Songs of the Spheres

by GMBlackjack

035 - Sinkhole

Pinkie Pie, Flutterfree, and Nova sat at a table in Iroh’s tea shop, their expressions dominated by the saggy lines of boredom.

“Your tea is getting cold!” Iroh called over to them from the counter.

“I know!” Pinkie called back.

“…I didn’t,” Nova admitted, glancing at her tea. She heated it up with her magic and took another sip.

“Why weren’t you drinking it then?” Flutterfree asked Pinkie.

Pinkie shrugged. “Because… Uh… You know, I don’t really have a reason. How unlike me!”

Flutterfree rolled her eyes, glancing at her own tea in disappointment.

“Let me get that for you,” Nova said, heating Flutterfree’s drink. The unicorn turned to Pinkie, but the earth pony had already downed her entire lukewarm cup.

“…Pinkie.”

“What? I just wanted to have some fun! Get you before you could get me! And… Yeah.”

Flutterfree blinked. “...Okay, I think we have a problem if we’re resorting to this to enjoy ourselves. We should do something.”

“But we can’t!” Pinkie blurted. “Renee and Eve both can’t make it, and a three mare band just isn’t right!”

“I could mirror myself, make it four,” Nova suggested.

“Nova, that doesn’t count!”

“Pinkie’s right,” Flutterfree said. “We go on adventures together, as a team. As friends.”

“Eve doesn’t much anymore,” Nova reminded her.

“Yes… And we aren’t as close to her as we could be because of it. It’s… sad, but there’s not much we can do about it, given who she is.”

“Which is why we need to keep the group together!” Pinkie cheered. “Don’t want Renee to feel left out!”

“She might have to leave eventually, though,” Nova said. “She’s been taking on more responsibilities – diplomacy, planning, politics, lawmaking. I can see her becoming too attached to that. It’s the new ‘high society’ for her.”

Pinkie frowned. “Yeah… But there’s always a chance that doesn’t happen, and she stays with us forever!”

“She dreams big, Pinkie. Too big. She can’t resist.”

Flutterfree nodded slowly. “Yes. She was really excited when O’Neill asked her to be the diplomat this time… She likes it. It might not demand too much of her time, but you never know.”

Nova blinked. “Do… the three of us have any reason to stop adventuring like this? Any obligations?”

There was silence around the table as the three ponies thought about the question.

“No, I don’t think so,” Nova answered her own question. “Not me at least. I don’t have a job, I have little patience for whatever it is the politicians keep doing, and I really don’t see myself settling down.”

Pinkie grinned. “Same! Do you have any idea how restrained you have to be in those meetings? It’s just impossible to speak in boring talk all the time. I’m much better equipped to make new friends for everypony!”

Flutterfree smiled. “You two really are perfect for this life, aren’t you?”

Pinkie shrugged. “It’s me we’re talking about, of course I am.”

“What about you?” Nova asked.

Flutterfree glanced out a window at the halls of the Hub. “I don’t know, really. I don’t see myself going where Renee and Eve are, too much to deal with. I might settle down, though at the moment I can’t think of a place or pony I’d really consider doing that for. I… I really do think I’m making these worlds a better place, with what I’m doing. It’s hard sometimes, but I don’t think I’m going anywhere.”

“We probably need somepony without a commanding disposition on the team,” Nova commented. “Pinkie and I aren’t exactly… subtle.”

“Or calm!” Pinkie chuckled.

“Oh, Pinkie,” Flutterfree said, “don’t sell yourself short. I’ve seen you handle things with as much grace and dignity as any Rarity could have.”

“Yeah. You just don’t like to,” Nova added.

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so we’re going full-on psychoanalysis today, are we?”

“I do have a point.”

“Eh. You do.”

Flutterfree furrowed her brow. “…Do you think maybe, if ponies leave the group, we can invite others to come?”

Pinkie nodded. “Of course we could! But AJ and Dashie still aren’t available.”

“What about Sweetie?” Nova asked.

“Has her own group to deal with.”

“…Corona?” Flutterfree suggested.

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin. “Maybe after she finishes her studies in Equis Cosmic?”

“But then Sombra would know everything,” Nova spat, expression souring.

“I’m sure we could convince Corona to-“

“Pinkie… Let’s just not, okay?” Nova said.

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. “Nova, Corona’s still a good pony, and Sombra’s not exactly evil-“

“Sombra’s a problem and you know it. I’ve been watching what she does closely. She’s got dirt on everyone. I’ve found dozens of instances of her using blackmail against important people. She even manipulated Luna once!”

Flutterfree pursed her lips. “That is true…”

“What does she do with the stuff she gets?” Pinkie asked.

“Ask for favors, get herself into more locations. I’m telling you, she’s going to control us all!” Nova raised a hoof.

“…Ooooor maybe she’s just looking for secrets.”

“Some things are supposed to stay secret!”

Flutterfree put a hoof to her chin. “She hasn’t told the world what really happened with Majora yet. Actually… Nova, you follow her actions closely. What has she revealed?”

“…Mostly secret addresses and classified information on the nature of other universes and a few scientific studies.”

“I think that may help us be more open with each other,” Flutterfree said. “We can’t really hide addresses from each other, so why try?”

“Just because it may have an unintended good side effect doesn’t mean she should do it!”

Pinkie nodded. “Yep, Nova’s right this time. Just because the explosion sends cake all around the planet doesn’t mean you should destroy the delectable ice cream mountain!”

Flutterfree pondered this. “Good point. There are secrets we want to keep though, and we never know when me might run into a universe where there’s a secret weapon to blow up everything.”

“Still no Corona, can’t trust her,” Nova asserted.

“Nova…”

Nova held up her hoof. “I mean we can’t trust her presence. She won’t betray us, but she’s in Sombra’s web.”

“Yeah…” Pinkie said, admitting defeat. “Ooh! What about Alushy!?”

“EVEN WORSE!” Nova blurted.

The three of them stared at each other for a moment and devolved into giggles.

Flutterfree looked around at the patrons of the tea shop. “Maybe we should consider a non-pony. Toph already has her team, but there are others. Sparky.”

“Studying, and we don’t want Eve to think we’ve just replaced her,” Nova pointed out.

“Eve won’t think that!”

Pinkie nodded in confirmation.

“Still, it won’t look good,” Nova asserted.

“Mlinx?” Pinkie suggested.

“That’s a great idea,” Flutterfree said. “…I have no idea where he is though.”

“He may not be a fan of us, either,” Nova added.

“We could at least ask,” Flutterfree continued.

Pinkie grinned. “Yeah! Mlinx! Well, we’ll have to talk with Renee and Eve about getting new members…”

“Maybe Eve has an idea,” Nova said. “After all, she is working on that project with Cosmo right now. Maybe something will come out of it.”

“Sh sh sh!” Pinkie hissed. “Top secret stuff!”

“Well now that you’ve made a big deal out of it, everyone knows we were talking about top secret stuff,” Nova muttered.

“Oh. Oopsie.”

“It’s okay. Not like we’ve actually given any important information away.”

Flutterfree nodded. “Maybe we should talk about what somepony else is doing instead. Or find something to do ourselves.”

“And now we’re back to not knowing what to do with ourselves…” Nova muttered.

Pinkie looked to the entrance to the tea shop suddenly.

“What is it?” Nova asked.

“Wait for it…” Pinkie said, holding up a hoof.

They stared at the door for several seconds. Nothing happened.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “I was sure w-“

The doors flew open, revealing Trixie and Discord. “HEY! EVERYPONY!” Trixie called. “Discord here has just created an arcade of chaos, open one-day-only! COME AND REVEL IN THE MAGIC!”

Pinkie grinned. “Let’s see what you’ve got! I bet you won’t hold a candle to the Pinkie Emporium!”

Discord grinned. “I bet otherwise.” He snapped his fingers and created an interdimensional portal that led to the Pinkie Emporium. He tossed a candle into it.

“Just take us to the arcade already,” Pinkie blurted.

“Right this way, people of the Hub,” Discord said, walking out with an exaggerated bow.

Flutterfree got out of her chair with a smile on her face. “Guess we know what we’re doing now.”

“Yeah! And do you know what the best part is?” Pinkie asked.

“What is it?” Nova questioned.

