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

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038 - The Hand in the Door, Part 1

“Happy third Harmonic!” Pinkie cheered, unleashing a party cannon blast on the bridge of the Enterprise for everyone’s enjoyment. The confetti and balloons filled the bridge, turning the normally drab functional location into a party cave.

O’Neill took one look at the now colorful bridge of his ship. “Never did like this kind of party.”

“The punch is spiked,” Pinkie whispered in his ear.

“As I said, I absolutely love this kind of party,” O’Neill deadpanned.

Daniel rolled his eyes. Renee struggled to stifle a chuckle.

Nova grabbed a glass and filled it with the punch – the nature of which was no secret to anyone present, despite Pinkie’s prior whispers. She downed it in one swig.

Eve raised an eyebrow. “Careful now, Nova. We don’t have just a party today.”

“The ship can fancy-fly itself,” Nova answered. “And I’m not the one giving greetings to every world we pass.”

Eve nodded. “True… I still think you should keep yourself alert. Today’s a special day, you never know when you’ll need to be sharp.”

“Please, Eve, I know how to watch my drink.”

“Every time you and Trixie go out you come back drunk as a skunk.”

Nova chuckled. “Ah yeah, those are fun. But Trixie’s not here to be a bad influence on me. Rest easy, Charter, your loyal subject isn’t going to be drunk out of her mind on such an occasion.”

Eve pursed her lips, unsure.

Flutterfree put a wing around Eve. “Let her do what she wants. She’ll be fine.”

Eve nodded slowly. “Right… Right. Sorry, just been stressing a bit, is all.”

“You’re always ‘stressing a bit’, darling,” Renee commented. Daniel nodded in confirmation.

“Maybe we could give you a break this time?” Flutterfree wondered. “O’Neill could-”

“I am not giving the same speech seven times. Or eight. How many worlds are we visiting?”

Pinkie pulled out the World Guest List from her mane. “Here you go!” The list contained Equis Vitis, Earth Tau’ri, Equis Cosmic, Earth Vitis, The Elemental Nations, Lai, and Gem Vein.

“Huh. Coulda sworn we had more friends than this,” O’Neill commented.

Daniel shrugged. “These are the actively exploring words, Jack. We have Equis Ultra Fast as a friend, for instance, but this day doesn’t mean anything to them. Gems are the only addition from last time.”

“Strange friends they are,” O’Neill said.

“They’re just different,” Eve insisted. “They’re slowly learning to accept us as equals. Give them time, they’re a very old race, set in their ways.”

O’Neill nodded. “And that’s all good, I just reserve the right to shout back at them if they get too arrogant.”

“Just don’t cause another space dogfight, everything will be fine.”

“No promises. ...Also, isn’t there an Earth missing from the list?”

“Is there?” Eve asked, going over the list. “...Maybe. I think they requested we don’t visit them this time. Not sure why.”

Flutterfree shrugged. “Yeah…shouldn’t we get going though?”

“I was hoping Corona would show up…” Eve said, glancing at the clock. “I guess she decided to keep working. Or lost track of time.” She pulled the Journal out of her saddlebags and checked it for new messages – nothing. “Or she could be in mortal danger from some alien threat…”

Flutterfree shook her head. “She knows how to take care of herself, Eve. If there’s a problem.”

Eve nodded. “Right. We should get going.”

O’Neill gestured to the pilot. “Translate to Equis Vitis, start the show. Engage.”

The Enterprise used the Harmony Core within itself to tear a portal across the multiverse, taking the ship into orbit around Equis Vitis.

“Hail the princesses, make sure we have a patch of sky for our show,” O’Neill ordered.

The communications officer looked up from her console, confused. “Sir? There’s no station to transmit to. I’m not picking up any long-range signals either. No communication network.”

Eve blinked. “That’s impossible, we may not have Earth Tau’ri’s level of infrastructure, but pretty much all of Ponyville is filled with communication technologies.”

“No satellites detected either,” the officer continued. “No Feldspar, no Equis Cosmic ships… Nothing.”

Nova put down her drink, an uneasy expression crossing her face. “…What does this mean?”

Renee looked out the window at Equis, narrowing her eyes. “Either something removed all that technology… Or we’re in a different universe. Or, I suppose we could be in the past.”

“Check Ponyville,” Eve ordered. “Show me a top-down view.”

An image appeared onscreen of Ponyville. It was not the crescent-shaped city they had woken up in earlier that day. Instead, it was a small town on the edge of the Everfree forest. Eve was able to recognize her castle, but had difficulty remembering if all the buildings had looked like that in the past.

“There goes the technology-removal theory,” Daniel said. He glanced at a secondary screen near the top of a nearby wall. “The coordinates are Equis Vitis’ though.”

“Something like the Nexus could have moved it around,” Renee said. “Remember how we couldn’t leave those universes because it had changed everything?”

“Then we need a way to test to see if universes have just been moved,” Eve said. “We’ll just have to teleport down.”

O’Neill let a small smirk come to his face. “Guess we finally get to go on a mission together, Eve.”

“The commanding officer is supposed to stay on the bridge,” Eve reminded him coyly.

“I’ve got a Captain to do that for me.”

Eve chuckled. “Right then. All seven of us?”

Pinkie grinned. “Yeah! Pony-Tau’ri joint adventure!”

O’Neill nodded to an officer. “Right outside the castle.”

The seven of them were swept up in a beam of light and deposited on the ground outside the front doors of Eve’s castle. It looked the same as always – tall, crystalline, and sparkling with harmonious magic.

“…Should we knock?” Flutterfree asked.

“Don’t want to interfere with the past if this is the past,” Renee said. “I think we just need to check the map room.”

Eve nodded. She teleported the seven of them into the map room. There were still seven chairs – though some of the decorations and banner she had put on the walls over the years were missing, replaced with other designs she didn’t remember ever having. “Probably an alternate universe…” she commented.

“How are we going to find Equis Vitis then?” Renee wailed.

“Someone from Equis Vitis will dial out eventually, we can follow that!” Pinkie piped up. “Eve’s got contingency plans.”

Eve smiled with more than a little pride. “Yeah, I do. Heh.” She rubbed the map. “Yeah, this doesn’t look right at all for the past. The Changelings have way too much infrastructure, the dragons actually have significant settlements... But everything else looks pretty close.”

