Spike couldn’t sleep.
It was an odd thing for him. Considering that he had arrived with Twilight and the others around midnight, and it was now approaching two in the morning. He should have been curled up in bed and dead to the world. But he couldn’t sleep. And he knew why. He was worried about Twilight. And fair Rarity. And the rest of his friends. Heck, he was even worried about Skitch-Sketch or whatever her name actually was. It wasn’t like anything that had happened to her was her fault. Least he didn’t think so.
Which was why he was marching back down to the dungeons.
The dungeons that really should have some ponies on guard duty. He thought, walking through the empty guard station at the entrance to the cell block.
“Well...this isn’t intimidating or anything,” He muttered, peering into each empty cell as he passed.
The sound of a crash reached his ears, coming from up ahead, where the magic proof cells were; and where Skitch-Sketch had been locked up. He picked up the pace, the bangs, shouts and crashes growing louder with each step. He arrived just in time to see Rainbow Dash slam Skitch up against the bars of the cell.
The expression on Rainbow Dash’s face almost made Spike trip over his own feet in shock. It wasn’t angry; that was the freaky thing. Her expression was detached, distant, almost looking past the world and everything around her. If it wasn’t for the fact she was trying to throttle Skitch-Sketch to death, he’d say that she was in some kind of trance.
Skitch desperately kicked out with a hoof, firing Dash back across the room. With a flare of her wings, the pegasus quickly recovered, swooping back towards the unicorn.
“Skitch?” Spike gaped, “What’s going on?”
“Spike!” She winced, trying to hold Rainbow Dash off with her forelegs, with debatable success. Each wingbeat made Skitch’s limbs buckle more, closing the distance between the two. The weather pony was much stronger than the human turned unicorn, “Open the door! She’s being mind controlled!”
Diving for the door, Spike grabbed the bars of the door firmly in his claws and pulled.
It didn’t budge.
“It’s locked!”
“Well find the keys or some-”
She was cut off as Rainbow Dash took advantage of Skitch’s split attention, pouncing on her and throwing a foreleg around Skitch’s neck, beginning to squeeze. Skitch coughed, eyes bugging out, hooves scrabbling against Dash’s steely grip in a blind panic. Spike reacted the only way he could. He breathed, spitting a stream of red hot yet still shimmering green flames directly into the lock.
The dungeon of Canterlot Castle was well designed, built and maintained...but not with dragons in mind. One couldn’t really call it an oversight, since most dragons were large enough that they would have a difficult time fitting into the building, let alone a jail cell. That, combined with the fact that the cell itself had been proofed against magic, meant that nopony had thought to protect the lock mechanism against the heat of dragon breath. The mechanisms melted to slag, the door popping open, magic suppression field fading with it.
Throwing the door open and stepping into the cell, he winced, “Sorry!”
Without any other options, he sunk his teeth into one of Rainbow Dash’s legs. The pegasus didn’t yelp in pain, but she did let go, twisting to regard this new threat. Skitch collapsed to the ground quickly rolling onto her back, her horn glowing.
“What he said.”
Throwing a flash of light into Dash’s face, she flipped back over and bolted, spilling back out into the corridor with Spike right behind. A cry of surprise escaped Spike’s lips as he was scooped up by Skitch’s magic aura, and deposited roughly onto her back. She was galloping full out now, trying to put as much distance between her and Rainbow Dash as possible. Spike gulped. The moment Dash managed to clear her vision.... The thought was cut short, however, as the violent motion of Skitch's body almost threw him to the floor. With few other options Spike grabbed two clawfuls of mane, and hung on for dear life.
“OW! Spike!”
“Sorry!”
A loud bang echoed through the hall behind them as they cleared the guard station and entered normal corridors again. Spike twisted about, pulling Skitch’s mane a little tighter at the sight of Rainbow Dash shooting down the hallway, that same detached look still in her eyes.
“You need to go faster.”
