Songs of the Spheres

by GMBlackjack

145 - The City, Part 2

Pinkie recovered quickly and put on a big smile. “Evuy the Beyonder, huh? Cool! I didn’t think any of you could survive in these kinds of physics!”

“We can’t,” Evuy said. “I had to fuse myself with the suit, and even then that barely worked. I have proven myself to be among the strongest and most resourceful of my brethren.”

“I mean, yeah, clearly, look at you still kicking around!” Pinkie gestured at him with a big grin. “I bet you could suplex Jotaro here no problem!”

“Such a feat would be a simple matter. And yes, I know who you are. Merodi Universalis, Primary Team. Or do the Merodi exist anymore? Are you perhaps the representatives of… this ‘Tower City’?”

Flutterfree nodded. “Yes. Our City exists at the base of the Dark Tower in the field of Can’-Ka No Rey. Our job is still the same as it was in Merodi Universalis, however – explore, make first contact, establish alliances. We were concerned this was going to be a problem with the hasty humans of this world, but they seem to listen to you so clearly the situation can be defused.”

“You have careful words,” Evuy noted, standing up from his chair. “Meaningful, powerful, diplomatic words. The words of one who wants to avoid battle.”

“Guilty as charged,” Pinkie said, her smile unfaltering. “Fights generally aren’t our thing unless we have to. We prefer peace. And we think it’s the best way to make people on both sides happy.”

Evuy let out a soft, deep chuckle. “Why, oh why, do you think I’d make peace with the only power I’ve seen that might provide a challenge?” He took a few steps forward. “I have been moving from planet to planet for MONTHS and each one is primitive, empty, or full of barely useful idiots like this one!” He pointed one of his loose fists at all of them. “This City is the only meaningful conquest I’ve heard of in this New World! It will be mine!”

“We have a Them, a Xeelee, Nanoha, White Nettle, Monika, Arceus, Twilence, Corona, Eve, and several dozen others of similar or greater power on our side,” Pidge offered. “I… don’t like your chances.”

Evuy paused for a moment, then leaned even closer in. “And I’m turning this entire planet into a Beyonder Warship. It has enough resources if… directed properly.”

“You won’t be able to finish.”

“It’s almost done. And with the… ten-hour delay between communications, will be done before any reinforcements of yours can arrive. I doubt you could photon-teleport a fleet this far.”

Vriska sighed. “Cut the crap, Evuy. You want a fight, so get to the fight. Here’s an honor-bound deal for your smug shiny face – the five of us challenge you to combat. You, just you. The strongest and cleverest of your race against five little insignificant specks.”

“Playing off my honor will get you nowhere,” Evuy declared. “I will not fight all five of you at once, as a cohesive unit you make it an unbalanced battle.”

“Are you afraid of five little amoebae-”

Evuy pointed his tail-weapon at Vriska’s neck. “I am not afraid. I am merely not stupid. Your kind love to exploit our honor-bound system and, furthermore, your ka is excellent. I must…” it clearly pained him to say what came next. “…reject your offer for a duel. My culture will not be my downfall. After the war has concluded, I m-”

“I challenge you to a one-on-one,” Pinkie said, bouncing forward. “C’mon, you can’t turn that one down, right?”

“Pinkie!” Pidge blurted. “Are you crazy!?”

“Yep!” Pinkie declared. “I’m trying to challenge a Beyonder to one-on-one combat! I have no chances of winning and he knows it! He knows I must have some sort of trick up my sleeve – but he also knows he can’t take the shame of disregarding a personal combat.” She grinned. “You are still a warrior.”

Evuy let out a growl. “You win, Pinkie Pie… I will face yo-”

“No delays,” Pinkie interrupted. “Or else you have placed your own personal plans above a contest of honor.”

Vriska blinked. “When did you get so well versed in Beyonder culture?”

Pinkie held out a brochure. Welcome to Beyonder Space. Not to be confused with the Beyond.

“…Eh, that’s bullshit, but I’ll buy it.”

Evuy pointed at the four behind Pinkie. “They must be restrained. In particular, Lolo must be disabled. You will allow this?”

Pinkie nodded. “Yep!”

“I can’t wait to see what this plan is,” Vriska muttered.

“Oh, it’s a good one,” Pinkie insisted as all four of her teammates were locked up with high-tech handcuffs (or hoofcuffs) and their Stands were disabled. Only Pinkie remained standing. She stretched a bit, put on her massacre dress, and produced her warhammer. “Okay, rules. None of my friends can die during the duel.”

“Agreed,” Evuy said. “My terms are simple: you cannot free any of them during the battle. Nor leave this room.”

“Good enough! Pidge, countdown please?”

Pidge cleared her throat. “Uh, sure. Three. Two. One. Half…“

“Nice try,” Evuy said. “I will not be caught with a false start.”

Pidge grumbled. “Fine. Three. Twoonego.”

Neither Pinkie nor Evuy were tripped by Pidge’s fast counting. They both rushed each other at once – and Pinkie lost the collision badly. Her warhammer was disintegrated and her own body was surrounded in flames. However, as usual, she was suddenly behind Evuy ready with a squeaky hammer. Evuy was expecting this, so he drove reality-bending spikes into her.

Somehow this didn’t rip her open and only tossed her to the side like an overly-cheery ragdoll. “Yeah, sorry, no curbstomp. And you can’t just destroy everything because that would kill them!”

“I am aware… but your powers are not unlimited.”

Pinkie shrugged, pulling a robotic nutcracker soldier out of her mane. “I dunno. I’m pretty sure yours aren’t either. And that you can’t make a robotic party nutcracker out of nowhere!” She pulled out two automatic party cannons. “And the cannons, psh, I don’t see any of those.”

The nutcracker and the cannons charged toward Evuy.

He chuckled. “Was this your plan? Use your powers to create servants for you? I admit, it is a non-standard approach… But I am a Beyonder.” He clasped his hands together – and the nutcracker and cannons stopped. “They serve me now.”

Pinkie blinked. “Well… Oops.”

The cannons fired out sawblade-like confetti and the nutcracker threw a pointed metal cashew – and then the same cashew again, somehow. Pinkie tried to move – but she found herself fixed in place by one of the Beyonder’s many powers. The confetti cut right into her and the cashew embedded itself into her – twice. Candy red blood squirted everywhere.

“Pinkie!” Flutterfree called.

Evuy laughed. “That was foolish of her… Beyond foolish…” He walked up to her body and prepared to incinerate it – until he realized something.

It was made of fabric.

“You never run out of tricks do you?” he asked, turning around to see Pinkie standing there, unharmed, twirling a squeaky hammer with an amused grin on her face.

“Not really. Right now I’m using another trick you’re not aware of. See if you can find out what it is before you fall into it.”

