• Published 17th Nov 2020
  • 4,362 Views, 919 Comments

Worlds Apart: The Chosen of the Prognosticus - GMBlackjack



A Void appears, threatening to destroy all worlds. Twilight is chosen to travel the multiverse and save it from an untimely demise. A reimagining of Super Paper Mario with ponies and a few twists. Each world is a different crossover. Complete!

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Altdorf

Vivian knew she was dreaming but she was terrified anyway.

“HELLO, LITTLE BLASPHEMER.”

She had no idea what was speaking, but its voice gargled with the power of the cosmos and drove its way into her mind by sending scratching spikes through her nonexistent skull, taking her consciousness hostage.

“YOU KNEW, YOU KNEW WHAT WAS COMING. THE MOMENT THE WORDS LEFT YOUR MOUTH…” There was a hand/tentacle/flipper caressing her chin. Laughter from three different voices, one synthetic, filled her awareness. “WELL, GUESS WHAT? I’M HERE. LET’S CHANGE OUR LITTLE… RELATIONSHIP. LET’S TEACH YOU WHAT THE NAME TZEENTCH REALLY MEANS.”

There was a burst of white light, and a moment of peace for Vivian.

“A BLESSING! SO, MY DISC WAS NOT EXAGGERATING. THE OTHER WORLDS DO SUCH STRANGE THINGS WITH SPIRITS, DO THEY NOT? LET’S JUST REMOVE THAT…”

“This child is not yours.”

Vivian couldn’t see him—couldn’t see anything but a kaleidoscope of random colors—but she imagined a lion anyway.

“GO BACK TO YOUR WORLD.”

“I am in my world.”

“I AM NOT IN THE MOOD FOR YOUR ENDLESS GAMES.”

“You are not to touch her in this manner. You know the rules.”

A rippling laugh that mixed together the sound of alligators dying, cactuses growing, and stars crying tore at Vivian’s mind. “YOU KNOW THE RULES AS WELL! YOU WERE THERE WHEN THEY WERE WRITTEN, AFTER ALL.

“Yes.”

“THEN I CURRENTLY HAVE CLAIM OF HER.”

“Yes. What you are doing now is not part of that claim.”

The voice screeched like chalkboards being shattered by antimatter explosions. “RULES ARE SO BORING… BUT VERY WELL. I WILL KEEP MY PIECES WHERE THEY BELONG. AND SHE WILL STILL BECOME ONE OF MINE. AREN’T YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT, VIVIAN?

And Vivian woke up in a cold sweat, trying to scream but not able to.

“Woah!” Luigi jumped up from his bed. “Geez, calm down there! I was just trying to wake you up!”

“A… a… nightmare…” Vivian wiped the sweat from her brow and looked outside. It was morning. “...It’s still morning?”

“Morning the next day. You slept through all of it, day and night!”

Vivian swallowed hard. “Luigi, I think something’s happening to me. This world… this world isn’t good for me.” She opened and closed her hands, trying to get some grip on reality, “I… the name I used on the carriage.”

“Tzeen—”

“Don’t say it!” Vivian hissed. “I said it, and it got into my head! It… wants me for something. Something terrible…” She shivered. “We… we need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“To the Emperor, then?”

