• Published 9th Jan 2012
  • 6,150 Views, 320 Comments

Ponystuck - confoundtheseponies



A story about a filly and her friends, and a game they play together.

  • ...
16
 320
 6,150

Chapter 34

In a distant corner of paradox space, a Queen sat in her halls of darkness, awaiting the signal from her King that the balance had slipped and that Prospit was making its move. The first Hero was expected to arrive soon, and once she arrived the war could begin in earnest. Absently inspecting the ring she was wearing, she pondered what new form the Hero would bring with them. She knew that it would be an owl (which was apparently some kind of wingbeast, according to her advisers), as had been foretold, but was curious about what this would mean for her.

Her thoughts were interrupted, as someone who had managed to approach unnoticed cleared his throat. Looking up, the queen of darkness was mildly surprised to find a grey pony standing before her. What in the name of all things convoluted and nonsensical was a pony doing in her throne room? And, she added as the pony began speaking, why can it talk?

"I come in peace, your majesty. I would simply like to make a deal. You have something I want - specifically, control of the army of Darkness. And I..." He retrieved a small ring from his sylladex, and levitated it in the air for her to see. On top of everything else, the revelation that the pony was a magic pony went relatively unnoticed. What didn't go unnoticed was the ring which, like hers, was a simple gold band surrounded by small white spheres. The pony smiled as the queen eyed the ring hungrily. "I believe I have something that you want."

"...who are you?" The Queen asked, not taking her eyes off of the simple band and the devastating power it contained. Her own ring had the potential to exceed it, of course, but it was currently inert - none of the heroes from this session had entered yet.

"My name is Mild Darkness," the Thief informed her. "And I have someone I would like you to meet." The ground beneath them shook, and the doors to the throne room were flung open as a Black King strode through menacingly. Not her King, the Queen noted. This strangers was from a different session entirely, and he had come prepared. "So, I trust that no further demonstration of my power is necessary?" The Queen shook her head. "Good. Now then, let me tell you all about my plan..."

***31 CHAPTERS LATER***

"What are you looking so happy about?" Silver asked, as Mild strode into the throne room with a grim smile on his face. He gave her a strange look.

"The Reckoning just started. Kingikaze's in place and the other one is waiting on the boat. We can leave whenever," he nodded to the Black Queen. "Keep an eye on her, we don't want a repeat of last time."

"You do know that Golden's ran off to kill everyone on LOTAF, don't you?" Silver reminded him. "And that he won't want to leave without messing up the rest of their shit as much as he can once they catch up to us." Mild sighed deeply.

"Oh, so now who's being a stereotypical villain?" A few moments passed while Mild sulked. "... he's getting worse, isn't he?" Silver shook her head.

"Not now, Mild."

"Not now? When, then? When are you going to want to talk about this?" Noticing the Black Queen's expression, Mild paused and walked out of the palace. After a few minutes, Silver joined him. "You can't keep denying the truth, Silver."

"The truth, you say?" Silver gave a hollow laugh. "What does that even mean any more?"

"It used to be that our biggest concern was being valuable to him. Making sure that it made more sense to keep us alive than to kill us." Mild closed his eyes. It was only when discussing their mutual fear of Discord that he and Silver were ever able to talk to each other properly. "Now, I don't even think that can save us."

"We have to stay positive," Silver said. "Golden is still in there, however slightly. We have to trust him." Mild gave her a weak smile. They were so dead.

"Let's Hope so, right?"

***

"I think... I think it's done," Fluttershy said at last, the others giving sighs of relief as the Seer gently picked up the softly glowing tadpole and captchalogued it for safe keeping. The last few hours had passed in a remarkably unremarkable fashion. At first, Acapella had found it suspicious. Now, she was simply bored out of her mind.

"Well done," Acapella said warmly, slowly rising from the floor where she had been resting. "So now we're one step closer to winning the game." Suddenly, a large meteor smashed into the hills just beyond the ectolab, causing huge tracts of land to burst into flames. "What the hell?" Ember, also rising from where he had been sleeping, glanced at the carnage through half-closed eyes with relative interest.

"Looks like we're one step closer to losing the game," he said sleepily. "Reckoning must've started..."

