Passion's mind.
Her world. Her Mindscape. The same world where everypony was pulled in earlier. But this time, the stakes are larger. Passion's next surge could mean critical mass since she came so close last time but fainted before anything horrible could happen. So this is all dependent on Celestia, who had entered the mindscape thanks to Passion's mother, Gardevoir.
On the outside, the next surge had begun. Passion was once again feeling that same uncontrollable sensation as she got on her knees. The amount of magic she was exerting this time was far greater than the previous ones. Everypony around her had been lifted up by a psychic levitation through her own uncontrollable surge. Even her own mother who was a Gardevoir. But, Gardevoir managed to hold back the surge as she promised by placing a barrier around Passion.
Sienna and Lucien watched from the clouds, overseeing everything as usual. Lucien nodded his head, impressed by what Sienna managed to actually start.
"Not bad. I guess you ended up having a better idea than me, huh?" Lucien nudged Sienna.
"Y-Yeah...This is bigger than I expected." Sienna gulped.
"What do you mean?"
"Well...I didn't expect it to go this far..." She scratched the back of her head.
"What? You're the one who came up with the idea and said Celestia's Kirlia was stupid strong for a normal Kirlia. What did you mean you didn't it to go this far?"
"I mean, I knew it was strong. But I thought it was just slightly stronger than most Kirlia's! I thought she'd only effect Canterlot. Not all of Equestria and beyond!"
"Well, it's too late to reverse everything now. We're already knee-deep in this whole event. So you're gonna have to wait and see what happens." Lucien patted the back of a terrified Sienna. "Don't worry. I'm 100% sure that Celestia can solve this. Maybe."
It was all up to Celestia who was already headed for the door that led to Canterlot. Along the way, she the mirror world counterparts of everypony wave at her, wishing her the best of luck. All she had to do was advance through the unnecessarily long hallway that laid before her.
"Here goes." Celestia decided to skip the simple walking and just for the quicker route, flying. As she flew by, she saw all of her parallel selves wave at her, cheering their other self on. But even with all that cheering, the hallway was still ridiculously long. She even tried teleporting but that didn't do her any good.
But, past that long hallway, Passion's bubble had grown to a faster rate since last time, showing that her magic is constantly improving the more she has another power surge. And with each time her magic grows, the harder it is for her body to maintain it all due to her still being a fragile Kirlia.
"Did this hallway get longer the last time I was here?" Celestia looked around her. She felt like she was making zero progress at this point. She worried that she might not be able to make it in time.
On the outside, things weren't looking any better. Due to Passion finally reaching a point where she could barely sustain a huge amount of magic, it was getting harder and harder to keep the barrier around her. The pink bolts that shot from her bubble were starting to break apart the barrier bit by bit whilst Gardevoir struggled.
And her struggling was actually affecting the mindscape as well. Since this was her mind, everything that happens outside can affect what happens inside. Passion was currently feeling a rush of strain that she could no longer bear. And due to her being unable to handle it, the fear of losing her trainer was boiling up from within. These fears were becoming a reality inside the mindscape.
The floors and walls of the mirror Canterlot were breaking apart due to the mental fears of Passion overflooding it. Not only that, but the gravity of the area had changed, forcing Celestia to fall down with the shattered walls and floors.
"W-What's going on?!" Celestia exclaimed as she strayed further away from Passion, dialling the already slow progress back down. The outside world wasn't safe either from this. Passion's magic managed to bypass the barrier from time to time, affecting everything from an insane distance. Layers of magic had emerged, knocking her back as if they were whips. Now what stood in her way were these layers.
The Pokemon of Route 121 were being displaced all over the place due to the constant combustion of magic and psychic energy overflooding the place. Even Gardevoir's barrier wasn't enough to stop the magic from affecting the other world. Soon, all of Equestria had been caught up in this once more.
And it went a step further this time. Instead of just levitating objects and messing with everypony's mind, the magic had taken an extreme height in levels by causing everypony to have their bodies be pressured down. As if gravity itself was moving against them.
