• Published 9th Jan 2012
  • 6,138 Views, 320 Comments

Ponystuck - confoundtheseponies



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

  • ...
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Chapter 44

***ACT 4 ACT 4 INTERMISSION***

"What?" Silver shouted, fuming at Diamond's trick. "But... what... you mean it's a draw!? What happens now!? What if-"

Before she completed her thought, the two ponies, and the entire stadium, were engulfed in a sudden flash of light, followed by darkness.

An eternity passed. Time melted away into itself and lost meaning. The occasional Norse God wandered past and inquired about directions, but otherwise the two ponies were alone. Side by side, but neither of them aware of the other. Another eternity passed.

"Well this sucks," Diamond said, after a billion years of hesitation. Silver jumped in surprise.

"Yes, it does," she said. "Where are you?" she added, perhaps a thousand years later. Perhaps a few seconds later. It was hard to tell, and largely irrelevant.

"Here," Diamond replied. "Where are you?"

"Here. I now pronounce us Queen and Queen of pointless observations, so let's move on." Silver glanced around her at nothing. "What do we do now?"

"I spy-" Diamond began.

"Fuck off," Silver said. "I'd rather be alone again for another eternity."

"Really?"

"Of course not, don't be fucking stupid," Silver sighed. "Seriously. How do we get out of here?"

"Who knows?" The two ponies fell silent again. Another three eternities passed. "... are you still here?"

"Yeah," Silver said immediately. "I'm just thinking. I hope it was worth all of this just so you didn't lose a fucking card game."

"It totally was," Diamond said. She paused. "We haven't seen any Vikings in a while, have we?"

"They've got better things to be doing," Silver pointed out. "Or they're all dead. That was at least three or four eons ago."

"That was a complete guess, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Could have been a few seconds ago, really. Doesn't make my idea any less plausible." To clarify, it was in fact a damn long time ago, but the majority of the Norse Gods are still alive and well. "I wonder if they ever got to where they were going."

"Funny that we didn't follow them," Diamond said. "It didn't occur to me at the time."

"No," Silver agreed. "Me neither." And so the ages passed again, uninterrupted save for the occasional exchange of dialogue between the two ponies. Most of these were incredibly tedious, but that is only to be expected. There wasn't much new material for conversation when you spend such a stupidly long time in a void.

"Hey, Silver?" Diamond said quietly.

"Yeah?" Once, Silver would have looked around quizzically, but she had long since grown accustomed to the fact that she didn't have a clue where Diamond was.

"... I'm really glad you're here," Diamond said. "Wherever that is."

"Yeah. Me too," Silver said. And it was true, she was. Even if they had been enemies once, that seemed incredibly trivial now. It was so long ago. And besides, they were basically the same pony. Or, at least, two dream selves belonging to the same body. The body which was now dead. So, sort of the same pony.

"You know what would be great?" Diamond said.

"What?"

"If we got out of here, and found that everyone had made friends again. And no one had died, and everyone had sorted out their issues."

"Yeah, that would be great. Probably won't happen though."

"Hey, you've got to think positive! I'm sure they could work it out if they tried."

"Maybe. But are we ever going to get out here?" Silver closed her eyes. It didn't make any difference, so she opened them again. At least, she thought she had. It was hard to tell. "Well, whatever. Just promise me you won't leave without me."

"I promise," Diamond agreed. And the ages continued to pass. After spending so long together, talking and laughing and crying throughout the infinite expanse of time, it came as quite a shock when they both suddenly realised where the other one was.

***END OF ACT 4 ACT 4 INTERMISSION***

"Hey," Diamond Edge said casually. "Did you guys miss me?"

"Diamond!?" Acapella cried with relief.

"Silver!?" Discord cried with relief.

There was an awkward silence.

"Heh, well, I don't really mind either," Diamond said sheepishly. "Officially I guess I'm Diamond Edge now. I was thinking 'Silver Heart' but that was already taken. So... yeah. How have you guys been holding up? Good?"

"... well, it's just... we were kind of in the middle of something here," Twilight began. "Uh... it's probably worth asking, what happened to you?"

"Oh, well... hard to say," Diamond said. "I guess that I and me spent a lot of time together, and... well, I guess we reconciled our reconcilable differences." She paused. "Heh, you don't hear about reconcilable differences very often, do you? Although in my case I guess it's just as well. I hear that getting divorced from yourself can be rather messy."

