If there were one thing that Rarities were good at, in general, it was managing things. Sure, Twilights were generally the leaders, but despite their intense obsession with organization they tended to lack the needed practicality to get things done in an efficient manner. It was true that the efficient way wasn’t always the best way, as anyone who’d encountered the Infinite Carousel would tell you, but sometimes it was needed.
For instance, when the local deity responsible for keeping reality together vanished and getting her back was of paramount importance.
“That’s it, bring it in slow…” Rarity of Earth Shimmer said, gesturing to a Reality Anchor ship that had just been brought in from the Merodi Fleet specifically to keep everything stable within the wreckage that had once been Celestia City’s dimensional drive.
“I said we needed twelve, not thirteen!” Mattie hissed at a robot carrying some kind of glowing technological component. “Ugh, I’m sure Seren can do something with them anyway, go ahead and complete the delivery.”
Renee was talking a mile a minute on her phone. “And make sure to move relief efforts to sector seven, we’ve got a possible delayed pipe burst. Keep some modulars back, we can’t afford to be caught unaware by the horrid patch job. I know this technically isn’t my job but Allure is busy with a million people screaming at her and I’m not going to let her manage all this alone.”
Celia jumped up on top of a construction crane. “It appears you have a protrusion… allow me.” She blasted the toppled statue to crumbles. “Do continue.” She hopped down, continuing to examine everything she could do to help. She caught sight of some actual Carousel Rarities assisting in the repair nearby.
As annoying as the business-crazed Rarities could be, they were still Rarities. They could be trusted to help and ask for nothing in return.
This was the scene when Zircon stumbled in, a tad bewildered. He caught sight of the closest Rarity who looked normal - Mattie.
“Ah, at last I have found you, dear
But I am at a loss, I fear.
I fought spawn of fire and ice
And I assure you they’ll think twice
About returning, but sad to say
I lost track of our friends this day.
Where are the mares, and also how?
What is the situation now?”
Mattie started chuckling uncontrollably. “Oh, oh my, oh, I really shouldn’t. Ah…” Her face contorted a few times from a deep internal conflict. “I… am not… your Rarity.” She pouted. “But I would oh so love it if you kept talking to me in sonnet.”
“I must correct you on this thing
Tis not a sonnet which I sing.
But fair your words, I admit true
And now I must bid you adieu.
For my own maiden I now quest,
Till I find her I shall not rest!
Ah, you too look as much as she.
Are you my precious Rarity?”
“Busy,” Renee said, holding up a hoof. “Really busy. Just… Mattie, help him.”
“Gladly,” Mattie chuckled, raising her eyebrows repeatedly.
Zircon narrowed his eyes at her.
“What mad temptations abound here!
But I shall not linger or leer
I seek only the pony I know
And beg of you the way to show!”
“Talk a little longer and she might show up…”
“Ahem,” Celia said, dropping down from above. “Mattie, be nice.”
“I didn’t lead him on! Do you have any idea how much willpower that took?”
Celia rolled her eyes. “Your Rarity is on top of th-”
“WHERE IS CINDER!?”
Everyone’s heads turned to see a haggard, tired, but otherwise completely normal unicorn Rarity glaring at all of them from atop a nearby pile of junk.
“...Ah, Cinder’s sister,” Mattie said.
Zircon let out a sigh of relief.
“At last, here’s the purest vision!
A grace that acts with decision
A voice as elegant as song
A mane both beautiful and strong
Her moves the art of nature’s dance
Her eyes sapphires that entrance
Each lash on them perfect curled
To match the slender ears unfurled
And such expression, I decree
Is but a glimpse of what I see
The feelings of a heart so deep
That my own shall forever leap
If noticed even once by it
And once again, I will commit
To follow a soul refined so
There are no depths I shall not go
For my heart is hers, so I pray
She may feel the same some day
Oh Rarity, if you are mine
Know that you are ever divine!”
Rarity stared at him, a mild blush on her face. “Do I… know you?”
“No, and he doesn’t know you either,” Celia said. “Your Rarity is up there with Seren, trying to get Cinder back.”
Zircon was at a loss for words. Rarity at first looked annoyed that she had been cheated out of someone so poetic and romantic, but she shook her head - remembering why she was there. “Get Cinder back?”
“She’s in the Universe Generator,” Celia explained.
“And is perfectly fine!” Mattie said. “That’s… about all I can confirm, really. Ask the Pinkies if you want anything word-for-word. Not the Pinkie up there, she’s not that good either.”
Rarity huffed, marching up the hill to Seren - Zircon following behind at a fair distance.
When they arrived at the top they saw the other Rarity with an accusatory raised eyebrow. “I heard everything.”
Zircon shot into an apology.
“The words were meant for you alone
I beg pardon, if I had known--”
“I’m mainly upset at her for daring to think she had a chance.”
Cinder’s Rarity gasped. “He was such a gentlezebra! You’re lucky to have him.”
“I am. So please, Rarity, back off.”
“I will, I will - SEREN!” she shouted. “Cinder?”
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Seren asked.
Cinder’s Rarity allowed herself to look at what Seren was doing. She was standing in the middle of six mares, each with magic circles inscribed in the ground below them.
“I mean, yes, I can see that…”
Seren grunted. “Rarity…”
“Yes?” both asked.
Seren twitched. “Okay, one of you needs a name.”
“Oh!” Cinder’s Rarity beamed. “I actually do have one, selected it a few days ago by Tivver’s - my Twilight’s - request. I’m Xenium - a type of gift.”
“Thanks.”
Xenium coughed. “Now please explain to me what you’re doing?”
“These six are connected to another set of six across the divide. I am attempting to weed out the connections. It takes time and focus to do so.”
“And when you have it open?”
“The entire Merodi army will charge through and lay waste to whatever Silvertongue has on the other side.”
Xenium nodded. “Good. Now…” She sat down on a nearby rock and glared at Seren. “I am going to watch you and make sure you don’t let a single minute pass that doesn’t need to.”
“That’s fine Xe-”
“Why are you still talking to me? Find her!”
Seren got back to work, channeling magic into the rings around Equestria IV’s six.
“Can we... talk?” Fluttershy asked.
“As long as it doesn’t disturb Seren,” Xenium allowed.
“It won’t,” Seren said.
“SEREN!”
Seren cast a spell to zipper her own mouth shut.
~~~
Shimmy’s golden globe flew into the universe and adjusted to the timescale of the universe in a fraction of a second.
Which meant it sat in place for about one local week, which was more than enough time for several fleets of spaceships to engage in a tremendous galaxy-spanning war around them.
“What the buck?!” Havocwing shouted.
“I have no idea what’s going on!” Cinder wailed.
“Thousands of years have passed in here while we were dallying,” Shimmy said, frowning. “Long enough for Silvertongue and me to make… well, civilizations that fight each other across the galaxies. Everything out there is fighting over us.”
“So gold ships good, silver ships bad?” Brook asked.
“Yes,” Shimmy nodded. “Just sit tight, I’ve been setting up this plan for centuries…”
Shadow rubbed her head. “That has to be disorienting.”
“You have no idea. This avatar’s convinced it’s only been two minutes since the plan was formed and it just so happens to be the dominant one, so my entire perception’s being a bit discombobulated. Just sit tight and - where is Screwball?”
Screwball was nowhere to be seen.
“Okay, okay, Shimmy, calm down, maybe she won’t ruin your plan, she wasn’t integral anyway, heheh…”
“Please tell me you aren’t developing a split personality disorder,” Suzie said.
Shimmy’s lack of a response was mildly concerning.
There was a massive explosion within the intergalactic void that tossed most of the ships to the side.
“And of course she’d involve herself…” Shimmy muttered.
“Who?” Cinder asked.
“Crown Princess. She has, well, developed a bit of a grudge over the millennia over people who have success.”
“This is going to be a long story, huh?” Sequin asked.
“You bet it is… but let’s try to survive first, okay?” Shimmy reinforced the shielding in the bubble around them, dodging a direct attack from a decrepit looking white ship that was easily larger than a star. It whaled on them as hard as it could with missiles, lasers, and rods shot at superluminal speeds. Shimmy managed to hold the barrier.
“Bit surprised ol’ Silver’s not doing anything physical,” Shimmy muttered.
“It means ‘e ‘as a plan,” Curaçao said.
“I’ve spent the last few thousand years fighting him head on, I know that. He’s way too crafty for his own good…”
A half-dozen ships of pointed gold pushed through the hull of the white goliath, breaking through at weak points that came from its age. There was a massive explosion that the golden ships of Shimmy absorbed, arranging themselves into a circular pattern. There was a flash and a portal to a distant galaxy established.
Shimmy didn’t throw them through. She teleported them through, not giving the silver ships an opportunity to interfere. It was a good thing she did, because a second later the portal was unestablished.
But they were safe now - away from the battle, surrounded only by ships of gold in a shimmering galaxy shaped like the standard Sunset cutie mark.
Shimmy let out a breath of relief. “Well… welcome to the Heart of Gold, center of the universe for the Shimmies.”
