//------------------------------// // Chapter 59: To The Next Recruit // Story: Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers // by Lucar //------------------------------// Past Sonic and Past Tails left an Eggman entirely plastered into the care of the G.U.N. doctors and returned to the fox's workshop where the others awaited them. As they arrived, Present Tails just finished installing a machine that he brought back from his world: a de-roboticizer. Tails planned to use it to de-roboticize Shadow who really didn't want to keep his mechanical parts although the foxes got rid of the programming so he didn't have to fight it anymore. Shadow simply remained against a wall, arms crossed, as he waited. Present Sonic was talking with Sweetie Belle, exchanging tales of their adventures while Phantom listened. Sonic was actually in the middle of recounting how Shadow and him turned Super to fight the Biolizard who had fused with the ARK to become the Finalhazard and force the ARK to crash after they had managed to use the Master Emerald to stop the Chaos Emeralds. While Phantom didn't seem to react much to the tale, Past Sonic and Past Tails could almost see stars in her eyes. Sonic, however, paused it when he remarked the presence of the Past duo and he waved at them. "Hey! So, what's the verdict on Fat Egg?" he asked, bringing everyone's attention on them. "It's uncertain," Tails answered. "Since Eggman already managed to escape the best prison of the United Federation and possibly the world, Commander Tower, the President, and some other important people will have a meeting to decide his fate, if he's to be put back in a cell or be exceptionally given the death penalty. Or something else. One thing is sure, this time, they will really do everything to ensure that Eggman will never be a threat again, even if it means building a whole prison facility deep underground or somewhere in space just for him. This may be the last time we will hear of him." "Lucky you," Sonic said. "Ours is still somewhere out there doing who-knows-what, and I have a bad feeling. The last time he went silent for several months straight, he ended up conquering the world, even if just temporarily." "Well, if Eggman found himself another overpowered energy source and things go wrong, remember that you are just one portal away from me," Phantom said. "I will be happy to help kicking his ass. I wonder what will be his reaction when he will recognize my power." Before Sonic could reply, Tails then shouted "Done!" as he stepped back from the de-roboticizer. "It's ready! Now, Shadow, lie down on the table." Wordlessly, Shadow did so and Tails pressed a few buttons on the keyboard under the screen before he said, "I will have to anesthetize you. The process is really painful." "No need," Shadow declined. "I can support the pain." "You sure?" "Just let's finish it already." The fox gave a sigh. "Alright. I should have expected that..." he then mumbled before he activated the machine. It then proceeded to slowly, one by one, replace Shadow's mechanical parts by their original organic counterparts. The arm cannon eventually disappeared, giving the hedgehog back his hand, and the visor was soon next, replaced by his eyes. As Tails had warned, it revealed to be painful, but Shadow only let out painful groans as he waited for the ordeal to end. It still took several long painful minutes before Shadow was fully organic again. Several minutes during which the others could only watch. Once it was over, Tails gave the clear and Shadow sat up, quickly testing his limbs, especially what had previously been the arm cannon, before he began to walk toward the exit of the workshop giving a quiet "thank you" to Tails. "What? You're just gonna leave like that?" Past Tails asked. "I have no reason to remain here," Shadow said. "And where will you go? What will you do?" Shadow stopped, thinking for a few seconds, and answered, "I don't know yet." "If it can help," Present Tails began. "Our Shadow was recruited by the G.U.N. and helps them protecting the people of the world, whether from simple criminals, terrorists, Eggman, or other big threats like the Black Arms that will invade in a few years. If he did it, then you can do it too. Maybe you will even encounter Rouge with who you form a good team if the G.U.N. already recruited her." The fox then frowned. "There was Omega too, but now that Eggman is gone in this timeline, I don't think he will ever exist." He turned to look at his past-self. "Maybe I will give you his schematics so you can build him yourself." Past Tails gave a nod. Shadow remained silent for a few seconds as he turned to look at the fox and said, "I will think about this." "And there is also the matter of an multidimensional hostile army that may or may not invade this universe along with many others," Sweetie Belle said. This made Shadow as well as Past Sonic and Past Tails look at her in surprise and shout "What?!" (yes, even Past Sonic) "Yeah, I haven't gotten time to talk to you about this because of Eggman, but the reason I'm here at the origin is to warn about this army and recruit new allies to face it. I already told Phantom about it, as well as Sonic and Tails," She pointed at the present version of the blue hedgehog and the two-tailed fox. "and