The door to the wedding altar opened. Tippi and Blumiere walked in first, followed by Nastasia, Mimi, O’Chunks, Picard, Rarity, Luigi, Gilgamesh, Twilight, Toph, Cosmo, Data, Caspian, and Vivian. It was quite the gathering.
“This… this is where it all started,” Rarity said. “Where the Chaos Heart was born.”
Blumiere nodded. “Yes… where I followed the prophecy of the Dark Prognosticus.” He lifted the Prognosticus in his hands, gesturing to the altar. “Timpani… do you still love me?”
“Yes, Blumiere,” Tippi said. “Of course I do.”
“Then… we must climb this staircase and set right what I… what we put wrong.”
“We should have used our love to cherish the worlds…” Tippi said. “Not rebel against them, against our home.”
“I know that now better than ever.”
“ ‘Ey… Count?” O’Chunks walked up. “What’re yeh doin’? I… I don’t understand…”
Blumiere tipped his hat up, looking O’Chunks in the eye. “The Chaos Heart cannot be disbanded without a death, O’Chunks. It must either be mine or another chosen of the Chaos Heart. And… I am lucky enough to possess true love, which means… Timpani and I can do something better than disband the Chaos Heart. We can restore Purity with… a sacrifice.”
“But then you’ll… be gone!” Mimi shouted. “I… I don’t want you to go!”
“I have done so, so much evil,” Blumiere said, lowering his hat and shaking his head. “This is the only way to atone.”
“And I… I don’t have long to live,” Tippi said, turning to Twilight and Data. “I know you have ideas on how to save me, but... I think I need to do this.”
Twilight nodded, tears in her eyes. “We’ll… we’ll miss you.”
“The worlds will remember your great sacrifice,” Caspian said, bowing.
Data couldn’t stop bawling. He tried to hug Timpani, but hugging a partially digitized butterfly isn’t really possible. Instead, she just landed on his head and stroked his hair, calming him down. “There, there, Data… It’ll all be fine. And these emotions? You’ll learn to love them.”
“It does not feel like that will happen…”
“They are what allow you to love Twilight. Start there.” She fluttered into the air, turning to the rest of the heroes. “I… I am proud to call all of you my friends. Toph, you are the strongest and most annoying person I know, I wouldn’t have traded the chance to know you with anything.”
“G-glad to hear it!” Toph stammered, trying to keep a big smile.
“Cosmo, you are the kindest soul I have ever met.”
Cosmo bowed to her in silent dignity, unable to speak.
“Caspian, you are noble, just, and maybe just a tad arrogant.”
Caspian nodded in resignation, a slight smile crawling up his face. “Although we have known each other for a short time, I feel as though I have known you for eternity.”
“I feel the same… about all of you.” Tippi turned to Vivian. “You give me hope, Vivian. You are the darkest among us… but that smile. Thank you for it.”
Vivian put a hand to her mouth in embarrassment.
Blumiere tossed the gem back to Vivian. “You’re still inheriting this.”
Vivian grasped the crystal, nodding. “I won’t let you down!”
Tippi turned to Gilgamesh last. “I know you have my curse, and I know you think of it as a boon to your life. But remember… the wandering doesn’t have to last forever. You can find a way out. ...Think about it.”
Gilgamesh made no response.
Lucy walked up to Blumiere, tears in her eyes, pulling him into a hug. “I… I barely got to know you.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” Blumiere said. “But this is for the best.” Slowly, he turned to Nastasia. “...Nastasia, I’m sorry. I know how you feel, and I could never return it to you.”
“It… it’s fine,” Natasia said, wiping her eyes. “You were loyal. That was good, ‘K?”
Blumiere nodded. “Find a new life, Nastasia.”
“I… I’ll try.”
Blumiere looked up at O’Chunks, Mimi. Lucy, and Nastasia. “I could not have asked for finer minions. I release you all, to live your lives to the best of your ability.”
“C-Count…” O’Chunks stammered.
Mimi nodded. “We’ll do it! We’ll make you proud!”
Blumiere stopped at Luigi. “Do not hurt yourself for the darkness you did. It was not you, but the evil that was in you, and the acts of a vile man. You are a hero, Luigi. The Chaos Heart merely chose you to turn that idea into a blasphemy. Don’t let it win.”
“R-right,” Luigi stammered.
“And Rarity…” Blumiere strode to the unicorn. “I think I owe you the most thanks out of anyone here. Had you not broken through my exterior when you did, I may not have come to terms with… wanting to lose.”
Rarity nodded curtly. “And I… hate you for so, so many things. But, in a roundabout way, you’ve shown me who I am, and shown me how far we should be willing to go to save those in the darkness.” She bowed to him. “It… was an honor serving with you.”
“Well…” The room shook. “It’s time.” Blumiere let Timpani land on his finger, and they moved to climb the stairs. Picard was already there, having procured the Prognosticus.
“I do believe… you’ll need a witness, will you not?” Picard asked.
“We are already married,” Tippi pointed out.
“But that was between two people who are no longer with us,” Picard said. “You are different people now, if you accept it or not. You were torn from each other and thought the other dead. If you want to properly renew your vows…”
“Thank you, Picard,” Blumiere said with a nod. “You… I can’t imagine a better man to bless our renewal.”
Tippi giggled. “ ‘Make it so!’ “
Picard gestured for the two of them to climb the stairs to the altar. He approached them with the Prognosticus, setting it down on the altar between the two of them. Luigi ran up after them, setting the Chaos Heart on top of it, before jumping back to the bottom of the stairs. Twilight teleported up all eight Pure Hearts.
