TG Galaxy Event Prologue

Note: The following piece is meant to serve as a prologue for an upcoming saga that will be featured in TG Galaxy and feature the work of several different writers. This story will be a composite creature that is the work of the community rather than strictly following a predetermined path. With that, I begin Emily's tale in this crossover.

Chapter One - "Moving Day"

Emily K. Mistress, infamously known as the 'TG Mistress' for her choice of altering the gender of her clients, was no stranger to moving from one apartment to another, but today was different since she was planning to move out of the New York area entirely. Her friend Casey had flown in to help Emily pack, but Casey knew that something else was up. Emily and Casey were about finished boxing up Emily's bedroom when Casey finally broke the ice. "Emily, I know you aren't exactly the strongest woman in the world, but did you really need to pay for my flight here?" Casey picked up Emily's bed easily and started to disassemble it as she waited for the response. "There's another reason you wanted me to show up, isn't there?"

   Emily finished applying tape to several boxes, sighed and nodded. "Yes, there is another reason for me asking you to be here right now, Casey." She stacked the boxes together and didn't say anything more for several minutes. "Let's just finish up and then we can talk about it during lunch." Casey reluctantly dropped the subject as she finished her task. Casey thought that Emily was acting very strange, but there had to be a method to her madness, right? Emily couldn't be experiencing an eviction because she easily paid for her ticket and her hotel room in a five star hotel. Emily finally broke her silence and spoke again. "Casey, should we get pizza or cheese steaks?"
"I'd say we should get cheese steaks because pizza is really generic."
"Yeah... Casey, how do you eat cheese steaks? I eat the 'overflow' first in order to ensure that I lose as little of the sandwich possible. I'm probably not going to be near a major city for a while, so I might as well take advantage of the city before I leave, right?"

"I eat the overflow as well..." Casey walked up to Emily and put her hands on her shoulders. "Is something wrong? You're not usually like this and this whole move seems strange. I thought you loved New York City."

"I do, but..." Emily was suddenly interrupted when a small blue-skinned pony with pink hair walked in with a tablet PC in its mouth. "Oh! Look, Casey, Smartass decided to check up on us. How goes your blogging?"

The pony placed the tablet PC on the ground and looked around for a moment. "I appreciate the act, but you know EXACTLY what I'm doing, Emily. We are just different versions of the exact same entity." Smartass's stomach growled moments later. "The stock market is an open battlefield ever since the war began. I thought it to be amusing to alter the price of oil to a new low of $1 per barrel. The OPEC people are pissed!" Smartass doubled over with laughter as she watched the stock prices drastically alter on the PC. "YOU GOT OWNED, oil companies!"

Casey was aware that Emily had another version of herself as a pet, but she began to wonder if Smartass's actions were why Emily was moving. "Emily, are you moving because of something Smartass did?"

"Of course not, Casey. I wish it were that simple, but it just isn't.."
"I don't leave tracks when I do this stuff, anyway. The government is too busy writing blank checks for the current war to even care. Let's just be glad that China was taken out first." Smartass and Emily did something similar to a fistbump as Emily opened the briefcase of awesome. "It might be the apocalypse, but at least there will be fireworks." Smartass placed the tablet PC along with all of the boxes in the room and closed the briefcase as if nothing out of the normal had happened. "Let's go get lunch before the going away party. I'll go get my scarf and saddle bag."

Casey was awestruck at what had just happened; she was left speechless for nearly a minute. "Did... Smartass hack the Stock Market and then put all of your bedroom into your briefcase?!?" Emily nodded as Smartass left for her 'accessories'. "Just how is that possible? There is seriously something wrong here!!"

