061 - Nevermore
Granny Smith lived to the grand age of 199.
Despite her immense tenacity and earth pony determination, her time came, just like it came for everypony else.
She was essentially the founder of Ponyville, as almost everyone in the now-city knew. She saw it rise from a simple farm, to a close-knit community, to the immense crescent-shaped megacity that served as Equis Vitis’ springboard to the multiverse.
There had been a public service a few days prior that everyone in the city had been invited to. Luna had even given a speech, relating a story she had heard from Celestia about an ‘apple farmer with the strongest spirit I’d ever seen’. Eve said some things as well. Iroh even had a few words to say from his relatively short time knowing her, as did many members of the Apple family. Applejack, Big Mac, Applebloom, and the handful of Granny Smith’s own kids that were still alive did as well.
Big Mac didn’t say much, but to him, she was his foundation.
To Applejack, she was the one who taught her to be how she was.
To Applebloom, she was the only mother she had ever known.
But the time for speeches and publicity was over. Now it was just the private service. Words were spoken, but in hushed tones. The tears flowed freely without the prying eyes of the public. They were remembering Granny Smith themselves instead of helping others remember who she was.
The scene was her grave. One of many in the Apple Family graveyard. She was placed next to her mother and father, and no small number of her kids. The mare had lived an exceptionally long time – long enough to outlive many she shouldn’t have.
There were no more speeches to be had. Just tears and commiseration.
Eve, Renee, Flutterfree, Pinkie, Nova, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash huddled together on one end of the gathering, talking amongst themselves. They hadn’t all been together like this in a while. Elsewhere, Iroh was watching Applejack’s kids – as well as Rainbow Dash’s newborn. Corea was young… But she was old enough to feel pain. Old enough to remember.
Elsewhere Big Mac stood with his kids; Allure, Scootaloo, and Applebloom finding solace and remembrance in helping one of them with a cutie mark problem. And then the rest of the huge Apple family… Luna…
Corona wondered, not for the first time, why she was here. She hadn’t really known Granny Smith… She’d known the Earth Vitis version, yes, but humans didn’t live as long as ponies… Earth Vitis’s had left the land of the living what seemed like an eternity ago. She really didn’t know this one. And that angered her. It wasn’t the only thing that angered her – a lot of things swam around her head, driving her mad – but it was a big one.
She leaned against a fencepost, hiding behind her sunglasses. She had cried just like everyone else earlier, but she didn’t really feel like it was genuine. She was probably just empathizing, wasn’t she? Showing sorrow by reflex...
Response to another tragedy. This was no Bloodbath. There was no enemy to get angry at. Just another reminder that the world was cold, cruel, and uncaring. That it was pointless.
Pointless.
She hadn’t really thought existence was pointless in a while… Not consciously anyway. But had she ever really convinced herself it wasn’t? She didn’t know. She avoided thinking about these things lately.
Which was to say all the time.
Corona sighed, adjusting her sunglasses. She was just sitting here, alone, driving herself into the depths of depression again. With a flash of her horn she teleported… elsewhere. Not her home, that was on Lai. She was on a street in Ponyville, walking.
It was raining. It hadn’t been raining at the graveyard. Was she supposed to thank the pegasi or the Everfree for that? She didn’t know. She really didn’t care.
She just walked.
It occurred to her that there seemed to be a habit of just walking in seemingly random directions when you didn’t want to think. Why was that? If you had no goal, all you could do was think. Walking wasn’t a very good distraction.
Maybe it wasn’t supposed to be?
But what would she even think about? How all the struggles mean jack diddly nothing in the end? Sure, Granny Smith basically founded Ponyville and left behind a huge family, and she died surrounded by loved ones. But now that she was gone, how long would it take for the memory of her to fade to nothing? A few generations, ah, but Eve and numerous others were immortal, and Ponyville itself stood as a testament to her. But even they would die eventually, and Merodi Universalis would be forgotten… What would happen then? Future societies would find mysterious ancient constructs and have no idea what they meant.
How many of the ancient technologies had stories like that behind them? Millions upon millions of people in a society being part of making something, only for them to vanish and the purpose of the thing to get lost to time.
Another part of Corona reminded her that there was the now. All of it meant something now. There was great happiness and contentment everywhere. Hunger was basically a non-issue. There weren’t any full-scale wars happening within Merodi Universalis. Ponyville would remember Granny Smith now.
But how small was that against the expanse of everything? A single city in a multiverse of unimaginable size? Even the greatest of civilizations eventually fell. Always… Always…
She hung her head. She hadn’t even known Granny Smith that well. What was going on with her? Why did she do this to herself every time? I’d been doing better! Darnit! Darnit darnit darnit!
Corona felt a hoof on her shoulder. She didn’t jump, merely turning her head. “…Eve?”
“I saw you leave,” Eve said, a sad smile on her face. “I’m sorry. I should have called you over and not let you stand there alone. It was inconsiderate of me.”
“You seven needed your moment.”
“You’re a part of us, Corona, regardless of what you say.” Eve frowned. “We… We haven’t done much together in a long time, you and I.”
“Our paths took us different directions. And I needed space recently.”
“Do you still need space?”
Corona thought back to the few weeks she had spent with Olivia while she laid low. “…No. I don’t think so. Space… only goes so far.”
Eve nodded. “I wasn’t sure.”
“We haven’t really hung out much at all, have we?”
Eve shook her head. “I’m always busy.”
“I’m always locked away.”
The two stared at each other for a moment.
“We should do something,” Eve said, suddenly.
“…Today?”
“Why not today?” Eve asked.
“Because… you know.”
“Granny Smith would not have wanted us to avoid doing something together on her account. I’d think she’d be happy to know we’re talking to each other right now.”
Corona forced a smile. “Yeah that… sounds right.”
“Well… We’re in Ponyville. There’s so much to do around here.” She looked up at the sky. “A bit wet right now, though.”
Corona looked around. “…Yeah, not here. Not here…”
Eve pulled out her dimensional device. “Then… how about somewhere completely random?”
“Throw ourselves to ka?”
“I guess?” She turned a few dials until she found a set of coordinates she didn’t recognize that read ‘safe’. “What about this random place?”
Corona wanted to say no. Corona wanted to say yes. Corona didn’t know what she wanted.
She decided she’d just go with what Eve clearly wanted to do. “…Sure.”
Eve opened a portal and the two of them trotted in, leaving the dour atmosphere of Ponyville behind.
~~~
The world was a forest. It was not the Forest World – that place was decidedly greener and livelier. This world had a constant overcast sky and trees that looked like they were struggling to produce green leaves.
It was not raining though, and Eve decided that was enough. “Well, here we are. Random forest number seven million and five.”
Corona adjusted her sunglasses. “We only know of a few million worlds.”
“Yes. And most of them have forests.”
Corona looked like she wanted to argue, but she just sighed and backed down. Eve didn’t push the topic any further.
“Let’s look for a river,” Eve suggested. “Wildlife is drawn to sources of water in most worlds. Except that one where it was reverse and water was toxic. That was fun.”
Corona made a ‘mhm’ noise, walking up to one of the trees and plucking off a leaf. It was a sickly green, the color of a leaf not quite living up to its potential. She saw herself in that leaf. In all these leaves.
Eve glanced behind her. “Corona… You coming?”
“Huh? Right, yeah. I was just examining the leaves. They all look… sickly.”
Eve nodded slowly. “Yeah… Either something’s draining at them, this isn’t their environment, or they’re actually perfectly healthy and this is just how trees are here.”
“There’s a high magic content.”
“Mostly ambient, not concentrated. And I don’t feel like the life is being sucked out of me. …Well, not because of the magic here, anyway.”
Corona shook her head. “Eve… You’re not okay.”
“Nope, definitely not. But I will be. You will be too.”
“…Right.”
Eve looked around, trying to think of something. “You know if we don’t find anything interesting, we could try roughing it. I’ve got the day off. We could live off the land for a day…”
“Have you seen any fruit? Or even animals to hunt?”
Eve conjured a peach and tossed it to Corona. Corona threw it behind her. “That’s not living off the land.”
Eve raised an eyebrow. She cut the peach in half, planted the seed in the ground, and grew the world’s smallest peach tree. It produced four tiny peaches in a few seconds.
“…Well I haven’t figured out how to make them full size yet,” Eve muttered. “Suppose this is why we need earth ponies.” She plucked the four fruits and gave two to Corona.
