Songs of the Spheres

by GMBlackjack

104 - Conquest, Part 2

Yellow Diamond received O’Neill’s message.

She was truly in charge now. No authorities for her to call back to. Both O’Neill and Thor were on Celestia City, cut off. As far as anyone was concerned, she was the Overhead now.

Not even White Diamond had authority over her here.

Good.

“We’re close enough! Launch!” Yellow Diamond ordered.

From the tip of the largest protomolecule planet, a squad of ships launched consisting of speeders, gunships, some god-tier Skaian droppers, and a handful of angels. They approached the harmonious barrier, using all their resources to keep the central ship from being destroyed.

The top of the central ship opened up, revealing the six Elements of Pandemonium. Red Velvet, Passion; Havocwing, Insanity; Insipid, Desire; Grayscale Force, Objectivity; Curaçao, Trickery; and Starlight Shadow, Pride. Once, they had been direct opposites of the Elements of Harmony, but they had long since grown past these definitions.

But that worked to their advantage for the moment. Each of them still had a seed of the darkness within them – but they also had the seeds of friendship, so they could use their powers in conjunction. The majority of Elements of Discord or Disharmony or Chaos across the universe, by nature, were unable to be used as one like the actual Elements of Harmony.

They went against that nature. They were the Elements of Pandemonium. They were the perfect mares for this job.

These particular corrupted Element artifacts had been found in an ancient chest marked with the cutie marks of the Mean Six, specifically keyed to them. A part of their story they didn't get to experience.

Beams of darkness shot from their Elements, forming a hexagonal shape. A sphere of swirling smoke whirled around them, shrouding their faces. Dark sparks of energy orbited the sphere and a rainbow composed of the darkest shades of every color was unleashed, hitting the harmony barrier head on.

The pure white energy shifted to a dark black around the point of impact. The dark miasma spread like a virus through the holy weaves of energy, soon transforming the entire white barrier into a jagged mess of dark energy.

“All it takes is one little mistake to barrel into a catastrophe,” Shadow said.

“A little lie opens the way for everyzing else,” Curaçao agreed.

Velvet smirked. “All you have to do is take a speck of darkness
Add it to the mix!
Now just take a little something dark not horrid,
A corruption, deep inside!

Darkness, it’s just so easy!
Darkness, you just can’t stop it!
Darkness, darkness, darkness, DARKNESS!

“Just do the smashy thing already!” Havocwing demanded.

“Like, do it now,” Insipid added.

Grayscale just grunted.

With their wills combined, they ordered the dark aura to crush the world it had been protecting not even a minute prior.

The moment the darkness hit the exterior and started cracking it, Skarn ordered the barrier to vanish – leaving the center exposed.

“GO!” Yellow Diamond ordered.

The engines on the back of the largest protomolecule planet burned as hard as they could. A few ships were on the planet’s surface trying to recover from the most recent fight but they would not be given time to escape. They needed to crash through now before Skarn came up with any new tricks.

The ships in front of the planet cut away at the last moment, allowing the two spheres to collide.

From afar, it wasn’t very impressive. It was like the Earth crashing into the sun – one could barely see the speck of blue when looking at the tremendous shifting ball that protected the Shaping Mechanisms.

Up close was another story.

Two solid crusts impacted each other at high velocity. The front face of the protomolecule planet vaporized in an instant, creating a gigantic depression in the ever-shifting material of Skarn’s crust. Both sides buckled, unleashing molten rock on each other, burning away both surfaces with the immense pressure. Volcanoes erupted everywhere on the protomolecule planet, some of the geological activity disrupting the engines on the other side of the globe.

But the planet couldn’t be stopped now. It embedded itself further and further into the shifting crust. The defensive barrier may have been hundreds of kilometers thick – but the planet was larger. It punched through, raining molten debris on the hollow interior.

The shell squeezed around the planet’s equator, attempting to crush it from outside. This would have worked – eventually.

But the fleet didn’t need long. With a large area on the other side of the barrier, they had a solid reality anchor on the other side. A few ships were able to teleport from the back end of the planet to the front, and those ships were able to fold space within the bubble of their physics to create a wormhole that obeyed the local physical rules. Who cared if the entire interior of this place was filled with dimensional jammers? They didn’t have time to destroy them. Why not use something a little more mundane to teleport people across the boundary of the planet?

As more and more ships passed through the wormhole, they added their energy to the endeavor, increasing the size of the portal, allowing the smaller protomolecule planets through.

They suffered heavy losses moving in this manner – the shell was able to attack many of them on the outside and inside, lashing at ships with spikes of impossible matter.

But they made it through. They were on the inside.

Yellow Diamond checked her readings. 42% forces remaining.

That seemed like a good number to her.

“Destroy everything,” she ordered. “Focus on the center, but destroy everything.”

The fleet fired everything it had. This was significantly less impressive than the previous volley they had unleashed outside the barrier, but it did the trick. The interior of the central universe lit up with nuclear explosions and magical mushroom clouds.

In retaliation, the planetary statues of Skarn and his children came to life, rushing the ships like they were flies, swatting them away with powerful movements. Numerous armored soldiers crawled over the limbs of these behemoths, leaping off to board ships whenever their abilities told them it was possible. The outer shell attacked from behind, shreds of random material swatting at the ships.

Yellow Diamond watched their forces start to drop. Great Imperium warships began to fall and a Flat Reaper snapped in two like a twig. They were surrounded on all sides. Suddenly she wasn’t quite as confident this was going to work.

“Launch more secondary teams toward the center!” Yellow Diamond shouted. “We need to get at him from the inside!”

Luckily for her, several of these teams had already launched. Ultramarines, Ahzek’s Chaos contingent, an Inkling squad, and near the front were the Primary Team and the Mean Six.

“We’re going to get more of them than you!” Havocwing hassled Pinkie’s Party from across the radio.

“Wanna make a bet on those odds?” Vriska smirked.

“Fuck ye-”

They heard Curaçao put a hoof over Havocwing. “Non, she’s trying to exploit ‘er luck abilities, ‘Avoc.”

“Wait, what the- BITCH!”

Vriska smirked. “Thank you.”

“INCOMING!” both Nova and Shadow shouted at the same time.

One of the large statues had apparently decided they weren’t just small fish and needed to be cut down.

“I’ve got this,” Nova said. She didn’t light her horn, instead tapping into her Prince of Time powers. “Erase.” She muttered.

The next thing everyone knew, they were behind the moving statue. Both their ships had nicks in them, but they weren’t cut in half.

“Uh, what?” Insipid said.

“I erased time,” Nova commented. “There were about fifteen seconds that just don’t exist anymore.”

“Then how did we get cuts on our ships!?”

Shadow audibly perked up. “Clearly, she allowed time to progress through an indicative moment in which events occurred, but no conscious decisions could alter the events that were happening aside from her own personal machinations. The act of time vanishing prompted a confused response with-”

“It just works,” Jotaro, Pinkie, and Velvet interrupted all at once.

“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro added.

“I’m, like, major confused,” Insipid muttered.

“Just keep your head together, we’re going to have t-” Flutterfree’s eyes widened at the thing that appeared in front of them. It was a purple miasmic creature with numerous gears and other clockwork mechanisms inside of it, the front face of which looked like a gaping maw filled with jagged teeth.

“Damn, time eater,” Nova muttered. “Not going to be helpful against that.”

“Indubitably Void-resistant as well,” Shadow commented after her magics did nothing.

“Oh! Major. Fresh!” Insipid chirped. “Shadow, be, like, the best friend ever and teleport me out there. I’ve got this~!”

Nova blinked. “Wait, you?”

They saw the dark unicorn appear outside, just above the time eater, her armor protecting herself from the elements. She touched one of the gears with her hoof – prompting a cut to form. She quickly undid the damage though – for she had just absorbed the time eater’s powers. “So, I can, like, eat you now, right?”

One thing the time eater had never thought of was using its powers to actually eat. It thought the powerset was purely metaphorical.

As it turned out, it wasn’t. Insipid was able to devour the being into herself before it realized what happened.

Nova, Flutterfree, and Vriska stared in shock.

Pinkie chuckled as Insipid was teleported back into the Mean Six’s ship.

“Nothing can stop us!” Havocwing shouted.

Pinkie facehooved. “Moron.”

“Fuck you.”

“She’s right though,” Velvet said. “You’ve doomed us all.”

A series of explosions filled the space around them, sending their ships flying off in different directions. The engines jammed and parts started to fly off.

Nova lit her horn. “Evacuating…”

“See you girls on the other side!” Vriska called.

“We’re getting to Skarn first!” Havocwing declared.

“Go ahead and try,” Pinkie said. “We’re going to save Eve.”

Nova teleported them out of their ship and onto the outside of one of the rectangular prisms extruding from the central, glowing sphere. The Mean Six appeared on a completely separate structure.

“And now we’re on our own,” Pinkie said.

Flutterfree nodded. “Everypony watch out for each other, okay?” There was a series of nods. “Pinkie, am I right in assuming Eve’s in the central area?”

Pinkie nodded. “Yep.”

Flutterfree spread her wings and prepared her armor’s engines. “Let’s go get her.”

They blasted toward the center.

~~~

“This is probably the last report I’m going to make,” O’Neill said, looking at Thor, Ava, Allure, the Research Overhead, and Starbeat. “In a few minutes they will reach us despite our best efforts and we will have to fight for our lives.”

Allure nodded. “Ready.”

“Starbeat, suggestions?”

“Survive as long as possible,” Starbeat said. “Hope that the offense wins and is able to call off the soldiers.”

“Will that happen?”

Starbeat bit her lip and looked at her ka scanners. “Maaaaaaybe?”

“It’s a gamble we can’t take,” Ava said. “We must evacuate the city.”

“Sorry, but no,” O’Neill said. “That’ll just let more of the assholes in now that they figured out where we are. Right now we are targets – for the most part the civilians are safe.”

Ava nodded curtly. “That call is yours to make.”

“And don’t you forget it,” O’Neill muttered. “Now, have we figured out how they found us?”

“It wasn’t a security breach if that’s what you’re wondering,” Starbeat said. “Minna was the only individual to leave the city, and we have literally no records of that happening because of her nature. We know of no other breaches.”

“They probably intercepted our transmissions,” the Research Overhead said. “We were gambling they wouldn’t have time to hack them during the rush war, but this has lasted longer than we were expecting.”

Thor nodded. “It is almost at an end, however. The offense should have already breached the wall and begun its assault on the interior.”

“And that might allow Skarn to breach our harmony barriers,” the Research Overhead said. “He’s seen first hand a power specifically designed to counter it. He could recreate it.”

“So, as far as we know, both offense and defense were going well, but they could both be going horribly right now,” O’Neill summed up. “I love being in the dark. Don’t you?”

Allure sighed. “No…”

They heard an explosion above them.

“That’s all the time we have for today,” O’Neill said. “Homework is due tomorrow.”

“Homework?” Ava asked.

“It’s a pass/fail assignment.” O’Neill looked at them all. “Stay alive.”

There was a solemn silence over the meeting. Above them, there was another, louder explosion.

They picked up their weapons and prepared to fight for their lives.

~~~

Brell walked through her green facility, Lady Rarity being dragged along beside her by Minna. Not that Brell knew it was Minna – or had even registered Minna’s presence within the Congeries. She scarcely paid much attention to any one of her individual children, thinking of them more as a collective. She wasn’t even sure how many were with her – a squad, yes, but she didn’t care if it was fourteen or twenty-six or some other number. All that mattered was that they were with her.

“So, uh…” Lady Rarity said. “If you’re going to turn me into one of… them, why haven’t you tried it before?”

“Didn’t feel the need,” Brell answered. “My children were always perfect, able to move in and out without being noticed. They’d been around your worlds long before we made official contact, you know. We even dropped an incomplete one at your doorstep to learn more about you from the inside.”

“…Really?” Lady Rarity said, pretending to be completely ignorant of Minna.

“Yes. We let you raise her, let her learn to be like you. Few years ago we downloaded her memories and have been using them ever since.”

“Oh, so you’ve been using her for intelligence gathering? I take it you know everything about our troop movements then?”

“That would require her being open,” Brell commented. “After the borders were closed we dropped all communications. And getting to her has proven… difficult since the war started. She’s in Celestia City somewhere, and only recently have we gained access to it. We will find her and adopt her back into our fold.”

“That’s possible?”

“There is no age limit to when they can be completed,” Brell said. “It’s just the most efficient if it is done when they’re young. You will suffer quite a bit if I’m successful.”

“And if you’re not I’ll just be dead.”

Brell gave her a warm smile. “I certainly hope not. You seem like you’d make a wonderful child.”

Lady Rarity shivered. “I’d pass if I had the choice.”

“You do not,” Brell said, stopping in front of an empty pod filled with goo floating over a large, metallic table. “Untie her.”

Minna and a few of the others untied Lady Rarity. She rose to her feet, armor clanking.

Brell leaned down so she was eye-level with Lady Rarity. “Now, you can be cooperative and take off your armor. As a reward, you’ll receive the procedure with anesthetic and painkillers. If I have to force that armor off of you it’ll be done the painful way. I don’t like causing pain – that’s what the rest of my family is for – but I know when it’s necessary.”

Lady Rarity slowly started removing her armor. “Why do you do this?”

“Do what?”

“Such cruel biological experimentation.” She gestured with a bare hoof at the soldiers behind her. “They barely have a spark in them. They don’t enjoy life.”

“They don’t hate it either,” Brell said. “They exist as a beautiful middle ground. Balance. They are able to see what is coming so they aren’t surprised by life, and they don’t have expectations that will be brought down. They’re content, under all circumstances. Something I wish I was.”

“If you wish it, why don’t you do this to yourself?”

“I’ve considered it,” Brell admitted. “But neither my father nor my brother has the requisite understanding of morality or care to give them a pure direction, and I do not have access to something with enough power to take their place. My hunt for a Wishing World has proven futile.”

“You call this war a pure direction?”

“No,” Brell said. “I would rather not have sent my children into battle. But I am subservient to my father. I would never dream of crossing him – to do so… It wouldn’t mean my death, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. He has an understanding of cosmic beauty unlike any other.” She looked at her hands. “If I could only convince him that not all beauty is good.”

“…Can you think that, maybe, this beauty you’re making here isn’t good?” Lady Rarity suggested, standing naked.

“It is what I wish I could be,” Brell said with a smile. “I can’t see why it wouldn’t be good.”

Lady Rarity sighed. “Are you sure? What ab-”

There was a loud explosion from somewhere in the facility.

Brell let out a ‘tsk’. “Someone’s in. All of you, take care of it – I’ll be fine.”

The soldiers moved away without flinching – including Minna. Lady Rarity was now alone.

“You’re contemplating fighting me now,” Brell said. “A skilled wizard and warrior such as yourself could pull off a plucky victory. Don’t. Think about the power scale between us.”

Lady Rarity sighed. “I’m not an idiot.”

“Up on the table please.”

Lady Rarity moved onto the table. She caught some shouts coming from the distance in the green fog.

“…Like, girls, these powers are major. Fresh!”

“Pour l'amour de la princesse… ‘Avocwing! Down!”

“BURN FUCKERS! BURN!”

“Everybody scream scream scream…”

Lady Rarity blinked. She didn’t know those voices.

