Songs of the Spheres

by GMBlackjack

125 - Traitors

Eve looked up at a holographic display of the TSAB labyrinth. It was represented by a few dozen nested spheres of various blue shades, each sphere with several major points of light on it. The majority of the spheres seemed out of focus, almost fuzzy, because Merodi Universalis had no idea what was happening in those areas.

The structure of the TSAB Labyrinth was a closely kept secret, known only to Nanoha and other individuals at the center of the immense defensive construct. So it was only natural that the Merodi could only get an approximation of what was happening within.

This didn’t change the fact that Eve wanted to know what was going on.

“No ideas? None at all?” Eve asked.

Monika shook her head. “Don’t look at me. There hasn’t been a scene in there since Nanoha set the thing up, and even that was kinda vague. …Plus ‘knowledge’ has never been my strong suit.”

“Then do something to ‘control’ it,” Tornado muttered. Of all the members of Valentine’s group, she was the only one who felt the need to keep fighting. She’d gone back to her ruined home with some Merodi and rounded up a handful of USM heroes to contribute to the war effort, allowing the Ambassador to step out of the spotlight.

“I’d have to go there to do anything. We decided against that.”

Tornado scowled. “Then what about miss ‘I can find the unknown’ over here?” she said, gesturing at Roxy.

“I can’t believe she got clearance,” Roxy muttered.

“Hey, I asked a question.”

“Void isn’t predictable in the way you want it to be. If it was, Twilence would be able to see the entire layout of the TSAB labyrinth. Because Seer of Void.”

“Why do you Skaians have to be so… esoteric and inconsistent?”

“One, not a Skaian, not a ghost, never actually died. I’m a Gem-spirit hybrid. Two, because it, like, makes things more interesting, I think.”

Giorno cleared his throat. “We do not have time to argue about this.”

“…Really?” Monika said, raising an eyebrow. “Because I’m pretty sure O’Neill, Nanoha, and the others are the ones making all the war decisions there. We’re not actually doing anything.”

“Then what’s the point of this meeting?”

“Exactly my golden-donut haired friend!”

Eve shook her head. “Everyone, stop arguing. We’re keeping ourselves informed, that’s what’s important.” She pressed a few buttons, dispelling the all-but-useless map of the TSAB labyrinth, and replaced it with a larger map of the remaining multiverse. “The latest report says that both sides of the Collection have fallen into disarray. They’re no longer able to mobilize properly and are effectively defeated. Their forces will still be within our armies, but they will have lost their fire and organization.”

Roxy sighed. “So… Just... God, this happens so often we’re totally numb to it. Just another one gone. Who’s next?”

“On our side the Kromagg and Paratimers are looking like they’ll be forced to pull back or risk complete societal collapse. The other side’s…” She paused, looking for the right word. “Smaller nations do not have the same problem. Phage Industries and the Shabanash are fighting strong and likely will until the last one of their soldiers die. The same can’t be said for the Starcross Society. With the loss of the Rebellious Star and the distancing of its leaders...” She shook her head. “…Look at what we’ve become, talking about the fall of societies like the weather.”

“Least we’re not the Class 1’s,” Roxy said. “They’ll still exist after they’ve fallen.”

“…Will they?” Eve asked, thoughts drifting to the other side of the conflict.

~~~

“…Amen,” Rev wrapped up a sermon. “Go in peace.” She said this with a smile, knowing that very few of the congregation would actually go in peace. The war, while still having barely touched most of Merodi Universalis’ core worlds, was a heavy drain on all of them.

Still, they had lives and jobs to get back to, so they filed out. A few came up to talk to her, and she did her best to give them the time they needed, but Rev knew she couldn’t talk to them all. She told a few she’d talk to them later, encouraging them to come by for a smaller group study she had been holding in the Church’s attic. She hated to admit it, but this was a mechanism to ensure she didn’t have to deal with too many people – a lot would just refuse to show up to a small group study session, talking themselves out of it.

She felt guilty about it, but hadn’t repented. Her job as Reverend had become more exhausting than ever before these days, and if she wasn’t careful about herself she would break. For all her reputation as the spiritual voice of the nation, she needed help.

She had some. Flutterfree had been convinced to give a sermon yesterday – though admittedly it was more of a testimonial - and Rev had put out a request to the rest of the church body in the multiverse to send some other Reverends to help her. She had no idea if they’d respond; presumably the rest of the Church was in just as much of a mess as her current slice. For now, she allowed herself to confide in the more devout members of her church, hoping that more than just a handful would be able to alleviate some of her strain.

As church closed, usually only her closest friends and followers would remain, as no others felt the right to stay behind longer unless they were having a spiritual experience. However, today was a little different. As Rina and Flutterfree walked up to her to begin their usual talk after the service, Rev held up a hoof. She wanted to have a moment with a surprising newcomer.

“Ambassador Valentine?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

Valentine shook his head. “Just Valentine now. I speak for no one.”

“You still have those loyal to you.”

“And I no longer speak for them,” Valentine said, folding his hands together. “I am just a man, after all. Nothing more than dust. Infinitely miniscule compared to the On High.”

Rev smiled softly. “Welcome back.”

“Back?” Rina blurted, revealing that she’d been eavesdropping. “He’s never been here!”

“I was referring to the Church in general,” Rev pointed out.

Valentine nodded slowly. “I don’t even know how long it’s been. I was raised in these buildings. But as I grew… I always told myself I lived my life in a holy way, the way of justice. That was enough. It wasn’t. It seems I’m only able to see that now that I’ve lost everything.”

Rina lit up. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a ri-” Flutterfree nudged her, shaking her head – now was not the time for that particular verse.

Valentine chose to ignore her. “There’s an irony to it, me being here. I have nothing, so I turn back to what I know.”

“He has a habit of getting to us in our lowest points,” Rev said. “I’m willing to be here for you.” Inwardly, a little part of her screamed in agony about having yet another person to think about. “The others are as well.”

Valentine nodded – the closest they were going to get to gratitude right now. Rev felt she should continue the conversation, but she sensed movement at the front door of the church and used that as an excuse to break it off. She told herself she’d talk to him later.

The thought quickly vanished when she realized who was coming through the doors. A fellow Reverend she knew – a tall golden lion with mane like the heavens themselves, the black collar of their shared denomination around his neck. Behind him were several other Reverends, though since they were all carefully arrayed behind him, there was no question that he was the top lion.

Rev recognized the slight adjustments in his collar – he outranked her in the hierarchy of her church. She nodded her head in respect as he walked up to her. “Brother Aslan, it has been too long.”

“Sister Glimmer, it is good to see you,” the great lion spoke with a deep, fatherly voice.

“I thank you for responding to my call.”

Aslan smiled warmly, turning to Flutterfree. “And you as well, Sister Flutterfree.”

Flutterfree took a moment to remember that she had been technically ‘ordained’ in the last week so she could help Rev. “Oh, right.” She nodded her head in much the same way Rev had, though it didn’t carry as much respect with it.

“I’m surprised you know about her already,” Rev said. “I hadn’t said anything about her.”

“I talked to some of your congregation on the way out,” Aslan admitted. “Such a wonderful group – if highly distressed. I can see why you needed help.”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Yes. But the area you occupy is very important. I’m surprised you didn’t call for us much sooner. Not because of your own stress – but to give more hands the ability to spread the Gospel and support our flock through trying times.”

“I sought a flexible, nonthreatening, and nonregimented approach,” Rev said. “Did I go too far?”

Aslan nodded slowly. “I believe so. Not by much – your work has been impeccable – but you should have expanded more. I understand you do not wish to be in the spotlight, but it is a bit late for that now.”

Rev nodded. “Of course. I’ll show you around.”

“That won’t be necessary quite yet,” Aslan said. “Take a break. You need it.”

Rev smiled. “Thank you, Aslan.”

Aslan nodded curtly and moved off to talk with others around the church, likely to get a better grasp on how things were done here. The other Reverends with him followed, a silent pack of observers.

“I don’t like this,” Flutterfree said.

“We’re structured, Flutterfree,” Rev pointed out. “We need the structure to know who the leaders are and whose words carry the most weight. I’m not the highest possible.”

Flutterfree narrowed her eyes. “I still don’t like it. What if he’s wrong about something? Or disagrees with you?”

“Flutterfree, you know those answers.”

“I do, I’m just trying to get you to think about it.”

“I for one like the idea of regiment,” Rina said. “Some of us need to be told what to do.”

Flutterfree glanced at the back of Aslan. “…Maybe.”

“You’re worried about change,” Rev said. “That’s okay. The only real change that happens is that I’m not the senior for all of Merodi Universalis. He is right, I do need the break.”

Flutterfree looked at her sadly. “…Yeah…”

“Flutterfree, everything’s going to be fine. I’m not asking you to agree with the hierarchy.” Her position as the lowest of the ordained means she gets leeway, anyway. “I’m just asking you to accept it as my will for this church.”

Flutterfree forced a smile. “Okay. Now h-”

The doors to the church flew open violently and a small, black, imp-like woman walked in. Out of her head grew a ponytail that served as a limb, and she had piercing yellow eyes.

There was a gaping gash in her side dripping dark sludge.

“…Midna!?” Flutterfree gasped – barely recognizing the face she hadn’t seen in decades.

Midna fell over onto the church floor, moaning.

“Stand back,” Aslan said, lifting up a paw in preparation to heal her.

“STOP!” Rina blurted. “She’s a Twili – a creature of darkness! Divine power will kill her!”

Alsan took his paw back. “Do we have a wielder of the dark here?”

Rina rolled her eyes. “Please, have you looked at me?” She trotted over to Midna and touched her horn to the wound. A dark sludge mixed with numerous metal shards erupted from the horn, embedding themselves in Minna’s side. The metal shards were decidedly painful, making the Twili cry out, but after a few seconds the gaping wound was completely healed.

Midna sat up, rubbing her head. “Well, that was interesting to feel.”

“Child, why are you here?” Aslan asked.

Midna ignored him, turning instead to Flutterfree. “We’ve got a problem. Ardent hasn’t been taking your little war very well.”

Flutterfree’s frown deepened. “...Makes sense.”

“The forces of Ardent are mobilizing, telling themselves that it’s their duty to attack you. End the people who are destroying everything.”

Valentine laughed. “What are they going to do?”

“Open portals using technology salvaged from Link’s tomb?” Midna suggested. “I… I just came from there. It’s been raided. I… I don’t know who’s alive or dead.”

“What should we do?” Rina asked.

“Call Eve.” Flutterfree pulled out her phone and called Eve. She filled her in on the situation.

Eve thought for a moment. “I don’t think Ardent can do much to us.”

“They could portal right to this world,” Midna muttered. “Even with all your fancy toys they’d still kill some people.”

“Right, right…” Eve sighed. “I’ll have to put some alerts in, move some people around. It’ll take a while, but I think I can send a team through to take care of them…”

“Why can’t we just go?” Flutterfree asked. “There’s enough people here to form a makeshift team.”

“…Are you okay with that, Flutterfree?”

Flutterfree nodded. “Yes. I’m okay with it. Hopefully it won’t take too much of a show of power to get them to stand down. I could probably do it alone, but I won’t.”

“Okay. I trust you. Consider yourselves Ambassadors. You’d technically part of Relations, not Expeditions. I’m sure Daniel would let you go, but he’s busy and so is Storm.”

“Got it. Ambassadors.” Flutterfree smiled. “I’ll let you get back to work. See you tonight.” She hung up. “Okay, we’re going out. Rina, you’re with me.”

“M-me?”

“Yes, you. You could be helpful. Valentine, I think you could make a great Merodi Ambassador.”

Valentine seemed reluctant – but ended up shrugging and just going with it.

Flutterfree turned to Rev. “What about it – instead of stressing yourself about the church, you can come with us and try something else?”

“…My rational side says I should be relaxing. But the other side says I haven’t actually been on a real adventure in eons.” Rev turned to Aslan.

“Go, Sister,” Aslan encouraged. “It is no sin to seek fulfillment, so long as the Lord is in your thoughts along the way. We can take care of things while you are away.”

Rev grinned. “Right, let’s go, makeshift church-service team!”

“Ooh, we could give ourselves a name!” Rina said. “Like, uh… Templars!”

“Rev’s Revolvers,” Flutterfree suggested.

Rev shook her head. “No. We’re the Fishers.”

Valentine summoned D4C – clearly ready to take them all to another universe. They unofficially accepted Rev’s choice of name and left via D4C.

