//------------------------------// // 123 - We Will Not Count the Cost // Story: Songs of the Spheres // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// What was the Void, exactly? Not the nation – the construct that defined the nation; the ancient device that was often called the ‘incarnation of nothingness’. It had existed longer than anyone could remember and did not have the signature of Weaver, Downstreamer, or another common ancient-multiversal construct creator. It was a unique power over nothing that, somehow, turned that nothing into everything. It had access to an exceptionally large area of the multiverse, connecting so many worlds with a similar system of magic, summons, and even similar events, suggesting it had at least an indirect power over ka itself. It could open portals to any universe within its purview, bestow Void powers to anyone it wished, and utterly control the existence or nonexistence of virtually anything. Generally horrible offense, excellent defense. However, that was only what it did. No one, not even the Empress herself, knew what it was. There had been rumors that the first ‘master’ of the Void, Enuo, had been its creator, and he had clearly believed that had been the case, but it turned out he had merely happened upon it by accident. None of the other masters had figured it out either. As curious as Twilight was, she had never been able to figure out much of anything. It just was. Theories abounded. Perhaps it was a physical manifestation of the shared ka between the universes it was connected to. Or maybe it was a universe designed to interact with the Sea of Infinite Possibility without falling into nonexistence itself. Maybe it was a superweapon designed to wipe out the entire multiverse, and nobody really knew how to use it. Whatever it was, it was the only reason the people within were Class 2. Without the Void, they would have fallen long ago. Granted, now that Empress Twilight had been in power for millennia, they had a fleet and decentralized government, but all of that was built on the Void. They would probably be able to survive if the Void were taken out of the equation, but it wouldn’t be a comfortable life. …There was also the possibility that all the universes connected to the Void depended on it, and that they would cease to exist if the Void was disrupted heavily. Nobody could say for sure. For obvious reasons, nobody wanted to find out. Nobody but the Combine. Naturally, they saw the Void as the biggest threat to their operation – it was unbelievably strong and its defensive nature could easily protect Tower Rings from destruction. So, naturally, the conclusion was reached to unleash an all-out attack on the Void with the intent of destroying it and crippling the collapse movement. Lightning and Starbeat had no idea this was the plan. The Combine hadn’t exactly told anyone the goal of the assault was genocide. They’d just informed everyone that they’d detected a Tower Ring construction near the center of the Void’s universes. While the TSAB used the Kromagg and Paratimers on defense, the Combine had taken some forces from the Collection they had access to, and the Merodi. Lightning was commanding one of the Collection’s many versions of the Enterprise, flying alongside the Merodi Ytterbium. They themselves were but tiny specks alongside the Combine N7-AU, a biological mesh that looked like a soccer ball with yellow stars at every vertex, and a black hole in the center surrounded by orbiting metallic rings. This was part of a significantly larger fleet that might well have been a mobile galaxy, considering how many stars were involved. “The Combine are putting a lot into this…” Lightning observed. “Too much.” Starbeat nodded. “They must be after something. But this is war – not like we can get on their case about it. They can get whatever they want so long as we stop the Tower Ring.” Lightning let out a grunt, unsure of what to make of it. “…Is it getting to you?” “This was my home,” Lightning said, furrowing her brow. “Before the Collector took me… I was of the Void. One of many Lightnings out among the crystals. I didn’t look back. …But now I am back, fighting against them.” She shook her head. “I never expected to come back at all.” “Ah. Quite the homecoming.” Lightning nodded, flexing her Infinity Gauntlet. It was effectively useless in multiversal combat, given its need for the universe to be calibrated around it, but she wasn’t about to let anyone else wear it. This train of thought made her think about Thanos, and a scowl appeared on her face. “Focus on the here and now,” Starbeat said, smiling warmly. “We’re here to stop the collapse.” “Again.” “…Yeah. Again.” “It’s always again and again…” The order went out to move into the Void. The N7-AU activated the Combine-designed reality anchor, the only defense against the powers of the Void. The Void could break through such defenses rather easily – which meant they only had a short window of attack. There were three jumps needed within Void space to get to the Tower Ring universe. The entire Fleet would have to get there in a handful of minutes relative to their timestreams and unleash enough firepower to destroy the Tower Ring despite the Void’s defenses. Lightning had run the numbers. They had much more than enough to accomplish that. The firepower they were bringing was absurd. So absurd that they might lose more because they were so tightly packed. She knew the Combine liked to curb-stomp, but this didn’t seem as reasonable as it could have been. Should have been. The ships launched to the first universe. The anchors held steady, and there was no planned resistance at this stage – the universe was an empty, unimportant one. Hell broke loose in the second jump. Ships composed of crystalline entities and magitech entered the space, ringing them with dimensional inhibitors that severed the connection to the Tower Ring’s universe. Despite their anchors, the Combine were going to have to punch a new connection through the multiversal fabric to continue, and that would take time. Enough time for a battle to break out. Stars exploded, magical ships splintered into millions of pieces, and the death toll rose. The original plan for Lightning and Starbeat had been to use their ship to board one of the larger Void ships and take it down from the inside, but already there was too much chaos for that plan to work. A smaller Void ship had skewered the Enterprise and the Ytterbium, disabling all three without sending everyone to a fiery grave. Everyone readied the capture devices and prepared for a face-to-face fight that would end up being rather meaningless. After all, they were just three unimportant ships adrift in the middle of a larger battle; who cared what happened to them? Lightning nodded to Starbeat, and they went separate directions. Starbeat went to clear out the interior while Lightning teleported herself outside, a force field keeping her from succumbing to the vacuum of space. Apparently a few others had had the same idea – one of them a very familiar face. A version of her without an eyepatch or the Infinity Gauntlet. This Lightning had the same gunsword as Lightning, though. The two blades met with a clang, their bullets flying off in random directions. “FIRAJA!” Lightning shouted while her counterpart cast “BLIZAJA!”, allowing both of them to discover that, yes, this universe did allow sound to travel through space. The spells of fire and ice collided, sending the two women flying. They whirled around, casting dual Thundaja at each other, the bolts meeting in the middle and canceling each other out. Lightning didn’t want to use Ultiga or Gigaflare – the former would just destroy everything, while the latter would disintegrate the other Lightning into absolutely nothing, no way to capture her. Maybe… “Meteorga,” Lightning declared, summoning a magic swarm of meteors. She was able to direct them sideways so they would hit the other Lightning from the side, missing the ships entirely. This worked like a charm – the other Lightning could not deal with such an impressive spell, and she was easily captured. Unfortunately that was all the battling that got to happen. The Combine punched through the dimensional fabric, creating a space-time vortex that dragged everything through it – to the universe with the Tower Ring. The Tower Ring had barely begun construction – all they could see of it was a basic circular wireframe orbiting a red supergiant star. The N7-AU warp-jumped right next to it, forcing a double supernova to destroy the construct. “Easy, as expected,” Lightning muttered to herself, trying to figure out how she was going to get to a ship that was still operational to portal out easily. She could use her own device, but there was no telling where in space they were, making it a spatial pain to get anywhere. These thoughts were pushed aside when she realized the Combine weren’t leaving – they were arranging their ships into a complex geometric pattern. What are they doing…? Lightning