Episode 129: Entrust
Episode 129: Entrust
Clover hardly considered herself an expert on magic, although she’d learned a fair bit more about it in recent weeks than she ever imagined she would. Even her limited amount of knowledge was enough to tell her that the reactions she was seeing inside the seizure inducing lightshow around the wavering portal to Equestria was enough to tell her things were bad. Very bad.
She quickly ran over options in her head, and found precious few she liked. She had neither the knowledge or power to try and stabilize the portal. She doubted any Bakudo-class Kido she used would do more than mildly mitigate whatever catastrophic energy release was possibly minutes from occurring. While she might be able to grab Timber Spruce and evacuate herself and him to a safe distance using Flash Step if she left right this second, that would still leave her friends battling Gaia above behind, not to mention the innocent human students still in the nearby Camp Everfree, and the injured, unconscious Captain Luna-
“What’s the situation, Third Seat Clover?” Captain Luna said, while Clover remained in deep thought.
“I’m trying to figure out how to get everyone to safety, Captain, including Captain Luna, who’s in...jured...?” Clover blinked and looked over, glancing up and down at Luna’s disheveled, bloodied, but very much conscious and mobile form as she stood there next to Clover.
“Captain! You’re awake!”
“Barely,” Luna said, wincing at Clover’s shouting, “I awoke just a moment ago, and rather than get in the way of the battle above, I decided to see what the disturbance I sensed down here was. I can see that things are dire indeed. That is the portal to Equestria, is it not?”
“Y-yes,” Clover said, eyeing the ever growing and intensifying swirl of chaotic portal energies that crackled on the ground below, “Starswirl’s theories regarding its reactions to both local magic and his own experiments using that Arrancar girl’s Garganta seem to have been accurate. With so much magic nearby, there’s no telling when the portal will collapse, and considering the trap that was lain within...”
“I am aware,” Luna stated, closing her eyes briefly as she focused upon her spiritual senses. Suddenly her eyes snapped back open, mouth opening agape, “Discord and Ditzy? So they came.”
“What?” Clover said, while at the same time Timber Spruce leaned forward from the cocoon he was still stuck in, his head craning to get a look around him.
“I don’t know what either of you are talking about, but if that swirly thingie is about to blow, we got to get everyone away from here, pronto! The campers’ safety is still my responsibility!”
Luna and Clover shared a look.
“Third Seat Clover, take him to the camp. Discord and Ditzy Doo are there, and if my guess is correct they’re already evacuating the students. Go with them.”
“What about you, Captain?”
“I’ll try to find Starswirl. He has to be somewhere nearby. He’s likely the only one who might know a way to stop, or at least slow down, the portal’s self destruction,” Luna said, voice heavy. Clover nodded and gave a brief salute before turning to Timber Spruce. He’d already pulled a number of the vines from his body, and Clover helped him deal with the rest in short order. By the time Clover was able to drag Timber free of the cocoon and hold him so he didn’t fall, Luna had already Flash Stepped away, vanishing from both view and spiritual sense.
“Hold tight,” Clover told Timber, “Can’t have you falling to your death just seconds after freeing you.”
Timber’s grip was weak but he managed to hold onto her shoulders as she started leaping across the air towards the bank of the dry river, where Camp Everfree lay surrounded by a wall of giant vines. Timber’s voice was shaky as he looked back at the massive, transformed tree behind them and said, “What about my sister?”
Clover didn’t look at him, simply replying, “The only thing we can do is trust that Sunset Shimmer and my other friends will be able to get through to her.”
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Cold, snow covered ground met Sunset’s body as she fell to her knees, momentarily overwhelmed by what she’d seen. Her head pounded, and she was having trouble discerning if the tightness in her chest was all her own emotion, or if being here in Gaia and Gloriosa’s combined souls were affecting her directly. She even felt a wetness on her cheeks from tears shed, possibly because she had felt Gaia’s anguish from her past, and possibly because Sunset herself could easily empathize with what the Arrancar had gone through.
She couldn’t even imagine how she might feel if she’d seen her own friends killed in such a manner. The hate Gaia had to feel towards Chrysalis was... overwhelming. Justified, but no doubt drowning. No wonder the woman was in such a foul mood. Sunset doubted she’d be in any better shape after enduring what Gaia had.
Sunset certainly felt a fair bit of hot anger herself towards Chrysalis. It wasn’t as if Chrysalis had been more than a secondary issue during the whole incident with Starlight Glimmer and the Soul Society, but now Sunset realized the current Second Espada was just as if not outright more dangerous than Starlight was. It was hard for Sunset to grasp why Starlight would even ally with such a person, save that Starlight’s own desperation for help might have driven her to consider any options on the table.
Putting those thoughts aside, Sunset stood and looked around to get her bearings. She was back in the general void-like landscape of Gaia and Gloriosa’s mind, in a portion of Everfree Forest that was coated in deep frost and snow, with the branches heavily laden with winter’s touch. Sunset could feel the cold bite at her skin, and it wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling, bringing back memories of her confrontations with Platinum.
“Gaia?” she called out, “Gloriosa? I know you can hear me! I... I can’t tell you how sorry I am to know what Chrysalis did to you. No one should ever have to go through what you have. That’s why I’m more determined than ever to get you to listen to me, because if you really want to avenge Rose, Lily, and Daisy, then we’re not enemies!”
As she spoke she turned around, looking through the thick layers of frozen forest. As the last words left her mouth she saw a burst of motion from between two trees and barely had time to get her hands up to defend herself before Gaia’s own hand was around her throat. Sunset was slammed back into a tree, held there as snow fell from its branches in piles around her and a furious looking Gaia who held her tight with one hand.
“Aren’t we!? You work with the Soul Reapers, who aren’t any better than Chrysalis. Maybe they’re worse. At least Chrysalis made it clear to me what she is, in the end, and didn’t act as if her actions were part of some ‘greater good’. At least she knows she’s a monster. But Soul Reapers? They’d have killed my flowers too, and pretended like doing so was justified, all part of protecting their precious ‘cycle’ of reincarnation!”
Sunset gripped Gaia’s hand with her left one, not quite prying herself free but keeping herself from choking entirely. Her right hand still burned with the black flame, and Sunset had an instinctive notion that if she willed it, she could forge that flame into a facsimile of Hokori’s blade and strike at Gaia here and now, maybe even fatally.
But she didn’t. She kept her right hand down, and passively limp. She met Gaia’s burning eyes, filled with such pain, fear, anguish, and Sunset spoke with a voice husky with a lack of hair but filled with a passionate assurance of understanding.
“Believe me, I know why you don’t trust the Soul Reapers. My friends and I, we fought them too, when we had to. We invaded Soul Society, to save people we cared about from unjust Soul Reaper law. We’re not blindly on their side, Gaia. I just don’t want you slaughtering them, either. There’s another way to do this, if you’ll just listen.”
“Why should I trust you?” Gaia asked, not loosening her grip on Sunset’s throat, but not tightening it either, “You expect me to believe that if the Gotei 13 came for me, you’d stand in their way? It’s ridiculous enough to think you invaded their home and walked away free. What reason do I have to believe your story? Besides, it’s not just me you need to convince...”
With a deep breath, Gaia’s expression changed, her eyes turning somehow greener, her face now less filled with rage but more distrust and pain, “We’re both in here, Sunset Shimmer.”
“Gloriosa?”
“Yeah,” Gloriosa said, “Twilight and your friend Fluttershy’s ability has me and Gaia a bit more separate than usual, but we’re going to go right back to being one and the same soon enough. By choice, in case you haven’t figured that out yet.”
“You... want to be merged with Gaia?” Sunset asked, and Gloriosa’s lips quivered with a flurry of emotions that was mirrored by the hoarse nature of her voice.
