Caverns & Cutie Marks: Our House Now

by TheColtTrio

Chapter 45: Can We Fix It?! NO IT’S FU-

Twilight Sparkle and Wits End sat at opposite ends of the table. They remained silent, not because they had nothing to say, but rather the silence was a symptom of neither one quite knowing how to break it. The Princess of Friendship filled her part of the silence by tapping the tabletop in a way that was completely devoid of rhythm; an empty notepad lying forgotten in front of her. The mint-colored stallion, on the other hoof, sat with one hind-leg crossed over the other, watching as Trixie and Sunset Shimmer closed the one door in and out of the room behind them.

“So,” Twilight said eventually. “Let’s-

“I apologize,” Wits cut in.

Twilight paused. If somepony else were listening, they might be able to pick out the sound her train of thought made as it careened off a metaphorical cliff. “What?”

Wits took a deep breath in. “Last time we were in this room,” he said, slowly and carefully, “I said, and did, something that was... specifically intended to make you irritable.”

“Interesting way to put it.”

“Better than saying ‘I was trying to piss you off.’ I was…” Wits trailed off, then shook his head. “You don’t need to hear my excuses.”

“Maybe I want to hear them,” Twilight muttered, suddenly very interested in her empty notebook.

“I’m trying to apologize, not save face.” Wits sighed, leaning back in his chair. “I need to make this right with you, not make myself feel better.”

“Wits.” Twilight shook her head, forcing herself to look the stallion in the eyes. “I accept your apology.”

“Not until I’m bloody well finished with it, you won’t,” Wits said quickly, “‘Cause I’m not taking responsibility for everything that happened.”

Twilight was silent for a while, then gave a half-nod. “Go on.”

“I goaded you into treating me the way you did. Instead of waiting and earning your trust, I kept running out to play hero.” Wits forced himself to sit up, rather than the lazy slump he usually ended up in. “It doesn’t matter whether it was safe for me to do or not. What matters is that I betrayed your trust by going against your requests without talking to you about it. When you confronted me about it, I lashed out to try and keep myself in a place of importance in what I thought was the narrative.” He took another deep breath. “For all of that, I am sorry.” He waited a beat. “Now you can accept my apology.”

Twilight smirked. “Then consider it accepted.” The two of them were silent again, and her smirk faded. “I feel like this is where you would normally try to get me to apologize for something I did too.”

“Hey, I’m no mind-reader.” Wits was silent again, although his expression made it clear her had more to say.

Eventually, Twilight sighed. “Go on.”

“All I’m saying is that I didn’t have an argument with myself,” Wits said quickly. “There. That’s all I got.”

“Really? You’re being succinct?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You?”

Wits rolled his eyes. “Fine, we’ll do apologies and the airing of grievances at the same time.” He leaned forward, resting one elbow on the table. “You kept the three of us out of the loop on what you were trying to do. I’m not saying that’s why I acted the way I did, but it certainly didn’t help.”

“...Yeah, it didn’t.” Twilight slumped forward. “The whole thing about you being a villain… Do you remember how it got started?”

“Sure. I got angsty and accused you and the rest of the girls of treating me like one.” Wits paused. “Why?”

“Well… It seems like there was more to that than meets the eye.” Twilight’s horn started the glow, and she offered a hoof towards Wits. “May I?”

Wits hesitated, then nodded. “I’m hoping we’re past the ‘vaporize on sight’ part of this relationship,” he muttered, holding out a forehoof.

Twilight’s spell wrapped itself around his hoof, leaving a trail of arcane energy in its wake. After a few seconds, the energy coalesced into a few pieces of colored light, which hovered over Wits’ wrist. “What do you see?” Twilight asked.

“A pie chart?” Wits asked, raising an eyebrow. “I.e., undeniable proof that you’re a massive nerd?”

“You recognized it as a pie chart. What does that make you?”

“A massive nerd. What’s it a chart of?”

Twilight adjusted the spell, projecting it at a larger size in the center of the table. “In the simplest terms, it’s the percentage of how much of a magical signature is in your body right now. This,” she motioned towards a blue section that made up most of the chart, “is your magical signature.”

Wits narrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the chart. “But Mass Low’s theorems state that there shouldn’t be any way for a single pony to hold more than one magical signature in their body.”

“Where’d you learn that?”

