• Published 29th Oct 2017
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Songs of the Spheres - GMBlackjack

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124 - Nihilists

Greetings, Evening Sparkle of Merodi Universalis.

This communication has been sent by us, the Flowers that Be, Protectors of the Plot Continuum, to inform you of a development so troubling we have determined it to be a glitch in ka, perhaps the largest one ever uncovered.

This war was always meant to be between two sides – the preservation and collapse movements. However, to our understandable horror, a third side has developed. This third side is not the side of us or the Melnorme, who have chosen to be noncombatants, but that of a different ideology altogether.

That of the Nihilist.

The Many-Angled Ones have gathered together several lesser forces into them to further this end. They claim neutrality, but their intentions are much more sinister. They have become the enemy of all when they took the side of the Nihilists – that of complete destruction.

They have figured out a method by which to use a Tower Ring to completely destroy everything in existence. If they accomplish what they’ve set out to do, there will be no existence after the war. There will be only the Sea of Infinite Possibility.

This needs to be stopped. And we are giving you the secret to stopping them.

Do not send a large army, or a fleet of ships. Send a small ship containing heroes. You will choose the best suited for the job. Have them enter the Unrealities from the eastern side of the multiverse, and make their way to universe U-T4U_-∂¨8Rn:;∆. They will enter the Many-Angled Ones’ central mechanism and destroy the Tower Ring, ending the Nihilists plan.

This glitch needs you to stop it. If we made the attempt, the consequences would be dire.

Do not reply to this message.

-Austras Koks.

The Flowers sent a nearly-identical message to Corona. The only difference was the greeting, and the order to enter from the west.

The Flowers knew how to play the game well.

~~~

Corona looked at the message. “…What I want to know is why the consequences would be dire if they tried.”

“They know ka better than any of us,” I said. “And I know for sure they aren’t partial to either side of the conflict we know about, so I’m tempted to believe them.”

“Well, guess I can send Pinkie’s with a few others…” She looked up from the message. “Anyone have any suggestions in particular?”

“I’ll go,” Mage Rarity said.

“Really?” Lady Rarity asked, blinking.

“Empress Twilight has other advisors, you know,” Mage Rarity said with a smile. “I just think it’s about time I went out with Mite and Vriska.”

“You asking me to come?” I asked.

“In actuality… yes. A chance to take out evil, just like old times hmm?”

I smiled. “I’d be glad to.”

“What about our meta-awareness?” Corona asked.

A Pinkie poked her head into the room. “Someone called?”

“Right, right…” Corona nodded. “Come back soon.”

Scarcity gawked. “You’re just letting her go?”

“Want me to find a reason to send you?”

Scarcity twitched, once again annoyed that Corona was able to pressure her.

Thanos raised his hand. “I can send a Collection team.”

“Pinkie’s, Twilence’s, and the Collection’s…” Corona said, thinking it over. “I think that’s enough. Anything else?”

“I’ll get them a ship,” Minna said, pressing buttons on her data pad. “A single ship won’t do anything to lessen our assault on the TSAB labyrinth.”

The phrase ‘TSAB labyrinth’ made Corona twitch. They’d already been hammering at that thing for three local days to no avail. “Mage Rarity, since you’re going, you manage everything. The rest of us are going to try to come up with some way to penetrate this stupid labyrinth…”

Mage Rarity nodded, trotting off to gather everyone.

~~~

“I don’t think I need to say why these Nihilists have to be stopped,” Eve said, placing a data pad on the table for dramatic effect, though her Element of Magic drew significantly more attention than the pad. “Absolute destruction without hope of revival is evil. Absolutely.”

“And the enemy isn’t already?” Allure asked, scrunching her nose.

“Discussion for another time, Allure,” Flutterfree cautioned.

Allure went silent but did nothing to fix the disgusted look on her face.

Eve continued. “This is why I’ve called you here – I’m gathering the heroes the Flowers have requested. Allure, Storm? You are to lead your two teams into the core of the Nihilists.”

“With no plan?” Storm asked.

“The Flowers have a plan,” Monika said. “Not that they’re telling us what it is.”

“So just throw ourselves to the winds of ka?”

“Pretty much,” Eve admitted. “But we trust the Flowers know what’s best. They’ve adhered to their principles more than any other civilization. We may not agree with them all the time, but they’d know what needs to be done to destroy the Nihilists.”

Storm and Allure nodded.

“I’m sending Starbeat with you for ka-support. Can you think of anyone else you’d like?”

“The Living Tribunal?” Storm asked with a smirk.

“Stuck in the TSAB labyrinth,” Eve said.

“The Emperor of Mankind?”

“Same.”

“Then I’ve got nothing.”

Allure nodded as well.

“In that case, I-”

Renee charged into the room. “I’d like to go!” Her glasses were precariously balanced on her muzzle, her hat was lopsided, and the string she had the Element of Laughter on was knotted sideways.

“Renee…?”

Renee evidentially noticed that she didn’t look presentable and cleaned herself up. “It has come to my attention that I’m not really… doing anything. When you forwarded the message to me, I knew instantly that this would be a foe I would be able to face. …I’ll even bring some of my agents.”

“Renee, you sure? You seem… A little off.”

Renee smiled sadly. “Of course I’m a little off. We all are. I am sure, dear.”

Eve smiled warmly. “Well… I wish you luck, then.”

Allure smiled. “…It’ll be good to have you on board.”

Renee nodded, clearly still frantic. “I’ll grab Jane and Sunny... they work great as a pair. And… Oh, Twiree, she’ll work great.”

“Your ship will be ready in an hour,” Eve said. “Good luck. And since this is more like our old battles, try to have fun, hmm?”

Storm chuckled. “That won’t be an issue, Eve.”

“I expect a fun report the likes of which Pinkie Pie would make!”

“Guess I know what Bot is doing,” Allure chuckled. “C’mon everyone – Merodi Universalis Anti-Nihilist Task-Force yay!”

Everyone stared at her.

“…I’ve been trying to be more positive lately, okay? It’s been rough.”

Renee hugged her sister. “Don’t I know it.”

~~~

Deep within Unrealities and the realm of the Many-Angled Ones, there was IT.

IT was many things.

IT was a demonic clown that fed off fear.

IT was a horrendous spidery mesh of evil intent.

IT was a demonic entity of before the time of the Tower.

IT was a brain that exerted absolute control over all near minds.

The concept of IT had been through many mutations through the history of the multiverse. IT was an ever-changing idea of evil, of darkness. Unlike Randall Flagg, IT was never consistent. IT had no time for the grand schemes Flagg undertook. IT sometimes even contradicted other versions of itself.

IT, in all its forms, cared little for complex things.

But something had changed recently. This particular version of IT suddenly cared. IT became the emissary of destruction.

And IT had chosen the form of the bodiless, pulsating brain. IT sat upon a black, cylindrical pedestal, absorbing as much information as it could about everything.

The Flowers have made their move. IT said, telepathically messaging all its allies. Corona and Eve are both sending heroes after us. IT scanned the minds nearby, determining what their response would have been. The Many-Angled Ones offer us protection, yes, but they cannot enter the realm of the Tower Ring, as it is antithetical to their nature. I assure you, the Flowers have a plan to disable those defenses. Evidence of ka-meddling has appeared within the Eldritch Embodiment, a likely source of difficulty.

The Allies expressed dismissal at the Embodiment doing anything.

Do not be so hasty. If Azathoth wakes, then all will bow. If the Flowers found it convenient, it would not be difficult to do so. It appears as if their plan will be to disable our highest defenses, and use the power of ‘heroes’ to destroy our hopes. By sending both sides after us our credibility within ka is severely weakened.

The Allies wondered how they could counteract that weakness.

We can manipulate truth. You all know how we got here. A lie about a lie. The Completion of the Sea of Infinite Possibility is coming. A group of heroes is a serious threat, yes, but if this is the Flowers best game, then this group of heroes is the worst we will have to overcome. So be ready, for they will be here. And we must kill them.

The Allies expressed agreement and moved to their posts.

IT pulsated, focusing its attention to a man chained up nearby. And you will counter them.

Andrew Hussie let out a dramatic groan.

~~~

Despite being based within the Great Void, traveling from the Raven Hotel to the Unrealities still took about a week with the ships available. TSAB speeders could go faster, but not only did they not have access to any speeders, such ships were in short supply even in TSAB space these days. No chance to steal one.

Not to mention the fact that speeders weren’t prepared to deal with alien physics on the level of the Unrealities.

So Corona sent out the team in a slow, but steady ship of Gem construction. It had no name, just a serial number nobody could remember. Its overall shape was that of a black eyeball, always looking forward. The interior was so white the screens had to display in black to be effectively seen.

They had already been traveling for near the expected week. Everyone was currently awake, ready to engage the Many-Angled Ones at any moment.

As they passed from universe to universe, they encountered nothing.

“Why isn’t anything attacking us?” Morty wondered aloud. “We’re in the middle of their territory! There’s no way they don’t detect us!”

The two Collection heroes he had brought with him – a Superman and a Darth Vader – shrugged, not able to provide him with any insight.

“Oh, like, maybe they’ve got some sort of special plan!” Insipid suggested, raising a hoof high into the air. She nudged Velvet with it after no one responded to her. “Back me up, cha?”

Velvet grunted, refusing to give in to Insipid’s little games.

“Oh come on Velvet! You’ve been grumpy all week!”

“She’s always grumpy,” Mage Rarity said with a slight eyeroll.

“Deviation,” Mite beeped.

“…It’s so hard to tell what he means,” Pidge said, poking her face where she heard Mite’s voice come from – even though she couldn’t see him. “Was he talking about the Standard Deviation or Velvet’s deviation from societal norms?”

“Yes.”

Pidge pointed an accusatory finger at Mite’s location. “No mathematician answers here, floppy.”

“Paradox.”

“Just leave him be,” I said, pulling Pidge’s arm down. “He’ll feed off your annoyed emotions until the end of time. It’s how he gets around.”

“Spoilsport.”

I chuckled. “And you know I have to keep watch on you for good reason.”

“You can say that again,” Vriska muttered.

“Don’t,” Mage Rarity said, a haunted expression crossing her face. “We don’t need a repeat of that fiasco.”

“Again,” Mite droned.

I rolled my eyes. “Ah, just like old times.”

“Except we’re here too!” Pinkie said, appearing between myself and Mage Rarity. “Extending the friendship train!”

Choo choo!” I called, engaging in the amusement – so rare these days.

“Hey, Twilence?” Nova asked. “I’ve noticed, you aren’t writing in your notebook anymore.”

“It’s a precaution,” I explained. “The Flowers likely have their own narrative spinning involved here, and mine would only mess with it. I’ve chosen to trust their plan rather than my own.”

“Cool,” Pinkie said, smirking. “It is pretty sweet having the big plants backing us up! It’s like… a holy charge!”

“Yare yare daze…”

“What? It is!”

“I’m tempted to agree with Pinkie,” Morty said, narrowing his eyes. “What’s happening is nothing short of a miracle. We’re maybe a handful of universes away from the goal, and I haven’t even detected a Many-Angled One. That’s outrageously suspicious.”

“Could be the Flowers,” Mage Rarity pointed out. “For all we know the Many-Angled Ones are on a journey of self-discovery and left the universe unguarded.”

“There’s no way…” Morty muttered, scratching his chin. “None at all…”

“There’s a way,” I asserted. “I can see a few stories I could write to make our entrance easier, so of course the Flowers would have a better one.”

The ship shifted universes again, finding a direct connection to the target world sooner than expected. The ship diverted power instantly and jumped in – finally revealing what universe U-T4U_-∂¨8Rn:;∆ was.

Colors and shapes. An endless sea of geometric three-dimensional figures tumbling through space. Each shape – be it prism, sphere, or dodecahedron – was able to pass through all other shapes as if they were all ghosts. One would think this meant they had no substance, but the tiny one that hit the ship indicated they were solid to anything that wasn’t them.

Light seemed to come from all directions, comfortably illuminating every colorful shape without a hint of shadows. This caused more than a few illusions of depth, making it difficult to determine how large certain objects really were.

However, it was strictly a three-dimensional space. Which meant the ship – and all its occupants – could exist in this universe without reality anchors. There was even breathable air outside.

