Note: I almost totally forgot to post a chapter today! Sorry about that! Anyway, on to answering some reviews! To Minebrine, the reason Harold and the rest are in the Once Upon a Time dimension is because the Fairly Tale Earth was practically abandoned after a curse caused by the Evil Queen Regina. It is complicated for someone who has not seen the show, but it was the perfect environment for the antagonists to hide out for the time being. To Austin, the cloud's would come in a baker's dozen. Are you surprised to find out that Meadolax got a date with Celestia? Don't worry, it is not going to get serious. To FocusedStream, I will explain how this all works as time goes on. To 1st Dragon King, I am sure you did. Harold would have seen it too. To Russet Burbanks, I am actually surprised at how popular Meadolax has become. I should bring him in more often. Too bad Rhett and Link triggered the zombie apocalypse during that one vacation, but it was all okay since it WAS vacation. Anyways, here is my latest chapter! Everyone prepare for some more Summer and Lyric awesomeness! Oh, and I posted this in a hurry, so please let me know if my pre-posting proofreading was insufficient.
Dimension: Rerenhaw
Planet: Rerenhaw
Specific Location: The Council Room
Time: Six days after Lyric found Summer
Mattimeo slowly crossed his arms as he stared at the video documentation of Twilight's firstborn child. Over the course of the last 24 hours, Mattimeo had been searching tirelessly for a way to help Summer recover her memories. During that time, an idea had struck him: had he not heard of the name Summer before? In an instant Mattimeo had found the recorded documentations of every important pony to have been born fifteen years ago (Summer had told him her age). After several hours of watching video feeds... it seemed like he, Mattimeo, had found it. The answer. Summer was Twilight and Flaming Star's child.
Doxia stood beside him. "You need to tell her," he said.
Mattimeo turned his head to give Doxia a side-long glance. "Why should I?"
Doxia almost did a double-take. "What do you mean by 'why should I?'"
Mattimeo did not glance over again as he replied, "Summer is having her own troubles. It would not be right to trouble her anymore."
Doxia held up an armored hand. "Waitwaitwaitwait… Are you trying to PROTECT her? Oh my golly! You've grown to care for her, haven't you?"
"Your declarations have escalated rather quickly, Doxia," said Mattimeo, "But I am done attempting to conceal truths from you. Yes. I have grown to care for the child. I love her like one of my own."
"Oooooh!" exclaimed Doxia, "That is something special! However, why would you not want to tell Summer that she is the daughter of a Lord and Lady of Equestria?"
"If I tell her now, it will only be a source of wonder and confusion. What are her parents like? Why did they finally give up looking for her? Who is Pictor and why did he try to kill her? Was she a good daughter before she lost all memory? When will she be able to return? I do not have to remind you that we cannot locate her still. Her memories are still obscure for scans to detect her exact location."
"That's true," sighed Doxia, "But perhaps that is for the best…"
"However," interjected Mattimeo suddenly, who seemed to be in something of a trance, "I am at the point where I think we should cast all protocols aside. If we place an Amethyst Cruiser in low orbit to do a global face-scan, or if we hit the Stallion Empire mainland with a large dream-sequence location triangulation device, we will be able to locate…"
It was Doxia's turn to interrupt now. "Woahwoahwoah!" exclaimed Doxia, "Remember that xenophobia craze that swept Equestria right after the death of the Paradox? If we give any Harmony Tree dimension nation even the slightest hint of extradimensional intrusion, the whole situation will ignite once more! If the Stallion Empire decides that they no longer wish to tolerate our presence, they will rise up to resist, and if we quench the uprising, then the rest of the dimension will view us as tyrants and we will thus have lost a valuable dimensional ally."
Mattimeo turned his head to look at Doxia. There was at least a minute of silence as he stared. Finally he said, "Very well. I will say now, though, that this does not sit comfortable with me. I care for Summer truly now, and I do not appreciate her being exposed to danger for prolonged periods because of my mistakes."
Doxia nodded his head sympathetically. "I know, Matty, but you are just going to have to suck it up for the time being. Just continue to visit her in her mind and comfort her. That is all you can do now. And do not worry, I am coming up with a clever and covert way for us to pinpoint the exact location of her. Once we have found her, we can pull her out."
