107 - Deep Skaia
Year 4
Skaia’s Dream was one of the most important worlds within Merodi Universalis space, being the source of all Skaians and their reality-warping god-tier citizens. The Aspects of Sburb were an excellent resource for just about every task imaginable: from construction to exploration to aid to diplomacy. Trolls were still the primary race of Skaians, but they had found clusters of humans, ponies, elves, and even a couple of cherub ghosts mixed with a random assortment of other races.
More and more players were continually found by Skaian Expeditions deeper into the Dream. This had created an interesting political climate, to say the least. Most of the deeper Skaians had no loyalty to Merodi Universalis or even understanding of what had happened to the Dream Bubbles and Lord English. A lot decided to join up with the Merodi because it seemed like the simple thing to do, but others staked out sections of Skaia’s Dream for themselves, making little ‘dream-kingdoms’ out of their ghostly selves.
There had been a few wars between these dream-kingdoms. But since everyone was a ghost, it was very difficult to actually kill anyone. There had been a few instances where a non-Merodi Skaian had obtained a dimensional device and used it to kill ghosts, but those instances were quelled rather quickly.
Due to its dreamy and aloof nature, Skaia’s Dream had become a bit of a tourist attraction. The ghost ‘cities’ near the ‘surface’ of Skaia’s Dream were filled with Skaians of all kinds trying to make a quick buck and establish their own unique cultural identity. With the advances of Merodi technology, the constructions could actually stay around and not shift with the dreams, allowing people to actually stick together.
But the greatest attraction of Skaia’s Dream was not the very young society there, but the scouting parties that took tourists into deep Skaia to the memories of long lost SBURB players. Alien structures would astound, bizarre colors would amaze, and interesting locals would provide unique interactions.
Of course most of these tourist excursions didn’t really go that deep into Skaia. They just poked their heads into the surface.
Jack O’Neill wanted a little more than that on his ‘vacation’. He wasn’t kidding himself, he knew this wasn’t going to actually be a full vacation, but he was still going to have some fun. Instead of poking around aimlessly for someone who would actually take him to an unexplored area, he had a much better idea.
He walked down what could be thought of as the ‘main street’ to Skaia’s Dream’s ‘capital’ – Peixe. Which was to say he was walking on a flat, winding tree branch that wormed its way around the memory of a pink ‘moon’. As he walked, the moon went from being a distant object in the sky to being a world whose surface he could walk on. He jumped from the branch onto the surface of Peixe.
The pink moon was covered in jagged rocks that the Skaians had built structures into. The vast majority were troll dwellings that had the general appearance of gray blocks smashed together in random ways with no discernable rhyme or reason. There were a handful of other structures – human and pony, generally built by beings not native to Skaia’s Dream – but these were in the decided minority.
O’Neill walked past these buildings, thankful that the usual unnatural shifting of location was not allowed in Peixe. He could walk down a street and expect it to stay a street for the entire time he was there.
He made his way through the busy roads filled with eternally-teenaged ghosts running around, scrambling about their day. Some of them were late for pointless shenanigans, while others probably had jobs of a sort. Even though work in Skaia’s Dream was rather limited due to its nature.
O’Neill marched up to the doors of the one building that belonged in the dream-memory of the pink moon. The royal palace of Beforus – the original home of Meenah. O’Neill walked in, entering the main hall.
What had once been a memory of a vast, empty room had become a crowded meeting hall, mostly dominated by versions of Meenah and Feferi, representing the ruling families of both Alternia and Beforus. Notably, the room wasn’t filled only with Fuschia-blooded trolls – versions of jade, teal, cobalt, and mutant candy red weren’t uncommon, though the only version of Vriska in the room was Omega Vriska, known as Vrisko, standing by the primary Meenah.
Meenah. O’Neill’s target. He marched through the hall, going right for her. He passed several Skaians scrambling with paperwork and digital messages from Merodi Universalis. He caught more than a few interesting conversations on the way.
A god-tier candy-red-blooded troll known as Kankri was in a deep, passionate discussion about the nature of Skaian politics.
“…and I don’t mean to be rude, please forgive me if I am, but the foremost duty of any politician is to point out when and where the system is failing, and it appears to me our rather… disorganized chaos within this parliamentary room makes us seem foolhardy to the more experienced, organized rationales of which our parent government appreciates and encourag-”
“Let me stop you right there,” a Terezi muttered, folding her arms. “We’re fucking trolls, Kankri.”
“Such language is no-”
“Shush it. We’re trolls. We don’t do ‘neat’ and ‘nice’, and never have, even on Beforus. Aranea, back me up here.”
The cobalt-troll blinked. “Oh, huh?” she rubbed the back of her head. “Right. While Beforus was certainly a more peaceful and caring civilization, the biological drives of our race are decidedly violent and disorganized. We were very lucky our Empress was Feferi, so she could show the world how to care for all life. Even then, the legal system and parliamentary customs were hardly as organized as any Earth – more like a version of Equis, actually. Even then most of the paperwork was decidedly simpler.”
“I am fully aware of this factoid, Aranea,” Kankri began. “But I must insist that what we naturally are may not be ‘correct’ or ‘the best’ as we consider it. Perhaps an illustration would help, think o-”
“FOR THE LOVE OF MY BONE BULGE SHUT UP!” a Karkat blurted.
Kankri ignored him. “-smuch as we can think in a way with images through words directed through our consciousnesses…”
O’Neill stopped listening – it sounded like that would get boring real fast. He walked right up to Meenah.
“Sclam,” Meenah muttered, not looking up from her data pad.
“Meenah!” Feferi yelled. “That’s O’Neill!”
“Yeah, so?”
“As in Overhead-General O’Neill!? One of your bosses!?”
“I tell anyone I want to sclam,” Meenah muttered.
Feferi repeatedly bowed to O’Neill. “Sorry! Sorry! She’s just in a bad mood!”
Vrisko smirked. “Oh, she’s always in a variation of this mood.”
“Vrisko, glubbing stop ruining our politics!”
“We are what we are. If he doesn’t like it he can go fuck himself.”
O’Neill shrugged, turning to Feferi. “This is quite the reception you’ve got here.”
“I’m so sorry!” She put a hand on O’Neill’s shoulder and pulled him away from Meenah and Vrisko. “I will personally sea to anything you need, O’Neill.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Well in that case I want a personal expedition as deep into Skaia as we can go. I’m on vacation and I plan to see as much insanity as I can before my time is up.”
“…You do realize that’s just asking for ka to ruin the vacation right?”
“Wouldn’t be a vacation without that happening now would it?”
Feferi considered this. “Good point. I’ll get you a personal contingent of Skaians a-”
“I don’t want a big production here, I can take care of myself.”
Feferi blinked. “In that case…” she twirled her double-pointed trident. “I’ll lead you myself! I haven’t gone deep in a while since I’ve been busy being half the leadership of Skaia’s Dream… It should be fun!”
O’Neill smirked. “Then lead the way.”
“Glub glub! Road trip!” She pulled out a small, metallic object and pressed a button. A personalized fuchsia Skiff appeared in the air above them, decorated with cuttlefish designs. “You want to go deep you have to swim fast.” She grinned and squeed. “Oh, this is going to be amazing!”
“You don’t get out much, do you?”
“Always stuck in this tide pool…”
“That ends today.”
Feferi clapped.
~~~
Toph folded her hands, examining the five individuals standing before her throne.
Curaçao, Velvet, Insipid, Lady Rarity, and Jenny.
“What in the name of the spirits were you doing!?”
“Amazing things,” Jenny said with a coy smirk. “You’re welcome for your daily dose of excitement, by the way.”
Curaçao sighed. “Your ‘ighness, forgive our tactless words. I am afraid ze precise actions of what we were doing wizin ze ‘Armony Caverns is a matter zat needs to be on ze ‘down low’. If you wish for a report you could file a request wiz Renee a-”
Lady Rarity rolled her eyes. “We were chasing a multidimensional entity across numerous worlds. It ended up in the Harmony Caverns. We stopped it with admittedly more damage to the surrounding physics than I would have liked. The Harmony Runes are still intact a-”
“I have a fragment of the Spectacularium drifting from mind to mind driving people temporarily insane and answering questions nobody wants to know about!” Toph blurted. “Who cares about the Harmony Runes? I’ve got a bigger problem!”