~~~

Pidge shoved the rest of Pinkie’s Party into the side dimension she spent most of her free time in – the Laboratory. The universe itself was a flat expanse of gray under a near-black sky. There was nothing whatsoever in the distance, but in the area they occupied there were several hundred lab benches, crates filled with exotic technology, and more than a few piles of magitech scraps.

“Huh, I don’t think I’ve been here before,” Nova said. “Weird.”

“Not really, you aren’t the science type,” Vriska pointed out.

Nova pointed at her hoof screen. “Uh, I kinda have to be?”

“Not with Pidge around you don’t.”

“She’s taking your job,” Jotaro said with a smirk.

Nova put a hoof on her chest and gasped in mock horror. “Oh no, she gets to do all the geeky stuff, how will I ever survive this wave of immense jealousy?”

“By forgetting about it, probably.”

Pidge looked up at Jotaro. “Hey, Jojo, good to see you doing better.”

Pinkie nodded. “I second this!” She pulled Jotaro into a hug.

“Yare yare daze…”

Vriska let the moment go on for a few seconds out of respect, but she still had to interrupt it. “Ahem. Why are we here?”

Pidge grinned, adjusting her glasses in such a way to reflect the light and block their view of her eyes. Pinkie muttered something about ‘anime glasses’ as Pidge launched into a big speech.

“As you know, I had this space requisitioned from Corona and the others for a gigantic military project that would assist us in fighting the Living Tribunal and the Shaping Mechanism. I’ve had a team of hundreds of scientists and engineers seamlessly integrating technology from all our allies together into an excellent weapon. A weapon that is basically the coolest thing in existence.”

“Where is it!?” Vriska demanded, salivating at the thought of the weapon.

“Behind you.”

They turned and saw five gigantic robots, each a different dominant color, their size comparable to that of large hotels. The joints of all the robots glowed with a powerful purplish energy while their eyes shone with a brilliant green.

Each robot was slightly different – a green lion, a white whale, a blue spider, a purple raven, and a pink horse.

“Fuck me…” Vriska said, jaw hanging open. “Did you just make us a fucking combination mecha?!”

“Have you forgotten my source material? Shame.” Pidge rolled her eyes. “Yes, I built us a ‘combination mecha’.”

“Dibs on the spider.”

“That’s not how it works. I designed one for each of us specifically. I mean, yeah, the spider is yours, but if you’d wanted another one it would just reject you.”

“What’s it combine into?” Nova asked.

“Human. As all combination mecha do,” Jotaro observed.

“Jojo’s right. And before you complain about me being specist or something, humanoid forms are the easiest to make work as a combination. Four limbs and a center. Yes, Pinkie, you’re the center.”

“Yaaaay!” Pinkie cheered.

“What are we calling it?” Vriska asked. “Mega-megazord? Voltron 2?”

Pidge glared at Vriska. “That’s in poor taste.”

“…Sorry.”

“Mhm. No, not those names. I’m thinking… Final Dawn.”

“Hmm… Cheesy, overdone, a bit ham-fisted…” Pinkie chuckled. “Perfect! We are the pilots of the Final Dawn! Schweet!” She bounced over to her horse robot. “I’m checking it out!”

“Yeah, we should run some practice runs before we head into the labyrinth,” Pidge said. “Get used to how it works.”

“Hey,” Nova said, pointing to a pile of scrap that looked half-formed into a light blue robot. “What’s that?”

“Oh, that. When Renee showed up I started building a sixth, for her, since she was part of the Primary Team once. She said she didn’t want it. They would have formed the wings. But we don’t need them.”

“…Should I go check on her?” Nova asked.

Jotaro shook her head. “I spoke with her recently. She just doesn’t want to fight anymore. She’s holding herself together admirably.”

Pinkie poked her head out of her robot horse. “Uh… Yeah, Jotaro? She’s not doing that great. I’ve already got plans to cheer her up later. Nova, you can join me on that when we’re done here.”

“Got it,” Nova said with a smile. “So, I get the raven right?”

Pidge nodded. “I’m the lion and Jotaro’s the whale. I was originally going to say it was a dolphin but it just got too bulky. Sorry, I tried.”

Jotaro adjusted his hat. “It’s okay. I can be Moby Dick.”

Vriska snickered.

Pidge blinked. “…Quiznak, I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Moby Dick, the unstoppable whale…” Nova grinned. “We’re going to be so awesome. Together we can face the Living Tribunal with this, right?”

“These robots are endowed with so much reality-bending material I’m not sure the Void could do much to them at close proximity. This is a feat of multiversal engineering on an unprecedented scale, focused on the hulls of these beautiful be-”

“Just tell us how to use them already,” Vriska interrupted.

“Oh, well, first you get in, and th-”

Pinkie was already running her horse-mech around, causing tremors. “WHEEEEE I’M SO BIG! AND BOUNCY!” She twisted slightly, forcing the Mech’s body to move like a piece of rubber. “Oh that’s so cool!”

“Yep! The robots have been designed for each of you, specifically to be able to tap into your abilities and use them. I really have to hand it to Twilence, she gave us very good instructions on how to balance the ka manipulation with practical and magical effects. We should be able to take down higher gods with this thing!”

“Everyone, get in your robots! Prance with me!” Pinkie shouted.

“Whales don’t prance,” Jotaro observed.

“Try anyway. That’s an order,” she giggled.

~~~

“How did you deal with it?” Renee asked, slumping at the bar of the Raven Hotel. She hadn’t actually drunk anything – she really wasn’t in the mood – but it was the best place to talk to people within the Hotel’s lobby. She was currently staring at a tarot card she had found – The Tower, labeled ‘incorrectly’ as card XIX. Nineteen.

“Well,” Poe began. “I began my time here a-”

“Poe, stop interjecting yourself into conversations that aren’t directed at you, okay?” Timpani asked, raising an eyebrow.

Insipid, the only other person at the bar at the moment, let out an amused – but bitter – snort. “Like he’ll ever do that.”

Poe, feigning personal affront, dissipated his holographic form and gave the three of them the illusion they were alone.

Timpani turned back to Renee. “To answer your question, I didn’t have the same problem as you. I just agreed with my husband.”

“Surely you had doubts?” Renee said, laying the card on the bar top.

Timpani nodded, a warm smile on her face. “Who wouldn’t? He was going to do the very thing that marked him as a villain for so long ago. ‘The destruction of all worlds, and a new world in their place’. There’s no difference.”

“His heart is in a different place.”

“True. He’s not acting out of pain this time. But discussing my husband won’t help you – we were able to come to an agreement and I support the cause fully now. Your situation isn’t the same. Daniel’s mind has been corrupted.”

“Here’s some irony!” Insipid said, sitting up taller. “He was corrupted by Corona and fights against Corona! Isn’t that something?”

“Dear…” Renee said, shaking her head. “It’s a painful irony I wish I could cure. But I can’t. And I was forced to choose.” She looked into the distance. “If I was to stand by his side I would have needed to want Corona dead. I couldn’t.” She leaned back against the bar, shaking her head. “Now I can’t do anything.”

“…And?” Timpani asked.

“Honestly it’s a relief. The ponies here just care that I am here; I’m not encouraged to go fight. I just told Pidge to stop building my robot thing and she stopped. Simple as that.”

“Lucky you, cha,” Insipid said.

“I’m under no illusions that Corona and my niece aren’t pulling strings for me,” Renee admitted. “It just feels nice to have ponies around me again.” She shook her head. “I’m so done with this war.”

Insipid nodded slowly and looked at the ground.

Jolyne walked up to the bar and sat down. “Poe, something strong that’ll be over quick.”

Poe appeared for a moment to give Jolyne a ‘clock-buster’: a red drink infused with time-slowing agents that gave an immense feeling of euphoria, accelerated to be done in a few seconds. He shot Timpani a look and vanished again.

Jolyne downed the thing in one shot. The force of the drink knocked her out of her chair, dropping her to the ground. A smile appeared on her face for a few seconds, followed by a short moment of annoyance. She sat back up and looked at Renee. “So.”

Renee adjusted her glasses. “Dear, was that…”

“I’m not sure if I should be mad at you or not,” Jolyne said, fidgeting with the table.

Renee knew exactly what she was talking about. “…Jolyne, he asked me directly. It’s what he wanted.”

“Fuckin’ Sylph of Mind,” Jolyne muttered. “Maybe I should be mad at him…”

Renee didn’t have a response to that one.

“…Either of you going to let us in on this sideways conversation?” Insipid asked. “Because you’re being lame right now.”

“It’s not something to discuss publicly,” Renee said, adjusting her mane.

Insipid grunted. “Just like all the rest…”

I walked up to the bar. “Insipid, Jolyne, I’m taking you with me on the mission, if that’s all right.”

“Sure,” Jolyne muttered.

Insipid lit up with a deranged smile. “Another chance to bust some skulls of the faceless enemy? Sure, count me in!”

Renee twitched at the use of ‘enemy’. It had become decidedly taboo to refer to the other side that way among the Merodi and Void. I chose not to reprimand Insipid for it, though I did shoot her a disappointed look. I continued with my announcement. “Glad to have you on board.”

“Team!” Mite blurted, announcing his presence at the tip of my horn.

Jolyne and Insipid paid him no attention – as did most people, now.

“Silence…”

I nodded to Renee with a smile. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry for all that you’re going through. I wish I had time to sit with you.”

“Don’t worry, I understand,” Renee said, waving a dismissive hoof. “Go on your mission. I’ll probably spend some time with Corona while you’re out. …She is staying, right?”

I nodded. “She’ll probably be busy managing everything, though.”

“She has a way of juggling it all together.”

“That’s our Corona.” I winked at Renee – and teleported myself, Jolyne, and Insipid away.

Timpani put a hand on Renee’s shoulder. “…Renee, what was Jolyne all upset about?”

Renee stood up, her back to Timpani. She had the Tower card levitated in front of her eyes. “I…”

“If I’ve overstepped…”

“You haven’t.” Renee shook her head. “I’m the Sylph of Mind. I can bring minds to a better place.” She glanced back, looking Timpani in the eyes. “I cured Jotaro’s crippling grief.”

She pocketed the tarot card of the Tower and walked off.

~~~

Allure, Squeaky, Thrackerzod, Bot, and Burgerbelle were hiding inside a cubic cloaking device, watching the battle unfold around them. They were in subring eight of the TSAB labyrinth, tasked with guarding the dimensional scrambler located within this reality. The reality in question was a universe the size of a single planet covered in seemingly random dungeons reminiscent of Hell itself.

Before the fight had started, there had been a lot of chatter among the Merodi trying to identify which ‘roguelike dungeon crawler’ they were going to be fighting in. No consensus had been reached when the attacks started and the entire conversation was completely forgotten.

The League of Sweetie Belles could not see any of the dungeons below, nor the deepest depths of the world where the actual scrambler was held. They were on the dark, murky surface of the world where nothing lived.

Lived. Past tense. There were certainly things alive there now, mostly from the crashing spaceships. The gargantuan behemoths of the Starcross Society had difficulty moving around in this world and were downed to the planet’s surface somewhat easily, though the crashes opened up the crust of the earth, allowing the forces to pour into the dungeons below.

The demonic creatures that spawned in this world realized that they were nothing compared to a full assault. Their role as convenient guardians was now moot.

“We should be out there,” Thrackerzod said. “Not sitting here with our tails between our legs.”

Squeaky held up a hoof. “We need to wait for the right time to strike. The planet is keeping them from the core for now, and they don’t want to risk throwing this universe into the Sea now. Sooner or later, they’re going to send a high-value target. Then we will strike.”

“Alushy needs help!” Bot blurted, pointing out at a battle taking place in the distance. The dark, massive form of unleashed Alushy was easily visible against the slew of other soldiers. She was doing fine against them, but she was not doing fine against the tag team of Thanos and Nae. The Mad Titan took Alushy’s hits and barely flinched while the Ga’s impressive weapon disintegrated parts of the vampire-pony with burning fury.

“Tactical mistake,” Squeaky said. “Thanos and Nae are already weakened.”

“How is Thanos not a high-value target!?” Allure blurted.

“In the traditional sense, yes, but since when could he be the hero?”

Allure blinked. “…Right.”