“5th year magical theory.” He shot a smirk at her. “Somepony insisted I do magical study when I first arrived in Equestria.”

Twilight smirked back. “Must’ve been a pretty smart pony. You’re right, but only mostly. It turns out you can have multiple magical signatures, under specific circumstances.”

“Like what?”

“Like, for instance, if some number of ponies were trapped in an interdimensional Limbo, and then pulled out with a spell that only targeted their magical signatures in the vaguest sense.”

Wits stroked his chin. “But when would that happen? That seems pretty specif-” His eyes widened. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

The unicorn was silent for a moment, then pointed to a white section of the chart. “Then whose signature is this?”

“You’re not gonna like it.”

“I already don’t like that there’s somepony who isn’t me taking up space in my brain. I already had to deal with that in Discord’s game world. It was thoroughly unpleasant then, and all he was doing was making prank calls.” Wits watched a strange expression cross Twilight’s face, and felt his stomach drop by a good couple yards. “Twilight.”

Twilight’s horn glowed, and the two sections of the chart were overlaid with images: a white glove over the blue, and over the white an eagle’s claw grasping a golden crown. “I told you that you wouldn’t like it.”

Wits’ head hit the table with a dull thud. “Of course it’d be him,” he mumbled into the rich mahogany. “I mean, it makes sense. Discord did make him based on me. If there was anypony he was gonna latch on to…” Wits shuddered. “I feel like I need a bath, but one that works from the inside out.”

Twilight waited for Wits to sit back up, but when it became clear that he wasn’t moving, she started to get concerned. “Are you alright?”

“Just processing some philosophical dilemmas this brings up,” Wits groaned. “How much of what I did is my fault and how much is Holdfast’s; am I really me or am I some unearthly amalgamation of the two of us.” He looked up. “That kind of stuff.”

“You’re probably still you,” Twilight offered. “But… there’s a lot of Holdfast’s personality influencing yours right now. Probably more now than when you first got here.”

“So the argument was my fault, but the war is a grey area? Sounds about right.” Wits paused. “But how would you know that?”

Silently, Twilight turned the spell on herself. The simple two-tone chart was replaced with one containing seven distinct colors: with the majority being purple. “Because that is the chart of the magical signatures in my body.”

Wits stared at the chart for a good, long while. “So you’re saying that you haven’t quite been yourself lately?”

“You could definitely say that,” Twilight sighed. “Like you, the effect wasn’t very strong at first. But, as time went on…”

“Everyone else's personalities started affecting yours,” Wits finished. “So you’d start acting more like our villains.” His eyes went wide. “Or more like us.”

“A fate worse than death,” the two of them said in unison.

Wits frowned. “That was freaky. Please don’t do that again.”

“Believe me, I’m trying,” Twilight groaned. “The problem is that I can’t just pull out the signatures one by one. I need to gather the distinct fragments into one place so I can split them back out into whole pieces. Otherwise...”

“Bad things?” Wits offered.

“Bad things,” Twilight agreed. “Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are gathering Light Patch, so I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before they get back with him in tow. But Purple Heart…” She leaned back in her chair, tilting it onto its back legs. “He’s styled himself as a military leader and surrounded himself with ponies who’ll follow his chain of command. I just can’t figure out how to get to him without alerting his guards or giving him time to fight back.”

Wits thought for a moment. “Have you talked to Trixie much since I sent her here?”

“Not as much as I probably should have. Why?”

Wits grinned. “Because, for the first time since I arrived in Equestria, I think I have a good idea.”

* * *

The land around the portal was barren, scorched black, and devoid of both flora and fauna. The remnants of a camp smoldered before the twisting portal’s event horizon, sending winding spirals of smoke heavenward. Squads of Armour Ponies patrolled around the husk of a camp, routinely returning to where the Elephants and Rock Farm Commandos slept soundly within their own tents. All this was easily within Purple Heart’s sight from where he stood atop a small hill between the two camps.

The purple earth pony’s face was a rictus of frustration. It took longer than he’d have liked to actually discover the location of the portal connecting Equestria to Discord’s Game World. His scouts had spotted the tail-end of Penumbra’s retreating force just as they’d passed through the portal. When he himself and the rest of his force had arrived, night was starting to blanket the sky with a deep blue.

