Twilight wasn’t supposed to get flustered. She was supposed to… be the Empress. She was supposed to know.
Pinkie was being ridiculous, had to be. They weren’t in an adventure. Couldn’t be. If they were…
That would mean something was controlling them. Guiding them. The idea was outlandish. That’s not how real life worked. Sure, she may have had a lot of high-stakes encounters over her life, but that was by her choice. Even as the immortal of all ponykind she had managed to live a relatively quiet life until the fuzzface invasion. She made the choice to change things up, to venture forth.
The unlikely happened through careful planning on her part. Not though some abstract idea of ‘adventure’. There was always, always, an explanation for everything.
Even now, there had to be an explanation. A rule of multiversal travel she didn’t understand that would grab whole ponies instead of cutting them in half, one from each world. Possibly linked to the soul – yes, that made sense, the soul. Each pony had one, and it could be used to pick them out of a universe for…
…For…
…There was no “for.” The machine had activated by complete accident. Randomly. Why would it choose special ponies? She and Rainbow had been there when it activated, but Pinkie, Applejack, and now this Fluttershy had also been taken. All from different worlds and all with a fantastic story or an understanding of fantastic stories.
There must be some explanation.
There had to be.
And she wasn’t going to let some skittish daydreaming author shake her knowledge of the cosmos.
“Welcome… to Musk’s Temple of Jupiter,” Brick said, gesturing with a hoof at his pride and joy: a circular marble structure with twelve columns instead of walls that held up a sharp cone studded with precious gems. Within the large circular expanse was a statue of what Twilight identified as a human, though significantly larger. He was exceptionally muscular but his bearded face was more one of thoughtfulness and intelligence rather than the brute one would expect to go with the muscles. His wore simple robes; carved fabric without any additional decorations. The only ornamented thing he had was a pointed crown sitting on his head; a third eye made of sapphires affixed to the front of the regal accessory.
“Impressive craftsmanship,” Twilight commented.
“That’s Nod’s work,” Brick said, pointing at a hunchback pegasus cleaning the edge of the temple with a broom. He was avoiding eye contact with Twilight.
With a flare of her wings, Twilight lit her horn. The first thing she noticed was Nod – there was a strange aura of ‘don’t look at me’ surrounding him. She would have poked more, but her attention was quickly grabbed by the statue itself. It shone with immense magic coming from… elsewhere.
“I sense great power,” Twilight said, folding her wings.
“All images of the gods are endowed with some of their power,” Brick said. “Jupiter, king of the gods, endows his with more power and awareness than most.”
“So his essence is tied to this statue?”
“Yes, it is a small share of his glory a-“
Twilight took a step into the temple, passing the columns. Her silver shoes clanked against the pristine marble floor.
“…Empress… what are you doing?”
“I’m going to talk to him,” Twilight said.
Brick gawked. “Empress, only priests are allowed to interfere with the essence of divi-“
Twilight cast a spell, cancelling all noise that might come from his mouth. He rushed to tackle her, but all she had to do to stop him was encase him in a magic box. There was no chance he could break such a barrier with his meager power.
This god, on the other hand…
Twilight laid a hoof on the statue. Let it be known that I am Twilight Sparkle, Empress of Unity, a world distinct from this one. You now know of me, I shall know of you.
Her eyes flared with so much magical energy anyone looking at her wouldn’t have been able to make out her pupils. Her eyes might as well have been blank. The magic of the world swirled around her vision, but she didn’t have to disassociate herself this time. The magic in the statue was so strong she could just follow it. So she did – up, beyond, and through a veil of ethereal power…
Twilight became aware that she was standing in a white expanse. She double checked to make sure she knew how to return to the temple before feeling around. Visually, there was nothing but herself and a bunch of swirling clouds that were little more than areas of saturated magic. But, through her other senses, she could feel vast channels of power flowing around her in several directions. These came form the different gods of this world, no doubt.
How curious that the gods actually existed here. They certainly didn’t back home.
