Silvertongue sat in a comfortable red recliner, perusing the wonders of the Internet through a silver laptop. He rarely indulged himself in any sort of leisure that wasn’t, in some way, necessary, such as dining or reading books.
His escapades into the collective knowledge of thousands of universes had at first been to get a grasp of the culture around him, but that had only taken a few days given his understanding of pony nature. Human nature had taken a bit longer, but the nice thing about the Internet was that it had plenty of possible definitions proposed, and under those proposals people argued.
Humans loved arguing. A very exploitable trait.
Currently, Silvertongue was engaging in an online forum with the pseudonym Niharmony19, arguing about the definition of perfection. Ah, how he missed being able to speak his mind! He had only had one true conversation in recent memory, and that had been with the Chronomancer Tick Tock minutes prior to leaving Equestria V. Here, he could have all the conversations he wanted however he wanted without fear. No one would ever know who he was. He was wired through too many proxies for that.
He would have to thank whoever ‘Sombra’ was if he ever got to meet them, the guide they wrote was almost perfect. He had plans to improve it himself later on, when he had time for such things, but for now it was adequate.
“Hey! Shroud!” Clockwork called.
“This better be important…” Silvertongue said.
“Two important things, actually!”
Silvertongue raised an eyebrow and threw open the door with his magic. “You did not tell me the first thing the instant it came in?”
Clockwork jumped. “Uh, I was on the way over when the second thing happened, like that time I was stuck in a time loop with myself. Yes, I was a pony at the ti-”
“Clockwork, I grow impatient with your anecdotes.”
“Oi, right, right. First: Mustard is done, he has the Everyman connection essence. He is certain it is exactly what you need.”
“And second?”
“Crackling Leaves wants to see you for some reason. She won’t tell me why.”
Silvertongue frowned, ruffling his wings. “Very well. I shall see her.” He walked down the hall and entered a room with both a tree growing in the center and a television screen on the wall. Crackling Leaves stood next to the tree, adjusting her glasses the moment Silvertongue walked in.
“Ah, Shroud, you agree to see me?”
Silvertongue shrugged. “What is agreement, but the portent of one’s disposition? Sight comes from afar and has little to do with the epitome of one’s choice. The tone of a question strikes me, are your feet firm?”
“Within mine, yes, but within yours, no.”
“Who dares?” He gestured for Clockwork to leave the room. Crackling Leaves didn’t speak until the Chronomancer was far gone.
“Winter Lights and a group of mortals, innocent. The future comes speaking of Silvertongue.”
Silvertongue laughed inwardly. If only she knew. “A curious name, surely the prophecy cannot be that literal?”
“She was certain.”
“Then this ‘Silvertongue’ may be able to assist us. She refused much, though.”
“It never met my ear.”
“She suspects.”
“Most definitely.”
“Precautions?”
“Many.”
“Winter Lights is resourceful and those with her are not to be trifled with.”
“A known fact.”
“Ka may conspire in their favor.”
“It can be twisted.”
“It is twisted.” Silvertongue’s gaze narrowed. “They will make it here. It must be on our terms.”
“No other way is acceptable.”
“Thank you,” Silvertongue said with a bow. “You will remain?”
“My presence is not required.”
“Good. The others should be returning soon…”
With a blorp of dark energy, Shivershackles and Diamond Inferno dropped to the ground in front of them. Silvertongue knew instantly that they had failed. He allowed his face to twist into rage, pressing on Inferno’s neck with his hoof. “Explain.”
“You said she wouldn’t have the fear powers! She fed off him!”
She got them back… so it does work without Nihlia’s essence. Fascinating. “That is no excuse for failure.”
“Tell that to the slave!”
“He has no will of his own, and therefore cannot be held accountable for the mission’s failure. You were in command of him, Inferno, and you failed to use him.”
“I fucking took his fear away and he got weak!”
“You aren’t creative enough,” Silvertongue hissed. “You could have ordered him to feed on her fear. There is not much Shivershackles cannot do, you just have to make him do it.”
“How was I-”
“EXCUSES!” Silvertongue boomed. “I grow tired of your excuses. You should be thankful to Mustard, if he had not succeeded in his task I would kill you for your insolence. You are immensely lucky you are needed.” He threw her to the ground. “Go clean yourself up.”
“What was her mission?” Crackling Leaves asked.
“Some interlopers found out too much. She was to end them. We will need to move quickly, deeper, a-” he paused - and a smile crawled across his face. One of his automatic alarms had gone off. “Never mind, there is no need to worry. Arul has entered Celestia City. We may proceed directly to the final phase of the plan. The time has come, Crackling Leaves.”
~~~
“Suzie.”
“Crown Princess.”
Suzie and her crew had just been led through the tunnels to the other side of the Chronomancer council chambers. The pseudo-alicorn and chalky human fixed each other with steeled glares from across the room.
The Magister sighed. “We should have met you separately.”
“That would’ve wasted time and you right know it,” Tick Tock accused.
“Hmph,” the Magister turned to suzie. “The Crown Princess is here hunting down the fugitive Silvertongue and delivering messages of warning about you. Why are you here?”
