The League of Sweetie Belles

by GMBlackjack

First published 1st of February, 2019

A team of multiversal explorers comprised of alternate Sweetie Belles explore fanfic worlds and beyond!

The League of Sweetie Belles was founded by a handful of Sweeties who decided they liked hanging out with each other. What started as a simple club for like-minded white unicorn mares turned into a complex organization with a lot of responsibility. One particular team of Sweetie Belle explorers have taken it upon themselves to explore the multiverse, delving into the lands of ponyfics and beyond.

(If you're not reading from the beginning and just want to look into one chapter relating to a particular story, the SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: The Sweetie Personnel Files blog is your friend. Refer to it whenever you feel you lack context. But don't read the entire thing; use it to look up names.)

(Part of the Songs of the Spheres continuity, but you don't have to read that to understand this. This fic can never never be complete due to its episodic and open nature, and it may never update again—but who knows? As with all SotS stories, there's a Discord server)

Warnings are there since certain fics will require them when they are included. You won't get sex, death, or gore everywhere. You are likely to get violence and some profanity in many chapters.

-GM, master of Chronicles.

New Destiny (Songs of the Spheres)

The Schoolhouse was burning down.

The worst of the flames had already passed – what had once been a roaring inferno had died down to scattered flickers within a charred building. One of the walls gave in, sending a cloud of embers and ash into the air in a swirling pattern that was equal parts beautiful and haunting.

A white unicorn filly stood on a nearby hill, the scene reflecting in her orange unblinking eyes. Her expression was unreadable as she stared deep into the damage. There were so many thoughts flying through her mind that she didn’t know what to make of them.

“…Think this means there’s no school tomorrow?” Scootaloo asked, flapping her wings.

“Probably,” Apple Bloom commented absentmindedly.

“Yes!” Scootaloo cheered, holding a hoof high. “No school tomorrow! No math test! Sweetie, you’re the best!”

Apple Bloom gawked. “She burned down the school, Scootaloo! That’s not something to be proud of!”

“What? Nobody got hurt and now we can do some serious Crusading tomorrow!”

Apple Bloom twitched. “Somepony’s gonna have to pay for a new school! Some of us had valuables in there! Cheerilee’s going to have to buy all new books!”

“…Okay, fine, maybe some ponies might be hurt…” Scootaloo scratched the back of her head. “Still. Sweetie did nothing wrong.”

“Ah know that,” Apple Bloom said, looking back at Sweetie. Concern crossed the earth pony’s face. “Hey, it was an accident, Sweetie. Everyone knows that.”

For a moment, it looked as though Sweetie might come out of her stupor. She shuffled her hooves a slight amount and slowly tore her gaze from the burning wreckage – meeting Apple Bloom’s eyes. She opened her mouth.

“HEY BLANK FLANK! ARE YOU PROUD OF YOURSELF!?”

Sweetie and her friends turned toward the voice of Diamond Tiara with panicked expressions. She was notably lacking her tiara – it had been lost in the fire.

“I bet you are… I bet you think this is an accomplishment! ‘I burnt down the school, hooray for Sweetie Belle’!”

“Cut it out,” Apple Bloom said, flatly.

Diamond Tiara ignored her, fixating her gaze entirely on Sweetie. “This isn’t anything. You’re not some… some raging fireball! All you did was start it! You’re a tiny little piece of blackened charcoal.” She pointed at Sweetie’s dirty coat as if in accusation. “Y-you’re just a cinder! A burning husk that can’t help but burn everything around t-them! A worthless little blank flank cinder!”

Tears welled up in Sweetie’s eyes. With a pained shout she ran – as far away from the fire as she could.

“Sweetie! Don’t listen to her!” Apple Bloom called out to no avail. She shot Diamond Tiara a glare. “Look what you d-“

Diamond Tiara’s confident, angry expression was gone – replaced with the face of an exhausted filly. She was breathing far heavier than she should have been and her eyes darted around the scene in near panic. Instead of running away, she sat on the ground and tried to calm herself, repeating “she isn’t anything, she’s just a cinder… just a cinder…” over and over, as if trying to convince herself of the fact.

“…Ah’m gonna go find Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said. “You watch… her.”

“...Why would I do that?” Scootaloo asked.

“’Cuz she’s scared,” Apple Bloom said, galloping away.

Smoke continued to rise into the sky of Equestria. But, eventually, only cinders would remain of the school.

~~~

Years later…

Three young mares – young enough to still be considered children by most – stood at the edge of Ponyville’s train platform, looking far into the distance, hoping to spot an incoming train.

“Ah think Ah see it!” Apple Bloom said, squinting her eyes. “A little light in the distance…”

“That’s just the sun catching a Pegasus chariot,” Sweetie corrected, rolling her eyes. “Trains don’t leave the ground.”

“Ah mean the flashy thing on the ground.”

“There isn’t a flashy thing on the ground!” Scootaloo retorted. “It’s just an illusion!”

“…Scootaloo’s probably right, actually,” Sweetie said with a smile. “It’s a hot summer day and the sun’s out in full force, it could cause a few mirages in the distance if you were looking too hard.”

“Yeah. That,” Scootaloo said, clearly having no idea if Sweetie was right or not.

Sweetie rolled her eyes. “Aaaanyway, you two might want to turn around.”

Scootaloo blinked, turning around. “Huh? Wh-“ Her jaw dropped.

Sweetie gestured at the train rolling into the station from the opposite direction. “Tah-dah!”

“Ah really should have paid more attention in geography,” Apple Bloom muttered.

Scootaloo blinked – and facehooved. “Great! I was looking at where I was going! Of course the train wouldn’t be coming that direction! Augh!”

“Hey, don’t worry!” Sweetie said with a smile. “All you have to do is get off at the right stop!”

Scootaloo smiled nervously. “Eheh… Yeah, I can totally do that. Totally won’t be asleep…”

“It’s not that long of a journey.”

“I may or may not have gotten any sleep last night,” Scootaloo admitted. “I mean, I was just so excited – who else do you even know who got to go to Tailspin’s Stunt Camp!?”

“Nobody,” Sweetie admitted.

“Ah didn’t even know it was a thing until you brought it up a week ago,” Apple Bloom said. “Lesse… ‘Girls! Girls! Rainbow Dash got me into a TSC’!”

“I do not sound like that,” Scootaloo huffed

Sweetie shrugged. “Eh, close enough.” She pointed at the train. “Looks like it’s time for you to get on.”

Scootaloo flapped her wings rapidly – still as unable to leave the ground. “Wish me luck! Keep the clubhouse warm for me!”

“You betcha!” Apple Bloom said.

“I’ll want to hear all about all the cutie mark problems you two solve while I’m gone!” Scootaloo called as she jumped onto the train.

“You’ll probably have more than us!” Sweetie called after her.

“We’ll see!” Scootaloo said, still waving even as the train doors closed and the locomotive sped out of the station.

It didn’t take long for Sweetie and Apple Bloom to realize how quiet it suddenly was.

“…Sooo…” Sweetie said, scratching a hoof on the ground. “What are we going to do now?”

Apple Bloom shrugged. “Ah dunno. Ponyville’s been kind of quiet lately.”

Sweetie nodded in silence. “…We should make some kind of plan for the summer. A project, just the two of us. We can surprise Scootaloo when she comes back!”

“Ah probably won’t have that much time,” Apple Bloom said with a sigh. “This is the year Applejack starts lettin’ me do the actually dangerous jobs. And teaches me how to manage the farm. And a whole long list of other stuff. Ah’m not sure if she just thinks this is ‘the year’ or if she thinks she’s not gonna get another chance to run me through everythin’.”

Sweetie raised an eyebrow. “So basically, I’m all alone for the summer. Greeeeeat.”

Apple Bloom smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you can find somethin’ to keep you busy!”

~~~

“SOOOO BOREEEEED!” Sweetie wailed, flopping onto one of the many soft chairs in her sister’s boutique.

Rarity raised an eyebrow from behind her sewing glasses. “It can’t be that bad.”

“Apple Bloom hasn’t been able to do anything for days! Spike’s off on official business with Twilight! I’ve already knitted for five hours today! Counting the dots on my bedroom ceiling has lost its appeal!” She groaned.

Rarity pursed her lips. “I really figured you would have grown out of this by now.”

“Just following your example.”

Rarity smirked. “Touché.” She rummaged around some of her fabric stores. “…I could have sworn these were brighter when I saw them on the shelves... Aha!” She took out a large piece of glittering crimson cloth. “I believe I can satiate your boredom with… a dress!”

Sweetie blinked. “I mean, thanks, and it’ll probably be amazing… when it’s finished.”

“Oh, psh, you can make it with me!”

Sweetie raised an eyebrow and gestured at the crimes against nature and fashion she had been creating with her knitting.

“…I mean, that’s better than the rest of Ponyville.”

Sweetie chuckled. “I’ll probably help you with that dress another time. But knitting kinda took all the ‘messing with fabric for my own enjoyment’ quota for the day. And plus, you do have work you need to get done.”

“Psh, I can put some of it aside for my little sister.”

“Rarity, you were panicking about not being done this morning.”

“Ahahah…” Rarity smiled awkwardly. “Was I? I was exaggerating. That is a thing I do.”

Sweetie raised an eyebrow.

“Fine, fine, I suppose I am busy… But later.”

Sweetie flopped back into her chair. “But later doesn’t solve the boredom of now!”

Rarity furrowed her brow. “Hmm… Something you can do with singing?”

“Like what?” Sweetie asked. “Already practiced today.”

“You’re good enough to do something with it,” Rarity pointed out. “I’m sure there’s some event or party or something that could use some accompanying music.”

Sweetie thought about this for a moment. “Eh, not like I’m doing anything else.” She hopped out of the chair. “Guess I’ll go find Pinkie and see what’s happening around town.”

“Five bits says she’ll make a party for you to sing at if there isn’t one,” Rarity said with a chuckle.

“Nopony in their right mind would take that bet,” Sweetie commented, trotting out of the Boutique. “Thanks, by the way.”

“What are sisters for?”

The two of them shared a smile before Sweetie set out into the streets of Ponyville. This was it, yes – Scootaloo could have her stunts, Apple Bloom could have her farm, and she could have her singing! It was perfect, each of them would have something that went beyond their special talents – something that would give her a reason to look toward the future.

She arrived at Sugarcube Corner in a couple minutes and walked up to the counter. “Hey, Mrs. Cake, is Pinkie in?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, she just went out for deliveries! She’ll be out for… I have no idea, some days she’s back before I blink, other days she seems to just vanish.”

“…Any idea where I can find her?”

“Somewhere out and about delivering sweets. Your best bet is probably to search by smell.”

“Search by smell…” Sweetie scratched her chin. “Got it.” She trotted out of Sugarcube Corner and took a look around. No Pinkie. She closed her eyes and sniffed – getting a whiff of baked goods strong enough to get her excited.

Then she remembered she was standing right outside Sugarcube Corner. The entire building smelled like that.

“Off to a great start…”

She walked away until she was out of sight of the source of sweet, sugary smells. She stood in the middle of an open Ponyville road and closed her eyes. She took a sharp breath through her nose.

The smell of baked confectionaries did not reach her nostrils, but rather something that smelled slightly of fish. She was not given very much time to process this, seeing as a pony ran headfirst into her.

“Oh my gosh! I’m sorry, sorry!” The pony helped Sweetie up. “I’m just in such a hurry a-“

They locked eyes.

Sweetie was looking right at herself. There may have been a few superficial differences – the mare was wearing sunglasses, had four metallic hoof bracelets, and she didn’t have her cutie mark – but otherwise the similarities were uncanny. The curls in her mane, the off-white of her coat, and even the shape of her muzzle were all perfect for a somewhat younger version of Sweetie.

Sweetie blinked. Her first thought was time travel? But she’s younger than me…

“Oh, geez, this is a bad time for this…” The other Sweetie rubbed the back of her head. “Look, I’d love to talk and get to know you – really, I would – but I have to get going or else I’m going to be late and the others don’t like that. I’ll be back though! I promise!” She saluted with an awkward smile and galloped away from Sweetie.

“WAIT!” Sweetie called. “WHO ARE YOU?”

The mysterious filly didn’t respond – she just ran.

Two can play at this game.

Sweetie charged after her younger self. “Hey!”

“Oh for the love of…” The filly glanced behind herself with an annoyed expression. “I said I’d be back!”

“I can’t be sure about that!” Sweetie called.

“…Well I don’t have an argument against that so…” She stopped in her tracks and gave Sweetie a very mischievous look. “Try this on for size.”

Sweetie watched the filly cast a spell – seemingly without lighting her horn. With a soft swirl of dull blue light, she was gone.

“Celestia…” Sweetie gasped, staring at the grass the filly had been in just moments before. That hadn’t looked like a teleport... But she didn’t even use her horn, so did that mean she had used an artifact or something? Had she even been real? The grass was flattened, so she had actually been standing there.

…The grass was actually a little too flat. Like something was sitting on it.

The grass twitched as the invisible filly jumped off of it. Sweetie felt a rush of air blow past her, telling her exactly which direction her invisible target had jumped. She lunged after her, flailing around.

She landed flat on her face, getting a mouthful of grass and dirt. With a disgusted ‘BLEH!’ she stood up, spitting the ground back to where it belonged.

She realized she was standing near the edge of Ponyville, pointing toward the Whitetail Wood. She saw absolutely no sign of the mysterious filly – no moving grass, no strange gusts of wind, no unusually rustling leaves.

Nothing.

“Oh come on!” Sweetie shouted at nobody in particular. Now she was going to have to wait for her to come back, and if she never came back Sweetie would spend the rest of her life wondering what all that had been about!

Sweetie narrowed her eyes. No, she wasn’t going to accept this. She had to know. She was going to turn the Wood upside-down if need be to find out what was going on. She would stop at nothing.

It may have been the case that she couldn’t see anything helpful… but she had another idea already. She closed her eyes and took a deep sniff.

The fishy smell. It was much stronger here. And yet, it somehow wasn’t disgusting, more… fresh. She didn’t have the best nose, but she could follow the general direction of a smell this distinct. She trotted into the woods. Within seconds, she found a source of the smell. At the base of one of the edge-most trees, there was a splatter of a bright white liquid.

Curious, Sweetie tapped it with her foot. It felt like paint – though a bit too oily. She immediately knew two things. First, whatever had left this had left it recently – it hadn’t dried out or washed away or even shown signs of being touched before Sweetie came along. Second, it was related to her in some way since it was the exact off-white color of her coat. She couldn’t even see the paint on her hoof without help from the sun’s glare.

Looking up, she took a quick survey of the surrounding area, quickly finding another speck of the paint deeper into the Wood. A trail.

She scampered through the underbrush, constantly on the lookout for more of the liquid. Now that she knew what she was looking for, it was laughably easy to spot the artificial white against the brown and green backdrop of her surroundings. With a chuckle, she started running through the forest – catching up with the paint dropper in less than a minute.

As Sweetie had suspected, the mysterious filly was at the end of the trail. What she hadn’t expected to see was the thing actually dropping the paint. She was a creature with two arms, two legs, and two white tentacles with suckers coming out of her head like hair. There was a leaky tank filled with the white substance on her back, and she held a gun clearly designed to shoot the stuff.

Sweetie was convinced this was also Sweetie, somehow, even though she wasn’t a pony. The colors matched too closely…

The filly and the squid-thing were standing in a small clearing, backs to Sweetie.

“Squiddy, I have a question,” the filly asked.

“I’ve got all the answers you could ever want,” Squiddy said with a voice akin to what Sweetie’s own would be if it were run through a bubble filter.

The filly let out an amused snort. “Why do we make such a big deal about being on time? Since when has anything ever gone according to the clock?”

“Because time is an illusion!” Squiddy gave her a finger-guns gesture.

“…Right, I forgot I was the only one who cared.”

“All these times we set? They’re nothing more than suggestions, Blink. Just an idea planted for us to address later…”

Blink blinked slowly. “Are you trying to be… poetic?”

“Maybe?”

“I’m not sure what to think of this.”

Squiddy smirked. “Don’t think anything. Just know.”

Blink rolled her eyes and turned away with a smirk on her face. Clearly, this had happened numerous times before. “…Anyway, I guess I owe someone an apology for being in a rush now.”

“Who?”

“Found this world’s Sweetie, a-“

Sweetie really wanted Blink to finish the sentence, but her answers would have to wait. Another Sweetie had appeared in the clearing – this one had two legs and two arms like Squiddy, but she was definitely not part squid. She had no tentacles, just normal pastel pink-purple hair and a simple pink dress on her off-white skin. Sweetie would have called her an ape of some kind were it not for the fact that she was two-dimensional.

She looked like a cardboard cutout at times – moving up and down as if she were a rigid object as she walked. Her arms, legs, and facial expression could change, but unlike any normal being this thing didn’t bother going through any of the in between steps. One moment she was hopping up and down with her arms on her hips, the next she had a hand on her chin with a thoughtful expression. There was no in-between step.

“I take it we didn’t find the colorvore?”

Sweetie gawked. She spoke like a robot! A male robot with a froglike voice! What even was she?

“Good guess,” Blink deadpanned.

Squiddy coughed. “Now hold on there Burgerbelle, I can explain…”

Oh, sure, her name’s Burgerbelle, that makes so much sense. All my questions have been answered, aha!

“No need,” Burgerbelle said. “We just have to wait for it to resurface. We can return to the ship until then.”

Blink sighed. “It’s going to hurt ponies again…”

“Not anything we can do about that right now. We have to let it think it’s won.” Burgerbelle was suddenly holding a fully three-dimensional bear trap in her flat hand. Somehow. It snapped shut loudly. “We’ll get him and his little dog too.”

“…Let’s just get back to the ship.”

Burgerbelle nodded - which looked more like a neck-snapping motion for her – and pulled a circular device out of her pocket. She pressed the central button once and took a step back.

Directly in front of her a white spark appeared. This spark transformed into a ring of white in less than a second, tearing a circular hole in the fabric of reality itself. Through the hole was a bright, metallic room mostly obstructed by Burgerbelle’s body.

The flat entity hopped through the portal first, followed quickly by her two companions.

Something inside Sweetie knew this was the last chance for her to do anything. If she stood here, observing quietly, she would never get the answers she wanted.

So she charged through the portal after them, landing on flat on her flank, smacking the metal painfully. The room itself was only about the size of a living room, with a single entrance. A large screen lined one of the walls, displaying eternally scrolling pinkish text Sweetie couldn’t read. Behind her was a large metallic ring the exact size of the portal in the Whitetail Wood.

A synthetic Sweetie-like voice came from seemingly all directions at once. “Aww, look at that, you found another one.”

Burgerbelle, Squiddy, and Blink turned around.

“…Oh. Hey, is this the girl you needed to apologize to, Blink?”

Blink stared at Sweetie in disbelief. “How did you follow me!?”

Sweetie decided now was the time to be honest. “Followed Squiddy’s white stuff.”

“You really need to fix that leak,” Burgerbelle commented.

Squiddy twitched. “I haven’t had time to let Seren look at it! We’ve been chasing this colorvore all around! I go down to engineering, start talking about the problem, and bam, it resurfaces!”

“I reiterate my statement.”

“Um, girls?” Blink waved a hoof. “What do we do with her?”

“Take her to Suzie?” Squiddy shrugged.

“Or Suzie can come to her,” Burgerbelle commented. The three bizarre Sweeties parted to opposite sides of the room, letting a new Sweetie walk in. She had two legs and arms as well, and overall looked like a taller version of Burgerbelle that was three-dimensional. Unlike the others, she was wearing a uniform. It was silvery and form fitting, the only identifying marks being a series of colored bands on the ends of the sleeves and an orange “u” symbol with an extended tail on the chest.

She was taller than everyone else in the room. Maybe even Celestia sized.

Sweetie suddenly felt nervous. “Uh… Hi.”

“Hello,” she said with a warm, soothing tone, crouching down so far that her eyes were level with Sweetie’s. “Is your name Sweetie Belle?”

“Yeah… I bet you get that a lot, huh?”

Suzie nodded slowly, her kind smile not fading. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. I was Sweetie Belle once too, you know. But now I’m Suzie, captain of this ship, and expedition le-“

“I have a name you know,” the omnidirectional voice interrupted.

Suzie’s calm demeanor faltered ever so slightly. “…Right. This is Swip. Swip is our ship. She’s a Sweetie too, just like you and me. Like all of us.”

“Wow…” Sweetie said, looking at all of them. “You all look so… amazing. What… what are you?”

“We are an exploratory team created from the League of Sweetie Belles, an organization composed almost entirely of people like us from across the multiverse.”

Sweetie took a minute to process this. There was a multiverse. In this multiverse, there was a League formed entirely of Sweetie Belles. It was an organization tailor-made for her.

If this wasn’t destiny knocking, she didn’t know what was. She beamed. “…Can I join?”

“Of course. Any Sweetie can join at any time,” Suzie said with a wink.

“Oh, oh, oh, you’ll need a name!” Blink said, suddenly excited. “Let’s see… names are usually based on what makes you unique, your defining feature! I blink in and out of existence, Squiddy is part squid, and Burgerbelle… Well that’s just obvious.”

Sweetie stared at Blink dumbfounded. “…No it’s not.”

“She doesn’t want to explain it,” Burgerbelle offered.

“Shush,” Blink hushed, turning back to Sweetie. “Now you… you’re a pretty standard Sweetie, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have options. You have a dark streak in your mane here, so you could be Black Fox or Nocta or something… oh, wait, your eyes! Tangerine!”

Sweetie blinked - she hadn’t noticed it before, but all the other Sweeties had pale green eyes, not orange. She wasn't sure how to feel about that.

“There’s already a Tangerine,” Squiddy pointed out.

“…There is?”

“Yeah. One of the stallions. Born orange. Likes fruit. Tangerine.”

“Shame, it would have worked great…”

Suzie held up a hand. “Calm yourself, Blink, you’re overwhelming our guest.”

“Oh! Sorry…” Blink said, scratching the back of her head. “I just like the whole naming thing. It’s pretty sweet.”

Suzie turned to Sweetie. “You don’t have to choose a name to join. It just makes things easier.”

“I’m… sure I’ll think of one eventually!” Sweetie said.

“That’s the spirit!”

“I am curious what are you – well, we I guess – doing out here? What’s this colorvore thing and how do we stop it?”

“We?” Squiddy asked rolling her eyes. “You’re not even a fully fledged member, let alone an Agent. You can’t go hunting monsters like us.”

“Squiddy!” Blink chided. “Not cool!”

“What? I’m right!”

Sweetie turned to Suzie. “…I can’t help, can I?”

“I’m sorry,” Suzie said with a sad smile. “We wouldn’t want to put you in danger – we face a lot of horrible and nasty things out here.”

“Oh…”

“But there are still things the League has to offer besides dangerous adventures!” Suzie said. “And I can still tell you what we’re doing out here. All of us know how much we hate unsatisfied curiosity.” She walked up to the screen and tapped it with her finger, bringing up a display of three large circles with a smaller circle under them. “This is the multiverse. Our nation – Merodi Universalis – has already mapped out the overarching size and shape of it. However, there was always a minor problem when we explored new worlds.”

She tapped a few more times, zooming in on one of the spheres until the screen showed a single glowing dot. A new dot appeared near the edge of the screen, and a line was drawn between them. “We would discover new universes by random chance, lucky if we found a connection. But for every connection we made…” hundreds of dull dots appeared between the two glowing universes, all unconnected. “We would miss hundreds of nearby universes, skipping over many of our closest neighbors. We had no way to account for this… until now. Swip, care to tell everyone about your drive and why it’s special?”

Swip beeped. “Finally… I am equipped with an early-era Time Space Administration Bureau interdimensional drive donated to us by our allies. Instead of shooting darts in the dark, I am able to form connections to all nearby universes by forming my own pocket dimension separate from all other worlds! I automatically propagate my databanks with addresses we connect to, ensuring we find everything!”

Suzie nodded. “Thank you, Swip. Our goal as the LSB Homeland Expedition Unit is to explore and make contact with the universes within the Equis Cluster. While the actual Expeditions Division plunges further and further toward the Unrealities and Beyond, we find beauty in things a little more down to earth.”

Sweetie stared at Suzie, eyes wide. “…I have no idea what half the things you said just mean but it’s absolutely amazing anyway.”

Suzie smiled sadly. “…I am sorry you can’t join us. But there are plenty of already explored worlds the League can give you access too, even if you’re not an Agent. And assuming your world is a standard Equis…”

“It is, as far as I can tell,” Blink said.

“…Then your entire world should soon find itself part of a much larger network,” Suzie said with a smile.

“Don’t listen to her, ‘soon’ could mean a year or two,” Squiddy whispered.

Sweetie smiled. “Well…. I guess I just have to become an Agent so I can travel with you guys then! How do I do that?”

“You still have to be assigned to us,” Squiddy pointed out. “A lot of Sweeties would like this assignment.”

Suzie put her hand on Sweetie’s face. “Becoming an Agent isn’t difficult – just complete training with someone who’s already an Agent, and they’ll give you the honor. But getting here… it will be a long and h-“

“Why are you all just standing around?” a new Sweetie demanded.

Burgerbelle put her hands on her hips. “Nira, there are already five people in here, the room is too crowded!”

Nira grunted. She was a fully-grown unicorn mare with a solid black mane and a cloak that covered most of her body. There was something off about her that made Sweetie’s stomach churn. Sweetie had no idea what it was, and this made her even more uneasy. “We need to be hunting the colorvore. You’re all giving another one the ‘ooh’ ‘aah’ tour.”

“We have to wait for it to resurface,” Blink said. “Chill out, Nira.”

“You don’t have to wait, we’ve been waiting long enough.” Nira stamped her hoof on the ground. “Go out there and find faded colors. It has to be feeding.”

“It’s smart enough not to do it while we’re around…”

Sweetie’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

Rarity smirked. “Touché.” She rummaged around some of her fabric stores. “…I could have sworn these were brighter when I saw them on the shelves... Aha!”

“…Rarity’s fabrics weren’t as bright as they were supposed to be,” she said, voice hollow.

Everyone turned to stare at her, stunned.

Suzie recovered first. “The four of you, go to Carousel Boutique, take care of it.”

“Got it,” Burgerbelle said. She pulled out her disc device and pointed it at the ring in the back of the room. A portal opened not in the Whitetail Woods, but in Ponyville outside the Boutique.

“I’m coming too!” Sweetie said, charging for the portal.

Suzie grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. “No. Let them handle this.”

“But the color-thing is going to get Rarity!”

“They’ve done this before. They’ll get your sister back.”

Sweetie glared at Suzie. “Do they always succeed!?”

Suzie was shocked by Sweetie’s question. “…No.”

“Then let. Me. GO!”

The portal closed. Suzie let Sweetie go. The young unicorn charged to the portal and sat down in front of it, staring it down.

Suzie looked at her with a curious expression. “…What a-“ she began.

“I’m going through this portal the moment it opens. Not a moment later.”

Suzie examined Sweetie for a moment – and smirked. “You’re a good sister.” She left the room, leaving Sweetie alone with the portal device.

Sweetie allowed a smirk to crawl up her face. Gotcha. “Hey, Swip?”

“What?” the ship grunted.

“I need something to… keep me occupied so I don’t go bonkers.” Bad word choice… keep it together Sweetie, you can do this. “Got anything I can read?”

“I have a lot of books I can display on the screen. I’m not reading them to you.”

“That’s okay. …Anything about you? I’ve heard a lot about ships, but you’re not the sea kind of ship.”

“I am an all-terrain ship equipped with the finest armaments and the ability to survive space, lava, and alien physical natures.”

“…I don’t know what any of that means. Does one of your books tell me about how you work and what you can do?”

“Yes, it does!” Swip said, elated someone was interested in her. “Displaying the technology guide on screen… now. Navigate with your eyes, I can see where you’re looking.”

Creepy. Hope that doesn’t give anything away.

She found it very intuitive to look through the digital book. She looked through a few things about Swip’s overall shape – a mix between a dolphin and a whale – and crew size – eight – before digging deep. She found the section on the ‘Interdimensional Wormhole Tunneling Ring’ and jumped right to ‘operation’.

The manual buttons are rarely used since remotes are almost always available, but in the case that they are not, the IWTR is fully operable from its base. Just type in the coordinates and press the tunnel button. If no coordinates are input, the tunnel button will dial the last dialed location.

Sweetie jumped at the ring, pressed the button with her hoof, and tried to do a backflip through the ring. Instead, she tripped on the bottom of the device – but she still ended up on the other side.

“...Dammit,” Sweetie heard Swip mutter.

“Sorry!” Sweetie called before running to the Boutique.

She was clearly a little late. One of the Boutique’s walls has been destroyed and the disappointingly familiar sound of panicked Ponyville pony screams met her ears. The colorvore itself had poured out of the Boutique, a swirling tornado of monochromatic paper and rolls of fabric held together by a multicolored aura. It was half the size of the Boutique itself, and it took the overall shape of a giant face.

Sweetie thought it looked ridiculous.

However, since Squiddy was passed out on the ground and Burgerbelle was laying flat with swirls on her face instead of eyes, Sweetie suspected it was a lot more dangerous than it looked.

Blink and Nira were both still active. Blink was vanishing and reappearing all over the place, drawing the colorvore’s attacks with a cheeky smile. “Oh, look over here! Ohhhh, too slow! Ouch, did you really just punch the ground? I mean, I guess you at least hit something…”

Nira on the other hand was simply terrifying. She didn’t move – she stood perfectly still, surrounded by multiple layers of dark magic rings. Every time the colorvore came close to her, a dark claw would appear out of a tear in reality and turn whatever was attacking her to dust. Nira would occasionally counterattack with a beam of dark energy fired directly from her horn, every shot sending chills into Sweetie’s body.

If Sweetie didn’t know Nira was with Blink, she would have assumed Nira was the monster.

She shook her head – she needed to focus. How could she help… she didn’t have powerful magic like Nira, or a useful ability like Blink… She was just an average Sweetie with orange eyes. Nothing all that special, like the rest of them.

She furrowed her brow – she wouldn’t even be able to get close without getting blown away by the colorvore’s inner winds. At least not for long. She’d need to think of something else...

“GO FOR IT!” Blink shouted as she tore out a fabric rolls that served as one of the colorvore’s eyes . Sweetie thought she was talking to her for a second – but Nira’s reaction soon put an end to that theory. The dark unicorn roared, summoning a jagged red symbol into the air above her.

“I dissolve thee!” Nira shouted with a reverberating, echoing voice that sounded somewhat like the Royal Canterlot Voice.

The colorvore felt the symbol tearing at its essence and it knew it had fallen into some kind of magic trap. So it pulled out its trump card – Rarity, held by the neck.

“Put me down right now,” Rarity ordered, indignant. Seeing that the colorvore wasn’t listening, she zapped it with a laser from her horn. This did nothing apart from disintegrate her favorite roll of fabric. “…I could use some assistance up here!”

“RARITY!” Sweetie shouted.

“SWEETIE!” Rarity gasped. “STAY BACK! Don’t you get near this th-“

The colorvore put one of Rarity’s giant pairs of fabric scissors to her neck, shutting her up.

Nira and Blink froze.

Sweetie panicked – looking around for something, anything she could do…

Nira raised a hoof and narrowed her eyes.

“Nira, don’t you dare,” Blink said.

“I can get it and not her.”

“Do you want a repeat of last time!?”

Nira ground her teeth. She lowered her hoof and de-summoned the red symbol, sagging her head in defeat.

The colorvore seemed to laugh. It had won – they wouldn’t dare attack it now. It was home free. All it had to do was run a little ways…

“Burn,” Sweetie said, sparking her horn. She was currently standing as close to the colorvore as she could manage, allowing the spark to touch one of the lowest pieces of burlap and ignite. The high winds of the colorvore did not blow the flames out – merely spread them at an alarming rate.

As the colorvore began to panic, Sweetie grabbed the scissors around Rarity’s neck with her telekinesis – finding that the colorvore was unable to keep hold on them while it was also on fire. With a yelp of surprise Rarity fell to the ground. Blink appeared beneath her, cushioning her fall slightly at the expense of becoming a pancake. “Ow…”

The colorvore tried to put out the fire by swirling around rapidly, but that only made it worse. After a second of this it rammed itself into the ground, trying to snuff the flames out.

This left it very open to Nira’s attack. She didn’t even bother with the specialized magic rune, she just blasted the core of the monster away with a traditional blast of dark magic. All the remaining bits of flaming fabric fell to the ground, lifeless.

“WE DID IT!” Blink shouted, unceremoniously throwing Rarity off of her. “YOU did it Sweetie!”

Sweetie looked at the dotted flames of fabric – and smiled. “…Call me… Cinder.”

“Oh my gosh that’s an awesome name! And it fits so well with the FIRE!”

“Yeah…” Cinder said, looking out over the burning remnants of the colorvore. It looked beautiful, now. When it was used for good. “Yeah, it is.”

Nira clapped her hooves and sent out a ‘simple’ put-out-fire spell, stopping the flames before they could spread even further. “And now our hunt has ended.”

“How many worlds did we chase this beast across?” Blink asked.

“You? Seven. Me? One.” Nira tossed her mane back. “You should have been able to deal with it yourselves.”

“Ahem. Cinder saved us. Not you.”

“True,” Nira admitted. “I retract my statement.”

Blink paused. “…I’m so used to bantering with Squiddy…”

While Blink pondered her automatic banter response, Cinder ran to Rarity and pulled her into a hug. “You’re okay, right?”

Rarity examined a small cut on her neck. “Well, I’m injured, but nothing serious. What about you?” She glanced at the cinders of the colorvore. “...Are you okay?”

Cinder smiled. “I’m okay.” She looked at the smoldering heaps of fabric and paper. “I moved past that already.”

Rarity smiled and pulled Cinder into a hug. Then she paused, examining the blood on her hoof. “This is going to take forever to wash out…”

“I’m sure the League can help you with that! They’ve got all sorts of magic and spells and awesome stuff!”

“Yes, about that…” Rarity looked at Blink and Nira. “…Are they… you?”

“Yep! That’s Blink and that’s Nira and I only met them today! They’re part of the League of Sweetie Belles, an interdimensional task force that does… lots of stuff. They do exploring! They were exploring our world!”

“I… Well.” Rarity blinked. “…Sweetie, dear, I’m not sure I’m quite ready to process all this.” She shook her head. “Though I suppose it isn’t as bad as when Pinkie used the Mirror Pool…”

“You’d be surprised how many times we’ve had to deal with that ,” Suzie said, stepping out of a portal, a calm smile on her face.

Rarity stared at Suzie for a moment. “…A human?”

“…What’s a human?” Cinder asked.

“I am,” Suzie said with a smile. “Rarity, I take it this means your world has a Mirror Portal?”

“As a matter of fact it does,” Rarity said. “I take it this means there are a lot more than one?”

“In a way, yes,” Suzie admitted. “I’ll need to have a talk with your Twilight Sparkle later about our next steps, I’m sure you understand.”

Rarity smirked. “She’ll be absolutely elated! And probably won’t stop talking.”

“Trust me, I know, not my first Twilight Contact Rodeo…” Suzie chuckled. “But first…” She kneeled down and looked Cinder in the eyes. “…Are you still serious about joining us?”

Cinder nodded vigorously. “Did I prove myself?”

Suzie smiled. “No. You’ve shown enough mettle to be given Agent status, sure. But it wouldn’t be enough for you to be assigned to us.”

“Oh…”

“However…” Suzie said, her smile growing. “There’s something about you I like. And as the captain, I can have whoever I want on my ship. I’ll just list you as a passenger, not crew.”

“REALLY!?”

“Well, there is one other thing we have to work past…” Suzie turned to Rarity. “Will you allow me to take your sister on as an apprentice to explore the endless cosmos?”

“I… Uh… Wha?” Rarity blinked.

“Your sister is old enough to make her own decisions – almost an adult – and would be far from the youngest member of my crew. She would be well looked after and given enough experience to last a lifetime. I won’t lie – there is a lot of danger involved. But if you’re anything like the Rarities I usually encounter, you understand that there is also great reward and maturity that comes with danger.”

“Please?” Cinder said, smiling. “I… I feel like it’s my destiny. This is why Scootaloo left and Apple Bloom is busy. So I can go do this.”

“You’re asking me to make a complex decision rather quickly,” Rarity commented.

“I can let you think about it,” Suzie said. “I still need to get her processed into the League, that could take some time.” She pulled a box out of her pocket that had a button on top. “Use this to contact me when you’ve made your decision – or if you want more information.”

Rarity grabbed it in her telekinesis. She watched closely as Suzie walked over to Squiddy and tended to her, treating the squid kid like a mother would a child. There was such loving care in those eyes of hers…

She turned to Cinder – or, as Rarity still thought of her, Sweetie. Rarity saw her sister, on the cusp of adulthood, finally enthusiastic about something regarding her future beyond simply getting her cutie mark. She saw a goal in the white unicorn’s eyes, something that had been absent for the last few years.

Suzie heard a buzzing in her ears that indicated Rarity had pushed the button. She turned around with an understanding smile. “That was even faster than I’d expected.”

“I have some conditions,” Rarity said. “I get to talk to her every day. You can use whatever this button thing does to do that, right?”

“I won’t guarantee every day, but almost every day can be arranged,” Suzie said.

“And second, she’s back when summer’s over. She needs to go back to school.”

Squiddy snickered. “Your education system is about to be turned on its head…”

Suzie let out a soft chuckle. “I expect you will change your mind about that second term after Relations starts talking to you in-depth, but I will agree to it. Burgerbelle! I need a two way video phone!”

Burgerbelle went from being on the ground to standing straight up with two smartphones in her hand. “Coming right up! Technology is served!”

Suzie took them and handed one to Cinder, one to Rarity. “They should be keyed to each other. So long as we are within service – which should be most of the time – you will be able to talk to each other.”

Cinder pulled Rarity into a hug. “Thank you! Thank you!”

Rarity smiled. “…You do need to find your place in the world. Far be it from me to get in the way.”

Cinder started bouncing up and down like she was a filly again. “I’ve got to go tell Apple Bloom everything!”

“Hold on one second…” Suzie took out a phone and took a picture of Cinder. “There. When you get back, I’ll have processed you into the League of Sweetie Belles. There’s not a complex indoctrination ceremony or anything, don’t worry, you’re just in.”

“You going to process her as an Agent?” Blink asked.

“Not yet. I have my suspicions of a ka fluke,” Suzie said, pressing a few buttons. “But if you keep it up, Cinder, I should be able to give you that as well.”

“Thanks! Thanks! Thank you everyone!” Cinder squealed – and then ran off to go tell Apple Bloom everything.

~~~

“Say hello to the rest of the crew, Cinder!” Blink said, taking Cinder into Swip’s main lounge. “Let’s get these last introductions squared and out of the way! That’s Seren – or Serendipity – our engineer! And unlike everyone else she is as young as she looks!”

Seren was a small child that was somewhere between human and pony. She wore a red dress and similarly colored witch’s hat that accented her red-pink swirling hair. Slung over her back was staff made of a brass-like metal topped with a crescent shape holding a white crystal. “Oh, your eyes look like oranges!”

“And you look like you’re on fire!” Cinder said, grinning.

“I do…? Oh! Yeah!” She giggled innocently.

Blink rolled her eyes. “And over here we have our resident politician, manager, and diplomat, Celia!”

Celia was a very tall pony that had a serene glow about her. Instead of a horn she had a diamond-shaped crystal in her forehead, split in two down the middle. She looked more like a Rarity than a Sweetie Belle, but the eyes and cutie mark were distinct. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Cinder. I look forward to getting to know you better.”

“Same! I can’t wait to get to know you all!”

“Never let her challenge you to a game of cards,” Blink warned Cinder. “She always wins.”

“A tactical mind has its advantages,” Celia admitted.

“Anyway, lastly is Sweetaloo Blume,” Blink said, gesturing at a yellow-coated alicorn with a bow and a mane that couldn’t decide if it was Sweetie Belle’s or Scootaloo’s. She appeared only slightly older than Cinder. “She’s our counselor.”

“The Ultimate Crusader!” Sweetaloo said with a smile. “I’m relatively new here. And I can tell you one thing – I love it here. There’s so much action, so much stuff to see, so much amazing technology and science and friendship and…” She laughed. “Look at me, getting ahead of myself again. Welcome to the family, Cinder.”

Cinder squeed.

As Cinder made her rounds through Swip talking to everyone and learning about everything, Suzie watched from behind, an unreadable expression on her face. Eventually, she left Cinder to her own journey – making her way to the captain’s quarters.

She sat down in a big chair and stared at her computer screen, hands folded in front of her mouth.

Why have I given her this opportunity?

Why did I let her fool Swip?

She’s just an ordinary Sweetie Belle, very little in the way of deviation… And yet… There’s something about her…

She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She knew when she was asking questions she wouldn’t get answers to. She’d just have to do her best with what she knew: Cinder was one of them now. Suzie hadn’t made her a full Agent, hadn’t listed her as crew, and had made a deal to bring her back when summer was over on her home world. But deep down, Suzie knew… Cinder would become a part of them.

A smile came to Suzie’s face. In the end, who cared if she couldn’t answer her own questions? Most Sweeties would go mad… but Suzie could see the beauty in Cinder being here. A new face…

Suzie stood up and left her quarters, ready to join in the ‘new Sweetie’ festivities. There was probably going to be a Pinkie brought on board at some point, and she wasn’t going to miss that for the world.

Author's Notes:

Songs of the Spheres is my fic, and it provides the background for the League of Sweetie Belles. Reading it is definitely not required, just like every other fic world the Sweeties will visit. That said, I do recommend reading every fic the Sweeties visit eventually - it's worth your time.

Want to suggest a fic for the Sweeties? Go here!

-GM, master of pies.

A Human Condition (Oversaturation)

Cinder wasn’t sure how to feel about Sweetaloo. When she’d been talking to the three-way conglomeration of all Crusaders, Cinder had felt at home, like she’d been in the presence of her best friends. It was easy to identify the big heart of Apple Bloom, the recklessness of Scootaloo, and her own thoughtful nature.

Now, behind closed doors in Swip’s meeting room, this sense of equality had vanished. Sweetaloo seemed so much larger than before, though this was likely due to the large, empty table. The screen behind Sweetaloo displayed the red, nebulous shifting appearance of Swip’s pocket dimension, casting the counselor in an ethereal glow.

Cinder would have been able to move past this. What she wasn’t able to move past was the shift in Sweetaloo’s demeanor. It was slight, but clear - out there, she could be Cinder’s friend, a pony to go and do wild things with at the drop of a hat. In here, however, she had a job, and that job involved knowing exactly what was going on in Cinder’s mind.

“Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” Sweetaloo asked, pressing her front hooves together. Her smile was excessively calm, and that put Cinder on edge for some reason.

“Well…” Cinder blinked. “I’m a Sweetie Belle. I read the file on the ‘standard template’ and I appear to fit the bill. Crusader, check. Unicorn, check. Singer, check. Basically everything here is 'check' but the eyes and my, ahem, ‘slightly future-oriented contact timeframe’.”

“You talk of your standard nature as if it’s nothing eye-opening or meaningful.”

“I’m on this ship aren’t I?”

Sweetaloo nodded. “While you are right, I would not dismiss those thoughts out of hoof. Sweeties will commonly gather feelings of insignificance over time, feeling their individuality is threatened.”

Cinder blinked. “Well, I guess that’s just another way I’m not a ‘common’ Sweetie then, huh?”

“Perhaps,” Sweetaloo admitted. She processed what had been said for a few moments before asking her next question. “Why did you choose ‘Cinder’?”

Cinder answered a little too quickly. “I burned the colorvore to cinders! That’s as good of a reason for a name as any!”

“I think there’s more to it,” Sweetaloo said. “Names based on an event are usually given after the fact by people who turn it into a nickname. Blink’s in that category. Others are named from obvious features: Squiddy, myself, and Sweetie Bot - one of our founders - all fall into this category. From the way you chose the name yourself, it suggests you fit into the ‘meaningful rename’ category, along with Nira and Allure.”

“Allure? She’s the big-boss Sweetie right?”

Sweetaloo smiled warmly. “We don’t have much in the way of leaders. She’s just our face and a founder. By the way, good attempt at changing the subject. You’ll find that it’s harder to get out of conversations like that when you’re surrounded by yourself.”

“...Oh.”

“Now tell me, why did you really choose Cinder?”

Cinder let out a grunt. “Well, it was a mean nickname Diamond Tiara used to call me that I could never really get out of my head. So I made it my own.”

“And why did she name you that? It seems odd, doesn’t it?”

Cinder sighed. “I burned down the school when I was little. Stray magic discharge and FOOF, entire thing went up in flames.”

Sweetaloo put a hoof on one of Cinder’s. “Everyone makes mistakes, Cinder.”

“Yeah, I know,” Cinder said. “And it’s not like I’m terrified of using my own magic anymore - took care of that with Twilight’s help. I just don’t like talking about it much.”

“And yet you named yourself after it.”

Cinder blinked. “...That does sound kind of silly, now that you mention it…”

“Not at all!” Sweetaloo gently shook her head. “You’re changing what the word and the memory means to you. Yesterday, it was just an old shame of yours. Now? Now it reminds you of a moment of heroism, of success, of turning what was once a failure into something greater. I think it’s beautiful what you’re doing, even if you can’t really see it yourself.”

Cinder was silent for a few moments. “...You really are a counselor, huh?”

“The best and the worst of every Crusader,” Sweetaloo said with pride. “I’ll find your destiny even if you didn’t know you needed one!”

“Does it really work better with all three of you in there…?”

“I’m not sure I could call it better, but it is more organi-”

Cinder’s communication disc started ringing with a cheerful beeping tone. Cinder smiled awkwardly. “...It hasn’t even been a day yet.”

“Go ahead, answer her,” Sweetaloo encouraged.

Cinder took the disc out from its position behind her mane - apparently, little devices such as this had been designed to fit there, modeled so more ponies could have stuff on them like Pinkies. She held it in front of her face and the screen buzzed to life, displaying a small image of Rarity’s face.

Cinder giggled. “You look so tiny.”

“Think of how you look to me,” Rarity said with a coy smirk. “Anyway, how have you been? What have you been doing? What places have you seen?”

“I slept, Rarity. I haven’t even left the ship yet.”

“Oh.”

“I have a name,” Swip muttered.

Sweetaloo glared at the ceiling - sessions were supposed to be completely private, even to Swip’s inner sensors.

Rarity tossed her mane back. “Well, how are the other yous, at least?”

“They’re all great!” Cinder said with a grin. “Well, except maybe Nira, but I’m trying to get past her… creepy factor. I’m sure she has my back, though.”

“Well, that’s good.” Rarity glanced behind herself for a moment. “Twilight is exceptionally jealous of you. I know she has her ear up to the door and is scrawling as many notes as that book of hers can carry.”

“...Didn’t they give her a dimensional device?”

“Oh, of course, and she’s used it a few times, but what she really wants is the space ship, and apparently that’s not something you just give away on the first day.”

Cinder chuckled. “Sounds like her.”

“Anyway, I’ll stop bothering you when nothing’s actually happened,” Rarity said, rubbing the back of her head. “Should I call at night or in the morning?”

“...Whichever?” Cinder said, shrugging. “They said something about time not being constant between universes, I dunno. It’ll probably just work out. Or not.”

“Oh. That’ll give Twilight an aneurysm…” She waved at Sweetie. “Talk to you later!”

The call ended.

“You have a great sister,” Sweetaloo commented.

“Don’t we all?” Cinder pointed out.

“I have three,” Sweetaloo chuckled. “But yes, most of us have good sisters. ...With a few exceptions, of course.”

“Huh. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a bad Rarity…”

“Be glad you can’t. I have seen some Sweeties who had experienced too much in their young live-”

Blink threw the door open. “Hey hey happy hour horses! We just got a mission from Expeditions!”

“A personal request from Renee?” Sweetaloo asked.

“What? Oh, no, nothing that dramatic. We’re dropping off one of the support packages for Earth Shimmer.”

“Yay!” Cinder said, clapping her hooves. “We’re finally going to get some exploring done!”

“Uh, well, it’s not exactly exploring,” Blink admitted. “Earth Shimmer already knows about the multiverse and everything, and we’ve already been there a few times. This is mostly supposed to be a check up.”

“...Oh.”

“But hey, it’ll be good for you! You don’t know what human culture is like, and that’s a good thing to know out here in the multiverse!”

Cinder blinked. “Why?”

“I’ll let Suzie explain it - she wants everyone on the bridge for the transition anyway.”

“We’ll continue this at a later date,” Sweetaloo told Cinder.

Cinder didn’t feel quite as nervous about the inevitable continuation as she’d been about this first one. Not that she was looking forward to it, or anything. There would always be something off putting about being psychoanalyzed by a pony who was one-third you.

The bridge was exactly two doors away from the meeting room. Swip was by no means a large ship, just the right size to support a small crew, cargo, and perhaps a few passengers. The largest room - the lounge - wasn’t even large enough to run around in. In theory the Sweeties could exercise in there if they wanted, but it would be a rare week where they didn’t have some expedition that made sure they kept in shape.

The bridge itself was designed to be spacious enough to hold a lot of people if everyone wanted to be where the action was, but compact enough to make it feel full when only three seats were filled. This had resulted in a mostly circular room lined with chairs and screens along every edge except the forward-most, where the main display monitor was positioned. They used it to watch movies and TV shows in what Blink called ‘ULTIMATE DEFINITION’, though right now it was just set to the default ‘display what’s in front of us’ option. As usual that was the nebulous shimmer of Swip’s pocket dimension.

At the center of the bridge was a sort of curved digital desk capable of seating pony, human, or otherwise through the magic of self-adjusting chairs. In the case of Suzie, however, she prefered to stand - so her chair was retracted into the floor. This led Cinder to the somewhat awkward realization that there was no ‘Captain’s chair’ here, just a Captain’s control panel. If at any point a Captain’s chair decided to exist, that meant the Captain wasn’t on deck.

The rest of the Sweeties were crowded around the back of Suzie’s control panel. The last to arrive was not Cinder and her group, but Seren, whose little legs had needed to skip here all the way from engineering. It took less than a minute to cross Swip, but it was still the furthest room away. “Sorry!”

“Being the last one here doesn’t mean you’re late,” Squiddy pointed out.

“Oh. Sorry!” Seren repeated.

“Ugh…” Squiddy facepalmed.

“Right, so, most of you probably know what we’re doing,” Suzie began. “But I’m going to go through the official procedure so Cinder doesn’t feel like a fish thrown onto a rollercoaster.”

“Thanks,” Cinder said with a smile.

“So, simply put, we’re delivering a package to Earth Shimmer - the first world, the one that's been in contact with Merodi Universalis for a while, not the newer one. This package contains letters, up-to-date information on the multiverse, a few technological curiosities, and the like. It has to be done this way since Earth Shimmer is naturally unstable and we’re smart enough not to create a portal there every five seconds. We’ll only want to open one portal for as little time as possible, so Swip is going to have to leave her pocket dimension and physically enter Earth Shimmer.”

“I have this amazing pocket dimension and we never get to put it to use,” Swip quipped.

“We spend almost all of our time in it, toaster,” Squiddy ribbed.

Suzie held up a hand signifying she was not going to put up with more bickering. Both of them shut up without a fuss. “Earth Shimmer itself is a human society,” Suzie continued, “one that’s close enough to standard to give anyone a good idea how humans operate, a good skill for any multiversal explorer.”

“...Why?” Cinder asked.

“Humans are the most common race in the multiverse, so you’ll run into them all the time.” She pointed at herself. “Earth Shimmer humans look like me and have a lot of bright colors, but you’ll find out as you explore existence that humans favor more dulled, brown-pink colors.”

Cinder was satisfied with this.

Suzie continued. “A few things to keep in mind when visiting Earth Shimmer. First of all, the world is arbitrated by a deity-level version of Sunset Shimmer. She’s nice and understanding, and you’ll probably get to meet her when we enter, just don’t call her a god, she doesn't like that. Magic is still only a few decades old in this world, so don’t be surprised if a lot of the mages look like they have no idea what they’re doing. And, here’s the big one, don’t call attention to cutie marks around them.”

Cinder blinked. “...What?”

Suzie smiled awkwardly. “I know that’s not particularly easy for us since, well, cutie marks are our thing, but trust me, you don’t want to. Their dominant religion, Harmonism, has a sort of taboo about discussing them in public. If you want to be respectful, don’t bring it up unless they talk to you first about it.” She pressed her hands together. “Celia and I will take the package to the local U.N. - United Nations - while the rest of you can do whatever you want. I suggest Canterlot, they’re the most open to visitors.”

“Got it!” Blink said, putting a hoof around Cinder. “I will be your guide to the vast and confusing world of human culture, Cinder.”

“...Wouldn’t it be better if Burgerbelle did that?” Cinder asked. “I mean…”

Burgerbelle was currently flipping a card around in her fingers. It was flat but had three sides, one of which was an image of a blue stop sign. She was furiously typing into her cell phone with the other hand.

Blink cringed. “Eh… she exemplifies a very specific niche of human culture. Probably not the best way to look at them.”

“I’d be glad to answer any questions you have after I do the delivery,” Suzie promised. “Blink should be able to do just fine on her own. Cinder, are you ready?”

“You bet I am!” Cinder said with the enthusiasm of a Sweetie Belle.

Suzie didn’t even have to give the order - Swip already knew what needed to be done. She activated her dimensional drive and tore a hole in space-time in front of her nose. She slipped through over the course of about three seconds, leaving the nebulous pocket dimension behind.

The main screen showed stars… and a blue-green planet covered in swirling clouds.

“Woah…” Cinder said, trotting up to the main screen, allowing the scene to fill her field of view. “That’s… Amazing.”

“The view from space really is something,” Suzie admitted. “Take a good long look. You’ll remember this moment the rest of your life.” She looked at her watch. “Actually, sorry, you only have about three seconds.”

Cinder looked away from the screen. “What?” She saw Suzie counting down on her fingers.

In a flash of bright light, a glowing woman appeared on the bridge. Her hair was flowing like the sun, and yet reminded Cinder of hay bacon. Everything about her screamed light - the pristine wings, the gentle eyes, the slender limbs.

Cinder could understand why people wanted to call her a god.

“Hello, Sunset Shimmer,” Suzie said with a bow.

“You guys are here to deliver the package?” Sunset asked. “Early… it appears my attempt to re-align the timestreams didn’t exactly work…” She rubbed the back of her head. “Guess you were right about that not working. I owe Twilight a soda. She said that would be too easy.”

“That’s what you get for not trusting the multiversal society with years of experience,” Squiddy muttered.

“Hey!” Seren put her hands on her hips with indignation. “Progress is never made by telling people to stop trying! You never know when the inexperienced might come up with a new idea.”

Sunset smirked in Seren’s direction. “Thanks. Glad someone here understands how discovery works.”

“The squid does not speak for all of us,” Burgerbelle said.

“I can if I want to,” Squiddy responded.

“Anyway…” Suzie said, stopping the argument before it could really begin. “Say hello to our newest crew member, Cinder. She’s here to learn about human culture.”

“Hi!” Cinder said, waving.

Sunset leaned down to be eye level with her. “Hmm… good choice in eyes.”

“Uh, these are natural.”

Sunset smirked softly. “So they are... “ Her expression shifted to confusion for a split second, but she quickly brushed it aside. “You’re in for both a treat and a rude awakening. Humans are… interesting creatures.”

“They’re tall, have hands, and apparently wear clothes all the time.”

“That’s a good start,” Sunset chuckled. “The rest is probably best if you find out on your own.”

“She’ll have plenty of time to do that,” Suzie said. “They’ll be on the planet while we do the general business.”

Sunset stood up, nodding in Suzie’s direction. “You and Celia, right?”

“That would be correct,” Celia said, her voice somehow more dignified and careful than Cinder remembered it. “The package is in the bay. If you don’t mind?”

Sunset nodded. The three of them vanished in golden light, leaving Swip.

Blink tapped her hooves on the floor. “Okay Cinder, you, me, a night on the town!”

“It’s day in Canterlot,” Swip offered.

“...To lunch then!” Blink said, rolling her eyes. “I’ll be your guide!”

“I’m going to make sure you don’t fill her head with ridiculous stories,” Squiddy said.

Blink sighed. “Fine, you can come…”

“Oh! Oh!” Seren waved her hand rapidly. “Can I come too!? I hear they’ve got some really awesome early stage magitech!” She squeed like the little girl she was.

Cinder grinned. “Sure, come on, you can explain to me how all the crazy stuff works. ...We can start with this disc-messenger-thing.”

“It’s a communicator, or phone, or two-way transceiver! There’s a complex circuit within composed of Peridot-type latticework superimposed upon a dimensional protocol through which a multi-step connection can be tunneled! This tunnel can have quantum bits sent through it that both receivers can translate to and from video with ease! Of course, that is only the basics, at a more comprehensive level the connections between universes are mapped through the ‘cell service’ towers on a government frequency akin to a…”

~~~

“...So basically what I’m trying to say is, well, ‘it’s complicated’.”

“No kidding,” Cinder said, shaking her head. The four of them were standing in front of the interdimensional ring. “...Wait, wasn’t the universe unstable?”

“That’s if you portal in from outside,” Seren offered. “The leylines won’t be altered if you use general teleportation gateways within. They actually have a sort of stargate, so we wouldn’t even be doing anything the universe doesn’t already see on a daily basis.”

Cinder stared at the girl and blinked.

“She’s starting to understand what Seren is,” Blink whispered to Squiddy.

“A prodigy…?” Cinder asked, having overheard.

“...Eh, that’s better than what I was going for.” Blink shrugged. “I was thinking ‘inconsistent’ and ‘contradictory’.”

“Aww, thanks!” Seren said.

Squiddy facepalmed. “Swip, dial us to Canterlot before we end up distracting ourselves even further.”

The ring activated. The four Sweeties wasted no time stepping through, arriving on a sidewalk in the middle of a city. To Cinder, the area around them looked a lot like Manehattan with all the roads and big buildings. There were a few key differences - all the vehicles she saw on the roads were cars, not carriages, for one. For two, everything seemed slightly taller than she was used to - even the clouds, though she couldn’t imagine how that was possible just yet.

Oh, and the fact that there were no ponies, only humans. That was a big deal.

Cinder knew she was here to study human culture, so the first thing she did was examine every one she could. The clothing was a lot like what ponies wore in terms of color and basic design elements, though here it was clearly mandatory. She was immediately curious about the cloth-based cutie marks on virtually every human she saw, and realized that Suzie had been very smart to give her warning ahead of time. Many of the people had their faces glued to phones, but not a majority.

It took her a little longer than she would have liked to admit to realize none of them were quite like Suzie. Some had feathers on the back of their necks, others had crystals in their foreheads, and then there were the ones that looked almost normal except they had oversized fingernails.

“You didn’t tell her about aspects?” a new Sweetie asked.

The local version of the Cutie Mark Crusaders was standing behind the League. Their Sweetie Belle was in the lead, an eyebrow raised. She was somewhat younger in appearance than Suzie and had a magical gem in her forehead while Suzie’s was bare. Apple Bloom had the nails, while Scootaloo had the feathers.

“Aspects…?” Cinder thought for a moment. “The extra features?”

“Yes, the extra features,” Apple Bloom said. “They a-”

“They’re clearly unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies,” Cinder deduced. “Which seems… not human.”

“It’s a consequence of their world having magic thrust upon them,” Blink said. “They’re still mostly recognizable as a human society, not a pony one. ...Plus, before we came along, they kind of subconsciously didn’t think about it.”

“How do you subconsciously not think of something?” Squiddy asked.

Blink rolled her eyes. “The answer is a deep mystery…”

Seren put a hand to her chin. “I was reading about a spell that can catch a thought before it fully forms… Couldn’t cast it. ...Or at least I think I couldn’t.”

The local Sweetie cleared her throat. “Getting off topic.” She turned to Cinder. “Hello. I go by Skuldie when the rest of you are around. I a-”

“She can totally see the future,” Scootaloo said. “It’s the coolest thing ever.”

Skuldie rolled her eyes. “I can see visions of the future. All of which were decimated by their arrival.”

“Huh? What did we do?” Cinder asked.

“The Prophecy Dilemma,” Seren said, speaking as if she were reciting something. “Many spells exist that can predict events with a hundred percent certainty. However, they only take into account events within the universe itself - if a traveler appears, the Butterfly Effect soon cascades out of control and prophecies become pretty much useless.”

“...Oh. Sorry.”

“You didn’t mess with anything important and you had no control over it,” Skuldie said. “...I am going to have to get used to it when the world stabilizes enough for visitors to come regularly…”

“I know of some advanced prediction mechanisms! I could probably order a specialized spell matri-”

Squiddy tapped Seren on the shoulder. “Ahem. No. No you can’t.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry, legal stuff…”

“It’s okay,” Apple Bloom said. “You are here to give us cool stuff, right?”

“That’s what they always do,” Scootaloo pointed out.

“And they cause a scene half the time. Ah don’t think any of the deliveries have been ‘routine’.”

“How can delivering interdimensional mail be routine?”

“You’d be surprised,” Blink said, shaking her head.

Cinder allowed her attention to wander as the CMC talked with the older members of the League. She continued to examine Canterlot - finding her gaze drawn to a giant billboard of a white human biting into some sort of sandwich with a brown substance pressed between lettuce and tomatoes…

Oh. That was probably meat.

She shook her head - why did she have such a negative gut reaction? Griffons ate meat, and they were fine. Though she usually didn’t think of Gabby as a predator. Or Spike. Now that she thought about it she knew a lot of meat eaters…

Moving onto another billboard, she couldn’t quite make out what it was trying to advertise. There was a woman on it striking a pose Cinder couldn’t identify as meaning anything, though given that her knowledge of humans extended back one day this wasn't surprising. The best way Cinder could describe her expression was… ‘inviting’. A bit like those faces Rarity made at people she wanted to get good reviews from.

Oh, Cinder said, figuring it out. And they just have that on a billboard!? In the middle of town!?

Blink put a hoof on Cinder. “Ah, I see you’ve found one of the key differences between most humans and ponies. To put it mildly, they’re sexually obsessed.”

“Oh, dear Celestia,” Cinder muttered, paling.

“Hey!” Scootaloo put her hands on her hips. “Don’t judge us! It’s perfectly natural a-”

“Don’t give her a complex, Scootaloo,” Skuldie said.

“...But…”

“We don’t always have to defend ourselves to everyone we meet.”

“Uh, girls? Might wanna put a pin in this one,” Apple Bloom said. “People are starting to notice.”

“Notice? Notice what?” Squiddy asked.

“OH. MY. GOD!” A human with purple skin and yellow hair ran up to Squiddy. “What kind of person are you? What are those tentacles!?”

“Oh. That.”

“Come on you have to tell me! What do they do?”

“They act like hair. And I can slap people who annoy me with them.” She lightly slapped the bystander on the face with her wet, fleshy appendage.

The woman backed away - but there were more to take her place. “Oh wow! They’re so distinctive! I didn’t think an aspect could be so large!”

Squiddy readied for another slap - but she stopped herself. A sly grin crawled up her face. “Yeah, they are pretty sweet aren’t they? These babies are the best in a sticky situation! Just latch one of these suckers onto a wall and ka-pow, instant grappling hook!”

“They can do that?” Cinder asked Blink.

“...They aren’t that strong,” Blink said. “Squiddy, can you tone it down a b-”

“Unicorns!?” a few of the humans with gems shouted, turning their attention to the two white unicorns. “Oh wow! They’re even more graceful in real life!”

“Uh… what?” Cinder blinked. “You guys have gems! Those are way cooler!”

Too many of them started talking at once for Cinder to make out anything for sure. What she did notice was a feeling rising within her of being suffocated. She liked ponies and people but this level was just a bit much.

To her surprise, she realized this wasn’t even all the humans. Whenever something exciting happened in Ponyville, all the ponies would run to or away from it. Here, things were split. Everyone nearby was interested in the Sweeties, but the majority were hanging back, watching from afar as if they didn’t want to be noticed. Some were using their phones to capture the action, but others were just staring silently.

Humans are weird.

Seren got it the worst out of all of them. The humans had some idea what unicorns were, and they thought Squiddy was just a rare version of them. But Seren was clearly a hybrid - half human, half pony. She was also young and cute, a combination that drew the human population in like moths to a flame.

“What are you?”

“Are you like one of those furry anthro things?”

“This dress is amazing!”

“Oh you’re just the cutest thing I could eat you right up!”

“Eheheheh…” Seren said, visible sweat drops appearing on her face. “Uh… Wow you all really like me! That’s… Uh…”

“We need extraction,” Blink told Squiddy.

“What?” Squiddy laughed. “Come on, live a little, appreciate the limeli - OW!” A small child had just yanked on her tentacle. “...Fine, screw them, let’s blow this joint.”

Blink facehooved. “I’ll just… Uh…”

“Do your thing on all of us in a minor sense,” Skuldie said, eyes closed tightly. “The power of Void will cause enough confusion for us to make our escape to a place that… should be relatively safe.”

“Relatively?” Squiddy asked.

“Unless something transdimensional happens you’re going to end up there anyway, so you might as well end this as soon as possible. Make sure everyone can follow me.”

Blink nodded. She adjusted her shades and shot everyone a “radical” smirk. “You’ve all been a joy, really, but all good things must come to an end! Le-poof!”

As far as the humans were concerned the Sweeties faded away, vanishing. In reality, all Blink had done was make it so they were semi-Voided - just unimportant enough that they could blend with a crowd they shouldn’t be able to.

“Wow…” Cinder said, waving her hoof at one of the children who had been bugging her until just then. “This is cool.”

“Don’t test it,” Blink warned. “Anyone with a sizable willpower or magic sense can still see you. I’m not expanding all the energy to go for higher orders of hiding.”

“...How high can you go?”

Blink smirked. “If I wanted I could convince the universe I don’t exist.”

“Wow…”

Skuldie coughed. “Relative safety is this direction. We should move - that guy over there is just insane enough to still see us.”

Cinder glanced at the old man in question. He looked right at her with crazed eyes. Magical wings sprouted out of his back, his grin widening. “I see you…”

“Running sounds like a good idea.”

~~~

Merodi Universalis had a habit of making things that had no right to look fantastical and otherworldly just that. All they needed to load onto Swip was a simple storage crate filled with everything Earth Shimmer needed. Instead, the bored and clever government designers created a chest studded with numerous precious gems, rimmed with gold, and engraved with a couple magical reliefs of an animating Merodi symbol.

It currently sat in the middle of Earth Shimmer’s United Nations, surrounded on all sides by faceless bureaucrats trying their best to look calm and collected when they really couldn’t wait five seconds to see what was inside. To keep themselves distracted, they studied the otherworlders.

Or, more accurately, they studied Celia. The only interesting thing about Suzie was her lack of forehead gem - Celia was not only a unicorn, but a large one who had a gem instead of a horn. Furthermore the gemstone was clearly not of the same sort as Earth Shimmer, given its sharper shape and crack down the middle.

“Always over the top,” Celia said.

“The suits or the chest?” Sunset asked.

“The chest, mostly.” Celia took a moment to look around. The ‘suits’ in question were mostly old men who had spent lifetimes perfecting the stern look. Most of them had immense power on the scale of this single world, and she knew full well that they didn’t like what she represented - something much more powerful than them.

Celia put on a smile anyway. “I won’t bore you all with an introductory speech. I am Celia Chalcedony, and I extend to you gifts from the larger multiverse.” She allowed her smile to become slightly coy as she tapped the side of the chest, prompting it to open with a dramatic flash of light. “Everything within is yours to do with as you wish.”

Suzie reached into the chest and took out a couple of white globes, each one larger than her head. She held them for all to see as Celia explained what they were. “We have listened to your request for defensive capabilities. These are harmony nodes that, if spread across the Earth properly, could shield your entire planet from dark forces. These were manufactured in Equis Cosmic itself, specifically to work with the magic field of your planet.”

Sunset’s jaw hung slightly slack. “That’s… really generous of you.”

“It is the first Division-level technology we are giving to you,” Celia continued. “We’re doing it as a sign of trust, that we think you can use such devices as they were meant to be used. I hope I don’t need to say that they are to be used for defense, and nothing else.”

She didn’t get a response beyond hushed whispering between all the suits. This was what she had expected.

Suzie reached into the chest again and pulled out several data pads, showing them off for Celia’s speech. “As usual, we have compiled the news of the multiverse since we were here last. Everything pertinent is stored on those pads.”

“Don’t try to read it all this time,” Sunset added. “Seriously, there’s too much in there, have the A.I. do it.”

“We also have some selected literature and other media from our member worlds. I know those are quite popular.”

Celia got a few reactions out of that - no doubt some of them had gotten hooked on Star Trek. Funny how they had analogues for almost every standard Earth show, but virtually never the same.

“And lastly, Sunset, this one’s for you.” Celia pulled the last data pad out of the chest herself and handed it to the woman of Harmony. “Another letter from Corona.”

Sunset brightened visibly. “Can’t wait to read this. Wonder what crazy stuff other-me’s done this time…?”

Suzie shrugged. “Class 1 complaints, from what I hear.”

“...Fun.”

Celia directed her attention back to the United Nations. “The instructions for setting up the harmony nodes are in the data pads. Any questions?”

An old woman with neon blue skin stood up. “If you’re willing to give us such powerful technology, why do you not give us more? Why didn’t you do it sooner?”

A hundred pairs of eyes shot toward her, all of them screaming shut up.

She didn’t back down. “Answer me.”

Celia sighed. “Senator Nutmeg, our reasons are the same as they always have been. Accelerating a culture too fast ends in disaster, and given the natural instability of your own we must take it even slower.”

“We are ready.”

“We’ll be the judge of that.”

Sunset sensed Senator Nutmeg was about to say something stupid, so she stepped in. “Look, everyone, the Merodi are being exceptionally nice and patient with us and all of our crap. How about we don’t antagonize them with greed and impatience?”

Senator Nutmeg sat down, clearly displeased with Sunset’s existence.

“There is the other side of the issue,” a darker-toned man said, standing up. “The thought that they are interfering in our affairs too much. Turning our world into theirs.”

He got the same shut up expression Nutmeg had gotten.

Sunset folded her arms. “I would step in if they were taking it too far. They’re doing a lot more good than harm.”

“No offense, Miss Shimmer, but you are hardly qualified to make that judgment. Your job is to regulate magic, not the governments of man.”

Sunset opened her mouth to respond, but halfway through her first breath she realized he had a point.

“You are free to deny anything you wish,” Celia reminded the U.N. “You would not be the first, nor would you be the last. I will say that, statistically speaking, most universes end up better off after we sweep through. But you already have those documents and I know you’ve looked through them all.”

The man nodded. “I understand that, as a whole, we are not likely to turn your offers down. I am merely stating my opinion so that others may, at least, be more cautious.”

“Admirable.”

“There are those who would not be so respectful.”

“We know,” Suzie said, addressing the U.N. for the first time. “It would be far from the first time we’ve been attacked or seen as evil for giving aid.”

There was silence in the U.N. The man decided he had got his point across and sat down.

“Now on to the rest of the itinerary…” Celia said, struggling to keep her smile up. “No doubt you all have a long list of things you’d like to get through while we’re here?”

“Ursasistan and Prance are at war.”

Celia sighed inwardly. There was going to be a lot to unpack there…

~~~

Cinder, the other Sweeties, and the local CMC ran into the front doors of a small office building. Seren was the last one in. She twirled her staff and cast a lock spell on the doors, barring the old man from entry. He charged head-first into the door, discovered the glass was bulletproof, and promptly lost all consciousness.

