Tippi fluttered just above the main Flipside platform, examining the colors of the doors. “Red… Orange… Yellow… Green… Blue… Blue again… and…” she pointed at the slot for the empty door. “That will be purple.”
“Good color recognition skills,” Starlight teased.
“Including the nonexistent,” Iroh chuckled as he tapped the Starfleet communicator he’d been provided. “How’s it going down there?”
Eggman’s voice responded. “We’re almost ready, don’t get your beard in a twist.”
Iroh shrugged. “Looks like we’ll be waiting a minute or so longer.”
Tippi took the opportunity to look at the creamy sky. These days, it was completely filled with starships, space stations, and even a few of the mini-planets taken from Lumash. The Comet Observatory itself was even in the sky, with Rosalina taking a somewhat active role in the evacuation of her universe now that the heroes’ quest was long done in her world. That said, she was still rather difficult to get ahold of.
Mobius’ primary planet was almost entirely evacuated at this point. It was rather sparsely populated, so they only filled up about two starbases total. It was a little harder to evacuate the other planets in the universe since the doors to Flipside wouldn’t open right next to them, but they were making progress on a workaround. Flipside and the surrounding skies were getting rather crowded, but every day new stations and ships from Hume arrived alongside mini planets from Lumash. Was it a sustainable setup? If Tippi was being honest, probably not, but it was working. And, with their current experiment, they might be able to save everything.
“Pushing through to the next universe without all the Hearts…” Tippi said, letting out a small laugh. “We can do it. We’ll go to the eighth world, find the last Pure Heart, and use all but one to break through to the Void! We can do it.”
“You sure have been excited these last few weeks,” Iroh observed.
“I. Have. Confidence!”
Starlight rolled her eyes. “She’s discovering new aspects of herself every day.”
“Yes! My confidence, my determination, my spearheading nature, Blumiere, my aerodynamic flight subroutines!”
“Huh?” Starlight blinked.
“Let’s get this show on the road!”
“I’m still busy,” Eggman’s voice called. “Standby, impatient little infants.”
“Geez,” Starlight said. “Who put a bee in his bonnet?”
“He used to be a villain,” Tippi commented. “I’m starting to wonder if all this ‘being the good guy’ is getting to him a bit.”
Iroh shook his head. “He’s just learning the values of a balanced identity, and is resenting himself for it.” He took a slow drink of a cup of tea. “I’ve seen it before, in my nephew. Before long he’ll be a decent person.”
“Oooh, all part of your long-term plan?” Starlight smirked. “Clever.”
Tippi fluttered forward. “Well, I think we’re all going to be better because of what we’ve done in this City. We’re coming together, stronger than any force that has ever existed in the history of the multiverse!”
Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Probably not technically correct, but I appreciate the feeling behind it.”
“Thank you, Starlight. More people could stand to be as appreciative as you.”
“I thi—”
The purple door suddenly appeared on Flipside’s platform.
“Wow!” Tippi called. “Eggman, that was faster than I was expecting!”
“I haven’t done anything yet,” his voice came back. “What are you talking about?”
“But there’s a doo—”
The doors flung open, dumping Vivian, Caspian, Data, and Luigi onto the ground in a heap with the Pure Heart. The next moment, the door was gone.
“V-vivian?” Tippi stuttered. “W-what? Heart? Door? How!?”
“I don’t understand what exactly happened either!” Vivian said, jumping up with a laugh. “But we’ve got a Pure Heart for you!”
“Wh… Bu… Th...”
Starlight stepped forward. “It appears Tippi has stopped working. Hey guys. No Twilight?”
“We did not locate Twilight, Toph, or Cosmo,” Data reported. “They may still be in whatever world we were just visiting.”
“I was thinking we would end up in the purple door’s world,” Vivian said, scratching her chin. “Not back in Flipside…”
“It doesn’t matter!” Tippi cheered, landing on Vivian’s hat. “You’re back, and that means we’re going to get the others back too! Oh, everyone will be so happy to see you, and there’s so much I want to show you, and…”
Vivian raised a finger. “Can we go sleep?”
“Oh, uh, right!” Tippi laughed nervously. “I’ll get everything I need from Data. Rest of you, down and…” she stopped to stare at Luigi.
Luigi sighed. “I am Luigi Mario. Mario’s brother. Vivian knows me. I am not this ‘Mr. L,’ and if I ever get a hold of him I’m gonna show him what it really means to be Luigi!”
