Chapter 16
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“So, let me get this straight. You took Alchemy through a Fold into another version of Equestria, but where all those ponies were anthro?” Irma asks incredulously. “I dunno what I’m more shocked by, the anthro part or that you took Alchemy with you!”
“It’s not like I had much of a choice, Irma,” I shoot back. “Miranda had us cornered and I couldn’t exactly fight her and keep Alchemy safe at the same time. And how was I supposed to know the Fold would lead to a different Equestria than the one you all found me in?”
It’s lunchtime at school and we’re all huddled around a table, myself having explained everything that happened after Alchemy and I left the group yesterday.
After I’d explained things to Will last night, she’d teletransported Alchemy to her room at her house.
We’d been worried what she might ask regarding Miranda and I looking exactly alike and the whole Miranda turning into a monster right in front of her thing… but she hadn’t.
Alchemy hadn’t even brought up what happened after she and I went to the park.
Best any of us can guess, she thinks she dreamed it all and hasn’t said anything because she sees no reason to tell us about a dream.
Though, that would beg the question what she thinks of herself, believing that she dreamed of the two of us going to the park, encountering a double of myself and that double turning into a monster.
Either way, I think we very narrowly dodged a bullet there.
“And you didn’t try to transform once Alchemy was out cold because…?” Irma asks.
I frown at her. “Well, maybe because I don’t know if I could on my own? Irma, Will is still the bearer of the Heart of Kandrakar, not me. And, if the both of us need to be making the transformation happen, I don’t think I could’ve on my own.”
“And how is there another version of Equestria, especially one where all those ponies are anthro?” Irma asks.
“Infinite Dimension, Irma,” I shoot back, now getting a little annoyed. “There are multiple versions of Earth, which we know because I’m from one of them, so why not the same for other worlds? I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another version of Meridian out there where Phobos was actually a good brother to Elyon instead of the evil dickhead he is in the one we know!”
“Give her a break, Irma,” Cornelia defends me. “Mel had to think on the fly. Honestly, I’m more concerned whether Miranda’s still here on Earth, or is she Folded to somewhere else once Mel gave her the slip.”
“What if she tried to follow Mel to that other Equestria?!” Hay Lin gasps. “They don’t have Guardians. They won’t be ready for her!”
Guardians. Report to Kandrakar, immediately.
I jump, while the others get slightly annoyed looks.
That was The Oracle’s voice.
“Oracle call?” Matt asks and Will nods. Matt points to himself. “I’ll hold the fort. You all see what’s so important he’d call you during school.”
The others nod and we sneak out, myself asking over the mind link why the girls aren’t freaked by the idea of The Oracle’s voice just going off in our heads.
Apparently, this isn’t the first time. He’s only done it a few times, mostly before he and the council were trapped in the magic bubble by Nerissa when she attacked Kandrakar, but, after The Veil had been dropped, he would call them whenever he’d sensed Nerissa early into her time with The Knights of Vengeance, even though hadn’t figured out it was her at the time.
So, once we’ve gotten outside and are certain no one will see us, Will opens a Fold to Kandrakar and we head through.
“So, why didn’t you just beat the snot out of Miranda like you did when we’d lost our powers?” Irma whispers to me as we head into the halls.
I glare at her. “Because, back then, while I didn’t know it, my strength was being magnified by the unfocused energy from my heart and, now, I’ve only a sixth of that power, the remaining five sixths going to keep all your connections to your Aurameres active. In this form, I’d be no better against Miranda than a normal human.”
I don’t like admitting that. It’s something I’ve honestly tried to not to think about, but, when Miranda had me cornered with Alchemy like that, it was brought forefront in my mind.
The girls have all their power, while I’ve only a sixth of what I used to have and, until we find a way to cut of the magical binding The Flash Stone has on the girls, it’s going to stay that way.
To put it bluntly, when it comes to pure power scales, I’m the weakest of the six of us right now. Shadow can clearly be an incredibly immense source of power, but, as long as I’m the link keeping the girls connected to their powers, its potency is heavily diluted.
We walk through the halls until we meet The Oracle.
“What’s up?” Will asks him, clearly wanting to get straight to the point.
The Oracle frowns. “Recently, I have been made aware of some troubling developments in the Infinite Realms.”
He indicates for us to follow and we do, him leading us into the main chamber.
With a wave of his hand, six holes appear in the air, each showing what are clearly other worlds… though five of them make my eyes widen.
They look like… like…
“Are those other Equestrias?!” Taranee cries.
The Oracle gives her an odd look. “You’re… aware there is more than the one Equestria where Melinda was hiding out?”