“You didn’t know that was what she was talking about? Wow.” Burgerbelle shrugged. “We need one of the big heroes. Li-”

Thanos pulled an immense punch through Alushy’s core, forcing her to revert to her pony form. Alushy said something the League couldn’t hear – probably some inappropriate, yet amusing quip. Nae threw a capture device and pulled the vampire pony away from the fight.

Allure tensed. “Alushy…”

“A great warrior,” Squeaky said with a sigh. “I was hoping she had enough in her to make it out. I guess not.”

“Thanos and Nae are unsuspecting,” Allure said. “If we ju-”

A smaller Starcross ship crashed into the world, depositing two white unicorn mares – Lady Rarity and Scarcity. The two nodded to each other and jumped down the crack of earth they had just made.

“They’ve got a plan,” Squeaky said. “They’re our target. Thrackerzod?”

Thrackerzod nodded, teleporting the five of them to the third level of the planet, catching the two Raritys in the middle of drilling a hole.

With a gesture of her head, Squeaky gave all the orders she needed to. Allure and Bot took on Scarcity while Thrackerzod and Burgerbelle faced Lady Rarity. Squeaky took her position a fair distance away and supported with long-range spells.

There were demon-esque blobs of pulsating flesh around, trying to kill all of them. They were essentially pointless in this scenario.

Scarcity lit her horn, sidestepping Allure and moving purposefully into Bot’s line of fire. She caught the robot’s complicated mixture of rockets, lasers, and traditional bullets in her magic and sent them right back at her. Bot deflected most of them, but a few of the rocket shockwaves made her lose her footing.

Allure summoned her power of Heart, augmenting it with carefully calculated magic movements. She pushed off the ground, sparks flying from the contact her hooves had with the ground. Her very spirit cut toward Scarcity, aiming to cut the unicorn through the chest.

Scarcity smirked. “So predictable.” She created a magical portal behind her and in front of her, prompting the power of Heart to pass right through her and hit Bot. The mechanical filly’s face split open, revealing wires and sparking gizmos. She fell backward, front hooves over her face and screeching in a monotone.

Allure knew Bot could be fixed, as always, so she didn’t relent. She pulled her Heart back, cutting at Scarcity from the side. She jumped to the left, only for Squeaky’s magic missile to hit her in the side, flinging her onto her back. Allure poised her Heart high and drove the invisible spirit down.

Scarcity must have been able to sense it with her magic, because she caught it in her telekinesis. She smirked, twisting the Heart to the side. Allure used the force to twist herself over Scarcity and ram her back leg into the mare’s stomach, pushing as much extra magic as she could into the motion. There was a crack in Scarcity’s spine.

The Starcross Society’s main mare glowered, annoyed that she had to divert some of her magic to getting her back legs to move properly. She didn’t let the pain deter her – she had a mission, and she was Scarcity. Some filly wasn’t going to stop her. She teleported behind Allure and summoned a cutting disc with her magic.

Allure jumped into the air and tapped the disc with one of her back hooves, using it as a springboard to fly higher into the air. Scarcity took this as an opportunity to fire a disintegration beam. Allure caught the power not with a magic shield, but with her hoof, carefully channeling the energy through her body and back out another one of her legs.

Scarcity realized slightly too late what was happening. She tried to twist out of the way, but the vaporizing energy still hit her. The legs on her left side were reduced to cinders and half her face was charred. She flew to a nearby wall and hit hard enough to crack her shoulder.

She coughed. “Dammit… This was not how I –GAH- wanted to be captured.”

Allure’s expression darkened. She summoned her Heart and cut a gash across Scarcity’s side.

“GAH! What the hell!?”

Allure drove a spike into her side.

Scarcity’s pupils dilated not from the pain – she could handle that – but from a realization. “Wh… Why?”

“You look like her,” Allure deadpanned.

“What does that ha-” Allure stabbed her in the tongue, ending the talking. She cut again, this time across one of Scarcity’s legs.

“ALLURE!” Squeaky shouted.

Allure cut again.

“ALLURE!”

She raised her Heart, cutting the slightest bit off Scarcity’s horn.

Squeaky leaped next to Allure and slapped her across the face. “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?”

Allure’s impassive expression switched directly to rage. “Tell me she doesn’t deserve this!”

“She. Doesn’t. Deserve. This.”

“I guess you just can’t see it then. Can’t see her. That face!”

“We don’t have time for this,” Squeaky muttered, pulling out a capture device.

Allure stabbed Scarcity in the brain before Squeaky could do anything, ending the unicorn in an instant.

Squeaky slapped Allure, sending her back a few steps. “You need to follow Thrackerzod. Lady Rarity made a run for it.”

Allure, for the first time, realized that Lady Rarity wasn’t there. Burgerbelle was down, flat on the ground, while Bot was trying to repair her face with a welding attachment and wire snips.

Good. Another one.

Squeaky saw the look in Allure’s face as she teleported toward Thrackerzod’s signature but didn’t stop her. All she did was grimace.

Allure appeared next to Thrackerzod. “Where i-”

“Too late, fall back!” Thrackerzod said, lighting her horn. Allure got only a second to see what was happening. Lady Rarity had affixed a glowing green crystal on the pulsating heartlike form of the dimensional scrambler. They teleported away the same time Lady Rarity did.

Squeaky felt the explosion a second after they came back. “…She got it?”

“She got it,” Thrackerzod muttered, following up with an eldritch curse.

“Then we chase her down and make her pay!” Allure blurted. “She has to still be in the universe!”

“We are leaving the front,” Squeaky said, grabbing Allure by the neck. “You’ve gone too far off the edge.”

“Get off me.”

“No. I’m your military commander. You’ve become so reckless that you’re disrupting the unity in this group and going against our military policy.” She gestured at the disfigured corpse of Scarcity. “WE DO NOT DO THIS!”

“We didn’t betray family either,” Allure muttered. “Shouldn’t we be willing to do what they’ll do!?”

“Good god, you need therapy,” Squeaky said, shaking her head. “We’re leaving, that’s final.”

“You’re only the military commander,” Allure spat. “The League is not a despotism!”

“You’ve lost it and need help,” Thrackerzod said. “And that’s coming from me.”

Allure’s eye twitched. “Fine. We go home. I get sent to a therapist. In a time of war where we need to be giving every last ounce of o-”

Burgerbelle hit Allure over the head with a baton made of pillows. The enraged unicorn fell asleep immediately.

“Thanks,” Squeaky told Burgerbelle. “Thrackerzod, can you get us out?”

Thrackerzod nodded, teleporting them to an extraction point.

A short while later, a Rarity with a crescent-shaped scar wielding three swords at once passed Scarcity’s corpse by. She stopped her running in an instant to stare at her.

“...I had hoped…” She shook her head, cutting her statement short. She ran for the extraction point as well.

~~~

Rev sent out a quick prayer for the deceased.

Their group was standing over the ruins of New Termina.

“…Everyone?” Flutterfree cocked her head to ask the imp seated on her back.

Midna nodded. “Far as I know… everyone. Maybe some of Link’s kids got away, maybe not. I haven’t seen or sensed them since.”

“And they took all of Link’s devices…” Flutterfree shook her head. “I can’t believe I’d almost forgotten about this place…”

“What was it?” Valentine asked. “I understand that this is part of your history, but it is not a part I know of.”

“Ardent used to be one of the main worlds in the early days,” Flutterfree explained. “They refused to engage in Disclosure, wishing to keep the multiverse a secret. Then they found out – Twilence told us it was an Arcei, Rose, who told them – and the situation went downhill. We lost all contact with Ardent government and removed all our presence. The only connection we had to the world was Link and Midna’s visits, and even those stopped eventually.”

Midna sighed. “I know, for what it’s worth we’re sorry about that. …I know he would be.”

Flutterfree shook her head. “No need to apologize. You had families to care for. A legacy to watch.” She lifted her muzzle to the air and sniffed.

Rina looked at the destruction with an impassive expression. “This is all way too familiar to me.”

“I know. Don’t go back there,” Rev encouraged. “...We’re going to make this right.”

“Midna, where’s the seat of power for Ardent now?”

“Hyrule Castle,” Midna said. “The nations currently pay respect to the Goron-king Madir. He’s been stirring up the people ever since the Message. They want to march to war against the other worlds and bring them to their rightful place.”

“They’re idiots,” Valentine scoffed.

“Angry idiots with weapons,” Flutterfree said. She began to systematically remove the marble coverings of her wing blades, allowing the sharp protrusions to menacingly catch the light of the sun.

“Flutterfree…” Rev said, holding out a hoof.

“I don’t plan on using them,” she said, a slight purple glow coming to her eyes. “But they need to see the truth.”

Valentine looked at her, understanding. “You really could do this alone.”

“Use D4C to back me up. You all need to look powerful. Rina, that’ll come naturally. Rev, you’ll have to accept being feared. Midna, just point.”

Midna pointed. Flutterfree took off toward Hyrule at high speed.

Rina took off after her. Rev started teleporting herself and Valentine after them, muttering under her breath something that Valentine couldn’t make out.

Purple energy began to brim off Flutterfree as she tapped into the Rage within her.

Rage… Rage was a complex thing, she had come to understand. The Aspect she was given certainly stemmed from her inner anger she had always struggled with, but it was so much more than that. It was not raw, pointless rage – it had a purpose. In many ways, it was like the firebending of Elemental Four. Many of the firebenders resorted to using the anger within them to power their chi and unleash the flame, but a purer form of the art would come from passion, not anger. For anger was a distortion of passion.

The Aspect of Rage was much the same way, she had come to understand. It was not pure anger, not even an emotion – it was an outlook. An outlook on life rooted in dark, unfortunate, bloody truth.

And as a Page who knew this, she could emanate the deepest truth from within her like a beacon for all to see.

Rina felt it first – a deep dissatisfaction rising within her as the world revealed herself to her. You have been forgiven, but that doesn’t change what you’ve done. You’re still her. She popped a pill into her mouth, swallowing hard. She prayed in her head over and over that she wouldn’t blow it and start killing people.

Valentine felt it next. Your entire life was defined by your precious ‘Murica. Now it’s gone. Most of your accomplishments are void. Valentine scowled – he knew Flutterfree wasn’t even focusing on them. What would it feel like to actually be the recipient of this… beacon?

Rev felt it last. The truths shown to her were nothing she hadn’t thought of before. While the others ground their teeth and tried not to explode, Rev smiled. There is nothing new under the sun.

Flutterfree flew over the walls of Hyrule, broadcasting the Rage. No one shot at her – they knew they would regret it if they did. They could see her cutting them up in their minds. Some of them could feel the wounds from her wing blades.

Many broke down crying as they realized how hopeless a fight against her alone would be. How could they hope to do anything to their age-old enemies?

In the end, they walked right through the front doors of the castle, entering the throne room. Flutterfree’s eyes were solid purple and trails of the Rage’s energy swirled off of her as if blown by some unseen wind.

The Goron-king Madir dropped to his hands, a truly awkward position for his rocky race. “Please, spare us.”

Flutterfree nodded. “I will. I have no intention on following up on my threats so long as you behave. Your kingdom may yet survive.”

“Anything, anything.”

“Madir, I have something to ask you. In the aura of Rage, none can lie, none can hide.” Lolo erupted from behind Flutterfree, filling the area with a brilliant nexus of spirographs and mathematical waves. “Tell me, Madir, will you call off all plans of hostility?”

“Yes!”

“Will you make all the other nations stand down?”

“Yes!”

“Will they listen to you?”

“Yes!”

Flutterfree nodded, satisfied with this. “Madir, is there anything else you think we would like to know?”

“One of your own was helping us plan!” Madir blurted, starting to shiver in fear. “A Source!”

“Who was it?”

“Ava Jandice!”

Flutterfree’s eyes widened. “WHAT!? That’s… That’s TRUE! He doesn’t just THINK it is – I’d be able to sense an inconsistency there. Ava… Ava’s a traitor!”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Rina blurted. “She’s basically the head of Merodi!” The moment she said it, the Rage showed her how she was wrong – but Valentine explained it anyway.

“It fits her perfectly. She’s always been a mysterious individual with strong ideals who keeps her cards extremely close to her chest. She never lets anyone truly know who she is. She’s abstained at unusual times, refused to comment on the most innocuous of issues…”

“We have to tell Eve,” Flutterfree said. “Madir, we will have to cut this short. I choose to spare you. If your world does not listen, you will be held personally responsible.”

“Yes, yes…”

“THIS IS STUPID!” one of the guards said – overtaken by the Rage. He pulled out a legendary sword glistening with both fire and ice. He charged Flutterfree.

She sidestepped, tapped him on the back with one of her blades, and kicked with a hoof imbued with Rage. He was sent into a nearby wall.

Rina prepared her magic, ready to finish him off. Flutterfree stopped her by wrapping Lolo around her horn. “No.”

Rina gulped. “R-right…”

“Valentine, take us home,” Flutterfree said, at last allowing the Rage to dissipate.

D4C folded them away.

