Waiting is Tartarus.
No…
Waiting is hell.
Somehow, it felt more cathartic thinking of it that way. Starlight didn’t know why, but she felt a little better. Maybe she should just start screaming “ponyfeathers” or “peeve” or “heck” or the human “damn” at the walls now. Maybe it would help with the waiting.
The waiting…
How long had she been in here? Normally she’d just cast a simple timekeeping spell to get the time, but that clearly wasn’t an option right now. Her horn felt dead right now. She tried not to think hard about the horror stories of unicorn horns going permanently dead after being sealed, but since she was doing nothing but waiting… Well, she could do nothing but remember.
The great unicorn Bursting Neon was a mage of unparalleled power – until one day he decided to seal his own magic away for a month to see if he could live without it. That month was the hardest of his life, but he got through it. Then the seal wore off and he found he couldn’t use magic anymore, but he didn’t mind, he had learned to live without it.
The moral was supposed to be ‘don’t put too much trust into your gifts’ or something. But Starlight could only think about that in passing. All that came to her mind was the horrific idea that she could never use magic again. Surely Twilight would be able to re-infuse magic, right? Or figure out how to grow a new horn? Or… something?
No, no she wasn’t able to do that for Tempest the unicorn. Horns were still broken. Magic finesse could be taken away.
Would she be able to live without magic? It was so much of what defined her. She had a handful of spells operating at any given time without even thinking about it: heightened senses, rain avoidance, arcane ping, vague… What did vague even do? Why did she have it on all the time? She knew there must be some reason. But she couldn’t remember it at the moment. She was stuck in her own mind.
Had it been a day? It felt like it’d been three days, so it’d probably been only a day. She hadn’t heard the guard switch shifts yet, but frankly she could have missed that in one of her crying fits.
Why was she crying? She was doing what was best – no! No that was wrong. She was wrong. How could she have ever thought that stealing random things was a good idea? Well nobody noticed most of the things that went missing, and most of them weren’t actually that important… But there were the runes… The large computers… The monolith chunk…
She still had nightmares about those eyes.
Had she slept at all? She could swear she remembered seeing the eye in this room. …Was she just going crazy?
Wait, they hadn’t fed her! So it must be less than a day! Unless they were cruel. But these humans didn’t strike her as cruel, just stuck in their laws. …How long was a sentence for stealing valuable government property? A year? Ten? How long even was a year on this planet?
How could she minimize the sentence? Probably… Plead guilty, put on the waterworks and puppy eyes, and beg. Unless that offended them. So… Plead guilty, put on the puppy eyes, and stay quiet? Puppy eyes always worked – even more so on humans. But these humans were very distant from the rest of them… More serious. Much more serious.
More real, in a way.
What in Equestria was she even thinking now? What did ‘more real’ even mean?
She had no idea where that thought had even come from. That scared her. Lots of her thoughts scared her right now. She had thought stealing was a good idea and that maybe the others could be brought around to see it – just like when she’d been in charge of that cult! It was happening all over again! She got an idea in her head, decided it was true, and thought it’d be best to get other ponies on board!
Thank Celestia she was stopped before she recruited someone other than Discord.
…Great, Discord. She was worried about him. He had been about to do something to ‘help’ her when something grabbed him. She knew he could take care of himself, but whatever it was had kept him from doing something crazy. She just couldn’t have accepted what he was trying to do… Something about memories, right? Crazy. Just like her. They’d set up a feedback loop with each other.
She wondered what the humans here thought of Discord. They didn’t seem that scared of him when he was there, merely surprised and cautious. Though if she knew their kind, they’d probably be paranoid about his mere existence later. It was just the way things were, sadly…
Waiting.
She was going mad by waiting.
Time to start thinking about shouting swears at this wall again…
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Starlight leaped into the air, bumping into a nearby wall. She let out a sharp yell of surprise from the pain.
Daniel poked his head in through the doorway. “…Starlight?”
“Uh… H-hi.”
“I’m here to bring you to our little makeshift court.”
“Oh. Okay.” At least it’ll be over quick.
“But first... I want to talk to you, if you don’t mind.”
Starlight laughed nervously. “I am at your mercy!”
“The judges are going to be hypocrites.”
“…What do you mean?”
Daniel sighed. “Almost everything we have in this base was not technology given to us. It was stolen, in one way or another.”
Starlight blinked. “…What?”
“The stargate? Used to belong to Egypt, but one of our intrepid explorers dug it up and shipped it here. Our weapons? Many of them were stolen from our old enemies, the Goa’uld. Our early ships were based on technology we recovered from other worlds, not through our own intelligence. Eventually, we proved our worth and things like the transporters were given to us, but we started our journey grabbing everything we could. That was just a little over ten years ago.”
Starlight nodded slowly. “I… So we are like you in a way then?”
“Judging from how Twilight responded, I don’t think so. You and that… Discord fellow were the only ones stealing, weren’t you?”
“Yeah. But we’re different in another way. We stole from friends in addition to enemies.”
Daniel smiled awkwardly. “We… Tried to do that as well, a few times. It wasn’t just spoils of war.”
“I take it you were probably the one who objected?”
“Yeah. It still doesn’t change what we did.”
Starlight nodded slowly. “Okay, so now I don’t feel like I was completely out dancing in left field, but the fact remains that I’m a bit of a psycho. Plus, you said the judges are going to be hypocrites, meaning they won’t care about this.”
Daniel nodded. “I’ll do what I can. But we can be very, very harsh people.”
“Can you at least make sure my friends can visit me?”
Daniel smiled. “That I can do for sure. Might even be able to arrange for you to be held on this base, by reason of ‘useful knowledge’ or something.”
“Thank you. I really don’t deserve it, but thank you.”
“I think you do deserve it, actually. You ponies are much more trusting and cooperative than almost any other race we’ve encountered. I am more than a little disappointed that we couldn’t just get that accord signed quickly.”
“…Totally my fault.”
“More like your Princess’ fault. Tell me, does she even understand politics?”
“Yeah. I think she was just really upset we blew a crater in her precious moon.”
Daniel furrowed his brow. “Now that you mentioned it she did seem rather moon-themed. Anyway… I am still here to take you to the little court we have. Jack decided to have it all arranged here quickly so he didn’t need to have much of a headache. Be thankful he has little patience for bureaucracy, you could have been here for days otherwise.”
“How long have I been in here?”
“Five hours?”
“…Yep. I have no sense of time without my magic.”
“…You’re going to hate legal proceedings. This is going to take all day. There’ll be many breaks and a lunch, but most of it will be legalese nobody understands.”
Starlight facehooved. “Can I just plead guilty and get it over with?”
“The judge will still want an exhaustive study of motivation and politics to make sure the sentence is correct, and because this is a case involving two worlds in a semi-first-contact scenario, we’ve got a lot of paperwork to sort through.”
“Greeeeat.”
~~~
Discord glanced at Sestar. “So what do you people actually do here?”
“We observe.” She dropped a newspaper in front of his face. Discord knew instantly that if he flipped the page he could know anything he wanted to know about anywhere, through a network of Ascended Power. The front page declared CONTACT WITH ANOTHER UNIVERSE! UNICORN ON TRIAL! WILL THIS END IN DISASTER OR GREATNESS?
“A bit dramatic on the titles, are you?”
“It’s an approximation of what’s really there, which is unique to our power. You aren’t the same as us so you can’t see the reality, even if your power is approximately equal.”
“That doesn’t explain why the headline is so over the top. I bet some days it probably reads A NEW RACE DISCOVERS HOW TO LIGHT FIRE, BEHOLD THE DAWN OF IMAGINATION or something equally stupid.”
There was no response from any of the other Ascended.
“Do any of you people actually listen to anything?”
“They think you are a child, not worth their time,” Sestar said. “I think you are a child, but realize that if I said nothing it would become… problematic.”
“A howling screaming draconequus too much for you?”
“Doubtful. But it would be annoying.”
