Note: Here is part two! Enjoy!

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria Earth

Specific Location: Outskirts of Ponyville

Time: A couple of days after the death of Miranda

Night Shade sat on a swing set in a small park. Franklin was somewhere in the Everfree forest, and Daniel was with Celestia, trying to calm the uproars in Bray, Saddle Arabia, the Crystal Empire, Irrum, and Equus. He was alone, and, for the first time, he felt completely abandoned.

His foster father, the Paradox, had openly denounced him, and had tried to kill Sunset, and then killed Miranda. Night Shade had no parents now as far as he was concerned. For eight years he had thought himself finally detached from the little orphan boy's world that he had been born into, but now here he was, a colt in a distant dimension… and yet he was still an orphan. He didn't cry, he had run out of tears to expend, but he did feel very numb. To be so young and have your entire world demolished in a single stroke was devastating, and he had felt the full blast.

He was so lost in brooding thought that he did not notice four figures approach the playground: Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Button Mash. Apparently they, too, did not notice him at first, for they were talking amongst themselves.

"And then they told Jan, 'Mister, you have to stop making Button Mash seem so awesome on the web! Here is a cease and desist letter, have a nice day!' Can you believe it? Absolutely outrageous! I am just glad they backed off a little bit. Let's hope more comes back as time goes on…" said Button Mash vehemently as they trotted onto the grounds.

Scootaloo just chuckled. Then she noticed Night Shade. At first she was confused by the fact that a dimensional traveler, even one as young as Night Shade, was sitting on a swing all along, not out saving the world or something relatively similar. Then she remembered what had happened to him between him and the Paradox.

"Um… hey…" said Scootaloo to Night Shade. Then Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Button Mash noticed him as well.

"I really don't want to talk to you all right now. Please go away," muttered Night Shade, more to himself than anyone else.

Sweetie Bell blinked, but then motioned to the rest to follow her. She understood. However, while both Button Mash and Apple Bloom followed her Scootaloo stayed behind. She wasn't quite sure why, but she felt really sorry for Night Shade. Perhaps it was because he was a young Pegasus like her, perhaps it wasn't. She was unsure. However, she had felt drawn to admire and like the black Pegasus the moment he had shown up. She had always felt an interest in the dimensional travelers, and even play-acted as one sometimes when no pony was watching, but Night Shade was truly even more interesting. And right now she didn't want anything else but to see him happy. She had always admired him because of the control he showed. He had been through so much, and it gave him qualities that she wish that she had. Of course, she admired her adopted big sister, Rainbow Dash, but even she lacked the haunted wisdom that Night Shade had inherited on the terrifying battlefield. But could anything help the colt come out of the stupor he was currently in? It really didn't matter, because she trotted straight over anyway and sat down on the adjacent swing. Night Shade didn't even glance her way. He continued to stare off into the distance and brood.

"A while ago, I would have done what you are doing now if I had troubles," said Scootaloo, "I would have just sat and not said anything. But one day, Rainbow Dash said that she would be like my bigger sister, and everything changed. Now when I am sad, or worried, I can talk to her, and she can help me through things. That is what friends and family are for."

"Well, perhaps I would consider your advice if I was a family member, but I'm not. So go away," sighed Night Shade.

Scootaloo lapsed into silence for a moment, then she said, "Well… maybe… maybe you could pretend for a moment that I was part of your family... then perhaps you could tell me about it?"

Night Shade actually thought about it for a moment. Then he said, "I was an orphan for the first three years of my life. I have no idea how I managed to survive, but I did. Then the Paradox took me in. He raised me like I was his son. He taught me how to fight, and how to protect others. He gave me a mission: to spread justice throughout the multiverse. Well… then I discovered that it was all a lie. He never really cared about me, all he really cared about was his stupid master plan to destroy everything. Now I am once again without a family."

Scootaloo looked down at her hoofs. Then she said, "Are you going to leave?"

Night Shade shook his head slowly. "I don't know. I have no place to go now. I guess the only thing I have left to do is follow my teammates to wherever they go. But the truth is… I don't want to go with them anymore."

Scootaloo glanced up from her hoofs and looked at Night Shade. Night Shade sighed deeply and then started talking.

"You see, Scootaloo, I am only eleven. I suppose you could tell that by my physical attributes. Anyway, I've been fighting to survive for my entire life, but now… I'm sick of it. I want it to stop. I want a home. But… I guess I'm never really destined to have one."

Scootaloo thought about what Night Shade had said. Then she looked at Night Shade again and said, "You have no family and you have no place to go?"