“I am going faster!”
“No, you really need to go faster!” Spike gulped, watching Rainbow Dash effortlessly close the gap between them.
She grew closer and closer, her wing beats propelling her along like a cannonball. In a matter of moments she was almost on top of them, just a few more wing beats away from a hoof strike or tackle.
“This is so not good.”
One of the doors in the hallway suddenly swung open right in front of the pegasus, a brown maned, light brown coated stallion emerging from the room beyond. Spike winced at the sound of Dash slamming into it at top speed, but he couldn’t deny that it had slowed her down.
Skitch slid around a corner, dashing towards the staircase that lead back up. But instead of taking them, she pressed herself up against the wall, clapped a hoof over Spike’s mouth and quickly wove an invisibility enchantment around the pair of them.
A moment later, Rainbow Dash rushed around the corner, and right up the stairs. The dragon and the unicorn stood there for a few minutes, saying nothing, their hearts hammering in their chests, their ears straining for any sounds of their spell bound friend returning. But when her hoof falls continued to fade into the distance, they slumped to the floor, Skitch letting the spell fade.
“Thanks Spike,” she nodded, removing her hoof from his mouth. “You really saved my hide back there.”
“No problem,” He grinned back. “Knew that there was something wrong the minute I saw her eyes. Really creepy.” Raising an eyebrow, he looked her up and down, “So, is this the human back in control now?”
“Yeah.” She nodded, “Twilight fixed things. You can call me Jane, or Skitch, whatever works for you. But we need to find the girls. I think they’re in trouble. ”
“Rainbow Dash attacking you give that away?”
“Well, that and the illusion of some punk human calling himself The Collector trying to offer me a deal to sell out this planet.”
“Oh, well.” Spike rolled his eyes, “If it’s nothing serious then….”
“Ugh.” Skitch sighed, rubbing the sides of her head, “But we have no idea where they are! We can’t search all of Canterlot. Gotta think….” She began to pace back and forth, “He said he wanted power. Doubt he’ll be satisfied with just what he can take from the Princesses though.”
“What about the Elements? Maybe he’s where they’re locked up?”
Skitch paused, tapping her chin with a hoof in thought, returning to her preferred method of logical deduction now that she was whole again.
“No…I don’t think so. The Elements are portable, basically. Once he’d get in the vault there’s no reason to stick around. The only reason I’d hang around would be if I needed something that I either couldn’t move or would have a lot of trouble moving.”
She suddenly perked up, a wide grin crossing her muzzle.
“Discord.”
“The ancient lord of chaos and disharmony?” Spike blinked, “What does he have to do with this?”
“Well, assuming it’s like what I saw in the show and he’s a statue in the garden…”
“Wait...that statue of Discord is actually the real Discord?!” Spike gaped.
“Far as I know.”
Spike blinked, scratching the side of his head. “That would explain the signs asking for peace and quiet.” With a shrug, he headed for the stairs, “Let’s go! I know a shortcut to the statue garden.”
“One second.” She nodded, running back around the corner, “I want to grab something from that guard station first.”
Sighing, Spike crossed his arms while he waited for her to return.
"Hey!" Her voice floated back around the corner, "Where'd that stallion go?"
- - - -
Twilight wanted to scream.
Since she lost control of her body, she had been forced to just sit and watch, unable to move more than her head and neck. Her body had marched along with those of her friends- while Princess Luna had teleported ahead- winding their way through the castle until they were in the middle of the Canterlot Castle’s statue garden.
She had been here a few times during her study with Princess Celestia, usually when the princess was teaching history and philosophy. The hedges that fenced in the statues had given them a modicum of privacy at times, and the hedgerow maze that dominated the center of the garden had been fun to explore. Amongst the statues, they had discussed the nature of the world.
What she saw here now horrified her.
Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance stood in front of the entrance to the maze, the former holding the Elements of Harmony with her magic, the latter standing stock still next to her. Luna was there as well, the remains of a spell fading away from her horn. Their eyes were glazed over and unfocused, firmly under the thrall of the spell that had snared her and her friends.
And facing the trio, arms folded behind his back, a shimmering orb of pearlescent light clutched in one hand, was the human behind this all.
The Collector.
At their approach he turned, slowly, almost savoring the moment. Standing tall, a smug smile was quite evident on his features, his eyes slowly roaming over each one of them.
The hoarder look of his home had been carried over into his own appearance. He wore a belt that was full of pouches, almost stuffed to bursting with Celestia knew what. And it didn’t stop there. He had more crystals, bits of metal and other things strapped to his body, including a sword on his right hip.
Unlike in Skitch-Sketch’s memory, his jacket was open this time. The shirt he wore actually looked somewhat clean. At the very least he had put some kind of effort into taking care of it. It was black at the top, across the neck and shoulders, and dark blue everywhere else. A single gold sphere was pinned to the collar, signifying...something, she guessed.
Twilight felt a burst of anger flow through her.
She hated him.
She had no idea why he had decided to inflict everything he had upon Equestria, why he had decided to use the ghost of a child as a pawn in his plans, or why he had effectively kidnapped someone from another reality to use as another pawn. She didn’t care, either. She could only hear the last thing Skitch said to her.
Can you sit with me until I’m gone? Please?
Part of her just really, really wanted to hurt him.
The surreality and downright wrongness of the scene was only added to by what The Collector had brought with him. A six foot tall lattice tower, constructed out of a silvery metal, stood in the middle of the statue garden. Glowing runes were etched directly- and in some cases haphazardly- into the metal work, glowing brightly enough in the night to illuminate the whole area.
The top of the tower was a four pronged facet, thick cables running from there, down the length of the tower’s skeleton, to both a square screen and typewriter like board on the side facing them and from there, past the base to six smaller similar lattice towers. Small oval spheres were also tucked among the wiring of each tower, though Twilight couldn't guess at their purpose.
Most bizarrely, the statue of Discord had been covered horn to tail in pieces of paper, with what looked like Neighponese characters scribbled on their surface.
Satisfied with his silent gloat, The Collector extended one of his hands, raising it slightly. A glass box rose from a circle of darkness on the ground, floating over to him with another small gesture. Yet another opened the top of the box, and the Elements of Harmony were transferred to it, before the whole thing was secured in place in the facet.
Slowly walking over to his tower- and stowing his magic orb in the process- he began to tap a series of keys upon the typewriter like board. Twilight and her friends were ignored as he focused on what he was typing and adjusting. Truly, it seemed like he couldn’t care less that they were even there, as he worked.
“Twi,” Applejack quietly hissed. “Can ya do somethin’ about this?”
Twilight bit her lip, “I’ll try.”
Every unicorn knew as part of learning how to spell cast, that doing so was almost like flexing a muscle. And like flexing a muscle, it was possible to overexert oneself. But, that particular knife cut both ways. Beginning to channel, Twilight fed it with less power than she usually would, suppressing the usual glow and sound of spellcasting. Once her magic made a connection with that of the spell, she began to slowly poke and prod for weakness, like she had in the mindscape.
“If he looks this way," she whispered. “Try to keep him talking and focused on something other than me. This is going to take me some time.”
“Can do!” Pinkie whispered back, throwing her friend a wink.
“Contemplating your destruction?” The Collector spoke up, continuing to type away, “Please do it quietly. As I’m sure Twilight Sparkle could tell you, it’s not easy juggling magic of this magnitude. Doubly so when blending it with technology.”
“Boy, you sure sound bored,” Pinkie observed. “I mean, you’ve only taken control of the princesses, with your weird tower thingie! I mean, it is a tower, right? Though I suppose it could be more of spire….Oooo! What about an edifice! Would it count as an edifice?”