Corona bit down on one. She realized they still had pits. She spat it out and rubbed her jaw. “Ow…”
“Right… A peach probably wasn’t the best selection, was it?”
“Um… No.”
“What else… Bananas? I could try bananas. Miniature bananas would be fun to peel. I cou-“
“Eve, you’re bouncing off the walls,” Corona pointed out. “Calm down.”
“I am calm! I’m having a great time!”
“No, you’re not. You’re stuck in ‘I have to be cheery for Corona’s sake’ mode.”
Eve sighed. “I’m not trying to beat you down with being happy, Corona. I’m just trying to occupy us for a little while. Okay?”
“Yeah. I got that.”
Eve shook her head. “I’m… not sure you do.”
“Right. Fine.”
“Corona…”
“Eve, you don’t need to worry.”
“That’s like me telling you not to worry.” Eve raised an eyebrow. “I see you looking at me in concern.”
Corona stopped short. “…Yeah…”
“Corona, what happened to you?” Eve asked. “Where’s… Where’s that spark? I’d understand if you didn’t want to keep adventuring – it was frankly a silly and badly-timed idea anyway – but you’ve always stuck up for yourself.”
“I’m just not in the mood, I guess?” Corona said. “I don’t know. You should know that this isn’t just something you can pull yourself out of.”
Eve nodded. “That’s… true. But it’s not like you’re powerless.”
“That’s kind of the root of the whole thing,” Corona admitted.
“…How so?”
Corona shook her head. “Eve, now is not the time. I think you know that.”
“Corona, I think I know when the times are right. I be-“
Corona held up a hoof, ears alert. “Noise. My left. Crunching branch.”
Eve spread her wings and sent out a magical ping. She pointed. “There.”
The two ponies turned to see a unicorn and a human – friendly faces, rather than antagonistic.
“Eve?” Josuke Higashikata said, surprised. “What’re you doing here?”
“Yeah,” Sunny said, cocking her head. “I thought…”
“Chose a world at random,” Eve said, turning to Sunny and Josuke. “Is this one of the worlds you’re surveying, then?”
“Yeah,” Sunny declared. “Currently we’re trying to figure out what’s making the trees all sickly. They were pretty vibrant until a few days ago. When we figure that out we can approve settlement here.”
Eve smiled. “Good. I apologize if we’re in your way.”
“Oh not at all! We were just out exploring a little. Going for the edge of the forest. It’s a big one.”
“I swear it’s bigger than yesterday,” Josuke commented.
“We have no way of confirming that for certain,” Sunny pointed out. “Anyway, we can put our work on hold, there’s no rush. Hello! Corona, right?”
Corona nodded, shaking hooves with her counterpart.
“Sunny. The Evermore explorer. Do you… know about us?”
“Vaguely,” Corona admitted. “Can travel under your own power and are very old right?”
“Uh… That is one way of putting it!”
“Basically Vriska,” Josuke added.
“I’m not Vriska. And neither is she an Evermore.”
“Not much of a difference,” Josuke said. In the background a tree exploded and re-assembled itself from Crazy Diamond’s punch of boredom.
“Enough of one,” Eve declared. “It’s like the difference between warp and hyperspace drives. They can accomplish the same goal, but they go about it different ways.”
“Except Evermore are a bit more unique and come from only one place,” Sunny added.
“You show me someone else who travels the multiverse using luck,” Josuke pointed out.
Sunny scrunched up her muzzle. “I’m sure there is one but I can’t think of it right now.”
Josuke took a prideful pose. For anyone not from Earth Stand, the pose looked absolutely ridiculous. Eve chuckled.
“How’s the rest of your team?” Eve asked.
“Doing well. Beam’s building robots, as usual, and Sunburst is…” Sunny pondered this for a moment. “I want to say he’s still reading The Brothers Karamazov, but he might have finished it by now.”
“Deep reading, I see.”
“You read it?”
Eve laughed nervously. “I… read a summary.”
Sunny gasped. “You!? Read a summary!?”
“Hey, I had to figure out the basics of human culture and never actually got around to reading the full monstrous thing. Quite busy, you know.”
“Yeah, I guess I can understand that, promotion and all.” She glanced behind Eve at Corona. She walked up to her counterpart. “Hey.”
“Hm?”
“We’ve never met properly. You’re the ‘core’ Sunset around here. Can’t believe I never sought you out.”
“Oh, it’s… fine.”
Sunny shook her hoof. “Take it from me – it does get better.”
Corona blinked. “Hm?”
“Whatever you’re going through. It’ll get better. Take it from someone who is you.”
Corona was struck by this. She didn’t respond – and Sunny knew that meant she needed time to think. Sunny winked at her and pulled back. “Josuke! By chance did your punch reveal anything about that tree?”
“It felt like a tree,” Josuke pointed out.
“It’s… Greener,” Eve said, raising an eyebrow. “The rest of the trees are decidedly less vibrant.”
“They are getting worse,” Sunny decreed. “Quickly, too…” She narrowed her eyes. “Are there less leaves than there were when we started talking?”
Eve narrowed her eyes. “Maybe…”
Sunny padded at the ground as well. “The soil seems dead, too. This sort of ground couldn’t grow anything new.”
Eve tried to grow another peach tree – but this time it just sputtered and died in a curl of brown crusts. She blinked. “That worked a few minutes ago.”
“Strange…” Sunny said, looking around. “Seems darker, too.”
“Just fog,” Josuke said, gesturing at the loose mist around them.
Sunny froze.
“What, too spooky for you?” Josuke ribbed.
“No, that’s not it at all,” Sunny said, a hoof to her head. “This… This forest is transforming before our eyes.” The moment she said it, the leaves on the trees aside from the one Josuke ‘fixed’ started vanishing into thin air. The dried corpse of the failed peach tree dissolved into nothing.
Eve pointed to Josuke. “Repair as large an area as you can!”
“CRAZY DIAMOND!” Josuke roared, jumping into the air. “DORAAAAAAAAA!” The fist of his Stand hit the ground with immense force, creating a small crater and upsetting the root systems of several trees. Now that he had a connection to all the objects, Josuke used Crazy Diamond to revert them to a better state of health, creating a small vaguely circular area with green trees and healthy soil.
Eve teleported everyone into it. The repairs had not stopped the fog from rolling in, and the rest of the forest still transformed before their eyes. Soon, all the trees were completely dead, losing the brown coloration of their wood and reverting to monochrome shadows of what they once were. The light level continued to drop, the clouds thickening until it was impossible to determine where the sun even was.
“Josuke, keep healing these trees,” Eve said. “I can see them starting to lose leaves.”
Josuke nodded, setting to work on the trees.
Sunny shook her head – coming out of her shock. “We need to get out of here – something here has to have connected to my Evermore nature to create… this.”
Eve nodded, summoning Seraphim. She forced a path through to Equis Vitis… but couldn’t connect. She poured extra magic, which should have been enough to break through a standard dimensional scrambler, but even that didn’t work.
“We’re stuck,” Eve declared.
Sunny bit her lip. “I was afraid of that…”
“What’s happening?” Corona asked, speaking for the first time in a long while.
“…The Evermore come from a place called the Recursions, a set of universes all related to a realm known as the Silent Forest.” She gestured to the dead trees outside – or what everyone had been certain was dead. Unnatural, black buds had begun to form on the branches. The fog was only thickening, making it more and more difficult to see for any significant distance. “The Silent Forest pulled individuals from across the multiverse and transformed them into Evermore.”
“Like the Nexus?” Corona asked.
“Yes. Really close to that, actually. People were sucked in, but people could never leave. And this Forest was the cause of it all.” She shook her head. “Something has to be tapping into my power and summoning this place from my memory. Somehow.”
Eve lit her horn and closed her eyes, looking at the universe through Seraphim’s senses. She used her power as a true alicorn to connect with the magical aura of the world, feeling for dimensional anomalies. She quickly reached a conclusion.
“It’s the planet itself,” Eve said. “All of it is brimming with the power.”
“The entire planet!?” Sunny blurted. “That’s… actually not that surprising. It was abandoned, so it had a fully natural appearance before. When I arrived it latched onto me… And when I started realizing what was happening the memories were easier to access…” Sunny put a hoof to her chin. “The question is how do we stop it?”
Corona lit her hoof on fire. “Burn it all down?”
“We could try destruction,” Eve admitted. “Does this planet have a moon?”
“Yes,” Sunny said.
“I could use that,” Eve said, frowning. “I’d rather not blow up a moon I know nothing about though. I could attempt to sever its mental connection to you, but that’d involve me going into your head.”
