Realms of Existence

by GMBlackjack

XVIII - Betrayal's Vectors

A glass sphere filled with eight ponies rocketed through the globes of the Realm of Power, Implode positioned at the back providing explosive thrust, and Rainbow Dash clearing the way in front of them. They were going to need to travel the full distance between Equis and the moon through the spheres and while air wasn't a problem in the Realm of Power, the gravity and density of the spheres certainly were straining. Rainbow Dash was reaching the limits of her power, keeping everything away at these extreme velocities.

It wasn't until they'd been traveling through the Realm of Power for a good twenty minutes that Implode stated what should have been obvious.

"Damn thing bucking mind-controlled us!"

Twilight looked up. "...What did?"

"That freaking Realm of Dreams!" Implode shouted. "It told us to GO and none of us hesitated!"

Twilight was ready to object but thought about it for a moment. She remained silent.

"Oh... my," Fluttershy said.

Starlight growled. "Not a fan of that."

"Dears, it had nothing but good intentions," Rarity said.

"It rewired your brain, Rarity." Applejack said. "It could have just told you to believe that!"

"Oh don't be... silly..." She blinked. "Oh my. You have a point. Should I check everypony for lingering mental conditioning?"

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "You mean besides you?"

"Oh. Yes." She blushed slightly. "I suppose I need my 'conditioning' don't I?" She switched her eyepatch, staring blankly into space, feeling the influx of mind waves.

"Nopony bother Rainbow Dash, she's on the brink," Rarity said. Rainbow Dash may have had immense power and was easily able to plow through large areas of the spheres with just a wing motion, but when trying to cross the lunar distance in just a few hours, a motion that should have only been needed every minute needed to be done several times a second. Rainbow Dash was flapping like a hummingbird.

Rarity detected no conditioning and moved onto the others. Their thoughts were tense - but happy. Implode was back to normal, her 'conditioning' blending naturally with her mind, suggesting it was what she was supposed to be. They all felt like they were wrapping up their tense mission, and could relax soon. Of course, there were thoughts about Sperion and the images they had seen in the Realm of Dreams. What had destroyed the previous world? Was it still a danger here? Who was September? What was Sperion's story? How did Congeal get started? How did it all tie together?

There had been a few answers...

There were a lot more questions.

Rarity switched back to her regular vision. "Didn't see anything. Everypony's a tad tense though."

"Can you... Not look at our thoughts? Maybe?" Implode suggested.

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Miss Baskets, I was querying into your mental wellbeing, and doing so required me to investigate your thought pattern. Which is fine and acclimating perfectly, by the way. I should know, I'm the mare who repaired it."

"Ooooooh!" Pinkie said. "Burn!"

Applejack blinked. "...Ah'd forgotten your full name was Implode Baskets. Why Baskets of all things?"

"My mother was crazy and my father is a sociopath. Is it really that mysterious?" she chuckled. "I mean, I know you're not the brightest brick out there but surely you could have deduced that, miss Inflection of Truth."

"Wow," Applejack said, "Ah'd forgotten how vicious you could be."

Starlight smirked. "And this is her being nice to us."

"And don't you forget it!" Implode shouted hammily. "I'm being nice and you will respect the impact!"

Twilight blinked. "...Shouldn't you be focusing on our acceleration?"

"Oh. Right. 'Scuse me, gotta make sure we don't all explode." Implode raised a hoof. "Oversights like this are bound to happen, don't stress about it, you dolts will be fine."

Fluttershy shivered, turning to Rarity. "It's nice and all that she's herself again... But she's a little... Intense."

"A little?" Rarity said, eyebrow raised.

"Okay, really intense. I'm just not used to her yet. I'm trying."

"Don't worry," Applejack said. "Crazy as she is, Implode's got something going for her. She has Rainbow Dash's undying loyalty. Don't forget that."

"I won't!"

Pinkie yawned. "Are we there yet!?"

"Not even halfway there," Twilight said.

