Sots: 154 - Journey, Part 2 (A Tale of Two Cities) · 12:34pm Mar 31st, 2020
This is part two. See blog posts for part one. 2/7
154 – Journey
II – A Tale of Two Cities
“Elder, that’s… that’s not the end of the story!” Pringle whined.
The Elder chuckled. “It’s the end of what you haven’t heard before.”
“Dungeon crawls are boring,” Joanne deadpanned, clicking away at her phone.
Pringle gasped. “But… but why did the dungeon exist? What about the things in the sky? What about the love story!?”
“If you should know one thing about those who came before us, it’s that romance was never the point,” Jang commented. “Read Starbeat’s autobiography at some point to see how deep it really runs.”
“Jang!” Pringle let out a tense gasp. “You can’t just diss romance like that! It happens and it matters! Humph!”
“I’m pretty sure the Tower was fought to free Romance from its definitions,” Onion said.
“You all are ruining the story!”
“Didn’t Elder say we knew the rest?” Onion said, glancing at the Elder. “We do know the answers to all Pringle’s questions already. Why reiterate what we live through daily?”
The Elder smirked. “Because it’s fun to tell, little one.”
“Onion. Little.” Joanne snorted. “That’s a laugh.”
“More of a snort,” Pringle corrected.
Joanne’s fingers started flying across her phone faster. The Elder had recently learned this was her equivalent of a death glare. So bizarre… then again, given her lineage, that wasn’t all that surprising.
“Tell us! Tell us!” Pringle squeed, clapping her hooves. “Tell us about Discord, about Flutterfree, about the two Cities of Old, and about the mech field! Tell us!”
“All right, all right, sit down and enjoy my show.” The Elder stretched her arms and looked to the sky, watching the planets above shift and turn in their myriad of unusual patterns. “See, Pinkie was a good captain. When she sensed there were multiple things that needed doing, she made sure all of them got done…”
~~~
“Right! Lots of stuff going on, but we’ve got a lot of people to do it!” Pinkie clapped her hooves together. “Shimmy, you and your people are on rebuilding the ship. I’ll be around to help, as will whoever else sits around.”
Shimmy shrugged. “Sure.”
“MY SCIENCE GIRLS!” Pinkie declared, pulling Roxy, Corona, Jenny, and Pidge together with a cartoonish elongating cane. “You four are going to investigate these weird mecha and find out what exactly that thing was at the bottom of the dungeon.”
“Yes, boss mare!” Roxy said, saluting. “We’ll get to the ‘bottom’ of it!”
Corona snickered.
“Now, the floating rocks!” Pinkie pointed into the air at the islands. “I’m sending one team to each. Let’s see… O’Neill, Nanoha? You can be in charge of Starbeat, Jotaro, and Lightning today. I don’t wanna hear any griping about there needing to be a clear ‘chain of command,’ those two cuties have got the leader thing down.”
Nanoha and O’Neill linked arms and did a semi-mocking bow.
“Other team, you’ll be headed by Mlinx. Vriska, Roland, Zod, Burgerbelle, you’re with him.”
Mlinx twirled his spear. “We shall do our best.”
“Always so formal,” Vriska groaned. “You’re a demon! Be more… fun.”
Pinkie let them talk amongst themselves. “As for the rest of you, you’ll be staying here. Helping with the ship, relaxing, and dealing with…” She stopped on Discord and Trixie. “…Personal issues.”
Trixie made a neck cutting motion with her hoof.
Pinkie ignored her. “And I just remembered! I have a very special mission for the Everykid!”
The Everykid pointed at herself in mock confusion.
“That’s right, we need lunch! Get to sandwich makin’!”
Monika sighed. “We all know I’m making it…”
Pinkie waved a dismissive hoof. “You’re making the ingredients. The hat chef is the true master!”
The Everykid exchanged her top hat for a chef’s hat and snapped her fingers, demanding ingredients for pristine sandwiches be brought stat.
With a grunt, Monika created some lettuce. “Pinkie… I would much rather be up there, exploring.”
“You’ll probably be needed at some point, just not now,” Pinkie said. “You’re the strongest person we have, if this blows out of proportion we need you on defense.”
Monika grumbled, creating several loaves of bread.
“That might be a bit too much…”
“I am going to make a bread sandcastle if I’m stuck here, and you can’t stop me. I will record its history alongside our own. There will be many great battles and loves and... other interesting things!”
“Sounds fun!”
Monika facepalmed.
~~~
The sky islands were cities. From a distance, they looked like they were one and the same, and that’s what the two teams thought on approach at first.
Upon getting closer, however, they realized they were not only different from each other, but they were exact opposites, visually. In the center of each, there was a square pyramid of smooth stone. On one it was black—the other a pearly pristine white. The buildings around the temples would have been indicative of Merodi construction were they not both black and white, almost like a zebra. The skyscrapers of the two cities didn’t match shape exactly, but it appeared significant effort had been put to have locations in one city be white while the counterpart in the other city would be black.
The other difference was much stranger. The black pyramid’s city had a dominant red color in its city’s artificial lighting, while the white’s focused on greens and blues.
“I’ve seen this somewhere before…” O’Neill mused.
Mlinx shrugged. “It’ll become apparent in time, I am certain.”
They had just teleported to the bridge connecting the two cities together, both teams sitting on a long, gray stone structure without a single person on it. There was no traffic between the cities to speak of.
“Eerie,” Starbeat observed. “Something’s going to go very, very wrong here.”
“Or right,” Lightning added.
Nanoha cleared her throat. “Well… who goes to which city?”
“We will take the dark pyramid, you the light,” Mlinx decided. “Good luck.”
Everyone nodded to each other and set off—walking leisurely rather than teleporting or flying off. Mlinx led Vriska, Roland, Thrackerzod, and Burgerbelle to their darker, redder city. When they reached the main gate at the end of the bridge, they were able to see the city’s insignia: a dark moon with the image of the sun superimposed over it.
Mlinx tapped on it with his spear. “Greetings.”
A panel beneath the insignia slid open, revealing a screen with a simple white eye displayed on it. It blinked. “What do you want?” it intoned in a bored tone.
“We are travelers,” Mlinx explained. “We wish to know what your city is and how it has come to be in the sky in this New World.”
“Ah. Travelers. Not from the Light Side, good. There is no travel ban on non-residents.” With a click, the gates slid open with a slick sci-fi noise.
