//------------------------------// // 8. Vorton // Story: Through The Multiverse // by Battwell //------------------------------// Earth 1940 The Land of Oz The Wicked Witch of the West cackled as she jumped onto her broom, her hands crackling with magic as she levitated the Keystone into her hands. A green aura appeared around her when she tightened her grip around the Keystone, further elevating her power. "This magic," the Witch started, suddenly disappearing into a green vortex and reappearing behind Mario, Sonic, and Twilight Sparkle. "I can be everywhere all at once!!! Hehehehehehehe, with this magic, all of Oz will be mine!" Sonic rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before." The blue hedgehog suddenly curled into a ball before he shot upwards in an attempt to strike the Witch, but he was zapped by the Witch's magic, which sent him rolling across the Yellow Brick Road until he came to a stop next to his new allies. The Wicked Witch suddenly disappeared through a portal as three Flying Monkeys dove down to attack the trio of heroes. The monkeys charged forward, their claws bear as they flew closer to Twilight and the others. While Twilight teleported out of the way, Sonic and Mario jumped over two of the monkeys, quickly stomping on their heads when they were directly underneath them. As the monkeys tumbled to the ground, Twilight Sparkle reappeared behind the third monkey and blasted it in the back with her horn. Once the Flying Monkeys were taken care of, the Witch returned through a green portal, sneering at the three heroes. Both Sonic and Mario ran forward, but they both came to a stop when the Wicked Witch zapped them both with a freezing spell of sorts. "W-What the?" Mario stuttered through his grit teeth. Sonic tried moving his legs, but they just wouldn't budge, he was trapped. He couldn't move, and that was the one thing Sonic hated most in the world. Not being able to move. Seeing them struggle, the Witch cackled, pleased that her spell did the trick. Now nothing could stop her from taking over Oz. But just as she was about to fire another spell at the captured duo, she was suddenly struck in the side by a violet beam of magic. The sudden interruption made her lose focus, allowing both Mario and Sonic to free themselves with little effort. Twilight couldn't help but feel prideful, she did just free her new friends after all. Her smile turned into a worried frown as the Witch snapped her head towards her, snarling with raw rage and contempt. In a quick motion, as she saw the Wicked Witch hurl a green fireball at her, the unicorn lit up her horn and brought up a barrier to protect herself from the attack. Hurling fireball after fireball, the Wicked Witch of the West failed to notice the blue blur flying right towards her. She was struck in the back by a Homing Attack, which sent her falling off of her broom and landing right on her back. Due to the impact of the crash, she lost her grip on the Keystone. Her eyes widened when she noticed that it was no longer in her green hands. Quickly scurrying to her feet, the Witch bolted for the Keystone, hoping to once again have it in her grasp. She was so close, only for a certain plumber to shoulder charge her to the ground. As she tried to get back up, Sonic took this chance to run circles around her, hindering her vision and spinning her around in circles. Twilight, seizing the opportunity, used her magic to lift the Witch into the air and tossed her into the sky. While the battle raged on below, the battle in the sky was just as rageful, as both Iron Man and Batman dealt with the armada of Flying Monkeys. Grappling from one to the other, Batman kicked one monkey in the head before making his way to the other so he could elbow the him in the mouth. As both monkeys fell to the ground, Iron Man flew high, firing Repulsor Blast after Repulsor Blast at any monkey he saw. His shoulders lifted up, revealing miniature missile launchers. Once fired, the tiny projectiles struck any and all Flying Monkeys they locked onto. As the battle continued, Batman noticed that the Wicked Witch seemed to be at the end of her rope. She was struggling, time to put an end to this. "Stark!" He called out, getting the Armored Avenger's attention. He motioned his head toward the Witch, enticing Tony to look. When the hero saw the state of the Witch, he got the same idea as the Dark Knight. "Alright then, let's go to work!" He declared, zooming downward to join up with the others, with Batman gliding down right behind him. The Wicked Witch fumbled through the air, flailing her arms around as the ground grew smaller and smaller. A sudden sharp pain was made aware on her back, being kicked by Batman of all people is bound to do that. As she fell back down to the ground, Iron Man fired a Unibeam from his chest, sending the Wicked Witch of the West crashing down into a small crater on the Yellow Brick Road. She lifted herself up out of the crater, groaning in pain as all five heroes stood before her, with Iron Man and Batman landing down beside them. They all glared down at her fallen form, while she sneered