Mattimeo nodded his head slowly in agreement. Then, suddenly, he shook his head. "No," he said, "if we locate her, the last thing I want to do is pull her out. It does not seem that she will recover her memory anytime soon, and if we pull her out before she has recovered her whole memory, we will be doing the equivalent of pulling a fish out of water. In her amnesic state, she has bonded strongly with the stallion known as Lyric. To her, he is her lifeline, and the north mountain range of the Stallion Empire is, believe it or not, her home."
Doxia understood what his friend was saying, but decided to press further to see how deeply he had grown to care for the blind filly. "I see. But what about Sunflower's memories, Matty? You still want those badly, right?"
Mattimeo shook his head. "I've gotten word from Discord that they have picked up the presence of Sunflower in the Dishonored dimension. He might still be alive, even if his powers have been passed on to Summer. She deserves peace just like any sentient being, and I plan to give her that, and only that. It is not within our right to take what is her, by force or otherwise."
Doxia broke into a colossal grin from beneath his masked helmet. "Right you are, Matty, right you are."
Mattimeo nodded his head again. "Yes. Now I believe I must go. I told Summer that I would spend some time with her. I have several stories I wish to tell her."
Mattimeo attempted to walk past Doxia, but was momentarily stopped by an arm. When Mattimeo gave Doxia a quizzical glance, Doxia said, "You really have grown to care for her, haven't you?"
Mattimeo pushed passed Doxia as he responded. "Yes. As if she was my own daughter."
Dimension: My Little Pony
Planet: Equestria Earth
Specific Location: The Stallion Empire
Time: Six days after Lyric found Summer
Lyric opened his eyes slowly and groaned. His head was throbbing, and his whole body ached from over-exhaustion. Slowly sitting up, he looked about him. Other than the sad, disheveled body of Summer, he was alone. He and his best friend were in a clearing, surrounded by snow-topped pine trees. A giant, ice-glazed boulder stood like a lone guardian to his left, and a thin, unfrozen stream dribbled out from under the boulder to run across the border of the clearing. The sun was just rising, and was filtering through the prickly pines in a beautiful, yet cold, display of light.
Lyric rubbed his head, hoping that the terrible throbbing would go away. He felt like he may vomit, and his vision was blurred.
"Why is it that the moment I met you…" murmured Lyric to the unconscious Summer, "… I've been battered, bruised, and knocked unconscious… but I have never been more content in my life?"
Summer did not respond, she was unconscious, of course. Groaning once more, Lyric straightened up. He then rolled his friend onto her back and placed an ear to her chest. His nearly-frozen ear twitched as he made out a faint, yet steady, heartbeat.
"You are absolutely amazing, Summer," breathed Lyric, "You have survived so much…"
Suddenly Lyric stiffened. His ears picked up the throbbing pulse of a helicopter coming their way. Gurgling in horror, Lyric scrambled to get to cover, but it was too late: the air vehicle was upon them. If only Summer had been awake. She would most have certainly heard the helicopter before it had snuck up like that, but now…
Lyric threw his body over Summer, hoping to somehow block her from the helicopter's view. Maybe they would just strafe the area and fly off. He would die, but it would buy Summer a little more time. The helicopter flew overhead and simply passed on by. Lyric blinked in surprise. That was not exactly what he had been expecting. Scrambling up the giant boulder that bordered the small cleared, he stretched his neck and eyes to catch a glimpse of the helicopter. He did for just a moment amongst the treetops. In the moment he saw it, he was able to see the insignia of the flying device: Stallion Empire. Lyric sighed. Though the soldiers of the Stallion Empire were cruel, immoral, and generally abusive, they were not bent on their destruction like the Trixie's Hoof Terrorists. However, before Lyric could even finish his sigh of relief, a massive explosion ripped through the air. Lyric's eyes snapped back onto the skies, just in time for him to see a second ground-to-air missile strike the helicopter. The air vehicle spun slowly in the air, thick black smoke pouring from its rotors, as it lost velocity in a giant ball of flames. Slowly it lowered into the trees beyond Lyric's vision until nothing but billows of smoke were visible. There was a pause, and then a final explosion as the things struck the ground and detonated with a powerful release of sound, heat, and light. Lyric's sharp eyes picked up several trees move as the shockwave uprooted or heavily splintered trees in a far-off vicinity. Mentally marking the location of the explosion, Lyric hopped down off the rock.