“Question,” Nova said, checking the readings on her hoof-screen. “Why would the Many-Angled Ones have a universe suitable for us?”

“Zoo?” Morty suggested.

“Okay, let me rephrase that. Why would they build their Tower Ring in a universe like this?”

I shrugged. “Perhaps there is a reason we could not imagine. Maybe this kind of world does have a place in their ideal of Perfect Geometry. They are eldritch beings, it’s not like we can truly understand what drives them.”

Pinkie’s ears twitched. “Well, is the Tower Ring here or not?”

“It’s here,” Nova said, pointing at one of the displays. “We’re picking up dimensional energy of the right sort. Just follow the signal.”

Pinkie dusted her hooves together. “Onward, Morty! Take the ship in!”

Morty nodded, pressing a few buttons. “Do I need to say it?”

“I’ll say it,” Vriska said, clearing her throat. “I’ve got a bad feelin’ ‘bout this.”

“Hyuck,” Mite added.

Vriska shot Mite a death glare. She was experienced enough to know where he actually was.

“Well, whatever happens we’ll be fine so long as we all stick together!” Pidge said, smiling.

“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro said, grabbing his hat. “Brace yourselves.”

Pinkie clapped her hooves. “You’re getting better Jotaro!”

“…Better at what?” Pidge asked, blinking.

“Detecting when Murphy’s Law is about to take effect!”

“I never did und-”

“Many-Angled One detected!” Morty shouted, frantically moving his hands across the console. “Wait, something’s wrong… It’s not actually h-”

The Many-Angled One didn’t give him a chance to fire any relativistic weapons. The mixture of impossible shadow, fractal geometry, and pulsating eyes touched their ship – and sliced it in half with a two-dimensional octagon, cutting the main reactor in two.

There was a fiery explosion.

The Many-Angled One didn’t believe for a moment it had killed any of them, but it soon had other things to worry about.

~~~

Renee adjusted her glasses. Originally she had expected she would be the leader of the expedition, given her rank within Merodi Universalis, but it had quickly become clear she was second to Starbeat.

Renee didn’t fight this – she was all for seeking an organic composition in the team – but still, it was unexpected, and it put her on edge. She hadn’t been calm in… a long time. She had thought getting ‘on the road’ would let her work out some of her stress, but that wasn’t really working. Allure was here, and hardly an hour went by without a painful reminder of Allure’s opinion of the other side.

Allure always called them ‘the enemy’, refusing to do what most everyone else did. Bot had even joined her in the effort, though notably Thrackerzod and Burgerbelle were not. Renee knew Squeaky and Suzie weren’t as well, but they weren’t here right now – they were occupied with the TSAB labyrinth.

“Okay, so, let’s say the war leads to our destruction…” Allure said, waving a hoof in the air. “How wou-”

“Can you drop it?” Jane the Evermore asked, looking up at Allure with a grumpy expression. “We’re not in the war right now, we’re on a mission to stop the Nihilists. Different thing.”

“It’s still important,” Allure pointed out. “After we’re done here we’re going right back to it.”

“And you’ve already done enough talking to ensure that none of us will forget.”

Allure pursed her lips. “…Alright, I’ll cool it. We’re almost there anyway. Right?”

“Three furlongs from completion!” Alushy shouted from the pilot’s seat.

“Question,” Twireee said, looking up from her book for the first time in several hours, her Flat voice startling everyone present. “Why is Alushy flying the ship?”

“She’s not,” ‘Beryl’ said, rubbing her glasses like they didn’t belong on her face. “Jenny’s flying from a distance with her Numenera interface.”

Jenny looked up at ‘Beryl’. “Traitor.”

‘Beryl’ shrugged, saying nothing.

“Have any twos?” Storm asked.

“For the love of Azathoth the game ended five hours ago!” Thrackerzod shouted.

“I’ll take that as a no. I’ll Go Fish.”

‘Beryl’ glared at him.

“I’m missing context,” Bot said. “Burgerbelle, explain.”

The Flat cleared her throat. “It’s quite simple really – it’s akin to a bradburger matrix with a sprinkling of toblerone a-”

“Objection!” Twiree blurted, standing up tall. Pointing at her Flat counterpart, she glared. “I think you will find that the matrix is not of the Bradburger, but of deceptive gemstone names! Arrange them within the colors of the rainbow, and taste.”

“Hold it!” Burgerbelle shot back. “It may not be bradburger, but the rainbow colors cannot be tasted! You didn’t listen!”

“I didn’t listen!?”

“You didn’t listen!”

“Well welcome me to Yggdrasil, you’ve gotten quite wordy.” She shoved several US dollar bills into Burgerbelle’s face. “Shut up and take my money.”

“Um… how ‘bout no?”

“Cut. It. Out!” Starbeat blurted, placing herself between the two of them. ”We do not need a meme war to blow up the ship!”

“How about I do, anyway?” Burgerbelle sung.

Twiree waved a hand dismissively. “I can become a ship at the drop of a hat. We’ve got a spare.”

“I’m a button,” Burgerbelle added.

“I said stop it,” Starbeat said, eye twitching.

Burgerbelle shrugged, sat back in her seat and produced a hamburger from her hair. She started eating it.

Bot blinked. “When did you learn how to do that?

“While ago,” Burgerbelle said, finishing her meal. “Pinkie showed me.”

“Don’t ask,” Allure warned.

“…An error has occurred,” Bot declared.

“MEME DETECTED!” Alushy shouted, pointing a gun at Burgerbelle. “THE PRICE OF THE CRIME? DEATH!”

Burgerbelle gave Alushy a ‘seriously?’ look.

“MEME FACE! DOUBLE OFFENSE!”

“I choose not to press charges,” Jenny said.

“Oh, are we going back to Ace Attorney?” Sunny asked.

“NO!” Starbeat, Alushy, and Beryl shouted.

“We’re approaching our destination,” Jenny said. She walked up to the pilot’s seat and tore Alushy out of it, sitting down herself. She brought up a display for everyone to see, showing their TSAB ‘skipper’ ship in its single-universe bubble. Several dozen connections were placed to other worlds in the Unrealities, the ‘goal’ universe being a red dot that wasn’t connected yet, but clearly would be soon. “Those Many-Angled Ones haven’t even noticed. Heh. All this worry for nothing.”

“And three…” Starbeat began.

“No you fucking don’t,” Alushy said, placing her hoof over Starbeat’s mouth. “There will be no comedic countdown today.”

Thrackerzod raised an eyebrow. “…Just because you st-”

At this point the multiverse decided there was no way Starbeat’s countdown could have lasted any longer and threw a reason for them to worry at the ship.

They were torn out of their pocket universe and dropped in an eldritch realm filled with five-dimensional shapes of perfection that had to be represented by rapidly vibrating triangles on the viewscreens. In between these shapes were millions of Many-Angled Ones, all staring right at the ship.

And not moving an inch.

“…What the…?” Jane said, cocking her head. “What are they doing?”

Thrackerzod closed her eyes and sent out an eldritch pulse. She furrowed her brow. “They’re trying to shroud their network from me. All I know is that they wanted to attack – but something made them stop. They’re all… afraid?”

“Fear should mean attack,” Storm said, tapping his fingers on a wall. “Unless they thought an attack was pointless. Do we have anyone here that’s a threat to them?”

Thrackerzod shook her head. “I’m nothing compared to them.”

Renee looked at the Elements around her neck. “…You don’t suppose it’s Laughter and Generosity, do you?”

Starbeat shook her head. “Nope, wouldn’t be enough. Jane, you wouldn’t happen to have any absurd magic artifacts in your ‘inventory’, would you?”

“Of course I do,” Jane said, crossing her legs. “I just don’t have anything that could take on more than one of those monsters out there. My bet is on force-of-nature Burger there.”

Burgerbelle shook her head. “Yeah, that works on small scales, but a bunch of shape-gods could take me out. I’m Flat! That’s easy for them to tear up into their little origami toys!”

“She speaks the truth,” Twiree said matter-of-factly.

“Then what is it?” Beryl asked.

“Me, I’m just that terrifying,” Alushy snarked. “Yeah, you heard right Many-Angled Ones! Alushy, the red death, the crimson fucker, is here. Tremble!”

Jenny broke out into amused laughter.

Alushy twitched. “Alright, miss Red Gloves, what did you do?”

Jenny snapped her fingers, summoning an artifact from her bag of holding. It was a tall staff with a familiar crystal on the end of it.

Siron’s staff.

Starbeat’s jaw dropped. “Where did you get that!?”

“Stole it.”

Renee sputtered. “Y-you stole it? Jenny, that artifact belongs to the Research Division! In one of the highest security bases we have! What? How? Why!?”

“Joking,” Jenny said, shooting Renee the finger guns. “I actually went through the proper paperwork and filled out a requisition form, number A-8-E, the one for emergencies. Handed it in to Eve and got instant approval.” She smirked. “And now we have a Juju whose purpose is to literally absorb eldritch energy into itself. They’re basically candy to us right now.”

“Jenny actually filled out paperwork…” Alushy said, blinking. “Holy shit…”

“So that staff is the only reason we’re not dead,” Starbeat observed.

“Winner winner chicken dinner!” Jenny bowed.

Burgerbelle went ding the same time as Bot. They both produced roasted chickens.

“Yeesh, why does mine have to still be in the oven?” Twiree asked.

Starbeat facehooved. “Right, so, on one hand, good thinking Jenny. On the other, what were you thinking, Jenny?”

“Uh, what?”

“What if that wasn’t part of the Flower’s plan? We weren’t supposed to actually be a threat to the Many-Angled Ones!”

“Was that in their letter?”

“It was… implied,” Starbeat said, tapping her hoof on the ground.

“Tell me how we would have survived without it. What, would the Embodiment come and save us from the shape-demons?”

Thrackerzod let out a short laugh.

“Thank you,” Jenny said, smirking.

Jane shook her head.

“Got something to say?”

“Mmm… Not much, just that the immortal child has quite the arrogant streak.”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She placed her hands on the console and found she could dial the goal universe. “Here we go… Everyone ready?”

“Go ahead,” Starbeat said. “Find that Tower Ring.”

Jenny took them in, entering the realm of shapes from the opposite side.

“Weird…” Twiree said. “My readings suggest the Many-Angled Ones can’t exist in this realm.”

“That makes no sense,” Sunny pointed out. “Why would they build it in a universe they couldn’t even go to?”

Starbeat shrugged. “A lot of things about this don’t make any sense, but there’s a Tower Ring here and no Many-Angled Ones, so i-” Starbeat caught herself.

“Murphy denied!” Alushy whooped.

“I don’t think she stopped early enough,” Jane said, pointing.

In front of them was a single Many-Angled One.

“…They can’t exist here…” Twiree said, confusion crossing her face. “How…?”

“Doesn’t matter, TASTE THE JUJU, EUCLID!” Jenny shouted, pointing Sirons’ staff and activating it.

A small amount of latent eldritch energy from Thrackerzod entered the staff, but nothing from the Many-Angled One. “…What th-”

The Many-Angled One cut their ship in half, triggering an explosion.

Now that it had taken care of both the ships, it could start to pick them o-

Twiree transformed into her full Reaper form and teleported everyone back into her. She let out a deep, guttural noise. “BIG MISTAKE.”

The Many-Angled One was ready to destroy the Flat Reaper the same way, but it had forgotten to take into account one small detail.

Jane.

Jane and her artifacts that could take out one of ‘those monsters’.

The Evermore pulled a pale green lance sparkling with blue energy and threw it. It hit one of the Many-Angled One’s ‘eyes’, making it cry out in pain. It pulled the lance out in a vain attempt to end its suffering.

That was the worst mistake the Many-Angled One had ever made. The lance exploded the moment it was removed, unleashing every sealing spell it could within the confines of the universe. The Many-Angled One’s essence was contained in a white box under a total of nineteen separate successful sealing spells.

The box returned to Jane’s hand. “Just to be clear, I want that lance back when we’re done. We’ll need to think of another way to contain this guy.”

“Something to worry about later,” Starbeat said. “Thrackerzod, what was that?”

Thrackerzod blinked. “I think it was an eldritch deity that chose to descend. To remove its eldritch nature in favor of something simpler. It clearly wasn’t organic or purely physical, but it wasn’t eldritch anymore.”

“PURE FREE ELDRITCH CAN’T EXIST HERE, I WAS RIGHT!”

“Yes, Twiree, you were right. It is curious, very few eldritch beings could even consider to remove their eldritch nature. This Tower Ring must be important.”

“The question remains…” Renee said, scratching her chin. “Why would they not just make the Tower Ring in one of their universes? It should be possible.”

Beryl blinked. “Uh… Because they aren’t building a normal Tower Ring? Isn’t this one designed for destruction?”

Everyone looked at Beryl with blank expressions.

“Right, I get it, stupid ide-”

“That’s the best theory I’ve heard so far,” Starbeat interjected. “Good thinking.”

Beryl’s expression froze.

“Bl- Beryl.exe has stopped working,” Jenny joked.

Starbeat tapped a hoof on the ground. “Right, well, we’re safe from full eldritch power in here. But we need to be on the lookout for more of those ‘lowered’ Many-Angled Ones. Jane, you’re probably our best bet against them.”

Jane cracked her knuckles, a smile appearing on her face. “It’s been a while since I did some good old-fashioned god killing.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have to be that bloodthirsty.”

“Eh,” Jane said with a shrug, not offering anything else in the way of a response.

Twiree activated her sublight engines and moved into the twisting shapes.

