Twilight, Pinkie, and Fluttershy were at the edge of the hole in the sand. Both Pinkie and Fluttershy were sitting in a little tent with a table and an advanced communication array. Pinkie had a book open in front of her, inside of which she was rapidly scribbling. Fluttershy sat with her armor on and her shield on her back, her helmet held in her hooves.
Twilight stood in front of them, teetering over the edge of the hole. She wasn’t currently wearing the Amber Phoenix armor, Pinkie had told her to wait. This didn’t stop her from holding it in her telekinesis.
The power feedback she felt made her drool. Maybe she could just…
“Twilight…” Pinkie cautioned.
“What? You’ve written the part where I put it on already, right?”
“Yes, but I need to get far enough ahead so you don’t start skipping past my words. I do not write at the speed of time, even with my keyboard.”
Twilight sat down, sending some sand sliding into the hole. She soon lost track of it.
“And done!” Pinkie said, putting her pen now. “For now, anyway. Your adventure should go… ‘well’.”
“How many bones am I going to break?”
“Nope! Not saying anything!”
Twilight ruffled her feathers. “Right. So. Fluttershy, how exactly should I put this on?”
“You should be able to teleport it onto yourself,” Fluttershy answered.
Twilight teleported the glowing glass onto her body. It fit perfectly, almost like another layer of skin that somehow didn’t tangle up her fur. Instantly, she was rushed with a surge of power that made her legs extend to their fullest and her wings flare to maximum width. The coils around her stomach began to ripple with the purple essence of her magic.
She remembered a day she had accidentally plugged her magic into a star. She’d almost destroyed a city so she’d never done that again, but that experience was the closest to what she felt now.
Good.
After the initial shock of the power wore off, she stretched a bit. The armor was loose around her joints, allowing her free reign of motion. She could still see her coat under the glass in most locations – save her chest and midsection, which were glowing too brightly for that.
She tapped her chest, feeling the power of the Rune of circles. Five out of six wasn’t bad at all, she decided.
The eye of the Unity Helix appeared in her visor. “I’m connected. I will shield your perceptions whenever needed. I shall also protect your mind from mental assault.”
“And we’re in your head!” Pinkie shouted into the microphone, making Twilight wince.
“Woohoo!” Fluttershy added, significantly quieter.
“I’m making final preparations with Unity…” the Unity Helix said. “Done. I am ready to devote the majority of my attention to this endeavor.”
“Time to go?” Twilight asked Pinkie.
“Yep.” Pinkie smiled. “Godspeed, Twilight.”
Twilight winked. She backed up to the edge of the hole, did a triple backflip because she could, and flew straight down. She didn’t wait until she reached the bottom to start digging – she lit her horn, preparing a laser spell. In response, every piece of the Amber Phoenix lit with its own amber glow.
A brilliant golden laser larger than she was erupted from her horn and barreled down the hole. She may not have been able to make out the sand at the bottom yet, but she knew she had fused it to glass.
It would not be long before she broke into the center of the planet.
And then… Rx’len awaited.
Was she nervous? A little, admittedly. She had been bested by gods and moons already on this adventure, and Rx’len made even those quake in fear.
But she was Twilight Sparkle, Empress of Unity, and even though she was the only one flying to the center of the world, she was not alone.
This monster was going to pay.
~~~
“I’m going offline,” the Unity Helix reported to the descending fleet. “Switch over to manual control.”
“Twilight’s been released?” Rainbow asked.
“Yes. I wish you luck. Remember to bring Quasar back alive – dragonkind depends on it.”
Rainbow saluted. “Got it.”
And then the Unity Helix was gone, all ships now under control of direct pilots. There was a short transition period of a few seconds where a few ships shuddered a little, but afterward there was no discernable difference besides the lack of Unity Helix eyes on random screens.
Rainbow turned her gaze forward, seeing a seemingly endless tunnel of amber-tinted water. She always liked it when artificial gravity let perspective be skewed like this. She knew they were traveling straight down, but to her it just seemed forward. Onward instead of downward.
Though seeing deep-sea fish from above did tend to ruin that illusion. Rarity still seemed to be getting a kick out of it.
“Ready?”
Rarity laughed, a quick, witty response ready – one that she squelched in an instant. “…Yes, actually.”
“Good,” Rainbow said. “Applejack?”
Applejack shrugged. “I’m not a fighter and I never have been. I’ve been getting lucky lately, is all. Or have impressive weapons.”