Suzie cleared her throat. “We, an Expedition Team for the League of Sweetie Belles, are explorers of the multiverse. We fly around in our ship, Swip, who is one of us, and make contact with new worlds both similar to our own and vastly, vastly different. Our current mission today was given to us at the behest of Queen Blackburn of Equestria V: hunt down Silvertongue. We had determined that he escaped into the wider multiverse through Equestria III and we were about to pursue before you stopped us.”
“Queen Blackburn working with you guys?” Rainbow Dash called. “Yeah, right.”
“Curb your disbelief,” Blackburn declared. “I accompany them on their quest.”
Twilight and her friends gasped. “But you were…”
“Not dead. Injured. Shroud did not have the power. Recovered, attempting research to find you. Met Sweeties. Left at first opportunity.”
Applejack frowned. “And what do you think of them, Blackburn? Ah’m assumin’ you ran them through your little ringer?”
Blackburn nodded. “Not entirely trustworthy. Good spirits. Conflicting ideals. Not ‘evil’.”
The Crown Princess glared at her. “They’re good liars.”
“Celia? Yes. The others? Limited. Squiddy reads like a book. Seren is a child. Nira uses dangerous magic but has not fallen to it yet.”
“And that’s all to their advantage. They put the kindest, friendliest faces on the front lines! Conquerors by friendship!”
“Unless your world is suffering a travesty of some sort, you have the right to refuse us,” Suzie said, addressing the ponies around her rather than just the Crown Princess. “And as all your universes are in Chronomancer Space, that means we treat the Chronomancers as a fellow multiversal society. We can send dignitaries over and open up negotiations later. Right now Silvertongue is out there and we are going to track him down.”
The Magister nodded. “I understand what you say. But there is no need for deliberation. In our founding, we wrestled with the possibility of discovering others like us. The codes developed in that time still stand. Our duty to protect the splinters of Equestria Prime is still the largest of our duties - we demand that you leave, only entering this dimension for the case of future relations, and then only on our terms. Silvertongue, since he has left ‘Chronomancer Space’ as you call it, is no longer our concern.”
“What the bloody h-” Tick Tock began.
“SILENCE!” the Magister declared. “We will abide by our laws, Tick Tock. And they are clear in this matter.”
“Wise laws,” the Crown Princess said.
“No, they are not,” Suzie countered. “I will leave if you say we must, Magister, but are you aware that Equestria V and IV are falling to the Void?”
“We are aware of the Void’s negativity consuming the worlds. It is a natural course of things.”
“We know how to stop it,” Suzie said. “Our presence in the worlds has noticeably slowed the Void. With our mastery of dimensional reality anchors and other such technologies we could save those worlds.”
“Such things may cause instability, we cannot know your intentions or the dangers of your technology. Your presence may keep the Void at bay, but it also upsets the connections between universes.”
“Then let us take the universes, don’t let them die!” Suzie pleaded.
The Magister gawked at her. “You can… move universes?”
“...It’s exceptionally difficult for us, we usually petition one of the larger societies to do it for us.”
“Larger societies!?” Tick Tock gawked.
“We are not big fish in the multiversal pond,” Suzie said. “We are a higher-end Class 3 society. The same Class you would be. Class 2s and Class 1s are all far above us.”
The Magister stared at her. “And what can these… Class 1s do?”
“...A single instance of the Celestialsapien race can recreate a destroyed universe from memory.”
“Don’t let them scare you into joining them,” the Crown Princess countered. “They were able to survive walking around the toes of giants, you can too. You have so far.”
“I don’t need them to join!” Suzie shouted. “They are a separate sovereign nation! They would stand with us, not be doted upon.”
The Crown Princess huffed. “That’s what you think. You don’t speak for the nation. What is the League of Sweetie Belles but a particularly prestigious club?”
Suzie rammed her fist into the palm of her hand. “You’re just a f-”
“Suzie, control,” Celia whispered in her ear.
Suzie breathed in and out slowly for a moment, allowing her arms to sag. “...Crown Princess. You’ve suffered because of us. But we gave your dying world a future it would not have had on its own.”
“It would have had it. It would have been fine. It would ha-”
“How did she die?” Blackburn asked.
Suzie and the Crown Princess turned to her in shock.
“How did she die, Princess?”
“...G-giving herself for the sun and moon.”
“They arrived seconds later. Unable to help her.” Blackburn turned to the Magister. “This mare is locked in an eternal cycle of grief. Her mind cannot be considered right.”
Rarity looked at the Crown Princess. “...Sweetie…”
“Don’t…” the Crown Princess said. “Just… just don’t.”
“I have heard enough,” the Magister said. “Enough to know that we want nothing to do with either of your people. Outsiders will not be tolerated within our universes.”
“Bu-” Suzie began.
“The Void has taken countless universes, Captain, and it will take countless more. Two more won’t matter.”
“You can’t do that!” Twilight shouted. “We never agreed to be under your control!”
“Hope’s Point will declare war on the Chronomancers,” Blackburn Growled. “Utopia may not. New Pandemonium City will.”
“Equestria IV will not be destroyed!” Twilight stomped her hoof on the ground. “We will not stand for it!”
“We never chose to be part of your plan,” Blackburn said. “Your job is to protect us. You failed to do that. Let us seek other options.”
“You would not win a war,” the Magister said.
“They would if they petitioned the Merodi for aid,” the Crown Princess warned. “Suzie has the authority to operate a limited portion of the Merodi Military Division. Don’t think she won’t.”