"I have to check out that downed helicopter," Lyric said out loud to Summer, almost apologetically, as if the unconscious filly could hear him, "There might be supplies. I'll be gone for just a moment."
Gently Lyric rolled Summer into some obscuring ferns near the giant boulder. Taking out his pair of think blankets, he wrapped them firmly around his friend. He then uprooted several small plants and overlaid the two blankets until he was positive the unconscious form of Summer was concealed.
With that out of the way, Lyric melted into the forest like a phantom on the hunt. As he worked his way expertly through the forest for a dozen or so minutes, he reveled at the fact that he could once again move freely without the restraints of having to guide a blind filly about. Perhaps…
"No," muttered Lyric to himself as he vigorously gave his head a shake, "I will never leave Summer again. I don't know why… it's just… I can't…"
Lyric quickly slammed his mouth shut as his ears picked up the clamor of several rowdy ponies conversing. Trixie's Hoof terrorists no doubt converging on the crash site of the helicopter to view their handiwork.
Lyric quickly slowed his trot and pressed his coat to a nearby tree. As the sounds of vulgar conversing grew louder, Lyric peeked around a tree to look at what was happening.
Five Trixie's Hoof Terrorists were trotting side-by-side. The one in the center was obviously the leader, and he was holding a large STING rocket launcher.
"Boss?" said the pony directly to the team commander's left, "Why exactly did you shoot it down?"
"For fun!" snorted the leader, "Come on, don't tell me you didn't enjoy cracking 'flaming helicopter' jokes after I downed it!"
"Sure," said the other pony, "But what if Stallion Empire reinforcements arrive on the scene?"
"Chill, moron," snorted the leader, "The STING missile I fired had a proximity scrambling device attached to it. They were obviously unable to call for help. And anyway, if help does arrive in the near future, we will be long gone. I just want to see if I killed the thing right and proper before we go back to hunting those two fugitives Frozen Heart told us to kill."
The group passed Lyric by, unaware of his presence. Breathing as light as possible, Lyric pressed his belly to the earth as he proceeded to trail the terrorists. They went on for a little longer, before coming to a clearing, where the helicopter lay in a flaming heap. Lyric could not quite see anything but scorched and frozen greenery, but he could see the backs of the terrorists, and hear their voices.
"Well, no pony is coming out of there," laughed the commander harshly.
"Boss," said another pony terrorist, "Should we scavenge?"
"Screw that!" snorted the commander, "We have all we need. Let's leave whatever is in there for the frost to claim."
Lyric blanched as he saw the terrorists turn tail to trot back from whence they came. Quickly he dove into a grove of ferns that clustered about a large pine tree to his left.
One of the terrorist ponies stopped. Holding up a hoof, he said, "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" asked the commander irately, annoyed that the other ponies had stopped as well.
"I thought I heard underbrush rustling," said the pony, "Should we investigate?"
"Well? If you were me, what would you do?" asked the commander pony scathingly, his anger thinly veiled.
Unfortunately for the first pony, he did not detect the fury bubbling beneath the question, so he kept talking. "I would investigate!" he exclaimed. "First, I would look through those ferns over there," he continued, pointing a hoof directly at the ferns where Lyric was hiding, "Then I would check that grove of trees over there…"
"Aye… Then you could check the trees over here… then there… then there… then there… SHUT UP!" screamed the commander, "I am the one in command! I heard nothing, and that means there WAS NOTHING! Get a move on before I gut you!"
The whole terrorist group galloped off quickly, their tails practically between their legs before the commander of the team killed them all for their "incompetence."
Lyric sighed deeply in relief as the last of the sounds of the group melted into nothing in the cold, crisp air. Dragging his shivering body out of the icy ferns, he ventured into the clearing.
The moment he laid eyes on the wreck of the helicopter, he cried out in joy. The helicopter that was shot down had been a military-specific medical helicopter. Though it was rather morbid for the terrorists to have destroyed something that was designed to help ponies that were sick or wounded, it was wonderful luck for Lyric. Perhaps there might be something in the twisted mass of metal that possessed the ability to help Summer out of her coma.
Lyric fervently hoped so as he plunged through the snow towards the flaming helicopter. All consequences of entering a flaming helicopter failed to register in the brain of the colt. All he wanted to do was get in there, find something that could help Summer, and then get out. For probably the first time in his life, Lyric was thinking only of another pony, and not himself.