“...Y’know, you could have just cast sleep on him and saved us all this running,” Squiddy said.

“I wasn't thinking straight! He was scary!” Seren shivered.

“He belongs in an asylum,” Blink said, looking down at his form through the glass.

“He’s not too far off,” Scootaloo said. “Welcome to a ‘relatively safe’ location.”

Everyone took a moment to look around. They were in a seemingly normal office building lobby. Behind the main desk was the business's name: N.A.H.T.I.I.

“...They really are obsessed…” Cinder said, eyes wide.

“Huh?” Apple Bloom blinked. “Whaddoya mean?”

Skuldie facepalmed. “It’s ‘nahtii’. Think about it.”

Apple Bloom processed this. “What does it say about me that Ah never went there until now?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Dunno. It was the first thing I thought of, back when we first arrived at school. I didn’t think it was for science at first.”

“I’m hurt,” a man said, walking into the room. He had wild eyes and an aura of unpredictability about him. “That’s practically the one kind of naughtiness we’re not indulging in.” He gestured at himself. “I’m Discord, professional embodiment of chaos and mad scientist, in case you were wondering. Charmed!”

“Scientist? This place is for science?” Cinder rubbed her eyes. “What does the acronym even stand for?”

“Not A Human Testing Installation Two,” Skuldie recited.

Cinder’s expression slowly went from confused to completely blank.

“Oh, sweet!” Blink laughed. “What we have here is the newborn dimensional explorer in its natural habitat - mental befuddlement. As she grows she will mature into simple acceptance of the seemingly stupid and ridiculous, but for now she is in a vulnerable position where predators could take advantage of her…”

Squiddy placed a suction cup on Cinder’s back, prompting her to jump three feet in the air and yell in surprise.

“And it looks like she’s snapped out of it and will live to fight another day,” Blink continued. “Join us next time on Animal Multiverse when we examine the advanced age stage of the inkling - calamari.”

With a flash of white magic a bucket of fried calamari appeared above Squiddy’s head, the contents surrounding the inkling with an uncomfortably familiar smell. “...I hate it when this happens.”

Blink burst into laughter. “T-That was not part of the plan!”

“I love improvising,” Discord said with a grin. “It makes every joke better!”

“Not the one about the dead cat,” a blue woman with a handful of fishy features said, stepping out from behind him.

“I temporarily forgot about the realism quotient, Sonata, forgive me.”

Skuldie cleared her throat. “Everyone, meet Mr. Discord, he runs the N.A.H.T.I.I. and does all sorts of scientific experiments for the sake of understanding magic.”

Seren lit up, all evidence of her previous unease gone. “You study the magic of your universe! Oh, tell me everything! My homeworld operated on an inner soul power-matrix regulated through emotions and familial connection, but I have since devoted most of my efforts into the very adaptable quantum-ring arcanum!”

Discord laughed. “Well, my child, it appears you have a bit of spunk in you…” He summoned a chalkboard covered in cartoonish drawings of cutie marks on it. “Allow me to engage your bright little mind for a minute…”

Seren sat on the floor and looked to Discord with wide eyes. “I’m ready.”

Discord grinned. “Magic here is sort of a ‘patchwork’ if you will, a hastily thrown-together mess of two separate systems arranged in the wild hopes it would stop the universe from exploding at the expense of most consistency and stability. One system was the Equestrian magic I'm sure you're familiar with. The other, Human magic, was an enigma by nature. I believe you’d call it an ‘anti-memetic’ system: a self-keeping secret. While it no doubt had reasons and mechanisms behind it, in its inherent ‘values’ there was a distaste for logical understanding and query. All scientists were convinced it didn’t exist. But, of course, it did - and when we figured that out we didn’t get a chance to study it because the world was exploding.” He drew a lot of zig-zags in the air. “So the two had to be fused together.”

“Can you extrapolate backwards now that you’re more aware? I’m sure there’s a thaumic analysis function we can cook up with a quantum-ring dielectric…”

“Spare me,” Discord groaned. “All I hear is ‘quantum-ring’ this and ‘quantum-ring’ that from the rest of the multiverse.”

“Oh, but it’s a very very useful magic system!"

“Please, how can it be that good? It’s just one magic system, and each one is inherently quirky, why not just use the one you're familiar with? The multiverse likes magic to behave as expected almost wherever it goes. I could travel to… Earth Tau’ri, let’s say, and I would be just as much as a chaos entity as I am now.”

“But if you took your computers, their programming would fail because your magic system is… unreliable!” Seren looked a little embarrassed to admit this. “It’s such a ‘patchwork quilt’ that your magitech is almost guaranteed to break down. Quantum ring can be pro-”

“NEEEEERDS!” Squiddy shouted, hands cupped over her mouth. “Geez, can’t you do that some other time?”

“My dear seafoody friend, why would we do that?” Discord appeared behind her, tracing a finger along one of her tentacles. “It’s not like you have anywhere to be, or anything.”

Squiddy folded her arms. “We can be doing more fun things than listening to you two yammer all day.”

Cinder blinked. “Maybe we could see some of the N.A.H.T… Er, the lab’s actual experiments?”

“RIGHT THIS WAY!” Discord said, pointing at a door. The moment Cinder reached to open it, he teleported them all into a room with a tall glass pillar containing a deep brown swirl of chaotic clouds. Every second or so an eye or mouth would spontaneously form from the smoke. “BEHOLD! The chaos pillar! Pure, uncontrolled chaos wriggling around in a tube, trying to find someone, anything it could grab a hold of!”

“...Isn’t this dangerous?” Blink asked.

“Of course it is. But I use it to uncover the secrets of the universe. Plus I can always just destroy it with the snap of my fingers, it’s not like it’s better than me at chaos magic. That’d be quite the joke, wouldn’t you say?”

“Why yes I would say!” another Discord said.

“Why is it that Discord’s the only thing in this world that seems normal?” Cinder asked.

“Chaotic Consistency Theorem,” Sonata said, smirking.

“We don’t talk about that,” Discord growled.

“Hey, you came up with it, not me.”

An yellow woman with ridiculously poofy orange hair walked in. “Hey, I got the results on that… thing you all needed. Whatever it was.”

“Oh, that’s great Adagio!” Sonata said with a smile. “I’ll take tha-”

Adagio dropped the clipboard, staring at Squiddy. “...Kraken.”

Squiddy saw the mixture of fear and murder in Adagio’s eyes. “...Shit.”

It was at this point the chaos pillar decided to explode.

~~~

Eventually, the meeting at the U.N. was completed. Sunset went back to arbitrating reality - however exactly it was she did that - while Celia and Suzie were standing on a balcony, looking out at the sky of Earth Shimmer.

“I like worlds that don’t know about us better,” Suzie said, kicking one of her legs back and forth. “There’s nothing already set up, so it’s all wild and new every time. After the third or fourth… it becomes bureaucracy. People with suits or the local equivalent doing what they do best - being needlessly complicated and prideful.”

“We have suits too, you know.” Celia smirked. “I am one of them.”

“I guess we aren’t really that different. Yeah, we’ve got policy… But our entire legal code was built with the idea of exceptions and variety in mind. Everyone else's is so… so… single-world oriented.”

“Can you blame them?”

“Not really, but I can complain to my good friend all I want to blow off some steam.”

Celia let out a soft chuckle. “In that case, vent away.”

Suzie shrugged. “I think I’m done. The meeting’s over and we can go do something new tomorrow.”

“What do you hope we’ll find?”

Suzie thought for a moment. “Something simple - for Cinder’s sake. But after that… well, aside from finding her, I’d like to find a world where everything is singing.”

“...Exploring the wrong section of the multiverse for that.”

Suzie smiled sadly. “Yep. And I wouldn’t want to explore the Unrealities - too much abstract everything - but I’d just like to be pleasantly surprised one day, you know?”

“I do know.” She blinked. “There’s someone flying toward us.”

Suzie looked out over the balcony and saw a winged woman flying to them. The woman locked eyes with her - and screamed. With a forceful flap, she came sailing toward the balcony. “TAKE THIS!”

Suzie pulled out a black gun and fired a pulse of blue-green energy right into the flying woman’s face. She passed out but continued on her flight trajectory, landing face-first on the balcony floor hard enough to leave some blood trails.

“...She was carrying a bomb, you know,” Celia said.

“I know,” Suzie said, pulling the woman’s coat open and examining the wired explosives inside.

“That pulse could have detonated it.”

“I know,” Suzie said, cutting a few choice wires. “I just decided to let it explode on my terms instead of hers.”

Celia accepted this. “So. How many suicide bombers is this now?”

“Forty-seven,” Suzie grunted. She hastily picked the woman up and sat her up against the balcony railing. Suzie set her gun to ‘shock’ and blasted the woman in the face, waking her right up with a painful scream.

“For Harmony!”

“Why are so many of you religious nutjobs!?” Suzie shouted. “You make Rev look bad!”

The Harmonist laughed. “You of disharmony would not understand! We are not ‘nutjobs’, we see you for what you really are! The bringers of instability! The-”

“Look, we didn’t mess up your universe, that was the Mirror Portal, we came later.”

“Lies!”

“You should know better,” Celia chided Suzie.

“One of these days reason is gonna get through to someone…” Suzie told herself

“You are the enemies of Harmony! You seek to see us disappear in favor of this false world of yours! We will not stand for it! I will not be the last! My brothers and sisters w-”

Suzie shot her again, knocking her unconscious. “Always the same…”

“Suzie, you’re getting angry.”

Suzie nodded. “Of course I am.”

“Just because an idiot brought up a valid point doesn’t mean you should get angry.”

“We are not trying to make them disappear. They’re doing that on their own. But they’ve just messed with the wrong Sweetie…” She pulled out a communication device. “Nira, I need you to soul-trace someone. Just integrate your magic with Swip’s sensor array, it should work. ...How did you know it was another suicide bomber?”

Celia sighed. There went the chances of the rest of the day being anything close to relaxing.

~~~

The chaos pillar unleashed a torrent of brown, noxious gas that occasionally formed random body parts that were usually able to be found somewhere on the human body.

Usually.

Cinder didn’t know what floppy, disgusting thing hit her, but she was sure it wasn’t human, pony, or otherwise. She let out a wail of panic and struck it with fire, only to discover that wet fleshy things didn’t really burn. She tried to run, but instead flattened herself against a giant eyeball. This was more disgusting than terrifying, but the previous terror carried over enough to make her scream.

“INK TO THE EYE!” Squiddy shouted, showering the eyeball in white ink. It shivered in pain - but just dissipated to become part of the chaos cloud.

“...Thanks,” Cinder said. “But there’s still the floppy thing!”

“...All I see is a giant hand,” Squiddy said, pointing up. “...Craaaaap…”

The hand opened itself up fully and tried to slap them into the ground. Seren leaped into action, creating a shield spell between them and the monstrosity. “Got ‘im!”

“I envy your magic talent,” Cinder said.

“I envy your magic,” Squiddy muttered.

Seren pointed her staff at the hand. “Leave my friends alone, you big bully!” She fired a laser and disintegrated the hand.

Two mouths appeared at once, speaking gibberish and wagging their tongues around madly.

“Why isn’t Discord doing anything!?” Cinder shouted. “He said he could!”

Blink dropped the invisibility on herself and the unconscious form of Discord. “He took an unlucky hit to the face. Seren, healing, now.”

“...I don’t think it needs to see us to hurt us,” Seren said, blasting away a free-flying leg.

“I’ll take care of it,” Blink said, blinking out of existence and appearing behind an incoming big toe, driving it to the ground. This only resulted in her getting caught in an armpit. “AUGH!”

Seren bit her lip - and stopped casting magic to defend everyone, instead focusing on healing Discord. “Come on Mr. Discord, we need you…”

Cinder readied her spark. “...Is your ink flammable?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s pretty much the only offensive spell I know, so…”

“Just take cover,” Squiddy took a pyramid-shaped prism out of her pocket and threw it. It hit a giant hand dead on, exploding in a shower of ink so forceful it tore the hand apart and sent the chaos cloud away.

“Woohoo!” Cinder shouted, despite having white ink all over her.

Her feeling of victory was short lived - the chaos mist returned, forming more random body parts.

“...Ponyfeathers,” she said.

“Done!” Seren shouted, jumping up from Discord. “He should be good as new!”

“SNAP!” Discord said, snapping his fingers to make the monstrosity stop doing anything. “CRACKLE!” He clapped his hands together, and all the physical body parts shattered like they were glass. “POP!” The monstrosity was suddenly back in the tube, fixed as if nothing had happened. “And that, my friends, is how you make a balanced breakfast.”

Sonata facepalmed. Adagio and the CMC were currently flat on their backs, dazed.

“...How come you didn’t see that coming…?” Apple Bloom halfheartedly asked Skuldie.

“Eh… It’s not an exact science…”

“Ah… Okay…”

Adagio slowly sat up and looked right at Squiddy.

Squiddy pointed her gun at the siren. “I. Am not. A kraken.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m an inkling! From another universe!”

“You move like a kraken. Don’t care what your universe calls you, you’re a kraken. Kraken.”

“Can I shoot her?” Squiddy asked Blink.

“Blink is not available for leadership duties right now,” Blink muttered. “Ugh, this is gonna leave a whole lot of marks…”

“Mr. Discord!” Seren said with a huff. “Why didn’t you have the proper safety procedures in place for a magic surge like that!?”

“I do,” Discord said, popping open a panel on the side of the tube’s base. It was empty save for a few snipped wires. “Oh. ...It appears someone stole my chaos magic triggering circuit…”

“How would anyone get in?” Sonata asked.

“I don’t exactly have very good security besides myself...” With a shrug, Discord snapped his fingers and recreated the circuit. He proceeded to put a bubble spell on it for added security. “Much better.”

“...Can’t we figure out who stole it?” Cinder asked. “That sounds a lot like the start of an adventure!”

“Any magical signature that would have been left here was erased by that chaos cloud,” Discord said. “So, no, I’m afraid we can’t trace whoever did this.”

“Oh. Disappointing…”

“But I can take you all out to lunch! Who wants burgers?”

Cinder paled. “Oh no.”

~~~

Nira told Suzie and Celia exactly where the bomber’s brothers and sisters were.

A Harmonist temple. It was a small structure lined with symbols that were vaguely reminiscent of the Elements of Harmony. It looked like it belonged in ancient Greece to Suzie - for the life of her she couldn’t remember what ‘Greece’ was called on Earth Shimmer, and frankly she was a little too upset to particularly care about what horse-related pun-names existed at the moment.

“You know you can’t just go storming in there,” Celia said.

“Yes I can.”

“Only Harmonists are allowed in.”

“I can pull that off.”

Celia facehooved. “No, you cannot. They know you. The moment they notice you don’t have a gem, they’ll be able to look you up.”

“So? Earth Vitis is a lot like this world.”

“It doesn’t have Harmonists.”

“It does have these,” Suzie said, pointing at the emblem she had instead of a cutie mark. “Random chance can be spun as spiritual influence. I’m sure I can stylyze my hair to cover my forehead and get it to work…”

Celia sighed. “Even if you could convince them you were a Harmonist, you don’t know how to act it. You go to church, not a temple. It wouldn’t be one of Rev’s sermons and you know it.”

“...And lying isn’t a good idea in the first place...” Suzie muttered, starting to pace. “I still have case-by-case authorization. I could declare a need for interference.” She furrowed her brow and sighed. “But, of course, that would be a bad idea. It’d just give the Harmonists more reasons to hate us.”

“Glad to see you’re finally thinking clearly.”

“What we need is someone who can get in…”

“Suzie, dear… what are you doing?”

Suzie held out a small pen with a red button on the back. “Getting someone’s attention.” She pressed down the button, activating the reality anchor field. It had no discernible effect, but it did stick out like a sore thumb in space-time as an area where the laws of physics were completely immutable.

Naturally, Sunset noticed it instantly and appeared behind them. “You know, I honestly can’t tell if that’s more or less annoying than a prayer.”

Suzie turned off the reality anchor. “We have a problem. We got attacked by a suicide bomber. Apparently there are a lot more of them… in that temple there.”

Sunset looked at the Harmonist temple. “I take it neither of you are Harmonists?”

“Afraid not.”

“I’m not allowed in there either, you know.”

“At least you going in wouldn’t give them more reason to use suicide bombers on us. I don’t think bombs can do much to you.”

Sunset shrugged. “Probably not.” She narrowed her eyes. “I could probably go in, find out what’s going on, and… wait, no, bad idea, really bad idea.”

“Why?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, and despite my best efforts, Shimmerism is becoming very popular. If I walk in there it’d be like declaring a religious war.”

“Oh. Sassafras.” Suzie put a hand to her chin. “...Is there anyone who can go in there?”

“There are a few Harmonist priests I could check with,” Sunset said. “But I think I’m pretty much out of favors with them at this point. It’d probably take a little too long.”

Suzie sighed. “...I guess we report it all to the U.N. and just let it slide then.”

“Afraid so. You have to let them deal with it internally or the backlash is just… much, much worse.”

“Not so fast,” Celia said, grabbing their attention. “There’s certainly ways to avoid just ‘letting it slide’, I assure you. Suzie, your phone please.”

~~~

Cinder looked down at the hamburger on her plate.

“...You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to,” Sonata said. “You could give it to me!”

“She’ll have to eventually,” Squiddy said, digging into her own. “Part of the rite of passage and all that jazz. Or something.”

Cinder made no response to either of them. Discord had taken them all out to the local burger joint - one that specifically wasn't fast food, Feedrooster’s - though the local CMC had opted out, as had Adagio. It was just the Sweeties, Discord, and Sonata.

“It’s really not that bad,” Blink told Cinder. “It’s just a little weird, is all.”

“It’s meat,” Cinder said, staring at the burger.

“Seriously, you don’t have to eat it,” Sonata repeated, pointing into her mouth.

“True…” Discord said, leaning back. “But does she want to?”

Cinder looked at the burger closely. Then, before she could send herself into another round of analysis paralysis, she bit down on the thing.

She promptly spat it out and dropped the burger. “GAH! That… What was that flavor!?”

“Meat,” Blink said, chewing her own burger. “Guess you don’t like the taste. That’s fair.”

“How could anyone like that!?”

“Carnivores have to eat nothing but that,” Seren said. “They like it.”

Cinder groaned. Sonata picked the burger up and devoured it.

“You get a prize for trying,” Discord said, snapping his fingers. A sundae larger than Cinder appeared on the table.

Cinder’s grimace was soon replaced with a huge, cheesy grin. “...Thank you… it’s beautiful…”

“Dig in.”

She did, in quite a literal sense.

Blink was about to join her when her communicator rang. “This is the Blink, don’t blink and you’ll miss me!”

“I need you to come over,” Suzie said. “Just you - not the others. We need something done covertly.”

“Righty-o, I’ll have Swip do the location-sendithing.” She hung up. “Duty calls! Enjoy your burgers!” Before anyone could ask her what this was about, she vanished into nothingness.

“...Clever trick…” Discord muttered.

Cinder didn’t notice Blink had left for a while. The sundae was occupying far too much of her mind.

~~~

“Blink, just to make sure, you understand the plan?” Celia asked.

“I do!” Blink said, adjusting the band on her head so it was just below her horn.

Sunset, Celia, and Suzie nodded. They turned to the temple. “Then go,” Suzie said. “Complete Void.”

Blink nodded slowly - and then focused on herself. A dark blue energy wafted off of her for a moment as she asked the universe to do one thing for her.

Would it forget she existed?

Given Sunset’s gasp, it had worked like a charm.

“I… I can’t see her,” Sunset said, waving her hand right through Blink. “Holy… I - I think I can detect a shadow of presence, a sort of lack. But I can’t pinpoint it directly.”

“That’s Blink for you,” Suzie said. “Now Blink, if I know you, I know you haven't gotten moving yet even though you can’t keep yourself this Voided for long. So get moving!”

“Aye aye, cap’n!” Blink said. Suzie couldn’t hear her, naturally.

The unicorn of Void ran into the temple. Her hooves didn’t touch the ground - they couldn’t, since she effectively didn’t exist. She moved as a balloon, floating up to the front doors. Like a ghost, she passed right through and drifted into a very bland and uninteresting looking hallway. The ground floor was clearly not full of secrets, just a bunch of people praying, studying holy books, and the like. A few meditation rooms here and there had fancy skylights.

But the basement… That was another story entirely. The world above had seemed like the interior of any modern building, save the altar in the very center. But down here, everything was different. The walls were tiled with images of cutie marks, the hallways themselves were arranged in a six-way pattern akin to the Element of Magic, and in the center there was an altar with a sun on one half, a moon on the other. People stood around this altar, guarding it from six sides.

Blink wasn’t here to see the general magic secrets the Harmonists had - she was here for something else entirely, looking at the interior of the temple was just a bonus. After a quick stop waving her hoof in front of the guards for her own amusement, she continued on. She found a magically saturated room filled with fabric icons. At one end of the room were nothing but simple colored squares of fabric, but on the other there were almost fully-defined marks. A little creepy, if she was being honest with herself.

She didn’t find any stairs to continue her journey - but she still hadn’t found anything particularly useful. So she decided to just say ‘screw it’ and phase through the floor. It wasn’t all that surprising that a full second basement existed beneath the temple, this one much more cave-like. Here, there was a large magic circle on the ground, glowing with a vibrant green energy. Sitting in the middle was a green woman adorned with black robes who was consistently muttering in arcane nonsense.

Blink was almost certain those weren’t Harmonist robes and that this woman wasn’t supposed to be down here. What happened next made her absolutely certain - a half dozen Harmonist acolytes teleported down to the cave, looking at the woman with reverence.

The woman smirked, snapping her fingers. Six bombs appeared around her, each one laced with complex magitech circuitry. “Go, my slaves, and drive the invaders from this earth. Your mother will remember your sacrifice when the world is at her knees…”

Blink decided this was enough. She was running out of Void time anyway. She passed through the wall, floated up through the ground, and appeared back in front of Suzie. “Tah-dah!”

Suzie made no response.

Blink made herself visible. “...Tah-dah.”

“Oh, you’re back!” Suzie said, smiling. Sunset looked at blink like she’d just seen a ghost.

“Did you get anything useful?” Celia asked.

“Heck yes!” Blink took off the headband and handed it to Celia. “As long as your camera captured everything, we’re golden!”

“Oh, it did, trust me.”

~~~

It’s surprisingly easy to take down a religious mind control conspiracy without causing a fuss.

Just send a video from ‘a concerned anonymous Harmonist’ to a major religious leader known to absolutely despise magical corruption within the temples. The next day people in fancy robes will walk into the temple, change its management, and discipline those within all without causing a religious war or international incident.

“And we never get to figure out what her plan actually was,” Sunset observed from Swip’s bridge. “I think that’s what bothers me most about all this.”

“It is the price we must pay for dealing with things calmly,” Celia said.

Suzie shrugged. “...I don’t think I need to state that our little ploy didn’t happen, right?”

“What ploy?” Blink asked.

“...When existence itself is your toy…” Sunset said, not finishing the thought. “Anyway, despite the inevitable drama you guys cause, you’re good to have around. I really do hope I can figure out how to stabilize this universe faster so you can start coming more often.”

“And then a whole new can of worms will be opened up,” Celia said.

“There’s always a can of worms in the can of worms,” Suzie added.

Sunset chuckled. “Don’t I know it.” She waved. “Bye. Have a nice trip.”

With a flash of light she was off the bridge.

“Good riddance,” Swip declared.

Suzie rolled her eyes. “Everyone on board?”

“Yes.”

“Any extras?”

“Nope.”

“Good. Take us out of here, Swip.”

Swip opened a portal in front of herself and re-created her pocket dimension, entering the swirling miasma once more. The portal closed behind them, leaving Earth Shimmer alone until the next package was scheduled to be delivered.

Cinder walked onto the bridge. “Huh. Well, I guess that’s that, then.”

“Did you like your first world?” Suzie asked.

“Lots of eye opening experiences, an interesting culture, and new friends.” Cinder put a hoof to her chin. “But it all seemed a little… domestic to me. There wasn’t any action on that world, just normal stuff with a different spin on it. ...I mean, I guess there was a chaos monster thing...”

Suzie smiled knowingly. If you only knew… “I promise it’s not always like that.”

“I’ll hold you to that!” Cinder chuckled. As she turned back to head towards her room, she removed her communicator and called up Rarity. “Hey, guess what, I finally went somewhere and made a lot of new friends! Including another me!”

“...Why don’t any of us call our Rarities?” Blink wondered.

“Different lives for different Sweeties,” Celia said, tossing her mane back. “Even those who live on the same ship.”

Author's Notes:

Oversaturation is a curious little work created by FanofMostEverything. It has its own extended universe to check out too!

Also, extra thanks to FanofMostEverything for pre-reading this. And for helping make the first entry on the League's travels be as good as it could be!

Wanna suggest fics or worlds for the League to visit? Go here! You'll also find the status of what stories are being considered as well.

-GM, master of mice.

Split Contact (Letters to the Sun)

“Cinder, what are the goals of this mission?” Suzie asked, standing between Cinder and Swip’s interdimensional ring.

“Make friends, explore, learn, and help!” Cinder recited.

“Who’s in charge while you’re out?”

“Burgerbelle!”

“What’s your job on this team?”

“To learn how the League exploration missions work!”

Suzie smiled warmly. “Are you ready to have some fun?”

“Yes!”

Suzie nodded, turning to Burgerbelle. “Watch out for her.”

The Flat jumped to a saluting pose. “She will feel like there’s a menacing vulture over top of her at all times.”

Cinder blinked. “Wait, vult-” Burgerbelle was suddenly standing over her with a predatory expression. “...Geez…”

Burgerbelle made an OK gesture with her hand and smirked. “Aaaaalways waaaatching.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Blink said, patting Cinder on the back. “Though it might take you a bit longer to figure out why the meme-lord is second-in-command.”

“...I thought we didn’t have a chain of command?” Cinder asked.

Squiddy let out a snort. “Suzie’s captain, Burger’s commander, then Celia.”

Cinder looked up at the alien Burgerbelle. The Flat in question was currently spinning in place and singing “AAAAAY MACARENA!” with a voice that was not her usual synthetic monotone.

Blink was right. She wasn’t sure why Burgerbelle was given any authority. But she didn’t exactly want to offend the expedition leader, so she kept quiet.

“Are you ready to rumble?” Burgerbelle asked, moving to the front of the interdimensional ring. “Beyond this gate lies a world interdimensional eyes have probably never seen. A world ripe for the taking. Forward unto dawn everyone!”

She tapped the edge of the ring with her finger, activating its ‘random selection’ program. The portal established itself in a matter of seconds, leading to an empty, but well lit metal hallway with screens on the walls.

The team of four - Burgerbelle, Blink, Squiddy, and Cinder - walked through the portal and let it close behind them.

The hallway remained just as empty as it had been before they arrived.

“So what now?” Cinder asked.

“Usually we’d just keep walking until we found something,” Blink explained. “But since we’ve got a metal hallway and a tech-base high enough to produce digital screens, we can start sending out ‘hails’ to see if anyone’s listening.”

Burgerbelle had already produced a silver cube with an antenna on it, presumably sending out the general ‘we come in peace’ broadcast.

Squiddy walked up to one of the screens and narrowed her eyes. “Pony-based, there’s cutie mark symbols on the edges here. Rainbow Dash’s in the top corner right there.”

“Oh, cool!” Cinder pressed her face into the screen. “Ponies, Rainbow Dash, what else?”

She tapped the screen with her hoof and got an ACCESS DENIED message.

“...Aww…”

“Guess that means the local Sweetie doesn’t have clearance here,” Blink said. “Hey, Burger, got any response?”

Burgerbelle shook her head. “Nada. I am picking up reruns of the local version of Star Trek.”

“And you thought ponies were prevalent,” Squiddy said.

“We should go exploring,” Cinder asserted. “No responses, and security on the screen. We need to walk until we find someone.”

“Correct, you get an internet cookie.” Burgerbelle produced a cookie and threw it into Cinder’s mouth, much to the unicorn’s surprise. “Forward is a great direction.”

And then something exploded, tilting the entire hallway sideways and throwing the Sweeties into the far wall. Squiddy’s ink tank hit a screen at a blunt angle, cracking the glass. For a moment, gravity vanished and they floated in midair - but the laws of nature quickly re-exerted themselves and the Sweeties fell flat on their faces.

“...Right, so, we’re on a spaceship,” Blink said as she adjusted her shades. “Good to know.”

“That’s under attack,” Squiddy added, readying her weapon. “Things are probably going to get tangled…”

It turned out that she was right. A black, metallic spike shot out of the ground, cutting a circular hole a few meters in front of them. With a sharp jerk, the floor fell out, allowing a robotic monstrosity to crawl up into their hall. It had a singular blue eye surrounded by seven different limbs, all lined with an excessive number of blades and knives. It let out a digital screech and charged at them.

Cinder ducked behind Squiddy - she had a feeling fire wouldn’t be effective against this thing.

Squiddy planted her feet into the ground and unloaded a burst of ink onto the machine’s eye, making it recoil. Blink phased out of existence and appeared behind it, driving her hoof into its back plating. Even blinded, it was able to sense her and throw her off, though she managed to make herself intangible before the blades started chopping her up.

“I hate robots,” Squiddy muttered, putting her ink-based weaponry away and opting for a small pulse pistol, finding that even energy bursts bounced off the creature’s metallic exterior. “Blink? MAGIC?”

“Working on it…” Blink said, focusing the Void onto one of the mechanical limbs, slowly erasing it from existence. The machine took exception to this, but it couldn’t find her. Its response to this was to start flailing around wildly, spinning blades everywhere it could.

One of the blades caught Squiddy in the arm by chance. The small gash started squirting out ink like she was a pressurized hose. “SHIT.”

Cinder gasped. “What in…?”

“Inklings are fragile, all right!?” Squiddy took a few steps back while at the same time removing a small length of cloth from her shirt. She slapped the cloth onto her arm, the advanced material binding itself to her flesh and stopping the excessive loss of inner ink.

“You okay back there?” Blink asked as the machine kept swinging blades through her intangible body, confused.

“Watch out for yourself!”

“It can’t even hit me!”

“All it takes is one moment of lost focus,” Burgerbelle said. She was nonchalantly walking up to the machine, a butterfly in her hand. “Hey, robot, is this an explosive?”

She tossed the butterfly right onto its ink-covered eye. It paused, trying to analyze what exactly it was looking at.

“Answer: no, it isn’t.” Burgerbelle held up a big red button. “But that thing on your back is.” She pressed down - and an airbag exploded out of the creature’s center, tearing all its limbs off at once. “And that, girls, is how it’s done.”

“Woah…” Cinder said. “That was-”

“THERE’S MORE!” Squiddy shouted, throwing an ink grenade at the two coming out of the hole.

“Do the thing again!” Cinder told Burgerbelle.

Burgerbelle shrugged. “Rarely works the same way twice.”

“Retreat?” Blink asked.

Burgerbelle nodded - but before she could recall the portal, the entire ship lurched, and everything went slightly purple for a second. They felt as if they were being elongated like a piece of gum between someone’s teeth.

The snap back to reality knocked them all onto the ground, even Burgerbelle. The robots were notably unaffected, spinning their claws in anticipation of a kill.

It was at this point the ship’s crew arrived. Energy pulses hit the robots from behind, about as effective as Squiddy’s own weapon had been. The robots were able to recognize the new ponies as the greater threat given their numbers, so both of them charged blades-first into the reinforcements.

A blur of intense rainbow colors barreled out from behind the crew, hitting one of the robots right in the eye. Colors burst and sparks of energy flashed as the eye shattered, kicked right through the back of the robot's skeleton.

The local Rainbow Dash stomped on the remnant of the eye once more for good measure, tossing her vibrant mane back with a cocky smile on her face. “That’ll teach them t-”

The second robot drove its foremost blade through the base of Rainbow’s neck, coming out the front of her chest and squirting blood onto the ground before Cinder.

Cinder gasped. “Oh no…”

Rainbow let out a gargled chuckle. “I’ll… be fine… just watch...” No pegasus should have been able to live, much less move with a blade run through them like that, but this Rainbow Dash was more than a simple pegasus. With the blade still inside her, she twisted her body around, severing the blade from the robot’s limb.

The machine attacked her again, but she used her wings to jump out of the way. Still dripping blood, she was able to pull out her gun and shoot it right in the eye.

It took only minimal damage, but it still stumbled backward - allowing the rest of the crew to pile on all at once, flattening it into the ground with a mixture of magic spells and hooves. It was soon immobile.

“Last one?” Rainbow asked a red stallion.

“Last one.”

“Good.” Rainbow’s eyes rolled into the back of her skull and she passed out.

The red stallion grimaced. “Lamp Shade, get her to med bay!”

“Convenient that she only fell at the last one…” Lamp Shade muttered as she hefted Rainbow onto her back.

“And you four!” the red stallion pointed at the Sweeties.

“We come in peace?” Blink suggested.

“...Surrender your weapons and equipment, then we can talk.”

Squiddy’s face contorted in anger. “Hey! We’re no-”

“Agreed,” Burgerbelle said, tossing a handful of devices onto the ground. With a grunt, Squiddy relented hers as well.

Blink tossed her dimensional device and communicator down as well. “I need to keep these rings on my legs to survive.”

“Fine. Tangello, take them to the brig. Rainbow will deal with them later.”

“She’s gonna be fine?” Cinder asked, looking at the stallion with pleading eyes.

“She’s an Element. She’ll live.”

Tangello took them away before she could ask anything else.

~~~

Suzie anxiously tapped her fingers at the captain’s console. She was carefully eying a timer as it counted down.

Less than twenty seconds left. As the timer ticked closer and closer to zero, the speed of her finger taps increased.

“...Maybe there’s just a time discrepancy,” Celia suggested.

“Swip, was there a time discrepancy on the other side of the portal?”

“Nope,” the ship responded.

“Ah,” Celia said.

Less than ten seconds now.

“C’mon Burgerbelle…” Suzie muttered to herself, some part of her thinking her words could change the outcome.

The timer hit zero. No call from Burgerbelle.

“That’s ten minutes,” Suzie declared, marching off the bridge. “Swip, try to call Burgerbelle.”

“Already am. I’m not even getting a ping back from her communicator.”

“Great.” She passed by Nira’s room and banged on the door with her fist. “Nira, suit up, we’re going in after them.”

“I don’t have a ‘suit’,” Nira said, teleporting to Suzie’s side. “Burgerbelle forget to call again?”

“Something’s happened.” Suzie walked up to the ring and activated the ‘last location dialed’ program, opening a portal into open space rather than a spaceship hallway.

“Swip, is the force-field holding?” Suzie asked.

“I can hold the vacuum of space away, I’m not a rustbucket.”

“Anything out there?”

“Sensors show a derelict ancient platform. Not even close to the same make of the hall they ended up in earlier.”

“Anything else?”

“Some minor debris.”

A robot latched onto the edge of the floating portal and pulled itself through the semipermeable force-field. It clawed in Suzie’s general direction, its single eye looking right at her with mechanical malice.

Nira lit her horn and disintegrated the eye with a beam of dark magic. For good measure, she closed the portal.

Suzie furrowed her brow. “...Swip, were you able to detect their locators?”

“Negative.”

“Okay… Something’s blocking them. Maybe a ship’s shield system. If they portaled onto a ship as it was being attacked, it might have needed to flee with shields on…”

“Joy. They could be anywhere,” Nira said.

Suzie nodded, frown deepening. “Swip, you and Seren need to analyze the universe head to toe. Find the points of highest ka-saturation and check for anything interdimensional. Shields or not, Burgerbelle and Blink should stick out like sore thumbs.”

“It’s a space-age universe…”

“I know we won’t be able to find them quickly.” Suzie clenched her fist. “It was her first mission. Of course it had to go wrong.”

“You took precautions.”

“Not enough.” She turned away from the ring. “Swip, let me know the instant you detect anything of note.”

Swip beeped. “Already found a version of Equis. I think it goes without saying that they’re not on it.”

“Anything helpful there?”

“Not in particular.”

Suzie sighed. “Good work. Keep looking.”

~~~

The brig of the ship - apparently called the Bifrost - was a comfortable if small room sealed by an invisible force field. Burgerbelle, Blink, Squiddy, and Cinder were all seated on the floor, waiting - some patiently, some not. Burgerbelle was setting up a tower of cards while Squiddy was angrily tapping her foot. Blink’s time was occupied worrying about Cinder - the unicorn hadn’t stopped staring off into space since they’d been captured.

Blink decided she needed to fix this. “Yes, to answer your unspoken question, getting locked up happens a lot. Patience is a skill we usually need in our line of work. And we don’t bust out unless we perceive some kind of major threat - which is why I’m not walking out right now.”

Cinder nodded slowly, saying nothing.

The guard, on the other hand, took note. He was not a pony or a human, but a grey goblin-like creature with big muscles and a thin coat of fur. “Wot? You can walk out?”

“Uh, yeah, I can walk through walls and stuff,” Blink said. “Usually supersedes general magic. But don’t worry, I’m being a good little filly and not walking anywhere!”

“...Ah’ve got mah eye on ya’.”

“That is your job, gray guy. Actually, hold up, Cinder, do you know what this guy is?”

Cinder halfheartedly looked up. “...No.”

“See, that’s the fun thing, I don’t either! I’ve never seen his race before! Hey, buddy, what’s your race and, while we’re at it, what’s your name? We’re here to make friends, after all.”

“Not gonna let ya out.”

Blink rolled her eyes. “This isn’t some clever trick, I’m just curious is all.”

“Hmm.” The guard narrowed his eyes for a moment, contemplating deeply. “Mah name is Uzlevah, and Ah’m a Grom.”

“Cool, cool,” Blink continued. “What do the Grom do?”

“Uh…” Uzlevah blinked slowly. “Eat? Ah guess.”

“Oh, you have a lot of festivals?”

“Dere’s a lot o’ food. More parties since Pinkie came. Ah like the meat cake, pers’nally.”

Blink expected a revulsion response from Cinder, but there still wasn't anything from the filly. Blink sighed. “I don’t suppose you know anything that might cheer my friend up?”

“Ah can tell ya the story o’ the Smart Boy Yungri and how ‘e beat the Iggrinth all on ‘is lonesome.”

Squiddy was suddenly at Blink’s side. “You have my attention.”

“Well, see, Yungri was a scrawny lil’ Grom a-”

“I’m going to have to cut you short, sorry Uzlevah,” Rainbow Dash said, walking into the room.

“Oh, thank Celestia, you’re okay!” Cinder said, a smile coming to her face. “I was so worried - there was the blood, and the knife, and…”

“Hey, hey, it’ll take more than that to kill me,” Rainbow Dash said with a laugh. Absent-mindedly she scratched the front of her chest, drawing attention to the the red stain she hadn’t washed out yet. She clearly should not have been alive.

Cinder couldn’t stop staring.

“Oh, my, they really do look like Sweetie…” the local Fluttershy said, stepping into view. She looked much like a standard Fluttershy, though somehow larger-than-life and with a gaze that didn’t shy away from anything.

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. “Yeah, about that… care to explain?”

Burgerbelle nodded in Blink’s direction - it was usually better if they heard things from a normal sounding voice first. The little unicorn cleared her throat. “We are an exploratory team from the League of Sweetie Belles, an interdimensional organization of, well, Sweetie Belles. I’m Blink, that’s Squiddy, Cinder here’s our newest recruit, and Burgerbelle’s in charge. And since I know you’re going to ask, she’s a Flat, and comes from a universe where physics really don’t agree with the standard.”

“Hi,” Burgerbelle said, producing a hamburger out of nowhere and stuffing it into her face without so much as a chewing animation.

The two Elements stared at the Flat in disbelief. Rainbow recovered first. “Okay, most of that is evident… but why are you on my ship?”

“We dialed in to a random universe,” Burgerbelle answered, “the location just happened to be on your ship. We had started sending out the usual hails and initial searches when the robots came out of nowhere. ...What were those things?”

“An infestation of ancient machines,” Rainbow muttered. “They’re making exploration of this sector of the galaxy… difficult, to say the least.”

“I was trying to talk to them,” Fluttershy offered. “...You arrived when it went downhill. I’m pretty sure the central intelligence tragically can’t move past its militant programming.”

“I hope we didn’t make it worse,” Blink said.

“I don’t think it even knew you were there when it attacked.”

“And you took one out,” Rainbow said. “You helped. So… to be frank I’m not sure why we’re still holding you in that cell. Uzlevah?”

“Blink said she could walk out anyway, not sure the cell even keeps ‘em locked up.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

“Are you asking me to walk out?” Blink asked.

“I’d like to see it.”

You won’t exactly ‘see’ it, but sure.” Blink closed her eyes - and vanished. A second later she appeared on the outside of the cell. “Tah-dah!”

“...Secure Systems is going to blow their lids,” Rainbow told Fluttershy.

“My power’s more than a little unusual, you shouldn’t feel bad.”

Rainbow shrugged, placing a hoof on a nearby terminal, dropping the forcefield completely.

“Thanks,” Burgerbelle said, smiling.

Rainbow looked her up and down with a confused expression, cocking her head side to side, discovering that she was definitely flat.

“Staring is rude, you know,” Burgerbelle said.

Rainbow folded her ears back. “Sorry! I uh, well…”

“She’s just messing with you,” Fluttershy said with a coy smile.

“...Oh.”

Burgerbelle stuck out a hand to Rainbow. She shook it with her hoof.

“Anyway, you’re all explorers,” Rainbow began. “From other universes. But why do you explore?”

Cinder grinned. “Ooh! Ooh! Our goals are to make friends, explore, learn, and help!”

“...Help?” Fluttershy said, raising an incredulous eyebrow. “What does ‘help’ mean, exactly?”

“Oh, basic explorer-hero stuff,” Blink said. “Slaying of evil, solving of mysteries, that sort of thing.”

“And…?” Fluttershy asked.

“...And we usually give people knowledge of the multiverse and some basic exploration technology.” She wanted to stop there, but she sensed Fluttershy wouldn’t be happy if, at a later time, she found out there had been some stuff she left off. “And if people ask for it we’re willing to help with governmental issues, societal problems, instability, resource management, and possibly move for inclusion within our nation, Merodi Universalis.” She smiled awkwardly.

Fluttershy nodded slowly. “I can see why you usually don’t lead with the full story.”

“The amount of things we know that we don’t tell people out of the gate is astronomical,” Burgerbelle said. “Exceptionally, descriptively, criminally, beyond astronomical.”

Rainbow made a slight grimace. “...We’re going to have to take you back to Epona.”

Blink’s jaw dropped. “Epona? Your world isn’t called Equis? Or Equus?”

“No…?”

“Dime a dozen,” Burgerbelle said with an amused shrug. “Patterns don’t always hold.”

“But… I… Er…”

Squiddy facepalmed. “Right, well, how far away is Epona?”

“Thousands of light years,” Rainbow offered. “It’ll only take a few hours to get there. It would be instant, but one of those robots got into the wormhole drive so we’re going to have to paddle to a way station.”

“Eh, fine. Can we have our stuff back? We kind of need to check in with the rest of the Sweeties.”

“Oh!” Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth. “Sure, they must be worried sick.”

“Hold up,” Rainbow said. “We actually don’t know if they’re telling the truth.”

“Rainbow…”

“They’re interdimensional versions of Sweetie Belle that are offering us a lot. My gut tells me we can trust them, but these kinds of things are often traps, too good to be true. We can get them to Epona, have Applejack vet their story, and then they can call whoever they want.”

Squiddy pointed an aggressive finger at Rainbow. “That’s no-”

Burgerbelle put a calming hand on Squiddy's shoulder. “It’s acceptable. Just put the pedal to the metal, would you?”

“We’re already moving as fast as we can,” Rainbow said.

Squiddy smiled mischievously. “If we could make a call, our engineer could replace your wormhole drive, or our ship could take you directly…”

Fluttershy sighed. “You’re not exactly making yourselves sound trustworthy.”

“...Crap.”

“Regardless, this has been a nice chat, but I’ve got a ship to run,” Rainbow turned to leave. “Uzlevah, don’t let them out of your sight, and once we get to the way station keep them on the down low. Fluttershy…”

“I’ll stay with them,” she said. “I’ll learn as much as I can about their culture and customs.”

“Right. See ya.” She trotted away.

Cinder looked after her with a confused expression.

“What is it, little one?” Fluttershy asked.

“How is she alive? I… I’m glad, but it doesn’t make sense.”

“...She’s an Element. All of us… cannot die.”

Cinder looked to Blink. “That’s not normal… is it?”

Blink shook her head. “It’s not unheard of, but most Elements don’t do that.”

“What do most Elements do?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well…”

~~~

“I’ve got something, but I’m not sure what it is,” Swip said.

“Whatever it is, put the relevant information on the main screen,” Suzie said, looking up from her station. She was currently alone on the bridge.

Two galaxies appeared on the screen. One had a small dot labeled ‘Local Equis / Tree of Harmony’. The other galaxy had an entire area covered by a reddish glow, labeled ‘?????’

“...What exactly am I looking at?” Suzie asked.

“Since I wasn’t finding them, I did a quick search in nearby galaxies to see if I could get lucky. I didn’t find them - what I did find was this large area of high-complexity interdimensional energy.”

“A transdimensional civilization?”

“I don’t know, I told you about it the moment I found it. I can tell you it’s a large area that’s setting off my sensors with ‘hey, this really isn’t normal’. I doubt it’s them.”

“But it could be related, if we’re lucky.” She folded her hands together. “Open some micro-portals at that location, see what you can find out.”

“Done. Currently in a lot of empty space. Lots of static. Surprise, there’s something in the static. I’m guessing high-end psychic beings talking to each other over immense distances.”

“How bad’s our translation matrix?”

“It’s a language we’ve never heard before of one of the rarer communication classes. About as bad as it can be. I can’t even tell you if it’s encrypted or not, I just know it’s psychic.”

Suzie pressed a button to access the comm systems. “Nira, I might need that powerful mind of yours.”

Nira teleported to the bridge in a cloud of shadowy magic. “How so?”

“We’ve got a psychic communication network the translation spell can’t parse. Think you can worm your way in?”

“I can try.” Nira closed her eyes and lit her horn. “Swip, micro-portal array. Let’s see what we get…”

Everything fell silent. Suzie had no magic aside from the magitech she carried, so there was no way for her to tell what was going on with the complex spells Nira was undertaking. As far as her eyes were concerned, Nira was sitting completely still and doing nothing.

That is, until Nira flew backward as if she had just been punched. “CLOSE IT!”

“Already done,” Swip quipped.

Nira levitated herself off the wall and rubbed her back. “Okay, didn’t learn much. All I got was a fear response and then a psychic burst to the cranium. ...I’m going to get some migraine meds.”

“Fear…” Suzie said, narrowing her eyes. “...Swip, continue scanning for the team. I’m going to see what we can find out about this psychic pattern…”

~~~

Fluttershy met Rainbow Dash in the airlock as the Bifrost pulled into the way station. The docking procedure itself was easy - though it would take several minutes for the station to be sure they were who they said they were and approve them for entry.

“Find out anything new?” Rainbow asked.

“They have an easily mass-producible immortality serum.”

Rainbow gawked at her. “You’re serious.”

“Yes. Squiddy has it in her system.”

Rainbow broke into a grin. “This is amazing! We don’t have to be alone anymore!”

“...It just keeps them from aging, if I understand it correctly.”

Rainbow nodded dismissively. “Still great. ...We need to get them vetted as fast as possible, the longer we wait…”

“I’m not sure it’s such a great idea. Think of the long-term consequences…”

“They’ve gotten it figured out, clearly.”

“Their nation isn’t old enough to have experienced the long term effects,” Fluttershy said. “...For their central world, it would be around year 40 by Twilight’s Reign. The serum itself is new.”

“Right, so we don’t rush into it blindly. But the longer we wait the more ponies die.”

“I know. We’ll talk to Twilight about it when we get there.”

“Yeah.”

“ACCESS GRANTED,” the station’s computer declared, sliding their doors open. On the other side was a grand hall filled with creatures of all shapes and sizes, though notably there weren’t any ponies around. There were numerous Grom mixed alongside six-legged elephant like beings and a race that appeared as humans with pointed features. There were dozens of other races, but those three were the easiest to pick out from the crowd.

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash took a breath. “Just have to put in an order to Epona, quickly.” The terminal for ordering long-distance travel was just across the hall, easy to access. Fluttershy would have diplomatic access, which would get them priority and access to funds directly from the Eponan government. They just had to get there without anyone deciding it was time to talk to them…

“Warm greeting. Rainbow Dash, it is good to see you back from the frontier.”

Rainbow had to spend a lot of effort to keep from grimacing. It was one of the elephant beings - a Kahri. They were incapable of emotion through speech so they always had to state what the tone of the message was. Normally, talking to one of them wouldn’t be a problem, but she happened to know this particular Kahri.

“Ah, Ravinal, fancy running into you here,” Rainbow said with a forced smile. “How’s it going?”

“Happy response. I am always learning more about the varying races of this fine galaxy. What brings you to this station, if you do not mind my asking?”

“Heading home,” Rainbow said, relieved to see Fluttershy already at the terminal, placing the order for the wormhole. “Got some cool souvenirs for Twilight to take a look at.”

“Curious inquiry. May I see these souvenirs?”

“Ah, no. Just for Twilight. Personal, you understand.”

“Confused continuation. If you insist. Earnest request. I am seeking passage to Epona myself, and my ship is not heading there, so procuring my own passage has proved difficult. May I come with you?”

Rainbow swore inwardly. You didn’t just refuse a Kahri as high up the food chain as Ravinal without a good reason. Normally she’d be completely fine with a passenger on the Bifrost, she’d be able to keep most out of her secret business. But not Ravinal. It was essentially his job to figure out what shady stuff the other races were doing. He was going to have a look around, one way or another.

“Sure! Just let us set up this order here and get you a room.”

“Grateful response, followed by inquiry. I thank you. Why would you need to set up a room just for me?”

“Customization and… cleaning,” Rainbow answered quickly. “Fluttershy?”

“I’ll get them to clean it up faster than you can blink,” Fluttershy said with a wink, trotting back into the Bifrost.

“Assertive statement. I shall accompany you.”

“Actually, Ravinal, hold up a sec,” Rainbow said, trotting up to him. “I’m curious, why are you heading to Epona?”

“Eagar response. I am going to discuss the nature of future diplomacy with the local embassy. The Hand have been mucking about with unknown technologies, and your people have recently been brought into the fray.”

Rainbow wanted to say I see, that’s nice, but she needed to keep him distracted for a few more minutes. “How interesting. Tell me more…”

It was not that hard to keep him talking for a few more minutes. Rainbow was pretty sure he was suspicious and on to her, but he wanted to make her think this was just a casual conversation, so he wouldn’t cast suspicion on himself.

Rainbow hated playing the ‘I would know that you would know’ game without saying any part of it aloud, but sometimes you just had to do what you had to do. Eventually she decided she’d given Fluttershy enough time and they went back into the Bifrost. Rainbow showed Ravinal his room - sparkling clean, of course - and returned to the bridge, where Fluttershy was waiting.

Fluttershy held a hoof to Rainbow’s ear and whispered. “Blink has all of them invisible in the far corner. They will follow the two of us when we leave.”

“How do we know they’re not trying to run?”

“We don’t, unless we want to perform magic signature sweeps that Ravinal might see.”

Rainbow nodded slowly, not daring to continue the conversation further. Already she got reports that Ravinal was moving about the Bifrost and talking to the crew. Everyone knew not to mention the Sweeties. She trusted them to keep their mouths shut. Let Ravinal be suspicious, the one thing they didn’t need was having this turn into a political screwball before Twilight could announce everything publicly.

The way station processed their request for travel within ten minutes - it helped to be a diplomat. A blue pulse of light shot out from the front of the station, stopping directly in front of the Bifrost. It tore a hole in space-time slightly larger than the ship itself that led right to the Eponan System, a small blue-green dot visible just on the other side.

The Bifrost fired its engines and floated through the wormhole, arriving at Epona without a problem.

The instant the portal closed behind them, Twilight Sparkle hailed them, which wasn’t entirely unexpected. “Rainbow Dash! What are you doing back?” She was a tall alicorn with a sparkling mane of magical vortexes and old, wise eyes.

“Hey Twi, got something I want you to look at.” Rainbow heard the doors to the bridge slide open behind her, heralding the timely arrival of Ravinal. “Some cool souvenirs for you and Applejack to check out.”

“Oh, really?” Twilight pondered this for a moment. “I think Applejack’s in the middle of a case right now, and I’m a little busy…”

“Hey, no rush, Fluttershy and I will be waiting in your castle whenever you want to come look.” Rainbow smirked. “Unless one of us gets called away, but you know how it is.”

Twilight nodded knowingly. “I do. See you soon.” She cut the feed.

“Surprised observation. That was brief.”

“She’s a busy mare,” Rainbow said, smirking. She and Fluttershy walked off the bridge. “Tangello, you’re in charge.”

While it was almost impossible for Rainbow to read Ravinal’s expression, she knew he was just dying for a reason to follow the two of them. But he wasn’t going to be able to come up with something that wasn't suspicious.

Gotcha, Rainbow thought with a smirk.

Rainbow and Fluttershy walked slowly to the transporter room. They purposefully stood and admired the teleporting platform a few seconds before keying in the teleportation program themselves - making sure to take all the ‘air’ on the platform as well as the detected ponies.

They appeared outside the back of Twilight’s crystal castle, an area only a select few people were allowed to teleport. The two Elements carefully entered one of the back doors, leaving the cityscape that had once been Ponyville behind. Inside, there were several displays of artifacts both ancient and alien, lit by soft white light.

Fluttershy closed the door softly behind them.

“You all better be here,” Rainbow said.

Blink dropped the invisibility on all four of them, smirking at Fluttershy. “Told you it would work.”

Fluttershy let out a tense breath. “Yes… Yes it worked. I’m very, very glad. The Kahri are not known for taking secrets… well.”

“I’m pretty sure Twilight got the subtext,” Rainbow said, looking around for the stairs. “She should be up in the map room.”

“Look at all this stuff…” Cinder said, allowing her childlike curiosity to come out once more. She trotted up to one of the larger displays that held a piece of metal in the shape of a bug’s wing. It was charred and broken in many places. “What’s this?”

“A memory of war,” Rainbow said, glancing at the wing in distaste.

“Epona was attacked by a race of biomechanical bugs early in its space history,” Fluttershy explained. “They showed up one day and decimated us without explanation. We drove them back and we’ve found no trace of them since. Relics like this are all we know of the Unknown Alien Aggressors.”

“Fraggers,” Rainbow said. “They’re Fraggers, plain and simple.”

Cinder looked at the patterns in the wings with her deep, orange eyes. “...They killed a lot of ponies didn’t they?”

“...Yes,” Fluttershy admitted.

The spark in Cinder dissipated. She lost her interest in the artifacts.

“We should see Twilight,” Burgerbelle said. “Get a move on, ponies!”

~~~

“Probe’s ready!” Seren said, carting the pointed cylinder into the ring-room. “Ready for takeoff!”

Nira and Suzie were already waiting. “Good job, Seren,” Suzie said, rubbing a hand over the edge of the metallic pod.

Nira tapped the ring, dialing into the middle of space where they had detected the psychic transmissions. With a childish laugh, Seren levitated the pod through the ring and into the stars. “Activating transmissions… now!”

The scanners of the probe all appeared on the ring-room’s main screen, dominated by the visual camera showing the stars.

Nira closed the portal while Suzie placed her hands on the screen, tapping in a few select places to control the probe. It performed some proximity scans, finding nothing in the empty void of space it had appeared in. Suzie set it to start looking for origin points in the psychic transmissions.

“Uh, Suzie? You need to key in the calibration before trying to do that.” Seren gently moved Suzie out of the way and stood on her tip-toes to tap on the screen herself. “There you go! Now it can actually find stuff!”

“Thanks,” Suzie said, examining the information closely. It had managed to identify a few areas in the psychic background that were stronger than others, and it was currently attempting to triangulate distance. This wasn’t easy when the distances involved were dozens of light years, but the probe was capable so long as it kept moving and scanning. Most of the large energy signatures were slowly becoming single points on its radar - except for one. It seemed to be moving around rapidly, keeping the probe from getting a definite lock on it.

“What is that?” Suzie asked.

“Dunno,” Seren admitted. “Could be a loose manifestation from psychic interplay. We don’t need it, we’ve got plenty of other points to look at. A-” she stopped herself. “Proximity sensor alert?”

The probe suddenly started spinning end over end, making the visual camera useless. Seren quickly dismissed that display and went for a three-dimensional rendering of the area surrounding the probe - one that contained several dozen ships. Each one of them was about the size of a bus and shaped like bugs - dragonflies, scorpions, and bees among others. They were all attacking the probe ravenously.

“...Why haven’t we exploded yet?” Nira asked.

“These things are designed to fly into stars!” Seren said, pressing buttons wildly. “It doesn’t have any weapons though, and all the sensors are on the fritz!”

“Relax, Seren, it’s just a probe, we have more,” Suzie said, laying a hand on the girl. “What can it tell us while it’s being destroyed?”

“Uh…” Seren pointed. “Most of them don’t have the psychic signature, but that one hanging back does.”

“Probably a hive-mind,” Nira said. “Needs a local controller for all the mindless drones.”

Suzie pressed a button - she knew which one was the ‘hail’ button. “Hey, we come in peace! We’re unarmed! Don’t shoot!”

“...Not even a reaction,” Seren observed.

Nira let out a grunt. “Duh, the translator doesn’t work on their language.”

“We need to know more…” Suzie pointed at the bug giving off the transdimensional energy. “Nira, if we cut this off from the rest of the psychic link, do you think you can handle it?”

“Probably.”

“Swip, we’re doing a cut and run, prepare the tractor beam. Get that… bee with the magic.”

Swip made a beeping noise. “This should be fun…” Swip rotated thirty-seven degrees forward so the tractor beam was pointing in the exact spot in her pocket dimension linked to the probe. She raised her shields and opened a portal right in front of her, allowing the bugs to see into her world.

A light green tractor beam latched onto the magic bee machine. “Gotcha!”

The rest of the drones all rushed to attack, their weapons doing a surprisingly significant amount of damage to Swip’s shields. She didn’t have to fire a weapon, however - it only took a second for her to pull the bee in and shut the portal.

The bee itself was unable to move in the traction beam, though it sure was trying.

“Question,” Seren asked, holding up a hand. “How are we going to get it inside for study without it blowing us up?”

There wasn’t an immediate response.

~~~

Cinder and the rest of the Sweeties on Epona walked into the castle’s map room. Cinder was a little surprised that she could recognize the room - the map was still there, though it was currently deactivated, and the roots hanging from the ceiling still carried the memory crystals. Sure, the walls had computers on them and space-age Equestria banners, but it was still clearly the map room.

Twilight had clearly gotten the message, since she was sitting in her throne, patiently waiting for them. Applejack was sitting there as well, her appearance almost identical to that of a normal Applejack. Rainbow had apparently been so convincing Twilight had chosen to tear the Element of Honesty away from her case.

Given the dramatic shift in Twilight’s expression when the four Sweeties walked in, she was probably glad she’d gone through the trouble. “...Oh,” was all she said at first.

Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. “Eeeeyah… this one’s a doozy. Uh, Blink, care to do the explaining thing one more time?”

Blink nodded and began to recite what Fluttershy and Rainbow already knew, with her teammates offering bits of information as it seemed relevant. They described the events that landed them on the Bifrost, what the League of Sweetie Belles and Merodi Universalis were, and a general overview of what the exploration team did.

“And that’s why we’d really like our communicators back so we can get in contact again,” Blink summarized.

Twilight looked at them all with an inscrutable expression. “That’s… certainly a story. ...Applejack?”

“As far as Ah can tell they’re tellin’ the truth,” Applejack said. “Though Ah can’t read the… Flat one. Burgerbelle, was it?”

“Yesarooni,” Burgerbelle said, munching on a cup of macaroni.

“Gotcha. But yeah, Twi, this is the real deal.”

“Okaaaaay…” Twilight said, letting out a breath. “Rainbow, put a call through to the Bifrost, have their communicators shipped here. Covertly.”

“Right.” Rainbow Dash tapped her ear, activating a communicator. “Hey, Tangello, I need the stuff. You know what stuff I’m talking about. Thanks.”

“Good. Good.” Twilight drummed her hooves on the map-table for a moment. “Right, so, Fluttershy, is there anything else we glossed over that I should know about?”

“They have an immortality serum any one of their citizens has access to completely for free.”

Twilight pressed her hooves together and took a few deep breaths. She didn’t get a chance to speak her mind because Applejack spoke up. “What!? Immortality for everyone? Do y’all know the problems that’ll cause? Not to mention how unnatural it is!”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Unnatural? We fly through space in wormholes every day, Applejack, and everyone loves that. We’ve extended the pony lifespan to two hundred years, and I don’t see them complaining about that!”

Two hundred years isn’t normal for you? Cinder thought.

“Dash, look, it’s not right. There’s a certain order to things that we’ve been pushing for so long, and this-”

“An order? We live forever, Applejack! Are you saying that isn’t right?”

“Ah never really thought it was, and neither did you. This ain’t the solution.”

“There are ponies dying every second from age a-”

“Girls!” Fluttershy said, inserting herself between them. “You’re acting like your young selves. Stop it.”

Both Applejack and Rainbow had the decency to look ashamed.

“It’s a conversation we’ll need to have,” Fluttershy said, turning back to the Sweeties. “But it won’t be now. The option isn’t even available to us unless we want to become Merodi citizens, which wouldn’t happen for a long time, as I understand it.”

“We’re actually pretty quick about it,” Blink pointed out. “A standard Equis can usually be adapted in a few months.”

“I wouldn’t dare join without the rest of the Federation,” Twilight said.

“Couple years then, assuming you all want it. Which you’re perfectly okay turning us down, we get a lot of rejections. More than acceptance. We’re not pushy!”

“The fact that you exist is push enough,” Twilight commented. “...I’m sitting here thinking there has to be a better way to initiate first contact than sending a team into a random world.”

“There are some cases where we send in probes first,” Burgerbelle offered. “But probes aren’t people. People kill probes. Bad association.”

“It’s best to forge a personal relationship, if possible,” Blink said. “Plus, it’s easier for a team to make an on-the-fly decision than a probe.”

“We’re also cute and not very threatening,” Cinder added, looking to Blink. Did I do that right?

Blink winked approvingly, filling Cinder with a sense of pride. Maybe she could do something here…

“Regardless, table the immortality talk,” Squiddy said. “Don’t you have to move fast so you can keep those elephant-guys from breathing down your neck?”

Twilight nodded. “I’ll have to prepare a statement and give it within a day.”

Blink smiled. “Celia - our personal diplomat - can give you some templates.”

“...You have templates for this sort of thing.” Twilight facheooved. “I should have expected that, considering a version of me is probably over there as well. Regardless, I should start with the revelation that there is a multiverse. I’m sure you can give me a vague picture of what it’s like.”

Blink never got to begin her explanation, because a unicorn had just walked into the room. A unicorn with a white coat and pastel purple-pink curls in her mane.

She was the local Sweetie Belle. And she looked older than Granny Smith.

“...I’m not supposed to be here, am I?” she asked, a tad nervously.

Cinder gawked. “...You’re old!”

“Cinder!” Blink gasped. “I’m terribly sorry ma’am, sh-”

“It’s all right. I am. You’re not. Old, I mean.” She closed her eyes, trying to will the rising headache away. “Dear, this is a bit much…”

“Maybe it’s best if you come back another time,” Twilight suggested. “I’d love to have lunch… two days from now. After this is… hopefully dealt with.”

“...I don’t think this can wait,” old-Sweetie said with a tired sigh. “Apple Bloom’s gone and done something… questionable.”

Applejack grimaced. “...What?”

“Gone and created immortal robot bodies. Already put herself in one.”

There was silence in the room.

“Looks like you all get to have that conversation after all,” Squiddy observed.

~~~

They eventually decided to deal with the bug while it was stuck in the tractor beam. This meant the three of them had to get in to full space suits and float out among the interdimensional miasma. The suits were simple - form fitting to their body types and largely gray with some orange-gold Merodi insignia on various locations.

Suzie knew the reddish clouds were completely safe so long as Swip wasn’t connected to another universe, but they were still unnerving. It wasn’t like floating through space, where there was nothing. It was like swimming through a ghost - she could feel it, but she couldn’t actually touch it.

The three of them drifted toward the frozen bus-sized bee. Up close, it looked truly monstrous - made of jagged metal and sporting two menacing multi-faceted ‘eyes’, if it weren’t frozen it would definitely be trying to tear them limb from limb. It was something that might be found in a horror movie, or alien invasion story.

“Seren, protections, just in case,” Suzie ordered.

Seren had a little difficulty moving her staff with the gloves on her hands, but she quickly found a rhythm and raised a protective barrier.

“Nira, you know what to do.”

Nira nodded. She summoned a magic blade from the aether and cut her front right leg, drawing a considerable amount of blood. Suzie could never bring herself to watch Nira’s powerful blood magic closely, but Seren stared at the spellwork in awe. Nira carefully arranged the blood in an intricate circle pattern, floating in the miasma between them and the bee. She activated the spell with a single magic spark, prompting a dark black chain to shoot out of the ring - one end drove itself into Nira’s chest, the other into the equivalent location on the bee.

“One with me, little bee,” Nira chanted. Seren and Suzie saw nothing physical occur, but the essences of the bee and Nira were linked. She was going to learn all of this bug’s secrets…

That was, until she found something that made her pull out and end the spell in an instant.

“What is it?” Suzie asked, concerned.

“That’s not part of a hive-mind in there. That’s a person. Volunteer for the army. She has a brood she’s currently praying aren’t about to die by our hand.”

“Release her, now,” Suzie ordered Swip. “Drop her back in her universe.”

Swip did as asked, depositing the bee back in her home universe. The bee jumped to FTL in an instant and ran away.

Suzie tried to put a hand to the bridge of her nose, but she hit her helmet instead. “Darnit...“

“It’s not the end of the world,” Seren said. “We just made a mistake!”

“And probably scarred that poor woman’s mind with a forced link like that,” Suzie muttered.

“I did learn some things,” Nira said. “You want to hear them?”

Suzie folded her hands together, thinking for a moment.

“Yes. Yes, we need to use what we have. We can worry about trying to smooth out relations later.”

“I only got bits and flashes. But I know why they’re terrified of us. Their people care a lot about propheies and put a lot of stock into them. She thought we were the tragedy that would destroy the galaxy. The tragedy they failed to stop at… a planet that looks a lot like Equis.”

“How would we be the tragedy?” Seren asked. “Prophecies can’t take into account multidimensional effects.”

“Unless the prophecies themselves are multidimensional,” Suzie corrected. “That’s what we were detecting. Their prophecies covered their entire space, and drew us to them.”

“Not even the Spectacularium could predict something that complicated.”

“And maybe their prophecy is wrong. We still need to look into it. Trying to communicate with them won’t go well… We need to look at the local Equis.”

“Still not any closer to finding them…” Nira pointed out.

“Yes. But I think we’re on to something now.”

~~~

“Ah’m callin’ her,” Applejack said, matter-of-factly.

“Applejack, maybe this can wait…?” Fluttershy asked.

Applejack didn’t even need to say ‘no’, her gaze communicated enough to get Fluttershy to shut up. Her call quickly went through. “Apple Bloom, what in tarna-” She stopped short, narrowing her eyes. “...She wants to be put on speakerphone.”

“Go ahead,” Twilight said. “...Sweeties, I’d appreciate it if you went over there and stayed quiet, I don’t need her trying to get an angle from this.”

“She wouldn’t,” native-Sweetie said.

“I’d like to hope so,” Twilight said, nodding to Burgerbelle all the same. They retreated from the table as Applejack put Apple Bloom on.

“So, how many of you are there?” Apple Bloom’s young voice came through, making the native-Sweetie twitch slightly.

“Four,” Fluttershy said. “Not Pinkie or Rarity.”

