The mountain kept throwing boulders at the Enterprise, which it kept shooting out of the sky with ease.
“There’s something about this mountain…” Tippi said, fluttering closer to the main screen. “It’s important.”
“A way to the Pure Heart?” Caspian asked.
“Maybe...”
“Wait…” Cosmo pressed a few buttons zooming on on the mountain rather than the rocks it was throwing. “Watch this.”
The mountain stomped its foot into the ground, shooting a boulder into the air, which it then proceeded to launch at the Enterprise. It made the exact same motion again, though this time with the other leg, punching another one.
“That…” Vivian frowned. “That looks familiar.”
“That’s earthbending,” Cosmo said. “That’s Toph.”
“It can’t be…” Caspian shook his head. “She’s not a giant monstrous mountain!”
“Unless she thought she was for a moment,” Cosmo said.
“...We have to change her back.”
Vivian bit her lip. “Data’s out, and none of the rest of us can forcibly shape reality without endangering ourselves…”
“She’s not imagining herself bursting into flames,” Tippi pointed out. “I think… we should try to get her to imagine herself as she is, not as this thing.”
“How are we going to do that?” Cosmo asked.
“The same way I lit a man on fire down on the cerebral husk.” Tippi fluttered toward Cosmo and landed on the console she was manning. “We talk to her.”
~~~
The monster only knew one thing: destroy. Eat up the earth and pummel it into oblivion. Stomp on all those who stood in its way. That was all that mattered. Run, stomp, destroy. The fact that the earth always returned after it destroyed it was only a failure on its part, not indicative of anything else.
That was all it knew until the strange people began to take shape on the ground. It tugged at something, deep within its recesses. Buried deep beneath the rocky, chiseled exterior.
When they teleported off the ground, the monster had enough imagination to think it could still sense them, so it could—in a strange flying ship that just made it sad. Sadness turned to anger. Anger turned to destruction.
It threw rocks, but they were all deflected. It lit them on fire and continued to throw them. The ship ignored it, so it followed, fixated on its goal. It had to destroy the source of this feeling, for that was what it knew.
And then it stopped, looking at her. Shrugging off her boulders like they were nothing. It tried to imagine a successful attack, but it was always reminded of it’s failure. It would always fail. Nothing could go through, not anymore. But it must destroy.
That’s what it was, a failed monster. Pathetic, really.
With a roar, it attacked more, and more, and more.
A synthetic voice called from above. “Your name is Toph Beifong.”
The ship was talking to her now, giving her a name. That was ridiculous, she had no name. She was just a lump of featureless rock with no real depth. Just an angry, angry mountain.
“You are a human. Two smooth arms with three bony joints, the last of which holds your hand. Five fingers, which you use to bend your earth.”
The monster grabbed hold of a rock, sinking her massive fingers into it and hurling it into the sky.
“You have two legs that are much like your arms, but they end in feet, feet that you dig into the very earth itself to feel everything around you.”
She put her heel into the ground, lifting up a pillar of rock towards the ship. It was really hard to hit, there in the sky. The cocky idiots inside needed to be taught a lesson.
“You remember, what you were, I can see it. I didn’t even have to describe your clothes, your face… but you’re made of flesh and bone, Toph. You were never made of the earth—you controlled it. It served you, you were not its servant.”
Her hair stood on end as she swung her fists at the starship, hoping to puncture through its shields. It needed to suffer. It was too close to her.
“You’re not a monster. You’re a kid—a young, young woman thrust into situations she really shouldn’t have. Do you remember? Do you remember your home?”
Flashes of towns appeared around her, only to crumble by her feet. Images of half-remembered faces danced through her senses, only to vanish. Fire. She felt fire.
“You are Toph Beifong. You are not a monster, and you are not made of stone. You are a flesh and blood human being who has many, many friends in the world who would do anything for her. You are loved.”
“Stop it!” Toph shouted, driving her fist into the ground and causing an earthquake. “Stop it, Tippi!”
“Toph, you are a headstrong, arrogant, self-centered piece of work that runs from her problems.”
“I’m going to grind you into fairy dust!” She vaulted toward the Enterprise atop a rocky pillar, fists pulled back.
“Toph, you are a determined, compassionate, beautiful child with an integrity I envy.”
Toph punched the shields of the Enterprise, bouncing off them harmlessly like a fly. Tears flew out of her eyes.
“Toph… you’re blind. And, somehow, that has made you the strongest of us.”
“Strongest of what!?” Toph shouted.
“Your friends. Cosmo, energize.”
Toph was caught up in a transporter beam and deposited on the bridge of the Enterprise. She thought it was rather cold in here, so it started to snow. The snow dissipated the moment Vivian slammed Data’s backup circlet on her head. “Got her!”
“Got… me?” Toph wiped her eyes. “Hold on, what just…?”
“We are in a universe that will do everything you imagine,” Cosmo said. “...Including turn yourself into a rampaging mountain monster, apparently.”
“I… geez.” Toph rubbed the back of her head. “It’s all such a blur. I was so angry and I—”
Toph was floating in a sea of a color she didn’t recognize. She couldn’t sense anything, but the sparkling color was all around. It seared into her mind, burning like a brand.
She collapsed onto the bridge, breathing heavily.
“Did… did we miss something?” Vivian asked.
“No, she’s herself,” Caspian said. “Something else is surfacing.”
