Songs of the Spheres

by GMBlackjack

039 - The Hand in the Door, Part 2

At some moment in the relative past…

The University of Doors could not be said to exist within one universe. It may have been centered around the universe known as the Ninth World, but the actual grounds of the University rarely intersected with that plane – most of the University existed on its own, separate from other planes. The aesthetic of the University’s conglomeration of dimensions was that of endless doorways and keyholes of all sizes, arranged in a most haphazard and unwieldy fashion. The doorways with actual doors in them tended to lead to random universes – some close, some far. At any given time images of dozens of worlds could be seen through the ‘natural’ doors of the space.

University buildings were generally not subject to this rule of otherworldly portals – their doors were more regulated. Which was to say the bizarreness of the pocket dimensions and impossible geometries could be learned within the grounds, while out in the dimensional cross spaces there was no hope.

In the effective ‘center’ of the torus-shaped Administration building, a meeting of the Cabinet was underway, consisting of University investors, the department heads, and the Headstone herself. The Headstone of the university was an older woman with white hair that continually flowed around her, indicative of at least seven different kinds of magic in her body. Her eyes had an unnatural amber color to them, capable of being both soothing and menacing whenever she wished, going for the latter at the moment. Her outfit was composed of red and white robes that appeared completely black when looked at from another angle, making it seem to the unobservant eye that she was changing her outfits. Numerous keys were affixed to her robes – some opened restricted doors in the university, others had mysterious functions the Cabinet could only guess at.

Her name was Elosa Audiir.

She glared at the Head of the Acquisition Department. “Would you care to repeat that?”

The man, despite being significantly taller than Elosa, shifted in his boots. “Uh… You know what, now that I think about it, never mind.”

Elosa folded her hands. “Open your thoughts to us,” she ordered.

He took in a breath. “I said that we need to do something about the otherworlder alliance. My department has been unable to acquire numerous devices, and they have attempted to prevent our acquisition of many others. The largest loss was the Ark of Truth, which the Philosophy Department had heavily requested.”

“That was in their possession, was it not?” Elosa asked.

“Yes… But that’s not the only instance. We’ve encountered their exploration teams, and they virtually never allow us or those in our employ to acquire the ultraterrestrial devices we seek.”

“Objection to thievery is not crazy,” the Head of the Security Department noted.

“I’m not saying it is crazy. I’m saying that it’s a hindrance to our research. To all the Departments, I ask, your most impressive toys and devices – it was the Acquisition Department that gave you them. We open the doors behind which powerful artifacts lie. The Science Department’s weaver, the Life Department’s gene splicer, the Arcane Department’s… Arcanum. All of these and more came from our acquisitions, some through very complex and convoluted schemes.”

The Head of the Exploration Department rolled her eyes. “Your gifts to this University do not go unnoticed, but don’t cut us out. We’re out there too.”

The Head of Acquisition nodded. “Right. The point is, for the entire history of this University, we have operated with complete freedom. Disconnected from any universe, we have no oversight beyond what we institute ourselves. Every world was our oyster, ripe for the picking. This was exceptionally useful for the furthering of all our investigations. We did what was needed.”

“But now some young kids are on your lawn,” the Head of the Hinge Department ribbed.

The Head of Acquisition ignored him. “The worlds we have begun to open doors into intersect with the universes under the eye of the unusual otherworldly alliance. Their teams run into us more and more, and seem to have it in their heads that they are the defenders and protectors of the worlds they encounter. An absurd notion that has not only caused us significant difficulty, but also resulted in a handful of lost lives.”

Elosa narrowed her eyes. “I understand this. I would not be Headstone if I did not keep up with the cutting edge activities. What I want to know is what you plan to do to stop them.”

The Head of Acquisition summoned his courage. “They are young and weak, barely spread out over a handful of major universes. That means they are vulnerable. We can use our significant stores of knowledge, technology, and arcane power to deliver a crushing blow to them that will block out all interference.”

“The University is not prepared for a war,” Elosa declared. “Never has been, never will be. We are not a military installation. We survive by being above the other universes, not by subjugating them.”

“That may need to change,” the Head of Philosophy pointed out. “If this one group of otherworlders exists, what is to say there aren’t others? Some higher than the University? There is a chance we’d need to defend ourselves.”

“There is evidence of others,” the Head of Exploration added. “We’ve found clear evidence of a dead one run by sapient Stars. We may have encountered one run entirely by different versions of the being Twilight Sparkle, but that report is inconclusive.”

“Doesn’t the Datasphere itself qualify?”

“You know, it might. It does exist just about everywhere.”

Elosa nodded slowly. “That is something to consider in the years to come – constructing defenses. What is being suggested now is that we launch a strike, declare war. That is unacceptable.”

“I find the idea of a war delightful,” the Head of the Afterlife Department declared.

“Of course you would,” the Head of Life retorted.

“Who said it had to be a war?” the Head of Acquisition asked. “We have access to numerous outlandish technologies they won’t see coming. And thanks to our Investors, we have an unlimited supply of just about any device we wish.”

The entire Cabinet turned to the representative of Dracogen Enterprise, Jenny of the Red Gloves. She had the most innocent smile she could manage plastered on her face. “So, you want us to mass produce something? Ain’t going to be cheap, I can tell you that.”

Elosa narrowed her eyes. “You’ve encountered the otherworlders directly on two of your outings for us. Do you think we need to take action?”

Jenny paused in her thoughts for a moment. “Well, they are going to keep stopping your Acquisition Department. They think they’re heroes.” She got a faraway look in her eyes. “I know what that’s like.” She shook her head. “It means they’re determined, naive, and have too much idealism for their own good. Trying to get them off your back, to give you some slack in your morality, it’ll be like talking to a brick wall. If anything, they’ll try to reform you to something closer to their way of thinking. Which would mean no more taking whatever you want should you think you need it.”

Elosa nodded. “We cannot be required to stop completely. I understand that our progress in uncovering the secrets of the cosmos rely on acquisition.”

The Head of Acquisition turned to Jenny. “What we need is a way to take care of this alliance easily, quickly, and without too much of a headache. I can think of several ways to accomplish this with the assistance of your manufacturing.”

Jenny nodded. “I can too. I’m thinking of one in particular.” She pulled an egg-shaped device that functioned as a phone out of her pocket. “Put the Ticker into the mailbox,” she ordered. She pulled a small mailbox out of her backpack and opened the ‘door’ on the front of it, reaching through the mailbox to another universe. She pulled out an oversized watch.

Elosa recognized the device. “You plan to use time against them?”

“If you want. I can take a handful of my people and yours to each of their main universes, do some snooping, and find out the optimum moment for instability. Given how we barely understand how this works, there’s no way they’ll be able to put up a fight. We find the best point in their past, stop it for each universe that isn’t temporally connected to the others, and let time sort itself out.”

“There would be a few stragglers,” the Head of the Science Department pointed out. “Some universe jumpers will get the timing just right, or the universe in question will operate on the ripple principle.”

Jenny nodded. “I’m pretty sure you can take care of a few stragglers. If you decide to go through with this, that is.

Elosa furrowed her brow. “…Very well. Jenny of the Red Gloves, we once again request the aid of Dracogen Enterprises. Take care of our little problem so we may continue our innovation in peace.”

Jenny smirked evilly. “We will. I’ve always wanted to try something like this… Or maybe I already have, not like I’d actually remember.” She shrugged. “Give me everything you have on them. Everything.”

Elosa ordered that all known records of the otherworlder alliance be given to Jenny.

~~~

Siron looked out over the corrupted lands of the world – his world. Every last bit of dark magic on his world was now under his complete control. He could summon an army of truly demonic entities to do his very bidding at any moment he wished.

He was considering deeply if now was the time to play that card. He had received the transmission – the alliance formed during Disclosure was currently nonexistent. He’d had a hard time wrapping his head around exactly why, but he eventually decided it didn’t matter. They were gone. Besides the Gems and the University, he was the power now. While the existence of a University with enough power to rewrite universal history concerned him, he knew the University was relatively ‘distant’ to his world. If he played his cards right they wouldn’t feel the need to unleash their fury on him.

No, what had him concerned was the knowledge that Eve apparently had a plan to restore everything, returning Siron’s world to the place it had always been. He had always planned to, eventually, reveal his power and demand respect from all the universes with his might, knowing they wouldn’t want a war with demons, gerudo, and demonic entities from Majora’s remnants. They would have given in to his demands.

But this may have been an even better opportunity…

“It is a difficult decision,” Siron said at last, addressing Mistress Luna and Ganondorf. “We did not plan for this opportunity. We cannot be certain what will happen if we do move now – can we prevent them from restoring their suffocating power? Or will it be better to do what we planned?”

The Mistress frowned. “I prefer our original plan. This one… We will be responsible for destroying so much.”

Ganondorf shook his head. “We did not destroy it, the University did. If their plan succeeds, they will destroy what has replaced their worlds. Either way, one half of existence will not be. Our actions are not responsible for the loss of their lives.

“…You don’t actually care about lives.”

“But you do, and I respect that,” Ganondorf responded. “It is best if we are on the same page. I say take the opportunity to rise to greater power than anticipated. If their plan fails, this world could rise up and take the new place as center of multiversal civilization.”

“Extremely tempting,” Siron said. “Not to mention that every time I’ve stuck to my plans for the last seven years, something’s gone wrong. Some unforeseen variable or secret action performed that was beyond my control. There’s an opportunity here to be in control. To take advantage of a crisis. To accomplish what is needed.” He folded his hands.

Mistress Luna shook her head. “I don’t think we have the right, Siron. Not for something like this. Their work, suffocating though it was, wasn’t worthless.”

“Which is why we must take the mantle,” Ganondorf added.

“No, Ganondorf… We’ll actually be betraying them. Are we sure we are willing to utterly destroy them to achieve our freedom?”

“Yes,” Ganondorf asserted.

Siron slammed his staff on the ground, summoning an eldritch vortex of rocks and tentacles from the ground. It roared, marching off into the sunset. “I am the demon commander of a demonic army…” Siron mused. After a few moments of silence spent watching the beast destroy the very ground beneath it, Siron turned back to his two companions. “Even with the original plan, there was a chance we would actually have to attack. A true betrayal. I see no reason not to go all the way.”

“…Has what they done for us meant nothing?”

Siron paused for a moment. “…It means something. They’ll be welcome on this world, should they wish.”

Ganondorf shook his head. “Wait, what?”

“The Mistress is correct, we do owe them something,” Siron said. “They fought valiantly, and are fighting valiantly, and did much for us we did not ask for. We’re meeting them in battle with our customs – I am willing to adopt their policy of coexistence afterward. I can see it being worthwhile. Not the warrior’s way, but an exchange of honor all the same.”

Ganondorf folded his arms. “You put too much stock on honor.”

“Honor and power are all there is, in the end,” Siron said. “I thought you understood that.”

“That’s what my world thinks.”

“In a way,” Siron admitted. He turned to the Mistress directly. “Are you going to stand by us?”

The Mistress thought for a moment, finding herself staring at the creature as it moved even further and further away. It looked so small from this far away. So insignificant…

“Yes. I’m in,” she said.

“Good. Let’s go listen in on their plan.”