"Ugh. This ride is going to get boring. We need a way to skip past this downtime..." Pinkie pondered this.

~~~

"There we go, worked like clockwork!" Pinkie grinned. "Are we there yet!?"

"We'll be within long teleport range in under a minute." Twilight looked at Pinkie oddly. "...You've been oddly quiet this whole trip."

Pinkie shrugged. "Eh, I was experiencing a break. No biggie, I bet you girls talked about all kinds of stuff while I was away!"

"Three separate emotional breakdowns," Starlight said. "I'm beginning to think we might need therapy for all this."

"Good idea," Twilight admitted. "I'll probably check myself in after all this is over."

Implode huffed. "I don't need no therapy."

"Oh?" Applejack said. "What was that earlier about killing and Trekker?"

Implode's eye twitched, but she said nothing.

"Within teleport distance!" Twilight said. "Cut it Implode!"

Implode turned off her rocket blast, signaling to Rainbow Dash she could stop working. Rainbow Dash fell to the bottom of the sphere, exhausted. "Never... Doing... That... Ever... Again..." she hissed. "Need... Energy drink..."

Everypony rolled their eyes when they saw Rainbow Dash create an energy drink in her front hoof. She drank it in ten seconds flat. Pinkie facehooved. Hard.

Twilight looked at Implode. "We're teleporting right outside New Mareu. I'll give you a disguise, okay?"

"What's my cover name?" Implode asked.

"Tiled Floors," Twilight said, transforming Implode into a generic white pegasus. "Try to look boring."

Implode shrugged. "Nooo promises."

"Fair enough. Don't ruin things, basically."

"Got it. Mission 'do not be Implode' ready with a seventy percent chance of success!"

Twilight grumbled. "Lower odds than I'd like but... Okay. Let's go."

Twilight teleported the eight of them into the air above New Mareu. Twilight lightly set them down, noticing that Rainbow Dash wasn't even attempting to fly. The trip must have been an absurdly large tax on her.

"Starlight?" A foal said, looking up at the group from an extrusion. "You're back?"

Starlight smiled. "For now. Can you take us to the guardians? We've got a message from Overglobe."

"Oh, she made it?" The foal grinned. "We were getting worried! Stay here, I'll get them!" He scampered off. In under a minute, a dozen guardians arrived - some by wing, some by explosion, others by simply walking through the floor. One of them stepped to the front, a silver unicorn mare with a purple mane.

"I am Silver Beads. Why aren't they with you?"

"It wasn't easy to get back," Starlight said. "Our transport only allowed the eight of us through, but Overglobe and Trekker are completely fine, living in Equestria right now." She smirked. "Overglobe asked us to come here and take you back. The seven of us can create a one-way portal to our home. They want you to come through."

"That was the plan," Silver admitted. "Make the portal. I want to see this for myself before we commit."

"Untrusting bitch..." Implode muttered under her breath.

Twilight obliged regardless, getting the Seven of them into the heptagon formation and lighting her horn. With Rarity physically there, the connection was completely stable. A round portal surged into existence, ringed with a soft red glow. Through it a snowy place could be seen. Twilight blinked, sticking her head in the portal. "Looks like New Mareu is around the Crystal Empire." She hopped through. "The portal should be permanent so long as we don't close it. Welcome to Central!"

The guardians walked through, Implode and the rest of the Seven close behind. They all stood in the cold, snowy realm, the sun shining down on them. The gurdians looked on in awe - it was a bit cold, but there was no chaos, no spheres appearing out of nowhere, and no shifting walls. Everything was stable.

Silver blinked. "I... Thank you. This place will save so many ponies..."

"In a way," Trekker said, dropping from the sky. Implode was only kept from flying off the hinges then and there by Rainbow Dash. Despite her tired state, she was still able to grab Implode's muzzle with a wing, telling her with a look that now was not the time.

Twilight blinked. "How did you find us so fast?"

"I can sense strong inflections," he said, turning to the portal. "That does look a good deal more permanent."

Twilight nodded. "Yes, it is. I can teleport us back to Canterlot. Everypony fine with that?"

Trekker nodded, looking at Silver closely. "Yes. Guardians, as soon as we arrive, show these ponies some alpha-five. I'm sure they'll be interested in that."

Silver's eyes widened and several guardians tensed, but they all nodded.

Twilight smiled. "Can't wait." She finished preparing the spell.

Applejack frowned. "Twilight, maybe you should-"

They vanished in a flash of light and appeared in the royal hall, right in front of Celestia seated on her throne.