back before calling her broom. Suddenly getting to her feet, the Wicked Witch jumped up into the air as her broom flew underneath her. Landing on the broom, the Witch took her leave, deciding that gaining the magical artefact was not worth all the trouble of fighting these so called heroes. She wouldn't win, and she knew that. "I'll get you, my pretties! And your giant dog, too!!!!" His mouth agape, Sonic shouted back, "I'm a hedgehog!!! Hedge-Hog!!!" He emphasized, but eventually gave up and rolled his eyes as the Witch and what remained of her Flying Monkeys left the area. Twilight felt a sense of relief wash over her as the Witch retreated, but also a sense of worry. In truth, she didn't feel like she was as useful as the other heroes. Granted she had been in worse danger than the Witch, but she barely did anything to combat against her. She didn't know many, if any, Attack Spells. She never needed too after all, she and her friends always relied on the Elements of Harmony to help save the day. But it seemed that this time, she would have to rely on something besides the Elements. Trotting over, the unicorn used her magic to levitate the Keystone into the air, quietly observing it as the other heroes walked over to join her. Strangely enough, she could feel the power this device held within it as she held it in her magic. It's like it was merging with her magic, she didn't know how else to describe the feeling other than odd. "That's impossible." Her ear flicked at the sound of Tony's voice, "What is, Tony?" She asked while turning her head to him. Tony Stark was at a loss, he was completely flabbergasted. "I just scanned that Keystone, the amount of energy it has is astronomical. It's registered at around 3.86 terajoules of energy." Both Sonic and Mario looked at each other with confused expressions while Twilight and Batman looked at the Keystone in awe. "I'm guessing that's more energy than in a triple A battery?" Sonic guessed, not completely sure what the big deal was. Batman looked to the hedgehog for a moment before refocusing his attention on the Keystone, "You'd be right, because that's more energy than there is in the sun." Oh that was what the big deal was. "Sooo what you're saying is...?" Mario trailed off as he slowly turned to Iron Man, not actually wanting to know what that meant for them. "This Keystone is extremely powerful.... And potentially very volatile, so we need to be very careful with what we do with this thing." The wind suddenly picked up in an unnatural way, putting everyone on edge as they anticipated what was going on. Twilight's sudden gasp enticed everyone to turn and watch the emergence of another Rift. The unicorn watched on in curiosity as the portal between worlds opened up before her and her new friends. She couldn't help but study it, the way it operated, the way it just appeared out of thin air. It truly was a remarkable thing for her to experience, and she thought that the effects of the Crystal Heart were nifty. "Look, another Rift!" Sonic pointed out, gesturing to the portal in question with a wide eyed expression on his face. Tony raised his hand towards the Rift and began scanning the Rift, hoping to figure something out about it. Much to his chagrin, the only thing that came back was how it was becoming unstable. "Uh guys? If we're going through it, we'd better do it now. Cause that thing is becoming unstable and I don't know about you guys, but I don't wanna find out what happens when that thing goes critical." They didn't have the time to discuss this as a sudden cry for help cried out from within the Rift. No-one knew who was screaming, except for Twilight, for it belonged to someone familiar to her. It belonged to a certain baby dragon. "SPIKE!!!" The lavender unicorn suddenly cried out, startling everyone in the process. She turned to the other heroes with tears glistening in the corner of her eyes, "That's Spike! That's my so- FRIEND!!!" She quickly corrected herself before continuing, "That's one of my friends! If he's there, then my friends must be in there too!" Sonic had a knowing smirk on his face, "And if your friends are there.." "Then ours must be too!" Iron Man finished. "Come on, we gotta get through that portal before it becomes unstable and closes... Or whatever it will do if it comes to that!" With that, he took off into the air before zooming forward towards the Rift with the other heroes following him. As she galloped, Twilight couldn't help but think optimistically, things were finally going in her favor. She was going to find her friends, the princesses, get the Elements of Harmony back, and help her new friends stop whoever was behind this. Tony flew through the Rift first, then Sonic, followed by Mario, who was trailed by Batman. She was the last to enter the Rift. "Hang on, everypony." She thought to herself as she drew near the portal, "I'm coming for you." Twilight jumped off of the Yellow Brick Road and leapt through the Rift as it suddenly closed, leaving the Land of Oz in peace once more. Once Twilight entered the portal, a flash of light blinded her eyes. She blocked