A large golden ship grabbed hold of them with a tractor beam and warped to the center of the galaxy. They were there in less than a minute, arriving in orbit around a planet that seemed made of pure gold surrounded by ships of all colors, shapes, and sizes. They moved aside for the large military ship to let them in, descending toward the surface.
The entire world was a city of golden spires, though not obnoxiously so - the gold was muted near the ground so the world was not filled with eternal glare. Ponies, dragons, griffons, changelings, and many others walked around in the streets, a few looking up at the ship and waving affectionately. Notably, there were no humans. Suzie supposed this meant the world had been a pure Equis before the Shard of Madness hit it, so there was no human race to work with.
“So, first off, someone catch Curaçao and Cinder up with what they know,” Shimmy said. “I don’t want to go over more than I have to. Plus, I, uh, may have designed what’s about to happen assuming everyone was up to speed.”
Shadow nodded. “I’ll do it. Have open minds, you two.”
Cinder blinked. “Wait wh-” she got an update on what had happened with Silvertongue and the events with the Shard of Madness uploaded right into her head. “Huh. Neat.”
Suzie nodded. “Just don’t overdo it on the mind uploads. It can get addictive, like a drug, and you become unable to retain anything.”
“Fun,” Cinder said. “So, basically, in the few minutes everyone was arguing about what to do in the Universe Generator, this universe has been fighting a millennia spanning war between Silvertongue and Shimmy?”
“It is a… bit more complicated than that,” Shimmy admitted. “But I’ve got a nice way to explain it all that isn’t mind uploading.”
Their bubble was finally set on the ground in a courtyard filled with yellow flowers. Shimmy dispelled the bubble, prompting two unicorn guards to bow. “It is an honor to witness your presence.”
Shimmy rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you guys ever say that to the Prime Minister?”
They didn’t answer. From somewhere far away, an orange flew through the air and hit Shimmy in the face, a megaphone-aided voice shouting “I’m relevant!”
“I still have no idea how they found out about that,” Shimmy muttered, squishing the orange under her foot. “Must have told it to one of the earlier followers as a joke or something, forgot about it, and now here we are. Oranges. I will never escape the oranges.”
“You probably could have made them go extinct by now,” Suzie pointed out.
“I did. Silvertongue recreated them. As far as I can tell, just to annoy me. No further ploy necessary.”
“That’s evil,” Cinder hissed.
Tab let out one of the loudest sighs any of them had ever heard. She removed her skull-eyepatch and tossed it to the ground. “Finally. Things make sense again.”
A slithering catorwallen skrullimped by, its many eyestalks pulping to the beat of its three hums.
Tab forced a grin. “That looks like something out of a child’s imagination. I can accept this. The tablet is able to quantify it. Yes. This is fine.”
“Don’t mind the fungus-cat things.” Shimmy waved at them to come along. “I need to show you guys the hall of history.”
“Oh, that’s not a Shimmer temple?” Shadow asked.
Shimmy laughed. “Oh, no, they make those the size of planets these days anyway.” She frowned. “When did I let them start doing that…?” She shook her head. “Nevermind, not an issue. Let’s talk about the history of the world!” She pushed open the big golden doors, entering a long hall filled with stained glass windows.
“...Original,” Cinder said.
“Shush,” Shimmy said. “This… is the HISTORY of the UNIVERSE!”
She paused, as if expecting applause. Cinder gave a pithy “woo” while Insipid clapped honestly.
Blackburn frowned. “How many resources did you waste making this place?”
Shimmy sighed. “Can we just… listen to a story?”
Cinder sat down attentively.
“You’ll need to walk to see all the windows.”
“Then I’ll be listening and walking, not just listening.”
Havocwing and Velvet chuckled at this.
“I swear they’re trying to drive me insane,” Shimmy observed.
“Probably,” Tab said. “They drove me insane. Oh, wait, no, that was whoever built the Universe Generator.”
“You are not going to like this story.”
“Oh. Joy.”
Shimmy cleared her throat, gesturing to the first window, that of a pink sphere that had a giant shard rammed into the top, producing several cracks. “The first event in recorded history is the Maddening, which you all saw. The Shard of Madness was injected to the universe and, much like whatever screwed up Earth Shimmer all those years go, completely wrecked everything. Only this universe wasn't fully formed and was much more susceptible to… breaking. So that produced the fissures that devour all matter near them to this day. Do you have any idea how hard it is to save a galaxy? Really hard. I’ve had to deal with that more than once.”
“Successfully?” Shadow asked.
“There’s about a fifty percent success rate.”
“Hmm…”
“Anyway, a while after that messed up the universe and destroyed any civilization that existed there, we arrived.” She gestured at the next window that showed five entities: herself and Silvertongue at the top, Crackling Leaves and the Crown Princess just below them, and Shivershackles cowering at the bottom, shrouded in darkness. “The only planet with life in the whole universe was Equis, and it wasn’t hard to find. We all arrived at more-or-less the same time, give or take a few months. We instantly knew that keeping all the races stuck on one planet was just asking for disaster when we were constantly going at each other, so…”
She danced over to a third window showing galaxies swirling against a soft blue glassy backdrop dotted with glitter. “We used our power to spread the people apart. Ponies, dragons, griffons, all of them. Filled the universe with life. Blew up the first galaxy after a bit of infighting.” The next window showed a great explosion. “To be fair, that explosion wasn’t instant, it was a chain reaction that took about two-hundred years to fully complete, but you know.”
“For someone who’s spent thousands of years in this world you don’t seem to have changed much,” Suzie observed.
Shimmy frowned. “That… Yeah, I chose to let the avatar that existed outside the universe dominate when we entered. So I… well I had changed, quite a bit actually, but…” She tapped her fingers on a wall. “I don’t want to say I ‘reverted’, because I still have the experiences of those years, they’re just dulled. Probably for Twilight's sake more than anything.”
“Aww…” Brook cooed.
Shimmy moved on. “Anyway, after the absolute disaster that was the first galaxy, we all kinda went our separate ways forming four separate… well not all of them were strictly nations, but let’s go with nations.” She pointed at a silver image laced with towering buildings and complex circuitry designs laced into the background. “Silvertongue, known as the ‘god of reason’ these days, created the Shill. Well, that’s what we call it. He calls it the Dominion, like he already wasn’t a textbook villainous emperor type as it was. His people are devoted to the idea of progress, understanding, thought… and specifically using all the ‘time’ we have in this universe to figure out how the Universe Generator outside works.”
Tab blinked. “Does… does he know?”
“He hasn’t figured it out yet and he’ll never figure it out if we have anything to say about it,” Shimmy said. “But he’s got a lot of it put together. He even figured out how to synthesize the material it’s made of - calls it Cosmic Graystone. I honestly have no idea if that’s one of our names or one of his. We tend to argue over what to call stuff a lot and there is a distinct lack of diplomacy between us because we learned long ago that engaging in diplomacy with Silvertongue is a very, very bad idea.”
She pointed at an immense golden palace under three suns. “And this is the Shimmies, our nation. We aren’t devoted to much of anything besides making everyone happy and being a pain in the plot for Silvertongue at every turn. I’ve kinda let them go crazy with art, culture, and other ‘frivolous’ things to annoy Silvertongue and his oh-so-precious reason. We don’t actually… research the Universe Generator so much as steal Silvertongue’s research on it and try to figure out what to do with it. The entire civilization basically exists to keep him from getting what he needs. We do have one thing he doesn’t, though.”
“What?” Tab asked.
“You saw that cattorwallen outside? That’s what the locals call a fissurebeast. Near as I can figure, Screwball controlling the Shard of Madness from outside is causing her delusions to manifest through the fissures. Which means they have distinctly unreal powers. And since I’m the one most familiar with her, the Shimmies are the ones that have... domesticated most of them.” Shimmy shivered. “Some can’t be domesticated, though. Learned that the hard way.”
“I can imagine the scratches,” Suzie said.
“Ever see a nikkarufa eat a planet? No? Good. You don’t want to.” She coughed. “Anyway, we’re not the only ones in the universe. There are the free peoples who just… exist, and I try to keep Silvertongue from devouring their worlds when I can. No window for them. There is a window for this though.”
She gestured at the image of a massive tree sitting among the stars with several arrows pointing away from it. “Crackling Leaves is… interesting. Every few centuries a civilization will rise with her as either the official leader or patron deity, but inevitably they collapse and become nomads that wander the universe. I think she knew how to play the very long game since now she’s got a massive network of people that don’t officially recognize her as leader but pay her respect as some sort of ancestor or family head. Gives her an impressive information network. To be perfectly honest, even though I know where she is right now I have no idea what her plan is. She tends to mess with me and Silvertongue equally for… I have no idea.” Shimmy shrugged.
“Anyway, lastly…” she came to a white window showing the Crown Princess with a tear running down her face. “This tragedy. The Crown Princess started by trying to figure out the Universe Generator just like Silvertongue, and he let her continue for a while, but then he stepped in and wiped her research out, taking it all for himself in a conspiracy that took a good three hundred years to pan out. It was absolutely terrifying to watch unfold.” She shivered, haunted not only by the memories of the specific events, but other times where she’d barely stopped similar conspiracies intended to bring the Shimmies to ruin.
