//------------------------------// // 011 - Triple Point // Story: Songs of the Spheres // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// “Woo-hoo!” Pinkie hollered. “It’s been a while!” Twilight took her gaze off the Mirror Portal and raised an eyebrow in Pinkie’s direction. “We went through two days ago. The crystal world, remember?” “Yeah, I’m not talking about that though!” Pinkie giggled. “What are you talking about then?” Fluttershy asked, curious. “Well, it’s just been awhile since I’ve felt like this! So good! We’re going to do something fun today, Twilight!” “You think so?” Twilight asked. “Well, yeah! But then again I always make things fun so this might just mean nothing for us. Eh.” “Oh! Before we go in…” Starlight said, reaching into her saddlebags and pulling out a small helicopter drone. “I’ve made… this.” Rarity looked at the thing resting in Starlight’s hoof. “…What is it, dear?” “It’s a flying machine.” Starlight lit her horn and the small machine rose into the air. “It’ll follow us around automatically and cast a shield spell whenever it thinks we need it.” Twilight looked at it and grinned. “That’s pretty amazing Starlight. How’d you get the technology to accept the spells?” “Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie said, raising her hoof. “It was her souvenirs!” Starlight chuckled. “Uh… Yeah! I worked with various otherworldly magics and a drone from an Earth and eventually made this thing. Discord and I tested it, it works pretty well.” “Oh, so that’s what Discord’s helping you with?” Fluttershy asked. “Yeeeep! I mean, what else would he be helping me with?” “I don’t know. It just seems unlike him to do ‘sciencey’ things.” Starlight rolled her eyes. “He got to shoot chaos magic at a robot for a few hours.” Fluttershy smiled warmly. “Well that certainly sounds like him.” Twilight nodded. “That it does. Hopefully we won’t need to test this drone today. I don’t want to spend another day getting shot at.” “Twilight, we have not visited enough worlds to be jaded to gunfire,” Rarity asserted. “Give it a year or two. Some of us still jump whenever there’s a bang.” “Right, right, sorry.” “No need to apologize!” “But I-“ “Enough chit-chat!” Pinkie said, appearing between the two of them. “We’re wasting the time that could be used elsewhere! Perhaps in a world of candy!” “Is today donut world day?” Fluttershy asked. “Fluttershy, there’s no way we could know that,” Twilight noted. “We have to go in first. All I know right now is that the other side is safe. Other than that, could be anything.” She took a step forward. “Pinkie’s right though, time to find out!” She stepped through. The other side was dark. There were no sources of light, and yet she could see her purple hooves as if it were the middle of the day. The sky was a pitch black emptiness, a void of starless despair. The ground was flat, cold, and felt vaguely like plastic. Twilight noted that the ground was a grid – black squares bordered by dark blue glowing lines, each roughly the size of a square meter. She could see precisely fifteen squares in every direction before the blue lines no longer existed, giving way to seeming endless blackness. “…Peculiar,” Twilight said. “Why do we even say that anymore?” Rarity asked, taking her place beside Twilight. “This is nowhere near as odd as that infinite forest.” “True…” Twilight said, putting a hoof to her chin. Starlight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie arrived in the new world along with Starlight’s drone. The robot happily buzzed above Starlight, observing every space it could see. Twilight took a step forward into the next square. The moment she did so, more squares lit up in front of her. Glancing behind her, she saw that the squares in the back had vanished, replaced with blackness. “Hey, Starlight.” “Yeah?” “How many squares away from yourself can you see?” Starlight glanced at the square she was on, counting in her mind. “…Fifteen in every direction. Exactly.” “I can see fifteen as well. From where I’m standing. That means I can see squares you can’t.’ Fluttershy blinked. “Um. What does that mean?” “Not sure yet…” Twilight cast a simple light spell and forced it to sit on the fifteenth square in front of her. “Can you see that Starlight?” “It just vanished into nothingness for me.” Starlight smirked. “It seems each of us has a limited field of view. There’s no way this place is natural…” “Ahem,” Rarity coughed. “There are weirder things in the multiverse.” “All right, fine, I doubt it’s natural. Too many squares, artificial light, forced perspective. Almost like a…” “GAME!” Pinkie squeed, jumping around in her characteristic way. She bounced out of the last square in Twilight’s field of view, vanishing into nothing in an instant. Twilight felt afraid for a moment – what if Pinkie never came back? They couldn’t see far enough to locate her, and if she needed help there’d be no way for them to give it! Pinkie came back into the field of view a few seconds later, putting those thoughts to rest for the most part. She stopped right next to Twilight. “I’m here to report that there’s nothing but flat squares in that direction!” “Nothing but flat squares anywhere,” Rarity said, walking around. “The only feature is… Well, what we came out of.” What they came out of was a simple cube raised out of the ground, borders glowing a soft dark blue. One of the cube’s faces shimmered with the light of the Mirror Portal. Starlight tapped one of its sides. “It’s… Just like the floor.” “Why’s it raised though?” Twilight asked. “Could be natural,” Fluttershy shrugged. She looked up. “I’m going to try flying.” “All right. Just make sure you can still see us. If you can’t, come back down.” Fluttershy flapped into the air. She was soon much higher than fifteen meters, but they could still see her easily. She kept going higher, but nothing changed besides her getting smaller. “You can come down now!” Twilight yelled. “There’s no upper limit!” Fluttershy slowly drifted down to the ground. “It’s… odd not being able to see further when you go higher.” “Rainbow Dash would hate this place,” Rarity observed. “Can you imagine?” Pinkie smirked. “AUGH! I can’t see where I’m going! AUGH! Stupid wall! AUGH! Going fast is punisheeeeed! No fair! Lame!” The girls had a good chuckle at the impression. “So…” Fluttershy eventually said. “Are we going to go explore, or what?” Twilight blushed slightly. “Right, right, we do need to look around…” She cast a simple navigation spell so they’d always be able to find their way back here. Not that they needed it, since she had the dimensional device in her saddlebags as a backup, but it never hurt to be careful. They set out in a random direction – compasses didn’t work, so there wasn’t really a north here – and quickly left the sight of the raised block. A couple minutes passed. Nothing presented itself to them. “Ugh,” Starlight muttered. “Is there nothing here?” “That wouldn’t be very fun…” Pinkie said. “There’s obviously something imposing the field of view on us,” Twilight said. “Though I suppose that could be the universe itself… But