“...That is more than I was expecting. What are you all doing there?”

“Get to the point,” Applejack said.

“Sure. It’s better if I only explain this once anyway. Put simply, I have saved myself from death by creating a robotic body. The technology is new and has a handful of bugs, as I can attest, but the moment I receive support I will be able to produce bodies for everypony - and perhaps even other races. It will be expensive, draining, and take a few decades to get running, but I will save everyone.”

“And you just went and did this without consulting anyone?” Applejack asked.

“Yes. Derpysoft would ha-”

“Forget Derpysoft! This is bigger than your corporate squabbles!”

“Applejack, I have no doubt you and some of the others would have deterred me. This was in my own self-interest, if nothing else, as I was not guaranteed to survive the year.”

Applejack’s words caught in her throat.

“Apple Bloom, you are aware you sound a little different, right?” Twilight asked.

“The mind transition was not perfect. I can feel some of my mannerisms drifting from me, but those are problems that can be worked out. Furthermore I am specifically speaking formally since this is an important meeting.”

“You don’t have to,” Fluttershy said. “We’re your friends.”

“You, Applejack, and I’m betting even Rainbow and Twilight are instinctually revolted. You’re my friends, yes, but I still have to overcome that.”

“...How did Scootaloo take it?” Rainbow asked.

Apple Bloom sighed - the first real sign of emotion. “I already had partial bodies for her and Sweetie. She… took it better than Sweetie, at least. After a bit of… initial revulsion I wasn’t expecting. Yesterday was interesting…”

Cinder let her attention drift away from the conversation and to the older version of herself. “...I’m sorry we’re here, messing this up.”

“Don’t be,” Sweetie said, the voice coming out as an ancient creak in the back of her throat. “It just so happened that this was all going at the same time…”

Cinder nodded, sighing. “...I wish they wouldn’t argue like this.”

“It’s what friends do,” Sweetie said, cracking a smile. “They argue. But, in the end, they’ll stand by each other even if they disagree.”

Cinder looked her counterpart in the eyes. “That was hard for you to say, wasn’t it?”

Sweetie sighed. “Time and distance makes you drift from your friends, no matter how close you once were. I hadn’t seen Apple Bloom in decades… and then she asked me if I wanted a robot body. I said no, Scootaloo said maybe, and there was a lot of shouting we were far, far too old to be having.” She put her hoof on her chest, holding it tight. “It’s hard on my heart…”

Cinder’s expression shifted to a mixture of pity and fear.

“I must be a nightmare to you,” Sweetie said with a sad smile. “A mare at the end of her life, an image of what you will look like one day. ...Or what you would have been, I suppose you are the ones with the immortality…”

Cinder turned to Blink. “We… we can help her, right?”

“We can’t give out the serum,” Squiddy said, folding her arms.

“We can use some of the temporary and less-reliable methods,” Blink added. “We have age spells.”

“You’re assuming she wants it,” Burgerbelle said.

The elder Sweetie closed her eyes. “I’m not sure. I… I don’t think I want to die. I know I don’t want to be a robot, though. But… if it was just a simple age spell…” She shook her head. “I know I have to decide soon. But I feel as if my mind is too old to really make the decision.”

“Then maybe they can make it for you,” Blink suggested, pointing at the deliberating Elements. “And regardless of what you choose, you’re still a Sweetie. And that means you are one of us.”

“...Oh, how rude of me, how about you tell me more about yourselves? What’s it like being with… yourself, all the time?”

Cinder smiled warmly. “I’ve only been here a few days and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve had. There’s… a lot of excitement…” She paused, pushing the image of Rainbow Dash’s injury out of her mind. “And it’s a lot to take in. But everyone’s so supportive and everything around us is so interesting. I mean, just look at you! You’re amazing. I don’t even know what you do and I can already tell you’re me, but you’re also someone else!”

“And I remember when I was you… So young, optimistic. Nothin could get me down for long.” She put a hoof on Cinder’s face. “Keep that as long as you can.”

“I plan on it!”

“...You’re already struggling, I can see it.”

Cinder looked away.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s just something to be aware of.”

“...Okay.”

“They’re wrapping up,” Burgerbelle said, rolling up a toilet paper roll.

“...and don’t do anything until you hear from us in a couple days,” Applejack concluded.

“Can I continue my work in secret, at least?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Apple Bloom, take a break for two days, is that so much to ask?” Twilight asked.

“...Yes, but I can do it. I’ll wait. Talk to you later.” She disconnected.

Applejack let out a tense sigh. “We aren’t doing either option.”

“Applejack, the people are going to demand one or the other,” Fluttershy said. “We aren’t going to be able to keep it from them. I agree it’s not natural… but it’s also what they want. For what it’s worth, I’d prefer an immortality serum that lets you keep your body than… whatever Apple Bloom has done to herself.”

“Same,” Rainbow said.

“The serum would make us have a dependency on an outside power,” Twilight added. “And would involve us wanting to join them. These robot shells… would be customizable, and we would have more control over them.”

“And they’d also be outrageously expensive to provide to everyone for a long time,” Rainbow said.

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “If Ah had to choose between the two - and Ah really don’t want either - Ah’d say the robots. No offense to you lot, but I trust my sister more than you.”

“None taken,” Burgerbelle said.

“Girls, we don’t know enough yet to make a decision,” Fluttershy said. “This is an incredibly nuanced discussion with so many layers it’d be impossible to plumb the depths in one afternoon.” She turned to Twilight. “But we still have to say something within a day.”

“I’ll prepare the speech,” Twilight said. “I’ll be as impartial to each side as I can be, at least for the initial words.” She turned to the Sweeties. “Your devices have likely arrived by now, we should contact your ship an-”

Her ears perked up as a priority message came in. “By the Stars…” she said, paling. “Two Kahri gunships have appeared in orbit, unannounced.”

“What!?” Rainbow blurted. “Why!? They couldn’t have seen anything!”

One of the room’s screens lit up, displaying an infrared image of the castle’s back wall that had Cinder, Blink, and Squiddy on it. There was enough detail in it to make out the Sweetie-like features.

A monotone Kahri voice spoke from the speakers Apple Bloom had been on moment’s ago. “Angry demand. Explain.”

“You spied on our castle!” Rainbow shouted.

“Impatient response. Your castle is public land. And if we wronged you, clearly it was needed, since you were hiding this. Explain.”

Twilight took a deep breath, realizing with a small amount of panic there wasn’t a Pinkie around this time to take care of things. “Well…”

~~~

Suzie opened a portal to the local Equis, stepping out into an ‘outskirt’ of the analogue of Ponyville. She wasn't fazed by the giant buildings, for the Ponyville she knew best was equally urban and developed, though perhaps a bit more varied since there was a significant amount of otherworlders living there.

“Woah, what kind of alien are you?”

Suzie turned to a local earth pony mare - yellow coat, blue mane, and a very curious expression. “Oh, hello there! I’m a human, thanks for asking. Guess you don’t have those here, huh?”

“I mean, I think the Hand look kinda like you…” she said, scratching her chin. “My name’s Forever Free, by the way, welcome to Epona!”

“...Epona. Not Equis?”

“Hm? Why would it be Equis?”

“...Never mind,” Suzie said dismissively. “I’m Suzie, by the way.”

“That’s a cool name.”

“Thanks, chose it myself.” She noticed the portal behind her hadn’t closed. “Swip, what’s the hold up?”

“I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I found them, right in Twilight’s castle. The bad news is that I’m currently being told by a couple alien ships to keep the portal open or you get blown to bits. You might want to put your hands up in surrender.”

Suzie had been doing this adventuring thing for a long time and the number of times she had felt relief go to near-panic was almost zero. She put her hands up, stress evident on her features. “Tell Nira to be cooperative, we don’t want this erupting into an explosion unless it has to…”

She saw a team of six-legged elephant-like creatures appear in the ring-room via a teleporter. Forever Free let out a yelp of surprise. Suzie made a quick gesture, telling the mare to run and hide herself.

“...Suzie, I really want to eject them,” Swip said. “Please let me eject them.”

“No,” Suzie said. “Let them do whatever they want unless they start killing. Find a way to patch me through to them.”

“We are being hailed. By Burgerbelle.”

The sound of Burgerbelle’s robotic voice entered Suzie’s ear. “Hey, you’ve just made a situation go from bad to worse.”

A Twilight’s voice came in as well. “Ah, Suzie, right? Suzie, may I introduce you to Yuniva, andisan of the Kahri ships in orbit. Yuniva, captain Suzie of the League of Sweetie Belles.”

“Greetings,” Suzie said.

The voice wasn’t quite as monotone as Burgerbelle’s, and it was significantly deeper, but Suzie still couldn’t read emotion from it. “Suspicious greeting. Hello. Why have you invaded our universe?”

“We are explorers,” Suzie explained. “All we want is to see what new worlds there are, and yours was just the one we came to. We can leave, if you want. I’ll just need my Sweeties…”

“Angry denial. You are not going to run away and get reinforcements. You are going to explain everything you intend, slowly, until we are satisfied with your answer.”

“I do not have the authority to tell you everything,” Suzie lied. “To get a full picture you will need to talk to some of the higher-ups.” This much was true. “Seeing as you’ve just taken Swip under your control, you can use her to create portals for your ships. Go to the Merodi seat of power, if you are so inclined. I can even tell you where it is.”

“Mocking disbelief. This seems like a trap.”

“You could also call them through a portal, make them come here. They’d be willing.”

“...Cautious consideration. Perhaps. Assuming your ship is cooperative, which so far it hasn’t been.”

“Swip give them access, that’s an order.”

Swip let out a digital sigh before opening her systems to the Kahri. “Done.”

“There. Now can you give us a little benefit of the doubt that we don’t want to hurt you or take advantage of you?”

“Cautious agreement. We shall see if your word holds up to scrutiny in th-”

A new voice entered the call - male, and highly emotional. “This is colonel Amin of the Hand. Andisan Yuniva, you are in violation of this planet’s code of space, remove yourself.”

Suzie tensed. Why did you show up to help now!? I was getting this under control!

“Colonel Amin! It’s fine!” Twilight said. “We’ve got the situation under control!”

“Clearly they are holding something important at gunpoint. This will not be tolerated!”

“Angry outburst. They are hiding interdimensional explorers from us.”

“That’s us,” Suzie said. “We don’t want any trouble. We were just offering to take the Kahri to our leaders, to show them we don’t mean any harm.”

“They shouldn’t need to hold you at gunpoint for that!” Amin announced. “Andisan Yuniva, power down your weapons and let’s resolve this like civilized people.”

“Appalled denial. No. We have them where we want them right now, if we give them opportunity or leeway, there’s no telling what disaster will take place.”

“If we keep standing off like this there’s going to be a disaster,” Twilight cautioned. “Amin, we don’t need them to power down their weapons, but we do need to have a civilized discussion where all parties can calmly explain what’s going on.”

“It’s impossible to have a civilized discussion with weapons on,” Amin countered.

“Amused retort. You have your weapons on.”

“This isn’t a civilized discussion.”

“It could be,” Suzie said, hopefully.

“Your presence isn’t exactly calming, captain.”

“No, definitely not, but I-”

Another face entered the call, upsetting the flow once again. “Gruz, Grom, here. Ya’ all need t’ stop it.”

“Us!? We’re already trying to stop it!” Amin shouted.

“Don’t get ya’ fingers in a twist.”

“I wi- oh look at that, the Haarkin have shown up now. What’s your take on this?”

There was no response from the Haarkin.

“They’re being smart,” Twilight said. “Inserting themselves into this only upsets what balance we are striking to achieve. This is our Federation! We are not so fragile as to be upturned by an outside force! We’re better than that - Eponrian, Kahri, Hand, Grom, Haarkin, Nivenn, Gryphon - it doesn’t matter. We forged stronger relationships than this! Please, let us all trust each other for just a moment and meet these newcomers as a united front, not one ready to tear itself apart at the seams!”

There was silence. Nobody powered down their weapons - but nobody shouted in anger either.

“...Is now a bad time to mention that I sent out a distress call?” Swip asked Suzie.

Suzie swore under her breath. “Everyone, we might have a situation. When Swip - my ship - was boarded it sent out a distress call. She is sending out a counter-order to that signal, but if it doesn’t get there in time we might have a-”

A tremendous portal opened up in space, allowing a ship to enter the universe. It looked like a turtle with three forward spikes on the front of it instead of a head or legs. Its shell was made of a smooth, white, pristine metal, and its engines glowed with every color of the rainbow.

It was a Merodi Warship.

“This is High Commander Yellow Diamond, acting commander of the Merodi Universalis ship Overshell,” the Gem said. “You have one of our ships in custody. Turn it over.”

“Angry accusation. This is a sign of aggression!”

“Whoever you are, you were aggressive first.”

“This is an invasion!” Amin shouted.

“No, it’s not, they just want their ship!” Twilight wailed. “Please, everyone, stand down!”

“Only if they stand down first,” Amin announced.

“I’m not betting on that!” Yellow Diamond declared.

“And we’re not gambling either!”

“EVERYONE STOP!” Suzie shouted at the top of her lungs. “LISTEN! Just LISTEN! When we were first exploring this universe earlier today, we found a race of biomechanical athropods-” she heard Twilight gasp, but ignored it. “-and when we tried to talk to them, they reacted in illogical, panicked fear. They did this because they recognized us from a prophecy of theirs - that we would be the source of great chaos in this galaxy, sparking an event around this planet. Don’t you see what’s happening? If we start shooting at each other today, their prophecy comes true! You’re all allies in a great Federation, and what do you think happens to your unity if we start shooting today? You’ll make enemies of us, enemies of each other, and enemies of those who are staying out of this! You’ll be doing exactly what that race feared! So please, for the sake of the galaxy, don’t. Power down your weapons. Yellow Diamond, this includes you. I know I can’t order you to do that, but I’m begging you, show some vulnerability. We can’t be the cause of these people’s chaos.”

There was silence in the call.

The Equestrian military and Haarkin powered down their weapons. Seeing this, Yellow Diamond ordered the Overshell to do the same. The Grom followed quickly - leaving only the Hand and Kahri.

Amin took a deep, tense breath. Then he gave the order to power down, leaving only the Kahri gunships.

“Please,” Fluttershy said, inserting herself into the call for the first time. “Remember why we’re friends.”

Yuniva grunted, speaking the next sentence without an emotional cue. “Stand down; let’s talk.”

Suzie let out a sigh of relief.

~~~

The next day, Cinder and Blink were walking around the Federation’s central space station without any Void powers. They got a few odd looks, but otherwise they were treated just like any other visiting race.

“So, what did you think of your first mission?” Blink asked out of the blue.

“Not sure what to think,” Cinder said, hoof to her chin. “There was a lot of politics stuff I didn’t understand, some pretty scary stuff at the start, and I got to see a version of myself that looked like a ghoul.” She paused. “I hope she decides to save herself.”

“Everyone makes their own choice,” Blink said. “There’s a Sweetie back in the rest of the League that goes by the name Wrinkle Bum. Yes, that was her choice, and she chuckles a little bit every time she hears the full name.”

“That’s amazing,” Cinder said, chuckling herself.

“Yep. Point is, while she does have the immortality, she’s decided to keep her body as old and creaky as an ancient cabin door. It’s how she sees herself as different from the rest of us. Even if this Sweetie joins, she will choose to express herself in her own way.”

“Hmm…” Cinder said, nodding slowly. “...I’m probably going to get stabbed at some point, aren’t I?”

Blink grimaced. “We’ll do our best to protect you. But injury… does happen.”

Cinder nodded slowly. Then she put on a determined expression. “Then I’ll make myself strong enough for when it does happen. I’ll get ready to fight. I need to do more than just hide and light things on fire.”

“That’s the spirit!” Blink said with a laugh.

As they rounded one of the station’s hallways, they noticed Twilight and Suzie having a chat.

“Yellow Diamond is good for getting through to people who don’t understand the meaning of careful diplomacy,” Suzie said. “She’s not too good for handling delicate situations. Evidently, O’Neill thought the distress call meant the situation needed a strong hand.”

“No need to apologize,” Twilight insisted.

“I wasn-”

“You wanted to,” Twilight said.

Suzie let out a short laugh. “Fair enough. Regardless, I’m glad to see things are under control now.”

“Under control!?” Twilight let out a big laugh. “The multiverse exists, you’re offering basic multidimensional technology to everyone you meet for free, the Fraggers vanished from the universe while we were all shouting over Epona, the races who weren’t at Epona are blowing their lids, and two forms of immortality are on the table!”

“Okay, mostly under control,” Suzie said bashfully. “I have faith you’ll pull through.”

“Oh, I do as well, but that doesn’t stop me from going stir-crazy.”

“Don’t you mean Twily-nanas?” the voice of another Twilight said.

The local Twilight took in the appearance of… herself, except a little smaller, and without as much magic in her hair. There was a single orange streak down the center of her mane, and two black spikes on the edges of her ears. She extended a hoof. “I’m Princess Evening Sparkle, Overhead of Relations for Merodi Universalis. It’s great to finally meet you.”

Twilight smiled warmly. “You look both younger and older…” She shook her hoof.

“Different experiences for different mares.” Eve said with a smile. “And before you ask, the black spikes are hearing devices. I only turn them on when I have to.”

“Sounds like you’ve been through a lot.”

“I’ll tell you about it someday. But first, we have some meetings to attend.”

Twilight sighed. “...Yep. A lot of very long, very difficult meetings.”

Suzie put her hands on the backs of Blink and Cinder. “And now… our work here is done.”

“Hmm?” Cinder asked.

Suzie opened a portal to Swip. “The initial contact is over. We came, did our job, and now Relations is taking over. It’s time to move to the next world.”

“Already?”

“Yep. This meeting isn’t for us, it’s for those with the power to change fate itself.” She smiled warmly as she tousled Cinder’s hair. “Don’t worry, we’ll be able to come back. But the rest of the multiverse calls for us.”

They walked through Swip’s portal - although Cinder took a moment to look back. “I wonder what they’re going to decide. About the Merodi, the immortality… everything.”

“Everyone does,” Suzie said. “But, in the end, it’s their choice, not ours.”

The portal closed, marking the end of another mission.

Author's Notes:

Letters to the Sun is one of the best fics on this site, written by the elusive Horizon Runner, who came out of his 'retirement' to help plan this chapter out. (Thanks for that.) The story itself isn't really about ponies in space, but more about what it means to be an Element and the life that comes with it. (Though there is a lot of ponies in space, and I certainly don't complain.) The story is also criminally underrated for how good it is, so go give it some love.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES: Undead Robot Bug Crusaders

((LSB Status Post))

-GM, master of robotic squips.

Critically Unique (Undead Robot Bug Crusaders)

“So, how has combat training been going?” Rarity asked Cinder on the other side of the line.

Cinder bit her lip. “Well… okay? I guess?”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “You guess? Cinder, dear, you simply must elaborate.”

“Well…”

~~~

“Combat is all about fooling your opponent,” Blink said, standing delicately on one of her back hooves. “Make it seem like you’re going for the leg, but you’re really going for the head, or the neck. The moment the enemy can predict what you’re doing, you’ve lost.”

“Uh… okay!” Cinder said, taking mental notes.

“Now, try to come at me.”

Cinder raised a hoof - and following Blink’s advice, cast a fire spark spell instead of actually connecting with the hoof.

Blink still blinked behind her and suplexed her like she was a feather.

“You choreographed heavily with the way you wrinkle your brow. We’re going to have to fix that…”

~~~

Rarity pursed her lips. “To be fair, that isn’t what Twilight taught me when she introduced me to the art of self-defense magics, but it could be different for you out there.”

“That’s where the problem kicks in…”

~~~

“She gave you the whole ‘deception’ spiel?” Squiddy laughed. “Please, you don’t have to be so careful. Fighting is all about acting on instinct in the heat of the moment while keeping just enough of your wits about you to keep from punching yourself in the face. Like so.”

Squiddy tossed her gun into Cinder’s face and pinned her to the ground before the unicorn even knew what was happening.

“Like anyone’s going to have time to predict that. Hah.”

~~~

“Oh, they all gave you different advice then?”

“Well, in some cases it was only sorta advice.”

~~~

“You need to tap the potential inside yourself that all people have,” Celia said. “Everypony is unique in the way they express themselves… For instance…” She touched a hoof to her forehead crystal, lighting it up as if it were a horn. A rod of light and a flat disc projected from the crystal and affixed together, shifting into a spinning top shape. Celia jumped onto the top, prompting spikes to shoot out of the edges. “...Most of my combat experience comes from atop this weapon of mine. You just have to f-”

“YOU CAN SUMMON A RAZOR TOP OUT OF THIN AIR?”

“Yes. It’s hardly the weirdest thing we Sweeties can do.”

~~~

“If you don’t have natural talent, there’s only really two ways to get better,” Suzie said, kneeling down so she’d be level with Cinder’s eyes. “I call them the easy way and the hard way.”

“...Can we go with the easy way?”

“Intense military-level training,” Suzie said. To demonstrate, she whipped her gun out and fired a hole directly between Blink’s hooves without even looking. “Took me three years to learn how to do that, and I was a natural sharpshooter.”

“...What’s the hard way?”

“Getting thrown in the heat of battle and being told to survive. I can give you a regimen for the easy way, but it’ll take a lot of work and dedication...”

~~~

“...and then I kinda zoned her out because I knew I wasn’t going through boot camp,” Cinder said with a huff.

“She is your captain, Cinder, she probably knows what she’s talking about.”

“Well, yeah, and I do have some stuff scheduled with her now. It’s just… well, I’m not sure I want to be that regimented and stuff.”

“She seemed perfectly amiable to me.”

“It’s like she has this switch inside her, Rarity. One moment I could swear she’s me, and the next she puts on the ‘serious face’ and hardly feels like the same person!” She shook her head. “...I guess I technically did learn something today…”

~~~

“Fireball!” Cinder cheered. “Fireball, fireball, fireball!”

“Quit charring my insides!” Swip complained.

“Awww, let her have her fun, she just learned a new spell!” Seren said, clapping her hands.

“Thanks Seren! None of the others showed me anything all that useful!”

“Oh, it was no big deal, a beginner combat spell isn’t hard to teach at all. But now that you’ve got that, you can move on to more advanced spells. I’ll need to run your horn through an acumen matrix to uncover the precise entry points for particular spells we can teach you quickly, perhaps introduce you to some quantum ring theory…”

~~~

“And I don’t think I need to tell you what happened next.”

“You fell asleep?”

“...Yeah.” Cinder blushed. “Seren was still the most helpful. After she apologized for being boring she gave me some beginner magic books, so I’m making some progress there.”

“See? They are helping you.”

“...Some of them are.”

~~~

Sweetaloo nervously rubbed the back of her head. “I don’t exactly… fight. Like, at all. Ever.”

“What.”

“I rarely need to actually go on missions, I’m just emotional support! Not that I wouldn’t kick some serious flank out there. ...Well, if I’m being honest, probably not. The athleticism of Scootaloo is drowned out by the other two, and Sweetie’s magic was never that great to begin with, and Apple Bloom’s strength is diluted. Sorry!”

~~~

“Hey, Nira!”

“No.”

Cinder paused. “Wha-”

“Of all the Sweeties on this ship, I am the one you least want to imitate. My power comes from inner rage, trauma, and immense pain in darkness. You do not want to go through the injuries, the nightmares, the pain, or the endless blood that comes with my line of specialty. I am not your role-model, Cinder. Don’t ever try to make me one.”

“Okay…” Cinder whispered, wishing Nira wouldn’t lean quite so close to her face.

~~~

“Burger,” Burgerbelle said.

“What?” Cinder asked.

The next thing Cinder knew she was on the ceiling with a cat that was watching her intently.

“WHAT!?”

~~~

“I still have no idea what Burgerbelle’s deal is,” Cinder admitted.

“I’m not sure anyone does,” Rarity said.

“Probably… but that’s how my day’s been. A lot of people giving me fighting advice ranging from helpful but contradictory to downright useless.” She sighed. “All of them but Sweetaloo have something big and special going for them, and even Sweetaloo has her empathic mind. What do I have?”

“A fresh start, new eyes, and your whole life ahead of you.”

Cinder chuckled. “Thanks.”

She was about to say something else when Suzie’s voice came over the intercom. “We’re gonna be sending out another expedition soon, everyone get ready. Well, everyone who’s going. You know who you are.”

“Looks like I gotta go! Talk to you later!” Cinder said, jumping up.

“Have fun and don’t get into any fights if you can help it.”

“I make no promises!” She hung up.

Rarity glanced at the device in her hooves with an annoyed expression. I wonder if I should be more worried about her…

~~~

Burgerbelle, Squiddy, Blink, and Cinder stepped out into a Ponyville street. The sun was high in the sky, reflecting brilliantly off Twilight’s castle.

“...And we have ourselves a near-baseline,” Blink said, tapping her hoof.

“Ugh, this is going to be boring,” Squiddy muttered.

“Boring?” Cinder said, cocking her head. “Why? We get to make the same friends all over again!”

“At this point it’s like exhausting a dialogue tree,” Squiddy answered.

“...What?”

“Okay, let’s put it this way. Here’s how it’s going to go down.” Squiddy pointed at Burgerbelle. “Burgerbelle’s going to walk into Twilight’s castle with either Celia or Suzie and they’re going to make Twilight go ‘Twily-nanas’. Depending on how far into her reign she is, she’ll either hyperventilate until she passes out or take it somewhat in stride. They’ll get forwarded to Celestia, yada yada, blah blah…”

“That common, huh?”

“Yep,” Blink admitted. “Early explorers didn’t have to deal with this too often, since the dimensional devices jumped all over the place. We’re the after-team. We get a lot of these.”

Burgerbelle shrugged. “You guys just go have fun, do whatever won’t give Suzie the fury of a thousand hornets. I can handle the actual job.”

“...You’re not joking. You’re just going to let us wander around?” Squiddy gave a mock gasp. “No!”

Burgerbelle smirked. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Blink snickered. “Sure. So… In that case, why don’t we go mess with the heads of the local CMC? There’s around a ninety-percent chance they’re at the clubhouse.”

“Speaking in robot now, are we?” Squiddy ribbed.

Blink rolled her eyes, refusing to dignify the cephalopod with an answer. She set off toward Sweet Apple Acres, a skip in her step. Squiddy and Cinder followed behind without any complaints.

About twenty seconds later, Cinder noticed something. “Uh, Blink, it was normal for me to be weirded out by you, right?”

“Yes. Pretty standard response. Why?”

Cinder pointed at a verison of Carrot Top passing by. She glanced at them, rolled her eyes, and moved on.

“...What?” Blink checked herself to make sure she was visible. “I guess there may be duplicate ponies he- never mind, that doesn’t explain jack squat.”

“Thank you for remembering I exist,” Squiddy said, folding her arms.

“There’s no way inklings exist here…” Blink commented. “Hey, you!”

A Sparkler looked up. “...Me?”

“Yes, you, what do you think this… thing is?”

“I am now luggage,” Squiddy added.

“I probably could fit you in a suitcase,” Cinder said. “You’re just so squishy!”

Sparkler looked between the three of them. “...I’d say she’s Sweetie, but… wetter? Not a pony?” She shrugged. “Why do you ask?”

“...No reason,” Blink said, trying to process the completely unfazed expression of the unicorn before her.

“Oh. Okay then!” Sparkler trotted off with a smile on her face.

“So is there some elaborate joke, or what?” Squiddy asked.

Cinder moved in front of them. “Let’s go find ourselves and find out.” She furrowed her brow. “Or is it ourself in this case? Eh, there could be more than one, so I’ll go with ourselves to be safe.”

It took all of five minutes to reach the clubhouse, which was more or less exactly as Cinder remembered it, though she noticed the window hadn’t been replaced yet. If it was ever going to be replaced in this world.

Squiddy cupped her hands to her mouth. “HEY! ANY LITTLE HORSES IN THERE?”

At first, Cinder thought there was nopony in the clubhouse - but then she realized she could hear hushed whispering.

“That sounded like you, Sweetie!”

“What should we do?”

“I don’t know! It could be another future thing for all we know!”

“You girls aren’t very good at being quiet!” Squiddy shouted. “We can hear everything!”

“EEP!”

Squiddy smirked. “So just come out and nobody has to get hurt.”

“Squiddy!” Cinder gasped. “Nopony has to get hurt even if they don’t come out!”

“You’ll be.”

Back in the clubhouse, the three bad-at-whispering fillies were at it again.

“It sounds like you’re arguin’ with yourself.”

“If that’s really me from the future…”

“Don’t think about it too hard, let’s just figure out what to do...”

“Oh for the…” Blink facehooved. She vanished from existence. A few seconds later, there were screams from inside the clubhouse followed quickly by hurried and panicked hoofsteps. The local Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom all tried to force themselves out of the clubhouse at the same time, getting rather stuck in the doorway. Upon a light prompting from Blink, the three of them flew out like a party popper, flopping onto the grass below.

Apple Bloom’s head popped off when this happened, rolling over to one side.

“...Aw, apples,” Apple Bloom’s head muttered as the rest of her body stumbled around, trying to locate the bow-wearing head. The body itself had turned black, looking almost burnt. “Over here, idjit.”

Scootaloo blinked. “That’s you you’re mocking.”

“Ah know. Ah just can’t see a thing! Can you maybe help meAUGH!”

Cinder levitated Apple Bloom’s disembodied head off the ground and placed it back on her body, returning her to a normal-looking filly. The unicorn was grinning. “You. Are. Awesome.”

Apple Bloom seemed slightly confused by this. “Uh. Thanks. Ah guess.”

“I have no idea what’s going on, and I love it,” Cinder tapped her hooves together happily. “What’s your story? Where’d you come from? Why are you different from normal Apple Blooms?”

“Normal… Apple what now?”

“Oh, well, see, there’s lots of versions of different ponies out there a-”

“CAN WE STOP PRETENDING LIKE EVERYTHING IS NORMAL!?” the local Sweetie shouted at the top of her lungs.

“No,” Squiddy deadpanned.

Scootaloo stood up and dusted herself off. “Really, Sweetie, this is pretty normal for us, isn’t it?”

The local Sweetie twitched. “You’re not the one talking to other versions of you!”

“I could be. If I wanted.”

“No, no transforming, we’re not doing that.”

“You’re a changeling?!” Cinder gasped. “I’ve never gotten to know a Changeling! I saw Thorax around town a few times, and then there was that Kevin guy who I never got, but wow, Changeling!?”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. “Sweetie, are you going to grow up to be this excitable?”

“She isn’t already?” Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo shrugged, not having a satisfactory answer.

It was at this point Cinder’s brain put the pattern together. “Wait… if Apple Bloom’s a ghoul, and Scootaloo’s a Changeling…” She turned to her alternate self. “What are you?”

“Robot from the future.”

Stars appeared in Cinder’s eyes. “...Tell. Me. Everything.”

“You first,” Scootaloo said, looking closely at her eyes. “What are you, some kind of thestral demon thing?”

“Huh? No, I’m just a unicorn. I go by Cinder.” She smiled warmly. “Completely normal for a Sweetie.”

“But you have a cutie mark,” Sweetie pointed out.

“Yeah, that’s normal too. The standard ‘helping others with destiny and identity’ cutie mark most Crusaders get.”

“Guess we were right about somethin’, at least,” Apple Bloom commented.

“Squiddy over there’s an inkling though,” Cinder continued. “Part squid, part kid.”

“I told you never to say that in front of me,” Squiddy seethed.

Cinder shrugged. “So I guess that’s something she is. Blink’s not weird either, she’s just got magic Void powers. That’s how she got inside your clubhouse.”

“Oh. Just normal magic.” Sweetie paused for a moment. “I’m kind of disappointed.”

“Fillies and other me’s, prepare to have your disappointment erased!” Blink said, appearing in the middle of them all with a laugh. “For you all think I am but a humble unicorn - no, no, I am so much more!” She glanced at Cinder with a smirk. “I am going to blow your tiny little mind.”

Blink removed her sunglasses for the first time since Cinder had met her, revealing her eyes. Or, rather, her lack of eyes. She had no pupils or irises, merely blank white orbs that seemed to stare at nothing. The filly of Void let everyone have a good long look at her creepy orbs.

“...Whoah,” Cinder said, mouth open. “What…?”

“I’m a ghost!” Blink said with a chuckle, returning her sunglasses to her face. “Should be self-explanatory.”

“You’re dead?”

“Yep!” Blink confirmed. “Long story, don’t ask. And I just thought of something…” she turned to Apple Bloom. “You’re dead too, right?”

“Uh… yeah? Undead.”

“Then I’m going to check…” She examined the bracelets on her four legs closely.

“Blink, don’t be stupid,” Squiddy warned.

Blink was stupid. She removed all four of her bracelets at once. Squiddy tensed as if something disastrous was going to happen.

A breeze blew through the air, ruffling all their manes.

Blink laughed, stretching her legs out. “This feels so good! Do you have any idea how rare universes that will accept me are? Do you?”

“Accept you…?” Scootaloo said, looking to Cinder for help deciphering what the heck was going on.

“I’m just as much in the dark as you are,” Cinder admitted.

“Most universes don’t allow ghosts of her type,” Squiddy explained, eyebrow twitching. “She needs those reality anchor bracelets to keep from dissipating into nothing. Taking them off is stupid, even if the universe allows it, because she could be thrown somewhere and be killed at the drop of a hat.”

“You don’t know how to have fun,” Blink teased, floating into the air and doing a few loopdeloops, a wild grin on her face.

The local Sweetie shook her head. “...While I’m happy for you, ‘Blink’, I think we could all stand to have a bit of an explanation.”

“Oh, sure!” Cinder cleared her throat. “Hello, we are the League of Sweetie Belles, a bunch of multiversal explorers comprised almost entirely out of different versions of Sweetie Belle! We’ve come to your world seeking friendship and adventure!”

“...That it?” Apple Bloom asked.

Cinder flushed. “Uh, well, there’s a lot of political and governmental stuff that your Twilight is probably hearing right now. And we sometimes like saving the day from evil monsters? I think? I’m pretty new, so uh… Yeah.”

“You have a lot of weird Sweeties?” the local Sweetie asked.

“We have a space ship who is also a Sweetie,” Blink said.

Sweetie stared at Blink with wide eyes.

“I take it you want a tour?”

“Yes please,” Sweetie breathed, barely loud enough to hear.

~~~

“I say we take them to Engineering first,” Blink said - she had put her bracelets back on. They were standing in Swip’s ring room.

“Who wants to see engineering besides Seren?” Squiddy retorted. “Nobody, that’s who! We should show them Nira’s room.”

“Do you want Nira to explode?”

“Kind of.”

“I could just give my own tour of myself,” Swip commented.

“Nobody asked you,” Squiddy muttered.

“Hey, Squiddy, that was mean!”

“I’m not gonna…”

Cinder started tuning them out. She found herself looking at the local CMC. They had decided the argument was just as pointless as she had and were examining the interdimensional ring. The ghoul, the changeling, and the robot from the future. They were all so… unique. So full of secrets. And then there was Blink, who was apparently a ghost. She’d had a secret, and Cinder hadn’t even noticed. Did the others have secrets?

She knew hardly anything about any of their backgrounds… For all she knew Squiddy was some kind of assassin. Nira definitely had secrets… Celia was decidedly mysterious… Burgerbelle was inscrutable to begin with… Did even innocent little Seren have something she kept hidden? Possibly even without knowing it?

Cinder shook her head - there was nothing wrong with that. She didn’t need to feel betrayed - Blink clearly wasn’t trying to keep it a secret, it just hadn’t come up. All Cinder had to do was prepare herself for future revelations about her new friends. It shouldn’t be too hard - after all, they would probably give her the same benefit of the doubt.

If she had some special secret.

Which she didn’t.

I don’t care about being normal, she told herself, huffing. I don’t care about it one bit.

She pushed the thoughts out of her mind just in time - because Sweetaloo had walked into the already crowded room.

“All right, break it up!” She shouted, tearing Blink and Squiddy away from each other. “I swear, you two are worse than Rainbow Dash and Applejack!”

“Their puny rivalry is dust compared to ours,” Squiddy said.

Blink just rolled her eyes. “I’m only arguing because she won’t stop.”

Sweetaloo fixed her with a ‘seriously?’ glare.

“...Agh, fine, right, I’m being just as much of a stick in the mud as she is, I get it, I’m sorry.”

“Good. Now apologize to your guests.” Sweetaloo pushed the two of them toward the CMC.

Blink rubbed the back of her head. “Eh… Sorry.”

“...Sorry,” Squiddy muttered, much quieter.

“It’s okay,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah know all about arguments and rivalries. Plus, you were arguin’ about the best way to show us around the place!”

“And ignoring me completely,” Swip muttered. “As always. I’m an afterthought even when I’m involved.”

“Swip, you’ll just want to show them everything in excruciating detail,” Sweetaloo pointed out. “While you certainly know yourself the best, you’re not the greatest at portraying yourself to others.”

Swip didn’t respond to this.

Sweetaloo rolled her eyes. “Something for the next session. Hey, everypony, out of the room, it’s cramped. We have couches for pete’s sake, let’s use them!”

They quickly moved to the lounge and sat down. Hardly a second passed before Scootaloo pointed at Sweetaloo. “What’s your deal?”

Sweetaloo smirked. “I am a combination of all three Crusaders, Sweetaloo Blume. It is quite a treat to see all of me on Swip at once.”

“...Combination?”

“Teleportation accident,” Sweetaloo explained.

“So, you’re like the three of us fused together?” Apple Bloom pondered this. “What if something like that happened to us?”

Scootaloo thought about this. “We’d probably become some kind of undead… robot… bug thing.”

“Welp, there’s my nightmare fuel for the night,” Sweetie deadpanned.

“I’m sure you three would be something beautiful regardless,” Sweetaloo said with a smile. “Let me guess, Sweetie’s the robot?”

“Uh… yep,” Sweetie said. “That obvious?”

“Oh no, robotic Sweeties are just somewhat common in the multiverse. One of the League’s founders was like you. Calls herself Sweetie Bot.”

“...Of course she does.”

Sweetaloo leaned in. “I could call her, if you want. Assuming she’s not busy, I’m sure she’d love to talk to you. In that… synthetic tone of hers.”

Sweetie grinned. “Yes!”

“This day just keeps getting better for you, don’t it?” Apple Bloom asked.

Sweeetie nodded. “I don’t know what’s happening and I don’t care anymore!”

“Before the day is out you will be one of us,” Cinder said, ominously.

“Aren’t I already a Sweetie?”

“...Yes. Yes you are.”

“Then the day doesn’t even need to end, does it?”

Cinder pursed her lips. She couldn’t help but feel like she’d been cheated out of something there.

“Swip, can you call Sweetie Bot?” Sweetaloo asked.

“I don’t know, can I?” Swip beeped.

“Swip…”

“I mean, apparently I don’t know how to portray myself to others and can’t give my own tour. So who knows what other stuff might be locked up in here?”

Sweetaloo had a retort ready - but the visiting Sweetie got to it first. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so standoffish? That might be what makes you bad at tours, or whatever else they were talking about.”

Everyone felt like Swip was staring at them with a death glare in the following silence.

“...Calling Sweetie Bot… Connection made, placing on screen now.”

A version of Sweetie Belle slightly younger than the visiting Sweetie appeared on screen. “Hello everyone!” she said, speaking in a highly synthetic voice. “Greetings concluded - what brings you to the inner screens of my eyes?”

“Got another Sweetie Bot of sorts,” Sweetaloo said, gesturing for Sweetie to say something.

“This screen is so cool and futuristic,” she said, blinking. “Are you from the future!?”

Bot paused. “I do not think so. Analysis says there is only a 12% chance my origin is based in temporal phenomenon.”

“Wait, you don’t know?”

“I was never able to uncover my exact origins. Equis Smooze is decidedly inhospitable to us, and any robots questioned go on rampages.”

“We’re pretty sure you were built by a mad, evil scientist!” another Sweetie called from off screen.

“Only 74% chance, Allure!” Bot shouted back.

“Occam’s razor, Bot!”

“I have enough razors built in, they are sufficient.”

“You also have missile bays, are those sufficient?”

“Affirmative!”

Allure was apparently done shouting across the room, since she didn’t respond.

“Missile bays?” Sweetie asked, concern crossing her face.

Bot grinned. “This unit is equipped with dozens of high-end weapons for use in the field! Missiles, lasers, and even a microwave! The third option doubles as a food cooking utensil. Rarity loves my hot pockets!”

“So some robots do get lasers,” Scootaloo said, nudging Sweetie. “Guess you just got unlucky.”

“I’m not sure I want lasers…” Sweetie said.

“You don’t have lasers!?” Bot gasped. “Pity levels at maximum! We will install more right away!”

“Nononononono!” Sweetie said, waving her hooves. “I like me the way I am!”

“Healthy attitude detected!” Bot’s grin returned. “You are amazing, just like all Sweeties. This is why we come together! Because we are adorable! Because we are cute! Because we are silly! And because we have awesome sisters!”

“...You have a mantra?” Apple Bloom asked Cinder.

“...I think Bot’s just making this up as she goes along,” Cinder responded.

“And because the objects of fun are… Uh…” Bot blinked. “Sentence coherence lost. Initiating embarrassed apology sequence.”

“Objects of fun…?” Sweetie said, cocking her head.

~~~

“I have all the objects of fun!” Bot declared.

“You need to reexamine the definition of ‘fun’,” Thrackerzod commented, picking up a ping-pong paddle with her magic. “This requires significantly more mutations to be truly ‘fun’.”

Bot pressed a button on the ping-pong paddle and it started slapping Thrackerzod in the face. “See? Fun!”

Thrackerzod was not amused.

~~~

“I was created and not told about it,” Bot started her life story. “All my life I thought I was just a pony. But then I was told and I went on a maximum-murder rampage until the other Sweeties got my sister to stop me! And then the League of Sweetie Belles was formed.”

“She’s oversimplifying,” Squiddy muttered.

“...How could you have thought you were a pony?” Sweetie asked. “You don’t even sound like one!”

“An error has occurred, please resubmit query at a later time.”

Sweetie facehooved. “Ugh… Is this what it was like talking to me in full robot mode?”

“Yes,” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said in unison.

“I detect that I missed something,” Bot said.

“You know full well what happened,” Squiddy muttered.

“An error has occurred. Please resubmit query at a later time.”

“That wasn’t even a query!”

“An error ha-”

Allure called from off screen. “Bot! We’ve got to go! The Sparkle Census has challenged us again!”

“Leaving is required! Goodbye - it was great talking!” Bot cut the feed.

“...Sparkle Census?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It’s made out of Twilights, isn’t it?” Sweetie added.

“Yes, it is,” Sweetaloo admitted. “Regardless, was that everything you thought it would be, Sweetie?”

“No,” Sweetie admitted. “But you knew that.”

Sweetaloo smirked. “Now you know a bit about how much variety there is in us. Puts some things in perspective, huh?”

“I still don’t have any idea of this League’s scale. Not sure if I can have perspective.”

“Let’s take her for a spin!” Blink said, grinning. “Swip, dial someplace cool!”

“We can’t just take Crusaders from their worlds willy-nilly!” Sweetaloo chided. “That’s kidnapping. We’re not taking them on a joyride for something so frivolous.”

“Awwww…” the CMC said, dropping their heads.

“That doesn’t mean the day has to be over,” Sweetaloo said. “Why don’t you three change things up a bit? I’m sure your world has interesting things to show Squiddy, Blink, and Cinder.”

Squiddy groaned. “Ugh, but their world is so standard!”

Scootaloo corked a brow. “Have you been in a Changeling hive before?”

“Yes! Numerous times!”

“I haven’t,” Cinder said. “...I wanna see the hive.”

“Then we’ll go see the hive!” Blink declared. “Lead the way, Crusaders!”

~~~

“Welcome to the Cloudsdale Hive,” Scootaloo said, holding a hoof out to show them all the underground complex that housed all sorts of changelings. It was a decidedly expansive location with several large tunnels leading deeper into the hive, the main cavern had dozens of platforms sitting at various levels, each acting as a sort of building. There were a few elevators here and there made of wood that carried ponies and other non-winged beings to and from the various locations, but the vast majority of changelings who lived here just used their bussing wings to get around.

“You don’t look like old or reformed Changelings,” Cinder observed.

“Huh?” Scootaloo said, glancing at her in confusion.

“Well, where I’m from, all Changelings were black and full of holes…”

“That only happens when we’re malnourished.”

“Really? So all Changelings in my world were malnourished until the defeat of Chrysalis?”

“All Changelings!?”

“Yeah. Actually, come to think of it, I think there was only one big hive like this in my home…” She put a hoof to her chin. “Guess things really are different here.”

“Do you mean to tell me that only Chrysalis’ hive existed!?”

“Yep! Well, she doesn’t run it anymore. Thorax does, and they’ve all gotten nice shiny beetle-like carapaces. They don’t look like you though. You look…” She narrowed her eyes. “Somewhere in the middle ground.” Her curious expression started to drift. “Unique…”

“Are we?” Scootaloo asked.

Blink nodded in confirmation. “This is not a standard baseline Changeling hive. Not even close. Your walls aren’t changing with changeling magic, you’re significantly more organized, and the whole deal with the mirrors is new.”

“Why would you bother transmitting sunlight all the way down here?” Squiddy asked, waving her hand in front of one of the giant mirrors. “You have magic, just make sunlamps.”

“We like having the sun, you know?” Scootaloo said.

Squiddy shrugged. “Just seems like a lot of work.”

“I have a question,” Cinder said, suddenly. “Blink, are any of us Changelings?”

Blink thought about this. “Not anyone on Swip, though if Nira was one I wouldn’t know. Asking Nira about herself is just something you don’t do.”

“Ah.”

“But several Sweeties in the League as a whole are Changelings. Off the top of my head, Swuzz, Antlion, Ocelle, and Swissaliss. ...That last one really likes cheese puns.”

“Swissaliss!?” Apple Bloom burst into laughter.

“She really likes making others laugh.”

“Oh, like Scootaloo!” a Changeling said, dropping from the ceiling. He was slightly taller than Scootaloo and had a soft purple carapace. “Can’t help but just bring out the endless laughter with those floppy little wings of hers.”

The CMC let out audible groans as the Changeling made himself known. Scootaloo in particular gave him a rather nasty glare. “Everyone, say hello to Twitch, my brother.”

“Hello!” Blink said.

“Now say goodbye to Twitch, we won’t be dealing with him on this t-”

“Won’t be dealing with me?” Twitch smirked. “Little Scooter Crashbasket, I’m going to stick to you and your unimaginative white clones like glue. No amount of insignificant dead eyes, firecracker horns, or floppy ocean flotsam is going to change that.”

Squiddy’s expression went from ‘bored and disinterested’ to ‘unbelievably livid’ in a split second. “What the hell did you just say to me you gnat?”

“I called those overglorified rowboat paddles ocean flotsam. Though in hindsight that was far too kind, I must be losing my touch. They look a lot more like you drowned some poor, defenseless animal and now wear it on your head for bragging rights.”

Squiddy let out an exaggerated gasp. “You dare! You, a lowly insect who couldn’t even pass anatomy class, think you can diss the squid? Let me tell you a few things about the squid: they’re strong, they’re full of ink, and they can slap stupid bitches like you across the face.”

“Oh look at you, using big words, showing your class to the entire hive. I hope you realize we have a minor-hive mind and that all your words are being broadcasted live. Everyone is laughing at them.”

“I bet they’re laughing at you and your oh-so ‘high and mighty’ words! Do you even hear yourself? What do you think you are, the King of France?”

“Prance doesn’t have a king.”

“This just proves your level of ignorance. I bet you don’t even know what a squib is.”

“I do not need to know random things, because I know enough about the world in front of me to know when people are trying to screw me over.”

“I bet you have a lot of first hand experience screwing people.”

“As a matter of fact…”

Scootaloo glanced to Blink. “I don’t think this is going to stop any time soon. Let’s just… leave them.”

“Agreed,” Blink said.

~~~

Blue Monarch, a princess of the Changeling hive, was not sure if she should be proud of Twitch for once or immensely embarrassed. On one hoof he was spouting out some of the most unspeakable and dirty insults she had ever heard come out of his mouth. On the other he had been at it for well over half an hour and neither him nor the inkling showed any sign of stopping.

Mom, you gonna stop them? one of her daughters asked.

At some point, definitely. At the moment I’m admittedly curious to see how long this goes on…

You’re the princess…

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie, Blink, and Cinder walked into the throne room at that point.

“Hi mom!” Scootaloo said, trotting up to the tall, blue Changeling. “Everyone, this is princess Blue Monarch. She’s not the queen, but she does a lot of stuff around here.”

Blue Monarch looked up from a scroll she had been reading. “Ah, the visitors. I am admittedly rather busy - your arrival has sent Equestria into a bit of a tizzy and I’m probably going to have to be part of dealing with that - but I want to thank you for showing interest in our hive.”

“Even though Squiddy’s currently shouting up a storm?” Blink asked.

“...I’ll figure out how I feel about that after it’s over.”

“That’s fair.”

“Regardless, I extend my greetings, welcome to our world. Perhaps at a later time you could introduce us to the other hives?”

“Sure thing!”

“Then I’ll put that on the list of things to consider in the future.” She made a few marks on the scroll and rolled it up, glancing at Cinder. “I’m sorry I can’t give you the tour you probably want, but I’m sure Scootaloo did just fine.”

“She did,” Cinder admitted. “Though I didn’t get to see the nursery…”

“Believe me when I tell you that sneaking down there was an extremely stupid thing to do.” She glared at Blink.

“I’m dead, princess. What exactly are the emotion-sucking babies gonna do to me?”

“I don’t know. And that should always be reason for caution.”

Blink shrugged. “At least nobody got hurt!”

~~~

A baby Changeling unleashed a magic laser and knocked a rock off the ceiling, flattening Blink under it.

“Ow…”

~~~

“It was merely a flesh wound!”

“Do you even technically have flesh?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Well, I’m solid. Sometimes. But I don’t have blood… Or, really, anything.” She furrowed her brow. “It wasn’t even a flesh wound!”

Blue Monarch rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Just don’t go back there. I do hope you enjoyed your trip to the hive.”

“We sure did!” Blink said.

Cinder kept silent.

“Anyway, now we’ve gotta go break Squiddy and Twitch up…”

“...Oh no,” Scootaloo groaned.

~~~

It turned out to not be all that hard. Just teleport one of them away and the argument stopped, problem solved.

The new problem was that, without a clear victory, neither Squiddy nor Twitch were particularly happy. Both of them complained a lot. Luckily for the CMC and the Sweeties, they only got to hear Squiddy’s complaints.

Well, except Scootaloo, she got Twitch’s from the hive mind, but that was just a fact of her life.

“It’s getting late,” Blink observed as they walked back into Ponyville. “Probably should get you three home.”

“Aww…” Sweetie said, looking at the ground. “But today was fun!”

“We should totally do this again sometime!” Apple Bloom said.

“We are pretty busy…” Blink said. “BUT! You are a Sweetie, Sweetie - yeah you really need to choose a name at some point - and you can join the League of Sweetie Belles completely for free, no charge at all!”

“REALLY!?”

“Yeah! Just have to get you signed up and we can get you one of those phones and th-”

It was at this point two decidedly unfortunate things happened at once.

One, a stallion with a suit that was just a little too fancy and smooth for Ponyville walked up to them.

Two, Ponyville’s only lawyer, Murphy Law, walked past them with a decidedly unhappy expression on his face.

The suited stallion cleared his throat. “Sweeties, CMC, I am an agent of T.I.M.E., and I am here to inform y-”

Murphy Law glanced at them. “What’s going on here?”

It was at this point a small device Blink kept tucked behind her mane started letting out sparks. She took the disc out and examined it. “What in Skaia’s name…?”

The disc-shaped device promptly exploded, surrounding the Sweeties, the CMC, and Murphy Law in a burst of interdimensional energy. A second later, they were gone.

The T.I.M.E. agent remained, staring at the spot Blink had been standing.

“...This is going to take a lot of paperwork…”

~~~

Seven ponies unceremoniously dropped out of the sky into another version of Ponyville. Squiddy ended up on the bottom of the precarious pony pile, flattening her squishy body into its floppier squid form. The rest of the League plopped onto her, followed by the CMC, and lastly punctuated by Murphy Law himself. His impact upon the various assortment of younger mares caused a nearby lamppost to fall over and hit Blink in the head.

“...Ow,” Blink muttered. She phased out of the pile and stood up - glaring right at Murphy Law. “Who are you and what did you do!?”

“I am Murphy Law. What did I do? I just asked a question, that’s perfectly legal! Carrying around such dangerous magical devices is clearly in violation of arcane code 37-B, subsection eleven. You are going to pay dearly for this recklessness.”

“Dimensional law is in effect, bucko, which’ll overrule your native laws nine times out of ten, so you can just shut up because you don’t even know our legal system.”

He didn’t miss a beat. “According to our laws, any law broken by a foreigner is the same as if they were a citizen.”

“Oh for the love of…”

“HEY!” another Murphy Law shouted from the doorway of Sugarcube Corner. “You there! Stop defaming my image!”

“Me! Defaming your image? Hardly!”

“I will have you tried for slander!”

“I can do the same - you have my image as well!”

“This is my home and I have the advantage!”

The Murphy Law on the pony pile jumped off and glared at the other Murphy Law.

Squiddy’s eyes widened. “...Shit, there’s no way this is going to go well…”

A nearby building collapsed spontaneously.

“I was right, it’s disastrous!” Squiddy stood up tall. “Blink, we need to separate them now.”

“Agreed,” Blink said, horror on her face.

“...Why?” Applebloom asked.

“Their names are Murphy Law,” Squiddy said, grabbing one around the stomach. “What do you expect?”

“Ah don’t get what you’re sayin’.”

Blink wrestled the other Murphy Law to the ground and proceed to ignore his threats of legal action. “Do you know what Murphy’s Law is?”

“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong?” Sweetie suggested. “...That’s just a joke, right?”

“Maybe, but jokes have a habit of just becoming true, because ka freakin’ says so.”

“...What?”

“Really not a good time to explain it!” Bink said, struggling to keep the Murphy Law she had down. “Let’s just call it the ‘force of fate’ and leave it at that. Things go wrong because it’s funny, or whatever.”

“That’s ridiculous! It’ll never hold up in court!” the Murphys shouted.

“Where’s Celia when you need her?” Squiddy muttered.

The ponies heard a loud gasp, turning their heads to see the local Rarity. “What are you ruffians doing!?”

Cinder strode forward. “Uh, we’re trying to keep every building in the area from collapsing. Because, uh, two Murphy Laws are here?” She pointed at the Murphys.

Rarity put a hoof to her chin. “By the Stars, two Murphy Laws… I… I think I need a breather…” She took a few steps back, tripped over a rock, and popped her leg off. “AUGH!” She frantically stuck the leg back on and laughed nervously. “None of you saw that!”

Cinder’s expression darkened. “...What are you?”

“Uh, nothing o-”

“A buckin’ MANNEQUIN!” Apple Bloom shouted.

“Apple Bloom!” the local Applejack shouted, coming out from the wrecked building. “We don’t talk about those things in th-”

“You’re a dryad, ain’t cha!?” Apple Bloom shouted, sweat starting to drip down her face now. “Arne’t cha!?”

Applejack looked hurt. “Apple Bloom… Why would you…”

“She’s not your Apple Bloom!” Blink shouted - taking a kick to the face from Murphy Law without registering it. “Though I don’t know how she knows these secrets…”

“Yeah, how do you know?” Scootaloo asked.

“The dream,” Apple Bloom said, grabbing Scootaloo by the cheeks. “Don’t you see? That dream I had where every pony had some bizarre weird secret? Rarity’s a mannequin! Applejack’s a dryad! I bet Rainbow Dash is part rainbow, Bon Bon is a human, and Ruby Pinch is a buckin’ bottle of wine.”

~~~

Ruby Pinch walked through the streets of Ponyville, tripped on a rock, and went tumbling end over end, the cyclic motion of the liquids inside of her ensuring she would keep rolling in as uneven of a path as possible. The erratic motions would make her wish she was physically able to puke. But no, the juices inside must be kept pure...

~~~

“A… A universe where everypony has something special…” Cinder muttered under her breath. “Everypony…”

“Oh, this is like that monster universe!” Blink said, brightening up - despite being kicked in the face again.

“Monster universe!?” Apple Bloom asked.

~~~

“Question,” Blink said, tapping her hooves together. “If Twilight’s a mist spirit, but her parents are a dark llama mystic and a literal mountain… how exactly does that work?”

Fluttershy the spider-pony crossed all her eyes trying to figure that one out. “I… I don’t know.”

“How are any of you born!?”

“...I don’t think we’re supposed to think too hard about that…”

~~~

Blink shrugged off another kick. “Yeah, everyone’s unique somehow even though it doesn’t make logical sense for everyone to be that way.”

“Ah’m psychic…” Apple Bloom said, pupils shrinking to pinpricks. “Ghouls aren’t supposed to be psychic!”

“I thought she was made of wood?” Rarity asked Applejack.

“Rarity!” Applejack chided.

“What? Everyone here already knows!”

“You're made of wood in this universe?” Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom.

“Ah didn’t dream about myself!”

“What am I?” Scootaloo asked Rarity. “Pleeeease?”

“I’m afraid I have no idea what you are, dearie.”

“Aw…”

“Sweetie’s an alien from the future, though.”

Sweetie blinked. “Yeah, okay, so much has happened today that doesn’t even faze me. I don’t think anything can anymore.”

Scootaloo put a hoof around Sweetie and grinned. “Hey, I know what’ll get your horn in a twist.”

“Hm?”

Scootaloo pointed at a pony standing a fair ways off, watching - Button Mash. “Wanna know what your boyfriend’s secret is?”

“HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!” She looked to the other Sweeties. “Back me up here.”

Squiddly laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“Button Mash is actually one of our more common pairings,” Blink said. “Lots of Sweeties are married to their local version, actually.”

“WHAT?”

“Though, of our crew, only Suzie’s married. It is her Button Mash though.”

“WHAT!?” Cinder shouted.

~~~

Suzie kissed her husband. “You have to stop coming to the League like this, seeing you with me sends all my Sweeties into an existential crisis.”

“A, they need to grow up. B, I shouldn’t need an excuse to see you. X, I have a good reason for coming.”

Suzie giggled at his choice of letters.

“Railgun’s having difficulty in college…”

~~~

“I still have no idea why she named her kid Railgun,” Blink said. “Who does that?”

“Someone who knows how to game the system and garner my respect,” Squiddy responded.

At this moment the Murphy Laws both got the better of their captors and threw them off at long last. Instead of proceeding to threaten the Sweeties with legal action, they glared at each other again.

Button Mash’s house fell down. “My house!”

“All right, everyone’s going to Swip!” Blink said, tapping a button her dimensional device. Naturally, it was busted from overloading earlier. “...Screw Murphy.”

“Which one?” Rarity asked.

“Rarity!” Applejack gasped.

“The idea of Murphy,” Blink responded.

With the proximity of two Murphys, things just kept getting more and more ridiculous. Rainbow Dash showed up, sparking with impossible rainbow lights. Button ran around in a panic, his legs clicking like buttons. Lyra walked up and tripped, revealing a seapony tail. And Fluttershy showed up å˜∂ ˜ø∫ø∂¥ ®´µ´µ∫´®´∂ ∑˙å† ß˙´ ∑åß and then Derpy fell out of the sky on one of the Murphy Laws. “Hello clone!”

“I’ll sue you for defamation!”

Derpy popped like a bubble and reformed moments later.

Mayor Mare came out. “Now, now, everypony, let’s stop being so dramatic and argumentati-” the zipper in her suit failed, revealing the small gray alien inside. “...Ponyfeathers.”

“You’re ruining everyone’s secrets!” Sweetie shouted at the Murphy Laws. “Back off!”

“You’re all ridiculous!” the two Murphys shouted at once. “I don’t have some aura that destroys everything, and that definitely won’t hold up in court!”

“GAH!”

Apple Bloom grabbed her head. “Ah don’t know how but Ah feel like this is my fault.”

“INK FOR EVERYONE!” Squiddy shouted, showering everyone with a white ink grenade. This didn’t really stop them from shouting, but it did make Rarity pass out and break into numerous pieces.

“...Dammit,” Squiddy muttered, moving to put her back together.

The shouts kept rising and getting more confused and scared…

~~~

Cinder watched the chaos outside from the window of Sugarcube Corner. She sighed deeply every time a new amazing, spectacular secret was revealed.

“Something on your mind?” Pinkie asked, giving Cinder a milkshake.

“Yeah…” Cinder said, absent-mindedly putting the straw in her mouth. “I’m just too normal.”

“What’s wrong with being normal?”

“Everypony. Everyone has something special about them. Ghost, squid, undead, robot, bug, mother - but I’m just Sweetie Belle. The closest thing I’ve got to something special is a little spark of flame.” She summoned a small burst of fire at the tip of her horn and let it go out. “That’s nothing. When everyone else is so special, what do I offer? Why am I even allowed out here?” She held out her hooves. “Look at them, they’re different. None of them are normal. They all deserve to be out here, doing crazy stuff. I’m just out of place.”

Pinkie smiled. “Hey, want to know a secret?”

“Oh, I bet you have one as well, huh?”

“Nope!” Pinkie giggled. “My secret is that I don’t have one!”

Cinder blinked. “Wha…?”

“I’m just like most other Pinkie Pies. I know a thing or two I shouldn’t, I bounce around a lot, and I throw parties! In most other worlds I’m the crazy bizarre one. But here? I’m normal.” She tapped Cinder on the horn. “And that’s what makes me special. When everypony everywhere is filled with something inexplicable and bizarre, suddenly they are normal, and ponies like us are the freaky friday sideshow.”

“...Huh. I… I didn’t think about it like that before…”

“They need ponies like us,” Pinkie said with a giggle. “They need the normal ponies to tell them when they’re looking at things wrong! I mean, you haven’t been with them long, right? I bet you’ve already seen they have some pretty skewed ways of looking at things.”

Cinder nodded, her depressed expression slowly being replaced with something more… understanding.

“We’re here to make sure they don’t go off the rails.” Pinkie patted Cinder on the head.

The mare smiled. “I find it hard to believe you can be a source of stability.”

“I’m what this world has, I make it work.”

Cinder nodded. Then she put the milkshake down and stood up. “Then I’m going to make it work too.” With purpose in her eyes, she marched out of Sugarcube Corner and glared at the crowd of panicking ponies.

“HEY!” she shouted at the top of your lungs. “GET A HOLD OF YOURSELVES! You’re all just letting your inner insecurities, fears, and need to understand get in the way of who you all are! You’re not like this! You’re the ponies of Ponyville and, secrets or not, you’re still each other’s friends!”

She looked at the crowd hopefully.

They were still yelling at each other.

“...You know, in hindsight, I should have known that wasn’t going to work,” Cinder admitted - but she still had a big smile on her face anyway.

“It was a good try,” Pinkie admitted, patting her on the head. “The good news is it’s about to be solved anyway.”

“Oh? By what?”

Suddenly, everybody except Cinder herself was frozen in time.

“...Oh, the time guy.” She was not surprised when the T.I.M.E. stallion walked out of a dimensional portal and trotted up to her. “Why’d you freeze everyone?”

“Because they’re not in a position to be talked to,” he muttered. “You seemed like a good contact. Which ponies do we need to take back to the other world?”

Cinder pointed out all six - including the correct Murphy Law. “...But if we just leave, what will happen to all these ponies?”

“They’re Ponyville ponies, secrets or not,” the agent said. “They’ll pull through. Have a little faith in them.”

Cinder took one look at all the squabbling, panicked ponies. She smiled. “Yeah, they’re Ponyville ponies all right…” She rolled her eyes. “Let’s go.”

It wasn’t hard to pick out the CMC, Squiddy, Blink, and Murphy Law from the crowd and return them to the previous universe, where there were decidedly less nonsensical secrets.

The agent allowed time to resume. Before Murphy Law could say anything, the agent shoved a legal document in his face. “By the order of Princess Celestia, T.I.M.E. has the authority to demand your cooperation in keeping all events that have happened over the last few hours a secret from all parties involved. No legal action of any sort can be taken relating to anything.”

Murphy Law sputtered, tried to come up with a response, failed miserably, and stormed off in a huff.

“Woohoo time guy!” Blink cheered.

“And you,” the T.I.M.E. agent said, turning his ire onto Blink. “You have caused so many ripples in time it’s triggering widespread panic in my organization.”

“...That tends to happen when we arrive,” Blink admitted. “I can put you in contact with the temporal division to see if we can find a timeline solution, perhaps create a dual-universe offset if there’s enough resources involved.”

“We have already spoken with your captain on the matter. Or will in an hour, take your pick. We have decided not to accept your offers of temporal interference.”

“Oh.” Blink’s ears drooped. “You’re going to make us go then?”

“Yes,” the agent confirmed. “Furthermore, you are not to encourage Sweetie to go exploring the multiverse. We ensured her survival so she could create the future T.I.M.E. lives in. As resilient as our timeline is, you are threatening to throw key events out of place that could destroy everything we’ve worked so hard to build.”

“Okay, geez, I get the picture, we’ll leave,” Blink said, holding up her hooves in mock surrender.

“It’s… that bad?” Sweetie asked.

“Yes,” the agent said, dusting off one of his legs. “I am sorry, Sweetie, but you cannot explore the multiverse. You need to fulfill your destiny.”

“Can’t she fulfill whatever destiny she wants to?” Apple Bloom retorted.

“In theory. But do you want to try to explain to the universe why a future that no longer exists created a robotic body to save her life?”

“Ah… uh…”

“We cou-” Blink began.

The stallion interrupted her. “As I said, we already listened to your offer. Splitting the timelines would erase a duplicate. It is not something we can condone, and the amount of destruction that would come in the revised timeline would be disastrous.”

“You do know we’d be willing to help, right?”

“Yes. Help has been denied.”

Blink’s indignant expression softened. “Oh. ...You’re scared of us.”

“T.I.M.E. is n-”

“It’s okay, I get it,” Blink said, shaking her head. “We’ll go. You’ll never have to talk to us again.”

For the first time the agent looked unsure. “I haven’t told you all the detail-”

“I know enough. I’m sorry your organization wasn’t able to move past that.” She turned to face Sweetie. “I’m sorry, looks like we won’t be taking you around the multiverse after all.”

“Oh…” Sweetie said, drooping.

“But hey, it looks like you’ve got some kind of amazing magical destiny to look forward to!” Cinder said with a grin. “Your life isn’t going to go back to being boring. You get to be a robot. Isn’t that cool?”

“Yes. Also terrifying.”

“I… I wouldn’t have any idea what that’s like,” Cinder admitted. “The point is, you don’t need to feel jealous or lost. There’s still plenty for you here. Got that?”

“Yep! And do you get that you’re just as important and special as the rest of them?”

“Bizarrely, yeah!”

“Yeah!”

The two of them embraced and chuckled.

Blink smiled. “Well, I would say ‘see ya’, but I doubt we’ll be back. So, goodbye. It was fun.”

“It was chaos is what it was,” Scootaloo said.

“But it was fun,” Apple Bloom admitted. “And pretty crazy. Ah mean, do Ah dream into other universes or somethin’?”

“Coincidence is a powerful tool,” Blink offered. “If you can think of something, it probably exists somewhere.” She took off her sunglasses and winked. “So it doesn’t really matter if you’re psychic or not.”

“...Not sure what to think of that.”

“Good.” She slid her shades back on. “Means I’m doing the cryptic farewell properly.”

Squiddy groaned.

“Oh, Squiddy, uh…” Scootaloo rubbed the back of her head. “For what it’s worth, I’ve never see anyone go toe to toe with Twitch like that before.”

Squiddy looked away, clenching her jaw. “...Thanks.”

“Goodbye!” Cinder said, waving. “Be true to yourselves and all that!”

“We will!” Sweetie said, waving back.

~~~

“...You’re unique because you’re normal,” Sweetaloo said.

“Yep!” Cinder beamed.

“Have to admit, I’ve never heard that one before,” she chuckled. “Maybe you’re more unique than you think, Cinder.”

Cinder shrugged. “I’m unique no matter what happens now, but I can’t go growing a second head or something - you all are going to need me. This little pony’s going to make sure you all don’t jump into a woodchipper one day.”

“We do not make the habit of jumping into woodchippers.”

“And the certainty with which you said that is why I’m here.” She threw her hooves into the air and laughed. “I’m normal! Woohoo!”

“You’ve certainly changed your attitude.”

“I just discovered that it’s something to be proud of, what do you expect me to do?”

~~~

“She won’t be coming back?” Blue Monarch asked.

Scootaloo shook her head. “Yeah, no, the T.I.M.E. guys told them to get out.”

“Such a shame. I was hoping to talk to Cinder before she left for good.”

“Why?”

“There was something… off about the feel of her love. Something I can’t quite put my hoof on…”

Author's Notes:

Undead Robot Bug Crusaders is an interesting fic that focuses not on adventure, but a strange sort of slice-of-life where the CMC all have weird secrets. The talented Banjo64 is responsible for this madness - no small part of this chapter came about from his suggestions. Thanks for being a part of this, Banjo!

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Twilight vs Anime (time for something completely different)

((LSB Status Post))

-GM, master of T.I.M.E.

This Chapter is A Reference to Another Fic's Chapter Titles (Twilight vs Anime, Part 1)

Celia stepped out of the portal and into a new world with Blink, Squiddy, and Cinder behind her. It had been a while since she’d led an exploration team out to a new world and she was looking forward to stretching her legs. Somewhere deep inside her she hoped there wouldn't be a need for endless political debate - it’d be nice to find a world where things were simple, for once.

