Trial by Darkness
“Check this out,” Bits said, holding out the dimensional device. He adjusted a few dials and pressed the main screen, opening a hole in reality.
It didn’t go to anywhere Fluttershy or Applejack had ever seen. There was a city on the other side with high-rise buildings and a beautiful, clear blue sky. The portal itself had opened itself up in a park with mostly pine trees. A unicorn levitating an ice cream cone stared at the portal, slack-jawed.
Fluttershy waved at him. “Hello!”
He turned and walked away, pretending as if he’d seen nothing.
Applejack snorted. “I’d probably have done the same if I hadn’t been dropped in the desert.”
Bits shrugged. “So… know who’s this is?”
“Never seen it before,” Applejack said.
“Me either,” Fluttershy added. “Let’s see, process of elimination… this would be Pinki—Pink’s world.”
“If her name is really that close…”
“My bad,” Applejack admitted, adjusting her hat. “At least she can go home when we find her. I think she needs it more than the rest of us.”
“Really?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yep. She’s not of the build for this. Her life is not one of work, but of creativity. She knows things but she really, really shouldn’t be exerting herself like she is. Hides pretty well behind that smile of hers, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this world has scarred her enough to break her.”
Fluttershy frowned. “Then we’ll need to be there for her.”
“You’re in luck, then,” Auburn said, trotting back into Bits’ shop. “Bolt’s found her. We can send her to you right now.”
“…How do you know?” Applejack asked.
“Phones.” Auburn looked at the two’s blank stares. “Devices that allow you to talk to ponies that are far away. All the experienced Thieves have them in their ears.”
“Tw- Empress did mention something like that,” Applejack said.
Auburn nodded. “I’m going to send you two to her.” She pulled a small strand of green hair out of her Thief outfit. “This is her hair. She’s a living pony, you should be able to fold right to her.”
“I don’t know anything about folding.”
“And given your complete lack of magic, I’m not sure you can do it on your own. But Smith here…” She gave Fluttershy the hair. “Mechanic, hold on to her. Smith, focus on the hair. Feel the magic flow through your wings, and think of the Blue Bolt. I want to see if you can do it.”
“Okay…” Fluttershy said, pulling Applejack to her with a hoof. She focused her magic into her wings, piercing the hair between the very tips of her limbs.
She had never been good at teleporting, but she figured this probably wasn’t like teleporting at all. There was no need to keep everything in mind – the destination; the distance between… such things weren’t as solidly defined in New Alice City anyway.
So it probably all fell down to focusing on the connection. Instead of feeling the Blue Bolt, though, she felt a single point in the center of the hair, drawing her attention dramatically do it.
“That’s good…” Auburn said. “You have it. Now… push.”
And then Fluttershy was falling. Everything was a kaleidoscope of colors whirring past her at speeds so fast she couldn’t even tell if there were shapes to discern in the patterns.
She felt like spaghetti…
And yet, despite the alien feeling, she somehow knew she was going right to the Blue Bolt. Pinkie would be with her, and they could save Pinkie from this horrific town – taking her home.
Then all was dark.
~~~
The Starcross ship was a tumor on the endless sand, embedded into the grains like a parasite. The pulsing glow of amber coursing through it as it dug further and further into the ground only added to the image.
It did not belong. The world knew it, but it was powerless to do anything about it.
Another world was not.
“Engage,” Quasar ordered.
Dozens of portals opened in the sky around the ship. Immediately, the Starcross sent out a pulse designed to jam dimensional travel, expecting to saw a few ships in half through rapidly closing rifts.
The Unity Helix had expected this and planned accordingly. All ships used their faster-than-light drives to flash across the world boundary before the portals could destabilize. Not a single one was lost to the initial retaliation.
For a single moment, the world was quiet save for the hum of various engines. The dark shape embedded in the ground contrasted heavily with the brighter, cleaner ships in the air. The Starcross were a disgusting lump, almost all the ships of Unity were streamlined and sleek – or at least organically green.
Three-dozen ships pointed directly at a single one. They had the numbers.
As expected, they did not have the firepower. As advanced as Unity was, they didn’t hold a candle to technology created from the corpses of dead cosmic entities.
Both sides fired at the same time. Laser weapons hit first. Unity’s ships unleashed thin, narrow beams of color that were almost impossible to see in the light of day. Starcross created spheres of multicolored energy on the outside of their ship, focusing lasers the diameter of houses upon the attacking ships.
