//------------------------------// // Limit Break // Story: The Eternal Sphere // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// Lyra took everyone on a tour of Ponyville, the city that the group ended up in after they crossed the barrier between the digital universe and reality. Thanks to Maria and Fayt’s symbological genetic powers, the digital beings among them could exist beyond their universe. Like tourists, the group couldn’t help but look around in wonder at the technological marvels around them. Some of the architecture bore a rounded conic resemblance that Sophia recalled seeing among the Protoss civilization that she saw in the Ihan Crystal. However, the color was a lot more varied, unlike the gaudy gold structures she had seen. The buildings that served as residences were especially varied in colors. But when she saw that the ponies who lived in them had coat and mane colors that matched the buildings, she figured that such was a way of identifying their residences. The taller buildings were mainly gunmetal, brass or gold colored. It was easy to tell that they were apartment buildings and business buildings. The moderate sized buildings were gray colored with other colors to show who the owner or owners were. They were used as small businesses. Lyra’s tour took everyone to historical places in town. On their first stop was Sugarcube Corner, which was renamed the Sugarcube Academy of Culinary Arts. “This place used to be a simple bakery a thousand years ago,” Lyra explained. “It was also used as a home for one of Twilight’s old friends from that time. Pinkie Pie served as an apprentice when she moved here until she took over the store and started a family. The place turned into a family run store until a century later when one of Pinkie’s great grandchildren decided to expand the bakery and turn it into a culinary school. They still serve some of the best food in the country while many of the best chefs in the country have their beginnings here.” The next stop on the tour was what appeared to be a nature preserve. The large park appeared as if something about it repelled the encroachment of technology. “This is Sweet Feather Sanctuary,” Lyra began. “This place was built as an animal refuge and care center. It was created by another of Twilight’s friends. This place was created from Fluttershy’s passion to care for animals and to give them a place to be in their natural environment. She was especially determined to get this place going when she realized that Equestria was on the verge of a technological golden age. She also convinced the town to move the veterinary clinic near the sanctuary. It turned into a veterinary school over the years.” “Hey, Lyra? Why are we on this tour? Shouldn’t we be getting ready to hit the enemy stronghold or something?” Cliff asked. “Like I said, the Eternal Sphere is on lockdown so there’s no danger of the Executioners making any progress until we head back in again. The staff at Sphere are making sure the hacker’s efforts don’t make much progress so we have time to prepare, and there are things we need to do before we head in there.” “Like what?” Nel asked. “For one, we need to give a status update to Princess Celestia, one of the two rulers of the nation alongside Princess Luna. Another involves Sophia meeting with Bon Bon for a very important procedure.” “You mean…?” Sophia began. “Yep, if you’ve decided to rejoin your birth family, then you will need those limiters removed.” “Ah, then that means that the time for my dear cousin’s important decision is at hand,” Thanatas said, unable to hold in her excitement. “While I was changing, I received a message from Bon Bon that she was back from her mission and would be in Ponyville within a few hours after she checks the badlands Zerg hives. This is why we are touring the town in order to kill some time.” She turned to give Sophia a serious look. “I’m afraid that due to how much time she will have for this, I need you to make your decision by the time the tour ends. If you agree to the procedure, then I will call Bon Bon over right away. You have had plenty of time to decide on your future and this is the only timeframe we have available when we can help you.” Sophia gave a determined look and a nod. “Don’t worry, I’ve already made my decision. I understand the burdens that will be placed on me and the sacrifices that I will have to make as a result, not to mention the people that I will have to put up with for the rest of eternity.” She smirked playfully at Thanatas who smirked back. Lyra smiled at them before turning forward again and leading the group through town. Among the places along the tour that Lyra brought them, there were the Carousel Fashion Corporation and Sweet Apple Acres. The corporation started out as a chain of designer fashion stores founded by Twilight’s friend Rarity, which turned into a fashion school for aspiring designers. The corporation was built on that when one of Rarity’s descendents was a military-minded individual who designed the most fashionable yet functional battlegear in the world. The corporation was built on the idea that just because you are going into battle doesn’t mean you can’t look good while doing so. The Carousel Corporation was the leading designer for the most sophisticated and fashionable armor and stealth suits in the world. Sweet Apple Acres changed over the thousand years as much as it stayed the same. The Apple Family still ran the farm and had a number of farmhands to handle the harvest of the vast acres of apple trees. However, with the addition of new species integrating into the Equestian population, they