Twilight knew that she had no choice now. She had to tell them about the nature of their universe. She knew that most if not all of them would not take the news very well, but she couldn’t keep them in the dark anymore if they were to increase their chances against the coming threat.
Twilight, Lyra, Sophia, Peppita, Fayt, Cliff, Maria, Mirage and Thanatas were transported aboard Twilight’s ship, which she never got to naming. One by one they filed out of the room and into the corridors that were familiar to some of them.
Meanwhile, Maria made several attempts to contact the Diplo which ended in failure. The Quark members were becoming increasingly worried.
As Twilight considered where to begin with her confession, the ship alerted her to a transmission that was being broadcast from long range. “Why now of all times?” Twilight groaned in exasperation.
With the imminent discussion put on hold for the time being, the group headed to the bridge of the ship.
On the bridge, Twilight took her place in the captain’s chair while the others found their own place to sit. With everyone sitting, Twilight inputted some commands on her screen and put the incoming transmission on the main screen.
The image displayed one of the Federation’s officers, one that Twilight knew well as one of the most decorated officers in the Federation, Commodore Wittcomb.
“This is Commodore Wittcomb of the Federation ship Aquaelie. It is an honor to meet you all, and it is good to see you in good health, madame president.”
Maria stared at Twilight in surprise, “So you really are the leader of the Federation?”
Twilight nodded, but kept her eyes on the screen. “It’s good to see you are still alright, given what just happened.”
Wittcomb nodded grimly. “Yes, that blast did a number on Earth’s planetary shield. But that’s not why I’m here. Your ship transmitted the coordinates of your location to us and we were dispatched to provide assistance. We will be at your position soon so you must hold out until then.”
“You’re referring to the Vendeeni battleship in our area?” Twilight asked.
“Be careful, I don’t know what they will pull, but you must be prepared for anything. The Vendeeni are willing to do whatever it takes to take Dr. Leingod’s son out of the picture.”
“Right, we’ll be careful.”
As that transmission ended, another was received from another source. Twilight had a bad feeling about who was about to communicate with them. Still, she prepared herself for what was to come.
The screen revealed a Vendeeni with marking on his left eye that looked like a cross of two helix strands running perpendicular to each other. Twilight recognized the character who used that appearance.
Biwig.
Also known as Azure Lazer.
“This is Captain Biwig of the Vendeeni ship Dasvanu. Surrender immediately and submit to our orders.”
“So you really are behind this mess?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, if it isn’t my boss,” the Vendeeni said in a sarcastic tone. “Of course I was behind this. We cannot allow a possible threat to our people to go free. If they found a way out of their universe, they could potentially invade us and cause untold damage and murder so many innocents. With that boy’s power, digital lifeforms could actually harm us.”
“That won’t happen Azure Lazer!” Twilight shouted. “I trust these people to peacefully interact with us!”
“Be that as it may, I’m not putting my trust in blind faith. Surrender the boy.”
“I’m not handing him over to you. Even with your ship’s distortion field, we can still sneak away.”
“I knew you would say that, which is why I decided to collect some hostages.” Biwig moved aside to show the hostages. Maria gasped while Cliff pounded his hand. Behind the Vendeeni and guarded by several guards who had their rifles aimed at them were a number of the crew members of Quark tied in restraints.
“Marietta! Lieber! Lancar!” Maria shouted, naming a few of the hostages.
Biwig then moved back to his original position. “We raided their ship and captured them before we blew it up.”
Maria clenched her fists. It was bad enough that the crew she spent years with had been captured, it was another for them to destroy the Diplo, the ship that she practically called her home. At that moment, she was absolutely furious.
Twilight slammed her hands on her console. “Stop this right now, Azure! This is going too far!”
Biwig ignored Twilight’s plea. “We have selected a neutral area for the exchange. Transport down to these coordinates at the specified time. And no heroics.”
“Coordinates received,” Lyra said. “147.5834, 34.8874.” She then placed the location on screen. Much to the surprise of some of them, the location was quite familiar.
The arena of the Kirlsa Training Facility.
“So we’re to trade Fayt for the crew members of Quark?” Twilight asked with a soft growl.
“You know, now that I think about it, this deal doesn’t seem as fair. So you will throw in the Traydor girl for their lives and I repeat: no heroics.”