“You still have the axe.”
Applejack looked at her axe of light. “Yeah. Still. I don’t really see what I’m going to do here. You two? Enchantress and Captain. Me? Mechanic.” She snorted. “What am I going to do?”
Rainbow furrowed her brow. She admittedly wasn’t sure – but she did know Applejack was one of them, and she had a part to play. She was about to offer words of encouragement when an alert appeared on the main screen.
“Sensors have picked up a magic barrier at the bottom!” a Unity dragon reported. “It’s semi permeable – I think we found their base!”
“Let the ships above know!”
“I…” the dragon paled. “I’m trying, but long range communications are disabled!”
“Disabled? Who would have th-“ Rainbow paled. “Quasar. Quasar could give that order.”
Rarity blinked. “Why would he?”
“I have no idea! Are any other systems disabled?”
“…Yes. We’re no longer charging weapons or increasing our movement speed…”
“Give me short range communication,” Rainbow grunted. “HEY! EVERYONE! This is Rainbow speaking! The ships are convinced Quasar is telling us to stop, and without the Unity Helix we can’t override! We can’t fight like this – evacuate all personnel into secluded-network ships and arm the self-destructs. W-“
A monstrous claw shimmering with the power of stars punctured the windshield of the Sunjammer. Quasar – eyes glowing from the power of clear magical hypnosis – pulled his claw back and popped the top of the Sunjammer open like a soda can.
Water rushed in, sweeping Rainbow away before she could react.
~~~
Rarity jumped when Quasar’s claw punctured the windshield without any effort.
She whirled around, reaching for Rainbow. We need to stick together.
Her plan was not to be, for the immortal dragon pulled back, releasing the torrent of pressured water. Her suit kept her from being crushed, but she was still thrown around chaotically. She bonked her helmet on the walls of the Sunjammer a few times before the rush of water shot her outward, flying past another of Quasar’s claws.
She caught a glimpse of his eyes – alight with blue-pink fire. Decidedly unnatural, a variable they hadn’t known existed until now… and this something they couldn’t have planned for.
Still, Rarity couldn’t help but shake the feeling that the Unity Helix would have at least had the forethought to make Quasar’s immortal status useless for this mission…
Things have to go wrong.
Maybe this was Pinkie’s doing? She was mostly focusing on Rx’len, but she did say she might do some work here. It was part of her Plan after all.
Rarity shook her head – no use dwelling on such things. They had just experienced a temporary setback, they could salvage this. Looking up, she saw the various ships of the fleet shooting at each other, with the occasional one exploding in a self-destruct. Some must have been able to take control away from Quasar…
Nobody was shooting at Quasar himself. He was too important. This gave him near free reign of the place, clawing through ships and tearing ponies apart just by moving through the water. Already clouds of blood were forming, giving brave deep-sea critters the largest meal they would ever see.
A few had broken away – smaller ships, unicorns with spells that helped them move through water, a few smaller dragons, and some aquatic Unity races Rarity couldn’t identify. She even saw a Thief flying through the water with little more difficulty than air, no doubt thanks to that wonderful pegasus magic.
All were heading straight down to the barrier. Rarity followed suit, casting a whirlwind spell behind herself that acted as a propeller, launching her forward. She arrived at the barrier in under a minute, and she was not the first – already a few others had passed through. On the other side she could see them falling, most getting picked out of the sky by Starcross turrets on the ground.
A few made it to the ground and began attacking, but for the most part the Starcross defense was too good.
Rarity vowed to change that. With her magic, she grabbed hold of one of the carrier ships that was passing right by – a little larger than a house. She passed through the barrier with it, teleporting both of them to the ground the moment they crossed the barrier. The ship had not been expecting this, crashing into the Runic surface rather painfully – but it had gotten past the Starcross turrets.
The back of the ship popped open, and a half-dozen Mesh spiders crawled out, spewing noxious smoke into the air. They charged the turrets, met by a small contingent of Stacross soldiers.
Rarity teleported herself to the top of a turret, driving her horn into the side of the barrel. A cascading explosion rippled down the defending weapon, rendering it useless.
Before she could teleport to the next one a magical blue sphere came out of nowhere and punched her in the face. She fell off the turret, managing a quick teleport to the ground in order to save her bones from an untimely shattering.
None other than Scarcity was waiting for her on the ground. Rarity’s blood ran cold as their eyes locked.
