//------------------------------//
// 037 - Six... Six... Six... 
// Story: Songs of the Spheres 
// by GMBlackjack 
//------------------------------//

The room was dark, damp, and metallic. Pipes snaked along the vaulted ceiling, carrying who knew what to who knew where. Some dripped, though it was unclear if the dripping was water, or if the pipe was even the source of the liquid. Greasy stains lined the floor, some in the shape of small footprints. An ever-present cloud of dust filled the air – not hindering vision so much as hindering comfortable breathing.

It was in this empty place that a portal appeared, leading right to the green pastures of Equis Concrete. Pinkie, Nova, Flutterfree, and Renee stepped through. The ponies overseeing the portal – the Twilight known as Dawn and the Pinkie known as Diane – remained on their side, waving them along.

“Interesting place,” Nova said, tapping her hoof on the ground. “Dawn, why did you want us to come here?”

“Look at the portal,” Dawn said.

It didn’t take long for them to realize – from the vantage point of the four ponies in the new world, the portal was moving, receding away at a slow rate.

Renee put a hoof to her chin. “Curious… I don’t believe that’s happened before…”

Pinkie perked up her ears, stamping her hooves on the ground. She leaned side to side, thinking. She stuck her tongue in the air.

“Pinkie sense acting up?” Flutterfree asked, trying to find the most comfortable way to fly with the bow of light on her back.

“Nope. Just doing science!” Pinkie pulled a level out of her mane and set it on the ground. The bubble in the liquid shifted slowly to the left, then to the right.

“We’re… rocking?” Nova said. “Weird.”

“We’re on a boat,” Renee deduced. “A very large boat, given the size of this maintenance shaft.”

Dawn facehooved. “Well if that’s all it is, we really didn’t have a reason to call you…”

“We’ll explore anyway,” Pinkie assured her.

“We’ve opened portals on moving objects before,” Flutterfree pointed out. “The portal never moved.”

“That was when the objects weren’t on a planet,” Nova reminded her. “The portals adhere to gravity. Otherwise we’d dial empty space most of the time because virtually every planet moves. Stars do too.”

“Oh. Right.”

“I thought I read a study that portals sometimes adhered to large structures as well?” Renee said. “Due to magic, or some other reason.”

“That… might be true.”

“It would explain why the portal’s moving so slowly,” Diane called from across the portal. “Boats move faster than this.”

“Clearly not something we fully understand,” Pinkie chirped. “We’ll dial back ourselves. You may need to save us from the zebra jungles!”

“You’re moving west,” Dawn commented.

“Then… Uh…” Pinkie shrugged. “There’s nothing evil out in your west is there?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Great. I’ll think of something clever to say later, I just know it.”

“You two better close the portal, you’re about to hit a wall,” Flutterfree commented.

“Right. See you in a couple hours!” Dawn called. Diane flashed them a smile and closed the portal.

The area was plunged into darkness. “Advanced darkness,” Pinkie corrected.

Renee and Nova lit their horns to brighten their surroundings. Their lights seemed small against the distant ceiling and darkness-shrouded walls.

“I say we follow the pipes!” Pinkie called.

Flutterfree flew up to the ceiling, tapping one of the pipes. “This one’s empty… This one’s broken…”

“We can follow an empty one, Flutterfree,” Nova called.

“Found one with flowing water!” Flutterfree called down, tapping one of the larger pipes. “It goes that way.”

“There be booty that way, matey!” Pinkie said, drawing a pirate’s cutlass and pointing in the direction Flutterfree indicated. “Today, we plunder this ship for its riches!”

Everypony rolled their eyes, knowing their pink poofy leader wasn’t being serious. They followed her bouncing form in a formation – Nova and Renee flanking, Flutterfree flying overhead, glancing behind them every so often. They had been ambushed one too many times over the years in dark places like this; it would be embarrassing if they let it happen yet again.

“I used to be terrified of these places,” Flutterfree commented. “Now? Dark and damp seems to be a recurring theme in the multiverse. All I want now is a coat.”

“Sorry, no coats right now!” Pinkie said.

Nova rolled her eyes. “And suddenly you’ll have all the coats we could possibly need when we’re on a beach world or something.”

“Exactly!”

“What I wouldn’t pay to get a rulebook to your powers.”

“It’s only a matter of time, Nova.”

Flutterfree glanced to Pinkie. “Are we at least close to getting answers about that?”

Pinkie just laughed.

“Take that as a ‘not even close’,” Renee suggested.

Pinkie decided to walk backwards so she could grin cheekily at them.

Nova facehooved. “That smile haunts my nightmares.”

“I find it comforting,” Flutterfree offered.

“There’s no way that smile doesn’t cause at least little nightmares.”

“Ding!” Pinkie blurted.

Renee opened her mouth to comment, but something caught her eye in front of them. “Girls!” She called, pointing. Everypony snapped to attention, glancing in the direction Renee pointed.

Standing on top of a wooden crate was a human child – a girl – in a yellow raincoat slightly too large for her. The features of her face aside from her mouth were all hidden from sight with the raincoat’s hood.The mouth itself was frozen in a gasp of fear.

“Wait, don-“ Renee began, but the sound of Renee’s voice after the moment of silence startled the child out of her stupor. She leaped off the box and ran to one of the nearby walls.

“Wait!” Pinkie called. “We don’t want to hurt you! I’m Pinkie Pie!” She bounced after her, the others joining the chase.

Nova lit her horn in preparation to grab the child, but the kid was too fast. She slid through a hole in the wall’s metallic siding, leaving Nova’s sight range. The four ponies pulled themselves through the opening soon thereafter but there was no sign of the child once they were through, finding only a bunch of boxes packed in the space between walls.

There was a strange creature sitting next to a large, lit lantern. It was scrawny, humanoid, and had a cone-shaped head that looked as if it were made of bark. The cone might actually have been its head.

It glanced at them – not that they could see its eyes. It seemed not to care about their presence.

“Uh… hello?” Nova asked.

The creature continued warming itself at the lantern, paying them no further attention.

“…Creepy,” Flutterfree said.

Pinkie poked her head out of a nearby crate. “Don’t see the girl!”

Flutterfree landed on the top box of a tall stack, looking around. “…Can’t see far in this darkness. She could be hiding anywhere.”

“I have a question,” Renee said. “…Why is this crawlspace so large? It’s more like a narrow shed than an area you’d build between two walls!”

Pinkie shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe these people just like to build big things.”

“Then why aren’t the boxes huge?”

Nova popped the top off one of the boxes and examined the contents. “…Powder.” She sniffed it. “I think it’s seasoning.”

Pinkie stuffed her face into the box Nova had opened and ate an entire mouthful of the powder. “Huh! Saffron.”

Nova gagged from the sight of Pinkie downing the dry seasoning. “Okay, so maybe this box is big. That’s a lot of saffron.”

“If this place opens up trade with us the Hub is going to have a field day,” Renee commented. “Saffron isn’t cheap.”

Then the lantern went out. The cone-headed creature let its arms sag in disappointment.

“Don’t worry,” Renee said, lighting the lantern with her own magic. “Have some more.”

The creature looked to her, made strange twitching motion with its head, and then continued to warm itself.

Nova pointed at the far wall. “I thought I saw some light over there, when it was dark.”

“I was able to see the creature…” Renee noted. The group moved where Nova had pointed, and they found another break in the wall. They filed out into a room much smaller than the one they had been in previously – but still far too large for them. It was cubical, empty, and had a single window off to one side.

They saw, for the first time, a doorway. There was no door in it – there didn’t need to be. The towering hole in the wall made them realize how small they truly were even with nothing between its frame. It was easily three stories high, maybe four, and it led out into a much more expansive room they couldn’t even see the ends of.

Maybe the ship wasn’t big. Maybe they were tiny.

“…Have we ever found a world of giants before?” Renee asked.

“No…” Flutterfree said, shaking her head. “And that worries me…”

“But the girl and the creature were the right size,” Nova said.

Pinkie pursed her lips. “This place was not made for them.”

“Or us,” Flutterfree commented.