“To the Emperor.”

~~~

The royal palace of Altdorf was an extremely impressive Gothic-style construction with many looming towers composed of dark brick that looked down on the city below, their dark spires eclipsing the light of the sun like a claw around a bird’s egg. For what was supposed to be a symbol of hope for the Empire, it came across as gloomy and ominous, a reminder of power and the pain of the past.

In the distance, the much more colorful towers of the colleges of magic glinted in the sun, contrasting greatly with the dull monolithic gigantism of the royal palace itself. And yet, the people of Altdorf didn’t seem to notice the ominous nature of the structure. As they passed, they looked upon it with awe and reverence, and occasionally one of them would make a remark about ‘Sigmar reborn’ and offer some kind of prayer in the palace’s direction.

The outer palace gates were, naturally, guarded by impressive soldiers in full plate armor. However, there was someone else with them—an elf, by the looks of it, sitting at a desk with a big smile on her face.

Vivian didn’t know why, but she was one hundred percent positive that elves weren’t supposed to smile that big.

“Welcome to the royal palace!” The elf waved as Luigi walked up. “How can we serve you, citizen?”

“Uh, yeah,” Luigi rubbed the back of his head. “Kinda wonderin’, what do you need to do to get an audience with the Emperor?”

“You convince me you have an exceedingly urgent and important message, or you provide a reference!” She leaned in, tilting her head to one side. “I bet you don’t have either of those, do you?”

“Well, I might have the first, but I don’t think I want to explain it out in the open…”

“Ah!” She leaned back, returning her head to its original position. “Of course! I can schedule a meeting with the Emperor’s security chief. Though I will warn you, she gets angry if you waste her time!” The elf clapped her hands. “Really angry!”

This is unnatural, Vivian thought. Really unnatural.

“So, what’ll it be?” the elf asked, tearing at her desk with her well-polished fingernails.

“I’ll, uh… maybe come back once I’ve thought about it.”

“Of course! And thank you for visiting the palace, citizen! Your contributions to the Empire provide the energy we need to stay alive! Come again soon!”

Vivian waited until they had walked a few steps away before whispering anything. “That was really, really messed up.”

“Mama mia…” Luigi agreed.

“We’re going to need to find a way to word our mission without being exposed, or just… sneak in?”

“We can’t sneak in past all those guards! And there are wizards. Someone is gonna see you!”

“We’re probably going to have to t—” The sound of shouting back at the reception desk made her shut up.

“I am the King of Narnia! You will let me speak to your Emperor on a matter of grave importance that extends beyond the petty needs to schedule things properly!”

The elf’s grin did not falter. “I’m sorry, Narnia is not in any of my records, and they are quite extensive. Do you know all five-hundred and three different known tribes of lizardmen? I thought not! If any major power ‘Narnia’ existed, I would know of it. And I would know the lineage of its kings!”

“In the name of Aslan, listen to me!”

“Aslan, a lord or deity I am also not familiar with. Please, citizen, if you continue to make such a racket I will have to arrest you for causing a scene!” She leaned in, pupils dilating to pinpricks. “And we don’t want that! Do we?

Caspian—for of course that was who it was—waved an angry hand and marched away from the desk.

“That’s Caspian,” Vivian hissed. “Go say hello.”

Luigi nodded. “Um, hey, Caspian!”

“So…” Caspian whirled around, drawing his sword on Luigi. “You fiends follow me here, even to this place?”

“W-what?” Luigi stammered, taking a few steps back. “What did I say!?”

“Have at thee, Mr. L!” Caspian lunged forward, slicing. Luigi barely lifted his hammer up in time, catching the blade in its wooden head. Luigi pulled back and performed a super jump, landing several meters away from Caspian.

Caspian prepared to charge—but Vivian had already entered his shadow. “Caspian! That’s Luigi, not Mr. L!”

“Wh-what?” Caspian stumbled, tripping over his own two feet. “Vivian, ho—”

“Shhh! Not in public!”

“Does there seem to be a problem?” The elf was standing up, walking towards them.

“No, ma’am!” Caspian said, sheathing his sword. “I just mistook this fine… green fellow for a savage murderer I knew from my travels! It’s all been cleared up!”

“Good!” The elf clapped her hands and returned to her desk.

“...How can one smile so much and still have the countenance of ice?” Caspian wondered.

“No idea,” Vivian whispered. “Now go apologize to Luigi.”

Caspian turned back to the shaky, trembling Luigi. “Well… you certainly don’t have the demeanor of Mr. L. But you look exactly like him. Even the hat is close! He fights using a hammer! Vivian, are you certain?

“Yes.” Vivian said. “Plus, Mario looks a lot like him. Humans in my world tend to be kinda like this.”

“Hmm…” Caspian shook his head, extending a hand to Luigi. “Terribly sorry about that, I appear to have gotten carried away. Truce?”

“T-truce,” Luigi stammered, nervously shaking Caspian’s hand.

“Now, what is our current mission?” Caspian asked.

Vivian continued whispering. “Meet the Emperor and give him the stone Heart, he might be able to do something with it. ...And we’ll explain our situation as well. Maybe find a way to go home.”

“Well, they certainly won’t let us in. I have been trying for… quite some time.”

“Which is why we’re going to break in,” Vivian said.

“I hate this idea,” Luigi moaned.

~~~

“I still hate this idea,” Luigi said from the base of the palace’s outer walls.

“All you have to do is jump, and jump really well,” Vivian said from the sack on Luigi’s back. “You’ll have no problem with that, right?”

Luigi nodded, clenching his fists tight. “That’s right… I’m Luigi! Luigi Jumpman Mario! Warrior of the Bleck Resistance, seeker of the Marvelous Compass, and brother to Mario! Letsa go!”

Caspain nodded to them. “And I… am on distraction. Are you sure I shouldn’t go?”

“You’re heavier than me,” Vivian said. “Luigi needs full range of motion. You would probably know how to talk to the Emperor better, but… I might need to take out some guards.”

