The Stand
Rarity and Pinkie were playing a game of blackjack when the warrior appeared on top of their table in a burst of Void.
“Starlight is under attack by Count Bleck, there’s no time to explain.” He snapped his fingers, opening a portal. “We have to go.”
Rarity didn’t want to trust this warrior in the slightest, but Pinkie had already jumped through the portal so Rarity didn’t feel like she had much of a choice. “I’ll be demanding an explanation after this is over,” Rarity hissed.
“And you will have it. Let’s just go, missy.”
Rarity let out a disgruntled huff but jumped through the Void portal anyway, sword at the ready.
She arrived on the scene of utter and complete chaos.
“What in Celestia’s name is going on here!?”
~~~
A few minutes ago...
“That… shouldn’t have been possible, sir,” Nastasia said, examining the spot where the statue and Starlight had just been. “The Chaos Heart…”
“The Chaos Heart’s essence was in that statue,” Count Bleck said. “She may have used it somehow.”
“I’m still not sure how that makes any se—”
Several beams of blue energy took form at the top of the altar, depositing what was clearly a small army of individuals form Flipside, including a truly massive floating pirate skull.
“That’s the Count,” Shadow said, pointing at Bleck. “Get him.”
“Aye aye!” Cortez summoned his many bony limbs and jumped off the altar, plunging several swords larger than Bleck himself towards the Count in question.
The Chaos Heart appeared above Bleck’s head, projecting a barrier of solid white energy between Bleck and Cortez. The ghost pirate’s swords shattered upon contact with the barrier, but he didn’t let this deter him—he recreated them and tried to stab from behind, coming across the same barrier. “Fancy yourself clever?” Cortez asked.
“Bleh heheheheheheheheh… Yes.” Bleck spread his hands and extended the barrier to form an impenetrable wall that blocked any of them from going anywhere. “Your little assault has failed, Bleck! You are trapped in the deepest corners of my sanctum without any power to counteract the Chaos Heart! Your strongest warriors, sent to face me… will fall to Bleck! Nastasia, take them.”
‘Yes, sir,” Nastasia reached for her glasses.
“CHAOS, CONTROL!” Shadow shouted, holding up one of the replica chaos emeralds.
“No!” Dark Oak shouted. “You c—”
Time froze for everyone but Shadow. Having depleted the first emerald, he took out another one, allowing a slight smirk to form on his face. “Chaos… control.” This time, instead of bending time, he bent space. The barrier was impenetrable, yes, but if he punched a hole through space and appeared on the other side, well… that wouldn’t be passing through the barrier, now would it? Since the doors were open, it also surpassed the bizarre teleport-lock on the room.
The rip in space was so large it drained him of most of his energy, but he managed to deposit the entire team in the central chamber resting just behind the Count, Nastasia, and Dark Oak.
“Heh…” he said as time resumed. “Got past it.” He proceeded to pass out.
“Bleh heheheheheheheh!” Count Bleck spread his arms wide. “Well done! You have escaped Count Bleck’s trap! But one fact remains…” The barrier around the Count himself glistened. “You cannot harm me.”
“Today…” Worf said, lifting his phaser. “Is a good day to die.”
“...What?”
He and the other Klingons charged Bleck in unison. Nastasia and Dark Oak moved to protect him, but Bleck pushed them back with a burst of the Void. He slowly walked forward, deflecting phaser blasts with his barrier and breaking Klingon blades that got close enough to touch him.
“Formidable warriors!” Bleck snapped his fingers, knocking all of them over with a burst of Void. “But useless!” Waving one of his hands, the Void ruptured through reality, throwing the mice to the side. “Useless!” The Void consumed the chunks of the castle that Aang was throwing at him. “USELESS!”
“Count Bleck,” Aang said, rising into the air, eyes white. “You cannot be allowed to continue your plan!” Air, water, earth, and fire formed at the tips of his fingers, as well as a soft glowing light from some other power.
“Unified attack!” one of the mice said. “Form up!”
Cortez roared, summoning his ghostly crew to him, lighting his entire skull on blue fire.
“Focus phasers and plasma weapons!” Worf ordered.
Sonic entered a spin attack, chuckling. “All together now!”