Shields activated. Unity’s shimmered with a soft blue color upon impact while Starcross’ shone with a green hexagonal pattern, lighting the ship up like a disembodied dragonfly eye.
A couple of the smaller Unity ships gave out first, shields collapsing from the strain and exploding, sending smoldering metal down to the sand below, melting it into glass. The other ships were able to absorb the immense attacks without overloading, sapping energy off the assault to power their own shields.
Magic circles began appearing around the Starcross ship while Unity started launching more conventional projectiles. Complex swirling bursts of power tried to entangle Unity’s ships while endless explosions bombarded Starcross’ shields. Both sides unleashed swarms of smaller ships at each other, engaging in a complex dance of insect-like probes endlessly shooting at each other in an attempt to gain the upper hand.
The initial fight was already over. There would be no easy victory for either side.
Twilight noticed that it had already gotten too complicated for Rarity to follow. Rarity furrowed her brow. “I… who’s winning?”
Twilight shrugged. “No idea.”
“We are,” Rainbow asserted. “Starcross is more advanced, but they’re at a heavily disadvantaged position. They should be trying to retreat…”
“As I predicted, they are not,” the Unity Helix beeped over the communicators. “This means they must be close. You are clear to begin infiltration.”
Twilight nodded. “Here we go…”
The three of them were sitting in the cockpit of a decent sized fighter – Twilight’s personal favorite, forged of metal and coated in amethyst for no reason besides looking amazing. One might think such a frivolous ship would be a useless pushover, but they’d be wrong. When you’re the Empress, ponies find a way to make your stuff gaudy and useful.
Twilight laid her hooves on the controls, feeling the rubbery surface beneath that would detect minor variations in her hooves’ traction fields. She could have done this with her magic, but it wouldn’t look anywhere near as cool.
“Ready?” She asked, turning back to her two passengers.
“Yeah!” Rainbow shouted without hesitation.
Rarity sighed. “…Sure. Launch the fighter-thing.”
Twilight nodded. “Here we go…”
She activated the wormhole drive, popping into existence right outside the Starcross ship’s shields. It would have been vastly preferable to appear inside the shields, but the Starcross were evidently smart enough to think of that, jamming all dimensional or wormhole travel through spatial distortion.
So instead they just rammed into the shield at full speed, piercing it like a needle. At first it was only a handful of atoms that poked through from the front of her ship, but that was enough. The tip of the fighter began to unfold like a giant claw, forcing the opening in the shields open wider and wider until she could pop right through.
Twilight’s ship was not the only one doing this – a few dozen others had made it through as well.
Unfortunately, most of those ships did not have a spellcaster of Twilight’s caliber on board, and they fell to the Starcross point defenses, exploding in showers of color. With the large lasers occupied, Twilight’s internal magic was easily able to deflect the smaller weapons.
Though the shield did flicker. She groaned – the ‘recently refueled’ jitters. No matter what she’d done, all artificial methods of restoring spent magic gave her the twitches. It was hardly a danger to her, but it was quite annoying.
“Brace for impact!” Twilight shouted. They rammed into the hull as hard as they could, puncturing through the outer layer and coming to a stop in a large hallway lined with green runes that occasionally pulsed amber.
To Twilight’s shock, there weren’t any soldiers waiting for them.
“Sweet!” Twilight declared, popping open the cockpit and hopping out. Her hoof touched an amber Rune – and for a moment it flashed a beautiful purple. “That’s cool.”
“You too?” Rarity asked, jumping out and turning the Runes near her a soft white.
“That proves it!” Rainbow said, touching her own hoof to an amber Rune. Nothing happened, though she didn’t seem bothered by this.
“Proves what?” Twilight asked.
“You guys have an Elements of Harmony situation. Get everyone together next to the Runes of this world and I bet magic happens.”
“Magic?”
“Yeah, some kind of destiny thing is clearly going on he-“
“DOWN!” Rarity shouted, pulling Twilight’s head out of the way of an enemy soldier’s shot. To her surprise, it wasn’t a cloudy being – but a pale primate and two ponies, all three of which were wearing the Runic armor.
Twilight lit her horn in preparation to smite them, but Rainbow’s wind took care of the three enemies with ease. “Okay! We need to move quickly – their engineering is this way!”
The three mares galloped through the corridors, and with Twilight’s longer legs she was easily able to take the lead position of the group, actively slowing herself down so the others wouldn’t be left in the dust. Soldiers met them – firing every weapon they had – but the few that managed to force Twilight into the pure defensive were quickly taken out by backup spells from Rarity or a burst from Rainbow’s pulse cannon.