“She realized after that she didn’t need to use the Universe Generator to complete her goal. She conquered a small planet and built what she called the Capric Empire and, instead of devoting herself to anything about the Universe Generator, she just… started conquering the universe for the sake of the Capric Empire. She was happy, didn’t care what happened so long as she kept growing her empire. Was pretty reasonable and understanding, all things considered.”
Shimmy folded her arms and frowned. “Her empire collapsed from internal strain and dissidence. Instead of trying to make it again, she took the greatest warships of her people and just started attacking. Everything. Angrily. Especially the Shills and the Shimmies, envious of our success. Her pirates have been a blight ever since.”
Cinder frowned. “...She had what she wanted taken from her.”
“But now she’s a badass pirate!” Havocwing chuckled. “That’s something, right?”
“I don’t think it is to her.”
“And lastly we come to Shivershackles,” Shimmy said, pointing at a window with a dark man, four colors splitting out of his head: gold, silver, white, and green. “He’s… changed sides a lot. I had him for a while, tried to protect him, but Crackling Leaves grabbed him, I grabbed him back, the Crown Princess, Silvertongue… it’s been a game of eternal ping-pong. None of us seem to be willing to kill him to end the cycle.”
“Who has him currently?” Blackburn asked.
“Silvertongue. Surprise, huh?”
“No.”
“He knew you were arriving soon. He ensured that he had Shivershackles when you did.”
“Why wasn’t Shivershackles used against us when we arrived?” Curaçao asked.
“I have no idea,” Shimmy admitted. “But what I do know?” She gestured at the last stained glass window which showed an orb of golden light floating over dozens of galaxies. “We’re gonna get him. Soon. You’re all finally here, which means we take Silvertongue out of the picture finally and get on with our lives.”
“What’s the plan?” Suzie asked.
“This is the part you’re not going to like. I don’t really… have one. Yet. Yet.” She pointed at Curaçao. “You and I are going to make one together.”
“C’est la vie…” Curaçao said, shaking her head. “I would ask ‘why me?’ but I already know.”
“You think like he thinks. I don’t. He’ll be able to outplan me. Always has, more or less.”
“Wouldn’t he have changed after all this time?” Suzie asked.
Curaçao shook her head. “‘e kept his mind consistent and disciplined for a zousand years, keeping ‘is true nature ‘idden from Nihlia. ‘e would not let ‘imself change.”
“We won’t have to deal with just him,” Cinder said. “The others… they have hands in the pot too. Crackling and the Crown Princess, whatever they’re doing…”
“And here I was thinking I could ignore them.” Shimmy shook her head.
“It would be unwise,” Curaçao admitted. “We shall ‘ave to divide and conquer.”
“Send people to where they’ll matter the most,” Cinder added.
“Leaves and ze Princess can be dealt with zrough straightforward mezods.”
“We’ll need to execute it all at the same time…”
Blackburn frowned. “A lot of these ‘needs’ seem arbitrary.”
Curaçao and Cinder shrugged. “When we ‘ave ze plan, you may critique, and we will make changes. But zere is much you do not understand.”
Tab groaned. Shimmy grinned. “This is a great start!”
“Quick question,” Grayscale said, raising a wing.
“Yes?”
“Did you let your people believe the defeat of Silvertongue was some kind of prophecy?” She gestured at the final window, raising an incredulous eyebrow.
“Uh… They sort of came up with that themselves…”
“And you didn’t deny it. Cool. Cool. Just wondering.”
Shimmy shifted uncomfortably. “Look, I’ve had experience being worshipped. I could literally walk out and announce that I have no idea what I’m doing and they’d say ‘it’s a test of our faith!’ You can’t stop faith, you can only direct it. Or wait for it to break on its own, but... that’s cruel.”
“So now you’re the god of two worlds,” Velvet pointed out.
Shimmy groaned. “Let’s... let’s just get back to planning.”
“Your two different churches are going to start a holy war with each other aren’t they?”
“There are at least twelve branches of Shimmerism back in Earth Shimmer--” Tab started.
“I said back to planning!” Shimmy interrupted.
~~~
“So… what do we do with Crackling Leaves? We can’t just leave her alone.”
“We have no idea what she’s doing or what she wants. But she’s never been one for direct confrontation, mostly discussion. Almost always discussion.”
“Who could talk to her without falling into some kind of Fay trap?”
Blackburn grunted as she stepped off the Shimmie ship into a forest floating in space. She had spent the ride there coming up with at least a dozen different explanations as to how a space forest might work, so at this point actually seeing the forest didn’t do much for her beyond the usual ‘categorize everything’ she always did. That was basically automatic at that point in her life.
Her primary train of thought centered around one question: how did I get sent in here alone?
Naturally, there were a few guards with her, and the ship she arrived on did have a pilot, but they were just faceless ponies (or dragon, in the case of the pilot) there to be useful in ways of taking bullets for her and making her look more threatening.
She was a Queen, she knew how guards worked.
She expected Crackling Leaves to have guards of her own outside the forest, but she either did not or they were hidden in some way. Blackburn operated under both assumptions at once, telling her ponies to stand down and wait at the ship while also keeping the energy weapon strapped to her hoof fully powered.
Blackburn walked through the hallway of vines into an inner sanctum made of roots and lit by white firefly like creatures that collected on the ceiling, continually scurrying around. There were two chairs in the room, both of which looked like they had been grown right out of the wall.
One was empty. The other seated Crackling Leaves herself. Gone were the glasses, the toolkit, and the ever-present cellphone. They had not been replaced with more advanced versions of the same, but rather completely swapped out for far more natural implements. Her clothing was leafy and alive, and traces of a moss-like creature could be seen on her face. She appeared natural, but not dirty - every leaf was pristine, every vine curled in a pleasing matter, and there was no dirt to speak of.
Blackburn did not let herself be fooled. Crackling Leaves was known for biotech. After all, floating space forest.
“...Queen Blackburn… you are alone?”
Blackburn reminded herself that while she could lie, Crackling Leaves could not. She should resort to the truth if she wanted respect from the Fay, using lies to get anywhere was a last resort at best. “In this chamber, yes. There are guards. And a pilot.”
“I had never been a Queen before coming here,” Crackling Leaves said. “Now I have been several times over. A different experience each time.”
“I only know of one.”
“You may find another in the end.”
“Is that an offer?”
“It is an... observation.”
“You speak carefully.”
“You speak short, abrupt truth with speed and confidence.”
“You do not appreciate being defined.”
“You do.”
“Shall I think of it as a courtesy?”
“If that is what you wish.”
Blackburn nodded slowly. “I shall refrain from making judgment.”
“Wise.” She leaned forward. “Blackburn, what does it mean to be Queen?”
Blackburn didn’t even have to think. “To rule for the ponies and protect their interests from those outside the city. There are other purposes. Prosperity. Progress. Peace. But leaders are for the ponies. People.”
“But what of the times when the people don’t want what is best for them?”
“You build your city so that doesn’t happen.”
Crackling Leaves smiled. “Silvertongue would agree.”
“Silvertongue is a genius. He does not lead for the ponies. He leads for himself.”
“Perfection is not for the ponies?”
“Perfection is his. He has consulted no other.”
“If he consulted the people he rules over now, they would agree with him on virtually every point. He built his ‘city’ to ensure they knew what was ‘best’ for them. They are promised to be transformed into the Perfect World when he makes it.”
“He will not keep that promise if he doesn’t have to.”
“And neither would you.”
Blackburn frowned. “I am just like him, you say?”
“I have said no such thing.”
“But you imply. Even if you mean it not, you wish to force me to confront it.” Blackburn thought about this. “In the right situation, it is possible I would use the power to create a world in my image. Many would. If they did not have others around them they respected. Silvertongue has no friends. Only subjects and servants.”
“And you have friends?”
“You know of my history.”
“A constant conflict between friends and servants.”
“Silvertongue had no conflict. The closest to him were the six sisters. They were discarded. Shroud was sent away and abandoned to us.”
“Ah,” said Crackling Leaves.
Blackburn’s ears flicked forward. “You believe my statement false.”
“I believe Silvertongue would find your statement false. Or rather, incomplete. The assumption, it would seem, is that friends are permanent. Or that they are immune to exploitation.”
“I assume neither. I have manipulated many - ask Twilight about Briarthorn - and lost others. The balance is a delicate one. I have been wrong before. I have not stooped to Silvertongue’s actions.” She leaned back slightly. “I admit understanding his reasonings. Wrong as they are.”
“I have an understanding of his motives,” Crackling mused, shifting on her seat. “Yet I suspect mine is different than yours.”
“You have spent thousands of years in a world with him and had many conversations. I have only seen him a few times and know of him primarily through his actions. You no doubt would have the more complete image. Enlighten me. If you would.” Blackburn leaned in, as if daring her.
“...a misrepresentation exists,” Crackling began. “It is common among those who define. Who see rivers as one path of water, rather than a billion drops that all happen to be rushing the same direction. They assume perfection can be, on its own. Perfection can exist, this is true, I have seen it. Many times. But....”