“Could be a future-oriented world,” Renee suggested. “They may be rare, but they do happen.”

“This is going to mess with the party plans,” Pinkie grumbled. “They’re waiting for a good time and we have to wait for them to come look for us.”

O’Neill kicked something as he shuffled his feet. He raised an eyebrow, picking something up off the ground. “What’s this?”

“That’s a key,” Nova deadpanned. “What, you use automatic doors so much you have no idea what it is?”

O’Neill rolled his eyes. “I was wondering why it was on the floor.”

Eve glanced to him – and her eyes widened. “…No way…” She levitated the key in between her eyes, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

“What is it, Eve?” Flutterfree asked.

“This isn’t from this universe. I know this key. Equis Eldritch – you know, Thrackerzod’s world. I picked it up when we were first cycling through it. I placed it in a drawer along that wall,” she pointed to where O’Neill was standing. “…That drawer doesn’t exist though. No evidence of it ever having been here.”

Renee narrowed her eyes. “You know, Equis Eldritch’s Twilight told me about that key. She woke up one day, found it… and then had déjà-vu for a long time. She really had no idea what it was.”

“Thrackerzod talked about something similar,” Eve said, her expression slowly giving way to horror. “…She said the world had reset itself, and only her Twilight was able to remember. Thrackerzod could also remember because of her nature, but… Nopony else…”

Pinkie blinked. “This is Equis Vitis.”

“It’s been reset?” Nova blurted. “What does that even mean?”

“I… I’m not sure,” Eve said. “But this key is still here… It must be immune to whatever happened. But… The entire world is different. It’s like we never discovered the other universes at all.”

“We need to find Thrackerzod,” Daniel said. “She might have some insight.”

“She was on Equis Vitis,” Eve responded. “I… I don’t know what it means for her if the world resets and she doesn’t have a body here when it does.”

“Erased,” Daniel said. “We’ve had something similar happen on Earth Tau’ri – alternate timelines. Everything that was done before is just erased from existence. As far as we can tell all the things in the alternate timeline still happened, but at some point it’s just no more.”

“Like when I split our timeline,” Nova said. “We haven’t found those other timelines I created. We’ve found universes like them, but none where I was redeemed and fixed the timeline.”

“…Could somepony have been messing with time travel?” O’Neill suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Eve said. “Starswirl’s time spell was destroyed after Nova used it. Nopony’s tried to recreate it.”

“Officially,” Renee said. “You know there are projects going on under your nose. Remember Corona’s fancy new portal gun?”

Eve nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“There are probably a few more sinister projects going on people don’t want you knowing about,” Renee continued. “Somepony could have created a time spell and used it, and it backfired.”

“What we need to do is find out where the timeline has diverged,” Daniel said. “Then go back there and set it right.”

“You sound like you’ve done this before,” Flutterfree commented.

“I have. It’s… Interesting, to say the least.”

O’Neill snorted. “Interesting isn’t even the half of it. We’ve done it multiple times – went to the past to ensure our own victory, repeated the same day over and over again, went to the past and erased ourselves from existence only to be brought back later…”

Nova blinked. “And I suddenly feel like small potatoes.”

“Then there was the time with twenty Carters, but that was more multiversal than timeline based. …Hey, didn’t Carter visit an alternate timeline at one point?”

“I think that was another universe,” Daniel said.

“Ah. Sometimes it’s hard to tell,” O’Neill admitted.

“How are we going to get to the past?” Eve asked.

“We… might have a time machine,” Daniel said.

O’Neill grinned. “That we never use.”

“Why not?” Flutterfree asked.

“I did mention that we erased ourselves when we went to the past, right?”

“Oh. I see.”

“Better question,” Renee interjected. “How do we find out when we need to go?”

Nova pointed behind Renee. “I think we can ask her.”

The seven people turned to see Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship standing in the doorway of the throne room. Her mane was straight, her tail well kept, and her ears complete. She was looking at them all with an expression of excitement. She broke out into a grin when she realized Nova was pointing at her. “Of course I can help! Oh, this is so exciting, I get to experience this from the other side this time!” She sat herself down on her throne, hooves on the map. “So, you’re from an alternate timeline?

“We think so,” Pinkie said, taking over for Eve since the alicorn was in shock at seeing this particular version of Twilight.

“What’s your time like?”

Daniel shifted awkwardly. “Well, they’ve been exploring alternate universes for years…”

“We’ve made a lot of friends,” Pinkie added.

“Well we haven’t done that,” Twilight said. “Just one world here. Well, and Canterlot High, but that’s not really involved or anything. …I did think you looked odd for humans.”

“They’re actually normal,” Nova said. “Earth Viti – er, Canterlot High is somewhat abnormal.”

“…Woah, really? Weird.”

“Yeah, I thought so too.”

Pinkie jumped in. “So, let’s see where you diverge. You have the castle… Have you reformed Starlight?”

“Yep,” Twilight responded. “I do understand what an alternate timeline is, after all.”

“Oooooh, right,” Pinkie nodded vigorously. “Sooooo – did you reform the Changelings?”

“Yep.”

“Bring back Starswirl?”

“Absolutely.”

“Stop the Storm King?”

“That was… fun.”

“Open the school?”

“Mhm.”

“Beat the…” Pinkie tried to figure out how to word the next event with the appropriate amount of vagueness. “Final boss?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “…I think so?”

“Righty-o. So it looks like she just didn’t find the bowling ball.”

Renee nodded. “Dear, listen closely and think. Did you ever watch a unicorn enchantress and a crystalline humanoid chase each other through portals?”

“Oh! Yeah. That was weird. I saw them, and then they were gone. I poked around but didn’t find anything.”

“Ding!” Pinkie declared. “There it is, she just didn’t find it. That’s when we need to go back to.”

“What date is it?” Daniel asked.

Twilight told them it was about seven years after that day.

“Guess this is still the present,” Nova commented. “Thanks Twilight, you’ve been a great help.”

“Oh, it’s the least I can do,” Twilight said, beaming.

Pinkie bounced up and down. “To Earth Tau’ri and the time machine!

“Wait,” Eve said, suddenly. “Twilight, you do realize what this means, right? If we go back?”

Twilight’s smile faded. “Uh… No?”

“This timeline won’t exist anymore. You won’t exist.”

“I’ll be you,” Twilight said. “…Right?”