Evuy looked around and used his powerful scanners to check the area around Pinkie. He saw nothing besides her and the hammer – but that did not mean she hadn’t laid a trap, it just meant her powers were hiding it from him. Whatever it was he knew it couldn’t kill him – there simply wasn’t enough power in the area – but he still moved cautiously. “Your power is one that destroys honor.”

Pinkie nodded. “It miiiiight be why I usually don’t use an honor-combat system thingy. But hey, it seems to be working fine right now!”

The Beyonder decided to risk it – tank whatever damage she was planning to give to him. He rushed her and grabbed her neck.

To his surprise, nothing happened.

“…Was that the trick? That there was nothing?”

“Sorta!” Pinkie said, not at all bothered that her windpipe should have been crushed.

“What a foolish trick.”

“I mean, yeah, but not in the way you’re thinking. Someone forgot about the Thief of Light powers!”

“I did not. I am simply immune to such simple manipulation.”

“They aren’t,” Pinkie said, pointing at the two party cannons and the robotic nutcracker. They looked ready to fall apart at the seams, their luck was so low. In fact, it was so abysmal, it would have actually been a good thing for them to fall completely apart.

But they didn’t. They all got to launch off one more attack at Pinkie. Which, of course, hit Evuy instead. But it wasn’t just an ordinary hit – it was a hit that spiked Evuy in several different spots on his back that regulated the nerve flow to his various body parts. Had any one of these points remained untouched, he would have been able to compensate.

But it was some really, really crappy luck.

His four limbs locked up and he fell to the ground, unmoving. Pinkie moved quickly – using a laser-axe to chop off his legs and slice his arms in half. Then she dropped the axe, leaving the rest of him. Alive.

“Finish me, cheater,” he demanded.

“Not how we work,” Pinkie said, taking the handcuffs off all her friends. “Pidge, Jotaro, can you take him back to the City so Minna can figure out what to do with him?”

Pidge looked to Jotaro and nodded. “Sure thing!” she said. She and Jotaro laid their hands on Evuy. They focused, and the photon-transmission spell recognized their decision to return home. It transformed the three of them and teleported them into the atmosphere of the planet, where they began the long journey back to Tower City.

Pinkie dusted off her hooves. “Well, that’s that. Told you it was a good plan.”

“He could have disabled my luck sight without you realizing,” Vriska pointed out.

Pinkie winked. “Nah. I would have known if something like that was up. Now, ahem, Flutterfree? Think you’re up for finding the reactor core of this soon-to-be-Beyonder-warship?”

Flutterfree nodded. “Shouldn’t be that hard to disable since it’s incomplete…”

She was right. It was pathetically easy since Evuy hadn’t told the humans how to use any of his technology, knowing they would likely rebel. Everything in their way fell like dominos and the warship was disabled before Jotaro, Pidge, and Evuy even made it back to be processed.

“And I guess that was our encounter with the Beyonders,” Pinkie said as the reactor exploded behind them. “I was almost afraid we’d never really get to have an adventure featuring them!”

Vriska blinked. “Huh, you’re right, they were the only Class 1 we never dealt with extensively. I can think of big adventures with all the others… But not them.”

Flutterfree shrugged. “I could have gone without it. Though I am glad we waited. If he hadn’t been alone… we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“Technically we didn’t stand a chance even now,” Vriska said, twirling the infinite-sided die in her hand. “And that’s why it worked.”

They all had a laugh and went to talk to the world leaders.