Even Lucien and Sienna could feel this. They tried to keep their distance by heading further into the sky, but the magic of Passion gained too much distance. Anything within its vicinity will be caught. That includes anything in the sky. So Flying-Types weren't safe, unfortunately.
Passion's own created world that involved perfect mirrors of the ones she knew, in reality, was crumbling as well. The giant floating Celestia heads were suddenly immobile, no longer floating about. The fairy dust in the air had vanished into normal dust whilst everypony who lived in this parallel Canterlot shared the same fate as their real-world counterparts. Having their minds and bodies be affected by this overwhelming magic. Celestia had recovered from the sudden change in gravity. But it wasn't going to get easier from here on. The distance between her and Passion had changed once more.
"This isn't going anywhere." The Sun Princess groaned. "I'll have to force my way through." Seeing the destructive magic that filled the endless space, just simply flying to Passion won't work. Celestia will have to get aggressive if she hopes to get through. She made her way back to the location of Canterlot, this time, moving at high speeds. She managed to break past at least one layer of magic, but that almost caused her to fall back.
She continued to fly past the layers, breaking through them one by one. However, the further she went through them, the thicker they got, making the impact harder on her. What didn't help was that each time Passion struggled, the more aggressive the layers got and the harder they hit Celestia. When she smashed her body on the next layer, she felt a strong impact rush through her body, causing her bones to shake in the process. Celestia was sent back, feeling the harsh damage.
But she didn't let that stop her. All she had to do was get past the remaining layers. But with more coming through due to Passion's fears, it could take much longer than expected. Celestia flew straight to the layers, blasting them away with magic rays, slowly removing each that stood in her way. But just like before, the layers only got harder, making her magic dwindle along the way.
"I didn't expect it to reach this level." Gardevoir strained as she was doing her best to contain her daughter's spontaneous magic. The barrier wasn't going to last much longer and Gardevoir was really feeling the pressure. But she was the only one who was capable of keeping her daughter restrained. "I don't know how long I can keep this intact, my little ponies."
Equestria was slowly starting to crumble apart. The ground was rupturing with a huge chasm forming in between the ground. The entirety of Canterlot was coming down along with the castle tumbling. Everyone inside couldn't do anything due to them being immobilized by the magic. So all they could do was just sit there, helpless.
Griffonstone was being ripped out of the ground it was built off, causing the griffons to hold on for dear life. They even saw the skeleton of Arimaspi and a piece of their idol fly out of the Abysmal Abyss due to the gravity changing around them.
Both Yakyakistan and the Crystal Empire were being spun around like gyros, causing the inhabitants there to either get dizzy or just feeling the need to hurl.
Ponyville was getting the worst of it. It hadn't been fully rebuilt yet after the previous surges. Because of this, entire homes were being torn apart bit by bit.
"Kirlia's fears...They're what's causing all this tremendous magic to flow!" Gardevoir noticed. "If she continues to be afraid, it could build up to an insurmountable degree!"
"Hurry up sister." Luna gulped.
Celestia was trying her absolute best. Everything that she could do was being put to the test. All that's learned through her years was being showcased here. But even still, with all her years and centuries of experience, it just wasn't enough to overcome this. Celestia was running out of breath. She didn't know if she could keep this up. But she knew that the time to give up was not now or ever.
"I can't get through...there's too many." She sat down on an immobile floating Celestia head. "But I can't stop here. Everypony's counting on me. What can I do?" The Sun Princes dug deep, trying to find the best possible solution to this magic layer problem.
And just as things looked like they weren't about get any worse. They got worse. Passion's fears weren't just limited to the ones she loved. It was also apart of the ones she fears. More specifically...
Ghetsis, Tirek and the Storm Behemoth. Ghetsis because he managed to greatly injure Celestia, almost bringing her life to an end, Tirek due to him storming in and trying to steal Celestia's magic and the Storm Behemoth because it chased Passion about once. All three of those fears had shown up in her world as her worst fears.
"Oh, not you three..." Celestia groaned, not wanting to spend a second with them.