“I don’t have to worry about anything for once. We’re free to just enjoy ourselves today!”

~~~

The absurdly over-the-top and oversized Enterprise flew through hyperspace, the diamond-like colors of the universe absolutely delighting Renee’s eyes.

“This is perhaps one of the most fabulous sights I’ve ever seen out of these spaceship windows!” she declared. “I can almost see the crystal structure within the patterns… I know it doesn’t actually exist, but even my eyes are fooled!”

O’Neill shrugged. “Meanwhile, my brain just has the word ‘shiny’ playing on repeat.”

Renee raised an eyebrow. “I am, admittedly, unsure if I should take that at face value or not.”

O’Neill just smirked, nodding to himself.

Renee let out a mildly indignant huff, turning to a sheaf of papers in front of her. She flipped through them with her magic.

“Studying for a test?”

“Reading up on the beings we are going to see,” Renee said. “It’s called preparing yourself.”

“That’s what mission briefings are for.”

“First of all, those who create mission briefings often forget to mention important details out of oversight. Secondly, didn’t you say mission briefings were for ‘letting everyone know we know less than we’d like without actually saying it out loud’.”

“I said that?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t give myself enough credit.”

Renee rolled her eyes. “Of course you don’t, General.” She flipped a page. “What do you think of these aliens, by the way?”

“That we know less than we’d like.”

Renee stifled a laugh. “Really, General, I can only get so much from briefings and these papers.”

“I only encountered the crystal women once, and I can best describe the experience as what a parrot must feel.”

“Ooh, that sounds dreadful.”

“I’m saying things. They understand these things. And then they go ‘aw, isn’t the little monkey adorable!’ …Though it was less ‘adorable’ and more ‘stupid’. I don’t think they believed anything I said as more than fantasies of an ‘inferior species’.”

“One would think your ship would be enough evidence to the contrary.”

“They thought we stole it. After we got to that point some things were said that I’m sure both sides regret and we started shooting at each other.”

Renee flipped through the pages of the report. “I know that.”

“And now you’re here to use your intricate knowledge of appearance, gems, and diplomacy to stop them from shooting at us this time.”

Renee adjusted her hat. “I’ll try my best, darling. How long until we arrive?”

O’Neill glanced at the screen. “Handful of seconds.”

“You know, you should really have an alert for tha-“

“Fifteen seconds until arrival,” the computer declared over the intercom.

Renee took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Nevermind then.”

O’Neill sat up straight in his chair so he would look presentable. Renee put her papers on a nearby workstation and stood up, taking a position to O’Neill’s right.

The Enterprise dropped out of hyperspace, finding itself in an area of space with no particularly close stars or planets. There was exactly what they expected to find – a green spaceship in the shape of a hand, significantly smaller than the Enterprise itself.

“Opening a channel,” the communications officer declared. “Open.”

Renee cleared her throat. “I am Renee Belle of the universe Equis Vitis. I have been asked by my good friends here – the Tau’ri – to intercede with you on their behalf. I assure you, whatever violent or regretful things they may have said, they are willing to make up for – within reasonable bounds, of course. All I wish from you, at this juncture, is a willingness to listen to that which I have to say.”

The hand ship sent a signal back, revealing a tall, green woman with a gemstone embedded in her left shoulder. Her body seemed oddly smooth, like it was artificially created rather than grown – and definitely inorganic.

“I am the Emerald of this ship.”

Renee bowed to Emerald as subserviently as she could. “Emerald, I thank you for holding your fire.”

“If you want to talk, I’m not going to waste power,” Emerald said. She spoke with a calculated, flat tone – but her eyes betrayed a mild disgust with the beings before her. Renee kept a close watch on the Gem’s face as she brought herself back up to all four hooves.

“Emerald, as I understand it, you and the Tau’ri were unable to maintain a dialogue for long. May I ask what you think that reason is?”

“They’re rude, disrespectful, and not to mention shouldn’t be out here among the stars in the first place.”

Renee shot O’Neill a look to shut him up before he started. “…Anything else? What about this ship?”

Emerald’s contempt and disdain vanished for a moment – replaced with momentary surprise that was quickly covered up in a stern expression that was more guarded than previously. “What about the ship?”

“Well, it is an impressive feat of engineering, and may be seen as a curiosity – or a threat.” She paused to let that sink in. “It is possible you had not seen anything quite like it before.”

Emerald chose her next words carefully, clearly having moved from ‘talking to a parrot’ to ‘this horse might have a brain in her somewhere’. “We were not able to explain every reading within the ship. The unknowns had little bearing on our retaliation, however.”

“Perhaps not, but it does lead me into something I’d like to offer.” Renee smiled brightly. “We are willing to tell you how we built some of this ship. Not all, you understand – state secrets and all that – but we have publicly available documents and schematics we can send to you if you’ll allow it.”

Renee heard a voice from off screen talk to Emerald. “Emerald, there’s no wa-“

Emerald held up a hand, silencing the other voice. “Send us these schematics.”

Renee nodded to the communications officer. With a press of the button, the bare-bones schematics and an abridged history of the ship’s construction was sent over. Renee used her horn to write a note, letting the officer know to send some scientific theory data as well.

Emerald looked at the schematics herself, intelligent eyes sweeping through the information. She put the paper down. There was the slightest hint of a smile on her face. “So, you really did build this. Something unheard of for your kind, but if you really are from another universe, then everything changes.”

“I thought you might think that.”

“What else are you willing to give us?”

“There are many things, including the secret to interdimensional travel, which we can consider giving you if you’re willing to cooperate with us in discussion in a more… formal meeting,” Renee said. “It won’t do for us to do this when we’re in the middle of a trap, after all.”

O’Neill sputtered. “What?”

Emerald ignored his outburst. “I have no authority to make such a decision myself. I will have to bring this up with the Diamond Authority. But I shall regardless. And as for the trap you are in, we will leave the ships hidden and dormant.”

“Unless the Diamonds tell you to, of course. In which case we will defend ourselves. Or just leave the universe.”

Emerald ordered somebody to send a message. Then she turned back to Renee. “It should take only a handful of minutes for a message of that significance to be recognized. Until then, I am curious. What is the basis of this interdimensional technology?”

Renee shrugged. “I am no scientist, Emerald – I do not know the inner workings of the devices. They punch a hole in reality and we arrive somewhere else entirely. Sometimes with ponies – like myself. Sometimes with humans. Sometimes with something completely different – such as yourself.”

“You have not encountered Gems before?”

Renee shook her head. “Not that I’m aware of. We have certainly had our run in with unusual creatures over the years, but nothing quite as crystalline as yours.”

“What is your highest race?”

“I suspect we don’t have as strong of a hierarchy as you, but if I may define ‘highest’ as ‘most powerful’ on an esoteric level, the Ascended of Earth Tau’ri are spiritual beings whose will can shape entire nations. We have a few beings on that level in our alliance. We are aware of ‘higher’ beings, but they aren’t part of us.”

Emerald looked worried for a moment. She opened her mouth to ask another question – but then warning lights started blaring on both ships.

O’Neill and Emerald stood to attention at the exact same time. “REPORT!” they bellowed.

Renee only caught her side of the report. “Unusual interdimensional energies surging. It isn’t us sir, and it’s not them either. Coming from another plane.”

“Spin up the Spectral Tube!” O’Neill ordered. “Seal the connection from this side!”

Mauve’s voice rang out over the intercom. “General, we don’t have a spell for that specifically-“

“Code it Mauve! Now!”

Mauve went silent – presumably he was working frantically to code the Spectral Tube.

“What are you doing?” Emerald shouted at them.

“We are trying to seal away whatever this is!” Renee declared. “We-“

A hole ruptured in space-time, taking the shape of a portal – but it wasn’t like any portal they’d ever seen. This one was jagged around the edges, lined with a blood-red glow. Inside, there was only blackness – no stars.

The portal moved, opening itself like a gigantic maw, teeth many kilometers long. It moved to envelop the two ships.

Mauve finished coding – the Spectral Tube of the Enterprise lit up like a unicorn horn, except with every color of the rainbow. The energies attempted to force the jagged portal away.

The effort hardly even slowed the powerful portal. Both ships were engulfed by the portal, shoved into a universe of pure darkness.

It closed, leaving the ships alone.

Emerald and Renee stared at each other. Emerald glared, demanding an explanation without actually saying anything.

“Emerald, look within yourself. Do you really think we could have done this?” Renee said.

“…It’s possible.”

“Please, we’re just little fleshy beings. We may have some tricks, but… that wasn't one of them.”

Emerald nodded, saying nothing.

Renee allowed herself to calm down a bit - at least the Gems weren’t going to retaliate right away. Her response had been a gamble. She turned to O’Neill. “Now what?”

“Now we go yell at the engineers to get us out of here.” He pressed a button. “O’Neill to engineering! Can we get the dimensional drive active?”

“Negative, something’s wrong,” came the reply.

“Figures,” O’Neill muttered. “Well, Emerald, it looks like you’re stuck here with us until one of us can figure a way out of here.”

“It sure seems that way,” Emerald said.

“Right,” Renee said. “What we need to remember is that we’re in this together, whatever this is. What we should not be doing is shooting at each other.”

Emerald nodded slowly. “Agreed. Emerald out.” The feed cut.

Renee took in a deep breath. “Of all the worst things that could happen… I wouldn’t say this is the worst possible but this is pretty far down there!”

O’Neill sat down in his chair. “In other news, Tuesday.”

“Sadly, yes.”

~~~

Toph was not a fan of space stations. Rarely were they large enough to extend beyond her senses, and even when they were, she could always feel the nothing outside. It was different from air, from underground caves, even different from standing on the edge of an airship. Even then she could feel something out there, a vibration, a confirmation that stuff existed.

But on space stations there was nothing.

Not to mention people had made it abundantly clear that, in space, nobody can hear you scream. Why they felt the need to drive this factoid into her head was beyond her, she was sure people weren’t quite that cruel.

However, she had to be here, so she had to suck it up.

“Toph, you’re shivering,” Lieshy said.

“Am not,” Toph blurted.

Lady Rarity shook her head. She wore her mane in a different style now, and her spirid eyes were visible when she wasn’t wearing her helmet – like now. “You are. And you’re exciting the metal in the station. Much more and I think you’ll set off a structural integrity alarm. And we don’t want to deal with the bureaucracy that will entail.”

Toph found herself considering setting off an alarm so she wouldn’t have to be here anymore – but no, she had a job to do. They all did.

She steadied herself. “Right. Have we found anything yet?”

“We haven’t even left the port section,” Vivian commented.

“So what you’re telling me is we have nothing on Rose?”

“We know she’s here,” Lieshy said, holding up a pad. “She’s registered as on-station. Can’t tell you where, Cosmo isn’t all that concerned with knowing the location of every single pony in her empire.”