“Is that a threat?” the Magister asked.
“I’m just telling you what they’ll do. Suzie herself wouldn’t dare make the threat.”
The Magister turned to Suzie. “Would you do this?”
“We come to the aid of those who cannot defend themselves,” Suzie said. “I don’t see why saving worlds from being sent to their Void would be denied.”
“And what are your terms?”
“Either let us help the worlds or give them to us. I would prefer the former.”
“You just don’t want to prove me right!” the Crown Princess hissed.
And that’s when she noticed it.
Twilight and her friends, Tick Tock, Zircon… all of them had taken steps back from her, leaving her alone in her anger.
“...I guess you don’t see either,” she sighed.
“Ah’m sorry,” Applejack said. “But… we know Blackburn. She was a good judge of us, and is a close friend. Ah trust what she says. They ain’t the bad guys here.”
“Neither are you,” Fluttershy said. “You’re just upset.”
The Crown Princess said nothing. She only looked to the Magister.
The Magister sighed. “Permission to teach us the ways of saving worlds from the Void is granted.”
“Thank you, Magister,” Suzie said with a bow.
“You still need to leave.”
“You have my ship.”
“You can have it back.”
“She would take objection to your language.”
“Take your ship and all your otherworldly selves and get out of here.”
“We’re going with them,” Twilight declared.
The Magister groaned. “You belong in your world-”
“With all due respect, I don’t recognize you as an authority, Magister,” Twilight interrupted. “You are not Princess Celestia. You are not Harmonia. We are going to face Silvertongue, and you can’t stop us.”
“...Very well. You may not be allowed to return.”
Twilight tensed. “I…”
“They can come back with the devices we will ship to teach you how to stop the Void,” Suzie said. “With the dimensional spell, the overall time spent away would be less than a week.”
“We rely on natural port-”
“You’re going to have to change that. Trust me.”
The Magister sighed. “Very well.”
Tick Tock cleared her throat. “Sir, may I-”
“No, Tick Tock, you are not going anywhere. You are going to be severely reprimanded for the absolute bellend of a train wreck your world has created here. Bell Tower, you are not leaving either.” He slammed his hoof on the edge of his seat. “We shall retire to deliberate further. All otherworlders will go to Swip and leave before we are done.”
“Understood,” Suzie said.
“Suzie, Crown Princess.” He stood up and looked down at them disapprovingly. “If you are the sorts the wider multiverse has to offer, I am glad we stay ‘secluded’.”
The Magister and his colleagues left. Some guards appeared to take Tick Tock and Bell Tower away.
And then they were alone.
The Crown Princess glared at Suzie. “I’m coming with you.”
Suzie’s face contorted into a deep scowl. “You have caused so much damage and headache the only way you’re getting into Celestia City is over my cold dea-”
“Let her come, dear,” Celia said.
Suzie froze. “Celia, sh-”
“She has made friends. Friends who want to help. Friends who want to see Silvertongue brought to his knees. It would be foolish to turn them away.”
Suzie’s scowl vanished. She turned to the Crown Princess, an odd mixture of contempt and pity on her face.
“You can come with us,” Suzie said. “Just this once. We’ll let you go and you can return to… I don’t know, trying to tear us down from the outside or whatever it is your long-term game plan is. There’s something bigger than the both of us right now. And I know you want to help.”
The Crown Princess nodded curtly. “Thank you, captain.”
“Don’t get comfortable,” Suzie said, turning her back on the Crown Princess. “Whatever’s at the end of this road isn’t likely to be pleasant.”
“I don’t expect much to be pleasant anymore.”
Suzie frowned. “...Swip? Beam everyone up. We’re going to be cramped for a bit, but that doesn’t matter. Follow Silvertongue’s dimensional signature.”
“You got it, captain!” Swip said, teleporting them all into herself. The pile of ponies and people filled the lounge. “...Wow. That’s a lot of you.”
Rachel sighed. “I’m going to have to bake more cookies, aren’t I?”
~~~
The area of the Fay Realm under Crackling Leaves’ purview was a tangled mess of trees, earth, shifting space, and devices cobbled from the technology of several different worlds. Broken screens were littered around everywhere, but there was enough of an organization to it that it wasn’t hard to walk through.
But there was something wrong.
They didn’t see any actual Fay. Just trashed machines and magic artifacts stolen from mortal worlds and experimented on.
“They’ve evacuated,” Winter said.
“They know we’re coming,” Mattie added.
“Good,” Cryo said, smirking. “Then they’ll actually put up a fight…”
“Looks like I’ll get a chance to test out these new powers,” Curio added.
“Behold Curio Form Two!”
Curio rolled her eyes.
Indigo looked at Winter in concern. “That’s…”
“It is fine, my pet. For once, the fact that none of us are Fay is helpful.”
“It is…?”
“It is not a very well kept secret that Crackling Leaves has created weapons of enhanced unwinding…”
An elemental spirit of fire drifted lazily through the air in front of them, swirling in the air a bit.
Winter narrowed her eyes. “They wouldn't send just one.”
“Could just be passing through?” Tab suggested. “These things are pretty common.”
“Perhaps…”
The fire spirit swirled around in a pattern not unlike that from a slow fly, lazily coming to a rest in a pile of technological junk. There was a soft spark of energy between the spirit and a curved piece of metal prior to the spirit vanishing into the metal.