Night Shade nodded and buried his face in his hooves. Then Scootaloo said, "You could come live with my family and me!"

Night Shade looked up and blinked. Then he shook his head. "I couldn't. I am sure your family wouldn't want a liability… especially one who has become an enemy of the greatest power ever."

Scootaloo got up and took Night Shade by the hoof. "Nonsense! I am an only child! That is… if you don't count Rainbow Dash. I am sure my parents would love to have one more family member. Another pony who could love them, and watch over me."

Scootaloo blushed a little as she said the last part, but she meant every word of it. She wanted a big brother, she always had. Night Shade did not know what to think. Could he really bring himself to allow people, or ponies, back into his heart? He struggled with himself, but after a single glance at Scootaloo's innocent and hopeful, he knew that he could.

"I don't know. I really don't know…" was all he said, however. Nevertheless, he knew that he really meant yes.

"Come on! If I know my parents, they will accept you quicker than you could possibly imagine. I look forward to calling you brother!" Scotaloo said cheerfully, hoping with all her heart that this Pegasus, this dimensional traveler, could be someone that she could feel close to and look up to, just like Rainbow Dash.

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria Earth

Specific Location: Ponyville Hospital

Time: A couple of days after the death of Miranda

Flaming Star sighed deeply as he approached the door to Twilight's hospital room. He reached up and knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Flaming Star pushed the door open a crack and peeked through. Twilight was lying in her bed, with Spike beside her. Spike was drawing something on a pad of paper while Twilight was reading a large book. The moment Twilight caught sight of Flaming Star, her eyes light up and she gave him a bright smile.

Spike looked up as well and chortled. He jogged Twilight lightly with an elbow and said, "Hey Twi! It looks like your coltfriend is here."

Twilight smiled. "Spike, he's not my coltfriend anymore."

Spike blinked. He looked at Twilight, and then at Flaming Star, and then back at Twilight.

"I… What? Who?"

Twilight patted the baby dragon on the head as she said, "I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you this earlier… but we're getting married!"

Spike blinked again. Then he fainted.

"That baby dragon has really got to work on controlling himself," chuckled Flaming Star as he conjured up a glass of water from thin air. He quickly doused the unconscious Spike into wakefulness. Spike shot up and said, as if he had never passed out in the first place, "You're getting MARRIED? Why didn't you tell me? Am I always the last one to know?"

Twilight sighed and said, "I'm really sorry Spike, but it was sort of last minute. I thought you would understand. We've been dating for a year now, and we were waiting for the perfect time!"

"Yes," said Flaming Star, "And it turned out that the perfect time was when I realized how much I cared for Twilight: when she was hovering just above death and I was pouring my soul into my healing powers."

Spike looked like he was going to cry for a moment, but then smiled a little. "I couldn't think of anyone better for you, Twilight."

Twilight gave a little exclamation of joy and seized Spike in a tight hug. As she continued to hug him, she said, "You accepting him means the world to me, Spike."

Spike smiled, a little roguishly. "Yeah, I know. I'll leave you two lovebirds now. I'm going to find Rarity."

As Spike left, Flaming Star jumped up onto Twilight's bed and sat next to where she lay.

"I cannot believe that everything turned out so well," said Flaming Star, almost dreamily, "Our friends don't seem to have a problem with anything! Even at such short notice."

Twilight chuckled and rolled her eyes good-humoredly. "I don't think it was really short notice, Flaming Star. We were dating for about an eternity and a half as you got your nerve up."

Flaming Star's face turned pale for a moment as he said, "Wait… you KNEW I was too scared to ask you?"

Twilight giggled a little. "Of course I did, silly. I could see it in your eyes."

Flaming Star looked down at his hoofs. "Then… then you know why I was so scared then," he mumbled.

Twilight kissed him on the cheek as she said, gently, "I knew that too, but I also knew that you would overcome your doubts one day. And you did."

Flaming Star sighed as he flopped down, his head next to hers. "What are we going to do now, Twily?"

"I suppose wait until I get better," chuckled Twilight with a rueful wince, "I still feel sore. My stomach feels like it has been stabbed."

Flaming Star grimaced. "It's because it WAS stabbed. Here: let me see what I can do."

Twilight pushed back the covers, and Flaming Star inspected the thin white scar that ran from her collarbone to her pelvis. The place where Pictor had slid his blade along until he had been blasted into unconsciousness by Twilight's mysterious rescuer. Flaming Star placed a hoof over her belly and released a healing aura. Twilight sighed as it dulled the pain.