"So why are meteors hitting us?" Acapella asked, soaring into the air as she weaved between smaller rocks that hurtled towards her. Ember and Fluttershy soon joined her.

"Maybe this Reckoning's worse for some reason," Ember suggested. Acapella gave him a strange look.

"But this is better for us in the long run. The point of the Reckoning is to destroy Skaia. If the Reckoning was more severe, then the meteors would be stronger and faster, but they'd at least be aimed at the right place," Acapella pointed out. "This doesn't really make any sense."

"Seriously, you should watch what you're saying," said a passing meteor, which promptly exploded to reveal a madly grinning Discord. "It's like you're begging me to suddenly appear."

"Discord!" Fluttershy cried, instantly darting behind a rather bemused Acapella. The Heir cackled.

"Oh, don't act so surprised. It's not like any of your other enemies could pull something like this off, is it?" Discord said, knocking all three ponies back to the ground with an explosion of magic. He then came to rest on the surface of LOTAF, and in an instant the ground for miles around had developed an all-too familiar chessboard pattern. More meteors continued to veer away from their usual path and smash into the planet. "This should be fun."

"I sure hope so," Ember said eagerly, leaping into the path of an approaching meteor and knocking it toward Discord with a swing from his hammer - only for it to explode in mid-air. Discord smiled before rushing forwards, new meteors hovering above his outstretched claw.

"You didn't really think that would work, did you?" Discord taunted, before flinging a barrage of meteors towards Ember. "That's just a little bit pathetic." Someone tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned, to find Fluttershy attempting to stab him with her lance. She froze, allowing Discord to burst into laughter. "Oh, oh my, that is simply the most adorable assassination attempt I've ever seen." Grabbing Fluttershy's lance out of her hooves and throwing it behind him without a second thought, Discord withdrew his umbrella and gave it a few practice swings. The air it passed through screamed. He paused, contemplating the petrified Seer in front of him. Then he shrugged, and stabbed forward with the umbrella. To his surprise, a cane shot out of nowhere to parry it, and after blinking stupidly for a few seconds he realised that it belonged to Fluttershy, who was now unable to hide her smug expression. Discord's grin widened. "Heh... a little fight in you. I-"

"Nope," Acapella said, impaling Discord's shoulder with the lance that he had thrown away. "Stop right there. We're not doing that reference." Taking advantage of the opening, Fluttershy also sprung into action, hitting Discord's umbrella at the base and knocking it out of his grasp. Before she understood what was happening, Fluttershy found herself flying backwards into the ground, glancing upwards in time to see Acapella knocked away in a similar fashion.

"Ohoh, so you're finally trying to be smart?" Discord asked light heartedly, although his eyes were filled with rage. "It's a little late to try and outsmart me, don't you think?" In response, an enraged Prince materialised in front of him and almost crushed his head with a dreadfully powerful hammer.

"I've yet to meet someone who can outsmart my hammer," Ember said, as Discord retrieved his umbrella before turning to face his adversary.

"I thought we weren't doing references anymore?" Discord asked, but no answer came except for a large hammer flying through space towards him. "Oh well." As the Prince chased the Heir, Fluttershy and Acapella switched back their kind abstrata and weaponry.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Fluttershy," Acapella said uncertainly, as they watched Ember dodging around the meteors which continued to fall all around them. "There's no way that we can win this."

"Maybe not," Fluttershy said sadly. "But I don't see any other options, do you?"

It was then that they noticed the Land of Cakes and Laughter in the sky, inexplicably drawing closer with every passing second.

***

"So, shall we head off now?" Luna asked, Celestia's current condition inspiring a hint of urgency in her tone. "Unless anyone else was planning any more heroic gestures or dramatic farewells?"

"No, I think we've lost all the suicidal ones now," Comet said hurriedly, before anyone could offer to get themselves killed. "I suggest we make like Discord's morality, and split."

"Diamond? Are we done here?" Luna asked, trying and failing to look Diamond in the eyes. The unicorn had been silent since returning, apart from a few vague mumbles in response to their questions.

"Sure," Diamond said. Luna shook her head.

"OK, whatever, let's get out of here."

And so they did.

***

"Ah, so you've noticed," Discord said casually, the fast approaching planet now unavoidably urgent. "It was agreed that I have a tendency to play around too much, so I decided to put a time limit on my fun."