had to expand into other markets to keep from falling behind the times. While apples were still the primary product of the farm, they discovered a gem mine just inside the Everfree Forest and, using the latest advancements in technology, were able to take the gems and grow new ones in their place, effectively creating a gem farm to put them in the dragon foods market. What surprised Sophia was how they entered the meat market to appeal to the carnivorous and omnivorous species. According to Lyra, Bon Bon had given the farmers a small Zerg hive cluster in order to raise the creatures like livestock. When it was learned that dragons and griffons as well as the changelings enjoyed the taste of Zerg meat, as well as how easy it was to grow and harvest Zerg, the farm became one of the nation’s top food producers. “Zerg are an extremely versatile species,” Lyra explained. “Originally, they were used as a weapon to wipe out the Protoss. But thanks to Bon Bon, we found that they were capable of so much more. Some hives were used as livestock breeding, some had their fangs and claws traded in to become companion pets, while those who didn’t were protective pets. A thousand years with them among us allowed us time to get used to them. The more intelligent varieties are given more advanced jobs with the brightest being among our military minds.” When the group saw the Zerg livestock, most of them gave disgusted reactions at the thought of eating such creatures. Sophia had to wipe away a little drool that escaped her mouth before anyone noticed. “They also have to keep the Zerg in separate pens because of their cannibalistic nature,” Lyra continued. “At first, we found a lot of what the Zerg did to be disgusting, including their appearance. But again, a thousand years immersed in that made us go numb to it. Some ponies have even taken to eating small quantities of Zerg meat, but not much since we are still primarily herbivores, unless you’re an alicorn.” Since she was on the topic of mentioning Twilight’s old friends, she briefly mentioned Rainbow Dash’s place in the Cloudsdale Hall of Fame. Since the city in question was far away at the time, the tour never took them there. Eventually, the group reached the end of the tour at Twilight’s castle. They were amazed that the castle was a massive bluish white crystal tree. The external appearance made one who had never seen it before think that the castle was a massive purple treehouse built into the crystal tree. They approached the door and Lyra knocked on it. The others spent the time waiting for a response to look at the castle again. It was nearly a minute later that the door opened and a purple draconic head popped out of the opening. The dragon looked at the group and smiled. “Hey Lyra, Twilight will want to thank you for bringing these guys over here.” “Hey Spike, is her communicator available? I need to make a call,” Lyra responded. “Huh? What for?” “I need to call Bon Bon over here to perform a procedure on one of my friends here.” “Princess Sweetie Drops? What kind of procedure? Is one of them infested? I thought Princess Sweetie Drops had control over all the Zerg on Equus.” Lyra sighed, “Look, we don’t have time to dawdle. I’d like to get this procedure over with so I can have enough time to show them around Gemity before whoever has been messing with the Eternal Sphere gets impatient.” “Uh, right, I’ll go get Twilight. You guys make yourselves comfortable in the waiting room.” Spike walked off into the castle, leaving Lyra to guide the group to the castle’s waiting room. A number of conversations opened up. “Huh, he looks buff, but he’s not much bigger than most of the ones we fought before,” Cliff commented. “Don’t let his size fool you,” Lyra warned. “Spike is over a thousand years old and he knows how to change his size at will so he can move around in buildings.” “A thousand years old, he must be older than Crosell,” Nel noted. “Hey Lyra, you mentioned your friend was called Bon Bon, but that dragon, Spike I think you called him, called your friend Princess Sweetie Drops?” Fayt asked. “Bon Bon is my name for her and it’s the one that I knew her by in the early stages of our relationship,” Lyra explained. “Her real name is Sweetie Drops, having ascended to princesshood a thousand years ago.” “Relationship?” Fayt raised an eyebrow. “Yep, Bon Bon is my wife. She and I are the reason Equestria is what it is today. We spent eight years living among and fighting humans, Protoss and Zerg, ultimately leading to a face off against a malevolent godlike being.” “Are you sure about this, Sophia?” Thanatas asked. “Once the limiters are undone, there’s no going back.” “I’m sure, the alternative would lead me to leading an empty life full of suppressed desires and ambitions. It would be like living with a curse.” Sophia gave Thanatas a mischievous smirk. “Besides, I want a chance to kick your bony tail.” Thanatas had a wicked smirk on her face that grew into a huge wicked smile. “Oh, it is on.” The growing sound of hooves clopping on the crystal floor alerted everyone to somepony’s approach. It was about ten seconds later that Twilight, in all her alicorn glory, entered the waiting room. “Sorry I didn’t come get you myself, I had to send a status update to Princess Celestia. I’m still waiting for her response.” Every non-pony in the room widened their eyes as they saw a much bigger and more regal-looking Twilight. Her huge mane billowed in a non-existent breeze. Her uniform defined her curvature and bust size. The only frame of reference the humans could use to describe Twilight were the ancient amazon women they