//------------------------------// // Surprising Visitor // Story: Worlds Apart: The Chosen of the Prognosticus // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Rosalina held the Comet Observatory directly over Rogueport. “Your door awaits, chosen heroes.” Twilight nodded. “Thank you, Rosalina.” “I take it you appreciate the time you spent together?” Twilight smiled softly. “Yeah… we needed it.” “Then return… return to Flipside stronger than you ever have been. For the trials are just beginning.” She waved her wand and the floor fell out from under the seven of them. They fell into an unceremonious pile in front of the Rogueport door, where a Starfleet officer and a Mobian were standing guard. The Starfleet officer’s eyes widened. “Are you really back?” Twilight chuckled, righting Toph’s wheelchair with her magic. “Yes. Yes we are. And…” She took out the Pure Heart, holding it high. “Mission accomplished.” The officer nodded. “We’ve had to increase security since you left, I’ll have to tag all of you when entering.” “What?” Toph twitched. “Why?” “Mimi got in while you were gone.” Toph’s angry expression melted. “Oh. That’s… a good reason, I guess.” The Starfleet officer pressed a metallic cylinder to each of them, harmlessly inserting the chip into all except Tippi. “Merlon already has tracking on you.” After this, the Starfleet officer opened the doors. “Right this way. Welcome back to Flipside.” Twilight led her friends through the doors, appearing back on the Flipside platform. Things weren’t exactly as she remembered. For once, on top of the elevator there was some kind of technological pillar that glowed with a bluish light. Several seats surrounded the pillar, each occupied by someone different. Aang, Sonic, Shadow, several Klingon warriors and Starfleet officers, including Worf, a troop of talking mice sharing one seat, and Cortez with several of his flaming ghosts. “What… are you all doing up there?” Twilight asked. Sonic answered first. “We’re plan C! Current mission: be bored out of our brains!” Sonic flopped into his chair, both eyes twitching. Worf sighed. “We are all ready to transport through a Void portal the moment one opens anywhere in any of our sensor ranges in any of the universes. We will bring the fight to the Count!” “...That’s unimaginably dangerous and risky,” Cosmo said. “I know!” Sonic laughed. “They refused to take my boat into space,” Cortez said. “So I’m going to the land beyond space! Yahahahahaahh!” Toph smirked. “You all have fun with that.” Aang leaned over. “Toph…” “Yep, I’m a paralytic right now! Woo, no legs!” She shook her head in Aang’s direction. “A night in Flipside should fix me.” “Before we do that…” Data cocked his head. “You mentioned this being Plan C. If I am correct in assuming we are Plan A, what is Plan B?” Sonic pointed into the sky. Twilight realized, with shock, that there were a couple of Federation Starships drifting in the creamy ambiance: larger, carrier-type ships. As she took in this truth, a circle appeared in front of the ships. It was orange and had four sections in it, stylized much like the door to Mobius itself was. The four sections opened like a flower, revealing a larger portal to Mobius’ sky. A dozen ships floated through, including the Blue Typhoon, away from the universe where the Void took up a fair chunk of the sky. “...Evacuations?” Twilight asked. “Yep!” Sonic said. “Doctor Eggman thinks maybe if we have enough Hearts, we can survive the Void directly.” “I do hope it doesn’t come to that,” Caspian said. “We all do,” Worf said. “Now go, place that Heart in the pillar. With it, the large doors will no longer be difficult to maintain.” “Right, right, let—” The pillar the “Plan C” team was sitting around started flashing, and a synthetic voice boomed over the entire platform. “DIMENTIO-TYPE PORTAL DETECTED. ENERGIZING.” The entire Plan C team was converted into the blue energy of a Federation transporter, presumably shunted directly through the ripple in space-time appearing right above their heads. The ripple tore open, depositing a unicorn Twilight recognized and the statue of Discord and Cadence onto the platform. “Starlight!” Twilight called, running to the pinkish unicorn. “Starlight, I…” She pulled