“I’ve never been happier to see the incoming end of reality in front of me,” Gem breathed out as Vertradict carried them past the dead zone around the Herald and further north towards Rift.
“Well yeah, if the only other option is everything already being gone,” Prominence was back in her burning corrupted form sitting in a pool of magma. It was a lot easier than constantly emanating heat in the body of a classic unicorn. She pointed at the shattered sky, “And I’m pretty sure the rift is bigger.”
“Understatement of the year,” Magpie frowned. The rift was easily twice as large as before, and the dead zone had expanded to match. The shadows were endlessly flowing out of the auxiliary rift, fighting ever-renewing forces of Spring’s Corrupted now spread over larger area, “How can we even affect this? Is this alicorn we’re trying to save so powerful?”
“Joy?” Vertradict shook his head, enjoying finally flying over an area without constant threat of corruption, “No, Joy has never been particularly powerful in comparison to other alicorns. As the alicorn of Lust, she could become one of the best one day, but she’s too young. I doubt her corruption would be the key to this.”
“If you knew that, then why did you agree to help?” asked Gem.
“Over my time with Joy and in meeting Cromach during last few years, I learned one extremely important thing, little changeling.”
“Yeeees?” Gem tilted her head.
“When they get involved in something together, you never get just the two of them for too long,” Vertradict laughed, “And I’ve had my suspicions about things for months.”
“Huh, what do you mean?” Prominence tilted her head. Harriet and Magpie shrugged while Gem’s face remained impassive.
“It means that I have no idea where you want me to land!”
That made Gem look up and awaken from whatever daydream she was having. No one could have had any idea that she was beginning to put two and two together.
“We’ll use machinery loading tunnels of Rift. Those are connected to the old shafts we can take. You’re still going to have to squeeze a bit, but it should be doable because those were made for- nevermind. Oh, and land in front of the Rift gate. We don’t want minotaurs getting itchy triggers. They normally don’t use classic projectile weapons, but for the defense of the city they’re using these massive harpoons coupled with the biggest miniguns I’ve ever seen including those mounted on griffon Imperial Guard power armors. Don’t ask how I got into the Holy City, it’s a long story.”
“Don’t worry about smaller spaces,” replied Vertradict, “Corruption has made this body much more malleable than it used to be. Just make sure we don’t have to fight our way through. Not that I would mind, but you’re the one saying we’re running out of time, and judging by the void rift back there, I now agree.”
“Good, drop me off first, and I’ll sort things out. Hopefully, Sinew won’t remember any part of me mindfucking him for information four days ago.”
“What?” Prominence facehoofed.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Gem scratched her head with an innocent smile.
Gem was just toying with them to ease her own doubts. There was no way Sinew would remember their last encounter, and if minotaurs had any issues with Vertradict, she had more than enough leverage in the right places. No, what she was really bothered about was if the group led by her mother had been or would be able to get Joy in time.
There was on last thing to convey to everyone, though:
“Guys, you can’t tell anyone anything you’re going to see. Don’t ask any questions, and do what you’re told.”
She didn’t need to wait for their answers.
Her doubts turned to shock immediately pushed away by the heavy weight of sadness when she entered the hive throne room.
The shock was from the fact that Joy was already there, standing motionless on a stasis disc, enveloped with a glimmering blue field. In the same way, Cromach was floating around, observed by Cromfort in her form of a classic blond changeling.
The horror, however, came when she saw Cryo sitting on the floor in front of the throne room, head hung low, with the main body of Eleven wrapped in a tight embrace. She was covered in deep scars from neck down. The other ten tiny bodies of Eleven were huddled around her, completely unnoticed by the ancient queen. The moment she saw it she knew that all Cryo’s spawn who had gone on the mission to capture Joy with her had died.
What she wasn’t prepared for was that as she walked closer, Cryo stood up and stared down into her eyes. There was no hostility in that gaze, even though in retrospect there should have been, only exhaustion.
“Not in my darkest beards have I thought that I would have to kill every single one of my own spawn again, only because of a different kind of taint,” Cryo passed by stunned Gem, “Make their sacrifice worth it.”
Three caught up with the old queen who only shook her head, and left the throne room.
Comfort rushed over to Gem, examining her from head to hooves.
“I’m liking the look,” she turned away, heading off to Joy, “And you could have told me you were trying to unscrew this sad piece of work.”
“You know her?” asked Gem.
“Honey, I’m the top succubus. The only one above me is the alicorn of Lust, and while I could certainly say working under Scream was easier, Joy wasn’t too big on oversight, so my job got a lot more fun,” she waved at Vertradict, “Speaking of familiar faces, long time no see!”
“I would say I missed you, but that would be a lie,” said the crouching dragon, “Now can we skip the formalities and get to business, please? I was under the impression we were in a hurry.”
