Songs of the Spheres

by GMBlackjack

126 - Prognosticus

Applejack looked at the entire surviving Apple Family of Equis Vitis.

It was just her, Corea, and Prism.

Prism had the decency to hang around in the doorway, not at the table. She had never been particularly close to the rest of the Apple Family, and knew it wasn’t her place to say anything here. But she listened.

Corea looked around with a deep grimace. “You know… When I heard you were coming, part of me thought Dad would be here too.”

“Corea…”

“I knew. I heard. I got the list.” Corea looked for a window to look out of, but didn’t find one in the back room of Iroh’s tea shop. Azula had just let them in, no questions asked. “But there’s always that part, you know? That tells you there was a mistake.”

“Every day.”

“I can’t decide which one to think about,” Corea said. “I see aunt Applebloom a lot… Dad… Jona…” She wiped her eyes. “I can’t fix on any of them. I feel like I’m betraying them.”

“Corea, they wouldn’t expect you to.. to…” Applejack couldn’t finish the thought.

“I know.” She shook her head. “Some cruel trick, huh? Sure, we’re important enough to survive. But for only us to survive? Isn’t that like a punishment?”

“Ah guess,” Applejack said. “But Ah don’t think it’s punishment for us.”

“Eve and Corona?”

“Maybe,” Applejack said, glancing at Prism. Her expression was heavily conflicted, but she said nothing.

Corea tapped her hooves on the table, unsure. “What do we do?”

“Live,” Applejack said.

“Besides that,” Corea said.

“That’s all we can do.”

“I’m not talking about for ourselves,” Corea muttered. “Funeral? Monument? Speech?”

“Ah…” Applejack closed her eyes and took in a long, hard breath. “Ah don’t think Ah could do that right now. Ah think the war needs to end first.”

“How long is the war going to last?” Corea asked. “I’ve been to worlds that have experienced years.”

“Ah forgot you were fightin’ out there,” Applejack admitted. “Ah…” She shook her head. “Give me some time, okay sugarcube?”

Corea forced a smile, but her moist eyes told a different story. “Okay.”

Applejack saw right through the lie. She broke down, falling onto the table, letting her tears flow.

“M-mom!” Corea said, scrambling over to her. “I’m sorry, I should b-”

“Should should should!” Applejack spat through her breakdown. “Always with the should! Are we asking too much of ourselves and everyone around us!? Are we!?”

“Mom, I don’t know wha-”

“We’re tryin’ to fight a war without killing each other! Do you think that’s even possible? No, it’s not! Why don’t we just get the pleasantries over with and get to the true fight! It’ll be over quicker! Then maybe we can figure out what the hell we’re gonna do with our lives!”

“…Just keep living?”

Applejack let out a bitter laugh. “My own words… Sound so foolish…”

“You’re one of the wisest mares I know.”

“Ah’m your mother. Of course you’d think that.”

Corea grabbed her mother by the shoulders. “I mean it. And if you won’t believe that, at least believe this. You’ve stayed true to yourself, no matter what. You are Honesty. You are consistent. You are my mother. And you always will be.”

“Ah’m gonna have to change, sweetheart. There’s no family farm to go back to.”

“…I recall that we had a version of you on the farm. Golden. There’ll be another family to take you in, if you’ll let them have you.”

“Ah’d just be replacin’ them!”

“You’ve lived in the multiverse long enough to know better than that!” Corea blurted. “…Sorry, that was too harsh.”

“You’re right though,” Applejack admitted. “Ah have lived here long enough. And Ah’ll live here a lot longer, collapse forbiddin’.” She looked into the distance. “It’s like Pinkie used to say. Ah know the clouds’ll clear eventually and Ah’ll move on. But it doesn’t feel like it.”

“Don’t ignore that feeling,” Prism said, speaking up for the first time. “That feeling? It’s horrible now, but it will turn into something else. It will allow you to remember those you’ve lost with a smile. Don’t push it away. You want to remember them always.”

Applejack looked at her daughter-in-law. “…Ah really should have spent more time gettin’ to know you.”

Prism adjusted her glasses. “We were both busy in an existence too large for us.”

“Excuse.”

“Yeah.”

Applejack pulled her into a hug. “Don’t you go anywhere, sugarcube.”

“…I’m not.”

~~~

Eve, Flutterfree, and O’Neill walked into the meeting. Nanoha’s absence in the big chair was very conspicuous. A lot of people who had been there in the earlier meetings weren’t anymore. Most of the Class 3s who’d shown up the first time were gone. Many leaders from the Class 2 societies were gone – killed, captured, it didn’t really matter. The TSAB was in a shambles, Starbeat and Lightning were there without any real nation to control, the Kromagg and Paratimers looked like they were ready to keel over and die…

Only the Merodi and Combine had some semblance of strength. And everyone hated the Combine, while the Merodi looked like their hope had been drained from them.

The Combine who had taken up the leadership position for the meeting was a fractal-based being contained on a two-dimensional screen. Eve could sense it surge in power, preparing to start the meeting and take control of it.

Eve wasn’t going to have that. She clicked her ears on and slammed her hoof into the podium in front of her, grabbing everyone’s attention. “We’ve suffered a great loss!” She shouted. “For some of us, this loss is a personal one that attacks our resolve. For others, it is a loss of hope, of any chance for success. One of our greatest leaders has been captured, and our strongest chance at winning this war has been stopped. It looks like we’re falling apart at the seams and won’t be able to hold ourselves together for much longer.

“But! We have not lost yet! We may have no primary Tower Ring Construction Site anymore, but we still have our people. Our armies. And each other. So long as we have those, even if there is friction between us, we are strong.

“It can be said that the other side has the same thing. They’re together just like we are. This also means they’re struggling just like we are. Their half of the Collection fell as well, the Starcross Society is nearing a point of complete societal failure with most of their leadership gone, and the Void has always been limited in their application.

“We still have the advantage. The Combine is currently the highest society in the multiverse save the Flowers That Be,” she nodded to the Combine fractal with respect, making sure to give them something out of this. “Despite our heavy loss at the TSAB labyrinth, we still have a tactical advantage.

“And we also have a Narrative one as well. Starbeat?”

Starbeat cleared her throat. “We suffered a heavy loss. However, we didn’t lose the war. We’re still very much in it. So it’s time for a turning of the tables. We are at our lowest point. We will rise out of this crevasse and deal a retaliatory strike like nothing ever imagined. Our military experts are working on a plan as we speak – a few nudges to Collapse the Starcross Society and a mission to end Empress Twilight’s control of the Void.”

“What about their base of operations? The Hotel?” a TSAB mage – Vita – asked. “We know they’re organizing most of the effort out of there, not the Void or Starcross!”

“We don’t know where it is, yet,” Eve admitted. “But we will. And when we do, we will take it out.” She narrowed her eyes. “They’ve dealt a crippling blow to us. It is time for us to deal a crippling blow to them.”

The Combine fractal spoke up in a synthetic voice. “Will we be rescinding the use of capture devices?”

“No need,” Eve said. “We still ar-”

“You lost an entire world to them!”

Eve twitched. “That was an agent acting alone, and we’ve destroyed entire worlds with dimensional crossfire before! They haven’t stopped the capturing, so we won’t either!”

“What if it would give us more of an advantage?”

“Convince the military leaders that’s the case and we’ll consider it. But I believe most of us in here are vehemently against it.”

Then she saw it – the faces of the crowd. Their minds agreed with her, in theory. But their hearts were hurting so much. They wanted to drop the restriction and start ‘killing the bastards’.

They could restrain themselves – like she was – for now. But how much longer could they do that?

This war needs to end soon or no one will come back from it.

She didn’t show this to the meeting. “Now, if we’re done discussing that question for the umpteenth time, let’s get into some specifics. General Zanzibar?”

A Paratimer stood up and gave a salute to everyone. “The front on the Starcross Society has a glaring weakness…”

~~~

Corona had set up something highly controversial after the loss of Equis Vitis.

It was a little computer console that people could insert messages into. The messages were to be sent to Merodi Universalis in a few hours, a small timer on the console telling people how much time they had. Already dozens of people had written messages, recorded videos, and even started some digital memorials for those lost on the other side.

Phage Industries took heavy objection to this – why honor those who are the enemy? Corona told them to shut the hell up. For the most part, they did. After all, there were only a few hours left, and then the little monument to the other side would be forgotten, lost in the wind when people returned to the righteous goals of the war itself.

“Can’t afford to sympathize with the enemy,” Corona muttered, quoting Phage. “Guess if you never had morals in the first place you wouldn’t have to be careful not to lose them…”

Lady Rarity looked to her. “You’ve taken a big risk.”

“People like Phage are the reason home is gone,” Corona spat. “So forgive me if I don’t particularly care what him and his kind think about what I’m doing.”

“Oh, I agree it’s rather satisfying to see you tell them to shove it. What I’m saying is you’ll have to watch them. If anyone challenges your position and succeeds the war will take a very different turn.”

“People are getting desperate,” Corona admitted. “How much local time do you think we have before the anger completely takes control?”

“With the time displacement… weeks? Maybe if we make extra efforts, a month?”

Corona put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “Local time is so… GAH.” She kicked a random crate, knocking it over and spilling out a shipment of computer chips. With a snap of her fingers she put the chips back in the box.

Lady Rarity could see steam rising out of Corona’s ears. “…Dear…”

“I can’t break,” Corona told herself, staring at her shaking hands. “If I break, everything falls. Everything.”

“I would say you’re over-valuing your importance, but you’re not most people,” Sugarcoat said, walking up.

“…What?” Corona said, blinking.

“You are the knot that ties this effort together. If you break, everyone else is going to as well.” Sugarcoat adjusted her dress. “Don’t break.”

“I’m only human, Sugarcoat.”

“Not really.”

Corona facepalmed. “I’m just a person. No person has an endless supply.”

“It’s amazing what you can do when you have no choice,” Sugarcoat deadpanned.

Corona laughed bitterly. “I’ve already been dipping into that! Do you really think I’d’ve made it this far if I had a real choice? If there was a-” She shook her head. “Sorry, sorry, I’m blowing up.”

“You need to blow up to get some of it out.”

“What I want is to give Ava a piece of my mind,” Corona muttered.

“She’s been executed,” I said, walking past them. “As of about three minutes ago.”

“You need to stop doing that,” Sugarcoat said.

I blinked. “People want to know.”

“And then they resent you. Why do you think Nova has been giving you death glares? You’re the one who told her Sunburst was dead.”

I gave this a second’s thought. “I do not mind being the lightning rod of hate if it helps her work through it. But I wasn’t going to keep it hidden. She really wanted to know, Sugarcoat.”