“Beats being powerless to protect my home and family, doesn’t it? Gaia and I, we share the same kind of pain, and the same desires. I feel more complete with her as a part of my soul than I have in... in my whole life. I owe her. But more than that, with her, I can get my own bit of revenge. Gaia isn’t the only one who lost people she loved.”
A howling whistle of heat sapping wind blew through the forest and, like a layer being peeled away, the snow on the ground was shown to have two bodies underneath its cold embrace. They were lying side by side, clutching each other, as if for warmth. A man and woman, their skin, hued dusky orange and bright lavender respectively, had been paled by the frost that had killed them. Their clothes, while rugged for moving through the forest in perhaps spring or summer, would have done little to save them from the kind of arctic chill that Sunset could feel in the air now. Although the features of the man and woman were still partially obscured by their ice streaked hair and remaining clumps of snow, Sunset saw enough to understand who these two people had been.
“...Your parents,” she breathed, and Gloriosa’s eyes blinked away tears at Sunset’s words as she silently nodded.
“But,” Sunset said, “This was an accident, right? Something that happened because of bad luck. There’s nothing here to take revenge on.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Sunset Shimmer,” Gloriosa said, “Gaia showed me the truth. When I merged with her, I saw everything from her memory, including what happened the day my parents died.”
Suddenly the area shifted, much as it had through the many scenes of memory before. Only the viewpoint didn’t move far, brushing past perhaps a hundred yards of dense forest, past the cavern where Gloriosa and Timber had once played in. Now, Sunset saw a larger clearing, one covered in a denser layer of frost. The only foliage not covered in snow was an orchid flower, glowing with faint magic, aimed upwards.
“Gaia sensed the danger but she couldn't do anything. She was still too weak,” Gloriosa said, voice growing thick with freshly remembered pain, “I remember that day they went out. I didn’t know they’d been bringing Gaia sacrifices of small animals they’d hunt in the forest. They’d done it hundreds of times, in perfect safety... except for that day. When this happened.”
Sunset looked up into the sky, and saw it. A familiar plane of floating ice, surrounded by curved, talon-like pillars. She was only seeing it from below, but she knew that atop that flying island of pale blue and white would be a magnificent palace fortress of ice.
Platinum’s Bankai. Seeing it momentarily shocked Sunset into dumb silence. It took her a second to process the sight, and realize that there were sounds of battle stemming from above, somewhere on top of the huge, floating iceberg. With her shock wearing off, Sunset started making the mental connections, her mind snapping back to what Discord had told her and the girls about Xcution’s final days.
About how the mothers of her friends had battled with Captain Platinum, only barely scraping out a win. That the battle had taken place in the Everfree forest.
“Oh no...” she said, “Your parents, they were here when it happened. When Platinum unleashed her Bankai.”
Sunset remembered the kind of effects released when Platinum had simply used her Shikai, let alone her Bankai. A localized blizzard, even if it had happened in the middle of summer, wouldn’t have been impossible. And it wasn’t as if Platinum had ever paid much attention to collateral damage during their own fights, so Sunset wasn’t surprised that if Platinum used her Bankai in the Everfree Forest that anyone within a few hundred yards would have easily been caught in it.
“Platinum?” Gloriosa’s eyes narrowed, “I knew it was a Soul Reaper who did this, but I didn’t know their name. How do you know it!?”
Her grip on Sunset’s throat tightened, but Sunset fought back now, using her hand to grip back harder and pry Gloriosa’s hand loose enough to speak, “I know it because I fought Platinum, too! I know what happened the day your parents died. I know why this fight took place. If you listen, I’ll tell you everything.”
“I’ll make you do that anyway!” Gloriosa shouted, “What was it!? What Soul Reaper bullshit caused me and Timber to lose our parents!? Then tell me why I shouldn’t want to kill every last one of them!?”
Where could Sunset even begin to explain things? She could tell Gloriosa about Xcution, but would knowing the truth be enough to compensate for the pain of losing loved ones? Would knowing about Sunset’s own struggles alongside her friends against Soul Society and the truth about why Platinum had done everything she had make a difference in the anger and pain Gloriosa was feeling? But she had to try. Both Gaia and Gloriosa were more intimately tied into everything that had happened in the past than Sunset could ever have guessed, but that just meant that there was even more reason to try to reach out to them.
The black flames burned fierce in her hand, but the wrath she needed to hold onto that power just couldn’t find purchase in Sunset’s heart any longer. Not now that she knew the full extent of Gaia and Gloriosa’s pain, and how it tied into everything.
If I could just share with them all of it, all that’s happened, all that I’ve been through and seen. Words aren’t enough. They have to see. I just want us to understand each other, if I could just get through all the barriers separating us...
Even if words couldn’t be enough, Sunset knew she had to try, even if it killed her. Just like when she’d wanted to reach Twilight when she’d been overcome by magic, or when she’d chosen to help Adagio after the siren had been injured, or even when she’d tried to understand Platinum during their battle. Sunset wanted to reach people, to burn away the barriers that existed between them.
In that moment she felt a sensation like something ringing inside her soul, a deep chime that reached outwards from herself. And something inside Gloriosa and Gaia’s combined soul responded with a resonant chime of its own, and a flood of warmth. A fiery orange shimmer emanated from inside Gloriosa’s body, and before Sunset’s eyes the orange geode emerged, glowing like a small star.
“What...?” Gloriosa said, her expression flickering between her’s and Gaia’s.
“Gloriosa... Gaia... I refuse to be your enemy any longer. I’m choosing to trust you. And to show you the truth from my point of view,” Sunset said, not even fully aware of the words leaving her mouth, as if instinct was directing her more than conscious thought as she let the black flames leave her burned right hand and reached out to touch the geode.
The moment her fingers closed around the geode, she felt a flood of magic snap into place inside her, like an open floodgate. There was an instant flash of her mind becoming entwined seamlessly with Gaia and Gloriosa’s, and then everything came bursting out of Sunset and into them. Sunset’s life since arriving in the human world. Her numerous mistakes culminating in Princess Twilight leading the girls in defeating her. The long road to forgiveness, redemption, and a brighter life with the best friends she ever could have asked for. Their own trials against the sirens, and paying her own redemption forward by helping the human Twilight find her own.
Then the Hollows, Clover, discovering her Zanpaktou, and all that came afterward. Gaia and Gloriosa got front row spiritual seats to every battle, every discovery, every triumph, and every defeat, through harsh training, Grand Fisher’s schemes, Celestia and Luna’s arrest, and the harrowing invasion of Soul Society. They saw it all, straight through to Chrysalis and Starlight’s reveal as the masterminds behind so much pain, the final battle with Platinum, and after all was said and done the newest set of events that led to the very moment they now shared.
It all happened in that one flash, and in the silence that followed the only thing Sunset could hear was Gaia and Gloriosa’s combined heavy breaths as the woman staggered back, hands on her head. She’d let go of Sunset, leaving the girl room to breath. Rather than take advantage of Gaia and Gloriosa’s distracted, vulnerable state, Sunset knelt in front of them, a wane smile of understanding on her face. The geode was still warm in her right hand, but she used the left one to reach out to Gaia and Gloriosa.
“Do you understand, now?”
The woman across from her looked up at Sunset in a swift, halting motion, eyes wide, her features blurring between both Gaia’s and Gloriosa’s, like two oil paintings mixing together. Fluttershy and Twilight’s combined powers might still be keeping elements of the two separate for now, but Sunset could sense that wouldn’t last much longer, regardless of how this turned out.
“We do. You and your friends are neck deep in this war, by chance and choice both, it seems.”
Gaia’s more assertive tones took over for a moment as she straightened herself and began a stalking pace in front of Sunset, like a tense lion still deciding when it should pounce, “I’m not surprised Chrysalis found another dupe to play friends with. Hah, that Starlight Glimmer will learn the same hard lesson I did what that creature considers ‘friendship’ to be.”
“Reason enough for us to not fight,” Sunset said, “You know now that both of them are in my home world, plundering magic for their own ends. My friends and I want to stop them. If you joined us, you’d get your shot at Chrysalis again.”
