Dimension: Reset Dimension (Orbit)

Planet: Space

Specific Location: Three parsecs from Earth

Time: Twenty-two years after the death of the Paradox and the fall of the Insurrectionists

"This is the Dawnstar, we're getting ready to jump. Amethyst Defense gates open, over?"

The sub-dimension broadcast device beeped as the message was sent from the helm of the United Federation of Colonies' Presidential Transport. A second later, a voice rang back, "This is Amethyst Docking Control. You are confirmed to jump. Relocate to these coordinates, and we will open a hole in the shielding in sync with that position."

The helmsman turned back to look at the U.F.C. President. The President nodded his head. "Relocate to that position and prepare to jump."

The helmsman nodded. The president got up and strolled off to the conference room. He sat down in his chair and sighed. Typing something quickly into a keyboard on his chair. A glass and a bottle of wine rose from a compartment. The president picked up the bottle and poured himself a shot.

"I see you are not doing as we agreed," said a voice behind him. The president jumped, and poured the wine all over the council table. He turned his head quickly. Mattimeo was standing behind him.

"God! Lord Mattimeo, you scared me," gasped the president.

"I apologize. However, should you not be working on the paperwork we sent you?" asked Mattimeo, "If you don't do it, I will get Joseph Langely to do it for you."

"Sheesh, Lord Mattimeo. I have a whole interdimensional nation to run, so I have other things to worry about than thinking about this Rerequack council."

"It is Rerenhaw. And I have a whole empire that I rule. Please, we are…" suddenly Mattimeo stopped talking.

The president immediately realized something was wrong. "Lord Mattimeo, what is wrong?"

"This could be a problem…" murmured Mattimeo.

Then the whole ship exploded. Massive releases of light, heat, and sound ripped through the decks, meticulously wiping out all life and shredding the whole ship into nothing. In an instant, everyone on board other than Mattimeo was killed.

Mattimeo floated in space for a moment, amongst the wreckage. He looked about at the red-hot pieces of debris that danced in the blank scape of space. Rippling wakes of dark energy shimmered through the void in the aftermath of a massive Dark Matter nuke discharge. Had everyone just died? Undoubtedly. But the real question, who did it?

Suddenly, it became clear. "Act of terrorism. No detection. It got by even me. Orion has returned," muttered Mattimeo.

Mattimeo quickly conjured up a distress beacon out of nothing and activated it. He then tossed it away and opened up a portal and exited without a single word.

Dimension: Unknown

Planet: Unknown

Specific Location: Unknown

Time: Unknown

A massive scape of stars stretched out in all directions. Almost like liquid glass, the surface of this mysterious firmament shimmered, and the stars trapped within that expanse twinkled and flash. Suddenly there was a flash, and a dark blue unicorn with a dark green mane, dark green eyes, and a solid green endless knot cutie mark dropped from the sky. This was August Dellor, son of Samuel Dellor (Caustic Rain) and Princess Luna.

August scrambled up and looked around. Then he realized he was in a dream again. He was in THE dream.

Suddenly images began to flash by him in a swirl of bright lights, louds sounds, and vivid smells. He was reliving these images, even if they were not his own. August screamed in pain as the images continued to dance by him, giving him glimpses of memories that he knew were not his own.

There were explosions, death, war, and assassinations playing out in the images. Monstrous creatures rose and fell, powerful enemies fought to destroy all that is good, and traitors attempted to bring down empires from the inside.

"What's going on?!" roared August, now trying to simultaneously cover his eyes and ears at the same time, "Who are these people?! Where are these from?!"

The images did not reply. Instead, they began to pick up in intensity in their mad dance. Now nothing but a blur of blinding light, the images whirled in a tornado, squeezing closer to him. Closer… and closer… and closer… and closer… and closer…

August shot up out of his bed. He was still in his bed in Canterlot Castle, and it was still twenty-two years after the death of the Paradox. However, that dream and the time that had passed within it had seemed very real nonetheless. Breathing hard, he looked around. He took a deep, shivering breath and picked up his cellphone which was lying beside him. He quickly typed in a phone number. In a moment, the being on the other side of the line picked up.

"Hello? Yes, I know it's early. Yeah, right, got it. Okay, meet me at the same spot in one hour. Right. See you then, Gene."

An hour later saw August by a large oak tree just outside Canterlot. It was on a rassy hillock, surrounded by a sea of poppies, sunflowers, and lilies. August Dellor rolled his eyes as he leaned his back against a tree. Gene Grayson was late. So late that even the fashion of being late was becoming unfashionable.

Suddenly Gene dropped from the tree he was leaning against and landed next to him, scaring the living daylight out of August.

"God! Gene! You scared me!" exclaimed August, "Seriously, this is no way for a 30-something-year-old to act."

