//------------------------------//
// 111 - O 
// Story: Songs of the Spheres 
// by GMBlackjack 
//------------------------------//


Year 29


One of the lesser known but still quality bookstores in Celestia City was Trotting Pages, a mixture bookstore, media center, and surprisingly good café. During her time spent looping through one day repeatedly, Allure had discovered this place and slowly she had spread word about it. It was no longer as quiet and peaceful as it once was, but it was never packed – or noisy. It was still a bookstore after all, even the patrons there just for the café understood this. 

Which was exactly why Allure was here; for the food. Or more accurately, to use the food as an excuse to get together with her daughter, Minna, and Frigid, Minna’s husband. Minna was in her normal outfit: a simple pitch black dress, but she also wore a fabric armband of bright orange with stripes of silver that proclaimed her rank of Marshall to anyone who cared. Subordinate only to O’Neill, Yellow Diamond, and the High Commanders. She’d progressed a long way over the years. Allure felt like it was such a short time – but three decades was nothing to sneeze at. 

…Had it really been that long since the war? It didn’t seem like it. Maybe she’d experienced less, since there was temporal drift. News stories were saying the temporal drift was up to plus or minus six years now. Would be ten before too long. 

“…all I’m saying is that whenever I’m around Red Diamond my predictions just stop,” Minna said, holding a fork in her hand. “I know she’s not a bad person, but that still unnerves me.”

“And you don’t unnerve other people?” Allure asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, sure, but I’d still like to know why she’s outside my predictions.”

Frigid shrugged. “Magical?”

Minna smiled. “Frigid…”

“What? Enough magic should be able to do anything!”

Minna scratched Frigid behind the ear. “It’s a good thing I didn’t marry you for your intelligence.”

“…Oh,” Frigid said, ears drooping. “What is it this time?”

“Geez, nothing that bad,” Allure said. “It’s just that magic doesn’t block Minna’s abilities just by being strong. It has to be intentional.”

“And I’d know if it was intentional,” Minna added. “She would have felt like Brell. Which she doesn’t.”

Frigid nodded slowly. “Sorry for forgetting about that.”

“Frigid, we’ve been married over twenty years. If I was going to blow a gasket at you for your chronic forgetfulness, I would have already.”

“…You know, that makes sense.”

Allure put on a smile, but inwardly she was facehooving. She liked Frigid just fine, but living with him would be a nightmare. Minna assured her otherwise, but Allure agreed to disagree. The stallion was a few bread slices short of a picnic and hardly remembered much of anything. He was exceptionally kind-hearted, understanding, and patient – likely because of the way he was – which made occasionally interacting with him rather pleasant. But living with him…?

Allure pushed these thoughts aside and continued the conversation, changing the topic to Blumiere stepping down as mayor again. They all knew it wouldn’t last long. 

What they didn’t know was that they were being watched. A small fly-shaped drone snapped a few pictures of them, ensuring they were in the right spot. It confirmed that a waiter was bringing them a special slice of cake, compliments of the chef. It flew away to check on the second group: Prism Dash and Core Apple, better known as Corea. 

Corea had been sitting there, alone, staring into her tea – but Prism had decided she couldn’t just let Corea be so despondent. So she had sat down and started talking, and the two were acting as if they were old friends even though they had rarely interacted before now.

Prism was busy complaining. “So, anyway, the latest in the long line of boyfriends has been a complete wash.”

“…Is this one a pony?”

Prism let out a chuckle. “I’m not going to make the same mistake my mother did. She did a great job raising me alone but I don’t think I could do that with my lifestyle choices. No, this guy’s a Pokèrin.” 

“…Can’t say I’m familiar.”

“Uh, that world that joined after we became Class 2 and has become pretty major? Before the great expedition to the Unrealities? Pokèrin Anima? Loosely based in the ‘Pokèmon’ game series?” 

“I mean it sounds like I’ve heard of it before, I guess.”

Prism looked around. “Look, over there – that Ga? Pokèrin has Ga as well, though they call themselves sirknights. The difference is that Pokèrin has a lot of sapient races. Like how we’re all Equite because we're from an Equis – even if, say, you were a dragon, you’re an Equite.”

“Oh. …So they’re the replacement then?”

Prism blinked. “Replacement?”

“I mean, for my world.”

Prism bit her lip. “Corea…”

“I’m no idiot. I know Elemental Four isn’t important anymore. Everyone just moves away…” She touched the glass with her hoof. “Couldn’t stop it.”

“Don’t be hard on yourself, you did a lot of good on that world.”

“I know. I know. But I wasn’t there when they needed it.”

“Didn’t you basically get hit head-on with orbital bombardment to save the airbenders?”

Corea nodded. “Still. I took too long to recover.” She looked down. “…I feel like I failed Iroh.”

“The people are still alive and living well,” Prism assured her. 

“When was the last time you saw someone from Elemental Four wearing traditional clothing or living the traditional lifestyle?” Corea held out a hoof. “Can you even tell if any of the people here are from Elemental Four? Or do they all just look like humans?”

Prism took a quick look around. She saw a lot of humans, and several with the correct ethnicity for Elemental Four… but she couldn’t say for certain. She was relatively certain one of them was a firebender because of the way their tea was steaming, but that was it. “Maybe one. I see your point.”

Corea nodded sadly. 

“Look, Corea, there are hundreds of universes in Merodi Universalis. They don’t all have to be ‘important’ to mean something, right? Elemental Four was one of the founders. Their legacy will always be remembered – as will yours.”

“Yeah, I know, and that’s what I hold onto to give me peace.” She leaned back. “Doesn’t change the fact that it’s sad.”

“…Yeah.”

The drone confirmed the arrival of the cake to their table. It flew away to one last group, a husband-and-wife human-unicorn pair that wasn’t in the café but the adjoining bookstore. The two were quiet individuals – Jolyne’s son Job spent his time observing everything closely while Nova’s Stardust was carefully examining books. Neither had said a word in the last twenty minutes and they were perfectly fine with that. Job was a muscular man who was decidedly smaller than most of the Joestar line while Stardust wore prominent pointed glasses, even though her eyes were fine. She liked the look of them and the digital interface they could overlay on her books. 

Stardust did find something interesting, eventually. “Hmm…” she muttered, pulling a dimensional guidebook off the shelves. “The worlds in here are listed by importance.”

Job glanced at her curiously. 

“Job, let’s see. This is a recent book – last local year – what do you think they list as important worlds?”