“I have overseen many weddings as the Captain of a large starship,” Picard said. “But I have never overseen one who carries on it the fate of all worlds. So we… will make this short. Blumiere, do you take… Timpani to be your lawfully wedded wife, until your days be over?”
“I do.”
“Timpani, do you take Blumiere to be your lawfully wedded husband, until death do you part?”
Timpani’s fluttering increased in speed. “I do!”
“Then… I pronounce you, once again, man and wife. ...I would say you may kiss the bride, but that may prove difficult.”
Timpani giggled, flying over to Blumire’s finger and landing on it. “This’ll work just fine.”
Blumiere looked at her with a deep, contemplative smile. “There were so many things I wanted to say to you… but I could not find the words.”
“Oh, Blumiere. Only one thing matters to me now. I didn’t return your question down there. Do you still love me as well?”
The Chaos Heart twitched. It began to revitalize… but not with a black, inky color of hate, but rather a beautiful pale gray light.
“Of course,” Blumiere said, wiping a tear from under his monocle. “I have thought about you every moment since you disappeared. But… I have caused you much suffering.”
Tippi stretched her wings back. “Perhaps… my life would have been more carefree without you, that is true.”
“But I had to be with you,” Blumiere said.
“And that is what caused all of this,” Timpani said, barely noticing the gray Heart floating next to them. “We… we should have been better. We tried to hide, tried to be secretive, tried to ignore the rest of the world and stay in our love.”
“That is what we must set right,” Blumiere said. “We… are not all that is in the world. There is so, so much more. We shouldn’t love each other in spite of it, we should love each other for it!”
“Yes!” Timpani cried out. “Yes, restore the love we have for everything and everyone! I love these worlds, Blumiere, and I love you!”
The Pure Hearts themselves began to react. Not to Timpani’s and Blumiere’s love for each other—that was the gray Heart. No, the Pure Hearts recognized a much deeper, all-encompassing love coming from the two of them. The love… for everything and everyone. A pure love that shut nothing out, let everything in… A love that set right the mistakes of the past.
A tear fell down Blumiere’s cheek. “And I love you, Timpani. Hundreds of thousands of years from now, that fact will not have changed.”
The entire room began to shake, trembling. The Pure Hearts swirled around the gray Heart, twisting and turning in increasingly complex patterns until they folded into each other. All nine Hearts fused into one brilliant white light of absolute Purity. The Heart of Eden, the seed of all creation.
Contained within it was the altered Chaos Heart, reverted to its true form. What the Experiment was meant to be. It remembered all that the Chaos Heart had consumed. And, with its power… it began to restore.
There was a blinding flash of white light that blocked the altar from the view of those at the bottom stair… only Picard could still see Blumiere and Timpani and… Aslan, standing opposite Picard. Behind the lion stood several other figures, including Rosalina, partially obscured by fog.
Blumiere only had one thing to say to the figures. “Remember us…”
The lion smiled warmly. “Tonight… you will be with me in paradise.”
The light became too much for Picard.
As it consumed the entire room, everyone could hear the bells. Great, immense wedding bells that heralded the end of destruction…
~~~
Ring.
The Void collapsed in on itself; not just returning to the limited state it had been in Gaia, but completely collapsing, never to exist again.
Ring.
The purple clouds around the fleet and Castle Bleck vanished, revealing the cream-colored sky Flipside had known for so many years. Cheers broke out among the entire fleet. Celebrations erupted, champagne was opened, and confetti was strewn everywhere. All the armies stood down.
Ring.
An old man in Ba Sing Se who had refused to evacuate watched as the Void drained itself from the sky, vanishing into nothing. He grinned. “I knew I didn’t have to leave!”
Ring.
With a flash of white, Mobius returned. Somewhere deep in space, there was a confused alien crab-like creature who felt like he’d just been eaten by a purple vortex and couldn’t understand how he was still alive. He was thankful, though.
Ring.
Starfleet Command re-appeared. Applause and cheers broke out, and there was much kissing and hugging.
Standing atop one of the skyscrapers, Sunset smiled. “Looks like you didn’t doom us after all.”
“What did I tell you, Q?” Q said.
“Shut up, Q.”
Ring.
The Queen of Narnia looked up at the sky and watched the Void vanish. She smiled as cheers erupted out in the streets outside the castle—her husband had done it.
In the distance, she heard a triumphal roar.
Ring.
Mario woke up in his bed, feeling like… Luigi had just been through an ordeal, but everything was fine now. He poked his head outside and saw that the Void was no longer there.
Elsewhere, in Rogueport, there was a lot more overt celebration since they’d understood what was going on. They decided to have no mafia-gang wars for an entire day! That was unheard of!
Ring.
Twilight’s castle stood bright, reflecting the brilliant sunlight onto a fully restored Ponyville.
A white unicorn filly with pink and purple pastel curls stuck her head out of a Boutique.
“I… I guess everything’s fine,” Sweetie Belle said.
Ring.
“TAKE THAT!” Jenny shouted at the spot the Void had been. “That’ll teach you to mess with Jenny! Nobody messes with Jenny!”
Ivan let out a deep sigh. So nothing was going to change at all.
Ring.
An old professor sitting in front of a pink door felt an earthquake suddenly… stop. He smiled. All is safe.
Ring.
Ring…
Ring…….
~~~
“Timpani… do you remember the promise we made to each other that day?”
“Yes, I remember… If there was a place where we could be happy together, we would find it.”
“Will you come with me to that place now?”
“Blumiere… Of course… I will always be with you…”