Mare awoke in a mysterious room that was pitch black, with the only light coming from a single flickering lightbulb right above her. She fluttered her eyes open, realizing at once that she was not dead anymore! How was this possible? She hadn’t remembered being dead at all, the only thing coming to mind was getting stabbed by her rampaging stuffed animal’s sword. Then…nothing. But she had unfinished business, that was for sure. Whoever had brought her back to life did so for a reason, and she was going to find out why if it was the last thing she did. She was laying on a bed that felt stiff and hard beneath her.
That was when a black male alicorn with a red mane and tail walked into the room. He had headphones on and was listening to strange pop music that she could barely detect with the power of her super hearing. Mare was intrigued. She had never seen an alicorn besides the core four princesses in her life, and she was interested to learn more about him.
“Greetings, Mare!” The alicorn greeted with the Royal Canterlot Voice. “It appears my spell that was only convenient for the plot of this story worked! You have been awoken from the dead by me, Prince Edgelord OC!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-“ He coughed upon doing the evil laugh. “On second thought, acting evil isn’t really my specialty.”
“Prince…Edgelord OC?” Mare asked in a confused tone. She sat up on the edge of the bed, ignoring the rapidly increasing headache that had just come on from her sudden movement. “I-I don’t understand. Why am I here? Last I remembered, I was in the Canterlot Throne Room. What do you want with me?”
The alicorn known as Prince Edgelord smirked. “Everything…” With a blast from his crooked horn, one of the walls of the room suddenly lit up with holographic 2D storybook animation that morphed according to what he said in any given moment. “I think you’ll find that you need me. You need me to help you undo this world you created by letting your murderous teddy bear kill all of ponykind. I’m offering you a way to undo all of this. If we work together, we can find the one artifact that can reset everything to how it was before my evil sister showed up.”
Mare peered closer at the moving figures as a single blue stone that a unicorn was holding came into view. “Which is…?”
“The Time REVERSE-INATOR!!!!!” Prince Edgelord declared proudly as the projection in front of him slowly zoomed into the stone. “Long before your time, we alicorns were the rulers of all civilization. There were thousands of us, all serving one specific cosmic function. That was until Celestia and Luna decided that they weren’t content with just ruling one part of Equestria. No. They wanted ALL OF IT. They slaughtered all of the alicorns save for Villain and I, and took control of the land. They proclaimed themselves sole rulers of the cosmos and buried any traces of us from the histories. We remained hidden…until now.”
“Wait…” Mare realized with shock. “You mentioned Villain. I defeated her using the power of my plot armor. She was…?”
“My sister.”
“Oh shit…”
“The only pony powerful enough to kill an alicorn…was you, which is why I realized that I needed your help. When Celestia murdered our kind, we hid the last hope for our revenge somewhere across time and space. We split the Time Reverse-inator into different halves so that the “princesses” could never find it. Each fragment is hidden within a different Equestria. You must traverse the multiverse to find it and get it back. With it, you can undo anything from the past and save everypony from extinction. But you must do something for me.”
“I’ll do anything to undo the damage that stupid bear caused,” Mare pleaded. “Please…name me any price, and I’ll gladly pay it. I want my friends back.”
“Then I only ask of one thing. Once the Time Reverse-inator is whole again, you must go back in time and kill the two ponies responsible for the current state of affairs in the first place.”
“Who?”
“Kill the Princesses.”
Mare gasped. “Never! I’d never agree to that! You essentially want me to undo thousands of years of history! Princess Twilight would never rule! I can’t!”
“Why not?” Prince Edgelord asked. “If it meant you could see your fellow ponies again, isn’t it worth the cost? Remember, they destroyed our kind and they weren’t even there to stop Bear from killing everyone. If they truly cared about Equestria, you’d think that they would save their former subjects.”
Mare had to concede the point. She saw his reasoning and she understood the severity of the situation. Edgelord obviously wasn’t a villain, more so a victim of circumstances beyond his control like her. But could she really bring herself to destroy the alicorns who had ruled the land fr decadez? She didn’t know, and it was a prospect daunting to her. She essentially had to travel the multiverse to do someone else’s bidding, but it wasn’t like she had any choice in the matter.
She just wished there was another way.
“Well?” Prince Edgelord prodded her, growing increasingly frustrated at her cliché indecision. “Oh come on, it isn’t even that hard. I’m not even blackmailing you.”
“If you promise that you’ll help me restore Equestria back to its former glory,” Mare finally said. “Then I’ll do it…but I don’t like it. H-how will I even find my way back here?”
“I surgically installed a tracking device in your head before you woke up,” Prince Edgelord replied calmly. “Should you deviate from the mission in any way, well, let’s just say that I haven’t had fried Earth Pony Soup in ages. Essentially, you’ll explode into a million pieces, and even if I wanted to respawn you a second time, you would essentially be unsalvageable.”
So much for the lack of blackmail in this deal, Mare thought. It wasn’t like she has any other choice, and she wanted nothing more than to return to her normal life and live the rest of her days as a boring, overpowered as heck Mary Sue who nopony cared about. Yes, she got yo be a hero, but at the cost of all ponykind. She vowed to not let death be the reason why she lost. After all, she was the smartest pony in all the land, and as horrible as this deal was, she ultimately knew that the ends justified the means, and if genocide meant she could be free of her emotional baggage, then she didn’t see why not. It was a no brainer.
“Okay!” she decided, shaking his hoof firmly. “You got yourself a deal. But I’ll be holding you to your word. You better keep your promise.”
