“In order to defeat Miasmus and clear the way for saving the multiverse,” Crystal Faire began as she addressed her four companions, all of whom sat around the unlit fire pit in the center of the pavilion, “we will want to clear him out of every reality that he currently exists in. So let’s talk about how we’re going to do that.”
“If I remember right,” Twilight Sparkle said, “he has a main body somewhere. Those ponies that attacked us were just his peripheral possessions.”
“That’s right,” Crystal said. “That’s what we really want. He’ll have taken a host somewhere out there. If we find his main host, then that will make the problem much easier.”
Sunset Shimmer crossed her forelegs and hummed. “That sounds good and all, but… is his main host in some timeline somewhere or… is he still floating out there between timelines?”
“That would be an issue, wouldn’t it?” Chrysalis replied.
“And it’s not just that. Apparently, he has a way to get into more and more timelines. So…” Twilight said with a frown, “in the time we spend clearing him out of one timeline, he could break into several others. Who knows if we’ll be able to keep up?”
“I assume that he will, regardless of where he’s at, know when he’s been dislodged from a pony, hmmm?” Chrysalis asked.
“Of course,” Crystal replied with a nod. “It’s quite painful for him, at that.”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
Crystal nodded.
A sinister grin spread across Chrysalis’ muzzle and she gave an evil, from-the-belly laugh. As heads turned toward her, she stood up and composed herself. “Oh, this is rich. I have an idea, then.”
Starlight Glimmer’s eyes grew wide. “You do?”
“Well of course. I know how to get him to do what we want.”
Twilight frowned. “Well… huh. This is something.”
“Uhhh…” Sunset started.
Chrysalis looked at Twilight down her nose. “You seem surprised.”
Twilight scratched her head. “Well… uh… honestly, Chrysalis, I didn’t expect you to have something. We’re usually the ones coming up with all the plans. I mean, I don’t want to stop you! By all means! It’s just that, well…”
Chrysalis snorted. “Oh please, Twilight Sparkle. One does not be a changeling queen from sitting around doing naught all. No, I’ve mastered the art of trickery and deception. And one can’t be a competent changeling without knowing how to do the impersonation. Thankfully, reading ponies comes pretty easy.”
Sunset nodded and leaned forward in her seat. “I guess so. What do you got?”
Chrysalis straightened up and started trotting around the outside of the circle. “You see, it’s like this: I don’t really care where he wants to hide. If he wants to spread, let him. That’s more targets to hit. And that’s more chances to hurt him.”
Starlight looked a little green in the face.
“So then, we’ll spend our time picking off his precious little possessions one by one. We can go anywhere for that, even. I’m sure that you—” Chrysalis looked at Crystal, “—can see where he is and isn’t. As such, we’ll make pinpoint strikes on him. Then he’ll start to understand precisely who he’s messing with.”
“So… basically keep attacking him until…?” Sunset began.
“I could read him pretty well,” Chrysalis said. “I know his type. He won’t be willing to take it forever. And he won’t be satisfied in allowing us victory over him. Once we’ve spent enough time poking him, he will be angry. That’s when he will start coming directly for us.”
“He’ll try and settle it,” Twilight said. She pressed a hoof against her muzzle and thought for a moment. “That… sounds like it would make for one heck of a battle.”
“Well… I’d say that the five of us are pretty decent in a fight. But…” A sly grin grew on Sunset’s muzzle as she turned her eyes to Crystal and she said, “I bet Miasmus doesn’t know that we have the ultimate trump card.”
Crystal chuckled and nodded in response. “A fight is something I can most certainly handle. I’m comfortable with this.”
Starlight tapped the ground and turned her gaze back to Chrysalis. “Okay, but what happens when we get there? Assuming he’s even in a timeline when that happens and not, you know, out there?”
Chrysalis pursed her lips and momentarily paused in her stride. “Well, if his main body is indeed in some timeline, he will build up his defenses. He’ll put most of his possessions into one timeline, as it were, to defend himself.”
“That’s if I haven’t already determined whether or not he is in a timeline,” Crystal added.
“And if he isn’t?” Starlight asked.
Chrysalis frowned. “That is another matter entirely.”
Twilight’s expression darkened and she shuddered. “It looks like all that we can do for now is hope that he is in a timeline.”
Crystal nodded and stood up. “There is one thing that I wish to make plain,” she began as she pointed to Chrysalis, “if we do encounter and destroy his main body, it won’t immediately solve the problem. The remaining fragments will still have limited capability. Which means we will have to clean up if and when we destroy him.”
Chrysalis nodded. “Will they pose much threat?”