"I... what I meant was, who are you?" Twilight restated. Diamond blinked.

"I'm Diamond Edge. I used to be Diamond Heart and Silver Edge, but it's much more convenient to just have the one, don't you think? Occam's razor and all that." There was a heavy pause while everypony thought about this.

"Well, whatever," Discord said. "The question is... whose side are you on?" Diamond looked at him quizzically.

"Side?"

"Yes," Discord said levelly. "Are you on my side, like Silver was, or on their side, like Diamond was?"

"Hm?" Diamond paused for a full minute, before gasping in surprise. "Ohhhh, right, now I remember, you guys don't get along, right?"

"Don't get along?" Ember sighed. "Yeah, something like that."

"Oh, sorry, I guess it's kind of a big deal for you. I've all but forgotten about it." She laughed. "Hm, well, I don't really know. Why don't we all get along? Come on everypony; let's sort out your differences. I'm on a reconciling roll at the moment."

"Diamond," Comet said calmly, "I don't mean to be blunt. But we have lost far too many friends thanks to this guy. We're less than half our original number here. We are not going to call it water under the fucking bridge and make up with him. I am going to weep like a bitch over this veritable ocean of misplaced lactic fluid until that bastard is dead, buried, risen, dead again, burnt, scattered to the four winds, risen again, dead once more, buried for three months, recycled as firelighters, then somehow risen again, then finally permanently dead so we can all go home."

"How are you planning to kill him permanently?" Celestia asked with interest. Comet shrugged.

"I don't know, I'll read him poetry or something."

"If we can get back on topic..." Twilight suggested, before turning back to Diamond. "The point is, Diamond, we're not going to forgive him for this mess. Ever."

"I... I see," Diamond said sadly. With hope in her eyes, she turned to Discord. "What about you? Would you be prepared to call all of this off?"

"No," Discord said immediately. "Now either join me or step out of the way."

"But... but-" Diamond began, before cutting off as she finally realised. Realised that nothing she could say was going to defuse the situation. Maybe she was just out of touch after having spent several million million million million million incredibly huge amounts of time by herself. Diamond frowned. "Wha-" Shh. Stop talking. You'll just confuse the situation. I already know exactly what you're thinking so there's no reason for you to say anything. Now, leave these ponies be for the moment and come and find me. Nodding to no one in particular, Diamond shrugged. "Well, if that's the way it's going to be, I suppose I can't do anything to stop you." She turned to leave.

"Wait, where are you going?" Discord called after her. She paused, and briefly glanced back at him.

"I just need to think about a few things," she said, and flew away.

***

"Ow," I say pointlessly. There is no one around to hear me and it hurts to talk, but I still gasp in pain out of habit more than anything else. I don't think I will die, not just yet at any rate. Another encounter with Discord would quickly remedy that, but for now I am at least in good enough shape to complete my narration. I just sincerely hope that the ending will be a good one.

"It was you who called me out, wasn't it?" Diamond asks, finding me much faster than I had anticipated. "Are... are you OK?"

"It's not important," I cough, almost collapsing to the ground as I stumble onwards. "Hurry on. Need to get. Room." In an effort to remain conscious I have decided to omit less needed words. "240044492291185520244740319123850321940258237447921013742302101427294."

"Pardon?" Diamond asks, and I almost laugh. Almost, except my body suddenly hurls itself against the wall and falls to the ground. "Hey, seriously, stop moving, let me help you." She rushes over and picks me up with her magic. Her levitation is quite delicate, and there is no pain, which is a nice surprise. "Just tell me where I need to take you." I nod; narrating as she gently carries me through the hotel.

"Left here. Next left. Left again. Take the next two lefts." She gives me a strange look, and an even stranger look as the final turn takes us into a vast chamber filled with tables and chairs. "Now turn around and take the first right." She does so, and we walk into the same vast chamber, but on the opposite side. "Now head left up these stairs, turn around, first left, two hundred and fifty eight right, down the stairs to the right, left, left, third right, behind the bar, left, up the next four flights, right, and now keep going for about ten miles." Diamond gives me another look. "Don't look at me like that. Just get to it."

"At least tell me it'll be at the end of these ten miles," Diamond complains. I don't answer. "... Hello?"