"You were expecting me to show up. I was just seeing if you were expecting me to show up unexpectedly."

August rubbed the back of his neck, thinking he had sprained it when he had jumped. "Yeah, well, I would say that it is so unexpected that it was barely even possible. I mean, you're, like, an old man."

"Please. I'm a Dimensional Traveler," snorted Gene as he crossed his arms.

There was a pause. Then August said, "You would look better as a pony."

Gene sat down. "Well, you look better as a human."

August looked at Gene curiously. "You think so?"

Gene leaned over and murmured, "Of all of the children of the Dimensional Travelers, you are the only one who inherited the powers. I don't know if you heard Doxia talking to your family a couple of years ago, but that is not supposed to happen. You're special. And special means you might as well turn into a human."

"Yeah, I heard him, and I've heard you say that before Gene, but I really don't care. I cannot open portals, so who cares if I can shapeshift and throw colorful bits of light about? I am pretty much just an alicorn without the wings."

"Well," said Gene in a matter-of-fact tone, "Magic is medium-level Aganonces. Thus, it can only control matter, energy, space, and time. The power you wield is high-level Aganonces. Thus, it can control magic, dimension, matter, energy, space, and time. It really is in the fabric of Imagination Energy. See, the level of…"

"No, Gene, stop. That's the physicist in you taking," snorted August, "I really don't care."

"Well? I've been putting up with you being boring, for a long time, so, what do you care about then?" said Gene, giving August a side-long glance.

"Ummm… To do… good?" said August after a pause.

"Yeah, wrong answer," replied Gene.

August rolled his eyes. "Come on! You've known me forever. Haven't you figured it out already?"

Gene chuckled. "Ooooohhhh… So THAT is what you want to do? How boring."

"Yep," said August, "Go to school, go to college, graduate, get a job, get a house, die."

"And that is why you are so boring," said Gene, "You know, we really should get out sometime. What do you say? I'll open a portal, and we can go hang out at Caltech in Earth Prime."

"That's your idea of fun," replied August, "As for me, I think just sitting under this tree will be fine."

"And, as I said, you're boring," replied Gene.

"And yet, here I am," said August.

There was another minute-long pause. Then August said, "Gene, look, the reason I called you here is because I had that dream again."

Gene sighed. "Again? I am pretty sure that that is bad. Why haven't you talked to your mom about it? She is the princess of the night, after all."

"I have!" exclaimed August, "And she cannot see anything! Whatever is happening in my mind is also blocking her out as well."

"I guess then you will just have to endure it," sighed Gene, "But I actually do not think it is that bad. If you are indeed experiencing memories, then it is possible that these memories are teaching you something. Remember that one event we had with that Animus a couple of years back? Remember the bleeding effect? Yeah, well, this could be something like that. These memories could be teaching you something."

"I don't really care if they're teaching me something," snorted August, "I really just care why they are in my head, who sent them, and what those memories are about. I only get to experience each individual memory for a nanosecond, thus, I have no time to comprehend the time, location, and circumstances surrounding each event."

"And that we may never know," said Gene, "There is nothing I can really do for you know. Maybe we should seek out help from Sunset Shadow. Or, better yet, a Dimensional Lord."

"Yeah, like a Dimensional Lord has nothing better to do than listen to some random pony with crazy dreams," chuckled August harshly.

Gene was about to open his mouth again, when August then held up a hoof. Gene shut his mouth and listened. Then a portal opened up and Dimensional Lord Doxia stepped out.

Gene's mouth dropped open. He had only seen a Dimensional Lord a couple of times. Doxia looked at August and said, "Yo! August! How are the leaves fallin'?"

August, who had been totally shocked and surprised, immediately got over it and sighed. Because of his name, Doxia would always ask him that.

"I'm fine, Doxia," snorted August.

Doxia shook his head. "Wrong answer. Remember what we talked about?"

August facehoofed. Then he mumbled, "The leaves are falling on the right side of the trunk."

Doxia nodded. "Much better. Soooo… Where's your dad? And where is Sunset? And Flaming Star? You know, all those totally famous people that you are related to in some way or another."

August blinked. Doxia had not called for a meeting like this in over twenty years, or so his dad said.

"Yeah, his dad and the rest are in Ponyville right now, I think," said Gene.

Doxia nodded. "Coolio. Grab my arms, guys."

Gene shrugged and seized Doxia's outstretched arm. August shrugged as well and did the same with the other. In a second the environment blurred and they were suddenly in Ponyville town square.

Immediately the ponies that saw Doxia rushed up to greet him. Doxia had become like a second Pinkie Pie, and he certainly acted like one.