they agreed to help, but I wouldn't mind more people to join us. Against such a threat, the more the merrier." "You haven't mentioned the two Gods," Phantom reminded. "One at a time. First the multidimensional army, then the Gods." Past Tails groaned, putting a hand on his eyes. "One threat ends, another appears... When will this army come?" "No idea," Sweetie Belle answered. "I know almost nothing about this army. I just know that it will appear eventually and will invade universes. And this may or may not include this one." "So this may be what has Silver worried," Shadow then said, excepted that while it was his voice, it wasn't him who talked. Instead, from one of the entrances of the room came another Shadow who looked in all points identical. Present Sonic immediately guessed who he was. "Oh, hey Shads!" "Don't call me that! Everyone has been searching for you and Tails back in our world. Since we couldn't find you, I guessed that you were here. Silver is back and is panicking, and he wouldn't tell us what's going on without you there." Everyone excepted the Shadows exchanged looks and moved in the direction of the portal, followed by Present Shadow and then by Past Shadow after some hesitation. Back in the other world, they had to contact everyone and wait for them to gather in Tails' workshop. Before long, a silver-colored hedgehog came, many other people levitating behind him before he let them drop. The others were a red Echidna named Knuckles, a flying squirrel named Ray, a red armadillo named Mighty, a pink hedgehog in a red dress named Amy Rose, a bat named Rouge, a big red and black robot named Omega, a crocodile named Vector, a purple chameleon named Espio, a bee named Charmy, a lavender cat named Blaze, and a red cat named Leo*. They all let out groans as they rubbed the spots they landed on. "You could have at least been gentler..." Rouge complained. Silver didn't listen to her however as he looked at Sonic, horror visible in his eyes. "Sonic! Finally!" "What's going on Silv?" "The future is gone!" the silver hedgehog yelled. "It's gone! And not just my time, but ALL the future!" Everyone stared at him in shock. Sweetie Belle, however, quickly had an idea of what may have caused this and got a guilty look. She asked, "Is this universe one of these universes where a change in the timeline causes all of it to be rewritten instead of creating an alternate universe?" Present Tails understood where she was going. "Ohh... Yes, you are right, Sweetie Belle. We are in one of these universes. Each time that there's an outside influence, like the Phantom Ruby appearing, the future is modified instead of creating a new, different one. Silver is immune to these changes and sees them, so he travels back in time to warn us about these and helps us in dealing with the causes." "Ohhhh!" Past Tails said in understanding. "And with Sweetie Belle's intervention and that stuff about a multidimensional army and all, the future is now uncertain!" "More like it stopped existing," an unknown voice said, bringing everyone's attention to a nine-tailed anthropomorphic female orange fox now sitting on a chair where there had been empty space just a few seconds ago. The ones who could feel the Chaos Energy immediately felt something wrong with this being and got in guard. "What are you?" one of the Shadows asked. Seeing the Shadows' reactions, Omega got his weapons out and pointed them at the stranger who didn't pay any mind to him. "DD?" Sweetie Belle guessed. "I suppose that you are going to explain to them?" "You got it right!" DD said with a finger gun in Sweetie's direction. "Wait. Who is this? You know her?" Phantom asked. "She's the one who warned me about the multidimensional army and the Gods I told you about. Don't try anything against her, you wouldn't stand a chance. This means lower your weapons Omega if you don't want to be literally turned into a tin can! I'm not kidding!" "Oh, I wouldn't do that," DD said. "He would need to be a threat first." "Do as the pony says Omega. Your weapons would do nothing to her. I don't think it's even her real body. I can't feel anything from it," Present Shadow said. "It's true, this body is just an avatar," Sweetie Belle informed. "In reality, she's... they are... everywhere. They don't have a real body. They're a God, an all-powerful consciousness. The most powerful kind. They would have no problem defeating all of us at once with just a thought." Her statement was followed by some audible gulps. "Come on, stop doing that Sweetie. I'm not here to make others do in their pants (I know, most of you don't have pants, but whatever), I'm here to do as you said: explain about your little time problem. By the way, you can thank me for not being invaded by an infinity of Silvers." "What do you mean?" Blaze asked. "Simple. Silver didn't exist at just one point in the future. He existed in each instant from his birth to his eventual death. And between these two moments, the number of instants was infinite. So, why is there just one Silver here instead of an infinity from each instant coming and asking why the future suddenly disappeared? Answer: I merged all the Silvers into one the instant the future disappeared." "So this is why I suddenly lived the majority of my life in one instant when everything