read about in mythological lore. “Damn, she went from about average to drop-dead gorgeous so quickly,” Cliff commented. The other men in the room silently ogled Twilight which made the alicorn mare increasingly uncomfortable. Peppita manifested a small mallet and bashed each of them in the head, taking care to remove Roger’s helmet when his turn came. While the men and boys were rubbing their aching heads, Twilight cleared her throat. “Right, anyway. I was told that you wanted to use my communicator to contact Sweetie Drops, Lyra?” Lyra nodded and walked out of the room to use the crystal communicator. Twilight watched Lyra walk away before she turned to the others while mentally pretending that the earlier action of the men didn’t happen. “I figured that Doctor Robert Liengod had developed a way for you to exist beyond the digital universe. He came to the same conclusions that I did in order to cross the divide between a digital being made of binary code and a being made of actual living flesh and blood. In order to do so, you had to be transformed into a non-digital being which was accomplished passively by Maria. You had to be able to bridge the connection between our universes without having an existing body of your own on this plane, which was accomplished by Sophia. Finally, in order to properly fight foes the way you have been up until now, you needed to bring the laws of the Eternal Sphere into this universe, which was done so by Fayt. “The doctor had modified your genes in order to prepare you to fight and defeat the one who created your universe, which was me. However, he had no way of knowing that you guys and I were facing a common enemy. In case any of you have any doubts, I may have created the Executioners, but I was not the one who unleashed them on the Eternal Sphere. The message from the Time Gate is evidence of that. Alicorns such as myself go by another name: Xel’naga. We are ascended beings whose purpose is the creation of new universes and seeking out those who possess impressive psychic power and the ability to adapt and change ourselves as we need. We are also the nation’s rulers.” “So this is the work of someone who doesn’t want the alicorns to rule anymore?” Fayt asked. “That seems to be the case. The question, though, is why? What have we done to make this mysterious being want to cause a sudden radical shift in our government? What does the Eternal Sphere have to do with this? “Princess Celestia has tested ponykind many times over the centuries with each new generation to see if they were more mature than the last. We have seen growth all over the nation, some more so than others. But Canterlot, the ruling seat of power for the nation, barely shows any sign of improving themselves. The nobility would be the ones to take the reins of power whenever we abdicate our positions and they still think about themselves more than the needs of the nation.” Twilight sighed. “I fear their own traditions and how they raise their foals is only making the houses stagnant in their ways while the nation moves on without them.” “Anything we can do to help?” Fayt asked. Twilight shook her head. “This isn’t something that can be solved with violence. This is our problem to deal with. Besides, we can’t take action against any of the houses unless they commit treason.” The discussions continued for a few more minutes before a knock was heard at the entrance. Lyra rushed to the door before anyone could move a few inches. They heard Lyra cheerfully yell “Bonny!” as they heard the door open. It was a few minutes longer before the one that they figured was Bon Bon or Princess Sweetie Drops was able to get past Lyra’s bodily blockade and enter the waiting room. The men gaped once again as they saw an alicorn mare with a cream-colored coat and a mane that looked like a fluffy cloud of fuchsia and navy blue extended down to her tail, which was also long and fluffy. Her body dimensions were about the same as Twilight’s. She also wore a black bodysuit that had energy traveling along the suit like a mechanical representation of the circulatory system. Her eyes were sky blue. Cliff whistled, “Damn, Lyra must be one lucky woman to have bagged that hot number.” Sweetie smiled, “I think I’m the lucky one to have someone like Lyra who stuck by me through thick and thin. She even put her own life in danger just to help me with my problems.” “I know you’ve all been around for a thousand years, but how come Lyra didn’t get a smokin’ hot body like you two?” That question caused several things to happen all at once. Lyra huddled up in a corner in depression, the non-ponies in the room shook their heads in disappointment at Cliff’s lack of tact, Twilight closed her eyes in preparation for what was about to happen, and Cliff got defenestrated through the nearest window in the room when Sweetie instantly closed the distance and kicked him through said window. “Impressive,” Mirage said. “Uhh, is he alright?” Fayt asked. “He’ll be fine, I’ve seen Cliff go through a lot worse than that. He has to be tough whenever his womanizing side shows itself.” Sweetie frowned at the broken window that she kicked the Klausian though. “I had to give Lyra a lot of encouragement to help her feel better about her body and he goes and exacerbates her body issues.” “May I ask why she has these issues?” Fayt asked. “I think the issue is that being around me for a thousand years has given her a complex. She does well to hide it, even to the point of erecting strong mental defenses around that part of her mind, but it doesn’t take a mind reader to know that she has thoughts about why she couldn’t