Eve twitched. “No, you won’t. You’ll be dead! All the experiences you and this entire world have had for the last seven years will be wiped from existence!”

Twilight looked down. “I… I know that. But… Don’t you remember Zecora?”

“…Yeah?”

“I mean, Zecora in the Changeling Timeline. She knew what was going to happen when we went back. She knew she, and her ponies, would…” she couldn’t bring herself to say ‘die’. “Wouldn’t exist anymore.”

“Twilight…”

“She was willing to make that sacrifice. So should I,” Twilight asserted, trying to keep her emotions under control. “It is I who should not be, Twilight.”

Eve didn’t correct her. “We both have a right to exist!”

“…I could come with you, but then I’d want to take my entire world with me,” Twilight said. “And that’s not possible, is it? If I went alone, it wouldn’t be fair.” She wiped her eyes.

Pinkie put a hoof on Eve. “She’s right, Eve.”

“No she’s not!” Eve blurted. “She doesn’t know what I do!”

“No, she doesn’t,” Renee said. “She doesn’t know of all the worlds we’ve helped save, of the friendships we are strengthening, of the future we are building. She just took us on faith, Eve.”

Eve took in a deep breath and glanced back at Twilight. “…I’m sorry.”

Twilight nodded, gulping hard. “It’s okay.”

Eve tossed her the key. “Take this. …You never know, it might do something.”

“It’s yours.”

“I wasn’t reset. You were,” Eve said. She thought for a moment – just a moment – that maybe the key would allow for some memories to pass on, something to be saved of this timeline in her when it was all done. But then she thought more – she wasn’t Twilight. She wasn’t the pony she had been talking to. She was Evening.

Twilight set it on the table, rejecting it. “I’m sorry… Eve. I’m… I’m not going to try to save myself.”

Eve nodded. “…You know, I forgot for a moment that you have seven more years of experience as well. I thought of you as me seven years ago. Not somepony else.”

“An honest mistake.”

The two of them shared a quick hug.

“Goodbye, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Eve said, pulling back.

“Goodbye… Eve,” Twilight said.

Eve smirked. “Charter-Princess Evening ‘Twilight’ Sparkle, though that’s a mouthful.”

Twilight smirked back. “I can imagine.”

O’Neill called the Enterprise. “Seven to beam up!”

They were back on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Pinkie took out a broom and started cleaning up the party decorations. Nobody was in the mood anymore.

“Earth Tau’ri,” O’Neill ordered. The Enterprise took a moment to charge the dimensional drive to reach that far, but it wasn’t long enough for anyone to get impatient. The portal ripped through space, and they moved through.

Instantly they received dozens of high priority hails from the planet below.

O’Neill put a hand to his head. “What is it now… answer the one from Stargate Command.”

O’Neill appeared on the screen. “This is General O’Nei-“ He stopped mid-sentence when he realized who he was talking to. “Which one is it this time?”

“A mixture of alternate universe and alternate timeline,” O’Neill responded.

The other O’Neill snorted. “The double mega combo. I was wondering when that’d happen.”

“I don’t suppose you’d be able to trust us enough to lend us your time machine?”

“Nope.”

“Yeah, had to ask.”

“Understandable.”

“So, let me guess, you never met the ponies and never explored the multiverse?”

“We ran into a bunch of our alternates, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yeah, no. The Tau’ri cluster of universes is frankly a little boring and overdone. Not to mention full of duplicates of yourself that you can’t trust with more than a nickel.”

“Quite the handful. …Wait, back up. Did you say ponies?”

Eve waved. “Hello. I’m Charter-Princess Evening Sparkle. My world recently suffered a timeline reset… just like yours, apparenlty.”

Other O’Neill stared at Eve from the screen. “…I’m not convinced your timeline is better.”

O’Neill shrugged. “We got a lot of help dealing with a lot of problems easier. They built us this ship. The Enterprise.” He smirked.

“Hey, no fair!”

“Proof my timeline is better.”

Other O’Neill knitted his eyebrows. “Can’t argue with logic like that. Does your lake have fish?”

“…It’s close enough.”

“Same.”

Renee blinked. “I think I’m missing context.”

“Yeah, you are,” Daniel said. “I’ll explain later.”

“I’m curious,” O’Neill said asked his counterpart. “How did we deal with the Wraith without help?”

“Slowly, with the help of Todd, and a lot of genetic science mumbo-jumbo.”

“And the Asgard are still stuck in their computers?”

Other O’Neill blinked. “You got them out?

O’Neill smirked. “I just keep getting points. Can I have that time machine yet?”

“You know it’ll take months to get anyone to even consider that.”

“Yep. I could try to steal it.”

“We have a lot of ships. You have one big ship.”

“I like those odds.”

“I know you do. I do too.”

Daniel interjected. “Leeeeet’s not jump to a firefight. I’m sure we can think of something.”

“There’s more to think about too,” Nova said. “What are the chances two different universes were temporally reset?”

“Stop Eve from finding the bowling ball, stop any universes from coming together,” Flutterfree said.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Eve said. “When Nova and I were splitting timelines, the Friendship Games on Earth Vitis went on unhindered. She couldn’t reach me through the Journal because things were happening while I was jumping timelines a universe over.”

…Friendship Games?” Other O’Neill asked. “…How do you keep your sanity?”

“I tell myself the words are an inaccurate translation,” O’Neill answered.

Nova rolled her eyes. “My point is that this probably isn’t some random occurrence – two universes have been hit. That implies some kind of intent.”

“…We’re being attacked through time!” Pinkie shouted. “That’s cool and terrifying.”

“We need to check on our friends,” Daniel said. “Fast – for all we know these attacks are unfolding as we speak.”

O’Neill nodded. “Sorry me, looks like we gotta dash. Don’t be surprised if we show up again asking for that time machine.”

“I’ll see if I can get them to think about letting you use it.”

“Thanks!” He turned to his pilot. “Hub.”

The Enterprise powered up again, cutting a portal into the hub. The transmission cut out once they were through. “You know, I like talking to myself,” O’Neill commented.

“A sign of madness,” Nova ribbed.

“I talk to myself all the time!” Pinkie said.

“Case in point,” Nova said, gesturing at Pinkie.

Eve looked at the image of the Hub world from orbit. “Anything?”

“No,” an officer said. “No sign of any structures. The blue moon is pulsing with energy, though. …I think it might find us threatening.”