“Uh… The Hub.”

“Given. Celestia City is also given, even though it isn’t a universe. I’m looking for the others.”

Job nodded slowly – he was very used to his wife’s little games at this point. “Let’s see… Earth Stand, Equis Vitis, Earth Vitis, Earth Tau’ri, Equis Cosmic, Lai, Gem Vein, and uh… …what’s the eighth founder?”

“Elemental Four. It’s not at the front of the book, so it doesn’t matter that you didn’t remember.”

“Right. …How many are we looking for?”

“Eleven. There’s a twelfth but it’s not a Merodi world. Bonus points if you get that one.”

“So… Skaia’s Dream, Esefem, Pokèrin Anima, and...” He put his hand to his head. “I don’t have any idea.”

“The Mushroom World is the eleventh,” Stardust said, flipping the page and quoting a passage. “While the Mushroom World was a largely background presence back in the times when only the Mushroom Kingdom was a known power, upon the discovery of the Nexus and Castle Bleck, more research was put into the world. It turned out to have two important aspects - a galaxy filled with a race of star-shaped beings called Luma and a great dimensional connection to other worlds.” 

“So that’s where those floating chubby starfish come from.”

Stardust nodded. “The next world is the Sparkle Census. ‘Merodi Universalis’s closest ally and greatest friend.’ Again, doesn’t really count, but it's in here in the ‘twelfth’ position.”

“Not counting the Hub and Celestia City.”

Stardust smirked, glad to hear Job had been paying attention. They both knew the conversation had ended, so they went back to silence. 

That is, until a waiter walked up to them, depositing a plate with a small slice of cake into Stardust’s magic. She didn’t bother eating it – she tore it open, discovering the real treasure inside. 

Two pink tickets. 

Congratulations! You have been selected by Trotting Pages as the recipients of a cruise through Merodi Universalis! 

Below that were instructions about where the cruise was going to start, what worlds it would go to, and what luxuries would be available. 

“Job, the factory gives you vacation days you never take, right?”

Job nodded. 

There was no further discussion. They decided they were going. 

Back at Corea and Prism’s table, the two of them stared at the tickets. 

“…Eh, sure, why not,” Prism said. 

“Great! It’s a date!”

“Wait nonono-”

Corea put a hoof on Prism’s mouth. “Yes.”

“Corea…”

“Just be sure to actually dump him before you go.”

Prism bit her lip. “…All right.”

Allure, Minna, and Frigid had gotten three. 

“…Can we go? Please?” Frigid begged.

“I have a big responsibility, Fri,” Minna said. “I-”

“Psh,” Allure said, rolling her eyes. “O’Neill will give you some time off. Come on, let’s go! It sounds fun!”

Minna shook her head, smiling softly. “All right. Guess we get to go on a cruise.”

The fly drone, having confirmed the acceptance of all the tickets, returned to those controlling it. There were two Earth Vitis humans of pink complexion and white hair, clearly related – likely siblings. The young man was operating the drone from a computer while the woman had her eyes closed and was sitting in a meditative posture. The man clasped his hands together. “They’ve taken it. Does everything look good?”