The humans were much more willing to listen now.

~~~

Question: what do you do after you are instrumental in saving existence?

If you were Everykid, you would only ask for one favor: that people start leaving collectibles in odd places for you to find. Because that was your hobby and the thing you enjoyed most: searching for things. Most people couldn’t hide anything in a challenging location, so she specifically sought out people with powerful magic to set up the collect-a-thon hunt.

First she had just gone to Arceus and he had created a few hundred coins with his symbol on them. Those were collected quickly – not by the Everykid, but by everyone else. Sure, she got the most – seventy-eight – but the point was to be challenged and find them all.

Nanoha had thought it would be an excellent game. With her free time she created a very small number of ruby tokens and spread them out all across the City. Everykid had found eighteen of twenty-one, the ability to increase the number to nineteen eluding her. The ones she had found were in exceptionally hard-to-reach places, like the center of a maze of tunnels or in the back of my library. She’d even found one underneath a loose cobblestone in a street! That had been just pure luck!

It was getting a bit tedious after three days of finding nothing.

So then she had gone to Discord, who just happened to be talking to Trixie at the time. The unicorn in question was all dressed up and looking very pleased with herself, so clearly a meeting had just gone very well.

“I’m telling you, Discord, this is where it’s at. Just have the creativity and the drive and you can do anything!” She pointed at a store window, inside of which a newly released game of hers was displayed proudly. “Oh, why didn’t I try this sooner? It’s such a-” She saw the Everykid running to Discord. “Incoming.”

Discord rolled his eyes and put his head on the ground, looking up to the Everykid. “Hello, maximum-hnnnng inducer.”

The Everykid chuckled. Then she pulled out some Arceus coins and ruby tokens. She pointed at Discord and the City itself. After which she performed a double jump and re-enacted a victory pose, holding up the tokens.

“…What?”

“She needs more collectables,” Trixie translated.

“Oh.” Discord stretched. “Simple enough.” He prepared to snap his fingers, but Trixie stopped him.

“Hold on… I have an idea.” Trixie looked into the Everykid’s eyes. “How about I design the little game for you?”

The Everykid shrugged, gesturing at her pockets. She wasn’t exactly rich and lived mostly off the kindness of others. Not that hard, given how well she was known. …Actually that wasn’t hard to do to begin with, even for an absolute nobody.

“Oh, you don’t have to pay me – you just have to allow me to put a little sensor on you so I can copy your movements for a game.” Trixie grinned. “Whaddoya say?”

The Everykid pondered this for a moment, then nodded.

“Good! You’ll have yourself a nice little collectible challenge by tomorrow. Can’t get it to you any earlier than that.”

The Everykid winked, telling Trixie she didn’t mind. Then she ran off – might as well keep looking for the ruby tokens the rest of the day.

Long story short, she went into the Pinkie Emporium’s house of mirrors, got lost for a few hours, and found nothing.

She found a place to sleep – stayed at Minna’s that night – and woke up to the sight of Trixie staring her in the face with a crazed grin. “Open your eyes wide and don’t move.”

The Everykid was just surprised enough to open her eyes wide and be stunned into motionlessness. Trixie slapped a contact lens into her right eye with her magic. “And done!”

The Everykid blinked a few times, realizing she couldn’t feel it now that it was in her eye.

“That lens is both your tracker and your helper,” Trixie explained, waving a hoof in the air for effect. “Trixie has created a little game for you. There are forty-two collectible objects in the City, each one with an invisible little transmitter on it. Nobody else can see the transmitter, but with the contact lens you can! Any object with the transmitter on it will glow blue. And, just so you don’t get hopeless because you can’t find one, you can turn a little compass feature on to point at the nearest one.” She clapped her hooves together. “Now, go get jumping! That game ain’t gonna model itself! …Well, it could, but Trixie wants it to be more authentic.”

With a nod the Everykid hopped out of bed and had breakfast before going out to face the world. She adjusted her top hat and put her hands on her hips – identifying the location of the first object.

…It was in Minna’s spare bedroom. The Everykid rolled her eyes, jumping to the second-floor window and pulling it open, finding that the object was a watch, sitting on the floor. It was as simple as grabbing it and seeing a 1/42 appear on her screen.

That would be the only easy one.

The next closest one was at the top of a very smooth clock tower less than a block away. She put a hand to her chin – she could just put on one of her flying hats, but that would defeat the purpose. She would have to try it a different way…

She jumped to the wall of the tower and pounced off, landing on the roof of a nearby residential building. Still way too low to get to the top of the tower, but close enough. The clock face was a little too far away for her to use her grappling hook on.

Something bouncy… Someth- there it was. A trampoline in someone’s backyard. That would give her enough of a boost. She jumped down and landed next to it. Lemme borrow you real quick.

Getting the trampoline on the roof of the building proved somewhat difficult, but with a mixture of ladders, pulleys, and good old-fashioned jump spamming she got it there. Then she started jumping – and found it still wasn’t enough.

She decided to use one of her standard abilities. She put on a blue woolen hat and transformed into ice. She dropped like a stone, hit the trampoline, and launched way up into the air. Popping out of her ice form, she used her grapple-gun to latch onto the clock hand, pulling herself up. With a quick wall jump and a midair back-jump, she made it onto the top of the clock tower.

The object was a golden egg. The Everykid shrugged and pocketed it before unceremoniously jumping off the tower and opening her parasol just before she flattened herself on the ground.

That was fun. Exactly what she’d wanted.

To her surprise, the next one wasn’t a simple collection.

The target? A jar of jellybeans locked behind glass.

The mission? Guess the number of jellybeans in the jar and you get to have it.

The Everykid blinked. She was decent at math, but there was no way she could figure out exactly how many jellybeans were actually in it with certainty. She was going to have to get clever...

She thought about having a robot do it, or a super-intelligent AI, but the solution turned out to be far simpler than that.

All she had to do was buy one of the high-end scanners. It could ping the jar and get a full 3D model of everything in it. There were 1,942 jellybeans in the jar.

The jar was her goal. But she was going to eat all those jellybeans before the day was out, she was certain of it.

Where to next…

The fourth object was a little bell hanging at the top of an alley of tall buildings. Normally she would walk along the roof to get to it, but unfortunately, these buildings were designed with spikes on top. So she was going to have to do a complex set of wall-jump maneuvers.

She made it through two jumps before falling flat on her butt. “Ow…”

The second and third tries weren’t much better. She took a moment to look around for an easier way up. She didn’t find one – but she did find that she had an audience. One man was looking at her with a very curious expression.

With an exaggerated bow she started jumping up again, this time slipping up on a windowsill on the third floor. She didn’t make it to that sill again for six minutes, and at that time there were more people watching her.

I’m not going to be able to just leave this one now… she thought. She narrowed her eyes – the flying hat – no, they’d just consider that cheating. But her other hats might have an option… Cycling through them all, she found nothing helpful. Moving fast didn’t help, there was nothing invisible to cling onto, and she decided against littering the area with explosives.

It was up to complete skill. As more and more people started to arrive, she cracked her knuckles and put on the serious face. She was going to make this. She ran to the wall, using her sprint hat to get some extra height. She bounced back and did a twirl so she’d land on the same wall. A backflip landed her on the windowsill in a very delicate T-pose. Not stopping for breath, she jumped to the far wall and bounced back, bouncing in midair to get some height.

Her fingers scraped against the bell, but she didn’t grab it.

Her left eye twitched involuntarily. She pulled out her parasol and shot her grappling hook at the bar the bell was hanging on, barely grappling it before she fell out of reach. With a ‘humph’ she pulled herself up and grabbed the bell. “Gotcha!”

She slowly drifted down to the alley and showed the bell to everyone watching her.

They weren’t clapping.

It was at this point the Everykid suspected something was up.

“Uh… Hi!” she said.

They all turned to look at her in unison. She knew exactly what that meant.

The lead man and two others spoke at once. “We are the New Everyman. You can become as you once were, with us.”

The Everykid shook her head quickly. She’d rather not go back to being part of the Everyman. She was enjoying her simple, jumping life.

“Sorry to hear that.” He pulled out a stun gun. The Everykid could see it now – kidnapped and then mentally conditioned to rejoin the Everyman.

She wasn’t having any of that. She swapped hats to the flying hat and took off into the sky at a brisk pace, flying over the spikes of the buildings. She cockily turned around and stuck out her tongue.

It was at this point she realized she was captured in a field of telekinetic energy.

“…Peck.”

The gun fired, knocking her unconscious.

She awoke later – she didn’t know when exactly – to one of the Everyman’s bodies strapping her to a table. She wasn’t wearing a hat; instead a mental dome was affixed to her head. Her attempts to break the bonds keeping her trapped on the table were in vain.

“You can’t escape,” three voices said at once. “The Everyman will become whole once again. The original self will be restored.”

The Everykid glared at the closest one and stuck out her tongue. She could tell this wasn’t what the Everyman used to be – the people were in a standard hivemind. Individuality was being lost. They were not of a large enough mass to be forced to deal with inconsistency, and by the time they got that large she would already be lost in the wave…

But she couldn’t do anything. At all. There was nothing around… she couldn’t change her hat, her parasol wasn’t on her, and she was out of practice doing any sort of magic. Should really have practiced more.

Then she realized something.

The display she had in her eye… was gone. They must have taken it out.

Somehow this disturbed her more. They ruined the game! Now she wouldn’t get to have fun at all! The objects would remain uncollected forever…

Wait. Trixie would know it had been taken out.

The moment she realized this the door to the murky basement opened and White Nettle walked in, her tendrils tied up in a neat little bow. “Hey, Everyman.”

The Everyman wasted no time. Every last one of him fired weapons. All Nettle had to do was hold up a hand and knock all of them to the ground effortlessly.

A second later, Trixie poked her head in. “We good?”

“Good,” Nettle said, undoing the Everykid’s restraints with a snap of her fingers. “…You are quite the rascal, huh?”

The Everykid stood up and shrugged, putting her hat on her head. Then she looked down at the other pieces of the Everyman – and frowned. She looked to Nettle pleadingly.

“…Fine, we’ll figure out how to help them,” Nettle muttered. “They could have just come and asked for help rejoining their minds in the old way… Not do it themselves.”

Trixie shrugged. “I’m just glad Everykid’s okay.” She patted the Everykid on the back. “Bet you’re glad Trixie was trackin’ ya, huh?”

The Everykid rolled her eyes – and then she noticed a red glint in the ceiling.

The nineteenth ruby token.

She forgot all of her recent ordeal and grabbed it. “GOTCHA!” She did a victory dance, holding the coin high in the air like it was her long lost pet.

White Nettle had no idea what this meant. She had grown tired of questioning everyone’s motives lately, so she just shrugged and left.