"Let's just get lunch first, ok?" Emily said as she made her way out of the room and made her way to the door. "I'll pay for your steak, Casey." Smartass walked up to Emily and gestured for her to put the briefcase into her saddlebag. "Thank you, Smartass." She stroked Smartass's head and fed her an apple from her fruit bowl near the door. "Are you coming, Casey?"
The little group made their way out of Emily's apartment and started on their way to find lunch. Casey was amazed that the streets were basically empty and that it seemed as though everyone else was glued to a screen. "They're watching the shock and awe of the war, Casey. It's like crack to them; their livelihood is watching foreign buildings blown to absolutely nothing."

Smartass snickered as she took a wallet from one of the people in a trace watching their cell phone with her mouth. "Yeah. It's like the laziest zombie apocalypse ever." The pony said with a muffled voice as she tossed the wallet into her bag. "They don't even know that money is worthless yet. So, are we going to a deli or a vendor?"

"I think we pretty much have to go to a deli because of the law against 'vendors not in fixed locations'." Emily said as they reached her favorite deli. "Here we are!" Emily opened the door, looked around for an employee and rang the bell. "Is anyone here?"

"Oh, yes! Miss Mistress, you and your friends are always welcome here!" An employee said as they exited the backroom and came to the counter. He put on the crappy paper hat used in most delis and pulled out tried to compose him. "We only use USDA certified meat..." His canned speech was cut-off when Emily adjusted her glasses. "I'm sorry, but under Law Code #144..."

"Yuki, I've come here every day since I moved here. You don't need to be so formal with me. Besides, Smartass disabled the government camera in here weeks ago. I want the usual, but with an additional order for my friend."
"Right, that will be..." Yuki prepared to say the price, but suddenly stopped. "You are about to move, so it's only fair that I save you a bit of money." Yuki screwed with the cash register a bit until it made a 'ping' to show satisfaction. "The boss doesn't alter wages with inflation, so he can eat me. Your meal will take about fifteen minutes to prepare."

Emily and Smartass made their way to their usual table and gestured for Casey to join them. "It's no rush." Emily said as Casey sat down and Yuki left for the grill. "I hope you don't like Mayo, Casey, because I can't stand the stuff."
Casey nodded that she was fine with the omission. "That's good because I'm the type of person where I really don't like my food to be covered in 'odd colors'. I'm fine with ketchup and BBQ sauce because, in a twisted way, they're generally colors that go with meats. I'm fine with 'browns' and 'reds' on my meat, but white and yellow simply seems unnatural."

"I generally don't care about what my food looks like, but I can see where you're coming from, Emily." Casey said as she thought over what Emily had said. "I sometimes like to put my coleslaw on my fried chicken, but I'm not really looking at the food when I do that. You see, it is hard to view what your food looks like when you're eating with your hands."

"Tell me about it..." Smartass said as the door opened to reveal another customer. Smartass turned her head only for the new guest to start stroking it.

"Oh hi, Platina." She said as the woman stroked her. "I thought you weren't going to show up until the going away party later."

"I was going to wait, but I thought that it would be better to arrive earlier in order to ensure that I had time to talk with Emily. Parties tend to be a bit chaotic and well... I didn't want to be intimidated." Platina glomped Emily from behind and kissed her on the head. "Thanks again for the insta-sex change a few months ago because it saved me a lot of time and effort."

"You're welcome." Emily said as she blushed slightly. "Say, what's your opinion on colors on top of food?"

"Colors on food?" Platina said as she began to ponder an answer. "I've never really thought about it, to be honest. I'm fine with pretty much anything as long as it isn't green like relish. Every time I see relish on food I can't help but think it is mold and drop what I'm about to eat."

"What about everyone's stance on butter?" Emily posed the small group as they waited for their meal. "I can't stand it because of the fact it melts and causes such an inconsistent taste."

"I love the stuff!" Casey said as Platina went to place an order with Yuki. "I love the aspect of melting because it means it spreads all over the piece of food it is on! It's spreading the love!" She drooled a bit at the idea of a drumstick drenched in butter. "Yes!" She slammed her fist against the table and accidentally snapped it in two. "Whoops. I'm sorry about that."