“In, like, all fairness, isn’t that harmless? Cha?” Insipid asked.
“You won’t be so happy when your personal secrets start getting broadcasted to the minds of random people!” Toph snapped.
Velvet adjusted her ka-glasses. “Ah, the secret night with one of your suitors got out, huh? Must be fun kn-”
“Velvet if you try to fear-condition me I will cut you in half,” Toph muttered.
“…You’re no fun,” Velvet pouted.
“The point is that this shouldn’t have existed in the first place!”
Jenny folded her arms. “Oh, I’m sorry, would you rather we let the monster continually eat everything in sight of itself? I bet you’d be upset about that.”
Toph twitched. “You can regenerate from anything, right?”
Jenny had heard that question an excessive number of times in her life. She knew what it meant. She teleported away before Toph could throw the Master Sword.
Toph sighed and leaned back into her throne. “Here’s the deal. Take care of the mind creature. And do it without creating a bigger problem. Do I make myself clear?”
“Of course, your ‘ighness,” Curaçao said with a bow.
Insipid frowned. “But, like, didn’t Renee-”
Curaçao put a hoof to Insipid’s mouth. “We’ll get on it right away.”
Toph raised an eyebrow. “…Just hurry up.”
The four remaining ponies scrambled out of the room.
~~~
Flying deeper into Skaia’s Dream was an experience all to itself. Despite the dream-nature of the realm, much of the world was still effectively solid, so flying through the world at faster-than-light speeds was normally out of the question. Anything faster than an average car required computer analysis to safely navigate the twisting turns of memories turned into reality.
Luckily Feferi’s Skiff – which she had named the Cuttlebolt – was equipped with something most Skiffs weren’t.
A phasing device. The Skiff – and everything inside of it – moved slightly out of phase with reality and passed through everything just like a ghost could. They had started out moving slowly through the upper levels, passing through scenery of Alternia, Beforus, Earth A, Earth B, and even a bit of Earth C.
This only lasted a few minutes as they sped up. Soon they were passing through alien landscapes, including the section of Skaia’s Dream that held the memories of an Equis that had played the game. They saw Canterlot, Ponyville, and the Everfree forest fly by, littered with versions of Twilight, Applejack, and the others.
After they passed this, Feferi smirked. “Well, that’s all the heavily explored areas of Skaia’s Dream.”
“We’re not there yet.”
“Of course not. The probes have a general idea what’s out here for quite a long way!” She gestured toward the speed controls. “Will you do the honors?”
O’Neill rubbed his hands together and pressed a finger to the speed control. Instead of slowly moving it upward, he shot it to full speed immediately. The Cuttlebolt entered galaxy-crossing FTL speeds, turning the locations they had passed by earlier into nothing more than rapidly flashing bursts of color.
Inside the Cuttlebolt, the riders hardly felt anything from the instant acceleration due to the magic of inertial dampeners. Such a great invention.
“We past the explored regions?”
“Oh yeah,” Feferi said. “No expedition has sean this area of the Dream.” She giggled. “I wonder what we’ll find!”
O’Neill tapped his finger to the speed controls – and brought everything to an instant stop.
In front of them was a shiny, mostly orange world with the occasional neon flash around it.
O’Neill blinked. “…Is that the Land of Pyramids and Neon!?”
“Oh, so this is where Spades went!” Feferi said. “By the tides, what were the chances we found this place? Million to one?”
“Million to one chances crop up nine times out of ten,” O’Neill pointed out.
“True. …Hey, do we actually know who said that first?”
O’Neill shrugged. “Prevalent saying, far as I know.”
Feferi shrugged. Then she pressed a button. “This is Feferi of Skaia’s Dream! Hiiiii!”
O’Neill put his hands to his ears to stop the shrill shriek of Feferi’s enthusiasm from draining his brain cell count.
“What!?” Spades voice came in response. “How did you find us!?”
“Random chance!” Feferi said. “Isn’t that weird?!”
“Weird enough to get a knife to the face.”
A knife shot from the surface of Lopan and passed right through the intangible ship.
O’Neill took his turn. “Spades, buddy, fri-”
“I ain’t your buddy or your friend!”
“And I ain’t your pal, comrade.”
“I ain’t yo-” Spades stopped himself, sensing an infinite loop of absurdity forming around the words. “Just get out of here and leave us alone, exploratory imbeciles.”
O’Neill raised an eyebrow. “Us?”
“You hear that, knifey? Sounds like he wants a stab.”
“Hey, knifey, if you can hear me, tell your master he’s forgetting a small detail. We’re intangible right now.”
“Right, that’s it, I’m coming up there.”
“What are y-”
Spades launched from the planet and smacked the Cuttlebolt with his giant golden staff. A huge dent appeared on the Skiff’s dash, causing sparks to come out.
“I forgot he had that,” Feferi said.
“It’s always a stupid magic weapon, isn’t it?” O’Neill muttered. Spades swung again – only to find that Crimson Sushi had started screwing with his perceptions. He ended up swinging at absolutely nothing, horribly wrenching his arm.
Spades shifted the staff to its form as a golden assault rifle. He fired it in every direction he could think of, its reality-burning bullets ripping holes in the fabric of spacetime. They quickly healed, but that didn’t help the Cuttlebolt when one of the bullets lodged itself into the ship’s engines.
“Oh, shell,” Feferi swore.
The Cuttebolt swirled with a brilliant white light, enveloping the three of them in a burst of energy.
Everything was gone.
Lopan didn’t even notice the departure of its ‘beloved’ leader.
~~~
Space was beautiful.
No matter how long Cosmo lived or how much she saw, the awe the vastness of space brought her was never lessened. The darkness interspersed with stars, systems, and glorious alien worlds. If anything, her awe increased the more she saw as the variety proved to her that the possibilities were truly endless and beyond the understanding of most.
She flew as her crystalline, skeletal self through one of the Merodi’s relatively recent universal additions – Odanas Aflame. The universe itself was dominated by stars that shone a bright red, hence the ‘Aflame’ in the name. No matter how big or small the stars in this universe were, they were always red, bathing everything in their crimson glory.
Cosmo’s blue skeletal form was uncharacteristically dark in this universe – absorbing most of the red light, only letting scant amounts of it through the refractive nature of Cosmo’s body. She appeared black with red highlights, decidedly ominous.
But she didn’t mind – there was no one to watch here in the void between stars. She was able to fly alone, her thoughts to herself.
She had even left Starlight at home for once – a rare move for her, but she needed to think. Not because anything had gone wrong – far from it. Equis Cosmic was booming, Merodi Universalis was settling into what appeared to be a golden age, and she hadn’t even had to do much!
…That last part was a bit of a problem for her, she realized. She had lived for countless centuries, and for the vast majority of those years she’d had the final say on everything. The leader, the commander, the spiritual guide – and had continued as that even in the early days of Merodi Universalis, due to how important her universe was to the continued shifting populations of the society.
But now? The Overheads had settled into their power and taken most of Cosmo’s outer responsibilities as their own. Most universal leaders got to keep a large portion of control over their subjects, since they were expected to be the most familiar with them. But over the years Equis Cosmic had accepted billions upon billions of refugees from outer worlds, peoples who had nothing to do with Equis Cosmic's past or Cosmo’s understanding. The majority of Merodi Universalis’ population lived in Equis Cosmic, so the Oversight Division took special interest in the finer running of the worlds. She was still technically in charge, but over time she had just let them take more and more out of her hands…
Now she didn’t do much besides make public appearances and speak as the voice of Equis Cosmic – a voice many thought was only for the older pony worlds. Was that a fair criticism? She didn’t think so. With her new freedom, she spent a significant amount of time learning about all the cultures within her world and the powers that came from outside.
She shook her head – what was she complaining about? She didn’t have to be an important leader. She didn’t have to control the fate of Merodi Universalis. She could be happy with her position. It wasn’t like she was just a figurehead. She could do what she wanted.
It was just… she wished she’d seen it coming.
Her magic detected a loose planet floating around, not in the gravitational pull of any star. There were large energy signatures on the world that drew her attention and took her mind off her personal issues. She followed the trail, blasting across the interplanetary void with her magic. She appeared in a flash of purple far above the world.