The Collector paused for a moment, shooting a glance Pinkie Pie’s direction.
“And she hasn’t driven all of you insane, because?”
“Because she’s our friend,” Fluttershy said simply.
“Oh, right. Friendship is magic,” he raised an eyebrow. “I suppose that if it can banish villains and purify that one,” he jerked a thumb towards the zoned out Princess Luna. “Then it could make her presence tolerable.”
“Awww. It sounds like Mr. Grumpypants needs to change into a pair of happy slacks!” Pinkie grinned.
The Collector stared at Pinkie and Pinkie beamed right back at him, like they were at some kind of party, rather than engaged in a struggle. Even as she continued to poke at the spell, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder how much of that was Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie and how much was her attempt to keep the human distracted.
“How do you function?”
Before Pinkie could respond, the orb he had stowed earlier began to beep.
“Report.” He stated, dropping a hand to it, “Did you deal with Jake?”
“No,” The voice of Rainbow Dash answered, devoid of emotion. “She escaped. Thanks to Spike. And then I lost them.”
“The dragon?” He questioned, “Really?”
“What should I do?”
Concern crossed his features for the briefest of moments, but then it was gone. “Keep looking for both of them. I’m going to send some backup your way.” Keeping his hand on the orb, he turned to face the trio of alicorns, “Search the city. Find them and kill them.”
With a rush of wing beats, the princesses took to the air, splitting off in different directions to begin their search. Apparently satisfied that the matter would be handled, The Collector turned back to the tower.
“And here, we, go.”
Hitting one last key, the machine rumbled to life with a low hum that echoed through the statue garden and right through their bodies. Twilight swore that she could feel it in the roots of her teeth. She winced slightly as he turned to face them again.
“So,” Rarity spoke up, grabbing The Collector’s attention. “All of this. What’s it for? What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish here?”
“What? You expect me to talk about my plans? As if I was some kind of comic book supervillain?”
“Well, you’re the one with the tower that resembles some manner of doomsday device darling.”
“And your spellcraft is weak.” Twilight muttered.
“And you totally made this suuuppper duper too complicated! I mean, kidnapping a human from another reality and gluing her together with a pony? Waaaaaay too involved!”
The Collector lunged towards Pinkie Pie, his calm expression suddenly a mask of rage. “The day my plans get critiqued by a pink coated retard-!”
“Haaaaaapppppyyyy slacks,” Pinkie grinned.
Taking a deep breath and running his hands over his head, he regained his composure. “Fine. I’ll explain what I’m doing! If only to prove her,” he jabbed a finger at Pinkie Pie, “wrong.”
He paced, keeping his eyes firmly locked on the pink mare. “I suppose that it's pointless to say that this isn't personal? You just have something I want. Magical power and- thanks to your princesses- immortality."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's all you want? Just power?"
The Collector shrugged, almost casually. "You were expecting something more? I mean...your world isn't exactly alone in that regard, I will admit. I’ve collected a great deal many items from worlds full of magic. I’ve taken powers from their residents too. I didn't pick the name 'The Collector' out of a hat after all.”
“But yours is different in two chief respects. The first is what I hung the thrust of my spell on. It's one of the subset of universes where magic is very much based on emotions. That’s why I took a human fan of your show from another reality.”
The group exchanged glances for a moment, before Applejack spoke up. “Ah’m not followin’.
“Oh? You don’t, little miss ‘living embodiment of honesty’? Then let me spell it out for you. He loves you. He loves the idea of you all. There’s a whole damn subculture on his planet that call themselves your fans. Fan. Short for fanatic. And that’s one large pile of emotional love to feed a spell with,” he finished a wide grin splitting his face.
The gears in Twilight's head began to turn, lessons on spell work and enchantments coming to the forefront again. What he was describing....
"Tell me, Twilight Sparkle," The Collector nodded, falling into lecture mode, "what is the definition of sympathetic magic?"