“Right, the Blue Moon Spirit would still exist…” Daniel said. “Well we already know this place was hit. Where to next?”

“Earth Vitis,” Eve ordered. The officer listened to her, not bothering to check with O’Neill. The portal opened much quicker, and they arrived in orbit of Earth Vitis.

“We’re getting interdimensional signals,” an officer reported.

“Thank the Stars…” Renee said.

Nova shook her head. “Hm… Looks like a lot of people are trying to contact us.”

Storm appeared onscreen. “So, before I say anything, can you explain what’s going on?”

O’Neill shrugged. “We’re being attacked on multiple universes through manipulation of time.”

“And I just lost a bet.” Storm shrugged. “So, how are we going to go about smashing this mysterious attacker’s face in?”

“Do you happen to have a time machine?”

“Nope. None of the artifacts we have here are anything like that. Wasn’t convinced time travel was possible until Eve right there told me she’d done it.”

O’Neill frowned. “Then I’m not sure what you can help us with.”

“Need soldiers? Agents? I’ve got plenty of all of them. Even have some ships in orbit you can borrow.”

O’Neill nodded. “Good. Equis Cosmic ships?”

“What else?”

“How many can you spare?”

“I’d say… Three. I’m ordering them to form up now.”

O’Neill checked his display of all nearby ships. “Got them. We’ve been checking our allies – do you know who hasn’t been affected?”

“Equis Vitis, Equis Cosmic, The Elemental Nations, Lai, the Hub – none of them are responding. We managed to make contact with a few minor universes – Esefem, Equis Outland, Earth Ottoman, Equis Concretion, the Mushroom World, and a handful of others. Nothing with heavy dimensional technology.

Eve felt a lump form in her throat. “Corona was on Equis Cosmic. She…” Eve didn’t want to think about it.

O’Neill folded his hands. “…Storm, your world may be next.”

“We’re well aware of this fact. I was actually on my way to a nice vacation on Earth Ottoman. I hear the food is great there.”

“Good luck with that,” O’Neill said. “If we can’t find you here, we’ll look there.”

Flutterfree frowned. “Do we know anyone who wants to attack us like this? To erase us?”

“Ardent, but they don’t have the means nor the will,” Daniel said.

“The Elements of Insanity?” Eve suggested.

“Looks like it’s time to dial Nautica,” O’Neill said. He typed a passcode into the computer system. Eve followed suit.

Storm waved them off. “See you on Earth Ottoman.”

O’Neill nodded. The transmission was cut as they translated. Nautica was a beautiful blue orb when viewed from space, a serene image that hid its true purpose.

“Picking up our satellites,” an officer said. “They report no craft trying to leave the planet.”

“Are the Elements of Insanity there?” Daniel asked.

“Found their base,” an officer said. “Picking up strong magic signatures consistent with what is known about the Elements of Insanity.”

“Teleport a probe down.”

They did. The camera managed to snap a whole five seconds of feed before Brutalight smashed it.

“That answers that question,” Pinkie said. “…Do we have any other enemies?”

“Sombra,” Nova suggested.

“Yeah, no,” Eve said, rolling her eyes. “She wouldn’t erase all her progress.”

“You asked for enemies.”

Flutterfree knitted her eyebrows. “I can’t think of anyone else who would want to destroy all of us… Who would hate us this much?”

“Activists?” Renee suggested. “They know their movement against us is losing traction, they could have found a time machine and decided to use it to bring about our downfall in a more… direct manner.”

“I just thought of something,” Eve said. “The Handmaid.”

O’Neill raised his eyebrows. “…The red fairy?”

“Yes. Our legends, remember; they tell of a guardian of time. Someone who watches over Equis Vitis’ temporal health. No other universe has this legend. And before any of you start, we know she’s real. I’ve seen her in Canterlot a few times, and so has Celestia.”

“She was also in our base at one point,” O’Neill said. “Two of her, actually. It was confusing and didn’t last long enough.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “So… Do we just need to find this Handmaid?”

“That’s the thing, we shouldn’t need to,” Eve said. “It’s her job to fix this sort of thing, at least on Equis Vitis. If she couldn’t do anything…”

Nova raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t she spend her free time sweeping Canterlot Castle? How powerful could she be?”

Pinkie huffed. “Don’t judge those who keep things clean!”

Eve frowned. “I… actually don’t know. Our legends don’t actually tell much about her, and what it does say is often contradictory.”

“Makes sense, if she messes with timelines,” Daniel commented.

“True… The stories do agree she came from somewhere else. I’m willing to bet she’s from another universe.”

Flutterfree blinked. “Do you think this might have something to do with her? One of her enemies?”

“Maybe…” Eve said, scratching her chin. “We need more information! How can we get more information!?”

Pinkie pulled a lightbulb out of her mane. “IDEEEEEEEAAA!”

“What?”

“The Spectacularium has been reset!” Pinkie declared. “We can ask it more questions! It might even be a normal machine instead of a thinking magic thingy!”

“Brilliant!” Daniel exclaimed. “The Spectacularium could answer almost any question! About our attackers, about the Handmaid – anything!”

“Lai, punch it,” O’Neill ordered.

The Enterprise shifted once again, appearing in orbit around the world of Lai, reset just like all the others.

“…Luna’s castle is gone,” an officer said.

“Applejack must have succeeded without our interference,” Nova said with a sigh. “Armonia got what she wanted – the kingdom fell. The Arcei probably run the nation now.”

“The original plan…” Eve said, pondering what this meant deeply. “…Take us to Spectacularium cavern.”

“Can’t teleport that far into the ground,” Daniel said. “We’ll have to start near the surface.”

O’Neill nodded. “Make it so.”

The seven of them teleported off the bridge and into the upper cave system. Nova lit her horn. “It should only take me a few teleports to get us there. Be patient while I charge…”

O’Neill suddenly drew his gun and pointed up the incline, toward the surface. “Hurry. I hear hoofsteps.”

Renee’s ears perked up. “You’re right…”

“Only a few more seconds…” Nova muttered.

Two Arcei appeared up the cavern, both equipped with rune-based weapons and high quality armor – clear signs that they were no longer barely surviving in this world. They saw the ponies and the humans. Confusion flashed across their faces only for a moment – it was quickly replaced with rage. They angled their runic staves at the seven of them.

