044 - Mushrooms and Appuls
Five Ba’als stood in a clearing in a Lai forest. One of them reached into his robes and pulled out a small, pink Rune. “This Rune has power,” he declared. “Enough power to bring this world to its knees without anyone knowing it was us.”
“They’ve stopped caring about us,” a second said. “Think we’re nothing compared to the threats the University and other secret powers pose. They are wrong to do so.”
“Even without our ships, our cloning, or our former glory, we can still-” a gigantic hammer hit the Ba’al that was talking in the face, knocking him to the ground.
“What the-” the next Ba’al lit on fire, discovering quickly that speaking while aflame was a bad idea since the flames got into his throat.
The next Ba’al fell when he noticed he had been cut in two across the midsection. The fourth got a magical laser to the face that knocked him down.
Only the Ba’al with the Rune remained, shaking. “Show yourselves!”
“Okay,” a calm voice said. Lieshy walked into the forest, approaching Ba’al. “Here I am.”
“J-just you?”
“Yes. Just me. An adorable yellow horse. Neigh.” Lieshy smiled when the last Ba’al jumped at her noise.
He held the pink Rune to her face. “I will use this, don’t think I won’t.”
“What is that?”
“It’s the Rune of Elysium!”
“Huh. Doesn’t ring a bell. Maybe you should just hand it over, because I definitely don’t feel any fear toward it. I’ll probably burn you even if you use it. Or cut you in half before you can use it. Or something.”
Ba’al’s hand shook. Then he dropped the rune to the ground, raising his hands into the air.
“Good boy,” Toph said, suddenly standing behind him with both his hands already cuffed. “There’s a particular dungeon with your name on it. Hope you enjoy your cell mate, I hear she’s lovely to talk to.”
Lieshy picked up the Rune. “He called it the Rune of Elysium. Any idea?”
“Nope,” Toph said. “Anyone else?”
Lady Rarity strode into the clearing, her eight-legged armor making quite the commotion on the ground. “The name doesn’t sound familiar.”
“I feel like I’ve heard it before, somewhere,” Corona said. “But that’d be another universe, so… If it’s related at all it’d be like an alternate version.”
Lieshy shrugged. “Turn it over to the science types then. And by science types, I mean Corona in her lab when we get back to the capital.”
“Mhm…” Toph said, kicking one of the Ba’als. “You know, I thought we were done with these guys. Guess some survived.”
“They really aren’t that threatening anymore,” Corona said. “Definitely evil, definitely caused a lot of damage back then, but… I think they’re just trying too hard now. Those that choose to just live their lives are probably the smartest.”
“So few of them do that though,” Lady Rarity pointed out. “Their minds are almost exactly the same.”
“How can they stand each other…” Toph wondered aloud.
Corona took the Rune from Lieshy and scanned it. “Regardless, this thing has a lot of magic in it for such a small piece. It’s probably got some effect that can be triggered, since Ba’al thought he could use it.”
“No doubt something he would use to conquer,” Lady Rarity said. “It is his thing.”
“Mhm… Definitely need more equipment to get a judge on the thaumic structure… Hey! Vivian! Do you by chance have that tool with the red and blue lights on you, by chance?”
No response.
“Vivian?”
Vivian came out of the treeline. “Oh. Sorry… I was just looking at a flower. No, I don’t have it – I think I dropped the toolbox somewhere. Or didn’t bring it. I’m not sure.”
“Vivian, it was your turn to watch the tools!” Toph called. “If one of us drops the ball on an important mi-”
“I’m sorry. I’ll go look for it…”
Corona walked up to Vivian with a concerned expression. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Corona removed a boot. “No, no you’re not.”
“Corona do-”
A few seconds later, Corona removed her hoof and slipped her boot back on. “You’re homesick? Why didn’t you just say so?”
“I didn’t want to bother you…” Vivian said. “We always have so much to do…”
“We can go to your world for a day,” Corona said. “No problem at all. Right Toph?”
Toph paused for a moment. “…Sure.”
“What universe is your home, dear?” Lady Rarity asked. “I’m actually not sure.”
“The Mushroom World,” Corona said, standing up tall. “I can’t believe you never told us that was your home, it’s such a nice place!”
Vivian smiled awkwardly. “You never asked.”
“It’s settled. We’re going to the Mushroom World before we do anything else,” Corona said.
“I’m the General here,” Toph pointed out. “…But I happen to agree. I like the Mushroom World too, though I’m not exactly sure what the fuss is about.”
“You need eyes,” Lieshy deadpanned.
“I think I’ll stay blind so Rohan can’t read me like a book thank you.”
“I still can’t punch him… Or shoot him…” Corona said. “I try every time I see him and I can’t do it…” Sombra’s voice came into her ear, though the others couldn’t hear it. “Oh you can shut up.”
Vivian giggled. “Hey. Sombra. Keep talking.”
“You little imp…” Corona said with a jovial smile. She pulled her special dimensional device out of her pocket. “So… Yeah, we can dial the Mushroom World from here, just need to shunt through one extra universe… Do we want a specific location?”
“Eh, anywhere’s fine,” Vivian said. “My sisters will know I’m back when I return. It won’t be that hard to find them.”
“Vivian has sisters,” Lady Rarity said. “…You never talk much about yourself, do you?”
“Not really?”
“Huh. Well, I guess I am finally going to get to see this fabled Mushroom World.”
“Wait, you’ve never been!?” Lieshy blurted. “How can you explore the multiverse and not go to the Mushroom World!”
“We’ve never been sent,” Lady Rarity declared. “May I remind you most of the things we do are on Lai. And I don’t go offworld unless I have particular reason to.”
“Boy, are you in for a treat,” Corona said, completing the dialing on her device and tearing a red hole to the new universe. “Welcome to the Mushroom World!”
They stepped through the portal.
And then something far more interesting happened elsewhere in the multiverse.
~~~
“Daniel, Love, where’s the air freshener?” Renee called, poking through all the cupboards in their house with her magic.
“We’re out!” he called from the bathroom.
“That freshening spell isn’t going to take care of the socks forever!”
“I’ll buy some when I’m out!”
“You’ll get distracted by diplomacy! I’ll probably forget because of whatever life-threatening situation I end up in today!” She pursed her lips. “I wonder if I could call Sweetie…”
Daniel came out of the bathroom, dressed for work – which was to say he had clothing of enough quality to look presentable, but nothing all that classy, and wore a brown jacket overtop. “Asking your sister to go out of her way just for air freshener?”
“Well when are we going to get time? It’s Tuesday! The weekend’s not for a while. We could guess that I’ll probably have an outing that ends early – or will end up in a place where I can buy air freshener – but that is just a gamble.” She levitated her hat off a hook and placed it on her head.
“We could probably just order it online,” Daniel commented.
“I…” Renee blinked. “Actually that’s a good idea.” She pulled out her phone and jumped onto the Internet, finding that with a quick search for ‘air freshener’ she found half a dozen places wanting to sell through the net. She quickly ordered a brand she thought she recognized (so hard to tell these days, which she supposed was a good thing), and put her phone away. “There we go, crisis averted!”
Daniel reached down and scratched her behind her ears, bringing an expression of bliss to her face.
“Meow.”
Daniel stopped instantly and looked down. “…Did you just meow?”
“Yes. Yes I did,” Renee said, chuckling. “Verdict: is it cute or just weird?”
“Can it be both?”
“Oh, most definitely.”
Daniel shrugged and rolled his eyes, opening the front door, Renee following him close behind. The ‘street’ outside was one of the halls of the Hub – their house was just one of the many sections of the interdimensional nexus. It had not been difficult to convince Eve to give them the area and let Renee turn it into a fashionable abode. The furnishings were not quite done – after the Honeymoon across the multiverse the two of them had been quite busy catching up with the work that piled up – but it was still a cozy place to live. Although it did run out of groceries and toiletries from time to time. They were still working out a system.
Daniel walked toward the Tau’ri embassy. “Well, I’m off to try to be the middleman between the Gem Vein and Lai. That should be fun.”
Renee chuckled. “At least you know what you’re doing. See you tonight!”
“Maybe we can discover the wonder of takeout pizza. Or Chinese.”
“I’m thinking Earth Ottoman or Lai food!” Renee called. “We’ll talk about it later!”
Daniel smiled back at her and waved.
Renee let out a simple, contented sigh before taking out her dimensional device and dialing Equis Vitis. She appeared a fair distance from the castle, but it was no issue to walk through downtown Ponyville to get to Eve’s base of operations. She arrived in the main hall after a brisk walk, finding Pinkie, Vriska, and Nova already waiting.