~~~

Pinkie poked her head out of a pile of octagons. “Okay, who did I end up with?”

“Your team,” Pidge said. “Minus Vriska, plus… Velvet.”

Velvet rubbed the back of her head but said nothing.

Nova scanned the area with her striped magic. “Hmm… Well, I can tell us which direction the Tower Ring is from our current position.”

“Where?” Jotaro asked.

Nova pointed through the area of the universe that had the largest density of rapidly moving shapes that could crush them.

“Was there ever any doubt?” Pidge said, stretching. “…Hold on, is gravity affixed to this shape we’re on, o-”

Jotaro grabbed a capture device from his pocket and threw it. It fell down, past the yellow soccer ball they stood on, and onto a concave bowl below.

“Good news: we have absolute down,” Pinkie said. “Bad news…”

“We have absolute down,” Pidge muttered.

“I’m trying to plot us a course but the spell doesn’t like it,” Nova commented, focusing intently on her screen.

“Here, let me try,” Pidge said, pulling up some displays on her glasses. “Looks like we just need to reroute some of your matrices here, get the coding to accept your frankly outlandish request, and… done! Plotting a path through the shapes.”

“There’s a ‘20% uncertainty’ on my display, Pidge.”

“Don’t worry about that, you and Jotaro can just mess with time to compensate for that.”

“Depending on our powers isn’t wise,” Jotaro pointed out.

Pidge shrugged. “Got a better idea? I guarantee you that’s where everyone else is headed.”

“Nope!” Pinkie declared. “Onward!” She started bouncing along the shapes with no regard for gravity.

“Pinkie!” Nova shouted. “We aren’t all freaks of nature!”

Pinkie took up an impossible upside-down position on a star shape. “Teleport spamming is the way of nature? Who knew.”

Nova blinked. “Did I…”

“…Forget to teleport?” Pidge asked with a cheeky grin.

Jotaro let out a short chuckle.

Pidge gasped in mock surprise. “Egads! Even Jojo is against you!”

Nova teleported all four of them to Pinkie. She levitated herself – and Velvet – allowing Jotaro and Pidge to fall. Pidge activated her grappling weapon and saved herself. Jotaro punched the ground and landed without a bruise on him.

Nova facehooved. “Jotaro, why do you have to be so much of a badass?”

Jotaro smirked.

It was at this point a dozen humans in brightly colored armor – clearly composed of the shapes around the world – jumped out of their hiding spots and attacked the five of them.

They should have been no match for the Primary Team. But they had an unexpected trick up their sleeves.

They engaged in purposeful sacrifice.

One of them purposefully took a fatal blow from Pinkie, allowing two of his teammates to coordinate perfectly and drive swords into the back of her head. She would have died if her mane hadn’t been a direct portal to a bottomless pit.

She stuffed the two of them in her mane. “Don’t. Mess. With. The floof!

Nova and Velvet were having difficulty. Their four had allowed two to drop down – ready to be captured – while the others went for their blind spots. The sword that hit Velvet bounced off harmlessly, but Nova suffered a severe cut to the back of her neck.

Luckily she had finally learned some healing magic – enough to keep her up and about – but that was going to hurt until she could find a professional. The pain was enough to trigger her Prince of Time powers, prompting her to outright erase the attacker’s timestream. She didn’t really understand what she did to him, and she didn’t really want to know.

The remaining attackers were on Jotaro and Pidge. Pidge was knocked to the ground easily – but Star Platinum was not. One time stop and even a perfectly coordinated group of assassins couldn’t deal with it. A few managed to position themselves so they could stab Jotaro, but being who he was, he just took the pain and kept punching.

Only one was still standing. She had somehow managed to place a knife to Pidge’s neck.

“She dies if any sort of magic or time stop happens,” the assassin said.

Suddenly, the assassin wasn’t holding Pidge, she was holding a cake bomb.

“Buh-bye!” Pinkie said with a wave. She exploded in a shower of cake.

Nova whooped and gave Jotaro a hoofbump.

“…Well, I’m glad we survived that,” Pidge said, rubbing her neck. “But wasn’t that weird? I mean, not even eldritch at all, just people. And they seemed way too unified.”

“I dunno,” Pinkie said. “But we should be on guard. I get the feeling there’s some nasty tricks they’ve got stored up for us…”

~~~

Twiree’s interior shook.

“UH…”

“I don’t like that ‘uh,’ Renee said. “Twiree, you can fly us through this labyrinth of shapes, hmm?”

“SURE! DEFINITELY! ABSOLUTELY!”

There was another shake as the Flat Reaper was pinned between a dodecahedron and a diamond.

“…NOT. IT JUST BENT ME IN HALF! I’VE BEEN VIOLATED!”

Starbeat raised an eyebrow. “Then just return to your normal size, it’ll be easier to move around if w-”

Twiree dropped her Reaper form and suddenly all of them were falling.

“TWIREE!” Starbeat shouted, activating her magic and trying to keep everyone in the air. Renee and Thrackerzod joined in the efforts, successfully keeping anyone from skewering themselves on one of the red pyramids below.

A large green sphere came sailing toward them. Jenny moved to intercept, pulling back her fist and charging it with her internal magic. She unleashed the punch and sent the sphere flying the other direction.

At the instant of her punch, a dozen assassins jumped from the opposite side of the sphere, moving as one toward Twiree.

Renee encased Twiree in a magic shield while Starbeat shot lasers at the incoming assassins. They took some of the hits on purpose, giving some of their members an opportunity.

How are they so good? Renee wondered. Almost like they’re one body…

The one body was still no match for all of them. Together, they lined up between the assassins and Twiree. Despite all of them levitating in the midst of the floating shapes, they still had great control over their motion. They may not have been of one mind, but they were all powerful in their own way. Jane cut a few in half with her legendary weapons, Thrackerzod corrupted a few of them, and Alushy filled one’s head with bullets.

Burgerbelle was even getting in on it. She uppercut one of the assassins, prompting a gold coin to pop out of her head. The Flat grabbed the coin and smirked. “Do you want to touch-a my spaghet?”

The assassin wasn’t one for bizarre humor, so she tried to cut Burgerbelle in half. Burgerbelle turned herself sideways, summoned a plate of spaghetti, and smashed the assassin in the face with it. “It’s not burger, but shut up and enjoy it!”

The assassin passed out.

“That’s it team! Get them!” Twiree shouted, pushing up a fist. “Protect your good fr-”

A lowered Many-Angled One jumped out from behind a cube that had been floating past Twiree’s back. It used its powers over geometry to hit the Flat, cutting her in half.

“TWIREE!” Burgerbelle yelled.

Twiree’s two halves started bouncing haphazardly, speaking the letters “A” and “I” at seemingly random intervals. One half transformed into half a Flat Reaper, the ship shaking with numerous explosions.

Jane charged the Many-Angled One, this time going for the standard flaming legendary sword. It wouldn’t be as quick as the lance, but it would still get the job done.

“ERROR. INTEGRITY BEYOND REPAIR.” The Reaper half tried to shoot some weapons at the Many-Angled One, getting off a few volleys. However, whatever internal ‘structure’ Twiree had within her was unable to deal with this. The equivalent to a primary reactor lit up in brilliant white light and exploded.

“Well fu-” Alushy began, unable to finish due to the shockwave sending her – and everyone else – flying.

Renee tried to grab onto everyone – but in the end, she only managed to keep hold of Storm. The two of them were promptly flattened against a white cube.

He glanced at her. “While I’m flattered you chose to hang onto me, I do believe you’re married.”

“You. You’re funny,” Renee said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I can be,” he said with a cheeky smile.

“Twiree just died Storm! React appropriately!”

He shrugged. “This is war. It happens. You’ll have to get used to moving on if you’re going to be out here with us.”

Renee didn’t know what to say to that.

~~~

“Touchdown!” Mite shouted.

Vriska drove the head of one of the attackers into a pyramid shape, cracking their skull. A bit more brutal than was required, but she was already pretty ticked.

Mage Rarity threw a capture device to end his annoying attacks. Because of this, she was no longer guarding Vriska, allowing the troll to get a sharp blade through the chest.

“Curaja,” Mage Rarity declared a moment later, healing Vriska’s wound in an instant.

It was then I unleashed my spell. A quick cascade of mental energy – one fell, and then all the others lost consciousness as well.

Mage Rarity started capturing them one at a time while Vriska glared at the cobalt-blue stains in her robes. “Aw, man…”

“Inconsequential.”

Vriska rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mite, I get it…” She focused her energy for a moment and re-summoned her god-tier robes without the bloodstain.

“He could have been talking about something else,” Mage Rarity pointed out.

Vriska shook her head. “Yeah, right. Twilence, what was with those guys?”

“They were of a pseudo-hivemind,” I answered, looking up at the sky. “They were each different, but all under the same intelligence.”

“That sounds confusing, but also familiar. Why is it familiar?”

“Because it’s the Everyman,” I said, furrowing my brow. “He’s either with the Nihilists or being forced to work for them.”

“Everyman?” Mite asked.

“A being who has many millions of billions of versions all connected across the multiverse,” Mage Rarity said, packing the last of the capture devices away. “Not that much is actually known about him. Generally prefers to go about his lives without too much crossover, though.”

“He’s not stupid,” I said, scratching my chin. “He’d know he wouldn’t be able to defeat us like this, and that there was a possibility we’d figure out who he was. He might be testing us. Trying to guess our capabilities.”

“When you have a million bodies, most of them are expendable,” Mage Rarity pointed out.

Vriska furrowed her brow. “Greeeeeat. Well, let’s go punch him in the clock.”

“Unchanging,” Mite droned.

“Thank you, I take pride in my punching.”

Mite let out a single musical note.

I smiled at him. “There’s more going on than just the Everyman, though. My sight is still clouded, but I’m able to tell there’s other things going on than just us here. More viewpoints. One of them I’m pretty sure is the other side.”

“They’re here too?” Vriska said, looking nervous.

I nodded. “Even if my sight can’t be trusted, it makes sense. Would the Flowers ask for heroes from just one side? Unlikely. To maximize success they should allow both possible sets of ‘heroes’ to work. Just didn’t think about it until now.”

“Except we might end up fighting them,” Mage Rarity said.

“After the Nihilists are done away with. I do not see us risking the complete destruction of the multiverse over our war.”

“Definitely,” Mite added.