Expressions flickered rapidly across Gaia’s face, Gloriosa’s softer visage coming through as she spoke, this time to herself, “There’s sense to what she’s saying, Gaia. We can’t get at Chrysalis and Platinum on our own.”
“I know that!” Gaia shouted back at herself, or rather, Gloriosa, “But what of the Soul Reapers? They won’t just ignore us. Not after the damage we’ve already done. They’ll come for us, one way or another. Can these girls stop them?”
“We’d be willing to try,” Sunset said, stepping closer, hands out to her sides in a placating gesture, “You’ve seen us go up against them before. We’d be willing to do it again, to protect you and Gloriosa.”
This time it was Gloriosa’s eyes that sent a mixed glare her way, one half angered, but also now considering, even sympathetic, “I saw. You fought Platinum. You beat her...” the anger grew an octave, “You let her live.”
Sunset took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her voice quiet but firm, “Yes, because I had no reason to kill her. I know what you’ve lost, Gloriosa. I won’t tell you not to be pissed off at Platinum, but you know now that what happened wasn’t intentional. My friend’s parents fought her, and I doubt either side knew there were innocent bystanders nearby. Are you going to blame my friend’s parents, too?”
“No, but I have to blame someone. Accident or not, it doesn’t change that my parents are dead, and that Timber and I had to grow up without them,” Gloriosa said, but before Sunset could speak again, she held up a hand, “But... I’ve seen enough in your memories to know your friend Applejack went through the same thing. She had it even worse, because Soul Society was more directly involved in her parents deaths. And she somehow can stomach working with them. She even considers that Clover a friend. I... I get it, Sunset. I can’t tell you that I won’t hate Platinum. Me and her have a score to settle, same as Gaia has with Chrysalis. I don’t know if I’ll kill her when the time comes, but I still have to face her, one way or another.”
Sunset nodded, but a part of her felt the need to say, “She’s done some messed up things, but all of it was for her son. I’m not saying it absolves her, but...”
“I know,” Gloriosa said, “But that’s going to be between me and her when the time comes, otherwise you and I might as well finish what we started here and now.”
Sunset swore under her breath, but figured that was probably the best she could hope for from Gloriosa, given the circumstances. “Fine. So, Gaia, does this mean you’re both willing to trust me?”
As the woman’s features wavered like a candle light between Gaia and Gloriosa’s, it eventually settled back onto Gaia’s more familiar visage. Her eyes gauged Sunset, looking to the glow of the orange geode in Sunset’s hand. Her own hand lowered to her stomach where the other geodes would normally be, and her eyes closed in thought. Then, slowly, with a tired quiver of her lips, she opened her eyes again and said, “Do you really know what you’re up against, if you harbor me?”
“I’ll... probably have to confront the leadership of the Gotei 13, including Captain Commander Scorpan,” Sunset said, “And chances are the Quincy aren’t going to be happy about it either. Then again, there’s always Adagio...”
“No,” Gaia said, “I’ve seen your memories of her. While I admire that one’s guts and ability to carve a place for herself in my former home, I have no intention of returning to Las Noches. Even if I felt I could remain hidden, I doubt Tirek or Chrysalis would respond well if they discovered my return, and as much as this Adagio Dazzle has grown, she couldn’t protect me from them if I was in easy reach inside Las Noches itself. I’d honestly be safer here, throwing my lot in with you and this Discord fellow.”
“You know Discord?”
“Only what you know. He might have become a Captain in and around my time, but I paid little attention to the Soul Reaper’s Twelfth Division. I honestly couldn’t say. Personally, from what I’ve seen of your memories, he appears to be a shifty individual, but I’ll take my chances.”
Sunset allowed a sense of hope to finally burn bright in her chest, and she offered out a hand, “So then...?”
Gaia looked at her hand, then with a final look of reluctance that gradually turned to acceptance, she grasped Sunset’s offered hand. However she did hold up her other hand with a held up finger, “Truce. For now. But I want it understood that this is a trial period. If I so much as catch a whiff of betrayal from any of you, any hint that you won’t hold up your end of the bargain, we’ll be right back to Plan A, understood?”
“Completely,” Sunset said, letting herself have a smile that was mostly just the release of a significant amount of anus clenching tension that had left her exhausted.
After a few silent seconds both women let go of each other's hands and looked around at the mindscape.
“Um... so does this end naturally, or do we have to find an exit door-” Gaia, more in Gloriosa’s tone, began to ask, when abruptly the entire void-like expanse flashed with brilliant golden light and Sunset felt the sensation of being lifted up as if on a warm, soothing wind.
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Sunset’s eyes opened up to the real world once more, still kneeling in front of the empowered Gaia Everfree with Fluttershy and Twilight with their hands on her shoulders. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were poised nearby with lance and lightning spear still at the ready. Rarity had exited the head of the towering knight of crimson she had created, which itself was still keeping the Tree Colossus bound by a network of blood red chains. Rarity joined them on the Colossus’ head, as tense and cautious as the rest of Sunset’s friends. Well, except perhaps for Pinkie Pie, who was enjoying some popcorn that she had acquired from... somewhere.
Ignoring that, Sunset took a deep breath and looked at Gaia’s face, measuring for any sign that the woman was indeed no longer a threat.
“Sunset, did it work?” asked Rainbow Dash, every muscle in her body tense.
“Yes,” Fluttershy was the one to reply first, taking her hand off Sunset’s shoulder, “I believe it did.”
There was a breath holding moment before Gaia slowly held her hands out to the side, even the rose vines of her lower body slowly lowering as she glanced at Fluttershy, lips half parted in a coy smirk, “Watching the show, were you?”
Fluttershy folded her six arms in front of herself and simply nodded, “I couldn’t see, but I did feel what Sunset and you were feeling. I know both the pain, and reconciliation that took place.”
“Gaia,” Sunset said, standing up slowly, “The magic in your body, you need to let go of it now. There’s still a lot in there, way more than you can control for much longer.”
Gaia’s gaze switched to Sunset’s, with bits of green and violet energy still spilling from her eyes, “Like I don’t know that. Back your friends off, and I’ll do as you ask.”
“Ya sure ‘bout this, Sunset?” asked Applejack, “Can we trust her?”
In answer, Sunset held out her right hand. The black flames around Hokori had dissipated, and as she set the sword down, she revealed that in her hand now also rested the shining orange geode. Her friends all stared, Twilight gasping, “When did that get there?”
Sure enough, the geode was missing from Gaia’s stomach, where the other six were still embedded. Sunset shook her head, saying, “The geode called out to me, when I was in Gaia and Gloriosa’s soul. It let me show her my own memories. Everything we’ve been through together. It’s what made the difference.”
Gaia made a faint huffing noise. “It may have given me a different perspective on you and your allies. Enough to make me decide to take a chance on you. ...Huh?”
“What’s wrong?” Sunset asked, noticing that Gaia was now wearing a concerned look. The Arrancar was looking at her hands, which were exuding a flickering aura of magic that, rather than lessening, was only growing thicker.
“I can’t make the magic stop,” she said, voice growing more worried by the instant, “It’s not obeying me.”
“The geodes!” Twilight exclaimed, pointing at the gems, which were now all growing brighter, “I think with one of them missing, the other six are unbalanced.”
“Uhh, guys?” Pinkie Pie said, her body going through a set of spasms as her right leg shook like a seismograph, leading up her spine to her head, where her eyes practically spun in her head and her hair stood up like a terrifying pink feline, “I just got a dozy of a bad feeling! I think we need to get those geodes outta her, stat!”
“I don’t suppose we can just remove them by force?” Rarity said, just as the aura of growing magic around Gaia’s body started to randomly spark with arcs of purple and emerald energy that burned arcs through the top of the Tree Colossus, which itself was starting to behave erratically, swinging its arms around like a drunkard and emitting a crazed howl.