“I am Twilight Sparkle, Empress of Unity!” she declared, sending her voice as far as she could with her magic. “And I-“
“You are known!” a booming voice declared. Instantly, there was a ‘human’ in front of her, built exactly as the statue in the temple had shown, though he was without crown and his simple robes glowed with a soft orange light. “You have no need to repeat yourself, blasphemer!”
“Jupiter, I take it?” Twilight asked, making sure to play up her confident smile as she analyzed him. Powerful, definitely, and if fighting broke out she was outclassed in terms of raw strength. Luckily, she had so many tricks up her sleeve she didn’t feel fear. “How can I blaspheme if I was not sure of your existence until now?”
“Ignorance is no excuse,” Jupiter declared.
“Then what about a simple seeking of an audience?” Twilight asked. “I represent Unity, a vast coalition of thousands of races in multiple galaxies – in another world.”
“We are aware of the other worlds, they are not our concern,” Jupiter declared. “We know full well of Unity, and if we sought to know you, we would have already done so.”
Twilight frowned. “Do you think you’re too good for us?”
“Your ways are carnal, pleasure-seeking, and worthless. Your people have little purpose.”
“And your world is under constant threat of monsters. If you’re having trouble with that we could call in some exterminators…”
“Twilight Sparkle, our world has a destiny, and that destiny does not involve you or Unity. You have broken so many pacts between us and the mortals you should be sentenced to death for your hubris and arrogance.”
Twilight frowned. “…That seems to be a tad bit of an overreaction.”
“Let it be known, it is not.” He clapped his hands together, and four other gods appeared at his sides – some male, some female, all wearing ethereal robes that glowed with a different color. They all looked ready to smite her.
Twilight folded her ears back. “Hey, I was ju-“
“Just trying to make a show of power and guide our hands?” one of the women asked. “We saw. We were so angered by it we almost fused all your molecules together into an immense explosion. Your power is large enough to be of concern to us and we would have already ended you were it not for one detail.”
“What?”
She leaned in. “Immortals of your world are irreplaceable. If we were to kill you, it would spell the end of your entire race. No amount of blasphemy condones genocide.”
“You are a lucky one, Twilight Sparkle,” Jupiter declared. “You have become so reckless, and yet you are still living. Fate must want you alive, or else you and your entire race would have fallen long, long ago.”
Twilight had been keeping her cool up until that point. “What!? Fate!? Fate is worthless! Fate i-“
“There are no gods in your world,” the goddess said. “How else do you explain your continued survival despite the reckless life of yours?”
“Skill! Power! In-“
“You are a silly, deluded fool.”
Jupiter pointed an accusatory finger at Twilight. “You are to leave our world and never return. If you do return, for any reason, you will suffer punishments of repentance. We will get creative.”
One of the male gods grinned. “I could trap you in a time loop of your own death you’ll never get to fully experience…”
Twilight took a step back. “Wh… I…”
Another goddess – this one smaller than the aggressive one – sighed. “You are not in a good place at the moment, mentally speaking, Empress. You should leave before you further condemn yourself.”
Jupiter growled. “I CAST THEE DOWN!” With a snap of his fingers, Twilight was ejected from the heavenly realms.
She tried to resist, but the other gods piled their power on.
It was such an odd feeling, that of powerlessness.
~~~
“…Now, the tricky part…” Rainbow set a bright red apple on the table. “Splitting an apple in three even slices.”
“Why don’t we just cut it into sixths?” Fluttershy asked.
“Because that’s not challenging.”
“I’ve got this,” Rarity said, holding up her hoof. They had managed to get hold of a set of elastic bands, giving Rarity and Fluttershy the ability to hold things again. Currently, Rarity had one of her swords affixed to her hoof and was angling the tip directly at the fruit. She swung down three times – and the apple split into three chunks.
Rarity skewered her third and tossed it into her mouth, smirking as she did so.
Rainbow gawked. “…For someone who’s never held something without traction hooves before, that was pretty good.”
“It comes with practice. You never know when your hoof might be injured.”
