Finding the CAUS of Things {wide open}

[Twilight Sparkle]

How had Twilight lost control so quickly? Well, actually, she more or less knew how that happened. One moment, she was answering questions and getting further information. The blonde, whom Twilight couldn't help but think looked familiar, had mentioned having actual drawings of the room that had been exposed, which was definitely something, though Twilight couldn't imagine what. No sooner had she turned to try and get a look when she heard a loud, and sadly familiar, voice proclaiming his significance.

Twilight sighed, her expression dropping. Starscream, leader of the Decepticons. Was he even trying? honestly? he might as well have called himself Mr. Evil, Lord of the Bad Guys. Twilight couldn't help but give the blonde nearest her a look that clearly communicated frustration and disbelief, before turning to face "Stephen." "Okay, Stephen, that's nice. Why don't you just--- Applejack!"

Twilight immediately brightened, taking a few steps toward her friend. Applejack was a friendly face in an increasingly unfamiliar environment. Twilight really wanted to just dash right up to her friend and encompass her in a hug. However, that certainly wouldn't be befitting a leader. Plus, Applejack looked rather worn; just seeing her like that made Twilight frown. What could have left AJ that battered? Twilight almost instantly answered the question as she thought it: her blonde friend had inevitably worked herself too hard. Twilight was about to suggest as much when another person entered.

"Gary?" Twilight nearly wondered. No, he said his name was Eric, and he listed credentials that actually were somewhat impressive and understandable. Yet Twilight couldn't help but remember Gary Oak, the snotty kid who'd attempted to take control of the meeting last time they'd had one. The similarity left poor Twilight stunned and standing stock still, somewhere between Tink and Applejack, openly staring. The staring didn't diminish as Discord leaped to Twilight's defense, again throwing out that princess title. Twilight let out a loud groan, stamped her foot and then gestured sharply.

"I can fight my own battles, thank you Discord," she snapped, her voice taking on an edge. She gestured, and her magic activated, moving her pointer to slap against her hand. It hurt slightly, but the sound should make her point. "Now, I'm Twilight Sparkle, not Wendy Testaburger or whatever it is. I'm a unicorn, and as you can see," she held up her hand, and her magic again activated, lifting the pointer a few inches into the air, "I've managed to get back some of my magic. So I'm not... whatever it is you said, and if that's going to be your contribution," she spun on Stephen, "or yours, then you can leave. I don't have a problem with helping you get home, though I'm really beginning to wonder if I should, but if you're not going to behave yourselves and help, you can find another highly organized group with information on what's going on around here and a plan on how to get all of us home."

All of which Twilight had. She gestured with her magic, pressing a computer button which moved immediately the the first slide of her presentation:

Agenda:
(1) Dissemination of information
(2) Discussion of Invisibility, Meatlings, and Pet Invasion
(3) Theories as to how we got here
(4) Plan for integration and infiltration of SUITs.
(4.b) Plan to get home

Thus displayed, the confidence unicorn girl turned, looking from Eric to Stephen, daring anyone to challenge her impressive slide show making skillz.

[Eric Cartman]

Seemed like a massive case of mistaken identity - the woman before him, who was apparently Princess Twilight Sparkle (God, that name was too gay for Eric, and he was pretty freaking gay) of the Equestrian Twilight Sparkles, called him Gary before the gentrified black gentleman jumped up and informed Eric that he was making a huge error in judgment because Purple here was a PRINCESS. Oh, goodie. He told Eric not to jump to conclusions, as it was a rude insult. Eric really didn't care, vaguely paying attention to him while observing Twilight. He opened his mouth to say something in retort, but Twilight Sparkle (he was not going to get over that name) took over, telling the man - named Discord, because why not? - that she could fight her own battles.

Addressing the crazy overlord of evil twitching over his coffee, and then Eric himself, Twilight noted that she was mildly magical, pulling some levitating tricks that just made Eric narrow his eyes further. What a perfect little... bitch. That was the right word. She was just like Wendy, wanting to be the savior of everything. Eric knew he'd have to put up with it to get home, as she seemed like his best shot, but it didn't mean he had to like anything about her. He particularly didn't like how she insinuated that he wasn't going to help. With a grimace, he responded, "I'll help. You think I like being here? I don't remember anything about anyone I knew. Must be nice to have your fairy princess magic." That wasn't supposed to be a put-down; Eric didn't know what else to call Twilight Sparkle. To call her a unicorn seemed unreal. He also really did wish he had a semblance of his old memories here, so he could be of more use, but all he had were vague feelings and a raided-through iPod.