~~~

The League of Sweetie Belles had never officially had a leader. The only real distinction was between general members and agents. Members simply had to be a Sweetie Belle and sign up, nothing else was required. Agents had to pass inspection, be at least partial Merodi Citizens, and be given the role by another Agent. Beyond this, the League was in theory nothing more than a conglomeration of like-minded individuals.

However, everyone knew the original Sweeties had more power than the others. Allure, Bot, Squeaky, Thrackerzod, and to some extent Burgerbelle and Suzie all held the respect of the League, and what they said was generally taken as an order rather than a request. Because of this simple unspoken rule, the League had been an exceptionally organized and cohesive unit.

This was no longer the case. The League had definitely reformed – there were hundreds of them who had survived and made it to the City – but Thrackerzod was the only remaining leader. And she made it very clear she had not gone through the war and New World explorations unscathed. She never spoke about it much, but she withdrew from giving orders.

Which just left Burgerbelle. This was a problem because it was relatively impossible to take her seriously. She did the job well, proving herself to have more than just a head full of eternal memes. However, her position was never official. No matter how well she did, the way she acted kept everyone from giving her respect. It didn’t take long for the other Sweeties to realize she didn’t technically have any power and felt free to ignore her.

Mattie tried, for a time, to wrangle them all. She couldn’t garner respect either – mostly because her questionable way of life made everyone around her uncomfortable, including her friends. So, in the end, the League just lost any semblance of leadership, becoming little more than a disorganized collective. Since they were not hired to be a peacekeeping force for the City, they didn’t have a singular job either.

This all combined to make them largely unimportant on the scale of the City. Sure, most everyone knew who they were, but they were only called for very specific reasons or by once-inhabitants of Celestia City who felt more comfortable with them around. Only a few Agents remained active in the City, allowing most members to treat the League as more of a club.

“This is how it started,” Thrackerzod mused. “We weren’t some big government organization that channeled all of one kind of person toward whatever goal we felt like. We were just a group of friends hanging around and having fun.”

“I like it!” Burgerbelle said, hanging from the ceiling fan. One of the things she had demanded in the new League building was a fan strong enough to support her weight so she could do this without fear of making things splinter into a million pieces and poking an eye out. “Feels… nostalgic!”

“Hmm…” Thrackerzod said, looking up from her seat. Dozens of Sweeties were visible walking through the League’s new, glistening lobby. Everything was white, as usual, and all of them were chatting about their day. Some were lamenting that the League didn’t pay them anymore, while others were talking about how it was a nice change of pace. Then there was that black Sweetie Belle who was talking about how the place was too bright.

“Hey, Zod, you okay?”

Thrackerzod shrugged. “Having thoughts I don’t know the answer to again.”

Burgerbelle nodded in understanding, leaving Thrackerzod to her thoughts.

This did not last long. With a flash of purple magic, a paint-filled water balloon the size of a pony appeared in the lobby. It burst with a powerful gawoosh, covering the pristine white lobby with amethyst-purple, glitter-infused paint.

Thrackerzod wiped the paint from her eyes and sighed.

Burgerbelle smirked – but she put a hand firmly on her hips. “All right, who did this and why?”

“THOSE DAMN SPARKLES!” A yellow Sweetie who went by the name of Lemon shouted, looking at her largely ruined coat.

“They’re really gonna do it!” Mattie said, charging into the Lobby. “The- well it appears I’m late. Whoops. …That glitter is gonna get stuck in all sorts of fun places.”

Burgerbelle turned from Mattie to Lemon. “Question: why would the Sparkle Census do this?”

“I unleashed an infestation of slimes on them,” Lemon said, nonchalant.

“Lemon!”

Lemon rolled her eyes. “What? It was a prank.”

“How do you not know about the rivalry?” Mattie shouted. “Ever since we’ve got here it’s been ‘Sparkle Census this, Sparkle Census that’. They’re taking our jobs!”

“Oh. Right.” Burgerbelle blinked. “You’re still an active Agent.”

“Not for long…” Lemon muttered. “They’re gonna run us out. Take everything from us.”

“There’s more of them and they’re more organized, what’s the issue?” Thrackerzod asked. “If they deserve it…”

“This is a pride thing!”

“Burgerbelle, isn’t pride a problem?”

“Usually,” Burgerbelle admitted.

Mattie facehooved. “This is her job, Sweeties! It’s what makes her life worth living. I’ve taken it upon myself to assist her in putting down the Sparkle Census.”

“…You’re an idiot,” Thrackerzod deadpanned.

Mattie winked at Thrackerzod. “I love it when you talk dity. Please, insult me more.”

Thrackerzod sighed and returned to her chair, reading from a data pad. “Someone clean all this up.”

“Hey! Squiddy!” Mattie clapped her hooves. “Is Squiddy in the building?”

A Sweetie Inkling ran up to her, squid tentacles flopping. “Yes?”

“Think you can paint over this?”

Squiddy took out a paint roller covered in white ink. Then she paused. “…Why?”

“Undo the Sparkle Census’ damage to our reputation?”

“Oh! Hah, sure!” She needed no more convincing and started painting over the place, covering up the purple mess.

“And now… we march to war,” Mattie said. “Burgerbelle, you should come along.”

“Huh? I’m not inv-”

“Pranks, Burgerbelle. Pranks.”

“…I do like me a good prank…” She made a ‘thonking’ expression. “Count me in! What’s the plan?”

Lemon grinned. “The Bees.”

Burgerbelle gasped. “Not the bees!”

Later that day, the Sparkle Census agent known as Bacon (since her mane was the color of a Sunset Shimmer’s) walked into her library to find every single book replaced.

With the Bee Movie script.

She let out a harrowed scream and fled from her library. For a moment the other Sparkles thought something had been murdered. Only when they investigated did they find out that it was much, much worse.

“Who would do this!? Why would they do this!?” Bacon wailed to the sky, drawing the attention of many Sparkles.