Fluttershy clapped her hooves together excitedly before scooping her piece up in her wing. “You know… I just realized, they don’t have too many of these apples… Eating an entire third is probably a bit much, considering.”
“We can get them a truckload of apples, easy,” Rainbow reminded her.
“Truck?” Rarity asked.
“Uh… Think a giant metal box about the size of a house on wheels.”
“I do not have that much magical potential.”
“Can you make more apples than are on the tree? Yeah? Then we can satisfy them. Just need…” Rainbow’s smile vanished. “…That dimensional device.”
“Dust should be back soon, right?” Fluttershy asked.
“Should,” Rainbow grumbled. “If I had any idea where the thief was, I’d probably be going after them right now.”
Rarity tapped a pensive hoof. “I doubt that would go over well. Defend them as I have, I don’t think ‘management’ would look kindly upon deviation from their orders.”
“I know. I’m just complaining.”
CLANK.
Rarity looked up. That hadn’t been the Mesh – she had already gotten familiar with that clank clank clank to push it to the back of her mind. This had been much louder and much closer.
“LOOK OUT BELOW!”
Dust fell from above, a rope tied to her back. Some kind of mechanism above attempted to slow her fall, but she still slammed her face flat into the dirt.
“Dust!” Fluttershy said, running over. “You okay?”
“Mmmf… fine…” Dust shot back up. “You guys need to run.”
A sinking feeling formed in Rarity’s stomach. Ah, there it is… the start of everything going wrong.
“Run? Why?” Rainbow asked.
“Because the mid-managers have labeled the three of you – and the thief – as a pathogen that needs to be removed from the Mesh!”
“WHAT!?”
“Orders have already gone out to hunt you down! You need to run!” She took off in a gallop, indicating the three of them should follow. None of them wasted any time, though Rarity had to flip the direction of her sword to allow her hoof to touch the ground.
“Why would they do this?” Fluttershy asked. “We haven’t done anything!”
“They’re stuffy idiots who don’t see the full picture!” Dust let out a wail. “They think because you’re outside the Mesh, you can’t have a place in the Mesh! But they… they don’t understand, we need something from outside!”
“You… do?” Rarity asked, legitimately confused by this confession.
Dust bit her lip as they ran. “I’m really not supposed to tell you this… but… agh, I need you to understand so you’ll come back!” She started running backwards, looking at all of them with tense eyes. “The Mesh is winding down. Repairs can’t keep the loss of energy down forever. We need something to wind us back up and it sounds like you guys can do that! But the mid-managers don’t know this – and there was no way I could get to Blueberry in time to save you if I just left you there!”
“Thanks for getting us,” Rainbow said.
“…That’s three worlds we need to save, now,” Fluttershy noted.
“There may be more…” Rarity said, remembering the not-unicorn she’d seen prior to the closing of the portal
“It’s like there’s an epidemic or something here,” Rainbow commented. “So many worlds that just… need help.”
“I don’t know what that means!” Dust said as they arrived at a cylindrical pipe that rose as far as they could see. Dust pulled a lever, opening the doors to a wire-mesh compartment. “Get in, I’m sending you up a few levels. It’s where we last saw the thief. You have two options: find the thief and escape the Mesh, or survive until I can get Blueberry to call this whole thing off.” Seeing they were all in the elevator, she pulled the lever again, closing the doors. They could just barely make out her voice one more time.
“Good luck!”
“…Geez…” Rainbow said. “That went wrong quickly. Should have been expecting it…”
Rarity’s ears perked up. “Expect… things to go wrong?”
“There’s a lot of things you pick up when you travel around,” Rainbow said. “Things tend to go about as wrong as they can before going right. Or at least it seems like that.”
“Hmm…”
“Regardless, we need to prepare. Fluttershy, how many of your weapons work without magic?”
“Anything that isn’t a gun,” Fluttershy answered.
“Good. I’ll take those axes, my hoof has the pulse cannon.” She hefted the weapon.
“I’m… more than a little excited to see that thing in action.”
Rainbow smirked. “You and me both. Rarity?”