"So you threw a planet at us!?" Acapella shouted, attempting to keep as serious an expression as she could manage. Discord burst into laughter.

"Yes, exactly! Isn't that just... brilliant?" Acapella's mind raced. The MAP of this session was back in the ectolab. If she could just get back there...

"Fluttershy, deal with Discord for a moment," Acapella instructed. Fluttershy nodded, and took off into the air, lance in hoof. Acapella began running towards the building, while Fluttershy and Ember both attacked Discord at once.

"Now now everyone, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Discord said, ducking around Ember and blocking Fluttershy with his umbrella. "You have a long way to go before you can distract me that easily." In an instant, the ground beneath Acapella took on the same chessboard pattern as the area where Discord and the others were fighting. In another instant, the ground twisted and warped, gripping around Acapella's legs and trapping her in place. "Where were you even going?" Discord wondered aloud, before Ember finally managed to connect with his hammer, as it crashed into the Heir and sent him plummeting to the ground. Making the most of the opening, Fluttershy dove towards Discord, while Acapella found herself freed from the ground and resumed her journey towards the ectolab.

And then Discord recovered. Acapella, Fluttershy and Ember all found themselves frozen, before being dragged through the air until they were circling a furious Heir. Even Discord had stopped smiling now, as he flew towards the ectolab while keeping the three ponies hovering helplessly around him. Reaching the gap in the side of the building, he stepped inside. Instantly, every frog in the building died - except for the frog stored safely inside Fluttershy's sylladex. With a hint of grim satisfaction, Discord picked up the MAP that Acapella had left in plain sight and nodded back at the floating ponies.

"Well, I hate to cut and run, but I've really got to be somewhere." He glanced up at the approaching shape of LOCAL. "Do try to save me some cake, won't you?" And with that, he disappeared to somewhere in the incipisphere, allowing the three ponies to move freely once more.

"What do we do now?" Fluttershy asked, her voice shaking. "Can we just try to fly to safety?"

"We could," Ember said. "I think we've got just enough time to-" He was rudely interrupted by a meteor smashing into the building, sending the entire structure crumbling into a heap of rubble and twisted metal in a matter of seconds. All three ponies were tossed around the room, and as the ceiling caved in huge slabs of concrete crashed into them. For a few minutes, everything was dark.

Fluttershy woke up relatively quickly, although she spent several minutes opening and closing her eyes to convince herself that she could still see. A vanishingly small amount of light was reaching her from her current position beneath several large pieces of building. If only she could reach it, then she could- Ember tossed aside a large chunk of concrete, and Fluttershy screamed as the full light of day seared into her wide eyes. The sound of a pony being slapped in the face reached her ears.

When her vision returned, a rather sheepish Ember and a relieved Acapella were helping her to her feet amid a field of rubble. There was still a planet in the sky that needed to be taken care of, Fluttershy noticed.

"So... what do we do now?" Fluttershy asked. There wasn't any point in trying to run at this stage. Ember shrugged.

"I suppose I'll go take care of it. You'll be fine," he said, before soaring upwards, leaving behind a rather bemused Acapella.

"Uh... so, what's he doing?" Fluttershy asked.

"I have no idea," Acapella replied. "But knowing Ember it's probably something really... stupid... oh dear."

In the skies above LOTAF, Ember and the Land of Cake and Laughter drew ever closer. As he flew, he tested the weight of his hammer. He could probably do this. He was practically on the planet now, and it was beginning to dawn on him just how big it was. The ground approached from above, and Ember spun around in mid air to meet it, his hammer swinging through the air to meet the soft, cakey surface. As the sponge compacted beneath the colossal force, the surface of the planet shook, but did not slow down. Casting around for inspiration, Ember once again threw himself into the void between the two planets. Several passing meteors were smashed into LOCAL, slowing it further but not stopping it completely. He needed to do something more if he was going to stop the collision. He retrieved his final grenade from his bombkind abstrata. Alchemised from a few million diamond, uranium, and a good helping of regular build grist, he had only created one of these grenades. This seemed as good a test run as any.