if this place really operated on a grid why would we be allowed to stand on corners and move like we do?” “Cause it’s a game!” “What a thrilling game,” Rarity deadpanned. “I’m on the edge of my seat with excitement.” “Girls…” Fluttershy said. “Hrm?” Twilight asked, looking to her left at Fluttershy. “I see something over there.” She pointed into the void. “I don- Oh. Right.” Twilight walked into the same square as Fluttershy. The square was a little cramped with two ponies on it, but they managed without issue. Twilight looked at the furthest square she could see and did make out something. It was a blue pawn, similar to those pieces on the game of chess she’d seen on Earth. “Huh.” “I want to see!” Starlight said, trying to worm her way onto the same square. The location went from cramped to uncomfortable in an instant. “Starlight, if you want to see just move one square for-“ “LEMME SEE LEMME SEE!” Pinkie cheered, leaping into the three of them and creating a pony pile. Rarity rolled her eyes at her friends’ antics, taking it upon herself to move forward. She strode gracefully towards the blue pawn, eyes watching it closely. It was a brighter color than the lines on the ground, bright enough that it spread a little blue spotlight around itself. It seemed alive – even though it didn’t have any moving limbs or body parts, it bounced around slightly like some frog, shifting its weight around to remain comfortable. It eventually noticed her approaching it. It hopped up and down excitedly. “Hello,” Rarity said. The pawn hopped a square closer to Rarity. She took a step back – making the pawn pause. It leaned towards her as if trying to gauge her reaction to it. “Can you talk? …Or even understand me? …Or even have ears?” The pawn made no response. “Take that as a ‘no’ on all three!” Starlight called. “Already got that figured out, but thanks anyway!” Rarity called back. She changed tactics, resorting to gestures to facilitate communication. She beckoned for it to come to her. It got the message, hopping over squares one at a time until it reached the one in front of hers. She touched it with her hoof, discovering that it felt exactly like the ground. “Don’t worry girls, he’s harmless.” The pawn decided that was enough of that, and bounced over to the other four ponies eagerly. Pinkie Pie appeared on its head mid-journey, making it stop to re-examine its life. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! You can’t understand me but that’s okay! Onward, steed!” The pawn seemed to understand anyway, carrying Pinkie to her friends. Twilight eyed the pawn suspiciously. “Are you sure this thing’s safe? We’ve been wrong before.” “Well, it probably doesn’t want us dead,” Pinkie said. “It’s kinda like a dog!” Fluttershy put her wing on it. “…Not like any dog I’ve dealt with. I don’t understand it at all… I have no idea what the poor thing wants!” “How do you know it’s a poor thing then?” Starlight asked. “Animal talk,” Pinkie explained. “All cute things are poor things unless Fluttershy is doting over them.” “Hey! I…” Fluttershy blushed. “I can’t argue with that.” “Pinkie strikes again!” Pinkie leaped up and struck a power pose. “I win a cookie!” She grabbed a cookie out of her mane and devoured it. Starlight raised an eyebrow. On a hunch, she pulled a virtual tablet out of her saddlebags. “Hey… Pinkie! My cookie count is down! What did you do?” “I won a cookie. That’s worth, like, a trillion internet cookies.” “At this phase of the game-“ Starlight noticed her friends looking at her. “…All right, the game is stupid, I shouldn’t get so worked up over it, sorry Pinkie.” Pinkie winked. Then she pulled out a cupcake, offering it to Starlight. “Here.” “How many internet cupcakes is that worth?” “None, I just grabbed it!” Starlight nodded slowly, trying desperately to make it look like she understood. The pawn hopped up and down excitedly again, moving a square away and pointing its head in the same direction. It hopped another square, stopping to point at them, then leaned away. “…I think it wants us to follow,” Twilight observed. “Brilliant deduction,” Starlight deadpanned. “I say we follow it,” Rarity cut in. “It’s the only thing we’ve seen in this entire place. What else are we going to do? Have a sleepover?” “I do have pillows,” Pinkie said, throwing a pillow in Rarity’s face. “Thank you, Pinkie, for your input. I’m going to follow the pawn.” Twilight nodded. “It seems like the best thing to do.” They fell in line behind the blue being. It wanted to go as far and as fast as it could, but it never let itself get more than seven squares away from Twilight. She figured this meant that the pawn had a smaller field of view than she and her friends did. Once again Twilight was left to wonder why and not come up with a satisfactory answer. Something had to be keeping track of them to do this. She didn’t detect any high levels of magic, but that didn’t really mean anything anymore. Their pawn friend led them to an area that had more blue pawns – much, much more. Twilight could count twenty in her field of view alone, and she knew there were even more behind them. “There might be hundreds… Thousands…” Twilight muttered. “Well, it’s a society at least,” Rarity observed. “No buildings though… Nothing but them and this grid. What kind of life do they have if they can’t talk? It must be boring.” “They seem happy,” Fluttershy said. “Maybe they just don’t need anything but each other.” Twilight surveyed the landscape, brow furrowed. “I still want to know why. What runs this place?” She glanced around – and on the edge of her vision she saw a red pawn. It hopped into the field of view – then hopped out. “Girls, I just saw-“ From the left edge of her field of view, dozens of red pawns poured out, charging the blue pawns. The blue ones leaped up and ran for the most part, fleeing the red onslaught. Not all of them were fast enough to escape. The red pawns leaped on top of the blue ones, smashing them into a thousand pieces that dissipated into nothing. Five shattered before Twilight registered what was happening. “No!” Fluttershy said, flying towards the pawn that had led them here. She was too late – it was quickly crushed by an invading red pawn. Fluttershy screamed, Staring at the red pawn with ferocious intensity. It froze solid, unable to move as Fluttershy inched closer. “You…  Are going… To… Protect these lit-“ The red pawn bolted, as if a switch had been flicked inside of it from ‘stand frozen in fear’ to ‘flee!’ The entire group of red pawns got the idea at the exact same time, fleeing from the ponies’ field of view. Twilight stared, jaw hanging. “…What just happened?” “I’ll tell you what happened!” Fluttershy screeched. “A bunch of mean red pawns attacked for no reason and killed a bunch of adorable blue pawns!” Rarity held a hoof to her mouth. “There are no remains at all…” “This isn’t any game I’d like to play,” Pinkie muttered. “We need to help these pawns!” Fluttershy said. “They can’t live like this. Look at them – they’re terrified!” The pawns did indeed seem to be terrified. Instead of hopping around carefree and amiably, they shivered and huddled as close together as possible. “We can’t do that,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “We don’t know all the details. We can’t talk to them, we can only go off what we see. And we haven’t seen much. Acting without knowing is likely to cause more problems. More destruction.” Fluttershy’s face indicated that she really wanted to argue against Twilight’s stance, but couldn’t. She sagged in defeat. “Fine. But we need to do that quickly so more of this doesn’t happen while we’re waiting! How do we find out more?” “We can’t ask them, so we’ll have to watch them. And since we need both sides of the story, we need to go see what the red pawns are doing.” She took in a deep breath. “They fled that way. Let’s follow them.” Fluttershy spread her wings and flew away, giving no regard to her usual slow movement. “W-wait up!” Starlight called after her, galloping at full speed, her drone flying behind her. Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity took places behind Starlight, attempting to keep up with the driven pegasus. “Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled. “Slow down when you see them! We can’t let them know they’re being followed!” “Got it!” Fluttershy called back, showing no signs of slowing. Rarity turned to Twilight as they ran. “Did… Did we just see pawn creatures die?” “Think about it later, Rarity,” Twilight said. If she was being honest, she said that more for her own benefit. She couldn’t let herself get bogged down by what had just happened now. Her mind couldn’t process it. Fluttershy flared her wings, slowing everypony down in that moment. They all kept running, but at a slower pace – because Fluttershy had seen the pawns and was keeping them at the edge of her vision. She glowered at them. “Good job, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “Now we just have to keep them in our sights…” While Twilight was finishing that thought, the red pawns arrived in their encampment, taking up positions in a loose coalition of happily bouncing red pawns. None of them could see the ponies, for they were too far away. Fluttershy blinked. “It… It looks exactly like the blue pawn place…” “That’s what it seems like…” Twilight frowned. “I think we should go in.” “What!?” “Those pawns we were tailing are long out of our sights. The red pawns won’t be able to recognize us. So they should accept us just like the blue ones…” She took a few steps forward. One of the pawns saw her and began shaking in fear. It ran into the sea of other read pawns. Twilight imagined it screaming. Some of the red pawns looked like they wanted to take a stand, but ran away anyway. Twilight held out a hoof. “Uh… So we’re terrifying. Great. This makes no sense!” She did not have time to contemplate the senselessness of the situation, for what sounded an awful lot like a gunshot reached her ear. She noticed with some fear that Starlight’s drone had raised a shield directly to the left of her skull, protecting her from a projectile. She’d probably be dead right now without that drone. To her left, exactly fifteen spaces away, she saw a floating red octahedron. It flashed red, firing another red bullet, which the drone defended as well. Twilight was done – she had to defend herself now. She fired a magic laser at the diamond, only for it to step out of her field of view. “What is it Twilight!?” Starlight shouted. “Under attack! Red diamond! Look out!” “I see it!” Rarity yelled, firing off a magic bolt of her own. “It’s staying out of our line of sight!” Twilight saw it to her right. It fired the moment it entered her field of view, but Twilight sent the bullet right back at it – only to miss. “It has the same field of view we do! Next time one appears, try to keep it in your sights!” “I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE, A DIAMOND!” Pinkie yelled. She ran out of Twilight’s field of view, presumably after the diamond. But then one appeared behind Twilight in the exact opposite direction. “There’s more than one!” Twilight shouted. “Got one!” Starlight yelled, latching onto a red diamond with her magic. She encased it in a bubble shield so it couldn’t unleash its bullets and pulled it closer to her. “Keep an eye on it!” Fluttershy nodded, Staring at it intently. A red diamond rushed at them from beyond their sight range, fire burning off of it on all sides. With graceful movement, it bounced over Starlight’s and Twilight’s attacks, landing directly on the magic box containing the other red diamond with a fiery burst. With its companion freed, the flame-wielding diamond turned on Rarity, a torrent of flame shooting right at her. Starlight blocked it with her magic, unable to prevent Rarity’s mane from getting slightly singed. The drone blocked another bullet, this time saving Fluttershy a wound to her chest. Pinkie came out of nowhere, holding a red diamond in her hooves and hitting the fiery diamond across the side with it. “STRIKE! Or FORE! Or something!” The flaming diamond didn’t hit the ground – it just floated upright, ready for more fighting. It charged, accompanied by more gunfire from a fourth companion. “How many of them are there?” Rarity yelled, firing off ineffective bolts of magic. “I don’t know!” Starlight said, tying the one she’d had imprisoned previously and the one Pinkie had brought it down. “I count four so far!” The flaming diamond unleashed a wave of flame towards everypony. Twilight had to raise the shield to defend this one since the drone was far too weak for the task. The drone caught a bullet from behind, and Starlight took the opportunity to imprison a third diamond. “Just the fiery one left unless we’ve miscounted!” The fiery diamond launched itself right at Starlight, only to be caught by her telekinesis. “Woo! Full of fire wouldn’t you say?” Pinkie facehooved. “That’s my job, Starlight.” “Did… Did we get them all?” Twilight asked, nervously glancing around. There were no diamonds besides the four Starlight had frozen in magic bubbles. “No more action on the horizon…” Rarity said, scanning the area. “Good,” Twilight let out a breath. “…I did not want guns today…” “They weren’t really guns, you know,” Starlight observed. “Just… Gun-like magic-like like… …I’m going to stop this sentence before it gets too out of hand.” Twilight glanced at the diamonds. “You have them secure?” “Long as I’m thinking about it, it stays up. Give me a minute or to and I could make it more permanent.” “Well-“ A yellow pawn appeared out of the corner of their vision and charged. Rarity stopped it with her telekinesis, grunting from the strain. “My… How do you two push so hard all the time?” Twilight shrugged. She was about to respond when two more yellow pawns appeared, charging. She caught these in her telekinesis, but it didn’t end. More appeared, all needing to be stopped. Soon there were a full dozen yellow pawns frozen by their magic. “This… Is a bit much to focus on…” Starlight admitted. “Maybe we should consi-“ A yellow diamond showed up. It grabbed a pawn from behind it with an invisible force and threw it at