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one? You know, seeing when something’s about to backfire?”

“…I said I was willing to be the lightning rod of hate. That means including the fallout from the backfire.” I smiled awkwardly. “I can suffer for the sake of others. I’ve been through more than most of them. It’s fine.”

Sugarcoat blinked, speechless for once.

The conversation couldn’t continue anyway, because the primary team walked in, heads down. Pidge, Jotaro, and Vriska were sluggish, but looked decidedly better than Pinkie and Nova. The unicorn’s face was strained with tears, and when she spoke her voice was quiet and hoarse from all the screaming. Pinkie’s mane was flat. Since she had no eyes, it was the best indication they had of what was going on in that head of hers.

“…The entire Pie family,” I told the group I was with. “Limestone was the only one offworld at the time, and she’d already been captured in the war. All the others…”

“Hey, you talking about my family?” Pinkie said, appearing out of nowhere with a very fake smile. “Cause, yeah, they’re gone. Alllllll of them are gone! Of course, I knew they probably wouldn’t make it when we did the Collapse, but it’s different y’know?” She grabbed Corona’s face. “No matter how much you prepare yourself, nothing compares. Nothing. You’re the strongest person in existence right now, but even you aren’t going to be able to cope with your victory.”

Corona paled. “…Okaaaaay…”

“Pinkie, she doesn’t need to be scared,” I said. “You need help.”

“What, should I go to Renee and get this ‘fixed’?”

“Normally I’d say no, but we are in the middle of a war.” I smiled sadly.

“What? No! I’m not doing that!” Pinkie bounced back. “I’m going to remember them! Just you watch me, I’ll be able to think back and smile in… in a few days! That’s right! Days!”

Nova twitched. “How can you say that?!”

“You’re the one who wants to have Renee fix you,” Sugarcoat deadpanned.

Nova glared at her. “Are you trying to poke the sleeping bear? Are you!?”

“CUT IT OUT!” Vriska shouted. “We’re all angry and depressed, but we’re a team. Stop the fucking fighting! That’s my thing!”

The fact that Vriska of all people was calling them out made everyone more than a little ashamed.

In the ensuing silence, everyone noticed Renee walking up to the console. She placed her hoof on top of it and inserted a small device that had the same function as a flash drive. She uploaded it into the message, tears dropping down her face.

She turned around, looking right at the large group. “It’s a pair of messages,” she explained. “One for Daniel, which… was the hardest message I’ve ever recorded.” She adjusted her glasses. “The other is for Allure. There’s also a… a little obituary I wrote. For our parents.” She took off her glasses and wiped the tears from her eye. “Nova, Pinkie, I know it’s painful. It’s very painful. I’ll be willing to help you if we need to. But it would be a disservice to the people you are remembering in your pain. If we have no choice, I will cure your minds. But I won’t unless I have too.”

“It’s going to take too long for them to recover,” Sugarcoat pointed out.

An Aradia appeared, a sad smile on her face. “…I can put them in temporal therapy.”

“What?” Corona asked.

“It’s this thing I’ve been starting where I get people who need time into a universe with a vastly accelerated time constant. I’ve been careful not to use it for military applications – because that’s just asking for trouble with ka – but I think it’ll work great for them.”

Nova looked at Aradia. “…A vacation?”

“Basically. You’ll be back in an hour, or something like it. You five should go together – we need you at your best.”

Pinkie sighed. “…Okay. That… That actually sounds good. Twilence, let the other side know about this as well.”

I nodded. “Done.”

“And let’s not go broadcasting this,” Lady Rarity added. “Phage will want to take advantage of it. On the other side, the Combine. Aradia, can your selves put aside their differences to organize this?”

Aradia nodded. “I think so. We may disagree on the ends, but we can agree that people need it. I’ll be back in a jiffy – but first, you five.”

She took Pinkie’s team away for time-displaced therapy.

Corona folded her hands together. “I wonder if I could go.”

“You, unfortunately, need to be here,” I said. “Some would see what they’re doing as ‘cheating’. You need to stay the course.”

Corona nodded slowly. “What about you?”

“I’ll stick with you. It’s only fair.”

Corona smiled. “Everyone’s such a bundle of contradictions.”

I snorted, but smiled back.

~~~

Jolyne walked up to the computer console near the end of the window. The little timer told her it would be sent in a few minutes.

Job – her son – was fine. He hadn’t been on Equis Vitis or Earth Stand when either of the disasters had happened. Twilence had told her he was fighting for the other side.

So she typed up a message to him. It was surprisingly easy to make one for him, the words came out without her thinking too much, or even dwelling on what had happened. They were on the screen, and they were added to the overall message.

Then she found herself writing basically an essay on the tragedies of Earth Stand and Equis Vitis, and how they were related. How she was upset that one was almost ignored while the other was causing such grief. All the talk the MU had of equality, yet Equis Vitis was still the most important world.

She had no idea where these words were coming from, but come they did.

She had issues to work out. Unlike her father, she had chosen to deal with her problems herself. Gone up against Nanoha...

Witnessed a betrayal.

She took her fingers off the keyboard. There were only a handful of seconds left.

She took a breath and glanced to her left – seeing me standing there. I was currently trying to figure out why the narrative was giving this moment such focus, why it was so important. What did these two messages matter?

As it turned out, the two messages didn’t.

Jolyne just wanted to be right next to the console when it started transmitting.

As it compiled the message and sent it to Merodi Universalis, she took out a gun and fired an electronic bolt at the console. The console was made of exceptionally durable material, so it didn’t break.

However, the dimensional transmitter ‘antenna’ was flooded with energy thousands of times greater than it was supposed to have. The transmission strength increased far beyond what was safe.

They could pinpoint our location with that if they thought about it.

I grabbed Jolyne in my magic and pulled her right to my face, making no attempt to hide my lividness. “What, was Insipid contagious or something!?”

“I wasn’t brought here by choice,” Jolyne spat. “My father dragged me here right after our world was destroyed. I told myself that because he was here, I belonged. But you know what? After joining you on that mission, I realized something. Fuck that!”

I took in a deep breath and let it out, trying to keep my voice calm. “They’re going to notice. One of their Aware or a particularly devious member of Giorno’s little Division. They’re going to come here.”

“That’s the point, genius.”

I shook my head. “You fought by my side.”

“Cause I felt I had to. Insipid was contagious. I saw that I didn’t have to.”

I ground my teeth. “Corona’s going to have you captured.”

“I know.”

“What’ll Jotaro think?”

“He can get back to me when he lives through it.”

“He’s lived through death before.”

Jolyne looked away – clearly done talking. I decided that meant the conversation was over and dragged her to Corona to be… dealt with.

We had gone so long without a major traitor. And now there were two back to back. I didn’t like where this was going. The scales were balanced in the other side’s favor at the moment.

What could I do to change that…?

~~~

Flutterfree returned from Aradia’s ‘temporal therapy’ with the League of Sweetie Belles. She glanced at Allure with concern – the unicorn still had a sour expression on her face. “Allure…”

“I know. But we couldn’t stay in there drinking tea forever,” Allure muttered. “…Thanks for the thought, though.”

“I don’t have to go,” Flutterfree admitted. “We can keep playing our games.”

“Flutterfree, there’s a war on,” Allure said. “I’m fighting in it. You have other responsibilities. …Don’t worry about me.”

“You know I can’t stop.”

Allure looked up at Flutterfree with conflicted eyes. “I know. I…” She looked at a clock on the wall. “We really were only in there an hour…”

“We’re lucky there are Aradias on both sides,” Squeaky said. “If there was an imbalance, someone would find a way to use that in the war. Temporal manipulation would become a viable strategy again.”

Allure narrowed her eyes, angry at something – but she caught herself, shaking her head. “Let’s not get back to fighting just yet. …Flutterfree, think we could go out? All of us?”

“I know a Bradburger!” Burgerbelle blurted.

“Not Bradburger,” Thrackerzod muttered, facehooving.

“I’d love t-” Flutterfree’s phone rang. It was a message from Eve. You should be back now – I’ve got something to show you. “Oh, uh, Eve wants me. Some other time?”

“If we can make it,” Allure said. “…Thank you for staying here, Flutterfree.”

I was so close to running off with Pinkie. Flutterfree smiled warmly. “I do what I can.” She trotted down the halls of the Hub, walking to the local Relations Division Office.

As she walked, she noticed the streets were largely empty. People were starting to hide out in their homes more and more. Few people wanted to go out and do anything with existence exploding, even if the Hub rarely felt any tremors. She was a bright yellow spot on a shiny gray street.

She saw herself in the mirror, struck by how much she had changed over the years. She was abnormally tall for a pegasus, her legs thin but firm, her hooves lined with decorative marble hiding the deadly spikes beneath. Her wings were large and graceful, tipped with intricate marble, a memory of what she had done to herself during the war with Skarn. Her face was pointed, sharper than that of most mares’, and her eyes held a deep wisdom she knew she wouldn’t see in old photos.

Was her mane sparkling slightly? …She decided it was. She almost looked regal.

Just to check, she felt her forehead. Nothing there. She laughed to herself – that was more than a little silly. Being old and saturated with accumulated magic didn’t make her a Princess. Nor did she really want to be. She was just… herself.

She thought she looked beautiful. That was a rare thought for her.

She put a hoof on the Element of Kindness she wore around her neck and took a breath. For some reason, she felt like now was the time to see how far she’d come. She’d started out a pony terrified of everything, avoided others on principle, and rarely talked. She was a hermit. Now she was a hero who looked as if she could lead everyone.

And she had, come to think of it. She was the moral compass. Stopping people from going too far had become a daily mission of hers. It was why she was here. The other side didn’t need to be reminded about their ethics, they already had the threat of causing their own destruction over their heads. This side… This side could easily think itself too righteous. That winning at all costs was viable.

She was exactly where she needed to be.

She flew into the window outside Eve’s office, landing at her console. She may have just recognized her own height, but Eve was immense compared to her. Was she taller than Luna? Flutterfree would need to see them stand side by side to make that determination.

The purple alicorn was looking up at a swirling cylinder of holographic images filled with letters, videos, and sometimes three-dimensional models.

“…What is this?” Flutterfree asked.

“An apology,” Eve said through her tears – smiling.

Flutterfree noticed who was in the videos – she saw Corona, Renee, and a handful of other people she knew were on the other side. Very few of the faces were dry, and most were giving out messages of condolences, understanding, and in a few cases anger.

Flutterfree put a hoof to her mouth. “She… This couldn’t have helped her position…”

“It didn’t,” Eve said. “Sending this… It’ll dent her reputation. But she was hurt just as much as we were. She wanted to do something.” Eve focused the signal onto a single video of Corona.