~~~

Eve, O’Neill, Director Storm, Emerald, and Saxton Hale sat at the same table in the primary briefing room of the Enterprise.

“We’re all that’s left,” Eve began. “Some of us come from worlds that currently don’t exist. Some of us come from a world that was overlooked. Others…” she glanced at Saxton Hale. “…Are just here for fun.”

“You got that right!” Saxton Hale said, his voice far too loud for the small room.

“Right,” Eve said, taking his response in stride. She was the only one at the table not affected by his volume. “O’Neill, care to go over the situation?”

O’Neill stood up and cleared his throat. “First of all, we don’t know anywhere near as much as we would like. We know that this University of Doors is a multiversal society that has a development somewhere around our level, but probably higher. Going from information provided by the Spectacularium, they are attacking us through time with intent to erase us so they can have unrestricted access to every universe whenever they want. It seems rather petty to me, but that’s the reason, so we just have to deal with it. Since we currently do not have the resources to attack them directly, the plan is to go to their world, find what leverage we can, and exploit it to make them stop what they’re doing so we can fix it.”

Director Storm nodded. “Taking the fight to them, as Eve poetically put it.”

O’Neill continued. “Our resources are somewhat limited. We do not have access to our extremely powerful allies – they’ve all been overwritten, and while asking their overwritten versions to help is an option in cases like Discord, that will just open up a can of worms we are not prepared to deal with. Namely, those we ask may be rewritten themselves when we set things right. We do have Ultra Fast Discord on board, but he’s scatterbrained and we cannot count on him to come through. Most of our other powerful individuals are either unwilling to help, or just don’t exist at all. Thrackerzod, Alushy, and several others were in overwritten universes and had no alternates.”

“What are our resources then?” Saxton Hale demanded.

“Shipwise, the O’Neill, Feldspar, a handful of Equis Cosmic ships, and the entire Gem Armada. In terms of men and resources, we have the crew of those ships, a handful of AID agents that escaped with Storm, Saxton Hale’s mercenaries and weapons, and… the entire Gem Armada.”

Emerald smirked. “You’re welcome.”

“While the Gem Armada is impressive, we are facing a multiversal society,” Eve reminded them. “They assuredly have powerful allies and technologies of their own. Even with the assistance of a Discord, we might fall. Aradia has already said her impressive power over time wasn’t enough to defeat them.”

O’Neill nodded. “The enemy is powerful, has unknown numbers, and vast capabilities.”

“Sounds like we need to do a run for intelligence,” Storm said.

“We do. We have the coordinates to their main world. To avoid detection, we will send a small squad to the world to do reconnaissance. They will find out whatever they can about the University of Doors, their allies, and how they run everything. We are also attempting to find out more from our prisoner – Ivan.”

Eve nodded. “Luna is attempting mind-reading spells on him. They are… not failing, but not exactly working either. She’ll have a report for us eventually, but we cannot guarantee the information is accurate.”

Emerald clenched her fist. “So… We’re waiting for information, is that it?”

“For now, yes. It shouldn’t be for long, though. We just need to find their vulnerability, threaten it, and make them realize erasing us is not worth their time. This could involve time travel of our own, a direct assault on their planet at a specific point, or some other convoluted plan. Prepare for everything.”

Saxton Hale grinned. “I’m always prepared for everything.”

“I believe it,” Eve said. “We need a reconnaissance team. I expect you all have some suggestions for who should be on it?”

Saxton Hale and Emerald grinned.

~~~

Nova and Aradia sat across from each other in the mess hall of the Enterprise. Aradia was smiling. Nova found the smile a little unnerving.

“So… If time is so fragile, how do other Equis universes survive my timeline divergence?” she asked.

Aradia shrugged. “Lots of reasons, probably. The best one I can think of is that time travel rules vary heavily from one universe to another – it’s why, most of the time, time travel doesn’t change a timeline in more than one universe. In those worlds time itself was probably stronger, or followed slightly different rules to not create such instability. All I know is that your universe had a weak time definition that could destroy it if was used incorrectly a lot, so I was called to serve as its guardian. You’d be surprised how much I had to put up with, and you’d be surprised how hard it is to deal with time travel from other universes interacting with this one.”

Nova blinked. “…I thought you were the Aradia that hadn’t experienced that?”

“Oh, I’m a further future version than the one you met. Swapped about an hour ago – she’s going to relive a semblance of what timeline I went through, even though it’s technically impossible to relive it exactly now, given what the University has done.”

“Have you been to the University?”

“Not directly, no. We’ve started… avoiding it. I’m a lot more willing to let dead bodies of myself start piling up than most time travelers, but it is a waste of valuable experiences to keep throwing ourselves at a brick wall of razor spikes.”

“That does sound like something to avoid.”

“Oh! I just remembered, I think I have something for you.” She reached into her red cloak, an annoyed expression on her face. “Be right back, I think I left it in the future.” She flashed away in her signature red gears of time travel, appearing back only a second later. In her hand was two objects – a flat piece of black plastic and a small ring.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a temporal sensor,” Aradia said. “I have a natural power within myself that allows me to sense the flow, ebb, and alteration of time. That sense is by no means normal. This can do that on its own. Since you’re going out into the multiverse to find time-exploiting enemies, I think it’s time for you to have a bit more than dumb-luck defenses against such things. I think you should have it.”

“M-me?” Nova blurted. “I almost destroyed time last time I messed with it!”

“I am the Maid of Time,” Aradia said. “That means I repair time itself with my powers. However, the Maid is not the only class to use Time, Nova. I think you would make an excellent Prince of Time, were titles to actually apply to you.”

“…Prince?”

“It means destroyer,” Aradia explained. “But it’s not as bad as it sounds. Think, destroying the enemy’s time. The gift of destruction is not a bad one, Nova. I would consider making use of it.”

Nova blinked. “I’m not sure…”

“Just take the devices to let you examine time, if nothing else,” Aradia said. “The plastic goes around whatever front hoof you want, the ring goes around your horn to interface your magic with it.”

Nova wrapped the plastic around her hoof and levitated the ring onto her horn. The moment the ring fixed itself to her horn, the color of her magic shifted – no longer was it a consistent blue, but it rather rapidly shifted through blue and pink in a striped pattern. The plastic on her hoof lit up, revealing itself to be a screen. A dozen displays lit up with diagrams Nova didn’t understand at first, but slowly recognized as the information was channeled through her horn. Time was flowing at 99.8% standard speed and Aradia’s presence was setting off so many alarms.

“I think you’ll find this helps with your time manipulation spells,” Aradia said. “More precision in your acceleration and slowness. If you want, you could probably execute time travel through just your magic, now.”

“I’d rather not go that far,” Nova said. “Thanks though. Now I’ll be able to see them coming. …From the future? How does that work?”

“Won’t work in every universe, only some have time react as a whole when an event is changed. I wouldn’t recommend relying on it completely.”

Nova levitated a cup off a nearby table, discovering her telekinesis still had the striped pattern. “Is all my magic going to look like a painted zebra now?”

“As long as you have the ring on. It’s the affectation of the interface. I wouldn’t worry about it, it only changes the appearance.”

“Mmm,” Nova said. “So, now what?”

One of the television screens on a nearby wall flickered, displaying a familiar sugar-skull emblem. Nova’s expression instantly shifted to one of contempt; long before Sombra’s face appeared on the screen. “I see you survived the erasing,” Nova spat.

Sombra grinned. “Ah, hello amiga! Nice to see you too. Unfortunately, I’m not actually here to talk to you, I’m here to talk to you.” She pointed at Aradia. “Aradia, the Handmaid. I wasn’t convinced you were more than a legend, but here you are.”

Aradia nodded slowly, a tired expression on her face. “Hello Sombra. What do you want?”

“I am here to offer my services to taking down the University of Doors. On one condition.”

“Why would you need a condition?” Nova blurted. “You want us to succeed anyway!”

Sombra glared at her. “I want Aradia there to go to Equis Cosmic, alter time, and get Corona out of erasure. There is a somewhat high chance we will not be able to defeat the University of Doors. If that is the case, Corona needs to be saved through other means. Consider it… an insurance.”

Nova bristled. “You care so much for her, don’t you?”

Sombra ignored Nova’s comment. “Aradia, I will help your cause against the University in any way I can if you’ll do this tiny favor. Shouldn’t be hard to temporarily reset Equis Cosmic, you did it for Equis Vitis, right?”

Aradia nodded. “I’ll do it.”

“Thank you. That’s all I ask. The moment she’s in your fleet, I’ll know, and I’ll begin work.” The transmission ended.

Aradia stood up, holding out a hand to Nova. “Coming?”

“W-what? Me?”

“I’m taking the opportunity to take some company this time. You and… Renee and Daniel I think. That’ll work best. We’ll flip Equis Cosmic’s coin, forcing one side to darkness, the other to pristine light. And we’ll get Corona.”

Nova nodded. “…I don’t like helping Sombra. But we might need her. Just to be clear, I don’t have to be happy about this, and I won’t be happy about this.”

“I understand,” Aradia said. “I wouldn’t worry about Sombra though – she’s on your side more than some of your ‘allies’.”

“…What do you mean?”

“It’s not for me to say,” Aradia said, realizing she’d just let something important slip. “You are not far enough along for me to just tell you things. Not yet. I shouldn’t even be doing this, but the nature of this problem requires it. After this is done, I will go back to being a background presence until you are ready.”

“You sound like Pinkie.”

“Yeah. I do. The fun paradox is I think she actually knows more than I do about certain things. You’ll get to have me around before she gets to explain herself fully, because I don’t even know quite what she is.”

Nova blinked. “…Really?”

“Really.” Aradia beamed. “Isn’t that exciting?”

“…You find the strangest things exciting…”

~~~

The Ninth World was a planet dominated by a single supercontinent in one massive ocean. The continent itself was vaguely diamond-shaped, with strange circular structures the size of mountains positioned near each corner. Each of these structures were known as Clocks, to those who knew their real shape.

The Southern Clock, otherwise known as the Clock of Kala, was just barely visible in the furthest distance from the location the portal opened, a flat whitish line that rose just barely above the horizon toward the northeast. Since it was hundreds of miles away, this paid testament to how tall the Clock was, as well as calling attention to the bizarre geography of this land.

The portal itself had appeared in a large, green plain covered in dual-bladed grass. A stone obelisk floated in the air a few yards away. There was a large city nearby, composed of buildings that looked randomly slapped on at every location, surrounding an impossibly tall tower that led up into the sky, eventually narrowing too small to see. A bean-shaped pod was riding up the center of this tower, indicating that it really was a space elevator.

A handful of floating craft that might have been space-capable were seen around the city’s skies, lazily drifting around. There was no evidence of dimensional portal activity.

The investigation team – Pinkie, Flutterfree, Tempest, a Spy mercenary, and a blue one-eyed Gem called Sapphire – weren’t quite sure what to make of all of it.