Hammer first, he dove into the surface of LOCAL, rapidly tunnelling through to the centre of the planet. Emerging into the chamber of Nyx where Pinkie had yet to venture, Ember looked around briefly before pulling the pin out of the grenade and tossed it away into the corner of the room. He didn't bother running. If the grenade was powerful enough to get the job done then there would be no time to get out of range. Behind him, the shadowy denizen drew closer from its hiding place.

"Oh? A Prince of Space? Not who I was expecting..." Nyx shook her head. "If I'd known you were coming then I would have baked a-"

The surface of LOCAL cracked, large sections being carved out by a tiny, hairline fracture. And then, quite suddenly, these sections were forced apart, as the entire planet exploded outwards. Huge tracts of sponge dissolved into nothing, and the thick layer of icing around the centre of the planet melted into a delicious river of sugar that trailed outwards from the core as LOCAL quickly dispersed outwards in all directions.

Below the devastation, on LOTAF, Fluttershy and Acapella stood and watched in awe as icing sugar and small puffy sections of sponge rained down upon them.

"Wow," Acapella eventually said. "That was... wait... is that Ember?" Lying on the face of a large slice of cake, impossibly, was Ember - although it was impossible to tell if he was still alive. "Oh no." All too quickly, Ember and his piece of cake began to fall ever faster towards LOTAF. Fluttershy and Acapella were in the air immediately, rushing towards him even though they knew it was too late.

***

As the group appeared on Skaia, Comet and Twilight were only slightly surprised to find the Battlefield under heavy meteor fire. They hadn't been expecting it, but Sod's Law seemed to have been the guiding principle behind Sburb's design, so it was almost inevitable.

"Right, that's the first question answered," Comet said cheerily. "Yes, we are completely screwed. Next on the agenda would be: is anyone still alive?" Twilight gave him a look, before nodding her head in the direction of Luna and Star Swirl. Comet's forced smile dropped instantly when he realised what had happened. Celestia was dead. "... OK. Let's get to LOTAF and use the quest bed quickly, before Mild and Discord have a chance to regroup. They can't have been in this session for more than a few hours longer than us."

"Oh, well, about that..." Mild said, approaching from whatever inexplicable direction he always approached from without being noticed. "I have some bad news."

***

"Are you sure about this?" Acapella asked Fluttershy, who was marching forwards with a determined expression. The pegasus nodded.

"He saved us. It's the least I can do." Acapella nodded, before returning her attention to the dead Prince that she was attempting to levitate through the dense forest. In front of the two ponies, a young bear was leading the way to the quest bed of Space. Fluttershy's bear consorts had not been happy about using her quest bed to revive a different hero of Space, and were particularly unhappy that the hero of Space in question had tried to kill their frogs not too long ago. They couldn't outright refuse a request from the Seer, but they had made their objections quite clear.

"I suppose it makes sense to revive him. He's the most effective in combat out of our group," Acapella reasoned. "And you're the least likely to need a resurrection in the near future, because you still have your dreamself."

"I'm doing this because we owe him," Fluttershy repeated. "He was just protecting us."

"Personally I think it's more likely that he just wanted an excuse to blow up an entire planet," Acapella said. "I mean, holy shit, how many consorts did he just kill? Not to mention destroying an entire system of gates. I don't even know what happens when you destroy a gate. I didn't know that gates could be destroyed."

"If you're quite finished," Fluttershy interjected, "We're here." The trees parted to reveal the huge tower that supported the quest bed. At this point, Fluttershy thanked the young bear and both she and Acapella flew up the side of the structure. Reaching the top, they paused for a moment while Fluttershy inspected the bed. "I hope this will work," she said. "There's no reason why it wouldn't, of course, the beds are only aspect-specific. OK, put him on." Acapella obliged, lowering Ember onto the bed. The Witch and the Seer paused. "Did, uh, did you want to say anything? I mean, he is supposed to be your friend, right?" Acapella shrugged.

"Yeah, but I didn't really know him. I'll say something if you want, uh..." she paused, looking down at the earth pony on the quest bed. It was true that she had never really gotten to know Ember, but it was difficult to look at a dead friend without feeling some form of regret. The process of ascension had already begun, and the quest bed was beginning to glow with a bright white light. In the air around them, thousands of tiny sparrows had begun to flock around the tower, responding to the call of a rising hero. The whole affair was almost becoming rather emotional. "Now cracks a weary heart. Good night, sweet Prince; and flights of sparrows sing thee to thy temporary rest immediately followed by a rather chaotic and explosive resurrection," Acapella managed, as Ember disappeared in a flash of light. Fluttershy gave her an odd look. "OK, I'll admit, that last line got away from me a little."