Pinkie bounced out of the doorway into the expansive space. Behind them, there was a wall that rose as high as they could see, until the dusty air made it impossible to see further. There was a soft blue light somewhere far above them, clearly artificial, telling them there was a ceiling up there, somewhere. In the place where the sky should have been, they saw long cables carrying sacks and crates to and from locations they couldn’t lay their eyes on.

“Transport network?” Renee wondered aloud. “A wide open space for lines to carry things everywhere in the ship… Heavens, there’s no way we could explore even a fraction of this place on our own. We need to find someone to help us. Guide us.”

Flutterfree flew up, examining the wall behind them. “I see brighter lights through some of these windows,” she said. “I don’t see any giants though.”

“As good a place to look as any,” Nova said, teleporting up to her and pressing her face to a window. “Looks like… an apartment.”

It did look like an apartment – for a giant. It had everything a person would need: bed, dresser, and even a bathroom. There was no occupant, but the lightbulb in the ceiling was on.

Nova teleported them onto the inner windowsill. It was just wide enough to hold a single pony, giving them a good view of the expansive room. Now that they were inside, it didn’t look quite as normal. The shelves were extremely tall, going all the way up to the ceiling, while the bed was comparatively low – almost no legs on it at all.

“It’s too short…” Renee muttered.

“How can you say it’s too short!?” Flutterfree blurted. “It’s taller than we are!”

“For a being of the size that fits through that doorway, it’s short,” Renee corrected, leaping down onto the bed. “And the everything else is too tall. Very inconsistent.”

“Maybe this guy is a weird artist type,” Nova suggested.

“Don’t see any pieces of art,” Renee pointed out.

“The art is in the roooooom!” Pinkie droned ominously.

Flutterfree rolled her eyes, flying to the door that led out of the room. She had to use her entire body to turn the door handle, but it didn’t take too much effort. The door swung inward, then outward, swinging with the rocking of the ship. Nova used her magic to open it the rest of the way, leading into a hallway.

There was nothing in the hallway besides a lightbulb – also on. The walls were green, and they could see a handful of other doors. They filed out into the space, looking for signs of life – but all that came was an eerie silence.

“I swear, there’s nobody here,” Nova said. “It’s like they all vanished!”

Renee adjusted her hat and narrowed her eyes, looking around with her careful eyes. She saw signs of large boots hitting the wooden floor they were standing on, but she couldn’t tell how recent these marks were. Being this small made it easy to see the details, but there was nothing for her to form a conclusion with.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to. They heard a door open behind the one at the end of the hall, and then the thump of giant footsteps. They stood firm as the scuffling steps approached the hall door. The knob turned, and the door swung in with a painful creak.

The creature that stood in the doorway was surely a giant – but not the giant any of them were expecting. Its head only reached about halfway to the top of the doorway, due to its extremely short legs. The miniscule limbs below contrasted highly with the giant’s arms, which were four times longer than they needed to be. Its clothes were old and ragged, but well fitted to its unusual body size, complete with sleeves that reached all the way to the grimy, wrinkled hands.

The head was the worst – it looked as if someone had taken the skin of a human being and pulled it as far back as possible, elongated the ears, and extruded the chin. A blindfold wrapped over where the giant’s eyes should have been. The cloth had been there so long it had essentially fused to the giant’s head, and it stank so much from years of use.

Flutterfree forced down her gag reflex. She flew up toward the blind giant, forcing a smile. “Hello, I’m Flutterfree. Can you understand me?”

The giant paused, listening closely. It made a strange clicking noise with its tongue that didn’t sound like language.

“I’m in front of you, flying. I can land, if you want.”

The giant’s response was to grab Flutterfree with one of his outrageously long arms, squeezing her tightly. Flutterfree screamed in surprise and fear.

“FLUTTERFREE!” Nova shouted, lighting her horn.

The blind giant heard this, turning its attention to the three of them. It made an inhuman growling, clicking noise. It reached for her with its other hand.


~~~


Applebloom and Scootaloo were walking Sweetie Belle through the Pinkie Emporium of Ponyville, back to the lobby of the park’s hotel.

“I didn’t think rollercoasters were allowed to go off the rails!” Scootaloo shouted. “That was the best way to end the day!”

Applebloom nodded. “Yeah. Ah haven’t had that much fun in… Well, forever.”

“I can’t believe I never checked out the Pinkie Emporium before today,” Sweetie added. “My life was incomplete before today and I didn’t even know it!”

“Reminds me of the days we used to go Crusading,” Scootaloo said. “Just the three of us doing things for the sake of doing them.”

“Yeah,” Sweetie said. “Those were some fun times we had.”

“…Includin’ the tree sap?” Applebloom asked.

“Well, not all of it was fun. But I can be nostalgic if I want, Applebloom.”

Scootaloo blinked. “We’re old enough to be nostalgic for childhood. Why do I think that’s weird?”

“Because you spend your time contemplating the psychology of blank flanks?” Applebloom suggested.

“Don’t we all do that?”

“Yer the one doin’ most the work with that now.”

Scootaloo nodded. “Guess that’s right… I miss you girls sometimes.”

“Ah’ll be back to it when things calm down at the farm,” Applebloom said. “You know it.”

“And you can always call me over,” Sweetie said.

“You have your League,” Scootaloo said, shaking her head. “Taking the Crusaders into other worlds might be a bit more important than dealing with the misguided filly or two here.”

“Maybe,” Sweetie admitted. “But don’t ever hesitate to call if you think you need me, okay Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo nodded. “You got it! …Hey, look, there’s the other yous.”

Sweetie looked ahead – sure enough, waiting at the front doors of the hotel were Sweetie Bot, Thrackerzod, and Sweetie Brute.

Sweetie waved to them – Bot and Brute waved back. Thrackerzod just nodded curtly.

“I’m feeling nostalgia again just looking at them,” Scootaloo commented.

“They’re not the same pony I was,” Sweetie reminded her.

“Right.”

“Bye then,” Applebloom said. “Looks like they want you for some adventure or somethin’.”

“Probably,” Sweetie admitted. “See you girls later!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders parted ways, and the League of Sweetie Belles joined up. “So,” Sweetie said. “Squeaky not coming?”

A screen popped out of Sweetie Bot’s back, displaying the head of Squeaky Belle. “Sorry, busy with the war. You know how it is.”

“She does not,” Thrackerzod corrected. “I am the only one here who has any idea what a real war is like.”

Bot beeped. “The encounter with the Smooze does not qualify?”

“No. That does not qualify.”

“I know war!” Brute chimed in.

“You just know the idea of war. Frighteningly acquainted with it for somepony who’s never actually encountered it, I might add.”

“Yeah! The name Sweetie Brute will one day send fear into the hearts of ponykind! Muahahah!”

Squeaky cleared her throat. “Anyway, I can’t stay – I have to go. Enjoy yourselves without me. Get a souvenir!”

“I will acquire loot!” Bot said.

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “So, Thrackerzod, how’d your mission for Eve go?”

“Adama’s ship is a piece of trash just waiting to explode and shatter the fabric of reality itself. It was clearly designed by idiots who didn’t understand that you can’t just randomly stick a core of power from beyond into every ship and think everything will operate normally. It does the exact same thing a hyperspace drive does except with a billion different drawbacks!”

“…Not well?”

“I recommended they gut that poor excuse for FTL out of their ship and replace it with one of the Tau’ri’s. I also pointed out that its very existence was rather insulting to certain individuals they wouldn’t want to anger by mistake. It’s currently in Cosmo’s Shipyard.”

Bot poked her head in between the two of them. “Did you at least figure out how it worked?”

“By the skin of its teeth,” Thrackerzod summarized. “Let’s just go somewhere, I need a vacation.”

“We can go to the Sinkhole!” Brute suggested. “Watch things explode!”

“Get exploded, you mean?” Sweetie said, raising an eyebrow.

“…Maybe not?”

“Yeah, no.” Sweetie shook her head. “We should try something maybe a bit more… relaxing?”

“Mushroom World?” Bot suggested.

“We went there last week,” Brute complained.

“There’s always more interesting stuff to see there,” Sweetie deliberated.

“That would defeat our purpose,” Thrackerzod said. “We are an exploration unit, like Pinkie’s. We’re supposed to go to places that have not been fully experienced.”

“So that leaves out me taking you to Yakyakistan or something,” Sweetie said.

“Negative,” Bot chirped. “You can explore your own world!”

“There is Tauryl…” Sweetie said, putting a hoof to her chin. “But I don’t know, last I heard the centaurs weren’t friendly. At all.”

“I would offer to take you to my plane of origin, but our bodies would not survive the transfer,” Thrackerzod said. “I will have to wait for your interdimensional adaption technologies to develop further.”

“I am ready to experience seventeen dimensions!” Bot cheered.

“The fact that you think you can count the dimensions amuses me.”

“I know! What about Esefem?” Brute asked. “We could have a Red vs Blue battle!”

“They have not cracked the respawn yet,” Thrackerzod pointed out.

“I don’t want to get shot even if I could respawn,” Sweetie said.

“Acquiring data…” Bot droned. “Ding! Rarely does anypony talk about the other races in Earth Tau’ri. They have a lot of space we don’t see much of!”

“The Asgard made themselves known a couple weeks ago,” Sweetie said.

“There are others though! Database has… Jaffa, Ori Remnant, Wraith, Traveler…”

“We get the idea. There’s a lot,” Thrackerzod commented. “This sounds like a good use of our time. Go where the ponies generally do not.”

“We’ll need to charter a ship…” Sweetie said.

“There are many available ships,” Thrackerzod said.

“We can steal one!” Brute shouted.

“No, we can use our connections to Eve to charter one,” Thrackerzod corrected.

“Heh. You said Charter and Eve in the same sentence by accident.”

“I swear I will never understand mortal humor in its entirety.”

Sweetie Belle pulled out her dimensional device and dialed the Hub. “We’ll need to use one of the higher-powered portals to get to Earth Tau’ri.”

“One is open to Earth Tau’ri right now for sixteen more minutes,” Bot informed them.

“Let’s get over there then. Thrackerzod?”

Thrackerzod nodded and lit her horn, teleporting them all into the Hub, towards the open gateway.


