//------------------------------//
// What's in a Name? (The Immortal Game, Part 2) 
// Story: The League of Sweetie Belles 
// by GMBlackjack 
//------------------------------//

Allure “Sweetie” Belle stepped out of a portal into a run-down Canterlot street that had seen better days. There was a hole in the ground that led to the labyrinthine catacombs, there was blood everywhere, and numerous bodies both fake and real lined the area. 

“Geez…” she muttered, rubbing the back of her head. “I wonder how Cinder’s handling this…”

“Well enough, darling,” Celia said from Allure’s communicator. “Now, do get in the hole and make yourself scarce, we don’t want you getting captured!”

“You know, I do like this new you, more spunky.”

“Maybe I should change my name to Spunkelia!”

“No.”

Celia huffed. “You’re no fun. Anyway, there should be someone waiting for you in the catacombs. Just get your plot over here so you can have your chat about personal identity.”

Allure hopped down and found herself face-to-face with a bored-looking stallion. 

“You’re here for me, right?”

The stallion nodded and set off down the tunnel at a brisk pace. 

Now, Allure tried to make conversation. 

“So, what’s your name?”

“Hey, I hear you’re in a rebellion. Why?”

“Nice mane. Natural color?”

“What’s Twilight like?”

“Seen other Sweeties before?”

To every answer, the stallion did little more than grunt. Not even so much as a nod. It was ridiculous!

“Favorite food…?” She tried desperately as he finally led her to the rebellion’s base. 

The guards saw him instantly and nodded. “Welcome back, Sir Unimpressive.”

“Glad to be back,” he said, his voice one of a chipper, talkative stallion.

Allure turned to stare at him with a slack jaw. “Wh…”

He only grinned in response.

“You were messing with me the whole time!?”

“Couldn’t resist. You clearly loved talking to ponies. Now, let’s get you to that warrior sister of yours, Allure.”

Allure nodded, following him into a small room with boxes piled all around. It was clearly Rarity’s room, for she had decorated even the meager military accomodations with banners, colorful fabrics, and a sewing machine in addition to her knight’s cloak. 

Rarity was sitting on her cot, looking intently at Allure. “So… Allure, I take it?”

Allure nodded. “Allure ‘Sweetie’ Belle, Founder of the League of Sweetie Belles, Equis Vitis.” She extended a hoof. “Master Knight Rarity?”

Rarity shook the hoof with a warm, but uncertain smile. 

“Can I ask you to do something for me?” Allure asked.

“Depends.”

“Summon your blade. I want… to be sure.” 

Rarity clearly wasn’t sure what Allure needed to be sure of, but she obliged anyway, summoning her many-segmented diamond blade. “This is Vorpal.”

Allure’s eyes lit up in recognition. 

(...Sweetie Belle moved with grace the instant Vriska’s psychic “NOW” resounded through the minds of all present. She twirled through the air, summoning her crystalline blade out of her pocket dimension. The light of the azure universe glinted off its facets, catching Allure’s eye as it moved. For a moment, Allure was certain Siron would see, would be able to act too soon…

But her attack was true. Sweetie Belle severed the red insectoid’s hand from his body, freeing Suzie’s neck from its death grip. The young woman put her hands to her neck, trying to force herself to breathe faster, tears of panic streaking down her face. It was all too much for her. Today had been too much for all of them. 

As the dark magic of Siron moved to replace his hand, Sweetie Belle placed herself between the insectoid and Suzie, raising her blade to defend Suzie from an attack she knew could kill her with ease…)

“You’ve… seen this before?” Rarity asked.

“Not… the exact same, no. Hers didn’t have all those parts, but that… that was the spell she used.” 

“She?”

“Sweetie Belle. The Sweetie Belle. The one I said got to keep the name.” Allure sat down, gaze becoming distant. 

“Why don’t you tell me about her?” Rarity asked. 

(...The Collector spoke with a voice far too normal for a metallic man manipulating the strings of so many interdimensional beings. “It would just take slightly harder-handed conditioning,” he said, commenting on how difficult it would be to make certain persons his slaves. “I do think it is worth it though. J—”

“STOP IT!” Sweetie Belle shouted, summoning her blade and holding it to Siron’s neck. The once powerful insectoid, now used as a little bargaining chip. “Stop it or I cut off his head, right now.”

The Collector held up a hand to make sure his servants didn’t try anything. “You’re a clever filly, Sweetie Chronicle.”

“If you give me any orders I cut this guy’s head off without thinking.”

The Collector folded his hands together. “I’m not sure you really will, Sweetie Chronicle.” Allure was certain she wouldn’t. This was all just an elaborate bluff, right? “But you are correct in assuming I cannot take that risk. Not the least because I can’t actually condition you to me.”

“Why not?”

“There are certain individuals for whom conditioning would be dangerous. Those part of something larger, for instance. You have a powerful flow of ka, little one.”...)

“She was strong,” Allure said. “Back then, we weren’t really a big thing yet. We were just a bunch of young people—mostly kids, really—who decided to be friends and have fun in the multiverse. The League had a few dozen members, maybe, but it was still just a club. When we met her, we saw somepony who had been through much more than we had alone. Yet, she wasn’t broken. She was still a hero. She was braver than most of us, ready to face the villain who had trapped us all there.”

Rarity smiled. “She sounds amazing.”

(...The Collector tapped his fingers. “What’s it going to be, Sweetie Chronicle?”

“I… I…” Sweetie Belle glanced around nervously. Allure held her breath—she needed to stall a bit longer for their plan to pan out. “Why do you keep calling me Chronicle?”

“Spoilers,” the Collector chuckled. Then he paused. “You might understand the meaning of the word in the future, you might not.”

“It doesn’t matter to her,” Allure’s Pinkie growled. 

“I can use it should I wish, Pinkie Pi—Wait… asking me a question?” He put a hand to his chin. “It’s almost like you’re stalling for time. What could you possibly be stalling for?”

Allure had to force herself not to look down, because she knew. Thrackerzod was being moved right underneath Siron. She would be able to reclaim her eldritch power from the staff and use it on Siron. But…

“Sweetie, are you hiding something from me? Some angle I’m not seeing?”

Sweetie Belle’s amused smirk was all the answer the Collector needed, but he got an earth-rumbling “Yes” from Thrackerzod as she rose from the ground anyway, returning to her trademark guttural tone. “She’s hiding me.”...) 

“She saved our lives,” Allure said simply. All but one. “Gave us the drive we needed to become the society we are today.” She smiled sadly. “I take it she didn’t pass through here?”

“Not that I am aware of.”

“Yeah… she mentioned her not-father once in relation to this place.”

“I would definitely know if she met with General Esteem.”

“Another universe like one she visited, yet so far apart…” Allure shook her head. “We’ve been looking for her for… decades, at this point. Not a single sign. No shards of her Twilight, no ponies who met her.”

“Why do you look so hard?”

“She’s the Sweetie Belle. ...We just want to save her, even though Pinkie says it’s probably impossible. We have to keep trying.”

Rarity let out a sharp laugh. “You sound like half the people in this army. Fight against Titan, even if it’s impossible. Who cares if he’s a god?”

“Yeah, who cares?” Allure laughed. 

“...Why did you take the name Allure, though?”

(...The pony that would be Allure put on a warm smile. “We’re the League of Sweetie Belles! I assume you’re named Sweetie Belle?”

The new Sweetie nodded. “Yep.”

“Do you… have a nickname we can call you? To avoid confusion.”

The Sweetie pondered this. “Well, I call myself Interdimensional Sweetie sometimes…”

“Mouthful,” Sweetie Brute pointed out in her usual gruff fashion. 

“I’ve also gone by… Allure before.”

The not-quite-Allure picked up on the tone in her counterpart’s voice. “You don’t like that name.”

“...No. It was given to me in a universe by a horrible manipulative pony who wasn’t really my father. ...Sorta.”

Not-quite-Allure looked at her, something stirring deep within her heart. “...Thrackerzod, are you feeling something from her?”

“I’m feeling a lot of things from her,” the eldritch unicorn commented. “Be more specific.”

“Like… She’s ‘bigger’.” 

“She’s smaller than you and me.”

“That’s not what I mean.” She put a hoof to her chin. “I'm not sure how to describe it.” They didn’t really know what ka was, yet. She really did lack the words. “But… I think she deserves the name Sweetie Belle.”

“Oh boy, back to name prefixes?” Squeaky squeaked, grabbing her head. “Ooooooh boy.”

“No,” almost-Allure declared. “I’ll take the name Allure. It won’t be painful to me. You can be Sweetie Belle, Interdimensional Sweetie.” 

Sweetie Belle stared at her. “...You don’t know what it means.”

“Do I have to? It won’t mean to me what it means to you. To you, it’s a bad memory. To me, it’s taking something I think sounds nice and making it my own to help somepony else.”

“...Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” 

“You’re choosing a name!?” Suzie blurted. “You said you weren't going to choose one!”

“It just feels… Right,” Allure said, extending her hoof to Sweetie Belle. “I, Allure, extend an invitation to you, Sweetie Belle, to join the League of Sweetie Belles.”

“What comes with membership?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I mean, it sounds really nice, but I don’t really know what you do.”

“Get lost in a maze of impossible blueness,” Thrackerzod deadpanned. Burgerbelle held up a picture frame to the bizarre maze of a universe they were currently in. “That’s what we do.”

Brute cheered. “And we’re great at it!”

Allure rolled her eyes. “We’re a bunch of friends who have fun across the Multiverse. Sometimes we have great adventures, other times we just hang out at the Pinkie Emporium.”

“...Pinkie Emporium?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“An amusement park run entirely by versions of Pinkie Pie.”

Sweetie Belle’s jaw dropped. “That sounds equally amazing and terrifying.”

“That’s the general consensus,” Suzie admitted. 

“We should probably introduce ourselves,” Allure said. “I am Allure now. This is Thrackerzod, Sweetie Bot, Squeaky Belle, Sweetie Brute, Burgerbelle, and Suzie.” She took a breath. “Wow, there's a lot of us.”...)

“You’re smiling.”

“I remember the days when I could list the entire League from memory,” Allure chuckled. “But it’s gotten way, way too big for me to deal with. But that’s a good thing, all thanks to her. She… she had it so hard, out there. No one understood her. But then she found us…”

(...Sweetie Belle blinked before shaking her head and laughing. “This… This is refreshing. To see so many of you who are me, but who also understand.” 

“...Only Thrackerzod has any idea what you’ve suffered,” Allure said. “I can feel that we haven’t been through as much as you, despite having been at this longer and having visited more worlds.”

“I don’t think that matters,” Sweetie said, grabbing Allure’s hoof. “We are Interdimensional Sweetie. We are the League of Sweetie Belles.”

“I take it you’re in?” 

“Of course I’m in! Now, let’s find a way out of this strange place!”...)

“...And then we got out. She went back to her adventure. Alone once again. Alone for all these years…” Allure sighed. “Part of me wonders if we’ve failed, or something. No trace of her. And every time we find a universe that sounds like one of the ones she visited, we remember how great she was. How we still haven’t found anything.”