“My specialty.” He took a drink from his mug. Determined to have some chaos even if his powers weren’t working, he drank from the far side of the glass, upside down, spilling some around the table. He burped.
“Why do you feel the need to cause disorder?”
“I am the literal incarnation of chaos and disharmony, what do you think?”
“Have you ever considered stopping?”
Discord laughed. “Why, yes actually! But, here’s the thing, I tried to be orderly to accommodate Fluttershy once – great pony, you jerks will never get to meet her if I have anything to say about it – and wouldn’t you know it, I started fading into nothing! It looks like if I’m not chaotic I cease to exist! Isn’t that fun?”
“You are telling the truth,” she said with mild surprise in her voice. “Interesting. How did you obtain your power?”
“I was just born with it, Miss Pompous. One day, there was no Discord. Sensing a hole in the fun side of existence, I was born, and completed the balance. Tah-dah, best day ever!”
“And how do you use your power on your world?”
“Can’t you, like, look into the minds of people and ponies to find out?”
Sestar was silent.
“…You can’t can you? Oh, this is rich! Powerful deity level beings who can’t read minds!”
“Can you?”
“Er… Not exactly. It’s never reliable. Just changing memories is much easier. There’s a spell system for that.”
“Do you change memories often?”
“Why would I want to? Every time they see this face is a blessing!”
“Are you sure that’s not just your ego talking?”
“It is just my ego talking. What do you take me for, a self-absorbed idiot? No, just self-absorbed here, and proud of it.”
“Why do you take pride in that?”
“Look, lady, if you have to ask that question you clearly need to grow an ego.”
Sestar sat back and pursed her lips.
Discord grinned. “I’m wiiiiiinning.”
“Do you regularly try to alter the course of history on your world?”
Discord laughed. “In my day I tried to control the entire world! But, you know, there were magical artifacts, and friends; I mellowed out a bit. I’m a retired supervillain!” He snapped his fingers, trying to create a superhero suit out of habit. As usual, nothing happened. “Man, you have a joke and then the buzzkill just suffocates you…” he muttered.
“You imply that you don’t alter the course of history anymore?”
“Not true! I’m on the good side now! I helped take out an entire hive of changelings that were being all evil and such, I help my ‘friends’ see the best way to do things, I go on adventures, and, oh yeah, I help Starlight steal stuff. Which, by the way, I have to bust her out. So how do I get out of here?”
“You agree to abide by our laws of non-interference with a binding contract, punishable by imprisonment here.”
Discord laughed. “I’m not going to do that! That’d be so plain boring. Think about it, starry, think about it. Do you think a being of chaos and disharmony can survive without causing those things?”
“It is wrong for any beings of our power to interfere with the affairs of lower races.”
“Oh, so I should have been a lonely hermit in my universe then?”
“I doubt you were the only one of your power.”
“What if I was?”
“Then an eternity of solitude was your duty.”
Discord laughed. “Wow, you’re dogmatic. I’m just waiting for you to get up and start barking. Would have done it myself just now but, you see, magical chains.”
“You will stay here until you agree to follow our ways. We cannot let a being like you roam free.”
Discord folded his hands. “I’ll find a way out.”
“No you won’t. We have numbers.”
“But, you see, I’m clever.
“And we’re dogmatic.”
Discord blinked. “Did you just try to make a joke?”
“If that’s what you want to believe.”
Discord sat back. “Well… In that case. HEY! ALL YOU PATRONS OF ASCENDED IDIOT CITY! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!”
Only one of them with a bored expression glanced his direction. Discord leaped to him. “What do you think about all this? I swear this lady’s got bats in her brain and an airhorn for a mouth.”
The Ascended didn’t respond. He went back to looking at a newspaper.
Discord fumed. “What does it take to get people’s attention around here?”
“Galactic war,” Sestar said. “The last time we interfered directly was when another faction similar to us tried to conquer this galaxy. We only interfered when it was clear the inhabitants of this galaxy would not survive on their own.”
Discord blinked. “Are any of you actually happy with this life? Sitting around and doing nothing?”
“It is the way things are. Were they not this way, we would be just like our brethren. Feeding off the worship of our followers for power, for glory. We would fall to using them for our ends.”
“That sounds like a pessimistic view of the world. Why not just have some fun with them?”
“It is not our way. And we cannot let it be your way in good conscience, either.”
Discord fell back into his seat and fumed. To his annoyance, he didn’t actually start steaming. He considered starting screaming, but that would just confirm their belief that he was childish. Well, he wasn’t going to give them what they wanted. This was war.
~~~
A dozen Ba’als stood in the bridge of the mothership. Just hours ago, they had witnessed an amazing test. With almost no work or reverse-engineering required, the dimensional device was able to open a portal large enough to fit a small ship through. The scouting ship had gone through and scouted out a singular, primitive planet brimming with unusual energies. It had seen a single, tiny spacefaring vessel around the world, but the vessel was easily destroyed with simple weapons. The planet was defenseless.
The dimensional device was now hooked up to the hyperdrive of the mothership, the largest ship in Ba’al’s little fleet. If their calculations were correct, and they probably were, simply pushing more power into it would create a larger opening. It had taken a lot of power to open a portal to the universe on the other side – more than the little device could store inside it – but that was no issue for a powerful man with access to a Zero-Point Module. Stolen, of course, and saved for a rainy day.
“Power the device,” several Ba’als said at once, essentially ordering other versions of themselves to press a button. The hyperdrive and power systems of the ship focused as much as they could to the dimensional device, more than overloading its storage capacity. But the ‘spell’ inside was more than able to accommodate the power. It surged with the energy needed to traverse galaxies, rippling through spacetime in front of the ship. A tear forced its way through the cosmos, widening slowly to the size required to fit the mothership. The Ba’als grinned evilly as the stars through the portal took shape, showing them constellations and arrangements they didn’t recognize. The planet wasn’t visible from here since the portal opened up several stars away from it, but it would take but a minute to arrive.
The ships filed in, first the mothership, then its six similarly-pyramid-shaped Ha’tak vessels. Even a single one of these ships was generally considered powerful enough to subjugate a planet, but they were headed into uncharted territory. It never hurt to be cautious.
The portal closed behind them. One of the Ba’als checked a display. “Yeah, our Ancient power cell is burnt out. We won’t be making a return trip.”
“We won’t need to,” another said. “The device has numerous locations within it that can be accessed with much less power. All we need to do is find them. But first… Let’s pay Ardent a personal visit, shall we?”
~~~
Corona – or Sunset, if you were one of the people or ponies who knew her a few months ago – was on an interdimensional vacation. It may have just been a single day where she didn’t do anything for Storm or, Celestia forbid, Tempest, but she still considered it a vacation. Time to stretch her legs, relax, and enjoy the scenery.
She knew this world was Ardent. But she saw no reason to be scared of it, even after what she’d seen that one time. So long as creepy mask guy or that Link didn’t show up, she was fine. The Gorons were nice, the shopkeepers were welcoming, and everything was just quaint. It was a good world to spend an afternoon in.
She was currently visiting with one of the said shopkeepers, a potion seller. “I don’t know, you really think I could use a flaming potion? I’ve already got the fire ‘magics’, after all.”
The pink-haired white-skinned shopkeeper shrugged. “I think you’ll like it. Overkill for the sake of overkill. I think it’s useful from time to time. And something tells me you might want it soon.”
Corona shrugged, grabbing a few rupees from her pocket and slapping them on the table. “Well, there you go Seskii. I am now the proud owner of a flaming potion. Your sales pitch worked.”
Seskii clapped her hands together excitedly. “Yay! Here you go!” She handed Corona the orange potion. “Careful, really hot!”
“How are you holding it then?” Corona asked, delicately picking it up with her gloves.
Seskii tapped her hands. “Plastic, remember?”
“Right. Well, see you around. Thanks for the potion.”
“That I will. Come again soon!”
Corona placed the small potion in one of her pockets, walking away. As she walked down the street filled with happy people, she was overcome with an intense feeling that life was good.