~~~


As powerful as Nova was, the sheer mass and force of the blind giant’s hand caught her completely off guard. Her shield broke with ease, but its presence made the hand fumble. She teleported out of the way, to the back end of the hall.

Pinkie appeared on top of the arm that held Flutterfree, pirate cutlass in hand. She stabbed the giant’s arm with it – doing as much damage as a needle would. It flailed in pain – but instead of dropping Flutterfree, it just squeezed tighter. “Gurk…”

The giant grabbed Pinkie with his other hand, but she was on his head the next instant. He grabbed her again, but she was standing on his shoe. He grabbed her again – definitely catching her – but she was somehow on top of his hand now. “Yeah, nice try. Nova! Can you teleport Flutterfree out?”

Nova lit her horn, focusing on Flutterfree. Somehow, the giant sensed what she was doing, rushing his free hand to her. She had to teleport herself out of the way. “He’s blind! How does-“

“He knows what we’re saying,” Renee realized.

The giant made a different sort of noise that might have been laughter.

“Then why doesn’t he say anything?” Nova demanded, firing a laser at the giant – regretting it as the pain made the giant squeeze Flutterfree again.

“Don’t think he wants to,” Pinkie said, appearing next to Flutterfree with a tub of lard in her hooves. “Gonna slide you right out of the-“

The giant rammed his hand into the ceiling, bonking Pinkie on the head. She twirled around and fell, bouncing off the floor like a rubber ball. The giant tried to grab her, but still couldn’t get any hold. With a huff, it apparently gave up – dashing out the door from which it had come.

Nova teleported after the blind monster, trying to get a lock on Flutterfree – but it turned through another door. The giant may have looked like it was a slow, lumbering fool, but its stride was huge even with those tiny legs. Nova wasn’t used to dealing with a space this large in a battle – sure she could teleport in and out of open spaces easily, but the distance was almost always closed quickly. Here, there was just so much distance.

Pinkie appeared next to her. “Let’s wait for him to slow down, then teleport her out of there. We have to be quiet though. DID YOU HEAR THAT RENEE?!”

Rene glared at Pinkie from the hallway floor, but nodded. Nova surrounded the three of them in magic and levitated them over the floor, making almost no noise as they flew through the air. They followed the sound of the lumbering giant – passing through what appeared to be a library with pony-size bookshelves, a room filled with cages, and a strange hall with a bunch of doors that were more normal size. Nova ignored all this – she just continued in her pursuit of the giant and Flutterfree.

The giant eventually stopped in a room with one of the cables they had seen running through it, a hook passing through every handful of seconds, all empty. This was apparently a place where things were loaded. If Nova had to guess, the things that were loaded were probably in the neatly tied bundles of white fabric.

Good thing she didn’t. She set herself, Nova, and Renee gently underneath the bottom shelf of a cabinet, where they could see the giant and Flutterfree. It took all of two seconds for Nova to initiate the teleport, removing Flutterfree from the giant’s grasp.

Unfortunately the sudden release of her lungs told Flutterfree’s body that it needed to get air into itself right now. She sucked in a tremendous gasp that the giant definitely heard. The giant lowered its hand to the ground and stuck it under the shelf where they were hiding. Nova initiated another teleport, this time taking them onto the top shelf. The giant did not hear them appear, and kept rooting around under the shelf.

Pinkie tapped Nova on the shoulder and pointed to the cable that ran through and out of the room. Nova nodded, levitating the four of them to one of the hooks and following it out. They soon entered the grand, expansive area they had been in before.

“I’m getting tired…” Nova said, struggling to keep her telekinesis up. “Three ponies and myself is draining.”

Flutterfree spread her wings and grabbed Renee to take the stress off Nova.

“Just set me on the wire!” Pinkie said. Nova didn’t question it, and wasn’t at all surprised when Pinkie started walking along the wire like it was solid ground that required no special balance at all. Now that the unicorn was levitating only herself, she was no longer struggling.

“So… Where do you think we’re going?” Flutterfree asked, setting Renee down on one of the moving hooks.

“Those white packages are probably what usually go on this line,” Nova said. “So wherever that goes.”

“Do we have any idea what was in those?”

“No,” Nova admitted. “But I’m sure we’ll find out.”

It took about a minute for the hook to make it to the other side. The wall appeared identical to the one they had left behind; just as damp, dusty, and dreary.

There was one difference though – they smelled something good. Someone was cooking.

Pinkie sniffed. “Meat. Huh. I hope there’s bacon. I love bacon.”

“That does sound good,” Flutterfree commented.

Renee shook her head. “You are all getting too used to consuming meat. ...To be fair, I am too.”

Flutterfree shrugged.

The hook entered the wall, and they found themselves in a giant pile of the wrapped white containers, each one around their size. They leaped onto the top of the pile and quickly discovered what the packages were – meat.

“Oh, so mister lanky was a butcher,” Renee deduced. “Wonder why we didn’t actually see any meat there though…”

“Why would you need to butcher on a boat?” Flutterfree asked. “Butchering suggests live animals. But on a boat you’d want to have stored meat, and you’d only kill your animal cargo if you ran low on food. You’d definitely not need to resort to this much.”

“They’re giants. Maybe they get hungry,” Nova commented.

“Or maybe it’s fish,” Renee shrugged.

“Or maybe their cows are the size of skyscrapers,” Pinkie said. “We could be standing on one cow!”

Flutterfree poked the bags, feeling them with her hoof. “The cuts are too small to be that. Not a regular cow either, or fish.”

“You have a freakish knowledge of butchering,” Nova said.

Flutterfree shrugged. “I know a lot about animals, anatomy, and how to care for carnivores. It comes from that.”

Pinkie leaped down from the stack of meat. “Well, we better get moving! Stuff to see!” She bounced to the door that was the exit. Flutterfree flew to the handle and opened it, letting them into what was clearly a Giant’s kitchen. They could see the backside of a fat giant cooking over a stove. To his right was a sink absolutely filled with dirty dishes. To his left, several unwrapped packets of the meat.

The ponies were struck by the smell of cooked meat coming off of everything in the room. They may have had no natural instinct to find the smell of meat enticing, but all four of them had tasted meaty meals in their journeys, and their bodies had learned to recognize it as food. Renee was the only one whose mouth wasn’t watering.