I glanced at him, unsure if he was agreeing or being sarcastic. I decided it didn’t matter – he would be what he would be – and guided everyone closer to our goal.

~~~

“Can I?”

“No,” Renee answered Storm for the nineteenth time.

“We’d be a more cohesive unit.”

“You don’t get to ride me just because your legs are tired.”

“Ah, I didn’t say that, I said my legs would get tired, but as an equine your legs are built to withstand more walking and rigid pressures, therefore you would b-”

“I never took you for a broken record, Oncoming.”

Storm shrugged. “I do what I do what I do.”

“…What?”

“Nani?”

Renee rolled her eyes. “Maybe you could stop pondering your next sarcastic comment and help me find the others. We need some way to get to the Tower Ring, after all.”

Storm tapped his fingers together as they leaped from a large cubic shape to a series of pyramids. “I believe our efforts to find the others or otherwise will not change the outcome.”

“You aren’t Starbeat,” Renee reminded him.

Storm shrugged. “I spent some time around a crazed girl who knew a thing or two about ka.”

“Was she the one that didn’t show up for the mission?”

“Yes. Sh-”

A large extruded rhombus shot out of the ground they were standing on, sending the two of them flying. Renee had not mastered the art of self-levitation yet, so she resorted to encasing herself and Storm in a multi-faceted magic shield. They bounced off a few shapes before coming to a rest in the middle of a bluish bowl shape.

Renee dropped the shield. “Storm, we forgot this world was unstable.”

“I didn’t.”

“Why didn- nevermind,” Renee said, shaking her head. “…I am sorry, I think everything’s getting to me.”

Storm smirked. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn’t come out.

Renee’s first instinct was to say ha, finally out of words? but she was smart enough to realize he was looking at something. She whirled around to see four familiar faces on the edge of the bowl.

“…Pinkie!?” Renee blurted, heart rate doubling in an instant.

“Uh, duuuh!” Pinkie said, smacking herself on the side of the head, shifting her blindfold slightly. “Jotaro, Nova, and Pidge too!”

Pidge aimed her weapon at Renee, but Pinkie waved it down with a hoof. “Psh, none of that. We’re not enemies here.” She bounced off the edge of the bowl and slid down to Renee, smiling. “Hey!”

“H-hey,” Renee said, pulling a hoof back in uncertainty.

Pinkie cocked her head. “Hey… Renee, c’mon.”

You could tell her now, Renee thought. …Is now right?

Renee shook her head and let a sad smile come to her face. “Pinkie… I… I’ve missed you.”

“What a coincidence, I’ve felt the same way!”

Renee put a hoof to her neck – where the Elements of Generosity and Laughter hung. “…I have something for you.”

“Renee!” Storm blurted.

“Shush, it’s not like it’ll do much to help the war effort,” Renee muttered as she removed the Element of Laughter and handed it to Pinkie. It transformed into a necklace and affixed itself around the blind pony’s neck.

Pinkie pulled Renee into a hug. “Thank you.”

“It wouldn’t do to fight the Nihilists without you,” Renee said.

“…So, are we friends now, or…?” Nova asked, walking up to them.

“Enemy of my enemy situation,” Renee said, shaking her head. “Let’s put aside our differences – which, let’s be honest, aren’t all that much – and stop an evil. Storm, Pidge, Jotaro? Any issues?

Jotaro shook his head. “None.”

Pidge raised her eyebrow. “Several, but I get the point. Smart thing to do.”

Storm smirked. “Ah… I see now. This was the whole point. Not some adventure… but a reminder.”

“He’s been going on about ka for a while,” Renee muttered.

“I got this,” Pinkie said. She appeared on Storm’s back. “So, you think this is about a reminder, huh? See, I’m thinking that it’s about friends on opposite sides of great divides. I guess it is a reminder, but not of what you’re thinking. Y’know, a reminder that sometimes issues are black and white when it comes to morality?”

Storm leaned forward. “I think we’re going to enjoy each other’s company quite well. How about this as a counterpoint – whipped cream.”

“Good retort, but not worthy of the left ventricle o-”

“Incoming!” Nova shouted, raising a magic shield.

A rainbow-maned robotic pegasus smashed into the shield at extreme velocities. The magic held, though Nova winced. “Ow…” she muttered in her synthetic voice.

Renee’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks. “Wait… no…”

“Rainbine, that was not the plan!” this voice came from a Rarity with a psychotic look in her eyes, a gauntlet around her hoof, and a pair of magic hands to her sides. “You’ve ruined everything!” She rushed in, magic hands flying.

“STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!” the next thing anyone knew, the Rarity known as Rarifruit had been thrown to the center of the bowl.

“The Elements of Insanity?!” Nova blurted. “Aren’t they dead?”

“Should have been,” a light yellow pegasus said, taking her place on the lip of the bowl. She wore a red and white striped hat atop a deep crimson mane. “But we weren’t, got stuck in a time vortex instead. And now we’re back, bitches.”

Pinkie pulled out the sound-blocking headphones they had used back on Esefem out of her mane. “Good thing I still have these!”

Fluttershout smirked. “Good. It just wouldn’t be right to kill you without a proper battle.”

“Where’s Brutalight?” Renee demanded.

Fluttershout twitched in rage. “Brutalight doesn’t fucking matter, it’s us! And you’re going to die!” She breathed in.

Pinkie slapped the headphones on everyone. Sound became nothing.

A sphere plowed through the ground, upsetting everyone’s balance.

Fluttershout shouted, the wave not able to blow out their ears, but powerful enough to fling them away. Rarifruit and Rainbine were caught up in the process – but they were basically useless already.

Fluttershout wasn’t going to let this slide though. Unlike her friends, she had bothered to train herself, to hone her abilities. She focused her deathly voice into a singular beam of focused sound, focusing it right at Nova. Fluttershout’s aim was a little off, so Nova’s head didn’t explode – but her back leg did.

Pidge moved quickly – capturing Nova in one of the devices so she wouldn’t lose blood through the wound.

Fluttershout readied her voice for Pidge, but she couldn’t follow through. She heard a chainsaw.

She got to watch Pinkie cut Rarifruit in half.

“W-what the fuck!?” Fluttershout managed, blinking. “You… You don’t do that!”

Pinkie stood on her hind legs, Rarifruit’s blood plastered on the crimson dress, sign of a massacre. There was no way she could have heard Fluttershout – but she responded anyway. “There’s a small list we have, Fluttershout. A list where we’ve decided we can’t take any more chances. All of you have been on that list since the day of the Bloodbath.” She charged at Fluttershout, chainsaw ready.

“Rainbine, activate improvements,” Fluttershout ordered.

“Wait, improvements, wh-” Rainbine didn’t get a chance to process that she had improvements she didn’t know about. Her mechanical body unfolded without her consent, somehow increasing in size tenfold, taking the shape of a gigantic centaur mecha.

“Oh! SWEET!” Rainbine blurted, her small brain allowing her to forget the tragedy of Rarifruit faster than should have been possible. Fluttershout wanted to kill her for that. But that just wouldn’t fly right now.

Rainbine raised a hoof and shot a half-dozen missiles at the heroes. Jotaro, Storm, Pidge, and Pinkie returned fire.

Renee opted not to engage the robot. She teleported right in front of Fluttershout, the Element of Generosity glowing brightly. Dual needles of magical power appeared at her sides. She rammed them forward.

Fluttershout twisted – but one still got in her eye. “FFFFFFAAAAAA!” The impact of the voice threw Renee back, tossing her into a passing by rectangle.

Renee couldn’t hear anything – and she wasn’t in the mood for banter regardless. She knew who this pony was, and she knew about all the suffering she had caused. Fluttershout had lived way, way too long. Renee summoned more needles and magic blades, sending them at Fluttershout.

She forced Fluttershout to back away.

How does it feel to be the one tossed down the hallway?

Fluttershout unleashed a focused sonic blast, but Renee saw it coming – using a multi-layered magic shield to defend herself from it. She smirked. Your new tricks aren’t anything.

Fluttershout bit her lip.

Meanwhile, Pinkie was hitting the giant Rainbine mech all over with her hammer. “Don’t you think this is a little stupid?” she asked Rainbine.

“Huh? Why?” Rainbine smacked Jotaro away with a loose hand and absorbed a bolt of electricity from Storm.

“I mean, you, fighting with the Nihilists. I didn’t think you were that crazy!”

“Hey, Fluttershout said to do it, so we did it.”

“Why Fluttershout? Why not Brutalight?”

Rainbine didn’t respond.

“Oh come on, you can tell me!” Pinkie said as she smashed Rainbine upside the head.

“You’re trying to kill me.”

“Exactly! I’m making my intentions very clear, you can be sure I wouldn’t use this information to defame you.”

“That makes sense…”

Inwardly, Pinkie was rolling her eyes. “All I want to know is how you got here. I mean, I get that you got stuck in a time vortex…”

“Yeah, apparently we were part of a Gallifreyan superweapon test, or something. Rarifruit said they wiped out the Celestialsapiens with the thing we survived!”

“Eh, sorta,” Pinkie said, watching as Jotaro and Pidge tried to work together to hack into Rainbine, but that proved to be useless since Rainbine’s entire body was electrified. “So when Gallifrey fell, you were freed. And…?”

“Well, then Fluttershout brought us here. And we got to meet a lot of new friends who had the same ideas as us! It was great!”

“Oh, new friends?”

“Yeah!” Rainbine said, starting to lose her focus on the fight. “Friends like R-”

Velvet fell from the sky, and a blade of blood burning with ruby sparkling power cut right into Rainbine’s head, hitting a central processor. The mecha-centaur’s entire body convulsed, unable to fight properly with that large of a wound.

Rainbine started flailing wildly and dangerously, no longer giving any indication she could talk.

Pinkie sighed. “Gee, thanks Velvet.”

“Whaaat? It was the perfect opportunity!”

Pinkie facehooved. “So… close…” She pulled back her warhammer and brought it down on Rainbine one last time..

~~~

Allure, Thrackerzod, Bot, Burgerbelle, and Alushy jumped off a möbius strip and landed on a bright red barrel shape. Alushy was taking point, arguing with Thrackerzod about which direction the Tower Ring was. Both of them had senses that told them different directions, resulting in them going nowhere fast. Bot listened to both of them with a smile on her face.

Allure and Burgerbelle hung back from the rowdy front of the group. Allure had tried a few times to put a comforting hoof over Burgerbelle, but the Flat’s shape made this not only difficult to pull off, but awkward for both of them involved.

Allure shook her head. “I’m sorry, I can-”

“I always looked up to her,” Burgerbelle said, suddenly, her monotone voice devoid of emotion – but Allure could sense the weight behind the words. “Even when I was just a barely-realized joke about hamburgers, I saw her as… well, the hero. Then when we left, and we were allowed to be more, she was the one. She made me realize that I could be something out here. She’s the reason the Flats mean what they do today.” Water appeared in her eyes in a sort of jump-cut. “She was a hero.”

Allure smiled softly. “I know she was.”

“I think it’s hard for you to understand exactly why,” Burgerbelle said. “Twiree… She had something before we left. Some of the others as well, but it’s not like Aiskera made a big deal out of it later. She was… I guess she was our Eve. The person who showed us the way.”

“…I don’t know what I’d do if we lost Eve.”

“I do,” Burgerbelle said. “Do what I’m doing. Remember her – and do what she would have wanted.” She produced a toblerone sword from nowhere and held it in the air. “Stop evil in the most ridiculous way possible.”

Allure smiled. “If only all of us could be like you.”

Burgerbelle shrugged. “Yes and no? It-”

“TARGET ACQUIRED!” Bot blurted, producing her weapons.

Everyone looked at where Bot was aiming – at a woman with purple hair in a black outfit sitting on a sharp edge. She looked at them in surprise. “Well, this is unexpected.”

“MAGANE!?” Alushy blurted, jaw dropping.

“Oh no, not at all!” Magane said with a grin.

“But Alushy ju-” Allure began – but Alushy shoved a hoof in her face.

“Don’t,” Alushy warned. “She has this cheap ability where she can twist the reality of truth. Never contradict her lies. Ever.”

“Aw, but it would have been fun if I wasn’t Magane!” Magane said, clapping her hands.

“Not biting that,” Alushy said with a smirk. “So, are you going to explain, or am I going to have to bring out the small guns?”

“Me? Explain?” She let out a bizarre ‘kukuku’ laugh. “You betray your intelligence, poor Alushy.”

Alushy drew one of her guns.

“Did our escapades together mean nothing?”

Alushy was careful not to say anything that could be construed as a contradiction. “I know one thing, Magane. You’re like me. And if I were you and I were acting like you, I’d be up to some outrageously shady shit from the depths of nine different hells. So what is it, you with the Nihilists, or what?”

“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about!” Magane said cheerfully.

“Yes you do,” Allure contradicted.

Magane shot Allure a look of murder. “Nice try, filly.”

“It was worth a shot.”

“Can we talk?” Thrackerzod asked Alushy.