The woman smiled warmly. “Everything looks great.”


~~~


Corea and Prism arrived first. The instructions on the tickets told them to come to a dock on Celestia City where a smaller ship waited to take them to the actual cruise – contest winners would get to make a grand entrance on the actual cruise ship. Luckily even the small ‘ferry’ was luxurious, so they didn’t feel cheated. There were ten chairs equipped with full reclining features, cupholders, and a food replicator in the middle specialized for drinks. 

“Hey,” Corea said, nudging Prism. “We’re alone.”

“Oh good god…”

Corea used her magic to access the food replicator to create a drink from Elemental Four she liked to call the ‘Air Temple Serenity’. She had invented it one day and Tenzin had hated her for it. It took the form of a completely clear, fizzy liquid. “Have some culture.”

Prism rolled her eyes, taking a seat opposite Corea. “So, what is this, Corea’s overly-optimistic and cheery attempts at seduction, or what?”

“Oh, was that not obvious? I’m sorry.”

“It was very obvious.”

“And I was being silly.” Corea winked and stuck her tongue out adorably. 

Prism rolled her eyes. “You’re wasting your time on me, Avatar.”

“If I am it’s not really a big deal,” Corea admitted. “I’ll probably have a new friend at the end and have gotten to know you better.”

Prism smirked. “You seem better.”

“You caught me at a bad time last week. Fair warning, if you get to know the latest Avatar, you will have a nearly unending stream of positivity ruined by dramatic pitfalls every month or so. Anything you should warn me about?”

“That I’m not interested?”

“Besides that. Because as we all know that’s nothing when two souls are meant to be.”

“…You’re a ka-phisher?”

Corea blinked. “Wait, what? That exists? Spirits on high, no! I’m just saying it doesn’t mean much. Especially not when I’m persistent. Now come on, warnings about you?”

Prism decided to humor her – even though she was well aware that was the first sign of trouble. “I am probably the main reason there’s talk of removing Evening Sparkle from office. Not that it’s working, but I make where I stand on her very clear.”

“…Oh, right…” Corea rubbed the back of her head. “That’s okay. Mom told me about that one.”

“Yeah. I’m also exceptionally busy with my athletics and research the vast majority of the time. I often forget to eat.”

“Looks like you need someone to remind you!” Corea said with a wink.

“…You’re such a cornball.”

“I like being a cornball!”

Minna, Frigid, and Allure arrived at this time.

“Frigid, help me,” Prism called. “Your sister-in-law is trying to seduce me.”

Frigid took one look at Corea. Corea raised her eyebrows playfully. Frigid let out a laugh. “You’re on your own. Also, here’s a hint, just give in. Her persistence knows no bounds.”

“How so?” Allure asked.

“She hasn’t told you the story about how she got Tenzin to train her as a child?”

Corea smirked. “Oh yeah, I wouldn’t let him off the hook. Ever.”

“And then he yelled at you and made you run away crying,” Minna offered. 

“But that ruins the funny nature of the story!” Corea complained. “Yeesh. You’re supposed to tell it where I leave acting like I’ve been defeated, but then he comes and saves me anyway!” 

“I thought your mother was Honesty?”

“It’s just an exaggeration! I tell people the real story if they ask!”

Allure sat down next to Prism while the rest of them kept arguing about the proper way to tell stories. “You’ve doomed yourself.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Double doomed.”

Prism rolled her eyes. “I have enough willpower to resist her charms.”

“And you just called them charms. Holy Celestia, you’re not only in her web, you’re tying yourself up.”

Prism didn’t dignify this with a response. She did finally take a sip of the drink Corea had given her. Her eyes widened. This was actually pretty good.

“Dooooooooooooom.” Allure said spookily. 

“You’re the Knight of Heart, not Doom.”

At this point Stardust and Job entered the room, smiled warmly at the five others, and then promptly sat as far away from them as possible, turning to their books. 

The moment they had settled, the voice of the pilot came to them. “Now that everyone’s here, we shall make our way to the Lantea. The trip will take about five minutes so we can integrate with the fireworks display, at which point you will walk down the red carpet where you will be given a tour of the cruise. Normally at this point I’d say buckle up, but we have enough dampeners to get hit with a large meteor and not feel it. Enjoy yourselves and prepare for your voyage through the cosmos!”

The voice cut out. They heard a soft rumbling that presumably came from the ship’s engines. 

“Ship, visual,” Job ordered. The luxury ship’s walls turned invisible, allowing them to see the receding form of Celestia City. 

“I didn’t know it could do this,” Frigid said, eyes wide. “Woah…”

“It’s a high-end luxury ship, of course it can,” Prism commented. 

“Then why didn’t we open it sooner? This is awesome!” Corea blurted, pressing her face to the wall-turned-window.

“Didn’t think about it.”

The ship flew through space and created a dimensional portal. 

Minna’s smile dropped instantly. She rushed to the front of the ship, punching in the cabin door. 

There were no pilots. Instead there was a large sign hanging from the ceiling of the cockpit that said ‘nice try!’ with a winky face under it. All the controls had been stripped out of the ship. 

Minna wasn’t going to have time to hotwire any controls before they entered the portal, even with her enhanced abilities. 

There was no time to say anything. They were sent through the portal to a universe containing only one sunlike star with a handful of planets orbiting it. 

“It was a trap!” she called back. “There’s no cruise! All the controls have been ripped out!”

Prism pushed her way into the cockpit, analyzing everything that had been torn out. “It can still fly and it appears all the important wires are still here. Give me half an hour and I can jerry-rig something.”

“Or we could just dimensionally jump out of here,” Allure said, removing her dimensional device. It told her there was no connection back to Celestia City. “Oooor not. Surprise, surprise.”

Corea stretched her legs. “Well, guess this cruise just became an adventure. I, personally, don’t mind.”

Stardust sighed. “I do… I never wanted to be involved in anything like this.”

“We can take care of it, don’t worry,” Job said, standing tall. “What can I do?”

Allure shrugged. “I don’t think you can do much – oh, wait, got it! Since you know the features of this ship that are controlled by voice command, you can work on those!”

“Ship, return,” Job said. Nothing. “Ship, forward.”

“Why isn’t it working!?” Frigid blurted.

“Disabled,” Minna said. “You can help Prism with the hotwiring.”

“Hey, he hasn’t tried very many!” Allure blurted. “There could be something!”

“Any ship wouldn’t want any important commands to be vocally controlled by passengers.”

“But what if there’s something else useful?”

“I’ll go help with the cockpit,” Job muttered, passing Minna. 

Minna and Allure locked eyes – and figured it would be best to talk about it later. They needed to get out of the situation as soon as possible.  

Stardust poked her head into the cockpit. “…Perhaps you could cross the streams of the blue and red wires.”

“That wouldn’t work because of the highly volatile nature of the green thaumics,” Prism said, twisting a yellow and a green wire together, handing Job a few loose screws to hold. “I’ve got the university education, let me handle this.”

Stardust nodded slowly and returned to her seat, wordless. 

“Hey, she can h-” Job began.

“You want to get this done as fast as possible right? She’ll get in the way since she doesn’t know what she’s doing. You’re the only assistant I need. Now place those screws here, here, and here.” She pulled a screwdriver out of an emergency toolkit and started screwing them in.  

While they were busy with that, Frigid walked up to Corea. “So… What do we do?”

“Relax, stay calm!” Minna called to her husband. “Corea and I have watch.”

Corea nodded. “Yeah. You can just sit Frigid, don’t worry about it.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Sense anything?” Corea asked Minna.

Minna nodded slowly. “Bad feelings all around. Nothing close enough in the future to get any specifics, but we aren’t in a safe place.”

Allure nodded, checking the scans on her dimensional device. “Yep. Unknown universe. Single system, handful of planets, nothing beyond the outer comets. Nothing that unusual coming up on physics readings. I, uh… don’t have anything more advanced on me.”

“Ship, display scans,” Job said, calling from the cockpit. 

A basic summary of scans appeared on the clear walls. Allure’s grin widened. “Ah, here we go… Let’s see… Evidence of slight temporal distortion… And it looks like we’ve got a society with a few spaceships around, unknown signatures. Let’s call them.”

“Let’s not,” Minna said. “Wait until the ship is repaired. They could be aggressive.”

Allure scrunched her snout. “Sure, sure…”

Frigid glanced between the two of them and decided now wasn’t a good time. 

“Gah! Shit!” Prism shouted, pulling her singed wing away from a power surge. “That was not fun. Mmmmmf. …Job, wrench.”

Job handed her a wrench. She smacked the side of the module she had constructed with it, making all the lights turn on. “Bingo… I have engine control. Not FTL, just the engine. Not very useful. Also, turning will be a centrifugal force nightmare.”

“But we have very excellent inertial dampeners!” Corea said, grinning. 

“COREA, SHIELD!” Minna shouted.

“W-Wh-”

“SHIELD!”

Corea forced her mind to focus, bending magic quickly outside the ship and creating a shield. She didn’t have time to fully form it, allowing a magic bolt to hit the ship head on. They felt it on the inside, the lurch making everyone stumble. One of the drinks flew off the table, into the cockpit, and onto Prism’s head.

“I question the effectiveness of these inertial dampeners,” Prism muttered, pulling her multicolor mane out of her eyes. She floored the engine and they shot forward. The inertial dampeners must have meant something because they didn’t feel the acceleration at all. 

“Corea, you’re our only defense!” Minna shouted.

“I have a shield up!” Corea spat back. “There’s nothing else I can work with out there in the void!”

“What’s attacking us?” Minna demanded. 

“I have a red dot,” Allure said, looking at the display. “It’s red. I have no idea how to zoom or enhance.”

“Ship, zoom and enhance!” Job tried. Nothing happened. 

“Worth a shot,” Allure said. “Corea, how’s your shield coming along?”

“It’ll break eventually,” Corea muttered. “And I will not be able to generate another one fast enough.”

“How much damage did the shot that hit do?” Minna asked.

“What little weapons systems this ship had are now gone,” Prism said, scrambling with wires. “I’ve been ‘shooting’ blind with these wires and nothing’s been coming out.”

“So it wasn’t designed to kill.”

“Probably not. They probably want to capture the ship.”

“We can’t fight them. We’ll need something else…”

“Job! What is your Stand’s ability?” Allure asked.

“Loophole in Limbo allows me to physically travel through psychic connections,” Job responded. 

“And we don’t have any of those,” Allure muttered. “That’s it, we need to send out a distress call.”

“That’ll just bring more ships!” Minna blurted. 

“I don’t see another option.” She pulled out her dimensional device and used her magic – but Minna swiped it away from her before she could activate the distress signal.

“Mom, no. That’s n-” Minna blinked, seeing a future where Allure activated the distress anyway with her telekinesis. “Mom, don’t do it.”

Allure did it. Activating the distress beacon. 

Nothing happened. 

And then Corea’s shield failed. Another weapon bolt hit their ship, cutting the lights. 

Corea tried to raise another shield, but she flubbed its creation by moving too quickly – the magic slipped from her control. Another bolt hit them, cutting the engines. “N-no…”

“Preening runters!” Prism swore, kicking her now-useless console hard enough to break it. “That’s it, I’ve got nothing.”

And then an orange ship appeared outside, unleashing a brilliant laser far into the distance in the direction the red dot had been on their scans. There was an explosion in the distance.

“Woohoo!” Allure shouted. “We’ve been saved! Told you that distress call would help.”

Minna didn’t have anything to say to this. 

Corea was breathing heavily. “I… I screwed up…”

There was no time for anything else. Their entire ship was teleported into the much larger orange one, allowing the seven of them to see who had saved them. 

Allure groaned. “…Melnorme…”


