The Malevolent Multiversal Misadventures of Mare (April Fools 2024 Special)

by Admiral Producer

Chapter 11: Larry, We GOTTA Get The AUTHOR Back!!!! Why?

The blimp (officially the Marestream II) landed on the Big Island and Mare somehow managed to book a hotel thanks to her clever way of speaking to the manager to give she and Misty a free week-long stay.

They got a big suite in the hotel with two beds for each of them. When the hotel manager left and they were sure they were alone, they checked over photographs they were given of Hawk Nightwing and they realized that the manager they were with looked slightly familiar in terms of having orange eyes, whereas no one else in the lobby had that.

With that information, Mare and Misty headed downstairs using the elevator to confront the manager about the photographs, and he kept evading them. They ended up living at the hotel for almost a week. But Mare grew agitated day by day, as she knew that the longer they wasted, the more worlds were being plundered. So she kept trying to get the strange manager to slip up to no success. One day though, he was able to trick him into revealing his identity by asking him questions only he would know. The facade quickly crumbled.

The manager sighed, transforming into his regular batpony form, “Okay fine fine, you got me. I am Hawk Nightwing, the most unapologetic defender of G5 you’ll ever meet! Live and in person. One night only. I had a feeling the disguise Caine gave me wouldn’t fool anyone, let alone the characters from stories I created. Are my stories sentient now? I’m confused.”

“The legendary Hawk Nightwing!” Misty exclaimed excitedly. “I can’t believe this, you…you created some of the greatest G5 stories about me! I didn’t think you were real.”

Hawk laughed, “Well, I’m real.” He faced she and Mare, “I had no idea I was so famous. How did you both find me here?”

Wasting no time, Mare explained to him about the whole situation with Edgelord, and how the multiverse of stories he had created was under attack. All while he was hearing this, Hawk’s expression grew even more grim with each passing second, with even tiny flickers of regret in there. It was obvious that he knew he made a mistake by not returning as fast as he could, but he was hiding something, and she could tell. She was determined to get the truth out of him if it was the last thing she did.

“So why haven’t you come back?!” Mare demanded incredulously. “Your stories are about to be wiped from existence and you’re just sitting here at a resort, not even caring?! I got betrayed by a discount twist villain for pony’s sake!!”

“I agree,” Misty piped up. “Look, I know you might have your reasons to stay here and I respect them, sure. But please…come back with us. We need you…”

Hawk sighed deeply, seemingly realizing that he could no longer hide the fact that he had bailed on his own characters. “Okay. Okay, okay, okay. You both deserve the truth…especially you, Misty. It all started a couple of weeks ago…”

---

“I was going through another debate on Fimfiction with a user who was hating on a Make Your Mark episode. The exchange got quite heated to say the least, and I eventually just stopped once I got the upper hoof. But unlike in previous exchanges, it didn’t feel right. My victory felt cold and empty. Then I realized…I was becoming the very thing I had sworn to destroy, the same vitriol, the same hatred.

I tried to get my mind off how I was feeling, but I just felt stuck. And I began to realize, despite all of the praise, the likes, the cult leader-like status my commenters bestowed upon me…they had something that I didn’t. Happiness. Logging on to defend G5 didn’t feel good anymore, especially when it resulted in the burning of so many bridges. I had already told off Edgelord after we got into a fight regarding the future of my stories. I was pro-G5, he wasn’t…and I asserted my will to my own detriment. Every day just more of that, more of the same. People telling me that I couldn’t handle opinions and that I was too obsessed. Even as I tried to move on from my horrible past, it still haunted me, and things just kept getting worse for me day by day. The reader engagement on my blogs was practically nonexistent and attempts to make comebacks kept failing. I no longer felt that passion for what I was doing, writing or videos. I wanted to just stop and retire. But I couldn’t just tell my audience I was quitting the fandom.

That’s when I got the brilliant idea…to voluntarily surrender.”