Pinkie glanced at Flutterfree. “Hey, your teeth are getting pointy.”

Flutterfree covered her mouth. “Eep!”

Nova rolled her eyes. “Hungry, huh? I’m sure I can snag you some of the meat…” With a carefully calculated teleport, Nova summoned a chunk of cooked sausage the size of Flutterfree’s head to them.

Flutterfree lost control and drove her slightly-sharper than usual teeth into the chunk of meat, ravenously devouring it.

Nova stared at the spectacle. “Y’know, I think I lost my appetite.”

Flutterfree lifted her head up and shook it. “I’m sorry – I’m really not sure what came over me. I just… needed to devour that.”

“Might want to see Eve about that when we get back,” Renee said.

“What did it taste like?” Pinkie wondered.

“A bit like… a cross between pork and veal.”

The smile on Pinkie’s face vanished, replaced with an expression of deep thought.

“It wasn’t like anything I’ve tasted before. Nova, you could get some more for her.“

Pinkie shook her head. “Nah, don’t feel like it right no-“ Her thought was cut short when the four of them noticed something through the doorway.

They saw the girl in the yellow raincoat dash across the floor, right behind the giant chef. The chef saw the girl out of the corner of its eye. The behemoth let out a surprised noise – like a human who has just seen a rat, though the startled grunt was decidedly more monstrous. Despite the giant’s flab, it moved fast enough to grab the girl.

With its other hand, the giant reached for a cleaver.

Pinkie wasn’t having any of that. She appeared next to the giant, brandishing her own giant knife to meet the cleaver. “Nope! Not cutting up kids today!”

The giant tried to grab Pinkie, but as the blind giant had discovered, Pinkie couldn’t exactly be grabbed. Her pink form distracted the giant enough for Nova to teleport the girl away.

Flutterfree made herself known, drawing her bow. “Hey!”

The giant swiped at Pinkie one last time – in vain - before turning to Flutterfree. He barely had time to register there was a bow aimed at him.

The holy arrow of light sailed true, flashing with brilliant light as it shot through the air. It hit the giant right in the nose, drawing enough blood to drench Pinkie.

“DISGUSTING!!!!” She whined.

The giant was not able to think through the pain, it was only able to stumble around blindly, covering its nose with its hand.

“Let’s move!” Renee shouted, galloping across the kitchen to another door. Before she got there, the door flung open to reveal another fat chef.

Renee coughed. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to believe the injury to your friend over there wasn’t caused by us?”

The giant reached for her – but it had been distracted enough for Nova to initiate a teleport into the rafters. Flutterfree and the girl were already there. Pinkie appeared a moment later, still drenched in blood. “I know my name. It is going to be Crimson Pie, pirate of blood!”

“Yeah, no,” Renee dismissed, turning to the girl. “Are you okay? Hurt?”

The girl looked at her, eyes somehow still shrouded. She said nothing – but her stomach growled.

“Pinkie, donut,” Renee said, holding out a hoof. Pinkie pulled one out of her mane, somehow making sure no blood got on it. Renee handed it to the girl – who swiped it quickly, downing it in only a few bites. Then she gagged.

“Are you allergic to donuts?” Flutterfree asked, holding the girl with her wing.

“Too… Sweet…” the girl said in a raspy voice that had clearly not been used in a long, long time.

“Oh,” Flutterfree said. “…Sorry, Pinkie only holds sugary food.”

The girl nodded, recovering from the rush of sugar into her system.

Pinkie walked up to the girl and sat down. “Hello there.”

The girl looked right at her.

“I’m Pinkie Pie! That’s Renee, Flutterfree, and Nova. What’s your name?”

“…Six,” Six answered. Her voice held uncertainty, but there was only a small amount of fear.