“Indeed,” a robot Gem had previously mistaken for one of the throne mechs spoke out while still walking around the disk containing Gem, “I know the process, but each of you must figure out what my instructions mean. My knowledge of the internal workings of mental abilities is lacking to say the least.”
“Mental experts fix her head, yada yada,” Comfort trotted over with Gem in tow.
“That is one of the steps, yes,” said Bucket, “However, to do that we are going to need to weaken the stasis field, which will make Joy able to act to a degree. The rest of you will have to restrain her somehow while I administer the correct dosage of the cure over time. We can’t rush this, or it won’t work. Vertradict’s presence is the key her memory might want to catch on once the corruption recedes and you two rebuild whatever you can from her broken mind.”
“Can we help?” asked Cromach.
“You’ve already done enough by teleporting us all the way here and given me time to prepare,” Bucket shook his head, “I’d rather avoid you further using your unstable power during a delicate process like this. Heavy, though, can help restrain Joy.”
“Can I help?” Three raised his hoof, “I can feel she’s hurt even more than miss Cryo.”
“Wait until she calms down a little,” said the boss, his horn glowing as he stepped down from the throne, “I’ll help stop her.”
“Horn rot,” said Prominence, “You can’t use anything magic-like against Corrupted.”
“Trust me, I know what I’m doing. This won’t be the first time I have to deal with something trying to mess with me on a molecular level. In fact, we’ll see if third time really is the charm,” he smirked, “Let’s begin.”
***
Mistake opened his eyes as he felt the pocket dimension open for visitors. He wasn’t afraid, that emotion had died within him long time ago. These days, there was only the mission. Of course, there was always a chance that he’d made a, heh, mistake, and that his own end was approaching at speed.
However, even that fate wasn’t worrying anymore. He knew what his part in the plan was, and he had played it in full. Unfortunately, the plan had failed, thwarted by the hooves of the alicorns. There were contingencies, of course, but preparing everything had taken over three years, and left behind so many clues that there wouldn’t be a second chance, that much he knew. This was the last shot, the last push, and it wasn’t his to make.
“Oh well, I guess it’s time to face the music,” he rose up from a chair in a rather comfortable office inside a building overlooking a courtyard overgrown with vegetation, and in a flash of light he was gone.
He materialized on a neatly mowed lawn of a city park, and looked at the four approaching figures - two walking, one riding, and one floating. It hurt him to see them here because, had the plan worked correctly, there would be no need for this, they wouldn’t have to meet, and they wouldn’t have to know.
They stopped some five pony lengths away, watching.
“Tell me, mister hundred and fifty million dead in one swoop, why?” said Heavy Hoof, tone without any hint of anger, just full of genuine curiosity, “You knew I might meet Des, so you gave her a message for me.”
“I wasn’t the one who did it,” Mistake shook his head.
“Then where is he?” Cromach spread his arms, looking at the sky, “He knows I want answers, he knows I don’t care if you two are behind deaths and suffering of millions. ALL I WANT IS HIM, AND NOW THAT I’M FINALLY HERE, HE’S NOT HERE!”
Mistake sighed, lowering his head, which brought him to the eye level of a changeling drone he’d never seen before, although the runes on its body betrayed its maker as Scream. That meant it could quite likely be the oldest changeling drone in the world.
The drone smiled at him, and even just for a fraction of a second, the weight of the world lifted from his back. Why? He had no idea, but the drone’s smile was genuine, as if it could see in Mistake the goodness he knew he’d lost long time ago. It was just the push he needed to face the infinite pain in Cromach’s eyes.
“I’m afraid you won’t meet again, Cromach. Everything I know, every moment of research I sacrificed for the plan, every bit of stolen divine knowledge I’ve been able to explore… nothing helped me figure out a way to end this with both of you alive.”
“I want to talk to him!”
“No, you can’t.”
“Mistake!” hissed Cromach, “I will talk to him! We will figure something out, we’re all together again, even if Joy-”
“None of you possess enough power to even remotely alter the outcome.”
“WHAT OUTCOME?!” Cromach screamed into Mistake’s face, frustration taking over.
“I don’t know. Only he knows how the plan ends, but it’s not with you three together again,” said the unicorn with infuriating calm, “My role is over, and I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that since you’ve somehow managed to all get here, so is yours.”
“Mistake, I beg you,” Heavy sat down on the grass, “Can you stop the cryptic bullshit? We got so far, the world is on the brink, and we’re not sure if we’re helping stop it or making it happen-”
“Nope, we’re stopping it,” said the drone without a moment of hesitation “One hundred percent, zero doubts in my mind.”
Mistake blinked. No part of the plan had ever accounted for… that. Confusion won, and he sat down, prompting the same from silent Joy with uncharacteristically vacant stare.
