Note: It appears that Doxia has a place amongst the "favorite characters" category! Awesome! Anyways... Who is ready for some storytelling time?

Dimension: Amethyst

Planet: Capitol Prime

Specific Location: Summit Meeting room 8, floor 9853171

Time: Unknown

"Are we going to proceed now?" asked Pictor as he looked expectantly at the Paradox.

The Paradox just shook his head nonchalantly. "We just need to wait a little longer. Another complication has revealed itself."

"Complications? I hate complications. What is it?" snapped Pictor.

"Ever since we discovered that Doxia was only pretending to be hiding in the Star Trek dimension, I've been doing some research into the history between him and the My Little Pony dimension. It appears that that little traitor had something hidden there previously," explained the Paradox calmly.

"That son of a… What is it?" asked Pictor.

Paradox pulled up a holographic projection at his telepathic command and opened up a file. It was a picture of a set of vials with a mysterious crystal contents within them.

"What material is that?" asked Pictor. Commanding the computer system telepathically, Pictor began to run visual diagnostics on the image.

"It appears to be some form of Imagination Energy," said the Paradox, "I am rather unsure, but it seems to be of some importance for him to have hidden it so well."

"Could it possibly be to disable to Dimensional Energy blast that the Great Plan will use to end all of the multiverse? Dimensional Energy and Imagination Energy are like antimatter and matter, they could cancel each other out."

"Perhaps."

"However… there is only a single set of vials with the material within them. That is not nearly enough to disable the blast."

"Perhaps. Look at the edges; see the light energy spectrum distortions? That could imply that the vials are under the influence of one of those spatial-planar expansion phenomena. If that is the case, he could hide a whole planet's worth of Imagination Energy in those vials and only take up that space."

"Or the vials could just be normal vials that are made of transparent, crystalline Kunda stones from the Star Wars dimension. Both have the same distortion effect."

"I suppose there are two possibilities then: either they are vials actually holding vast amount of Imagination Energy crystals to be used to contain the blast that will destroy the multiverse, or they are ordinary containers holding a mysterious substance that I, the Paradox, have failed to recognize after hours of diagnostics."

Pictor just continued to look warily the image. "You've been wrong before, Paradox," he said slowly.

The Paradox just stared blankly at Pictor for a full minute. Then he said, "Very well. We will approach this new situation with extreme prejudice. Doxia is in the My Little Pony dimension as we speak, looking for these vials. As of yet, he thinks we still are searching for him in the Star Trek dimension, and we will keep letting him think that. Archangel Michael, too, is in the My Little Pony dimension. If I know Doxia at all, I think it is safe to assume that both of them are working together to find those vials. What we need to do now help them find it, discover the true nature of what those containers hold, and then, based off that information, plot out the proper way to dispose of the threat. We need to avoid crossing swords with Doxia and Michael at all costs. You, me, and the Phasetroopers most certainly could take on one… but together… that would be far too much."

Pictor nodded his head. "I like this idea. However, we have very few active Elite Phasetroopers occupying the My Little Pony dimension right now, and both Doxia and Michael will be able to spot the deception immediately. We will have to micromanage every little detail of this deception down to a fraction of a millisecond."

"Literally," said the Paradox promptly, "Let us begin the process."

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria Earth

Specific Location: The Crystal Empire

Time: A day after the arrival of Doxia

Rarity sighed dreamily as she looked over her roof carefully. She ran a hoof across the crystalline windowsill, and then she tapped the quartz and ruby bedpost of her classy bed.

Then she gasped in appreciating as she opened a side closet to discover a beautiful set of hangers, all made of solid diamonds. She was about to swoon as she discovered a jewel-encrusted crystal mirror on the back of the closet door when Pinkie Pie burst into her room unannounced.

"It is time to go and cheer a pony up!" yelled Pinkie enthusiastically with a huge bounce.

"Why do you need me to go?" said Rarity indignantly, quite reluctant to have to leave her awe-inspiring quarters, "You are the element of laughter! It is your job to… er… cheer ponies up."