Nova was talking to Vriska. “-basically, we can trace individualism in humans back to the era of slavery, when authorities got questioned. You could claim that the rise of individualism and the disregard for communal authority led to the general society of factions that is driving more ‘contemporary’ versions of Earth apart. Our introduction to the equation has clearly twisted that perception back towards community, but even we have individualism within our pony minds. Rev theorizes this came about after Luna’s Rebellion, but I think it has deeper roo-”
Vriska held up a hand. “Stop. Your philosophy is going over my head.”
“Oh, sorry. Just got a little excited there,” Nova blushed. “It’s just that we talk about such interesting stuff sometimes!”
“I can tell,” Vriska commented. “Asking the big questions, or something. It’s just that I kinda stopped asking the big questions a while ago, figured I was fine with me and that’s that.”
“That’s an individualist outlook on life, and as we have been discussing that is probably not the best philosophy, at least not on its own, there needs to be other - And right, sorry, you’re not listening.” Nova rubbed the back of her head.
“I think it's great that you’re talking about how everything is!” Pinkie cheered. “Makes for good discussion!”
“Hey, I’m curious,” Nova said. “I hang my life on the belief in fate and destiny, Vriska here is mostly for herself, what’re you for?”
Pinkie tapped her head. “Can’t tell you yet! Sorry!”
“Well that’s convenient for you.”
“Think of it as me leaning on knowing things. That’s not what it is at all, but the closest I can say. Though, going off of what you were saying earlier about not making certain things the only authority, I also love to see ponies smile!”
“Well that’s obvious.”
Pinkie grinned. “You bet! Renee, what about you?”
“I… Hrm. I suppose I believe in the community?” Renee mused. “I’m really not sure, I’m not big on hammering down an exact philosophy in life.”
“It’s definitely not for everyone,” Nova said. “It’s perfectly fine to follow the ideals of others. I mean, they could be wrong, but nopony’s really got it right.”
“Quite,” Renee admitted. Noticing Flutterfree walking in the front doors, she waved.
Flutterfree waved back with a warm smile. “Hey everyone! So, Pinkie, where are we going today?”
“Saxton Hale has discovered a bizarre dimensional connection on Esefem,” Pinkie declared. “He would normally investigate it himself, but today he’s going to hunt dinosaurs in the Hub jungles. He figured he’d extend the offer to us rather than just send his agents! Isn’t that nice of him?”
“The man doesn’t want to waste any money,” Renee pointed out. “If he’s not going to get a ‘manly’ experience out of something, he won’t pay more than he needs to.”
“Right. But we get to have an adventure, so who cares?” Pinkie pulled out her dimensional device. “Everyone ready?”
Vriska smirked. “Aw, you remembered this time!”
Pinkie winked, opening the portal to Esefem.
“What’s this place like, by the way?” Vriska asked.
“Boy are you in for a treat,” Nova answered. “It has to be seen to be believed.”
~~~
Esefem never changed much. Sure, the base that the Tau’ri installed in the universe had expanded, but other than that there were still Red and Blu fights, still pockets of complete and utter weirdness, and still copies upon copies. Nobody was any closer to figuring out respawn, nor the reasons this universe acted the way it did. Efforts to understand it had tapered off over the years as it became obvious they did not have the requisite interdimensional knowledge to really tear the place apart.
So the research mostly fell to Saxton Hale and his section of Mann Co. He was no closer to figuring it out than anyone else had been, but he occasionally found new weapons or new technologies, or a strange race that could be very useful to the other universes. It was a well known fact that the majority of the alternate versions of the ponies came from this world, from different ‘peaceful’ pockets and the like.
They hadn’t spent much time taking in the scenery – they were told the coordinates of the dimensional connection, and Nova teleported them to the place: a rocky outcropping in the middle of the desert, just like almost everywhere else on Esefem.
“So…” Pinkie said, leaning in to Vriska. “Verdict on Esefem?”
“I… have to admit,” Vriska said. “I have not been to a universe quite like this one in all my travels.” She blinked. “It’s interesting to find something completely new, to say the least. I mean, I’ve seen respawn before, and universes with duplicates, and universes with complete randomness… But nothing set up quite like this. And the memory thing…” She put a hand to her chin, pondering what it meant rather than saying anything.
Renee smirked. “Don’t know everything, do you?”
“Yeah I have no idea what this universe’s deal is,” she admitted. “That should concern you.”
Pinkie shrugged, moving on with the mission. “Flutterfree, activate Lolo!”
Flutterfree spread her wings, summoning the strands of Lolo into existence, the spirograph forming a halo around her head. As it activated fully, it revealed its own appearance to all four present who normally couldn’t see such things. The Stand felt around the area, drawing everyone’s attention to a point in the air that was now clearly a rippling point in the fabric of spacetime. “There it is,” Flutterfree said. “The signal.”
Nova lifted her hoof and checked the scans on her screen, her horn surging with the power from her ring. “Let’s see… Minimal temporal energy, and… Yeah, definitely weird. Most points like this on Esefem are one way – that is, they drag ponies in. This one is two way.”
“Safe?” Renee asked.
“The other side’s not quite normal, but I’m not reading anything lethal,” Nova answered. “Should be fine.”
“What are we waiting for?” Vriska blurted. “Open it up!”
“Waiting for you to get impatient, dear,” Renee smirked.
“…I just got burned.”
“It was a sweet burn too,” Pinkie added. “Nova, open it up!”
Nova cast a magical circle around the point in spacetime. The circle created seven claw constructs that tore into the ripple and forced a portal open. The other side was clearly a version of Ponyville.
Flutterfree blinked. “I just got the strangest feeling of déjà vu.”
“It’s a Ponyville, of course you did,” Vriska pointed out.
“It’s not that. It’s… The energy of this place. Something’s… Different about it. It’s not a bad feeling, but… I’m trying to remember…”
~~~
Do you know the answer?
~~~
The five of them were walking in the Ponyville on the other side of the portal.
Pinkie furrowed her brow. “Hrm… Something weird just happened…”
Vriska raised her eyebrow. “How so?”
“I… I’m not sure,” she said, concern evident on her face. “Call it the Pinkie Sense.”
Flutterfree held up a hoof. “I think we have other weird stuff to look at. Look at the people.”
Everyone looked around – Ponyville, despite being clearly built for ponies, was inhabited by Earth Vitis style humans. But they all seemed… flat. As if they were nothing but static images. The explorers could hear them talking to each other – but their mouths didn’t move, instead their entire bodies moved up and down with the words they spoke. When they walked, their legs didn’t move, although their limbs clearly could move, since they saw a version of Derpy pointing at something. In the distance, they could see Canterlot Castle – with a giant photorealistic human head floating next to it with a big smile on its face.
“What?” All five of them said at once.
Flutterfree frowned. “This… This is really familiar…” She felt something touch her hoof. She reached down, picking up a ball that was half red, half white, and had a single button in the middle. Pinkie poked her head toward it. “What’s that?”
“No idea. Just… found it at my hooves.”
Vriska pushed the button on it. The ball popped open in a flash of white light. In an instant, the ball was gone, replaced with a piece of paper that had “XDXDXDXDXDXDXD” written all over it with a strange, cartoonish face drawn in the background.
Renee blinked. “I say, is that one of those crude Internet meme things?”
“I… Think so,” Flutterfree said, raising an eyebrow. “What…?”
“Read the other side,” Pinkie said.
Flutterfree did as ordered, flipping the paper over. The other side was plain and only contained two words.
Free them.
Everyone stared at the words in silence.
“Well isn’t that vague,” Nova grunted. “Free who? From what? How many is ‘them’ referring to?”
“Whatever it is, it’s a quest,” Vriska said. “We’re just going to have to figure it out.”
“How much luck do you have stored up?” Renee asked.
“Not enough to slip through universal boundaries, but enough. We’ll find something, though I can’t exactly promise how quickly we will.”
“Talk to the locals time!” Pinkie declared. “Let’s see what this… place is all about.”
“It’s almost like everything is low resolution,” Nova observed.
“Acute observation,” a new, deep, frog-like and synthetic monotone voice greeted them. The voice came from what was apparently this world’s version of Fluttershy – whose appearance was exactly like that of Equis Vitis’ Fluttershy when she was a teenager. However, the appearance was still flat, just like all the other inhabitants of this Ponyville. She spoke by bouncing up and down, which was frankly rather disorienting up this close. “You look a lot more expressive than us.”
“Uh, yeah,” Nova said, realizing that they definitely weren’t flat, and apparently the universe they were in didn’t require flatness – otherwise they would have been slowly converting.
Pinkie grinned. “I’m Pinkie, that’s Nova, that’s Flutterfree, that’s Renee, and that’s Vriska! We’re interdimensional explorers!”