“…and there’s nothing I can say, even though I’ve been talking for several minutes already. But I can do something.” A hologram appeared next to the video: it depicted Celestia, holding a planet in her hooves. “I’ve… designed a statue. A memorial. The planet – Equis Vitis – will display names of those who were lost, cycling through them one batch at a time. It’ll… It’ll also replace Celestia’s grave. Encoded in this message is a spell matrix that should be able to build it, when you have the power to do so. I’d wait until after the fighting is over. I don’t want it to be destroyed.” She smiled. “If… If you won’t be able to in the end, I’ve left orders for it to be built by someone else.”

Flutterfree’s smile widened. “She’s still Corona.”

“Yeah… She is.” Eve wiped her eyes. “I’m glad.”

“…You’re about to not be,” Monika said, appearing in the room with a Pinkie Flutterfree recognized – Scooter.

“Yeah…” Scooter said, rubbing the back of her head. “The signal from that message is strong enough to track their location.”

Eve blinked. “She wouldn’t be that…”

“She wasn’t,” Scooter said. “The message you received was bounced off several different buoys before it reached you. But it was also strong enough to be heard from the original universe it was sent from. There was a… power surge.”

Someone betrayed her. Eve gulped. “…I don’t want to punish her for sending this…”

“Giorno’s people are going to find out soon,” Scooter added, pulling the Script out of her mane. “Hiding it would incriminate you.”

“We have to act on it,” Monika said.

“…Fine. We do,” Flutterfree said. “But we don’t let the people know that this is where the information came from. Let them have their apology and reconciliation without tainting it. Say Scooter was able to pick up clues to find it.”

“Giorno’s about to call,” Scooter said.

Eve picked up the phone before it rang. “Giorno, I’ve been expecting you. Scooter just came in. Listen to me: keep this wrapped up. Yes, find the Raven Hotel, but the story we’re selling is that Scooter detected it, okay? Yes, I’m sure.” She hung up. “Monika, make sure Twilence hears that. Nobody has to know about the leak on either side.”

“Done,” Monika said with a snap of her fingers.

“Now excuse me, it looks like I’ll have to go back to the meeting and order an attack on their little Hotel…” Eve put a hoof to her face and let out a deep sigh. “This is wrong.”

Flutterfree nodded in agreement, putting a wing around Eve. The alicorn’s smile had vanished. The beauty of the message had been tainted by the act of one traitor.

~~~

The Raven Hotel was protected by some genius applications of dimensional engineering. It sought to do the same thing Skarn had – to make the center, the Hotel, nearly impossible to physically reach. They, unfortunately, didn’t have access to any sort of shaping mechanism complex enough to fuse several universes together, so they had to work with the one they had.

They had cleverly manipulated the perception of the universe’s space – not the universe’s actual structure, it was still a meter every meter with very minor variations. No, the way the other universes saw the Hotel was different. The Hotel proper was effectively a single point on a great expanse, with locations further away from the Hotel effectively being light years across. If the normal defenses against dimensional travel were breached, the arriving attack wouldn’t be anywhere near their goal.

The attackers didn’t know this for sure, but they highly suspected it. They were going to appear in a universe in an unexpected location far away from the goal. The other side would know they were coming, and would have arranged defenses accordingly.

It was clear they would need a tremendous fleet. There were hopes that the force taking care of the last few strongholds of the Starcross Society would serve as enough of a drain on resources to make it possible.

There was also the admission that Corona wouldn’t allow anyone to attack Merodi Universalis directly after the recent tragedy. So they could leave the defenses at a lower level, putting everything into this attack.

With Nanoha gone and the TSAB barely holding it together, O’Neill had ended up the commander of the attacking fleet. The Combine were not bothered by this – it would be best to have a charismatic leader most of the others would listen to without question.

O’Neill stood at the bridge of the Austraeoh. He had the main screen display a panning view of the entire fleet. He saw Merodi ships first – protomolecule planets, Equis Cosmic fighters, Tau’ri and Asgard battleships, great Gem Armada constructs that looked like castles, including Yellow Diamond’s personal craft, and so many more. Alongside them he saw the stellar constructs of the Combine, the admittedly low in number but powerful TSAB capital ships, and a handful of other ships from lesser worlds. This included that purple relic of a ship Jenny owned that could make dreams reality, a valuable tool in a multiverse with no D-Sphere. The Emperor of Mankind’s personal battlecruiser, so golden it was hard to look at, had also decided to join.

“This is your General speaking,” O’Neill said, addressing the entire fleet. “We’re going in and destroying one of their most important bases of operation. We do not expect to be able to destroy the universe outright or slag their Hotel, there’ll be too many defenses. Our goal is to get whoever and whatever we can on the ground, and keep all the ships occupied while we tear them apart from the inside. All of you have separate parts to play in this plan. So I don’t want to hear any complaining when we’re out there – it’ll be do or die time!” Despite himself, he allowed a smirk to crawl up his face. “Let’s leave them wondering what hit them! Vita, force connection!”

Vita activated one of the TSAB’s highly sought-after connection forcers. The ring-shaped device drifted through space until it found a suitable location in space-time. It latched on and expended an entire universe’s worth of energy to form a direct connection from their universe to the Raven Hotel’s universe.

The Combine went next without being ordered – eight of their ships took up a formation in front of the fleet, creating a ring hundreds of kilometers wide. They activated their cores and created one of the largest portals O’Neill had ever seen.

It led to blackness with a tiny speck of light in the distance that was presumably the Raven Hotel. The fleet moved in.

Before even one ship was in, a forward fleet of Void ships appeared, firing beams of dark energy from their mixed crystalline-metallic forms.

Already, O’Neill had to use one of their secret weapons. A small ship that looked vaguely like a bird jumped to the front of the fleet. A single blue light flashed along the front of its hull, and suddenly all the Void-based beams were cut to the side as if run through a mesh of wires. The next thing the Void ships knew they were being minced into cubes.

Whenever a Class 1 Society fell, there were remnants. When your society was a completely digital one based on durable technology, your remnants were more likely to function.

Especially if they had a loose member of Xeelee society in them. This particular ship had been captured in a Gallifreyan time-trap years before the war began, as part of a high-end test of the technology. They were released when the Gallifreyans fell and were more than willing to lend their services.

This was not the first time they had fought. This was just the first time they had been put on full display. A single ship, turning a forward fleet into mince-meat.

More of O’Neill’s ships filed through. Those that could jump right through the portal did so, falling in behind the Xeelee ship and one other – a very particular ship from Equis Cosmic that looked like a layered lotus.

Cosmo closed her eyes and breathed out. “Here we go again…” she told O’Neill through the radio.

“Just like old times.”

Cosmo let out a chuckle. “You could say that.” She activated her inner Harmony energy, shooting it out of her ship to the rest of the fleet. The energy not only hit Equis Cosmic ships, but other Merodi ones as well. The light surrounded entire Protomolecule Planets, who shunted extra power to Combine star-structures, and then to TSAB ships. The fleet became a web of Harmonious energy.

Everyone heard the voice of the Emperor in their minds - “get ready to see what some real fucking holy lasers look like.” He pushed his essence into the Harmony web, increasing the power and accuracy immensely.

It all fired at once toward the Raven Hotel like a holy arrow. The ships in the way were disintegrated, providing little protection.

Then the true power of the Void activated. A Black sphere the size of Jupiter appeared in space, brimming with a strange eclipse-like aura. The Harmonious energy hit the power of Nothing and was absorbed, drained into the abyss.

“As expected,” O’Neill muttered. “Keeping her busy?”

“I can feel her,” Cosmo admitted. “S-she’s struggling just as I am. The Void has difficulty reaching this far.”

“Right,” O’Neill said, pressing a few buttons. “Combine UNR-43L, do the lay up, we can’t stay in locked formation like this forever.”

“Tzeentch is acting through a pseudo-warp!” the Emperor reported. “I must devote my higher powers to that - you’re on your own Cosmo.”

Two Combine ships that were more like mobile Dyson Spheres than ships shifted their location to opposite sides of the Void-Harmony collision. Like a proton and an electron, they set up ‘charges’ of dimensional interference, passing a high-energy field through the Void’s manifestation.

Cosmo let out a screech – but O’Neill knew that meant Empress Twilight was suffering as well. “Is it locked?”

Yes, the Combine response came. The Void has no power so long as the spheres are active.

“Everyone, break formation, split into defense and offense!”

Cosmo let out a sigh of relief. “Good. We’ve got a foothold now we c-”

Cosmo’s ship exploded as a Starcross ship barreled into it, the power of Runes being too much for the magic shields. Being an alicorn of immense age and power, Cosmo was not vaporized in the explosion – but she was sent adrift into space, defeated.

“Get her back!”

“She’s already been captured,” Clandestine told O’Neill. “They were expecting her to survive that.”

O’Neill ground his teeth. “Get us closer to the Hotel. Move with the offensive group.”

They soon found themselves moving with the Xeelee ship and Jenny’s ‘Dreamboat’ - not that she called it that. The Xeelee ship was under heavy fire from all sides, struggling even with its piano wire to keep up with the Runes, magic, and extradimensional Shabanash entities.

The Austraeoh was only receiving minimal fire.

O’Neill grinned. “Oh, they have no idea…” He pressed a new shiny blue button.

When you’re among the last surviving members of your race, you’re suddenly a lot more willing to share technology.

The Austraeoh launched a net of piano wire from the side, slicing through ships that had only been watching the Xeelee front. The ‘Dreamboat’ flew overtop of them, flashing a purple as it manipulated fate like a Dream, forcing the ships into Jenny’s dream of their destruction.

“HAHA YEA!” Jenny shouted. “Numenera for the WIN!” The ‘Dreamboat’ dreamed up more defeats, tipping the battle in the favor of offense.

And then Final Dawn showed up and cut the ‘Dreamboat’ in half.

Jenny twitched. “Son of a-” her prized ship exploded, powerless against the Aware mech.

O’Neill knew this was where they’d have to make their stand – pushing forward now would spread them too thin. “Form trench – launch pods and don’t stop attacking! Give Final Dawn the special package!”

All the ships equipped with speeder-type ships launched as many as they could. It was a lot like the plan to get closer and closer to Skarn’s center, except the teams who landed on the Hotel only needed to get there once, not over and over again.

One single-man pod was sent toward Final Dawn, whose luck was so high at the moment nothing had hit it yet, not even the Xeelee piano wire.

“What’s this little present, O’Neill?” Pinkie asked O’Neill, somehow talking on the private channel.

O’Neill smirked. “You’re about to find out!”

“It’s probably a designed counter,” Pidge said as Final Dawn cut through three Equis Cosmic ships at once. “Vriska, we might need some infinite-potential escape.”

“Dice at the ready,” Vriska announced. “We’ve got you O’Neill.”

O’Neill smirked. “I don’t think you do. This present might be a bit… much.”

Nova used her magic to catch the pod and pop it open. Inside was a bald man in a yellow suit and red cape. He didn’t seem bothered by the lack of air in space.

“Serious punch,” Saitama the One Punch Man mouthed, pulling his fist back.

“ABORT!” Pinkie shouted. Final Dawn pulled a top hat out of nowhere and vanished into it. When Saitama utterly destroyed the top hat there were no signs of mech debris.

“Got them to run, at least,” Clandestine observed. “Combine Dipole is holding, and we’re receiving reports some of the ground teams have landed.”

“They’ll be stuck down there until they can take the compound,” O’Neill said. “Hope they get lucky. Tell Saitama he can go down now.”

“His partner’s already got him going there.”

“Good. Shuffle up some of the movements of the Austraeoh, keep them surprised.”

Throughout the darkness, great explosions tore at reality. But the immense reality anchors of the Raven Hotel stood firm.