The planet was dark – as all planets without stars were. However, a few specks of green light could be seen from her position. She had a pretty good idea what those green sections were, but she went to investigate anyway. She summoned her illusion cover, transforming her skeletal self into an alicorn with all her mane and fur intact.
Why do these curses exist? She asked herself as she descended. Things that exist seemingly only because they can’t be cured. Physical maladies affixed to the soul… Why? What’s the point? Are people just destined to never be able to recover?
She didn’t have an answer. Nobody did. Ka was a dreadfully cruel force much of the time, and nothing they did ever lessened its impact. Just changed it to another form.
Cosmo landed on the planet’s surface, the source of the beautiful green glow in front of her, basking her in its beautiful light.
It was a magic forest on an otherwise deserted, cold, arid world, glowing a verdant green color. She walked in, carefully stepping so as to not harm the plants. There were no real ‘trees’ or ‘bushes’, but rather there were large strands of green vines that weaved together, the beautiful leaves covering nearly every surface within the forest save the ground. This world naturally had no atmosphere, but this forest, this organism had slowly introduced a tenuous gripping of oxygen to the spherical body. It wasn’t enough air for someone like Cosmo to breathe naturally, but it was a sign of a bright future that could come.
Hello, Cosmo called out with her telepathy.
The forest reacted around her, the green light flashing brightly for a moment, then settling down as it remembered who she was. Ah, Cosmo! Back so soon?
It’s been a year, Odanas. And this is not the usual planet.
Mmm… A year is not that long, child of harmony. A planet, a universe… all but thoughts away.
I guess I am back, then. I did come across this place by complete accident though. I was just flying around space.
This is one of my primary universes.
And you’re in the habit of gracing orphan planets with your presence?
I do not recall how I spread my seed to this particular world, Cosmo. It is but one of countless thousands, and I have no intention of keeping meticulous records like you. The present moments are enough for me.
It probably feels like yesterday when you joined us, huh?
I never even had the concept of a ‘day’ down that well, so your statement is indubitably true.
You always grow and transform worlds…
I have no need for anything else. Lending my aid to those heavily damaged worlds you find is the least I can do.
And you have no reservations whatsoever?
The recent project I am undertaking with the Diamonds is… stretching my comfort some, admittedly, but as I am learning, there are many forms of life beyond the kind I naturally assist and produce.
You really don’t mind being told what to do? Having some of your agency removed?
You always just ask. I’m free to say no. But before you found my universes it wasn’t like I was making very many decisions anyway. I was just spreading life. I would take a passing interest in a civilization from time to time, but otherwise all my efforts were spent in simply shaping the long-term ecosystem of a planet. To be frank, it is nice to have some direction, something different. Even if I have not truly adjusted to it yet.
Cosmo nodded. I think I see. A similar thing happened to me – but I do not think as slow as you, nor do I act that slow. …I can’t help but feel my agency was slighted. And my decisions are very important to me.
Allow me to repeat something one of your kind said to me. Things change. We must change with them.
...I have heard that before.
I really shouldn’t be the one telling you this, since I rarely change. Surely you have a better capacity for it than I do.
Cosmo let out a short laugh. Yes. Yes I suppose I do. Maybe I’m just being stubborn.
It does appear to be a trait many of you fast-thinkers share in abundance.
Yeah… Cosmo looked up at the sky through the green leaves at the red stars. …You’re going to turn this universe into Hearth’s Warming Eve.
What?
~~~
“What happened?” O’Neill asked, blinking.
“We crashed,” Feferi said, rubbing her head.
“How do you crash an intangible ship?”
“You shoot it with Lord English’s gun,” Feferi responded.
O’Neill blinked. “Wait, Spades has Lord English’s gun!?”
“Yep,” Spades said, tapping the windshield of the Cuttlebolt with the green head of the golden staff. “Now get out of there before I run you through.”
Feferi pressed a button. “Windshield’s jammed. It won’t pop o-”
Spades smashed the windshield open, the power of the staff easily overcoming the high-end Merodi engineering. “There you go. Problem solved.”
O’Neill and Feferi crawled out of the Skiff, standing on top of a black mound. There was no sign of Lopan or anything else that was familiar, though they were clearly in Skaia’s Dream given the existence of a tremendous pillar of black alien technology next to a landscape made out of cake.
“How badly lost are we?” O’Neill asked.
“Not bad,” Feferi said, pulling out her phone. “Cell service still works, as does the dimensional device. I’ll just call for help and we’ll swim right out of this problem.”
“Or,” O’Neill said, holding up a hand. “We could explore around anyway and see what’s here.”
Spades glared at him. “Do you have a crowbar in your brain or something?”
“No.”
“Would you like one?”
O’Neill smirked. “I’d rather not, but don’t let that stop you from trying!”
Spades grunted. “Make the call, fish-face. I need to get back to Pyramid Hell.”
“Or,” O’Neill said, holding up his other hand. “You could loosen up and learn to live a little. You strike me as a guy who’s been sorely lacking in action and drama as of late.”
“My life is fine you judgementa-”
“You rule a planet of pyramids inhabited mostly by consorts,” O’Neill interrupted.
“Oh, that has to be annoying,” Feferi commented. “Nothing but them for company? They’re absolutely adorable but… you know…”
Spades grunted. “So what, I just leave them to bumble around their little village?”
“Be honest, how many of them even know you’re there at any given time?” O’Neill asked.
Spades blinked. Then he narrowed his eyes. “Are you stealin’ my Hope, Thief?”
“Oh right, I can do that,” O’Neill chuckled. “Forgot, never get to use it that often.”
“Mhm…”
“How about you just cut your losses, loosen up, and come exploring with us without making me resort to stealing some delicious Hope? It’s the best option for you!”
“It’s not an option.”
“Glad you’re up to speed,” O’Neill said, patting Spades on the back. “Now, I know a giant alien artifact when I see one.”
“Glub, really?” Feferi said, raising an eyebrow and gesturing at the gigantic alien pillar. “I wonder what else this could be!”
O’Neill turned to stare at her, raising an eyebrow. “How uncharacteristically sarcastic of you.”
Feferi smiled innocently. “Heheh… Yeah, it just happens sometimes.”
“How feminine,” Spades muttered.
“HEY! SAY THAT TO MY FACE YOU ROTTEN BLOWHOLE!”
“I just did,” Spades deadpanned.
Feferi blinked, her face returning to its cheerful, adorable self. “Oh, you did! Heh. Maybe spending extended time around a Sollux does that. Bipolar bleeding, it should be called…” She put a hand to her chin. “Hrm…”
O’Neill marched forward until he reached the alien pillar. It was dark, but definitely wasn't the Dark Tower. It had a rippled shape, as if composed of thousands of little bubbles, and little green lights emanated from various rounded faces, each of the lights collecting together like stars in a constellation to form glyphs.
O’Neill ran his hand along the surface of the alien tower, finding that the rounded bubbles were rough, unlike what he expected from looking at it. What creature dreamed this up? Was this a Sburb game construct or something natural from a player’s home world? Did it have any relation to the pastry world to the side, or were they two completely different game sessions?
“INTRUDER DETECTED.”
The bubble O’Neill was touching at that moment popped, revealing a sharp needle. The needle shot out, intending to skewer him, but his reflexes were fast enough to duck out of the way. The spike withdrew back into the tower without another word.
“I was hoping for blood,” Spades muttered.
O’Neill put his hands on Feferi and pushed her forward. “You touch it next.”
“Wh- why?”
“You’re a ghost. You literally cannot die.”
Feferi blinked. “Oh. Okay!” She visibly brightened and touched the bubble.
“INTRUDER DETECTED.”
The spike shot out and impaled her. Her cheerful expression shifted to a haunted one as bad memories filled her mind.
There was also the intense pain that came from being impaled and not dying. “AUGH! FLOUNDERING CODDAMMIT BLOWHARDING SHELL!”
“GHOST SIGNATURE ACCEPTED. FUSCHIA BLOOD DETECTED.”
“Get off,” O’Neill said, grabbing Feferi by the shoulder and pulling her back. The spike decided to expand, skewering Feferi’s body from the inside, preventing her from escaping.