“Hey, you’re Sunset, right?”
Corona smiled. “I actually go by Corona now, but-“ she froze when she saw who she was talking too. Link. She remembered his exchange with the Happy Mask Salesman, the creature in his shadow, and that Mask. She tried her best to smile confidently. “Ah! Link! What a… surprise!”
“Surprise? Why’s it a surprise?”
“Just wasn’t expecting you is all.”
Link shrugged. “Well, in the future, don’t be. I spend most of my days here. Even more so now that you people have started showing up more often.”
Sunset frowned. “That’s not a problem, is it?”
“Not at all, none of you have been bad yet. Though some have been better than others. Those hairy people were just jerks.”
“Oh, the Binaries? They are a bit stuck-up, aren’t they?”
“Definitely have a superiority complex. I’m not worried though. I think we scared them off.”
“How, exactly?”
Link smirked. “Growling.”
Sunset nodded slowly like she understood everything. “I see.”
“Anyway, what brings you here to little out of the way Termina?”
“Vacation. For a day. I’m taking a break from all the secret agent and scientist business. It sometimes gets a little tiring.”
“I can imagine. I adventured a lot in my day. Did a lot of hard work. I’m basically on a permanent vacation now.”
“Lucky.”
“Well if any great evil shows up again, I’m going to have to deal with it.”
Corona shrugged. “I wish you luck when that happens.”
“I said ‘if’.”
“I said ‘when’,” Corona emphasized.
Link just smiled at her. “Little pessimistic there, hrm?”
“If you want to think so. I’ve just learned from experience that there’s always more danger and evil out there. It never ends. We just have to keep fighting it.”
“You have the heart of a hero.”
Corona smirked. “I would try to deny that, but at this point that’s pretty pointless.” This guy wasn’t actually that bad. He probably had nothing to do with that mask and just wanted it kept safe. She didn’t know why she was so unnerved by him before…
There was a soft, mad laugh from right behind her. She whipped around, fists ready for a fight, coming face to face with the Happy Mask Salesman. She paled.
“Hello, Sunset…”
“C-Corona,” she managed to correct.
“Sunset,” he emphasized. “A mare who knows things she shouldn’t…”
“…Mare?” Link asked.
Corona gulped. “Uh… Yeah, I’m a unicorn. Or was. Link who is this guy?”
Link put his hands on his hips. “He’s an old… ‘friend’. A bit mysterious, creepy, and over the top, but ultimately a decent guy.”
The Happy Mask Salesman’s hands were pressed together. “Ah, Link, you inflate my ego.” His finger was pointing at Corona now. She hadn’t seen his arm even move. “But she needs a warning. Your dreams are haunted by what you know, but you must not ask. You have more important things to deal-“ Suddenly his face became livid. Sunset considered bolting, but soon realized he wasn’t angry at her. He was looking to the sky. “…We have visitors.”
Link readied his sword. “I take it they aren’t friendly this time?”
“No,” he said, standing up to his full height. “Not at all.” His hand was pointing into the sky. “There.”
Corona and Link saw a golden pyramid descending from the sky. It had a large gray extrusion coming out of its base from all sides, and spikes stretching out in all directions. It was metallic, shiny, and was a clear sign of highly advanced technology.
Corona blinked. “That doesn’t belong in this universe.”
“No, it does not…” the Happy Mask Salesman hissed. Then he was gone. No puff of smoke, no movement, he was just suddenly gone. Corona shook her head in bafflement.
Link drew his masterfully crafted and ornate bow. He loaded it with a silvery arrow glowing with the power of light itself. He aimed – and fired. The arrow seemed unaffected by gravity, flying straight and true right into the pyramid ship.
They didn’t even see it impact.
“That’s a big pyramid,” Link said.
“Maybe we can talk to them?”
“I doubt it. The Salesman wouldn’t have acted the way he did if he thought that was possible.”
Corona raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so he knows all about otherworldly threats then?”
“Yes.”
Corona shivered. “Well, maybe we can fight them directly. After all-“
A yellow bolt of energy shot from the pyramid ship’s bottom, impacting the Clock Tower. The entire building exploded, showering the town square in splinters. The large bell let out one huge ring one last time, crashing into the ground alongside dozens of large clockwork gears. The people of the town screamed in fear, running away from the smoldering ruins of their precious clock tower.
The pyramid didn’t fire another shot at the small town – instead, it focused on shooting elsewhere. Presumably somewhere more populated…
“Hyrule…” Link said. He drew his sword and started running out of town.
“Link! Wait!” she yelled after him. “There’s no way you can-“
“I’m going to try!”
“We should try to get help first!” Corona yelled. “I’m sure Twilight would be willing! Or any of the others!”
Link turned and ran back to her. “What are we waiting for then? Open a portal!”
Corona pulled out the dimensional device – fully charged. It should have a couple jumps in it. She opened a portal directly to Equestria, stepping into the main hall of Twilight’s Castle, Link right behind her.
Bon Bon stared at them and listened to the panicked screaming from through the portal.
“Where is Twilight?” Corona asked.
“Offworld,” Bon Bon responded. “Busy dealing with a legal case against Starlight.”
“Darn it…” Sunset muttered. “That’d probably take too long…” She pulled out the dimensional device. “If you can, Bon Bon, tell her that Ardent is under attack by some pyramid spaceship and we need help. Okay?”
Bon Bon nodded. “Of course.”
She opened a portal again, this time stepping into her Earth. She pulled out her cell phone while Link looked around the street, somewhat confused by the area around him.
“Hello, Corona!” Director Storm’s voice came through her cell phone. “What can I do for you today?”
“There’s a world under attack from a spacefaring threat,” Corona explained. “We need to help them. I’m requesting some agents to go-“
“Let me stop you there. Sadly, this is not a military installation. I don’t have the resources nor the authority to help in a war. I’d suggest talking to your pony friends.”
“They’re busy with legalese!”
“There are other options. I am sorry.”
Corona hung up, quickly dialing another number. “Twilight? Get the girls, head to Ardent. We’re going to have to fight what are probably aliens. I’ll explain more when you get there.”
“Is that it?” Link asked.
“No, I have another option.” She dialed the device to the Elemental Nations and stepped through, arriving in Ba Sing Se. She ran to the palace, tripping over her own two feet occasionally. She and Link charged into the main hall, panting.
Aang and Iroh were currently there, discussing matters that were probably very important, but not as important as what Corona and Link needed. “Ardent is under attack!” Sunset yelled. “We need help!”
Iroh furrowed his brow. He nodded to one of the aids nearby. “Ready the army. What’s the attack?”
“Pyramid spaceship,” she said, panting. “I’ve managed to conscript the girls from Earth, but Princess Twilight’s not available at the moment and I don’t have time to go look for anyone else. We need help.”
Aang nodded, grabbing his staff. “I’ll be right there.”
Iroh held out a hand. “Aang, your duty is to this world. Let Toph and the others go.”
“…No. I feel like I need to go. Get the army ready, I’m heading over with them now.”
Iroh nodded slowly. “I suppose we do not have time to deliberate… Very well. I’ll send help as soon as I can. Go, you three, figure out what you can.”
Corona nodded. She lifted the dimensional device – it needed a little charge to make it back to Ardent, but that didn’t take long. She, Link, and Aang stepped out into Termina. The Clock Tower was still smoldering, and the pyramid ship was much larger, closer to the ground, though further to the east.
Twilight Sparkle the human stumbled out of an open portal with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. “This is everyone I could find!” She looked around the wreckage, pupils dilating. “…Oh my goodness…”
Corona nodded. “We’re getting more help from the Elemental Nations, but we don’t have time to dally around. Link, the ship is headed to Hyrule?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s where we’re going. Dash, Twilight, we’re going to need to get there fast. Think you can manage with your powers?”
Twilight looked at her necklace, unsure – but Dash grinned confidently. “You bet we can!”