Pinkie smiled. “Don’t worry Six, we’ll help you get out of this place.”


~~~


The ship the League of Sweetie Belles ended up on was one of the new Asgard vessels, designed by the lanky gray aliens themselves. The ship was smooth and thin, unlike the designs of the humans. In the back the ship extended out giving it a vague ‘T’ shape from above. Two spires of material stretched up and down from the back of the vessel, and a slight purple glow emanated from certain parts of the craft.

The League of Sweetie Belles was currently ‘dining’ with the Asgard Thor – if it could really be called that. It was more like staring at Asgard food cubes while talking to a gray alien that was shorter than Sweetie Belle.

“So,” Sweetie said, swallowing one of the cubes whole, unsure if that was acceptable or not. “How does it feel to be back?”

“Invigorating,” Thor said, though his calm voice did not match the meaning of the word. “I am aware many artificial intelligences would take offense at this, but living as a program is limiting.”

“How so?” Thrackerzod asked.

“Living as a program and retaining your organic personality and outlook requires that some… Limitations be placed,” Thor explained. “Were we to store ourselves as full AI, we would have no limitations, and that change would drastically alter us as we were. So we were limited – kept from growing beyond the bounds of a normal Asgard brain, prevented from calculating things too quickly, prevented from duplication of the self. We were prepared to live our entire existence as limited AI.”

“Boooring!” Brute droned.

Bot hit her across the head. “Sorry, Mister Thor.”

“It is all right. I understand that you come from different worlds, different cultures, and that some of you are technically children.”

“You’re a very patient person, Thor,” Sweetie observed.

“Asgard generally are. We have lived an incredibly long time. Princess Cosmo Sparkle would be young to an Asgardian.”

“And you’d be young simply because you measure age with timelines,” Thrackerzod said.

Brute perked up. “I thought time was made out of circles.”

Thrackerzod sighed. “My job is not to explain every little nuance in the multiverse to you.”

“You don’t know,” Thor said. It wasn’t a question.

Thrackerzod blinked. “You’re observant.”

“I am Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet for a reason, Thrackerzod.”

“…Why are you carrying us through space, again?”

“I wish to meet with the Ori Remnant, to extend official Asgard relations. I shall journey to the other powers in this universe after, and then perhaps to the Gems. We were simply going to the same place.”

“Huh. We get a grand tour. Sweeeeet,” Brute said.

“We must remember to stamp our passports for maximum collecting!” Bot cheered.

“So, how long until we get to the Ori Remnant anyway?”

“They are in another galaxy,” Thor said. “But a shortcut exists. A supergate.”

“Stargate for ships,” Bot explained.

“Precisely. We will be sent to the Ori galaxy, and make our way to Celestis – their capital. It is not far from the supergate.”

The ship dropped out of hyperspace in front of a gigantic ring structure floating in the middle of space. The supergate was currently active with a blue ripple pattern, ready to receive them.

“…Nice window,” Sweetie commented.

“We have an appreciation for beauty and elegance as well as function,” Thor said.

They entered the gate, transmitting directly to the Ori galaxy. They entered hyperspace again, toward Celestis.

Sweetie smiled. “So, I hear these Ori Remnants have an interesting story. They tried to conquer the Milky Way Galaxy, right?”

“That they did, at the behest of their old masters, the Ori. The Ori themselves were Ascended beings, much like your Discord. Unlike the Ascended who lived in the Milky Way, the Ori fed off worship and power, draining their followers for everything they could manage. They saw the Milky Way as an opportunity, and ordered their worshippers to conquer the place with technological secrets beyond even my people. It was a fight the Milky Way Galaxy was unable to win without help. But with a few Ascended tricks and an artifact known as the Ark of Truth, the Ori were banished and their followers redeemed.”

“So they’re just regular people now?” Brute asked. “Lame.”

“Far from it,” Thor answered.

“Yeah!” Bot interjected. “They’ve got wizards called Priors, and a lot of leftover ships!”

Thor nodded. “Almost all of the Ori Remnants are primitive people with little connection with each other, but they are in the unique position of having the most advanced ships in the universe and the most powerful… ‘magic’ as well. I would prefer to call it psychic ability, but as O’Neill would point out, I am talking to a room full of magical unicorns.”

Thrackerzod nodded. “Trying to pretend magic doesn’t exist would be pretty stupid.”

“There’s people who don’t think I exist,” Thor pointed out. “Earth Vitis’ people find my appearance unbelievable.”

“How so?” Sweetie asked.

“Their legends of aliens often include ‘Grays’, which I closely resemble. The legends of the Tau’ri were actually based on us, but on Earth Vitis there is no such evidence. So it’s just a conspiracy theory to many.”

“There’s a lot of conspiracy theories on Earth Vitis,” Bot said. “I was on the Internet a couple hours ago and I watched hundreds of videos like that!”

“Why in the name of Azathoth does your universe make robots go mad when they realize what they are?” Thrackerzod blurted. “Such a wasted opportunity…”

“Unknown,” Bot said.

“Whoever designed you had to somehow be the perfect mix of genius and absolute moron.”

“Low probability detected. That means I’m special, right?”

Sweetie smiled. “Yes, Bot, it does.”

“Yay!”

The ship dropped out of hyperspace around a planet – presumably Celestis. Thor turned around in his chair to address an unseen camera. “This is Supreme Commander Thor of the Cosmo-class vessel Mjolnir. I have an appointment with the Doci.”

A human voice replied. “Welcome to Celestis, Thor, beam down to the given coordinates.”

“I also have some passengers, a team from Equis Vitis, here for exploratory purposes.”

“Same location.”

Thor didn’t bother to respond further – he activated the teleporter without warning, materializing them all in a giant, domed room. The entire room was made of a marble-like material, and light filled the entire space, giving it the appearance of a holy room. There was a torch in the center of a large altar, but it wasn’t aflame.

A man with pale skin in brilliant white robes strode to meet them, his golden collar framing his head in a regal fashion. He bowed. “Supreme Commander Thor.”

“Doci,” Thor said.

The Doci gestured to the left. “The unicorns will be attended to by my Priors. We shall converse in my chambers.”

Thor nodded, saying nothing. The two of them walked away, leaving the League on their own with the priors. They looked a lot like the Doci – though without the golden collars, just the white robes. “Welcome to Celestis.”

“We are the League of Sweetie Belles,” Sweetie said for them. “We’re here to learn about you and explore. So… A tour would probably be a good idea.”

“Very well.” One of the Priors raised a staff and tapped it on the ground. They were teleported somewhere else – a hallway made of the same marble-like material. It was largely abandoned, though they could see another prior walking through the hall with a regular human at his side.

The Prior that had teleported the League began to walk the other way, gesturing for the unicorns to follow. They came to a balcony that looked out at the entire city – it was a beautiful city, composed almost entirely from the pristine white material. It clearly had not been designed with technology of any kind in mind, for all the technological ports and such were recent constructions at the edges of the city, made of more standard materials. Celestis was a city built by godlike beings for glory to them, not for function. Now, it was a glorious piece of art surrounded by a ring of industrial practicality. Further out, there was nothing but a smooth planet – it looked crystalline.

“This is strange,” Sweetie admitted.

The Prior nodded. “We’ve had to adapt our city to the outside world – or worlds, as the case may be. We have ensured that the center of our city remains beautiful, at the least.”

He tapped his staff on the ground again, and they were in a large room with an empty wall in front of them. “This was where the Fires of Celestis once burned – the place the Ori physically existed most often. From our worship, their forms were not the calm, white energies of the Ascended in the Milky Way, but violent bursts of fire that raged eternal. But the Fires of Celestis are no more, and this city is our own.”

“Is that why the torch where we were was out?” Sweetie asked.

“Yes, but more indirectly. We chose not to have any open flames in the city center, using only electric and natural light. It is a reminder that the Ori are here no more, only the Remnants.”

Bot blinked. “Remnants? You call yourselves that?”

“There is a motion for the name Reform, but that has not gone through yet.”

“Reform sounds better,” Thrackerzod said. “Less embarrassment associated with the word.”

The Prior nodded ever so slightly. He tapped his staff again, teleporting them to a large, glass door guarded by two Priors. Through the door, they could see a room lit with blue light, under which sat an ornate black and gray chest. On top was a ring of orange symbols, with a red crystal nested in the center.

“The Ark of Truth?” Thrackerzod asked.

“Yes, this is the device of our salvation. It revealed the truth of the Ori, what they were, to the Doci, and his connection to all of us allowed every Prior everywhere to discover the truth. It is a powerful, ancient artifact, and the only object we still revere with anything close to what we once held for the Ori.”

Thrackerzod nodded. “I sense a lot of energy within it. It is connected to a great power…”

“Can I use it to make everyone give me ice cream?” Brute asked.

The Prior raised an eyebrow. “The Ark only works for things that are true, it is not an absolute brainwashing device. Even then, we will never reprogram it for any reason – we keep it locked away as a memory of what saved us, but are wise enough to know never to use it.”

“Convincing people of the truth… That Ark has the potential to be just as madness inducing as anything from my realm,” Thrackerzod noted. “The truth is a powerful weapon.”

“Your universe sure has a lot of really powerful artifacts,” Bot told the Prior. “I’m looking at three others right now!”

The Prior nodded. “Precisely. We have many defenses against threats, should we decide to use them. Most of them are a last resort.”

Sensing the conversation had died down, he took them to another location – the edge of the ‘marble’ section of the city, the connection to the industrial side. They stood underneath a tremendous arch. Behind them, beautifully constructed structures of art. In front of them, a mesh of industrial buildings of mixed designs – mostly human, but a handful of pony as well.

Unlike the central city, which was almost entirely devoid of life, the League could see activity here – children running, people working and laughing, and even a Prior actively preaching from a book, a metal disc sitting at his feet.

“I thought you rejected religion?” Thrackerzod asked.

“The book of Origin, while based on a lie, was designed by higher beings with the secrets to live a simple, happy life. The motives were nefarious – more worship for more power – but the wisdom within is still true,” the Prior said. “It is more of a guide than a religion now.”

“I think that’s great,” Sweetie said. “Finding the silver lining.”

Brute grunted. “Not bold enough. You should have burned all their books! Shown them who was really in charge!”

“There are no Ori for us to show,” the Prior said. “It is just us.”

The conversation would have continued, but as happened so often, something interrupted it. A young woman with pale blue hair and red gloves leaped out of a doorway, dashing for the Prior who was preaching. She leaped up, punching him in the face with her glove, a strange flash of light emanating from the attack. He keeled over, leaving the metal disc open to be grabbed. The woman grabbed it, running back for the door.

Bot placed herself between the woman and the door. “Enemy identified: Jenny of the University of Doors!”

Jenny stopped in her tracks. “Well this is bad timing. You’re pretty cute though.” She jumped over Bot, running directly towards the door.

Thrackerzod destroyed the door from a distance. “No escape for you.”

Jenny teleported in front of another door. The Prior destroyed this one by holding out a hand.

Jenny groaned. “You know we don’t like it when people figure out the door trick.”

Brute jumped onto Jenny, punching her in the face. “RAAAAAAA!”

Jenny snapped her fingers, hitting the filly with a flash of energy. “OUUUUUCH.”

Thrackerzod encased Jenny in a ring of dark, pulsating power.

Jenny sighed. “Ivan, get them off me.”

“…Ivan?” Sweetie muttered to herself.

Ivan, as it turned out, was a man made of crystal. He strode into the square, hands outstretched. Everyone present saw gigantic, billowing red clouds filling the sky. Something roared in them, setting everyone on edge. They prepared for the worst.

“Thanks!” Jenny cheered to Ivan, having teleported out of Thrackerzod’s magic. She opened a door and slipped through it. Ivan himself – and his red clouds – vanished unceremoniously.

Bot blinked. “…An error has occurred. What?”

“Cowards! All of them!” Brute blurted.

Sweetie turned to the Prior. “What was that disc she stole?”

“An inhibition device,” he answered. “The Prior was using it to limit his powers, so the masses would accept him as an equal.”

“So she wants to remove the powers of some Priors…” Sweetie said, hoof to her chin. “…She wouldn’t be after the Ark of Truth, would she?”

The Prior’s eyes widened in horror.


~~~


“I’ve never seen anyone so hungry before,” Flutterfree commented as Six inhaled everything Pinkie put in front of her, having by now gotten used to the high sugar concentrations.

“Don’t get much food,” Six commented.

