Strange meteors have started falling into Equestria. Except these aren't meteors, they're gods.
Strange meteors have started falling into Equestria. Except these aren't meteors, they're gods.
Join our favorite ponies and alternate counterparts as they are unwittingly drawn into a fight that spans multiple universes, all for the sake of saving the original alpha timeline.
Crossover with alternate universe Homestuck and original characters created by others. Prior knowledge of source material recommended. Starts out as small as Appletini and expands like the universe.
It was a vast clearing. Well, not so vast. If by vast you mean a wide open expanse, which wasn't what this was. This was just a small clearing, a bunch of poison joke surrounding the bushes and canopies that cushioned the man's fall. He could fly, but he tried not to use it whenever he visited a new world in paradox space. He looked strange enough, he didn't need scientists or the like poking and prodding him (not like he couldn't avoid them anyway.)
"Howdy there pardner!"
The man jumped, pulling on his life hood and pulling it over his eyes. The sound came from nowhere. Had his planet hopping been found out?
"Ah don' know where you come from, but ya look like ya're a nice, helpful pony. Well, not a pony but a, a, whatchamacallit."
"Who are you?"
"Ah could ask the same thing stranger."
"And where are you?"
"Raght in front o' ya."
It took Jordan some time for his eyes to adjust to the large amount of darkness in this area, but once he finally found her - was it a her? It sounded feminine - once he finally found her his curiousity piqued to immense proportions.
"Now ahr ya gonna help a pony in need or not?"
"Y-yeah, sure."
The miniature orange pony barely reached his ankle, which was weird because everything else was so big.
"Yoo're a strange lookin' creature if I do say so mahself. What's yur name sir?"
"Jordan, and yours?"
"Ahm Applejack - pleased to meetcha. Ah'm on mah way to a hut in the middle of this here forest and ah got lost from mah friends."
"Well I'm sure we'll be able to find them."
"Say, whaht's that symbol on yer shirt s'pposed tah mean?"
"It means life. I have power over life."
"Well shucks sir, ah don't mean ta look a gift horse in the mouth, 'specially since yur helpin' me out an' all, but ah find that hard ta believe."
"It's true, watch!"
Jordan focused the energy in his hand which began to glow a little like the sun, the plants near him turning to face him with a sickly noise.
"Well I've never heard that before."
"That's pretty amazing sugarcube, what else can ya do?"
"I've trained a lot and gotten to the point where I can do minor healing."
Applejack's eyes widened, her really small body looking around as though this was a secret.
"Are ya a witch?"
Jordan laughed. "No, I'm not a witch. I'm a knight."
"You don' look much like a knight ta me Jordan."
"I may not have armor, but I assure you, I'm a knight. A knight of life."
"Is that why yur able ta control life?"
"Sort of."
"Can ya heal me? Ah've been cursed and that's why ahm here in the first place."
"Um, sure, I guess. I don't see why not - it's not like a hero of doom hurt you. Right?"
"Hero of what?" Applejack sounded extremely confused, her tone heightening when asking 'what.'
"Nevermind, just forget it. Come closer."
Applejack obliged and came up right underneath him. Jordan leaned down and held his hand close to her, letting the energy of life flow through his hand and into her, understanding the problem and fixing it, Applejack's form started to wibble wobble and slowly grew back to her normal height, which was about the height of his waist.
"Wow, that was amazin' sugarcube. Ya healed a curse!" Her eyes were wide with respect.
"It wasn't a curse. It was just poison."
"Poison?" Her jaw hung slack, her whole viewpoint doing a 180 that left her reeling. Jordan helped steady her.
----
Jordan's way was inhibited by the strange plants of the Everfree Forest. Applejack gave him a quick rundown of the forest and what had happened to her; although she was still a little wary around him due to the zebra she had been hunting for earlier. They both had strange powers, and Applejack was entirely satisfied that all it was was poison, even if she had been cured of it so easily. Jordan told Applejack a little bit about the sword he kept with him, which had belonged to his friend, a hero of doom player. Most of it was above Applejack's head, but she listened intently about the story. The sword, Letum Coupant (Death Blade) seemed to strike down the forest with ease; although with some plants it seemed to only make them worse, as if they fed off of the energy the sword gave off. They tried to make their way around the more dangerous parts, occasionally hearing some growling or sounds from the underbrush. Applejack informed him of some of the many creatures that inhabited the forest, and told him that lately they'd been getting bolder and a little stronger. Jordan told her that he could sense the life of her friends near to them, and had been being guided by the light they seemed to give off, and as they grew closer, Applejack's own life signature grew brighter and stronger. The stronger it grew, the stronger she seemed to become.
When they were nearly there, a caped figure drooped down from the sky, completely shrowded in a cape of void. Where he had gotten it was uncertain (not like Jordan would have even known.) When the figure touched down, his somewhat deformed face (almost like Twoface but worse) was revealed and glared sharp daggers at Jordan. If looks could kill Jordan would have been tossed into the sky and murdered by a dozen caped figures.
"I knew I felt a foreign presence. State your name young one."
"Who are you!?" Jordan could feel the dominating coldness in his voice. He brandished his loyal friend's blade and stood ready to attack and defend, his body glowing a little with pale light that reacted to some of the plants around him; although as they moved, they gave the same sickening sound as before.
"My name is of no significance to you. If you can not even follow basic instructions..." His body started to glow with dark intent, his eyes going red and almost piercing Jordan's shroud of life. "...Then you shall DIE!"
"Applejack go and get to your friends, they're nearby! Ru-AHG!"
As Jordan made a move to push Applejack away and shield her at the same time, he was shot by the flowers around him with dark stingers. It was as though they had evolved suddenly due to the dark shroud. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" Jordan screamed. He hoped the pins weren't poisonous.
"It's going to be fun watching you squirm." Applejack finally got control of her legs and ran off to go find her friends, knowing she was out of her league but hoping with her friends she could help her protector.
Jordan felt weakness gripping him, and darkness coming. He focused on his sword and swiped it, sending a wave of darkness at his foe, only for it to be absorbed as he fell to his knees. "Who are you!?"
"I am the Lord of Doom, and your soul and power is mine. You should never meddle in the affairs of another, and that will be your downfall!"
The Lord of Doom felt his mind go a little fuzzy before he closed in for the kill, a spear of doom formed in his hand and about to be thrown into the heart of the hero of life. Seeing as he had just protected someone else, the lord of doom knew it would be a heroic death. But when his mind felt fuzzy he forgot what he was doing until a second later the plants infused with the power of doom started to rumble a scream to him, causing him to float backwards when a weak-looking, diffused spear of doom sailed right in front of him. He muttered a "what" before he realized it was his enemy, the thief of muse, who had borrowed his power temporarily from his mind and used it against him. Not like it would have done anything he thought - both because it was his aspect and because it was only a minute fragment of power. A second later the thief burst out of the bushes with his diamond studded cape and hood rushing past. The diamonds flashed a little despite the lack of light, as though they reacted to his power, if only faintly.
"I finally found you, you son of a bitch!"
"Hahaha, it's good to see you finally caught up. But I have made this my home, and there is no one that can take it away from me. Soon I will have empowered this forest so much that it will grow all over this planet and infect every living thing, and then, as usual, it will give me power, much like Lavos did, then die. You haven't stopped me before, and your small powers couldn't hope to stop me now!"
"Shut the fuck up!" He looked angry, stomping his foot on the floor, bringing his hands up which glowed a gentle green. "I won't let you get away this time, this forest be damned!"
"I have no desire to skirmish with a little fly like you right now."
"You won't get away!" Typo quickly ran after him into the forest, temporarily taking the ability from a weak-minded manticore and using the claws it gave him to slice through the doom-seeping overgrowth in his pursuit. He would soon lose his trace of the lord of doom and would have to find his way back out.
Slowly, slowly opening his eyes. No, too bright. He closes them, then slowly squints, everything seeming blurry for a little while until he remembered where he was and what had happened. His body was itchy, as though there were bug bites all over his skin.
Jordan didn't know where he was, but remembered someone coming between him and the lord of doom the night before. He started to sit up and grunted, every movement making his body feel like it was on fire. He groaned, a hurried clip clopping coming down the stairs.
A lavender unicorn with a pink stripe through her dark-blue mane came down the stairs smiling. "Oh! You're awake! Everyone will be so happy." She clopped her hooves together happily and was about to run up the stairs. Jordan figured this must've been one of Applejack's other friends.
"Wait..." He groaned out. Even speaking felt hard at the moment. "Where am I?"
"You're in my library. Well, actually, you're in the basement of my library. I had to move all of my equipment so you could have your own bed - you're a pretty big creature by the way, did you know that?" She hurried up the stairs, Jordan eying his surroundings and taking in the mechanical equipment. Maybe these ponies weren't as backwater as he thought, even though to him the technology looked out of date.
He tried to summon his life powers but was having a difficult time of it. Whatever had hit him had also put a lock hold on his own aspect. He'd have to learn to do something like that, if it were possible for him. Jordan didn't even try to stand up, not wanting to make his body hurt anymore than it already did. Considering what he ran into, and what the lord of doom had said to the thief, he felt that things were going okay so far, so there was no rush. Hopefully. Some doubts entered his mind, bringing his index finger up to his lips in thought, looking worried with furrowed brows before he shook his head and tried to get it out of his mind. No way would worrying help him now, except put extra stress on him and make him feel worse, especially emotionally.
As Applejack and Twilight Sparkle came down the stairs, he looked relieved and determined at the same time to fix what had happened.
"Ahm so glad yur awake sugarcube. Ah was worried there for a second."
"After all Applejack's told us, we were worried too. By the way, you had a bunch of little holes in your clothing, but my friend Rarity fixed them for you!"
"Thanks." Jordan looked down and gave a sigh of relief while the others smiled.
"It looks lahk yur skin also cleared up nicely. Yoo had so many bruises we were worried yoo might have gotten poisoned."
"I think it was poisoned..." Jordan mumbled before hopping out of bed, falling to his hands and knees from the pain.
"Whoa whoa, not so fast! We have an idea of what's going on, and we'll help you get better soon. Don't push yourself too hard."
"How can you know what's going on...?" Applejack helped him back into a sitting position on the bed.
"Your friend Typo told us. It seemed really hard for him, but when he came back from the forest and we found him, we pretty much brought him here too; although he was much less injured than you."
"I don't even know the guy."
"He said as much, but he seems pretty interested in you considering what you just went through. He's seen others die quickly from some of the stuff this... Lord of Doom character used. We don't deal with death much here, but we'll help you however we can."
Jordan came up the steps, and Typo glared at them as Rarity stood in a corner. Twilight was slack jaw and the first to speak.
"What did you do to Rarity?"
"She was drooling over my diamonds and wanted them, what was I supposed to do?"
Jordan was the first to speak. "That's really not nice you know."
"Like you'd know what it's like." Typo glared at him. "Besides, I only stole her muse temporarily so she leaves me alone."
"I lahk the change. She's much more quiet now." Applejack teased. Twilight glared daggers at her and Applejack backed down.
"I stole her muse. Or, rather, something that doesn't make me sound like an asshole, I temporarily stole her fawning over beautiful gems. I have enough will power that I can control it." Typo put his arms over his chest, harumphing at the 'idiots.' "Again, she'll get it back later. She's weak-minded when it comes to gems."
"She's the most generous pony you'll ever meet, why'd you have to take that from her!?" Twilight yelled.
"AGAIN. It's ONLY TEMPORARY," Typo emphasized. "Anyways, Life hero, we need to talk."
"I have a name, you know."
Applejack pouted her lips and said, "yeah! His name is Jordan!"
Jordan smiled at Applejack, appreciative that she had remembered his name. Sometimes people forgot, which made the people who remembered all the more special.
"You're a real dick you know that?"
"Whatever, let's get my plan on the road," Typo said, taking off his blue glasses and showing his flickering eyes.
"What the hell's wrong with your eyes, dude?"
"I'm blind, but I have the ability to sense other players. My eyes flicker because before I entered my session I saw a cloud that showed, what I now know as, a scratch. The power of the vision made the cloud explode and damaged my eyes. My home was near a cavern with a bunch of bats. When I entered the session, a dead bat was prototyped and he taught me a new way to see in conjuction with the power of the game. I've pretty much become Daredevil.
Jordan looked at him with sympathy and a little bit of awe. He knew the games were powerful but this was something else entirely.
"Oh, it also helped that my sprite had the power to change things. What's your story anyway," Typo asked.
"Jordan was a little taken aback that he had asked, and a little nervous because his story wasn't as interesting, but he complied. "To be honest, it's nothing as exciting as what you've apparently been through, but my session was a successful one; although the world we made was dying quickly. During its life though my friends grew more distant and we all took control over a piece of land. However, soon someone ganged up with the others and staged a coup against the others. My friend, a hero of doom, died helping me get away. I don't know where the others are now."
Typo grinned. "Bah, you're right, that wasn't as interesting as my story." Jordan just glared at him and pretended to force choke him.
"You do know that doesn'-hcck!" Jordan wasn't aware he had been using his life powers, and was also a little confused. Looking at his hand though he noticed there was a glowing light as well as a creeping darkness surrounding it. Apparently the doom powers of the sword had mingled with his life powers. "Oh shit sorry about that!" He released Typo who fell to the ground in a heap.
Typo would have called Jordan an asshole, but he had pretty much been asking for it. "Huff, huff. If you keep using that sword's power we won't win against this enemy."
"I know, I figured that out!" Jordan snapped.
"Anyways, he's here..." Typo seemed to be deep in thought. "Damnit, just a Seer of Rage player." Jordan looked at him crossly, obviously irritated at someone being looked down on. Typo brought a little enthusiasm anyway, "that's okay though, I think we can make this work! I just wish I had Twilight's intelligence right now," Typo sighed.
Jordan was first to speak up, "hello there! You're a player right? We're looking for a little help."
"Hmph." The figure started and began to walk in the other direction, probably looking to ditch them.
"We need another player, right!? Let's go after him!" Jordan pulled on Typo and started to give chase. Typo momentarily felt like he was back with his old friends.
When Typo and Jordan had caught up with the Seer of Rage, they were in an alleyway, devoid of all pony life, which was interesting because Ponyville was pretty packed. The Seer of Rage ducked into a door and Jordan shot after him.
"Wait! We just need to talk! We need help!"
The seer of rage spared a glance before disappearing into darkness.
"We have to follow him!"
"In that dark place? Forget it," Typo said.
Jordan responded, "well I'm going in anyway!"
When he entered the lights immediately flickered to life and he felt himself pulled back and into a strangle hold with a dagger next to his neck. Just because you're immortal doesn't mean dying doesn't hurt - especially when it takes awhile to come back to life.
"Ghhrk!"
Typo, standing outside, opened his eyes in realization when he felt another presence and ran inside to see Jordan being held hostage.
"Leave us alone!" The seer of rage shouted, both him and the rogue of blood at the back of the room.
"How did you evade my sense and Jordan's life sense!?" Typo hated not being in control of the situation.
The rogue of blood spoke quietly, very calm, cool, and collected. "I'm a rogue of blood, I have the ability to steal, make, and break bonds. I can even hide my own bonds from sight. You really shouldn't have chased after my friend here. Now leave before I kill him."
Jordan risked talking and spoke quietly and slowly. "I'm sorry to have scared you. We're just looking for allies. There's a dark force on this planet and we need all the help we can get to defeat him. We have a plan - or, rather, Typo has a plan, but it doesn't help to have some more people on hand."
"So you just think of us as pawns that you can play with however you want, huh?" The rogue of blood asked.
"No! Not at all! I wouldn't ask anything of anyone that I wouldn't do myself," Jordan said. Typo snorted, not quite understanding Jordan's position on the matter.
"Your friend over there seems to think differently," the rogue of blood stated matter-of-factly.
"That's because he's an asshole!" Jordan shouted, unaware that his future would put his beliefs on the line.
"I've dealt with assholes before, and I would never keep in the same company as them. So you must be on his side," the rogue of blood stated. The seer of rage seemed quiet and reserved, or just didn't want to get involved. He trusted his friend.
"But that doesn't mean... Ugh, look. Let's just calm down here." The room they were in would make it difficult to use his life powers, so Jordan wasn't in his element, pun intended.
Typo seemed to take charge rather quickly, his naturally loud voice dominating the room. "Look, just tell us your names. I'm Typo, and he's Jordan."
The rogue of blood hesitated for awhile before responding. I'm Phynicxs and my friend over there is Smeareyes. He's a descendant of the great ones."
Typo seemed stunned for a moment - completely taken aback; eyes wide and mouth hanging open. "Really? THEM?"
Phynicxs nodded. "Yes. He was created by a troll and human with ectobiology. Our session was an exception to the rules - we aren't paradox clones."'
Jordan was extremely confused. Phynicxs weakned his hold on him and let him move away. "How is that possible?"
"I really don't know. We had a knight of space at one point, and he was extremely smart - he always seemed to know what was coming before it happened, which is weird because he wasn't associated with time. The only thing that ever really surprised him was that we never created ecto clones of ourselves. It stumped him pretty hard and he had trouble with it for a little while before finally accepting it. After our null session we split ways and all found a way out of the session before our tumor went off. The knight of space was pretty much our session's leader. Or, well, he would have been had he not taken the role a seer normally takes, which, again, was weird because he was a knight. Our session was full of inconsistencies that are too long to prattle on about, but as I said he seemed to have everything down to a science. Which is weird because he was into science. Goddamnit these puns are making themselves!"
Typo had lost interest halfway through, but Jordan had listened to it all. Smeareyes came forward and shook Jordan's hand. "Hello, nice to meet you Jordan."
The rogue of blood spoke again. "Smeareyes is my best friend. He's very nice, but has a tendency to overthink things sometimes, which-" Phynicxs glared at both Jordan and Typo "-is the reason he doesn't like being chased. It doesn't help that our big bad went after him the most. Smeareyes, in our session, took the role of keeping everyone together. Rage players tend to break bonds and bring out the worst, or sometimes, best in everyone, but Smeareyes here always brought out the best in everyone, even if that best sometimes involved negative emotions. He kept our bonds strong enough to withstand anything. We went together but everyone else got split up."
Typo yawned, motioning with his hands that Phynicxs wouldn't stop prattling on and on. "Jeeze, shut up already. We don't need a whole history lesson here." Typo rolled his eyes, and so did Phynicxs but for different reasons.
"Anyways," Phynicxs continued, "who's the one threatening this planet?" Smeareyes had just finished introductions with Typo, who looked bored and uneasy at the same time, arms over his chest. Smeareyes backed away a bit, taking it a little too personally despite knowing that Typo appeared to be an ass to everyone.
"The threat is another player. A lord of doom. I have a personal history with this guy that I'd like to keep to myself."
Smeareyes nodded, "we won't force the information from you."
Typo gave a sarcastic thank you and continued. "He has a long history of going from planet to planet and absorbing all the life and everything else good and replacing it with doom and gloom. When he finishes the planet has so little left that it just sort of breaks apart and starts to destroy itself. He's a plague; a poison to anything and everything."
Jordan was the first to ask. "How do we stand a chance against something like that?"
"That's why I have a plan," Typo nodded. The others leaned in interestedly before Typo's eyes lit up. "Something's coming."
A pony slammed the door open and screamed before dashing out, the meeting of players scaring her off. One strange creature in Ponyville was enough and interesting and harmless, but seeing them all grouped together was terrifying. She ran off to tell Twilight who had been talking earlier that way about two new guests.
"Damnit. We tried so hard to remain hidden," Phynicxs stated. "Is that who you sensed?"
Typo shook his head. "No way. It's something else."
The group moved out of the house, Typo immediately looking up into the sky (probably out of habit that never left.) A green and black fireball descended down from the heavens burning brightly and going fast. As it approached it appeared to slow down until it hit the earth with a loud boom. The group hurried over to where it hit - close to the whitetail woods - and when they got there they found a person in knight attire. Except he was space. He seemed a tad wonked out. Phynicxs and Smeareyes were extremely surprised at who it was and rushed over to them. Typo and Jordan looked behind them when they heard a voice.
"Twilight was right! She expected you to rush to it when you saw it and you did! Are you guys really heroes!?" She hovered in the air and pointed at Typo, "cool glasses kid, I should get some myself." Typo smirked, enjoying the attention. "Want to try them on?" Rainbow Dash was about to squeal and hurriedly put them on, and when she saw Typo's distorted, flickering eyes she eyed him curiously. "What are you, a TV?"
Jordan asked who she was but Rainbow Dash just put a hoof up to stop him as Typo responded. "Actually my eyes were taken from me by a powerful explosion. Rainbow Dash gasped.
"Oh man oh man oh man that is SO COOL! 20% cooler than those hasbeens!" She said, pointing to the others. Typo smirked more, while Jordan crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.
Jordan spoke next, "again, who ARE you?" Rainbow Dash finally looked to him, as if finally acknowledging him for the first time.
"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria, and just as cool!" Typo smirked wider and Jordan just blew air out his mouth at her obnoxiousness. Rainbow and Typo fit well together, but he wondered who would win in a competition of coolness between them. Rainbow Dash looked over to Jordan, "what, don't believe me? Watch!" Rainbow Dash immediately flew higher into the air and started performing daring stunts. Jordan whistled and Typo just blew it off.
"Sorry Rainbow Dash, but I've done cooler things than a few aerobatics." Rainbow Dash was wide-eyed and mouth gaping, before humphing and taking off back to Ponyville. Typo watched her go with his glasses in tow but didn't make a big deal about it. After all, he mostly cared about his diamonds.
Jordan looked to Typo as Twilight galloped up to them, "I can't believe you did that."
Typo responded with, "hey, if she can't handle it she should get out of the air."
Twilight was panting but spoke regardless. "Huff, huff. I'm so happy I found you! The town is under attack!"
Jordan was the first to speak, "WHAT!?" And he started running off. Typo sighed and called to the others behind him to follow. Twilight ran after Jordan.
The knight of space was the first to get to the new battleground, pulling out a large sword-like eraser that, when moving, created dark-blue squares around it, making it look as though it were erasing space/data or, even, everything in front of it. The knight of space used his speed to his advantage, taking on some of the most fearsome enemies; although his weapon appeared to be doing very little to his enemies. Phynicxs was almost as fast as the knight of space, using his daggers to slash bits off of creatures (their wounds seeping doom power) and using what little blood came out as skates to flow across space quickly, much like thinned blood. Smeareyes was quick to battle as well, severing the bonds between the creatures as well as trying to take them down, which seemed to make the mess more chaotic, as though someone were allowing them all to think on the same wavelength and see through each others' eyes; although there appeared to be no one in the area capable of that.
Jordan got there next, having resorted to teleporting between big flowers through the earth with his life element. The thief stole poisonous chimera scorpion-tails and other things, temporarily using them to do massive damage to the creatures around him. Twilight Sparkle helped from the sidelines by throwing enemies that tried to get out back into the field. The timberwolves seemed to have the biggest bond, which even Smeareyes was having a difficult time with. They just seemed to have a natural bond as well as the enhanced mental binding, ganging up on hero by hero, starting with Smeareyes due to his ability to use rage to cut the connections between the animals.
Jordan hurried into the forest, using his life powers to manipulate any plants that hadn't yet been fully infected and attempting to stop anymore animals from escaping from the Everfree Forest. That was, until he saw HER.
The girl Jordan saw revealing herself from the tree canopies jumped down, her image becoming more solid each second. She had the attire of a maid of mind. Jordan brought his sword out of his captchalogue deck and held it out, knowing from experience that the woman had been manipulating the minds of others around her in order to appear invisible. Her face looked cracked at places, as though she had fallen apart and been put back together again. Her hood was up as she pulled a bladed ring weapon like Tira's from her own captchalogue deck.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you live." The voice was gentle and a little forced. Her eyes were wide, and matched her outfit. Jordan thought she looked pretty.
Jordan had to take a step back when the lady rushed him, her ring pushing his guard in significantly. She was obviously strong and very good with her weapon. He tried to shove her away, using the flat of his blade and pushing the end of it with his other hand. She jumped away and images of her appeared everywhere before she started closing in. Through strained strength Jordan pulled up as much as he could, trying to grab the weapons as they came at him with strengthened vines. Only one was caught and he slashed his sword out at her, a wave of doom hitting her but being absorbed into her skin, the cracks shimmering with the power of doom. She looked somewhat stronger after that. Jordan put his sword away, realizing it wasn't going to do him any good. He'd have to use his fists, as hard as that would be.
The lady jumped up high and into the branches of a tree, her image flickering in many different spots at once, as though, like Dave, she had been running at him from all directions but going back in time to feign attacks and make a real one. Jordan had a hard time keeping track and tried to catch some of the illusions to make sure they were just that, before he felt something slice against his back, a deep gash tearing into his clothes and skin. The blood soaked immediately into it as he cried out and turned around, fumbling with his steps, holding his back, thankful that it hadn't damaged his spine.
Jordan wasn't sure he could take this girl on. He'd been getting hit more and more and he was getting tired. The pain was substantial and he wished she would end him so that he could come back to life and heal. He figured she intended to incapacitate him instead, seeing as there wasn't an opportunity yet to take him out for good. Some rustling sounded from somewhere around him. He was having trouble figuring where things were coming - the lady was making his head spin.
"Yo, what's taking so lo-!? WHOA!" Typo ducked quickly as the ring blade embedded itself into the tree next to him. Had he been a little slower, and had not taken a slight amount of the element from his environment, he would have probably been cut in half. When he saw who it was - even though the image was faint for him, he recognized her. "Auryie?" He seemed shocked. "How are you here!?" Anger quickly rose to the surface and he chopped at the air horizontally, obviously confused about what was going on.
Jordan panted, "Auryie...? Who's... T-that...?"
Auryie responded simply. "It's been awhile Typo. And I'm sorry to say, but this reunion has to be cut short." She disappeared from sight, her voice hanging on the air for one final goodbye. "Oh, and you ought to think about what I said, child." There was a rush of leaves as the creatures around started to disappear, falling apart into black dust and seeping into the earth. Jordan, who had been keeping himself up by leaning on a nearby tree, fell to the ground in pain, wheezing.
Jordan wheezed out, "who was... That...?" Jordan felt like shit - mentally too. He felt a lot of despair.
Typo turned serious and determined. "There's no time for that." A tear started sliding down from one of his eyes. "She put us in an illusion. I can feel it, but I can't disable it because it's coming from an enchanted item. This is going to be difficult. Especially because I have to carry you."
"You... You do not...!" Jordan tried to get up but had a hard time. His attempt at flying took up too much strength and he fell quickly, his mind reeling from the encounter.
"It's great to see you again Ying." Smeareyes seemed happy to see another friend back. "What brought you here though? And where has everyone been?"
The troll, Ying, next to them shook his head, his horns looking like the antennaes of an ant. "I don't know about the others, but I sought out a new world to call my home, and found it. I've been exploring ever since. It helps that I'm a space player."
Phynicxs nudged him with an elbow, his voice monotone but his features demonstrating how happy he was to find a friend again. "Tell us about it."
"Well, it's certainly amazing. It has many exotic rainforests. Most of the people on the planet are primitive, but they get along well and for the most part its peaceful. Like their better nature is their only nature. Not much to tell honestly. What about you guys, why are you guys here, and do you still play in boxes like a cat, Phynicxs?"
Phynicxs looked to the side, put off slightly. "Pfft. I don't really play in it anymore - I use it as extra disguise."
"Bah, you always were shy!"
"It's not shyness! It's just... I don't like being the center of attention."
Smeareyes popped up, "could've fooled us. You take charge pretty quickly if no one else does."
"Hmph! Whatever. Anyways, our story isn't interesting either. We've just been to so many different planets that when we came here, it was much nicer so we decided to try and hang low here. Also, they have great apples."
Ying prodded Phynicxs, "I forgot how much you loved apples, heheh."
Smeareyes popped up again, "uh, guys, the purple pony's asking us a question." They all turned to Twilight who seemed incredulous.
"How many of you are there? Anyways, thanks for your help, but where are Jordan and Typo?"
Phynicxs responded quickly. "They're in the forest and they're still alive. We could go in searching for them?"
Ying piped up, "hey, I'll go in and try to find them. If I help I'll send you guys a message. Meanwhile, you wait here and defend this place in case something else happens."
Phynicxs looked sad - and so did Smeareyes - but they both nodded and looked to Twilight, who began talking.
"I sent a letter to Princess Celestia - I'll explain later - and she seemed perturbed by this new threat and said that she had been sensing something off for awhile. She's given me directions to help you out, and has informed me of an ancient weapon that dwells within the main changeling hive. It's been their home for generations, but it started out as a city much like Manehattan until it was overrun by the changelings. According to her, it had been a technological highpoint for a long time, but after evacuating due to the changeling threat, the technologies are buried there in the buildings. The weapon she told me about was kept there deep underground that had been used to weaken Discord - again, I'll explain later - and hidden away so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. There's a lot of security there, and Princess Celestia has given me the information to get inside, provided you do her the favor of bringing back some of the lost technologies. Is it a deal?"
Smeareyes and Phynicxs listened intently, occasionally looking at each other in interest, and nodding. Phynicxs was first to speak and nodded. "It's a deal."
Smeareyes brought his arms up. "Thank you very much, we won't let you down." He honestly felt a little nervous about this, but was willing to give it a shot.
Twilight smiled brightly. "The princess knew we could count on you. Prepare yourself as much as you can and come see me in the treehouse library when you're finished." She telekinetically presented them a large bag filled with bits that she had been keeping in her saddlebags. "A friend or two and me will be joining you on the journey, so I have to go prepare as well." She turned and trotted away to prepare.
Typo, though often keeping his own personal bubble, picked Jordan up in a fireman's carry, looking around and using his muse aspect to understand the mind player's illusion. Jordan was still conscious, but mostly dead weight, and asked Typo how he knew her. Typo began talking a little about his session - keeping it short - not wanting to really talk about it but trying to keep Jordan awake so he wouldn't be completely dead weight. He told him about how Auryie was at one time his girlfriend before and during the game, and how a jealous player, after being held down most of his life, finally snapped and initiated a scratch, and told him how he thought Auryie had died in the scratch, and so had most of his other friends. He had escaped and wandered the dream bubbles for a long time, and when he finally found the dream bubble with all his friends - not the alternate reality ones - he had to leave because a monster completely obliterated it, and he had barely made it out alive. Typo mentioned how he mourned for a long time afterwards, and while in another dream bubble had found a way to get out of paradox space and into a new universe that had recently been made. The horror-terrors had helped him and tried to guide him, occasionally using other wayward travelers' aspects to get through the time and space inconsistencies.
As they walked, and Typo had finished a summarized version of small portions of his story, he asked Jordan what became of his planet. Jordan talked slowly and hazardly, having to take breaks to regulate his breathing (as much as someone with damaged lungs can). He explained how the planet was being eaten from the inside out by a cancer and that it was a hero of time who rounded some of the others together to stage a coup against those who had differing ideals and ideas. He explained how they used to be close friends, but power had corrupted some of them, especially the power they had over the planet. Jordan informed him about how he had been insisting that they take the people away to somewhere safer using their godtier powers, but quite a few of the others disagreed because they didn't want to share power during the travel. Jordan stated how he didn't know what happened to the planet after he'd been cast out and almost killed permanently by the hero of time's weapon. He managed to tell how no one knew where he'd gotten the power from, but that it worked considering he demonstrated it on one of the opposers. Jordan figured that they had probably destroyed the cancer at the expense of many people to help guard them against the beast, but mentioned that when he thought about it, he was suspicious about his ex-friend's weapon correlation with the cancerous beast.
Typo held onto Jordan tighter and told him that they were almost there, but that once they were he probably wouldn't be able to destroy the enchanted item on his own, knowing that it had been a special orb of Auryie's that she had kept close for a long time and had imprisoned many creatures in there who would wander for eternity until their bodies deteriorated to the point of no longer being.
That's when Typo heard the rustle. Jordan seemed delirious and unresponsive to the stimuli.
The rustling stopped and a shadow appeared from the encroaching fog.
"There you guys are. Do you have any idea how hard it was to make my way through here? It's almost like this is all an illusion."
Typo glowered, "it IS an illusion." He added, "and it's being created by an enchantment. I don't know how to destroy it."
"Well, where is it? Let me have a shot at it." Typo, tired, nodded and complied, motioning for Ying to follow him.
When they found the orb, sitting on an ornate pedestal, Typo nodded to it. Every time Ying swiped at it, it just seemed to rematerialize, as though it had been an illusion as well. Ying asked if Typo had any ideas, and he decided why the hell not just add some doom aspect to the blade temporarily. Typo temporarily stole Jordan's blade, who was resting against a tree, and drained some of its power which was quickly replaced, and grabbed hold of Ying's eraser while he held it, surging some of the doom into it, and the both of them brought the eraser down to tap it a few times, letting the energy permeate, before bringing it up and forcing it down hard on the orb. It cracked and as the crack grew, the more the remaining pieces diffused and dematerialized until they were gone. The illusion around them flickered multiple times before winking out. After admiring the sword, Typo put it back in Jordan's captchalogue deck.
Phynicxs' first stop was the bazaar/market, charging himself with gathering food while Smeareyes would gather supplies. They had split the bits between them and went their separate ways. Phynicxs came across Applejack, Golden Harvest/Carrot Top, and others such as Derpy who was selling homemade muffins. Phynicxs collected a little bit of everything, putting the piles in his captchalogue deck, which confused any ponies who watched him. Most just shrugged and went about their business. Stranger things had happened.
Smeareyes' errands were more exciting however, especially when he got to a carpentry supply shop to check out its wares and see if there was anything that might need doing.
The first sight Smeareyes laid eyes on was a yellow pegasus with long pink hair bowing down in front of the store owner, pleading with him to drop the price, as she needed to get this done before leaving on a journey. Smeareyes could feel and see the rage and other emotions building up between them - especially the rage building up in Fluttershy. Not wanting to cause a scene, he came up to the stallion and pushed in front of Fluttershy. "Hello sir, good day isn't it?" The stallion looked at him coldly.
"I'm not dropping the price. You can forget it." The stallion seemed cold, but the seer of rage could tell he was smirking on the inside, as though he knew he had won. This put Smeareyes a little off.
"Oh please, sir, I have to use my bits sparingly!" Fluttershy cried in her shy voice.
Smeareyes looked to the stallion again and asked what the problem was, and was told how many bits Fluttershy's materials would cost. Smeareyes glared at the stallion with killing intent in his eyes - whether he meant the threat or not. The stallion backed away and whinnied, taken aback by the look. "I'm sure we can come to an agreement, don't you?" He looked to Fluttershy, questioning her.
The stallion whinnied again and stepped forward, hardening his resolve. "I won't go any lower than thirty bits."
Fluttershy looked into Smeareyes' eyes and saw something. Smeareyes looked back and pounded his fist on the table, getting dangerously close to the stallion. "Fifteen bits and I'll let you live." This stunned the stallion silent, and Fluttershy gasped, eeped, and fainted. The stallion was getting extremely perturbed by the feelings filling the air and finally consented.
"Fine, fine, take it for fifteen bits. Just get out of here!" He yelled, somewhat worriedly while trying to keep composure.
Smeareyes smiled at the stallion and thanked him, collecting the materials and storing it in his captchalogue deck and carrying Fluttershy out of the shop.
When Fluttershy awakened, Smeareyes was there, having finished collecting supplies that might be needed for the first leg of the trip.
"How are you feeling?"
"Eep...! Wh-who are you...!?" Fluttershy's voice trailed off at the end.
"My name's Smeareyes, and I'm sorry I scared you - I just couldn't stand that owner taking advantage of someone vulnerable."
"You didn't actually... Um.... You know... Did you?" Fluttershy seemed really worried. Understandably.
"No, don't worry. I didn't hurt him. That's very kind of you to worry about him even after what he did."
"Mmbmm." Fluttershy said, nearly silently, turning her head to hide behind her pink mane.
"Anyways, you better get home, get your stuff done, and get some sleep. After all, you are travelling tomorrow, right?" Smeareyes gave a genuine smile and handed Fluttershy the captchalogue card with her stuff in it. Fluttershy eeped again, remembering it all, and thanked him before running off. Smeareyes watched her run off, shouted to her how to get it out, and started walking toward the tree house library to meet up with Phynicxs and Twilight.
Rainbow Dash was outside the Everfree Forest, laying on a cloud and resting her eyes when she heard some rustling from below. Her eyes snapped open, putting a hoof in front of her eyes to block the sun and looked down at the two who were finally out of the forest.
"Took you bozos long enough! It's been a day since you three went in there. Where were you!? I could've gotten in and out in ten seconds flat!"
Typo smirked up at her, amused that she was still wearing his glasses, when Ying spoke up. "We were caught in an illusion and had to wait for Jordan to get enough of his strength back so that Typo could take some of Jordan's power and direct it into healing magic for him. He's dizzy and exhausted, but he's better off than he was before. When he gathered enough strength, he helped us out big time when some more of the lord of doom's goonies came to finish the job and take over Ponyville."
Jordan exited the forest last, sticking his tongue out at Rainbow Dash and waving his sword at her non-threateningly. Almost like he was waving hello. Then he sighed and flopped down on the ground as Rainbow Dash came down and walked toward them.
"Twilight got a letter from the princess yesterday telling use about how weird things have been happening all over Equestria. In the letter she asked for our help and yours in investigating the main hotspot for all these weird and violent things. Basically." Rainbow Dash may not have known the exact words, but she knew what was going on, going back into the air and hovering, crossing her forehooves over her chest. "Applejack has been preparing for the trip all day and before she left, Rarity helped by making you three some packs."
Jordan shook his head and held up his captchalogue deck. "No need - we got these."
"What are they?"
"A better form of storage than you ponies, that's for sure," Typo teased.
If Rainbow Dash had been able to give Typo the finger, she would have. And her displeasure at Typo made Jordan smile.
When Smeareyes and Phynicxs got to the library, Twilight was there waiting with Pinkie Pie who had been at Sugarcube Corner all day. Pinkie took one look at them and inhaled sharply, and very deeply before going up in front of them and talking in their faces at speeds unheard of. Something about a party and their "exploits."
Twilight came behind Pinkie, looking worried, and told her this wasn't the time for that, putting a hoof on her shoulder.
"Every time is a good time for a party! What'swrongwithyouTwilightmaybeapartywouldcheerupt hatbigfatmeaniepantsdoomlordorwhateverhe'scalledan dthenhe'llbeonthegoodguysideandthenandthen-!"
"Pinkie, slow DOWN." Twilight coaxed. Pinkie started taking deep breaths to calm down; although it just made her hyperventilate, the feeling in her head making her dizzy so that she giggled and fell down before passing out.
Twilight said, a little disappointed, "and thaaat's... Pinkie Pie for you. Look, we all got to get up early tomorrow, so we should all get some sleep. I assume you have your own beds stashed in those extra dimensional spaces of yours," Twilight asked as she turned around, looking back at them, and helping Pinkie to the bed with her telekinesis. Phynicxs and Smeareyes knew this was going to be a fun one. At least Pinkie was upbeat and positive. They smiled at each other and Twilight told them to get some sleep, that she had to stay up and wait for the last pony that would be joining them, and that she needed to do a little more studying before bed. Phynicxs yawned, said good night, and Smeareyes said "have suitable dreams."
Rainbow Dash floated lazily along, Jordan, Ying, and Typo trailing along at a reasonable pace. Rainbow Dash looked back to them and spoke. "Twilight suggested that since it's gotten so late that we ought to rest up today and set out tomorrow. I didn't totally agree, but whatever."
Jordan nodded. "I would like some rest." Typo and Ying; although not as tired, agreed. "Also, you said the supplies are already packed?"