~~~

Okay, I messaged my teams telepathically. With the destruction of the scrambler, we have a chance to get at the core before they can further confuse its location. Minna’s moving in to provide us with ship coverage. Team A, you’re with me, look for an opportunity. Team B-

You mean Team P! Pinkie thought back.

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. How silly of me. Of course, Team P. Your job is to engage the Living Tribunal when he inevitably shows up – until then, make it look like you’re the main force driving for the center. Got it?

Got it! I could see her saluting in her childish way.

I smirked, turning to Team A – Jolyne, Insipid, Mite, and a man from the Void known as Cloud Strife. He was known as a standard ‘hero’ found across the Void universes, but I had my doubts his natural hero tendency would save him out here. Remember, stealth for now, I messaged them.

Like, Cha, Insipid messaged back.

Just lead the way, ‘Understander.’

I glanced at Jolyne with a frown. I had high hopes this mission would get her out of her defiant phase. But there was also a good chance she’d just keep being Jolyne, and I wasn’t so heartless as to overwrite her.

I led them through the many universes surrounding the TSAB labyrinth’s core, doing my best to follow the waves of ka and battle to find the actual center. It was likely to take some time, and if we hadn’t been working in the shadow of a much larger assault, we would have been spotted immediately.

As it was, my writing ensured they were completely occupied with Minna’s fleets – a combination of ships and high-power individuals, mostly Skaians.

Minna led the charge of the ships, with Feferi under her coordinating the efforts of her god-tier brethren. On the other side, there was mostly TSAB resistance with some Combine thrown in here and there, proving to be more than a match for the assault. Minna’s disadvantage was only heightened by the way the battlefield constantly changed – for deep within the TSAB labyrinth Nanoha was shuffling locations of universes to ruin the fleet’s coordination.

Luckily, Team P was there, ready to unleash their newest toy.

Five colorful robots filed out of Minna’s capital ship, the Conquest. Blue, white, purple, green, and pink in the shape of various animals, all able to move through the air of dimensions as easily as walking.

“Let’s get right to it!” Pinkie radioed the rest of her team. “FORM FINAL DAWN!”

The pink horse took center position. The four legs split into four pieces each, forming access points for the other four to combine. Pidge went first, tucking the front legs of her lion forward, using the back legs to integrate with one of the pink access points, forming the left arm. Her lion’s head roared, becoming a hand.

On the other side Nova’s raven affixed to the horse with its claws. It folded its wings over its head, forming thin, vaguely feathery fingers that sparkled with magic power. The great white whale of Jotaro split its tail to integrate as the right leg, the great flat head of the sea creature acting as the foot. Vriska moved in last, turning her spider upside down to affix her legs to the remaining access point, the spider body proper acting as the real foot.

The central horse began to change further. The head rounded itself out, taking a more human-like appearance – stern, powerful, and judging. The ears remained, looking more like those of a pony than a horse. The pink chest sprung to life with a brilliant core of energy that mixed all the colors together to form a brilliant magical white, indicating the synthesis of all five of their machines.

They struck a pose, lifting Final Dawn’s purple hand into the air, a spark of energy forming between the fingers.

Jotaro let out a laugh. “Yare yare daze… That was over the top.”

“Hey, combination mech transformations are cool!” Pidge retorted.

“We’ll skip it every other time,” Pinkie assured them.

“What are we waiting for?” Vriska blurted. “Let’s wreck their shit!”

“You said it!” Nova shouted, grinning.

“Final Dawn… blow up that TSAB cruiser!” Pinkie ordered.

They acted as one. Vriska laid her hand on her console, generating a larger version of the infinite-sided die in the hand of Nova. She twirled the die around a bit and threw it out into space. The TSAB cruiser saw the mech moving and fired – but Final Dawn had too much luck right now. What it lost, it regained with a glint of Light from its eye, stealing from the TSAB ship itself.

The attack activated at a scale a couple orders of magnitude larger than it normally would have, channeled through the mystical engineering found within the mech itself. A large sea-serpent made of macaroni and flaming cheese appeared in space and bit down on the TSAB ship, tearing it in half.

TSAB ships decided that Final Dawn was a huge threat, diverting fire from all the ships in the universe – and some from outside it – at the mech.

“Evasive maneuver subroutine, go!” Pidge shouted. “This won’t work for long!”

“I am glad we have inertial dampeners…” Nova commented, realizing that she was sitting in a hand that was changing direction sharply every few seconds.

“STAR PLATINUM!” Jotaro shouted.

The Stand resonated with the form of Final Dawn, appearing as a being just as large as the mecha. Star Platinum let out an ORA and punched a nearby Combine ship into nothingness.

“THE WORLD!” Everyone but Jotaro yelled.

Time froze – but all five of them remained active within the stopped time.

Nova fired off lasers at the handful of time-stop resistant foes with magic. “This is too easy.”

“Living Tribunal’s not here yet,” Pinkie said, giggling. “Pidge, I’ve got a hammer for you, grab it.”

Pidge’s arm reached behind Final Dawn’s back, pulling a giant space-age warhammer out of nowhere. Final Dawn jumped into the air, vanishing behind some debris from the TSAB ship – appearing in a completely different universe behind another capital ship.

The stopped time ended. “Hiya!” Pinkie said, winking. Final Dawn brought the hammer down on the ship, crushing its drive. The explosion sent ripples through spacetime, but the over-redundant reality anchors on Final Dawn kept it from feeling any of it.

“I’m never going to get used to our powers synthesizing like this,” Nova said. “I mean, seriously, Pinkie, how do all these words not drive you crazy!?”

“You don’t have to look at them y’know!” Pinkie said as they used a combination of Hermit Purple and luck-drain to destroy a Combine ship, knocking numerous other foes off their feet with the supernova.

“You’ve lived with the Awareness all your life! Even if it is diluted like this, I’m not just going to ignore it!”

“In other words, she’s too curious,” Vriska said.

“Hey, curiosity is a virtue!” Pidge said. “Awareness is one of the least understood things in existence, and when we’re together like this we get some idea of what it’s like.”

“So what you’re saying is you built this so you could know what Awareness was like?” Jotaro asked.

“…No…” Pidge said, launching a laser from her Lion that transformed a nearby ship into a mess of vines and leaves. “…Okay, yeah, fine, that was partially the reason. But hey, we’re a lot more powerful like this! Cutting through ships like they’re nothing!”

“We got an upgrade,” Pinkie said. “That doesn’t mean…”

“…We should get cocky,” Nova finished. Then she shook her head. “Geez, that intuition is weird.”

“Just wait until you get the Pinkie Sense!”

“Oh sh-”

Simultaneously, all five of them felt the Pinkie Sense. They had been lucky enough not to experience it in practice beyond the general ‘avoid incoming objects’ feeling. They had felt tails that didn’t exist twitch and hooves they didn’t have vibrate unusually combined with a flip-flopping stomach.

Now all of their bodies felt like they were twitching every which way while an influx of information they couldn’t understand entered their mind. It was almost like having a seizure with all the blinking, hiccuping, and hoof/wrist wringing.

“Quiznak!” Pidge swore. “That was…”

“Excellent!” Pinkie giggled. “It means we’re about to face some of their reinforcements!”

A TSAB dropship appeared, bays open – revealing dozens of giant mecha in the doors, some larger than Final Dawn.

“Of course, magical girl anime is closely related to mecha anime…” Vriska muttered. Then she facepalmed. “Holy fuck, Nova’s right, that’s weird.”

“These mecha aren’t Final Dawn though!” Pidge said. “We can take them!”

“One of them is your old mecha,” Jotaro pointed out. “Voltron.”

Pidge’s smile fell. “Oh…”

“Take care of them quickly and nicely,” Pinkie ordered. “Nova?”

“On it.” As the mecha rushed toward them, she picked out the multicolored form of Voltron, a humanoid mecha formed of five lions. There was presumably a Pidge on board, as well as versions of her long-lost team.

Nova borrowed a bit of Vriska’s luck-stealing to tip things in her favor. Then she sent a nullification spell at Voltron, disabling the machinery easily. The humanoid went limp and adrift.

“Good work!” Pinkie said. “Now, execute operation Frogger!”

Operation Frogger was both complicated and simple at the same time. They just had to jump from universe to universe in quick succession, effectively attacking from all sides. This was complicated due to different constants of spacetime, temporal distortion, and possible alien physics. Not to mention the possible interference of Nanoha or the Living Tribunal.

Final Dawn jumped through a portal to a world made of nothing but oranges. Pinkie somehow managed to grab some of these and start munching on them – depositing some in the various cabins of her friends as well. “These are delicious!”

“We know,” Jotaro said. Final Dawn twisted through another portal, looping back to the original universe and punching some Gundams with a mixture of Star Platinum and physical mecha punches. Final Dawn took a hit to the back from a much larger mech equipped with dozens of explosive weapons, but the damage was minimal.

Final Dawn turned around, opening a portal to the middle of a star, sending out a beam of nuclear fusion plasma into the explosion-loving mech. They closed the portal, dodging several smaller robots and shifting into another realm. A few mechs pursued into the world made of mobius strips and strange floating emoji. Nova grabbed them in her magic and drove them together for Pidge to tie up.

Jotaro just kicked them. “Hm. Maybe I should use Star Platinum’s legs…”

The army of little, lesser mechs were no match for them. It took only a handful of dimensional passes to reduce their number to nearly nothing. It was like cutting butter.

Pinkie groaned. “All right everyone, prepare for something completely and ridiculously OP.”

“Yare yare daze…”

A humanoid mecha apparently made of red skulls appeared, green fire billowing off its back.

It was larger than most galaxies.

“…Well, shit,” Vriska said, blinking. “Why haven’t they been using this in the war!?”

“Waiting for a rainy day,” Pinkie muttered, having to ‘cheat’ Final Dawn several million light years away just to avoid getting slapped by the mecha. “We need to defeat this thing quickly before it finds out how to use a horn drill or something.”

“I’ve got a list of its attacks from our Awareness!” Pidge said grinning. “It’s a Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann a-”

“And the TSAB could have retrofitted it, so that’s not all that helpful,” Nova said as they dodged a beam of stellar fire. “We need to think here. It’s too big to damage with conventional arms…”

Pinkie giggled. “Then we just have to get clever! Jotaro, the Passion! Vriska, start stealing luck! I’ll get us inside.”

The Passion touched the souls piloting the Gurren Lagann, allowing Vriska to get a better connection to their internal luck. The opposing mech began to move with more sluggish movements, the green fire flickering in and out.

And then Final Dawn was inside the Gurren Lagann. Nova didn’t even need to be told what to do – if the luck manipulation was right, they would be near a vital component. She opened a portal into the interior of a star, effectively unleashing a supernova. The chain reaction cascaded down the limb and would have destroyed Final Dawn had Pinkie not shifted out of there. The Gurren Lagann lost a leg.

And then a fist the size of a globular cluster smashed into Final Dawn.

“STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!” they all yelled, freezing time. That was a hefty hit, but Final Dawn was made from materials that defied reality. They moved back from the fist. Vriska summoned her sword into its hands, suddenly the perfect size for it.

“Let’s get the Living Tribunal’s attention, hmm?” Pinkie asked. “TIME! SPACE! LIGHT! BY YOUR POWERS COMBINED… TRIO FRAYMOTIF… THE PERFECT DIVISION!”

The sword flashed with red, white, and orange pulses of energy. They brought it down just as the time stop ended. The sword ripped through spacetime in the perfect way, driving a division of energy through the air and into the center of the Gurren Lagann.

The mecha split in half. The universe should have collapsed as well, but the Living Tribunal stepped in.

“It seems as if you insist this is to be between us. Very well. Pinkie Pie, Nova Glimmer, Vriska Serket, Jotaro Kujo, Pidge Holt, you have been judged. You will fall by my hand.” A softly glowing ball of blue and orange energy appeared in his hand.

“The Shaping Mechanism…” Pinkie said, smirking.