Starlight. Starlight panicked from the sudden movement, unable to stop the pawn from hitting her in the head. It bounced right off of her harmlessly, but she lost her focus on all the beings she was keeping imprisoned. Including the four red diamonds. The fiery diamond wasted no time at all. Starlight was given a face full of fire without any sort of magical protection. She fell to the ground, singed. A second yellow diamond appeared out of the floor and attacked the flaming red diamond. Fire appeared in front of the yellow diamond, before exploding onto the red diamond. The red diamond didn’t seem to care – and its associates fired bullets right at the yellow shape. They passed right through without so much as a dent. Two more yellow diamonds entered the scene, bringing with them more yellow pawns. One broke the grid beneath it and tossed chunks of it at the red diamond and the ponies, while the other attacked with neon chains that lengthened and shrunk with alarming accuracy. One of the chains clocked Fluttershy in the side of the head, knocking her out. The drone stopped the other one from hitting Pinkie. Pinkie grabbed ahold of a red shooting diamond and smacked a yellow diamond with it. Both the diamonds slumped to the ground, but Pinkie was open to an attack from the grid-smasher. Part of the grid hit her in the back of the head. “OW! That hurt! Tha-“ A chain hit her right in the face. Pinkie twisted around like a corkscrew and fell to the ground. Twilight unleashed the spell she’d been building up in her horn. “Enough!” She sent out a burst of purple magic energy, a spell designed to stun all enemies. It worked – all the diamonds and yellow pawns stopped moving. They’d only be frozen a second. She lit her horn again, drawing magic together for a somewhat less complex spell. She latched onto Pinkie, Starlight, Rarity, and Fluttershy with her magic and teleported them all the way back to the blue pawn base. They escaped the battlefield in an instant, out of danger and into safety. Twilight ran to Starlight first. She could smell the burn. “Starlight!” Starlight moaned. “Hrng…” Twilight winced when she saw Starlight’s face – the coat was burned off the right side, revealing the pale skin beneath. Her eye was swollen shut and part of the skin was charred. “All right… Twilight… You can do this…” She lit her horn, trying to remember her first aid spells she had brushed up on for these missions. For a burn… Cool aspect, aloe effect, and… And uh... She gulped, forcing herself to stop thinking and just perform the spell. A soft purple glow surrounded Starlight’s face, working on the burn wound. Starlight screamed about a second in. Twilight reeled and would have stopped the spell had it not been automatic at this point. Starlight screamed the full three seconds it worked on her – and then fell silent. “S-Starlight…?” Twilight said, nervously. “You… Forgot…. The anesthetic…” Starlight spat, breathing heavily. “SORRY!” Starlight stood up, rubbing her face. “Ow…” her coat was still burnt off that half of her face, and the scent of singed hair was still strong, but her eye was no longer swollen shut. “That hurt worse than the burn, Twilight.” “Well burns tend to remove your nerves and so it probably hurt more and I’ll stop talking now because you really don’t need to hear that heheh.” Starlight walked over to Fluttershy, standing her up. “You okay?” “I’m… Fine. I feel sore though…” “Your wing is bleeding,” Starlight said, lifting the limb with her magic. “I think a bullet grazed it…” “Yeah…” Starlight cast a simple ‘scab’ spell to stop the bleeding. “That’ll work for now.” Fluttershy nodded. “Thanks…” “Well,” Rarity said, “now we know what’s going on here. Three-way war.” “Probably,” Twilight said, sighing. “They’ve been fighting for Celestia knows how long. We… We really shouldn’t do anything here. It’s not our place. …I’m not sure what we could do either, besides fight in the war.” “I understand,” Fluttershy said. “I… I think” She shook her head. “This is a messed up place. We should leave.” Twilight nodded. She lit her horn, teleporting the five of them to the raised block. Or what she had marked as the raised block. There was no raised block anymore. “Uh…” Rarity murmured, pointing. “The Mirror Portal is gone.” “That… That it is,” Twilight said, trying her best to keep a straight face. “How… Great.” “You brought the device, right?” Starlight asked. “Oh yeah!” Twilight said, pulling it out of her bags. “I forgot!” She levitated it out in front of her and dialed Equestria. The device had more than enough charge, seeing as she always kept it full when possible. Never hurt to be prepared. She activated it, channeling the magic into reality itself. She saw the familiar ripple of space-time in front of her – but no tear. Just the ripples. “…Huh?” She activated the device again, this time pushing her own magic into it, trying to accentuate the space-time ripples. She felt something push back against her magic, forcing the distortion levels to remain and manageable lows. “Twilight, please don’t tell me we’re stuck here,” Starlight said. “Something’s keeping us here, forcing the portal to stay closed…” “I take it back, I would have much preferred you just told me we were stuck here.” Fluttershy curled into a ball. “Something wants us here?” “That seems likely. There is a… force.” “It wants to play a game,” Pinkie said with no hint of her usual jovial tone. Twilight gulped. “That it does…” “What are we going to do!?” Starlight wailed. “Someone will come looking for us eventually,” Twilight said. “Discord could probably get us out…” “Trusting Discord to be prompt and helpful?” Rarity blurted. “That sounds… Less than ideal.” “Well we can’t do anything from this end! Our spells and machines don’t work!” “We could find who’s doing this and ask him to let us go,” Fluttershy suggested. “I’m sure we can convince him.” Twilight frowned, glancing at the glowing grid in the ground. “I could… I could try to trace the power as I attempt to open a portal, but I don’t know if that’ll work. And if something can prevent us from opening a portal, couldn’t it do much worse to us if we angered it?” Starlight gulped. “Maybe… Maybe we should play the game. Fight in the war. The blue pawns will accept us.” “No,” Fluttershy said, putting her hoof down. “I will not fight in any war. Ever.” “How would we even win? There’s probably an endless number of pawns!” Pinkie added. Starlight shrugged. “Defeat the diamonds? They seemed… special. More unique.” “There was something odd about them,” Rarity agreed. “They didn’t seem limited to the grid and seemed to be smarter.” “Commanders, probably,” Twilight said. “Is anyone listening to me!?” Fluttershy interjected. “We are not playing the game! We are finding the pony or person or thing that’s doing this and making them stop!” “It might not even be a person,” Twilight said. “It might not be able to talk…” “We have to try, Twilight. Please. For all these pawns who are always fighting…” Twilight sighed. “Fine, I’ll try again, but I’m burning through the device’s battery. I shouldn’t try this more than