"Not to worry!" Emily said as she and Smartass dragged over a nearby table to take the fallen table's place. "There aren't any other customers or any cameras, so we'll be able to sweep this under the carpet." Emily noticed that Platina and Yuki were deep in conversation and nodded. "Yep. We're going to get away with it, Casey."

"Awesome!" Casey said as Platina pulled up a seat at the table. "The one thing about food that has always bugged me is the fact it is practically impossible to prevent leftovers from either drying out or becoming soggy. You'd think that some company would figure out a method to create a container that regulates the temperature and humidity of one's leftovers."

"That's a wonderful idea, Casey." Platina said as she made herself comfortable. "It's part of the reason why I rarely order enough for me to eat when I get take-out because I'd rather go hungry than have soggy Chinese food the next night. It's really sad that I have avoid getting the portions that I want, but I always run the risk of the leftovers becoming gross."

"It seems as though pizza is the only food that really 'endures' as a leftover." Emily said as she noticed that Yuki was bringing over their meal. "However, not every pizza lasts in the same fashion. I've noticed that local pizza joint's pizzas generally endure the test while 'chain pizzas' start to stink the second they're cold. I guess it is a testament to higher quality ingredients or something like that." Emily paused as Yuki passed the food around and took a seat himself. "Ah. Are you going to join us, Yuki?"

"I might as well." Yuki said as he opened the wrapper to a burger and started to eat. "This is my lunch break, after all." Smartass lightly nudged against Yuki and he responded through placing Smartass's cheese steak into her mouth.
"I'm sorry for almost forgetting about you, Smartass. You are certainly the most 'colorful' regular we have."

The lunch group proceeded to discuss the nature of condiments for nearly an hour until they were entirely finished with their meals. Emily stood up from the table and implied that she was about to leave only for Casey to pull her down into her chair. "You aren't getting away that easy, Emily! You're going to tell me what is REALLY going on."

"Fine! I'll talk!" Emily said as Casey held her down. "I'm moving out of the town because I'm afraid that the war will soon spread to the East Coast. Smartass and I are going to live in the 'Briefcase of Awesome' until things stabilize. I invited you and all of the others because I wanted to extend that opportunity to you as well. Things are only going to get worse and I want to ensure your safety."

"Wait..." Platina said in slight confusion at Emily's statement. "How do you plan to live in your briefcase? Are you joking?"

"Miss Mistress, I've known you for a long time and this is easily the most insane thing you've ever proposed." Yuki said as he disposed of the lunch group's waste. "How do you plan to live in a suitcase, let alone survive the spread of WWIII to our shores? The government assures us that the 'opposing force' has been stopped in their tracks in Europe and that they'll never cross either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. We have the Star Wars System to thank for the fact no nuclear weapons have been used."

"Yeah, we're pretty safe here, Emily." Casey said as she tried to rationalize Emily's statement. "Even if we could live in your briefcase, what about it would make us any safer? I know you're a bit paranoid about the government, but this is ridiculous!"

Smartass began to laugh as if she had just heard "The Aristocrats" for the first time. "You're ACTUALLY buying that B.S story? What a riot!!! You actually think that a 'war' is happening?!?! None of you know the real story???! Emily, tell them about what's REALLY going on! Tell them about the 'shadows'."
Emily gulped and gestured for the rest of the people at the table to follow her. Strangely, no one objected and they began to follow her out of the deli. One could immediately question why Yuki followed, but, for the sake of narrative, don't question it. Look, I'm breaking the fourth wall again, aren't I? "Narrator, will you please stop breaking the fourth wall?" Emily screamed up at the sky as the narrator's sudden presence broke the mood. "I'm trying to establish a 'foe' in this narrative, yet your petty nitpicking is making that nearly impossible! Just focus on the contrived plot devices!"