out the light with her foreleg, hoping to keep the brightness out of her eyes so that she could see. When the flash of light dissipated, she saw that she and the other heroes were currently falling through the Rift. It felt like an endless free fall, it terrified, yet fascinated the mare. It was an experience that couldn't be described, and it was one that couldn't be felt by ponies, or people who have normal lives. Fortunately for Twilight Sparkle, her life was far from normal. Twilight turned her head and noticed that to her left, both Iron Man and Batman fell alongside her, and Mario and Sonic were to the right. "Where do you think we're going to end up?" She asked, hoping that anyone would have a slight idea. They did not. "I don't know." Tony answered truthfully, "But I got a bad feeling about this." He wasn't one who would surrender easily, so he pulled up a hologram on his gauntlet and used his other hand to try and get them all out of this mess. "If I can locate whatever's generating this Rift..." "Then you can disrupt it." Batman finished. After a few moments, a loud booming sound was heard once Tony deactivated the hologram on his gauntlet. Everyone then suddenly began to fall at a faster speed, causing great worry in all of them. "Does that mean it worked?!" Mario asked before he and everyone else was blinded by a large flash of light. Unknown Earth Vorton Vorton, a dark and desolate earth of unknown origin, devoid of any life whatsoever. No plants, trees, or grass in sight. Just stone and ancient technology filled this void of lifelessness. In the center of the dimly lit room was a Gateway made out of stone, hieroglyphics were carved into the portal, glowing with mystical power. A crackle of electricity sparked off of the Gateway, soon followed by another spark, then another, and another. Eventually the Gateway began to shake as it sparked to life as a portal appeared in the middle of the Gateway, sparks of electricity shooting off of the Gateway. It was getting out of control, it was becoming unstable and it would continue to do so until... It exploded, sending all five heroes flying out of the now destroyed Gateway. Twilight Sparkle and the others landed with a harsh 'Thud!' Large pieces of the Gateway fell to the floor along with small pieces of technology that helped operate the Gateway. The unicorn mare slowly got back up to her hooves, groaning in pain as she stood up alongside the other heroes. She turned to Batman and said, "Well, I don't quite know what you did, but we're still alive." Cracking his back, Sonic quipped, "Are you sure?" Shaking his head, the blue hedgehog looked around, hoping to see any sign of his friends. But unfortunately, there was no sign of them, "Doesn't look like our friends are here though." Twilight looked crestfallen at the news, she was so excited to get her friends back and return to her life in Ponyville. Looks like this is going to take longer than she originally hypothesized, but she had no time to worry about that now, she had to figure out where she and her new friends ended up. While the others gathered their bearings, Batman walked over to the remains of the Gateway and crouched down beside it, activating his Detective Vision as he picked up a small piece of tech to observe it closely. "This technology looks advanced." He spoke aloud so the others could hear him. "My guess? This gateway created the Rift that brought us here." "Which Gateway?" Mario asked as he walked over to Batman. Looking to the plumber with an unamused expression, Batman replied in a deadpanned manner, "The one that exploded." He then placed the piece of tech back down onto the ground, deactivating his Detective Vision and turning to face the others, "And with the Gateway destroyed, I don't think we're going to be leaving here any time soon." Sonic's heart fell into his stomach, he couldn't be serious right? They can't all be stuck in this small, tight room for all eternity, right? There's nowhere near enough room for him to run, it's too small, to compact, sealed off from the world. With those thoughts in mind, he dared to ask, "Are you saying that we're stuck here?" "Not necessarily." Iron Man piped up. "What do you mean?" Twilight asked, "Without the Gateway, how are we supposed to get out of here and save our friends?" His face plate slid up, revealing his curious face before stroking his chin and answering, "There's a terminal over there," he pointed across the room, where there was in fact, a terminal with a giant screen implanted in the stone wall, "Maybe it has some schematics for the Gateway, maybe we could figure out how to use it." He then shrugged his shoulders, "And who knows? Maybe we could finally start getting some answers as to what exactly is going on?" Deep in thought, the Dark Knight walked away from the remains of the Gateway and replied with, "Let's see if we can get that terminal back online." It was decided that their best bet was getting that control terminal back online. Mario reached the terminal and dragged his index finger across the keyboard. Not only was it very dusty, but the letters in the