Note: Here we go! Sorry for not being able to post this yesterday, but I had a lot of stuff that needed doing. Anyway... Enjoy!

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria Earth

Specific Location: The frozen foothills preceding the Crystal Mountains

Time: Three days after the arrival of Doxia

Daniel glanced at Doxia as they strolled nonchalantly up a snow-covered hill to a small grove of white pine trees in the distance, "Why are we walking?"

Doxia looked at Sapphire Anemone, who was trotting alongside Franklin up the hill. "Because Sapphire Anemone wants it this way. I don't think she liked Ruby Blossom's heart-felt description of riding the back of a dragon."

Daniel snorted, "I don't fly scary! At least… I don't think I do. It's not relevant. Why don't you just glean the exact location using telepathy, then, and teleport there?"

Shaking his head, Doxia chuckled, "Because it is ridiculously rude to read someone's mind to understand the true location of the vials, even with their position. Reading the mind is not clean, because a sentient being's brain is never perfectly organized. You have to shift through lots of stuff to reach your wanted information, and you see a lot of… private stuff. It's not really worth it, and I respect Sapphire too much to even think about it."

Daniel nodded and lapsed into silence. The group continued to trudge up the hill. The only sound was the crunching of snow, the wind whistling through dead and snow-covered branches of trees, and Pinkie Pie talking incessantly to a livid Wild and an annoyed Rarity.

After a bit, Doxia said, "I suggest you take your team and prepare to find Jetfire. I can sense that Wild is moments away from killing Pinkie Pie, and that would be bad… I think."

Daniel glanced at the face of Wild, who looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel, and nodded, "We will leave now."

Daniel then stopped thundering up the hill and called out, "Franklin! Funsch! Wild! To me!"

Franklin stopped. He then turned to Sapphire Anemone, who was looking at him in bemusement.

"Are you… are you leaving?" said Sapphire.

Franklin bit his lip. He had to admit that he most certainly had developed feelings for this being, but as always, duty came first. That was how his life had gone in the past, and that was how his life had to continue in the future. He nodded his head slowly, "I have to go."

Tears welled up in Sapphire's eyes. A couple spilled over and fell to the snowy earth. The droplets froze into crystals shards that spiraled through the air, refracting beams of colorful light as they tumbled to the ground. Franklin sighed and got down on one knee. "It's my duty. I need to go. I understand that I helped you through one hard time, but that doesn't mean you need me every second… God… I am terrible at this."

Franklin faceplamed for a moment. He then looked up and scratched the back of his head as he sighed. "I… I have to go. I'm sorry." He the stood up and turned to leave.

Sapphire looked at him straight in the eyes and said, "I love you."

Franklin stopped and stared at her. He smiled a little, absolutely unsure of what else to do. He then nodded his head slightly and whispered the first thing that came to his mind, "I love you too."

He then turned around, his hardened eyes softening a little. Doxia took Franklin's place beside the now distraught Sapphire Anemone and whispered something in her ear, trying to convince her to move on and comfort her. After a bit, Doxia and his group continued to move up in the snow as Daniel and his team stood in a circle.

"This is probably going to be very dangerous," explained Funsch as he pulled out a little device. When Daniel gave the object a curious glance, Funsch said, "This is a holographic micro-projector from the Star Trek dimension. This is what we're going to be using from now on, since our traveler databases are rigged. This thing has the Federation database, which is fairly extensive, though nowhere near what we usually have at our fingertips; nevertheless, it will have to do."

"Understood," said Wild calmly, "What is going to happen?"

Funsch nodded decisively and said, "The moment we enter the Transformers Dimension, we are going to be attacked. I am assuming it is either going to be Arthur Health's old gang, or, if we are really unlucky, Alyss Heart."

Daniel nodded his head sagely, "Alyss is someone we do not want to cross swords with… but we have nothing to lose now, no one waiting with baited breath for news of our survival, and that makes us doubly dangerous."

"Someone is waiting for me," muttered Franklin to himself, "I have something to live for now."