"You look a bit exhausted there, Celestia!" Tirek grinned. "What's wrong? Can't handle the psyche of some little creature?"
"Shows just how inferior your species is compared to my world!" Ghetsis cackled.
"I don't have time for all of you! Move aside!"
"You wish we'd move aside. Hydreigon. Hyper Beam!" Ghetsis and Tirek began their attack on Celestia. The terrifying truth of this world was that you can actually feel physical pain in here. This wasn't an illusionary world. This was its own separate world with life. Celestia now had even larger problems all over her hooves. She flew back, avoiding both of the destructive beams that came from Tirek and Hydreigon. However, she was quickly brought back down by a slap from the Storm Behemoth.
The Sun Princess had crashed on a hill, tumbling on it. She grunted whilst trying to recover from it. It didn't help that earlier the layers managed to hurt her as well. So this was only adding onto the pain. She was in a rough spot now. Celestia quickly opened her eyes, noticing that Tirek was flying towards her. She gasped, teleporting away from the centaur as he broke through the hill.
Celestia was given an unfortunate sneak attack from behind via Hydreigon. The Brutal Pokemon had bitten on one of Celestia's hooves with its mouth hands. The sharp teeth dug into her hooves, causing Celestia to scream in pain. And there was an insult to injury that was added onto this. Tirek had grabbed a hold of Celestia's neck, holding it place while Hydreigon's teeth continue to sink into her. The alicorn was finding it hard to breathe or focus as she was being restrained by two overwhelming forces. And the corner of her eye, she noticed the Storm Behemoth charging up a devastating pulse that was just eager to unleash of Celestia.
"C-Can't breathe..." Celestia whimpered. She could feel herself losing consciousness. She feared that she would meet her end, not by Passion but by these three. It looked hopeless until she was reminded of where she really was.
"Braviary! Superpower!" Rainbow Dash's voice echoed through her ears. Before she knew it, both Hydreigon and Tirek were sent flying by the incoming Valiant Pokemon. It was pretty obvious that it wasn't hopeless. After all, she was in a world where everypony was a perfect parallel of their real-world counterpart.
"Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" Even this world had a parallel variant of Ash who was exactly the same.
"Pika!" Pikachu had put a stop to the behemoth's charging by causing it to overload in that small instance.
"You okay, Princess?!" Rainbow Dash flew over to Celestia.
"R-Rainbow Dash?"
"Yeah. Well, this world's Rainbow Dash. You looked like you needed a lot of help there."
"Braviary!"
"Get lost, you brats! Hydreigon! Dragon Pulse!" Ghetsis exclaimed. The Dark-Dragon-Type fired a devastating shockwave in the shape of a dragon as it raced towards Braviary.
"Iron Tail!" Pikachu jumped up, blocking the Dragon Pulse with his tail and saving his fellow ally.
"Thank you for your help. Even if you are mirrors, you're still like your real-world counterparts."
"No problem." The mirror Ash gave a thumbs up. "You wanna get to Passion, right? We'll all back you up."
"Pikachu!"
"Right." Celestia had been healed up thanks to this world's Fluttershy using her Audino to heal her. The Sun Princess felt rejuvenated as she continued her pursuit towards the location to Canterlot. Tirek attempted to grab her, but this world's Twilight made sure that he wouldn't the chance by commanding her Eve. This world's Eve had blasted Tirek's arm with a Psybeam, causing him to pull his arms back.
The Storm Behemoth was chasing after Celestia, attempting to crush her. Pikachu continued to get in the way by constantly shocking it with Thunderbolts, forcing it to back down every single time. Ghetsis's Hydreigon constantly fired Hyper Beams at the dashing princess, trying to hit its mark.
One Hyper Beam looked like it was about to make contact, but once again, a parallel version of somepony in this world managed to back the princess up. This world's Applejack had her Treecko use Dragon Breath, pushing back the Hyper Beam as they cancelled each other out. Celestia looked back to see them all doing their best to protect her. Even if this wasn't her own world. She once again came across the layers. With her strength back, she could maybe breakthrough the harder ones, hopefully.