“No. Not at all. That said… Give me a bit. I might be able to come up with a solution that’s especially delicious.”
Chrysalis cooed in response.
Crystal nodded. “I like this plan. I think that we can start off on this,” she said as the others hopped to their hooves. “There is a thing or two that I’d like to put together before we get going. I would suggest, in the meantime, you be well-rested.”
And the four of them hummed affirmatively in response.
* * *
Crystal wiped some sweat from her brow and then stared at the large, spherical mass of metal in front of her. Her mind’s eye examined the inner workings as she watched energy flow between the smallest constituent parts and, in some cases, from end to end.
The supercomputer was, as far as she could tell, complete, and with that, Crystal let out a relieved sigh.
There was now, however, one more thing to be done with it. She lit her horn and shot a beam at the structure. Her spell wrapped around it and the whole object glowed for a few moments. Intense bolts arced across its surface as the spell took hold until, finally, the aura disappeared into the structure.
Crystal nodded to herself and then levitated up an object that lay right next to her; said object was the Crystal Heart that had once appeared in one of the village huts. It now looked mostly faded but was still as tangible as it was supposed to be. She could feel its internal energies even still.
I’ve tethered to the machine, Crystal thought. Now I’ll just need to do the same with this.
She shot a bolt at the Heart and it, like the supercomputer before it, glowed. The spell eventually settled and the glow subsided, but Crystal could see the new energies still swirling inside of it.
Twilight, who stood next to her, regarded the Heart. “Did you…? What did you do?”
“I put some additional magic into it,” Crystal replied.
Twilight frowned. “Are you sure?”
After a moment, Crystal shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it. Come on.”
She turned and led Twilight toward the pavilion, the Crystal Heart following behind within her magic. The other three were there and they, at her approach, stood up and turned to face her.
She saw a question in the immediate future and she pointed to Sunset. “I’ll explain in a second,” she said. “Stand still, this will tingle just a little bit.”
Sunset nodded in response.
Crystal set the Crystal Heart in the middle and then shot another beam at it. The Heart sparkled in response and rose into the air. It rotated faster and faster until, finally, it spun at velocities faster than any of them could visually discern.
The Crystal Heart shot out five beams which connected with each and every one of them. All save Crystal flinched at it but then they looked down at themselves as little clouds of magic enveloped their bodies. That lasted a second before that all coalesced into a little ball of yellow magic that loitered around their necks before disappearing into them.
They all stared at themselves for a few moments, feeling where the little balls of magic disappeared.
Chrysalis frowned. “And what exactly do you think you’re doing?”
Crystal looked at a distant timeline with her mind’s eye and touched a particular point on it. She redirected her power into the Crystal Heart, and the Heart disappeared with a loud bang wherein her mind’s eye saw it reappear in that distant timeline. As a matter of fact, she could see said timeline start to crystallize; she expected it to.
She looked up at Chrysalis and said, “I’m setting up waypoints. If what happened during that collision taught me anything… I probably won’t be reliable if something like that happens again. And the truth is that I don’t know what is going to happen, and I’m not so good when I don’t know.”
Crystal sighed and sheepishly kicked the ground. “Listen… if something happens to me… or you get into a tight spot and I can’t get to you… I want to make sure that you have a way out. We shouldn’t need this. But… then again, we shouldn’t have needed to be involved in that collision like we were.”
“You’re forgiven,” Starlight said. She went flush in the face and rubbed the back of her neck and said, “And sorry that I yelled at you. I know things got really dicey and you probably got swept up in it. So…”
Crystal vacantly nodded.
Chrysalis sighed through her nose and straightened up. “Perhaps it was ill-advised of me to attack you as I did, as well,” she half-mumbled.
Crystal smiled in response. The others eventually followed suit.
“Nonetheless, how exactly does this work?” Chrysalis asked.
Crystal took a moment to clear her throat and stand up straight as well. “You can operate the spell by touching your hoof to your own neck. One touch will take you straight to that,” she explained as she pointed to the supercomputer outside, “no matter where or when you are. Go ahead, try it.”
One by one, the four of them reached up and touched their necks. Balls of white light engulfed each of them and they each subsequently disappeared only to reappear right next to the supercomputer instants later with slightly dazed expressions.
Crystal walked over to them and nodded. “This is just in case you get separated and need to be dealt back in.”
“Oh, so it’s a self-teleportation spell,” Sunset said. “That’s useful in a pinch, I guess.”