Rarity put a hoof on her. “Allure, you’ve done very well with this name. In my world, for my Sweetie, it represents nothing but the desires of a horrible stallion to trample the dying wishes of his wife. A desire for his kids to be strong and murderous. When you use it… it is a name of generosity. You took it so this Sweetie wouldn’t have to. You’ve defined your life from that moment. I know I’m not your Rarity, but I couldn’t be more proud.”

Allure laughed. “So, this Esteem. Is he as evil and monstrous as I’m led to believe he is?”

“Oh, yes. I have no interest in bladecasting but he forced me to learn anyway. He eats meat…”

Allure decided now was not the time to mention that meat-eating was common in Merodi Universalis.

“...kills ponies by the hundreds, and willingly serves Titan because his talent is war and he simply can’t have a world without it. He objected to Celestia’s peace.” She lifted her blade high. “If Twilight doesn’t kill him, I will.”

“Mind if I tag along?” Allure asked. “I think I want to meet him.”

“You sure that’s wise?”

“No. But it might provide some understanding of, you know, my name.”

“A name is important. Every bladecaster names their sword…” Rarity glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. 

“Thanks, but no thanks, I already have my weapon.”

“Is it that silver horn of yours?”

Allure chuckled. “No, but I got that at about the same time.” She summoned her Heart powers, shaping her spirit into a blade-form and batting Rarity’s Vorpal away. “Mine’s invisible.”

Rarity blinked. “Esteem is not going to like that.”

“I’m counting on it.”

“I have to admit, I am curious. Why do you have a metal horn?”

“Well, it involves a retcon curse, the Combine-Horrorterror war, and the Crimson King. I think. The entire thing was really confusing…”

“Master General Twilight has a plan!” Sir Unimpressive called. “You two might want to get in so we can go over the highlights!”

“A story for another time,” Rarity said, sheathing Vorpal. The two unicorns scrambled to the war room, which was filled with so many ponies Allure was a little overwhelmed. Cinder happily waved when she arrived, giving Allure a small amount of ease.

“Here’s the basics,” Twilight said. “Titan’s barrier still surrounds the palace and Prince Empyrean is powering it. I will be able to take it down—it is much smaller than the other one—but I will need time to do so. My friends and Curaçao’s group will be on my defense while I’m working. Then our forces move in from these two directions…” She created two arrows with her magic. “And we overwhelm the front gates. There will be more trueponies than puppets this time, so we must be careful.”

There were a few murmurs and grim nods. 

“The final goal is to get me and my friends into Empyrean’s throne room so we can strip him of his power. If we can do that and kill General Esteem, we will have taken Canterlot and Titan will be forced to recognize our presence. He will arrive, and we will use the Elements on him.

“However, we have both more complications and boons than we had expected. There are rumors of another alicorn with a fiery mane using puppets. We may have to use the Elements on her as well, whoever or whatever she is. Be prepared, and raise the alarm if you see her in the flesh. 

“Our boon is the Elements of Pandemonium. We currently have three mares with a power not unlike that my friends and I share. The other three are being held in the palace. Some of you will be assigned to Curaçao and Sir Unimpressive to release them and get extra power. Beware—they may be corrupted, and their own elements might need to be used against them. Full briefs on capabilities will follow later. 

“This is our final push. We need to take out Canterlot and win the war, or our hooves will be shown and we will lose the advantage of surprise. We need to win. And we will.” She allowed herself to smile. “We will bring peace back to Equestria.”


~~~


Esteem had left Havocwing and Insipid alone on the courtyard with some pieces of rebel armor to experiment with. He had also given them a pamphlet or two about the rebels and fighting techniques, but neither Havocwing nor Insipid were particularly interested in book learning. 

Havocwing had already melted one of the armor sets to slag. Insipid, meanwhile, had tried to put one on. Backwards. 

“Ugh. So bored…” Havocwing muttered. 

“If only Shadow was here, she could, like, tell me what these books meant,” Insipid whined.

“Why don’t you ask her? You have that weird soul-bonding thing with her, right? Use each other’s bodies?”

“Oh, right!” Insipid squealed. “I do know that spell! Uh… does it work at long range…?”

“I don’t know, you’re the one who knows it!”

“Right. Right. Ahem. Hey Shadow, Insipid calling!”

A second later, Havocwing heard Insipid talk with a much more distinctive and careful voice, telling of Shadow on the other end. “Finally! Insipid, listen carefully. I am a prisoner in my mind. If you see me, that is not me, that is evil me. She sensed you connect. You need to run.”

Havocwing’s eyes widened. “Shit.”

“Like, we can help!” Insipid said. “We know this fancy General E-stem, he ca—”

“General Esteem imprisoned me! He’s our opponent, Insipid! Enemy! Foe! Bad guy!”

“Uh oh,” Insipid said. “Havoc, I think we’re on the wrong side.”

“No, shit?” Havocwing growled. “Okay, so… the palace is surrounded by an impenetrable barrier.”

“We could totally just say we wanted to leave,” Insipid said. “He said he’d let us go.”

“A falsehood,” Shadow said. “Not to mention that my body is currently going to warn him about you.” 

“Then… I’ll absorb the powers of someone powerful!”

“The Prince!” Shadow realized. “His copious strength is what’s supporting the thaumic barrier. If you could make it to the royal chamber…”

“Got it,” Havocwing said, picking up Insipid. “Havocwing fireball is ready. Let’s go!”

“Don’t crash into the wall too hard…” Insipid whispered.

“Ha! You’ll hit it so hard you’ll be dazed for weeks!”

“Just get her to contact Prince Empyrean,” Shadow said. “And—LOOK OUT!”

Havocwing dove to the ground just before Shadow’s body teleported above them. A massive beam of Void shot from her horn and vaporized much of the floor below where the two had just been moments before. 

“Shadow!” Insipid called.

“That’s not me!” Shadow shouted. “Run!”

“N-no!” Insipid shouted.

“I’m running,” Havocwing said, flying toward the palace. “I don’t care what sh—” She dove to the side, but it wasn’t quick enough to stop the Void energy from grazing her wingtips. She hissed, forcing extra magic to her wings to stay flying.

“I mean my mind isn’t running!” Insipid called. “The bond goes both ways!”

Shadow’s body punched itself in the face. “W-what?”

“Yeah!” Insipid shouted through Shadow’s mouth. “Take that, me! Shadow! Whatever!” She made Shadow’s body punch itself again. “Taaaaake that!”

“This is beyond imbecilic,” Shadow deadpanned form Insipid’s body.

“Hey, it works,” Havocwing deadpanned. “We’ll get to the palace in no t—”

Three platinum shards tore through Havocwing’s wings. She howled in pain as blood and feathers went flying, forcing her to lose altitude.

“Calculating…” Shadow said through Insipid’s body. She absorbed Havocwing’s power and created rocket jets out of her back hooves, lifting the two of them back into the air. 

Insipid tossed Shadow’s body over to them, despite the protests of whatever dark being was currently occupying it. Shadow used Insipid to absorb the power of Void as well. Now she had it all… almost. 

She teleported herself down to Esteem and the rest of his blade. 

“Insipid…”

“Starlight Shadow, actually,” Shadow said, dusting herself off. Havocwing and her body fell to the ground behind her—the dark unicorn still engaged in a fit of self punching and snarling with herself. “You did unspeakable things to me, Esteem. Prepare to die.”

“You dare engage in battle so close to my throne!?”

A massive white alicorn stallion appeared behind Esteem, mane flowing with the pastel colors of Celestia. However, this pony was no Celestia—his eyes were cruel, insecure, angry, and more than a little pathetic. Prince Empyrean.

Shadow inwardly cursed. Her only hope was to absorb Empyrean’s power with Insipid a—

Empyrean pushed her to the ground with his magic. “You aren’t going anywhere! You are my servants! Mine! And if you will not bow you will die!”

“Such a whiny… brat…” Havocwing muttered.

“There is a special punishment for you, robin,” Empyrean spat. “I’m sure I can convince mother to make another shard for your mind… I’m confident you’d like senseless destruction.”

Shadow lit Insipid’s horn.

“None of that!” Empyrean shouted, using his magic to shout hers out. “You will have no tricks, no spells, not—”

Shadow lit the horn again, overpowering his pitiful attempts at shouting out magic. She was Starlight Shadow! Or, well, she was Shadow mentally using Insipid’s body while Insipid’s mind was wrestling with a mental demon in… it didn’t matter. She had the power of Void and no childish alicorn was going to put her down!

“Esteem!”

Esteem sighed at the inadequacy of the Prince. He tossed a single shard of his blade at Insipid’s horn. 

The teleport spell activated the moment it crashed. 

Shadow and Insipid were suddenly elsewhere. They saw nothing but magic around them, buzzing swirling. They couldn’t speak to each other, but they were still invariably connected. 

They could see several points of bright magic light. Empyrean glowed strongest, for he was the closest. Not that far away was a lesser light, still within Canterlot. Soon, Insipid and Shadow were far beyond these two specks. 

All anchors to reality would have been lost had Insipid not seen three specks of light close to each other deep within the Everfree Forest. One of them seemed familiar… called to her… 

Shadow’s spirit recoiled, but Insipid beat it into submission by sheer force of willpower. Their magic jumped forward to the three specks, ready to appear in the midst of them.

Instead, something beneath the ground grabbed onto them. The two of them materialized in a place of sharp, white metal. It reminded them somewhat of the orichalcum alloy the Merodi used to construct their cities and ships, but it wasn’t quite the same. 

For one, this entire place rippled with harmony magic just beneath the surface. Merodi structures didn’t do that so… fundamentally. 

“Wow… cool…” Insipid said. 

“Yeah…” Shadow said, coughing.

Shadow spoke through Insipid. “You haven’t forgotten that there’s a sadistic corrupted monster in possession of my body, have you?”

“Oh. Sorry Shadow, I did!” Insipid laughed. “Silly me!” 

Shadow had to raise Insipid’s magic shield for her. “Insipid!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this!”

“INSIPID!”


~~~


Celestia wasn’t bleeding out. Terra had made sure of that when she had returned for a moment. 

But she hadn’t been healed all the way either. Left with most of her bones broken and significant damage to her skull. Even with her ability to split her mind, the concussion was getting to her. It was hard to focus on anything but the pain, but she managed. 

She always managed. 

She had to. 

Ignoring the part of her that said Equestria’s fate was completely out of her hooves at this point, she turned her gaze to the doorway. She saw an alicorn standing there. With an internal sigh, she prepared for another round of beating or lectures from Terra. 

Instead, she felt her wounds heal. For a split second she wondered if Terra was preparing for another one of her special lessons, but then she noticed it was Pathos standing over her, not Terra. 

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Celestia observed.

“Logos is currently trying to convince mother we are needed in Canterlot,” Pathos said. “I suspect he will succeed, given time, and I will be here no longer.”

“She may punish me for your healing.”

“...I am willing to accept blame for that.” Pathos walked up to her. “I wanted to have a private conversation before I left.”

“What do you have to say to me?”

“I do not agree with what father is doing.”

Celestia froze. That was dangerous. 