“This wasn’t part of the deal!”
“I changed it. Pray that I don’t change it further.” Biwig then ended the transmission.
Twilight growled, “I can’t believe that Azure would stoop this low. Was the Azure that I have known for years been a fake?” Her eyes began to tear up.
“We can’t worry about that right now,” Sophia said. “We need to ensure the safety of the hostages and take out Biwig.”
Twilight wiped away her tears and gave a look of determination. “You’re right, we can investigate Azure later.”
Everyone made their own preparations for the coming battle against what was most definitely a trap. They checked their equipment and made sure that it was good enough to withstand shots from disruptor rifles for as long as they could manage.
Half an hour passed and the group proceeded to the transporter.
The group arrived at the arena of the Kirlsa Training Facility. They took a few moments to prepare themselves for whatever Biwig might have planned. Fayt looked around and for a moment he thought that he saw someone on one of the walls.
Biwig and a pair of guards suddenly appeared in a flash of transporter light, followed by the Klausians who survived the Diplo’s destruction. Maria glared at Biwig as they appeared.
That was when the trap was sprung.
A device was transported down, one that they recognized as a transport jammer. Several more Vendeeni soldiers were transported down. This led to some confusion on some of their faces.
“Hand over the experiments now,” Biwig ordered.
“How did you transport soldiers with an active jammer in the area?” Fayt asked.
“Foolish boy, our technology only blocks what we want it to block.”
“Answer me Azure Lazer!” Twilight shouted. “Why are you going to such lengths? You can’t seriously expect me to believe that the threat they might pose would be a legitimate excuse to use such despicable tactics!”
Biwig said nothing for a moment then began to chuckle which turned into evil laughter. As he laughed, his voice changed, quickly becoming more feminine. “You know what I want, princess. I will have access to it! In fact, how about this deal instead: their lives for the access codes to Project Valkyrie.”
“You know that I can’t let you have that!”
“Then I guess we’re back to the previous deal then,” Biwig shrugged with a smug look on his(her?) face.
“What do you even want with them?” Twilight demanded.
“I want to extract that symbological power within them and use it against you princesses. Of course, that is only plan B with plan A being where I gain access to Project Valkyrie and use its power to wipe out you princesses,” Biwig laughed.
“But why? What do you have against us?”
“I don’t need to tell you that. Besides, I’ve already trapped your entry point in the office building. If you decide to log out, the room will be engulfed in explosions.
“Anyway, enough explanations. You’ve delayed long enough.” With that said, many more Vendeeni soldiers transported down along with a number of floating mechanical drones. They soon found themselves surrounded by a small army of soldiers and mechs. “Resist and these soldiers will pay with their lives.” Biwig and several Vendeeni soldiers aimed their rifles at the Quark members.
Things took a grim turn for the group. With the Quark members being used as hostages, they couldn’t fight back. If they were captured, they could only imagine what terrible fate lay in store for them.
And then the tables turned once again.
“Titaaaaaan…Fist!”
A giant fist appeared from a magic circle above the jammer and smashed it, the explosion knocked back Biwig and the soldiers around it.
The drones moved to investigate the disturbance until what sounded like a child’s voice shouted out “Shield and Cannon!” before a large volley of missiles flew out from somewhere and blew up the drones.
The Vendeeni soldiers looked around in confusion, trying to find who was attacking them. A number of them were wiped out when another voice shouted “Dragon Roar!” before a number of dragon heads crashed into a number of soldiers in the area.
Thinking quickly, Biwig tried shooting the hostages, thinking that allies of her enemies were helping them out. However, she was forced to back away as an electrically charged blade jumped between some of her nearby soldiers and electrocuted them..
Fayt took advantage of the confusion by leaping into the air and channeled some of his Destruction symbology to unleash a number of shockwaves from the air that sent many soldiers flying. Fayt kept that technique in mind for later and called it his ‘Air Raid’ technique. Those that survived didn’t live long before Lyra jumped to each flying soldier and bisected them.
Twilight and Sophia both cast Stone Rain symbols that caused most of the arena to be showered in sharp and heavy rocks, impaling some Vendeeni and drones and crushing others.
A certain ninja used the confusion to cut free the hostage Quark soldiers, allowing them to run back to the group.