didn’t get to answer this question at that moment – because Corona flew past Lightning’s vision, locked in combat with Discord. The Draconequus had clearly been struggling for a while now – having foregone his usual magic of random chaotic amusements in favor of fighting with pure distorted energy. Corona was able to raise a shield of magic to not only block the attack, but reflect it back at Discord. His physical form twisted for a moment, but reformed without a scratch on it. He pulled back his hand, tugging at a Combine ship, throwing the star-construct at Corona like a baseball. She teleported herself to the other side of the ship and hit Discord in the back with a binding spell, a deep red chain appearing around his midsection. She pulled back her other hand and drained energy from Discord through the chain. He lashed out, attempting to break it, but found that it used his own energy to defend itself. “How unfair…” Discord muttered. Lightning rushed in, enchanting her blade with Ruinaja and slicing right through the magic chain. Corona teleported behind her and pressed a finger to Lightning’s arm – achieving a moment of empathy. Lightning only let her have a second, slicing Corona across the chest even in her semi-conscious state. Golden glowing blood seeped out of the Rogue of Doom. Corona healed herself in an instant, teleporting to avoid one of Discord’s attacks. “Lightning, the Combine are trying to destroy the Void.“ Lightning blinked – she knew Corona was telling the truth. “So what?” Discord blurted, continuing to attack Corona – forcing her to bind him again. “This… Is… War!” “The destruction of the Void is likely to destroy almost every universe in the Void,” Lightning said, a haunted expression solidifying on her face. “It would be genocide…” Discord groaned. “Ugh, why can’t the Combine ever play nice?” “Because they don’t,” Corona said, folding her arms. “I know we’re enemies, but this war is not going to be like the previous ones. There will not be the genocide of races. Right?” Lightning curled the Infinity Gauntlet into a fist. “We already did what we came to do… This is too far.” She pointed at a seemingly insignificant ship near the edge of the Combine’s lattice. “That one’s a control node. Destroy enough of those and whatever dimensional mesh they’re trying to make should fall.” Corona nodded. She pushed her hands forward and lit her horn – releasing Discord in the process. He turned his remaining energy on the type of ship Lightning had pointed out. Corona – or Raging Sights – must have sent a message, because most of the Void ships did the same, taking out the linchpins in the Combine’s structure. The attempt to destroy the Void faltered. And the Void itself finally figured out how to break through the Combine’s defenses. A sphere of darkness appeared in the center of their fleet, eating it up like candy. There was a mass retreat. Corona smiled. “Hey, thanks,” she said, saluting Lightning. Lightning nodded. “So, now what?” Corona threw a capture device at Discord. In his weakened state he was unable to resist. “I capture Discord, give you this earpiece…” She tossed Trixie’s earpiece to Lightning. “And then we go our separate ways.” Lightning blinked. “…You’re not going to try to take me on?” Corona shrugged – then vanished through a portal of her own creation. Lightning was alone, adrift in space. She put the earpiece in her ear. “Hello?” “Oh, look at you, so lucky,” Trixie spat, clearly upset that Discord had just been defeated. “Can you do anything to get me out of here?” “Already sent your location to Starbeat. She’ll be picking you up… eventually. Now excuse Trixie, she’s got a Sombra virus to take care of.” Trixie’s voice cut out. Starbeat arrived the next moment, teleporting Lightning out of the universe. “What did you do?” “Stopped a genocide,” Lightning muttered. “Pretty sure Eve and Nanoha won’t consider that treason.” She paused for a moment. “We aren’t mindless monsters.” ~~~ Scarcity pressed a button and erased another USM world from existence. She wasn’t getting as much enjoyment out of this curbstomp as she had been hoping for. Even when the Merodi reinforcements arrived, there was hardly anything they could do against the Starcross Society's Razor. It was a simple device, really. It took the corpse of a dead Star and used the energy within to find a Singularity Point within a universe where its structure was weakest, and then it would create an explosion akin to the Big Bang there, destroying everything within. The USM lacked sophisticated reality anchors or multiversal defenses, so tearing them apart was easy. When she finally got to the Merodi, they would be slightly more difficult, but still inevitably they would fall. An alarm went off on her console. The Razor ship had just been hit by… “Johnny Joestar…” Scarcity muttered. That man and his ‘Infinite Spin’ was a major pain. All he had to do was shoot one nail into any solid thing, and eventually the Spin would overtake the object’s structural integrity, shattering it. It would be… oh, about an hour before the Infinite Spin moved all the way through the Razor ship, but cutting off the infected section wasn’t going to be easy considering that he shot one of the major power nodes. She ordered her soldiers to take care of Johnny. All of them fell within a few seconds. She sighed. “All right, fine. Want something done right…” She teleported to the part of the ship’s hull where Johnny was. She could see the fires of battle happening all around as the USM and Merodi attempted to break through the Starcross Society’s defenses, but were unable to force the universe to collapse. The explosions were mostly far away from the Razor ship, the construct they needed to protect the most. It was probably a fluke Johnny had gotten here at all. He was, in fact, riding a pony; an alicorn to be precise. None other than Twilight Sparkle M4 from Equis Eldritch. M4 said something – but this universe didn’t allow for sound in space, so there weren’t going to be any dry sarcastic comments in this fight. There was a small pile of capture devices at M4’s hooves, presumably filled with Scarcity’s soldiers. Soldiers that were probably undergoing Infinite Spin and would die if they were released in a universe that allowed Spin to take place. Such as this one. Johnny aimed his nails and M4 shot a magical laser at Scarcity. Scarcity was suddenly behind them, tapping into the power of the Razor ship’s Runes with her own magic. The yellow glow of the Runes next to her flooded into her horn, creating a sharp yellow point of light. The light transformed into a five-headed snake and charged the very surprised Johnny and M4. Starcei would know how I did that. Heh. Johnny found his nails couldn’t spin the light-construct, and M4’s magic was all spent on defense. They were falling back, on the defensive. Great. All she had to do was follow up… SUCH OVERCONFIDENCE IS UNBECOMING. Scarcity blinked. Wait… She couldn’t hear anything out h- A bony hand touched the back of her neck and ripped her soul right out of her body. She was aware of this – it took the act of her soul being pushed back into her body to force her into unconsciousness. Death smiled, just like always. He captured her and tucked the ball into his robes. He turned his attention to the snake golem, raising his scythe. Thanos came out of nowhere and punched Death across the face, the gems of the Infinity Gauntlet glowing brightly. …THIS COULD BE PROBLEMATIC. Johnny managed to get a shot off on Thanos, but the Infinity Gauntlet protected him with a barrier of energy. They had been destroying other universes from this universe for hours. That had been plenty of time to alter it to suit the Infinity Gauntlet. He punched forward with just enough force to send Death flying without heavily damaging the Razor ship. Death reached out to end Thanos’s life, but the Gauntlet protected him. The Gauntlet allowed him to harm Death physically. The Gauntlet made him invincible. Death fell, followed quickly by Johnny and M4. Thanos produced three capture devices and imprisoned all three of them. Then he released Scarcity. She glared at the three balls in his hand. “You captured them. Why would you bother!?” “We are not monsters,” he said simply. “Get inside, we’ve been ordered to fall back.” “Wh- why!? The USM is almost nothing!” “That’s why,” Thanos said, feeling no need to explain further. ~~~ Scarcity walked into what could best be called ‘Corona’s office,’ even though it looked just like all the other personal rooms in the Raven Hotel. Corona sat on the other side of her desk. Her hair was messed up and there were a few scratches on her wings, indicating that she hadn’t even cleaned up since her deployment to the Void. Standing next to her was Morty. Both of them made no attempts to hide their anger at Scarcity. It did surprise Scarcity that Morty spoke first. “What the fuck!?” he demanded, waving his arms. “Just exterminating worlds? What were you thinking?” “Lowering the strength of the