“HOLY GALLONS OF BETA P-” whatever stream of aquatic-related ‘swearing’ about to come out of her mouth was interrupted when the spike tried to pull her in.
O’Neill was not strong enough to keep hold of her – but Spades was. He grabbed hold of her midsection with his mixed robotic and carapaced arms, pulling her back. The spikes erupted from her flesh and tore at her bones – but she was removed from the spike.
She fell back to the ground, seemingly unharmed but visibly exhasuted. The spike retracted into the wall of the alien device, no longer holding anything.
“Sometimes I wish I was a ghost,” O’Neill muttered.
“That can be arranged!” Feferi blurted. “Fuck, just… I’m not doing that again for any reason. No more impaling! None!”
“None?”
“NONE!”
Spades impaled her with a knife.
Feferi twitched. She reached into her back, removed the knife, and looked at it carefully. Then she proceeded to hit Spades across the head with the flat end of her trident. “You need to work on your people skills!”
Spades shrugged off the hit. “Personally, I don’t give a flying f-”
The base of the tower opened with a series of pops, creating a simple doorway just tall enough for a full-grown troll to walk through. Not that any of the people here needed that much height – after all, none of them were even close to that tall, and Feferi wasn’t growing anytime soon.
The doorway was completely dark. There wasn’t anyone or anything inside as far as they could tell.
“If we walk in there, we’re gonna get jumped,” Spades said.
“Yep,” O’Neill confirmed.
“There will be sufferin’, a lot of fightin’ for our lives at some point, and probably some emotional scarrin’.”
“Yep,” O’Neill agreed.
“Not to mention dream mindfuckery.”
“Mhm.”
“So, who’s goin’ first?”
Feferi rolled her eyes. “For the love of cod…” She marched in first.
O’Neill smirked, following her in with Spades at his side.
At this point, none of them were able to resist the powerful call of mystery and adventure. They walked in…
And were promptly jumped by seventeen different versions of Vriska.
They never stood a chance against those with luck stealing.
~~~
Princess Luna of Equis Vitis had a different sort of problem than Cosmo. Unlike Equis Cosmic, Equis Vitis did not hold the vast majority of Merodi Universalis’ population. Instead, Equis Vitis was the home to a large variety of races, most of whom looked to Luna for direct leadership rather than their own leaders. Ever since the Bloodbath, she had been the nearly uncontested ruler.
Thorax had survived, yes, but he never had an issue with being subservient to other nations – so much that it was a problem, but not a huge problem. The changelings were able to live just fine with their authority figure being rather soft.
She had a huge responsibility, to put it mildly – everyone looked to her to guide them, even if she knew she could never please all of them. But she was used to at least having good relations with most of the races on her planet – even the Yaks.
But then there was Tauryl.
The only nation on Equis Vitis that was not part of Merodi Universalis. And yet, ever since the Xeelee forcibly ended their xenophobic practices, they had started demanding a multiversal voice like a whining six-year-old. A whining six-year-old who was known for having an affinity for stealing magic for themselves.
It was the primary ability of an Equis Vitis centaur to steal magic from other beings. While they had in recent years limited this act to just wildlife, in the past they had performed it on every creature they could find – even sapient ones.
Right now, a Tauryl centaur priestess was threatening Luna with magic removal.
Luna knew she could do it. Luna also knew she could have her magic restored in any number of ways after the fact and have this priestess pay dearly for the slight against the Equestrian Crown. But Luna would rather not raise tensions between Tauryl and the Merodi further.
“Think very carefully about what you are saying, Hylon,” Luna encouraged. “You wish to invoke our wrath simply because we will not give you advanced technology?”
“You have withheld your toys from us long enough!” the yellow-coated centaur retorted, her dual horns buzzing with energy. “Our people are nothing compared to yours!”
“We have ended most hunger in your country and provided you a way to get a superb education and develop these technologies in your own time,” Luna pointed out.
“Our own time? We do not progress as fast as you do! We will be left in the dust!”
“Then join us,” Luna said. “You are in a unique position of technically being below the usual ‘acceptance’ complexity for Merodi Universalis, but you had contact with us before those laws went into effect.”
“We will not join you.”
“Then, pray tell, why would we raise you to our level?” Luna folded her hooves. “We help. We are not here to be your gods.”
“You would no-”
“Yes we would. We would provide you with everything, build you up, and destroy your culture if we did what you wanted. If your national pride is why you will not join us, then you do not want to be given everything you ask. The sudden influx would destroy you.”
Hylon twitched. She didn’t like a word she was hearing – so she decided to use force. She began to drain Luna’s magic… Only for a gargoyle to drop from the ceiling and punch her in the head, knocking her out.
Luna blinked. “Huh?”
“This isn’t Hylon,” the gargoyle said. “This is the stupid radical Nariss. Did you not receive word that Hylon’s whereabouts were unknown?”
“No,” Luna admitted. “…Was she trying to upset me? Forgive me, I am not familiar with Tauryl radicals.”
“She wants Tauryl to fall,” the gargoyle said simply, dragging Nariss’ limp form away. “I don’t worry myself with the details all that much. Just another crazy nut amongst millions…”
Luna wanted to ask more questions, but let the radical get dragged away.
She pulled out her phone. “Paradigm? Do you mind launching an investigation into the political structure of Tauryl? I suspect there’s a conspiracy of some kind going on in there. …Thanks.” She hung up. That should clear up whatever this mess was in a week or two.
In the meantime she had to talk to someone else…
“YAKS UPSET! WEATHER UP NORTH NOT PERFECT!”
“Do you want more snow or less?” Luna asked the yak with a sigh.
“YAKS WANT MORE WIND ON TUESDAYS AND LESS SUN ON SUNDAYS!”
Luna put on a smile. “Allow me to redirect you to the Weather Management Division…”
~~~
O’Neill, Spades, and Feferi were tied up, disarmed, and tossed into a spotlight. Aside from themselves, they couldn’t see anything outside the spotlight.
The inside of the alien structure was dark.
“Would it kill you to decorate?” O’Neill asked. “I mean, this floor is nice, but it could stand to have some rugs on top of the cold, uncompromising metal.”
“His ass needs a pillow,” Spades offered.
Someone outside the spotlight threw a pillow hard enough to knock O’Neill over. “There you go! Exactly what you asked for!” the voice of a Vriska snickered.
“Thank you,” O’Neill said with a content smile.
“Fucking smart aleck…” the Vriska voice said. “I think we should teach him a little lesson about talking back to the Serket…”
“Shall we decide his fate with a coin?” another Vriska asked, prompting laughs from several other voices – not all of them Vriska.
“Psh, too boring. How about this? I’ve got some chains, and it looks like he needs a good workout. What do you say to that, O’Neill?”
O’Neill was only barely listening to them. He was weighing his options – they were all trapped and without weapons. He still had Crimson Sushi, but without light that wouldn’t be very helpful. Spades was a brutally strong robot, but O’Neill expected the restraints were enchanted for him. Feferi did have an ‘inventory’ of sorts that they couldn’t have taken, like most Sburb players, but he had no way of asking what she had in there they could use. Her trident had been taken, so it likely wasn’t a weapon…
Plus, these were ghosts they were dealing with anyway. At least some of them god-tier. Fighting their way out was probably a bad idea.
Maybe they didn’t need a weapon though…
An orange boot came flying out of the spotlight and hit O’Neill in the jaw, interrupting his thought process. “I said, what do you fucking say to that, O’Neill?”
“I say you’re the one who needs the workout, flabby,” O’Neill muttered.
This prompted several chuckles – and another kick across the jaw. “Listen up, General. One more word like that out of you and I will take your pathetic human excuse for a bone bulge and pull it right up through your ribcage. And then I’ll feed you to one of the Dream spider lusii. Because you’re alive and those can definitely kill you.”
“Or nothing of the sort will happen,” a decidedly more refined voice said – one O’Neill found vaguely familiar, but couldn’t place. “We aren’t barbarians, after all.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“I speak for all of us,” she said, stepping into the spotlight so the three prisoners could see her. She was a cobalt-blooded troll with a short blue dress, pointed spectacles, red shoes, and a black Scorpio symbol on her top. Her eyes were empty, betraying her ghostly nature.
