Worlds Apart: The Chosen of the Prognosticus

by GMBlackjack

The Battle of Castle Bleck

Picard stood in the center of the bridge of the Enterprise, hands folded behind his back. On the screen in front of him was none other than Count Bleck himself. The few pictures they had of the man didn’t do him justice. As he breathed, the jagged edges of his mouth twitched, his reddened eyes pulsated, and the crystal he wore around his neck seemed to reflect light at impossible angles.

“I am Captain Jean-Luc Pic—”

“Count Bleck knows who you are! Bleck!”

Picard lifted his head slightly. “Then you know what I represent. The Federation. A cooperative force of many different peoples seeking to learn more about the world we inhabit. I also represent the Alliance you see behind me, a force born not out of a desire for peace and cooperation, but out of fear—fear for what you have done.”

“Get to your point.”

“We do not have to engage in bloodshed,” Picard said. “Hand over the Chaos Heart.”

“Bleh heheheheheheheheh!” The laughter made Picard wince with its volume and harsh, angry tones. “The only way to end this is to kill me!”

“We will search for an alternative if you hand yourself over. I give you my word.”

Bleck shook his head. “You are a man of principle, they have chosen well to place you at the front of this assault. But know this! You are no better than the rest of existence. You, the highest of all men, bright, intelligent, humbled, and morally good, still suffer and still cause suffering. You are only ‘good’ because you were raised in a situation where the lie of love could be believed. In a world that coddled the ‘human spirit’ against all laws of logic and reason! You are among the best men… and you are the strongest warrior for the lie. Bleck! Bleck spits at your ideals!”

“You claim that our principles are lies. I say they cannot be. Across the multiverse, we are born with an innate understanding that there is good and evil in the world—that there is right, and there is wrong. Tell me, why would we have this if it was a lie?”

“It is useful for survival, says Bleck. A species of pathological nihilistic murderers does not survive. A species of cooperative seekers of truth does. But that’s the irony: to survive and thrive, they must believe truth exists! But the more they seek, the more they find all that they held dear is built upon nothing! What is the basis of justice? Of compassion? Of cooperation? Of love?”

“I believe the hearts we carry aboard Flipside are the answer to your question, Count.”

The Count chuckled softly. “All existence is based on love, that is what you are saying, is it not? Foolish. It is not based on love. It is based on its own preservation. To love is to wish the best for the recipient—to desire no harm. If the worlds truly were love, there would be no suffering, for nothing would desire to harm anything. There would be. No. Pain.”

“Pain is what gives us meaning!” Picard shouted. “What kind of love would create a world where we are nothing but mindless, brain-dead, happy machines? What would be the purpose?”

“There can be none,” Bleck said matter-of-factly.

A chill ran up Picard’s back. “Do you really think you can do better with your new worlds?”

“Bleh heheheheheheheh!” Count Bleck leaned in as close as the camera would allow. “You’re a clever man Picard. I believe you already know the answer to that question.” He cut the channel.

Picard’s eyes widened. He hadn’t spoken of himself in the third person. With the pit in his stomach growing ever deeper, he gave the order.

“Picard to the fleet. Talks have broken down. Engage the enemy.”

The Enterprise fired the first shot, a single phaser blast to the main Metarex ship: Narcissus' carrier. As if he hadn’t realized that he was in the most dangerous spot in the fleet, his ship backpedaled while the others moved forward in unison. Without the Void to transport them around with ease, the once dangerous Metarex armada that provided so much trouble in Hume was suddenly significantly weaker. Not to mention the fact that the Flipside Fleet was much more prepared than the last time a major space battle had broken out. Fire was exchanged across the empty divide, lasers mixed with torpedos and magic lances. The explosions filled the sky so that it became impossible to see what was going on with the naked eye, but very few of the ships relied entirely on visual sensors.

Klingon birds of prey pushed through the dust faster than any of the other ships, zooming between the Metarex ranks and performing daring striking runs. There was a fifty percent casualty rate among the Klingons in this strategy, but they saw that as indicative of the glory of the battle.

Some jump-drive enabled ships from the Ninth World appeared in the midst of the fleet, releasing multicolored spheres that exploded into numerous bits of shrapnel, taking out dozens upon dozens of ships. The Blue Typhoon burst out of the cloud, releasing its flak cannons and shooting robotic replicas of Sonic into the Metarex fleet. Diqiu spirits phased right through the shields of the enemy, tearing many ships apart from the inside out. The Borg blasted through brazenly, the Romulans flanked, the Federation attacked directly as a formation, and all in all the Metarex fleet was in terrible shape after only one minute.