enemy,” Scarcity said, as if she were talking to an idiot. “The USM were an easy target.” “A target that had no capability to create Tower Rings or even provide substantial backup to any of their forces!” Corona shouted. “And you weren’t just attacking their military worlds, you were attacking all of them.” “What’s your point, exactly? This is an alliance, not a democracy, each of us can do whatever we want for the war.” “At a certain point you become the enemy of all,” Corona pointed out. “Remember Gallifrey? Or did you forget already?” Morty asked incredulously. Scarcity bristled. “The Starcross Society seeks to collapse, not to rul-” “I’ve been in your head before, Scarcity,” Corona reminded her. “I know exactly what you actually want. You want to collapse everything and keep anyone from ever reaching above a certain level of power. That sounds like control to me.” “And you think we can do that?” Corona shook her head. “Not really. The point stands. If you act atrocious enough, you will get your allies to turn against you and attack you. Case in point, I got Lightning to turn on the Combine so they wouldn’t completely destroy the Void. Had your little jaunt gone differently Thanos might have betrayed you for the sake of retaining at least some morality!” “This is war, Corona!” “And civilians need to stay out of it!” “Oh, like we’re not going to kill all the civilians if we win?” Corona’s expression darkened. “That won’t be our decis-” “What’s a few million more off to the side, hmm?” Scarcity asked. “Or can’t you do math?” “Counting deaths isn’t the point here,” Morty said. “The point is fighting a war that isn’t a series of genocides. Both sides of this conflict are done with the collateral damage. War’s supposed to have rules.” “Then that makes us weak.” “Not if the other side is doing the same,” Corona said, folding her hands together. “Then we can get an advantage through it!” “And trying to use every last advantage is what got all the Class 1s killed,” Corona said. “We can’t let ourselves become soulless monsters. We have to actually care about what’s happening on the realms below us. That’s the whole point of this war in the first place!” “What’s best is victory at all costs.” Corona let out a grunt. “Fine, let me put it this way. You’re going to start adhering to the rules of war or we’re going to start blowing up your ships.” “You wouldn’t…” “I think after about a third of your fleet’s loss you’ll realize that, maybe, trying to win at all costs will actually make you lose.” “You’re being illogical!” Corona slammed her fist on the desk. “It’s my job to make sure we don’t succumb to being evil! If we do, if we make Allure right about us, not only do we lose, but we don’t deserve to win! The way to win a war of this magnitude is to be the good guys!” Scarcity twitched. “Let me guess, Twilence? You realize that little runaway experiment could say anything and you just take her word for it? I think she’s forgotten where she came from. You don’t have to be the ‘good guy’ to win. Just more right than the other side.” Corona furrowed her brow. “…I wasn’t there for the Starstream War. I only saw snips of it in your mind. But what I do know is that we can’t afford to take the risk you want to take. Because the Tower exists, this war isn’t just a game of numbers or victory. One plus one does not equal two everywhere.” “And your math is better?” “At the very least my math lets us be better people.” Morty nodded in agreement. “And if we keep doing what you want, the other side will be forced to use genocide. We’ll have the mark of corrupting them.” Scarcity let out a deep sigh. “Fine. You win. We’ll play the ‘nice war’. See how long it lasts you before you’re begging to use more extreme measures.” She stormed out. Corona folded her arms and shook her head. “She’s going to keep being a problem… You’d think it would be the lizard supervillain, or the hungry energy beings, but no, it’s the unicorn.” She put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “She’ll do what she says,” Morty said. “I’d worry more about Phage double-crossing you for his own benefit.” “It’s better not to worry at all,” she asserted. “Worry only makes us do drastic things…” ~~~ “…UNDERSTAND!?” Eve shouted as loud as she could. With her ears off, she had the capacity to shout much louder than anyone else normally could for longer periods of time, not to mention the addition of the Royal Canterlot Voice. The High Combine she was shouting at nodded slowly. The being appeared to be a woman made out of crystalline flowers – immensely graceful, but also with a stern face. She stood up and walked out. Eve sat back in her chair and stretched her wings. “I think she got the point.” Monika nodded. “She got the point.” “That wasn’t because of you, was it?” Flutterfree asked Monika. Monika rolled her eyes. “Of course not. They’d be able to detect that later. I just looked inside to see how it was going – flawless. They won’t be trying that again.” “Good to know,” Eve said, shaking her head. “You’ll also be glad to know Corona had a very similar conversation with Scarcity not five minutes ago.” “…You could see that?” Flutterfree asked, blinking. “I think Twilence wanted me to see it,” Monika admitted. “A reminder that they’re trying not to be monsters too…” Eve smiled, then frowned. “…On one hoof that makes this war less damaging… On the other it makes it harder to see them as real enemies.” “It’s like we’re developing some freaky honor system on the fly,” Monika said, lying down on Eve’s desk. “We need it.” Monika half shrugged with one arm. “If you say so, boss lady.” Flutterfree rolled her eyes. “She’s not the only one who says s-” There was a knock on the door. Eve sat up and leaned forward. “Who is it?” “Roxy,” Roxy said, using her Void powers to slip through the cracks in the door, her pinkish skin reminding everyone of her pseudo-Gem nature. “Got a question for ya.” Eve had a feeling she knew what it was. “…Yes?” “Why can’t you, like, get John out of that Pokèball?” “We don’t call them that,” Flutterfree corrected on instinct. “Ball, capture device, whatever,” Roxy muttered, clearly thinking nothing of political correctness at the moment. “I just want to know why John has to stay in his.” Eve pressed her front hooves together, and in front of those her wingtips. “Roxy, you already know why.” “He’s not fucking dangerous!” “Yes, he is,” Eve said. “And in more ways than one. Most people I’d expect to not understand this, but you? You’re the Second of Intelligence. You should know exactly what his presence means on the ka-level.” “And fuckin’ literature girl here doesn’t count?” Monika raised an eyebrow. “Literature girl. Creative. Flawless insult.” “At least I don’t rewrite people’s minds to make my insults for me!” Monika twitched. “That’s Rohan’s department, loveless limestone li-” “STOP!” Flutterfree shouted. “We are on the same side!” “Then answer my question!” Roxy shouted. “Why him and not her?” “Monika’s not a superweapon,” Eve said. “I couldn’t, even theoretically, end the war with just her. John could do that. The Gallifreyans didn’t have him go back to the point Corona made the Message because they liked the first part of the war. But we could, and that would be dangerous. …And there’s the chance he ends up siding with the collapse. We can’t chance that.” “He wouldn’t do that!” “I’m pretty sure some of the Skaian Johns ended up following Corona,” Flutterfree said. Roxy clenched her fists. “That’s not the point, the point is-” “You want him back, I understand,” Eve said, eyes sad. “But we’re not going to release him – not until after the war’s over, at the very least.” “He could go back and change it then,” Monika pointed out. “I’m sure we could convince Aradia to create a safeguard using the TARDIS, Just like the Time Lords originally did. …Half of her, anyway.” Roxy looked like she wanted to punch her. “Roxy…” Eve sighed. “I understand. The Time Lords took all your closest friends away from you when they took John. You’re the last one left. It’s painful, you feel alone, and you just want to lash out against those who’re keeping you alone. It’s a mess.” Roxy’s expression softened. “…Aaaagh, why do you have to be so damn understanding?” “…I have experience,” Eve said, looking into the distance. “A lot more experience than is probably healthy.” Roxy leaned against the wall, shaking her head. “…Will you promise me you’ll let him out?” Eve nodded. “When the war is over, I will. Even if it’s the collapse that wins, if I’m still around, I’ll let him out.” “…Though in that case you’d need him to undo all the damage.” Eve rubbed the back of her head. “Eh… Maybe. …We all know our chances of surviving the collapse though.” Everyone in the room suddenly felt like they couldn’t make eye contact with anyone else. Eve coughed. “John will be fine, Roxy. Soon as the war ends I’ll figure out what to do. It’ll be one of the first things on my list. You understand, right?” “Yeah. …Friggin ponies, I really wanted to punch you in the face