asked as well.
"Because it sounds awesome, duh!" the Doctor said.
Alyssa smirked and shook her head and recited;
"Oh, Great TARDIS, rewind to a better time!" Alyssa said, as she twirled the hammer counter clockwise from the 12 o'clock position around, and down to the 6 o'clock position, then she slammed the hammer down with a, "Allon-sy!" The slamming hammer sent a shockwave through the Earth's crust, and all throughout the universe, rewinding time, the position of the planets, and the trajectory of the moon, and the alignment of the stars. Alyssa and Alex were suddenly sitting back at the table where they were having lunch, and they were back in their regular garb, no weapons, and no magic.
"Hey, there you guys are. When did you two get back?" Jesse asked, smiling.
"Are you two alright? You didn't try to do anything to Alyssa, did you Alex?" Mordecai asked, standing up, looking menacing.
"Hey! Alex is a good guy, he wouldn't do something like that." Jesse said. "Right, Alex?"
Alex and Alyssa looked at each other, then back at their two friends. They were just wondering what they had gotten themselves into.