“I still want to know how he condensed it that small,” Pidge muttered. “Even if he is almost a god.”

Vriska grinned. “Oh, it looks like he’s not going to let his luck be stolen! This should be good.”

“This is what we were made for!” Jotaro shouted. “This is Final Dawn’s purpose!”

“ATTACK!” Nova shouted – a gleeful giggle behind her words.

They were having fun.

Final Dawn raised the sword, endowing it with all their powers – Awareness, Space, Magic, Time, Intelligence, Nature, Stands, Blood, Control, and Light. The blade came down on the orb that was the shaping mechanism, blocked by a holy energy from the Living Tribunal.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that!” all five of them shouted in synch. The blade pushed further and further into the barrier, nearing the shaping mechanism.

Suddenly, they all felt something in their connected spirits click. A tremendous pair of brilliant golden wings sprang out of Final Dawn’s back, brimming with soft holy power.

(Flutterfree dropped the phone with a yelp, her eyes flashing deep purple.

“Did Eve answer this time?” Rina asked.

“I… No. I think she’s with Roxy still but…” Flutterfree shook her head. “I’m… I’m connected to something now…”)

The sword of Final Dawn pierced the barrier, driving right through the shaping mechanism. The energy was too much to handle. The great shaping mechanism of Skarn fell apart as its multiversal structure was driven into irreconcilable halves.

The Living Tribunal backed away from them – he knew he was in trouble. As they were now, in full unity, there was nothing he could do.

“YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!” The five of them shouted.

(“No… You… Don’t!” Flutterfree shouted, spreading her wings and activating Lolo.)

Lolo appeared from Final Dawn’s wings, wrapping the mecha in green wire. The Stand’s normally weak power was gone; it was now a strong rope of imprisonment. Lolo awoke even more inherent abilities within the wings that should not have been built, increasing Flutterfree’s control over Final Dawn. She made the mech go as limp as possible.

“Flutterfree, come on!” Pinkie shouted. “We need to do this!”

(“The Living Tribunal will capture you alive if he can, and I’m giving him that opportunity!”

“What are you talking about?” Valentine asked.

“QUIET! I need to focus!”)

“Your strong connection… will be your downfall. Depressingly ironic.” the Living Tribunal observed. He drew back the fist that scared higher societies, ready to disintegrate Final Dawn. The punch landed, the first attack that did any real damage to the mech, forming cracks. The five within could do nothing.

“Flutterfree!” Nova wailed. “Come on!”

(“We are on opposite sides of this fight. This is what you wanted.”)

Pinkie’s grimace was quickly replaced with a smile. “You know what, you’re right! Good for you Flutterfree, you’re doing great!”

Final Dawn was hit again.

(“Ah. Thanks Pinkie. I’ll be sure to visit you in prison, okay?”)

“Getting a little ahead of ourselves, are we?” Vriska muttered. “We’re not down yet!”

(“You can’t escape Lolo under your own power, you should feel that. The Living Tribunal was right, it was our strong connection that brought you down.”)

“Flutterfree, if you’re really connected with us… You should be able to see what I see,” Pinkie giggled. “Take a look at how things are working. The way the story flows… There’s something you’ve forgotten about.”

(Flutterfree’s eyes widened. “Oh, sassafras, Lolo.”)

“Lolo reveals what’s hidden!” Nova said, blinking. “And that doesn’t just include her powers!”

“We may be stuck…” Pinkie said.

“But the wings were designed to be for someone else!” Pidge declared.

(Renee looked up from the Tower card with a sigh. “All right… I suppose it is my turn, isn’t it?”)

“How long have you been watching?” Vriska asked.

(“Long enough,” Renee admitted. “I’m sorry Flutterfree, dear, but I want them back here.”)

(“…Renee, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry we ignored you. We shouldn’t have done that. We should have respected you.”)

(Renee smiled warmly. “Flutterfree… If by some miracle we’re both still around when this is over… I… Well I don’t know what I’ll do, but I won’t hold any of it against you.”)

(“…Okay.”)

(“Now, TEAM! This is Overhead Renee Jackson of Expeditions speaking! We need to take out the other side’s primary advantage!”)

The wings of Final Dawn took on a white appearance. Lolo dissipated – and Final Dawn dodged the next punch. They were heavily damaged, a few pieces of advanced circuitry hanging out in dangerous places, but they were in one piece.

(“Trap the Living Tribunal in a sector of destabilized spacetime,” Renee ordered, smiling despite herself. “We can combine the luck-stealing from Vriska to affect the space around the Tribunal. Then we hit him with everything we’ve got!”)

Nova and Pinkie combined Space and Time to lock the Living Tribunal in place. They were suddenly stronger than before. “And your unity becomes a strength again.”

Lolo appeared behind Final Dawn again.

(“Flutterfree…” Renee warned.)

(“I… I’m not here to hurt,” Flutterfree said. “I know I can’t stop you. And that you’re going to win. So… I want to be here. With all of you. Just once more.”)

Pinkie let out a deep, joyous laugh. If she could, she would have been crying. “Flutterfree, you are the best pony in the multiverse!” The wings flashed to a mixture of yellow and white energy.

(Flutterfree blushed. “So you all keep saying.”)

“Let’s get this guy!” Vriska blurted. “Just one more hit!”

(“All together now…” Renee began.)

Final Dawn raised the sword.

“THIS IS THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!” all seven of them shouted at once. The sword went into the Living Tribunal, driving deeper powers into him. Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Integrity, Justice, Perseverance, Curiosity…

The explosion erased the universe in an instant, but Final Dawn was able to escape.

So was the Living Tribunal, in a weakened state. Kneeling on the featureless white ground of the universe they found themselves in.

Final Dawn took out a capture device.

“Don’t. I want to go the way of the One Above All. If I am meant to fall, it means the new world will be better without me. Finish what you started.”

Final Dawn lowered the capture device. “Is that what you want?” It spoke with the voices of seven.

“You know it is.”

“You have served existence well,” Final Dawn said. “It has been an honor.”

“I go with no regrets. As you should, when your time comes.”

Final Dawn raised the sword. “Go in peace.”

The sword was driven through the Living Tribunal’s body. The golden behemoth of a man was driven in half – and his particles dissipated into golden dust, blowing away in an invisible wind.

The unity of Final Dawn faded. Renee and Flutterfree became distant once again.

“…We need to fall back and get repairs,” Pidge said.

“Hope that was enough for Twilence,” Pinkie added.

“That was awesome… and not,” Vriska said. “I’m…”

“None of us are sure what to feel,” Nova said.

“We can talk about it on the way back,” Jotaro suggested.

This sounded good to them. Final Dawn flew to safer universes.

~~~

Eve blinked. “…What?”

Flutterfree rubbed the back of her head. “Do you need me to summarize…?”

“I… No, it’s just, geez, wasn’t expecting this from you today…” She glanced behind herself at Roxy and Monika. “Which one of you had me obfuscated? She clearly needed to get ahold of me! I might have had a connection to the team!”

“You were talking about very important plans concerning Starcross,” Roxy said, folding her arms. “We couldn’t let them know about that. And you know it.”

Eve sighed. “Right, right, I’m sorry. Roxy, call Giorno, get him here as soon as possible. Monika, find Ava Jandice and make sure she doesn’t run or figure out we know. …I never suspected her…”

“I think that’s kind of the point,” Flutterfree said. “If anyone important suspected, someone Aware would have been tipped off.”

“By the Tower’s doors…” Eve muttered.

“Giorno’s coming,” Roxy said, putting her phone away.

“How long?”

“This long,” Giorno said, walking out of a nearby portal. “Ava Jandice? Really?”

Flutterfree nodded. “Apparently she’s been riling up Ardent to plan an attack on Equis Vitis. It wouldn’t be effective from a war standpoint…”

“Morale would be crushed,” Roxy pointed out. “Equis Vitis has almost always been peaceful, safe, and happy. If an army marched on it, faith would be shaken.”

“Faith will be shaken when we take Ava out,” Giorno said.

“Let’s go,” Eve said, accepting this as the cost.

Roxy pulled out her phone – calling the Justice Division to prepare for an impeachment trial.

Eve opened a portal with Seraphim to the Hub, taking a moment to look at Flutterfree. “I’m not mad, by the way. If I knew I couldn’t do anything I probably would have done the same.”

Flutterfree smiled. “Thanks.”

“I’ll try to set aside some time for us to talk about it later. But right now…”

Roxy smiled. “Monika’s got Ava’s coordinates.” She held up her phone to Eve. The alicorn lit her horn and performed a point-to-point teleport, dropping the four of them in Ava’s office in the Labor Division. Her Second, none other than Chancellor Fluttershy from Equis Concrete, jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of the four of them.

Ava sighed. “So, I’ve been found out then?”

Chancellor Fluttershy glanced at Ava with wide eyes. “Found out? Ava, what did you do?”

Flutterfree activated her Rage in a lesser, more controllable form. “She has been feeding the militant side of Ardent with information to unleash an attack on Equis Vitis. I’ve stopped it. No attack will be happening.”

“Instead we finally get to get rid of you!” Roxy said, clapping. “I mean, I never thought you were a traitor, but you were kind of annoying.”

Eve looked at Ava. “I tried to be your friend, Ava. I tried to get to know you. But you never let me. Is this why?”

“Indirectly,” Ava admitted, somehow managing to look just as calm as usual. “I knew that, one day, there would come a time we made a wrong decision. One I couldn’t just let go. I had hoped we could vote for collapse, but I couldn’t take the risk of publicly declaring my support for it.”

“You’re supposed to be honest, Ava!” Eve blurted. “We’re not an obfuscating mess of policy!”

“You don’t know how to play the game,” Ava chided. “Even in our system, politics and appearance are everything. It may not be the crippling clusterbomb the USM had, but we are still a government. And all government depends on the perception of the people and the others with power.” She sat back in her chair. “Originally I was just going to live with the decision.”

“What changed your mind?” Giorno asked.

“The erasure of Earth Stand,” Ava said, a bitter expression surfacing through her carefully-maintained expression.

Eve’e expression softened. “Family?”

“Family I had tried very hard to keep far, far away from the dangers of the multiverse,” Ava said, folding her hands. “I had even arranged for them to be protected in a bunker. Except the bunker hadn’t been completed when the Gallifreyan time shift hit.”

“I’m sorry Ava, I di-”

“Stop trying to empathize,” Ava said. “You have no idea what it’s like to lose your family in a single moment.” She glanced at a clock on the wall. “Yet.”

Flutterfree’s pupils dilated. “Ava, what did you do!?”

Ava glared at them. “Did you really think I’d only have one plan? I didn’t get to where I was by putting all my eggs in one basket. There was a backup. In less than a minute the Twili will unleash one of our own weapons on Equis Vitis.”

Flutterfree trembled. “N-no…”

~~~

We’d already lost Cloud.

I was not surprised in the slightest, nor was I surprised it had happened off-screen, but it was still a reminder of how brutal existence could be.

But the larger TSAB army still didn’t know about us. The destruction Final Dawn had meted out to the TSAB labyrinth was still being repaired, and the once-insignificant fleet had turned into Minna’s deadly attacking force. They were too close to the labyrinth’s center for the TSAB’s comfort.

We were closer. Much closer. It wouldn’t be much longer before we were within the universe that led to the mysterious Tower Ring submerged in an endless ocean. All we had to do was sever the TSAB Gate’s connection to the ocean realm and the Ring would fall into the Sea of Infinite Possibility, ceasing to exist.

This was easier said than done. I didn’t know for certain, but I suspected the Gate doubled as a TSAB superweapon of some sort. We wouldn’t know for sure what we would face until we got there. I wasn’t willing to risk losing the flow of ka to try and retroactively define the Gate with my words. I allowed it to remain a mystery.

We’re close, I told them. Jolyne and Insipid nodded in response, staying quiet. Prepare for heavy resistance.

The very next portal I opened took us to the center – where we found almost no resistance. We stood on top of an octagon-shaped platform with a handful of computer terminals spread along the edges, each displaying holographic interfaces that could be used to alter the arrangement of the TSAB labyrinth, albeit not as finely-tuned as the shaping mechanism. The background was dominated by an endless sea of nebulous blue clouds.

There were supposed to be several dozen TSAB mages here scrambling the TSAB labyrinth. Instead, there was only one – Nanoha Takamachi herself, standing at the far side of the platform.