"Yeah, Applejack took care of the food, Rarity took care of clothing, and I took care of basic adventuring supplies." At Rarity's name, Typo grumbled to himself.
"Is Applejack coming with us?" Jordan smiled brightly at this idea, and was becoming accustomed to Rainbow Dash's ego - be it born from insecurity or not.
"Yeah, squirt. Applejack's coming with us. She spent some of her time today finding extra farm hands to work while she was gone. I suggested she ask Princess Celestia to send some guards - after all, we're helping her out - but she put that idea down quickly." Rainbow Dash grumbled at this, as though being blown off like that had harmed her ego or confidence.
It had already been a few days since they started out, and even though it took more strength to fly around in this universe than it did in paradox space, Phynicxs and Smeareyes had flown Pinkie Pie (who wouldn't shut up with her marching music; although thankfully she occasionally switched songs) and Twilight over the smaller mountainous regions. Thankfully Fluttershy was a pegasus, even if she wasn't that fast. They were now in some swampy areas and occasionally had to fly over some rivers, which made travelling much easier; although much more tiring - mainly because of the concrete gravity. Occasionally Phynicxs would send a message and get a response back from Celestia afterward about the status of Equestria. The corruption was slow, but that didn't mean there was time to slack off.
Smeareyes would occasionally entertain Pinkie Pie with captchalogue card tricks and seemed to have a natural knack for coming up with new ones, which made Pinkie a very happy camper. Smeareyes would occasionally use the excuse that he needed silence to concentrate in order to get Pinkie Pie to back down and keep quiet, which made everyone happier.
Despite the comforting responses from Celestia, Phynicxs still felt nervous about resting for more than a few hours - excluding sleep.
When the group came close to the largest river in the area, they heard some singing (that wasn't Pinkie Pie) coming from up ahead in the sky. What they saw confused them. There was a small dot flying around in the distance, and continued to do so until the figure got startled by something and dove close to the ground, underneath the canopies of trees followed by a dragon that swooped in out of nowhere, creating a wind pressure that almost brought things with it, if it hadn't been for Twilight grabbing the others with her telekinesis. Phynicxs was the first to react and flew over the river, followed by Smeareyes who looked back and told them to take care of Fluttershy, knowing that she was scared of dragons especially so. Twilight and Pinkie Pie relented and stayed with her, knowing that just getting across the river would be hard enough.
It was a small boat, but it was big enough to carry three ponies and three players. Well, actually, Rainbow Dash was flying next to them, only occasionally landing to rest - which only happened every few hours or so. It had been a long boat ride, ever since they had to make one to get through the marble cave. Jordan had his sword captchalogued because of the the magnetism in the cave's walls. He had been extremely helpful when it came to making the boat, molding and manipulating nearby trees into good boat-working material.
Typo chatted with Rainbow Dash about their exploits, Rainbow Dash having explained about the sonic rainboom and Typy explained some elements of the game they had played, including the scratch and what had happened to his friends in the dream bubble; although this time he admitted he didn't know what had happened to the jealous player that had initiated the scratch to begin with. Typo rolled his eyes to the left, indicating he was hiding something, but no one really noticed. Rarity was taking a nap in the corner of the boat, and Applejack was telling the tale of the zap apples to Jordan and Ying; although Ying was multi-tasking by doing a little drawing, having kept a computer (powered by Iron Man's core), tablet, and stylus inside his captchalogue deck. He was drawing a scene of the Apple Family and the zap apples, Applejack constantly stopping in the story and looking over to see how the drawing was coming; although she kept mumbling small details to Ying. Applejack promised that she'd bring Jordan to help with the zap apples when the time came again. Then she started giving a detailed account of what it was like for her in manehattan, even though she had only stayed for a few days. Jordan and Ying were already knowledgeable about cities, but humored Applejack by listening closely, Jordan noting occasionally that they weren't THAT technologically advanced; although he also didn't know about the city that had been taken over by the changelings.
After awhile the torches in the cave stopped suddenly, and they noticed they were moving into an intense blackness - totally void of light. Jordan used his powers to pour light and heat into his hand so that they could look forward; although even despite this everything seemed unusually hazy, like this wasn't normal darkness.
---
The glowing red eye that had been hit began to dim a little; although the meaning of this was lost on Smeareyes. He jumped back into the trees and started moving erratically, making sure to keep below the denser canopies. The dragon watched for him, charging up another bolt and was surprised when the blood from his eye started to seep faster and wrapped around his muzzle temporarily. The thunder backfired and charred the dragon's mouth, which caused it to scream in agony. It started to go down lower to search for the players that had harmed him, his wings beating fiercely to keep him in the air, causing the trees below to rustle from the air displacement.
Phynicxs got to the figure that had landed in the tree tops and noticed he... She? Noticed that the figure was a little weakened, having flown to the ground too fast. The figure had on the clothing of a bard.
Smeareyes jumped over some small rivers, momentarily using his flight to extend his jumps without taking too much of his energy. He started to wonder how they were going to get away from the dragon, let alone beat it.
---
A shadow passed through the group on the boat. It only missed Rarity because she was hanging low, napping. It was visible for a second and tangible like a dark shadow, like something that wasn't really there, but still seemed to move faster than light. A second later a whirlwind whipped up in front of them and came through, blowing them all off the boat. Rarity was surprised and came out from the water coughing and sputtering while the others tried to get back to the surface which was hard because the water was moving turbulently by the wind.
"What the-!? MY BEAUTIFUL HAIR!" Rarity screamed, the sound knocking and echoing in the cave, especially because of the darkness, causing everyone to hold their ears from the loud shriek. The water was cold, and Jordan was the second to surface, noticing the weapon that had past by them getting caught by a shadowy figure across from them. The weapon was a pinwheel. It had silver blades running around it and a sparkling onyx jewel in the center that had a transparent outside, showing a dark wind swirling about it on the inside. Jordan uncaptchalogued his sword as the boat overturned, Applejack coming up underneath it and wondering where the light went.
Jordan brought back his light, which seemed to be absorbed by the shadows. He tried to cling to the boat and get his bearings as the shadow past over them again. Ying came up a second later, carrying an unconscious Rainbow Dash. He, himself, was dazed.
"What's going on!?"
Jordan responded first. "I don't know! Someone's attacking us I think. They're - cough cough - using a pinwheel." The water was hard to stay floating on, as it seemed to be granted a life of its own - the motion never ceasing. Typo threw up into the water, a bunch of apple chunks swimming about.
Typo groaned. "Oh that's pleasant," he said sarcastically, coughing up a little water. He tried to close his eyes but the movement was still making him sick and distracting him. His diamonds flashed and he disappeared into a shadow. He started to fly and went at the shadow but passed right through it. Void versus void, under the right circumstances, will always be a stalemate. Typo gave up, needing to get out of the water as he was starting to dry heave up what little hydration was in his system. He swam away.
The shadow past by again, the pinwheel crossing through. Jordan tried to summon some plants from the bottom of the water to catch the pinwheel, but it was going too fast, and even then, it had no way to grasp a hold on it, as there was no hole.
Ying continued holding onto Rainbow Dash, trying to keep her afloat, glad that she was unconscious so she wouldn't struggle. But then had the shock of his life when his head came off. It was so fast, his face was twitching as blood flowed into the water. Ying looked shocked as his body sunk into the water. Rainbow Dash started to sink too, but Jordan caught her, using his life sense and the light and heat from his hand to try and look around. Jordan kept his head close to the water, almost going underneath, watching the shadow pass by again and again, the pinwheel whipping up the water.
Jordan covered Rainbow Dash's mouth and nose and dragged her under the water with him, and swam so he was underneath the boat. Applejack, having heard what was going on outside, had chosen to stay under the boat; although it had taken her a little while, and a little water dipping, to realize where she was, especially considering all of the darkness. When Jordan came up underneath she nearly screamed but recognized him right away. Jordan seemed distraught and gave Rainbow Dash to Applejack, who brought her up and made her float on the water with her face up. Jordan gave a thumbs up to Applejack as his hand glowed and went back under the water. He had a plan. A second later, horn alight, Rarity came up under the boat and gasped for air, coughing a little more and shivering.
---
Phynicxs closed in on the figure getting up off the ground, and noticed it was furry, and somewhat small - but not too small. One of his eyebrows raised as the dragon roared, electricity crackling in its mouth. It sweeped its tail around which caused spines to be released from it, which went down and cut straight through some trees. Phynicxs saw this and dived down at the bard, covering its body as he felt the spine strike him in the spine, almost cutting through, had it not been for him hardening his blood much like hardening a bond. He cried out in pain, and felt the strength and feeling leave his legs.
The dragon seemed to laugh at this as Smeareyes came closer, somewhat confused as to why the dragon wasn't going for him, as though something were negating his powers.
The bard peeked out from beneath Phynicxs who was crying a little bit at the loss of his legs, a little scared that this would end up never healing due to his heroics and having taken action. The thunder was crackling and it was about to be released, but the bard of cute stepped out, took a deep breath, and shouted "FUS!" which came out kind of squeaky, especially considering it was part hamster. The wave of pink splashed across the dragon's face and it caused him to be taken aback, one eye going wide and shot it off to the side. The dragon looked confused for a bit, the red light in his other eye dimming momentarily before sparking up again. The dragon roared and flew while holding its head, as though it had a mind splitting migraine. The bard of cute started to dance in front of the dragon, singing the lyrics to Lucky Twice, occasionally looking toward Phynicxs with worry, who was starting to raise up in the air to fly, but it was obvious how hard this was for him, his lower half hanging on by a thread, or, rather, the skin that attached to his front side.
Smeareyes watched the dragon and had a revelation.
---
Jordan paid attention to the shadow from beneath the water, sensing the life above him as he felt its signature reappear, as though it had stopped being no more than a shade.
"Pity that you all died so easily. I was expecting a much bigger challenge."
Jordan's eyebrows furrowed. He was angry, especially at the idea that Ying might be gone for good. He pulled up his sword, focused on it and surging a little life into it, and swiped it at the figure above the water which held the pinwheel as though he was telekinetic. Looking down, the figure saw the wave and was too surprised as it cut through him. It went right through! But there was no damage.
---
The bard of cute was small. Extremely small. But her cuteness was great. It was expansive. It was unstoppable. And Smeareyes understood this after seeing the hamster's power the first time. He hurried through to them, bounding through to get to them as quickly as possible.
The bard of cute screamed a word from the song as the thunder was about to be unleashed by the dragon, but it was pushed to the side by the bard of cute's power being focused through his dance. This one didn't seem to affect the dragon, as though this one was just a guarding move.
Smeareyes came over quickly and whispered in the bard of cute's ear, and she smiled up to him and gave him an okay. Smeareyes pulled out another shuriken and focused as the dragon swung its tail around - the spines being pushed to the side by more of the bard of cute's moves.
---
Jordan watched the beam go through him and smiled. There had been a little hazy shadow released when the cut hit. He started to power forward with his feet, giving him a little extra boost with his ability to fly. When he came up from the water he noted that the person in front of him was confused and kept putting his hands out, as though to release something. Jordan ran the sword clean through the player's clothing and stomach. He was finished. Jordan realized what he was doing at the last second, but couldn't stop it, feeling extremely guilty as he remembered Auryie's words to him. The doom spread throughout the player's blood vessels with darkness pushing the skin up as he bled. The player's eyes started to go dark as he whispered, "mother..." His eyes glazed over as he felt sweet release.
Jordan quickly pulled the blade out, which caused blood to splash onto his clothing and face. He looked down at where Ying's body had been and dived under the water, as the figure fell, the pinwheel getting submerged. He brought Ying's body up to the surface, and went under the boat, the shivering ponies inside helping him to right the boat and putting Ying on top of it, the darkness dissipating and the torches flaring to life. Jordan went to get Ying's head, almost crying because he had to do a burial. He used both hands to generate heat, trying to dry and warm all who were on the boat. He looked at the dead body, and then looked away.
The ponies, who had been avoiding the body and pretty much crying (Rainbow Dash in particular vomitting into the blood soaked water) gasped.
The dragon's one glowing red eye started to turn into a pinker shade, something appearing in the pupil, before the dragon smiled and started to charge electricity in its mouth. In a second or two, as the bard of cute was about to launch Smeareyes into the air, who put his hand out to disrupt the spine that was about to hit him, the dragon had swung its tail. The bard of cute was thrown off guard, having to immediately defend after launching Smeareyes - which had propelled him much quicker than if he had flown (and flying would have been dangerous), and kicked a few spines out; although one got through and chopped through Phynicxs upper right half. His mind stopped immediately. The bard of cute screamed and was about to be hit by lightning.
Smeareyes threw the shuriken at the other dragon's remaining eye which immediately dimmed. The dragon started to flail about as Smeareyes did a flip and landed on it, thrusting his palms onto the dragon's scales and flowing an absurd amount of rage into the dragon's brain, knowing full well what he was doing. The dragon's mouth opened, gaping, its blind eyes widening before screaming. It was cut short as the dragon lost consciousness and started to fall to the ground.
The bard of cute was amazed, but quickly turned her attention to the fallen warrior. Smeareyes was crying, which messed up some of his eyeliner while he floated above the dragon's unconscious body.
The ponies behind Jordan started calling out and screaming and asking what was going on. Jordan turned around to see what was getting their attention so much as the water started to settle.
---
There was a rainbow flashing light coming off of Ying as his head reconnected to his body with a few snaps and crackles. Almost immediately after, Ying gasped, trying to take in the air he was unable to when he was decapitated. He sat up quickly, breathing heavily, scaring the ponies and causing them to back off slightly. Rarity was very distressed, holding a hoof in the air and turning away. She looked like she was about to deem what happened as gross, but thought better of it. The ponies hugged Ying, who were all soaked in some blood. Rarity's immediate reaction right after relief was a whine about the blood in her coat and how hard, if not nearly impossible, it was going to be to get out. She stomped her little hoofsies very ladylike against the boat and started turning and trotting in place, as though she could shake off the blood. Applejack told her to can it, while Rainbow Dash thought what just happened was pretty cool, she started to wonder where Typo was, and voiced her concern. Jordan told her he had apparently swam away, because he could sense his life signature further on in the cave. Something occured to Jordan as Ying checked his body - not used to resurrecting - and dived into the water again, coming back up holding the pinwheel.
"I thought it might be useful." Jordan stated, setting it off to the side. "I can't use it, but I have a hunch Typo might be able to."
---
Smeareyes was relieved when he saw the glowing light given off by Phynicxs who quickly rose and pumped a fist into the air at the fact that he could walk again, but then had a sinking feeling that something worse was going to happen later; although he didn't feel personal attachment to the eerie feeling.
The seer of rage flew up to Phynicxs and wrapped him in a big, tight hug. Much tighter than one might've expected. Phynicxs wheezed and motioned for Smeareyes to put him down, which he did after a few seconds.
The bard of cute watched the reuinion with a tear in her eye, and squeaked when she heard something behind her, jumping and turning.
"Hiya there what's your name!?" Pinkie Pie was hopping in place.
"When did you get here and who are you!?" The bard squeaked, looking angry at being surprised.
"I'm Pinkie Pie, and I love meeting new friends, so what's your name?" She leaned forward, getting into the bard of cute's personal space.
"Varkarrus, but call me Vark." Vark looked extremely uneasy about this pony, and thought something might be wrong with her.
Twilight sighed in relief as she and Fluttershy came cantering up to the group. "There you are Pinkie, how did you disappear like that?"
"OOH! And this is Vark - Vark, these are my friends, Phynicxs, Smeareyes, Twilight Sparkle, and Fluttershy."
Fluttershy meeped and hid behind her mane. "Nice to meet you..." She trailed off.
Vark smiled and rustled Fluttershy's jimmies-Imean mane and looked her in the eyes, which seemed to calm her down. "You're so sweet and cute." Fluttershy picked Vark up and started tossing her into the air, which Vark just sort of dealt with, having enjoyed this in the past before making godtier.
Smeareyes was quick to befriend Vark, despite the fact that she had almost cost him his best friend's life. "What's your story?"
Vark was finally put down and she sighed, as though explaining it had been a common occurrence. She said how basically, long story short, she had been involved with exiling her groups' carpacians and ended up exiling herself as well by mistake. She sighed and looked away, before looking back and smiling and explaining how that doesn't matter anymore because she's found companions!
Phynicxs was the first to ask about the symbol on Varkarrus, and she responded by saying it stood for, "cute." That she was the Bard of Cute. This kind of threw Phynicxs for a loop, but knew how the game had made exceptions at times firsthand.
Twilight spoke up. "What's all this blood?" She seemed confused.
Vark was the one who responded, telling it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Someone died there, story over, now let's talk about that dragon." Twilight looked up, curious, but Fluttershy squealed and hid behind Smeareyes once she finally saw the dragon. Twilight and Pinkie Pie kept away, letting the three players go up to it.
Smeareyes mentioned how someone had been controlling the dragon's heart/soul, which was weird because normally heart magic wasn't as forceful as this. Smeareyes took the shuriken out of the dragon's eyes and let Phynicxs stop the bleeding. "I didn't make them go in deep so his eyes should be fine. When I saw how the dragon reacted to Vark's ability I put two and two together, especially after my own shuriken had hit. I used the second shuriken to do what I had unintentionally done the first time, severing a piece of the connection between the dragon and whoever was controlling it. I then used my power to overflow the link and sever it completely.
Phynicxs, already used to Smeareye's cunning, smiled while Vark was stunned. The three ponies looked to each other momentarily before Twilight continued to examine the blood, seemingly very confused about this, as the blood that had soaked into Phynicxs clothes was hard to see, due to its color.
---
Jordan helped dry and warm the party as they made their way forward in the boat. When they finally reached some land, they found Typo sitting in a corner, brooding.
Jordan, feeling forgiving and still guilty, made his way to him while Rainbow Dash sort of sneered. Ying brought the ship out of the water and placed it in the water across so that they can continue on. Rainbow Dash and Rarity started gossiping and Applejack told them to knock it off and hoofed them both in the noggin.
"What's up Typo?" Jordan said sincerely, trying to put a smile on his face as he hunkered down by Typo.
"I'm so sorry." He closed his eyes tightly, as though he had been crying. "Again. I was no use in a battle again." Typo hiccuped. He seemed far away, as though he were dwelling on the past.
"Hey, we can't all help all the time, sometimes we just get in the way. You have to use strategy in battles like that."
"People could have DIED!" Typo shouted enough for the ponies to hear. Everyone just glanced over sympathetically.
"People can die every day, sometimes you can't do anything about it. I've accepted this and I try to help as many as I can to make up for it."
"But it was all my fault." He started to cry harder. "My whole session. If I had paid attention, I would have known that he couldn't be trusted."
Jordan thought back to what he knew of Typo and nodded understandingly. "Maybe you just wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt?"
"But because of him and my naivette everybody's dead!"
"And you learned from that. You can't go beating yourself up for it forever. Besides, you should focus on what you can do NOW."
"But... But I've been following him for so long, and I can't beat anyone with their own aspect. He's destroyed so many worlds." Typo sobbed, and suddenly it clicked for Jordan, who put a hand on his shoulder and hugged him.
"I have something that might help you, Typo." He pulled out the pinwheel from his captchalogue deck and laid it in front of Typo. "I imagine you can make better use of this than I can." Typo noticed fleetingly that the onyx was imbued with the power of breath, and that whoever had been using it had been taking advantage of that while using their own aspect. Now Typo put two and two together, realizing that the player Jordan had fought was a void player and he had been using the breath to enhance his skills. Typo felt strength returning and he placed a hand on the weapon, his hiccuping starting to dwindle.
---
The dragon's head lifted slightly and looked around, his eyes no longer glowing. He stared at Smeareyes.
"I'M SO SORRY." His voice was deep and a little rattly.
Smeareyes smiled and waved his arm. "Think nothing of it, I'm just glad no one was hurt."
The dragon smiled at the contradiction in the statement, but didn't bring it up, understanding to some degree what he meant.
"Why and who was controlling you?" Phynicxs asked.
"SOME HUMAN IN MAROON CLOTHING." This caused Smeareyes and Phynicxs to share a glance, both understanding the situation almost immediately.
"Where is he?"
"HE? OH, YOU MEAN THE HUMAN. IT IS A HER. SHE IS LIVING WITH THE CHANGELINGS AND HAS BECOME THEIR LEADER. SHE USURPED THE PREVIOUS RULER AND HAS BEEN KEEPING HER LOCKED UP, STARVING HER SLOWLY TO TORTURE HER."
Phynicxs motioned for Vark and Smeareyes to huddle and they did. The dragon didn't seem to mind, and acted very patient, probably thankful.
"A her? Well, that makes our job harder because she probably knows we're coming." Smeareyes deduced.
Phynicxs nodded and said, "well, we may have to sneak in. I don't really want a confrontation with a heart player that's strong enough to force her soul on others - especially a dragon."
Vark nodded, looking between them, feeling a little left out.
"Well, we have to get in somehow," Smeareyes stated.
Vark perked up, "I'm going with you! It sounds fun. Also, maybe the dragon can take us close to there so we don't have to walk all the way?" Phynicxs and Smeareyes nodded in unison, and Phynicxs motioned for Smeareyes to be the one to ask.
"Grand dragon, we are on our way to that same location. We have business there, and would appreciate it if you could help us."
"I WILL ON ONE CONDITION," he paused, "I WOULD WISH TO HELP YOU IN ANY BATTLE YOU MAY FACE AGAINST THEM, AND I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU COULD AT LEAST TAKE AWAY THAT STRANGE HUMAN'S POWER OVER OTHERS. OTHER THAN THAT, I WILL DO ANYTHING TO ATONE FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE, AND I WILL ESPECIALLY HELP THE ONE WHO CUT THE CONTROL SHE HAD ON ME."
Phynicxs looked to the others and nodded, causing Smeareyes to smile. "It's a deal. But we need to try and sneak in quietly, and if things go sour, you may aid us. Is that fine with you?"
The dragon appeared contemplative, but then nodded, smiling. "I CAN WORK WITH THAT. I VALUE DISCRETION."
The three players nodded to each other and motioned for the ponies to come up, having heard all of it. Twilight dragged Fluttershy, not wanting to put up with it; although she seemed a little calmer knowing that the dragon was friendly.
---
After a few more minutes of sitting down, Typo picked up the pinwheel and felt the power surging inside of it. He used his thief abilities to take a little of the breath, causing it to hang in the air much like the void player had been doing, and spun it around slowly, creating a small force.
Jordan stood up and sighed. "Alright, we got to get going." He looked toward the ponies and Ying and nodded to them. He lowered a hand down to help Typo up, but he slapped it away.
"Just because I show a little vulnerability doesn't mean I'm weak," he huffed. He wiped the tears away with his fists and felt more determined than ever. Today. Well, not today. But this time. This time he knew. Things would be different. He still considered himself as being on a solo mission, not really letting the others in.
Applejack was the first to pipe up. "Yeehaw! Lat's take down some godtiers!" Applejack trotted in place as Rainbow Dash smiled and held up a hoof to brohoof Jordan and Typo, who consented - Jordan with more enthusiasm than Typo.
Rarity broke the mood, "Whatever darlings, I need to find some place to rest and get this blood out of my coat."
Rainbow Dash facehoofed as she flew in place, while Applejack laid down and covered her eyes with her hooves. Jordan took it well and smiled. "Well, we better get going then - it'll be easier to make camp when it's not so dark."
"But don't you have a laht? Applejack asked.
Jordan nodded, "Yes, but we're not in the game, so using abilities takes more strain, even if it's not noticeable when you're fully charged."
Typo kept to himself and sat down to brood. Jordan let him, knowing he'd probably be alright; although he had his own thoughts to mull over.
Ying got cheery and started singing a travel song while moving the boat with his space powers. They'd be out soon.
---
Fluttershy squeezed her eyes tight, every other piece of her body tensed up to the point where she had the clinging ability of a tick. Vark tried to comfort Fluttershy a little by rubbing her back, and watched as Phynicxs and Smeareyes continued to talk amongst themselves. Twilight Sparkle was laying near the head, grabbed onto one of the dragon's smaller spines that he'd grown specifically for her. Pinkie Pie was in silent contemplation, feeling a little homesick and missing the Cakes, especially Pumpkin and Pound. Pinkie Pie was the least afraid out of them all, which was weird. She saw Vark's frown and noticed she was looking longingly at the two friends.
"Hey there, what can I do to get you to smile?"
"O-oh, hey Pinkie. I didn't hear you come over."
"We're up in the air silly willy, pretty much all the sound is drowned out." This caused Vark's lips to turn up a little.
"Anyways, what do you want Pinkie?"
Pinkie shook her head. "I just want to make you smile. We're on an adventure, we should be having fun!"
Vark nearly smiled, showing some teeth. I just miss my old friends. I never got to say goodbye to them and I have no idea where they are now. I don't even know if our session had been successful or not. Sometimes I like to think and dream that maybe, maybe because I exited the session that they were given the tools they needed to win it and get their reward. Kind of like a sacrifice, y'know? 'Cause, I mean, it's irrational, I know, but still."
Pinkie was very understanding. She wrapped a hoof around Vark with sad eyes, smiling at her. "I'm sure you're right, and even if you're not, I imagine your friends were strong enough to accomplish it."
This caused Vark to smile and hug Pinkie - she was really warm and soft, almost like a mother. She was almost crying.
"I just miss them so much."
Pinkie cooed, trying to shush her. "I'm sure they're happy, wherever they are.
"T-thanks, Pinkie." Vark pulled away. "So what was your reason going on their dangerous mission?"
"Oh, I didn't really have a reason. But if anything, I think it was because I wanted to make sure my friends stayed safe, even if I can't be there with all of them all the time. I feel that by being there I might be able to do something significant. I feel that my friends would do the same for me - I know they would."
Pinkie continued, winking at Vark. "And you know, you'll never make new friends if you don't take the initiative."
Vark nodded, understanding what she meant, interested that Pinkie was so wise sometimes. "Thanks Pinkie."
"You're verily wearily welcome!" Chirped Pinkie as she bounced toward Twilight, which was weird because she wasn't pushed off by the wind when she bounced.
Vark dried her tears, gave a smile, and walked over to Smeareyes and Phynicxs. Maybe this was her chance to start fresh.
Typo was hanging out at the back of the group, starting to brood a little too much. Jordan figured he needed some more time.
They were all moving on foot again, with Rainbow Dash and Ying using their terrible singing voices in unison. They were singing "War" by Poets of the Fall. Applejack had her hears covered with her stetson - going so low it was hanging over her eyes. Occasionally she'd plead to them to stop the noise. Rarity was being a dainty princess who didn't want to get dirty, and her complaints were one of the reasons Ying and Rainbow Dash kept singing. Applejack hated both an equal amount. Typo's voice rang over the din. "There's someone coming!"
Jumping up on a nearby cliff in the cave, Illusive looked down on the ragtag group. "So YOU'RE the insects Gamarya was so intent on destroying. And you must be Typo." Illusive sneered at the brooding thief of muse, who looked up at having his name called out. "Gamarya hired me to take you all out, but he wanted to extend a special invitation to you Typo. And I suggest you take it, because you have absolutely no hope of taking him out, based on what Gamarya's told me.
Typo was taken aback, and instead of outright refusing, thought about it. The group recognized that the sneering form in front of them was none other than a Prince of Hope, and he was holding a large maroon axe that had short whiskers on the sides on which small bits of energy were crackling on. "What's the deal?" Jordan was somewhat surprised he was considering it, but gave him the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe he just wanted to put them down even more with some kind of inspiring speech. After all, he had just helped Typo from a dark place just hours ago, hadn't he?
"Gamarya's deal is that if you kill everyone in your group and join him, he'll spare the planets that he inhabits with a little life left over."
Typo was stunned speechless, and although Jordan assumed it was a trick from what he'd heard about the Lord of Doom, Typo seemed to be clearly considering his options - sacrifice the few for the many after all.
WE ARE ALMOST TO THE CITY," stated the black and red dragon.
Phynicxs, Vark, and Smeareyes stopped talking about what they had been doing before their sessions - what their hopes and dreams had been - and hurried to the front to look over the dragon's head. Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Fluttershy were all stunned speechless. It was a beautiful mountain range. Twilight's face became uneasy as she realized that they would have had to climb that eventually. All three ponies were immediately glad they had a ride. But it was beautiful.
"A LITTLE WAYS OVER THIS MOUNTAIN AND WE WILL HAVE REACHED OUR DESTINATION."
Smeareyes' eyes narrowed, and he backed up. "Something big is coming."
Phynicxs asked how many, and Smeareyes announced that it was a pretty large group of... Birds? He wasn't really sure - he just knew that they had a strong emotional and mental bond. After all, he was a seer. The dragon's eyes narrowed as well.
"THE CHANGELINGS ARE COMING. THE WITCH MUST HAVE KNOWN WHAT HAPPENED."
The buzzing cloud drew closer, and all on top of the dragon got ready for a fight. This was going to be tough, but mostly for the ponies, as they couldn't fly. As the crowd drew closer Phynicxs, Vark, and Smeareyes noted that there was a knight of doom among them, and he/she camouflaged well with the changelings. Vark immediately ran to the head as the dragon's mouth crackled with electricity. Pinkie, fearless, went up to the top of the head with Vark as Phynicxs came up from behind, noting that they had a strong bond, and pressed his hands against both. Pinkie felt a surge of power as her bonds seemed to intensify by the thousands. Her eyes started rolling into her head, as though she were about to have a seizure, but, instead, she started screaming like a Super Sayian. This caused everyone present to cover their ears as it seemed to reach into dimensions that were even higher than the horrorterrors multi-dimensional speech.
Vark put a paw on Pinkie Pie, and felt their powers combine. Her cuteness began drawing out Pinkie's innate talents. Both were ready for a fight. Phynicxs took out his daggers, and Smeareyes got ready for some fisticuffs, wishing once more in his life for a weapon to use. He had never been able to find a weapon that fit him, but Vark's dancing; although he'd unlikely ever admit it, seemed like a good fighting style to him. Too bad he wasn't a bard.
---
It all happened so fast. Illusive jumped down and went after Rarity first as Typo took out his new weapon and threw it.
Ying had taken out his weapon and shoved Jordan to the side, bringing the eraser up and slashing at the pinwheel, causing it to bounce backwards. Ying, with a determined expression, then vanished appearing right where Rarity was cowering and about to get hit. Instead of hitting Rarity though, the axe rebounded off of Ying's eraser. He noted it must've been a powerful weapon of some sort due to the fact that it hadn't been erased slightly by his weapon.
Jordan got up quickly, looking into Typo's murderous eyes. "I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT YOU!"
Typo threw the pinwheel at Jordan again, who brought up his blade and fought against the breath weapon, some of which Typo had stolen in order to use minor breath powers. It felt like a razor was trying to cut through his sword, and the sparks were flying. He just hoped none would make his clothes go on fire.
Typo came up quickly, moving fast and swung a right hook at Jordan's left temple, who had to duck and bring his blade down so that the fist would miss its mark and so the pinwheel would go past him. Jordan felt Typo beginning to fall due to his over reach and stood up, throwing Typo off of him with his back, which caused him to crash into the wall.
"WE DON'T NEED TO DO THIS! WE CAN TAKE OUT GAMARYA IF WE WORK TOGETHER!"
"If I couldn't do it before, what makes you think we can do it now!?" Typo coughed slightly, his determination faltering, not wanting to hurt Jordan.
"GET REAL! You're ONLY ONE person! You can't do everything by yourself! When will that get through your thick skull!?"
"But I have more power now! And what if we can't defeat Gamarya! You need to sacrifice yourself for the good of the others!"
"A SACRIFICE LIKE THIS IS A SACRIFICE IN VAIN! I WILL DIE, BUT NOT BEFORE PUTTING IN MY ALL!" Jordan was getting worked up, and had to force himself not to charge at Typo and attack. Typo threw the pinwheel at him again and Jordan tried to swat it to the side, which didn't help because it was breath and could manipulate in the air easily - screw physics I'm a breath pinwheel.
Applejack ran at a wall and jumped off of it, turning in the air and using her momentum to buck the shit out of Illusive who ducked, spun, and brought his axe around to hit Ying's legs with the handle who had lost balance from having pushed back at Illusive's weapon too hard. Anger rose in Ying and he jumped, doing a flip over Illusive as the axe's handle hit air. Applejack crashed into a wall.
Ying turned around, flinging his eraser sword at Illusive's head, who leaned forward, sensing Ying's hope of trying to hit him with his back turned. Illusive, using his flight, turned around in the air and missed the ground. Ying followed up by jumping at Illusive and aiming a kick at his crotch. Illusive however used his flight and feet to launch himself up and back, doing a flip as Ying's eraser sword came back to him with his space powers.
---
Pinkie felt power surge through her, and jumped onto Vark's back, feeling almost weightless. Instead of flying, Pinkie and Vark disappeared, her eyes shining bright.
Vark danced in the air as she fell, doing diving moves - whatever she could think of, generating power within her as her bond with Pinkie strengthened. Pinkie disappeared again as Vark started singing Final Twilight (www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG4Ug7EWUbA), and sniped some of the changelings out of the sky with her voice; although it didn't take them out fully, it weakened them enough so that when she appeared close to them with Pinkie, Vark could slap them out of the sky, using her cuteness to repel them.
Phynicxs slashed at every changeling that came close to them; although they knew they couldn't fight the dragon alone, they'd have to take care of the others first. They bit and kicked, sometimes getting in some good hits. It was a struggle, but with Smeareyes and Phynicxs working close together they were able to do well.
As some of the changelings started to clear up, Vark threw a lyric shot at Chiri, who used a shield of doom to negate it. Vark tried again, but it missed. Chiri was good at flying and seemed to have relative ease to it. Pinkie flashed again, disappearing with Vark again to appear right up in Chiri's face who leaned back, having been taken by surprise. However his fighting style came naturally and he quickly blocked the hits that Vark tried to make while keeping herself floating with Pinkie Pie on her back.
A few hits in and Vark was getting frustrated - her powers weren't working and her scratches and hits were either missing, being blocked, or being parried.
"That's enough of this." Chiri stated before slamming a punch right across Vark's face with his Light Knuckles, a crack filling the air as the world in front of Pinkie and Vark went white for a second. She found herself falling out of the air, catching herself a moment later. And in that moment, before Pinkie could bring them back up to level, Chiri was already hitting them again, this time aiming punches at Pinkie and Vark - they were outmatched as Chiri's fists were too fast to follow once they started. Every hit made the world flash and after a few hits Vark couldn't take anymore and was starting to fall. In order to keep them apart, Chiri grabbed Pinkie's legs and opened them before roundhousing Pinkie away, who was knocked unconscious as she fell to the water.
Vark caught herself near death, but didn't go after Chiri again, knowing she had barely to no affect on Chiri. She flew fast and hard, trying to get to Pinkie before she hit the water. She was successful, but she was going so fast that both of them started skipping along the water like a stone.
Smeareyes and Phynicxs felt the extreme bond between Pinkie and Vark strain, weaken, and then crack. They couldn't go help because they were busy with the changelings, who were starting to attack the dragon, annoying the hell out of him, especially because he could only swat at them and shoot bolts. The bolts of lightning might've been strong, but it was only one shot, and it wasn't good for multiple enemies. Chiri was coming for them now.
---
"What are you doing!?" Rainbow Dash rushed in and hovered in between Typo and Jordan. "I thought you were cool!"
Typo seemed taken aback, pausing just before cutting into Rainbow Dash with the pinwheel. "But I AM cool! I'm the coolest!"
"Disloyalty is NOT cool. I can't believe I ever looked up to you! Maybe you ARE just an asshole!"
"B-but... But...?"
"No! I can't believe you'd attack your friends!"
"They're not my friends! MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD!" Typo flew the pinwheel around his body and sent it careening for Rainbow Dash.
Ying jumped at Illusive, slashing with his eraser sword, which was parried by Illusive's axe. Illusive tossed him away but he caught himself with his space powers, and tried again to hit Illusive, pushing forward and slicing his eraser sword from his bottom left to his upper right, trying to slash through Illusive's right leg. Illusive saw this and twisted his axe, the blade pushing the eraser away, and continued twisting it until it had performed a 360 and jumped at Ying, slashing with his axe and embedding the blade into Ying's right shoulder. Ying cried out and fell back, landing on the ground. His facial expression changed four times over the course of two seconds, and screamed. He felt something pulling against his mind, dropped his eraser sword, and grasped at his head. He started crying and laughing at the same time. Illusive smirked and moved forward, bringing his axe around and about to decapitate him.
Applejack woke up, shook her head as dark spots on her eyes started to recede, before she felt the dizziness subside. She looked around and saw how Ying was about to lose the advantage. She felt power surge through her as the situation pulled at her full being. She felt the hope inside of her rise up, believing that if she could help out all of Ponyville as much as she did, then she should be able to help out now, even if she needed her own help sometimes. She growled faintly and jumped forward, twisting around and catching an off guard Illusive bucking him in the side, sending him flying to the side, even though he caught himself. Applejack, satisfied by having helped, went to Ying. She put a hoof on his shoulder and asked if he was alright. He ended up swiping at her, pushing her away. "I DON'T NEED HELP! I'm so sorry please come back I didn't mean that." Ying felt so torn, and was starting to go insane - this was too much too fast. He caught out of the corner of his eye that Illusive was coming back for the kill, intending to not make the mistake twice. Illusive let out a war cry and the knight of space lifted up his hand, firing a small beam of green space power at the axe. It didn't shrink, but its color started to fizz surrealy before being thrown off to the side by a terrible force. Illusive was shocked and pulled out some needles from his captchalogue deck and threw them at the knight of space, who was incapacitated by his mental splitting apart. Applejack saw this and jumped in front of the needles, crying out as the needles weakened her significantly, but a second later, thinking of what was on the line, she felt hope and power surge through her that erased the prince of hope's influence, and screamed, her eyes glowing before a white beam shot out of her mouth at Illusive, who took the brunt of the blow and seemed unaffected except for being pushed back. Applejack didn't stop though, she charged forward, jumping, then hopping into the air, spinning around and sending one of her hind hooves to hit Illusive's cheek, thrusting the leg out, then using it to jump into the air and forward, thrusting both of her hind legs down on Illusive's head, a crack sound filling the air before Applejack landed behind him, thrusting her forehooves at Illusive's back who cried out in pain. She continued the assault, hitting him across the back with her fore hooves before jumping with her hind legs and spun, thrusting another back hoof at Illusive's spine, causing it to crick, which caused Illusive to fall down. It wasn't permanent, but it still affected him the same. He started to float forward and into the air before turning around, about to bring his axe up, but was hit by Applejack's headbutt, which sent him flying into a wall. He groaned as Applejack watched from afar, her glowing eyes starting to dim. She felt good - extremely good. She stood up on her hind hooves, and air boxed as though trying to tempt Illusive into coming back at her. He stayed where he was, and was about to get away. Ying had passed out.
Rainbow Dash hadn't been ready for the strike, and Jordan tried to save her by pushing her to the side, but she didn't budge, as though she were an immovable force. Instead, Rainbow Dash ducked and felt something swell inside of her, a vengeance almost; something that filled her fully as emotions started to flow within her. She had to beat some sense into Typo. She felt the pinwheel go over her head and her eyes glowed. Her loyalty was strong, and she wouldn't let them be broken apart. She would move, and she would take everyone with her - she wouldn't leave anyone behind. She wanted to be a Wonderbolt - she wanted to fly and do tricks - she wanted to go fast. But what she wanted more than any of that was to be a soldier, to never give up and to never leave anyone behind. She would make sure that things went the way it was meant to be. She would be the wind itself, and the wind would work with her. She felt air swirling around her, which caught the pinwheel as it was starting to go back to Typo. She caught it and sent it careening into a wall before determinedly yelling at Typo, telling him to sit down and think about what he did. And when she did, a harsh gust of air flew forth and knocked Typo off his feet.