The Fluttershy walked up to Flutterfree. “You’re not here to tell me you’re here to save me from an ancient evil, are you?”
“Uh, no? I’m here to… ‘free them,’ though I have no idea what that means.”
“Great. It sounds like we will be going around the weird overly complicated train again,” Fluttershy said. Suddenly her voice changed to one that was clearly feminine, but still monotone. “You have an interesting name, I have to say.”
“Oh, I changed it so not to confuse other Fluttershys. …Why did your voice change?”
“That happens now, ever since the reboot.” As if on cue, a boot flew past Fluttershy’s head and hit Vriska in the face.
“BOOT TO THE HEAD!” Pinkie cheered.
Vriska blinked. “I feel like I’m missing an in-joke.”
Fluttershy continued focusing on Flutterfree. “Changing names sounds like it’d help. Because if last time is any indication, we’ll run into two or three other Fluttershys in a void with sausage rolls. I think I’ll go with… Aiskera.”
“Aiskera? Why?” Flutterfree asked.
“It sounds cool.”
“Respectable reason,” Vriska said, standing up and dusting herself off.
“Do you know of anyone who needs to be freed?” Renee asked Aiskera.
“All of us are trapped in this world we call home and this life we live.”
“I’ll take that as a no?”
“Sure.”
Pinkie appeared behind Aiskera. “So why not introduce us to some people around town?”
“We could go to Twilight’s,” Aiskera suggested, her voice switching once again to a different male monotone. “I – god dammit, why’s it changing so often today?”
“Convenience and establishment,” Pinkie said. “TO TWILIGHT’S!”
Aiskera led them through Ponyville. As they passed through the buildings, they realized that even the town and the scenery looked flat. It was like reality wasn’t all here. The humans went about their lives, every last one speaking with a monotone and having only limited body movement.
Vriska whispered to Pinkie. “Okay, I have never seen anything like this. I can’t even begin to imagine what the deal is with this place. I at least had ideas about Esefem.”
“It looks like a shoddy mish-mash of random images,” Nova commented, pointing at an orange walking around like it was some kind of animal. “I… I don’t even know at this point.”
A purple car ran through a nearby house, somehow managing to blow a hole through it and not topple the entire structure. This world’s version of Rarity was driving – though how she was even doing it without moving her arms and legs was anyone’s guess. The car passed on by behind them, and a giant basketball came from the sky and bounced back into nothingness. A standard skin-tone human ‘walked’ past them, cheese and windmills in his hands.
Renee blinked. “I… What?”
“This is only slightly weirder than Esefem’s complete randomness,” Flutterfree said. “Trust me, I know. …Maybe that’s why it feels familiar to me.”
Suddenly, this world’s version of Sweetie Belle was standing in front of Pinkie. Pinkie stared at her. “Uh… Hi.”
“Hi,” Sweetie Belle said with a deep voice that sounded like it was short on air, but just as monotone as everyone else.
“…Okay fine,” Pinkie reached into her mane and produced a hamburger. She threw it into the air.
“BURGER!” Sweetie called, running after the flying food with extreme speed and malice, like she was some kind of force of nature.
“Huh,” Nova said. “…Sweetie Burger. I think the League will like her.”
“Her name's Burgerbelle I’d be afraid of her, she destroyed a reaper once,” Aiskera said. “And-”
“HOLY SHIT!” Vriska shouted, jumping and hiding behind Aiskera. “W-w-who is that?” She pointed across the street.
Aiskera looked where she was pointing. “That’s Brad.”
“BULLSHIT! That’s Nicolas Cage!” The man she was pointing at appeared to be a standard type human with a strange smile, black outfit, and a face that was trying too hard.
“Uh… No, that’s Brad.”
“Well then it’s an alternate version of Nicolas. Oh, this always happens…” She started breathing heavily. “Every time I meet one of him… Every fucking time…”
The four ponies looked at each other in confusion.
“How do you not know who Nicholas Cage is!?” Vriska blurted. “You are closely intertwined with the culture of three Earths! Nicolas Cage is the best actor of all time, in any of them, hands down, and if you say otherwise I will gut you open on the spot with something creative.”
Pinkie blinked. “I mean, I know who he is, but the girls don’t really watch that many Earth movies.”
“I am making all of you watch every film this dream boat is in. You will understand.”
Renee raised an eyebrow. “I think you’re fixated.”
“S-shut up.” She looked over at Brad again. “I… I’m going over there.”
“Sure. Knock yourself out,” Aiskera said. “I’ll watch you flounder like a fish.”
Vriska took in a breath – showing nervousness to the ponies for the first time. She put on a smile and walked up to Brad. “Hey, Brad, I hear-”
Brad started screaming, did a triple backflip in midair, and ran away. A skull with a trumpet appeared in front of Vriska’s face and tooted.
“…What?” Vriska said. “Seriously, what? WHAT? WHAT THE HELL!?”
“Sometimes these things happen,” Aiskera said. “You are reacting far too much to it.”
“To what?”
This world’s version of Applejack passed by and said “appul”. A flat apple the size of a person fell from the sky and hit Vriska, crushing her in an instant. “Ow…” She muttered.
Pinkie chuckled. “That’s… Vriska, are you sure you have good luck right now?”
“I’m starting to think this universe is rigged.”
“Appul,” Applejack said. Another apple fell on Pinkie.
“Justice…” Vriska said.
The two apples walked away and did a dance off into the sunset.
“Is there an explanation for that?” Renee asked Aiskera.
“Those are appuls.”
“I can hear you misspelling it,” Nova muttered.
“Appuls are people. You eat apples. Right Appuljack?”
“Appul,” Appuljack said, summoning another appul from the sky, this time aimed at Nova. Nova used her magic to deflect it into the other two. It worked like a bowling ball and pins, quite literally bowling them over despite their round shape.
“Let’s just get to Twilight’s already…” Nova muttered.
Suddenly this world’s version of Pinkie Pie appeared. “IT’S TIME!”
~~~
Do you hear it?
~~~
The flat Pinkie Pie was wearing an outfit with a green hat, golden bowtie, and red-white candy cane. She stood behind a counter decorated with game-show colors, and the five interdimensional explorers were sitting behind contestant booths.
The flat Pinkie Pie continued speaking. “FOR PINKIE PIE’S SUPER duperamazingfantasticincrediblebrilliantgreatmarveloushilariousstupendousbreathtakingplotprogression QUIZ!” her voice was just as monotone as the others, but the high pitched tone gave off an air of excitement. “TODAY we have with us five contestants from another universe entirely! Introduce yourselves!”
“What in the-” Renee began.
Pinkie Pie the pony coughed. “Just introduce yourselves, girls.”
“Uh… Okay.” Renee cleared her throat. “I am Renee Jackson of Equestria, Equis Vitis. I’m a diplomat and explorer.”
“I’m Flutterfree Asquall, and I’m from the same place. I like animals and I’m a semi-vampire who explores and I help everyone I can find.”
“I’m Nova Glimmer. I explore and make sure time doesn’t explode. I don’t do time travel.”
“I’m Pinkie Pie, leader of this operation and party pony extraordinaire!”
“Vriska Serket. I’m a god of Light. How’s that for cool?”
“Most boring introduction I’ve ever heard,” the flat Pinkie declared. “You can call me Quizzy if you want! Now, FIRST QUESTION, what is Burgerbelle’s favorite food?”
Flutterfree ringed in first. “Hamburgers! Or just Burger.”
“If this is just gonna be a quiz on what we encountered…” Vriska muttered.
“I’m sorry, that’s wrong,” Quizzy declared. “She’s actually partial to leeks.”
Flutterfree blinked. “Uh…”
“NEXT QUESTION! What is Jotaro Kujo’s catchphrase?”
“How would you know that?” Renee asked.
“WRONG!” Quizzy said. “The answer is ‘Yare Yare Daze’. I would also have accepted the other translations, ‘Good Grief’ and ‘Gimme a Break’.”
“I knew that! I was asking you a question!” Renee said indignantly.
“So that’s what it means…” Nova mused.
Pinkie raised her eyebrow at Renee. “Do you really need to ask her that Renee?” She pointed at herself, and then at her counterpart. “Come on. She clearly knows things.”
“Oh. …Right. Never mind.” Renee folded her front hooves and huffed.
“NEXT QUESTION!” Quizzy declared. “How many stars are there in the night sky tonight?”
Pinkie rung in. “There are absolutely no stars in the sky tonight!”
“Correct! You win a telescope!”
“I’m not even going to try to wrap my head around that one,” Nova muttered.