~~~


The captain of the Melnorme ship was named Amaranth. She had a dull red eye, but otherwise looked exactly like every other Melnorme. “Welcome to the Oubliette.” 

Allure raised an eyebrow. “I thought this ship was the Chromastaral.”

“Oh, it is. The Oubliette is the name of where you are.”

“Why?”

“That will cost you,” Amaranth said, leaning in. “There is also a fee for receiving aid.”

“Oh for the love o-”

“Merodi Universalis will compensate you for our return,” Minna said. 

“That sort of trade is not allowed in our activities here.”

“…And you can’t tell us why.”

“Not unless you pay.”

“We don’t have anything to offer you besides our connections, and currently we can’t access those.”

“That’s not entirely true. Give us your ship. Damaged though it is, it will cover the costs of aid, information, and other fees that will become apparent the moment you’ve paid to know about them.”

Prism looked like she wanted to rip Amaranth’s eyeball out of her smug orange face but the pegasus restrained herself. 

“Fine, you can have the ship,” Allure muttered.

“Wai-” Minna began.

“Too late, verbal acceptance of a person in authority is taken as legal right to the vessel,” Amaranth said. “It was nice doing business with you.”

“Mhm…” Minna said, grinding her teeth. “So, now that we’ve ‘paid’, care to explain?” 

“Oh, yes. The Oubliette is a chain of nineteen one-way universes that form a ring. Each one has a connection that leads to another universe in the chain, but it is a connection that cannot be used backward. Every one of the nineteen universes has the same planetary arrangement, except for O-13 because it lost the fourth planet due to an accident several years ago. You are currently in O-6 by the way. One planet in each system is in the natural ‘goldilocks zone’ so you don’t have to worry about that. Everyone calls it Oub.”

“That’s interesting. How do we get out?” Prism demanded.

“There are two methods of escape from the Oubliette. The first is to use temporal manipulation – after all, the Oubliette traps people by manipulating local time. Once you dial in, the connection back is severed completely. But if you could just reverse time to a moment where it existed, you could dial home.” Her grin widened. “Your second option is to buy your way out. We offer the most efficient services for doing so, but we are not the only escape providers in the Oubliette.”

“You charge people for escape!? What’s wrong with you!?” Corea shouted.

“It is a profit opportunity,” Amaranth said. “We do not overcharge like many here. We offer the service for exactly what it is worth. Your wrecked ship did not even begin to cover the cost, if you’re curious.”

Prism sighed. “I’ll just build one myself. I know how to do it. I’ll need a lot of parts though…” She fixed Amaranth with an annoyed glare. “...Let me guess…”

“If you want to buy the parts for a temporal manipulator you might as well just pay us to take you away. Which you can’t do.”

Minna folded her arms. “Merodi Universalis will hear about this.”

“Mhm. Yeah. You’ll declare war on us for refusing to give free aid.”

“Aid is free!” Corea blurted.

“Your culture’s definition of aid is particularly curious and incorrect.”

Corea fumed, saying nothing further. 

Amaranth leaned back. “Here’s what I would suggest. Use most of the rest of your funds to get transport to Oub. You have a dimensional device, you’ll be able to travel through all nineteen versions of Oub. Find a way to make your own temporal device, steal someone else’s, or find some way to make enough money to pay us off. It’s all that simple.”

“How many people actually succeed in getting enough money?” Allure asked. 

“Oh, about one every hour. But that’s a misleading number, seeing as there are trillions of people trapped in the Oubliette. It’s a rather savage trap, you know.”

“And nobody tries to fix it?!” 

“That’s because they own it,” Job said. “The Oubliette is under Melnorme control.”

“Good guess,” Amaranth admitted. “Or perhaps you used Loophole in Limbo? There’s no way for me to know for sure. Regardless, yes, we found the Oubliette and declared it our own. It’s a good source of income, assisting people in their escape. Before we were here there was little hope.”

Corea twitched. “That’s stupid! Just… just help them all get out!”

Amaranth rolled her eye. “You’re about out of funds, by the way. If you don’t book passage to Oub soon you’ll have to either wait for us to get there naturally or you’d have to work for us to get enough.”

Minna folded her arms. “Fine. Take us to Oub. And give us whatever funds we have leftover as change.”

“There’s a transaction fee for that! You could bank with us and keep it a-”

“Don’t care, give it to us anyway.”

“The customer is always right,” Amaranth said, bowing curtly. Then she gave the order to transport to Oub. 