Biwig growled as he saw the tables turn. “Impudent bits of data! You have not won yet! Dasvanu, bring in more reinforcements…”
…
“What!? The Aquaelie!?” The last thing she heard from her communicator was a brief roaring sound followed by static, indicating the likelihood that the Dasvanu had been destroyed. Biwig placed a hand on her face and began laughing. “It seems you have me at a disadvantage now. But no matter, I don’t care what happens to this character and I’m sure you two will find a way around my little trap, Master Lyra and Princess Twilight. If you intend on stopping me, you know where I’ll be.” She then points her disruptor rifle at the group. “Let’s see how many of you I can take out before I fall!” She then pointed her rifle to the side and fired. Albel was in the line of fire and attempted to move out of the way but was too slow and his metal arm was vaporized as a result. Albel howled in pain as he rolled on the floor and clutched at his demolished arm.
“Pity, I only vaporized a fake arm. No matter, I’ll put you out of your misery.” As Biwig aimed her weapon at Albel, she suddenly clutched at her head as an agonizing shot of pain assaulted her mind directly. She ended up dropping her rifle as a result.
“That shot to Albel’s arm looked painful. I think you should feel how painful that felt,” Sophia said as her psychic feedback attack not only damaged Biwig, but the player behind the character. For a brief moment, Sophia could feel some sort of disconnect coming from Biwig but she couldn’t tell if it was the player from the character or something else.
“Huh? What? Where was I?” Biwig questioned, confused about something. That didn’t last long before Lyra teleported behind the character and vertically sliced her in half.
With Biwig taken care of, the others gathered around the fallen warrior, including Nel, Roger and Adray.
“Albel, are you alright?” Fayt asked.
“I am in excruciating pain, you fool! Do I look alright?!” Albel yelled with some sarcasm mixed in.
Twilight figured that if Albel was well enough to yell like that, he would be alright, eventually. She then turned her attention to the other Elicoorians. “What are you guys doing here?”
“When you get as old as I am, you develop a sense for where you’re needed most,” Adray said with a wide grin.
“Adray had a hunch that you would find yourselves in a tough situation so we followed him here to help. On the way, we talked among ourselves, Albel included surprisingly, and we decided that we want to see your adventure through to its end,” Nel explained.
“Did you not hear the part where I said that you may be forbidden from returning to this world again?” Twilight asked.
“We won’t know for sure unless we take that step,” Roger said with a grin. “Besides, I’m an adventurer. Even if I never get to adventure here again, at least I’ll have other worlds to check out.”
“I’m not ready to retire yet and I want to experience all that I can before I have to settle down,” Adray added.
“Albel said that after his fight with Lyra and Sophia, and learning that they were not from this world, he realized that there are many strong foes for him to fight beyond this world and that if he followed you guys, he would get his fill of challenges,” Nel explained. Then with a smirk, she added, “But I think the real reason is because he likes being around you guys but he’s too embarrassed to admit it.”
“I heard that!” Albel yelled.
Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she considered their case. She still felt uncertain about bringing along natives from an underdeveloped planet, but it appeared that their minds were made up. She could only hope that she didn’t regret bringing them along. “Alright, welcome aboard. Let’s get Albel to the ship so we can synthesize him a new arm.”
With the number of people she needed to transport this time, it took several waves of transports to get everyone on board.
Thankfully, the doctor from the Diplo survived the attack and took on the task of relieving Albel’s pain, though she also made the process more painful whenever he insulted her. The warrior stopped talking after the first few insults.
During this time, Maria asked for a report from Marietta, who was the pilot of the Diplo when Mirage wasn’t around. The Quark leader had to hold in her anger as she heard about the Vendeeni attacking and boarding their vessel. Marietta mentioned a number of fighters who were killed in the assault.
Meanwhile, Twilight had another talk with Wittcomb.
“I’m glad that you were able to survive the Vendeeni’s trap,” Wittcomb began. “As for the matter of Dr. Leingod, we received a transmission from him, telling us that he will be going into hiding along with his wife. He didn’t give us a location or any further details, which meant that he didn’t want anyone knowing where he was going. It’s for the best, I suppose.”
“More importantly, I need you to confirm that warning that Dr. Leingod gave years ago,” Twilight pressed. “They’re on the move, aren’t they?”