Brell pressed some buttons on the console next to her, accessing the deep controls of the facility. In an instant, Lady Rarity lost all feeling in her muscles. She wobbled. “What th-”

“Anesthetic.”

“I’m still very conscious.”

Brell smirked. “I know my way around a biological mind. I can turn whatever I want on and off at will.”

“So, what exactly does this procedure entail?”

“Well, first I’ve got to analyze your DNA patterns and how they intermingle with both your spirit and your arcane nature. The program’s doing that right now. I’ll make a few tweaks and shape you into one of my children. Then there’ll be a scoop in your brain to complete you. It’ll be exceptionally bloody and trigger a few biological reflexes, but it won’t hurt. Then you’ll be done.”

“…And this won’t take long?”

“My children will take care of whatever miscreants are rampaging through the area,” Brell said dismissively. “There’s millions of them in this facility alone.”

“That’ll be enough?”

“Assuredly.” Brell’s screen lit up. “Ah, looks like I’ve found the correct pattern. I do hope this works.”

Lady Rarity braced for a dramatic alteration of her genetic code. But it never came.

Minna dropped from the ceiling and punched Brell across the face with all her power. Brell fell to the ground, dazed.

Minna didn’t waste any time – she turned right to the console and started pressing buttons. “Self destruct… Self destruct… Self destruct…”

She found it. All the primary controls were already open. All she had to do wa-

Brell used her telekinesis to pull Minna to her and remove her helmet. “You…”

Minna struggled, but Brell’s grip was way too strong. “Let go of me!”

“How can you fight your own siblings this way?”

“Because you removed what makes them people!” Minna shouted. “That’s what!”

Brell shook her head. “I’m afraid you’ve been indoctrinated too fa-”

Lady Rarity jumped for the button on the console. Brell tossed the spirid to the side with a flex of her eyelash. Lady Rarity didn’t feel any pain as she hit the ground, but given the shape of her left foreleg, she had probably broken a few bones. “Ergh…”

“I do not blame you for trying that,” Brell said, placing Lady Rarity on the table and strapping her down. “You will still undergo the procedure with kind treatment.” She removed Minna from her power armor and set her down next to Lady Rarity. “She will just undergo the procedure with you. You need to be completed, my child.”

“NO!” Minna shouted. “I do not want to be like them!”

“Why?”

“I… I want to be able to look at my friends the way they look at me! I want to look at Frigid and tell him how I feel! I want to look at my Mom and give her some of what she’s given me!”

“I am your mother, child.”

“You’re a mad scientist who grows people in tubes,” Minna spat.

“So I am,” Brell said. “I-” she sensed an attack coming from the future. She lifted her hand, freezing the incoming Grayscale in midair. The ‘Rainbow Dash’ snarled, unleashing her power on Brell anyway, increasing the gravity around her considerably.

Brell didn’t flinch. She reacted with her cosmic power, tossing Grayscale into a nearby wall. She used gravity to lessen the impact, preventing anything from breaking, but it still wasn’t comfortable to be flattened against a metallic wall.

“HEY BOSS LADY!” Havocwing shouted, unleashing a stream of fire at her. “EAT THIS!”

Brell took this order literally, sucking all the fire into her mouth and unleashing it directly at Havocwing.

“Shit,” Havocwing muttered, diving to the ground.

“How about your own medicine!?” Shadow added, unleashing a beam of pure void energy at Brell. The bear twisted it around herself and fired it back at Shadow, who twisted it around herself and shot it back at Brell, creating a game of ping-pong.

Velvet appeared behind Brell while the game was underway. She summoned a tendril of blood and flung it at Brell’s back, only for a magic construct that resembled a solar system projection to appear and defend Brell.

Brell was decidedly busy with this – so Insipid took her chance. She darted from her hiding spot behind a pod and reached for Brell’s leg.

Brell kicked out with her foot, psychic energy tossing Insipid back.

“Like, wow, good ploy!”

Brell blinked – the voice had not come from Insipid. It had come from the other side.

The ‘Insipid’ Brell had kicked dropped her illusion, revealing herself to be Curaçao. “Je t'ai eu.”

The real Insipid had used the powers she obtained from one of the soldiers to sneak past Brell’s future-sight. She laid a hoof on Brell, giggling. “This is going to be an excellent power! MAJOR. FRESH.”

Brell found this annoying. She tried to drive a fist of magic energy through Insipid, but a magical barrier like a solar system appeared around her instead. Insipid let out a dismissive huff. “Pfft. Whatever. I wear it better.”

The necklaces of their Elements began to glow darkly. Now that they were all here, as one, they were ready to unleash utter darkness on Brell.

Brell thought fast – Insipid had her abilities now, and wouldn’t be easy to take out. Shadow was still flinging Void at Brell, keeping her occupied along with Velvet. She knew nothing about Curaçao, which left Havocwing and Grayscale as her primary targets.

Havocwing looked the weakest.

“Sorry,” she muttered. She stared at Havocwing and flexed her eyes.

Havocwing was absorbed into a miniature black hole that existed for all of a second, her red body going through the shredder. A wing and a leg vanished from existence while others fell to the ground after the singularity had vanished, her blood pooling with the red of her coat.

Without her, the elements stopped working.

“HAVOCWING!” Shadow shouted, losing concentration and allowing the Void energy to hit her straight on. She fell back.

“Bitch!” Insipid said, pushing at Brell with her own raw energy.

But Brell knew how to use her abilities a lot better than Insipid did. She unleashed a complex chain algorithm that hit Insipid from all sides. Without knowledge of how to defend against the compression, the unicorn had all the air squeezed out of her.

This just left Velvet and Curaçao standing.

Velvet glared at Brell. “Wrong.”

Brell made Velvet’s blood vanish with a snap of her fingers. “Wrong?”

“You’re wrong.”

“I’m no-”

“But what if you are?” Velvet asked, cocking her head with a menacing smirk. “Do you ever think about that?”

Brell grimaced. “What is your point?”

“Just talking at this point. Call it… curiosity.” Velvet smirked. “I see in you. I se-”

Brell punched Velvet in the face, forcing her back. “A fear-feeder. Curious.”

Curaçao walked up to Brell and blinked. “Curious? ‘ow so?”

“She instinctively knew which button to press,” Brell said, turning to face her last opponent. “What can you do?”

“Deceptions,” Curaçao answered. “Invisibility, disguises…”

“Not a warrior then?”

“Not wizout ze rest of zem,” Curaçao admitted. “Not ze best in ‘oof-to-’oof combat, generally only good for copycat ploys like the one you just witnessed.”

Brell nodded. “Then you’ll get to witness history.”

“‘istory? Do tell.”

Brell narrowed her eyes. “You seem far too interested, especially considering that I heavily injured most of your friends and killed one of them.”

“Friends? We’re just a team who works togezer out of convenience. You must ‘ave us confused with someone else. Like the Elements of ‘armony.”

Brell looked at her curiously. “It seems unlike the Merodi to employ those such as yourself…”

Curaçao shrugged. “A simple necessity. Zey had to destroy the ‘armony field. We had the means to do so.”

Brell leaned down. “No loyalty to them whatsoever?”

“None.”

“You seem to be a refined mare. And I don’t detect a trace of anger or resentment toward me in your voice… Just annoyance that you’ve been defeated… How do you feel about art?”

“Art is a beautiful construct zat bonds the souls of all beings togezer zrough a shared experience, vie partagée if you will. It comes from ze closest thing to on ‘igh, zat place above all ozers from where our creativity is driven.”

Brell pondered this. “Perhaps you would be willing to assist me in my endeavors… I’ll have to check inwardly first, and possibly complete you… But it might work…”

“I would make an excellent servant for you, but zere is a problem.”

Brell raised an eyebrow. “Hm?”

“Hélas, I am les menteur.” Seeing her confusion, Curaçao smirked. “A liar.”

Brell blinked. “What?”

“SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED.”

Brell whipped around to see Minna standing over the console, fingers pressed on the self-destruct button.

“You know, it’s really easy to guess passwords if you can see yourself typing them in,” Minna commented.

Brell grabbed Minna around her stomach and rammed her into the ground. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE JUST DONE!?”

“Blowing up this place?” Minna suggested, hearing explosions start from a distant corner of the facility.

“IT’LL TAKE EONS TO BUILD THIS UP!”

“Shouldn’t have had a self-destruct button then.”

“I WH-” she blinked. “Why did I have a self-destruct button?”

This observation made the barely-conscious Velvet laugh. Brell ignored her, focusing intently on Minna.

“What’re you going to do?” Minna asked.

Brell’s eye twitched. “I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done.” Brell kicked Minna across the room, breaking numerous bones in the process. “You won’t be leaving this place alive!”

“There’s the evil mother I know and hate,” Minna coughed, spitting up blood.

While Brell was fixated on Minna, Insipid got up. “Right, right… Uh… Shroudy magics and stuff!”

Curaçao turned to Shadow. “‘Avocwing. Now.”

Shadow nodded, rubbing the back of her head. She walked over to the remnants of Havocwing and tapped into her rarely-used holy magic. Unlike how most Twilight Sparkles were masters of harmonious energies and only used dark powers in times of dire need, Shadow was the exact opposite. Her standard motions were of darkness – while her last resorts were of light.

Her eyes lit with holy power and her body began to spasm from the uncomfortable presence of bright magic. She cast the revive spell on Havocwing.

It was pretty clear she Came Back Wrong. Her skin was missing in several places, her eyes didn’t focus on anything, and she let out a whispering scream.

“…Oh no,” Shadow said, putting a hoof to her mouth.

“The Elements don’t care,” Grayscale said, still flat against the nearby wall. “Use them.”

As the green laboratory lit aflame in the distance, the Mean Six used their Elements in tandem, a swirl of darkness surrounding them. All of them – including the wrong Havocwing – rose into the air, the darkness connecting all of them.

The chaos grabbed Brell from the back. Several spires of dark energy shot through her shields, making her gag.

Minna, despite her injuries, punched Brell across the face. With her magic otherwise occupied with the darkness attacking her, she had none left to counter Minna’s force.

In reality, Brell was a frail creature. Her neck snapped. The pain forced her defenses into a panic.

She was absorbed by the darkness, much like how Havocwing had been taken moments prior.

Minna breathed heavily. It was over. She had destroyed the one who created her siblings, and the facility would soon follow.

Oh. Right. Forgot about that.

“Get us out of here!” she shouted.

The swirling darkness expanded, surrounding both her and Lady Rarity protectively. Minna could see the Mean Six trying their hardest to keep the power up – even as the world exploded around them.

Insipid and Shadow lost consciousness first – the former not having much strength to begin with, the latter having used too much already. And yet, the Elements held together, powering the shield of darkness.

Grayscale passed out next, leaving the holding of the barrier to Curaçao and Velvet.

The burning fire of destruction raged against the barrier, forcing more and more energy out of them. Velvet let out a scream of agony and lost her control as well – leaving only the blue earth pony.

Minna knew she wasn’t going to last long.

Lady Rarity shouted at Minna. “Minna! Which one should I take?”

Minna started running through futures in her head. Lady Rarity didn’t exemplify or cause Fear… She wasn’t one for Greed… or Void… or Apathy… Anger.

“I hope you’re angry!” Minna blurted, pointing at Havocwing’s element. Lady Rarity grabbed it with her magic and pulled – tearing herself out of the restraints and taking Havocwing’s place as the Element of Anger.

Lady Rarity bared her spirid teeth and allowed her primal instincts to take over just as Curaçao passed out. She kept the connection going for the needed few more seconds – much longer than she should have because she couldn’t feel pain.

She allowed the darkness to dissipate. All of them were now standing on top of a broken chunk of metal floating in empty space within the Congeries’ center. Below them they saw a planet-sized burning hole eating away at one of the rectangles.

Havocwing snarled in rage, reminding Minna of her presence. The wrong pegasus flew at her, enraged, hooves on fire.

Lady Rarity shot her through the head with a laser, breathing heavily. The red pegasus died once again. “Enough… of… that…”

The Mean Five began to rise up. Insipid stumbled over to Havocwing and started crying. The rest just hugged each other – with the exception of Grayscale.

She was looking at where they were headed.

“Everyone? We might not have time for this.”

“What’s wrong with you!?” Insipid blurted. “Like, we need time to mourn!”

Grayscale pointed ahead. “We’re about to fly into the center, that’s what.”

Minna gulped. She guessed she wasn’t actually done.

Velvet looked right at her. “…Oh no.”

“What?” Minna asked.