Just then fire and brimstone began to fall from the sky like something out of a Biblical prophecy! Rivers and seas boiled as dogs and cats lived together in a fashion only replicable in insanely graphic detail! Despite this, Emily and her group somehow made it back to her apartment because inflicting harm upon them would be against the advancement of the narrative. On their way, however, they acquired two additional guests that I don't have time to introduce. We jump ahead and provide further exposition.

"Wait, let me get this straight...'Shadows' from another dimension are appearing in our reality and converting people into defenseless children?" Asked Olivia who was introduced off screen. "Why children, though?"

"I'm not sure, Olivia, but if my speech about Smartass's findings is right, then the only logical thing to do is escape with a space transport device. Thankfully, before Equestria fell, Smartass perfected that technology and traveled here since we're in a 'baseline' reality. We only had a few weeks to prepare, but we just barely managed to do it." Emily pulled out the Briefcase of Awesome from Smartass's saddle bag and opened it to reveal that the interior was much larger than it was on the outside.  "I'm going to address the obvious question and state that I stole the idea from Doctor Who. Who will join me in the travel of time and space?"

"Can't we just find a solution to the problem on Google?" Olivia asked.

"The internet crashed an hour ago..." Smartass said as she moved the last few boxes into briefcase and made her final checks on the central console. "Besides, I brought a guest with me that may sway all of your opinions." Suddenly, a small Pegasus like creature with a grey body, yellow hair and a cutie mark with several bubbles exited the briefcase and landed in Casey's arms. "I couldn't let them take away Derpy." The small Pegasus creature relaxed in Casey's arms and coughed up several letters. "She is truly dedicated to her art, but it is a shame she'll never understand that her mail can't be delivered. Derpy nudged the mail into Casey's hand and blinked as she waited for Casey to open it. Casey carried Derpy into the briefcase and took a seat within the contained space without saying a word.  

Lee Lewis, another character introduced off-screen, clenched his fists as Platina entered the briefcase. "We can't just run! We need to face this problem head on!!!" He punched the wooden door and splintered it. "I'm not going to die like a coward!"

Yuki tried to calm down Lee as the hellfire drew closer and closer to the empty apartment. "It isn't cowardly to make a strategic retreat. Do you want to live and see the real 'fight' or just die in the opening shots? We may lose this battle, but we can still win the war, right, Miss Mistress?"

"I'm not sure, Yuki, but we need to know our enemy before we attempt to strike. Our first priority is going to be relocating to another dimension, but not much more is definite." She watched as Yuki guided Lee into the briefcase and, as they passed, she whispered into his ear. "Thanks for taking control of the situation, Yuki. You don't need to be so formal around me, though."

"Olivia, are you coming?" Emily asked as Olivia was the last person still in the room besides her.

"I'm honestly not sure because my old life is all that I've ever known. I don't know what I could do without the internet and my daily routine."

"Isn't it better to die trying to achieve something better than to die simply wishing for a return to the old ways? Time and space are constantly moving forward; constantly changing and only those who hope to adapt will survive the trial of time. The decision is yours, but I can say that it won't be the same without you." Emily turned her back and stepped into the briefcase.

"Wait!" Olivia screamed as Emily turned her back. "I want to go, but I'm afraid of leaving the norm."

Emily turned around and nodded. "I'm afraid too, but we can't let fear stop us." Emily gestured for Olivia to join her in the briefcase and she complied.

"That's everyone with the exception of one person, but he made his decision." Emily closed the briefcase from within, activated a central computer composed of several desktop towers and Playstation 3's. "Let's hope this system works, Smartass."

The briefcase roared to life as it coated itself with plasma and dematerialized just before the apartment building collapsed. The transport process was instantaneous because the briefcase rematerialized in another location just as quickly as it had vanished.

Emily and Smartass checked the scanners to confirm a successful transport and fistbumped again. "Congratulations, everypony!" Smartass said as she looked over the assorted reactions from the passengers. "Welcome to another dimension."

To Be Continued…