“Rarity to Enterprise,” Rarity’s voice came in on the comm.

“Go ahead,” Picard said, believing the Enterprise was currently in a safe position within the fleet.

“Worf is currently transmitting coordinates for the landing party and the heroes, as well as a few points of interest where some rooftop assistance would be helpful.”

“Understood. Number One, see to it that they are transported properly.”

“Aye, sir,” Riker said, running toward the turbolift.

At this point, Flipside itself started its assault. The outer weapons powered by the Pure Hearts themselves converted normally defensive energy into a rotating beam of rainbow power, slicing through ships as if they were made of butter. All attacks on Flipside were shrugged off as though they were harmless, the shield of the Pure Hearts more than enough to take care of them.

Castle Bleck’s point defenses, in contrast, were largely non-functional due to sabotage by the Resistance, barely able to lob off inky attacks at all, most of which were shrugged off or dodged.

Narcissus’ ship was feeling the pressure, even as it continued to weave left and right in an attempt to flee all possible threats to its General’s life.

It was this ship that the Comet Observatory decided to target. Rosalina ordered it forward—but targeted no weapons. She left that to her passengers: Princess Celestia and Luna, each of whom had several dozen of the micro-planets from Lumash in their telekinesis. Massive hunks of rock, metal, and other materials flew with amazing agility through the wall of ships between the Observatory and Narcissus’ ship. The first few micro-planets that hit disintegrated on Narcissus’ shields. The fourth, an egg shaped piece of metal, punched right through the engine and engulfed half the ship in an explosion.

The Metarex fleet was in disarray.

But they had never been intended to be the Castle’s primary line of defense. No, that duty fell to the beasts of Gaia that slept on the bottom of the disc. With the fleet decimated, proven to be worthless, they awoke. A swarm of crystal dragons similar to the one encountered in Hume attacked the fleet from below. Some were easy to shatter based on the information gathered on them previously, but others had different resonance frequencies and began to eat through ships like they were pieces of fried chicken.

And they were far from the only ancient creatures. Strange machines unfolded, massive dragons roared, and angelic beings as large as starships themselves rose to defend the castle. Most were mindless monsters at this point, and the few that weren’t fought with hypnosis from Nastasia, making them no more than people turned into mindless monsters.

The largest of them, some kind of massive four-legged machine rippling with discs of blue-white magic, stood on top of the disc and fired a lance that pierced through five starships at once, reducing them to rubble.

“Switch to defensive formations!” Picard ordered. “We can no longer brag with our superior firepower—we have to play smart!”

Riker returned to the bridge.

“I trust they made it?”