today.” Eve chuckled. “You’d be surprised how often I get that. See you around, Roxy – Giorno’s probably looking for you.” Roxy nodded. “Right.” She smiled and winked. “Wonk!” And then she vanished. Flutterfree held up a data pad. “Nanoha wants you to meet with her at the earliest convenience. We’re going to have to get to the Void front.” Eve sighed. “All right then… Living Tribunal?” “Not available at the moment.” “Great. Taking the long way around. Monika, did you save that TSAB speeder like I asked?” Monika smirked. “You bet I did.” She teleported them all to a space dock and took out the TSAB speeder from her files. “Behold, the fastest way to get around the multiverse now! Courtesy of Monika industries.” “...Industries?” Flutterfree asked. Monika blinked. “…No idea, actually. Just get in the ship.” ~~~ Renee stood on the balcony of her castle, looking out at the city of Ponyville. It was every bit as beautiful as always, but something about the view wasn’t doing it for her. Instead of filling her with enjoyment, pride, and satisfaction, she just felt… …empty. Perhaps alone was a better word. She felt alone. She was no longer surrounded by constant agents of Expeditions. Since she had passed the military aspect off to Daniel and all other operations were suspended… She was at work but she wasn’t really doing anything. She just made sure all the paperwork was in order. It was eating her away, and she needed to talk to someone. …But who did she have? Daniel, for once in her life, wasn’t available. Couldn’t support her. He was too involved. And Renee’s fallback pony, her own sister, had become similarly enraged with recent events. There would be no rest talking to them. Eve and Flutterfree were busy – Eve with managing everyone’s relations within the war, Flutterfree making sure Eve didn’t crack along the way. They scarcely got any time to say hello to Renee, much less have an extended discussion with her. And all the others? Pinkie, Nova, Jotaro? Even Vriska? All gone. Turned ‘traitor’ and joined the other side. …She knew Pinkie would be able to help her. What she wouldn’t give to be able to talk with her right now. She shook her head, realizing that she even missed Pidge. That short little technician who had been the castle’s handywoman for… well, since before the war with Skarn. That had been a long time ago. But now the castle was abandoned. All her friends were gone. Who else could she talk to? …Applejack? No… they’d grown too far apart over the years. Same with Spike. Her parents… could never understand her to begin with, not really. O’Neill was just as busy as the rest of them. Plus, Renee didn’t exactly think he’d be a good listener. There were the ponies who worked the Rarity for You shops, maybe Coco? She was… I’m just grasping at straws, Renee realized with a sigh. She turned away from the balcony and strode into the room with the Map… Or what had once been the Map. Now it was just a table with a slight connection to the broken Tree of Harmony. It had been broken for so long Renee had almost forgotten what the room felt like when everything had still been fine. When Rainbow Dash had still been around. But today, she felt it. That inkling of what things had once been. She put her hoof on the table – and she felt the weak essence of the Tree of Harmony talk to her. It told her someone saw her and understood her pain. Renee broke into tears, covering the broken Map with her emotional turmoil. It was no substitute for a close friend; it was nothing close to a solution. It was just a shoulder for her to cry on, someone who would listen to her struggle. Even if what was heard had no words. Alone, Renee screamed her heart out. ~~~ I cleared my throat. “I’ve found a Tower Ring that’s somewhat near completion.” The room turned its full attention to me. Corona, Thanos, Morty, Mage Rarity, Scarcity, Lady Rarity, Red Diamond, Minna, Phage, Ahzek, Edelgard, a Shabanash, and a handful of others were present. “Well, where is it?” Minna asked. “Combine space, near the edges of the multiverse in what was once a Spline port,” I laid my notebook down, showing a few sketches I had made of a loose, inactive chunk of the Spline’s structure. “They’re repurposing the ‘junk’ into a Tower Ring. I’ve already sent the exact coordinates to all of your personal devices. They think it should be easy to operate that far out of anyone’s view. There’s no dimensional obfuscation around the universe, just an immense amount of ships and a universe with hard limitations on teleportation.” “Hard how?” Corona asked. “Hard as in teleportation is flat out impossible. The universe is routed in such a particular way that all incoming traffic must appear at one location and then physically move to do anything.” “A choke point…” Phage said, scratching his reptilian chin. “Clever.” “Could we destroy the universe from the outside?” Scarcity asked. Thanos shook his head. “It is unlikely they would let a universe of such importance exist without stabilizers.” I nodded. “They have so many I don’t think even an ‘omnibomb’ could take it out. So we’re going to have to go in and destroy the Tower Ring somehow.” “Overwhelming force?” Scarcity suggested. “We’d lose too many ships,” Minna said. “We have the means, but we’re fighting on more than one front here.” “They likely have defenses against a forced Void connection as well,” Mage Rarity mused. Red Diamond snapped her fingers. “Of course! The answer is simple. We have to go the way of the small task force. Something they wouldn’t be able to detect until it was too late.” “Stealth mission…” Corona furrowed her brow. “Minna, how many Void Skaians do we have?” “Enough,” Minna said. “They can hide a small group from any and all sensors that aren’t ka based.” “And I can hide that,” I offered. “Minna, do you think you can round up a team?” Minna nodded. “People who know how to hide, but also destroy a Tower Ring… I think I have some ideas. Give me an hour, I’ll have them chosen.” “I offer to be the distraction,” Red Diamond said. “Distraction?” Lady Rarity asked. “They’ll be able to detect a portal opening,” I explained. “If they don’t see anything come out of it, they’ll be suspicious. But if they see a somewhat large ship with a big gun, they’ll think they found what the plan was.” Red Diamond nodded. “I will go in, stop for a moment, and then leave before they can shoot, making them think I wasn’t prepared for that level of resistance. They will likely pursue but I can lose them in the Void. It’ll work flawlessly.” “It won’t,” I said. “But it sounds reasonable. Be prepared for it to go wrong, okay?” Red Diamond nodded. Minna stood up. “Meet back in an hour for launch.” “Right,” everyone said. ~~~ “Guess what we just found?” O’Neill said, throwing a data pad onto the meeting table. He didn’t need to do that – the information was already on everyone’s pads – but he wanted to make a point. Starbeat, Lightning, Eve, Monika, Yellow Diamond, and a handful of others O’Neill didn’t recognize looked at it. Nanoha wasn’t here, seeing as she was dealing with inner TSAB preparations at the moment, so Vita was here in her place. The Combine, Kromagg, and Paratimers were also represented, but at the moment O’Neill didn’t particularly care about them. “A Tower Ring?” Vita said, raising an eyebrow. “That was fast.” O’Neill nodded. “I don’t know how the Starcross Society did it, but there is a Ring under construction around the Rebellious Star, deep in Starcross Society space.” “How did you find it?” a Combine asked. “Star-connections,” O’Neill said. “The Rebellious Star is still part of the network, even if he is in a secluded sector. We were able to detect a change in his pattern, and Bob’s your uncle, we got the signal of a Tower Ring.” The Combine accepted this – even though it was only partially true. In reality, Giorno had figured it out using complex analysis of dimensional activity, of which the Star network was a small part. It helped that Merodi Universalis was relatively close to the Starcross Society and could analyze such things without raising too much of a red flag. It also helped that Roxy could just make anything invisible to everything. But nobody needed to know that. “What’s the plan?” Eve asked. O’Neill could tell from her expression and slight change in voice that her ears were on. O’Neill smirked. “Oh, there’s a plan all right. Starbeat, something tells me you’ve already got the idea.” Starbeat nodded. “Kill the Rebelious Star and you destroy the Tower Ring.” Eve’s eyes widened in shock. “But he’s the most protected thing in the Starcross Society!” “Which is why it’s time to bring back the ka-manipulating devices,” Starbeat said. “We need someone to equip themselves with a Conjoiner and fly into the Rebellious Star. The heat from the Star will kill that person, and the Conjoiner will ensure the Rebellious Star dies as a consequence.” “That seems imbalanced,” Monika said. “A single person dying takes out a star? Wasn’t there a balance with the Conjoiner?” “It’d have to be someone