Applejack looked back and saw what Rainbow Dash had done. She wanted to finish Illusive off, believing she could if she wanted to - it was stronger than hope, and it was hers, and it would always be hers. Hope for a better future. Belief in a better future. A hope, a belief, that her family would be able to have a new barn and everything. A hope and a belief that she would succeed at whatever she did. The determination in her eyes scared the crap out of Illusive, who started to fly away to lick his wounds.
Applejack went over to Typo and Jordan. "It's okay! He's gone. We won. And we won't ever lose to Gam... Gam... Whatever the heck his name was. We're here for ya Typo. But we need you to be there for us."
---
The water was cold. It was FREEZING cold. Vark was breathing heavily, and was still hanging onto Pinkie. She started to stroke across the water, but gave up on that and started to fly close to the water, but not high enough to catch attention. She laid Pinkie on the mountain base and shook out her fur before curling up to Pinkie, trying to keep her warm, and singing Hania's lullaby, but replacing "king" with "queen." http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/89617 She hoped Pinkie would be alright. Occasionally, if a changeling came near, she would shout the lyric she was singing at the changeling, dropping it from the sky or causing it to have to flee. She sang the song again and again, a pink aura around her which provided music for the lullaby. It was a very sweet song, and Pinkie smiled.
Chiri went up to the dragon's head while it was turned away to hit another changeling and struck it in the face, a flash of light blinding him momentarily and throwing him off kilter, his wings flailing. Chiri kept hitting him until he started to fall, his brain rocking around starting to become too much for the dragon. As it started to dive down into the water, Fluttershy, Phynicxs, and Smeareyes started to hover in the air looking down before more changelings started coming. Twilight Sparkle stayed on the dragon and was straining to levitate it, attempting to slow its descent toward the water. Fluttershy dived after the dragon, wanting to help him after he had been so friendly, trusting Vark to take care of Pinkie.
Around Phynicxs and Smeareyes, the changelings started to disperse, moving away and starting to flee when they saw Chiri coming in to finish the job.
"Two versus one isn't very fair you know..." Chiri waggled his finger, as though chastising them.
Phynicxs was the first to react. "Shut up! And an army is just as unfair!"
"Oh, they weren't listening to me. They were listening to the witch."
Smeareyes responded this time. "Right, and you're totally not working for her!! Or... Being controlled by her?"
Chiri nodded. "Understandable that you might think so, but I do what I want. I just happen to have a little incentive." He smirked.
"Right." Phynicxs rushed at Chiri who got into a fighting stand while hovering. Phynicxs used his daggers to keep Chiri occupied, understanding the danger of taking a full hit. Smeareyes started to circle around them, looking for the best time to attack.
Rarity looked around, happy that she was alive, even if dirty. A lady can't be a lady if you're not alive! Rarity's eyes caught the unconscious form of Ying. She felt something was wrong deep in her heart - it was intuition - and she felt like maybe she could help him. She never studied first aid like Fluttershy had, but she knew how to find things (she hunted gems on a weekly basis after all.) She wasn't normally tolerant of problems that arose, but this time she wasn't deep in focus trying to finish a new dress. She made her way over to Ying. She wrapped him in her magic and felt something off. She couldn't find it, and she didn't know what it was. It confused the crap out of her, but she was diligent and persistent about accomplishing things once she started them. Ying started to stir, and immediately began crying and laughing again. Then he felt anger, but at the same time it felt like he didn't know what he felt. He felt like he didn't know himself. He felt like these emotions were too extreme, as if they were being emphasized or brought out. He felt like everything had been torn apart. He cried harder, then laughed.
Rarity watched this for shorter than 20 seconds before putting her hooves on Ying's hands and tried to whisper softly to him, trying to get him to calm down. She shushed him and Ying felt a little tired. His body felt weaker and the emotions that kept going across his face and through his body weren't as extreme. He felt like something was trying to get into him and pull himself together. "Let me just give you a short massage and I'm sure you'll be back to yourself in no time!" Rarity had spent much time at the spa, and knew a thing or two. Even if this was a different creature than a pony, it couldn't be that different. Could it?
As her hooves pressed into Ying's back, who was slowly calming down, it wasn't the muscles relaxing that helped him. It was the feeling he got from Rarity. Like she cared about his well-being and was willing to give everything for him. He took it to heart, and felt his emotions fill up in a way, to be metaphorical, like it was a bunch of chemicals all being poured into one huge beaker. The massage helped him relax as this happened and he felt everything come together. His eyes focused and he felt better than ever soon enough. It took a little while, but it worked. Rarity smiled and nuzzled him "There, isn't that better? I may not be as good as Aloe, but I can still hold my own." She said in a sophisticated voice. She was milking the accomplishment as much as she could.
Typo held his head in his hands. The pinwheel clattered to the floor. He felt so embarrassed. Not only at having potentially been tricked, not only that he had been finally broken in such a way, and not only because he had more power with the pinwheel and still had been unable to do anything significant, but the worst part of it all was thinking that maybe he had been wrong. He had never believed in the idea that you could prove your point, or to win an argument through winning in combat, but at this point he felt like he had been utterly defeated in every sense. Part of him wondered if maybe he should have trusted the others, but he wiped the thought away; although still unsure of himself. He sighed, taking the heated glare from Rainbow Dash, the sympathetic look on Jordan's face, and the curiousity and fear of him from Rarity's eyes. He had destroyed their trust, whether a prince of hope had something to do with it or not. He had been defeated completely and utterly.
The only one who was motivated to take the initiative about all of this was Applejack. Her eyes looked sad, but she smiled, trotting over to Typo and sitting down next to him. She put a hoof on his shoulder and used the other hoof to try and lift his chin up. "Look sugarcube, we all make mistakes, and as long as yoo're being honest abaht yurself to yurself, I think yoo deserve some forgiveness." Typo didn't move right away, but looked into everyone's eyes, taking the brunt of it, and feeling strength return. He may have lost everyone's trust, especially Rainbow Dash's (and her respect), but he felt like he could try again. Like there was hope for him for a better tomorrow. He hung on Applejack's words and felt a little better about himself, being honest with himself about his faults, and that maybe, just maybe, there was something to this idea of making new friends.
Jordan watched this all going on, and, feeling that Typo was ready despite the fact he was rushing, started to speak. "Let's get out of here - it's been too long. We can talk later." Jordan wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he really didn't want to talk to Typo right now after what he did. He still felt his liveliness clinging to negative emotions that had been raised up by both Auryie and now Typo.
Applejack patted Typo's back and wanted to help him up, but Typo batted her helping hoof away and stood up, taking in a deep breath through his nose and letting it out through his mouth. "Yeah, let's get out of this hell hole." The only reason he probably considered it a hell hole was due to the fact he had just had the worst time of his life here. He stayed in back of the group, and except for Applejack, everyone would occasionally glance at him distrusting, especially Rarity. Rarity was generous, but not generous about her trust. Who said you had to be a paragon of your virtue?
---
Chiri was getting closer and closer to landing a big hit on Phynicxs, who was starting to tire. The knight of doom apparently had a higher endurance and mangrit level than most players. Apparently it wasn't an immobile rule that you could only reach one level. This guy seemed as if he was using his doom aspect to kill his limits and surpass them.
Smeareyes was about to attack, he could feel Chiri's focus grinding down to a point where he was slowly blocking everything else out as he tried to land a hit on Phynicxs.
And he finally did.
Phynicxs went flying as his vision flashed. The hit had been so hard he forgot to fly, his arms still moving as though he was trying to block something that wasn't coming. Smeareyes hadn't expected this, but jumped at him anyway. Chiri spun around and clobbered Smeareyes with his knuckles. He went down fast too.
Twilight looked up at the ensuing battle, and felt so helpless. They would probably be defeated here and now before ever getting to the changeling hive. And even if they did that, if the enemy was stronger than even this enemy, could they even stand a chance? The thoughts of this made Twilight depressed. She lowered her head, and felt her body go weak. Despair was setting in. But she thought about her friends and Celestia, and how Celestia would be disappointed in her if she gave up now.
But what could she do? She was powerless down here.
And then it occured to her. It was a long shot, and it probably wouldn't solve anything, but it was an idea, and she was willing to try anything. Pinkie had taught her to be impulsive, and not think about EVERYTHING.
She called up to Phynicxs and Smeareyes. They both looked, but Phynicxs was about to go head to head with Chiri again. Twilight called again as Smeareyes hurried toward her. She took a deep breath and sighed. Here goes nothing, she thought.
Phynicxs and Smeareyes landed on the dragon, next to Twilight as Fluttershy cooed into the dragon's little ear hole.
Twilight sighed again, starting to concentrate. "I've used this before, but last time I used it I couldn't do anything to change it." She felt despair creeping into her, but she persevered. For her friends. Twilight didn't know it at that time, but she was about to create her very first time loop.
In a flash of light Smeareyes, Twilight, and Phynicxs were taken back into the recent past. They fell into the water and looked up, seeing the dragon start to fall. Twilight whispered sorry as her power faded quickly after having taken two players with her, and was transported back to her time.
Phynicxs and Smeareyes were shocked, and vowed to ask Twilight how she did it later. Right now they had a fight to win. They flew up to either side and tried to sneak up on Chiri.
And they did.
Phynicxs was sent flying and so was Smeareyes, and Chiri looked down at his final two "opponents." He was caught off guard when Smeareyes thrusted his leg out and kicked Chiri in the back. He turned around quickly, seemingly mostly unfazed, and was about to go at Smeareyes again before Phynicxs came down, wrapped one of his blades around Chiri's neck, pushed, and was about to pull.
"I can not die." Chiri's blood vessels grew black as doom power that he was used to surged through him, protecting him as Phynicxs pulled the dagger across his throat.
Chiri bled to death as he fell, grasping his neck. This was definitely not a pleasant way to die. He hit the water and sunk down far.
Smeareyes and Phynicxs were ecstatic, and so was Twilight who called up to them, having appeared again just a few seconds before she had disappeared with the other Smeareyes and Phynicxs. Phynicxs and Smeareyes shared a high five and flew down quickly to get to Twilight. Twilight would later explain the origins of learning how to use a time travel spell; although it wasn't very powerful. In fact, it was extremely weak and could only last for a little while before sending her back.
In the water, Chiri's eyes opened again, dark doom power leaking out like blood. It had acted as a shield and protected him from true death. He swam to the surface and, not wanting to try that again until he could recollect himself, fled.
The travel was going well so far. Rainbow Dash had taken the lead, flying up high in order to scout ahead and see what was next and how far away they were from their destination. According to Rainbow they were close and probably be there within a day. The others down below relaxed, enjoying the trek knowing that soon they would be battling a strong opponent. Most everyone was quiet and being secluded in their thoughts. Typo was walking next to Applejack, still appreciative of her forgiveness and help.
The sun was still rising. It was a very pretty twilight across the high rocks, and everyone seemed to appreciate the beauty, especially Ying, Jordan, and Typo, who had never been in such large expanses before without seeing buildings. Well, except for maybe Ying.
Rainbow Dash gasped, a little startled, and dashed off forward. "Gottagoseesomethingbye!" It had been a long time, and if it was who she thought it was, she wanted to talk with her. Her old friend was way past uncool, but maybe she had learned something about friendship and other ponies.
Jordan blew it off and told them that if it took more than a few minutes for her to get back, they'd go after her. Applejack and Rarity both seemed okay with this, Rarity even more so after having finally gotten herself gussied up again except for the blood staining her white coat. They all knew Rainbow Dash could take care of herself. - "Gilda! It IS you! Long time no see." Rainbow Dash felt really happy and dived down to meet up with the griffon, who looked up at her in surprise.
"What happened to us not being friends anymore, dweeb?"
"Well, I thought maybe you'd changed and that we could start over." Rainbow Dash looked a little worried. This was already not going how she had hoped.
Gilda smirked and looked a little annoyed. "Me? Change? Psh. I'm just fine the way I am." She slapped her chest with one of her bird feet. Something was in her eyes though. Something that she was keeping hidden. "Why are you here anyway Dash? You shouldn't be here."
"Oh, I'm just travelling with a group over there." She pointed with her hoof, and Gilda looked over to see. She seemed to get angry, and then acceptance filled her face.
"You're on a mission, aren't you? You always did better when there was something on the line. Too bad the same couldn't be said for our friendship."
"I AM on a mission, how did you know?" She seemed genuinely surprised, but was still trusting. "And what about our friendship?" Rainbow Dash glared at Gilda. "You were the one who was unwilling to make anymore friends! Not to mention you have a really bad idea of what it means to be cool." Rainbow Dash whipped her rainbow hair back and grinned. "But I'm sure we could try again."
"There isn't going to be an again, Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry." Gilda bared her claws.
"Gilda...? What are you doing?" Rainbow Dash took a step back and seemed confused.
"I guess it's time to see which one of us is stronger." She grinned. With a deft movement she threw herself forward, trying to slash at her throat. Rainbow jumped into the air and took flight, looking down at her, angry.
"What are you doing G!? You could hurt someone."
"I am trying to hurt someone, idiot." She jumped into the air, taking flight and circling around Rainbow Dash. Gilda knew her best bet was to take them out one at a time. With the responsibility she had been given in exchange for power, she wasn't going to let some silly ex-friendship ruin her new and better future.
---
The dragon had recovered nicely, and Fluttershy had helped his rage to subside. They might not've taken out all the changelings, but they had done good enough. The others, not expecting another battle, relaxed on top of the dragon as they neared the huge city in the distance.
"THERE IT IS." Thunderhead said. Vark and Fluttershy came over to look out at the ancient city. Pinkie was still unconscious, but Vark had been keeping her company.
"We better go in for a landing." Vark stated while looking at the skyline. There were guard changelings flying over the city in patrols. There were also some on the ground as well. Phynicxs came up over the head and looked over.
"Vark's right, we should set down here and sneak into the city from here. If we get any closer they'll see us. It's amazing they haven't seen us yet." Phynicxs was ready for some sneaking. Sneaking was what he lived for. He was Solid Snake. He was better than Solid Snake. Fuck Solid Snake, you can't get any better than Phynicxs.
Thunderhead rumbled his agreement and set down, letting the players and ponies off his head.
Smeareyes thought for a bit and came to a decision. "Phynicxs. You, Vark, and Twilight go in - I think you'll all be able to get in easier if you work together with your aspects and Twilight's multitude of spells. As for me, I'm just a seer. I'll look after Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy'll help. Once she's woken up, we'll follow you." Smeareyes took from his captchalogue deck an orange spray can and tossed it to Phynicxs. "Mark your path, but be subtle about it please."
"Me, subtle? You obviously haven't known me for very long," Phynicxs teased Smeareyes. "I am the EMBODIMENT of subtle."
"Definitely not the embodiment of modesty." Twilight and Smeareyes chuckled. Phynicxs looked a little embarrassed. "Anyways, get going. And stay safe." Smeareyes went back up on the dragon and had a conversation with Thunderhead and Fluttershy while keeping an eye on Pinkie. At one point Smeareyes entertained Fluttershy by pulling things out of his hat. At one point he pulled Angel who was angry and confused. Fluttershy hugged him and put him back, before asking about Smeareyes' eyeliner and would eventually have some put on her so she'd look like a tribal warrior. - Phynicxs was using a box that looked a lot like a small power generator. Vark followed farthest behind, her feet almost as silent as Phynicxs. Twilight would occasionally use her time travel spell to help Phynicxs take out a guard more easily before being put back where she used the time travel spell, often only doing it when she could run into an alley right after. It was a little bloody, but Phynicxs tried to kill as little as possible. Also occasionally, if possible, Twilight would generate a soft lullaby in the area around her using different sounds from around her and putting it together to put some changelings to sleep. She had other spells up her arsenal then. Phynicxs started to wonder if, in some way, Twilight was using magickind strife specibus.
---
The players and ponies looked up and saw what looked like a fight, as the two figures seemed to get in close before splitting apart, flying around and only engaging at certain points, as though they were pro fliers and knew exactly when to strike based on where the wind was at what time.
Rainbow Dash was getting scratched up bad and had only been able to get a few hits in, but all those hits missed. Like she was having the unluckiest day in the world. But at the same time, Gilda wasn't getting any fatal strikes on her, yet. Every time she got hit, she felt like the world around her was getting worse and scary. Like everything was out to get her, and she felt as though that if she had ran into something it would have been completely justified or something. She couldn't quite place the feeling.
"Gilda! I don't want to fight you!"
"Then why are you fighting back Dash?" Rainbow Dash was taken aback and thought about it as Gilda came at her again. Why was she fighting this battle? Was it to protect someone? Maybe. Was it because she felt like there had been a breach in loyalty? Maybe. Or maybe she just liked to fight as much as she liked to fly. Rainbow Dash dodged to the side as Gilda almost knicked her across the throat with her claws, just like she tried to dodge the effects of her uncertainty about her actions.
"I don't know!"
"Then allow me to add a little certainty into your life again, Dash."
Rainbow Dash felt despair wash over her, enraged and feeling like this isn't how it should be. And that moment of distraction was when Gilda grabbed a hold of her, and stabbed her in the head with a claw while Ying was about 20 ft away; although Jordan was farther back. Rainbow Dash felt peace settle over her and acceptance, and at the same time she fought. But what could she fight? Darkness descended on her soul and everything went black.
Jordan screamed and felt every ounce of rage and power surge through him. He held his head in his hands, uncaptchaloging Letum Coupant and flying toward Gilda who let Rainbow drop to the ground as dead weight. The strike had been fast and it had been immediately fatal, and a little bloody, but not as bloody as a throat wound. But maybe if Jordan had just gotten there sooner, he could have saved her. He felt like the lights that kept him going were starting to go out, and he wanted revenge. Ying and Gilda flew at each other. Gilda was faster and seemed to know exactly where to move so that Ying couldn't move into good spots. Jordan tried to go faster.
---
It had almost been a full day. It was night outside and the darkness was creeping in everywhere like living shadows of times long past. Phynicxs, Vark, and Twilight had been exploring building after building, and had run into an uncountable amount of changelings on the way. Occasionally they heard talk about conquests that had happened in different areas of Equestria. And the most surprising tidbit was that ponies were being taken away and used as slaves and food. The changelings fed off love, and were using chemical shots to stimulate the brain of different ponies into feeling exuberant amounts of love.
The kidnappings were confirmed however when they found a bunch of ponies locked in cages in one of the buildings. The conditions were disgusting to say the least, and so bad that you probably couldn't say the most. It just got worse and worse the farther they got in, and noticed there were other creatures here as well. The next few buildings they had to trek through (sometimes having to go from roof to roof,) held even more ponies. Most were trying to sleep, but they were quiet and careful enough because they didn't want to be seen.
All throughout this Twilight was getting more and more disturbed as time past. She thought it was a given that they were going to come back here and free the others, but soon couldn't hold this desire in. When they reached a relatively quiet and empty area, Twilight spoke. "This is insane. I can't believe how many ponies are trapped in here!"
"There aren't just ponies," Phynicxs reminded. Vark was singing a quiet lullaby to help keep all their nerves calmed.
"I know that but... We just have to do something."
"If Smeareyes hasn't caught up to us by this point, we'll most likely have to face the witch with what we have. After we've defeated her and fixed what she's done, we'll do something about the prisoners here. We can't afford to do it now - there are too many - especially too many to escort out of here, even more especially because of all the changelings that are here. We'll have to do something pretty big to fix this situation Twilight. I'm sorry."
Twilight was normally extremely logical and listened to her emotions rarely, but as tears dotted on her eyes, she needed assurance. "Please, Phynicxs, please. Even if we have to fight all of them, please promise me we'll do something to at least try."
Phynicxs hesitated, understanding what a massive promise this would be, and nodded. "Alright. I promise." Phynicxs thought a bit and spoke again. "We should wait here for Smeareyes and the others to catch up with us. Besides, these particular changelings seem to hunt more at night. If most of them are resting during the day we'll have a better chance of getting to the witch undetected."
Twilight agreed with this, and suggested they seek out an office to hole up in for the night.
Phynicxs, used to being stealthy and protecting himself, set up small traps - mostly just bell traps - so that they would know if someone was coming. It would probably give them away, but it might also help save them. Phynicxs and Smeareyes were light sleepers anyway, which he mentioned to Twilight and Vark. He also told them how Smeareyes and him had grown up together for the most part, and had been taught ninja techniques. The area they lived in on their world was one of discretion and stealth, and Ying had actually lived in an area where honor, principle, and morals were held highly. Ying's nature had rubbed off on them as they communicated between each other. Phynicxs stated that he felt that Ying had made them both better people, even if they often fell back on what they had been taught growing up.
---
Ying's movements were fast - he was hurting bad on the inside. He may not have known her for long, but he considered Rainbow Dash a friend, and now she was gone. Forever. Tears filled his eyes, pulled out his eraser sword and swung it at Gilda's neck. Gilda flapped her wings and pushed herself back before leaning forward and flapping her wings to headbutt Ying. Ying fell back and Gilda kept up, pushing forward harder and stabbing at Ying's right eye with her beak, causing Ying to cry out as he tried to bring his eraser back around. Gilda caught it in one of her talons and used her other front talon to slash a deep triple gash through his stomach, making him keel forward. Gilda took this opportunity to grasp onto Ying's left arm tightly, twist her body around, and throw Ying off of her back, Ying having forgotten to fly momentarily, the momentum carrying him a little bit. He grabbed his stomach as blood leaked out and his organs showed slightly through the bloody wound. Ying took in a big, sharp gulp of air as he turned around and looked to Gilda with determination. He felt space power rising through him as his emotions and desire soared, turning around to face Gilda and about to charge right in.
Right after Gilda threw Ying over her shoulder and over her back, she brought her left talon up and caught the brunt of the sword, struggling against an angered Jordan. She flapped her wings hard, giving her more strength and batted the sword away before sinking her already bloodied claws into Jordan's stomach and pulling out. Jordan cried out and felt the emotions in his being intensify and felt his aspect surge around him like a whirlwind. His body fell but as it did, much like a snake, it just sort of split apart and fell off of a bloodied Jordan who grabbed the sword from his falling body and flew up to slash at Gilda.
Seeing Jordan come back up, angry and determined, she danced to the side, causing Ying and Jordan to collide into each other, Jordan's sword going up and into Ying's shoulder and his eraser going through the right side of Jordan's stomach, causing that piece of his body to be erased. They both grunted and tried to pull away from each other as Gilda came down on top of them.
"Life can't survive without LIGHT!" Gilda's form blocked out the sun from hitting them and she punctured her talons into Jordan's head, a feeling of darkness descending over Jordan's features. His emotions bubbled and his body fell off of him again. But this time Jordan wasn't ready and the sword fell with his previous incarnation.
Ying was quick, going up to Gilda and backslashing Gilda, aiming for her wings. Gilda turned her body in the air, the eraser almost grazing her. She looked worried for a second but then grinned as she felt Jordan flying back up at her. She saw his hand glowing with a bright and hot energy and during her twist grabbed onto Jordan's wrist and threw him away from her and at Ying, but not before slicing his hand off. "You may be able to use a form of light, but your "light" is no match for mine." Again, Jordan collided with Ying but this time Jordan didn't get hit by the eraser, but he screamed instead at having just lost his left hand. Ying and Jordan tumbled in the air, trying to right themselves, but Gilda was fast. She came down on them and drove her hind talons directly into Jordan's back, one of the claws barely grazing his heart. Gilda grabbed on tight and did a somersault in the air, causing a bleeding Jordan to go flying backwards. Ying tried to level out as he bled, his skin becoming a little pale, and readied his stance again. His emotions swelled to a crescendo, looking determined to make shit happen. His space powers surged again and he dashed forward at Gilda.
Typo was watching from a distance, and noticed them having a hard time, and decided he should enter the fight.
---
A chime. Phynicxs' eyes snapped open. He immediately brought out his daggers and hid next to the broken door, waiting for whoever was going to come in. After a moment a shuriken went flying through the door and embedded itself on the far wall (they had intentionally picked an area without windows.) "Smear, that you?" He whispered.
"I'm glad you can still wake up to the sound of a chime, Phynicxs," Smeareyes stated. Phynicxs motioned for them to come in and they did. Fluttershy was visibly very distressed, and Pinkie Pie looked a little tired still with wrinkles under eyes, but she was definitely being quiet - she knew how to sneak.
Smeareyes grabbed his shuriken from the wall and put it away (no point in wasting weapons that still work.) "It's almost dawn. I suggested that we sleep and Fluttershy agreed, so we took a nap. Pinkie was the one who woke us, asking where the others were." Noticing Vark and Twilight sleeping, Smeareyes added, "we'll wait for them to wake up, so long as they wake up soon."
Phynicxs and Smeareyes chatted quietly to each other about the ponies and other creatures they had seen in the cages, and things that they'd heard while sneaking around and following their trail. Smeareyes mentioned that they had a dayshift of patrolling as well, but that it was almost always a different changeling as they had to swap out often. Phynicxs and Smeareyes tried to plan a way to get everyone out of the cells, and Fluttershy tried to help, coming up with ideas. Pinkie was taking a light nap. Fluttershy said that there was supposed to be a queen changeling, but apparently someone had taken over. They realized that the changelings seemed to act of their own volition, unlike Thunderhead had, and wondered if just killing the queen would fix this. They had to do something. They decided to just drop it for now and think about it after their main mission was complete. They'd find someway to get everyone out of the prisons. - Phynicxs and Smeareyes took the lead, Smeareyes occasionally taking out a changeling from far way by hitting their temple with the bladed weapon. Otherwise, if possible, they sneaked past and motioned for the others to follow when they could. The buildings they went through lead to the center quickly, and the farther they got, the higher the tension rised to a point where everyone wished Pinkie and Vark were singing something - preferably Vark as she was a bard and had a bunch of comforting lullabies under her belt.
---
Typo had to hurry, he had to help them. Why? Because they were giving him another chance? He wasn't sure, and he wasn't sure he liked the idea of feeling obligated to them, and swiped it away from his mind, slowing down.
Jordan continued screaming. He tried to use his life powers but was having a difficult time of it. It's like they had been temporarily negated. He looked back at Gilda but felt fear going into the core of his being. It felt like he was losing everything of value to him.
Ying charged at Gilda, and tried to swipe at her but she fell back and grabbed at Ying's wrist as it went by her with her hind right talon. She flapped her wings and did a tight circle and tried to throw him away again, but this time Ying was ready and immediately reached back and grabbed onto Gilda's front right leg, continuing the spin through the air and was about to throw her away his space surged and he felt the holes in his body seal up as green and black fizzed out a piece of Gilda's body. Gilda screeched as she was thrown, feeling the pain immediately. Ying had feathers along his stomach where there had once been a gaping wound from Gilda's claws.
When Gilda was thrown her wings stopped working temporarily and she tried to right herself but was soon set on by Ying who seemed to move faster than ever. He brought his eraser sword up and sliced it down, trying to remove Gilda's left wing, but she leaned to her right as her wings started to catch her. Ying was not finished and his body seemed to blur as his image reset into a position to slice through Gilda's torso. Ying didn't need light to fight. After all, space was space even without light. As the eraser came towards her she threw her lower body up and did a somersault in the air, which barely kept her from being bisected. She then started to dive as Ying's body blurred again before doing a vertical chop with his eraser blade. Gilda went fast and swooped up before hitting the ground and spun in the air to face Ying, who was right up in front of her within two seconds. This time Ying sliced the sword horizontally, trying to decapitate Gilda, but she was fast, throwing her head forward and doing another somersault as the eraser went over her. Her tail flicked ying in the face before she extended her hind talons and tried to grab hold of Ying again, and he blurred and started to stab down with his weapon trying to shishkebab Gilda through the stomach. Gilda gasped and screeched when she felt the space around her stomach disappear, and tried to kick Ying away but to no avail.
Ying blurred again and flew after Gilda as she started to fall. She knew this was a fight she wasn't going to win, and started to dive, followed by Ying. Gilda came close to the rocky tower and pulled up, grazing against it just as Ying swung his eraser blade horizontally, trying to cut Gilda in half again, except this time she wasn't as fast.
Gilda lost her lion's tail.
Gilda looked back and screeched again, pulling a tight turn to the right and looping around and quickly zooming away the way she came. Ying followed, going fast and having barely grazed the ground himself, turning and chasing. He caught up in a few seconds and was about to swing his blade down trying to cut Gilda in half from top to bottom, only to miss as she banked to the left, dived slightly, and made a sharp 360, going back the way she came, looked behind her, and saw Ying chasing after her. Her feathers rustled and she felt fear like never before, and did the only thing she could do as she bled from the hole in her stomach and from her cut off tail.
She spit into Ying's remaining eye.
This caught him off guard and he started to slow a little, crying out. It burned like the sun and he wiped at it, trying to get it out but having a hard time. His eye immediately went bloodshot and got more and more red as he tried to get the spit out of his eye, dropping his eraser blade and rubbing at it, slowing down substantially after a few seconds. He screamed bloody, his emotions rocking him as Gilda got away. He began to cry; to mourn, and the tears helped get some of the spit out of his eye. It still hurt like hell though, keeping his left eye shut tightly as the tears from his bloody right eye smeared it like make-up.
Typo came up to Ying and put an arm around him trying to see what was wrong and if he could help, but Ying shoved him away, causing Typo to feel a little dejected. "Fine!" He quickly flew over to Rainbow Dash's body, meeting up with Jordan who was crying and still bleeding from his cut off hand.
Phynicxs, Vark, and Smeareyes looked down at the entrance to the tallest building in the city. They had been waiting there, watching, for several hours. Every few hours a group of ponies would be led out by changelings and later a group of ponies would be led back in. They had already surmised that the slavery was mostly used to extend the hive in the basement and make it bigger. Phynicxs assumed that they had probably moved the ancient legendary weapon deep into the changeling catacombs, and was having a hard time figuring out how to get inside. At a certain point Vark pretty much said to forget it, because they weren't going to move. They would probably have to fight their way in. But Smeareyes had a better plan. He whispered for Twilight to come over and when she did, Smeareyes asked her how far back she could go. She mentioned that it would be at most a day, and Smeareyes nodded. Smeareyes was about to volunteer to go get Thunderhead but Phynicxs stopped him.
"I've been thinking about this for awhile. I think their might be a hivemind among them, and the Witch is probably toying with it." Smeareyes nodded and asked him where he was going with this.
"Their minds aren't being controlled. They're willingly connected with the witch, I assume. Which is how everything seems to run so perfectly here. They obviously need a leader and the leader is obviously the witch. So I've been thinking about it and I think we may be dealing with a witch of heart. If we are, then you, Smear, should be able to see their emotions and use them to sever their connections.
Smeareyes nodded, agreeing with the idea.
---
The sadness was tangible and permeable. It filled the air like a blanket. Luna's stars and moon shined down on the group as they mourned over the loss of not only the element and harbinger of loyalty, but of one of the best friends one could have. The loss of a protector. The loss of a knight in a cyan coat. Jordan took it the hardest, feeling the regret in his soul welling up to a breaking point. He cried long and hard, and wanted nothing more than to leave the area. But that wasn't enough. He wanted to leave the planet. He wanted to forget all of this. He wanted to forget the pain. He didn't want to go on in this situation. His determination wavered. Was it truly a win if there was loss? Was it truly a win when there was sacrifice? Was it truly a win when a friend died in vain; when anyone died without dignity and integrity; when anyone died in so foolish a manner? By one they used to call friend? Was this really the world that the players had forced upon the inhabitants of this planet? Jordan turned around, unable to handle it.
Applejack and Rarity took the brunt of the blow, and knew that Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight would take it the hardest.
Applejack not only lost a friend. She had lost a rival. She had lost her competition, and all she had now was the hope that she could live for Rainbow Dash and herself. She helped others so much. No one could help her here. She had to help herself in this situation. She had to help Rainbow Dash who never even got to accomplish her dreams. Out of all of that, that hurt the most. Rainbow Dash could never achieve her dreams now. She was gone forever. Applejack felt her hope and belief waver. Was this what happened to good ponies? Was this how it had to be, for an innocent pony to never achieve her dreams? Applejack took off her stetson, and laid by the body, as though she could keep Rainbow Dash company in some way, be it physically or spiritually. This hurt hard, and she buried her face into Rainbow Dash, racked with sobbing.
Rarity was prime and proper. She was a lady. She knew all the manners. She knew all the etiquette. She knew how to respond in certain situations. She never felt uncertainty. She knew who she was and she knew what she wanted. She knew what to give others and how to help. She knew how to do everything. But she didn't know how to say goodbye. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she tried to stand stoically, breaking apart on the inside as she questioned mortality, and why things had to be taken away. She had been given the gift of these friends. And one of them had been taken from her. Was this what the world was like? Was it dull and lifeless. Was there not some being out there that only gave generously? Rarity recognized that ultimately it was Rainbow Dash's choice, but she didn't want to lose her most precious possessions. She didn't want to lose her friends. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head down, tears falling down her face.
Ying was also racked with sobs. He had lost a friend. He had been unable to help, unable to save. His principles and his morals got him everywhere, but it didn't teach him how to act in situations like this. He felt anger. So much anger. And despair. And sadness. He understood some would die. But for it to finally happen? He worried about Phynicxs and Smeareyes. His heart ached. The space inside of him that was filled was now a little bit empty. And it hurt like hell. It hurt worse than his eye hurt. It was so painful. The emptied space in his heart felt like a void, but he knew it wasn't. It was just empty space. He could increase and decrease size and he could move through space with relative ease, but to increase the size of what was in his heart; to even think of placing something else there was something he couldn't live with. He fell to his knees and cried into his arms. It was gone. His immortality had changed his view of life. But this reminded him how fragile it was.
Typo was stoic, frowning but hurting. He hadn't been able to show Rainbow Dash that he could change - did he even really want to? He clenched his teeth together tightly, uncertain about the path to take even though he knew what his goal was, even if to accomplish his goal he had to die. He had lost so much. He had started to trust again, and he had been slapped in the face. He covered his mouth with his hands and closed his eyes tightly, unable to believe this. Was he cursed? Could he neither find immortal love nor immortal friendship? Godtier made him immortal, but everything else? It just fades away. Especially when you're ignorant of what could happen. Maybe to reverse it he had to start expecting the worst? No. He couldn't do that. He didn't want anymore connections. They just hurt so much.
The group held a temporary and quick funeral for their fallen friend. Instead of burying her they would take her with them. Ying took her body and stowed it away in a small extra dimensional space that followed his person. There was no weight, and yet he felt burdened by so much. He had to protect her body. Could he even do that?
Jordan sighed, wanting to just sleep, but feeling extra responsibility thrust onto his shoulders. He needed to keep everyone safe. He couldn't be lax. He had to make sure something like this didn't happen again. He needed to be vigilant. Life does not sleep. Life keeps growing. He would learn from this mistake, and would honor Rainbow Dash.
---
Phynicxs was fast. He blurred by changelings before they had a chance to ask what the hell happened. They added to the collective hivemind that there was something among them, and that they should be on watch - not that it did any good. Phynicxs had snuck up on the first changeling he found, used his dagger to stab it in the temple, and drew its blood in order to help his powers. He was currently skating on thin-blood skates and as he moved would occasionally use the extra blood to blind the changelings that were alert and watching. They may have heard him, but they had no clue who or what he was, or, at this point, not even what he looked like. He had about a day to get back and catch Thunderhead's attention. - Smeareyes was quiet, motioning for Vark and Pinkie to keep quiet as well. They had snuck up as close to the central, largest building, as they could. Smeareyes had decided to leave Fluttershy at the hideout for now and would follow them once Thunderhead attacked. Smeareyes had his own spray paint and was making symbols that he had explained to Fluttershy - symbols that would confuse the changelings, if they even saw them. Pinkie was quiet, and much more energetic and alert. Twilight Sparkle had helped her get more sleep by sending her to the recent past - about five hours prior - on the condition she would find a different room to hide and sleep in so that she wouldn't create any paradoxes. For now. Twilight was tired after all this time hopping - it wasn't the time hopping that tired her, it was the fact that she was sending ponies into the past. It tried her out. She was giving them more time, but it was taking from her.
For a moment Twilight wondered about her recent studies, how there were magic coils and leylines throughout all creatures. She had read that there were, in ancient history, strange creatures that had learned to use these coils and leylines in different ways. She started to wonder if she could power her magic by finding a way to absorb unused magic from other creatures. She nodded and determined that when she got back she would study this quickly, especially because her help might be needed again in the future.
Smeareyes looked up into the sky and saw a black and red dragon quickly approaching. - Phynicxs had been fast. He was nearly out of the city before someone spotted him. It was Chiri. Phynicxs swore, thinking about getting away and hiding in a box for awhile, but that wasn't going to happen. This guy was catching up quick, insanely quick. He looked out of the corners of his eyes, glancing back slightly as he moved forward, jumping over a few obstacles and going fast. None of the changelings had seen him but this guy did. And then he recognized him as the knight of doom that had attacked them before. His eyes widened significantly and he tried to think of a plan otherwise he wasn't going to make it.
Chiri's biggest power was understanding laws and limits and then destroying them to exceed others. It was something that came naturally to him. It was something that made him special as far as he knew. Throughout his godtiering days he had learned to exercise every single ability, sense, and phyiscal characteristic, significantly surpassing his session's players. Illusive had followed him, believing him to have a destination. Chiri had expressed himself as a leader before, but no one had ever given him the chance until then. - Alarms were sounded, thousands and thousands of changelings starting to chitter to get the attention of others. The buzzing sound that also came was deafening. As the changelings in front of the main tower started to get distracted, Smeareyes - the best ninja magician he could be - threw his voice to match a general changeling's voice. He was rewarded with the two changelings looking at each other, calling out to the changelings inside, and flew off. They were soon followed by dozens of changelings that flooded out from the entrance, small lapses between changelings occurring before more came out. After a few minutes past and no more came out, Smeareyes shushed the others and motioned for them to follow. As they got close he whispered to them that there were more than likely still many patrols, especially under the earth, and he told them that he expected there to be more prisoners down below. They would probably have to use other changelings to get where they needed to go. Smeareyes thanked Phyncxs - he definitely knew what he was doing.
---
Applejack had demonstrated her ability to fight in the face of danger. Rarity had not. Rarity would be left in safety and Applejack would come with them for the battle. They knew what they were getting themselves into and what to do. Jordan, Ying, and Typo, all nervous in their own way were as ready as they were going to get. Typo knew Auryie and Gamarya well and knew that they would take care of the problem themselves than let their growing army take a risk of fighting three godtiers.
The area around their current position had not succumbed to the effects that the Lord of Doom had learned to force on his surroundings. But they saw that in the forest ahead of them, passed these houses, would be dangerous. Likely they would have to fight in here. They put their hands together, and Applejack put her hoof in on top - it had been her idea - and even if Typo didn't mean it all, he trusted Applejack and Rainbow Dash - he wouldn't let the same mistakes happen twice. He didn't need the bonds of friendship to strengthen him here. He just needed to believe in himself and trust the others to do their part.
"To friends! To VICTORY! We won't let this Gam... Gam guy take the world without a faht. We will stahp his cronies here and take out his subordinates." Applejack felt hope swell inside of her. She would do this for Rainbow Dash. They wouldn't let her death be in vain.