"Derpy! Still up for lunch tomorrow? Vinyl! Nice haircut! I love it. Sweetie Belle! You're just cute. I had to get that off my chest."

At this point, Flaming Star arrived, looking as young as ever. "Doxia! Nice to see you again! What brings you here?"

Doxia took a deep breath, "You remember that one meeting we had? Well, we need to finish it."

Flaming Star blinked. "You need to finish a meeting… what?"

Doxia nodded. "I need you, Sunset Shadow, Caustic Rain, and August. Gene can come along as well because he's funny, and I like that."

August shook his head, as if to clear it. "Wait… Don't you have, like, the Rerenhaw Council?"

Doxia shook his head. "Not yet. I have yet to assemble the people worthy."

"Well? Why are you asking us for a meeting? You have Mattimeo! You have all of those other Dimensional Lords!" persisted August.

"I know," replied Doxia, "But I think you guys are a lot wiser than some of those trillion-something-year-olds."

"You're weird, Doxia," snorted Flaming Star, "But I respect you. So! When is this meeting?"

"Right now, in fact," replied Doxia.

A couple of minutes later, Doxia was with Sunset Shadow, Caustic Rain, August, Flaming Star, and Gene.

"Well?" said Caustic Rain, "What is going on?"

"Here's the problem," sighed Doxia, "Someone dangerous has returned from our past. Yes, I know that sounds cliché and cheesy, but there is a major problem here."

"What happened?" said Sunset, "Who is it?"

"Just a couple of minutes ago, the president of the newborn intedimensional empire, the United Federation of Colonies, was killed in an act of terrorism while attempting to meet up with an Amethyst Embassy."

"An embassy? If a president was going to meet an Amethyst Embassy, wouldn't protocol mandate that a guard member of said embassy be present?" interjected Sunset.

"Yeah. Mattimeo was on board, and that is what makes it weird," said Doxia, "The ship exploded and everyone other than Mattimeo was killed. And that is where it gets weirder: Mattimeo was unable to detect the act of sabotage until after the fact."

Flaming Star facehoofed, "So the culprit got away."

"Aha! And that is where you are fortunately wrong. The fact that it was undetectable made the culprit totally detectable. His name is Orion the Traitor."

Sunset shook his head. "I'm sorry if you meant that to be dramatic, but who is Orion?"

"Yeah, well, here is his story. He was one of the first Dimensional Lords chosen to serve under the Special One of the Sapphire Empire. At first, he was the perfect Dimensional Lord. In fact, the Special One of the Sapphire Empire often compared him to me. Sadly, darkness was in the heart of Orion, and it festered. In the end, he went rogue, and attempted to take over the multiverse using a unique device in a dimension called Meshe. He was stopped by me. However, he learned from his mistakes, and the second time, it seemed that he was unstoppable…"

There was a pause. "How was he stopped then?" said August.

"They were stopped by something called the Inquisition," said Doxia dramatically.

"That sounds cool," snorted Flaming Star, "But how does that help us?"

"Oh, and we think Orion is not working alone," continued Doxia, ignoring Flaming Star's question , "I think Pictor is helping them. I have many things I need to attend to, and this is just one more thing that I need to worry about. So, I will need help in taking Orion and Pictor down, and, thus, the Inquisition will be required to rise once more."

"I don't understand," said Sunset, "How does this involve us? I really don't see the use in coming to us, since we are of no use in this situation."

"Nonononono," interrupted August, "I'm interested. Could you tell me a little more about this, um, Inquisition?"

Doxia grinned. "Right. Sit down, me hearties! I will tell you a tale of a long time ago…"

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria Earth

Specific Location: The Frozen North, Stallion Empire

Time: Twenty-two years after the death of the Paradox

Lyric gently laid the mare on the ground and took a step back. Then he leaned in close until his eyeballs were a hairsbreadth away from her closed eyelids. The mare's eyelids flickered and she mumbled something again. Lyric leaned back and sat down. Nothing happened.

Sighing, Lyric suddenly started talking. "Ummmm… hey. I know this is kind of weird, but I like your mane. It's kind of pretty. Ummmm… So, how are you? I know I've never met you, but I want you to know that it is sort of suspicious, you hanging around here. I mean, like, I found you in that crashed plane, and you were surrounded by that energy bubble! That was pretty cool, though. I've heard of these terrifying monsters in that twisted land of Equestria that could do stuff like that. You don't look like a monster, though. Weird. I wonder what your name is, though."

"Summer."

Lyric's ears pricked up. Had she just said something? Then, suddenly, the mare's eyes snapped open.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" she screamed. Her limbs flailed and her eyes were wild.

Lyric immediately grabbed her and tried to hold her down, shouting, "Calm down! CALM DOWN!"

The mare continued to writhe and scream.