Toph furrowed her brow. “Is there an Arc-town on the station?”

“One of the largest not on a planet,” Lieshy answered. “Twenty percent of the population here are Arcei. Probably due to its proximity to the shipyard.”

“Then that’s where we’re going,” Toph said, marching down a random hallway. She stopped short. “…This isn’t the way, is it?”

“No,” Lieshy said. “The correct vector would be… in the elevator. We will have to become sardines.”

The four of them piled into the tiny, pill-shaped elevator of the station and descended into the station proper. Toph couldn’t see anything, and she had felt all of it earlier, so she gave no reaction. The other three, however, saw a spectacle. The station itself was one gigantic spherical room, filled with enough buildings to constitute a small city. Skyscraper spires rose up to the center, six of them connecting at a central hub building. Alongside each skyscraper were beautiful examples of curved architecture, giving the pearly buildings the appearance of being plants rising from the ground.

The elevator slid along the edge of the sphere until it found a location it liked, then it opened its doors. It looked like a dropoff if they were to just walk out, but the moment they left they found that what had been the ‘wall’ was now the floor, making it look like they were crawling out of a hole in the ground.

Toph grunted, coming to her feet. “Great, now my brain hurts as well. What else do these stations have to offer?”

“Ask and receive,” Lieshy said, gesturing toward a huge line of ponies and humans in labcoats, talking to each other in hushed tones.

“I smell secrets,” Toph commented.

“Not our problem,” Lady Rarity said. “Those are Cosmo’s scientists, they won’t be doing anything nefarious, especially this close under her watchful eye. We just need to find Rose. Lieshy?”

“This way,” Lieshy said, trotting to her left. “Should only be a block away.”

The four of them walked through the space-station city. Every section may have been lined with identically constructed buildings, but each area had its own character. They had arrived in a business sector, filled with serious individuals and people with places to be. They passed through a market sector, identified by all the extra tents and neon signs everywhere.

The Arc-town was unique because of all the runic designs scrawled on all the buildings. None of them were glowing with the magic of true runes, but the Arcei were trying. The Arcei themselves walked around without fear and worry in their eyes, highly contrasted from their way of life in Lai. However, they couldn’t be described as happy either. Some looked angry, some looked bored, while others just looked like they wanted some rest in their lives.

Toph was not surprised it was one of the angry ones who talked to them first. He was a deep red stallion who spoke with the most condescending voice imaginable.

“Welcome to our little slice of the pie, visitors! What ever can I help you with!?”

Lieshy stepped forth. “Pocket of blue, ill advised.”

“…What?”

“Precisely. We’ll show ourselves around, thank you.”

“…No, you need a guide, visitors.”

“You know who we are, don’t you?” Lady Rarity asked.

“I have never seen you in my life!”

“You’re bad at this,” Lieshy deadpanned. “If badness were goodness you would be the best liar ever.”

Vivian shook her head.

Lieshy sighed. “This is what I get for trying to mix up my analogies…”

“It’s an effort!” Vivian encouraged. “Don’t stop now.”

“The conga line of fluffy rodents,” Lieshy muttered.

Toph pointed at the stallion. “Okay, buddy, maybe you can help us. Tell us if you’ve seen Rose around.”

“No idea who that is.”

“There it is again!” Lieshy blurted. “If you want to lie convincingly, stop it with the emphasis on certain words. It calls attention to them, and your tone, breaking the case wide open! The art is one of misdirection, nuance, and technicalities.”

“…Why are you helping me?”

“I can’t stand cringe. Now, let’s see what you’ve learned. Where can we find Rose?”

“I dunno.”

“Good, you lost the inflection, and your tone did not give away any direction. Your gaze stayed fixed on me, which is a plus, though I saw you momentarily twitch to the left, so I now have only a hundred and eighty degrees of fun to search. Give me a peppermint.”

“I… don’t have any candy.”

“Through your reaction you are thinking of fleeing, and the direction you wish to flee is also to the left, so I can deduce much, much more from what you’ve just told me. Probably a place with a lot of Arcei – a meeting locale perhaps? Oh, that shrinks it down considerably. You might as well just tell me where it is!”

“Never!”

“And touchdown,” Lieshy said, turning away from the stallion. “Rose is in the large building over there. We’ll have to dig through a probable sea of Arcei to get there. Furthermore, we should hurry – the tumbleweeds are rolling.”

“The streets are emptier than they should be,” Vivian translated.

“Thank you,” Lieshy said.

“I could have gotten that one,” Toph said.

“You didn’t though,” Lady Rarity declared.

Toph threw a hand into the air and began to walk toward the building Lieshy indicated. The four of them marched in the tremendous automatic door, entering what presumably served as a town hall for the Arcei. It looked more like a giant hotel lobby than anything. It was packed with Arcei – though there were some humans and other races around, so they weren’t too out of place. They got a couple of odd looks but nothing too concerning.

Toph tapped her foot on the ground, getting a better feel for the room. “Too many Arcei around. Can’t pick her out from what I know.”

Lady Rarity glanced around with all four of her eyes, making full use of her senses. “I can’t make out anything either. She might have sensed us coming.”

“Unfortunately expected… We will have to research,” Lieshy asserted. “I suggest more interviews where I tie up the conversation in our favor.”

Lady Rarity gasped. “I… I see Eve.”

“The Charter?” Vivian blurted. “Where?”

Lady Rarity pointed. Sure enough, there she was, Charter-Princess Evening Sparkle, sitting in the middle of the hall, looking up at a large blank screen.

Toph led the group to Eve, confused. She placed herself in front of the Charter’s eyes. “Eve? What are you doing here?”

Eve blinked in surprise. “T-toph? You’re here too?”

“Yes. We’re chasing an enemy of the crown,” Lady Rarity said.

“Lai-Roseluck?” Eve asked.

“Yes,” Lieshy said, narrowing her eyes. “…Why?”

“I received a tip from Cosmo that Lai-Roseluck was going to give a speech. I’m here because of the sensitive material I’m told it may contain.” She pointed at the screen. “Should only be a few minutes.”

Toph folded her arms. “Any idea where she is?”

Eve nodded. “Yes. Not here, she left recently, but I’ve got a tracker on her. She’s still on the station.”

“Can you take us there?”

“I-“

The screen flickered on, revealing the face of a mare. She had a cream coat, red mane, blood red arcs, and two deep oculus eyes. She cleared her throat. “Ponies of the Equis Cosmic galaxy! I am Roseluck of Lai, an Arcei, one of many refugees who have made their way to your universe. To you, I can only thank you for your hospitality – those of you who live alongside us, anyway. I also address my fellow Arcei, for what I have to say concerns them as well…”

Toph nudged Eve. “You need to take us now, Queen Luna thinks she might have sensitive information.”

Roseluck continued. “My ponies, we have had something horrible held from us by our rulers, our elders, and those who claim to want to help us. Our great Mother and Somnabula are part of a wide web of lies – important lies. You may think our worst worry is that we might lose the culture of the runes, lose what makes us special. But it is more than that – our foals, if they do not receive their arcs by the time they come of age, will lose their minds, succumbing to mental illness!”

Murmurs ran through the crowd. Lady Rarity tensed considerably. “Eve, we need to get out of here, now.”

Eve spoke with a calm smile on her face. “Not quite yet. Let her go on a bit longer.”

“The leaders of the multiverse have done nothing to help us – and they know about this! But what do we get? More reports of ‘failures’ to recreate the magic of the runes. If these people have the power to destroy an entire race of genocidal aliens, how come they can’t reproduce the runes that give us our livelihood? Is it because they just don’t care about us? Do they want us to die? Given what’s happening to the demons, this makes a pattern. This-“

The feed was cut off, replaced with static.

Vivian looked at the crowd of Arcei – Arcei who were starting to look really angry. Arcei who looked ready for a fight.

“What the hell, Twilight!?” Lieshy blurted, slipping into her old name.

Eve winced audibly as she saw the name leave Lieshy’s mouth.