keyboard were of the same hieroglyphics that were etched into the Keystone. "I don't know," Mario mused before looking up to Tony, "Are you sure that you can get this terminal back online." Twilight nodded in agreement, sharing Mario's worries, "I have to agree with Mario. Tony are you sure you'll be able to figure this all out?" She then looked down at the foreign symbols on the keyboard with worry, "We don't even know what these symbols mean." Tony scoffed with a confident smirk on his face, one that reminded her of a certain rainbow maned pegasus, before replying, "Don't worry, Sparkle Butt." He then looked down at the keyboard with a smirk, "I'll be able to figure this out in no time at all." A few minutes later "...I can't figure this out." Tony stated nonchalantly out of nowhere. It had been a few moments after Tony had said with sheer confidence that he would be able to get the terminal back online. But even the self proclaimed smartest man alive couldn't figure out what these ancient symbols meant. He was struggling, and time was being wasted. Sonic, who had been tapping his foot against the stone cold floor for the past few minutes, looked to the Armored Avenger and asked, "I thought you said that you could figure it out?" Tony turned his head to the impatient hedgehog and rolled his eyes, "Well excuuuse me, but this is advanced, ancient technology." He folded his arms over his chest, "Not everything can be as fast as you, blue boy." Sonic was about to retort when something caught his eye. He turned to Twilight with confusion written on his face, "Uh, Twi?" Turning to the hedgehog, she responded, "Yes?" "The Keystone's glowing." He stated while pointing to said Keystone, which was still being held in Twilight's magical grasp. When everyone turned to Twilight and the Keystone, they all saw that the Keystone was most definitely glowing red... And upon further observation, so was the terminal. Before anyone could question it, a latch next to the keyboard suddenly slid open. With a hole that only the Keystone could fit into. "I think we're supposed to place the Keystone into the console." Mario stated the obvious. Not waiting for an invitation, Twilight slowly trotted over to the terminal to place the Keystone inside the console. Looking back at the group for a mere moment, Twilight sucked in a deep breath and faced the console. And placed the Keystone inside of it. The latch closed and all was silent for a few moments. Nobody said a word as they waited for something to happen. And they waited... And waited.... Aaand waited... When nothing happened, Sonic spoke up, "Well that sucked." As soon as he uttered those words, the terminal sprung to life! The screen lit up the dark room, the keyboard lit up, and a nice humming sound filled the ambient air. Without warning, the latch opened again and multiple schematics for the Gateway popped up on screen. Tony's face brightened as he leaned on the terminal, examining the schematics for the Gateway, "Now we're talking." It showed the various pieces, and what was needed to build the Gateway portal. Looking down to the bottom right, Tony and the others saw a picture of the Keystone. "Look." Batman said suddenly. Everyone saw that not only was the Keystone glowing, but so were the various broken pieces of the Gateway. It seems that the Keystone is needed to build the portal. Wanting to test out a theory, Batman picked up the Keystone and aimed it at a broken piece of the portal. For a split second, when Batman raised the Keystone into the air, the piece of the portal levitated as well. "Interesting." Twilight commented, "So not only do we need to use the Keystone to activate the technology in this place, but we also need it mend the broken pieces of the portal. This is so surreal, this technology is revolutionary! To think that The Ancients could be capable of such things is remarkable." Sonic quirked an eyebrow, "You've heard of The Ancients?" The unicorn nodded enthusiastically, "Yep! I've come across them in my studies of magic, but I couldn't find much since not much is known about them. All that is known is that the legendary Starswirl the Bearded came in contact with one and befriended him. It's said that their magic and tech is revolutionary, I can't help but think that this tech belongs to them." "Hmm... Eggman said that he found the Keystone in an Ancient City on our world." Sonic pondered to himself in thought, "Could they be connected in some way?" He was taken out of his thoughts when Tony said, "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm in the mood to rebuild a Gateway portal!" He looked to both Batman and Twilight, "You two wanna help me out?" While Batman nodded silently, Twilight on the other hand let out a squeal and jumped around in circles shouting, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!" Tony, Sonic, and Mario couldn't help but chuckle at the mare's antics. Even Batman cracked a small smirk, but nobody saw it, because as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared just as quickly. Tony clapped his hands together, "Alright then, let's get to work."