“If you let her have the power of a god, I will kill you. And then turn you into a vampire. So I can kill you again.”

“Figures.” Thrackerzod cleared her throat. “You are tainted with a particular eldritch essence I can’t quite place. Something special.”

Magane shrugged. “Oh, no, nothing special.”

“I don’t think that’s how your power works.”

Magane snapped her fingers, grinning. “A lie about a lie…”

“You motherfucking…” Alushy began, drawing her second gun on Thrackerzod.

Magane broke into laughter. “Gotcha! You’re lucky Zoddy, I couldn’t revert that!”

“…Someone else talk,” Thrackerzod muttered, backing behind Allure.

Burgerbelle took a step forward. “TALKING NOISES!”

Magane glared at Burgerbelle. “And now I’m done. Good-bye!”

Alushy’s eye twitched. “Don’t. Move. Note how I’m not contradicting you, I’m just telling you to fucking freeze.”

Magane put her hands in the air and leaned in. “What is it, crimson fucker?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Having fun!”

“There’s more to it than that.”

Magane lifted her fingers and prepared to snap them. Alushy fired her gun, hitting Magane in the hand. Blood flew – and then she vanished.

Alushy started letting out a breathless string of swears.

“…Should we be worried?” Bot asked.

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK!?” Alushy blurted. “She could trick anyone into saying something about us and make us dead! Simple as ‘hey, such and such is dead,’ ‘n-no! It can’t be!’ and then everyone loses.”

“I think she really is having fun,” Allure said, furrowing her brow. “Some psychotic, disturbed version… but fun nonetheless.”

“She can have other goals.”

“Does she have to?”

Alushy narrowed her eyes. “If you want to play dictionary, no, bu-”

Allure put a hoof over Alushy’s mouth. “Yeah, no, not entering another one of these arguments. Tell us about her while we move. Otherwise, let’s not panic about what she can and can’t do.”

Alushy grinned. “You’re trying to be my boss aren’t you?”

“I believe I qualify as the senior agent at the moment.”

“I think I’m going for a walk.”

“Thrackerzod, bind Alushy to me.”

“Done,” Thrackerzod said.

“…You’re no fun,” Alushy muttered.

“We have a mission, we need to focus on it.”

~~~

Jenny of the Red Gloves rode Blackjack (better known as Beryl) through the endless sea of shapes. In one hand Jenny twirled Siron’s staff, while in the other she examined her magic 8-ball. “I wonder if this works here.”

“Why not ask it a question?” Blackjack suggested.

“It’d have to be something I don’t already know, but could confirm later…” Jenny pursed her lips.

“Just ask it what shape is over the top of this pyramid,” Blackjack suggested. She took to the sky, but Jenny barely noticed – she was contemplating Blackjack’s suggestion.

“Hmm… Oh great magic 8-ball, give us your wisdom, what is Beryl’s deepest held secret?”

“What the fuck!?” Blackjack shouted, losing focus and ramming herself face first into a nearby rectangular prism.

Jenny shrugged the damage off like it was nothing. “Huh. Your name’s Blackjack. What does…” Jenny snapped her fingers. “Oh! You were that pony at the Bloodbath! You blew up Flagg! That was sweet.”

“Why did you do that?!”

“I felt like it?” Jenny said, shrugging. “Look, if you were trying to hide from something, coming out here was probably the worst way to do it.”

“Fuck you.”

“And I appear to have stepped on a nerve. Yeesh, cool your jets, I’m not going to go blabbing this to everyone.”

“You lie to yourself,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, I suppose – hey Twilence – but Blackjack, you’ve got t-” Jenny blinked. “…Twilence, when did you get here?”

“Just now,” I said, hoofing the reddish ground we were standing on. Mage Rarity, Mite, and Vriska stood behind me, all of them looking at Jenny with concern. I turned to glare at Blackjack. “I told you to stay hidden.”

“Well you went and joined the fucking evil side!” Blackjack shouted.

I shook my head. “…If that’s what you want to think.”

“Not going to try to argue? Give me your ‘sob story’?”

I made no response.

Mage Rarity sighed. “She knows for a fact she can’t change your mind, Blackjack. So she’s not going to try.”

“You…”

“Look, Blackjack, dear, we don’t need to go through this right now.”

“When else are we going to do it?”

“Lunch?” Jenny suggested.

“You stuff a sock in it,” Vriska blurted.

“Make me.”

Vriska swiped Jenny’s magic 8-ball and rammed it down the regenerative human’s throat. The artifact shattered into a thousand pieces, cutting her neck in several places.

“What the frick!?” Jenny shouted. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to enchant an 8-ball to make it permanent!?”

“Do you know who you’re talking to? I store things in magic 8-balls, bitch!”

Jenny curled her left hand into a fist while she used her right to pluck glass out of her neck. “And my world’s the one where eight balls actually give answers!

“Fight!” Mite shouted.

“My magic is nanobot based! I can hit you, microscopic toaster!”

“Try.”

“STOP!” Mage Rarity blurted. “We do not need to fight! We have a common ene-”

Blackjack pulled out a gun and pointed it at her. “You don’t have the right.”

Mage Rarity’s gaze softened – there was no trace of fear on her face, unlike everyone else. “Dear, you won’t shoot me.”

“You willing to stake your life on that?”

“Yes,” Mage Rarity said. “You won’t do it. You can’t.”

“I can…”

Mage Rarity shook her head. “…Blackjack, please put the gun down.”

Blackjack twitched for a moment. She focused on the trigger with her magic.

Mage Rarity’s face didn’t even flinch.

“…Fuck,” Blackjack muttered, dropping the gun to the ground. “Why the hell ca-”

Mage Rarity hugged her. “I’m sorry.”

Blackjack pushed back. “I… No. No, none of that.”

For the first time, Mage Rarity looked hurt. “I… I see. Well, I suppose I ca-”

A beam of green energy struck Mage Rarity in the head, vaporizing everything from the neck up in an instant. There was a faint smell of ionized air, the only lingering sensation of what had just happened.

The lower part of Mage Rarity’s body wasn’t even bleeding. The neck stump was charred.

A few meters away, Rick lowered his gun. “Wait, fuck, that wasn’t Scarcity.”

“That. Wasn’t. Scarcity!?” Blackjack shouted, aiming her gun. “Well fuck y-”

Rick fired a much smaller gun at Blackjack, hitting her horn dead on. The bone shattered down the middle as the blue ray sliced clean through her head and out the back of her skull. She slumped to the ground, lifeless.

“This has been a waste of time,” Rick muttered. “Hey, you three, where’s Scarcity?”

Vriska couldn’t tear her gaze off Mage Rarity. “…T-twi?”

I ground my teeth. “I could try. But she’d Come Back Wrong.”

Vriska clenched her fist. “R-right.”

“Uh, hello? I asked a q-”

“I’ve had enough,” I said, teleporting in front of Rick, wings unfurled.

“Of what?”

You. I’ve let you be for far too long. I needed you to perform your heinous acts. You needed to kill the original Twilight. You needed to become part of the Collection. You needed to torment Morty and his family with your presence. You needed to ruin civilizations. You needed to kill some ponies just because they weren’t protected by ka. See that alicorn right there? She was something special! But you… It’s what you are, it’s what you represent.” I allowed dark magic to seep out of my eyes. “But there isn’t a narrative plan I can see anymore, no more organized structure I have to follow. So I can do something.”

Jenny and Vriska took up battle stances behind me.

“Rick Sanchez, I a-”

Rick drew a gun, pressed it to my head, and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

“Sabotage!” Mite cheered from the surface of the gun.

“So much for speeches,” I muttered. “Kill him.”

“With pleasure,” Jenny and Vriska said at once.

~~~

“We’re getting close,” Starbeat told her companions – Jane and Sunny. They were standing on top of a deep brick-red prism that didn’t appear to be moving in respect to the numerous other brick-red prisms around them. It gave the area of the usually colorful universe a somber, ominous atmosphere.

Jane was cleaning her sword – they’d had to take out another one of the ‘lowered’ Many-Angled Ones a few minutes ago. “I suggest stealth. They probably have their ‘center’ guarded like nothing else.”

Starbeat nodded. “No doubt. Remember, we don’t have to beat them, just destroy the Tower Ring.”

Sunny nodded. “I’ve got a spell ready. It should destabilize the Ring, though they could be making it in a way we haven’t anticipated.”

“I’ve got that taken care of,” Starbeat said, holding up a boomerang-shaped metal pipe. “I’ve been nudging fate for a while now. Your spell will work. My calculations show that the Karmic Retribution for this should be minimal – though I couldn’t tell you exactly what the complication will be.”

“No plan survives contact with the enemy,” Sunset agreed.

Starbeat nodded.

“I take it we can’t just relax?” Jane asked.

“Just because ka is on our side does not mean it’ll just hand our enemies to us on a silver platter. That would be too easy.” She sniffed the air. “We have to be prepared for anything.”

“Anything?” a feminine voice asked.

All three of them readied for a fight.

A Gem with a clear square-shaped gemstone revealed herself to them. She was twice as tall as an average human and had arms that billowed with clear ‘fabric’, trailing in a nonexistent wind. “We have no intent of harming you.”

“Then what do you want?” Starbeat asked, unable to identify what type of Gem she was looking at. Something seemed wrong about the way her clear gemstone was cut, reflecting in more places than most.

“We would like to have a talk,” she said, smiling.

Gems aren’t common in the multiverse, Sunny messaged Starbeat and Jane. This is suspicious.

It could be the complication. Let’s see if we can take advantage of it. Starbeat smiled. “I’ll accept if you can tell me who you are.”

“You call us Nihilists. We call ourselves the Allies.”

“Allies of what?”

“IT.”

“…IT?”

“Would you like to meet IT? IT wants to meet you.”

“…Sure,” Starbeat said, scanning the ka in the area with her magic. Seems normal enough. Definitely a trap, but turnaround chance is 97.6 percent, and this is likely our way in… “All right.”

“Take us to your leader,” Jane said with a smirk. Sunny facehooved.

The Gem nodded with a smile, gesturing for them to follow. She walked deeper into the mess of ever-darker shapes. If they couldn’t see each other perfectly, they would have thought the light was dimming.

They eventually came to a large hollow cylinder that wasn’t moving at all. They walked through it, entering another hollow shape – this one a perfect sphere. They themselves stood on a cubic black platform suspended in the air. In the center of the cubic platform was a similarly colored cylinder, on top of which was a brain.

IT.

Starbeat blinked. “Oh, A Wrinkle in Time. I was thinking the clown.”

I take many forms. IT said to her. This is just the version you get to meet.

“I think I destroyed one of you once,” Starbeat mused. “Jane?”

“A lot of bad guys called themselves ‘it’,” Jane admitted. “They kinda blur together.”

IT did not enter their minds with even the slightest hint of an annoyed tone – its messages were as calm as ever. Perhaps you have, perhaps you have not. My other selves are not here, and previous success does not indicate definite triumph.

“We’re resisting your mental conditioning, right?” Jane asked.

That was to be expected. You do have Starbeat with you, after all, as well as experience sharpening the strength of your minds. I cannot even read your minds. But I do not need to, I know exactly what you’re thinking anyway.

“Oh really?” Starbeat asked, using her magic to lock on to the location of the Tower Ring. It was very close. She knew Sunny was doing the same. She needed to find a way to pass the location to Sunny without IT noticing…

You are currently looking for the Tower Ring and hoping I won’t notice a message you send to Sunny, because she has the means to destroy the device.

Starbeat stared at IT in disbelief. “What in the…”

I have my own tricks. We were prepared for this inevitability. IT forced Andrew Hussie to come out from behind the cylinder, moving almost like a zombie. He had a laptop in his hand, crudely drawn images of Starbeat, Jane, and Sunny on the screen.

“…Shiiiiit…” Jane muttered.

His mind was not as prepared as yours. He gets out unrelated anecdotes from time to time, but he remains my slave. Manipulating the story through control in this matter is difficult, but I did not initiate construction until I had mastered it.

Starbeat looked around, trying to think of anything to do. “I have a question. Why? IT is a force of nature, an entity that works in the small moments – or a scion of dark order. Why decide everything needs to be destroyed?