“And it works from anywhere,” Crystal said. A smirk grew on her muzzle as she continued, “Likewise… two taps…”
When she said nothing more, Twilight reached up and tapped her neck twice in rapid succession. Twilight disappeared in a flash of light and didn’t reappear again. The others, one by one, followed suit.
Once the four of them were gone, Crystal did the same with herself. Her world shrunk down to a single point; it was not at all like when she used her travel power. A few moments later, her world expanded out again and she found her footing.
The room around her sported crystalline walls and high ceilings. Several small thrones orbited her position with all but one bearing familiar symbols. The Cutie Map lay underneath her hooves; it projected a three-dimensional image of Equestria much like a hologram.
In the middle of the Map was the Crystal Heart, now lying idle.
She turned to the four others and smiled. “Two taps will send you to this thing right here.”
Twilight glanced around the throne room and then let out a sharp gasp. “Oh my gosh! Is this… is this home?”
Starlight similarly gasped. “Wait. That spell took us across timelines?”
“That it did. Isn’t entanglement wonderful?” Crystal replied.
Twilight beamed. “That’s incredible! I can’t believe that I didn’t think about something like this earlier!” she exclaimed, flapping her wings a few times as she spoke.
Chrysalis examined the room for herself and then nodded. “Well… that is indeed impressive.”
“With this… we can be sure… that there isn’t a next time,” Crystal said as she met Chrysalis in the eyes.
Chrysalis nodded but said nothing. A small grin spread across her muzzle.
Crystal hopped off the Map and started toward the doors. “This is in case something goes catastrophically wrong and you need a way out. We have this for sure. But, in order for it to work, that thing has to be safe.”
She lit her horn and opened the double doors that led into the room and grinned. On the immediate other side of the doorway stood a small purple dragon in the process of reaching for the handle.
“Twilight!” he called.
“Spike!?” Twilight bounded off the Map and rushed over to him and swept him up in a tight embrace. “Oh, Spike, I’ve missed you so much!”
“What? Missed me? I saw you yesterday morning and…”
Twilight pulled him in even tighter and giggled. “It’s a long story, Spike. I’ll have to tell you about it later. I’m just so so so so happy to see you again!”
Crystal, with a grin on her face, bent down next to them. “It has been a while, Spike. Perhaps you may remember me?”
Spike broke away from Twilight entirely and stared up at Crystal. She snapped his claws together and nodded. “Oh, yeah, I remember. You’re Flurry Heart.”
“Close enough,” Crystal said.
Spike looked further into the room. His eyes ran over Starlight with whom he exchanged waves, over Sunset with whom he exchanged nods, and then he finally settled on Chrysalis and froze in place.
Chrysalis stared back with a small snarl growing on her face.
“Wah!” he cried, jumping back.
Twilight frowned and immediately knelt down beside him. “Don’t worry, Spike. She’s with us!”
He lifted a shaky claw and pointed. “That’s Chrysalis!”
Crystal nodded. “She’s a friend.”
Chrysalis cracked her neck in response.
Spike frowned and turned to Twilight again. When Twilight nodded, he let out the breath that he had been holding.
Crystal turned. “Chrysalis, Sunset, why don’t you go back and start wrapping things up?”
Chrysalis took one last look around the room and then turned to Sunset. “Perhaps we should.”
“I’ll go with, I guess,” Starlight said. “Crystal, can you help us out?”
Crystal poked at her own neck and grinned. “You don’t need my help.”
The three of them blinked and then chuckled nervously. They touched their hooves to their own necks and each disappeared in a ball of white light.
Crystal turned back to Spike and said, “Actually, your timing is impeccable. Because… we have a super special mission for you.”
Both Spike and Twilight blinked. “You do?” they said in unison.
“Yes. I do. Do you see that there?”
Spike nodded. “Yeah, I see that. That’s…” And then he gasped and jumped into the air again. “Oh yikes! That’s… that’s the Crystal Heart!”
“Indeed it is. But it is from another reality. I am sure,” Crystal mused.
“Yeah, right!” he exclaimed as he trotted into the room. He climbed onto the Map in order to examine it more closely.
“It’s the truth, Spike,” Twilight said as she followed behind. “Remember that conversation that we all had together about where I come from?”
Spike crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “Yeah…? Yeah… I remember.”
“Good,” Crystal said. She laid her hooves on the Map and then leaned across it. “I want you to remember this. Spike, there is a good chance that a very evil being will attempt to come for this Crystal Heart.”
Spike held a claw over his dropped jaw. “What…?”
Twilight similarly gasped but she recovered quickly. “Yes, that’s right. His name is Miasmus. He’s a villain that I dealt with back in my home timeline.”
