The Tavern Beyond Space and Time! (Open to anyone/thing!)

[Ashton]

Your not entirely sure how you got here... maybe you botched a teleportation spell, maybe your high-tech teleporter on your starship malfunctioned, Perhaps you earned the favor of a god (or the wrath of one with a sense of humor) maybe you died and this is your deity's idea of the afterlife (you poor sap), or maybe you just took a wrong turn on a dark street and found a door that wasn't there yesterday!

 

Whatever the case, you find yourself inside a large two-story tavern, all manner of creatures are here ranging from familiar to creatures you could never dream of... to monsters that will forever haunt your darkest nightmares...

The wooden floor creaks under your weight, overhead dim lamps keep the place illuminated enough for the poor-sighted navigate but not so bright to hurt the eyes of those who lived below the surface... there are tables all around, most are occupied, at the far end is the bar itself, the barkeep, a mysterious bipodal Doberman in a white shirt and black vest, spots you

 

"Hey, stranger, what'll it be? I have _everything_ and first drink's on the house!" he said, motioned behind him to the near-infinite selection of beverages, mostly alcohol but an equal number not.

 

Who knows how long you'll be here, or even where here is, you might as well take his offer and have a drink...

Already sitting at the bar, nursing a drink is what appears to be a vert sleek and slender earth pony with a rainbow mane and tail, cerulean fur, and a red trench-coat sporting a familiar cloud and tri-color lightning bolt, despite expectations, this pony does not seem to have wings, and her front-right hoof is clenching the drink with a griffen-claw!

((Absolutely anyone and anything welcome! The only rule is 'No Fighting'! If you try to fight, your hit with a calming spell to force you to re-think your actions; if you keep trying to fight, you'll be kicked out by an invisible bouncer!))

((If this sounds familiar, the trope your looking for is https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InnBetweenTheWorlds ))

[Sunblossom]

Ok here's my character:

13 year old skinny, short, long-haired blonde girl with green eyes and teal glasses, usually wears jeans and t-shirts. Tough, sarcastic personality, but once you get close to her, she's an intelligent, kind, a little pessimistic person. She has a magic bracelet on each wrist, one of them allows her to use ice-related powers, the other one allows her to use fire-related powers. Her name is McKenzie. 

 

McKenzie looked at the offers of drinks, and chose a Mt. Dew with strawberry, pineapple, and peach flavoring mixed in it. Looking at the familiar pony, she moved and sat down next to her, resting her arms on the table. "You seem kind of familiar," McKenzie said out of the corner of her mouth. "Do we know each other?"

[Ashton]

The Doberman whistled "rare and interesting choice!" he said as he pulled the bottle and a glass from behind the counter "Straight or on the rocks?" he asked, clearly more used to the vernacular used for alcohol since he asked about 'on the rocks' instead of simply asking if she wanted ice. If she looked, she would notice the Doberman's vest had the name 'Keith' embroidered above the left breast-pocket

 

The rainbow pony looked up and shrugged "who knows, I've been to so many realities that I've lost count" she explained "Name's Rainbow Dash, I'm sure you've heard of me... well you've heard of one of me... I've already met to many of me that I cant keep us all straight, my sis calls me 'Rad' to differentiate; its short for 'Rainbow Alchemist Dash'" she explained, sighing "yes, I was a state alchemist; a dog of the military, yes I've done horrible things, but no, I try not to anymore..." she shook her head sadly "I used to have no one to care about, now I have a whole family... more like a whole clan... if I can ever just find my way back" she said sadly

[Sunblossom]

"No thanks, I can do it myself, Keith." McKenzie waved her hand and the drink filled itself with the perfect amount of ice. She was so used to her powers that she didn't consider this would draw unwanted attention. Catching the bottle as it was slid across the counter towards her, McKenzie took a sip and sighed. "That sounds awful. Can't say I relate, as the reality I was in was much worse than this one." Realizing where she recognized Rad, she gasped. "Wait, you're Rainbow Dash??!! I love My Little Pony! I just didn't realize it was real!"

[Ashton]

Keith nodded as he went to serve another customer, not the least bit concerned or suprised by the ice magic - he had seen it all by now having dealt with everything from hedge wizards to gods.