“I’d rather not run the risk of losing my memories, thank you.”
“Then destruction,” Josuke said. “Ram the moon into this silent rock.”
Sunny pondered this idea. “It would probably work… But Eve is right, we don’t know about the moon, or apparently much about this planet…” She closed her eyes and focused, extending her Evermore powers. “I can’t feel any universes, it hasn’t generated any of the others.”
“It is just a planet,” Eve pointed out. “It probably can’t generate entire universes for you.”
Sunny’s face lit up. “…Did I ever tell any of you what Evermore could do inside the Recursions?”
“Uh… No?” Corona said.
Josuke’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious.”
“Yes, I can,” Sunny said, smirking. “When Evermore were within the Recursions, they had the ability to create whole new universes. Most often completely unintentionally, but there were a few cases where it was done with intent.” She stood strong, horn alit. “Let’s see how this planet handles something it can’t do.”
Sunny surrounded herself in a ring of fire and pushed. She felt the folds of reality give way, preparing for the birth of a new universe…
And then the entire program crashed. The trees all turned bright blue and a comedic computer error sound effect met all their ears. Eve looked at all their faces. “…That must have made a really odd sound.”
“No kiddi-“ Josuke began, but before he could finish all of the blue trees and ground vanished. The four of them fell about four meters to a perfectly smooth, metallic floor beneath them. The actual planet.
Sunny rubbed the back of her head. “Ugh… Gun, am I glad there’s still oxygen.” She pulled out a phone, noticing interdimensional service. “Yep. We’re good.” She sent a quick message to the rest of her team telling them to check in. They responded quickly, with a lot of questions. She said she’d explain later and put the phone away. “Well, this place clearly isn’t good for settling.”
Corona absent-mindedly tapped the metal ground they were standing on. “Another ancient device…”
“A world based on the mind of a user,” Eve said. “Wonder if this was used for recreation… or torment.”
“Probably depends on the setting,” Sunny said. She moved on to explain something else, but Corona didn’t catch it.
I didn’t do anything, Corona thought to herself. Nothing at all.
“…anyway,” Eve said, having taken control of the conversation. “We should probably head back. And th-“
A dark red magic circle appeared on the ground a few meters away from the group. It flashed black, creating an oily black surface within. Out of this surface rose a bunch of tentacles, gnashing limbs, and other shapes that made no sense.
To their surprise, the eldritch horror coalesced into a pony – a unicorn. Clearly an adult version of Sweetie Belle, but with black and red eyes, a mane that flowed with magic, and Thrackerzod’s elder sign cutie mark.
“T-Thrackerzod!?” Sunny blurted.
Eve blinked. “That’s not Thracke- Oooooh, it’s an alternate of her. Right.”
“The Evermore version,” Sunny said, walking up to the unicorn. “It’s… been a while.”
Thrackerzod spoke with a voice that was identical to the smaller white unicorn the Merodi knew. “Truer words have been spoken, but bringing those up right now would be foolish.”
Sunny chuckled. “Same ol’ Zod, huh?”
“Perhaps to you. Have you by chance found my frying pan in your journeys?”
“Nope. We hardly run into any Evermore stuff at all. Like… at all. We’ve actually settled down, if you can believe that. In…” She took a breath. “AA-AA-AAPLEOOSA.”
“Amusing,” Thrackerzod deadpanned.
“How did you get here?”
“I felt the Silent Forest for the first time in centuries. I came instantly.”
Sunny nodded, turning to her other friends. “Well, everyone, this is Evermore Thrackerzod, one of the best eldritch buddies out there. She did a lot to help everyone back in the day. She’s also really good at summoning everything you can think of. Thrackerzod, this is Evening Sparkle, Corona Shimmer and Josuke Higashikata. Josuke’s part of my team and likes to punch things to fix them, Eve’s the face of the interdimensional society Merodi Universalis, and Corona’s the ‘core’ Sunset of this region.”
Thrackerzod turned to Sunny and raised an incredulous eyebrow. “You got yourselves mixed up in a multiversal society?”
“Yep! It’s their Appleoosa we’re staying in, after all.”
Thrackerzod grunted. “Interdimensional society is a stupid idea that only results in questions that can’t be answered and destruction on unparalleled scales.”
“Thrackerzod!” Sunny scolded.
Eve held up a hoof. “It’s fine, Sunny. She can have her opinion. I’ve met more than my fair share of detractors. They’re fine people.”
“Unless they’re Stars,” Josuke said.
“I still hold to my belief that there are good Stars out there and we just don’t get to see them all that much.”
“Stars are exceptionally clueless for a fallen society,” Thrackerzod observed. “Intentions don’t matter all that much.” She turned to Sunny. “…I would like to see Jane.”
Sunny nodded. “Right, of course. Ahem, Josuke! You wrap up things here with the team. I’ve got to take an old friend home.” She turned to Eve. “I know you’re interested to hear stories from another section of the multiverse.”
Eve nodded excitedly.
“Well you can come along. It’ll be good for Thrackerzod to get to know you better anyway.”
Eve smiled. “To your house, or her dojo?”
“House first, though I’m not exactly sure what time it is there.”
Eve summoned Seraphim, working out the exact combination of her Stand’s powers and long-range teleportation she needed to get to that part of Appleoosa…
Corona knew she was getting dragged along as well. She normally would have been fine with this, but…
She got the distinct feeling Eve had forgotten she was there. That all of them had forgotten she was there. She was just some fly on the wall, or a piece of luggage they dragged around.
Eve lit her horn, dragging Corona, Sunny, and Thrackerzod out of the universe. Josuke cracked his knuckles and started running for the rest of his team to ‘wrap up’ what they were doing here.
The ancient planet of dreams sat, dormant once again. It would be some time before it would be able to fix itself and start generating even a normal planet again, much less one determined by a mind. Its program had been royally screwed on a truly fundamental level.
~~~
Jane wrapped up work for the day with a bunch of dazed students on the floor of her dojo.
She smiled warmly. “Same time tomorrow, everyone!” Only a few of them had enough of their wits about them to nod in confirmation.
They’d all be fine tomorrow – Jane had made sure of that. A little sore, perhaps, but she knew most of them well enough to know a little soreness wouldn’t stop their burning desire to train.
She hung out around the dojo’s doors, waiting for all of them to stumble out. She locked the doors and activated her Evermore power - singing, and then traveling from the Hub to Equis Vitis. It was a short walk to a teleporter to get to her real home...
Appleoosa. Or, if you were anyone within hearing range of Braeburn, AA-AA-AAPPLEOOSA! It was a town in the middle of the desert, still pony dominated even in this age of multiversal society. Most areas still looked like they had come right out of a Western of some sort, including the street Jane’s home was on – dirt road, a cactus growing on the other side of the street, and a saloon brimming with loud customers nearby.
She liked the aesthetic.
She started to head home, but she only made it two steps. With a flash of dimensional energy Eve, Sunny, Thrackerzod, and Corona appeared.
“Hey Jane! Look who I found!” Sunny called, gesturing to the eldritch unicorn.
Jane’s smile widened. “Zod? Wow, I wasn’t expecting this.”
“Neither was I,” Thrackerzod admitted. “It is good to see you, Jane.”
“So what have you been doing all these years?”
“Exploring. Defending. Searching. Probably the same things you were doing. Aside from settling down in a multiversal society. Really Jane?”
Jane chuckled. “Well… You know, we didn’t feel like we had to hide anything here, and we have access to a lot of the things we grew accustomed to while sliding, y’know?”
“I do know. I also know how badly these things crash and burn. You do as well.”
“Um… Excuse me?” Eve said, raising a hoof. “Charter-Princess here. What’s all this about multiversal societies crashing and burning?”
Jane rubbed the back of her head. “Everything ends, Eve. When societies like yours end… The fallout is very impressive.”
Eve blinked. “That’s… actually rather self-explanatory.”
“I wouldn’t worry just yet,” Jane assured her. “You’re very young and still growing. A society usually has time to get old before it falls.”
“And then the fall leaves a blemish for eternity. Much like the planet you were just on,” Thrackerzod pointed out. “It never lasts forever and just results in unimaginable pain.”
Eve blinked. “Well what would you suggest I do?”
“Nothing. It’s too late for you to turn back now, clearly. I would encourage any travelers to just avoid you, not be taken in by your message. Because no matter how honest it is, there will come a time where you fall, and furthermore with the amount of power you have the scale of destruction you can unleash baffles the minds of most mortals and is far beyond what any version of Azathoth can unleash.”