In the background, the crowd of Arcei slowly began to yell amongst themselves…

~~~

As it turned out, the inky blackness of the universe O’Neill, Renee, and the Gems were in was not completely empty, like initial scans had suggested. Their first evidence of this was ten minutes after they had entered the universe – a small ship that looked like a sea urchin dropped out of an FTL mode that wasn’t quite hyperspace or shell, but something else entirely. It looked to be in poor shape – busted, broken, and leaking some kind of magical spark.

This did not deter it from attacking.

It created a bolt of plasma in the shape of a cone drill and sent it right for the Enterprise’s front. The warship’s shields absorbed the impact, flashing golden-blue as the energy was dissipated.

“Shields at 62%!”

“RETURN FIRE!” O’Neill shouted. “What in the hell hit us?”

Before he could be answered, the combined fire of the Gem Warship and the Enterprise destroyed the attacker with hardly any fanfare at all. There were a bunch of flashing lights, lasers, and then nothing but shrapnel from the little ship.

“What in…?” O’Neill shook his head. “What kind of idiot was that!?”

Renee furrowed her brow. “I have no idea…”

Emerald called them. “This world is not empty.”

“Clearly not,” Renee said. “It appears we may actually be in danger… That ship may have been defeated easily, but that was an impressive weapon.”

“We’re salvaging the pieces now,” Emerald said.

“Anything helpful?”

Emerald glanced at a report flying by on a nearby screen. “It’s unintelligible.”

“We have a translator spell,” Renee said. “…It’s likely why you can understand us at all.”

“Spell?”

“Yes, we have access to a force called magic – we can send you files on that later, right now we need to know anything we can about that place.”

“It is in your best interests if you share whatever you find,” Emerald said, sending the files over.

Renee knew a threat when she heard one. “Of course. General, do we have the data?”

O’Neill nodded. “Yep. Every bit as alien as expected.”

“Give it a little bit, we can find something in… It might take hours, depending on if it’s encrypted or not.”

“Hours?” Emerald demanded. “We don’t have hours.”

“Maybe we won’t need a complete translation…” Renee said. “We can adapt the spell with Mauve’s coding, correct? He can home it in on… say, navigation.”

“Believe it or not, we already have a preset for that,” O’Neill said. “We recover so many random computers we want to read. You wouldn’t believe how many of them are completely useless stores of scantily clad women.”

“…Unfortunately I think I can.”

O’Neill ordered the spell’s use, and within a minute a small section of the coded mess had been decoded. There were no words, but there was math. Math, and a few programs that gave coordinates in distance and two angles, as well as a constant for the speed of light.

“We’ve got a coordinate system,” Renee said. “It places us… 101 light years from the center location. Wherever that is.”

“Then that is where we go,” Emerald said. “Activate the drive.”

Space around the green hand folded in on itself. In a swirl of matter, it shot out of view in an instant.

Had O’Neill or Renee been students of theoretical FTL travel methods, they would have identified the method as one that relied on spatial distortion. However, neither of them were, so they had somewhat simpler reactions.

“Fancy,” O’Neill commented. “Follow them. Use the shell drive so we can stay behind them – don’t want to accidentally jump ahead.”

The Enterprise accelerated, slowly accumulating a shell of magical energies around it. The shell narrowed itself at the point and launched through space, shifting the cosmos around them like a drill. Not as fast as intergalactic hyperdrive, but they were able to see the outside world like this.

O’Neill turned to Renee as they traveled. “That Emerald is smart.”

“Without a doubt. I, for one, am glad to have someone who can realize we had nothing to do with this.”

“You know we can’t trust her.”

Renee furrowed her brow. “Technically, yes, but it is in our best interests to be as open and cooperative as possible, perhaps get her to trust us. Then maybe we can start really trusting her. Benefit of the doubt.”

O’Neill shrugged. “I’m not sure I’m willing to go that far.”

“You’re the one who called me here. I think I’m doing pretty well. Maybe give me the benefit of the doubt, hrm?”

O’Neill nodded. “Fine. But if it all blows up I get the right to gloat.”

“General, I think you always have the right to gloat. Well, perhaps right is the wrong word. It’s more like… when you gloat, it’s an unstoppable force.”

O’Neill shrugged, looking out the viewscreen at the empty black space they were passing by. “Usually you can see stars,” O’Neill said. “I can’t even tell we’re moving right now.”

“Think we’re in a heat-death universe?” Renee asked.

“I don’t know. All I know is it isn’t as empty as the others. Something saw us.”

“Maybe they are just like us? They looked bruised, battered, and… well, old. They could have been sucked in by the portal just like we were.”

“A void that sucks in ships? …I swear, I’m going to live through every single Star Trek episode before my life is up.”

“You are in command of the Enterprise. It’s just asking for trouble.”

“I might not be complaining.”

“Sure.”

“Arrival in fifteen seconds,” the computer chirped.

“You really should extend that,” Renee muttered.

“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.”

They dropped out of FTL, allowing the shell to shatter around them. They came out right behind the Gem ship, but the Gem ship was definitely not what they were focused on.

In front of the two ships was the largest structure any of them had ever laid eyes on. It was a spiny structure made entirely of metal, with a vaguely spherical interior. Every inch of it was covered in smooth metallic plating, with only scant features visible from where they were. One area had a gigantic porthole large enough to stuff planets into, while another had so many smaller spines it was impossible to count. One section appeared to have a radio satellite the size of a country alongside a twisted coil of metal that had no discernable purpose.

O’Neill blinked. “I have no sense of scale really, but I can tell this is big. How big is our spiny Death Star?”

“...The average diameter is consistent with the orbital distance of Jupiter,” a science officer commented. “We’re still really far away.”

O’Neill snapped his fingers. “Oh! Carter talked about these things. They’re… They’re called… Metro Ocean Brains!”

“Matrioshka Brain,” the computer corrected.

Renee looked up at the speaker the computer’s voice came from. “Thank you…? O’Neill, does your computer usua-“

“You have clearance. Just think about what Cosmo is working on for us right now for your explanation.”

Renee blinked, and then realization dawned. “Oh. Right. Nevermind then, carry on.”

Emerald called them. “Do you know what this is?”

“They called it a Matrioshka Brain,” Renee said. “Though what that is, I don’t know.”

“A machine built in multiple layers around a star – or solar system – to use all the energy within,” O’Neill said. “No, we can’t build these, don’t ask.”

Emerald looked at a screen with the Brain on it, her expression that of a woman who wasn’t sure what her worldview should be anymore. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again. “We should not disturb the structure – it would be far too dangerous.”

“Agreed,” O’Neill said.

“Incoming!” different officers yelled on both ships.

“Oh for the love of- can’t we catch a break!?” O’Neill blurted. “Prepare weapons again! Where is it coming from this time?”

“A debris field in orbit of the Brain, ‘southern’ heading!”

The ship in question was just as bruised and battered as the previous ship they had seen, but of a much larger and smoother figure. It vaguely resembled a horseshoe with a single protruding truss in the center. A half-dozen drones flew around the smooth ship in a defensive formation. One of their bays opened.

“Tremendous energy surge detected!” officers yelled.

“Whatever they’re building up, we don’t want it to hit us. Spectral Rod, deflect it,” O’Neill ordered.

A heavy missile shot out of the attacker’s bay doors, heading right for the Enterprise. The rod lit with its magic, grabbing ahold of the missile with telekinesis and twisting it to the side. The missile was detonated remotely shortly thereafter, lighting up the sky with a miniature sun. There was so much power both the Enterprise and the Gem Warship were tossed to the side.

“Shields at 50%!”

“We do not need to be in this many fights today…” O’Neill muttered.

The Gem Warship flanked the attacker, firing its main laser. The attacking ship had no shields, but the drones moved to intercept all incoming attacks, taking the brunt of the force themselves. The attacks that did get through found the ship’s hull to be incredibly thick and durable, though the weakened areas shattered with ease.

The Enterprise was only using the Spectral Tube, laser weapons, and physical turrets – keeping the drone weapons in reserve in case something worse happened. Soon, all the attacker’s defensive drones were destroyed, and its weapon systems were disabled. The attacker became adrift.

O’Neill opened a channel. “Your ship has been disabled. Surrender now, and explain yourself.”

To their surprise, there was a response. A man made of crystal appeared on their screen, composed of a greenish material.

Renee’s eyes widened. “A man of light…” she whispered to herself.

The emerald man slammed his fist onto his heavily broken console. “Explain myself? Explain myself? What kind of cruel man are you!? This is the Sinkhole! I needed material to survive, and you need it as well! But you know what? Screw you! Not giving you nothing!” He pressed a button and the ship self-destructed. It wasn’t a very impressive explosion, more like a burst of fire that vaporized the center compartments, leaving the rest to drift.

Renee, Emerald, and O’Neill all exchanged glances.

“Guess we’ve seen another crystal lifeform now,” O’Neill commented. “Not the best impression.”

“The Sinkhole…” Renee said, mulling over the information. “Ships are dragged here, and they can’t run on their internal energy forever. The have to resort to taking it from somewhere else – other ships, the debris fields…”

“Why has the Brain not been harvested?” Emerald asked.

“It probably defends itself,” O’Neill answered. “For all we know it’s responsible for bringing everyone here.”

“That seems plausible,” Emerald commented. “It looks as if this world is a difficult one to survive in. We need to be prudent.”

“Stick together,” Renee said. “Two ships are always better than one.”

“Agreed. Furthermore, that debris field – we need to scour it in case it has anything we may need. We may have plenty of reserves now, but as time progresses, those reserves could dwindle and we will wish we took the early opportunities to stock up on power.”

O’Neill nodded. “Take us in. Also tell Engineering to start scanning that Brain for dimensional weirdness.”

“Scans are picking up numerous active ships,” one of the officers said. “None within the debris field we are heading to, but in numerous places around the Brain. Most signals are extremely weak.”

“Probably busted to hell and back, not to mention desperate,” O’Neill said. “The light show we just put on will probably deter them, but you can never be sure.”

The two ships arrived in the debris field, where a truly tremendous ship must have met its end. Gigantic beams of metal that dwarfed both ships in size tumbled through space. Circuitry of alien design and bizarre shape flipped through empty space in the gravitational well of the Matrioshka Brain.

“No energy readings at all,” an officer announced. “Anything that could provide significant amounts of direct power has been scraped clean.”

“Anything interesting at all?” Renee asked.

“Definitely. Pretty sure there are a lot of hard drives, evidence of weapons systems, and materials coming up as ‘unknown’ everywhere. It’s a technological goldmine.”

“A goldmine no one here can use,” Emerald observed. “What good is technology if you barely have enough power to run what you know?”

“Burdensome,” Renee added. “But we could use it… if only we could get out.”

“You’ll like the report from engineering then,” the communications officer said. “They’ve figured out what the Brain is doing to our drive – it’s just a static frequency they can edit out easily. They say it’s probably just a side effect of it drawing ships here and not an actual dimensional block of any kind.”

O’Neill smirked. “We have a way out… But suddenly I’m thinking we should stay around a little while and poke through this debris…”

“Can we escape at any moment?” Emerald asked.

“With the push of a button.”

“Then we will stay for now as well. Let us search this alien place.”

The two ships set to work searching for salvage in the Sinkhole…

~~~

“Eve!” Vivian said.