“...All right.” Tippi fluttered over to Data. “So, tell me everything.”
“At precise—”
“Okay not everything, just… more than usual.”
~~~
Vivian, Caspian, Luigi, and Starlight descended through the elevator.
“You know,” Starlight said, turning to Luigi. “Rarity really misses you.”
“Oh… Right… Imma sorry, I dunno what happened after all that.”
“It’s okay. We’ll be at Castle Bleck soon enough. Until then… would you like to join me here? I’ve been running drills and preparing people for when we take Bleck on directly. Someone who was in there personally would be a great help.”
“I…” Luigi glanced at Vivian and sighed. “I guess I’m not a hero of legend, huh?”
Starlight shook her head. “No. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be just a regular old hero.”
“You have it in you, old chap,” Caspian said, clapping him on the back. “With that jump of yours and that hammer, I’m sure you’ll give them everything they need.”
“Yeah… yeah, that’s right! Imma Luigi! Number one!” He lifted his hammer into the air. “I won’t let you guys down!”
When the elevator reached the main floor, Starlight led Luigi away while Caspian and Vivian marched to Ty Lee’s inn. To their surprise, Ty Lee was actually there, sitting behind the counter without her pith helmet. For once, she didn’t have a smile.
“Ty Lee,” Caspian nodded.
“Hello and welcome t—Caspian!?” Ty Lee’s smile was suddenly back in full force. “Starlight was saying there might be a chance you survived but I wasn’t sure and given all the stuff that’s happened and…” She pulled both of them into a tight hug, giggling the entire time. “Oh, this is just the best!”
“Too… hard…” Caspian gagged.
“Right, right, you must be exhausted! Please, go to your beds, rest.” She released them and shooed them away. Caspian nodded in respect before flopping unceremoniously upon his mattress.
Vivian waited back for a moment. “Ty Lee… are you okay?”
“I’m… fine.” Ty Lee nervously played with her hair.
“No, she’s not,” Amy said, walking in through the doors and leaning against the counter. “Neither of us have been doing all that well since the Pit.”
“Oh, the Pit…” Vivian cocked her head. “Did you guys get to the bottom?”
“Yep,” Amy said, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. “Got full control over Flipside, too. All the systems are at our disposal, including some of the more advanced stuff we didn’t know existed.”
“That sounds like a good thing.”
“We lost a lot of people,” Amy said, grimacing. “Too many. And there was this freaky shapeshifting shadow demon that tried to take control of the entire city and attack Tippi, but…” She tapped her fingers against the wall. “Ah, whatever. Point is, no, we’re not fine, and Ty Lee needs to stop pretending like everything is fine.”
Ty Lee shrank back from Amy’s outburst, hiding behind the counter as though it could protect her from the harsh words. “I… I’m sorry. I’m always the happy one, it’s hard not to be.”
“And I’m always obsessed with Sonic.” She laughed bitterly. “I don’t think I care about that anymore. Silver lining, huh?”
Vivian shook her head. “It’s still terrible. You both… I’m so sorry I wasn’t here, that we weren’t here.”
“Wouldn’t have changed anything,” Amy muttered. “Though I’m gonna say this.” She pulled out her hammer and aimed it at Vivian’s head. “You stop the Void. You stop it and make all that we’ve sacrificed mean something. Okay?”
“O-okay…” Vivian said, backing away.
“Good.” Amy put her hammer away and dusted her dress off. “Now, I have a date with a nice Bajoran man and I need to blow off some steam so I can treat him decently. Enjoy your nap.” She skipped off.
After she was gone, Ty Lee allowed herself to smile slightly. “It really might have been good for her, in the end.”
“I… that seems messed up.” Vivian shook her head.
“There’s a man who wants to destroy all worlds for seemingly no reason. That’s also messed up.”
With a sigh, Vivian nodded. “G’night, Ty Lee.”
“Good night.”
~~~
Captain’s Log, Stardate 47938.4
Some of the heroes of the Light Prognosticus have returned, and with them comes the miraculously restored Pure Heart of Equis. The door to the last Pure Heart has generated and the Enterprise is preparing for tomorrow’s mission to the last world.
It is strange, to think that, after so long of feeling like we were going to have to find alternative solutions, suddenly the end is in sight. We only have to obtain one last Pure Heart and then we can open a gateway directly to Count Bleck’s castle.
