In the halls of Canterlot, Trekker cleared his throat. "Are you done staring at each other yet?"

Rarity pointed a shaky hoof at Ahuizotl. "You! You are the reason for all this!"

"Me?" Ahuiztol feigned offense. "You were the ponies that had to put up a fight! You could have just given me the chest!"

"No! We're not evil sadistic dogs!" She turned to Celestia. "What in Equestria's name is he doing here without cuffs on him?!"

Celestia sighed. "He is under the protection of a foreign power." She gestured towards Overglobe. "They made it clear he's with them."

"There was this nice spell hidden in the carvings that needed something from Central to work." Ahuizotl rubbed his hands together. "I volunteered myself."

Ahuizotl smiled. "As you ponies can see, I'm useful. Unlike helpless little Rarity here... Oooh, it seems like you've felt your inadequacy fully recently..." He pointed at her eye socket, sneering.

"Enough!" Celestia yelled. "Just because I have agreed not to incarcerate you does not mean I won't have you thrown out of this hall if you dare to act uncivilized towards my ponies! I would suggest changing your attitude."

Ahuizotl shrunk back from the Princess of the Sun ever so slightly. "...Fair enough."

"Hey..." Spike said. "You... Found a way here right? Think it can work to get the others out?"

"It was a one-way trip," Overglobe said. "The scans I took of Sperion could only go so far."

"Can't imagine he was happy about that," Trixie muttered. Then she blinked, turning to Spike. "Wait... weren't you violent and crazy?"

"Wait..." Luna said, something occuring to her. She turned to Overglobe. "...Why would you come here if you knew you couldn't go back under your own power?"

"There are seven temples. The legends said so," Overglobe said, "One was destroyed by fighting. We know there is at least one other standing, the one Twilight came to us in. And with the Seven-Sided Chest, we can return and report on our findings. Evacuate our ponies out of the dangerous Realm and into this safer place. Although...." She looked at Rarity, Spike, and Trixie with a frown. "...Something tells me everything's gone wrong."

"Overglobe. Right. What you're doing is admirable. But... You're right. Everything has gone wrong. That other temple was destroyed, and the Chest has been stolen. It's in the hand of some order that, for whatever reason, seems to be against the temples and Realms."

"Trixie, they need a way back home," Rarity said, "the least we can do is tell them."

Overglobe looked at the Princess of the Night strangely for a moment, before shaking her head. "Sorry. Not used to... alicorns. The moon is the large round gray thing in the sky we saw earlier right?" Everypony nodded in confirmation. "That's absurdly far away, and I'm fairly certain this world doesn't have a permeating aether of air, so how would we get there? How did you get there?"

"Powerful magic artifacts," Celestia said, "more specifically, the Elements of Harmony."

"Right now they're under the control of the Tree of Harmony. We'd have to ask the Tree to send us."

Celestia smirked. "Ancient though you are Ahuizotl, I am a bit more versed in certain ancient powers. I extracted the Elements from it with my sister millennia ago. I know exactly where it is. Though going to the moon without the Chest is futile - as I understand from Twilight's reports, the temple won't work without it. Rarity, describe this... Order you've encountered."

Rarity nodded. "They appeared to mostly be zebras in hoods, skilled at hoof-to-hoof combat. They are represented by a purple seven-sided shape with a circle in it. They appear to have two leaders - there's a dreadful white eastern dragon mage by the name of Yuku who is just..." She put a hoof to her eye. "Extremely dangerous and aggressive. The other is what appears to be a mechanical alicorn with powers unlike anything I have ever seen. It goes by the name of Congeal."

Luna nodded. "I can confirm the existence of said being. It bested us in combat, and we were only allowed to live because... something intervened."

Ahuizotl raised his eyebrow. "Oh? Ancient god looking down on you favorably? How lucky."

Overglobe rubbed her chin. "This is bigger than I previously thought. It's not just us - there's some conspiratorial Order and a high being messing with things."

"Changes little," Trekker said, "we get the chest, go to the moon, and return regardless of any god-things involved. The ponies are waiting."

"But how are we going to get it back?" Spike asked. "We know nothing about them!"

"Then we need to find them," Trekker said. "Then we take it back by force. Simple."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "I was bested in combat by this Congeal by a fair margin. What makes you think you can do any better?"

"Skill," Trekker said. "Powers such as this." He raised a wing and created a sphere of fire.

"Congeal can do that as well," Rarity gulped, "and bend time, and repair itself, and cast spells, and mold minds."

"An Inflection of Central. We read about it in the ancient texts. Usually, inflections are limited to being strong in one area. But the legend talked of a being that was strong in all inflections simultaneously. It was one of the last stories on the wall come to think of it..."