have ascended with me.” Lyra remained silent as she listened to the conversation. “So why didn’t she ascend?” Fayt asked. “It’s because she doesn’t have Purity of Essence,” Sophia answered. “The ascension requires the subject to have both Purity of Form and Purity of Essence to be a candidate for it.” Sweetie nodded. “The easiest way of getting Purity of Essence is to subject yourself to Zerg infestation. However, the process is extremely dangerous and has a very high chance of the subject losing their willpower. I went through the process, but it was my drive and my desire to avenge those I lost that allowed me to endure it and remain me. Lyra doesn’t have those motivations so I would never allow her to go through what I did.” Lyra smiled as she got back up and rejoined everyone. “Yeah, you’re right about that. Instead, I focus on the things that I can improve on about myself and while Bon Bon’s body does make me a little jealous of her sometimes, I can at least accept that somepony like me is married to her.” Sweetie smiled back, “And I’m happy to be married to somepony who is willing to support me and my selfish desires, even when it puts her life at risk.” “At least I can brag about being one of the most powerful templars in Protoss history.” Lyra paused for a moment then cleared her throat as she decided to get back to the main subject. “Right, first introductions.” Everyone introduced themselves to Sweetie with Sophia introducing Cliff as the guy who was kicked out the window. “The reason I called you here…” Lyra continued, “...was because I need you to use your abilities to remove the limiters that were placed on Sophia.” Sweetie raised an eyebrow before she approached Sophia. “I’d like to look into your mind to see what Lyra is talking about. May I have a look?” Sophia nodded in consent. Sweetie’s eyes glowed sky blue for a couple of minutes before they returned to normal. “I’m surprised that the limiter is holding like it is. There is definitely a powerful infestation within you that seems in conflict with your considerable psychic powers. And you want to unleash it upon yourself?” “Yeah, my grandfather said that my humanity is the key to finding my inner harmony.” “Releasing those limiters is almost as dangerous as infesting Lyra. Even if I do so, your Zerg powers are going to lash out at everyone around you while you attempt to find that balance. There is a very high chance that you will either end up fully infested or your psychic powers go berserk. I can’t save you if either of those happen.” “I think she will succeed,” Thanatas declared with a wicked grin. “I can tell that she has a lot more potential than her grandfather or her mother. Plus, she has me and a huge supply of sedatives, adrenaline and engineered enzymes ready to help her.” Twilight smirked as Sweetie’s eyes widened. “And you thought I was a mad scientist sometimes.” Sweetie inhaled deeply and let it out to calm her nerves. “If you’re willing to go through with this despite my warnings, then let’s meet in Twilight’s underground operating room in an hour.” Thanatas smiled broadly as she looked at a slightly embarrassed Twilight, “It’s like we’re kindred spirits.” “Please don’t compare me to you…” Twilight groaned in exasperation. An hour had passed and the observers found seating in a large, underground, auditorium-style operating room, the kind where famous surgeons demonstrate groundbreaking procedures in medical science to their colleagues. As expected, the structure, like the castle, was made of bluish white crystal with the operating room itself being made of pure white crystals to demonstrate a sterilized environment. A table with straps was the only object in the room as all of the other equipment had been moved into storage for the procedure. Inside the operating room stood five individuals: three ponies, one undead who exchanged her armor for a surgeon’s outfit with a lab coat, and the patient in question. Thanatas had an unusually wide grin on her face. “Why do you look so cheerful?” Twilight asked with a nervous tone. “Because among my favorite horror scenarios, survival in a gore-splattered hospital is among them. Plus, if we fail here, I may even get to witness that.” “You are a very warped person, aren’t you?” Sweetie asked. Lyra ignored the conversation and patted the table in the center of the room in invitation for Sophia who was dressed in a hospital gown in anticipation for what was to come. “Are you ready?” she asked. Sophia’s silent nod gave her the confirmation she needed. “Alright, here’s the plan,” Sweetie began. “Once we begin, Twilight is going to use her shields to keep everyone in here contained. Thanatas will be injecting Sophia with whatever drugs are necessary as the situation develops. After I deal with the limiters, Lyra and I will be fighting whatever comes loose and tries to rampage around the room. The psi disruptors in the room will help Twilight make sure that the matter is contained. The rest will depend on Sophia.” With that, Twilight’s magic bound Sophia with every strap attached to the table to make sure she was unable to move. She knew that once the infestation started to go berserk, the straps would be quickly broken, but it would give them time to be on alert and go over their personal strategies. Once Twilight moved to the edge of the room and lit her horn to generate a barrier all over the room, Lyra activated the psi disruptors which made nearly everyone in the room uncomfortable. Sweetie and Lyra’s training allowed them to fight through the disruptor’s effects without hindrance. With all the preparations in place, Sweetie moved