It was almost pathetically easy. The soldiers were of little consequence when they were split up like this, trying to defend from so many angles. They could never attack with a group of more than six at a time, hardly enough to even be considered a challenge.
Rarity removed her sword from a fuzzy six-armed creature. “How far?”
“Not long now!” Rainbow called. “It’s either through the next door or the one after it!”
“You don’t know?”
“Not all Starcross ships are exactly the same!”
Rarity groaned and threw her hammer into a pony that had appeared behind Rainbow. “I am having my doubts about this plan…”
“Why?” Twilight called, blowing the next set of doors off with an explosion spell, revealing a long corridor filled with red Runes. “We’re doing great! Doesn’t even feel like a proper war right ye-“
Twilight lost all feeling in her legs and keeled over, flopping onto the ground with a pained grown. “What the…?”
Glimmer was standing at the far end of the hall, pointing her two-pronged staff at Twilight. Held within the two prongs was a brilliant star of purple energy struggling to free itself.
“This is all of your magic,” Glimmer said, smiling innocently. “If I were so inclined I could throw it on the ground and blow up everything for miles.”
Twilight tried to stand up, but even her bones felt like jelly. With mild horror, she realized she couldn’t even sense magic anymore. Everything was just… dull. Boring.
“You won’t,” Rarity said, stepping forward. “You need your ship to survive.”
“Good eye,” Glimmer admitted. “This is an awful lot of magic, more than the staff has ever held at one time before.”
“She can only hold one essence at a time unless she wants to use it,” Rainbow said, walking to stand by Rarity. “So we’re good.”
Glimmer teleported her staff somewhere else; the teleport block evidently didn’t apply to her. “I guess there’s no use bluffing!” She lit her horn. “So, magic duel?”
Rarity sneered. “I have practiced magic religiously my entire life.”
“Yep! And if this were a fair fight, you’d almost definitely win, especially since there are two of you.”
“You have friends?” Rainbow asked.
Glimmer shook her head. “Nope. I just know how to use the Runes.” She plucked a red glyph off the wall and threw it at Rarity. She met it with her hammer and smashed right through it.
But the effect of the Rune still went off. Blood started pouring out of her ears, nose, mouth…
“Runes are curious things,” Glimmer said, tearing another one off the wall. “In their ‘natural’ form, they exhibit highly unusual and specific properties. Usually, artificial altercation removes these abilities. But in the case of this hall… well, it was installed without breaking anything down. I hope you like excessive bleeding.” She deflected a few attacks from Rainbow’s pulse cannon using nothing more than her telekinesis. With a smirk, she hefted another Rune from the wall and threw it and Rainbow.
The pegasus twirled around it and sent a gust of wind at Glimmer, only for a defensive spell to dissipate the wind harmlessly around her. She retaliated with a simple laser Rainbow tanked, charring one of her back legs. She used her momentum to deliver a roundhouse kick to Glimmer’s face.
She hit something hard. “AUGH!”
“I do love magic armo-“
Rarity embedded her hammer into the other side of Glimmer’s face, resonating with the magic armor. There was a satisfying crack as Glimmer’s jaw shattered, but Rarity wasn’t done – she drove two swords forward, piercing through Glimmer’s sides.
When Rarity tore the swords out, Glimmer blinked in surprise. “Wgh…” she tried to say something, but her jaw was cracked. Her horn lit, and Rarity prepared to defend against a desperate last minute attack.
Instead, Glimmer cast the fastest healing spell Rarity had ever seen. Her jaw reset itself and the punctures from the swords disappeared as though a sword of healing rammed into them and popped out.
Then Rarity noticed – the bloodstains were gone too. “What in…?”
“Don’t have time magic where you’re from?” Glimmer asked. “Shame. All I did was turn the clock back!” She bowed. Rainbow thought this was an opportunity to attack her – but Glimmer wasn’t truly vulnerable. She used Rainbow’s aggressive attack to smash a Rune into her, causing the blood to pour out of her every orifice.
“Gah!”
Rarity could already feel the lightheadedness of blood loss, and she didn’t have time to cast a healing spell.
Time for something desperate.
She pulled the meteor rifle out and aimed it at Glimmer. She pulled the trigger…
…Glimmer was already there, cutting her weapon in half with a blade spell. Rarity was surprised, but this didn’t deter her. She cast an explosion spell with her horn, tossing both her and Glimmer to the side.