An initial investigation of the pedestal some thirty paces away from the portal itself informed Purple Heart (through one of the few alicorns in his force) that the portal couldn’t be turned off without the proper incantation and magical cocktail. Unfortunately, the alicorn had recognized the light in Purple Heart’s eyes and quickly added that destroying the pedestal or the archway would result in a catastrophic explosion of magical force that could very well wipe out the entire western part of Equestria.

So here he was, his army parked in front of a magical portal waiting for Penumbra to return while Equestria prepared a retaliatory strike against him.

So he assumed.

Huffing irritably, Purple Heart turned away from the water-like surface of the portal and walked his way back towards his camp. As he walked, his coat shimmered, turning from purple and blue to a motley mish-mash of various hues of green. Clicking his tongue at the motionless Armour standing sentry, he slipped into the camp and walked amongst his troops.

The light of cookfires cast dancing shadows against the tents as he skirted around the inside of the camp’s perimeter. Several ponies from the Rock Farm contingent were still talking around their fires. Brow raised with interest, he approached the nearest circle. He was but two steps from the edge of the fire’s light when the three ponies there jerked to full readiness and swung around to face him.

“Who goes there!” barked one. Purple Heart stepped into the light, one foreleg raised.

“A friend,” Purple Heart urged.

“Officer or soldier?” another asked.

“Neither,” Purple Heart replied. “I merely relay orders.”

“You under the Regent’s direct command?” the last inquired.

“Aye.”

“Tell him he’s a fool,” spoke the third. “Us Rockers were doing just fine holding the Alicorns back from the Rock Farm. Him pulling us out left our homes defenseless.”

“Shhh!” hissed the first pony. “We’ll get in trouble with your loud gawping!”

“Who’s to hear?!” snapped the third. “Huskless armor and great elephants? The camp below is empty and that fiendish portal can do naught bit belch forth enemies.”

“I take it you aren’t pleased with current events?” Purple Heart asked, slowly walking towards the trio to the fire. All three of them were earth ponies, two mares and a colt.

“Hardly,” sniffed one of the mares, sitting back down. “Equestria is in a right state, what with the Princesses vanishing, Blueblood becoming regent, then stepping down, then some butler, then Blueblood’s regent again. It’s all madness, I tell you. And not to mention these bloody alicorns.”

“Aye,” agreed the colt. “Imagine our surprise when some fancy alicorns that aren’t the Princesses come strolling up to the Rock Farm and kindly ask us to surrender.” He spat into the fire. “Right crazies of them to think we’d go down quietly.”

“The fighting must have been hard,” Purple Heart mused, eyeing the trio of ponies.

All three of them laughed. “Hard, but good,” the second mare said. “Gotta give it to Regent Alfreeves. He may be a ponce, but he certainly knew how to inspire us. Haven’t been given the Salvation Protocol 9983 in a long time... ”

“Wouldn’t call him a ponce,” the colt muttered. “Have you seen him fight? I saw him goin’ berserk in that first alicorn camp we pincered.”

“Fighter and leader ain’t necessarily found in the same pony,” the first mare commented dryly. “He may be good at giving what for, but he ain’t the best commander I’ve seen. S’why I’m starting to question why we’re even camped here. Granted, bottling up whatever comes outta the portal is a good idea, but not with another force operating on our hindends. Mind you, only half of the alicorn army went through that portal. Where’s the rest? Most likely wreckin’ shop behind us or something.”

Purple Heart swallowed softly. The mare had a point. Splitting his force to deal with both Sol Eater and Penumbra was probably the best idea for dealing with the otherworldly intruders if he didn’t want to get a surprise attack up his backside. His brow furrowed. However...

“I believe he thought to instead forestall any reinforcement from beyond the portal,” he said. “Sol Eater and her alicorns are few and can only really raid. Any heavy opposition from deeper within Equestria will be able to defend against such a pittance force.”

The ponies shrugged. “It’s all a waiting game now. Either we move or wait here till something comes outta the portal. All on the Regent’s orders.” The trio of ponies stood, nodding to Purple Heart as they passed him into their tent. Purple Heart sat by the fire for a few minutes longer, watching the cinders fly in silence. As he ruminated on the ponies’ words, his coat shimmered and he returned to his natural coloration. Rolling to his hooves with a soft grunt, he stretched, glancing over the tents at the portal’s undulating event horizon in the distance.