A golem made from a mixture of clockwork, electrical components, and levitating magitech jumped out of the pile, glowing red with the power of the flames. It brought a massive hammer-like fist composed of iron, aluminum, silver, and some form of compact salt down on Winter.
The image of Winter it attacked turned out to only be an apparition from Winters glamours. “The direct approach? Crackling Leaves, you’re losing y-” Had Tab not raised a barrier, she would have been shredded by an air golem driving a sword into her back.
“There’s more!” Mattie shouted, picking up Cryo and throwing her in a direction where there was seemingly nothing. Cryo raised a wall of ice in front of her anyway, and that allowed her to easily deflect the bullets of a golem hiding in the distance in a sniper position. Cryo smirked, punching her hoof at the opposite side of the bullets’ impact sites, sending a massive cylinder of ice into the distance where the sniper hid. That, if it hadn’t killed them, would surely upset them.
Curio decided to test out her new abilities in a way similar to Winter, producing six illusory copies of herself in several directions to confuse the golems. This was less effective than she would have liked - no doubt the golems were well aware of illusory powers given the existence of the Winter Court - but each illusion got a swing or two from the golems, allowing others to move in and get some damage.
However, her focus on her other selves let another golem through her defenses - a club-wielder with a spirit of earth. Automatically, the club slowed in time behind her head. Sensing the presence of a club right behind her she twisted around and broke the club off its arm. It was a bit heavy for her, but she was able to trip the golem over in Cryo’s direction where it got frozen to the ground.
“You’re way more useful now!”
“Noted.”
Skuldie effortlessly dodged an attack from the hammer golem, jumping on top of its fist and grabbing its head in her magic. Twisting to the side to avoid it’s other hand, she tore the head out of it’s socket.
The golem didn’t care, but she had been expecting this. The free hand came for another pass at her and she skewered the head on it, causing a feedback loop between the magical and electrical components. The thing fell harmlessly to the ground.
Mattie cracked her whips on the air golem’s limbs, a little ticked to discover it had no pain receptors. “No pain? There are other games.”
“That was lame!” Tab called.
“Shush, I’m saving us.” She wrapped both whips around the air golem’s arms and sent a burst of electricity through her whips into the arms. It struggled to absorb the energy, allowing Mattie to deliver a swift boot-enforced kick to its midsection, tearing all its limbs off in an instant. “These things are shoddily constructed.”
Winter glared. “Your ambush didn’t work, Crackling Leaves.”
One of the seemingly broken screens in a pile of technology fizzled to life, showing the unusual gnome’s face. “You have special mortals with you. The artifices were designed with the purpose of deterring Fay.”
“None of us are Fay anymore, Crackling Leaves. You did not miss that.”
“I did not. Alas, I have somewhere to be, and I cannot engage with you.”
“Come out here and fight us like a mare!” Cryo shouted.
Crackling Leaves looked at her with curious pity. “I have no obligation or need to do so. Why make a fool of myself?”
Curio cocked her head to the side. “Doesn’t fighting us already make you a ‘fool’? I’m no expert on Fay mannerisms bu-”
Crackling Leaves hung up. Cryo gasped at this. “Hey! Hey! You’re supposed to monologue!”
“She’s supposed to kill us,” Winter said, picking up one of the air golem’s swords, examining its mottled make of multiple metals with a thin coating of salt. “...Terrible weapon.”
“Why would they need them?” Tab asked. “Fay rarely fight each other physically.”
“To have one on hand so the unexpected option is an option.” Winter twirled the sword. “Redefining the game…”
“What does it mean?” Indigo asked.
Winter didn’t answer, opting to secrete the blade somewhere on her person.
Skuldie closed her eyes. “Scootaloo’s here somewhere. Probably behind dozens more golems in a hidden bunker of some sort.”
“Can you sense her?” Curio asked.
“There is a very vague sense that she is here. Normally that would be enough, but given the nature of the Fae Realms…”
“She will have hidden her well,” Winter said. “Despite her newfound reliance on force, she is still a Fay. She will have multiple possible locations hidden behind riddles, deception, and possibly illusion.” Winter frowned. “Clever attacks may be in our future. Do not expect the enemy in front to be the true enemy.”
They moved forward, Winter taking point. They ran, always ready for an attack from all sides.
Except below.
An intangible golem’s spiked-club cut through the ground, hitting Indigo right in the chest. She let out a howl of pain, her blood flying over Winter as she slumped to the ground.
Mattie grabbed hold of the intangible golem’s club with her magic and tore the full golem out of the ground. It was significantly taller than all the others, had eight arms, and sparked with a soft white spirit of thought.
Winter would have wondered where Crackling Leaves got one of those spirits were she not staring at Indigo on the ground, heavily injured.
“T-trying to emotionally compromise,” Winter said, grinding her teeth. She forced herself to turn away and meet the sword of a fire golem, jumping over the bullets of a distant sound golem’s gun.
Around six more golems engaged in attacking them - but they were inconsequential, tiny things compared to the ethereal golem of thought itself. That monstrosity summoned weapons out of the aether and attacked from eight directions at once. Most were either able to dodge or raise some kind of shield.
Curio took a hit. Her time-displaced reflexes allowed her to see an ethereal bomb coming, giving her just enough time to avoid a mortal injury. The shockwave sent her visor flying off her face and drove her into a pile of loose tech.