“High magic content,” Tempest said, checking her scanner. “And I am picking up some portal activity in that city, but not very much.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Then we just go into town and ask around. We’re all human or human-esque right now for a reason!”

“It’s a strange feeling…” Flutterfree said, rubbing her back where her wings should have been, but weren’t. “Never get used to it.”

“It’s not easy to keep my form this large,” Sapphire said. “We Sapphires prefer to have a shorter body, takes less energy to maintain.” She absent-mindedly rubbed her gemstone, which was placed on her left elbow.

“Can you see anything?” Tempest asked.

Sapphire closed her eye, looking into something beyond. “…I do not see them attacking us when we arrive. They treat us just like any other traveler.”

“The oculi have competition now!” Pinkie chuckled.

The Spy stretched his neck. “We must move quickly – the longer we spend acquiring information, the more time they have to catch us.”

They walked into the city – or in the case of Pinkie, bounced, and in the case of Sapphire, floated. Sapphire assured them this world would not find her psychic abilities mysterious, nor would Flutterfree’s bow draw attention. She did not foresee any difficulty in that regard.

“So you’ll be able to tell us if we’re about to get ambushed?” Flutterfree asked.

“It is likely,” Sapphire said. “Though I may not be able to provide enough warning. And I am uncertain how my powers will function with time travel’s involvement.”

“It never hurts to have a seer,” Spy said. “By chance do you see any of the information we are about to acquire?”

“It’s not that specific,” Sapphire admitted. “Conversations are harder to see than actions.”

“Worth a shot,” Spy admitted.

As they approached the city, they saw other humans walking along the dirt road as well. The variety within them was amazing – some were clearly wizards, glowing with magical energies, while others were almost completely machines with hardly any flesh in them. The vast majority of them seemed to have some kind of random technological device – many of which were ancient in appearance. Like the devices had been dug out of a ditch somewhere. Those leaving the city had cleaner devices, but they were still of an unimaginable variety – some were made of metal, others plastic, still others some biological polymer that resembled jello.

The more people they saw, the more devices they took in. Almost every one looked unique. The majority looked as if they were found rather than made.

“This… is a weird place,” Flutterfree said. “We look normal compared to it. I can see why they aren’t giving us much thought.”

“I have spotted a few other races,” Spy said. “Red fish-men, burly troll-men, and I believe a single pony. Best not to shift forms though, they’re clearly a minority.”

“Right,” Pinkie said. “Let’s ask around then. First order of business, what is this place?”

A human man with glowing rings in his ears and metal spikes poking out of his head walked up to her. “Oh! Are you new to the Beanstalk?”

“…That is the best name. Ever. Of all time,” Pinkie declared. “Is that the entire city or just the tall thing in the center?”

“The whole city!” the man declared. “It used to just be the Beanstalk, but now everything is the Beanstalk. Can I be permitted to show you the sights and the… businesses?”

“Actually, we’re looking for information,” Tempest said. “What do you know about the University of Doors?”

“Never heard of it,” the man said. “We’ve got Dracogen University though, if you’re looking for education. Very spendy though, tens of thousands of shins to get in.”

“Jenny said something about Dracogen,” Flutterfree whispered to Tempest.

“Dracogen?” Tempest said, raising an eyebrow.

“Have you been under a rock all these years? Dracogen Enterprises…” he cleared his throat, preparing for a grand speech that was obviously designed to get them interested enough to spend money – but it could still be useful for intel, so the group listened with rapt attention. “Long ago, back when we were but a small town, the man Dracogen came to town with his amazing ability to duplicate almost any Numenera Artifact brought to him. He slowly built up his influence, bringing more and more prosperity to the Beanstalk through his business and connections. He made deals with adventurers as time went on, adding them as employees of his business. He eventually activated the Beanstalk Elevator, giving us dominion over space itself – but he sadly perished. His second, Jenny of the Red Gloves, took over for Dracogen Enterprises, and has continually pushed our influence over the entire Ninth World, the Moon, and beyond!”

Tempest grabbed onto that thread. “What can you tell us about Jenny?”

“Hrm? Oh, her. She looks like a girl due to some curse or something, but she’s actually much, much older. From one of the prior worlds – some claim as far back as the First World! But there’s nobody that old. She has seen civilizations rise and fall, and been part of many of those activities. She has now devoted herself to this Beanstalk, running everything of Dracogen Enterprises to further our advancement. I truly believe that it is by her gloved hands that we will finally uncover the true potential the Prior Worlds achieved – perhaps even surpass them, but that will be beyond my lifetime.”

Spy butted in. “So she… does what? Duplicate these Numenera Artifacts – technology?”

“That’s just Dracogen Enterprise’s primary export. They also deal in ships, mercenaries for hire, and are glad to go on any quests to discover ancient power. The entire Steadfast, Beyond, and even Augur Kala knows about them!”

“Where do they do all this duplication?” Flutterfree asked.

“The main room under the Beanstalk itself. You can’t go there though, it’s closed to the public. But you can go to their museum, which is right next door!”

“Thanks, but not right now,” Pinkie said. “We need to check in to a place to stay.”

“Oh! I’ve got the place for you – the Dracogen suites! Full of every luxury the Ninth World can offer, for a relatively cheap price as well!”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Flutterfree said. “We’ll find it ourselves.”

The man’s face soured. “Fine then.” He charged off in a huff.

“…I think they haven’t gone through Disclosure,” Sapphire said. “That man would have mentioned such a feat if it were public knowledge.”

“So the University is secret. Great,” Tempest muttered. “Now what are we going to do?”

“We still have information,” Spy said. “We know that Dracogen Enterprises is for hire – perhaps we can pay them off destroying us? Or turn them on the University?”

“We have no idea if we’d have enough money,” Flutterfree pointed out. “…I’m not even sure what shins are.”

Pinkie poked her head into the conversation. “Plus, the University can probably just find any money they want in the multiverse and give it to Dracogen Enterprises! That’s probably why we see Dracogen out in the multiverse rather than the University a lot – they have a close relationship.”

“I can imagine…” Spy said. “If they have a duplication machine, and the University finds lots of unusual technologies, the University would want to duplicate as many as they could. It doesn’t matter why they would want to, there could be any reason, all of them very beneficial.”

“Can’t pay them off…” Tempest muttered.

Flutterfree looked up at the Beanstalk. “…What if we threaten to blow up their space elevator?”

“How would that help?” Tempest asked.

“You heard the man – he talked about Prior Worlds, he talked about technology as Numenera Artifacts. I don’t think any of this technology is theirs. They found it. They’re not going to be able to build another Beanstalk if its destroyed, possibly even with the University’s help. And if we can also destroy their duplicator…”

“That sounds like leverage,” Pinkie said. “That sounds like good leverage. Transmit the information back to the fleet. We should definitely keep looking around for more intel, but that’s enough for them to start making a plan.”

Tempest nodded, taking out her dimensional communicator. “Be prepared to run if this summons the police down on us.”

“It won’t,” Sapphire said.

She made the call and sent the information – nothing showed up to attack them. Tempest nodded toward Sapphire. “You are useful. Why didn’t we ever hire any oculi?”

“They tend to be… out there,” Pinkie said.

“I see…” Tempest said, not really seeing. “They’ve got it. They say to see if we can scout out this Beanstalk, find a way in, a weak point, anything.”

Pinkie started bouncing over there. “Let’s moooove it!”

The five moved toward the Beanstalk’s Stalk; the ladder to space itself.

~~~

Ivan wasn’t sure how he got here – a feeling that was truly alien to him. He was on one of the upper levels of the Beanstalk – that is, he was at the top of the base building, with only the tether itself above him. It was essentially a balcony used to overlook the entire city of the Beanstalk. Were Ivan more poetically inclined, he would have called the view beautiful.

But he was not, and he didn’t really have the patience for such things as beauty. Though Jenny apparently did, since she was leaning against the railing, wistfully looking out over her city.

“Ivan,” Jenny said, turning to him, face uncertain. “Why do we do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do we give our everything to them?” she asked. “We’re… Well, we’re so much better than them. They are but little ants that scurry around under our feet, amounting to nothing over their lives. And yet, here we are, up at the top here, giving them basically everything. Why is that?”

“I only do it because you do,” Ivan responded, gazing out at the city. “You probably do it out of some misguided feeling of loyalty.”

Jenny chuckled bitterly. “I guess so. Nine Worlds… I’ve been here in all of them. I remember that much, at least. I probably am this world, in a sense. To think I’ve opposed it before… To think I did in such recent memory…” she shook her head. “They say you become more consistent as you age. Apparently I’ve been stunted in more ways than one.”

“You seem pretty consistent to me.”

“Ivan! Are you trying to console me?” Jenny laughed. “How unlike you.”

“I said what was evident,” Ivan deadpanned.

“You are the worst at this.”

Ivan shrugged. “Who else would you talk to? Dintin’s an absolute idiot, Ezermond can’t hold a conversation, and the boss isn’t exactly the chatty type.”

“YVND,” Jenny said, the consonants slipping off her tongue in a sharp blurb that hardly sounded like a word. “Though instead of apathy, he has arrogance.” She shrugged. “Or I could talk to myself. That works. Sometimes.”

Ivan shrugged, saying nothing.

Jenny let out a sigh. “Well, I’m going to go sell a million glowglobes at inflated prices so we can build that monorail. Then I’ve got to make sure the Order of Truth doesn’t find out about our deal with the Convergence, and vice versa… Oh, and Dintin needs to go smash some giant’s face in for legal reasons. Have to rile him up for that.”

Ivan nodded. “I… I actually am not sure what I need to do. I’m not sure how I got here.”

Jenny raised an eyebrow. “You’re supposed to get the University of Doors to agree to our terms, remember? Forge an alliance?”

“I… I have memories of already doing that.”

“Really? Do tell.”

“I appealed to Headstone Elsoa’s logical side using economic schematics and research projections. She agreed, and we’ve been working with them very successfully for years. I – Wait.”

Jenny cocked her head. “Ivan, you look confused. You never look confused.”

“I was on a ship… Being interrogated… By –“ He stopped short. He then took in a deep breath and sighed. “That was clever.”

Luna walked in into the dream from nowhere. Dream-Jenny freaked out, pulling her fist back. Luna just made the Dream-Jenny vanish. “That took you a while. I was able to get a significant amount of information out of this session, including a psych evaluation of Jenny.”

Ivan folded his arms. “This was just a memory, wasn’t it?”

“Your mind wouldn’t let me read it, so I forced you into a dream-state and suggested images until you latched onto a memory,” Luna explained. “I didn’t interfere at all. It played out until you were unable to continue without further cognitive dissonance. I’m surprised a master of illusions such as yourself was fooled for so long.”

“I’ve never had a dream before,” Ivan said. “I don’t sleep.”

“Just my luck,” Luna declared, allowing the dreamscape to revert to a backdrop of stars and auroras. “My opinion of you has not changed from our waking encounters, but my opinion of her has changed. I see a heart in there. In you, I just see… exhaustion.”

Ivan shrugged, making no further response.

“I shall take this information where we may put it to use. Enjoy your incarceration.”

“I won’t.”

The dream faded to black and Ivan woke up in the holding cell of the Feldspar. He saw Luna leaving the room, not giving him a second glance. …Waking up was an unusual feeling. He didn’t like it.

So, Luna had information. A way to exploit Jenny. Knowing Jenny, she probably would feel pressured by a threat to her city, her world.

Ivan decided it was what it was, and leaned back against the wall of his cell, turning his mind to other things.