"Oh, yes, it is at the end of the ten miles," I say, and Diamond nods in relief and continues on. "... After all the rest, that is," I add.

"I'm going to drop you," Diamond threatens.

***

"Well then," Discord said. "Now that that's... out of the way, let's carry on from where we left off, shall we? I think we were just coming up to the part where I kill you." He prepared to leap forwards, an axe in each hand. "I've been looking forward to this, you know. Finally fighting you all at full strength? It's about time I had some fun." He began to leap forwards, just as Luna fired a barrage of arrows from the shadows behind him, and Acapella's powers twisted Discords' arms behind him. The Heir fell over backwards as every single arrow stabbed into him. Crying out in pain, Discord roared as the entire corridor he was in exploded, engulfing Acapella and Luna in a tornado of fire. Or at least it would have done, except the two ponies reappeared safely next to Celestia as Discord rose painfully to his feet. "Heh... fighting Pinkie's made me a bit slow, I see," Discord said. "I can't let my guard down when there's a group of you like this."

"Weren't you listening when we said we weren't going to forgive you?" Twilight asked. "You're not going to beat us with cheap tricks anymore."

"Fair enough," Discord sighed. "I guess I should go all out, then?" With that, he vanished. An uncertain pause followed, which came to an abrupt end as Discord burst through the deck of the warship from beneath it, axes dancing around him. There was a great heaving, creaking sound, before the entire deck splintered and cracked, and the entire vessel broke apart into two large chunks. Twilight and Celestia reacted almost immediately, gathering their group safely onto the largest chunk as Discord twisted through the air and landed gracefully in front of them. "Oh come on, you'll have to be faster than that," he admonished, darting forwards and knocking Acapella's cane out of her hoof the moment she equipped it. Quickly turning, he parried Twilight's quillsword with one axe while using the other to cleave at Acapella as she desperately leapt around his attacks while trying to pick up her cane. As she stumbled and fell to the ground, Discord's axe swung towards her, only to miss entirely as she vanished. Caught off balance, Discord leapt upwards and away from Twilight, barely managing to deflect the arrows which Luna was sending towards him from an infinite number of directions as Comet deposited Acapella back into the same position several seconds later.

"It's really endearing how you're all working together like this," Discord said. "Almost makes me feel bad." In an instant, all of the arrows and spells flying towards him disappeared with a wave of his hand. Dashing back down towards the warship, he swiftly dodged between the countless gaps in time and space that opened up in front of him as he aimed straight for Acapella. Moments before reaching her, Ember finally managed to open a gap beneath his feet, depositing him in front of Comet, who finally managed to hurl his dictionary into the Heir. Recoiling, Discord brought huge spears of metal and wood bursting out of the warship around him to absorb the oncoming attacks as he regained his balance. Leaping over his temporary shield, he lashed out at Star Swirl, who was barely able to slow Discord enough to get out of the way. By this time, Twilight had caught up to Discord, and he was unable to pursue Star Swirl as he fended off Twilight's attacks. "This is starting to get old," Discord sighed, leaping away from Twilight and using his magic, burning up everything around him. The ponies were thrown backwards as a tornado of magic whirled around him, devastating everything it touched.

"Don't let up," Comet said. "We need to keep up the pressure."

"I know that," Twilight said, firing her fail-safe spell at the magical inferno, as a wavy beam of magic shone out of her horn and into the vortex of fire. Sadly, and to her complete surprise, her fail-safe spell failed dramatically, as Discord's magic tore it apart, leaping out towards its source. Before she could react, Star Swirl was in front of her, his shield absorbing the brunt of Discord's attack. "S-Star Swirl! Get out of the way, you're not-"

"Let me show you how a fail-safe spell is supposed to look," Star Swirl said confidently, as he cast a mighty tri-coloured beam of brilliant light at Discord, engulfing the entire magical storm in a warm, friendly glow. Twilight was taken aback at the sheer amount of magic emanating from the unicorn in front of her, who suddenly looked much older and wiser to her eyes. Of course, if she thought about it, she would have expected nothing less from the greatest magician Equestria had ever seen. With a brilliant light, the storm faded and died, as the fail-safe spell negated any and all magic within it, leaving just Discord standing in the centre of a devastated wreck. "... that's about all I can do right now," Star Swirl panted, clearly drained from the spell.