Then something came through.

Purple Heart’s eyes widened a split second before he grinned widely. A chill of vindication went through him as he ran through the camp, calling his strings forth to catapult him further with each step until he was bounding down the hill towards the ruined alicorn camp below. As he jumped, he saw several more entities emerge from the portal and his pace quickened. Several strings lanced out of his back to strike several nearby patrolling Armour Squads, ordering them to ring the alarm as he plummeted towards the small gathering of individuals now standing around the pedestal.

Then everything went wrong.

Lightning arced across the sky and Purple Heart blinked rapidly, trying to rid his corneas of the jagged imprint when something hit him from above. He ‘gaked’ in surprise and hit the ground with a soft whump. The pressure on his back vanished almost as quick as it had appeared and he blinked again, squinting at the harsh light around him. He rolled onto his back with a groan and massaged his eyes.

“What the flying f-”

“Teleporting, actually.”

Purple Heart stiffened. Eyes opening slowly, he frowned at the stark white ceiling. Then he looked towards the voice.

“What did you do?” he demanded, glaring at Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight brushed herself off, sweeping her wind-swept mane back into place. “Applied physics,” she said, doing her best to keep her breathing even. “Approximate 500 yards worth of gravitationally assisted acceleration, and a well placed teleportation.” She grinned. “A great and powerfully effective tactic, I’d say.”

Rolling onto his side with a huff, Purple Heart scowled. “That wasn’t what I meant, and you know it,” he said peevishly. “How the absolute bleeding carp did you know I was mid-jump, in the dark, intent on pulverizing some hapless alicorn reinforcements?”

Twilight paused. “I didn’t,” she said eventually. “I just tracked your general location, and let the instincts from Rainbow Dash’s training take over when I teleported in.” She paused. “Were you waiting in the dark to mug unsuspecting alicorns?”

“I was waiting for Penumbra’s returning force to come through the portal cos I couldn’t turn it off without nuking Western Equestria along with myself,” Purple Heart replied. “That it was in the dark at night was just happenstance.” He looked around the alarmingly white room. “Where are we? Some kind of padded cell?”

“Of my own design,” Twilight said with a nod. “I would’ve decorated the place a bit, but… Well, this was kind of a last-minute thing.” She tilted her head as she looked at the laying stallion. “How’ve you been? I feel like out of the three of you, you’re the one who’s been actively avoiding me.”

“Gee,” he grumbled, scratching at the base of his throat with a hoof, “I wonder why...”

Twilight frowned. “Look, I apologize for trying to repress your weird string thing before, but to be fair, the first thing you did when you got the collar off was overthrow the government. I feel like my concerns were just a bit validated.”

“Ah-ah.” Purple Heart raised a hoof. “I produced a play to get you hacked off at Discord so that I could get him out of the way,” he denied. “Overthrowing the government was just a fluke after I found out about the Senate you had made for Celestia and Luna. Everything else went pear shaped from there. Although, you can blame Light for that. He was the one who critiqued my original plan, so I just had to up the ante.” He shrugged. “I also may be bad at planning. Certainly explains why you had to go on a wild goose chase. Fowl day, that.”

“Setting aside the fact that you’re saying that implicating Discord in sedition is less of a problem than forming a coup,” Twilight replied, “my point is that out of you and your friends, you’re the one who’s been an active menace to society.” She paused. “Wits’ invading army aside, of course. I mean, you put Blueblood in charge of the country. Who even does that?”

Purple Heart winced. “Yeh, not my best idea,” he admitted. “But, I wasn’t expecting him to toss me the regency almost immediately! I was thinking he’d last maybe a week before the pressure got to him or I’d have to arrange some accident to incapacitate him. Little git barely lasts a few days before he decides a survey of the north east holdings are in order and runs off on a vacation! If he’d held on for even a few more days, I could have been ready! NOPE! Turns out he’s a spineless coward!”

“Arrange an accident?” Twilight said incredulously. “Are you listening to yourself? What would you have done if Celestia and Luna were still in Canterlot, Purple Heart? Would they have had an ‘accident’ too?” She paused, something clicking in the back of her mind, and her face fell. “Purple… Did you arrange an accident for Lord Mountague and Lady Canterlet too?”