Riker nodded. “They should be arriving at the doors right about now.”

~~~

Twilight and company transported down to the surface of the disc, only a few meters from the main entrance—a massive double-door made out of white wires on the smooth blackness the rest of the Castle was made of. However, in that short space, there was a horde of the Castle forces. Some were Metarex, and there were a couple hypnotized ponies—but the vast majority of the defensive forces came from the half-remembered shards of Gaia. Floating crystalline entities, large bees with multiple stingers, four-legged beasts with one eye… The chosen heroes could not hope to take them alone.

Luckily, they were not supposed to. The Enterprise had transported them down. Numerous other ships had transported down their foot soldiers. The vast majority of these were of one particular race that believed in the honor of battle.

“TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!” Thousands of Klingons shouted, pulling out both bladed weapons and blasters, attacking the enemy forces. They were not prepared to deal with the Klingon’s level of ferocity in battle. Metarex drones and Gaian beasts fell one by one.

Twilight winced as she witnessed a Klingon drive a blade into an enemy pony. When the plan was conceived, everyone knew there were going to be hypnotized enemies on the other side. Every soldier had been briefed on being careful around them, but everyone had known from the start that it would not, could not be bloodless.

However, there was a plan to counteract that at least somewhat.

“Make way!” Ty Lee shouted, jumping around the battle in a Starfleet uniform that displayed, in bright red, a medical cross. She jumped with agility and grace over attacks and blasters, shooting down ponies with a tagging gun that transported them to a distant sickbay. “Doctor Lee is in the house!”

Twilight smiled. We’re still trying.

She and the other six were running, not participating in combat—merely rushing directly for the doors as one unit. Their largely-Klingon allies had originally attempted to spearhead the enemy’s fortifications to cut a path, but the enemy was cohesive enough to spread out their efforts, keeping them from reaching the door.

That’s when phase two came into play. Amy and Luigi came out of nowhere, jumping over their allied forces and bashing aside the enemy with hammers. Cadence teleported in with a brilliant blue flash of light, encasing most of the enemy between them and the door in crystal. To finish it up, Starlight levitated the mass of enemy soldiers into the air and threw it, clearing the path in one fell swoop. “Move, Twilight!”

Twilight had already been charging her teleport. With a poof of magic, the seven of them were at the main doors. They were locked, of course, but Starlight had already cut a square hole into it—one that Discord was guarding in an absolutely adorable little soldier outfit.

“You look great!” Twilight called as she ran past.

“Hmph,” Discord muttered. “I get no respect.”

On the other side of the doors, there were still guards—two large bird-like creatures with fiery wings, reminiscent of the much larger phoenixes fighting in the sky. In here, at this entrance, the heroes didn’t have any backup.

But there were also fewer enemies and Toph was an absolute monster on the battlefield. With a single motion, the earthbender twisted the black material of the castle into perfect rectangular pillars of darkness, crushing both birds against the ceiling. “It’s earth, but it sure likes to bend into nice geometric shapes!”

A troop of ponies ran at them from further inside the castle, mindless but murderous. Data stunned all of them with ease, allowing the seven chosen to keep running, deeper, further into Castle Bleck.

“Remember—stay straight!” Twilight called. “They’ve cut a path for us and most of the enemies should be kept clear of it!”

“If their plan goes well!” Caspian reminded her. “As I recall we only knew of the plan the moment we arrived!”

“It still makes it a plan! I trust Rarity to have thought out every detail to the best of her ability. It’s what she’s good at!”

“Keep moving!” Toph shouted, throwing black cubes at a few Metarex drones that had managed to crawl through the front doors.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Vivian shouted back, igniting a nearby mechanical dog on fire. “...Why didn’t he use all these Gaian monsters when we were searching for the Pure Hearts?”

“He didn’t want to…” Tippi said.

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“I recommend—” Caspian drove his blade through a Metarex’s head. “—not worrying about motive at the moment and instead worrying about survival, hmm?”

“It does seem pertinent!” Data called, catching a type of boomerang in his hand and crushing it.

“We’re in,” Twilight said, letting out a burst of magic that knocked down every enemy in the hall in front of them. “We just need to get to the center.”

They ran deeper and deeper into Castle Bleck...

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

The Blue Typhoon burst out of the cloud, releasing its flak cannons and shooting robotic replicas of Sonic into the Metarex fleet.

The idea of using Metal Sonics as ammunition is brilliantly mad. Kudos there.

And yes, all of these relics of the bygone world would have been very useful in earlier encounters. I’m sure the Count has his reasons, many likely found in the Dark Prognosticus, but it’s still a curious choice. Let’s hope the heroes aren’t rushing into a trap.

… Okay, they’re almost certainly rushing into a trap. Let’s hope they make it back out.

[Shilic]

Picard stood in the center of the bridge of the Enterprise, hands folded behind his back. On the screen in front of him was none other than Count Bleck himself. The few pictures they had of the man didn’t do him justice. As he breathed, the jagged edges of his mouth twitched, his reddened eyes pulsated, and the crystal he wore around his neck seemed to reflect light at impossible angles.

...Okay, so I know I already talked about it being weird that the minions aren't canonically in the Paper Mario artstyle, but it did not occur to me until this very moment that that same principle also applies to Count Bleck, and, I suppose, also Dimentio. Like, these characters are so iconic to me that even when picturing them right next to a real human being like Picard, I still see them in that boxy cartoon artstyle with detached hands, I cannot visualize them any other way. God damn Super Mario has good character design.