"-wait." Applejack finished. She paled. She felt two metallic spheres pressed on either side of her head, and she could see that her other seven friends all had the same thing pushing against their heads as well. The message was clear - move and everypony dies.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Celestia demanded.

"Yeah, I'd like to know that as well Trekker," Silver said. "Why are we threatening them?"

"Overglobe is dead. Killed by the ponies of this world. It is not safe for us, they do not have the power to protect us from themselves." He turned to Celestia. "So we will take over and put matters into our own hooves. Surrender control of your kingdom or all of them die right now. Don't try anything, I guarantee I can act faster than you, and that our power exceeds your own. If all else fails, we can turn their brains into gas."

"I SHOULD HAVE BUCKING KILLED YOU!" Implode screamed.

"That's a horrible disguise Implode. Disgraceful." Those were the only words Trekker had for his daughter. He created a nail and drove it through her jaw, keeping her mouth from moving.

Celestia glared at Trekker. "You and I both know the Order's zebras killed Overglobe. We had nothing to do with that."

"True," Trekker said. "But you failed to protect us. So in the interest of my ponies, I will be taking over."

"Liar!" Applejack yelled. "He's lying! He's also hiding somethin' else!"

"You would say that," Trekker said. "Your life is being threatened."

"Ah don't lie," Applejack said.

"You would if the situation called for it. You were part of an elaborate plot to keep our existence a secret from the public."

"Yeah? So?" Applejack was trying to figure out what it was he was hiding - but all she could get was that he wanted power and that he really didn't care for anything beyond his own selfish agenda.

"That alone is suspicious. It is possible you wanted us dead and out of the way. We can't trust you. Any of you." Trekker took a moment to glare at each and every one of them."So I have to do something. I had to either let us live in fear or take control of the situation."

"That's a bunch of hogwash!" Applejack said.

Rarity used her magic to swap her eyepatch, looking at the world through her mental eye.

"No." Trekker said, seeing her horn light up. He tore her eyepatch off with a quick motion of his wing. "No magic, no spells. From anyone. No lighting horns. No inflections either." He looked right at Starlight and Rainbow Dash. "I know you two are thinking and pondering if you can stop time or remove the spheres fast enough. Trust me, you can't. "

Rainbow Dash growled. "You're sick."

"I'm being preemptive."

Rarity narrowed her mind eye at the thought. "Are you sure you want to be? You could let you and your people be helped. You don't even need to take Equestria over, you can go live in the middle of the ocean if you wanted."

Trekker bristled. "Do you think an ocean will stop killers?" No. I should know. Nothing would have stopped me from killing Overglobe.

Rarity gasped. "You killed Overglobe!" She pushed her thoughts into his mind.

"I killed Overglobe!" His eyes widened. "BITCH! Putting words in my mouth! I did no such thing!"

Implode laughed. She couldn't speak, but she found Trekker's cool demeanor breaking absolutely hilarious. Trekker clocked her on the head for her chuckles.

Celestia narrowed her eyes at Trekker. "I see what's going on here. You like control. You didn't want to answer to yet another higher power, so you set this up. I... I expect many, if not all, of those threatening my ponies are loyal to you."

"I want to protect my ponies, and you represent an unknown that should be dealt with."

"Stop lying through your teeth," Celestia hissed venomously. "You are doing this for your own selfish reasons."

Trekker shook his head. "It does not matter what you believe. Will you step down or not?"

Celestia looked at the eight mares being threatened. Fluttershy was crying, Rainbow Dash was cursing under her breath, Starlight was trying to think of a way out of the situation, Rarity was staring into space, and Twilight was looking right at Celestia.

Celestia saw understanding in the deep purple eyes.

"No," she said. "The livelihood of hundreds of thousands of ponies under my control must come first. I am sorry... to you all. But I cannot do that."

Trekker blinked. "I don't think you realize. I can order us to fight a war against you. We can easily overpower you in every way. These Seven here are the only users of Inflection you have, with them gone you won't stand a chance. What I'm offering you is a bloodless alternative."

"Trekker?" Silver said, "We..."

"We far outclass them in terms of power, Silver. The Seven are their strongest warriors. They stand no chance against us."

"The answer is still no," Celestia said. "The ponies of Equestria do not need you as a leader."

Trekker twitched. This is not how this is supposed to go. I don't think I can get them to fight a full war. "As you wish," he said through gritted teeth. He turned to the guardians. "Kill them."