"It could be that this Congeal and the being in the legend are one and the same," Celestia suggested. "Alicorns live forever. I know not what a mechanical one implies, but they could be a similar being. What did it say about this... being with the Inflection of Central?"

"Not much. Not even a description, or gender. Just that it represented Order, the Realms in unity."

"Hah. Chaos is stronger than order then. He trounced Congeal!" Trixie bragged.

"He may have just gotten lucky," Luna said. "We need to proceed with caution. I do not think we have the resources or the power to take on this Order right now."

"They are prepared just in case we don't come back," Overglobe said. "They will be fine, but I'd prefer not to leave them forever. I understand the need for caution princess, but we will want to start sometime soon."

Trekker huffed. "I'd start it now. Show the arrogant machine that it's not the top of the heap."

Ahuizotl shrugged. "Ah, you do just love getting into danger, don't you? Do you ever think?"

Celestia broke the silence. "I will enquire across the kingdom - and the other nations - for information about this Order. I will tell all of you everything we discover. Until then... We'll just have to wait."

She turned to Trixie, Spike, and Rarity. "Return home. Get some real rest. And... I am sorry for what you've been through."

~~~

"All right, so," Rainbow Dash said, wings spread, "Implode! You. Hate. Your. Dad."

Rainbow Dash facehooved. "That's not the point! We've got to keep your emotions there!"

"Oh. Sorry." She blinked. "Right. Hate him. He's horrible. Want to make him suffer."

"Why would I...? Oh. Right." She started grinding her teeth methodically. "Grrrrrrrrrr."

"Least you're trying," Rainbow Dash sighed. "We'll find a way to get you back to normal. I promise."

"Well, I guess polite is better than emotionless," Rainbow Dash said. "It's... hard to watch you go through this. It makes me wonder if I'll fall to it eventually."

"Okay, we really need to get you out of here. Girls!" She called over to Twilight and Starlight. "Do you have a plan yet?"

Twilight bit her lip. "We... Think so. We believe that we can use Starlight's spell to return to the Realm of Life, a safer place. Stop the progression of her degradation. There are a few problems though..."

"We have to pass through the Realm of Distortion," Starlight said, "and while Twilight's group did survive in there, it's apparently pretty freaky, dangerous, and might have aggressive individuals who want to attack us out of their madness."

"The Realm of Life steals away your consciousness... We think. It didn't happen to any of us, but we've come across a herd of not-ponies. So you shouldn't stay there long."

"That's the spirit! And when we get there, I'll try to find us a way home. Applejack says she might have a clue, and I think she knows what she's talking about. But we can discuss it in the Realm of Life and not... here. We need to get out of here." She looked upwards at the destroyed pieces of the Archive. "...There's nothing left for us."

"You mean he won't let there be anything for us," Starlight growled. "I could just rewind it but I have the feeling that'd just draw him back here."

"...Yeah..." Twilight said, looking up at the dark blue 'sky' of the Realm. Sperion was... so confusing. He seemed like a decent guy, but he did a lot of things that said otherwise. Do you judge a person by their words and intent, or their actions?

Starlight blinked. "Are you sure - nevermind, you ponies are always sure. What made you decide you wanted to go on an adventure? What's the point to you?"

"Okay," Starlight turned to Fluttershy for a moment. "It'll be okay, understand?"

Discord turned to Twilight. "You better be able to find something out quickly. I don't want her there for too long."

Twilight nodded. "If all else fails we can cycle back to the Realm of Power. But that'd mean going through the unknown Realm of Dreams, and I'd rather not do that if we have a choice." She turned to Starlight. "Take us away."

Starlight lit her horn, charging for a few moments. Then the seven mares, one stallion, and spirit of chaos were gone.

They appeared in the Realm of Distortion, the red and black anomalies tearing at them instantly. Discord and Pinkie were ahead of the intrusions, however, creating a giant bubble to keep them out.

Implode looked out at the chaotic ripples of force around them - and she smiled slightly. "It's stopped. I'm... I'm not getting any worse. I still have something inside me. I can smile." Her smile faltered. "...I should be ecstatic, shouldn't I? And I should be scared of this place.... I'm not..." She put a hoof to her head. "My head hurts..."

"And you can shut up!" Rainbow Dash yelled, glaring intensely at Diamond. "She freaking killed you because of this thing and you still don't see the freaking problem! So shut up or I toss you out there just to see what happens!"

Diamond stayed silent, giving Rainbow Dash no response. He began to study the distortions around them.

"They made their choice," Starlight said, focusing on rewiring the Realm translation spell. "We should leave them with it, even if we don't like it."