“I think we’re Redshirts now.”

~~~

Arthon threw Eve and Corona into his personal cage. The two of them had magic inhibitors on their horns, hooves, hands, wings, and foot stumps just to be sure - including anti-Stand measures. The cage they had been thrown into hung in the middle of Arthon’s research room, with full view of all his holographic magitech computer displays. Usually the displays would show future plans for his art, but today it was mostly military plans.

Corona wished so badly she could get the information she was seeing out.

“I’m going to turn you into a special piece,” Arthon said as he walked up to one of his computers, creating a new file. “One that speaks of the tragedy and glory of war at the same time.”

“You’re sadistic,” Corona spat.

Arthon didn’t argue.

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“Not at all. My sister and my father are hindered by emotions, and cannot get to the truth of art. Brell is too obsessed with her balance and father with honor. I serve only the works of art. There is nothing beyond them.”

“Give it a rest…” a raspy voice said from the back of the cage. Eve and Corona glanced behind them and gasped.

It was Olivia – except it also wasn’t. She had the same face and shape as they remembered, but she wasn’t human anymore. Her body was made of a crumbling stone material that constantly broke little chunks off, filling the air with dust as she regrew the loose piece.

“Olivia!” Corona shouted, tears coming to her eyes. “You’re… You’re alive!”

“Barely,” Olivia muttered. “Say hello to the newest creation of Arthon’s. Olivia Velazquez. Humanoid pumice.”

Eve frowned. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to fix you… We’ll get you back!”

“Always hopeful,” Arthon muttered, pressing a few buttons on a nearby screen. “Even in the face of absurd danger.”

“Hey, you’re the guy who’s home is being invaded,” Corona spat. “You probably need to surrender. We can’t be the only ones who got in.”

Arthon let out a laugh. “Had you mentioned that a few seconds ago, you would have had a point. But look at this message I’ve just received. Details about how you broke through our harmony barrier – giving me exactly what I need to break down your home’s aggravating defenses.” He moved his fingers through the holograms. “Just need to get father to create a few more ships… Shouldn’t be too much of a strain on him. The defenses will hold for a second.” He sent a message. “Soon, your worlds will burn.”

Corona grabbed the bars. “You monster.”

“This is just standard warfare, Corona,” Arthon said.

“Then I call you a monster for making human zippers.”

Arthon shrugged. “Then a monster I shall be. It must be the true form of art to be hideous to others.”

“He’s crazy,” Olivia coughed, forcing dust out of her mouth. “No getting through to him. And no attacking him either, since we’re up here. I suggest waiting for help to arrive because otherwise we’re just going to go loco.”

Eve looked down at Arthon, shaking her head. “I came here to do something… Not get captured and make things worse.”

“You did fine, he was just too strong,” Corona said. “Also caught us by surprise…”

“You should have known you’d be easy to detect,” Arthon muttered.

“I’d just gotten my feet burned off at the time!”

Arthon smirked. “Then the barrier did something useful, at least.”

Corona glared at him – an idea slowly forming in her mind.

“…I bet you’re scared of us.”

“Quite the contrary. It is you who are scared of me.”

“Oh, I don’t mean the three of us. I mean all of us as a whole. We’re right outside your doorstep, banging on your front doors, destroying your home. We have a good chance of overpowering you in here with our ships alone.”

“That i-”

“What are you going to do if we win?”

“You won’t win.”

“You should have a plan though,” Corona said. “I mean, I thought you were the one not hindered by balance or honor – just pure devotion to the art? Hrm? How can you claim to do that if you haven’t thought of every contingency?”

Arthon growled, saying nothing.

“It’s because you aren’t really devoted. You’re devoted to yourself, not the art. You can’t imagine life without this power. Can’t imagine smaller art. You’ve grown up in the shadow of your father and have no way to view the world outside of him! You’re trapped!”

“I am not in my father’s shadow!”

“Then how come you do everything he wants, eh? Look at you, commanding his armies, subjugating worlds that need it, moving plans to help his view of the future. Do you really think you can challenge him? What if you beat him? What would you do then? Nothing. Because you’re just his son, and you’ll never be anything more!”

Arthon threw a punch at Corona, planning to bust through the bars.

Corona raised a bare hand to catch the fist.

He saw this, stopping just short of the bars.

Corona stuck her arm through the bars and tried to grab his hand, but he pulled back. “Your empathy still works, doesn’t it? Direct contact even while under magic inhibitors, using my power as your own…”

“Dammit,” Corona cursed under her breath.

“That was a clever ploy,” Arthon admitted. “What were you going to do? Destroy my consciousness? Did you really think you could do that?”

“I’ve beaten a Great Old One at mental chess, Teddy. You’re not that good.”

“Then it’s certainly fortunate for me that I didn’t let you get to me. I’m more than my anger, after all. I am devoted to the a-”

There were suddenly several dozen magical holes in his body along with several fist impressions. He went flying into one of the walls, breaking several computers. “What in th-”

Jotaro cracked his knuckles. “Time to take you back to hibernation.”

Nova jumped off his back, creating several magical barriers around the two of them. “What he said. …I think.”

“YEAH!” Corona shouted. “GET HIM!”

Vriska and Flutterfree dropped from the ceiling; the former adjusting her glasses while the latter splayed her wings aggressively.

“F-flutterfree?” Eve said, eyes wide. “W-what happened t-”

“I had to become a warrior,” Flutterfree said. “I… I’ll deal with the consequences later.”

Arthon pulled himself out of the wall and readied a spell, the arcane energies swirling around his hand like a miniature solar system.

Pinkie hit him on the head with her warhammer, following it up with a million-degree knife to his hand, chopping it off. “SURPRISE!”

Arthon roared, the force of his voice pushing all but Jotaro back. Jotaro wrapped Arthon up in Hermit Purple and the Passion, feeling the horrific anger and darkness in his soul. Jotaro followed up with a Star Platinum punch, driving a hole through Arthon.

Arthon’s power healed him. “You… can’t… do anything to me!”

Vriska smirked. She started draining his luck. “Let’s see how much of this you have…”

“Inversion,” Arthon said. Suddenly Vriska felt her luck dropping instead of increasing. She stopped instantly.

Flutterfree flew by Arthon, scraping him with the knives, but she was tossed aside easily. She opted to fire the bow of light at him, annoyed to find that he had a Seraphim-like field around him that diverted projectiles.

Nova erased time, appearing behind Arthon after a confusing round of everyone switching places in the room. She hit him with a mixture of a concussive blast and aging spell, planning to blow him to dust.

The aging didn’t affect him, and the concussive blast barely made him move. He pushed back at her, throwing her into Vriska – forcing the troll to lose hold of some of her dice. “FUCK.”

Jotaro went after Arthon again. “ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!”

Arthon altered the barrier around himself after the second ‘ORA’, making Star Platinum’s fists disappear the moment they got within half an inch of Arthon’s body.

Flutterfree attempted to use Lolo, but the same rule applied – no Stands could approach Arthon now. Jotaro attempted to throw a piece of computer shrapnel at him, but Arthon caught the plating and threw it back at Jotaro.

“I will counter everything all of you have!” Arthon roared, his shield blocking more and more as time went on. Vriska’s sword vaporized the moment it touched him. Nova’s magic signature started to charge Arthon. Stands were pointless. “Did you think it was my father who was responsible for the adaptations!? No! It was me! I never let you do the same thing twice!”

“Then you better get ready for the death roulette,” Pinkie spat. She cracked her neck and grinned. “What to do first?”

Arthon pushed her back with his psychic power. But she wasn’t there – she was behind him, driving a glowing green sword through his chest. Then she was far away, firing a machine gun at him. Then she was under him, placing bear traps around his feet.

Arthon roared. “CHILD’S TRICKS! I WILL ALWAYS RECOVER!”

Pinkie produced a sword and cut Arthon’s arm off. It didn’t grow back. “See this? This is a starmetal sword. On loan from a nice mare who currently isn’t using it. Very useful.” She didn’t bother swinging it again, knowing Arthon had already figured out how to defend against it.

He rushed her, but she was once again behind him, driving a jackhammer into his back. Then she smashed him into the Wall.

“What in…?”

“Ka is a funny thing, isn’t it?” Pinkie said. She pressed his face to the back of the computer screen. “Look at them. Look at them cheering for your downfall. You villain.”

“I WILL NOT BE BROUGHT LOW BY PETTY EXISTENTIALISM!” He pushed back, summoning a complex crushing spell on her. She appeared behind him.

He was expecting this. His hand was ready for her. He drove it right into her face, two fingers going for the most vulnerable areas.

She screamed. A force of burning, searing power like nothing she had ever felt before went directly from her eyes to her brain and through her entire nervous system.

He shaped her, expressing his creativity on her body. Candy-red blood spurted out the back of her head in arc patterns. Her body didn’t go limp, but instead took a jagged, twitching pose. She flew to the back wall, her limbs twisted behind her back and embedded into the rock.

Blood dropped from her face, making up for her inability to cry.

Arthon turned to the rest of them. “Now that the annoyance is out of the wa-”

Flutterfree had her psychotic breakdown.

She couldn’t make a word with her mouth – couldn’t scream ‘PINKIE!’, couldn’t tell anyone else what to do, and couldn’t think.

All was Rage.

She flew at Arthon, purple energies channeling through her blades. She drove her hooves and wings into Arthon, surpassing his barriers with something new.

She attempted Flair’s instant death technique, slicing Arthon into several pieces.

He reformed, the places he had been cut sparkling with white energy. A cosmic torrent shot out from his hand, pushing her back – but her Rage kept her standing.

The ground beneath her tore up and flew backward. She tore it apart with pure physical strength, landing on the ground. She took a step toward Arthon.

He sneered – her power was formidable, but he could deal with her. All he had to do was keep pushing her back until she tired. Everyone ran out of the ability to express such unbridled rage after enough emotional taxation. It would only be a matter of time.

What he didn’t realize was that a Page of Rage was a beacon.

They gave their power to those around them.

Jotaro, Vriska, and Nova all grabbed hold of Arthon’s neck at the same time, all three of their bodies burning with purple energy. He felt the Rage claw into him, seeping the power of destruction into him.

No. He couldn’t fall to this. He had to find a way to defend against it. To stop his body from succumbing to this pathetic weakness. All he had to do was find a defense… a spell… something cosmic. Something to keep from disintegrating.

White cracks appeared in his body, the light within shifting color to a deep purple.

He realized he didn’t have time.

The Rage revealed the truth of his situation. As he was, he would not survive.

He left behind his devotion to the arts to tap into the Rage of his own. He was going to take as many down with him as he could.

He tore off Nova’s leg with his teeth, spitting the offending limb to the floor. He summoned the power cosmic within him, preparing to self-destruct and take everything out. No one would survive within a hundred miles.

Flutterfree plunged the tips of her wings through his back and tore him in half, the power of the Rage keeping him from reforming. His blood sprayed all over her – a glowing red and white liquid riddled with magical sparkles akin to stars. The thick fluids ran down her body and pooled at her hooves.

She let out a scream, channeling all the Rage into it – draining herself. The purple glow vanished and she slumped to the ground, eyes rolling into the back of her head.

In the end, Arthon knew how truly pointless his fight had been.

The battle was over.

Vriska leaped to the cage and tore the door open, popping the magical inhibitors off the three of them, being careful with Olivia’s crumbly body.

Eve ran to Flutterfree to hold her. The pegasus moaned, but didn’t open her eyes.

Corona ran to Pinkie – catching her in healing magic before the party pony bled out. Her cuts and bruises healed up nicely… Her eyes didn’t. There were now gaping holes instead of bloody waterfalls.

Corona put her hands on Pinkie’s shoulders. “We’ll get you to a doctor. We-”

“Help Nova,” Pinkie said, voice hollow.

“R-right,” Corona said. Nova’s wound was much simpler – just healing up a leg stump. “We’ll get you to a doctor as well. Grow everything back.”

“That’ll work for Nova,” Olivia said, crawling out of the cage. “Won’t work for Pinkie. Or me.”

“Wh – why?”

“Do you all remember the Sweetie Belle? The one the Collector called Sweetie Chronicle?”

Nova nodded. “…Vaguely.”

“Remember her crystal condition? A being called ‘the beast’ cursed her to eternally have a crystal body, regardless of where her soul wandered, regardless of any healing offered.” Olivia tapped her own rocky exterior. “We’ve been changed like that.”

Vriska curled her fist into a ball. “Someone bring him back so I can kill him again.”

Eve looked up at Pinkie from her position over the unconscious Flutterfree. “…Pinkie?”

Pinkie tried to look at her, but wasn’t quite able to set her face straight. “Y-yeah?”

Eve choked. “I’m sorry.” She levitated Pinkie into a hug. “I’m so, so sorry, I… I thought I…”

“You’re safe,” Pinkie said, fumbling to hug her back. “That’s… That’s all that matters. I couldn’t let you die out here.”

“I’m the idiot who decided I needed to come out here!”

“We always needed to be here,” Pinkie said. “All of us. Including you, Eve.” She finally got her hooves around Eve in the correct way. “I forgive you. For everything.”

“P-pinkie…” Eve burst into tears, unable to take it all. “I don’t deserve you! Any of you!”

“Yes you do,” Pinkie said, squeezing harder.

Then Eve let out a sharp cry of pain. Pinkie pulled back. “W-what is it?”

“Eheh…” Eve rubbed her side. “I think you hugged too hard… Snapped a rib, somehow…”

Corona laid her hand on Eve, healing the wound. “Good as new.”

Pinkie gulped. “S-sorry…”

“Pinkie, don’t worry, it was just you being emotional and I didn’t-”

“Eve, I had no idea I was hugging you too hard.”

Eve looked at her. “Wh-”

Pinkie smashed her hoof against the floor a few times, drawing blood and cracking her hoof in several places. “I didn’t feel any of that.”

“P-Pinkie…”

“It’s… It’s not okay, no,” Pinkie said. “But… but it was my turn. I figured it out. If I wanted to save you, I was going to have to suffer.”

“This is all my fault!” Eve shouted.

“E-”

“Don’t you dare say otherwise!” Eve interrupted. “If I hadn’t kept my identity from you I would never have run away to this war in the first place! If I hadn’t started this war, none of you would have needed to risk your lives like this! If…”

Corona put a gloved hand on Eve’s shoulder. “Eve. This war needed to happen.”

“…C-corona…”

“You’ve seen what Arthon and Skarn do. They do things like what’s happened here to millions, daily.”

Eve grabbed Corona’s shoulders. “I can’t make these kinds of sacrifices, Corona! I just… I just can’t do it!”

“Yes you can,” Corona said, holding her tight. “You can.”

Eve looked into Corona’s eyes – a strange calmness taking over the purple alicorn’s expressions. “I… can?”

“Yes. You can,” Flutterfree said. “So long as you’re also willing to sacrifice yourself, you’ll have paid everyone back.”

Eve looked to her. “But you came to stop me from doing just that!”

Flutterfree looked at Eve’s eyes, the blood of Skarn dripping down her face. “…Because we should never have let you go alone.”

Eve blinked. Then she threw her hooves around Flutterfree’s neck. “I’m so sorry…”

Flutterfree nodded. “I know. I am too.”

“Everyone is,” Jotaro said, kneeling down to Eve.

Eve looked up at him. “Jotaro… Thank you. You don’t owe me anything anymore. I know I always told you that you never owed me anything, but I mean it this time.”

“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro said, adjusting his hat. “There’s more to loyalty than that.”

Eve nodded. “Y-yeah. Something I should know…” She turned to Nova.

“I’m still pissed you started this war,” Nova said.

Eve hung her head.

“But I understand why you did,” Nova said. “And, let’s be perfectly honest, I would have probably done something a lot worse a lot sooner if I had your position.”

Eve looked into Nova’s eyes. “…Are we still…?”

“Yes, Eve, we’re still friends,” Nova said, pulling her in. “You taught me too much to just let it all go now. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Y-yeah. Just…” She wiped her eyes. “I don’t know.”

“I know something,” Corona said, folding her fingers together. “That’s only one bear down. There’s still a war going on.” She looked at everyone in the room. “A war we need to finish.”

“Corona!” Flutterfree called. “Some of us are in no condition t-”

“Let’s go,” Pinkie said. “She’s right, we need to end this war. Some of us can’t fight – but we have to do this and we’re all sticking together.”

Flutterfree looked at her for a moment. “…Okay. We all go to face Skarn.”

Corona took a step forward, establishing herself as the one to lead the charge. “Hope he’s ready for us.”

~~~

Jane had followed a very basic philosophy – don’t stop digging.

Even when they had burst through the crust, she didn’t stop digging.

Even as they fell through the sky and toward the central sphere, she didn’t stop digging. Every missile that hit her pickaxe was reduced to its basic resources in an instant.

Even as they hit one of the rectangular prisms, she didn’t stop digging, falling through a hallway far too large for them.

Even as they approached the central sphere, she didn’t stop.

Behind her, Nae, Jade, Alushy, and Sunny fell, a little bored that they weren't doing anything.

“Got any sevens?” Alushy asked Jade.

“Go fish,” Jade said, smirking at her.

“Fudgefucklesticks,” Alushy muttered, drawing another card from the deck Sunny was holding in her telekinesis.

Nae went next. “Any aces, Sunny?”

“Yep,” Sunny said, levitating her card over.

“And I win,” Nae said, folding her arms and grinning, her pair of aces floated up into the air.

“And now we don’t have a full deck of cards,” Alushy commented. “Great going, Einstein.”

“I can always make more,” Sunny pointed out.

“I think we should stop anyway,” Jade said. “We are getting pretty close to the center.”

They looked down – wondering what would happen when Jane’s pickaxe finally hit the glowing spherical center of the Congeries.

Jane herself was wondering what would happen. “Make sure we come in slow!” She called up. “Don’t want to turn into pancakes!”

“On it!” Jade and Sunny said, extending their telekinetic powers around all five of them, slowly decelerating them as they approached the center sphere. They landed on the surface, finding it to be smooth like glass, but otherwise opaque.

“If we can see the lights inside this thing, they must be really bright,” Jade observed.

Jane drove her pickaxe into the material. The tool bounced back from it, unharmed. Jane was not all that surprised about this.

“I do have to ask,” Nae interrupted. “Do we really think Minna is in there?”