"Sympathetic magic," she responded through clenched teeth, "is the art of magic that is defined by two primary principles. Imitation and correspondence. The general idea is that you can influence a thing via like things. Very common in Neigh Orleans voodoo."
Slapping hand to forehead, The Collector sighed. "Neigh Orleans. Christ. You people. But...yes, you got it. “So, one part devotion,” he held up one hand, falling into lecture mode, “and one part desperation to live again from the original Skitch-Sketch.” He held up the other, “Mixed together, and I have the perfect starting point to send a spell into overdrive.”
“So, my hybrid enchantment. It spread. It spread to everyone and everything she went near. And, again, Jake’s fanboy nature just made it worse. First day after he woke up in his house? He decided to explore Ponyville! And then he followed you all to Cloudsdale, and ran straight to the princesses! Important places, important ponies,” he shrugged, "sympathetic magic."
He motioned to the tower. “Every point of infection comes together to here,” And then he motioned to the orb, still on his belt, “And here. It's all sympathetic magic, making all of you all the more susceptible to other spells. Like when I remote controlled my puppet to steal some of your cherished items and used those to implant my control spell."
Twilight fumed, working all the faster, the Collector continuing his rant.
"The orb lets me control and give orders. But the tower...oh yes. That is my shining achievement.” His wide grin turned into a half crazed giggle, “It will drain the power from my chosen targets and transfer it directly into me.”
Twilight snapped out of her spell breaking reverie, a gasp escaping her lips. “You want the princesses!”
“I’m not getting any younger,” he shrugged. “Youth potions have already started to hit the point of diminishing returns. And immortality is hard to pass up. Though I’m not just going for them. I’m going for every other power player that’s been sealed away. That’s what I’ve spent most of the last two weeks doing. Seeding the sites that none of you had any reason to go to.”
"Are you completely crazy!? If Luna and Celestia are gone, the sun and moon will stop-"
"Leaving your planet half in shadow, half in sun. Very much like a tidally locked planet in a universe that even pretended to follow the laws of physics!" He snorted giving a dismissive wave of the hand, "Don't worry too much though. There should still be a habitable band across the planet where the two sides meet."
"No!"
The burst had come from Fluttershy, who was torn between looking horrified and incensed. "You'll kill so many ponies and animals! H-how can you do this?"
The Collector offered a shrug in response. "It doesn't matter. Not really. I mean...this is hardly the only reality out there. If this all dies, the multiverse will just keep," he casually waved a hand through the air, "spinning on. All that does actually matter? What you can take for yourself. And I'm finally going to eat the peach."
“But...the fake memories? The physical evidence?" Twilight cut in again. "How could your hybrid spell handle all of that!”
The Collector shrugged. “I have other toys. And I’m not about to tell you all of my tricks. Truthfully speaking, I’ve probably said far too much.”
“No!” Twilight shouted, springing forward with an angry hoof stomp, “I won’t let you hurt them! And for all your boasting, your spellwork is still incredibly shoddy!”
The clearing was quiet for a moment, as both Twilight and The Collector realized what had just happened.
“Hmm. Broke my spell on you while your friends kept me distracted. Well done.” He drew a vaguely rectangular shaped...thing from his belt, “Don’t worry though. I won’t kill you. You’re still connected to your element and they’re the focal point of my spell.”
Twilight teleported, a golden beam of light whistling through the air and impacting into the grass where she was a moment ago. Re-appearing next to one of the statues, she dove for cover behind it, another golden beam springing forth from his weapon; the front of the statue glowed red hot for a moment, before fading away again.
“You can’t escape Twilight. Even if you did, it wouldn’t do any good. My machine will keep churning away. We’ll hit phase two soon enough!”
Licking her lips, Twilight peeked back around the base of the statue. The Collector was stomping towards her hiding place, a determined look on his features. Pulling back, she took a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut.
Think Twilight, think! There has to be some kind of leverage I can use….