“…Aranea? Alpha Aranea!?” Feferi blurted, gawking.
“Am I supposed to know who that is?” O’Neill asked.
“She… She’s the troll responsible for the Omega timeline. The one where everyone died.”
Spades turned to glare at Aranea. “Wait… I do know you! You were the one that crashed my planets together!”
Aranea sighed. “I assure you, my intentions were pure. Had we been successful Lord English would have been devoured in a paradox of his own creation. And Mister Slick, I offer my sincerest condolences for the world of yours that was created from my failure.”
“If you had done what you wanted the world would still have been stagnant!” Feferi shouted. “That’s not much better!”
“My motives were pure,” Aranea said, looking away. “I do admit I made a few… reckless, perhaps brash decisions, but it was the best idea at the time. There was no guarantee the Green Sun could be safely destroyed, nor was there any true understanding of what the House Juju was. It was a calculated risk.”
“You were just like Vriska,” Feferi said. “You wanted to be the hero.”
Aranea twitched. “I am not like Vriska.”
“Hey! We’re right here!” a Vriska shouted.
“And we’re all bitches,” another commented. “She speaks the truth!”
“Fucking spidery bookworm…”
Aranea ignored the ribbing chorus. “Regardless, the past is behind us. Lord English was defeated and sealed away, and with the Gallifreyans’ locks it is ensured that he will always be sealed away through the retcon. So there is nothing to worry about. Plus, everyone in Omega got to be a ghost anywa-”
“There are no ghost Dirks,” Feferi said. “Or Omega John. Because of what you did, they weren’t sent to the dream bubble. They just died with Spades over here!”
Spades was currently grinding his teeth, clearly imagining every possible different way Aranea could be stabbed.
Aranea sighed. “I was under the impression we all agreed Dirk was a… less than ideal human being.”
Feferi glared at her. “That’s not my point.”
“Fine, I’m not here to be liked, not by you at least. Not yet, anyway.”
“What are you here for, then?” O’Neill asked. “I may not know much, but I do know that trolls aren’t supposed to be this deep into the Dream.”
“Revolution,” Aranea said with a knowing smirk.
“Revolution?”
“I wish to make things change.” Aranea took a step back, throwing her arms wide, the spotlight glinting off her gray skin. “I thought that, surely, when we joined Merodi Universalis the normal order of things would be upset. That all trolls would be treated equally, that we would be able to understand… That Meenah wouldn’t be allowed to become the dictator she was always geared to be.”
“Meenah’s not a dictator!” Feferi insisted. “She’s a strong woman who does what needs to be done! All of her are!”
Aranea shook her head. “Meenah is a woman with a predisposed cruelty and domination instinct. I know her well, Feferi. It is in her blood. Or have you forgotten who it was that defeated me in the Omega Timeline? Who made the survivors suffer?”
Feferi looked down, unable to respond.
“The Condesce,” Spades answered. “The Batterwitch.”
“Otherwise known as Meenah Peixes.” Aranea said, leaning in closer to Spades. “A version of her, all grown up. Ruler of Alternia. Conqueror of galaxies. High ‘servant’ to English. It is always Meenah’s destiny to become her. And she’s already doing it in this pathetic excuse for a ‘parliament’ that’s been created in Peixe. Fuschia bloods reinforcing each other endlessly, ruling over the players of Sburb for eternity, only entrenching the caste system!”
“So, uh, why are there a bunch of you in there?” O’Neill asked. “Not to mention stubby mc-angry.”
“Ants for Meenah. She doesn’t like doing everything herself, you understand.”
Feferi looked into Aranea’s eyes. “I know. I do a lot of that work – me and my other selves! We have equal footing with Meenah!”
“No, you don’t.”
“We keep her balanced.”
Aranea shifted her outfit to that of the Sylph of Light, bright orange robes flowing over her body with two extra long strands of fabric hanging from her sides. “A Sylph is a healer,” she said simply. “While the Maid ensures the Aspect itself remains stable, repairs it as it were, a Sylph actively heals others with the Aspect.” The symbol of Light appeared in one of her empty eyes for a split second. “I know what Meenah becomes. What she’s capable of, even if she doesn’t really think so. I can use this information to change our fortune. We don’t have to listen to her.”
Spades laughed. “Last time you did that you fucked it up.”
“That’s why I’ve gathered my own army,” Aranea said. “Especially the Vriskas. They can ensure fortune flows my way, even if I don’t have that level of control. So long as they stand by me. And all of them want an excuse to punch the established order in the face – especially the established order of their sisters.”
“What did Vriska and Vrisko ever do to them!?” Feferi blurted.
A Vriska stepped into the light, angry. “They became fucking pansy bitches, that’s what. They are soft and let everyone walk all over them. Fuck ‘em and everything they stand for.”
Aranea coughed. “I assure you, General, you will not be harmed. We will be moving to overthrow the Fuschia parliament within a local day. A ghost war will not result in any casualties, merely destruction of property. You have nothing to worry about - the new Skaian Collective will continue to be an obedient member of Merodi Universalis, with just a slight change in leadership.”
“There’s a lot of people who respect Meenah for what she did in the war with Skarn,” O’Neill said. “Including myself.”
“Then maybe you can give her a new job. She’d make an excellent General. I’d be happy knowing she found a way to use her nature without destroying everything.” She smiled warmly. “Don’t worry. This won’t hurt anyone.”
O’Neill has flashbacks to a game where Them decided there would be ‘no consequences’. Then he remembered the face of Daniel after they’d come back.
“That’s bullshit.”
~~~
Celestia City had a problem.
That problem was the Melnorme.
Ever since Merodi Universalis had become Class 2, the Melnorme had actively sought out locations to set up their trading outposts and stalls. Usually this was only one or two in any given city, and the rest of the marketplace would still be able to function perfectly fine without too much Melnorme competition.
But Celestia City was apparently an especially delectable location. Since it moved all the time, that always meant there would be new customers. Since it was always growing, it would always have the need for more and more goods. Even if the Merodi Universalis economy wasn’t fully capitalist, people still had money and could buy things. The Melnorme, being a power from another nation, was not held to the company limitations imposed on Merodi Universalis citizens. Which meant the Merodi had vast amounts of resources and goods they could funnel into Celestia City with ease.
Blumiere had known this. When they first started coming in, he limited how fast they could do it. They wouldn’t be allowed to form a monopoly on any product that was already sold within Merodi Universalis, and they wouldn’t be able to dominate the market. He thought this maneuver was clever and would keep Celestia City free from Melnorme meddling. It worked relatively well on the Infinite Carousel, after all.
What he didn’t take into account was that the Melnorme had been in the merchant business for literal eons and knew tricks that were in books Blumiere and Merodi Universalis didn’t even know existed.
The Melnorme started providing products to vendors who were completely separate from them, for one. Over the course of four years, the Melnorme would slowly hire more and more Celestia City natives to work as sales representatives. Nobody suspected a thing at first – they all popped up in random places and it looked like the Melnorme had nothing to do with them. They even had the Infinite Carousel’s illicit activities brought into the open a few times to draw attention away from their larger activities.
Blumiere didn’t find out about the Melnorme’s plan until it was far too late. Virtually every company within the main trading district had been bought out by the Melnorme, and half of them didn’t even know they had been bought out! It was a true shadow conspiracy. It had only really come to light when Pokèrin Amina had become part of the Merodi after the war, and their large volume of traders had experienced extremely unfair practices against their businesses.
With a mixture of time travel, knowledge gleaned from Aradia’s Celestialsapien, and a fair amount of economic analysis Blumiere barely understood, he was able to track down the Melnorme who was calling the shots. To the surprise of no one he didn’t even operate on Celestia City and was, instead, the head of a major conglomerate within Melnorme space.
Blumiere was going to see him personally. Even with the Merodi government pressuring the Melnorme, they had still demanded payment for the audience. Blumiere had obliged, ready to give them a piece of his mind.
Blumiere walked into the office. The Melnorme sure liked their orange things, since the walls, floor, ceiling, and tables were all orange. The only things that weren’t orange were the exceedingly rare collectibles lining the walls. Dimensional anomalies contained in jars, deeds to entire galaxies, stuffed animals that were only accessible through time travel, and coins made of unique precious metals.