“My, my head!” Gaia grasped her head with both heads, “Feels like it’s burning up. I can’t...!”
Sunset refused to let herself panic. She looked at the orange geode in her hand. It must have responded to her for a reason. She’d been in this kind of position before, with wild magic running out of control. The geodes were filled with so much raw magic that it was inevitable that Gaia would have lost control, and with one of the seven geodes no longer a part of her body, it made sense that her ability to keep it all under control was now slipping away. But rather than put the geode back in with its sisters, Sunset had a gut feeling that she knew what needed to be done. The same gut feeling that had caused her to pick up the mic during the battle of the bands against the Dazzlings, and led her to trust in the magic of her friends to help her confront Midnight Sparkle.
“Everyone,” she said, “Gather around me, now!”
Her friends all shared brief looks with one another, but they’d been in this position before as well, and trusted Sunset. They all rushed to her side, and as the energy around Gaia started to become a swirling corona of out of control magic, Sunset clasped the orange geode close to her chest, and reached out with her other hand towards the remaining geodes.
“This magic is the same kind that’s seen us through so much together. If we reach out to it, the magic will respond, because we’re the ones meant to be its conduits. Now all of us, together!”
One by one her friends reached out their hands, guided by feelings deeper than even instinct to each touch one of the remaining geodes inside Gaia. Sunset gripped her own geode tightly and focused all of her will upon the thought of safely channeling the magic out of Gaia, and repaying the trust she’d been given by both Gaia, Gloriosa, and her friends.
With a rush of noise like a thousand power plants surging at once, there was a burst of rainbow light that flew outwards in a wavering ring for nearly a kilometer around them. Sunset was knocked on her butt by the wave, but it wasn’t more than a second later that she opened her eyes to a clear blue sky above her and her friends.
Gaia’s body was slowly losing its transformed state, the vines, thorns, and rose bulb of her magical Resurreccion fading away in flakes of green light until she was left standing in her mostly human body once more. Her eyes were heavy with exhaustion, and she sagged to one knee, thoroughly spent. Then Gaia’s gaze looked up at Sunset and the girls, her eyes reflecting seven points of light.
Above each of them hovered one of the geodes, gleaming with a bright but stable glow of magical light. Sunset’s orange geode, Rarity’s white geode, Applejack’s red geode, Rainbow Dash’s blue geode, Flutterhy’s yellow geode, Pinkie Pie’s obviously pink geode, and finally Twilight’s purple geode.
“Whoa,” Rainbow Dash said, “Uh, are these things safe now, or what?”
“Ooo, shiny! Let’s try touching them!” Pinkie said, then almost immediately her expression changed as Pinkamena added, “Yeah, let’s just give it a second before poking things, okay?”
“They are certainly beautiful, now that I’m getting a good close look at them,” said Rarity, carefully examining the one floating in front of her, “I actually agree with Pinkie Pie. I feel compelled to... hold this lustrous stone.”
“Don’t go all Gollum on us, Rares,” said Applejack, glancing at Sunset, “What do ya think?”
“I think they’re safe,” Sunset said, reaching up and grasping her own geode. It felt warm in her hand, a warmth that she noticed was holding back quite a bit of pain that remained from using the black flames. She sighed and looked to where she’d set down Hokori. It’d be hard to carry her Zanpaktou and the geode at the same time, but before she even finished the thought, the geode flashed in her palm and transformed into a small, round pendant, complete with a thin, elegant chain. The pendant had an image upon it that instantly reminded her of her cutie mark in pony form, a stylized sunburst.
“Well, guess that answers that,” Applejack said, and without another second of hesitation she grabbed her own geode, with similar results as it magically altered form into a pendant, this one with a symbol of apples upon it, “Huh, red as a fresh apple. What do ya’ll reckon these magic rocks actually are?”
“Who cares? They’re awesome,” Rainbow Dash said, taking hold of her own and barely waiting for it to finish transforming into a pendant before throwing it around her neck, “I’m usually not much for jewelry, but I don’t mind wearing this. You think they do anything other than put on a lightshow?”
“We should be careful with these,” Twilight said, holding the pendant that her own geode had turned into, her face showing a healthy dose of caution rather than enthusiasm, “We don’t know for certain what these geodes are. I was studying them with Gloriosa and couldn’t learn much. Oh! Gloriosa, uh, or Gaia? Are you alright?”
Gaia was breathing heavily, sweat dripping down her chin, but she looked at Twilight with a half hearted shrug, “Feeling less than peachy keen, frankly. Like I just had an infinite power source torn out of me, you know?”
“It was a power source you couldn’t have controlled,” Sunset said, “Trust me, I know how it feels to go from that magic high to suddenly crashing back to earth.”
“I got a front row seat to that set of dramas as well, from that little mind sharing trip,” Gaia said, her eyebrow arching at Sunset, “So, you’re a pony from the same realm as Charbydis.”
“Charbydis?” Twilight said, and all the other girls shared questioning looks as well. Gaia waved a dismissive hand.
“I’m sure we can go over that at a later point of conveniences. Right now I... I need to get to Timber. Without the magic, I have to make sure he’s alright.”
“You should still have some power leftover,” Sunset said, “The geodes were super-charging abilities you already had, including Gloriosa’s ability to control plants. A Fullbring.”
“Wait, she’s a Fullbringer, too!?” blurted Dash.
“It makes senses,” Twilight said, “Gaia, you made sure Gloriosa’s lineage had the necessary Hollow elements to create natural Fullbringers.”
“I did,” she confirmed, “Although in Gloriosa... in me, the gift is still underdeveloped. I didn’t know what I was doing when I had the necklace of geodes. I thought it was purely magic, but now that Gaia and I are one and the same, I know it was my own power, simply enhanced by the magic. Speaking of which...”
She knelt down and placed her hand on the Tree Colossus’ head. It had ceased moving when the magic had stopped surging out of control, and now sat as still as a statue. Gaia let out a slow breath and her hand glowed with weak, flickering motes of green light. The Colossus started to very slowly sag and shift its form back into something resembling a tree. As it did so, Gaia’s eyes flickered with worry.
“Timber’s freed himself from the cocoon?”
“What?” Sunset asked, noting now that she too was sensing something odd. They all were. Every girl’s spiritual senses was starting to detect a wild fluctuation of reiatsu from down below, but more than that, the pendants they all held were glowing erratically as well, and each of them realized they could feel a strange inner twinge, like an unsteady tingle. A magical sense, warning of a vast amount of magic nearby, growing unstable.
“Something is happening down below,” Fluttershy said, her usually calm voice rising a slight octave.
“Oooh boy, I’m still getting the shakes,” Pinkie Pie gulped, “I don’t think taking the geodes outta Gaia fixed what that dozy was about!”
Gaia’s eyes widened, “Timber!”
Without another word the woman ran to the side of the shifting Colossus, which was only now starting to grow branches once again and start to look vaguely like a tree once more, and dove off the side, all but flying down towards the roots below. Sunset briefly exchanged looks with her friends before they all nodded and followed suit, jumping off the side of the tree and making a controlled fall towards the distant ground below.
As they got close to the thick congregation of roots that formed the underside of the tree, Sunset sensed familiar reiatsu and saw Clover moving rapidly away from the root system. She had Timber Spruce clinging to her back. Gaia clearly saw them, too, for she instantly altered course and with a burst of speed she vanished from sight and appeared right in Clover’s path, causing the Soul Reaper to skid across the air to a short halt.
Sunset and the girls caught up a half second later, appearing in the air around Clover, whose eyes looked between Gaia and them with a mix of confusion and hope.
“Where are you going with my brother?” said Gaia, and Clover, instead of answering her, looked to Sunset.
“She’s not fighting us anymore,” Sunset said, “We, uh, reached an understanding.”
“Are you sure? She still looks pretty mad to me,” Clover said, and Gaia growled under her breath.