“NEXT QUESTION! What is the number of-”
Vriska rang in before the question finished. “Nineteen.”
“Correct!”
Vriska rolled her eyes. “Why are we playing along with this again, Pinkie? I me-”
Quizzy continued. “You get to spin the Wheel of Brad!”
Vriska stood up tall with a grin on her face. “I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.”
The Wheel of Brad was a wheel with mostly different human faces on it, many of which were Nicolas Cage. Vriska spun the wheel, enticed by the result. The wheel turned… and turned…. And turned… Until it achieved liftoff and disappeared into nothing.
“Congratulations. You got Brad,” Quizzy declared.
Vriska blinked. “…I’ll take this as a victory.”
“NEXT QUESTION! What is Elysium?”
Nova rang in. “The human Greek concept of an afterlife for the chosen of the gods.”
“Correct! You win an all-expenses paid trip to space!”
“Sweet.”
“LAST QUESTION! Where is Aiskera the Fluttershy right now?”
Flutterfree looked around. “Huh… She isn’t here…”
“Correct!”
~~~
What is that song in your mind?
~~~
Twilight’s Laboratoribrarinasium.
26:92, February 31.
Twilight’s house was the Golden Oaks Library, just like it had been many years ago on Equis Vitis. Twilight herself looked like her teenage Earth Vitis counterpart, albeit just as flat as the others and wearing what appeared to be a black military hat for some reason.
“Oh! Visitors! Fluttershy, you should have told me you were bringing guests!”
Aiskera nodded. “I’m going by Aiskera for now.” Her voice was feminine again.
Nova blinked. “Okay, that was weird.”
Pinkie frowned. “There’s something more going on here than rapid changes of scenery. Did any of you hear something?”
“Like what?” Vriska asked.
“A… Song?” Pinkie hit herself in the head. “I feel like something’s slipping through the cracks. I don’t even know what I’m talking about anymore.”
Flutterfree decided to leave the contemplation of songs to the rest of her friends – she walked up to Twilight and introduced herself. “Hi, I am Flutterfree-”
Twilight’s eyes suddenly turned red and her body started shaking without her speaking.
“Uh…” Flutterfree gulped. “Girls, I think Lolo just activated something…”
“Everyone hit the deck!” Aiskera called.
Nova did the next best thing and teleported Twilight outside. The five explorers and Aiskera watched through the window as she transformed. With a powerful white light, the human body of Twilight Sparkle was gone, replaced with a gigantic black thing made of metal that resembled a bug with two claws. The large abdomen had Twilight’s cutie mark on it. The mark’s purple color really didn’t look like it belonged on the dark structure.
“Did she just turn into a spaceship?” Nova asked.
“Yes. A Reaper,” Aiskera said. “I forgot she could do that. I guess she forgot about it too, since the Reapers lost control of her. And were defeated.”
“You know what, I’m not even surprised anymore,” Vriska said. “For all we know this is what we were supposed to find.”
“I THINK IT WAS,” Twilight said. She spoke not with a monotone, but with a droning, deep ringing that wormed its ways into their minds. “AS I AM NOW, I DETECT A SIGNAL IN DEEP SPACE. I AM CALLED TO IT.”
“Finally, some direction,” Nova muttered. “Care to take us on board?”
“I DO NOT MIND AT ALL. I DO NOT EVEN FEEL A LITTLE EVIL NOW THAT I HAVE RETURNED TO THIS BODY. IT FEELS… NATURAL.”
Renee raised an eyebrow. “…Normally I’d feel concerned, but I’m with Vriska at this point. Let’s just go with it.”
Pinkie nodded. “I think that’s what we need to do anyway. Let’s go!”
“I SHALL CHOOSE A CREW. ALL OF YOU. AISKERA. APPULJACK. QUIZZY. BRAD. SWEETIE.”
“Sweetie?” Renee blurted. “Why?”
“BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT. IT IS NOW TIME FOR AN ABSOLUTELY BADASS TEAM SHOT.”
Suddenly they were in a dark metal room presumably inside Twilight. Appuljack, Quizzy, Brad, and Burgerbelle were also there, all in uniforms that said SPORK-COM on them.
“TODAY, WE FLY TO SPACE,” Twilight declared.
“To find out what we need to free,” Flutterfree said.
“I’m beginning to wonder if that was just a joke,” Nova commented.
“I don’t think it was. I think it meant something. Something very important…”
A human version of Vinyl appeared out of nowhere. “Hey, can I come along?”
Quizzy shook her entire body like it was about to explode. “No, you’re just too OP and badass.”
Vinyl vanished in a puff of logic.
~~~
Do you see that this isn’t meatspace?
~~~
Pinkie frowned, looking at the planet Twi-Reaper was showing them as the ‘source of the signal’. It looked just like someone had taken a stock photo of an apple and slapped it onto a starry background.
“Girls, something is wrong here. I have no idea what, but it’s something,” Pinkie declared. “Something is very off. Not with the people we are with – though Twilight the Reaper is a bit odd – but something else.”
Vriska nodded. “I keep getting a bad feeling as well. Like… We’re jumping.”
“You’re noticing that too?” Pinkie said, raising an eyebrow. “…I’m supposed to be the only one who notices that. Well, besides for the moment with the Quiz show… I think.”
Vriska frowned. “I don’t like what that suggests.”
“It may just be an effect of the universe we’re in.”
“Even if that’s true, that doesn’t make me feel any better,” Vriska said. “…Do you know the answer?”
“What?”
“Just something that’s stuck in my head for some reason…” Vriska said, furrowing her brow. “Twi-Reaper! Are we going down to the planet yet!”
“SURE THING.”
“Also, where’s Brad?”
“LEFT HIM AT THE CAKE-MART WE PASSED.”
“…Okay.” Vriska narrowed her eyes. “I remember that happening, but I’m sure I would have done something about that… reacted in some way…”
Everyone minus Brad and Twi-Reaper appeared on the surface of the apple-planet. Twi-Reaper herself transformed back into her flat human form, descending right next to them. “That was fun. I do have a leftover desire to assume control though…”
The planet they were on was made entirely out of apple skins: the mountains, the trees, the buildings. Everything was apples, including the people – every last one of them was an ‘appul’. An appul wearing a hat walked up to them. “No.” He said with a monotone voice that was probably meant to be much more intimidating than it was. “No, we do not want you here. This is the last appul safe haven. We had to flee here after the Great Appul War.”
“Wait, that actually happened?” Aiskera said. “I wasn’t all that clear on that.”
“It happened. We were defeated soundly. We had to flee to this planet to escape from the fighting.”
“I can’t remember how we defeated Chester the Cheetah… Huh…” Twi-Reaper said. “That’s weird.”
“Memory is the key,” Quizzy said, holding up a green crystal in the shape of the Greek letter epsilon.
“In the name of Elysium, I demand you to get off our planet,” the appul demanded. “Or we will have to use force.”
Vriska took on a fighting stance. “Bring it, fruit.”
The appul drew a gun from nowhere. “If you insist.”
Appuljack stood tall, glaring at the appul. “Appul.” She said. Another appul dropped from the sky, crushing the aggressive gun-wielding fruit. Appuljack pointed a hand at the appul settlement in the distance. “Appul appul appul appul appul appul appul.” Meteor-like appuls fell from the heavens, demolishing the entire settlement.
Appuljack folded her arms in pride. “They will never bother us again. We are freed from the insurrectionist appuls.”
“YOU CAN TALK!?” Nova blurted.
“She’s been talking the entire time, silly!” Quizzy and Pinkie said at the same time.
“I mean something other than ‘appul’.”
“Of course I can,” Appuljack said. “I just chose not to.”
“So… Was that it?” Flutterfree asked. “We… destroy a town of angry militaristic fruit…?”
Twi-Reaper frowned. “No. The signal is still strong. But now it isn’t here…”
“Something’s moving around,” Pinkie said.
Twi-Reaper turned back into her Reaper form. “LET US CHASE AFTER THE SIGNAL.”
~~~
What trap do you find yourself in?
~~~
“Trap,” Nova said, suddenly. “We’re in a trap.”
Pinkie blinked. “We are?”
“I’m sure of it.” She looked at the pattern of hyperspace as it flew by on Twi-Reaper’s monitor. “There’s a trap. A… There’s something. Things blend together in our memories… We’re being led around on a string… It wants us to keep chasing… It’s just… Agh, why can’t I remember?”
“Seriously, who has the answer?” Vriska asked. “There’s gotta be an answer here somewhere!”
Aiskera glanced between them all. “Well, I admit this is odd, but not as weird as some of the things we’ve run across. There was a Greggs in the middle of universal nothingness once, and I was eaten by a sausage roll. One of me, anyway.”