Everything surged forward at once. Blade, fire, dark, light, laser, earth, spirit… it was too much to look at, so much energy that the central chamber itself started to melt around Bleck.
To the Chaos Heart, it was nothing.
“Bleck declares your struggling useless!” Bleck shouted at the top of his lungs. With a simple snap, all the energy was gone from the room. “You have nothing to use against me, Count Bleck! You are not the heroes of prophecy, you are not the chosen of the Pure Hearts. You are pathetic little ants trying to run the master of the house out by biting his feet!” He held out his hands and laughed. “Do you understand how insignificant you all are in this multiverse of suffering, yet?”
“No,” Rarity said, holding her blade to Nastasia’s neck. “I don’t. And I don’t think you do, either.”
Bleck’s smile vanished instantly. “When did you…?”
Gilgamesh revealed himself, waving at Count Bleck. “Hey there, kiddo!”
“You are becoming a persistent thorn in Bleck’s side…”
“Here’s how this is going to go,” Rarity said. “You are going to let everyone go with Gilgamesh through a Void portal.”
“You would not take a life,” Bleck decreed.
“U-um… she would, sir,” Nastasia stammered. “She almost had me earlier.”
A tear ran down Rarity’s cheek. “You only have yourself to blame for turning me into this, Count. But when everything we care about is on the line… anything is acceptable to prevent that. Anything.”
Count Bleck smiled despite this situation, making Rarity’s stomach churn. “We are not that unalike, you and Bleck. Anything truly is acceptable if the pain is enough. The worlds are inherently evil, Rarity. Anything is acceptable to end their reign of terror.”
“Even her life?” Rarity asked. “Can you really bring yourself to let that happen?”
“S-sir…” Nastasia managed. “You don’t nee—”
“Nonsense, Nastasia. Why would I let you fall? It matters not what they do, after all. The end will still come.” He waved a dismissive hand. “You are all free to go through Gilgamesh’s little Void curse.” He shot a murderous look at Gilgamesh. “Though when the time comes I will deal with you personally, Gilgamesh.”
“Don’t care, not listening,” Gilgamesh said, opening the Void. “All right, everyone in!”
“You heard him!” Sonic said, picking up Shadow. “Let’s go!”
Soon, everyone was through the portal, including Gilgamesh himself. Only Rarity remained.
“Release Nastasia,” Bleck ordered.
“I don’t think so,” Rarity said, scowling. “Darling, you would just blow me to smithereens the moment I did.”
“She’s not wrong,” Dark Oak said, folding his hands together.
“We had a deal,” Bleck said, glowering.
“There was no deal,” Rarity scoffed. “This is a tense hostage situation where nobody knows the ending. For instance, I have no idea what’s about to happen, but I’m assuming Pinkie has some sort of plan.”
“Pink—”
A grenade of confetti went off, providing ample cover for escape. For a moment, Rarity considered pulling her blade through Nastasia’s neck, ending her right then and there… but no, there was an understanding between her and Bleck. She wouldn’t follow through—and to be honest, she was relieved she didn’t have to.
This didn’t mean she wasn’t going to abuse the unspoken loophole.
Rarity grabbed Nastasia in her telekinesis and smacked her head into the ground, knocking her out. She ran away from the confetti while Bleck and Dark Oak were still trying to figure out what had just happened. She saw Pinkie waving from on top of one of the platforms, which prompted Rarity to execute a teleport with her and Nastasia, singing the both of them in transit. “Pinkie… what’s the plan?”
“I thought you had the plan!”
“Pinkie! How are we going to get out of here!?”
“Hmm…” Pinkie glanced down at the confetti cloud. Count Bleck was out first, and he glared right at them.
“Trust me!” Pinkie shouted, tackling Rarity and Nastasia off the edge with her. They narrowly avoided an attack from Bleck, but were falling at high speed to the hard ground.
Rarity hugged Pinkie tight. I trust you.
Pinkie oriented the falling ball of the three of them so she was pointed toward the bottom. Instead of cracking her back like any fall from that height should do, Pinkie bounced as though she were made of rubber, throwing herself, Rarity, and Nastasia right through the far door of the central chamber.
Gilgamesh was waiting for them with a portal. Before Bleck even knew a portal was active so he could close it, Gilgamesh shoveled them through and hopped through himself.