"Let me through!" Celestia unleashed a beam of magic that poured onto the harder layers. Her being back to full strength actually managed to cause one of the thick layers to break apart, showing some great progress. But there was still the obstacle of the ones beyond the layers that she could breakthrough at the moment. At best, Celestia managed to break through four of them with her full power, but it wasn't enough. "No good. The further ones aren't even budging. What now?"
It was time for a different approach. But what kind of approach would work this time. If she can't break through every single of them to the very end at her absolute best, then what if she used someone who was much more powerful than her to do so. And that's when it hit her. The best option is to use her enemies as support. Tirek, Hydreigon and the Behemoth were all greater than her in terms of power. They'll do.
"Yoo-hoo! Boys~!" Celestia called for them each. The three monsters stopped what they were doing along with the trainers as they turned around to heed Celestia's call. "Over here!" She taunted them by acting like an absolute child. She blew her tongue at them, shook her rump, made googly eyes and everything you'd expect a child doing their absolute best to taunt someone would be.
"What's she doing?" Rarity asked Applejack.
"I think she's taunting them." AJ replied.
"That's the best form of taunting if you ask me." Pinkie spoke.
Celestia had provoked Tirek the most since he was the easiest to provoke compared to the other two. The centaur chased after Celestia, attempting to crash right into her. But that was exactly what Celestia was hoping would happen. She teleported out of the way of the approaching monster as he instead crashed through the layers of magic that were in his way. That was the push Celestia needed to advance further. Tirek had managed to break every last one of them with the force he exerted. And as a bonus, it made his head dizzy.
"Thank you, Tirek!" Celestia thanked him as she flew by, heading through the door.
"WHY YOU-" His words were cut off by Pikachu slamming an Iron Tail on his head.
Celestia had finally reached Canterlot once more. That same unnecessarily long hallway stood before her. Once again, she'll have to pass through it if she wants to get to Passion.
"This again. I feared this the most." Celestia groaned. "How am I going to speed up the process?"
"Who said you'll need to do it on your own?" One of the many Celestia's who was petting their Passion's spoke. "We'll help you out."
"All of you? Every last one of you?"
"But of course. We are you and you are us. Only seems fitting don't you think?" Another Celestia said as they all nodded in agreement.
"I'm truly grateful. All of you. Alright. What can you do?"
"This." A Celestia walked up to the real one, kicking her across the hallway, causing her to scream along the way. "Follow up, every Celestia!"
All the Celestia's in the hallway were constantly taking turns, kicking the real Celestia further and further down the hallway. Surprisingly, it was the fastest and most efficient form of transport.
Hey. If it works, it works.
After an unknown number of kicks to the flank, Celestia had finally reached her destination. With the consequence of her back being sore. But who cares about that right now. There she was.
Passion.
Inside the bubble, reaching her absolute peak. The bubble she was in was shifting in colour. Indicating that it was already on the verge of blowing up. Celestia was here now. And all she had to do was reach her Pokemon.
"Passion!" She cried out.
But Passion couldn't hear her. The destructive sounds of the bubble were blocking out any other forms of noise, making her trainer practically invisible.
"Passion, it's me!" This time she used her Royal Canterlot Voice. But that was no good either. Celestia attempted to get close, by the magic bolts forced her to step back. "She can't hear me...Not with that resounding sound."
"Kirlia..." Passion curled up, starting to tear up from the constant struggling. Celestia won't be able to do anything with all of this noise. Not on her own. But maybe, the other Celestia's can help once more. Hopefully, it doesn't involve any further kicking.
"I may need your help once more, all of you!" Celestia spoke to her parallel world selves.
"Oh? You can count on us...us!" A Celestia nodded. "Need another kick?"
"No! This time, I need you all to transfer your magic to me." Celestia demanded.
"Huh?!" They all pulled back. What the real Celestia was referring to was similar to what happened with Twilight when Tirek attacked. "Are you sure?"