The ship arrived in an instant. They were all teleported off without another word. 


~~~


In the murky-green skies of O-6-Oub, a flash of light deposited five ponies, a human, and Minna unceremoniously above a puddle of mud. Frigid landed first, crushed under all the others while Prism was the only one with the wings to keep herself from falling into the sludge. 

“Ooh, that’s gotta stink,” Prism muttered. A few octagonal coins appeared right above her, which she grabbed with her impressive agility.   

“Get me out of here!” Frigid blurted, scrambling in a panic. “Get me o-”

Minna got him out with a quick pull, pulling him into her arms. “There you go, it’s fine. You’re safe.”

“And covered in mud that… might not be mud…”

“Don’t think about it,” Job offered. 

“That’s like telling someone not to think about cats!”

“Deep breaths,” Allure told Frigid. “Deep breaths. It’s just a stinky brown muddy substance. It isn’t going to kill you.”

“It could be radioactive or infected,” Stardust said absentmindedly. 

Allure shot her a death glare.

“Oh. …Sorry.”

“It’s… fine,” Allure said through clenched teeth.

“We’re gonna die!” Frigid wailed.

“No, Fri, we are not,” Minna said, looking him in the eyes. “Do I look like I’d let anything happen to us?”

“N-no…”

“Then nothing is going to happen to us,” Minna asserted. She gently set Frigid down on solid ground, dusting him off with her hands. “Okay?”

Frigid nodded slowly. 

“Good,” Prism said, flying down to be eye level with Minna. “Now what do we do?”

“We look at our surroundings,” Minna said, doing exactly as she suggested. They were on a truly disgusting, trashy world. The sky was greenish, the air smelled noxious, and the puddle of mud they were in was mixed with motor oil, rust shavings, and other things that were probably much more toxic than Frigid would be okay with. Jagged pieces of metal rose above the disgusting sludge, clearly constructed out of downed spaceships that had been scrounged for parts, leaving behind only the frameworks. There was evidence of people living in the higher levels of these structures. A few metallic platforms had been placed onto the muddy ground to create a solid floor.

In the distance they could see a tremendous ship’s skeleton lit with bright lights – presumably what the Oubliette considered a ‘city’. 

“Right, that’s a little far away,” Prism said. “I could get there in a couple minutes but you guys can’t.”

“There are other universes in this trap,” Allure said, pulling out her dimensional device. “We could try those.” She set the device to scan for dimensional signatures. It found one very quickly – but only one. She dialed. They found another muddy, disgusting world – but this time there wasn’t a pile of sludge and a spaceship ‘city’ was relatively closer. They stepped through. As expected, the portal closed behind them and it couldn’t be reopened. 

“That city’s still a few miles away,” Prism said, hooves on her hips. “Let’s keep trying.”

They did – until they appeared in one of the cities. The noxious smell of the planet wasn’t as strong within the confines of the city, but it was somehow more depressing. People walked around with clear sickness and rags – mostly humans, but with several other races thrown in randomly. The ancient framework of the gigantic ship was old, rusted, and falling apart. They could see several levels of the city above and below them, all strung together with loose ropes and cables that could fail at any moment. 

They saw a skeleton sitting nearby that nobody seemed to care about. 

“…We’re going to be here a while,” Job observed.

“Oh Celestia, no…” Frigid muttered, putting his hooves to his head. 

Minna moved to comfort Frigid – but saw something in the future that made her stop. She reached out with her hand behind Prism, punching a creature of speed across the face. 

“AUGH!” 

Minna grabbed the blue pointy-limbed humanoid by the throat. “So, thought you could steal our coin huh?”

The being wriggled uncomfortably in her hands. “Clearly not! I was just running here! Stop being so paranoid!”

“I have Future Sight, I saw you steal the coins.”

“…Fuck.” He started struggling harder.

“I’m not going to kill you. I’m just going to make you tell us a few things.”

“Well hey, if you’re not gonna kill me, I ain’t sayin nuffin’.”

“I can kill you if you annoy me enough.”

“Oh yeah? I bet you soft little ponies don’t have it in y-”

Minna squeezed harder. “I am a Merodi Universalis Marshall. I killed a lot of people to earn this title. It carries some weight, you could say.”

Allure inwardly facehooved. Alushy…

“O-okay okay! What do you want to know?”

“What’s this city called?” Minna demanded. 

“Nowhere. That’s literally what it’s called don’t kill me!”

Minna decided she believed him. “Any leaders or laws we should be made aware of?”

“Laws? Hah, there aren’t any laws in the entire Oubilette besides ‘don’t fuck with the Melnorme’. Or any of the other opportunistic escape routes. They’ll slag you like nothing else and ban you from ever being able to leave.”

“Leaders?”

“Big F is the gang boss around here. You don’t have anything on you so you won’t have to worry about him.”

“Describe Big F to me.”

“Uh… Big. Goes by Big F. I dunno, I’ve never seen the guy! His goons wear red bandanas around their necks! …If they haven’t been sludged to hell by the mud yet. In that case the bandanas are just reddish-gunky-brown.”

“What’s Big F want?”

“To collect enough stuff to get off this rock, duh! I hear he’s workin’ on a time machine.”

Prism took note of this. Minna continued questioning him. “Any idea where we can find this… Big F?”

“Ahaha he’s not gonna let a bunch of newbies like you join up! I hear you have to be here at least a year before he’ll even consider ya!”

Minna narrowed her eyes. “Fine. Anything else going on here we should know about?”

“I hope you have a way to generate food or earn money, cause nothin’ stays sanitary enough to eat very long here.” 

“All right. Thank you, you’ve been very helpful.” She threw him three levels up into a tangle of wires. He grabbed hold – and was gone in a flash of speed. “So, we’re going to be here a while regardless.”

“We need to set up a coherent team,” Allure said. “Minna, you can be on tactical. Prism, analysis. Corea, defense.”

“I’m horrible at defense! Didn’t you see?” Corea blurted.

“Who died and made you queen?” Job demanded. 

Allure blinked, staring at him. “Job, I’m a Founder of the League of Sweetie Belles, I know what I’m doing.”

“Mom, you have been making some questionable decisions,” Minna pointed out.

“I sent out that distress call, which got us saved.”

“And you sold our ship, scrambled over who should do what, and now just started barking out orders.”

“We need a clear-cut organization since we aren’t used to working together! This isn’t a military operation!” 

“Are you sure!?”

“Right now we don’t even have a plan!” 

“The plan is to find this Big F and take his time machine!”

“We haven’t even discussed yet!”

“You’re both being stupid!” Job blurted. “We just need to find somewhere safe!”

“Does this look safe to you?” Minna demanded, holding out her arm and gesturing around in a wide circle. “Toxic sludge everywhere! Everywhere! The longer we stay here the sicker we get!”

The three of them devolved into arguing. 

To the side, Prism flew next to Corea. 

“…You know, we could really use Nova right about now,” Corea observed. “She could solve this problem.”

“Hey, I know how to make the machine,” Prism said. “And seriously, you can do impressive things as well. You could change Big F’s soul if you wanted.”

“Mhm…” Corea said, nodding. “Yeah. I can. Right. I can! I-” Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. “Where’s Stardust and Frigid?”

Prism looked around, panic crossing her features. “Uh…”

“Oh no.”

“LOOK ALIVE!” Prism shouted.

“WHAT!?” Minna, Allure, and Job shouted back. 

“WE’RE MISSING TWO!” 

Frigid and Stardust were nowhere to be seen. 

Corea put a hoof to her mouth. She had failed to defend them again. Minna’s enraged expression fell to one of horror. She had been so caught up in the argument she hadn’t been watching the future. 

“STARDUST!?” Job shouted, cupping his hands to his mouth. “STARDUST!?!”

Allure turned to Minna. “…What happened to them…?”

Minna shook her head. “I… I wasn’t looking.”

Job kneeled down, closing his eyes and summoning his Stand. Not that anybody could see it. He furrowed his brow. “It’s far away – a couple miles. I could take myself there with my connection to her… but not anyone else.”

“But you know where she is?” Allure asked.

“Yes. Underground, that direction.”

“…They’ve probably been kidnapped.” She let out a sigh. “Minna?”

“Yes?” Minna said, expression still vacant.

“You take the lead now. This probably is going to turn into a military operation.”

Minna nodded slowly. “…Thanks.” She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. “Right! We need to get them back from whoever took them! Job, lead the way.” 

Job nodded, heading to where he knew Stardust was. The rest followed.

“I know Allure’s combat experience,” Minna said. “What are the rest of yours?”

“None,” Job said. “My Stand is a utility only and I didn’t go on many quests with my mother.”

“Some, not much professional,” Prism said. “Take your daughter to work day was always fun. But I’m a top athlete and technician.”

“I’ve fought a lot for Elemental Four,” Corea said. “Though, eheheh, I’ve been having a bit of an off day today, so I don’t know what you’ll do with me.”

“You want to get them back?” Minna asked.

“Yes,” Corea said with conviction.

“Good. That’s all I need.”