The only one to hear the whispered words was Wild, but if he even comprehended what was said, he did not acknowledge it. He simply flicked an ear in Franklin's direction before saying, to Daniel, "I agree. However, we will need to be very covert, we cannot have our attackers calling for reinforcements, because that would most certainly seal our demise in the most violent way possible."

Funsch dipped his head in agreement. "I agree."

Daniel grinned suddenly, his ferocious face lighting up momentarily, "I have an idea. We need a decoy."

Wild raised a hoof. "Choose me. I'm not afraid to die. I look forward to it, really."

"Enough of that talk," snapped Franklin, "No one is going to die."

Daniel nodded his head in agreement. "Franklin is right," he said, "None of us will be slain if everything goes according to my plan. Wild, you are going to enter in first. The second you do, open up your traveler database. This will draw your hunters straight to you. Engage them in the messiest way possible. Put collateral damage on the highest scale you can. While you are doing that, I will net the whole area with EMP energy rings, disabling our enemies' ability to communicate. Then we kill them."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," said Franklin, waving a hand, "We are going to break the Traveler's Code?"

Funsch shrugged, "I've done it, and it wasn't that bad."

Wild nodded bellicosely, "I've done it dozens of times."

Franklin crossed his arms wordlessly and blinked. Daniel sighed and then said, "I understand that this is not how you want things to go, Franklin, but we really have no other choice now."

"We always have a choice," snapped Franklin.

"No, not this time. It's eat or be eaten," replied Daniel evenly.

"If we kill them, then we are simply confirming the Paradox's claims about us being criminals," replied Franklin.

Daniel shook his head, "That is not why we were declared criminals. We were declared criminals because we pose a threat to his plan. A plan, might I add, that has the potential to kill every single living being, traveler or not, ever."

"And besides," added Wild, "Since we're criminals now, and there is not a single chance that we will ever be redeemed in the eyes of the Paradox, we might as well take advantage of it by declaring us exempt from the Traveler's Code now."

Franklin opened his mouth, and then closed it. Then he said, "Peer pressure… I freaking hate it. I don't care. You guys are wrong… you'll see."

Funsch, who had been standing off to one side with his arms crossed, listening to the argument, then said, "Right. Great. Whatever. Are you all ready to move?"

Franklin sighed and said, "Yes. I am. Let's do this."

Funsch blinked in acknowledgement and then nodded to Wild. Wild nodded back and opened a portal to the Transformer Dimension, the hiding place of Jetfire. He then stepped through.

He was in a small forest. The grass was clean and crisp, and the air smelled like it had just been washed clean by a spring rain. The sky was blue, with only several small, immaculate clouds hovering and drifting across the trackless sky. Birds twittered in the air, bumblebees buzzed in the morning heat, and a cool breeze ruffled the branches and the grass. Wild frowned… this was probably the only time he really was going to loath creating an excess of collateral damage. However, he shook the feeling aside and opened up his traveler database. First thing he did was check his location. He was in the Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, United States of America. The time was two years after the death of Megatron. After this, Wild chuckled to himself as he opened up the database search page. He then proceeded to google "Chances of getting a date with Alyss Heart." The moment he began his search, he heard a crunch of a branch behind him. He shut off the database and whirled to see who was approaching him. Nothing was there. Suddenly, on instinct, he shattered himself into shards of shadows. It was just in the nick of time, for a couple of long, nasty looking spears tore through the air where his head had been. Now knowing where the attacks were coming from, Wild solidified into himself again and looked at his attacker. It was Alyss Heart. Wild grinned. "You caused a branch to break so I would turn my back to you… clever."

Alyss stood there, eying Wild almost truculently. "What were you looking at, Wild? No doubt trying to achieve some sinister plot of yours?"

Wild grinned. "No. Ironically enough, I was trying to figure out the chances I had of getting you to go out on a date with me. I originally thought I had a fairly good chance, but now if we factor in the fact that you threw two spears at my head, I would have to say it's really just a fifty-fifty now."

Alyss shook her head and sighed. "I'm sorry Wild. It's going to be zero soon."

She said the phrase rather mournfully, but it did not stop her from raising her hands and conjuring up a manner of different types of projectile weapons. She then took a deep breath and prepared to hurl the lot straight at Wild.