 

Rad on the hoof looked suprised "Alchemy...? no wrong color..." she muttered

 

Rad Chuckled "Every world is worse than this one" she said "This world exists in and of itself, you walk out the door, or a window, or whatever, you go back to where you were, this place is practically heaven" she chuckled a little "been through about 50 myself, I was thrown from my home world, tried to get back there for so long" she chuckled a little "Turns out I was a fool there... I landed in this one world and, well, my life changed - I now have so many friends and family, not to mention a whole world that needs me more..." she sighs "all I want now is to find some way back to this new world"

 

The former Pegasus looked a little confused by the last part but shrugged, realizing that her world must somehow be a book, movie, etc in this woman's world "Anything you can immagine, no matter how bizarre, it exists out there somewhere in the vast multiverse... Twilight had some complicated explanation involving quantum mechanics, but that's too much for me to understand, much less explain" she laughed a little awkwardly, while not *entirely* true, it was still above Rad's level of magic and science "Technically I am a Rainbow Dash, but at this point I hardly count myself among them... I opened the Gate of Truth and lost all my pegasus magic -though I gained the power of Alchemy-, I ripped a hole right through truth's realm a second time, thanks to a god and lost my wings too, so I'm somewhere between an earth pony and a unicorn more than a peagus anymore" she sighed "you have no idea how much I miss my wings... especially my dragon wings, those were more awesome than my original wings, honestly, and I'm finally mature enough to admit it..." she sighed and from her griffen-clawed-leg popped out of all things, a smartphone, though it looked far more advanced. She tapped it a few times and an image projected that showed her with MASSIVE light-blue dragon-wings that looked almost comical on her, though it was clear she no longer had them...

[Sunblossom]

"Well, I may not understand a lot of those terms, but I'm willing to help you out. It's not like I have much else to do." McKenzie watched two creatures that looked like a cross between an octopus and a birthday cake knock each other to the ground before a silver mist covered them and they sat, looking dazed (Well, as dazed as octo-cakes can look.) Thinking of an idea of how to help Rad, McKenzie sat up and turned towards Rad. "Have you tried asking Keith for help? He must have some connections, being the bartender of the tavern of the multiverse." 

[Ashton]

Rad sighed "Not much I can do, not much you can do, not much he can do... I rip open portals to a random universe with my alchemy when I can find a convergence of no less than three dragon-lines" she explained "Unless I stumble on another creature from that universe I cant tune my portals... if your not familiar with my magic, I only have two prevue's, one being rearranging matter, the other being soul manipulation - so I can use a soul as a target for my portal but otherwise..." she sighed, shaking her head "and I have a 1-in-infinity chance of returning to that universe, unless somehow my weird frenemy-God finds me and pulls me back, which I'm not counting on at this point...."

 

((For the record, Rad cannot return to that universe on her own --- if you look at my OOC thread for "Lay of the Land", she was the former main-character for that thread, so unless someone joins that thread and finds the secret 'speedrun ending' that brings Rad back, she's at best going to return at the end of the thread if proper things fall into place, as a 'post final-battle cutscene' --- but feel free to try to help))

[Sunblossom]

((Could you send me the link to that thread please? I can't find it.)) 

 

McKenzie raised her finger for a refill and then crossed her arms, raising one eyebrow at Rad. "So, that's it? You're just going to give up? If this family means so much to you, you need to get up, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and look for them. What sounds better to you, drinking your past away for all eternity, or risking life and limb to search for the peop- I mean- ponies who care about you?" McKenzie looked down towards her bracelets and gently stroked them, one tear rolling down her face. She brushed it away and sniffed. "Listen, Rad, about a year ago, I had a family. I had a normal life with my friends. Then, my friends and I found these bracelets, and I was kidnapped. I-" McKenzie tried to continue, but she choked on her tears. "The point is, I almost found my family, and then I got pulled to this stupid bar. So, if I, a 13 year old girl whos only special ability are two bracelets can come that close to finding my family, then you can too. So get off your rear end and start looking for them," McKenzie shouted, standing on top of her chair. She blushed when she realized that some of the other patrons had heard her and were drunkenly applauding. 