Renee looked at the kitchen below them. “…Why not? Certainly seems to be a lot of food down there, and it’s not like it's unhealthy for humans to eat meat.”

Six stared at her. The fact that her eyes were strangely hidden unnerved Renee. “…You don’t know, do you?”

“…Know what?” Flutterfree asked.

“You must have just gotten on the Maw…” Six stood up, pointing at the still-open door that led to all the tied sacks of meat. “…Those are human.”

Flutterfree’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks. Her gag reflex activated – but nothing would come out. Instead she just choked on her convulsion and passed out from the revelation.

“…human!?” Renee blurted, looking down with horror in her eyes. “That… That makes sense… The cages… The cuts of meat… The smaller things around… But why?”

“They’re clearly not animals,” Nova commented, struggling not to gag herself. “They understand our language… They know what they’re doing.”

“Monsters!” Renee blurted. “Evil, horrendous monsters! How could they do this? There’s enough meat in here to be made from tens of thousands of humans! Given the size of this ship, a… A genocide!”

“They farm us,” Six said. “Keep us locked in dark, damp places. Let us play. Let us think our lives will just be boring forever.”

“Despicable!” Renee yelled. “This needs to be stopped. I say we get the Enterprise in here and say in no uncertain terms that they have to stop what they’re doing.”

Pinkie frowned. “We do need to do something, but they won’t even talk to us. I don’t think talking will work. They’ve said nothing since we’ve been here.”

“Then what can we do?” Flutterfree asked, coming to. “W-we… This evil needs to be st-topped.”

Six looked at Nova. “You… have power. There is one giant in charge of all this, the entire Maw. The Geisha. If you kill her, the entire system will fall.”

“Kill?” Renee said. “That seems a bit…”

“No, Six is right,” Flutterfree said. “If she’s done this, she deserves to die.”

The ponies stared at Flutterfree.

“I understand that was uncharacteristically cold and brutal of me, but look around! This is genocide! If taking one life will solve that, I’m… I’m all for it.”

Renee turned to Pinkie. “Do you think it needs to happen?”

“I’m not getting a lot of clarity today,” Pinkie admitted. “I do think it needs to happen, but… I’ve just had the feeling like there’s more going on here we don’t see, and the revelation of the human… meat didn’t make it go away.” She turned to Six. “Where can we find this Geisha?”

“Top of the Maw,” Six said. “It’ll take a long time to get up to that level, and it will be dangerous. There are hundreds of giants up there, being served constantly.”

“A restaurant ship for human flesh…” Renee bristled. “This will not stand.”

“Can you get us to the outside?” Nova asked. “We can fly up the edge without too much effort.”

Six nodded. “There’s an outer window only a few rooms away.” She gestured for them to follow her along the rafters, through a hole, and into a cold, attic space. While the ponies had before moved slowly to take in their surroundings, Six ensured they moved quickly – she ducked through holes, cracks, and hatches with ease, having the layout of the area memorized. It didn’t take long for them to make it to the window – it was in a long, empty hallway.

The sight of sea and sky through it was somewhat startling to the ponies, who had only seen artificial light their entire time here. They could see no land through the window, though.

Nova levitated herself up to the window and looked around. To the side, she could see a small extrusion in the side of the boat – the Maw. “I can teleport us out there, but prepare for heavy winds!”

Everyone nodded. Nova teleported them to the metallic ledge, and the salty smell of the ocean filled their nostrils. The four ponies and Six looked up and down – the harsh waves of the sea were far below them, and they could maybe see the top of the boat as they looked up – it was a bit too far away to tell. The wind was strong, but not strong enough to blow any of them over.

“…That’s a long way up,” Renee commented.

Flutterfree spread her wings and lifted Renee. “Let’s start moving then.”

Nova levitated Six onto her back. “Hold on tight,” she said as she levitated the two of them into the air.

“How is Pinkie going to get up?” Six asked.

Pinkie moved up the side of the ship with suction cups affixed to all four of her legs. “I’m suction cup pony, look at me gooooo!”

Renee raised an eyebrow. “Dear, if you lose traction on those things you’ll fall to your death.”

“You can’t kill suction cup pony!”

“…Good point.”

The five of them ascended to the top levels of the Maw, slowly but surely.


~~~


The League of Sweetie Belles and the Prior teleported into the entrance to the Ark of Truth. The two Priors were still there, standing at attention. The Ark was behind them, unmoved from when they’d seen it earlier.

“We may have an incursion from the University of Doors,” the main Prior told the guards. “Be on your best watch. They have just taken a Prior inhibition device.

Thrackerzod lit her horn. “I sense something wrong with the flow of magic.”

The main Prior held out his hand, testing his powers – nothing happened.

“They’ve already activated it,” Sweetie said.

“Captain Obvious,” Brute muttered.

“Scanning… Scanning… Scanning…” Bot said. “Can’t find device. Strange.”

“It has to be within close proximity,” the main Prior said. “Either in the hall or one of the adjacent rooms.”

“Negative,” Bot said. “I would have sensed it. The material is not the same as the walls.”

Sweetie narrowed her eyes. “There’s something wrong here…”

“…I’m going to try something,” Thrackerzod said. “This will give you a headache.” She cleared her throat, and spoke out with an eldritch tongue – not quite as damaging to the psyche as Majora’s words could be, but she wasn’t kidding when she said it’d give them a headache. Everyone covered their ears from the noise that went directly to their brains.

“Boo.”

The scenery changed suddenly – no longer did they see two guards and a safe Ark of Truth. Now they saw two guards passed out on the floor, the disc laid between them, and the Ark being moved to a set of double doors that definitely hadn’t been in the room before. Both Jenny and Ivan were in the room. Ivan was the only one clutching his ears – not that his head really looked like it had ears, given its crystalline form. Jenny was standing upright, fixing Thrackerzod with an annoyed expression. “You couldn’t have waited five more seconds?”

“No,” Thrackerzod said, lighting her horn.

“DINTIN!” Jenny yelled at the door. “LITTLE HELP?”

A robot smashed through the double doors. It had to duck to fit through the frame, but once it was through the gigantic machine stood ten feet tall, barely able to fit within the vaulted ceiling. The beast was roughly humanoid, its rectangular chest taking up the vast majority of its body mass. Its head was small compared to the bulk of the legs and arms, and blue lights flashed from various locations on its body.

Behind the robot, through the door, they could see another world – grand, sweeping plains of grass. In the near distance, there was a structure too tall to imagine, rising so far into the sky it might have made it to orbit. The mountains in the distance looked unnatural – one was even floating.

Thrackerzod swore she saw a green stripe on the moon, but the connection between dimensions faded before she could make sure. The doorframe was just a normal doorframe now.

Brute smashed the Prior inhibition device. “You’re doomed now.”

Jenny nodded to Ivan. The Prior raised his staff to unleash psychic power while Ivan took out a staff of his own. The robot – presumably named Dintin – charged the Prior, hitting a psychic shield the man had around him. The force of the multi-ton mech hitting him pushed the Prior back, interrupting whatever attack he was going to unleash.

The tip of Ivan’s staff flashed, enveloping the Ark of Truth in a beam of light similar to a transporter, sucking the essence of the artifact into the staff. Bot hit Ivan in his crystal face with a rocket launcher, making him drop the staff – a staff that Jenny swiped from the air.

She twirled it, winked at them, and teleported away.

“Bot, with me, I’ve got a trace on her,” Thrackerzod said, teleporting the two of them after Jenny. They saw her open a door – a door that should have led to another part of Celestis but instead led somewhere else entirely.

Instead of destroying the doorway, Thrackerzod held it open – throwing herself and Bot in after Jenny.

They were not in Earth Tau’ri anymore, but neither were they in whatever universe had been on the side of the doorway the robot had come from. They were in a world with brown grass on all sides. The wind blew, but there was an eerie silence everywhere. The door they had popped out of was part of a worn down shed.

Jenny turned to face them. “You really don’t want to do this.”

Thrackerzod and Sweetie Bot took battle stances. “Yes we do.”

“Oh, I don’t mean the fight.” She teleported behind them to the other side of the worn door. “I mean you don’t want to challenge me in a doorway chase.”

Thrackerzod teleported them through the doorway, to yet another universe just in time to see Jenny throw another door open.

“By Azathoth’s snores, this is going to get annoying really fast,” Thrackerzod muttered.

“Activating patience reserves,” Sweetie Bot chirped.

They pursued her, paying no attention to the confused mushroom people they had passed by. The next world was dark, stormy, and dominated by a spiky metallic structure…


~~~


The higher levels of the Maw made an attempt to look nicer. The locations weren’t dark or damp – they were rather well lit, furnished, and organized. However, this did little to detract from the absolutely disgusting behavior of the giants. There were hundreds of them here, sitting at dozens upon dozens of long, wooden tables, spending all their time shoving industrial quantities of human meat into their fat, flabby maws. None of the patrons looked healthy, or even like they were enjoying themselves. They just had to continually shove more and more flesh into their gluttonous maws.