“You sound just like the Stars.”
“The Stars personally know what falling looks like, and of the blemish that remains. Pray you don’t live long enough to find out yourself, Eve.”
Sunny inserted herself between Thrackerzod and Eve. “Hey, here’s an idea, let’s not shout ideologies at each other with anger!”
Eve raised an eyebrow. “I’m having a calm rational discussion.”
“That Stars quip wasn’t rational.”
“I… Right. Sorry, Thrackerzod.”
Thrackerzod nodded impassively, turning to Jane. “Have you seen my frying pan?”
“No, haven’t seen Pinkie – Evermore Pinkie – since we left,” Jane answered. “You haven’t made a new one by now?”
“I probably should have at this point, but I have not for whatever reason,” Thrackerzod commented. “Deep down, I suppose I am sentimental.”
“For a frying pan that causes instant death when used,” Sunny pointed out.
Thrackerzod smiled. “Yes. The strangeness of the situation is not lost on me, Sunset.”
Jane smirked. “So, Zod! Have any stories to tell us? I’m sure Eve would loooove to hear some of them.”
Thrackerzod nodded slowly. “I will not be giving you my dimensional records or any world locations.”
“It’s okay,” Eve said.
“In that case, I have a rather ‘amusing’ story about a tentacle creature who only wanted to know what cake tasted like…”
As Thrackerzod spun her tale for all to hear, Corona leaned against a wall, sunglasses hiding her expression.
Why am I here?
There was that question again. That question that hadn’t left her the whole day. Why was she here? She’d been dragged along on an adventure that was intended to distract her. But it had done exactly the opposite. She hadn’t seen anything wonderful or amazing, instead she had got to be useless. And even if she had done something, really, what was the point in the end? Thrackerzod had described it nicely… They spent so much effort to do so much, but no matter what they did there was going to come a point where it all came crashing down and created immeasurable suffering.
The more effort that was put in, the more the stakes would rise. Eventually those stakes would be lost.
How did that make it worth it?
She couldn’t see a way how. Part of her knew she really wasn’t in a good place to be thinking about it right now, but that part of her was pushed away like a nagging parent. Probably should have listened to it, but defiantly refused to give the idea the time of day out of some misguided principle of the self.
She should jus-
A black flash of light deposited another white unicorn with red eyes in their midst. The League of Sweetie Belles’ Thrackerzod. She was slightly shorter than her Evermore counterpart and didn’t have the impressive flowing mane. She didn’t let this deter her.
“I heard there was another me, it appears rumors were not exaggerated. Greetings. I am Thrackerzod of the League of Sweetie Belles, servant of Azathoth.”
Evermore Thrackerzod narrowed her eyes. “I am Thrackerzod the Evermore. I serve no one, for I rejected Azathoth long ago.”
League Thrackerzod gasped. “You… are a traitor!?”
“I was provided a unique opportunity when severed from my master to remove the connection altogether. I took it in a heartbeat. I will not be chained by an eldritch creature who cares naught for those he tramples, nor one who can be clueless enough to be known as the Blind Idiot God.”
“Blasphemy! Azathoth is the source of our power and our very motivation!”
“Your power within you is sufficient,” E-Zod said, pointing a hoof. “The powers which you serve are not worthy.”
“The Embodiment is a powerful part of the multiversal cycles!”
“Your powers drive suffering and madness. You cannot say they are ‘good’.”
“So? We’re just different you… you…” L-Zod looked ready to explode.
“I am clearly not welcome here anymore,” E-Zod said, turning to Jane.
“Hey, I didn’t say that!” Eve said.
“My continued presence induces hostility,” E-Zod answered. “Jane, I will keep this place’s coordinates memorized and visit from time to time. But for now I will take my leave.” She glared at her younger self. “She represents something I cannot abide by.”
“Your personal baggage should not limit you as it is,” L-Zod blurted.
E-Zod ignored her. “Goodbye, Jane.”
Jane sighed. “Really? So soon? Can’t we just go to a random universe and talk there for a while? It’s been so long.”
Sunny nodded in confirmation. E-Zod looked like she wanted to argue, but put a hoof to her forehead instead. “Great forested t… You always could convince me to go against my desires. As you wish, we shall go elsewhere.”
“Hoooold it!” In a flash of red gears, Aradia appeared. “Ahem! You Evermore can’t go yet.”
“What is the meaning of this?” L-Zod said.
“I have to show the three of them something,” Aradia said. “No, you probably shouldn’t come Little Zod.”
“Little!?”
“Yes. Little. What else was I going to call you on such a short notice?” Aradia turned back to the three Evermore. “Come. It’s important to you, trust me.”
Jane furrowed her brow – but nodded. Aradia started walking away, leading the rest of them out of Appleoosa.
Eve shrugged. “Well, Corona, looks like they’re going to something more private. So we-“ Eve blinked. “Corona?”
“She teleported away shortly after I arrived,” L-Zod said.
Eve blinked. “…Oh.”
“Is that bad?”
“…I want to say no, but…” she bit her lip, worried thoughts filling her mind.
~~~
This seems familiar, Corona thought to herself begrudgingly. Teleport somewhere random and start walking. You’re great at being creative, Corona. Maybe next time you should walk away without a teleportation! Wouldn’t that be interesting!?
She looked around, checking to see where she was. The Everfree Forest. She must have really wanted to get away if she took herself here. No ponies at all, just a lot of creatures that wanted to eat everyone they could. She prepared to char anything that came at her.
But, aside from that, she decided to just let herself think. She couldn’t keep it at bay anymore. Not that she was really trying at this point, seeing as how she was walking around again…
To sum it all up, everything was worthless and she was useless.
How peachy.
Thrackerzod had vocalized everything Corona had been thinking ever since the Bloodbath – or, rather, trying not to think about. The further they went, the more sorrow, death, and destruction there was. The further they went, the worse off they were. It wasn’t better. They solved hunger – but then entire planets started to get blown up. They helped a world survive an apocalypse, but then someone from there swore revenge and struck at the heart of the Merodi. They began to explore, but those above them brought down what amounted to fire from heaven, exploiting them just because they could.
Why would everyone do that? They didn’t do that! Eve and the others made great efforts to ensure that they weren’t bossing anyone around that didn’t deserve it. Sure they messed up sometimes, but they never stole entire cities just to see what would happen!
But those mess ups – it only takes one huge mistake to bring everything crashing down. No matter how good the intentions of a person are, they will screw something up. Eventually a mistake will come that there’s no recovering from.
That was so close to happening at the Bloodbath. How much longer would it take?
It would probably be Corona that did it. She just had a feeling – she would be the one to ruin everything one day. Worse than being useless, being the one who made the mistake. They all put such faith in her to uncover the mysteries of the multiverse. She was just a unicorn! Who gave a rip about her PhD? What did it even mean? That she was smart?
Well there were a lot of problems that came with being smart. Penchant for arrogance. Easily getting fed up with people. Multiple trains of thought running through her mind at once, many of which were contradictory with each other! Oh, and the part where everyone expects you to get everything on the first try because of your ‘superior intelligence’!
A manticore leaped out of the treeline at Corona. She vaporized it with a flamethrower, barely aware it had even been there.
Superior intelligence didn’t do anything for Corona. It was basically a joke. Intelligence did not mean wisdom. Heck, she wasn’t even really that smart when it came to things outside the lab, which were what really mattered, right?
But wasn’t it all pointless?
Make up your mind, mind! Corona thought angrily to herself. Her mind took this thought and twisted it into a pretzel of confusing paradoxes that just made her let out a pained, infuriated grunt.
She made an attempt to organize her thoughts into categories, but her emotional state was too unstable to do that effectively. Her failure to create a simple ‘yes-no’ chart in her mind only heightened her turntable of negativity. Why couldn’t she do something simple?Because my mind is a whirlpool of emotions. Well why can’t she get a hold on them? Because emotions don’t listen to a thing my mind says. Why hadn’t she worked on this before? I have worked on it! I GAH! Shut up! Why shut up? Because! Shut up! You’re worthless! Did that mean Corona was worthless?
“YES!” Corona shouted. “JUST STOP ALREADY!” She lit her horn and tore several trees out of the ground and threw them to the side, upsetting a large amount of Everfree wildlife.