Rainbow Dash looked guilty for a moment. "...Sorry Diamond. You can talk as long as you don't mess with Implode's head."

Discord grunted, poking his head out of the reality bubble. "See anything, Pinkie?"

"Seven shark sided bits. Other than that, nothing more out of the ordinary than usual."

Twilight looked out of the bubble, frowning. "I was kind of hoping to see him again..."

"Yeah... He apparently followed someone into the Realms. My current theory is Meadowbrook, just like Ahuizotl, but I can't be sure. He ended up here - and went crazy. I... I haven't really had time to process it."

"Quite. He mentioned that Discord had a counterpart, and he talked a lot about 'them' royally messing up, and being right... I'm not sure who 'they' were thought. He had a pronoun problem." Twilight frowned. "He also was responsible for Discord somehow... Hey, Discord, how did that happen?"

Discord looked up from his work - which at the moment was clipping his toenails with a candy cane. "He was trying to create a being composed of parts of everything. He created a chaotic mixture."

"Sorry," Twilight apologized, "but that means somewhere out there is an ordered mix..."

In that moment, Starlight completed the spell, and they were in the Realm of Life once more. Fluttershy twitched involuntarily the moment they arrived. Starlight's eyes sparkled as she examined the tree surrounding them. "It's... So pretty."

Discord teleported them to Fluttershy's tree mansion. Lou and Roy greeted them from the door, prompting a smile to creep up Fluttershy's face. "Have you been good boys?"

"Good." She glanced out at the field, expression fading when she saw Browncoat's herd. She tore her gaze away and went into the house, most of her friends following her.

In their loss
They gave us a way
A path to return home

We will never be lost
Long as we remember
All that is to connect

Starlight nodded. "Best we can tell, to leave, they have to remember where they came from and everything that 'is to connect' to return."

"Our predecessors," Starlight said. "I'm fairly certain that's what the two earth ponies, two pegasi, two unicorns, and one alicorn thing is about. We're like the 'next phase' of ponies with extremely strong connections to each of the Realms."

"All that is connect..." Twilight's eyes lit up. "I think it wants us to 'remember' all the Realms and home!"

Applejack blinked. "Good point, but that leaves us with a problem. None of us have been to the Realm of Dreams"

Twilight's eyes sparkled, a knowing smile slowly crawling up her features. "I think we have enough for my idea, right here, right now. We'll need the others for this."

Inside the main hall, Rainbow Dash was talking to Implode, telling her about all the other ponies. Pinkie was passed out on the floor next to them, exhausted. To the side, Discord and Fluttershy were having tea while Diamond just looked out a window at the fields of animals, face blank.

"Okay everypony," Twilight announced, "I'm going to try something. Come outside, please."

They all filed outside. "Okay, I'm going to stand here," Twilight said. "We need to make a seven pointed shape with me as the primary point. Going counterclockwise from me, Rainbow, Starlight, Applejack, Pinkie, and then Flutttershy. Leave a spot between Fluttershy and me. The rest of you, in the center." Discord shrugged, teleporting himself, Implode, and Diamond into the designated area, while the other six set themselves up.

"Usually, I would form a magical connection between all of us and try to guess the last spot here..." She glanced at the last spot. "...And that could take hours. However, I have a pretty good idea of what - or, rather, who - goes in that last spot. Rarity is supposed to be here with us. I just have to think of her. It would probably help if the rest of you did the same."

Twilight spread her wings, a purple heptagon of magic energy surging through all of them. The fabric of everything shook and rippled around them, and a bright ball of distortion began to form in the center...

~~~

He roared, the very air around him ionizing. The ponies of Truth could see what appeared as a star in the distance.

"The can of worms is open! Again! Again... Again..." He let out a sighing noise. "...I hope she knows what she's doing."

~~~

In the hall of Canterlot just outside the throne room, Rarity felt something burn in the back of her eye socket. It wasn't the presence from before - it was something else. As if something was locking onto her... She yowled in pain and crumpled to the ground.

"Rarity!" Spike and Trixie yelled. They didn't have time to say anything else, for above them a powerful coalition of energies appeared and promptly exploded, warping the very fabric of existence around it, shaking the foundations of the universe. Seven mares, a stallion, and Discord were dropped on top of Rarity unceremoniously.

"Oh! Sorry Rarity." Twilight stood up, helping Rarity to her feet as well. "We figured it out! Rarity, it's so good to see you-" Twilight paled, stopping short. "R-Rarity? What happened to your eye!?"

Realms of Existence

by GMBlackjack

XIV - Can of Worms