“It’s those slippery little Sweeties!” an elderly unicorn Sparkle said, shaking her hoof. “They’re worse than cheese!”

“Nothing is worse than cheese!” an alicorn shouted.

“Cheese isn’t that bad,” I said, throwing in my two cents.

The Grand Secretariat appeared before everyone. “Cheese is an anti-Sparkle measure, Twilence, and you are most aware of its effects.”

“Generally only in melted quantities with quesadillas,” I added. “In reali-”

“Twilence…”

I laughed nervously. “Eheh… Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m cheating. And mocking you unfairly. I am sorry for that.”

“Good.” The Grand Secretariat ruffled her feathers. “Now, I do have a question. How do we get back at the Sweeties?”

I put a hoof to my chin. “They attacked our books… Our most prized possessions. The next step is to go after what they hold dear – their sisters – but we aren’t monsters. So… How a-” I paused. “Mattie, I’m going to make the scene shift now.”

“Balls,” Mattie muttered. “She’s got my number.” She turned around to face Burgerbelle, Lemon, and a large consortium of Sweetie Agents. “We don’t know what they’re doing. They aren’t going after Raritys, so you can rest easy there...”

“Most of us don’t have our sisters anyway,” Lemon said.

Mattie nodded slowly. “Yes… Anyway, they want to repay in kind. It will be something for books. Any ideas?”

“We like our songs a lot, but they can’t really attack those,” a stallion, Silverfish, said.

Burgerbelle blinked. “I know what it’s gonna be.”

“What?”

“They’re going to go after the other Sweeties. The-”

“Hello!” I called, charging in the front door of the League of Sweetie Belles. “Have we got some news for you!”

Mattie and the rest of her group ran out into the Lobby – but Thrackerzod had already gone to talk to the Twilight. “You painted the lobby.”

“Yes, we did,” I admitted, several Sparkles taking up a flanking position behind me. “But do you know why?”

“Yes, prank war, stupid reason, annoying,” Thrackerzod deadpanned.

“I agree!” I said, nodded curtly. “And I also realize only a small number of Sweeties are actively engaging in this little rivalry – the same is true on our end. We’d like this endless wave of one-upmanship to end, and so we’ve come to you. You can talk to them – tell them to drop it.”

“DROP IT!?” Lemon shouted. “This is my livelihood!”

“She can do her Agent duties just the same with our presence,” a Twitter Sparkle retorted.

“But you always do it better!”

Several Sweeties behind Lemon rallied their support.

The Sparkles behind me narrowed their eyes. I sighed, turning to Thrackerzod. “You can do it. You can tell them to drop it.”

Thrackerzod raised an eyebrow. “And just let you win?”

I blinked. “But you’re no-” I stopped myself. “…You are invested. This place is your identity.”

“Surprised you didn’t already know that,” Thrackerzod commented. “I’ll stand by them. They’re idiots, but they’re my idiots.” She put her hoof on her chest. “We are the League of Sweetie Belles. We may have fallen, but we will stand as one against your miniscule attempts at comeuppance.”

“Then we will bring the full might of the Sparkle Census to bear,” I responded. “You will not know a time of peace. There will be locks on doors that shouldn’t have them, pillows with the insides replaced with high-pressure water balloons, and the Bee Movie on every channel.”

“That’s my meme!” Burgerbelle shouted.

“Memes are, by nature, not original,” I said, tossing my mane back. “So is it war?”

Thrackerzod rolled her eyes and smirked. “It. Is. War.”

I stuck out my hoof to shake Thrackerzod’s. She moved to accept.

“Ahem. Can I say something?”

Thrackerzod and I turned to see a Sweetie standing there. One who looked like she was made of crystal, a similarly-constructed blade held firmly in her telekinesis. Her eyes seemed old – they had seen much.

“…Sure?” I said, slowly realizing who she was and why her presence was important.

She nodded. “Just needed to get your attention and tell you that you’re being ridiculous. And…” She sidestepped, revealing a small Sweetie Belle-Twilight Sparkle hybrid behind her. “You’re tearing this poor girl apart.”

Her name was Sweetie Sparkle, often called Swap for short. And she was a member of both sides of the divide. She looked like she’d been crying. She was still young, yes, but she was close enough to adult age for crying to signify something deep. “…I… I…” She gulped. “Can we just stop?”

Thrackerzod and I melted. “…Sure,” Thrackerzod said.

“I’m sorry, little one,” I said, walking to her. “We… We got caught up in our little game and didn’t realize you were in the middle.”

Swap nodded softly and pulled me into a hug.

“Wait, we can’t just do that!” Lemon blurted. “What ab-”

The crystal Sweetie shot her a look. “…You are Sweetie Belles and Twilight Sparkles. You may think you have little to do with each other. But… I think if you give it an honest attempt, you’ll find that you both have a lot to teach each other. Working together.”

“What, combine the Census and League?”

“Why not?”

The entire room was silent.

“I’ll go for it,” Burgerbelle said, raising a hand.

“Same,” I said, raising my hoof.

“Really!?” Swap said, eyes unbelieving.

I chuckled. “Really. It’s not like either of us are all that important, anymore. We can mingle. Solve a few problems in the process…” I turned to the crystal Sweetie. “…Thank you.”

And that was the story of how the Sweetie Sparkle Coalition formed. Swap was rather embarrassed by the name, but deep down we all knew it was the perfect name.