An idea popped into her mind. With another flash, she was back across the statue garden, now at the foot of Discord’s.
“Hey! Collector!”
The human spun about, the stopping at the side of the statue Twilight had just left. She flashed what she hoped was an intimidating grin, wrapping her magic around the scrolls that adorned the statue’s form.
“I was so worked up over you, I forgot one of the legends I learned back at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns! Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony, turned into a statue by the Elements. And then I realized…” She narrowed her eyes, grinning even wider, “You wouldn’t have done something to this statue if it was just a statue!”
“Well guessed, Twilight Sparkle.” He grinned back, “But what are you going to do with that information?”
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do.” She glowered, giving one of the scrolls the slightest tug of motion, “I’ll let him out!”
Her friends gasped in shock.
“Twilight, dear,” Rarity smiled, her eyes darting nervously back and forth between the two. “Are you really sure that’s a good idea?”
“Discord was defeated once before. Better the creature Equestria knows,” she glared right into The Collector’s eyes. “Now, turn your machine off!”
The Collector gave a derisive snort, “Oh, please. If you actually had the stomach for that kind of fun, you would have just done it, instead of trying to bluff me.”
“Oh, I’ll do it!” Twilight snapped back, “I’ll release that draconequus!”
“Go ahead then! Release that draconequus!”
Twilight bit her lip, trying to ignore the bead of nervous sweat that was now working its way down the side of her head. Her eyes darted from her friends, to the Collector, to the machine, then back again. He wasn’t buying her bluff. She couldn’t really unleash Discord...could she?
The Collector raised his strange weapon again at her hesitation, chuckling, “Yeah. Didn’t think so.”
With a roar of frustration, something broke deep in the pit Twilight's stomach. Another burst of magic and the distance between the two melted away in an instant, the librarian appearing behind the human. Lashing out with the strongest buck she could, there was a slight surge of satisfaction at the grunt of pain that came from The Collector.
Whipping about, horn already glowing, Twilight threw her magic power into her telekinesis sculpting it like an artist would clay. The resulting raw magic blast would have hardly won her any awards at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. It was a raw, jagged magical energy that strained and threatened to slip out of her grasp.
"You used a foal!" she screamed, letting the blast loose. It impacted into the human's stomach, blasting him a good three feet backwards. "She was a scared little filly afraid of death and you used her!"
"Spare me your sanctimony." The Collector grunted. "Do you really think she was the first child to get a bad run of luck, even in your sugar saccharine filled wonderland? It happens a million times, across a million worlds!"
Dipping a hand into one of his coat pockets, a black, somewhat crescent shaped device was sent whirling through the air, only to explode with a brilliant flash of light. Yelping in pain Twilight instinctively flinched away from the searing brightness. A choice that she ended up regretting a moment later when something heavy struck her in the side.
"If you had any clue about how irrelevant you really are!" the Collector sneered, another heavy strike cracking her side. "The world I took Jake from, where you're all so well known? They won't even know that you're gone! All the little toys and cutesy drawings will keep getting cranked out, until some marketing executive has decided that ponies have run their course and need to be replaced by something else. No tears shed, no time spared to mourn and all of you forgotten. Because that's how the multiverse fucking works!"
The chime like tones of a magical aura played through the air, catching their attention. A split second later, a polished steel shield burst from the exterior hedgewall, propelled through the air by a shimmering amber aura. Impacting into the midpoint of his back like a bullet, a half choked cry of pain erupted from the human, as he was sent sprawling face first into the grass. The bushes rustled for a moment before parting, a pair of familiar faces stepping into view.
Jane, with her head held high and a confident smirk on her muzzle. And Spike, perched on her back, a spear (most likely liberated from the same place as the shield) clutched in his right claw. The unicorn raised a hoof to her forehead, firing off a mocking salute to The Collector as he scrambled back to his feet.
“Shalom!”