~~~

Aradia, Nova, Renee, and Daniel had discovered what had changed in Equis Cosmic very quickly.

Captain Shockwave’s ship never arrived.

The problem was now a different one.

“How are we going to find when or where their ship changed course?” Daniel asked, currently stumbling in his pegasus form. “We don’t exactly have logs to work with. All we have is this Equis Cosmic ship.”

Renee smirked, “Daniel, it’s simple. We go to the past, about a day ago, more if needed, and find a directory that has her ship on it. Then we follow it forward in time until it diverges.”

Aradia nodded. “Exactly!” A mesh of red gears appeared around their ship – the EQS Ametrine – and they were a day into the past, twenty-four hours before first contact was supposed to be made.

“Question,” Nova asked. “Won’t the Apollo… not re-appear because it’s from another universe?”

“That only happens if we don’t reset it back to the default,” Aradia said. “The reason I was needed on Equis Vitis was because of a fact of most timelines – when you create one, a shadow of the old one is remembered, including the appearance and departure of interdimensional visitors. If time didn’t have a slight remembrance to it, every time the timeline changed, all dimensional activity would be rendered moot. It’d make it impossible to move around in most sections of the multiverse. However, because these timelines are ‘remembered’ – it isn’t really memory, more like a knowledge of which event was changed – this can strain how much information a universe is designed to store. This causes universes to break. Universes that break… Do interesting things.”

“Such as?”

“You really don’t want to know but I think you’ll find out. I apologize ahead of time for the horrors you will find.”

Nova nodded slowly. “Coming from the creepy death-obsessed time-maiden, that concerns me.”

Renee nodded. “Quite. Daniel, do we know the closest Equis Cosmic base that was around before we showed up?”

“Already plotting a course,” Daniel said.

“Oh, you are just adorable trying to use that screen with your wingtips. Hooves, darling.”

Daniel rolled his eyes, switching to his hooves. “This is ridiculous.”

“Did we ever decide why his cutie mark was a mysterious rune?” Nova asked.

“Languages,” Renee explained.

“I don’t even know what language that rune is from,” Daniel muttered, glancing at his flank.

Aradia shrugged. “Who cares, really? You know what you’re doing in life, as do I.”

“Why do you get to stay in your form and I don’t?”

Aradia smirked. “I’m good at not being seen.” And like that, she was gone.

“…What?” Renee said, blinking. “Where…?”

Aradia reappeared. “It’s a mixture of moving really, really fast and using telekinesis to keep the air from whipping too much. Bit exhausting, but fun. …I generally just stick to shadows though. Nobody wants to think too hard about me most of the time.”

Daniel pressed his hoof down on the button. “Course plotted! Arrival in… Seventeen minutes.”

Araida turned to Nova. “Care to try it out?”

Nova glanced at the new toy around her hoof. “…Sure.” She lit her horn, the stripe pattern drawing the attention of Renee and Daniel.

“Mesmerizing…” Renee moaned.

“Yeah,” Nova said, focusing on her spell. She enveloped the ship in a field of her magic, and then accelerated the ship forward. They didn’t jump through the timeline – they just experienced less time. “We have arrived.”

“Wow. Impressive.” Daniel admitted.

Renee activated the communicator. “This is the EQS Ametrine requesting permission to do-“ she stopped short. Out the main viewport, they saw the dual-cone shape of the station explode in a burst of blue fire.

Nova blinked. “…I think we found out why they didn’t show up.”

Aradia waved her hands, and the station was back in one piece. “We’re back five minutes,” she reported.

Renee tried again. “This is the EQS Ametrine requesting permission to dock.”

“Permission granted,” a very bored sounding receptionist said. “Bay 3.”

Renee guided the ship into the bay. There was no security – they arrived without any questions asked.

“Security. What is it?” Nova asked.

“They don’t have enemies,” Daniel reminded her. “It’s just them here. Bit lonely.”

Aradia poked her head out the hangar doors. The station was somewhat small – the only major commercial area right in front of them, and it wasn’t even the size of a football field. “Okay, so here’s what we do. We wait for the station to explode again, so we can find out where the explosion is coming from. I rewind, then we get closer. Then we get closer again.”

“Sounds like a long process,” Renee commented.

“You can afford to have patience with time travel,” Aradia said. “Though we have to be prepared. They could resist temporal shifts. So watch closely. They are likely to take the stealth approach again…”

The approach taken was the exact opposite of stealth. A gigantic being made seemingly of paper just walked out of a door, not even trying to be inconspicuous. The paper twirled around into a three limbed creature with no head – two arms, one ‘leg’ – all around a cubic center on which alien symbols flashed. The creature’s arms unraveled, touching the surface of the station a dozen different locations.

First, the lights went out. Then the station started to explode.

Aradia initiated a rewind just before Daniel’s wing got singed. She froze time – but the papery being was immune to the freeze.

It paused, looking at them. “I was not expecting a defense,” it said with a voice that sounded like seven different synthetic voices all vying for attention.

“I’m Aradia, Maid of Time,” Aradia said. “We need this timeline back.”

“I am YVND. No such thing is going to happen.” The papery tendrils unfurled themselves, flying at Aradia with electricity crackling all around them like a bunch of messy Tesla rods. Aradia used her impressive psychic power to divert all the limbs away from her into nearby walls. They tried to interface with the walls, but with time frozen, the station would not respond to the hacking being.

YVND resorted to something a little more basic – a complex matrix spell that hit Aradia from all sides with invisible force. She slowed relative time for them and accelerated herself. There were suddenly two of her – one behind YVND, tying his cubic center up with a whip. The version of Aradia that was surrounded by the enclosing matrix vanished into time, presumably to become the version behind YVND soon enough.

YVND didn’t react with rage – but with calculation. A series of lightning bolts surged from his core, striking a wide area. Nova and Renee blocked with shields while Aradia simply opted not to exist for a split second. Daniel, however, was hit right between the eyes.

Renee looked ready to panic, but Nova didn’t give her time – she used a rewind spell on him, returning him to health. “…Wha?”

“You died,” Nova said. “…Maybe?”

“I just can’t catch a break…” Daniel muttered. Renee pulled him into an embrace, using a shield of her own to defend him from another bolt.

“Daniel! You are not a cat!”

Nova snorted, returning to YVND, who was very busy dealing with the time-masterful Aradia.

Nova scanned the being – very powerful. Probably too powerful to be killed or disabled with a sneak attack. It was immune to being affected directly by time, and it probably had a time device of its own under those folds of paper somewhere…

Ah, there it was. The watch, deep within the central cube of YVND. Nova wondered if she could just… Maybe…

She teleported the device out of YVND’s center, bringing it right in front of her eyes. “Ha! Got it!”

YVND whirled around, calculating faster than any organic being should have been able to. Each papery strip flew toward Nova. She raised a shield, but it wasn’t enough to stop the onslaught of paper. It broke, and something was preventing her from teleporting herself, some field YVND was generating.

Aradia came to the rescue though. With the watch gone, YVND was no longer completely immune to time dilation. Aradia froze YVND in place. The maneuver was not a complete success – the cubic center did not move, but the papery edges managed to worm their way closer and closer to Nova.

Renee cut them off with a knife construct before they made contact. “Good heavens…”

“I think we’ve got another prisoner!” Aradia said, smiling. “…Whatever he is.”

“Dangerous,” Daniel said. “This… YVND was touching the station, and made it explode. He moved and calculated faster than any organic mind. I think he’s a digital interface of some sort, a supreme hacker.”

“Good thing we’re about to get Sombra on board then,” Aradia said. She glanced at YVND, eyes narrow. “…I think YVND here is somehow trying to hack my time stop. I… Well that’s certainly new.”

“I would say drop him on Nautica but I don’t think that’d hold him…” Renee said.

“Can we… take him out?” Nova wondered.

“I don’t think that’d be easy,” Aradia said. “…I think we can just dump him into open space though.”

Nova lit her horn, teleporting the frozen YVND several kilometers behind her at a high velocity. “That work?”

“Eh… Maybe?” Aradia said.

“He might have propulsion.” Daniel pointed out.

“Fine,” Nova said, teleporting them all back to their ship. “Let’s just take him to the future with us.”

Aradia resumed time – and then rewound their ship, so it left the dock. Before the station could question what they were doing, they picked up YVND and jumped to the future. With the station surviving, the EQS Counselor would meet with the Apollo and everything would occur as it was meant to. The appearance of YVND would barely be a blip on the security sensors of the station, given the halting of time itself.

“Take us to Corona’s station,” Aradia asked Daniel. This time, he was able to input the coordinates very quickly. Nova accelerated them so they were there in an instant.

Nova made a call. “Ahem. Corona? Do you mind if we… Borrow you for an emergency?”

Corona’s voice came back to her. “Uh… I was just heading to the Harmonic celebration. …Is this important?”

“Very. We’ll explain in a minute. Prepare yourself.”

“…All right.”

Daniel looked at his hooves. “Can we undo this now?”

Nova nodded, dispelling his form change. Renee teleported Corona onto the ship the moment afterward.

Corona was about to ask Nova a question, but then she was Aradia. She blinked. “Y-y-you’re the Handmaid.”

“Yes I am, Corona. My name is Aradia Megido – glad to finally meet you.”

“…If you’re talking like that, we’ve got a big problem.”

“You don’t know the half of i-“ Aradia blinked. “Okay, we need to leave YVND here. Now. I don’t know what he’s doing but he’s starting to move again. It’s like he’s hacking reality somehow.”

The lights in the ship began to flicker.

Aradia forced time to stop, preventing the ship from exploding. But her temporal shift finally strained the structure of the universe too much. The temporal energies from her, Nova, YVND, and the watch Nova was currently holding were just too much.

Part of the universe tore open. A skeletal hand poked out of the opening, pulling itself from absolutely nothing into existence. It clawed, revealing a skull in the shape of Aradia’s, horns and all. A tattered cloak of time clung to the skeletal being’s chest, and a partial halo appeared above its head.

“…Time Wraith,” Aradia said, eyes widening. “Get everyone out of here, NOW!”

Renee whipped out her dimensional device and dialed Gem Vein – forgetting for a moment that dialing another universe from inside a spaceship was a really stupid idea. Everyone – including Aradia and the Time Wraith – were ejected into the astral void of Gem Vein, their bodies exposed to the harsh reality of space itself. Aradia seemed unhindered – but so did the Time Wraith. It pointed a finger at Aradia and charged.