“Wait, hold up,” Vriska raised a hand. “Will we be able to leave?”
“I am not here to stop people from leaving, I am here to stop the Light Side from entering.” It blinked again, seemingly randomly.
“What are they the Light Side of?” Mlinx asked.
“They are the Light Side of the Moon. We are the Dark Side of the Moon. Ever unwillingly connected by this bridge.” It beeped. “I am not an information module. You may find more within our streets.”
The panel slid shut once more, though the gates remained open.
Vriska shrugged. “Well, I g—” Before she could get off her usual snide comment, Roland walked past her and into the city. “Wh—hey! I was… uuugh, he’s ruining my dramatic timi—”
Burgerbelle let an alarm clock off in Vriska’s ear.
“Gee, thanks,” Vriska muttered, rubbing the side of her head. “Jegus, that’s loud.”
“I can make it louder.”
Vriska glared at her. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“No, but I would delay you so you’re the last one through the doors!” Burgerbelle hopped into the city, shooting the delayed Vriska some finger-guns.
Vriska stole a little of her luck, making the eternal child trip.
“Cut it out,” Thrackerzod muttered. “This is no time for games. I’m sensing something… off.”
“How so?” Mlinx asked. As they entered the city, he admittedly didn’t find anything too unusual or wrong about it. Besides the odd color scheme and primarily-red lighting, the people looked like normal people of the multiverse—a cobbled mixture of humans, ponies, and other races. A distinct lack of Gems, which probably meant this wasn’t a Merodi-originated city, though it was still possible.
Despite being called the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, the city itself was very bright. Even though the lamps were crimson, the natural lighting from above let the colors of the ponies and the clothes of the humans shine for what they were—diverse.
“…It’s like…” Thrackerzod couldn’t put it into words. “It’s not eldritch, but that’s the closest descriptor I have. It reminds me of the slight influence in the back of your mind that can draw you to one of the Old Ones.”
“A corruption?”
“I am uncertain.” Thrackerzod frowned.
“...What’s red and white and black all over?” Burgerbelle asked.
“We are not walking through a newspaper right now,” Thrackerzod grunted. “Nor is that pertinent.”
“That is,” Roland said, pointing at a man walking down the street in white robes… holding in his hand an active, bright red lightsaber.
Anyone who’s been around the larger multiverse long enough eventually finds Star Wars or one of the myriad of variants thereof, and one of the most absolute rules is thus: the red lightsabers are evil and extremely dangerous.
So when the ‘Sith’ warrior walked up to them and took off her hood, they were shocked to see a warm smile waiting for them. “Ah, visitors from beyond! Welcome to the Dark Side of the Moon.” Only after her greeting wasn’t returned with warmth did she seem to think to turn her lightsaber off. “Oh, you’ll have to excuse us, it’s been so long since our blades been associated with corruption, few people respond negatively anymore.”
Vriska raised an eyebrow. “Why not just use another color?”
“It’s what we can make,” the woman said with a shrug.
“So you are fucking with the… uh… what do they call it?”
“The Dark Side of the Force,” Burgerbelle said, in a Darth Vader mask.
“Yes, that,” Vriska pointed.
“Oh, absolutely,” the woman used the Force to hook her lightsaber hilt on her belt. “The Dark Side’s bent toward personal power, and the control of destiny lends itself best to our creed.”
“…Which is…?” Thrackerzod asked.
“Well… perhaps it would be best if I showed you. Come, there’s a statue I’d like you to see.”
Mlinx nodded, giving his approval for everyone to follow her. They passed through a few densely packed streets. Now that they were looking for it, they saw dozens of lightsabers in the use of the general population, though only a few had the religious-looking robes. Every last one they saw active had been red—no evidence of any other colors.
Vriska and Zod had enough of a psychic component to their abilities to sense the use of the Force now that they knew what to look for—objects were regularly levitated, people jumped higher than they were supposed to, and one guy even used Force lightning to light a furnace.
Those who had encountered the Dark Side before were absolutely baffled to see a stable society existing from what they had previously experienced only as power-hungry murderous maniacs.
“Maybe ka really is lifting curses,” Thrackerzod muttered.
“It is, and we are so thankful for it,” the woman said. “Because she is the one who gave us this gift.” Holding out her hand, she drew their attention to a statue made of solid gold.
A statue of Corona.
“…Shit,” Vriska muttered.
The statue was lifelike, if five times the size of Corona. She stood on both her feet with wings spread wide and face held high. A calm, welcoming smile dominated her facial features, and one of her hands was outstretched as if to embrace. The other was lifted high in a fist of power, ready to dish out judgment if required.
At the base of the statue, many things were happening. Some kids were playing, others were dancing, and a few street musicians were letting their songs mingle in the air. Only a few people were actively kneeling and praying to the altar, but even one would have been enough to set Corona off were she here.
“You knew her, didn’t you?” the woman asked.
“You could say that…” Vriska said, weighing her options.
“You’re… you’re her! Vriska, aren’t you?”
Why do I have a feeling like that’s a bad thing to recognize? “Yep. That’s me. Vriska Serket, Thief of Light.” She put on a cocky smile.
“And your friends! Oh, they must be…” the woman turned to Mlinx and put two and two together. Her smile vanished in an instant. “Oh…”
“…I am Mlinx, but I believe you figured that out.” He extended one of his hands. “You haven’t told us your name.”
“I… excuse me, I have to…” Without bothering to come up with an explanation, she Force-jumped onto a railing and ran away.
Thrackerzod moved to pursue, but Mlinx held out a hand. “We do not need a scene.”
“We’re going to get one anyway,” Roland mused. “She’s reporting to someone.”
“Yes. She is,” a feminine voice said, one distinct from the last. She wore robes like the other woman, but she was decidedly inhuman: with orange skin and two points under her hood that might have been horns. “It is best if you leave. Even you, Vriska. Not even those who support the collapse are safe from Troi’s… eccentricity. The Dark Side may be tamed, but people are not.”
“And who are you?” Mlinx asked.
“A concerned citizen.” She backed away from them. “I would hurry. She moves quickly.”
“Hey!” Thrackerzod called. “We’ve got questions f—wait, no, she’s not even there, that’s just a spirit projection.”
The ‘concerned citizen’ smiled before dissipating into nothing.
“…Well…” Mlinx scratched his chin. “I suppose the question now becomes if we listen to her or not.”