Eve held up a wing. “It’s not as bad as you think it is.”

Lady Rarity hefted her hammer as she saw the crowd slowly realize their presence. “I think their aggression is pretty bad…”

Eve spread her wings and lit her horn. “You’ll see – this was all part of our plan. Now that I’ve seen their reactions… I can go to Rose. I assume you all want to come along?”

“Of course we do!” Toph yelled.

Eve cast a teleport spell, taking them across the station to a simple cubic room, in which Rose was sitting.

“Right on time,” Rose said, looking right at them with her shifting eyes. “How do you like it now that your secret is out?”

“It isn’t,” Eve said. “Your message was blocked from transmitting anywhere beyond that room.”

Rose blinked. “What?”

Toph shook her head. “What?”

Eve took a position where she could see both Toph’s group and Rose without turning her head. “Cosmo and I knew something was happening here the moment Rose arrived on the station – the Arcei are monitored somewhat closely here-“

“I knew you didn’t trust us,” Rose spat.

“Not for the reasons you think,” Eve said. “We were able to determine you were setting up a secure galaxy-wide transmission for everyone to see. We reasoned that it probably contained something we didn’t want released, probably the Arcei secret. I was sent here to watch it unfold, to see what would happen amongst the Arcei. They… reacted with more anger than I would have liked, but not a truly horrendous amount. Lai-Somnabula will attempt to talk to them about it, to see if maybe we can release this information to the public.”

“Spare me your high-road arrogance,” Rose muttered. “You have no intention of telling anyone anything. You just want us to die out.”

“That’s not the case at all,” Eve said, voice cracking slightly. “I don’t want any of your children to suffer because of some fluke of biology.”

“Then where’s the cure? Where’s the runes? You’ve had years to figure out how to make them, and I’ve seen you all build much bigger things!”

“I assure you, we’re working on it,” Eve said. “In fact, this very station is where most of the research takes place. The research is why we watch all the Arcei here closely. Some of them are part of the efforts.”

“So you’re experimenting on us now?!”

“I- no! I-“ Eve took in a deep breath and let it out, extending her hoof to relieve stress.

“Willing participants?” Lieshy asked.

“Yes,” Eve said, regaining control of her words. “It’s not hard to find an Arcei willing to devote themselves to continuing their culture of runes. We don’t tell them about the real danger we are trying to fix, and we also try to choose Arcei we think will keep quiet. I assure you, we’re not just throwing your ponies into labs and grinding them up.”

Rose glared. “I don-“

Lady Rarity interrupted. “Starcei once told me that, if anypony were actually willing to grind Arcei up to find the secret to creating Runes, it probably wouldn’t take long. But we’re not willing to do that.”

Eve nodded. “It’s out of the question, no matter how much the scientists think it’d help. We don’t harm our subjects beyond minor surgery.”

Rose pointed a hoof at Eve. “It… It doesn’t matter even if this all is true! We all have a right to know what’s been kept from us! What the dangers are!”

Eve narrowed her eyes. “Your Arcei were violently angry. I’m not sure Somnabula is going to be able to stop their rage, in which case we’ll have to confine them to this station until research is complete.”

“See? You’re just as controlling as I said you were! You just want to have things your way!”

“You’re an idiot,” Lieshy muttered.

“Excuse me?”

Lieshy opened her mouth, but Eve forced it shut with her magic. “Aaaa- let’s not send her into more of a rage than she already is, okay?”

Lieshy nodded slowly.

“I want to hear this,” Rose pushed. “Why am I an idiot?”

Eve looked Rose right in the eye. “You’re just driven – driven by anger. Anger against us. I think it’s simply because we have the ability to do whatever we want in your eyes – and that you can do nothing. You probably resent us for trying to help in the first place, don’t you?”

Rose glared, but said nothing.

“Would you like us to return you to Lai? You won’t be welcomed there. If you had been left there, you would have-“

“Armonia wanted Luna’s empire to fall. Do you know who would have risen from that?” Rose demanded.

Eve blinked. “You know about that too?”

“Of course I do, I’m a high-end oculus, and a member of her order. A defunct order that Maud is trying desperately to keep alive, the fool. The point is, who do you think would have risen once Luna fell? Us. We were poised to take control and enter into an age of Arcei. That was Armonia’s plan – to pay us back for all the suffering we’d endured for being different! But no, you all had to come in, give the stupid Spectacularium its intelligence, and throw everything off the rails.”

“…You know we tried to save Armonia, right?”

“You failed. And it was your fault in the first place the Sage got in that position.”

“You could probably trace the blame back to the man of light and the enchantress,” Lieshy said. “That’s where all of us were tied together.”

“They had no active part! They were clueless!”

“So were we,” Eve said. “We were reacting.”

“Who has that right?” Rose demanded. “To be able to just waltz in and accidentally change everything? That’s just wrong! Even more than doing it on purpose!”

Eve looked at the underside of her hoof. She put it down, and shook her head. “What if it is wrong? I don’t see us being able to stop. Or you being able to stop us. What would you have us do?”

Rose blinked, surprised by the question. “I… I…”

“You’re right. There is a problem. But anger isn’t the way to solve it. Neither is provoking a fight.”

“They still deserve to know.”

“She’s clinging to her last thread with deadly intent,” Lieshy said. “Lost cause, Eve. Nice try though.”

Eve shook her head. “No… I think I’ve got something else. You don’t have to like us Rose – but I think I can make you realize what you’re doing will only make things worse. I can show you something.”

“Eve, you should just lock her up,” Toph said. “Seriously, she tried to reveal classified information! That’s bad!”