She gave Blackburn an expectant look.
Blackburn thought for a moment before responding. “I see several answers to your unspoken question. Everyone’s definition of perfection is different. Perfection requires a synthesis of minds. Perfection must come from without, not within. But if I had to choose what I believe you are looking for…” Blackburn chewed on it for a while. “Perfection can exist. But it will not adhere to a single definition and is ever-changing.”
“That answer is not wrong, but it also is not the one I was looking for. Still... you have proven capable of thinking through...” Crackling considered for a moment. “Perfection is, always, a modifier. The perfect sword, the perfect spouse, the perfect world. Imperfect if judged outside its purpose. Silvertongue cannot realize this--he is too caught up in the intricacies of his systems to look upon their whole. He is, perhaps, the perfect villain--in achieving his goals, in defeating the heroes, and though he has yet to realize it, in helping the heroes grow. He is perfect already--he simply is not perfect through the filter of perfection in totality. And so he toils madly to achieve that which cannot exist without outside purpose.”
Blackburn sat back, processing. “...You think he would have figured this out. Perfect villain. Already perfect. The outside purpose.” She caught Crackling Leave’s expression. “...He wouldn’t let us know if he had.”
“Your plan will succeed. It will also fail.”
“Cinder said a lot of things like that. I categorized them all, analyzed them from every angle. They…” Blackburn realized she was talking about nothing, something she hated doing. “You spoke earlier of those who define. I am one. Define enough and you realize not everything can be defined. Like the hunt for perfection, it is maddening.”
“It is also amusing to offer something defined and find it assumed not to be.” Crackling rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Very well, this game comes to a close soon anyway, and you are alone. A simple question.” She leaned forward. “If Sunset Shimmer waited for you to be here to make her move... why would Silvertongue not do the same?”
“That is expected. He has some plan for us. Even if the first plan was ruined at the battle--”
“And there you error. Your only importance to him was that he could not see you. Now that he can, he has no reason to restrain himself.” Crackling Leaves leaned back.
Blackburn’s eyes widened. “He already knows everything he needs to know. About the Generator…” Blackburn, for a moment, thought of calling for help, telling them. Shimmy was on the mission, she could do damage control. She could…
Blackburn laughed. “That’s not the point, is it?”
“Your plan will fail,” Crackling agreed. “But Silvertongue is the perfect... villain. Your plan will also succeed.” She steepled her fingers. “I do look forward to the conclusion of this dance.”
Blackburn sank into her chair - relaxing herself. “So we will sit here and talk until the end.”
“I am as social as any other creature,” Crackling agreed. “And I have lived long, as you know. There are many stories I could tell you... if you were able to understand my words exactly.”
“I’m sure I can get the hang of it. Have anything alcoholic?” She grinned. “Hope’s Point tradition, you understand.”
A vine uncoiled from the wall, and a surprisingly chalice-shaped flower hardened at her hoof’s reach. “But of course.”
The thought that it might be poisoned or some trick flashed past Blackburn’s mind, but she quickly reasoned it away. She may not have had a firm grasp on Crackling Leaves just yet, but she knew enough. With a graceful wing she took the drink.
Not as good as magmaberry wine, but it was a serious contender.
~~~
Cinder, Suzie, and Tab were the representatives of the League of Sweetie Belles in this universe. They had to be the ones to deal with their problem: the Crown Princess.
Cinder had insisted.
Finding the Crown Princess wasn’t exactly difficult - Shimmy had pins on most everyone of magical importance in the universe. Occasionally the Crown Princess would bother with obfuscating her presence, but that day she wasn’t.
They knew full well that this may have been meant to bait them into hunting her down. The other option was that she didn’t feel the need to hide since they would be dealing with Silvertongue - when she’d no doubt execute some kind of plan to take advantage of the situation.
Or maybe just blow everything up, since that was apparently what she did these days.
She was in a pirate fleets, one of the many who had splintered off after engaging in the battle over the new arrivals to the universe. Once, the Crown Princess’ fleets had been composed of many ships of all shapes and sizes. Now there were only the truly massive Behemoths with smaller ships stored inside, usually stolen from the other powers of the universe. The white Behemoths themselves were older than most dragons, and all of them were falling apart at the seams. They had been built for extended brutal war with the best technology available at the time, and with a few cobbled-together upgrades over the years they still held up well.
Even if their numbers continually dwindled. A few hundred thousand at the start. Now a few hundred, and in this splinter fleet only seven.
They were going to sneak in.
How?
Hijacking a small pirate ship in another fleet and hypnotizing the pilot into helping them. Tab may not have had a ton of magic in her, but with that tablet of hers she could cast virtually any spell she needed to if the situation called for it.
The three of them hidden in the tiny cargo hold, contained within a box that said hazardous waste. It was just barely large enough for the three of them to fit, although decidedly uncomfortably.
Tab, tell Suzie to get her foot out of my ear.
Already did, she says she’d have to put it back on your jaw.
Suzie! We were fine when we started!
She can’t hear you. I’m the only one with the spell.
Relay the message!
Did. She wasn’t comfortable when we started.
Well you can tell Suzie that it’s my time to be comfortable again.
I really don’t think that’s the purpose of this exercise.
The purpose is to stay hidden. But I’d rather not b-
Shush. We’re landing. I need to focus.
Tab spent the next little while perfectly silent, listening to radio chatter and waiting for the perfect moment. Once their ship was in the hangar and everything was off them… she teleported them into an engineering access tunnel. The layout of a Behemoth was known, so this exact tunnel had been part of the plan all along.
The pony working in the tunnel had not. Suzie pulled out her gun and shot him before he could say anything, knocking him to the ground. “People might miss him, we need to get to her quickly.”
That was not difficult. Teleportation into one of the pirates’ ships was locked, but teleportation within was not. All Tab had to do was pull up the schematics on her tablet, run a few numbers, and perform a teleport clear across the ship. She ended up in an access tunnel just under the Crown Princess’ personal quarters. There wasn't any direct access to the room, and the room itself had a teleport lock, but they were literally inches away from it.
“She’s currently out and about,” Tab said. “She’ll return to her quarters eventually. Until then we just… sit here.” She leaned back. “I’m going to play some video games. I’d offer to let you play, buuuuuuut…”
“Yeah yeah, brag about your fancy invisible tablet,” Cinder said, rolling her eyes.
Tab shrugged. “It’s what I do.”
Suzie leaned back and checked her gun, cleaning it out of habit more than anything else.
“Hey… Suzie?”
Suzie looked up. “What is it, Cinder?”
“Am I allowed to ask what your last resort is? Or does?”
“Ask? Yes. Know?” Suzie frowned. “I’d really have to clear it with the rest of the League in-the-know first, or find a reason that you need to know. You do not.”
Tab snorted. “Considering I didn’t even know you had a last resort Stand until today, that thing must be classified to deep Tartarus and back. And here I thought Seraphim was dangerous.”
“Seraphim’s dangerous, but very controllable,” Suzie said.
“Yours isn’t?” Cinder asked.
Suzie bit her lip, thinking closely about how much she could say. “It’s… unpredictable and devastating. Let’s leave it at that. Hope I don’t have to use it. Ever.”
Cinder nodded. “Got it. And I will get clearance.”
“Most the crew on Swip is only vaguely aware I have anything,” Suzie said with a sad smile. “I’d keep quiet about it if I was you.”
“My lips are sealed!”
“Activity,” Tab reported with a hiss. “Crown Princess is moving to her quarters… quiet.”
The three of them fell silent, waiting in anticipation for the Crown Princess to be alone. They heard the clanking of her hooves on the metallic ground along with a few of her pirate crew. She stopped in front of the door to her quarters.
The Crown Princess teleported the three of them out of the access vent and gave them all a look of immense contempt. “Did you really think that would work?”
“We have a lot of backup plans,” Cinder said. “To be fair, we did just want to talk a-” her voice trailed off as she took in the Crown Princess’ appearance. She was still regal and beautiful, but her eyes were more sad than angry; the face of a mare who was dragging herself forward by a leash.
“Talk…” the Crown Princess said, mulling the words over in her mouth. “Sure.”
“Your Highness!” one of her pirates said. “Are you crazy?”
“Yes.” The Crown Princess chuckled. “But do prepare two incineration vats.”
“Just two?”
“Yes, I’ve been waiting to free Cinder from her captors for… far longer than these ships have been around.”
Cinder glared at her. “They aren’t my captors.”
“It’s just an illustration.” The Crown Princess put Suzie and Tab in restraints but allowed Cinder to walk around freely. “Good to see you, Cinder, despite all that’s happened.”
“If you kill them I won-”
“You can be trained, with time.”
“I’m not staying here.”
The Crown Princess frowned. “Perhaps not. But you wanted to talk, so we will talk at the very least. And then we will consider what to do next.” She teleported the Sweeties and her pirate guards into a cafeteria of sorts where several different races were eating and having a jolly time - that is, until the Crown Princess arrived.
The moment she appeared all the joy died out of the room.
“...What have you done to them?” Cinder asked.
“Nothing,” the Crown Princess said. “It’s your presence that makes them uneasy.”