And, truthfully, her slide show wasn't bad.

"Okay, well," Eric noted after looking at bullet point number one. "I guess the only info I have is that they're definitely purging information from all of our things. They jacked more than two-thirds of what I came to Tenebrae with, and only gave back my iPod and my completely emptied wallet. No pictures, no ID, no money, and a huge chunk of my music gone. I can only assume they don't want anyone... remembering anything... they aren't supposed to." Eric wasn't going to divulge that he was trying to find his male love interest through these things. He could only imagine how a girly magic princess unicorn (ninja pirate robot?) would react to finding that out. Eric glanced at the monster twitcher across the room, hoping that he'd decently acquitted himself, compared to the nutball with the decaf.

[Stephen Schmeling]

Stephen brought the hot beverage to his lips and took a few tentative laps at it, looking rather a bit like an awkward cat.  His grey eyes were fixed upon the thing as he lowered it slightly.  A faint smile appeared, apparently enjoying the taste.  It vaguely reminded him of Energon, something he couldn't produce, much less drink in this universe.  Stephen was a little out of it with his fascination with the drink to notice the other young man coming in.  The voices faded in and he was caught off-guard by the unpleasant stylings of one Mister Eric Cartman.  He rose a brow.  Where'd this little jerk come from?  He was targeting Twilight and although Stephen had a little respect for her for nothing become completely stupid, he wasn't about to go white-knighting.  The small man's interest was drawn to the mocha, which he promptly grabbed with both hands and chugged like he was a frat boy.  Coffee was delicious!

Once the mystical liquid was finished, he caught Twilight addressing him.  His satisfied expression fell once he was scolded like a trouble-maker before class started.  Hey, he didn't even do anything...yet.  Stephen looked hurt for a second.  But only a second before his eyes narrowed to slits so spiteful one could nearly see the red glow his original eyes gave.  So - we're going to persecute Starscream?  How disgustingly familiar.  The bridge of his nose became a maze of wrinkles as he dug his nails into the table.  A deep breath in kept him from getting too worked up over it.  Stephen let out his breath with a sigh before looking up and listening to this new boy go on.

"I remember who I am perfectly fine.  I am quite a high-profile individual.  If I were in charge of an organization that oppresses other life forms - and I'm not saying I would be," Stephen sent that disclaimer in the direction of Twilight and who he assumed were her friends, "I wouldn't want anyone dangerous knowing who they were.  They insisted that I be called by a human name, if that means anything - and I think it might.  Maybe they want-"

Stephen cut himself off.  Why would fleshlings like the suits want people to start a new life?  That HAD to be wrong.  Why did that thought even cross his mind?  His eyes widened; did he just want to redeem himself for a moment?  What is this place doing to him?  He leaned back on the table he was sitting on and pretended like he wasn't saying anything.

[Lillian Tinkerbell]

Tink caught the frustrated look of the purple-haired girl and gave her a gentle smile. It could be frustrating being in charge, which was why she was so glad she wasn't. And really, the woman had every right to be frustrated. Within only a few minutes, it seemed the room had exploded beyond a mere meeting into a harsh debate. None of it had the slightest thing to do with her though, so she just sat there and watched.

She did notice Discord calling the young woman Princess Twilight Sparkle, but Twilight didn't really seem to like the princess part very much. She hadn't used it when she'd introduced herself anyways, but she had said that she was a unicorn. A unicorn? Didn't they have a horn? Tink looked around to gauge other people's reactions, and as she did, she caught sight of a lack of wings proturding from her back. She sighed softly. So maybe Twilight had been a unicorn after all. That would explain the magic. However, she was not a fairy princess. Tink started giggling silently at the phrase. Come on! Her magic was purple, not pixie dust gold. She shook her head at the man's silliness.

She then noticed that the screen had changed. Tinkerbell took a small notebook and pen from her bag and started writing down the little agenda. Once she was done with that, she wrote notes next to each point. What kind of information did she have? Well, did her flying machine plans count as information? She wasn't sure, but she could definitely help with the invisibility ray discussion. She'd been there, so had Discord, but maybe he'd forget something. As for theories, wasn't this the mainland? She'd been to the mainland lots of times, and it looked just like this. Of course, she'd gone there as a fairy all those times, and now she was a human. That seemed like an unimportant detail though, but maybe she could ask Twilight about it. As for the last two things, Tink really had no idea. Maybe if she built a flying machine it could take everyone home?

