Twilight opened her eyes. “Wh…”
Doctor Crusher flipped her medical tricorder closed. “You’re on the Enterprise, over Flipside.”
“Did…”
“We got all the others in time.”
“Thank you but… I was asking about the Pure Heart.”
Crusher frowned. “I… don’t believe we did.”
“Oh.” Twilight laid back down, looking at the ceiling of the Enterprise’s sick bay. “...How many did we evacuate?”
“We’re still counting. Several thousand.” She paused. “Not enough.”
“Oh.” Twilight stared blankly upward. “That’s it, then. Lost a Pure Heart to the Void. There’s nothing we can do now.”
“That may not be true,” Data said, prompting Twilight to look over to him opposite Crusher. Only he and Tippi were there.
“What…?” Twilight blinked slowly. “How?”
“The door to the world still exists,” Data reported. “There is still something there.”
“What?”
“...You’ll have to see for yourself,” Tippi said. To Crusher, she asked. “Can she move?”
Crusher nodded. “Flipside makes my medicine almost pointless. She’s sore, but she’s fine.”
“Where are we going?” Twilight asked, having to force herself to stand up. Despite what Crusher said, she didn’t feel sore at all. Just empty.
“To the bridge,” Data said. Slowly, he led her out of sickbay, to one of the turbolifts. They entered, and Data gave the command. Twilight barely noticed. Even if the Pure Heart could still be salvaged…
She wasn’t aware of enough herself to even finish the thought. Or, perhaps, she knew she couldn’t bear the end of it, so she didn’t let herself arrive.
They walked onto the bridge. Data took his position at operations while Cosmo, Toph, Vivian, and Caspian gestured for Twilight to join them on the level behind the Captain. Worf wasn’t there, instead, it was one of Eggman’s robots running tactical.
Picard turned to the arrivals. “Words cannot express the weight of this tragedy,” he said, shaking his head. “But we must forge on. Lieutenant Knuckles… engage.”
The Enterprise leaped from Flipside through the power of the Master Emerald, arriving in Equis.
Or what once was Equis.
The world on the other side was white. White sky and smooth, featureless white ground. There was no sign of the Void whatsoever, just endless nothingness.
Wordlessly, Twilight approached the main viewscreen. She stared at the utter, absolute, nothingness.
“Is there…” She turned, looking to Data with tears in her eyes. “Is…”
“I am sensing pockets of unassimilated matter,” Data said. “The closest is… onscreen.”
The display changed to show a single tower of Canterlot standing in the midst of the endless white. However, the tower had no color, no life to it.
“Data, are we in danger?” Picard asked.
“Only minimally. If we remained in this universe for more than three hours we would start to fade.”
“So there really will be nothing, soon…” Twilight breathed.
Cosmo walked over to her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. “But there’s something here. Even if it won’t last forever, that means it’s not gone. Tippi?”
“I sense something,” Tippi said, fluttering forward. “It… doesn't feel quite right, but I believe it’s the Pure Heart. If anything could survive this destruction… it would.”
Picard nodded. “Helm, lay in whatever course Tippi suggests.”
Tippi fluttered over to Tails and indicated a heading.
“Engage.”
The Enterprise burst through the world at impulse speeds. If it wasn’t for the indicators on the screen, there would have been little to no indication they were moving at all. The white was so featureless.
“Stop!” Tippi shouted. Tails did as told, bringing the Enterprise to a standstill. “There…”
Data zoomed in on the screen. There, sitting on top of the white ground, was a heart-shaped stone.
“...It looks dead,” Vivian said bursting into tears.
“Bring it aboard,” Picard ordered. “We’ll return it to Flipside a—”
“Incoming Void portal,” Eggman’s robot reported.
“Shields up!” Picard ordered. “Onscreen.”
The portal had appeared right next to the stone heart, depositing none other than Mr. L’s Brobot onto the empty world. Before they could do anything, the robot picked up the stone heart and threw it into its mouth.
“It’s not even strong enough to reject the unworthy…” Tippi said.
“We are being hailed,” Eggman’s robot reported.
“Very well…” Picard adjusted his uniform and stood up. “Open a channel.”
“Heeeeey!” Mr. L called, snorting with laughter. “Looks like your dumb heart is broken! And it’s mine!”
“Not that that matters,” Lulu said from beside him. “The heart is useless. We came here with another purpose—to end you heroes. What a pleasure it will be to destroy you after you know your defeat is certain.”
“Prepare to getta punched into oblivion by Brobot! And his missiles!” Mr. L laughed and closed the connection.
Picard frowned. “Ready weapons.”
Vivian shook her head. “I… I swear I’ve heard that Mr. L before, somewhere…”
“He might be from your world,” Data said. “The Count has to recruit his help from somewhere, after all.”
Brobot’s missiles hit the Enterprise’s shields.
“Shields holding,” Eggman’s robot reported. “73%.”
“Fire a barrage of photon torpedoes,” Picard ordered. “I want that thing out of the sky.” The photon torpedoes shot out of the Enterprise, sparkling as points of red light. They all hit Brobot’s shields, exploding on contact.
Brobot emerged from the smoke, shields damaged, but otherwise unharmed. It pulled a fist back, enchanted with fire from Lulu.
“Full reverse!” Picard ordered. Tails was already moving the Enterprise back, narrowly avoiding a direct hit from the fist. “Call for backup and keep us out of his physical range!”
“Captain,” Data said, turning around. “I do not believe he has warp propulsion. Perhaps we can use that to our advantage.”
“Yes. Take us to warp 1, but use the triangle maneuver.”