“She’ll be punished somehow, regardless,” Eve said. “This doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to show her the way. You all should come along – I’ve got something beautiful to show you.”

~~~

O’Neill, Renee, and a few officers were standing in the same room as Emerald and a handful of her colorful Gem officers. They were in one of the Enterprise’s tremendous hangar bays, and they had collected a truly astonishing amount of interesting technology. All of it was powered down, but it was clearly going to be very useful. Dozens of unusual metal alloys, computer designs unlike anything they had ever seen, and fragmented weapons that operated on completely unknown sciences.

“Well, I think this has been quite the successful haul,” O’Neill said, looking at the pile. “It looks like junk.”

“It may be, but one Gem’s junk can be treasure to another,” Emerald commented.

“We have a similar saying. Not so different, you and I.”

Emerald raised an eyebrow, but notably didn’t flinch with disgust at the suggestion. “This is certainly enough to make the Diamond Authority think twice about just dismissing everything that’s happened.”

“We should probably head back soon,” Renee said. “Even if all the ships in here are weak and low on power, they could get clever eventually. We’ll have to offer them a way out, of course, but that’s only once we ourselves are out.”

“Offer? They’ve done nothing but attack us!” Emerald blurted.

“True,” Renee said. “But they were trapped here just like us – we should at least offer them a way out. I suggest we release a transmission as we leave, one telling ships that want to escape where the portal is. We can keep it open with a buoy or something. We can do that, right?”

O’Neill nodded. “We have some on board, makes it easier to move fleets.”

“Good. We’ll check in on them every so often, of course. Possibly even figure out how to shut off the Brain…”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Emerald asked. “They’ll come through and shoot at whatever they want. They’re definitely not welcome in Gem space.”

“I’m sure we can think of a place, right O’Neill? Equis Cosmic can always use more people.”

O’Neill nodded. “Definitly. All we nee-“

Alarms started blaring. “PROXIMITY ALERT!”

O’Neill put a palm on his forehead. “Beam us to the bridge, open a portal for both our ships.”

“CODE ELDRITCH!”

O’Neill’s relaxed and laid back expression shifted to instant concern. Emerald, Renee, and the General were teleported to the Enterprise’s bridge. “Get the Gem ship on the line!” O’Neill shouted. “Tell them we might need to really break for it! What do we have?”

“It’s still coming out of the… FTL window,” an officer said, pointing at the main screen. A truly tremendous ship, multiple kilometers long, was pouring out of a wispy, impossible form of space tinted with red power. The ship itself resembled a battering ram with a brilliant plow at the front. The main body was covered in spires, giving it the appearance of a true warship, which it no doubt was.

Like all other ships they had seen, this one was heavily bruised, worn, and battered. However, O’Neill had the distinct impression the age of the vessel wasn’t going to give themthe edge in a fight.

The Enterprise created a portal to the Gem universe, placing it between them and the warship. The Gems and Enterprise moved toward the portal, ready to get out of there.

The escape did not happen. The behemoth of a warship shot a single battering ram of energy from one of its many cannons, disrupting the edge of the portal with a calculated explosion. The escape route dissipated.

The attacker did not fire again. Instead, both ships got a hailing signal.

“They… Want to talk…” Renee said, rubbing her chin. “Oh, I’m not sure I like this…”

“Let’s play their game,” Emerald said. She turned to the communications officer. “Answer it!”

The officer glanced at O’Neill for confirmation – the General nodded.

A channel opened up. On the screen was yet another race completely foreign to all of them – a white, humanoid creature with muscles that were somehow both rippling and smooth. His ears were just holes in the side of his head flanking a forehead that was a smooth purple dome that glinted in the light.

The ship behind the white alien looked like it was falling apart. They could make out several people behind the alien, including an aged human standing at his side.

“Greetings, newcomers to the Sinkhole,” the white alien spoke with a voice that was distinctly higher pitched than expected, but somehow not any less threatening. “I am Lord Frieza.”

“I am General Jack O’Neill of Earth Tau’ri,” O’Neill declared.

“I am Miss Renee Belle of Equis Vitis,” Renee added.

“I am the Emerald of this ship,” Emerald finished.

“Good, Now that introductions are out of the way, business.” Frieza flexed one of his wrists. “You have something I want – a way out of here. I’m in a cooperative mood today, so I’ll give an option where everyone wins. I picked up over your embarrassingly unencrypted transmissions mention that you’ve figured out how to escape. And it clearly appears that was no joke. So here’s how it’s going to be – you’re going to make a portal large enough for all of us to escape through and then all of us will go our separate ways. Sound good?”

Renee narrowed her eyes. “You have no intention of letting us live.”

A slight annoyance crawled through Frieza’s cocky smile. “If that’s what you want to think. How about some assurance? I come personally to your ship, so you have me as a hostage. Then once we’re on the other side we all go our separate ways.”

Renee used her horn to create a magical message for Emerald to see nearby. Can we count on the Gem armada for backup?

Emerald nodded – though it wasn’t as sure of a nod as Renee would have liked. But she didn’t want to get in a firefight with this gigantic warship. Renee nodded to O’Neill.

“…Seems like a fair trade,” O’Neill said.

“Splendid!” Frieza declared. “Oh, you humans are always so cooperative! Not to mention industrious – did you know this ship was constructed by humans of a distant universe? Some Imperium of Man or something. So many natural weaknesses in your physiology, but you always find a way to bring up some kind of technological solution, even if it involves messing with powers far beyond your control.”

Renee raised an eyebrow. Frieza was clearly trying to sway them to like him, but it was a rather pathetic attempt.

“Can we have your location so you may be beamed over?” O’Neill asked.

“Sure!” Frieza said. “Get my assistant Adama as well, such a prime example of human ingenuity.”

The older man next to Frieza just nodded wordlessly.

O’Neill nodded for the teleportation once the coordinates had been received. Emerald walked over to the communications officer and whispered something to him while Frieza and Adama were in transit.

“Lovely!” Frieza said, taking a stroll around the bridge like he owned the place. “You know, it can get so tiring engaging in firefight after firefight in that Sinkhole. Nobody understands diplomacy; it’s all war, war, war. The people who get into these big ships get there either by chance or brutal combat. Rarely any discussion anymore – makes it a bit boring.”

“Dimensional drive, Gem universe,” O’Neill ordered. “Make it large.”

The Enterprise tunneled through reality with a portal large enough for Frieza’s ship. The Enterprise entered first, Frieza’s behind, and the Gem hand last – all three of them returning to the seemingly empty part of space where there had been a diplomatic ‘showdown’ only a few hours prior.

The portal closed behind them.

Frieza’s smile turned nasty. “And… you lose!”

O’Neill drew a gun on Frieza and Renee lit her horn. “How so?” O’Neill demanded.

Frieza grinned. “Well…” he pointed a two fingers. A beam of energy flew out of each, one hitting Renee square in the horn, the other knocking O’Neill’s gun out of his hands. “I might be a living superweapon.”

Emerald grinned. “We’ve got you as well though.” She nudged the communications officer, who sent out the signal. Suddenly, several dozen Gem warships appeared, surrounding the entire area of space.

Renee grunted, standing up. “Frieza, we have you surrounded. You best be on your way.”

“Sixty four,” Frieza said.

“…What?” Renee said, a sinking feeling coming to her stomach.

“I’ve done this conquering and controlling thing so many times I’ve taken to keeping track of how many times I hear certain phrases. By the way, ‘what’ stands at eleven-thousand two-hundred and five.”

Emerald growled. “You can’t be that cocky. You know nothing of the Gem armada’s capability!”

“I don’t need t-“

The teleporter activated, taking Frieza away.

O’Neill smirked. “And now he’s adrift in the void of space. Sometimes I love the teleporter. …Sometimes.”

Emerald smirked. “He would need air to survive, being a flesh-bag. Ha! The fool!”

Adama slammed his hands on a table, speaking for the first time. “It is all of you who are being fools right now! Frieza has enough power in himself to survive in the cold vacuum of space!”

“Then we’ll just shoot him-“ O’Neill said.

“You don’t understand, General,” Adama continued. “He has the power within him to destroy planets in under an hour. Planets. He could face our ship directly and he would probably win.”

The room fell silent.

The entire Enterprise shook. Everyone’s eyes turned to the screen – where they could see Frieza, pointing a single finger with a relaxed expression on his face.

“GEMS!” Emerald yelled. “ALL GEMS, ATTACK THE HUMANOID! FULL POWER!”

“…Call all the help we can,” O’Neill ordered. “NOW.”

~~~

Eve, Rose, and Toph’s crew appeared in the observation room of a large laboratory. The window in front of them provided a perfect vantage point for a tremendous warehouse of the lab. Ponies, humans, and other races milled around, most in labcoats of some kind or another. The warehouse was mostly filled with houses made of clear walls, each with an occupant of some kind or another. Several of these rooms were filled with Arcei, but about half were filled with a strange, gray, humanoid creature most of them had never seen before.

“You’ve imprisoned them!” Rose declared.

Eve shook her head. “Rose, they’re allowed out of their rooms whenever. That’s just where they sleep. Do you see the Arcei wandering around without labcoats? The empty rooms?”

“I bet they can’t leave the facility!”

“Most can, actually. Only those in the process of surgery or operation are forbidden from pulling out of the program. None have even tried to leave before their time is up, though – Cosmo chooses them well.”

Rose looked down at all the traffic, furrowing her brow. “…I don’t see any freshly created runes. I see poor imitations.”

“We quickly decided that we needed to go another route than just creating new Runes. After many months of failure in that department, we brought in another project. See the grey creatures?”

“I was wondering about those,” Vivian said, pressing her face to the glass. “I’ve never seen them before…”

“They were a once-dead race,” Eve explained. “They were from the stars of Earth Tau’ri, the teachers of the Tau’ri themselves. They were the Asgard, a race that was far older than most of us could imagine. But their technology failed them – their bodies became frail, unstable, and through many repetitive cloning procedures, impossible to continue living in for much longer. They stored themselves away into the Tau’ri’s many Asgard Cores, not expecting to ever be more than digital guides for their chosen race.”

“What does this have to do with the Arcei?” Rose demanded.

“Well, Cosmo used the Asgard’s cloning technology and her race’s impressive knowledge of magic to bring them back. The aliens you see down there were code only a few months ago. And we’re finally certain their bodies are stable, ready for their entire race to be reborn soon. You might hear about their return in the coming weeks yourself. It won’t be a secret much longer. This relates to your race because we’re using the same technology on the Arcei. It’s significantly more difficult – we’re trying to work out a genetic flaw present in your entire race – but we’re close. Soon, you won’t require arcs at all. Newborns can grow up without fear.”

Rose glared. “But that’ll destroy us as the Arcei! We’ll have no Arcs!”

“That may be a good thing,” a new voice said. The party turned to see Starcei strolling down the hall, Corona at her side. Both were in labcoats.

Rose growled. “…Mother. I knew you would have been part of this. Traitor.”

“Think, my child,” Starcei said, in as soothing a tone as she could manage. “It would help bring about peace.”

“But our arcs define us!”

“And who said that was a good definition? It sets us apart as pirates. As thieves. As murderer-“

Eve held up a hoof. “Starcei, I don’t think that’s true here. Rose has a valid point – runes are a part of their culture. If they want to keep it, they should have the option. I may not be able to give them that option, but we shouldn’t call it evil.”

Starcei narrowed her eyes. “…If that is what you believe.”

Eve returned to Rose. “…What I’m saying is, we have hope here, hope that we can fix you. But we need more months of research to uncover it. And you know what your people are going to do if they hear about this – they’ll demand we return to work on recreating the runes rather than going with the genetic solution. And… I don’t think we’ll get that done in time.”

Rose glared. “You don’t mean…”

“If we try to recreate your Runes, we… Well, we’ll have to either work on more brutal experiments or have to let a few of your children lose their minds. Neither option is acceptable.”

“And ruining our culture is?”

Eve nodded. “When confronted with madness, death, or cultural loss… Cultural loss is the least of the evils.”

Rose’s resolve wavered. “You… You don’t have the right to make that choice!”

“I do,” Starcei declared. “I am your Mother, after all.”

“You betrayed us.”

“I did what was in your best interests at all times,” Starcei insisted. “And I am sorry for when I was mistaken, which was many times over all these years.”

Rose let out a breath. “At least you admit it…”

Eve nodded. “Do you see now, Rose? Do you see why you can’t cause a multiverse-wide scene over this? It’ll jeopardize the solution. And who knows? After we’re done, we could work publicly on creating new Runes for you. It might take a decade, but we could give them back. And you might be able to save your culture.”

Rose looked at Eve. “Damn it, you’re right. Damn it. Why do you always have to be so right? Always have the high ground? The power? The Understanding? What do we get!?”

“Help,” Toph muttered. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so rude about it next time.”

Rose turned away, fuming.

“I think she’s got it now,” Lieshy said, turning to Eve. “What are you going to punish her with, now?”

“I’ll take care of that,” Starcei said. “Don’t worry about it.”

Eve looked at Starcei, studying her features. “All right. Whatever you decide to do to her is fine. I better not hear about anything crazy later, though.”