“Then if you don’t mind, would you please explain something first? After that, I promise I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“Woo arh yoo?” asked Joy with a slur, leaving a string of drool on the side of her muzzle. Heavy’s tentacle stretched out and wiped it off, upon which Joy gave him a lopsided smile.
“...we don’t have time for her-” Cromach’s hiss was stopped by Mistake’s raised hoof. Joy shot him a hurt look.
“Time is irrelevant here, Cromach, at least for now. My name is Mistake, Joy. I’m a…” he looked for a simple explanation of a difficult situation, “friend,” was what he settled for.
Joy smiled at Mistake, apparently content with the answer. The unicorn took a deep breath, and asked:
“Does her state have something to do with corruption?”
Heavy nodded, sighing.
“The changelings weren’t able to find enough pieces of her mind to create somepony more coherent. Unlike with Cromach who was a Corrupted for only few months or so, we’re sure Joy was like this since after Nightmare’s attack on the old Silver Sun mansion. Almost four years,” he shook his head, “It’s a miracle they managed to save at least something. Again, unlike with Cromach, we couldn’t even properly cure her corruption. It was the only thing keeping her together. The imprint in her divinity was miniscule at best. Nightmare must have done something more to her than just toss her defenseless into a group of Corrupted.”
“Strange, when I felt the magic bringing you here, I identified it as hers.”
“It was. We needed her to get us here, which was the knowledge the changelings focused on during her restoration. She cast the spell perfectly, but the rest of her...”
“How aware is she?”
“Enough,” Heavy shuffled closer and leaned his head against the black alicorn. In response, Joy wrapped her wing around his back, “She seems to know who we are, or at least how to feel about us, which is the most important thing right now. Physically, her brain is absolutely fine, the mind using it is incomplete. The changelings said she could get better with time.”
“Which neatly brings me to my second question,” Mistake pointed at Three who booped his hoof with his nose and giggled, “Who is this?”
“I’m Three!” said Three, thus explaining everything. Mistake gave Heavy and Cromach a quizzical glance.
“Hey, he’s not lying, he’s Three,” Cromach shrugged.
“The king of the northern hive asked us to take him with us.”
Mistake decided against asking why there was a changeling drone in a body made by Scream currently sitting on his haunches and staring at him with unbridled curiosity, or at least how things came to be this way. Instead, he asked:
“And what does he want?” he faced Three, “What do you want here?”
“I want to hug,” said Three.
Once again, Mistake looked at Heavy and Cromach for explanation. Once again, he earned only shrugs.
“You now know as much as we do,” said Heavy, corner of his mouth curling upwards.
“Don’t you mean that you want a hug?” Mistake tried again.
“No, he doesn’t,” Cromach facetaloned.
“Nope!” Three beamed, but this time it was short lived, and turned into a frown, “But everyone says you’re a bad guy, so I’m not so sure about hugging you.”
“I see,” Mistake lowered his head, ”I’m afraid they’re right. I am the bad guy here. As you undoubtedly know, I was behind the zebra campaign of death and destruction. It was necessary to find the last key to release the Herald. Silver Sun observers whom Des was sending out on missions via Bucket were able to pinpoint its location, but from our experience with Silversmith caches, we knew that if anyone of the wrong specifications got inside, it would self-destruct. It wouldn’t make releasing the Herald impossible, but much more time-consuming, and time wasn’t on our side. Every mistake, every movement could have drawn attention. We eventually discovered that the cache was an ancestral tomb to a certain zebra bloodline, and got its current possessor interested in world domination. He opened the cache for me in exchange for saving him from Celestia’s tactical spell strike.”
“I hate to break it to you, but you were hardly working in secret,” said Cromach.
“We wouldn’t be here if that was the case,” Mistake gave him a soft smile, “Which brings us to the second reason for the massacre. All the torture, all the needless murder, all the pain… everything was necessary to keep Nightmare’s eyes firmly on us, namely me. She is a god, she can easily read the minds of anyone, draw any information they know. With few exceptions. One, she is the absolute god of this reality, so she can’t read the minds of those who are outside of it. Two, while she in theory knows everything… she doesn’t know everything at the same time. She can contextually gain any knowledge about anything, but in simple terms it’s like a really good radio - you are surrounded by all kinds of waves, but you’re listening to only the one station you’re trying to.”
“Question!” Heavy raised a tentacle, “How do you know that? How do you know how a god thinks?”