It heavily damaged both of them. But Glimmer undid everything. “A bit desperate, don’t you think?”
Rarity managed to bring herself to a standing position. “Yes…”
“You really are hurting yourself like this… Just stop, I’d rather not kill you. Or have you kill yourself, which is probably what’s going to happen if we continue like this.”
“Your terms?”
Glimmer blinked. “I… wasn’t actually expecting you to listen to me. Huh. Thanks, the determinators get so boring and tragic after a while. My terms are simple, stop attacking, and you don’t die. I’ll even heal you u-“
Glimmer’s ears twitched, picking up the sound of the door at the other end of the hall opening. She whirled around to see Rainbow flying into the engine room. “…Welp, I’ve been duped. Too bad it doesn’t work.” She teleported Rainbow back into the hall and smashed a Rune over the pegasus’ head, flattening her into the ground. “A for effort, really. But without Twilight you just don’t have the magic to take me out.”
It was at this point all of them heard the scraping. A sharp, eerie noise of something unnatural dragging its point along a metallic surface. As it approached, they could make out gurgling as well, accompanied by a disgusting drip… drip… drip…
Whatever it was, it was behind Twilight, and she didn’t want to spend any effort to look at the thing. The reactions of the three other ponies in the hall were enough to tell her she didn’t want to look.
“I…” despite her heavily injured state, Rarity managed to put a hoof to her head. “It hurts…”
Glimmer cast a spell to cover her eyes in a blue aura. “Not falling for your tricks today.”
“What’s the Embodiment doing here!?” Rainbow shouted.
“You really don’t know what's going on, do y-“ Glimmer started, only for a black, snaking tentacle to grab her around the stomach and pull her behind Twilight. There was the sound of gnashing teeth.
Glimmer’s response to this was an explosion of magic powerful enough to toss Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow all the way across the hall and into engineering. There were numerous consoles littered all around, far too complicated to figure out. However, there was a single bright blue Rune floating in the middle of the room inside a glass tube. Twilight had no doubt – break that, Starcross wouldn’t like it.
But she could also see the battle taking place in the hall of red Runes. Glimmer was no longer smiling – there was an immense grimace on her face as she battled the creature…
Twilight, in all her time, had never seen something so wrong. It had eyes from more animals than she could identify, mouths in places that shouldn’t have been physically possible, and it moved as though it didn’t belong. She got a mild headache just from looking at the thing!
What in the galaxy are you?
She decided the answer to that question wasn’t important. It had given them the opportunity. She was going to take it. Rarity’s hammer was sitting at her hoof – an artifact of great enchanted power. All she’d have to do is tap the glass surrounding the Rune and the entire thing would come down.
Without magic, she would have to pick it up with her hooves…
I have no traction.
She tried her wings, struggling to reach the hammer…
“You and your master won’t get what you want!” Glimmer shouted at the beast. “Capella is rightfully ours!”
The beast, if it understood her, gave no indication. It continued to attack, resulting in more magic explosions it shrugged off like nothing.
Twilight curled her feathers around the handle of the hammer. With a weak smirk, she tried to lift.
She popped a joint in her wing for her efforts. Twilight Sparkle, Empress of Unity, let out a whimpering cry of helplessness.
There’s nothing I can do…
A blue telekinetic aura gripped the hammer, lifting it into the air and out of Twilight’s wing. The weapon found its way to Rarity’s careful hooves. The Enchantress was covered in her own blood, and every step was marred with horrible shakes. She should have passed out long ago.
But never, ever in her life had she backed down when ponies needed her. Even when she was sure it was hopeless, she would strive to the absolute end.
Twilight had to admire that.
Rarity took in a sharp breath, hefting the hammer over her head. She screamed, bringing it down on the glass.
And with that, Queen Rarity, the Enchantress, saved her world from the Starcross Society. The glass cracked from the hammer’s impact and the Rune flew out, cracking into two pieces along the far wall. Power stopped flowing to the shield and the drill.
The Starcross ship had backups, yes. But the backups that would kick in instantly had been destroyed or partially damaged by other teams. A window opened where there were no shields.
Unity took advantage of the opportunity. One of the massive missiles of theirs hit the ship square in the side, taking out an immense chunk of the behemoth. It tipped over, careening to the ground.
Everyone inside experienced their rooms twisting sideways. Rainbow and Rarity didn’t care – the former because she was too busy cheering and the latter because she had passed out.