Corona started laughing through her tears. “This is why we don’t think about things! Don’t you see, forest? Don’t you see!? When we do think about these things we go absolutely craaaaazy! The end of the road is never pretty! We know that it’ll just end badly if we get to the end, so we try to stop ourselves! BECAUSE OF THIS! THIS… I DON’T EVEN KNOW!”
She stopped thinking at this point and just started running. Running… Running… She had no idea what the point of the running was. …Perhaps that was the point. Do something, anything – she really should have tried to get more involved on that little adventure…
She ran headfirst into something hard. She fell backward, heavily dazed, but not quite out. She shook her head, groaning. I don’t even know how to run properly…
Why was it so bright?
She looked up, finding what she had run into. The Tree of Harmony. The crystalline guardian of Equis Vitis shone its harmonious glow upon the struggling yellow unicorn.
Corona was struck by a deep feeling of being unworthy.
Corona’s cutie mark started flashing, pulsing with part of the Tree of Harmony’s magic. It was calling her.
Her thoughts split in two.
The Tree is calling me to do something! Something only I can do!
This Tree is just taking pity on me! I don’t need your pity!
Corona grabbed her throbbing head and grunted. “GAAAAAAAAAAH!” For effect, she rammed her head into the base of the Tree a few times.
“What was that?” She heard someone call from outside the Tree of Harmony’s clearing. Corona’s eyes widened in panic. Acting purely from instinct, she leaped away from the tree and into a bunch of nearby purple bushes, hiding.
Aradia, Evermore Thrackerzod, Jane, and Sunny walked in a few seconds later.
“I think you’re hearing things,” Sunny told Jane.
“I heard something as well,” Thrackerzod pointed out.
“You’re tapped into a lot of weird things. For all we know it was the voice of the Tree.”
“It’s not something to worry about,” Aradia said, gesturing for them to follow her to a place a few meters from Corona. “What we’re here for is this way.”
She pulled back a fern-like plant, revealing a gravestone. From Corona’s angle, she could just barely make out the inscription.
EVERMORE 5
PINKIE PIE
The four visitors fell silent, staring at the grave. Thrackerzod and Jane were unreadable, but Sunny had reacted with an audible gasp and a hoof to her mouth. Aradia kept a somber expression, waiting for any of them to say anything.
“…What happened to her?” Jane asked after what seemed like hours.
Aradia looked to her. “It wasn’t long after she escaped. She was summoned from the Recursions by a version of Twilight known as Twilence through an altar of ancient power mixed with her own connection to ka. Pinkie spent her time there as Twilence’s ally along with myself, Vriska, and a few others; helping her with her quest and passing on what she knew of the way the multiverse worked. She ended up involved in a war against an alternate version of Siron.”
“…Siron?” Thrackerzod asked.
“Warrior bug-tribe chief,” Jane explained. “He tried to destroy Merodi Universalis out of anger and, well, Eve had to kill him.”
“She told me he was a death seeker,” Sunny added.
“But I’ve never seen alternate versions of him…” Jane said.
Aradia closed her eyes. “Siron’s alternate selves are almost always found in the deep past of Equis worlds. He starts out as the leader of a tribe, and eventually grows into the reason Tartarus is created. The Siron Pinkie, Twilence, myself, and others faced had been locked in Tartarus for eons.”
“That Siron got her?”
Aradia nodded. “It was a game of minds and gambits. Pinkie lost. She used her Translation in the encounter, so I couldn’t help her.”
“Did he get what he deserved?” Thrackerzod asked.
Aradia folded her arms. “He made it to the Tower. He never came out. In many ways, a fate worse than death.”
“Fitting,” Thrackerzod commented.
Aradia turned to Thrackerzod. “Do you remember what happened when she left? You gave her your frying pan of instant death.”
“Yes. I remember it like it was yesterday.”
Aradia pulled a large, black frying pan out of her cloak and handed it to Thrackerzod. The eldritch unicorn hefted the cooking implement in her red magic.
The tough, eons old being who had been hardened by horrendous experiences the people around her could scarcely imagine cracked. Tears started rolling down her impassive face.
“I-I…” Sunny couldn’t say anything, she just pulled the unicorn into an embrace.
Jane continued to stare at the gravestone. She kneeled down so she was closer to eye level. “You sure found a way out, didn’t you Pinkie? After all that time… You got out. Truly. Completely.”
There was silence again.
“…I h-hear someone crying,” Sunny said.
“That’s you,” Jane said, wiping her own eyes. “Or… us.”
“N-no. Behind the bushes…”
Corona realized she was crying, pretty heavily at that. What she was witnessing… it was just so sad. These people… They’d escaped a dimensional prison of sorts. At different times. It had been so long, and just now they were learning of someone of theirs who had died a long time ago. How… How stupid was that?
“That’d be me,” Eve said, suddenly, walking out of a nearby bush, looking somewhat ashamed. “The Tree called me here.”
Thrackerzod looked upset, but Aradia held up a hand. “That’s fine, Eve. If the Tree called you here, it must be for a reason.”
“That’s… not where I heard the crying,” Sunny said, walking over to Corona’s bush and pulling it back. “Oh… Corona.”
Corona couldn’t formulate a response, she was crying too hard. It was painful to breathe in regular intervals.
Eve wiped her face, levitating Corona out. “Her mark was on the map as well… We were both called here. Though… I think she was already here.” Eve hugged her. “I’m sorry, Corona. I wasn’t paying attention.”
Corona buried her face in Eve’s wing.
Eve stroked her back with the other wing. “Shhh… It’s okay. I’m here.”
“It’s so sad!” Corona blurted, gesturing with her hoof at the grave. “Everything’s so freaking sad. There’s nothing we can do Eve! Nothing!”
Eve was going to response – but Thrackerzod spoke instead. “It isn’t sad.”
“…What!?” Sunny blurted. “Of course it is!”
Jane put a hand on Sunny. “It is sad… But that’s not all it is, Sunny.”
Sunny blinked. “W-what?”
Corona stared at Jane in disbelief. “It’s death! Of course that’s all it is! Unless there’s something wrong with you, you don’t find anything else in it!”
Aradia took the jab gracefully. She floated over to Corona and pulled up her chin. “Are you sure?”
“I… I… Uh…”
“It’s okay if that’s how you see it,” Aradia said. “But not everyone is going to see death that way.” She spread her arms wide, smiling. “Death has a purpose beyond utter destruction and sorrow, you know. It’s one of the most forceful catalysts for change. And sometimes, just sometimes, it’s what is needed.”
“Can you hear yourself?” Corona blurted. “What the hell is wrong with you? This!” She pointed at the grave. “This should not be!”
Eve looked down at the ground. “…Flutterfree says things like that, sometimes…”
“Yeah, and she believes there’s a life beyond this one!” Corona added. “What about those of us who don’t!?”
Jane kneeled down and looked Corona in the eyes. “Corona… There are some of us who have lived too long. I… There are times where I think I would have been much happier if I’d grown old and passed on like almost everyone else. After enough time… It all becomes boring. Repetitive. That’s not how everyone ends up, but it’s common enough.”
Sunny looked like she wanted to object but couldn’t find the words.
Jane gestured at the grave of Evermore Pinkie. “She didn’t have to experience that. She got to free herself from the trap and live her life the way she wanted. The death itself? Alone, there’s nothing to it. It’s literally nothing. But it can represent something more. This? This is freedom.”
Corona stared at the gravestone. “I…”
“I can’t see that,” Eve said. “I just… No. It’s not a freedom. Life is a gift and it should always be sought! Always!”
“I’m not arguing for suicide Eve, come on!” Jane blurted. “That’d just be messed up!”
“Well that’s what it sounds like!”
“It’s no-”
“It is,” Sunny interrupted, looking at Jane. “This is wrong, Jane. Even dying of old age isn’t right. No death is right.”
“You’re wrong,” Thrackerzod declared. “There are deaths that need to happen, and you know it. We all know it.”
“I know it,” Corona said. “We know it. The majority don’t.”
Jane shook her head. “That’s not the point! I… Ugh, Aradia, you explain it.”
Aradia folded her hands together. “Death is beautiful,” she put simply. She held up a hand to silence those who wanted to argue with her. “Death is the most powerful part of our lives, more than when we’re born, more than when we marry, more than when we raise our kids. Our death and what brings it about can be said to be the thing we will be most remembered for, the aspect of us that remains the longest. The strongest.”