Twilight gulped. “It’ll be complicated, a little crazy, and-“
“Just levitate everyone, make them lighter for me, and I’ll rush us all the way over there! Simple!”
“That’s hardly simple! I’m not that strong of a spellcaster!”
“Just do it!” Link ordered. “We can’t waste time!”
Aang pressed his hands together, entering the Avatar State. He lifted everyone up with his power over air itself, pressing them all into an uncomfortable ball. “Just get us there!”
Rainbow Dash gave him a thumbs up, grabbed Sunset by the ankle, and dragged them across the grassland at high speed like they were some kind of balloon. The speeds they moved at were jarring, but not unbearable. It was difficult to see what was happening, but Corona spied three different towns as they ran, all of which were smoking from at least one hit.
Whoever these attackers were, they were trying to drive fear into the people of Ardent. It was working.
Rainbow Dash slid to a stop suddenly, right at the edge of Hyrule City, the capital of the Kingdom of Hyrule. The city was large, expansive, and dominated by a single huge castle. It was also smoldering in several places, and the nearing pyramid ship only continued to berate it with golden bullets.
Whenever a bolt attempted to hit the castle itself, a blue diamond-shaped shield would appear, conjured out of some kind of magic.
Link leaped to the ground, out of Aang’s air. “Zelda’s defending. Good. We’ve still got a chance.”
Applejack shivered. “How exactly are we gonna fight this thing? It’s way up there and has a really big gun!”
Aang’s eyes flashed brighter for a second. “It shouldn’t take too much effort…”
“Wait,” Corona said. “It looks like it’s dropping smaller ships.”
Sure enough, smaller ships descended from the bottom of the pyramidal ship, landing in the field below. Hatches dropped open, revealing hundreds of beings that looked human, albeit dressed in archaic armor and wielding strange staves.
Corona’s group could see the armies of Hyrule charging from the Town to meet the opposing force. The otherworldly beings aimed their staves, firing energy bolts that burned right through the armor of the knights, often killing more than one with a single shot.
Corona put her hand to her mouth. Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Applejack flinched backward, biting their lips.
People were dying.
This wasn’t like the shattering pawn game, these people were really getting holes burned through their chests by golden plasma. She… She wasn’t sure she could handle this. She started breathing faster and faster.
Link put his hand on her shoulder. “We must remain strong. Death is a horrid evil, but we cannot let it deter us from what we need to do.” He pointed his sword at the clashing armies. “See those blue and green lights? We have our own mages in the midst. They’re not outmatched. Our soldiers can win this fight.”
The pyramid ship shot a bolt of plasma at the Hylian army, decimating it.
“If we can take out that ship.”
Aang prepared to take everyone up there, but a yellow plasma bolt shot right at him. In the Avatar State, he had the reflexes required to bend the ‘fire’ away from him. He whirled around. “Who!?”
It turned out that there was a small troop of a dozen or so men right next to them. Most were just like the soldiers on the battlefield, but one was a bearded man in a robe. He smirked, holding out a hand, around which was a strange metallic device that placed a red crystal on his palm. It glowed – and Aang lost all control of his muscles.
Twilight pointed her finger at him and shot a magic bolt, but a forcefield blocked it. He laughed, ordering his soldiers to fire. They aimed their staves. Rainbow Dash kicked one faster than humanly possible, knocking one of them over, while Corona attempted to engulf them in fire – but it wasn’t either of them who took the warriors out.
Link was suddenly just there, standing in front of the bearded man, the Master Sword right through his chest. All the other soldiers already had sword wounds from the sword in their chests, keeling over all at once. The bearded man looked at him in surprise and awe. “…Quite the trick you got there… Boy…”
Link kicked him down. “I’ve got a lot of tricks. All of them will be used against your assault.”
“Heh… Heh…” His head rolled to the side and his eyes lost focus.
“Okay,” Rainbow Dash said. “Blood. Yep. That’s blood. That’s a looooot of blood. And it’s on your sword. That’s fine. Everything’s fine.”
“It ain’t fine,” Applejack muttered. “But we don’t have a choice.”
Twilight just held Corona’s arm. Pinkie curiously leaned down and inspected the man’s corpse. She poked it.
“Pinkie!” Corona shouted, looking away from the strange motion the body’s head made. “Agh!”
“Sorry,” she said. Then she coughed, stood up, and shivered. “…We… Woah, we need to move.”
Aang shook his head, letting the Avatar State dissipate. “What… What happened?”
Pinkie pointed at the device on the man’s hand. “Ba’al here had you in the grasp of that hand device. You wouldn’t have been able to do anything had Link not saved you.”
“So… Ba’al, then…” Link said. “We won’t be seeing him again.”
Pinkie giggled nervously. “Uh… Right.”
“…There’s more than one, isn’t there?” Applejack asked.
“Yeeeah…”
Aang cracked his knuckles. “Then we need to go – now. The more time that pyramid is in the air, the more people die.”
He entered the Avatar State again, raising them all higher with the power of wind. They could soon see the entire battlefield beneath them. It was clear – the Hylians were losing, badly. They could not face the forces of Ba’al, it was simply too much to face an army and a ship they couldn’t reach. Even if they managed to defeat the ship, it might have been too late…
“Is that your help over there?” Twilight asked, pointing toward the horizon.
Corona squinted. “…Iroh’s forces shouldn’t be coming from there…”
Link frowned. “That’s the direction of the Gerudo Desert. And that does look an awful lot like an army…”
It was an army – a large army composed of hundreds of dark-skinned individuals. Most of them blurred together in Corona’s vision, but she could make out one individual at the front of the forces. Someone big, burly, and powerful. She could sense the power even from her considerable distance.
“Let’s hope Ganondorf’s in a helpful mood today…” Link muttered under his breath. Then he grabbed Aang’s arm. “Look out!”
Aang shifted the entire group upward, just barely fast enough to dodge plasma fire from a smaller, birdlike craft.
Link drew his bow and fired a bomb-arrow. It hit the craft, exploded, but did no damage. “I can’t deal with it from this range!”
“I got it,” Twilight said pointing a shaky finger at the craft as it tried to loop around back toward them. She shot three times before hitting, but the magical bolt hit true and the fighter exploded. She whooped.
Corona shook her head. “We can’t keep doing this, there are too many of these ships!”
Pinkie took a marshmallow out of her pocket and tossed it at a nearby ship, blowing it up. “Good point. We should probably go back down, too many defenses are locked on us!”
“No!” Aang said. “We’re doing this!” He rushed them toward the hull of the pyramid ship, flying past the various fighter ships. Several of them ended up on their tail, firing relentlessly. It was only Twilight’s magic shields that protected them.
“Guys, I’m not very good at this!” Twilight yelled.
“Only a little longer...” A bolt got through Twilight’s defenses, glancing across Applejack’s leg. She screamed, throwing everyone’s focus off. A ship aimed, ready to take them out completely.
It exploded in a shower of darkness and magic. The shockwave from the explosion tossed the group the rest of the way to the ship, planting them uncomfortably into the golden hull.
“What was that!?” Rainbow Dash shouted.
Link stood tall, tossing a health potion to Applejack as he did so. “…Ganondorf.”
The man floating before them had dark green skin, short red hair, and ornate black armor flanked by a flowing red cape. “Link. I never thought this day would come.”
“Working together. What an interesting thought.”
“The enemy of my enemy.”
Applejack stood up, leg healed by the potion. “No offense, but we need to take this ship out now. Y’all can get back to chit-chat later.”
Ganondorf nodded in understanding. He pulled his fist back and punched the hull of the ship, denting it. He stared in disbelief. “That should have been more than enough to break through.”
“It’s a heavy alloy spaceship hull, several inches thick,” Pinkie said. “Course it’ll be a little more difficult than what you’re used to.”
Applejack cracked her knuckles. Her orange necklace started sparkling. She placed her hands on the edges of the hull and pushed with all her might. It buckled, bent, twisted, but eventually did break through. She peeled the two pieces of metal apart, revealing the three-inch-thick plating she just broke. She took a breather. “That was… somethin’ else.”