“You won’t,” Starcei assured. She put a hoof on Rose and led her away.

Corona coughed, making herself known. “So, I would ask what brings you to the lab, but that’s a little obvious.”

Eve smiled. “Corona!” She pulled the unicorn into a hug. “So good to see you! Sorry the visit had to start like… That.”

Corona smirked. “No problem at all. Toph, Vivian, Rarity, Lieshy.” She waved at all of them in turn.

“So, you work here?” Toph asked.

“Internship? Sorta?” Corona shrugged. “I signed up for more physics, and Cosmo insisted on placing me in the best institutions she could find. It helps to have friends in high places. So here I am, working on the top secret government project. While also working on my quantum arcane physics course. It’s a beast.”

“Glad to hear it,” Eve said. “We should grab a bite to eat some time, hang out again.”

“I’m free tonight,” Corona said.

Eve smirked. “Same. I had all day blocked off for this.” She turned to Toph. “You want to tag along?”

Toph shrugged. “Actually, I think Queen Luna will want to hear about this.”

“No offense, but you’ve given us a bit too much to think about,” Lieshy commented.

Eve smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have dragged you along. Feel free to tell her anything you saw here – she should know about it already. Wouldn’t be surprised if she spaced it though, I only mentioned it to her once… I’ll teleport you to the dock directly. I know how much you hate space stations.”

“Thank you,” Toph said. Eve lit her horn and teleported the group away.

Eve turned to Corona. “So… How is it going?”

“Pretty good, as you can tell.”

“Yeah. Hey, I’m curious, how’s Sparky doing?”

Corona frowned. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t talked to her much, and Sugarcoat doesn’t talk about her that much in her emails.”

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that.”

Corona smiled sadly. “It is what it is. I can see you’re doing pretty well though.”

Eve nodded. “That I am. Charter-Princess. It’s a bit… overwhelming. Spike recently told me I’m the most important person in our corner of the multiverse, and I couldn’t even convince myself otherwise. And that doesn’t really feel good. Makes me feel like I’m arrogant for thinking I’m better than anypony, even if I don’t. …Right?”

“Can’t really identify, sorry,” Corona said, shrugging. “But I expect to hear a lot more about it later.”

“Right, of course. You finish your shift first. I have to talk briefly with Somnabula anyway. See you soon!”

“Same!”

~~~

“One! Two! Three!” Frieza said, blasting a single Gem warship to pieces with each of his attacks, pure energy shooting forth from his finger and disintegrating all resistance.

“He sounds like the goddamn tootsie pop owl!” O’Neill roared. “Somebody find a way to shut him up!”

“How can we even hear him!?” Renee wondered.

“Not important right now!” O’Neill shot back. “…Fire a drone. I want to see how he deals with it.”

Frieza continued decimating the fleet around him – one Gem ship at a time. He was purposefully ignoring the Enterprise, curious to see what it could cook up for him to face. He was hoping for some truly interesting things. It was also why his great Imperium of Man battle ship wasn’t even attacking – Frieza wanted to deal with it all himself. A good old fashioned curbstomp on naive little spacefaring races who thought themselves so high and mighty.

The Enterprise shot a single golden bullet at Frieza – a test of one of their more exotic weapons, he knew. He held out a hand, catching the squid-like projectile in his palm. It kept pushing, despite being at a complete standstill. Futhermore, it was still bleeding off damaging energy, a weapon clearly designed to puncture a vessel multiple times. Not all that interes-

It exploded in his face. There was no lasting damage, but it was unpleasant. “That was mildly annoying,” he declared.

“For the…” O’Neill rammed his fist into a wall. “Launch a full volley of drones and have Mauve start messing with the Spectral Rod. We’re going to ram some magic into him. Unless he has some bizarre immunity to that.”

Adama shook his head. “I do not know what your magic will do to him. I can tell you brute force will do nothing to him.”

“Figures,” O’Neill said. “Unless we can sic that Brain on him…”

“Good idea, but risky,” Renee said. “What if it decides to shoot us for interfering?”

“Right. Any ideas anyone?”

There were no suggestions. The volley of drones reached Frieza, accompanied by a handful of Gem ship lasers. Frieza grabbed several of the drones and rammed them into each other – and then the Spectral Rod activated, encasing him in a field of telekinesis. He was more than strong enough to overcome it, but he lost control of his arms for a split second. A handful of drones hit him dead on. They found they couldn’t penetrate his body, so they just exploded, sending him flying through the void of space.

Frieza grunted. “Clever trick…” He moved so fast that the telekinesis spell lost track of him and failed. “But still absolutely nothing.”

“Suck him back into the Sinkhole!” Renee said. She hit the intercom. “Mauve! Code a spell to send him to the Sinkhole in an instant!”

That spell did not take long to code – a simple adjustment to a normal dimensional spell. The multicolored magic touched Frieza. A portal opened and closed around him, but he dodged it.

“How fast is he moving!?” O’Neill blurted.

“Faster than our sensors can see,” an officer said.

“That’s it, hiding behind technology isn’t working,” Emerald declared. “Gems! Gather your best warriors – direct combat is required!”

“…Direct combat? Are you insane!?” Renee blurted.

Emerald touched the shining gemstone placed on her shoulder, summoning a double-headed scythe from the structure. “Maybe. But, if nothing else, I think he’ll appreciate some direct combat. Give more time for your ‘help’ to arrive. Which better be pretty helpful.”

“I sure hope so,” O’Neill said. “Teleport her outside, if that’s what you want.”

Emerald was teleported out into space, near Frieza. The remaining gem warships had begun to send their own warriors outside, each gem-creature producing a weapon from a brilliant crystal located somewhere on their body.

“Frieza!” Emerald declared. “You are an enemy of the Diamond Authority, and as such, you are to be shattered. You may lack a gem, but that purple dome on your head will do nicely.”

“Finally, bringing out the warriors! It’s been so long since I’ve seen a race opt for direct combat. Refreshing! By the way, twenty-two.”

“Shut up.”

“Nine million. Though most of that was from the hive-mind, so a bit hard to count with certainty…”

The gems charged, brandishing their personal weapons. Frieza took a similar approach to them that he took to the warships – blasting one of them at a time with a loose burst of energy. Most of their bodies poofed into nothing upon contact, leaving only their gems drifting amidst the stars. On the occasion where he hit a gemstone directly, the structure shattered completely in a much more violent manner.

Emerald herself was not shattered, but poofed, her gem ending up adrift.

“Is this the best you have?!” Frieza declared. “Really, I was expecting more from an interdimensiaonlly capable race-“

Then the help arrived.

“Thank the Stars…” Renee said, breathing out a sigh of relief as ships she recognized began to fill the sky. An entire fleet of Equis Cosmic ships, including the flower-shaped flagship that belonged to Cosmo herself. In the midst of the fleet were a handful of Tau’ri ships, and even a few from the Tau’ri allies. She spotted the strange white ships that belonged to a section of humans known as the Ori Remnant, and more than a few pyramid ships.

Cosmo herself teleported in front of Frieza – with two beings to her sides. Discord and Alushy.

Frieza raised the section of his skin where an eyebrow should have been. “Now these are some respectable power levels.”

“Can I turn him into a pot of petunias?” Discord asked. “I feel like that would be appropriate.”

“That would be awesome, but not quite brutal enough,” Alushy asserted. “I’m thinking we just hit him with the rainbow death ray. Cosmo?”

Cosmo narrowed her eyes. “Frieza, I know you can sense our power. Do you truly think you can win?”

“Three hundred and four.”

Cosmo blinked in confusion. “…Excuse me?”

“Classic bored asshole conqueror routine,” Alushy declared. “He’s counting the times he hears certain phrases.”

Frieza blinked. “Okay, that’s a new one.”

“Lemme try again. You’re about to get served by a fudgemothering vampire.”

“…You’re uncan-“

Alushy sunk her teeth into Frieza’s shoulder and tore off his arm. Discord moved next, turning Frieza into a baby.

Even in such an insulting form, Frieza still had power. He raised his hands, channeling power into a sphere of energy. “START FIRING!” He yelled, intending for his ship to finally help him.

“Don’t!” Adama yelled from the Enterprise, the signal going to the crew of Frieza’s ship. “We have a chance to finally be free of this tyrant!”

“Adama you son of a- where’d the purple horse go?” Frieza asked, looking for Cosmo.

Cosmo stood on the bridge of her flagship and activated the harmony energies – summoning what Alushy had called the ‘rainbow death ray’. Channeled between her and all the ships in her fleet, the power flew through the air and hit Frieza dead on. He struggled, but Discord had ensured he was in the form of a baby. He knew he was beaten.

“AAAAAA!” He threw the sphere of energy at the Enterprise. Everyone on board knew it would be enough energy to vaporize them in an instant – but Discord came to the rescue. He snapped his fingers, and the energy changed direction and headed directly back for Frieza.

“THIS WON’T BE THE LAST YOU HEAR OF ME!” Frieza declared.

Those were his last words as Cosmo’s power purified the very space he occupied.

Everyone took a moment to breathe.

~~~

All gems who were not shattered would, with enough time, reform their bodies from their loose gems. Emerald had reformed her body rather quickly, going for a simple form so she could be active in the upcoming proceedings. She had sent an update message to the Diamond Authority, and they had responded instantly this time.

So currently an entire fleet of ships was headed towards Gem Homeworld space, including Adama’s warship.

Emerald, O’Neill, Renee, Cosmo, and Adama were all in a call together as they traveled.