“It is useful for survival, says Bleck. A species of pathological nihilistic murderers does not survive. A species of cooperative seekers of truth does. But that’s the irony: to survive and thrive, they must believe truth exists! But the more they seek, the more they find all that they held dear is built upon nothing! What is the basis of justice? Of compassion? Of cooperation? Of love?”

This would be a really deep philosophical question to ask if it wasn't clearly established that the Christian God canonically exists in this multiverse. Not to mention that the Pure Hearts, the most powerful artifacts in existence that are tied to the core of their respective universe, are love themed. The facts are not on your side, Bleck.

Klingon birds of prey pushed through the dust faster than any of the other ships, zooming between the Metarex ranks and performing daring striking runs. There was a fifty percent casualty rate among the Klingons in this strategy, but they saw that as indicative of the glory of the battle.

And yet, they're still doing better here than against the Dominion. the Jem'Hadar do not play around.

It was this ship that the Comet Observatory decided to target. Rosalina ordered it forward—but targeted no weapons. She left that to her passengers: Princess Celestia and Luna, each of whom had several dozen of the micro-planets from Lumash in their telekinesis. Massive hunks of rock, metal, and other materials flew with amazing agility through the wall of ships between the Observatory and Narcissus’ ship. The first few micro-planets that hit disintegrated on Narcissus’ shields. The fourth, an egg shaped piece of metal, punched right through the engine and engulfed half the ship in an explosion.

This does check out, as Super Mario Galaxy physics are the only way that Celestia and Luna's celestial powers make sense without making them absurdly overpowered and also making Celestia way more powerful.

And they were far from the only ancient creatures. Strange machines unfolded, massive dragons roared, and angelic beings as large as starships themselves rose to defend the castle. Most were mindless monsters at this point, and the few that weren’t fought with hypnosis from Nastasia, making them no more than people turned into mindless monsters.

This would be threatening if most of these creatures weren't able to be killed by 3-5 people using medieval weaponry.

The largest of them, some kind of massive four-legged machine rippling with discs of blue-white magic, stood on top of the disc and fired a lance that pierced through five starships at once, reducing them to rubble.

Oh god, it's Ultima Weapon, the second most powerful robot in the entire Final Fantasy series! Let's hope we don't see the top slot anywhere here, I still have flashbacks...

Twilight and company transported down to the surface of the disc, only a few meters from the main entrance—a massive double-door made out of white wires on the smooth blackness the rest of the Castle was made of. However, in that short space, there was a horde of the Castle forces. Some were Metarex, and there were a couple hypnotized ponies—but the vast majority of the defensive forces came from the half-remembered shards of Gaia. Floating crystalline entities, large bees with multiple stingers, four-legged beasts with one eye… The chosen heroes could not hope to take them alone.

Okay, but why not though? These guys don't even seem like bosses, they're just random encounters... oh, wait. This story doesn't have random encounters, so the heroes' levels are probably super low. Oops. Probably should have done more grinding, GM.

“TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!” Thousands of Klingons shouted, pulling out both bladed weapons and blasters, attacking the enemy forces. They were not prepared to deal with the Klingon’s level of ferocity in battle. Metarex drones and Gaian beasts fell one by one.

The story Paramount always wanted to tell but never had the budget for.

But there were also fewer enemies and Toph was an absolute monster on the battlefield. With a single motion, the earthbender twisted the black material of the castle into perfect rectangular pillars of darkness, crushing both birds against the ceiling. “It’s earth, but it sure likes to bend into nice geometric shapes!”

Ah, straight lines. Like I'm playing my Nintendo Wii again...

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Vivian shouted back, igniting a nearby mechanical dog on fire. “...Why didn’t he use all these Gaian monsters when we were searching for the Pure Hearts?”

“He didn’t want to…” Tippi said.

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

Vivian, you're the only person where who is actually native to a JRPG, you should know how this works!

Well, this is the kind of battle that you can only find in crossover fanfic, and I mean that 100% as a compliment because I love this shit. Having characters from franchises that would never cross over teaming up is always a treat to read about, and as the final battle commences and it all comes to a head, I'm sure it will only get better from here. Bleck using Final Fantasy bosses as an army is a nice touch. I actually... completely forget what enemies actually appear in his castle in the game.

[Spellflame]

I wonder who will Mach up with who is the duels

Twilight: Count Bleck
Tough: O-Chunks
Cosmo: … Ironwood?, is that his name
Data: Mimi?
Capisan: Lulu
Vivian: Dimentio

[GMBlackjack]

11177697

This would be a really deep philosophical question to ask if it wasn't clearly established that the Christian God canonically exists in this multiverse. Not to mention that the Pure Hearts, the most powerful artifacts in existence that are tied to the core of their respective universe, are love themed. The facts are not on your side, Bleck.

While that's true enough, you do have to think about the primary parties in this conversation: Count Bleck, who has many complicated motivations (and is somewhat in a self-depressive spiral) and Picard, a man who represents, even now, a very humanist perspective. Bleck is, in a way, trying to attack Picard and the Federation's way of living directly.

-GM, master of inks.

[Blaster M]

This chapter:

[jimbojames]

11178012
The final battle for the fate of the multiverse has begun...