Then suddenly, all the death spheres were gone, freeing the eight mares. "What...?" Trekker said. Then he felt a presence behind him.

Congeal bucked Trekker across the hall. He roared. "Who released you!?"

"I did," Ahuizotl said, waltzing into the room with a huge smirk. "Quite a while ago, in fact. You see I was preparing for this. I saw you kill Overglobe." His smile vanished, replaced with a vicious scowl. "I rather liked her, by the way."

Silver's eyes widened. "You did didn't you!?" She pointed an accusing hoof at Trekker. "You sick freak!"

Trekker narrowed his eyes. "I can see my hope for a simple resolution has been dashed." He dodged an attack from Congeal. "Guardians, let us fight. You know what to do."

All the guardians save Silver raised their hooves and wings, generating thousands of spheres, all of which headed right for Celestia. She raised a shield of golden energy, but it wouldn't have been enough had Rainbow Dash not leaped in and helped clear them away. "I am way too tired for this..."

Congeal swiped at Trekker with six versions of herself at once, but he masterfully dodged all of the attacks, impaling her with explosive spears of his own. "Why are you suddenly helping them?" he yelled. "What did he offer you!?"

Congeal said nothing, for she could not. She continued attacking Trekker from all sides, but the phenomenally skilled guardian slipped through all the cracks.

All around them, the throne hall exploded. Royal guards rushed in, only to be disintegrated quickly. Blood was flung everywhere, the very building coming apart around them.

Twilight's eyes went white the moment the roof came crashing down - she lifted the entire ceiling and threw it away, breathing heavily. She was unable to dodge an incoming attack a moment later, her left wing getting entirely burnt off by a sphere of fire.

Fluttershy and Starlight were doing their best to revive those who had fallen, but there were just too many falling, and they had to work to keep themselves alive as well. Royal guards, guardians, Congeal, the Seven... All tossed together in in a massive chaotic battle. Trekker had been right- the firepower of the dozen guardians outclassed that of most the Equestrians, and even the Seven had difficulty against the trained ponies - but Congeal's powers provided quite the edge.

Though there was one detriment to the Equestrians. Trekker realized that they weren't willing to kill. Fluttershy was raising every dead body she saw, from both sides, and only Congeal was actively trying to be lethal - and she was focused on just Trekker. He was having the fight of his life, but he had allies backing him up. Congeal, powerful though she was, wasn't going to be able to get through him plus several allies -

Implode barreled into him, jaw free of the hindering nail. "Hi, dad! Nice to see you!" She twisted his leg, turned part of it into concrete, and then threw him to the ground. Trekker landed, producing a giant crater in the already decimated ground.

"Keep Congeal busy!" He ordered. He stood up, covering himself in a strange spiky alloy. "I will take care of my daughter."

"Oooh!" Implode laughed. "Mano a Mano! I like it" Implode encased Trekker in a sphere of fire - which Trekker took control of himself and threw at her. Implode dodged it with a stupid grin on her face. "Such a perfect scenario! How unlike you!" She blew a wind of ice at him and increased gravity - only for him to invert gravity completely.

"You are the wayward child," Trekker said. "You have been a pain in my plot for far too long." He raised a wing, creating a black sphere in it. "It is time for you to die like you should have long ago."

Implode panicked. She'd never been able to deal with a black sphere very well. And he was directing it at her, with intent to kill. She closed her eyes, focused, and tried to squish the singularity into nothingness...

It exploded inches from her, sending her flying back a few meters. Trekker narrowed his eyes. "What? Why did you never do that before!?"

Implode shrugged. "Heh. Guess I got better without your guidance."

Trekker exploded in rage at this. "No!" He rushed her, smacking her across the face with a brick. "You are under me! Without me you are nothing! A stupid mare! You are mine!"

Implode smirked, hitting him with an iron sphere. "You know, you're kind of stupid that way. I don't have to be part of you."

"Yes you do, fool!" Trekker's calm demeanor showed no signs of returning anymore. "Everything! Everything needs me! New Mareu would have died many times over had I not given up some of my own time to save its sorry ass!" He spread his wings, generating a half dozen black spheres around himself. "Everything is improved by me! You needed nothing else!"