Aradia kneeled down, tracing her fingernail through the dirt. “This Pinkie died, and she is remembered for giving her life saving a civilization. She is also remembered for ending the curse of the Evermore in a just, honorable way. And she is remembered by bringing all of us here, together, to talk deeply about what this all means.” She stood tall, a breeze blowing through her hair. “There’s a reason we care so much about last words. They define what a person was thinking in their last moments, in their last actions – what they were at the end. Because what they were at the end is the most powerful part of them. People grow towards something eternally throughout their lives, and that end is the moment they fully become themselves.”
She turned to the rest of them. “Pinkie’s last words were ‘of course not’, which don’t really mean much. But right before that, what she said was undeniably her. ‘Who's the Pinkie? I'm the Pinkie! Who's the Pinkie? I'm the Pinkie!’ …She said that after having trapped Siron. He killed her out of rage after that. But those words… Those words were undeniably her. What she had become. When she fell, she completed her life.”
Aradia turned to Corona. “The same applies to Granny Smith, to all the friends we’ve lost, to all the leaders who fell at the Bloodbath, and even to the evil people we’ve had to kill with our own hands and hooves. All of their deaths left a shape in the world, a snapshot of who they were. There has never been a meaningless death in the history of existence.”
Corona’s mind blanked. She didn’t know how to respond to that.
“That’s quite the eloquent way of putting it,” Thrackerzod admitted, bowing her head to Aradia. “You have my respect.”
“I’m the unofficial god of death where I come from,” Aradia admitted. “Don’t feel so bad you couldn’t word it.”
Jane and Thrackerzod turned to look back at the grave. A hand and a hoof soon rested upon it.
“You did good,” Jane said. “You made so many ponies happy. And now… Now you’ve brought a smile to our faces. I have a feeling people will be telling stories about you, and you will keep bringing smiles.”
“That’s all she ever really wanted,” Thrackerzod said. “…Smiles.”
“She so rarely got them from you.”
Thrackerzod let out a chuckle. “She has one now.”
Sunny looked from the two Evermore to Eve and Corona. She shook her head, setting her face into a determined expression. She marched to the grave and put her hoof on the grave. “Hey Pinkie. Apparently I’m supposed to be happy about this? At least, that’s what these two think. I… I can’t do that. But I think I can understand why they think that. And you can too, can’t you?” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Thanks… For all those fun moments, Pinkie. They stayed with me all this time.”
Jane hugged her and the three of them fell silent.
Aradia sat down between Eve and Corona. “Death… It’s a simple thing. Reactions to death, now, that’s complicated. Very complicated.”
Eve let out a pained laugh. “Yeah… Yeah it is.”
“I don’t think there is a correct response, y’know?” Aradia said. “Some are better than others, clearly, but not everyone can just take it in stride or see the beauty in it. You, Eve, I can see will never be able to accept it.”
“I can’t either,” Corona said. “But… But…” She shook her head. “I… I think I’ve had an epiphany. Death is evil, and horrendous… But by nature that means something. You… You were right, Aradia. I… I think. Death… Death is the enemy. Death is what we fight against. The worst of all evils… So evil that we have to use it against itself.” She stood up tall.
Eve noticed with elation that there was fire in those red eyes again.
“It’s not worthless! It’s worse! And so it is our enemy! They say everything has a time, that everything must fall… I say that might be right. It might be inevitable. But that doesn’t mean we need to accept it!” She rammed her hoof into the ground. “Every death is a blemish on this world! Therefore it is our enemy!”
“Yeah!” Eve said. “Yeah, that’s exactly it!” She squeezed Corona. “That’s our enemy.”
“Basically the laws of the universe itself, huh?” Corona said.
“We’re declaring war on quite an enemy.”
“I say bring it.”
Eve laughed, wiping her eyes. “It's good to see that look back in your eyes, Corona.”
“It feels good.”
Aradia smirked. “It looks like Evermore Pinkie brought around a few more smiles today.” She pointed her fingers at the two ponies’ flanks. They flashed with the light of a completed friendship mission.
“What exactly were we here to solve?” Eve asked. “I think all of us here had separate issues…”
“We were here to solve, or at least help them all, weren’t we?” Corona asked. “Me… You… Sunny… I bet even Jane and Thrackerzod got something out of this.”
Aradia winked. “The Tree of Harmony tends to do things like that.”
“Yeah! Hey!” Corona called to the Tree of Harmony. “Thanks for letting me run into you! Repeatedly!”
“…What?”
“Don’t ask.” Corona’s hooves started twitching. “I feel… I don’t know. Did I touch someone without the boots? I feel… alive.”
“You’ve given yourself a purpose,” Aradia said. “It’s awakened what you had hidden within yourself.”
“So… That’s it? I’m just better?” Corona tapped her head. “That’s not…”
Aradia shook her head. “That’s not how it works. You’ll never be the same pony you were before. But I can see it becoming a part of you that you’ve discovered a way to accept. You’ve transformed a depressant into a drive. I’m just glad I could help.”
“Yeah. Thanks,” Corona said, nodding. “I… I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. I was… I was going crazy. I’d just been swinging through life…” She put a hoof to her chin. “The struggle has become a fight… And that fight is something I actually have power to fight.”
Eve laughed. “I don’t think we’ll be able to defeat death itself, Corona.”
“We can hit it with a giant hammer and make it run away,” Corona declared.
Aradia’s smile widened. “I’m very glad you’ve found something, Corona.”
Corona lit her hoof on fire. “Yeah.”
Eve turned to the three Evermore. She smiled sadly. “I think… I think we’ve crashed their time of ‘mourning’ enough. We should go.”
“Yeah. I’m going to call Olivia as well,” Corona added.
“Huh? Why?”
“I have a few thoughts...”
~~~
The League’s Thrackerzod walked down the streets of Celestia City a few days later.
She had the living tar scared out of her by Evermore Thrackerzod appearing a centimeter in front of her.
“VEAOUY’NYTH!” L-Zod said, taking a defensive stance.
“Calm yourself, I am not here to assault you,” E-Zod said.
“Are you here to ram your horn into my skull?”
“I sai- oh, a metaphor. I was not expecting that from one of my ilk.”
“Just more reasons we aren’t the same.”
E-Zod coughed. “I am here to apologize.”
L-Zod blinked. “The differences keep piling up.”
“I remember what it was like when I was still hinged to Azathoth. It was decidedly inappropriate of me to berate you for something in which you have no manner of choice.”
“I’m going to have to stop you,” L-Zod said. “I did have a choice. My connection was severed once, as were my powers. I could have lived like that. I chose to return to Azathoth.”
E-Zod paused at this. “…It is amazing, how differences can crop up with so small of an actual deviation.”
“Indeed. For what it’s worth, I know why you left. When I was gone, I understood I was free. I just didn’t want it at the time.”
“If you get another opportunity, I would take it.”
“You know I can’t agree to that.”
“But you will remember it when the next opportunity presents itself. Until then, live well, Thrackerzod of Equis Eldritch.”
“Likewise.”
E-Zod left, leaving L-Zod with much to ponder.
~~~
Jane, Sunny, and Thrackerzod stood outside the house the couple owned.
“Going already?” Jane asked.
“I stayed a few more days than I planned as it is,” Thrackerzod said. “I will return to visit, but I cannot settle down.”
“It’s a lot better than you’re thinking it is,” Sunny said.
“I did settle down, once.” Thrackerzod looked into the distance with a haunted expression. “You can’t stay settled forever.”
Jane and Sunny looked uncomfortable at this.
“There are a few things I think I should tell you before I go,” Thrackerzod said. “The Recursions ended.”
“Really?” Sunny said, blinking. “You did it?”
“We… I… It’s complicated. Regardless, it did end… But something similar has replaced it. I managed to place the attention of some of the higher societies on it, so there is a loose watch on the area – I wouldn’t call it quarantine. Earth C has a full quarantine.”
“…Earth C?” Jane asked.
“If you don’t know, it’s best you continue not to know. I apologize.”
“Fine.”
Thrackerzod looked into the distance. “I just thought you’d like to know that it’s still there. But it has changed significantly. I do not know what lies within. I’m never going back there.”
“Neither are we,” Jane asserted.
“Figured as much. Still, you needed to be told.” She closed her eyes and lit her horn. “Until next time, my friends.”
Jane and Sunny waved as Thrackerzod the Evermore vanished.
~~~
Later, Jane sat alone beside the Tree of Harmony, looking at Pinkie's grave with a somber smile. Leaning against her was a bag of confetti and a roll of tape that she was grabbing from every few seconds to add to a colorful… something in her hands.