Link and Aang charged in without another glance. Corona took the chance to look at the battle below them – Ganondorf’s army was helping the Hylians face off against Ba’al’s forces. A once hopeless battle had now returned to a real fight, a real contest.
They still needed to take this ship out.
She pushed the thoughts of how many people were dying down there out of her mind, running after her friends into the ship itself.
~~~
The mothership remained in orbit around Ardent, two of the smaller ships flanking it. Four of the Ha’taks were down on key places on the planet, causing chaos. Most were experiencing heavy resistance, but nothing too impressive. Ba’al had to admit he hadn’t been expecting two different nations to send armies to the same location, but they still couldn’t do anything to the Ha’taks. They were just too far above these primitive people, and he could always get more Jaffa and clones to replace the losses.
Actually, Jaffa might be at a premium now. Though he could get new soldiers easily from this world. Already, the idea of fish-people and rock-people servants tantalized him. Naturally stronger than Jaffa. With technology they’d be unstoppable.
“Hey, we’re detecting large amounts of dimensional activity near one of the smaller towns.”
Several Ba’als turned to look at the screen. They saw a satellite image of a small town with an army slowly appearing out of nowhere.
“Ah… Otherworldly allies. We should have foreseen as much…”
“Order one of the free Ha’taks to intercept. We don’t want to be surprised.”
One of the Ha’taks broke orbit, descending to the gathering army below. On this ship was one Ba’al in particular who found himself in the position of leading a troop of Jaffa in battle against the inhabitants of the town itself, instead of the gathering army. Such tactics usually put the enemy off their game. He and his dozen Jaffa took one of over a dozen smaller landing ships down to the surface while the Ha’tak began laying waste to the army from above.
Ba’al’s interest was piqued when he saw the armies shoot fire from their arms and launch into the air with pillars of earth. These people had control over fire and the very ground itself. More useful servants. They lacked technology, and even with their powers of earth they were having difficulty getting to the Ha’tak. Not that they could break in even if they got to it, it was far, far too durable.
Ba’al’s ship landed, and he led the Jaffa troop out into the streets. There were a few soldiers here that tried to shoot fire and earth at him, but the Jaffa’s staff weapons made quick work of them, and Ba’al’s personal shield deflected all the loose fire. The earth was more concerning – it might be moving slow enough that it could pass through the forcefield. He’d need to be careful.
But for now, it was time to terrorize the inhabitants. He kicked in a door, finding a woman holding both her son and a pile of colored gems tightly. He smirked. Ah, this would be fun. He raised his hand, forcing the energy in the crystal to attack the mother. Her expression went blank and she lost all feeling in her muscles. With a push of his mind, Ba’al killed her in an instant.
The son went in much the same way. Then he ordered the Jaffa to blow the walls out of the house. Things were going well. He went to house after house after house, tormenting the inhabitants and quickly killing the few soldiers that weren’t occupied with the other attacks. This was fun, easy, and great.
He kicked in a cellar door next, hand device at the ready. Inside was the most disturbing man he had ever seen, staring right at him.
The Happy Mask Salesman laughed and said something Ba’al couldn’t understand. Ba’al held out the hand device, shoving the man into the wall. He would have pushed further, killed the man right then and there, but something caught his eye.
Several masks had spilled out of the Salesman’s backpack. Almost all of them were boring and uninteresting, but there was one. One mask that called to him. It was a purple thing in the shape of a heart, spikes lining the edges. Two eyes stared at him through the wooden fixture.
He knew without being told this was an artifact of great power. He reached down and picked it up. The chilling energy ran through his limbs, driving a feeling of sick pleasure into his brain. He looked at the Happy Mask Salesman, who stared right back at him with a look of contempt.
“Don’t want me to have this do you?” Ba’al said, even though he knew the Happy Mask Salesman didn’t speak his language. It was just Ba’al taunting for the sake of taunting.
Suddenly the mask was in the Salesman’s hands again. Ba’al hadn’t even seen the man reach out for it. It was as if the Salesman moved without taking all the steps between.
Ba’al glared at him. “Kill him.”
The jaffa fired their weapons, but the Salesman was suddenly on the other side of the room. Ba’al shot out his hand device, smacking the Salesman with a burst of telekinetic energy again. The Salesman vanished – but he lost his grip on the mask. Ba’al grabbed it again, holding it to his chest. “We need to return this to the fleet. Now.”
The Happy Mask Salesman appeared behind him, punching Ba’al in the back. He was more than ready for this – he shoved the hand device into the Salesman’s face, trying to blow his brains out. The Salesman screamed in pain but he didn’t die.
Ba’al pinned the Salesman to the ground, pushing more energy from the hand device into him. “What are you?”
The Salesman laughed – then said something presumably insulting. Ba’al was prepared to draw a dagger to stab the man to death, but he never got his chance. A Fuchsia bug with four arms dropped into the cellar from the ceiling, spinning two yo-yo’s with enough precision to behead four of Ba’al’s Jaffa.
“Retreat!” Ba’al yelled, ducking under a yo-yo attack. He clutched the mask to his chest, running towards his dropship. The mask filled him with determination. All the action around him fell silent as he ran, becoming nonissues to him. He felt a yo-yo tear at his leg, enough that it should have made him fall. But something kept him running. He didn’t even feel the pain.
His Jaffa fell behind him, but he didn’t notice. A girl threw some rocks at him, but they mysteriously missed. Some shadowy vixen tried to punch him, but he ducked without even thinking. He ran into his dropship, alone, and it took off into the sky.
He didn’t even notice that it had taken off without him giving any command. It wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. But he already didn’t care.
He looked at the mask. The beautiful, beautiful mask.
He knew what its name was.
Majora.
Beautiful.
~~~
“The bridge is this way! Come on!” Pinkie shouted, blowing through dozens of armored soldiers with her explosive confetti and giant squeaky hammer. Everyone followed her, not questioning where she was getting her information – after all, Pinkie was Pinkie, and if she was this serious she was probably right.
Corona unleashed a torrent of fire, horrendously burning a soldier trying to ambush them. The scent of the charred flesh filled her nostrils. This particular soldier wasn’t dead, but she’d probably consigned more than a few to their ends on the journey to this part of the ship. She tried not to think about it. She didn’t really have time to think about it even if she wanted to, really.
Ganondorf and Link were much more lethal than the rest of them though. Corona’s friends and Aang at least tried not to deliver killing blows. The two of them just blazed trails through whoever they could. Corona had seen heads explode. She was rather surprised she wasn’t freaking out like Rainbow Dash was.
Rainbow Dash zipped past them, kicking another body out of her sight. “Okay! Okaaaaay! Okay. Can we just get this over with already? We’ve been in here doing… things… for far too long!”
“This door here! Open sesame!” Pinkie said. Applejack nodded, punching through the sealed doorway, a structure much weaker than the outer hull. The room on the other side was filled with consoles, screens, and only a single instance of Ba’al. He held out his hand device, ready to waste them, but Link shot an arrow right through his skull. He keeled over and fell to the ground, blood pooling around him.
Rainbow Dash kicked the body out of the room, trying really hard to ignore the blood that was on her shoe now. And the blood that had been on her shoes and hands since she’d started removing the bodies as fast as possible. Because she had to. She started humming to herself.
Corona walked up to the controls, frowning. “Okay, so, how do we turn off the gun… Gun… Gun…” The entire thing was in an alien script Corona didn’t recognize, so that made understanding it difficult. There were a few diagrams, but they could mean anything.
Twilight pointed to a diagram. “That’s probably flight controls.”
“Just move it out of range…” Corona said, smirking. She pressed a few buttons. A diagram that showed the ship’s location relative to the planet told her the entire pyramid was rising. “There we go, I think we’ll be high enough shortly.”
Pinkie twirled a knife in her hand. “Ah, but we won’t be high enough for long.”