“You can always go back to uselessly casting Kido at me if you like, Soul Reaper. My truce with Sunset can be annulled just as fast as it was made, because as weak as I may feel at the moment, I’m still plenty ready to finish this.”
“G-Glori?” said Timber, “Is that you in there, or... or the other one?”
Gaia’s eyes instantly flinched with a spark of pain, and soft sadness as she said, “Timber, it’s me. I... I’m still your sister. I’m just... more than your sister, now. It’s hard to explain-”
“She soul-merged with a powerful Arrancar from super-duper long ago and now they both share the same mind and soul, like mixing together peanut butter and jelly into a very cranky sandwich,” said Pinkie Pie, which earned a glare of ire from Gaia.
“Do not simplify the complicated ritual of my rebirth by merging with Gloriosa Daisy into a... a... common lunch item for children!”
“Children? I eat that all the time!” Pinkie Pie said defensively.
“Same here,” Rainbow Dash said, “PBJ’s are the best!”
“Guys! Focus!” Sunset said, then quickly added in a breathless rush, “Timber, your sister is okay...ish. Now, are you okay, and Clover, what the heck is going on? We’re sensing something weird down here.”
Timber cleared his throat, still looking at Gaia with worry filling his eyes, but said, “I’m okay. I think. The wound I had is mostly closed now, but it still hurts.”
“As for what’s going on,” Clover said, she simply turned and gestured back towards the tree, “See for yourselves.”
The girls, Gaia included, all looked, and now easily spotted the flashing, writhing oval of growing bright light of various prismatic colors that was filling up the space beneath the tree. Gaia took in a sharp breath while Sunset let out a shocked gasp. Twilight stared in open horror as she said, “Oh no, the portal!”
“That what I’m thinkin’ it is?” said Applejack.
“The portal to Equestria,” Sunset groaned, running a frustrated hand through her hair, “I don’t believe this! Dammit, it must have been damaged by the tree forming underneath the lab!”
“Yes,” confirmed Clover, “And now it appears to be going out of control due to all the magic that was being channeled into the area due to the tree and Gaia’s use of the geodes. I, um, noticed she doesn’t have those anymore.”
“Yes,” drawled Gaia, “My... ugh, the geodes have somehow bonded with Sunset and her allies, transforming into particularly tacky necklaces in the process.”
“Leave the fashion critique to those qualified, darling,” said Rarity, quickly clearing her throat, “Although that aside, we have a rather large, portal shaped problem that’s rather more important at the moment. Anyone happen to have any ideas on that front?”
“Captain Luna went to go search for Captain Starswirl, who we hope might have a solution,” offered Clover, and Fluttershy sighed with relief.
“Oh good, she’s okay. I didn’t see her where I left her on the way down, so I was worried she might have slipped off when the tree turned into that giant monster.”
“If she’s looking for Starswirl, he was with some of my fellow Quincy when I last saw him,” Twilight said, and at the questioning look from the others she added, “Not as a prisoner or anything. We had reached a sort of friendly standoff, and possible arrangement. At any rate, hopefully Captain Luna doesn’t cause any issues when she finds him.”
“More importantly, will the good Captain have a way to stop this portal from...” Rarity paused, and glanced at Twilight, “Actually, what is it doing? Clearly it’s unstable, but what’s likely to happen if nothing is done?”
“Uh, theoretically? It could rip open a rift in space that might lead to any number of different realities, perhaps even more than one. It might keep growing until it consumes the entire world. It might also just explode in a burst of raw energy that, at best, might just destroy the Everfree Forest, but more likely it would take out Canterlot City, perhaps even a good chunk of the state. And I suppose there’s a very small chance it might also collapse in on itself and just cease to exist, with minimal damage. That’s the best case scenario, but I wouldn’t count on it.”
“That’s encouragin’,” Applejack drawled, “An’ I don’t much fancy waitin’ fer that Starswirl fella ta show up an’ hope he’s got a solution.”
“Twilight, you’ve studied magic more than anyone else here. Can you think of anything we can do before this ends up blowing up in our faces?” asked Sunset, and her friend removed her glasses to briefly wipe sweat from her face before putting them back on and whispering something to herself. Sunset noticed Twilight was holding the purple pendant tightly to her chest.
“Midnight...” Twilight said hesitantly, “She says that we might be able to stabilize the portal with the power of the geodes, but only enough to ensure whatever happens remains localized. We’d essentially be creating a magical barrier around ourselves and the portal, guiding its energies inward. But...”
“But?” Sunset pressed.
“But the portal will still release an incredible amount of energy,” Twilight said, “A potentially lethal amount.”
“And that’s not including the trap that was put in the portal by Trixie,” Rarity noted.
“So what does that mean?” said Rainbow Dash, “If we do this, what? We’re toast? We save Canterlot City and Camp Everfree, but we’ll be stuck trying to survive a ground zero blast of crazy portal magic?”
“That’s the layman’s version, yes,” said Twilight, hand opening up for her to look uneasily at the pendant in her hand, “We have to use all seven together, I think. The magic these geodes channel was designed to work in harmony. If even one isn’t part of it, the magic will likely only grow more unstable.”
“There... has to be another way, right?” said Clover, looking around at the girls almost frantically, “I’m sure Captain Luna will get Captain Starswirl in time.”
“We can’t wait,” Sunset said, sucking in a deep breath as she felt herself grow oddly calm, “This portal could blow any minute. If we don’t do this now, then everyone we’ve been fighting to protect may well end up dead.”
She let out that breath slowly, wondering if her friends were feeling the same as her. “I know I can’t ask you to-”
“Aw shut it, Sunset,” Applejack said, “Ya know we’re with ya, no matter what.”
“Seriously,” Rainbow Dash grinned, “Don’t even try that lame ‘you don’t have to do this’ speech. As if we’d let you even think of trying this alone.”
“We do tend to accomplish impossible tasks as a group, don’t we?” Rarity said, her hand touching the armored portion of her chest, “Although I know how Sunset feels. I don’t want to risk any of you.”
“Our options seems few, and time even more limited,” Twilight said, “I can’t say our chances of survival are even in the double digit percentiles, though.”
That certainly seemed to be the case, as every passing second the pool of wavering energy grew in size and became even more wild in its fluctuations, coating the area in a flickering sheen of multi-colored light and filing the air with a buzz of vibrating power.
However, before the girls could start to enact their plan, Gaia stepped past them all and stood, gazing at the portal. She glanced back at them and said, “Enough with the heroics. I’ll deal with it.”
“Wait, what?” Sunset said, just as Timber blurted out, “Sis?”
Apprehension filled Gaia’s exhausted stance, but her face was set in a stone hard mask of stubborn determination, “This entire mess is my own creation. Both the part of me that’s Gaia and the part of me that’s Gloriosa aren’t about to balk from that responsibility. I can handle this.”
“Not to claim you can’t, but how?” asked Fluttershy, “You no longer have the geodes.”
“No,” said Gaia, “But... I can still feel them. They’re connected to you now, yes, but I think they’ll still respond to me, if you gave me the pendants.”
“Heh, yeah right, like we’re about to do that-” said Rainbow Dash, but Sunset held up a hand and stepped closer to Gaia, starring her in the eyes.
“I trust you, Gaia, but are you sure about this? You don’t know if you can make full use of them now that they’re not a physical part of you.”
“I used them as Gloriosa when they were just a makeshift necklace. Pretty sure I’ve got this, as long as I’m physically holding them,” said Gaia, and there was an earnest, raw look in her eyes as she said, “Sunset Shimmer, please, trust me. Let me do this.”
“But what if you don’t survive? What about Timber?”
“Yeah, hello, me standing right here?” said Timber, voice desperate, “Glori, what are you thinking!? You can’t survive something like that exploding in your face, no matter what kind of wacko powers you’ve got now!”