They made their way into the forest, Applejack taking point out of bravery - and she just trotted faster than the others were walking; although Jordan was right behind her and seemed to walk in her gait and step. He felt butterflies in his stomach. He was about to do something heroic, even if it cost them their lives. But they couldn't afford to die here, otherwise who would take on Gamarya? He remembered Rainbow Dash, and felt his emotions soar. He was going to take more responsibility. He was going to protect everyone - all of life. That was his mission. That was what he had grown so much to do. He was going to be a hero, but not for the sake of being a hero. He was going to be a hero for the sake of all those who were powerless against any threat.
It was quick the way the flowers twisted and fired poisonous thorns at the party. Jordan's emotions soared even higher as he felt more responsibility weigh on his shoulders. He felt the power surge through his body and threw his remaining hand forward, tree vines reinforced with bark coming out like armor grew out of the earth, a risk of tripping over, but it was only enough to defend. He used some of the other vines that came out to squeeze around all the flowers they came across and pulled the flowers out of the ground, killing them but leaving the seed so that they would regrow (hopefully not fast due to all the influence of doom on their limits/laws.) A tree started to move suddenly, and started to grow arms, pulling itself out of the ground and towering over ten feet. It pulled out some smaller, weaker, newer trees and threw them at the heroes. Applejack ducked - knowing she couldn't buck those without hurting herself - and Typo came up, uncaptchaloging his breath pinwheel, using some of the breath to throw it forward and used the breath to control it in the air as it spun like a saw blade slicing through the hard bark and quickly chopping up the tree ogre with ease. For about ten minutes this went on - very similar. When they came to a clearing they saw three people waiting for them.
It was time.
---
Things were going easy. Much easier than Smeareyes had expected. Stealth really paid off. He'd severed the hive mind connection of one of the changelings who had started leading them around. The changeling was very uncertain of how he felt about this, but at the same time he was given a freedom - a freedom that felt like he could go wherever he wanted without being too concerned of his brothers. The freedom allowed his own powers to manifest themselves more than it had in the other changelings. He felt power like he had never felt before, and he owed it all to Smeareyes. He figured they were going to split up after all this, but he also felt that soon he would go on his own journey and get love some other way - not a way he knew how yet, but he was hopeful. More so for his future than the future of the hive. He chittered to the group behind him, letting them know they were almost there. This changeling was quick and he had a knack for coming up with plans on the spot. Had fate not put him in the role of worker, maybe he could have achieved something greater. As the changeling thought about it, he smiled for the first time in a long time.
"So, do you have a name?" Smeareyes whispered into the changelings ear.
The changeling shook his head, "no, this one does not have a name. They do not spare creative names for one as lowly as this one."
"You mean a worker, right?"
"Correct."
Vark came up to him and patted his back and whispered in his ear. "Everyone deserves a name, even if it isn't unique."
The changeling looked worried. "Can you give me a name?"
Vark smiled and nearly shouted, "sure. I'm sure Smeareyes can help too."
Smeareyes brought his hand to his chin and looked up in thought. "Well, what kinds of things do you like to do in your spare time?"
The changeling smiled. "We rarely ever have spare time, but this one has a knack for tinkering with small machines. This one also likes to gossip."
Smeareyes and Vark looked at each other and smiled. Pinkie Pie butted in, leaning close and whispering in his ear. "Ooh! I know, we'll call you Machine Whisperer."
The changeling felt something inside of him swell to large proportions, having an ear-splitting smile. He felt ecstatic. "Thank you kind ones." Machine felt like this was the start of something wonderful. - Phynicxs was having a hard time with this guy. Again. He blocked with his daggers constantly and was nearly getting hit. He slid backwards on the blood as he fought, trying to gain ground while fighting. Occasionally he would use the excess blood he carried in order to try and swipe at Chiri and get in a good hit or two. But he always missed. This guy was like lightning, every movement seeming to defy reality. His reaction speed was higher than anything Phynicxs had ever seen and it was getting better. The clang of metal knuckle on dagger was ringing out. The display of martial prowess had intimidated any changelings that even THOUGHT of entering the fray.
But the good part is he was close to Thunderhead. And that's when he heard the crackle of electricity.
---
Machine would protect them. He felt like the connections to his heritage had been severed to some degree. Like he could be his own changeling now. He wasn't sure which was better, to be connected or not. But Machine liked new experiences, and this was as new as they came. New emotions he had never felt before rose up through his being. They were near to the throne room. Near to the witch of heart.
Fluttershy was halfway to reaching them again, feeling a courage from these adventures with these new ponies - no, not ponies - people. Something inside of her felt different, but at the same time she still felt her old emotions and her old insecurities and her old shyness and everything else. It was a weird feeling, and Fluttershy kind of liked it. Phynicxs had taught her a stealth trick or two and it was helping her get by the changelings easily. Occasionally she'd come by a prison and she'd mention to them that she'd find a way to get them out. She felt purpose inside of her, much like the purpose and security she found in taking care of animals. - The crack of thunder was pounding and it rend Phynicxs' ears into deathly silence except for the loud ringing. He hoped it was temporary. It probably was.
The strike of thunder had nearly hit Chiri and had surprised him. Seeing the new opponent, Chiri decided to flee. Thunderhead was about to go after them but Phynicxs shouted for him to wait and come down - he had a plan, even if he couldn't hear himself talk and yell.
When Thunderhead got down to Phynicxs, the rogue of blood spoke really loudly, which amused Thunderhead and he took it as it came, knowing that his ears were probably damaged. Even if only for a little while.
Phynicxs explained his plan and jumped onto Thunderhead, who took to the sky immediately. He roared loudly, trying to draw the attention of nearby changelings. Killing them would suck, but Phynicxs believed it had to be done. He needed more blood if he intended to get into the city and cause a big enough distraction.
It was a long and tiring battle, Phynixcs skating over Thunderhead's body so fast to get to different changelings that he almost seemed rooted into the dragon's minor gravity. He pulled all the blood he obtained into a sphere next to him, absorbing as much blood into it as he could. When he was finished he shouted for Thunderhead to go, who zoomed forward quickly, Phynicxs clinging on to his back as much as he could. When they got to the city limits the buzzing started. And it just got worse from there. Changelings were everywhere, and they just kept coming, like a moving, insurmountable wall. Phynics would probably have to take awhile before following his friends. He shouted to Thunderhead to get ready, which made him start crackling electricity as the huge sphere of blood splattered down onto the dragon and started to flow all over him, covering nearly all of his body. And once that happened, Thunderhead tried something new, something Phynicxs had theorized. He swallowed the energy in his mouth and, being Thunderhead, tried to push it into his body, which started crackling. As the changelings came in the blood on the dragon rippled harshly before thrusting out with a ton of spikes stabbing into changelings in random locations. Some spikes missed, and many would die, but this was better than the alternative of letting this harsh reality to continue. Phynicxs accepted that, and was glad Ying wasn't with him. From what he knew of Fluttershy, she probably would have had more severe problems with it than Ying would.
---
This was the time. This was the time to prove to himself that he'd become better than what he once was. He was going to trust and this time not give in. You're only as strong as your mind. Typo was ready for this. He called out to Auryie and questioned her fealty after what had happened.
Auryie looked sad as the prince of hope guffawed. "Oh I forgot to mention, if you side with Gamarya he'll let you be with Auryie forever."
Typo softened, then looked to Applejack, and hardened again. "Nice try, but I'll do this my own way." He uncaptchalogued the pinwheel and started spinning it extremely close to his body, getting ready to let it loose on the enemies. Auryie took a step forward, uncaptchaloguing her ring blade and spinning it around somewhat faster than the pinwheel was going. Auryie mentioned she held back, but this time she couldn't and wouldn't. Something crossed her eyes, causing them to glaze over. "Your battle is with me Typo."
Typo frowned heavily. He'd have to fight his own girlfriend. And really, considering what was going on, he felt like this was his responsibility. Thinking for a second he nodded. "Jordan, go for the prince of hope. Ying, go for the griffon. Applejack, aid Jordan." He remembered how effective Ying had been against Gilda, and figured that Jordan and Applejack, while not having the advantage, could take on Illusive.
Illusive laughed harder. "You really think a measly knight of life can put a stop to me? And that pony? I'm sorry, but this battle isn't going to have the same result as last time." Illusive hardened. "You all die here and now."
Gilda grinned and looked at Ying. "I agree with hope boy over there, this isn't going to end the same way." Gilda had on bloodied bandages around her waist, and what had once been her tail was now a nub. The hole had been healed partially, but it was still very sensitive and easy to damage.
Typo softened again, but this time he screamed and charged at Auryie. His thief of muse powers went quick as he stole some of Auryie's maid of mind powers, using them so that this would be a matter of weapons and not aspect. He brought his right hand around, the pinwheel going with it as it spun and slashed it against Auryie's rinblade. The clang was loud and it sounded like two buzzsaws had gotten caught together. They were blown back from each other but started flying and went at each other yelling. Typo through his pinwheel around circling it around to get at her from behind. He brought his fist up, looking like he was about to fight her hand to hand, but dropped to the ground in a roll as Auryie got closer, looking surprise. As soon as his weight went to his hands, he pushed up, thrusting his left leg out and catching Auryie in the gut. She grunted and was sent flying back. The wind was knocked out of her but she was ready for more. She glared and started spinning her ring blade again, hearing the sound behind her and twisted, doing a ballerina spin. It almost looked as though she wasn't even hanging onto her blade - that's how good with it she was. It hit the pinwheel and knocked it away causing it to wobble before the breath was able to pick it up again. Typo quickly brought it back and closed in again as Auryie finished her spin.
Jordan was fast, bringing out Letum Coupant and holding it in his remaining hand. He cried out and started going blow to blow with Illusive. Illusive snickered, "what, only one hand? There's no way you can win." He saw Applejack coming and fell back, somersaulting backwards and bringing his leg up to kick away Jordan's blade as Applejack turned and was about to buck Illusive in the gut. Illusive bent his other leg at the knee, giving it more room to maneuver and thrust it out, catching Applejack by the stomach. As Illusive went backwards he used his other foot to fling Applejack back into the forest. Jordan felt his determination waver but he hardened, thinking of Rainbow Dash and her loyalty and guts to not give up. He rushed at the prince again, throwing his blade foward so that when Illusive stood up he'd get caught in the chest with it. Jordan somersaulted and vaulted himself forward with his hands, twisting in the air and forming a flying side kick. Illusive had felt it coming and had batted it away with his axe's handle. He was, however, caught in the gut when Jordan's kick was fully realized. Illusive doubled over as Jordan caught himself with his other leg and brought it around to back hook kick Illusive to the side. He felt this one coming too and brought his axe up to hit his leg away and was successful. It caused Jordan to take a tumble. Illusive was about to raise the axe and get close to make the finishing blow, smirking, but felt something kick into his back and send him flying forward a little. He caught himself in flight and twisted around, using a free hand to bat away one of Applejack's hoof-strikes.
Ying was fast. He pretty much just slid right up to Gilda and was about to slash from top right to bottom left across Gilda but was surprised when part of her body turned blue and just seemed to get swiped at. Gilda quickly materialized and threw herself forward onto Ying, digging her claws into Ying's shoulders. He cried out and finally noticed the anklet on Gilda's front left leg. Gilda leaned back and threw her head forward, headbutting Ying hard, almost knocking him out. Ying saw stars and felt himself falling backwards as Gilda had relieved her hold on him. Gilda jumped forward and was about to sink her talons into Ying's stomach, but he rolled to his left and brought his right leg up and kicked her away as her talons dug into the ground.
---
Thunderhead was able to power his way into the city pretty easily. The bloods' powers were scaring many changelings but some kept trying to attack anyway, as though they felt that if they kept trying, sooner or later one would see a weakness. But many changelings had already tried and failed. Talk about narrowing out a population. And the blood that the changelings shed just made the blood armor worse.
Phynicxs pointed Thunderhead towards the largest building and waited for a lull in the changelings before powering up some electricity, and firing it, tilting his head from up to down in order to leave a deep scar in the tower. Phynicxs told Thunderhead he only had a few minutes to get out of the city before the blood armor would stop working and start to either dry or slide off. Thunderhead mentioned his thanks as Phynicxs jumped down and used some nearby blood to slide his way into the building and follow Smeareyes' path.
The stairs were long, and as they went they noticed there were machines inset into the walls, as well as many gems. The sight was amazing, especially as each gem sparkled like they had energy inside of them. When they came out of the accompanying tumble, they had reached the throne room. There on it was the witch of heart. She was resting her head on her left arm, which was propped on the throne's armrest.
"Welcome! I've been waiting for you. It's not nice to keep a lady waiting." She got up from the throne and hurried over, as though they were lost friends.
Smeareyes was the first to realize something was very off with this woman. He could see it. Especially in her eyes. All of them were taken aback, and Fluttershy was starting to come down the stairs when she saw them, and hid behind her group. Twilight was following her and immediately noticed something off about the witch of heart.
"I know you are very powerful players, having gotten this far so fast. And I have a proposition for you."
Smeareyes was taken aback. Vark was the only one who wanted an explanation.
"Up to this point I have been working for a lord of doom. I have not enjoyed it, but I have made myself comfortable anyway. I intend to backstab him, and with players like you this might actually work. I could make it all worth your while." Twilight looked incredulous, her head tilted back and her eyebrow raised into the heavens. Vark asked what her name even was.
"My name is Mana. I never had a proper session of my own. In fact, if it hadn't been for my husband, I probably would have never been able to get anywhere. He was the only other one in my session. Our session was doomed to be infertile, but we had learned how to godtier - it was thanks to him that we were both able to. Both of us exiled ourselves as there was no other way of getting out of the session alive. I'm looking for a new husband to help bring my dreams into reality, as he died recently." She sidled up next to Smeareyes who was immediately getting nervous.
"We can't do that. Especially because you have so many innocent ponies trapped in here." It was Fluttershy's voice, and the more she heard from Mana the more she didn't like her.
"As I said, I can make it all worth your while. You see, using the technology here I have been trying to develop a way for the changelings to find love from the most unlikely sources." Smeareyes didn't really like where this was going. He could tell that this woman was trouble. But he wasn't sure how. Her 'dream?' This felt very wrong. Pinkie Pie lost interest in the conversation, having already made a decision, and noticed someone in a cage next to the throne. They were curled up into a ball on the floor and looked extremely dirty. Pinkie recognized the clothing choice as probably another player.
Mana backed away slightly, as though trying to give them some space. "So, what are your answers?"
Smeareyes was the first one to answer - the others were already incredulous about this, and Pinkie Pie had been getting the others' attentions so that they saw the girl in the cage. "Who was your husband?"
"My husband was a very strong person. His name was Gai. He was the Lord of Mind; although he had a knack for reading and using the hearts of others." Smeareyes had just one more question.
"What is your dream?"
Mana's face fell, her body starting to glow. "My dream is to lead everyone possible into the next stage of evolution." She smiled darkly, and Smeareyes knew his choice. He uncaptchalogued some shuriken and motioned for the others.
"I'm sorry, but something just seems really off about all of this."
"You're just like him." Mana's body's glow reached a crescendo. Her right hand glowed, and so did her chest. Instead of using captchalogue cards, she used something different - voidKind. She dipped her hand into her chest and pulled out an enormous sword. "I guess that means we have to fight, doesn't it?"
The intimidation in the others was threatening. Her body was glowing again, and Twilight realized that she was using her leylines. "EVERYONE SCATT-!" The others jumped away, knowing exactly what she was saying, just as three crystals came up from the ground, two of them piercing through Twilight's body. One had gone through her heart, the other through her abdomen, but one had missed, nearly hitting her brain. She cried out in pain as irrationality told her to try and move. She felt her heart clogging up with blood and her body suddenly felt heavy. She felt acceptance come onto her, her eyes closing momentarily as her breath became heavy. She couldn't believe what had just happened. Fluttershy screamed, her eyes narrowing as she looked toward Mana who seemed taken aback by Fluttershy's eyes.
"FIX HER! FIX HER NOW!" Mana shook her head and then smiled.
"That's what you get for opposing me." Smeareyes was sent into a rage and he charged at Mana despite her sword, which she had brought around and was about to slice Smeareyes in half as she had sensed his emotions. The sword went right through his body. And this time it wasn't a magic trick. Mana's body glowed fiercely as Fluttershy hurried to a dying Twilight's form as Smeareyes started to bleed out from both his legs and his torso. He gurgled, some iron-tasting blood coming up to his throat. He wondered if this is where it ended, if this is where it was all over. If it was now, before they could help any of the ponies.
Machine stepped forward as Fluttershy cooed into Twilight's ear, feeling despair and adrenaline run through her body. Her emotions started to charge up - she was having a hard time staying calm - getting worked up wouldn't help Twilight. And yet Fluttershy just couldn't stand it. She couldn't accept this. No. She had to do something. She felt everything in her rise up as power flooded through her being. She looked to Mana, but this time with a harsh glare. This one wasn't the stare, and even if it had been, it seemed as though Mana's witch of heart powers were able to negate it.
---
Auryie's movements were fast. She threw the spinning ringblade right at Typo's torso, forcing him to bring his pinwheel back around as fast as possible. But it wasn't fast enough. He knocked it to the side slightly but it kept going and tore through his waist, creating a seethrough gash that was about 5 inches across. He almost fell to his knees as he cried out and seethed his thief of muse powers abating slightly, but brought himself back up and threw his pinwheel at her. Auryie jumped into the air and took control of the pinwheel and threw it back at Typo.
It severed his head from his body.
Ying kept fighting, kept slashing his eraser sword, but no matter what he tried it just seemed like there was more breath there. At one point Gilda completely disappeared and vanished into the air like wind. But then he heard a coalescing behind him and struck, but only hit wind. Ying wasn't ready when Gilda reformed, smiled, and jumped at him, her claws going through his throat. Immediately he began choking on his blood. Applejack kept throwing hoof strikes at Illusive, which he parried easily, and at one point he hit Applejack across the side of her face throwing her to the side and knocking her unconscious. Jordan raged and charged at Illusive, bringing his sword up to parry his axe away and get a good hit in. And it happened. But... As soon as the axe went into the air, Illusive brought his leg up and kicked Jordan in the gut, throwing him back and knocking the wind out of him. He wheezed and Illusive grabbed his axe again. He went up to Jordan and as Jordan attacked, Illusive batted the sword away with the handle of the axe, twisted around in a circle, and chopped at Jordan's arm. There was a gash and a loud cry as Jordan fell to the ground. He felt his being becoming chaotic as his personality split into two. He started convulsing on the ground as his thoughts surged. He couldn't handle it.
Illusive started moving over to Applejack and was about to chop her head off.
---
Mana cackled as Pinkie Pie charged at her. Getting cocky, Mana brought the blade around and slapped Pinkie with the side, causing her to go flying into a wall, hitting her head and getting a concussion before passing out. Blood soon started leaking from a crack in her skull.
Vark cried out and started dancing and singing, getting her power in as much of an uproar as her feelings did. Her body started emanating a pink aura and music flowed from her body.
Vark quickly entered the fray, dancing from foot to foot as she charged forward. Singing the lyrics as they came. She shouted a lyric at Mana and it blew her off her feet, but she turned in the air, leaning forward before her feet hit a blue glyph that appeared under her feet. She jumped forward at Vark who jumped before the sword could slice across her. As she was in the air, Mana grinned, somersaulting and landing with her feet against another glyph that seemed to come from the sword. She jumped up, angled enough to strike at Vark and kill her in one shot.
But she didn't. Vark shouted the lyrics and brought her paw around, her energy extending the reach and slapping Mana off to the side. Mana frowned and just made a new glyph, jumping off of that. Vark started flying and realized that she'd have to keep going up if she wanted to keep away. Mana was getting faster and she was getting higher just as fast even as much as Vark tried to slap her away. Fluttershy was crying in despair as she felt more power rise from her. Twilight was nearly unconscious. And soon she'd be as dead as Rainbow Dash.
Pinkie's concussion was bad. And Smeareyes hadn't ressurected yet. Would he even ressurect? Or was this a hero's death? Smeareyes struggled a little bit before blackness came to him unwantingly, his body paler than ever.
---
Typo was levelheaded at this point. He knew what was going on immediately before his head even hit the ground. He tried to grasp Auryie's power of mind and did, bringing him back into reality. He blinked as he stood there, the pinwheel on the ground at his side. Auryie had thrown her razor ringblade at him and it was about to cut him in half. Surprising Auryie who realized he had woken, his emotions surged and he brought the pinwheel up, clashing it with metal screaming against metal before the ringblade was tossed to the side. Typo knew his duty to Rainbow Dash and with very little hesitation threw the pinwheel at Auryie. Auryie was surprised as her body was cut in half and fell to the ground. Typo smirked, then remembered what he was doing. He cried out, noticing that Auryie wasn't bleeding, and also noticed that her body appeared almost hollow. Before he could figure this out though, he saw something out of the corner of his eye and jumped back, bringing his right foot up and unexpectedly smashing it into Gilda's gut. Her wings stopped working and propelling her and she fell to the ground holding her already injured stomach. It hurt so bad. He was about to end her life with the pinwheel when he heard Jordan cry out, and saw Applejack about to be decapitated by a smiling Illusive. With more power than he had ever felt before, he threw the pinwheel.
Illusive felt it as Typo's hope surged, and he jumped to the side and brought the handle of his axe down and barely parried the pinwheel. Typo brought over the pinwheel and was about to sever Gilda's head. He threw it down and Gilda smiled, her neck disappearing into a blue breath. The blue breath disappeared and then her whole body started to slip away. Her laughing echoed in the area and Typo, noticing Ying's body glow, decided that it would be okay. He ran over to Auryie, her lower half already fading into dust.
---
Vark was getting worried. The higher up she went the closer she was to the ceiling. Was this where she was going to die?
Fluttershy was crying into Twilight's coat as she slowly died. And then the light left her eyes, her body still standing due to the crystal spikes. Fluttershy felt a cold wind brush past her, and that was it. Her emotions were so high she felt a power radiating in her stomach before expanding. It wasn't very big, but the sphere of light enveloped her and Twilight.
Fluttershy was so sad - she wanted to trade her life for Twilight's. She cried and cried, and felt her life fading away, darkness closing over her despite the bright light around them. Fluttershy felt a voice in her head.
"You don't need to give up one when you have the power to do more." Fluttershy was always weak. She always had been. She had strength in other areas, but she was almost never confident about herself. She figured that she couldn't do anything, but her emotions over-rided that. It made her believe maybe she could do something, that maybe she really could change it and give her life up.
"Again. When you have the power to do more, you should never settle for less."
Fluttershy responded - it was weird, like talking to herself. "But I don't have that much power!"
"Many times you won't. But this time, have a little faith in yourself." Fluttershy felt an energy explode from her, and then she heard things breaking and twisting. It hurt her ears, but somehow it felt like such a pleasant sound. As the light started to deteriorate away, she found Twilight looking around, confused. Fluttershy hugged her tightly before Twilight realized what was going on, pushed Fluttershy to the side, and threw herself to the other just as more purple spikes stabbed up into the air where they had just been standing.
Mana had been looking down, ignoring Vark as she saw what was happening between Fluttershy and Twilight. Her body glowed magnificently and she looked back up as Vark tried to charge her. Mana grinned and used her sword to slam Vark into the side wall. And just as she did, she held out her left hand and pulled, many purple spikes thrusting out and many of them stabbing Vark who gasped and grunted. She felt pain and she screamed - it hurt so much. Blood fell off of her and fell to the ground far below. Vark was about to pull herself off of the spikes with her flight, but realized that she'd start bleeding more if she brought the spikes out. But she realized that if she was going to revive she would need to be somewhere else. But then she realized that Mana could make the spikes appear anywhere.
Phynicxs was almost to the throne room. He heard the screams as he followed the symbols, and started killing changelings on his way down, collecting their blood as he went.
Machine stepped forward, unable to take any more of this. "My queen, why must we kill these ones! They are innocent and good!"
Mana smirked and looked down. "Are you sympathizing with them, worker?"
"This one's name is Machine Whisperer, and this one guess that is how this one feels."
She stopped moving and was getting distracted. "I am your queen and what I declare rules. These ones are bad and must be killed if the dream is to be realized."
Machine felt weird. He started feeling his own dreams, both ones for his hive and ones of his own. It was a really weird feeling, and it showed on his face. "This one is sorry my queen, but this one can not accept that!"
"THEN YOU WILL DIE WITH THEM!" But before she could something slashed at her, and nearly cut her throat. She looked up and saw a second Vark and a new person. "Who...?" Mana tried to lift up her sword to keep away but it was useless considering how close this hero of blood was.
Mana smiled, and flew out of the way when she saw the sphere of blooded headed to her. She wasn't stupid. The sphere splattered against the floor, but Phynicxs started drawing from it.
Phynicxs entered the throne room and saw what was going on above. He hurried over to Twilight and brought his sphere of blood with him.
Vark gasped and realized what was happening, sliding herself off the spike and letting her body fall. It kind of splattered and her blood loss was too great. She was already dead.
(Skip to the Author's Notes if the battle against Mana confuses you).
Jordan was down for the count. He couldn't control himself - it felt like two sides of him were trying to take full control. He hadn't grown up with it and it hadn't yet become a multiple personality disorder.
When Ying got up he noticed Gilda was gone, possibly for good. But he didn't know how or why. He looked over and saw Typo going to his past girlfriend, and then looked over and saw Applejack on the ground, Jordan tripping/flipping out, and Illusive going after Typo. Ying was fast. He was right next to Illusive in a matter of seconds. Illusive sensed it and started twisting around, bringing his axe up to behead the threat. Ying was aware of the danger this axe presented and ducked before stabbing upwards with his eraser sword into Illusive's chest, barely missing the heart. Ying cursed as a section of Illusive's body disappeared. He seemed shocked, but before Ying could bring the sword to the right and through Illusive's heart, he jumped back off the sword and started to bleed. He held his gut, furrowed his brow, and felt defeated. "This isn't the end!" Illusive screamed before vanishing. Ying hurried over to Jordan and tried to relax him, but couldn't. He left him and made his way to Applejack to make sure she wasn't hurt too bad.
"I'm so, so sorry Typo. I never wanted this to happen."
"It's not your fault." He felt tears touching his eyes, finally understanding what happened. "It's Gamarya's fault. He wanted to get to me."
"I-I'm sorry Typo, but that isn't the only reason. He was j-jealous of you the entire time. H-he wanted me for himself."
Typo grimaced and started to imagine horrible things. "It's okay now though, I can take care of you."
"You can't... I belong to him... But I always loved you."
Typo started crying. "No. No. Not again, please not again." He buried his face into Auryie's chest.
"No, Typo, it's alright. Don't grieve. I want you to have your freedom back. The f-freedom that was taken from you. I may not be free, but you will b-be free."
Typo cried harder. "No. I don't want freedom. I just want you."
"I know you do. But that's not how this works." She tried to lift his head up. "I love you too, and I always have T-typo. It's time for y-you to start a new path..." She put a hand on the back of Typo's head, who's eyes were blurred with tears.
"I don't want to say goodbye."
"You don't have to. We will always be together in heart and mind." Auryie brought his head down and kissed him on the cheek. "H-how... About one more... For old time's sake?" Her brows shifted to the side. She felt and looked so sad, but she knew this was how it had to be.
"B-but I'm so lonely. I don't want to let go."
"I know you don't. But you won't be a-alone Typo. I-I'm giving you freedom from your past, and the ability to start a-anew..."
Typo was sobbing. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you."
"You don't... Need to apologize...."
Typo leaned in and locked lips with Auryie as her body started to fade away. It lasted for a few seconds, their tongues dancing in unison until it was time to part ways. "I'll miss you."
Auryie chuckled. "I told you... We'll be together... In heart and mind... Take my power Typo... And use it for the sake of others..." Auryie grabbed his hand as it glowed and grabbed the thief of muse's other hand. "Goodbye, Typo."
Her body started falling apart; turning into flakey pieces that were taken away by the wind. Auryie's head glowed green as Typo cried, opening himself up to her. "No... No no no. I want you with me. Not just this..."
"This is how it must be." Auryie closed her eyes, succumbing to her inevitable double death.
"Well this way sucks-hic!" Typo said between gritted teeth.
"I p-p-promise... Good will... Come from... This." Her head deteriorated as the power surged into Typo, who felt newness all over his body. He felt like there was another with him, but he couldn't quite reach it. A voice resounded in his mind, telling him not to worry and that she would always be there to protect him.
Ying had some tears in his eyes. But Typo had taken it hard. He buried his face into the ground and started sobbing, feeling years of pain flow from his body. He felt like taking vengeance. Or to destroy everything. To become all powerful. But he looked inside himself, musing on it, and he took Auryie's soul and felt it comfort him. He would be faithful to her even in her death. He would move on. As much as it hurt. But he would always hold her above the rest. After a few minutes he got up, walked over to the ring blade, and captchalogued it.
"Well doesn't that look familiar!" Mana said, catching Vark out of the corner of her eye. She backed up and Phynicxs closed in again. "Big mistake." Mana looked directly into Phynicxs eyes and his chest started to glow. He was unsure what was happening as he felt momentarily paralyzed. Mana dropped her sword, which disintegrated like squares of data falling away. The tendrils of blue-glowing silver started to slip back into her chest. Vark saw what was happening, not quite understanding it, and kicked and clawed, her pink energy nearly hitting Mana who twisted to the left, and rose as she started to fly, and stuck her hand deep into Phynicxs chest, who gasped. She pulled out what looked like a gun with a radar dish on the front, smiled, and fired it at Vark who took the blow. Vark felt like her body was reconfiguring itself, but at the same time she still felt the same as ever. Mana snorted at the illusion of Vark's new body, her own body glowing as she dived toward the ground, Phynixcs hot on her heels.
The glow from the original Vark's body ceased and she felt good as new. Remembering what happened she hurried over to Twilight, who was already about to cast the time spell. Vark and Phynicxs disappeared into the past as Fluttershy hid behind Twilight.
Mana threw the gun down toward the floor, reached her hand out, and pulled, a ton of purple spikes coming out of the ground and piercing the void. After a second it started to diffuse and fall apart, quickly deteriorating. Mana turned up, smiling at Phynicxs as he looked at his hands and body, being overcome with blue crystals. It hurt so much, like he was being pulled apart. The blue crystals surrounded him and then the crystals fell apart, falling to the floor.
Pinkie Pie cried out, Twilight confused but putting two and two together quick. Pinkie Pie ran out, her emotions surging, and jumped in the air, spinning to buck Mana who grabbed her by the legs as her body glowed and started spinning her around. Mana let go, Pinkie Pie heading for a wall. Pinkie disappeared in a flash of green and reappeared close to Mana flying straight at her. Mana smirked and looked into Pinkie's eyes, whose chest started to glow as well. She pulled Pinkie's void out, noticing it was an extremely large streamer. Mana sighed as she turned, dodging Pinkie completely. "None of you are warriors." She twisted the streamer around, acting like a whip, and snapped it at Vark, pulling her down and punching her in the face, nearly knocking her out but causing her to see stars. Mana used Vark to slam Pinkie Pie away as she ran at her. Mana brought Vark and the streamer under her foot and was about to step on both to kill them. Vark had fear in her eyes as Mana reached out, barely paying attention, and pulled back, a bunch of purple spikes piercing through Pinkie Pie who screamed before disappearing.
"NO!" Twilight shouted, using her telekinesis and moving Vark and the streamer out of the way, not entirely understanding but also not wanting to take a risk that she wasn't correct in her surmise. Right behind Mana Pinkie appeared, looking as angry as ever, and spun herself around and bucked Mana in the back who hadn't expected it, causing her to cry out, feeling something crack. Mana looked angrier than ever as she spun around, seeing Pinkie bleeding from the piercings, a little blood coming from her mouth and dripping to the floor. Mana also wasn't expecting when Twilight used her telekinesis to tear away Vark and the streamer from Mana's grasp. The streamer started to turn into glowing-blue silver tendrils which escaped and went back into Pinkie. Vark fell down and started getting her energy going again, noticing Smeareyes was sneaking up on Mana.
Mana's body started to glow again, but before she could do anything Smeareyes had kicked her in the side and followed up with a spinning round house and ending with an aerial side kick, then jumped at Mana and vaulted off of her into the air, pulling out shuriken and throwing them at her. Mana screamed in fury as the sharp weapons hit her, causing her to bleed a little. She felt herself getting hyped up on emotions and was about to pull out her void again when Pinkie rushed her. Mana heard the sound and without paying attenion pulled purple spikes up from the ground, stopping Pinkie in her tracks but not stabbing her. The skin under Pinkie's pink coat was becoming pale as she bled more. Pinkie fell onto her side. Twilight was about to head for Pinkie when she noticed Phynicxs' destroyed blue crystals starting to glow with a rainbow light. She smiled as they started to reform.
Mana was furious, having brought out the sword again and launching herself at Smeareyes who looked terrified for a moment before he brought his arms up.
The woman in the cage was watching the intense battle, her emotions showing on her face.
The destroyed crystals shook, and started slowly sliding to each other, the rainbow glow becoming more pronounced and significant the longer it took to bring Phynicxs back to life, the game's laws trying to recover his void.
Mana tried to slice Smeareyes in half again but failed as Vark sent a kick of cuteness energy at Mana, who was thrown back. She gained control of herself again with her flight, and created another temporary blue glyph before launching off of it and coming at Smeareyes and Vark.
Machine Whisperer's horn glowed as his wings buzzed, flying into the fray and reached into his private captchalogue deck and pulled out a small laser pistol, took aim, and fired it at Mana. Mana was taken by surprise and fell back as the energy hit her in the stomach, disintegrating skin and muscle, exposing some of her organs. It was a small hole, but enough of them would add up. Machine came in between Vark and Smeareyes and held the gun ready. Mana was furious, twisting as Vark sent a few more hits her way and focusing on the sword before swinging it, a large wave coming from it. Smeareyes and Vark went higher. Vark screamed as her left leg came off. Machine's wings were sliced clean off, who then fell from the air and landed in a broken heap on the ground, seething and hissing, almost crying, the emotion of sadness surprising him a little.
Phynicxs pulled upon the blood on the floor and gathered it into a puddle. Mana was too focused on the others and was about to throw another wave their way, but Phynicxs brought his hands together and lifted them up. The blood rippled slightly, then a large spike came up out of it, getting bigger as the puddle grew smaller until all the blood was shaped into a spear that ran underneath Mana and right up into her brain, cutting her off. She convulsed once, and started to fall. Phynicxs fell to the ground, his energy spent, breathing hard. Phynicxs felt empty, like something had been taken from him. He felt so exhausted, most likely a result of how hard the game's mechanics had to work in order to bring him back to life. He still felt like the gears in the game that had brought him back were grinding to a halt, almost like this was the last time he could risk it before the game broke down for him completely. He cried out. Smeareyes coming down to him and lifting his best friend up.
Mana fell in a heap as well, blood coming from her mouth and pouring out her wounds. Her jaw convulsed as she tried to make words.
Vark cried on the ground, the pain immense. She tried to touch her leg, the phantom limb pulling at her sanity when she felt nothing there. The sensation was depressing. Twilight and Fluttershy went over to Vark first, trying to help her, but had no way of doing so. Twilight was starting to panic before Fluttershy tried to calm her, telling her nothing good would come of panic. The enemy was done. They had to do something to fix things up. Twilight yelled to Smeareyes, wanting him to help Pinkie.
Smeareyes brought Phynicxs over to Pinkie. He laid his best friend down, who was breathing heavily. Phynicxs was having a hard time of this, but tried anyway, trying to clot the bloody wounds. The organs had to be clotted as well, and he did as good as he could before passing out, the back of his hand starting to glow as a symbol inlaid itself on the back of his hand.
Machine Whisperer went over to Fluttershy and told her about Chrysalis, the weapon, and the girl in the cage.
Vark returned to life because she was godtier (why else would she have such powers?) She did not die a heroic death or a just death. Then Phynicxs and Vark went back in time so that they could continue the battle where they had left off so that Mana would at the very least be distracted.
Phynicxs never saw his death at Mana's hands and was thus more willing to go into the past and continue the timeline paradox.
---
Typo felt like he was forgetting something. A fuzziness in his mind that wouldn't abate. He used his newly acquired mind powers to put Jordan in a temporary coma so they could carry him back to Rarity, who Ying was sure could help in this situation. And she had. Applejack wasn't up yet, but would wake up soon.
"Oh dear Celestia what happened!?"
Ying was the first to respond. "Jordan got hit with that axe. Applejack was knocked unconscious but she's okay and will wake up soon."
Typo sighed and gave more detail. "We took out Auryie, all we need to do now is slow down the doom infestation in this area by destroying whatever's causing it. Since this is one of the main places, healing this area should help slow Gamarya down and give him less power."
"Oh dear, you all sound like you've been busy - here give Jordan to me." Rarity brought her telekinesis up, while not as strong as Twilight's, she had learned control over it that rivaled the princesses. Floating Jordan over to her she immediately started searching his body, starting with his mind and this time she actually felt what was off. "That's strange, its like his personality has been cut in half." This caused Typo and Ying to look at each other.
"So that's what was wrong with me?" Ying asked.
"Yes dear, I'm pretty certain, but..." Rarity looked into herself, searching for what she had felt the first time, and started molding it like clay before bringing some out and and letting it seep into Jordan's soul. "I think he'll be okay soon, but where do you think the root is to this problem?"
Typo brought his arms up to his chest and thought. "No doubt it's deeper in the forest, but it'll be hard to get there without Jordan's help, so we'll need to wait until he's awake." Ying protested that he could probably get them through safely, but Typo said even though normally the doom would probably affect Jordan the worst, Jordan was still the one with the sword and most used to the power of doom. No doubt his powers are based on that relationship. Ying thought about this and mentioned Jordan's powers in the fight with Gilda and how he seemed to reincarnate himself after potentially fatal hits. "Yes, that was most likely a result of his aspect's taint. He wields it like a pro though," Typo said, respect for Jordan in his voice. "We don't know what we'll find there, but he's our best bet."
Twilight was fast working, completely ignoring Mana's body. She went to the cage and used her telekinesis to move the lock's tumblers. She wasn't that good at such a thing, having never done it before, but she had enough background on old locks that she'd get it open eventually. The girl in the cage was wearing sylph of light clothing and she had candy-corn horns on the top of her head. She looked back at Twilight and smiled. She seemed starved among other things. "You should just leave me here. I'm going to die sooner or later. I'm doomed." This made Twilight angry as she fiddled with the lock, telling her they weren't leaving anyone behind. She was also extremely skeptical of the idea that this woman was doomed. And even if she did die sooner or later, she was going to get her out and help get her back into tip top shape before she died.
Vark was staying with Pinkie's body, still missing her leg, and tried to cuddle with her, taking on a motherly role and trying to make sure she was comfortable.
Machine Whisperer had asked for Phynicxs, Fluttershy, and Smeareyes to come with him. They were headed for Chrysalis and had every intention on stopping by the chamber with the weapon before leaving.
When they got there, Chrysalis looked somewhat smaller than she had before, and a lot more frail. Smeareyes wasn't worried, unafraid and understanding of the changelings. "Hold on! We'll get you out of there." Chrysalis looked back and smiled, her pride gone and replaced by despair. She looked so sad, but the the idea of freedom perked her up.
"But... What about the witch?" Smeareyes smiled and told her she was taken care of. This made Chrysalis smile, almost deviously, but it was the only smile she knew. Machine grabbed Chrysalis' attention as Smeareyes fiddled with the lock using one of his tools.