behind Sophia and hovered over her head. The alicorn’s eyes and horn glowed their usual sky blue color before she placed her hands on the rabbit girl’s temples. At the same time, Sophia closed her eyes as she willed herself into her own mindscape. Sophia once again found herself on the bridge of a spaceship with the operators being exact duplicates of herself. They continued paying her no mind…at least for a few more seconds. A brief flash of light burst from the captain’s chair which caused the entranced clones to look back and take notice of Sophia. “Captain, you’ve returned at last!” one of the clones exclaimed. “Please hurry into your seat, captain! I think the enemies have taken notice of us!” Sophia figured that the light was the act of the limiters being removed. There was no turning back now; do or die time. The bunny templar took her place in the captain’s chair, a sense of completeness filled her heart. At the same time though, she still felt incomplete. She knew what she needed to do. It was time to reclaim herself. Sweetie released her hold on Sophia’s head and took a few steps back as she took out her her rifle and wielded it in her right hand while her left hand quickly developed several layers of thick chitin. Her horn glowed while she mentally went through the number of spells she had learned over the centuries. “Get ready!” she warned. Thanatas had her own rifle ready with a number of specialized injection rounds in numerous magazines. She made sure her minions were ready to provide her the magazines she needed when she needed them. If things got a little dicey, she could still use her sword. Lyra deployed her red and green blades and took up her combat stance. Her muscles relaxed and her mind focused, ready in anticipation for a rough fight. One minute was all it took for all hell to break loose as Sophia’s eyes opened. Sophia suddenly found herself staring at a volcanic landscape. The sky was completely clouded with ash and the land beneath her feet radiated with intense heat, yet she did not feel that heat. Mountains of volcanic rock littered the landscape. Pools of lava were the only liquid to be seen on this smoldering planet. Seeing as she was alone at the moment, she looked around for the other two that she knew were nearby. Her search took what felt like hours until she entered a small valley that seemed shaped like a huge arena circle. She walked into the valley and toward the center. When she neared the center, she heard what sounded like her own voice, yet echoed. “About time you showed up! It only took, what, sixteen years? I had to fight this monster within you for that long without you.” Emerging from the shadows was a Protoss that was at least two feet taller than her. Her hair was a long braid that extended to her ankles and was colored the same as her own hair. Unlike the usual Protoss though, this one didn’t wear gold or black armor. It was the same design, except blue. The energy blades produced from her three-fingered palms were a brighter shade of blue than her armor. Like other Protoss, her skin was gray, she had no mouth or nose, her head was large and her legs were digitigrade. “I knew this day would come eventually,” her Protoss self said. “I’ve been doing my best to protect you from that creature, but now I can no longer resist the urge to challenge you. I know that the other part of you feels the same…isn’t that right?” The ground erupted nearby, and a dust cloud settled over the area. A grotesque creature emerged from the cloud. In terms of body shape and her facial structure, she still looked human, but that was where the similarities ended. Her arms and legs were covered in black spiky Zerg chitin and her fingers were razor-sharp claws. She still had a head of blue hair, but Sophia could tell that each strand moved about as if they had their own life. She also had a pair of chitinous growths on her back that extended outward and supported a large number of long, blue, thin tentacles along them. Whatever clothes she might have worn at one time appeared to have been fused into her skin as her torso appeared blue with black chitinous spikes. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” her Zerg self declared with a slightly distorted voice. “My prey finally comes to embrace her fate at the claws of the predator. My chance has finally come to devour you whole!” “You will do no such thing,” Protoss Sophia argued. “There is no place in this body for a wretch like you.” “I’ve had enough of you denying me my existence! All three of us were born together and I have every right to exist as much as you.” “Why should I allow you to continue? You seek to devour our host and use her to seal me away.” “If she does not wish to be dominated, she must be the one to dominate me! That is and always has been the way of the Zerg.” Protoss Sophia paused for a moment as she considered the words of her Zerg counterpart. “I’ve wanted a new challenge that wasn’t the same opponent, day in and day out. However, I can’t allow my new opponent to become infested, so I propose taking both of you on.” Zerg Sophia gave a wide, fanged smile, displaying rows of razor-sharp teeth. “For once, I actually agree with you.” Both aliens turned their heads to the bunny girl. “Sounds like a fun proposal, right?” “Oh, now I’m part of the conversation? About time you two let me get in my two cents with all of your bickering,” Sophia snarked. “To be honest, I’d rather the three of us get along like the fragments of a whole that we were meant to become. However, you two behave more like sisters who have been dying for a sibling scrap. So, if it