She really is just like me. The horn was the same shape, the eyes were the same color, and even their figures were similar. The main differences were Scarcity’s scar… and her lack of visible age.
Rarity took off her helmet and threw it to the side. There were many explosions happening around them, but neither unicorn cared any longer.
“You can stop,” Rarity said. “We’re destroying Rx’len as we speak.”
“We both know that isn’t an option,” Scarcity responded in an identical tone. “This Rune we fight in should not exist. Your planet should not exist.” She lit her horn and created an immense, translucent sword out of the aether. “I want this world and Rx’len to be ash so the corrupting light of the Stars will not continue.”
Rarity readied two of her swords in her front hooves and two in her telekinesis. “You’re everything Rainbow said you would be.”
“The Merodi have a habit of using the truth as a weapon to get what they want.”
“It’s a good weapon.”
“It is still a tool of de-“
Rarity teleported behind Scarcity, attempting to drive her swords into her back, only to find that Scarcity had raised a barrier. Scarcity swung her massive blade, only for Rarity to catch it in her two hoofheld swords, twisting the other two blades around Scarcity’s back. Both unicorns teleported at once to get out of the situation, coming to a standstill once more.
Neither smiled.
~~~
Applejack came to on a floor made of Runes, behind a rocky protrusion. Her helmet had been completely shattered and she had a nasty cut on her head, but otherwise she was fine.
Somehow.
Even though a fall from that height should have broken her bones.
Luck? Pinkie? Somepony who saved her?
She couldn’t tell. That was probably the whole point.
Grunting, she stood up and looked over the rocky protrusion. She could make out the barrier in the ceiling where things were exploding. No doubt in the sea above ships and Quasar were tangled in battle of some sort. On the ground she saw Starcross soldiers meeting Mesh spiders, hunters, and Thieves. Applejack even caught sight of Rarity and Scarcity teleporting around for a split second.
She knew she couldn’t help Rarity. No idea where Rainbow was…
But the Starcross hadn’t noticed her either, apparently.
She examined the battlefield once more, unable to locate any glowing Starcross device that might be drilling into the ground. Which meant that it must be down one of the side tunnels.
It just so happened that she was close to one of them. It was guarded by two of the cloudy soldiers, both of whom had their guns at the ready, refusing to leave their post… but still fixated on the battle.
Applejack checked to see if she still had the axe of light – she didn’t. She did have her tools, though. And that included a few explosives. It definitely wouldn’t be enough to kill them, but luckily she didn’t need to do that.
She reached into her kit and pulled out a square of white – generally used to remove gears that had fallen from above levels and wedged themselves so hard into the rest of the Mesh that the metal had fused. It was a last resort, but it always paid to have some on hoof.
She activated it and tossed it in between the guards. The explosion had very little light to it – instead focusing more on excessive smoke and a powerful shockwave. Even that close to the guards, it did little more than knock them over and daze them given their armor.
But that was enough for Applejack. She dashed through the smoke and into the tunnel, grinning to herself. Her boots clanked against the stone ground, occasionally splashing in some water. Applejack realized she wasn’t running in time anymore – she was just running.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
She turned a corner and her smile dropped instantly. Standing right in front of her was Glimmer, pointing her two-pronged staff right at Applejack.
Glimmer frowned. “The one without magic gets here first. Huh.”
Applejack still had a knife in her toolkit. She drew it.
Glimmer giggled. “Really? That’s cute. That’s… really cute. I’m sorry, but you’re alone little pony. No shadows to help you this time.”
Applejack didn’t even get to charge. Glimmer slapped her aside with her scepter, knocking Applejack onto her back. Applejack stood up – but Glimmer levitated her into the air, ramming her into the ceiling.
Applejack fell, landing on her stomach with a pained “Oof…”
Glimmer frowned. “This is so easy it’s degrading. I actually feel bad.”
“And you don’t feel bad about blowing up a world?”
Glimmer grimaced. “A little. But it has to be done.”
Applejack grunted, standing back up, only for Glimmer to whip her to the ground.
“Applejack? Just stay down. I’d rather not keep beating you up, kay?”
Applejack let out a sigh of resignation and ended her attempts to defy Glimmer.
~~~
Twilight burned a hole straight to the bottom of the crust with ease.
On the other side were demons. Gnashing, many-eyed shapes of dark colors surging towards her like angry ants. She could feel a headache forming from looking at them.