“Who?”

“The parents of Roam Mountague and Jewel Canterlet, respectively. You said you became friends with them, and then after you left they inherited their parents’ titles under mysterious circumstances.” Twilight went silent for a moment, as if waiting for a response. “This is serious, Purple Heart. Did you have anything to do with it?”

Purple Heart shrugged. “From what I heard, they died of natural causes. I had nothing to do with it.”

Twilight squinted at him. “They fell down a ravine in a cave.”

“Gravity is natural.” He grinned widely at the purple alicorn and his coat shimmered, retaining the base purple, but gaining splotches of green to match his mane and eyes. “But Patches, however, had everything to do with them falling.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide, and her face pale. She was silent for a good, long time as she processed what she was seeing, and what it meant about her friend. “Change yourself back,” she said eventually. “Just because you’re acting like an idiot doesn’t mean you have to look like one.”

The grin on Patches’ face vanished into a grim scowl. “Really, Princess, would an idiot be able to, on the fly, plan the deaths of two nobles of Canterlot while ensuring their offspring become indebted to him?” His coat shimmered again and now Baelhart stood before her with his purple coat and gold mane. “You forget that I’m an actor. I could be anypony. I could be a scheming producer, or a senator-” now it was Beekler Alfreeves, “-or a butler turned regent-” now Purple Heart, “-or a misplaced human in a world where he doesn’t belong and wants desperately to return home. By my nature, I should not be contained. It prevents freedom and creativity. And that was your first mistake.”

“You were always a misplaced human, Purple Heart,” Twilight replied, her voice reflecting the exhaustion she was feeling now. “You just got good at tricking yourself into thinking you were closer to getting home.” She sighed. “Go ahead. I can tell you’re dying to tell me. What were my other mistakes?”

Remarkably, Purple Heart was silent. He just stood there, staring mutely at the alicorn princess. After an uncomfortable amount of time that felt both too short and too long, he spoke. “Haven’t the foggiest,” he admitted. “I kinda phoned it in after implementing the Panel. I mean, I can think of a few mistakes off the top of my head if you want. Talking over Discord when you came to Patches’ office, letting Blueblood become Regent, installing the Senate for the Princesses-”

“Alright, I get it!” Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I thought you were gonna have some sort of poignant revelation you had been building up to ever since you stormed out of here last time. After dealing with Wits, I assumed all of you had some sort of deep-seated psychological reasoning for what you were doing.” She smirked; an action that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I should’ve known that the barbarian’s reasoning was ‘how many things can I break’, huh?”

“Eeyup.” Purple Heart nodded. “Poignancy is for warlocks that read too many books.” The large colt stiffened and his pupils swelled. “Tabaxi Barbarian. Twice the urge to break things...” He blinked twice and shook his head. With a cough, he grinned weakly. “Sorry. Can I go now? I need to get back to my army in case things go wrong.”

Twilight was silent again. Eventually, she turned away, moving to one of the walls. “No, no, I don’t think you’ll be going anywhere.” She came to a stop, not looking back at Purple Heart as she opened a hidden door with her magic. “Thanks for being the most dangerous out of the three of you, Purple. You showed me that I need to hurry up and finish this. No more messing around.”

Purple Heart gave one long, slow blink. Then he clenched, flexing his back muscles.

No strings.

“Uhm… wat?” he asked intelligently, blinking rapidly in shock. “Where was the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom...”

Twilight chuckled. “Oh, by the way,” she said almost casually as she stepped through the door. “Don’t bother trying to use those strings of yours to worm your way out of here.” A set of strings sprouted from her back, wrapping themselves around the handle on her side of the door. “I’ve come a long way since that old collar I tried on you.” The strings tightened, and the door slid shut with a click.

Purple Heart stared at the now-seamless room for a few seconds. “Well carp… this is a problem...”

* * *

The two groups of ponies sat quietly on the train ride taking them back towards Ponyville, the quiet giving most of them a chance to sleep, catch up on eating, or just quietly stare out of a window. This quietness and lack of anything was of course naturally getting to the one pony still animate. Normally, Pinkie would have simply gone to interact with any of the other passengers, but their car was deserted both by the lack of ponies on the train in the first place and the fact that the guardponies had requisitioned the use of the car for official business.