Corona turned to her, eyebrow raised. “…Why not? And what’s with the knife, Pinkie?”
Pinkie sneered, her eyes flashing an eerie, alien white for a second. “Pinkie’s not home,” she said in a deep, reverberating voice. “It’s Ba’al in here.”
Corona took a moment to register that she’d just been stabbed through the stomach with a comically large knife. Oh boy. I can’t feel any pain right now. That’s not good.
Her friends prepared to fight – but the doors to the control room opened, revealing dozens of Ba’al clones, each one holding a snake-like gun in their hands. “I wouldn’t try anything,” one of them said.
Corona gagged, looking at Pinkie-Ba’al. “H-how…?”
Pinkie grinned, removing the knife from Corona’s stomach with a sharp yank. “The Goa’uld, my race, are a race of parasites. When a host body dies, we transfer. She just got close enough for me to get in. And boy oh boy is this a great host! It made everything so easy!”
Sunset slumped to the ground, vision blurring.
~~~
Rarity cleared her throat. “And as you can see, my client clearly feels remorse for what she’s done, and will be more than willing to do anything you ask of her. All I ask is that you be lenient, and consider the fact that Discord pushed her to his level of action.”
The prosecuting attorney – some fellow named Friedrich – stared Rarity down. “We cannot hold this Discord accountable for anything, due to his power. Therefore that argument is moot.”
Starlight glanced at Rarity, and she nodded. Starlight took in a deep breath. “I think Discord is being held accountable. He came to my cell and told me he was going to free me – but then something took him away.”
Rarity nodded. “I therefore believe that Discord is being held accountable by your Ascended, having apparently decided Discord was their responsibility.”
Friedrich frowned. “Where’s your evidence?”
“You have a security feed in Starlight’s cell, do you not? Just look at that.”
“This still does not change what she did.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “We already pleaded guilty. This piece of information simply pertains to the sentence. She does not need to be locked away for eternity.”
Friedrich leaned back, turning to the judge. “Your honor, if it pleases you, I have one last line of questions to ask.”
The judge – some guy Starlight didn’t even know the name of – nodded slowly. Friedrich continued. “You ponies, as a race, are familiar with the crystal man and the unicorn that came here previously?”
“Yes…?” Starlight said.
“What does this have to do with anything?” Rarity asked. “You already know that we know about them. They’re where we got our dimensional technology.”
“Are you also, by chance, aware of a being that could be described as a ‘red humanoid fairy with ram horns’?”
Rarity blinked. “…Yes, actually. There’s a legendary figure on our world known as the Handmaid who fits that description. Why do you ask?”
Friedrich ignored her question. “So you are aware of two interdimensional powers that have visited this very base, and yet claim this is the first time you’ve ever visited? Is it not more likely you’ve known of us for a while, and were instead trying to lull us into a false sense of security exactly so you could pull this stunt off?”
“…Are you accusing us of conspiracy?” Rarity said, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m merely saying that the situation should be looked into and that this case cannot be truly decided until we know for certain exactly how many forces were at play here.”
O’Neill charged into the room and grabbed Friedrich by the ear. “Excuse me, your honor,” he said to the judge. He glared at Friedrich. The glare was all Friedrich needed to know.
“Ahem…” Friedrich said, adjusting his tie. “…That will be all I have to say on the case, your honor.”
The judge nodded. “The case has been reviewed. I judge Starlight Glimmer of Equestria as guilty of grand theft. However, due to the delicate nature of the situation, she will not be jailed. Since she is a representative of the Equestrian government, the payment of the fine falls to them. A hundred thousand dollars worth of materials or currency will suffice.” He sat back. “Court is dismissed.”
Starlight blinked, turning to Rarity as the people shuffled out of the room. “I thought you said to expect jail time?”
Rarity frowned, nodding. “You should have… I read over their laws. Grand theft usually involves a year for much smaller thefts. I was expecting many years, actually. Something must have happened. Maybe they didn’t want to ruin a political relationship?”
“It was me,” Twilight said, walking up to them. “I offered them a trade.”
Starlight cocked her head. “You… Did?”
“After Rarity told me what sentences were, I couldn’t just let it slide. I promised them a dimensional device and a Directory, as well as personally seeing to it that I equip their ships with dimensional capability. I… also gave them permission to request official Equestrian mages for magic testing.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow. “And… You did that all just so I could go free? Twilight... I didn’t need that much…”
Rarity narrowed her eyes. “It’s also another political blunder. Now the number of things we have to offer them are more limited. They’re coming out on top in this interaction, and will easily be able to exploit us in the future.”
Twilight sighed. “Maybe so. I… I just couldn’t let it happen. I had the power to change it, so I did. There’s no way Starlight needs to spend a decade in prison to learn her lesson.”
Starlight looked at the ground. “…You sure?”
“Yes, Starlight, I’m sure. I’m very sure.” She pulled her into a hug. “Come here.”
Starlight let tears fall down her eyes. “Will… Will I ever get it? Do you think I can?”
“…I don’t think anypony ever truly gets it, Starlight. We all struggle, we all flail, we all fall. Over and over and over again, even at things we already thought we learned.”
“Life sure is funny.”
“Yeah, it is.” She shook her head, releasing Starlight from the embrace. “Anyway, we need to get back to Equestria and grab a dimensional device. I… misplaced the one we brought here.”
Starlight blinked. “…You ‘misplaced’ it?”
“Well I’m not accusing them of stealing it, that’d just be stupid at this point,” Twilight said. “I’m pretty sure Daniel wasn’t involved anyway. Speaking of…”
Daniel walked up to them. “Are you girls ready to head home?”
“Yeah,” Twilight said. “I still need to get things for your ship though.”
“I know. I’m planning on coming back with you, to learn more about your culture.”
Twilight smiled. “Good.” She lit her horn, expending some effort to teleport them back to the hallway. She let out a breath from the energy loss. “Ouch…”
“Maybe you shouldn’t rely on teleportation so much?”
“Probably not…” She shook her head, stepping through the shimmering wall into her castle, Daniel, Starlight, and Rarity behind her. “Bon Bon! We need to figure out how much a hundred thousand dollar fine is in pure gold, stat.”
“Of course, Princess. But first, Corona came by earlier with an urgent message.”
“What was it?”
“There’s a pyramid ship attacking Ardent right now, and they need your help.”
Daniel paled. “…Pyramid ship?”
Bon Bon narrowed her eyes. “Are you responsible?”
“No. But… But that’s the kind of ship our enemies use.”
Twilight blinked. “Well, at least I know you guys didn’t steal the device now.”
Daniel shook his head. “Does this ‘Ardent’ have any technology capable of repelling ships designed to conquer entire planets?”
“I doubt it very much,” Bon Bon said.
“Damn,” Daniel muttered under his breath. He turned to Twilight. “I hope you can work fast.”
Twilight gulped. “…I can try.”
~~~
The other Twilight, the human, couldn’t take her eyes off Sunset – Corona’s – limp form. She was alive, for now, but that wound was serious. They needed to heal her, and heal her fast. But they were currently being held at gunpoint.
“Shall we kill them?” one of the Ba’als asked.
“Nah,” Pinkie-Ba’al said in Pinkie’s regular voice. “They’re all useful. Dark guy is the king of the Gerudo, the green guy is the hero of Hyrule, the arrow kid is the patron hero of an entire other world, and the colorful girls are all very precious to important people and ponies.” She giggled. “And baconhair here is also important, but I felt like stabbing someone.”
“How do you know all these things?” another Ba’al asked.
Pinkie-Ba’al smiled. “This host is connected to something… beyond understanding. She has a natural way of seeing everything. Who everyone is. What they are for. How things are going to happen. It’s almost like a psychic, but not quite. I’m still figuring it out myself, but it allowed me to mimic her antics easily. She can also pull things out of nowhere, such as this knife.” She cackled. “Such a powerful body!”
“Do each of you control a human mind?” Link demanded.