means getting you two to listen to me, I’ll have to beat some sense into you two.” Zerg Sophia hissed in excitement, “Our human sister talks a big game, she better have the skills to back up those words.” “I shall give no quarter, nor shall I expect any in return! Let our skills decide the victor!” Protoss Sophia raised her energy blades and took up an attack stance. Zerg Sophia’s tentacles shuddered and flailed around as the muscles in each tendril stretched and moved in anticipation for a challenging fight. Human Sophia tried to will her energy blades but found that she was unable to do so. She heard chuckling from her Protoss self. “In this mindscape our powers belong to their original owners only. Any Zerg powers you might have used before will not aid you but my counterpart here instead. You will have to make do with the power of your humanity. We shall see if our grandfather was right about your humanity being our strongest power.” Realizing that her powers were limited to her non-alien powers, she tapped into her mindscape and created a rifle that she had seen Ghosts and Specters use in the visions. She momentarily considered what other possibilities that she could use the mindscape for but decided that the weapon would have to be a start if she didn’t want to get taken out early. Sophia’s eyes opened and she began to try to squirm her way free of the restraints. The ponies and undead watched in anticipation for the fight that would soon begin. And begin it did, once a number of tentacles grew from her arms and legs. The tendrils took on a razor-sharp form and sliced through the restraints, allowing Sophia to roll off the table and rise from the floor on four limbs. The now mindless creature growled like the beast she was while looking around, searching for her prey. Seeing the alicorn mare keeping her concentration on the shield, the predator saw an easy target. The others in the room noticed this and Sweetie was the first to block the feral creature’s line of sight to her prey. Sophia gave a low growl as a warning to not get in her way. Sweetie refused to move aside and gave her own hiss in challenge. The tentacles on Sophia’s body burrowed underground and while nothing seemed to happen for the next moment, Sweetie knew that the tendrils were burrowing toward her or Twilight. The alicorn of essence paid attention to the tremors in the immediate area until she realized that the tentacles were moving past her and aiming for her friend. Reacting quickly, Sweetie grew her own tentacles from her fingers and slammed them into the ground, piercing through Sophia’s tentacles. Sophia withdrew her own tentacles from underground which quickly regenerated. Sweetie grunted, “Even when feral she still has the capacity for clever thinking, this fight isn’t going to be easy.” She then glanced toward Twilight. “Twilight, turn off all lights in the room.” Twilight didn’t question Sweetie’s request, remembering how much combat experience the duo had over her. Using her skills in multicasting, Twilight reached out to the lighting system in the room and deactivated it, leaving the entire room enveloped in utter darkness. Thankfully, the glass in the observation room was enchanted to allow the denizens of the Eternal Sphere to see what was going on in there despite the darkness. “Is it a good idea for them to fight without being able to see?” Nel wondered. “I think the darkness is to allow Lyra to make full use of her abilities,” Fayt figured. “If the Zerg abilities are as adaptive as I’ve heard, Sweetie and Sophia will likely be able to see despite the darkness. I’m not sure about Twilight or Thanatas though.” “I believe Twilight is putting her faith in the others to not let Sophia near her,” Adray said. “Thanatas probably has her own way of adapting to the dark.” “I can’t help but feel a little helpless that we can’t do anything for them,” Maria said. “Yeah, me too,” Fayt agreed. Her counterparts were really laying on the pressure as Protoss Sophia created numerous copies of herself and each one unleashed a storm of psionic power all over the area, intent on electrocuting both of her opponents. Zerg Sophia went underground to dodge the storms and counterattacked by causing chitinous spikes to erupt from the ground, impaling most of the clones while her real targets were able to avoid the spikes by feeling out the tremors. Things became more troublesome when some of the erupting tentacles started spewing acid all around them. To counter this, Protoss Sophia created more clones and focused on electrocuting the acidic tendrils. Sophia had to show the other two that she was still a force to be reckoned with. Since this was her mindscape and she was a good study, she decided to try out some of her friends’ abilities. To start, she did her best to sense the tremors to feel out where her Zerg companion might be. She soon found that the tremors traveled from one location and moved through the growing forest of tentacles to their origin. Once near, she locked her fists together and jumped up into the air to unleash an imitation of Cliff’s Hammer of Might technique. The impact created a crater that forced Zerg Sophia to the surface in a daze. Sophia capitalized on this and slammed into her Zerg counterpart with Adray’s Chaos Tide. Sophia soon noticed that Protoss Sophia was heading toward her at blinding speed. Sophia smirked as she took advantage of her Protoss counterpart’s speed by constructing one of Albel’s Aura Walls. Protoss Sophia couldn’t stop in time before she got caught by the wall of wailing souls and screamed in pain as the wails tore at her mind. With her