“Curio!”
“I’m fine!” Curio grunted, looking over the scrapes and bruises she had obtained. Annoyingly the blast hadn’t done anywhere near as much damage as landing in the pile of loose tech.
“Sassafras!” Tab swore, scrambling to do anything with her tablet. “They’re all spirit-possession based, the coding is minimal!”
“Then what can you do?” Skuldie asked, cartwheeling through a shower of bullets without taking a single hit.
“I can, uh…” she tapped the tablet a few more times and shot her horn into a pile of mixed machines. A loose super-magnet sphere rose into the air, affixing dozens of loose metallic junk to it, including a few of the smaller golems. It couldn't hit the thought golem, being made of purely physical objects, but it could throw things into the distance where the long-range attackers were.
The thought golem cut right through the magnet with a giant laser beam.
“...Okay, that was my shot,” Tab said, biting her lip. “Anyone got anything else?”
Cryo tried to freeze the thought golem, but that was pointless. Mattie’s magic did something, but nowhere near enough to break through its ethereal limbs. Curio attempted to scramble some more illusions, but the golem had apparently wisened up to this tactic since it ignored them. Skuldie and Winter weren’t equipped to fight this sort of thing, though they managed never to be hit.
“I wonder if she enchanted this thing last minute to specifically counter us,” Tab mused.
“Possibly,” Winter admitted, jumping to the side to avoid a burst explosion. “We need to re-evaluate…”
“Backup is out of the question, phones aren’t working,” Mattie said. “It looks as though we’ll just have to wait for the others to save us.”
“Others?” Winter asked.
“Oh. You know. The others.”
“Can you give specifics?”
“I’m not that Aware, give me a break!”
Winter’s eyes narrowed. “I did not demand.”
“What? Then why would you even ask?”
The thought golem fused all eight of its fists into one and brought them down toward the bickering pair of mysteries.
They never made it. There was a flash of golden-red light and the ghostly fist was severed from all eight limbs. Floating in the air, flapping her wings lightly, was none other than Corona Shimmer.
She was not happy. She created a magic circle around each of her wrists and drove them into the supposedly intangible golem. A few seconds later all the color vanished from the war machine and its components crumbled to the ground. A single white spirit drifted lazily away from Corona’s grasp.
“Now!” a French accented voice shouted. A red pegasus shot out of nowhere and incinerated a remaining fire golem. A gray one flattened an earth golem, embedding it in its namesake. A dark pink earth pony appeared out of nowhere and drove bloody tendrils from her back into a light golem, tearing it to shreds with ease. Two unicorns appeared next to a massive sound golem and fired the exact same spell of Void at it, disintegrating it.
A sixth blue earth pony became visible on top of the only remaining golem, a simple water one. She had a sword in her hoof and drove it through the machine’s skull, destroying it.
“See? What did I tell you?” Mattie smirked.
“We have injured!” Winter shouted.
Corona wasted no time - she lifted Curio and Indigo into the air and enveloped them in healing magics, curing their wounds and any other minor ailments they might have had nearly effortlessly. “There you go.”
Curio levitated her cracked visor back over to herself and looked at it thoughtfully. “...Thanks. I’m just happy nobody got… really hurt. That could have gone…”
Corona smiled warmly. “Don’t worry about what could have been.” She turned to look at the rest of the group.
“Yeah, thanks for the save!” Tab said, breathing heavily. “Corona and… whoever you all are.”
The blue earth pony opened her mouth to speak, but Mattie interrupted them. “May I introduce Curaçao, Havocwing, Shadow, Velvet, Insipid, and Grayscale; the Mean Six.”
“...Did you just name us?” Grayscale asked.
“I kinda like it,” Havocwing admitted.
“She… she knew our names!” Insipid gasped.
“What, I know things too,” Velvet said. “It’s not that weird.”
“You’re a distinct anomaly, Velvet,” Shadow countered.
“None of zis is important,” Curaçao said. “Where are Inferno and Shivershackles? A… blue Sunset Shimmer and a small, tiny ‘uman man wiz crystals all over ‘im.”
“That sounds familiar…” Skuldie said, frowning.
“We have not seen them,” Winter said. “We are seeking Scootaloo.”
“Scootaloo?” Corona blinked. “She was where we teleported in. Told us to go help you.”
Winter blinked.
“Looks like we won’t have to solve her puzzles after all!” Indigo said, grinning.
“Seems not…”
Corona lit her horn, teleporting them all across the realm of Crackling Leaves, appearing inside a large living room with a tree in the center and a screen on the wall. Sitting on the couch were two weak and haggard looking people who had clearly been imprisoned until just a moment before, given the marks on their wrists. Scootaloo seemed healthy enough, but the Everykid looked like she had been beaten within an inch of her life.
“Scootaloo!” Skuldie shouted, pulling her into a hug. “I was so worried!”
“Heh… I’m made of tougher stuff than that… and they didn’t hurt me.” She turned to Everykid. “Corona?”
Corona nodded, laying her hands over the Everykid. “...This is some serious soul damage. I can heal it, but it will take time.”
“We don’t have time,” Scootaloo said with a sign. “Shroud and Crackling Leaves left the moment you arrived, almost as if you switched places.”
Curaçao’s eyes widened. “We’re wasting time ‘ere! Exactly what he wants!”