Tails laid in the course. The Enterprise shot into warp, seemingly running away from Brobot. However, it jumped out of warp a few seconds later, turned, and entered warp again. Another turn and warp burst later, the Enterprise appeared directly behind Brobot.
“Fire!” Picard orders.
A barrage of photon torpedoes erupted from the Enterprise, impacting Brobot’s shields. The phaser banks triggered as well, firing multiple beams of energy directly into Brobot.
“Enemy shields damaged,” Eggman’s robot reported.
“He’s firing missiles again!” Tails called.
“Warp again,” Picard said. “He can’t hit us. And mix up the arrangement this time—use a pentagon so he can’t predict our movements.”
Once again, the Enterprise performed a loop. Upon its return, Brobot attempted to attack where it thought the Enterprise would be, but it was very wrong, allowing another barrage to hit without retaliation.
“Offset figure eight,” Picard ordered. “His shields can’t possibly last much longer.”
The Enterprise performed a roundabout warp maneuver, appearing in yet another unpredictable position. This time, however, Lulu wasn’t even trying to predict where the Enterprise would show up, just when. A befuddlement spell went out in all directions, making everyone on board the Enterprise lose their focus—everyone except Data and Eggman’s robot.
“Taking command,” Data declared for the computer’s sake. “Fire previously scheduled volley.”
The torpedoes and phasers hit dead-on once more, this time collapsing Brobot’s shields. However, Brobot didn’t care, since it uppercut the Enterprise with a lightning-infused punch. Shields held, and Data was able to order another volley. With Brobot’s shields gone, all it took was one direct hit from a phaser to disable the machine, dropping it to the ground.
“D-damage report…” Picard managed through the befuddlement spell.
“Minimal,” Data responded, pressing a few buttons. “Their shields are down, but I sense an imminent reactor overload.”
“Get the Heart!” Caspian shouted, suddenly fully aware. “We n—”
Brobot exploded in a shower of smoke and fire. The crew’s despair was quickly replaced with relief as they saw a heart-shaped stone flying through the air.
“Transport it directly to the bridge,” Picard ordered. One second later, the stone heart was sitting on the bridge.
Tippi landed on it. “Its power has… been drained. It’s still a Pure Heart, but it wouldn’t do anything if we tried to place it with the others.”
Vivian was the one who walked to it and picked it up. “We… we got a Pure Heart…?”
Picard shook his head with a sigh. “Helm, take us back to Flipside.”
“Yes, sir,” Tails said.
~~~
Starlight had to teleport rapidly to move through the sea of panicking ponies to get around. “Twilight!?” She called, jumping from building to building. “Twilight!?” There was no sign of her anywhere amidst the panicked populace.
>>She is currently on board the platform.<< Merlon told her from a nearby screen.
“Thanks!” Starlight teleported up there immediately, landing right in front of the statue of Cadence and Discord. Twilight was there, all right, Element of Magic on her head and everything, including her team.
Starlight saw the stone heart Vivian was holding. “Is it…?”
“We don’t know,” Cosmo said, fidgeting with her fingers. “It’s…”
“There must be a way to revive it,” Toph declared, clapping her hands together. “Isn’t that right? Somewhere in the worlds, there’s something that can bring it back. We… we can go to Aslan! Or Rosalina!”
“It’s… worth a shot,” Twilight said, breathing heavily.
“Twilight…” Starlight said, swallowing hard. She tried to pull her face back. “I…”
“It’s gone, Starlight,” Twilight breathed. “Everything we ever knew… gone. All that remains is what we managed to evacuate in those precious few minutes. That’s it. Ponyville, Canteerlot, the Crystal Empire, your town… all gone.”
Tears welled up in Starlight’s eyes. “But… but we’re going to fix it, right?”
“I don’t know if stopping the Void will bring everyone back!” Twilight shouted, Element of Magic suddenly shining like a star. “Why would it? It already ate everything, why would stopping it do anything?”
“Because that’s how it works! Discord’s tricks vanished, Tirek’s magic returned to its rightful owners, and Cozy’s plan basically fixed itself!”
“That’s how it worked in our world, and our world isn’t around anymore!”
“But it might work like that!”
“What am I supposed to do with a might!?” Twilight shouted, the light in the Element of Magic shining even brighter. “What if we get to the end of this road and there are no worlds left!? What do we do then!?”
“I don’t know!”
“I don’t know either! All I know is that they’re gone and there probably isn’t a way to get them back!” The Element of Magic sent out a burst of rainbow energy. It passed harmlessly through everyone on the platform, but it knocked the statue over, cracking it down the middle.
Twilight gasped, tears in her eyes. “Oh no, oh no oh no oh no, don’t break…”
The statue crumbled to dust at her words… revealing two very much living shapes.
“What…?” Cadence said, lifting her head. “I feel… empty…”
Discord lazily snapped his fingers, but his power did not come to him. “Lovely…”
“Cadence! Discord!” Twilight ran to them, pulling them into a hug. She made a few sputtered attempts to say something, but nothing came out. All her body could do was cry into their manes and coats, squeezing them tighter and tighter.
“D-did something happen, Twilight?” Cadence asked.
“I…”
“Yes,” the wise voice of Celestia said as she and Luna alighted on the platform. “Something terrible has happened—but that need not stop the good news of your return. Welcome back, Cadence.”
“And you too, Discord,” Luna added.
“I… was at a very dumb wedding,” Discord said, furrowing his brow. “I… why don’t I have any power? What’s going on? Why are there flying saucers in the sky?”
Twilight squeezed him tighter. “Stop asking questions. We’ll… figure it out later.” Tears kept falling from her eyes. “We will figure it out…” she told herself. “We will…”