~~~


Deep under the city of Nowhere, there was a UFO shaped craft made out of solid gold. The vast majority of people didn’t know about it – or even about the caverns beneath Nowhere in which it rested. This was because the entrances to the caverns were deep inside bases of Big Fs goons. Nobody would go anywhere near them. 

Unfortunately the walls of the caverns were not teleport proof. Everyone just figured that since nobody knew where the caverns were, nobody would teleport into solid rock. 

But when you were Minna and could see the future, you knew if a calculated teleport would result in disaster or not before it happened. It took a few tries, but they found safe locations. They were ready to spring their trap. 

Allure teleported herself and Minna right in front of the golden UFO. Allure lit her horn, driving magic power into her hooves while Minna began scrambling memories. Despite this, Big Fs goons still retaliated with the energy weapons and magic of their own. 

Minna, being who she was, could dodge every one of the attacks before they were even fired. Allure defended against them with her invisible manifestation of Heart, all the while charging forward with her daughter. Minna was too large to ride the diminutive Allure, so the charge wasn’t as impressive as it could have been, but they were still together. 

Minna drop kicked a fish-creature while Allure grabbed a human and threw him with her Heart into a reptilian, knocking their bandanas off. The reptile got back up – but was shot by his own guys because he no longer had the friendly team color. 

Still, though, more and more goons poured out of the golden UFO, giving Allure and Minna difficulty. They were not going to be able to make it inside the UFO quickly. 

But that was part of the plan. They were essentially nothing more than particularly potent distractions.

Corea teleported into the golden UFO after the distraction had begun, finding the solid-gold hallway empty. “Okay, we didn’t appear in a wall… Whoo…”

“Minna told you it was safe,” Prism said.

“I’ve never been good at teleporting! I might go one place at one moment and then another the next! I’m not consistent!”

“Just stand watch,” Job muttered, leading them deeper into the UFO. 

A mook ran into the hallway and saw them. His eyes locked with Corea’s. Corea froze. 

He lifted his gun, aiming at Corea’s head. The scope was at his eye. 

Prism kicked the gun out of his hands and swirled to buck him across the face, knocking him out cold. “Come on Corea!”

“Right, sorry,” Corea said, shaking her head. 

Job led them through the swirling hallway to a large door with a blue light behind it. He opened it. 

In the very center of the ship was not an engine or power source – but a cobbled together machine. It was a tall, crystal column with smaller crystals all around. Wires and consoles were slapped on these smaller crystals haphazardly, many of them with glowing ‘fairy dust’ all over them.

They saw a machine toward the left of the room slowly grinding away at a unicorn horn, turning it into more fairy dust. 

“…Stardust!” Job yelled, running to the cage in the back of the room. It had about four unicorns in it, including Stardust and Frigid.

“You came…” Stardust said, smiling.

Job pulled back Stardust’s mane, finding that she still had a horn – albeit with an inhibitor around it. “Thank god…”

“If she didn’t have a horn she’d be dead!” Frigid shouted. “The red mare got…  She… She…” Frigid couldn’t finish the thought.

Corea looked around. “So… Harvesting unicorn horns? For… what?”

“Not just unicorn horns, any magical extrusion,” Prism said, flying around the device in the center of the room. “And this… It has all the pieces for a time machine, but they’re arranged wrong. This couldn’t take you through time. It’s incomplete, but I think it would work more as a beacon.”

Job unlocked the cage and let the prisoners out. He removed the inhibitor from 
Stardust’s horn. “Can you use the parts from it?”

“Definitely,” Prism said. “Almost all we need is here. We just need to, you know, steal it.”

“Hey, I can’t teleport this much and neither can Allure,” Corea said. “We aren’t exactly the best mages.”

“We’ll figure something out. Actually, here’s a thought…” Job grinned. “What if I turn all this into a time machine and come back here to help us fight?”

“Do we know if this universe supports that?” Stardust asked.

