//------------------------------// // XXV - Central // Story: Wanderlost // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Luna, Twilight, and Discord stared at the screen they had been using to keep tabs on the meeting. "I can't re-establish," Tirek said. "We have no way to know what happened to them." Twilight winced. "What are we going to do? Making them doubt Central had no effect..." "And we cannot risk the lives of the whole fleet in a raid," Luna said. "Attacking their seat of power would be foolish anyway..." Discord raised a hand. "I could blow up a planet and they couldn't stop me." Luna frowned. "Some of their people may be innocent..." Discord snarled. "Fine. I could go blow up an uninhabited moon instead, then drop little old Mite off somewhere. He already knows some of their systems, should be able to get in almost instantly." Tirek smirked. "They won't know what hit them!" Discord cackled. "Oh, no they won't..." Twilight sighed. "Go ahead Discord. Demand they return our friends." She looked him right in the eye with a serious expression. "Do what you need to." Luna nodded. "This sounds best. Until then we must be on high alert. Let us hope they cannot find our location. And Discord... be safe, we don't know what they have hidden in their worlds." ~~~ Starlight took out the red button and pressed it - but no Discord came to their aid. She cursed under her breath. Celestia looked the Asantan Gurus right in their eyes - where she could find eyes, anyway. "Why haven't you tried to kill us yet?" "You have the power," the one with mouths in his hands said, "we want to know how." "No idea," Starlight said. "That matters not. We will find out." He walked closer. "We think you do know..." He looked over all of them, one at a time. When he came to Orgis he recoiled. "...She has a guardian!" Orgis raised her hands to defend herself, engulfing them in pink energy. The light went out almost as soon as it started, and she found herself unable to move, some power keeping her frozen in place. Run. She thought to the Hexalin. > The power has me in its grasp. I am afraid I am helpless. I am sorry. > ...Goodbye. The Guru touched his hands to Orgis's face, tearing the Hexalin from her. She let out a guttural scream, her lifelong companion's connection severed the moment the Hexalin was placed in a sickly, black bubble. Orgis fell back, barely able to maintain consciousness after the ordeal. The constant voice was gone. The Guru held up the bubble, examining it. "Normally, it would take forever to interface with your minds to get the information we need. Lucky us you brought something we know how to work with. It won't be long until we know all you know." Celestia's eyes burned. "I cannot allow that." She lit her horn, ready to burn them all to ash. But then something beyond powerful grabbed her, forcing her to stop in her tracks. "...What?" "Central protects us," was the only response she received. The three of them were herded away into a small, empty cell... ~~~ Discord appeared over a gas giant's moon - it was purple, round, and currently had an expensive research probe around it. He took a moment to appreciate the Asanta system before he went around destroying it. The planets were beautiful, most with colors that screamed artificial meddling. He looked at the white star, the intense light reflecting in his irises. He became perturbed at the sight, and he didn't know why. He shook his head, focusing on the task at hand. He placed the Mite upon the probe and grinned. "Ready to broadcast?" "Affirmative." "Good. Start now. Ahem. Denizens of Asanta! I am Discord, spirit of Chaos, and I am very, very unhappy. You see, three of my companions came on a diplomatic mission to you, and you all decided to kidnap them! So here's your ultimatum - return them or I do what I'm about to do to this precious purple moon on one of your precious planets." He pointed a finger at the moon, liquefying it almost instantly. "This has been a Discord announcement. Return them or things start going down in flames. Stop transmitting." He grabbed the Mite. "How'd I do?" "Excellent." "Oh goody. Let's pay their planet a visit, shall we?" He snapped his fingers, teleporting to the most populated planet, appearing over a large city. "Hellooooo my little Asantans! How are you doing?" They all opened fire on him - to no effect. None of the weapons were magical in any way. He had some of the bullets pass through him, while he turned others into slime creatures. The laser weapons he reflected in upward directions, and the bombs he made implode in on themselves. "Bother. Mite, hack into some things. I'm heading to the innermost planet." "Understood." The Mite dropped into the city and set to work. The technology was similar to the devices it had found on the meteor ship, only much more primitive. This would take all of a few minutes to hack into. Discord snapped his fingers, attempting to teleport to the innermost planet. He got close, the planet visible to him as a small orange speck in the distance, but the fact remained that he wasn't there. He frowned - deja vu. He attempted to move closer, but a force pushed him back. He was not welcome there, apparently. "Testy..." Discord muttered, returning to the world where the Mite was. They opened fire on him again. He facepalmed in exasperation and threw his hands wide. "Do you not realize that does nothing!?" ~~~ Celestia looked at the doorway, pondering escape. But every time she moved to do so, or even tried to activate her horn, the power grabbed her tight and prevented her from moving at all. She was powerless here. Being powerless... It was an alien feeling. She usually could do much. Even when captured, she always had a trump card of some kind. Usually allies, subjects... friends. She supposed this was very different from all the previous times she was in a hard place. She didn't think she had anyone to help her here. The force was just too strong to be defied. Orgis wasn't faring much better - a constant presence in her life had been removed so suddenly. She no longer had a voice to talk to in her head. It was like losing a part of her mind. She