Aradia didn’t even bother trying to manipulate time or accelerate herself. It would have been completely pointless against such a being. She used pure telekinesis to keep it at bay. Its bones cracked, but it experienced no pain. It drew a whip with one of its skeletal hands, lashing at her. She was unable to stop the whip as it lashed her across the chest, opening a wound.

“Killed by a Time Wraith,” Aradia muttered. “I so hate it when this happens…”

The wraith swung the whip again, this time lashing open Aradia’s neck, spilling rust blood into space itself. She fell backward, unmoving.

The Time Wraith turned to the ponies and human drifting through space. They were still alive… Still needing to die. It moved toward them…

A drone hit it from the side, exploding the Time Wraith into thousands of shards. Sombra’s puddlejumper flew through the scene, picking up all of the drifting people with a teleport. Renee, Daniel, Corona, and Nova hadn’t been in space long enough to lose consciousness, but they all screamed through their panicked breathing from the pain that came with the sharp change in pressure, the realization that their eyes had boiled themselves dry, and the bruising they had all suffered.

Aradia was limp, dead.

Sombra tended to Corona. “I’ve got you, okay? Everything’s-“

“HEALTH POTION!” Corona screamed.

Sombra shook her head. “Right, right,” she opened up a chest and grabbed a potion filled with red liquid. She uncorked it and doused all four of the space-injured people in the liquid. “There, you should start feeling better soon.”

“Not Aradia,” Nova muttered.

The universe apparently found Nova in need of disproving, for at that moment Aradia started glowing while her wounds healed themselves. She floated a short ways into the air and opened her eyes. She yawned and stretched her arms. “Ah, Sombra. Thanks for taking care of that.”

“…WHAT!?” All of them said at once.

“Right, right,” Aradia smiled sheepishly. “I’ve got conditional immortality. If I am killed, unless the death was heroic or just in some way, I get to come back. Getting killed by a Time Wraith is rarely either.”

“…Convenient,” Daniel said.

“Yeah. It is.” She rubbed her neck. “Hurts like nothing else though.”

“…What’s a Time Wraith?” Nova asked.

Aradia sighed. “Universes in this section of the multiverse have a habit of summoning Time Wraiths whenever someone uses a bit too much time exploitation. We’d been using a lot to fight YVND, but we were still in the clear. It was… Whatever YVND was doing to break free that brought it. Though it still decided to make a replica of me…”

“So the universe punishes you by making you fight a skeleton of yourself,” Nova said. “That’s terrifying.”

Corona held her hoof up. “Can somepony or somebody explain what’s going on? HRM?”

“Right,” Renee and Daniel said at the same time, beginning a tag-team explanation.

~~~

“The plan is simple,” Eve said. “Since the actual University’s locations and resources elude us, we attack their primary muscle: Dracogen Enterprises. All our space forces are to hold back in this dimension, ready to go at a moment’s notice. Saxton Hale’s teams go into the Beanstalk at specialized locations, using portal devices to appear right where they need to be every time. They plant Mann Co. explosives all over the Beanstalk and the Beanstalk Basements. There should be enough explosives to level the entire city. Sombra will keep their security from detecting the explosives until we want them to.”

She took a breath and continued. “Once all the explosives are set, our group will walk right up to the front door of the Beanstalk and demand an audience with Jenny. Our psych evals suggest she will accept, which is what we’re planning on. We talk with her a moment, then as a show of power summon our entire fleet around the Beanstalk to show her we mean business. We convince her that her city – and world – is more important than the destruction of ours. If she doesn’t agree to see us we reveal our ships anyway, and make the demands in a more public manner. And… if she doesn’t agree to stop overwriting time on our worlds, we press the button. The entire Beanstalk goes up in flame, and the instability will force the tether of the space elevator to wrap around the planet, drastically altering the world’s climate and bringing about an extinction-level event. If she still holds out we start bombing, always prepared for an attack from beyond time. Aradia, Nova, you’ll have to keep her from going back and undoing what we did.”

Aradia nodded. “Another version of myself is already on that.”

“Good.” Eve snarled. “I do not want to resort to violence, I want to talk her out of it with a bargain. But all of us must be willing to go through with all we threaten. Do you understand?”

The group – O’Neill, Daniel, Aradia, Corona, Pinkie, Renee, Flutterfree, and Nova – nodded.

Renee adjusted her hat. “You sure we shouldn’t be part of the mission teams?”

“Saxton Hale has that under control with his own specialized units,” Eve explained. “We need efficiency and military precision, and we don’t have enough Tau’ri soldiers.”

Everyone nodded. Corona let out a sigh. “This… This is a bit much, to be honest.”

Eve smiled sadly. “Corona… No offense, but you have no idea. You just got here.”

Corona rubbed the back of her head. “Yeeeah…”

Eve pulled her into a hug. “I’m glad you’re here to stand with us, though.”

“I hope this works…” Flutterfree said.

Pinkie grinned. “Look at us!” She pointed at all nine of them. “We are the heroes, Flutterfree. The top of the top, the best of the best. We will win at the end of the day, you can count on it!”

Nova frowned. “But at what cost Pinkie?”

“I… Really don’t know.”

“Yeah. That’s what has me concerned.”

Eve turned to O’Neill. “…I think we should begin sooner, rather than later.”

O’Neill nodded. “Agreed. Shall we?”

Eve smiled in confirmation. She and O’Neill both pressed red buttons in front of them and spoke their names and access codes.

“Begin operation,” they both said at once.

Sombra moved first – disabling the Beanstalk’s security measures with ease. It helped that the ‘security measures’ were hastily thrown together cameras salvaged from ‘Numenera’ stores hidden deep in the earth. Since Dracogen Enterprises had used their incomplete and spotty knowledge to set up the system, a master hacker had no issue working around it, despite some of the technology being foreign. She sent the message Done to Eve’s computer.

“Phase two,” O’Neill said, accessing communications. “Saxton Hale, you better do this right.”

“Like a kangaroo and a bicycle!” Saxton Hale’s voice came through. “IT’S TIME TO PROVE YOURSELVES MEN!”

Reports flew across the screen the nine of them were watching – bombs were being planted successfully. Teams laid charges, armed them to remote detonators, and left in under a minute. Only one team actually met any resistance, and they took out the guard with ease. There was no evidence any alarm had been raised.

The entire operation took less than two minutes.

“This is going very smoothly,” Nova observed.

“We’ve got to talk to Jenny now – the Armada is ready,” Eve declared. “Corona? You know what to do.”

Corona pulled out her specialized portal gun, already dialed to the Ninth World and set to the right location. The red portal took them all to the front doors of the Beanstalk. Upon these front doors was a symbol: a white knot of lines that resembled a four-petal flower. Some citizens looked at the newcomers with confused expressions, but nothing too alarming.

Eve turned on the Royal Canterlot Voice. “JENNY OF THE RED GLOVES, CEO OF DRACOGEN ENTERPRISES! I, CHARTER-PRINCESS EVENING SPARKLE OF EQUIS VITIS DEMAND AN AUDIENCE ON BEHALF OF MY WORLDS AND THOSE ASSOCIATED!”

The front doors opened. Jenny’s voice greeted them from a nearby speaker. “Come on in. Take the elevator. It’ll automatically take you to me.” Pinkie relayed the message to Eve.

“So far so good,” Daniel said. The nine of them walked through the doors into a large white hall, at the end of which was a simple wooden desk. Behind the desk, the elevator.

Dintin was there, watering a potted plant. “Oh! Hi there! Do you like the flowers?” he asked with the purest of innocent voices.

Aradia smiled. “I think they’re lovely, Dintin.”

“Ever consider devoting more time to flowers?” Flutterfree asked.

“Dracogen gives me lots of flowers. Lots of plants.”

Flutterfree nodded. “Oh. Okay.”

Eve turned to O’Neill. “The robot’s talking, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“Great…” she turned on her ears. “…Looks like I’ll need these.”

“Hi!” Dintin said.

Eve smiled. “Hello, Dintin.”

“Going to Jenny?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s nice. You’ll like her.”

Eve bit her lip. “Oh, if only…”

The nine of them left the behemoth of a robot and entered the elevator, which was surprisingly roomy, easily holding all of them. It took them down… Down… Down into the ground. Eve mentally calculated – they had enough explosives to reach down this far, destroying whatever was hidden in the depths. She also calculated the exact distance she’d need to teleport to escape should it come to that.

The elevator eventually stopped, and the doors opened. They walked out into a large, open space filled with machines and magical artifacts of every imaginable kind. In the center of the room was a tremendous cubic structure made of a white metal. It had a half-dozen translucent limbs inside it, each one with a different bizarre tool at the end. It was slowly building one of the watches, seemingly from nothing. The watch was completed before their eyes. The arms vanished and the watch descended to the ground, onto a conveyor belt, and into the gloved hand of Jenny herself.

“I’m surprised you managed to find this universe,” she said. “It’s not like we give out its coordinates. We don’t have an easy-to-access Directory, like you do.”

Eve frowned. “We prefer to be open.”

Jenny turned around, looking Eve right in the eyes. “We don’t. We find it allows people to exploit us.”

“Like you’re exploiting us?”

Jenny nodded, a slight smirk on her face. “Exactly. You left yourselves open. The University eventually figured it’d just be easier to get rid of you than continue to deal with you. Since you made it this far, I think they were probably wrong, but that’s not really my concern now is it?”

“Do you know what is?” O’Neill asked.

Jenny raised an eyebrow. “Ah, the part where you reveal what your plan is. What is it? Do you have Ivan captured? Do you have an army from a universe we forgot about? Do you have some sort of time-scheme centered around your Handmaid over there?” She shook her head. “Really… Any prisoners you have are duplicates, the University can face off against a single universe, and I’ve already killed that red fairy over there three times personally.”

Aradia bristled. “Want to try and make it four?”

“Not particularly,” Jenny said. “You may not believe me, but I don’t like fighting all that much. I like creative solutions. Sometimes that involves a carefully placed punch, but it more often involves talking your way out of a situation, or using time to eliminate the ‘enemy’ completely.” She threw her hands wide. “This entire basement is filled with creative solutions. The ancient technology of this world is at my disposal! I’m bringing the Ninth World up from the ashes of the Eighth! Did you know the Eighth World was a multiversal society? It’s true! I’ve found things that suggest they had the power to create universes. Records of a skirmish between them and a group of sapient Stars. Remnants of a clash that we can scarcely imagine!”

“You were a part of it,” Eve said. “We know how old you are, Jenny. You were there. You just can’t remember.”

“Your point?”

Eve shook her head. “You know what, never mind. Here are our demands. We want you to restore our timelines to the way they were, and not attack them ever again. You can do that easily.”

Jenny twirled the watch device in her hand. “Yeah, I can. But why would I?”

“Because we have bombs planted in every last inch of your precious Beanstalk,” O’Neill said. “Enough to level the entire city.”

Jenny’s smile vanished in an instant. “There’s no way.”

O’Neill called Sombra. “You can reactivate their security system.”

Jenny pulled a computer pad out of her pocket and looked at it. Her panic was replaced with confusion. “…There’s no bombs here.”

“…What?” Eve said. “All the missions were a success! All bombs planted and-“

“They were removed,” a familiar voice said from behind them. Siron strode out of the elevator, his staff of green and red surrounded with an eerily familiar purple miasma of eldritch power. “I removed them.”

Jenny blinked. “Who the heck is this?”

“Siron!?” Eve shouted. “You… You removed them? Why in the name of Celestia would you do that!? How did you do that?”

“I have gained complete control of the eldritch energies on my planet, Evening. I used it like Majora’s hands – reaching into every location I felt like I needed to. I have been planning to use it to establish myself and my people as a power in this multiverse for a long time. No longer under your pretty purple hoof, no longer treated like nothing. Now we are the power here, and you are not. You can no longer stifle us from what we wish to become.”

“Siron! You’re dooming at least six worlds to death!” Eve shouted.

“I’m not. She is. I’m just taking advantage of an opportunity.” He stamped his staff on the ground. “Give up, Evening. Your time in the multiverse is at an end.”

Tears rolled down Eve’s face. “Siron! Siron… Did our friendship mean nothing!? All we did for you, all that we gave you?”

“I have not forgotten,” Siron said. “Those of you that have survived are welcome to join us. But not as overlords ever again. We will stand as proud warriors, not as eternal diplomats.”

“Yeah, you failed to realize something,” Jenny said.

“What?” Siron asked, eyes narrowing.

“I don’t like you,” Jenny answered, smirking. “What you say about power, about honor, about hating the diplomacy – I don’t care if you won’t be a nuisance to University or not, I feel the need to wipe you out of existence just so you don’t propagate that stupid philosophy of yours.”

Siron glared. “Jenny of the Red Gloves, you are not my enemy. We will not interfere-“

“So what?” Jenny said. “I don’t give a crap. I don’t like you. You’re going to-“

“Jenny, leave him be,” a deep, resonating voice said. Before their eyes, a shadowy creature took shape, rising from the ground. It resembled a dinosaur, but made of almost nothing but bones. The eyes were hollow, the color a dull black, and shadow energies shimmered off at all angles.

“…The hell?” O’Neill blurted, reaching for his gun.

“Woah woah!” Jenny said, holding up her hands. “Let’s all talk about this like calm, rational people. Dracogen, why can’t I go kick this guy’s face in? He’s ridiculous! Listen to the warmonger!”

“He did us a favor, Jenny. He removed the bombs that would have destroyed what we’ve built on this world…” despite his size, he moved around the room with silence, and purpose.

“But-“

“Genevieve Hahn, you know your place. Ancient as you may be, you still serve me. And I provide all that you need for your precious progress.”

Jenny clenched her fists. “Well, guess what Siron? Looks like the boss has given you a pass. Go figure. Go celebrate in freedom your human sacrifice or whatever barbaric thing it is you want to do.”

Eve blinked. “No…”

The Dracogen addressed her. “You have lost, Evening Sparkle. Your worlds are no more. Your plans have failed. Already I have dispatched agents to take care of the timeline of Gem Vein. The University has been informed of your assault, and they will be hunting any loose ships that escape. Your best option at this point is to willfully surrender to Dracogen Enterprises and serve us in the multiverse, or go to Siron’s world. You and your worlds are no more.”

Eve’s eye twitched. “No. I’m not letting all this sacrifice be for nothing!” She pulled the watch device Aradia had gotten from YVND out. “LET’S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!” In a fit of rage, she twisted the device into the deep past.

“Eve, no!” Both Jenny and Aradia yelled at the same time, activating their own temporal powers in a vain attempt to stop her.

And then everything shattered.