Spike shivered and looked up at Twilight. “Well? What’s he like?”
“He possesses ponies. He pretends to be them and you can’t tell the difference and then… He’ll possess you too.” Twilight swallowed. Her eyes flicked between the other two.
“W-well…” Spike stammered as he folded his claws together, “okay… what do I gotta do?”
“I want you to watch this space for me,” Crystal said. “If you see ponies appear out of nowhere, and none of us five are among them, then it’s him.”
“I don’t know if I can do that,” he replied.
“You could always ask for help. You could ask the rest of the girls,” Twilight suggested. “You should, even.”
“Or perhaps the princesses,” Crystal added. “It matters not to me who you recruit for this task.”
After a moment, Spike took a deep breath and nodded. “So, uh, just so I gotcha straight, you want me to make sure that nopony gets into this room and messes with the Crystal Heart.”
“He is especially susceptible to magic blasts,” Crystal added, “Although… I believe that dragon fire also works.”
“Okay.”
Twilight smiled. “Can I count on you to do that, Spike?”
Spike stood up as straight as he possibly could and snapped a salute. “You can count on me!”
Twilight ambled forward and swept him into another hug. “I know you can do it, Spike. I have faith in you.”
Spike returned the hug. As he broke away, he looked Twilight in the eyes and asked, “Uh, before you go, what’s this all for anyway?”
“Well… that’s also a long story,” Twilight said with a blush and a rub of the back of her neck. “But don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it when I get back. Does that sound like a deal?”
Spike nodded and hopped off the Map. “Alrighty. But I also want a big pile of gemstones while you’re at it.”
Twilight glanced at Crystal and smiled. “I’m sure that between the two of us, we could find the biggest pile of gemstones there is just for you!”
A big grin spread across his face.
Crystal chuckled and then motioned toward the door. “Well, you should probably get started, then. You’ll find Sweet Apple Acres, the racetrack, and the spa good places to start.”
Spike gave one last salute before dashing out the door and into the hall.
Crystal nodded. “I don’t think that Miasmus is smart enough to find where we are actually operating from, but given these recent experiences… I’d rather not take my chances.”
Twilight frowned. “I just hope everything will be okay…”
Crystal nodded. “All the more reason to end this business as quickly as we can.”
“Yes, Because now that you’ve brought up the possibility of him coming after the Crystal Heart... I can’t help but wonder…” Twilight began before she stopped to scratch her chin.
At that, Crystal tapped her own neck and her world shrunk down to a single point again. When it expanded back out, Crystal found herself standing in the clearing again. She turned around and glanced at the supercomputer that towered over her.
Twilight appeared in a flash of light right beside her shortly afterward and she too turned to gaze at the supercomputer.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Crystal said at length. “Perhaps I need to have another talk…”
* * *
Twilight folded her hooves together as the last words left Crystal’s lips. She sat on a cushion of straw in the center of the hut—this one was unlike most others as it had multiple rooms; a wooden pillar supported each one.
Princess Celestia lay on a bed in the adjacent room. She looked like a faint image now; supposedly that had happened during the instant the five had been away. She lay on her side so that she could face them but she otherwise kept herself under the covers.
Queen Adamantine herself sat tall on a little wooden throne that took up the back wall of her hut. The throne itself had countless contours etched into it, all punctuated by the shiny lacquer. A porcelain mug filled with steaming hot coffee floated in her magic; she took a moment to sip at it.
“Well… this has probably been mentioned before,” Adamantine began, “but… the reason that I and my unponies exist is in order to fulfill a specific purpose. That purpose… serves the interests of the world. We have done so passively up to this point…” She cracked a smile and then said, “But, certainly, the mere existence of the world is in the interest of the world.
“So, if you need for me and my unponies to defend your spell, then we shall.”
Crystal, who remained sitting, still did a bowing motion. “Thank you, Adamantine. The help is appreciated.”
Adamantine chuckled. “Well, besides… you—all of you have been friends to us.” She paused to take another sip from her coffee. “So I believe that I can speak for many unponies when I say that we will be happy to help.”
“And I as well,” Celestia piped up. She lifted the covers off herself and trotted up to them.
“You don’t have to do that,” Twilight said as she rose to meet Celestia.
“Nonsense,” Celestia replied with a sly smile and a warm chuckle. “It should certainly beat spending my final moments in a bed. Miasmus may have gotten the better of me once before. I don’t intend to let that happen again for as long as I shall exist,” she said with a stomp.
Adamantine stood up with narrowed eyes that made her already charcoal face seem that much darker. “If that foul excuse for a creature tries to show up here… We will be ready for him.”