once.” She activated it again, using her magic to accentuate it once more. She felt the presence push against her magic again, and she latched onto it. The power tried to pull back, but Twilight managed to get a direction. She pointed. “That way.” “Where is that way?” Rarity asked. Twilight frowned. “It’s not the red or blue base, that’s for sure. The yellows maybe?” “Well, we’re about to find out,” Fluttershy asserted. “Lead the way, Twilight. We’re getting to the bottom of this.” Twilight nodded absent-mindedly – her thoughts drifted back to the diamonds. Something about them didn’t sit right with her, but she couldn’t put her hoof on what it was. In silence, they walked through the field of squares. They passed by a few blue pawns and saw a red one for a split second, but otherwise nothing much happened on the journey. Yet, this time, nobody complained about the relatively boring silence. There was a somber mood, and even Pinkie knew to keep quiet when that was the case. It was a mutual understanding between the five of them, even if they all knew they probably should talk about it. The journey took much longer than the journey to the blue base from the raised cube – but only by fifteen minutes or so. They arrived at a tall, black diamond floating on top of a single square. It was easily the size of Fluttershy’s tree house and was composed of the same material as the ground. “…This is the center of the warzone,” Starlight said. “I think we’re roughly equal distances from the red and blue bases, and I would not be surprised if the yellow base was over there.” Twilight nodded. “I think you’re right… But… I wonder what this is?” She scanned it with her magic and came up with nothing. The power had definitely come from here, but it felt no different than the rest of the ground around them. “Hrm…” “RED DIAMOND!” Pinkie said, pointing at the edge of their vision. Twilight tensed as the four red diamonds appeared. Curiously, none of them attacked. They just hovered there and did nothing, much like Twilight and company were doing. Nobody moved. Twilight furrowed her brow. “I’m going to walk towards them.” “Twilight!” Rarity hissed. “What if they’re trying to figure out how to kill us?” “I… I don’t think that’s the case.” She took a few steps forward. “But you girls stay here, okay? Starlight, teleport me away if there’s trouble.” Starlight nodded. “Okay. If… If you’re sure.” Twilight walked towards the red diamonds. One of them turned to the other three, made a strange tilting motion, and left the group as well. This red diamond alone met Twilight. They were soon a single square apart from each other in the shadow of the black floating diamond. Twilight put a hoof on the diamond – nothing happened. The red diamond leaned against the black one – and half the black diamond’s faces lit up with a red glow. Twilight frowned. “Only half…” The red diamond leaned away from the black one and created a ball of fire in midair. Twilight flinched, but didn’t flee – it wasn’t an attack. A smaller ball of fire began to orbit the large ball of fire. “Are you trying to make me think of the sun?” The fiery diamond kept doing what it was doing. “…Right, can’t understand me. Uh… Sun. Sun…” What was it about these diamonds that seemed so off to her? Why was that fire bringing such an itch to her mind? What was it? What were they? Something clicked in her mind. Not really believing what she had just deduced, she lit her horn and summoned a magical image of a sun – the sun that was Sunset Shimmer’s cutie mark. The red diamond bounced up and down in joy and confirmation. Twilight’s jaw dropped. “SUNSET!?” “What!?” Starlight yelled. “That’s Sunset!?” “Apparently!” Twilight said. Continuing with communication, Twilight created images of the cutie marks of the five of them, placing the six-pointed star on herself. The diamond that was Sunset jumped up and down in understanding. She turned back to her other three teammates, presumably to yell something at them Twilight couldn’t hear. “This is beyond weird…” Twilight muttered. “Why were you turned into diamonds? Why’d you attack us? Uh, wait, right…” Twilight used her magic to create an image of sunset, a question mark, and a red diamond. Then a symbol of a sword and shield for battle. Sunset generated an attempt at a flaming question mark next to the red diamond. Then some fire pointed at the diamond, then at Twilight. “…Girls?” Twilight called back. “We look like diamonds to them don’t we?” Pinkie said. “Apparently.” “Well that certainly explains a lot,” Fluttershy said. “And brings up more questions!” Rarity muttered, walking toward Twilight. “For instance, why are we all made to look like diamonds? Why are we forced to play this game? Who wants us fighting?” “Who are playing the yellow diamonds?” Starlight offered. Twilight sighed. “Ugh. This just got more confusing…” ~~~ Tempest walked up to her red-haired agent. “Corona, are you absolutely positive it is the ponies?” “Positive,” Agent Corona – a woman previously known as Sunset Shimmer – responded. “They’ve got the cutie marks down and seem to be just as confused as we are about the whole thing.” Tempest nodded. “It’s safe to assume the yellow diamonds are similar. Travelers plucked into this sick game by some higher power. Ike, has the central diamond’s readings changed any?” “Nope. It reacted when the blue diamond – er, Twilight, I guess – touched it, as you saw, but nothing else.” Corona frowned. “It needs the yellow diamond as well. It probably needs all three colors, actually.” “Where are we going to find a red diamond though?” Ike asked. Mike raised an eyebrow. “We’re the red diamonds, Ike.” “…Oh. Right.” “How are we going to get a yellow diamond here though?” Mike asked Corona. “Diplomacy, like we did here?” she suggested. “Wishful thinking,” Tempest said. “Ponies are naturally trusting and willing to talk, but even they fought at first.” “We fired first,” Corona deadpanned. Tempest didn’t dignify this with a response. “I suggest we engage in a capture operation.” “And how exactly?” Tempest pointed at the many blue diamonds that were really ponies. “We have them help us. They subdued all of us pretty easily.” Mike looked at his arm. Currently it was in a makeshift sling. “You don’t have to remind us.” “All we need is for that blue-magic one – Starlight, I presume – to ensnare one of the diamonds in her magic and bring it here. Possibly by teleport, if they can do that.” “You really do read up on their capabilities, don’t you?” Corona said. “I’m well informed so I can make good decisions,” Tempest asserted. “Now, we need to communicate the plan to them. Corona, we know they can see your fire clearly. Use it.” “…I really wish I was a unicorn right now…” Corona muttered, lighting her hand on fire. “It would make this so much easier…” ~~~ Twilight cocked her head at the flurry of flames dancing before her eyes. “I do not understand.” Starlight squinted her eyes. “…She’s pointing at herself, then us, then out into the distance. She emphasizes the distance. Does she want us to go somewhere?” “When I pointed that direction she lit