“You fear for my safety.”

Celestia nodded. “Simply harboring the opinion… he will do things to you.”

“I am not disloyal, however. And he knows that. Logos assures me.”

So, Logos is considered a trustworthy source. “If you disagree, why follow him?”

“Because resistance will just be more war, more death, more suffering. The simplest way to end this war is to assist him in his endeavors, end it quickly and absolutely, not lead it back into another… bloody attrition. Then, when the war ends, I can make him understand.”

“He never lets anypony get to him.”

“I am Pathos, Celestia. Each alicorn has their purpose, and they exact that purpose better than father would on his own. Mother fashions earth and life. You were the fire of the day and the sun. Luna is the chill of the night and the moon. Logos is reason, intuition, and thought. I… am Pathos. Passion. He may not understand love. Alicorns as a race may not understand love. But I do. And, with time, I can make him understand. When the understanding comes, he will change.” She turned to Celestia. “I am unsure where you will be when that time comes.”

Celestia frowned. “Forced to be a mental slave, perhaps.”

“Consider coming willingly after the war ends,” Pathos said. “Lessen your pain while I speak to him. It may take centuries… but I have a purpose in this world. And it is to bring true emotion and empathy to the Immortal Game.”

“I… I can’t believe Titan would have allowed himself to create something like you.”

“...We are uncertain if he had a choice,” Pathos sighed. “Logos is his favorite, I am his twin. Two sides of the same coin.”

“Does Logos share your opinion? That Titan can change?”

“That opinion? Yes.” Pathos paused for a moment. “Though I do not believe he thinks my view is right.”

“What does Logos want?”

“I do not know. All I know is that I cannot keep secrets from him.” Pathos smirked. “Only father has successfully kept him in the dark, and I suspect that won’t be the case much longer.”

“...He’s dangerous, Pathos.”

“Extremely. I know. He knows I know.” She chuckled. “And yet, we are still brother and sister, are we not? Just as we are sisters, and mother and father watch over us.” She touched Celestia with a gentle hoof. “They do terrible things, Celestia. But they are still our family. We should honor them.”

Celesita couldn’t help but smile. “Your compassion and empathy go too far.”

“A different sort of strength is needed in this game.” She turned to leave. “I wish you luck, Celestia. If things were different…”

“I will think about what you said if you think about what I said.”

Pathos bowed. “Naturally.”

Then she was gone. 

Celestia frowned. Could Pathos be right? Could the answer be to play the Immortal Game for another long stretch of time? 

...She would only consider it if the war failed. She had worked so hard to prepare her ponies for this moment, to abandon them now would not honor them. Celestia was sure Pathos would understand. 

Celestia allowed herself to smile. Even if everything came crashing down around her, there was now hope in the eventual end to the suffering. A small hope, yes, but a hope nonetheless. 


~~~


Swip physically entered the Universe Generator, hanging back at a fair distance so none of the rapidly moving creation mechanisms would hit her. The massive blocks billions of light years in diameter swung around the black expanse much faster than should have been physically possible, all so the bright light in the center of the Generator could be turned into a universe. 

They arrived just as one universe was completed and swapped out for a new seed. 

Suzie looked at Swip’s display of the view outside. Unlike last time, when the Universe Generator had been rather empty, Swip made out numerous scientific outposts and a small fleet of Merodi ships devoted to defending the location from any who might seek to abuse it. 

“See, there’s a problem here,” Seren said, pointing at the scans appearing on Swip’s screen. “It can’t be the Universe Generator that’s causing the issue.”

“Why not?” Melancholy asked from a nearby screen—still sitting comfortably in his “edgy” lab.

“Just downloaded the magic levels from the outposts here.” Swip brought up a diagram that showed the Universe Generator’s levels holding steady.

“It’s an advanced machine, it could just be managing its levels perfectly.”

Seren scratched her chin. “Maybe… But we have a way to test that!” She pressed a button. “Hey, this is Engineer Seren of the League of Sweetie Belles. We need to determine if any dimensional activity is happening between this universe and Equis Imperfect. Send all data here, if you don’t mind.”

A second later Swip’s avatar let out a wince. “That’s a lot of data…”

“Sorry about that,” Seren chuckled nervously. “Now, we need to isolate all the information on magic flow and compound it together.” A line appeared down the center of the screen, a red wave appearing on the left and a blue wave on the right. Pressing the screen, Seren resolved the input and output magic to a smaller, jagged wave that looked like little more than static. “There is a slight drift of magic to this side, but that may be because of the call we’re currently part of. This is not enough to cause the drain we see in Equis Imperfect.”

Suzie tapped her fingers on her console. “So, hand it over to the scientists, see if they can figure it out.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Blink said. “We can at least try to follow the magic drift.”

“Tried that already,” Melancholy said. “Unless you have better scanners or something.”

“The scientists will,” Suzie said. “Seren, compile a report to send to them so they can carry this on. This really isn’t our purview.”

“I want to at least try something,” Seren said. “There might be a soul we can follow—if I can bond with Nira’s magics, I might have a solution.”

“Worth a shot,” Blink said.

Suzie nodded. “Sure. Nira?”

“Uh, Nira’s not on board,” Swip said. 

Suzie paused. “Not… on board?”

“Yeah. Poofed. She just teleports away sometimes, you know.”

“I know. Find her tag.”

“Scanning… scanning…” Swip frowned. “I’ve got nothing. She’s not here or Equis Imperfect.”

“...Well we have to find her before we can leave,” Suzie sighed. 

“Sweetaloo left with her,” Swip pointed out. “Sweetaloo carries a communicator.”

Suzie pulled out her communicator and dialed Sweetaloo. She got an error message in return. 

“...Out of range?”

Swip’s expression soured. “Nira wouldn’t go somewhere out of range by choice.” 

“By accident?”

“Maybe…”

“I’ll track her magic,” Seren said, tapping her scepter into the ground. “Swip, open a portal to Equis Imperfect, I need to scan it…”

Swip obliged, though she remained in the Universe Generator. 

Seren’s dress began to ripple with the magic energy and a soft glow surrounded the scepter’s crystal. A magic dart flew out of her chest, through Swip’s walls, and into the portal. It spent a few moments sniffing for Nira before it found the connection. Finding something, it began to open a portal…

Seren dispelled it instantly, eyes wide. “There is an absolutely massive store of magic where Nira just went. Single entity. I don’t think it noticed me.”

Suzie curled her hands into fists. “A monster?”

“Maybe? Whatever it is, I think it took them. It… is too strong to face directly.”

“With just Swip, you mean,” Suzie said. “May I remind you that we are in the middle of the Universe Generator, one of the most well-defended universes in Merodi space?” 

“Oooooh…”

“Swip, patch me onto the military frequency.” Suzie leaned in. “This is Colonel Suzie Mash. Some of our personnel have been taken by an unknown high-level entity at these coordinates. Military action may be required, be ready the instant anything goes south.”

A series of ‘affirmatives’ met her ears. Including one from a very influential individual that made Suzie smile. 


~~~


“...and that’s basically what ka is,” Sweetaloo finished explaining. 

Titan nodded slowly. This Sweetaloo, crime against order that she was, had been perhaps the best choice for a servant he could have asked for. Knowledgeable, practical, and intellectually above average. Lacking significantly in raw strength, but he wasn’t so foolish to think that power was everything. 

“Why?” he asked.

Sweetaloo was confused. “Why… what?”

“Why does the Tower use stories to define existence?”

“The people who created it believed that life was meaningless. So they forced life to have meaning, or what they defined as meaning, anyway.”

“All of us are stories. All of us are fate. And I am a villain in most.” He paused for a moment. This information was enough to make him think carefully, something he had not needed to do for almost an eternity. 

“What, upset you’re not god?” Nira asked, snorting. 

“I am the absolute source of all within my world, I am god there,” he answered. “Out here, it is different. The highest order does not come from me. I was created by the Universe Generator to be the absolute of my world, the source of all life, morality, and order. That is my purpose. But the question remains, why did the Universe Generator create me?”

“Random Equis template, likely based on a story somewhere, best we can tell,” Sweetaloo said. 

“Precisely. The Universe Generator itself is random. A relic of a race long forgotten, operating to a purpose long dead. But still, it carries out the story. The answer to ‘why?’ lies not within the Generator, but within the Dark Tower.”

“You’re going to try to find it?” Nira laughed. “Good luck with that!”

“I am Titan. I will find it.” He focused on Sweetaloo. “The villain is never defeated early into his introduction. The villain is allowed to progress toward his goal. My goal is the Dark Tower, so I will see it, I will arrive—so long as I provide conflict and drive for ‘heroes’ to pursue me.” Titan summoned his blade. “This is Singularity.” He pointed it at Nira. “You will perish to drive their revenge.”

Nira raised a shield. It wasn't enough. 

The shields of a Merodi warship were enough. It popped into existence right behind Nira and deflected the piercing blackness of Singularity. While Titan was analyzing his new opponent, Nira and Sweetaloo were teleported away. 

No matter. He could provide another reason for their revenge. 

He reinforced Singularity with a repulsive piercing spell. Driving it forward, he punctured a hole within the shields and teleported himself to the other side. Splitting Singularity in two he raked two massive holes along the ship’s hull, blowing its front off. Ponies and other creatures within drew their weapons and started shooting at him.

Titan didn’t even raise magical defenses. He let the pathetic weapons scrape against his skin, drawing blood that would be healed nearly instantly. Singularity’s shards were sent flying, one into the brain of each person present, killing them instantly. Scanning, he located a source of major power in the center of the ship. One quick adjustment of his blade and he caused a core meltdown, destroying the ship. 

There were more where that came from. Larger, more impressive ships with much larger sources of magic appeared around him. He bothered to raise magical shields in defense against lasers, and the missiles each received a visit from a shard of Singularity, detonating them long before they reached his physical form. 

The more creative forms of attack gave him pause. A magical orb filled with insect-like robots exploded near him, sending the swarm to devour him. He swung Singularity’s shards like a sphere of mad hornets to deflect the swarm, though a few got through and had to be expunged by small magical explosions. 

Some weapons came from nowhere, attacking from parallel dimensions or with powers he didn’t understand. However, he was Titan, and a few unusual methods of fighting would not deter him. He teleported to the other side of one of the massive ships, driving Singularity through the shields and to the reactor core. He knew their weakness now, causing critical failures was significantly simpler. Massive explosions of interlaced color rippled out from the centers of several ships, tearing their physical substance apart in fractal patterns. 

Now that they identified him as a major threat, their attacks got stronger. Simple lasers and torpedoes were swapped out for cluster bombs and beams laced with blood-red death and flesh devouring properties. Titan was forced to keep up a shield almost constantly to defend himself from the surrounding bombardment.

But still, he knew he could win. For every injury he took, he healed it and was able to take out a ship… Until their shields adapted to Singularity, making it significantly harder. He had to whale down their barriers through brute force of his magic rather than finesse. 

Masterful pieces of engineering, these ships. Utterly blasphemous that they put the power of alicorns in the hooves of mortals. He took more than a little pleasure in showing them where their place in the natural order was. 