O’Neill got off one shot, sending a bolt of energy through the left Arcei, stunning him. The other fired her weapon, unleashing a burst of fire that Eve blocked with her shield. Nova teleported at that moment, taking them further into the caves. There were no Arcei down there.

“So yeah, they’re in charge,” Pinkie said. “Good for them. Not for us.”

Nova executed another teleport, even deeper into the caverns.

“It does take a while to get down there, doesn’t it?” Eve said. “...I don’t remember it taking this long.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Sometimes things get glossed over. Right now we’re all pretty stressed and can’t just be without twitching a bit.” She shook her head. “Speaking of twitches, the Pinkie Sense is acting up. We’re going to meet someone surprising.”

“Already figured out the combo for that one?” Flutterfree asked.

“Yep. Slight burning in the back of the eye and a rapid head shake.”

Nova executed the final teleport, taking them to the base of the six Runes of Harmony. All of them were still intact, surrounding the crystalline building that housed the Spectacularium.

“The Arcei are probably coming down here for these runes,” Renee said.

“We got here at just the right time,” Daniel nodded.

“That you did…” a raspy voice met their own. It came from the top of a crystal spire – the form of a pink pony, impaled through the chest, but not dead. Undying.

Eve gasped. “Sage Pinkie!?”

“I thought I was going mad… But my visions were true… It was I who was not meant to be…”

“Hold on, we can get you down from there!”

“Freeing me from my prison… Will only bring about my end sooner than your actions… I would prefer the mysterious death… To one of agony…”

Pinkie looked up at the Sage. “...What happened to you?”

“You know…”

“They need to hear it.”

The Sage laughed bitterly. “You never came… I went forth with my plans… I began to see images of a future that never happened… I ignored them… I created my mechanism… I grabbed the mask… And it wasn’t enough…” she coughed. “I tried… But the Goddess defeated me… My mechanism, destroyed… My life, imprisoned on this spire for eternity…”

Eve looked at the Sage. “…You saved us, you know.”

“I know…” the Sage wheezed. “It brings some solace to my mind to know… I was worth something… I succeeded…”

“We can save you,” Flutterfree insisted.

“I am not meant to be… Even if you could… I cannot foresee the consequences…” She coughed. “It is better… To end a hero… Than to continue… And to be seen fully…”

Pinkie looked up at her. “I… I am sorry, Sage Pinkie.”

“You don’t need to apologize… Unless you’re doing it for taking too long… In which case just hurry up…”

O’Neill raised an eyebrow. “…I think I would have liked you.”

The Sage let out a short laugh and a smile. “What a delightful thought… General Jack O’Neill, you have a spirit… A strong, powerful spirit… Carry it to as many worlds as you can…”

O’Neill nodded.

“Ask your questions… The Spectacularium will not be able to be cute about it this time…” the Sage’s eyes shifted as she looked through her prophecies and beyond. “Had you not come here now… The prophecy would have been the last one… It was meant to fall by the hoof of the Arcei today…”

“I think I speak for all of us when I say ‘screw destiny’,” Nova commented.

Eve nodded, trotting toward the Spectacularium. “Thank you, Sage. You know what for.”

“I know a lot more than that…”

They entered the Spectacularium – and the Spectacularium noticed them. It did not have any philosophical musings, personality, and it did not cause any confusion in anyone’s mind. It just took questions and answered them, one per person.

Who is attacking us?

The University of Doors.

What happens to the people in the current timelines once we rewrite them?

They cease to exist in any shape or form.

How can we access Time Travel?

Find a past Equis, one where Starswirl’s Time Spell has not been lost.

What has happened to the Handmaid?

She is struggling to repel an attack of this precision and magnitude on Equis Vitis in numerous time-states.

If we restore timelines, will everything go back to the way it was?

Aside from events that occurred during the temporal interactions, such as your movements in the Enterprise, yes.

Why are they attacking us?

They consider your interference with their prior complete freedom of exploration and dominion to be too much.

Where is their world?

They have many worlds, but their homeworld is…

The Spectacularium gave them the coordinates to their world. Then the information exchange ended, the crystal structure still standing.

“That… Was a lot to take in…” Renee admitted.

“The University?” Daniel spoke, aloud. “What did we do to them?”

“They wanted the Ark of Truth, we stopped them from taking that,” Nova said.

Eve rubbed her chin. “There have been a few more instances where we’ve encountered them – not us personally, other explorers. Usually we’re in opposition but… There’s no way what we’ve done requires this much retribution!”

“Alien race,” O’Neill said. “Or alien universe humans. Different brains, like the Gems.”

“Well, we know where their world is.” Nova said. “Not sure how that helps us, the place is probably more defended than the Hub. …Was.”

“We do know what to do next,” Pinkie said. “We can find Starswirl’s Spell. I suggest Equis Ultra Fast, we know it’s still there.”

“You have to get out first…” they heard the Sage call to them. “And the Arcei are coming…”

The two humans and five ponies left the Spectacularium. Nova prepared the teleport. Pinkie waved to the Sage. “Goodbye, again.”

“Goodbye… Pinkie Pie… You’re doing well… Keep them on their track…”

Pinkie nodded. “I will. Oh, by the way…” she reached into her mane and pulled out a rocket launcher, tossing it to the Sage. She somehow managed to catch it despite her weakened state. “Have some fun while you’re up here, okay?”

The Sage laughed. “Protecting the Spectacularium until the end of time… Eh, why not…”

Nova initiated the teleport long before the Arcei actually arrived, passing them through the tunnels. Eve took the strain off of Nova to get them the rest of the way out. They finally appeared on the surface of Lai in a field of grass. They could see an Arcei city in the distance, built like a black version of Canterlot.

O’Neill called the Enterprise. “Get us out of here.”

Once again, they returned to the bridge. O’Neill sat down in the big chair, letting out a breath. “So our enemy is a transdimensional society with just as many resources as us, if not more. They’ve apparently found our little annoyances worthy enough to try to completely wipe us out with time shenanigans. And our resident time guardian is apparently not having much luck with stopping them.”

“Nice summary,” Pinkie commented.

“Take us to Equis Ultra Fast,” Eve ordered. The Enterprise listened to her call, ripping another portal in reality, the three flanking ships following through. They appeared in orbit around a blue-green world.