on fire. I presume that means frustration.” “Safe bet,” Rarity said. “Pinkie,” Fluttershy said, “care to help?” Pinkie giggled. “Nah, you girls don’t need my help. Just think of it as a game of charades with poorly controlled fire!” “You know, sometimes you’re helpful, sometimes you’re the exact opposite of helpful,” Starlight commented. “Thank you! I try.” Twilight furrowed her brow. “Okay, so… She’s pointing at herself…” She created an image of Sunset’s cutie mark. “Us…” She created an image of her own cutie mark. “And… over there.” She created an arrow image. The fires from Sunset surrounded the three glyphs in diamond patterns. Twilight facehooved. “Oh. She’s talking about the three colors of diamond.” She changed the images to red, blue, and yellow diamonds. Sunset’s fire danced around the yellow diamond image, then a burst of fire thrust toward the black diamond, causing half of it to light up with a red color. Twilight blinked. “So we need to get a yellow diamond to touch the black diamond as well. I got it. I was thinking the same thing.” To display her idea, she created a black diamond image with three colored diamonds on top of it. Sunset marked this with a flaming checkmark. “Okay. So…. How?” Starlight asked. Twilight generated the image of a question mark. Sunset’s flame pointed at Starlight. “What does that mean?” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “It means you’ve got to go capture one, silly!” “Oh. Oh that’s just a great idea! Go attack a yellow diamond and capture it! Do you not remember that they trounced us just a short while ago?” Twilight nodded. “That I do. But… We have allies now. And we don’t have to defeat them, just capture one and get back here.” “But the question remains, where are they?” Rarity smirked. “I have a feeling if we find the yellow base and scare a few pawns, we’ll draw their attention. After all, the game wants conflict does it not?” “That could work…” Twilight said. “I still want to know what this will accomplish,” Starlight muttered. “I mean, we’re going to light up a black diamond! What’ll it do?” “Maybe it’s the victory condition? I have no idea. Honestly, it’s our only lead at this point so… We just have to do it. Now… We need to make a fully developed plan.” She took in a deep breath. “This is going to take some masterful communication skills…” ~~~ The yellow base was identical in every way to the red and blue ones except occupied by yellow pawns. Twilight had taken her position – far, far above the ground, so high up that the pawns didn’t notice her, but she could see them. She flew in a circle pattern around the field so she could scope out a much larger area than the world usually allowed. She couldn’t locate the yellow diamonds, so they would have to go with the special plan. Sunset’s group of red diamonds was closest to the base, ready to move first. Starlight, Pinkie, and Rarity were spread out a bit further out, poised to strike at any single location should it be needed. Fluttershy flew into Twilight’s line of sight, completing Twilight’s mental map of the ground below. “I can’t see the diamonds… But everyone’s in place.” “I hope this works,” Twilight said. “I hope they don’t shoot any pawns…” Fluttershy added. “They’ve been told not to. I’m sure they’ll do whatever’s in their power to keep all the pawns safe.” “…If you say so.” Twilight nodded. “We need to start the cycle. Fly in the circle we outlined and try to always stay on the opposite side of it as me. We are the eyes in the sky. We make sure there are no complications. Got it?” “Got it.” “Then go. I’ll give them the signal.” Fluttershy nodded, flying away on the predetermined path, leaving Twilight behind. Twilight waited three seconds before sending a purple spark to the red diamonds directly below her. She couldn’t see her three friends. But she knew they could see that spark she created. It was go time. Twilight took off in the same direction Fluttershy went, angling in a circular pattern. She witnessed the red diamonds fire off a few bullets, hitting the ground right in front of numerous yellow pawns. The pawns reacted with fear for the most part, retreating deeper into the base. However, more than had been expected attacked back viciously. Sunset cleverly used walls of fire to keep them back, and those that continued on were blocked by Starlight’s magic. Twilight found it mildly odd that she could see Starlight’s magic but not Starlight herself. Twilight’s path of flight took the battle out of her sight, replacing the scene with the inner workings of the yellow base. The pawns were moving like a sea from this vantage point. A ‘wave’ of running pawns dominated Twilight’s vision, with a few outliers moving behind or in front of the wave. The alarm had spread quickly through the base, exactly as planned. Then she saw one – a yellow diamond, rushing through the base, heading right for the source of the battle. Twilight broke off her circular path to follow. It didn’t see her, even though she knew it could if it only bothered to look up. It was too focused on finding the source of the commotion. Twilight flew ahead of it, sending a magic spark down to Sunset’s group – a warning that a yellow diamond was coming. They were supposed to spread out the moment they got it – but they were a little surrounded. On one side were the yellow pawns, and on the other … blue pawns aggressively attacking? Where did they come from? Twilight flew further out until she could see Pinkie. She was dealing with a bunch of red pawns, using her bouncy abilities to keep them occupied. Twilight couldn’t find Starlight, and Rarity had encased herself in a magical bubble shield. Twilight prayed that would hold – Rarity wasn’t very proficient in the spell. Twilight grit her teeth - everybody’s mobility had been squandered by the sudden appearance of pawns. “It was as if they knew we’d be doing this and wanted to mess it up…” Twilight muttered to herself. She flew back over Sunset’s group, which was now within sight range of the incoming yellow diamond. The red diamonds had started shooting the blue and yellow pawns around them directly, shattering them into a thousand pieces that faded to nothing. This pulled at Twilight’s stomach – but she was able to rationalize that they were being overwhelmed and had no choice. Fluttershy was not able to do any such thing. Twilight saw her dive-bomb from the sky directly at one of the red diamonds, pinning them to the ground. “Fluttershy, no!” Twilight yelled, far too late. This disagreement gave the yellow diamond the opportunity it needed – dragging the ground beneath the red diamonds and Fluttershy up, encasing them in a blue-black box. Twilight tried to swoop down to assist them – but another yellow diamond hit her from the side. Twilight didn’t bother to think about how one of the diamonds had gotten this high up – it was probably just a being with wings under that yellow shell. Twilight encased the diamond in telekinesis to prevent it from acting any further. It fell still. Twilight began to ready the teleport spell – screw the original plan, she had a rogue