“Everything you see is for sale,” the Melnorme – Tangerine – said. He looked like all Melnorme – a single eye and mouth on a rounded, orange body. As far as Blumiere knew, the only way to tell them apart besides size was the color of their eye. Tangerine’s was orange, unsurprisingly. “I see the rare Elula has caught your ey-”
“Let’s cut to it then,” Blumiere said, sitting down in a chair. “I have proof that you have been meddling with the economy of Celestia City. While your large-scale actions can only be considered shady and not illegal, we have hundreds of separate incidents where those acting in your name have performed highly illegal actions.”
“And how can you prove they were working for me?”
Blumiere summoned a tremendous folder of evidence. “This. Detailed accounts of what your orders were and how they were carried out. We obviously don’t have all of them but we have enough to prove that you’re the one responsible for dominating our city’s economic circle.”
Tangerine rolled his eye. “As if that’s such a bad thing.”
“This may be rather difficult for your brain to understand, but monopoly is not good.”
“If it’s carried out by humans, perhaps,” Tangerine commented. “But you will also find that Melnorme have an internal desire to produce their own competition. If a Melnorme ever truly dominated everything, they would lose the benefit of actual trade.”
“You’re still hurting us and taking control of my city, I don’t care what your reasonings are.”
Tangerine nodded, looking at the file on the table. “Where did you come by this information, I wonder?”
“That information will cost you,” Blumiere said with a satisfied smirk.
Tangerine snorted. “Every childish nation does that. Emulating us for the sake of insult does nothing. You feel so self-important right now, when in reality you have just passed Melnorme grade school. Charge for everything.”
“Why didn’t that information cost me, then?”
Tangerine grinned. “It did. You lost your self-importance and I gained some personal gratification at pushing you down. There’s more than money in the trade, Blumiere. In many ways money is the least important of all commodities. We do not use it with other Melnorme.”
“Look, I could stay here and take a verbal beating from you, but I’m not going to. Get your people out of Celestia City, kapeesh?”
“It’ll cost a lot to get me to let go of that profit center, Blumiere…”
Blumiere pulled a piece of paper out of the file. “How about a direct order from Merodi Universalis to cease operation? I think ‘not suffering multiversal retribution’ is a fair trade, don’t you?”
“Perhaps, but you will not go to war, not over something as small and innocuous as this. The worst you will do is cut off Melnorme economic opportunities in all of Merodi Universalis.”
“That’s not enough to scare you?”
“Oh, it is, I’m just thinking aloud for your sake.” Tangerine grinned. “Here’s the thing – this order hasn’t gone through yet. You’re waiting to see how this meeting goes.”
Blumiere didn’t respond.
“So, since this is contingent, let me make a counter offer. You let me continue working in Celestia City as I have, and I won’t tell everyone in Merodi Universalis about your books.”
Blumiere’s face didn’t shift. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“In your basement in a heavily guarded chest you have the Dark and Light Prognostici, books with the secret to destroying multiple worlds.”
Blumiere didn’t flinch.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t have a way to learn the deepest secret of everyone who walks into my office? Or anyone in the multiverse? We have great seers, Blumiere, who do nothing but collect valuable information for trade continually. The existence of those books is better left a secret, but if you dare cross me, they will be revealed, and everything will come crashing down.” Tangerine leaned in. “Your city… or safety. Your choice.”
Blumiere snapped his fingers, dark magic sparks flying away. “Right then. You win.”
Tangerine grinned. “Glad we’ve come to an understanding.”
“So, I take it we need to pretend this meeting never happened?”
“There will be no records. Do not fret, Mayor, nothing will change, and nothing will threaten your reputation. I’m sure you can find a way to explain your willingness to drop the case.”
“Oh, I will,” he adjusted his top hat. “I hope never to see you again.”
“I wish exactly the opposite.”
In a minute you won’t wish anything about me.
Blumiere walked out of the office – and his dark spell took effect.
Tangerine forgot Blumiere existed. He forgot everything about the last conversation and everything about the Prognostici.
When he received word that Celestia City had banned all Melnorme interaction for illegal activity, he didn’t know who to punish, or how to do it. He demanded audiences, but the Commerce Overhead hadn’t been helpful in shedding light on Blumiere.
Tangerine was a smart businessman. He knew exacting revenge without a specific method of doing so wasn’t profitable. So he just let it slide. He didn’t care as much about it as it might have seemed.
~~~
“Bullshit?” Aranea said, furrowing her brow.
O’Neill looked down, shrouding his expression. “Yes. Do you honestly think any war won’t have consequences?”
“The point of a war is to have consequences that will bring about change. Surely y-”
“There are living, breathing beings in Peixe. If you attack with your full force some of them are going to die.”
“I’m certain the Life players can handle that. Feferi god-tiers are known for their power over life – admittedly, this Feferi wouldn’t know that. But I’m not judging.”
“You are, aren’t you?”
Aranea took in a deep breath. “Perhaps I am, but you did show up outside my tower. Made me think the Fuchsias had found us. Perhaps I’m a little ticked at that.”
“Well, we found you by complete chance. Think that might mean something…?”
Aranea gave O’Neill her full attention, all hint of a smile gone. “…What do you mean?”
“I mean, what were the chances we run into Spades’ little planet and then get shot here? Finding one might just happen by chance – million to one – but finding two? Ka led us here, Aranea.”
“What am I supposed to take from that?”
“You read a lot of books, don’t you? I can hear it in the way you talk. Long winded explanations, a desire to get others to understand you. Frankly, I think it’s overrated, but to each their own.”
“What does th-”
“Think about all the stories you’ve read. What role would we be playing?”
Araneas confidence fell. “…The heroes. Brought together by chance and thrown into a situation they were not prepared for… They must struggle against impossible odds to achieve victory…”
“Ding ding!” O’Neill said. “We have a winner! And that makes you the… Wait for it… Waiiit for it…”
“…Antagonist,” Aranea said. Then she shook her head. “But the antagonist sometimes wins, or sometimes the protagonist is mistaken in what their journey really is! You might end up joining our cause!”
“Before you go storm the castle? Doubtful,” O’Neill smirked. “And do you really have a plan on how you’re going to depose Meenah?”
“Overwhelming force and a lot of luck,” Aranea said.
“And then the Merodi Military will come charging in and put her back in power,” O’Neill said. “Do you think you can hold them off?”
“W-with words, certainly. I can prove myself reasonable, a-”
“Really!? Because I’m the Overhead of Military and you seem completely full of crap to me!”
Aranea paled, looking around nervously. “Uh…”
“You’re just an insurrectionist. I can stomp you out easily. In here, you ghosts are so powerful, invincible, without death! But just a simple trip to another universe and you all fall apart! Any reality-based weapon makes quick work of you. Your rebellion could be quelled in an instant.”
“We’ve… We’ve got you as a hostage!” Aranea blurted. “They’d have to listen to us!”
“Do you think Yellow Diamond is one to get sentimental?” O’Neill laughed. “My Second would be elated to discover I kicked the bucket. Quite the promotion there.”
Aranea began to look around panicked. “We can’t do this… We can’t do this…”
A Vriska stepped into the light and punched Aranea across the face. “You fucking idiot. He’s stealing your Hope!”
“…Dammit,” O’Neill muttered.
“That… That is right… He is the Thief of Hope… God-tier or no he should still have abilities…” She took that information and tried to heal herself with it.
She gulped. “He’s still right though. H-”
Vriska punched her again. “Are you going to check out just like all the others!? The moment we get success or get close we just go ‘oops, sorry, not worth it!’ I thought you were better than that!”
“There’s a time to be cautious, Vriska, a-”
“Fuck that,” Vriska said, kicking Aranea in the stomach and cracking her knuckles. “We can take them. Screw all this bullshit. We’ve got an army of ghosts here, and we’ve got the element of surprise. With the luck me and my sisters have been gathering over the last few weeks, we’ll surely be able to beat these stupid odds.”
O’Neill started running through plans – but he realized the three of them currently had abysmal luck, which pretty much assured that any half-baked plan he came up with would fail. For all he knew the reason the Vriskas noticed he was stealing Hope was because his luck was so low.
…Wait a second. If his abilities worked like Vriska’s did, then he had a significant amount of Hope within him right now. The power of belief, purity, and holding out for the impossible. He was sure he could win here. He just needed to figure out how.