just sat there, rocking back and forth, muttering things. "...How do we end..." Starlight was just angry, ready to destroy everything the instant the force dropped its guard. It didn't look like that was going to happen. "They're going to kill us," Starlight said. Celestia nodded. "Then they will hunt down our people." "We failed." Orgis twitched. "Failure was guaranteed. It is never easy." Celestia sighed. "I'm not sure what I was expecting... I was angry. I felt the need to act. We should have exercised more caution.." "We all agreed to come here, Celestia," Starlight said. "There is no need to beat yourself up over the decision. We just need to stand our ground." The door was kicked open. A thick, black tentacle grabbed Orgis, dragging her out of the room. She barely had time to scream before the door was shut again. Starlight shuddered. "...We're next." Celestia nodded, unable to think of anything comforting at the moment. They were in the hands of a powerful force that they could do nothing to resist. Once the Asantans had the information they wanted, they would kill their useless prisoners. Her only hope was that Luna would take the moon and run - run far away. Run to where they couldn't be killed. They would wander the stars for centuries more... Celestia used her magic to lift a small pebble off the ground, studying it in hopes of a distracting herself from the hopeless situation. She stopped, eyes widening - she could use her magic. The force had stopped holding her. It had been such a gradual change she hadn't even noticed. Celestia stood bolt upright. "We've been released!" Starlight blinked. "...We have!" She lit her horn. "They're going to regret leaving us here..." The door exploded - but not from Starlight's spell. Starlight gasped. "Cadence!?" "Bet you're glad I stowed away now, huh!?" She said, eye twitching. Starlight's jaw dropped. Celestia merely chuckled - Cadence's presence was not entirely unexpected. Cadence cackled. "So, who wants to teach these killers a lesson? Both of you? Good, let's go." The three of them left the room, ready to face whatever came their way... ~~~ "What do you mean they can't help us?" Discord demanded. "Gurus." "Yes, they are important! I know that! Why can't the regular people help?" "Theocracy." "It can't be that ingrained into their culture!" "Absolute." Discord growled. "Great. Just great. Don't they even care that their planets are in danger?" "No." "...Yeah, this place is messed up. Time to blow it up." He rolled up his imaginary sleeves, teleported into orbit, and pointed at the planet. He was stopped by eleven meteor ships appearing around him in an instant, unleashing their clouds of black power. He teleported away, attempting to use the planetary destruction spell on the ships, but there was no effect - these things could deal with magic. They fired their black swarms at him, forcing him to retreat further. Then he got an idea. He didn't have to worry about the safety of this world or the worlds around it... So he could go a little crazy. He grabbed ahold of a moon and threw it at the ships. Ten of them jumped out of the way, but one was smashed to smithereens by the absurd kinetic energy of the hurtling celestial body. Chunks of rock went flying in all directions at high speed, several cratering the inhabited planet below, killing untold thousands. Discord grinned despite this. "Not so invincible after all." He grabbed another moon. "All right! Who wants to play space billiards? I know I do!" The ten remaining ships started casting powerful dark magics at him - the impact was painful, tearing his form apart. But he was a being of chaos - he could handle a little distortion in his life. He met them with the moons, smashing with glee. One of the moons exploded on contact, but he just teleported to another one around a gas planet. "You know what, it's nice to have a challenge!" He grabbed the new moon, rushing it at his opponents. "Discord!" "Oh don't worry Mite, I've got this!" "Dangerous!" "Bah, the great Discord won't have any trouble with these space rocks. Not anymore..." They clashed in the sky, raining destructive debris across the whole system... ~~~ Orgis was thrown on an altar. The Asantan Gurus surrounded her in a perfect circle. She felt their magic slam into her, eating at her mind, using the connections the Hexalin had made. They rummaged through her mind, sifting through hundreds of years of memories, looking for what they wanted. They found it - the Keys. The two of them she had seen. The two of them she knew. The number sequences found on them. "The time has come," the one with mouths in his hands said. "...What time?" Orgis asked. "All the Keys have been attained. Transmission will commence." They all turned to the sky, staring right at their white star. Orgis could feel the thirteen codes leave their minds, transmitted towards the star. She could have sworn she saw the star react with a slight flash... She knew what was going on in that moment. But she wanted to make sure. She turned to the Guru with the mouth hands. "What is Central? What is it really? You might as well tell me." His mouths smiled. "Central is a being that none of us can understand. A member of the divine race of Stars that dared go against convention. Sealed in place, as our sun, by the ancient Fengal. They did not see the gift Central offered us, the way of life." "...And the keys?" "Are the personal codes of the thirteen Fengal chancellors, long dead. They are being used, as we speak, to deactivate the Fengal artifacts that keep Central from shining his power across the universe. A new age of glory to Central shall reign, and we will be the highest servants!" Orgis looked up at the bright white star, a wistful look in her eyes. "True power..." "Indeed." Orgis narrowed her eyes, directing her next comment at the Star - Central itself. "Well played, Star. You toyed with these people. Fooled them all. That must have taken extreme patience on your part. Guiding an entire race into a delusion is no easy feat. But we will not let you do what I know you want. We will continue." Orgis's mind was flooded with a response. Laughter.