The Beginning
“My name is Merlon,” a voice rang out from the console Eleven had just activated. “And I am making this record for those who care—care to know the Tragedy of my Tribe.”
Twilight, Picard, and the others all fell silent, hanging carefully onto every word.
“It all started when we found the pair of prophetic books—the Dark Prognosticus, and the Light Prognosticus, bestowed to us by an unknown multiversal wanderer. The Dark was a terrible book that told of the destruction of all worlds, while the Light told of how the worlds were kept from destruction. Both had correct prophecies within their pages, and neither had shown anything incorrect. But, as we researched them, those who touched the Dark book went mad. It was not the book itself—it had no enchantment—but the words within that somehow spoke directly to all those who held it, as if the words within were written with the intent to destroy the specific people who opened it.
“In the end, this caused the Tribe to split. Instead of engaging in a multiversal war, which might bring about the very end both sides sought to avoid, we went our separate ways. I stayed with the Tribe of Light and the Light Prognosticus, while the Tribe of Darkness under their deplorable Shadow Queen went to another end of existence.
“I was placed in charge of constructing that which the Light Prognosticus foresaw—the city of Flipside. Powered by the only Pure Heart that would permit our direct use, that of Earth, it stood as a testament to a bright future where, one day, the chosen heroes would rise and gather the Pure Hearts to end the future threat of darkness. After coding myself into the city’s AI and creating an interface for Flipside—ironically in the form of a shadow—I left my AI self to run things while I turned to another project, trusting my assistants Biggs and Wedge to provide the physical presence required.
“I should not have done this, but this other matter had been my life’s work. You see, my rise to prominence within the Tribe came from the proof that all worlds had once been one, and that there had been only one true Purity Heart at the start. We called this first world Eden. After realizing that the world of Eden had split into the other eight, I set out trying to find a way to replicate this process. Studying the Pure Heart of our home universe, Gaia, I set out on the largest and most involved experiment I know of—the attempt to create a new universe.
“To me, Flipside was just a momentary distraction from this goal. A necessity, and an annoying one at that. But… now I’m glad I at least left something, even if it is broken.
“Regardless, once I left Flipside to itself, I returned to my work. I focused everything I could on our Pure Heart, and I had believed I figured out how to do it. If I could forcibly sever the Pure Heart from our world—not just remove it from the universe, but destroy all connections utterly—it would create a new world in the inner spaces, forcing Gaia to generate a new Pure Heart. All the calculations worked out. There should have been no danger.
“I missed something. I still don’t know what it was, but I missed something. When I severed all connections, the Pure Heart did, in fact, create a new universe. The Ninth World. It was a bizarre place that didn’t seem to have its own idea of what to be, rather, taking ideas, patterns, and shapes from all the other universes to create its bizarre patchwork. And yet, nonetheless, it was a beautiful world. A success.
“If only its creation hadn’t heralded the destruction of Gaia.
“A new Pure Heart did, in fact, form in place of the severed connection. But it was not worthy of the word ‘Pure’ in the slightest. It was a slurried mixture of colors, ideas, and was simply unstable. I simply call it the Experiment, now. The Experiment was unable to hold Gaia together. The universe shattered into many pieces, bleeding across the spaces between worlds. Worst of all, it released the power of the Void unto the multiverse. Previously, Enuo’s attempt to enslave the dimensions of Gaia had been limited purely to Gaia and its various realms. Now… well, the Void is docile, but it’s connected to every universe. I remember enough of the Light Prognosticus to know it most likely is the power by which all universes will be threatened.
“With our world in ruins and much of our people dead, we attempted to move to Flipside. But the construct I created to manage the interface had turned against us—I had to deactivate him and work on another interface, but she didn’t work either. And the shadow… he almost destroyed Flipside. He did drive us all away.
“With our numbers limited, we retreated to the world we—I—had created, the Ninth World. We thought maybe, if we found the Pure Heart, there might be a way to undo this. But… we couldn’t find it. We built great machines and even some replicas of what was on Flipside, but all we could do was prove it was here. We never discovered its location.