This of course left Pinkie with the dilemma of having to choose between boredom or running the quiet the other ponies were enjoying. She finally settled on what she felt was a simple compromise and, after digging a coin out of her hair, lightly tossed it at Light Patch.

“Bit for your thoughts?” She asked quietly, figuring if he didn’t want to talk she’d go back to single player ‘I Spy’.

“It’s surprisingly easy to collapse two universes into one,” the grey pegasus stated. The ponies who weren’t fast asleep looked at him.

“Almost like bubbles merging together, just make sure they're next to each other and then break the surface tension and the smaller one leaks into the larger.”

“I’m sure Twilight would say there’s more to it than that,” Pinkie replied.

“I’m sure there’s more going on under the hood, but as far as actions needed, that’s it. Just break the surface tension on universe walls next to each other and then Bob’s your uncle. Well, he is my uncle, actually,” Light Patch continued.

“What happens to the space left over from the universe not being there?” Wedge chimed in.

“Technically nothing because it doesn’t exist. As soon as it opens up, it fills in either with other universes or new ones.”

“Instantly filling in empty space as soon as it exists. Imagine the speeding tickets you could get for that speed,” Hobby said with a chuckle.

“Imagine the kick it would have... Would we be able to feel the impact?” Soon Fell asked.

“I don’t think so, because again, the space was never empty and in fact all universes act like they’re touching each other all of the time. Even if they aren’t,” Light said, still looking down at his hooves.

“I’m not gonna lie, a lot of that went over my head and it sounded like you aren’t even sure about it. So why are you thinking about it?” Rainbow cut in, mostly to try and at least switch the topic to something she didn’t feel out of her depth with.

“Well, I think how the universes reacted to having holes punched in them was relevant to my plans all along,” Light answered meekly, earning a raised eyebrow from Buck.

“You think? Did you not really have a plan?”

“Is that why you were always vague and defensive when it came to anypony asking what your plan was?”

“I had a plan, I thought I did at least, but I don’t think the plan I thought was my plan, was actually the plan I was going for?”

“And you're just figuring this out now?!” Hobby asked incredulously.

“I think that the effects of Twilight’s spell and the quiet time have let me connect all of the wires at once and see the big picture,” Light Patch decided, tapping the side of his head. “I’d either just focus on whatever part I was working on, or whatever the-” Light Patch paused, silently mouthing words as if trying to find the right one. “-Fog would let me see.”

“You didn’t know if you had a plan, but you still managed to put it in motion?” Wedge shook his head. “Buck, do you think it’d be treason if I said I was impressed?”

Buck shrugged. “For all I know, we’re committing treason right now. Permission granted.”

“Thanks.” Wedge turned back to Light Patch. “So now that you’ve got the fog out of your ears, what was the plan?”

“Well... it started as ‘Get Home’, but with a weird bit of routing, or possibly three different end points for ‘home-’” Light Patch made the air quotes gesture as he said ‘home’ but then frowned. “You know, that really works better with fingers or talons.” He blinked a couple of times and went quiet until Pinkie tapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Ah, sorry. I think the Fog was trying to settle back in. The other plan came about when I realized just how easy it would be to add everything up, and I guess could be summed up as, ‘Bring Home Here’.”

“Bring home here?” Soon echoed. “If you’re a pegasus and you can’t get to where ‘home’ is, then what kind of home is it?”

“One with a long story attached,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “What do you mean, Patch? Like, bring more humans to Equestria?”

“Remember when I said how easy it was to collapse two universes into one?”

“I try my best not to listen directly to anything you say,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned. “Less headaches that way. Otherwise, it’s like looking straight at the sun. Or standing in the middle of Twilight’s lab.”

“Harsh, but fair,” Light said with a huff. “But by bringing home here, I mean ‘collapse my home universe with this one’.” Several of the other ponies gasped as the realization struck them.

“Wait, did you mention that you had multiple homes at some point?” Hobby asked.

“That’s the other rub. I think if I’d gotten that far in the plan, I might have combined the two or three universes I,” he paused for a moment, “or the Fog had marked as home.” Light Patch shrugged..

Hobby raised a hoof. “Hold up. Collapse two or three universes with this one? I might not be the Princess of Magic, but isn’t that… Well, a bad idea? Considering we live in this universe?”