“Yes, but this particular human mind is blank due to cloning,” another Ba’al said. “Though you’re probably still upset about it.”
An alarm went off. A Ba’al close to Twilight checked a screen. “That interdimensional army took out one of our Ha’tak’s.”
“How?” Another said.
“They were clever,” Pinkie-Ba’al said. “They had a shadowy being on their side that could pass through walls and an earthbender who could fold metal like paper. They found the engine room and things collapsed from there.”
“They’re coming here.”
Pinkie-Ba’al pointed at Aang. “Show them him tied up, and they’ll stop fighting. He’s their ‘Avatar’. Truly a stupid title, but it works.”
Link tried to inconspicuously trace an hourglass symbol with his sword near the ground, but Pinkie-Ba’al knew it was happening before he tried. Suddenly the Master Sword was in her hand. “No mysterious time-stop powers from you! We just can’t have that!”
Link bristled. “At least let me heal Corona. I have potions.”
Pinke-Ba’al shrugged. “Hey, guys, let’s take it to a vote! Let them heal her?”
All the Ba’als gave a thumbs down with bemused expressions on their faces. One sipped a martini. Pinkie-Ba’al snickered. “The mob has spoken.”
“If you are the mob it’s hardly fair,” Applejack said, placing herself in such a way that she protected Rainbow Dash, who was currently curled up in a ball on the ground, crying.
“Oh look, they’re trying to take defensive stances…” Pinkie-Ba’al said, shaking her head. “You’ve all lost! We’ve got weapons far beyond anything you’ve ever seen pointed at you, and…” She paled suddenly. “The Tau’ri are coming.”
“What?!” most of the Ba’als said.
“Forget about reactivating the weapon! Tell the mothership to get us out of here now! We need to leave this place before they show up! Dial some random universe!”
The Ba’als frantically scrambled around, working with the controls. The Ha’tak rose further away from Ardent, moving to meet the mothership and its single guardian Ha’tak. The mothership began to shift ominously, channeling energy into the dimensional device, preparing to escape into a nearby dimension.
A portal opened in the opposite direction, revealing the human ship Apollo. Twilight stared in awe at the contrast between the golden pyramid ships and the dulled, rectangular visage of the Apollo. It came out, guns blazing, firing standard turrets alongside long, thin blue energy beams. On the main screen, the mothership got hit, but its shields held. Its companion Ha’tak was not so lucky, with a few shots destroying it quickly.
The mothership opened a portal, accelerating into it to a place without stars at all. The ship Twilight and the others were on attempted to follow – but a laser grazed its side.
Consoles on the bridge exploded, screens went dead, and the room fell into darkness. Pinkie-Ba’al screamed. “NO NO NO!” The scream of someone who had felt like this was going to happen, but just ignored it. Twilight cowered – she heard guns go off, spells fly around her, and bones crunch. The ship shook again, taking another hit.
Was she going to die here, on an alien ship, with most of her friends? After witnessing all that death, that destruction, that-
She saw Aang enter the Avatar state, his eyes providing enough light to see by. She could see many Ba’als laying around them, dead. Not as many as there had been – presumably more than a few fled.
She screamed when she saw Corona standing – holding the Master Sword, having thrust it right through Pinkie-Ba’als chest.
Pinkie-Ba’al let out a sick laugh. “I guess… I guess this body can’t see everything then…”
Corona winced, falling to a knee, holding her chest – but keeping her other hand solidly on the sword. “Give… Us… Pinkie… Back…”
“Hahahah! She’ll be gone forever, you stabbed her Sunset! You’re to blame!”
Both Corona and Pinkie-Ba’al collapsed in that moment. Twilight swore she could still hear Pinkie-Ba’al’s laughter.
There was silence. Aang dropped out of the Avatar State. There was nothing else to see.
Twilight heard Link saunter over to Corona and Pinkie-Ba’al. He took a jar out of his satchel, one with a glowing white fairy inside it. He tied Pinkie-Ba’al’s hands behind her back and tied her legs together – then released the fairy. It swirled around the two of them, flooding them with white magic before vanishing.
Twilight heard Corona cough and Pinkie-Ba’al moan.
She let out a sigh of relief. They would be okay. And, for whatever reason, the ship had stopped shaking…
The last thing she remembered clearly for the next little while was the face of her alicorn counterpart lifting her up to see if she was okay.
~~~
Princess Zelda of Hyrule strode across the halls of the Tau’ri ship Apollo. She’d already had her meeting with O’Neill and the Captain – it was time to see those other people who’d saved their kingdom.
She walked into the sickbay, noticing a few familiar faces. Link, nursing numerous cases of internal bleeding. Ganondorf, suffering through a broken arm and leg. He shot her a look but said nothing. As it should be. Most of the other faces were new to her though. An orange-skinned girl was talking to a blue-skinned girl who looked like she had seen the horrors of war for the first time - and probably had. A boy with an arrow on his head stood next to a purple girl, standing over the bedridden woman Zelda knew was Corona.
Zelda touched Corona’s arm, smiling. “I want to thank you.”
Corona groaned. “You’re welcome… Ugh…”
“The pain will pass. Focus on that.”
Corona managed a slight chuckle. “Probably a good idea… But I’m busy thinking about Pinkie…”
Zelda raised an eyebrow.
“…Some snake got into her head. They’re trying to remove it now.”
As if on cue, they heard some alien screaming. Coming from behind a curtain. A doctor came out from the curtain with a glass tube, inside of which was a large white fleshy snake. It had three sharp prongs for teeth and a few beady eyes – and it was livid.
Corona looked at it. “So, that’s Ba’al then?”
“Yep,” O’Neill said, walking into the room. “Pretty pathetic without bodies, huh?”
“Creepy,” Corona muttered. She managed to sit up, looking at the horrid snake a little closer. She winced, but glared. “Ba’al…”
The creature just hissed and complained with incomprehensible languages.
Corona swiped the jar, popped the top off, and burnt the Goa’uld inside to ashes before anyone could stop her. Then she handed the cremated remains back to the doctor. “How’s Pinkie doing?”
“She’s doing great!” Pinkie said, leaping out of the operating curtain. There was still blood on her shirt, and she really shouldn’t have even been able to walk, but there she was. “That was interesting!”
Corona grinned. “Pinkie, we almost died.”
“I said interesting, not fun. Though parts of it were fun. Most of it was terrifying though.” She paused, staring into nothing for a moment. “I knew everything Ba’al knew, but I also knew things he didn’t, and he knew things I didn’t, and… And I was watching everything happen like it was on TV.”
Rainbow Dash hugged her without any warning. “Don’t ever go do stuff like that again, okay Pinks?”
“Of course not!” She hugged Rainbow Dash back tightly. Far too tightly, but nobody cared at this point. The doctor just shrugged and went back to examining his various patients.
Zelda smiled. “It warms my heart to see you all here. I’m going to give you all the highest honor of valor in our kingdom, the Goddess’s Regalia. Yes, even you Ganondorf.”
“…Sweet,” Rainbow Dash said, devoid of her usual vigor. It was as if she wasn’t really into it.
“There’ll be a ceremony in a few days. I expect you all to be there.”
“Also, something else,” O’Neill said. “That Ha’tak you guys were on? It’s busted up, but still functional. Corona, we’ve decided to give it to you.”
Corona blinked. “Give it to Twilight.”
“…Huh?”
“The people I work for do not need access to a spaceship, okay?”
O’Neill shrugged. “Screwing over the man. I can respect that. Request granted.”
“Thank you.” She laid back down in the hospital bed. “Ugh… Can I get some sleep now?”
“You heard her! Everyone out!” O’Neill shouted, clapping his hands. “If you aren’t critically wounded or are a pink monstrosity that can’t feel pain, move!”
A flood of people began to move out of the hospital – while Princess Twilight tried to get in.
“Hey, I said everyone out!” O’Neill said.
“But… I need to see Coron-“
“I sai-“
Corona raised a hand. “It’s fine, O’Neill. She won’t stay long.”