IT pulsated. I have seen truth. I see the answers. I saw the lie within a lie that is existence itself. The Allies have their own reasons – condensing everything into a perfect geometric singularity, ending the pain, revenge, striving for some perceived purpose – but I do it because I have been gifted with knowledge. IT was an idea given form by existence. IT is a fear of both chaos and of order. IT is an idea, IT was never something tangible. IT is a contradiction.

“IT went crazy,” Jane translated.

I have the answers, and they are beyond. I see the collapse giving way to the way things used to be, a world where I cannot exist. I see preservation perpetuating my endless self-contradiction. I know what I am, and no matter what questions I ask, I see that I am a lie. Everything is a lie. The only truth is nothingness.

“This doesn’t seem like you,” Starbeat pointed out. “It’s not like your type to be concerned with truth.”

You could call it an awakening of sorts.

Starbeat smirked. “Goodnight, then.” She unleashed her spell, one designed to kill IT then and there. She didn’t care if they all died in the process, it would end this dangerous entity’s reign.

Red Diamond appeared out of nowhere and absorbed the magic in a vortex of energy, transmitting it to another universe.

“…Red!?” Starbeat blurted, surprised. “What I-”

Red Diamond encased them all in translucent bubbles laced with sleep powder. Despite this, Jane still raised her blade.

“Silicon?” Red Diamond asked.

The clear Gem’s gemstone split into a thousand clear orbs that shot around Jane’s bubble. Each one produced a traction force on Jane’s blade, stopping it short.

She would have stubbornly kept going, but IT attacked her mind directly. No matter her resistance, a direct psychic attack from IT would burn the mind to such a degree that sensible thought was impossible.

Let them see it, IT declared.

Behind IT, a cloak fell. The Tower Ring appeared – but it was not what any of them had expected. It was the size of a house and the shape not of a ring, but three separate spinning blades whose centers orbited around each other in a non-repeating pattern.

Unlike the Tower Rings of Corona’s inspired design, this was not a machine designed to bring a meaningful change about. It was meant for rampant, painful destruction. Starbeat could imagine the stone-flesh of the Dark Tower being ripped to shreds by the blades in a violent apocalypse.

She gulped – hoping there was something that could be done to outplay Hussie…

“We might have to engage Pinkie,” Silicon said, suddenly.

Red Diamond looked to her. “Are you certain?”

“No. But it might happen at any minute if things go just wrong.”

“You have my permission to use whatever force is required.”

Starbeat narrowed her eyes, pondering this.

~~~

Renee stabbed Fluttershout again.

“BITCH!” Fluttershout roared, sending her back with a burst of sound.

Storm and Nova had fallen already, placed into capture devices for their safety. This left Pinkie, Jotaro, Pidge, Velvet, and of course Renee.

Rainbine the mech had already been torn into a million tiny pieces strewn across the landscape. It was unlikely she would ever be put back together again.

Pidge fired her weapon, tying her hook around Fluttershout’s legs. Jotaro stopped time and pummeled the imprisoned pegasus before she could sound-blast the ropes to oblivion. Pinkie brought the warhammer down on Fluttershout’s side hard enough to crack her pelvis.

Her back legs stopped moving. “Fuck fuck fuck…”

Renee walked toward her, generating a blade of magic in the air. She lifted it, aiming for Fluttershout’s other eye.

“Don’t,” Pinkie said, holding up a hoof. Renee couldn’t hear her, but she got the message. She dissipated the blade, an uncertain expression on her face.

Pinkie trotted over to Fluttershout. “I can save you.”

“Fuck you.”

“I don’t want to. You are on the list, Fluttershout. I’ll let Renee do it, and I won’t lose sleep over it. Quite a long ways from where we first met.”

Fluttershout said nothing.

“But I need information from you. Things like ‘why are you here?’ and ‘who’s your boss?’”

“Why are we here!?” Fluttershout spat, triggering the equivalent to a minor earthquake. “You, that’s why! We were told we could have our revenge! Who the fuck cares if we were the villains, someone who was trying to destroy the entire multiverse would be important enough to get a few deaths, right? RIGHT?”

Pinkie frowned. “…You were willing to destroy everything just to get revenge?”

“All I wanted was for you to die. I couldn’t care less about anything else at this point. I don’t believe for a moment the Tower will let the multiverse be truly destroyed, but it should have been strong enough to hurt you! Instead, we’re just… We were just tossed aside!”

Pinkie realized that Fluttershout’s tears weren’t from the pain of her mortal wounds – she was made of stronger stuff than that.

“Just end my miserable life already,” Fluttershout grunted. “There’s nothing left.”

“Tell us who organized this,” Pinkie said. “Then I’ll give you what you want.”

“Fine. This entire thing was organized b-”

A capture device flew forward and hit Fluttershout, capturing her in an instant. Velvet planned to follow up with the destruction of the capture device, but Pinkie stopped her with a swing of her hammer. The dark and bloodied form of Velvet flew a few meters away.

Renee took off her headphones. “What in th-”

“That’s not Velvet,” Pinkie said, producing two katanas. “I should have suspected something right from the beginning…”

“We actually are Velvet,” ‘Velvet’ said, standing back up. “Not that she’s in control, this is just her body.”

“What are you?” Pidge demanded.

Velvet’s stomach exploded in a shower of blood. Hundreds of clear spherical gemstones poured out of the wound, forming together into a single giant Gem warrior. “We are Silicon.”

Pinkie cocked her head. “…Not ringing a bell.”

“It shouldn’t. We were kept secret from you. Red Diamond built us as the perfect mind.”

Renee threw a capture device at Velvet – even if she had blood-based powers, nobody wanted to risk her bleeding out while they were talking. “Why would Red Diamond build you and not tell the rest of the army? If she were a traitor, I would have heard about it.”

“Plus, Red Diamond’s gone,” Pidge said. “She can’t do anything.”

“She’s alive,” Pinkie muttered, facehooving. “Of course she is. She wants to end the pain.”

“She is the wisest of all creatures,” Silicon said. “And we serve her before all else.” The thousands of miniature gemstones that made up Silicon summoned their weapons. Each singular weapon was a tiny thing – one rice-grain sized knife forming a pin there, a screw there. But the weapons eventually added up until they formed a set of upper-body armor, covering her shoulders, arms, and most of her back where the conglomerate gemstone was stored. Two extra spidery legs shot out of the construction.

Silicon held out her left hand. The armor surrounding it shifted into the shape of a gun large enough to hold a human inside its barrel.

She fired.

“Quiznak,” Pidge muttered, calculating that she would not be able to dodge. Renee was far enough away, Pinkie could hop away, and Jotaro could just take it from where he was standing…

Jotaro jumped in front of Pidge and summoned Star Platinum, planning on absorbing the shot. He screamed out “ORAAAA!” as his Stand took the force of the beam. Star Platinum took no damage – the attack wasn’t spirit-based – but it could only block so much. The energy transferred through to Jotaro, throwing him to the ground, out cold.

“Jojo!” Pidge blurted.

“Foolish,” Silicon said, transforming the gun into a large scepter. “He should have saved his strength. You cannot fight.”

Pidge held up her grapple weapon, smiling awkwardly. “Uh, y-yeah you’re right about that. But I’m the smart one. The brains, y’know?”

“Yes.” Silicon turned her attention away from Pidge and to Renee and Pinkie. She transformed the scepter into a shield.

“Nice try,” Pinkie said, appearing inside the shield with Renee. The Elements of Laughter and Generosity were glowing, as well as the ponies’ respective aspect colors for Space and Mind billowing off their coats. Space around Silicon shifted while the mental bonds between each individual Silicon gemstone began to break down. Her tremendous body began to dissipate as the Elements of Harmony activated. It was a partial rainbow consisting only of white and pink light, but one third is better than nothing.

The beads of Silicon split apart completely, flying off in every direction.

“YEAH! TAKE THAT!” Pinkie whooped.

Pidge let out a breath of air. “Good, I was worried there for a second…” She leaned down to check Jotaro. Convinced he was okay, she captured him. “Am I glad you were here.”

Renee smiled. “Thank you, dear.”

“I don’t think our chances were good without y-”

Gunshots rang out. A bullet hit Renee in the back leg while another hit Pidge in the shoulder. The two fell back, dazed.

Pinkie dodged a third bullet with her Pinkie Sense, pulling out a comically oversized bomb. “Okay, what is i- sassafras.”

Each Silicon might not have been able to talk with the others – but each one could act as a single individual. Those bullets had been individual silicon gemstones thrown by the powers of the others.

They moved like a sea of ants equipped with little catapults.

The image made Pinkie laugh despite the direness of the situation.

~~~

I created a ten-dimensional matrix spell that unfolded subatomic particles into one-dimensional line states that were stronger than any other material, forcing them into a rigid state so they couldn’t be bent away. I turned these invisible wires into whirling blades of death, dicing the very shapes around us at every angle. Rick’s own body was severed in several places – but of course he had a backup. He was Rick, he always had a backup. A pill hidden under the skin of his arm activated, giving him regenerative properties.

I condensed the quantum lines into a rope, slicing Rick through again – but he became intangible. He pulled out a portal gun and dialed away, but I had already forced the physics around us to reject any outward portals. The portal fizzled and exploded, charring his body. I created a series of black holes to follow this up, but his reflect barrier sent them back at me, shredding my wings.

My wings were back to normal in an instant. I was tempted to write something onto Rick – but no, the Flowers had a plan, and I was going to stick to it. I summoned a ball of purple fire the size of Spain and threw it at Rick – only for him to absorb it with one of his devices.

Then I bucked him in the face.

His defense for that – the automatic killing field he had on his person – was unable to pierce my magic. His jaw cracked and I knew his brain should have been nothing more than mush.

He just wiped the blood off his mouth and pulled out yet another device – this one a tri-universal compression device. “This weapon fires universes. You wouldn’t want to sacrifi-”

I grabbed the device in my magic, turned it around, and fired at him. The light shot out and vaporized every atom in his body into pure energy, the radiation enough to give everyone for kilometers cancer.

And then I used my own magic to repeat the explosion, just to make sure.

Of course I felt that he had a soul-reassembler active, and that the fight wasn’t over.

“Holy cow,” Jenny said, blinking. “…I thought you were kidding when you said she destroyed universes.”

Vriska nodded – but she wasn’t smiling. “She’s gone off the deep end.”

“…Can we even do anything to help her?”

“Gathering luck,” Vriska said, holding up the infinite-sided die. “But it’s hard to do with Rick. I can get some, but there’s a feedback loop and…” Vriska shook her head. “Fuck…”

“Worried?”

“Yeah I’m worried, you don’t fuck with Rick.”

“Couldn’t the same be said of Twilence?”

Vriska nodded. “…She’s never like this. I’m the one who does this, not her.”

I closed my eyes and let out a breath of air. I really am losing it. They’re right. I calmed myself, turned the dark magic down, and folded my wings.

Rick came at me with a series of reality-altering bombs. I raised an eyebrow and turned them all into daisies. I then turned his arms into petunias. He tore his arms off with his teeth and grew seventeen times in size. I edited reality so subatomic particles couldn’t exist. He continued on as a string of eldritch amoebas. I used my telekinesis combined with a mental wave. He retaliated with a gun that shot guns that shot guns that shot antimatter.

And then one of the reality-altering bombs decloaked itself inches from my chest.

I lost consciousness.

“FUCKING FINALLY!” Rick shouted, congealing back into his fully human body. “I never thought I’d ever have to use those absurd multiverse war devices.” He pointed a gun and fired at my head.

I was sucked into Jenny’s capture device before he could kill me.

“Bring the bitch back out or you die.”

“Try it, bucko,” Jenny said.

Rick fired his weapon. Jenny’s head vanished – but grew back in a few seconds.

“Tah-dah!” Jenny trilled.

Rick pulled out a saw that vibrated with the energy of several dimensions.

“…Frick,” Jenny muttered. Rick charged. She pulled out Siron’s Staff. “On second thought, gotcha.”

The eldritch energy she had stored in the staff launched out in a powerful burst of green and red energy mixed with horrendous darkness. All of Rick’s eldritch devices lost their function in an instant as their own power was adapted into the Staff’s folds.

“BOO-YEAH! Jenny got ‘im!”

A new Rick grew out of the ashes of the old like a plant. “Fuck. You. And. Your. Bullshit. Artifacts!”