“We all know we’re not leavin’,” Roland muttered, turning to stare at the pyramid in the center of the city. “Best to skip the argument and get to solving the mystery.”
“But the argument’s half the fun!” Burgerbelle whined.
“This way we get to the action faster,” Vriska said.
“Oh.” Burgerbelle shrugged. “All right the—”
“YOU!”
“And that would be trouble,” Mlinx groaned, turning to face the source of the shout. It was an elf—or a man that looked a lot like an elf—walking toward them, robes trailing behind him in a supernatural wind. In each hand he held a lightsaber, out and ready to attack. “My good sir, what can we do for you?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, mister mayor!” the elf shouted. “You are Mlinx… the once-great leader of the City and well known Preservationist!”
“The war is long behind us, and I am not here in any official capacity.” Mlinx folded his hands together. “I was merely exploring and found your city.”
“Bullshit,” he took a few steps forward. “You and your little entourage are here to sow seeds of preservation dogma in attempts to ruin what we’ve fought for!”
“My good man, I—”
“Shut up, let me talk,” Vriska shoved Minx to the side. “Yo. Darth Earlobe. Pretty sure you know who I am.”
The newly-dubbed Darth Earlobe stopped in his tracks. “You can’t be—”
“Yes. I am. Vriska Serket, primary team, served under Pinkie before the War and Corona directly after. I fought for this New World and this chance. And you know what? I like what we’re going toward, so you can rest your deluded brain. We’re not here to sow any ideas, the war’s fucking over. Live in peace, kapeesh?”
“They do not let us…” Darth Earlobe hissed.
“Would she care if they did or not!?” Vriska gestured at the statue. “She went out of her way to limit as much death as she could. She was willing to throw herself and more just to keep that little glimmer of hope most of us ignore so much! So get your ostrich head out of the ground and wisen up a bit, asshole.”
“You must have been brainwashed.”
“Wow. Idiot, too. I still supported the collapse, did all th—”
“I WILL FREE YOU FROM THEIR CLUTCHES!”
“Oh for the…” Vriska readied her dice, analyzing his luck.
She never got the chance. Roland shot him through the leg the same time three cloaked figures stepped out of the crowd and stopped Darth Earlobe with a Force grab from multiple directions.
Roland lowered his smoking gun. “I am sorry, I was unaware you would help.”
“It’s… fine, you aimed for the leg.” One of the cloaked figures said. “You have your right to self-defense, as all of us do.”
“I’ll help him,” Thrackerzod said, readying a regeneration spell.
“T-that’ll be fine, we’ll handle it.”
“It’ll be faster and less pai—”
“They hate you just like he does,” Roland observed, sitting down on a nearby crate to check his weapon. “They just hate you less than they respect their law.”
Thrackerzod narrowed her eyes. “Even now, after all these years, you harbor such resentment towards those who attempted to stop you?”
“It’s… what you represent,” the cloaked one said, clearly conflicted about the whole encounter. “It…”
“Is something we are trying to move past,” a new, familiar voice said. “I think you, of all ponies, would understand moving past a difficulty, Thrackerzod.”
Standing behind them was a Princess Luna. This version was as tall as Nightmare Moon, but had no sign of the evil eyes or dark magic. Rather, her mane billowed with miniature suns, and her face exuded a brilliant, caring warmth coupled with a powerful sense of authority.
Thrackerzod nodded slowly. “…Perhaps.”
“I take it you are in charge?” Mlinx asked.
The Luna nodded. “I am Centroid, but you may call me Troi. Please, come with me to the palace-temple. All of you are welcome, not just previous allies. I will not let this city become the regimented hovel of hatred the Light Side has become.” Troi saw their expressions. “And yes, I am fully aware of how hypocritical that sounds. As I said, change is hard, and they make it… more so. I will explain all I can over dinner. Come, sit, and be among friends.”
“You a Sith too?” Vriska asked.
Thrackerzod facehooved.
Troi smiled, nodding slowly. “Though our ideology has changed enough that few use that word anymore. With the Tower weakening we are freer to explore ourselves than ever before, and the Dark Side gives us the strength to forge new paths. All thanks to the temple. And no, the temple won’t brainwash you, unlike what the Light Side will have you believe.” She gestured for them to follow with a wing. “Come, I can’t wait to hear of your travels across Nucleon.”
~~~
“…Welcome to the Light Side of the Moon!” a happy unicorn in a very prim and proper soldier’s uniform said. “Lemme just open the gate for ya real quick…” She moved a few levers with a psychic ability, notably not using her horn at all. The complex locks on the pearly gate clicked repeatedly, separating the complex puzzle of interlocking pieces that made up the city’s emblem: a small sun overtop a moon. The gates slid apart in several chunks before they were allowed in.
“You have no idea how glad I am to have some visitors from beyond, I mean, really. Turning away every single Dark Sider is just booooring. And then some of them try to shoot me and it gets problematic.” She giggled to herself. “Anyway, enjoy our city! Do be sure to keep your IDs on you at all times.”
“Question,” O’Neill said, examining his plastic card suspiciously. “We are allowed to leave at any time, right?”
“Return your cards to the reception desk on the inside and you can leave, yes. We’re not some kind of trap, geez. I suggest making your way to the restaurant center, most interesting place aside from the temple itself. The sky shrimp at Vera’s is the best.”
“Thank you,” Nanoha said with a smile.
O’Neill took point, hands in his pockets. “Well…” He examined the green and blue lights on the walls and put two and two together at last. “Star Wars?”
Nanoha nodded. “Oh, yes; or at least derived from it.”
“I hope there’s a Wookie running around.”
“No, you don’t, you wouldn’t be able to let the Wookie win.”
“I want to try.”
Nanoha smirked. “You sure you can handle that level of hubris?”
“All-right, lovebirds,” Starbeat coughed. “We’ve got to figure out what this place is like.”
“It’s the Light Side, Jedi,” Jotaro offered. “Heroes.”
“Eeeeh something tells me it’s not all sunshine and rainbows up here.” Starbeat began to look around at the city itself. Physically, the only real difference from the Dark Side was the green and blue lighting everywhere, and even this was mostly drowned out by the natural light of Nucleon.
The people, however, were quite different, though the team had no way of knowing that.