A combination.

~~~

“…And let us close in prayer.”

Rev was… well, a Reverend. That’s what she always was. Ever since she had lost her home, she had been part of the Church. It gave her a sense of belonging she had never had – not even in the Equis she had come from. It gave her the means to change what she was and become something else. Something she liked a lot better than her old self.

“…And let us close in prayer.”

It gave her structure, gave her comfort. Being the one who watched over the souls of others, making sure they were growing… She was a bringer of peace and what was good in the world. She knew better than anyone that this gave her more than a little pride – but she also knew she wouldn’t be able to remove that from her system entirely. No one could ignore themselves completely, and she was just a person like everyone else.

“…And let us close in prayer.”

Over most of her life, her days had followed a structure of either teaching, preparing to teach, prayer, witnessing to people, or going out into the world and letting everyone know they didn’t need to be afraid of her. The teaching was the best part – she felt like she was on fire most of the time, burning with passion and words that were not fully her own. She looked forward to each and every time she got up to that podium and spoke of the Word.

“…And let us close in prayer.”

It was tradition. How many worlds had she done it on? Too many to count. Leave one world, set up a church in the next, live, and then when the time is right move again…

“…And let us close in prayer.”

But something was happening to her. She was starting to feel like the teachings were slowly losing their life. The fire was dissipating ever so slowly, and she was starting to grunt in annoyance when she tried to prepare a message. I’ve done this a million times, they didn’t listen then…

“…And let us close in prayer.”

Something had changed about her words. She didn’t know what for sure – her faith was as strong as ever, and she hadn’t been drifting from any of her friends. Several of them knew about her confusion and had offered pieces of advice. Flutterfree and Rina knew her the best, but nothing they said had worked.

“…And let us close in prayer.”

She said the words and fell silent – taking so long to start the prayer this time that some people began to murmur. Eventually, she did force herself to start speaking, but what she said was a simple prayer that didn’t require her to think. Inside, she was thinking very different thoughts.

I have fallen away, or I need something new, Lord. That’s… pretty clear. I’m struggling here and I don’t know why. How can I continue to speak for you?

And then it happened. A little voice in the back of her mind that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Who said you had to continue speaking?

Rev stopped short – once again surprising the congregation. She continued the vocal prayer and wrapped it up, leaving the stage. Unlike usual, she didn’t stick around to talk to the people. She didn’t even bother with a public teleporter, instead using her own magic to go right to her destination.

Eve’s little counseling business. She checked her watch – Eve shouldn’t actually have anything scheduled right now, since it was a weekend. So she was more than a little surprised that the front door was unlocked. The entry lobby was a simple, homey hall with several sleek potted plants, a few magic crystals, and a painting of the Equis Vitis princesses.

Eve walked out of her office – with both Starbeat and Vriska, patting them on the back. Vriska looked like she’d been bawling her eyes out while Starbeat was holding her tight. The reverse of how it usually went, as Rev understood it.

Vriska looked into Rev’s face. “Not… A… Word…”

“I know about confidentiality,” Rev said, nodding slowly. “…Glad to see you progressing.”

Starbeat glanced at Eve. “I thought you didn’t have an appointment slot right now.”

“I don’t…” Eve said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, I n-” Rev began.

Eve held up a hoof. “I’ll walk these two out first – then we can talk about whatever’s on your mind.”

“Don’t trust me to keep a secret?” Vriska asked.

“Not particularly,” Eve admitted.

Vriska just let out a soft laugh, clearly drained of the energy she normally used for these interactions. “Yeah…”

Eve led them out, bade them goodbye, then shut the door.

“They’re coming along nicely,” Rev commented, sitting in a nearby chair. She was nervous – why was she nervous?

Eve nodded. “It’s… been a rough ride. The two of them have very strong personalities. I think the light at the end of the tunnel is within reach, though.” She sat down across from Rev. “…I can’t say I ever expected you to walk into my office.”

“Neither did I,” Rev admitted. “I just had… A moment. And I felt sure I needed to talk to you.”

“A Revelation?”

“…I believe so.”

Eve smiled understandingly. “I’m not going to discredit that aspect of it, Rev. What do you think He is telling you to do?”

“It… It was just a question. ‘Who said you had to continue speaking?’.”

“And what was this in response to?”

Rev locked eyes with Eve. “The fire has been leaving my speeches. Flutterfree’s probably told you about that.”

“True, but I need you to describe it for me. As well as she knows you, your relationship isn’t close enough for me to make a judgment just from her words.”

Rev pondered this. How would she describe it? “It’s… It’s like when you’re a kid and you have your favorite game. It’s the best thing in the world. But as you get older, you feel things tugging on you – society, other people – to take you away from it.”

“Are others taking you away?”

Rev blinked. “No… It’s just me. The feeling’s the same, though. The exact same…”

“So you feel like you are ‘growing out’ of something, but you don’t want to?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘growing out’,” Rev said with a nervous laugh.

“The metaphor still stands. You can feel yourself wanting a change.”

“I don’t want a change.”

“Are you sure?” Eve asked. “You’ve served for multiple lifetimes, even by pony standards. Maybe you’ve given enough time?”

“You can never give enough.”

Eve cleared her throat. “There’s more than one way to serve the Lord.”

Rev narrowed her eyes. “…Did you just quote me?”

Eve nodded with an understanding smirk on her face. “Yes.”

Rev sat back, blinking. “I did say that… There’s a time for everything, and a purpose for everyone. Not everyone can be a Pastor…” She looked at the collar around her neck. “…But that’s what I am.”

“It’s not all that you are,” Eve reminded her. “It may define your name and the way you’ve walked in your life, but it doesn’t have to define your future. Not if you don’t want it to.”

“…I shouldn’t care about what I want, I should care about what He wants.”

“Well… He asked you a question. Maybe he’s leaving it up to you.”

Rev was silent for a moment. Then she chuckled. “You sure know a lot for not going to church…”

“Flutterfree’s not a mare you can ignore easily. I’ve absorbed a lot about your teachings from her. You’re a very wise mare, Rev.”

Rev shook her head. “When you compare me to other ponies, yeah. That’s not much of a metric.” She looked Eve in the eyes. “What do you think I should do?”

“What I think is irrelevant. You’ve been allowed to make the decision, it should come from you. I’m just here to help you think through it.” She pulled a notepad and pen out of nowhere. “It might help to write some of it down.”

Rev thought for a moment. “If I keep doing what I’m doing, I’ll be serving in a very important capacity in a very prominent position, and my words will be representative of Him. Of course, that can also be a negative, if I lose the fire and start leading people away…” She shook her head, getting back on track. “It’s what I’ve always done, I know I’m good at it, and I know so many people there.”

“Negatives?”

“If I don’t change something I’m going to lose the fire. And that’ll open the gates for all sorts of mistakes. And when you’re in charge of everyone’s spirituality… your mistakes cascade down to them. I’m the example. If I’m not a good example…” She paused, thinking. “And if I drop it, well, I don’t have any idea what I’d do, I might not be helping people, it won’t be as clear how to glorify Him in it, and I won’t be as much a part of the community I created. I’d find a replacement, but I’d be leaving them on their own.”

“Positives?”

“…It’d be something new. I wouldn’t be taking a chance. I could expand my horizons.”

Eve handed Rev the notepad. “I want you to realize you started with positives for one, and negatives for the other. Those were what came to your mind first – as if you’re trying to convince yourself of something. I can’t tell you if that’s good or bad, merely that it happened.”

Rev looked at the notebook, and a sinking feeling formed in her stomach. She knew – she knew – what she actually wanted. But it went so far against what she had been for so long she was fighting it with intense anger. Anger at what? Herself? …Probably…

“…What would I do instead?” Rev wondered, almost as a whisper.

“Any number of things. Mage. Healer. Doctor. Diplomat. Charity. There are lots of things that lend themselves to you.” She put a hoof on Rev. “You don’t even have to decide now. You should simply decide if you want to before you start thinking about specifics.”

“…I think we both know I’m just playing mind games with myself,” Rev said. She leaned back and closed her eyes, entering a time of prayer. Eve knew what it was – she patiently waited for Rev to be done.

Rev opened her eyes over half an hour later, a tear crawling down her face.

“Well…?”

“No Divine Revelation,” Rev said, shaking her head. “But… I sorted out my thoughts.” She levitated her collar off her neck, leaving only her necklace. “I… I don’t think I’ll be needing this.”

Eve smiled sadly. “…Are you sure?”

Rev looked at the old piece of clothing that had scarcely left her neck in centuries. “I… yes.” She set it down on the table. “Yes. I am.” More tears crawled down her face. “…Eve, how long have I been lying to myself about this?”

Eve put a wing around her. “Probably since you joined Pinkie’s Party in the New World. You got to experience adventure again. It awakened something. You’re more than just a symbol.”

“…I suppose I should figure out what I’m gonna do, huh?”

“Not yet,” Eve said. “Go talk to your friends. Rina. Flutterfree. Tell them what you’ve decided. They’ll question you – and make sure you really do feel this way. I am fairly sure this is what you want, but accept their counsel as well. This is a big decision.”

Rev nodded. “Right…”

“After that… come back. I might have something for you.”

So that’s what Rev did. She went out and told everyone what she was doing. Flutterfree and Rina, first. Rina was angry to begin – she didn’t understand why the pony she admired was suddenly changing – but she quickly accepted it. It took Flutterfree exactly one conversation to be convinced Rev was making the right choice.

Rev taught her last sermon. The topic was ‘moving on’. She taught it without her collar and let everyone know this was more of a goodbye than a sermon. She told them who the replacement would be, and what to expect when she moved on. She promised to attend services – as a member of the audience, not the preacher.

And then she spent the rest of the day giving out tearful hugs and talking to everyone one last time.

The very next day she and Flutterfree went to Eve – and they were able to hash out a new job nearly instantly. Eve was right, she did have something for her.

Eve’s old job.

Rev walked into the skyscraper that was city hall with a spring in her step. She wore four simple white socks that went up to her knees and had restyled her mane into a loose but short design. In her right ear was a small bud that could display holographic messages for her nearest eye. The only thing about her that was the same about her was the cross necklace.

Soon, she was in mayor Mlinx’s office. “Hey.”

Mlinx turned around – he couldn’t smile, but Rev knew he was happy to see her. “Ah, my new ambassador. …I’m going to have to apologize, I had been hoping to give you an easy first day, but the guy you’re replacing just got himself captured and jailed by a bunch of Ewoks.”

“Oh…”

“So while Pinkie’s Party is dealing with that, there’s a race of slime-creatures – the Aran - in the meeting room waiting for someone to talk to them.” He tapped his fingers together nervously. “Think you can tide them over for an hour while I try to contact their home for them?”

“Pretty sure I can. I take it I don’t get to mention that you’re struggling to make contact?”

“I’d rather not have an unneeded… panic.”

Rev nodded. “I’ll try. Which room?”

“3404.”

Rev teleported herself to the thirty-fourth floor and walked into the room. It really was filled with a bunch of alien slime creatures without eyes or mouths. “Hello, I’m ambassador Reverend Glimmer, and I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”

“I am Krikk,” a blue slime said by vibrating his membrane rapidly. “What is that thing you wear on your neck?”

Rev smiled and looked down at her necklace. “I’m glad you asked…”