“These worlds…” Renee said. “These worlds – this one, and the ones like Esefem. They’re just too odd to be natural in any way. There just has to be some force behind them.”
“The Beat?” Nova asked. “Maybe…” She checked her screen. “Starbeat has given me a way to detect it if I want… But I’m scanning right now. It’s only a little higher than normal.”
“I don’t know what the Beat is, but there is a force behind our universe,” Aiskera said. “This is a world born from the struggles in a great war.”
Renee raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Do tell.”
“It’s a long and complicated story, but I’ll try. There were two beings – one called Overlord Faust, and the other Overlord Hasbro. They came from a world I don’t pretend to have any idea about, but through some method they worked together to create a universe filled with ponies, friendship, and magic.”
Everyone except Vriska was suddenly paying attention – this was the first time they’d had confirmation that universes could be created. The strange universe-construct that copied universes wasn’t a creator, just a copier. This was something new.
Aiskera continued. “But Hasbro wanted to do something new with the world, something involving less depth and more shoddy plastic so he could make money off of the world in some way. Faust abandoned the world after this, leaving it to Hasbro alone. Only the creations within the world could fight back – and fight back they did. Three mysterious strangers - the gods - came from seemingly nowhere and helped the creations fight Hasbro. The gods gained some control back, splitting the world into three separate universes. Each of the gods placed themselves into each world’s version of Fluttershy, as protectors in case they would be needed again.”
Renee nodded. “Is that why you know so much, dear?”
“I believe so. The War between Hasbro and the creations began anew when the three gods were reawakened, and the universes collapsed into one - the reboot. I think the War is still going on in the actual reboot universe. I’m not entirely sure how this world relates to this story, but I have the memories of all three Fluttershys, although I know I’m not a vessel for the gods anymore.” Aiskera looked into the distance. “Hasbro’s agents have occasionally infiltrated this world, and we’ve stopped them every time, but he hasn’t made a move in a while.”
“Maybe you just didn’t realize this time,” Nova said. “There’s something happening to us. Maybe his agent is a more subtle type?”
Aiskera nodded. “I… suppose that is possible.”
“I think I have it,” Vriska said. “This war that might still be going on in the other universe… You’re probably ‘trapped’ in the fight, and need to be ‘freed’ right?”
Aiskera paused for a moment. “That’s possible.”
Pinkie furrowed her brow. “So… Let’s assume that is what we’re here to do – stop this ‘war’ of kinds that may or may not actually be happening. To do that we’d need to find out where these ‘gods’ and Hasbro are. Find the war that has this world in its grasp.”
“Is there anyone who would have a connection to where it’s happening?” Renee asked. “We can try to trace it, since we’ve got dimensional scanners.”
“Aiskera, perhaps,” Vriska said. “She remembers; she might have a connection.”
Nova scanned Aiskera. “I’ve got nothing, sorry.”
“Can we find one of Hasbro’s agents?” Renee asked. “They must have a connection in them. Or at least some answers.”
“They’re all dead,” Appuljack said. “Well… Except maybe Sunset.”
“Then we need t-”
~~~
How close can you be and still fail?
~~~
They were suddenly adrift in space around a ‘planet’ that was literally just a tennis ball. Twi-Reaper was not in her Reaper form.
“WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?” Vriska shouted. “…How am I talking? How am I breathing?”
“I was just hacked, don’t you remember?” Twi-Reaper said, answering the first question but ignoring the more practical ones. “We have to defend ourselves! We’re being attacked!”
Thousands of horrendously bright colored ponies charged at them, looking nothing like the soft cute ponies that came from most Equises. They moved with even more rigid motions than the rest of the beings the travelers had seen in this universe.
“It happened. We were skipped,” Pinkie said. “And that definitely wasn't a natural one! We were trying to find this world’s Sunset and something stopped us!” She produced her party cannon and unleashed it, the power of the party pushing the badly colored ponies further away into space.
“What even are those?” Flutterfree asked, summoning Lolo to surround her and baring her sharp teeth.
“Chrysalis’ bad OCs…” Aiskera said. “But I have no idea why they’re attacking us. They are servants of Faust…”
“There’s something messing with us,” Nova declared. “Something has us in its grip. It… Well I would say it’s messing with time, but my readings aren’t showing anything!”
“It’s not messing with time,” Pinkie said. “It’s messing with all of reality. It’s fundamental.” She punched one of the bad OCs across the face and smashed another one with her hammer. “Think, everyone, think! What has been happening to us!? What’s the answer!?”
“Clearly, something has it out for us,” Renee declared, making use of zero-gravity to fire her magic crystals in complex patterns. “Something that’s… It’s putting thoughts subtly in our head, isn’t it? Without us noticing?”
“In the in-betweens…” Pinkie muttered, grinding her teeth. “Oh, that’s clever… Of course I wouldn’t see that…” She hefted her hammer, a plan forming in her mind. “Vriska. Take all the luck you can from these OCs. Go ahead and go for lethality.”
Vriska nodded, a slight smirk growing on her face. She glanced at every bad OC she could, absorbing their luck until they reached heart attack bad luck. They weren’t overly fast or clever, so they didn’t think of any way to avoid what she was doing. They fell like dominoes.
“Right!” Pinkie said. “Now… Now find us Sunset Shimmer.”
“Luck isn’t that specific,” Vriska commented. “I need a lead. Hey, Aiskera, where is Sunset?”
“Back at Equis!” she called.
“Right.”
Pinkie nodded, smiling. “Twi-Reaper, you should be unhacked. Turn back into your Reaper form and take us back to Equis. We can find her, and we ca-”
~~~
Where can you go in this me-
“GOTCHA!” Pinkie hollered, grabbing a hold of the Fourth. “Let’s take this somewhere else, shall we?”
What can you do to the Voice of Elysium?
~~~
They were all in absolute blackness. Twi-Reaper was still a Reaper, but the rest of them were just standing in the darkness. There wasn’t ground, but they could walk around anyway, somehow.
“What… is this place?” Renee asked.
“A void of some kind,” Aiskera said. “Last time I was in one of these it was Twilight’s Mind. But since there’s a giant Reaper here I kinda doubt it’s the same place. I do wonder if we can get a Greggs to appear though.”
A Greggs did appear. It was a modern restaurant building with a blue color and the scent of food coming from within.
Pinkie facehooved. “That’s not the point! The point is that my plan worked.”
“What plan?” Renee asked.
“I was trying to force our pursuer to act by cobbling together a plan with a lot of importance in my voice,” Pinkie declared. “I was ready for it to try to shift everything again. I stopped it – and now we’re here.”
“The Voice of Elysium…” Vriska said. “That’s what it’s called.”
“I know that too…” Flutterfree said.
“It’s here with us,” Nova said. “Physically.”
Aiskera narrowed her eyes. “The Voice of Elysium… One of my memories has Hasbro mentioning that name. He put it at the end of a list, like it was the creation he was most proud of. I had no idea what it was at the time.”
“We still have no idea,” Vriska blurted. “HEY! VOICE DUDE! SHOW YOURSELF!”
Quizzy stood up and twirled her cane. “Will the Voice of Elysium reveal itself? Vote now on your phones.”
Pinkie pulled out several dozen phones from nothing and pressed YES. Aiskera did as well, after she had gone into the Greggs and gotten a sausage roll.
Do you let yourselves see me?
The Voice of Elysium appeared in a starburst of fractal color. In the center of the seemingly endless plane of color, there were a few rings made up of a repeating pattern of the same animating image – a pixelated Fluttershy riding a skateboard with sunglasses on her face. The numerous rings of this animation rotated around a central hole, where a single large skateboard Fluttershy winked in and out of existence.
Quizzy’s jaw dropped. “No way. You were the Voice of Elysium this whole time?”
Vriska facepalmed. “We’ve never met this guy.”
“That’s what you think.”
Do you like my form?
“It doesn’t make any sense, and it’s way too colorful.” Nova deadpanned. “The resolution is also crap.”
Pinkie smirked. “So, Voice of Elysium. We have you right here where we want you. Nova! Grab the connection this thing has in it to the correct universe! I know it has it somewhere in it!”
Nova lit her horn and checked her scans. Her confident smile vanished. “Pinkie! It’s not working!”
Did you think you could do anything to me in my domain?
“Right…” Aiskera said. “Hasbro’s greatest creation would inherit some of his power.”
“The Voice of Elysium can control the way this reality functions!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Duh! AGH! Why didn’t I see that!?”
~~~
Can you hold a candle to the Voice of Elysium?
~~~
Vriska clenched her fist. “Do you ever speak in terms that aren’t questions?!”
What do you think?