Vriska drove her sword at him – but some kind of field made her feel the wound in her chest instead. She fell back, grabbing the gaping wound. “Shit…”

“PUNCH TIME!” Jenny shouted, pushing her fist forward. Rick appeared behind her, pulled her hair hard enough to remove her skin, and kicked her to the ground.

Vriska glanced at the infinite-sided die. I don’t have anywhere near enough luck yet. I nee-

A bullet wound appeared in Rick’s chest, right where his heart was. The wound healed over quickly, but Rick didn’t pull out a gun and fire back instantly.

Because he saw who had shot it.

“Hey, Rick,” Morty said, reloading the gun.

Rick sighed. “Morty, this i-’

Insipid hit Rick from the side. “With the power vested in me by the late Superman, I SERVE THE, LIKE, JUSTICE!” Lasers shot out of her eyes, but they just bounced off Rick.

Morty’s other companion, Darth Vader, drew dual blue and red lightsabers, twirling them in his opposite hands.

Rick twitched. “Right, here’s the deal, I don’t want to deal with this anymore. Just let me go and I won’t bother you again.”

“Fuck that,” Vriska said, still clutching her wound. “You’re goin’ down, fucktard. The Doctor’s gone, it’s time for you to follow in his footsteps.”

“You aren’t welcome in the new world,” Morty said.

Either of them,” Jenny said, smirking. “You’re everyone’s enemy, Rick.”

“Right, fine, universe bomb,” Rick said, pressing a button on one of his arms.

“Nope,” Mite said. He had spent most of the fight disabling that one device.

Rick’s left eye twitched.

Vriska laughed. “You just got trolled!”

“That’s it, you die first.” Rick snapped his fingers. Vriska felt herself die in an instant.

Of course it wasn’t Heroic or Just, she’d just been laughing at him. She sat back up, her chest wound healed. “Oh, bad move buddy.”

Morty shot Rick with an antimatter gun, but Rick somehow still had shields. “Vriska, plan. Whatever it takes, do it.”

Insipid punched Rick through several shapes with the power of Superman while Vriska tried to figure out where she was going to get all the extra luck.

She quickly realized what she could do.

“Sorry buddy,” she told Darth Vader. She glanced at him and drained his luck to nothing.

He not only had a heart attack but also spontaneously caught fire, had one of his legs vaporized by a quantum tunneling event, and had his head explode.

He knew what he was signing up for. Plus, he was supposed to be a Redshirt anyway, Vriska told herself. She pulled out the infinite-sided die.

Insipid threw Rick back down to where Vriska was standing – but this time he got a shot off on her. Her front leg was shot clean off. She wailed in intense pain.

Vriska threw the die. Something simple and clean.

Rick saw it coming – and a decidedly alien expression crossed his face. Fear.

“MORTY, LISTEN TO ME, I’VE ALWAYS KNOWN YOU WERE TH-”

“Shut the hell up,” Morty spat.

Rick didn’t have a chance to respond. The infinite-sided die activated, choosing something simple.

Rick existed. And then he didn’t. There was a small comical pop noise.

Vriska spat at where he used to be. “Rot in hell.”

Morty looked at where Rick had been standing with a distant expression.

“Regrets?” Vriska asked.

Morty didn’t answer her question. “We need to do what we came here to do.” He threw a capture device and caught Insipid. He didn’t even bother with Darth Vader. “Come on.”

Jenny tried to revive Darth Vader. She wasn’t the best at the spell, so she couldn’t be sure if she’d just failed or he had really Come Back Wrong.

Vriska refused to look at the dark, dead form at all. Rick was gone. That was all that mattered.

They walked on in silence.

~~~

Pidge hadn’t lasted long against Silicon. She’d needed to be captured as well, leaving only Renee and Pinkie to face the Gem conglomeration. She had easily recovered from being split up, now fighting them in twelve different bodies all twice as tall as a human.

“What even are you?” Renee asked, defending from a bolt of electricity shot from a staff.

“We are the Everyman’s gift,” Silicon explained. “Created to be an agent of destruction. It is our purpose.”

“Kinda depressing, don’t’cha think?” Pinkie asked.

“It is our purpose. It fills us with joy.”

“Creepy,” Renee muttered. “I always thought Red Diamond was less… totalitarian.”

“One enslaved for the sake of many,” Silicon droned, firing seven guns at once while two others swung swords. The ponies were only saved by Pinkie’s quick jumping to a green pyramid.

“But you’re killing everyone!” Pinkie blurted.

“Exactly.” One of the Silicon’s bodies split into several smaller ones that launched themselves at the two ponies. Pinkie bashed them away with her frying pan.

Renee shook her head. “Pinkie, plan?”

“Nothing.”

“You always have a plan!”

“I always seemed to have a plan!”

Renee looked upset for a moment – but then she laughed. “Don’t know what I was expecting.”

Pinkie grinned. “Don’t expect anything from Pinkie Pie.”

Renee deflected an attack with a magic shield. “I can trust you to be there when I need you.”

Pinkie jumped them to a golden torus shape. “...Thanks, Renee.”

“Yeah.” Renee moved them out of the way of Silicon’s bullet. “We’re not going to win this one. She’s got too much on us.”

“At least we’re together, huh?”

Renee smiled, tears in her eyes. “Yes. Yes, that’s it. That’s exactly it.”

The Silicons attacked as one, ready to destroy them. Even though they knew they couldn’t win, they refused to go down without a fight. Renee summoned her needles, Pinkie took out her chainsaw, and both of them let out a laugh that was far too happy for the situation.

“ARE YOU READY FOR COMPLETE BULLSHIT!?”

Everyone froze, turning to stare. On top of a salmon-colored cube there stood the League of Sweetie Belles… and Alushy.

Silicon dropped all focus on Pinkie and Renee, turning to Alushy.

“Thrackerzod, do anything you need to,” Allure said.

Thrackerzod nodded, initiating a soul bond with Silicon. “Done. Alushy, she should be easy pickings.”

Alushy dropped her physical form, becoming a tremendous mess of dark shadows, evil eyes, and vampiric teeth. She charged Silicon.

Most of them dodged – but Alushy only needed one. She drove a spike of darkness into a single gemstone, shattering the tiny sphere. She absorbed the spirit within into her body. Thanks to Thrackerzod, this included all the nearby Silicon spirits as well.

Alushy let out a psychotic laugh. She could feel the remaining Silicon Gems trying to separate themselves from their little hivemind, but they couldn’t. They were the Everygem. Separation would effectively kill what they were.

Every Silicon gemstone went dead, falling to the ground without a soul.

Alushy transformed back into her normal self. “A delicious lunch.”

“You da vampire!” Pinkie shouted, cupping her hooves over her mouth.

“Da vampire? Please, I am the living embodiment of absolute bullshit! You’re welcome!”

Renee rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Alushy.”

“Yes, yes, we’re good,” Allure said. “Thrackerzod, take out Pinkie.”

“…What?”

Allure facehooved. “She’s the enemy!”

“We have a truce, Allure,” Renee said. “We need to stop the Nihilists.”

“Renee! She’ll just use this to get an advantage over us!”

“…Allure, dear, Pinkie’s better than that.”

“If she were better than that she wouldn’t be on the wrong side!”

Pinkie looked at Allure with sad eyes. “…You wouldn’t say that to Minna if she were here.”

Allure twitched. “You have no right.”

“Nobody has the right,” Pinkie admitted.

Allure clenched her jaw. “…None of you are going to attack her, are you?”

Alushy, Renee, and Burgerbelle backed away. Bot turned to Thrackerzod for assistance, the eldritch unicorn telling her no with a shake of the head.

“…Mutiny,” Allure muttered with a sigh. “I get it, I get it, maybe I’m just being unreasonable.” She turned to Pinkie. “Can you get us to the Tower Ring quickly at least?”

“Jump-cut,” Pinkie said.

Allure braced for mind-screw.

~~~

They were standing on top of a red brick shape.

Allure rubbed her head. “…Burgerbelle, I am so glad you can’t do that.”

Burgerbelle shrugged.

Renee was at the front of the group, staring at the entrance to a long hollow cylinder. “…it’s through there, isn’t it?”

Pinkie nodded.

“Why aren’t there guards?”

“Trap,” Jenny said.

“Hey Jenny,” Renee said. Then she shook her head. “Jenny!? When did you get here!?”

“Same time we did,” Morty said. “…Haven’t we been traveling together for the last five minutes?”

“That was a jump-cut!” Allure blurted. “We couldn’t really react to anything! Pinkie!”

Pinkie shrugged. “Hey, I know we’re all upset and kinda want to punch each other into oblivion, but come on, there’s like a final boss through this door, let’s at least go in together!”

Everyone – Pinkie, Renee, Allure, Alushy, Bot, Thrackerzod, Jenny, Morty, Burgerbelle, Vriska, and Mite – nodded and stood together. It would have made a great cover image for a movie, though Mite would have been disgruntled since nobody could ever see him.

They took a step toward the empty cylinder.

Then they were surrounded by several dozen members of the Everyman.

Bot drew her weapons. “Targets acquired!”

“We do not need a fight,” all of the Everyman spoke at once. “We just wish to escort you inside.”

“Fuck no, trap,” Vriska said. “Everyone, kill them all.”

The Everyman hadn’t been expecting this response – nor had he been expecting everyone in the group to go along with it. It wasn’t even a battle, it was a bloodbath. The overwhelmingly human forms of the Everyman didn’t stand a chance against the heroes who were so done with all that had happened to them today. Pinkie’s chainsaw, Vriska’s sword, Renee’s needles, Jenny’s fists, Thrackerzod’s tentacles…

There were no survivors. Of course, the Everyman had backups – such a being could never truly be removed – but no more decided to show themselves.

Jenny flexed her wrist, marching right into the hollow cylinder. Everyone wordlessly followed her.

They appeared in the room with the cube. They saw IT, they saw Hussie, and they saw Red Diamond.

Jenny made it clear they weren’t here to have a question and answer session. She pointed Siron’s staff at IT.

Red Diamond pointed her finger at Starbeat, Jane, and Sunny.

“That doesn’t matter,” Jenny said, lowering the staff. “If we’re this far, we’ve got you.”

You no longer have Twilence. Hussie is ensuring my victory. IT said. You can’t do anything.

“You’re an idiot if you believe that.”

You don’t realize what I am.

“You’re IT,” Pinkie said. “Brain, yada yada, likes order, suddenly doesn’t, we get the picture.”

You understand nothing. I am IT. But I am also more. I am the lie.

“So what, Magane’s involved,” Alushy muttered. “Kinda got that.”

There is much more to this. I am IT, but why am I the lie?

It is because I am also the Spectacularium.

Renee blinked. “…What!?”

I fused with that being who IS answers. I became one, and all the information is at my disposal. I know every aspect of all of you. I know that Hussie is writing the perfect ending to the story. Your infinite-sided die has been negated. You have no Prophet to save you. The Flowers plan is useless under my control.

IT teleported one of the capture devices away from the group. IT destroyed it in an instant. And there goes one of your captures. Was it an ally, an enemy, one of mine? So many names were unimportant here, it could have been any of them… I wonder how many will never be mentioned again, leaving their fates uncertain?

“BASTARD!” Alushy shouted. “Complete b-”

No.

Alushy was bubbled by Red Diamond.

“You’re not killing us,” Jenny observed. “Why?”

Your ka is still strong. You got this far, it means something. I cannot have Hussie kill you outright, I can only whittle you down within the scope of Narrative. But I can be sure of your failure. The destruction of all things will begin shortly. And this lie will end.

Pinkie shrugged. “Welp, looks like we can’t do anything. Too much power in this room. Oh woe is us.”

You believe the story demands your victory. Your artifacts are all disabled, anything that could destroy the universe would destroy all of you, and the Tower Ring will launch in five minutes. I see everything you think before you do.

“There are no perfect predictors,” Renee said. “Anything that comes from outside the local universes cannot be determined by the Spectacularium.”

But you would all have to be unaware of it as well.

“The Flowers didn’t even tell us about each other,” Jenny said, shrugging. “What makes you think we’re all they did?”

IT was silent for a moment. They wouldn’t dare…

“…You know, if I were them, I’d have a Prophet working for me,” Pinkie said, grinning. “One who liked badass speeches and tense moments. One who writes moments where the bad guy thinks he’s won and everything seems impossible. One who has a flamboyant taste for the slightly absurd. One who’s a secondary character that has been conveniently missing from this whole chapter.”