Behind her was the Gate. Through the Gate was the Tower Ring submerged in water.

A completed Tower Ring. A perfect donut of white metal the size of Neptune, glowing with soft blue and purple sparks. I could see energy building up within its center, no doubt preparing to connect to the Dark Tower and complete the goal of preservation.

I wasted no time – I lit my horn and tapped into the universal-level spells I had at my disposal. I aimed a destabilizer toward the Gate, planning to destroy the ocean universe on the other side in one fell swoop. It was a rash, on-the-spot decision. No doubt there were better plans, but it was the first one that popped into my head.

To my immense disappointment, the Gate revealed itself to be a selective Gate. It reflected the energy back. The dimensional ripples interfered with the Tower Ring’s translation – a complex procedure, when trying to translate to a location around the Dark Tower – but they had a much worse reaction with the universe we were in. Tears appeared in reality. Had the reflection been perfect, the universe would have fallen with all of us inside it.

As it was, the ripples and tears continued to shake the universe’s foundation, but everything held.

Nanoha pointed Raising Heart at us. “We cannot use our full power here, Twilence. The universe is falling apart at the seams. One wrong explosion and we all die.”

“The Gate won’t survive,” Jolyne said.

“And if you can’t translate your Ring, your universe will fall into the Sea,” I added. “If this universe is destroyed, you lose.”

“Then destroy it. With yourselves in it.” Nanoha narrowed her eyes. “You currently cannot leave this universe by any means other than the Gate.”

She called my bluff. And she was right. I wasn’t willing to destroy this universe with us in it – yet. If it came down to it…

I teleported behind Nanoha and drove a magic blade through her chest. She didn’t even flinch at the blood from the gaping wound. Her magic erupted from her body, carefully forming an explosion behind me so I would be tossed further from the Gate.

Jolyne saw this as an opportunity, shooting Stone Free out toward the Gate, believing she could pull herself through. The moment Stone Free’s threads touched the physical Gate, the TSAB device activated its automatic defense systems. A feedback loop of energy was run through Stone Free to Jolyne, burning her very soul. She fell back, dazed.

Nanoha and I continued to blast away at each other, both very careful not to aggravate the already disturbed universe. This demoted what should have been a battle worthy of shattering galaxies to something far more pedestrian and conceivable.

I guess you already got your over-the-top power level battle with Final Dawn, huh?

Eventually, Nanoha and my beams of energy met. We were capable of producing much more power, but we couldn’t let ourselves go too far or else everything would be destroyed. Should I dial up the energy to try and make Nanoha chicken out and run? Or should I cut mine and hope she couldn’t hit me?

Usually in battles, I’m always certain I’m the good guy, and can make decisions based on that. I can see the result a few steps ahead of time more often than not, and I can move around that.

Right then, I had nothing. I was fighting the White Devil, hero and face of the entire TSAB, someone I had called a friend on more than one occasion. And I was the Bearer of the Eye of Rhyme, the mare destined to understand what Awareness meant. In that respect, we were equals. Figures of great importance to this story we found ourselves in.

In the end, I didn’t have to decide. Insipid came flying up to the battle, hoof pulled back.

“Oh thank the T-”

She punched me across the face, throwing me to the side. The surprise made me shoot wild, allowing Nanoha to get a heavy hit on me. I fell to the platform, mane and coat smoking. “Wh – what!?”

“NANI!?” Jolyne shouted, seeing what had happened. “Insipid, what the fuck!?”

Insipid summoned a notebook identical to mine with her magic and let out a bitter laugh. “You know, I always thought we’d be remembered as heroes, y’know? Didn’t matter what happened in the end because we were going down in the history books.” She looked into the distance.

“Insipid, you weren’t meant to have that power!”

“Like, relax, I’m not asking the big questions! I just wanted to see! …Oh look at that.” Her false cheerful tone dropped like a stone. “Crushed inside a capture device. Insignificant. Glossed over. Not even named. Like nothing.”

Jolyne paled. I bit my lip. “Insipid, now’s not the ti-”

“We won’t be remembered at all,” Insipid declared. “Or, well, maybe you will. But the rest of us throwing our lives away? NOTHING! So, like, sorry, but no.” She set a pen to the notebook. “You’re going to lose, Twilence.”

“Frick,” I pulled out my notebook – but Nanoha shot at me, preventing me from writing anything complex down. Insipid was certainly an idiot, but with my powers, the Eye would supplement a lot of that idiocy, giving her the knowledge she needed. I could only hope there was a hole in her reasoning somewhere.

Jolyne rushed forward, activating both Stone Free and a special weapon I had given her just for this occasion. The Stand wrapped around Nanoha while the weapon fired numerous transreality blades into the White Devil, forcing more blood out of her.

Nanoha didn’t care. She continued attacking me, despite the injuries, which were rather severe at this point. Insipid shot Jolyne with a stray attack.

She should have been able to dodge. She didn’t.

The power of a Prophet.

I needed a very simple counter-story to slip by Insipid – one I could write while being on the defensive against Nanoha without ruining reality…

I saw that I couldn’t. I was trapped. I could not win here; against the two of them, as they were now, I would fall. Could I find a way to use that? Turn a defeat into a victory?

The Tower Ring was ready to translate again. I had to try it – I pulled out my notebook and wrote a single sentence, letting Nanoha hit me dead on. My right side compressed, pulverizing two of my legs and one of my wings, snapping my ribs in dozens of places. I fell to the ground, down.

“You wrote something!” Insipid shouted, appearing right in front of me. “Tell me what it was!”

I let out a bitter, painful laugh and gave her an honest answer. “Mite hacked into the Gate.”

“…Shit, I forgot about him.”

“Astalavista!” Mite crowed from his position in the Gate. He activated its weapons, firing at the Tower Ring. Nowhere near enough to destroy it, but enough to disrupt the complex translation.

Nanoha twitched. “HIGH POWER…”

“Nanoha what are you doing!?” Insipid blurted. “We ca-”

“Destruct!” Mite declared.

Nanoha stopped charging her last-ditch attack. She had hoped she’d be able to give the Tower Ring a boost of energy at the last minute, but she didn’t have enough time to try that now. The Gate was ready to explode.

With her and Insipid fixated on the cascade of destruction coming at them, I was free to take up my notebook.

Nanoha increased her grip on Raising Heart. In their connection, they had a deep, sinking feeling – they had been so close. Had Twilence and the others arrived but a minute later, everything would have worked out.

But that chance was gone. The Gate was going to explode, the Tower Ring would be lost, and they would be as well if they didn’t think of something.

There was a split second where master and device conversed. Disabling the dimensional lock they had on the world wouldn’t be fast enough to protect them from the shockwave – they’d have to use their magic to protect themselves while the lock was removed.

But there were other people here… Twilence, Jolyne, Insipid… They were still people, and important people at that. One of them had fought by Nanoha’s side in the end. That was worth rewarding.

She was going to devote her magic to protecting all of them, even if it would tax her magic to its limits. She raised shields around all four of them, hoping that Mite had his own way of surviving this encounter. The Gate exploded in a brilliant shower of impossible color, impacting the four shields. Nanoha strained, pulling as much energy out of Raising Heart as she could while sending the order to call off the dimensional lock.

A single second in, she faltered. She had to push extra magic into her spells just to keep the reality around them from shattering. This universe was dead, and she was the only thing keeping any of them alive.

She only had to do it for a few more seconds.

She bore with the destruction of everything around her – feeling her muscles strain, giving up their biological nutrients to fuel her magical power. Insipid willingly gave up some of her magic as well, seeing that this was too much.

The dimensional lock dropped. Raising Heart opened a portal, allowing them to escape to safety. In the last minute, as they fell through the portal. Nanoha lost control of Insipid’s barrier, the magic protection falling and exposing her to a microsecond of transdimensional energy.

The four of them fell to the ground. Stumbling, Nanoha walked across the field of grass to Insipid, checking her pulse. The mare was burned, scarred, and sections of her skin were gone – but she was breathing.

Nanoha teetered, feeling her consciousness slip from her. As she fell backward, she saw a ship appear in the air.

She hoped it was one of hers.

It all happened exactly as I wrote it. Insipid burned, Nanoha passed out, and a ship in the air.

It wasn’t one of theirs. It was one of ours. Some of Tzeentch’s Chaotic Space Marines. I briefly wondered if they’d encountered the Emperor fighting here…

I summoned two capture devices with my magic and imprisoned Nanoha and Insipid.

“Okay?” I heard Mite ask in my ear. I believe he was able to ride the shockwave to me given his microscopic figure and size.

“Yeah… I’m okay,” I said, looking at our ship. “We won.”

I closed my eyes, taking a moment to look at our victory. The TSAB labyrinth had fallen. Its central universe was no more, and the cascading reaction of the Gate’s destruction had destroyed not only the Tower Ring, but also several other universes that had been instrumental in managing the TSAB labyrinth. The TSAB’s great stand had failed.

Today was a hard fought victory for us. The TSAB had been crippled and the largest threat to the collapse had been destroyed. Nanoha herself had been captured.