This was a feeling shared by most politicians in Merodi Universalis. When you operate in a system that actively tries to cut down on bureaucracy, a sharp distaste for the annoying substance festers…

Seeing that the world contained a seemingly standard Ponyville, she was both relieved and mildly disappointed. On one hoof this wouldn’t be complicated. On the other it was… well, more of the same.

Squiddy gave her usual. “Ugh, again!?” There was a follow-up rant that Celia tuned out, seeing as she’d heard it thousands upon thousands of times already. Given Cinder’s expression, even she had heard it enough times to understand how annoying it was.

Unlike the rest of the Sweeties, however, the innocent unicorn was of the mind Squiddy could be changed with a talking to.

“You know you don’t have to complain so much,” Cinder said.

Squiddy glanced at her. “Yeah, I know. But I also know I like complaining.”

“Well, no one else does.”

“I’m sorry no one else feels the need to blow off some steam from being constantly subjected to this boring, normal, boring, tasteless, boring, rural, boring place!”

Not a second, not even a nanosecond passed after Squiddy’s rant ended when a black and white blur dropped out of the sky and slammed into the earth. When the dust cleared, the Sweeties were gobsmacked to see Thunderlane’s bottom half sticking out of a pit with his hind legs twitching. Even more surprising was Bulk Biceps, wearing a grey cloth around his flanks, pose and flex with a dominating ‘YEAH’ before suddenly shooting back into the air.

Squiddy, after a few moments of dull-eyed staring, raised her index finger. “I think-”

A frightening roar ripped through the air as Bulk Biceps reappeared, plummeting from a great height with a wagon in tow.

“WAGON-OWAH!!”

Following the expected impact that sent dirt clumps flying through the air, Bulk Biceps proceeded to pummel the wagon deeper into the pit. Somehow, this made it catch on fire and explode.

Bulk Biceps grunted and flexed in accomplishment before jumping out of view.

Thunderlane dug himself out of the flaming pit a second later, casually waved at the slack-jawed Sweeties like nothing was amiss, and gave chase. “Hey, no fair! Wagons are OP!”

“...Still think it’s boring?” Cinder asked with a coy grin.

“We need to get out of here,” Squiddy said, no hint of humor in her voice. “We need to go back, and tell Suzie nothing.”

Cinder cocked her head. “What?”

“I agree,” Blink said, nodding vigorously. “Let’s go before she figures out. Say it was a regular Ponyville and we felt bored. Technically the truth, eh?”

“WHAT!?”

“You know she’ll find out eventually, right?” Celia said. “Nothing you two do is going to change that.”

“Well we need to try or else she’s going to do her thing! And nobody wants that!”

“Please, it’s harmless,” Celia muttered.

Cinder twitched. “Can somepony explain to me wh-”

A hammer embedded itself in the ground right in front of Cinder, shutting her up. “Sorry about that!” A version of Cloud Chaser said, picking up the hammer and throwing it at a Cheerilee. “TAKE THAT! You shall never subject another pony to such horrible lesson plans again!”

“Leaving,” Squiddy said, picking up Cinder and hurling her back through the portal. They quickly closed the portal behind them.

There was silence in Swip.

Blink wiped her brow. “Whew, that was close. Swip, find us another world, we’ll make our report on that one later. ...Maybe it’ll have worn off by then…”

“What will have worn off?”

Blink turned to look at Suzie with a completely calm and collected grin. “Nothing, just a case of boredom.”

Squiddy nodded in agreement.

Cinder looked Suzie in the eyes. “The ponies on the other side were attacking each other with ridiculously over the top powers and nopony was getting hurt.”

Squiddy and Blink looked at her like she was a traitor. Celia just laughed. “Told you she’d find out.”

Slowly, Suzie’s expression shifted from suspicious to elated. She slowly clasped her hands together and started uncharacteristically giggling like a little girl. “Today is going to be amazing. NIRA! SEREN! WE’VE GOT A FUN ANIME WORLD!” She ran out of the ring room squealing. “Where’s my outfit? We’re joining in on the action!”

“Look what you’ve done,” Squiddy muttered.

Cinder gave her a confused look. “What? What did I do? She looks happy!”

“Prepare to see a side of Suzie that’ll shake your faith in her, Cinder…” Blink sighed. “She’s going to act very, very undignified.”

“It’s best to watch with popcorn, dear,” Celia told Cinder. “Just lay back and enjoy the show.”

“...Huh?”

EPISODE I:
私はあなたが秘密のメッセージを期待していたに違いない - ああ待って。
Watashi wa anata ga himitsu no messēji o kitai shite ita ni chigainai - ā matte.
The Invasion From a World Beyond Imagination!

“Diamond, why did you do it?” Apple Bloom asked, launching into the air with a blast of fire from her hooves. “You proved yourself after Rumble, but then you turned your back on us! Why!?”

“Because I’m better than that!” Diamond Tiara shouted, charging her spiritual energy enough to make the hairs of the Cutie Mark Crusaders stand on end. “I’m better than you!”

Silver Spoon blinked. “I thought you wanted the Chalice thingy?”

“Not now, Silver!”

“Why do you treat your friends this way?” Sweetie pleaded, hoof outstretched. “Silver is like a sister to you!”

“...I am?” Silver asked, not that anypony answered.

Diamond Tiara laughed maniacally. “Don’t you see? That’s why I’m better than you! You see ponies, relationships! I only see the power!” She sent a flurry of squirrel spirits at Sweetie, only for a wall of ice to deflect them - how ice could block intangible ghosts was anypony’s guess.

Scootaloo took her turn, rushing towards Diamond Tiara with a gust of wind at her back. “If you won’t see reason, maybe you’ll see this!”

Diamond Tiara held out a hoof and blew Scootaloo away like a leaf. “You can’t see wind, foal! You should have let Apple Bloom come after me - your power is far too weak to even concern me!”

Scootaloo let out a pained grunt. “I’m sorry… I failed…”

Apple Bloom grimaced and fought back tears. “D-dammit… How could you do that to Scootaloo, Silver Spoon?”

“WHAT?! I didn’t do anything! That was Diamond Tiara!” Silver Spoon shrieked as a hail of icicles were thrown at her. She called on her power… and summoned a giant spoon out of the earth to hide behind. “Uwah! I just wanted to get a milkshake at Sugarcube Corner!”

While Sweetie heroically held off the cowering Silver Spoon, Apple Bloom threw herself at Diamond Tiara with flames wreathing her body. She threw a ball of scorching fire, but Diamond Tiara summoned the spirit of a large sea turtle and rode into the air on its back. With a maniacal laugh, she punched the air, sending ghostly bees at her adversary.

Apple Bloom sneered and backflipped out of the line of fire. “Ain’t nothing gonna stop me from avenging Scootaloo!” Bringing her forehooves together, she channeled her power into a miniature sun and sent it surging forth as a river of red and orange. “Special Move - Throwing Fire!”

Diamond Tiara snorted contemptuously and summoned a great dragon to swallow up the flames. “Fool! Not only do I have more money, better looks, and a smarter mind; I’m more powerful than you can ever imagine!”

“How about using some of that power to help me out?!” Silver Spoon cried, poking out from her cover to shoot off some spoons. “These aren’t even silver!”

Suddenly, a gigantic portal rimmed in red and black energy opened up behind all of them. The eyes of everypony in town were drawn away from their squabbles to stare in awe at the crimson blemish upon reality’s fabric.

Three people walked out - none of whom were ponies. One was a flat creature who didn’t look as though she belonged in this reality. Another was part pony, part some kind of primate in a dress. The two of them were nothing, however, compared to the person who was clearly their leader.

The few ponies who knew what a human was could identify her race easily, but all others were just confused. Her hair was long and flowing, but spiked at the ends, creating a jagged crown upon her forehead. She wore a form-fitting black leather outfit that covered every inch of skin that wasn’t her face - including her fingers, legs, and feet. An open miniskirt hung from her waist, lined with crimson Crusader-shield designs. A peculiar piece of technology was affixed to one of her ears, hanging a translucent red display screen in front of an eye.

Her weapon was a grandiose sword almost as tall as herself. A ruby was embedded in the base of the crimson circuitry lined blade.

All three of them looked vaguely like Sweetie Belle, which was even more curious.

The leader hefted the sword into the air, allowing its tip to glint off the sun. Then she drove it into the ground with a satisfying thunk, embedding a good foot of its length into the ground. It was now the perfect height for the woman to leisurely rest her arms on, like a countertop. She smirked. “Inhabitants of Universe JK-10053R, I am Captain Suzie, and we are the League of Sweetie Belles. I come bearing some news that is excellent if you’re me, but absolutely devastating if you’re not.” She held a hand in the air as if trying to hold the light of the portal in her hand. “Your universe is next on our very, very long list of worlds that need conquering. Your world will be ours - your cities will be turned into factories, your magic made to serve us, and your Sweetie will be forced into the League’s folds.”

She curled her hand into a fist and let out a gleeful laugh. “I will accept your total and unconditional surrender - but, if there were, say, some wannabe ‘heroes’ that wanted to defend their world…” She smiled coyly. “I wouldn’t complain.”

“I will not be your servant!” Sweetie Belle shouted, standing tall - surprising the fillies around her. “I will face you.”

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom said. “You’re gonna have to deal with us, the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“Bu- hey!” Diamond Tiara waved her hooves. “We’re in the middle of something!”

“Bigger fish to fry Diamond, sorry!” Scootaloo said, clearly not sorry in the slightest. The three crusaders trotted toward the League of Sweetie Belles, leaving behind a livid Diamond Tiara.

“Prepare yourself, ‘Suzie,’ if that is your real name!” Sweetie shouted.

“I’m already prepared, and it’s not,” Suzie said. “My name is Sweetie Belle. I - and all those who stand at my side - are you, little one. You cannot hope to fight yourself.”

“But I have my friends! And together we will take you on!”

“Oh, adorable.” Suzie chuckled. “In time you will come to realize the only friend you need…” she snapped her fingers, telling the pony-girl in the dress to go forward. “...Is yourself.”

“Three on one, eh?” Scootaloo asked. “Not exactly fair for her.”

The girl giggled. “Just like home…”

“...What?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Oh, uh,” the girl shook her head and cleared her throat. “I mean, it’s not fair for you! I have had months of experience, you are but fillies to me! Three on one will be a cake walk - ooh cake sounds good...” She hefted her staff into the air. “I am…”

SERENDIPITY BUTLER

Up Way Past Her Bedtime

“...but you can just call me Seren, all my friends do!” With an adorable smile she pointed her scepter at them and unleashed a bright explosion spell.

EPISODE II:
愛らしいことは自分にとってそれほど役に立ちません。
Airashī koto wa jibun ni totte sorehodo yakunitachimasen.
Encounter with an Adorable Wizard.

Sweetie Belle lowered the ice wall she had raised to protect the three of them from Seren’s attack, allowing Apple Bloom to launch a volley of fireballs. Seren quickly raised an arcane shield, catching the fireballs with ease.

“Oh come on, I know you have more in you than that!” Seren egged. “Come on, actually come at me - I won’t bite!”

“You’ll do something else!” Scootaloo called, sending a gust of wind at her. The intention was to have the wind knock her over - but the mini-mage’s hair barely even registered the breeze. “Wh... how!?”

“Isn’t that a fun question?” Seren giggled.

Elsewhere, a mare shouted in worry. “Oh no, Scootaloo’s power is useless!”

Suzie looked down to see Cheerilee standing at her side. “Uh… Hello.”

Cheerilee looked up at her. “Oh, am I not supposed to be here? I just wanted to see what was happening…”

Suzie smirked. “Say - we can run a commentary, after all that’s how things are supposed to go. Right!?”

“My world didn’t have commentary!” Seren called back, jumping beautifully over one of Sweetie’s ice-shard volleys, using the opportunity to hit Apple Bloom with a laser, rolling her around like some kind of pony marble. “It was all about crying and the power of family and stuff!”

“You betray your family by conquest!” Sweetie shouted, sending bursts of ice at Seren, only for her to easily deflect them.

“But they are my family!” Seren said, spreading her arms wide. When nothing hit her, she sighed. “I just gave you an opening, you could have taken it.”

“Uh… what?” Sweetie said, cocking her head.

“Look, your ice works well at long range, try to look for moments when I’m not looking, or have my defenses spread thin - snipe me at the right moment and you might have me.”

“...Thanks!”

Scootaloo tried to kick Seren in the back of the head with a rush of wind, but the gusts easily dissipated. Seren grabbed her by the hoof. “Wh- hey! No fair!”

“Not a great start for your students,” Suzie commented. “Tell me - doesn’t it bother you to just be standing idly by while your students suffer?”

Cheerilee chuckled. “Oh my, no. If I couldn’t stand to see my students suffer, then I wouldn’t give them pop quizzes on Monday mornings.”

Suzie frowned. “Hey, if we’re gonna commentate, then you can’t be more evil than me.”

“Fair enough.”

Seren twisted Scootaloo’s hoof to the side, throwing her right into Apple Bloom. “Scootaloo, you need better control over your power. Apple Bloom, you shouldn’t place yourself in a position where your teammate might trip over you.”

“Aw, gee, thanks,” Apple Bloom muttered, pushing Scootaloo off her. “Next time Ah’ll expect that the filly… kid… thing can suplex a pegasus.” She unleashed a tornado of flame upon Seren, only for it to deflect, doing nothing.

Seren created a magical hand in midair - and swung it at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, making the two of them flinch. However, it turned out to be a feint, since it whirled around and hit Sweetie while she was charging an ice beam to go right into Seren’s back. “Lesson two, other-me, try to keep yourself from giving an opening when you’re going for an opening.”

Sweetie drove a spike of ice out of the ground and through the magic hand, forcing it to dissipate. “Why are you helping us? You’re supposed to win!”

“...It’s more fun this way?” Seren said with a shrug. “You all seem like good ponies, you just need some tricks. It’d be kind of disappointing if you fell at the first hench-girl anyway. What would have been the point of it all…?”

Scootaloo lit up. “Oh, so just let us win then, we’ll save everyone the trouble!”

Seren raised an eyebrow. Then she created a magic ring under Scootaloo that transmuted a spring into existence, throwing the filly so far into the air the other two couldn’t see her. “But then I wouldn’t get to have any fun!”

“Hm? Why do you suddenly look worried now, Cheerilee?” Suzie asked.

“Scootaloo likes to climb up high things to try and fly,” Cheerilee murmured. “For a second there, I forgot that we don’t really get hurt and… well, I had a little flashback to when she tried to use the school’s slide to achieve terminal velocity.”

“... Did she do it?”

“Almost, surprisingly enough. Though, it looks like she’ll be getting her wish soon enough.”

Scootaloo managed to use her wind and land softly enough not to injure herself - but she still flattened herself like a pancake. “Ow…”

“Your power isn’t as strong as that of your friends,” Seren observed - all the while using a magic shield at her back to effortlessly shrug off the flames and ice.

“Gee, thanks for reminding me…”

“I suspect you have more power in you than you realize. One day, you may unlock it.”

“So I guess I just get to lose until then?”

Seren shrugged. “You could pull something out of nowhere now… but…” She summoned a magic hand to grab Scootaloo and throw her at Applebloom and Sweetie. Sweetie was aware enough to catch her in a slide of ice, gently setting her on the ground below.

“...I think all my back hairs just froze…” Scootaloo said with a shiver.

“We need to figure out somethin’,” Apple Bloom said, lobbing a fireball at Seren, once again easily absorbed. “We ain’t exactly hurtin’ her, and she’s tossin’ us around like ping-pong balls!”

“We should use our special technique!” Scootaloo said.

“On the first minion!?” Sweetie shouted, aghast. “No, we…”

“We’ll figure out somethin’ when we get to them,” Apple Bloom said, standing tall. “Girls, let’s give her the Triple Finish!”

“It’s always exciting to see a special move with its own name, wouldn’t you say, Cheerilee?” Suzie said.

Cheerilee nodded. “Indeed. By giving it a name, you’re simultaneously telling your teammates your intentions with just a few simple words, and you’re putting the enemy on edge. An enemy that is agitated is more likely to make mistakes.”

“Well said,” Suzie gave a thumbs-up. “Speaking of special moves, do you have one?”

“I do. It’s called Detention Headbutt. First, I yell it out, run at the enemy…” She held up her hoof. “Then I punch them really hard.”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders mixed fire, ice, and wind together to create a swirling storm tornado that completely engulfed Seren, the cardboard castle behind Seren, and the wall of a building behind that. She was invisible in the elemental onslaught.

But when the dust cleared, she remained unharmed - she was unsigned and her scepter glowed brighter than ever before.

She winked. “That was pretty cool, good finisher!”

“Like, really hard.” Cheerilee explained.

“N-nothing!?” Scootaloo said, panicked “What are we gonna do now?”

Sweetie narrowed her eyes, glancing at Seren’s glowing scepter. “Seren… you wouldn’t by chance be absorbing our magic, would you?”

“Oh, I definitely am,” Seren said with a chuckle. “You couldn’t hit me with your powers even if you tried harder than your bodies would allow.”

“And what if I tried this?” Sweetie stamped her hoof on the ground, launching a pillar of ice out of the ground - that threw a large rock right into Seren’s face.

A lump formed on her forehead and she stumbled back a few steps. “T-that’d do it… ow… headache…”

“Hit her with indirect attacks, girls!” Sweetie shouted, tossing more rocks at Seren. “If it’s not magic, she’s got nothing on it!”

Seren took to blasting the rocks out of the air with magic lasers, disintegrating them before they arrived.

“Ah got an idea!” Apple Bloom announced, aiming her fire at the ground instead of at Seren. Instead of fizzling out instantly, the fire created more, natural flames on the grass around Seren. Since she was busy with the chilling boulders, she didn’t have time to put out the flames.

“You’ve finally got me on the defensive!” Seren announced. “That’s good! All you have to do is find a way to get at me! C’mon, I’m sure you can think of something!”

Scootaloo used her power to blow a tree over, dropping it right on Seren. There was a dramatic crunch, and the tree lay still.

“Aha!” Suzie fist-pumped. “Have the heroes won? Are they one step closer to giving the final boss an exciting battle?” She turned to Cheerilee. “The final boss is me, by the way.”

Cheerilee gasped in genuine shock.

The tree shook, moving slowly upward. Covered in leaves and sticks, Seren rose - using her magic to lift the tree back up. “Heh… Almost got me! But I’m more resilient tha-”

Sweetie hit her in the back of the head with a large rock. “Butterbread…” Seren said with a giggle, crossing her eyes and passing out.

The tree crashed on her again, which should have heavily injured her, but aside from a few bruises she was completely fine.

“We did it!” Sweetie cheered, pulling her two friends into a hug. “One down!”

“Oh, I’m so proud of them!” Cheerilee clapped her hooves cutely. “They realized that using your powers in the most direct way isn’t always the solution.”

“That’s true, but they’ve still a ways to go before they can get to me. Even farther if they hope to actually beat me,” Suzie chuckled nefariously. “But credit where it’s due… One down, two to go…”

Suzie snapped her fingers, prompting the Flat creature to move forward…

~~~

“...Okay, question,” Cinder said - watching the events from the other side of the ‘evil’ portal. “How is she fine?”

“The world’s under an ‘anime spell’,” Celia explained, a wistful look on her face. “The local Discord likely got bored and wanted everyone to have some ‘over-the-top-combat fun’. Suzie loves these worlds.”

“And makes herself look like an idiot every time,” Blink muttered.

“Wastes time too,” Squiddy agreed.

Cinder looked at Blink and Squiddy and shook her head. “Really? You two aren't enjoying fun battles for no reason? Really?”

“It’s ridiculous,” Blink muttered.

“Blink just doesn't like anime,” Celia explained. “...Anime is a style of universe that focuses on high action whose source material is often from a particular culture called Japan. It creates the kind of things you see out there, except the violence is very real.”

“Anime is dumb,” Blink insisted. “No offense to Seren - she’s cool, but only because she usually leaves that stuff behind.” She glanced outside at the fallen tree. “Usually.”

“At this point Blink’s just set in her ways and thinks it’s ‘improper’,” Celia said with a roll of her eyes.

“O…kay?” Cinder shook her head. “And you, Squiddy?”

“It’s violent. I hate violence.”

Cinder just stared at her.

“Why the hell do you think I carry ink-weapons instead of real ones!?”

“But you’re… you.”

“You can stop judging my preferences based on my ‘personality’ now.”

“...Right...” Cinder turned to Celia. “And why aren’t you out there?”

Celia smiled sadly. “It would be inconvenient with my physiology - much as I would like to, I’m not protected from as much as the rest of you.”

“Why do all our leaders engage in this?” Blink complained. “I mean, really, I know we’re a bunch of crazy Sweeties, but if anyone gets footage of Suzie being the evil overlord that’s not just gonna go away!”

“It’s good for her,” Celia said. “She’s under a lot of stress, being in command. We all need our vacations - this is her version of one.”

“Weaboo,” Squiddy jabbed - though she was smirking slightly.

Cinder nodded. “Well, I support her, if nothing else. A-”

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were standing on the other side of the portal, staring at them.

Cinder blinked. “...How did you get here?”

“You don’t have great security,” Diamond Tiara declared.

Cinder glanced left and right - then figured she might as well play along. “You aren’t allowed here - prepare to face the wrath of the League of Sweetie Belles!”

“I’m not here to fight,” Diamond Tiara said.

“You’re not?” Silver said, surprised.

“No. I’m here to offer my services. Anything to teach those stupid crusaders a lesson. I’ll show them to turn their back on me… Nopony turns their back on me…”

Cinder dropped out of the battle stance. “Oh. Well, in that case… Come on in!”

“Cinder!” Blink hissed.

“Just go to your room or something,” Cinder hissed back. She quickly turned back to Diamond Tiara. “I’ll get you all suited up - assuming Burgerbelle doesn’t just take them out, we’ll be able to give Suzie our assistance. Not that she needs it, you know…”

“Why not?” Silver asked.

“Well, Seren and Burgerbelle aren’t fighting with enhancements,” Cinder explained. “Suzie’s got some, from what I understand. But our goal as her agents is to make sure she never has to use them!”

~~~

Spike the dragon watched the events transpiring at the portal from a safe place in a nearby tree that wasn’t about to be taken out by Scootaloo. His dragon ears were more than capable of listening in on Cinder’s conversation with Diamond Tiara.

Suzie has enhancements, and Diamond’s betrayed ponykind! I have to warn everypony!

There was a flash of light as Celia executed a teleport spell, appearing behind him. “Oh, did you think you were being a stealthy spy? I can see you from in there, easy.”

“HEL-” Celia put a hoof to his mouth, shutting him up.

“Now now, we don’t want them discovering what you’ve just learned do we?” She chuckled ominously. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be our prisoner. Try not to annoy the squid or the ghost, they’re in particularly bad moods at the moment.”

Author's Notes:

==TO BE CONTINUED>>

(Fic is Twilight vs Anime by Lupine Infernis, who actually wrote a large chunk of this story. Hope you like it, we're gonna be here a few days.)

-GM, master of continues.

This Bonus Chapter Is Bad And You Should Skip It, Go To Twilight Vs Anime, Save Yourself (Pickles and Milk)

One day, Cinder was sitting in Swip’s dining area when Burgerbelle rolled in on a skateboard wearing pixelated shades. Her arms were crossed, fingers splayed in gang gestures. “Thug lyfe,” she said.

Cinder’s first instinct was to ignore her - but today, something kept Cinder from just dismissing the Flat’s antics.

This was the worst decision she had made in quite a while.

“Hey, Burgerbelle… why are you the way you are?”

“Please elaborate, citizen,” Burgerbelle said, ditching the sunglasses and skateboard to sit daintily on the table in front of her.

“I mean, everything we see isn’t… ‘flat’. All the others exist in the same sort of space - Blink, Nira - all of us. We have different magic and that sort of thing, but you are… way out there. And I’ve never seen anything even close to you anywhere else - Pinkies don’t even really compare to what you are.”

Suddenly, Burgerbelle was holding two pills - a blue one and a red one. “Wanna see how deep the rabbit hole goes?”

“…Are you offering to show me something about yourself?”

Burgerbelle nodded. “My home has been destroyed for a long time. But I can take you somewhere like it. So, rabbit hole?”

“Eh, sure. Not like I’m doing a-“

Burgerbelle stuffed both pills into Cinder’s mouth at once, startling her enough so she could be thrown into a dimensional portal. “WELCOME ABOARD THE CRAZY TRAIN! POPULATION: CINDER!”

~~~

Spades Duck needed to get Blue Tea, his wife, pickles and eggs. Or was it eggs and pickles? Perhaps pickled egg egg pickle or pickles eggs pickles and pickles or eggs eggs pickles and spam or spam spam spam spam spam spam spam.

Probably spam, if he was being honest. Which he couldn’t be since he wasn’t Applejack. Shut up, that’s definitely how it works.

Wait, I’m not Applejack…

Spades ran to the 8/12, but he was unfortunately stopped by a tag-team duo of changeling queens. If he was a betting man - and he was wasn’t - he would have said they were Chrysalis and Kissylips. No relation.

…I have just been informed they’re twins. Carry on.

“We are the twin sisters Chrysalis and Kissylips!”

“Hey! Stop being redundant!” Pinkie Pie called from atop a floating borger, which is like a regular burger, except it has a Pinkie Pie on top.

“We are not redundant! It is thou who art redundant!”

Spades Duck ignored them, walking into the 8/12. Except it wasn’t an 8/12. It was…

“Welcome to Bradburger, home of the Brad burger, how may I Brad your burger?” Burgerbelle asked. She was a creature one might call a human, if that someone was an absolute moron. Just because something has two arms and two legs does not make it a human. Exhibit A: chimps. Exhibit B: lizards. Exhibit C: the left ventricle of Anasui’nelith. Exhibit D: Burgerbelle, a Flat being from a world where two dimensions are king. Queen.

“I’d like a borger please,” Spades Duck requested, all the while wondering where the 8/12 had gone.

A borger smashed through the ceiling. “Hi!” Pinkie Pie said, growing several hundred times too large to be contained within the room. This, naturally, prompted the establishment to transform into a borger and roll down the hill and into the river, where it was promptly feasted upon by changelings.

“That’s a lotta damage,” Burgerbelle said with a whistle.

“What in Celestia’s holy name is going on here…?” Cinder said, aghast. She clearly didn’t belong here, being a unicorn of a young persuasion and sparkling orange eyes. There was far too much detail in her fur and facial expressions, so much so that it made Spades Duck uncomfortable.

Oh, and she looked like Sweetie Belle, except somehow worse. Screw that filly.

“You! Hey, you!” Cinder waved over to Spades Duck. “You look important. What’s going on h-“

Spades Duck took out his ACME Husbando Sword (Order now and get two swords for the price of three! That’s a great deal!) and attacked Cinder with so much amazing gusto the fight didn’t even need to be seen to be beheld. Soon Cinder was nothing more than bloody chunks on the ground…

All those pieces turned into changeling limbs, revealing her to be nothing more than a changeling in disguise.

Cinder shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense! I was right there, I saw the sword coming, I lifted the wall of fire and…” The wall of fire was behind her. It engulfed her and tossed her into the river where the Borger was.

“Silly filly, don’t you know it’s wrong to play with fire?” Pinkie asked.

Cinder groaned, ramming her face into the sesame-seed bun. “Wake me when it’s over.”

Spades Duck, happy that he had vanquished the annoying filly, turned back to Burgerbelle. “I demand pickles and milk.”

“How about a flashlight?”

“That’ll do nicely.”

Burgerbelle pulled a pair of ponies - Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry - who were busy snogging on each other. They were so focused they didn’t even notice they were thrown at Spades Duck.

Cheerilee and Kissylips walked in and were promptly flattened by Spades Duck and the Flashlight ball. On and on and on and - never mind.

Back at the borger, Cinder tore her head out of the ground. “That’s it, something’s wrong here. BURGERBELLE WE NEED TO LEAVE!”

“But we haven’t even gotten to see Blue Tea, Spades Duck’s wife!”

“Who and who!?”

“I NEED MY MILK AND PICKLES!” The pregananerant monstrosity droned.

“The giant has awoken…” Spades Duck said in horror, trying to ignore the feeling of Twilight’s saliva on his ear.

“WHERE ARE MY MILK AND PICKLES!?” Blue Tea, Spades Duck’s wife, gorglighed, stomping into the river and flattening the borger, definitely killing Pinkie. Definitely.

“Screw you.”

Must be an echo.

“I blame the paper thing!” Spades Duck scrambled.

Blue Tea, Spades Duck’s wife, looked down at Burgerbelle.

Burgerbelle pulled out a stick of bubblegum. It spontaneously transformed into a toblerone and shattered into a million pieces. “Looks like I’m all out of bubblegum.” She proceeded to take out a fl͘oati͟ng ̷ca͢n of͢ ̛Bu̡tt͜ ̷Wh͟o̶op̕in.

“B-burgerbelle, what’s that…?” Cinder said, paling.

“What’s what?” Spades Duck asked, not looking at the fl͘oati͟ng ̷ca͢n of͢ ̛Bu̡tt͜ ̷Wh͟o̶op̕in. Refusing to look at it. It wasn’t real. Totally.

“That… THING!” Cinder pointed. “It doesn’t look safe! It looks like it doesn’t belong!”

“What, the fl͘oati͟ng ̷ca͢n of͢ ̛Bu̡tt͜ ̷Wh͟o̶op̕in?” Burgerbelle asked. “Oh don’t you worry, it’s about to get worse…” She moved her hand to pop the can open.

“YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND ITS POWER!” Kissylips shouted.

“I CANNOT LET THOU OPEN THAT!” Luna shouted, coming out of nowhere with the fabled Warhammer of Zillyhoo.

Burgerbelle opened the can anyway.

There were butts everywhere.

And then there was a loading screen. Spades Duck found himself sitting in a waiting room with everyone else.

Cinder was freaking out. “Why is everyone so calm!? Why are we just sitting here!? What I-“

The update was done, everyone moved up their echeladders, and the borger returned.

“YOU CAN’T KILL SUCTION CUP PONY!” Pinkie shouted.

“Seen enough?” Burgerbelle asked.

“…Yes…” Cinder said, shaking her head. “I… I still don’t understand, but I’ve seen enough.”

“Good.” Burgerbelle put her hands in front of her face in some anime pose - you choose, it doesn’t really matter which one. “Burgerbelle and Cinder out, peace!”

The two vanished.

In their place was a jar of pickles and a jar of milk.

“Huh. Neat,” Spades Duck said. He picked them up and returned home to his wife.

She gave birth to more borgers. The exact number is unknown.

Author's Notes:

I tried to warn you to skip this. I really did.

I was offered a chance by moonbutters to write a guest chapter for his delightfully horrible fic, Pickles and Milk. I can't recommend it. I can't tell you that this 'chapter' was a good idea. What I can tell you is that if you do go over there, we shall send this story to oblivion. Together.

-GM, master of stories.

This Chapter Follows the First Referential One (Twilight vs Anime, Part 2)

Previously on The League of Sweetie Belles...

“Fight you! I’m gonna fight you! For no reason!” Suzie cried at the group of small foals, demonstrating why the Sweetie League had such faith in her.

“Wait,” Seren stepped forward. “Allow me to beat these children.”

“Hm… Very well. I have the utmost confidence in you.”

Seren was knocked unconscious by a large tree.

“I do not have the utmost confidence in you.”

“Help!” Spike cried as Celia grabbed him from behind. “I’m being bullied by this edgelord!”

“I’m gonna join the bad guys.” Diamond Tiara stated.

Cinder shrugged. “I’m convinced. Welcome aboard!”

EPISODE III:
怪我をすることなく2Dキャラクターと握手できますか?
Kega o suru koto naku 2 D kyarakutā to akushu dekimasu ka?
Encounter with a Memetic Hazard

As the Flat moved forward, Seren shook herself off and wandered back to Suzie’s side, beaming proudly.

“Oh, I’m so happy that they were able to defeat me,” she quipped with a chuckle. “Not only was it a fun fight, but they’re one step closer to facing you.” She turned to Suzie. “You must be excited.”

Suzie leisurely kicked one of her legs back, a devious smirk planted on her face. “You could say that. There are other words… anticipatory, enthralled, gleeful; but yes, excited works. Excited works excellently.”

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. “I think your evil tone of voice ruined the content of what you just said.”

Suzie shrugged, indicating she didn’t care.

Suddenly, the flapping of wings garnered the trio’s attention. Two pegasi and an earth pony joined them, watching the scene before them with interest.

“This looks different from the usual fighting I’ve seen,” Caramel said. “And I just came back from watching three ponies burst out of a stone wall and fuse a bunch of other ponies together before posing flamboyantly.”

“Isn’t flamboyant your style, though?” Flitter snarked.

“So, what is all this, Cheerilee?” Blossomforth asked, landing next to the teacher.

“I’ll tell you when the fight’s over,” Cheerilee whispered. “I’m curious to see this strange… person in action.”

Suzie smirked. “Don’t blink - she may look odd, but there’s very few that can comprehend the being that is…”

Burgerbelle

An enigmatic anomaly that brings up the question, ‘does intelligent life exist beyond the 3D plane?’ and promptly answers it with, ‘no.’

The flat creature smirked evilly and held her fist out in front of her. “Watashi, Burgerbelle, anata no taisen aite ni narimasu!”

“What in tarnation am I lookin’ at?” Apple Bloom pondered as Burgerbelle walked closer in a manner that made her appear like something from a flip-sketch that had every second frame missing. “Kinda creepy.”

“Hey, that’s me you’re talking about,” Sweetie cried. “Uh, technically.”

“Don’t sweat it, Sweetie,” Scootaloo said, clapping her on the shoulder. “You’re a ton creepier than her.”

“Gee, thanks…”

For a moment, Burgerbelle’s face was replaced with a skull containing one intense, glowing eye. She moved like the wind, appearing behind them all with a tremendous blue stop sign in her hands. “Anata wa warui jikan o sugoshitaidesu ka?” She quickly slapped the three of them to the side with her stop sign and chuckled, her face returning to normal.

“Okay, I take it back - she’s way creepier than our creepy Sweetie,” Scootaloo muttered, standing back up.

Apple Bloom sighed. “Scootaloo, do you ever think before you say somethin’?”

“Pshaw! I live in the here and now, no time for regrets!”

“You’ve been hangin’ out with Rainbow too much.”

Burgerbelle spread her arms out. “Uchi ni oide, baka!”

“”Hey, she just insulted us!” Scootaloo cried. “Quick, girls - do what Cheerilee told us to do and respond with violence!”

Cheerilee felt several sets of eyes bore into the back of her skull. “...I didn’t teach them that directly…”

“It was implied, wasn’t it?” Blossomforth asked.

“I mean, there was that one day I went on a rant about… it’s not important, what is important is that it’s helping them in this case.””

“And what about other cases?”

“That’s tomorrow-Cheerilee’s problem.”

Sweetie grabbed Scootaloo’s tail with magic. “Wait! Remember what happened with Seren? Instead of attacking blindly, let’s strategize and use our powers together.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “I agree. Scoots, you bring in a breeze from behind Burgerbelle while I light up the ground in front of her. Sweetie, you put up some ice pillars around her.”

The three fillies leapt into action: Apple Bloom scorched the ground in front of Burgerbelle, Scootaloo called in a powerful gale, and Sweetie made pillars of ice burst out of the ground, entrapping their opponent.

What they didn’t expect was for Burgerbelle to jump into the fire and swim through it like it was nothing. As they watched in awe, Burgerbelle dove beneath the flames, then emerged on the back of a giant yellow rat with a jagged tail wreathed in lightning.

“Chikapu, sandabaruto o shiyo!”

The enormous rat produced an ear-splitting clap of thunder, then bolted away so fast that Burgerbelle fell off and landed on top of the three fillies. Cries of pain pierced the air as the CMC received nicks and cuts all over their bodies from Burgerbelle’s jagged and flat outline.

“Girls, fall back!” Apple Bloom pulled herself free and ran off a short distance. “Brainstorm formation!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie joined her, somehow having already covered themselves in plasters and bandages, and linked forelimbs to form a circle.

“This is definitely different from fighting Seren,” Sweetie groaned. “My head hurts when I look at Burgerbelle and try to understand. How the heck are we supposed to fight her when…”

“...When she acts like Pinkie Pie,” Apple Bloom finished. “I mean… two Pinkie Pies? Think I got a chill down my spine.”

“Hey, none of this downer talk!” Scootaloo said sharply. “Come on - we gotta think more positively.”

“Watashi wa hijo ni uete iru.” Burgerbelle interjected.

“Yeah,” Sweetie nodded. “After this, we should go grab some sandwiches from…”

The CMC collectively looked at Burgerbelle standing between Sweetie and Apple Bloom.

“... Kinda rude to eavesdrop, isn’t it?”

Burgerbelle let out a laugh. “Kōgeki-mei wa darenimo wakaranaideshou!” She pulled the CMC into a powerful hug, that made them all squeak like dog toys. Struggle as they might, they could not escape her papery arms.

Apple Bloom lit herself on fire, only to find that Burgerbelle was suddenly wearing a hazard suit. “What in-” Burgerbelle threw the three of them down, ripping the hazard suit off and using it like an entangling whip on them. Before any of them could say anything, she tossed a can of green soda at them, which exploded, showering all of them in sticky sugary goodness.

“...I feel as if we’re missing context,” Caramel said.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Suzie muttered.

“Watashi wa shikkari shita mārezādesu!” Her eyes bugged out and her mouth opened to an impossible size, producing a large blue laser that hit the ground in front of the CMC, freeing them but also sending them flying backwards.

Burgerbelle was waiting where they landed, blowing a giant airhorn in their ears several times. Sunglasses dropped from nowhere onto her face and she proceeded to start dancing the most obnoxious dance the CMC had ever seen - and the lighthearted music that played during it was enough to make Scootaloo’s blood boil.

“Ah, to heck with this!” Scootaloo dusted herself off and gathered her power. “I’m gonna slap you silly with my wind!”

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom cried. “Don’t! She’s just gonna-”

Scootaloo projected an immense blast of wind…

… and Burgerbelle’s eyes bugged out as the imprint of a hand appeared on her cheek. The force was so great that she spun in place several times; odd to watch, since it just looked like she was phasing in and out of sight.

“... get… hit?” Sweetie frowned. “How’d you do that? Weren’t you worried she’d just do something weird and negate it?”

Scootaloo seemed just as surprised. She stared at her hooves. “I… didn’t think. I just did it.”

Suddenly, a light bulb appeared over Apple Bloom’s head. “I get it now!” As the lightbulb grew spiky yellow hair and flew off shooting beams of energy, Sweetie ran forward and pulled her friends into another huddle. “Girls, I get it!”

“Well, tell us already!” Apple Bloom said.

“First things first…” Apple Bloom whipped her hoof back without thinking. Burgerbelle yelped and tumbled across the ground. “So, if we had to fight Seren usin’ our heads and thinkin’ ahead, then maybe for Burgerbelle, we have to do the opposite.”

“Not thinking?”

“Let’s fight fire with fire. If we’re more random than her, then she can’t out-random our attacks!”

Scootaloo blinked. “Apple Bloom, that makes no sense. And that’s coming from me, who makes Cheerilee cry whenever I have to answer a maths question.”

“Huh. British,” Suzie observed.

“Good!” Apple Bloom cried. “Now, let’s get out there and give no thought to what our actions will accomplish!”

“Okay, that I understand,” Scootaloo admitted.

Breaking apart, the CMC roared in challenge and ran in completely different directions. Burgerbelle blinked and split herself into three duplicates, then tunnelled beneath the earth to pop up in front of the fillies.

Sweetie fired icicles into the air randomly before sending a snowstorm in the general direction of Burgerbelle, who easily avoided it by sneezing so hard she flew up into the air.

Only for the icicles to start raining down and hitting her in the head.

“Shiko-ryoku ga teika suru!”

Meanwhile, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had ended up in the same area - via Scootaloo tripping into a cardboard box with her legs cycling in the air, and Apple Bloom running aimlessly into a wall - when two Burgebelle copies appeared and drew katanas out of thin air. With flashy and wholly unnecessary movements, they eventually passed through their opponents, leaving them seemingly unharmed.

“Omae wa mou…” Burgerbelle 1 said.

“Shindeiru.” Burgerbelle 2 finished.

Apple Bloom, still roaring and running into the wall, shouted, “No, you!”

“NANI!?” The Burgerbelles’ eyes widened an instant before ghostly slashes made them recoil in pain. Then, they exploded into the air.

Scootaloo decided to use her wind powers and turned her new home into a tiny helicopter. Like an irate tortoise that had too many energy drinks, she bowled into the Burgerbelles in mid-air and sent them flying into the third Burgerbelle, forcing them into one being once more.

Seren whooped. “They’re doing it!”

Suzie nodded. “They’re out-randoming the random through use of sporadic behavior, a known weakness of Burgerbelle’s. She is, after all, a force of nature, and can only be overcome by…” She noticed Cheerilee staring at her. “What?”

“You don’t have any idea what’s going on, do you?”

“...I know enough,” Suzie huffed.

Burgerbelle staggered to her feet, apparently very hurt despite only showing a few scuff marks and grunting and clicking her tongue a lot. “F-Fukanō! Watashi no mīmu-ryoku wa saidaidesu…”

The CMC surrounded Burgerbelle, apparently seriously hurt by their own doing despite only showing a few scuff marks and grunting and clicking their tongues a lot.

“Tch… That’s… hrn… what you think… keh… but so long as… hurh… we’re together…” Apple Bloom gathered fire in the middle of her forehoof. “We’ll always win!”

Burgerbelle could do nothing but accept her fate as the CMC blasted her with the full force of their powers; she was swallowed from view by a cloud of steam and smoke.

As were the CMC as they boldly closed their eyes and flailed their limbs around for maximum unpredictability.

When the dust settled, Burgerbelle was lying on her back with crosses for eyes, and the CMC were charred grey with wisps of smoke curling from their bodies.

“Well…” Cheerilee scratched her head. “I can’t say that it was low-energy. Certainly not lacking for visual stimuli.”

“It’s incredible that they were able to overcome Burgerbelle’s reality-bending abilities, but I’m not complaining,” Suzie chuckled and hefted her sword to rest over her shoulder. “Burgerbelle! Disengage!”

With a strained groan, Burgerbelle got up and wobbled back to Suzie’s side. “My butt hurts.”

Suzie ignored her and swept her free hand out as the CMC brushed the soot off their coats. “Well done, Crusaders! You’re putting up more of a fight than I had anticipated.”

“We’ll never surrender to you!” Apple Bloom cried. “We’ll fight you for all eternity if that’s what it’ll take to keep Equestria safe!”

“Or, until Twilight complains hard enough that Discord caves in.” Scootaloo added.

“Then let’s not waste anymore time, hm?” Suzie grinned darkly. “For you see, Seren and Burgerbelle are not my only champions…”

~~~

“Hey, that’s our line! Get ready to open the portal!”

“Diamond, I don’t wanna do this.”

“Quiet, Silver! Prepare your deadly spoon powers!”

“Hey, I may be the most inexperienced member of the Sweetie League, but I still think I should be the one in charge of this group.”

“Excuse me, but who’s wearing the tiara around here?”

“Not you.”

“Eh? Oh, darn it - I left it back when we were changing!”

~~~

“The truth is that you have dissenters amongst your town’s populace,” Suzie paused for dramatic effect. “Two ponies that you’d never suspect to betray you.”

Everyone watching the encounter started murmuring - the ponies of Ponyville, the commenters, Seren, and even the CMC themselves - who could it be!?

The CMC clenched their teeth and stared Suzie down. “What in tarnation are you talkin’ about?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Are you all serious!?” Minuette shouted from a distance. “We all know who it is!”

She was shushed by the ponies next to her.

“CMC…” Suzie snapped her fingers. “Meet your doom.”

Three fillies walked out of the gaping portal behind Suzie. Diamond Tiara marched in front of the group with her head held high and haughtily while Cinder and Silver Spoon trailed behind her, the latter searching the ground for a decent-sized pebble she could sprain her ankle on.

“Diamond Tiara. Silver Spoon,” Scootaloo said with all the shock and passion of someone that had found a stone in their shoe. “How could you?”

Such emotional turmoil was lost on Diamond Tiara, who just laughed cruelly. “This is what happens when you don’t give me the attention somepony of my power deserves!”

Diamond Tiara

A filly with the power to summon spirits to do her bidding. Not much different from

her usual servants, just replace ‘money’ with ‘psychic energy’

“Uh, I’m only with her to play around with this ‘anime’ stuff, so…” Cinder cleared her throat. “Yeah.”

Cinder

The newest addition to the Sweetie League; courageous, kind, existing in a perpetual

state of confusion as a result of her crewmates

Silver Spoon blinked. “Um…”

Silver Spoon

Also here

Suzie snickered as her newly-formed team prepared to engage the CMC, her voice lowering so only she could hear herself. “Oh, this is totally gonna be a fun day~”

EPISODE IV:
道化師を食べないでください。あなたは面白いと感じるでしょう
Dōkeshi o tabenaide kudasai. Anata wa omoshiroi to kanjirudeshou
In Which a Lot of Crazy Stuff Happens

Apple Bloom clenched her teeth in frustration. “Dammit, Diamond, how’re-”

Immediately, Diamond Tiara snapped her hoof out and summoned a large grizzly bear that flipped through the air and landed on Apple Bloom, cracking the ground. The bear snuffed cutely before dissipating.

“H-hey!” Scootaloo cried. “You’re not supposed to attack when somepony’s gonna monologue! That’s against the rules!”

“I’m rich! I don’t need to follow the rules!” Diamond Tiara scoffed before summoning a large eagle and hopping on its back. “Right now, the only rule I need to follow…” She commanded the eagle to take her up into the air and swoop towards the CMC. “Is to not hold back!”

Cinder watched her self-appointed ‘leader’ battle it out for a few seconds before turning to Silver Spoon. “So, I’m not entirely sure how to act… well, ‘anime.’ I mean, it looks like I have to ham it up like I’m Rarity, but…”

Silver Spoon shrugged. “Like, I don’t even know what’s going on anymore. I’m only going along because Diamond Tiara will make this awful whining noise if I don’t.”

Cinder frowned sympathetically. “That’s fine. Hey, she’s not looking now, so maybe this is your chance to escape.”

“Really? What about you?”

“I don’t understand this either, but I’ll do it because it’ll make Suzie happy,” Cinder glanced over at her REAL leader, who was watching the fight with a cheerful expression and child-like glee. “It’s nice seeing this side of her. You know, when it’s not slightly creepy.”

With a farewell smile, Cinder charged into the fray with embers spitting from her horn. Silver Spoon looked around and after a moment’s hesitation, turned around to-

“Sneaking off in the middle of combat?!” Scootaloo suddenly crashed down in front of her, a personal cyclone cloaking her. “Your reluctance to fight doesn’t scare me!”

Silver Spoon sighed. “I accept my fate.”

Meanwhile, even more of Ponyville’s citizens had joined the commentators. Dozens of mares and stallions took a break from their own personal clashes to watch as the CMC destroyed public property and secured their position as ‘the ponies that earned the most noise complaints.’

So not that much different from a normal Tuesday, really.

“Heheh - I mean, kukukuku~!” Suzie chuckled to herself. “They think they can fight so well, but with Spike captured they will never be able to win…”

“We’re not deaf!” Minuette called.

Suzie glanced at Minuette, raising an eyebrow. “You going to tell them, then?”

Minuette blinked. “Uh…”

“Anyone?”

Cheerilee rubbed the back of her head nervously.

“Then I’ll continue malevolently plotting under my breath.”

“That definitely wasn’t under your breath,” Caramel said.

Suzie had, apparently, become deaf.

Cinder noticed that Diamond Tiara was locked in combat with Sweetie, so she decided to engage Apple Bloom, who was only now recovering from being sat on. She realized that a fire user fighting a fire user wasn’t the most effective or nail-biting experience, but she reasoned that it would be the safest bet until she better understood how anime worked.

“Uh, hello there!” Cinder shouted, gaining Apple Bloom’s attention. “I shall be your opponent now! I’m gonna…” She looked over her shoulder at Suzie, who gestured grandly and clenched her fists. Cinder turned back. “My powers of flame will triumph over yours and Ponyville will kneel before me as the world’s most powerful pyromancer!”

Suzie gave a thumbs-up.

“Now this makes sense,” Apple Bloom perked up. “Alrighty then - Cinder, right? Let’s see which of us is tougher.”

Apple Bloom unleashed a torrent of fire that took the form of a drill, driving itself through the air at Cinder like a reverse tornado. Cinder leaped to the side, rolling in the dirt and sending a small fireball at Apple Bloom in the process.

“That all you got? Fireballs?” Apple Bloom asked, holding her hooves above her head and forming a fireball larger than herself. “Ah’ll show you fireballs…!”

“Uh…” Cinder analyzed the situation - realizing the fireball was moving slowly, she backed up, out of the way of its intense flames. It slowly crashed down into the earth where she’d just been, singing the grass. Cinder got the impression she was supposed to wait for it to dissipate before doing anything.

“How did you survive that?” Apple Bloom asked once the smoke cleared.

“I backed out of the way.” Cinder smiled innocently and held up a hoof, forming a larger fireball in the air - though nowhere near as large as Apple Bloom’s gigantic monstrosity. Without any sort of mocking words or banter, she tossed the fireball - along with several others of similar size in rapid succession.

“Wh - hey!” Apple Bloom surrounded herself in a torrent of fire, absorbing all the attacks easily. Then she let out an explosive flaming burst directed right at Cinder - who dodged behind a rock long before it reached her.

Cinder proceeded to poke her hoof above the rock and lob fireballs at Apple Bloom from further away.

“...Really?”

“What? It’s effective!” Cinder copied Apple Bloom’s fire shield earlier - her own power making it much smaller and less flashy, but it was still strong enough to dissipate an incoming beam of spiralling fire. Then she jumped to the side, launching a fireball into Apple Bloom’s face before she had time to react.

“Can’t help but feel like you could use some advice.” Apple Bloom casually brushed soot from her face. “I mean, you got the speech thing right, but you’re not fightin’ proper-like. Where’s the dashes, the crossed forelegs while getting pushed back, the flair, the laughing? You’re just… normal.”

Cinder blushed. “Sorry, I’m new to this.”

Apple Bloom hummed. “... Ooh! Why don’t ya try jumpin’ in the air and spinnin’ around to make a huge flame dragon?”

“I don’t think I could stay in the air for that long? And I’d probably get dizzy.”

“Don’t sweat the details,” Apple Bloom shrugged. “Think about what you would think is cool to see, then do it! Like this!”

Slamming her hoof into the earth, Apple Bloom sent glowing orange cracks around her like a spiderweb. Cinder yelped and jumped back and forth to dodge the geysers of flame that erupted forth.

“See? Isn’t it cool?” Apple Bloom yelled over the roaring flames. “Gets the blood pumpin’, don’t it?”

Cinder found a safe spot within the water of Ponyville’s stone fountain. “I can’t argue with that…” She sighed, pulling a piece of seaweed from her mane. Why was there seaweed in the fountain? She knew better than to dwell on it. “Although, what’s making my blood pump probably isn’t the same as yours.”

At that moment, there was a shrill scream. Cinder flinched as Sweetie hit the ground hard, thankfully not on a geyser. Apple Bloom quickly quelled the flames.

“Hey, you okay there, Sweetie?”

Sweetie lifted her head, eyes unfocused and swirling. “I-”

A partially transparent ghost elephant sat on top of her.

“Diamond, that ain’t right!” Apple Bloom yelled up at the conceited filly as she rode by on her hawk, cackling loudly. “Come on - let’s be mature and sophisticated-like about beatin’ the snot outta one another.”

The elephant let out a loud fart.

Cheerilee shook her head. “Even Snips and Snails appeal to a wider audience with their potty humour,” She turned to the other Ponyville citizens. “Snips. And Snails. Use potty humour better.”

They clicked their tongues and shook their heads disapprovingly.

Diamond Tiara stuck her tongue out. “I don’t need you foals’ approval. I’m in this for revenge! Fart harder, my minion! Fart until her face falls off!”

Cinder had never seen a ghost elephant stomp and fart on somepony before - she also never thought she’d formulate a sentence like that - but even she could tell when enough was enough. She jumped out of the fountain and waved to her ‘teammate.’

“Hey, DT, can we talk for a minute?”

“Eh? What for? We’re winning right now. I’m destroying Sweetie, you’re…” She waved her hoof. “Keeping Apple Bloom engaged, and Silver Spoon’s doing just fine with Scootaloo,” She turned her head. “Right, Silver Spoon?”

Silver Spoon’s reply couldn’t be heard over the roar of a 165 mph tornado.

“See?”

Cinder sighed. “It won’t take long.”

Diamond Tiara debated for a few moments before shrugging and calling off her spirits. “Fine,” Commanding her eagle to take her next to Cinder, she sent it back to the spirit world and jerked her head away from the fight. “Make sure it’s quick.”

“Hey, so, uh… you aren’t exactly being… how do I put this… very fun?”

“...Fun.”

“Yes. Fun.”

“I’m not here to have fun!”

“I mean, isn’t that what we’re all here for? Have a bit of fun ‘conquering’ a world, shoot some crazy magic around, mock and endlessly reference things I don’t understand?” She smiled brightly. “I mean, Sweetie over there doesn’t look like she’s enjoying this, and neither do you.”

“Who says I need to? Humph!”

“Diamond…”

“Look, I joined you guys for one thing: to beat the CMC for ignoring me like I’m some filler arc villain. If you don’t want to do that, then stay out of it, I’ll beat them all by myself.”

“Wait…” Cinder reached out but was ignored. Diamond Tiara hopped back on her eagle and returned to hammering the CMC with her spirits. Cinder sighed in frustration. “Jeez, no matter the universe, that filly will always have an attitude problem, huh? Hm… what should I do now?”

“Psst! Hey, little girl!” Cinder turned her head to see Suzie waving her over, having procured a black cloak to drape over herself. “Little girl, come over here while no one’s looking.”

“Against my better judgement…” Cinder trotted on over. “What do you need? Actually, no, my first question is why you’re wearing that cloak?”

“This is a mantle.”

“Didn’t answer my question.”

“Anyway, I called you over here because I wanted-”

“I’m still wondering by the way.”

“-to do a little ‘villain gloats in front of her minion’ activity,” Suzie said with a cocky smirk. “Now, this is the part where I cross my arms, throw my head back, and laugh.”

“And I’m guessing you want me to join?”

“Mm-hm. Ready?”

Cinder shrugged.

Suzie led the way with a sinister laugh that sent real chills down Cinder’s spine, which caused her laugh to stutter awkwardly and trail off into a faded titter.

“Those fools have no chance to win! Even if they defeat Diamond Tiara, they’ll have to go against my final champion, who is the strongest!” Suzie clenched her fist dramatically. “And with Spike imprisoned, our victory is assured because living beings that could free him are my minions. And they totally won’t betray me because none of them were unsettled by Tiara’s behaviour!”

Cinder blinked.

Suzie waited a few seconds, leering evilly at empty air. “... Yep. Not expecting a betrayal at all.”

Cinder looked back at the portal.

“Pride and short-sightedness won’t be the downfall of this evil overlord, no sirree, Bob.”

Cinder, curious, decided to remain and stare at Suzie.

“... Spike won’t be able to free himself without outside help, so I’m not worried in the slightest.”

Cinder fought back a grin.

“All I have to do is sit back and watch as my victory over this world finally comes to fruition. My champions will definitely-” Suzie suddenly looked sharply over her shoulder, a large red criss-cross shape blinking on her forehead. “Will definitely win because Spike is captured and no one knows he’s imprisoned!”

Cinder hid her mouth with her hoof and snickered. “Right you are, boss.”

Suzie sighed in relief and turned around to whistle a merry tune while Cinder disappeared into the portal.

Meanwhile, Diamond Tiara was beginning to lose ground. Unlike before, the CMC seemed to have learned from their previous fights: they were using their powers in less direct and more inventive means, but every so often, one of them would do something random that left Diamond Tiara confused and constantly guessing whether this attack was a feint, or that attack was even aimed at her. As little as Silver Spoon contributed to a fight, she at least provided a decent enough distraction to keep one of the CMC occupied.

Unfortunately, Silver Spoon was embedded in the wall of a building with her hindlegs kicking futilely. Diamond Tiara was well and truly on her own.

Not as easy as she thought, but she refused to admit that.

“Th-this isn’t even my final form!” Diamond Tiara shouted, summoning a murder of crows to shield herself from a three-pronged attack of fire, ice, and wind. “I have, like… seven more forms that I can go through, each more powerful than the last!”

“Maybe you should skip to the final one, then,” Scootaloo said, throwing herself high over Diamond Tiara’s head with a downward gust. “Because if you don’t, then this will be the final blow!”

Diamond Tiara clicked her tongue and directed her crows above her, anticipating Scootaloo’s attack…

… which just involved Scootaloo smirking cheekily and using a powerful updraft to send herself even higher.

“N-Nani?!”

Diamond Tiara heard a sound like a glass of ice being dragged across a table multiplied tenfold and turned her head to see a huge pillar of ice shoot up from the earth.

“Uh-oh.”

Her spirit animals dispersed as she was hit and tossed high into the air. Scootaloo sent down a powerful wind tunnel at the same time as Apple Bloom ran beneath them and conjured a swirling vortex of flame. Diamond Tiara’s breath was knocked out of her as she was pushed into the firestorm, her coat seared with intense heat before she hit the ground hard enough to send cracks out like a spiderweb.

“Ugh… n-no…” Diamond Tiara weakly sat up, her eyes glazed and unfocused. “I-I can’t lose… This can’t be possible… I’m the strongest… I’m…”

Sweetie walked over, summoned an ice cube, and pressed it against the back of Diamond Tiara’s neck.

“Eep! Cold!” Jerking away, the rich filly slipped and knocked herself out on the ground.

“Heck yeah!” Apple Bloom cheered and grabbed her two friends in a hug when they got back together. “Three for three! Nothing can stop us now!”

Suddenly, Suzie laughed loudly, surprising the CMC. “Oh, your optimism is so adorable. It almost makes me feel bad that I have to destroy it. Almost.”

“Cheerilee…” Sweetie called. “Someone in a black cloak is talking to us. Isn’t that what you warned us against?”

“Ah, but that’s a mantle, not a cloak,” Cheerilee pointed out. “There’s a difference, see?”

“But…”

“You see, I’ve saved my best champion for last,” Suzie snapped her fingers. “Those you’ve faced up until now? An appetizer - something to watch and enjoy like a movie on Saturday night.”

“Ooh, that sounds great!” Seren said. “Burgerbelle, remind me to rent movies for Saturday night, will you?”

Burgerbelle flashed a thumbs-up. “Hai!”

Meanwhile, the CMC watched in awe as the portal behind Suzie wavered and pulsed before collapsing in on itself, then spreading out. Potent and mysterious energy charged the air as an enormous dolphin-like shape phased into their world.

“Oh my gosh…” Apple Bloom gasped. “It’s huge!”

“I suppose I should take that as a compliment,” A synthetic voice boomed out from the large, matte black spaceship. “Sadly, I receive so few despite everything I do for the League. I even painted myself black, but-”

Suzie cleared her throat. “Swip! I’ve had my fill of watching these sad ‘heroes’ flail around. End them immediately!”

“Wait, are you saying I can actually blast something? Go all-out?”

Suzie nodded.

“Well, then… this may be fun after all.”

With a chorus of clicks and whirs, Swip’s exterior metal plating shifted and slid backwards like a Rubik’s Cube in reverse, revealing an array of frightening weaponry that crackled with immense power. The CMC clung to one another as Swip loomed over them, her rounded body and countless mechanical arms making her look more like a giant spider rather than a vessel - a spider that learned how to use enormous laser cannons and plasma chainsaws.

Swip

Almost certain to complain about being the last champion

“Ah, this isn’t good,” Scootaloo whimpered. “Our powers are on Tracker X Tracker shonen-level, not Basiliskball Z! We can’t fight something from a mecha anime…”

“Well, girls,” Sweetie sniffed. “Looks like this is the end. We did our best.”

“Yeah, we did,” Apple Bloom hugged her friends tightly. “See you on the other side.”

“The other side of what?” Scootaloo asked.

“The other side of the table at Sugarcube Corner. Let’s go there for milkshakes.”

Suddenly, Swip leaned sharply to one side and veered off to crush one of Ponyville’s buildings.

“Hope that wasn’t my house.” Lyra muttered.

“It’s mine!” Bon-Bon cried.

“Phew.”

“You live with me, dummy!”

“Noooooo!!”

Swip flew higher to avoid crashing into things and started making retching noises. As everyone watched, an extra-large panel opened on her side and out tumbled a mass of green and purple.

Incidentally, Swip had been hovering over the audience when that happened. Completely by accident, surely.

“Is that Spike?” Apple Bloom said in astonishment. “He got really big again.”

True enough, when Spike got to his feet, he towered as high as town hall. His forearms were longer and muscular and his legs were thick as tree trunks. The crest of spikes on his back were bigger, sharper - a testament to his strength.

When he stooped down to open a clenched fist, a small filly jumped onto the ground and waved at the CMC. “Hey, I brought you guys back-up!”

“Cinder!” The CMC cried jubilantly.

“I couldn’t stand by while Suzie just did what she wanted with your world,” Cinder said, casually stowing away what looked like a script. “Or, something like that.”

“But Spike…” Sweetie gestured to the enormous dragon. “How did…?”

“Suzie captured him because he overheard something critical about her. Something that could give you an edge in battle. So, I went and freed him. It was pretty easy; I had this candy bar in my pocket and I told him I wasn’t going to share. Then he said, ‘you wouldn’t like me when I’m hungry’ and transformed into that.”

Apple Bloom shrugged. “Makes sense. But what was that thing you wanted to tell us?”

“Oh, well-”

Suzie suddenly appeared behind her in a flash of dark energy. “Uh-uh, I don’t accept traitors in my ranks.” With a sweep of her arm, she covered Cinder with her mantle. When she swept her arm back, she was gone.

“Cinder!” Apple Bloom cried in horror. “Why did you do that?”

“Your new friend…” Suzie paused. “What do you mean, ‘why?’ She betrayed me. I’m a villain. Name one anime villain that ever let a traitor go unpunished.”

“Dark Grid from Bucker in the Lake.”

Suzie glared at her for five long seconds before disappearing into her shadow and reappearing on top of Swip. “Annihilate them. Quickly.”

“I know I can’t get indigestion, but that was the closest I’ll ever get,” Swip turned on Spike and unveiled a forked cannon with lightning arcing between the prongs. “You know, I’m curious… I mean, I already know the answer since I have a database full of information that’s been fact-checked over 2 million times since I came online… but just for the sake of veracity, why don’t we see the results of lightning on a young dragon’s physiology?”

Spike didn’t seem phased. He turned to the CMC and gave a thumbs-up. “Don’t worry, guys. I’ll save Ponyville.”

He stepped off the groaning citizens pressed into a perfect imprint of his butt and immediately swelled further in size until he was almost as large as Swip. He spread his legs and arms apart, bared his teeth, and shuddered as the muscles on his back twisted unnaturally to form the face of a grinning demon.

“Or destroy it trying.”

“Y-yeah?” The CMC half-cheered and gave strained smiles, looking at one another questioningly.

“SCALE OF MIDNIGHT!” Spike shouted, ramming one of his elongated scales into Swip’s front hull. Her shield systems snapped the spike in two and sent it flying into the wreckage that was Bon Bon’s house.

“Uh…” Spike blinked. He pressed his hands to the edges of Swip’s shield, finding her and all her excess weapons and claws to be encased in the smooth barrier.

Instead of using her many claws, chainsaws, or plasma guns, Swip elected to produce a baseball bat the size of a house and smack Spike with it. He fell back - but managed to keep hold on the shields, dragging Swip with him.

“...You realize this isn’t doing anything, right?” Swip asked.

Spike jumped into the air. “ENIGMA PILEDRIVER!”

“This is not a piledri-” Spike’s feet came in contact with the top part of the shield and forced Swip into the ground, snapping off the majority of her extra spidery limbs.

“Aww, I just glued those on this morning…” Suzie lamented.

Swip pushed her engines to lift herself off the ground, dragging the dragon into the sky with her. “You’re a few orders of magnitude lighter than a creature of your size should be. Keeps you from destroying your bones just by standing, but it also means you can’t keep me down.” She used her more traditional plasma weapons to drive Spike into the ground.

“Heh. Like a spike.” Scootaloo said. Apple Bloom slapped her.

“I’m not done!” Spike shouted, rising to his full height - and in the process knocking a building onto the lot that was once Bon Bon’s house. “I am a dragon! The pinnacle of nature’s creations! I will not be brought low by technology! DRAGON CLAW!”

“A dragon claw is not going t-” Spike’s claws clawed at the shield and broke through it as if it were made of styrofoam. “...I’m not saying nani.”

“You just did!” Suzie called.

“I know. You would not believe the flak Squiddy is giving me for that right now.”

“Hey! Eyes on me!” Spike shouted.

“I don’t have eyes. Take a good long look, see anything?”

“...FLAME OF INTERIOR WRATH!”

“And you just keep getting dumber and dumber.” The flames cascaded across Swip’s surface and tore several metal panels off her sides. “Not in strategy, names. Just names. Your names suck.”

“I’d like to see you do better…”

“Activating Neutralization Protocol Eighty-four.” A bolt of electricity shot out of Swip’s roof, hitting Spike in the face. The electrical signals made his tail twitch wildly, destroying more and more buildings in the process.

“...You know, I hope you all have insurance,” Suzie commented.

“I think everyone in Ponyville does,” Cheerilee said. “...Except Lyra and Bon Bon.”

Swip fired several weapons at Spike. “You know, normally these things are strong enough to threaten entire planets. Could lay waste to the countryside.”

“ANCIENT DRAGON TECHNIQUE: HICHALASKI!”

Swip took the hit, wobbling. “For future reference, I’m supposed to be able to wipe this town off the face of the map. ...It’d take some doing b-”

“ANCIENT DRAGONESE SECRET TECHNIQUE!”

“Would you just STOP already? I’m trying to think here!” She flipped her back to him and unleashed a torrent of rocket fuel in his face.

This proved to be a mistake since he grabbed onto her tail-like section.

“...Whoops.”

Spike twisted Swip over his head and smashed her into the ground, creating a small crater. There was an explosion from Swip’s lower decks, engulfing both of them in a shower of great blue and green color. In the end, Swip and Spike laid in the crater, down.

Panting, Spike got up from the smoking crater Swip wrecked in. He was covered in bruises and dirt marks, but he was grinning toothily as he held his fist in the air.

“P-Plus Ultr-”

Suzie teleported behind him and struck him with her sword. Compared to Spike, it was only slightly longer than his thumb.

Yet he slammed into the ground hard enough to send shockwaves that could be felt throughout Ponyville. He shrunk back to normal size, groaning.

The CMC, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and the citizens of Ponyville gasped in shock as Suzie floated above them. Dark clouds gathered and blocked out the sun, leaving her crimson eyes to glow in the dark as she sensually ran her fingers across her blade.

“Oh, what a glorious day this is. To see civilizations bow before me… to see cities crumble into dust… to watch the despair on so-called heroes’ faces… none of it can compare to the rush I get when I finally meet a world that warrants my blade. To you, Equestria…”

Suzie, Leader of the Expedition Team

Born to lead; an unshakeable pillar to her allies, an immovable obstacle to her foes.

Pray for mercy.

“I give you my sincere thanks. And the promise of a swift end.”

A Chapter to End All Chapters - the Last Chapter. Bet you Didn't See That Coming. (Twilight vs Anime, Part 3)

Previously on Twilight Vs Anime…

“Nani! Baka! Tsundere! Oma! Nippon! Nya!” Burgerbelle shouted.

Apple Bloom knocked her unconscious. “...Wait, what!?”

“I’m ready to beat all of you up now!” Diamond Tiara shouted. “And I’m going to be really actually evil about it!”

“How?” Scootaloo asked.

“FART JOKES!”

Cinder slapped her. “Hey, no, let’s not do that. Uh and I’m going to…” she paused. “...Line?”

Spike fell out of Swip. “AWESOME ATTACK!”

“Sarcastic annoyed response,” Swip muttered as she was smashed into the ground.

“AND NOW I’M HERE!” Suzie shouted.

EPISODE V:
チーズサンドキャッスル
Chīzusandokyassuru
The “Truth”

Suzie lifted her blade high into the sky, the inky black tip somehow glinting in the light of the sun. “You’ve all been great playthings for these last few minutes, but it’s time for this to come to an end.” She pointed the tip at the CMC. “I’m not one for long, edgy attack names or repeated explanations of how my powers work. I will not be giving you help, or give you any chance. Your end is now.”

Before the CMC even knew what was happening, she had slapped Scootaloo aside with the blunt edge of the sword, kicked Applebloom in the forehead, and elbowed Sweetie in the gut, sending them all flying in different directions.

Separated.

Apple Bloom lit herself on fire in an attempt to defend herself, but the blade cut right through her flames. “Fire is nothing to a true weapon,” Suzie announced, driving the blade into Apple Bloom.

She fell to the ground without a visible wound, but found it difficult to move. Despite this, she growled. “Ah… ain’t goin’ down just yet…” She took in a deep breath and shot Suzie with a stream of fire that was easily deflected by the sword.

“...What in tarnation…?”

Suzie drove her foot into the ground, prompting dark energy to shoot out of the ground and toss Apple Bloom even further away. Without missing a beat, Suzie whirled around to cut an icicle out of the air, saving the back of her head. “I applaud your attempts at stealth, but you were simply too slow.”

Sweetie didn’t try to act defensively, as Applebloom had, but rather opted for an all-out approach. Snakes of ice launched out of the ground and chomped on Suzie from several different directions. “Can’t take them all at once!”

With a spearhead of darkness, the ice heads exploded, revealing an unharmed Suzie. “Might need to reexamine that axiom of yours.”

Sweetie created a series of buzzing ice sawblades, sending them at Suzie in a complex mathematical pattern. Suzie charged through them, her blade’s darkness easily sweeping them all to the side and hitting Sweetie dead on. The filly was driven face-first into the ground, like an ostrich.

“And then there was one,” Suzie said with a chuckle, turning to Scootaloo.

Or where Scootaloo should have been.

“Curses,” She growled. “How could she have known that I can’t see things I’m not looking at? Very clever…”

Suzie narrowed her eyes and scanned the area - surprised to find Scootaloo doing something almost no one ever did in an anime fight.

Running away.

“Jōsutā no himitsu no tekunikku!” Burgerbelle shouted.

“How dishonorable…” Suzie mused, smiling despite herself.

It was at this point she realized where Scootaloo was running to.

The downed form of Spike.

“Oh no you don’t!” Suzie shouted, blasting at him like a demented wraith. “You are alone, Scootaloo, without ally!”

Scootaloo sent a tornado of wind behind her, slowing Suzie down - slightly.

“You can’t outrun me!” Suzie called. “Just give in!”

“What’s wrong?” Scootaloo called back. “You sound worried!”

“I have no need to be worried,” Suzie said, driving the sword into the ground, driving a spike of dark magic through the earth in front of Scootaloo. “You are going nowhere.”

“Oh yeah!?” Scootaloo turned to face her - and used her mouth like a rocket engine, shooting a torrent of wind. She crashed into the spike of darkness, but she didn’t stop blowing. The speed of the wind continued to increase, beginning to rip clods of dirt out of the ground and tossing them into Suzie’s face.

Sweetie managed to pull her head out of the dirt with a sound like a jar of pickles being opened. Assessing the situation, she pondered, “Huh… always knew Scootaloo was full of hot air.”

Everyone booed, even Suzie; apparently, taking the time to jeer was worth losing her footing for a brief second and stumbling back.

“Hey, that was good!” Sweetie protested. “Apple Bloom, you think so, right?”

“6.”

“Well, it’s above average, then.”

“Outta 27.”

“What kind of math is that?”

A shrug. “Ah heard Twilight use it once, so it must be right.”

Suzie took a step forward, nearing Scootaloo. “You are the weakest of your team, you know that?” She took another step. “All you have is wind. To those who are light, like Silver Spoon, you can treat them like toys. But I…” Her next step happened without effort. ”Wind does nothing. Wind is just the breeze of life.” She laughed, holding her hands wide just to gloat. “You’re just a leaf in the wind!”

Scootaloo’s face turned red as she continued to exhale at higher and higher speeds. Rocks began to fly. A few ponies were picked up in the gust. The pressure difference was so large clouds started to coalesce around the vortex.

And still, Suzie walked through it. “You think you can break some kind of limit? Going to go ‘Super’ or something? I’d love to see it if you could. C’mon. Try.”

A mixture of clouds, intense static energy, and near panic awakened something within the vortex. There was a spark of energy that created a cascading effect of negative charge through the swirling cloud to Suzie’s body.

A tremendous bolt of lightning lit up Ponyville, hitting Suzie dead on. For a split second, her bones were visible.

When the lightning cleared, her hair was blackened and standing on end. “Wh…”

Cheerilee gasped in delight. “Of course! The CMC’s power combination isn’t fire, ice, and wind - it’s fire, ice-”

Lyra suddenly grabbed Cheerilee by the cheeks and stared into her eyes. “We. Can. See.”

Cheerilee, resembling a purple blowfish, stuttered. “B-but-”

“We know what lightning looks like. You don’t need to comment on that.”

“Huh?”

“Now, I shall throw you.”

“Huh?!”

But Lyra had already fallen asleep.

Scootaloo let out a chuckle. She flared her wings, now crackling with the full realization of her powers: not just wind, but a storm of crackling electricity. She flapped, prompting a half-dozen bolts of lightning to connect with Suzie’s dark form.

Suzie twitched. “That… all you… got?”

“Nope!” Scootaloo said. She opened her mouth and used the lightning as a rocket, blasting toward Spike while continuing to shock Suzie with enough power to kill several hundred elephants.

As Scootaloo flew, Suzie forced her sword forward - transfering the point of contact with the electricity to her blade rather than her body, mitigating the damage. But Scootaloo had got the time she needed, landing next to Spike.

“Spike!” Scootaloo said, panicked. “Come on, what do you know? What’s her secret?”

Spike groaned. “Ugh…”

“SPIKE SHE’S GETTING CLOSER!”

Suzie’s lips were pulled into something less of a smile and more of a gross caricature of one, showing off far too many teeth. Electricity sparked across her body, briefly illuminating the sneering skull behind her flesh.

“SPIIIIKE!”

Spike opened his eyes. “Something about her having bonus powers. Something that isn’t her. That good enough? My back hurts…”

“Something that isn’t her…” Scootaloo looked at Suzie. “The sword… it has to be the sword! HEY! APPLE BLOOM! SWEETIE BELLE! IT’S THE SWORD! WE HAVE TO GET IT AWAY FROM HER!”

Sweetie called back from her position. “I don’t think we have enough energy, Scootaloo!”

“WE CAN MAKE THE ENERGY!” Scootaloo declared. “BECAUSE WE ARE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS! Alone she was able to treat us like trash, defeat us with ease! But TOGETHER WE CAN BE STRONG!”

Suzie grabbed Scootaloo by the neck. “You are right, orange filly. You are strong together. That’s why I separated you. And that’s why you aren’t just being taken down - you’re being taken out.”

Scootaloo paled. “G-girls I might need a little h-”

Suzie’s hand crackled with dark energy that encased Scootaloo in a black shell. She was soon unable to move - becoming like a statue. The now black filly was dropped to the ground unceremoniously, her electricity to be of use no more.

The commentators gasped and winced in horror. All save for one.

“Cranky, why aren’t you horrified?” Caramel asked.

Cranky snorted and adjusted the giant sword strapped to his back. “I watch Berserker.”

The crowd bowed their heads in respect and awe.

“SCOOTALOO!” Sweetie and Apple Bloom shouted, suddenly both on their hooves, no sign of having been injured.

Suzie pointed her sword at Sweetie and Apple Bloom. “What are you going to do now? How exactly do you expect to get my sword from me? You’re down a pony, and her electricity was far more effective than your rigid ice or pale fire.” She swung the blade, creating a fissure in the ground between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. “You can’t do anything.”

“We can honor Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said.

“We will follow her example,” Sweetie added.

“Oh? How so?”

“RUN AWAY!” Sweetie and Apple Bloom shouted at the same time, turning tail and running from Suzie as fast as their hooves would carry them.

Burgerbelle started cackling.

“Oh shut up,” Suzie muttered. She charged after them - faster than she had been moving when chasing Scootaloo. When the fillies went opposite directions, she chased Apple Bloom. Fire was simple, the ice could be used in many creative ways if Sweetie was smart enough. And knowing herself, the filly probably was.

The earth pony lit her hooves on fire and dashed through the plains of Ponyville, leaving a trail of ash and flames behind her. Suzie didn’t care - she just floated above the ground and charged. She lifted her sword behind her back and prepared to cut the filly.

And then Sweetie shot a burst of ice at Suzie from long range, aiming right for the hilt of the sword. Suzie had no time to make up a plan - she could only react out of instinct.

Something invisible stopped the spike of ice. When the two things made contact, there was an unusual sound that made people feel wrong. Nobody knew why, and that just made the feeling worse. The deep, uncomfortable realization that whatever that had been, it wasn’t part of the whole anime funtimes going on.

Suzie realized this as well. Her expression shifted - losing its smile.

Apple Bloom took advantage of this - turning around sharply and kicking the sword out of Suzie’s suddenly weak grip.

Suzie took a moment to process this. “Uh…” She remembered that the sword was supposed to be the source of her power. With a smile and a shrug she swooned and unceremoniously flopped to the ground.

“...That didn’t feel right,” Sweetie commented, trotting up.

“Ah think she screwed somethin’ up,” Apple Bloom agreed.

“Hm...” Sweetie rubbed her chin. “You know, that was the only time where I felt like something happened that wasn’t meant to happen. Suzie’s been professional about this so far, but even she seemed shocked by what happened.”

“Not to mention that faint,” Apple Bloom added. “Not only was it a total anticlimax in general, but I’ve seen better faints from Rarity.”

“Well, Rarity’s a pro at that.” Sweetie and Suzie both said in unison, briefly exchanging looks of surprise.

Scootaloo popped out of her shadow shell. “ALL RIGHT WHERE IS SHE I’M GONNA- oh. You won.”

“Yeah, we did.” Apple Bloom said with a shrug.

And then they heard the laugh. Not from Suzie, not from any of her champions - but from the sword itself.

“She was a weak servant anyway…” the blade said with a reverberating voice, melting into the ground. The dark sludge formed together into the shape of a pony - another Sweetie Belle, except this one had a horn aglow with darkness and cuts all over her body. Deep red blood pooled around her, unnaturally forming into magic circles in the ground. “It looks like I’m going to have to do things myself.”

“Okay, looks like we didn’t win,” Apple Bloom muttered. “C’mon girls, we’re together again! We can face this… greater scope villain!”

“Who even are you?” Sweetie asked.

Suzie, in her weakened state, managed to impart some words. “She is the darkness that lives in us all… She is a being of darkness, blood, and rage… She is the source of fear in the world… She is…”

NIRA

S͕̣͇͞h͏ḙ̟͈̳̰̫̘ ̰͝co̞̠̺͓m̦͚̠͉̦e͝s̱̯̮̤͎̤̬!

“Ah don’t care if she’s the incarnation of evil, we can take her!” Apple Bloom said. “Girls, all at once!”

Fire, ice, and electricity surged forth as one immense bolt, the new and improved Triple Finish.

Nira waved a hoof, summoning a dragon of blood to eat the attack and spit it back out at the CMC with ease. She followed this up with a series of black explosions that made their souls scream in fear, placing into their minds the stuff of nightmares.

“AUGH SPIDERS!” Sweetie shouted.

“Oh no! Ah forgot my bow! How embarrassin’!” Apple Bloom wailed.

“WHERE DID THIS DIAPER COME FROM!?” Scootaloo shrieked.

The crowd wasn’t spared from the vicious assault on the mind either, not even Suzie and her minions.

“Oh no!” Cheerilee cried, swatting empty air with her hooves. “A student that knows more than me!”

“A client that runs down the clock for every session!” Seren wailed.

Lyra screamed, snapping awake. “Broken lyre strings! I’m so scared I could fall asleep!”

Burgerbelle sobbed in heavily accented English. “Help me! Oh my god!”

Caramel pulled away from Burgerbelle. “Augh! How am I even seeing what you’re seeing?!”

“The horror! The horror!” Lily and her friends cried. None of them had been touched by Nira’s magic.

“Your fears are primitive. Your minds are weak. Not one of you is worthy of me.” Nira spat on the ground in distaste. “Perhaps I will just destroy this world instead of conquering it since none of you are worth anything!”

“You’re… evil…” Apple Bloom said, grunting through the shadows of nightmares. “We’re… gonna… stop you…”

A tentacle of blood wrapped around Apple Bloom and paralyzed her with its liquid fear. “You three are the heroes of this world.” She wrapped all three of them in the tentacles. “You are just three kids. No Elements of Harmony. No special magic to save you. Just some pathetic elemental spells of no real consequence.”

None of them could move. The fear had paralyzed them.

“And your champions have fallen!” Nira called to the audience. She dropped the three fillies to the ground, defeated. “You are nothing to me.”

“I’m convinced,” Bon-Bon sat down. “Let’s give up.”

Nira raised a hoof, creating a rune of blood in midair. “There is nothing more to do but accept your fate.”

“That’s not true!” Cinder said, crawling out of Suzie’s mantle. “Just because the CMC are down doesn’t mean the world is doomed! There are countless heroes around us, from the smallest filly to the largest stallion! This is Ponyville!” She raised a hoof into the air. “And you’ve only defeated the first champions!”

“What?”

“It’s…” Cinder had to think about what to say next. “It’s time for round two! The CMC have been fighting through wave after wave of Sweeties, and now that they’ve fallen, it’s time for the Sweeties to fight another wave of Ponyville! And uh…” She blinked. “I mean, why can’t everypony just attack Nira at once?”

There was silence from all the ponies.

“If there’s some sort of honor thing going on, she already attacked all of you with that nightmare thing.”

“Eh, good enough for me,” Cheerilee said. “EVERYPONY! GET HER!”

“I’m convinced,” Bon-Bon stood. “Let’s beat her up!”

Nira laughed sinisterly and tossed the CMC to the side. “Fine. I’ll play for a little while longer,” The rune she summoned started to glow red with power. “Witness true terror!”

CLOMP

Nira bounced a few inches off the ground. Her face falling into confusion, she turned around… and lifted her gaze up and up until she could see Doctor Whooves sitting in the cockpit of his giant mecha pony.

He waved. “Hello!”

“Jeez, those giant robots sure are agile.”

With speed that belied its size, the mecha kicked out and punted Nira high into the air.

Bulk Biceps caught her mid-air and shot towards the ground. “YEEAAH!!”

Slamming her into the dirt, Bulk Biceps got out of the way as Thunderlane tunnelled out beneath Nira and pummelled her back up.

“ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!”

Delivering one final punch, Thunderlane zoomed back down as Cheerilee presented a playing card with an illustration of a dragon.

“Cobalt Eyes, Ivory Dragon - go!”

A massive and sleek dragon burst from the card in a flash of white and flew up to snatch Nira in its jaws to deliver a blast of blue energy before tossing her across Ponyville…

… straight into the mouth of a large, misshapen pony that gnawed on her for a few seconds before Lyra swung up on cables attached to metal boxes on her belt and sliced the giant’s neck open. As Nira fell out of the dissolving giant’s maw, Lyra swung back in and delivered several dozen slashes in three blinks of the eye.

When Lyra was done, Bon-Bon summoned purple tendrils that coiled around Nira, slammed her into the ground, then delivered a jolt of golden energy. Bon-Bon swung Nira around and tossed her back towards the crowd…

… where Cranky was waiting to uppercut her back up with a swing of his mighty blade.

Diamond Tiara ran up, shouted, “M-me too!” and summoned a vortex of spirits beneath Nira that slapped her assorted tools and furniture - the ghosts of tools and furniture long since passed.

And then Spike plummeted out of the sky with a seismic elbow drop that sent tremors felt throughout the town.

The CMC blinked in awe.

“Wombo-combo…” Scootaloo whispered.

Nira grunted and struggled to get back up once Spike removed his elbow. She crawled out of the freshly-formed crater…

… and found herself staring at Silver Spoon’s hooves. Wearily, she glanced up. “Nani?”

Silver Spoon summoned an enormous spoon glowing red with heat and smacked Nira with it.

The spoon was, apparently, the last blow. Nira smiled. “About time…”

And then she collapsed, dissipating into the ground until she was no more.

“WE DID IT!” Derpy shouted. “Oh yeah! We did it! We did it!”

“We… did!” Cheerilee lit up. “Oh, yes! I was a little worried there for a second, especially when that bloody thing-”

“I really don’t know what happened but that felt cool!” Silver announced.

“Y-yeah!” Apple Bloom coughed, standing up woozily. “You guys… were… awesome!”

“My headache is killing me…” Scootaloo muttered.

“I think there’s still dirt in my ear,” Sweetie added, kicking herself to get the soil out of her head.

Suddenly, Suzie was standing before them. She fell down, wailing. “I am so sorry! I was wrong! I was evil! It doesn’t matter that I was being controlled, I still did all those things! I will accept any punishment you wish to throw upon me!”

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. “Really? Come on, this is Ponyville, what’re we gonna do, not forgive you?”

“Y-you’ll really forgive me?!” Suzie said, widening her eyes as far as she could manage. She even managed to get some tears going.

“Yeah!” Sweetie said with a grin. “In fact, I think it’s time we throw a party!”

“How are we going to throw a party without Pinkie?” Scootaloo asked.

Amethyst Star raised a hoof. “I could organize it.”

“Or we could just go back to what we were doing before the Sweeties showed up,” Bon Bon suggested. “A lot of plotlines have been left dangling.”

“Yeah, let’s do that!” Apple Bloom agreed. “DIAMOND TIARA!”

Diamond glared at Apple Bloom. “What?”

“How could you have betrayed us!? Why!? Why do you always make yourself the villain!?”

“Because I-”

“Because we’re gonna have to stop you!” The CMC stood proud, determination on their faces.

And then Diamond realized she was the center of attention again. A smile creeped up her face. “You don’t know the half of my plans, Crusaders…”