Vriska looked around to see where they were – it was on fire, wherever it was. Probably some cheesy version of hell. “You know what, doesn’t matter. I never actually used that luck Pinkie asked me to accumulate.” She took out her dice. “Are you ready for this?”
The Voice of Elysium did not respond, but its presence was still very much visible through the flames of this universe. Vriska rolled her dice, spending all the luck she could muster – forcing the eight eight-sided dice to all roll eights. The highest possible roll.
Her outfit transformed to black-blue spined armor, and her entire body began to glow with a blue-white aura. “THIS IS THE POWER OF MINDFANG!” Vriska shouted, charging the Voice of Elysium and sticking her sword right into the pixelated Fluttershy at the center.
The Voice of Elysium didn’t shudder or otherwise react; even though Vriska knew her attack was capable of making even universe-guardians falter. She knew it had done something. ...It had to.
~~~
What can brute force do to a force of nature?
~~~
Suddenly everyone could see each other again, this time in a plane of ice. Several of them were singed, but all had survived through some method or another – it wasn’t important precisely how. Twi-Reaper was back in her human form with many scratches all over her body.
The Voice of Elysium was still before them, and the plane of ice was trying to devour them by slowly folding in half while a voice in the distance said ‘slam jam’.
“Brute force won’t do it!” Pinkie shouted. “What we need is another force! Something that could be considered unchangeable! Something that is just accepted and that the Voice can’t do anything against!”
Aiskera looked to Flutterfree. Flutterfree nodded.
“Pinkie!” They shouted. “HAMBURGER!”
Pinkie’s angry face was shocked into stunned silence. Then she laughed. “Of course!” She pulled a hamburger out of her mane.
Burgerbelle was still with them, despite having not done anything for as long as most of them could remember.
“Celestia, I love me a Chekov’s Gun,” Pinkie remarked. She threw the hamburger at the Voice of Elysium, some force catching it in the middle of its pixelated Fluttershy rings.
What is this?
“BURGER!” Burgerbelle yelled, charging at the Voice of Elysium. For whatever reason, the Voice could do nothing to stop the burger-crazed girl – her love of burgers was just one of the absolute facts of existence in this universe.
The Voice of Elysium put all of its focus on that one girl, trying desperately to overwrite a rule of life.
“I can’t get a signal still!” Nova declared.
“Who cares?” Pinkie shouted, activating her dimensional device. “Let’s get out of here!” She opened a portal to a new universe, finding a real vacuum of space – without air.
They were all ejected into the absolute space, but Nova was prepared. She surrounded them all in a bubble of magic, allowing them to continue breathing and remain together in the cold void. She teleported Burgerbelle and the hamburger to them as well. The girl cared not for the danger that they had just escaped, or the role she had just played in said escape. She just wanted to eat her hamburger.
The Voice of Elysium followed them through the portal, appearing as a fractal pattern even in the real space of a normal universe, the pixel animations in the center still rotating like before.
You thought escape would be able to save you?
“This wasn’t an escape,” Nova said, holding up the screen on her leg. “You can’t control all of reality here. Which means I’ve now got the coordinates of the universe you connect to.”
What will that do to-
Nova activated the portal inside the Voice of Elysium, tearing a hole right in its center. She threw the bubble that contained all of them through the opening, into a brand new world.
Here, the sun was eternally setting. The sky was completely orange, and the land was nothing but a seemingly infinite golden yellow field. It seemed as if the nature of the world was frozen.
Nova lost control of the magic bubble at this point and it popped, depositing all of them on the ground. The group stood up, dusted themselves off, and took a moment to look around.
They were in the middle of a battlefield all right, but it wasn’t at all what they were expecting.
On one side were hundreds of flat individuals – ranging from copies of people they had seen in the world they had just spent most of the last several hours, to numerous Reapers, appuls, potatoes, oranges, and even a few alternate versions of some characters. There were a couple floating heads, a handful of ponies, and a bizarre assortment of poor quality images.
Three individual Fluttershys stood at the front of the army of everything – a red, green, and blue one, with the blue one in the front wearing a gray hat that looked somewhat like a lampshade. There was a laptop in front of her.
On the other side of the battlefield there was only one individual – a blue square with the loose words Hasbro printed on it, and a strange “D” shape that might have been a mouth underneath it. He had a laptop as well.
“About time you got here,” the blue Fluttershy said.
“Zed Ex…?” Flutterfree said, remembering. “…You were the one who helped me on Esefem back then!”
“Yes. That was me.”
“Wait,” Hasbro said, his voice just as monotone as all the others – but significantly more sinister sounding. “When did you get the time to go away and help her?”
“The time you went away to summon your Grim Reaper,” Zed Ex declared.
“That doesn’t make any sense, you were hunting me down.”
“…Foreshadowing?”
“This level does not operate like that, Zed Ex Insanity.”
Pinkie laughed.
Hasbro turned to her. “Why do you laugh, otherworldly Pinkie? You think you know more than I do? Let me tell you something – you don’t. This is not the only world I have created, and it is not the only one with your kind. I have made dozens of universes with ponies, constantly deriving more and more worlds from them. Do you think you came from a void? From nowhere? No. You started out as an idea. My idea.”
Pinkie laughed again. “Wrong-O! Not only was it not really your idea, my universe has nothing to do with your sad little creations!”
“You can think that, Pinkie. But you will find eventually that you are wrong. You will discover what Creativity is. Or, rather, you would, if I did not plan to kill you right here, right now.”
Vriska, still in her full eight-eights form, smirked. “Now that I can see you, Hasbro, I can kill you. It won’t take much.”
“Why do you think the entire army on the other side of the divide has not attacked me with their overwhelming might?” Hasbro asked. “It is because these two laptops are running the universe you were just in. Where the rest of the creations remain. We cannot fight each other directly, for the moment we do the world we are fighting over dies. All it will take is either me or Zed Ex to push a button, and everything is deleted.”
“How on earth is that computer hooked up to the existence of another universe?” Nova blurted.
“It is not something you would, or can, understand,” Hasbro declared. “Now that you are here, you can only join the standoff with the other side. All your multivariable power will not be able to kill me – or even harm me – before I could destroy that entire universe. I don’t care what secret powers you have back where you come from, there is nothing you can do. I am an Overlord.”
“…You aren’t really here,” Aiskera said. “This is what remains of the original three universes. Your real form is in another world, the one where the Overlords dwell. Where you use us to make money.”
Zed Ex nodded. “Good observation, self.”
Hasbro laughed. “Then you realize that even if you kill this body, I can hold this world hostage from above! I created the Equestria Girls from another universe, I can create a new world from this one and discard it!”
“But you’re not,” Nova said. “It must be difficult for you to do that.” She rubbed the back of her head. “This… This is all a bit much for me to understand, but I think I do. You live in some world where you use the power of Creativity to create universes, and the creation of unique and interesting universes is part of the economy of your world. That… That sickens me, but I understand, I suppose. But it must take a lot of effort to make a universe, and you’d rather fight an intense battle with your creations than start from scratch. You want them imprisoned so they can bow to your will – to make sense.”
“The nonsense,” Vriska said. “The nonsense is what you want gone. But you can’t get rid of it.”
“Because we decided to intervene,” Zed Ex stated. “He had a pristine, horrendously boring world that would have been for nothing but selling toys and extending out overplayed high school drama.
Hasbro paused for a moment. “How does this help any of you do anything? You’ve comprehended the game of universes, good for you. But you still cannot do anything, not while a universe sits in these computers, just waiting to be destroyed by the push of a button. This cold war has to continue for eternity, otherworlders, and it must be fought by proxy. They have the numbers, but I have the power.”
“This is stupid!” Vriska shouted. “The moment either one of you wins the cold war, the other can just make it worthless with a push of a button!”
“So you actually have a brain,” Hasbro commented. “You are right. Complete victory on either side would be disastrous. If I achieve victory, they will not think it right to let the created live in what they’d view as a ‘hellhole’. If they achieve victory, I will pull the plug because the existence of a lost universe would be an embarrassment. So we are eternally stuck in this game of back and forth, editing reality in subtle ways to turn the world into something we desire. Tipping the balance from absurdity, to order. They think they are winning now.”
“We are winning,” Zed Ex said. “The possibilities within the world are nigh endless. There’s so much imagination, adventure, and life.”
“But you are not Overlords,” Hasbro declared. “You are but self-proclaimed gods sticking their noses where they do not belong. You do not have the Creativity to create your own, you only work from derivation. Plagiarism. My power far exceeds that of your own, it will only take time to achieve a ‘winning’ condition.”
“Are you going to go on about the copyright strike thing again? Did it really upset you that much?”