The heat scorched his coat, and the smoke stung his eyes, but Lyric pressed on into the decimated air vehicle. Pressing his stomach to the floor of the aircraft, he dragged himself through the debris, his eyes scouring the scene before him. The helicopter's center was large and hollowed-out to allow for a pair of stretchers and a rack of medical devices. The stretchers had long ago been flash-burned by the initial explosions, and almost all of the medical devices, drugs, and other medicinal cargo had been scattered about the floor of the burning helicopter.
Undeterred, Lyric searched frantically through the smashed contents of the floor. Pills, broken vials, stethoscopes and the likes were tossed aside by the desperate colt in his mad attempt to find a device that could help Summer.
He did not even stop to reconsider the endeavor as a loud creaking echoed above his head, denoting the fact that the fire-gutted helicopter was about to collapse. In a last-ditch attempt, Lyric got onto all fours and snatched the nearest device off of the smoke-obscured medical cabinet with his mouth.
Taking the thing out of his mouth with a hoof. Lyric brought it to his face so that he could inspect it through the smoke.
The "thing" was a long needle, with some strange liquid inside it. It read "Cerebral Sileo Tratser Fluid."
Unbeknownst to Lyric, that device had been recently introduced to help unconscious patients awaken. This was a stroke of luck to say the least. Unfortunately, the burning helicopter was not going to give Lyric any time to inspect his fine any further. For with a loud rumbling noise, the whole helicopter buckled inwards. With a very feministic squeak, Lyric dove out of the helicopter. But it was too late, a large metallic beam collapsed on his back right hoof.
With a cry of pain, Lyric yanked his hoof out, but it had been horribly twisted. No bones had been broken, but the damage was great nonetheless.
"Got… the… serum… though…" gasped Lyric through clenched teeth. Blood was dribbling through multiple punctures on his twisted hoof.
"The blood will leave a trail," Lyric muttered. He glanced at the blood, then the serum, then the blood, then the serum again.
"Summer needs this," Lyric growled. With a pained grunt, he began to slowly make his way back to his best friend.
Dimension: Summer's Dreamscape
Planet: Summer's Dreamscape
Specific Location: Summer's Dreamscape
Time: Six days after Lyric found Summer
"... And that is how Doxia met Allison," said Mattimeo, finishing up a story about Doxia and his deceased wife.
Summer cocked her head to one side. "That was interesting," she mused, "Doxia never seemed to be a being who could care that much."
"Doxia can seem like that," conceded Mattimeo, "But you must understand that the many, many, many years we have lived have not been very kind to us. Those who have not simply decided to leave have gone insane one way or another."
Summer nodded her head slowly, taking all of it in. Then she suddenly piped up, "Why don't you ever talk about yourself?"
Mattimeo was honestly taken aback. He cocked his head to one side as he replied with another question, "What do you mean?"
"Well," said Summer meekly, "You always talk about Doxia and his amazing exploits, but you never talk about yourself!"
"There is not much to talk about," said Mattimeo emotionlessly, "Doxia and Meadolax have always been the center of attention. They have done incredible things. I rarely ever fight, and usually I am the one behind the scenes."
Summer turned her sightless eyes in the direction of Mattimeo's voice. Then she scooted closer.
"Did you ever have someone you loved?" she asked quietly.
"Not during my trillion years as a Dimensional Lord, no," responded Mattimeo, who was actually now beginning to feel uncomfortable.
"Then how about before you became a Dimensional Lord!" persisted Summer, "You said you all weren't always like you are now, right?"
Mattimeo actually hesitated. Then he said, "I did have someone I cared for deeply. A sister. But that was a long, long time ago."
Summer clapped her forehooves together excitedly. "Oh! Please tell me about her! Please!"
Mattimeo sighed. Then he said, "Very well. But you must keep it secret. No one else aside from Doxia, Meadolax, and a couple others know of what I am about to tell you…"
Note: I think I have decided how to proceed with chapter postings. I will post a chapter on August and his friends on Monday. I will then post a chapter on Discord and his team on Tuesday. I will then finally post a chapter on Lyric and Summer on Wednesday. Let's see how this works out! Now please give me reviews! You guys have been so awesome at that lately, and I thank you for that! Now if you give me a review, I will give you an invisible plushie of Meadolax! He has been so popular lately that I saw it only fitting that he be immortalized in plush! Thanks!