Corona grimaced. “A distraction…?” She lifted her hands, easily able to trace the recent dimensional signature that had left the hidden bunker. “Dammit! They went back to Celestia City!”
“Get us back!” Curaçao shouted.
“Hold on! I have to force through the dimensional drive’s containment...” Corona shouted, tearing at reality with her fingers.
“Time to face the boss…” Cryo said, jumping around with excitement.
“You really shouldn’t be excited about that,” Shadow said.
“Why not? I am!” Havocwing put Cryo under her wing. “I’ve known you for less than a minute and I already love your spirit!”
“Yay!”
“Already adding new ponies to the team?” Curio jokingly asked Cryo.
“This is going to be a rough translation, hold tight!” Corona shouted.
~~~
Shimmy led her sizeable group through the depths of Celestia City, following Arul’s trail closely. Twilight and Chrysalis were off to the side, checking for unusual magic signatures, while Blink and Cinder were talking and laughing about something pertaining to ghosts Sequin didn’t understand.
But Sequin didn’t let being out of the loop bother her. She was riding high, practically beaming her joy to everyone around her.
“What’s got you so happy?” Brook asked, smirking.
“Oh, nothing. Just that I saw through the plan!” She pointed an accusatory hoof at Arul. “You thought you could pull one over on Sequin? Ha! I’ve tangled with Discord, you don’t just pull the blinds over my eyes like that! I’ll see through your clever little deceptions and expose them! Your master plan is nothing!”
“That’s some pretty impressive gloating!” Blink called.
“I’m enjoying myself!”
“That was not a complaint, keep going!”
Sequin giggled to herself. “I wouldn’t want to overdo it…”
Shimmy carefully led them through a pipe, entering the interior of a dimensional drive where Entrapta was sitting patiently in front of a horseshoe-shaped device.
Cinder frowned. “Entrapta?”
“Oh, hi!” Entrapta waved. “Corona just left with the other six to chase down some Silvertongue guy.”
“He’s definitely involved…” Shimmy grunted. “What are you doing here?”
Entrapta shrugged. “Waiting for them to come back. I was working on this Universe Generator Finder, but since that’s probably part of his plan, I just left it incomplete. They’ll have him taken care of momentarily. Probably. Oh, you can go help them if you want!”
Shimmy took a few steps forward. “That’d be great, where’d they go?”
“Signature goes to somewhere in Fae Époque. You’ll have to punch through the dimensional drive security wall first, which apparently everyone can just do. Probably needs maintenance or something. Anyw-”
Shimmy stepped on the barely visible scratches on the floor in the shape of a magic circle. Instantly they lit up with a bright silver color, driving more than a dozen silver chains tipped with arrowheads into her avatar. She yelped in surprise more than pain. “What i-”
Twilight screamed - she had been close to Shimmy, enough for the chains to latch onto her as well. Chrysalis and the others had been lucky enough not to be within the circle.
Shimmy tried to channel the rest of her power to free herself, but that somehow only made the chains stronger. Releasing power didn’t work either - this avatar was locked in place, becoming a true focal point for all of Shimmy’s deific energy. She felt a vague presence of Fay magic within the circles, but it had been mutated and twisted so far beyond their original purpose she knew they could not have been made by a Fay alone.
“I didn’t do this!” Entrapta said. “I have no idea what this is! I-”
A gray pegasus dropped an invisibility spell, tossing Entrapta to the side with a gust of wind. “That will be enough squirming,” he said. “It is time they knew who truly holds their fates in his hooves.”
Chrysalis and Blink charged - but they were stopped with barriers of golden magic. Blink couldn’t phase through, and Chrysalis found that her magic was being countered by the barriers. “What the…?”
The pegasus smiled - and dropped his disguise, revealing his true form. Silver, elegant, regal - and so perfectly proportioned it brought jealous disgust out in even the best of those present. “I am Lord Silvertongue. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Shimmy.”
Now that he was no longer hiding his essence, Shimmy’s eyes widened as she saw what he was. The many different essences of power within him churned as one, almost impossible to separate from each other.
But she could see one.
And that was all she needed to see.
“YOU FED ON HER!” Shimmy screamed, channeling more power into her by sheer anger, strengthening the chains on her form even more.
“I assure you, the child felt no pain,” Silvertongue said.
“Shimmy, calm down!” Twilight managed through her injured state. “He’s… drawing power from you…”
“Oh, it wouldn't matter if she stopped or not,” Silvertongue sad. “The circle allows me to drain power at any moment.” With a flash of his horn, he sucked magic out of both Shimmy and Twilight. He only took a small portion of Shimmy’s, but Twilight…
He sucked Twilight dry. The magic left her eyes and she was no longer able to stand, slumping to the ground around the circle.
“Is that what all this is about? To devour me?” Shimmy demanded.
“I could, if I wished to, but I do not. I simply need a sizeable essence from the arbiter of reality, more than this circle can provide. I had been hoping to use the natural connection of that imprisoned girl’s power to yours, but that turned out to be a dead end.” He smirked, dropping the cloak around Diamond Inferno. “Luckily, I always have a backup.”
Crackling Leaves revealed herself. “They’re coming here.”
“Good. I should like them to witness this. Shivershackles?”
“Yes, master?” Shivershackles said, revealing himself.