“I’d have no reason to lie to you, my dear,” Prince Edgelord answered her with a sadistic smile. “You and I are in the exact same situation. We both want to find a way out. Now let’s get started on some multiversal hijinks. The first Rauestria you will be going to will be set in the far future, one where harmony has been replaced by unity.”
“Where am I going?”
“You must snag the first Time Reverse-inator fragment from the Crystal Brighthouse before anypony notices you. You’re going to the Misty Saga during the time of Sunny’s betrayal.”
Mare had to blink twice to make sure she was hearing correctly. “The Who saga?”
“The Misty Saga was a collection of stories written by a batpony named Hawk Nightwing,” Prince Edgelord explained. He and Mare were walking down the main hallway of the decrepit lair. “Villain and I managed to access that universe and hide the fragment of the Time Reverse-inator at some point in the timeline. But you’ll need to act fast. Kill anypony you have to if you must. But you must make off with the fragment alive.”
“But won’t Hawk be mad if you’re messing with his series?” Mare inquired worriedly. “I can’t imagine he’d be very happy with what we’re doing.”
“Oh I assure you, he can’t stop us,” the dark alicorn assured her. “You see, it’s only once a year, on April Fools Day, that crazy shenanigans like this can happen before everything must go back to normal. I offered him a nice vacation to where he’ll probably never come back from. Now we can do whatever we want because we have no author controlling us.”
Mare froze at that. “Wait…where did you send him?”
Meanwhile in an alternate dimension…
“Welcome…TO THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS!!!” Caine announced proudly. “My name is Caine. I'm your ringmaster and I'm here to show you the most jaw-dropping, heart stopping, mind-bending paraphernalia you've ever laid your eyes upon! Isn't that right, Bubble?!”
“That's right, Caine!” Bubble agreed. “I can't wait to see what you've got cooking up for today!”
“Well, let's not waste any time! Let's get right into the show!” declared Caine as he pulled back the curtains to begin the theme song.
As each of the characters, consisting of Gangle, Zooble, Kinger, Ragatha, Jax, and Pomni were introduced one by one to the audience, there was a brief flash and a batpony stallion wearing guard armor appeared out of nowhere and onto the stage. He looked around, horrified at his surroundings, as objects rushed past him.
That was when he tripped over Pomni’s foot and everyone fell into each other, abruptly ending the theme song before it could finish.
“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!” Hawk apologized upon realizing what he had done. He helped the jester girl up, who only gave him a mild glare before turning towards the others. “Are you okay, I-“ That was when he noticed the teeth eyes abomination that was Caine. “Who the f***k are you?!” It was then that he noticed that his use of the F word had been censored by a cartoonish black box.
“Now now now,” Caine admonished him. “We can't have any of that foul language around here. The Amazing Digital Circus is a place to be enjoyed by all ages. You, my friend, stumbled into an incredible world of wonders, where anything can happen!...E-except for swearing.”
“Trust me, I tried it too.” Pomni muttered under her breath.
“You what?!” Hawk asked her in shock. He then turned back towards Caine. “Listen here, Teeth Face. I need to get home to work on my next video, so can you quit your shenanigans and-“
“Gadzooks, you're right, Hawk! We should have a brand new adventure for you!” Caine interrupted him before he could finish. “This is going to be the best, most awesomest day you’ve ever had! Now…the next adventure is-“
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Hawk screamed at the top of his lungs, forcing the others to cover their ears.
“Yep. He’s definitely abstracting next.” Jax remarked with a wink.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s fine,” Prince Edgelord reassured her with a smirk. “Now, this timeline has been one that’s effectively been abandoned by Hawk. He finished the story and reset the continuity into a new universe. So because he’s no longer touching it, I’m sure he won’t mind if we make some little adjustments. Maybe trim the fat so to speak.”
“So essentially, all I gotta do is get in there, grab the fragment of the Time Reverse-inator and get out,” Mare said. “Sure…can’t be that hard, right? I mean, what are those ponies gonna do, Prince Edgelord? Kill me? I’m the main character.”
“That certainly checks out,” Prince Edgelord affirmed. “Also, from now on, you can just call me Edge. We’re friends now, and I honestly think my full name is a bit too on the nose, wouldn’t you say?”
Mare giggled. “I certainly think so. But…how will I know what the fragment looks like? There could be like a thousand different artifacts in that future timeline alone. I won’t know where to find it!”
“Trust me,” Edge replied slyly. “You’ll know. When you least expect it, the artifact will call out to you and beg you to take it back home to me. You will obey its call. OR ELSE…”
Mare rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah yeah. I get it. Let’s just get this multiversal heist over with so I can get back home to my perfect life.”
With that, Edge blasted a portal that appeared at the end of the hallway. It pulsated with dark energy that kept Mare’s eyes transfixed and glued to it. She couldn’t take her eyes off of it as she slowly stepped toward it one hoof at a time. This was it. This was her ticket to going home, and she was not going to waste it.
“Remember…” Edge told her before she stepped through, his expression radiating authority. “Do not fail me, little pony. Or there will be consequences. Do not let those future ponies deceive you.”
“You can count on me. I don’t fail at anything.” Mare replied confidently. “I once met a guardian snake that was feeling very lonely and sorry for himself.”
“Okay…so what did you do?”
“I left him to cry alone in his misery for the rest of his life without a second thought.”
Edge was taken aback at that, staring at her with a newfound respect. “Oh. Wow. You’re very cold blooded. Well, I’m sorry for ever doubting you. You’re gonna do great.”
And with those words cheering her on, Mare stepped through the portal to a distant future. She would not be deterred. She would find all fragments of the Time Reverse-inator and save her fellow ponies because she was the main character of this story. And that was all that mattered.