“And presumably,” Buck continued, “other creatures live in those other universes too.” He sighed and shook his head. “This morning, I didn’t know anything about parallel worlds. Now I’m trying to imagine the consequences of a multiversal collapse, whatever that is…”

“A pretty big deal, because if I’m reading the plan right, I would have tried to fold the four univeserse together at the same time. Which likely would have led to a chain reaction of the universe slamming together and in the end, you’d probably end up with a small number of more dense universes,” Light Patch answered nonchalantly. “As for what would happen in the universes, well, magic is kind of the big equalizer and space is, as the name suggests, vast. So a few billion years from now, Luna’s night sky is gonna have several new stars and galaxies. And for the few things that share the same space, I suspect the magic would move them.”

“And for the objects that magic doesn’t shift out of each other’s way?” Rainbow asked, a bit of fear in her voice.

“Stellar collisions do tend to make the most intricate debris patterns,” Light said with a slight glassy look to his eyes. He went quiet again.

Wedge hissed through his teeth. “So to answer the question ‘what would happen?’ Bad things. Bad things would happen. Good thing we stopped you then, huh?” He clapped Light Patch’s shoulder with a laugh. “...We did stop you, right? This isn’t an elaborate plot that’ll play into the destruction of all of existence?”

“While I mentioned that the chances of things occupying the same space are low, I must admit I’m hesitant to risk my homeworld on the miniscule chance as well now that I’m able to see clearly,” Light Patch quickly assured. “And, in my admittedly limited research, the Orb was the only artifact that might supply enough power for either plan. And I was a bit too busy running to look for a backup.” Light glared out of the corner of his eye at Rainbow and Pinkie,

“Don’t give me that look!” Rainbow Dash snapped. “You’re the guy who was trying to destroy the world! You don’t get to be pissy that we tried to stop you!”

Pinkie, who had been happily enjoying the funhouse mirror effect of the ice around them, came to a mid-air stop. “Hey, Patchy? Weren’t you the last one to leave Twilight? Like, you didn’t even have a big blowout. You just kinda stopped being there one day.”

“The other two didn’t leave any drama for me to use,” Light Patch said with a shrug.

“So doesn’t that mean you had all the time in the world to find an artifact, or even multiple artifacts, that would let you safely mix the universes together like a light and fluffy pancake batter?”

Light Patch paused, his ears slowly beginning to droop. “Okay, sure. But that’s how I found the Orb in the first place.”

“But then why choose the Orb at all?” Pinkie pondered. “‘Cause to me, using something as dangerous as the Orb to collapse a couple universes sounds as dangerous as using a cement mixer to make a brioche.”

“Yeah,” Hobby chuckled. “Or a warhammer to crack an egg.”

“I am not a magic user by birth or body here! And the power requirements would either call for an alicorn or two, or some artifacts of immense power! I doubt the princesses would have helped me and the Paladins seem to have been on top of a lot of the powerful artifacts! So excuse me for going for the warhammer solution!” Light groused. “Y’all act like I’m Just Duty trying to hammer a dorf for failing to build enough Black Bronze statues...” Light Patch trailed off for a few moments as a thought occurred to him. “I’m an idiot.”

“I mean, I didn’t want to say it-” Light’s raised hoof cut Rainbow off.

“I think I know what one of the universes counted as home was. Maybe two of them.”

“What was it? Tell me it’s one filled with mares!” Crowcall finally chimed in.

“Discord’s Game World,” Light Patch stated, earning a gasp from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie.

“I think I’d calculated that another was the, uh...” Light Patch looked at the other ponies beyond himself and the other two already in the know, “universe beyond the mirror. And my actual home universe as well.”

“Okay, but why three?” Rainbow asked.

“Isn’t that the million dollar question?” Light Patch replied with a sigh. “Maybe Twilight can figure it out, but at least I got one question solved.”

“Is it the question of life, the universe, and everything?” Pinkie asked excitedly.

“That's an easy one: It’s forty two,” Light Patch said, causing Pinkie to gasp in surprise. “No, I actually figured out what my cutie mark is and what it means.” The ponies eyed him, waiting expectantly.

“I think it’s to represent connecting or combining my ‘home’ universes into one,” he explained. “The different sheets, folded together to create one unified object out of three or more separate parts… And I think I might owe Twilight a new book on origami.”