Twilight, on the other hand, got flopped around like a fish and let out a disgruntled moan of pain when the ship finally settled. Looking up, she could see the crimson hallway.
The dark creature was gone. Twilight had no idea where it went.
Glimmer was there, looking down at them through the doorway that was now on the floor.
“Well. Looks like you win.” Glimmer sighed. “Don’t tell Scarcity I let you live. I don’t think she has any idea of honor left in her body.” She teleported away.
Well… Twilight thought. Guess we won… She glanced over to Rarity. Unity Helix better get here quick, she needs attention…
~~~
Rainbow Dash, better known as the Blue Bolt, knew how to live off instinct. Most ponies would fall instantly to the impossible monstrosity attacking them, but Bolt had lived and breathed the complex folding nature of New Alice City for most of her life.
She was able to follow the creature’s movements. That tentacle may have looked like it was to her left, and the claw on top, but in reality, they were coming from her back and underside. She twisted to the side, folding through space to pop out in front of Shine.
Bolt held no delusions – whatever this creature was, she couldn’t fight it directly. But it seemed to be keyed to the unicorn, so he was going down. Her hoof made direct contact with his face, sending him back into the creature.
The creature’s lower half unraveled, allowing Shine to pass through unharmed.
Shine grunted, grabbing Bolt in his telekinesis. “Why we have chosen here for our confrontation I will never know…”
Bolt shrugged. “Shoulda thought that through, huh?” She was no spellcaster, but she was able to use the power in her wings to tear out of the stallion’s grip. She prepared to charge him again, but she caught Pinkie cowering out of the corner of her eye.
Can’t let her be skewered…
She jumped to the side, grappling Pinkie just as a spiked limb crashed down, shattering much of the black brick wall.
Fold away, Bolt thought. …No? Fine, trapdoor, trapdoor…
The impossible creature folded into existence in front of her, snarling with a mouth it hadn’t had a second ago. Bolt had to pull back to avoid being torn to shreds.
“You won’t be escaping,” Shine called. “We aren’t some simple spirit.”
“I figured that!” Bolt shouted. “Which world are you from?”
Shine smirked. “Me? Here. My friend? Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Bolt had to fold out of the way of the monster again. I’m not going to be able to dodge every time.
“Notebook,” Pinkie said, tapping Bolt. “I need that… notebook.”
“Little busy right now!” Bolt shouted, ducking under another spike. “This thing isn’t exactly easy to look at!”
“It’s… I got you in this situation, I can fix it.”
“You’re cra-“ The spike grazed Bolt across the wing, dropping her to the ground. “AUGH!”
Pinkie whimpered.
The two mares were on the ground, prone to an attack. The beast pulsed disgustingly in anticipation, pulling back one of its many sets of lips to expose rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth…
Well, at least this is a cool way to go out.
“Take… this!”
Applejack swung an axe down upon the monster’s top. The blade glowed with a brilliant light, casting the alley in the previously unknown tone of day. The blade seared right through the beast, splitting it in two.
Through the slit, Bolt saw Fluttershy. In the Mesh, she’d seen Fluttershy freeze – her expression was always blank, uninterested, distant. That was not the case now: her eyes were open in pure, unfiltered fear. She knew the creature was wrong.
Bolt shook the horrified expression out of her head – she had an opportunity now. She twisted her legs back and kicked Shine under the jaw, tossing him to the side.
Behind her, she heard Applejack groan – whatever that meant, it wasn’t good. It didn’t deter her; she grabbed the notebook with its pen and tossed it to Pinkie.
She wrote down a single sentence.
Then the darkness came.
Bolt furrowed her brow. “How i-“
The city went dark, even the light of the moon vanishing in the oppressive darkness. Only Applejack’s axe still shone bright. Bolt froze – that was impossible. There was always warning when the darkness came. It… it couldn’t just be summoned.
“You’re fools…” Shine grunted, standing back up. “You think the moon will help you!?”
Pinkie giggled, eye twitching. “You don’t know the moon.”
Bolt turned her gaze back to the impossible creature – it was now two. Applejack had been discarded to the side, laying at the hooves of Fluttershy. There was no blood, but Applejack was barely moving.
And there it was. The dimensional device.
If I move, the darkness will take me. But if I can grab that…
The darkness solved her quandary for her. A deep, oppressive smog lifted out of the ground, taking the shape of an immense hand. Within the hand’s palm was a shining eye, the whites marred with the patterns of the moon. It saw the halves of the creature and grabbed both of them tight.