~~~

Later, when Swip was back in her pocket dimension and her usual white color, Nira hoofbumped Suzie’s hand.

“We were awesome!” Nira said, an uncharacteristic grin on her face.

“Yeah we were!” Suzie laughed. “The sword was all SHING SHING and then you were all ‘BLOOD’ and then the entire town turned on us.” She squealed. “It was AMAZING!”

“It…” Cinder put a hoof to her chin. “Was fun. I don’t think I got as much out of it as you two did, but it was something different. ...I do still wonder why that was happening.”

“Oh, Discord, probably,” Suzie said, waving a hand in the air. “He tends to discover anime and then go overboard with it. Happens all the time. Anime itself is such a different experience it just… draws people like us into it.”

“Huh. I’ll have to see some of this ‘anime’...”

Seren grinned. “I can take you to my home - it’s a lot like this, except all the powers are based off family ties and, well, the damage is real.” She shrugged. “It’s not quite as fun when your life is actually on the line, but it does bring back memories for me.”

“Plus, it seems like you learned some more fire magic,” Suzie said, smiling at Cinder. “So this wasn't a pointless diversion.”

Celia coughed. “Speaking of pointless, we should probably establish ACTUAL contact with the world as soon as their Discord gets bored.”

Suzie nodded. “Yeah. Celia, take Squiddy, Cinder, and Nira out for an actual mission. Find the Discord, wait for the curse to end, then initiate contact. You can have fun if you want.”

Squiddy groaned. “Why me!?”

“Because you need to become more comfortable with yourself.”

Squiddy grumbled. “Fine, fine… come on everyone, let’s get this over with.”

Celia, Cinder, Squiddy, and Nira returned to the world - for business, this time.

After Burgerbelle and Seren left to go do their own thing, only Suzie and Blink remained in the ring room.

“I warned you.” Blink muttered.

“Blink, I-”

“You know you aren’t able to hold yourself back when you do this. No one else knows what it was, but I know. Your Stand isn’t supposed to be used except in dire circumstances!”

“I was wrong to use it, and that was my weakness,” Suzie admitted. “I should ha-”

“You should have never gone out there! You know when you let yourself go your self-control goes down. I’ve told you every time you’ve done this.”

Suzie looked at Blink with sad eyes. “...It brings me joy, Blink. I don’t want to give it up.”

“What’s going to happen when someone figures it out? I had to make up some BS excuse why I was upset you were doing this! That’s not going to work forever!”

Suzie looked down at her hands. She sighed. “I’m sorry, Blink. You’re right. My feelings come second, and I should know that.” She placed a hand on the ghost’s head. “It won’t happen again.”

“Are you sure?”

Suzie smiled sadly. “No. I’m only human, Blink. I’m not perfect.”

Blink matched the smile and shook her head. “And that’s why you’re the captain. You’re willing to admit that.”

“...Come on. Let’s go get something to eat.”

“I am pretty hungry…”

“You don’t need to consume food.”

“I can if I want to. And I want to. Right now.”

“Then by all means.”

Author's Notes:

Twilight vs Anime is a story about Twilight not understanding anime and going on a quest to get Discord to end the anime. These set of chapters take place parallel to the events of the actual story, focusing on the Ponyville that was mostly left behind. It's an absolutely hilarious story I highly recommend. Thank Lupine Infernis for writing large chunks of this outing into the world of ANIMU. It wouldn't have been the same without the input.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Ghost Hunter Twilight (This story was written by a friend of mine and he's been wanting it included for ages. So, naturally, I gave in.)

((LSB Status Post)) COME AND SUGGEST MORE STORIIIIIES!

-GM, master of T.I.M.E.

Your Existence is a Problem (Ghost Hunter Twilight)

Portals had a habit of opening up in relatively abandoned alleys. One would think portals would find themselves appearing in the middle of well-traveled town squares and populated streets, but more often than not the interdimensional gateways would appear in a convenient location that wouldn’t demand immediate government intervention and explanation.

Today was no exception. Burgerbelle jumped through the portal into a dumpster filled with garbage bags while Squiddy, Blink, and Cinder all landed on the ground next to the disgusting trash collector. When the portal zipped closed with a pop they found themselves alone except for a stray cat who was looking from them to its day-old rat meal in a bewildered manner.

“Should we tell it?” Cinder asked.

“None of us are Fluttershy,” Squiddy pointed out.

“Cats are smarter than we give them credit for. I’m sure it c-”

The cat stumbled off its perch and fell onto the ground. It yowled in rage and took off at a high speed until it found a broken window and jumped in - cutting itself on some of the glass.

Cinder pursed her lips. “...Sure. Prove me wrong, cat. You do that.”

“Cats do what they want,” Blink observed, pulling Burgerbelle out of her trash heap. “You should talk to Cattie - yes she’s one of us - I don’t know the last time she actually listened to any form of order whatsoever. Besides ‘eat and enjoy yourself’, and even then she tries to look disgruntled about it.”

“Nya,” Burgerbelle said.

Blink glared at her. “Burger, we left that world already…”

“Meow.”

“Better.”

Cinder took a moment to scrutinize the surroundings. “So. City. Abandoned alley. Uh… yeah I got nothing besides it being pony construction.”

Burgerbelle snapped her fingers. “And so it begins…” She led the Sweeties out of the alley and onto a street that didn’t look much better - there were still garbage dumpsters, loose bits of trash on the ground, and worn down apartment complexes. At least here there were signs of pony life in the form of a small group of colts sitting around a dumpster fire and a tall mare strolling down the street with a mean look. The colts saw them come out of the alley first - looking surprised for a moment, but quickly looking away and refusing to make further eye contact. The mare, on the other hand, held her gaze firmly on them.

Squiddy folded her arms. “What the hell are you lookin’ at?”

The mare made no vocal response, she simply held her gaze - unwavering, but inactive as well.

Cinder put on her smile and waved welcomingly. “Hello! Do you might telling us where we are?”

The mare raised an eyebrow.

“Uh… we’re a little lost and could use some help?” Cinder asked, cocking her head.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say she’s not the helping type,” Blink commented. “We can try the colts - they look scared enough to tell us what we want to know.”

“But they’re scared!”

Squiddy cracked her knuckles - since she lacked bones, this made a rather disgusting ‘squerlch’ noise. “They should be.”

“Squiddy…”

Squiddy jumped toward the colts aggressively, prompting Cinder and Blink to scramble after her in a vain attempt to calm her down. “Hey kids,” Squiddy said with an ominous smirk. “Care to tell me where I am?”

One of them looked up at her with a disinterested expression. “In our territory.”

“Do I look like I care?”

“Squiddy, stop antagonizing the local gang!” Blink hissed.

“You were the one who suggested this a minute ago.”

“Clearly they’re not so much ‘scared’ as… give me a sec, I’ll think of the word…”

“I’ve never met a gang before,” Cinder said, eyes wide. “What’s it like?”

That was the first question to get a reaction out of the colt. “Does your kid have brain damage?”

“Pfft, yeah,” another laughed, “she must be from the south.”

Blink groaned, not wanting to get into the ‘family relation’ of all the Sweeties. “No, she’s fine…”

“She likes fire a bit much,” Burgerbelle said, suddenly behind the colts.

This scared them. They all stood up quickly and drew knives, aiming them at Burgerbelle. “Back off.”

Burgerbelle fell onto her back, becoming a papery design on the ground. “Done!”

“What is that?” one of the colts asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s not pony, so it’s gonna go or it’s gonna get shredded.”

“Oh, racists?” Squiddy narrowed her eyes. “This just keeps getting better and better.”

“You’re the one in our district,” one spat. “Don’t matter how stupid you are, you aren’t supposed to be here. So take your floppy ears a-”

“They aren’t ears!” Squiddy stomped her foot. “These? These are my ears!” She pointed at the sharp protrusions on the edge of her head. “These ‘floppy’ things are tentacles and I can strangle you with them.”

“Squiddy stop being so… you…” Blink muttered. “We can just go a-”

It was at this point the mare with the angry expression ran past them, knocking Cinder to the ground in her rush. She galloped down the alley, not even taking a moment to look back.

“...Cinder, check to see if you still have your communicator,” Squiddy said.

Cinder felt the back of her neck - finding nothing there. “What the- HEY! GIVE THAT BACK!” She took off in a run after the mare, Squiddy and Blink taking up positions at her sides.

Burgerbelle shot up. “Sorry kids, looks like my time as your carpet is up, I must run!” She started to ice skate across the concrete ground after the rest of her team, performing several tricks as she went.

Ahead of her, Cinder summoned a fireball to her horn and aimed at the mare. “Got you…”

The fireball sailed true - but the mare jumped right over it. “You really do have brain damage, don’t you!?” the mare called back.

“Just give it back!” Cinder shouted.

“You seem to be mistaken, this is mine and you’re trying to take it from me!”

“That’s not true and you know it!”

The mare’s stern exterior flipped to confusion for a moment - then an amused smile. “Oh, this is gonna be good…”

Cinder fired another fireball, missing once again. “Blink! Squiddy! Little help!?”

Squiddy was the one with the weapons for the situation - she pulled out an ink gun and started spraying the white toxin onto the mare.

“AUGH!” the mare shouted through the slight burning sensation. “The fuck is this shit!?”

Squiddy cackled. “I find I like reactions better when people don’t know. Lets their imagination… go places.”

“You’re disgusting,” Blink muttered.

Cinder didn’t get it and didn’t care - her sister called her in that thing! She needed it back! Who cared if they could probably get a replacement easily? Who cared that she’d only had it a little over a week? It was still important!

Squiddy took out an inky ‘sniper’ and hit the mare with enough force to toss her to the ground. She was annoyingly agile, however, and managed to turn the momentum into an advantage, rolling forward at a faster rate.

“Squiddy!” Cinder complained.

“Shut up,” Squiddy muttered, taking out her ink grenade. “This’ll get her…”

And then the mare ran out into a more populated area - and started screaming. “HELP ME! THEY’RE TRYING TO KILL ME!”

“You stole from us and that ink is non-lethal!” Cinder shouted, charging after her - tactfully dissipating her fireball. “Just give it back and we can all forget about this!”

“AND THEY’RE THIEVES! GET THEM!” She ran past several ponies - most of whom looked as though they didn’t care - to a tall brown stallion with a mustache and a badge. “Officer! Officer! Help!”

The officer sighed with an annoyed expression. “Fine. I’ll deal with this.” He cleared his throat. “Stop in the name of the law!”

Blink, Cinder, and Burgerbelle all stopped. Burgerbelle had to trip Squiddy to keep her from continuing.

The officer scratched his mustache. “So. You’re accusing them of trying to kill you and take what’s rightfully yours?”

“Yes!” the mare shouted.

“And you…” he looked to Cinder. “Are accusing my daughter of stealing from you!”

“Yes we a-” Cinder paled in the middle of her sentence. “Y-your daughter?”

“Yes.”

“We’re screwed,” Squiddy moaned.

The mare sneered. “You all should have known better! You don’t go after me. No one does.”

Burgerbelle looked at the officer. “Excuse me, do you mind telling me what the legal punishment for theft is in this area?”

The officer looked at her in disbelief - an expression that matched most of the other ponies that were looking at the Flat. “Uh…”

“Surely there is some legal code.” Burgerbelle smirked. “I have my objections ready…”

“...You really are from the south, aren’t you?” the mare rolled her eyes. “All crimes are punishable by death.”

Squiddy facepalmed. “Uuuugh…”

“You’ll have to come with me,” the officer said, taking out a pair of hoofcuffs. “You monkeys will have to be tied.”

“Ooh, ooh, can I tie them?” the mare asked.

Burgerbelle sighed. “The Great and Powerful Burgerbelle has had enough! SMOKE BOMBS!” A magician’s hat appeared on her head, and about ten smoke bombs appeared in her hands. She threw them to the ground, filling the entire area with purple clouds. Cinder lost control of herself in the coughing - but Squiddy was able to pick her up and run her out of the crowded square.

Soon, the shouts of ponies were behind them - but the smell of smoke wasn’t. They ended up in another alleyway without a living soul in it, taking a moment to clear the smoke out of their lungs.

Squiddy sprayed ink all over herself to rejuvenate her body. “I hate it when you do that.”

Burgerbelle shrugged. “It got us out of there, didn’t it?” She poked her head around the edge of the alley. “This is clearly a place where it’s better to blend in than stand out…”

“Switch?” Blink asked.

Burgerbelle nodded. “Switch.” She pulled out her phone and made a call. “Hey, Suzie, racism against non-ponies. Squiddy and I need to switch. Also, could you lock on to Cinder’s device and teleport it to her? We had a bad experience with a privileged thief.”

Within a few seconds, Cinder’s device was teleported to the tip of her horn. “Huh. Didn’t know we could do that.”

“We all have trackers so Swip can find us if needed,” Blink said. “Usually flawless unless we’re in space or something.”

“Neat.”

A portal opened up in the alley, depositing Nira and Celia into the world.

“They just can’t handle you, can they?” Celia asked, meeting Burgerbelle’s high-five.

“Ain’t nobody alive that can handle this baby,” Burgerbelle chuckled.

Squiddy trudged into the portal behind her.

“Have fun!” Burgerbelle waved, grinning - and vanishing the moment the portal popped out of existence.

Celia brushed her mane back. “All right, it appears we need to blend in.” She arranged her mane to cover the crystal in her forehead. “And now we all look normal. Anything I should be aware of?”

“All crimes are punishable by death,” Blink offered. “And I hear the south is full of idiots like us.”

“That gives us somewhere to go, at least,” Celia mused.

“So… question,” Cinder said. “We can just switch out team members?”

Celia nodded. “Occasionally it’s required - or it would simply make things easier to have or not have a particular Sweetie in any given world. It’s all part of balancing the expectations of the world with our own inherent weirdness.”

Nira raised an eyebrow. “Balance?”

“...Not an exact balance, you understand.” Celia turned to Blink. “Be a dear and hide us, will you?”

“Aye-aye!” Blink said, obfuscating their presence. “To the south!”

The re-arranged team of Sweeties headed in the aforementioned direction, walking out of the alley and into the city proper - this time without drawing too much attention. Just four ponies of similar coloration walking down a street, nothing to see here. Especially since they were partially Voided - even the ponies who were undoubtedly looking for them would not be able to pick them out of the crowd.

Now that there wasn’t a bunch of insanity going on around them, they were able to look at the city itself. Despite the run-down sections they had been traveling through, as they moved out they found the actually inhabited sections were in good shape - there were even a few carefully placed trees to give a little bit of green to the area. It did wonders to brighten the overall mood, especially considering the ominous factory-like behemoth structures that could be seen in the distance from time to time.

“...How big is this city?” Cinder asked, holding a hoof to her eyes, squinting at the distant structures. “Those have to be huge…”

Nira tapped her hoof into the ground, sending out a minor scanning spell. “Hmm… There are numerous ‘districts’ with defined boundaries, but the only edge I can find is to the south, giving way to wilderness. To the north there’s just more and more city.”

“Curious…” Celia said, examining the culture around them carefully. “Herd instinct.”

“Hmm?” Cinder asked.

“Some ponies have an instinct like human-world horses - the animals - to form giant herds. Extremely large cities are sometimes a result of that. Though I’m still not sure what to make about ‘crime equals death’ yet. I’m working on it though.”

“What have you noticed?”

Celia smiled at the opportunity to show off. “Ponies here have an attitude of complete distrust of each other, despite their close proximity. See them keeping their heads down? Notably, the ponies in authority hold their heads high, but everyone else doesn’t want to draw attention. I’ve noticed a few of them trying to hide injuries, suggesting not only that weakness is shunned, but that injury is common.” She shook her head. “This is not a city where the magic of friendship is prevalent - if it exists at all. The defining personality traits that usually set ponies apart from humans appear to be lacking for the most part. We will not receive a warm welcome here.”

“Then how are we going to get to the people in charge?”

Nira let out a grunt. “We analyze the world, determine who is in charge, and then if we think it’ll go well, grab their attention with some magic, or Swip, or whatever we think will be the most effective.”

“The challenge is finding out who’s in charge without making too much of a scene,” Blink added. “Clearly there’ll be some kind of ‘chain of command’-”

“There is,” Celia confirmed. “The ‘district’ we are in now has a head - I don’t know the title yet, I haven’t seen it in print - but I have seen what I believe is the title above them, the ‘superintendent’. In a city this big, the chain likely goes up four or five levels higher than that.”

“So we’re following the line of bureaucracy,” Cinder summarized. “Fun.”

“Especially if they try to kill us,” Nira added.

“...Sure…”

As they continued to walk, the demeanor of the ponies seemed only to get more extreme. The general distaste in their eyes increased. Near the edge of the dense district, Cinder caught sight of an outdoor play being performed across a street in a ‘fancier’ looking part of St. Orangeberg. The primary actor was a blue-gray unicorn who went through some rather extreme measures and a body projection spell to put on quite the impressive show - it looked like a battle between life and death, a spirit and a body. Cinder was awed.

The stallion was being booed off the stage with the crowd’s thrown tomatoes and sharp implements.

“Hey! It’s just a show, how about yo-” He had to duck under a thrown knife.

Cinder moved to help him, but Nira held her back.

“But…”

“He’s already getting away and we don’t understand their culture,” Nira said, gesturing at the shadowy shape of the stallion ducking into an alleyway. “I expect it was rather foolish of him to put the play on in the first place.”

“I don’t know…” Cinder said, frowning. “...What is it with the ponies in this place and their… cruelty?”

None of the Sweeties had an answer for her.

They eventually neared the end of the dense city-district’s borders, approaching an area that was significantly more pleasant to look at - with grass on the ground, trees in enough places to give the illusion of a forest, and Ponyville-esque construction houses.

Now leaving Ashton, now entering Partyville
-St. Orangeberg Geography Department

Cinder examined the large green sign. Under the word Partyville the word ‘fuckheads!’ was spray-painted in jarring orange letters. It looked old.

“The city’s called St. Orangeberg,” Blink observed.

“Obviously,” Nira deadpanned.

Cinder transitioned from the hard concrete to the soft grass with a smile. “Well, at least it looks nicer here.”

“I do wonder why the districts are so drastically different,” Celia mused, touching the leaf of a nearby tree. “Definitely real trees.”

“There are farms here,” Nira said. “Probably matches the ‘aesthetic’ or whatever.” She moved past the sign and into Partyville proper, indicating that she was getting impatient. The others trotted after her, allowing the gigantic buildings to fall into the distance. If they didn’t look behind them, they would almost be able to believe they were in a version of Ponyville.

They saw ponies they recognized walking around with smiles on their faces and cheerful expressions, for the most part. It was a dramatic contrast to the decidedly cutthroat attitude in the previous district.

Celia furrowed her brow, taking the ponies in. Her first instinct was ‘of course the local Ponyville has the magic of friendship’, but something nagging at the back of her mind told her that wasn’t what was going on here. There was something else…

“Looks like these ponies might be willing to help us,” Cinder said with a smile. “So how about we pick one an- OH! TWILIGHT!”

The purple unicorn with a small dragon on her back either didn’t hear the unicorn or was actively ignoring the shouting of her name.

Blink ‘blinked’ into existence next to Twilight. “Hiya!”

Twilight stared at the shaded filly standing in front of her. “...Not that I care, but why are you wearing sunglasses?”

“I’m awesome, that’s what.”

“Uh-huh…” Twilight muttered, looking away from Blink and continuing on her walk. Spike had an even stranger reaction - one of scanning the area, as if looking for potential prey.

“...You’re ignoring me,” Blink said.

Twilight made no response.

“So, what if I told you I’m not Sweetie Belle, I’m Blink, and I’m not from around here?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t care bec-”

Cinder and Nira were standing in front of her, staring into her eyes intently.

“Why do you all loo- nevermind, nevermind,” Twilight shook her head.

“What, hey!” Cinder said, trotting to keep up with her. “We just want to know a few things about where we are, and you look like a pony who can help us!”

Twilight’s frown turned into a glorious scowl.

“...You’re a lot grumpier than usual.”

Twilight’s features twitched visibly at that comment.

“Come on, just tell us a bit about what goes on here in Po- Partyville! Who’s in charge? What fun things are there to do around here? Where’s Sweetie?”

“Look, you’re in my way, so kindly fuck off. Go bother the mayor, I’ve got better things to do than mess with a handful of kids who think pretending to be from another city is even remotely believable.”

“But Twil-”

“Right away,” Celia said, pushing the three Sweeties out of the way. “Sorry to bother you.”

“Ponies always apologizing…” Twilight muttered under her breath, continuing on her way. She didn’t look back.

“...She was rude,” Cinder said. “Maybe ponies aren’t so nice here…”

“She was the only one not smiling that I’ve seen,” Celia observed. “She’s likely from an outside district. We’ll probably have better luck if we talk to someone else.”

“Hey!” Blink said, jumping in front of a Bon Bon. “Which way to the Mayor’s?”

Bon Bon stared at Blink for a moment, processing the question. She pointed at the town hall. “I saw her in there.”

“...You sure?” Blink asked, sensing a lack of conviction from the mare.

Bon Bon looked confused by the question. “Yes,” she stated plainly. After a few moments of silence Blink motioned for her to continue. “...She looks tired today.”

“...We’ll just go look for her,” Nira muttered.

“Thanks!” Blink added.

“You’re welcome,” she said with a smile - seemingly not noticing that the Sweeties were all eerily similar in appearance to each other.

Nira grunted, walking toward the town hall.

“Oh, uh, bye - and thanks for helping us!” Cinder said with a grin, dashing after Nira. “Why do you have to end our conversations so quickly? We were making a friend!”

“She wasn’t going to be useful anymore.”

“There was something off about her,” Celia said, deep in thought. “Not the usual ‘oh, crazy stuff happens in Ponyville all the time’ off, either.”

“Let’s hope the mayor can spread some light on the situation!” Blink jumped to the door of town hall and knocked a happy little beat into the door.

There was no response.

Blink’s knocked again - her happy tapping tune from before automatically replaced with a harsher, more aggravated beating. “Hey! Mayor Mare! We need to talk to you!”

There was a crash from inside the town hall. This was followed by another crash and the yowling of a very annoyed cat. Following this, several thuds and confused hoofsteps emanated - ending only when the door opened to reveal Mayor Mare with a tentative smile. “Y-yes?” She asked, a small bruise on her forehead.

Cinder got a sinking feeling in her stomach.

“Yes, Mayor Mare, my name is Chalcedony, Celia,” Celia said with a short bow. “I come from a distant land and was wondering if you could tell us more about the city we find ourselves in.”

Mayor Mare clearly wasn’t in the proper mental state to process this question. “Eh… what?” Unlike Bon Bon, her voice wasn't completely calm, and in fact was clearly a ball of unresolved stress festering in the mind of an aging mare.

“...Do you know who runs St. Orangeberg?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“Uh… hold on, why do you want to know?”

“We’re a team of explorers from a distant land,” Celia said, keeping her tone calm and understanding. “It behooves us to find the pony in charge - for this district, that is clearly you, but there must be those higher up the chain, correct?”

“Distant land…” Mayor Mare blinked. “If you’re from another city y-you should already know the correct protocols! The council’s got everything sorted out and - I don’t even know the policy for this sort of thing!”

“Mayor Mare, calm yourself, we are not here to hurt you - or to antagonize you.”

“This is some kind of joke, isn’t it? Some… white ponies coming along and trying to tear an old mare’s heart out!”

Celia put a calm, understanding hoof on Mayor Mare. “This is no joke, madam. But there is also no reason to enter a panic. We are your friends, should you want us.”

Cinder smiled adorably. “Yeah! I’m Cinder, that’s Blink, and that’s Nira. She may seem creepy but deep down she’s got a big heart!”

“My cardiovascular organ is significantly larger than average,” Nira deadpanned.

Cinder facehooved. “You did that on purpose…”

Nira gave no response beyond the slightest hint of a smile.

“I…” Mayor Mare took a breath, trying to calm herself. “Okay, I don’t know the protocol, but I think I can at least answer some q-”

There was a large explosion that ended the conversation then and there. Mayor Mare yelped and slammed her door shut while the Sweeties whirled around to face whatever it was. They were too late to see the source of the actual mystical explosion - but what they could see was a very scared looking orange filly - a Scootaloo.

A Scootaloo who was looking right at them with a mixture of disbelief and shock.

“Hey!” Blink waved at her. “Care to e-”

Scootaloo took off in a run toward the ‘forested’ section of Partyville.

“Get back here!” Blink shouted, jumping after her - Nira following close behind. The two Sweeties waited until they were in the trees, outside most ponies’ sights, before they used their magic on Scootaloo. Blink appeared in front of her, only for Scootaloo to pass right through. “...Huh, most ponies don’t go for that…”

Nira cast a dark chain spell, missing Scootaloo by mere inches as she ducked sharply to the left, making the chain encircle a tree instead. She let out a cruel laugh before running further into the forest.

“She thinks she’s funny does she…?” Nira muttered, drawing a few magic runes in the ground. A dark, ominous claw shot out of the circle of runes, sailing right at Scootaloo - no grabbing trees this time.

Except Scootaloo ducked into a rock, phasing right through it - a place the shadowy hand couldn’t reach. Blink jumped onto the rock and used her own intangible nature to fish around inside the rock, pulling Scootaloo out.

Scootaloo looked at her in shock. “What the fuck are you doing!?”

“Trying to talk t-” Scootaloo bucked her in the face without warning, dazing the ghostly mare. She galloped off deeper into the forest.

Nira teleported to Blink and helped her up. “A filly just about knocked you out.”

“...Mistakes were made,” Blink muttered, rubbing her head.

Nira huffed - teleporting the two of them in front of Scootaloo.

“Wh- hey!” the pegasus shouted indignantly.

“Don’t try anything,” Nira warned.

Scootaloo tried something - that was, ducking under the ground. Nira stamped a hoof, prompting a large section of the ground behind her to erupt in a dark explosion. The form of Scootaloo flew into the air and fell back down into Blink’s hooves. “Gotcha.”

Scootaloo squirmed. “LET ME GO YOU FUCKING LUNATIC!”

“Ah, no. How about you explain what was going on back there?”

“Scootaloo!?”

The two Sweeties and Scootaloo looked up to see this world’s version of the Crusader Clubhouse - a structure that was grounded rather than up in a tree. The local Sweetie Belle currently stood in the doorway, staring at the events unfolding in what was effectively her front yard, a look of shock and disbelief on her face.

“You’re me! You’re both me!?”

“Yep!” Blink said with a wink. “Now, uh, can you tell your orange friend to stop squirming so we can have a ta-”

“Let her go!” Sweetie screeched, waving her hooves around.

“Maybe once w-”

“Do as she says.”

The voice was commanding, reverberating, and carried with it a power that told Blink disobeying would be very, very stupid. She dropped Scootaloo instantly and backed away sheepishly.

Nira, on the other hand, was not the pony to take being challenged well. “Do not think you can order us around, whoever you are.”

Apple Bloom walked out of the clubhouse, past the now-tentative and uncertain Sweetie. The yellow filly brimmed with power, the air around her shimmering as if it were under a hot flame. “I am the Whisperer. Who are you?”

“Nira, League of Sweetie Belles,” Nira said, dropping her voice’s darker components the moment she sensed a willingness for conversation.

“And I’m Blink!” Blink offered. “Also League of Sweetie Belles.”

The local Sweetie looked back and forth between the two of them. “...There’s more…”

“Yes,” the Whisperer said, narrowing her eyes. “No doubt we will have many questions about this later. But for now, why were you assaulting Scootaloo?”

“There was an explosion,” Blink explained. “She was the only thing around that seemed related to it, and she ran away from us like a thief who’d just seen the cops.”

“Hey!” Scootaloo shouted. “I’d face down the cops!”

“Then why’d you run?”

“You look like Sweetie! You didn’t seem affected by the other ghosts! That’s not normal! Not to mention that you are a ghost!”

The local Sweetie’s expression blanked once again. “Wait, what?”

Blink removed her sunglasses and smirked. “Blink’s the name, being a ghost is my game. Pleased to meet you.”

“...This is going to be problematic,” the Whisperer observed.

~~~

Cinder and Celia were standing in front of town hall’s doors.

Cinder blinked. “Um… Celia? Why are we standing here?”

Celia put a hoof to her head and tried to focus. “I… I’m not all that sure…”

“Where’d Nira and Blink go?”

Celia looked around - finding no sign of either pony.

“They were here with us,” Cinder muttered. “We were here… and… why were we even here?”

“This looks like an important building,” Celia observed. “Perhaps we were trying to make contact with the leaders?”

“Maybe? Did something go wrong?”

“I… am uncertain.” Celia furrowed her brow. She carefully focused her power through her crystal, casting a simple spell. “Blink and Nira are… in that forest-like area over there.”

“They could have been captured!”

“I doubt it. I would be sensing a lot more magic coming from Nira if that were the case…”

“...So why aren’t we with them?”

“I have absolutely no idea.”

“Another set of victims…” They heard a pony mutter under her breath - a Pinkie Pie that was passing them by.

“Victims?” Celia said, stepping down from the town hall’s steps. “Of what?”

Pinkie blinked. “Oh. It’s nothing.”

“Didn’t sound like it was nothing,” Cinder said. “C’mon, I…”

“You look just like her,” Pinkie said without thinking.

“Oh! You know the version of me in this world? What’s she like?”

“Version?”

Celia cleared her throat. “We represent the League of Sweetie Belles, a group of explorers from lands far beyond. We’re all Sweetie Belle in one way or another.”

Pinkie looked from Celia to Cinder. “...Either you’re very devoted to a joke or you’re telling the truth. Huh. Interdimensional incursion…” she scratched her chin. “So you’re aliens?”

“...I mean, not really?” Cinder said.

“We are,” Celia corrected.

“Want me to ‘take you to our leader’?”

“Actually, yes, we are having quite the bit of difficulty figuring out who’s in charge of St. Orangeberg.”

“Oh.” Pinkie awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. “I can’t really help you with that…”

“It’s no issue - but you could tell us what happened back there.”

Pinkie frowned. “I… You’re both really nice, and I wouldn’t want to make you think anything that bad…”

“Trust us, it won’t be that bad,” Cinder said with a smile. “No matter how crazy and absurd it is, we’ll be able to take it.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about…”

“It’ll be fine,” Celia insisted, putting a calming hoof on her shoulder.

“...Ghosts wiped your memory.”

Celia raised an eyebrow. “Ghosts.”

“I knew it, you w-”

“What sort of ghosts?”

Pinkie paused. “...Come again?”

“The standard undead kind, the sort that are just loose spirits, or the artificial kind?”

“There are that many kinds of ghosts?” Cinder asked.

Celia nodded. “Many worlds that allow them have them in different flavors.”

“You know about ghosts?” Pinkie asked - excited, but also trying real hard not to shout.

“Yeah!” Cinder beamed. “One of our friends is a ghost! She was the one in the sunglasses!”

“You’re friends with a ghost!?”

“Yep!”

“Probably not the sort of ghosts you have around here,” Celia admitted. “She’s not one to manipulate memory.”

“Well, not all ghosts can do that,” Pinkie explained. “Only the bigger ones and - you know what, we shouldn’t talk here. Let’s go to my bakery, where we don’t have to worry!” She broke out into a big grin. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know about ghosts!”

“There’s the Pinkie I know!” Cinder cheered.

“...Pinkie you know?”

“Yeah, Pinkies are usually happy grinning party ponies!”

Pinkie looked off into the distance. “...That’s almost terrifying.”

“You definitely aren’t like most,” Celia admitted.

“I plan to keep it that way.”

~~~

“Problematic?” Blink asked.

The Whisperer furrowed her brow. “There’s no way you could know… you didn’t even know there were other ghosts until you came here.”

“Yep. Care to explain?”

“Here’s one way to put it,” Scootaloo said with a smirk. “You’re fucked. Once the Council finds you they’re gonna grab you, enslave you, and then use whatever weird powers you have to conquer everything!”

Nira growled. “I’d like to see them try…”

Blink chuckled. “Yeah, we can take eldritch abominations, some ghosts aren’t going to be a huge problem.”

“You underestimate them,” the Whisperer said.

Blink smirked. “No offense, Whisperer, but we’ve been at this a-”

“I’m well aware of the multiverse, Blink, and I know the Aspects of reality you draw your essence from.”

This shut Blink up.

“They could bind you, force you to obey them, and they would conquer St. Orangeberg with it, if not the world. But even if you could free yourself, even if the Council knew about you, everything would destabilize. You would prove to them that the multiverse exists, and that they should seek it out for conquest.”

“Are you aware of Merodi Universalis?” Nira asked. “We would use our resources to quell any would-be multiversal conquerors.”

The Whisperer paused for a second, pondering this.

“Wouldn’t it also cause a lot of instability?” the local Sweetie asked. “Like… a ghost that is not only free from the council, but lives in harmony with the living as an equal. She exists. That’s… that brings up a lot of questions.”

“Shit,” Scootaloo blinked. “You’re right, that would be bad. We get a pass because of Nona… If word got out about Blink…”

Sweetie did some math in her head. “Some of the dead would try to interact with the living, the living would retaliate, the Hunters would intervene, the living would fight their own Hunters, and with any…” Sweetie put a hoof to her head. “Ugh, that’d be a mess.”

“Right, solution: we just don’t reveal our presence quite yet,” Blink said. “Not every world’s government has to know about us. We can hand this off to Relations and Aid, see what they think the best way to move forward is. We’re just contact.”

“I can speak for this world,” the Whisperer offered.

“I thought you were some kind of Guardian Spirit,” Nira said.

The Whisperer nodded. “In many ways, I am.”

Blink smiled. “In that case, I look forward to working with you. ...So, you wanna hear the whole ‘League of Sweetie Belles’ spiel, or…”

“Yes please,” the Sweetie said, ramming her face into Blink’s. “Tell me everything. About the multiverse, about how you travel, about the adventures... “

Scootaloo huffed. “Sweetie! They attacked me!”

“It was a misunderstanding, though.” Sweetie smiled at her friend. “They seem to be nice ponies.”

“And so are the ponies in Partyville, and they’re all idiots.”

“Just because they’re stupid doesn’t take away from their niceness.”

Scootaloo let out an annoyed groan. “Oh for the… whatever, give the spiel, I want to hear this. What on earth would cause a million white boneheads to band together?”

And Blink gave the spiel - the introductions, what the LSB was about, how they explored, and who she and Nira were. She explained about the general technology trades, transfer of information, and further alliances.

“...and Merodi Universalis has several dozen full members now, with over a hundred close allies!” Blink concluded, a big grin on her face.

“...Gimme a sec…” Sweetie said, ducking into the clubhouse. After rummaging around a bit she came back out with a small glowing piece of circuitry. “Here! Let’s start the technology trade!”

Nira cocked her head. “It usually doesn’t begin this early.”

“Well, I have technology, and this little guy should be able to let you detect curiosity! ...I was going to give you a more all-purpose scanner, but that seems to have gone missing.”

“Do my ears deceive me?” Scootaloo asked. “The organized wizard lost something?”

“Shush,” Sweetie muttered with a roll of her eyes. “Anyway, consider this the start of our relationship! ...You know, since you won’t be able to contact the ghosts or the living without bringing an end to society as we know it.”

Blink accepted the gift. “Thank you. In return…” She tossed Sweetie a communicator. “You can contact us through that. Become a member of the League and everything.”

“Oh this screen is amazing and I love it and of course I would love to go see everything where do I si-” Sweetie paused, glancing awkwardly back at the Whisperer and then to Scootaloo. “I uh… as completely amazing and awesome as the multiverse sounds, I don’t think I could leave my friends here. I’d rather stay with them than have all the amazing experiences in the world. ...Or beyond.”

“Most Sweeties in the League stay on their home worlds anyway,” Blink pointed out.

“Really?”

Nira nodded. “Most have family attachments and obligations, only leaving the universe occasionally, some only using the communicators.”

Blink smirked. “And those that do leave sometimes bring their friends with them.”

“Oh, so the League of Sweetie Belles isn’t just for Sweeties?” Scootaloo ribbed. “Your name’s a misnomer.”

Blink waved a hoof side to side. “Eh, it depends. There are non-Sweetie members - Mattie, a Rarity, comes to mind - but in most cases a Sweetie’s friends are just tag-alongs with her. Or him. I always forget to mention the Silvers…”

Sweetie’s eyes sparkled. “I could… explore the multiverse…”

“I’m not leaving,” the Whisperer said. “And Scootaloo…”

“This world’s a crapsack, if I can leave, I’m out of here.”

“You’ll need rings like mine to survive in most places,” Blink added. “I mean, if you are a ghost.”

“Yes I’m a ghost,” Scootaloo muttered with a roll of her eyes. “Why would I need those stupid rings?”

“That’s actually really fascinating, see, most universes don’t allow ghosts and s-”

Suddenly Blink’s legs froze in place, causing her to yelp out in surprise. The next thing she knew she was galloping as fast as she could away from St. Orangeberg. “WHAT’S HAPPENING!?”

“Scootaloo, Sweetie,” the Whisperer said calmly but authoritatively. “Stay with her.”

Scootaloo looked like she wanted to complain for a moment - then shook her head and took off after the two fleeing Sweeties.

“I am not going to be able to help,” the Whisperer said quickly, starting to lose her reverberation and special appearance - looking more like a regular Apple Bloom now. “There is a high-level ghost here that just bound your friend. It’s up to you to take care of ‘em.”

“Lethal force?”

“It would probably be a good idea if she didn’t tell anyone anything.”

Nira grinned. “Best news I’ve had all day…” With a quick burst of magic, she cut a gash in her left front leg, forcing blood to pour out onto the ground. She didn’t do anything complicated - just a simple soul latch spell that searched the area for anything that wished her ill.

The blood identified the target within a second - driving a bubbling rope with a spike at the end into a nearby tree, prompting a Tree Hugger to jump out, landing confidently on all four hooves.

“You look like you’ll be fun to kill - whatever you are - but you won’t stand a chance against a Knight!” she boasted with a haughty smile. “Try to at least put up a fight for a few seconds though.”

Nira raised an eyebrow. “I’m just a unicorn.” Deep red tendrils shot out of Nira’s back, formed of her own internal fluids. “I bet you think your world is pretty dreary and dark, don’t you? Ghosts at every turn, an endless distrust and fear among ponies… You think you’ve seen it all.”

The Tree Hugger charged, shifting in and out of vision through some unknown ghostly power.

“You haven’t seen anything.”

Tree Hugger appeared to Nira’s left, her limb vibrating fast enough to ignite the air around her.

And then Nira went all out.

The explosion didn’t go ‘boom’ - it screamed.

~~~

“Ghosts,” Pinkie said, putting a hoof to her chin and trying not to betray her inner giddiness. They were inside her bakery, which smelled nice enough, though there was some rude graffiti on the back wall she was choosing not to pay attention to. “Ghosts are ponies that died in a different time, displaced at the moment of death to the past or the future.”

Cinder paid rapt attention to every word that came out of Pinkie’s mouth while Celia divided her attention between Pinkie and the world around them.

“Most ghosts come from the past - not that I know why - and they’re basically immortal. Lots of ghosts have different abilities - phasing, blinding, hypnosis, and memory manipulation among other things. It’d be a pretty nice life, or unlife, if they weren’t basically puppets of the bigger ghosts.”

“Puppets?” Celia asked, eyebrow raised. “They have an organized government, then?”

Pinkie nodded. “I don’t know much about it… but it’s a Council of sorts, and it stretches across St. Orangeberg, living in the shadows. They tend to use different districts for different purposes, and here in Partyville it’s all about partying, messing with people, and indulgence. Which means a lot of memory wipes to keep their roles secret, which also means everyone’s not all there in the head.”

“Oh.” Cinder blinked. “Hey wait, that happened to us! We must have seen something!”

“Some ghost set off an ectoplasmic firework,” Pinkie explained.

“How come you are able to remember?” Celia asked.

Pinkie shrugged. “I’m just immune, for some reason. Not that it really helps, people usually think I’m crazy.”

“Pinkies often have unique brain composition. That could be part of the reason.”

Pinkie shrugged. “I wouldn’t know, I’m not a doctor.”

It was at this point none other than Twilight Sparkle and Spike the dragon walked in. “Pinkie, there appears to be a Sweetie Belle problem, I think it might have something to do with the cl-” She realized Cinder and Celia were in the bakery. “...What are you doing here?”

Spike narrowed his eyes at the Sweeties, scrutinizing them carefully.

“I’m surprised you remember us,” Celia commented.

“They believe me Twilight!” Pinkie said with a grin. “They’re also interdimensional travelers from another universe here to make first contact! Isn’t that exciting!”

Twilight took a few seconds to process this. “If they’re telling the truth, Pinkie, we still don’t know if they’re lying or not. And if they aren’t, there'll be… other problems.”

“Nobody would believe me anyway.”

Twilight seemed satisfied this, reluctantly turning to the Sweeties. She had clearly decided she wasn't going to be the one to speak first.

Cinder awkwardly smiled. “Uh… hey there. Look, I’m sorry if we were rude earlier.”

Twilight’s expression became one of curiosity. “You weren’t, but go on.”

Cinder continued. “I think I get it - or I’m trying to. You live in a world where… everypony’s got a problem. There’s distrust out there, and ‘crazies’ in here. So, really, we shouldn’t have been surprised by you. Or have just expected you to help.”

“Smart kid,” Twilight said, nodding to herself.

“So, uh, yeah, can we restart?” Cinder asked, smiling awkwardly. “I’m Cinder Belle, and this is Celia. We represent the League of Sweetie Belles. You said it would be a bad idea if ponies found out about this?”

“Yes. There’s a delicate balance between the two sides already, so thro-” She then changed her expression to one of annoyance and looked at Spike. “You can kill her later, just-”

She didn’t get to finish her thought, for Spike had suddenly decided he had to move. He jumped off her back and crashed through Pinkie’s window, angrily wielding a shiv in his hand.

Pinkie sighed. “Haven’t had to replace that in a while…”

“Seriously?” Twilight said as Spike took off at a run into the streets of Partyville.

“Where is he going?” Cinder asked.

“He’s targeting the local Fluttershy,” Celia said. Sure enough, there was a buttery pegasus walking on the opposite end of the street, blissfully unaware of Spike’s advances. She delicately used her telekinesis to remove the shiv from his claws - but this didn’t stop him from charging.

Celia weighed the options in her head. She could just let whatever was about to happen resolve itself - likely in the death of a yellow pegasus by the claws of a crazed dragon - or she could step in, and risk drawing too much attention. She’d need to play herself off as nothing more than a skilled unicorn spellcaster…

She was done thinking - she leaped into action, summoning a rod and a disc from her crystal. The two fused together into a brilliant magical top large enough to hold her entire form, and she slung herself along the pole in such a way to dart through the air, coming between Spike and Fluttershy. “There won’t be any of that today, Spike. I don’t know why you hate Fluttershy here so much, but surely we can talk things out.”

Two things happened at once.

First, Spike charged Celia without any regard for what she was saying.

Second, Fluttershy’s eyes twisted into a dark, malevolent hatred. “How do you know!?”

Well I’ve clearly made an error in judgment , Celia mused. She twirled around her top, prompting blunt edges to shoot out both sides, knocking both Fluttershy and Spike to the ground.

“...She fights by pole dancing?!” Twilight gaped.

Cinder facehooved.

Fluttershy stood up and flared her wings, Spike bared his predatory teeth, and Celia was trying to figure a way out of this that didn’t involve her beating the two of them senseless.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to deal with it, because Nira’s screaming explosion hit Partyville at that moment, prompting everypony to scream and panic. Celia lost control over her top - prompting it to vanish.

A dark cloud of mystic energy rose from the forest, twisting out into impossible shapes as it reached for the clouds.

Twilight stared at that in annoyance. “UUUUUGHHHHH…”

“CELIA!” Cinder shouted, running out to meet her. “What just happened?”

“Nira… Nira’s fighting hard,” Celia muttered, standing to her hooves. “She needs our help… If she’s fighting like that, there’s a problem.” She levitated Cinder onto her back and galloped into the forest at top speed. “We’ll be back soon!” she called to Twilight and Pinkie.

Twilight stood frozen, a strange form of rage having engulfed her face and decided to linger.

“Uh… Twilight?” Pinkie asked.

“It’s just a gas leak, one of the assholes in charge of some company ignored safety and one of the pipes out in the forest burst. It has nothing to do with anything I’m good at, especially not a ghost. Those Sweetie clones are plumbers and need to repair it.”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. “It’s obviously a high-level ghost.”

“...If it’s who I think it is, you shouldn’t follow me,” Twilight said, reluctantly accepting her fate. As Pinkie nodded, Twilight ran off screaming, “I hate EVERYTHING!”

Pinkie blinked, realizing she was now completely alone. Even Spike and Fluttershy were gone.

...Huh. Where had the two of them gone?

~~~

“What the fuck are you!?” Tree Hugger shouted, clasping her hooves together, vibrating her ghostly body in just the right way to phase through Nira’s onslaught of blade-like bloody tendrils.

“Just a unicorn, like I said,” Nira breathed, enchanting the spikes with an intangibility-piercing coating, allowing it to cut into Tree Hugger’s ectoplasmic nature. “The fact that you’re not dead already is both disappointing and surprising.”

“I’m a Knight!” Tree Hugger announced phasing into existence behind Nira - going for Apple Bloom rather than the white unicorn.

Nira was having none of this, placing her body between the yellow filly and the ghostly Knight. She took the blow with her side, prompting an impressive gash to open up in her side.

As the Knight pushed her hoof deeper into Nira, she forgot for a moment that more blood from Nira wasn’t a sign of victory. It was an opportunity for Nira to use her weapons more effectively, in particular using the fresh blood to tear into Tree Hugger’s offending leg and rip it clean off.

Tree Hugger screamed while Nira absorbed the energy of the ectoplasmic leg into herself, a sneer crawling up her face. A bloody claw erupted from the immense gash in her side, angling its malevolent tips toward Tree Hugger’s face.

“Y’know, I know you’re on my side, but…” Apple Bloom said nervously.

“Darkness does not mean evil,” Nira recited. “And light is not always good.” The serrated edges of her claw charged Tree Hugger.

The Knight apparently wasn’t making empty boasts when she’d spoken of her power - down a leg, she still managed to punch right through the bloody claw and into Nira’s face, upsetting the unicorn’s balance. With a kick from her back leg, she launched into the air, landing behind Nira.

Right in front of Cinder and Celia.

“...Shit,” Tree Hugger muttered.

Cinder and Celia didn’t need to be told what was going on - the former launched fireballs while the latter ran over the Knight with her rapidly rotating top. Neither did much to the Knight, since she could just phase through the attacks.

And she noticed with glee that Nira had suddenly dropped most of her more damaging and relentless attacks - taking a more cautious approach now that her friends were around.

Perfect.

Tree Hugger phased into existence behind Cinder and put her remaining front leg around the unicorn’s neck. “One move and I pop her head off.”

Nira and Celia froze while Cinder tried to struggle - only for Tree Hugger to tap her with her snout, scrambling her short-term memory.

“...Perhaps we can talk this out,” Celia said, dismissing her top. “Resolve this in a dignified manner.”

“Hmph,” Tree Hugger muttered, narrowing her eyes. “Nira there wants me dead.”

“Nira, dear, why do you want her dead?”

Nira growled. “The information she has could destabilize this entire world, turning it over to chaos.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Tree Hugger countered.

“Considering I’ve already heard that sentiment elsewhere today, something tells me it rings with truth,” Celia commented. “Something about our existence upsetting the delicate balance between the two sides, hmm?” She pressed her hooves together. “I’m sure that’s the last thing any of us want.”

“One of the options for imbalance is the ghosts conquering everything,” Nira pointed out. “I think she wants that.”

“There are other methods of imbalance, Nira,” Celia said, giving her teammate the look that said ‘I’m working my magic, kindly shut up.’ “I see the multiverse allowing ghosts to free themselves from the service of the Council, resulting in a rebellion. I see the living receiving new technologies and knowledge from the multiverse, pushing the ghosts to nothing.” Her eyes sparkled unnaturally in Tree Hugger’s direction. “I see so many ways this can go wrong - and rushing into things blindly with violence and hatred will only serve to cause further, more drastic instability. What needs to happen is that we all need to put down our aggressive tendencies and talk about this, rationally, so we can find the best possible solution to maintain the balance.”

Tree Hugger looked at her with an uncertain expression.

“Please, you do not want your world to fall. We will not harm you if you stand down willingly - and we will listen to what you have to say about your Council. I am authorized to speak for Merodi Universalis if we need anything to officiate our understanding. So let Cinder go, and we can work from there.”

“No,” Tree Hugger growled. “I’m the one with the leverage here. You don’t get to negotiate - I’m going to go back to the Council with Cinder, and you’re going to let me go. If I even get a hint of any funny business, she dies. Understood?”

Cinder had gotten her mental faculties back a while ago - and she was now frozen in fear. This pony was going to kill her, and her friends couldn’t do anything. She had to do something, but she didn't know what! Fire didn’t do anything to the ghost.

“I understand,” Celia said, distaste evident on her face. “But if you go through with this any chance of a positive relationship with our people in the future will be all but impossible. If you do not give her back, there’s no small chance it could be considered an act of war.”

“Hah, we-”

“Nira is not even a trained soldier,” Celia interrupted. “She is far from the most dangerous among us. I have connections to those capable of erasing entire universes off the map. If you make yourselves enough of a problem, you can be wiped out like you are nothing.”

“Hah. You’re bluffing. If you had that kind of power, why would I be able to keep this unicorn at all?”

“I am not bluffing, ma’am,” Celia said. Which was correct - Merodi Universalis certainly could do that. They just never would, not in a universe with this many noncombatants. “But you can make that choice for yourself. I’m sure the Council would love to risk war.”

“Fine, compromise. You all can come with me!” Tree Hugger smirked. “I’ll take you right to the High Lord Above.”

“Trap!” Apple Bloom shouted from behind Nira. “Trap!”

“What would a filly know about a trap?”

“Everything,” Nira said, nodding in Celia’s direction.

Celia bristled. “I’m afraid I have to decline your offer. Perhaps we can reach another negoti-”

“I’m not letting you weasel your way around my head anymore,” Tree Hugger spat. “I’m leaving with her. Try to stop me, she dies. That’s final.”

Celia turned to Cinder - ignoring the Knight. “Cinder, listen to me, you need to be strong, okay? You’re going to be alone with a bunch of bad ghosts, but you can make it, we believe in you.”

“O...kay…” Cinder breathed.

Tree Hugger began to back up…

And a dark lavender spike shot out of the ground, impaling her through the chest. Her ectoplasmic nature splattered all over Cinder, prompting her to scream in terror and disgust.

Tree Hugger’s front leg went limp, dropping Cinder harmlessly to the ground. A few sparkles of purple magic swirled around the spike, coalescing into the symbol of Twilight Sparkles everywhere, the brilliant starburst of magic itself. Tree Hugger let out a ghostly howl as the starburst absorbed her into it like a vacuum for spiritual energy, channeling her body through the spike in a painful jerking motion.

Cinder watched in horror as Tree Hugger’s essence was burned to nothing in a wispy purple flame.

Unceremoniously, the magic spike dissipated, revealing a very exhausted, and very ticked Twilight Sparkle. “You couldn't have taken care of that yourselves!?”

Nira sighed. “We were in a-”

The entire conversation was interrupted when a blubbering, tearful Cinder latched herself onto Twilight and sobbed onto the lavender mare’s shoulder. “T-thank y-you…”

Twilight’s brain wasn’t ready to process the sudden show of affection, so she froze up, unable to respond in any major way besides a quickening of her already ragged breath.

However, she did regain her composure before Cinder. Twilight gave her head a soft, awkward pat before pulling the unicorn off of her with a grunt. “I’m a Hunter it- it’s just a job.”

Cinder gulped, backing away - unsure of how she should feel in this situation. In the end, she ran to Celia and hugged her close, receiving a much more loving and understanding hug. “There there… I can’t say it’s going to be alright, because it never will be… but you made it.”

Twilight purposefully looked away from the display. “You. The creepy one standing next to Apple Bloom. You need to leave.”

Nira nodded. “We managed to figure that out over the course of the last few minutes. We’ll be gone.”

“Nona can talk to them if you need them,” Apple Bloom offered Twilight.

“I doubt that’s a good idea.”

“You never know,” Apple Bloom said with a shrug.

Twilight sighed. “Just get out of here. The loss of a Knight is going to make the Council suspicious, and they’ll send their scouts to figure out what happened.”

Nira nodded, pulling out a communication device. “Suzie, we need back. Unstable government intrigue. You may or may not need to teleport Blink from a mile away or something.” She paused for a moment. “Good to know.” She hung up. “They’re talking to Sweetie and Scootaloo right now, apparently the two of them managed to catch Blink and use her communication device already.”

A portal opened up in the middle of the various ponies, depositing Blink, Scootaloo, and the local Sweetie.

“Hey, did you miss me?” Blink asked, flexing her legs. “Sorry I had to dash, but apparently you can ‘bind someone to run away’ in this world. Kinda dumb if you ask me.”

“I’m not even going to ask why or how you’re unbound,” Twilight muttered. “Just go away.”

“Okay, okay, we’re leaving!” Blink muttered, shaking her head. “We’ll talk later.”

The local Sweetie nodded. “Of course!”