Lyric took a deep breath and roared, "SUMMER! CALM DOWN!"

The mare stopped screaming. She blinked. Then she looked at Lyric.

"W-what?"

Lyric quickly let go of her. "I said for you to calm down. Er, Summer, that's your name, right?"

The mare nodded meekly. "Y-yes… I-I'm so sorry. I just had the most terrible dream."

Lyric cocked his head to one side. "Er… Sorry, but what was it about? I don't mean to pry, of course."

Summer massaged her temples with the tips of her hoofs. "Oh no, it's fine. I guess you have a right know since I was screaming and everything. I… I had a dream that I was in an airplane, flying to… somewhere… I fell asleep. Suddenly I woke up and I was alone!"

Summer's breathing became labored, and tears began to squeeze from her tear ducts. "I heard crackling and I felt heat… the engines were on fire! The plane went into a dive… and then… and then… and then I woke up here."

Summer was now crying. Lyric sighed. "That wasn't a dream, was it?"

Summer sniffled as she got her emotions. She sat there, staring off into the distance. Lyric looked at her. Her eyes were a vibrant violet. Gorgeous, and yet somehow vacant. "No. No it wasn't I suppose. But I can't remember anything else! I don't remember anything!"

She continued to look off into the distance. Lyric scratched the back of his head. "Er, I don't get it. I mean, seriously, how do you remember airplanes then?"

Summer shrugged, her eyes bleak. "I don't know. I just know those things, powered by magic, fuel, and air propulsion driven at high pressure drive metal bodies of aluminum through the air… How do I know that?"

Lyric chuckled. "You don't remember anything? And yet, you remember that."

Summer sighed. "I… I can't. I know what I am feeling is snow, and I know what makes snow and all of that, but I have no idea who taught me."

"So… You don't have anything?" snorted Lyric, "No family? No friends? No nothing?"

Summer began to tear up again. "No…" she sobbed.

Lyric shook his head. He sat in front in her and reached forward. He lightly grasped her shoulders and said, "Hey… hey… look… look at me."

Summer eyes remained bleak, and she stared off in the distance.

Then… Lyric's voice caught in his throat. "You're… you're blind."

Summer turned her blank eyes in the direction of his voice. "Is that… is that a problem?"

Lyric slowly moved away. He ran a hoof across his face. He was in the worst possible position. So she had shown those special abilities, so what? Now it seemed that she would not be able to cast that warming energy shield again. In addition to that, she had no memory, AND she was blind. Maybe fate could justify him leaving her. Maybe letting her die would be alright in this case. Then Lyric's eyes hardened. No. He couldn't leave her to this. He couldn't.

Lyric took in a long, shaking breath. "No. That is not a problem. Why would you think it would be a problem? I don't see a problem."

Summer's blinds eyes looked around. "Where ARE we?"

Lyric nodded his head. "We're in the Stallion Empire."

Summer nodded her head. "Um. Yeah, great. Where are we?"

Lyric couldn't help but grin. "Oh, yeah, sorry. We're in the mountains of the Stallion Empire. So, you know…"

Summer sighed. "Yeah. Cold."

She shivered. Lyric quickly pulled out a couple of blankets from his saddle bag and tossed them around her shoulders. Then he got up and said, "Well, the bad news is that the nearest town is a day and a half away. The good news is that you're walking now."

Summer got up. Lyric winked at her and began to trot away.

"Where did you go?"

Lyric stiffened at the sound of Summer's voice. She was blind, he could not just walk away like that. Face burning in shame, he went back and gently took one of her hoofs.

"God I'm an ass. I'm so sorry," he mumbled.

Summer chuckled. "Nah. It's okay. I'm sorry if I'm a burden, but I cannot tell you how MUCH this means to me. I mean, no pony would usually do that. Well, at least no pony that I can remember…"

Lyric sighed. "Yeah, that's me. The gentlecolt."

"Hey, I didn't catch your name!" exclaimed Summer, giving Lyric's hoof a squeeze.

Lyric's face began to blush even more. "Oh, er, yeah, that. My name is Lyric Reed. N-n-nice to meet you."

Summer's face brightened. Even her blank eyes sparkled. "There we go! A name! Lyric… that's a beautiful name."

Lyric couldn't help but give her a little shove. "Beautiful is for girls. I prefer to think of it as manly."

Summer returned his shove with a greater shove. "Yeah, sure. I still think it's beautiful."

Note: Okay everyone! I've decided that every Tuesday I will release a chapter called a "Flashback Episode." These episodes will tell the story of something that happened some time in the past, be it just after the death of the Paradox, or just before the Maelstrom War. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave me a review! If you leave me a review, I will give you an invisible Rolex watch. You want it. I know you want it.