“Enough,” an annoyingly familiar voice said. 

All the weapons stopped firing. A purple alicorn stood before Titan, her mane swirling with nebulas and stars. She was smaller than Luna, a truly young immortal, and yet her form shimmered with power more comparable to that of Celestia. 

She was also clearly a version of Twilight Sparkle. As an alicorn. He knew she was an unnatural perversion, just like Sweetaloo. 

“Your form is sickening,” Titan stated, as though it were a fact.

“I am Overhead Evening Sparkle of Relations,” Eve introduced herself. “You are destroying my people.”

“This is true.”

“You will be imprisoned for your crimes and questioned.”

“I will not. I am Titan.”

Eve smirked. “I reject your reality and substitute my own.”

All of Titan’s magic was gone in an instant. Something she had done with her spirit had altered physics on a fundamental level, preventing any magic from existing around the black alicorn. His mane went out and all the glowing signs of his power vanished. 

He was powerless before her. 

Luckily, he had planned for this eventuality. He had prepared a retreat spell for the moment they proved to have something that could defeat him. The spell activated, creating a dimensional portal behind him that grabbed his body and pulled him through. 

Eve frowned. “...Clever…”

The instant he was in the other world, he felt his magic return. 

He wasted no time. He ran to another universe. They needed to follow him, yes, but that Evening Sparkle could not be allowed to remove his power again. 

Three universes later, there was no sign of her. He did not stop running, but he allowed himself to feel a sense of satisfaction. He had painted himself the villain. His goal? Find the Dark Tower and uncover its secrets. 

It would have to listen to him now. 


~~~


Cinder watched with awe as Twilight touched her horn to the massive white orb surrounding Canterlot Palace. A pulse of purple went around the barrier, alerting the enemy to their presence. 

The armies did not come to meet them. They were going to play this defensively, apparently. 

“When that barrier goes down, I’m leaving you,” Celia told Cinder. “Stay with Fluttershy—you are her bodyguard, okay?”

Cinder nodded. “Got it!”

“Good. Try not to get into any fights?” Celia laughed nervously. “Xenium would kill me if I completely destroyed your innocence.”

“Okay, okay, we’ll play it safe. Good luck finding the others.”

Celia saluted. 

The pearly barrier fizzled and fell without much fanfare. One moment there was an impenetrable force field preventing access to the palace, the next it was gone. 

“Move out!” Twilight shouted, her magic ensuring every pony in the army heard it no matter how far away they were. “Remember your assignments!” She teleported away—she was overseeing every part of the battle at once since she could be everywhere. Since the two halves of the army were in different locations and all Cinder’s friends had particular missions, she was left more-or-less alone with Fluttershy and a handful of other soldiers. 

Cinder could already hear the shouts of war and magical explosions in the distance. Conveniently, she couldn’t actually see any of the fighting. 

“You know what’s strange?” Cinder asked Fluttershy.

“Hm? No, I don’t,” Fluttershy said, clearly glad to have somepony to talk to that wasn’t just some soldier. 

“I never get to be part of these wars. I hear about them happening, but I’m either not on the team or indisposed somewhere else. Some of it is explained by everyone wanting to protect me, and I don’t mind, but that’s not all of it. It’s like I’m not meant to fight in a war. At least not yet.”

“It does terrible things to your mind,” Fluttershy shuddered. “My friends… I’ve seen them all do terrible things. I’ve seen all of them change because they had to.” She looked to the ground. “We’re still friends, we’re still Harmony. But I could never do what they do.”

“I could,” Cinder said, sitting down. “I’m not sure if that’s supposed to scare me, but I think if I went out there I’d be able to shake it off without too much of an issue. I adapt way too fast.”

“You sure you haven’t already been in a war?”

“Not a full one. Not right in front of me.” Cinder shrugged. “Not really sure what to make of it.”

“Stay out of it as long as you can,” Fluttershy encouraged. “You’ll be better off that way.”

“Maybe…” Cinder mulled the thought over in her mind, deciding to change the topic slightly. “You know what else occurs to me? We didn’t really ask many questions when we arrived here. We just showed up, introduced ourselves, and decided to help you fight.”

“Your friends have been captured.”

“We could have probably freed them without your help if we put our minds to it,” Cinder said. “But we decided you were the ‘good’ guys and they were the ‘bad’ guys. I’m absolutely positive that was the right choice, at least in this case, but we didn’t really ask many questions, did we?” Cinder tapped her hoof. “It seems to be a habit of ours. Come in, see something that needs fixing, and just fix it. Because… well, why not, it’s what heroes do, right?”

“We are very thankful.”

“But you see my point.”

Fluttershy nodded. “You’re worried about making mistakes. Messing in things you shouldn’t, right?”

“Yeah.”

Fluttershy ruffled her wings, mulling it over. “Well, either you help or you don’t, and you have to decide what’s right or wrong on your own. I think you’re doing the right thing by helping us.”

Cinder thought of Daybreaker. “But there may be unintended consequences.”

“There will always be unintended consequences. You just have to be ready for them.”

Cinder pursed her lips. “...Yeah. What am I even going on about? I’m not the experienced one. They know more about what to do and when to do it than I do. I’ve just got the intuition.” She tapped her head and laughed. “Though I can say I don’t think I'd like being on Curaçao’s team since they get involved in such crazy violence all the time.”

“I can’t understand anypony who’d want to live their whole lives surrounded by this…”

“Elements of Pandemonium,” Cinder shrugged, and a silence fell over the two of them. “...Know any card games?”

“A few.”

“Might as well do something while we’re waiting…”


~~~


Curaçao looked at her team—consisting of Celia, Sir Unimpressive, and a bunch of other soldiers she hadn’t bothered to learn the names of. It was a small group with one goal in mind: free Shadow and the others from confinement. 

While the two armies came at the Palace with intent to reach the front gates, Curaçao’s group had snuck through the tunnels toward a back entrance. They were still outside the main halls of the Palace where Empyrean sat—that was far too well protected to do a stealth operation with this many ponies. But they were able to reach one of the outer barracks easily enough, near to where Twilight had sensed Shadow’s presence. 

They took a rest behind an abandoned courtyard hall that connected two separate gardens together. Both scenes of vegetation had gone neglected as the war had raged - weeds tangled around trees that needed water and the bushes hadn’t been trimmed into their proper shapes. Sagging, almost mutated plants dominated the area. 

“Current intel has Shadow in that tower,” Celia pointed at a small white spire that nonetheless pierced the sky with its golden tip. Pegasi—both real and puppets—fought over the sky above the tower, paying it no mind. 

“Can you sense ‘er?” Curaçao asked.

“No… that bothers me. I should be able to sense her this close.”

Twilight appeared in their midst with a flash of purple. “I can’t sense her anymore, either. I was able to follow her trail for a while before it just vanished. They’re hiding her, and I don’t know where. She was moving toward the main hall before it vanished. Return to the others and assist with the fight.”

“I can try our telepathy,” Curaçao said. “See if I can find zem zat way.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. “Try. If you get nothing, join one of the charging forces.” She teleported away. 

“You just questioned her in the heat of battle and she didn’t blink,” Unimpressive noted. “Huh.”

“Zis is not ze ‘eat of battle,” Curaçao pointed out. “And I am not ‘er soldier.” She closed her eyes. Shadow? Insipid? ‘avoc?

Havoc responded. Curaçao?

“I’ve got ‘avoc!” ‘avoc! Where are you?

In the sky.

Listen to me, you are captured by ze wrong side. Zey are using you. 

Oh, really? Figures… Where are you guys?

Curaçao frowned. ‘Avoc… 

You’re just too good at sensing lies...

“‘avoc’s been turned,” Curaçao said. “She is currently looking for us.” It is one of my many skills, mon soeur. 

Then it’s a pretty good thing this Empyrean guy can trace this little connection, huh?

“Run!” Curaçao shouted. “Empyrean h—”

Fire fell from the sky in a wide burst, turning one of the gardens to ash. Celia raised a magic shield, protecting herself, Curaçao, Unimpressive, and two earth ponies. The rest were burnt alive in the tidal wave. 

“Heh!” Havocwing laughed, voice shallow. “That Esteem guy was right…”

Curaçao looked up at her red sister flying far above them. “What did zey do to you?”

“Somethin’ in my head that screams a lot,” Havocwing grunted. “I screamed at it for a bit. Then I stopped screaming. I guess.”

“‘Acovwing, listen to me. You ‘ave been conditioned.”

“Yep. Totally know that. Known that for hours.” She shrugged. “Don’t think the brainwashing lets me care.”

“...At least tell us where Shadow and Insipid are.”

“Dunno.” Havocwing lit herself on fire. “And neither will you.”

Unimpressive summoned his blade and sent the shards up to Havocwing. She narrowed her eyes, increasing the distance between herself and the unicorn as she created a flaming tornado around herself that acted as a shield due to the pressure differential between the burning air and the normal air. Unimpressive’s shards were blown to the side. 

“Wow,” Havocwing said, dully. “That Esteem guy’s tips really did help.” She lifted her hoof and bathed them in a beam of fire once more. 

“How badly can I injure her?” Celia asked Curaçao while they hid behind her magic shield.  

“Her body is no more durable zan an average pony,” Curaçao responded. 

“I mean how much would you let me.”

“Anyzing short of killing, she will survive.”