~~~

“And we end where we began,” Seskii said, leaning on the counter of the teashop.

Azula blinked. “…What?”

“There’s been a little sequence of stories going around. The first one was here at the teashop – and the last one is here at the teashop.” She sat down on a barstool and smirked. “We’re the bookends, Azula! …In a story sense, at least, since not everything’s taking place in the right order…”

“…It’s not us,” Azula said, looking out at the tables. “It’s this shop. It’s what it represents. We just happen to be the ones here right now.”

Seskii nodded. “Yep! In the grand scheme of things… we’re not even the tertiary characters, we’re below them. We’re just recurring. The most important thing I ever did was talk to Allure in those time loops, and your thing was continuing this shop. And you know what? That’s great! Our lives left a mark on the world that will be remembered!” She put her hands on her hips and grinned.

“I don’t mind either way,” Azula said, setting out a platter of tea for Seskii to deliver to the patrons. “I’m here, and it’s working for me.”

Seskii chuckled. “Glad to have you around.” She picked up the platter and began passing out the tea in her usual utterly impossible way.

Azula really was going to miss that.

There was a ding as a new patron entered the teashop. Starbeat trotted in, her goggles covering her eyes. She took a seat at the ‘bar’ and opened her mouth to order. For a moment, she was stuck there, frozen. Then she let out a sigh and rammed her face into the counter.

Azula knew exactly what she needed: some simple chai mixed with lemongrass. In a couple of minutes the custom-made tea was ready for consumption and placed in front of Starbeat.

She hadn’t moved an inch the whole time. Azula didn’t mind – she could be patient. And she could keep the tea warm with her firebending if it was needed. It wasn’t easy to heat the liquid without making the cup too hot to hold, but she’d been doing this long enough that it would be a simple matter.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to resort to such measures. Starbeat eventually convinced her body to sit up and look Azula in the face.

“…I guess I’m here to apologize.”

“For what?”

“The Hub. Your shop. Everything I did to your home.”

Azula sighed. “Drink the tea.”

“Azul-”

“I accept your apology, but there’s a lot more you have bottled up in there and I’m not going to be able to work with you unless you destress yourself first.” She took a cup of tea in her own hand and sipped it. “I’m doing the same.”

Starbeat did as she was told. She took a sip. The steam fogged up her goggles, forcing her to remove them to see.

Azula saw exactly what she expected – bloodshot, confused eyes.

“Fight?”

Starbeat shook her head. “No. Completely my doing. She’s… She’s been a lot softer lately. I think the sessions might be starting to help.” She hung her head back. “I just… I got caught up in what I did. How I ignored every signal and… gave myself to him. Willingly.”

“You were under the influence of Rage.”

“I was. But that had to start from somewhere.” Starbeat looked Azula in the eye. “I’ve got a doctorate in ka studies. I should have seen it coming. I was told multiple times about the dangers – by you, by my friends… And I just shoved it down, refused to think about it. Lied to myself. Or told myself that ka had no control over me and if it wanted me to be the villain, well, I was still in the right so it didn’t matter.” She grimaced. “I was a fool.”

“No kidding,” Azula said. Then she realized what she’d said. “I-”

“Am being honest and I appreciate that,” Starbeat interrupted.

Azula sighed, leaning down onto the counter. “…It’s still true that you were influenced.”

“But I really did want them to suffer,” Starbeat said, looking out at the patrons. No doubt some of them fought for the collapse, and fought hard. “I felt wronged.”

“Were you?”