“Do you think she could be anywhere else?” Alushy asked.

“No, but we have to ask. Going in there will definitely have danger, probably a lot more than we’re expecting or used to.”

“Don’t worry,” Jane said, pulling a clockwork sword with a red blade out of her inventory. “I’m here. Back before we settled down, Sunny and I killed gods for a living.”

Sunny facehooved.

“This Skarn guy may be a bit above our usual fare… But I’m not worried. He’s an asshole who needs to be kicked down a few pegs.”

“All the pegs?” Jade asked.

“All of them,” Jane asserted. Then she blinked. “…Did you just Vriska me?”

Jade giggled. “Heheh… yeah.”

“Huh. Good for you, I guess.” She whirled around and drove her god-slaying sword into the outside of the sphere. It cracked like an egg and they all fell inside. The interior light was blinding – enough to actually burn parts of Alushy – but Sunny was able to see through it.

“Jane, swing again!”

Jane didn’t hesitate, driving through another layer. They entered a tube-like construction that took them away from the outer light, sliding deeper and deeper into the core.

Their vision slowly returned allowing them to see outside the clear tube they were in. They saw hallways with soldiers running through them, complicated mechanisms that moved magic to and fro between labs to living quarters to museums of creative art taken from various universes. They even saw some allies - a few Space Marines trouncing the enemy and some Inklings getting trounced.

The pipe in front of them was constantly shifting, redirecting their course – but instead of diverting them into somewhere they didn’t want to go, it was taking them right to the center of the Congeries. The very center.

Jane gripped her sword. “He knows we’re here. Get ready.”

The pipe deposited them in the control room for the Shaping Mechanism. They saw the tendrils of magic energy that served as the display winding into images of ships, troops, and giant bear statues. They saw the glowing blue orb that allowed Skarn to interface with the Shaping Mechanism.

They saw Skarn himself. He was, as always, a bear made of pure cosmic energy, nebulous stars shifting through his fur. Horns sprouted out of his head, casting him in a demonic image. Spiraling, swirling magics surrounded him, reminiscent not only of solar systems, but of galaxies, while a necklace resting on his bare furry chest sparked with energy.

He removed his hands from the controls, allowing the Shaping Mechanism to run on autopilot, and turned to face them. His expression wasn’t angry – but calm. Expectant, even. “Welcome to the center of my Congeries. I can’t say I was expecting you to be the first here – though I suppose Eve and Corona did drop by earlier.”

“You have been expecting us,” Nae said.

“But of course. This is not just any regular war, decided by numbers, tactics, and ploys. That part of the war is over – the squabbles between my Shaping and the Merodi fleet outside are there just to keep each other occupied right now, making them meaningless. This is a war that is to be decided by the greatest warriors, in deep, personal battle.”

“Um… What exactly would killing us accomplish?” Nae asked. “We’re just soldiers. Strong, yeah, but not very… important.”

“And even killing the highest leaders won’t stop us,” Sunny pointed out.

“And killing me won’t stop my forces,” Skarn countered. “They will keep fighting, even without guidance. It will be difficult to overcome them even without the aid of my Shaping.”

Jane pointed her sword at him. “How about we kill you and figure that out later?”

Skarn moved forward. “Or we could make an honorable agreement. I’ll promise to have my soldiers automatically stand down upon my death. In return, you must promise me something.”

“We don’t have the authority to surrender,” Sunny said. “Or call anything off.”

“Oh no, nothing like that. All I want you to promise is that, upon your deaths, I get all your memories and knowledge. Which would no doubt include methods by which I can enter Merodi Universalis personally and use my abilities to tear planets in half.”

Jane glared at him. “You’re rather upfront about that.”

“It is the way of honor,” Skarn said. “We can fight with those terms – or not.”

“Don’t take it,” Jade said.

“DO take it!” Alushy blurted. “C’mon, we’ve gotta end this guy in one epic showdown! Dragging it out will only make it lame.”

“I say take it as well,” Nae said. “The rewards outweigh the risks.”

“…I don’t think so,” Sunny offered. “I think he’s got some sort of trick up his sleeve. Something he’s playing off of.”

“The only thing I am playing off is your severe underestimation of what I am,” Skarn said. “I could explain that to you, if you like. I am a combination of two higher deities and a mortal shell blessed with the gift of seeing the true beauty of existence, and the inspiration to draw it out of its hiding.”

“You sound like nothing special,” Jane said. “But I don’t trust this, in any way, so no deal.”

“The smarter choice, for you,” Skarn admitted. “It would truly be silly if this side-group defeated me, after all.”

“Fuck,” Alushy blurted. “I didn’t even think about the narrative. We’re a bunch of side characters and backgrounders.”

“But we’re not Redshirts,” Jane said, gripping her sword. “Skarn, let me put this to you simply. You’re going down.”

Skarn nodded. “It makes sense that you would believe that, godkiller. Perhaps we should move somewhere more appropriate for a battle, then?”

He didn’t wait for a response. They were suddenly elsewhere – a different universe, one that existed as a functionally endless plane of metal engraved with billions of different symbols. The sky above them swirled with galaxies of every color, but it wasn’t real – the ‘stars’ were just specks of magic floating in the dark blue void above them.

Skarn put his hands behind his back. “I’ll be a gentleman. You can make the first move.”

Jane took the opportunity – she teleported behind him, her flaming blade materializing in the middle of his stomach. He let out a gasp of pain, moving his hand to clutch the wound.

“Hurts more than you were expecting, eh?” Jane said. She pulled it up, expecting to cut him in half – but her blade didn’t budge.

He had grabbed hold of the point sticking out of his stomach with his hands. He pulled with his whole body, tearing the blade out of Jane’s hands.

Then he snapped it in half between two of his fingers. The fire went out unceremoniously.

“It didn’t hurt that much at all, godkiller,” Skarn reported.

“This is one of those moments I wish I hadn’t already unleashed my army of damned souls,” Alushy muttered. She dropped her usual form, opting for the tremendous wall of shadow, eyes, and teeth. Jade took a fighting stance, barking as she arranged her fingers in a rectangle. Nae aimed her gun and activated her magic abilities. Jane drew another blade – clearly not her preferred weapon, but a brutal slayer of gods nonetheless. Sunny surrounded herself in the colors of fire and magic.

Skarn flicked a finger. Nae went flying, unconscious. “Now that the children have gone to where they won’t get hurt, the adults can have their fun, hrm?”

The four of them charged.

The four of them bounced back like rubber balls.

Skarn shrugged. “So hard to find a good challenge these days…”

~~~

Prior to his gruesome death, Arthon had ordered a few attacks. Attacks equipped with the knowledge to breach the harmony field.

He had chosen three worlds in which to do this – the Hub, Elemental Four, and Lai, simply because they were the ones with heavy Congeries presence.

Ships appeared in orbit around each of the three worlds, firing beams of darkness at the harmony fields – corrupting them in seconds. Cosmo quickly shut off power to those worlds to keep the harmony field from being corrupted elsewhere, but that left three worlds wide open.

The Hub had enough standard defenses to blast the invading forces out of the sky with ease, the city’s primary shield more than enough to absorb the orbital bombardment.

The other worlds, however…

Corea teleported to Air Temple Island with her magic, landing next to Tenzin. “Energy bars, magic bars, all the bars, stat,” she said, rubbing her head.

Tenzin gave her a basket of the requested ‘food’. She began devouring them ravenously.

“I take it defending Republic City has been particularly tiring today?”

“They must have figured something out with their abilities we can’t know about,” Corea muttered. “They keep getting past our defenses without us knowing, entire buildings just vanishing.” She wiped her brow, stuffing a magic bar into her face. “We’re still keeping them back, but our outer defenses keep needing to call in more reinforcements. Eventually they’re going to just stop coming, especially with Celestia City communications down.”

Tenzin nodded. “I’ve received word that the attack is almost over. One hour, maybe less.”

“That’s good. We can hold out for at least that long.” Corea let out a sigh of relief. “Good to know this is almost over. I b-”

The white lines of harmony in the sky flashed black, then vanished. Corea’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks. She could sense the danger coming.

She entered the Avatar State on a trigger. Her eyes went white and she floated into the air. A torrent of water swirled from the seas around Air Temple Island, surrounding them in a dome of water. She added a shell of air around that, followed by a dome of earth that blocked out the sun. With a twist of her body, she created a final swirl of fire around the earthen dome, and on the very interior of the water she created a tremendous magical barrier.

She barely finished it in time. The orbital bombardment from Skarn’s fleet hit the second it was done removing the harmony barrier. Corea couldn’t see anything happening out there, but she felt her barrier of fire come down, followed by her earthen wall, and the air. The water lasted a bit longer, but eventually even it too dissipated, leaving just a magic shell. At the top of the dome, everyone on Air Temple Island could see a deep, red energy pushing at them from above, trying to break through the last layer, eating away at the remnants of the earthen dome and water layer.

Corea’s shield began to crack at the very top.

The unicorns of Air Temple Island gave her their aid, pushing their magic right into her. Tenzin meditated, willing his spirit into her own.

Corea strained. “It’s not enough!” the Avatars said. “It’s too much to stop! There must be… Spirit! PURE SPIRIT!” She roared, tapping into the spirits of everyone on the island, forcing their bodies into great pain. “We are sorry! There is no other way!”

The shield broke – but a great white spirit shot out of Corea and caught the energy beam with itself. The spirit was weak compared to the shield – only able to last a few seconds.

But that was all they needed. The bombardment stopped.

Corea fell to the ground, returning everyone’s souls to them. There were a few screams as this happened, but everyone on Air Temple Island was alive.

Nobody else was. There was a crater where Republic City had been. The entire bay Air Temple Island had sat in was vaporized, waiting for more ocean water to fill it.

Corea scanned the land – looking for any signs of life. She saw a few scant protrusions of artificial structures that had been slightly too durable to be glassed by the orbital lasers, but no life. There was nothing green as far as the eye could see. Not even the full-grown dragon that had taken to living on the nearby mountain was there – no skeleton to indicate he had ever been there.

Corea stared, slowly realizing that most of her close friends had been fighting to defend Republic City. “N-no…”

Tenzin grabbed Corea by the shoulders. “You saved what you could.”

“I… I…”

“You did your duty as the Avatar, Corea. You saved the Air Nomads from extinction.”

Corea nodded, biting back tears. “I… I know, Tenzin. That doesn’t mean this isn’t a tragedy!”

“I know it doesn’t,” Tenzin said. “Almost everyone I knew lived in that city. But you can’t allow yourself to think this is your failure!”

Corea burst into tears, falling to her haunches.

On Lai, a very different story took place.

Terezi rushed into Toph’s throne room. “Toph, you’re needed in the Hub!”

Toph cocked her head. “Really? What for?”

“I don’t know, I just know!”

“Terezi-”

“Just come already,” Terezi muttered, dialing the Hub with a government-issue device that could overrule the dimensional lock.

Toph sighed, giving instructions to one of her trusted Generals to move a legion to the south to protect the border better. Then she ran through Terezi’s portal, appearing in the Hub.

Just as the portal closed behind them, the bombardment of the Hub began. The city shook from the impact.

“They’re under attack!?”

“They’re fine, their point defenses are excellent,” Terezi said. “It’s easy to defend only one target.”

“…Then why are we here?”

“Before we get into that, I’m going to preface by saying I forgive you for what you’re about to do to me.”

Toph’s expression became angered. “Terezi what did you do?”

“I saw the possible futures. I didn’t like it. So I did something about it.” She pointed at a breaking news program on a nearby public screen. A Ga was reading the news.

“This just in, the Hub, Elemental Four, and Lai have been hit hard by Congeries forces that removed the harmony barriers. While the Hub was able to repel the attack quickly, Elemental Four and Lai have suffered extreme losses in the form of Republic City and the Lai Capital…”

Toph punched Terezi in the face. “I NEEDED TO BE THERE!”

“There was no future where you could have done anything!”

“Take me back. Now.”

Terezi didn’t argue – she dialed back. They walked to what had been Toph’s throne room just a moment ago.

Now it was a crater that extended as far as the eye could see.

Toph punched Terezi again. “You’re fired.”

“Yep… Saw this coming…” Terezi muttered.

Toph slammed her foot into the ground, sensing for any survivors on the surface.

She found one.

She ran to the nearby area of earth and spread the rocks apart, revealing a glowing sphere of esoteric energy that contained a single Arcei – the only Arcei. Starcei.

She had curled up into a fetal position and had her eyes shut as tight as she could manage.

“It’s okay,” Toph said, setting the magic sphere gently onto the ground. “You’re safe now.”

Starcei opened one of her eyes. She dropped her Runic shield and took a moment to look around. “Armonia’s horn…” she said, hoof to her mouth. “The entire city…”

“Everything,” Toph said. “EVERYTHING.”

“We need to find out how many soldiers we have left, how our fronts are doing a- Toph, what are you doing?”

Toph rammed her fists into the ground, creating a wall. “What’s it look like? I’m rebuilding the palace.”

“Toph, there a-”

“If this war doesn’t end soon this entire planet is going to be glassed,” Toph spat back. “Nothing we do is going to be able to change that. So I’m going to get a head start on rebuilding this place with my own two hands. Since I didn’t go down with the city like I was supposed to.”

Terezi grumbled. “You’re welcome.”

“I’m not thanking you.”

“I suppose I’ll go check on the armies then.”

“You’re fired Terezi, get out of my sight and don’t come back,” Toph grunted. “Starcei, you go check on the armies.”

Starcei saluted. “Yes, your Highness.” She teleported away.

Terezi let out a sigh and walked away in a random direction.

~~~

Allure hid beneath O’Neill. She held a small gun in her telekinesis, and had her Heart ready for combat. But she knew she wasn’t a killing machine. She would probably need to be.

There were five others in the room with her. Besides O’Neill, there was Ava, Starbeat, Thor, and the Research Overhead. Squeaky was out controlling the League of Sweetie Belles to keep civilian danger to a minimum while Allure just cowered in here since the teleporters were down. It was her place, she supposed, to be here.

She gulped. She had no idea where her daughter was, or even if she was alive. Allure’s League was up there, fighting and dying without her. And here she was, cowering, sitting in a room with several high value targets. Herself included.

She could hear them getting closer and closer, breaking through wave after wave of soldiers.

The Research Overhead took point – unfolding his body, shedding the humanoid shape in favor of a forward-lurching four-armed being with burning hot claws. He had all four of the claws aimed at the entrance, ready for anything.

Those who had Stands had them out. Crimson Sushi hung on to O’Neill’s shoulder, ready. Thor’s Stand – which Allure had recently learned had been named Lithium – was a series of three colorful orbs. She had no idea what it did. Just like she had no idea what Ava’s Stand did. It was named Red Rain and took the form of a perfectly spherical bubble of bloody water with an eyeball inside of it.

She briefly wondered if she should name her Heart powers. It definitely wasn’t a Stand, but it was able to act like one.

These thoughts were quickly banished when the first soldier walked in through the doorway. The Research Overhead shot at him from four different directions – three of which were dodged, but the fourth went right through his chest.

Red Rain activated. The blood pooling out of the soldier gained an eye similar to the one in Red Rain itself. The blood floated into the air, creating a drop-shaped being. The moment another soldier came in, the drop blasted right through his visor and into his face, freeing blood to make a second drop creature.