"My queen, this one is here to rescue you from your bondage. This one could not follow the witch any longer. This one had a change of heart." Chrysalis was surprised, and then deeply disturbed. She looked away and muttered that he didn't belong here anymore. The changeling was taken aback, but understanding. He looked down, playing with his hooves. "This one is sorry, my queen. This one had expected this, as disappointing as it is, but this one would like to ask of you two favors for this one's new friends."
Chrysalis was taken aback again and stared at the worker with wide eyes. "You're a worker, right?" Machine nodded, brows hanging low, and told her he had a name now, and that he'd probably be sticking with the others who had saved them from a potentially fatal future. "What are the favors?" Chrysalis was in no mood to argue. At least right now. She could bargain effectively. Besides, she was in the hands/hooves of this group of heroes.
"This one has been thinking deeply about the issue, but we would like it if you released the ones who are kept in captivity." This surprised Chrysalis and she was about to disagree even if it meant her life, but at the same time she realized that they wouldn't survive without a good leader. She looked down, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Fluttershy took this opportunity to step forward.
"I've been talking with Machine Whisperer and we think we may have a solution to your problem." Whisper stepped forward as Fluttershy twisted her head to watch him.
"Up until this point, my queen, we have been abducting ponies and others in order to feed. But this one has figured another way. This one thinks that if we send some changelings to different towns and cities and try to fit in as ourselves, maybe... Maybe a lot of us would find some love. This one thinks that it may be possible and that it'd be a nice little experiment." Chrysalis was taken aback at the idea that the worker was considering this an experiment, but then realized the piece of individuality that all changelings had within them. "We may not be able to feel love, or anything like that. But this one thinks that we could act a certain way, and they'd never know the difference. And this way the others out in the world would not have to scavenge for love by impersonating others."
Chrysalis thought about this. "I'll think about it, worker. Please leave."
Machine was getting more and more depressed, not wanting to lose his... Family? Is that what he considered them? He felt so sad and looked at the ground as he talked. Fluttershy put a hoof over his shoulder and nuzzled him comfortingly. Machine looked up and felt his strength renewed by his new bonds. Machine wondered if maybe this was like another family. He understood bonds and family. "This one would like to ask one more favor."
Chrysalis was surprised again, by how much gall this changeling worker had, but respected it. She wondered if he'd make a good leader. "What... Is it?" Chrysalis sighed. The lock was almost finished. This lock was very new.
"This one requests that you let us have the weapon that has been stored here since ancient times." Chrysalis, once more, was taken aback at all of this, but nodded.
"We have no use for it. Take it and use it well." This made Machine swell up with happiness. Being able to help his family. It made him feel so good. A power inside of him that he'd never felt before. Out of appreciation and... Love? No. It wasn't love. It was appreciation, respect, and relief. He pushed his hoof through the bars to hoof bump his queen. He was getting bolder with his new friends at his side. His new, extended family.
Chrysalis smiled, and returned the gesture. "Please Machine, leave. And live for your new family." Chryaslis shook her head once, throwing the blue, transparent hair behind her.
Smeareyes finished the lock and let Chrysalis out. Machine was quick to follow his queen's last order, and wanted to go check on the rest of his friends.
Chrysalis smiled again for the second time in about a month. "I'll lead you to the chamber. Please take care of my worker. You can release the ponies in captivity, but please hurry before I doubt this idea and change my mind." Phynicxs told Smeareyes to go with her and get the weapon. He was going to start releasing the ponies. He zipped away on blood skates. Smeareyes smiled at Chrysalis and; although her eyes looked sad, she returned it genuinely.
---
Jordan had helped immensely in getting through the doom infected forest, and was slowly healing the damage, having gotten the idea to try and absorb the power into Letum Coupant before surging life into the plants. His powers had kept the party safe from hazards and dangers, Typo helping occasionally by cutting the plants.
As they got closer, a fog started to seep into the area. A deep fog that took away most vision. And that's when Typo noticed it.
"Two players coming from 12 o' clock!" Jordan was startled and he brought the sword up as Ying got ready too. Typo brought his pinwheel close to him and reached out with his mind powers, sensing the unconscious thoughts. "One's a time player and the other's a light player." Knowing how dangerous time could be, they took a step back and tried to keep behind the trees. Their choice to leave the ponies behind for this one was a good choice.
A figure in heir of time clothing appeared before them with a warp of light. He charged forward. Jordan's first reaction was to try and disable his legs and keep him from getting any closer, but all the life that touched him withered and died within a second. And everywhere the heir of time stepped seemed to trigger the transformation. The trio jumped into the trees, getting scared as the heir of time jumped into the air, flying right at Jordan, whose surprise was plainly evident. The heir of time had crimson hair dreadlocks and a dark face.
Jordan brought his sword forward and tried to slash at the heir of time, but he disappeared in a flash and appeared right behind him. The warrior pressed his hand against Jordan's back, aging him by thousands of years per second, the immortality of godtier being put to the limits. Jordan felt every year pass by like he had to live it, and it drove him insane. He was on the verge of raving, but felt like he was being electrocuted, unable to get away. And that's when Typo tackled Jordan away, throwing the pinwheel back at the player.
"You can't defeat one who walks with doom." The kid smirked, his voice unusually deep.
Ying was fast, and as the kid disappeared he sensed where he was going to reappear, throwing his eraser sword at the kid. He hadn't been prepared for it and it went right through, partially going into a tree. The kid laughed and pulled it out, wielding it himself now. Ying tried to pull it back with his space powers but it wasn't working. The kid's hand glowed as he held the sword, and warped again. Jordan started to get up, feeling like he had aged to 40 years old, and knew that if that happened again he probably wouldn't be so lucky. And that's when talons came out of the fog and dug into his gut. He cried out and headbutted whatever was getting close to him. But when he did, he just fell forward off the branch, landing on his hands and arms, which gave out under him. Jordan grunted and looked up at the blue wind that had gone through him, and held his stomach, knowing who exactly it was.
Ying looked through his captchalogue deck and pulled out a different sword, which looked like a bright frozen flame. It had a gear on the bottom of it, and parried the blow of the heir of time's attack, which chipped his ex-sword, surprising Ying.
Typo brought his pinwheel around and threw it at Gilda, not used to the mind powers but making it look like there were two of the pinwheels coming from either side. They went right through. And then Gilda's body changed back into a solid, brandishing the anklet on her front left leg. She blew him a raspberry and started flying toward him.
---
The chamber was immense and had a bunch of metal and glowing lights - most of which were charged gems. Smeareyes was deeply aware that Rarity would have a field day with this. "Do you mind if I take some of these gems, Queen Chrysalis?" She sighed and told him no, but then thought for a moment and told him just take one and pointed him over to one of the solitary machines. Chrysalis told him that wasn't connected to anything else, especially because the weapons would be brought out. Smeareyes took out one of his earliest weapons. A small, unassuming card with his favorite suit on it. It felt like metal and he placed it close to the bright gem, carving it out as the card vibrated dangerously. He examined the gem as it glowed, and realized it might have more power in it. He captchalogued it and the card, and hurried over to the fancy mechanical pedestal that had once housed different graphs, measures, and displays of the weapons buried into the pedestal halfway.
They were chakrams.
Smeareyes whistled, examining them as Chrysalis stood by and waited. This was a nice pair of chakrams. They were red with silver lining and looked like they had wires criss-crossing all over the weapons with green energy. He grasped them tightly and tried to pull them up and out. Failing this, he noticed Chrysalis was laughing and asked her what was so funny. She told him to pull from an angle. He furrowed his brows and did as he was told, and they came out smoothly. He could feel the immense power contained within and examined them with respect and an open mouth. Chrysalis mentioned they seemed to suit him and that he should keep them. Smeareyes said he'd talk it over with Phynicxs. Smeareyes asked what the power in them was for and she told him.
"The ponies here were advanced - extremely advanced. In this underground area they studied time and space, as well as extra dimensions. There was another weapon they kept here, but someone stole it before we took over the place." She began to tell him how the space weapon was supposed to open slits in different dimensions that you could walk through. She told him that a lot of mathematics had to be performed in order to get the space properties correct. She explained to him how the chakrams were meant to cut through small pieces of time. They were meant to cut through timelines. It was an extremely powerful weapon. Then she told him about how she'd had some of her best and most knowledgeable underlings study the weapons and to try and make it so they didn't have to be charged anymore. And they succeeded after years of laborious study. She said at one point she had wanted to use them to take over the world, but for the sake of keeping the world intact, she had chosen to leave them. She said that she figured Smeareyes would be able to wield them responsibly, especially the more she saw of how much he cared for others even if he didn't always show it. Smeareyes was stunned and captchalogued them, the cards glowing with the same green energy as the chakrams rested inside. It was amazing how much power they held. He thought about destroying them, but decided that it'd be good to keep with him even if he decided to never use it. Lest it fall into the wrong hands. Chrysalis pointed over to the far wall and a one-way elevator, mentioning that it had been built so they could get out, but so it would be close to impossible for anyone to get in, especially considering all the materials used to keep the elevator contained. Smeareyes nodded toward her, thanked her, and quickly "got out of her hair." - Machine Whisperer was quick. He had gotten one more idea, thinking it to be a good one, and snuck into some of the other, smaller chambers, and took quite a few computers with him, using his specially designed captchalogue cards. Although that's not what he called them. He had made them using small notes that had been left behind in various areas. It had taken a few years, but he'd perfected it and made them better, but he wasn't very aware that the players used something similar to him for inventory management. He was quick to get out. - Phynicxs was amazed with the telepathy Chrysalis held with her changelings, especially because Mana had been able to copy it. He was still extremely tired, but he felt something surging within him. He still felt empty inside, like something was dearly missing - a large part of who he was, but something had filled that space. It felt like responsibility, like the feeling inside him was sentient in some strange way. That or his subconscious had latched onto whatever it was and understood it more than he did. He had gotten the ponies out quickly, going from room to room, building to building, thankful that he was able to relax before zooming around like this. The changelings offered up little resistance, but a lot of worry and anxiety. He tried to comfort them, as much as he could. The ponies were in no condition to travel far, but he decided the best bet was to get them to all get out of the city at the very least, and he'd think of something later, possibly involving Thunderhead. Damn, Phynicxs was tired. - Vark listened to the conversation going on at the other side of the throne room, staying close to Pinkie. Fluttershy had gotten back about the time Twilight finally picked the lock. The troll girl had told them that her name was Aranea, and that she'd been expelled from her session. She looked left and right, unsure about something, but Twilight caught onto it and motioned for her to tell them. She agreed, reluctantly, looking resigned, and told them how she was the product of a doomed timeline that had to be fixed. She wasn't certain what had happened to her friends, but she had been travelling for awhile, very confused as to how she had lived so long. Twilight suggested that maybe she wasn't really doomed at all. Aranea had doubts about this and explained in short what doomed timelines were. Twilight nodded and suggested an alternative, one that explained how maybe she was still alive because it wasn't a completely doomed timeline and she had something she still had to do before she died. Aranea nodded and agreed this might be the case, as it would explain a lot. The amount of years she had been travelling exhausted her just by thinking about it. She sighed and asked if they could get out of here - she wanted to feel fresh air again. Twilight and Fluttershy agreed. Twilight looked over at Vark and Pinkie and wrapped them up in her telekinesis, trying to be as gentle as possible as they made their way out, and would later meet up with Machine Whisperer.
Ying was having a difficult time dodging his own sword, deciding that parrying would sooner or later take out his ex-sword entirely. When he saw an opening he tried to take it and ended up missing and overextending as the heir of time appeared behind him, stabbing him in the back, barely missing his spinal column. Ying gasped and pulled away, blood starting to pour through the empty space. Ying grimaced and knew he had to end this soon. He called at Typo who was constantly trying to attack Gilda but always missing. Breath versus breath is pretty much a stalemate. Typo grimaced too and they both shouted switch, but before they could the heir of time jumped down from the tree tops and started trying to attack Typo; although this heir of time had no weapon and was instead using martial arts.
"I am the nature of change itself. You should just give up and accept your deaths," said the heir of time. Jordan was crying out as he tried to heal himself, but this was age, not just damage. He started to get up. Trying desperately to. Gilda came down and stabbed through Jordan's back and started to lift him into the air. He couldn't turn around, and all he saw was the forest floor.
Ying looked at the heir of time behind him and tried to swing his sword but it was parried and gained another chip. He screamed and attacked again. Another parry and another chip. This was getting bad. He had to do something. And that's when he felt the presence behind him. He ducked and jumped forward, trying to stab the heir of time in front of him, who was surprised but quickly brought the eraser sword and parried that too.
Typo was using the pinwheel ineffectively, trying to keep the punches and kicks from hitting, and sometimes there were multiple kicks at the same time, sometimes a leg or arm would disappear and reappear in another spot, trying to hit him, and always kept him from cutting off one of the heir of time's limbs. He was having a hard time using his reflexes and started to look into himself and find Auryie's power.
"You can't beat me. I eat paradoxes and doomed timelines for breakfast."
The heir of time in front of Ying tried to lop his head off but missed and nearly got hit with the sword. The heir of time jumped up and went back in time. The heir of time behind Ying stabbed him again and he fell forward before rolling over and throwing the sword at the heir of time, who just disappeared. Ying cried out, bleeding harshly, and his skin was going pale. Was this where it ended? He quickly got up, rolling backwards and pushing himself up onto his feet, bouncing a moment from the momentum and jumped forward, slashing at the heir of time who backed up, and Jordan came around and brought Letum Coupant up, hacking off the heir of time's arm and embedding itself into the right side of his chest. The heir of time gasped and looked at the offender who was cut up bad but had gotten away from Gilda. The heir of time that was attacking Typo ceaselessly lost his arm, it fading away, but Typo wasn't done yet, focusing on the heir of time in front of him and splitting his image into three while jumping to the side and all three threw the pinwheel at once. The heir of time was about to go back in time but failed and his body was chopped in half by the pinwheel. He smirked as the others started to feel relief, Gilda coming down from the heaven's with a bleeding wing and dived at the heroes as the heir of time defied time and paradoxes by bringing his body back together using time. You could almost hear the grinding of gears cease, sparking as they tried to move forward. The heir of time smiled bigger, his body going into a doomed timeline, but he knew it wouldn't change a thing in this situation.
Ying was bleeding bad and about to pass out. He saw Gilda going for Jordan again as Jordan went for the heir of time. Ying jumped between them and slashed at Gilda, who saw it coming, a piece of her body turning into breath before she slit Ying's throat. He was about to collapse but had one more trick up his sleeve. He glowed as his emotions of despair started to build, knowing that this was a prince of light, and as Gilda tried to grab him in her talons, he put his hand against her wing and a surprised Gilda started turning into breath, but the knight of space had done it. His hand glowed green and pieces of the breath flashed and started to deteriorate into the atmosphere. Ying fell to his knees and died as his wounds holed up, but having lost too much blood. Gilda screamed as Typo and Jordan went head to head with the heir of time. Gild had started bleeding again into her new bandages, a piece of her right wing ripped off from the space power, and her throat slit. Gilda's consciousness faded as she accepted death.
The knight of doom dropped down next to Gilda, having finally gotten to the location he was needed in.
---
The group got out of the city fast, Machine Whisperer bringing ponies out who had been used for slave labor and love whom had been in the caves/catacombs. They were all so thankful, but most of them could hardly walk very far. They needed help.
Thunderhead was there, laying down as Phynicxs napped up on top, the blood he had taken from him sticking him to the dragon firmly so that he wouldn't fall off. They were ready to go, but they didn't know how they were going to bring all the ponies with them. There were tons. Twilight smiled, being modest but saying she could handle it. She had done harder things before. She was weak, but telekinesis came naturally to her - her cutie mark was for magic after all. She wrapped her magic around the ponies in a group rather than taking them up individually. Some of them were surprised, but most had passed out due to exhaustion, fatigue, and long-lasting trauma. Twilight also grabbed Vark and Pinkie again, happy to be going home, which gave her more motivation than she already had from rescuing all the ponies. She told Thunderhead that they should head for Manehattan first and drop at least some of them off there. They might have to fly from city to city and drop some off, but believed that with enough time each pony would be going back to where they belonged. Smeareyes sat next to Phynicxs, while Twilight and Fluttershy talked together and tried to understand most of what had happened. Things would be good, and Fluttershy knew they had made a huge change, a necessary one. But she hadn't been able to do it herself. She needed the help of her friends, and was always aware of that, but maybe she could start relying on herself a little more. She started thinking, and decided she should devote some time into strengthening her wings. Twilight still had to research and would be busy for awhile.
Machine Whisperer had grabbed his cut off wings and kept them in his captchalogue deck, and had made sure he could stay in touch with Chrysalis; although she wasn't aware of it yet. He decided he should wait awhile before contacting her.
---
"I'm sorry Gilda, but Gamarya doesn't want you leaving us just yet." He picked her up by the scruff as though she weighed nothing to him, and started feeding his doom power into her. His power fought the death that had overtaken her and killed it, bringing her back to life. Her eyes opened, comprehendingly, but her body felt too weak to do anything. She hung limply and frowned, the peace that she had experienced after death gone. But this was where she needed to be. Right? She felt so depressed, her light destroyed after so long. She glared at the others and the knight of doom started to leave, taking Gilda with him.
The heir of time cursed as he expertly fended off two players at once with just his hands. "Next time you won't be so lucky, losers!" He gave them the finger as he flew away, fast, before going back in time and flying off to where the knight of doom would soon do the same.
Typo grabbed Jordan and told him no, a worried look on his face. The knight of space didn't get up. He was dead. Typo scooped up his body and started heading back, Jordan coming with him, who felt so weak.
---
It was a long trip back, and Twilight Sparkle often had to rest for a day to re-energize herself. All of this had taken a lot out of her. The others accepted it as a time to either goof off or rest themselves. Phynicxs and Smeareyes discussed what had happened to Mana and him. He wanted to try doing what Mana had done after Smeareyes had told him about the symbol that had changed hands. Phynicxs looked deep into Smeareyes' eyes, and was surprised when the light on Smear's chest opened up. He stuck his hand inside and pulled out Smear's void. - Most of the ponies that had been rescued were sleeping in the fresh air after having been in terrible conditions for months on end. Some satisfied a portion of their hunger by grazing on whatever they could, not knowing when their next meal would come. Twilight and Thunderhead had figured out a path they could take between cities and small towns, and would leave small groups of the ponies in those areas so that they could get help but not overwhelm the places they were left at. Planning had also taken a lot out of Twilight, the faint thought that she'd have to start planning more when she sent others back in time. She wondered why she'd have that thought, as this would all be over soon, wouldn't it? She wasn't aware how right that thought was. - Vark continued sleeping by Pinkie's side, who was still in a minor coma due to the blow to her head. They had done as much as they were able to, but now all they could do was wait. Vark's leg was still cut off, but the wound had sealed off, becoming nothing more than a nub. It made it hard for her to walk, but she soon figured it out with practice. Twilight had promised her that she'd find a way to help her and make her stronger at the same time, as Twilight felt what power Vark had wasn't enough for her possible future, which Vark seemed to dread.
Occasionally Vark would chat with Phynicxs and Smeareyes, Phynicxs often seeming like he was hiding something lately, but could barely keep it to himself anymore. - Machine Whisperer spent most of his time fiddling with the computers he had stolen, and used a program he had created himself years ago for the computers, which allowed him to log onto points of data lost in the universe that seemed to span massive amounts of time and space. There was rarely anything new to look at or read, but he satisfied himself with partaking from what he could and in putting in his own content. He also spent time maintaining his laser pistol, occasionally taking target practice at the area around him. Every time he got to chat with one of his friends about something, being it his passion for technology which got stronger every day - filling some of the voids in his life that Smeareyes had created, or sometimes gossip. They accepted it well, especially because the stories he made up never went overboard, but most knew it was just gossip; although sometimes he'd throw in something truthful that he had learned and loved watching the information get around and seeing the reactions of others.
Machine Whisperer had always been a worker, and thus had rarely if ever gone out into the field to get love or anything else. All this extra time he had he used by finding new hobbies, one of which being testing his transformations and his acting, finding he had a natural flair for the dramatic even though he should have been acting exactly like the ponies he impersonated from time to time. He also occasionally played a prank or two. Another thing was that he was starting to design his own machines, his mind having a natural talent with invention, using the information he had obtained combined with his own creativity. The more he learned about himself, the more he was thankful for this chance to not be just a worker anymore, and figured sooner or later he'd let Queen Chrysalis in on all of this. - Smeareye's void turned out to be eyeliner that masqueraded as a master key. This surprised Phynicxs somewhat and he put it back. It was like dual items that he'd heard about before, much like the records about Kanaya that mentioned she'd had a tube of lipstick that doubled as a chainsaw. He wondered if his best friend was distantly related to Kanaya. He would never be sure though. - Fluttershy spent a lot of her time with the animals in the wilds and used them and her own kindness and attention span by helping the other ponies get over what had happened to them. To help change their state of mind. Fluttershy always knew animals were therapeutic, and this just gave her a chance to learn that in spades.
Ying found himself in his old room on his old planet when he finally opened his eyes. He sat up quickly, gasping and sweating profusely, like he had just had a nightmare. He got up and headed over to his computer to tell his matesprite about the dream. When he finally got a hold of her he started explaining it, but something was wrong. The more he explained it the less sense he made. This wasn't the nightmare he'd had. And then things started to come back to him, one by one. His old matesprite seemed to be stuck in time while he started trying to ask different questions about where he was and what was going on and why he was in a dream bubble but his girlfriend didn't seem to even be paying attention to his frantic posts and was just going on and on about what had once happened. Ying got up quickly, pacing about his room as memories flooded back to him. About how he hadn't been able to save his matesprite. He started crying again as though the old wound was now fresh. Like time was happening all at once and everything started weighing on him. He remembered how he hadn't been able to get to her in time, unaware that he'd never see her again because he couldn't get her into the game with him. She wasn't one of the destined players, and it had hurt him bad. He had spent so much time grieving when he was alone, regretting his failure when he had learned what had befallen her. What had befallen everyone on his old planet. He held closer to his principles and values the more he grieved, becoming a knight through loss. The space that had been in his heart from her inevitable death opened new. He cried for her, and for Rainbow Dash, as everything started colliding together. He felt so many open spaces in his heart, he felt like he was about to have a heart attack. And then he realized where he was. He hadn't been able to change much of anything, a weakness he had soon started associating with his space aspect, constantly despairing that he hadn't been the hero of time. He didn't realize that even if he was, it probably wouldn't have worked if he'd tried to save them. He held his head in his hands and jumped onto his bed. He sobbed and felt the presence of other dream bubbles trying to connect with his own, but he used his space power to push them away. He wanted to be alone. He wanted to pity himself after all the bad things that had happened. It hurt so much. He felt a tug on his being, and realized that he was dead. And yet... He knew prospit well, and also was familiar with the horrorterrors. Through his time in the session they had all often given him advice and seemed to act like teachers toward him, as though he had something important to do in the future. But he didn't hear the voices of the horrorterrors now and he knew for a fact Skaia was gone. He couldn't get advice from anyone. He started to despair even more, wanting to die twice so all of this would just go away. He felt like he'd failed, having never found his predetermined purpose.
And then it hit him. Slowly. He hiccuped and started to think. Thinking back on all the things and his thoughts resting on the heir of time he had fought. He wondered about the doomed timelines, and started to wonder... The horrorterrors and the Skaian clouds had guided him during their long session, and he had considered them great teachers considering before he had mostly been on his own.
He started to wonder... Did he really have a predetermined purpose? If he did, wouldn't it have come by now? He felt so confused, and his crying ceased only for him to desperately want to bang his head against a wall. This was so confusing, and the memories were just making it worse. He didn't want this. He wanted out. He was so exhausted, and felt so weak in so many ways. - Ying felt like he had been out for hours. Maybe even days or months or years. He felt refreshed, but all the memories slowly came back and he started tackling them again. He thought about the idea of his predetermined purpose. Everything he had been taught made him wonder if like the empty and full spaces in his heart. Maybe... Maybe he was supposed to determine his own purpose? And then he wondered if that would make his predetermined purpose his chosen purpose? It made his head hurt despite being in a dreambubble and being dead. He sat down on his bed, musing on this. The spaces in his heart felt extreme, and the more he started focusing on it, he realized that he still had Dash to take care of. His eyes opened wide, shocked. He still had more to do. And he wondered if that was his purpose. And then he sensed something in the void. Spaces that were empty and spaces that were filled.
"I know you're there."
The voice was of one of the horrorterrors, but he could understand their speech perfectly despite it being extra-dimensional. He seemed to understand it better than a lot of other players and people. The horrorterror that spoke to him whispered to him in their own tongue. That he was brought here for a reason, and that reason was to muse. To figure things out. And then the horrorterror whispered to him that his aspect was the answer.
And that's when Ying fully realized his potential. He realized slowly but surely that despite the void, he could go anywhere and wherever he wanted. Wherever there was space. And as he thought, he realized his eraser sword had been a key clue, telling him that he was the knight of space. He was the knight of making space and defending space. Did this mean he lived to destroy the void? The horroterrors whispered no, trying to guide him to the truth. Was he supposed to protect space? Be it full or empty?
Not exactly.
He started to think on this and the area around him grew bright. And then he understood. He was as free as space. He was not limited, much like the heir of time hadn't been limited. He could make space wherever he wanted, he just needed the will. He needed the drive. He needed to live for himself for the sake of others. He needed to make space for more. He needed to make space and work with the others.
Even if that meant he had to be someone that he wasn't, so that he could be someone who he was, whenever trouble arrived. The contradiction threw him for a loop, but he felt like he'd had the epiphany of epiphanies. And everything went white.
Rarity and Applejack were crying, Applejack's face buried in her stetson. Typo and Jordan (Jordan being aged a lot still) stood in silence and respect, thinking about Ying.
And that's when it happened.
It took forever, but the glow started. The rainbow glow that signified a player's revival. And it was fast.
A groan came from the ground as the others backed away and gasped.
Jordan almost screamed, "Is he a zombie or something!? No one can stay dead that long why did it even take that long?!"
Another groan and Ying tried to lift himself up. His whole body was sore, but he felt renewed. His memory was pitch perfect and he was ready for a battle. He felt changed, but at the same time he still felt the same. The contradiction was nice and it was almost comforting in a weird way. A lot like he had felt being guided by both Skaia and the horrorterrors. It was nice.
"Yo." He smiled and waved at the others around him. The ponies smiled and huggle-tackled Ying, who were smiling. The contact made him feel fuller. "So, what'd I miss?"
Typo and Jordan had hanging open mouths as they looked at each other, closed their mouths, and smiled at Ying, their friend brought back from the dead, or brought back from the edge of death, if not slightly over the precipice of death.
"We're almost done here Ying, we just have to destroy whatever's causing the doom aspect to spread in this area. Once we get rid of it we can go back to Ponyville and meet up with the others." Typo stated.
Ying nodded. "I doubt we'll have anymore resistance." It was a feeling he had. A hunch. Like things had gone the way they needed to go, and yet he still felt a lingering feeling that things could be changed in a second by the mere thought. It was kind of a disturbing feeling, thinking that change could happen so easily with someone with a strong enough will.
They left the ponies behind and made their way into the forest, same as before, Ying finding and grabbing his two swords. But this time they destroyed the statue of Gamarya that had been placed. It felt like it had been bolted down, but it hadn't. Ying and Jordan found that they had to combine their powers, using space and life to uplift the statue from the ground before it could be destroyed, as though it belonged on the earth. No doubt it had been carried by a captchalogue card. Ying was aware how easily they could end up running into another enemy, but his subconscious was calm and healed. He felt like everything would be okay, no matter what happened. It was a peace that had been given to him during his "near"-death experience. And it stayed with him after the epiphany. He understood more, and at the same time he was aware there was so much more to understand.
On the way back Typo and Jordan talked about how the hundreds of years that had been forced on him caused him to feel a little more fragile than when he was a younger god-tier. Jordan explained his desire and hope that soon he'd be able to shed or shave off the years again.
Their missions were successful. They had the ancient weapons and they had slowed, if not completely stilled the growth and infestation of doom powers. Everyone was joyous, and yet everyone was sad, having learned about Rainbow Dash and what had happened.
Twilight had taken it hard. She was unable to speak the rest of the day, trying to come to grips with it and the fact that all the magic in the world couldn't save her. She thought about going back in time and fixing this, and was confused. She tried to figure out if the failure to save Rainbow Dash was because she had already gone back in the past to try it, or if there had been a failure to save Rainbow Dash because she never did go into the past. She was so confused, and talked about it with the other players, especially Ying who knew a lot about time. Over a period of a few days she came to grips with it, but was still in grief and would occasionally remember something that would set her off. She put it to the side though as they tried to decide what to do with the body and what to do about the funeral, Rainbow Dash being kept at a small morgue on the outskirts of town, and focused on strengthening her allies through her own work and knowledge. She'd built an artificial hand for Jordan made mostly out of gems, imbuing them with the magic of motion and giving some of the bigger gems on the inside the power of telekinesis, so that maybe Jordan would be better equipped for later battles. For Vark she immediately started working on a replacement leg, and knowing what she did of Vark and sound, decided to build it so that it could send out vibrations that could brutally affect her enemies. She tried to strengthen it as much as possible by encasing it in metal, and putting in small holes for the sounds to be released. Vark appreciated it a lot.
Another project Twilight worked on was absorption. She learned quickly how to absorb magic with Pinkie Pie's occasional help, having finally woken up and seemed better than ever. She learned how to absorb magic from other creatures and after learning what happened to Jordan had tried to find a way to reverse it, soon coming up with the idea to absorb time and age. The experiment was successful and much joy was had.
Pinkie Pie spent most of her time locked up in Sugarcube corner after hearing about Dash, talking with imaginary friends in the shapes of bags of flour, rocks, and other such things. Over time she came to grips with what had happened, grieving in her own way, and learned from her own subconscious that Rainbow Dash wouldn't want her death to be mourned. She would want her death to be awesome, and there was nothing more awesome in Pinkie Pie's crying eyes than an enormous party. She would make the others happy. She would make the others laugh. And most important of all, she would learn how to laugh again herself after losing her long sought-after crush, knowing she would never get to tell her how much she loved her. They had about a month to prepare to face the lord of doom, which gave her enough time to plan it.
Machine Whisperer instantly went into hiding, only coming out to socialize once in awhile and try to find a girlfriend - which he did in spades. Or, rather, hearts. He did it in hearts. The relationship was healthy, and practicing what he preached he found his own place in Ponyville, though he often kept to himself and his inventions, talking to players about their captchalogue cards once he figured out that they were very similar to each other.
Fluttershy had also taken it hard. She had spent a lot of the time in her cottage, trying to come to terms with Rainbow's death. It hurt her hard, and she felt weak and unable to change anything. That she couldn't succeed no matter how hard she tried. She felt like a failure that would almost always be too weak to do anything. Her animal friends tried to help cheer her up, and succeeded over time as a determination as strong as Rainbow's started coming over her.
Rarity worked with Twilight in trying to figure out and find a use for the gem that Smeareyes had brought back to Ponyville. They set it to the side and would work on that later.
Phynicxs, over time spending by himself, finally decided he should come out with the truth. It just felt like she couldn't keep the secret anymore; although she wasn't exactly sure why. Meeting up with Ying and Smeareyes, he revealed herself as a she. She told them about her time growing up and how in order to live in the world and be able to show her natural talent at her job, that she had to disguise everything about herself as a guy. She sighed, knowing that she would understand if they didn't want to be friends anymore. But that was far from what happened. Smeareyes had figured it out awhile back, very, very slowly. She was his best friend and would love her no matter what. Ying was taken aback and shocked, until he started to think about it. He was just as accepting as Smeareyes; although he felt a little bad that he wasn't able to figure it out for himself, considering he often knew lots of things, partially from his time with both the Skaian clouds and the horrorterrors.
Smeareyes and Machine Whisperer collaborated and made a new strife specibus, setting it to chakramKind.
Typo was surprised when one day he felt the presence of two players coming to Ponyville. One was named Tune, and he had a violin imbued with the power of mind. He wore the clothing and codpiece of a bard of hope. He seemed very friendly, and so did his companion who was named Gia but often went by the name Sandy around friends. Gia was a dragoness, about the same size as Spike, but larger and seemingly more mature. Tune and Gia were partners, but Gia always seemed to stress that even though they had been in the same session, they had never actually gotten close to each other in... That way. Gia was a blue dragon with green spines along her back. Her fire was blue too, and it could melt the hardest of steel. Gia explained how she had narcolepsy, and had two aspects. One was heart, and the other was mind. She was a sylph. Pinkie Pie had been unwilling to throw the two a welcome to Ponyville party, caught up with Rainbow Dash's life celebration, but decided she would add a subparty to the main party.
Vark and Tune hung out together occasionally, and Vark spent some of her time trying to comfort Pinkie whenever she felt down.
Applejack had been busy working on the farm, working harder than usual to try and bury her grief, which she didn't know was unhealthy until Twilight confronted her about it and decided to give Applejack some therapy.
Rarity had also worked on Vark's artificial, sound weapon, leg, Twilight having needed her superior telekinesis control to put in the smallest of parts.
When Gia and Spike met, Spike had immediately been in love, and was confused about who he should be after - Rarity or Gia? Gia took it on herself to teach Spike a few things, thinking he was cute and a potentially great friend. Gia felt as though Spike would be her life's main purpose, and had taken him under her wing - not literally. She actually had no wings, stating that they'd been cut off before her session and had lived a long life on the ground, which Spike could relate with and had an easier time accepting her as a teacher more than a potential mate. Gia had attained godtier but tended not to fly very much unless necessary. Whenever her narcolepsy kicked in, her body morphed into a maroon dragoness with brown spines, and then when it ended she'd change back. She mentioned that neither of these two forms were her real form, and that she hadn't changed into her real form for years.
The sylph of light with horns was Aranea. And as for her, she spent her days going from house to house and trying to fix any problems that arose, be it between room-mates, lovers, or family members. She also studied history and taught. She didn't seem to want to make friends with the others, only to fulfill her purpose in helping. Part of her wanted to move away from Ponyville and take up residence in Canterlot based on what she heard there. She felt she would be able to help many, gain a reputation, and make good business there. Occasionally Twilight would call on her to help with Applejack's therapy.
Pinkie Pie sent invites to all the new friends, and was ready for the life celebration party, having decided that she'd speak of Rainbow Dash at the podium, which her friends didn't mind except for maybe Twilight who wanted to add a few things into the speech of positivity.
Machine Whisperer was a fighter at heart, and had developed weapons for his new pony friends. He intended to take them with him to the party and give them their presents individually, carrying them in his specially-improved captchalogue deck. When he got there the only ones at the party so far were Pinkie and Vark. The power inside of Machine always pulsated whenever he saw his friends. He knew it wasn't love, but it was something that he felt may have been close enough, the more he looked on it. He hadn't brought his marefriend, as she didn't know Rainbow Dash much, if at all; although he did know that Tune had insisted that Gia and him go to the party.
He smiled, giving Vark a tight hug, enjoying the contact, and pulled out a gift wrapped with green and pink polka-dot wrapping paper from his captchalogue deck with his telekinesis, having learned gift wrapping off of the pieces of data he could access with his personal computer. Pinkie was surprised and for the first time in awhile her hair poofed out curly again, smiling happily. "Presents? It's not even my birthday yet!"
Machine seemed nervous, knowing that they probably wouldn't want the gifts, but felt that he should give it to them anyway. It was who he was. "This one doesn't know if you will like it, but this one wants you to know that it is practical and useful, and that this one is sure you can modify it to suit your needs, whatever that may be." Pinkie Pie seemed a bit off after that, but opened it excitedly anyway. When she opened it she was surprised. It was a dual cannon that you could strap to your back. It had gems inlaid on it and had two very large packs on either side that, with the use of the gems on either side, helped keep the weight steady on both sides. Part of the boxes were saddle bags, but Pinkie, familiar with technology to some degree, realized that part of the packs were used for energy storage. And, as Pinkie thought about it, probably other things if he could get Twilight to upgrade it. She hugged Machine and thanked him for it, letting him know that it was a great present and she would find many uses for it. Machine Whisperer pulled out two cards from his deck. One was a strifespecibus and the other was a captchalogue card. He told her that to put it in and to take it out all one needed to do was focus. The specibus card he explained as being something that allowed her to understand the machine to the best of her ability and use it to its maximum effectiveness. When Pinkie took it she felt her aim skyrocket. She seemed a bit shellshocked but then smiled, and told him that it was really cool that he had built in laser sights just to help out. Machine had forgotten about that and thanked her for the compliment.
Machine and Vark talked about her artificial leg and how it was made while Pinkie practiced her speech. In her head, not wanting to give away the surprise.
Machine turned and saw as the next party goers came in and started to mingle with the others. Gia, Tune, Twilight, and Spike. Machine had spent some time with Spike before and had decided to give him a small, but potentially helpful gift. He pulled Twilight and Spike to the side, giving Twilight the captchalogue card with her weapon on it and told her to put it on, pulling out two specibus cards. Twilight was surprised when what seemed like a piece of jewelry wrapped around her horn. She almost panicked but realized it wasn't dimming her power. Machine explained the gem-inlaid machine around her horn would strengthen her magic depending on what she was thinking, and kinetically handing her the strife specibus, which surprised her when she took it because she started to understand all the ways to use its power effectively. Twilight smiled and hugged Machine Whisperer; although it was a little tight and cut off his breath. Next, he handed Spike two strife specibus cards, one was clawKind and the other was teethKind. When Spike took them he suddenly understood how to most effectively use his natural weapons against enemies, and there was a little more than that too. He felt like his natural weapons were stronger than before in some way. Machine explained to him how under the right circumstances it would be possible to upgrade his claws and teeth, but he didn't know how yet. He only knew because of some of the documents he had gone through in the ancient city.
Both thanked and hugged him and they went off, Twilight feeling like maybe she could protect others more now, realizing that her sparkle bubble would be stronger than before. She didn't know when she might need it, but she knew better than anyone better safe than sorry. Twilight and Spike moved on and started to mingle with the others; although Spike grabbed some sweets on his way there.
Typo and Jordan were next to the party, both wearing tuxedos, having expected a posh party. When they realized what the party was, they thought about changing their clothes but decided against it. No big deal, right?
Machine was getting excited - feeling very happy that his presents had been accepted. They understood him and appreciated him looking out for them like anyone in a family would. This was his family, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt he'd protect it.
Ying, Phynicxs, and Smeareyes came next, immediately leaving to mingle with the others and play some games that were starting that didn't really interest Machine. Almost, if not all of the games, seemed to revolve around something Dash had done in her past, but not all were. Smeareyes was wearing more eye shadow than usual, and all three of them were dressed nicely, but not too nicely. Phynicxs had no dresses or anything of the sort, but modified her rogue of blood garment to better portray her lady-ness. Machine wished the others would get here soon so he could show his other friends his accomplishments. He would find someone to talk about technology with later, probably Pinkie and Vark.
When Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity came he pulled out three captchalogue cards. One was of four horeshoes with diamonds in the sides, and some blades protruding out from front and back. He gave this one to Applejack along with the strife specibus hoofKind, letting her know that the gems in the hoofshoes would strengthen her and allow her to glide. To Rarity he gave a staff with a gem inlaid on it. He had made it after hearing about Rarity's part of the most recent adventure, and had made it to enhance her sixth sense and would allow her to cast small illusions. Rarity absolutely loved it, not wanting to fight with it because of how it was carved and molded. It was beautiful and it fit her nicely. She gave Machine a long hug and a kiss on the cheek which, if he wasn't a changeling, would have made Machine blush. The next captchalogue card and strife specibus went to Fluttershy. It was a pair of goggles with a butterfly in the middle that seemed to form fit her nose. He explained how it would draw on her inner magic power and manifest it as a weapon, much like a psychic attack. He explained that in the future she would probably be able to come up with small modifications if she studied a bit. Fluttershy expressed her doubts about being able to use it. Machine called it nonsense and affirmed that she would be able to handle it.