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria Earth

Specific Location: The frozen foothills preceding the Crystal Mountains

Time: Three days after the arrival of Doxia

"Are we almost there?" gasped Rarity as she trudged up the snowy hill, trying to simultaneously ignore Pinkie Pie and not fall over at the same time.

Sapphire shook her head wordlessly. She was still troubled by Franklin having to leave her, though she was set in her belief that he would return to her alive.

Doxia had not said anything to her after convincing her to move on, deciding that it would be best to let her think over her feelings for Franklin herself. However, her attitude did worry him. She no doubt was struck by the wisdom and kindness of Franklin, but did Franklin love her in return? Despite the vast ages Doxia had lived, and the myriad of things he had seen… he was unsure of the answer.

Rarity stopped and then threw a hoof across her brow in despair. "Oh, the tragedy! I do not think I can take this any longer! Someone be a dear and get me a fainting couch… pretty please?"

Doxia chuckled and strolled back to where Rarity had stopped, refusing to take another step forward. He then picked up Rarity and continued to move forward with her in his arms.

"Oh my… Doxia, you're so strong," breathed Rarity.

Doxia shook his head and chuckled, "Nice try, charmer, but a trillion years has given me a long time to overcome such weaknesses as susceptibility to flattery."

Rarity blushed in embarrassment and mumbled an apology.

Doxia just laughed a little more and set her down after a minute. "I think with the amount of blood pumping through your cheeks right now," chortled Doxia, "you will be warm enough to continue without my help."

Rarity, still blushing, mumbled something unintelligible, and continued to trot on. Pinkie, however, leapt upon Doxia's back and yelled, "Piggy back ride!"

Doxia threw up a hand dramatically and yelled, "FOR NARNIA!"

With that, he blasted into the air and disappeared over the horizon, leaving an amused Discord, a surprised Ruby, a confused Sapphire, and an exasperated Rarity behind.

"What happened?" asked Sapphire, truly unsure of what had just happened.

"Oh, they went for a little trip around the bay," snorted Discord good-humoredly, "They will be back, never you fear."

Sapphire nodded and continued to lead them upwards. After several more minutes, they arrived at the top, where the grove of trees filled the area. Sapphire and the group pushed forward through the frozen, white pines until they hit a clearing. In the center of the clearing was a little log cabin. It was obviously abandoned, but was still in perfect shape. Leaning against the door frame was Doxia with Pinkie Pie perched upon his shoulder like a parrot. Sapphire smiled and said, "This is the place!"

"There you guys are!" laughed Doxia, "I noticed this as we were flying over, though I would have never guessed this was actually the place we were looking for in any event. Nevertheless, we are all here, so we might as well get moving!"

With that, the group entered the building. The cabin had only one single room, and every single side of said room had massive bookshelves filled with books packing the walls. The only real comforts the place had to offer was a small table, a small couch, a candlestick holder with a used-up candlestick, and a fireplace. Doxia immediately threw himself upon the couch. Due to his size, he came nowhere near to actually fitting in it, but he seemed quite content.

"Right, Sapphire! Where would those vials be hidden?" exclaimed Doxia as scratched the back of his helmet. He gave a slight nod to the fireplace, and a set of logs materialized within it. The second they finished molecularly constituting, they burst into flames, filling the room with heat and light.

Sapphire trotted around the room, scanning the bookshelves. After a moment, she turned around, looking rather distressed. "There is a book I need to find… Where is it?"

Doxia straightened up slightly and glanced around. Then he pointed to a small green book named "A short history of Paleo-Pony era crystal magic."

"That should be it. I should have known that there was a trap door. I really need to work on my observation skills," commented Doxia airily.

Rarity, who was the closest to the book, pulled it out. It was attached to a thin string. Rarity gave the book a sharp tug, and click resounded through the air. Suddenly a trapdoor swung open just next to Doxia. He glanced down it and began to laugh.

"My Lord! Guess what? There is a STAIRCASE leading down! I should have known! I bet ten vials of Revetahw that little Sombraro's cutie mark was a staircase or stairwell!"

Sapphire smiled quietly as she said, meekly, "Actually, it was a single black crystal."