powerful,” Starbeat admitted. “Someone of similar importance or scale.” Eve blinked. “…A Tree of Harmony.” “Would that even be enough?” Vita asked. “The Rebellious Star is tied to several different versions of himself, not just the ‘core’ one.” Starbeat nodded. “It should be enough, I just have to make a small adjustment to force the Conjoiner consider minds, not bodies. With that, just take a Tree and throw it into the Rebellious Star and they’ll be Conjoined. It’ll work.” “I’ll get the Sparkle Census to send out a message,” Eve said. “Find a Tree of Harmony willing t-” For the first time in over forty years, Eve’s cutie mark sparked with life. It was only for a moment; the weak call of an ancient guardian who knew it was time to move on. It was trying to tell her something. “…Nevermind. I think we have a volunteer.” She stood up, grimacing. “I’ll go prepare the Tree of Harmony. I’m sure the rest of you can come up with a suitable military strategy for getting us to the Rebellious Star.” O’Neill nodded. “You’re dismissed.” Eve spread her wings and teleported away, unsure what to make of the new development. She glanced at her flank. “Are you sure…?” There was no response. ~~~ Minna chose Pinkie’s Party as one of the three teams to be sent to the combine Tower Ring. Minna claimed that the other two groups were just as important – a handful of Collection heroes and a troop of Void ‘Chosen One’ type heroes – but Pinkie was well aware the purpose the other two served. Redshirts. If one team was going to get discovered, it was going to be one of them, not Pinkie’s Party. Granted, all three teams had a method by which they could destroy the Tower Ring – the Collection had their Goku on the team, and the Void humans had a machine on their team called Omega that could apparently rewrite reality. But they were really relying on Vriska. Vriska, who has just spent the last hour sapping luck from people. In a crowded military base not only was it easy to get lots of luck, but she could do it like a factory assembly line. She held the infinite-sided die in her hand, carefully poised between her fingertips. “I can do anything.” “Win the war in an instant?” Pidge asked, typing away at her computer. “Probably, if you could get me to the right place.” She narrowed her eyes. “Can I alter the construction of the Tower Ring and place it around the Tower?” “Nope,” Nova said. “If it takes higher societies time to build these things, do you think your little artifact can do it?” “Eh, probably not,” Vriska admitted, pocketing the blue orb. “But it can sure as hell blow it up.” “Assuming they haven’t prepared for it,” Pidge pointed out. “Please, I’m so lucky right now nobody could plan anything.” She snapped her fingers and a milkshake fell out of the sky into her hand. “Fate bows to me.” “Don’t waste your luck,” Jotaro commented. Vriska smirked. “Waste? I’ll have you know this is a triple deluxe Sunday smoothie. Worth every bit of luck I spent for it.” “Just make sure you have enough,” Pinkie said, changing into her red sparkling dress. “It’s gonna be brutal and we can’t take too many chances.” “…Massacre dress?” Nova said, looking mildly nervous. “It’s gonna be that bad?” “I think so,” Pinkie admitted. “I don’t think we’re in any danger because…” She bit her lip and didn’t finish the comment. “Regardless, this is a real war we’re fighting in.” “Bit hard to believe what we’re fighting for, huh?” Nova asked. “No, really?” Jolyne asked, letting everyone know she was there. Jotaro looked at her. “I didn’t think you were coming.” “I’m not,” Jolyne said. “Just… here to say goodbye. Make it back safe.” Jotaro allowed a slight smile to appear on his features. “We will.” “And they’re about to teleport us away,” Pinkie said, adjusting the fabric on her dress. “It’s go time!” Unceremoniously, the five of them were teleported into a hangar in Red Diamond’s ship. Normally, they would have stayed there for several hours while the ship travelled, but this mission was important enough that the Void was going to force a connection to get them to their destination in a matter of seconds. Nova was able to feel the transition from normal space to Void space – the feeling was one of sudden emptiness and solitude. Just as quickly as the feeling had appeared, it vanished. Red Diamond’s ship was in a universe one jump away from the Combine’s Tower Ring. “Prepare for deployment!” Red Diamond called. A Void Skaian ran into the room and enchanted all three teams with true nothingness, ensuring they wouldn’t be seen by conventional sensors. Elsewhere, I ensured the Aware couldn’t see them, though to be fair it wasn’t like the Combine were known for being Aware. This was more to keep a Pinkie somewhere from warning them. The members of all three teams put on bracelets that activated magical auras around them – one that would keep them protected from the vacuum of space and loose radiation. They were ready. Red Diamond’s ship moved into the universe. While it was passing through the portal, it launched the three teams out an airlock, tossing all of them into the vacuum of space. Nova grabbed hold of Pinkie’s Party with her telekinesis and dragged them away from Red Diamond’s ship as fast as she could manage, using fast-forward spells to make it further than should have been possible. She noticed the Void using similar time spells, leaving only the Collection’s team anywhere near Red Diamond’s ship after the first few seconds. And then something went wrong. Red Diamond’s ship didn’t move back into the portal. It just stood there. “There must have been a malfunction!” Pidge blurted, her voice carried to the other members of her team by radio. “We have t-” The thousands of Combine starships opened fire on Red Diamond’s vessel. While the red craft was a marvellous feat of Gem and Merodi engineering, even it couldn’t hope to withstand anywhere close to the amount of lethal force the Combine fleet unleashed. After the flash of light Red Diamond’s ship was nothing. There wasn’t even dust remaining. The shockwave from the energy blast reached Pinkie’s Party and sent them flying – but it wasn’t damaging. Pinkie didn’t know if the Collection’s team survived, but she was relatively certain the Void had gotten away. “No…” Nova said, holding out a hoof toward where Red Diamond had been just a moment ago. “Focus on the mission,” Jotaro said. Pinkie nodded. “Find the Tower Ring – it’s in this universe somewhere.” Vriska closed her eyes and pointed her finger in a random direction. “Aaaaand there.” She was pointing at an empty area of space. “It’s definitely there,” Nova said, narrowing her eyes. “I’m just not sure how they’re hiding it…” “Let’s go and find out!” Pinkie said with a giggle. “I’ve even got a way to cheat. You know how this universe disallows teleportation?” “Yeah…?” Pinkie chuckled deviously. “Yare yare daze…” Jotaro muttered. “Oh, Pinkie powers.” Nova facehooved. “Right…” Pinkie made a mock salute. She pulled a lamppost out of her mane and jumped behind it, dragging her teammates behind her. They appeared on the other side of a Combine turret on the closest ship to the empty spot. The turret didn’t detect their presence. It continued to point itself at the universe’s only entry point. Elsewhere, guns started to go off. They saw, closer to the center, some Combine ships were using point-defense turrets to shoot at small targets. Given the sudden appearance of large elemental spells on the outside of those ships, it was safe to assume the Void team had been discovered. Pinkie’s Party had to force themselves to ignore the suffering – the mission was more important. They drifted to the ‘empty’ part of the universe. They passed through a strange, jello-like barrier, and suddenly they couldn’t see the Combine ships. They could see the interior of a structure roughly the size of a moon. The jello-like flesh walls rippled with the breath of a tremendous life form. Dozens of country-sized fleshy tendrils came out of the walls and stuck themselves around a glass sphere, inside of which a Tower Ring was under construction. It was almost complete. The fleshy mass had already grown into the donut shape needed, and half of it was covered in the appropriate circuitry. They could see the warping of space-time in the center of the Ring already, despite it not even being turned on. “The ripple must be how they’re compensating for the multiple-universes need,” Pidge said, blinking. “I wonder how many dimensions they’ve got stacked on top of each other in there.” “STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!” Jotaro shouted, moving them quickly to the side before a Combine laser could hit them. “Wh… how’d they see us!?” Nova blurted, raising up a multi-tiered magic shield around them. “I think they felt us,” Pidge said. “We just passed through the outer fleshy wall!” The Combine ships that drifted inside the fleshy sphere stopped firing – their bullets had already charred the edge of the flesh, despite not being star-powered constructs. The ships defending