Bleck smashed through the doors, rage on his face. They were already gone.
“They took Nastasia,” Dark Oak said.
“I am aware,” Count Bleck said, adjusting his hat. “I will be getting her back. You manage the rest of the minions while I am away.” He created a Void portal for himself and vanished.
Dark Oak folded his hands together, processing. The Count hadn’t let out one of his ridiculous laughs there. He wasn’t sure why, but this concerned him.
~~~
Twilight, Tippi, Toph, Cosmo, Data, Caspian, and Vivian stood in front of the indigo door, ready to explore yet another world.
“Two more hearts,” Twilight said, grinning. “We’re almost there. Is everyone ready?”
“I believe so,” Caspian said. “And I have an extra boon for us this time, in case we run into similar trouble.” He pulled a small cordial filled with reddish liquid out. “This is the Cordial of the legendary Queen Lucy of Narnia. It holds a powerful brew that can cure any ailment, be it disease, injury, madness… or the loss of leg functions.”
“Gee, that would have been really helpful,” Toph deadpanned.
“It is my own fault that I did not think to take it from the treasury when we left Narnia. Now, it is always with us.”
Twilight nodded. “That’ll be a welcome addition to our efforts. Now, though…” she turned to the doors. “Now we go to a new world.”
She threw the doors open and marched through…
~~~
The woman smiled as she set her pen down. The heroes were one, and they had been through the valley. Their bonds were forged and they had grown. After all, that had been the entire purpose. They needed a time of darkness so they could learn to rise from it.
But now that they had the strength, they would have to use it.
At this, the woman’s smile vanished. She closed her eyes and took a moment to just be, feeling herself amidst reality’s fabric.
Gracefully, she lifted the pen once more and set it back down to the page.
It must be done.
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Wow Rarity, you are one crazy Mare.
… I love the resistance
:bjcool:... Wait, shit, that doesn't work here. Uh... pretend I made a joke about your name or something.
WHY IS HE SO GOD DAMN COOL?
Shadow, you cheeky bastard. I love him.
The C Team are freaking fearless, holy crap.
Is he going to throw a road roller at them or something?
Chaos Heart OP plz nerf
I love how this would be an incredibly dark moment, where the whole room goes silent and the BGM cuts out, and the Gilgamesh goes and calls Bleck "kiddo". Way to spoil the moment, Greg.
You know, somehow, this is both not a direction I expected to see Rarity taken, and a direction I've seen her taken multiple times. Weird.
Honestly, the most unrealistic part about this is that Sonic is willingly retreating.
Impeccable timing as always, Pinks.
"The plan was to improvise and hope you had a plan!"
Hold on, that's Applejack's bit!
I... hold on, I feel like I should contest this. Pinkie's powers are Toonforce, meaning they only work 'when it's funny'. Since this is a super tense situation, I would argue it wouldn't work... but Gilgamesh is here, and I'm sure he finds it funny, so you get a pass. This time...
Oh shit. It's personal for Bleck now... The stakes have just been raised, astronomically.
I'm torn between my storytelling instincts of "How you could possibly have forgotten about such an important item?" and my gamer instincts of "Of course you'd want to save that, it's the best healing item there is!" Truly, I am a unicorn divided.
After trials, tribulations, and something else that beings with T I can't think of right now, it's off to the next world! Our heroes may have all kinds of help, but only they can recover the remaining Pure Hearts, and as the C Team have seen, the Chaos Heart can't be beaten any other way. Chapter 6 approaches, but... those of you who are aware of the source material may remember that things don't go smoothly in Chapter 6...
Wait, where's Randall Flagg? The title misled me!
Also, how much cordial is left in there? And can it cure Toph's blindness?
When did they summon the next door?
10981269
They returned in the last chapter. With a pure heart. Since they've done it multiple times you can probably assume they went and did the thing they always did and put the Heart in the Pillar.
-GM, master of assumptions.
I do like how this story also follows other groups beyond the heroes, like the Enterprise in Narnia and Super Mario, the ponies and now the Plan C team in the castle, and Eggman and Ty Lee and others in Flipside.
Wait I just realized is the Pit supposed to Flopside?