Renee wanted to hurl. They were safe from their position in a rafter, far above the giants themselves, but that did nothing to ease their nerves.

“They can’t still be hungry…” Flutterfree said.

“This place… It does something to you,” Six said. “It… Makes you hungry.”

Flutterfree nodded to herself, shame building within her.

“I have been eating a lot of cupcakes,” Pinkie noted. “This place is evil stacked on top of more evil isn’t it?”

Six nodded. Pinkie gave her another cupcake, which she ravenously devoured.

There was a moment of silence. Nopony or human felt like saying anything – they just looked at what was happening beneath then with growing sickness.

Flutterfree heard a sob. She turend to Six. “Shh… It’ll all be okay. We’re going to stop this.”

Six wiped her hidden eyes. “I know… It’s not that… It’s… Nobody’s ever done anything like this for me. Ever. I’ve… I’ve been alone. Always…”

Flutterfree hugged her. “You never have to be alone again, Six.”

Six started crying again, burying her face in Flutterfree’s wing. Everypony else piled onto the hug, sharing a moment.

They eventually left the mutual embrace, feeling the need to continue.

“Where to?” Pinkie asked.

“Next level should be next to her balcony,” Six said. “I… actually have never been this high. …Only heard about it.”

“Other kids?” Nova asked.

Six nodded. “There are… some. We rarely see each other. Never form groups… Never like this. …We should have.”

“We’ll find them after this is over,” Flutterfree promised.

Six nodded slowly, clearly aware that some of them had probably already been captured. The five of them continued upward, climbing up a rope through a hole in the floor, finding the new wooden floors easier to move through. They came up at the bottom of a grand feeding hall, much more open than the previous ones. Nova teleported them up to the ceiling area again, avoiding the sight of the giants.

“I am running really low on power here,” Nova said. “We better be close, I’m not sure how much use I’ll be in a fight.”

Six pointed ahead – along one of the far walls of an eating hall was a balcony that overlooked all the disgusting, gluttonous patrons. Standing there, watching them all, was a giant unlike any of the others. She was thin, slender, and her proportions were like that of a particularly tall human. She wore a brown, close fitting dress, and a white porcelain mask covered her face. Her hair was long, slender, and seemingly perfect.

She just stared at the feast happening beneath her.

“She’s different…” Renee said, thinking aloud. “Why is she different? She’s not overcome with hunger… She’s very healthy… And she’s in charge… Why…?”

Six shrugged.

The five of them watched the Geisha watch the feast. The slender woman was so still there were moments where it didn’t even seem like she was alive – but the occasional twitch of a finger or shift of her feet indicated otherwise.

She eventually turned around, leaving the balcony to a private room. Nova teleported the five of them to the balcony the instant she was gone. Flutterfree carefully pulled on the door handle, opening the door.

The other side had a homey interior – not lit as well as the dining halls, but significantly better decorated. Photos of what could only be assumed to be the Geisha’s friends and family lined the walls. Images of eyes were placed everywhere in the space, giving it an eerie feel. A large oak staircase led up to a small hallway with several doors – one of which was empty. They could hear singing coming from behind a door, the haunting, melodious voice meeting their ears and sending chills down their body.

“The feast is such a wonderful place to find a bride…

Just give her a bit of your time once you are inside…

What she can give lasts longer than this world’s simple goods…”

“She’s talking,” Nova said, this piece of news scaring her.

Pinkie nodded. “Can you teleport us to the door?”

Nova sighed. “Yes, but you better have some other plan than ‘mega laser blast her in the face’ because that’s not happening.”

The five of them soon stood outside the door in which she was singing. The door was ajar, allowing them to poke their heads in. She was standing in front of a broken mirror, brushing her hair – looking at the shattered glass as if it showed her what she looked like.

“Crazy,” Nova commented. “Good to know.”

The Geisha raised a hand, levitating a teakettle to her grip. She poured herself a drink.

“Great. She’s got magic,” Nova muttered.

“So do we,” Flutterfree pointed out.

“And she’s twenty times larger than we are,” Renee said. “Which means whatever she does is twenty times stronger. We’d have to expend effort to move that teakettle… She’s not.”

“Right. So here’s the plan,” Pinkie said. “Flutterfree, shoot her in the back of the head.”

“…That might do it. It might not,” Flutterfree pointed out.

“If it doesn’t, well, I think we can handle her ourselves,” Pinkie said, taking out a pink shotgun.

Renee prepared some shields. Nova, being too low on magic to use her more advanced spells, just readied the standard laser. Six took a few steps to the left, away from the doorway.

Flutterfree lifted herself into the air and readied the bow of light, aiming right for the Geisha’s head. She took a moment to aim and unleashed the holy arrow. It flew true through the air – but the Geisha chose that moment to turn her head. Instead of going right through the back of her skull, it hit the side of her mask. The holy power hit the mask, reacting with it, shattering the upper part of it and drawing blood from the Geisha’s forehead.

She wasn’t dead, or even seriously injured.

She was angry.

She reacted – with a hand, she blew the door off its hinges. It flew right over Renee, Nova, and Pinkie, but it caught Flutterfree in its rapid rotation, tossing her down the staircase. Flutterfree had enough room to avoid getting crushed, but she left the rotation of the door in a tailspin, landing hard on an endtable. She broke a lamp in the process.

The Geisha took a moment to collect herself, looking at the ponies attacking her. “…What are you?”

Pinkie shrugged. “We’re ponies. Visitors from another world. Now it’s your turn to answer a question – why are you mass producing kid meat!?”

The Geisha stared at the pink pony. She extended a hand, lifting Pinkie into the air to be level with her own porcelain face. “…It is the means by which I extend my own life.”

“So we’ve got an evil harvesting of kids for the evil gluttony of a bunch of giants all for the evil purpose of extending your life?” Pinkie whistled. “That’s a lot of evil stacked up in a row there!”

The Geisha tried to crush Pinkie with her power, but as so many had discovered, Pinkie couldn’t accurately be described as a ‘solid’ state of matter. She bounced out of the Geisha’s telekinetic grip and stuck a suction cup to her mask. “You can’t kill suction cup pony!”

The Geisha tried anyway – she grabbed Pinkie again, this time casting a dark spell to latch on to her very life force. Renee threw a diamond shield around Pinkie to block the spell. “Sorry dear, not happening.”

The Geisha resorted to physical force, lifting a stool from the floor below and tossing it at Renee. Renee sliced through the object with a carefully calculated blade construct. Nova shot the Geisha right through the eye hole in her mask, making her yell out in pain. Pinkie brought a hammer down on her head, making her stumble. Pinkie threw the cutlass as well for good measure.

Six whooped. “HEY! Look what I’ve got!”

The Geisha turned to the child in the yellow raincoat – and saw an unshattered mirror. The giant screamed, retreating to the darkness of her room, unable to withstand the mirror.

“…Huh. Nice going, Six,” Renee said. “I didn’t figure that one out.”

Six just nodded, handing the mirror to Renee. “You should be able to use it better.”

“You bet I will,” Renee said, charging into the room to face the Geisha. The woman herself leaped from the side, grabbing Renee in a telekinetic grip, trying to choke her to death – but Renee moved the Mirror in front of her face. The Geisha screamed as if she were being burned, stumbling back even further. Pinkie waited there, walloping her on the head with a giant foam finger large enough to fit on the giant’s hand. The Geisha flailed wildly, reaching with her power for anything that could help her.