the interior had to be small enough to fit inside a moon, after all. “They can’t see us,” Pinkie said with a grin. “All they know is they think the wall felt something come in they couldn’t see.” She nodded to Nova, and the unicorn used her telekinesis to move them deeper into the flesh-moon, staying far away from the patrolling ships and the flesh tendrils. “I’m picking up radio chatter,” Pidge said, tapping her earpiece. “They’re sure something went in and are being very paranoid about it. They haven’t figured out that it’s an attack yet, though. Don’t even know that Void power is being used.” “What are their plans?” Pinkie asked. “They’re replaying all the sensor data they have. They aren’t finding much.” The team arrived at the edge of the glass sphere, examining the fleshy Tower Ring closer than before. They could see what appeared to be little houses dotting the edge of the Ring, each one connected to some kind of green circuitry running through the fleshy mass. On the inner edge, giant teeth pointed toward the center, as if ready to shred the tower to pieces – despite the intended purpose of preserving the multiverse. Vriska pulled out the infinite-sided die. She took a deep breath. “I have enough luck, but I might become a klutz after this. Watch me. Carefully.” She tossed the die into the air. It whirred through a thousand symbols before deciding on a large circle with three small dots in it. It flashed a bright blue, bright enough for the Combine ships to notice. They soon cared little about the glowing blue object and a lot more about their Tower Ring. Everything within the glass sphere underwent a subatomic reaction – every last proton and neutron collapsed into their component quarks at a level of energy akin to universes at the start of big bangs. The matter coalesced into what scientists like to call quark-gluon plasma. Anyone who’s ever seen it in reality calls it something else. Liquid Cancer. The plasma appeared like glass, but it also appeared like a swiftly churning liquid. It was bright – but not in the visible spectrum, rather unleashing outrageous amounts of invisible ultraviolet radiation. Anything that was unprotected – namely, the fleshy masses surrounding the once solid Tower Ring – was subject to so much intense radiation that cancer was instantaneous. As it was, Pinkie’s Party was barely able to withstand the result with their protective force fields. The energy was strong enough to start draining their shields and strong enough to melt the glassy container. It wouldn’t be much longer before it completely vaporized the ‘moon’ it was inside. “Time to go!” Pinkie shouted. “STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!” Jotaro managed to get them a fair distance away from the Liquid Cancer as it shriveled up the fleshy tendrils, shredding the moon to pieces. The small ships started to shoot at them. “Quiznak! I think they can see us now!” Pidge blurted. “Just look at what area of space is preventing the absurd energy from flowing properly!” “Dammit,” Nova muttered. “Okay, plan, need a plan… Soon as we leave this flesh-sphere we’re sitting ducks.” “Can we twist back to the exit point?” Vriska asked Pinkie. “That’d be too convenient right now,” Pinkie said. “I’m thinking something else… Jotaro, can you and Nova work in tandem to extend time stop as long as you need?” Nova and Jotaro nodded. “STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!” “Magic… thing that doesn’t have a name!” Nova and Jotaro juggled time between them – Star Platinum would hold it for a few seconds, then Nova would, creating a pulsing wave of time energy. Evidently there was some exploitable weakness in this, because about thirty seconds in, their time stop abilities suddenly stopped working. “Some sort of automatic protocol must have figured it out!” Pidge said. “We’re dead!” The Combine star-ships fired at Pinkie’s Party. Pinkie pulled out a giant mirror. One side of the Combine’s lasers reflected right back at their ships, triggering supernovas. The other half hit the undefended side. The Collection’s Goku took the hit for them. His overly muscular, impossibly strong body tanked enough energy to destroy a solar system. He was able to keep it from the five of them. He was not able to survive it. After the volley of lasers hit, his body was nothing more than a charred skeleton. Pinkie didn’t give her team a chance to get horrified by the corpse – she loaded them all into a space party cannon and fired. They blasted the rest of the way to the entry point and opened a portal. They escaped. “Mission accomplished…” Nova said, breathing heavily. “That… That was way too close. It was pure luck that we survived!” “You’re welcome,” Vriska said. “I just got a signal,” Pidge said. “Minna’s ship will be picking us up shortly.” “Good,” Jotaro said. Pinkie narrowed her eyes at Jotaro. “That better not be a ‘we can do this again’ ‘good’. We need a break.” Jotaro didn’t meet her eyes. “Tsk tsk tsk… C’mon, I’ll make cake.” “We can’t fight all the time, Jojo,” Pidge said with a sad smile. “Even if we want to.” Jotaro let out a short sigh, and they knew they’d convinced him. ~~~ Storm, Jenny, Blackjack, and Alushy sat in the clearing next to the Tree of Harmony. They hadn’t seen Magane since she vanished on the last mission they were on. Their mysterious vanishing team member was far from their minds, however – for they were watching the uprooting of the Tree of Harmony. All four of them felt the need to be silent and reverent as the action was performed. Four ponies stood in front of the Tree – Eve, Renee, Flutterfree, and Applejack. Next to them was a team of Gem engineers, all of them carefully placing devices around the Tree to ensure its movement would be gentle and comfortable for the Tree. The Tree of Harmony flashed, lighting up their cutie marks one last time. Many universes away, Pinkie felt it as well. The five remaining Elements of Harmony popped out of the tree, falling back to their bearers. Flutterfree, Renee, and Applejack regained the necklaces of Kindness, Generosity, and Honesty. The crown of Magic reformed on Eve’s head after having been absent for so many decades. The branch of Laughter dropped its Element onto the ground. The blue balloon found no bearer, but it was ready. Renee picked it up and looked to Eve. She nodded, allowing Renee to keep it. The branch of Loyalty was still blackened from the day Rainbow Dash died. It mattered not that the pillar of Bravery lived, nor that the Loyal dragon Smolder still breathed. There had been a fundamental break in Loyalty itself, the effects of which were only now being truly understood. “Had she been around… this would not have happened,” Applejack said. Nopony argued with that. Applejack looked to Eve. “Ah don’t know what to tell you. Ah guess the Tree wants to do this… but Ah still don’t like it. Didn’t Cosmo do this?” “Cosmo lost the Elements as well,” Eve said, looking up at her crown. “We’ll keep them. It’s the Tree of Harmony’s spirit that matters for this.” She turned to Storm. “Guard her with your life.” “…Her?” Alushy asked. Eve didn’t feel the need to engage with Alushy. She simply turned around and waved a hoof – telling the Gems to uproot the Tree of Harmony. The machines shoved their geometric shapes into the ground, tearing the Tree out. The Tree floated in the air. It didn’t scream in pain – the uprooting process had been as painless as expected – but it was suffering. It had no Elements, one of its branches was broken, and it had lived to see everything fall apart. It was tired. Eve shook her head, wiping away tears. She placed one of the Conjoiner devices in the Loyalty branch. “Good luck, old friend.” The Tree of Harmony flashed brightly in response, using its energy to create a sparkling hologram version of Twilight. “I never thanked you for all you’ve done.” Eve smiled sadly. “You’ve done more than we ever could have.” “It was a team effort. I have faith you will be able to move on without me. Whatever the end may bring.” Eve held out a hoof. “Are you sure about this?” The hologram placed a hoof on Eve’s, sending a chilling sensation through the alicorn. “I am sure. It is time for me to do something rather than give it to others. Take my essence and use it wisely.” “They’re safe with us.” The hologram nodded – and dissipated. The Tree of Harmony was done talking. Storm, Jenny, Blackjack, and Alushy took up positions around the floating Tree. In a moment, they were all transported up to the Austraeoh, in one of the hangar bays. O’Neill was there, waiting for them. “Storm, Jenny, Alushy, and Beryl… I can’t tell if you lucked out or are about to suffer a horrible fate.” “We’re not the ones on a suicide mission,” Jenny said. “I think we’re lucky.” O’Neill shrugged. “We’re going for a blitzkrieg strategy. Overwhelming force and an instant execution – so hold onto your hats.” “There’s only one hat here,” Alushy said, pointing at her head. O’Neill shrugged. “Then hold onto your gloves or whatever. Just don’t let your guard