It was at this point the soldiers started getting smarter – coming in with larger groups. But O’Neill and Starbeat took care of them, confusing their perceptions and blasting them with a mixture of magic and physical bullets specifically designed to fool their perceptions.

They threw a grenade in, but Thor’s Lithium used one of its globes of energy to reduce it to subatomic particle dust. Another of the spheres created a burst of electromagnetism that sent the soldiers outside flying away.

Ah, he must control the fundamental forces of the universe. The nuclear force, electromagnetism, and gravity. Allure blinked. Wait, no, he’d have used gravity if he could… That’s right, the nuclear force is split in two. Wonder how that works, exactly.

As it turned out, the third sphere was just extremely good at dealing with radiation. A soldier dropped dead outside from the interactions of Lithium’s third orb.

Allure felt a lot more confident that they had Thor on their side. With their mixture of Stands there was no way they could lose.

And then Thor was gone. Nothing more than a splat of juices on the ground next to a soldier with a broken neck.

“Wh… Wh…” Allure blinked.

“Godammit!” O’Neill shouted, pulling out one of his grenades and throwing it into the hall.

“Memory trick!” Starbeat shouted. “Be careful!”

“Did he transmit his consciousness?” O’Neill asked the Research Overhead.

“Negative,” the robot responded. “It appears his mind was caught up in their tricks as much as ours.”

“Shit,” O’Neill grunted, biting his lip. “Just… shit.”

Allure knew Thor was a good friend of O’Neill’s. Another tragedy in this war…

The Congeries’ soldiers smashed through the back wall, rushing in with a full contingent. Red Rain’s blood drop creatures rushed them, but they were somehow all taken out. No one was permitted to know how.

Crimson Sushi didn’t permit any of the enemies to know where they were, prompting several of them to shoot each other. But one of them had gotten clever and pointed a finger directly at Allure.

She rolled to the side, pushing O’Neill out of the way of the invisible bolt with her telekinesis. She activated her Heart and tore at the soldier’s feet, knocking him over. She delivered a quick blow to the base of the skull. She didn’t know if she killed him with that or just knocked him out, and she didn’t have time to find out. She had to do a backflip into the air to avoid the next set of shots.

Something hit Ava in the arm, forcing her to lose focus – all the droplets of blood fell.

Starbeat overexerted herself on a spell, shorting out her horn.

The Research Overhead got an arm blown off.

Allure realized they couldn’t win this fight. Not in a million years.

~~~

Corona, Eve, Olivia, Flutterfree, Jotaro, Vriska, Nova, and Pinkie walked together through a clear cylindrical tube, through which they could see the inner workings of the Shaping Mechanism and all the living quarters for Skarn and his family. There were a few soldiers around, but not that many.

Eve was levitating Pinkie along. They had discovered quickly that Pinkie had difficulty walking with no sensation in her hooves – it was going to take time they didn’t have for her to learn to adjust to her condition.

“You’re all looking for a pipe that leads all the way to the center,” Pinkie said, no longer full of the fire she had been for the last few days, instead speaking in flat, calculated tones. As if afraid of her own emotions. “It’ll take us right to the Shaping Mechanism controls.”

Olivia readied her rocky fingers. “Been a while since I’ve done a hacking job this advanced. Should be fun.”

“I see it,” Corona said, ending her scan spell. “I can teleport us right into the tube. It’s going to be a long ride, so we need to be prepared.”

“Got it,” Nova said, taking a ready stance on her three hooves. “…This is so weird…”

Corona clasped her hands and teleported them all into the tube. They slid down to the center, watching as all the other rooms and mechanisms flew by.

Vriska narrowed her eyes. “Did I just see the Mean Six up there?”

“You did,” Nova said. “I’ve locked onto Starlight Shadow’s magic signature. Sending her a ping no-”

Nova didn’t even get to send the ping. The Mean Five, Lady Rarity, and Minna teleported right into the midst of them. “Hell-WAUGH!”

Everyone had failed to realize they were about to hit a turn in the pipe. They were jostled around and unceremoniously deposited on a pile in the Shaping Mechanism’s control room.

There was silence for a moment.

Pinkie let out a soft laugh despite herself. “Pony pile! Heh…”

“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro muttered.

Eve, Corona, and Shadow set to levitating everyone out of the pile to a standing position.

Olivia walked right up to the globe controls the moment she could and began touching her fingers to it. Of course she was locked out, but that wasn’t going to stop her. “I need some technological interfaces to work on this.”

Nova limped over. “Guess that’s me.” She sat down and put one of her remaining hooves next to the globe, letting Olivia access her screen.

Eve looked at the five strange ponies. “So, uh, who are they?”

“Dark but not evil clone copies of you from Equis Duo,” Velvet explained. “I’m Velvet, that’s Starlight Shadow, Grayscale Force, Insipid, and our leader Curaçao.”

“Hello again,” Flutterfree said, smiling at Curaçao. “Guess we both ended up in the same place?”

“Indeed,” Curaçao said. “…We lost one of our number. Your counterpart.”

“…I’m so-” Flutterfree caught herself. She looked at Curaçao with sad eyes. “…I know what that feels like.”

Curaçao nodded. “It’ll be time to mourn later. What I want to know is why Skarn isn’t here.”

Pinkie coughed. “He’s fighting Jade, Jane, Sunny, and Alushy in a pocket dimension we can access through the spark in the center of this room. …Wherever the center is. Just look, you’ll see it.”

While Corona and Lady Rarity took a moment to hug, Eve and Shadow walked to the center of the room. There was, in fact, a spark of energy on the ground, through which they could both sense a dimensional signature.

“Guess that’s where we need to go,” Eve said. “Help them fight Skarn.”

Corona healed Lady Rarity and Minna with her magic. “Duh. Anyone else need heals?”

“We’re good,” Grayscale muttered.

“Wait!” Flutterfree blurted. “We can’t all go, remember? You’d just be Redshirts.”

“Oh, yeah, I totally forgot about that,” Insipid said. “Weird.”

“You know what, screw it,” Shadow said. “We’ve come this far and gotten to the inner organs of the leviathan, I’m not just going to idle while the ‘big damn heroes’ assume control of the situation. So what if I’m a ‘Redshirt’? I’m here for a destined reason, just like the rest of us.”

Curaçao nodded. “Furthermore, I believe the situation ‘as changed now.”

Pinkie nodded. “Skarn’s obsessed with honor. He won’t kill you until his victory is complete or he has to. He took Nae out of the picture non-lethally. He doesn’t believe in needlessly sullying the other side’s victory, or driving them to rage before defeat.”

“…Whackjob,” Corona muttered.

“No argument here,” Pinkie said, stumbling as she absent-mindedly took a step forward.

“So…” Eve looked at everyone there. “All of us who are able to fight right now should go in. Flutterfree, Pinkie, Nova, Olivia, you’ve all exerted yourselves too much. Sit this one out.”

Flutterfree nodded. “I know… Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. And Minna?”

Minna looked at Eve.

“I can’t stop you. But I don’t think your mother would like it if you came with us.”

Minna blinked for a moment. Then she nodded. “I already did what I came here to do. I don’t have to be there. Brell was my problem – not Skarn.”

Eve, Corona, Lady Rarity, Jotaro, and Vriska stood next to the spark. They glanced at the Mean Five. “Which of you are coming?”

Curaçao stepped back. “I am a capable ‘oof-to-’oof fighter. I am not a legendary cosmic warrior. Deception will not do much to this foe, will it?”

“No,” Pinkie and Velvet said at once.

“C'est la vie,” Curaçao said, taking another step back. “I am afraid I will sit out, seeing as we can’t get ze Elements to activate. Lady Rarity simply isn’t angry enough to be accepted as a full bearer.”

“I’ll stay to guard all you injured slackers,” Grayscale said, standing next to Curaçao.

That left just Velvet, Shadow, and Insipid on the team to go into the dimension.

Eve readied herself. “Right. Let’s d-”

Olivia’s left hand crumbled “…Dammit,” she muttered, her body scattering fragments of stone.

Corona’s eyes widened. “O-olivia?”

“Without Arthon’s power… It looks like I don’t regenerate. I’m falling to powder.”

“Olivia, just stay calm, we’ll find a cu-” Corona stopped mid-thought. “…No cure.”

“No,” Olivia said, turning to glance at Corona with sad eyes.

“I just got you back! That’s no-”

“Life’s not fair,” Olivia countered.

“We can keep you in stasis until we find a cure! Or transfer your spirit!”

Pinkie sighed. “Corona…”

“Don’t you start, Pinkie! I’m not losing her again!”

Olivia held up her stump of a hand. “Yes, you are. There’s no cure for this, even a spiritual form would crumble from what he did. He killed me the moment he caught me. This body is a prison, Corona. Think of it as me… being freed. After all, all deaths mean something, right?”

Corona twitched. “That’s not fair.”

“No, it’s not.” Olivia sighed. “I’ll use what time I have left to give you control of these mechanisms. It’s the least I can do.”

Corona twitched.

“There’s really nothing you can do, amiga.” Olivia assured her. “Except go in there and wreck that bear’s shit.”

“I will,” Corona promised.

“Now get going so I can focus.”

“One last thing,” Pinkie said. “Eve, Skarn is going to offer a deal. You have to take it.”

Eve blinked. “I… do?”

“Merodi Universalis could be glassed if you don’t.”

Eve took in a sharp breath. “Okay. Got it.”

“Take care of yourself,” Flutterfree called after Eve. “…Don’t let him do anything to you.”

“We won’t let that happen,” Jotaro asserted.

“Like, that would be majorly uncool,” Insipid said. “No way is he laying those grubby claws on any of us.”

Eve nodded. “Ready, team?”

There was a ready from all seven of the others.

“Then here we go.”

They vanished in a spark of light.

Olivia sighed. “Back to getting this thing to work…”

“That’s not going to work,” Minna offered.

“What isn’t?”

“What you’re thinking of trying now. Try to think of something else.”

“Uh…”

“That’s not going to work either. Again.”

Olivia smirked. “You’re really helpful, huh?”

“I imagine if I weren’t me I’d be going very existential about all these possible futures. Whatever you’re thinking about now doesn’t fail instantly, so go ahead and try it.”

Olivia used her free hand to press some buttons on Nova’s screen. “Nova, time manipulation on the console would be appreciated – not on me, though. I’m crumbling.”

“We can set up a mental link,” Nova suggested. “You think to me, and I do things with my horn.”

“Do it,” Olivia said. “We’re going to get control of this thing yet.”

Flutterfree took the moment to walk up to Olivia. “…Hi.”

“Heh. Are you here to tell me about my lord and savior?”

“Actually, for once in my life, I am,” Flutterfree said. “You don’t have much time, Olivia.”

“I know all your teachings and everything, Butters.”

“I’m not sure anyone who studies us academically understands exactly what we are, and what we mean. It’s about believing in a place we came from, about a power on high that is absolute, and… and that the ultimate fate of everything is good even if we are broken.”

“Look, I’m all for living forever, and I’m definitely offering up prayers like nothing else right now.” Olivia let out a bitter laugh. “Not sure if they’re fully serious, though.”

“Try something else,” Minna suggested.

“Huh?”

“For the hacking, not the religious experiment,” Minna said. “I’ve no idea where that conversation’s going.”

“What do you believe, Minna?” Nova asked.

“…We have souls. And I haven’t really thought much beyond that.”

“Hm. You should think about it more often. Really interesting conversation.”

“Hey, Nova, why aren’t you fighting Flutterfree’s preaching attempts here?” Olivia asked, one of her ears crumbling to dust.

“Because even though I believe it’s a load of tar, she’s trying to save your soul. All I’d be doing is convincing you of an uncomfortable truth or damning you.” Nova rubbed the back of her head. “I would be on the side of what I think is truth if you weren’t falling apart right in front of me. Depressing you in your final moments… Yeah. Not good.”

“Wanna know what I think?” Grayscale called back. “Your conversation is pointless.”

Curaçao raised an eyebrow. “‘ardly. The truth of what lies beyond, if anyzing, is of immense importance to all of us.”

Grayscale rolled her eyes. “Live in the now, everybody. Live in the now.”

Curaçao looked at Olivia. “It is now for ‘er, Grayscale. If ze’s going to make a decision, it ‘as to be now.”

Olivia gulped. “Flutterfree, keep talking while I work here. Okay?”

“Okay.” Flutterfree cleared her throat. She began to speak of the God she put her faith into. She spoke of Him in a way she rarely did – persuasively, with the intent of conversion. As Olivia crumbled, she listened.

She never responded. She just continued with her work, nodding every so often as she reduced in size over the next several minutes. Nova ended up carrying out all the work when her other hand fell off, Minna standing there to provide future-sight.

Eventually, Olivia was just a head without a lower jaw – no mouth.

The lights in the Shaping Mechanisms turned green. The restrictions had been released.

Olivia closed her eyes, a single tear crawling down the sides of her face.

Flutterfree bowed her head, offering her a last-minute blessing. Olivia’s head crumbled to dust the moment she said, “amen.”

Everyone but Pinkie was crying – even the apathetic Grayscale. Pinkie wanted to cry so badly.

Minna wiped her face. “She… She did it. We’ve got the Shaping Mechanism now.”

“Stopping it from attacking the fleet,” Nova said, wiping her face.

“Do you zink ze listened to you?” Curaçao asked Flutterfree.

“She listened. I don’t know if she heard,” Flutterfree said. “I’ll live the rest of my life wondering if she did.”

“She’ll be remembered as a hero if nothing else,” Pinkie said, looking up at the sky. “She started the war… and she ended it.”

“It’s not over yet,” Minna said, pointing at the spark in the ground. “Skarn’s still around.”

“So are the soldiers,” Nova added. “There’s still more that needs to be done.”

Flutterfree closed her eyes and sent off a prayer.

Let them all come back okay. I’m not sure if I can lose any more. Let Skarn truly be a man of honor. Please.

~~~

Sunny lay to the side, horn cracked, legs broken.

Alushy had a magic stake driven through her chest that kept her frozen in ice.

Jade was lying on the ground, a magic box wrapped around her last reality anchor bracelet – if she acted against Skarn, it would break and make her Skaian self dissipate in the physics of the universe.

All three of them were far from the actual battle, having been blown away by the forces that were being exchanged between Jane and Skarn. Jane had unleashed every trick she had in the book on Skarn, only for him to overpower and occasionally outmaneuver her.

Jane ground her teeth – she wasn’t doing well. She’d been able to heal most of the damage dealt to her, but she only had so much energy in herself. The power of the Evermore did have a limit, even with her immense amounts of experience and gathering of extra abilities. Skarn had been smart – he knew Jane would take the longest for him to wear down, so he worked on all the others first so he could minimize what she did to him.

Jane wasn’t even sure she was doing anything. She’d occasionally get hits off, and he would roar in pain, but she sensed no drop in his power at all. Her godkilling techniques seemed like they would almost rip him apart, but then he would come together.

She was considering destroying the universe – but that would take everyone with him, including Sunny, and possibly including herself. She also had the sneaking suspicion the world they were fighting in would be resistant to that kind of action, but she had no way to test that without actually trying it.

“You tire,” Skarn observed.

“You don’t,” Jane muttered.

“I do, believe me,” Skarn said. “But when you’re tapped into the cosmic energy of every universe within the Congeries, even blades designed to kill gods are little more than backscratchers.”