“Mitigate your worthlessness somewhat by threatening Corona’s life when she comes in. Do not kill. If you so much as scratch her without my say, you will be dismissed. There will be no chance to redeem yourself. Do you understand?”
“Yes, master.”
“But when I do say…”
“I know.”
“Shivershackles!” Shimmy called. “Don’t listen to him! Remember who I am? I-”
“I have you at my mercy!” Silvertongue boomed. “He will listen to who has the most authority - me. And you simply do not have it in you to berate him enough to change that perception!”
“You’re a monster.”
“I use the tools I have at my disposal to their maximum effect.”
Corona tore a portal from the Fae Realm to Celestia City, throwing Curaçao, her sisters, Cryo’s team, Winter, and Indigo out at high velocity. The next thing Merodi’s bringer of life knew, her arms and legs were in shackles and there was a dark collar around her neck that could cut her head off with the push of a button. “Wh…”
“Do not move or you will die,” Shivershackles told her. “That goes for all of you.”
Silvertongue nodded. “Mustard? Clockwork? Make yourselves useful and put an end to the desperate plan to stab me in the back.”
Cinder, Sequin, and Brook teleported to Silvertongue and tried to drive their attacks into him - but Clockwork and Mustard did as asked. Clockwork slowed time for Sequin and Brook while Mustard grabbed Cinder in his telekinesis and rammed her into the ground.
“False princess,” Mustard said.
“W-what?” Cinder blinked.
“Ah, Cinder…” Silvertonge walked over to her. “You… If I suspected I could kill you, I would.”
“Why don’t you?”
“You know why.”
Cinder bristled. “Trying to guess isn’t guaranteed to work.”
“I can be at least as good as you are.” He turned to the slowed Sequin. “Did you really think you saved the day? Believe me, you ruined the day. I needed Shimmy here, and if you all had missed the obvious, you could have ruined everything. A glaring mistake - I should have accounted for incompetence in the opposition.”
He turned back to Shimmy. “But now… everyone’s here, and it’s time to open a gateway to the Universe Generator. Are you curious how I’m going to do it without a completed device?”
“You designed it,” Tab shouted. “You can probably finish it yourself!”
“True, but it is only half the answer.” He gestured at Diamond Inferno. “She is you. And yet she hates you, hates what you and all Sunsets like you represent to her.”
Shimmy looked at Inferno in pity. “...You could have had so much…”
“You all betrayed yourselves. Every last one of you.” Inferno growled. “I am not going to be pathetic like you. And you are going to realize just how pathetic you are.”
“You’re delusional,” Corona called. “W-”
“Shivershackles, make her shut up.”
Black sludge appeared over Corona’s mouth, preventing her from speaking.
Inferno poked Shimmy’s face. “The greatest Sunset Shimmer of all… pinned in front of me. This is good, this is really good.”
“Did you already forget our conversation!?” Velvet asked.
Silvertongue frowned. “Shivershackles, eat all the fear she is about to eat. Hopefully it’ll teach you how to cower better. I somehow doubt it.”
The fire in Velvet’s eyes vanished. “Wh - hey! No fair!”
“Only the worst kind of ponies can use Shivershackles effectively,” Shimmy growled.
“No. Not the worst. Only those who are willing to put aside everything.” Silvertongue touched his horn to Inferno. “Prepare to see…”
He thrust the connection signature of the Everyman into Inferno… and instantly connected her mind to both Shimmy and Corona.
And then every other Sunset on Celestia City…
Shimmy felt her perception expand. Suddenly she was thousands of herself, all stacked over and on top of each other. Inferno laughed, Corona shouted…
But Shimmy saw. She was the only one who could see, could see it all. The web of universes traced out by millions of Sunsets living out their lives in the Equis Cluster. She, in this moment, was the overseer of all, her essence as arbiter of reality able to touch every world.
She saw the pattern. The shifting and jostling of universes past each other as more and more were created, added to the ever-growing pool of worlds.
She tried not to look. Tried to hold back. But there was an icy cold presence in the back of her mind.
“That looks interesting…” Inferno said.
“No.” Shimmy said. “No, we are not..”
“Enough of us are. Most of us have no idea why we’re not supposed to look at it. Have you ever tried to specifically not think of something? Terrible, isn’t it?” Shimmy felt as though Inferno’s hands were tracing up and down her body, even though neither actually existed in this space. “By telling us not to look… they look.”
Another Sunset came out of nowhere and mentally punched Inferno away. “I’m the Everyman. Working to break apart the connection. Standby.” She vanished elsewhere into the soup of Sunsets.
Shimmy knew it was already too late - they had all looked. They had all seen it, the Universe Generator, and because Silvertongue was using some of her magic… He knew it too.
She allowed herself to look at what all her other selves saw. A single universe, ancient, but not decrepit - eternally creating more and more for the sake of perpetuating the multiverse. A powerful tool that had remained hidden… until now.
An image of the Tower flashed in her mind. She could hear Cinder call out.
The Everyman succeeded in breaking the connection between Sunsets, returning Shimmy to a single awareness.
Silvertongue was no longer looking at her - he had placed Inferno inside the incomplete horseshoe device and was lifting her up to the gyroscope of the dimensional drive. The spinning rings were slowing, aligning to focus onto the device and Inferno.