“Uh, yeah,” Cornelia says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Just yesterday, Mel accidentally Folded to one when she was trying to escape Miranda.”
The Oracle frowns in confusion, glancing to the five windows showing what are clearly different versions of Equestria. “But, nothing has changed in any these worlds yet. How can she have been to any of them already?”
And now we’re confused, especially me.
I do recognize those Equestrias, but only because I’ve seen the season five finale. They look like each of the alternate timelines Starlight’s meddling in the past to stop the Rainboom had created, though they seem like their frozen on a frame from shortly after Twilight and Spike left to go back to the past to stop Starlight. Though I notice the Discord one is mysteriously absent.
“In the Equestria you all know, something happened where a being went to that world’s past and tried, several times, to alter it,” The Oracle says, conveniently, I notice, leaving out the part where it was Starlight herself that was trying to alter the past. “Each time, the changes to the past resulted in new worlds, these alternate timelines, where Equestria’s fate turned out quite different from the one you all know. There was one more, however, it was dealt with by a strange being, so it is no longer in danger. The chaos of that world was sorted already.”
Huh. Sounds like he’s talking about the Discord timeline. Someone already solved its problems? Who and how?
“So, what’s with the freeze-frame?” Irma asks, pulling my thoughts back to the present. Out of the six windows, the five Equestria ones are the only ones not moving.
The one not showing Equestria is in colour and we can see movement in the distance. The Equestrian ones, however, are black and white and frozen on a single moment… or, at least, I think they’re all frozen.
The one clearly looking into the Sombra timeline is just showing the empty field where The Map appeared when Twilight and Spike arrived there.
In order, the next one shows Chrysalis pinning down Zecora in what is clearly the battle Twilight was told by the zebra to escape to return to the past and stop Starlight.
The Nightmare Moon one has Nightmare and her guards in the position they were when they tried to stop Twilight and Spike going back to the past.
The Flim Flam Brothers are in the middle of yanking a tree out of the ground, its roots still barely clinging to the soil.
The Tirek one is just the big red bully as he was blasting the Everfree.
“Far as I’ve been able to tell, something happened when Princess Twilgiht Sparkle used the Time Travel Spell to leave these worlds and return to her past,” The Oracle says, waving a hand to each Equestria. “The spell somehow caused time to stop in these worlds, keeping them from procressing.”
“So, where do we come in?” Taranee reasonably asks.
The Oracle looks to me. “Since her Heart came from another version of Equestria, I believe, if Melinda were to Fold into these worlds, their time would resume.”
“Wait. You want us to make the time in those worlds resume?” Hay Lin asks, looking to each window. “But, wouldn’t that just mean everyone in those worlds will suffer?”
The Oracle shakes his head. “You will all be going into those world to save them, us you have several others.”
Will sighs, folding her arms. “I guess that makes sense. So, which alternate Equestria do you want us to go to first?”
He frowns. “That’s where I am now confused. If Melinda’s already been to one of them, why are they all still frozen in time?”
“Because I didn’t go to any of them,” I state. “I went to a totally different one, where everypony is anthro.”
The Oracle blinks, before turning and focusing. The five altered Equestia windows close, a new one opening to reveal a Ponyville with tons of anthro ponies walking around.
“Whoa!” the others gasp as they look at the new world.
“Before anything else, shouldn’t we go there?” I ask, looking to The Oracle as I point to the window. “If Miranda followed me there, they could be in for some serious trouble.”
The Oracle shakes his head. “There is no immediate need. That world is of no interest to Miranda. She doesn’t even know of it, as she did not follow you.”
“Then where is Miranda?” Cornelia demands, pulling her attention away from the window.
The Oracle just shakes his head. “I do not know. However, I can confirm she is not in Meridian, the world in which Sunset Shimmer resides, the Equestia you all have known of for some time now or Earth. Where she is, I cannot say.”
“Well, at least we know where she isn’t,” Irma says in a snarky tone.
“Either way, this Equestria and the others can wait,” The Oracle waves his hand and window closes, now the other window he’d originally opened being the only one left. “Something strange is occurring in the world of Arkanta.”
I cock my head. That name definitely doesn’t ring a bell, so I don’t think the Guardians ever went there during season two.
“What’s wrong with it?” Will asks as the window is opened further, revealing a large castle on top of a massive cliff.
The Oracle explains to us that Arkanta is ruled by its lord, a man named Ari, who somehow has a massive well of magic at his disposal despite not having the Heart of Arkanta.
In fact, ordering to The Oracle, the Heart of Arkanta has yet to show itself. It has no physical form nor does it seem to have chosen a vessel.