"100%. More than 100% even. I can't do anything in my current state. Even I'm not powerful enough to overcome this on my own. But with the help of everypony, I can make some amazing progress. You must all transfer your magic to me so that I can save Passion."
"Well, why didn't you say so in the first place. We'd do anything to protect our sweet little Passion!" A Celestia said.
"Anything!" All of them said unison.
"All together now!" The Celestia's each sent their magic towards the real one. This was practically the last-ditch effort. If this didn't work, then nothing will. Soon, Celestia felt the force of a million alicorns swell up from within her. And they were all her to boot. Now she felt what Twilight felt when she, Cadence and Luna gave up their magic for her. Every single Celestia had ended up losing their Cutie Marks in the process due to this.
Celestia's magic was rising, overflowing. Due to her being much older than Twilight by centuries, her body was actually capable of withstanding this amount of magic. But it still felt so uneasy for her.
"This amount of magic will do. Thank you all...uh...me's." Celestia thanked.
"No problem. Now go on and save Passion so you can give her a belly rub as well. Isn't that right, my little Passion? Good girl!" The Celestia's got back to rubbing the bellies of their own Passion's. It was time to really face Passion for the final time.
"Passion!" Celestia called for her name once more. This time she was confident enough to head towards her. The intense force of the bubble would normally push Celestia back, but thanks to her overflowing with magic, that was no longer an issue. The Sun Princess outstretched her hoof out, attempting to make contact with the barrier. The closer she got, the more pressure was being put on her.
Once her hoof made contact, the critical mass behind it was actually crushing Celestia's hoof in the process, slowly breaking her bones. She did her best to try and power through it as shoved her hoof further through the bubble.
"Kirlia...!" Passion was finally at her limit. It was too much to bear.
On the outside, the force she exhibited broke Gardevoir's barrier into tiny little pieces as they were all pushed back. This is where things went from horrible to apocalyptic. Before they all knew it, both worlds had been filled with Passion's psychic energy as it spread across continents, regions, countries, islands, cities, towns all forms of areas where there exists life was hit. Both worlds were engulfed in a dazzling magical pink light, encasing them in it.
At this point, it felt like the end of the world due to the chaotic activities that were being caused by Passion. And as you can expect, her magic was causing oddities across both worlds in various ways that are had to describe.
Celestia's hoof felt like it was about to die out as she could hear every ounce of her bones breaking apart. But she couldn't let that stop her. She was willing to harm her hoof in order to reach Passion.
"Passion!" Celestia let out one final yell for her Pokemon. She went all out by using every ounce of the magic that she was giving to break through the bubble with her entire hoof.
Finally, after a seemingly endless and infinite struggle, Celestia made contact with Passion with her hoof physically touching her. Passion could feel this familiar touch as she opened her eyes to see the trainer that she loves the most standing there.
"Kirlia?"
"It's alright. I'm here now."
Seeing Celestia here was enough to case Passion's bubble to diminish. It was this close to actually blowing up, but the sight of Celestia being there for her put that to a stop. Passion had flown over to her trainer, giving her an embracing hug. She was glad that Celestia was here for her. In truth, she was earlier, but the chaotic noise from the bubble was blocking out any other forms of sound.
This heartwarming hug was cut short. Very short. Even though Passion's bubble had managed to diminish, she was still feeling an uncontrollable surge lurk within her. She didn't faint this time nor was she put to sleep. Instead, it was revealed that it wasn't the bubble that was reaching critical mass and on the verge of exploding but it was Passion herself. However, it didn't feel like it was explosion worthy actually. Soon, a bright white light had shined across her world, even breaking through this world and reaching reality.
Both worlds were graced with this enchanting and dazzling light that. Everything that came from it was beautiful. It didn't cause any harm to anyone. It didn't affect their surroundings. It didn't do much of anything, except shine everywhere. Celestia closed her eyes as she and Passion had suddenly vanished out of thin air.
All that was left was the aftermath of sparkles filling the air.
Chapter 172 End!