Now or never.
Bolt grabbed Pinkie and folded past the battle between two monstrosities. Heh. I’m going to be the only Thief to ever see the beast of the darkness and live. Sweet!
“No!” Shine shouted at the hand of darkness. “Do you not know where you came from!?”
The hand - the Moon - spoke. “IT AMUSES ME THAT YOU THINK I CARE.”
That voice… Bolt had heard it her whole life without realizing it…
She lost focus, falling face-first next to Applejack and Fluttershy. “Oof…” With a hiss of pain, she pulled herself off the ground. Her face burned. That’s gonna leave a mark…
Bolt pulled the dimensional device out of Applejack’s pack and tapped the screen, opening a portal to a bright city park in the middle of day. Huh. Nice.
“Get everypony through!” Bolt shouted, picking up Fluttershy and tossing her surprisingly light armored figure through the opening.
Pinkie, breathing heavily and in clear panic mode, still managed to grab hold of Applejack and dragged her through as well.
“NO!” Shine shouted.
“Astalavista, sucker!” Bolt said, giving him a mock salute with her wing.
~~~
Rarity woke up to see Twilight standing over her, casting a healing spell. For a moment, Rarity felt immense pain from her wounds, but the magic quickly repaired the nerve endings so the shock was only momentary.
She groaned, closing her eyes tight.
“You did it,” Rainbow said, shooting her a wink. “Saved the world.”
Rarity forced her eyes open, glancing at the pillar she had smashed – now tilted sideways with the rest of the ship. “I… did it?”
Twilight nodded – an awkward motion, seeing as she had several wires plugged into her horn, winding to a glowing box shimmering with thaumic energy. “When you smashed it, the shields went down. Ship toppled over like a domino. They didn’t finish digging.”
“Good…” Rarity stood up, stretching her legs. “Glimmer?”
“Teleported away. No sign of Scarcity at all.”
Rarity nodded. “…A coward too…”
“Hey, she’s not you,” Rainbow reminded her. “You’re a hero!”
Rarity wanted to object – but stopped. She realized Rainbow had a point. She had been the one to deliver the final blow, the one to save everything. What little magic remained in her world was now safe from the Starcross Society.
This was a staggering victory.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt like this…
“Smiles look good on you,” Rainbow said.
Rarity let herself laugh. “I’ve smiled before, Rainbow.”
“Not like that.”
Rarity shrugged, wiping some tears from her eyes. “Maybe not…”
Twilight nodded. “We’re currently going through the Starcross’ files to learn more about what they were trying to do. And by ‘we’ I mean the Unity Helix is combing through it all.”
“He’s not done already?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “If you must assign a gender to it, use she. It prefers it though.”
“…That’s unusual, but a’ight.”
“Regardless, it has to process through a dimensional connection, which is slower than direct uplink. Shouldn’t be much longer though. But…” Twilight frowned. “Rainbow, what was that thing?”
“Eldritch creature,” Rainbow answered. “From a universe where physics don’t line up with standard three-dimensions. Looking at eldritch universes tends to drive you mad or tear your body inside out from forces it isn’t prepared to deal with. I… think that was a being from the Eldritch Embodiment, a multiversal society of eldritch creatures. But I can’t be sure, it didn’t say anything.”
“It was helpful,” Rarity pointed out. “Why?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno. Eldritch creatures often don’t think like we do. Sometimes you’ll be able to say ‘oh yeah, he attacked because he was angry’. Other times they’ll do things for reasons you can’t comprehend. It’s… hard to deal with them.”
“Do they all give you headaches?”
“Unless they’re hiding behind a perception filter, yeah,” Rainbow laughed nervously. “The bigger ones cause irreparable brain damage.”
“Joy…” Rarity shook her head. “Well, what now?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I’d think the quarantine on the local universes is over now that this ship’s power has been gutted. My dimensional device should be sending out a distress signal to Merodi Universalis now, they could arrive at any minute.”
“Wait… this ship was causing the quarantine?” Twilight asked.
“Uh, maybe not? But what else could be?”
“They needed me to cast my dimensional spell to follow me back to the Crystal Sea.”
“…What?”
“They didn’t know how to travel.”
“But…” Rainbow scratched her head. “They’re stuck just like me?”
“Maybe?”
“But who would do that? Who could do that?”