“So I just need to cut you off?”

“And how would you do that?” Skarn asked. “I, in many ways, am the Congeries. This physical form is just a leftover of the circumstances of my birth. I have enough power within me to shroud all of my realms.” He held his arms wide, allowing her to see the full glory of the stars within him. “This appearance isn’t cosmetic, Jane! It is my connection to the stars, matter, and works of my realm!”

“Then I’ve just got to hit you hard enough,” Jane muttered. Her eyes darkened.

“Going with your dark side, again? Shade has proven herself just as useless as you already.”

‘Jane’ launched at Skarn with cold, calculated fury. A darkness.

She was willing to try and destroy the universe. She pulled a star-like item out of her inventory and held it to the sky. It exploded with a force designed to shatter reality.

Skarn simply shunted all the energy into himself, releasing it in a dead realm in the Congeries. “Almost.” He shoved ‘Jane’ over, knocking her to the ground. “But that was the furthest thing from an honorable maneuver. It would have taken all your teammates out with me, and likely you as well. Desperation is not befitting of you, Jane. Push that dark side back where it belongs. Out of this battle.”

‘Jane’ did no such thing. She sneered, leaping up to drive yet another weapon into Skarn.

Skarn’s face seemed depressed. “If you won’t fight honorably…” He grabbed the weapon out of Jane’s hand with his power and shattered it, driving all the shards into Jane with psychic energy she couldn’t hope to combat. The force of her own legendary weapon sent her to the ground, shuddering in violent spasms.

He dusted his hands. He had won. There were no stakes – but their lives were forfeit. He levitated the five defeated warriors in front of him.

Only Jade was still conscious. She was glaring at him. “We won’t be the last.”

“No, you w-”

“SKARN!” Eve shouted. “LEAVE THEM!”

Skarn turned around to see the new challengers. Eve, Corona, Lady Rarity, Jotaro, Vriska, and three ponies he didn’t recognize.

Skarn gently set his five previous combatants to the ground. “Very well, Evening. I owe you that much.”

“You bet you do,” Eve spat.

“Eve!” Jade shouted. “He’s tapped into the energy of the entire Congeries! We couldn’t do anything to him!”

“We’re going to try anyway,” Jotaro said, cracking his knuckles.

“Like, totally,” the gray unicorn said.

Skarn smiled. “It is your right to face me in combat. But first, I have some requests – a deal if you would.”

“I’m listening,” Eve said, eyes narrow – but Skarn saw a spark of recognition in there somewhere. Curious.

“I will agree to have all my soldiers automatically stand down upon my defeat,” Skarn said, noting the surprised expressions on his new opponents’ faces. “In return, if you are defeated, you must agree to the complete surrender of Merodi Universalis.”

“One condition,” Eve said. “You can’t kill any of us until you’ve defeated all of us. Got it?”

Skarn nodded. “I accept those terms on one condition of my own. I wish to know the names of those I do not recognize. You three, who are you?”

The red-pink earth pony sneered. “Red Velvet, Insipid, and Starlight Shadow. No, we’re not telling you more than that. It’d ruin the surprises.”

“An acceptable deception,” Skarn agreed. He summoned a pink ball of energy. “Eve, lay your hoof on this while I lay my hand on the other side. It will ensure we cannot break our sides of the bargain.”

Eve gulped. Skarn saw her mulling it over in her mind. He expected her to think about it twice and back out. She couldn’t sacrifice all of them – she had already suffered too much.

Eve stuck her hoof to the sphere. “Do it.” She demanded.

Skarn placed his hand on the sphere, smiling warmly as both of them were cosmically demanded to keep up their ends of the bargain. “Tell me, Evening, why did you agree to the possible sacrifice of so many more?”

“Because Pinkie told me to,” Eve said.

Skarn’s calm smile faltered slightly.

I am the villain of their story, and the hero of the Congeries’. The Congeries’ story is stronger than theirs.

But why else would Pinkie ask her to do this unless she was confident?

Skarn shook his head, deciding it didn’t matter. He bowed respectfully to them. “Let’s decide the outcome of this war right here, right now.”

Eve attacked first. Seraphim may not have been able to access other dimensions right now, but that didn’t mean the Stand was useless. She physically rammed the rings into Skarn, pushing him back into Corona’s Bacon Pancakes. The Stand forced him to flatten like a piece of paper. Jotaro moved next, punching through the paper and tearing Skarn to shreds with a great “ORA ORA ORA ORA!” Lady Rarity smashed with her hammer, Vriska rolled her dice and threw a series of sawblades at him, Velvet lacerated him with her own blood, and Shadow unleashed a bolt of pure void energy while Insipid…

…Insipid sat back and yawned.

They were waiting to use her. That made her the most dangerous.

How this unknown unicorn could be the most dangerous was beyond him, but that meant he had to watch her closely.

Skarn shifted his shredded body back into one piece, holding his hands wide. “Behold. Not a scratch.”

“There’s ways around that,” Shadow commented.

“But can you find them quickly enough?” Skarn went for the weakest of the eight attackers – Lady Rarity. With a quick series of cosmic punches, her armor was blown clean off and the wind was knocked out of her. She flew through the air, only for what looked like a shooting star to hit her and throw her to the ground.

One down.

“Rarity!” Corona shouted. Skarn sensed something within Corona flare up – but she pushed the power back into herself. Saving it.

What are you planning?

Shadow unleashed her dark magic, enveloping Skarn in a beam of pure Void energy. Had he been lesser, he would have vaporized around the edges into the nothingness. His regeneration was certainly hindered – but he was still a cosmic being.

He walked out of the Void energy, slapping Shadow aside with a burst of psychic energy. Her body was weaker than he had been expecting, breaking in several places from the attack.

Two down.

“STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!”

Time stop was easy for Skarn to counter – he just bent space around him to be immune to it. This did not deter Jotaro from wrapping Hermit Purple and the Passion around him, the purple thorns cutting into Skarn’s interstellar flesh.

Jotaro caught a glimpse of Skarn’s soul. Skarn felt him balk at the true honor within.

“Like what you see?”

“You’re mad!” Jotaro shouted.

Perhaps that soul-sight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, Skarn mused. He leaned back and kicked Jotaro in the stomach. The behemoth of a man didn’t register the pain. Time resumed, and he was still ORA ORA’ing Skarn.

It was decidedly annoying. Nothing but punching, punching, punching.

Skarn sent a miniature comet into Jotaro’s chest, freezing him solid. He then pushed him far enough away that none of his Stands would be able to reach Skarn.

Three down.

Vriska, Eve, Corona, and Velvet tag-teamed. Velvet seemed to be the next weakest, so Skarn leaped over the swords and magic lasers, heading for her blood. He punched through the crimson blades, smashing the ground in front of her. The shockwave rattled her brain into the back of its skull, tossing her back.

A smile appeared on her face because of the deep pain, bringing some sadistic form of enjoyment to her features.

“…And you all think I’m mad,” Skarn commented.

Velvet let out a soft chuckle but made no effort to get up. Skarn didn’t let himself think for a second that she was down for the count, but he could afford to leave her there for a while.

Vriska drove her blade into him. He pulled the blade through his body and snapped it in half, using a leg to kick Vriska back. She took the full brunt of the force, cobalt blood flying out of her mouth in the process. She rolled her dice and flipped back at him, surrounded by a swarm of angry bees.

Skarn snapped his fingers, unleashing an inverse gravity well that threw all the bees out of sight and made it difficult for all the others to move. He capitalized this opportunity on Vriska, punching toward her…

…and he missed.

Even if she’s not at maximum luck right now, she’s still got a lot of fortune stored up.

She kicked him in the groin.

“Dishonor begets dishonor,” Skarn muttered, doing the same to her. She took it anyway, twisting around his leg and stabbing him in several locations.

“Hey, Skarn!” Eve and Corona called, prompting Vriska to duck and roll away from Skarn.

Skarn didn’t look around. He just sighed as a destructive spell they had been charging up for the last little while unleashed, hitting him with a torrent of purple, orange, red, and white energy. He tried to walk out, but the pins of Bacon Pancakes fixed him in place while the laser burned his backside.

It kept burning his backside.

This was concerning enough he decided he had to act. He altered his personal bubble of physics to divert the laser around him, allowing him to emerge unscathed.

“You know, all this talk of honor seems shitty to me,” Vriska said. “You just limit yourself as you fight us, but when we do something that might be unfortunate for you, you delve into your larger power stash and just divert the attack away. That’s fucked up. Why not just get it over with?”

Skarn looked at her closely. “Most don’t wish for that, but if you insist.” His eye twitched. Vriska’s body was compressed into a cube the size of an apple and tossed to the ground. “She’s fine. Angry, but fine.”

Four down.

Corona glared. “You won’t be able to do that to me or Eve.”

“No, I won’t,” Skarn said. “Your defenses are able to shift reality to accommodate. That doesn’t mean I ca-”

A magical laser shot at Skarn from a dimension that didn’t exist, knocking him off balance. He quickly realized Corona and Eve were folding space between them to keep Skarn from knowing which direction things were coming from.

He clapped his hands, returning space to normal. “That was foo-”

They channeled their magic together to send a planned death spell at him – though of course he was immune. They followed it up with another magic beam, this one intended to tear reality apart as it moved.

He let out a roar that pushed the offending attack back. “You two are strong, there can be no doubt.”

“But…?” Corona said.

“But I am superior. You will eventually tire or run out of your magic, even if I cannot end it quickly. I will not.”

“Come and get us then,” Eve said, glaring at him. “We’ll show you that we’re never going to stand down.”

Skarn charged after them, fists ready to punch both of them in their heads. They prepared for his impact.

Corona dissipated her gloves and reached a hand toward Skarn. He diverted to the left, not wanting to deal with her empathic powers. His quick dodge to the side allowed Eve to touch him, however. Eve set up a mind-link spell and allowed Corona into Skarn’s mind through Eve.

Corona and Eve appeared in one of Skarn’s memories. He was looking down at his three young children – Arthon, Brell, and Torvost.

Skarn didn’t let the memory play out. He stood up, brushed the mental images of his children away, and marched up to the two of them. “What do you plan to do in here?”

“Last time I channeled the memories of Majora. Don’t really have those anymore,” Corona admitted. “But I’ve learned a thing or two about dominating minds like yourself. There are ways to erase you.”

“Which will fail.” Skarn focused on Corona and ejected her from his mind with a thought. He turned to Eve. “You know less than her.”

Eve smiled coyly. “Oh, this wasn’t the real plan anyway. We just needed to get your mind somewhere else.”

Skarn forced Eve out of him and regained full consciousness.

There was a hoof touching one of his legs. He felt a sharp pain as his power shifted.

“Major. FRESH.” Insipid boomed, the power of Skarn flowing into her. Her gray body and yellowed mane gained stars and nebulous clouds within them. She started floating off the ground, the cosmic energy a bit much for her to control at once. “Hooooly shiiit this is so cool! Velvet you’ve gotta try this!”

“I cannot,” Velvet muttered.

Skarn ignored Velvet, Eve, and Corona completely. He had to take care of this Insipid quickly. He pushed his hands forward, unleashing a beam of energy at her – not the most creative attack, but it should have worked.

It didn’t. She giggled and used Skarn’s power to create a shield made of galaxies. “Sweetness! I can, like, see everything, and all the cycles of everything, and all the cycles of cycles of everything…”

She’s an idiot, Skarn realized.

The idiot pointed a hoof at Skarn and forced him to burn like the core of a star. He dissipated it after less than a second, but it was enough to scare him.

She’s a dangerous idiot. If she taps into any of the primordial forces in any special way…

“I taste it,” Velvet said, standing up. “I taste fear, Skarn. The realization that the one thing you can’t beat… Is yourself.”

Skarn ignored her, focusing on Insipid. He threw more attacks at her – even trying to turn her into a cube – but she had already mastered the defensive physics shield.

“Look at her, barely an infant in these abilities. She’s stronger than you.”

A pit began to form in Skarn’s stomach. It seemed as if the natural light of the universe was darkening around him.

Wait… it really was darkening.

“Noticing something problematic? Skarn?” Velvet asked. “That you’ve been had by a plan within a plan within a plan? You know we have them. We have backup plans for all those plans. We know exactly how to defeat you. She’s one way, yes.”

A bolt of Insipid’s energy hit Skarn. He deflected it – but it felt almost unreal; like it was from another plane of existence. Corona’s and Eve’s blasts hit him as well and he didn’t even register them. Everything except him was darkened.

“Can you really chance any of this for honor?” Velvet asked. “She could kill you Skarn. She could kill you in an instant and you would never be able to defend.”

“There’s no way.”

“Isn’t there? Isn’t there a way you can kill her? Isn’t there a way she can kill YOU!?”

Skarn looked at Velvet in fear, dodging Insipid’s attempt to condense him into a black hole. “Y-you’re right…”

“SHE’S GOT YOU SKARN! YOU CAN’T KILL HER, BUT SHE CAN KILL YOU! YOUR HONOR HAS LED TO YOUR DOWNFALL! A SIMPLE IDIOTIC UNICORN KNOWS YOUR POWERS BETTER THAN YOU! YO̶͎̭̯̮͔̖Ṷ͉̯͈ ̫̩̬H͎͝A͇͕̹͙̤͈V̦͍̠E̬͚ ̳̼̱̘̥F̜͎̟̖̮͕A̛̝̩̜̠̪̙I͍̭̲̗̟̕L̝͉̹͡E̤̠͚D̤͔̯̬̥ ̠̗̼͝Y͏͕͓O̪̪̲͚͢ͅU̷̞ͅŔ͚̱̳̤̟͖ͅS͎̞͔̟̟̞͟ẸͅL͚̞̜̖͙F!”

Skarn turned away from Insipid to look at Velvet.

A being of his caliber was able to comprehend the literal incarnation of Fear standing before him. Most would have gone mad from the sight of dark, bloody, living nightmares. The tendrils of blood that screamed to Skarn his own inadequacy attacked.

Skarn lashed out in panic with a powerful burst of energy. Despite the fact that Velvet was feeding off his fear, her newfound eldritch power wasn’t enough to defend her from the outburst. The nightmares were blown away and she was tossed to the side, this time not smiling from the pain.

Five down.

Skarn breathed heavily, the heightened fear Velvet had instilled in him very much still active. He knew he wasn’t thinking straight – and he couldn’t get a hold of his mind quickly enough.

Insipid was still active. Insipid was better than him. Insipid was a threat.

But he was contractually bound not to kill her.

He would get as close as he possibly could. He pulled his hands back, summoning the energy of the Congeries into his limbs. He would do exactly what he would do were he fighting himself. Use everything from all sides in a complex pattern that no amount of instinct or ‘bizarre stupidity’ could defend against. There was nothing she could do. Even his power set was useless against it.

He shoved his hands forward, letting out a panicked breath.

“NOW!” Eve shouted, her eye burning with the Light of knowledge.

Corona obeyed. Her eyes flashed a deep, ugly black. She flexed her wrists, the symbol of Doom projecting from the crystals on the backs of her gloves.

Corona moved Insipid’s Doom to Skarn.

Eve had told her exactly when to time it so Skarn wouldn’t have a chance to defend.

Skarn lit up like a Christmas tree, every color of the rainbow sprouting from his body in a series of fractal patterns that gave those who saw it headaches.

“Ooh, pretty!” Insipid said. “Why don’t I get a glow like that?”