“It’s worth a shot! We’ll know within a few minutes of me starting to tinker with this.”

They heard an ominous laugh from the entryway to the room. They hadn’t heard anyone walk up – but there was someone there now. The Big F. 

“Well, isn’t this quite the combination of secondary characters?”

Otherwise known as Randall Flagg.

Prism charged him. Flagg pointed his finger at her. “Stop flapping.” Her wings stopped working and she crashed into the ground next to Corea. 

Job held Stardust close, shivering in fear. He couldn’t do anything here. 

Corea stood on her hind legs and shot a compressed bolt of ionized air at Flagg, following it up with a magic dart to make things interesting. They bounced right off of him. He yawned excessively and imagined Corea flying into a wall, so she did. Then he imagined her smashing into the horn grinder in such a way that the half-ground horn embedded itself in her side. That happened. 

“Grah…” Corea muttered, still standing, but clearly already more than half down. 

“I have to admit, I wasn't expecting it to be you to crash my plans,” Flagg said, taking a casual stroll into the room, smirking at Corea. “The Doctor was supposed to be hot on my tail. Perhaps the goons needed to be trained in going after nobodies better…” He shrugged apathetically. “Ah well.”

“What are you doing?!” Prism demanded, standing up.

“Stop standing,” Flagg ordered. The resulting starfish-pose her legs and tail took amused him greatly. “I am simply trying to collapse the hope in this little universal structure. You see, the Melnorme have provided a tiny silver lining in the clouds of these people. Obfuscated through greed it may be, it is still a chance to escape that everyone holds onto. So naturally I decided to get rid of that. How? Simple really – manipulating a warlike race that has a religious hatred of time travel with a temporal beacon directed at them. They’ll charge in here, guns blazing, forcing the Melnorme to no longer consider this world profitable. And with the new addition of anti-time-travel aliens, even that avenue will be horrendously limited!” He leaned back, a satisfied smile on his face.

“You’re sure pleased with yourself,” Prism muttered. 

“Oh, I am. Especially because that time-travel-hating race? I’m the reason they hate it in the first place. I do love it when plans come together. Rather invigorating. It’ll be quite the fireworks show.”

“I would ask how you could be so heartless but that’d be a stupid question.”

“So you’ve realized your own mental inferiority? Good. You’re moving in the right direction.” He rubbed his hands together. “Maybe I should replace the Doctor with your entire society since Blackjack’s no longer a viable option.”

Corea tried to punch him in the back of the head with magically infused fire. Without looking, he grabbed Corea’s front leg, broke it, and threw her to the ground in front of Prism. 

“Corea!”

Flagg spread his arms wide and shrugged. “You think people would know back attacks don’t work on me, considering the number of all-seeing-eyes I have at my disposal.” He took out Black Thirteen just to make the point. “I can even see the ka flowing in this room. Look at Corea, losing hope. Look at her unable to muster up the courage to do anything. A-” he blinked. The inside of Black Thirteen was changing because he was talking. He had altered something. 

Prism glared at him. “Corea can do anything if she puts her mind to it. All she needs is the proper motivation and confidence.”

She then pulled Corea’s face to her own and kissed her hard. Corea’s eyes flew open wide, as if a switch in her had been clicked on. She began glowing with the white energy of the Avatar State. Prism threw Corea at Flagg like a football – turns out you didn’t have to stand to do that.  

Flagg groaned. “That’s outrageously chees-” 

Corea plowed into Flagg with air, fire, magic, and water-ice moisture from the air. As for earth…

A giant pillar of rock shot out of the ground, ejecting the golden UFO high into the air. It crashed through all the levels of Nowhere, almost flying. 

“Randall Flagg, as th-”

“Stop bending,” Flagg ordered. Corea lost the Avatar State in an instant and slumped to the ground. 

“What the- HEY! That was going to be awesome! I was going to kick your pl-”

Flagg imagined her embedding into a nearby golden wall. So she did. Flagg pulled himself out of a Flagg-shaped hole in the opposite wall, mostly unharmed. He tucked Black Thirteen away, a menacing scowl on his face. “You know, I should have just ordered you to die in the Avatar State. You would never have come back.”

Corea grunted. “Well it’s a little late for that now, isn’t it?”

The Golden UFO reached its highest point and started falling back down to the planet. 

Flagg groaned as he felt the weightlessness kick in. He imagined that the ship stopped falling. So that’s what it did, driving everyone to the floor.

Flagg tore the heavily injured Corea out of the nearby wall. With his hands, he tore the half-horn out of Corea and drove it into her other side. “This is just the start of what you and I are going to do together. I might even throw starfish over there in as well.”

Corea laughed. “No, you won’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m smiling and on a really, really dumb emotional high.”

“HEY!” Prism shouted.

“You have no right to complain, that was really dumb. Like, everything about it.”

“IT WORKED DIDN’T IT!?”

“Well yeah. You’re a great kisser, by the way.”

“Comes with practice, cornball!”

“Oh, also, Flaggy boy? There was a teeny little backup plan that we didn’t know about. I only figured out about it right now.” She used one of her non-broken hooves to gesture at Stardust. 

She had her horn touching one of the crystal machine’s consoles. She flooded her magic into the temporal beacon, making it shatter – and parts of it disintegrate into pure magic energy. She tossed her mane behind her head and adjusted her broken glasses. “Oops.”

Flagg blinked. “…Huh. I must be losing touch, I keep forgetting about the small ones.” He dropped Corea unceremoniously to the ground, no longer caring about her fate whatsoever. He took out Black Thirteen, frown deepening. “It appears we’ve got another loss.”

Minna and Allure appeared inside the ship. Allure looked about ready to pass out – teleporting was hard for her. 

Minna glared at Flagg. “Flagg…”

“Oh, the new toy soldier,” Flagg muttered. “Normally I would be in the mood for a round of ‘who can out-psychic the other’ but right now I have business to attend to. Namely, not losing another body. So, how about instead of you trying to kill me, I give you something?”

Minna narrowed her eyes. “…What?”

Flagg put Black Thirteen away and pulled out a book titled The Tower’s Testament. “You may be aware of much of what lies within here, the book isn’t hard to find for a race of your caliber. But I’m going to give you a little hint!”

“That’ll torment us until the end times.”

Flagg let out a chuckle. “You and quite a few others! It might even bother those watching.”

“Oh, great, this is one of the chapters.” Allure facehooved. “That should have been obvious.”