[Ashton]

((The actual, original, thread does not exist anymore, and even if it did, it was like 325 pages @ 25 or 50 posts per page, many being a full page long, if you want to start your own new chapter of the story, take a look in the FFA OOC for the thread 'lay of the land' --- so technically this isnt a crossover, this is just dealing with time between chapters, and if there is no new chapter, this is just the fallout of actions of chapter 2 that only rad can tell you about))

 

Keith slides another drink to the girl "I'll give you three on the house if you can get Rad to leave, she's been here for like a week... and this wont be her only time...." he said, bringing a flask out of his vest and taking a quick drink, licking his lips. If Mckinzie's eyes were fast enough she might notice that the doberman had long fangs, which were tinted red from his drink before he licked them clean.

 

Rad shorted "you think I don't feel that way? unless I find some creature from the reality I came from I have a 1-in-infinity chance of getting back, and I and my family are immortal, so I have eternity to get back... granted the world may end in the next... I dont know how long... it was 20 years from when I left but worlds move at their own pace, so one world I may spend an hour in and its a year back home, another I could spend a century and only seconds pass... but this is just a lay-over, I'll start jumping again soon, I just need a rest, I've been around for like... gawd... I think 49 years... doesnt mean I'm giving up, this is just a break" she sighed "also, you walk out those doors and your back where you were before you come in, so *you* have lost no progress... hell I dont know if I've lost any time since this is a universe outside itself"

 

[Sunblossom]

((Well this is embarrassing, my speech didn't really work all that well. Also, lol, I know I said I'm wearing glasses, just means I have double vision, doesn't mean my eyes are slow haha.))

 

"Alright, suit yourself," McKenzie said. "I'll be trying to find my family if you need to look for me. And, if you- don't... hear... from me," she said, staring at the floor, "Tell my family I love them." Saluting, she used her ice bracelet to turn a window to ice, shattered it, and fell backwards through it, head first.

 

Less than 10 seconds later, McKenzie burst through the door, holding her side. She looked several years older. Her hair was chopped off in odd places, as if it had been cut in a hurry. Staggering over to Rad, she gasped "I would like to apologize for my arrogance. I understand the dangers of time travel, and come to you, a changed woman." She then keeled over onto the floor of the bar. 

 

((Don't worry, she isn't dead.))

[Ashton]

((eh, not really how this should work, but since we didnt define a time differential between the two realms... and statistically she shouldn't get back... probably ever... since this is arguably a 1-in-infinity chance.... ....but I like this twist, so *shrug* meh))

 

Rad, though confused at exactly what was going on leapt to her feet and ran over, taking a quick look over the girl, rad put her hoof and her claw on her, the flightless pegasus's eyes start glowing blue as a complicated transmutation circle appeared around mckenzie, glowing a bright blue as healing energies began quickly restoring blood, knitting flesh together, and removing any poisons and even scars that the girl might have encountered...

[Sunblossom]

((She didn't get back to her family, so I still followed the odds technically))

 

McKenzie sat up and groaned. "Oh, please tell me I didn't say anything cheesy." Looking down at her ankle, where a heart-shaped scar had been, she said, "Wow, that alchemy stuff really works. Thanks."

[Ashton]

((oh yes *steeples fingers* So nice to see like minds; "technically Correct" is the best kind, and while I could say "a 1-in-infinity chance means at *best* once-per-lifetime" the same argument could be made that its entirely possible for this to happen almost every time.... a kind of "Narrative Probability" *evil grin*))

 

"oh trust me, the cheese comes with the job" said Rad "Its almost a game in my family at this point to point out when one of us is being 'heroically cheesy'" she paused as she stood, having finished healing the woman "I should hope it works, if not I'm even more delusional than I though" she smirked, though her expression dropped a little "though... its not always perfect..." she admitted "I have three ways to power my alchemy - kinda four ways - and these arent always compatible with the reality I find myself in... think of a world that, for inexplicable reasons, called Lemons 'oranges' the world would look at you crazy for wanting orange juice, and if you did get it, it wouldn't be what you were expecting... sometimes its just incompatible sometimes it can be deadly..." she shuddered, clearly having had an experience like this in the past "...But!" she added "So far if all else fails, my proverbial batteries still work and I soon enough find a world I can recharge on" Though as she spoke there was a tone in her voice... it was clear she was hiding something and that it was an important caveat to everything she was saying... quite possibly linked to her earlier comment of 'I've done horrible things'