“Because it’ll pretty much kill you,” Corona said, glaring at the sparking energy that was Skarn “…We might want to move away.”

“Oh, chill!” Insipid lowered herself to the two of them and erected a cosmic barrier. “I got this, cha.”

Corona and Eve erected barriers around themselves just to be safe.

Skarn was barely aware of this happening. His thoughts were dominated by pain, by his mortal body being torn asunder in such ways to remove his connections to the power of the Congeries an atom at a time.

They had outsmarted him. Played off his mind, off his fears, off his confidence, and carefully held their cards close to their chest.

He had forgotten about Corona’s status as the Rogue of Doom, and in his fear he had been unable to remember that information when he was unleashing an attack that would ‘Doom’ Insipid.

Eventually, the pain stopped. Skarn fell to the ground, the stars and nebulous cosmos gone from his fur, replaced only with brown fuzz. He grunted, standing up, looking at his dead necklace.

“I… salute you…” he said, taking a step forward. “But I am not done yet.”

Insipid raised a hoof. “I can totally bake him for you. Starbeam to the face!”

Skarn tensed. “That would hardly be honorable…”

“Do you surrender?” Eve asked.

Skarn looked at her. “…What?”

“Do you admit defeat?” Eve ruffled her wings. “We don’t have to kill you, you know. You can complete your end of the deal while alive. We can have you taken to one of our prisons. I’ll even arrange a comfortable one for you, where you can live in peace.”

“I won’t be able to spread the art!”

“So? Isn’t your life more important than art?”

Skarn froze. She was offering him a way out. She was honest about it – she was speaking from her immense feelings of guilt, sorrow, and displeasure with the war. If she could kill one less person, she would be happy with it. She really would offer him that life.

But if he couldn’t do the work…

“I refuse,” Skarn said. “Life is meaningless without the work.”

“And you wonder why we think you’re insane,” Corona said, folding her arms.

Skarn opened his mouth to respond – but he never got to finish.

Eve had shot him with a death spell, her eyes glowing with a powerful, deep darkness.

Skarn the Shaper, founder and ruler of the Congeries, being of untold age and power, fell to the ground like a wild animal that had been shot in the head.

~~~

A soldier pointed his finger at Allure.

She would have died right then and there had Saxton Hale not come out of nowhere and punched right through the man’s chest. “AHA! These blokes have nothing on me!”

“HALE!?” O’Neill blurted. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?”

“Stompin’ them wherever I can find ‘em!” He laughed as the Congeries soldiers fired at him, the physics bullets bouncing off his bare chest. He was just too manly to take any real damage, even from the exotic weapons. “Come and get me, cowards!”

One of them did – using a forbidden technique that combined memory manipulation to make the target hit themselves. Saxton punched himself out while the soldier bared his teeth.

Allure realized something – she remembered that happening. Why would she remember!? Nobody ever remembered things like that!

“ORDERS RECEIVED: STAND DOWN!” every soldier shouted at once. Then every last one dropped dead in an instant.

“What the…?” Allure said, backing up in horror.

“How did they receive their orders?” the Research Overhead blurted. “All communications are jammed!”

“That would be because of me,” Aradia said, appearing in front of them. “Suffice it to say, there’s now a time loop here where I appear in the future where communications are restored, travel back in time with the orders, and give the orders that allow communications to be restored.”

“Uh…” Allure rubbed her head. “Okay…?”

“The war’s over, by the way,” Aradia said. “If I did my calculations right, I timed this so I arrived just when Skarn died. Relatively speaking.”

O’Neill let out a sigh of relief. “We won then.”

“Yes. We won.” Aradia said, smiling. “Let’s take a moment to breathe, shall we?”

Allure gladly complied, sliding to a splayed position and letting out a long breath of air.

~~~

Eve and the other twelve returned to the control room of the Shaping Mechanism. There were celebrations at first – a round of ‘we did it’ and ‘finally it’s over’. But eventually they remembered the scars they had gained, and the ponies they had lost.

Corona went to the pile of dust that was Olivia and fell to her knees. The Mean Five allowed themselves to remember Havocwing.

Eve saw Pinkie sitting near the edge of the room, her empty face aimed straight ahead. Her expression unreadable.

Eve walked up to her and stood beside her, looking closely at her face. There were candy-red bloodstains that made her look like she’d been crying, even though she definitely hadn’t. Couldn’t.

That had to be hard for her. She was always such an emotional pony.

“…How long have you been standing there?” Pinkie asked, having sensed her breathing.

“A while,” Eve responded.

“…Sorry, didn’t notice.”

“Not a problem.”

“I know… Guess you were just letting me think, huh?”

“Yeah. Also didn’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything.”

Eve paused, a momentous feeling setting upon her heart. “I want to say something. I want to say I know your pain.”

Pinkie smiled softly. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

“…Actually, I guess I didn’t actually experience Fluttershout’s atta-”

“Evening, that was you,” Pinkie said. ”You experienced that. I don’t care if you’re a clone or copy of one Charter-Princess Twilight Sparkle. That was you. You felt that.”

Tears came to Eve’s eyes. “Pinkie…”

Pinkie gulped. “I’m sorry. I got angry.”

“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

“Everyone’s always so sorry…” Pinkie said, shaking her head. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just stop making mistakes so we wouldn’t have to be so sorry all the time!?”

“That’s not how things work,” Eve said.

“I know, I know,” Pinkie bit her lip. “I do know how things work. That’s… that’s the problem. I knew this was coming. I figured it out a little later than usual, but I told myself I could handle it. I… I was ready to sacrifice myself. But now…” She took in a breath. “I’m not just blind, Eve. I could live with that. I know several people who can help me learn to live with that. It’s just… I can’t feel anything. I’m not sure if my hooves are touching the floor correctly, for all I know my face is gently pressed against a wall, and...” She heaved, trying to sob and failing.

“I thought I was ready to sacrifice everything,” Eve said. “For the betterment of all, I put everything at risk. My friends, my family, my nation.” Eve caught Curaçao looking at her with understanding empathy. Eve made a note to talk to her later. “Was it the wrong decision? I have no idea anymore. My mind tells me it was the logical answer. My heart tells me it was the worst decision I’ve ever made. All I know is that I wasn’t really ready to make that choice.” She looked closely at Pinkie’s features, eyes sad. “We’re asked to make a lot of decisions we aren’t ready for, Pinkie. I… I guess I just didn’t realize how unprepared we could be.”

“We aren’t as strong as we think we are,” Pinkie sighed.

Eve shook her head. “I think… I think nobody can truly know themselves. We think too highly of our abilities. We like to ignore our weaknesses. Even those of us who try hard… We still get caught.” She looked at Pinkie. “I’m never risking you girls like that again.”

“Don’t Pinkie Promise that,” Pinkie warned. “Really, don’t.”

“I won’t.” Eve shook her head. “I want to, but I know I can’t.”

Pinkie sniffed. “Some promises just shouldn’t be made.”

Eve sighed. “Can I promise to always be your friend, no matter what?”

“Yes,” Pinkie said, a smile forming on her face.

Eve gently turned Pinkie to give her a hug. “Then that’s what I promise. No matter what you do, or what I do, I’ll stay here. I’ll be here. And I know you will too.”

Pinkie was able to tell from the motion of her body that she was being hugged. She gently pushed her hooves around until she was able to sense they weren’t moving, giving Eve one of the awkwardest hugs of all time.

“It’s going to be okay, Pinkie,” Eve assured her. “I know we can’t fix you. But you can learn to live with this. I can make pressure sensors for your hooves. Renee can make you the most beautiful blindfold of all time.”

“That would be great!” Pinkie said, allowing a soft laugh to come out. “I’d be like a ninja! Or a pirate!”

“The mysterious leader of Merodi Universalis’ primary team!”

“You really think I can still go adventuring like this?”

“I did, didn’t I? We have blind and disabled people of all kinds, Pinkie. We can’t just get rid of you! Who would want to? You’re the best, brightest, happiest pony around!”

“Yeah… Yeah I am! Screw this curse; I’m going to make the best of it! I’m going to become the sharpest hearer in existence! I’ll be unable to feel pain, so there will be no fear! I will become the blind party pony! I can see it now, Eve!” She laughed. “I’m going to be fine! I’m going to be fine!”

“Yeah, you are,” Eve said, hugging Pinkie tighter. “You are.”

Pinkie’s mane poofed back up in a sproing. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Eve. I don’t know what I would have done…”

“I don’t know either. We can’t. Because we really don’t know ourselves.”

“Heh… Yeah, we don’t.”