~~~

Allure, Thrackerzod, Squeaky, Bot, and Burgerbelle’s pod landed near the bottom of the hotel, hitting a room filled with Gem soldiers.

All it took was a simple anti-Gem EMP from Bot to disable them, though the little robot shorted many of her own servos out in the process. From then on it was easy work taking the handful of biological people in the location out – the element of surprise was too much.

…Well, with the exception of Lady Rarity. She was far too experienced to fall just like that. She pushed back with her hammer, knocking Squeaky and Burgerbelle back. This gave Allure an opportunity to move, attacking with magic in her back hooves, hitting Lady Rarity’s armor at the perfect angle to form a crack. On the other side, her Heart cut through the mechanical exterior and drew blood.

Lady Rarity roared. “I NEED BACKUP!” she shouted, jumping to the wall and latching on with her eight legs. She whirled her hammer in a complex pattern, deflecting magic bullets.

She knew she couldn’t do this forever – not against all five of them. Reinforcements probably weren’t going to arrive in time. She needed to do something that would have a lasting impression – take one of them out of the picture.

She lunged for the momentarily-disabled Bot, planning to make the condition permanent with a single hit. Squeaky caught her with a carefully-aimed laser that hit her side right where the armor had broken, causing her nerves to lock up. She would have magicked her way through the disability, but Thrackerzod took the opportunity to encase her in eldritch vines.

Allure walked up to her, face impassive.

Lady Rarity started breathing heavily – she’d heard about what had happened to Scarcity. “W-well, am I next?”

Allure shook her head, a frown appearing on her face. She took out a capture device and threw it, trapping Lady Rarity within.

“I’m proud of you,” Squeaky said.

“Thank therapy,” Allure said, trying to give a bright smile but failing.

Squeaky put a comforting hoof on her. “Thrackerzod! Where do we need to go?”

“Basement has a large energy spike,” Thrackerzod said, feeling around with her eldritch senses. “I say we go to whatever’s down there.”

“Smash as much as we can on the way,” Burgerbelle said, producing a somehow spooky trumpet. “We need to run them off.”

Nae finally arrived with a small troop of backup composed both of lizard people and hungry Shabanash.

Bot recovered from her use of the EMP-pulse. “TARGET ACQUIRED!”

There were a lot of explosions. Not just there, but everywhere within the Raven Hotel. The attackers had landed.

~~~

They were under attack.

Renee had known, just like everyone else, that they were about to be attacked.

That didn’t mean she had any idea about what to do. She hadn’t really fought since she got here, except that one time with Final Dawn at a distance. She was pretty sure she couldn’t stay in her room, but she wasn’t exactly sure where to go or who needed her.

This is what I get for avoiding the combat briefings… she thought to herself, scrambling through a hallway in the Hotel. She ended up in the lobby – which was surprisingly empty.

“Huh…?”

“They’re all in their ships,” Poe said, cleaning a glass. “And despite appearances, the lobby isn’t exactly a high-value target. I’ve seen a few of the other side run through here, try to shoot me, and then keep going.”

“…Don’t you have automatic defenses?”

“Oh, I do, I’ll just use them elsewhere. I don’t want Minna to yell at me about all the busted equipment.”

Renee looked around. “But nobody’s using it.”

“Don’t underestimate what Minna will give you a mouthful about.”

Renee shook her head. “Nevermind. You basically are the hotel. What should I do?”

“Find a group of intruders and get them to stop blowing me up, mhm?”

“Where’s the closest one?”

“That door,” Poe said. A moment later Jenny of the Red Gloves punched the door down. Her hair was charred and she looked like she’d just recovered from being flattened.

Renee blinked. “…What happened to you?”

“Ship blew up. Fell into the floor at terminal velocity. A-” Jenny shook her head. “Wait, you’re on the other side.”

“Oh, well, that is right. Could we not do it in here? Apparently Poe doesn’t want his things destroyed.”

“You’re also that unicorn who saved my mind.”

Renee brightened. “Yes, I am. Perhaps we can avoid a fight, then?”

Jenny thought about this for a second. “Erm… Nah, I’m still gonna punch you.” She pulled back her fist.

“Oh dear.”

Jenny punched the ground and created a minor earthquake, tipping a military computer over.

Poe sighed overdramatically. “So rowdy…”

Jenny flew at Renee, fist vibrating with transdimensional energy. Renee activated the Element of Generosity, a wisp of white Harmonious energy deflecting the fist just slightly. Jenny twisted, using her other fist to hit Renee across the jaw, but she didn’t have time to infuse the fist with extra power. It still hurt, to be sure, but nothing truly devastating.

Renee leaped back, using the momentum of the punch to land her hooves on a wall. She pushed off, flying toward Jenny. She lit her fist on fire planning to meet her head on.

A magic force field hit Jenny in the side, knocking her into Poe’s bar.

“Watch it!”

“Sorry, had to make use of the opportunity!” Renee sent a dozen sharp needles into Jenny, trying to pin the stunted woman to the table. Jenny wasn’t having any of it – she pulled herself off, letting the needles tear through her flesh and deposit copious amounts of blood all over the bar. The devastating wounds were as temporary as always.

“…You are a cleaner’s nightmare,” Poe observed.

Jenny pulled herself up and snapped her fingers, attempting to blind Renee with a magic flash. However, Renee’s artificial eye was immune to that particular magic. She pulled back and kicked Jenny in the stomach as she tried to land a hit.

This time, Jenny recovered – pushing the transdimensional energy into her foot she kneed Renee in the side, cracking a shoulder. The white unicorn flew through the air, forced to use her magic just to avoid hitting the wall too hard. This allowed Jenny to get off another punch, driving her into another computer.

Poe sighed. “Dear Minna – Renee has no respect for y-”

“SHUT UP!” Jenny shouted, firing a blast of white energy at him. It passed right through the hologram, though it did destabilize its appearance.

Renee tried to get up and move but it wasn’t exactly working. She was struck by how her glasses had remained on her face, unbroken, somehow.

Jenny walked over to her and held up a capture device. “They’re gonna have a lot to say to you back home.”

Renee coughed. “Listen to me, I’m not a fighter here, I don’t go on missions, just let me go.”

“How about no?” She threw the capture device.

It was destroyed in midair by a beam of darkness. The next thing Jenny knew she was trapped in a box rippling with magical hexagon patterns. She tried to punch through, but the wall threw her back. Renee saw her scream “what the heck!?” but heard no sound.

Blumiere walked into the room, Timpani at his side. He snapped his fingers, sapping Jenny of energy. “She may not be able to die in her state… But she can be weakened.” He took out a capture device. Jenny tried to teleport away, but found herself stuck in the box. Soon, she didn’t even have enough energy to try that. Blumiere opened the box, allowing her to fall to the ground – where she was easily captured.

Timpani ran to Renee and cast some healing spells to mend the bones and wounds. “Are you okay?”

“I’m… fine…” Renee said with a cough, standing up. She adjusted her hat. It had an unfortunate tear in it, but she could fix that later. “Thanks. Do you by chance know what I need to do?”

“You could come with us,” Blumiere said. “We need to defend the Tower Ring. It’s only a matter of time before they get to it.”

Renee nodded. “Sure. That’ll work.” She stretched her leg that had been broken just moments ago. “Good work, Timpani.”

“I’ve had… practice, recently.” She shook her head and sighed. “Blumiere, how much further?”

“You could just take the transmat elevator,” Poe said. “It’s like teleporting.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Blumiere said, walking up to the elevator. “You aren’t letting the other side use this, are you?”

“Of course not!”

“Good. Then we can get ahead of them.”

Renee, Blumiere, and Timpani piled into the elevator and descended.

~~~

Saitama punched and an entire section of the Raven Hotel crumbled.

“Yipee,” he deadpanned. “Let’s go to the next hall so I can blow that up too.”

“Now, what did we say about your attitude?” a tremendous man with overblown muscles and blond hair asked, waving his finger.

“…Get the job done?”

The man put a hand to the side of his head and let out a hearty laugh. “Not with O’Neill! What I said about your attitude?”

“Enlighten me.”

The man pointed to his face. “Always save the day with a smile! If you truly want to be the Symbol of Peace…”

“Hardly peaceful, what we’re doing here,” Saitama pointed out, looking at the destruction he and the other members of the army had caused. “All Might, we’re not really being heroes, I don’t think.”

“Nonsense!” All Might said, keeping up his smile. “We’re saving the multiverse!”

“They think the same thing,” he said, pointing at a handful of Void soldiers shooting lightning at a Combine task force.

“And do you think they’re the heroes?”

“No,” Saitama said with a shrug. “Don’t think any of us are heroes right now. …This definitely isn’t what I signed up for.”

All Might put his hands on his hips. “Then you must ask yourself – why are you here? Why are you fighting?”

“I mean, if they collapse the multiverse, Earth-AZ2 probably won’t survive, and then my favorite store will be gone.”

All Might put a hand to the bridge of his nose – but laughed anyway. “You’re impossible, Saitama. I’ll tell you why you’re fighting! You’re fighting because you care about people, and you wouldn’t want to see them gone! You want to save them, to give them what’s best for them!”

Saitama shrugged. “I mean, I guess, but I’m not exactly the guy who knows what’s best for anyone. I’m just a hero for fun. And this isn’t very fun.” He shot his fist out to the left, the air current from the force splatting a squad of Inklings.

“Every day I am reminded why I was assigned to you,” All Might said, shaking his head.