Machine, finally done giving out presents, went to go talk with Pinkie and Vark.
An hour later, Pinkie was ready to give her speech.
It was about Rainbow Dash, how she had grown up in a somewhat abusive home. How she had overcome it by putting more effort into her practice, how she stood up for others even when Gilda would have left them alone. Pinkie explained how Rainbow Dash knew what it was like to feel alone and unwanted, and how she stayed loyal to any whom she felt were worthy, often siding with the underdog, being an underdog herself. Pinkie talked about how Rainbow Dash's standing up for Fluttershy had led to her performing a sonic rainboom, causing the six ponies to gain their cutie marks at the same time. Pinkie explained how it was always when things were on the wire, when everything depended on her performance and speed, how it was when everything was on the line that her true power came out and she fulfilled her potential. Pinkie talked about her dreams to enter the wonderbolts and how she'd saved lives, including some wonderbolts and Rarity's life. She talked about her accomplishments and how Rainbow Dash wanted everything to be as cool as her, explaining that her ego was partly due to what she had experienced in her past life. Pinkie mentioned how in actuality Rainbow Dash was often very insecure, but hid it with show-boating. Of course she wasn't always insecure, and that was around her friends. Dash was possibly the most loyal pony in the world, going out of her way to sacrifice something of herself so that others would be empowered. Pinkie explained Rainbow's tough love whenever she tried to act as a coach.
Finally, Pinkie explained as much about Rainbow's death as she knew and had heard. How she had not gone on the offensive in a fight against an ex-friend and had blindly believed in the goodness of other ponies, and anything else really.
"Razedd, are you sure this is the place?"
"One hundred percent," the heir of time shot back to Gilda. Chiri and Illusive were right behind them. "Looks like it's time to crash a party." Razedd knocked on the door, and waited for an answer.
Tune heard the knock and smiled. It was time. Pinkie had just finished her speech, the others distracted. Typo got up to see who was knocking at this time of night.
Typo answered the door and then a hand was put against his chest. It was Razedd and he was speeding up his age by hundreds of years. Typo looked shocked and couldn't pull himself away as though he were being electrocuted. Jordan looked back as the violin started, a power radiating out from Tune.
Jordan shoved Typo out of the way, keeping him from aging too much as they all fell asleep except for the enemy. All four walked into the room quickly and were about to start massacring the players and ponies, but Gia got up with green spines and blue scales, seeing the entrants, realized what was going on from what she had been told, and felt betrayed before she shoved Tune to the side, causing him to stop playing. He had forgotten about Gia's narcolepsy. Gia was fast, radiating her sylph of mind powers around who she assumed in this case would be her team-mates. She shoved her claws into Tune's throat, causing him to choke on blood, before she pulled it out, seemingly either jaded or aware that sometimes you had to go to the extreme to help another person.
Gia stood up and glared at the entrants as the others started to awake. Gia shouted at Spike to get the ponies out of there, and he complied quickly, feeling the relationship between them somewhat similar to Twilight and him. He led them all to the side of the room as the other players got up. Vark and Phynicxs were fast to determine their spot, starting to sing and dance around the ponies and Spike, creating a wall between them, Twilight helping by creating the bubble. Phynicxs was inside, daggers taken out, and was ready to pull out some voids if necessary.
The room was getting crowded. Ying immediately took out his eraser sword and went after Razedd and Gilda, Typo following him into the battle. Ying swung across Razedd who just waggled his finger at him and went forward in time, getting behind Ying and reaching into his captchalogue deck. Typo was fast, bringing out the pinwheel and throwing it in an arc to try and kill Razedd but trying not to injure Ying. Razedd pulled out, looking behind him, and went back into the past. Now there were two Razedds attacking Ying who had to jump to the side to not get hit, feeling the space change over and over again, Typo having to change his original intent and throwing the pinwheel at the two time players.
Jordan and Smeareyes went after Illusive and Chiri. Chiri was fast, coming up to them faster than a space player and started punching Jordan again and again, but befoe he could get more than four hits, Smeareyes slashed at him with the chakrams, but was unable to get a solid hit when he was hit hard in the chest by Illusive's axe. Jordan had kneeled but quickly got back into the fight, bringing up his artificial hand and squeezing it, focusing on Chiri's wrists, squeezing them tight. Chiri was surprised at this and tried to pull his hands away but was unable to as Jordan started putting gashes into Chiri's body, who just seemed to absorb them. Jordan had forgotten that he was a knight of doom. Smeareyes was on the ground hurting bad his personality splintered. But he knew what to do, and started screwing with his emotions, trying to overcome the ones that were trying to mix together. He held his head in his hands as he tried to sort himself out, having dropped the chakrams.
It was becoming too chaotic. There were too many heirs of time, and sometime during the battle they had fished out Ying's other sword. The sword Ying called the Frozen Flame. Typo was getting beaten down so hard and fast, having to parry multiple weapons at a time, and was getting sick of it. If he could just concentrate for a second he'd be able to use mind and Razedd's time against him. Ying was getting tired, fast, slowly destroying one of his own, prized weapons by having to block and parry blows, which made the sword chip a lot, and was starting to crack. Ying was pushing himself to his limits, using the potential he had to move fast enough to blur his form and constantly switch positions within a second. But the heir of time was holding them back. Gilda wasn't helping either, often times getting in a really good hit on them but thankfully never taking them out with her claws, and whenever they tried to attack her she'd either get saved by the heir of time, or she'd turn into breath and float away to try again. Ying and Typo were both happy that Gilda hadn't yet realized her full power. The ponies were safe, but they didn't know how long that would last.
Chiri was worse, constantly getting hits and knocking Jordan and Smeareyes senseless. Illusive was making it worse by trying to either chop their heads off or get in a good hit to knock out their hearts. Smeareyes was readying to give up, and started to think, trying to come up with a plan, and finally decided maybe he should take out the time chakrams, especially considering every time he spared a glance to the others the heir of time was getting closer and closer to taking them out. It was utter chaos and furniture and party decorations were being destroyed and sent flying by the battle. Jordan spent most of his time protecting Smeareyes and himself, having to use his life sense to his fullest, occasionally trying to use the telekinesis in his hand to send the enemies flying, but often missing. He wasn't quite good with it yet, and it required concentration that he strengthened and created.
Things were looking really bad, but Smeareyes had one hope left that could change this battle around.
---
The castle was magnificent; although pretty bare and white. There were some tapestries hanging, and a few long carpets with designs of Equestria's... No, the world's history. It also included Discord and sometimes creative liberty was taken in making them, turning them into a fictitious account of history. It was pretty beautiful, especially how artfully designed the golden ages were. Kraine, a troll girl with a turbulent past walked with the Lord of Time himself. After her session's success, she had lived for awhile in peace, but soon found that she deeply desired the action that had made her life so full before. She was an expert in war, being one of the oldest Sgrub players. She had been the result of the condesce's iron-fisted rule - a product of an age of war. She and her older, once reluctant soldier companions had been able to enter the game as well before the Vast Glub occurred. Her green and the camos she had built in her session stayed with her wherever she went. She was a pro. And she wanted more.
Kraine had travelled a long time going from place to place until finding Gallifrey and hearing about a lone, exiled traveler of space and time. She followed the rumors she heard wherever she went in one of the troll's old warships, and made it to the planet that the doctor was currently travelling around. Long story short the doctor had to enter the game despite knowing their session was doomed for failure. Especially because those in the session didn't always listen to him and did their own thing. Kraine had snuck into the session through one of the players, and befriended the doctor who had almost been killed by his entrance. He was a pony now, much like the others. The doctor, however, kept going despite this, knowing that it was something that had to be done, even if it led to destruction. But before the session could fall to the hands of death, Kraine had befriended him as one of the few sane people in the session, even if he was a little eccentric. She helped him escape the session before anything could get too messy, abandoning the place and regretful that he had failed to save a planet, and frustrated that he'd ended up having a hand in it. And when they left the session... Well, we'll get to that later.
Kraine frowned, saying the surroundings were not bad. Doctor Whooves, as he had been nicknamed by Kraine, started talking about how he noticed many of the designs were similar to worlds he had gone to in the past, and wondered if there had been external influence on this planet. But at the same time he, of all people/ponies, knew that some things were just universal constants.
They were here for an audience of the ruler of the area (after hiding the Tardis), needing to talk to her desperately if they had any hope of keeping the "demon" at bay. They had convinced the guards the severity of their information, and it helped that Kraine's appearance was very similar to players who had already come here and, most of them, welcomed by the princess.
When they got into the room with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they bowed respectfully, and Kraine started her case.
"There is a great evil here."
Luna responded, "WE ART ALREADY AWARE OF THIS INFORMATION YOUNG TRAVELERS."
Doctor Whooves and Kraine looked at each other, befuddled, questioning looks on their faces, as Doctor Whooves decided stating how old he was wouldn't be a very good move.
Doctor Whooves was the first to speak in his charismatic voice. "You... Already know?"
"Yes, the lord of doom has attacked already, and we already have a defense set up against them."
This sent the two travellers for a loop. "There are... Other players here already?" Kraine asked.
"Yes, you're a little late to the party aren't you?" Celestia chuckled.
Kraine nodded, starting to understand. "There is a different threat here. And he will be here soon. The fact that there are other players here is inspiring."
Celestia raised her brow. "Why?"
Kraine continued, stepping forward a little bit, "we are here, trying to run from the Lord of Muse. But the idea there may be players here may put us at an advantage."
Luna was first to speak. "WHO ART THOU ENEMY YOUNG TRAVELERS?"
"The Lord of Muse has been destroying universes for hundreds of years, working under a greater threat. We aren't sure of his origins, but we do know that he must be stopped, and if not stopped, then avoided."
Doctor Whooves added, "He has destroyed so many universes, always starting with destroying the planets where more players are born, your highness."
Celestia began to look worried and she asked them if there was anything they could do. Kraine responded, "We have made extra copies of the game, for situations like this. We mainly do it to attract the creation of new universes, working together with those who take the risk to play and trying to help them succeed in their mission."
Doctor Whooves questioned Celestia, asking if there were any creatures here that would be brave enough to attempt the game, telling her that the start of the game normally started the end of the world. The cogs in Princess Celestia's brain were turning, starting to question the implications of Rainbow Dash's death. She didn't know much about the game, but she knew more than anyone how destiny has a way of working into beautiful things.
"There is one group, young travelers, and I will send you their way."
Doctor Whooves and Kraine looked at each other. And both stated the same word. "Allons-y."
---
Smeareyes had to do this now or they'd surely die. He pulled out the glowing time chakrams and got ready. Jordan was knocked back when Illusive threw his axe at him, having no choice but to block it, using both hands and trying to slow down the axe with telekinesis. He was slowly losing his hope that they'd get out of here alive. Starting to lose hope that they'd be able to save this planet before it was destroyed. Smeareyes was fast, jumping straight at Illusive and spinning, the chakrams digging into his gut. Illusive felt small portions of his body around the gashes disappear and he started to bleed out, some of his organs falling before they appeared next to him, but completely fucked up as though it had been run over by something and split apart by a shredder. He grimaced and knew if he died it'd probably be a just death. And then he remembered who he was working for - a lord of doom. The prince of hope brought his hands up like he was lifting his hands to the sky. "You can't defeat us when right and wrong are so subjective!" Jordan and Smeareyes were taken aback by this. They hesitated, starting to question their ability to die. They weren't sure why they were giving this second thoughts, but they were. Chiri came in and was about to punch them so much their lights would go out.
Gia had opened up a dimensional gate, wielding two glowing cat claws, getting in front of Smeareyes and Jordan as they nearly fell. She slashed open Chiri and headbutted him, keeping up the combo and hitting him with her legs in a ferocious combo before blowing fire at him, nearly burning off his body. Chiri fell to the ground, dead. She slashed open the dimension and hopped inside, her heart and mind guiding her. Illusive was stunned and started looking around, unsure about this. He couldn't even sense Gia's hope. Did she even have hope anymore? Tune was questionably getting up, and started to play the violin again, singing and mixing bard of hope with bard of mind. The protagonists were getting slower. Typo felt himself slow, and so did Ying, and that was when the heir of time and Gilda got hold of them. Gilda cut Ying's throat and followed up by stabbing him in the temple. And after that she broke off one of his horns and putting it into the captchalogue deck the others had given her. Typo felt himself growing old fast and it lasted for a minute until he was old and decrepit, falling down. During this minute Gia surprised the prince of hope by appearing above him and stabbing him in the head before disappearing. Illusive fell.
Razedd and Gilda were heading toward Phynicxs and Vark, who were getting ready. Phynicxs was aware how hard it would likely be to take out Razedd's void, and was preparing to take out Gilda's. But another hole opened up in space, below Gilda, and Gia brought her cat claws up to stab Gilda in the neck, but Gilda had a good grasp on her class and aspect, using light to destroy light. She had taken a step back, almost as though she was cognizant of the threat, but ended up looking shocked as Gia came up out of the hole. And Razedd stabbed her in the back, severing her spinal column before throwing her off to the side. Gia was enclosed in a frozen fire - like a field of stasis. Gilda was shaken but Razedd was blood thirsty, his time clones walking a doomed timeline and readying to kill Jordan and Smeareyes.
Smeareyes and Jordan were in stasis, but when brought out they'd die soon after. Phynicxs was starting to panic, her best friends trapped and most likely going to die. She was about to cry, not knowing if there was a way to even remove the stasis. The Frozen Flame had been one of Ying's favorite swords for many reasons, but he'd never talked about it - whether that be what went into making it or its full capabilities. They tried looking in the registry but the materials were always static, as if something important had been added to it. Phynicxs' hope was destroyed, and even if it hadn't been, she felt like her light had been destroyed. She was about to resign and accept her fate, looking down as Razedd and his clones got closer, along with Gilda.
Vark was already singing and dancing, clicking her artificial leg on the floor as though trying to get it warmed up. She focused her energy into her body, some of it going into her leg and causing small vibrations, knowing that she'd need some more. Having been told about Gilda and how she had killed Rainbow Dash, Pinkie's crush (Pinkie Pie having talked to her about it at one point,) and was getting more angered the closer Gilda came. It was even worse because of Gilda's smirk. She thought she'd won. Well news for you bitch, Detective and Avenger Vark is ON THE CASE.
Vark jumped forward, putting both hands out and kocking the heir of times away in surprise. Obviously Razedd didn't know any bards of cute. Vark bared her teeth and jumped at Gilda who turned into breath. Vark shouted a lyric down at the floor and at the breath, causing her to be pumped up into the air and creating a small crater in the floor and dispersing the breath slightly. Vark twisted into the air, her anger rising, tears forming into her eyes and kicking the wall, sending out a sound that made everybody double over and hold their heads except for Tune and the ponies inside of Twilight's bubble. Everyone but the bards and those in the bubble felt extremely nauseous and many almost threw up. Phynicxs had trained herself in many ways, and despite feeling dizzy she knew what she was doing, taking the opportunity to do something heroic. She jumped at the main Razedd, brought her knee up and bashing it into Razedd's chin before using the blood that Razedd now had in his mouth to force his eyes open. Phynicxs glared deep into them, accusations running across her tongue as the light in his chest occurred. Phynicxs reached in and pulled out a spinning pocket watch - as though it were a screwed up compass. Phynicxs felt anger surge into her being, forcing the blood that was keeping his eyes open and ramming it through his eyes, causing him to scream and go blind. Razedd stumbled away, trying to use his time powers but was having a hard time bringing up the strength that came so natural to an heir. Razedd screamed again, shouting blasphemies and creative obscene words at Phynicxs who brought her daggers out, threw the watch at a wall, and stabbed her dagger at it, cracking the case. This caused Razedd to scream as parts of his body started getting all wibbly wobbly. Phynicxs stabbed it again, making the crack grow larger.
Vark ignored Razedd and his slowly disappearing time companions and went after a surprised Gilda, jumping forward at her. Gilda looked bruised and damaged but it was barely anything. Vark sent three punches Gilda's way and the energy went right through, but pierced the breath in a way that it parted in certain areas. Vark was getting tired of this and was about to try and take out the anklet that Gilda used. Vark went after her again but this time she grimaced and turned into breath, dispersing and flying quickly out the door. Vark screamed obscenities as Phynicxs kept stabbing the watch until finally the unusually hard glass broke and the dagger penetrated the face of the watch, a tear going straight through it, the watch stopping permanently before starting to turn into crystal and fall away.
Razedd screamed harder and felt like he was being pulled apart as blue crystals started growing from the top of his head, the tips of his fingers, and the ends of his legs, and surged up before consuming him and shattering.
Tune saw what would probably happen to him and ran away to Gamarya, a rainbow aura starting to fill the room.
Razedd was surprised when he felt his body. He was lost in the void, but he saw the others except for Tune and Gilda with him. There was also an additional person who wore witch of rage clothing. She looked permanently pissed off. Razedd was wary of her, definitely not wanting to get on her bad side. Yet somehow he felt that wouldn't be as much of a problem as it probably would.
He heard a voice in the void, and everyone except the witch of rage looked around.
"Yes, master?"
"I have brought you all here to give you a choice. To serve me unquestioningly or accept your deaths. And I promise you, it will be a double death."
Razedd and the others looked at each other, each looking just as frightened. They'd never heard of anything like this happening before. And that voice sounded sinister. What choice did they have? None of them were courageous enough to either question this evil figure or to even deny it. They definitely didn't want to be killed twice. Except for Chiri - he sounded confident.
"I am the knight of doom. I have cheated a just death many times. What makes you so special?" The figure laughed deeply, already taking a liking to Chiri.
"Believe me when I say a double death is as easy as a snap of the fingers. And you can fight as long as you want Chiri, but sooner or later you will succumb to greater powers than you. And I doubt you'd want to leave Illusive to fend for himself." Illusive looked really worried, but bowed, attempting to speak for all of them, including Chiri who was shocked senseless at the confidence in the "demon's" voice, not to mention how it knew his name.
Illusive spoke. "We will serve you unquestioningly."
"Good. Your first task is to seek out the witch of rage here on that planet, and then to enter the pony's session using Gilda."
Everyone but Chiri bowed, still curious, but only a little confident. "Why can't we just kill the others?"
The "demon" chuckled and asked them how that went last time. He informed them that they would need to try harder next time, as he wasn't one to accept constant failure. He told them that the ponies entering would be inevitable, and so would their journey, but the alpha timeline stopped after your battle with the others. Continuing, he told them that they would likely have to attack the ponies and the others who went with them occasionally to slow them down. The "demon" was invisible, but they all felt him wave his hand, telling them to go away. And they did, unintentionally. They flew back, waking up in the Everfree Forest, all of them with healed bodies, except for Razedd, who had an extremely difficult time accessing his time powers. They were all shaken up, as though the fear of God had been put into them. They would first seek out the witch of rage, and then they would find Gilda and Tune.
---
The discussion had taken awhile. It was mostly between a level-headed Twilight with Jordan and Typo. The room was a disaster and there would be a lot of work to clean it up. Ying was quick in releasing those from their impenetrable stasis with a handy little device he'd made along with his second favorite sword. Pinkie was depressed, but Vark told her it was a grand party and that everyone had lots of fun and that she was sure Rainbow Dash would be proud of her. The discussion went along the lines of how many more players would end up coming here guided by the lord of doom. Typo wasn't sure and was starting to get worried that there would end up being another attack, even if it wasn't as many. Typo and Jordan were well aware as to what levels some players went to to succeed in their mission, finish their quest, or complete a job. Typo and Jordan decided, while everyone else tried to relax, that they would go into the forest tonight and take care of Gamarya once and for all. They believed they could do it. Their hope was soaring, and Typo felt for the first time ever that he'd have a chance in doing this with the help of his new friends. And he smiled when he thought of them as new friends, looking back to Auryie and hoping she was proud of him. And he had a very large feeling that she was, and that she was watching over him this very moment. - As they delved further into the forest, the heroes noted that the doom was starting to get reclusive. Most dark spots left them alone, and any who felt courageous enough were soon killed by Jordan in varying methods, be it through his sword, the telekinesis in his hand, and his own life powers. Typo felt the presence of two players coming toward them. He reached out with his mind and knew one was a Rogue of Time and the other was a Prince of Time. He told the others about this and told them to get ready. And that's when Typo felt it. The two in front of them had stopped and it lasted minutes, as though they both knew they were coming. But then he felt a surge in players - many surrounding them at once, all of them holding the time of another, as though they were made with time and not an actual time loop. The two came forward.
"I was never a mortal. I always had all the time in the world. But you seven don't."
The Prince of Time came out, looking young but mature. And then next to him came the original rogue of time. He was dressed really sharply.
"I'm aware you haven't much time left, but I thought I'd mention to you we're Jim and Kaotic. You die here. Tonight. Our master wills it." Kaotic was using a long cue stick as a cane, and Jim was holding a longsword. "And now your time has ended."
The seven heroes felt something tugged on, and realized it was something that had been with them ever since godtier. Their immortality. Or, rather, their immortality to time. It was yanked away, and Jim and Kaotic put their hands together, red light fillling the air, before cracking and shattering. Their immortality to age was gone. Permanently.
Everyone readied their weapons, all of them still not quite used to fighting together. Typo told them two at a time in case someone hit another by mistake, and for the others to take down the other rogues of time. Gia and Jordan stepped forward, both bringing out their weapons. Jordan was the next to speak as Smeareyes pulled out his time chakrams. "You're right, the time ends now. But it's not our time that's up."
Jim, feeling confident, told them the secret of his sword. It was imbued with the power of muse. The heroes looked to each other, Typo seeming surprised. None of them understood the implications of this, and that made Jim smile. He liked being in the know.
Gia let out a fierce cry of war before slashing open the space in front of her and jumping inside. Neither enemy were seers of space or time, but Jim had something better. He focused on his longsword, pointing it to where Gia had just been, and made his own scratch in space, jumping right in. Kaotic was extremely calm and in control, the same with all the clones he had made out of the time he had taken from Jim's limitless supply of time. Kaotic saw Jordan coming at him with Letum Coupant and just sort of stood there, until nearly the last second, side-stepping Jordan and grasping his cue stick, flicking it up and knocking Jordan's chin so hard he almost bit off his tongue, and was raised into the air while he moved forward. But the forward motion ceased as the cue stick's length jammed into his throat, causing him to fall to the ground, unable to breathe, and feeling his lights quickly fade. He thought of Rainbow Dash and of this planet, and felt power surge through him, his will increasing as much as his life did. Jordan's body started to split apart at the skin before the "reincarnated" Jordan tried to push himself up and out, messy with blood. Kaotic whistled, impressed, but quickly took back control by bringing his cue stick down on top of Jordan's back, slamming him into the ground with enough force to nearly break his spine. Jordan had the wind knocked out of him as he tried to get up.
"Hm. You're pretty persistent." He stepped over to Jordan and lifting him up by the hair, pulling hard. "But you can't escape death." Kaotic pulled the cuestick up and aimed it at his heart, before letting it blow. A laser ripped out of the cuestick and pierced right through Jordan's body, heating everything enough to cauterize, but it had gone through his heart. Jordan started hyperventilating, feeling himself die as Kaotic looked disturbingly into his eyes, waiting for the light and time to leave, absorbing the time for himself. - Phynicxs had just finished taking out one of the time clones, being pretty superior in a fight with her daggers and close range combat than Kaotic ever would be with his cuestick. Phynicxs rushed at Kaotic, using the blood from the clone and bringing it all with her, using some of the blood to skate on. - Gia was surprised, and jumped back when she saw Jim come through his own rip in space, smirking. He brought the longsword up, encasing it with mind and heart powers. Gia readied herself. - Phynicxs sent her spiked tendrils of blood careening at Kaotic, who looked bored and used the time powers he'd absorbed from Jordan to stop the time around the blood, doing the same thing to Phynicxs' skates, trapping her and her legs in place. Phynicxs realized what was about to happen, and grimaced. Ying saw this, wielding both swords to stasis some of the clones and ripping space out of the others, noticing that these ones weren't as smart or effective as the real one appeared to be. Kaotic was still holding Jordan up as he died. Ying was fast, blurring into motion as he jumped at Kaotic who looked a little surprised but did no more than point the cuestick at Ying and fire, going straight through his skull and into his brain. Ying's movement gave him momentum but he just fell to the floor dead. Phynicxs almost screamed.
Gia could tell she was outmatched, her heart and mind screaming out from the damage the sword's aspects were leaking into her mind and soul. Jim smiled, a true prince. He brought the longsword around and let it cut through Gia's torso who cried out as her upper half fell to the ground. She was worried - extremely - especially about how Spike was going to get by without her around. She had found a place that she wanted to be, and now it was being taken away from her. Jim pulled up the blade, letting his time powers go into it, and brought it down on Gia's heart. She stopped moving immediately, her time destroyed.
Typo was having difficulties of his own, being surrounded by multiple time clones at the same time. His mind powers helped even things out as he tried to hit them in vulnerable locations in order to take them down easier. Every time he did he tried to take a little bit of the time in each body, not quite effective at it but coming close.
Smeareyes was having a field day. Every time the chakrams cut through a clone, they disappeared immediately and always screamed as it happened, as though their soul were being torn apart.
Vark was also holding her own, dancing and singing, using a little bit of the sound in her leg to temporarily disable some of the others. She was singing a song of heart and would use her energy to pull some of the clones to her before bringing her other paw around to go right through one of the clones. It was dirty, but it had to happen.
Every time a clone died, it seemed to melt into the earth.
Phynicxs was scared, bringing her daggers up to try and defend herself. And then an idea came to her as Kaotic dumped Jordan's body to the ground and walked over toward Phynicxs. She looked scared, trying to not show off that she had a simple plan. And when Kaotic got close enough, Phynicxs looked right into his eyes, Kaotic's body growing paralyzed for a moment before Phynicxs pulled the blood from Ying and Jordan's bodies, using the blood and forming it into tendrils, snaking it deep into the light on Kaotic's chest, who looked extremely curious and surprised. And Phynicxs pulled it out, grinning that maybe she'd win.
But it was just a tie. A very long tie. But just a tie. Phynicxs was struck with shock, before she started to deny it, but then an idea came to her, looking at Kaotic who was laughing and drawing attention. Phynicxs grabbed both ends, threw it over Kaotic's head, quickly twisted it, and pulled. Hard. Kaotic was so surprised he dropped his cue stick to the ground, his face already growing blue. He tried to untighten it, but Phynicxs was a force to be reckoned with, getting angry and pulling it even tighter as Kaotic was about to pass out. Phynicxs was aware you had to keep it tight until brain activity stopped - she wasn't stupid. But then she felt something pierce through her back. She tried to turn around and saw Jim grimacing before lopping off her head fast enough that Phynicxs was still trying to understand what just happened. Kaotic fell to the ground, wheezing, crawling over and absorbing Ying's time. Jim made his way over to Phynicxs who was about to black out, brought his blade up, focused on his time powers, and thrust it down through Phynicxs' face.
Typo was having a difficult time, normally only used to using a few aspects and/or abilities at once. But he needed to speed this up, catching sight of his falling friends. He uncaptchalogued the pinwheel, using the breath and sending it soaring through the time clones, using his subconscious to drive it as he absorbed the time from the dead ones before they could melt, his mind power playing tricks on the others.
Vark, Typo, and Smeareyes were the only ones left. Smeareyes saw the murder of Phynicxs and screamed, rage overcoming him. He sliced through the last few clones on his end and started running after Jim and Kaotic, who had picked up his cuestick. Kaotic shot rounds of lasers at Smeareyes but he either dodged them with ninja skills or swiped the chakrams across it, cutting them out from time. Jim seemed worried at this development and both enemies stepped back, Typo almost done on his end and Vark close to finishing up.
Smeareyes jumped into the air, putting away the chakrams and pulling out ten shuriken, sending them right at the two enemies, two or three of the shuriken hitting each other in order to bounce to a certain spot, Smeareyes' own battlefield tactics coming to mind. Smeareyes started flying and pulled out the chakrams again, getting up right close to them and starting to slash at them. Kaotic moved back multiple times and getting hit by a few shuriken, shooting lasers at Smeareyes who swiped them out of time.
Typo finished up and started going for the two time players, bringing the pinwheel close to him and throwing it at them. Jim and Kaotic were peppered with shuriken, nearly being taken out by them hitting the sweet spots. They jumped into the air to dodge the pinwheel and Vark flew up to them, starting to kick at them with lengthened strikes from her aspect. They didn't see this coming and were knocked out of the air. Smeareyes dived toward them and cut off their heads with the chakrams.
---
The Lord of Muse was growing impatient. And at the same time he was proud of the two time players before him. They were apologetic. And had they done anything less he would have removed them from service. To anyone. Permanently. Instead, he recognized their accomplishment. The current alpha timeline had dictated that the two would lose quickly due to not having enough power. But they had used their granted abilities - their godtiers - to change what was supposed to happen. Using the power the Lord of Muse had given them. They had nearly taken out four godtier players. Had it not been for the thief of muse. The Lord of Muse, though knowing who Typo was and was going to be, knew he would have to be taken out if the alpha timeline was to be successfully altered for Lord English (LE) to screw up the timeline enough to get in and ruin everything from the beginning, or the end. Whichever side LE chose to take. He sent them back to the world of the living with the instructions to find the other players that he had sent to do his will. Celestia and Luna having accomplished their session; although much different from the current version, had messed up everything. Sometimes knowledge was power. He was aware that Jim and Kaotic would be staying behind while the others went into the session, along with a hindrance and one of his other servants getting in to nearly screw up their session and keep it from being successful. It was time for the bad guys to win.
Ying was the first to speak, having been the one to read most about their planets' guaradians' history. He talked about how the angel of double death - whose name had been lost to time - broke reality in the game sessions by being the Lord of Time. How he had destroyed both time and space, much like a prince of time and a prince of space could do, but in his case he was on a whole other level than most players, as the details to his rise to power and the power itself being lost to time. He explained his theory about how the rogue of time and prince of time they had just fought were stealing their time and had broken their immortality to age. Thus sooner or later they would all grow old and die. Phynicxs came in, talking about how she wasn't sure you could get your time back once it was destroyed. This was pretty depressing for all - not just those who had successful sessions. The two enemies they had thought were masters of time and were able to destroy it through different means. Smeareyes took the chance to say th't that much power was hardly ever acquired based on the research that had been done by Rose Lalonde.
Typo was grimacing, taking it all in. Jordan seemed kind of shocked about all that had happened. Typo asked whether or not if they took the time of others they could have more time for themselves. Ying saw the line of thought Typo was going on and told him that it would be more honorable to die with dignity and love than it would be to die by another's hand just because he couldn't accept death.
Typo thought about this and realized maybe the reason he was willing to go to such measures because he felt like he still had something to accomplish. His mind wasn't completely changed, but he kept his thoughts to himself, just kind of stewing in it. Jordan cheered up, noticing Typo's discomfort and put an arm around him. "Don't worry, we'll accomplish everything we need to and then some." Typo nodded, taking a deep breath, and smiling.
Typo told them they were getting close to the area Gamarya was inhabiting. He told them what to expect, but even Typo wasn't prepared for how Gamarya had changed.
The area around them had been slowly healing ever since dealing with the statue, as though it had taken a large fragment out of Gamarya's power. Typo thanked Ying and Jordan for their help, took a deep breath, and walked into the still doom-infested areas, Jordan protecting them as usual, Typo occasionally using his pinwheel to cut up enhanced monsters.
It was time. They would either win or die trying. Typo mentioned that if anyone died here it would probably be a heroic death.
"You think you've mitigated my powers? You obviously have no clue who you're dealing with. Doom and law is everywhere, and soon it will destroy everyone and everything. There is no escaping your fate."
Jordan stepped forward. "YOU CAN ESCAPE YOUR FATE! YOU JUST HAVEN'T TRIED! I've seen laws and death overcome. I've seen people change - I've seen the work and the effort people have put into in changing things. And you are just another one of those things that needs to be changed, Gamarya!"
"So he's told you... It matters not. Only those who have mastery of their aspect can destroy it and rise above it. Everyone else will always be STUCK IN SQUARE ONE!"
"That's not true! You can do it if you have others with you - I won't stop believing! When you listen to your friends, they can help you in ways you've never seen because you never EVEN TRIED!"
Jordan was furious.
"Then let's see what you can accomplish, puny knight of life."
"GLADLY!" Typo stood next to him, putting an arm around his shoulder, feeling friendship for the first time in a long time. He looked into Jordan's eyes and saw himself. He saw a better self. He saw what he wanted to become, and he was sure this was something that he wanted.
"You'll be taking us both on, Gamarya. It's time you learned a valuable lesson about screwing with things."
"I doubt you can even HIT ME."
Auryie's mind powers flowed through Typo and he knew what was coming, causing him to yell “scatter!” But this time they were ahead of the game. Everyone went to different parts of the forest as lances of space spiked up out of the grounds everywhere a player had been standing, Jordan and Typo jumping away but staying together for the final fight. This is where it all leads up to - this is where it all ends even if that means their own end.
Gamarya's lord of doom powers coalesced into a single ball in front of him, before expanding and overlapping everything in the forest in a three mile radius. And he hadn't even broken a sweat.
"This is the time it counts the most Jordan, let's take this jackass out." Jordan nodded and the two friends rushed in, Gamarya smiling and bringing his cloak of void up and throwing it into the air, before it too started expanding, putting a sphere of void around the three participants while the others fought the forest and Gamarya's doom, some of them losing hope after seeing this much power in one shot. The forest turned deadly, and so did the creatures around. They would soon be losing their battles, the laws of doom wearing them down before they couldn't take anymore. Was there no changing fate?
Jordan ran at Gamarya, bringing up his artificial hand and using the telekinesis to pull Gamarya close, who was somewhat surprised as he was stabbed with a sword of doom that went right through him. "You seem to be forgetting that doom versus doom is a stalemate. Except for me." The lord of doom grabbed the sword and destroyed the laws, pushing the doom power back into Jordan from the sword which shoved him off his feet, grunting when he hit the thick void that was starting to creep in around them to hide Gamarya from light. Typo was getting worried. Together they were only four aspects, and all four of those were nearly useless against doom. What they needed was hope. But there was no hope. Typo brought out his pinwheel and started spinning it, getting ready for a long battle that they'd probably lose. Typo wasn't scared to die right now. He'd win or die trying.
---
Vark was singing and dancing, slapping away enemies and threats but being unable to kill them - her attacks just not quite strong enough for something like that. Even though her lyrics caused pause in creatures, and sometimes blew them away, she just wasn't powerful enough yet to do any massive damage. Even when she used her artificial leg, the sound spread out far, but it barely effected the creatures, as though they were breaking the laws inside of space and time. Vark started to back up, hitting the creatures back as much as she could, losing hope, and then she saw hope. A lighted hut in the middle of the forest. She ran to it, dancing still and forcing the other creatures and plants away from her as much as she could, getting tired.
When she got into the hut she noticed a person and a zebra huddled together against a wall. The room was as cold as an ice freezer. They were shivering. Vark's warmth entered the area as she sung and dance, the area pushing away some of the doom from the area. She went over to them and asked if they were alright. Within rhyme, Zecora stated she wasn't but was getting better. Vivere, wearing prince of space clothing, looked up and saw hope. "Did that lord of doom bring you here too?"
Vark said no and that her friends and her were actually fighting against him right now. The prince of space got up quickly, mentioning how Gamarya, having never gotten attention before or during his session tended to monologue a lot to his prisoners. He knew already what to tell her in order to get her moving and how to help defeat the lord of doom once and for all. He told her how all of the doom he spread was part of him in some way, and the more it was taken out the weaker he got. Vark was quick to pick up on the implication and wondered if there was hope after all. The prince of space, calling himself Vivere, told Zecora to stay here, who nodded and made a rhyming joke about how not moving was obvious considering her position.
Vivere went with Vark, who continued to sing and dance. Vivere picked her up and put her in a small pocket of void that he carried with him - having made it through destroying the space near him. Vark continued to sing and dance, bringing a little warmth to the area, but Vivere knew they probably wouldn't win without hope. Especially because Gamarya was so good at sticking to laws and destroying them at the same time.
---
Jordan started to get up, his veins pulsing with doom - more doom than he had ever felt before. He felt tainted, but he realized that it felt familiar. It reminded him of his old friend who had saved him. He got up, using the sword as support as Typo jumped around, throwing the pinwheel at Gamarya who just laughed and batted it away, causing it to stop spinning, as though nullifying the aspect. Jordan needed to win this. This was about right and truth. This was about life and balance. This was about surviving and caring. He ran forward, calling to Typo who brought the pinwheel around for Jordan to jump on, who did. He started spinning with the pinwheel, his sword stretched out. Gamarya laughed and Typo called upon his mind powers, forcing it out into the void and making it feel and seem like there were four Jordan's and four pinwheels as they spun about around Gamarya. Gamarya was getting a little worried, but used his space lances to stab Typo - one of them going through his heart. Typo cried out and called for Jordan, and was facing a dilemma. And as the pinwheel started to slow down, he did something new, using life and doom to split himself like a single-celled organism, one spinning and going to Gamarya while the other jumped at Typo. The Jordan near Typo hugged him and told him to focus on him with his thief of muse powers.
Typo focused, and felt the overflow of doom and life in his heart before his body fell apart, a new Typo coming out and bringing the pinwheel up as the other Jordan tried to slash Gamarya to pieces, though Gamarya seemed to be having fun with him. Gamarya didn't notice when the pinwheel started coming for him again, surprised when he saw it out of the corner of his eye. The thief of muse focused on the pinwheel harder than he ever had before, and put his mind into it at the same time. The pinwheel's breath powers radiating, the fighting Jordan getting the right idea and slashing his sword over the mind and muse of breath, before jumping at Gamarya one more time, slashing the air around him. The breath, doom, and life flowed together like old friends and surged into Gamarya who cried out as his doom powers were temporarily negated, life and breath so close together nullifying his own powers as the foreign doom from an old friend seeped into him.
Gamarya started flying backwards away from them before laughing.
"So persistent, but I doubt you'll be able to get past my full power."
Jordan was the first to realize what was going on as tendrils of void started to caress them. He voiced his concern to Typo as they readied for what Gamarya was going to pull out next.
"I guess that means we have a time limit, Jordan. Let's finish this fast or we'll all be part of the void."
Jordan nodded and ran forward, taking the initiative. Typo sighed, wondering if Jordan knew it was rarely wise to make the first move in a battle. If he kept being brash he'd probably end up getting himself killed. Permanently killed. Typo hurried after, throwing his pinwheel in front of him and towards Jordan who could sense it coming, and jumped, spinning in the air with sword out, and felt mind and doom caress him, his body destroying laws and combining with the pinwheel in his attempted strike, like a cross saw. Gamarya laughed and uncaptchalogued another weapon, this one being a purple swallow. Gamarya felt power fill him and thrust his hand out, blowing the pinwheel and Jordan away as the laws were reset by him. Gamarya cackled as Typo brought the pinwheel back and started to use mind powers in order to figure out what Gamarya was going to do next.