***

"OK, so there's been a bit of a time delay, fine," Comet said, a little annoyed at the revelation that travelling between universes resulted in significant and unpredictable time delays. "Does this actually change anything?"

"Not really," Mild shrugged. "Me, Golden, and Silver, we've all been waiting around in this session since before Twilight first arrived. We just saw you leave a while ago, in fact."

"So..." Diamond said, astounded by how long that explanation had taken. "Can we get back to kicking your ass now?"

"Careful there, Diamond," Mild said, unable to keep the smugness out of his voice. "You're dangerously close to becoming noticeable." An axe narrowly missed his face, and he blinked. Diamond flew forwards to meet him, the axe she had borrowed indefinitely from Silver Heart in her hooves. "Hey, let's all calm down now, shall we?" Reaching into her mind and forcing her away, Mild retrieved a few dozen knives from his kind abstrata. "And while we're at it, let's do a head count. There's me, in possession of a considerable amount of strength, magic, knives, and mind control. Then there's the five of you, only one of whom pose any real threat. And frankly, Luna, I don't care if you can block my Mindy thing. I can kill you without resorting to that."

"Hey Comet," Star Swirl said uncertainly. Comet nodded absently, but seemed to be distracted by something in the distance. "Mild seems a bit more in control than usual. Since when did he level up?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure what's happened," Comet said, a slow smile beginning to form on his face. "But whatever he's done, it's too little, and far, far too late."

"What are you talking about?" Mild asked, instinctively leaping to the side as he did so. This proved to be a wise move, as several seconds later an enormous column of solid rock burst out from the surface of the Battlefield, skewering the air where Mild had previously been hovering. A few seconds and one hammer swing later, the huge spire of rock exploded into a thousand pieces, all of which were aimed directly at Mild. "Holy jegus FUCK!" Mild yelled, as he suddenly found himself surrounded on all sides by the surface of the Battlefield. Whichever way he turned, a sheet of rock was blocking his progress, and yet the light of Skaia still shone all around him. After a moment's thought he realised that he was being trapped in some kind of Spacey box, and quickly used the MAP Discord had stolen to escape.

Appearing high above the others, Mild instantly realised what was going on. A painfully smug winged and horned earth pony hovered opposite him, as a fully realised Prince of Space. Discord always made Mild feel anxious, maybe even afraid. But now, looking upon Ember, Mild was shaking. His face grew pale, and it took all of his self control to not turn around and run the fuck away.

"Hey, Mild," Ember said. Fuck, Mild thought to himself. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. "Knock knock." Oh fuck no. Fuck fuck FUCK.

"Uh... who's there?" This is so fucking terrible in every way. FUUUUCK.

"Interrupting MC Hammer," Ember said gleefully. Oh fuck is he trying to hide his hammer behind his back how the fuck can he think I'm that stupid. Fuck I AM that stupid why am I even doing this oh fuuuuuuck.

"Interrupting MC Ha-"

"Stop." Ember said quietly, causing Mild to freeze instantly. The Thief could only watch as Ember grinned in a way that made Mild seriously question his life choices. Oh holy SHIT. "Hammer time." If Ember said anything after that, it was difficult to hear over the wind that roared in Mild's ears as he was sent flying backwards by a single devastating blow.

As Mild soared into the distance, Ember dropped back down to meet the assembled ponies.

"Hey guys," the Prince said calmly. "Did you have a good trip?" It was several minutes before anyone spoke.

"Ember," Comet eventually said. "I honestly never thought I'd say this to you, but... I'm proud of you." He grimaced, as though the sentence caused him pain. "That was actually pretty awesome. But... I don't know how to say this..."

"How did you reach God Tier?" Luna demanded, having suddenly realised what Comet was trying to ask. Ember shrugged.

"Well, I was killed while I was protecting the others, so I guess they must have taken my body to Fluttershy's quest bed. I'm pretty sure that's the only way a Space player could ascend in this session, why?" Luna closed her eyes.