"That's plenty, Swirly," Luna said, as she and Celestia took their positions in front of him. "Shall we, sis?" Celestia nodded, and leapt forwards as Luna unleashed another almighty volley of arrows, appearing out of every crevice and shadow and aiming directly at Discord, who vainly attempted to dodge them while fending off Celestia's staff. Several embedded themselves in his legs, before being destroyed by his magic. He stepped backwards, falling through a gap in space and landing upside down in front of Celestia, who jabbed her staff into his stomach, as another hundred arrows stabbed into him. He used his own magic to teleport away, with Celestia close behind him, once again finding himself by Acapella. Swinging his axe madly towards her, he was once again caught off guard by Celestia, who knocked him away while Acapella rushed towards the unbalanced Heir and stabbed him with her cane. In response, he kicked her away and leapt up above her, only to be intercepted by Twilight.

"For fuck's sake," Discord complained as Twilight caught him off guard and managed to stab into his arm with her quill. "You ponies are starting to piss me off." Leaping away from Twilight, he once again teleported away from his attackers, this time appearing far above the remains of the warship. "It's a good thing I had this in reserve." With that, he reached into his sylladex and released an item he had kept there for a very long time.

"... Is that..." Comet began, before stopping because it was perfectly clear exactly what it was. "Well. Shit."

***

"Here we are," I say, as we finally burst into the stylish and exquisitely organised room 240044492291185520244740319123850321940258237447921013742302101427294. In fact, the room is deliberately arranged in such a way that it creates a powerful magic charm to protect the items stored within. If I want to proceed with my plan, I will need to correct this. Luckily, there is a back door to the charm. As Diamond lowers me to the ground, I slowly and purposefully twist a candle stand 180 degrees, and gingerly unfold an intricate origami flower. That should do it. Satisfied that the lock has been safely undone, I equip my halberd and proceed to utterly destroy a large cabinet. "I'm feeling a bit better now," I offer as an explanation when Diamond gives me a strange look. She has given me a lot of strange looks since we met, which I suppose isn't so unreasonable. I suppose my actions have been rather haphazard so far, and I am not sure she was entirely satisfied with my explanation of why it was necessary to run ten miles down that corridor. Especially as my next instruction was to turn around and run back again.

"Please," Diamond sighs. "Please just tell me there is a reason why we did that. The fight must be over by now."

"Not at all," I say. "It's only just beginning to get interesting, in fact. It helps that the time we spent finding this room was mostly undone through the various time jumps we travelled through along the way. In fact, right now, my friends are in a bit of a tight spot. Of course, I understand that you're neutral in this, but I'm obviously rather biased. So, thanks for helping me out here."

"I just want this to be over with," Diamond says. "But whatever. What do you want me to do?" I nod, and walk over to a nearby cupboard.

"We're not losing too badly just yet," I say. "But that won't stay true for long. We need all of our strength to defeat Discord. Even the strength which is rather unavailable at the moment."

"You mean everyone that's died?" Diamond asks. I nod. "... Don’t tell me that's why you've brought me here."

"Really, what we need is Twilight and Celestia," I say. "Together they can do this, although to be honest it won't make any difference at the moment. Things are really just about to become so terrible for them, that not even bringing everypony back will help. We need a weapon. A weapon powerful enough to take him out once and for all." Diamond looks away uneasily. "I don't like it, but that's our only option."

"... So we're here for this weapon?" Diamond asks.

"No, Twilight already has the weapon," I say, as I open the cupboard and take out the large bottle stored within. "But it's useless without this." I show her the bottle, and she frowns in confusion. "Just trust me," I assure her. "This is the ammunition for the most powerful weapon in paradox space."

***

"You see, I wasn't just messing around trying to make you play basketball all day," Discord elaborated, as his own Dersite warship approached the ponies, who had now drifted alongside the entrance to the hotel. Entrance being a rather loose description - giant gap in the wall being a better one. "I was slowly and purposefully giving myself all of the grist. All of it." Lined along the deck of the ship was a huge regiment of over a hundred Dersite soldiers. Not that Dersite soldiers were anything to worry about.

"And...? What did you make with all that grist?" Celestia asked. Discord grinned, and snapped his fingers. At once, every soldier brought out the same small glistening item and held it up for the ponies to see. Every single one was holding a 25-tier prototyped Queen's ring. "... You... that's..."