"Mind powers don't work on a master of doom, Typo." He chuckled, putting his hand up and twisting it around before closing into a fist and pulling it down, the doom around them obscuring possibilities and showing only death. Typo swore and jumped to the side as Gamarya came at him, slashing vertically as Gamarya's body started to redden. Gamarya's moves were quick - nearly impossibly quick - much like Chiri. Gamarya came at Typo who did a back flip and brought the swallow around and tried to cut open Typo's stomach. Typo fished for his pinwheel and tackled Gamarya who wasn't expecting it, bringing the pinwheel around to strike Gamarya in the back as Jordan snuck close. Gamarya was taken off guard and tried to push Typo off who held tight despite all the doom going into his body.
Jordan was fast as he jumped, keeping quiet and biting his lip, swiping the sword over the pinwheel and waiting for Gamarya to move.
Gamarya heard the pinwheel coming and threw himself back, Typo getting caught by the pinwheel as it careened with his head and nearly cut all the way through his skull before Typo stopped it, letting it fall to the ground. He screamed and Jordan brought the sword down and around, trying to split open Gamarya's skull. Gamarya laughed as it went through him, but then he felt his doom powers negate slightly, the doom from Jordan's sword coursing into him and hurting him. He pushed himself into the air, starting to fly, and did a backwards somersault in the air, throwing Typo off of him and blasting a beam of doom at Jordan who took the brunt of it, grunting, and hit the wall of void as it was starting to creep into Jordan's and Typo's souls and bodies.
Jordan chuckled, in pain. "Don't bosses normally take three hits?"
Typo laughed at the joke and responded, "I don't think we can consider this a boss, especially because we're not in the game right now."
Jordan sighed as Gamarya came close to them, readying to finish them off as he twirled his swallow of rage around, getting angrier by the second at those who would dare defy him and his power, as he brought forward his hand.
Jordan and Typo looked at each other knowingly and were ready for the pain, but not the death. Jordan closed his eyes and Typo kept them open, tears forming in his eyes, before closing them.
Gamarya pulled his hand back in a fist as lances of space grew up out of the void and stabbed the two heroes to death in one strike.
It was slow going, but they were almost there. They had nearly gotten all the others together as Vivere punched the space out of every monster, creating small points of void where he hit, destroying the space and leaving nothing in its place, which would have been a great rhyme for Zecora, Vivere noticed. Vark was helping out as much as possible, keeping the more dangerous ones away as the heroes dealt with the harder ones. It was amazing a fire hadn't started yet due to all the fire Gia had been spouting; although she occasionally looked deep inside herself, switching breaths via captchalogue cards using her breathKind specibus. Most of the breaths were "elemental," but she had one or two that could destroy an aspect, coming out from the dimensional gates her claws made before closing them, taking out as many creatures as she could.
The players that had gathered together weren't aware how they were going to destroy the doom itself, but they decided they'd figure that out when they were all together.
---
Jordan and Typo held hands even in death. Their friendship had grown; although looking back on it, it had been a fast transformation, happening over a total period of a few months. Jordan attributed that to Typo having closure with Auryie. Jordan thought long and hard as their powers coalesced between them before starting to trail away from them permanently - or at least until they made it to a dream bubble.
But a dream bubble isn't where they ended up. Jordan felt something grab the both of them, and it wasn't a physical sensation; although he was still thankful that it was neither void nor Gamarya who had done this. It's like their powers and their souls had been caught before they could go away. Auryie and Typo were working together, grabbing onto everything with mind, and Typo started drawing power from Jordan, both life and doom.
Gamarya was speechless as he watched the cloud of mind pulsate with power, before it split apart and reformed into the two players he had just killed, still holding hands. Jordan seemed confused, and looked over to the thief of muse, who smiled at him and told him it wasn't over yet. It was exactly as Jordan had told him - there was still so much more to do, and they would have the time in their lives to do that and more. They wouldn't be giving up so easily, but this time it was Typo who held them together.
If this were a really bad shipfic, they would have kissed and become romantically entwined in the heat of battle, but that's not how things work in reality.
Typo looked toward Gamarya, who was shocked speechless, and told him something that was absolutely corny, but he felt a power rise up within him. "You don't understand the power of friendship and working together. Who needs all of it when you can have more of it?" The question was a little confusing, but the point was clear.
Jordan picked up his blade, and Typo picked up his pinwheel. This was the final round.
---
Vivere and Vark had gotten the others out of trouble, and they were now huddled around each other with backs turned as they waited for the enemies to get closer. There seemed to be no end to them. Vivere thought about what he had seen so far, trying to think of something. He had seen that one of Ying's swords could put things in a stasis, and he had also seen Vark repel the power of doom with her cuteness and warmth. These were the only things he needed to know as he told Ying and Vark to get in the middle of the circle. He told Vark to start dancing and for Ying to start focusing on the power in his frozen flame sword. Vivere had decided that if they couldn't destroy the doom, they could at least freeze it until something could be done about it.
Before the mass chaos was about to ensue, Vivere told Vark to pull all the doom in that she could, to pull it all together in one area. Vark was shocked but Vivere pressed her, asking if she could do it. She nodded, starting to get an idea of what was going on due to Ying keeping his sword out. Vark started dancing around the circle, singing a song of togetherness.
The group started to fight, and Vark reached out with her powers, trying to use her cuteness to pull all of the aspect into herself, or at least around herself, condensing the power enough to where it formed an oval sphere above Ying's and her head. There were webbings of doom surrounding the oval sphere, connecting it to places where the doom was densest. It was stuck to the forest, and would probably be for a long time. As Vivere fought for his life, he shouted for Ying to stab the aspect in the air. He understood, and did so, hoping there wouldn't be any feedback hitting them considering they were in the area.
The block of frozen flame came quick, expanding from the sword and covering the entirety of the oval sphere. The creatures around them started to hiss, grasping their heads if they even had one, slowly falling to the ground, the power of doom either causing them to shed the skin of black doom or to become trapped in a frozen flame. The trees around cracked and creaked, as though twisting from the power. The stasis power from the sword expanded from the oval sphere and moved on over the neural-looking pathways that connected to other parts of the forest where the doom was dense.
There was a bright light as the power surged into the doom, temporarily blinding those who looked at it. Small parts of doom that had flecked off onto the heroes started to turn into stasis before falling off to the ground.
---
Jordan and Typo were ready to finish this even if it took their lives. They ran forward, holding hands and weapons tight.
Gamarya started screaming and held his head as the blackness around him started to thin. He looked up, seeing what was coming but unable to avoid it, having dropped his swallow and unable to call upon the lances of space. Typo thrust Jordan into the air and threw the pinwheel up so he could land on it. Typo started using mind powers, as the breath pinwheel circled around, before there were seven swirling typhoons of breath, life, and doom surrounding Gamarya who could do nothing. He cried out, pushing as much doom as he could out from him, which disabled the mind powers. But Jordan had already jumped at Gamarya, coming down from above. A kneeling Gamarya fell back onto his ass as Jordan screamed, bringing the sword down deep into Gamarya's gut, the breath and life and doom surging forward through the blade and into Gamarya, who started to convulse as the doom surrounding him shattered, before the doom crept into his veins and started killing him. Gamarya tried to get a hold of his powers, and even the power that Jordan had surged into him, but he couldn't. He felt too weak to change and destroy the law to make himself king of it all. Where had his power gone?
The cloak of void started to thin and disperse before it came back into the cloak and fell to the ground.
Typo swiped Gamarya's fallen captchalogue deck and went with Jordan to go see Gamarya in his final moments. He might destroy laws, but there was no way he was getting away from this one.
Or so Typo hoped.
The celebration had been intense. Typo felt like he had finally achieved something, maybe even repentance. He still felt a drive for power - still feeling helpless - but he knew he could count on his friends. Especially Jordan. The two had a long talk soon after the battle, helping each other with their own problems - getting through the effects of the past - and tried to help each other to stand, so to speak. They had talked a lot. The others were ecstatic and felt like they had just accomplished a divine purpose. Aranea was still out of the scene, but she occasionally came to Twilight for both help and to talk.
Typo felt like something was missing from the whole victory, and his fears would soon be confirmed. Especially because all the players knew that Gamarya was in a dream bubble somewhere - but who knew what he was doing? Typo hoped he was calming down.
In order to make sure Gamarya wouldn't be coming back to life, they had burned Gamarya's body. Typo felt bad about it, still considering Gamarya to be an old friend. But Jordan helped pull him out of the past, trying to get him to focus on the present, just like Typo tried to do for him. Neither could ever feel bad for long when they were in each other's company, occasionally screwing around and wrestling without any powers.
Zecora and Vivere had decided to go with the others into Ponyville due to the fact Zecora didn't feel very safe in her home right now. So she brought some items along with the help of Machine Whisperer and stayed with Twilight and Spike. Machine Whisperer had been studying and tinkering, and had given Zecora a strife specibus and a captchalogue deck. He wasn't aware of what kind of weapon to give Zecora, but Zecora seemed to have something in mind.
One day, many ponies and Typo had seen 3 fireballs coming down to the planet. He wasn't sure who they were and why they were here, but he ignored it for now, not wanting to admit he'd probably have to do more fighting in his life. Part of him still felt bad about killing Gamarya, even if Jordan had been the one to strike the final blow. Typo, not wanting the reminder, gave Gamarya's captchalogue deck to Ying, who decided to put it in his own captachlogue deck for safe keeping.
Kraine and DW were close to entering Ponyville and tried to find a guide. Who they found was Pinkie Pie, seemingly upbeat and cheerful - more than usual, which was most likely her still trying to live up to Rainbow Dash's expectations. It had affected her hard.
But before Kraine and DW could meet up with the others (who had told Pinkie who they were,) The three figures from before had come into Ponyville looking for a fight.
Typo felt their presence and grabbed Jordan to come with him, and saw Vivere along the way, who was taking a stroll in the town with Zecora. He took both of them, knowing a fight would soon be breaking out. He informed them of what he'd felt and they all pulled out their weapons, Vivere taking out a broken mirror. The others looked at him like he was crazy but he humphed and puffed out his chest.
When they got to the outskirts of Ponyville, next to Whitetail Wood, they saw the enemy.
Blaperile, in heir of life clothing, shook his head.
"He didn't tell us we'd be meeting resistance so soon."
Fate chuckled and pushed his glasses back up onto his nose. "You have to remember Blaper, we're destroying the alpha timeline."
Sight grinned. "Well, he seems to have alreay done a bang up job with that from what we've seen."
Blaper laughed. "Of course, of course." Blaper pulled out a laser gun from his captchalogue deck - Sight pulling out a bow and arrow - and Fate pulling out a tarot card deck. Blaperile positioned himself and spoke. "Ready to rumble, runts?"
Jordan glared, Typo getting a little taken aback and putting his hand on Jordan's shoulder for his own benefit, as though to give him strength. He finally pulled out his pinwheel and got ready, as did Vivere. Zecora took some steps back, shaking her head, and feeling fear course through her veins. And it brought something up to her that she had never felt before.
Zecora felt the air around her grow stale and cold, smoke rising up in front of her vision. But she could feel the area around her. She could feel the space - both empty and filled. It was a very weird feeling and it disconcerted her.
Vivere brought up his weapon, aiming it at Blaper who just seemed confused before light flushed out of it and started hitting his body. He jumped out of the way as he felt his face starting to decay and melt in certain places - exactly where the cracks had been. Jordan ran forward, letting out a war cry as Blaper aimed his laser at the mirror and fired, the laser hitting it and sending it into the past, making it useless as Vivere dropped it and it didn't even crack. Vivere was quick tucking it away and running at the others. Typo used his mind power and threw the pinwheel at Sight and Fate, controlling it and using his power of mind to make a dozen pinwheels around the real one; although it appeared to be randomly placed.
Zecora could tell what was going on and felt fear like she'd never felt before. She felt it leak off of her, and she realized that it was clouding the area around her.
Sight backed up and knocked the arrow, before firing it. It disappeared into dimensional space before Sight brought out two more, knocked, and fired. The first arrow had portaled at Jordan, who ducked as it appeared and brought up a vine with bark along it as a shield. The other one went for Typo who was surprised and got hit in the chest. The arrow disappeared, leaving a hole in him that started to bleed. Thankfully it hadn't hit an artery considering you're not supposed to remove objects from your body without a professional. Typo's pain caused the pinwheel to veer off course, going down into the dirt in front of Fate who seemed very nonchalant about the whole thing, as though he was aware of things others weren't.
Vivere was fast, going up straight and personal with Blaper, who couldn't fire his gun, having sensed the presence of the space arrow and ducking under it as it appeared. The pile of fists was too much for Blaper to take, every time he got hit the small part of his body turning into a black cloud. He tried to push Vivere away but was unable to.
The scholar of fate brought out a card. It was XIII, death. He threw it at Vivere who seemed to not even sense it. It hit him and he felt weak, falling to the ground on his knees and falling to his side, hyperventilating. His head was ready to burst from all the extra information that seemed to delve deep into his psyche.
Zecora screamed, and her emotions flowed, especially her fear. She galloped up, pulling one of the jars from her captchalogue deck and threw it at Fate. Fate didn't expect it as the jar crashed against him, releasing a torrent of acid that made him cry out, quickly eating through his clothing and damaging skin and muscle. He stepped back, noticing that Zecora was trapped in a cloud of void before that void grew and ate up Vivere, Jordan, and Typo, and then it expanded from there. Fate took out another tarot, the blindfold tarot, and used the sharp edges to cut into his skin, covering it in a little bit of his blood. He threw it into the void and cracks of light crackled in it as it started to become unstable. Zecora felt this and stood stock still, angling herself in such a way she appeared similar to an unicorn trying to cast a powerful spell. Zecora felt something inside of her awaken, her eyes going white as her natural leylines corresponding with her latent aspect. Her mind emptied, like meditation, and pushed. She pushed hard. But it wasn't at the level of a god tier. The cloud shattered as Vivere got up and enveloped Blaper, going at him like a berserker, fists striking flesh and destroying space. Sight was getting worried and took steps back, despite how calm Fate was, and started firing arrows at Vivere and Jordan who was going head to head with Fate. Typo brought out support by trying to hit Sight with the pinwheel, but he always seemed to be out of reach, Typo's mind powers not working against him.
Fate brought out another card, so durable that it hit Jordan's sword with a loud clang. Fate looked directly into his eyes, which completely unnerved Jordan. His expression changed, his bared teeth looking uncertain and his eyebrows raising. It was the bull card. The scholar of fate smiled and used his flying ability to put extra pressure on Jordan. He pushed his sword back and spun around, trying to chop through Jordan's waist, but he'd jumped backwards and fell into a backwards somersault, Fate's momentum carrying him forward. Jordan brought his legs up during his somersault, flinging Fate back.
Fate noticed from the corner of his eye that Zecora's eyes were still white, and even though there wasn't a cloud around her she seemed to be doing something still. Something that caused her mane and tail to frizzle, her black stripes glowing slightly.
Jordan came up onto his feet, pushing himself up into a jump and twisting around to meet Fate who came at him again. Their weapons met and met again, both unrelenting forces. Jordan wasn't one to give up, especially when he knew the consequences. Jordan started to gain ground, pushing Fate backwards towards Ponyville before he felt something jab into his back. Then two things. He cried out and fell forward, dropping his sword as he began to bleed from his back.
Fate smirked and was about to chop off Jordan's head before he could recover from the back attack. But a pinwheel went flying and clashed with the card. It sounded like a razor scraping against metal. Typo was aware that Sight was doing something else and brought his hand up, taking some of Jordan's power and forcing a thick vine to erupt from his other hand that went so fast it knocked Sight over.
Fate pulled out another card, seeing that Blaperile was having trouble with Vivere before taking out another card and throwing it toward Blaper. It was a cloud card. Blaper felt it coming and grabbed it, feeling his aspect strengthen. He brought both hands out as Vivere rushed him again and grew the grass around him, quickly tangling Vivere in it who cried out, trying to destroy the space and slowly getting out. Blaper looked to Fate who was battling a pinwheel and a sword, getting the message and running back. They hadn't expected to win, but they'd come close. And not only that, they had helped slow down the players and keeping them from talking with the Princesses as the alpha timeline deemed important.
Sight took the opportunity to fire four more arrows, two going to Jordan's back which Typo felt and had to deflect as two arrows hit him. He cried out and fell to the ground, more bleeding wounds. It wasn't much blood, but it was becoming enough to make him light-headed.
Sight fired one more arrow, this one going straight for the back of Jordan's skull. It pierced, and Jordan fell to the ground, his doom and life tearing apart his body so he could come out fresh. Fate took the moment to run away with Sight. Jordan was weary and made his way over to Typo who was in pain. Jordan's real hand glowed with heat and light, and he held it over Typo's wounds, slowly closing them over a period of a minute or two each. Vivere watched them get away as he struggled with the tangling grass, before Jordan helped by weakening the grass so he could get his hands free and "cut" himself out.
Zecora fell to the ground, completely spent.
And that's when Kraine spoke. "Nice moves there, kids."
Kraine smiled. "We've been looking for you all."
Jordan was first, captchaloguing his sword. "Who are you?"
Kraine brought her arms up over her chest. "Players just like you." She motioned at Doctor Whooves on her side. "We were told there were brave creatures around here that would make good players.
Jordan immediately thought of the ponies that he'd been adventuring with, and now Zecora displaying an aspect, putting two and two together. "Well, you came to the right place. There are at least 7 potential players here.
Kraine seemed confused. "Seven? Why isn't it an even number?" Jordan answered saying he didn't know - glitch maybe? Vivere hung Zecora over his back and told them that Zecora was most likely destined to be a player. He informed them of what he had learned about Machine Whisperer and how he seemed like he'd be a player, especially because he was technologically proficient. Jordan added that there was probably an eighth player, but she was dead. Getting an idea he explained about how Machine Whisperer had been found, and he figured he must be a substitute for Rainbow Dash.
This seemed to confuse Kraine further. She motioned for them to come with her, already knowing where Twilight lived. She pointed to Jordan and asked him if he could go get the others and bring them to the library. Jordan nodded, and focused on the ground underneath him, a giant flower blossoming with a symbol inside for transportalizer. And he was gone.
Kraine was leaning against a book case as the others told about everything that happened, and how Rainbow Dash had died even though she had shown the possibility of being a breath player. Kraine said this was either a glitch, or there were missing players. She had doubts that it was a glitch, because she'd heard some of the others' stories, and glitches don't just happen like that all the time. She looked up, gnawing on her lip as she thought about all the implications.
Machine Whisperer was asked to bring out his computers, and he smiled, pulling out nine computers. Kraine paid attention to small details, knowing that the game often gave hints about things - this was mostly notable in Skaia's clouds and the horrorterrors. She took out nine envelopes, all with server and player discs. DW started looking through them, trying to see time, being a lord of the aspect after all, and found that the future seemed to be cracking up. Like the alpha timeline was shaking all wibbly wobbly. He saw small visions of some of the players - a few of them he didn't recognize. But counting the ponies, excluding him and the godtier players, there were 10 players he counted. This made him decide to look deeper, but closer, and saw that Applejack had two computers. He informed them of this in his charismatic voice, and mentioned that following the alpha timeline was always for the best, as doomed timelines and doomed players often sprouted from the choice to leave the alpha timeline. Machine paired up every computer with an envelope, telling them that he'd try to make a tenth computer; although there was no tenth envelope.
Kraine seemed satisfied with this and let Applejack take two home.
---
Applejack's voice came from behind the door. "Not now Applebloom, I'm tryin' to figure out this fancy pantsy cockamamey device. Applebloom pouted, her two best friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looking down. Applejack had told them that she needed to focus on the devices she was given, and that she needed time to think of who the other player might be. Applebloom went off with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to the treehouse, in order to plot a way to see what all the hubbub was so recently. Their curiosity was even stronger because whenever she asked what happened to Rainbow Dash, they always told her she was on vacation.
Later in the night, while she finally decided to sleep, Applebloom went in and saw two white cards on the table with pink trim and back. The computer looked really fancy and practical at the same time. She got into the chair and put a hoof on the computer, trying to figure out what each somewhat-large button was for. She put a hoof on the captchalogue card and when she looked at it closely, flipping it around, her ears stood up on end when the computer disappeared, a picture of it appearing on the card. She almost squealed in excitement, never seeing anything like this before. She saw a second envelope on the desk, not knowing what it was, and tried to put that in the other card that was sitting out. And it happened. She almost squealed with absolute joy at this new toy. She carried the cards with her, not quite understanding, and intending to try to figure it out with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo in the morning before Applejack found it was gone. She giggled, putting a hoof over her mouth as she tried to only step on the floor boards that wouldn't creak. Applejack slept like a log.
In the early morning Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were quick to get away from their homes. Scootaloo was whizzing by on a scooter with her wings, pulling along a little wagon that Sweetie sat in. As soon as they got to the tree house, they were met with an excited Applebloom.
Applebloom informed them that she had spent some time taking the strange device apart, trying to figure things out that way, but was unable to do anything with it, and put it back together. They'd started the computer up and each tried to work it, having a difficult time. They tried at the VERY LEAST ten things to get it to display a different screen, but all were to no avail. Then Scootaloo piped up, "why don't we ask Cheerilee about it? She knows a lot about things, maybe she'd know how to work it!" Applebloom and Sweetie looked to each other and nodded, before looking back to Scoots and smiling. Applebloom recaptchalogued the computer and envelope and the trio were on their way to Cheerilee's house.
When they knocked on the door and Cheerliee answered, she looked like she'd woken up recently - wrinkles around her eyes and a cup of coffee around her hoof. She sighed, not wanting to deal with this right now. "Can it wait, children?" The trio looked toward each other and shook their heads. They were impatient and wanted to figure this out now.
Cheerilee welcomed them inside as she got another cup of coffee; although this time she made sure there was more caffeine in it, as well as a headache pill. "So what's the big rush that you three couldn't wait until later?"
Applebloom responded cheerily, telling her about the computer and cards - telling her everything she had learned (which wasn't much) - and brought the computer and envelopes out of it. Cheerilee recognized what it was, but was taken aback by how new, fancy, and technologically advanced it was. She had learned to work with big, bulky computers that had small screens, and this was piquing her curiosity. She still had a headache and asked them if they could come back later, and then she'd tell them about it. They looked sad, but agreed, after a little bit of complaining, and exited to try and do something to pass the time until later that afternoon, Applebloom happy that Applejack was sleeping in today.
Cheerilee opened it up and looked for the power button, which she found soon enough in the upper left corner. Her mane was frazzled and the caffeine was waking her up, but what drove her the most was her curiousity of this new computer. She looked over to the envelopes and opened them up, revealing two discs. This made her extremely curious as she fiddled around with the computer, typing in the right commands to get it started, and seemed as slow to get up and start as she was.
And then she started wondering where the trio of fillies had gotten this stuff from. She would have to confront them about it later. Right now she wanted to explore - especially this program called the Ponynet that Machine Whisperer had put on all the computers. She realized there wasn't much - the basic browser hosting a list of different sites that Machine Whisperer frequented, and visited those, surprised with the information contained within, but found that there weren't many other sites that she could get to; although the search engine had enabled her to find a few other things. It took about a minute for a page to load, but that gave her enough time to wind up for her day, thankful she intended to stay inside almost the entire day to get chores done.
Applejack was roused from her deep sleep by scratching on her window pane. She looked up, turned around and buried herself under the covers. It wouldn't stop though and she soon grew irritable. "WHAT IS IT!?" The owl was un-phased and had a small, thin scroll in his claw. Applejack grumbled and opened up the window, unfurled the letter, and grumpily threw in the trash before grabbing the captchalogue cards with the second computer and envelope, not noticing she was supposed to have two. She needed more sleep, considering she had been working hard the past month, the therapy slowly helping. She headed over to Twilight's post-haste.
---
Kraine asked where the second computer and envelope was. Applejack's eyes widened hugely before she embarrassingly said she lost it. Kraine told her not to worry, as things like this were common for Sgrub. Sburb? Fuck, whatever.
Twilight Sparkle and Kraine had called the meeting, deciding today was the day last night (especially because there were no meteors to be found; although they could just have not entered the portals yet) - there was no more waiting around. This had to happen now. Kraine had heard about Rainbow Dash and had decided that someone ought to bring Rainbow Dash's house in, just in case there was a glitch of some sort. Twilight decided Spike should be the envoy of this mission (especially since he was "the new Rainbow Dash"), choosing Gia to go with him. She put a cloud walking spell on both of them, and Spike was taken hold of and flown up to Rainbow Dash's house.
Twilight and Kraine looked at those were still there and started pairing them off. Kraine seemed troubled about the lack of meteors, and was uncertain if this meant something would be wrong with the game, they were going to fail getting in, or that it was just going to take a little time.
The players weren't necessarily happy with who they were paired with, but they went along with it.
Seeing as Aranea had probably been sent here for a purpose, despite being doomed, Kraine and Twilight paired her with Applejack, as hope and light were similar to each other in some ways. Pinkie was paired with Ying - both being space players and figuring they'd be able to help each other. Vivere was paired with Zecora, as Vivere could destroy space and Zecora was apparently a void player. Twilight Sparkle paired up with Phynicxs, figuring that since they both preferred to help friends more often than their selves, they would make a pretty good team, working together to get stuff done. Typo was relieved when he didn't need to team up with Rarity, and Smeareyes had actually decided to team up with her, as they figured rage powers and heart powers, as weak as her powers were, would be similar enough that they could work with each other. Especially since one of them was a seer and would be able to see these things. Typo, as much as he didn't want to be, was paired up with Machine Whisperer. They both weren't sure about this and wondered if it would make the game harder. And finally, Vark was paired with Fluttershy. Vark was very unhappy about this, but took solace in the idea that she might be able to liven her up more. Maybe do some karaoke together, do a little DDR with her, and maybe she'd find good songs and open up and be less shy without being a meanie mean-pants.
As it appeared there was going to be at least one more player, Jordan was kept in reserve, and would try to find the other player and pair up with him or her. Applejack mentioned that Applebloom had probably taken the extras and decided that he should ask her first.
Kraine decided to stay behind with DW to see that, if there were any meteors coming, if they could try to slow it down if not stop it completely. They didn't really like the loss of life, and both felt they'd be more integral here than in another session, deciding that the others would be more likely to be of help.
Finding one of the cutie mark crusaders had been easy. Sweetie Belle was looking into the library as the pairs filtered out, nervous and excited for the upcoming "game." When Jordan came out, he recognized Sweetie Belle and went over to her, asking if she knew where the black machine was and an envelope. Sweetie gasped and ran away, afraid she was in trouble. Jordan would have let her run away, but he was feeling a little impatient, wanting to get the game started as soon as possible. He used his life powers, a vine breaking out of the cobblestone and wrapping around Sweetie's legs, causing her to fall foward onto her stomach, "oof!" The filly's voice was high and a little nervous as she looked back. Jordan looked a little fierce at the moment, which scared the crap out of Sweetie, which some would hope was literal, but it really wasn't. Jordan kneeled down beside her and asked again, slowly, if she knew where the items were, having assumed she must definitely be guilty of something if she had to run away. Sweetie looked to the side, then to Jordan and whispered.
"I can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because I'll get in trouble."
Jordan smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. But this is very important. I need to find these items."
Sweetie looked down, feeling defeated, and a little calmer. "Promise?"
Jordan did the Pinkie Pie swear, making the motions - cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Sweetie seemed relieved and Jordan let her up. Sweetie informed him that they'd taken the computer to Cheerilee's house so that hopefully she could figure it out. She said that when they'd checked on her she'd asked for a little longer, seemingly focused intensely on the screen. Sweetie said she seemed to be reading something, but didn't want to bother her too much, believing she'd show them how to use it soon.
Jordan nodded and asked Sweetie if she could show him where Cheerilee's house was.
When they got there, Jordan knocked on the door. "Just a minute!"
When she opened the door, her jaw hung slack, recognizing the human before her as being one that occasionally wandered around town, seeming to enjoy everything the place had to offer, as though he'd been deprived of it somehow. Cheerilee instantly smiled, brightening up now that it was later in the day off, and welcomed him inside. When Jordan came in, he saw the computer and asked her about it, noticing the envelope was already open. He was surprised at this, and before he could stop himself he asked what she had been doing.
Cheerilee, not getting the hint, just spoke. "Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo brought it to me today. I know it's a computer - I've dealt with one before - but this is so far advanced I was taken aback at first. But after learning through it, I started finding interesting things, one of which was this "web," thing, and how she'd found information on it, and when she typed in the name of the CDs in the envelopes, she had gotten a whole... Walkthrough? Yeah, that word worked. That was the word used. She told him that she'd found a walkthrough of the envelope, and had been slowly learning about it over time, figuring out it was very dangerous and was coming to the conclusion that she ought to store it safely away, if what the site said was true.
Jordan listened intently, nodding along, and told her that the game was meant to create a new universe. She told him she'd already figured that out, but due to the fact the meteors started when the game does, she didn't think it was a good idea to start it. Jordan informed her how the meteors come either way, which shocked her.
They started discussing the game and what it involved, Jordan using his own experience to help explain it. Cheerilee took to it quickly, and when Jordan told her his friends intended to enter the game in order to make a new session and hopefully a new universe through those brave enough to face the game, Cheerilee decided that she should be there, thinking that her presence would help. Jordan smiled at this, going with his gut instinct and the first thing that came across, figuring this was one of the players. He told her to install the game, and walked her through it, as she had never tried something like that before and wasn't sure how. Sweetie had long since left as Jordan pulled out an extra strife specibus and gave it to her. He explained to her what it was and what it did, giving her a captchalogue card with it. Cheerilee was about to start gathering supplies for the game, but Jordan laughed and told her it wouldn't be necessary.
Impy-looking Rocs controlled the air-space for the most part. That was, until Rainbow Dash came zooming out to take care of the overgrowth. She had rainbow blades on her wings, cutting through enemies as she went fast, occasionally shooting a breath of air at an enemy to confuse/disorient and occasionally cripple her enemies. She was a knight of breath, and over the course of a year, she had grown a little, especially the look in her eyes. She seemed more intelligent, and more balanced - having taken on the attributes normally obtained by war vets. Her calmness and calculations were quick and precise, using the constantly changing wind on her planet to swirl around, do tricks while taking out her enemies. It had always been fun, and it was something she did to pass the time. Her land was the land of clouds and castles - the castles which often held pink turtles, often making her think of Tank - and just as often missing him. It got to the point where she missed him so much - not to mention her home and friends - that she would often get moving, sometimes dampening the pain by reading a good book. Speed never got old, and she loved it as much as she did in Equestria. But she had taken some time to read some of the books, learning some things that were hard to accept for awhile. She had been waiting for her friends to enter the medium, but she knew just as well that it was going to be null due to the fact she had died. She wasn't supposed to die. But she did. It angered her that through a variety of means, they had been tricked, and they were on their way to a loss. Rainbow Dash hated losing, and every time she thought about it she closed her eyes tightly and flew faster, taking out as many enemies as she could. Her breath powers weren't that powerful yet - especially because she liked to rely on the natural breath and wind to carry her instead of carrying herself. Flying with the game's system wasn't as fun as flying on her own. She had on the clothing of a knight of breath; although there were no pants; although the cape covered her flank. She always had the hood off, not liking the way it looked on her - it just wasn't cool enough.
Rainbow Dash felt someone coming up beside her and took a glance. It was Selcouth, collecting the simple grist that was dropped. He had also been the one to make Rainbow's blades - using his compact, portable alchemization machine. Rainbow Dash greeted him. Selcouth wore the clothing of a knight of mind. He had shown her a fraction of her powers in order to get her to agree to dying in her quest stable. His most common mind usage was blocking dangerous thoughts and dangerous plans from the enemy's mind. It worked best on underlings, and he was still training himself. When Selcouth, an ex-treasure hunter and current coach, came to this medium following the maps with cracked pieces of reality, he had decided to help her out, confused that there had been only one planet, and that Rainbow Dash had no gates despite the fact she was in the game and her planet was spaced properly from Skaia.
Rainbow Dash had awakened on Prospit after she had died, and quickly explored, shedding her lame dreamself clothing. She had talked to various prospitians to figure out where she was and why she was here, and got answers over a period of time, one of those answers directing her to her planet. The food here was terrible.
When Selcouth had found RD, he'd almost immediately taken her under his wing, while at the same time poking fun at her name - Rainbow Dash doing the same thing to him. The name-amusement was mutual, and often hearing the name would send RD into a fit of laughter. Something that never changed. The same thing applied to Selcouth. Because of this, in order to get things done, they had decided to stop calling each other by name and made nicknames for themselves. Selcouth had become Sleuth and RD had become Prism. Both were still somewhat silly, but they liked the names.
Sleuth got closer to Prism and he shouted over the wind to her, telling her that the time was coming. Prism had been looking forward to this after the first time she saw the battlefield, as simple as it had been then. The clouds had shown her things that the others had done occasionally and were going to do, and she loved the eclipses - staying in her Prospit room to watch them. The images were always cool; although now she knew that most of those visions had been of the alpha timeline, and due to that, things were significantly different - or likely to be significantly different. Prism knew there was something going on, but didn't know who was behind it yet. It confused her and angered her, using that motivation to get moving. She'd had to give up on her dreams, but she had a new one now. One that involved power and protection. She was still a soldier at heart, always going in the direction of her heart.
Spike sighed as he was carried by Gia, feeling a little emasculated at having to be carried. He'd get wings! Someday. Maybe.
When they got to Rainbow's house, he remembered about Tank and was worried about the tortoise. When he went inside and found him, he was already dead - probably from a broken heart, seeing as Rainbow Dash had set up a way for him to get food easily seeing as she often forgot to feed him. Spike was distraught and looked around. Gia put a claw on his shoulder, telling him to relax. Gia was used to this sort of thing, and knew what it would probably do to Spike. She picked him up and gave a hug, letting him know it was alright to cry for a lost friend. Spike consented, but within ten to twenty seconds had wiped away his tears and brought his will up. He was weak, but he'd get stronger. He brought out the computer he had been given and gave Twilight the bad news, who was shocked. Don't kill the messenger.
Twilight nodded, thinking, and telling him to get ready to start the game. He'd be the first one in, and he'd be prototyping first. Spike followed the instructions he had been given with a heavy heart. Spike went to go look for something cool to prototype with and came across RD's old shadow bolt costume from Nightmare Night, and decided this'd be cool enough. When he got downstairs, Twilight was already throwing things around, giving him the instructions, Gia helping with the prototyping, who didn't know RD would have issues with turtle/shadowbolt-looking enemies. Spike was quick to get everything ready, ending with him making the entry item. His pupils dilated when he saw it.
Twilight was surprised how her fear of the stations being deployed hadn't come true - in fact, it's like the machines were ready for these kind of surroundings.
Spike looked at the gold-shimmering white diamond. It had his reflection, and he could see inside himself. Who he was and what he wanted, and how easily he could fall prey to greed. He didn't know whether to destroy it or eat it. It was so beautiful - such a rare-looking treasure - much better than the fire ruby he was saving - and he wanted to keep it for his own hoard. He started growing slightly taller before Gia wrapped him in a big hug, her sylph of heart and mind powers aiding Spike in his decision. He couldn't keep the light to himself, and crushed the gold-shining diamond, which seemed to break like rotting wood. He looked at the many pieces, and wanted to keep them all for himself, but he gathered them all up, deciding to give them to his friends as good luck charms. He kept one for himself, patting the captchalogue card he kept it in, and put the other shards in another after giving one to Gia, who took it with thanks. The home made of clouds disappeared from Equestria.
Twilight and Phynicxs, as they watched, were curious about how no meteors had shown up yet - especially after Spike told her there hadn't been a countdown. Kraine and DW had been expecting something to go wrong, but they didn't know what, considering the questionable nature of what was going on here. Twilight messaged them about it, and they told her to relax and get everyone into the session. They'd be staying behind after all.
Twilight sent another message - this one to Jordan - who received it and gave them the A-OK after telling them Cheerilee would be joining them. This confused Twilight, having not expected her of all ponies. Derpy? Maybe. But Cheerilee? That made almost no sense. She barely even knew the teacher. Twilight sent one more message, this one to Pinkie, telling Ying and her to get ready.
Prism looked from the highest point of Prospit and squealed with excitement and joy when she saw another planet come into existence in front of her. Until the shock of information hit her like a brick. It felt like she'd been there before - checked things out - but didn't remember much of it other than the terrain, apparently having mapped it out much like Daring Do using her breath powers to control her writing implement. It hurt pretty bad and she grabbed onto her head. It was weird knowing that the planet had only just now appeared, but it's like she gained memories that weren't hers that blatantly said that this planet had been there the whole time. And one new piece of information that she couldn't've figured out until now. Her house was on that planet. Prism was about to rush off but Sleuth held her back, telling her that if she interfered she might interrupt the game's start. She would have to wait until everyone was in. Prism sighed, defeated, realizing that this wasn't the first time she'd almost gone off the alpha timeline. The original one that was only about good things. Prism grumbled and started polishing her wing blades and sharpening them using her breath powers to hold things, as she thought about changing her name to Prism officially.
Land of Towers and Treasure.
Spike was amazed. There was treasure littered everywhere, and a few of the towers were made from treasure. His eyes diluted and he salivated a little, while at the same time wanting to hoard all of it. This was his. Gia put her claw on Spike again, trying to calm him down before he did something he'd regret. He was thankful right now to have Gia there to calm him down and bring him back, but had a feeling sooner or later he was going to be on his own. Rainbow Dash's cloud house was much like a small tower.
Most of the ground was some form of mud, be it wet or dry, and Spike was pretty certain at least a few of them would turn into sinkholes. Meaning he'd have to be careful and in control at all times. Gia let the sprite talk to Spike as he looked back to her. ShadowboltTanksprite informed him of how a dark half and a light have of the sprites always split so that one could go to a prospit tower and the other to a derse tower. He didn't explain any more of that and just wanted to find Rainbow Dash, knowing that she was here in the session, even if he kept that information to himself. He'd find her soon, he felt.
Gia started explaining a little bit of what Derse was and what Prospit was in words he could easily understand. Spike was torn between exploring and being responsible, and with Gia's help did the responsible thing, contacting Twilight and telling her the jump was successful. Twilight told him to make notes on what he could see.
---
Sleuth was doing a little scouting on the new arrivals in a very subtle way before he heard two voices and looked over. They were getting close, and they seemed to be closing in on Prism's planet. One of them was leading, the other following, and the guy behind the leader's voice was mostly the one. Sleuth hurried to Prism and told her what was happening. He wasn't sure if they were good guys or bad guys, but they were going to find out before they tried to mess up the session. Prism and Sleuth hurried.
Snowskeeper was the one in front, and had the attire of a Gent of Change.
Snowskeeper pulled out two pistols from holsters and held them at the ready. "Hey there! We're looking for a fellow named Rainbow Dash, have you seen her?" He seemed extremely peppy and cheery. Sleuth got into a ready position and Prism glared at them. The one behind Snowskeeper kept his mouth shut for a bit.
"Why?"
"Oh, I don't know... Maybe we want to make friends with her?" The statement/question was dripping with sarcasm.
"She's not here. Be gone with you." Sleuth moved forward a little.
Obviously Snowskeeper already knew who she was and whispered to the one next to him, calling him Lunacy. Lunacy nodded and brought his hands up. He wore very unfamiliar clothing, but you could tell it was godtier. The guy started shouting obscenties, sarcasm, ignorance, and rage. The words and voice made the area around them pulsate harshly, green-looking glowing wires starting to show itself around them, as though something were revealing the game. It sounded like gears were having a hard time turning. Prism and Sleuth covered their ears before Lunacy shot two digital-looking spider webs at Sleuth and Prism. They hadn't been expecting it and got caught quick. Sleuth was quick to react as he saw Snows rage, coming at them and about to shoot at him. He focused on his powers, and surged it into Snows and Lunacy. Both floated stock still, as though their memories had been wiped. But Snows was about to get going before Lunacy yelled and rushed at Prism with a knife. Sleuth couldn't get to her and shouted. "NO!"