She threw a bed at Renee. Renee leaped out of the way, but the tremendous piece of furniture easily crushed the mirror.

“Dammit,” Nova cursed. “That was our chance,”

The Geisha charged Renee – but Renee, being a pony of style and fashion, knew the mirror spell. The sudden appearance of a reflective surface startled the Geisha – she stumbled, falling over the railing and down the stairs. She stood up quickly, grabbing ahold of Renee directly. She started draining the life from her.

It was not another pony that stopped her – it was one of the Geisha’s other doors flinging open. A universe made of cheese could be seen through it, and a particular human named Jenny was running on it. Jenny at first appeared to be the correct size for the doorway, but the moment she passed the boundary she shrunk to Six’s size.

“What the-“ she said, realizing the door had shrunk her and placed her in the middle of the doorway. She tumbled to the ground. She managed to control the landing, but the distraction was enough for Thrackerzod and Sweetie Bot to catch up. They didn’t try to restrain her – Bot shot an explosive missile while Thrackerzod grabbed the staff.

The Geisha looked at them, dumbfounded. Then she decided she didn’t care about this out of context problem and used her magic to toss the three newcomers into a wall, dazing them.

Thrackerzod had no idea what was going on. She didn’t care - in her rage she summoned a creature of darkness from her horn, a beast with three faces and two heads, screaming for blood. The Geisha absorbed it instantly with her dark powers.

Renee put a mirror in front of the Geisha again, forcing her back. The Geisha reached out with her magic, grabbed Thrackerzod, and threw the eldritch filly at Renee. Thrackerzod kept hold of Jenny’s staff the entire time and bounced off like a squeaky toy.

The Geisha sent out a burst of psychic energy, knocking everyone over who was near her gigantic person. She reached for Renee again. The unicorn was too dazed to create a shield - the life began to flow out of her. The Geisha began to laugh.

A bright ray of light shot through the back of her head, exploding out one of the eyeholes of her mask. She fell to the ground, dead.

Jenny whistled. “Ponies are hardcore, man.”

Flutterfree twitched, pointing the bow of light at Jenny. “Do you want some of what she got!?” she shouted, her voice wavering considerably.

“Uh… No. Thanks for offering though.”

“Well, now that the deed has been done…” Renee turned to Thrackerzod. “Uh…”

“Care to explain?” Pinkie asked.

Thrackerzod hefted up the staff. “This is a staff of holding. Jenny here used it to steal the Ark of Truth from the Ori Remnant.”

“Reform,” Bot corrected.

“Unofficial, Bot,” Thrackerzod retorted.

Bot beeped. “The stolen item has been reclaimed, and the perpetrator is in custody.”

“Look again,” Jenny said. She was standing in the cheese world, once again as large as the doorway. She saluted. “Ciao!” She shut the door.

“…Suspect has escaped,” Bot said, beeping sadly.

“We’re going to have to talk to that University eventually,” Renee muttered. “If only we’d encounter them without something going on around them…”

“We’ve got the holy artifact of the Ori Remnant, so we win,” Thrackerzod said. “What happened here?”

Pinkie cleared her throat. “Evil giant lady ran a boat where humans were cut up and eaten, feeding the gluttony of hundreds of giants, while she herself extended her own life with it… Somehow.”

“My money’s on that dark life-force magic,” Nova suggested.

“Yeah, probably that. Anyway, we’ve now liberated the boat from her influence and can work on saving all the other humans here. Oh, have you met Six?”

Thrackerzod pointed behind her. “Would she by chance be the girl eating the giant lady?”

All the ponies turned around to see Six doing exactly what Thrakcerzod described – devouring part of the Geisha’s flesh at the neck.

“SIX!” Flutterfree yelled. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Six coughed, spewing blood. “…Ending this.” She lifted a hand, the unmistakable power of the Giesha’s life-force magic rippling through it. She walked toward the balcony overlooking the feast.

With a twitch of her head, Six instantly drained the life out of every giant. The eating stopped all at once, replaced with the sound of fat, ugly bodies hitting the floor. “She was already draining their lives. Makes it easy.”

Pinkie turned to Six. “Six, stop it.”

Six turned to Pinkie. “…No. I am going to kill them all, Pinkie.”

“But-“

“They’re evil. They need to die. Every last giant in this entire world needs to die.”

“That makes you no better than them!” Pinkie declared.

“...I’m not eating them. I’m not harvesting their children. I’m just killing them all.” Six took off her hood, revealing her face. It was a beautiful face with smooth features, shining black hair, and a simple nose. Her eyes seemed to have a light of their own – a light that surrounded a gaze filled with rage, pain, and determination.

Pinkie shook her head. “Six, we can’t let you do that.”

“You can’t stop me,” Six declared. She leaped off of the balcony, effortlessly using her newfound powers to glide to the floor. She slipped down a hole to the next level of the Maw. From the sound of thuds, she killed an entire section of giants again.

“…Do we have a right to stop her?” Nova asked. “This ship… It has killed millions.”

“Maybe this ship, maybe, I’d have to think long and hard about it,” Pinkie said. “But not the world. We’ve got to stop her.”

Thrackerzod raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“The giants are a race. They can’t all be evil,” Pinkie declared. “I know they aren’t. Even if they all feed on humans, they could be taught what they were doing. If not… Well, after we’ve tried, it becomes our job. She’s just a kid who wants revenge. Thrackerzod, teleport us to her.”

Thrackerzod tracked the dark magic of Six, finding it with ease. All the ponies appeared in front of Six.

Six shook her head. “…I’m not going to fight you,” she said. “You showed me kindness, generosity, and made me smile. I’ve never been happy on this ship. You were friends.”

“But we have to stop you,” Pinkie said.

Six shrugged. “I’ll just keep running away. You can’t keep me.”

Pinkie pulled out her dimensional device, adjusting its coordinates. The device gave her a red message – invalid coordinates. But Pinkie knew the coordinates weren’t invalid, just blacklisted. “Authorization code: Pinkie, cupcake-nineteen-iota-g-u-m-m-y-m-a-u-d.”

Nova cleared her throat. “Authorization code: Nova, flare-seven-lambda-t-r-i-x-s-a-m-e-n-e-s-s.”

The portal device switched to green, revealing the location's name: Nautica.

Pinkie activated the portal, creating a gateway right to the ocean world of Nautica. Thrackerzod teleported Six into it. Pinkie bounced through the portal and closed it behind her.

The two of them started falling toward the ocean below, but Pinkie pulled an inflatable raft out of her mane and activated it just in time to catch them.

Six blinked. “…What is this place?”

“This is Nautica,” Pinkie said. “This is where we put people we can’t safely contain.”

Six glared at her. “Take me back!”

“No,” Pinkie said. “…You’re too dangerous, Six. I’m sorry.”

Six levitated Pinkie into the air, stopping short of draining her life force. “Pinkie… They need to die.”

“No Six. They don’t. And I know you can’t see that… I’m s-sorry.” Pinkie choked, wiping tears from her eyes.

Tears streamed from Six’s own angry eyes as well. “H-how will I survive!?”

“T-there’s food in the raft. And plenty of fish for you to drain the life from,” Pinkie said. “Won’t be hard.” She sniffed. “Watch out for other prisoners.”

Six clenched her fist, moving to drain the life from Pinkie – but she couldn’t do it. She dropped Pinkie back onto the boat and sat down, crying.

Pinkie moved to comfort her, but she was pushed away. “Just go,” Six said. “The longer you’re here the harder it is.”

Pinkie nodded in agreement. She wiped her eyes – then dialed a portal back to the Maw.

Six tried to force herself through the portal, but Pinkie was already on the other side. She threw a pillow into Six’s face, forcing her back onto the raft. The portal closed before Pinkie could get another look at Six’s eyes.

Flutterfree rushed to Pinkie and hugged her. The embrace was silent.

Pinkie realized she was getting used to things like this happening. Condemning others, ordering deaths, playing with lives… It had become part of her.

She sighed. “Let’s go home. Have O’Neill deal with this place.”

“That… Would be a good idea,” Renee said.

The ponies left the world to return home – and to return an ancient artifact.