“Hawk Nightwing!” Prince Edgelord declared, triumphantly bursting through the door of Admiral Producer Studios. “I have come to take revenge on you for rejecting me! I will erase you and your precious generation from history!!”

I turned towards him, smiling peacefully. “Ah, Edge. You came early. I was wondering when you were gonna show up to take me down. Yes, I surrender.”

“No!” Edgelord shouted. “You will surrender, or-“ He paused, realizing what I had just said. “Wait…what?!”

“Where do you think that map to my location came from, sillyhead?” I asked him jokingly. “I sent it through the mail. Send me to wherever you think is best. You’re in charge now, you’ll do great. Bye.”

Once that blast of magic hit my computer, I’ve never felt so alive. Before I was sucked through the portal to the Circus, I reached into my saddlebag and threw the key to the multiverse over to him. Hawk Nightwing was officially FIRED!”

---

“…And Nighty Night was born!” Hawk finished proudly.

“Nighty Night?” Misty asked with a confused tilt of her head, clearly not getting the joke that came with the name.

“That way I can keep a low profile without completely erasing my name!” Hawk explained with a grin. “That’s what the people here in this hotel call me anyway. I founded this hotel to be the perfect resort, inspired by some of the Resort Hotels I stayed in while at Walt Disney World, of course.”

“You’re horrible!!” Mare screamed, throwing random objects at his face, all of which bounced off harmlessly. “You brought us all to life and then abandoned us, and then you abandoned your own fans who relied on you!! Who would do that?!”

“I’m with you!” Misty agreed. She looked at him straight in the eyes. “Hawk…we need you. I know you’re afraid of going back to your old ways, but you built up a following of people who love your work! Why would you leave them…?”

“It was the expectation, Misty,” Hawk said solemnly. “I had already crafted a beautiful Saga with you. I could never hope to top that. My glory days ended when your story did, and since then, I’d been fighting a losing battle with people who would rather send death threats to those they disagree with than listen. Eventually…I just decided it wasn’t worth it. The fandom I knew was dead. And truth be told, without Edge, that spark I had for finishing some of my old stories wasn’t there anymore. I can’t go back. If I did, it wouldn’t really be me. It would be artificial, by the numbers. I would just be…too scared to lose any other friends than defend G5 to the best of my ability.”

“So you’re just…going to condemn us all to death?” Mare asked him, her eyes widening. “You don’t even care enough to stop Edge?”

“I can’t defeat him…” Hawk answered her. “Not when he’s this powerful. But you…you were created to be intentionally OP. If anyone can take him down, it’s you. I’m not strong enough to face my past, face them. So I’d rather not try…if you knew how much I suffered while doing my job, you’d understand.”

“But…?” Mare tried to say, but was cut off by a reassuring hoof on her chin. She stared into the eyes of her creator, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Mare,” he assured her sadly. “You’re stronger than you know. I initially wrote you to be a joke, but you’ve already proven to be so much more than that. I’m sorry. I really am. I’m a coward, and I’m…I’m done. You know, little pony, there’s a yin for every yang. If there’s bad, good will rise up against it. It’s taken me a long time to find my calling. Now it’s about time you find yours.”

---

Mare and Misty checked out of the hotel later that day.

“I can’t believe he won’t help us,” Mare stated angrily, stomping her hoof on the floor in frustration. Misty flinched at this gesture, but she didn’t notice. “The multiverse relied on him and he just deserted it! We’re his creations, why doesn’t he care?!”

Misty looked back at her. “So…what do we do now? We can’t go back to the others. If they know that their creator is a coward, then…they’ll probably lose more faith than they already have.”

“Then they won’t…” Mare decided.

“What?”

“My journey will not be meaningless,” Mare told her firmly. “I’ve suffered too much to get to this point, and I’m not about to let Edge win. He’s taken everything from me, and he’s about to do the same to others. No matter what happens, I’m finishing this mission.”