Prism struggled against the binds, and used her breath powers to shoot air bullets through the net at Lunacy. The breath was torn up just as it exited her mouth. What did she have all the worst luck? She struggled and Lunacy brought the knife up, Snows slowly remembering what he was doing and rushed over to make sure Prism's death was permanent. Lunacy seemed to have a problem with those he didn't like, and quickly proved that fact on Prism.
It was not pretty.
A flash of light appeared behind them. It was unicorn, dressed in rogue of time clothing that fit her well. Her horn stuck out of the hood, and it gathered power, drawing it from the enemy, and shot two bolts of lightning that struck their marks. Lunacy and Snowskeeper were surprised, as a few other ponies started to come through - not to mention other players. Prism was supposed to survive if they had any chance of beating the big bad, and then with Twilight's help, things were mostly restored - but the future for the current players looked bleak even still. As the two ran away, not wanting to deal with this outnumbered situation, Fluttershy came over and used her power to destroy the nets. Prism wasn't looking very good at the moment. That much was certain. Fluttershy, before going off with the rest who were headed deeper into Paradox Space, told Sleuth to go to the Land of Fusion and Mechanics. They'd be in soon. She pointed in the direction the planet would be in and rushed off, as if they had more they needed to do.
Sleuth pulled out his syringe of life (one of a few syringes he used - the others mostly for the administration of chemicals,) and shot it into Prism, who woke up and her wounds healed so she wouldn't bleed to death, but she was missing some pieces still. She almost screamed, but instead sighed and asked why this always happened to her, implying something similar had happened before but with less limb loss. Not wanting to torture Prism, Sleuth immediately put her to sleep and carried her to the place Fluttershy had pointed.
There was a huge sound behind them. Like an explosion, but deeper. Startled, Sleuth looked behind him as he hurried across space to get to where the planet was supposed to be. And what he saw startled him beyond recognition. He had never seen ANYTHING like this before, and had never even READ of anything like it. As far as he knew this was a completely new game aspect, and he had a feeling that this was a bad omen.
Prism's planet had just imploded on itself. There were faint screams as the planet's imploded corpse started to flicker and waver, before slowly deteriorating. A number of white portals started appearing that ran to Skaia as the space around the planet's spot pulsated and started to grind, as though something like this wasn't supposed to happen. The planet that came into space was completely black. It camouflaged with the space around it so much it's like it wasn't even there. If it weren't for the portals and the small mountain peek that poked up out of the darkness with a solitary house imbedded into the mountain. The whole thing took Sleuth's breath away, and felt fear like he'd never known before. What the hell was going on? Occasionally the planet pulsated with wire-looking rainbow colors that covered the entire planet. But it was at least a minute between each pulsation, as though the thing was alive.
Twilight messaged Pinkie, asking if she was ready. She gave the A-OK and giggled happily. Games were fun. And even if there was a lot of sadness, she wasn't going to be down about this. You had to be positive and accept what you couldn't change. She had learned that, and went on smiling anyway, leaving the grieving for a proper time and keeping the pity out of her way. She'd go far.
Ying was ready too, giving Pinkie good placement locations for all the items. Twilight was thinking about what to put in the kernelsprite when she spotted a snake. She cried out, dancing on her hoofsies and screamed to get rid of it. The snake wasn't going anywhere near her, and Phy crossed her arms over her chest and told her to calm down. Owlowicious however had other plans. He swooped down and picked the snake up into his beak, and cracked the snake's neck. Twilight had a looked appalled and relieved at the same time. It was a weird expression. The kernelsprite was gravitating towards Owlowicious, and Phy saw this, before yanking the snake out and throwing it into the kernelsprite before Owlowicious could be considered doomed. It was a reflex really. And Twilight gasped and started crying when she realized what this prototyping meant. Snake enemies, and a snake sprite. She laid down and buried her eyes with her hooves, trying to will it away. But it wouldn't. Phy could tell how upset this made her and made a note to try and help Twilight with her phobia later - it seemed like one of the few things that made her irrational. Phy would have to help her with that. She tried to quiet her down, letting her know that she would be close by at all times, and to try and think of a way to make this better.
Twilight thought for a few minutes, glad there was no countdown, and decided to prototype Smarty Pants, her old plushie. It'd be a weird combination, but maybe it'd help. Phynicxs liked Smarty Pants' mane.
When she put it in, the change was fascinating for her - which was good because she'd soon end up having to have a small breakdown when things weren't making sense. Smarty Pants talked, but hissed a lot. His lower body was covered with a pant leg, and a snake's tail came out of it. Smarty Pants' button eyes now had yellow inside the horizontal holes, but in the vertical hole was a slitted pupil. Twilight studied it from all angles, Phy deciding not to tamper with it right now and made her entry item.
Twilight Sparkle was confused. It was a list of things she had to do. And oddly enough, all of the things listed were things she had yesterday decided to do for today. She was confused, but Pinkie seemed to get it right away, texting her. Phy saw it and drew Twilight's attention to the text.
"Silly filly Twilight, this is a symbol of your growth. You need to learn to listen to your emotions sometimes. You have to learn to do what your heart says. Twilight considered this, and realized what she had to do, and would have been a bit curious had she not known Pinkie for her occasional wise insights. She picked the page up with her magic and tore it to shreds, a part of her dying inside. She had to close her eyes, but when it was over, she felt relieved, and oddly free.
Land of Homework and Horns.
Twilight was speechless as she came out of her tree house, Phynicxs following soon after. it was kind of amazing. There were so many materials and equipment, all of which exuded homework and practice. Physical, mental, and spiritual. Strangely, there were mushroom-like horns growing everywhere and on everything. Her eyes widened and she felt really excited, but Phynicxs told her to calm down for a bit. The worlds were a big part of the game, but they weren't the main thing. Phy told Twilight she could go through it later.
One of the more curious things, other than the tons of unicorn horns (which as she thought about it, upset Twilight greatly,) was that there were tons of stopped clocks around the area - possibly more clocks than practice things. And in the distance, despite the fog that she figured would end up becoming important later. She had a feeling she knew what it was, and it was giant. It looked completely flat though, like a cone. She realized though that it looked a lot like Celestia's horn. She asked Phynicxs about this and she shrugged, figuring since she was most likely a time player that it would be the beat mesa; although she mentioned it wasn't like one she had ever heard about or seen. But the size of it reminded her a lot of a beat mesa.
Twilight was going to have a field day, but first she needed to check on Spike as Owlowicious went flying around the area.
After checking on Spike and building RD's house a little with grist Spike was starting to collect, and seemed to need Gia there with him at all times to help keep his greed from growing. Gia was aware that soon he would need to learn to control his greed on his own if he was to ever master his classpect, and use his hidden potential to its fullest. She had learned from shadowTanksprite, who wandered around the house, desperately wanting RD to come home, that Spike was the Page of Light. It was suitable seeing as fortune made him stronger and made him grow more. But Spike had a long ways to go before he could handle himself, and Gia felt like that was why she was there. To help him and teach him and make him more powerful than Spike could ever imagine.
Twilight was getting giddy and hadn't checked the are around them much. She asked Phynicxs if she could fly her up a ways and use her telekinesis to hold and use her telescope. Phynicxs said that was something she couldn't do, after trying. The game was making her get to where she needed to go on her own, even if she had help and protection in case things went south. Twilight was disappointed, but brought her telescope out anyway, and looked at the black expanse around them. Looking up she saw Skaia above her and was captivated by its beauty, having not woken up yet on Prospit. She could feel so much powerful potential hidden deep within Skaia, but at the same time, as she looked at the clouds, she had a very ominous feeling that something was deeply wrong, but she didn't know what. And then she saw that there was no orbitting. Things were pretty much in the same place all the time. Twilight Sparkle was confused at first, then started to panic, being at the right angle to see Spike's planet. She started to get more and more panicked. Phynicxs was quick to come over, and used her blood powers to strengthen their bond so that she could help Twilight more easily. And she did, telling her calmly how things worked differently here, and instead of thinking of it as her world, she should try to think of it as a completely new experience and universe that, over time, she would need to catalogue. Twilight nodded and started to grow a smile, but Phynicxs stopped her, telling her now wasn't the time.
---
During the time the others were starting to enter their sessions, Machine was working with Typo, asking him about the medium and if the ponynet would be able to cross dimensional boundaries. Typo face-palmed and rolled his eyes to the right. Machine wasn't aware there were ponies already talking through the chat system he had developed - Neighcamaraderie. Typo thought it was a stupid name, crossing his arms over his chest. Typo felt this would probably take awhile.
Pinkie was next, and she was excited - so, so excited. She was bouncing around the room as Ying tried to get her to focus, but to little avail. Finally he mentioned RD and how she should not be ONLY happy, that this was important and something RD would have expected of her. Pinkie calmed down almost immediately at that, feeling a little sad, but getting determined at the same time. She started messaging Applejack. Telling her she was ready.
Applejack decided to take care of Pinkie's entrance where she was, out in the huge apple orchard. Aranea helped her through the details and Pinkie would enter soon.
Pinkie's entrance was somewhat uneventful, and was taking Gummy in with her despite Ying's advice. Pinkie ended up prototyping an impossibly huge ball with candy inside it - Ying wasn't sure how she had kept it in such a small drawer, and was assured that Pinkie was definitely an Heir of Space.
To enter the game, which she did excitedly, was to break a pinata of herself. The pinata looked extremely sad, and connected to it were a few items that looked like they came straight from Sugarcube Corner. She had reservations, feeling bad about this, as though she was destroying a part of herself so she could move forward. Like self-sacrifice. But Ying told her to cheer up, that stuff like pinatas wouldn't come often in a game like this, and that she should stick true to her virtue, laughter, and get through it with fun than to let it get her down.
Feeling like she was destroying a piece of herself for others she had to grin and bare it, bringing her will up so much that she started to have fun with it. She was happy Gummy would be coming with her and happy that her large stores of candy would be too. The top half of Sugarcube corner transported off into the game. Bizarrely, it looked like Sugarcube Corner had a lower ceiling on it, and the top part, when it got into the game, seemed to have become a building all on its own.
The Land of Parties and Frogs.
There were buildings everywhere, each with loud music throbbing in them. She was right in the middle of a village. There was a lot of snow around - Pinkie loved the snow so much and started jumping around in it, molding it so that it made her a beard. She'd be a little busy, and Ying figured she deserved some fun time. It helped that watching her made him want to play too, and eventually she joined her in a snowball fight, some of the aspects coming through during their intense game, Pinkie never noticing the volcano on her land, which was attached to where the cloning pool had once been, the strip of land that had come with her appearing unusual compared to everything else, sticking out like a sore thumb.
---
Applejack was really worried about this whole game dealie thing and had her reservations about it. Mostly because she didn't know if she'd ever see her family again. Aranea talked with her, trying to help her see the light, and when she mentioned her problems, Aranea brought up two points. One, there were no meteors yet, and no one was telling them to hurry. Not only that, but she also informed Applejack that anyone in the house would be taken with. Applejack seemed relieved, but then Aranea informed her that others who enter the game don't normally survive. It's just about the players in the session, nothing and no one more. Aranea believed that she was still doomed, and that this is when she would die. But if she died, she would die doing the thing she loved most. Helping. She would make sure these players would be strong enough to take on any threat, even if they had to leave their home in order to have a chance at it. She knew that there might not be a way to return to this planet other than exile - but that was pretty much a bad idea on all the levels. All of them. Applejack sighed, but then smiled, hope renewing in her that by doing this, she may end up being able to help many universes by making an attempt to take out the Lord of Muse and foil his plans. Applejack felt ready for anything, and decided she'd probably send her family to go to Appleoosa or something, in the hopes that they'd be safe.
Applejack, upon seeing her kernelsprite, knew exactly what she was going to do with the first prototyping, and would figure out the second after entering. The first prototyping was integral, as she had been told. She had contacted Rarity, and guided her to the right tree that was completely bare except for a few really bad-looking apples. Completely unripe and looked as though they were completely bruised and about ready to die. Applejack explained that this tree had been there for so long, but no one in the family had wanted to chop it down in the hope that maybe someday it would prove completely useful.
Other than second thoughts, the entrance would end up going smoothly, Applejack having to buck an apple out of the tree and eat it. It was simple and straightforward, Aranea explaining that she had already grown up for the most part and there wasn't much more for her to learn, as she knew most of it already. And that was reflected in what she had to do. Probably the only things she'd need help with were her parents and homesickness among other things, as well as someone to keep the light on for her in her development to become a godtier. Aranea would stay there for her, and she would help her through this. That's how it had to be. That's how it was supposed to be. And that's when Applejack heard the bark as Winona came up the stairs, looking back at her open door with a shocked look and started to say "NO!" as her house was transported to the game through Rarity's help - who had put the deployments in such elegant places that even Applejack was impressed with how she had rearranged everything to fit, despite how cluttered she could've sworn it was. Aranea saw it and thought Rarity could easily be a space player considering her talent at organizing space, while Twilight was skilled at organizing her time spent doing things.
The Land of Integrity and Lies.
Applejack was about to cry at the implications
Applejack's planet was filled to the brim with consorts. It was as crowded here as Japan was on Earth. It reminded her of family reunions, because of how much family she had. But even then her eyes were wide and surprised as she took on the scope of it into her mind. The consorts were rats. Some were dark furred and others were light furred. Everything on her planet seemed extremely sturdy - much sturdier than the Apple farm house. But there was also something else. It was the life. It spread everywhere almost in spite of the rats.
---
In the recent past, but not far.
The inside of Gilda's home - so close to the other Griffons - was filled with players. She was happy that she'd had rich parents and such a big house, otherwise no one would fit. Chiri was paying close attention to his computer on the table, using his hacking equipment to mess with the game, destroying certain lines of code and breaking the rules and messing with them to force them to pick up on a certain signal when installed, so that they'd be able to connect to the signal given off by the ponies. Arrus, the witch of rage, was standing next to him, watching in silence. She had been given the idea in a dream by the lord of muse, and she was relaying the idea to Chiri, who had to move a lot of the game's components in order to make room for his additions. He was very efficient with computers and programs, and knew how to bypass them. After all, he'd been the one to hack the game and make it more available on his own planet in the first place.
The others were relaxing and getting ready for the session, some of them sparring. Chiri called Gilda over and told her it was ready, and that she would be able to deploy her own objects. The disc was like a void now, with components taken out and components put into it. It was like Frankenstein's monster in game form. He was proud of his work; although it had been hard and taken him a lot of time, he had accomplished it, wondering if there were other ways he could test his skill.
Gilda's game was rigged to take the place of one of the ponies' planets and destroy it to make way for her own entrance. None of them would suspect a thing. Chiri's designs ultimately glitched the game copy, but he was able to do what was needed. Gilda twirled Ying's old horn that she had broken off in her talons, intending to use it for a weapon later - just a sort of predator souvenir.
Gilda had been told not to prototype, and listened intently, and felt like someone was playing a sick joke on her when she made her entry item. She looked over at Chiri with a raised brow, who just shrugged. Gilda could feel a mental connection with the game, and seemed to understand who she was, like it was alive. The entry item was a baby griffon, probably not herself. Gilda spit and got ready for what she needed to do, stooping herself down low for multiple reasons. It was time to break everything. She smashed the baby griffon quick, and her house disappeared much to the confusion of the griffons around the area.
The Land of Glitch and Darkness.
Her kernelsprite was jet black, and it coursed with rainbow colors that seemed to grow and fade constantly. It seemed a little static-y. She thought for awhile, Chiri telling her to put in something doomed or dead. Gilda came to a decision quickly, pulling out a recently dead fish and chucking it in and throwing in a tome that Arrus gave her.
It would take a few hours, but soon Snowskeeper would come, guided by the lord of muse, being followed by Lunacy. Gilda would do various things on her land in the meantime to get ready and was given advice by the other players before they spread out and started to map out the planet due to how dark it was. The planet was significantly bigger than the others, but it was hard to tell because the orb was pitch black most of the time.
Vinyl Scratch had woken up from a really weird dream. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes before putting her purple glasses on. Her frizzle hair was a little out of place, but a small head shake fixed that. She rarely remembered her dreams, but this one was continuing.
It had been about Lyra, and she had been using her instrument to tell a story. Rather, stories. In the dream, she understood all of the lyrics that seemed to come to her from nowhere, seeing past the obvious at the time and feeling the presence of something bigger, or, rather, more knowledgeable than her. She wasn't sure why the dream was sticking with her, but it all felt ominous. Pinkie Pie was her favorite fan, and she had given her a few things she called captchalogue cards a few days ago. She said to consider it future payment and an early Hearth's Warming Eve gift all at the same time, telling her it would help to keep her stuff organized. She had told her that since she called on her so much it only felt right. She had experimented with them last night, and was really surprised at how they worked.
She wanted to go to the market to get some apples, having a craving, not knowing there wouldn't be apples around for awhile.
---
Lyra too, woke from a dream. But this was a nightmare. She felt dread and so much fear for her life that it was almost breaking her sanity. The dream had been bad, and it stuck to her memory like tar. She picked up her lyre from the dressing table and started doing a small lullaby, but it soon turned into something creepy and ominous. It's like she didn't have full control over what was happening, as if something was controlling her. What she didn't know was that the nightmare had impacted her so hard that it was messing with her subconscious. Lyra planned to stop by Twilight's place and tell her about it, but felt like she had something else to do. And remembered being told something in her dream, but it all felt fuzzy despite remembering that she had seen some terrible, awesome (in a bad way,) images that had damaged her psyche. She had something to do, and she didn't want to think. It hurt to think and it just brought more fear.
---
Spike was thinking about the gem shards in his captchalogue deck and had tried to see if he could make more of them. But when he looked, there was no code for them that he could make out. This surprised him, and he went to Twilight and Phynicxs about it who were just as perplexed as he was - Phynicxs most likely more. Spike sighed and said "oh well," deciding to give it to them in person when the time came. It sucked he couldn't make more though.
---
Vinyl trotted toward the open market place and saw a wrecked Lyra looking around, Bonbon nowhere near her. Lyra was shaking all over and kept looking behind her shoulder as if she expected something to be there. She looked like a nervous wreck, but once she saw the small stage in the market place she climbed up on top of it and started playing her lyre, a glint in her eye. She felt herself calm down, but the lyrics and music was completely alien to her. It was dubstep. I wish I was joking, but I'm not. It was totally dubstep, which was as weird as sour noodles. Lyra's eyes began glowing with a rainbow color (which reminded her of Rainbow Dash) and a small aura of darkness surrounded her, but she seemed to be really getting into it, nodding her head along with the music that flowed from her along with the sound of her lyre. Vinyl Scratch was extremely disturbed by this and wanted to get away, an ominous and fearful feeling accompanying it, but as she saw a crowd draw to it, and listened to the strange lyrics, Vinyl Scratch felt something had to be done. There was something else with Lyra - something that was hidden in the darkness. And as she saw other ponies go up to Lyra, she realized that some of them were listening intently, as though in a trance. It was like they couldn't see what was happening, but at the same time were more aware of what was happening than Vinyl did. Her fear reached a crescendo, but she thought about her friends and those that were surrounding Lyra, and decided to try and do something about it.
Something electronic.
Something musical. Much more musical than the crap that came out of Lyra's body.
It was time to set up as a white aura started to caress Vinyl's body. Her glasses glowed from the light in Vinyl's eyes.
---
With Vivere's help, Zecora was quick in deploying the items around Rarity's large house, the Carousal Boutique. Zecora was a little put off at all the fancy-looking dresses, preferring to stick to her heritage. She didn't judge Rarity, no, but it wasn't something she was interested in.
Rarity rushed through the house, waiting for her cat-sitter to come by so Opalescence wouldn't be so alone without her and so endangered by the game. The doorbell rang and she ran to it, happy to see Derpy on the other side. Rarity smiled from ear to ear and brought the cat carrier out with a hissing Opalescence. Derpy was klutzy, but she knew how to get things done without TOO much damage. Rarity hurried her outside, giving Derpy a small bag of bits, and ran back inside to prepare for her session, the kernelsprite already out. Zecora was looking through Rarity's... Entertainment book shelf and found a book that looked familiar to her. She'd seen the same book at one point in her dad's old saddlebags. She didn't know what it was, and Rarity freaked out when Zecora held it in front of her. She almost pulled out her hair - no one was supposed to know about her smut collection. Rarity screamed for her to put it back - put it back right now - but something rumbled underneath Zecora, accidentally dropping the book, causing it to land in the kernelsprite. Rarity screamed and, instead of falling onto her drama couch, started screaming on the floor. No one could know about this - she had to keep this secret - her reputation depended on it. She had to destroy the evidence. She had to destroy her kernelsprite.
Derpy was just taking off and was a little ways from the ground before her jaw slackened at seeing things shake with her two eyes - causing her to drop the cat carrier. Derpy cried out and dived for it. When it hit the ground the cage broke open, Opal hissed, and quickly took off, climbing into a tree and jumping into an open window on Rarity's second floor, and hid under her bed. Derpy chased after the cat, trying to get her back in.
Zecora's connection broke suddenly as the shaking about stopped. She called for Vivere to help her out but he wasn't answering. A little scared of the very small earthquake, she peeked her head outside her hut.
---
Rarity tried multiple things to destroy the head from her smut novel, some of the more gaudy and perverse paragraphs scrolling across the kernelsprite as though it were trying to learn. She tried to choke it, she tried to smash it, she tried suffocating it, she even tried throwing things at it. Not to mention she also tried to rip it apart with her magic. But nothing worked. At least not yet. Rarity got a message from Twilight to hurry up, as it was already taking longer than normal, and Twilight was getting antsy. Rarity took a deep breath, and decided to hide it behind a curtain for now and would take care of it later.
She was really perturbed by her entry item. It was an eye with a very sharp needle and thread next to it. She figured what she had to do, as gruesome as the idea sounded to her, and started to thread the needle and proceeded to sew the eye shut. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, not knowing what the future held or if this transference was going to be painful. Or nauseating much like Twilight's teleport spells. The eye glowed with power, getting stronger and stronger, layers of what seemed to be magic reeking from it much like Twilight's horn. And finally, all that energy was released and seeped into her house. Derpy and Opalescence inside.
Spike's adventuring was slow going because there were tons of enemies with varying characteristics. His fighting had improved significantly and he was quickly learning how to fight efficiently and to his current potential. Gia was a major help to him, especially when Spike found things he wanted to hoard. She kept him in check, often helping him to calm down and sometimes meditate about what he was doing. After a few hours he decided to take a nap, and woke up on Prospit.
He was extremely confused as he woke up in an area that resembled the house tree. He heard something upstairs and when he checked, saw that Twilight was asleep. He tried to shake her awake but it was a no-go. He decided to leave her alone and go look out the windows. He wasn't aware he could fly, and when he looked into the clouds, he saw so much. He saw what happened to Rainbow Dash and how the others had saved her. He saw himself there and was wearing clothing. He also looked bigger and stronger, not to mention fierce and warrior-like. Gia was right beside him; although she looked sad. He tried to call out to them, but learned quickly that he could only see, not hear. The fact that Rainbow Dash was alive in some way gave him some hope. At least this way he wouldn't have to focus too much on his breath. Wait what? Spike moved away from it, having seen a figure in the large void in a cloud; although it was hard for him to make out and it would have been impossible for others - something terrible and powerful. It wasn't very big, but the guy had clothing on that flashed many colors, the symbols on his chest projected out with a small machine inlaid in his chest. The symbols changed rapidly and Spike at one point thought he was going to have a seizure. When he finally woke up, he talked to Gia about it who told her that something had to have changed for some reason to warrant Rainbow Dash being saved from the one with the guns. Gia found this weird, not recognizing the symbol Spike had shown her and not understanding why Rainbow Dash had to be saved due to the fact she was wearing knight of breath clothing. Spike figured they should look for her, but Gia informed him not to yet until he was stronger and RD's house had been built up. Gia talked with Shadowtanksprite as Spike decided to heed the advice, feeling power radiate from his captchalogue deck.
---
Twilight was learning to fight and steal inner magic from the enemies' leylines, just to use it on herself and Phy, Smarty-snakesprite keeping a little behind so as to not scare the crap out of Twilight anymore, occasionally calling to her. She still wasn't that good at travelling back in time without disappearing soon after, but every time she brought something else or someone else back in time with her, it was like they got stuck. Twilight was getting worried she might never master her aspect, but Phynicxs reassured her that it just takes time. And keeping bonds together had come natural for Phynicxs (along with stealing bonds and helping it to strengthen their own, but using the blood to fight had taken a long time to master. So much so that she seemed to only get better at it when she became godtier. Twilight nodded, understanding.
---
Pinkie Pie came to her aspect naturally, using some of the grist to help strengthen some of the powers that came to her. There seemed to be no rush, and she was excited, training herself before trying to catch frogs with Ying's help; although Ying left it mostly to her.
Gummy had been killed by an imp earlier, and before Pinkie saw it Ying tossed Gummy into the kernelsprite, and then Gummy always seemed to be snacking on gum. Gummycandysprite seemed to have trouble talking considering he had no useable teeth, but Pinkie seemed to be able to understand him clearly (and with some difficulty Ying could as well due to the sprite's power. She was happy that Gummy would be helping to guide her through the game, deciding not to ask Ying what happened. And he was thankful for that. Pinkie was mostly exploring the parties, coming across complex riddles occasionally and asking Twilight for help. She seemed to be a natural at sliding block puzzles - even the hardest of them. Some of the block puzzles were very similar to the one from PE2, and others were even harder, and many of them confusing. But Pinkie just seemed to have a way about it. She seemed to see how everything was supposed to be placed a certain way, almost like her intuition had grown. Or almost like she was a seer of space. But it came so naturally to her Ying had figured she was an heir.
---
Applejack was slowly getting ideas of what she had to do, slowly learning who to trust and who not to trust. But there was so little information ever given that she needed to talk to so many rats just to find out where she was supposed to go, like this was the central hub of her entire planet. With Aranea's help, Applejack was able to repair her hope and light in order to see through these things and arrive at the right answer. She was being pushed to her limits, and it was difficult and tuckered her out. But some of the rats, as they talked to her, started to feed upon her integrity like it was something they had been missing all their lives. And that just made Applejack more tired. Almost as tired as she had felt when she was trying to farm all the apples on her own. Sometimes she even had a headache and needed to rest. There weren't very many enemies to fight for her - at least not yet - especially because she was still wandering out close to the city. The life was everywhere though, and decided to try and collect some food and remake it using alchemization so that the others would have something to eat when she got to them, if they didn't already have something.
---
Land of Diamond and Fabric.
Rarity was screaming. Her own heart in turmoil as she tried to deal with Derpy's self and with Opalescence. She wasn't relaxing and meditating enough to find the answers. Right now all she saw was anger, somewhat glad that Sweetie wasn't here for multiple reasons.
Smeareyes saw her rage, and where it was coming from, but didn't expect what happened next.
Derpy was flying around, trying to scope out the place, and when she landed on the top of Carousal Boutique for a rest, she fell through and landed on Opalescence.
Rarity screamed and started shouting unlady-like profanities at Derpy who got sad and flew away. Rarity felt immediately sorry after it but was so tired of all of this. She just wanted to get some beauty sleep and it hadn't even been a day yet. Smeareyes helped her out by seeing her rage and seeing where it ended and how to end it so that she wouldn't hurt someone else through it; although he was pretty impressed how she seemed to be empowered by the rage and other feelings. Smeareyes calmed her down and put Opalescence into the sprite, which she wanted no one looking at, but she finally yielded and decided if she wanted her cat back, she was going to have to do this.
Opalescencesmutsprite was a disaster. She was a total bitch. And Rarity had had enough. She walked out through her door, saw all the gems and fabric that went everywhere - she gasped and felt so much within her, but then she saw the oil and the oil fish and screamed. She ran back inside and started to cry, wanting a break but not getting one. Her soul was on the fringe - the precipice - of disaster. Smeareyes tried to comfort her the way he knew how, knowing she wasn't yet keyed in to her powers of heart, whatever that was. He tried to help her meditate and relax, which was something he was used to doing ever since his aspect started showing up, Phynicxs having helped train him to do so. Rarity was at her wit's end.
Smeareyes had noticed that Rarity's consorts were cat fish, and almost smiled at the revelation.
Smeareyes was also aware that he'd have to find Derpy and help cheer her up, which would keep him away from Rarity, but he was sure she could handle herself after all this that had happened. She just needed some time to think and relax so she could see and hear better. Later Rarity would discover that many of the gems and fabrics were fake - like the fabric that looked like it was durable really wasn't, and the a lot of the gems were fake. She would have to look closely and go with her intuition sometimes in order to find the right ones for her quests that helped her grow as a Seer of Heart quickly. But every step of the way was painful and wracked with drama. Smeareyes had been glad at one point that he'd taken off after Derpy, having to take an hour or two to find her.
Vivere grimaced, grinding his teeth as he tried to push back against Jim. It was really difficult, he was getting pushed back with such ease despite his metal bracers, but the worst part was that he felt Jim wasn't even going at his full strength.
"Time to end this." His sword glowed and he brought it down. Vivere pushed up and tried to deflect it with both bracers, but when the sword drove into them it went through his hands, the area erased and even worse, like his own power, space was destroyed and his blood started to seep through into the void on his wrists. Vivere screamed, but didn't give up, and uncaptchalogued his weaponized boots, and started a riot with his legs, but they always missed or got parried. His moves were fast and furious but Jim didn't seem to have a problem with this at all. Jim smiled, as though trying to make it look like he was going to lose, but brought the sword around and chopped off one of Vivere's legs. Vivere swore and fell. Jim's sword glowed red as he came over to Vivere to finish the job, intending to destroy his time. And that was when something smashed against him. He hadn't even seen it coming. In fact, it was almost like it hadn't even been there. He screamed as the potent acid ripped into his flesh. Zecora threw another, her entire body surrounded by void except for her piercing white eyes. She threw another and Jim was having a hard time deflecting them. Zecora felt anger rise up - more and more - more than the fear that had started this, and the void wrapped around Jim, cutting him off from the game. Jim started to panic, his sword glowing dark blue as he tried to destroy the void, but he was having difficulty because there wasn't much light in this part of the Everfree Forest. It was almost like void was naturally drawn to here. Jim had to take a chance and barreled his way through the void, his powers of flight taking hold as he tried to escape and get back to the games' reaches. Zecora's power didn't leave until she felt Vivere and her were both safe, and then she passed out. Vivere swore a colorful arrangement and tried to get back into the hut with Zecora. This was going to put a damper on the game's timing.
---
Machine was good with computers, robots, and other technological stuff. He carried most of his important belongings on him at all times. Most of his time was spent inside working on the technology he had, occasionally coming up with new ideas. One of his ideas had been due to the story he'd heard about the other players fighting two time players and how they had destroyed and stolen time. He'd heard about the frozen flame stasis sword which had helped trap the power of doom and keep it from influencing things, and in order to make sure there would be a way to save someone should their time be destroyed or taken, with Ying's help and Jordan's help as well, he came up with his newest, and probably best invention. He'd required Jordan and Ying, order to have someone who was knowledgeable about time and life. And his prototype Timeless Core had been created. It had helped that he'd had the game equipment available to him earlier, especially in the city, Ying and Jordan helping immensely. Typo was understandably impressed by Machine Whisperer's living quarters. He was a like a genius in all ways technological, and his room showed it. The only light came from the screens.
A slam was heard at the front, and Typo turned to look down the stairs. He jumped and dived, flying over the stairs and landing on his feet at the bottom. He looked to the right and saw Kaotic with a devilish look in his eyes. He brought his weapon up and shot it at Typo who was a little startled. He brought his hand up, trying to absorb it, but it went right through and then through his chest. He fell backwards, stumbling, the area around it cauterized. "I think it's about time this game was ended for good, don't you?" He smiled, kneeling down next to Typo and pulling his time away from his mind and heart. The mage of blood galluped downstairs.
"STOP THIEF!"
The changeling felt threatened, and he felt mad. His could feel that his bond with Typo was about to break, as though it had already broken. The changeling screamed and felt power rise through him, and charged at Kaotic in an attempt to thrust his horn into his chest. It was futile. And Kaotic knew it. He just kicked the changeling to the side and knelt down at him. But then the changeling smiled, Typo getting off the floor and pulling out his pinwheel, not quite sure why his body was moving considering he was near to being unconscious. He threw the pinwheel and Kaotic looked behind him, the pinwheel coming for his neck. What the hell had happened? He'd taken pretty much all of Typo's time - he should be dead! And then he looked to the changeling, who felt like, despite being unable to feel love, like he knew bonds both inside and out. They were so much like computers. The logical data. He may not know what love was, but he knew what data was. Kaotic threw himself back, nearly getting decapitated. The pinwheel stuck into the far wall but it started moving again. Kaotic wasn't sure what was happening, but was going to get out of there. And he did, using his time powers to go back in time with the time he'd stolen, and quietly sneaking out. And when Kaotic saw his double coming out of the house, he figured his mission had been successful.
Machine ran over to Typo who had fallen, and lifted his head up, knowing only one thing to do. He was about to cry, but he needed to work before it was too late. He could tell Typo was already getting cold, and due to his time being taken, he probably wouldn't be getting up from this one.
Machine levitated Typo's body with him as he ran up the stairs, his telekinesis faltering a few times, but catching him quick. He set Typo on the ground, surprised he hadn't been told to enter yet, and started doing a little last minute work on his latest invention. He wasn't sure how he was going to connect it, but didn't let that stop him. He knew a little bit about their anatomy, having gone over a book at the city; although MANY pages had been missing, and destroyed the cauterization that had been done, and trying to use his telekinesis and a small rod to burn some of the nerves that were almost impossible for him to see to the core. The light emitted from it looked like frozen or freezing air. The artificial life and time powers expanded throughout his body, ending at the heart and the brain. Typo was having a difficult time thinking as he woke up, trying to gasp, but realizing he didn't seem to need to breathe anymore. His body felt cold as ice. The prototype had worked, even if there were a bunch of problems. Machine Whisperer was relieved, and started questioning Typo who seemed to have very little idea of what was going on himself. He sat down for awhile as Machine Whisperer went to go collect the pinwheel.
Vinyl was revving it up. She was slowly warming up and she was getting closer, some of those from Lyra's area losing their trance and starting to dance with her music, feeling more upbeat and hopeful. Occasionally Vinyl Scratch would spare a confused glance Lyra's way as she continued to play, her eyes seeming empty. She was really disturbed by her behavior and her music. She knew it wasn't good, but she couldn't understand it like the others. And those that came over to her side didn't have time to tell her what was going on. So she played, and she would continue playing until Lyra stopped, even if it took all day. Something was just not right about this situation, and unknown to her, things like this were happening all over Equestria.
Lyra felt empty, and she felt like something was trying to take her over and use her for its own agenda. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, but she felt fear from it and fought back, trying to fight back with her will. The fear was starting to overwhelm her and she was having a hard time standing up and fighting, so to speak. And the music that played in her head just didn't feel right in the slightest. She couldn't tell what was going on outside of her, but she knew it would have to end sooner or later, right?
Vinyl was getting tired, but her music seemed to give her strength. So did those who cheered her on and seemed to throw their hearts out to her. She smiled, feeling strength like she had never felt before spread throughout her body. An aura of light was given off by her body as she played, which contrasted significantly from the aura of darkness and emptiness around Lyra. Vinyl kept going, and wouldn't give up as long as darkness stood ready to hurt others. Her music reflected that.
Lyra was coming to her closing, and felt like she had done something good. But that goodness was corrupted. She could tell, but she wanted to deny it. She didn't want to know what damage she must have cost, and would, later that night, cry herself to sleep. She felt so tired after all of that, and somehow she felt like she wouldn't be given rest until she either died or was done with her purpose that had been forced on her, and not chosen by her.
Vinyl learned, after all was said and done, that the songs tended to have an overarching theme. The music was always good and just seemed to seep into the soul, like it was meant to be there; although many fought against it as well, but many more turned to it - and there would have been more had Vinyl not stepped up her game and gotten serious and helped out that day. Vinyl was extremely perturbed after having been told what the lyrics had been about. It had been about chaos and destruction, and a never-ending pain. It had been about either submitting or forfeiting your life to a greater being than you. It had been about obeying and destroying those who refused to conform. And when Vinyl had played, those who had been listening told her that her music gave them hope, love, and strength as well as courage to stand and reject the other life, even if it meant they had to die. They told her that the music had developed lyrics of their own that helped enforce loyalty to one who would not hurt them no matter what, and would entertain for free if it was to make someone else happy. Vinyl was seen that day as a pony who wouldn't fail to help others and welcome others with open hooves. And Vinyl felt like she wasn't done yet.
Zecora was quick to contact Twilight, telling her what had happened to Vivere, telling her that he had bled out despite her medicine and had revived, her suggestion being that he hadn't had his time stolen or destroyed like the others. Then Machine Whisperer let Twilight know what was happening. With Phy's help, she started a small memo, telling everyone what had happened and that something was going on on Equestria. She also informed them that she'd been sent reports that other strange things were going on even as they continued to enter the session. Twilight stated with full confidence that they needed to get into the game now.
Zecora contacted Machine Whisperer and asked for his help with getting into the session now that he wasn't having any problems. Machine was quick to comply and deployed all the necessary objects in her house, putting a thing or two into the tree after revising slightly. Vivere helped her get where she needed to go, occasionally doing the leg work for her. She prototyped a pile of her masks that had been taken off the wall. Masksprite was born and every time its mood seemed to change, so did the mask. Zecora loved her new sprite and knew what she was going to prototype it with next.
As she made her entry item her thoughts settled on what had been said between everyone, about her most likely controlling void. She felt weird about this because of the spiral sun she had on her flank. But then she thought, that even if one was within the void, your heart and light could still come out to help others. And void was just another way of helping, through keeping her allies mysterious and hidden, much like an assassin. This way her mysteriousness could be used for good. Especially if it could help with not just physical aspects, but mental aspects as well, helping the others to meditate and find the answers hidden in the void like she had often done to build up her wisdom, letting her mind wander in a directed way.
Zecora smiled when her entry item was revealed. She could see something inside of it, something that looked important to a younger version of herself. It was hidden in cloudy liquid. She knew immediately what to do, smashing it. The whole room became filled with green smoke and she tried not to cough, instead focusing inward on her subconscious reaching out with her other senses to master living in the smoke - knowing the truth was there. When she felt what she was going for she thrust her hoof up and hit what she needed to. As the smoke exited the window, she walked over to where it had crashed, a slight buzzing coming from the dented gold machination. She knew it wasn't like the real ones that were often used to help others, but she picked this up anyway, saving it for later, and as she touched it, her world went white.
The Land of Snow and Brew.
The most interesting facet of her world, that Vivere was quick to find out, leaning against the door frame, was that the snow had black grass growing out of it in some areas that seemed to affect the snow around it. These two forces did not live in harmony with one another, much like light and void were near opposites. Her land was filled with a bunches of creatures that looked like parasprite consorts but had lighted rear ends, who were occasionally feeding off of the brews within the dozens if not hundreds of pots scattered around as though they were flowers with nectar - like they were small volcanoes of different chemicals. Zecora looked out and was surprised at this, before hurrying out to tell Twilight and Machine Whisperer that they'd made it in. She also recognized some areas that were snow caves.
Zecora had lived most of her life in the desert and occasionally within small wooded areas, but having lived near Ponyville for so long, she knew snow when she saw it.