“Because I have the knowledge as well, and it’s a pain in the ass to use,” said Mistake, “Remember, Blaze can absorb divine power, and divine power contains its user, no matter how small the amount may be, which means it also contains all their personality, and personality is the summary of experience, knowledge, and other things. Over our life, Blaze absorbed divine power from all three gods, and when Nightmare almost killed us in Manehattan four years ago, he absorbed a little bit of her as the one true god. Of course, Blaze can’t contain both the divine power and the knowledge as a mortal, but that’s why I’m here. The knowledge is locked away inside me, although it can take me a long time to find what we need, and he has the divine power with all the cool explosions, phoenix wings and so on. But since I don’t have the access to the reality-shaping power of divinity, I’m able to use magic, and with literally all potential knowledge at my disposal, I’m able to use magic that would make both alicorns of Magic cream themselves. In short, Nightmare can’t read my mind because it would be like reading the entire contents of her own. Of course, she could see the main focus of my effort, which was to gain the seal keys and open a void rift impossible to close.”
“Which was a destructive goal she wanted to see finished,” said Heavy.
“Exactly,” Mistake nodded.
“Wait, how did she not notice Flow was taking the other keys?” asked Cromach.
“I told you, she can’t focus on those outside this reality. She knew about the deaths he caused and the fear he instilled in everyone, but she couldn’t find him unless she happened to be looking in the right direction, which was what I had to prevent.”
“All that destruction only to draw Nightmare’s attention away from something she wanted done anyway? That doesn’t make sense,” Heavy furrowed his brows.
“Not only,” Mistake frowned, and in a flash of light the Soulstealer appeared hovering in the air, “The final and main reason was to torture and kill as many creatures as possible, and take their souls as a source of power.”
Cromach’s jaw dropped. In his experience, necromancers with access to several enslaved souls were a pain to deal with. Those with dozens required tactical effort or specialized magic to get rid of. Someone with hundreds of millions…
“Wait,” he said, “No one can hold so many of them. They eventually destroy the soul of anyone using so much.”
“Your premise is flawed,” said Mistake, “The souls weren’t slaves in the end. They were an army, an army for the only creature who can lead and use so many of them,” he looked at Heavy in whose head it finally clicked.
“The alicorn of Death...” he breathed out.
“You see, opening void rifts is easy, but closing them is much harder. Without the power of souls, Blaze would never be able to travel through the void, shield himself with it, attack using void rifts.”
“So, just for clarity sake,” Cromach pointed at Mistake, “Flow is my Blaze, right?”
Mistake nodded.
“Then why didn’t he say anything when we met at the wall of names? Why didn’t he contact me-”
“Are you really asking why he didn’t say anything as Nightmare was physically standing there and laughing at you after she summoned a DIFFERENT Blazing Light whom you tried to protect from HIM?” Mistake facehoofed, “You know… after so many years you should know how he thinks as much as I do. And later… well, you had your new Blazing, Nightmare was watching you almost as closely as me, and he was getting ready for a suicide mission.”
Cromach punched the ground, hiding his face with his other arm.
“Why? Why can’t we ever be together…? I want him! I don’t care what the circumstances are.”
“You’re in love with a pony who is really difficult to love,” said Mistake quietly.
“And what now that he got killed?” asked Heavy, trying to stick to facts otherwise he’d start crying.
“Yeah, right… killed,” snickered Mistake, “LAZY ASS IS JUST SULKING!” he yelled into the air, “But honestly, I can understand him. We sacrificed so much, we know that under Nightmare’s eyes we would never be able to live in peace, and when we’re so close, those he’s trying to free from their roles as Nightmare’s toys are doing everything to stop him,” he saw Heavy open his mouth, and shook his head preemptively, “There was no way to talk this out with anyone, even if Nightmare didn’t know about it. There is no other power in this world other than the power of the soul itself to match the god, and no one would willingly do what I did to the victims of my campaign.”
Three prodded him.
“Yes?” Mistake was still unsure why the drone was there.
Three hugged him.
“I thought you didn’t know if I was worth a hug,” commented the unicorn.
“That’s an inv- vest- investmetent!” Three let go and, as usual, smiled, “Now, to earn it you have to say a really big and genuine sorry to everyone after you save them. That goes for the guy mister Cromach here likes so much too, even if I can’t see him and I totally know what you are all talking about...”
That.
That was the last drop.
They could feel it. The fire, the burst of energy, the shockwave that scattered the black stones of Final Sanctuary in the distance far and wide. From there, the black, purple-tipped fires of true death burst up to the sky, making a hole in the boiling clouds.
A moment later, everything was quiet.
“What now?” asked Heavy.
“All we can do now is watch and hope,” said Mistake, “Victory or loss, neither is in our hooves anymore.”
A second later, Heavy, Joy, Cromach, and Three found themselves back in the throne room of the changeling hive.
“How did it-” asked boss.
Cromach snapped his talons and disappeared, leaving the stunned changelings, Joy, Heavy, and one robot behind.
“Maybe not in your hooves, but you didn’t say a word about my talons!”