Protoss and Zerg counterparts temporarily incapacitated, Sophia used this chance to unleash her own battlefield hell by uttering the one type of symbology that required a chant. “Open the gateway to the sacred land, and let fly the arrows of judgment to strike down evil!” Incantation complete, a number of rifts opened to admit entry to a large number of flaming boulders that landed explosively all over the battlefield. Sophia’s Meteor Swarm left no area but her own position unstruck. Still recovering from the previous attack, her two counterparts were unable to avoid getting pummeled by the vicious assault from orbit. Of course, Zerg Sophia’s hard carapace and Protoss Sophia’s shields allowed them to mitigate some of the damage. Unfortunately, the two of them recovered and Sophia knew right then that she now had their full attention. The situation worsened as the fight progressed. Lyra attempted to attack Sophia from different angles using her speed, but Sophia proved that she wasn’t slow either when she managed to dodge some of Lyra’s strikes and forced the mare to back away when an unexpected tentacle slapped her in her face. Sweetie attempted to weaken the feral beast by creating an explosive Baneling and hurling it at her. Her eyes widened in surprise when Sophia jumped to grab the living grenade and threw it at Lyra, forcing her to dodge. “Now would be a good time to slow her down,” Sweetie called out. “Really? It looked like you had the situation well in hand,” Thanatas playfully stated. “It would be remiss of me to deprive you of your fun.” “Thanatas…!” The undead laughed a little before she aimed her rifle. “Alright, alright.” She quickly moved in and gained Sophia’s attention who tried to attack her with a tentacle. Thanatas sidestepped this and grabbed the tendril. She then squeezed it tight until Sophia screeched in pain. While distracted by the feeling, Thanatas then fired a few rounds of sedatives into the beast’s hide, deliberately aiming at the gaps in the carapace. Sophia’s movements slowed momentarily which gave Sweetie an opening to fire a few explosive rounds from her rifle at Sophia’s face. This only served to make her angry. Her counterattack came in the form of the tentacles adopting a green glow. Sweetie warned everyone to move away which everyone did before Sophia unleashed numerous torrents of a green-glowing substance all over the floor. Thankfully, nobody was hit by it while Thanatas took a small sample from the floor using a test tube. She backed away from the fight and pulled out an eyepiece that she used as an impromptu microscope. She had her suspicions about the sample and they were confirmed by what she saw. She whistled in amazement. She then took a look at Sophia and noticed that she was showing no signs of slowing down despite all the sedatives pumped into her. In fact, they only continued to intensify. “Looks like my usual drugs aren’t going to have much of an effect on her,” Thanatas concluded. “Her body is too adaptive for anything to work on her for more than a few seconds. Also, don’t touch the goo on the floor, it’s viral.” “You mean like, make us sick?” Lyra hoped while avoiding another green spew. “Have you two ever encountered the Zerg virus during your adventures in the Koprulu Sector?” Sweetie groaned, “I was hoping that you weren’t going to come to that conclusion.” She dodged a few more tentacle swipes. “This stuff is more potent than what you encountered. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was capable of infecting alicorns.” Sweetie silently cursed her day and wished for it to be over sooner. Sophia could tell that this fight was coming to its conclusion, one way or another. While that barrage of meteors did inflict a lot of damage on both of her counterparts, that also caused both of them to rush her and inflict some pain of their own. Protoss Sophia was still the fastest of the three and made good use of that speed as she attacked her from different angles while shifting around using the shadows. It was all she could do to dodge her strikes and slashes from her blades but she still sustained some cauterized cuts and a few bruises from punches and kicks that didn’t come from an energy blade. However, Sophia also sensed that her Protoss self didn’t use the full array of abilities that she knew she was capable of. For some reason, she didn’t tap into the Tal’darim techniques that would have ripped her life force from her. Zerg Sophia contributed some damage as well when she ambushed her from behind and gave her a deep slash in the back before leaping aside and crouching down while sticking her finger into the ground. Sophia failed to react in time as a blunt tentacle erupted from the ground and slammed into her gut. Sophia recovered quickly and jumped backwards to get some distance. For some reason, neither counterpart chased after her. While Sophia was bleeding in places and suffering from bruises and possibly cracked ribs, neither seemed to be following up on their attacks. This left her curious. “I know you two can be more vicious than that, why aren’t either of you coming at me to try to kill me?” Protoss Sophia raised an eyebrow while Zerg Sophia chuckled as if a joke was told and she was the only one who knew the punchline. “Why would we?” her Protoss self asked. “I just wanted to test your mettle and see how well you would fare against me without your psychic powers. You did surprise me when you started using abilities that your friends knew. I could see the strength of humanity when you incorporated their strengths into your own and that meteor storm you threw at us really hurt. After