“W-what?”
“They know you as our enemy. By the code I wrote, you are to be incinerated without quarter. I’m making an exception so you can say your piece.” She levitated a cup of tea over and sipped.
“Seems foolish to do that in front of your crew,” Suzie said.
“Yeah, I’m reading their faces…” Tab frowned. “They’re not the biggest fans of you right now.”
“Surprise, surprise, pirates who want their captain dead.” The Crown Princess rolled her eyes. “They wouldn’t dare try.”
“You sure about that? Tablet say-”
“I don’t give a damn what your antiquated tablet says.”
“Antiquated?”
“I saw it thousands of years ago and I see it today and it hasn’t changed one bit!”
“One, you can’t see it, two, that was literally yesterday for me.”
“Let’s try not to aggravate her,” Suzie suggested.
“Good idea,” the Crown Princess chuckled. “I’ve gained a tendency to… snap as of late. You don’t want me to snap, do you?”
“Definitely not!” Cinder chuckled nervously. “Let’s not go doing anything crazy.”
The Crown Princess tapped her hoof on the table rapidly. “Crazy? You want crazy? How’s about this? I kill you, then I kill your friends who are going after Silvertongue, then I kill Silvertongue, Shimmy, and this ENTIRE UNIVERSE!”
Everyone in the room stared at her in silence.
“You… can’t do those things,” Suzie said.
“Yeah, probably not,” the Crown Princess admitted, sitting back in her chair. “But I can totally use everything I have in these last moments to get both the ‘gods’ while they’re so fixated on each other.”
“I’m running the calculations on that,” Tab said. “The chances of… well, any of your pirates surviving…”
“No smaller than whatever insane ploy you’ve got planned to end Silvertongue and me. You’re alone on this ship, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Suzie admitted.
“The chances of you three getting back alive are slim-to-none, and yet you do it anyway. Why should I be any different?”
Cinder pressed her hooves together. “We’re willing to take a risk. The Shimmie soldiers are willing to take a risk. Are pirates really willing to take a risk?”
The Crown Princess huffed. “They already know. I’ve been talking about this for weeks.”
“Yeah, I really don’t think they’re upset at us being here,” Tab said, shaking her head. “Interrogating prisoners for information publicly really shouldn’t be something they hate with a passion.”
“What are you implying?”
“You’re losing grip on your empire.”
“I AM NOT!” the Crown Princess shouted, ramming her hooves into the table. “I… have complete control over every last one of these mongrels and we are the spirit of Capra!”
“...This isn’t even an empire anymore, Princess.” Cinder sighed. “You lost that.”
“I… I will have it again. I will. I have to. I had it and it was glorious and…”
“You need to get that Crown’s mission out of your head.”
The Crown Princess stared at her, tears welling up in her eyes. “I did.”
Cinder stared at her. “...What?”
“The rifts… they have… mind-altering properties. The pain after losing the Empire… it was too much. I had to get rid of it. Had to order my people to drag me there kicking and screaming.” She laughed bitterly. “Don’t need an Empire anymore. But, you know what? Watching something that you love get torn out of your hooves… Having had all you need and then burning to the ground…” She leaned in until she was barely an inch from Cinder’s face. “I don’t need a mission anymore.”
Tab clicked her tongue. “Yep. Clinical insanity. Dunno if it’s the rift that did it or your own head, but you’re off the edge of the cliff.”
“Take her to her incineration vat,” the Crown Princess ordered. “She is being of no help.”
“Not to you, perhaps, but to them I’m being a significant boon.” She turned to the pirates. “You have a 97% chance of besting her if you all move now.”
“They wouldn’t d-”
A plasma bolt hit the Crown Princess in the rear. She managed to twist out of the way, keeping it from burning right through her, but it sheared off a fair portion of her flank. Howling in pain and rage, she whirled around and drained the closest pirate she could of all life to restore her health. “Serves you right…”
Then she realized what she’d just done.
She hadn’t drained the attacker - he was a dragon sitting near the back with his gun raised.
She had just drained one of the youngest members of her crew, the adorable Cotton Candy.
“No!” The Crown Princess wailed, tears welling up in her eyes. “No I didn’t mea-”
The pirates didn’t care. Most of them drew their weapons and pointed them directly at her.
“...We shouldn’t kill her,” a older unicorn mare with no eyes said, stepping forward. Despite being blind her aim was perfect. “Princess… you can surrender. You’ve done a lot for us over the centuries. We’ll give you that much.”
The Crown Princess didn’t even try to stop crying. “I killed her…”
The older unicorn lowered her gun. “She’s not going to resist.”
“You’re just going to let her go for what she’s done!?” another pirate shouted.
“Accident.”
“I mean all the other stuff! That actually matters!”
The blind mare shot him, vaporizing him. “Cotton Candy mattered, idjit.”
No one argued with her decision.
The Crown Princess had curled her wings around herself and was rocking back and forth.
“We’ll take her,” Cinder said.
“I didn’t say you could go,” the blind mare countered.
“You probably should. If we don’t come out of here there will be a Shimmie fleet ready to tear this ship to shreds. Actually, I can call them right now. I’d rather not.”
The blind mare frowned. “What was your purpose here?”
“To stop whatever it was she had planned to do with Silvertongue.”
“Then you have succeeded. Take her and go.”
“Right away.”
They were tossed onto a rustbucket ship and launched into space. The fleet warped away, leaving them adrift.
Cinder turned to Tab. “So, that bluff worked.”
Tab removed her restraints now that they were alone. “Risky, banking on them not knowing your magic capabilities.” She sent the signal with her horn. A Shimmie ship appeared and grabbed them in a tractor beam.
Cinder nodded, directing her attention to the Crown Princess. “...What are we going to do with her?”
“I made her a promise,” Suzie said. “She’ll be allowed to go free once we return.”
“Good. ...I think she needs to go to whatever’s home for her.”
“She hasn’t seen that home in thousands of years…”
“It’ll be something.”
~~~
Blackburn and the Sweeties had the easy parts of the plan. Even though the Crown Princess had been crafty, she was quite mad, and Crackling Leaves had never been one for direct influence, merely nudging.
Silvertongue, though…
He was where all the resources had gone. For the most part, the other plans boiled down to ‘send the right people to do the job and they’ll get it done’.
This one required a full, crazed invasion.
The Shill galaxy had stars arranged into a perfect sphere, almost all of which were main sequence white stars. Marring the elegant view was a thin fissure of madness that pierced the globe, cutting until it reached the center. The stars were managed so delicately that not a single one would fall into the fissure. A society built around madness; an apt description, many would say.
Those who knew better would know that the Shill - or more accurately the Dominion - was devoted to a strict, careful, absolute sanity. Everything was organized, served a greater purpose, and was deeply entrenched in the ideas of logical thought. If it didn’t have a discernible purpose, it didn’t exist. This was not to say entertainment didn’t exist; it did, to help the masses enjoy their lives. But everything was strictly regulated in such a way that no one in the galaxy would ever be exposed to even the idea of dissention. The vast majority of Dominion citizens didn’t even know the Shimmies existed. The Dominion was all there was.
That would change today. Shimmy had never dared to attack the Dominion capital world directly. She’d sent spies, but the defenses were far too extreme to do anything about, especially considering it would take all of ten minutes for Silvertongue to scramble ships from elsewhere in the galaxy to reinforce the position and utterly decimate even the largest of fleets. Conquering the world was a futile endeavor, much as conquering Shimmy’s capital was just as futile for Silvertongue.
Good thing they didn’t need to conquer it.
Ships in the universe had learned to travel billions of light years in seconds. Traversing galaxies was nothing, and military-grade ships could fly so precisely that they could weave right into the center of a galaxy without triggering any alarms on the edge of their space. One moment, there was nothing in orbit around the Dominion capital. The next, there were a few hundred golden ships.
The capital itself wasn’t a planet per se, but rather a massive silver sphere built around the central black hole of the galaxy. The fissure of madness punched through the top of the sphere and disappeared somewhere within.
It was around this fissure’s entry point that the Shimmies attacked. The fleet’s weapons impacted the planetary shields like a needle, forcing a hole through the barrier at its weakest point. Lances of gold and silver streaked across the dark sky of the artificial world, bringing with them great destruction and death on both sides.
But Silvertongue didn’t send his full forces to combat the rush; he was smarter than that. Such a large force could easily be used to take the attention of smaller, less dramatic entry attempts. He scrambled his fleets around the planet, catching dozens of different ships that were trying to get in through sneaky space warping. He would make sure none of these little ones got in with their sabotaging intentions, all while leaving just enough to keep the main Shimmie fleet occupied. He wouldn’t disrespect the fleet, for it would be foolish to let a distraction of that magnitude have free reign, but he would have to focus more on the smaller invasion attempts. At least, that was the plan.
For all the Shimmies fleet knew, he was buying it.
In reality, it was the smaller ships that were the distraction - they had little to nothing of interest on board. Sure, they carried bombs, but bombs weren’t going to be enough to get to Silvertongue. None of the ships would survive long enough for him to figure this out, so for all he knew every last one of them carried some kind of superweapon.