“All right!” Celia smirked, coating her hooftips in dark magic. “This could be fun…”


~~~


Twilight teleported to the foot of the Palace stairs as the world exploded behind her. Standing atop the massive marble steps was General Esteem, glaring right at her. 

“General,” Esteem greeted her, shouting to be heard from the distance between them.

“Master General,” Twilight corrected. “Titles are important.”

Esteem let out a snort of annoyance. “So you’ve come to kill me, have you?” He looked behind him at what had to be at least a hundred soldiers. “I seem to have brought an army with me.”

Twilight teleported directly into the center of the reserve, noting gleefully that Esteem seemed to have overlooked a crucial fact:

Not a single one of his remaining soldiers was a unicorn. 

Every puppet dispersed as Twilight froze the water in their brains. Every truepony fell to the ground as she put them to sleep. Of course Esteem wouldn't bother protecting his own army.

“Nice bathrobe,” Twilight said casually to the only pony between her and the palace. She was fully aware that she had shown up in a suit made from the night sky. “Surrender, and you get a jail cell. Fight, and you die.”

Esteem barked out a humorless laugh. “I am the hoof of a god. The will of Titan himself. I’ve seen you beg for your mother. Titan isn’t scared of you, and neither am I.”

“I’m only asking so that when I tell every other pony that I gave you the chance to surrender, I won’t be lying. I don’t want to be a liar.”

“Only a murderer, apparently.”

Twilight allowed herself to smirk condescendingly. “While I would most definitely be willing to take your life from you, that honor is not mine.”

General Esteem’s expression darkened, no doubt insulted that the Master General of the rebellion didn’t see him as a worthy opponent. “Who then? Is Luna herself going to face me?”

“No,” Twilight said. She teleported two ponies to her side - Rarity and Allure. “They are.”

“...Allure…?” Esteem said, baffled. “What trickery is this?”

“Oh, where do I start…?” Allure tapped her chin. “Let’s see. Yes, I’m Allure. But I only took this name because there was a Sweetie Belle I met who absolutely hated it. Hated it because of you.”

Rarity summoned her blade. “There’s more out there than you or Titan could possibly understand, General.”

Allure lit her artificial horn. “We’re taking you out.” 

“I care not that you are family or related to me by some trick of fate,” Esteem said, fusing his blade together. “I know you will never appreciate how I raised you, prepared you for this moment, Rarity. And as for you… ‘Allure’. I see denial in your eyes.” 

“...Denial?”

“Denial of what that name of yours means. There was never a Sweetie Belle. It is not a name you get to take. It is Allure. That is who you are.”

“I agree,” Allure said, smirking. “And now it’s time for you to find out why.”

Rarity and Esteem split their blades into shards at the same time, meeting in the middle. Esteem moved his with more care and precision, three shards in total bypassing Rarity’s defenses. 

All three of them were slapped effortlessly to the side by Allure’s invisible blade of spirit. 

Esteem jumped back, reforming his blade. “That blade…”

“Before you ask, no, I’ve never given it a name,” Allure chuckled. “It’s the power of the Knight of Heart—a blade of the soul itself.” She stretched her legs, ready to pounce. “I hope you’re ready for it.”

Rarity split her blade in two, using one half as loose shrapnel and keeping the other as a solid blade. Galloping along the ground, she burst forward as quickly as she could. 

Esteem held his blade in one piece, repelling Rarity’s shards with a burst of explosive magic. “My blade is Carsomyr.” 

Allure charged, barreling toward him. He angled Carsomyr to the side, impacting something invisible as he had expected. Keeping half his sword on the invisible substance, he broke the other half off and attacked from another angle, only to find his efforts pointless from that angle as well. 

“And who said I can’t have more than one?” Allure grinned.

Esteem scowled as a third invisible blade cut out. He saw it coming through the look in Allure’s eyes, so he was able to dodge, but not before it nicked his cheek. Blood ran down his unnaturally youthful, white face. 

Rarity smirked. “She’s really something, isn’t she?”

“A proper warrior, it seems,” Allure commented. “And, egads, I wasn’t raised by any kind of General Esteem! I still turned out fine, happy, and caring. Shocker!”

“This is a petty personal vendetta,” Esteem hissed.

“Oh it very much is,” Allure admitted. “Want to keep going?”

Esteem lit his horn and charged. 


~~~


“Who likes a good slaughter!?” Velvet shouted at the top of her lungs, skewering seven puppets at once in full view of a truepony soldier. “I know you do!”

“KABOOM!” Pinkie shouted from nearby, prompting the truepony to shout in fear, drop his weapons, and run away. 

“Ah still can’t believe how effective that is…” Applejack muttered as she roundhouse kicked a few other puppets, dislodging their skulls from the rest of their body. 

“Velvet’s fear gets into ponies heads easier,” Grayscale said as she effortlessly held a few dozen puppets still for Applejack to stomp while Rainbow tossed more out of the sky. 

“At this rate we might get to Esteem before Rarity finishes with him!” Pinkie cheered, tossing a puppet into Velvet. The blood tendrils ripped the puppet in half and threw the two halves as projectiles into other puppets. 

“This is seemin’ surprisingly easy…” Applejack noted. “Minimal losses so far, nothin’ unexpected…”

With a glorious flash of light akin to that of evening, a brilliant yellow-orange alicorn appeared before them, her mane swirling with nebulous light. She summoned her blade.

“...Sunset?” Grayscale asked, cocking her head.

This confused the alicorn. “No… I am Pathos.”

“You look like a Sunset to me.”

“Wh…” Pathos shook her head. “It does not matter. You are interfering in father’s plan, and as such he has decreed you must die. I will make this as swift and painless as I can.” She split her blade into four parts—not bothering to send one at Velvet just yet—and went for the mares’ heads. 

Twilight Sparkle teleported into the space between the alicorn and her pray, tossing the shards of light to the side with a burst of powerful magic. “Pathos, huh?” Twilight summoned her blade, fashioned from shards of the Element of Magic itself: Equinox. “What are you the alicorn of, fire? Clouds?”

“I am the goddess of passion.” Pathos reformed her blade. 

“An alicorn devoted to a concept alien to most of your kind? Most peculiar.” 

“It may not have been the ideal choice…” Pathos shook her head. “If you are stalling in hopes that Luna will come to your aid, don’t. She is currently indisposed.”

“You can’t just… get rid of her like that!” Rainbow shouted. 

Pathos shrugged. “What’s done is done.” 

Applejack looked up at Twilight. “Do we need to… y’know?”

Pinkie shook her head. “Nope! We can take her!” She pulled out her explosives. 

“Yeah, you have us!” Velvet added, sending her tendrils out. “I can taste the fear and uncertainty coming off you, Pathos. You really, really don’t want to be here, do you?”

Pathos fixed her with a stern glare. “You are the most dangerous.” She surrounded herself in several rings of magic and sent a beam of neon fire at Velvet. 

She appeared behind Pathos in an instant and drove her bloody tendrils into the alicorn’s back. “Good guess!” 

“Not because of your strength,” Pathos said, tossing Velvet to the side with a brush of her wing. “But because of your understanding.” She sent her sword into Velvet’s skull to not all that much effect. More blood poured out of the opening and tried to take Pathos’ sword from her. 

Twilight drove her blade toward Pathos, meeting half of the alicorn’s sunbeam. “Equinox,” Twilight said. 

“Replete,” Pathos answered, splitting her sunbeam in half once more, meeting Twilight’s blade with but a fourth of her own, sending the tiny sliver to Twilight’s brain. She easily deflected it as Velvet crawled up the other half of the blade like a bloody slime monster. 

“You aren’t a warrior… But we are…!”

Applejack and Rainbow hit opposite sides of Pathos’ face at the same time, cracking her skull in multiple places. She let out a cry of pain that only heightened as her skull stitched itself back together, allowing Pinkie to throw an explosive in her open mouth. 

Her head regrew in seconds, showing them a face of unhinged rage. “You mortals can do nothing to me!” She spread her wings and a halo of superheated air burst from her, burning everypony and pushing them back with ease. Rainbow and Pinkie were burnt so much they lost consciousness, while Applejack and Velvet had to focus on regrowing their bodies. 

Twilight and Grayscale remained standing. Pathos turned her attention to them. She prepared Replete for Twilight’s blade of Harmony while she had a spell of fire ready for Grayscale. 

Twilight grimaced—they weren’t ready to face a full alicorn with unknown capabilities. 

“Wipe that doubt off your face,” Grayscale ordered. “We have her.”

“Arrogant,” Pathos commented.

“But accurate.” Grayscale flapped her wings, bringing gravity down upon all.


~~~


Luna’s awareness returned to her. 

I’m not fighting. I’m supposed to be. Where am I?

“Allow me to answer the question I’m sure is on your mind…” a silver alicorn with a crackling electric mane said, walking into her perceptions. “You are in a Void realm, constructed using magic stolen from one Starlight Shadow. My name is Logos, a new creation of Titan from beyond the veil of this world. You are trapped here until I choose to release you, or somepony defeats me. You are going to struggle against the restraints anyway, but I will warn you that they draw upon your own power to keep you imprisoned here.”

Luna automatically sent as much magic into her hooves as she could, tearing at the dark, arcane restraints keeping her motionless. Logos had spoken the truth—the restraints drained her magic and used it against her. With a pained hiss, she ended her struggles and fixed Logos with an unamused glare.

“Come, sister, such expressions are such a discredit to that wonderful face of yours.”

“I have no brother.”

“A week ago, your statement would have been correct,” Logos admitted. “But through forces I suspect were beyond anypony’s control, here I am. As well as my sister—I believe you have heard of her battles?”

“...Two new alicorns…” Luna hissed.

“Don’t be so angry, you have those new mortal warriors.”

“Mortals.”

“I am not Titan, Luna, I will not dismiss their curious abilities simply because they are mortal.”

Luna frowned. “Is that why you imprisoned me instead of facing me directly?”

“Precisely. In truth, to ensure victory it would have been preferable to outright kill you. A simple matter of twisting your own magic of the night against you and devouring you from within.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Carry the enchantments in your restraints to their logical conclusion, my sister.” 

Luna grimaced. That did make sense. 

“Fortunately for you, Titan thinks the death of an alicorn is unacceptable. So you get to live until the war ends. I have been carefully analyzing these new ponies of yours. Some are threats, some are not. What bothers me is that none of them should have the power to take on Empyrean, and together they only come close. I wonder what secret weapon you have…”

“I will tell you nothing,” Luna spat.

“You are correct. I do not have time to break you. Chances are relatively high your ponies will make it to the palace hall, since they seem to have decided to take Pathos on directly.”

“Your sister, I presume?”

“Yes. They are performing admirably, I must admit. Sister was never one for combat or calculation, however. I think you would appreciate what she stands for, if you get a chance to meet her.”

Luna frowned. “You do not speak in certainties.”

“Very little is certain, Luna. Titan may be completely settled through his own divinity, but I am not. I see possibilities, chances, events… Pathos might win, your ponies might win. There is a possibility your rebellion is successful and your secret weapon can defeat Titan. I must account for all eventualities, for brute force and divinity cannot be trusted to the end.”

Slowly, Luna realized something deeply troubling. Titan never had doubts—it was part of who he was. Absolutely certain of his right, his power, and the way to victory. He was simple, powerful, ordered. He lied and played tricks when needed, but he always preferred the direct approach to victory. 

Logos did not subscribe to that philosophy. He wanted to have all avenues covered, even the smallest chance that he might be defeated had to be contended with. He needed to know, to analyze, and to win. He may have been young, but he already knew how to play the Immortal Game dirty. 

It was possible he was more dangerous than Titan. 

“I see you’re realizing just how much of a shake-up I add to this game of yours…” Logos grinned. “Titan will be quite pleased with my work, don’t you think?”

“If you defy him…”

“I am not that foolish. I am doing exactly as he asked of me. I will just do it in a way that shows him precisely where his faults lie.” He smirked. “Naturally, I will deny that he has faults. And your words will mean nothing to him.”

“For all your talk of maximizing victory, you sure like to monologue.”

Logos chuckled. “A weakness, I suppose. All of us have a personality quirk buried somewhere, after all. We are not pure concepts, alicorns. Though it may be easier if we were.” 


~~~


“I think she figured out how to keep me from controlling her…” Insipid commented. 

“What gave it away?” Shadow asked through Insipid’s mouth. “The diabolical Void lasers?”

Insipid teleported away from the dark beam emanating from Shadow’s body. “Yeah, that is one of the things.”

“You. Still,” Shadow’s body said, eye twitching involuntarily. 

“It talks!” Insipid gasped. “Ermagersh we need to name it.”

“We do not need to designate it,” Shadow grunted. 

The body decided to name itself. “I am Umbra.”

“The darkest part of a shadow. I get it. Amusing,” Shadow deadpanned. 