“Compensating…” the Unity Helix said, and suddenly Twilight’s headache was gone. Granted, the eldritch monstrosities surging toward her from the bottom of the hole still looked uglier than an extremely moldy sandwich, but they no longer looked impossible. If anything, they were now flat.
She held out a hoof, smirking. “Get out of my way.”
A beam of holy energy erupted from her hoof and consumed the pulsating demons with ease. The hole, now free from eldritch influence, was open.
She flew in, entering a realm of darkness. Behind her, the light of the amber tunnel greeted her. To her surprise, the interior of the world was not lit by the amber glow – only a small area around the hole was exposed. The rest was completely dark.
Every square meter of the interior of the world must have been infested with eldritch monsters.
“Creepy,” she admitted. “But probably not as creepy as our big boy in the center… do you have Rx’len?”
“Yes,” the Unity Helix said. “It is admittedly difficult for me to process it. Visually, I can give you a representation of Rx’len without an issue. I am currently working on routines to represent his higher-dimensional natures. I caution against immediate engagement.”
“I can wait so long as nothing jumps me.” Twilight flapped her wings, discovering that she didn’t really have any concept of direction anymore. Gravity was almost nothing where she was, and the hole she’d just come out of might as well have been ‘down’ to her at the moment.
She was purposefully refusing to extend her magical perceptions. She didn’t want to touch Rx’len without the Unity Helix being sure it was safe to do so. This did not mean she wasn’t ready for a fight – knowing what Pinkie had said made her think this was a perfect moment for things to go wrong…
“Done,” the Unity Helix responded. “You may go to Rx’len. The visual stimuli will seem unusual, but I will help you process it.”
“How many fuses did you blow working that out?” Twilight asked, jokingly.
“Five percent.”
Twilight stopped short. “You’re kidding. Five percent of all of your fuses?!”
“I am unfortunately not joking. There are currently major power outages in Unity that I am not attempting to fix.”
“Guess I’ll do this quickly then…” Twilight lit her horn, allowing herself to shine like a star. She unleashed a beam of energy right for the center of the world, where she knew Rx’len sat, devouring everything.
She felt the light from the hole behind her close up the moment she did so. “Nice cinematic timing it’s got there… Pinkie, was that you?”
“I think of it as both me and Rx’len,” Pinkie said over the comm.
“Be on your guard,” Fluttershy said. “It might try something.”
“TRY WHAT?” The voice boomed, but the Unity Helix filtered out all the ear-scratching frequencies and mental shredding effects, giving Rx’len the sound quality of a scratchy, garbled megaphone.
“Rx’len…” Fluttershy said. “King of monsters…”
“YOU ARE A TENACIOUS ONE, SATURN. WHY NOT COME FACE ME DIRECTLY INSTEAD OF CREATING THIS… PUPPET?”
“You know I cannot,” Fluttershy added.
“Hey!” Twilight shouted. “Don’t confirm that I’m a puppet!”
“ARE YOU NOT? YOU ARE UNDER THE WILLS OF A PROPHET, A GODDESS, AND A MACHINE. YOU COULD NOT BE HERE WITHOUT THEIR WILLS.”
“ENOUGH!” Twilight shouted, unleashing another beam of holy energy into the darkness. “Show yourself so we can get this over with. There are people back home who need their coffee machines back.”
“THIS IS THE THANKS I GET…”
And it revealed itself. It had no color, only shape. Its true form was beyond comprehension, but the approximation the Unity Helix had created was still beyond terrifying. At the center was an orb that could have been an eye, or it may have just been a crystal with pulsating nodules around it. Either way it was larger than most dragons. Six fingers spread out from this center point, like bony petals on a flower.
The finger-flower of Rx’len was affixed by a double-helix stalk to a rippling sea of thick syrup, out of which hands and hooves would stick out of, as if trying to keep themselves from drowning. Bony ridges rose out of the edges of this pool, topped with virus-like shapes that slowly rotated in unpredictable directions. Around these bones was a ringed hole – filled with irregular teeth, making an impossible mouth that went all the way around. Beyond this, there were only tentacles that seemed to have no pattern to them at all and went on forever. Given the occasional pulse of amber light on these tentacles, this was probably what Rx’len was using to absorb the world’s magic.
Twilight saw all of this… and smiled. “Hey Rx’len. Sup?”
“EVERYTHING.”
“Ooh, good point. This is going to make it a little difficult to beat you down…” Twilight shrugged. “Hopefully up is a good substitute.” She created a golden scythe out of nothing and drove it into the central finger flower.