So far, everything went as intended. There was a great battle, but the lessened pressure on the main fleet allowed them to get a sizeable ground presence on the massive spherical construct around the fissure.
The next phase of the plan began - magic ground bombs. Massive metallic spheres infused with magic from a distant galaxy were transported by Shimmies to key locations on the capital world, exploding in massive puffs of light energy that would bring entire blocks to the ground, digging into the ground below. There was heavy resistance from all sides, and the bombs didn’t always reach their destinations. Some of them turned out to be duds.
There were thousands of them, operating as part of a seemingly normal, albeit desperate, military operation.
But one of the duds wasn’t really a bomb - it was just a hollow metal sphere. It was carted by unknowing soldiers to a lower level of the capitol and ordered to explode. It didn’t, and the Dominion soldiers decided duds weren’t a threat. Both Shimmies and Dominion ‘Shill’ left this particular ‘dud’ alone.
When it had been alone for some time, the top popped open, revealing Curaçao, Havocwing, Shadow, Insipid, Velvet, Grayscale, Sequin, Brook, and Shimmy’s primary avatar.
“I told myself I would never end up in the middle of a warzone…” Sequin sighed.
“Stay by me,” Shimmy said. “You two shouldn’t have to fight.”
“Until we get to our part of the plan, of course,” Brook pointed out.
“That’s a different sort of fight.”
“We ‘ave no time for discussion, we must act,” Curaçao said. “We know where Silvertongue is. You ‘ave Shivershackles?”
Shimmy nodded. “I do. We’re close to Silvertongue’s palace.”
“I ‘ave the map.” Curaçao held up the tablet. “I know where to go. We’ll make it.”
“Good luck. Stay hidden as long as possible.”
“Ugh, sneaking…” Havocwing muttered.
Curaçao nodded. She gestured to Shadow, who teleported all six sisters elsewhere, leaving Sequin, Brook, and Shimmy alone.
Sequin clung to Brook, shivering.
“It… it’s going to be okay,” Brook encouraged. ”Shimmy is here with us.”
“Shiver’s currently too out in the open,” Shimmy said, frowning. “We’re going to have to wait. I don’t want Silvertongue to know I’m here unless absolutely necessary.”
“He probably already knows.”
“But he doesn’t know where yet. I’m not going to broadcast my presence until the time is right.”
Sequin and Brook nodded.
“This’ll give you two time to prepare yourselves, too.”
“The ride over here wasn’t enough?” Sequin gawked.
“We’re conveniently out of heavy combat. That doesn’t mean the sounds of war won’t affect you.”
Sequin gulped. “Right…”
~~~
Shivershackles teleported to an abandoned area of the capitol’s inner city. The citizens had evacuated long ago, and the Shimmies had already been through to clean out all the raffle.
Wait here, Silvertongue ordered in his mind. Draw them out.
Who?
I am uncertain exactly who is arriving to take care of you, Shivershackles, but you will find out simply by waiting. You should already know this.
I never know things, master.
That is your recurring failing, is it not? Never looking ahead, not a unique thought anywhere in that head of yours. Ever the disappointment.
Shivershackles nodded. I know.
When they appear, don’t hesitate; kill them all.
Shimmy appeared in a flash of brilliant light, Sequin and Brook behind her. The godling grabbed Shivershackles by the neck, glaring at him. “Stand down, Shivershackles.”
She chose to deal with you rather than me? Interesting. I notice you aren't killing her.
Shivershackles let out a roar of agony and generated several meter-long spikes out of his body, numerous of which punctured Shimmy and attempted to drain her essence.
“You can’t do anything to me,” Shimmy said, smiling sadly. “You should know that, Shivershackles.”
You really should. Insolent whelp, kill her allies - they are clearly here for a reason.
Shivershackles generated two whirling bladed discs. They passed by Shimmy, ignoring her magic, and sailed true to Sequin and Brook. The couple managed to teleport to the other side of the blades, but Shivershackles wasn’t done. Without losing speed, the blades shot back, going for the backs of their necks.
Shimmy vaporized the attacks with a snap of her fingers. “You won’t do anything to them either.”
Worthless. You will kill them, Shivershackles. You will. Because I will make you.
“You really don’t have to listen to him,” Shimmy said. “You can listen to me - stand down Shivershackles.”
You know what happened the last time you betrayed me.
“Our authority is equal, Silvertongue. You must choose.”
You do not get a choice!
Shivershackles felt his mind pushed to the side - he was so worthless he couldn’t even be trusted to use his own body. Silvertongue took over, tapping into the immense rush of Shivershackles’ self-loathing to break free of Shimmy’s grip.
“You are weak here,” Silvertongue said with a wry smile that looked out of place on Shivershackles’ face. “This is my seat of power, Shimmy. Tell me, what is your ploy?”
“At the moment?” Shimmy held out her hand and lit it on glowing fire. “Get Shivershackles back.”
“You could just kill him,” Silvertongue pointed out. “It would be somewhat difficult for you in my city, yes, but it would not be impossible.” He chuckled. “But you can’t bring yourself to destroy the innocent. A man who truly has no choice… Offering him one is pointless. You’ve had him before, you know he has no purpose without a commanding voice. It’s the reason it was so easy to take him from you.” He created two blades of darkness, pointing them at Sequin and Brook. “They are here to play off his pity and history, aren’t they? Voices to appeal to his passion. A clever thought, but a fooli-”
A scowl appeared on Shivershackle’s face.
Shimmy grinned. “Unexpected company?”
The scowl was replaced with a smirk. “Not exactly unexpected, just… early. It looks as though you will get your chance with Shivershackles. I wish you luck in your endeavor. There is no way he’ll be able to resist you without me here to guide him like a lost sheep.”
Before Shimmy could figure out if he was lying to make Shivershackles feel worse or telling the truth, he had left Shivershackles’ mind, leaving only a broken, battered man.
A broken, battered man with so much self-loathing he could blow up a city block at that moment.
“Oh geez,” Shimmy said, creating a massive shield around her and the couple behind her. What had once been a bustling block of an artificial city became melted slag as Shivershakles unleashed his energy.
He whimpered as he did so. He could feel the pain and heat of his own attack. It wouldn’t kill him, that would be more failure than usual, and he didn’t want that.
...Or did he?
It was a question that kept coming back to him over the years - the endless blur of years that passed by like the scenery on a rollercoaster. He knew full well at this point that he was stronger the worse he felt about himself, creating a sort of feedback loop every now and then where he would feel good about feeling bad, which just sabotaged everything.
He wished he could be as dispassionate as Silvertongue, but none of his masters had ever ordered him to be that way, so… he couldn’t. He needed some kind of order to follow out, or his powers did next to nothing.
Currently that order was to kill the two ponies behind Shimmy. And Shimmy, but he knew he would never be able to do that, he’d encountered her too many times. At least the knowledge that he could not succeed at that task would make the other two easier… except now that he realized that, the confidence made him weaker again.
He let out a pained wail of aggravation, slamming into Shimmy’s shield as hard as he could manage. The focused attack shattered the amber globe, sending all its shards flying. Instead of coming face to face with Shimmy, he saw a pair of wise, purple eyes.
“You don’t have to enslave yourself, you know,” Brook said.
Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. He wasn’t enslaving himself. He just was.
“I used to think I was trapped by others, like you. And I was.” Shivershackles attacked, but Shimmy defended Brook. “But their trap was sinister. Powered by my own guilt and self-loathing.” Shimmy’s shield broke again, but this time she appeared behind Shivershackles and pinned him to the ground. “It took Sequin here to get me out of it.”
Shivershackles threw Shimmy’s avatar off through his tears. He had no one. No one to save him. Only masters. That was all there could be.
“We can get you out of there,” Sequin said, holding onto Brook to steady herself.
“I. Don’t. Need. Out,” Shivershackles breathed, standing tall. “I need to be effective. And to be effective… I must be worthless.”
“I don’t believe that,” Sequin said. “I don’t believe that for one second.”
“To be effective I must be worth-”
“Not that. I don’t believe that you need to be ‘effective’.” She frowned. “Shivershackles… do you really want to be a slave?”
Shivershackles looked at her in confusion - forgetting to attack. “I… I don’t want anything.”
“You didn’t want out,” Brook said.
“I was ordered. This is how I must be.”
“Silvertongue’s not here right now,” Sequin said. “You can… take a new command, if you want. Only if you want.”
“Do you want this?” Brook asked, gesturing at his body - covered in scratches, scars, painful knobs of uncontrolled magic, and tears. “It can’t be worth it… even if it is comfortable. Known. Regular.” She frowned. “I stayed in my library for years. I could have left at any time if I only stopped hating myself, but I chose to remain in that prison, even though I didn’t realize it. I changed my mind, eventually. And I couldn’t be happier.”
“Please, Shivershackles,” Sequin pleaded. “You don’t have to stay here. You can free yourself. You can choose.”
“I can’t make choices!”
“Then I order you to make a choice,” Brook said. “Kill us, or let go.”