Everyone wore clothing depicting their station: soldiers wore army uniforms, merchants wore color-coded suits based on their wares, children wore simple white clothing, engineers wore bright blue working suits, and those akin to Jedi wore vaguely religious dark robes. They seemed to be taking the role of a peacekeeping force.
No one seemed unhappy, but no one seemed to be having fun either. Every interaction was made for some purpose—an exchange of valuables, a keeping of the peace, or the learning of a lesson. Even the children weren’t being rowdy.
Nanoha frowned. “We’re not going to be able to blend in very well, here.”
“No, you are not,” a woman in a dark robe said, walking up to them. She had orange skin and two points in her hood that were indicative of horns. “For your own sake, you should leave. Tessa’s ideals are… intense, and there is no room for those who aren’t willing to follow her crusade. The Light Side may be twisted by the people who use it.”
“Who’re you?” Lightning asked.
“A concerned citizen.”
“A Force projection,” O’Neill answered, gesturing at the woman as she vanished into nothing. “We’re operating on Star Wars rules, baby!”
“You must be excited,” Jotaro deadpanned.
O’Neill clapped his hands together. “I am!”
“…The Senate?” Nanoha finished, stifling a giggle.
“Nanoha, Nanoha, Nanoha… I am the king of references, but not every sentence I make is a reference.”
“Pretty sure Burgerbelle has you beat,” Starbeat said.
“Are we just going to ignore her warning?” Lightning asked, tapping her foot impatiently.
“We’re not leaving,” O’Neill said. “That’s either a scare tactic or telling of something we should be investigating posthaste!” He pointed a finger forward. “Let’s see if we can get to the sky shrimp before everything goes horribly wrong!”
They walked through the city. At first, the citizens paid them no mind whatsoever—just visitors not part of the natural rhythm of their lives. However, time passed, and word must have spread, for people started shooting them aside glances and whispering.
“They’re looking at you, Jotaro,” Nanoha whispered. “Someone must have recognized you.”
“Yare yare daze…”
“Ah, an unincorporated Preservationist city,” Starbeat frowned. “The other’s probably for the collapse. This could be… ugly.”
O’Neill stopped in his tracks. “…Uh-oh.”
Before them was a massive circular plaza filled with people bowing and muttering, directing their prayers to a massive golden statue of Evening. Three of her hooves were planted on the ground while a fourth was outstretched, beckoning everyone who saw it into something greater. Her wings, however, were poised like they were ready for war, and ice shards were coming off her horn. Unusually, her face was sad but also determined.
Starbeat blinked. “Okay. Religious fanatics devoted to the preservation in a society with bizarrely rigid rules coupled with a mysterious warning. I’m going out on a limb here and guessing the other city is also filled with religious fanatics, possibly keyed by the Dark Side of the Force, except for the collapse. They probably want to kill each other more than anything in the world.”
Nanoha frowned. “We need to end the rivalry, or at least start the ball rolling on reconciliation. The war is long over, we don’t need two cities starting it up again.”
“How are we going to do that?” Lightning asked. “We don’t know anything about the situation yet.”
“Researching,” Jotaro said. “Finding the leaders.”
“Ahem,” a woman in dark robes said, unleashing a green lightsaber. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave rather than continue your ‘research’.”
“What did we do?” Lightning asked.
“Not you, him.” She pointed her laser blade at Jotaro. “He can’t be here. His past is known and it’s causing civil unrest.”
“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro strode up to her.
The woman held out a hand, locking his feet to the ground with the Force. “I do not want to engage you in combat, but if you do not comply I will be required to remove you by force.”
“Not a very nice Jedi, are you?” O’Neill commented.
“The Light Side has changed, twisted by the collapse. We were forced to adapt with it to fill a new niche.” She narrowed her eyes. “Jotaro Kujo, leave or I will forcefully eject you.”
“That won’t be necessary.” A Celestia dropped from the sky, landing with a metallic clank on the ground. “I will handle this personally.” She was far from a standard Celestia, for her glorious pastel mane was regulated to a simple ponytail that barely rippled and had black streaks in it. The rest of her body was heavily augmented with white metallic implants, including a large one over her right eye that dominated that side of her face. Her lips did not smile, and her eyes did not waver—in her world, there was no room for nonsense, only action. This alicorn was not a friend to her subjects; only a ruler.
“I am Nanoha Takamachi of the Austraeoh,” Nanoha introduced herself, bowing.
“I am Tesseract, Chancellor of the Light Side of the Moon and guardian of the palace-temple. I am very surprised to see you all traveling together, but it would be foolish to drive you away without asking for an explanation.” Sensing their uncertainty, she shook her head. “You are not facing legal charges. The worst that happens is I will ask you to leave after our meeting to never return. I highly doubt that will happen, however, seeing as we have so much to discuss.”
“Are you prepared for us?” Nanoha asked.
“We have a lot of uncomfortable questions,” O’Neill smirked.
“I would not be fit to rule if I could not answer the most uncomfortable queries. Ask all that you wish.”
~~~
Roxy popped a battery three times her body size out of a mech, allowing it to drop to the grass below.
“MY FOOT!” Jenny screamed, bouncing away from the impact.
“You’ll be fine.”
“It still hurts!”
“You’ve been disintegrated without even blinking,” Pidge pointed out, wiring some circuitry in a massive mech gun. “It’s like you only feel pain when it’s convenient to complain.”
“I always feel the pain.” Jenny crossed her arms. “Always!”
“True,” Corona said. “But you have enough of a tolerance for it at this point you could probably shrug off getting your intestines removed.” She used her magic to tear a mech’s arm off the body, examining the interior for anything interesting.
Jenny grumbled, starting to disassemble the battery Roxy had dropped to her.
“And that’s a point for Corona,” Roxy chuckled, floating away from her mech; there wasn’t anything interesting left inside. She descended to the ground, noticing that the left foot was embedded much further in the ground than the other one. She took a moment to appreciate the engineering that made the legs bend in such a way to keep the torso level despite uneven footing, but quickly used her Void powers to phase through the ground and see why exactly the foot was so low. She found a secret room filled with treasure chests—and a broken down machine-made of pearly orbs and black metal, almost exactly like the one fought at the bottom of the dungeon.
She approached it, laying her hand on the largest, central pearl. It reacted instantly: taking on a dark blue color and gaining the Void symbol. The robot tried to move after this, but it collapsed from years of wear and tear.
“Interesting…” Roxy mused, lifting the robot up. She separated it into its component parts and stuffed it all into her inventory. Having taken care of that, she turned to a chest and opened it.