"A team is a team is a team," said Pinkie stoutly, "There is no I in 'teim,' I think... or maybe it IS teim? Team… teim… I gotta think about that one. Never mind! Come on! Maybe you could bring along some of your pretty dresses to 'wow' her! That might cheer her up if my party cannon doesn't!"

Discord, at that moment, drifted in and said, "Oh, do let's go Rarity! I have some particular pranks that Sapphire Anemone might find enjoyably… shocking."

Rarity eyed Discord with an air of suspicion for a moment before saying dramatically, "Oh, very well. Let us go!"

Rarity, Discord, and Pinkie pie then trotted into the throne room of the Crystal Empire to find Cadence, but they found the hall empty. After a moment of looking around, Discord said, "Well… it looks like no pony is home. How rude."

Rarity was about to comment as well when the door opened and Cadence, Shining Armor, and Doxia strolled in. Shining was grinning, and Cadence was still chuckling breathlessly. Both ponies' manes were mussed up badly, as if they had been standing in front of a high-powered fan all day.

Discord noticed them and immediately teleported over to where they were. "Well, well, well… what have you three been doing all day?" he drawled, casting an interested eye over the group.

"We were skydiving," said Shining Armor, "I haven't had so much fun for a while."

"And I haven't had that much fun since my visit with Twilight!" said Cadence, grinning in a rather un-royal fashion, "You remember Discord? The time when you got sick?"

Discord crossed his arms belligerently and gave a "humph" indignantly. Then he floated away to the opposite side of the hall.

"I must say, you two do look a sight," commented Rarity in surprise, "Why were you three… er… skydiving in the first place, may I ask?"

"Doxia invited us," explained Shining Armor.

"WOW! You do know how to have a fun time!" said Pinkie to Doxia as she bounced up to him.

Doxia struck a pose, "I do. It's a gift. So, are you three ready to cheer up Sapphire Anemone?"

"We most certainly are," replied Rarity, "We were actually just looking for Cadence so that we could ask for direction to this pony's house."

"I'll take you there myself," said Cadence.

Doxia shook his head. "I'll do it. You and Shining should spend some quality time together now."

Shining Armor gave Doxia a grateful glance and nodded.

Doxia then ushered Pinkie, Rarity, and a slightly disgruntled Discord out of the throne room.

"Follow me! Let's go!" exclaimed Doxia.

The group followed the Dimensional Lord out of the castle of crystal and through the sparkling streets of the Crystal Empire. It was most certainly an odd sight, and everypony moved out of the way to let the formidable form of Doxia pass without any obstructions.

"These ponies seem quite frightened of you, Doxia," commented Rarity as they walked.

Doxia chuckled and nodded. "That's a problem, but they will get used to me after a while if I choose to stay. You three have certainly warmed up to me."

"I suppose so," mused Discord dryly as they continued moving through the streets.

After a little longer, they group arrived at a small crystal house on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire. It certainly stood out because of its absolute lack of luster. The crystal walls were rather tarnished and dull, and several hairline cracks lined the roof.

"Well… whoever lives here could really use some livening up!" said Pinkie happily, not at all fazed by the house's appearance.

Doxia nodded. "You guys do what you have to do. As for me, I need to go; I have some important things I need to do."

Pinkie waved a hoof. "Okie Dokie Lokie!"

Doxia shimmered, and then teleported away, leaving Pinkie with Discord and Rarity.

Rarity glanced at Discord, who rolled his eyes. "Pinkie, I think you should knock, since you are the pony who is going to be working the hardest."

Pinkie bounced up to door and knocked on it.

"Go away," said a voice from inside the house.

Discord threw an arm across his forehead in mock horror. "How did I NOT see that response coming?" he drawled, "The tragedy!"

Rarity shot Discord a look and then said to Pinkie, "Go, knock again."

Pinkie rapped on the door again and said cheerfully, "We're here to cheer you up Sapphire Anemone! Let's hear a cheer!"

There was a pause, then a clicking noise that denoted that the pony inside the building had locked the door. Pinkie blinked. Discord seized Pinkie and snapped a finger. Next thing they knew, he had teleported them inside the house. It was a shabby affair. Everything was dusty and in some form of disrepair. The shutters were closed, and only a couple beams of sunlight, thick with dust particles, were streaming through a crack in a window or two.