The collapse now had the upper hand.

~~~

Rev, Valentine, and Rina returned to the church – they didn’t see any reason to hang around Flutterfree while she went to confront Ava with Eve. Midna had stayed on Ardent to keep watch and look for survivors of New Termina.

“Ever get that feeling like you didn’t do anything?” Rina asked.

Rev smiled. “Oftentimes. I choose not to let it bother me. For instance, today, I was out and about, and got to see an old friend at her strongest. I think it was a good day, considering.”

Valentine had D4C scratch his chin for him. “We witnessed a plot fall apart. Justice has prevailed once again.”

“Even if we had nothing to do with it, yeah yeah,” Rina muttered shaking her head. “I still – hold up.” She cocked her head. “Whaaat?”

The church was full despite there not being a service at the time. Aslan was among the crowd, talking to them with a soothing voice.

Rev noticed most of the crowd were other Reverends, but she recognized several people from her congregation, those she had trusted with the knowledge that the church was a reality bunker.

“Aslan, what’s going on?” she asked, unable to hide her concern.

“I received a vision of divine inspiration,” Aslan said, looking up at the ceiling. “It was time to call all I could to this place.”

“Wh- really!?” Rina blurted. “It’s not going to be long before the secret gets out now! The people will want to smash the fucking door down!”

Rev shot Rina a please not in front of him look. Rina looked at the ground, ashamed.

Aslan didn’t seem bothered by her language. “Let them come.”

“With all due respect,” Rev said, sure to keep her head bowed. “Rina is right, we’ve been keeping the church’s bunker defenses a secret for a reason. The rest of the population will know now, and it will no longer be an effective bunker.”

“They do not know yet,” Aslan said.

“They will eventually,” Valentine pointed out.

“Then we must have faith in the outcome. This is what the vision showed.”

“Unchecked devotion to visions is exploitable,” Rev pointed out.

“Sister Glimmer, you are an excellent pastor and a great mind. But you have always struggled with the nature of giving all our cares unto God. It is not by our power that we take action, but by His. We must trust Him.”

Rev’s inkling to argue with Aslan vanished in an instant. He’s right, there. “My apologies.”

“That’s it!?” Rina blurted. “Seriously, you’re just going to let him do it!?”

“Rina, he’s right.”

“Oh just wait until Flutterfree gets back, I’ll bet she uses the Rage on him and we get quite the stunning revelation!”

Valentine’s body went rigid and his eyes widened. “Something’s wrong with the dimensional fabric.”

Aslan looked to him. “What is it?”

“I do not know… But it’s dangerous.”

Rina lit her horn. “I feel it too… Something’s tearing at reality… Something big…”

They started to hear sirens in the distance. The sirens they had all hoped never to hear – the sirens of an attack.

Rev knew what to do – she activated the church’s locks, sealing everyone within. Rev tapped into an exterior camera so she could see what was going on outside with her magic.

She had expected to see ships in the sky, or soldiers marching across the ground. What she hadn’t expected to see was a tremendous darkness erupting from the earth in the distance.

She paled. “Rina… See that?”

“I see it!” Rina said, flaring her wings and tapping into the church’s magical defense, augmenting them with her own power. “This is gonna hurt!”

The crust of Equis Vitis cracked like an eggshell as the darkness erupted from deep within the world’s core. Mountains crumbled, trees were devoured by the earth, and rivers drained into the forming crevasses. The Everfree Forest was the closest thing Rev could see, and the darkness rushed through it in less than a second.

There was no Tree of Harmony to protect the world. The reality anchors tried to hold the world together, but it was revealed to be pointless – the darkness was composed of the very magic of Equis Vitis itself, meaning this destruction was completely natural from a universal perspective.

The darkness rippled through Ponyville. The foundations of skyscrapers were ripped out from under them, forcing the tremendous structures to fall sideways. They could hear the screams of those in the high-rise buildings.

There were no screams from the people on the ground. The darkness came and destroyed them in an instant. Few were fast enough to realize it was happening, and even fewer had access to easy dimensional technology to get away. A handful of places were protected much like Rev’s church; a few spheres of blinding white energy shone as beacons of survival as the darkness ripped through the world.

Already, Rev had seen one of the spheres falter and explode. Bunkers were designed to survive the collapse of universes and deal with dimensional effects, not some evil dark magic that actually wanted to kill them. Still, some were able to hold – though clearly none of them would be able to last forever.

Rina winced as the darkness hit their shield, using her power to keep it up. “I’m not going to be able to do this… Hey! I don’t suppose any of you know how to cast reinforcement magic corrupted rather heavily by the darkness of insanity?”

There wasn’t anyone who could do that.

“Thought not… We need to get out of here!”

Valentine pulled a flag out of his suit and gave it to D4C. “Dojyaaan! Another universe is but a slide away.”

“Don’t have enough time for everyone!” Rina said.

Rev turned to Valentine. “Tell me where D4C is – I’m going to give it a blessing of power.”

Valentine pointed. Rev sent up a little prayer – not for the blessing, but just for everyone’s safety – and tapped into her rarely-used Divine potential. She sent a burst of white energy into D4C. Valentine was the only one who got to watch his Stand grow in size. He extended a hand, touching the fabric of reality. “I feel it stronger now…”

“HURRY UP!” Rina shouted. “I think it knows we’re trying something!”

Valentine nodded. Instead of his usual method of travel that involved laying objects over people, he knew he could bend reality in a more direct manner now. He reached beyond the walls of the church and pulled, forcing everything within the church’s bubble of protection to be condensed to a single point and funneled to a new universe.

This happened to be Earth Vitis, in the wasteland that had once been their version of Canterlot before the war with Skarn. There were a few settlements around, but nobody had fully rebuilt the city in the exact location it had been before. The church came to a rest in a new world.

Rina collapsed, running out of energy. “Whew…”

Rev pulled out a phone and checked the news feeds – something several other people started doing at the same time. They all wanted to know what was happening on Equis Vitis.

At roughly the same time, they all found a live feed from Equis Vitis’ moon. The entirety of the planet had been covered in the darkness, and parts of it were cracked so much that inner magma could be seen. The part of the planet that had been in the darkness the longest was beginning to disintegrate into what looked like dust.

Breaking News: Source of Runaway Weapon Discovered. The Twili, neighboring universe to Ardent…

Rev dropped her phone. Valentine spat out a curse. “We were there!”

“That’s it,” Rina said, lighting her horn. “I’m done.” She glanced at Aslan. And you got to be right, how’s that feel?

“Rina, don-” Rev began, but Rina didn’t let her start her speech. She didn’t need to be calmed down, now.

She teleported to one of Earth Vitis’ military installations. They were panicking, wondering if they should prepare for an assault or counterattack. Command wasn’t giving them any information.

Rina was going to act before command could even do anything. She found one of the military ships and teleported right into its engine room. So what if she set off a few security alarms? Enough of them were already going off.

There were a few soldiers there, though. She teleported them all away. Some of them were unicorns that could try to teleport back, so she set up a trap spell for them.

The next thing she did was sever the engine from its position in the ship. Without any of the regulatory devices in place, it soon became unstable, ready to explode.

She teleported away just as a unicorn teleported back – getting caught in a net of purple energy. Rina appeared not on Ardent, but the Twilight Realm. She didn’t bother to look around – the castles, the Twili themselves, none of it mattered to her right now.

She focused on the engine core. Normally such an explosion would only take out a small building, maybe destroy an entire flagship, nothing too devastating. But it was an explosion based in multidimensional physics. Which meant she could exploit it. Exploit it somewhat easily. She tapped into her knowledge of time unchanging, latching the bomb to the temporal line of the Twilight Realm.

Then she translated away.

She didn’t need to stick around to know it completely destroyed the already somewhat-unstable Twilight Realm. Perhaps the universe coordinates still existed, perhaps they didn’t – all that mattered was that they would never use their darkness ever again.

She learned later that she was one of several different powerful individuals who had gone to the Twilight Realm instantly and tried to destroy it. The Twili never stood a chance.

~~~

Eve looked at the image of Equis Vitis on her phone. It was now little more than dust in the wind. “Ava. Is this time locked?”

“What do you think?”

Eve looked up at Ava with a blank expression. She lit her horn, casting a simple spell. Ava fell to the ground, clutching her head and screaming.

Seeing Flutterfree’s expression, Eve spoke up. “Feedback spell. Her mind can’t think of anything without its electrical signals rising to the point of extreme pain. Roxy, Giorno, take her away. It’ll dissipate after five minutes.”

“Surprised you didn’t do worse,” Giorno commented, picking the writhing Ava up.

“She’ll be executed,” Eve said, monotone. “But we’ll do it through Justice. We aren’t barbarians.” She activated Seraphim. “I’ll be right back.”

Flutterfree put a hoof on Eve. “…Don’t do it.”

Eve looked back at Flutterfree, expression lifeless. “Do what?”

“Don’t kill them all. The Twili have innocents there.”

“It’s what they deserve.”

“Eve, we do not return violence with equal violence! We only return what we have to!” Flutterfree wailed.

Eve couldn’t keep it up anymore. She dropped Seraphim, pulled Flutterfree into a hug, and wept. Images of everything beautiful about Equis Vitis flashed through her mind. Her childhood home. Ponyville. The crystal castle. The crystal grove of the Everfree Forest. The beautiful colors of rainbow falls. The spires of Canterlot, both in the old days and the new. The great dragon mountains… the griffon lands… the beauty of Seaquestria… all the pegasus cloud cities… Sugarcube Corner…

Pinkie’s face flashed across Eve’s vision. But Pinkie was fine – Eve knew that. But everyone else…

All thoughts pushed to the side, Eve pulled out her phone and dialed a number she had on speed dial.

Flutterfree looked over Eve’s shoulder – seeing the name Spike. A single ring passed, and Eve’s heart shot through her throat. Please please please plea-

“H-hello?” Spike answered, voice wavering.

“Oh thank… Spike! Where are you?”

“Uh, the protected section of Canterlot Castle,” Spike said. “Luna teleported us to Earth Vitis as soon as she realized what was happening. It’s kinda funny, the entire castle’s sideways! Heh…”

“You and Luna? Good. …What about the other princesses? Paradigm?”

“…I don’t see any of them,” Spike admitted. “Hey, Luna, have you seen the other princesses?”

“No, I have not,” Luna’s booming voice could be heard. “Who is that on the line?”

“Evening!” Spike called.

“Thank the Tower!” Luna grabbed the phone and levitated it to her ear. “You have no idea…”

“I think I have some,” Eve said, wiping her eyes. “…None of the others?”

“None that I know of. You’re the only other Princess I know made it.”

“I’ll try calling… It’s good to know you’re okay. Watch out for Spike.”

“I will.”

Eve hung up and called Cadence. It rang once. Twice. Three times.

Flutterfree put a hoof to her mouth when it went to voicemail. “Hi, this is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s personal number, leave a message!”

“Try the official number,” Flutterfree suggested.

Eve did. No response.

Then she called her brother. Three rings passed, and there wasn’t an answer.

“No…” Eve called her parents at every number she could think of. No responses.

Eve’s mind started going down a list in her mind. I know some people weren’t there… Flutterfree is with me, the others are on the other side, except…

She called Applejack.

It rang once.

Please not you too…

Ring.

“Applejack!” Eve shouted at the phone. “PICK UP!”

Ri- “…Eve?”

Eve let out a sigh of relief. “I… I… Where are you?”

“At the Hub. Sellin’ apples. Until about five minutes ago.”

Eve detected hostility. “Applejack…?”

“While it’s mighty nice of you to check in on me, Ah’ve got to go check on my family. So far, Ah’ve only gotten Corea to answer her phone.”

Applejack hung up. The deep, disgusted feeling was back in Eve’s stomach.

Home was gone.

She wept. There was no other appropriate response.

~~~

Corona walked into Renee’s room, tear stains obvious on her face. Renee could hear the sounds of Nova screaming outside.

Corona closed the door. For once in her life she looked like she had no idea what to do.

“Do you know what happened, yet?” Renee asked.

“…Yeah,” Corona said, sitting down on Renee’s bed to give herself a break. “I know Daniel was offworld. He was seen on the news.”

“I’d know if he was there,” Renee said matter-of-factly. “I want to know what happened.”

“Our Source… Ava, I guess we can say now – she went and planned the destruction of Equis Vitis separate from anyone else’s knowledge.”

“Because she knew we wouldn’t approve.”

“Y-yeah. I’ve sent a public message to Eve denouncing Ava’s actions and telling them to do whatever they want with her.” Corona swallowed hard. “She took advantage of the Twili and Ardent’s hatred. Gave them just enough information to destroy one planet.”

“The most important planet,” Renee said, looking into the distance. “This still counts as a victory for you, you know.”

“It doesn’t feel like it,” Corona said. “There wasn’t any reason to do this.”

“The other side’s morale is lowered.”

“Just the Merodi. Just the Merodi…” Corona shook her head. “Why are people making stupid decisions!?”

“Dear, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but what little tendency we have to think things through flies out the window when under stress. Everyone we’ve ever known has been under extended stress for… has it been months?”

“In some places.”

“Two months, then. People are getting desperate. Both sides may have excellent leaders, but even they will break. Snap. Make decisions that don’t make sense.” She turned to look Corona in the eyes. “Insipid betrayed you because she was angry and realized the world isn’t what she thought it was. Ava betrayed both the other side and you because she felt like she had to exact revenge. I’m sure there are some people who retaliated without thinking, destroying the Twili.”

“You’d be right.”

“It’s only going to get worse, Corona. As more and more people die… everyone’s going to stop wanting to fight with honor and mercy. Anger builds.”

“…Let’s hope Blumiere gets done soon, then.”

“Yes…” Renee said, absent-mindedly. She glanced at the Tower card on the table, as if trying to parse a meaning from it. She caught a short rumble from Nova’s screaming. “She wants me to ‘fix’ her.”

“Are you going to do it?” Corona asked.

“Not now. …I might later. I did Jotaro, and it wouldn’t be fair if I shunned her.”

“Was it the right decision, though?”

Renee looked at her hooves. “There’s a question of ethics. You have the cure for grief. Do you use it? Does it lessen what makes us people? Would you do it?”

“…Before today, I would have said no. But my family… Sunburst…” She clenched her fists so tight they started smoking. “I was already on the verge of breaking…”

“I’m not going to do it for you, even if you order me. Not yet,” Renee said. “Wait. It’ll be better for you to work it out on your own.”

“…How can we know that?”

“We can’t. It’s a gut feeling.”

Corona pulled her knees to her chest and shuddered. “…No one has the right to choose. I thought that was an awful realization. Now it’s becoming pretty damn clear that neither careful thought nor emotional instinct are really helpful in the end. We’re too flawed.”

Renee lowered her head and closed her eyes, having nothing to say to that.

The room fell completely silent.

~~~

Blumiere held his hands over the Light and Dark Prognostici, a scowl on his face.

“What is it, love?” Timpani asked, walking up to him.

“…I haven’t been telling you everything,” Blumiere said. “I’m sorry.”

“What is it?” she asked, not a hint of bitterness in her voice.

“I thought I was going insane,” Blumiere admitted. “I thought the Prognostici were getting to me, making me see things that weren’t there. But I’ve become convinced he’s real.”

“He?”

Blumiere looked to his left at a section of empty space that, to him, wasn’t empty at all, but contained a short person in a jester’s outfit and mask. “I see Dimentio.”

“Isn’t this cute! Ahahahahah!” Dimentio said, leaning back in midair. “He relies on his wife even now! The romance is like two salmon on a beach!”

“What’s he told you?” Timpani asked.

“That the two books used to be one,” Blumiere said. “If I combine them, the secret to completing the Tower Ring in time will be revealed.”

“You can combine them?”

Blumiere nodded. “He told me how.”