Doxia stopped laughing abruptly. He stared at Sapphire for a moment, and then shrugged. He extended a hand and snapped a finger. Ten vials of Revetahw came into being. He then conjured up a gold-embossed case and placed the vials in it. After that, he tossed it to Sapphire.

Discord's jaw literally hit the floor the moment he saw Doxia conjure up the Revetahw. He swiftly picked up his jaw and reattached it and said, "You… you can conjure up Revetahw?"

Doxia nodded. "Yeppers!"

Discord crossed his arms and grumbled, "One of the only things we cannot conjure up, and it has to be the second most valuable material in all of the Earth Multiverse… figures."

He then floated over Sapphire, who was eyeing the vials with interest and said, in a pleading voice, "Sapphire, m'dear… would you be so kind as to give me a vial of that precious… stuff?"

Sapphire gave him a sweet smile and handed him one. Discord kissed the vial and then gave Sapphire the "Bambi eyes."

"Could I, perchance, have two?" pleaded Discord once more.

Sapphire nodded and handed him three, for good measure. Discord then conjured up a large black suitcase that said, on a sticker on the side, "I love Mission Impossible." He opened up the suitcase and dropped the vials inside, he then teleported the thing away.

"I'm rich…" sighed Discord dreamily.

Doxia gave him a side-long glance and said, "I should have mentioned that the value of Revetahw dropped 32.7 points recently."

Discord just rolled his eyes and turned his back indignantly on the Dimensional Lord. Doxia, however, just chuckled a little to himself and motioned for Rarity, Sapphire, Ruby, and Pinkie Pie to draw near. They did so, and Doixa said, "Hold on."

He snapped a finger and the group teleported to the bottom of the stairs within the trapdoor. Discord floated, alone, at the top for a minute or two longer before teleporting himself down as well.

Doxia was standing in front of a large marble table, the only piece of furniture in the small circular chamber at the bottom of the stairs. It was empty.

"The Paradox got here before us and took the vials," said Doxia, calmly. In fact, he didn't sound that bothered at all.

Discord blanched. "Is that… is that bad?"

Doxia nodded his head. "Yes. If they took them, they know that they are important. However, they probably have no idea what it is yet, and they probably will never figure it out."

"Why is that?" asked Rarity.

Doxia shrugged, "The material technically isn't even supposed to exist. But that does not matter. They will not be able to use it against us."

"What are you going to do about them taking it?" asked Discord.

Doxia shrugged again. "I will tell you in a moment. But first…" Doxia beckoned to Ruby.

Discord slapped a palm to his head. "Of course! Ruby must be an Elite Phasetrooper! Why did I not see it before? Clap her in irons!"

Ruby's eyes widened in horror as Discord conjured up twelve different sets of handcuffs. "What? No! It's me! I don't know what you are talking about!"

Doxia waved Discord down. "I don't think she is a Phasetroopers. There is a genetic signature that generally gives them away."

He then motioned for Ruby to come closer. He got down on one knee and said, "I do beg your pardon, I hope this won't embarrass you."

He began to run his hands over the length of her body. His palms crackled with green and orange lightning as he did so. He ran his hands back and forth twice before he stopped at the nape of her neck. He reached forward and tapped a small spot hidden by her mane. A loud snapping noise resounded and Ruby leapt into the air as if she had been shocked. Doxia pulled back his hand, holding his palm face-up as if it was holding something. His palm then sent out an EMP surge and a little device, which had been originally cloaked with an invisibility shield, appeared. Doxia inspected it before crushing it to dust with no effort at all.

"Brilliant," commented Doxia, "They knew I would recognize a deception if they sent in a Phasetrooper as an imposter, so they played off the events that were already happening. They must have known that Pinkie sent for Rarity using Ruby. Knowing that I was with Rarity at the time, a Phasetrooper must have tagged Ruby with this bug. It is a very well designed device, called an Audio-Video receptor and Subconscious Director, or AVRSD. It has the ability to record video and audio as seen by the victim's point of view, and also has the ability to gently make the victim feel certain emotions. It is generally undetectable in any circumstance. What must have happened was that, after they tagged Ruby, she went and found us, and then Franklin proceeded to help Sapphire recall her memories. After she did that, the bug concinved Ruby that she was suspicious of Franklin so that she would call me and Daniel away to ask us about him. With us momentarily gone, another pony, obviously the Elite Phasetrooper, passed by and gained eye contact with Sapphire. Elite Phasetroopers, with physical or visual contact, can read a being's mind to a certain extent. Anyway, the eye contact allowed the Phasetrooper to gain access to the location of this place far before we did. Daniel and I returned to the scene and the Phasetrooper got away… case closed for them. If I am right, which I probably am, I must say I rather like how they performed this operation… not bad."