The two held each other for an extended period of time in silence.

~~~

Eve had a lot to do when she returned to Merodi Universalis and her office. Ending a war, holding a press conference, figuring out what to do with all the work that had piled up…

But first, she had decided she was going to sleep in her own bed. She was beyond tired from all the exertion. She was going to sleep like a rock.

She opened the door to her bedroom. I was sitting on the bed, smiling warmly at her. “Hi.”

Eve blinked, “Uh… Why are you in my bedroom?”

“To offer you my congratulations,” I said, hopping off the bed. “You’ve taken the next step.”

“What kind of step we talking about?”

“You’re a Class 2 society now.”

Eve blinked. “Wait, what?”

“You don’t just take control of a conglomeration of thousands of different universes and the means to shape them to your will without becoming a Class 2. You have the power and influence of a low-tier Class 2. Welcome to the neighborhood.”

“That’s… Well I think that should be a big deal, but I’m somewhat underwhelmed by it.”

“You won’t be for long. It opens up a big can of worms. But it also means I can hang around more. Like Aradia. You’ve reached the point where me talking to you wouldn’t exactly be much cheating.”

Eve smiled. “I’m glad you’ll be around more often, Twilence. We don’t talk anywhere near enough.”

“You’ll be tired of me talking your ear off before too long,” I said, smirking.

“…The end is soon, isn’t it? If you’re here,” Eve said.

“Depends on how you look at it,” I replied. “There’s only one arc left I can see. But I also know that it takes up more time than all the rest of your adventures combined. Relatively speaking, this is year forty since you began your trek with the bowling ball. You’ve got more than that left in what I can see.”

“I guess we won’t really get to see the long-term consequences of immortality serum then, huh?”

“Not in your society. There are others you could look at.”

“Forty years…” Eve looked into the distance. “That’s a lot of time.”

“It may seem like it. But beware the power of the Time Abyss. It may seem like nothing happens, then before you know it time’s up.”

Eve pursed her lips, nodding slowly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“There’s a lot of things you’re going to have to keep in mind,” I told her. “You’re in the big leagues now. Things will change.”

“The more things change the more they stay the same,” she reminded me.

I smirked. “You’re starting to get it.”

“…Did all this have to happen?”

I paused, thinking about it for a moment. “Yes. You would not have gotten to Class 2 status in time for the end, doing things the peaceful, normal way. The higher you climb, the harder it is to climb further. You needed to be here, so the things that are about to happen will happen the way they should.”

Eve nodded. “I can take comfort in that, I guess. That I didn’t screw up fate or something.”

“I believe it’s impossible to screw up fate,” I said. “I think even the glitches are part of a story. Every mess up and every victory is part of everything.”

“It seems… limiting.”

“It is,” I said. “And I fear that’s all there is every day. But I also fear the alternative.”

“Hm?”

“That there’s more than the story.”

Eve was silent.

“No matter which way you slice it, existence is cosmically terrifying. Ka or no, God or no, Truth or no… Every option.”

“…I’m going to have a great time sleeping tonight.”

“Oh, I can help you with that.” I lit my horn. “A simple sleep spell to give you the energy you need for the coming day.”

“I could use energy for the coming years, apparently,” Eve said, climbing into bed. “I should introduce you to the Overheads…”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“Mhm…” Eve muttered, yawning. “Nice to see you again, Twilence.” She drifted off to sleep before my eyes.

I cut the sleep spell and smiled warmly. Even after all she had experienced… She was still in one piece.

She might have been stronger than me in many regards.

Author's Note:

[END OF ARC 8: RAGE]

>>ARC 8 INTERLUDE<<

The war’s over. Victory, a pretty solid victory at that, even with all the sacrifices. After all this… Merodi Universalis will enter its golden age. We’re going to skip over a lot of stuff, but that’s what side stories like The League of Sweetie Belles are for, right? Several decades until the final part of the story kicks in, plenty of breathing room. Plenty. Let’s make the most of them being a Class 2.

What will we be doing in this golden time where much is skipped over? Well…

Arc 9: Void
105 - Class 2, Part 1
106 - Class 2, Part 2
107 - Deep Skaia
108 - The Furthest Reaches
109 - The Big Gs
110 - Spline of Man
111 - O
112 - Outside Perspectives
113 - Murica’s time
114 - Answers
115 - Song of the Spheres
116 - She Who Dared to Ask, Part 1
117 - She Who Dared to Ask, Part 2

Chapter 115… most of your questions will be answered. But it will also mark the beginning of the end - depending on how you look at it, anyway.

For those who write sidestories, the Void arc has a second purpose: it gives a LONG swath of time for your stories to play themselves out before the 'endgame' stuff starts happening.

Oh boy, new best chapter poll time! [ https://strawpoll.com/pha998kg ]

Franchises Time!

Voltron belongs to DreamWorks
Champions belongs to Arc Games (I apologize for taking liberties with Skarn)
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power belongs to DreamWorks
Deep Secret belongs to Diana Wynne Jones
World of Darkness belongs to White Wolf Gaming Studio
KITCHEN GUN! belongs to Peter Serafinowicz
Magic the Gathering belongs to Wizards of the Coast
The Laughing Salesman belongs to Fujiko Fujio
Wendy belongs to Wendy's.
Winx Club belongs to Iginio Straffi
XCOM belongs to 2K
RE:Creators belongs to Troyca
Library of Babel belongs to Jorge Luis Borges.
Persona belongs to Atlus
The Conversion Bureau belongs to Blaze (and lots of other writers...)
A Wrinkle in Time belongs to Madeline L'engle
Lil Miss Rarity belongs to Lil Miss Jay
The Nostalgia Critic belongs to Channel Awesome
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy belongs to Midway Games
Portal belongs to Valve
Different View of Reality belongs to killme2paza
Austraeoh belongs to shortskirtsandexplosions
CRISIS: Equestria belongs to GanonFLCL (an absolutely amazing fic that is the source material for the Mean Six. It's old and dead, but definitely still worth the read https://www.fimfiction.net/group/203605/crisis-equestria/thread/299241/crisis-equestria-chapters-re-uploaded. The League of Sweetie Belles will be reviving it soon-ish.)

Here are the discord server [ https://discordapp.com/invite/eTuseTh ] and fimfiction group [ https://www.fimfiction.net/group/213761/songs-of-the-spheres-extended-multiverse ] links. Oh why am I contractually obligated to give these?

See you on the other side of the abyss!

Comments

[Yutah123]

*82 unread chapters*

Oh Celestia no...

I shouldn't have taken that hiatus^*1. May the powers have mercy on my free time.

*1: Also known as "Break in order to deal with the distress of seeing Twilight lose her hearing." I've ruptured an eardrum before, and even just that is traumatizing.

Oh, and I came back only because that user with the picture of Lemon Heart in a beaker told me at my request that Twilight gets her hearing back.

[Yutah123]

I've just noticed the amount of likes...

What the hell?

I'm pretty sure this deserves quite a lot more.

[GMBlackjack]

9691675
Oh, uh, please spoiler that I don't believe that's in the published chapters.

And what's so odd about 240 likes?

-GM, maser of likus.

[Yutah123]

9691368
Austraeoh cameo, you say? Well, I look forward to that.

... says the student stuck at chapter 22...

[Yutah123]

9691689
Oh, sorry about that!

Spoilered it immediately. I didn't know; stuck at chapter 22, you see...

Oh, and I expected this story to have a lot more likes, something which I edited into my previous comment.

[GMBlackjack]

9691701
It's no problem, you didn't know. Basically, the entire story is available in draft form, and I think Bloxx is one of them who's read far enough ahead. Thanks for being so quick!

200+ likes is still good for a story on this site. It's just a bit hard to sell people on mega-crossover and 1million+ words. Glad to have you back, though.

-GM, master of sapphires.

[Yutah123]

9691707
Ehh... having me "back" might be a bit too strong. I'm in school, so... yeah. Free time is a luxury. Still, I do intend to finish this... someday. *half-hearted grin?*

As for the likes, I've probably had my perception tilted by the fics I've read. The kind that remain in my mind tend to have over a thousand likes... Austraeoh comes to mind for being of similar length, but that thing's practically legendary, so it doesn't make for a good comparison, does it? Anyway, now that you say that and I think about it, getting a few hundred likes is pretty good.

P.S. You're welcome for the quick response. Thank you for your quick response.

---

P.P.S I noticed your The League of Sweetie Belles story, had a quick look through the list of candidates for "exploration," and liked what I saw: a lot of the stories I like are in there, and I haven't even taken a peek at what's already in the story yet. I'd like to read that, too, though I don't know when.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Phew. That was very literally pulse-pounding. Incredible work.

The cleanup from this is going to be rough on every level, from personal matters between Eve and some of her friends to the aftermath of Lai and Elemental Four to integrating the Congeries into the MU. To say nothing of how the political reverberations of this war. I imagine that Class 3s don't hit the next tier on a frequent basis, and if the true nature of how it began ever gets out...

But there's a bright light on the horizon. I'm just worried about what lies after it. Every golden age ends eventually.

[Pseudonym1]

Man, it is just downright criminal how few views this story has. Whichever way you slice it, this story is really good. It's unfortunate that a lot of people just don't read anymore, it means quality stuff like this goes unseen. Well, there's also the fact that it's on an MLP fanfiction website, so the pool of people who see it is even lower. Regardless, your story is great.

[Icy Creation]

9690915
There is no such thing as fiction, only perception. Which is why I named myself Perceiver. I created the idea of Ian in this universe, therefore I perceived him existing in general. I am not a creator, that would imply the things I write or come up with in general do not already exist. I am a perceived, perceiving the existence of things not in this universe. Ian, Aedra, Polaris, Fenix, and the me that was visited by Ian, all already exist. Somewhere, Ian is traveling between universes, guarding them against disruption. I only recognized that he was out there, doing that. I did not make him, not did I control his actions.

I always try to respect the universes that humanity perceives, as none of them are simple fiction. They are all a fact, we just can't observe them. I am not mocking Ian or Polaris or Aedra when I write conversations between us, I am simply stating what they would say to what I have said. I try to avoid calling anything fiction when I can help it, instead calling it a universe, world, or perhaps perception would also be acceptable.

Let me clarify, a universe cluster is not a simple group of universes, but a group of universes with the same or similar base physics. It can be semi-infinite, because the multiverse is infinite. A cluster cannot be exactly infinite, however, as even infinity can be filled by itself. There is a limit to how many variations there can be. I imagine one of every variation, grouped into clusters centered around base physics and in pairs based on location and connectivity. Imagine it like a cluster being based around a baseline perception with every variation being every possible fan perception that has ever, will ever, and can ever be written. This eliminates the need for a multiverse multiverse assuming that the multiverse itself operates using every variation of physics that can or cannot exist.

The only way for is to know what kind of multiverse we live in is to travel it, and humanity as a whole does not have access to the kind of power needed yet, nor will it for the many millions of years to come.

Adera.

[Fincown]

This really was an amazing chapter!

I keep trying to find the words to express myself but end up deleting what I've written only to retype and try again.

Know that your work is always the highlight of my week. It has brought me a great amount of joy reading through it.

[Voltaje]

9692025
The problem is that Now, it's pretty more than 1 million words, that scares potential new readers, if the author were to divided it in a separate story for different arcs, perhaps many would have followed it, now the only thing that could be done to get new readers is to write sides stories to lure new readers to the main one, The Legue of swetty bells is one, if others were to write other sides stories, that would help too.

[Aroddo]

@GMBlackjack
You know, Eve got way too much backlash for revealing that she was Twilight X. First of all, she was a perfect copy with only a couple of days of difference.
And while Applejack can mourn the fact that her Twilight is gone, she didn't seem to spend a single thought considering, that Twilight X has lost ALL of her friends and family with the collapse of her universe.

Frankly, nearly all of here friends behaved like pricks in the revelation scene.

[Killer20]

okay this arc was pretty good. except that one chapter, this was really good. the one thing that i am afraid of now is that none of the big things happening to the characters are going to have any consequences and were right back to how things used to be. i couldnt cere less about eves relationship with applejack, and that doesnt affect the story at all, so if that is the only thing that permanently changes, im gonna be really dissapointed.
but the rest of this arc was pretty cool...although i never finished sombras clipshow 2...is there anything important in there, or just characters being random? because i didnt get that much out of the last one , so i kind of skimmed through this one and stopped halfway through.

[GMBlackjack]

9695200
Sombra's Clipshow 2 established:
Roxy's friendship with Olivia/Sombra
The Gems finally allowing mixed fusions.
WTF the Homestuck Epilogues meant.

That's all I think was actually important.

-GM, master of lights.

[EnderHooves]

9698561
The capital D is just to represent just how they can easily contact and traverse universes to the other displaced they've met through their tokens or whatever.
I think I can read displaced stories a lot easier now if I just treat it like a Game Show by Them.
And ones with little to no contact do make sense that the flowers don't pick them up considering the miniscule chance of finding anything in the larger multiverse.
And I'll accept your answer on the ka situation.
Maybe Them made a network of connections similar to (but not exactly like) topeka to link the displaced together, closer to maybe the collector?
Either way, fun to hink about.

[UC]

9691770
From 114 to 130, what happens is perhaps best described as '𐍈_𐍈' .
I'm afraid I can't say anything more openly.
9691675
This isn't the most unpleasant thing that happens in this story, I'm afraid...

[Spark Plug]

Well, this is as caught up as I’m going to be probably until the end. This week has been hard enough mainlining these last few seasons arcs and everything in them, and if this is where the “end” starts, I want to be able to finish it on my schedule. Speaking of...

---

Dear Pinkie:

I don’t like the drama. I don’t like seeing my favorite characters put through the ringer. Know that I am mourning with you, not just for the friend you didn’t know died, but also for the integrity of the friend you have.

I’ve stopped reading for a little while. Part of that is so I can mentally prepare for what’s to come, but part of that is so, on the off-chance it works out, we get to meet. My multiverse isn’t quite set up yet, but when it is, I hope you and your friends can come visit.

I’m proud of you.

— Spark Plug

[Ponygood11]

Recently finished reading Crisis. Great story, glad I did, even if I think it needed a whole thirty more chapters to deal with this whole Equestria Prime nonsense that got finished in barely four. Then I decided to re-read the Skarn war so that I could really appreciate Discount Six's presence, and... well, I'm just gonna point out the inconsistencies as I notice them.

Shadow lit her horn and summoned five dark necklaces to them, placing a sixth tiara on Curaçao’s head. The crystals within were of deep, dark colors.

“Wh- hey! Where’s my crown!?” Havocwing blurted.

“Guess, like, Curaçao’s more leadery than you?” Insipid suggested.

“The decisions of deviated magic artifacts mean nothing to us,” Curaçao said. “We are sisters, forever.” She turned to Yellow Diamond. “Just tell us when.”

Anyone who read Crisis would know Starlight gets the crown! And the sisters probably already know what their assigned nick-knacks are, anyway. This is in the last chapter, by the way, not this one.

The top of the central ship opened up, revealing the six Elements of Discord. Red Velvet, Passion; Havocwing, Insanity; Insipid, Desire; Grayscale Force, Objectivity; Curaçao, Trickery; and Starlight Shadow, Pride.

They're the Elements of Pandemonium, silly! And Havocwing's Intensity, buuut that's an easy mistake.

This does also bring up questions. Like, are we seeing the LSB or original versions of the team, and if the former, then do my points even matter or did they not get those certain revelations? 'Cause last I checked, LSB didn't have Exposition Discord to Expositizationize them...

[brave2000]

why is eve so easy to forgive? why does she get that after all that she has done?

[GMBlackjack]

10037635
The answer is really simple:

She's made a life of forgiving others for anything and everything.

They're returning the favor.

-GM, master of eggs.

[JetstreamGW]

10037635
No one deserves forgiveness. It is a gift. They love her. They gave it.

[notaniceperson2110]

There's one specific lesson to learn here that i think they all missed

You don't need to declare war right away! GET MORE INTEL FIRST! the fact that the closest they could jump to is light years from the shaper because of a lack of knowlegde of the neccesary coordinates all but confirms it was still rushed, i mean ideally by the first meeting back in chapter 99 they would simply decide on a deadline of 10 years of buildup, scouting and planning before the war declaration, keeping it secret and continuing the trade with skarn in the meantime, which is another idea i had by the end of chapter 99

i had exactly 4 ideas by the way but only elaborated on the first one back then: implicate starcross society via a false flag attack of cloaked drones with superbombs, sic the collection on them, wait and buildup secretly with the intent to attack and the last idea involves an armoured and armed mobile penrose sphere megastructure designed to act as a shaped charge blackhole bomb/superlaser and a very agressive von neuman swarm seeded all around the congeries in the mean time consisting of cloaked and reality anchored protomolecule enchanced magitech stargate replicators because i am not nice as stated by my username

also they failed to learn the lesson taught by the combine attack as well, they didn't invest in more orbital defenses on their worlds and outside of harmony network and the hub they don't seem to have either city or planet shields, i mean what good is a planet if it doesnt have at least 16 layers of shielding starting from individual city blocks each having a shield all the way to the orbit of their farthest moon? (and ideally that moon would be a backup shield generator, as in the entire moon) then again cadia is merely decently defended by my standards so i may be biased...

[Lab 39]

Yellow Diamond probably felt pretty good about White Diamond being unable to command her for once.

[RoboRed]

The war’s over. Victory, a pretty solid victory at that, even with all the sacrifices.

Yeah...even with all the sacrifices. I mean, proportionally-

Yellow Diamond checked her readings. 42% forces remaining.

...Proportionally going from 46% to 42% (and then however many down after) isn't that bad, but uhhh starting from 100%...And even that's all well and "good" as long as you're not paying attention to the specific figures, or individuals, rather. After all - one is a tragedy, one million's a statistic.

Havocwing - dead. Pinkie - maimed. Olivia - maimed then dead. Republic City - obliterated. Thor - liquefied. Untold amounts of other destruction and death.
And I totally called out Olivia's situation. Not as gruesome as I expected, but horribly changed and alive only enough until before the end. Guess that also in more ways than one explains why there's no more Sombra clip shows...can't have a Sombra clip show without Sombra.
I'm glad the rest of the Mean Six are still alive, though. Heh, and Insipid got to play to role of outwitting a superbeing with her powers again.

Well, Merodi is Class 2 now with the conquest of the Congeries and that hacking of the Shaping Mechanism. That is going to be an interesting plot point. There's no way in hell that device is going to get glossed over.

After all this… Merodi Universalis will enter its golden age. We’re going to skip over a lot of stuff, but that’s what side stories like The League of Sweetie Belles are for, right? Several decades until the final part of the story kicks in, plenty of breathing room. Plenty. Let’s make the most of them being a Class 2.

Well, I for one am hoping for a bit of lightheartedness in this coming "golden age". Gotta balance out the bad times, y'know?...

Eve shook her head. “I think… I think nobody can truly know themselves. We think too highly of our abilities. We like to ignore our weaknesses. Even those of us who try hard… We still get caught.” She looked at Pinkie. “I’m never risking you girls like that again.”

...Because as much as she wants, she doesn't get to make the call on this.

“Depends on how you look at it,” I replied. “There’s only one arc left I can see. But I also know that it takes up more time than all the rest of your adventures combined. Relatively speaking, this is year forty since you began your trek with the bowling ball. You’ve got more than that left in what I can see.”

Guess that's telling. Well, that means there's only at most the entirety of the next arc before...something. Something related to Twilence. Also, this puts one of my theories into question/test.

Chapter 115… most of your questions will be answered. But it will also mark the beginning of the end - depending on how you look at it, anyway.

Okay from "at most" to "likely to Chapter 115".

Well, now there's the pieces to pick up from after the war. The Council has positions to fill, and no doubt Eve has to come back and answer for what she's done. Also, Primary Team is going to need boatloads of therapy after this. They are not okay. Hopefully this long arc of golden age gives them the time they need.

---

They heard an explosion above them.

“That’s all the time we have for today,” O’Neill said. “Homework is due tomorrow.”

“Homework?” Ava asked.

“It’s a pass/fail assignment.” O’Neill looked at them all. “Stay alive.”

Bless O'Neill and his magnificent snark. I'm so glad he lived.

“Do you all remember the Sweetie Belle? The one the Collector called Sweetie Chronicle?”

Funnily enough, before I dug into this chapter today I was just reflecting on what you said about LSB and surprisingly familiar faces showing up and Chronicle was one of the ones I was thinking about. I'm ruling her out, she's feels like something outside this story and I'm not sure how she'd fit in making an actual appearance.

Eve looked up at him. “Jotaro… Thank you. You don’t owe me anything anymore. I know I always told you that you never owed me anything, but I mean it this time.”

“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro said, adjusting his hat. “There’s more to loyalty than that.”

Hmm...what an interesting thing to say. They're all universes away, but I wonder if Harmony is trying to reach out for a replacement for Loyalty? Or maybe my brain is reaching for more wacked-out theories.

Skarn’s calm smile faltered slightly.

I am the villain of their story, and the hero of the Congeries’. The Congeries’ story is stronger than theirs.

But why else would Pinkie ask her to do this unless she was confident?

Maybe because it got you to outright admit yourself as the villain of the story in the narrative and Ka hooked onto that? idk dumb overconfident space bear

“…I’m going to have a great time sleeping tonight.”

“Oh, I can help you with that.” I lit my horn. “A simple sleep spell to give you the energy you need for the coming day.”

Disclaimer: my brain on more than one occasion has thrown me into fitful state of not-quite-sleep, ruminating on events of the story and potnential outcomes. Not the first story to do this, not going to be the last, maybe I need to calm down or stop reading before going to bed...Where was I going with this? Idk, but I wish I had a sleep spell.

CRISIS: Equestria belongs to GanonFLCL (an absolutely amazing fic that is the source material for the Mean Six. It's old and dead, but definitely still worth the read https://www.fimfiction.net/group/203605/crisis-equestria/thread/299241/crisis-equestria-chapters-re-uploaded. The League of Sweetie Belles will be reviving it soon-ish.)

Well, that definitely places when this was written because the situation is very much different now, ha.