"... I... I don't even have any words for this." Luna glared angrily at Comet. "Did you see this coming?"

"I... I knew it was a possibility," Comet admitted. "There were two Space players left in this session, so if either one of them needed to ascend then they would use Fluttershy's quest bed. But Fluttershy had two lives and Ember was the toughest of the ones we left behind, so I didn't think it would be an issue." He paused. "Come to think of it, Ember, you were the last one I expected to die. I would have said that, at the very least, we would lose Rainbow and Rarity before you."

"Uh, yeah, heh..." Ember said awkwardly. "There's probably something you should all know." There was a pause, in which all of the group glared daggers at Ember. "It's just been me, Fluttershy, and Acapella, trying to hold off underlings and meteors and the full strength of the Asshole Squad. The others are all completely dead."

"WHAT!?" Twilight cried out in shock, along with a similar reaction from Comet and Diamond. "... how the hell did that happen!?"

"Mild," Ember replied simply. "And Silver, she finished off Rainbow a little later."

"Destiny's dead..." Diamond said. She had not been expecting to hear that. "Oh... fuck."

"Damn it Ember," Comet said. "We leave you all to fend for yourselves for just a little while and then ALL OF YOU DIE."

"It doesn't look like you've done much better," Ember pointed out. "Where's Summer?" A book smacked him in the face.

"Shut the fuck up right now," Comet seethed. "I don't want to hear another fucking word out of you."

"But before that," Twilight added in a softer tone. "How did you die, Ember?"

"Oh, it was awesome," Ember said, glad that someone had finally asked him. "Discord was attacking us - and by attacking us, I mean he threw a planet at us. An entire planet. So I flew up to the planet, made my way into the centre, and blew up the whole damn world."

"... which planet?" Twilight asked nervously. Ember shrugged.

"The Land of Cake and Laughter. Which was a good thing, too - it fell apart pretty easily since it's basically just made of cake."

"... you can go back to shutting up now, thanks," Twilight said quietly. Before leaving, she had left Spike asleep in the rubble of Sugarcube Corner, on LOCAL. She hadn't even thought about him in so long, she had taken his safety for granted. Of course, a long time had passed, and it was possible that he had escaped, there was no need to panic, after all. At least, she hoped so.

***

"What are you looking so unhappy about?" Silver asked, as Mild stumbled into the throne room with a strained smile on his face. He gave her a strange look.

"Ember... reached God Tier," he breathed, before collapsing from exhaustion. He wasn't bleeding, but he was going to be feeling the pain for a long time. "Can we hurry things up and get out of this session now? I'm not sure how much more of our complete bullshit luck I can take."

"Quit your bitching," Discord said, from his position on the Black Queen's throne. Where the actual Black Queen had gone, Mild had no idea. "It's nothing we can't handle."

"You," Mild said, picking himself up slowly and painfully. "You did this. You killed Ember, and then left them alone long enough for them to revive him. You planned it all out, didn't you?" Discord smiled, before clapping his paw and claw together. Instantly, the assembled ponies were all wearing ridiculous hats.

"Plan, Mild? Do I really look like a guy with a plan?" He shook his head cheerfully. "You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing carriages. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just do things, I don't need to think about it."

"That's what you'd like us all to believe," Mild said. "But, really? Really, I think you know exactly what you're doing, down to every detail."

"Mild, I hate to remind you, but not too long ago I suddenly realised that I'd been following a plan, your plan, even though my 'guarantee' was just as flimsy and undependable as you are." Discord stood up from his throne and walked towards Mild. "But let's say that I planned to allow Ember to ascend, because it's perfectly possible that I did. What would it matter?"

"Because I don't understand why you would do that," Mild said. "That's not just nonsensical, it's actually making our job harder."

"Speak for yourself," Discord said dismissively. "I don't have a problem with it. I think it's great, in fact. It'll be more fun. Think of it as a test, Mild. You know what's coming. If you can't handle a powerful idiot like Ember, how are you going to survive the final hurdle?"

"Fine," Mild said irritably. "Fine. If you want to go around making powerful enemies, then go ahead. Just make sure you don't bit off more than you can chew, OK?" Discord grinned unnervingly.

"I wouldn't dream of it."