down for a second. They’re going to figure out what we’re trying to do, and they’ll want to kill the Tree before it has a chance to do what it needs to. If they somehow get on the Austraeoh, keep them down. Got it?” Storm saluted. “Yes, sir.” O’Neill smirked. “Don’t die.” He teleported to the bridge. It was less than a minute later when the fleet launched. The Austraeoh took place in the center of a fleet consisting of thousands of ships. They were going to strike at the heart of the Starcross Society – nothing less would be adequate. Jenny activated one of her Numenera devices – an eyepiece that allowed her to tap directly into a digital feed. She saw the strategic display of the fleet, every last ship represented by an orange-gold dot. The dots split up into several different groups – they were still moving in tandem with each other, but they were moving across several dozen different universes at the same time. Advanced TSAB technology forced connections to exist between the universes they were moving through, creating a battlefield that the Merodi would be able to navigate, but not the Starcross Society. The Austraeoh ended up in a universe with accelerated time – allowing them to exist ‘outside’ the general flow of combat the rest of the fleet was experiencing. It became impossible for Jenny to keep track of the fleets at the speed they were now moving compared to her. She watched hours pass by as the edge of the Starcross Society was torn to shreds, universes were moved, and millions of ships were destroyed. She saw a number in the bottom left corner that represented the number of enemies captured. It was entering the millions. They had lost many more soldiers on their end. “MOVE OUT!” O’Neill shouted. After a day and a half of outside time, someone had finally forced a direct connection to the Rebellious Star’s universe from Austraeoh’s universe. The Austraeoh and its surrounding guard fleet pushed right into the Rebellious Star’s realm, firing all weapons. The Tower Ring was fully visible around the red glow of the Rebellious Star. Unlike the Combine’s Ring, which had been a relatively small construct of fleshy mass, the Rebellious Star’s ring orbited it like the rings of Saturn. Perfectly smooth, metallic, and covered in runes salvaged from Starcross Society ships. “I AM SORRY THAT IT COMES TO THIS,” the Rebellious Star said. It unleashed a beam of powerful energy – and then fled to another universe. “FOLLOW HIM!” O’Neill shouted. The Austraeoh and its surrounding fleet opened a portal, but the Rebellious Star had already jumped to another location. Luckily, the Austraeoh was still equipped with the largely-antiquated Nova-drive. It found the Rebellious Star’s connection to the Star network and latched onto it, jumping directly to the Rebellious Star. Only a handful of the fleet’s ships could follow the Austraeoh – they had not expected the Rebellious Star to run. The Rebellious Star opted to fight the fleet with its own power. Beams of red light swept across the ships, destroying them easily. Another version of the Rebellious Star appeared in the universe, moving in time with his other self. “RELEASE THE TREE!” O’Neill shouted. The Tree of Harmony was teleported outside the Austraeoh and sent tumbling toward the Ringed Rebellious Star. “Huh,” Jenny said. “Guess we didn’t have to do anything.” “Wrong!” Alushy shouted. “Blackjack, teleport!” Blackjack teleported the four of them out into space next to the Tree of Harmony, and Alushy raised a barrier of darkness to protect the Tree from a loose Starcross Society weapon. “The Rebellious Star has to fucking kill it!” “I AM NO FOOL,” the Rebellious Star addressed them. “I WILL NOT LET YOUR PLOY BE MY END.” The Tree of Harmony flashed in anger, sending a beam of Harmonious energy at the Rebellious Star. It was enough force to make the Rebellious Star defend itself and the Tower Ring. “I ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THAN THIS.” The Tree of Harmony didn’t respond. The Austraeoh unleashed one of its many on-board superweapons – this one a twisted beam of rainbow energy laced with dark shards of anti-magic crystals – and hit the corona of the Rebellious Star. It let out a deep roar. Storm used one of his artifacts to protect the Tree of Harmony from another attack. “The big ships will get here soon. Blackjack, how close can you teleport the Tree?” “Not close enough,” Blackjack admitted. “Aren’t you the Princess of the Night or some shit?” Alushy shouted. “You got those fancy wings!” Blackjack blinked. “I… Yeah, I can move the moon, but the Tree isn’t the moon.” “The Rebellious Star is nothing more than a big, red Sun,” Jenny said. “Try it.” Blackjack did. She touched the Rebellious Star with her magic and pulled. She pulled way too hard. The Rebellious Star charged toward them so quickly none of them could react in time. Luckily the Austraeoh’s on-board computer could, teleporting them away just before they were cooked to a crisp. The Tree of Harmony was left in space to be incinerated by the power of a Star. The Rebellious Star let out the Star’s equivalent of a sigh. “I HAVE LIVED A LONG LIFE, LONGER THAN I SHOULD HAVE. TELL SCARCITY I’M SORRY.” The Tree of Harmony melted within him, its essence dissipating into nothing. The Conjoiner activated. Ka lashed out within the Rebellious Star, and the red ball of plasma exploded, tearing the Tower Ring apart with it. The other versions of the Rebellious Star lost their minds - becoming nothing more than flaming balls of plasma. The other Star that had been fighting a minute ago didn’t have the capacity to save itself from the supernova. “Fall back!” O’Neill ordered. Every ship still able to move within the fleet left Starcross Society space, leaving a gaping hole in their society. Blackjack looked at her hooves as they left, blinking. “…How are we still alive?” Nobody wanted to answer her question. ~~~ Valentine was taking the Louisiana back from a meeting in TSAB space to D.C. Prime – the capital of the entire United States of the Multiverse. Valentine sat in the captain’s chair, tapping his fingers across the armrest, realizing how little the ‘rest’ part was helping him. He was not at rest. He was more on edge than he had ever been. Scarcity’s little playtime genocide had been focused almost entirely on the USM – killing everyone without a care for which world it was, or if the world was even important. He hadn’t been able to keep a close eye on the internal politics of the USM over the last few days, seeing as he was managing a large portion of the war effort, coordinating with his teams. But he knew that the people were in an uproar. If they weren’t angry before, they were now. They had lost twenty-three percent of the population. Almost a fourth, just because one unicorn higher up the chain had a bone to pick with… He wasn’t even sure what Scarcity’s motivations were. She had never been a primary concern of his since the TSAB had pushed the Starcross Society back. Froppy must have detected his inner turmoil. “We’ll survive. The people’s wills are strong.” Gyro let out a snort. “Yeah, right. We’ll sing a magic song of friendship and band together. Zippidy-do-dah.” “Gyro!” Froppy chided, hands on her hips. “Just tellin’ it like it is. You tell ‘em, Tornado.” Tornado looked up from her book. “…I think you’re wounded emotionally.” Gyro twitched. “Why couldn’t you have been a bitch about that? If there was ever a time…” Tornado grunted. “Like I’m going to do what you want.” “There it is!” “Stop,” Valentine muttered, hand to his forehead. “Just stop. We do not need to become like the rest of the nation.” Gyro had the decency to look ashamed for a split second before blowing it off in a huff. Tornado simply stared ahead, blankly. Froppy sighed. “We’re not done yet.” Valentine folded his hands together. “I’m not certain of that…” “Valentine, y-” They heard the sounds of laser gunfire in the hall behind the bridge. All four of them readied themselves for a fight. They heard screams, shouts, and the sounds of blood splattering on the other side, followed by silence. Then a loud burp. The door opened, revealing an older man with spiky blue hair and a decidedly grumpy expression. Froppy blinked. “Rick Sanchez?” “Yeah, who else?” Rick muttered. “Took care of some assassins. You’re fucking welcome.” He kicked his foot forward, dropping a USM soldier into the bridge. “That is one of our soldiers, not a goddamn assassin!” Gyro blurted. Rick burped. “He was outside the door with a half dozen others, all pointed at the door and not me. So at the very least they were all doing their actual job like shit.” Valentine leaned down to check the soldier’s weapon. “This is set to a setting high enough to blow out the ship’s walls. That should have set off some alarms.” “See? Whoop de do, I saved your asses.” Rick pointed a gun at Valentine’s head. “Now tell me what I want to know.” Valentine narrowed his eyes – he had some alternates on standby. He could slip into one of them. Maybe he could be