Which begs the question… where is Lord Ari getting all his power from, especially since it seems he’s not draining the life-force of the world like Phobos did while ruling Meridian?
He can’t give us more information than that, however, us his ability to see into Arkanta is actively being mostly blocked by whatever power it is Ari has access to.
“Wait. Actively?” I look to Will and nod. “But, doesn’t that implying this Ari is specifically targeting your abilities? Why would he do that? What’s he got against you? How does he even know about you?”
It’s here where The Oracle drops a bomb on us we never could’ve seen coming.
Years ago, Ari was just a simple farmer, whose wife died during childbirth, his son, Maqi, being born distant and mute.
Ari had spent ages, scouring the lands of his world for a doctor or shaman who could help his son, but none could do anything for the boy, by medical or magical means.
Thinking wealth would help his son, Ari somehow found a way to make a vast fortune for himself, thinking material possessions would make him happy, but, as the saying goes, money can’t buy you happiness.
He can’t tell us much else about it though, as this had been around the time Nerissa had started to show her true colours, so his attention had been drawn away from Arkanta and, by the time Nerissa was dealt with, the Guardians were in not position to intervene with Arkanta, what with Cassidy being dead and Nerissa’s being locked away reducing them to three instead of five.
Plus, travel was already complicated due to The Veil, so, until Phobos could be defeated, The Oracle had put Arkanta and its problems aside, since Phobos was a danger to all of the Infinite Dimensions, while Ari’s actions were only effecting his own world.
However, that’s not to say it was the last time before W.I.T.C.H. became The Guardians that The Oracle would be involved with Arkanta.
Somehow, Ari had not only learned of The Oracle, but found a way to contact him and asked him to fix his son and, when The Oracle said he couldn’t, Ari had flown into a fury, accusing The Oracle of being a heartless being, as if he could just snap his fingers and all the problems with Maqi would just poof out of existence, even though that is not The Oracle’s power at all, since he is merely an observer and not meant to involve himself so heavily in any world’s fate... which sounds a bit contradictive if you think about it too hard, but I do get what he means for the most part.
Eleanor, who’d recently joined the council at the time, had sent Ari back to Arkanta and, it clear Ari blames The Oracle for not curing his son despite that not even being in The Oracle’s power, he’s been using whatever strange power he’s acquired to keep The Oracle from seeing what’s going on in Arkanta.
With The Veil now gone and Nerissa no longer an issue, The Oracle had called two members of the council to be ambassadors to Arkanta to find out what Ari was doing and negotiate that he stop keeping all that power for himself and reason why The Oracle couldn’t just cure Maqi.
However, the emissaries had returned as if brainwashed and tried to kill The Oracle.
If not for Eleanor using her water powers at the detriment of her own life-force, they might’ve ended The Oracle’s life and it took a considerable amount of time to break the brainwashing, but the emissaries couldn’t explain why they’d come back in such a state as they couldn’t remember anything after they left Kandrakar for Arkanta.
“So, now, it falls to you, Guardians,” The Oracle says, looking firmly at us. “You must go to Arkanta and learn what you can. While he was no threat before, it would seem Ari is now out for blood and could very well bring the rest of the Infinite Dimensions into his rage. Once preparations have been made, you will need to go to Arkanta.”
So, over the next couple days, we make plans for how we’ll be able to excuse our absence from school without arousing suspicion, since it could take a few days to weeks for us to get the right amount of information and, Folding to and from Earth constantly could make things all the more complicated.
Hay Lin suggests we use Astral Drops and… there are, understandably, mixed opinions on the idea.
Astral Drops are not going to be able to think on their feet and, unless we give them exact instructions, things could go very badly.
Thankfully, The Oracle and Eleanor, with Cassidy lending some guidance, help us to figure out how best to explain to our Astral Drops what they’ll need to do and how, Matt even offering to keep an eye on them as much as possible.
My Astral Drop is the most interesting, since she is going to be acting the way I’m supposed to, all shy and anxious around others, so, this might help me personally in the long run more so than the others.
It takes a little over a week, but we have everything finalized as best we can.
We’ll try to spend us much time within reason in Arkanta while still making it back to Earth. As long as we don’t spend more than half a day in Arkanta, we should be able to keep anyone from getting suspicious of our Astral Drops and not alert Lord Ari of our presence in his realm.
If he hates The Oracle that much, I’m pretty sure he’ll hate us just as much.
After creating our Astral Drops on the way to school and give them all the instructions, each of us crossing our fingers and hoping this works, we transform and Will opens a Fold to Kandrakar, where The Oracle opens one to Arkanta.
Time to get to work and see what’s truly going on in Arkanta.