“Let’s just get this over with. Wish the Hotel wasn’t able to divide itself so I could just get it all at once.” Saitama flexed his wrist – and then he saw Final Dawn mowing down several of their people on top of a ‘roof’ section of the Hotel. “Oh hey, it’s that thing I was supposed to punch.”

All Might moved before Saitama, jumping across the divide. He placed himself between Final Dawn and the task force. “Don’t worry – I am here!”

The current leader of the task force – Navy “Lucy” Heartfilia, a fellow ex-USM agent like himself – clasped her hands. “All Might! We’re safe!”

“Yare yare daze…” he could hear Jotaro mutter. “ORA!” Nova’s purple fist shot toward All Might.

“TEXAS SMASH!” All Might shouted, using his power to meet the mech’s punch. Within the hero existed a deep, brimming power that had been passed down through generations. When the USM was still in power and time exploitation was still allowed, All Might’s power had been cycled through a time loop several hundred times. Every time it was passed on, its power increased exponentially.

It was the power of One For All, artificially improved to an absurd degree. The USM had made him with the intention of facing people like Nanoha, if they had to.

All Might’s punch of heightened power was nothing compared to the engineering that went into Final Dawn. He flew back – relatively unharmed, but having done nothing to the mech.

“Oh no,” Navy said. “Uh… right! I’ve got a plan!” She whipped out two magic keys and used them to unlock a dimensional portal to a realm in the Void. Two summons – a green lion with a ruby in its forehead and an earthy humanoid - erupted from the portals, ready to do her bidding. “Carbuncle, reflect barrier! Golem, earthen wall!”

Nova tried to cast a laser, but the double-barrier reflected it back at them. Not that Final Dawn cared.

“Oh, nice trick!” they heard Pinkie say. “Reflect all magic attacks, absorb all physical ones! Cleeeeeever!” Final Dawn pulled out a squeaky hammer. “Completely useless to me, though.” She paused. “Wait… Twitcha-twitch!”

“Normal punch,” Saitama said, fist aiming right for Final Dawn’s head.

“No!” I declared, writing an exclamation mark in my notebook. At the same time, I used my magic to offset Saitama’s aim. Since he wasn’t expecting to be deflected, he didn’t try to resist and flew right past Final Dawn’s neck.

I grinned. Perfect.

Corona leaped out of her hiding place, open hand going for Saitama’s head. All she needed to do was give him a light touch…

“MINNESOTA SMASH!” All Might hit Corona in the side, snapping several of her ribs and throwing her into the air. She managed to right herself with her wings, but she couldn’t get to Saitama – she had to spend time mending her wounds.

“Saitama, you are strong, but remember you do have a weakness!” All Might tapped his forehead.

“Oh. So she can do something to my head.” Saitama blinked. “Good to know.”

I twitched. Everyone, we need to remove Saitama from the picture.

On it, Vriska responded, activating her mental powers. Saitama felt something itch at his brain – but she was unable to get him to actually do anything. “Okay, what the fuck? You’re an idiot, how are you resisting!?”

“Guess I’m actually trying,” Saitama deadpanned. He pulled back his fist. “Serious p-”

“STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!” Final Dawn shouted, freezing time for everyone… but themselves and me. They moved to Saitama.

Their plan was a simple and elegant one – if you couldn’t defeat One Punch Man directly, move him somewhere he couldn’t get to you. They had an empty universe in mind where they could toss him and let him drift for eons. In stopped time, he couldn’t resist.

They threw him through easily.

Time resumed. “Who says you can’t beat One Punch Man?” Pinkie asked as Final Dawn struck a victory pose.

“We didn’t,” Vriska pointed out.

“Throwing someone into space is a perfectly valid victory,” Jotaro retorted.

“Kars came back, didn’t he?” Pidge countered.

“You haven’t won yet!” All Might shouted, the power of One For All surging through his muscles, making them increase in size further. “There are more heroes for you to face!”

Corona landed on Final Dawn’s shoulder and smiled cockily. “Yeah, strong as you are, I don’t think you have it in you to even defeat me, let alone Final Dawn. Especially not with Twilence over there controlling everything.”

I waved at All Might with an innocent smile.

All Might laughed. “I like your spirit! But the Symbol of Hope will not be deterred!”

Navy pulled out some more keys, summoning a mixture of eldritch and celestial beings. “Give him everything you’ve got!” Some unicorns next to her shot magic into All Might, providing him with even more power. He could feel the force he was a part of giving him energy.

Heh. Just wait until I tell the Gokus.

He flexed both of his arms back and roared. “UNITED STATES OF…”

Final Dawn sensed that it would have to act as one. A warhammer appeared in its hands. “SLEDGEHAMMER…”

“SMASH!” They shouted at the same time. All Might met with the unified hammer.

He was, once again, an ant to the power of the hammer. He was thrown back into the floor.

“Seriously!? We give you all that power and you fail!?” Navy squealed. “We’re so dead!”

“I wouldn’t say that, my dear…” All Might muttered, standing back up.

“Oh, excuse me, captured.”

“That’s not what I meant. I didn’t need to defeat them – I just needed them to enter a state of unity.”

“Why!?”

My eyes widened. “Oh, f-”

“I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN!”

Seraphim erupted from Final Dawn’s back, activating fully. Normally, altered physics would do nothing to Final Dawn given its reality anchors. However, it was designed to allow internal alterations – like Pinkie Pie’s powers – to take full effect.

The systems did nothing to prevent Seraphim from setting the physics so Final Dawn’s body would become hard and brittle. The legs began to crack from the weight above them.

Eve herself was standing on a nearby ‘roof’ section of the Raven Hotel, wings flared, eyes brimming with darker magics, and the Element of Magic shining as bright as the sun.

How had I not known Eve was here? How had that gotten past me?

Corona flapped her wings and rushed to take Eve out with a burst of flame – but the Golem summon punched her out of the way.

I pulled out my notebook and leveled a beam at Eve, planning an unavoidable attack. All Might decided to take care of me. I had to raise a shield quickly, too quickly. Not enough to stop the immense ‘might’ of the hero. I was tossed toward Corona, realizing quickly what was happening.

This was a fight for them. We’re being moved out of the way.

All Might, Navy, and the others focused on me and Corona, forcing us out of the scene. We would fight, but who were All Might, Navy, and these others? People who had been hinted at in this story, but overall nothing important. Representation of the fallen USM, a sort of apology. Their battles didn’t really matter with Saitama gone. They were just here to provide a reason.

A reason for Eve to be alone with her team.

I watched as Final Dawn crumbled apart. The very same machine that met the Living Tribunal head on was now no stronger than an eggshell. Brought low by the Princess of Friendship, Element of Magic, and the original leader of the Primary Team.

She walked along the flat roof toward the wreckage of Final Dawn. Pinkie, Vriska, Pidge, Jotaro, and Nova crawled out, all looking at her with conflicted expressions.

Eve summoned Seraphim, a frown on her face. “Saitama was always a long shot. There were several ways to take care of him where he has minimal support.” The finely tuned use of Seraphim’s absolute-zero universe solidified the air near her into two foggy blades. “I was the one sent here to take care of you five.”

“Welp, you blew up the coolest thing ever, cheers,” Vriska said, clapping sarcastically. “But you can’t boost Seraphim like that anymore. You can’t take us alone.”

Eve looked ahead blankly. “It’s what I’m here to do. I am sorry, this is going to hu-”

“VRISKA!”

The six of them turned to see Starbeat running at them, eyes glowing with white power.

“Oh, shit,” Vriska said, paling. “Uh…”

Nova pulled her head back, readying a vaporization spell.

“Starbeat, stop,” Eve ordered, grabbing her with telekinesis. “Stay out of this.”

Starbeat blinked. “Wh…”

“I need to do this,” Eve said, narrowing her eyes. She didn’t look determined – just sad.

Starbeat saw the look in her eyes and took a few steps back. She took a moment to shoot Vriska a Look. Starbeat decided she didn’t need to use any words. She produced an extremely old piece of pale red cardboard in the shape of a diamond.

She burned it.

Vriska looked like a sword had just been rammed through her chest. “Starbe-”

Starbeat teleported away without another glance.

Vriska twitched. “Starbeat, wait! You know I-”

Eve drove one of the blades right into Vriska’s chest, doubling the pain. Without Seraphim to keep it cold, the blade dissipated into gas a second after it hit, but the hole was still there – a chunk of ice surrounding a slit through Vriska’s very being.

She stumbled, but remained standing. “Gog…” It was so cold it might as well have been cauterizing fire.

“STAR PLATINUM: THE W-” Jotaro noticed his Stands were missing.

Eve teleported next to him and bucked him across the face. “I’m not even using Seraphim. Stands are easy to disable if you know enough magic.” Jotaro decided he could still fight without them, punching with his considerably powerful fist. All Eve had to do was catch the fist with a magic barrier, breaking his fingers. Magical chains appeared around him next, taking him out of commission.

She threw two more blades of solid air. Vriska and Nova dodged them, flipping backward – but the blades were so cold parts of Nova and Vriska still froze.

Pidge adjusted her glasses. “Taking a cue from Sai… Anyone can be hacked.” She targeted Eve with an anti-magic device, throwing the object right at her. Eve froze it solid, encasing it in about an inch of frozen air. As it dropped the device shattered into a million pieces.

Pidge had nothing else in the way of combat experience to offer. All it took was a single concussive blast from Eve to knock her out.

“Team up!” Pinkie shouted to Nova and Vriska. “Work through the pain!”

“Already ahead of you,” Vriska said, grinning. Instead of attacking one at a time or waiting for Eve to move, they moved as a single unit. Pinkie swung her hammer, Vriska threw the infinite-sided die, and Nova set up a point of erased time, removing Eve’s ability to predict where the attacks were going to land.

When the erased time was over, Pinkie’s hammer was snapped in half and the several dozen piranhas sat on the ground at Eve’s hooves. There was no more ice – but Eve had no bruises and no teeth marks on her.

“Universe where forces are a million times smaller,” Eve explained halfheartedly. “I-”

“SQUEAKY HAMMER!” Pinkie shouted, superseding Eve’s rule with her own reality hacking. Eve took a heavy hit from the comic-sounding squeaky hammer and rolled along the ground. However, only the squeaky hammer itself had an impact – the ground did nothing.

Vriska started her luck-stealing now that Eve was seemingly dazed and vulnerable for a few seconds – but she didn’t expect Eve to teleport right behind her. A burst of dark magic somehow integrated with the power of the sun hit Vriska in the back, making her keel over.

The ice on the wound in her chest cracked, allowing her blood to start running freely. Had she been her usual self, she would have gotten up and ignored the life-threatening wound.