the one to take down the infamous Rick San- “Oh, yeah, this is a reality destabilizer, your Stand won’t be surviving the hit.” Valentine grunted. “What do you want?” “Who destroyed Blips n’ Chitz?” Valentine blinked. “…What?” “Gambling universe,” Gyro said. “I took you for your birthday six years ago.” “How would I know who destroyed Blips n’ Chitz?” Valentine asked. “Because it was your fucking nation that was being blown up at the time! So who did that!?” “Starcross Society,” Valentine said. “I want a name, greeting card.” “Scarcity.” Valentine’s expression became confused. “…Do you not know who that is?” “No. Why should I? I don’t give a fuck about this stupid war, I’m not keeping all the ‘big names’ worked out!” He pulled a data pad out of his pocket and typed in Scarcity, easily pulling up the information. “And now it’s time to brutally murder a unicorn.” He opened up a green portal and stepped through it. Then his other hand popped out and shot Valentine in the head. “VALENTINE!” Froppy shouted, running to him. Valentine appeared on the bridge, with D4C. “Fine. I was able to transfer away, evidently.” He teleported the old version’s dead body into storage. “Why would he do that?” Froppy blurted. “It’s Rick, since when does he have a reason?” Gyro asked. “He wanted to make a point that he lied to us about the gun,” Tornado said. “Flaunting the fact that he can get away with anything.” “We don’t have time to worry about him,” Valentine said, narrowing his eyes. “The fact remains that there were assassins on our ship. Something’s gone wrong. Connect with the USM news feed.” Tornado nodded, pressing a few buttons on a console. She blinked. “I’m… not getting anything.” “No relay?” “No, I’m picking up the relay device, it’s just not receiving any information from the USM. Radio silence.” “Try Merodi,” Valentine said. “A public channel.” “Won’t tell us much…” Tornado said, adjusting a few knobs. “Got it. News reports… Successful campaign against the Starcross Society… Loss of Earth Ottoman… The U-” she stopped herself, blinking. “What the…” Valentine pulled out a data pad and tapped into the same feed Tornado was. The USM Coup is Heading For Disaster Just an hour ago, the organization known as United Heralds revealed its presence within the United States of the Multiverse, assassinating the President and most of her cabinet, in addition to key leaders both political and military. While the United Heralds had been hoping their show of power would scare the people into submission, they have instead triggered a complete collapse of USM society. The divide between the USM’s political parties has produced a Civil War that has already destroyed all the USM’s major infrastructure. We stopped receiving broadcasts from them five minutes ago, suggesting their media conglomerates have fallen… Valentine clenched his fist – and then relaxed. A mildly amused smile came across his lips. He shrugged, dropping the data pad onto the ground, letting its screen shatter. “I guess we always knew this would happen.” He sat down in the captain’s chair and crossed his legs. “Take us to Merodi Universalis and ask for asylum. It will be granted.” Froppy looked at him with concerned eyes. “…Valentine…” “It’s out of our hands now. And unlike when Corona said it, I happen to be right. It won’t do any good to worry about it anymore.” Gyro looked him up and down – and then let out a bitter laugh. “So this is what it looks like when you break.” “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.” ~~~ Flutterfree landed in the grass outside Rev’s church, placing herself right between Rev and Rina. “What are you looking at?” Rev pointed at the church. “It’s ready.” “How so?” Flutterfree asked. “It’s a fully realized bunker,” Rina said. “Should be able to survive the fusion of any universes, no matter how many. …Should.” “Could never have done it without your magic,” Rev said, putting a hoof on Rina. “Thank you.” “…It was the least I could do. …Actually, wait, that phrase is stupid…” “I get the jist of it,” Rev said, smiling. “So… what are we going to do with a bunker church?” Flutterfree asked. Rev let out a deep sigh. “Try not to let anyone know about it. We don’t want a mob here.” “…Which makes it kind of hard to use,” Rina admitted, furrowing her brow. “How do you save people if you can’t tell them about the place?” “Only people you trust?” Flutterfree suggested. “That’s only a few dozen people. The church can hold a few hundred.” Rev shook her head. “But it only takes one to spill the beans and then the mob destroys the church… I’ll be praying about it. I’d appreciate it if you all did as well.” “Don’t even need to ask,” Flutterfree said. “…Right,” Rina said, shaking her head. “...Other than that, what do we do?” “I keep helping Eve,” Flutterfree said. “Rev keeps teaching.” “And me…?” Rev put a hoof on Rina. “You can take a break. You’ve earned it.” Rina twitched. “I don’t like taking breaks.” “Peace is one of the fruits of the spirit, you know.” Rina grunted. “Fine, fine, I’ll try to learn peace. In a time of complete war, I’ll try to learn peace.” ~~~ Deep in TSAB space, there was a single electron kept in a state of permanent uncertainty. Using a clever workaround in the physics of the universe it occupied, a nano-camera could be pointed at the electron in an attempt to take a reading, but since the electron was uncertain, the camera would never see anything. For in this universe, the observation of an experiment did not change its outcome, it just meant that certain things could not be observed. Naturally the apparatus with the uncertain electron within had to be constructed across multiple universes in order to get the uncertain electron in there and stable. Furthermore, there were numerous other devices affixed to the edge of the electron’s casing, each microscopic chip being from one of the TSAB’s few ka research facilities. One of these chips was affixed to an electron entangled with the other one, both existing in a state of uncertainty. This little decision matrix was hooked up to a giant computer that was designed to know the answer to one question, and one question only. Do they know? If they didn’t know, the light remained green. If they did know, the light turned red and alarms went off everywhere. In the span of time it took to explain the inner workings of the decision matrix, the light had turned from green to red. Alarms blared all across TSAB space, going right to the highest leaders. They know. How did they find out? Did Twilence tell them? Did the Tower reveal it through narrative? Was there a leak? Those were questions to ask later; right now they needed to protect what was no longer hidden. Nanoha appeared in the universe, the red light to her back. In front of her was a gateway opened to a universe consisting entirely of water, within which a Tower Ring was being constructed by about fifty TSAB construction ships. Their Ring was about the size of Neptune and constructed from white metal that occasionally sparked with pink or purple colors. It was only about two-thirds built. Sometimes it looked almost complete through the gateway, but that was an illusion. The gateway and the Dark Tower itself were the only ways into the aquatic universe. The realm that held the Tower Ring was sealed off from all other worlds in such a way that it was an immense drain on power just to keep the gate open. On one hand, this made the world exceptionally easy to keep away from enemy movements. On the other, if they did get close, it would be easy to sever all connections and force the Tower Ring into the nonexistent state of the Sea… Good thing they were prepared for an assault. Nanoha lifted Raising Heart and gave confirmation – they needed to initiate full defensive measures. Taking a page from the Collector’s handbook, they started shuffling the universes around the Tower Ring. What was once a simple, ordered section of TSAB space became a multi-layered labyrinth of constantly-shifting universes designed to throw all who appeared off the trail. The armies were already in place to defend the multiversal mesh, and several TSAB megastructures were arranged within the labyrinth as well. The Living Tribunal would be arriving soon as well, having the Shaping Mechanism transported via the Void. This Tower Ring was the preservation side’s primary tool. They weren’t going to let it be destroyed. The only ones to know how the labyrinth worked were in the same universe as Nanoha – and they would not be permitted to leave, for the secret of the labyrinth could not be revealed. In order to prevent seers and Aware individuals from finding out, all the information was given in direct-to-mind transfers that couldn’t be translated as a language or images. It was a decidedly unusual feeling, but it was also intuitive. Nanoha knew exactly how the labyrinth worked and where all her troops were in real time. She started giving out orders from her protected location. She hoped the other fronts of the war could carry on without her presence.