the unicorn into a hug. “It’s so good to see you!” “Can’t… breathe…” Starlight managed. “Tired…” Twilight released her, realizing that Starlight really did look terrible. “What… what happened?” “Escaped… the castle. Brought the statue. And…” Starlight wobbled. “Couldn’t bring the others…” Starlight’s eyes rolled into the back of her skull and she passed out. “Starlight!” Twilight called. “Starlight!” “She’ll be fine,” Riker said, running over from the elevator. “This is Flipside, remember? It likely forced her to take a rest due to her exhaustion.” “Right…” Twilight shook her head. “You all need to rest as well. Don’t worry—we can handle this. We’ve established a sort of provisional government now, we have more organized power.” Twilight glanced at Caspian’s broken arm, Toph’s wheelchair, and the general tired expression of everyone in her group. “All right… I’ll want a full report in the morning. Data, gather everything we need to know while we sleep. After you get that arm of yours repaired.” Data nodded. “Of course, Twilight. And Commander?” Riker looked up. “It is good to see you.” Riker broke out into a smile. “Good to see you too, Data. We were worried there for a while. Why don’t you tell me what happened on your end?” “After you tell me what’s happened here,” Data said. “And while we examine this… statue.” “Fair enough.” Twilight and the others descended to the other Pure Hearts and deposited the new one into it. Then they scrambled off to Ty Lee’s little inn to go to sleep. Ty Lee was actually there when they arrived, packing a large backpack. “What are you doing?” Toph asked. “I’m going to explore the Pit! Face the shadows! We recently got approved to go i—Toph! Your legs!” “Nothing a night’s sleep her won’t fix,” Toph chuckled, following it up with a yawn. “Go have fun in your Pit… thing.” “Pit…?” Tippi asked as the others began to go to sleep. “Oh, uh, you don’t know? Eggman found this thing in the bottom of Flipside…” ~~~ Starlight woke up to a humanoid android staring her in the face. “...Not the weirdest sight I’ve ever woken up to,” Starlight admitted, stretching her legs. “Who’re you?” “Lieutenant-Commander Data, a friend of Twilight’s.” “Where’s Twilight?” “Resting, as you just were.” Starlight sat up, realizing that she had been laid on a bedroll on a strange platform surrounded by six colorful doors, all of which had guards of various different species posted at them. She somehow just knew they all went to other worlds. “What is this place…?” “I’ll explain later,” Data said. “For now, we need to understand how you used this statue to travel dimensions, ignoring the Chaos Heart’s curse.” “Why do you need to know so quickly?” “When you transported here, we had a strike team on standby to assault Castle Bleck from within. We were expecting to jump through a Void signal of one of his minions… not you. If we can replicate your method, we may be able to establish contact and send more support—eliminating the Count, possibly without gathering all the Pure Hearts.” “All the…” Starlight shook her head. “Right, you’ll explain it to me later. Uh, I just prodded the statue until I found the dimensional signature inside of it, and then I…” She lit her horn, prodding the statue. “Hold on…” She searched it’s magic. She found the residual energy of the Chaos Heart, yes, but… nothing. “There’s… nothing in there.” “Nothing?” “I mean, the signature I grabbed… it’s just gone.” She blinked. “That doesn’t make any sense.” “Unfortunate,” Data said. “The team is on their own, I suppose.” “We have an entire Resistance movement going on inside Castle Bleck,” Starlight explained. “They won’t be alone. I think we’d be happy for the help, but they have to get away from Count Bleck and his minions first… that might be hard.” “They are a formidable group,” Data reported. “But you should not fill me in on the details, I will be leaving soon. Riker will handle your debrief.” He gestured to the bearded man currently examining the statue. “Leaving... why?” “I am a member of Twilight’s team. I search for the Pure Hearts.” “Then I’m coming with you.” “No, you’re not,” Twilight said, coming out of the elevator. “Starlight, they need to know everything you know about Castle Bleck. They can’t get