"...It was fun, I suppose you could say. Sunrise and I were fighting, of course, but that didn't change what I thought of them. They were just misguided, you know? Then there was another time when we were in this space game world. We encountered a star shaped like a person and wearing a cowboy outfit of all things. He was pretty friendly and talkative for somebody without a mouth."
The object in her hands was taking shape, a chaotic mishmash of brightly-colored confetti squares.
"Our time here has been pretty fun too. You wouldn't believe it, but I'm a teacher now." Jane chuckled lightly. "I never would have expected it either, especially after I finally let go of Penny, but something about sharing wisdom and knowledge with others just feels right. I teach all sorts of different fighting techniques to people. I figure if they can defend themselves, then that'll at least make them and the people they care about safer."
Jane stood up and waved lightly to Pinkie's grave. "It was good to finally get to talk to you again, I'll be sure to visit you again, don't you worry. And hey, maybe I'll throw a party with Discord, just for old time's sake."
Before Jane left she placed a small technicolor flower on Pinkie's grave.
~~~
Toph was very surprised to sense Corona walk into the throne room unannounced. Lady Rarity and Lieshy were just as surprised, and even more surprised to see Som- Olivia walk in with her.
Toph folded her hands together. “Corona, what is it?”
“Hey, Toph,” she pointed at the queen. “I want to start going exploring again.”
Toph smiled; glad to see this side of Corona return. “You know I can’t come with you.”
“I’m not asking for you. I’m asking for your advisors. You know how to run the kingdom well enough by now, I can take them.”
Toph shrugged. “Fine by me, if they want to.”
“Emeralds in spring,” Lieshy decreed. “…That means yes.”
Lady Rarity chuckled. “Corona, dear… I would love to go out again. Is it just you and Olivia on the team so far?”
Corona nodded. “Vivian likes where she is right now. But we don’t need five, do we?”
“Of course not.” Lady Rarity skittered over to her. “I say we go out and explore again. Been waiting for you to ask, to be frank. Anything in particular that brought it on?”
“Nothing much. I just decided to declare war on death itself. No biggie.”
Lieshy laughed.
Lady Rarity smirked. “Already filed a request with Renee?”
“Done and approved,” Olivia said, closing a holographic display. “We can go as soon as we want.”
Toph held out her hand and pointed. “Go, my subjects. Fight valiantly.”
“You’re overdoing it,” Lieshy commented.
“No. No I’m not,” Toph asserted.
Lady Rarity put a hoof on Corona’s shoulder. “Thank you. I’ve… I’ve missed this.”
“Glad to have you back,” Lieshy declared.
“Glad to be back,” Corona said, rubbing the back of her head.
The sorrow wasn’t gone. She still felt it in her, gnawing away at her. But unlike before, she had something revitalizing herself. A drive. Everything that went wrong, every mistake that was made, every horrendous death that occurred…
Well, that was just another reason to fight back.
Another reason to fight harder.
Until her bitter end.
And then others would have reason to fight harder.
No death was pointless.
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Yeah! Down with Death! Welcome back Corona! Pinkie, get the confetti. 🎉 Don't become a mad scientist please.
This arc has been very philosophical. Questions about Gods and Heaven, here about death, right and wrong.
It's a bit hard to believe we're four chapters from the end of Light, because I'm honestly not entirely sure where that's going to go. More direct confrontation with the USM? Something else, smaller in scale? Larger? With all of the philosophy pondering, will there even be any violence at all, or just two powerful entities questioning the meaning of life?
9213994
The Chapter titles in the last Interlude might give you a hint if you want to start theorizing.
(I like people theorizing. I will neither confirm nor deny anything here concerning future plot points, though.)
-GM, master of mice.
This was a beautiful chapter, with a good insight on the nature of depression. The dynamic between Eve and Corona remind me of an experience I recently had trying to help someone close to me be distracted from their depression, but ultimately ending up letting them retract further into themselves and ending up worse than they started... much like in this the first and middle parts of this chapter.
I'm worried about Corona. She may have turned a depressant into a drive, but that doesn't mean she is okay, or that she won't do something drastic in the near future... depression is not healed that easily, if even at all. At least she is attempting to move forward, and I am hoping she survives long enough to make peace with her issues, but I suspect that she is heading towards a meaningful death caused by her own unstoppable determination to act. Either way, it makes for a thought-provoking and meaningful story. I'm loving it.
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Let me take a moment to tell you how much this particular piece of feedback means to me.
I, personally, do not get depressed. I'm naturally an optimistic person who loves to laugh and be content with life. Sure, I stress out a lot, and delve into deep existential thought, but I don't get REALLY depressed. As a consequence of that, I have a very poor in-real-life understanding of the concept. I've talked to friends, had them explain it to me, but unfortunately I've discovered it's not a concept I can imagine myself feeling - and therefore can't truly empathize with.
So, as an author, when I write the depressive side of things, where characters remain in a depressed funk for a long time that ISN'T just from PTSD or direct crazy trauma, there's always this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I'm doing it WRONG. That I'm writing something I don't understand and, therefore, cannot be writing correctly.
Thank you for telling me I actually DID do it justice, despite not really understanding it. Just... thanks.
-GM, master of prizes.
Didn't feel the need to Americanize 'sombre' eh?
9214061
Aaaaaand guess what I'm fixing now.
-GM, master of
I’m going to have to apologize, but this chapter pulled me out of the fiction and question the real world intentions of this chapter. Not because of the content in and of itself, but rather, the source.
This is a Spacebattles fic. I remember being called a moron for not being Willing to irrevocably alter my psychology in order to make eternal life not seem boring and repetitive because death is apparently just that intolerable.
So seeing as you are a Spacebattler, I can’t help but feel like I’m being fed propaganda as opposed to a legit philosophical question. I acknowledge that is is unfair of me, seeing as I can be fairly certain that your intentions for Corona are quite different, but I cannot shake these irrational suspicions.
So yeah, sorry to say, but this chapter was tainted for me by factors out of either of our control.
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Oh, well, I'm sorry about that too. Maybe I can alleviate that feeling you have with a bit of explanation? I hope I can. It's definitely not my intent to spread propoganda, at least not in this case. (There ARE a few morals in this story I'd like to drop on people like anvils, namely the ones about tolerance and understanding other opinions, but I keep myself restrained on purpose in THOSE cases). In this chapter, I don't really have a moral. It was mostly me going 'crap crap crap how do I write depression I don't know how AUGH'. The thoughts on death are just what i thought any individual character would think.
My personal view is... well, honestly, I'm not sure. I don't agree with Aradia - death is bad, I'm sure of that - but I'm also not certain immortality is good either. I love to explore the idea because I don't KNOW. I can't know. And one of the biggest regrets I have about this fic is because I don't have TIME to explore what true immortality would do to these characters - we'll reach the ending long before we enter a real Time Abyss. Some characters may live about twice as long as they should have otherwise, that's about it. ...There's not going to be a chapter that actually deals with the consequences, and that's a glaring hole in the web I'm trying to make. But I can't have the story last too long. It has to have an ending. So we'll get a few philosophical musings here and there, but never be able to actually SEE what immortality does to these characters.
If I could extend Songs of the Spheres to last for relative millennia, I'd be sure to portray it in several different ways. Some characters wouldn't change at all. Some would change drastically over time. Others would find immortality amazing, while others would find it boring. Some would eventually kill themselves, others would be determined to fight through their boredom.
So, I guess, maybe the answer is all of the above? It depends on the person how immortality would be seen and experienced. Personally, I'd like to live longer than a century, but can I see myself growing tired of life eventually? Yeah, I could. But some people wouldn't. I dunno, guess I'm rambling now.
Regardless, I guess I'll end with saying I'm not much of an SBer. I only hung around the creative writing and projects forums, not having the patience or the desire to engage in the 'debates' that, honestly, weren't debates at all. I only check SB sporadically now, since most of the activity on this story happens on this site and in the discord server now. I don't remember the last time I replied on an SB thread that wasn't the SotS thread. XD So rest easy, don't expect me to bring THAT taste here.
...Yeah this comment is probably too long. And I can't guarantee my personal opinions won't shift a conversation one way or another. But in this case, lucky you, I don't even have an answer I could try to push. So...
?
-GM, master of replies.
Of course most worlds have forests. How else are you supposed to produce green mana?
Poor planet of dreams. The MU really doesn't have a good track record with ancient superstructures, does it? I shudder to imagine what might happen if they found a ringworld, Niven, Halo, or otherwise.