“Maybe. But they’d been wronged as well.” She buried her face in her hooves. “Why couldn’t I see it? That was my life! I devoted everything to seeing what I could! Plundering the depths of fate itself! And I was duped!”

Azula frowned. “We were all duped. Made fools of. By ourselves, in a way. At least that’s what Seskii says… I’m not sure I understand it.”

Starbeat looked up at her goggles. “There’s too much to understand. Even if you devote yourself to one thing and spend everything you have to plunder its depths… It can still surprise you.”

“Yeah…”

“You’re lucky. You don’t have anything like that. You just live your life, comfortable with whatever it throws at you.” She took another sip. “I wish I could live like that.”

“We have our own problems over here in the ‘don’t think too hard about it’ category,” Azula admitted. “We… make bad choices a lot more often.”

“You don’t get hit as hard when you screw up though.”

“…Maybe?”

“…We’re just speaking about arbitrary things now,” Starbeat mused, leaning back. “What’s it even mean, Azula?”

Azula blinked. “What?”

“What’s it even mean? Without the Tower. It’s provided us with all our adventures, all our reasons for struggles, all our ‘truth’ and battles of good versus evil. What happens when it falls? What’s meaning?”

“…Whatever you say it is?”

“But that’s what the Tower was!” Starbeat blurted. “It… it was self-defined meaning! It took what all of us saw and coalesced it together into this… thing. It was a… not a monster, but it wasn’t a paragon either. We can’t just continue that when we move on.”

“Can I butt in here?” Seskii asked. “Yeah? Okay.” She took a seat next to Starbeat. “The Tower was… was stories. The average of not only everyone’s self-defined meaning, but also their desires and fantasies. That’s its flaw. It goes too far.”

“…But if everyone just defines every meaning for themselves, anyone can justify anything. The Tower’s been the definer of good and evil for us. If there’s nothing to do it for us… we’ll just fall apart and disagree. And we’re all equally right and equally wrong an-”

Seskii put her hands on Starbeat’s shoulder. “Listen to me. I happen to think there is a real truth and a real good and evil. But I also know people will never agree on what that is – or what meaning is. Some will assign meaning in nations, Harmony, magic itself, the past, God, complex relationships, or success. One of those may be the actual real meaning of life. The problem is we’re never going to agree, overall, on which one it is.”

Starbeat stared at her, blinking.

Seskii removed her hands and smiled sadly. “So, even if one thing really does mean more, we won’t act as if it does if we don’t want to. So the people who get it right can be right and gloat about it if they feel like, but they still have to deal with other people as if their definitions of meaning are valid. That we can be sure of.” She took a platter of tea out of her hair and ran back to serving it.

Azula blinked. “…I don’t think I really absorbed any of that.”

“I did,” Starbeat said, blinking slowly. A smile slowly came to her face. “The more things change the more they stay the same.”

“I don’t follow.”

Starbeat stood up and looked wistfully in a distant direction. “Life will be very different. We’ll have to adapt to the impossible no longer being possible, to the antics of those around us falling to normalcy, and to unresolved encounters. But in the end, the core of it all remains the same.”

She turned back to Azula, pulling her goggles back down over her face. “We’re all looking for meaning in infinite possibility.”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

“Finish me, cheater,” he demanded.

Hey, she didn't free anyone and she never left the room. He never actually said no outside assistance.

“Cheese isn’t that bad,” I said, throwing in my two cents.

My biggest problem with the original Sparkle Census story summed up in four words.

Thrackerzod and I turned to see a Sweetie standing there. One who looked like she was made of crystal, a similarly-constructed blade held firmly in her telekinesis. Her eyes seemed old – they had seen much.

Holy crap.

I’m going to have to apologize, I had been hoping to give you an easy first day, but the guy you’re replacing just got himself captured and jailed by a bunch of Ewoks.

This has happened far more often than any civilization in the multiverse or the New World would like to admit.

And that's a good bow to tie on the beginning of the end. Excellent montage overall, with some very good bits of closure and some newly open doors. Here's looking forward to whatever's left.

[Gemseeker]

I really like the tone that has been set for this final arc. I like the idea of an extended, calmed down denouement. In many longer stories that I have read, I really enjoy the first half, where the characters are developed in a happier, calmer environment, with relatively minor conflicts. Then some major event occurs that causes a darker tonal shift about halfway through. Having grown to care about the characters, seeing the struggle through the darkness can be hard, although that's how the themes and power of the story are really brought out. Oftentimes, however, the story ends when the major conflict is resolved, and we don't get to see much of how life goes on in the aftermath, a return to the original lighter tone if you will. For me, I think of this as a "Pollyanna" story, as that was one of the first books I read that had such a tonal shift halfway through, making me really miss the first half of the story.

For Song of the Spheres, I really enjoyed meeting new characters, exploring new worlds, and the fun little adventures from the first set of arcs. I would probably consider the War on the Congeries to be the tonal shift of this story. For me, that was when the story stopped being about exploration, and progress through an endlessly varying set of worlds, and starting being a darker story, with heavier moral dilemmas, and more far-reaching consequences. On top of this, this is where character deaths and horrible curses started playing into the main story. With the exception of the reprieve in the Golden Age, as the story lead into the War for Existence, the tone stayed fairly dark, discussing fascinating moral questions, killing off characters, and really biting down on the main themes of the story. I did enjoy that, although for different reasons than I enjoyed the earlier segments. Of course, the only reason it had as much power as it did, was because of how I had come to know and care about the characters in the lighter arcs.

Now that the main conflicts have been resolved, the tone is returning to something like the first couple of arcs, but rather than looking up at the mountain ahead, we are looking back at the journey completed. I really enjoyed this opener for the arc, and I hope the rest of the arc maintains this same kind of tone. A proper denouement for this kind of story. Still, I'm going to be a little sad once the story is over... I've been reading it since the first chapter was posted, and reading the new chapter has been something to look forward to every week for quite a while. I guess that all just says something about the quality of this story, despite its length. But there's always going to be something more to read, so that's good.

It's not over yet though! Why am I eulogizing over the story now...

[Voltaje]

Gald Celia and Squidy survived, as well as Twitter :D, now the sparkle census can give the sweeties orders, they are more manageable, it would have been good sweety chronicle and her twilight survived too, but we'll never know; now what happened to the infinite carousel? aren't there enough rarities?

[omegasnowfall]

10099032
oh, sorry, like i said in prev. comments, this is my first read.

[runtrivena]

10099317
Sure looks like him, doesn't he?

[GMBlackjack]

10100963
Arc 6 Chapter 071 "The Everyman" is the first mention of the "Hat Kid", though she doesn't become recurring until much later.

-GM, master of hats.

[gakposter]

10105737
Then I have a question for you

Why are you still here then