“She also talks in really short, simple sentences!” Insipid said. “She’s, like, anti-Shadow!”

“Spotlight would be more accurate…”

“Darker,” Umbra said, teleporting right in front of Insipid and creating a void explosion. Insipid responded with one of her own, sending the two of them into opposite sides of the harmony structure. 

“Shadow, ideas?” Insipid asked.

“I don’t have much, since Umbra is in possession of my intelligence, intuition, and arcane prowess. You already duplicated her essence, she counters. Our advantages are limited to Havocwing’s fire and your curious ability to get creative.”

“Oh, right, I still have Havoc’s fire!” She lit her hooves up. “Let’s do this, Umber!”

“Umbra,” Umbra corrected.

“I’m not going to apologize for getting your name wrong, you’re the enemy!” 

“Fine.” Umbra sent a precision laser of Void energy at Insipid. It cut right through her leg and the wall behind her, gushing blood onto the floor. 

“Magic Void healing!” Insipid shouted, lifting her leg up to find it fully healed. 

“It still baffles me how you find healing magics so easy…” Shadow muttered.

“I’m the best, cha!” Insipid did a cartwheel over Umbra and coated the ground under her in fire. Insipid was perfectly happy standing in the midst of intense red flames; Umbra was not and was forced to teleport away before her hooves were burnt off.

“I desire my body back in a coherent form after this,” Shadow commented. 

“Psh, I’ll just heal you up later. Like, I’m the best doctor.” She lit one of her front hooves on fire, and encased the other with Void shaped into flames. Shadow groaned at the stupidity of this, but didn’t stop it. After all, they did need Insipid’s creativity to beat Umbra. 

“I’m going to need a cool name for this one!” Insipid said, clasping her front hooves together to combine the void and normal flames into a swirling gyroscope of red and black energy. “Like, super fresh combo or something!”

Shadow wished she could sigh with Insipid’s body, but she was far too excited to allow that.

Insipid cartwheeled through her flames and met the flurry of Void attacks head on with her own. She smashed the swirling mixture into the ground, prompting tentacles of dark flame to spread out from the ground and claw at Umbra’s body.

“I have no idea what you’re doing,” Shadow commented.

“I don’t either! Isn’t it great?!”

“No,” Umbra said, devouring all the Void into her horn in an instant, leaving only loose flames that quickly dissipated. “Die.”

Shadow sensed the power building up in her horn. “Retreat, she’s destroying the enclosure!”

“Teleport up, got it!”

“Insipid! Don’t teleport to an unkn—”

Insipid teleported them a mile upwards, appearing in the midst of a dark, stormy sky over a plateau in the middle of the Everfree Forest. 

“Huh. That’s new…” Insipid commented. 

“Look out!” 

Umbra teleported herself just above Insipid and unleashed her massive beam of Void. Insipid couldn’t dodge—she could only attempt to meet it. Void shot out of her own horn, laced with excess fire from her hooves. 

It wasn’t enough. Her lack of preparation had assured her beam was of lesser strength. Umbra’s power overtook her own, depriving Insipid’s attack from a power source and tossing the gray unicorn far, far away. 

“Why-y-y…!?” Insipid whined as she fell to the ground. 

“Insipid, get up, get up!”

“But everything hurts…”

“Fine! I’ll j—” Insipid crashed into a stone wall, breaking several of her bones as she fell into a large, empty room in the middle of an old castle. 

A white earth pony with numerous scars and a green alicorn with a mane like sunshine stared at her in shock.

“I’m okay…” Insipid groaned. “Just a… flesh… wound…”

“You dare intrude upon your Queen’s domain!?” Terra shouted at the top of her lungs. 

“Uh-oh.”

Terra lifted Insipid’s broken body out of the rubble and glared at it. “Your insolence is astounding, unicorn.”

“H-hey, I was fighting for my life out there…”

“Your life is nothing to me!” Terra shrieked, driving Insipid into the ground at her hooves. “And you…” She teleported Umbra into the room as well. “You call yourself a servant? You are a horrible use of the shard! Interrupting me with your assault!?”

“My Quee—”

“DO NOT TALK BACK TO ME!” 

Umbra continued anyway. “She i—”

“I do not care about this pathetic unicorn whelp!” Terra smashed Umbra to the ground as well, making a small crater in the ground. “I care that your battle ha—”

“MINE!” Insipid called, having managed to move her busted leg far enough to touch Terra’s hoof.

Terra stared at her in shock. “You pathetic li—”

Insipid created a giant fist out of vines and flowers, punching Terra in the face with it. Her wounds began to heal without her even thinking. “Hey, sweet, this is an awesome p—”

Terra’s blade, the verdant Exogenesis, pierced Insipid’s heart. “THAT POWER IS NOT YOURS!”

Insipid looked at the sword in her chest. “...Ow.” She reached with her hoof and pulled the blade out, holding it in her own magic. “Well… this sword, like, isn’t yours anymore, either.”

Terra screamed in vicious, incoherent rage. 


~~~


“I am not enjoying hiding behind a magic shield while a flying she-demon cooks us like an oven!”

“Shut up, Unimpressive,” Celia grunted, straining to keep the barrier up. 

Unimpressive snorted. “I’m going to keep talking until someone comes up with a plan.”

“Zat falls to moi,” Curaçao said, furrowing her brow. “Celia, you are fireproof, oui?”

“Mostly. I would love to let the heat in here, but I’ve got some squishy meatbags to keep alive. Would either of you mind volunteering to be barbequed ribs for a few minutes while I pummel her?”

“Zat is not my plan.” Curaçao turned to Unimpressive. “You. Can you shield yourself?”

“Well, shields have never been my specialty…”

“Oui or non?”

“...What?”

Curaçao sighed. “Yes or no?”

“Yes-ish.”

“Zen you are on your own. Celia, I need to get out wizout ‘er knowing. She is not ze most observant, but we cannot be obvious.”

“There’s somewhere around a yard of fire raging around us,” Celia pointed out. “You aren’t jumping out of this shield that easily.” 

Curaçao took a position close to the ground. “I am very nimble.” She became invisible. “Set the shield to let me zrough.”

“When you get all those third degree burns don’t come crying to me. Good luck.” Celia nodded, her gemstone flashing as she adjusted the shield spell slightly. 

“When I am free, you charge.”

“Seems simple enough.”

Curaçao took a deep breath and jumped. Instead of going directly to the side and running through the flames in a panic, she went upward. For a second, there was pure fire all around her, singing her mane and coat. Then she was on the roof of the barracks they had been hiding behind, a location Havocwing wasn’t dousing in flame. Curaçao rolled to put out the fire, pleased to find that she had only suffered minor burns to her front legs. 

She looked up at Havocwing, grimacing. The mare’s anger was still gone—her method of fighting much more like Grayscale’s apathetic grunt through life. Whatever Empyrean had done to her, Curaçao hoped that it could be fixed. Turn it off and she’d go back to her usual, angry, caring self. 

“Hey basilisk!” 

“...What?” Havocwing cocked her head—refusing to relent on the fire. “What even is a—”

“A big chicken!” Celia shouted, jumping out of the flame with her razor-top fully active. She twisted the licks of fire around her weapon, throwing a minor tornado right at Havocwing. The pegasus was forced to focus her fire on the Gem, allowing Unimpressive to drop his weak shield and take cover. 

“Why aren’t you burning?” Havocwing asked Celia as she just took the flames. 

“Gem, dear,” Celia chukled. “Anything that could be considered environmental is rather useless against me. The body automatically adjusts, you understand.”

Havocwing created a pointed fireball and drove it at Celia’s chest. She deflected it with a magic shield. 

“Since when did you get smart?”

“Something, Esteem training, I don’t know,” Havocwing grunted. She created flames around her hooves that came to a point, physically charging Celia. 

“Ooh, I like this game!” Celia dropped her razor-top and encased her pointed hooves in dark energy once more. “I have longer legs!” 

Havocwing thought this didn’t matter, charging straight down anyway, creating a massive streak of fire and smoke behind her as she moved. She pulled her front hooves back, ready to take Celia’s neck out.  

Celia teleported above Havocwing and drove her back hoof into the pegasus’ back. Curaçao winced as she saw Havocwing’s blood fly into the air like a geyser. Havocwing finally let out a scream of intense emotion—pain. 

Celia wrapped herself around the pegasus, getting another stab off on Havocwing’s stomach. “And the victory goes t—”

Havocwing grabbed Celia’s head and slammed her into the ground with enough force to send earth flying. Celia didn’t retreat into her Gem, but the pain running through her body had her significantly dazed. 

Face contorted into a grimace, Havocwing pulled a hoof back, aimed right for Celia’s gem. 

“Well… this might actually hurt.”

Curaçao punched Havocwing at the base of a skull hard enough to prompt blood to fly out her mouth. The pegasus’ eyes rolled back and she slumped to the ground, bleeding heavily. “She almost had you.”

“Yeah yeah…” Celia grunted. “We need to get her to a healer. And a cage. Latter one first.”

Unimpressive recalled the shards of his blade back. “And here I was thinking I’d have to get creative.”

“Give it a rest.” Celia rolled her eyes. 

“Give me your robe,” Curaçao told Unimpressive. “I need to stop ze bleeding. We do not know when a healer will arrive.”

Unimpressive hesitated for a second before removing his robe. Curaçao quickly wrapped it around Havoc’s back and chest. It wasn’t going to work for very long, but it was something.


~~~


General Esteem knew Rarity was much weaker than he was. She had the raw magical potential he did, but she lacked the tactics and skill that came with years of experience. He had that experience, and he had the talent to boot. Rarity saw patterns and beauty. He saw war and victory. While she could poke out weaknesses, he knew to adapt and fill them the moment she noticed. She never stood a chance against him alone, and he had taken on three of her friends at once before and come out on top, though he had been denied the final victory. 

Rarity, he could deal with. Rarity’s friends, he could deal with. He suspected he could deal with Twilight Sparkle herself. At least she would fight directly. 

This other mare was aggravating him to no end. 

It had not taken him long to figure out her strange blade-like ability. The talk of her Heart and her spirit may or may not have been true, the fact was that her invisible structures were all physically connected to her. There was always a single shape. There had not been three blades before, just three prongs from a single source. The invisibility was its most dangerous aspect, but Esteem had discovered its relatively short range quickly, so he knew to keep away from it. 

Allure was relentless. She had to be, as a close-range fighter, and she never gave Esteem a moment to breathe. One moment she would fall back to avoid being cut, the next she would charge with a speed she hadn’t demonstrated before, kicking one of his shards away with a power that didn’t belong in that body. 

At first, he considered the possibility that she was using earthpony magic, but when he took a moment to scan her thaumic signature, he found something incredible. Her spirit blades had nothing to do with her internal magic, which was one of the lowest he had seen in a warrior unicorn. She was making full use of her weak magic by physically moving it to different locations of her body to give her muscles slightly more strength or just a tad more speed. Esteem could see the technique being applied to a sort of martial art. 

She was an impenetrable fortress with the combination of her spirit and magic shifting. His stronger explosive spells would no doubt finish her, but casting those took at least some time—and Rarity ensured he never had time, no matter where he went. 