yellow diamond in her magic, it was time to return to the black diamond and… and… She stared at the yellow diamond, losing focus. Why… Why did she feel so guilty all of a sudden? Why did she – why did she feel like she couldn’t move? Why were her wings freezing up? Oh Celestia. She lost her hold on the yellow diamond and dropped from the air like a stone. She couldn’t take her eyes off it – and she knew that if she could see the eyes behind the visage it would be Staring right at her. Twilight wondered how far away the ground was now. Pretty close, given how small the diamond appeared now. She was definitely moving fast enough to completely blow her brains out simply by landing. But… she wasn’t scared. For whatever reason, she didn’t feel like today was her day. It wouldn’t be a very satisfying ending. When Pinkie caught her, Twilight just smiled. “Thank you, Pinkie.” “Don’t mention it. Yellow diamond have the Stare?” “I guess so…” Twilight regained control of her wings. “You don’t think it’s Lieshy do you?” “Could be,” Pinkie said, kicking a rogue red pawn in the head, knocking it over. “But that’s not something to think about now. What we need to do is capture one of these diamonds.” Twilight stood up, rubbing her head. “I… I don’t think I have the focus to teleport us out now, and I don’t know where Starlight is, and-“ The yellow diamond that was on the ground charged them, lifting a block of the ground and tossing it at them. Pinkie drew a solid-iron baseball bat and hit the block right back at the diamond. The block shattered on contact. “Just grab it or something!” Pinkie shouted, deflecting another chunk of ground. Twilight shook her head, clearing the fog away as well as she could. She focused on the yellow diamond assaulting them and prevented it from moving with her telekinesis. “Got it!” “Incoming!” Pinkie said, bringing out a shield and deflecting the yellow chain attack. “We need to get out! That was part of the plan, right!?” Twilight focused – she had to find everyone. Where were they though? Sunset’s group and Fluttershy were trapped in that rock cage, Rarity was huddling under her magic over there, and who had any idea where Starlight was… Wait, there was the drone. Hanging around… nothing. What was it doing…? Starlight decloaked herself, revealing her position to be right underneath the drone. She also revealed a few dozen blue pawns she’d been hiding. They launched from her sides at her command, charging the yellow pawns around Sunset’s prison. Starlight lit her horn, shattering the walls of the prison, and the four red diamonds and Fluttershy ran out. “Starlight! Teleport!” Twilight yelled. Starlight didn’t waste any time – she checked the positions of everyone, nodded, and lit her horn. The flying yellow diamond barreled into Twilight just as the teleport was executed. She lost control of the yellow diamond in her telekinesis, but it was still teleported. Five ponies, four red diamonds, and two yellow diamonds appeared before the black diamond. The yellow diamonds tried to fight back, but without the chaos of the pawn war around them, not to mention two of their team members being absent, there wasn’t much on their side. A chunk of the ground was thrown only to be stopped by Rarity, then the yellow diamond was frozen by Starlight. Twilight shook her head. “Now!” She called, grabbing the yellow diamond next to her and pressing it to the black diamond. Half of the black structure became yellow. Sunset floated up to the black structure and touched it, making half of it red. Rarity touched the diamond last, presumably lighting the diamond up with blue colors for all the others. The diamond flashed brightly, becoming white. The whiteness of the diamond quickly raised to a level so bright, it was blinding. But as soon as Twilight considered looking away, it flashed, making everything go white in the most literal sense. The sky and ground became white, with only the dark blue of the gridlines not changing color. Now, instead of a diamond, there was a strange white cube floating a meter off the ground. It ‘spoke’ with a reverberating voice that just sounded wrong. “You found the alternate solution,” it said, “congratulations. You’re all winners.” “Winners of WHAT?” Tempest demanded. Twilight noted that not only could she hear the human agent now, but could also see her as something other than a diamond. The two yellows as well – one was indeed Lieshy, while the other was some girl in green and yellow Twilight swore looked very familiar. “The experiment.” “WHAT experiment!?” “Hey, calm down,” Twilight said, stepping forward. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I wish I could say I was pleased to meet you.” “I do not have a name. I was not aware names were a thing until you arrived here. I was not aware speech was a thing until you arrived here.” “What were you aware of then?” “The grid. And my dominion over it.” “You did do all of this then!” Fluttershy blurted. “Indeed I did. Everything you see is my doing.” “How could you have made those poor pawn creatures fight each other?!” “They are not creatures. I merely designed them to look alive. They are but fragments of my own subconscious.” Fluttershy gawked. “Wh… He… Why would you make us think people were dying!?” “That was your own assumption. But in truth, I did it to make the experiment more realistic. To give you a motivation to become involved that you, ultimately, turned your back on.” “…You wanted us to fight,” Sunset asserted. “Yes.” “Why?” “Because I thought it would be interesting to see how my wars would play out without my knowing exactly what every single move would be.” Lieshy glared. “The grayscale uncertainty – the insanity caused by loneliness.” Twilight shook her head. “…You should know we wouldn’t approve of this.” “Your approval was not my concern. I wanted to see what would happen. I would have preferred you played the game as it was meant to be played; until one color completely dominated, but I knew you might be too smart for that. So I provided this other victory, one that could only be accomplished if you deduced your nature. The only concern of mine was making sure things stayed interesting.” “What on earth is going on,” the girl asked. “Who’s the arrogant jerk talking, and where is he so I can fling a rock at him?” “It’s a cube, Toph,” Lieshy said. “And probably wouldn’t care if you threw a rock at it. It doesn’t care about much at all, the doorway.” “The ‘Lieshy’ understands. This was just a game. You won. You’re free to go.” Twilight shook her head. “I mean, thank you for letting us go now, but… This conversation isn’t over. You’ve done horrible things to us. I don’t think we can just let that slide.” “So?” “So… So…” Twilight’s features twisted into a mess. “So what you did was wrong!” “By your definition.” “How could what you did be right?” “How can you be so sure there is right?” Twilight gawked. She had never heard this from anyone else before. Everyone – even the many villains she had seen – believed in a right to do things. A good, even if it was misguided, or if they knew they weren’t part of