"That, my little ponies," Discord said, laughing uncontrollably, "is checkmate." With that, every soldier put on their ring. With that, every single soldier underwent a terrible transformation. With that, over a hundred 25-tier knights were standing before the ponies.

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" Comet began, as a hundred knights - still much less of a threat than the King, but still far too numerous to be reasonable - charged towards the ponies, fangs and claws and wings and daggers and robotic enhancements and spikes and dice and giant ominous rabbit heads and who knew what else bared at them.

"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!" Comet finished, as Celestia teleported everypony inside the Infinite Hotel, which shook dramatically as somewhere above them a hundred demigod-level beings stormed into the building through the various exposed corridors, tearing up its infinite expanses as they blazed through the structure. "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FU-" He briefly paused his swearing to cry in pain as Twilight smacked his head. "... Fuck."

"Why did we run away?" Ember asked, a confused look on his face. Comet smacked him on the head.

"Emmy. Quiet time," Comet said.

"OK, this is bad, I'll admit," Twilight said nervously. "But we have an infinite structure to work with, and none of those soldiers alone are unbeatable. We just need to isolate them and pick them off one by one."

"Firstly, we can't keep that up for all of them," Acapella pointed out. "Secondly, they're not unbeatable, since they're mere soldiers, but they're only just below Queen Level. I don't know if we really have enough firepower to beat one. Not anymore."

"Hm...." Twilight frowned, as if something had just occurred to her. "I wonder."

"You can wonder later," Star Swirl said. "Something's coming." They all followed his gaze down the corridor; where in the infinite distance a blaze of light could be seen slowly growing. In an instant, they were hidden, shadows wrapping around them and hiding them away in the corners of the alcove where they had appeared. "Are we really going to do this?"

"Yes," Luna whispered. "It'll be fine." Half a second later, at impossible speed, a group of ten knights hurtled past them, and in that instant they made their move. The knight at the back of the group was suddenly enveloped in darkness, falling through countless gaps in time and space and landing somewhere else entirely. The other knights instantly came to a halt, glancing behind them. The corridor was in flames, which was due to their passing through it, but the missing knight was nowhere to be seen. They spent a few minutes searching for any sign of him or the ponies, but to no avail. The ponies had already teleported away after the wayward knight.

"OK, remember guys, burst damage," Comet said as they appeared in the large auditorium in which Celestia had deposited the knight. "We need this over with quickly and quietly." Nodding, Ember and Twilight leapt down to the knight, and each charged towards him from different directions. He drew his sword against Twilight, parrying her quill, while his tail swatted at Ember and prevented him from getting any closer. "Luna, Celestia, you're up."

"We know that," Luna said, sighing. Equipping her bow, she fired a volley of arrows towards the knight, who noticed them at the last second and jumped away. Swiftly catching him in a gap, Celestia threw him back into the path of the arrows, which stabbed into his carapace while Twilight hacked into his neck with her sword. Breaking through the thinner carapace, she managed to cut into the knight itself, but before she was able to kill him, his large, spiked tail knocked her flying away into the seats of the auditorium. Clearly wounded but no less determined, the knight got to his feet and began to charge towards Acapella.

"Why is always me they go for?" Acapella complained, as she weaved around the Knight's attacks, jabbing into it with her cane whenever she got an opportunity. "Well... not like I mind." Dodging close to the knight, the Witch of Blood brought up her hoof and punched the knight's open wound.

FRAYMOTIF
[BLOOD]
GOREPOCALYPSE

What followed was to follow the ponies who witnessed it to their graves, and it is probably best not to describe it in too much detail. It is enough, perhaps, to simply say that the knight stopped being a knight and started being an explosion. An explosion of a surprisingly large volume of blood. Everypony was silent for a few minutes, as they took in what had just happened. Acapella, the only one to not have blood scattered over her, smiled happily.

"Well, that went pretty well."

"... Ember?" Comet asked quietly.

"What?" Ember responded, not taking his eyes off of Acapella.

"Do you mind finishing them from now on?"

"No, I don't mind," Ember said.

"... OK, whatever, let's go. Sitting around being scared isn't going to solve anything," Twilight said. Acapella blinked, and tilted her head in confusion. "Never mind. Comet, you can let go of time now, we're moving on." Comet nodded, and released the time lock he had placed on the room. The sounds of battle now travelled outwards through the hotel, although the ponies were long gone before anyone would be able to investigate.