Dimentio cackled. “It’s all a matter of reverting the pages and folding them into one! The true Prognosticus will reveal itself! And you shall have the key to the end!”

“I don’t trust him, of course,” Blumiere said.

“…Didn’t he want a perfect world before?” Timpani asked.

“I’m not sure if he wants anything. I think he’s just doing things because he can.”

Dimentio shrugged.

Blumiere held the two books up. “Should I do it, Timpani? There’s a risk. There’s a risk I’m being fooled. But if he’s right, I’ll be able to complete the Tower Ring without resorting to the large construction all the others have. They won’t be able to find it easily.”

“Are they Aware of this conversation?”

“No. Twilence has guarded this room closer than all the others.” He frowned. “Though my spells tell me we are being watched…”

“A paradox!” Dimentio blurted. “The Tower can see everything, even the places hidden from those who see with the Tower! What a complex feat of engineering, a truly inconceivable mechanism! …Inconceivable for most, that is…” He gestured at the Prognostici.

Timpani looked at the books. “I think you should try. At this point… everything terrible that could happen, already has.”

Blumiere nodded slowly. He used his dark power to open the books to their center pages. He moved them close together and began to fold their pages over one another, one at a time, until they formed a close-knit lock.

Then he tried to pull them apart from the spines. Instead of pulling apart, they smashed together, forming a single gray book lined with crystals, the imprint of a spirograph on the front.

Blumiere held the true Prognosticus to the light. Above, the framework of a Tower Ring slowly turned.

Dimentio cackled. “And now I’ll leave you to that! Ciao!” He vanished, like nothing more than an illusion.

Blumiere knew Dimentio was dead. Had been dead for a long, long time. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that the thing talking to him was Dimentio, and not just a corruption from the Prognosticus.

It concerned him deeply. He grabbed his wife and held her close as he flipped through the pages of the real Prognosticus…

Comments

[UC]

FIVE !!!

[FanOfMostEverything]

Oh. Well. That was fast.

“One, not a Skaian, not a ghost, never actually died. I’m a Gem-spirit hybrid. Two, because it, like, makes things more interesting, I think.”

Three, Hussie never liked the idea of world building for world building's sake.

Oh. Oh wow. Aslan in the church hierarchy. That feels more than a little bizarre, especially given how he's essentially leonine Jesus in and of himself.

“I for one like the idea of regiment,” Rina said. “Some of us need to be told what to do.”

I haven't said anything about Rina yet. I'm not risking her slipping my mind again. I don't know what's up with her, but I want it on the record that I'm keeping an eye on her.

Ah. I was wondering if we'd ever hear from Ardent again.

“Everyone, get in your robots! Prance with me!” Pinkie shouted.

You know you've done War Pinkie right when her lines can be read in the voice of Heavy Weapons Guy.

Oh, Allure. I feared it would get this bad.

He pulled out a legendary sword glistening with both fire and ice.

Hmm...
No, no, it's hardly an uncommon idea. Though I do have to wonder about random guards being given legendary weapons. Though I suppose if he's guarding the king, or if he's more important in a different story... Well, I'm sure it makes sense in context.

“I’m never going to get used to our powers synthesizing like this,” Nova said. “I mean, seriously, Pinkie, how do all these words not drive you crazy!?”

*waves* Hi, Nova!

A humanoid mecha apparently made of red skulls appeared, green fire billowing off its back.

Yeah, once they started deploying the anti-mecha mecha, it was only a matter of time before they brought in mechs in mechs in mechs.

They were having fun.

At least someone is.

“Dear, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but what little tendency we have to think things through flies out the window when under stress. Everyone we’ve ever known has been under extended stress for… has it been months?”

I call it the Fallout: Equestria Principle. Enough time in the crucible of war and good people will make horrible decisions.

And a book that must be folded properly to find the true answer. Amazing, the parallels we find when we can't help but look.

This... Good God, GM. I knew it was going to be harsh, but I wasn't prepared for this. I don't think anyone was. Pretty clear how events will proceed from here... or so I think. You've quite clearly demonstrated that you can surprise me. We'll see how it goes.

[Gemseeker]

And here we are. Right after a chapter focused on how meaningless character death has become, you hit us with this shocker of a chapter. While massive amounts of individual death has become par for the course, the death of important worlds still hits hard. This war of ever escalating scale has to end soon, or everything will be lost. What's the point of Collapse, if there is nothing left to Preserve?

I hope this war ends with the finale of this arc, and that the remaining characters manage to work together towards something even greater to finish things off. This really feels like the Darkest Hour....

[Voltaje]

Just when I though insipid would get to merodi ¬¬ sight, I had a plan, let insipid take retcon from Jhon, no mind control, no bad actions, just realese Jhon, put him to sleep inmediately, and ban, the xelee back, with the abstracts for good measure, but then I discovered she was in the collapse group, then I was extatic when she changed sides again, and now this ¬¬°.
Why didn't aradia have her emergency protocol of creating a time loop in equis vitis and other worlds? then grant a pre-designated access to some trusted individuals to stop the catastrophe? It happened with Celestia city and Allure, perhaps by accident, but it was a good defencing mechanism, and because it happened, it could be done.

[GMBlackjack]

9899225

Why didn't aradia have her emergency protocol of creating a time loop in equis vitis and other worlds?

In the above chapter:

Eve looked at the image of Equis Vitis on her phone. It was now little more than dust in the wind. “Ava. Is this time locked?”

“What do you think?”

The idea of time-lock means 'we ensured this couldn't be undone by rewiring the way time flowed through different universes.' Ava made sure there was an Aradia Defense Mechanism for her plan. I didn't bog down with the specifics since it wasn't pertinent to the action at hand.

-Gm, master of hands.

[wolfie1897]

9899201
Well, this is the final arc...

[GMBlackjack]

9899376
Nope. There are 12 arcs. We are on number ten.

-GM, master of arcs.

[zeusdemigod131]

“The most important planet,” Renee said, looking into the distance. “This still counts as a victory for you, you know.”

See? I really don't get how they can consider this all a good idea when, ignoring their destructive end goal. The erasure of D sphere, the collapse of the USM, and now the destruction of Equus Vitis all count as wins for them. Not to mention the death of every cosmic being they come across

[Streamline]

9899477
On the other hand, this all happened as a result of the tower's search for the ultimate story. If it wasn't for the tower manipulating events, none of this would have happened. So, even though the side of collapse does benefit from those events, their end goal is the end of the tower causing those events.

[Voltaje]

OK, the outcome of this leaves us with no high society able to build a tower ring, the TSAB being the last one, so the collapse has the book as a last resort, and preservation has Jhon, that is all, either Jhon is used, or the collapse wins, I think Jhon could retcon equis vitis, but only if preservation wins, though there will be some double Ponies XD.

I wonder when white nettle will make her appearance, she is the last class 1 entity there, she could have actually help one side or the other to victory easy, what is she be planning?; is she still trying to control the tower? or is she building her own tower ring?.
If just one Downstreamer could do what she can do, I can't imaging an entire race of billions could do, no wonder they owned the multiverse XD.

[Voltaje]

9899681
Yeah, this is just the tower playing with the multiverse it owns, following it's programming, I said before that it would have been better that nettle just takes control of the tower, change ka, and do a full overhaul, no prophets, no more stories existing, no non-linear time travel, no infinity, bring back some races or societies, and with time and slowly, allow new universes without ka, until the tower is not needed anymore to make the multiverse function, then shut it down.

[wolfie1897]

9899381
Huh. I thought this was all a lead up to the finale. The collapse wins, no more tower, and the story ends with a cinematic. I thought you said in an earlier authors note that the story was going to end with the chapter 130 cinematic. or that you wanted to end the story with a cinematic like homestuck

[everydaygamer]

9899947
Yeah, I'm not sure what possibility scares me more the story attempting to top itself after this or the story continuing this plotline for 2 more arcs.

[wolfie1897]

9899992
I really hope he doesn't continue this story thread for 2 more arcs. I can only take so much destruction

[GMBlackjack]

9900030
9899992
*This* Story thread ends with 130, you can rest easy in that.
Make of that what you will.
-GM, master of oggles of boggles.

[Jalthir]

Dang dude at this point id imagine the true protagonist is ether a none of the above and this entire story is a side story or you are gona zap a reset. gg on offing more people.

[wolfie1897]

9900121
So after looking at all of the Sburb aspects used, and the two left...

Space, and Time. The two aspects known for making up the basic fabric of paradox space.

So an arc about Space (Creation of the new universe) and an arc about Time (potential reset of the multiverse?)

my guess is that the next arc will be Space, and be about the new universe they are in. Not sure about Time, though

[runtrivena]

9901063
Space is often associated with beginnings and creation/creativity, while Time is often associated with death, destruction, and endings, if that helps any.

[MtangaLion]

Spike will save us! We just need to send him back in time to bop Corona with a rolled-up newspaper, before things got out of hand. ;)

[Blaze rod]

Gotta be honest, not a fan of the first half of this chapter. Stupid OP mech out of nowhere that claps away both TTGL and Living Tribunal armed with the Shaping Mechanism, both of which are so powerful that it's not even funny. It feels like a badly written Sue mech that somehow without any kind of foreshadowing just appears into the story out of nowhere and obliterates one of the, if not the strongest, mech in fiction AND a being that is above dimensions, most concepts of reality, life, death and all of the other abstracts of the Marvel multiverse as he is the literal embodiment of it. With power like that, Living Tribunal should have been something that the collapse faction would have had no choice but to play around of. But he was just instead killed just like that.

It was bit one sided too. Preservation side lost their strongest combatant and the last remnant of Class 1 power in the multiverse, one of their leaders and a strong combatant, multiversal megastructure, a tower ring and an important world. Collapse side lost a villain and Insipid.

Seriously though. That mech and it's actions are easily the worst thing in this entire fic.

[No one is home]

It's heartbreaking to think what Cinder must think of Allure's fall at this point.

[INeedSleep]

9902867
I completely agree, andI hope the mech doesn't show up in future chapters. I love this story to death, but that part was really hard to read and I couldn't enjoy it, even if I wanted to.

[zeusdemigod131]

Sooo... one thing I never got, and I don't know if it was ever explained, what's up with the version of Hyrule here?

Like, Ocarina and Majora's Mask are the same Link I get, but after checking I'm almost 100 percent sure that Twilight Princess Link is a different one, and more to the point, didn't Midna return to the Twilight Realm as queen in the game? Cause if she didn't, doesn't that imply Link... lost? Especially if she's only ever in her Imp form.

Like, I get Zelda games all have this timeline that connects and reincarnation and blah blah blah, but this seems like the timeline folded over on itself and then ignored the ending of one or more games.

[GMBlackjack]

10000421
It's not any one game, it's a crossover synthesized with elements from multiple games. I built it from a weird crossover I never wrote. So I decided "Eh, why not use it here? It'll let me use elements from most games without a problem."

I believe in the original draft for THAT story, it was canon-compliant, but I quickly realized the LoZ timeline is a twisted pile of "you know this doesn't actually make much sense" and proceeded to ignore that for SotS since Ardent wasn't a primary feature of SotS. Was pretty freeing.

-GM, master of ice.

[notaniceperson2110]

Rina felt it first – a deep dissatisfaction rising within her as the world revealed herself to her. You have been forgiven, but that doesn’t change what you’ve done. You’re still her. She popped a pill into her mouth, swallowing hard. She prayed in her head over and over that she wouldn’t blow it and start killing people.

That's brutalight calling it now

“THIS IS THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!” all seven of them shouted at once. The sword went into the Living Tribunal, driving deeper powers into him. Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Integrity, Justice, Perseverance, Curiosity…

So... in order, pinkie, reene, flutterfree; pidge is probably curiosity and jotaro is either integrity or justice, most likely the latter, can't place the rest, who's who?

i liked the mecha action, if only because it was the only part of this fic since the 116 chapter that was actually fun... then equestria gets blown up, exemplifying everything that was wrong with this fic from the very beggining, this entire arc is a pointless slog and cheap grimdark drama similar to the identity crisis chapter, its like i was watching akame ga kill again, i no longer care about anything i'm just here too see it end

9902867
I think you missed just how SBURB aspects and borderline class 1 tech is, that mecha was a protagonist operated, ka infused, SBURB hax channeling superweapon, and both TTGL and Living Tribunal got defeated mostly via fused SBURB aspect hax which is about right