It lunged at her and bit off her arm.
“Fu—“
She poofed, clattering to the ground as a simple Carnelian gemstone. The mimic looked around in confusion; where had its target gone?
Corona, having sensed Roxy’s magic drop to near-nothing, punched into the secret room and incinerated the mimic with her magic.
This act woke up all the other mimics. Every last chest in the room revealed ravenous, pointed teeth.
“…Who makes a secret treasure room with nothing but mimics?” Corona groaned, unleashing repeated fireballs on the wooden treasure-monsters.
Despite being severely outclassed, Corona had to give the mimics credit; they didn’t give up until they were all ash.
Reaching down, Corona picked up Roxy’s gemstone and pocketed it. When she was in a safer place, she’d rejuvenate the Gem. Right now Corona didn’t want a mimic army to charge in the midst of a healing ritual. Gems were hard enough to coax out of their gemstones as it was.
~~~
“Remember what we practiced,” Trixie said, pushing Discord along the grassy hills. The under-construction frame of the Austraeoh dominated the landscape, even though the more-distant mecha were larger.
“Be yourself?”
“Well, duh, that’s lesson one. Lesson two is pushing outside your comfort zone and taking the prize by the neck!”
Discord raised an eyebrow. “Very predatory language.”
“This is Trixie we’re talking about, expect overdramatic metaphors. Now, this is a tea party, so unfortunately we can’t create a disco ball out of nowhere and make it explode into a cake or something.”
“I don’t think you actually know Flutterfree that well. She’s rather delighted by my chaos! The ginseng shall SING!”
“Yes, whatever, just remember that you do have to push yourself a bit. You may be the Lord of Chaos but under that fur and scales you’re a huge self-conscious softy!”
Discord gasped in mock offense. “I resemble that remark!”
“Blah blah, just get in there. Don’t worry, I’ll be watching, ready to bail you out with a smoke bomb if everything goes south.”
“That’ll just make it worse.” Discord smirked. “Great idea!”
“Does Trixie know you or does Trixie know you?” Trixie boasted.
“Yes.”
Trixie rolled her eyes. “Just get over there, I’ll be in the bush.” With a salute, Trixie jumped into the nearby bush.
With a nervous shrug, Discord walked to the little table Flutterfree had set up for the tea party. She was already sitting there, eyes closed, humming to herself a familiar tune. They could hear most of the others working on the Austraeoh in the distance, but nobody was actually close by to interrupt them.
“I have arrived!” Discord shouted, teleporting onto the chair with a superhero cape. “This deplorably quiet locale needs some… jazzing up.” He snapped his fingers, creating a handful of saxophone creatures to add some jazzy background.
Flutterfree giggled. “I miss the days we could do this in your realm. The magic in there was so unpredictable even you couldn’t manage it sometimes. Who knew what would happen?”
“I…” Discord tugged on a snazzy suit collar that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Well, I suppose I could try to create a randomizer.”
“Oh, no, no, don’t change it, I didn’t mean it like that.” She folded her wings back, smiling nervously. “I was just remembering how things used to be oh… so long ago.” She pressed the marble tips of her wings together. “…Why did we stop having these tea parties, Discord?”
Discord shrugged. “We just stopped over time. Nothing that strange. Everyone got busy, you were off saving worlds and I had to throw some chaos into the mix somewhere. Things got too big, we didn’t overlap. But now we’re here, doing it again!”
Flutterfree pursed her lips. “Yes… we are. And I have really been enjoying it. Reminds me of home and simpler times.” Her face softened into a smile. “We’ve had some really good times, both then and now, haven’t we?”
Discord felt his heart rise and tense at the same time—he might not even have to do anything. It was going perfectly, the conversation was naturally flowing the direction he wanted, all he had to do was… make a move.
And there was the rub. He had to move. He had to do something. But he froze.
“…Discord? What’s with the ice?”
“S-sorry,” he stammered, snapping the ice away. “I froze up a bit, you see. I was… well…” He leaned forward, tapping a claw on the table. “See, I remember those times too. The chaos, the order, the Crusaders—oh those silly Crusaders!”
“They got in so much trouble!”
Discord grinned. “You always said I went a little overkill with that. I’m starting to wonder if I didn’t. Mechs weren’t big enough for their talents!”
“And the time machine wasn’t either?”
“I…” Discord blinked. “Wait, was that a Merodi City I saw, or..?”
“I don’t know, you never let us see the future outside.”
“I don’t even remember anymore,” Discord laughed. “Oh, the Gala.”
Flutterfree’s face twitched slightly. “The one where you invited the Smooze, right?”
“Well, there were a lot of Galas, but that one… yes, that one was one of the most interesting. I believe Celestia called it ‘entertaining,’ all thanks to me.”
“…You were really angry that night.” Flutterfree looked down, her ears twitching.
“What? Psh, psh, water under the bridge!” To illustrate his point he created a bridge and threw a fish under it. “It’s an amusing story, now.”
“Still… I was ignoring you. I shouldn’t do that. I shouldn’t just pretend like… it’s all fine.”
Discord blinked, unsure how to parse that. What did she mean? Every word in that jumble had at least three different interpretations and in conjunction they…
He glanced back at the bush, finding no help there. He would just have to talk on his own. Honestly, he had no idea why Trixie was even here, all she needed to do was push him here.
“Flutterfree…”
Discord noticed she wasn’t looking at him anymore. She was looking at the bush.
“Oh dear.”
Flutterfree raised an eyebrow. “Trixie, are you hiding in that bush?”
“…No!” Trixie insisted.
Flutterfree facehooved. “Of course…”
“Uh…” Trixie poked her head out of the bush. “I can… go, an—”
“No, stay.” Flutterfree forced a sad smile and activated Lolo, revealing a previously-invisible Eve standing right next to Flutterfree. She stopped whispering things in her ear and grinned awkwardly.
“Uh… hi.”
“Hey! Trixie was supposed to be the wingmare today!” Trixie called.
Eve coughed. “To be fair, I had no idea you were in the bush until Flutters found you.”
“Wait, hold on, back up,” Discord lifted his paw. “Did we both get pushed here by our close friends to talk?”
Eve and Trixie nodded.
Discord blinked. “Well…”
“I’m sorry,” Flutterfree said, shaking her head. “I… I was trying to ignore everything and pretend everything was fine. It took Eve to shake me out of it and realize what I was playing with.”