“I’ll stick with my blades,” Rarity said, carefully strapping two blades to her front hooves. This arrangement demanded she stand on her hind hooves which, while far from comfortable, wasn’t impossible with her flexibility.
Rainbow was able to stand on all four legs, for she had strapped the axes to her wings. Fluttershy equipped herself with nothing, though she did tie herself up in the grappling hook’s rope. “If you need to get me out of a situation fast, use this.”
“And we’re about as prepared as we can be…” Rainbow fell silent.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
It was louder now.
Getting louder the higher they went.
“What’re the chances we get up and there’s nopony there?” Fluttershy asked.
“Not low enough,” Rainbow muttered.
Rarity steeled herself, preparing for a battle that could arrive at any moment. The usual pre-battle thoughts ran through her head. Would she lose any of her newfound friends? What sort of enemies would they be? What could she do to minimize damage to herself and the city?
…Mesh. Minimize damage to the Mesh.
Would things be different now that she was in another world?
Most definitely. But could it be better? Or would it be worse?
~~~
Pinkie and Applejack walked up to Fluttershy’s shop. As they approached, it was easy to see how quality every weapon that lined the building’s walls were. Every blade was perfectly shaped – be it straight, curved, or swirled in the case of one unusual sword. All the edges were sharpened to perfection and each had a soft ethereal glow about them. Some shone brighter than others, but no weapon was left without an enchantment.
The swords, bows, maces, hammers, and other such weapons made Pinkie feel excited. So many fantastical fantasy weapons with amazing histories, powers, and elegance…
The guns, on the other hoof... they made her nervous. Back home, nopony would take a sword or bow as a serious weapon anymore. The guns were a different story. While the traditional weaponry filled Pinkie with a sense of awe and appreciation, their connection to death was distant in her mind.
She could hear gunfire in her mind as she looked at the ranged weapons. They looked nothing like guns she’d seen where she’d grown up, for the most part, but she could easily identify the barrels and the trigger. Of all the weapons she could pick up, the guns were the ones she’d at least know how to use.
Pinkie had never seen a pony die before, but she had seen somepony get injured by a gun. Back on the farm, there had been an argument… BANG.
That was something she would have liked not to think about but the magic weaponry was making that difficult.
“Anypony can use any of these weapons whenever the village is in crisis,” Red Riot said, walking up to them. “It is Fluttershy’s wish that everypony who wants to defend should have the chance to.”
That has to be the worst thing you could have told me right now, not that you could know that. “…What if somepony used the weapons on other ponies?”
Riot shook her head. “I hear such things happen in the inner cities, where the threat of the monsters is but a distant memory. But I cannot imagine such a thing happening here. We are too close in our struggles.”
“Ponies attacking each other...” Applejack shook her head. “Ah can’t decide if the worlds out here are better or worse than mine.”
“You’re all part of the Mesh…” Pinkie whispered, tracing her hoof along the blunt edge of a sword larger than her.
“And the Mesh is part of whatever’s out here.” The tapping in Applejack’s hoof increased its intensity. “Everything is connected, even if we can’t see how.”
“Wow, Applejack, you might have a future as a poet!”
“…What’s a poet?”
“Well, I-“
Twilight fell from the sky, crashing into the ground a few meters from Pinkie. The impact created a small crater that sparkled with purple energy, though Twilight herself seemed unharmed.
Pinkie was alarmed to see fear on Twilight’s face. “Wha-“
“I insulted the local gods and now we have to leave the universe,” Twilight summarized, staring beyond Pinkie with unfocused eyes. “We… yes, going. Going…”
This would have been the end of their visit, had a tremendous bird not chosen that moment to descend from the sky and destroy a cottage. The behemoth’s obsidian claw was larger than the home it had pulverized. Within its feathers galaxies and nebulae swirled with occasional violent sparks and its eyes were unmistakable: red, burning dark.
Riot drew her crossbow without flinching, firing off several rounds of arrows. The bird only had to caw and all the arrows bounced off an invisible barrier.
Riot grimaced. “Uh-oh…”
Pinkie really didn’t like that uh-oh.