All the while she'd been taking notes, people had been talking around her. She'd mostly been ignoring them, but a few snippets penetrated her thoughts. It seemed one man couldn't remember anything at all about who he was. Tink gave him a pitying look. She couldn't imagine not being able to remember anything about herself. It must make being here so much harder. He seemed to think that the suits didn't want anyone remembering anything. That was just silly though because a lot of people remembered who they were. It didn't seem like something the suits could control. Another man complained about how they'd made him pick a different name. Well, they'd done the same thing to her, but that didn't mean anything. Did it?

[Applejack Smith]

Applejack gave Twilight a big smile when she heard her name called out. She shot a smile at Discord as well before resuming her meal. She wasn't eating very long though when she nearly choked on a big bite of sandwich. What had that man just called Twilight? It sounded very rude and made her want to wash out her ears. She would have jumped to Twilight's defense immediately had she not been busy trying to hack up a lung. Besides, it seemed Discord was already on it. Princess? Since when was Twilight a princess? She gave Discord a curious look as if expecting some kind of explanation. Well, maybe he just thought Twilight was a princess because her element of harmony was shaped like a crown. That made sense. If she'd only ever seen Twilight wearing a crown, she might think her friend was a princess too.

Applejack winced when Twilight snapped at Discord. Now there'd been no need for that. Would Twilight have snapped at her if she'd done the defending? A. J. looked at the purple-haired woman, taking note of the tightness in her face. Well, actually, maybe she would have. Applejack gave Discord an apologetic smile and scooted her chair closer to him. "She's just stressed," she said in a whisper only he could hear. "Don't take it personally." She punctuated this sentence with a gentle pat on Discord's shoulder. Then she went back to eating.

By this time, Twilight had used her magic to make the image on the screen change. Applejack read each item carefully, not really listening to the others. She had no problem with the first three items, though she wasn't sure she could contribute to them. However, item four and especially four B made her fidget in her seat. "Uh, Twilight?" A. J. asked her friend nervously. She glanced around at the room, knowing full well that what she was about to say probably wouldn't be too popular. She felt it needed to be said though. "Are ya sure we oughta be tryin' to get home? I mean, I wanna go home just as much as anyone else, but we don't even know why we're here. For all we know, we coulda been brought here to do somethin' good. All I'm sayin' is maybe we should find out why we're here before we go chargin' at the nearest exit like bulls seein' red." She glanced over at Discord, smirking slightly.

Of course, she wasn't sure if she was right. Maybe they really should be trying to get out of here as soon as possible. Still, she felt that they should at least consider it. There seemed to be quite a few good guys here, and it was reasonable to think that the bad guys had been brought to test the good ones. She just wasn't at all sure they knew what they were doing, despite Twilight's slide show making skillz.

[Darwin Daugherty]

Darwin sat down just in time for AJ to slide closer to him. Ever since their wild rodeo, he felt like he honestly made a good friend in her. That's two by his count. When she mentioned the bull he just returned a knowing smirk. He nodded to each question taking them all into his thought process. first the boy who insulted twilight had lost all his memory and had some stuff confiscated. Then the wiry one mentioned that he retained his memory, had to take a different name, and had a massive body shifting. the blond from the park took notes like crazy, perhaps a stand in Spike? Then Applejack brought up if they should shift home. Darwin gently placed his hand on the table and closed his eyes.

"This does sound like a sudden case of chaos. And as a certified master of that field as These two lovely ladies can attest to, There are a few questions we can ask to try and set some....order...to things. This should give you some information for item one of your 'checklist.'" Opening his eyes, he looked to the man who was so blunt earlier with Amnesia. "When causing chaos, one must first answer Who. Who is the ultimate target? While messing with people can lead to the end, planned chaos has one person in mind. It is my understanding from my meetings with others here, that we are from different worlds. So there might be a single entity in this world who we were brought here for." Next he adverted his gaze to The string bean drinking coffee like water. "Second, What. What is out of the norm for each person affected? It seems just from this table, those who had a great deal of power were left with their memories while those at the normal end of the spectrum lost thiers." His look went to Blondie and then to Twilight and the Charming one apparently still at the counter. "Also from those of the same world, what is different about them. From our conversation in the library Twilight, it would seem I came from a point in our timeline a bit past where you came from. Your last memory in Equestria is a good month or so earlier than my last memory in our land."