“So we built Thon instead. A digital construct that, from the outside, appears to be a paradise for anyone who wishes… but its primary purpose was to serve as a relic. As a memory. A memory of who we were. Whoever finds this message, please, take the cultural archive of our Tribe of Light. Do what you can to save the worlds. Find Flipside. And fear the Void.
“This is Merlon… and this is my final message.”
The audio cut out.
Eleven pressed a few buttons, generating a cubic data crystal. “This contains their cultural archive.”
Picard grabbed it tight. “I will treasure this and see it finds a suitable home.”
“Might wanna make sure that home will last,” Eleven said. “The Void is eating everything.”
Picard nodded, turning to Twilight. “I believe it is time to go.”
Twilight nodded. “Yes. Eleven? Return us… to the real world. And make sure I appear next to them, if you can.”
“Done.” Eleven pressed a button.
~~~
The Greeter bathed the shuttlecraft in yellow light, reconstituting Picard, Tails, Ty Lee, Troi, and Bon Bon in the main room. Twilight materialized in the trunk, but she quickly got herself into the main cabin with a quick teleport. “You know… I was expecting to feel different when I got out there. I don’t, really.”
“Thon feels as real as anywhere else,” Bon Bon said.
Picard shook his head. “That world in there was as real as anything out here. Those people were people, and those worlds were lived in. Just because they lived in a land of zeroes and ones while we live in a land of atoms and light does not mean we are any more real than them.”
“Of course, sir,” Bon Bon bowed respectfully.
“Now…” Picard adjusted his uniform. “We had originally been planning a highly risky maneuver to get past the Metarex blockade around Thon.”
“Metarex blockade!?” Twilight blurted.
“Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that, didn’t we?” Ty Lee giggled. “Whoops.”
“But now…” Picard turned to Twilight. “How far can you teleport us? Your absolute maximum range?”
“With the Element of Magic I can teleport myself nine thousand two hundred and one kilometers,” Twilight said, grimacing. “Probably closer to one thousand if you want the entire shuttlecraft. You actually want me to teleport that far, don’t you?”
“Their ships don’t occupy a wall that thick, and we had the Master Emerald teleport us to get here.” Picard turned to Tails. “Take us out, but stay behind the Greeter for now. Twilight, if we just need to teleport forward and not to any destination, can you teleport while the shuttlecraft is moving?”
“Probably. But I’m going to need a few minutes to charge this much magical energy. Let me gather it before you punch it.”
“Just tell me when you’re ready.” Picard turned to Tails. “Prepare a message for Riker to send the moment we’re moving, let him know to expect us and provide transporter assistance.”
“All right…”
“Everyone else, brace yourselves.” Picard gripped his armrests. “This is not going to be as smooth as our arrival.”
Everyone did as instructed. Bon Bon pressed herself to the back wall since the seats weren’t designed for her, while Twilight simply focused on her magic. Already, her horn had three layers of magical energy surrounding it, and she was nearing the limits of her capacity.
“R-ready,” she stammered.
“Commander Tails…” Picard pointed forward. “Engage.”
The Shuttlecraft whipped out from behind the cube, speeding toward the Metarex blockade form within. It jumped to a low warp speed—nowhere near high enough to prevent the Metarex from reacting. They launched their missiles and flak weapons in one huge burst.
“Now!” Picard shouted.
Twilight teleported the Shuttlecraft—while still at warp—over the missiles and well past the Metarex blockade. This did not stop the Metarex from firing at them from the other direction. However, now they were close enough for the Enterprise to swoop in, transporting them back into the shuttle bay.
The moment they were safe, Picard tapped his communicator. “Get us out of here, Number One!”
“With pleasure,” Riker’s voice returned. “All hands, prepare for superdrive!”
~~~
Captain’s Log, Stardate 47938.7, supplemental.
It feels as though it has been over a week since my last log, even though the stardate has not changed. Our primary mission—to find the Pure Heart—failed, though we did establish that the Pure Heart was not in the Thon Iridescence. However, we did find out a large amount of intel regarding the Wandering Ancients and their history. We also learned of their fall and the answers to why the Ninth World is the way it is. And, furthermore, why it is called the Ninth World when there are only eight.