There was a pony sitting in a dark corner, disheveled and thin. She had a crystalline orange coat, with sapphire blue eyes and a sapphire blue mane. Her cutie mark was a picture of an anemone (the flower type) made completely out of crystal. Pinkie bounced over to her and exclaimed, "We're here to cheer you up!"

As Discord went to unlock the door, Sapphire glared at Pinkie and replied, "I don't want to be cheered up. I want to be left alone."

Pinkie laughed and threw open the windows, letting light stream into the dark building. As she did so, Rarity trotted in and said, "My, my! You could certainly use some renovations! I will start at once!"

"Why are you three doing this?" snapped Sapphire gloomily as Discord, Pinkie, and Rarity began to clean up the place.

"We were commanded to cheer you up! So we're going to… cheer… you… UP!" replied Pinkie cheerfully.

"Haven't I told you enough times already? I don't want to be cheered up! I want to be left alone," sighed Sapphire.

Discord, dressed like a hotel maid from the 1960's, floated over and said, "You've had enough time to be left alone, my dear. It's been, what, 6 years now? It's time for life to return to your shabby existence!"

"Why are you doing this?" asked Sapphire angrily.

"No reason!" exclaimed Pinkie, "We were asked by Princess Celestia to make you happy again! So we are going to make you happy again!"

Sapphire then just buried her head in her hooves and groaned.

Pinkie leaned close to Discord and whispered, "She's falling out! Quick! Execute code: Party Cannon!"

Discord snapped a finger and Pinkie's infamous party cannon came into being right next to Pinkie. She fired it. Bright streams and clouds of multi-colored confetti blasted to every corner of the room with a loud blast. Immediately the building looked a lot brighter… and a lot more pink.

Discord pulled a face. "Pink really isn't my color…" he muttered as he went back to cleaning the building. In no time it was back to looking like any of the other houses in the Crystal Empire. However, Sapphire Anemone hadn't moved an inch. She still lay on the ground, her face covered by her hooves, with streamers draped across her ears.

Pinkie blinked, a little confused by what was happening. Had she lost her touch? Not only had she failed to cheer up that one green pony the day before, but also she had seemingly failed to cheer up this pony! Rarity chuckled a little, nervously, and began to sidle out of the building. "I see that you need new drapes," she said, flustered, "I… I think I will make some. The color should be sapphire blue with a touch of light cyan, yes?"

When there was no reply, Rarity continued to sidle out of the building until she was outside. Then she disappeared. Discord rolled his eyes for a moment, muttered something about not having enough fun leading to derogative health effects, and then teleported, leaving Pinkie alone with Sapphire.

Pinkie moved up to Sapphire and sat next to her. She poked her with a hoof and said, with her tone lacking its usual happiness, "What can I do to make you happy?"

"I want my brother back," was all Sapphire said, with a sob.

Pinkie's hair flattened with the sound of a deflating balloon, and she sighed. The one thing that could make this pony happy was one of the only things she could not do: bring back loved ones.

Dimension: Star Wars

Planet: Coruscant

Specific Location: The southern district

Time: 21 years before the battle of Yavin, a day before the arrival of Doxia in the My Little Pony dimension

"Are we there yet?" grunted Wild as he inched up the ventilation pipe.

"Now I know how annoyed Daniel was when I was flying with him over the Unicorn Range," muttered Franklin to himself irately. He then called down, "No, God no! I still can't see anything, and I think we've only covered half of the building's height."

Wild sighed. There was a pause, and then he said, "Why didn't we just use our control over the air to fly up there?"

"You've already suggested that, and as I already replied: we can't. This pipe is designed to expel air, and if we start sucking it all in, people will attempt to investigate, something we do not want. We will just have to continue to work our way upwards. You're not getting tired, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Sure."

There was a lapse in the conversation as the two committed to silently inching upwards. Finally, Franklin broke the moment of silence by saying, "Wild, is there a possibility this could all be a trap? I mean, Matthew Tricost knew exactly where we were, doesn't that mean others could too?"