“If you’re wondering why help isn’t coming, it’s because I re-strengthened the security barrier around the drive,” Silvertongue said. “They will not be able to breach it in time.”
Inferno started screaming as the dimensional energies surged into her from all sides.
“That’s it,” Grayscale said, charging Silvertongue. He lifted a wing and threw her to the ground.
“Grayscale, had Shivershackles not been ordered to be careful, he could have cut Corona’s head off for that.”
“Don’t care,” Grayscale muttered, standing up. “You’re n-”
Silvertongue rammed her into the ground. “Rebellious daughter.”
“I… am… not…”
“Then whose are you?”
“No one’s.” Curaçao said. “We do not ‘ave chains, Silvertongue.”
“Really?” Silvertongue said, looking to Shadow. “Do you agree, Starlight?”
Shadow was breathing heavily, unable to form a coherent response.
“You always were the best performing…”
“Stop lying to ‘er!” Curaçao shouted.
“Am I? Every word of what I have said is true.”
“One need not lie to deceive,” Winter said.
Silvertongue nodded. “Wise words, but woefully standard for Fay. But, then again, you are not Fay, are you?”
“I-” she realized with shock that Silvertongue was ignoring her now, having returned his full attention to Curaçao.
Curaçao didn’t blink.
“Why do you attempt to change who you are?” Silvertongue asked. Curaçao was shocked to find the pain in his voice was legitimate.
“It’s wrong,” Curaçao said, simply.
“You saved your sisters, Curaçao. You did what had to be done. Why change what has given you so much?”
“Because I am not going to become YOU. You are where zat paz leads.”
“And I am going to create perfection, while you are in turmoil.”
“Nopony’s perfect,” Insipid said.
“Not unless you make them that way,” Silvertongue said. He approached Shadow.
“Stay away from her!” Velvet shouted, inserting herself between Silvertongue and Shadow.
“I can speak to my daughter whenever I want, Velvet.”
“You’re going to have to go th-”
Silvertongue threw her to the side effortlessly. “Starlight Shadow…”
Shadow was sweating profusely.
“Would you like to be made perfect?”
“I… I… I…”
Silvertongue put a hoof to her chin, tilting her face up. “I can do that for you. You c-”
Chrysalis grabbed him by the neck. “You’re fucked up.”
“And so are you, in a more literal sense,” Silvertongue said. “What do you plan to do, break my spine?” He smirked. “You already know that won’t work.”
Chrysalis growled.
“Or perhaps you think you’re saving her from me?” Silvertongue shrugged, carefully prying Chrysalis’ fingers off his neck. “Maybe you are. A bit odd to save somepony from something they want though, isn’t it?”
He looked up at the gyroscopic energies coursing through Inferno. “Ah, it appears we’re almost ready. Which means we’re due for the unexpected and impossible.” He glanced at Mattie. “We still have one more party to arrive, don’t we?”
Mattie stared at him in shock. “You aren’t…”
“No. But it’s just a matter of guessing, after all.” He smirked. “The game is about to change.”
Crackling Leaves narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?”
Silvertongue only chuckled. “Just sit back and enjoy the show.”
Several things happened at once.
The dimensional drive completed its operations, tearing a hole in reality that charged through several universes before arriving at the one Silvertongue wanted, having found it through Inferno’s connection.
Swip physically crashed through the wall of the dimensional drive, breaking through the metal casing and sending a few of the rings flying into several pieces. She flipped end over end, creating a massive dent in the ground at the bottom of the sphere.
A woman with swirled eyes and impossibly frazzled curls appeared out of nowhere, thought into existence, bypassing the barriers of the dimensional drive. She held something in her hand that made reality itself twitch in fear. That something couldn’t decide on a single form, but whatever it truly was, it was long and able to be swung around like a sword.
Silvertongue let out a soft chuckle. “Screwball had the Shard of Madness… Truly unexpected, but foreshadowed just enough. I must applaud the Tower for its ingenuity.”
"Lombamaiter," Winter growled. "Nállë urcilmessë."
Swip activated all her weapons and fired at Silvertongue, not even bothering with a warning. Screwball swung the Shard of Madness, scrambling the very perception of reality for all present....
The dimensional drive exploded from all the strain. Reality failed at that particular point, creating a void of glitched nothing akin to the hole that had been created on the XCOM Earth not but a few days prior.
~~~
Silvertongue awoke.
Before him was a beautiful sight. A swirling spark of light surrounded by immense black prisms. The geometric shapes swirled around the spark with alarming speed, poking it every so often to unknown effect. The spark of light suddenly expanded in a flash of energy strong enough to unify all forces and bring reality to its knees.
The birth of a new universe.
Time flew by, millions of years every second. There was light, darkness, then the patterns of galactic superclusters eternally swirling in the firmament of a standard three-dimensional universe. Once it was fully formed, it folded out of existence, presumably added to the eternally growing Equis Cluster.
The next universe was different. It started with a sphere dotted with stars, in the center of which a single planet sat, orbited by a small moon and sun. It was split into three identical spheres. One had the moon destroyed, one had the sun, and the coloration of the plants in every one were altered.
Next, two worlds were created at once, both filled with galaxies and superclusters, but one with significantly more magic than the other. One matched the pattern of the first world that had been created, but the other must have drawn from a separate template.
Silvertongue could only laugh.
He had made it.