***

"In here!" I cry, and we are barely able to duck into the nearby alcove before twenty knights tear past us, engulfing the corridor in flames behind them. Coughing, we stumble through a door into a large open dining room which is so far untouched by the flames. It's a damn good thing this building is infinite, given how much of a beating it's been taking lately. I suppose the bright side is that, mathematically speaking, no matter what happens to it, most of it is still untouched. "It's going to get a lot harder to move around now," I say. "We'll have to be more careful."

"But can't they travel through time gaps like we do?" Diamond points out. "We should have been running into them all this time, surely."

"No, I'm Pinkie," I correct her. "And yes, that's true, but most of our routes so far have kept us away from all the fighting. Besides which, the later in the timeline we are, the more parts of the hotel will be on fire or destroyed."

"Well, where are we even going now?"

"To find Twilight," I say. "It's not very easy because they keep jumping all over the place to evade Discord and the knights. But I'm sure we can catch them if we hurry."

"Great," Diamond says joylessly. "Just great." Before we can continue, however, the wall to our left explodes and a knight flies out of it, knocking several tables into each other as he spins on the spot to face us. "Oh. Well." I sigh dramatically.

"Honestly, we'll never make it with distractions like this." As the knight charges towards me, I leap over it and equip my halberd.

FRAYMOTIF
[VOID]
OBFRUSTRATION

"Now, let's carry on," I say as I land safely on the ground. Diamond blinks.

"Huh? Weren't you just fighting something?" I look around and shrug.

"Must be your imagination."

***

"This is getting... a little difficult," Comet panted, as the twentieth knight fell to the ground. "I really don't think we're going to win like this."

"Stop bitching about it, this is easy," Ember said. Comet smacked him on the head.

"Emmy. Quiet time," Comet said.

"It's fine," Celestia said. "We can rest a moment and catch our breath, if we need to. We can't give up, not when we're this close."

"Damn it all," Star Swirl said. "How did things get reversed like this? I thought we had a pretty good chance."

"We still do," Luna said. "There's no reason to-" she cut off, as the wall of the chamber they had been fighting in exploded. "Comet! Don't tell me you let-"

"Of course I didn't!" Comet shouted back immediately, jumping to his feet as a legion of knights streamed into the room. "Celestia? Get us out of here!" Nodding, Celestia teleported them to the next nearest chamber.

"That was too close," Twilight said. "What are we-" she cut off, as the exact same thing happened again. "What?! You have got to be kidding me!"

"If that's how it's going to be," Celestia said, gritting her teeth in annoyance, "let's try this." With that, she teleported the entire group as far away as she could manage, several thousand miles to the left. They finally appeared in a large open hall. "Now, Twilight, send us back in time as far as you can." Nodding, Twilight sent the group several days backwards in time, to the same hall where they had been previously. Finally, the ponies relaxed.

"OK," Comet said, "what the fuck was that. Once I could understand, but twice in a row is a bit suspicious."

"It's fine now, at least," Acapella said. "We're safe for a little while now."

"True," Comet said, looking around. "At least - wait. Wait a minute. I swear there was a curtain pulled across that wall before we came back in time." Everyone followed his gaze.

"Was it? I wasn't really paying attention since it was just for a few seconds," Twilight said, shrugging. "Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters, why would someone do something so pointless?" Comet frowned. "... Everyone get away from that wall. Just in case." Several strange looks were aimed his way. "... I don't like this. I really don't like this."

"What are you on edge about?" Luna asked. "Nothing's going to-" she cut off.

The entire wall in question exploded outwards, knocking the ponies to the ground as a horde of knights stormed into the room. And there, in the centre of the wall, flanked by several large knights, stood Discord grinning evilly.

"There's nothing more irritating than chasing a teleporting pony through an infinitely large building," Discord said. "And there's nothing more satisfying than finally catching that pony in your trap."

"Shit. Celestia?" Comet asked, glancing hopefully towards the mage. She smiled and shook her head.

"Give me a fucking break, will you?" She sighed. "... I could save all of you. It takes far more energy to teleport myself than others."

"You're not doing that," Luna said. "That's about as heroic as you can get."

"It's fine," Celestia said, stopping when Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder.