Wild laughed quietly and said, "Possibly. But it doesn't really matter. I, like you, do not fear death anymore, so we just need to proceed and hope for the best. When we get up there, we will most likely be there before Evan Funsch arrives. I calculated our arrival to be a couple of minutes before he breaches security himself. What we need to do is get in there and assassinate the traitor first. It will be against the code, but we have no other choice. When Funsch arrives, we can explain what is going on. If Funsch is like the Funsch of old, he will agree to help us."

"All I hear is a giant 'IF,' Wild," sighed Franklin, "But I suppose that is all we have: unknowns. Oh well, I suppose it's not relevant."

"Yes, I suppose it's not relevant," snorted Wild. There was another pause, then Wild said, "Look at us, crawling up a vent looking for someone to help us find someone to help us find someone. And guess who our adversary is? It's the freaking Paradox. We are soooooo screwed, and what I think is even worse is that I couldn't care less. I think I've gone numb to it all."

Franklin sighed and said, "Same here. I really don't like this outlook, but we live in desperate times. We need to do what we need to do, principles and morals aside."

"Not exactly the kind of heroes that we thought we would be, huh?" said Wild with a guttural chuckle.

"This isn't a freaking fairy tale, so of course not. Doing evil to do good, and doing that over and over again. We are totally going to hell for this all."

"At least we will know we died trying to do the right thing."

"If I need a therapist, I'll call, Wild. Right now we need to decide how we are going to go about the plan. You were with Funsch when he planned this little fiasco, do you know the best way to approach this situation?"

"Ironically enough, I do. When we enter the penthouse, there are four sharpshooters stationed on four balconies in the corners. They usually look outwards, but they have camera-fed live feeds in their helmets HUDs, so we can either attempt to take out the four guards and the security tower, or attempt to take out the hundreds of hidden cameras."

"I advocate for killing the sharpshooters."

"I do too. I'll take the security tower, which is in a Beskar-laced steel vault. I can use my shadow abilities to take out the guard in there while you out-snipe the four snipers. Once that is over with, we will need to work past the seven grids of motion-sensing lasers. We touch a single beam, and the alarms in the entire building will go off and hidden turret emplacements will go live. However, that's the easy part. We need to get past a hundred-meter thick vault door that is sensitive to touch. We need to find a way to break into it without actually touching it. Once we're past there, we will have to deal with the two trained bodyguards that are stationed in the bedroom. Kill them, and we're home free."

"Well… This will be fun. Why would one person need so much protection in the first place?"

"He knows that he's a traitor, so he used his connections he had made previously here so that he could be safe from people like Funsch… and us."

Franklin then noticed that the time had passed a little quicker than he had expected, and that they were only a couple of meters away from the correct ventilation grid. It was crisscrossed with red beams of motion-sensing light. Franklin crawled passed it and signaled Wild to take a look at it. He did so for a moment, then he nodded at Franklin and whispered, "I can disable it."

He then extended a hoof. Shadow energy crackled around it like black electricity. The shadow powered counteracted the light beams, and cancelled each other out. The beams of motion-sensing light simply ceased to exist, and the security machine didn't register anything. Wild eased open the metal grid as he opened a telepathic link with Franklin.

"The moment we're out in the open, go outside. You can use your sniping skills to shoot all four sharpshooters while I go to the security vault," said Wild over the link.

Franklin was about to reply when the grid slipped and clanged to the floor loudly. The noise echoed through the entire room. Wild exploded into shards of shadows and vanished into the dark corners of the room. Franklin simply dropped down until his head was about a meter below the opening. As expected, a sharpshooter from an adjacent balcony entered the room. Holding a laser pistol, he scoped out the entire room. Then he noticed the fallen grid. He reached up with an armored hand to tap the intercom connected to his ear when he gave a soft, gurgling gasp. He fell over, a chunk of flesh missing from the back of his neck. Wild was crouching behind him, shadows trailing around his hooves. Franklin pulled a face at the gruesome sight, but pulled himself into the room anyway. Nodding silently to Wild, he donned the sharpshooter's top vest and put on the helmet. He then strolled nonchalantly onto the balcony as Wild dissolved into shadows once more.