“Of course,” Caspian nodded. “Forgive me for questioning your plan.”

Vivian took a moment to reel. “W-wait, you’re the King, you’re the one in charge right now!”

Caspian tapped his head. “I do not believe that for a moment, Vivian. You’re the leader, now.”

“W-well then…” She swallowed hard. “Thank you.”

“Any time.”

“Now go be distracting.”

Caspian saluted, running to the front section of the palace walls. “Hey! Witch-teeth! It’s me again, and this time I’ve got a thing or two to get off my chest… starting with your head!” There was silence where Luigi assumed he was drawing his sword. “Have at thee!”

That was the signal. Luigi super jumped over the top of the outer wall, landing in a shrubbery cut to look like a swan. As expected, there was nobody in this section of the garden. The guards that were guarding the front gate who might have seen him jump over were busy staring at the scuffle with Caspian.

Luigi snuck around the inner edge of the wall, away from the front doors of the palace. He passed many decorative shrubs and a handful of trees that didn’t look quite as healthy as they could have been. Soon, he arrived at the part of the palace closest to the wall—the stables. Naturally, it was guarded, but only by a lone soldier who looked rather bored.

Luigi nudged Vivian. Carefully, she poked her hand out of the sack and lit a distant bush on fire.

The guard saw it instantly. Leaving his post, he ran for the bush and tried to beat it out, yelling for help. For the moment, no help came—which was enough time for Luigi to super jump on top of the stables. Now that he was on the palace itself, navigation would be easy. He jumped higher, and higher, from one tower to the next with relative ease.

In truth, the royal palace really was heavily defended. Not even the most skilled assassins could get in easily, and invading wizards found that the royal enchanters had those avenues covered.

Nobody had expected a man who could jump thirty times his own height would try to infiltrate the palace. To be fair, it was a perfectly reasonable assumption, no known power in this world could accomplish that.

Otherworlders really did have an unfair advantage.

Luigi stopped in front of a window several stories above the ground. “This it?”

Vivian poked her head out of the sack. “Hmm… yes, this is the floor where the throne room is. Naturally, it’s not next to any of the windows, so we’re going to have to be stealthy to actually reach him.” Vivian snapped her fingers, burning the lock on the outer window.

This set off the magic alarm in place on the window.

They may not have planned for jumping men, but they did plan for wizards trying to enter through unexpected avenues.

“Go go go!” Vivian all but shoved Luigi through the window, jumping out of the sack herself. The hall on the other side had three guards, all with large swords. Vivian fireballed all three of them. Two couldn’t handle the heat of their armor, while the third surged forward only to get a Luigi hammer to the face. Vivian burned the next set of doors down, rushing through the lavishly carpeted rooms of the palace without a care for the ancient, decorative tapestries everywhere. They were easy to burn, so they could be useful to her.

Luigi ran after, jumping all over the place. This confused all the guards immensely, only making it easier for Vivian to light all of them on fire. A few serious burns were enough to put most of them out of the fight because of the searing pain, but these were the royal guards—some were always able to push through the pain and keep fighting anyway. They found Vivian impossible to hit because she kept ducking beneath the ground and Luigi impossible to hit because he never spent any time on the ground.

It looked like they were going to steamroll the guards all the way to the Emperor. Until the wizard showed up, that is.

He had brilliant silvery robes and numerous magical runes etched into his face as if he were made of metal. He raised a hand, unleashing a burst of intense light. Luigi and Vivian were instantly blinded by it and thrown back into a large set of double doors. Even though she was blind, Vivian grabbed Luigi and pulled him beneath the ground—but as Vivian had feared, magic was able to hit her in shadow form. Another burst tore her out of the shadow with enough force to break down the double doors.

Suddenly, all the fighting stopped. Slowly, her vision began to return to her. She was lying in a large room with red and gold carpet that led up to a massive throne covered in gold and hammer iconography. Sitting on the throne was a thin, albeit muscular man in flowing robes who held a massive enchanted hammer that glittered with dozens of precious gems. This, no doubt, was the Emperor himself. To his side stood an extremely short girl who looked more like a child than a royal advisor, but she wore the robes of the office nonetheless. Her most defining features, aside from her teal-white hair, were a pair of red leather gloves she wore on her hands.

The Emperor stood up, fixing Vivian and Luigi with a stern glare. “Why have you disturbed me?”

Immediately, both Luigi and Vivian felt a power wash over them. Their minds suddenly aligned with the Emperor’s.

There was no way they wouldn’t answer the question completely and truthfully. The Emperor had asked a question: and he always got answers to his questions.

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