He was going to have to rely on a chance. He had no idea if the chance was determined by luck or belief here, but he was sure going to try.
So he leaned back and jumped onto Spades, screaming bloody murder.
He wished Jotaro was there to provide “NANI!?” commentary on this moment. There was no way anybody knew what he was doing. He wasn’t even entirely sure himself.
“What the hell!?” Spades shouted. Being tied up, he wasn’t able to fight O’Neill effectively – but O’Neill wasn’t exactly getting any hits in either.
What they were doing was being very distracting.
The Vriska and Aranea stared at them, bewildered expressions on their faces.
O’Neill believed that Feferi knew what to do.
And she did. One didn’t have to be lucky to use their inventory, after all. It was as simple as willing for the stored item to be in your hand…
Well, actually, it wasn’t. The concept of Sburb inventories was a mess, and no two players’ were exactly the same. Luckily the inner workings generally weren’t obvious since players knew how to use them. Vriskas kept objects inside of eight balls tucked away who-knows-where in their robes. Aradias had to access spiritual energies to produce their items. John had to deal with a hybrid computer logic system.
Feferi’s was something about cuttlefish tentacles that could become quite a tangle, but luckily she always kept a few items on top for easy access. She still had everything in it. With everyone distracted, she could make use of it…
She summoned the dimensional device into her tied-up hand. She was able to set it to one of the preset conditions – Equis Vitis – and dialed.
Unfortunately she was still unlucky. So instead of dialing anything normal, she dialed the middle of deep space.
O’Neill discovered that Skaia’s Dream did accept the myth of explosive decompression.
O’Neill, Spades, Feferi, Aranea, several Vriskas, and a few other ghosts were torn out of the interior of the alien structure and into deep space of Equis Vitis.
Aranea and Feferi had reality anchor bracelets – most the other ghosts did not. They started to fade the moment they entered the other universe. Aranea used her powers as a Sylph to keep their bodies together for a while longer – but it wouldn’t work forever.
“SPADES!” O’Neill yelled – the sound wouldn’t carry, but Spades saw his mouth move. “GET EVERYONE BACK IN!”
Spades, being a robot, had built-in rockets. Even tied up, he could still use them to travel through space. He figured it was probably in his best interests to save everyone from the cold, harsh realities of space. “Link hands!”
“I’m not go-” a Vriska began.
“I SAID LINK HANDS, BITCH!”
The Vriskas linked hands with the other ghosts. Spades grabbed O’Neill and Feferi, pulling the rest through the portal the hard way.
When they were back, Feferi allowed the portal to close.
“That… was too close…” Aranea said. “We…”
“Shut up, we lived,” a Vriska muttered. “Now, Feferi, since we apparently forgot earlier, please empty your Sylladex.”
“Um… no?” Feferi said, smiling innocently.
“I can tear that reality bracelet right off your skinny arm and toss you to the devouring emptiness of space! How would you like that!?”
“Yeah, you’re not going to have time.”
“Why the fuck not?”
Feferi held up her cell phone. “Because I just sent out a distress signal. Specifically the one that asks for military backup.”
A wormhole opened in the sky above them, brightening the blank interior of the tower for the first time. They could see the skies over Peixe through the portal.
They could also see a full contingent of Merodi troops and Meenah.
Meenah jumped down, Vrisko behind her. “ALL RIGHT WHO WANTS STABBING?! I’M READY FOR STABBING!”
The Merodi troops dropped down as well. O’Neill noticed Minna was one of the forward lieutenants. He shot her a wink – and she winked back. She was doing really well in there, working alongside great people.
Aranea put her hands up. “I surrender!”
“FUCK THAT!” a Vriska shouted, rolling her dice and getting all 8s. “We’re not going to let you rule us with your thick, pink blood anymore you fishfaces!”
Meenah pointed a dimensional device at her. “Ya wanna get dusted? ‘Cus I can totally do that for ya. Just ‘poof’, gone.”
The Vriska ground her teeth. “Fuck you…” She pulled out her own dimensional device.
Vrisko pulled out a gun and shot it out of her counterpart’s grasp. “You used a lot of luck in that transformation there. Might want to watch yourself.”
Another Vriska pulled out a dimensional device – but Minna had already fired a bullet to destroy that one. And one that was being pulled out right behind it. “F-freak!”
“The old enemy, enemy again…” another Vriska muttered, glaring at Minna. “I’m going to make y-”
Meenah stabbed that Vriska in the head. “Lay off will ya? I’m all for goin’ a few rounds, but I’d rather not have to deal with all the paperwork later, get me? So let’s make this easy on both of us and shove off. Mhm?”
The Vriska carefully removed the trident from her head, glaring. “…I get you.”
“Good! Glad we had this talk.” She cleared her throat, looking at the army around her. “So, I take it this is some kind of uprisin’ or somefin’?”
Aranea fell to her knees. “I’m sorry it was a mistake and we were foolish t-”
“Woah, Aranea, what eel got hold of you?”
“O’Neill stole her Hope,” Spades commented. “Her level of self-consciousness is painful.”
“Ah, I see. …Can’t say I’m surprised Aranea was runnin’ an uprisin’.” She extended a hand and pulled Aranea to her feet. “When are you gonna learn? The Peixes always wins, girl.”
“I just… I… What?”
“Yeah yeah.” She shoved Aranea to Vrisko. “Get her back to Peixe, have glowing beacon boy give her the stuff back. I’ll talk to her after that, figure out what the deal was.”
O’Neill raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going to arrest her?”
“Talk to Maryam if you wanna learn about understandin’ troll weirdness. I’m sure as shell not explainin’ it.” She looked to Feferi. “Hey, nice to sea ya.”
“You came yourself!” Feferi ran and pulled Meenah into a hug.
“Ugh… That wasn’t a hug invitation, flounder!”
“Shut up.”
Meenah grunted. “Vrisko, help?”
“Oh, sorry, I’m busy attending to hopeless McSpider. I’ll have to get back to you.”
“Vrisko!”
Vrisko jumped out through the portal, dragging Aranea with her.
O’Neill smirked. “Well, good job team, we stopped an uprising.”
“We aren’t your team,” Spades grumbled.
“The uprising really wouldn’t have worked anyway,” Fef pointed out. “You were right.”
“Gee, way to make me feel bad while still technically complimenting me,” O’Neill deadpanned.
Feferi grinned. “Don’t mention it!”
“You have a cruel streak hidden in there, don’t you?”
Feferi’s eyes locked with O’Neill’s. “Don’t. Mention. It.”
O’Neill took a step back, concerned.
Meenah laughed. “Classic Feferi. C’mon minnows, I think I need to get you a reward or somefin’.”
Spades grunted. “Fine. I can stay for a reward.”
The reward turned out to be a fake feast made out of ghost food.
It was…
…Interesting-tasting.
~~~
Odanas, the great plant that grew across several worlds in a sort of hive-mind, shaping them for the better, was currently working with the Diamond Authority.
It was a momentous enough occasion that White Diamond left Homeworld – not Gem Vein, just her home planet. They went to a nearby world that Odanas had been transforming for them over the last few years. To that section of Odanas, it had felt like thousands of years due to a time dilation field, but the Diamonds had wanted the process sped up.
What had been a lifeless rock not too long ago was now completely green, glowing with Odanas’ verdant light.
White, Yellow, and Blue Diamond sat on the bridge of White Diamond’s ship, looking at the planet below. Steven Universe had not been invited by White’s request. This project had been conceived before they knew he existed, so he wasn’t going to be here. Blue and Yellow did not try to fight it for very long.
“Kindergarten installation has been completed,” Yellow Diamond said, receiving a report from the planet. “They’ve already made the compression matrix in the world’s core.”
“How much longer until it’s complete?”
“A couple minutes for us,” Yellow Diamond said, standing up. “They will disable the time dilation field the moment they are done.”
White Diamond said nothing – but kept a serene smile on her glowing face. She watched the planet as the vastly improved Kindergarten set to work.