“Same!” Discord grinned. “Trixie had to push me out of the dungeon with explosives to get here!”
“I… did notice.”
“Oh, this is great news, we’re both here for the same reason!” With a delighted laugh, he pulled Flutterfree into a tight hug. “Oh, I was so worried…”
That’s when he felt her tears on his shoulder.
He lifted her up, holding her a short way from his face. “…What?”
“I-I-I’m so sorry Discord, I’m… I’m not here to return your feelings. I… I…” She swallowed, looking him right in the eye. “I was trying to let you down easy.”
Discord froze again. The ice touched Flutterfree, but she didn’t flinch—she reached out with a wing and stroked his face. “I’m sorry… I can’t.”
“It’s because of Eve, isn’t it?” Discord said, sagging back into his chair and setting her down on the table. “She…”
Flutterfree shook her head. “She has nothing to do with it. I… You know what I believe. What I follow. What the rules are.”
“Rules? Th—” Discord paused, remembering the myriad conversations he’d had with Flutterfree in the past. Little nuggets of information he had discarded coming back to rear in full force.
“Discord, you’d have to take them on too. If we were to go anywhere, that’d have to come first.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Discord forced a smile. “Cart me over to Rev, I’m sure I ca—”
“Discord…” Flutterfree’s ears drooped. “I know that’s what drove you away in the first place. I know my faith not only makes you uncomfortable, it upsets you.”
“S-so? You’re always going on about how it’s difficult!”
“Yes. It is. That’s… that’s why this is so, so hard. I… I do love you, Discord, and there’s a very large part of me that screams to just take you in my hooves and never let you go. But… I would be manipulating you. It… it would be wrong of me to do that. It’s not right to force my beliefs onto you just so you can be with me. No matter how much you want it, no matter how much I want it… it’s still wrong.”
“Wrong? Wrong?” Discord’s face twisted into anger. “Forgive me if I’m remembering wrong, but people convert for this all the time, right? Or am I just an…” Discord sagged, unable to keep the anger up. “…idiot?”
“Discord, no, you’re not an idiot…” Flutterfree tilted his chin up with a wingtip. “You’re an amazing person filled with life, energy, delightful unpredictability, and… so much more. I wouldn’t change it for the world. None of the tea parties, none of the adventures… nothing. You’re an amazing person to know, Discord. I just can’t bring myself to manipulate you like that. It wouldn’t be coming to Him for His sake, or even for yours…”
Discord looked at her with sad eyes. “Can’t we… try anyway? We…”
“…We don’t deserve each other.” Flutterfree took a moment to breathe. “There are many things more important than love. I’m sorry.”
Discord’s face began to tremble. No, no, not now… He snapped his fingers and teleported away.
Flutterfree held out a hoof to where he had just been—and started bawling. Eve rushed to comfort her, but Flutterfree held out a hoof. “I… I should suffer as he is. It is only fair.”
Eve grimaced. “Flutterfree that’s no—”
She flew away. Eve honored her request and didn’t follow.
Trixie stared after her, expression blank. “…I…”
“Trixie, you didn’t mess up. You did fine.” Eve sighed. “They’d been flying past each other for a long time already. I think they both thought they could just put it behind them.”
“They had.”
“We’re immortal, Trixie. Nothing is ever behind us forever.”
~~~
The Temple-Palace of the Dark Side was black inside and out, which wasn’t all that surprising. What was surprising was how colorful it was inside. Since the natural light couldn’t get in through the thick walls of the pyramid, the red-lights of the rest of the city had been swapped out for miniature sun spells, bathing the varied and colorful people inside with light so their colors were free to pop. Art lined the walls in dozens of different styles, and while the majority of the people in the temple wore the white robes, there were several people who had clearly just walked in from the streets to take a look at the temple-palace’s marvels.
“Like what you see?” Troi asked, her mane flowing in the nonexistent breeze.
“Better than I was expecting,” Vriska admitted. “Thrackerzod?”
“This temple is influencing them, but I also detect them influencing it,” Thrackerzod frowned. “At the very least, this is not a standard corrupting-Force situation.”
“We have chosen to enter into symbiosis with the Force,” Troi explained. “And we have done well for ourselves in it. We sought the collapse, and we achieved our goal—but life doesn’t end just because the story does. We are here to live in this new world and revel in the opportunity uncovered for all.” She led them through a door to a balcony at the top of the pyramid, looking out over the Dark Side of the Moon. “People are free here to explore themselves, to find destiny, to… well, to become the best they can be. With ka vanishing, things previously frowned upon or held in contentious light that demanded conflict can enter into peace. Differing ideologies on family, rights, individuality, community…”
“I’m surprised you manage to keep it stable,” Mlinx observed. “Such a varied outlook tends toward anarchy.”
“It likely will, in the ultimate end,” Troi admitted. “But I think that is worth it, so long as we still live our lives. We will spread and go our separate ways, true to ourselves. Currently, we are unified by memories of the collapse movement and Corona herself—” as she said the name, she bowed her head in slight respect. “—though even that thread is tentative, at best. …As much as I hate to admit it, our current uniting thread is a fear of the Light Side of the Moon.”
Vriska sighed. “War’s over and you can’t stop fighting?”
“I don’t want to fight at all.” Troi turned her gaze to the white pyramid in the distance. “They do.”
“…Why?” Mlinx asked.
“I believe it has to do with their defeat. This is not the world they wanted, they don’t want to live in it. I have no doubt in my mind they would seek to restore the multiverse if they could—come to think of it, some of them probably think they can in their delirium. They see us living in victory, and want us to die. The division of our cities was not slow. It was… brutal. I extended peace as often as I could, wanting to let them have their own way to explore life in the New World, but the terrorist attacks became too much.” She tapped her hoof on the railing. “Perhaps it was too harsh to block them entrance to the Dark Side, but there’s only so many enraged suicide bombers you can take.”
“Why don’t you just cut the bridge?” Tharckerzod asked.
“We are uncertain what that would do to the temple-palaces,” Troi said. “They are connected, and each side of the Force needs the other. Too many people rely on the Force to sever it all at once. I fear what would happen if the Light Side decides they no longer care what they suffer, so long as we do.” She lowered her head. “They can’t live with what they have, so they want to attack our way of life. It’s revenge, is what it is.”