“That has nothing to do with this. This has to do with these newcomers to the war. They need to realize they cannot interfere, or an entire universe of creations will be lost.”
“...There has to be a way,” Pinkie declared. “We were asked to free them.”
“Free them?” Hasbro declared. “They are creations. They cannot be ‘freed’ as you understand it. They are limited by their creators, and in this case those gods who interfere. They may have freedom, in some shallow sense, but their nature is determined.”
“Sometimes your creations surprise you,” Pinkie asserted.
“That does not mean their nature is not determined.”
“Then explain how we just dragged all of these ‘creations’ to a purely physical universe,” Flutterfree demanded.
“...You did what?”
“My theory was correct,” Zed Ex said, suddenly. “The creations, the Equestria Girls, can exist in other universes apart from your created hierarchy with just the correct type of universal connection. I found Esefem a while back, by complete accident, but when I did I knew what it meant. A way out. So I prepared - I waited for these heroes to learn more about the multiverse, I waited for the creations to develop as people, and I waited for everything to be ready. I actually went to Esefem recently to leave a little something to encourage Saxton Hale to investigate at just the right moment.”
Hasbro shuddered. “You planned this!?”
“Yes. I also left them that vague hint you would realize nothing from. You thought it was impossible to free them. That turns out it’s not the case.” Zed Ex pushed a button on her laptop. “I have just initiated a comedic ‘vacuum’ routine over the entire universe contained within. Normally this would do nothing, but if an opening were to be created to the universe, everything in would be explosively released.”
“There is no way that would work!” Hasbro declared.
Pinkie Pie smirked and produced her dimensional device. She dialed the universe that sat in the computer. “It’s time to free them.” She opened the floodgates – and the vacuum command did exactly what it was supposed to do. Everything within the cosmos of the random, bizarre, and wacky universe was ejected into the sky in a brilliant splash of colors and brilliance. The entire universe was shot out of its virtual reality and into the next level of existence.
Hasbro was completely silent. He pressed the button to destroy the universe. It did what it was supposed to do – the portal stopped connecting to the universe that no longer existed – but nothing was destroyed with it. He had destroyed an empty world.
Zed Ex was suddenly pointing a sword at Hasbro. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this, mate.”
Hasbro created a gun out of nothing and shot his body, removing his consciousness from the universe.
“…Poor sport,” Zed Ex commented. He turned to the interdimensional travelers. “Well, you all took quite a long time to get here, but I guess it all worked out in the end. I’m not apologizing for manipulating you to get here. We’re all alive, you should be proud of that. I do have one other thing to ask you though.”
“What?” Pinkie asked.
“Can you take them out of this universe as well? It’ll take time for Hasbro to act from the level above this one, and they really don’t want to be here when he figures out how to send another agent like the Voice of Elysium here. If you do so, everyone here will be forever in your debt.”
Pinkie smiled. “Well, evacuating an entire universe might be difficult… But I’m sure we can do it! Just have to contact the rest of the universes, get some fleets here.”
A Reaper spoke from in the sky. “WE WOULD BE WILLING TO LEND OUR SPACE.”
“Wasn’t your race bent on galactic extermination and or conquest?” Twi-Reaper asked.
“YES. BUT SINCE THE STANDOFF WAR WITH HASBRO STARTED WE HAVE GROWN TO APPRECIATE THOSE WHO WE HAVE STOOD BY ALL THESE YEARS. ALSO YOUR FRIENDS WOULD PROBABLY DECLARE WAR ON US WITH YOUR INTERDIMENSIONAL TECHNOLOGY IF WE KEPT OUR OLD WAYS, AND THAT IS NOT SOMETHING WE WOULD WIN.”
“Huh. So we’ve got cruddy bouncing image Reapers now,” Pinkie commented. “Cool.”
“I’ve barely understood anything that’s happened today,” Renee admitted. “But… I guess we did something good?”
“Yes. We did,” Flutterfree asserted. “And I am looking forward to an in depth explanation from Zed Ex…”
Zed Ex forced her body to shrug. “You know, I don’t think I’m in the mood. We saved this world, our work is done. I could say something about ‘you’re not ready to know the answer’ but that’s stupid. I just don’t want to explain it to you. We leave our people with you.” Then both her and the other two gods vanished.
Aiskera spoke up. “Huh. I guess I’m all that remains of the gods now.”
Zed Ex appeared back for a split second. “And another thing. Why Aiskera? It’s literally meaningless. Why not just use your last name, Freeman. That’s different.”
“Sometimes you just need something to mean nothing but sound cool anyway,” Aiskera answered.
“...I’ve never been more proud of anyone in my life,” Zed Ex decided.
Nova lit her horn. “Oh no you don’t go vanishing again, we have-” Zed Ex was gone already. “...Damn.”
“We’re not getting any answers to our questions are we?” Renee asked.
“Probably not,” Aiskera said. “I think they and Hasbro were the only ones who could actually answer them. Sorry.”
Nova sighed. “It’s okay. I just don’t want to be the one to tell Eve we came across universal creation and still don’t understand it.”
Apparently nobody wanted to be the person to tell Eve about that, because silence fell across the land.
“Let’s just work on getting all of you out of here,” Pinkie said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Vriska put her hand to her head. “...I do have a question though. What happened to the Voice of Elysium? It didn’t follow us in to this universe…”
Nobody knew. Nova checked the universe they had left the Voice in, but it wasn’t there. They decided not to worry about it for now since they had a universe to evacuate - even if it was small compared to most other universes, it would still take significant effort to round up everyone.
~~~
“The Rune of Elysium just surged,” Lieshy said. “Make note of that in the experiment log when you get to it, Corona.”
“Gotcha,” Corona said.
They were in the Mushroom World – a place so long kept in the background, finally brought to the forefront. The world was a simple one – medieval, but with a more simple way of life. Everyone was happy, carefree, and the occasional bad guy was always beaten up by some hero or other at some point. The inhabitants of the world – mushroom people with red dots on their heads – were always welcoming to the interdimensional traveler, even if they really didn’t understand what was going on. They were a simple people with simple desires in a world filled with magic, fantasy, and eyes in many of the hills that seemed to serve no purpose.
It was a beautiful and mostly peaceful place, generally. Vivian had informed them of less hospitable locales, including a town she knew well called Rogueport, but that was far from the land they currently occupied.
Lady Rarity smiled – she currently had her helmet off, although the rest of her armor was still on tight. “I must say, this place is a nice break from all the interdimensional drama. A place that doesn’t really care that much about the other worlds but invites us to stay anyway. There should be more places like this.”
“I know, right?” Corona said, smirking. “Just a great place.”
“Eh, not always,” Vivian said. “My sisters used to be quite cruel. And my mother was basically Majora.”
“Dark things lurk,” Lieshy commented.
“Your sisters seemed fine to me,” Corona told Vivian. “Though Marilyn was of… few words.”
“They’ve come around,” Vivian admitted. “I will say it is nice to come back here. I should visit more often.”
“Definitely,” Corona said.
Toph shrugged. “I still don’t get what the big deal is.”
Corona rolled her eyes. “Party pooper.”
The conversation didn’t get any further – not that it needed to, really. A small woman – not a mushroom person – walked up to them. She had blue skin, pink hair, and an oddly square-shaped head. “Excuse me, are you General Toph and Company?”
Toph nodded. “That’s us.”
“I have a request.”
“Lady, we don’t just take requests from random people.”
“The Mushroom World, as much as it doesn’t like to admit it, has connections to other universes – one of which is where I hail from. I am Nastasia. And in return for telling you about a network of universes connected to this world, I want you to find some lost friends of mine.”
Corona blinked. “Lost?”
“Yes. If you want to know more, come with me.”
Toph directed herself toward Vivian. “You okay with this?”
“I’m definitely curious,” Vivian admitted.
Toph nodded. “Then lead the way, Miss Nastasia.”
Nastasia nodded. With only a slight bit of effort, she generated several black cubes around each of their bodies. The universe seemed to swirl around them – and then it was replaced with a completely different universe. They stood on top of a castle made entirely of black material floating in a milky white expanse.
“…Interesting portal device,” Corona commented. “How does it work?”
“It’s an innate ability to tap into the dimensional nature of reality,” Nastasia said. “There’s a city that exists in its own universe called Flipside, where the power is cultivated. You couldn’t really call it a multiversal society though – the people who live there were not the ones who built it, and definitely don’t know how to operate it.”
Corona took out a journal and started recording notes magically. “This is fascinating… Why haven’t you told anyone about this before?”