O’Neill shrugged. “Fine, fine. Everyone else out.”
Soon, Twilight and Corona were more or less alone.
“How’d you get this ship over here?” Corona asked.
“Had to drain one of their ZPM power module things,” Twilight said. “But it wasn’t that hard. It was really as simple as slapping the dimensional device onto the hyperdrive and channeling power to it, which explains how Ba’al was able to get here so easily.”
“…Heh. Both a blessing and a curse, how easy those things are to use.”
“It appears that way.”
Corona blinked. “I got you a spaceship, by the way. The Ha’tak that’s intact is yours for the keeping.”
“…What, really?”
“Really.”
“Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!”
“Hey, you’ve still got to fix it. Don’t get too excited.”
Twilight rubbed her hooves together. “But I love fixing things!”
“Indeed you do.”
Twilight got a hold of herself. “Anyway… You okay?”
Corona sighed. “I think so. There was… a lot that happened today. A lot of death. A lot of blood. A lot of war. But… I believe I’ve come to terms with it. It’s affected me, but not as badly as I was thinking. Not as badly as Dash.”
“…How’s she doing?”
“Badly. She’s been rambling a lot. Laughing a lot sometimes, seeming strikingly apathetic at others. I think she needs therapy. Maybe Twi- Sparky as well.”
Twilight nodded. “I’ll be sure they get some. You just stay here and rest.”
“I will. Am I getting taken to their world?”
Twilight shook her head. “They’re not going back. They’re keeping the Apollo on this side of the multiverse. It’s over here, they might as well use it. Try to hunt down the Ba’als that escaped. They are, apparently, their responsibility.”
Corona frowned. “I wonder what the story behind it is…”
“Ba’al is apparently the last of the powerful System Lords, a race that had the entire galaxy in their universe subjugated until recently. He’s really, really crafty, and was willing to use cloning to get the upper hand.”
“We definitely haven’t seen the last of him.”
“That much is clear,” Twilight agreed. “But… We’ll all be ready for him.”
Corona nodded, mumbling something.
“…I think I’ll let you sleep now.”
Corona tried to mumble ‘thanks’, but she was already drifting off again.
~~~
Discord stared at Sestar. “So, in conclusion, by keeping me here you are interfering with the ‘lower races,’ because part of their culture and life depends on me. You’re breaking your own laws by dealing with me.”
“It is our duty to keep you from exploiting them.”
“For the love of chaos, you’re a broken record.” He sat back, grabbing another newspaper. “See? Look at this. THOUSANDS DIE DUE TO INTERDIMENSIONAL MISHAP. I bet you if I had gone through with my plan that wouldn’t have happened.”
“The consequences of upholding our laws are not our concern.”
“You. Are. Dense.” Discord sighed. “Okay, how about this. I agree never to come back here, ever, on punishment of ‘death’ or whatever, and I return to Equestria, and you never have to think of me again.”
“And you will then interfere with their lives, which is something we cannot allow.”
“What is that? A lie I hear?”
“How so?”
“You let your evil counterparts force their followers into worship. The…” He flipped through the newspaper. “Ah yes, the Ori, great Ascended beings who controlled an entire galaxy with religious domination. You just let them have their way.”
“The Ark of Truth was our creation and their demise.”
“You did that back before you Ascended. And it says here you didn’t even try to tell the Tau’ri about it! Wow! Talk about crazy luck! I’m surprised they managed it.” He cleared his throat. “The point is, star lady, that you need to send me back. You’re like a foreign nation. I’ll admit, you can tell me not to act here, but you have no right to tell me what to do in my homeland. For all you know the laws of the universe make my actions right there. So ha.”
Stestar stared at him with an intense glare. “You actually have good points.”
“Was there ever any doubt about that?”
“Yes. But you-“
For the first time, another Ascended interrupted. “Just let him go, Sestar. He’s offered a deal. Get him out of our hair.”
Sestar took in a deep breath and sighed. “Fine. Go home. Do your unsavory deeds.”
Discord grinned. “Thank you.” He snapped his fingers, finding that he could indeed summon a top hat and a zoot suit. “I’ll be off. I’m sure Fluttershy’s worried by now.” He walked out the front doors of the establishment.
Sestar shot a glare at the Ascended who had spoken up. “This will bite us later.”
“Either option would have bitten us. The important thing is that now he knows he’s not at the top, and will have to think more about what he does. A small improvement, but one nonetheless.”
“We’re promoting unacceptable use of power.”
“He doesn’t get power from worship. It may work out.”
Sestar fell silent, fuming.
~~~
After three more universe jumps, the Ba’al mothership stopped jumping. They figured they couldn’t be traced anymore, especially because they didn’t even really know where they were.
Plus, there was something new to discuss.
Several dozen Ba’als stood around a table, staring at a purple heart-shaped mask.
“This is a powerful object.”
“It saved my life.”
“It can be used to further our power…”
“It wants to help us.”
“It is Majora.”
“It’s obviously manipulating our minds.”
“Clearly. We must devise a way for it to remain distant.”
“You. You were the original holder. You will take several of us onto a smaller ship and keep it away from the rest of us. You will be the voice of Majora.”
“Delightful!”
“Concerning. It may cause madness. It may be causing madness in all of us.”
“Why aren’t we considering throwing it away?”
“Because that’d be crazy and foolish.”
“That sounds crazy and foolish.”
“Huh. So it does. Whatever, go with the plan. This mask will bring new opportunities to us. We just need to be clever.”
They all laughed again.
~~~
Twilight stood on the balcony of her castle, staring up at the stars – and Stars – again.
Starlight joined her. There was an awkward silence.
“Twilight, I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“But I never apologized. I never admitted I was wrong. I never admitted it to myself, not really. Still not sure if I have. I’m running around in my head ways I could have kept doing it. I’ve already come up with plans to steal more things. I’m not acting on them, but they’re still there. I’m a natural manipulator, Twilight. That can’t be good.”
“Everypony has a part of them that isn’t good. I’m often too fixated and detail oriented.”
“Hardly as bad as being naturally manipulative…”
“I think it balances out. We all have strengths, we all have weaknesses. We all have to do what we can with what we can.”
Starlight sagged. “Maybe…” She looked up at the stars. She summoned a spell, whispered something into it, and shot it up.
“…What was it this time?”
“I was just… Just hoping that the Stars would accept us, even with all the mistakes we’ve made.”
“We’ll find out eventually. The Ha’tak should be ready to fly soon.”
“…Did the ship do anything to lessen Luna’s anger at your ‘diplomacy’?”
“Not at all!” Twilight chuckled. “Celestia had to intervene. She essentially said we were both handling it like idiots.”
“I think this entire escapade can be described as ‘people acting like idiots’, don’t you?”
“That certainly seems like an apt description…” She frowned. “…We’re going to see death eventually, Starlight. And lots of it. It’s affected Corona and her friends. I’m not sure their Rainbow Dash is going to be okay. What’s going to happen to us when we get in that kind of fight? Fluttershy almost exploded during the pawn fiasco…”
“We’ll have to prepare ourselves for it. We’ll have to be strong. But not forget harmony… Like I do so often.”
Twilight nodded. “Yeah… I really don’t know what’s going to happen. Ardent isn’t going to be able to ignore the other universes anymore, the Tau’ri have a ship in this area of the multiverse now, we’ve got a ship, the Elemental Nations helped fight a short war…” She shook her head. “Things are changing, Starlight. It no longer seems quite so… happy as it once did.”
Starlight looked at the stars. “Maybe it was never happy. Maybe we were just deluding ourselves.”
“That doesn’t mean we have to stop doing what we’re doing, though,” Twilight asserted. “The Stars call, the many universes around us call, they scream to be explored and uncovered. We’re not going to run away with our tails between our legs because of a little hardship. There will be ugly things. And we will face them.”
Starlight smiled. “Yeah. Yeah we will. Together.”
“Always, together.”