"You're needed," Twilight said. "You're able to keep us alive far more easily than I am. I'll do it."

"Figured the same applied to you," Celestia said, smiling weakly. "But I can't let you die." Discord clapped slowly, groaning loudly as he stepped through the gap in the wall and into the room.

"Well, if you're quite finished, I'll be killing you now." He paused. "Unless you really are heartless enough to let one of your friends sacrifice themselves to save you." He shrugged happily. "No matter. I do this once, and one of your mass-teleporters sacrifices themselves. I do it again, the other one sacrifices themself. Then what? You're just a group of ponies who can't do shit to stop me, and I hunt you down at my leisure." He peered at Comet and Ember. "Well, I suppose you can probably save yourselves, can't you? You've never seemed to have any trouble sending yourself through time. Not that you can send others a far enough distance to matter, of course. And Ember just seems to have limitless energy for applying to stuff that annoys me. Or that annoys anyone, for that matter."

"... Twilight," Comet said. Twilight looked at him. "You've talked with Celestia about that plan, right?" She nodded. "... and? Would it work?"

"I...maybe." Twilight sighed. "Yes, it would now that we're so high level, and that we're inside the centre of this maelstrom of bad ideas. But there's no way we can do it when we're this tired."

"OK." Comet closed his eyes. "So all you need is for me to buy you time, right?"

"Uh... I guess? Wait, what are you going to-" she fell silent, as it became immediately clear what he was going to do.

"It's fine," Comet said, as a hundred other Comets appeared next to him. "I'm somewhat more expendable than all of you. I can't do much to help by myself, but I'm never by myself when I have myself. Right?" And with that, a hundred Comets did their Timey things.

***

"Huh." I stop suddenly, and Diamond pauses and looks back at me with concern. "I... oh, I see. Sorry, that had me worried for a minute there, Twilight and everyone just stopped."

"Why?" Diamond asks.

"They're running on a different time-line to us at the moment," I explain. "From outside it seems as if they're frozen, but actually they've been accelerated to several times faster than usual time. Comet's doing, with clones I should imagine. Typical Page of Time strategy, using time clones with individually small amounts of energy to simulate having a larger energy supply. They are the class with the largest 'potential' after all."

"How do you know it's him?" Diamond asks, as I resume our journey through the hotel. So far we have remained safe from attacks, but I am taking a longer route on purpose to prevent such encounters.

"He's the only one outside the bubble," I say. "The point of accelerating their passage through time is no doubt to speed their recovery or something like that. In the meantime he has to stay outside to maintain it."

"But wait," Diamond says. "Doesn't that mean he's fighting off Discord by himself?"

"Not at all," I say. "A Page may not pack much of a punch, but an army of time clones is one of the most effective stalling strategies in the entire game. But with that in mind, he is simply stalling. We need to hurry - we're needed more than ever right now."

"You say 'we'," Diamond says, "but I don't recall ever saying I was on your side."

"Doesn't matter whose side you're on," I say. "You'll want to be there."

"If you say so."

***

"It's awfully cute how you're struggling in the most painful way possible like this," Discord said, as another Comet clone was beaten down by a knight and barely managed to time travel away in time.

"Ouch," Comet commented. "I remember that one, that was close."

"You didn't think to warn him, then?" Comet asked. Comet gave him an odd look.

"Of course I fucking didn't. I think this fight's just a bit serious, yeah? Let's try to stay focused and not forget every fucking thing we know about time travel."

"You guys crack me up, you really do," Discord said, finally leaping forwards and almost killing two more Comets before they too escaped. "But enough is enough. I don't know what Twilight and Celestia are planning but I'm not going to let it happen."

"You think?" Comet asked, as another hundred reinforcements appeared. "You'll have to figure out which is the oldest version of me before you can stop me. There's literally no way you can properly kill any of the younger versions."

"So that's your game, is it?" Discord sighed. "I hope this is worth it, you know." He kicked the nearest Comet in the stomach, catching him off balance as a knight cut deep into his leg. "Oh, that looked painful. Was it? What about this?" Rushing towards the Comet that had been speaking, Discord leapt around the dictionary that vainly flew towards him and smashed the end of his axe into Comet's head. Flying backwards and colliding with the wall, Comet coughed painfully as Discord charged towards him. "Did that hurt?" Instead of answering, Comet simply used the last of his strength to time travel to safety.