“I do not visit the Mushroom World that often, and you do not make a point of advertising your presence there,” Nastasia said. “But once I knew you existed I knew the next group who came would be the one I asked to help. We are currently on a structure called Castle Bleck, built around what I believe you would call a Nexus universe. Years ago, someone tried to destroy every universe connected to the Nexus, thinking it would wipe out the entire multiverse.”
Vivian gasped. “That’s horrible!”
“The Mushroom World was endangered as well. Do you remember the purple void in the sky, Vivian?”
“…Yeah. I do. I never knew what that was… I thought it might have been Mother.”
“It was not. It was this castle, eating away at reality,” Nastasia said. “When that evil was stopped and sealed away forever… Two very close friends vanished somewhere into the multiverse. Some thought they were dead, but we know they’re alive. Too many prophecies and visions to discount…” She led them to a room in the black castle that was all white. At the front of the room was a simple circular altar. “This is where they vanished. Do you… Do you think you can find them?”
Corona pulled her specialized dimensional device out. “Who were they?”
“Lady Timpani and Count Blumiere,” Nastasia said, standing back so the team could get to work on the altar. “I’m sure they’re happy together, wherever they are, but… I’d like to see them again.”
Corona activated her device, using its scan mode to search for dimensional instability and connections. “Definitely something here,” she said.
“What kind of thing?” Lady Rarity asked.
“Not sure… The readings are somewhat faint. Maybe I just need to dial it up to get an exact connection…” She smiled. “Well, that was easier than expected. I’ve got coordinates to another universe. …And hoo boy, is it going to take a lot of power to go that far. Not quite as far as Earth Tau’ri, but it’s out there.”
“Do you have the power?” Nastasia asked.
Corona lit her horn. “Come on guys, gather round. Let’s try to charge this up.” Vivian and Lady Rarity pushed their power into the device while Lieshy and Toph stood around close by, pretending to be useful.
Then the device had enough power.
But it did not act like it was supposed to.
Corona realized this slightly too late. She moved to hit the ABORT command –
- but by the time she hit it, they were already somewhere else. The five of them found themselves standing in a forest where no two trees looked quite the same – some were clearly Everfree Forest trees, while others seemed to come from the Mushroom World. The forest looked like an amalgamation of different trees and plants from all over.
“…What happened?” Toph asked.
“Something went wrong,” Corona said, setting her dimensional device to search to see if it could find a connection nearby. “We were dragged here.”
Vivian looked around. “Looks like Nastasia was far enough away not to get caught.”
Lieshy narrowed her eyes. “…Did she do this on purpose?”
“No,” Toph said. “Her heart was racing just as we left. She didn’t have this planned.”
“That could mean a lot of things,” Lieshy pointed out.
Vivian began to search around. “Nice place though. Are these the coordinates you entered, Corona?”
“Yes, I’m sure of that,” Corona said. “This forest is where that Count and Lady ended up. Or this universe, at least.”
Vivian poked her head into a bush. “Ew… There’s some old torn apart puppet in here…”
Lady Rarity levitated the puppet out of the bush – it was about the size of a human, made almost entirely out of sackcloth, and had clearly been there for a long, long time. It was so far advanced in rotting Lady Rarity was surprised it hadn’t disintegrated yet. “Ech… I think this thing has some sort of protection spell on it that wasn’t working quite properly…”
Toph frowned. “It’s making me uneasy,” Toph said. “Its face… It has metal teeth in it. Corona, please tell me you have good news.”
Corona smiled awkwardly. “I have bad news.”
“Do you have any good news?”
“Well, the portal device isn’t broken.”
Toph raised an eyebrow. “Fine. What’s the bad news?”
“Something’s preventing us from dialing out. I can’t even detect a connection. It’s like we went down a one-way street.”
Vivian blinked. “So we’re stuck here?”
“For the moment? Yeah.”
Toph rammed her foot into the ground and created a rock tent. “Welp, time to prepare for the long haul. We don’t know anything about this universe, but we’re going to be here for a while. Who’s ready to rough it?”
Lady Rarity sighed. “I’m not, but I can.”
Vivian put her hands to her mouth. “Do you think Nastasia will tell the others what happened?”
“We can’t bet on that,” Toph said. “Nor can we bet that they’ll be able to get us back if that connection really is one-way. Let’s assume we have to find a way back on our own. Corona?”
“I’ll work on it,” Corona said. “Sombra will probably tell them something even if Nastasia doesn’t. Rest of you, make a base or something. Find food. Make sure nothing’s poisonous, that sort of thing.”
Toph raised an eyebrow. “I’m the General here, Corona.”
Corona was no longer listening – she was trying to figure a way out.
~~~
CORONA FEED – DISCONNECTED
Sombra stared at the screen in disbelief – she’d never lost Corona’s signal before. She scrambled to get it back – but there was nothing. No sunglasses, no phone, not even a universal connection she could exploit.
She was gone.
Sombra sat back and let out a stressed sigh.
That was not a good sign…
~~~
Do you think I am gone?
Up next, we have a movie-length chapter. And, as of now, that chapter is my favorite chapter out of all of them I've written so far. Hope you enjoy come monday!
-GM, master of PREVIEWS.
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Forgot your spacing.
To.
Another movie length chapter? Hoo boy, time to prep for about 40k words again. We're goin' for a ride boys and gals.
Also Bioware was dragged into this now even if partially so it's canon. Even if it is a ripoff it's official imitation canon.
Edit: I'm now also watching Stargate SG1 from the beginning. May god help my eyes. Also, I noticed the word count after the edit. Talk about counting up the chapters.
Ah. I was right about the Mushroom World. Though the excursion to Flipside was unexpected. And now the Voice is up against a group that can't access the in-betweens. This will be extremely tricky...
Still, at least the other exploration group has gotten a glimpse of higher levels of reality. They may not have any answers to their questions, but they do know what questions to ask. I call that progress.
9008644
Interesting to note ^^ Now I wonder just how many more species will be involved in said school (if this does involve it, that is)
Something something ain't that a bitch.
I was worried you weren't actually going to show us the fabled Mushroom World. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that the Mushroom World was the Mushroom Kingdom, but for some reason I always imagined the Smurfs when it came up.
I immediately recognized Nastasia when she appeared. I absolutely called that Super Paper Mario was gonna show up. What I did not call was... Well, where ever Corona's team landed. Little Big Planet, maybe? From the sack puppet and the amalagamation of trees?
I don't even know what to say about the bulk of the chapter. Property of companies versus fan creations, maybe? I can't even begin to deconstruct what just transpired. The Voice seems interesting, if just for presentation.
This was a wild chapter, a lot of things didnt make much sense, but we manage, now twi-reaper was actually hilarious XD, but now do we have reaper and a couple of hundreds avance civilizations acknowledge now that we have the REAPERS as allys? that would be cool :D.
I'd like to point everyone here in the direction of a youtube fan creation series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJcVZ6x3TrA&list=PLKv_4uDE2RMH-pp53rqW23eWt93MsaoZA
it will provide the much needed context for this chapter, XD
Oh stars! I'm on board with Flipside and Nastasia! Shoot, Super Paper Mario in general!
9019152
I feel like my brain is leaking out of my ears from watching the first 5 episodes of that. Thanks.
... This is BurgurBelle? How the hell did she go from this state to learn words?
So this is where Burgerbelle came from
Again, are we thinking of the same reapers?
If so, did Twilight turn into Harbinger?
When I first came across this, I could not help but think along the lines of "Sorry, but your plot is in another castle" :-).
Would you believe I was expecting a pony to turn into a pokemon at this point / be swallowed up by a ball? Or worse, find that they had to free a bunch of "pony-mon"'s from "trainers"?
Yea, didn't happen.
Should have given one to Jenny of the Red Gloves, and her wimpy employer at the U. of D. :-)
(I know, you didn't have someone named "Frank".)
Meanwhile, I did not understand anything from the time "Twilight" turned into a reaper until the battle of Faust vs Hasbro. At least that part of creator vs financer made some sense.
I think I got as far as world 6 in Super Paper Mario. Not really sure why I didn't go back and finish, still have the disk and save ...
Also, is this where one of the arc 1 villains came from?
Nastasia. Years of nostalgia just exploded into my face. I loved Super Paper Mario.
This story reads at first like an insane crackfic crossover boredom project and then you slam us with some legendary foreshadowing and follow through. Additionally, I'm impressed by your ability to juggle so many complex characters and narratives without losing the reader.
9019152
I just watched almost all of it, god my brain just cannot comprehend this.
Huh...so that's a longer look into the world that Burgerbelle is from. What a whimsical, silly, and fun trip.
9019152
1) This...actually explains a lot, really.
2) This is fking glorious and I don't know how I did not know about it before. Thank you for sharing.