“Right, so the spell will be in the Canterlot Archives if it’s anything like our world,” Nova said. “If the Celestia here is in one of her… moods we’ll have to steal it. Luckily I already know how to do that…”

“We’re receiving a transmission from this Twilight’s castle,” an officer reported. “They say they already have the spell for us.”

Eve blinked. “Uh… That’s convenient.”

O’Neill snapped his fingers. “Teleport us down! Let’s see if we can visit every planet we come across today. I’m sure we won’t burn out the transporter.”

The seven of them appeared in front of the huge double doors of Twilight’s castle. Standing in front of it was the local Rarity – known as Mattie. She spoke with her signature ‘Australian’ accent. “Ah, ‘bout time you showed up.”

Eve raised an eyebrow. “How did you…?”

“I could say something about putting two and two together from Storm’s calls,” she glanced at Pinkie, “but I think we all know I just knew you needed it. Saves a lot of trouble, doesn't it?”

Pinkie nodded. “Definitely! Where is it?”

They were suddenly inside the castle without any kind of transition whatsoever. “Right here. Center of the map – nice place, right?”

Eve shook her head. “Thanks, Mattie.” She levitated the scroll off the map to her eyes. “This looks right. Can you remember your alterations, Nova?”

“Easily,” Nova said, scrawling a few more magical letters into the scroll with her horn. “Done. We can take this to any map and jump to the past in that location.”

“That won’t help us on any Earth,” Daniel pointed out.

“Hopefully we can find the Handmaid,” Renee said. “She should find us if we start messing with time, right?”

“She didn’t find me,” Nova said.

“That’s probably because I fixed the problem myself,” Eve pointed out.

Nova shrugged.

Mattie cleared her throat. “By the way, I just want to make it especially clear that you better get my Sweetie Belle back. I understand that most other ponies absolutely hate pain and I happen to be well versed in dealing it out.”

O’Neill shrugged and nodded. “Got it.”

“Good. Now go jump to the past in another universe. Then get a time headache. Trust me, it’ll happen.”

“We already have time headaches,” Flutterfree deadpanned.

“Trust me, you do not.”

Pinkie blinked. “Wait, isn’t Dinkie the time expert?”

“Do you want the demon telling you how to save your universe?”

“Good point.”

O’Neill called the Enterprise again. “Guess what? Beam us up, we have what we need.”

They returned to the bridge. O’Neill returned to his chair. “Equis Vitis, pedal to the metal.”

The convoy of ships translated to a visibly identical planet, coming full circle.

“Before we go down, we need to work this out,” Nova said. “If we change something in the past while the Enterprise is in orbit, we might overwrite the Enterprise.”

Daniel nodded. “While we’re down there, the Enterprise should translate to Earth Vitis. We can translate there ourselves after we’re done.”

O’Neill turned to the officers on the bridge. “You all got that? Jump ship the moment we’re gone if you value existence.”

All the officers clearly valued their own existences.

They teleported down, then made a quick jump to the map room of Twilight’s castle. Twilight was still there, staring at the map.

“Oh! You’re back!”

Eve took in a sharp breath. “Y-yes. We need the table.”

“Oh – you got Starswirl’s Spell? Great!”

“Once we leave…”

Twilight held up a hoof. “I know. I also know something else.” She tossed the key back to Eve. “You’re facing an enemy that moves through time. You need a way to resist their attacks if they try to change your past. This key… might or might not do that, but there’s a chance.”

“But…”

“No buts, Evening Sparkle. Take it. Fix everything.”

Eve struggled to keep herself composed. “O…Okay.”

Pinkie turned to Nova. “You activate the spell. Everyone who’s coming, stand on the table.”

O’Neill, Daniel, Eve, Pinkie, Flutterfree, Renee, and Nova climbed onto the table-map. Nova levitated the scroll of Starswirl’s modified spell in front of her. She took a deep breath. “Here we go again…” she muttered, activating it with a burst of her magic.

White rings of energy rose from the edge of the table, surrounding them in a bubble of rising power. It collected overtop of them, creating a clear bowl of magic power. The round surface of the bowl turned with numerous moving gear icons that produced a regular ticking sound. The bottom face of the bowl – the open face – showed nothing but a blue-green vortex of temporal energy. Nova lifted herself into the bowl first. With its own power, it sucked the rest of them in.

Eve locked eyes with Twilight one more time.

“You should be the one to escape…” Eve whispered to herself, far too quietly for anyone to hear over the sound of the spell.

They were shunted through time itself along a conduit of energy. They could hear the incessant tick tick ticking of the construct the whole time they flew through the vortex. The journey lasted only a handful of seconds – they were soon shot out the end of another bowl of time in a green area a fair distance from Twilight’s castle.

Eve remembered this place very clearly. The moment everything changed – the moment the Enchantress and the Man of Light entered this universe on their chase.

“Invisibility spells!” she declared, prompting Nova to join her in hiding them all from the prying eyes of the world around them. They heard the unmistakable noise of the Man of Light entering the universe. They watched him and the Enchantress do the final phase of their dance – the fall, the capture, and the rapid exit.

Eve wasn’t looking at that, though. She was looking at Twilight Sparkle, the purple alicorn on a nearby hill, watching the entire spectacle.

That was the Charter-Princess.

“Did you see that?” Nova blurted. “The bowling ball just… vanished! Like it was turned invisible!”

“…Doesn’t the University have a guy that does illusions?” O’Neill asked.

“Thrackerzod did encounter a crystal being named Ivan that might,” Eve said, turning her attention to the mission. “Can you make it reappear?”

“If I can find the-“

“What are you doing here?”

The seven invisible people turned around. The Handmaid was right behind them. She was a humanoid with gray skin and two orange ram-like horns protruding from her mess of hair. She had two brilliant red wings coming out of her back, the color matching that of her robes. In the center of said robes was a symbol – a gear with ten teeth, clearly representative of Time itself.

“…Handmaid!” Eve blurted. “You’re okay! The Spectacularium said you were having difficulty dealing with this! …You look like Vriska, now that I think about it.”

“With what?” the Handmaid asked. “What’s the Spectacularium? You’ve seen Vriska?”

With a flash of red magic that took the form of several gears, another Handmaid appeared. She was heavily wounded, with rust-colored blood pouring from her chest. She snapped her fingers, pausing the flow of time for everything but her other self and the seven travelers from the future. “Past-me won’t know much,” Future-Handmaid said. “She’s witnessing this event for the first time.”