Wittcomb nodded grimly. “I’m afraid so. They call themselves the Executioners, emissaries of The Creator. They have come with the intention of annihilating all that we know.”
“So it seems that we’re nearly out of time. The only way to get back to the real world without triggering Azure’s trap would be through the exit terminal on Planet Styx. If Maria’s power was designed to alter the existence of data into a living being and Fayt’s power was designed to allow them to interact with the real world, then logically, Sophia’s power would allow them to exit the Eternal Sphere.
“We have no choice, we need their help if we’re to stop Azure Lazer from finding a way to capture Project Valkyrie.”
“Commodore, Twilight…” spoke a voice behind the mare. Twilight turned around to find Fayt standing at the entrance. “I have a request.”
“What is it?” Twilight asked.
“We would like to go to Moonbase. It’s about time we learned the purpose of our powers: mine, Maria’s and Sophia’s.”
“Sophia?” Wittcomb wondered. “Wait, there was a third child?”
“That information is irrelevant at this point,” Twilight responded to Wittcomb then looked at Fayt. “I already have a good idea about what the purpose of your powers are, but it would be a good idea to make sure that there isn’t any information that Dr. Leingod knows that I might have overlooked.”
“If you intend on going to Moonbase, then allow me to escort you there,” Wittcomb offered.
“It would be appreciated,” Twilight said.
The transmission ended and Twilight plotted the ship’s course to Moonbase. Once that was done, she turned her attention to Fayt. “Gather everyone in the conference room. I need to tell you guys a few important things.”
“What do you mean?” Fayt asked.
“I’d…rather only have to say it once.”
Fayt hesitated for a moment then nodded and went to gather the others.
A few hours later, all thirteen members of the group as well as a couple of Quark members were gathered in the ship’s conference room. Roger had to stand in a chair and Albel was looking grumpy after his treatment by the doctor, still testing the range of motions that his new arm was capable of. Adray was messing with his chair because it didn’t feel right. Everyone else sat patiently for the meeting to begin. Twilight took her place at the head of the long table in the conference room with Lyra in an adjacent seat.
Twilight took a deep breath and began, “Thank you all for coming. I have news for all of you that I’m fairly certain will shake your individual perceptions of your existence…”
One long explanation later, most of the room’s occupants had their eyes wide and their jaws hanging.
“You gotta be makin’ this up! There’s no way I can be a computer program,” Cliff said.
“I have to share his sentiments,” Maria added. “I think, feel, and behave like any living human being.”
Twilight nodded, “In terms of behaviors, you’re the same as Lyra or myself. Your AI is so sophisticated that most beings in this universe could pass as a normal person in my universe. The main difference between you and me are our physical compositions, with you being composed of data.”
“I still don’t like having my life dictated by some research lab.”
Twilight sighed. “What do you want me to do, Maria? If we pulled the plug on this experiment, your universe will collapse and cease to exist. I want this universe to be independent as much as you do but we simply don’t know how to do that yet. We’re flying by the seat of our pants with this experiment.”
“So why even create us in the first place?” Maria demanded.
“Because I am part of a group of ascended beings whose purpose is to create universes. It has been the role of my predecessors and it’s been passed down to me and my fellow alicorns.”
“If that is the case then shouldn’t you know how this works?” Nel asked.
“I wish I did know, but the knowledge was lost when a rogue Xel’naga destroyed the records and wiped out all but my fellow alicorns among the ascended. We’re the only ones left and we’re left to fulfill our duties without knowing how to perform them. I wish that I could do better for your universe but all I can do is trial and error.”
“You said that this universe is also an MMO, so that odd-behaving child we saw at the Barr Ruins…?” Fayt inquired.
Twilight nodded. “He was a player character from my universe. Elicoor is actually a popular place for players to hang out.”
“So all those monsters we’ve been facing?” Nel wondered.
“No, there are normal monsters mixed in with player characters. Most monsters are just normal monsters.”
Fayt noticed that Sophia had a calm expression on her face. He found that odd, given the circumstances. “You seem quiet about all this, Sophia.”
“I’ve already heard the explanation from Twilight before. They couldn’t really hide anything when she and Lyra were giving too much away through their mental conversations.”