~~~

“Beware the last of the sandwiches,” a synthetic voice said, bringing Eve to her full awareness. She blinked – she could feel that she was on top of some snow. In front of her was a strange cloaked creature. The single eye in the top of it was all that was visible, and even this eye told her nothing – it was just a red piece of glass as far as she could tell.

“What… Are you?”

“Ezermond.”

“…Luna mentioned that name in briefing,” Eve muttered, rubbing her head. “Where are we?”

“The stars align in the fiftieth position every last perigee.”

Eve shook her head. “What?”

“I like big books.”

Eve rolled her eyes. “Okay…” She looked at her surroundings. She was at the edge of a lake that was colored unnaturally black. There was signs that several struggles had taken place around this lake recently – blood in the snow, scraps of wood littered everywhere, and the occasional humanoid figure. She saw, in the distance, some people dragging what appeared to be a heavily mutated dragon head away. She spotted a boy wielding a warhammer as if it weighed nothing. She sensed… something from him. Something beautiful.

But he wasn’t what she was here to see.

She was here to see the girl with the red gloves, sitting next to the lake, looking at her reflection. To her side, there was a large piece of ship siding that read Mo’Cookies.

Eve lit her horn, charging it up with all the dark magic she could muster.

“The flavor of oreos is beyond you,” Ezermond said.

“SHUT UP!”

The girl looked up at the noise, eyes wide. She looked…not scared. Sad.

Eve’s horn lost all its dark magic in that instant. “…Who are you?” she asked, not sure why.

“…They call me Jenny,” she said, picking up a stick and poking the black water with it. “…We just saved the Empire, you know. The Black Witch is dead. Chaos is thwarted. All those vampires gone…” She shook her head. “I don’t know what it meant. At all.” She fell silent, not looking at Eve or Ezermond at all anymore.

Eve hung her head and walked away. A tear dropped down her cheek – she couldn’t do it. This child… This child had such a future ahead of her. Such a bright and long future. Eve knew – Jenny, both Jennys, had a heart in them. That heart may have been significantly flawed, but she also knew this world would be worse off without her. The world’s immortal guardian… Or citizen. Or something.

Jenny was waiting for Eve at the top of the hill – not the girl at the lake, but the Jenny that Eve knew from the deep future. “…Welcome to the First World,” Jenny said.

“First?”

“Yeah. The next one somehow becomes an exact copy of a default Earth,” Jenny explained. “The Third through Sixth I don’t remember enough to tell you solidly about. One of them was all digital intelligence, I think. No idea how I lived through that. Seventh was…” she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. …What does matter is you didn’t do it.”

“I couldn’t. I… I saw her eyes. And I know she’ll do great things for this world in the next worlds…”

“One billion years of it,” Jenny said. “I’ve done bad too, you know. Joined up with a fellow called the Professor a couple decades back. Almost blew up a galaxy. I’m also pretty sure I’m the one who called the alien invasion when it happened.”

“…But a world needs its villains too,” Eve reasoned.

“I’ve been everything,” Jenny said. “Contradictory even to myself. I learn things, but then a thousand or two years later I forget it, and lose the impact.”

“Why did you think it was okay to erase us!?”

Jenny let out a bitter laugh. “Never thought it was. I just stopped listening to my conscience a long time ago.”

“Why?”

“Inconsistency, that’s why. The eternal changing of values every few thousand years. I just go with whatever people find acceptable at the time, because who the heck am I to judge? The University and Dracogen Enterprises are products of the Ninth Era, an era that is currently rather brutal. The Beanstalk is far too nice for you to get a good picture of our world – it’s really a grim, brutal place. You have to be willing to kill towns sometimes, just to survive.” She weaved her fingers together. “I think we both know that you and the University – and by consequence, you and me – would have come to a more violent head eventually had action not been taken.”

Eve shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”

“You’re still young,” Jenny said with a smirk.

Ezermond piped in. “At last, a bonding of the cheeses!”

“What is his deal?” Eve asked.

“Ezermond? No idea. The Philethis are a strange, usually secluded race that know a lot more about things than anyone else. This one has brain damage, so he follows me and my friends around for Datasphere-knows what reason.”

“Thank you,” Ezermond chirped

“And then occasionally he says things that make you think he actually has a brain cell left…” Jenny shrugged.

Eve frowned, shivering in the snow.

“…Just so you know, I’d still remove your worlds from existence with time travel. But… given the mess you’ve caused, I don’t think it’ll come to that anymore.”

“Mess?”

“You just broke time. Well, we broke time. I have no idea how we ended up in this specific when and where… A moment so important it’s still vivid to me, even after all these eons. I’m pretty sure – if I remember this world’s time travel right – that we’re going to get pulled back to where we left pretty soon. And then all hell is going to break loose.”

“How so?”

“You encountered Time Wraiths yet?”

“…Only heard – oh. Oh. How bad is it going to be?”

“We’re going to have to fight together. It’s going to be intense…” Jenny cracked her knuckles. “Ready?”

Eve shivered. “I guess so.”

“Game – Go! Move – Set!”