that if you’re out exploring with us.” “But…” Twilight held up a hoof. “Starlight… your skills are best served here, working with all the worlds that have come together to stop Count Bleck. You’re the only one who knows what it’s like in there. You’re the one…” She glanced nervously at the statue. “Who brought us this.” Starlight nodded. “Right, right, you’re always right. It’s just… I want to do something.” Data leaned in. “May I suggest that, after your debrief, you assist with the evacuation of Mobius? The Void is large there.” As if on cue, the Void above Flipside increased in size, sending a rumble through the city that shook a few of the starships drifting nearby. It was nowhere near the size it was in Mobius, but it took up maybe a tenth of the entire sky. “We need to move,” Twilight said. “Data, with me, tell me everything you found out. Don’t worry, I already had breakfast—the others are still waking up. Starlight, do your best, okay?” “Okay.” “And one more thing.” Twilight pulled Starlight into a hug. “...It really is good to see you.” Starlight hugged her back. “I… we’ve missed you.” “...Quickly, how are the others?” “Applejack and Rainbow are captured, Rarity is leading the Resistance, Fluttershy and Pinkie are working with Rarity, and Shining Armor is… understandably depressed.” Twilight glanced at the statue. “...I’ll ask Data about this. ...Take care of yourself.” She quickly ran after Data, leaving Starlight to Riker. ~~~ “So, the ‘heroes’ came back,” Amy said, dangling her legs over the edge of the Pit. “Yeah, I saw them!” Ty Lee said, strapping her pith helmet tightly to her head. She patted herself down, making sure the pink form-fitting gymnastic suit the Federation had supplied her was adequate. It was surprisingly flexible and allowed her more freedom of movement than anything she’d worn previously—which made sense, since it was designed for that. “And the assault team went out,” Amy continued, sagging. “With Sonic…” “I bet he’s having a lot of fun!” Ty Lee performed a few leg stretches, getting ready for the gauntlet ahead of them. “Either that or he got captured instantly, which would mean a lot of not fun.” “And they’re going to a new world,” Amy said, at this point clearly not paying any attention to Ty Lee. Ty Lee sighed, tapping Amy on the ear to get her attention. “You’ll forget all about this once we’re in the Pit. Just imagine: monster faces getting bashed in every second! It’ll be great.” Amy tightened her grip on her hammer. “Yes… Smash a bunch of their faces in…” “That’s the spirit!” “Are you two quite done?” Eggman asked, floating above them in his little egg-hover chair. “We’re ready to enter the Pit.” “A-okay!” Amy declared, jumping to her feet. “Let’s take them out!” Ty Lee saluted to indicate her agreement. “Then let’s begin!” Eggman turned around to address the small army they’d gathered together to face the Pit consisting of several master benders for Diqiu, a fair number of Eggman’s robots, a ridiculous number of Klingon warriors, some Narnian knights composed largely of talking animals, a few of Cortez’s flaming ghosts, and an assortment of various other individuals. “Remember, we’ve been training for this for quite some time. It is almost certain that not all of us are making it out of that Pit alive.” “It is a good day to die!” The Klingons chanted, prompting uneasy looks from the other members of the expedition. “Mmm…” Eggman decided not to comment further. “Amy, I believe you wanted the honors?” Amy lifted her hammer high into the air. “All right everyone! We’re going in there and we’re going to prove that we’ve got something to offer! Let’s exterminate this Pit of all its evil shadowy demon things! Follow me!” She jumped in. There was a mixture of those who let out a war cry and those who followed her in without much of a fuss. They landed on the first floor and took in the image of the red Pure Heart over images of Earth. Amy was interested to see what the other murals would be. But first, it was shadow smashing time. She ran down the stairs, yelling a wild battle cry. “Ty Lee,” Eggman said, drifting down in his hover-seat. “Do keep an eye on her.” “Yes, Doctor!” Ty Lee saluted and jumped after her in the midst of the other warriors.