“I know that,” Gaia said, turning to face her brother. She moved up to him and placed a hand delicately upon his cheek, her hard features softening to a kind, loving smile, “I’m sorry, Timber. If I don’t come back from this... well, it’d be unfair of me to dump the responsibility of looking after Everfree on you. So just live however you want, brother. Long as you find a happy path in life, that’ll be enough for me.”
“I don’t want to hear this!” Timber said, grabbing her hand and squeezing it tightly, “Glori, don’t do this!”
“There’s no time, Timber. I’m not going into this planning to die, but if this body doesn’t survive what comes, understand that I’ll still love you, and that it won’t be the end. Death isn’t an ending.”
She pulled away from her brother and gave a hard look at the rest of the girls, “No more arguing. Either give me the pendants, so I can fix my mistakes, or go sacrifice yourselves, but either way, we have to do this now!”
There was a moment of uneasy looks between Sunset’s friends, but Sunset herself was already holding out her pendant to Gaia, “I’ll entrust this to you, until you can give it back to me. Hopefully in a few minutes.”
Fluttershy was next to give her pendant to Gaia, setting it in the woman’s palm next to Sunset’s pendant, “I’ll trust you as well. I’ll also lend you what power I can through my Fullbring, if you’ll let me.”
“I’ll take whatever help you’re willing to give,” Gaia said, and looked to the others, who each in turn slowly gave her their pendants.
“I’ll use my knights and as many crystal constructs as I can muster to form a shield around you,” Rarity promised, “I’ll try to time it the instant it looks like the explosion will take place.”
“I’ll also use what little magic I have left to reinforce that with a magic barrier,” Twilight promised, “I don’t know how much good it will do, but every bit might make a difference.”
“You’re all quite concerned over me, given I was trying to kill all of you a short while ago,” said Gaia, and she found Pinkie Pie smiling next to her with an elbow on her shoulder.
“It’s kinda our thing, GG. You’ll get used to it!”
“GG?”
“Gaia/Glori, duh!”
“Ugh... perhaps death will be preferable...” Gaia muttered, then with a rueful shake of her head she clasped the seven pendants in her hand and faced the portal, “Oh well, no more stalling. I’ve got this.”
“Wait, Glori!” Timber called out as she flew away, rushing towards the pulsating nimbus of light that was the portal. “Dammit, let go of me!”
Clover wasn’t letting the weakened human go, her own expression pale, “I can’t do that. Your sister is doing this for your sake.”
“If we’re gonna help her, we’d better get to it!” Applejack said, “Can’t do much with my Fullbring, but dang it I can’t just sit ‘round neither!”
“Clover, keep Timber safe. We’ll be back, hopefully with Gloriosa,” said Sunset, and with that she and her friends followed Gaia, albeit at a distance. They couldn’t afford to get too close to the portal, because that would defeat the point of Gaia taking on the task of stabilizing the portal herself, but they had to be close enough that Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight could offer their own support to try and protect Gaia and Gloriosa’s combined body.
They settled for a distance of about a hundred meters away, where Sunset used Hikari’s shield to erect a luminous barrier around her friends, just in case the portal’s collapse would extend further than they thought it would. Meanwhile Rarity called down the giant knight she’d created, and as she did so it disassembled itself back into its component knights, a swarm of two hundred crimson constructs that landed on the ground in a neat set of rows.
Rarity didn’t waste time, sending the knights with shields forward to form a protective formation around Gaia as she approached the edge of the portal. Rarity then summoned forth more of her power, a whirlpool of blood springing up from the knights to then form a series of interlocking crystal barriers, creating a layered shell around Gaia that still left a front opening so that Gaia could focus the power of the geodes at the portal.
Fluttershy in the meantime closed her eyes and clasped her hands in front of her. Then a single golden hand of energy grew from her halo and flew forward, connecting to Gaia by lightly touching her back. Fluttershy poured forth her spirit energy, using it to restore and reinforce Gaia’s own reiatsu as much as she could.
At the same time, Twilight raised her bow and formed a reishi arrow, channeling magic, every last dredge of it she could muster. The arrow grew in size and gained several magical circles around its tip. Twilight then fired the arrow to a point just above the crystal shell that Rarity had made, causing the arrow to burst with a thin, translucent aura of violet light that fell around the shell and reinforced it with a magical barrier.
“That’s it,” Sunset said, “It’s all on her now.”
“Gloriosa,” Twilight said, her voice filling with regret, “It’s my fault she got mixed up in all this. If she dies...”
“Twilight, we’re all responsible in different ways. What matters now is that we do what we can to make things right,” said Fluttershy, “And we do that by doing all we can to help her, now.”
“Looks like it’s show time,” Rainbow Dash said, as the portal started to bulge and warp, its energies growing ever more bright and unstable.
In response to this, Gaia raised her hand that was holding the seven pendants, and stared into that flickering corona of otherworldly energies.
Within her mind the seams between her memories and personalities as both Gaia Everfree and Gloriosa Daisy were smoothing out. Fluttershy and Twilight may have briefly pulled them slightly apart, but the amalgamation of the two souls was fundamentally irreversible at this point. And she was at peace with that. Gloriosa had wanted to protect her home, and recognized a kindred spirit in Gaia, whom she didn’t see as a monster at all, but rather a guardian who’d looked after the Everfree Forest and Gloriosa’s family for so long. In turn, Gaia found herself admiring the human soul that had worked so hard to keep Camp Everfree afloat, and never wavered from her devotion to the land or her family. In many ways, Gloriosa reminded Gaia of the qualities she’d wanted to cultivate in Rose, Lily, and Daisy.
There was no hesitation on either of their parts in accepting one another as equals when becoming one.
Now, Gaia felt a pang of irritation at herself for going off the rails so readily. Her hatred of the Soul Reapers hadn’t really gone anywhere, but it was certainly eclipsed by her hate of Chrysalis. Gloriosa’s own desire to confront Platinum mirrored that, albeit not quite to the same red hot fury Gaia held. Ultimately seeing all of Sunset’s memories and knowing both Chrysalis and Platinum waited out there somewhere to be dealt with had been plenty motivation to call off her own attack. Perhaps more than that, however, was the trusting nature Sunset had presented. Even armed with black flames and ready to fight, Sunset had still been willing to put herself at risk to reach an understanding with Gaia.
It wasn’t every person who had the willingness to go that far. Little wonder the girl had ended up surrounded by so many loyal friends.
Even if we’re gone, she’ll protect Timber, Gaia thought, and then focused her attention fully upon the portal. She had no intention of simply dropping dead for this magical anomaly, but whatever the consequences to her own body was, she had to prevent it from consuming the home she’d fought so hard for.
She could feel the magic inside the pendants. It felt subtly different from before, as if the magic was less constrained, but also more focused. As if the magic had found the shape it was meant to take. Gaia remembered how unusual it was when she found the geodes. It was her first encounter with magic, but it had somehow reminded her of her early days among the ‘gods’ of old, when spirit energy had more freely been used to perform feats most might call magic. Indeed, it kind of reminded her of how the Soul Queen’s absolute power of reishi had been able to reshape the world around her, and how that transcendent spirit energy had felt different from others.
Kind of like this magic, to a degree. Not identical, but like a sister energy, existing on the same spectrum.
It had felt natural to Gloriosa when she’d used the geodes, and Gaia wondered if perhaps the magic itself had made part of that choice, rather than just Gaia leading Gloriosa to the geodes. She also wondered if Charbydis had any knowledge of what the geodes really were? Well, far too late to ask, now. She had no idea if Charbydis’ end of the ritual had gone as planned. If so, she might need to explain to Sunset Shimmer that she had another problem on her hands, even if the portal was fully stabilized. Gaia wasn’t so much afraid of Charybdis, as simply recognizing an entity of power on a similar scale to herself, and with a personality entirely too much like other schemers in Las Noches. Not as crazy as Chryalis. More akin to that Adagio Dazzle, now that Gaia thought about it. Very much like Adagio Dazzle, up to and including the nature of siren magic...