Ruby burst out crying. "I didn't know! I'm so sorry! Don't kill me…"

Doxia chuckled and threw and arm around her as he sat down. "Not to worry! It wasn't your fault. However, now that I know that my assumptions were correct and the AVRSD bug is gone… I can tell you all my plan: I need those vials with the beacon crystals. I know for a fact that my secret message to my allies was sent out thanks to Pictor foolishly broadcasting it out all across the multiverse, so when they arrive here, I am going to raid the Amethyst dimension. I will raid it and take the crystals back."

"A daring plan, senior commodore," said Discord, rather dramatically, "But how do you intend to preform this operation if you do not even know where the vials are going to be kept?"

"That is a good question to which I have a good answer to, young padawan… or ensign… or whatever," replied Doxia. He then turned his head to look at Sapphire, "Can you describe to me what the pony you talked to looked like?"

Sapphire nodded. "She was tall, with a green coat and blue eyes. Her mane, which was curly like Rarity's, was also blue. She had a cutie mark of a blue crystal vial."

Doxia closed his eyes as he thought over what Sapphire had said. Then he said, after a pause, "Got it. Her name is supposedly Diamond Lake. If I am not mistaken, she is Elite Phasetrooper number four hundred… I believe that that color scheme is her signature design. I know where she is, and I can get the information I need in seconds without any trouble. However…"

Doxia then turned to Discord. "Discord, I need you to conjure up a Dimensional Traveler-grade scrambler interface net. That will make it impossible for her to hail the Paradox. I know where she is, so I am going to jump on her in thirty seconds. The second I do that, conjure up the needed device and follow me. Set it and activate it before I hit the ground."

Discord nodded, his eyes filled with determination.

"Three Mississippi… Two Mississippi… One Mississippi," said Doxia slowly, "NOW!"

He opened a portal. Just through it, everyone could see a pony sneaking along a passageway.

"That's not her!" whispered Sapphire frantically.

Doxia shook his head. "That's her. She shapeshifted again in hopes that we would not be able to trace her… but the description gave me the idea that she was Elite Phasetrooper four hundred, and I was able to trace her using her genetic signature. I don't need a physical description to track her down now."

With that, Doxia and Discord leapt through the portal and it shut tight.

Discord pulled out the device that Doxia needed from thin air and activated it. Bright bands of energy blasted form it and netted the area in beams of light. The Phasetrooper looked up to see what was happening… but it was too late. Doxia grabbed her roughly, gazed into her eyes for a second, and then ran her through with a blast of power from point blank range. She crumbled to nothing in less than a nanosecond as the molecules that made up her body simply ceased to exist.

Discord shut down the scrambler device and gazed, a little saddened, at the spot that once held the Phasetrooper. "You… you killed her."

Doxia shook his head. "She was never truly alive."

Discord gave Doxia a side-long glance. "What did you glean from her?"

"I found that the team that extracted the vials sent it directly to Amethyst Labs, a secure sub-basement facility on Capitol Prime in the Amethyst dimension. I know exactly where it is."

"Well? What do we do now?"

Doxia shrugged as he opened a portal and helped Ruby, Sapphire, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie through. "We wait. There is no point in doing anything else. If I'm right, we should soon be visited by my allies: Dimensional Lord Mattimeo, Dimensional Lord Meadolax, Dimensional Lord Atraka and Dimensional Lord Vaporis."

Note: Huh... Didn't Jetfire say something about a Vaporis dude? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Now give me some feedback! If you do, I think I have some cookies or some form of a delicious pastry lying about here for you...