But she really wasn’t up to it right now.

Nova gulped hard. “I don’t think I ever realized how ridiculous Seraphim is…”

“She’s been practicing and we haven’t noticed,” Pinkie said, gripping her hammer tighter. “Let’s space-time her. Synthesis.”

Nova lit her horn, erasing time once again, but this time Pinkie was in it. Moving in erased time was… a peculiar experience. Unlike stopped time, everything kept moving – except everyone but Nova and Pinkie could only act as they had already intended to act. Eve had no way to know where they were going to come from…

She didn’t need to, evidentially. The first thing Seraphim did was encase Eve in a meter-wide bubble of frozen air, one they couldn’t touch. Nova wouldn’t have been able to do anything about that on her own – but Pinkie was here now. She appeared inside the bubble where Eve was and brought out the bomb mask.

“Hi!” Pinkie said the moment stopped time ended. She exploded, sending Eve into her own wall of ice. She dissipated it as quickly as she could, but ice crystals had already been formed out of her wings. Many of her feathers shattered.

Eve multitasked – as she was struggling to regain control of her body, she had Seraphim go after Nova. Spires of frozen air shot out of the remains of the bubble like hungry eels, rushing for Nova. Once again, she dodged thinking the solid parts were all she had to worry about. She was several inches away from any of the pieces, but still she began to freeze. The ice was too heavy for her to keep dodging. She teleported out of the way.

Eve traced it – forming the absolute zero point right next to her. Nova screamed as the cold burned her.

Eve made sure not to actually freeze Nova solid – just burn her with the cold enough to take her down. She’d been very careful. There was a reason she wasn’t using Seraphim to turn the matter around her into nuclear bombs.

“Keeping to ice because you can use it with precision?” Pinkie asked.

Eve nodded. “It is the one I’m best with.”

Pinkie pulled out a flamethrower. “Too bad you can’t make me stop. I can just ignore any of your physics! I can ignore almost anything!”

Eve shook her head. “You can’t ignore Harmony.” She dropped Seraphim and switched to using the Element of Magic. A pulse of beautiful, white energy went out and entered Pinkie’s ears.

Eve extended a hoof. “Come on Pinkie. Come back to me.”

The Element of Laughter flashed a blue color. Pinkie took a step forward.

“That’s it. Everything will be fine… We’re friends, Pinkie. I won’t hurt you. Let’s end this.”

Pinkie took another step forward, all her movements sluggish.

Eve smiled warmly. “Good…” As an afterthought, she activated her powers of Light, checking the knowledge of the system.

She jumped back from Pinkie.

“Aw, phooey,” Pinkie said, snapping out of the fake stupor. “I was sure you would buy that.”

“…I got lucky,” Eve said, narrowing her eyes.

Pinkie leaned against her hammer. “Whatcha gonna do now? Y-” Pinkie had to jump out of the way as a blade of ice flew at her. “Just basic attacks? Come on Eve, you should know better than that!” She appeared beside Eve and threw a pie in her face. “I’m Pinkie Pie! You have t-”

Eve rammed the Element of Magic into Pinkie’s head. She used her magic to connect the Element of Magic to the Element of Laughter, running a feedback loop through Pinkie’s mind. This should have dropped Pinkie in an instant, but she refused. She let out a scream of pain and tackled Eve, foregoing the use of all weapons, resorting to pure hooves instead. The two of them entered a hoof fight, smacking each other left and right, tainting the brilliance of the Harmony.

Eve was still able to think. She pulled out Seraphim, freezing something right next to Pinkie.

Pinkie didn’t freeze. She was unable to think right now… maybe that actually helped her in some way?

I didn’t want to do this… Eve summoned a sword and rammed it through Pinkie’s stomach. Her unusual candy-red blood went flying everywhere.

Eve broke the Harmony connection, allowing sanity to return to Pinkie’s eyes. She felt the sword all right, but she couldn’t process it. She made a gurgling sound.

Eve gently set Pinkie down and pulled out five capture devices, throwing them at the five members of Pinkie’s Party. All of them worked like a charm – except the one on Pinkie. It bounced right off her.

Eve blinked. “Pinkie… You lost. Just accept it.”

Pinkie said nothing as her blood pooled around her.

Eve began to look at the blood nervously. “Pinkie. Get in here, I can’t heal you.”

Pinkie turned in Eve’s direction, her blindfolded face scrunched in conflicted emotions. “What would you do if you actually had to kill me?”

Eve had nothing to say to that.

“Lethal force…” Pinkie chuckled, coughing up blood. “What if you have to use it on one of us with no way out?”

“Pinkie, just get in the ball.”

“Okay,” Pinkie said, grabbing the ball and touching it to herself, allowing herself to be captured.

Eve put a hoof to her chest and let out a panicked breath. Calm. Calm. I won. They’re all in the balls, safe, and I can take them home… She shook her head. First…

She activated Seraphim and looked. It took a few moments to find Saitama, but find him she did. She brought him right back.

“Oh. I’m back.”

“You are. Destroy this place.”

“Okay.”

And then all five of the capture devices containing Pinkie’s Party teleported away in a flash of red. Eve traced the teleport instantly, shooting a death glare at its source.

It was Corona, standing in the middle of a dozen or so defeated people. She locked eyes with Eve.

I’m giving the order for us to evacuate, Corona told Eve telepathically.

I can’t let you go, Eve responded.

I know. So Twilence is going to do something a little cruel to ensure you can’t. She nodded to me. I lit my horn and set magical bombs on All Might, Navy, and the others. Save them, Eve.

Corona teleported both of us away.

Eve gasped, teleporting to All Might and the others, removing their bombs. “How could she do this!? She’s better than this! She’s… She’s…” After she removed the third magic bomb she realized something. “…These are fake.”

“Huh. Interesting,” Saitama said.

Eve captured all her fallen soldiers.

“Aren’t you going to follow her?”

“…I wasn’t tracing her teleport that time. And even if I did, she’s long gone now.”

“So, if they’re evacuating, does that mean we win?”