Shaking that thought off, she steadied her breathing and mentally called to the magic in the pendants. Even if they were now attuned to Sunset and her friends, they still seemed to recognize Gaia as someone they would respond to. It was less like commanding a power, and more like sending out a call for help, and hearing an affirmative response. She didn’t even have to do much directing. The magical energies all but seemed to read her thoughts and know what it should do. If anything, Gaia felt a sudden instinct on what she should do, as if the pendants were feeding her mind instructions.
In that flash of knowledge she tapped into her Hollow powers, and brought forth a Garganta in the center of the destabilizing portal. In a way, Starswirl had been very close to his breakthrough. A Garganta could replicate the Equestrian portal, but it needed more than just raw magic, it needed harmonic magic. Magic wasn’t just one element, but a combination of numerous elements born of thought and emotion. If one used too much of just one element, magic became unbalanced. That was why when they formed their greatest harmonics, it required multiple elements, often six, but sometimes more, to form a stable whole.
No wonder she’d been going berserk, earlier. Channeling that much raw magic, focused solely upon anger as its motivating element, all but instantly unbalanced what she’d been doing.
Now she focused on the elements the seven pendants were tied to. Many countless ‘Elements’ could exist, but these seven were attuned to specific ones from the original magic they were born from, hailing from Equestria. Gaia brought forth Loyalty she felt to her brother Timber Spruce and her home in the Everfree Forest. She evoked Kindness by focusing upon her desire to ensure the campers in the nearby Camp Everfree didn’t come to harm. Generosity came easy, for she was willing to give her life to make this happen. Honesty came a bit harder, but it always did, as she admitted to herself that she’d made some serious mistakes that led to this mess in the first place. Laughter was perhaps hardest of all, for there was little humor to be found in this situation, but Gaia laughed anyway, because it was rather funny that she’d gone through so much trouble to get a new body, only to likely lose it within the hour; must be some kind of record.
The last two elements started with Magic, easy enough, for it was born of the previous five, and Gaia held it in abundance. It was the unifying factor for the other elements that bound them together.
But the seventh element? The one attuned to Sunset Shimmer?
Gaia had already shown it by forming the truce, because Sunset had given it to her first. Now she gave that feeling back in full, because if nothing else, she had full Trust that even if she didn’t survive, Sunset Shimmer would take care of the rest.
With the elements all evoked, the pendants rose into the air, and Gaia floated slightly upward with them so they all hovered a few feet off the ground. Seven streams of magical energy in the colors of each pendant flowed forward like eager, rushing rivers. The magic formed seven points around the opening Garganta portal that Gaia had made, and started to swirl around it until it rimmed the Garganta in a solid band of rainbow hued light.
The Equestrian portal started to surge out, then like something caught in a whirlpool it started to twist about and flow into the Garganta. Gaia wasn’t quite certain what to expect from two extra dimensional spaces colliding like that, but she knew that it was likely going to be stark and rapid, whatever it was. She felt the magic struggling to control the overwhelming energies of the portals, as if even the pendants had their work cut out for them. There was also a rush of power from inside the Equestrian portal, a massive explosion of raw power that stemmed from Bount Trixie’s trap, which now coursed forward to try and rush out of the collapsing Equestrian portal.
At the last second Gaia focused all of her thoughts on what she wanted to have happen, and tapped into the magic once more, including Gloriosa’s Fullbring. The colossal tree shuddered, and started to shift its form, the trunk and roots now growing downward to enclose around Gaia and the portals.
There was a single, bright flicker.
Then everything turned pure white as a column of light ripped up and outward, right through the tree, and the spot where Gaia stood.
Sunset and her friends all had to shield their eyes from the incredible brightness of the column of light that tore its way skyward. The ground shook, but only for a brief minute, and soon settled down at around the same time the huge bar of light started to fade away from the air.
“Did... did it work?” asked Clover.
“Glori...” Timber whispered, staring ahead.
Sunset lowered Hikari, letting the luminous light barrier fade away around her and her friends. As far as she could tell, the explosion of the portal hadn’t touched her barrier, as it had all been localized right on top of the spot Gaia had been standing.
She, and all of her friends, looked at what was there now, all equally stunned.
The tree remained, but it was much smaller now. It stood perhaps thirty meters tall, and half that wide; still large for a tree, but not a giant any longer. Its thick green leaves seemed to contain faint motes of light that floated between its branches. Its roots still spread out in a canopy, leaving an open space beneath it, but it was here that everyone’s eye was drawn.
A portion of the tree lowered to the ground here, and formed a sort of framework of roots and vines around a shining oval portal, which stood about fifteen feet tall itself, and about ten feet wide at its widest point. The ground beneath the tree was crater, however, as if the column of light had bored a hole scores of feet down into the earth.
There was no immediate sign of Gaia Everfree anywhere to be seen.
“Glori!” Timber stumbled forward, making an awkward, stumbling run for the tree.
Applejack moved first to catch him, grabbing his shoulder tight, “Whoa there, ya ain’t gonna do no good hurtin’ yerself. C’mon now, I’ll take ya over an’ we’ll see what happen ta yer sis.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but he was also barely standing, so he accented to letting Applejack be someone to lean on while the group rushed over to the tree. Twilight was instantly focused on the portal itself, but she tore her eyes away from it to look for any sign of Gaia, and was the first to spot her.
“There!”
The edge of the crater beneath the tree was steep, leading down much further than at first glance. Sunset realized the crater went all the way down to the very spot Gaia Everfree had been trapped inside, before merging with Gloriosa.
Down there, in the very bottom of the crater, lay Gaia. Around her body the seven pendants sat, gleaming in the dark.
They all rushed down towards her, some of the girls leaping down, while Applejack carried Timber on a controlled slide down the crater’s slope.
“Glori!” Timber called out, just as Sunset and the other girls reached her.
Gaia was completely still, and Sunset immediately went to her side and knelt down to check on her. It only took a glance to notice two things. The first thing was that Gaia was still breathing, and didn’t appear harmed. However, the second thing Sunset noticed told her that while the portal’s catastrophic collapse may have been averted, it hadn’t been entirely without cost.
Gaia’s eyes opened and she made a slight groaning sound as she sat up. As she did so, she looked up at Timber, first and foremost, and let out a relieved smile. “Oh thank goodness, you’re still alright, brother.”
“Glori, I...” Timber went to her and didn’t even bother to hide his tears as he wrapped her up in a hug, “I thought you were...”
“It’s alright. Nothing to cry over. Told you, even if I died, it wouldn’t be the end,” Gaia said, and Timber looked at her strangely.
“What do you mean? You’re right here, and you’re okay.”
The other girls, by now, had noticed what Sunset had, and Clover came forward and laid a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, “Do we... tell him?”
“Tell me what?” Timber asked, then blinked as he took another look at Gaia and spotted it.
A dark hole in the center of her mid-riff, the same as any other Arrancar might have. A hole that hadn’t been there when she’d been occupying Gloriosa’s human body.
Gaia looked at her brother with a sad, but accepting smile, and said, “I’m sorry, brother.”
----------
“Did you enjoy the show?”
With a sigh filled with a wealth of familiar annoyance, Medley finished her cup of wine and leaned back in her chair to glance up at a cleft in the mountain slope above her. The image that showed the situation at the bottom of the crater flickered out as she made a waving gesture at it, not taking her eyes off the man who stood staring down at her.
He was tall, broad shouldered, and was covered in lean muscle. His skin was a rich blue, like the color of a morning sky, and his hair a faded pink color, which was tied in a traditional samurai’s topknot. He wore a full, royal kimono in black and white, with a red hilted katana with a guard shaped like a leaping carp set in a black scabbard.
His dark blue eyes regarded Medley with the same light an older brother might when catching his sister rifling through his room.