Fayt frowned, “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because you guys would be having an existential crisis at a bad time when we needed you to focus on fighting monsters. I already had my own crisis thanks to the revelations my grandfather gave me and I didn’t need you guys getting bent out of shape over this.”
Thanatas giggled, “Gerald never was one for subtlety. That’s why he has Ghosts to do that for him.”
Maria sighed as she looked at Twilight again, “Alright, I’ll let your actions slide for now. However, I have a feeling that you know what we’re up against. Perhaps you would care to enlighten us.”
Twilight smiled faintly as she nodded. “This enemy calls themselves the Executioners, emissaries of The Creator. While I am the one who created the universe and these administration drones, as I call them, I didn’t unleash them on the universe. To put it simply, my company and the Eternal Sphere have been infiltrated by a skilled hacker. They slowly took over our systems and eventually took control of the drones.
“The administration drones were designed as debugging tools to deal with data anomalies that might threaten the Eternal Sphere. They mainly come in two forms. One resembles a pony like myself or Lyra. They wear large formal dresses and have three pairs of wings. They aren’t built for fighting, but they can fight. Their main function is to ‘proclaim’ the will of the Enforcers, hence why they are called Proclaimers. The other form, the Enforcers, resemble six-winged dragons. These creatures are capable of unleashing energy like that blast that destroyed the two Vendeeni ships earlier.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” one of the Quark members, Marietta, said. “We managed to briefly analyze the energy before we were attacked. We didn’t have time to analyze it again, but the readout said that it was packing an energy magnitude of three point two.”
“Did you just say three point two?!” Cliff shouted.
“Impossible! Even the Creation Cannons on the latest Federation Battleships can only emit an energy magnitude of two at best.” Fayt said.
“Sounds like the blast had weakened greatly by the time it hit the Vendeeni ships,” Twilight mused. “The Enforcers can unleash blasts that go as high as magnitude seven. That’s about as high as I would allow it as any higher might risk damaging the Eternal Sphere.”
“With that kind of power, nothing in this universe would stand a chance against them!” Fayt exclaimed.
“Which is why I need your help and why I am telling you all this. If we don’t stop whoever is hacking into the Eternal Sphere, it may not just be your universe that will be put in danger. While the drones can’t exit the Eternal Sphere, if Project Valkyrie gets captured, our world will be in danger as well.”
“Isn’t it about time you explained to us what Project Valkyrie is about?” Sophia asked. “I’ve been hearing it more lately and if this project is a huge deal, we need to be prepared should the worst case scenario occur.”
Twilight had a feeling that the conversation would eventually steer toward this matter, but Sophia was right. If Azure or whoever she might be working with, if she had allies, got control of the project, they needed to be ready to face some dangerous foes.
“Alright,” Twilight sighed. “It was my intent on making the Eternal Sphere an independent universe when we finally developed the means to do so. Once that happened, I would uninstall the administration drones and end the game service, cutting off all access to the Eternal Sphere except for myself and my fellow Xel’naga.
“The reason for our continued access is to seek out a psychically potent race and a chaotic and adaptive race within it. We would nurture these races and fulfill our duties as Xel’naga, bringing the two races together and ascending the ones who possess the needed traits and were worthy to continue the cycle.
“However, while we were doing that, I also wanted to leave your universe a parting gift. I created an artificial god and two goddesses who would act to observe the workings of the Eternal Sphere and report their observations to me. While I wouldn’t be allowed to do anything should something go wrong, I still want to observe my work and see if I did a good job or not. I would take what I learned here and apply it to the creation of the next universe.
“Of course, in order for the three to do their job, they needed to be at least as powerful as myself and the other princesses. They are also incomplete, so if they were to be hacked, the hacker would be able to turn them into weapons that could threaten our world.”
“So basically, we may wind up fighting three artificial gods,” Sophia summarized.
“If we can stop them before then, we won’t have to,” Twilight countered.
Thanatas had seen scenarios like this before in other universes. If this was going like how she figured it would, then Sophia’s prediction was right on the money. Of course, she kept that bit to herself. Things would be so boring if they were too easy.
Eventually, the meeting came to an end and everyone went their separate ways around the ship. Since the now shipless crew of the Diplo needed something to do, Twilight had them put in charge of some of the functions and equipment around the ship.
The ship would soon arrive at Moonbase and there, the group would soon see how dire the situation truly was.