"I used this same technique when I comforted you when you broke your leg during that one demon attack at Canterlot," explained Flaming Star as he continued to willingly expend energy to make sure that Twilight was in every way comfortable.

Twilight nodded her head. "What happened to all the demons? I mean… it seems like they all have disappeared."

Flaming Star sighed. "It's because when Legion died, the Paradox forced him to tell the Infernal Hive Mind that the My Little Pony dimension had been crushed, and that the Grand Devil's plan was running smoothly. This way the Tree of Harmony would be free from danger so that the master plan could go unopposed."

Twilight frowned. "From what I understood… the Paradox might have had a reason for all of this."

Flaming Star looked at Twilight in confusion. "What… what do you mean?"

Twilight looked up into Flaming Star's eyes. Her own eyes began to water slightly as she recalled when the Paradox had visited her. "Do you know of Reavers? They are monsters from the Firefly/Serenity dimension."

Flaming Star's face darkened. "I know of them. I have even fought them. They are monstrosities that are unquenchable… a cancer dug so deep into the dimension that it is incurable. But it doesn't matter, as long as they are contained, most innocent people can live their lives in peace."

"That's what the Paradox said: that it was a caner dug so deep that it is incurable. He seemed distraught, ever terrified, over the situation. He's desperate for a lasting peace, but it seems that that desperation has grown too great inside of him."

Flaming Star cocked his head on one side as he listened to Twilight speak. When she finished speaking, he said, "Does this warrant him any form of mercy? He tried to kill you, he tried to kill me, he tried to kill everyone who ever existed, and he successfully killed Miranda."

Twilight shook her head, looked down at her hoofs, and said, "It doesn't, but I understand what's driving him. If we understand him, than perhaps there is a chance that we can change him. I am sure he doesn't want this to be how things turn out any more than we do!"

Flaming Star looked at Twilight's now distraught face and said, "Perhaps. But then again… perhaps not. Only time will tell. And you know what I intend to do with that time while we wait? I intend to spend every microsecond with you."

Twilight looked up again into Flaming Star's face lovingly and smiled her bright smile.

Dimension: The Last of Us

Planet: Earth

Specific Location: Salem, Oregon, United States of America

Time: Thirteen years after the outbreak of the human-targeting strain of Cordyceps fungus, seven years before the arrival of Sunset Shadow in the My Little Pony dimension

Evan Funsch stood at the edge of an abandoned parking lot, staring out at the vast, forest-consumed city. The landscape before him was abandoned, void of human life, with decimated buildings, crumbling sidewalks, and rusting cars. The land was deathly quiet save for the gentle breeze wafting through the trees that were beginning to grow higher than even the cracked concrete towers that stood as a last testament to the once thriving civilization of the dimension.

Funsch shook his head. Of all the meeting places that could be possibly chosen, it had to be this god-forsaken planet.

Suddenly a faint rumbling echoed from behind him, like a roar of flames muffled behind a sound-proof wall. Funsch whipped out a Star Trek phaser with his right hand, and conjured up a fireball with his left. He then whirled to face whatever was approaching him from behind. A grounded Blackbird spy plane pulled off from the abandoned and dilapidated main road before his eyes into the dusty old parking lot. It slowly rolled up to Funsch until it was only a few meters away and then it stopped. There was a pause. Then the jet suddenly began to warp and twist, with a sound that was a cross between the screeching of rusty breaks and the metallic buzz of a hovercraft passing overhead. The jet was none other than the ridiculously famous Dimensional Traveler Transformer Jetfire.

Funsch shook his head and holstered his weapons as he waited for Jetfire to complete his transformation from jet to Jetfire.

"You picked a hell of a meeting spot, old geezer," snorted Funsch as Jetfire stood before him, leaning on his walking stick.

"Look at this place, Funsch, there is not a human soul in sight. There are very few sentient things even moving within a ten kilometer radius! There is not a chance that our conversation will be heard! But it does not matter! And it doesn't matter that I'm old! I have experience! Now tell me… what planet are we on?" snapped Jetfire as he slowly sat down, causing the already decimated parking lot to crack and crumble further.

Funsch facepalmed. "We are on the planet that you chose. You called me here for a meeting."

"That's right! The meeting! Funsch, listen: The Paradox has been lying to us. I've been lied to before in such ways, but not so well disguised before. Our leader knows what he is doing, and I do not think we can stop it easily. In fact… we probably cannot stop it at all! I know, I've tried. I killed Matthew Tricost's sister, Caroline. She was always working closest to the Paradox since Night Shade joined Joseph Torrus. After I killed her, I hacked into her traveler database and withdrew some choice information. However, I only saw a little before someone, probably the Paradox, closed the database and locked me out!"