“Hello Bowtie,” said Medley, “Did Glory send you to check up on me?”
“No,” Bowtied replied curtly, “I’m doing this of my own volition. And I would prefer you refer to me by my proper name, Medore.”
She rolled her eyes so hard it might have tilted the axis of the planet, “You do realize that Chonekutai is literally just ‘bowtie’ in Japanese, right? And that ‘Medore’ is just the phonetic way to say Medley?”
“Yes.”
“...Ugh, you know, is it not enough you made the entire Gotei 13 base everything on that language? Just because we were originally born in that land doesn’t mean we’ve got to style everything after it!”
“It is a beautiful language.”
“Don’t care, still calling you Bowtie. Deal with it. Now why are you here? Just to be a buzzkill?”
“I wanted to ensure you were actually doing your job, instead of playing your usual games.”
“Heh, well what’s the point of work if you’re not going to find the little moments of entertainment in it?” Medley replied, rising from the plush leather chair she’d been sitting in. The chair, along with the pedestal that had formed the viewing circle, both vanished in an eye-blink, as if they had never existed in the first place. Medley stretched her arms above her head, interlacing her fingers to crack them in a long, yawning motion.
“You can do as you please, as long as you still fulfill the task Eiko assigned you,” Bowtie replied, not so much hopping down from the cleft so much as just appearing next to Medley, “I’m wondering just why it is, then, that you allowed Doo-hime to escape Soul Society with the information she has.”
“Aww, you were watching?” Medley smirked like a cat, “I could ask you why you didn’t step in, then.”
“That is not my role.”
“Riiiight, I keep forgetting that’s your favorite playbook. So, can I assume it’s not your ‘role’ to tell Glory I went and decided to let the little feline have her prize and bring it to Discord?”
He was silent for a moment, his eyes betraying no emotion whatsoever. Medley knew it was a mask, but Bowtie was damn good at hiding his real thoughts, not because he was some master of deceit, but because he didn’t ever do anything other than be frank with his words. “You’re under no obligations. Your task was evaluation. You are free to decide what that entails. I’m merely curious why you would choose to allow information sensitive to our plans to be leaked. I am also curious what your evaluation is, after watching the events of today unfold.”
“Ask away, but you might not learn much from the answers,” Medley teased, laughing under her breath, “I don’t care what Discord or the humans learn. I’d be fine with even Scorpan learning the truth.”
“Why? It may cause rebellion.”
“Good,” Medley said with a venom in her voice that was so real, it manifested in the melting of a pile of rocks nearby, “It’s high time Glory learned that her perfect plan was eventually going to have some bumps in the road. I told her before that we should have killed Discord, and she ignored me. I think an object lesson is in order.”
“Eiko will not like that.”
“Glory can kiss the widest part of my ass, then,” Medley said firmly, “None of us swore loyalty to her. Zero is not her plaything, but our collective project.”
“Ah, so this is your message to her to remind her of that,” Bowtie said, neither his face or voice betraying whether he approved or not, “Understood. Then, what of the human girls? What is your evaluation of them?”
To this, Medley turned towards the direction of the lake, many miles off, but still visible from the high slope of the mountain. “Oh, they’re a threat alright. Potential like that only exists in a handful around here, like Celestia and Luna.”
“Then should they not be eliminated?”
“Bowtie, grow an imagination, will you?” Medley chided, “There’s so much more we can do with them than simply kill them, and even if we did, that wouldn’t remove them as a threat, would it? Heck, one of them is already dead, and that only made her stronger. Now, that being said, those girls have just gotten ahold of some problematically powerful items, and I think it’s high time we had ourselves a little... introduction.”
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Still not over
Wow!
That was intense!
Very eager to see what happens next!
For a minute there I thought you were going to kill Gaia off, as we already have a crapton of characters, but I'm glad you didn't. She represents lots of future narrative potential, especially with the surprise reveal that Platinum was indirectly responsible for her parents' deaths. Still, you handled her transition to the side of heroism beautifully, from both Gaia's and Sunset's angles.
Meanwhile, I still have almost no idea what the Zero division is up to, other than the fact that it's ominous. Depending on what it is, Starlight and Chrysalis might actually be the lesser evil. Like, say, if they want to reset the universe, erasing all souls in the process, or something.
Explaining how all this afterlife stuff works to Timber might also set the stage for Rarity to come clean, too. The dénouement for this arc is gonna take a while, haha.
Wait so the portal is fixed now? Meaning they'll be going to Equestria soon?
But there's so much I want to see before that. Everyone finding out Rarity is dead and the fallout of that, them all (mostly Applejack) finding out Hard Nail killed Velvet, Twilight talking to and coming to terms with Hard Nail about it, Sweet Cider/Hard Nail reunion with Apple Bloom and Granny Smith, Thorax's meeting with Captain Luna, how Adagio is going to help the Vadenreich rescue Fleur?
Oh I don't mind going there for a few chapters to catch up with Princess Twilight and her group (Luna knows I want to know how the fight with Charybdis went) but it seems a little early for the Equestria Girls to have full access to the magical world when there's still so much here that needs to be resolved.
Also Bowtie is a total WEEB. Though I'm not sure Medley should be deliberately trying to force Glory's hand like this, she may indeed force Glory to remind HER that there's a reason she gives the commands in Division 0, that there's a reason Medley needs HER permission to act.
This’ll be a messy event series to go now.
So, basically she put a portable hole into a bag of holding
10565243
add in some anti-magic field and your golden.
I just finished catching up to this story and I've really enjoyed it. The dialogue and action are very solid without dragging too long. Looking forward to reading more.
Let's see what's left to deal with:
Reaper reinforcements,Hiding Gilda, Smooze and Gloriosa, Gilda/Zap meeting (you know, she cut her legs), AJ explaining who her father is and fallout from it, Dealing with Rarity's sudden weight loss, Diamond Tiara's introduction (wonder if Quincy will still go with the Training grounds idea. Doubtfull, but then she could form a little team with CMC, and right now she needs some mental back up), Pudding Head and the Kraken, The Equestria Team and Charybdis, Then is finding new home for Hard and his family (Apple Reuniou is going to BIG this year), Saving Fleur (and with what kind of bastard Guto is, I hope they'll deal with it quickly) which no one talks about but there's Gilda so maybe she knows something about her.
And there is Medley...
While Adagio will have to deal with Hollow politics and protecting Nail from Arrancars that would use his weakened state (looking at you Guto), deal with Thorax.
And Twilight dealing with Fallout of Sapphire assasination attempt- she was one of the strongest and possibly oldest quincy. Pretty sure some might be not pleased with her state (or like how Twilight is gathering strenght and influence so quickly). Plus Hoity, another sternritter is dead and Gladmane is a traitor. And that assuming Quincy don't know about her deal with Adagio. Some might really see a deal with a hollow as a heresy. Upper Crust might demand some blood if finds out Twilight worked with Nail.
Oh, and there is petrified Soarin andmissing Sour Sweet. No one thinks about her... She's going to be mad.
Would that mean they could be in Soul Society? Assuming they surrvived the fight.
NUTELLA ALL THE WAY!!!!!!
I mean, you kind of have a point, but at the same time, you eat people. The cycle isn’t really what matters here.
Urgh. Platinum again. She’s just the worst.
You know, this might actually read better with its usual interpretation. gg indeed.
Overall, that was a very satisfying resolution to Gaia confrontation. It’s good to see the power of friendship still has a grip on this world even with all the super powered fights that keep cropping up.
...
#@%&
this man have good tastes, and it's especially relevant when the japanese version made the names sound far better.
Honestly, the thing i would prefer would be Soul Society, the Espadas and the Quincy lead by their current leaders to do a temporary alliance just for kill those three, since Tirek, Scorpan and Sombra are roughly as strong as the royal guards one on one
You mixed up the Geodes/Pendants. Applejack's is Orange and Sunset's is Red.