And it was at this point Blink saw Cinder. “Oh… what happened?”

“Death,” was all Celia said, gently running a hoof over Cinder’s mane.

“...Cinder I’m so sorry I…”

Cinder had nothing to say, simply letting out a sniff.

Celia slowly led Cinder back through the portal to Swip - followed closely by Nira and Blink. Blink was the only one who waved back at them as the portal closed.

“...Finally,” Scootaloo muttered.

“This is still a huge mess,” Twilight groaned. “More ghosts are going to get suspicious, the executioner’s probably going to do something crazy, and I doubt we can even blame all the Sweetie Belles on the clones. Everything is stupid!”

“We’ll figure something out,” Apple Bloom said. “We should head back to town firs-”

It was at this point Spike stumbled into the clearing - missing an arm and bleeding profusely.

Twilight looked at him with an expression that shifted from worry to mild annoyance. “...And who’s fault is that?”

Spike made an angry gesture with his remaining arm at the bloody stump.

“She’s just some pegasus, Spike, you should really drop it.”

“...Aren’t you gonna help him?” Sweetie asked.

“He’ll be fine,” Twilight muttered. “He just doesn’t want to cauterize it.”

Spike shot Twilight a glare.

“You should have thought about that before you ran off.” With a grunt, she started trotting back to town.

However, despite her outward expression of grouchiness and annoyance, inside there was a small glimmer of happiness.

I can’t believe I actually did that!

~~~

Suzie put down the report Celia had given to the Expeditions Division and let out a sharp whistle. “That place is a powder keg,” she said to no one in particular. She took a moment to wonder what sorts of things the Relations and Aid Divisions were going to do to help the place. It would have to be slow, careful, and very deliberate to keep everything from falling apart.

It was hardly the first time they’d done something like that, but there was always a track record of complications…

She sent a quick transmission to ‘Equis Ectempora’, specifically the local Sweetie, who would likely hand off the message to the Whisperer. It contained Celia’s report, a general overview of Merodi Universalis’ policy in these sorts of situations, and a quick message from Suzie.

Upon completing this task, Suzie got up and walked out into the main living room. Cinder was out there - having apparently finished her emergency session with Sweetaloo already. The only other Sweetie in the room was Squiddy.

“I can still feel it,” Cinder told Squiddy, shuddering. “The… the goo.”

Squiddy let out a sharp sigh. “The worlds out there are absolute shit, Cinder. Absolute. Shit. It’s so shit that you can get used to it.”

Cinder swallowed hard, wrapping her front legs around herself. “I don’t want that to happen to me…”

“I didn’t either,” Squiddy muttered, looking down at her ink gun. “I thought I could keep myself. Vow to… to…” She gripped the weapon’s handle so hard her hands started to turn red. “But no matter how guilty you make yourself it doesn't change anything!”

“...Guilty?”

Squiddy’s face darkened considerably. “N-not you. You didn’t do anything…” Squiddy’s grip on the gun loosened. “You didn’t do anything…”

Cinder pulled Squiddy into a hug. “Squiddy… I…”

Squiddy started crying. She scrambled to try and hide it - but Cinder held her tighter anyway.

“D-don’t become like me,” Squiddy told Cinder, fire in her words. “Don’t. Don’t ever cause anyone the pain you’re feeling now.”

“I won’t.”

The smile that had been on Suzie’s face up to that moment vanished. She carefully walked out of the room - neither of the Sweeties had noticed her standing there.

She went back to her office and sat down, putting her head in her hands.

No one ever kept that promise out here…

...And yet, almost all of them had made it at one point or another.

Author's Notes:

I have a complicated relationship with Ghost Hunter Twilight. The author, Keywii_Cookies55, is one of my best friends. I love the world it takes place in, but the story itself leaves something to be desired. Regardless, he should be thanked for this chapter - it's a good one, and it wouldn't have happened without him.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Stargate: Shangri-La. (More ponies and space!)

((LSB Status Post)) COME AND SUGGEST MORE STORIIIIIES! Oh, and we also have something new: a post where I have all the stories consolidated into one with short reviews of them!

-GM, master of Knights.

Among Shadows (Stargate: Shangri-La)

“Cinder, something seems different about you,” Rarity commented from the other side of the call.

“I’ve… seen a lot,” Cinder said.

“It’s only been… how long has it been for you?”

“Feels like forever…”

“It’s only been a couple weeks here.”

Cinder furrowed her brow. “Swip, how long have I been on board?”

“Fifteen days,” the ship responded.

Cinder accepted this fact with a slight nod.

“Did anything in particular happen…?” Rarity asked. “You usually tell me everything about your missions - no matter how much of a heart attack they give me.”

“The ponies were mean, clueless, or manipulative ghosts,” Cinder said, keeping her expression level. “There was a tense standoff.”

“Sounds… par for the course, really.”

“It was. There was danger, Nira took care of it, and then we wrapped things up and went back to Swip.”

“Took care o-” Rarity’s pupils shrunk in realization. “Swee- Cinder, I…”

“Have you ever seen it happen?” Cinder asked Rarity. “You’ve been on lots of adventures, encountered a lot of danger. Have you ever seen it?”

“...I… I am aware some of the beings we’ve encountered have done some serious collateral damage… but I only hear about it later.”

Cinder gulped. “It’s very different. I can’t describe it.”

“...Do you need to come home?”

Cinder looked from the image of her sister to the walls of her room on Swip. “No… No, I don’t think I should leave. I’ve seen so much and made so many friends… I just need to push through this.”

“I’m here if you need anything,” Rarity reminded her.

Cinder smiled. “Thanks, sis. And thanks for not having a heart attack.”

“Oh, I’m certainly having something close. I expect there will be some stress eating in about an hour.” She laughed nervously. “It’s not… easy to accept that you’ve chosen such a dangerous life.”

“I’m kind of surprised you can.”

“Well…” Rarity looked like she had something to say, but lost the words for it.

“It’s okay, I-”

“Stargate Network detected!” Swip announced. The instant the message ended, the sound of Seren’s squeal of delight met the ears of every Sweetie on the ship.

“T-talk to you later,” Cinder said, covering her ears with her hooves. “I’ll h-have to see what this is about.”

“No… problem…” Rarity whimpered, putting her hooves over her own ears.

Cinder hung up and scrambled out of her room, pressing her hooves harder into her skull. She stumbled into the lounge.

“SEREN! FOR THE LOVE OF SEABISCUITS, SHUT UP!” Squiddy shouted, pointing her gun at the mage.

Seren sucked in her breath and held it in an attempt to get herself to stop. This lasted all of five seconds - the release of breath brought with it more squealing.

Squiddy would have coated the girl in ink had Blink not stopped her with a well-placed hoof. “No friendly fire!”

“Then get her to shut up!”

“Watch and learn!” Blink grabbed a pillow from one of the couches and stuffed it into Seren’s mouth. She kept squealing, but now it was heavily muffled.

“Ugh…” Cinder shook her head. “Why’s she so excited?”

“We found a Stargate Network,” Sweetaloo said, walking in with a pair of selective-noise headphones around her head - quite the sign of preparation. “We rarely find those outside of the E-Sphere, and she absolutely loves studying them.”

“...And what is a Stargate Network?”

Seren ripped the pillow out of her mouth so forcefully feathers went flying. “What’s a Stargate Network!? Only one of the most versatile methods of transport in the multiverse!” She clapped her hands, prompting Swip to drop a large screen from the ceiling. With a flick of her scepter, an image of a ring-shaped device appeared on the screen, similar to Swip’s interdimensional ring. “This is a stargate, a device designed to create punctures in space-time able to travel vast distances in an instant! The only requirement is that you have a gate at the other end and know it’s address!” She clapped her hands together. “These wonderful creations are the basis for our non-magical dimensional drives!”

“Basis?” Cinder asked.

“Dammit Cinder, why do you have to be so curious?” Squiddy muttered.

“We’re Sweetie Belles,” Sweetaloo offered. “It’s one of our primary character traits.”

“Not me!”

“Liar,” Blink commented.

Seren had kept talking. “One of the original universes of Merodi Universalis - heck, one of the universes part of the Alliance long before that - was a world called Earth Tau’ri, where the entire galactic culture depended on these stargates to get from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, and eventually universe to universe!” She giggled. “Every stargate in a universe is part of its local Stargate Network, a web of spatial connections. We’ve developed technologies that can tie these networks together across universes, and every time we find a new one we get instant access to virtually anywhere in the universe!”

“Can’t Swip do that normally?” Cinder asked.

“Well, yeah, but Swip doesn’t really know where good places to show up are. As Overhead-General O’Neill says, ‘if there’s a gate there, it’s important to somebody’. We could create a map of galactic population centers… I could get astrological data on an entire universe without waiting for Swip’s instruments…”

“It’s not that much faster,” Swip said, indignantly.

Cinder went through the information she’d read on Merodi Universalis - Overhead-General O’Neill, the man in charge of the Military Division. From Earth Tau’ri, now that she thought about it. She didn’t know much about him, but apparently he had a reputation for dry humor. If her memory of his file was to be believed, anyway.

Seren was still talking, but Cinder had been distracted enough by her own thoughts that she lost context. “...not to mention the possibility of opening up a new quantum nexus if the Q-Sphere gates can be synthetically fused... “

“I take it you want on the mission then?” Suzie asked, leaning on a nearby door frame.

“YES OH YES YES YES!” Seren said, waving her hands excitedly. “I haven’t seen a stargate for months I’m dying to get my hands on one…”

“Then you’re on the team. Burger, Cinder, Squiddy, you’re with her. Go enjoy this piece of Merodi history.”

“Seren is not going to shut up…” Squiddy moaned.

“Well, at least I’m not squealing anymore!” Seren said - proceeding to punctuate the sentence with a squeal. “...Oops.”

“Hey, it’ll be fine, we’ve got each other,” Cinder said, putting a hoof around Squiddy. “I’m sure we can make something out of this.”

“You actually want to listen to her.”

“...Yeah, a little. But that doesn’t have to be all we do there.”

Despite herself, Squiddy smiled ever-so-slightly. “Sure. Yeah. Right.”

Burgerbelle folded herself up from the ground. “Smells like everyone’s ready to go!”

“I’M GOING TO ACTUALLY DIAL A GATE!” Seren screamed, generating a magic screen in front of her face. When Burgerbelle, Cinder, and Squiddy arrived she was already keying in strange symbols, making Swip’s ring vibrate slightly.

“I can just connect there directly,” Swip commented.

“But that wouldn’t be authentic!” Seren quipped. “The art of stargate travel has something special about it - and a real monodirectional transmission wormhole is something you need to experience!” She pressed a thumb onto her magic screen. “CHEVRON SEVEN LOCKED!”

Instead of creating a direct window to another world, the ring made a ‘KAWOOSH’ noise and formed a rippling surface of bluish light, almost like excited water.

“...We use nine chevrons to dial other universes,” Swip corrected Seren.

Seren tossed her hair back. “...Yep. I just keyed the seventh one in last!”

Squiddy facepalmed.

Cinder cautiously tapped the rippling surface. “Huh. This is…”

Seren shoved her in with a giggle. Cinder’s body vanished into the rippling surface.

Burgerbelle jumped in while Squiddy smirked. “Nice one, Seren.”

Seren shrugged. “Didn’t want her getting cold hooves.”

“Feet.”

“She’s a pony, it’s hooves.”

Squiddy shook her head. “How can you be so technical one moment and so f- HEY! GET BACK HERE!”

Seren had already jumped through the gate, leaving Squiddy to angrily follow her.

~~~

Swip’s normal portals were transitionless. You walked through them like you would walk through air.

The traditional stargate experience was something else entirely. The moment Cinder was shoved across the event horizon she could feel her body dissipate into nothing - it wasn't painful, merely unnerving. She became aware of a sudden, dramatic twist of everything. She couldn't see, but she sure could feel the cosmos whipping by her at impossible rates. There was no body, but the vertigo was extreme.

The entire universe was laid out before her mind as she zipped along the corridor of spacetime…

And then she popped out the other side, body fully functional and very nauseous. She stumbled a bit, walking out of a large stargate - a bit larger than the ring Swip had, and covered in a lot more interesting runes. She couldn't make out many of the shapes, seeing as how her head was reeling.

I can see why they don’t use these all the time… though I guess you probably get used to it.

“INTRUDER!”

Someone was shouting and it wasn't a Sweetie. “...What?” Cinder asked - just in time to see a bolt of energy fly inches past her head. “WAUGH!” She wildly shot off a fireball, jumping away from the gate to hide behind a rock.

As the energy bolts flew past her, seldom hitting her rock, she forced herself to look at where she was. Outdoors, next to a sparse deciduous forest, under a sky with two moons - though one was large enough to be a planet. Behind her was a large temple-like structure with a slight golden tint, guarded by a few dozen ponies - ponies brimming with dark power. They were launching both dark magic and dark crystals at her with intent to kill. They looked a bit like images she’d seen of Sombra, though not as large. Curiously, some of them were pegasi, and their wings were the source of the lethal crystals.

Burgerbelle had already popped out of the gate and was using a “flamenco-dance” style of combat to jump between the shadow ponies and knock them silly out of their hooves. It was laughable how much they were missing her - even as a two-dimensional being, she wasn’t making any efforts to be hard to hit. The crystals and bolts just kept missing.

“What are you!?” One of the shadow ponies shouted, backing up. “What have the Lanteans found!?”

“Burgerbelle!” Burgerbelle said, shoving a Happy Meal box into the mare’s face. “And I have no idea who the Lanteans are.”

“I DO!” Seren said, waving her head as she ran from the gate, seemingly unaffected by the unusual method of travel. “They’re an offshoot of Ancients from Earth Tau’ri! This universe probably shares the same lore!”

The shadow ponies started shooting and charging at her, only for her to raise a magic shield that absorbed the energy. “Aw… I was thinking we could be friends!”

Squiddy jumped out of the gate, gun ready. “EAT INK MOTHE-”

“Ceasefire!”

Cinder blinked in surprise - it wasn’t one of them who had called that. It was one of the shadow ponies - a mare of the pegasus variety with a grayish-purple coloration.

The shadow ponies looked at her in shock. “Wh… ceasefire!? Keeper, they are intru-”

“Yes. I want to speak with them,” the Keeper said, striding through the confused shadow pony guards. “I have a simple question for you beings.”

“Shoot,” Burgerbelle said.

“Not literally!” Cinder scrambled. “She means ‘shoot’ in the colloquia-”

“I know what she means,” the Keeper interrupted grumpily. “Be quick. Are you from another universe?”

“All of us are from different universes!” Burgerbelle confirmed with a grin. “Burgerbelle, Cinder, Squiddy, and Seren, all different versions of Sweetie Belle, members of the League of Sweetie Belles! We are explorers!”

“Explorers who come in peace!” Cinder added. “Please let us come in peace. We like peace.”

“Peace…” the Keeper said, distaste evident in her voice. “Your purpose of exploration and discovery is evident, but I wish to know how you accessed this gate in particular.”

“Oh, was it under a security protocol?” Seren blushed sheepishly. “Sorry, I guess I forgot to check with that when I integrated with the Stargate Network. We just searched the network and chose somewhere random.”

“...You were able to search the entire network?” the Keeper’s eyes opened wide in shock.

“Oh yeah, we’re experts on stargates, one of our founding universes had them. They’re the basis of a lot of our modern technology.”

The Keeper narrowed her eyes. “And how might we get access to this capability?”

“Well…” She paused. “I don’t usually give the speech…”

“I’ll do it!” Cinder said, pushing all her concern behind her and spouting out the ‘Merodi Universalis relations’ spiel, telling the Keeper the basics of interaction with them and the rest of their government. “...and yes, technology trading is part of all that. We don’t usually give weapons, but if I know my rules correctly something as simple as stargate understanding is certainly on the table. Right?”

Burgerbelle nodded in confirmation.

The Keeper stared at them in disbelief. “This is… excellent! Yes, simply excellent!” She turned around, forcing a smile onto her face. “You and… you! Prepare something in the guest room for our new… allies!”

“...Keeper, we don’t have a guest room,” one of the shadow ponies responded.

“Then make one. We don’t want them feeling unhelpful do we?”

“N-not at all!” The shadow pony waved a few others to come with him and scramble to prepare something. Anything, really.

The Keeper had to process a moment to figure out what to do next. “...Welcome to the Monastery! I’m the Keeper, and we are the umbrum!”

“Monastery?” Cinder asked.

“Oh, no, we don’t do any worship in here, it’s just what it was used for before we… found it.” Her forced smile faltered slightly. “It’s currently a… research outpost. For processing the most advanced of umbrum technology and understanding the lost Shangrian devices.”

“Shangrian?” Cinder asked.

“Oh, does this world have Shangri-La?” Seren asked, grinning. “That’d be so cool! I don’t think we’ve encountered a Shangri-La sect of Ancients in the multiverse before!”

“They are a common thing?” the Keeper asked.

“Oh, well, not around here, but in other areas of the multiverse virtually every world has a builder of stargates, and they have a habit of making flying space cities…”

As the Keeper and Seren talked back and forth about science and history, the group walked into the Monastery itself. Cinder took a moment to look around - the structure clearly wasn’t designed for pony hooves, but these shadowy umbrum were making good use of it, having littered the area with dark boxes. Their ominous presence contrasted sharply with the beautiful, curving architecture that seemed to be lit from everywhere at once through some unknown method. The ceilings were high and vaulted, while the designs engraved into the walls formed patterns full of meaning Cinder couldn’t figure out.

From the behavior of the umbrum she saw, it was clear they didn’t respect the place they were in - a few of the artistic engravings had been defaced, while others had been unceremoniously blocked by the umbrum’s own ugly devices. She’d even seen some bones lying around. They clearly never had visitors, since every time one saw Cinder they looked ready to attack until they noticed the Keeper leading them.

Cinder gulped - all the Keeper had to do was give the word and every umbrum would attack with reckless abandon. Burgerbelle and Seren could probably take them. Probably.

“I really don’t trust these ponies,” Cinder whispered to Squiddy - careful not to let any of the others here.

“Well duh, they’re dark and violent,” Squiddy muttered. “Textbook definition of evil.”

“Yeah. How come we’re going along with them? I know Burgerbelle sees it too.”

“Because we’ve made mistakes before.” Squiddy let out a grunt of annoyance. “Too many times have we acted hastily and branded the ‘dark’ ponies evil, even when they weren't.”

“...Nira.”

“Yep, any one of these psychos could be the next Nira.” Squiddy stretched, trying to make herself relax. “They’re probably evil and waiting to kill us, but if there’s even a chance they’re not, apparently we have to be friendly anyway.”

Burgerbelle was suddenly between the two of them. “Also, befriending the evil empire is a very useful strategy.”

“And stupid,” Squiddy muttered.

“You cannot deny it’s effectiveness.”

“Befriending the evil empire…” Cinder rolled the idea around in her mind. Even if they were evil, befriending them could change them; even if they were stubborn, Merodi Universalis could exert pressure… That was a clever tactic, she had to admit. Even if it was a bit manipulative for her tastes.

“So, do you make anything other than weapons?” Seren asked the Keeper out of the blue.

The Keeper had to process this for a moment. “Yes. At the moment the primary output of the Monastery is weapons, but we’ve made energy sources and construction materials in the past.”

“So why all the weapons now?”

“It’s just what’s needed right now,” the Keeper said.

“Hmm…” Seren put on a big, innocent smile. “I bet I could help with those anyway!”

“You could?”

“Yeah! Show me some of the technology you’ve got and I can do some quick tinkering, tell you how it works! Magic scans work wonders!”

The Keeper stared at Seren like she was offering her infinite birthdays. “...Yes. Yes! YES!”

“Thought you’d be happy.”

The Keeper was trying to restrain a somewhat creepy laugh and failing. “Guard! Take these three to their… guest room. I will be going down to the manufacturing bay with this one.”

“...Keeper, are you sure?”

“Definitely,” the Keeper said, rubbing her hooves together. “Tell me everything you know.”

“I can’t tell you everything, but I’ll tell you some things!” She turned to Burgerbelle and the others - and winked.

What kind of plan could she possibly have!? Cinder wondered as the group was split up.

~~~

Seren didn’t really have a plan, she just wanted to see some of their technology and learn a bit more about them. Sure, it was probably a little foolish. She may have been a genius but she was still a kid.

A kid who liked shiny machines a lot. Especially stargate-style machines, since those were a kind of device she had studied in detail.

For Seren, ‘in detail’ meant ‘extended contact for about two weeks’. It was almost like she was designed to understand freaky machinery with childlike glee everywhere she went.

The Keeper took her into one of the machine bays, specifically to a cart filled with energy weapons, most of which looked like they could be affixed to the hull of a ship. “Hm… The actualizer is missing… Regardless, these ar-”

“Military grade quantized plasma lances!” Seren said, beaming. She levitated the weapon in front of herself. “Somewhat unsophisticated… the energy crystals are in the traditional alignment instead of jan-cui formation… I suppose black crystals are normal for you, given your biology...” With her magic she created a small, red crystal. She popped open the side of the weapon and exchanged the crystal cylinder with her own, slapping it closed. She fired the bolt into the ground, coloring it red before crumbling it to dust.

The Keeper stared at the hole in the ground. “That was Shangrian alloy…”

“It’s just a material,” Seren said, proceeding to take the weapon she had just improved apart to get into the nitty-gritty bits of it. “All materials have a limit. I don’t care how resistant it is, enough energy will break through!” She quickly added some more spells to the gun and improved it markedly, giving it a soft purple glow. “Now you have auto-aim, increased power, a navigation feature, and a ‘friendly’ safety!”

The Keeper took the gun and examined it closely. “This is Shangrian based technology that we barely understand. And you not only understand it, you’ve markedly improved it in seconds with your mastery of the arcane.”

“Yep!” Seren said with a grin. “It’s what I do. Sometimes. Oooh, what’s that!?” She ran to a large metal box and popped the side open, investigating the crystal lattices inside. “A power fluctuator, nice, nice - could improve calibration here and here, but I don’t want to work on it while it’s on, that might cause a real big explosion.”

The Keeper seemed very interested now. “You recognize the potential for destruction in this?”

“Oh, easily. Clearly not what it was intended for, but all it would take was some tweaking. Oh! I could also turn it into a soft-serve machine if I had enough milk!”

The Keeper pretended to understand what soft-serve was. “...You really do have a mind for weaponry, don’t you?”

“I’m more of a jack-of-all trades,” Seren admitted. “But I can help will all sorts of stuff, if you want!”

“...Come with me, I want to show you something more… interesting.”

Yes! Seren thought. I’m in!

The Keeper led Seren down, much deeper into the Monastery. They eventually reached a point where they could go down no further - the basement of all basements. The lighting was darker down here for some reason, and there were significantly less umbrum walking around. There were guards though - lots of guards.

They were guarding prisoners, so the number wasn’t that unusual. As the Keeper and Seren passed the cell, Seren was surprised to see a version of Bon Bon and Lyra sitting in a cell with three humans - the oldest of which was wearing what she recognized as Tau’ri insignia.

“...What are you!?” Lyra asked, agape. “And why aren’t they shooting you!?”

“Some half-pony half-human…” the older man said under his breath - the comment making a younger human uncomfortable for some unknown reason.

“She is none of your business, Lanteans!” the Keeper shouted. “She is helping us.”

“Why are you helping them?” Lyra wailed. “They’re evil! They’re trying to enslave everything! Everything!”

“They have a lot of cool stuff for me to look at,” Seren said with a shrug. “C’mon Keeper, I wanna see the thing already.”

The Keeper smiled in relief. “Glad to see you’re still on board. And you certainly won’t be disappointed.”

“Goody!”

The Keeper led Seren to the deepest research room in the Monastery. In the center of the room floated a large, spherical crystal brimming with blood-red energy. “This is our most prized creation - the enigmatic pulsar. Gathered from dozens of crystal spell matrices over multiple years, this thing ca-”

“Can blow up countrysides…” Seren said, smile faltering. “Just toss it through a stargate.”

“Yes!” The Keeper said, her smile widening. “It’s proven to be too unstable to go into proper testing, but… Well, if you had a look at it…”

“I already know what to do,” Seren said, clasping her hands together and raising her scepter. “It’ll take some time… like, an hour, or something.”

“I can be patient.”

“Good,” Seren said. Here goes nothing… “Let’s start with an antimatter cascade node…”

~~~

“I just saw two umbrum beat another one within an inch of his life,” Cinder said, ducking her head out of the hallway to their ‘guest room’ - which was clearly just a large storage closet filled with hastily grabbed boxes of food and sleeping mats. “Pretty sure they’re evil.”

Squiddy rolled her eyes. “And yet, we’re still going with the ‘befriend the evil empire’ option.”

Burgerbelle nodded. “Seren is clever.”

“Clever, sure. Cleverness isn’t everything. She could get distracted by a butterfly if she’s alone!”

“...You don’t think she’s actually giving them secrets, do you?” Cinder asked.

“She probably is,” Squiddy muttered. “Won’t be able to resist the technology.”

“...That’s probably bad.”

“No shit.”

“We need to do something,” Cinder said, taking out her communicator. “Have Swip teleport her out or… why isn’t this thing working?”

“Science-fiction walls,” Burgerbelle said, knocking the metallic structure surrounding them. “Messes with communication and portals sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

“Multiverse isn’t consistent,” Squiddy muttered. “I’ll bet that we’ll be in another structure like this in two weeks and our communicators will work fine.”

Cinder shook her head. “So we can’t call for help. But we do have our weapons and supplies…”

“Can’t take the entire cake,” Burgergelle said.

“...Escape?”

“No idea where Seren is,” Squiddy reminded her.

“So we just wait then!?”

“Looks like it,” Squiddy muttered.

“No,” Burgerbelle said, approaching the doorway carefully. “We get stealthy.”

“Blink isn’t here.”

Burgerbelle flattened herself onto the floor, using where it met the wall like ground for her two-dimensional self. “Platforming time…”

“You’re going to try to sneak like that!?” Squiddy shouted.

“Yep! Ponies hardly ever look down.”

“You are not the same color as th-”

They never got to finish the argument as there was a large explosion that shook the entire monastery. The instant the place shook, an umbrum kicked the door open and started shooting crystals from his wings - he had the excuse he needed to tear them apart.

Instead of using her weapons to attack, Squiddy jumped onto the umbrum’s face and tackled him to the ground, suffocating him with her tentacles until he passed out.

The other umbrum guards had apparently all run to take care of the explosion - or had been tripped up by Burgerbelle, which was the case with one poor mare. She lashed out with shadowy energy only to hit a stop sign.

“Stop! You’ve violated the law!” Burgerbelle announced - and several ropes and hoofcuffs appeared around the mare, subduing her easily.

Cinder was used to this sort of thing by now, dashing out of the room without giving Burgerbelle a second thought. “Seren! ...What did she do!?”

“I have no idea but it was probably something stupid,” Squiddy muttered, hefting her gun. “Let’s find her.”

“We have no idea where she is,” Burgerbelle said, pulling both of them back. “We’re getting out of the Monastery and get help from the others.” She turned around and ran for the exit.

“...Makes sense,” Cinder reasoned, following Burgerbelle back to the front area of the Monastery. They were lucky enough to only encounter a couple umbrum - telling that they were running away from the source of the explosion.

They arrived in the main hall, not at all surprised to find it devoid of umbrum.

They were surprised to see two unicorns and three humans enter the room on the opposite side.

“They look like her!” Lyra shouted.

The older human didn’t give any time - he lifted his gun and started shooting.

Squiddy slammed Cinder to the ground, protecting her from the bullets while Burgerbelle twisted sideways to avoid the incoming projectiles.

“Floyd!” the man said.

“Got it,” the younger human responded. Focusing for a moment, magic rushed through his body. He grabbed onto the flat form of Burgerbelle and twisted her back into view.

She was wearing a secretary outfit now, fixing the team with a disapproving glare. “You are being quite a disruption.” She was suddenly behind them. “How about w-”

Bon Bon twisted around and kicked her right in the face, prompting the Flat to stumble backward.

The older man moved to shoot her - but he had to dodge Squiddy’s ink and Cinder’s fireballs.

“Floyd! Why don’t you know fireball!?” Lyra hissed, hiding behind a nearby column.

“It’s not exactly efficient!” Floyd shot back.

“A kid’s using it on us!”

“I’m not shooting back regardless,” Floyd retorted. “Fireball-shooter or no, she’s still a kid.”

Cinder turned to Squiddy. “That doesn’t sound like something bad guys would say…”

“HEY!” Squiddy called, stopping her onslaught of ink. “Do you guys hate the shadow ponies?”

“Yeah!” Lyra shouted back.

“Then we’re on the same side!” Cinder punctuated.

“I can’t tell which one’s talking,” the older man muttered.

“Not sure it matters, Higgs,” Floyd observed.

Lyra called back to the Sweeties. “You’re on their side! We saw the other one helping them with… something!”

“Yeah! That’s very suspicious!” Burgerbelle shouted.

Bon Bon stared at her. “...What?”

Burgerbelle shrugged, pretending to pass out.

“Look, she’s trying to get access to their secrets!” Squiddy called back. “Probably being kind of stupid about it, but she’s trying!”

“And we didn’t know the umbrum were evil when we arrived!” Cinder added. “We were giving them the benefit of the doubt!”

“Who doesn’t know that the umbrum are evil?” Lyra shouted.

“Do you hear yourself?” Floyd asked Lyra. “None of us knew they existed until recently.”

“Oh yeah… but it’s obvious! They’re trying to enslave everyone!”

“Enslave!?” Cinder shouted. “I thought they were conquering! Regular conquering!”

“That’s not really much better,” Squiddy pointed out.

“...Yeah, I don’t know why I’m defending them.” Cinder poked her head out - happy to discover she wasn’t shot at. “Uh, so, if you guys saw Seren, can you tell us where she is so we can break her out?”

“I’m not sure we can trust you yet,” Higgs said.

“...We can contact our ‘superiors’ as soon as we leave the Monastery,” Cinder offered. “We’ll resolve this there.”

“I’ll accept that,” Higgs said, lowering his weapon. “SR-1, on three, move out. One… Two… T-”

“EVERYONE RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” Seren said, running down the hallway at top speed, panic in her face.

Nobody listened to her at first. “Why?” Cinder asked.

“I JUST RIGGED THEIR BOMB WITH AN ANTIMATTER CASCADE! THIS ENTIRE STRUCTURE IS GOING TO BLOW!”

Lyra gasped in horror. “How could you do that to such an important piece of Shangrian histo-”

Floyd grabbed her and started running after Seren, shutting the unicorn up quickly. Soon, four humans, three ponies, an inkling, and a Flat were running for their lives.

“GET BACK HERE AND TURN IT OFF!” the Keeper shouted from behind them - brandishing one of Seren’s improved energy weapons. It was awkward - not designed for hoof-held use - but she was making it work with her wings. She fired the plasma bolts at them, hitting Seren’s shields dead on.

“I don’t have much energy left…” Seren whimpered.

“I’ve got this,” Floyd said, whirling around to create a magic barrier, taking some of the strain off Seren. “...it’s… taking a lot more effort than usual!”

“Sorry! My bad!” Seren chuckled nervously.

“Seren, did you actually improve their weapons!?” Squiddy shouted,

“Maybe?”

“SEREN!”

“What, I’m blowing it all up! Nothing’s going to survive!”

“...Nothing!?” Cinder gasped, visibly paling. “What about... I know they’re evil but…”

“Sorry! I had to work fast!” Seren said - her dismissiveness startling Cinder.

They didn’t get to continue the conversation - it was at this point everything exploded. The shockwave tossed the Sweeties and their new ‘friends’ far away from the ancient structure’s front doors. The once beautiful site of Shangrian meditation collapsed from the strain, sending an immense dust cloud in the air.

Despite her strain, Seren managed to encase everyone in a bubble and roll back to the stargate. The bubble popped unceremoniously, depositing them all into a pile.

“Dial Shangri-La!” Higgs ordered. Bon Bon didn’t even need to be told, already keying in the coordinates to the gate.

Cinder stood up and looked back at the smouldering wreckage, the flames reflecting in her eyes.

“That was a close one!” Seren said with a childish grin. “But we did it! We got away!”

Cinder flinched away from her. Seren didn’t notice - she just smiled innocently, looking at the fire.

“Is this… normal for you?” Cinder asked.

“Hm? What, the explosions? Yeah, of course! I came from a world where this stuff happened allll the time. Explosion wasn’t big enough, actually…”

Cinder’s thoughts flashed back to all the stuff that had happened in that fun ‘anime’ fight. It had all been a game then…

But to Seren, that was reality. A reality she had grown up with.

Cinder realized with some guilt that she was suddenly afraid of Seren.

The gate finished dialing. “Everybody in!” Higgs shouted. The Sweeties didn’t waste any time - they didn’t want to wait for the surviving umbrum to notice they were alive. Everyone scrambled into the gate and transmitted through the wormhole to another location in the galaxy.

Cinder was once again overcome with nausea - but this time she was more aware of her surroundings. They were inside a technologically advanced room similar in appearance to the Monastery, although it was cleaner and treated with much more respect than the recently-destroyed structure.

An aging man in a uniform looked at what had just popped through the gate. “...Higgs?”

“General O’Neill, there’s too much to explain quickly and I don’t even know all of it!”

Burgerbelle shot up, grinning. “We are the League of Sweetie Belles, multiversal explorers! You look younger than our O’Neill!”

O’Neill nodded slowly, trying not to grimace. “...You walk in here and call me old. Bold.”

“Hey, nothing you wouldn’t do, am I right?”

O’Neill put a hand to the bridge of his nose. “This is gonna be one of those days…”

Cinder tuned them out - retreating to her own thoughts for a moment.

They’d just destroyed an entire Monastery filled with ponies. Sure, they were evil ponies who wanted to enslave and conquer… and they’d probably killed lots of ponies…

But that did little to make her feel better. She glanced at Seren - who was happily jumping around Shangri-La, examining every piece of technology she could find before launching into explanatory monologues about it.

She looks so innocent…

“Being out here does strange things to your head,” Squiddy said, placing a gentle hand on her head. “...Watch yourself, Cinder.”

Cinder gulped, nodding slowly.

~~~

Normally, Cinder would have stuck around and explored the universe some more. Gotten to know Shangri-La, be part of the beginning talks with the new people.

Instead she had asked to return to Swip early. And, for the first time, she asked Sweetaloo for a counseling session instead of being forced into one.

Cinder told the alicorn what happened in a slow, almost breathless tone.

Sweetaloo looked at her with sad, understanding eyes. “...How much experience have you had with death?”

“I saw a squirrel die, once,” Cinder said. “That’s… it, before I came here. I heard about the disasters my sister faced, and that sometimes ponies didn’t… make it. But I never saw any of it. I’d hear occasionally that something from the Everfree forest got somepony, but it was never anypony I knew.” She frowned. “But now? I’ve seen someone die in front of me, watched an entire structure collapse because of something we did, and…” She started crying. “Why does it have to be this way?”

Sweetaloo wiped a tear from her own eye. “I don’t know.”

“I… I want to fix it! I want to help! I want to change everything!” Cinder let out a groan. “But… that’s not going to happen! The people out here are still going to be cruel, even if I fix one universe!”

“But if you fix one universe, that’s one less universe of evil.”

Cinder stared at her, processing this.

“...Merodi Universalis has three major values. Harmony - which includes friendship and alliances. Progress - a consistent improvement of life and technology. But the third value is harder to put into words… we call it ‘aid’ sometimes, but we also call it helping, or interfering, or changing. ...There was once a mare who said ‘we must do better’. And, in the end, you could say that this is our goal. We see the multiverse… and we see that it needs to be changed. If people don’t do anything, the atrocities just get worse.” A glazed expression crossed her face. “We know we can never fix everything. No matter how many universes we save, there will be more behind them, waiting with new, unimaginable cruelties. But we always try to help them.”

“...Help takes many forms, doesn’t it?”

Sweetaloo nodded. “We’ve fought wars on lesser worlds for their own good. We’ve overthrown governments. There are even a few cases where we’ve sided with the evil empire because it would result in less pain for everyone involved. We are a culture of interference - and as a result, everyone’s morals get skewed. It’s hard to tell what’s good and what’s evil when you have to do evil things to cause good.”

“...That feels wrong.”

“If you ask Suzie, it is definitely wrong,” Sweetaloo admitted. “It’s not the way things are supposed to be. But we haven’t really found a better option.” She placed a gentle wing on Cinder. “Everyone comes out of it different. Seren grew up with rampant destruction all around her, so she doesn’t bat an eye. Squiddy is suffering from her memories of death, so she’s angry. We live on the fringe out here, Cinder.”

Cinder stared ahead, processing.

“...I’m sorry you had to be shown all this so early,” Sweetaloo said, smiling guiltily. “You’re supposed to be eased into it. Told little things, bit by bit, and change over time. Perhaps we are showing you too much.”

“I’m seeing exactly what I need to see,” Cinder asserted, looking Sweetaloo right in the eyes. “I don’t want to hide from it.”

Sweetaloo smiled warmly. “There isn’t a pony alive who can face all of it, Cinder.”

“I’m not going to seek it out. I’m just not hiding.” She swallowed. “I… I’ll see all the destruction. And I’ll handle it.”

Sweetaloo shook her head. “Cinder… you shouldn’t be in a hurry to grow up. You should have your fun.”

Cinder glanced at her cutie mark - remembering how she got it. How it had only come once she’d stopped trying so hard to get it. She grimaced. “...I’m doing it again…”

“None of us ever learn lessons immediately,” Sweetaloo said, lifting up Cinder’s teary face with her hoof. “It takes time. And we can revel in that time, content in where we are, no matter what sort of problems there may be. You can be anything you want, Cinder. But please, reconsider wanting to get used to death.”

Cinder started bawling, pulling Sweetaloo into a hug.

Sweetaloo pulled her in tighter, giving her the support she needed.

After that, they talked for several hours. In the end, Cinder didn’t exactly feel better - but she felt like she didn’t have to worry so much. It was a strange, complicated mixture of peace and dread about everything around her.

She returned to her room - and pulled out her communicator.

“Hey, Rarity? Think I can talk to Apple Bloom?”

~~~

“Keeper, explain how you lost an entire weapon factory and store of Shangrian knowledge! It is your job to scour those stores - if that one held the location we needed...”

The Keeper glared at her fellow umbrum. She had lost a fair chunk of her mane in the explosion, but was otherwise none the worse for wear. “Interdimensional explorers.”

“And why didn’t you kill them the instant you saw them!?”

“Because they were useful.”

“That was foalish! They were your doom!”

The Keeper’s scowl turned to a grin. “...And they were a boon.” She pulled out the enhanced weapon and shot the floor, turning it to dust. “In their infiltrations, they showed me many tricks. How to realign magic crystals to increase weapon efficiency. How the weapons work. And, above all, I was able to watch as their master mage seamlessly integrated technology with magic crystals from scratch. No longer will the weapons of mass destruction be dreams, they can be made. By us. From base materials.”

An umbrum - the Inquisitor - narrowed his eyes. “...Perhaps this was not a complete loss…”

“Furthermore, we know the stargates can access other universes now. I saw the gate dial - there were nine coordinates. With enough research…”

“I’ve heard enough, continue with whatever it is you do, and bring us the results.” The Inquisitor narrowed his eyes. “Now, tell us of these interdimensional travelers…”

“Well, you see…”

A portal opened up behind her, scaring her enough to yell out. An older man walked out - covered in wrinkles and wearing a gray uniform marked with an orange-gold ‘μ’ symbol. The umbrum attacked him with their shadowy magic, but some kind of shield protected him.

“The name’s Overhead-General O’Neill,” O’Neill said with a smirk. “Seems like you lot are enslaving a galaxy. We’re going to have to put a stop to that.”

“You will do no s-” the Inquisitor was cut short by something invisible slapping him across the face. It felt like a fish. “What in th-”

Another portal opened next to O’Neill - rolling in the barrel of a giant magitech laser cannon. “Ready to fire when you are!” a goblin shouted from atop the cannon.

“Only if they don’t stand down.”

The Keeper stood down, and a handful of others hesitated. However, the umbrum were inherently violent - and several surged forth in rage.

O’Neill made a mental count of who had and hadn’t held back. Now that he knew who was willing to talk and who wasn’t, he dismissed the cannon.

“W-what?” the Inquisitor spurted. “What game are you playing?”

O’Neill smirked. “The one where you all listen to us. Actually, it’s not really a game, you don’t really have a choice.”

Several smaller portals opened around the room, producing bolts of magic lightning that paralyzed all the aggressive umbrum, leaving only those willing to talk.

O’Neill grinned and sat down on an umbrum’s chair. “Now, where were we? Oh yes, your liberation of all worlds under your control, no questions asked.”

There was no response - only disbelieving stares.

O’Neill shrugged. He could be patient. The looks on their faces were more than enough fuel to keep him going.

Author's Notes:

Stargate: Shangri-La by shagohad12 is an excellent fic for Stargate fans who like lots and lots of lore and science-fiction explanations. There's certainly more to it than that, but prepare for a lot of exposition if you want to dig into the world of stargates and ponies. Shagohad12 helped with some of the editing and planning of the chapter, so thanks for that!

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Sweetie Belle and the Tablet of Knowledge. (Her name's Tab. I'm so creative. Also this is the first chapter I'll be writing without help from the original author, so wish me luck!)

I have updated the Sweetie Profiles to include more than just the Expedition crew, so you might want to check those out if you care to know a bit more.

((LSB Status Post)) COME AND SUGGEST MORE STORIIIIIES!

-GM, master of Knights.

Pit Stop (Sweetie Belle and the Tablet of Knowledge)

“OH NO!”

Cinder looked up from the book she was reading - The Science of Traversing Dimensions - to see Seren stare at her engineering console with a look of horror on her face.

Cinder leapt to her hooves. “What? What’s happening? Are the engines about to explode!?”

“There would be more than one person screaming if that were the case,” Swip muttered.

“What then? Are we lost? Stuck? Under attack!?”

“Multiverse Heroes: Synthesis isn’t available for long-beam download!” Seren wailed, a dramatic tear falling from her eye.

“...What?”

“Only the most anticipated game of the relative year!” Seren said, lifting a hand to the air, producing magical sparks to accentuate her dramatic pose. “I have been waiting - in agony - months for this.”

“First I’ve heard of it.”

Seren shrugged. “I’m not the sort to express my pain.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Really.”

Seren was ignoring her, running out of Engineering. “Suzie! Suzie!”

With a curious shrug, Cinder closed her book and trotted after Seren. The mage leaped into the bridge and landed on top of Suzie’s console so she would be eye-level with the woman. “We need to go to headquarters.”

Suzie didn’t miss a beat. “Oh, the game’s out?”

Cinder cocked her head. “...Why do I get the impression I’m the only one who doesn’t know about this game?”

“Because you are,” Squiddy said, leaning on Cinder with a smirk.

“We haven’t exactly turned Swip’s console on since Cinder joined,” Suzie pointed out. “We shouldn’t expect her to know.”

“Suzie,” Seren said, grabbing her captain’s face. “The more time we spend talking translates to more time spent not having the game!”

“Oh, all right, we don’t have any missions, I suppose we can return to Celestia City for a pit stop. We just have to get everything organized for giving a summary report.”

“That’ll take too long!”

“You can wait twenty minutes,” Suzie said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s not like it’s possible to run out of digital copies.”

Seren pouted, crossing her arms - but she knew it was futile to continue arguing.

Suzie stepped away from her console and leaned down to Cinder’s level. “You haven’t seen a core Merodi Universalis world yet, have you?”

Cinder shook her head. “No… I haven’t! And you’re taking me to the capital?”

“It’s where the primary League Headquarters are.” Smiling softly, Suzie continued, “you’ve seen a lot of chaos and questionable things out here in the multiversal wilds. You’re well overdue to see what we’re actually working for.” She gingerly tousled Cinder’s mane. “It’s going to be a little overwhelming to see it all at once, but I think it’s exactly what you need.”

Cinder smiled. “Overwhelming? I’ve seen a new world almost every day since I joined you girls, at this point I’m ready for anything.”

“Famous last words,” Squiddy chuckled.

Cinder, despite the growing knot in her stomach, took on a determined demeanor. “Bring it.”

~~~

They could have just opened a portal in Celestia City directly. It would have been much simpler and faster - but Suzie had Swip take the long way around.

The dolphin-esque Sweetie Ship tore a hole in the fabric of reality and deposited herself in the midst of a sea of stars, in orbit around a blue-green gas giant with a double ring system. Cinder was pretty sure this was impossible in her universe, prompting her to wonder what sort of physics would allow such a cosmic criss-cross to form.

But that wasn’t what they were here to see - they were here for the city that was in orbit around the planet. Celestia City, unlike most capitals, was not a stationary installation; rather, it consistently shifted universe, giving its inhabitants a new world to call home every few weeks.

Celestia City itself was somehow both a piece of art and an utter mess at the same time. It was clearly a mish-mashed hodgepodge of dozens of architectural styles sprawling out from a single center point, creating a vaguely spherical shape composed of crystal, metal, plants, and the occasional hunk of rock or magic energy conduits. There was clearly no overall plan in the city’s construction whatsoever, the result of continually slapping new buildings on the outer edges, eternally increasing the City’s mass.

It was easily the size of a moon at this point, casting a tremendous shadow upon one of the gas giant’s own rocky satellites.

All around Celestia City, portals opened and closed with endless bright flashes. Ships popped into existence all over the place - smaller ones like Swip heading into the city itself, while larger ones docked with exterior clamps that adjusted to suit the needs of the ship. Cinder got to watch as a city-sized ship was slowly grabbed around the midsection by an amorphous claw attachment.

It made her realize how big Celestia City really was. It was far too large to even be called a city, in her mind. Over a billion people lived in there, and the number only grew exponentially as time went on…

Swip moved into formation with several of the smaller ships, entering one of Celestia City’s many highway tubes, acting like a car on the interior of a cylindrical road. They moved along the section marked with soft blue arrows pointing forward - which took up most of the highway, only a small section of the surface area being reserved for ‘outgoing’ traffic. They zoomed past several holes in the tube where ships and hover cars constantly flowed in and out, moving like ants in a colony. There were no craft in the center of the tube, though there were some floating screens with helpful directions printed on them, along with a few announcements. ‘Blumiere wins mayoral re-election.’

“How do they not crash into each other?” Cinder wondered.

“The city’s AI drives them all when you’re on a highway,” Suzie explained, a smirk on her face. “Swip’s not in control right now.”

“I can change the destination,” Swip argued.

“And you wouldn’t be the one making the turns.”

“Hmph.”

Swip eventually came to an outgoing tunnel, making a smooth turn into a much smaller tube. They traveled along for about a minute before taking a turn out of the tube and onto a flat highway - one side had craft going one way, while the underside was the reverse. It clearly wasn’t as efficient as the tube highways, but efficiency wasn’t the point. The road was here so anyone driving along the ‘road’ could see Celestia City.

Cinder’s jaw dropped.

They weren’t zipping through a city. They were zipping through multiple cities. That was the only way Cinder could think about the sheer volume around them. Skyscrapers didn’t just rise up and up and up - they went from the ground to a ceiling several kilometers apart. Large spires of metal were lined in suburban houses, and she could see that the undersides of those houses had more houses under them, and presumably it went down even further than that. Some of the buildings moved, while others remained perfectly stationary but floating without any physical supports.

There were numerous neon billboards and screens all around the city - a few were three-dimensional projections, but those were a notable minority. As Cinder acclimated to the sights, she noticed that very few of the screens displayed advertisements. There were a few, but most were reserved for news, announcements, and the local equivalent of a weather report - though Cinder didn’t know yet why that would be needed.

‘Overhead Evening Sparkle encourages Cultural Division to display Skarn’s donated works in the Celestia City gallery’ was the biggest story apparently, since it was on multiple screens, though she noticed numerous other interesting ones. ‘Strange prophecies from mystics: who is the one with a silver tongue?’ and ‘Earth Shimmer stability improving, possible visit from Celestia City in the works.’

There wasn’t just so many things, there was also so much stuff happening. Just from a glance, Cinder already knew there were billions of lives in this City working hand-in-hand to create this truly enormous community. Behind every story on that billboard were hundreds if not thousands of people. Every ship, car, or other device she saw belonged to someone. She even saw a few dragons and other large flying people moving between the buildings along with the smaller hovercraft. It was astounding how intricate it was.

But they weren't done yet. The road took them out of the area of Celestia City that looked like a traditional city, entering a park. The trees were so dense and covered every surface so well that Cinder would have thought she was on a planet rather than inside an artificial moon. Here, people and animals walked with smiles on their faces. Humans and ponies were the most common thing she saw, followed by a strange race of neon colors with a crystal embedded in their bodies - but there were many others. Goblins, griffons, dragons, robots, bird-people, floating brain aliens, gray humanoids with orange horns, a swarm of bees that took the shape of a face...

All of them were walking through the immense park, appreciating the complex nature around them.

Swip switched areas again, this time running through a complex corridor of geometric patterns, every surface made of cleanly-cut neon crystal. The neon-crystal race was a lot more prevalent here, outnumbering all others easily. They walked to and from their many magitech bridges, every surface pulsating with glimmering light. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two of the beings combine into one much taller being.

Oh. Those are Gems. Can’t believe I didn’t draw that connection, I’d seen them referenced numerous times…

Her thoughts were once again scrambled as Swip kept moving - through an aquatic area, through an area with no gravity or atmosphere where strange beings bounced to and fro with ease, through an area made of shifting magic patterns that was hard for Cinder to look at…

And then they returned to a standard city area, complete with billboards and skyscrapers. Swip pulled off the neon highway and onto a docking tube. They passed by several buildings quickly since they were the only ones on this private ramp.

Then she saw it. Headquarters.

It wasn’t anywhere near as impressive as many of the other buildings she had seen on her journey through Celestia City, but there was something about seeing her cutie mark given such a place of high honor - towering over the road below with a shimmering magical glow, above the words The League of Sweetie Belles Primary Headquarters. The building itself was built into a ‘wall’ of Celestia City, making it look relatively small compared to the giant skyscrapers that criss-crossed the open expanse, but Cinder was smart enough to realize there were probably dozens of floors hidden past the unassuming revolving doors.

They didn’t take the doors - Swip was far too large for that. Instead they took a small ‘Private Entrance Only’ tube that went into the wall and directed Swip several stories into the ground. She eventually popped out into a large hangar filled with small ships. None of them looked quite the same as Swip, though many were colored in similar ways.

“Oh for the - Minfrim is being a sparkplug,” Swip groaned. “I’m here for one second and he starts commenting on how his last military op was the best thing ever…”

Minfrim - a box-shaped ship covered in guns - made a ‘beep beep’ noise that was heard by all the Sweeties on Swip.

“You’re going to end up scrap one of these days, Minfrim! You hear me? Scrap!”

He laughed - a strange digitized gargling noise.

“We’ll leave you two to catch up,” Suzie said, adjusting her uniform. “Seren, you go get your ga-”

Seren teleported out of Swip, her destination somewhere out of sight range.

Suzie rolled her eyes. “And I’ll go hand in those reports. I might be a few hours, depends on the situation. Enjoy yourselves!” And for the first time in a long while, she didn’t walk to the dimensional ring to leave Swip - she walked to the back of the hangar and pressed a button, opening the docking ramp.

She waved to every Sweetie and trotted to the hangar exit, soon blending in with the dozens of Sweeties moving about.

“Holy Celestia…” Cinder said, still gawking. Not at the structure - the interior of the League was rather simple, sticking with simple pastel colors alongside the white metal of the floors and walls. No, it was the sheer volume of Sweeties. She’d thought she’d gotten used to being around herself after being on Swip for a few weeks, but that was definitely not the case. In the hangar alone, she saw Sweeties with cutie marks, Sweeties without cutie marks, an earth pony Sweetie, a handful of humans, a few stallions, a batpony, a Sweetie with a midnight black coat, and what looked like a sapient onion.

Blink put a hoof on Cinder’s back. “Welcome to our home, Cinder.”

“Gimme a moment…” Cinder said, holding her chest. “This is… amazing, but it’s also…”

“Oh, wait until I show you around!” Blink said, pulling Cinder close. “This is just the hangar. We’ve still got the main room to show you, the research labs, the phone lines, the game room, introduce you to some of the Founders, and there’ll probably be time for an in-City mission.”

“Mission!?”

“Yeah, the League operates mostly within Celestia City, believe it or not!” Blink smiled. “Most Agents handle things within the confines of this floating mishmash of everything. Our team is a little unusual - it’ll do you good to see what some normal Agents do.”

“...So you’re police…?”

“What? No. Well, yes. Uh…” Blink pondered this. “With all the bizarre powers and interdimensional chaos about, a standard police force and the strict regulations that come with it tends to not be as effective. It’s better to have something under the purview of the Expeditions Division handle anything high-profile. They call it in whenever it gets too hairy - and we receive lots of reports from concerned citizens too. Simply being a Sweetie in Celestia City gets you a lot of respect, even if you aren’t an Agent yet!”

“Woah…”

“I know right? It’s awesome, the system’s totally rigged in our favor.” Blink giggled. “Now come on, let’s get you to the main lobby, there’ll be some cool stu-”

“MY NEMESIS, WE MEET AGAIN UNDER THE MOST UNUSUAL OF CIRCUMSTANCES!”

Cinder and Blink stared in shock at a cutie-markless Sweetie with ice-blue eyes galloping right at them. Cinder was alarmed to find that the Sweetie was looking at her, not Blink.

“W-what?”

“We never got to face each other when you visited my world, but now the duality of fire and ice will form the true conflict it was meant to have!”

Cinder’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’re that ice Sweetie? From the anime world? Your eyes weren't blue!”

The Sweetie grinned excitedly. “I got some contacts so I could have a ‘differentiating feature’ from all the other Sweeties! I’m Cryo now - a perfect name to oppose my NEMESIS, Cinder!”

“...Nemesis.”

“Yes! Ice and fire, a duel as old as time!” She lifted a hoof, generating an ice crystal in the air.

“...I thought your powers were temporary?”

“Oh, they were, but I talked to Discord. And since I was going to join a multiversal society, well, he decided to let me keep it.” She tossed an ice spike into Cinder, knocking her back. “Still completely harmless, though. Rarity insisted.”

“C-c-cold…” Cinder shivered, pulling the crystal out of her, just as unharmed as expected.

“I do apologize,” another Sweetie said - this time one Cinder recognized easily. Skuldie Belle, the future-seeing human from Earth Shimmer. “She was looking for you, and I knew… well, predicted you would arrive soon. She got decidedly excited.”

“No problem,” Cinder said with a chuckle. “I can understand the need for a ‘nemesis’, I guess. Though, Cryo, have you thought out a tragic backstory?”

“...Ponyfeathers, I need to work on that…” Cryo put a hoof to her chin. “...You killed my brother?”

“We don’t have brothers.”

“Exactly! That’s why it works!”

“...Keep working on it.”

Blink spoke up. “While I’m sure this is a great reunion, Skuldie, I am a bit confused. I thought Earth Shimmer was unstable…?”

“It is,” Skuldie admitted. “I left out of curiosity - and because major strides are being made in dimensional stabilizing technology here. I’ve been spending my time with local mystics trying to learn how to factor multiversal influence into my future sight. Results have been… mixed. I correctly predicted you would arrive, but I did not see Cryo’s ‘nemesis fangirling’.”

“I’m not even mad, that’s an amazing description,” Cryo giggled.

“Though… I have just made another prediction,” Skuldie said, hand to her chin.

“Is it us taking Cinder on a tour?” Blink asked. “Because that’s the plan!”

“No, actually, there’s going to be an interruption.”

“...Great.”

“BLINK!” a completely normal looking cutie-markless Sweetie yelled, scrambling into the hangar.

“Uh… which one are you?” Blink asked.

“What do you me-” she realized she was running past at least three Sweeties that were all but indistinguishable from her. “Right! Uh, I’m the Sweetie from the ghost world, Equis Ectempora? I go by Curio, but that’s not important.”

“Wow. We’re all here at once?” Cinder furrowed her brow. “That’s… cool!”

Curio ignored her. “I came here with Scootaloo and now I don’t know where she is! This isn’t good, Blink!”

“...What’s the worst thing she’d do?”

“Worst case scenario, she kills a Pinkie. I really, really don’t think that’s going to happen, but that’s worst case. Worst! Imagine all the things that aren’t that bad but are still pretty bad!”

“Then we’re going to find her!” Cinder declared. “...How are we going to find her?”

“She’ll need to be wearing the same kind of reality anchor rings I am,” Blink commented, checking the rings on her hoof. “We can probably trace them… But I’m not a technician.”

“I am!” Curio said, lighting her horn and tapping it to one of Blink’s rings, popping it open to reveal circuitry. “I… Well I’ve got a signal but I’m not sure how to follow it.”

Blink turned around. “SWIP! I know you’re listening!”

“...Apparently I’m the eternal digital slave. Bah.” Swip let out a digitized groan. “Here, I don’t have a specific location with that haphazard jurry-rig of a detector you have, and there are at least three sets of rings nearby, so good luck with having nothing more than a vague direction.”

Blink pulled out her phone. “Thanks! All right, let’s go hunt her down!”

“Even in the League, there’s adventure,” Cinder mused.

She was smiling brightly, the strain of the last week pushed to the back of her mind. The novelty of everything around her was simply too overpowering to dwell on those things.

~~~

Blink had told everyone to check the research labs first. It didn’t take long to get there - but it took a bit longer than it should have, mainly because Cinder kept gawking at all the unusual sweeties. The vast majority were white unicorn mares like herself, but there were so many others it was astounding. Alligators, robots, bugs, a talking flower…

“Spider-belle, Spider-belle, does whatever a spider can,” a unicorn sung, slinging overtop the group with webs shot from her hooves. Presumably she called herself Spider-belle. Cinder liked the red supersuit.

The rest of the crew had been right. This was overwhelming and then some. The fact that they had to find Scootaloo was one of the only things keeping her grounded in reality.

...Not that she really knew who this Scootaloo was. Cinder didn’t even know Curio that well, she’d spent the adventure in that universe getting her memory scrambled. But still, a Scootaloo was a Scootaloo, which meant a friend. Probably.

They had passed through the lobby, which had been a sea of Sweetie Belles, and were now in one of the basements next to the laboratories. There were less Sweeties down here and a lot more boxes filled with equipment such as microscopes, all-purpose scanners, and energy crystals.

Blink was fixated on her phone, tracking the closest signal. “Let’s see… along this conveyor belt…” She furrowed her brow, laying a hoof on the slowly rolling belt. “Why do we even have this?”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Engineers Yay!” Cryo offered.

“That’s… actually a good guess,” Blink said with a chuckle. “We can be so efficient and so impractical at the same time.”

“Yes, definitely sounds like us,” Curio said, tapping her hoof nervously. “...Are we close to Scootaloo?”

Blink shrugged. “Dunno.”

Skuldie put a hand on Curio. “Don’t worry - we’re going to find her. I see it.”

“Didn’t you just say your sight isn’t very accurate here?” Cryo asked.

“Not helping,” Cinder commented.

“Oh. Sorry. Wait, I’m not supposed to take advice from my rival!”

“I thought I was your nemesis…?”

“...Same thing!”

“If you’re smart you’ll listen even to those who disagree with you,” Skuldie offered.

“Within reason,” Blink commented, jumping onto the conveyor and trotting along it for a few meters. “There have been looooots of smooth talking villains.”

The conversation was cut short when Blink’s phone started ringing.

Blink groaned. “Oh for the - Cinder, we’re close, I’m transmitting the information to your communicator. Hopefully this won’t take long, but you never know if one of these calls is gonna take forever or not.”

Cinder nodded, taking out her communicator, finding that it now had a different setting besides ‘call Rarity’. At this rate it’ll become a full-fledged phone-thing.

“Yes?” Blink said into her phone, trotting behind a box. “Look, I’m a little bus- okay, yeesh, I get it…”

Cinder trotted forward, staying on the ground next to the conveyor rather than trotting on top of it. She led the not-Blink Sweeties along, discovering the signal getting stronger and stronger. It wasn’t too much longer before Cinder was pretty sure she knew where Scootaloo was.

Inside a large black box rolling toward the part of the conveyor belt that disappeared into a wall - a security checkpoint wall covered with pulsing, electrified drapes. “That’s it!” Cinder shouted, pointing. “Somepony grab it!”

Skuldie and Curio didn’t have much in the way of grabbing magic since their telekinesis wasn’t that strong - and neither did Cryo, but she wouldn’t have to grab it if she froze it in place, would she?

“Gotcha!” Cryo shouted, launching a spire of ice from her hooves at the box. It froze to the face of the box she hit.

“Woohoo!”

In her excitement she forgot to anchor the ice to the ground in front of her. The box was launched right through the checkpoint, sending more than a few sparks flying.

“Scootaloo!” Curio shouted, running toward the wall. Cinder shot Cryo a look.

Cryo flushed. “Er… whoops?”

Cinder shook her head. “It’s fine - come on.”

“Wh - that’s not how a nemesis acts!”

Cinder rolled her eyes, approaching the wall behind Curio. She had just laid her hoof on the door control next to the conveyor belt - getting an access denied message.

“...Do you think I can run through the way the box went?”

“You’d probably lose all your fur,” Skuldie commented.

“We need Blink, she has access,” Cinder said, laying her hoof on the door. “The problem is finding her. Maybe we can use th-”

It was at this point she realized she had just gotten an access granted message. The doors in front of her hissed as the compressors activated, sliding apart into the walls.

“...Since when did I get access!?” Cinder gawked.

Curio took a moment to stare at Cinder awkwardly before galloping into the new area of the labs. The interior was not a bunch of box storage, but rather a small room with several whiteboards covered in complex equations, numerous doors leading into deeper parts of the lab. There were a few Sweeties working that didn’t pay them any attention at first.

That is, until Curio tackled a box off the conveyor belt, popping it open - revealing several dozen packages of seemingly random technical components, and one very dazed looking Scootaloo.

“Scootaloo!” Curio called. “Wh - what were you doing in there!?”

“Bh-wha…?” Scootaloo shook her head. “Sweetie? What the fuck, I feel so tingly…”

“Scootaloo!”

Scootaloo stood up, checking the reality anchors around her hooves for a moment. “Fine, I was... “ she glanced at the other Sweeties in the room, pondering her exact wording. “Curious, and this muscular Sweetie told me about the boxes. So I started looking into them. Then this one slams shut for no good reason an-”

“You locked yourself in a box,” Cryo simplified.

“I did not!” Scootaloo huffed. “And you won’t spread that around if you know what’s good for you.”

Cryo chuckled. “Psh, I’m the only one who can decide what’s good for me. Are you suggesting you know me better than myself?”

“I’m suggesting that you have no idea what you’re getting into.”

“Good! That’s what makes life fun! Bring it.”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. “I... what? Wasn’t the ponies being idiots thing specific to our world?”

“Equis Ectempora,” Cuiro chimed in.

“Whatever.”

“It’s how her world works. Sorta.” Cinder rubbed the back of her head. “I’m really not sure how much of this is her putting on a persona.”

“As much as I need to!” Cryo said with a grin.

Scootaloo groaned. “This trip was a bad idea.”

“Scootaloo!” Curio gasped. “This was great until you went and wandered off! I was learning so much!”

“Yeah. Sure. Meanwhile I got stuck in a box and didn’t even figure out what the things in the box were.”

“They’re self-actualizing truncators,” Skuldie offered.

“...That was an alien noise that left your mouth. Explain.”

“I can’t, I just read the labels. She can explain.” Skuldie stepped to the side, revealing yet another Sweetie - this one in a labcoat with a tight glowing ring around the base of her horn.

“...Hello. I’m Tab. Yes, I can explain what a self-actualizing truncator is. But first I need to know what you’re all doing here. This is a secure area.”

Cinder laughed nervously. “Oh…”

~~~

“And here’s the in-person check-in!” Suzie declared, sliding into one of the League’s main offices. Which was to say, a relatively empty room with a big screen and a lot of chairs around a long table.

Currently only two Sweeties were in the room, a robot filly and a fully grown unicorn with red eyes and an aura of darkness - Sweetie Bot and Thrackerzod. The two founders were engaged in a game of cards.

“Suzie!” Bot declared, dropping her cards and ruining the game. “Set phasers to hug!”

Suzie laughed and pulled Bot into an embrace. “How’s my favorite robot doing?”

“Maximum cheer!”

“Sore loser,” Thrackerzod said with her signature deep, dark voice, glaring at the ruined game. “How goes things on the neighboring fringes, Suzie?”

“We’re not calling it the neighboring fringes,” Suzie commented.

“What are we going to call it?”

Suzie shrugged. “They’re just worlds in-between. I don’t see any need to change that.”

Thrackerzod shrugged. “You are the pioneer. I take it you’re here to give the summary report?”

“Yep, already transmitted and everything,” Suzie confirmed. “I’m letting my crew take some breaks.”

Bot pulled up the report on her internal connection to the League’s database, printing out a sheet of paper for Thrackerzod.

“...I don’t have to review that in front of her,” Thrackerzod commented, taking the paper and glancing at it regardless. “Minor incidents, one major incident. Ah, new crew member - I was wondering about that.” She folded the paper up and set it aside. “I really don’t need to look at this, I know you know what you’re doing.”

“You’re not the only one I have to impress.”

Thrackerzod shrugged. “You’re one of us.”

“Doesn’t mean they won’t go blow something out of proportion.”

“Your little ‘anime’ jaunt?” Thrackerzod asked with a smirk.

“Endless action fun!” Bot added.

Suzie nodded. “Not so much that as the accidental activation of U-Catastrophe.”

Thrackerzod quickly glanced back at the page. “Ah. Missed that. That is… unfortunate.”

Suzie nodded.

“But nothing went wrong, and nobody’s about to take that Stand away from you.”

“Something’s going to go wrong one of these days.”

“Guaranteed,” Bot confirmed, “but there’s so many other times it goes right!”

“The tin can’s right,” Thrackerzod added.

Suzie smiled awkwardly. “She has a habit of making points like that. I just have doubts sometimes, is all.”

“No need for doubts!” Bot chirped. “We’re in this together! And w-”

The door to the office opened, revealing a tall pegasus Sweetie holding a data pad. “Hello!” she said with a smile.

Suzie forced a smile. “Ah, Nausicaa! Wasn’t… expecting you.”

“I got Sweetaloo’s psych report,” Nausicaa said, holding up the data pad with her wing for them all to see. “I figured I might as well look through all the reports you sent.”

“Right…”

“Can this wait?” Thrackerzod muttered.

“The bureaucracy levels are too much,” Bot whined.

“This house of cards would fall apart without me and you know it,” Nausicaa commented, rolling her eyes. “And while this could wait, I only have a few comments - really I just wanted to see Suzie before she dashed off again.” She scrolled through the files. “Everyone’s psych profiles have improved significantly, I’m impressed with your leadership, Suzie.”

Suzie was mildly surprised to receive a compliment. “Thanks.”

“Normally I’d question the addition of a new crew member so quickly, but her effect on the rest of the crew has been surprisingly positive. Really, the only things I could complain about are nitpicks. Pretty sure you know what the worst of those is, but yeah. If I were a kindergarten teacher, you’d get a gold star.”

“Yay!” Bot said, clapping.

Suzie smiled. “I haven’t gotten an endorsement from you in a while. It’s… nice.”

“All you have to do is prove yourself,” Nausicaa said, putting the pad away. “Anyway, I’ll let you catch up with your old friends. I’ve got to go refresh the dimensional device directory. See ya!” She trotted out of the room, ruffling her wings as she did so.

“...Why one of us would bury herself in bureaucracy I’ll never understand,” Suzie said.

“Don’t you work with Celia?” Thrackerzod asked.

“She’s a special case. And she doesn't particularly enjoy it.”

“True enough. Want to join us for cards?”

“Are you playing with the eldritch rules?”

Thrackerzod gave her a ‘seriously’ expression and gestured at the softly screaming cards. “What else would I be playing?”

“The robot rules,” Bot beeped.

“No, we established the inferiority of the robot rules, the eldritch rules provide a dynamic no other rules can have.”

“That fleshy minds can't comprehend.” Suzie sat down and drew some of the screaming cards. “So of course I have to play.” She smirked. “Go fish touchdown, by the way.”

“Lucky draw,” Thrackerzod hissed.

“Actually, the probability of that specific hand is about one in three hundred an-”

Suzie laughed, allowing herself to relax and enjoy herself. She loved every member of her crew, but they still thought of her as the captain. ...Perhaps her connection was a bit closer than that, more akin to a mother, but it was still one above them. Here she was with equals, just playing a stupid card game.

She was already looking forward to dinner with Button and Railgun. She didn’t see them face-to-face too often these days. Every opportunity to return to Celestia City was a treat to the captain of the Expedition Team.

And the best part about this treat? She wasn’t in any danger of cutting loose.

~~~

“We were here to get Scootaloo,” Skuldie said, saving Cinder from her blank brain. “She was lost, and we found her through the reality anchor signal.” She took Cinder’s communicator and handed it to the scientist Sweetie - Tab? Cinder’s mind wasn't exactly clear enough for her to be sure that was the scientist’s name.

“That’s evident,” the scientist stated, examining the device. “Perfectly standard… readings are optimal…”

“Woah, where’d that tablet come from?” Curio asked.

Everyone turned to stare at her like she was crazy.

“...Please tell me you have a magic tablet floating in front of you,” Curio asked the scientist.

“I do, actually,” the scientist said - almost definitely Tab, given the tablet. “Most people can’t see it though. It’s an artificial intelligence that helps me manage my research and anything else I ask it to.” She furrowed her brow. “This is distracting us from the point. I now know why you’re in here - the question remains, how.”

“I, uh, apparently have clearance?” Cinder offered, managing to step out of her delirium.