disappeared around me? Do you know how weird it feels to live the instant I died only to still be alive in the end?" "Yes. At least, be happy that you didn't have to relive the instant of your birth." Silver shivered. "As for why the future disappeared, this isn't just because of the uncertainty due to the outside influence. Or else, the future would have just been modified like it had been modified when the Phantom Ruby appeared. I fear that this is my fault, indirectly. I helped Sweetie Belle become what she is today. I am unique. There is not two beings like me in the whole infinity of the Omniverse. As a result, my influence is unique, and the beings and instants that I influence become unique. But contrary to me who is beyond time, who exists in the past, the present, and the future of the universes I enter, these beings and instants only exist in one point in space and time. So Sweetie Belle is unique, and from her and her actions, my unique influence spreads. When she enters an universe in an instant t, then everything before and after this instant t ceases to exist. No past. No future. Just the present. The unique present her presence created. Generally, this results in the creation of alternate universes that only exist in the present, but in universes like yours, where time acts as she explained, this results in the past and the future being erased, only the instant t now existing. The dimension of time is now just a dot. No more time travel. No more predicting the future. There's just the present instant t, advancing instant by instant. So, Silver, I fear that everything you knew is now definitively gone. My bad." ""My bad"? My home-time is gone because of you, and all you say is "my bad"?!" Silver yelled. "I'm sorry Silver! It's also my fault!" Sweetie Belle said in the verge of crying. "I didn't think about that when I started exploring universes." DD rolled her eyes. "No need to make a drama about this," she then said. Everyone glared at her. She snapped her fingers. "There! I brought your time back as a different universe! You can use Tails' portal to go to it." "What?! Just like that?" Silver shouted in shock. "See? As I said, no need to make a drama out of it. After all, as Sweetie told you, I am a God." DD gave them the most serious look she could give. "Demand me anything, and you shall have it if I want. If something goes wrong because of me, then I can make it right. Consequences have no meaning to me." She then smiled at Silver. "No need to thank me!" And suddenly, she wasn't here anymore. ... "Wait! But then, how come our present wasn't modified after the Time Eater crisis where the past was changed?" Present Sonic wondered. "Oh! This one is easy!" DD said as she reappeared, finger raised, making everyone jump. "When the Time Eater destroyed the timeline, the fragments turned into alternate universes! And they remained this way once the Time Eater was destroyed!" And she disappeared again. ... "That's one strange friend you have here," Present Sonic commented to Sweetie Belle. "Not my friend. They want to eat me." ... "What?" "Long story. So, I guess this settles this. You present your friends to me?" Sweetie Belle and Phantom, back in their normal pony form, passed the portal back to Equestria, returning inside Twilight's castle. Sweetie Belle now had two of these dimensional communication devices that the Tails made, one to keep in contact and the other to give to the eggheads on New Halcandra to reverse engineer. The devices may have a problem however. In universes where time is too different from each other, as in advancing too quickly or too slowly, they may not work. Something will have to be done about this time problem. At least, the time in the Sonic-verses was almost equal to the time in the pony-verses. Every twenty-three years, the Sonic-verses gained one day over the pony-verses. So there won't be a problem with the devices. However, universes like the Pokémon one will be more problematic. Heck, even universes that were just two times faster or slower than the pony-verses will be problematic. The Tails promised to search a way to stabilise time between universes, but it would be so much advanced time-technology that they weren't sure to pull this off. It was one thing to time travel, but to slow or advance time in an universal scale? It was pretty much at the level of playing God. The Tails were still interested to meet Susie and the others to work together on it. Silver even thought of bringing some of the top-scientists of his time period/universe to help. But before, they wanted to link their portals to the one in Sweetie Belle's universe, and from there, to the others, so the filly had to transport Present Tails to her universe while Past Tails remained behind so they could each work on their side, helped by more of these dimensional communication devices. All the others were interested in helping against the multidimensional army when it will appear, and some even wanted to explore other universes, but right now, they wanted to remain in their world in case Eggman attacked. The mad doctor was missing for far too long and this worried them. They wanted to be ready for whatever big scheme he was preparing. Sweetie Belle passed a good time with them, and she promised them that she would