it. This guy… He couldn’t be serious. Rarity spoke next. “How can you be so sure there isn’t?” “I’m not. But why would I care? All I do is exist here, alone, forever with my games. You are the first other beings I’ve ever seen. And you’ve proven to be horribly unsportsmanlike. Not bad, just unsatisfactory. I’ll just continue existing now, you can go home, and we can all forget about this until the next group of adventurers comes through. Hopefully in a few eons I’ll have better ideas. Or maybe they’ll never show up and I can just go back to the way things were. Either way.” Starlight shook her head. “There’s no talking to this guy. I… I don’t think he can see things the way we do, Twilight.” “So… we just… go?” Fluttershy said. “Go and forget about all that he put us through without any kind of resolution?” “I… guess so,” Twilight said, glancing at the faces around. “Good. Use your devices. I won’t block them now. The game is over.” Twilight took hers out. “…Well, it was good to see you Sunset.” “Yeah,” Sunset said. “Though, uh, call me Corona out here, okay? Need to get used to that.” “Right.” “Also… Sorry, Starlight. I… I didn’t know it was you.” Starlight rubbed her burn. “Yeah. I didn’t know I was freezing you in magic either.” “Hey, where’s my apology?” Toph demanded. “I was kicked around a lot!” “Would you stop?” Everyone turned to the black cube. Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Why? Do you care?” “I am annoyed that I cannot start the next game for certain until you leave.” “Well, maybe we’ll stay around a little longer.” Toph crossed her arms. “Vivian and Fef aren’t here anyway.” Suddenly both Vivian and Fef were there. “Oh. There you are,” Fef said. “Go. Now. Actually, I don’t know why I’m being polite. Go or I kill you when I wipe the universe.” The three teams pulled out their dimensional devices faster than ever before, leaving the dimension in a matter of seconds. The cube was pleased with this. The entire world returned to black, and a four-color game was started. The cube continued existing as it had. The experience it had just had changed nothing about it. Meanwhile ponies and humans would spend the next few days wondering about the pointless game they had been in. ~~~ Sunset – or Corona – wouldn’t be allowed to think too deeply about it until she was in her bed that night. For when she returned to the A.I.D. office, she was greeted with quite the surprise. Every conceivable surface was covered in red and green knick-knacks ranging from wool socks to fake presents to glass ornaments. Four separate Christmas trees were set up in the corners of the workspace, and numerous pieces of mistletoe hung from the ceiling. Each computer had a reindeer bobble-head sitting on it, a nearby table had a nativity scene on it, and there was fake snow dusted around. Corona blinked. “Uh…” Ike grinned. “Oh yeah! Christmas time! The boss always goes overboard in holiday decorations.” “HO HO HO!” Director Storm yelled, turning around in his giant chair. He had a bright red Santa hat on, but had apparently decided not to trade away his nice suit to complete the costume. “Are you all ready to get into the holiday cheer?” “Sir, I have a report to make,” Tempest said. “It can wait a few minutes, can’t it? Let Agent Corona grow accustomed to her first Christmas here. I’ve already got a gift picked out for you! It’s under the southwest tree, wrapped in the black, red, and green stripes.” “Sir, it’s rather important.” Director Storm shrugged. “If you insist. Ike, show Corona around in my stead. Alas, I have a job.” He and Tempest disappeared into his private office. “Huh,” Corona said, furrowing her brow. “You know, half of the time I wonder how he runs this place.” Mike smirked. “Most new agents wonder how such an ‘idiot’ could be placed this high. He’s not an idiot. Nor is he foolish. He’s a very thoughtful and careful man. He’s just also decided not to agree with societal norms.” “It was weird for us at first as well,” Ike said. “And we had worked with an eccentric like him before.” Corona smirked. “That ‘super secret assignment’ that I’ll never know about?” “Exactly,” Mike said. “I could just touch you and find out.” “Tempest would throw a fit,” Ike said. “Also that’d make Storm’s superiors upset at you.” “Right… Sometimes I forget he’s not in charge of everything.” Ike shrugged. “Anyway, welcome to the Christmas office. It’s exactly like the normal office, except decorated to kingdom come with Christmas stuff. He’s bought a present for everyone who works here and will be elated if people put gifts for each other under the trees. He never asks for any himself. He has everyone open them on Christmas Eve unless there’s a national emergency, then it’ll be the day after Christmas.” Corona blinked. “And now I just remembered finals are next week. Oh my gosh, I am going to die.” Mike smirked. “You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for.” “I’m not worried about the physics test! I’m worried about art history! I haven’t lived in this world my whole life, I don’t just know these things like most people do!” “You shouldn’t worry about your grades,” Ike encouraged. “You’ve already got a neat job.” “I… True. I do need to pass though.” “Suuuure you do.” “You’re projecting, Ike,” Mike pointed out. Corona shook her head. “Okaaaaay… Ike, was there anything else? Director Storm made it sound like the tour of Christmas was going to take a while.” “Oh, if he did it, it would,” Ike answered. “Luckily for you, I know exactly what to tell you and what you need to know! I don’t need to tell you precisely what each individual in the nativity represents.” “And for that, I thank you.” Corona smiled. “…I think I like the decorations.” “You should see it on Halloween.” “Or St. Patrick’s day,” Mike reminded him. “…I still have no idea how he put all the green stuff up and down in a day…” “Could have hired Pinkie Pie,” Corona suggested. “…I wouldn’t put it past him…” Mike raised an eyebrow. “That would be such a breach of security.” “Mike, you and I both know the pink anomaly notices everything.” Corona furrowed her brow. “Wait, she saw you guys before?” “Several times,” Mike said. “We considered taking action, but she never told anyone. She just made sure we knew she knew.” “…I wonder why she never said anything…” Ike blinked. “I’d think that, as her friend, you would have realized that asking questions about her is kinda pointless by now.” Corona smirked. “Once you get to know someone, you ask deeper questions about them than why they throw cupcakes everywhere. There are answers to be found, somewhere.” ~~~ The cube detected another portal entering its universe several hours later. An object was thrown in, and then the portal closed. The cube paused the game – all four colors stopped moving in an instant. It examined the strange device. It had no mind, no words, nothing to tell the cube what its function was. The cube noted that there was a flag design imprinted on the side of it, as well as the word ‘NUCLEAR.’ What could that mean? The cube never got the chance to answer its question. It was soon no more.