“But you’re interfering!” Past-Handmaid declared. “Now I have to keep the loop-“

“No, you don’t. Well, you do, but only partially. I’m cheating – from another dimension.” She coughed up more blood. “I’ve got a couple undoomed duplicates running around…”

Past-Handmaid put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, that can’t be good. How much perma-dying have we been doing?”

“A significant amount,” Future-Handmaid said, sitting down. “I myself won’t last much longer. Listen, you’ll go with them for now. The first step is to capture Ivan here. Then… I’m sure another Aradia will get in touch with you.”

Past-Handmaid nodded. “I understand. …You sure this is going to be a Heroic death?”

“I tried to save an entire world by attacking a multidimensional society head on. Of course it is,” Future-Handmaid grunted. “No dream bubbles out here…”

“See you in the beyond. Or be you in the beyond.”

Future-Handmaid nodded. “Save this world, Aradia.” Then she keeled over, dead. Time resumed for a moment, but Past-Handmaid froze it again.

She turned in the direction of the seven visitors – not making eye contact, since she couldn’t see the invisible people. “Okay. I guess this means I have to introduce myself to you now. I am Aradia Megido, the Maid of Time. I was called to your world by the Harmony Forces that make up your Tree of Harmony, charged with protecting the timelines. Twilight? Starlight? Can I just say that wrangling that split-timeline mess of yours was a horrible mess?”

Eve coughed. “It’s Eve and Nova now. And Flutterfree and Renee. This is Daniel and O’Neill.”

“…Yeah, sorry, I haven’t caught up with the metatime,” Aradia said, sighing. “I have met O’Neill though. …There’ll be a future-me at some point who’s more caught up. I don’t even know what’s so important about this event, really, I just felt it happening.” She grinned, despite herself. “It’s a little exciting, clearly I’m at a pivot point in history! What is it?”

“That crystal man dropped a dimensional device,” Flutterfree said. “Eve finds this device and we start exploring the multiverse.”

“Except some bastard from the future has decided he’s going to make the ball invisible to keep it from happening,” O’Neill added.

“How far in the future?”

“Seven years,” Eve said. “We’re here using an alternate universe version of the spell Nova used to split the timelines.”

Aradia nodded. “Right, right. So, this guy from the future. We have to stop him from turning the ball invisible. How?”

“He’s a master of illusions, we think,” Daniel said. “We just need to get him to stop making the illusion.”

O’Neill readied his gun. “Hit him hard enough.”

“The other Aradia told us to capture him,” Nova said. “We should do that. …Also, Aradia? Sorry for doubting you existed.”

Aradia shrugged and smiled. “I was not aware you did. Or that it would be a problem. I have been pretty mysterious.” She turned to Eve. “Before we do this, you mentioned Vriska. You’ve seen her?”

“Twice,” Eve confirmed. “You know her?”

“We come from the same world. I always knew it’d be a long time before we ran into each other again, but I suppose the wait may soon be over.” She squealed slightly. “Oh, I’m so excited! There’s so much I want to talk to her about.” She bit her lip. “I hope I don’t have to hide myself, that… That would be a little depressing.”

“You are not at all what I was expecting,” Renee said. “It’s a good thing.”

Aradia’s smile widened even further. “People always say that! Sometimes multiple times – usually they wait for me to find something disturbing fascinating though.”

“…Do I want to know?” O’Neill asked.

Aradia shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe? Maybe not? I mean… Look at my own future dead body there.”

“You find that… cool?” Flutterfree asked.

“Cool is a… Simple word,” Aradia said. “When I see my own body, I am reminded of the dual beauty of mortality and immortality, the inherent power within both modes of existence, their relations, and the way they dance eternally through these worlds of ours. I see myself there, one day – but I also see myself going on unending. It brings to mind the idea of a paradox, a paradox of life and death, of… of…” She shrugged. “Lost control of the sentence there. Wasn’t sure what I was going for. Maybe I should have just said it’s fascinating and beautiful.”

“Creepy,” O’Neill deadpanned. “Let’s get a move on. How are we taking this Ivan out?”

“Carefully,” Renee said. “He’s probably invisible, just like us. We need to find him first. Since time is stopped, that helps us significantly…”

“He may not be stopped,” Aradia asserted. “It is possible his time machine protects him.” Aradia pointed at Eve. “You have a temporal charm on you.”

Eve nodded. “It’s… a key.”

“I wonder what the reasoning behind that is.” She put a hand to her chin. “Might mean nothing. Regardless, from what I can sense that’ll keep your memories from being completely overwritten and will stop most temporal manipulation placed directly on you.”

“…Right.”

“You already figured that, huh?”

“Wait!” Daniel shouted. “If Ivan could be moving, and he’s a master of illusions… he could have been setting something up this entire time!”

Nova unleashed a magical-radar spell the moment the words left Daniel’s mouth. “I can’t sense anything! Must be an advanced cloak!”

O’Neill started firing his gun in a spread pattern across the area – starting near the time-frozen Twilight and moving around. He didn’t hit anything – but he saw some grass shift as something invisible repositioned itself. “There!” he shouted.

Eve doused the entire area in a reveal spell. The magic did as advertised – the light blue crystal man that was Ivan stood exposed in the grass.

He let out a prolonged sigh. “…Of course.” He snapped his fingers, creating seven different illusions of himself, but Eve dispelled those as well.

“Just give up, Ivan, your tricks do nothing,” Eve declared.

Ivan raised a hand, around which was a large, ticking watch. He moved to touch the device – but Aradia was on top of it. With a flick of her head, powerful telekinesis hit his arm, snapping the crystal limb off in addition to shattering the watch into a thousand pieces.

Ivan took one look at his broken watch and sighed. He grabbed his estranged arm and affixed it back to his body. Speaking with a deep, resonating voice, he addressed them. “Fine. Just take me.”

“Gladly,” O’Neill said, grabbing the backs of Ivan’s arms and pressing his gun into the crystal man’s back. “Don’t try anything clever.”

“Your mage has that taken care of,” Ivan droned, speaking with extreme apathy. “Do what you’re going to do.”

Nova nodded. “We should return to the future our way, Aradia, to ensure the spell completes.”

Aradia nodded. “Fine by me.”