"You're sick and delusional," Implode said, managing to weave out of the way of the spheres, catching the last one in her power. "Even more so than me." She tossed the black sphere back at him, only for him to crush it with a thought.

"You defy at every turn. You are done now!"

"Oh really?" She said, smirking. Her smirk vanished when she felt a tremendous gravity well from behind her. She knew it was a much larger black sphere - too much for her to deal with. She tried to fly away, but the pull was too intense. She screamed as it began to tear at her back legs, threatening to rip them off with the gravitational difference. Numerous guards were swallowed by the black power.

"Die!" Trekker yelled. "Get out of my sights!"

Implode felt something move the black sphere behind her. The strain on her muscles vanished as it flew over her and towards Trekker. He paled - no. He had used too much energy - he couldn't make it disappear. He pushed his wings forward, attempting to slow the oncoming doom, only with marginal success. He took to running away - and he was strong enough to escape its pull. He was not strong enough to escape it and dodge the explosive sphere Implode generated in front of him.

"Bye," she said.

"AAAAARGH!" Trekker roared, his wings torn from his body by the gravitational difference. His form was stretched out into space, spiraling towards the event horizon in an ever-increasing number of pieces. His screams soon became nothing as he vanished from reality.

Rainbow Dash collapsed, truly out of energy. It had taken everything she had just to move that huge sphere. There was no way she could remove it from existence. It continued to devour guards, guardians, and structures with no restraint.

Implode and Applejack tried to stop it, but neither of them had enough power. It was flying through the air, devouring everything.

Congeal appeared above it, flapping her wings. It vanished instantly. Congeal took one look at the ruined castle, the Seven, and the many torn bodies. Then she vanished without another motion.

Everypony was still. The fighting halted, none sure what to do now.

Trekker was dead...

Silver stomped her hoof. "Let us stop this fighting! Trekker was not a good pony - and I believe he really killed Overglobe for his own power!" She limped over to the bruised and battered form of Celestia. "I turn us over to you and call a ceasefire."

Celestia coughed. "Accepted..." She shook the mare's hoof. Then Celestia turned to the rubble stack Ahuizotl was standing behind. "...It occurs to me we are in your debt. I do not know how you convinced Congeal to help us, nor how you released her, but I thank you."

Ahuizotl bowed. "I always try to help your majesty..."

Applejack let out a tired and drawn out laugh. "Heh. Right."

"I will be wanting to cash in that debt soon, but it can wait." Ahuizotl looked at Silver. "I hope you are better than that freak. I would have been better than him."

"Scary thing is, I agree with you," Starlight said. "Egh..."

As Fluttershy and Starlight went around healing whoever they could, Celestia and Silver talked, while Implode walked up to Rainbow Dash.

"You killed him." Implode said.

Rainbow Dash let out a nervous chuckle. "I helped. So? Isn't that what you wanted?"

Implode frowned. "...Yes. But it wasn't what you wanted."

Rainbow Dash sighed. "No, it wasn't. I... I'm not sure if he deserved it or not. I don't know. I just know I had to stop him right then and there. He was evil. ...And it was a team effort."

Implode nodded. Then she embraced Rainbow Dash. "Thank you. For everything."

"Heh. Yeah..."

Elsewhere, Twilight frowned. They had won. They all had the Realms' powers, Trekker was dead, peace was on the horizon, and Congeal didn't appear to be trying to kill them right now...

Why did she feel like it wasn't even close to over?

Comments

[mastermenthe]

I wonder what happens if you use the Elements outside of central?

[FM-96]

I was kinda expecting Pinkie to do more during this fight. An Inflection of Distortion sounds like it could be crazy powerful against living beings. (And I guess Discord is back to not being around when he's needed, too.)

Here are all the errors I found, as usual.

[GMBlackjack]

8176126

The focus was on Trekker - the other Seven were fighting, but for the sake of story we needed to focus on him and what was happening. The Seven - Pinkie and all the others - will get their time to shine in the upcoming chapters. (of which there are only 3 left!)

-GM, master of fights.

[ferret]

Because your Inflections are going to rip Central asunder as soon as the wrong ponies learn how to use them?

Because you can't undo what the Realms did to you, so you're superpowered pariahs, just like Meadowbrook and her friends?

Because Starlight tripped over Trekker's corpse and now he's taking over Equestria again?

Mono a mono

The phrase is "mano a mano" which is Spanish for "hand-to-hand," or dropping your guns and swords in order to outright brawl.