The simple fact of the matter was that this matchup was even. He couldn’t expect backup to come. His opponents might be able to. 

Esteem didn’t like those odds.

“Is that worry I see in your eyes, father?” Rarity asked as Vorpal clashed with Carsomyr. “Don’t like your chances?” 

Allure jumped behind Esteem, shifting her Heart into a rake with blades at the end. Esteem was unable to get out of the way in time, numerous wounds opening on his back leg. He ignored the blood pouring off him and bounced away, splitting Carsomyr into a dozen pieces, forcing Rarity to split her own blade once more to combat the effect.

Brute force wasn’t going to win the day. But victory was still attainable. 

He just needed to get under their skin. 

Rarity was easy, she could be put off her game by a few key words. But this Allure… he needed to figure her out without risking that she would discover what he was doing. 

Esteem moved on the offensive, re-assembling half of his blade and driving it into Allure. She blocked it, as expected. 

“Quite the defensive strategy you have,” Esteem noted, using the other half of his blade to push Rarity back. “Is that what your cutie mark means?”

Allure smirked. “Not at all!” She charged him, pushing magic into her hooves to increase her speed, closing the distance to him quickly. “It’s a mark about destiny.”

“What does one do with a talent of destiny?” Esteem asked. 

“Help ponies find their cutie marks.” She twisted around behind him, only for him to push her away with the slant of his blade. “Or help ponies realize their cutie marks hide something they had never thought of before.”

Esteem saw her looking at his cutie mark of three platinum chevrons and realized that she was trying to put him into a mental trap. He teleported away, putting up mental barriers. 

“Scared?” Allure chuckled, trotting back to Rarity as the chards of Carsomyr and Vorpal clashed once more. “Let’s see, what could I tell you about your mark?” She glanced at the three platinum shards upon his flank. “Your… destiny? A pony of war in a land without war.” 

I made war to fulfill my destiny, Esteem thought, refusing to say it aloud. He didn’t need to give her anything to work with. 

“I bet you think you made war to fulfill your destiny.” Allure deflected a platinum shard. “And you’d be right, you did, because you were sure that was what your destiny was.”

He focused several shards onto her head. He didn’t care that he was leaving an opening, she needed to die before she completed her thought. Her Heart took the full brunt of the force, and one of Rarity’s shards got in and cut through Esteem’s side. 

“But you really didn’t have to make war. There are plenty of violent lives out there for those who need it! There are thousands of monsters in Equestria, go slay them! They’ll be a challenge and your work will never be done.”

Esteem cast a burst spell that pushed Rarity back. That isn’t war. 

“It is war!”

Esteem narrowed his eyes. She wasn't a mind reader. She wouldn't be. 

“There’s a hydra tormenting a town, demanding tribute. You train that town!” Allure jumped through the air, bringing her Heart down on him. “You lead them in battle against the beast!” 

He let out a roar. Carsomyr slit Allure across the stomach, making her wince and fall to the ground. This came at a price—Rarity got some cuts in on Esteem’s flank. 

“The… best part?” Allure managed from the ground. “Almost… all Sweetie Belles get this mark. This talent. Start helping ponies find their destinies… Had you not brought this war, your daughter would have come back to you.”

Esteem had to ignore her to deal with Rarity’s suddenly frenzied attack. 

“We have to help those lost in their talents… you would have been no exception… you’ve thrown that future away…”

“ENOUGH!” Esteem shouted, driving half of Carsomyr into Allure’s chest. Her Heart created as strong of a shield as it could manage in that one location. Esteem curled to the side, physically ramming his hoof into her slit stomach while his blade was occupied. The unicorn let out a blood-curdling scream as his war-torn limb drove itself into her flesh. 

“That future is weak!” He pushed in harder, fusing Carsomyr into one to keep Rarity back. “What kind of destiny is it to watch the destinies of others? It is a destiny without singular purpose!” He drove his hoof in further the moment it looked like Allure was gaining some coherence. “It is the weak talent of a sweet little filly, not an allure. The Allure is a powerful mare who can take others down without a word, but a simple swish of her hoof! The Allure is a trap, a viper’s nest! The Allure is mare all want to be, not a mare who lets others do their own.” He pushed harder, until his mouth could be near her ear. “Your chosen name makes you a fool. It shows your worship of her.”

Rarity screamed. “How can you be so stupid!?” 

“What a childish insult, Rarity.” Esteem removed his hoof from Allure and focused on Rarity fully, batting back her enraged flurry of blows with effortless arcs of his sword. “I have proven myself unparalleled on the mental battlefield as well as the physical. It is this ‘Allure’ who is the fool. And you, for allowing her mortal injury to color your judgement.” Esteem frowned, noticing that Rarity’s expression wasn’t normal. 

Almost like she was trying to suppress a smile. 

“The Allure is a trap,” Allure said, releasing her hold on her Heart. The mare Esteem had thought barely strong enough to move lashed out with a force unlike anything he had seen before. Both of the General’s back legs were cut clean off by the invisible blade. 

With a howl, he teleported a short distance away, spreading his blade around himself defensively. 

Allure laughed, but didn’t get up. “I can manipulate my own Heart. Usually as a weapon or shield… but I can make it lie still if I want. I was… playing near-dead. ...Though this still hurts…”

Rarity smirked, forming Vorpal fully. “Father, Twilight offered you a chance to surrender. I am going to offer it to you again. You have lost both your legs and heard Allure’s testimony.”

“You don’t want me to live,” Esteem breathed, haggard.

“I do want you dead,” Rarity admitted. “You were terrible, and this ‘strength’ you gave me? I would never have needed it were you not such a pitiful, lost stallion who had no real way in life. But offering is the right thing to do nonetheless. What will it be? Surrender and live, or fight and die?”

Esteem roared, spreading the shards of Carsomyr wide. 

Rarity didn’t split Vorpal up at all. She sent it right at him, full force. She was wide open, any single one of Esteem’s shards could kill her. If only they had the time…

He ordered every last one to go for Rarity’s head, focusing the few nearest to him into a small fraction of Carsomyr’s blade. The tiny platinum dagger of a blade met her massive diamond Vorpal. He could not hope to stop the full bulk of the blade. 

Vorpal entered his skull just below his horn and came out the other side. 

Even in death, he would not admit defeat. His platinum shards still flew true, and Rarity had no sword. 

What she did have was some amazing telekinetic focus. For hours, she had focused on the dozens of shards within her blade, not to mention dozens of outfits in her boutique at any given moment. Now, she didn’t need to worry about her sword.

And Esteem’s magic was no longer on the platinum shards. 

In theory, it was simple—telekinetically nudge every shard every shard off course so it would miss her. In practice, this was difficult since she had less than a second to do it. 

There wasn’t even time to breathe. The shards were flying, and then they were in the ground. 

Rarity looked down at a bloody hole in her left shoulder. “W-well, all but one isn’t bad…”

“Hey… at least your stomach isn’t falling out…” Allure grunted. 

“True…”

“Is it all you wanted?” Allure asked.

Rarity turned to see Vorpal still embedded in Esteem’s head. She ripped it from his head without a second thought. “Yes. Yes it was.”

“Oh,” Allure said. She sounded disappointed. 

“Dear, you hated him too, and you never met him.”

“Hmm…” Allure coughed. “Got any healers…?”

“Twilight will come around.”


~~~


Pathos didn’t exactly understand what gravity was before Grayscale decided she needed to experience what it felt like to be on Jupiter.

Every bone in her alicorn body crumpled to dust under the sheer downward force. She sunk a few feet into the ground as Grayscale focused every ounce of her power on Pathos’ every molecule. 

“Keep her there…” Twilight said. Even in her flattened state, Pathos knew she was preparing some kind of spell. Something massive and complex…

Was this the secret weapon they had? The one that could defeat alicorns? Some simple spell? 

Pathos wasn’t about to let that happen to her. She loved life and she was going to keep living no matter what these ponies said! 

Her flash of defiance flooded her with more magic. She willed her legs to reform with bones of metal, so they did. Her flesh was inadequate. Discard it in favor of nebulous energy. Iron was still crumpling under the pressure, replace it with steel. Energize the magic further, give it more substance. Live. 

A steel alicorn skeleton clawed at the edges of Grayscale’s gravity-induced pit, burning with a calm wisp the color of the evening sky. Every step she took sunk several feet into the ground, but she didn’t care. She moved toward Grayscale with a tranquil fury in her empty eyes. 

“She’s gettin’ close…” Grayscale muttered, managing to increase the gravity slightly. It did nothing. Pathos could have survived the moon being dropped on her. 

She swung her hoof wide, tossing Grayscale to the side effortlessly. The gravity left her, giving her body freedom. 

Twilight was still casting a spell. Pathos needed to fix that. 

“Oh no ya don’t!” Applejack shouted, punching Pathos’ skull with enough force to pulverize a stone wall. The alicorn wobbled slightly, but was otherwise unaffected. She chose to ignore the earthpony and focus efforts on Twilight once more. 

Velvet proved a little harder to ignore, seeing as how she pumped blood into Pathos’ eyes and yanked her skull back. She didn’t use anywhere near as much force as Applejack, but somehow managed to pop the skull from its spine and dribble it like a basketball. “I’ve got you exactly where I want you, sunny-bun! Everything in your mind is mine! Everything! You have no life away from my hooves anymore!”

Pathos yanked her head back, somehow trembling despite being little more than skeleton at this point. 

“You ever wonder why they say emotions are weak? Take a look at your fear…” Velvet’s eyes went black and noxious tentacles Pathos was sure weren’t made of blood began to pour out of her sides. “It debilitates you! Makes you mine! And… it distracts you just long enough.”

“CLEAR!” Twilight shouted, casting her spell. 

A wormhole appeared above Pathos. 

Twilight teleported all of her friends away. 

Pathos didn’t even have time to think uh-oh before the anvil-sized chunk of pure iron hit her at ten percent the speed of light.

It hit her so hard the atoms in her body fused like the fire of the sun. The first bright flash of light was the impact. The second was the congealed atoms trying to figure out what to do with themselves under so much energy and pressure. 

The crater that Grayscale had embedded Pathos into was nothing compared to the behemoth of pocket that appeared from this massive impact. The ground that wasn’t irradiated was melted into glass and unnaturally colored fires burned along the edges. 

There hadn’t even been any magic in the attack—nothing Pathos could turn to use herself. It had been pure iron traveling far faster than anything had any right to. 

Pathos slowly reformed - not as metal and fire, but as bone and flesh, barely able to hold herself together. Her limbs were shaky, her mind distracted. When Twilight teleported in front of her once more, all she could see was a blurry purple blob. 

“You’re going to die.”

No, Pathos screamed inwardly. No! No I will not! She reached out with her spirit. I need more!

She grabbed hold of Twilight’s magic. 

I will take this! 

She felt a rush of Twilight’s memories and emotions as she completed her empathic connection. She saw her as a filly. She saw her learning under Celestia. She felt how she did when the horror of Terra corrupted her. Saw the war, the pain, the suffering, and the changes in her friends. 

A tear rolled down Pathos’ cheek. It was a tragedy. But fighting here would not win the day. She had to live, to be with Titan after this was all over. She couldn't do anything else. She needed power…

Which she wasn’t getting. 

In fact, it felt like she was rapidly losing power. 

“W-what’s happening to me?” She said, panicked, as she began to shrink.

Twilight looked at her in confusion. “I have… no idea.”

Pathos’ nebulous mane faded until it was replaced with simple red and yellow hair. Her immense alicorn body diminished in size until she was no larger than a common mare, and her magic no more potent. The deep burning power of her passion dwindled until it was little more than a spark within her. 

Tears were rolling down her face. “Who…?”

“Not us…” Applejack said. “Twilight?”

“Her power is being taken somewhere else…” Twilight said, frowning. “Somepony’s taking it.”

“Oh boy, that sounds annoyingly familiar,” Velvet muttered. 

Grayscale scowled. “We’ll just punch whoever has it in the face.”

“I was supposed to…” Pathos trembled. “I was supposed to…”

“I saw,” Twilight said, walking up to her, face held high. 

Pathos sagged her head. “I…”

“Your desire to change Titan’s mind is no longer an option,” Twilight interrupted. “You can join us and attempt to defeat him our way, or we will be forced to dispose of you.”

Applejack gasped. “Twilight! You’re…”

“You can’t!” Rainbow shouted. “She almost killed us!”

“She bonded with me when she tried to take my magic,” Twilight explained. “She saw my past and my struggles. I saw hers. In her short life, she has never approved of Titan. She had a plan of her own to defeat him that involved gaining his trust and showing him what empathy meant. Possibly one of the most caring and understanding plans ever conceived in the Immortal Game.” Twilight leaned in to Pathos. “Mortals like us do not have that kind of time. And now, neither do you.”

Pathos nodded. “R-right.” She spread her wings and stretched her legs. There wasn’t much power in them, but she still felt everything. She tried summoning her blade. 

Replete came to her, though at a much smaller size. Only a handful of shards. 

“...It’s not enough.”

“It is something,” Twilight said. “Come. The others need help. Don’t worry, we are prepared for that brother of yours.”