Fascinating background on Siron. It certainly explains a lot to those of us who haven't read Twilence's origin story. (Sorry about that. I have a lot of narrative ground to cover on this site and only so much time to do so.)
One does not simply badmouth death in front of Aradia Megido.
Speaking of whom, a quarantine on Earth C? No one tell Vriska. That wouldn't end well at all...
In all, a fantastic chapter to get Corona back on her hooves. If there's no intrinsic meaning in the multiverse, that just means it's your duty to create it. And everything may end eventually, but that doesn't mean you can't make the journey enjoyable.
9217834
From what I hear, the Influence loses what made it good now that it isn't a currently updating story. *shurg* I hope you eventually get the time to read it though, it's my favourite story from GM second to Songs of course ^-^
oh sweet baby Jesus this was a feels trip i was not expecting
still it's nice to have Corona back at it 
I am pretty sure i am reading to much into this but was the entire thrackerzod thing meant to be a commentary on human society ?
After reading this i had dinner. While having dinner i stood up , walked away from the table, laughed REALLY hard , and returned to the table after that.
Not gonna tell you why !
9222209
Generally, if I want to make a commentary on human society, I use an Earth. If I want to bash American society specifically, I use the USM. Thrackerzod's situation is meant to be something truly alien and mysterious.
And okay, you can keep your secrets, I won't pry.
-GM, master of Tildee.
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Hey Josh, good to hear from you again, ^-^ Haven't heard from you since the Influence ended.
I wholeheartedly disagree with this. In my experience, the details of death are often forgotten and unthought. It's the life that's remembered, what the person did and who they were, and not how they ceased to be.
Death, to Christianity, is not a natural thing, but instead a pervasive invader and parasite. One that is prophesied to be utterly destroyed at the end of linear time.
9722437
Aradia also, as pointed out, is not a normal person.
-GM, master of enchanting.
Personally, Death should always be a choice, not forced upon others.
Though the number of immortal-ish characters I have is far above the norm.
So the first thing I wanted to note, is that this mind reading, projection generating planet is a
epic loot dropvaluable item that needs to be protected, and not just ignored and left for who ever happens to come across it next (Rick and Morty).Or, you know, you could just hack a computer system, damage it, and make no attempt to repair it.
In fairness, the computer program failed to sanitize user input. What would happen if Bobby Tables paid a visit?
On the Tower: so this is interesting. Reaching the tower, even getting into the tower, isn't necessarily a good thing. Up until now, it seems that getting to the Tower is both some sort of universal protection, and teleportation to where you want/need to go; like the next chapter in your story.
(Oh: Someone else who travels the multiverse with Luck? Maybe Scrooge's relative that has perfect luck all the time?)
Now, let me see if I understand the Evermore correctly. First, there are five of them. Pinkie, Thrackerzod, Sunny, Jane (an unknown unicorn variant), and an unknown.
They come from a place called the recursions. It acts like a dimensional trap, and additionally, even if you think you have managed to get out of it, apparently even that isn't necessarily a guaranteed exit without dying.
Being an Evermore seems to come with some "power". For Jane, it's singing; we don't know what she can do with song yet. And none of the others' powers are shown.
And finally, the Recursions were ended. And replaced with something similar, that now has a loose watch/partial quarantine.
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Earth C has a full Quarantine, enforced by ... ???. Inform Vriska and Aradia of this, and see what they do. What kind of group will they put together to "fix" this? Allushy, E-Thrackerzod, Cosmic Twilight, and who else?
SombraOlivia might be outclassed by computer systems that might as well be "beyond"-level (ref: Zones of Thought, "A Fire Upon the Deep" and sequel).On the death of multiversal societies: not all class 3 societies die before becoming a class 2 society. The horrible picture that is presented is not a "must-happen".
On death of the individual: ... Yea, that's a biggie. What did the blimps say? "I agree that life is too short, but as our lifespan is 50,000 years, we might disagree on what is 'short'"?
"I will fight death and eliminate it" -- that's like the HP: MoR view of Harry's ancestors, that Harry takes as his challenge.
I don't think it's a case that sufficient time causes repetition and boredom. I think it's a lack of new things and new experiences that cause repetition and boredom. After all, even the Q eventually do everything.
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As for your concern about writing depression well: I can only speak for myself. The instant, 180° change from depression to warrior is not in my experience. On the other hand, I might be closer to a depressed Pinkie -- overly optimistic, always smiling and cheerful, full of laughter and jokes, until midlife crisis strikes and the world just falls apart.
9217834
There are probably more ways to make green mana than any other color. Creatures that generate green, creatures that temporarily become forests, conversion cards, lands that have dual natures, heck, there's probably a way to tap opponent's untapped forests on your own turn (so they either spend it on their turn or risk losing it to you).
Besides, you can always use magical hack and sleight of mind to change a need for forest or greennever mind, they removed the whole interrupt mechanism. Those cards no longer work even if you play them.So. The silent forest pulls and turns people into Evermore. The elements of insanity came from a world that pulled people into a graveyard and turned them. The nexus ... well, it doesn't actually pull you in, but it's like the roach motel universe.
When will we see a "pulling" version of the Tree of Harmony? Just as there's all these forces pulling you and converting you to various dis-harmonious states, there should be a master tree that acts as a counter.
Maybe the Tower has an opponent somewhere on the other end of the multiverse?
I know, would have made a great idea when this fic was current, too late to change anything now.
(OK, the tree itself is just the remains of a dead star. But then, Capella was a dead star, there's many many different versions of the tree across different dimensions (hey, does that mean that there were multiple Capellas as well?), and even if the tree was just a shadow/copy of some original concept, that original master concept item is still out there, right?)
Actually, as I write that last paragraph: Didn't the ancient Greeks have some philosophy along these lines, that there was an ideal form of each concept and anything in this world was just an approximate copy?
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I'm maybe 6 or 7 chapters into it right now, I'm just up to Flutter
freeshy's arrival. And yes, I see your name in the comments -- thank GM for including them in the story itself so that I can read them -- so I get an idea of what sort of things you'll do to a poor, unsuspecting alicorn :-).9971669
I may or may not have my fun, XD Be sure to check out the supplementary material once you get far enough.
I’m picking the story back up again, (whoops, tautology,) after having slowly let it go half a year ago. I’ve unmarked the next ten or so chapters as read and have reread “The Comedians” after watching parts of all four Abridgeds, just to get back in the flow. A side effect of this is forgetting everything, or rather everyone, that happened. Who’s this, who’s that? I don’t know anymore. Might it be possible to release a short summary of every chapter - aside from those on SpaceBattles - or of every arc, telling briefly which new characters were introduced, what world they were from, which franchises and fanfics were shown, and where I can find these? I know there is already a character detailing in one of your blog posts, but it doesn’t give me any clue as to where Sunny and the Evermore came from.
I’m not saying you have to; The story’s done anyway, if I’m correct, and it’s my fault for stopping in the middle of the next arc, but it’d be nice to at least know where the amazing character concepts came from without having to search chapters and forums for it.
Great story, by the way. It’s unbelievable how unique and set apart every character is and what variety of situations you can realistically put them in.
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I'm not going to create a chapter summary thing because hot dog on a festival stick would that be a HUGE PROJECT that would need several iterations for the various eras within the story.
That said, I can explain Sunny, Jane, and the Evermore a bit. They're never fully given much (beyond this chapter) for explanation, because they don't have that much of an influence on the story. They're from a previous project of mine, the Evermore Recursions, which was a spacebattles rp that was a predecessor to SotS. The Evermore were selected, seemingly randomly, from the multiverse and pushed into a world where they had the power to 'create' worlds (or Recursions) based on whatever they wanted. Some of them eventually escaped.
There's a lot more info but, to be honest, this chapter provides all the information you NEED to know.
-GM, master of 61.
Worlds.
9218950 I liked The Influence, and it was over long before I arrived.
9971669
The Evermore are from The Evermore Recursions. There were almost 50 of them, although several never did much. Jane is a human with several magic powers from an fantasy world. They all had two powers, reality hopping and self resurrection. Jane's singing is how she went from the Hub to Appaloosa. I think they lose the resurrection ability when they leave the Recursions.
10214327 Here's the address, just in case you are looking. Also try the SoTS group.
Death comes for us all, one way or the other. From our tiny instances on the grade scale of the eons to the eventual heat-death of the universe itself.
It's up to us to determine how we approach it.
Glad to see Corona's got her spark back. Whether or not she's actually "okay" is a different matter, but hopefully with exploring again with her friends she can get better.