“Maybe. Keep punching things in case that’s a ruse too.” She spread her wings and took off.

~~~

Blumiere, Renee, and Timpani passed through one of the capture device bunkers filled with hundreds of captured soldiers from the other side.

They were going to go straight through – but then they heard the order to evacuate in their minds.

“…We’re not evacuating, are we?” Renee asked.

“We might,” Blumiere admitted. “It depends on the condition of the Tower Ring.” He looked through a cabinet of capture devices, the one where they kept valuable ones that actually needed to be labeled. He reached in and took out Nanoha’s. “If we are evacuating, we can’t let them have her back.”

Renee looked at the balls, seeing a lot of names she recognized, but none that stuck out as particularly important – aside from one. Alushy.

She reached in and took Alushy’s ball.

“She’s not that important.”

“Maybe,” Renee said. “I’ve just got this feeling…” she took out the Tower card. “Just like I’ve had a feeling about this. It means something.”

“Where’d you get it?” Timpani asked.

“I… don’t remember.” Renee admitted. “I just know it’s important.”

“Keep it,” Blumiere said, pocketing a few more capture devices. “Tower Ring’s in the next room. We need to hurry.”

They ran out of the capture device room and into one that was bigger on the inside. There was no way a room this large existed and wasn’t visible from the exterior of the hotel. It was a red room that had a vague disc-shape to it. The only piece of furniture in the room was a single long table right in front of them that was covered in pieces of paper covered in magi-technical writing.

There were some people in the room: two Combine human soldiers beating up Vivian with electric batons. They had guns – they were just being cruel for no reason.

Blumiere disintegrated them easily with a burst of darkness. Timpani ran to Vivian, placing a hand on her. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t try to heal me…” Vivian muttered, groaning.

“I know. Blumiere?”

Blumiere used the complex spell required to return life into beings of darkness. Vivian recovered from her wounds quickly, though she was clearly exhausted. “T-thanks. I was looking for you and couldn’t find you.”

“Well, I’m here now.” Blumiere looked up. “And it appears that the Tower Ring is just fine.”

Renee followed his gaze. Above them was a spirograph. The spirograph itself was of a passionate orange color, with every segment between the lines filled with a smooth black metal. It floated in the air, glowing brightly, like a donut with a toothed center.

Ready to bite down on the Dark Tower.

“Is it… done?”

Blumiere flipped through the Prognosticus. “The spells have indeed finished their work while we were occupied. It’s ready.”

Renee looked at him, sparkles in her eyes. “Can we end this war now?”

“Not quite. This universe is not near a manifestation of the Dark Tower – but we can move this ring. Salvage it in the evacuation.” He flipped through more pages of the Prognosticus. “Just have t-”

Allure flew through the sky and kicked the Prognosticus with as much power as she could muster. The book was far too powerful to be destroyed by such an action, but it was removed from Blumiere’s grasp.

“Hey, be careful with that!” Dimentio called.

To Blumiere’s surprise, Renee looked around as if she had heard something.

“Her Mind is a strong one… I best be careful, or I will be the criminal in the floodlight!” Dimentio chuckled.

“Something’s wrong here!” Renee blurted.

“YEAH!” Allure shouted, jumping off the book and barreling into Renee. “YOU!”

“That’s not wh-” She got the air knocked out of her by Allure as they tumbled across the ground.

Bot and Thrackerzod went after Blumiere, identifying him as easily the most dangerous person in the room. Eldritch tentacles shot from every surface near Thrackerzod and moved for Blumiere, followed by a volley of missiles, lasers, and bullets from Bot. Blumiere reacted with his usual dark magic, catching all the attacks and unleashing a few of his own in the form of squares of darkness.

Burgerbelle ended up on Vivian, burying her in Bradburgers rather quickly. It seemed as if Burgerbelle was immune to fire damage – but notably not being on fire.

Squeaky tried to go for Allure and Renee – Allure needed her to be there – but Timpani wasn’t going to let that happen. A wall of rainbow energy separated Squeaky from the sisters.

Squeaky knew Timpani was weak – very weak compared to everyone else here – but she would still take time to deal with. The unicorn general bounced off the rainbow wall and rammed her horn through the woman’s pristine white dress. She crumpled easily.

This turned out to be a bad decision. Blumiere saw this and didn’t even think – he allowed himself to be open to attacks so he could jump Squeaky. The unicorn raised a shield, but it wasn’t enough to block the energy completely. She fell over, her mane and coat smoking.

Allure…

With explosions and eldritch screams going on in the background, Renee teleported herself away from Allure. She was under no illusions she could get out of the fight. She raised a shield to defend herself and shot a magic laser from the side. Allure caught it with her hooves and sent it at Renee’s shield, breaking it. “TAKE THAT!”

Renee could vaguely sense Allure’s Heart activate and charge. She dodged to the left, but a large gash opened up in her leg.

It was at this point Renee knew something was wrong with Allure.

She had smiled when she cut Renee.

“Allure, what’s wrong?”

“What’s WRONG!?” Allure shouted, twitching. “MY FAMILY IS EVIL, THAT’S WHAT’S WRONG!” She moved forward, kicking Renee across the face with an empowered hoof. Renee grabbed Allure’s hoof in her magic and tossed her to the side.

“I thought you would know better than that!”

“Better than WHAT?!” Allure raged forward like a berserker, knocking Renee back into a wall, forcing her to only defend. “You’re the one who should have known better!”

“Better than what? To go with my friends!?”

“THEY WERE ALL THE ENEMY!” Allure shouted, bringing her Heart down on Renee again, making a cut across her shoulder. “MY FRIENDS! MY FAMILY! THE ENEMY!”

“Can’t you understand somewhere in there why they did that!?” Renee shouted, pushing back with a burst of magic.

“NO!” Allure said, tears running down her face. “NO I CAN’T!”

Renee’s expression softened. “…Allure…”

Allure pushed at Renee with her magic again, making another cut. Renee didn’t even notice the pain – nor did she notice the explosion behind her from Blumiere and Thrackerzod launching themselves into the air, toward the Tower Ring.

“Anyone who could bring themselves to kill that many… Just no!”

Renee looked at her with a pained expression. “You really can’t understand…” The aura of Mind began to shift around her. “You can’t understand on such a fundamental level… It’s driven you mad.”

Allure’s tears were much stronger now. “IF I’M MAD, THEN IT’S YOUR FAULT! YOU DID THIS TO ME!”

“I did,” Renee admitted, watching Allure closely. “I did do this to you. I thought you could handle it – but I was wrong.”

“SHUT UP!”

Renee looked for her opening. “Allure…”

A much larger explosion shook the room. Sweetie Bot had managed to detonate a high-yield explosive on the Tower Ring. The device lost the orange glow of the spirograph, becoming a dead donut.

Allure took this as an opportunity, thinking Renee was distracted enough. She activated her Heart and aimed for Renee’s head.

Renee shifted herself up slightly with her magic. This allowed her to place her front hooves on the side of Allure’s head.

This also allowed Allure’s blade of Heart to charge right through Renee’s chest, piercing through several vital organs and shooting out the white unicorn’s back.

Blood came out of Renee’s mouth. “…This is my gift to you.”

The Element of Generosity flashed a brilliant white. The power of the Sylph of Mind shot into Allure’s brain, getting a map of the situation in an instant.

Allure really had gone mad. There was a tangled mental knot her psyche was not able to iron out, no matter what anyone had done, even with the time in Aradia’s therapy. It was a mixture of confusion, resentment, anger, and a deep inner insecurity that she had been wrong. Wrong that people were inherently good. It was something her poor, sweet mind couldn’t accept. So it locked it away at the expense of everything else.

Renee ironed it out easily. Allure’s stressed ball of madness was flattened in a second, and her brain entered a state of relaxation as Renee soothed it.

The Element of Generosity gave her some extra time.

…My dear, dear Allure… I give myself to you, my little sister. I couldn’t bear to see you like that, so lost, so afraid, so confused.

I know you will hate yourself for what’s happening. But I want you to know that I don’t hate you. I love you. I always will. Even when I left you, I was still your sister. Nothing can change that. Nothing ever will.

The Element of Generosity began to grow dark.

If this really is the end, look out for Daniel. He’ll need you. And so will all the others. If they want to hate you, tell them what I said. This was my choice.

Live your life well, Sweetie Belle.

The Element of Generosity shattered. Allure dissipated her blade of Heart in an instant, allowing Renee to drop to the ground.

Renee’s body to drop to the ground. Her glasses snapped in half and her false eye cracked right through the iris.

“No no no no no no!” Allure shouted. “Somebody, do something!”

The Tower Ring crashed into the floor, bending unnaturally. But no one paid any attention to it – they were all looking at Renee’s body.

Timpani stood up. There was still blood on her dress, but she had healed the wound. She kneeled over Renee and performed the revive spell.

Renee’s biological eye flexed. It looked beyond unnatural because her false iris wasn’t moving at all, having been rendered useless in that department. However, while the pupil couldn’t alter its size, it was able to look around just fine.

Renee coughed, standing up slowly. Her gaze looked completely unnatural with the lopsided eyes and the crack.

“Well… It seems I’m all right,” Renee said, checking the stab wound Allure gave her. “Wasn’t exactly expecting to come back…”

Allure rushed her into a hug. “I’m so sorry!”

“Yeah, you are…” Renee said, pulling Allure close.

Blumiere noticed the smile. That was not the smile of someone hugging their sister.

“Uh oh, Blumiere’s found an inconsistency!” Dimentio chuckled. “What’s it mean?”

Renee’s gaze shot right to where Dimentio was. “I thought so… Blumiere, there’s something infecting your mind. Jester-y thing. I don’t think it likes my Mind sensing it…” She put on a pouting face. “Do you want me to get rid of it?”

Blumiere nodded. “I am aware of Dimentio. However, he has been useful in the past. I don’t want to risk losing him as a source of information.”

“Bad move, I think…” Renee said. While still holding Allure close, she picked up the tarot card off the ground.

XIX – THE TOWER

“Heh,” she chuckled, pocketing the card.

“…Why are you so calm?” Burgerbelle asked.

“Calm?” A grimace crossed Renee’s face. “I was just dead, darling. I… think it’s expected for me to be a bit off.”

“Is it?” Dimentio asked. “Is it really?”

“Shut up you,” Renee snapped.

“Thrackerzod…” Blumiere said, turning to the eldritch filly. “Do you mind checking her soul?”

Renee dropped the act before Thrackerzod could even start the spell. “Geez, Dimentio, why’d you have to ruin that? I wanted to have some fuuuuuun.”

Allure tore herself away from Renee. “What the…”

“Came Back Wrong,” Blumiere announced, raising his hands. “Can’t let he-”

Thrackerzod was the one to blast the thing in Renee’s body rather than Blumiere. “No soul at all,” she reported, growling.

Renee’s body was once again lifeless, her eyes pointing in different directions.

“I’m sorry,” Thrackerzod said. “You can’t let those types ‘live’ long.” She gulped. “They… they can get into your head. They’re psychotic…”

Allure stared at the body. Then she hung her head, tears falling to the ground. “She… she cured me.”

“It was her choice,” Timpani said, pulling Allure into a warm, motherly hug.

“Why’d she have to do that!?”

“You know.”

Allure kicked the ground, but held her close anyway. She let it all out.

Squeaky, Bot, Vivian, and Burgerbelle all started crying, holding each other close. Blumiere stood above them all, struggling to keep his own emotions in.

They had all known her.

There was no more fight in any of them.

But they couldn’t stay here forever – the shaking from another section of the Hotel being destroyed told them that.

“…You should go,” Blumiere told the League of Sweetie Belles. “You did what you came to do.” He gestured at the wreckage of the Tower Ring.

“Thank you for releasing us,” Squeaky said, bowing her head. She wiped her eyes and nuzzled up to Allure. “Let’s go. We’ve got to hurry.”

Allure looked at Renee’s body – then looked away, grimacing.

“Do not worry. I will take care of her rest,” Blumiere said. “Just go. You need to move fast.”

Squeaky put Allure on her back, nodded in thanks to Blumiere, and ran off. Burgerbelle, Thrackerzod, and Bot followed close behind her.

Blumiere sighed, turning to Timpani and Vivian. “We need an escape.” He pulled out a dimensional device. “Anywhere will do…”

Dimentio appeared again – though this time he was standing over Renee’s body. “Ahahahahaha! Someone’s a clever little imp!”

Renee’s functional eye focused. “Why can’t you just let dead bodies lie, harlequin?”

Blumiere readied his magic, prepared to burn her.

“Can we not do that!?” Renee asked, rolling her eyes over dramatically. “Look, I’m a psychotic soulless unicorn who Came Back Wrong. Buuuuut I also happen to be one of the super-duper smart types! I can be…” She grinned evilly. “Useful.”

“Useful how?”

“Well, you have Nanoha in that capture device of yours…”

How does she know that?

“…ask her about a ritual. Might be hard to get it off her, but I’m sure you’ll thank me for it later. It’s the way to make allll your dreams come true!” She made an overly cute face and fluttered her eyelashes. “Specifically, the collapse.”

“…They do tend to like rampant death…” Timpani admitted. “She might actually be serious.”

“Oh, gold star for the waif!” Renee clapped her hooves. “So, how’s about we get out of here and plot the downfall of everything, hmm, darlings?”

Blumiere lowered his hands. “I have a self-destruct spell on you now.”

“Oh, of course, of course, an understandable precaution,” Renee said with an extravagant bow. “Come on, let’s – actually, hold on. There’s something you need first. Pause for dramatic effect…!”

“The tension is killing me!” Dimentio blurted.

A hole opened up in the ceiling, presumably from one of Saitama’s punches. The hole punched right through the floor of the room as well, but they were all close enough to the edge it didn’t matter.

Blumiere saw a lot of things in the falling debris – blood, body parts, weapons… but he also knew exactly what ‘Renee’ had been referring to.

He saw Sai falling from above with no sign of Corona.

He teleported the AI necklace to his hand. “…Why aren’t you with Corona?”

“Ah, I was removed in the fight! That girl’s summons were something!”

“We need to ret-” Blumiere stopped himself. He summoned the Prognosticus to his face and opened to one of the last pages.

His expression hardened. “I won’t be returning you, Sai.”

“I know. It’s time, isn’t it? It’s been so hard keeping a lid on myself! I’m so lucky there was a war going on – Corona thought I was acting weird!”

Renee chuckled, levitating out the card of the Tower and placing it in the lining of her hat so it was easily visible. “Aha! Fashionable! I’ve done it!”

“Leaving is a good idea,” Dimentio said. “Unless you want to be one punched.”

Vivian looked to Blumiere. “…I’m scared. What’s going on here?”

Blumiere closed the Prognosticus. “The end.”

~~~

The leaders of the collapse movement shared the same escape ship – nameless pod 1619.

Corona touched her chest – where was Sai? Why hadn’t Sai called her the moment she fell off?

“Oh no you don’t!” Minna said, seeing the look on Corona’s face. “We can’t go back! We already pulled everything out we could!”

“But Sa-”

“No,” Minna said. “Do not do it. Don’t go back. That place is theirs now. All of it is theirs. Even Sai, if she’s there.”