Franklin sidled into his position on the balcony, trying to look covert. As he did so, the sniper on the opposite balcony called out, "What happened in there, Atarus?"

Franklin shrugged his shoulders wordlessly. The sharpshooter nodded and then began to scan the streets below with his sniper rifle. That was the last thing he ever did. Franklin whipped out his own sniper rifle and blew the other man away with a headshot. It was silent and precise; the sharpshooter fell back wordlessly, and collapsed against the railing. The shot was so well timed and aimed that it simply looked like he was leaning against the balcony, taking a breather.

Franklin began to scope out his surroundings. He could tell by the shadows cast to his left that the third sniper was right around the corner of the penthouse, on another balcony like the one he was standing on. Looking around quickly, Franklin scanned his surroundings again for a way to get at his target. He then noticed the angle of the passing hover crafts. A plan formed in his mind: if he loaded one of his rubber encased, titanium-tipped, curare-laced bullets and fired it at a passing vehicle, it would rebound. If he did this with perfect timing and perfect aim, it would bounce off the flat surface of a passing hovercraft and go straight into the throat of his target. Giving a deep sigh, Franklin loaded one of the special bullets into his sniper rifle. He took aim, and stood there for a good five minutes, waiting for the perfect time. Suddenly a flat-sided hover bus passed at the perfect angle as it prepared to make a right at an air-intersection. Franklin seized his chance and fired the bullet, the plan worked out flawlessly, and the shadow of the target sharpshooter tumbled over, denoting the fact that the target had indeed been hit with lethal accuracy. Sighing again, Franklin glanced upward. According to Wild's description of the place, he knew that the final target lay in wait on the absolute opposite side of the building. To get at him, he would need to find a way around without entering the penthouse, this meant hijacking a vehicle quietly. He glanced below him: a trail of hover vehicles caught in traffic passed sluggishly below him. It was a perfect setup, but he needed the right vehicle and the right driver for him to hijack something without an issue. Again he sighed and took a knee, waiting for the perfect time. Once again, five minutes later, he noticed a small hover bike, with a drunk driver, skidding along below. Not thinking twice, Franklin leapt from the balcony and landed straight on the driver, knocking him off. The driver didn't even scream as he fell off and landed on top of a hover bus, a few meters below him. Franklin ran his hands over the bike as he desperately tried to make sense of the controls, but to no avail. Soon a line of other hover vehicles began to gather behind him, and he noticed a security guard eyeing him sucpiciously a distance away. Growling in frustration, Franklin opened his traveler's database and checked how to drive the specific bike. He scanned the files quickly and then typed in the acceleration code into the bike. It growled to life once more and he sped away. Grabbing the controls, he eased it upwards and he inconspicuously drifted out of the line of traffic and into the sky. He then pulled a sharp turn and headed back to the penthouse, as he passed over it and the target balcony; he flipped off and fell down. Just as he was about to land on the balcony with the sharpshooter, he fired his sniper at point-blank range, practically beheading his enemy. He caught the sniper gently and leaned him against the railing, next to his rifle.

Chuckling in relief to himself, Franklin contacted Wild telepathically and said, "I did it. How goes you?"

Suddenly the form of Wild solidified from the shadows near him, and the wolf/pony emerged.

"I was wondering if I was going to have to take him out myself, Franklin," said Wild curtly.

Franklin rolled his eyes and said, over the intercom, "Yeah, whatever. Let's move."

They strolled, almost nonchalantly, into the building once more. The second they did so, they were surrounded by hostile forces. Twelve heavily armored soldiers with power blaster guns. The two guards in front parted ranks to reveal the target traitor and Matthew Tricost.

"Well, look who's here," said Matthew with a grin, "Guess you two just couldn't resist looking for trouble. Too bad this is it."

Note: I put up my second story, "Days Gone By," just in case anyone was wondering. Now, I had a question... Would anyone object to another set of "Recollections" chapters? I decided that I should do some explaining about the events that transpired in between the death of Miranda and the arrival of Doxia. Anyone object to that? Yes? No? Cool. Now give me the reviews that I so dearly crave!