“Are you truly blameless?” Roland asked.
“No,” Troi admitted. “Our people retaliated, and we have often rubbed our ideology in their face. And there’s the added difficulty that their… leader is a version of my sister. It’s always a painful memory of my dusted sibling when I see her. I know she feels the same way—resents me for being able to move past the price of our future.”
“So you’re inches away from all-out war because you can’t separate from each other. Lovely.” Vriska folded her arms. “I bet your people aren’t even thinking about peace.”
“It’s pointless, at this point, to hope for more than utter silence.” Troi turned to the sky. “It is the same thing Corona realized when she left the Merodi for the war effort. We may not want to fight, but we would be foolish to think we could survive without preparing for the eventuality.”
Vriska frowned. “Corona was willing to give herself and her society up for the collapse. If you really wanted peace, you would be fighting for it tooth and nail to your detriment, not hiding within these city walls. What you’re doing now is what the preservation side was trying to do in the war—keep their home. “
Troi’s calm smile vanished. “Vriska Serket, we have achieved our goal already, there is no point in fighting for more change. The world is here and we have it as we want. Our goal is now our lives. There is nothing to change.”
“Why don’t I just call her up here and see what she has to say about that?”
Troi’s eyes widened. “You… She… She’s here?”
“Yep. She’s here. In fact, I’ll call her right n—”
“Oh yes please do!” Troi clapped her hooves. “The people would love to see her!”
“…She won’t like to see them,” Thrackerzod said.
“I am well aware of her disdain for worship,” Troi said dismissively. “I am willing to face the music in that regard.”
Burgerbelle started playing the Imperial March.
Troi glared at her.
“Heard that before, I take it?” Burgerbelle grinned.
“Yes,” Troi seethed.
~~~
Tesseract looked out from the balcony on her white temple-palace. There were no outsiders here aside from O’Neill and Nanoha’s group—only acolytes of the Force were allowed in under normal circumstances. Her face showed no emotion as she stared at the Dark Side of the Moon across the divide.
“What did they do?” Starbeat asked.
“They destroyed everything,” Tesseract said. “And they received no condemnation for what they’ve done, no justice to speak of. They celebrate in their victory, over there, every day. They reject everything that came before for the sake of the ‘self’, rejecting that which they supposedly fought for. We hold fast to the ways and order of the past… they do not.” She turned to the group, fixing her eyes on Jotaro. “You claimed to be a bringer of justice in your time, Kujo.”
“I still am.”
“Hmm…” Tesseract thought for a few moments, sizing the man up. “You truly believe that. Tell me, man of honor, how was the collapse just?”
“It wasn’t.”
For the first time, emotion crossed Tesseract's face. “Then why—”
“The only just option was the one where the war didn’t happen,” Jotaro continued. “I could not get justice for the multiverse. It was impossible. So I got justice for those who suffered.”
“By causing suffering.” Tesseract tapped her hoof. “An old argument all of us have no doubt trodden over again and again. I apologize, Kujo, for placing you on the spot—we all know where we stand and such opinions do not change with logical arguments. They change from time, experience, and self-reflection. Such words have no worth here, and you have no desire to tell me the way things are. Although, I cannot say it pleases me that you have managed to end the fighting between you.”
“Are you saying peace is wrong?” Starbeat countered.
“I’m saying peace is not the highest virtue. By coming together and refusing to acknowledge the past, you do both collapse and preservation a disservice, forgetting the fight and the struggle behind them. At least here, in our two cities, we do not pretend that everything has been paid and all is done.”
“That’s not what Eve would say,” Starbeat countered. “You have a pretty good cult following of her, and yet you miss one of her major points!”
Tesseract leaned in. “And what might this be?”
“They were never the enemy. They were always the other side. Since day one, she wanted nothing more than the fighting to be over so she could bring her friends back, so there would be no more reason to keep them apart.”
“And you know this how?”
“I was just like you. Worse, actually. I actively went out and hunted the warriors of the collapse and executed them in an unfair mockery of a trial. I was a witch hunter who wanted them to suffer. Eve came to my seat of power and forcibly ripped me out of it, demanding that I seek reconciliation and peace.”
Tesseract looked at her doubtfully.
“Oh, don’t believe me? Why don’t I call Eve right now? She’s on the surface with the rest of our exploration crew!”
Tesseract raised an eyebrow. “...I would be most honored to meet our savior.”
Nanoha let out a sharp breath. “She’s not going to like that.”
“She will speak her mind just as everyone else, statue in the courtyard or no.”
~~~
Roxy’s gemstone activated with some prompting from Corona, allowing the Gem to reform her body.
“I fuckin’ hate mimics,” Roxy moaned, falling onto the grassy hills and spreading her limbs.
“They were all empty, if that helps,” Corona said.
“That’s, like, the worst thing you could have told me.”
“Your trip was pointless!” Jenny added.
“Uuuuuughhh—“ Roxy cut her whining short, sitting up. “Actually, no, it wasn’t totally worthless! BAM!” She pulled the orb of Void out of her inventory. “This was a blank white orb before, but now it’s attuned to the Void aspect. I think it’s the same thing the crew fought in the dungeon that took Vriska’s aspect. “
Corona laid a hand on it. “It’s trying to interface with me, but… it’s like it can’t remove the power it already has.”
“We’ll need to find another one,” Roxy declared. “See if we can get you to trigger it!”
“Oh, you just need white orbs?” Jenny smirked. “Why didn’t you say so? I’ve been collecting those!” She pulled out her staff of holding and deposited a blank white orb on the ground. “Tah-dah!”
“…How many do you have?” Corona asked.
“I dunno, half a dozen?”
“Huh…” Corona laid her hand on the orb. Immediately, it shifted into an ugly dark green marked with the symbol of Doom. “It really is tied to the SBURB aspects…” Corona tapped into her empathy, tracing her palms over the sphere. “That’s weird.”
“What’s weird?” Roxy asked.
“It’s transmitting a signal…” She looked up into the sky at the two cities. “There.”
“Any idea why?”
Corona shrugged. “Working on that. I’ll probably need to go up there myself if I’m going to find out.”
“Then it’s your lucky day!” Pinkie said, from behind the orb of Doom. “They need you at the city with the black pyramid, stat.”
“…Why?”
“Corona-worshipping city steeped in the collapse movement.”