~~~


Celestia couldn't believe what she was seeing. 

It was impossible for any spellcaster to take another’s blade. Not even Titan himself could take control of even the most inexperienced bladecaster’s weapon. It was an absolute rule of magic—or so Celestia had thought. 

And yet, here came this gray unicorn, Insipid, that had not only taken Exogenesis from Terra, but also copied all of Terra’s magic! In addition, she seemed faster at creating things than Terra was, even if her plants and puppets didn’t have as much substance. Insipid’s puppets moved a lot more like actual puppets than living breathing ponies.

“Let’s try… dragon puppet!” Insipid declared, pressing the dark Void in one hoof to the bright green energy of Terra’s magic, creating a bright yellow hunk of what Celestia assumed was flesh, but really looked a bit too artificial to truly be such. It was vaguely dragon-like, but it had five legs and no mouth. 

It flopped onto Terra like a ragdoll. 

Terra blew it to smithereens with her magic, tugging once again on Exogenesis. “RETURN TO YOUR GODDESS WHAT IS HERS!”

“No. It’s mine now,” Insipid huffed. “Nothing you can d—”

Terra grabbed Exogenesis for a split second and twisted the blade of the green weapon into Insipid’s neck. The unicorn responded by sending Exogenesis’ shards flying in random directions, out of her neck. “Like, ow!”

“Heal it,” the other voice said from Insipid, which Celestia had identified earlier as Shadow, the mare whose body was currently possessed and flattened like a pancake nearby.

As Insipid healed her neck with the Void magic, Terra shouted at the loose body. “Why can’t you heal yourself!? She is using the same power!”

“Copy isn’t exact,” Shadow’s body muttered. “Creativity comes into play.”

“It’s acutally more about me being too stupid to think there are rules,” Insipid giggled. “Like, what, I can’t take a sword? I totally didn’t know that!” She twirled Exogenesis around like it was some kind of toy. “Also, Void fire is just fun. And like… have another dragon puppet.”

A banana-colored dragon-puppet fell onto Terra completely harmlessly, but it still drove the alicorn mad. “You will die slowly for what you’ve done…”

“Like, lame,” Insipid blew her mane out of her face. “Come on, what are you gonna do? I have all your powers and more!” 

“You do not underst—”

Insipid cut off her head with Exogenesis. “Victory!”

Celestia snorted. “If only it were that easy…”

“Hey! Come on! A pity cheer would be nice over there, peanut gallery!”

Celestia had no idea what that meant. She wasn’t sure Insipid did, either.

Terra’s head grew back, the spitting image of pure unbridled rage on her features. 

“Huh. You can heal.” Insipid blinked. “I probably didn’t need to use the Void healing.”

“Apparently not,” Shadow said. 

“Cha,” Insipid shrugged. “Anyway, Shadow, recommendation?”

“Proliferate piles of puppets. It seems to bother her more than anything else.”

“Let’s try teddy bears!” She started creating a swarm of yellow, floppy teddy bears that charged Terra in leagues. 

“You mock me… You…” Terra’s calm, sunshine mane spiked in baffled fury as she began to squash the puppets beneath her. 

Celesta had seen her mother in many states of mind. Angry. Sad. Occasionally even caring. But never, never, had she seen her mother so desperate. Not even during her rebellion against Titan had she seemed so lost and confused. There, she understood the rules of engagement.

Here, Terra hadn’t the foggiest idea what to do with Insipid. 

It was hilarious to watch and it took all Celestia’s effort to keep from laughing. Mother Earth, brought low by a copycat who broke the rules!

She briefly wondered how Titan would react to this mare. A mortal pony grabbing the power of pure order and using it like some kind of chaotic child’s toy. If anything would get him to show some emotion, that would. 

Terra tore the castle around them down, pelting Insipid with rock after rock after rock. Insipid yawned, letting her body quickly recharge from each hit as she kept making teddy bear puppets endlessly. “This is fun!” Insipid giggled. “Oh, what if I make a puppet of her!?” She summoned a green vaguely alicorn-shaped blob into the arena. It promptly flopped to the ground, useless. “Eh, close enough.”

“Enough…? Close enough…?” Something snapped in Terra, a psychotic smile coming over her face. 

Celestia’s amusement vanished. Oh no...

“You have proven enough of a nuisance to make me stoop to your level…” Terra twitched. She levitated Shadow’s body up and into her outstretched hoof. “Let’s make this simple. You release the power you stole from me, or I snap your friend’s head. I see that spell that lets her talk through you. She’s still trapped in this body. I kill it, I kill her.”

Insipid’s smile dropped. “Uh…”

“Release your power or she dies.”

“You’re, like, totally going to try to kill us after I do that? So no dice.”

“I give you my word.”

“Her word is worthless!” Celestia shouted. “D—”

Terra shot a magic spell back at Celestia that cut out her tongue. “Ingrate!”

Shadow spoke through Insipid. “I believe Celestia. So, allow me to put this in terms you can understand, Terra. I would appreciate remaining alive. However, Insipid will not be giving up her power. I order her not to. If she releases it, we both perish.”

“S-shadow…” Insipid stuttered. 

“However, since you’ve induced leverage upon us, we would be willing to simply end the fight.” Shadow narrowed her eyes. “Neither of us have to die and we can both walk away.”

“You think me a fool?” Terra asked. “I know who you are. You are those sisters that showed up and started helping the rebellion. You will aid them when you leave.”

“No peaceful solution?”

“Never in your wildest dreams, mortal.”

Shadow let out a sigh. “Then it is apparent that you simply have to kill me and continue the fight with a very enraged Insipid. You may infer that her rage will hinder her fighting capacity. Given her ability to fly in the face of logic like a speckled bat, this is not the case.”

“...I have a better idea.” Terra tapped the head on Shadow’s body, causing it to go limp—but not dead. A strange, black shard that shook with madness came out, making Celestia wince. A Sliver of Darkness. Terra’s prize; an artifact that could trap a being in their own mind while a perversion of themselves took over. “Shadow was powerful… but you, Insipid, you have so much more potential. Esteem was so blind when he captured you.” She threw the shard at Insipid. “Time for you to kill everypony.”


~~~


Cinder laid back. “So, Fluttershy… what do you do?”

Fluttershy looked at the ground. “Not much. I can use the Stare… and I keep everypony grounded.”

“That’s good!”

“Yeah. Still, when I sit back like this, it makes me wonder…”

“If you could fight?”

“Oh, no, I could never…”

“You can, if you wanted,” Cinder said, hopping up and stretching her legs. “I’ve seen some strong Fluttershys out there.”

“Oh…”

“Don’t think you have to, though. You really might like yourself better this way.”

Before Fluttershy could respond, Twilight appeared between them. “We are ready to storm the central Palace and take out Empyrean. Fluttershy, we do need you for this.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Right.”

“There’s no way I’m missing this!” Cinder said. “Let’s go!”

Twilight teleported them to the front steps. Cinder did her best to ignore the bodies and blood everywhere, and got some marginal success when she noticed a small Sunset alicorn tending to Havocwing. “Who’s that?”

“Pathos,” Twilight said. “A new ally.”

“I’ve removed the curse,” Pathos said, backing away from Havocwing. “I rejuvenated her as well, she should wake u—”

Havowing shot up and punched Pathos in the face. “I AM GONNA KI—wait, what?”

“Welcome back,” Curaçao said, pulling Havocwing into a hug.

“Oh. I was trying to kill you guys, huh?” Havocwing laughed. “That was… weird.

“Weird!?” Rainbow shouted. “That’s all you have to say? Weird?!”

“Well, ye—”

“You just tried to kill your friends! That’s… That’s…”

“Dash, you can have your PTSD panic attack or whatever the fuck this is later. Right now…” Havocwing pointed at the hall doors. “Can we smash this thing down already?”

Twilight nodded. “Give me a second to prepare…”

Allure trotted over to Cinder. “Hey.”

“You are absolutely covered in blood,” Cinder pointed out.

Allure chuckled nervously. “Yeah. And yes, most of it is mine. That Esteem guy was no joke.”

“Was he as bad as you thought he was?”

“He had me on the ground and just rammed his hoof deeper and deeper into my innards for the sake of pain so… yeah, I think he was. I can see why Sweetie Belle hated this name.” Allure smirked. “But it’s mine now. And no silly General can tell me what it means.”

“Did you…?”

“No, that was Rarity. She offered him a way out, too. Guy was stubborn…” Allure shook her head. “But he’s gone now. All that’s left is this Empyrean, then Titan. And now we’ve got another alicorn on our side, apparently.” She frowned. “Looks like we didn’t get Insipid or Shadow, though.”

“Nopony knows where they are,” Celia said, trotting over. “They seem to have just… vanished.”

“Then we need to be ready for the unexpected,” Cinder shook her head. “Whatever lies on the other side of this door… it won’t be what we’re expecting.”

“We’re going in anyway,” Twilight said. “Ready the Elements—let’s do this!”

She blasted the doors open with a thaumic explosion.