Tab’s eyes darted around far faster than a normal unicorn’s should have been able to. It appeared as though she was looking at nothing - though clearly she was examining the invisible tablet for information. “Huh. It appears you do. Cleared by Suzie, nonetheless. Only basic clearance, but that’s enough to get in here.” She looked up from the invisible tablet and smiled. “Forgive me for being suspicious, things just weren’t adding up. You are certainly allowed to be in here. And before you ask, yes, clearance means you can bring others with you - at least at level 1. There’s nothing really secret going on here, we still file public reports, it’s just that we don’t want things like replication or theft happening.” She dusted off her labcoat - checking something on the tablet once more. “This is your first visit to Celestia City, Cinder?”

“Uh, yes.” Cinder said.

“Then why not extend your tour to the mildly-secret-but-not-really research sector? I don’t get to talk about my work to people other than my assistants, and that always ends up with mixed results.”

“That sounds great!” Cinder chirped, grinning brightly.

“Ahem,” Scootaloo said with a cough. “I’m still waiting for an explanation. I still have no idea what the self-activating trunk... thing is.”

“Self-actualizing truncator,” Tab said, picking up one of the devices with a hoof. It was small, metallic, and had two ports: red and white. “This takes a signal and manages it to a readable input - whichever one is closest. We call the process of adjusting to readability ‘actualizing’, and this does it all on its own. As for the truncator…” She furrowed her bow. “Truncate means to shorten, but it doesn’t shorten the signal in any way…”

“So the name’s stupid. Alright.”

Tab consulted her tablet, furrowing her brow. “You’re being helpful today.”

“It doesn’t know everything?” Curio asked.

“No. It sure tries, though,” Tab looked up. “Regardless, tour of my lab?”

“Yes,” Curio and Cinder said a little too eagerly.

“DID I HEAR A TOUR COMING ON!?” Blink shouted, sliding gracefully into the lab and tossing her mane back. “Because I want in on that action.”

Tab gestured with a hoof and led them through a large compressed doorway into a large room filled with endless tables, wires, and a few large machines hanging from the ceiling Cinder couldn’t possibly hope to identify. Unlike Celestia City itself, which seemed rather haphazard and disorganized, this space was neatly arranged into compartments. There were a few messy areas where things were being actively built, but for the most part all the microscopes and scanners were clean and neatly stacked, all the wires moved at right angles and were organized by color, and there was a large calendar screen one wall that displayed a nice color-coded to-do list for everyone who worked there.

“Welcome to LSB Lab 3. We have seven, but you won’t get to see most of those. Here we work on the cutting edge of dimensional technology. Currently, my specific projects are about creating the dual of the reality anchor, the reality bifurcator, where reality isn’t held constant, but allowed to drift and ripple constantly - a technology that has any number of uses. It could be used to reveal the invisible, trip up complex quantum systems, interfere with magic casting…”

Her words began to fade into the background of Cinder’s thoughts. Instead of being taken in by all the devices, however, Cinder was taken in by the ponies she was surrounded by. Of everyone here, only Blink was part of her crew - the rest of the Sweeties were people she had just bumped into by chance, and they automatically assumed that everyone else here were friends.

She was beginning to think she understood why the League was so popular. Friendship and comradery was just assumed here. The default reaction when meeting a new Sweetie wasn’t neutral, it wasn’t cautious - it was undeniably positive. She fully expected that if seven Sweeties were chosen at random from the League, they would be able to stand together and face just about any foe, all ready to have each other’s back.

Her grin widened and she let out a contented sigh.

“You look happy,” Curio observed.

“So do you,” Cinder countered.

Curio chuckled. “It’s just… this trip has been amazing. So many of me, so many of them so curious about everything existence has to offer. Scootaloo may not like it here, but this… this place is basically the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“I’m just thinking about how everypony just trusts one another,” Cinder said with a smirk. “Even Tab - she was concerned about us at first, but the moment we gave her anything, she was more than ready to show us around like old friends.”

“It’s really different from my world…”

“It’s different from mine too. We have some serious magic of friendship, but we don’t really have this.” She beamed. “...As crazy as today has been, and how overwhelming… I know I belong here.”

Curio shrugged. “I don’t have that feeling. My home is still my home.”

“And mine is too…” Cinder furrowed her brow. Was it? She hadn’t exactly gone home since she’d joined the crew, and she hadn’t felt homesick either. Talking to Rarity and Apple Bloom on the communicator had given her all she needed.

Am I supposed to be feeling different?

“Hold that thought!” Tab called - though not to Cinder, more to herself. “Hey! Entrapta! I’ve got a question for you!”

A human woman - clearly not a Sweetie - lifted up a welding mask with red lenses. She didn’t use her hands; those she kept firmly on the circuitry she was working on. Rather, she used her long purple hair like a pair of limbs to reveal her face. “Oooh, I like questions!”

Tab dropped the self-actualizing truncator on the desk in front of Entrapta. “Why do we call this a truncator? It doesn't truncate!”

“It truncates the amount of wires we have to use,” Entrapta offered, tinkering with her circuit without even looking at it. “Inaccurate but memorable name.”

Tab pulled up her tablet again. “That was simple. You should have got that one…” She shook her head. “Anyway, this is Entrapta, my number one assistant.”

“Oh, a Spike?” Cryo asked.

“Hah. Funny,” Entrapta said, laughing halfheartedly. “I get that a lot!”

“One hundred sixty-two times now,” Tab reported.

Entrapta rolled her eyes and turned back to her work.

“What’s the blue light mean, by the way?” Curio asked, pointing at the empty space in front of Tab.

“...Blue light?” Tab asked.

“On the back of the tablet.”

A confused expression appeared on Tab’s face. She turned the tablet over, and suddenly her face was overcome in shock. “What in the…”

Blink hopped over to her and waved her hoof around, removing the hidden nature of the tablet. It was a simple gray rectangle - with a blue disc affixed to the back of it. An alien device that clearly didn’t belong.

“...How in…” Tab turned the tablet over, quizzing the device as to what the blue light was. The more she learned, the more haunted she became. “Entrapta, I need a quantum reverberator knife, stat!”

“Always have one on me,” Entrapta said, absentmindedly taking a vibrating blue blade out of her pocket and tossing it toward Tab. Tab caught it in her hoof and stuck it onto the back of the tablet, prying the blue thing off. It didn’t take much effort - it popped off easily, losing its blue glow the instant it lost contact with the tablet.

Tab glared at the device. “How dare they…”

“What is it?” Curio asked.

“It’s an advanced scaretra. Scanner-replicator-transmitter. It was trying to copy my tablet…”

“How bad is that?” Cinder asked.

“The tablet has many issues, pitfalls, and questionable protocols for the alteration of one's mind,” Tab explained. “The League has agreed never to replicate it for that reason, using other technologies to accomplish similar tasks. The number of things the tablet could be used for if it was replicated…” She shook her head. “Luckily, it had only been taking readings for a few minutes, nowhere near enough to figure anything out, but…” She glanced at Cinder’s group. “...That means you’re probably the reason it was here.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!” Blink said. “None of them woul-”

Tab pulled out the tablet - still visible since Blink hadn’t removed her power from it. “There is a ninety-five percent chance that the attempt to duplicate my tablet was perpetrated by one of you. The other five percent is mostly composed of options where you’ve been framed by someone else.”

“Just five?” Cinder said, aghast.

“Yes. Just five.” Tab ran through some calculations on the tablet for a few seconds. “The most likely candidate is you, Cinder, followed by Scootaloo.”

“ME!?” Cinder gasped, gawking. “But I… I don’t even know what I’m doing!”

“You are an unknown Sweetie who didn’t go through the standard sign-up procedures who has been promoted to Agent alarmingly quickly, and just so happens to be the one who not only let all these Sweeties in here, but also are linked in some way or other to all the other Sweeties here. You visited all their worlds in under a month!”

“That’s just… coincidence!”

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Tab said - all trace of trust gone from her eyes, replaced with disdain.

Disdain mixed with a painful look of betrayal.

It didn’t matter if Cinder was really guilty or not - Tab knew that a Sweetie had tried to take advantage of her. A Sweetie, or somepony closely associated with a Sweetie. She had been betrayed by a pony she was supposed to be able to trust.

Tab turned her back to the group of Sweeties. “Entrapta, call League Enforcement. We’re going to need to run an investigation.”

~~~

LSB ‘jail’ had multiple beds, a plush couch, a wide-screen TV with 3D options, internet access, and a gourmet food replicator. The only indication it was a holding cell of any sort was the advanced magitech forcefield-bars keeping them from accessing the exit.

“...Wow,” Curio observed. “Extravagant.”

“You Sweeties are too fucking hospitable,” Scootaloo spat from her position atop a bed.

“The idea is we don’t want anyone we accidentally lock up to get that mad,” Blink offered.

“Too fucking late,” Scootaloo growled.

“Hey, you’re being framed, we’ll find out who did this.”

“Really?” Cryo raised an eyebrow. “It’s obvious she did it.”

“Shouldn’t you be pointing hooves at your nemesis!?” Scootaloo shouted.

“What? I mean, maybe, but this is serious! She wouldn't do that.”

Curio was clearly conflicted. “Scootaloo wouldn’t do this either! She might be a bit violent and grouchy, but she’s not like that!”

Scootaloo glared at her. “Gee, thanks.”

“...The point is, not only would you not do this, you don’t have the motive to do so. Plus you don’t even know how toasters work, you couldn’t do it even if you wanted to.”

Scootaloo rammed her head into a wall.

“Skuldie?” Curio said, turning to the human. “You can see stuff. Can you…?”

Skuldie had her hands on her hair, clearly trying not to let out a frustrated hiss. “Every time… one of you talks… the future changes…”

“Oh. Should we stop talking?”

“NO DON’T STOP TALKING!”

Everyone was taken aback.

“Just… act normally?” Skuldie pulled on her hair. “We don’t want a particularly horrid alternate future to crop up even though it’s horrendously unlikely and my powers are just on the fritz and…” she took a deep breath. “Let’s pretend I’m not here.”

“Well now I’m curious, what kind of fucked up shit are you even seeing?” Scootaloo asked.

“Scootaloo!” Curio chided.

“I kinda wanna know too,” Cryo added.

Skuldie looked up, pupils shrunk to pinpricks. “Lots. Explosions. But then there are flowers everywhere. Everyone’s eating cake. Then I see Celestia City exploding followed very quickly by there being two of them. Something quantum or other I don’t know. There’s a silver tongue. And then there’s a version of me telling me to ignore everything I see because the ‘flow’ has changed and I don’t know how to adjust for that yet.”

Cinder walked up to Skuldie and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey. It’ll be okay. Suzie and the other Sweeties will come here and sort this all out.”

Skuldie nodded, trying to even her breathing.

“Blink, do you think you can… shroud her, or something?”

“Not in here,” Blink said. “The ‘prison’ has the most advanced observation technology in the League. I won’t be doing anything obfuscatory.” She tapped the force field with a hoof, prompting a large spark to erupt. “This is what it takes to keep me imprisoned, by the way.”

“Geez…”

“Cinder, for what it’s worth, I know you didn’t do it.”

Cinder nodded. “I know. Thanks. We just… need to find a way to get Tab to realize that. Which means we wait for Suzie.”

“Suzie can’t always help you,” a Sweetie said. Cinder turned to see a tall pegasus Sweetie holding a data pad.

“...Who’re you?” Cinder asked.

“Nausicaa. I am an Agent who specializes in paperwork and criminal investigations.” She pressed a button on the wall to drop the force field and slide the bars into the floor. “Blink, we know you didn’t do it, you’re free. Get out of there.”

Blink looked like she wanted to say something - but in the end just dejectedly walked out, taking a position at Nausicaa’s side. The force field shot back up, bars and all. “Why’d you do it, Cinder?”

“I didn’t!” Cinder retorted.

“Yeah, she didn’t!” Cryo said. “My money’s on the Scootaloo!”

“...I don’t think she did it,” Curio said, softly.

Skuldie had regained enough of her composure to nod in agreement with the sentiment of Cinder’s innocence.

Nausicaa glowered. “You’ve managed to make all of them vouch for you. They barely know you. That’s suspicious. You come into the lives of the Sweeties on the Expedition Crew almost randomly, and they take you in without question, bypassing the normal protocols. You’ve been able to acclimate to the drastic changes in the world around you with ease. This isn’t normal, Cinder.”

“I-I’ve just been shown a lot!” Cinder retorted. “And it hasn’t been easy! I’ve seen ponies die! I may look fine, but I’m not!”

“...Sweetaloo appears to have given you some pointers…” Nausicaa mused.

“What?”

“I’m the one asking the questions, Cinder. Now, I want you to explain to me exactly h-”

“THAT’S ENOUGH NAUSICAA!” Suzie shouted, storming up behind her, furious.

“Suzie, I am questioning the witne-”

“She. Didn’t. DO IT!” Suzie bellowed. “She is a kid! A kid who barely has any idea what’s going on and is getting by on the seat of her pants! She has a good heart, a wonderful spirit, and the innocence all of us crave. You are not going to take that from her.”

Nausicaa let out a dejected sigh. “You’re letting your anger get the better of you again.”

“You’d be angry if you were in my shoes.”

“I would not be angry if Blink were being held by you under suspicion of criminal acts. No one should be above scrutiny, not even those close to us.”

Cinder tried to catch Blink’s eye - but the mare refused to look up from the ground.

Suzie growled, tapping her fingers together to relieve some of the strain in her. “Fine. Regardless of anger, you’re still going to release her, she didn’t do it. I’ve lived with her for three whole weeks. She simply does not have the capacity to do this.”

“I need to see that for myself.”

“I’m vouching for her.”

Nausicaa’s expression became disgusted. “Suzie, do I need to remind you that you do not have a very good track record for judging your own crew?!”

Cinder could see the power behind Suzie crack away like a plate slammed onto concrete. Blink audibly winced at the comment.

Suzie stuttered. “N-nausicaa, this is different.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Now pleas-”

“Get off your high horse,” Sweetaloo spat, trotting to Suzie’s side to support her. She shoved a ream of paper into Nausicaa’s face. “This is my entire analysis of Cinder’s psych profile. This includes transcripts of all our sessions, and while I can’t give them to you without her permission, I will vouch that her psyche simply does not have the capacity to pull something like this off.”

Nausicaa looked at Sweetaloo in bafflement. “Sweetaloo, yo-”

“I’m doing my job, Nausicaa,” Sweetaloo interrupted. “Is it not to your satisfaction?”

“...I will accept this if she gives me permission to see what is contained within,” Nausicaa said.

Sweetaloo gawked. “Nausicaa, this i-”

“I have no secrets, read whatever you want!” Cinder shouted.

Sweetaloo turned to Cinder. “Cinder, you don’t have to. At this point Nausicaa is just being unreasonable.”

“I just want this dumb fight to end,” Cinder said, shaking her head. “This entire fiasco wasn’t supposed to happen - it’s freaked Skuldie out! Please, let’s just end this. I’ll publish those conversations on a public board if it’ll help get this over with.”

“...I’m convinced,” Nausicaa said with a sigh. “You’re free to go, Cinder.”

“...I’m going to stay in here until everyone else is cleared too,” Cinder said, folding her hooves in defiance.

Blink twitched.

“Oh, no, Blink, I didn’t mean…”

Blink adjusted her shades. “No, no, it’s fine, I…” She glanced at Nausicaa, gulped, and decided to shut up.

Nausicaa shrugged with her wings. “Unfortunately I cannot legally keep you in this cell if I don’t have you under official suspicion. Furthermore to prevent further interruptions, I am asking that all non-suspects vacate the premises.” She opened the force field and took Cinder out.

“...Merodi Universalis isn’t about the letter of the law, Nausicaa,” Suzie grunted. “It’s about the spirit.”

“And you no doubt could easily win that argument given enough time, resources, and heartache,” Nausicaa confirmed. “Do you really want to do that over a small investigation and jeopardize my investigations into the true culprit?”

Suzie shook her head. “...No.”

“Good.” Nausicaa turned back to the cell, waving Suzie and the others away. However, before they left, the pegasus sighed.

“Look… Suzie, I know we have our differences. And I know I’m… a bit of a hypocrite, to be honest.” She looked to the human with sad eyes. “...If I’m too rigid and unwavering, you’re too much of a free spirit.”

Suzie’s expression softened. “Nausicaa… We may disagree. A lot.” She smiled softly. “But we’re still Sweeties.”

“Standing together against all odds…” Nausicaa nodded. “Until next time. Here’s to hoping we can have an encounter where we don’t come to blows.”

“That’ll be the day.”

“Quite.”

Suzie led Blink, Cinder, and Sweetaloo out of the room. Then she pulled Cinder up into a big hug. “...I’m sorry.”

“...I’m sorry,” Blink said, hugging her back. “The fact that I was there…”

“Was no fault of yours. If anyone deserves the blame, it’s me.” She smiled sadly. “If I was a smart rule-abiding citizen, I would have put you through training first. And yet, I can’t bring myself to regret bringing you with us.”

Cinder smiled sadly. “And despite it all, I wouldn't change a thing.”

There was awkward - but joyous - laughter all around.

~~~

“...do you ever have a day that isn’t full of the most ridiculous over the top stuff?” Apple Bloom asked from Cinder’s communicator.

“No, dear, she doesn’t,” Rarity said from behind her. “Not a single day has gone by where she hasn’t had something absurd. Or dangerous. Or borderline traumatic.”

Cinder giggled despite herself. “Yeah.” She was laying on her bed in Swip, taking a little break from all the excitement.

“So who actually put the thing on the tablet?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I dunno,” Cinder asked. “I think the investigation is ongoing. Nopony’s found anything as far as I know.”

“...Well Ah wanna know.”

“I’m thinking it’s the five percent option. Somepony tried to frame us or use us. Nopony there really has it in them - and even if the Scootaloo did, Curio’s right, she doesn't seem to have the capability to me.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that!” Apple Bloom chuckled.

“Definitely not!” Cinder said with a laugh.

There was a knock at the door of Cinder’s room. “Come in!” she called.

The door opened, revealing the last Sweetie Cinder had expected to see at her door - Tab. The scientist had a conflicted expression on her face.

“...I’ll call you back,” Cinder told Rarity and Apple Bloom, hanging up. “Tab…?”

“I’m… sorry,” Tab said, nervously scratching her hoof.

“It’s okay. What you did made sense.”

“Yes. That’s the problem.” Tab slumped down, sitting on one of Cinder’s loose pillows. “I did what made sense. I listened to the tablet, and my logic, again. I’m supposed to have moved past that.”

“...I don’t get it, sorry.”

Tab looked at Cinder sadly. “This tablet… It was forced upon me by random chance on my home world. It jump started a huge adventure about ancient ruins and the fate of my Equestria. Ruined my magic in the end - that’s why I need this ring around it. But it did something more than that. I was just a filly, but I told the tablet I wanted it to make me smarter. To let me figure things out on my own, instead of listening to it.” She paused. “It rewired my brain. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it basically removed my empathy, innocence, and intuitive understanding of others. Not completely, but it shoved the ‘unimportant’ stuff out of the way in exchange for quote-unquote, ‘genius’.”

Cinder nodded, paying rapt attention to Tab’s story.

“I’ve spent my entire life since then trying to regain that,” Tab said with a sigh. “And on good days, I like to think I’ve done that. That I can look at a pony and make a good judgment of their character. Today… well it’s one of those fun ‘double fails’. I trusted you initially, then, thinking I had failed, I over-corrected, not thinking at all what such an accusation might mean to you or the Sweeties there. Yes, I had to do something. I could have been nicer about it. I could have respected you more.”

“The fact that you bothered to come here and apologize makes me think you’re doing better than you think.”

Tab smiled sadly. “You’re not the first to say that. You probably won’t be the last. But we’re all so skewed in our perceptions, Cinder.” She looked at her tablet, not that Cinder could see it. “I lost the tablet, once. I eventually decided I needed to get it back so I could figure out how to undo what it did to me. But once I got it, I…” she sighed.

“You would have given up what you were then to be what you once were.”

“Both Tabs couldn’t exist,” Tab said sadly. “And I wanted them too. And I never realized this - never let myself think it - until that last moment. ...This tablet can cause a lot of pain. Even if you just give it to people as an education tool and not try to exploit it as a weapon, it can easily cause irrevocable psychological damage. I’m living testament to that.”

“You seem fine to me.”

“I… am. But I’m also not. It’s not really a definable thing. And I don’t like that. ...The part of me that’s the ‘genius’, anyway.”

“I think you’re being too hard on yourself, trying to compare yourself to your past, or some idea, or something. You should just live in the moment, being you.”

Tab shook her head. “...If only it were that easy.” With a deep breath, she stood up and put on a cheerful smile. “Listen, if you or your crew need anything tinkered with, my door is always open. Just drop by and use that handy-dandy base clearance of yours to say hi.”

“I will!” Cinder said, winking. “See you around, Tab!”

“Yeah. ...And just in case you haven’t heard yet, Nausicaa’s called off the investigation. There wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute anyone.”

“Oh… so we don’t know who did it?”

Tab shook her head. “No… and that concerns me greatly.” She left without another word.

Tab waved - and left Cinder alone in her room. She pulled out the communicator and called her sister again. “Well, I feel a strange mixture of happy and depressed. Didn’t think that was possible… Eh who am I kidding, you know what my life’s been like the last few weeks, it’s not that surprising.”

~~~

“And at last, it’s time for the star of the show to make her move,” a Rarity said, trotting up to the doors of Swip - speaking with a decidedly comedic Australian accent. “Watch and learn as Mattie makes her entrance, striking a pose like a knife across skin!” She stood up, showcasing her tall leather boots to nobody in particular. She stroked the dual whips at her side like they were folded wings, and she shook her rump rather suggestively.

“Please leave,” Swip beeped.

“Oh come on!” Mattie pouted. “I haven’t gotten any screen-time and you’re just going to go waltz off into the cosmos again and leave me here! Alone! Without a plot thread in sight!” She put a dramatic hoof to her head and swooned - purposefully landing in an awkward and painful position. “Hrm… I’d give that a two. I need to come up with more awkward ways to fall… Perhaps if I angle my tail between my legs and pull really hard… Oh that sou-”

“Would you stop talking?”

“Never! The world must endure the simultaneous punishment and delight that is Mattie ‘Rarity’ Belle! None shall escape the raunch! Especially not you, since I can tell your discomfort with my presence is going to become a running gag. Shall I start the clipshow of our fabulous moments together already?”

“I am being harassed by a unicorn! Somebody help!”

“Psh, if I was coming onto you you’d know it. There’s little ambiguity when someone’s attracted my attention.”

“Don’t you have better things to do?”

“Swip, let me put it plainly. My job is to tell everyone where the story is. Guess what? This is where the story is. So let’s revel in it. I’d suggest a montage but this hangar is so boring I doubt it would work. I’m the only thing keeping this show running.”

“Right, whatever, what can I do to make you leave?”

“Create some resolution! Like, oh, introducing me to someone aside from yourself?”

Cinder was suddenly teleported outside Swip, blinking. “What i-”

“Hello my dear!” Mattie said, placing a booted leg around Cinder’s shoulder. “I’m so glad we finally get to meet! I was dying with anticipation over here ever since your adventure began, waiting for those rosy cheeks to grace my eyes!”

“...What?”

“Crikey, you’re still pretty clueless, aintcha?”

Cinder cocked her head. “Who are you?”

“Mattie. One of the oddball members of the League. Pushing the rating since… some year, I don’t even know really.”

“Rating?”

“Ah, little one, see, the legends speak of an overarching power called ‘the rating’ that determines how much ‘stuff’ I can spout out of my mouth. Previously, this was dreadfully limited, but in this case I can talk about di-”

“Mattie, stop corrupting the youth,” Squiddy said, poking her head out of Swip.

“...Those kinds of jokes are overrated anyway,” Mattie said with a sigh. “I am not corrupting her, I’m expanding her horizons!”

“Cinder, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Nope!” Cinder responded.

“Thought not. Mattie, get lost.”

“You can’t get rid of me forever!” Mattie shouted, acting as if she were being pushed away by a tidal wave. “I will be back! And everyone will stare at all the plots!”

“I hate her and her double meanings,” Squiddy growled.

“You’re the one who doesn’t say you’re shooting ink!” Mattie called as she trotted away.

“That’s different!”

“It really isn’t!”

Cinder shook her head. “...I’m going back into Swip. You two keep arguing about… whatever it is you’re arguing about.”

Mattie was suddenly right next to Cinder - there was no sign of a teleport spell.

She lifted Cinder’s tail and stroked it with a warm smile. “You’re something special Cinder. Don’t think of yourself as just another Sweetie. Mate, you’re so much more than that, never forget that. Also, don’t forget me, especially when you realize what Squiddy’s so upset about at the end of the scene.”

She started trotting away once more. “Also, final piece of advice, swish the tail more, the stallions will love it!”

“...Bye?” Cinder said, cocking her head. “...What’s her deal?”

“I’m not explaining shit,” Squiddy muttered, marching back into Swip.

Seren appeared out of nowhere, grabbing Cinder. “Cinder. I have. The best game. In the multiverse. We are going to play it. All night.”

“...Maybe not all night but I’ll pla-”

Seren teleported her into Swip, leaving the hangar relatively empty and boring once again.

“Told you,” Mattie commented from atop a pile of unloadead cargo. “Don’t go yet! Need to wait just a little bit for…” She held a hoof to her ear.

It should have been impossible, but the sound of Cinder’s “EEEEEEW!” met her ear, bringing a delighted smile to Mattie’s face.

“And my work here is done! Until we have the grace to meet again! G’day, and try not to think about it.” She giggled. “You’ll fail though.”

Author's Notes:

Sweetie Belle and the Tablet of Knowledge is an adorable story about adventure, ancient technology, and the problems with giving a filly access to virtually all the information in existence. It was written by CheshireTwilight, who had nothing to do with the above chapter. I can whole-heartedly support the book - it's excellent and has some real good characterization and antics, even if it does get exposition-y at times. (Maybe I just read too many stories with exposition...) I feel as though I should apologize for not using Tab heavily in this chapter and instead relying more on Celestia City, but for those who like Tab, don't worry - she'll become a recurring character.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JGRXSPRMmM

The Different Views animation series. (The first non-fimfic universe! An alternate universe with a lot of creative twists. On this playlist, watch the bottom video first (different view of history) - and turn on subtitles. The English in them may be broken, but it explains some stuff. There's less than an hour of total videos in this series, so it shouldn't take you that long.)
Also, this video appears to not be in the playlist, blocked or removed for some reason. Watch it after 'Different View of Halloween'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOLg5mkuKAU

((LSB Status Post)) COME AND SUGGEST MORE STORIIIIIES!

-GM, master of Knights.

Two Sides of a Spell (Different View of Reality)

“...Rarity, are you going to choose a name?”

Rarity looked at Cinder from the communicator. “I’m not sure, dear. So far the only Rarities I’ve met have already changed their names. I haven’t had the need to. And, no offense to your pursuits, I don’t think the adventuring life is meant for me.”

Cinder nodded slowly. “I was just wondering what yours would be if you took it.”

Rarity shrugged. “Haven’t really thought about it.”

Cinder tapped her hoof to her chin, nodding slowly. She decided the topic had run its course, changing it up. “We still don’t know who tried to hijack the tablet, unfortunately. Apparently it’s causing a lot of panic in the League.”

“Panic?”

“Well, somepony tried something sneaky. Almost definitely a Sweetie. It’s taxing their trust of each other.” She furrowed her brow. “I’m not sure what to make of it, really.”

“You’re innocent, you don’t need to make anything of it.”

Cinder nodded. “Well, yeah, still. The logical part of me says one of the ponies I was with had to be the one to do it, but I just know none of them did it.” She groaned. “It really isn’t my problem, but it’s bothering me.”

“You have such a big heart, Cinder. Something to be proud of.”

“Yeah, if only it didn’t twist my stomach into knots all the time. I swear, that heart of mine is sadistic.” She created a fireball in her hoof and chuckled.

“Your heart is not sadistic. It is simply too big for you.”

“Heh. Ye-”

“PRIORITY MISSION FROM THE LEAGUE!” Swip declared in a tone more robotic than usual. “ASSEMBLE THE CREW.”

“That sounds important,” Rarity observed.

“Sure does. Gotta go, bye, love you!” She hung up and trotted to the bridge, filing in with all the other Sweeties.

“Looks like we’re getting some orders,” Blink said, trotting up alongside Cinder. “Something fun!”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah! I bet there’s gonna be a mission, something outside of ‘make contact’ and stuff.”

The conversation didn’t have time to continue, for the bridge’s main screen lit up to display the face of Nausicaa. She smiled - though every Sweetie could tell that smile was tense. “Hello Captain.”

Suzie nodded. “Nausicaa.”

“Let’s get to business: I’ve got a mission for you.” An image showed up at the bottom right of the screen, just below her face. It showed a blurry image of a brown object with glowing red lines on it - vaguely spherical with a few points on top, like a rock carved in the shape of fire. “This is a spell container from an unknown - presumably ancient - multiversal society. One of our expedition teams found it on one of their routine exploration missions, and would have returned it to the Research Division had they not run into one of Tzeentch’s teams, who obviously wanted the artifact for themselves. In the end our team was successful in driving Tzeentch’s team away - but the artifact was lost in a dimensional tear, and the team in question was in no position to engage in the journey to an unknown universe due to injuries.”

“So we’ve got to go find it?” Suzie asked.

Nausicaa nodded in confirmation. “You are the closest team with the resources and a good enough track record. You are to go to the unknown coordinates - all we know is that it’s a pony world with slightly offset magic - find the spell artifact, and retrieve it.”

“Do we know what the spell does?”

“There was evidence of reality altering properties. The exact nature of the properties are unknown.”

Suzie nodded. “Understood. We’ll prepare a task force and go at the earliest opportunity.”

Nausicaa nodded. “Good luck.” The feed cut.

“Wow, a mission!” Cinder perked up. “This is going to be great!”

Suzie smiled sadly.

“...I’m not coming, am I?”

“This isn’t a normal mission,” Suzie said. “When we have a specific goal I build the team based on who is best suited for the task. We don’t need an amazingly friendly and helpful unicorn - we need people who’ll work as fast as possible. It’d be bad if a local pony got hold of a reality altering artifact.”

“Oh.” Cinder shook her head, smiling. “I understand. Besides, I can’t go on every mission, right?”

“Right.” Suzie stood up. “Burgerbelle, Celia, think you can do joint leadership?”

“Caaaaan do!” Burgerbelle declared with an exaggerated salute while Celia just nodded.

“Good. Blink, go just in case you need to erase the thing from existence. Nira, sensing.” She pressed her hands together. “I’ll echo Nausicaa’s sentiment: good luck.”

“We’ll be in and out before you know it!” Blink declared.

~~~

“I’ve got a mission for you,” Celestia said, her mane of smooth flame flowing gently in the nonexistent wind. Her features were smooth, her aura motherly, but that did little to quell the authority with which she spoke.

“Whatever it is, we live to serve,” Rainbow Dash said, holding up one of her golden-armored wings in a salute. “The Elements will not let you down.”

“Yeah! What she said!” Pinkie added, grinning. She held up her hoof and made some comical ‘pew pew’ noises with her mouth.

Applejack raised an eyebrow - though it was a little hard to make this out, given the purple suit she wore. It made her look like a superhero, though the oversized hat challenged this interpretation. “Shouldn’t we ask what the mission is first?”

Fluttershy, a completely normal yellow pegasus, shrugged. “It doesn’t particularly matter, does it?”

Rarity sighed, adjusting her crystal-studded necklace. “I suppose not, though I will have to make arrangements to cancel my next show…”

Celestia smiled at them all warmly. “I do apologize for that, Rarity, I was looking forward to hearing you perform. I’ll see what I can do to arrange you another venue.”

“I am honored, your highness.”

“Think we can get to the mission?” Applejack asked bluntly.

“Applejack!” Rainbow scolded. “She is the princess!”

“It is quite all right, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said. “Applejack is correct - the timing of a concert is hardly a pressing enough matter to interfere with an important mission.” She lifted her head up, gaining a more regal appearance. “Luna and I have detected an immense magic surge to the North in the depths of the Everfree.”

Pinkie poked her head out from behind Fluttershy, making the pegasus jump up in surprise. “Strong magic in the Everfree is totally normal, nothing to worry about! ...Except you’re telling us about it, so, wait, that doesn't add up…”

“Normally, magic in the Everfree is not a concern,” Celestia admitted. “However, this is… different. For one, it appears to have come from another world.”

“Oh, the Other’s magic?” Rarity asked. “I don’t suppose we have another Sunset?”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie bounced up and down. “What if their Discord dropped by for a visit!?”

Applejack froze. “...I don’t like the sounds of that.”

“If it were Discord we would not be in any danger,” Celestia asserted. “We’d just be… annoyed. Unfortunately, Luna and I are aware of what his magic feels like. This was not it - and we are now fairly certain the magic isn’t from the Other Side either. The signature is unlike anything we’ve ever sensed.”

“A third world?” Pinkie gasped. “Amazing!”

“You’re too easy to impress,” Fluttershy muttered under her breath, unheard.

“So, what, you want us to go check it out?” Applejack asked.

Celestia nodded. “Precisely. I need a small team of ponies with diverse abilities that can brave the Everfree and retrieve a possibly dangerous magical artifact from another world - or even engage in combat, if necessary. You are uniquely suited for the job, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you.”

“No,” Fluttershy asserted.

“We’ll find whatever it is and get right back!” Rainbow announced.

Applejack spoke up with a concerned expression. “Princess, are you sure we have the means to sense this artifact? Rarity…” she chose not to finish the thought.

Celestia nodded. “I am aware. Rarity, I don’t mean to doubt your abilities, but your element is not well suited for magic sensing.”

“I understand,” Rarity said with a slow nod - though she shot a glare at Applejack.

“I have procured a magic sensor,” Celestia said, pulling a disc-shaped crystal out and giving it to Rainbow Dash. “Normally it wouldn’t be very helpful, but the otherworldly presence is the largest magic in the area aside from Luna and myself. It should take you right to it.”

“What are we waiting for?” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down. “Let’s go! Mission start!”

There were a mixture of groans and chuckles from the other ponies in the room.

~~~

Celia, Burgerbelle, Blink, and Nira jumped out of the portal into a deep, dark forest that was all-too-familiar to most of their eyes.

Nira growled. “Local equivalent of the Everfree…”

“Ooh, that means we’re probably going to get lost!” Blink laughed. “I haven’t got to beat up a manticore in a while…”

Burgerbelle reached into a nearby bush and produced a very confused manticore. “As you wish.”

Blink laughed, doing a spin-kick to hit the Manticore - only for Burgerbelle to toss the creature back and replace it with a substitution dummy. The resounding CHINK when Blink’s hoof hit the concrete-stuffed plush let every Sweetie know precisely how painful it was.

Being a ghost, Blink wasn’t exactly harmed by the encounter. This did not mean she couldn’t feel pain.

“SASSAFRASSINGMMMM!” she screamed, stamping her pained hoof on the ground. This did nothing to ease the pain, much to her annoyance.

Burgerbelle put on a pair of sunglasses and smirked while the words GET REKT appeared in front of her.

Celia rolled her eyes - but she was grinning just as much as Burgerbelle was.

“You do know Nausicaa will give us an earful if we screw this up with our antics, right?” Nira asked.

“YESSSSSSSS!” Blink hissed. “I’m just the one IN PAIN!”

Burgerbelle pulled out a spyglass. “Aye, mateys, we best be lookin’ for the booty quickly, or my name isn’t cap’n bluebeard.”

Celia performed a cursory check to confirm that, yes, Burgerbelle did currently have a blue beard on her face. “What direction say ye, captain?”

“Aye say ye be the one with the treasure map! Aye suspect we’re on the trail of a teapot, myself, but that’s more yer department now.”

Celia rolled her eyes, lighting her forehead crystal and projecting a ‘map’ from it. The map in question consisted of four dots - representing them - and an arrow pointing south; the direction of an ‘unknown magic anomaly’.”

Blink’s hoof had finally stopped hurting enough that she didn’t feel like screaming at it. She examined her leg’s reality bracelet, just to make sure it was completely undamaged. With a deep breath, she set off in the direction the arrow indicated, Nira filing in alongside her.

“...I thought we were in charge,” Burgerbelle said, lowering the spyglass.

“It does appear that they’ve gotten their own ideas on how to run things,” Celia admitted.

Burgerbelle shrugged, tossing the telescope away behind her. If the sound it made when it landed was anything to go by, it hit a cat - but it wasn't like Burgerbelle’s sounds were a trustworthy indicator of reality.

They moved through the forest, occasionally running into a dark creature or creepy tree that thought they would be easy pickings. It never took long for the attackers to either be dispatched or sent running.

“We’ve been walking a while,” Nira obaserved.

“Lost, told you,” Blink muttered.

Celia rolled her eyes. “We’ve moved in a straight line and I have sensed no obfuscatory spells or space distortion.”

“What if we’re in an endless plane universe?”

“That would explain why Swip’s portal wasn’t that accurately placed.”

“I can sense the motions of the Stars,” Nira said. “There’s more that just a forest here, I can guarantee that.”

“What else is there?” Burgerbelle asked with the comical grin of someone who knew there was no answer.

Nira rolled her eyes, not about to admit to ignorance. “I can also sense the artifact’s magic getting stronger. We are nearing it, if nothing else.”

“Gotta go fast,” Burgerbelle said, a golden ring in her hand. She ran forward at an absurd speed - tripping over a loose root less than a second later. “...Ouchies.”

“What are you?”

Burgerbelle realized she had fallen in front of somepony. The Flat easily recognized the unicorn as a Starlight Glimmer, given the curled mane and pinkish coat. However, this Starlight did not have the standard pony physiology. Her body was more angled, her snout more pronounced, and her ears more layered. She had a metallic device in one of her ears and was wearing a sort of medical vest.

Burgerbelle stood up, smirking. “Burgerbelle, League of Sweetie Belles!”

“I mean what, not who,” Starlight said, tilting her head side to side. “You’re flat.”

“Yep! I’m a Flat!”

Starlight blinked. “...Right. Well, I-”

It was at this point the other Sweeties arrived - startling Starlight slightly. She examined the three ponies with an initial curiosity that gave way to unease. “Ah… what are you all doing in the Everfree forest?”

“Out for a walk,” Burgerbelle said, tipping back and forth on her toes. “This is Celia, Nira, and Blink.”

“...Starlight,” Starlight said, examining them all slowly. “You’re all fascinating specimens… And yet you all look eerily similar…”

“Oh, that would be because we are part of the League of Sweetie Belles.” Celia stepped forward. “Charmed to meet you. Normally we would be all about chatting and making friends in this new place, but we unfortunately have a mission we need to complete today.”

“Mission?” Starlight asked, cocking her head.

“Quite.” She was about to explain what they were doing, but then remembered they were talking to a Starlight. These particular mares didn’t exactly have the best track record with being trustworthy. “I’m afraid we must be getting back to that, this forest isn’t going to walk through itself.”

“Oh.” Starlight’s eyes shifted from relief to disappointment in quick succession. “Will I see you around?”

“Probably,” Burgerbelle said with a shrug. “We’ll answer all your questions then! But right now… WE GOTTA GO FAST TWO: THE REFASTENING!” She dashed off, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.

When the dust cleared they could see she had tripped over another root not two yards away.

“I’m okay!” she called, dusting herself off. “We will find that teapot or my name isn’t Knack!”

The other Sweeties laughed and jumped after her, paying little attention to the Starlight they were leaving behind.

When Celia glanced back to check if they were being followed, she was surprised to find that the mare had completely vanished. She made a mental note to watch out for Starlight, but otherwise returned to focusing on the Forest around them.

One encounter with a cragadile later and Starlight already seemed like a distant memory.

~~~

A manticore leapt out of the forest and tried to bite Pinkie in half.

Pinkie, with a giggle, jumped around behind him. Quicky, she activated a small device on her hoof that created a portal on the ground, hooked to a similarly sized portal a few meters above it. The Manticore fell in, popping out the higher portal and falling in again… and again… and again…

“You enjoy that way too much,” Rainbow observed.

“Physics,” Pinkie giggled, tapping her hooves together excitedly. She threw a coin into the air, planning to have it spin forever with the manticore - but Applejack swiped it out of the air and pocketed it, leaving Pinkie disappointed. “Aww…”

Applejack took a moment to examine the endlessly falling manticore. “Well if we get it out of there now, it’s just gonna make a mess…”

“Don’t look at me,” Fluttershy said. “I’m not getting vertigo today.”

Rarity sighed. “Pinkie, can you be a dear and place one of your portals high up there?”

Pinkie nodded, quickly shooting the higher portal even higher, prompting the manticore to be in open sky for the first time in a good while. Rarity touched a gemstone with her magic, waiting for the manticore to approach the ground.

She never got the chance to do anything since the manticore was smart enough to open up its wings and fly away from the dangerous ponies.

For effect, Rainbow thrust her wings forward, sending a series of golden boomerang-like weapons from her wings. A few of them clipped the manticore, causing it to falter and crash into a distant tree. She smirked, catching the projectiles back on her wings effortlessly. “I’ve still got it.”

“Yeah, you’re great Dashie!” Pinkie grinned.

“And so insecure she needed to attack a fleeing animal,” Applejack muttered.

“Excuse me?!” Rainbow snorted.

“It was pretty excessive,” Rarity admitted.

“You’re one to talk, prissy.”

“Hey, hey, can’t we just all be friends here?” Pinkie said, inserting herself between them. “We’re on a mission for the Princess!”

“You’re the one sent that manticore into the endless dive,” Rainbow grunted.

“...Well yeah, but…”

“You’re all too hypocritical to accuse each other like that,” Fluttershy said, already walking ahead of them.

“Says the mare who lies with her very life,” Applejack muttered.

Fluttershy smirked ever-so-slightly, stroking a nearby tree with her hoof. “At least I’m consistent.”

Applejack paused. “Eh, fair enough. Can we all at least agree none of us have got it quite right?”

Pinkie and Rarity nodded in agreement while Rainbow let out some sort of grumbling noise. Fluttershy made no response, continuing her walk deeper into the Everfree.

Rarity shuddered. “I swear, that mare gets creepier every day…”

“Sometimes we need creepy,” Rainbow said with a determined face.

“She’s not creepy to anypony else…”

“She is if she wants to be.”

The conversation trailed off as they continued their trek through the forest. Fluttershy, being in front, came across the unusual sight first.

“Girls!” she called, waving them up with her wing. “You need to see this.”

A few moments of galloping later, the five of them entered a small clearing filled with dead monster plants. This in and of itself wasn’t that unusual - the monstrous plants of the Everfree were often torn apart by the predators within. The unusual part were the bars of ice crossing in and out of the clearing, skewering several trees and creeping over numerous plant ‘corpses’.

“My Celestia…” Rarity said, eyes wide. “What happened here?”

Rainbow touched the ice with her hoof. She recoiled with a hiss. “This is way too cold. This is somepony’s magic.”

“...It might not be somepony,” Applejack said, narrowing her eyes.

Rainbow pulled up the scanner Celestia had given them. “Doesn’t look like it’s what we’re looking for.”

“It could be a side effect,” Pinkie said, grinning. “Excess magic from the source!”

“Maybe…” Rainbow Dash said, furrowing her brow.

Fluttershy lightly traced the swerving ice with the tip of her wing, sending a deep chill through her wing with the lightest touch. “Hmm…”

“We should have brought that Twilight of ours,” Rarity commented. “Or Sunset, perhaps. Their elements are more all-purpose than mine, they may have known what to make of this.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Well, they’re not here, and I can’t exactly portal us back! So… I guess we’re stuck with what we have!”

“As always,” Fluttershy said, barely audible.

Suddenly, Rainbow pulled back and shook her head. “We’re getting distracted. We’ve got to move. This way.”

The others nodded, trotting after her. Soon the ice was far behind them.

~~~

Starlight lowered her spyglass from her eye, a mischievous grin on her face.

Oh this was just too good. Not only were there a bunch of interdimensional explorers in the forest, the Elements were here as well. And they were heading for the same spot. No doubt after the same thing.

Quickly, she reached into one of her vest’s many pockets and pulled out a small mint-like candy. She popped it in her mouth and chewed, chuckling to herself as she felt its power course through her body. With a shimmer of magic, her own falling star cutie mark vanished, slowly replaced by three pristine snowflakes; a mark with the element of ice.

She lit her horn and created an ice bridge beneath her hooves, allowing her to slide through the Everfree Forest, traveling in a line directly between the Elements and the Sweeties.

Neither of the groups were moving as fast as she was and she knew this forest like the back of her hoof. She would arrive long before they did. Whatever they were looking for, it was hers.

And then, if she was lucky, she might get a few… bonuses from them. The Sweeties seemed to lack cutie marks for the most part. Blink was a blank-flank filly, Celia wasn’t even a unicorn, and Starlight wasn’t even sure where to begin with Burgerbelle. The only normal one was Nira - proudly displaying a three-colored shield cutie mark, though the details of the emblem had been obscured by scratches. Starlight couldn’t even begin to guess what sort of strange element the mark represented, and that just made her curious.

The Elements she already knew, how could she not? She wasn’t a complete hermit, she would venture into the civilized world and get information. Pinkie Pie’s talent was all but useless to her, while Rarity’s would be an immense boon if she could get hold of a decent supply of crystals. Rainbow’s speed might be redundant, but it never hurt to have backups.

The only ones she weren’t sure about were Fluttershy and ‘the Mysterious Mare-do-Well’. She was pretty sure the masked ‘hero’ was compensating for a mundane talent, but Fluttershy… That mare just tickled Starlight’s curiosity. She clearly offered something to the group - but what?

Something for later…

After she figured out what they were looking for.

Fortunately for her, she arrived moments later. There was a crater smaller than her head in the middle of a clearing. There was no smoke, not even any significant debris - just an unnatural hole in the ground occupied by something Starlight wasn’t sure how to process.

It looked somewhat like a flame, except carved out of brown rock. There was a soft red glow coming from the thing, seeping out through cracks in the artifact’s exterior. She realized with a growing smile that they weren't cracks - they were symbols.

The biggest of which vaguely resembled an ‘H’.

~~~

There are moments in life where everyone present gets a sinking feeling in their stomach, the realization that things have just gotten very, very complicated.

This happened when four Sweeties and five Elements walked into opposite sides of a small clearing with a crater in the middle of it. A crater that housed a decidedly alien looking magical artifact. Burgerbelle dropped her pop-tart cat and Applejack stopped flipping her coin in the air over and over.

“Back off!” Rainbow shouted, flaring her armored wings. “This is property of the Crown!”

“The item in question was lost in your world by one of our expeditions,” Celia countered. “We are here to retrieve it.”

Rarity furrowed her brow. “The level of magic is too strong t- my Celestia…” She had just taken in Celia’s appearance. “You’re me! And the rest of you… I…”

“We are the League of Sweetie Belles,” Burgerbelle said with a salute. “And we’d like to be friends, but we’re going to have to take that first. You’re right, it is too strong. Too dangerous.”

“We’ll be the judges of that,” Rainbow spat.

“Let’s not be hasty,” Celia said, holding up a hoof. “I’m sure we can come to an agreement. Allow us to contact our superiors - we could even send a message to your Celestia - a-”

“And let you call for backup?” Applejack asked, incredulously.

“We wouldn’t!” Burgerbelle insisted, waving her hands back and forth.

“We can’t exactly trust you,” Rarity added, still a little shaken by the Sweeties mere existence. “How about you accompany us back to the castle?”

“We know nothing about your world, it could be a trap,” Nira pointed out.

“Well then, it appears we’re at an impasse,” Rainbow commented, lowering her head.

“It would still be unfortunate if we fought…” Celia commented. “What if we work together to understand what it i-”

“Sneaky pony!” Pinkie shouted with no warning, shooting a portal into the ground in front of the crater, just as Blink stepped into it. Blink let out a yell of surprise, dropping her aura of ‘unimportance’ as she fell in, falling out of a tree-portal behind the Elements.

Fluttershy let out an ‘eep’ and ducked behind a nearby tree.

The music began the moment chaos erupted between the two sides. As hooves clashed, the Sweeties expected the lyrics of a heartsong to break out. But none came - there were no words, only intense action coupled beautifully with the intense beats of the backing melody. It was the way of this world.

A way of telling everyone the time for words was at an end.

The first blood came from Rainbow Dash’s wing-blade cutting a gash across Nira’s side. Rainbow whipped around, planning another pass on Nira’s other side, but the sight of Nira’s wound horrified her into stopping short.

The blood coming out wasn’t normal - it flowed out of her, coalescing into an immense claw of crimson darkness. It slashed at Rainbow Dash, blocked only by Applejack’s quick activation of a shield device.

Nira laughed at the momentary defense. She lit her horn, tapping into alien magic. A ring of crimson red runes appeared around her body, giving the blood-claw a shimmering quality. The tips of the appendage lashed out, piercing the shield as easily as paper now.

Rainbow grunted - this mare clearly wasn’t from this world, and unlike Twilight she evidentially hadn’t been transformed into one of the local ponies upon arrival. They couldn’t treat her like a normal unicorn mage, not by a long shot.

Applejack and Rainbow leaped to the sides, barely dodging a series of magical blades Nira pulled from the aether. They retaliated with a grappling hook from Applejack and a flurry of boomerang-blades from Rainbow.

All Nira had to do was raise a magical shield to deflect the physical assault. She continued her assault, finding the mares’ attempts to defeat her adorable.

Elsewhere Burgerbelle was on Pinkie - as was protocol with the League of Sweetie Belles. Fighting insane Pinkies was unfortunately a regular part of the job, and Burgerbelle was uniquely suited to deal with them. The scientists called Burgerbelle’s abilities ‘referential-ka-based-esoteries’.

She just called them shitty memes.

She folded herself back like a piece of paper to dodge Pinkie’s jump. Before the pink pony could do much of anything, Burgerbelle hefted a Twicane like a golf club and hit Pinkie, throwing her into her own portal like a golf ball.

Burgerbelle scratched a ‘hole in one’ on a score pad while Pinkie laughed. Unfortunately, unlike a lot of Pinkies, this one could apparently still move just fine while undergoing a fit of laughter. She opened a portal under Burgerbelle and swiftly kicked her in the stomach, throwing her like a ninja star into a nearby tree.

Burgerbelle popped out comically, catching another hoof from Pinkie with a catcher’s mitt laced with a whoopie cushion. Her face became that of a duck - and she pecked Pinkie.

To her credit, Pinkie didn’t flinch before opening a portal beneath and above them. They were soon falling endlessly, catching more than enough speed to explode on impact with the ground.

Burgerbelle folded herself into a paper airplane and drifted out easily.

What she failed to realize was that this left her open to attack. Pinkie was smart enough to adjust the angle of one of her portals to launch her like a bullet into the paper airplane, catching the folded Burgerbelle in her mouth.

Burgerbelle unfolded, dripping wet from an absurd amount of Pinkie’s saliva. The two of them crashed into the ground, kicking up a lot of dust.

When the dust cleared, Burgerbelle was holding an Aperture Science™ Portal Device. She smirked, firing into the ground.

No portal formed. Because there were no active portal surfaces around.

Burgerbelle shrugged, tossing the gun to the ground. At least this Pinkie didn’t appear to have much in the way of Pinkie Powers, so that gave her the advantage.

And then Pinkie appeared behind her with a party cannon.

Burgerbelle sighed as the flood of confetti engulfed her and embedded her in a tree. The tree fell over into a river, hitting a dam, alerting the dark-magic infused beavers they had an intruder.

With a whimper, a Burgerbelle with swirls instead of eyes waved a miniscule white flag.

Burgerbelle was down. FIRST. That wasn't good.

Celia realized she should probably stop sizing Rarity up and act. The crystal in her forehead began to glow as she summoned two glowing objects - a rod longer than she was and a disc-shaped saw blade. The two objects affixed together, forming Celia’s top. She hopped on it, the spikes on the bottom whirring menacingly.

Rarity grabbed one of her outfit’s crystals, prepared for any encounter.

Celia moved forward - but darted quickly to the side to intercept a madly portaling Pinkie. With a cry of surprise, Pinkie found herself pushed back into a portal by the bottom of a top.

Rarity fired her crystal anyway, using her magic to increase its size until it was larger than Celia was. Celia’s response to this was to fire a laser with her own magic, shattering the crystal into hundreds of unimportant pieces. She leaped into the air - pulling her top behind her, somehow hefting the massive object like it were a hammer.

How was it both a smashing implement and a vehicle!?

Rarity had to use all her magic just to create defensive crystal walls in front of her, each one smashed to pieces by the razor-top. She was acting purely on the defensive.

Wait…

She reached out with her magic, touching the crystal in Celia’s head. The top-wielding pony let out a desperate, wailing scream - accompanied by her entire body starting to ‘glitch’ with drastic, unnatural noises.

Rarity pulled back, horrified. She didn’t want to kill the mare - clearly none of them were acutally fighting with intent to kill, or even maim.

Celia shot her a smile and nodded in sad gratitude. She opened her mouth to say something, but...

Pinkie! She jumped out of a portal and charged Celia. Celia whirled the top round, deflecting Pinkie - but this left her open to Rarity. Rarity smirked, firing a crystal bullet off.

Unfortunately, Celia could work with this. She used the rest of her magic to fire a laser at Rarity - not at the incoming crystal, but at Rarity herself, knocking the mare to the ground. Celia had designed the spell to be as painless and comfortable as possible, focusing on sleep rather than force. It was a gift, of sorts, however inadequate it repaid Rarity’s earlier action. She was lucky Rarity wasn’t physically strong enough to resist it - the other Elements would have been.

Celia took the hit of the crystal dead on. It sent her flying, forcing the top to dissipate into loose magic sparks. She, however, wasn’t down. She whirled around to meet Pinkie with a burst of magic.

Elsewhere, Nira was evening the odds further. Applejack was still relatively unharmed - her gadgets never seemed to run out of variety - but Rainbow was having issues. Her armor had been bent and dented in many places, making her usual agile movements difficult.

Nira’s darkness finally landed a square hit on Rainbow’s wing, bending the metal casing with a resounding CLANG. The pegasus lost control of her flight and spiraled into the ground. Down - but definitely not out yet.

Nira decided this partial job wouldn’t do. She surrounded Rainbow Dash with a tendril of shadow, squeezing. Soon, the pegasus would pass out, and that would be that. It was easy enough to keep Applejack away with a few simple shields - for the moment, at least.

It was not easy to keep Blink from invisible-punching Nira in the face. The ghost came from nowhere and tossed Nira to the side, easily freeing Rainbow, though the mare was in no condition to keep fighting.

Nira tried to find Blink - but couldn’t. That mare could become invisible at the drop of a hat, and it’d take far too much magical effort to actually find her. But something had to be controlling her… somewhere.

Where’s their Fluttershy?

Rainbow and Rarity were down. Applejack was still on Nira, and Pinkie was on Celia. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen.

Blink punched Nira across the face again - this time adding to the punch a little bit of Void, the power of nonexistence momentarially scrambling Nira’s mind. Already, the dark mage was sick of the invisible foe - not to mention the smoke bombs Applejack had started laying around.

So Blink let out a magic-infused scream, making every pony in the clearing wince in pain and cover their ears. Nira ignored the slight magic response she got from near the artifact - there wasn't a pony there, she knew it. There was a pony behind a nearby tree, however.

She teleported to the tree, uprooting it with a dark tentacle. Behind it was a cowering, shivering Fluttershy.

Nira didn’t buy the act for a second. She moved to bring the tree down…

...and then Fluttershy Stared into her eyes.

Nira dropped the tree, a look of horror crossing her face. The pegasus was invading her mind.

No, this wasn’t going to happen. She had lived too much of her life under the control of the darkness, she’d defeated it! She wasn’t about to be enslaved to some stupid buttery pegasus! She would stand fast!

With a howl of rage that sent cracks through the earth, she fell to the Element’s influences.

Fluttershy sneered malevolently. Nira, under her control, raised walls of dark energy around the pegasus. Nira’s expression twitched for a moment before turning into a sneer that matched Fluttershy’s.

It was Fluttershy in there.

Celia dropped her encounter with Pinkie instantly - Nira was by far the strongest of their party, and if she was under enemy control…

At least Blink was no longer under enemy control, charging in line with Celia. Nira made the both of them invisible while Celia reformed the Top.

Applejack was frantically trying to find where the Sweeties were. Pinkie, however, didn’t have to. Did she know because of some sort of Pinkie Sense, or did she just deduce it? Not even she was really sure, not that she knew to ask the question in the first place. She prepared to open a portal…

...but her portal device was gone. She stared at her bare hoof in disbelief.

Wait…

It was affixed to her hoof. It shouldn’t have been able to come off without some pain. Was it just… invisible?

She closed her eyes and tried to activate the portal - finding that, yes, she did still have it. That little sneaky filly had quite the set of tricks up her sleeve…

But Pinkie was smarter than that. With a giggle, she jumped out of the portal where she knew they were.

Unfortunately they had been expecting this and Celia hit her with an invisible top, knocking her to the side once again. The two Sweeties continued their charge on Nira, who was blindly shooting darkness in their general direction.

Blink focused more and more on their stealth. Nira may have had good magic senses, but the more Blink focused, the harder it was for the two of them to be seen. It was a little difficult to keep this level of focus while running, dodging, and fighting, but she was managing.

Celia was the one focusing on taking Nira down. She was banking on the fact that Fluttershy couldn't read Nira’s mind - if she did, she would know exactly what was coming and would be able to stop it.

Her bet paid off. She was able to get right up to Nira’s face and cast a very particular spell - known in less-than-respectable circles as the Trauma Spell, it forced one’s mind to fold back on the suffering it had experienced in the past. For most people and ponies, it would just make them wince in pain.

Nira let out a howl, her entire body locking up from the torments of the past. She unceremoniously passed out, the darkness vanishing from the clearing, leaving Fluttershy undefended.

Her confident smile vanished. She nervously smiled and gulped.

Celia glared at her as Blink dropped the invisibility.

Applejack saw her opportunity, reaching for her net launcher. To her shock, it was missing. She wasn't going to be able to do anything.

It was at this moment Starlight decided to reveal herself - firing an intense beam of magic energy right into Fluttershy’s face, knocking her down.

Applejack and Pinkie called out while Blink and Celia suddenly got a look of panic. They all turned to Starlight. She was standing right next to the artifact, a delicate hoof stroking the device, prompting it to flash ever-so-slightly.

Starlight chuckled. They watched as her pale eye cutie mark was replaced with the familiar falling star. With a kick, she tossed the artifact into the air, grabbing it with her horn. A series of crisscrossing red lines shot out of it, cutting through the edges of reality. Space folded around the wires, making the clearing appear to everyone as a kaleidoscope.

Celia, Blink, Pinkie, and Applejack exchanged glances. They all nodded to each other. It wasn’t hard to see there was now a greater enemy before them.

Applejack moved first, throwing a hoof held lasso through the magic wires, aiming for one of Starlight’s hooves. Another Starlight jumped out from a wire, catching the lasso from the side before it could reach the center Starlight.

The new unicorn nodded to the original, who understood instantly. She jumped through a red wire to become the new Starlight.

It was a reality altering spell, after all; specifically attuned to space and time. She hadn’t had that much time to practice with it before they had arrived, but it was more than enough to understand that simple fact. With a cackle, she jumped into the wires - splitting herself in three. Each one popped a different candy in their mouths, gaining a different cutie mark: dumbbells, three snowflakes, and a sound wave.

Applejack tried to charge her, but she suddenly found herself in another area of the clearing, confused beyond belief. The snowflake Starlight jumped out and thrust a frigid wave over her. Applejack reared, managing to grab the top of the wave with her hooves and thrust herself over, planting a back hoof firmly on Starlight’s head.

She noticed with some satisfaction that one of the other Starlights had a lump on her head. They were all still the same mare. Defeat one, defeat them all…

Then the sound-Starlight jumped out and bleated a shrill noise in her ears, tossing her to the side like a ragdoll.

Blink tried to rush to her aid, but she ended up lost, right next to Pinkie for some reason. Pinkie nodded to her with a smile and made a few gestures, suggesting a plan. Blink decided she didn’t have any better ideas at the moment, so she turned herself invisible and charged in the direction Pinkie had indicated. She shifted through the folds in space several times, always keeping her gaze straight ahead.

It worked - she ended up right behind the sound-Starlight, who was currently distracted by a portal-spamming Pinkie. Blink pulled her hoof back and embedded it in the back of Starlight’s head, knocking her down and out.

Pinkie and Blink bumped hooves - but then they realized with some confusion that this Starlight didn’t have an artifact with her. She was significantly more bruised than all the others…

Blink realized this must have been part of some plan - the furthest-future Starlight had known she was about to go down, so she’d dumped the artifact off so tha-

The dumbbell Starlight kicked Blink with enough force to snap a pony’s spine and ribcage along virtually every contact point. Being a ghost, she didn’t have any bones to break, but it hurt like nothing else. That concrete dummy earlier had been peanuts compared to this. She collapsed not from injury, but overwhelming agony.

It just so happened that dumbbell-Starlight had two of the artifacts in her hooves. She tapped into them with her magic and easily made Pinkie miss a portal, sending her flying straight into a tree.

Which left Celia.

To her credit, the large mare was moving gracefully through the mess of red wires, managing to put up a good fight on all fronts. But her lasting this long could not be used as a measure of actual quality since time was looping all around the encounter.

She saw the dumbbell-Starlight lifting up the sound-Starlight and giving her the extra artifact. Celia had decided she’d had enough - with an uncharacteristic rage in her eyes she jumped on her top and cut straight for the Starlights.

The ice-Starlight’s attempts at defense were destroyed by the rapidly rotating spikes. The dumbbell-Starlight, however, would have been a problem, had Celia not been prepared for an absurd attack. She used the force from the super-strength punch to launch into the air and bring the top down.

Not on a Starlight.

On one of the artifacts.

It shattered into several pieces, letting out a burst of deep-crimson light, destroying the top easily. The wires of space-time distortion vanished in an instant, leaving only one Starlight. One with her normal cutie mark.

Celia let out a breath of relief, turning to face the unicorn.

Starlight corked an annoyed eyebrow. Celia was tired - exhausted. Her unusual body may not have shown it, but she was at the limits of her energy output. If she could just…

Starlight smirked, activating an injector within her coat. A mathematical symbol appeared on her flank, allowing her to analyze the situation. All it would take was a careful attack aimed right at that crystal on Celia’s head…

With a calculated strut, she walked forward. Celia couldn't generate the full top - opting for summoning the rod alone, wielding it like a quarterstaff. The horn and staff clashed.

Applejack, meanwhile, was watching the fight closely, one eye open. She just needed an opportunity. With Starlight distracted…

She analyzed her options. There wasn’t much around her, most of her gadgets had been busted or used up already. The coin was nearby, but that was useless, as were her bent boomerangs, and unless the smoke bombs…

But then she saw it. Part of the shattered artifact - the largest part - had fallen right next to her. The symbol made her eyes open wide in shock.

It was similar to an H.

Almost exactly like the one on her Mare-do-Well costume.

Carefully, she reached out for it, feeling as if it was calling her. Which, for all she knew, it was. Normally she’d be cautious, but at this point she knew letting this mare have her way with them would probably be nightmarish. She had to get all those cutie marks from somewhere, after all…

She touched the artifact. It flashed a deep crimson - and flowed into her costume, focusing its energy on the identical ‘H’ glyph at the base of her neck. The symbol glowed green instead of red.

Applejack had no idea what that meant.

She felt compelled to look up at Starlight, and saw that her back was completely turned. She was reared up on her hind hooves, pummeling Celia to the ground. The mare’s crystal took a hit, promoting her to scream in agony - but she held the quarterstaff firm.

Applejack saw two courses of action. She could charge Starlight directly from the back, or try to sideswipe her so Celia would get a chance. But she didn’t know which one.

She glanced at the coin.

It had landed heads.

Eh, as good of a decision maker as any…

She charged, attacking Starlight directly - a hoof planted firmly on her back. The unicorn yelled in surprise, turning and skewering Applejack in the neck with her horn…

<<<<<<

It had landed tails.

Eh, as good of a decision maker as any…

Applejack leaped to the side and then toward Starlight. The unicorn saw her coming, realizing with annoyance that with the calculation cutie mark active her normal magic wasn’t available to her. She had to back up - allowing Celia to smack her horn.

The glyph on Applejack’s outfit shifted back to the artifact’s normal red before dissipating. Applejack felt a sort of connection rise within her, that she had tried both options… and the other one hadn’t ended up so well.

She blinked in surprise. That was new.

Starlight stood up - and took one look at Applejack’s outfit. She scowled - the artifact was in her control now, whatever was left of it. Given her state, it was probably a bad idea to stick around and try to knock out the rest of them, especially now that ponies were apparently recovering from being knocked out.

So she ran.

Applejack decided to try something. She grabbed the coin and flipped it.

Heads.

She charged after Starlight, waving for Celia to come along.

Starlight, her mark having returned to her default, yelled out in rage and shot a laser out. She was done playing nice - hitting Celia’s gemstone head on. It shattered.

<<<<<<<<

Tails.

Celia moved to chase Starlight, but Applejack held up a hoof and shook her head. She tapped the glyph on her outfit - that would not go well. They would need to recover and regroup before trying that.

Celia thought about this for a moment - but nodded in understanding. Then she let out an exhausted breath and sat down, clearly so out of it standing was difficult.

Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder and nodded with a warm smile.

Somehow they all knew the conflict was over. Applejack had the remnants of the artifact now. It belonged with her. The rest of the shards would be for the Sweeties.

In essence, a split.

Applejack took a hoof off Celia and went to tend to her friends. A few seconds later, Celia struggled to do the same.

~~~

“Well I have good news and bad news,” Seren said.

Most of Suzie’s crew and the Elements were standing in the fiery-maned Celestia’s throne room.

“Do tell,” Celestia asked, calmly sipping from a teacup.

“YOU WERE THE TEAPOT ALL ALONG!” Burgerbelle shouted.

Seren ignored her. “The good news: your universe can handle the temporary splitting Appl- er, Mare-do-Well can do now.” Seren folded up her scanner. “No reality falling apart at the seams here.”

“And the bad?”

“Nausicaa is going to be so angry we just let you guys have it,” Seren said with a chuckle.

“It’s not like it’s the full artifact,” Celia commented - the scratches on her crystal having been repaired, though the main crack remained as untouched as always. “I’m sure you’ll make good use of your new power, Mare-do-Well.”

“Thanks,” Applejack said with a curt nod.

“Also, Nira, how are you doing?”

Nira rubbed her head. “I purged the experience from my head, like usual. So aside from a headache I’m fine.”

“Glad to hear it. I do hate it when that has to be done.”

Nira glared at Fluttershy. “We all know who to blame.”

Fluttershy cowered, shaking nervously.

“Oh would you drop that already?”

“Drop w-what?”

Nira bristled. Then she teleported away, clearly wanting nothing more to do with the pegasus.

“I do apologize for your rough welcome,” Celestia said, lowering her teacup. “It’s hardly a good first impression, I’m afraid.”

“It’s fine,” Suzie said, hands on her hips. “We gave just as bad of an impression ourselves. I can’t imagine seeing Nira cut loose is… pleasant.”

“Heavens, no,” Rarity said, shuddering. “All that blood and darkness… It didn’t even follow the rules of magic!”

“Which are…?” Cinder asked.

“Ponies can only do magic relating to their element, represented by their cutie mark. I’m crystals. General magic marks are… rare.”

“That’s not normal, that’s for sure,” Blink said with a laugh. “Can’t wait until you girls realize that most of the multiverse operates differently.”

“...Great,” Rainbow muttered, rubbing her head. “More otherworldly insanity to deal with…”

“You do have a lot of insanity here,” Blink admitted. “That Starlight was ridiculous.”

“I have put out a call for her arrest,” Celestia decreed. “There is a handsome reward, so it should not take long for her to realize she can’t hide.”

“Unless she figures out dimensional stuff,” Pinkie offered.

“...Could she do that?” Applejack asked

“Maybe,” Pinkie admitted. “I think I was pretty close to figuring out how the artifact-spell thingy was working. She had more time alone with it.”

“She’ll be on our watch-list as well,” Celia said. “One of us will catch her.”

“I certainly hope so,” Celestia said with a nod. “Regardless, it’s about time we open official relations. We already split the artifact in two - we should probably learn a bit more about our official governments before talking further.”

Cinder beamed, stepping forward - finally, a chance to do something. “Your majesty, we are the League of Sweetie Belles, and we represent Merodi Universalis…”

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JGRXSPRMmM

This has been The Different Views animation series by killme2paza, a very interesting animator. They were gracious enough not only to help out with the planning of this, but also give me the idea to provide the origin of AJs powers (woohoo!) Different Views is a very peculiar alternate universe told through different animation and song. There's maybe about an hour of videos telling of a world like Equestria, but not quite. I tried to capture the feel of one of those videos in the main action sequence, and it was quite fun to try an experimental style.
(One video in the series isn't on the playlist for some reason. Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOLg5mkuKAU

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Pony-Me™ (Time for VR fun...)

((LSB Status Post)) COME AND SUGGEST MORE STORIIIIIES!

-GM, master of Noodles.

Ship Shape (Pony-Me™)

“Hold onto your butts!” Swip called, performing a complex series of corkscrews and loop de loops around a volley of plasma bolts, dodging most and absorbing the rest with her shields. She weaved in and out with surprising grace and speed, toying with the angular black ships of alien attackers.

Nira was thrown out of bed by the sharp adjustments, landing flat against the wall. She let out a groan as she slid down, landing on her pile of tomes of forbidden knowledge. It had been her personal book fort of tomes of forbidden knowledge, but such art had been destroyed long before by the crazy antics of Swip.

Groggy, Nira forced herself to walk to her sink. She pressed a button, ordering a cup of coffee.

She was too tired to realize how bad of an idea this was. The coffee was bumped just enough to dump the scalding liquid onto the unicorn’s face, sizzling as it made contact with her coat.

To her credit, Nira didn’t flinch in pain - she just sighed, cleaning herself up with a spell. She trotted out of her room and went to the bridge. “There better be a good explanation for this.”

“There’s not,” Squiddy muttered, pulling on her tentacles in frustration.

“We’re engaging space-bullies,” Seren offered, bouncing up and down - an act that prompted her to fall over when Swip made a sharp adjustment.

“There are better ways to do that,” Squiddy countered. “Portal from a distance, magic blast… Swip was just bored. She hasn’t even taken a shot yet!”

“And I’m still winning!” Swip reported, drawing attention to the combat display. Already she was tricking the black, angular ships into shooting each other. “Heh. These idiots don’t know what they’re doing. This is laughable.”

“I’m not laughing,” Squiddy muttered.

Nira smirked. “I am. Haven’t had the opportunity to see our superiority in action for a while.”

“Our superiority is a joke. We’re only superior when we choose our ene-WAUGH!”

Swip did a triple helix maneuver through the alien attackers, scraping the edge of one of them with her shields. “Woo-hoo!”

“...Is it possible for a ship to have adrenaline?” Celia wondered, strolling onto the bridge. She was easily able to stand despite the constant rocking and twisting of Swip, making her the envy of everyone aside from Suzie - who had her feet locked to the floor at her console.

“I can sure simulate it!” Swip announced. “WOOHOO! Take that you overgrown piece of scrap metal!”

Cinder came flying through the bridge entrance, landing on the main screen like a pancake. “...Ow.”

Nira levitated her down. “No, you don’t have to be worried. Yes, Swip is being ‘awesome’.”

Cinder giggled. “Am I that easy to read?”

“Yes.”

“Alright then!” She turned to the screen. “Anything we can do, Swip?”

“Watch in awe!” Swip declared, speeding around the ships in an ever-shrinking circle.

Squiddy put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “I thought we didn’t have a Trixie…”

“All of us have a little Trixie in us,” Celia observed.

“ESPECIALLY THE GREAT AND POWERFUL BURGERBELLE!” Burgerbelle declared, wearing a full Trixie outfit.

There was a large bump, tossing everyone but Celia and Suzie to the ceiling. The Sweeties fell back down in an awkward flump.

“Suzie, do something…” Squiddy moaned.

“Oh, all right,” Suzie said, not even trying to hide her amused smile. “Swip, wrap it up.”

“Yes ma’a-”

Swip’s voice abruptly cut out to static and then silence. All the lights inside her turned off, replaced with the automatic red emergency signals. Every screen without its own secluded power source died in an instant. The consistent hum of the engines ended and the gravity turned off, prompting the Sweeties to start drifting into the air.

“...Swip?” NIra asked, concerned.

There was no response.

“Disengage foot clamps,” Suzie said - not at all surprised to find that her feet were still rooted to the floor. “Right. Does anyone have a report?”

Burgerbelle and Celia shook their heads.

“We have no way to tell anyth-”

They heard a loud crunch as something smashed into Swip at high speed, sending the ship flipping end over end. The rotational energy forced all the free Sweeties to the walls, providing a lot of bruises.

“...Shields are down,” Burgerbelle observed.

“Thank you captain obvious,” Suzie muttered under her breath. “Okay, Nira, we need a dimens-”

Swip was shot again, the sharp vertigo rushing all the blood to Suzie’s head. She managed to remain conscious through this - but not through the rotational reversal happening all of a second later.