that I decided to make you feel the pain I felt because we weren’t going to let you get away with being the only undamaged combatant in this fight.” “Yeah, I already knew that your will was indomitable because neither of us could dominate the other and that’s because we are one in the same,” Zerg Sophia added. “Though that attack you did really pissed me off and I wanted some payback. It may not look like it, but I did suffer some internal injuries from those meteors. I regenerated the damage, but I wasn’t about to let you get away with that. My pride wouldn’t allow it. After all, we are petty people sometimes.” “So what was the purpose of this fight anyway?” Sophia asked. “To see if you were ready to stand with us as equals,” her Protoss self answered. “Grandfather was right to restrain us until you were ready because any imbalance between us would have had catastrophic results. I think I speak for my colleague here when we say that you are ready.” Zerg Sophia nodded. “So what happens now?” “You know the means for those of equal power to become one. A practice of sacrifice among the Protoss High and Dark Templars to unleash untold power shall, for us, bring completion to us at long last.” Protoss Sophia offered her hands to both of her counterparts who each took one before they took each other’s other hand, forming a small circle. Protoss Sophia then created a warp field in the center of them which began to pull all three of them into it. None of them resisted the pull and were soon consumed by the warp field. The warp field then began to erupt with immense power and that energy radiated throughout the mindscape, collapsing it while remaking it into something new at the same time. With the area partially flooded with viral goo, moving around the room soon became a challenge to avoid being infected. Thanatas soon had to take matters into her own hands and plunged her sword into the floor which released a wave of ice which encased the viral matter. Sophia was temporarily immobilized with having her hands and feet under the ice. Only a second passed before she ripped her extremities from their frozen tomb. Sophia then aimed a tentacle at Thanatas with intent on spraying her, but the undead wasn’t having that as she threw an open flask into the mouth of the tentacle and the chemicals within the flask soon entered the tendril. The chemicals reacted with the virus and caused the appendage to explode violently, causing Sophia to roar with pain. From her shoulders sprouted a pair of sharp blades that reminded Sweetie and Lyra of Ultralisk blades. The blades moved against each other as if to sharpen the other. She then turned her sights to Twilight again and prepared to charge. Being the only one unable to see in the dark, the mare had no idea what was about to come at her. Lyra attempted to stop Sophia’s attack but a tentacle grabbed her from behind and threw her at a distant wall. Sweetie was halted when a number of spewing tentacles aimed at her. Sweetie might have had Zerg DNA within her, but she had a feeling that the virus would still alter her in a horrific way. Sweetie shouted for Twilight as the feral beast began charging at the blind mare. Twilight was confused about what was going on and still had no idea what Sweetie was yelling at her about. The charge was halted, however, when the beast’s eyes glowed along with a light coming out of her mouth and the mouths of her tentacles. Twilight, who could see how close the light was, stopped her spell in fright as she realized how close Sophia was to her. As the mare moved to the side, Sophia roared and flailed as if her insides were on fire. As everyone moved into one group, trying to avoid slipping on the ice on the floor, they watched as Sophia continued to flail as the energy continued to sear her insides. “Is she going to explode?” Twilight asked with worry. “If she does, I wonder how big the blast will be,” Thanatas said with more excitement than the situation called for. “Maybe it will be like watching a tactical nuke go off in your face.” Thanatas’ comments ignored, the four watched as the flailing eventually came to an end and the creature slumped over. With that, Twilight turned the lights back on so she could get a better look at the unmoving creature. The unmoving form of their friend and family member looked like a twisted shell of her former self. None of them believed that she was dead, however, because they could either sense her brain activity or they could sense her soul in Thanatas’ case. As they approached the husk, they waited a little longer before Thanatas got impatient. “How long are you going to keep hiding in that thing? We have things to do so don’t make me C-section you out of there.” That was when a set of chitinous claws pierced the spinal area of the husk from within and tore along it, tearing a huge opening from which a familiar blue rabbit girl emerged from. She stood up and cracked her neck and any other parts of her body that felt tense. “I really did not expect this whole thing to end with me shedding my skin. Unpleasant, yet relieving at the same time.” At the same time, everyone was looking at Sophia but remained silent as they figured out a way to address the proverbial elephant in the room. In the observation room, some of the men in the group suddenly got nosebleeds from looking at Sophia. They were quickly dealt with by the women. Thanatas was the first to speak to the reborn girl. “Allow me to be the first to welcome you back to the Craft family and I believe that I speak for everyone here that I make this request.” “What is it?” Sophia asked. “Put on some clothes.”