In a way, it appears this tribe is responsible both for our ability to fight the incoming Void, and for the Void itself. I do not fully understand the scope of this relation just yet, but I hope the answers are hidden somewhere within the data crystal we recovered.
Even better, we have reclaimed Twilight, and are soon to deliver her to the rest of her friends. Hopefully they are having more luck in Celerillion than we did in Thon.
I find myself wondering what those Splinters are doing in Thon, now that they no longer have a quest or an original to look to… I’m sure their society will be an interesting, if bureaucratic one.
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
987 users online
387,667 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
The fact that both books come into existence at the same time rather than the Light one being a counter is a great change IMO. Makes it feel less like a lesser prophecy.
Do you hear that? That's the sound of outrageous applause at Biggs and Wedge appearing. The sound of over a year worth of Patreon donations finally paying off. It's glorious.
Oh neat, more flashbacks! My mind is a memory slideshow at this point...
That explains the name...
Finally, we found it! The Final Fantasy! It's here, here it is! And it's V, because of course it's V, anyone who knows V would have figured that out by now. Explains Greg, and also the Void, which makes sense because the two games Voids are so similar even their respective wikis mention it.
Well, that's reassuring...
Oh, they do that too. I find it very effective.
I mean, our universe is a simulation too and you don't see us complaining about it. People don't understand simulated universes: All the universe is is just math, it doesn't make a difference, you can't even tell half the time!
Say it with me everyone.... IT'S OVER 9000!!!!1!!!
Don't hit her there, she will die.
This feels like it should violate some physical law, but I don't know enough about FTL mechanics to say exactly.
Still want this as a spinoff. Hell, maybe I'll write it myself. Reply to his comment with the phrase "Twiumvirate" if you want to see that too.
Horray, exposition! It turns out that this was a sequel to Final Fantasy V the whole time! Now I finally don't have to pretend not to know where Greg came from! Also, this "Experiment" seems ominous... why does it sound so familiar... (Also Biggs and Wedge are here I am so happy I love them so much they caused problems for everyone in the future just as they should)
11160053
Twiumvirate
-GM, master of Twiumvirate.
11160061
why would you do this now it looks like this is all staged or something now I have to write this
11160063
Twiumvirate. I'd read it
11160053
Twiumvirate. Sounds like brely-contained chaos in the best way possible.
11160053
Twiumvirate.
It sounds glorious.
I've just read through the whole thing so far and this is absolutely amazing.
Though something that's a bit concerning is how few MLP characters we have confirmed as surviving. The Mane 6, the Princesses, Discord, Starlight, Shining, Bon Bon, and presumably Lyra are all accounted for, but that's it. Sunburst, Spike, the CMC, Flurry, and all other background characters are all notably absent. Spike in particular is worrying, since you'd think his first instinct upon reaching Flipside would be to find Twilight, and since he hasn't shown up, it makes one wonder if he wasn't among the refugees. The CMC are also deeply concerning, both because they're kids but also the affect their deaths would have on the Mane 6. Particularly, if Sweetie Belle didn't make it out of Equis in time and Rarity learned of it, she might actually go through with directly killing one of Bleck's minions, and likely getting herself killed in the process.
Also,
11160053
Twiumvirate
11161511
Knowing GM he probably just forgot about Spike.
Again.11160061
11160136
11160197
11160809
11161511
11161539
Alright, alright, I can see that other people are interested as well (and you GM, don't think I don't see what you're doing), and I may or may not have drafted up a pitch for a potential spinoff, I just need to run ideas by GM. (What, you thought he was gonna write it? Dude is far too busy with, I dunno, adding Stands to Word Girl or something.) And even after that it may not get made because I tend to lack motivation. Don't get your hopes too high for this, sorry. I do want to make it though.
I see now. You have here Merlon and Wandering Ancients as originally from the Final Fantasy world. That explains Gilgamesh's appearance in previous chapters. That world was destroyed in Merlon's experiment to create a universe and that resulted in Ninth World.