“I’d been neglecting her…”

“There are more important things!”

Corona took a deep breath and unfolded her wings. “Okay. Okay. Okay.”

“You’re not okay,” I observed.

“You look glubbing terrible!” Feferi said, putting her hands to her head.

“Hey, I’m not that bad…” Corona muttered dejectedly. “I can deal.”

“She’s talking about me,” I said, realizing I was pacing. “She’s right. Something… off has just happened. I can’t describe it any other way. Usually I’m able to get some sort of sense, or to at least figure out who’s blocking me and how. But I’ve got… nothing. The Sweeties were in the Tower Ring room… Something massively important just happened. And that’s all I’ve got.”

“They probably just destroyed the Tower Ring,” Corona said, folding her arms. “Got Blumiere as well.”

Phage spoke up, his reptilian voice demanding they hear him. “Without him, where is our hope in building a Tower Ring?”

“We’re not the only ones,” Feferi said with a smile. “The Void, Starcross…”

“Starcross is about to fall apart at the seams,” Thanos grunted.

“And I’ve got bad news about the Void,” Minna said. “They can still do it. But Empress Twilight just told us we’ve been taxing the Void too much. It’s strained. If we push it much further it might break.”

There was silence in the pod.

“Back to square one…” Corona said, swallowing hard.

~~~

Poe, artificial intelligence of the Raven Hotel, felt his body being vaporized.

He sighed overdramatically, continuing to use his primary projection to clean the glassware. He could have just used insta-clean lasers or some other technology, but he found the act of rubbing a cloth through the glass pleasing.

The walls around the lobby began to crumble into dust. His mainframe was a few floors down - so he could still project himself. But all the other backups were gone. There had been a few great friends who had made attempts to copy him, but that was simply too long a process. None of them had succeeded.

So he just polished the glass, looking out the wall-less lobby at the ships of the Preservation effort disintegrating everything. There was very little resistance to them remaining, most from those few people who just couldn’t accept a retreat order.

Poe generated some coffee in his freshly-cleaned glass and drank it. It was virtual, of course, but it was something. A nice bite to remind him he was alive.

His remaining subroutines were still fighting off the attackers. As long as there was a single guest still in the Raven Hotel, he had to protect them. It was his duty. Perhaps it was just part of his old programming, but he liked to think it was more than that. Even if a lot of them hadn’t appreciated the way he ran things, they had become a team over the course of the war.

He decided he didn’t have any problems with what was happening. No regrets. He’d left his mark on the history of the multiverse. Made some friends, made some enemies, and above all had a full hotel for once in his life.

A laser finally hit his main processing unit. He was able to maintain consciousness for a while due to redundancies, but his holographic body vanished instantly. He was restricted to just looking through cameras and sensors.

One by one, his ‘eyes’ went out until only a handful remained right outside what remained of his processors.

He didn’t get to know what it was that finally killed him - something bright.

Author's Note:

And 127 is next. Those of you who have been following along know 127 is a 'submissions' chapter, and you can find details here on how to participate. We will be going on a small hiatus of less than a month to let people get their submissions in without the story continually updating. After that I'll release the next chapters quickly to catch back up and make up for leaving you hanging like this.

Yes, this is also why I published the previous chapter early. It gives people more time.

-GM, master of hot dogs.

Comments

[UC]

FOUR !!!

[GMBlackjack]

9905057
...Why would you not post the real Champion of Destruction?
Burger's not here...
-GM, master of .

[zeusdemigod131]

Sure. Working with an evil ghost piloting your friends corpse. That won't end badly.

Also, again, it seems like the go to explanation for anyone who doesn't like Corona or agree with her is to be called 'mad'.

[FanOfMostEverything]

“How long is the war going to last?” Corea asked. “I’ve been to worlds that have experienced years.”

Oh goodness, the time slippage. Even in the Merodi, it was getting bad before the war. Just another layer to the nightmare.

“And then they resent you. Why do you think Nova has been giving you death glares? You’re the one who told her Sunburst was dead.”

You know it's had when Sugarcoat tells you you're too blunt. To say nothing of Vriska acting as a unifier.

You’re the strongest person in existence right now, but even you aren’t going to be able to cope with your victory.

Or of Pinkie going full doom prophet.

The apology was a lovely thought. And if Jolyne's betrayal can expedite the end of the war, so much the better.
"If" being the operative word, of course.

Ah, yes. Releasing the Elements of Insanity also means releasing the Xeelee who put them in custody. It was just a question of whether it was willing to fight, and for whom.

“Serious punch,” Saitama the One Punch Man mouthed, pulling his fist back.

I imagine the war has put a serious crimp in his shopping schedule. Far fewer sales in such troubling times.

“I mean, if they collapse the multiverse, Earth-AZ2 probably won’t survive, and then my favorite store will be gone.”

Ha! Called it.

MY FAMILY IS EVIL, THAT’S WHAT’S WRONG!

There's a nasty contrast with the LSB Immortal Game arc...

I get the feeling capture devices will be off the table going forward. With the loss of Generosity, no one's going to give anyone else a chance to live. In any case, I have all the data I'll get. Time to go visit Shimmy; she and I need to have a conversation.

[everydaygamer]

So the collapsers are out of their minds right? That's the only way I can understand Pinkie being upset at the loss of her friends and family while admitting it would have been better if it happened through collapse. Not to mention Renee's talk of "curing" people of their grief which was just disturbing.

[Voltaje]

Did they manage to rescue the ones inside a poke all? because it appears that they just destroyed everything, leaving, insipid, discord, and some other powerful individuals to die, or they just forgot? or they did rescue them but offscreen.

[GMBlackjack]

9905298
Pokeballs were either liberated or moved in the evacuation. Most that were sitting in the area Nanoha's was were liberated afterward. Once the hotel's defenses fell it was a simpler matter to move them.

-GM, master of captures.

[UC]

9905059
I planned this song for this chapter WAY beforehand, sorry.

It's still fittingly epic, though. And what better way to approach a megacrossover's climax than with with a mashup?
I will prioritize mashups for my 127-129 choices.

[guldringr]

I'm worried flutter free is going to die soon don't really know what to say other than that

[Jalthir]

Hm. Well i think the main enemy just shigted. Would be advisable for movements to compine. Now ee have actual collapse for sake of it vs two groups of ideals. Also i wonder if sai was an incorrect from start or if they got replaced at some point/ actual sombra playing a hillariously long traitor game.

[aponyforthebooks]

So, the real players have began their endgame and no one will be able to stop them by the time it all over. It's going to be fun to see who they all are.

[theunbalancedone]

Part of me wonders if this whole thing was just part of a process to clear the multiverse of nearly all coherent multiversal societies so there would be room for the next huge mega crossover story in metatime

[Blaze rod]

And then Final Dawn showed up and cut the ‘Dreamboat’ in half.

Oh no. Not that goddamn mech again.

It was the power of All For One, artificially improved to an absurd degree.

There's an error here. All Might's power is One For All. His namesis is and has All For One.

[Voltaje]

9905634
A way around is to take control of the tower, white nettle almost succeed, but she was stopped, and not due to ka, the tower was desperate, so that is a solution outside of the forced two choices the tower is giving.

[alfonso_rd_33]

FUCK! This... really puts a big dampener on what I've seen on this mess... I told you we should have gotten in... SHUT UP THE BOOK!...

Sorry, the Twilight of my Other self has done a boo boo and it's annoying! i saw my other self being more an outlier in the war... but the forking book did it...

I hate when I see myself do the stupid

[zeusdemigod131]

hey, anyone remember that horror chapter a looong time ago, where another version of the exploration team all got killed?

Did we ever find their version of Merodi?

[alfonso_rd_33]

9905431
You made GM cry! You monster!

[GMBlackjack]

9906616
No.
Because they didn't have one.
They were an exploration team for a loose alliance of worlds that never truly solidified into a higher multiversal nation.
-GM, master of jinglemas.

[Jalthir]

i am comeing to realization from how broke allure is that wide scale death may be required, i feel death is preferable to constantly self inflicted suffering. Too many people will perma damaged.

[UC]

9905182

So the collapsers are out of their minds right?

Sorry, but no. And that's all that there is to say on the matter.

[GMBlackjack]

9910432
Y'know you could at least lay out some of the points and arguments. Getting huffy about it just makes the collapse side seem weaker.

-GM, master of tsk.

[Flame Heart]

Are you trying to hit 2 million words cuz there's a group exclusive to stories that have reached that achievement

[GMBlackjack]

9923759
I am trying to hit 2 million words.

Though to my knowledge, all the 'longfic' groups beyond 1 million words are ACTUALLY for back when fimfiction counted how many words you read. i.e. it was for users who had READ two million words.

If this has changed... good news for me!

-GM, master of 1001001

[ShadwSonic]

9928271
Incorrect. Individuals with bad morals exist on either side of the good guy/bad guy angle, and thus are not only accepted, but often make a story feel more real by their presence. However, some roles are often done poorly, and when that happens it detracts from the tale.
For some reason, "Christian", especially "Christian Pastor", is one of those tricky roles to properly pull off in writing, and being one myself highlights such errors...
So the fact that one could be stealth-dropped into a story, especially one like this, without seeming out of place at all is a mark of literary mastery that deserved a comment to praise it!
P.S. I am also absurdly stingy with Dislikes, you'd need to really offend my sensibilities to get one. Even unreadably bad grammar isn't enough!

[My name is R]

I can’t feel anything about this story right now. It is interesting, deep, and full of good twists and turns, well written... But my heart appears to have shut itself away from this tale for my own protection. I once said that you excel at making stories in genres I don’t care for and making me like them anyway, and this has become such a tale. I hate sad stories. You have done this well, and I don’t hate it, but over this arc I have slowly become disassociated from it. So much death, destruction, and pain.
I’m not leaving forever, just taking a break. I think I’ll read LSB for a few more chapters. It seems lighter than this arc by a fair margin. Maybe read the next story in The Oversaturated World. Then I’ll come back when my heart is less weary.
Farewell until we meet once more, upon tomorrow's distant shore.

[GMBlackjack]

11144817
It's all good, read at your own pace.

I myself would err on the side of "finish it anyway" since when you come back you might forget details, but I recognize that you know yourself better than me. I also would not be offended if you just left it—it is sometimes too much for some people, and I recognize that. I tried my best to leave warnings in the early story to dissuade people from continuing if they didn't really want to, but that doesn't always work.

I will warn you that LSB's tone changes drastically based on the fic it's in. There are, in fact, close-to-darkfic chapters. LSB's rating is slightly *higher* than that of SotS itself.

-GM, master of links.