“So I think it’s pretty clear we should leave that universe alone for now,” Renee declared. “No attempts at evacuation – who knows what other beasts like Frieza are in there?”

“There are more than I wish to admit,” Adama said. “To survive, you either become one… Or you sell yourselves to one. I shamefully had to do the latter. We are eternally grateful to you for giving us freedom from that horrid creature.”

“Anytime,” Renee said. “I still feel bad – so many lost souls in that universe… But there are just too many horrors we aren’t prepared to deal with in there.”

“While we cannot perform a complete evacuation, we could observe the universe closely,” Cosmo said. “Careful not to let any Friezas get a hold of the dimensional technology. It would be a slow process… But it could be done.”

O’Neill nodded slowly. “A new class of stealth ships may be needed…”

“By the way, O’Neill, I’ve got an old friend of yours on board.” Cosmo smiled. “I think he’ll be really glad to see you.”

“Does his name begin with T and end with R?”

Cosmo laughed. “By sheer coincidence, it does!”

Emerald blinked. “I’m missing something.”

“In-joke,” Adama said. “Perhaps something softly classified. It’s not important to us at this juncture, Emerald.”

“I’ll decide when something’s important to me or not!”

“It isn’t important to you,” Renee said.

Emerald raised an eyebrow. “What did I just say?”

“Consider it a suggestion.”

Emerald got the message loud and clear. “Right…”

Renee turned to Adama. “…Do you see any hope for the Sinkhole? Do you know anything about it?”

“I see little hope. There are records that suggest the Brain has been pulling in ships for billions of years. The war is unending, and even if you manage an evacuation it’ll still drag more into its grasp.”

“And I don’t suppose anyone is able to… alter the Brain?”

“Any who try are very quickly destroyed with weapons beyond anything the Brain itself brings into the universe.”

Renee sighed. “Right… Well, can’t save them all, unfortunately.”

Emerald looked like she wanted to say something, but didn’t.

Cosmo was the one that did. “Emerald, your race fascinates me. We have seen nothing like it in any of our travels. Do you care to introduce what you are to us?”

“We are Gems…”

~~~

Rose’s punishment was simple: she’d been given a week to wrap up any obligations she had in the multiverse, and then she’d be kept under the watchful eye of Starcei until it was believed she would behave herself. She would have little freedom otherwise, essentially becoming the ‘student’ of Starcei.

Rose would be forced to live in that lab.

She hated that idea.

But she knew Eve was right, she couldn’t act out. That would hurt her ponies, her Arcei, and she couldn’t do that.

But she wanted to hurt those arrogant people who thought they had the right to dictate anything about anyone. Who cared what Eve or Starcei or anyone else thought – Rose knew she was right. They needed to be hurt for what they were doing.

And she knew just how she was going to do that.

It wasn’t easy to get a portal to locations banned to the public, but in her attempts to be sneaky around Equis Cosmic’s security, she had become aware of some shady businesses around the multiversal society. With a bit of oculus power and ingenuity, she found a person who would open a portal for her to any world, and then open it an hour later for her to get back. It was a hefty price, but she didn’t care.

She found herself on Ardent, in one of the larger towns of Hyrule. People were already staring at her, curious as to what she was. She looked a bit odd, but not too out of place.

She walked with purpose right to the most important looking building in the town, the place where she could find protesters - people dissatisfied with the way things were being run. She walked up to the angriest looking human she could find.

“What do you want?”

“I want to tell you what your Princess and King have been hiding from you.” She pulled a booklet out of her saddlebags. “You’ll want to spread this around as far as you can. You all need to know.”

Then she walked away, leaving them with the knowledge.

The knowledge of what Ba’al’s forces really were.

The knowledge of the multiverse that had been hidden from them.

Rose herself would never be caught. Not even Sombra would be able to figure out who had started the fire…

But the fire itself would rage.

Comments

[the other sans]

You need to take us now, Queen Luna thinks she might have sensitiveinformation
It might take hours, depending on if it’s encrypted or not..”
both the Enterprise and theGem Warship were
The teleported activated, taking Frieza away

1. Forgot your spacing.
2. Not sure if you meant to make an ellipses or a fullstop.
3. Forgot your spacing.
4. Teleporter.

You know, this saying is apt for the end of this chapter: "Every rose has its thorns."

Now this would be speculation for those that have already read this chapter. Rose seems to be hellbent on her version of righteous justice it seems but really all she's doing is the same thing to another race in another universe even though she herself finally acknowledged what she was doing would essentially destroy themselves. Well, for the Arcei it will because of their unique population problem. Ardent though... that's alot of other races and they can actually repopulate normally.

Nice to see two other confirmed universes brought into the fold. Technically even if it's only a ship and its crew for one and essentially a single being for the other. Though the latter, not so much. This does beg a question though (for those silly like me) are the Gems an actual race from another universe (story) or is it just fan made? If I asked for a list of all the universes that participated in this story it might be just super long. But hey, at least its shows how much this author is juggling with so many lores, characters and even histories prior to first contact and what happens after.

[everydaygamer]

8902784
The Gems come from the show Steven Universe, though I'm not sure if this was the same Emerald who has appeared in the show or not (going by the description probably not).

[GMBlackjack]

8902784
8902813
Yes, they are Steven Universe gems. No, this is not the same Emerald that appeared in-show. I crafted her myself.

If you want a list of all the franchises that participate in the story, you can check the author's notes at the end of every arc. It tells you about all of them that aren't spoilers. At the end of arc 3, there will be a similar set of author's notes that list all the new franchises.

-GM, master of commentus.

[Efadd]

... And now cue interdimentional flamewars.

[wizard0209]

I have to say GM, you are quickly becoming my favorite author

[Galliar]

Thats not just any Frieza. That's Teamfourstar Frieza!

Unfortunately, he didn't understand he wasn't dealing with your average spacefaring species. They... Are multidimensional species!
That's right, reader. They've risen beyond the limits of normal spacefaring races, and into the realms of legend. The legend that Frieza never heard of. The legend that is known as the most magical friendship fighting force to ever exist. This... Was a Pony race!

Cue theme song, but hardcore.

We saw a lot of characters that we haven't seen in what feels like a while, like Toph's team, Starcei, and Rose. We also got 2 new universes, though technically more if we count the references within the Sinkhole. Actually, we got those plus two because of a certain character who wasn't shown and his dad.

What's up with Lai and producing multidimensional Public Enemies? Between the Sage -if just for a while - and now Rose, I'm starting to think we found the most dangerous world out there in chapter 7. Sure, no one knows Roae did it right now, but let's be real: she is going to monologue about it by accident. On the bright side, Ardent's back! And only with a teeny tiny bit of civil unrest and possibilty of revolution at that.

Equis Cosmic is starting to seem like the place to be for any species to ever have difficulty. Be honest, if someone were to look them up in the Directory, would it just say 'Living Space available!' And if we run into an Avengers universe out there? That might be awkward now, all because they were so nice as to not let an entire species go extinct!

Last thing I noticed was Evening avoiding her friends this chapter, and that's... That's just sad. I hadn't even noticed what actually had happened at the end of the last chapter on my first readthrough, but on a reread it hit me. I really can't blame her after that. It might be good for her if she talked to them about it, but with how time has been moving along recently this chapter might be months after the last one.

And was that first scene foreshadowing? Is the original team going to be recruiting? It would be an interesting way to play around with new dynamics, since a lot of the groups we've had have gone through losses and gains, while the original team hasn't gotten none new since Nova joined, and that was back when she was Starlight.

If so, I would like to nominate Derpy Hooves from Equis Vitis. Or 'Muffins' if you'd rather. There was a Derpy with the Elements of Insanity, meaning the greater multiverse doesn't entirely ignore her, and we haven't gotten any significant new Pegasi in a long time. Derpy would brign back an innocence this group has long lost, and remind just why ponies are great: not cosmic power,but adorableness. I make this nomination with no authority or influence, and with absolutely no power vested in me.

[raven618]

“Greetings, newcomers to the Sinkhole,” the white alien spoke with a voice that was distinctly higher pitched than expected, but somehow not any less threatening. “I am Lord Frieza.”

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Icy Creation]

“Splendid!” Frieza declared. “Oh, you humans are always so cooperative! Not to mention industrious – did you know this ship was constructed by humans of a distant universe? Some Imperium of Man or something. So many natural weaknesses in your physiology, but you always find a way to bring up some kind of technological solution, even if it involves messing with powers far beyond your control.”

My first response to this was as follows:

Oh shit.

[Icy Creation]

“You don’t understand, General,” Adama continued. “He has the power within him to destroy planets in under an hour. Planets . He could face our ship directly and he would probably win .”

Again. Oh shit is the proper reaction.

I saw this coming the moment the Imperium was mentioned.

[FridayPie]

Is Adama someone from WH40k?

And heh, Frieza got surprized.

[GMBlackjack]

10221768
Adama is from Battlestar Galactica, actually.
-GM, master of Adama.

[Shilic]

"Rarity and Jack O'Neil take the Enterprise to meet with a Gem Empire ship, and end up getting sucked into a another universe, where Lord Frieza shows up in an Imperium of Man warship."

This is a sentence that describes the plot of a real chapter in a real story. Songs of the Spheres may be the greatest thing I've read.

[Icy Creation]

“No,” Lieshy said. “The correct vector would be… in the elevator. We will have to become sardines.”

You know, I'm getting pretty good at deciphering double from Lieshy, but sometimes I can't tell the difference between her speaking double or her making a joke.