Flagg smirked. “Have a twofold prophecy. Badly translated from the old:

One side says the story is thus: 
The Lord, the Muse, the Heir
Are gathered together to make a tear
The God, the Prophet, the ancient
Are needed to fulfill a lost tenet

The flip says the story is here:
There is a choice that all will make
Deciding the twisting lines of fate
What begins as one will spread to all
None will be able to ignore the call

Which is the point? 
Where does narrative lead?
A flipping coin in the sights of infinite possibility…
One and endless. 
Infinity and singular.”

He closed the book, smirking. “And now that you’ve all been distracted for a proper amount of time, good luck getting off this ship before it explodes!”

And then he was gone. 

“Crap,” Minna muttered. She looked to the future – but she didn’t see any explosions. “…It looks like we’re going to be fine…?”

They were transported away by Merodi Universalis teleporters onto the bridge of the Austraeoh. O’Neill sat in the captain’s chair, but he wasn’t the main focus. The main focus was the human Pinkie Pie from Earth Vitis gripping the shoulders of two humans with pink complexion and white hair. “Say it!” She demanded. 

The two full grown humans looked down at the ground like young children. “We’re sorry…”

“SORRY FOR WHAT!?” human Pinkie demanded, giving them both the evil eye into the backs of their heads.

“We’re sorry for manipulating you to go on a cruise that didn’t exist...”

“AND!?”

“And making you risk your lives because ka is not something to be manipulated just because we can see it…”

“GOOD. If I could still ground you two I would. But I can still do this.” She pulled a squeaky hammer out of her hair and knocked the two of them out of the bridge. Then she turned to the seven recently-rescued people and smiled innocently. “Sorry about that, Munchie and Scrunchie have always been little rascals. Please don’t press any charges.”

“Uh… We won’t…” Allure said, baffled. 

Pinkie grinned. “Good!”

“…I didn’t realize you had kids,” Stardust admitted. 

“Had ‘em just before the war started. Pinkie and I stopped switching about then too. Good thing too, since she’s deviated so much now…” she put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Anyway, I’m glad all of you are safe. I bet you got to know each other pretty well and bonded!”

“You could say that,” Prism said, hoisting the heavily injured Corea onto her back. “I’m dragging her to sickbay, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” O’Neill said. 

“Oh, by the way, Stardust?” Prism asked.

Stardust looked at her quizzically.

“Sorry. Shouldn’t have dismissed you like that.”

Stardust nodded solemnly, following it up with a soft smile. “All is forgiven. You did come to save me, after all.”

Prism smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

O’Neill cleared his throat. “Ahem. Marshall, report.”

Minna raised an eyebrow. “Overhead General, with all due respect I need to spend some time with my husband. I request I be allowed to carry out the rest of my ‘vacation’ before giving the report.”

O’Neill smirked. “Granted.”

“Thank you.” Minna pulled Frigid close. “I’m never letting you out of my sights again. I should never have dismissed you.”

“Heh… It’s…” He pulled her close and started crying.

“It’s all over now…”

Prism left the bridge, Corea on her back. 

“So…” Prism said.

“I know you just did it to get some fire back in me. I’m not going to try to exploit it,” Corea said, grunting. 

“Really?”

“Well, yeah, that’d be falling into Starbeat’s old curse. That’d just be dumb. I’m not going to do that. You don’t have to follow up on anything because of some ‘click’, no matter how right it felt.”

“Huh,” Prism said, contemplating this. “…You’re a good mare, you know that?”

“Sometimes,” Corea admitted. “Sometimes.”

They walked towards the sickbay in silence. 

“I’m going to regret this,” Prism muttered, putting a wing over her face.

“Hm?”

“There’s an Earth Ottoman restaurant I like and I happen to be free toni-”

“YES!” Corea blurted. “OW. Ow. Ow the pain…”

“But we start from scratch,” Prism insisted.

“Oh, of course. I’m going to have to actually earn the next one.”

“Chances are big there won’t be a ‘next one’, cornball.”

“I like those odds!”

Prism rolled her eyes. “Let’s get you healed up.”

“It’ll probably take all of five minutes.”

“Actually, clinically speaking we could do it in any timeframe due to temporal manipulation technology, which the Austraeoh is fully equipped with. We also have dozens of licenced medical professionals…”


~~~


I walked into Eve’s office. “Chapter today.”

“Oh? What’s the synopsis?”

“Chapter 111, ‘O’, the next generation of Merodi Universalis get stuck in the Oubliette.” I grinned mischievously. “You mostly aren’t involved. The plot’s already wrapped up and everything.”

Eve blinked. “I notice I’ve been just a background presence lately.”

“And that trend’s going to continue.”

“Joy. What important thing am I doing today, then?”

I giggled. “It will be a lot more fun to see your reaction later.” 

“…Joy.”

Cessera the Second walked into the room. “Evening, you have visitors.”

“Who is it?”

“I-”

“Let them in,” I interrupted, rubbing my hooves together. 

“…Sure,” Cessera said, leaving the room. 

A moment later the Grand Secretariat of the Sparkle Census and four other members of the Sparkle Census Council walked in. This many council members had not been seen in the same place outside the Sparkle Census itself before. 

Eve smiled warmly, though inwardly she was screaming at me for making her extremely nervous about this. “Ah! This is a surprise. What can I do for you today?” Feeling her throat getting parched from nerves, she took a drink of water. 

“The Sparkle Census has voted on the council level in favor of joining Merodi Universalis,” the Grand Secretariat said matter-of-factly. 

Eve’s spit take was very impressive. It got all five of them wet.

“AUGH! Sorry sorry sorry!” She magically dried all of them in an instant. 

“It’s quite alright,” the Grand Secretariat said, looking at me. “You’ve worked her up, haven’t you?”

I put on the cheekiest smile I could manage. “Who, me?”

“Mhm.” The Grand Secretariat smiled warmly. “I hope your surprise does not indicate initial rejection?”

“Of course not!” Eve blurted, grinning. “This is great news! It’ll take a few years to fully integrate a society of your magnitude into Merodi Universalis, but you are already a very close part of our community so it shouldn’t take too long. Five? Maybe six?”

“That is more than acceptable.”

“We should get started right away if we want to get this done in a reasonable amount of time,” Eve said, taking out her phone. “This is Overhead Evening Sparkle, may I speak to Overhead Maud Pai? Thank you…”

I smiled, scribbling a few things in my notebook. 

As a younger generation got their chance in the spotlight, two powers became one…