Shivershackles stared at her blankly. She had no authority, he didn’t have to listen to her. If the words had come from Shimmy they would have carried weight. But they had come from an ordinary, run-of-the-mill Twilight.
He knew to just ignore it and kill her.
But that would have been making a choice, wouldn't it? Doing exactly what she asked. Which would make her the master. But then he would be killing her. That wasn’t what she really wanted. She wanted him to make his choice. He didn’t make choices. He couldn't. Too much.
Kill her.
Let go.
He could choose. He couldn't choose. That wasn't how it worked. That wasn’t how his magic worked.
Silvertongue has the most authority.
He isn’t here.
She speaks for Shimmy.
She does not.
Power comes from killing.
Freedom comes from letting go.
I don’t want power.
I don’t want freedom.
I don’t want anything.
I need orders.
I don’t need anything.
I order myself.
I cannot.
I cannot.
I cannot.
Shivershackles eyes rolled into the back of his head. He passed out.
Sequin gasped. “My stars…”
“W-what just happened?” Brook asked.
“I… think you turned his magic against him?” Shimmy said, scratching her head in confusion. “I’m not really sure.”
“Weren’t we supposed to convert him?” Sequin asked. “That was the plan, right?”
Shimmy shrugged. “Curaçao specifically didn’t tell us everything about every fine detail. For all we know this was one of the backups.” She placed a hand on Shivershackles’ form, encasing him in golden light. “...I hope we can help him.”
“Removing his magic might be good for him,” Brook observed.
Shimmy nodded. “Good work, you two. You got him.”
“You did all the heavy lifting,” Brook said, rubbing the back of her head.
“Darling, please,” Sequin chuckled. “Take credit where credit is due. We won.”
“But we weren’t the most important,” Shimmy said. “That’s up to Curaçao and her sisters.”
“I wonder how they are doing,” Sequin said.
~~~
Silvertongue sat in his throne: a plain object made of a silvery metal. It was adorned with nothing aside from a simple cushion for the sake of comfort.
The rest of the royal hall was decidedly more lavish, covered in banners, immense screens displaying the state of the Dominion, and art depicting his many great feats on the floor, walls, and ceiling. The throne was simple because he sat in it - he was all the decoration it needed.
He sat alone. He had already given his generals their orders. They would carry them out to the letter. Some would fail - and die as they deserved - and others would succeed, and their reward would be the satisfaction of a job well done. There was nothing more he needed to do on that front. His resolve was to just sit and wait to see what happened. This was even more true at the moment, since he had left Shivershackles to his own devices.
Silvertongue really had no idea what the result of the encounter with Shimmy would be. He had guesses, to be sure, but nothing he would place money on. Normally this would infuriate him - but not today. Because that battle did not matter.
The one that did was about to begin.
He had known his ‘daughters’ would come for him, though he did not know exactly how.
He had to admit, sending Starlight Shadow in alone had been a move he wasn't expecting.
The dark unicorn walked right into his throne room through the front doors. Outside, he could see the blood of his guards pooling on the ground. Silvertongue was impressed - they had managed to remain mostly undetected on their journey to his location. Curaçao had really outdone herself.
Shadow approached. She put a commendable amount of effort into keeping her head held high and her stride even, but it was easy for Silvertongue to see the soul-wrenching conflict deep within her.
She fixed Silvertongue with a stern expression.
“Welcome, my daughter.”
She didn’t deny it.
“Why are you here?” Silvertongue asked.
“To converse.”
Silvertongue nodded slowly, stepping down from his throne and approaching her. He saw both the instinct to run and the instinct to embrace him flash across her features. She listened to the call of neither, keeping her hooves firmly planted in the ground.
“Converse of what? Surely not to ask for forgiveness or to change my mind.”
“I am just… t-to speak.”
“You do not know.” Silvertongue observed. “Curaçao has come a long way in what is such a short time for her.”
Shadow swallowed. “She asked us if we would accept lies and deceptions in the plan ahead of time. Agreement was unanimous.”
“Did she manipulate that out of you?”
“No.”
“How can you know?”
“Because she is my sister. I know her.”
“You would not know her if she did not want you to.”
“She does. She desperately does. U-unlike you.”
“You don’t really believe that, Shadow.” He put a hoof to her cheek, noting that she couldn’t bring herself to flinch away or lean into it. “You know I care for you. Deeply.”
“Curaç…”
“Curaçao’s words can be just as deceptive as mine. You have to look into yourself, Shadow.”
Shadow shivered, looking at him in the face with tearful eyes. “I… I don’t know w-what is true.”
“Truth is such a-”
Shadow interrupted him. “But I know I can’t let you make your perfect world.”
Silvertongue frowned. “You could stand at my side, you know. In every way you want. Even if you believe me deceptive, you know I can still provide what you need.”
“I… don’t…”
“Need is too strong a word, is it not? Perhaps… desire.”
Shadow made no response.
“There is a place for you - and your sisters, if they would return. Like a father should act to his rebellious children, I will take you back in.”
“You rejected us…”
“I gave you freedom. It was a reward.”
“A reward for ponies programmed to unconditionally love you!” Shadow shouted at the top of her lungs, her Void energy cracking the ground beneath her. “You’re smart enough to see that resultant prior.”
“Was it really unconditional? You have been purified. Yet, here you are, Shadow. The same as ever.”
Tears were streaking down Shadow’s face. “You… you did this to me.”
“Are you complaining or thanking me?”
“I DON’T BUCKING KNOW!” Shadow shouted, firing a beam of Void energy right at his face. He effortlessly blocked the incoming attack with a shield.
This was no doubt the signal for Havocwing and Grayscale, for they burst through opposite walls at high speed. Havocwing lit the area around Silvertongue on fire and Grayscale attempted to crush Silvertongue in the flames. Silvertongue’s horn flashed, easily dissipating the fire and gravitational alteration.
This triggered something hidden in Grayscale’s wing - a needle composed of magic crystal. It locked onto the source of the antigravity spell and sped toward Silvertongue’s brain. He barely had enough time to cast a second spell, shattering the object.
“Concentrated madness from a fissure…” Silvertongue mused. “I wonder how many ponies Shimmy sacrificed to get that?”
“She stole it from you!” Havocwing shouted, breathing fire on him to no effect.
“Did she? I suppose I need to check the stockpiles more often. A good attempt, Grayscale - take out my mind temporarily so you can gain the upper hoof. Were I grading, I would say ninety-seven points. Failed to account for my speed, but the ingenuity of having the attack trigger as a retaliation was truly commendable.”
“Oh, joy, praise from the monster. Great.” Grayscale rolled her eyes.
“Where’s the next layer, Grayscale?” Silvertongue asked. “I’m waiting.”
“Maybe I was regulated to basic smashing duty, or something.”
“Curaçao is not one to waste talents…”
“Unless she’s banking on you thinking that and purposefully set me to have a simple role just to mess with your head. Not that I know, or anything.”
Silvertongue frowned. “Not you…”
“EAT SHIT!” Havocwing shouted, lifting a wing to reveal several more shards of diluted madness, all of them triggering at once.
Silvertongue was ready this time, catching each and every one in his magic. “The same trick never works twi-”
He had to stop talking to use a burst of radiation to toss a gravity-accelerated Insipid to the side before she could touch him. “The many-tiered approach…” Silvertongue mused. “Each of you has one method or more to killing me, and each time one fails…” Silvertongue stopped Grayscale from causing an earthquake with his telekinesis. “...another one executes. Each attack has a high probability of success, eventually one must do me in?”
“Like, ow,” Insipid muttered from her position on the ground. “He’s totally got us…”
“Insipid!” Havocwing hissed.
“Confirmation changes nothing, your sister has not weakened your position.” Silvertongue frowned. Velvet and Curaçao were still nowhere to be seen. He needed to fish them out, interrupt the plan. The best way to do that and strengthen his own position.
He turned to Insipid and unleashed a beam of radiative energy. As expected, Shadow was able to defend her with a shield - but the moment of concern for Insipid caused the invisible Curaçao to gasp and trip over a rock.
...How unlike her.
No doubt a trap, but now that he knew her position he couldn't just ignore it. After knocking Shadow to the side with a beam of harmonic energy, he picked up Curaçao. She didn’t even try to stay invisible.
“You know better than this,” Silvertongue said.
Curaçao’s grimace deepened. “Yes, I do.”
“Why would you want to be discovered? To put me at ease? Distract me from Velvet?”
Curaçao raised an eyebrow. “Like I would tell you anyzing.”
“Keeping Velvet back… an assurance policy. The moment I bring death into the equation, fear abounds. And she is the only one I do not know the full capabilities of. Luckily, neither do you… double blind.”
“Everyzing is a gamble.”
“Resorting to gambles, Curaçao? You disappoint me. Use only near-guarantees.”
“Nozing is near-guarantee against you.”
“Hmm… the same should be true in reverse…” Silvertongue nodded thoughtfully. “In order for Velvet’s assurance policy to work, she has to be able to see everything happening. That mare has never been able to control her appetite.”
He tossed Curaçao to the side, sticking her in place with Grayscale, Havocwing, and Insipid. He turned to Shadow and took her face forcefully in his hooves. “Now.”