And then things broke again.

~~~

It was as if nothing had changed in the basement of the Beanstalk.

Except now there was a tear in reality that lead to nothing right in the center of everything.

“Everyone, try to fight a Wraith that isn’t your own,” Aradia called as they poured out. “It’s always harder to face yourself!”

Everyone in the entire room got a Wraith – the nine ‘heroes’, Siron, Jenny, and the Dracogen himself. Each one was an aged skeletal form with the partial halo over their head, and all were out for blood – the blood of their counterparts.

“ALSO NO USING TIME TRAVEL THAT JUST MAKES THEM STRONGER!” Aradia shouted.

The fights broke out into so much chaos, Eve couldn’t make out anything that was happening. She just knew she had to get away from her own Time Wraith, and try not to think about how it might be the undead spirit of a certain Twilight Sparkle…

She went after Siron’s Time Wraith – that would be cathartic. She blasted it with magic, but only shifted the bones around. She went right to a dark magic death spell, but that did nothing at all to the Wraith – of course. It was probably an undead form of some kind…

Siron’s Time Wraith pointed its staff at her, summoning black energies at her. She used her own magic to turn the beam around, hitting the Wraith in the chest with its own power. Its ribs cracked.

Eve smirked – this Wraith didn’t seem to have Siron’s freaky new eldritch powers. That meant Eve could win – she had almost beat Siron back on that first adventure, and she definitely would now. She spread her wings and unleashed a series of needles through the Time Wraith, cracking its bone-white carapice. It shattered into dust, falling to the ground.

She turned to Siron. “You could be ne-“ she blinked. Siron was gone. No evidence of him at all. He’d run. That seemed so unlike him...

Wait, that was an idea. She tried to initiate a teleport – but found the temporal energies swirling in the area blocked the attempt. Siron must’ve had some sort of eldritch cheat… The thought made her livid. All this talk about being a warrior and he ran.

She saw O’Neill having trouble – he apparently didn’t get the memo and was fighting his own Time Wraith in hand to hand combat. Bones from the wraith drew blood from O’Neill’s own arms. The Wraith kicked him into a wall covered in Numenera technology, flooding O’Neill with electricity and more than a few needles. The Wraith looked as if it wanted to absorb him into itself.

Eve shot it with her knives, shattering many of its bones, but not enough. Jenny came to the rescue, punching the Wraith to oblivion with her special gloves and disconnecting O’Neill from the electricity. “Up and at ‘em General!”

He was not up and at ‘em – he was alive, but very dazed.

Then Jenny’s Time Wraith punched a hole in Jenny’s stomach. Jenny yowled in pain, but already Eve could see Jenny’s flesh healing itself rapidly. That explained how she’d survived so long, Eve supposed. She targeted Jenny’s Wraith, blasting off an arm.

The arm reformed.

Siron’s and O’Neill’s wraiths had been relatively weak, physically, because they were based on individuals with less physical power… Jenny’s wraith was going to be a problem.

“Uh, Jenny?” Eve asked.

“I didn’t think about this part!” Jenny admitted. “Uh, try something eldritch or ultraterrestrial!”

“Siron’s not here anymore!” Eve shouted.

“Crud. Hey Dracogen, maybe you’ve got-“

The Dracogen and his Wraith were locked in deadly combat, tumbling across the basement of the room, unable to do anything but claw and grab at each other with their psychic powers.

“Nobody gets the memo!” Aradia shrieked. “People are going to start dying if we don’t do something!”

“WORKING ON IT” Corona said, firebending away Nova’s Time Wraith. “SOMBRA, WORK FASTER!”

Suddenly, all the weapons in the room activated. Those that were pointing at Wraiths fired. Most weapons had marginal effect, but some blew off heads. Pinkie’s Wraith went down by a chance propeller to the back of the skull.

“Whew,” Pinkie said, relieved. “Glad mine’s out of the way.”

Eve saw Nova get hurt badly by Renee’s Wraith, the magic cutting down to the unicorn’s bone. Eve saw her Wraith keeping Jenny occupied… She saw her friends getting wounded…

She heard the Dracogen’s Wraith yell in triumph. It had killed its charge – and now the Time Wraith of a super enhanced magic reptile overlord was after the rest of them.

Jenny pulled a big fat gun off a nearby shelf, not bothering to check if it worked. The knockback threw her to the ground and crushed her spine – temporarily – but the beam sailed true. It hit the Dracogen’s Wraith – but the creature just absorbed it.

“We’re doomed!” Jenny declared.

Aradia fell to the ground, bested by Jenny’s Wraith. “Agh…”

Then Eve saw Daniel, stumbling around – right in the path of the Dracogen’s Wraith.

“DANIEL!” Eve yelled. When she shouted his name, Renee’s ears perked up and a haunted expression crossed her face. She knew what Eve’s tone meant.

The Dracogen’s claw embedded itself right through Daniel’s chest, piercing the entire heart. The limp human man was tossed to the side, breaking several ribs and the spine. His face was frozen open in shock, no longer able to move.

Renee made no remarks this time – no calling for help, nothing. She just ran to him and cried.

Eve couldn’t take it anymore – the sight of Daniel… The blood everywhere… She rose into the air, channeling all the power she could into herself. The pure, raw, violent emotion – she finally let it consume her. Her coat turned white, and her entire mane lit on fire. She tapped into magic she didn’t know she had, her flaming mane filling with the stars of Evening. She grabbed the entire planet in her magic, and screamed.

She drew power from the entire arcane field around the Ninth World – an arcane field stronger than almost any other she had encountered. She pointed a hoof at the Dracogen’s Time Wraith – and vaporized it with a burst of holy light, drilling a hole several meters into the ground. She moved to Aradia’s Wraith next, taking it out without much more difficulty. Then Jenny’s. She aimed-

Jenny’s Wraith teleported behind her and punched. Eve raised a shield, but the Wraith was beyond that. The single punch tore through, hitting her across the jaw, knocking the violence right out of her. Her colors returned to normal and she slammed into the ground, breaking a wing and a leg in the process.

She was drained. There was nothing left in her. Nothing at all… Nothing to fight with… Nothing… All was lost…

She saw a light.

…It wasn’t the light at the end of the tunnel, things hadn’t gotten dark yet. It was coming from… Daniel?

She snapped her eyes open, coming to full attention.

Daniel has a habit of dying.

He has Ascended before.

He’s Ascending now.

A being of pure energy and light erupted from Daniel’s soul, rising into the air. Thin, wispy tendrils of energy snaked around, feeling their way through reality.

The Time Wraiths stopped fighting to stare at the new presence.

With a single action, the Ascended being that was Daniel Jackson sealed every remaining Time Wraith away. Then he healed the wounds – Eve noticed then that Nova’s brains had been dashed out, and that Aradia had suffered a perma-death. But Daniel brought them back – including the Dracogen.

O’Neill started laughing. “They can’t stop him here! There are no Ascended rules in this universe! Way to go Danny Boy!”

The Ascended Daniel Jackson condensed itself into a small, white, human sized glow. With a pop, a human Daniel Jackson appeared, in a clean new uniform. He looked down at the uniform with curiosity. “I knew sending me back naked had to be some kind of cruel joke.”

Renee galloped at him and flung herself into his arms, planting a kiss firmly on his face. She had very clearly intended for it to be a graceful, passionate, emotional moment, but she had failed to take into account that she was a pony, he was a human, and neither of them had planned out his course of action. The passionate kiss quickly transformed into a fumble as both of them struggled not to fall over.

The struggle was completely in vain, as they both hit the ground with a thud.

Pinkie put down her camera. “I am keeping these pictures forever.”

Renee and Daniel started laughing – then the laughing stopped abruptly when Renee slapped him across the face. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again Daniel Jackson!”

“I didn’t have time to explain the pl-“

“Daniel Jackson, rule one of courting Lady Rarity, stop making excuses.”

“…That’s…”

“Something I made up just now that won’t have any meaning going forward but I felt the need to say,” Renee said, talking a mile a minute. “Good heavens my heart is racing and I’m not sure if it’s from joy, rage, or… I need to sit.” She sat down, taking in deep breaths. Daniel sat down as well next to her.

“Let’s let them have their moment,” Eve said. She turned to Jenny – and the Dracogen. “I think we need to resolve this.”

At that moment, Headstone Elosa bashed through the doors to the large room with a small troop of University personnel. “What is going on?” she demanded.

“They were more trouble than anticipated,” Jenny said, standing up and dusting herself off. “Looks like erasing them from time isn’t going to work. They’ve got too many tricks, luck, and frankly they just saved our lives.”

Elosa blinked. “…Jenny, you can’t be saying…”

“We’ll still take care of the problem, as promised,” Jenny assured her. “But we’ve got to take… Alternative methods.” She glanced at the Dracogen to ensure he approved – he nodded ever so slowly.

“Such as?” Elosa demanded.

“How about this?” Jenny said, rummaging through a nearby crate and producing a bunch of cone-shaped things with lights at the top. “We put beacons in every universe we claim as part of our network. If we ever come across a universe that has a beacon that isn’t ours, we have to leave it alone. A complete cessation of interaction.”

Eve glared at Elosa. “That’s probably for the best.”

Elosa narrowed her eyes at Eve. “…It is true, there is now no longer an option for coexistence. Not that there ever really was.”

Eve shook her head at Elosa. “I fear what your University does to its universes. But… I’ll respect Jenny’s suggestion. Of course, Dracogen Enterprises has to follow the same rule.”

Jenny nodded. “Right. No contact. At all.”

Eve turned to Jenny. “…Jenny, I think I understand you a little better now. I might, with time, be willing to forgive you. But now is not the time.”

Jenny shrugged. “Eh… Yeah, you’re right.”

“…I hate to admit it, but it is best if we part as enemies.”

Jenny folded her arms. “All right. I know how to make sure that happens.”

“Huh?”

Jenny punched Eve in the face and knocked her out.

~~~

Siron charged into the room Mistress Luna and Ganondorf occupied. “It’s all gone wrong.”

Ganondorf growled. “What?”

“There were these Time Wraiths, and I was ready to wipe them all out – and then I was elsewhere! Someone took me away! Someone tore me fro…” he turned to stare at the expression on Mistress Luna’s face. “You didn’t.”

“I did,” Luna said. “Everyone thinks you fled from battle. I already have the story circulating among the demons. I have video evidence.”

Ganondorf smashed his fist into the table. “What have you done!?”

“What needed to be done. You were taking it too far,” Luna said. “Way too far.” She pulled a dimensional device out of her mane and handed it to Siron. “You are not welcome on this world anymore, Siron. Your deeds are exposed. I suggest you take your staff and run before Eve throws you into Nautica for your crimes.”

Siron trembled in anger. He swiped the device from Luna, dialed a random universe, and left without a word.

Ganondorf glared at Luna. “Foolish princess, we could have-“

“Don’t pretend you ever thought you had the high ground, or philosophy,” Luna spat. “You just wanted power. At least Siron had something worthwhile in his motives. You were just a selfish pig. You go to your Gerudo. You are not welcome among my demons.”

Ganondorf looked like he wanted to fight her, but in the end he was unsure if he could win. He stormed off as well.

Luna sighed, shaking her head. She lit her horn, summoning the pillar Mlinx was imprisoned in.

“…It’s time to release you.”

Elsewhere, Siron appeared next to Fef. “We’re leaving.”

“Huh? What for?”

“We’ve been betrayed. We’ve got to go on the run before they stick us in Nautica.”

Fef nodded. “Got it. Where are we going?”