Nova activated the scroll again, summoning the bowl to take them back to their time, taking Aradia and Ivan along for the ride. After another trip through the vortex, they returned to the map room – the map room they remembered. The one with extra bookshelves, dimensional devices, and maps of other planets.

“Woohoo!” Pinkie declared. “We’re back! Uh huh! We made it! Oh yeah!”

Eve whipped out the dimensional device, connecting to Earth Vitis. “Time to tell the others the good news.” They stepped through, arriving on a busy street near Canterlot High. They could see no ponies, no fancy technology – nothing.

O’Neill folded his arms and nodded. “Well, looks like they got this one as well. Enterprise, do you read?”

The Enterprise sent down a confirmation signal.

“Good, don’t know what we’d do without you. Beam us up. We’ve got two additions – a fairy of time and a prisoner who has illusion magic something fierce.”

They were back on the bridge of the Enterprise. Armed guards were ready to take Ivan away, but Eve held up a hoof. “Just restrain him. We need him for something, and I’m not sure what.”

Ivan shrugged, saying nothing.

Aradia twirled in the open space of the bridge. “Can I just say how nice the room here is? So open! I have to stick to hidden shadowy walls all the time, being the guardian of time and all.”

“Liberating?” Flutterfree asked.

“Yes. Very.”

O’Neill sat down in his big chair, letting out a breath. “Progress. Progress is good. Earth Ottoman, now.” They translated to the western side of the multiverse after a moment of power charging, arriving in orbit of an Earth.

“Message buoy,” the communications officer declared. “Storm has moved to Gem Vein, says the space rocks are still around. He’s congregating resources.”

O’Neill shrugged. “Meet him there then.”

The ship formation translated again to the Gem Vein, appearing in the middle of space. They saw a handful of Equis Cosmic ships, the Feldspar, and numerous Gem Warship hands.

“Hail the Feldspar,” Eve said the moment she saw it.

Luna’s face appeared onscreen. “It is good to see that not all of us have fallen to this cowardly invasion, Evening.”

Eve smiled. “Good to see you too, Luna. How did you survive?”

“We were moving through Equis Cosmic in preparations for the Harmonic and translated out in order to increase relative speed. When we returned, Equis Cosmic was changed. We eventually picked up one of Storm’s messages and came to Earth Ottoman – and then we remembered the Gems as a possible ally. As it turns out, they weren’t attacked, nor does it appear they will be. We’ve shifted universes several times to be safe, nothing’s happened.”

“Do we have any sort of plan?”

“Sadly, no,” Luna admitted. “We’ve been unable to acquire any information on our assailants, but we knew you were working on that. We just pooled our resources. The best we could get besides the Gems was Saxton Hale. Couldn’t find Thrackerzod or Alushy, and Siron didn’t think he would be able to offer much assistance.”

O’Neill raised an eyebrow. “Saxton Hale’s nobody to sneeze at. The resources he has… impressive, to say the least.”

Luna nodded. “What have you found out?”

“The University of Doors,” Eve said. “They’re the ones responsible for this. We got the coordinates to their world from the Spectacularium, should we need them. We also got the Handmaid – whose name is Aradia, apparently.”

Aradia waved. “Hello Luna!”

“It has been many moons since our last interaction,” Luna addressed Aradia. “It is a pleasure to see you so open this time.”

“Huh, it was only last week for me… I think. There are future versions running around.” She shrugged. “We’ve got a special case. I tried to take the University head on, and failed.”

“We can fight them with time travel on our turf,” Eve asserted. “We’ve already taken back Equis Vitis, it’s back to normal.”

“Celestia?” Luna asked, hopeful.

“Probably. We didn’t stick around to check – we came here.”

Ivan let out a short, barely interested laugh.

“…What?” O’Neill demanded.

“You. Thinking you won. There’ll already be another agent in the past, ensuring that bowling ball is never found.”

“…What?!” Luna declared.

“We have resources, technology, and an infinite number of these watches. We could do this for eternity. After a few failed attempts agents will come for you directly. We will notice this Gem universe.” He shook his head. “The University’s been doing this for a lot longer than you have.”

Renee looked to Daniel. “He’s right.”

“I know,” Daniel said, narrowing his eyes. “I know he is. They have the advantage. They got the surprise attack, and our most powerful resources are gone. We can’t fight them here.”

“What are we going to do?”

Aradia furrowed her brow. “I would suggest hunting down an immutability core – a device that will block all abnormal temporal interactions with a universe – but that would interfere with me and what I’ve done to protect your world. Not to mention alter the very nature of Nova’s timeline split irrevocably changing everything. I think it’s safe to say the same holds for most the other universes – they need time travel to be where they are.”

“…You could find one of those?”

“It’d take me a thousand years, but I could be back here in an instant.” Aradia furrowed her brow. “But while I’m out doing that, even if I return to this exact moment, they could still overwrite you or have defenses up of their own.”

“It seems as if we have to convince them to stop trying to destroy us,” Luna said. “Somehow.”

Eve blinked. She turned to the window, staring out into the stars. “…Today has been an unending stream of stress – event after event just keeps getting piled onto our plates, and we have no time to process, no time to think, and no time to understand what exactly is happening to us.”

“In more ways than you realize,” Pinkie grumbled.

Eve continued. “The University of Doors has attacked us relentlessly for seemingly no reason, taxing our very existence as friends.” She looked around at everyone in the room. “Let’s return the favor.”

“…What?” Luna asked. For the first time, Ivan looked like he was paying attention.

“We go after them,” Eve declared. “I don’t think we can out-time them on their world, but we can go to their world, and find out what would make them hurt. Find out what we can do to make them stop.”

Daniel nodded slowly. “A mission for leverage.”

“Yes. They must have something we can hit – and hit hard. Or, failing that, something we can threaten to hit.” Eve slammed her hoof on the ground. “I’d normally never consider such tactics, but they haven’t left us a choice.”

“I stand behind you,” Luna declared.

“I’ve been waiting for you ponies to get with the program,” O’Neill declared. “I’m all in.”

“I hope you don’t mind that I’ve been listening in on this conversation,” Storm said, his icon appearing on screen. “I love the idea.”

Emerald appeared onscreen as well, a smirk on her face. “You know, I’ve always wanted a worthy opponent to launch the entire Gem Armada at.”

Eve stopped trying to hold in her expression – a mildly cruel smirk crawled up the sides of her face. “It’s decided then. We take the fight to them.”

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