In order to create Gems, biological life had to be absorbed. Odanas had gladly offered herself to be used for this special occasion, her only issue being the strange things the time dilation did to her overall hive mind. But she had pulled through, and was ready to cut off this branch to create new Gem life. Usually, as life was absorbed, Gems would come out of the planet one at a time until millions of Gems had emerged.
This world was different. Only one Gem was being made.
In the time dilation field, the planet was green one moment, then completely dead and brown the next. In reality this process took several months to complete – the advantages of temporal technology. In the core of the world, the most advanced Gem birthing center ever created burst with life. The core of the world shattered, exploding the planet. Eventually the loose bits of crust and mantle would drift back together and form a new world – but at the moment, it was a loose cloud of dust.
The time dilation ended. A quick teleportation spell summoned the newly created Gem into White Diamond’s ship.
She was a brilliant, deep red – almost blood red. The Gem sparked with powers of magic beyond standard Gem kind, borrowed from worlds like Equis and Skaia’s Dream, giving the living crystal before them a truly multiversal nature.
The Gem was cut in a Diamond shape.
The Red Diamond activated, generating for herself a fully humanoid body – slightly taller than Blue and Yellow, but thinner in form. The gemstone took its position on her back as a simple coat of sparkling energy formed around her. The tips of her fingers sparkled with magical energy, and her eyes held within them countless stars.
White Diamond looked down on her with a smile. “Hello, Red. Welcome to the Gem Vein.”
Red looked up at White Diamond and blinked, wordless.
“You’re a very special individual, Red. Very special indeed… You represent a new era…”
~~~
Corona continued to work the Shaping Mechanism.
Four years in. She had taken breaks from time to time, gone on a few adventures with her friends, but for the most part she stuck herself within the Shaping Mechanism, becoming an absolute expert on how it worked and what it did. She continued tearing the Congeries apart, returning everything she could to its rightful place in the cosmos. She had made serious progress, but the centuries of Skarn’s shaping wouldn’t be undone overnight. It was a long project she had in front of her.
Good thing she literally had eternity to do it.
She flicked fingers across her many magical circles – having opted to use an interface created by Raging Sights rather than just going along with the touch-and-act interface provided by the Mechanism itself. She floated in the middle of the Shaping Mechanism control room, her red magic on every surface.
She scrolled her fingers across a particular universe – and froze.
She had seen many horrible things that Skarn had created. Many, many, horrors built on the torment of human minds and souls. Add Arthon’s decidedly more disturbing and sadistic creations to the list, and she had seen enough to drive most people mad.
What she had just found was nothing like that. It wasn’t even as bad as some of them, visually speaking. But it appeared to be pure evil.
What got her was that Skarn hadn’t shaped it.
As far as the Shaping Mechanism told her, this universe in the Congeries was almost completely untouched. It was a universe that brought as many souls to it as it could. It didn’t matter if they were good, evil, holy, or impure; every soul it could find, it grabbed hold of. It stripped them of any connection to their bodies or sensation. Then it took their raw souls and pumped as much pure pain into them as it possibly could. Because the body was gone, there were no biological limitations to keep the pain at bay – no passing out, no nerve damage, nothing. The pain would continue at maximum for eternity, and the pure souls could never get used to it.
They existed alone in eternal bubbles of pain. There was no respite.
Corona gave them respite – destroying the universe without so much as a second thought. There would be no saving those minds from what they’d experienced. It was a universe designed as a Hell, clearly, except there wasn’t any sort of criteria for being sent somewhere else.
It had taken everyone.
“Why?” Corona asked herself. “Why does this exist!? Who would write that!?”
No answer was forthcoming, just like always when she dealt with these sorts of horrors. Every time she had to destroy a world she just sat in the Shaping Mechanism’s room, haunted by the existence of such things.
She had no idea how it was constructed. Did it just exist because a Prophet said it did? Did one of the ancient Universe Generators churn it out with random settings? Did some society make it by accident? Was it custom-built? Could it be considered natural?
Questions that would never be answered.
Just more to add to the pile of things that tore at the back of Corona’s mind.
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All kinds of unpleasantry brewing in the background. And one of the more multiversally attuned Cutie Maps has gone permanently offline. I can only hope that people check in on everyone involved. Especially Corona. This way lies madness.
Mmm, does the tree is death? Or just dormat? , waiting for a new loyalty? Which I find very hard to happen, the new loyalty will have to form an umbrakabke friendship connection with the girls, only with years of an adventure through the multiverse with the girls and the new loyalty will make that happen, but seeing their responsabilities, I doubt it.
9722440
True, but at some point the differing point of view is simply erroneous. Sometimes, when that happens, I simply have a need to explain the error.
None of that hurts her believability as a character, just her wisdom.
9722373
seems to be gone the way of them dodos...
considering the elements are mostly sets, haven't seen someone as loyal as R. D. Dash interact with the mane 5, and said Mane 5 are classically Immorals with a T...
9722373
Yeah wasn't something terrible supposed to happen when the tree died? Related to how in Equis Cosmos every race except ponies died off because of it? Despite the fact that the tree is younger than Luna and Celestia? And that it's highly likely the other races of Equus all existed before the tree did as well?
9724862
Trees of Harmony across the multiverse are notorious for having "multiple choice backstory".
Equis Cosmic's tree was a literal manifestation of life on Equis and is no doubt from a world where the Pillars weren't a thing.
Equis Vitis's tree was just a partial descended Star, so the same thing wouldn't happen. And it's not... quite dead, but it's definitely broken.
-GM, master of clams.
9724869
Any ideas for if in the series finale the tree chooses the student six as new bearers? Cause I've seen a lot of theories of that going around
9724873
For decades the tree hasn't chosen new bearers for, why would it now?
9724873
With chapter 100 I established, for certain, that Equis Vitis diverted from canon pre Season 9, so while the student six exist and Cozy had her little stunt, that particular aspect of the Tree doesn't necessarily have to be dealt with. It won't' affect SotS.
Now if I answered that question as though I were STILL trying to adhere to canon (I managed to survive season seven and eight, but some stuff the Tree did/does later were just too deviated from what the opener of 9 had to reconcile) I would say... Well, I dunno. I'd might've been able to swing something along the lines of 'the previous elements still contain some of the essence' or something, but I'm not sure.
I managed to retcon a school and the pillars into existence through careful editing. ...Could not add the Trees destruction.
But those words that follow S9 to a T are elsewhere in the Equis cluster...
And the fun part? The ponies of SotS have already encountered those worlds and watched all of S9. They know what we do not.
-GM, master of elementus.
What Corona did at the end of this chapter may not have been a good thing to do. We have no idea what that universe's main protest was for in the first place. It could have something trap there that could serve the destruction of it for all we know.
This is not good at all.
Blumire
9722437
>this character is wrong in their personal beliefs
>I say this using my own deeply personal religious beliefs as a basis for it
Not gonna argue religion or anything but its really weird and kinda creepy that you called her foolish for... nlt being christian, effectively.
Anyways Aradia isn't entirely wrong, theres a reason some people try to prevent their loved ones from seeing them at their weakest before dying of cancer/aids/other, so their memory isn't corrupted by the illness. Mist people are never able to fully seperate their memories of dead friends, family, and loved ones from their thoughts about how they died- in that sense, its the thing that lasts longest, because as long as you remember them, you'll remember that.
9725989
What? What?! are you trying to say that destroying a literal universe of pointless eternal hypertorture that was literally stated to draw everyone in range to it regardless of who they were was a wrong decission on the off chance that it could have something bad trapped in it?!
so, what, it should be left there to cause even more suffering? should everyone already there be codemned to literally the worst fate imaginable because of some shaky assertion that it could have a reason to exist?
no reason is good enough to excuse this... thing, i have never felt so disgusted at someone before as i am just now, trying to justify a literal hell dimension and the suffering it causes... no, just no
Mostly lighthearted chapter, though with some arguably dark undertones. Time marches on, and change is both good and bad.
And the O'Neill snark is as strong as ever.
She's lucky that O'Neill is the type who is more likely to shrug and brush it off in humor anyways.
Yaaay, Minna made it into the Merodi millitary!
Gol' durned' hyper-capitalistic orange floofballs...
Well-played, Blumiere.
I don't know how those floofballs found out about the books so that's a bit worrying.
I can only imagine what this means...
Questions to keep you awake at night.
Also, uh...yikes.