"Of course it did," Comet said, crushing a few knights between his dictionary and another Comet's dictionary. "So?"

"So, why are you trying so hard?" Discord asked. "Is this really the best option for you?"

"It's my only option," Comet said. "It doesn't matter how much I get beaten up as long as I can recover before coming back in time to fight again."

"Yes... true, as long as you can," Discord said. "Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. I'd be careful, if I were you. This is such a setup for a heroic death."

"Like I'd let myself die just like this," Comet said. "Maybe I'd be worried if you were actually trying to stop me."

"Oh? Like this, you mean?" Discord asked, as he unleashed another magical storm, tearing away at knight and Comet alike. One by one, the various Comets disappeared to safety, as the knights dropped away like flies before the sheer power of Discord's magic. Eventually, the storm dissipated, and only one Comet was left, covered in cuts and burns. "Hm? What's wrong, why don't you fly away?" He grinned. "Oh, that's right; you're the last one left, aren't you? And someone needs to stay behind to protect Twilight and Celestia, right?"

"Damn it..." Comet coughed. "I can't leave until my reinforcements get here."

"Oh, yes, that's right, your reinforcements... you mean, you after you've healed up?" Discord laughed. "What do you suppose that means if there aren't any more?" Despite the situation, Comet laughed.

"Yeah... what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means." Behind him, the bubble containing the others began to glow. "It means that just me is enough to finish this." With that, the bubble collapsed, and the others returned to their normal passage of time.

"Comet! Fuck! What happened!?" Luna asked. "What-"

"Twilight." Comet said, silencing Luna's question. "Do it. Quickly, please." Twilight nodded.

"Wait a minute," Discord said, "what are you going to-" He fell silent as Twilight and Celestia were engulfed in a flash of blinding light.

FRAYMOTIF
[TIME && SPACE]
PANTHEONIC PIANOFORTE

***

Throughout time and space, jumping across the void through the gaps in the hotel that held the three sessions in alignment, the Mages of Time and Space weaved their spells.

On Skaia, the ruins of Prospit shifted slightly, as the broken bodies of two ponies disappeared from what was previously believed to be their final resting place. On Derse, the purple pyjama clad form of a dead pegasus made a similarly unexpected disappearance, along with several more bodies from other planets elsewhere.

In Comet's old session, two dead pegasi were deposited upon two slabs of stone. In Twilight's, another three ponies received similar treatment, and a fourth was deposited in Celestia's old session. One by one, the mistakes of the past faded away, as one by one Skaia revived its fallen champions.

"Summer?" Destiny asked, as the Maid of Rage and the Heir of Light appeared on Skaia's surface. "... what happened? Everything feels so..."

"I'm not sure why we're here," Summer said, "but we're alive, for now. And for some reason I get the feeling it'll be a hell of a fight to stay that way." Destiny looked around her at the peaceful battlefield.

"What do you mean?" she asked, but before Summer could answer, the two gods were once again transportalised away.

Meanwhile, in another session, another three gods were rising. The Rogue of Breath, the Witch of Heart, and the Knight of Life. The Seer of Space was waiting, after having been sent there from yet another session.

"Rainbow? Applejack? Rarity!?" Fluttershy cried. "Are... are we really alive?"

"I think so," Rainbow said, scratching her head in confusion. "I... wow, it feels like I've missed out on a lot."

"Never mind that," Applejack said. "... where's Twi?"

"Now that you mention it, we kind of lost track of her a while back," Rarity said. "I hope she's OK."

"I'm sure she's-" Fluttershy began, before all four ponies were once again sent flying through time and space, as the mage's spells drew them back to where they were needed.

***

With the most triumphant of triumphant fanfares, the light surrounding Twilight and Celestia exploded, fading away to reveal their revived friends. Discord blinked. Then he looked around at the knights he had brought with him, killed by either his own magic or Comet's interference. Then he looked back at the twelve Gods - and Star Swirl - staring angrily back at him.

"And that," Comet breathed happily, as the group equipped their various weapons, "is check fucking mate."

"Checkmate?" Discord blinked, and then snapped his fingers. In an instant, the room transformed into a large, familiar chequered Battlefield. Around him amassed the remainder of his forces, still a good hundred knights strong. "Oh no, my dear ponies, this game is just beginning."