come help if they called her. They also promised her that they will talk with the President (past universe, present universe, and future universe) about the whole Alliance thing. Almost as soon as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo came out of the portal, Twilight teleported before them. "I talked with Celestia and, while she isn't happy about the prospect of entering another war, she understands that there may not be another choice, especially if this army you told us about decides to invade our universe. She hasn't given an answer however because she wants to talk with the leaders of the other countries, and the meeting won't happen before several days." "I understand," Sweetie Belle said. "So, I guess that I have done my part in this universe for now." She looked at Scootaloo as she showed the paper with the other coordinates that her Discord gave her. "I have another universe to visit. You want to come?" "Eh. Why not? I'm curious to see the powers of our third potential group member." "And I think that I know who this third member will be." "Duh. We've a Sweetie Belle: you. We've a Scootaloo: me. All that remains to complete our group is an Apple Bloom. It's so obvious that even Snip and Snail would understand." Twilight rubbed her face. "And if this Apple Bloom is as powerful as you two..." She groaned. "Discord, I hate you..." Discord appeared, said "I like you too Sparklebutt!" and disappeared. The fillies giggled. "Don't worry Twilight. We will try to not go too overboard," Sweetie Belle said. Twilight gave her her best "I don't believe you" look. "I doubt it..." The two fillies were back in front of the Lor Starcutter, Scootaloo facing her friends while Sweetie Belle remained behind. "You're sure you don't want to come?" Scootaloo asked. "Our sisters won't let us," Scootaloo's Sweetie Belle complained. "They want to be sure first that the universe ya go to isn't dangerous," Apple Bloom said. Rarity, who was behind Sweetie Belle, nodded. "Even if this will be an alternate Equestria, who knows in which state you will find it. It could be in the middle of a war against Sombra for all we know. Or worse." "True... Any idea Sweetie Void?" Scootaloo asked to the Sweetie Belle behind her. "None," the alicorn answered. "I just have the coordinates and the knowledge that I will find someone powerful there, that's all. It could be an Equestria where everyone is human actually, like behind the mirror. Or where girls are boys and boys are girls. Or it could be an universe where Equestria doesn't actually exist. Anything is possible." Scootaloo nodded at her and faced her friends again. "Then I guess that I will recount what I will see there once I return." "I can't wait!" the two other CMC shouted in excitement. The goodbyes then followed, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo entered the Lor while the spectators waved. The ship took off, and after flying up a bit, fired a beam at the sky that opened a star-shaped portal. The Lor then disappeared in it before the portal closed. As they thought, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo ended up in another Equestria, Canterlot visible in the distance and Ponyville present below with Twilight's castle standing out. It was rather late in the day, and the sun will probably set in a couple of hours. "So, at first sight, this Equestria doesn't seem different from my Equestria," Sweetie Belle commented. "This Ponyville is exactly the same as mine, no advanced technologies or whatever. Do you see any difference Lorry?" "UNKNOWN BUILDING PRESENT NOT FAR IN THE EVERFREE FOREST," the Lor answered as she showed an image of the building in question, a really large manor with an apple symbol near the top. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "Are we in an universe where the Apples are rich?" Sweetie Belle rubbed her head. "But why build a manor in the Everfree Forest?" "IMPORTANT PARANORMAL ACTIVITY DETECTED," the Lor suddenly said before it showed several images of Ponyville where ghosts could be seen alongside the livings. More ghosts could be seen around the manor in the Everfree Forest, and even more ghosts were visible floating above the trees of the forest itself a little everywhere. "What the...? Why is there so many ghosts?" Scootaloo wondered. "I have never seen so many ghosts, not even when I explored ruins and temples," Sweetie Belle commented. "At least, they seem to get along with the livings contrary to most ghosts I encountered." Scootaloo chuckled. "Their Nightmare Night must be a killer. But seriously, what are all these ghosts doing here? I can even see animal ghosts around Fluttershy's cottage. In what kind of crazy universe are we that Fluttershy lives around ghosts? Wait... Lor, zoom at Fluttershy's cottage." The Lor followed her instruction, allowing the fillies to see Fluttershy herself who was tending to the animals, both living and dead. "Look, Sweetie Belle, there's something wrong with Fluttershy." Sweetie Belle looked intently. "Are her eyes... buttons?" "What is going on with this universe? Ghosts are everywhere, the Apples seem to be rich and have built a manor in the Everfree Forest, and Fluttershy is... a pony-sized doll? What the hell?" "Well, we won't get the answers by remaining here. Let's land."