Corona put her fingers to the bridge of her nose. “Oh for the… fine, fine, looks like I have to go talk some sense into a few knuckleheads. I’ll be taking Minna, is that fine?”
“Absolutely!” Pinkie said. “Roxy?”
“Hmm?”
“Tell me the moment you figure out what the deal with these orbs is, I don’t wanna miss the party!”
Roxy tapped a finger on the Orb of Void. “I’m on it. We’ll figure out something… either down here or up there.”
“Great! Now, I’ve got to go hunt down Eve.”
“Why?” Jenny asked.
“The other city worships her.”
Corona burst out into laughter. “About time she figured out what that felt like! Oh, this is gonna be good…”
Roxy facepalmed.
~~~
Eve found Discord floating on an orange about a mile above the surface of Nucleon.
She landed at his side. “Hey.”
“Go away.”
Eve laid down next to him, closing her eyes. “Do you know me to go when my friends need me?”
“Maybe I don’t need you right now.”
“You do. You need someone to listen, to help you work through. Sitting in silence won’t work.”
“Maybe I’ll go to Trixie.”
Eve raised an eyebrow.
“What, she’s a good friend!”
“And probably not the pinnacle of calm, empathetic discussion.”
Discord sighed, staring at a distant star peeking out through the variations in the planets. “Fine. What’s the great wisdom of the Princess of Friendship and Overhead of Relations today?”
“I was just going to answer your questions. I don’t think you could ask her right now… but I know her. You can talk to me.”
“You know her all right. I bet you think I’ll get in the way.”
Eve shook her head. “…I want her to have someone other than me. When we first realized you were approaching… I was excited. Maybe, finally, she could have something I couldn’t fulfill. I even talked to Rev about it, but… Flutterfree wouldn’t have any of it. She knows you, too. She knows why you drifted away.”
“I don’t even know why I drifted away,” Discord grunted.
“She’s better at seeing us than we are.” Eve chuckled softly, shaking her head. “She knows the truth, but she’s just as likely to ignore it as we are. She didn’t want to hurt you.”
Discord was silent.
“She takes what she believes very seriously. It defines who she is. I’ve seen so much change and life come out of her through it that… I find it hard to say it’s bad, even if some of the finer points make me a bit uncomfortable.”
“A bit?”
“Okay, a whole lot,” Eve chuckled.
“How do you deal with it? Being around with her all the time and not thinking as she does? It’s… how can you not be insulted by that? That she thinks she’s got it all figured out?”
“She doesn’t, and she’ll be the first to admit that. She’ll follow it up by saying nobody’s got it figured out.”
“Then why does she care so much!? It…” Discord snapped his fingers, creating a blueberry and strawberry rain cloud to ease his stress. “It’s just… words.”
“They’re more than that to her. They’re life, they tell her of a world beyond what she sees, of a purpose better than anything she can imagine. Of… well, of a world where she doesn’t have to figure everything out, just trust that it’s taken care of for her.”
“…Are you trying to convert me?”
“Hah!” Eve laughed, but a thoughtful expression crossed her face. “You know what… Maybe I am. There is a part of me that thinks this would be a whole lot simpler if you could just change your mind without her pushing you. I’d be lying if I wasn’t hoping you could just… shift the way you think.” She sat back. “I actually wish she’d just let you come with her, and she could show you what she believes. Plenty of people in the past were already together when one changed for another but… agh. She’s just too nice for that. Cares about what’s right more than her own happiness.” Eve wiped a tear from her eye. “I’m so proud and aggravated at the same time.”
“You don’t believe.”
“I’m not trying to date her. Which wouldn’t work anywa—”
“Hold up, back up,” Discord looked her in the eye. “You don’t, yet you were trying to convince me?”
“Discord, I didn’t realize I was doing it, I’m sorry.”
“I… MMMPH.” He sat back down, glowering at the land below. “What do you think about it?”
“About her religion?”
Discord nodded. “She’s never stopped talking to you about it.”
“Yes.”
“You haven’t changed your mind? Ever?”
Eve pursed her lips. “I… if you asked me under duress and mind control, I might say I believed, if only because I’ve seen something special exude from her for years. But if you asked me right now, with only my thoughts and confusion, I’d say I’m not sure. I’d say that everything I’ve seen could just be the Tower. I’d say… that I’m afraid of committing to anything before the Tower falls.” She paused. “I can say I want it to be true. But is that just because I want there to be something after the Tower falls, because I want to share more with Flutterfree, or because I’m lost and confused? I don’t know.”
Discord stared at her. “So, you’re waiting?”
“I… guess?”
“The Tower’s going to be up for thirty more years! Thirty more years! Not all of us are going to be around at that point! Things change way, way too much!” Discord waved his hands. “You want me to just wait three decades?”
“We waited several more in the Void…”
“And it was agony!” Discord fumed. “I… I just want some resolution, is that too much to ask!?”
“No, b—”
“No is right, I don’t have to listen to this.” He snapped his fingers and vanished in a puff of light.
Eve twitched, moving to follow his teleport, but Pinkie stopped her. “Sorry, Eve, there’s a situation up in the sky you have to deal with.”
“But…”
“There are others who can talk to him. You’re not the only one. Okay? We’ll handle it just fine down here.”
Eve traced her hoof on the ground. “But I…”
“You opened yourself up to him. That’s all you can do, Eve.” Pinkie hugged her. “Okay?”
Eve sighed. “Okay… You’ll watch after Flutterfree?”
“You know I will.”
“Pinkie… you’re a great friend.”
Pinkie winked. “Right back atcha!”
If the Elder isn't one of the heroes, she's almost definitely one degree removed from them. Mind you, I don't know why I thought that might not be the case.
"Mostly me and Egghead, then."
"Egghead and me!" came a cry from the sun-marked ship.
Hmm. Sith and Jedi?
Bingo.
"Ha! Who's still being worshiped? Not this girl!"
Surely not Deanna Troi. Trek Wars rarely end well.
Ah. Nope, it seems it's folding in another light-dark conflict.
... Somehow I did not anticipate the corresponding altar to Evening. Granted, Corona has a much longer history of unwanted reverence, but given the whole "mirror image" thing, I should've guessed.
Don't mind me, just taking notes for an ongoing D&D campaign...
Given the Cyberponies, probably not... though it's not entirely out of the question.
The twin cities' reactions to their idols should be quite the sight to see, to say nothing of the ongoing Fluttercord drama. Looking forward to more.