“My world is one big Star corpse, right?” Rarity asked. Upon receiving a nod from Rainbow, she continued. “Could it have recognized its old enemy and tried to trap them?”
“Maybe? I’ve never seen a Rune this large… But Runes don’t act with intelligence far as I know.”
“The Embodiment then?”
Rainbow furrowed her brow. “You’d need one of their higher deities to do something like that. And one little demon helping us out does not mean there’s a monstrous world-eating monstrosity around. It’d be hard to miss one of those if they were involved. Between the two of you, you should have detected something.”
“…New Alice City…” Rarity said, eyes wide. “That place just… felt wrong.”
Rainbow froze. “…And that’s where we sent our friends.”
“Unity!” Twilight called, addressing the glowing box. “Have you figured out the dimensional accessories yet?”
“I have,” the intelligence responded. “But I don’t think New Alice City is what you’re looking for here. I found something concerning in the Stacross archives.”
“What?”
The Unity Helix restored power to one of the large screens in engineering, displaying a diagram of Rarity’s planet. It showed the Starcross ship drilling through the Runic crust to the hollow interior of the world.
Except it wasn’t completely hollow. In the very center of the empty void sat a symbol made up of an eye with several tentacles.
It was labeled Rx’len.
“…Wh… why didn’t anypony detect that!?” Rainbow shouted. “It’s right under our hooves!”
“It is hiding under the Runic crust,” the Unity Helix answered. “Unless one were to extend their perceptions as far into the ground as they could, they’d feel nothing.”
“Who w-“ Rainbow turned to her two companions, horror on her face. “Wait, no, don’t!”
Too late, Rarity and Twilight had already pushed their magic into the earth. They connected to the Runes below; finding the hole Starcross had dug easily. It did not take much more effort to push through the rest of the Rune and touch the interior of the planet.
Emptiness.
Emptiness that looked back.
“YOU’RE WELCOME.”
Rarity screamed and Twilight let out a hiss of pain. Rainbow rushed to Rarity, slapping her across the face. “Focus on me. Not on whatever you saw down there. Okay?”
Rarity tried to remember what she’d sensed. She got… almost nothing. Nothing but a pit in her stomach and the words. “I… I don’t know…”
“Good, you blocked it. Twilight?”
Twilight rubbed her temples. “I’m having bad luck with meeting gods these days…”
“You’re fine.” Rainbow let out a sigh of relief. “That was extremely dangerous! Those things can shred your minds like a lawn mower without even trying!”
“Lawn… mower?” Rarity cocked her head.
“You can figure out what I mean!” Rainbow waved a hoof around angrily.
Rarity shook her head. “Right… right. What does this… Rx’len mean for us?”
“It is eating your world alive,” the Unity Helix said. “It is trying to devour the entire Rune on which your world sits, draining the magic in the process, turning the once grand Star to little more than amber ashes to serve it.”
“It… it is responsible?”
“Yes. It no doubt assisted us by sending servants in order to protect itself. The Starcross plan to drain all magic from the world would also have cut off Rx’len’s power.”
“So we just… saved the monster that’s destroying my world.” Rarity sat down. “…That’s… about par for the course, really.”
“No, Rarity, don’t do this!” Rainbow called. “You saved your world – even if the Starcross had defeated Rx’len, it would have taken the rest of magic with it!”
“But now what? All I’ve done is delay the end again. This… monster is still down there, has always been down there, and what can we do about it? It’ll just shred our minds!”
Rainbow looked lost for a minute – but then she got an idea. “The Elements of Harmony.”
“What?”
“You, Twilight, and Fluttershy… you all respond to the Runes. That means you’re connected to it.”
“Yes…?”
“It may not mean anything to you two, but it means something to me. There’s a common pattern in this area of the multiverse of six heroes chosen by fate – they come together in the name of harmony, unlock the power of ancient magical artifacts, and banish some kind of dark evil with their power. I am an Element from my home world. I have no doubt that you are part of your own set.”
Rarity blinked. “Are you telling me you know what the circles mean?”
“Circles?”
Rarity lit her horn and projected an image in midair of five circles around a sixth, center one. Each circle contained a symbol within it. “This one.”
Rainbow grinned. “You bet I do. That in the center? That’s you, Rarity. The five around represent different ponies. Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie, and… well, I’d say me, but if I’m a betting mare it’s probably the Blue Bolt since the Runes refuse to respond to me.” She laughed. “This is a classic case of a harmony prophecy. You were probably destined to face off against Rx’len with your five otherworldly friends! If I hadn’t come along, Twilight would have triggered the event anyway…”
“This was still your fault,” Twilight accused.