(A multiverse away, Rohan Kishibe finished the final panel of his manga under the watchful eye of a PPC agent. Behind them sat a version of the Everyman - an auburn-haired girl in a top hat known as the Everykid - who had been isolated from the other sections.)

“Oh! Guess what I saw~!” Pinkie trilled. “And you saw it too, because I saw it!”

IT asked itself, over and over again, what could be coming. What could Rohan have prepared for IT. What trick? What Deus Ex Machina? What ploy? The Embodiment? IT could deal with that. Aradias? Defenses were already in place. What what what what what what WHAT!?

IT started to pulsate rapidly, devoting as much processing power as IT could spare to finding the threat.

IT failed to realize that was the threat. Because now IT could make a mistake.

Jenny knew the time was right – IT wasn’t looking at Siron’s staff. She fired it at the Tower Ring behind IT, the eldritch energies releasing all at once. Normally, such an attack wouldn’t do anything to a high-level construct.

But the Nihilist Ring had been constructed in this universe for a reason, and that was because it could not handle eldritch energies. The three whirling blades of pure destruction lost all cohesion with each other and flew off in random directions, skewering the walls of the dark sphere they were inside.

IT roared mentally, losing all sense of sanity in one moment. It attacked Jenny with everything it had, tearing her billion-year-old brain into shreds. She screamed.

And then Renee moved. She jumped IT and placed her hooves on the brain, activating her Sylph of Mind powers. She touched the jumbled mess that was IT – and healed.

Red Diamond moved to stop her – but everyone else wasn’t going to let that slide. Despite being a Diamond, all of the heroes attacking at once was too much for her. She poofed with a stab of Vriska’s sword she couldn’t defend against.

Renee tore the mental imprint of the Spectacularium away from that of IT, dividing the two essences. The Spectacularium became its own entity, and it understood what had happened. It was exceptionally weak, and it understood this, and it ensured that Renee understood this. It didn’t ask Renee for permission, it just acted. Its time was over.

But before the Spectacularium left, it told Renee there was no right decision, but that she was making the one best for her.

Then the Spectacularium rammed itself into IT and vaporized both their essences.

The Nihilists had been defeated.

“FUCK YES!” Hussie said, throwing his computer onto the ground and snapping it in two. “HOLY SHIT THAT WAS SO LAME! And probably emotionally scarring.”

Vriska glared at him. “Hey, two horrible manipulative men are gone now. Ever think about joining them!?”

“Hell no! I’ll live forever!” Hussie ‘snopped’ his fingers, folded himself into a paper airplane, and blasted off through a nearby wall like it didn’t exist.

“Figures,” Vriska muttered.

Renee looked at her hooves, for once not disturbed in the slightest that there was brain matter on them.

“Renee?” Allure asked. “What did the Spectacularium mean? That you were making the right decision?”

Renee turned to Allure, tears in her eyes. “You… You weren’t supposed to hear about it. You were just… supposed to find out later. There’s a note I left you and…” She swallowed hard.

Allure looked up at her sister, mouth trembling.

Renee sighed, turning to Pinkie. “Pinkie… I want to go back with you.”

There was an abrupt silence. Several people stared at her with slack jaws.

Pinkie smiled. “Of course. I’d never turn away a friend who really meant it.”

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” Allure shouted at the top of her lungs.

Renee didn’t look her sister in the eye – instead finding something to busy herself in the form of Jenny’s fried brain. She worked her Sylph of Mind powers on the immortal.

Allure slapped her. “LOOK AT ME!”

Renee looked at her not with sad eyes, or angry eyes, but determined eyes.

Allure wasn’t sure what to make of this. “…Why?”

“…I’m alone, Allure,” Renee answered as she formed Jenny’s mind as well as she could. “Daniel can’t be there for me anymore. You can’t be there. Flutterfree’s with Eve all the time. My agents are all fighting in the war. …The people I would turn to for help…” she glanced at Pinkie. “Joined the other side.”

“You’re joining the enemy because you’re lonely!?

Renee looked down at her. “...I voted for the collapse, Allure. But I stayed. Because of the vote, because of our society. My faith in it. I’ve lost that faith in this war - and I couldn’t say anything to anyone about it. I wouldn't be trusted. So I had to lock it up within me.” She sighed. “I believed - and still do - that neither side in this war is right. The fact that there’s a war at all is wrong. There’s no just end here.”

“How can you say that!? At least we don’t want to kill everyone!”

Renee shook her head. “But we do, Allure. We do. It’s a choice between one kind of mass death or another.” She took her hoof off Jenny – any of the woman’s memories from more than a couple years ago were going to be scrambled beyond recognition, but from what Renee understood that was normal for her. “I’m going to choose the side where I don’t feel rejected for having doubts.”

Pinkie put a hoof around Renee. “Hey, hey, it’s okay.”

“Thank you, Pinkie, but it’s not,” Renee said. “…I’m doing just what they were afraid of.”

Allure’s expression softened for a moment – but then the anger returned as powerful as ever. “Traitor.”

“Yes,” Renee said, smiling sadly. “Renee the traitor. …Tell Daniel to check under the dresser, a letter should have appeared by the time you get back.”

“I’m not letting you go,” Allure said, summoning her Heart’s power. “I’ll take all of you down! All o-”

The sphere exploded as the Many-Angled Ones attacked it. Without their precious Tower Ring, they no longer cared about keeping the universe as pure as possible. They were willing to tear it apart to get their revenge.

But, of course, it wouldn’t do to have all the heroes killed by eldritch beings at the drop of a hat.

As it turned out, the Flowers actually had been doing something in the Eldritch Embodiment.

They had woken Azathoth up.

The highest god of the Eldritch Embodiment appeared in the universe, forcing the Many-Angled Ones to freeze in fear. They recovered quickly, moving to attack him with impossible powers.

Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth defended their king, [????] in the ∂´¨ßµåç˙ˆ˜å until the fabric of reality itself [unintelligible] with a side of salt a-

Sanity Boundary activate, a rose-like Flower said, appearing among the heroes. Resetting your conditions. Thank you for your service.

And then the two groups were split up, placed in replicas of the ships they’d lost. They retained all injuries and losses, most of them appearing as nothing more than capture devices with heavily wounded individuals inside of them.

Only one pony was on a ship she hadn’t arrived in.

Renee Jackson.

“Oh thank the Tower,” Renee said, letting out a breath of relief.

Pinkie held Renee close. “HELMSMAN! Take us home.”

Morty let out a deep sigh and plotted a course for the Raven Hotel.

Across a divide of eldritch beings tearing reality apart, there was another ship.

Allure stood in it, angrily punching walls as tears rolled down her cheeks. “WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS!?”

Nobody wanted to answer her.

“They’re all going to pay… Every last one of them… They think they can take my family from me… They’re wrong!”

~~~

Allure did tell Daniel where to find the note – after several hours of angry shouting. He felt sorry for the poor unicorn. She’d been broken by this war. She couldn’t take what it was doing to everyone.

Not to say he wasn’t mad. He was livid. But he at least thought he understood.

This letter would probably be the best way to judge that.

He opened it, face impassive.

Daniel, Love…

When you read this, I will have become a traitor – or someone will somehow expose this letter. It’s an unreasonable risk, leaving this… but I can’t leave you with nothing. You mean too much to me.

Stars, I love you. I love you more than… I can’t even compare it.

I know you love me, even though this war has taxed it. I have not gone back on my vows. I made a promise that day, and I plan to keep that promise. You are my other, Daniel. Nothing can ever change that.

But this war is a divide. It’s too large of a divide. Your hate for them… I know it’s not your fault. In some twisted way it’s Corona’s fault, and in some other way it’s the fault of Them. I honestly think you’d be on the side of preservation even without this, and I would probably have joined you. It’s just-

There’s no way to say this without hurting you. It hurt. Everything you did, it hurt. I didn’t see Daniel, I saw something that had taken over your mind and turned you into… And I couldn’t talk to you about it, couldn’t resolve it, because you know why! And I couldn’t talk to Allure, she was broken over Minna… Flutterfree tried to listen to me, but I could tell she was too taxed to do what she needed to do. And Eve… Eve didn’t even notice anything was wrong.

I had doubts. But whenever I voiced those doubts, people got angry. You, Allure… Not Flutterfree. But everyone else… if we were a different type of nation, I would have been jailed already for suspicion of sympathy for the other side.

…Looks like I probably should have been.

Irony. It’s painful.

I’m gone. I’m gone because I’ll be welcomed over there. Pinkie will be there. Nova will be there. And as much as you hate it, Corona will be there, and I know she’ll understand.

You must think she’s stolen me away from you. I want you to fight that thought most of all.

Because if we both survive this… I’m going to come back. I don’t care if I get jailed for the rest of my life, I won’t be able to just leave you forever.

If ka allows, we’ll be together again, my Love.

All I can say now is that I’m sorry. I wasn’t strong enough.

Daniel broke down into tears from so many different conflicting emotions he couldn’t even identify them. All he knew was that she still cared – and that made it worse.

So much worse.

~~~

“…Could we have paid more attention to her?” Eve asked Flutterfree.

“I don’t know. I tried,” Flutterfree said. “I empathized. I just… wasn’t available. But if I’d left you during those times…”

“We only have so much of ourselves to go around,” Eve said, looking up at the sky. “…Do you think the people will let us forgive her?”

“We can give her a new name and a new identity,” Flutterfree said. “Sombra again.”

“Sombra again…” Eve said, frowning. “…Flutterfree, do you want to go to the other side?”

“…I did,” Flutterfree admitted. “But Pinkie was right. I would never be happy with what I was working for over there. I would have been broken.” She put a wing around Eve. “I’m not going anywhere. Had I been stuck on the other side, I probably would have done what she did and came here.”

Eve wiped a tear from her face. “How much more do we have to face? It can’t keep on like this forever, can it?”

Flutterfree didn’t answer.

~~~

Renee walked up to Corona in the middle of the Raven Hotel. The soldiers of the collapse whispered among themselves. “She can’t be trusted.” “She’s a spy.” “She’s just a fake.”

Corona dissipated the glove on her left hand. “Renee?”

“Go ahead,” Renee said.

Corona placed her hand just under Renee’s horn and felt everything she did.

The first thing Corona did after she came out was hug Renee tightly. “…You hide your struggles too well.”

Renee burst into tears. “I… I…”

“Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay now. We’re here for you. Pinkie, Nova, Jotaro, Vriska, Minna, Lady Rarity… We’re all here.” She looked Renee in the eyes. “We question ourselves and our actions every day of this war. You’re not alone.”

Pinkie and the recently-healed Nova moved in to the hug as well. Minna allowed her carefully cultivated hard-military commander image to break so she could show her aunt some kindness.

“Everyone!” Corona shouted, spreading her wings. “Welcome Renee Jackson to our ranks! Consider her a guest of honor! She needs support more than anything right now!”

Renee smiled through her tears.

She felt horrible about feeling like she belonged here.

~~~

“What was the point of that?” Flagg asked, juggling Black Thirteen.

Magane smirked. “Because I was bored.”

“You’ve never done something like that because you were bored before.”

“And you always have some grander purpose!” Magane said, baring her teeth in a spiked grin. “Not all crazy plans have to have some sort of big overarching philosophical end goal, you know. Sometimes it can just be fun!

“But why risk ending everything?”

“What else would have drawn such a big crowd?” Magane asked, holding her arms wide. “What other time would I have been able to do it? If I waited, the war would have gone on too long. If I acted earlier, IT and the Spectacularium wouldn’t have been ready!” She smirked. “Not to mention, the Flowers would have found the timing suspicious if I did it any other way.”

Flagg smirked. “You have the spirit.”

“I have something you lost a long time ago.”

“What?”

She held up a finger. “Creativity.”

“I need Creativity t-” he saw Magane raising her fingers. “You sly little…”

Magane lowered her hand. “I could have trapped you.” She gave a mock salute. “But I didn’t. Sayonara!”

Flagg let her go. She was one of the most interesting individuals he had met in recent memory. Too bad she couldn’t serve as a replacement for the Doctor… Not nemesis material.

Perhaps he should start looking.

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