“I need to remember…” Toph said, shaking her head. “There… I found something. Or… something found m—”
Toph was a small pebble, crying, shrinking, about to shrink itself into nothingness because it could only think about how tiny it was. How much it was nothing. But before it did, there was a barrier. The color pushed her back. Protected her. She got so angry she wanted to explode. The color didn’t allow that either.
Toph stumbled over to the first officer’s chair, bewildered. “It’s… I’m seeing a color I don’t know. I… Tippi! What are the Pure Heart colors?”
“...Red, orange, yellow, green, sky blue, indigo, purple, and pink.”
“Pink…” Toph grinned. “Kinda between red and purple, right?”
“Some types of pink are.”
“Close enough!” Toph clapped her hands, looking up.
Why did she need to keep being saved? This place was torture to her mind, but it would never let her go. It always protected her. It had chosen her. But why?
“I know where the Pure Heart is,” Toph said, clapping her hands together.
“Where?” Caspian asked.
“We’re currently inside of it.”
~~~
The real Enterprise transported Picard and Twilight to the surface of the Ninth World just outside the Cathedral of Provenance. The two guards took one look at them with their bizarre, animalistic faces and let out a joined sigh. They pulled the doors open, letting the two of them into the sanctum.
Both walked with a determined purpose in mind. They had been warned that the fog would project their thoughts, and knew their attempts to out-think it would likely be useless, so they resolved just to keep walking until they reached the other end. Next to Picard images of himself augmented with Borg technology appeared, alongside the faces of a few dead crewmen—countered by the decidedly happy image of his current crew. Twilight had images of her friends as well. On one side, a set of five other ponies locked behind black bars. On the other side, Data, quickly filled in with the rest of the chosen heroes.
They reached the door and pushed it open, finding Provenance herself sitting in her throne at attention. In front of her were Tippi, Toph, Cosmo, Data, Caspian, and VIvian, all in perfect tip-top shape.
Twilight ran to them, sweeping Data up in the hug first before telekinetically forcing all the others to pile on as well, getting only mild resistance from Caspian. Tears in her eyes, she let out a laugh. “I… I’m so glad to have you all back.”
To her surprise, it was Toph who hugged back the hardest. The poor girl couldn’t even talk, all she could do was grab Twilight harder.
Picard, respectfully, stayed a fair distance behind. Provenance walked up to him. “So you’re the boss?”
“I’m a Captain,” Picard said. “Not their boss.”
“Hmm.” Provenance shrugged. “Well, glad you decided to drop by. This should be a very, very interesting series of events.”
“Let them have their moment.”
“I wasn’t rushing them!” She paused. “You’re welcome, by the way. I fixed your robot’s fried brain.”
“Thank you. ...His name is Data.”
“Sure. Right. Whatever. I’m retired, I don’t need to be regal and correct all the time.”
Twilight, finally, released all her friends. “Okay… okay. What do you need me to do?”
Toph pointed aggressively at the door to Celerillion. “Open those doors. Don’t go inside.”
Twilight obeyed, twisting the doors open, revealing the sky of eyes and rippling ground of the other dimension, not all that surprised to see a perfect replica of the Enterprise on the other side.
“Now, use that Element of Magic,” Toph said. “Do what you did in Lumash. Connect us and talk to it.”
Twilight nodded. She found it significantly easier to tap into the Elemental power within her now that it was physically on her head. To her delight, the magic of the rest of the Elements—those supposedly destroyed with Equis—responded to her connection to the people around her. Colors released from herself, Toph, Cosmo, Data, Caspian, and Vivian. The rainbow came to a point around Tippi and blasted forward into Celerillion.
Come to us, Twilight asked.
The doorway began to ripple and buckle from a sudden unimaginable force. The eyes, ground, and false Enterprise all began to shrink down, down, down. Cerebral husks flashed past their eyes, minuscule black specks in a sea of color that was slowly, but surely, consolidating into a soft but brilliant pink.
Toph’s eyes widened as slowly, but surely, it came into full focus for her. The last color. The last Pure Heart. Spinning in a now-empty doorway.
Tippi flew over to the Heart, fluttering so close her reflection took up most of the Heart’s crystal edge. “This Heart… is different from the others,” she said, turning back to the group. “It contains within it a realm of dreams. Whatever love it represented once, it no longer does. Now, it represents the love of imagination itself—the devotion to stories, to ideas, to the very thoughts that drive us. It is a testament to the force which drives us to create, and a reminder that even lovingly crafted creations can go awry. The imagination is a powerful tool—and it can be a deadly one.”
She touched her wings to the Heart, caressing its side. “This is the last one we need. The last emblem of reality... the last emblem of love. We have seen the love of imagination, of culture, of friends, of devotion, of leaders, of family, of romance, and of the worlds we live in. It’s… it’s clear to me now that love is much more than just two people coming together and throwing caution to the wind. It is more even than the deep, old connection between an old married couple who have seen life through together. That is but one aspect of love, and… and there’s so much more to love! These Hearts…” she pointed at the Pure Heart behind her. “Show us, without a shadow of a doubt, that love is baked into the very existence of all the worlds. And right now, someone is trying to take that love away. We can’t let him.”
“No,” Twilight said, a proud smile on her face. “No, we cannot.”
“So let us take this Heart!” Tippi shouted. “And… we’ll show Count Bleck what its power really means!” She landed on the Pure Heart and spread her wings wide. “WE GOT A PURE HEART!”