“N-now!?” Shadow sputtered.
“I will have you now.”
“N-yeh-nnghh…”
“NO!” Havocwing shouted. “SLAP HIM!”
Shadow did - with a Void-infused hoof to boot. He took it straight on, grabbing her miniscule hoof in his own. “You came all this way, Shadow…” He pinned her to a wall, smirking. “Your time has come.”
“H-help me…” Shadow wailed.
“I plan on it.”
He planted his lips on hers - and that did exactly what it needed to do.
Velvet burst out of the folded eldritch space she had occupied just moments before - her blood tendrils already dozens of times larger than they should have been, her eyes crazed with hunger.
“So much… so much… the terror of others, the terror of oneself, THE TERROR OF DISAPPOINTMENT!” She rushed forward in a blind ecstasy - all Silvertongue had to do was step aside and she tackled Shadow to the ground. Shadow didn’t even try to put up a fight, for she was already broken. “Y̨O͠U̡ D͢O̷N’͡T ĘV͞EN͞ KN̴O̕W! ͘WHA͡T̵ I͢S I̢T ̀YOU’́RE MOS̵T̵ AFR͡AI̧D ̡OF̕?̛ ͢T̶H͏ÀT͠ ̧YO͟U ̨A͟R̢E G͟ETTING̕ ̀WHAT́ ̵YOŲ WA̶N͡T̢? OR WH͡AT ͢Y̕O̡U ̕D̕ON͡’T WA̡NT? T̢HȨ DISA̕PPOINT̡MENT̶ O͢F̴ ̵YOUR͏ S̕ÌST͞ERS̢? TH̷E͝ ̨FE̛AR͞ ́YOU̷ CĄUS͞E͢D̴ ŢH̕E͞M̵?̢ F̶A̸ILUR͠E̕!́?̶ ̛O̵R…” She paused, grinning coyly through the eldritch madness surrounding her. “THE F̧E͢AR Y̶OU ͘A̶REN͡’T̨ AS ͟SM̸A̡R͡T AS ͠YOU TH͞I͝NK͠ Y̴ÓU̡ ARE?”
Silvertongue’s confident smirk vanished. That wasn’t one of Shadow’s fears anymore.
That was all he had time to think before the masses of bones and skin and blood surrounded him on all sides, plunging him into darkness.
“Hello, daddy. Little Red’s come home.”
He no longer needed to worry about not killing any of them - he had already failed to keep Velvet from feeding on the fear in the air and going after him. He tapped into the radiation essence, forcing as much power as he could out at once.
“You know what? I don’t think that matters. I’m just gonna say I’m… immune, yeah. What kind of monster would I be if I was defeated by simple radiation? I mean, really.”
“You are tapping into a power you do not understand…”
Velvet laughed, the sound cascading into Silvertongue from all sides. “I can use it. Even after all these years… you can’t! YOU CAN’T, SILVERTONGUE! THE T͉̯̚͟Ȯ̱͉̫̙̲̹͊W̖̘̘̱̹ͅE̻͈̠͇ͦ̀̽́R̻ͤͫ̂ͭͯ͆ IS BEYOND YOU AND ALWAYS WILL BE!”
“Attempting to scare me?” Silvertongue stood firm. “You never were the smartest.”
Velvet’s face poked out of the darkness, grinning. “I don’t care if you’re afraid or not. I care that you DIE.”
Tendrils shot toward Silvertongue from all sides, including angles that didn’t exist in standard spatial coordinates. Silvertongue combatted it directly with the spirits of Nihilia and Discord, twisting the tentacles of blood left and right, forward and back - twisting himself out of Velvet’s mass of destruction and back into the throne room proper.
Curaçao was standing right there. She jumped him. “MINE!”
Silvertongue abandoned trying to defend himself from the monstrosity that was Velvet and lashed out with a beam spell. It hit Curaçao in the side, flaying her flesh and charring most of it. She went flying, letting out an excruciating wail.
Her control over her power dissipated, revealing herself to be Insipid, not Curaçao. The mare he had thought was Insipid let out a pained grunt and revealed herself to actually be Curaçao.
Switched the entire time. Brilliant. Worthy of praise. “Excellent plo-”
Velvet’s eldritch spike drove into Silvertongue’s back, shattering his spine and grabbing hold of his soul.
“WE͞ A̶R̸E̷N’Ţ D̡ONE Y͟ET!”
They’ve finally managed to seriously injure me… Silvertongue laughed despite the immense pain. He focused on the nature of the Tree of Harmony within him, sending a feedback of purification through the Elements of Harmony at Velvet. She screeched in agony as the part of her darkness in him was burnt away.
“You’re so direct.” Silvertongue created a cascade of twisted radiation infused with bright purple magic, encasing Velvet from all sides. “Why not try something creative?”
“You want CREATIVE?”
“I would very much like to know the true extent of your powers before I have to end you.”
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE SMART! HA!” She twisted out of the magic cage through some mechanism he was unaware of, appearing on his back - hooves to his head. “But you’re going to let me do THIS!”
She tapped into his mind, flooding him with the worst nightmares she had ever seen or heard of from all the ponies she’d drained of fear - Equestria V, Equestria IV, her sisters, Silvertongue’s soldiers they’d fought on the way there…
He retaliated by grabbing her small mind. “And now I have you.”
“WHAT No oh no…” Velvet’s confidence and gusto went out like a candle as Silvertongue grabbed her spirit and began to crush it. It was surprisingly resilient, being made partially from a power he had never dealt with directly. He really would have liked to see what it could do, but that was too risky. He needed t-
He tore himself out of Velvet’s mind and raised a horn to defend against Curaçao jumping him.
No… no, that was Insipid. Only Insipid would put herself in danger just to touch someone like this.
The switch had been faked. The real Curaçao had maintained control of her powers even when bleeding out from his attack.
Beyond commendable.
But she would not touch him. He could create a soft barrier that would only allow a speck of his power through. She wouldn’t get all of it.
Starlight Shadow saw all of this was about to happen. She cast a spell - the one she learned from Brook and Sequin to talk with Insipid. She didn’t use it on Insipid, but rather Silvertongue. Specifically, a single essence within Silvertongue, that of Twilight Sparkle, essence of magic. It recognized the plea from another one of its selves and responded.
Silvertongue’s rejection of the mental spell was no longer automatic - it was still open from contact with Velvet and the Twilight Within wanted to connect to one of herself. It needed to go back.
This caused a fraction of a second delay before Silvertongue could raise the barrier.
That fraction of a second was all Insipid needed to physically touch him.
“Like, zis is MOINE!” She laughed, dropping the Curaçao disguise, suddenly brimming with light, darkness, radiation, magic, and a handful of other sources of power. “Gotcha!”
Silvertongue laughed. “So you did.”
She pointed her hoof, unleashing a torrent of all her power at once. Silvertongue met it with an identical beam of his own. Evenly matched. Insipid should not have been able to fire a laser with such precision accuracy and control so quickly after absorbing it, but she was Insipid. If she thought about the technicalities of what she was doing, she probably would falter.
“Insipid…” Silvertongue said. “Don’t you think tha-”
“NOPE! LALALALA!” Insipid put her hooves over her ears. “Curie told me to completely ignore you when we got to this point! You don’t exist! Nope! Nada! Now stop existing already!”
“Good work, Insipid,” Curaçao said, stumbling over to her - still heavily injured, but by sheer force of will she made her journey.
“Hey, what about good work Velvet? Or Shadow! She did great!” Velvet used some of her bloody tendrils to mend Curaçao’s wound - losing a significant amount of her fear power in the process.
“I… I did?” Shadow asked, confused. “The spell did nothing!”
“But it gave Insipid the half second she needed! You were the part of the plan we didn’t know we needed!”
Curaçao breathed a sigh of relief. “I am glad… I cannot take full credit anymore.”
“So I was literally just a loud distraction?” Havocwing asked, taking position behind Insipid. “Lame.”
“She played the cards she had well,” Grayscale said, flying opposite Havoc. “You did too, Silvertongue.”
Silvertongue grunted. “It came down to the last second…”
“But it’s over now,” Curaçao said. “Goodbye, Silvertongue.”
“Goodbye.”
“...Why aren’t you afraid?” Velvet asked. “I’ve felt almost none on you…”
“I have control of myself.”
Curaçao frowned. “...You are ‘iding somezing.”
“Yes,” Silvertongue admitted. “But do you really think you can get me to talk?”
“Non,” Curaçao conceded. “Finish it.”
The six of them acted as one - a set of imperfect, neutral Elements, as they had in the clearing near the Tree of Harmony what felt like an eternity ago. The extra power of the six of them coupled with Insipid’s stolen power.
The power of the Mean Six outclassed Silvertongue’s this time. He let out a shriek of pain as his skin boiled off. He focused all his energy on his horn, holding on as long as he could.
Weakening, he was aware of the presence of Shimmy focusing on him. She must have succeeded in her task with Shivershackles - and was there to add her own efforts to the flames.
Unnecessary. But good for her, he supposed.
His horn exploded.
And then he was aware of no more.