* * *
Chrysalis looked around the clearing and scratched her head. The countless easels, toolboxes, and stacks of paper had all been cleared away and, aside from the large, metal sphere laying in the center, the area now looked as bare as it had the day they had arrived.
Had it only been a couple of weeks?
Chrysalis frowned and turned around. Twilight, Starlight, and Celestia all stood together near the entrance to the clearing. They spoke in hushed tones and Chrysalis made no effort to listen in on their conversation. She drew her eyes to Adamantine who stood silently near the three; at least a hundred charcoal-colored unponies stood watching in silence from behind her.
She still didn’t understand what, if anything, differentiated them from a normal Equestrian pony. Maybe she would ask later.
Chrysalis shook her head. What a silly thought, because there won’t be a later. I’ll be done with these ones soon. I will be free of them.
A loud bang from close by signaled Crystal reappearing with Sunset close behind. The two of them trotted toward the main congregation which opened up to let them in.
Chrysalis glanced at them all again and frowned. Had she really been with these mares for a couple of weeks? Had she really allowed herself to stay with them that long?
She could hear Twilight’s voice ringing through her head. “I won’t have you talking about my friend like that!”
Chrysalis briefly considered Twilight and then, as another voice rang through her mind, she turned her attention to Starlight. “You mess with her, you mess with us!”
Chrysalis shuddered. She had allowed it.
Bah, she thought. How strange this all is… I’ve gone soft.
She shook her head and trotted toward the group. They, at her approach, opened up for her, and Chrysalis slotted right in.
It was at that point that all conversation went silent. Finally, Adamantine said at length, “So this is it… I wish you well in your endeavors. I hope that you stick it to him.”
“We will,” Sunset said.
Adamantine nodded and turned. “And Crystal… I want to wish you the best of luck. Especially if you do find your people out there.” She paused and then added, “But, if you choose to stay… maybe you could come in for the occasional social visit?”
Crystal’s muzzle twitched. “Per… haps…”
Sunset blushed and trotted up to Adamantine. “It’s been real. Adamantine… thanks so much for having us.”
“Not at all.”
“There’s… something that I’ve been meaning to tell you. It’s about my home timeline.”
That’s right, Chrysalis thought. Adamantine and her unponies perished in Sunset’s home timeline, even after everything Sunset tried in order to prevent that.
Adamantine grinned. “Don’t worry, Sunset, I already know.”
Sunset paused. “You… do?”
“I noticed the way that you looked at me, so I asked.” She trotted forward and wrapped her forelegs around Sunset. “I don’t blame you at all for what happened, and I know you tried your best for our sake. Please know that I consider you an absolute gem.”
Sunset returned the embrace with a few tears forming in her eyes. They held each other for quite a while.
At that, Twilight turned to Celestia and trotted up to her. The two held each other in an embrace for a while. “Don’t worry, Princess Celestia, we’ll solve this. I promise you.”
“I have faith in you, Twilight. You and all of your friends,” Celestia said.
Twilight pulled back and looked her mentor in the eyes. “Thank you, Princess. And it was really really good to see you again.” She shuddered. “Even… if this is the last time I’m going to see you and—”
Starlight came to Twilight’s side and wrapped a foreleg around her. She smiled at Twilight and, after a moment, Twilight smiled back.
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her,” Starlight said.
Celestia nodded. “I am sure that you will. It was a pleasure meeting you again, Starlight. And Sunset…”
Sunset broke from Adamantine and looked over. “Yes, Celestia?”
“It was very nice to see you again in any reality.”
Sunset nodded.
Celestia finally turned to Chrysalis and her smile faded somewhat. The two stared at each other for several moments before, finally, the former said, “Goodness, Queen Chrysalis, you do look a bit more radiant than when I first met you.”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “To which do you refer? The wedding? Or here?”
“Both.”
Chrysalis ruffled her bug-like wings. It was just enough for everypony to see the way in which they sparkled in the sunlight.
Celestia chuckled. “Indeed. I hope that you continue to take care of yourself.”
After a moment, Chrysalis nodded.
“All of you, even,” Adamantine seconded. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” Crystal said. She then turned to her companions. “Well then, perhaps it is time that we got going?”
The others nodded and drew in close.
“Farewell, everypony,” Adamantine said. “We will keep our hooves crossed for you.”
“You too, Adamantine,” Sunset said.
Crystal nodded in agreement.
Chrysalis was able to get one last look at Celestia, Adamantine, and her unponies, all of whom were, strangely enough, allies. And then, a second later, Chrysalis’ world folded together into a single point and she was but a consciousness.