As Jetfire spoke, Funsch's eyebrows began to rise. After the transformer finished talking, Funsch nodded and said, "Jared DeWhite and I suspected that the Paradox might have been a liar. Tell me, what is this choice information?"

Jetfire shrugged. "I don't know! It was all retracted the second I uncovered it. All I know is that it involves the Tree of Harmony in that stupid pink-filled world of My Little Pony. I can tell you that I wouldn't be caught dead in that place. All sparkles, butterflies, rainbows, pies, crystals, and apples! I hate apples. And it's pink! My God, I would blow a gasket if my visual receptors were hit with that many colors!"

"Stop it Jetfire!" snapped Funsch, "What about the Tree of Harmony?"

"Stop interrupting me, you little whippersnapper! I am older than you by many years. My father, why, he was a wheel! The FIRST wheel! Do you know what he transformed into? NOTHING! But he did so with honor! DIGNITY, damn it!"

Funsch facepalmed again. "Jetfire, do you realize you have probably said that a hundred times to a hundred different people? That's the first sign of aging, I might add."

"It's been one hundred and twenty-three! And it's the SECOND sign of aging! Stop interrupting! So… where was I… Um… er… Oh dear…"

"You were telling me about the Tree of Harmony."

"Ah… that thing. Hidden in a land so pink and colorful that it could give a Decepticon a stroke… if they could get a stroke. Ah yes! So, all the information mentioned before it was pulled away was that it was involved in some sort of scheme to cleanse the multiverse, those exact words. It also mentioned something about some creature named Vaporis. I don't know. It doesn't matter. What matters now is that I need to leave."

Funsch massaged his temples with both of his index fingers as he said, "What? You need to leave?"

Jetfire slammed his walking stick on the ground, adding another crack in the pavement to the multitudes already existing. "That's what I said, damn it! Keep up! When I pulled the information in the first place, I was identified by the server thanks to my unique power system. Thus, when the information was pulled from me and locked away, I know for a fact that I was identified! I'm a wanted being now, Funsch. I need to… disappear!"

Funsch bit his lip as he realized what was going on: his only truly active ally was leaving him. "What? What am I supposed to do?"

Jetfire slammed his walking stick to the ground again and snapped, "Stop interrupting young man! No respect these days. Where was I…? Oh yes! I need to leave. My mortal enemy from the transformer dimension: The Fallen, is going to return. What I am going to do is go to my homeplanet to battle him and fake my death. This way I will be out of the big picture. If you need me… I will be there."

Funsch sighed heavily, but nodded. "Very well. If I need you, you will be in the transformer dimension. What should I do then? You and DeWhite are my only allies in this little rebellion against the Paradox!"

Jetfire waved his walking stick in the air as he shouted, "It doesn't matter, by God! You are clean! No one suspects you! Act normal… but why you are at it, I do have a mission for you. Before I killed Caroline Tricost and turned 'rogue,' my last mission was to kill a group of specially trained demons. I did so, but in the process found that a traveler had been falsifying information in the traveler database for the Paradox. The Dimensional Traveler is Dennis Creevey. He is a traitor, and he needs to be stopped. I believe he is right now taking refuge in his penthouse in the Star Wars dimension. A penthouse in the southern sector in Coruscant. Go there and take him out… finish the job."

Funsch nodded wordlessly.

Jetfire nodded back and then stretched. The noise of him moving his joints sounded like fingers on a chalkboard, and several rusty screws and old springs leapt from his metal plating. Jetfire then got up and opened a portal. As he prepared to exit, he said, "Good luck, Evan Funsch. You know where I am. Look out for this scheme surrounding the Tree of Harmony… and look out for this Vaporis thing. Good luck in your future endeavors! I am old and I am out!"

With that, Jetfire stepped through the portal and closed it behind him, leaving Funsch all alone. Funsch sighed and glanced around at the planet one more time before he too, opened a portal and left. Now the parking lot was empty… alone to crumble and degenerate at the hands of Mother Nature. Undisturbed as plants and trees claimed a hold over the abandoned technological discoveries of the human mind. All alone…

Note: Okay! We're done with the "Past Days" chapters! Time to move on! Oh, and I am sure more than a few of you are quite happy to have seen Jetfire make an appearance! I can tell you guys that I really enjoyed writing that part! Anyway... Don't forget the R&R stuff!