“Well, yeah, but it would have been your fault if I hadn’t been here. This explains so much… why six ponies were teleported to the Crystal Sea because of one accident – because they were all connected! Why can we still travel between universes at all in a quarantine? Because the six universes are so closely connected it would be disastrous to fully separate them! Why is there a quarantine at all?” She pointed at the diagram on screen. “Because Rx’len doesn’t want any multiversal societies destroying its little plan with the Runes.”
“You’re… right.” Rarity put a hoof to her mouth. “This is what it all means…”
“Yeah! We just need to find the others and we can get a full set of the Elements of Harmony! And guess what? All four of them are in New Alice City! Helix! You said you figured it out?”
“Yes,” the Unity Helix confirmed. “I can open a portal through Twilight’s horn if you wish.”
Twilight frowned. “Ugh, I hate it when you use my horn…”
“It’s the only magical node I have access to in this room.”
“Fine. I’m almost fully charged again anyway…” Twilight’s horn started to hum. “So, Rainbow, we find the others and… then what?”
“Bring everyone together next to the Runes and… well, usually it’s a Rainbow Death Laser of some sort.”
Rarity blinked. “…Rainbow Death Laser?”
“Yeah. Purges the darkness and all that. But you need a full set to make it work.”
~~~
Pinkie landed in the grass of her world. She was surprised to find an urge to scream thanks to the heavens and kiss the ground.
But she put that behind her, turning back to the portal.
“NO!” Shine shouted.
“Astalavista, sucker!” Bolt said, giving him a mock salute with her wing.
The pegasus leaped backward toward the portal…
SHIK.
A single, dark tendril from the impossible monster drove itself through Bolt’s chest, coming out the back of her neck.
She didn’t even make a noise.
The portal closed with a pop, leaving three horrified ponies on the other side.
A peaceful breeze blew through the park.
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Oh no,
Welllllllllll.
Sh*t
You have no idea.
Oh dear...
Roll credits.
Hoo boy. That's certainly a series of wrinkles in the plan. And I doubt New Alice City natives respond well to resurrection magic, assuming any of the local worlds have any. I don't think they're doomed, but this is going to get complicated...
And that completely explains the cover image for this story, as well as why the Rainbow Dash Pre-Story is redacted.
That's why you never try for the last word. Get the deed done then gloat after you are 1,000% sure it is done and not going to come back and bite (or in this case stab) you.
This part of the conversation feels a little odd to me given that according to Scarcity in previous chapters, Rainbow is the one that broke the Starcross' dimensional drive.
Other than that, very gripping chapter, lots of developments.
9873126
The dimensional drive applies to the entire ship (and has been fixed since). Any Starcross mage should just be able to cast the spell so long as the Quarantine of the six universes was THEIR creation. Since they needed Twilight, it implies that the Starcross are not responsible for Quaratnining the universes.
-GM, master of Quar.
Oh, subverted tropes will getcha.
9873133
Gotcha, thank you for the clarification.
oofers
9872347
It doesn't explain why the RD prestory is missing. We could have gotten a story of the Blue Bolt on one of his daring raids of the city, showing us the noble thieves and the nightmare of the moon.
Hoping we find out why we didn't get his origin soon
So how did the StarCross get in to drain the place?
You HAD to take the time to gloat, Blue Bolt.
Hey, she said the thing.
Of course she somehow beats an Alicorn....... This is why I hate Starlight Glimmer so much. Shes more overpowered then even Alicorn Twilight whos already overpowered enough.
Also where is discord, you`d think with all this Chaos going around he`d show himself.
9916128
Ooh ooh, pick me! I have a theory about the timing of the quarantine. Let us assume that Rx’len is familiar with the multiverse beyond these 6 worlds. He might be aware that prophecies often fall apart when other worlds become involved. So, if there was a prophecy that the Amber Main Six would defeat him he could have purposefully let a few outsiders in to disrupt the prophecy. Of course, after that he had to keep them from calling for help, since either side could kill him single handedly if they could get reinforcements from home.
10483478
I suspect there just isn't a Discord in this set of universes. So far only the main six have been present.
to
I think this is a typo and you meant alright, but you might have been showing her pronouncing it oddly.
Oh, FUCK.
Guess...that explains the cracked Rainbow cutie mark? Maybe?
...Well...now what?
Oh also: Eldritch beings. What fun.