“I have no idea whatsoever. But I’ll think of something.” He looked at his staff, still brimming with eldritch power. “I’ll think of something…”

~~~

Aradia watched as the universes returned to normal. The Dracogen recalled his agents, allowing the time in all universes to return to the way it was supposed to be. The buoys were set up in every universe in record time, spreading the signal to keep the University and Dracogen Enterprises away.

People who had been lost in time reappeared – such as Toph, Thrackerzod, and Alushy – and they were understandably horrified by what had happened to them. They had ceased to exist.

Eve still had the key. It had turned out to not be all that useful, in the end, since time itself essentially broke down, but it was a curiosity. Where had it come from? What was its relation to Equis Eldritch? Nobody knew, and nobody had any idea how to find out.

Already there was talk of using it to create temporal alerts, things that would detect temporal tampering from any source, hopefully alerting all other universes to it the instant it happened so action could be taken. The limited methods of time travel were catalogued, classified by all the governments, and readied for use at the push of a button.

There was no attempt at keeping what happened a secret. It would have been difficult to keep everyone who had been a part of it quiet. Most of the populace had no idea the true extent of the damage, but just telling them ‘an enemy had tried to erase them from existence’ had worked.

Aradia watched Eve address the masses.

“We have survived an ordeal – we were hit where it hurt, in our past, effectively removed from existence. We had to face what we would be without each other, and… I can safely say we are better off connected than we were apart. Furthermore, it is only because of our close ties to each other that we were able to fight back against this assault at all.

“We always thought there were going to be horrendous threats from deep within the multiverse, horrible things probably beyond our imagination. Well, we were right. There are things that can snuff us out like a candle. But there’s something else here – we survived. The candle relit after a moment of darkness, rising up higher than before. Because we have each other, we live. We thrive. We survive. And we show this uncaring multiverse that we have a magic between us.”

The crowd cheered. Aradia smiled – that was good.

Nova walked up to her. “You’re vanishing again, aren’t you?”

“Yep. You’re not ready yet. I took too active a role as it was.”

“…I think Eve’s pushing for Unification,” Nova said. “…Do you think…?”

“I’m not telling you if that’s the step you need to take or not,” Aradia declared. “Don’t try to weasel information out of me.”

“Right…”

“You’ll have to take what you learned here today and be the temporal eyes and ears for your people,” Aradia said. “You need to use what I’ve given you. Sometimes, your defenses could fail.”

“I don’t plan on any time travel,” Nova declared. “But… Yeah. You’re right.”

Aradia smiled. “I’ve got to go – meeting with some madman in a minute. Don’t try to follow me, okay?”

Nova nodded. “I’ll just go talk to Eve. See you… Whenever you decide to show yourself again.”

Aradia saluted – then accelerated herself to her meeting place.

A blue phone box stood under a tree on Equis Vitis, the Doctor leaning against it.

“You messed up,” he said.

Aradia smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I… I couldn’t deal with the threat on my own. Too much dying. Not enough saving people.”

“I’m referring to the Time Rift. That was a lot of Time Wraiths. If you hadn’t lucked out with that Ascended, you would have…”

“I know,” Aradia insisted. “But you don’t need to be such a downer about it! Come on, everything worked out in the end. Once again, the future is bright!”

“The future is a construct subject to change.”

“Wow, you’re in a funk. Have some hope Doctor! C’mon, lighten up a bit!”

The Doctor sighed. “Your unending optimism impresses even me, Aradia Megido.”

She gave him a finger guns gesture. “Ayyyyy.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “I would say ‘never change’, but... You need to take yourself more seriously sometimes. You have dominion over time. I know you can take it seriously, but you’re… you’re…”

“Too aloof?”

“Yes.”

Aradia put her hands on her hips. “This entire conversation is you being one big hypocrite.”

“There are certain places I do not stick my fingers, and you know it.”

Aradia nodded. “…I was called to serve this world, though. And I plan to keep doing that however I can. That now extends to these worlds. …They have great potential, Doctor, I’m sure you’ve seen it.”

“I have… But potential is not good or bad.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’m here!”

The Doctor smiled and shook his head. “…It’s good that you think that.” He waved goodbye and entered the doors of the TARDIS, leaving the time, place, and universe behind.

Aradia waved after him, still smiling that smile of hers that was just slightly too large for her face.

Author's Note:

[END OF ARC 3: LIFE]

>>ARC 3 INTERLUDE<<

The pages close on another arc. Woo! Time for another interlude! As always, anyone here is welcome in either the Discord or the Forum.

Today’s featured side story is Evermore Echo by Keywii_Cookies55 and it’s a story about a multiverse couple and their travels. Warning: This story eventually starts to reference events that happen in unpublished drafts for chapters of Songs of the Spheres. It is recommended to read those first.

And let’s see what fun franchises showed up this arc!

Frost Punk belongs to 11 Bit Studios
Doctor Who belongs to the BBC
My Little Pony G1 and G3.5 belong to Hasbro
Friendship is Witchcraft belongs to Sherclop Pones
The Mentally Advanced Series belongs to Dawn Somewhere
Ultra Fast Pony belongs to Wacarb
Scootertrix the Abridged belongs to Scootertrix Studios
Friendship is for Adults belongs to the Katerlot
Dragon Ball belongs to Akira Toriyama
Dragon Ball Z Abridged belongs to Team Four Star
Battlestar Galactica belongs to David Rick Productions
Steven Universe belongs to Cartoon Network
Little Nightmares belongs to Tarsier Studios
Numenera belongs to Monte Cook Games
Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy belong to Games Workshop

Ah Vivian, still mysterious.

You know what time it is! Time for another poll! https://strawpoll.com/9f5sa48b Vote on your favorite, and go check out the other arc polls if you haven’t already!

And now, a preview for the next arc: Chapter Titles! ALL of these (and parts of ARC 5!) are already drafted! Every six days for the foreseeable future!

ARC 4: Hope
040 - Algernon’s Stand, Part 1
041 - Algernon’s Stand, Part 2
042 - Don’t Panic
043 - A Wedding Between Worlds
044 - Mushrooms and Appuls
045 - The Reach of the Sparkle Census
046 - Equis Fallout
047 - SCP 11947
048 - Just Monika
049 - Roses
050 - Whatever Remains, No Matter How Improbable…
051 - Together We Will Always Shine, Part 1
052 - Together We Will Always Shine, Part 2

Until next time!

Comments

[Velvet-Fresh]

Send Derpy our regards Doctor.

[the other sans]

Whyis that
Eve saw herWraith keeping Jenny occupied
difficult to keep everyone who had been apart of it quiet
Warning: This story eventually start to reverence events that happen in unpublished drafts for chapters of Songs of the Spheres

1. Forgot your spacing.
2. Forgot your spacing.
3. A part, two words in this case.
4. Reference. Unless you want a chapter to be revered of course.

Today’s featured side story is Evermore Echo by KeywiiCookies55 and it’s

Got broken links.

Edit: Doesn't show properly in comments, so I made a quick snap of it and uploaded to a site. That isn't imgur cause blocked. Meh. https://ibb.co/c8E4JJ

[GMBlackjack]

8950245

By the time I saw that edit of yours I had already fixed the problem. Thanks for the help though!

Dunno where I'd be without your near-instant "Hey, this is where all the formatting errors popped up."

-GM, master of PIRATES.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Truly epic stuff, and probably the best resolution to this debacle that one could hope for. At this point, I'm surprised Daniel doesn't ponify into an alicorn. Looks like the Hope arc has a lot to offer, especially given some of the worlds hinted at and the only appropriate name for chapter 42 of anything. Eagerly looking forward to it.

[BestinDworld]

....will you be doing a sequel to this?

[GMBlackjack]

8950537
*sputters* SEQUEL? SEQUEL!?

Why in the name of all potatoes would I write a sequel to something that's projected to be over two million words long in the end?

No, there will not be a sequel to Songs of the Spheres. When 157 publishes, the story will be DONE, full stop. There are side-stories written by other people, but there will not be sequels.

But we're not even a fourth done yet!

-GM, master of primus.

[Blaster M]

She's gone Super Pony 3

[Efadd]

ARC 5!

It's time to d-d-d-duel!

[Galliar]

Nothing quite says 'Peace in our Times' like 'Mutually Assured Destruction'.

This arc was mixed for me. I wasn't familiar with most of the new crossover universes introduced, with a few exceptions such as the Gems from Steven Universe and the abridged Frieza, - plus I think I saw a trailer for Little Nightmares once, and somehow guessed that was what was going on - so right off the bat I wasn't knowledgable in a lot of the whos and whats that were flying around. On one hand this introduced me to all of the abridged series used in the Comedians chapter, which was an absolute joy. On the other, it made it hard to remember a lot of the exposition. For example, I couldn't tell you what the artifact the University wanted from... Somewhere in Earh Tau'ri does, and I didn't remember that Jenny had tried to steal it until this chapter reminded me.

I won't say that Siron's storyline is resolved, though I thought that Mistress Luna's method of fighting back against him was rather clever. In a multiverse with Sombra in it, he and Ganondorf are probably stuck hiding in lesser universes or ones that the Disclosure universes haven't reached yet. It was a good way to deal with it for the time being, and a bit of a twist that that wasn't the final confrontation of the arc. I feel like Siron is going to be a reoccuring antagonist for a while yet, and I'm perfectly okay with that.

For the most part however, the overarching storylines this arc felt like something that was just happening, and then there was a conclusion, sort of. Nothing was especially resolved, so all of this could come back again. It just felt like build up to something else. It also felt like some of the older worlds and characters are being forgotten, most prominently the Elemental world and Earth Vitis.

What kept me reading were the chapter by chapter stories. I feel like this arc had some of the stronger one offs yet, with the Comedians being the standout chapter. That chapter had me laughing before I'd had any of the context, and it drew me into its source material spectacularly.

Identity Crisis - I think that was the one - was also a well done tragedy, brought about in the most Rick way possible. By accident, he killed off the main character and replaced her with an exact clone. I'd said in my review I would have liked both a clone and original of some character to have survived to see how an exact replicate could grow differently through experiences, but you've kind of done that anyone with only Eve, who's survivor's guilt has very obviously lead her on a different path than the original Charter Twilight. It's affected a number of her decisions since the switch, and she's been an incredibly interesting character to see.

Disclosure and it's consequences have been great to read, again continuing the trend of a continuous world in spite of the multiversal nature of 'Song'.

My final thoughts on the arc are similiar to my thoughts on the Majora arc, though a bit more positive. The characters, world building, and individual chapter and worlds are all good. They're a lot of fun and I enjoy even the stuff I don't entirely cause sometimes I just don't need to. But the longer plotlines are still hard to stay with in comparison because they feel almost shallow in comparison.

Maybe if we got a bit more of Jenny or the University before this chapter this would have felt more rewarding, but before last chapter basically all they did was steal and run. Even as they undid timelines they felt just like a nuisance instead of the genuine threat they should have been. I guess since they're all still alive they still could but...

That all said, a lot of the chapter names for next arc are very, VERY familiar to me. I very much look forward... Basically everythingn from 43-48.

48 especially manages to frighten me a lot more in two words then anything else has in tens of thousands. It also explains your change in profile picture, doesn't it? Wait... Is this even still the actually GM's account? Blink twice if you're not Monika.

Edit: Accidentally hit post too soon.

[Lovecraftia]

[DragonMaus]

Oof. What a ride. The University is even more disgusting than I had anticipated; glad Eve could arrive at something of a cease-fire, at least.

And there's the Doctor, though not quite in any way I would have expected.

[omegasnowfall]

Why do i see Jenny as Hat kid from A hat in time?

[GMBlackjack]

10098936
That's gonna be confusing since Hat Kid is actually a thing later.
Here's a rough approximation of Jenny:
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/334316317526065152/666696343892393994/guF1gSz_copy-1.jpg
-GM, master of imgs.

[GMBlackjack]

11554475
The plot threat of Twilight's Secret is a very major one with repercussions that last most of the story. You'll have to read to see what exactly comes of it, I don't think I should spoil it this early.

EDIT: though, fair warning, the events involving Twilight-X are meant to serve as a bit of a warning. The multiverse can be a terrible, brutal place, and worse things could possibly happen in the future.

-GM, master of commas.

[RoboRed]

Man, time-bending enemies sure do add a whole extra layer of "terrifying". And confusion.

Well that's another multiversal multitemporal crisis averted. Wonder what fate has in store next...

Renee galloped at him and flung herself into his arms, planting a kiss firmly on his face. She had very clearly intended for it to be a graceful, passionate, emotional moment, but she had failed to take into account that she was a pony, he was a human, and neither of them had planned out his course of action. The passionate kiss quickly transformed into a fumble as both of them struggled not to fall over.

The struggle was completely in vain, as they both hit the ground with a thud.

Pinkie put down her camera. “I am keeping these pictures forever.”

Also, I'd like to say for the record as a Stargate fan that I love how you write Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson's characters.