Sitting back and readjusting his gaze to the group at large. "If information was taken and names changed, it might be to protect those from other worlds and timelines. Somethings we know might be harmful to those who don't." Sitting back he took his glass of chocolate milk and took a sip, pinkie up. Talking for so long does make a throat parched. Though, he was considering after the meeting, just finding a nice spot in the forest and taking a nap.

[Twilight Sparkle]

[WARNING: Post contains a full length Twilight lecture thing. I'm figuring that what she's saying is important enough that she'd have the floor long enough to prattle (that and Twilight has super-lecture powerz on top of her slide making skillz), but just a heads up that she's sort of taking the floor. Kinda happened last meeting too...]

At least people were following the chart, more or less. Eric and Starscream McBadguy were a bit crass about it, but even they had fallen in line, more or less. Eric had even provided information that Twilight had never heard before, leaving her blinking and working to figure it out. The amnesia, she knew about, and was certainly going to address in a moment, but the bit about taking all his possessions and filtering them... that sounded decidedly odd to Twilight. Why do something like that? They hadn't taken her spell-scroll, and she'd seen that several people got to keep their weapons. So why bother with something like a music player or an identification card? There had to be something about Eric specifically that would cause them to do that. But what...?

Twilight opted to remain silent while everyone else talked and disseminated their information. Applejack's information made her wince, but she had to admit, it was possible. She hadn't thought about what had dragged them here, mostly because, well, it didn't make any sense. She'd get to that in a moment. Discord had already picked up the conversation and ran with it, offering his own insight. It was especially odd hearing so much sense and so little joking coming from the draconequus boy. Then again, he had sort of talked like that after he'd reformed, right? Twilight again nearly found herself wondering, but she shook it off.

"I've actually gathered information, extensive information," offered Twilight, nodding confidently. "I spent months talking to people and analyzing the different sites, and there's quite a lot that we put together last meeting too," Twilight nodded and the slide changed to the next one, displaying graphs and pictures. Twilight cleared her throat, knowing that a lecture was coming, but one that was going to answer a lot of questions and help people.

"We've wondered about the who and why, and we've managed to already come to some conclusions, based off a lot more than just the people gathered in this room," she clicked and a slide appeared. "It seems that we're pulled from different worlds, like Discord said. But it seems to be random: sometimes lots of people come from the same world and sometimes someone is all alone without anyone who's even heard of them or their homeland. There's no pattern in those homelands either: some places have magic, some have high technology, some had nothing but ponies or magical creatures, and some had nothing but humans roaming it. There doesn't appear to be any connection between any of us; it's like we were sampled at random, picked by sheer chance of fate.

"Some people keep different traits too. Usually people with abilities keep weird physical traits, like my hair, but it seems to be a result of how magical or supernatural your world was," the next slide showed pictures of several people, including Twilight, most of her pony friends, and a handful of others, "but even that seems to be random. As for our abilities, it seems that we lose all of them upon arrival," another click, to a sad looking Twilight, with an arrow to a Twilight holding out a glowing hand, "but we get them back in time. I've been here for months now, and some of my magic's back. I've heard there's a girl that's started to hover, and Rainbow's been noticeably lighter for weeks now. So it's likely that we'll all get our abilities back."

Twilight glossed over the fact that she'd heard rumors that there were people who weren't getting their powers back at all: they didn't need to know that.

"Some people do seem to be losing their memories, but there's no conclusive link. Sometimes people with powers lose them: I met an individual who had been a sorcerer before but could barely remember his name, and sometime people without their powers, like Eric here, lose them. It is odd that they took your things though... nobody's done that yet. There must be something---" Twilight shook her head. No distractions! She had a lecture, and they could discuss after it was done. "Anyway, the Displacement Event occurs at random, snagging us without our knowledge and dropping us here. It does seem to hit us at different times, seeming to create divergent timelines. Discord came from a future where I somehow became an alacorn princess, while Rainbow, Applejack and the rest came from the same timeline I did: they missed me.

"But there's no evidence that anything intelligent brought us here. It all just seems too random. And while we might be here to do something, I'd rather get us home. The staff aren't telling us something: we're not allowed to leave the Estates, remember? Something is definitely up with this world, but it feels less like some kind of mission and more like we've been dropped in a prison. Though they are doing almost too well at making sure we have everything we need..."

Twilight paused. That was most of what she had from the first section, with several slides to back up and illustrate. Plus, she figured that was enough to dump on people for one shot. She'd sort of slid some of the future information about theories in as well, since Applejack had brought it up. They just had so much to talk about, and Twilight remembered how difficult it had been last time, and they'd had much less to catch people up with then...