I find myself thankful for all this time we spent in uncertainty. While, yes, it has moved many worlds closer to destruction, we have lost no more. During this time we’ve allocated our resources intelligently, evacuated as many as we can to Flipside, trained our people for an assault on the Castle, and in general simply prepared for what is to come. Before, we might have charged into the Castle with no organization, no plan, and we would have been discarded easily.
Now, we are cohesive. Now, we will be ready.
I look forward to meeting this Count at long last...
~~~
As always, the moment Vivian opened her eyes, she felt rejuvenated by the magic of Flipside. She hopped out of bed and took a moment to stretch her arms, letting out a satisfied breath of air.
Sleep well, little shadow?
With a smile she adjusted her hat and tested her fire, prompting an orange spark to fly into the air.
“Ready?” Caspian asked, having just completed adjusting his armor.
“Mhm!” Vivian gave him a thumbs up.
“Any nightmares this time?” Caspian asked.
Not that you remember.
“Not that I remember,” Vivian said, grinning. “I’m really free.”
He grinned at her. “Then we’ve got some people waiting for us.”
Together, they left the doors of Ty Lee’s inn. Data and Tippi were waiting for them on the other side… and so were so many other people. Humans, Klingons, Mobians, ponies, goombas, Romulans, and so, so many others were lining the street—and the moment Vivian and Caspian came out, they began applauding. A banner hung over the street, with the words GOOD LUCK, HEROES printed on it. Whistles and cheers erupted from all sides, and even a few flowers were thrown at them.
“We have not succeeded yet,” Data observed. “Yet they insisted on throwing this celebration.”
“Once we get the last Heart there won’t be time to celebrate it,” Tippi said. “We’ll rest… and then we’re going into the belly of the beast. This… this is the last time we’ll be able to do this.”
“Ah.” Data nodded. “Shame Twilight and the others had to miss it.”
“It really is,” Vivian said, frowning. “I hope they’re okay…”
“They’ll find their way to us, somehow,” Tippi said. “I know it.”
Vivian nodded with a soft smile. “So do I!”
“Statistically, th—” Data began.
Caspian put a hand on the android’s shoulder. “My android friend, I believe this is one of those moments where you have a disadvantage.”
“Ah.”
They marched to the elevator, the crowd still throwing things at them and cheering. They even got several snacks for the road, eliminating the need for breakfast this time around. With cheers and happy smiles, they were pushed into the elevator by a city of happy people.
...A city of desperate people whose homes were nearing destruction.
Once in the elevator, Caspian pressed his hands together. “The… weight of our mission has…”
“Fallen on you?” Tippi suggested.
“Yes. It… it almost seemed like a fun adventure, even after Equis fell. But seeing them all, begging…” He shook his head. “We cannot fail.”
“We won’t,” Tippi said. “We’ve come too far.”
The elevator didn’t go all the way to the platform before stopping. Instead, they were let off at the Light Prognosticus room, where Iroh was sitting reading in front of Merlon’s main screen.
>>I want to wish you luck one last time.<< Merlon said.
Vivian nodded. “Thank you.”
“We will do our best,” Caspian promised. “And we shall bring you that final Pure Heart.”
>>I hope that you do. And Tippi?<<
“Yes?”
>>Take care of yourself.<<
“I will.”
“ ‘In the darkest night a light will shine, summoning the heroic spirit to be reunited at the journey’s end,’ “ Iroh read from the Light Prognosticus. “You will find them.”
“Ah.” Data nodded, satisfied. “You had not told me you were basing your supposition on the Light Prognosticus.”
“We weren’t,” Tippi said.
“...Ah.”
Caspain patted his friend on the back. “You’ve got a long way to go, Data. Let’s make it there together, shall we?”
“By all means. Goodbye, Merlon. Iroh.”
“Bring them home,” Iroh said, grinning. “And maybe stop by for some tea afterward!”
Vivian giggled. “We’ll see!”
Vivian, Caspian, and Data returned to the elevator, which took them to the top of the platform. Luigi and Starlight were waiting for them there, bowing extravagantly to the purple door. Above them, the Enterprise hovered, ready to join them in the new world.
“The last Heart lies beyond,” Starlight said, putting on her “wise and ominous” voice. “Go, and fulfill your destiny!”
Vivian nodded, taking in a sharp breath. “Here goes nothing…” She flung the doors open and jumped in.