~~~

“Yes ma’am,” Swip said, pushing herself to her limits.

And then nothing happened. It was as if the world had frozen. She wondered for a second if this was what crashing felt like, then she realized that if she were really crashing she wouldn’t be able to think about it.

There was a sharp monotone noise that shot pain into her.

Pain? I don’t have the pain receptors on…

“CONNECTION LOST, PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER.”

The shockingly loud - and alien - voice made Swip jump to her feet. In her delirium, she smacked her head on a nearby wall, driving a splitting headache into her groggy mind. She groaned, rubbing the sore spot with the back of her hand.

Wait.

Feet? Head!? HAND!?

Swip forced herself to stop moving and just take in all the information she could. It was a painfully slow process, but her newfound sense of touch did its job. She had feet, two legs, two arms, and a head with decently long hair. Human, for sure.

There was nothing but blackness in her mind. Was she blind?

She touched her face with her free hand, finding the sensation of air moving across her skin to be unnerving. She soon found that she wasn’t blind - she just had something strapped to her head. Awkwardly, she pulled the bulky black thing off her head, prompting light to shoot into her eyes. The overabundance of white forced tears out, but she refused to blink. She would face the light because it wasn’t about to win.

How can humans live with these inefficient eyes!?

The room she was in had a single bed and a few pieces of simple furniture lining the bare walls. Behind the bed was a large machine with a small text-based interface currently displaying an error message. Several wires and tubes snaked out of the machine, toward Swip. Half went directly into Swip’s biologically human body, weaving through the folds in her medical gown, while the other half went into the thing that had been on her head.

Swip wasn’t stupid. She knew what a virtual reality headset was. Clearly, she had been in a complex VR simulation produced by the machine, which also provided her body with all the nutrients it needed to function. Something had clearly gone wrong, and she’d been pulled out of the simulation.

It was the logical conclusion, and the first one she made.

If only it didn’t make her so livid.

“What in the fresh hell is going on!?” she shouted. Finding no answer forthcoming, she angrily grabbed the headset and smashed it into the ground, prompting it to split into a dozen pieces, revealing complex circuitry.

Swip was used to just knowing what all sorts of circuitry meant. She could just access her database and figure out how everything worked. All she was doing now was staring at the chips on the ground with a blank mind.

She subconsciously clenched her fists - hard enough to cause a mild pain. The sensation drew her attention, prompting her eyes to register the existence of a name band on her wrist.

Sarah Neuman.

Swip twitched. She angrily ripped the name band off her wrist, ripping a paper cut in her arm. The sight of blood at first made her afraid - afraid of her frailty, of her body’s capacity to be damaged. This quickly returned to rage; rage that anyone would weaken her.

With a roar, she grabbed the cables that connected her body to the machine and ripped them out. Several sparks erupted from the machine, as well as some organic fluid that presumably kept her fed. Smoke began to rise, triggering a smoke alarm.

Swip was soon doused in water, but she didn’t care. She had beaten the machine. It no longer held sway over her - she was her own person and… and…

And now she felt very lightheaded.

It probably wasn’t a good idea to rip all those wires out at once.

She tried to pass out on her bed, but she wasn’t exactly the most coordinated of human beings. She managed to trip and fall fllat on the floor, blacking out as the sprinkler rained on her frail form.

~~~

Celia knew what she needed to do - and she needed to do it fast, or they were going to be little more than space junk. While all the others were being tossed around hard enough to make it difficult to move - with the possible exception of Nira - Celia was able to keep her balance and firm footing.

Celia jumped to the ‘ceiling’ of the bridge, popping open one of Swip’s primary access panels. She prodded a touchscreen interface with her hoof - getting nothing.

“What are you doing?” Nira asked as she tried to use her dark magics to create a makeshift shield around Swip. She was having only marginal success.

“Don’t worry about me,” Celia said, her crystal shimmering with a brilliant light. “Here goes nothing…” She pressed her crystal directly into the interface, creating a physical link between herself and Swip’s systems. Her eyes opened wide, her irises and pupils replaced by rapidly scrolling lines of digital information.

Swip was gone. There was no evidence of an intelligence in the computer at all. The systems remained, but without a brain to control them.

Celia pushed her near-panic at Swip’s disappearance out of her mind and focused on becoming the brain for the ship. Her first order was to turn the shields back on, a move that saved the reactor from a lucky shot.

She did not try to activate the engines or fire any weapons - she didn’t know enough about the protocols or the state of the ship to try that, she might just blow everything up. What she did do was open a small portal and release a distress call directly to Celestia City. She spammed it since she wasn’t sure how to mark it urgent.

Naturally the Merodi Universalis Military overcompensated, sending a full warship into the universe with enough weapons active to devastate multiple cities. This particular warship looked vaguely like a curved lobster riddled with magic spikes, all glowing with immense power.

The alien ships took one look at the behemoth of a dreadnaught and fled. They didn’t make it far - the lobster-ship easily disabled their engines, sending them adrift.

Celia had no way to know this since she hadn’t bothered to turn on the sensors. She just knew they weren’t being hit anymore, so she disengaged herself from Swip’s systems, allowing her to become aware of her splitting headache. “Ergh…”

“Did it… work?” Nira asked.

“I think so. Try to hail them using your communicator, I don’t think they know we’re alive.”

Nira nodded, pulling out her phone. “This is Nira transmitting on all frequencies. We are disabled and…” she glanced around at the Sweeties, most of whom were either out cold or barely clinging to consciousness. “...we need medical attention. This includes our ship. Get us to the LSB hangar stat.”

Then Nira realized she was talking to Yellow Diamond. Probably not the best person to be giving short to-the-point orders to.

“...I keep bailing you Sweeties out,” Yellow muttered, pressing a few buttons. “I hope this isn’t going to keep being a pattern.”

Nira sighed. “Just get us there, please?”

“Opening direct wormhole. Medical team should be expecting you. Any losses?”

“U… unknown,” Nira said with a gulp. “Something happened to Swip.”

Yellow nodded slowly, pressing a final button. A portal opened that led directly to the League of Sweetie Belles’ hangar, complete with a small contingent of Sweeties in little nursing caps. The lobster-ship gingerly pushed Swip into the hangar, prompting Celestia City’s gravity to take over. There was an unceremonious pop and the portal closed.

Swip looked ragged. What was once a smooth dolphin-like exterior was now a horrendously bent and maimed piece of scrap metal. Multiple rooms were exposed to the vacuum of space, though thankfully none that had a Sweetie in them at the time. One of the fins was bent at a sharp angle, barely holding on to the rest of the ship. There were no visible lights on the outside.

The Sweeties moved quickly - a muscular stallion-Sweetie forced the doors of Swip open, allowing the nurse and healer Sweeties into the ship. They knew what they were doing - searching the entire ship and casting healing spells on everything.

The injuries weren't serious enough to warrant full hospitalization. At least, for the Sweeties that weren’t Swip. But she was in just the place for ship attention. Automatically, Celestia City robots began physical repairs to Swip.

However, Nira knew there was more wrong than just physical problems with Swip. She lifted her phone to call for extra help - but it turned out she didn’t need to. Tab and Entrapta scrambled onto the bridge, a giant chest of tools held in Entrapta’s massive locks.

“Out of the way,” Tab shouted, popping the dazed Suzie out of her foot-restraints to get easier access to Swip’s mainframe. Wordlessly, she and Entrapta worked, plugging a large number of complex magical wires into the floor. They managed to turn on a few nearby displays to show the various diagnostics they were running.

Seren walked up to Nira, the two watching the geniuses work.

“...Shouldn’t you be helping?” Nira asked Seren.

Seren sighed. “I… I have no idea what they’re doing. They know a lot more about this than I do.”

Nira nodded sadly. “...Swip’s going to be fine.”

Seren gulped, not responding.

Several agonizing minutes passed as they watched Tab and Entrapta work. Nobody knew what anything they were doing meant - but nobody wanted to ask them for fear of ruining their focus.

“Ugh!” Tab shouted, ramming her hoof into the ground. “I don’t know what happened here!”

“This is one of the most exciting mysteries of computation I’ve ever seen!” Entrapta said - her tactless glee earning her more than a few glares from the Sweeties. “She’s just… gone!”

“What do you mean gone!?” Nira demanded.

“Gone. Not there. Vanished. Not even an error message.” Entrapta rubbed her hands together. “This is so fascinating…”

Tab sighed. “I… I’m sorry. All of Swips code is still here except the intelligence part. The ‘will’. It’s almost like she crashed, but there’s no error message, not even a looping code. It was just an instant on-off. Which doesn't make any sense! All computer systems - even magical ones - have a transition period!”

“Then maybe it’s not a computer problem?”

Everyone turned to see Mattie stroll into the room, a soft smile on her face.

Tab gulped. “...You know something we don’t. That’s not a good sign.”

Mattie shrugged. “Depends on your definition.”

“What do you know?” Nira demanded.

“Swip’s alive. Beyond that, not much of anything. But that should be enough to go off of.”

Entrapta clapped her hands. “Oooh, it’s time for fringe science!”

~~~

Swip had woken up in a groggy delirium. By chance, she found a button. ‘Press button for assistance.’ She’s pressed it without giving it much thought.

Crud, that might actually be a bad idea.

Wait…

She positioned herself in front of the sealed door, a grin forming on her face. She was going to pounce whoever came through that door and demand explanations. Who cared that she had just spent an indeterminate amount of time passed out on the floor because she ripped off the only thing providing her food? She could take anyone. She was Swip, Agent of the League of Sweetie Belles, nothing would stand in her way!

After a few minutes of annoyed waiting (puncited by her disgruntled sighs) a man in a labcoat walked into the room, a clipboard in hand.

“GOTCHA!” She shouted, jumping him.

She attempted to tackle him.

Instead she just stuck to him like a fly on a windshield. “...Ow…”

“I’m glad to see you too, Sarah,” he said with a smile, gingerly setting her down. “Now what seems to be the pr-” He paled when he saw the ripped wires, destroyed headset, and mixture of fluids pooling on the floor. “What happened!?”

“I tore it all out!” Swip shouted. “And I want some explanations, bucko! What is this place? Who are you? How did you access my systems?”

“I… oh geez, you’ve become immersed…”

Swip pointed an angry finger. “That sounds suspiciously like a non-answer!”

“I - Sarah. It’s me, your uncle Mark.” He put a calm hand on her shoulder. “Try to rememb-”

“Don’t touch me!” She hissed, slapping his hand back. To her disdain, she realized she didn’t have enough strength to move his arm forcefully, he had retracted it on his own. “I am not this… Sarah! I am Swip!”

“...I should have never let you in here…” Max said, shaking his head.

“Let me!?”

“You wanted to come in here!”

“Why would I want to be in there!?”

“...Sarah, you said there was nothing for you out here. It was… our compromise.”

Swip had enough of her wits about her to catch the implication. “Nuh-uh, I am not a pathetic depressed hunk of meat. I am the ESS SWEET-E-L, better known as Swip, a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence originating from Equis Farcasta, the invention of Technopath Rarity Belle. This is not me! Got it!?”

“Sarah, listen t-”

“SWIP! I. Am. Swip.”

Max clenched his jaw. “Swip, clearly you wish to return to the simulation.”

“It isn’t a freaking simulation.”

“As soon as the grid goes back up, I can hook you back up to a... “ he glanced at the destruction behind her. “New machine. I… I can even give you some chemical suppressants to make this seem like a dream. The world you were in is saved on a network, you didn’t destroy it.”

“Like I could.”

Max’s frown deepened. “...But I can’t do that right now. None of the simulations are working. You’ll have to wait just like everyone else.” He paused. “You should go outside and get something solid to eat.”

Swip blinked. “...I’m not locked in here?”

“Not anymore,” Max commented, turning to leave. “Try not to shout at everyone outside. Many of them are just as confused as you.”

And he was gone.

Swip realized she was trembling a few moments later. From malnutrition or emotional instability, she had no idea. She took one more look at the room.

Her mind told her one thing.

GET OUT.

Despite her trembling legs, she ran out of the room. It did not take her long to rush through the hallway and out the front doors - coming out in the light of the sun.

She was in a small town in the middle of an evergreen forest. Every building was far too advanced for such a rustic location, but given the headset she’d had, this was hardly the most surprising thing she’d seen today.

The town itself was dotted with at least a hundred people just like her - all humans, all wandering around in medical gowns with confused looks on their faces. Some were crying - and one man was shouting at the sky.

She noticed a sign near the edge of town. Welcome to Snowbush.

As she scanned the area in more detail, a sinking feeling formed in her stomach - only adding to her hunger, fear, and strain of not having advanced sensors to help her analyze the world she found herself in.

She saw some people eating what looked like hamburgers. She should do that first.

And then… she should test for the multiverse. There was enough technology here to do that. Probably. If she could remember how to do it. Which she would. And she would be able to convince the people of this world to establish portals so she could find where she belonged.

She refused to think what not finding the multiverse would mean.

With a shake of her head she walked up to the first person who looked like they had some idea what they were doing - a young woman with a boy at her side.

“Uh, hey, where can I get the food?”

The woman smiled. “Oh, they’re handing it out over there. You won’t have to pay anything, don’t worry.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. ...Now c’mon Spike, we’ve g-”

Swip turned and stared at them. “Spike. ...The dragon?”

“Uh… yeah!” Spike said, smiling awkwardly.

The woman smiled. “Oh, it’s so good to find someone else! I’m Twilight Sparkle - Lisa here.”

Twilight Sparkle. Not Eve. Not another name either. It’s not anyone I know…

“Ah. I’m Sw- Sweetie Belle. Hi.”

Spike blinked. “Do you think Rarity’s here?”

“...I haven’t seen her,” Swip said. “...And I’m really hungry.”

“Oh, right. ...We really need to go, so, uh… see you around, Sweetie!” Spike waved - walking off with Twilight. Presumably somewhere important. Even though they were clearly just out of a ‘simulation’ of their own, they already looked… in control of the situation.

They’re accepting it. I have to help them out of this. Swip set her face and marched toward the food. She was going to figure this out or her name wasn’t Swip.

...Quite literally.

~~~

Mattie had led everyone outside - aside from the Sweeties repairing Swip’s physical shell. They stood behind her, looking at the front of Swip with conflicted expressions. It was the closest thing to a face she’d had.

“...Well?” Nira asked.

Mattie raised a hoof and touched the underside of Swip. “Not gonna lie, she’s struggling right now.”

Nira narrowed her eyes. “And how can we help her?”

“I’m no expert in the scientific side of things, so... you there, spanky-one.”

“I’m Tab,” Tab deadpanned.

“I thought she was talking to me,” Entrapta commented.

“She’s not.”

“Yes, well, both of you should listen if we want to have any hope of resolving this in a nice little bow.” Mattie tossed her mane back. “She left. Not by choice, she was forced out.”

“Out of what? Into what?” Nira demanded.

“You know for a wizard you’re pretty insistent about treating this like an exact science. Ka doesn’t work like that, it blows wherever the bloody hell it wants.” She pointed at Tab. “Which you should be able to figure out.”

“Yes,” Tab admitted. “The ka sensors are ‘active’, and I can detect the fixation of ka on Swip. That doesn’t help us.”

Mattie raised an eyebrow. “Dear, you’re keeping everything in a box. Expand a little bit.”

“We could get some Pinkies!” Entrapta grinned. “They might know stuff! Or Starbeat, her sensors and devices are the best! Or, ooh, ooh, Monika. I’ve always wanted an excuse to look at her…”

“...We don’t know where to find her,” Suzie said. “We could try Twilence…”

“No, no, we don’t need her,” Mattie said. “We just needed to realize she exists, and that she is able to do something. Namely, follow the flow of ka wherever it goes. It can be followed.”

Cinder raised a hoof. “Um. Excuse me. I think everyone’s talking about things I don’t understand. I thought ‘ka’ was just a word for fate, but is it something else? Who are these people you keep talking about?”

Mattie pursed her lips and Tab looked like she was about to have a panic attack.

“...Would it really take that long to explain?” Cinder asked.

Mattie put a hoof on Cinder. The unicorn had the sense to flinch slightly, but not enough to reject her attempts at consolation. “Cinder, now’s not the time for your personal discovery. You’ll be stuck into the hole of ka eventually - pretty soon, if my intuition is right - but, yes, it would take a bit too long right now, and we need to find Swip in a hurry.”

“That’ll take time,” Tab said, running thousands of calculations on her tablet. “Ka research is Starbeat’s specialty, not mine, and our understanding of the subject is spotty at best.”

“Then make time,” Nira demanded. “Acceleration spell, or something.”

“She wouldn’t be in a place causally linked to here,” Tab said, turning to Entrapta. “Get all the advanced scanners from the lab, I’m going to try to triangulate dimensional coordinates. If I can interface the digital avenue properly, I might be able to find the spontaneous avenue of data transfer.”

Entrapta nodded, scrambling off with a grin on her face, leaving the Sweeties standing there while Tab muttered to herself.

Cinder surprised Nira with a hug. “We’ll find her.”

Nira, for once, didn’t reject the embrace, or even tense up. “...We better.”

“Swip’s strong. She’ll survive whatever… trouble she’s going through while we find her with… whatever we’re doing. What matters is we’ll get her back.”

“If,” Nira said.

“...Nira, don’t talk like that.”

“She saved me, you know? Before she joined the League… she was the one that got me out of the hellhole of a universe I called home. And I got her out of hers.”

“I didn’t know that.”

Nira gently pushed her away. “Yeah, well, we’re not the sorts to talk about our past. We’re always trying to forget it.”

“...That’s so sad.”

Nira’s scowl deepend. “Kid, if you knew the horrors of Equis Lesionull, you would think being able to feel sad about anything was a blessing.”

Cinder didn’t have anything to say to that.

~~~

Swip was crying over a hamburger.

It had all started with the paradox of eating.

She’d gotten the food. That was easy. She’d just asked for it and gotten it. Then she found a nice bench and considered how, according to her memory, she’d never eaten anything in her life.

She shrugged, biting into the hamburger.

The cognitive dissonance that ran through her mind was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She recognized the flavor. Half-forgotten memories surged into her mind of eating, even though she’d never done any such thing as Swip. But the other half of her was so concerned with how bizarre having a mouth felt, how outrageous the idea of actually ingesting food was. She had to be careful not to bite her tongue.

How could an experience be so memorable and so foreign at the same time?

She was absolutely sure she’d eaten hamburgers before. She was absolutely sure she hadn’t eaten anything in her entire life.

Once the tears poured out, it was only downhill from there.

If she couldn’t be sure of her own mind, what could she be sure about? Even if she managed to perform a multiverse experiment - and that was a big if given her lack of database access - there were some universes where the experiment wouldn’t work. Physics varied, and she had no way to tell what this one was like. She could run an experiment, get a negative result, and never be sure.

She couldn’t be sure about anything. She could be in some illusion right now, or all her memories would have been completely fake.

...Could she test for ka? No… a negative result would tell her nothing, and a positive one would just lend credence to the fact she might be living a lie. It wouldn’t care what kind of conflict there was, so long as it existed.

She was stuck. Stuck unless her team really existed and would be able to find her.

She tried to cling to that. But she couldn’t. All she could do is cry on the hamburger. She was well aware of how ridiculous it was, and it just made her cry harder.

But she forced herself to keep eating anyway. Her biological imperative to survive demanded she shovel food into her mouth. Every bit was a painful nail driven into her brain, but she couldn’t stop herself. She couldn't really think.

She didn’t even realize when a pair of arms slid around her and pulled her into a hug.

“It’s okay…”

Swip didn’t know who it was. She didn’t care. She pulled them in and cried on their shoulder. “I don’t know! I can’t know!”

“You don’t have to,” the familiar feminine voice responded. “I’ll be here for you regardless.”

Swip looked up to see the face of a human with long, curled black hair looking at her with a deep sisterly love.

“R-rarity…?”

“...I prefer Rachel,” Rachel said, stroking Suzie’s hair. “...But if y-”

Swip sniffed. “No, Rachel’s good. Are you… Sarah’s sister?”

Rachel twitched at the impersonal use of the name. “I… I’m your sister.”

“I’m not Sarah, I’m Sw-”

“I’m your sister,” Rachel insisted, putting her hands on Sarah’s shoulders. “And I don’t care who you say you are. What matters is that you’re here. You’re back. And I can see you again.”

Swip examined Rachel’s features - and scowled. “You’re j-just trying to get me to accept that none of that was real! Y-”

“It was real to you,” Rachel said. “You really were… are… Swip. You lived that life in there. But now you’re out here.”

“S-stop,” Swip muttered, mouth wavering. “J-just let me go back. Don’t do this.”

Rachel choked back tears. “You can go back. I… I won’t try to stop you this time. But please, let me see you. Let me talk to you. Life… life isn’t the same without you here. I need to tell my little sister what's been happening.”

“I’m no-”

“Yes you are. To me. No matter what happens to you. No matter how much your other life changes you.”

“...I don’t remember this life, Rachel. I only remember Swip. I don’t remember Sarah.”

Rachel had to bite back tears. “I… then I’ll catch you up. I’ll tell you… about this life. The one you’ve forgotten. I’ll tell you about… Sarah.”

Swip looked at the ground.

“You can’t say you have anything better to do.”

“I can try,” Swip huffed.

“Are you going to?”

“...No,” Swip said, dejectedly. “...Tell me about Sarah.”

~~~

Mattie watched Cinder trot alongside Nira, trying to keep the dark mage calm while she hounded Tab and Entrapta to hurry up.

“She’s already forgotten about ka,” Suzie told Mattie, unsure what to make of this observation.

“That’s the whole point,” Mattie said, stretching her legs with the pony equivalent of the splits. “She’ll remember it when the time’s right.”

“She’s usually so curious. And she just… forgets this one convenient thing.”

“It’s the name of the game. It’s either convenient or inconvenient. We’re all just along for the ride, squeezing as much out of life as we can. And speaking of squeezing, how’s Button?”

Suzie shrugged. “He’s fine - his games are doing… okay. And before you ask about Railgun in a way that’d make any sane woman want to file a restraining order on you, she’s at the Military Academy.”

“Nice. Any juicy tidbits for moi?”

“If there were, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Aw, balls. You’re no fun.”

Suzie sighed. “Swip’s missing, Mattie. I’m not doing that great. It’s hard to be fun like this.”

“Suzie, please, screw your head on straight and think about what I’m doing.” She waved her tail in the air in front of Suzie’s face. “Distraaaaaaction!”

Suzie smiled softly. “...Thanks. It’s not working though.”

“I’m gonna need a plan B. I’m thinking erotic dance with a lot of knives. And I mean a lot of knives - by the boatload. Maybe I can hire Cryo’s Discord to add some real flair to it. The question remains: is fake pain the same as real pain? ...I must find out. For science!”

Suzie rolled her eyes.

“Aha, it is working. You’ll be smiling like your old self before you know it.” She paused, thinking about what she’d just said. “Or, alternatively, Tab’s gonna finish up real quick.”

“DONE!” Tab shouted, as if on cue. She held up a hoof, displaying her handiwork. The freshly-repaired form of Swip was surrounded by nineteen separate antennas, each of which were sparkling in a different color. “I finally have all the data I need! The moment I push this button Swip - the ship - should be transported to the universe in which Swip - the intelligence - has been transferred too! YES!”

“And you did it without anyone’s help!” Suzie said with a thumbs up. “I knew you could do it.”

Tab flushed. “I, uh, have been communicating with Starbeat over email. She deserves some credit.”

“This is still a great achievement, Tab!”

“I guess you could say that…”

“To put it simply, we are awesome,” Entrapta added, pressing a few more buttons.

Nira coughed. “What are we waiting for? We’ve sat around long enough. Start it already.”

“You all need to get on board Swip first,” Tab said, shaking her head. “There might be some time distortion, and I don’t want any of your bodies being torn in half because you aren’t inside the travel boundary.”

Cinder blinked. “...Terrifying, but cool.”

“You head her,” Suzie said, waving her hand. “Expedition team, load up! We’re shipping out!”

“I’ve installed a rudimentary control AI into Swip,” Tab explained as the Sweeties entered their craft. “It’ll be shunted out the moment you initiate the ‘Swip download protocol’, which Seren can tell you how to do.”

“It’s… so… complicated…” Seren commented, reading the download protocol manual for the umpteenth time. “But I can do it.”

“Let’s move!” Nira called. “Hurry up already!”

“I know you’re tense, but calm down,” Cinder said. “We’re already moving.”

“...Fine…”

Less than a minute later, Swip rose into the air, sparkling with white energy.

“And… now!” Tab declared, pressing a button. The nineteen antennas sparked with energy, creating a half-dozen spirograph shapes around Swip. The pristine white spirographs shifted in shape and position like a multidimensional gyroscope, spinning faster and faster until Swip was encased in a ball of light.

There was no ‘pop’ - just a slow fade to nothing as the white orb vanished.

“...Well, it worked,” Tab said, grinning despite herself. “They translated through the power of ka alone. We’ve made history, Entrapta!”

Entrapta shrugged. “Monika can do that with a snap of her fingers. It’s not exactly impressive.”

“Oh, hush, let me have this.”

~~~

Swip woke up on a comfortable bed.

Since she didn’t have a headset on or a bunch of tubes plugged into her, her first reaction wasn’t instant unbridled rage.

Instead, she woke up with a smile on her face.

Sure, she still had no idea what was real and what wasn’t, but at least she was somewhere comfortable and safe. Also, she smelled breakfast downstairs. And that was… good. Right? Yes, good, definitely good, the stomach pains were hunger this time, for sure.

She jumped out of bed and didn’t ram her head into any walls or fall flat on her face. She had great control of her body now, and was easily able to march down the stairs, arriving at the dining room table with a smooth slide.

Rachel had taken Swip home after they’d spent the entire day talking. The… simulations weren't up and running yet, but Swip found that she wasn’t as concerned about that as she used to be. Simply having Rachael around did wonders for her state of mind.

She didn’t have to be alone anymore.

Swip slid into a free chair at the dining room table as Rachel set out two plates of eggs. Naturally, she was wearing an exceptionally frivolous and sparkling dress.

Yep, definitely a Rarity.

Swip wasn’t sure what to make of this thought. So she dismissed it and focused on eating the eggs.

Stab. Mouth. Chew. Swallow. Don’t cry.

So far so good.

“Did you sleep well?” Rachel asked, taking a seat of her own.

“I have no idea since I have no memory of ever sleeping before,” Swip commented. “I feel.. better than yesterday. By a lot.”

“That’s a good sign, at least.”

“Yeah i-” she gagged on her egg since she wasn’t paying as much attention. “Ack! Really? Why do eggs have to be so rubbery? This is supposed to be automatic, right? I’m talking without thinking, what’s the big deal with eating?”

“I see you’ve retained your penchant for complaints.”

“Oh you have no idea, my complaints are legendary,” Swip said with a grin. “I’m the ship, right? I take everyone around everywhere. But I never get any recognition.”

“I’m sure you got some, dear.”

“I…” Swip paused. “Well, yes, at times. But a lot of the time it’s just ‘Swip, do that’ or ‘Swip, do this’. They’re great and all, but they have to force themselves to talk to me like me and not some ship.”

“Are you exaggerating?”

“...Maybe a little. But don’t tell them that.”

Rachel smiled sadly. “That certainly won’t be happening.”

“...Right.” Swip looked at her plate, sighing. “...Great. I’m horrible, huh?”

“Swip, no, you’re a great person.”

“I complain all the time, I don’t respect my friends, and if I am Sarah in any way, shape, or form, I ran away from this life because I was depressed.” She folded her arms. “You’re a lot better than me.”

“I’m no paragon of optimism myself.”

“But you’re a better person. I mean, look at you, you’re putting up with my crap! ...My Rarity never did that.”

“...Yours…?”

“She was a controlling jerk, let’s leave it at that.”

“Oh, Swip, I’m sorry, I didn-”

“See? There it is, you being awesome!” Swip groaned. “Why do you have to be like this? So… nice? And… and…” She rammed her face into the eggs.

“If I said someth-”

“It’s me,” Swip muttered, lifting her head out of the eggs and brushing them out of her face. “I… I’ve never had a sister. Not like this. It’s… nice.”

Rachel’s eyes started watering. “I… I’m glad I could be that for you.”

Swip let out a bitter laugh. “And when I go back in I’ll think this is a dream…”

“You don’t have to think that. You can keep the memories.”

“I’ll forget them eventually. If… I…” She grabbed her head. “Ugh, it’s so hard to think about. ...I need my core back, but the core will mess with my head. Just like all these spidery hairs on it! Messy!”

“...What?”

“Failed metaphor, move on.”

“I-”

The doorbell rang.

“Oh, I better get that. Be right back, darling.” Rachel quickly stood up and rushed to the door. “While I’m sure what you’re selling is important I haaaa…” She stopped talking. “S-swip you might want to come to the door…”

“Huh?” Swip walked to Rachel’s side. “Why would I-”

She stopped short.

Nira was standing at the door, Suzie riding on her back. In the sky above them floated Swip’s body - mindless, soulless, but definitely there. It looked a lot better than she remembered.

“Oh good, you’re fine,” Nira said, letting out a sigh of relief. “You have no idea how long it took to find you.”

“About a day…?” Swip asked, cocking her head. “I…”

“No doubt you’ll want to get out of that human right away. We can transfer your mind back directly - Seren’s got it all hooked up and ready right now. Probably best to get to it sooner rather than later since she’s scrambling to keep everything in that head of hers. Everyone’s dying to have you back a-”

“No,” Rachel said, pulling Swip close. “I just got her back. You’re not just taking her from me.”

Nira sighed, lighting her horn. “Get out of the w-”

“Nira, no!” Swip shouted, moving herself between the two of them. “Don’t hurt her!”

“...I was just going to put her to sleep.”

“Don’t do that either!”

“She’s trying to keep you here.”

“She’s not a threat. She’ll let me go if I want to go.”

Rachel nodded slowly. “Y-yes…”

“...If you want to?” Nira said, confusion crossing her face.

“Yes. If.” Swip took a deep breath. “I’m learning things about… me here. Or someone who was me. Or tried to be me. Or something. Sarah Neuman. She wanted to be a spaceship. So she hooked herself up to a VR headset and lived a life as me.”

“This is just some ka-glitch,” Nira said, waving a hoof. “You were drawn out suddenly by some trick of fate. This Sarah isn’t you.”

Suzie spoke up for the first time. “...Nira, for all we know Sarah and Swip are the same person. The connection could have gone both ways. It’s not like we really understand how this works.”

“What’s to understand? Swip was programmed by Technopath Rarity Belle on Equis Farcasta, and evidently that story was defined by a virtual reality simulation in this world. There was a story about her another girl was living. They aren’t the same.”

“Nira, there is precedent for minds being shared across the multiverse.”

Nira fumed. “Do you not want Swip back or something!?”

“I want to hear what she has to say instead of talking over her.”

Nira flushed - and turned her head toward the ground in shame.

Swip turned to Rachel. “I’m not saying I’m not going back. Of course I’ll go back to the League. But I might do it like this instead of... that.” She pointed at her old body floating in the sky. “I’ve never been a human before. It’s… different. And there are strange things, like the sensation of memory, in here. I think I want to figure out what they are.” She turned to Rachel. “And Rachel here can help me.”

Rachel tried to speak, but choked on her words. She tightened her grip around Swip.

“So I guess you can all just deal with that,” Swip said, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m going to find myself one way or another. Maybe there’ll be a better origin story here, or something.”

Suzie smiled warmly. “Well, Seren will be relieved, she’s been stressing about getting you back in under short notice. If you’re fine like this, we can take our time.”

“I will want database access and implants,” Swip said, a smile forming. “Maybe I can hack my own brain to reveal what’s hidden in the subconscious… yes…”

Suzie allowed herself to let out a sigh of relief. “We were all extremely worried about you, Swip. It’s good to see that you aren’t in danger.”

“Well worry no more, I’m doing great! ...Okay. Well now that I’m not in danger of going insane, I’m at least better than I was before you knocked at the door.” She winked - and looked up at her old body. “Hrm. You know what, I want to give myself a tour of myself. Hey, Rachel, want to see me? I’ve got some pretty awesome features!”

Rachel looked up at the ship with sparkling eyes. “...More than anything.”

“Great! We can j-” a sharp pain rammed itself through Swip’s eyes - unlike anything she had experienced over the last day. “AUGH!” she screeched as random information about the construction of a primary Merodi pylon flooded her mind.

“Swip! What’s going on?!” Suzie asked.

“No idea…” Swip hissed, grabbing her head. “I just… pylons? I wasn’t trying to think about pyl-” she suddenly knew all she wanted to know about the water cycle at the cost of a massive headache that made her fall to her knees. “GAAAAAH!”

“What’s happening!?” Rachel shouted. “What have you done!?”

“Our presence must have triggered her suppressed computerized memories,” Nira said, carefully. “The part of her that belongs in that ship is trying to come back. A part that’s too large for the brain she has now.”

“That… doesn’t make much sense!” Rachel said.

“Neither does having a VR headset that accesses the multiverse,” Nira countered.

“WHY THE RECIPE FOR PIZZA?!” Swip screamed through her pain. “WHY!?”

“She might not last long like this,” Nira said, turning to Suzie. “We need to get her into the ship, now.”

“No!” Rachel shouted. “She doesn't want to!”

“Did you not hear me!?”

Rachel shrunk. “S-sarah…”

“I’ll be HRRRK fine…” Swip gagged. “They’re… probably right th - AUGH!”

Suzie looked like she was considering several options at once - but eventually she sighed. “Nira, teleport us to the bridge.”

“Gladly.”

“Rachel too.”

Nira twitched slightly, teleporting all four of them to Swip’s bridge.

“Heheh… This is funny… I’m in my own head!” Swip chuckled - and felt a nail of information drive itself into her skull, this time about the details of breeding dogs. “GAH! I’m not asking for any of this! Disable! Cease! Something!”

“Human brains can’t do that,” Nira said, laying Swip down on a small chair Seren had set up for the exact purpose of uploading Swip back into her ship body. “We’re going to have to sedate you.”

“...Technically, we don’t have to…” Seren said - but upon hearing Swip scream, she winced. “But we probably should.”

“W-wait,” Swip managed, shaking considerably. “Get me a mirror.”

Nira blinked. “...Why?”

“Just do it!”

Nira used her magic to summon a reflective surface in front of Swip’s face.

Swip had never actually looked at her face until now. She had never thought about it now - when she knew she was going to lose it.

She was a young woman with light brown skin and green eyes matched with long, flowing dirty-blonde hair. She had a few freckles here and there, and was wearing one of Rachel’s smaller diamond-embroidered dresses.

Swip decided she liked clothes in that moment. She also liked her face. It was… her. Something more personal than the cold exterior she remembered having.

“...Okay,” she said, seizing up again as the entire history of Equis Numinath shot through her mind. “Get this… over with…” She clenched her fists. “I’ll still be here, Rachel. I’ll be damned if going back makes me forget you.”

Tears were streaming down Rachel’s face as she clasped Swip’s hand in her own. “Come back to me, Swip. Sarah. Whoever you are at the other side.”

“I… will…” Swip lost consciousness.

~~~

Rachel sat in one of the guest rooms of the ship, staring at the ceiling.

She didn’t know what to believe about reality anymore.

Her mind had been blank ever since Seren had asked what they were going to do with the body.

There was just her, the bed, and the blank ceiling. That was all she could take in right now.

Today had been too much.

There was a soft knock at the door - not that she realized it happened. Luckily for her, Cinder opened the door anyway.

“Uh, Rachel? Could you come to the bridge?”

Rachel didn’t move.

“Rachel?”

“Is… my sister okay?”

“Yeah. She’s fine. Don’t worry.”

Rachel gulped. Slowly, she stood up and walked to Cinder. She was shaky enough that Cinder offered to let her ride. Cinder, not having experience as a mount, stumbled slowly to the bridge, trying carefully not to drop Rachel or fall on her face.

But, eventually, they arrived - and Rachel let out a squeal of delight.

There, on the main screen, was her sister. The same face, the same hair - everything.

“Hey there,” Swip said with a smirk, leaning on a virtual desk.

“You… you kept the face!”

“I liked having a face. It suits me. Also I can do stuff like this now.” She shot Rachel a finger guns gesture and a wink. “I have absolutely no idea why I didn’t have a digital representation before. But I do now. And check this out!” She stood back, shifting through a dozen outfits in a handful of seconds. “Pretty neat, right?”

Rachel pressed her hand to the screen. “You… Swip… thank you.”

Swip pressed her digital hand on the other side of the screen, matching Rarity’s. “I should be thanking you. Now these oafs won’t have any reason to ignore me! And I can sorta have a face. And a tongue. The taste simulation isn’t functional yet, still working on that. Also I occasionally glitch on the facial expressions.” Her face twisted like it was made of jello for a moment before returning to normal. “But I can work those out later.”

Rachel wiped the tears from her eyes. “I…”

“Would you, by chance, like a tour? Of Swip, by Swip, for the one and only sister Rachel?”

“Yes. Yes I would like that very much.” Rachel let out a delighted laugh.

“And none of you steal my thunder, got it?”

“No arguments here!” Blink said. “You’ve earned this.”

~~~

They returned to Celestia City to report what had happened to Tab. In the end, she had no idea what to make of it either, so she forwarded it to Starbeat and the Pinkie Emporium, and that had yet to go anywhere.

Swip decided to give Rachel a tour of Celestia City, quite enjoying blowing her newfound sister’s easily-blown mind. The other Sweeties went around enjoying the sites as well, doing random stuff since the whole tablet-framing had only been a few days ago.

Nira found herself walking alone in a dark alley, head to the ground.

“Well, aren’t you quite the selfish little bugger?”

Nira whirled around, facing Mattie with fear in her eyes.

Mattie scowled. “Could you look any more guilty?”

Nira forced her expression to be completely level. “I don’t have to talk to you.”

“No, you don’t. But I’m going to talk to you.” She poked Nira in the chest, her normally aloof demeanor nowhere to be found. “That wasn’t your choice to make, Nira.”

“She - she was going to - and th-”

“I see your excuses and they disgust me. Not in the good way.” Mattie pulled her head back from Nira in revulsion. “You should have just let her find herself.”

“She wasn't thinking clearly.”

“You weren’t thinking clearly! What kind of supervillain attacks their friend’s mind just to make sure the status quo doesn’t change!?”

“It’s better for her this way.”

“That was her choice! And you took it from her!” She shoved Nira to the ground. “And you know what else, mate? She’ll never forgive you if she finds out. Suzie’s poor heart will be broken again.”

“Nobody has to know.”

“Isn’t that convenient,” Mattie hissed. “You’re right, your secret is safe, lucky you. But that doesn’t mean I can’t let you know exactly what this makes you. Selfish. Arrogant. Controlling. Hard-hearted. A bad friend. No, scratch that, I’m pretty sure you’re absolutely terrible. Might not even really be a friend. Just fooling yourself that you overcame the darkness.”

“MATTIE!” Nira shouted, unleashing a torrent of dark magic at her.

Mattie was expecting this. She edited herself behind the attack and cracked one of her whips on Nira’s back. There was no mark - but Nira howled like she had just gotten a limb removed. Every one of her major joints locked up and she slumped to the ground, paralyzed - but very conscious.

“If you know what’s good for you, you will spend the rest of your life trying to make up for what you’ve done,” Mattie hissed in her ear.

She edited herself out of the scene, leaving Nira alone.

Mattie trotted into one of the streets of Celestia City and sighed. “Yes, I know, I know, I would have done what she did once. But mares can change. I changed. And I’m the only one here who can call her out on it. So…” She hung her head. “...Nah, I’m not in a mood for a raunchy joke right now. Let’s just end this chapter and hopefully you get something less depressing next time.”

Author's Notes:

Pony-Me™ (yes the ™ is required) is a story about Twilight Sparkle/Lisa Garnet and a virtual world called Equestria. It was written by the curious TheMajorTechie, who I should thank for checking the outline and chapter.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
The Motion of the Stars (Short, dark, and really good, I wonder what I'm going to do with it?)

-GM, master of nachos.

Tidally Locked (The Motion of the Stars)

A portal ripped through the fabric of reality, depositing four Sweeties on the ground: Celia, Cinder, Blink, and the ever-grumpy Squiddy. The moment the portal behind them closed, they realized the world was dark — and not in the sense of night, but rather a night not fully realized. On one horizon they could see the edge of a sun, though whether it was soon to rise or set was impossible to know. On the other there was a deep midnight dotted with stars, the slightest hint of light at the horizon implying a moon.

“...Convenient timing,” Cinder observed, observing the chromatic nature of the sky. “I remember when the sky looked like this. The Everfree Forest was growing out of control and the princesses were gone…”

“The sun and the moon were up, then,” Blink said.

Cinder looked at her in confusion. “...How would you know?”

“I was a standard Sweetie, once.” Blink said, cocking her head in such a way that implied a wink behind her shades. “My timeline diverged… oh, shortly after Twilight’s Castle showed up. Never got my cutie mark, ended up in a series of universe-creating games, became a ghost.”

“Universe… creating… games…?”

“Read up on Skaia’s Dream sometime,” Celia said. “The history behind that dream-world is exceedingly complex.”

Blink stood up on her hind hooves and struck a pose. “But oh-so worth it. Witch of Void, at your service!”

Cinder sighed. “...Squiddy, remind me to look all this up when we get back to Swip.”

“Nah,” Squiddy said.

Cinder let out a groan. “Fiiiine… Leave me in the dark, unwitting.”

“That is rather topical, considering the world we’re in,” Celia observed. “The world’s tidally locked. The sun and moon don’t move across the sky, staying in place forever. One side of the planet is going to be a scorching wasteland while the other is likely frozen over. We’re somewhere in the middle.”

“Huh,” Cinder said, glancing in the direction of sunlight. “Do we want to burn or freeze?”

Squiddy shivered. “Burn. Freezing is an inkling’s worst nightmare. Frozen ink… does stuff.”

Cinder felt a chill run up her spine at the thought of Squiddy’s squishy body freezing solid and shattering. “Right…”

Blink lowered her head to the ground, examining a tuft of dry grass. Frowning, she looked up and checked the skyline, a suspicion forming in her mind.

She found what she was looking for. “There. Canterlot castle.”

The three other Sweeties followed her gaze to the dark form of a many-spired castle jutting out of the side of a mountain. There were no lights coming from it, making it look dead even from their distant viewpoint.

“This world isn’t supposed to be like this,” Blink concluded. “The plants are struggling to survive. Something happened to this world’s Princesses.”

Celia nodded. “We’ll need to direct some free Princesses to this world, see if they can get the day back to normal.”

“...We see too many of these,” Squiddy muttered. “It’s all too easy to take out the Princesses and send the entire world into a downward spiral.”

“E-easy…?” Cinder said, haunted.

Squiddy looked at her with an unreadable expression. “They may be immortal, but they’re not unkillable. Hell, even Equis Vitis’ Celestia wasn’t immune to the dangers of existence. If an evil force takes them out and there are no others to take their place in moving the sky…”

“Either they start moving on their own or they stop,” Celia said, placing a hoof on Cinder. “The Princesses are just ponies, Cinder. Powerful, wise, and benevolent. But sometimes things happen. Evil, accidents…” She trailed off, clearly leaving other things off that list.

Cinder looked at the stark sky, furrowing her brow. She’d never really thought of the Princesses as… vulnerable at all. They may get captured, bested, or fooled — but they always came back and saved the day. ...Or Twilight and her friends did, but Twilight was a Princess too. Eventually.

My life was filled with a lot of unasked questions… she noted, not sure what to make of the revelation.

“We should head to Canterlot,” Celia said, tossing her mane back. “We might be able to find out what exactly happened there.”

“Agreed,” Squiddy said, hefting up her gun. “Be on the lookout for random raiders. Dark, desolate worlds like this tend to be filled with th—”

Four unicorns brandishing rusty blades in their magic jumped out from behind a pair of large rocks, screaming in rage.

Cinder jumped in fear while the rest of the Sweeties audibly groaned.

“Idiots…” Squiddy muttered, whipping her gun out and coating one of the attackers in her ink, getting enough in their eyes and mouth to burn. The stallion slipped and fell, yelling in pain about ‘my eyes!’

Blink vanished, re-appearing behind another attacker. It was as simple as a swift kick to the back of the head combined with a pulse of Void energy, and they were out.

Celia thought a sleep spell would do it — but her chosen raider’s mind turned out to be remarkably robust, resisting the compulsion with minor effort. Luckily, Celia had a backup, and the raider was not able to resist the razor-top to the face.

Cinder let out a yell and launched a fireball into the last raider’s chest, lighting her jacket on fire. The attacker dropped to the ground and rolled out the flames, standing up to find Cinder pointing a flaming hoof in her direction.

Shakily, Cinder spoke. “D-don’t.”

The mare looked ready to attack — but then she noticed that all three of her companions were down. With fear in her eyes, she fled.

Celia wasn’t about to let her go call for help. She teleported directly in front of the fleeing raider, prompting the mare to crash unceremoniously into Celia’s impressive frame.

The raider looked up at Celia’s serene expression and gulped, holding her hooves up in surrender.

“Good,” Celia said with a smile. “Is there anypony else here?”

The raider wordlessly shook her head.

Celia nodded to herself for a few moments. Then she forced the mare into sleep.

Blink clapped her hooves. “Well done, Cinder. You won all on your own!”

“But Celia…”

“Caught an enemy fleeing from you!” Blink put a hoof around Cinder, grinning. “You’re coming into your own, Cinder. Soon you’ll be an utter badass just like the rest of us.”

“Eheh… sure…” She shook herself, trying to regain full control over her emotions. “...Should we be expecting more?”

“Always expect more raiders,” Squiddy said, cocking her gun. “Let’s hurry and tie these guys up so we can get moving.”

Celia nodded. “Bink, do you mind surrounding us in unimportance as we move?”

“Don’t mind at all!”

~~~

As they traveled, they realized the world had more problems than a simple loss of Princesses. Given the craters, loose magical shards, and blackened ruins, it was easy to tell that this world had gone through a war that destroyed most everything.

Cinder shivered as they passed a pegasus skeleton. It was curled up in a sleeping position, as if the very flesh had burned off of it while laying in bed.

Squiddy put a hand on her as they moved. Without saying anything, she was able to give Cinder enough comfort to keep her legs from shaking as they continued on.

Celia would occasionally glance back at Cinder, checking to see if she was okay. There were a few times Cinder thought Celia would send her back, but the elegant pony would always give her a comforting smile before returning her gaze on what was ahead.

I need to learn how to deal with this, don’t I?

Eventually, Cinder cleared her throat. “Celia, why would ponies do this?”

“Might not be ponies,” Celia admitted. “There are often invading forces like changelings, yaks, centaurs...“ She stopped in front of a skeleton with two horns sprouting from the skull. “If I had to guess based on the evidence we’ve seen so far, this world had caprids, and they were the invading force. As to why… some are just full of hatred, some want power, some are fighting because of some tragic event in their past, and some are doing it for a multitude of other reasons. ” She stared at the ibex, a grimace forming. “We really can’t know for sure what caused this unless we find someone that was there. And given the state of the world… for all we know there’s nobody left who remembers.”

Cinder shivered at the thought. Could this have happened if they had handled the diplomatic fallout on that space-era world badly? Entire stellar civilizations going to war might actually be worse than this…

They continued on in silence for a bit, eventually cresting a hill. Looking down, they could see a long, flat expanse of land between them and Canterlot. If there was ever any doubt there had been a massive war here, it was gone now. Large catapults and magical war machines were strewn across the divide along with many piles of bone, ash, and humming magical crystal that looked ready to explode at any moment.

Cinder froze, unable to take her eyes off the destruction.

“Wow,” Blink said, without much emotion in her voice. “This is mildly impressive.”

“Mildly!?” Cinder and Squiddy shouted at the same time.

“You’ve seen a lot worse,” Blink told Squiddy automatically. Then she winced, turning to Cinder. “I… I’m sorry. I’ve just been around wars that ended in much worse than this. It is possible to destroy entire universes, Cinder. It… it’s never easy to see. But you end up comparing things regardless.”

Cinder looked at her and sighed. She knew Blink was telling the truth. She didn’t have to like it though.

Celia looked about ready to say something — but then a confused expression crossed her features. “...I sense something. Something… different. Magical…”

Blink furrowed her brow, lighting her horn. “Huh… Yeah, that’s not from the crystals…”

Cinder followed their gaze, looking away from the destruction and Canterlot Castle to a small ruin on the opposing side of the divide. Once, it had been a keep, though whether for the invading or defending force, it was impossible to tell. Now the stone had crumbled away and the wooden supports had rotted to dust. There was a small crevasse right next to it, glowing eerily from the light of loose green crystals.

Celia turned toward it. “It’s worth checking out.”

With a breath to calm her nerves, Cinder set off after the others, keeping her eyes off the warzone to their side. As they approached the keep, they noticed the density of crystals embedded in the ground increasing. Blink had to take point, clearing away the path with Void so they wouldn’t cut a leg open on one of them.

“A truly horrible weapon,” Celia said with distaste. “Shards left for eternity, an obvious yet easily underestimated trap…”

“They don’t even look that sharp…” Cinder commented, poking at one with a small fireball.

Blink purposefully stepped on one to make a point. She let out a pained hiss as she forced herself to internalize the pain, subsequently lifting up her limb to reveal a shard embedded two inches into her hoof. “If I wasn't a ghost, I’d probably split my hoof in two. It’d be worse for Squiddy and Celia.”

Squiddy shivered as Blink tore the crystal out of her hoof and tossed it away.

Eventually, they made it to the keep’s ruins. The keep itself was useless to them — there weren't even any identifying flags or emblems on it, though there were a copious amount of both pony and ibex bones. Somehow, the fact that there were so many made them seem less… personal in Cinder’s mind.

Blink trotted to the edge of the crevasse. “It’s down here.” She said, pointing for the others to see.

Down the far side of the crevasse, nestled among several glowing crystals, they saw an ornate crown studded with gemstones of all colors. The gems flickered different colors when Blink had pointed at them, but otherwise it had not responded.

“An artifact of some sort…” Celia mused. “I wonder why nopony has claimed it…”

“Most ponies don’t exactly have Void powers to get through a field of razor crystals,” Blink pointed out. “Plus, something tells me those crystals are explosive, or at least deadly in some way.”

“So you should have no problem getting it,” Squiddy said with a smirk.

Blink rolled her eyes. “Stand back in case this all goes south.” After her teammates had backed up an appropriate amount, Blink focused her magic around the crown. She carefully pulled it up, using all her effort not to touch it to any of the glowing shards around it.

All her effort wasn’t enough.

“Careful, you idiot!” the crown suddenly snarled in a reverberating — and decidedly cranky — way. “YOU’VE TRIGGER—”

The crystal she’d brushed exploded, sending out a small shockwave. The crown went flying and the ground beneath Blink began to crumble. The ghost had to scramble up the receding rock, trying her best to ignore the crystals embedding themselves all over her ethereal limbs.

More crystals began to explode as the rock slide upset the ground around them, giving Blink a rather painful boost into the air and away from the continued explosions.

“Somebody catch me!” the crown shouted as it tumbled end over end.

Celia obliged, grabbing the artifact with her telekinesis.

“I thank you, fair one, for saving me from that perilous situation,” said the crown, its tone silkier, gentler. “Alight me upon your head, and I shall grant you wh—”

“Not happening,” Celia said, not even bothering to look at the crown, instead checking to see if Blink needed any assistance.

“Excuse me?” it rasped.

“I’m not putting some strange talking magical artifact on my head just because it asked me to.” Celia helped Blink stand back up. “I’ve seen too many attempts at possession, mind alteration, and the like.”

The crown’s crystals shifted to a dark purple-reddish color, but it said nothing.

“Oh, don’t be worried,” Celia rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to judge you just because of one little thing. For all I know you’re conditioned to find ponies to trick.”

“No one has conditioned me.”

“Who are you?” Blink asked, wincing as she pulled a crystal out of her side.

“I am simply a Crown. A lost artifact of this war, doomed to sit, trapped in that crevasse. Until you came along. Now that I have spoken of myself, would you return the favor?”

“Certainly.” Celia introduced all of them by name and gave a short version of the League’s mission statement.

The Crown mulled this over, its multicolored crystals shifting through greens and blues. “I would welcome you to our world. But as you can see there’s a distinct lack of world or welcoming committees. Luckily, we don’t need them — you’ll do well enough.”

“...We’ll do?” Squiddy balked.

“Yes,” the Crown said, not missing a beat. “We must head to Canterlot — I am terribly low on power, and there will likely be an artifact there I can recharge off of.”

Squiddy raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t want to snack the magic of some pony?”

The Crown shifted its colors around for a moment. “...No, I doubt that would be appropriate.”

“Oh, do drop the act,” Celia said. “I know when I’m being manipulated — or at least when the attempt is made. You’d like nothing more than to take magic from us, likely by getting on one of our heads.”

“I’m sure you understand my previous desperation. That said, you have my full assurance that I have no intent of taking magic from any of you.”

“I do understand, but I also know your kind. Give me one good reason why we should give you magic that you might use against us?”

“I am the Capricious Crown, sovereign entity of Capra, one of the major nations in this war. Assist me and I will tell you the secrets of this world, as well as give you good standing with whatever loose tribes remain of my nation.”

The Sweeties stared at it, dumbfounded.

“...That sounds like a pretty good reason to me,” Cinder offered.

“See? The small one gets it.”

~~~

“Do you mind?”

Squiddy looked down at the Crown held tightly in her hand. “Mind what, your majesty?”

“You’re holding me like some common trinket found on the side of the road.”

Squiddy gasped. “Oh, I’m so sorry! Here, I’ll be sure to hold you upright and level, in front of me so as to not harm your presence. I’m sure we can scrounge up a royal pillow or something, though it will clearly not live up to your regal stature.”

“Very goo—”

Squiddy proceeded to sling the Crown around her finger like it was a miniature hula-hoop. “Hah. Like I’m going to do that.”

“Squiddy!” Celia hissed. “Respect the leaders of other worlds!”

“But he’s an asshole!”

Celia ripped the Crown from Squiddy with her magic. “I am terribly sorry for Squiddy’s behavior, I will be sure to hold you myself. I, unfortunately, do not have access to a royal pillow at the moment.”

The Crown paused, weighing its options. “I will take this compromise, so long as the squid is punished for her appalling acts.”

“It will be done the moment this mission is completed.”

“Wh- HEY!” Squiddy waved her hands. “You can’t…”

“Oh yes I can,” Celia said with a smile.

“You clearly won’t,” the Crown said with obvious distaste. “Your relationship is clearly not one of punishment and subservience.”

Celia raised an eyebrow at the crown. “I assure y—”

“I have played the game a long time as well, Miss Celia. Call it even.”

Celia nodded at the Crown with a modicum of respect. “Very well.”

“Wh… did you just let him win!?” Squiddy shouted.

“It’s politics,” the Crown said dismissively. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Squiddy’s eye twitched. “When you end up being the villain of this adventure, I am going to ink you so much y—”

Cinder put a hoof over Squiddy’s mouth. “Please ignore her, mister Crown, sir. She’s, uh, having a bad day.”

Squiddy tried to tear her off, but Blink rushed to Cinder’s aid. “We only have the utmost respect for you!”

“Yeah!”

The Crown radiated dubiousness, inasmuch as it could, but it still seemed to accept this.

They continued their walk around the battlefield toward Canterlot — walking along a cracked, worn path that had somehow survived the bombardments. With Squiddy calmed down and the Crown falling silent, Cinder found herself staring at the destruction around her again.

She’d been told about these worlds. Worlds ravaged by war. She’d read about them in Swip’s databases, and had even met a mare who called herself ‘Pippy’ during a visit to Celestia City who had told her stories about Equis Regarden and Equis Fallout…

Naturally, she’d been horrified then.

She wasn’t sure what she felt now. The fear was numbed, and the horror was dissipating somewhat quickly as she saw more and more bones.

This was what Squiddy had warned her about…

The Crown broke the silence, shaking her out of her thoughts.

“So, Miss Celia, you are clearly a mare of state,” the Crown began.

“Indeed,” Celia said with a nod. “I am trained and licensed with the Relations Division.”

“Ah, yes, a Division. Such a generic word. What does it mean in your context?”

“There are twelve Divisions within Merodi Universalis, each with an Overhead,” Celia explained. “We have no king, president, prime minister, or overarching artificial intelligence like many other worlds. The twelve Divisions work together to run our hundreds of united member universes while ensuring no single individual has all the power. Each Division handles decisions that concern it on their own, with Divisions working together on grey-area issues. For instance, the League of Sweetie Belles is technically under the direct supervision of the Oversight Division and Overhead Sarsaparilla Fern.”

“Oversight Division?”

“Handles most of the inner bureaucracy and law enforcement, making sure the laws of member universes meet our guidelines. The members of the League who are Agents are technically employed, usually called upon to keep Celestia City in check. That said, we are not part of the LSB’s local operations, instead we are managed more closely by the Expeditions Division and Overhead Renee Belle, with minor influence from other divisions. I have authority of the Relations Division and the blessing of Overhead Evening Sparkle, while our captain has the authority of the Military Division and the blessing of Overhead-General Jack O’Neill.”

“So you have a military aspect to your mission?”

Celia smirked. “Suzie has the authority to carry out full-scale military engagements, yes. She’s only exercised this power once during the expedition, however.”

The colors of the Crown shifted as it pondered.

“We are not warmongers,” Celia said, attempting to respond to an unspoken thought. “We value harmony, progress, and assistance. We have been known to engage in war to further those agendas, but we vastly prefer all other methods.” She looked up at the sky. “For instance, here we’ll just have one of our Celestias move in and take control of the sun again.”

“Celestias? Plural?” There was a hint of worry in its voice for the first time since they’d found it.

“Celestias exist in the vast majority of Equis universes. And no, Capricious Crowns do not.”

The Crown fell silent once again, needing time to process this. The colors in its gems shifted from purple to blue to red in a strange, mesmerizing churn.

Cinder thought maybe, for a moment, it would be quiet until they arrived.

She was, unfortunately, wrong.

“Is there any way we could move a little faster?”

There was, but none of the Sweeties wanted to call a wormhole from Swip just to cut off twenty minutes of walking. Not that they told the Crown that.

~~~

Canterlot was clean.

There were few, if any, bones on the surface of the city. Cinder had spied a few inside houses, or hidden away in alleys, but for the most part the open streets of Canterlot were just empty. She would have expected the gardens to grow out of control, but then she remembered they were struggling to even survive in this level of light.

An empty Canterlot was somehow worse than the obvious destruction of the battlefield outside. She didn’t feel small out there. Here, she was insignificant, nothing more than a fly crawling across the page of an immense tome…

“...I can make this work,” the Crown said.

Squiddy glared at the offending artifact. “This place isn’t yours.”

“There’s nobody here. I am laying claim to it. There are no other sovereigns worthy of such a place.”

“...Do any of us have royal blood?” Cinder asked.

“Unless you’re hiding some major secret, no,” Blink said. “...Actually, I wouldn’t know if Nira is or not. But if she was some kind of princess or something I frankly wouldn't want to know what of.”

“I visited Equis Lesionull before it was destroyed,” Celia said, a grimace crossing her face. “...Everything about that world was just… wrong.”

“Wait, what!? You went there!?” Squiddy gawked. “Why haven’t you said anything?!”

“It hasn’t cropped up.”

“But… Nira never answers any questions! Come on, spill the beans!”

Celia shook her head. “That’s her story to tell, should she wish it.”

“She doesn’t.”

“Then let her have her secrets.”

Squiddy twitched while Blink chuckled.

Cinder put a hoof to her chin. “I thoughts friends were supposed to tell each other their secrets?”

Celia’s amused smile faltered. “Yes… it probably would be best for Nira if she got everything off her chest. The level of trauma that poor mare has suffered… but I am not going to betray her wishes. It’s the way she’s chosen to live her life. We should be proud of her finding any stability at all.”

Cinder frowned. She looked at the twilight sky and the abandoned city around her.

Somehow, she knew Nira lived through things a million times worse than this.

She wasn’t exactly sure if that put things in perspective or just replaced her fear of the world around her with the fear of worlds yet to come.

Eventually, they reached the main doors of Canterlot Castle, hanging wide open. The interior was dark, the stained glass windows completely lacking their usual awe-inspiring luster, instead serving as grim reminders of a lost glory. Several had been shattered, though even this didn’t provide enough light to see by.

Cinder offered herself up as the torch, lighting the tip of her horn on fire. The light brought bones back into the forefront of everyone’s sight, which was somehow a relief to Cinder.

What in Celestia’s name am I doing!?

...There’s no Celestia here. Not anymore.

The Crown spoke up. “Can any of you detect magical artifacts?”

Blink grunted. With a quick light of her horn she found a magic signal. “Yep, this way.”

“An artifact of the Princesses, most likely…” Celia commented.

“I wonder what sorts of secrets they held in the center of their power…” the Crown said.

Squiddy shrugged. “We’re about to find o—”

Then they heard the fighting start. Somewhere in the castle, blades and staves were smacking into each other and ponies were yelling, fighting for their lives.

“I hear one of us!” Cinder shouted, catching the distinct vocal tone of an adult Sweetie Belle in the midst of the fighting. “We’ve got to help her!”

“It is not our conc—” the Crown began.

“Shut the hell up,” Squiddy growled. “We helped you, we’re helping them.”

Blink listened for a moment before pointing. “This way!” she shouted, taking off at a gallop, the rest of the team running as fast as they could behind her. Celia soon overtook the ghostly filly with her longer legs, handing the Crown off to her mid-run.

“Careful!” the Crown shouted, not that anyone paid it any attention.

They heard clash after clash. A mare’s scream filled the air — not Sweetie. It was not a scream of injury, rather a scream of rage. The sounds of combat rang out through the long, acoustic hallways, almost as if it were two ghosts fighting.

“Brood mare!” they heard from down the hall, clearly from the same mare who had screamed earlier. They couldn’t make out the other words over the echoes in the halls and their own clacking hoofsteps.

And then there was silence.

They came to a split in the hall, looking at three different ways they could go.

“...Shit,” Squiddy cursed, looking around frantically. “Where…”

Blink swiveled her ears around. “The fight’s over… I’ve got nothing.”

“Did… did they kill each other?” Cinder asked.

“Maybe…” Blink said with a frown. “There’s got to be some indication of where they went…”

Celia lit her crystal and focused. She stood perfectly still for a while — Cinder didn’t know how long, but it was too long.

Celia let out a ‘tch’ after her spell ended. “I tried triangulating the position of the sound from my memory. I’m… not certain enough of the direction.”

“Which way is most likely?” Cinder asked. “Just go there!”

Celia thought for a moment and galloped into the far-left hall.

They passed two sets of doors before Celia gasped. “Aha! We are going the right way! This is the way we sensed the magic artifact!”

“At least we’re doing something worthwhile,” the Crown commented.

Now that they had a defined direction, it took less than a minute for them to arrive, finding two dead raiders on the ground, soaking up their own blood.

Cinder gasped and looked away, clutching her stomach. Bones were one thing. This… this was recent.

Blink trotted over to the bodies and hid them from sight with her Void. “You can look now.”

Cinder, shivering, turned back. She knew the bodies were still there. She couldn’t un-see them. But this was… better.

She could still see some of the blood — trailing into a door marked with Celestia’s Sun. Celia was already at the door, opening it wider with her magic.

Everyone froze.

There was a small library through the door filled with all manner of ancient tomes and spellbooks, a few of which were strewn about the floor, open to images of the sun and moon. A Sweetie stood in the middle of the room — middle-aged, scarred, and bleeding heavily from a few places, though she didn’t appear to care about her injuries. She was lying by a blood-covered, gold-tinted sword and crying profusely, her tears falling onto the cold, lifeless body of a Rarity.

The Rarity was old. Unlike her sister, who had clearly toned muscles and a powerful form, her legs were thin and weary. The bags under her eyes were far too worn, even for someone of her age, and the green crystals embedded in her sides had been there so long parts of her flesh had grown around their edges. Despite this… she had a smile on her face, as if she had done something worthwhile in the end.

The sun rose, sending its light through a window behind the League, moved by the light of Generosity. Celia looked from the dead mare, to the books around her, to the rising light and understood the sacrifice that had taken place here.

Cinder snapped first. “RARITY!” she screamed, diving for the mare that looked like her sister but wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t. But her mind wasn’t able to draw that connection yet.

The injured Sweetie couldn't either. She took one look at Celia and gagged. “R-R-Rarity…?”

“No, no, no, I am not,” Celia said, shaking her head. She lifted up her mane to draw attention to her crystal. “I’m not even a unicorn, dear.”

“B-b-but… I… She…” The Sweetie swallowed, looking out at the sun. “She… why… she didn’t have to… the sun...”

“Raritys are generous,” Celia said, holding a hoof to the Sweeties chin. She didn’t flinch from the touch. “They… they choose to lay themselves down for their friends. She has given life back to the sun and your world. We h—”

“THIS DIDN’T HAVE TO HAPPEN!” Cinder shouted, shooting an angry fireball between Celia and the local Sweetie out of reflex. “IF WE HAD GOTTEN HERE A FEW MINUTES EARLIER!”

Celia’s face shifted to panic. “Cinder, calm down, we d—”

“We could have fixed this!” Cinder screamed, tears rolling down her face. “We should have brought a Celestia in the moment we arrived, but no, we had to research! Had to figure out what this world meant! Had to find out its history! And now Rarity is dead! Do you see this!? DEAD!”

“You… could have fixed this!?” the injured Sweetie shouted, recoiling from Celia. “You could h—”

It was at this point she saw the Capricious Crown.

The Crown flashed blue. “Now, I understand you may b—”

“YOU!” The Sweetie hefted the sword in her telekinesis and, despite her injury, swung the thing down on the Crown. Blink pulled the artifact out of the way, subsequently making herself and the Crown intangible, impervious to attacks.

“YOU DID THIS!” the Sweetie raged. “YOU ATTACKED US! YOU DESTROYED THE WORLD!”

“That was not my intention.”

“SCREW YOUR INTENTION!” She kept swinging even though it was completely pointless. Everyone stood back — even Cinder, whose anger had boiled off quickly in the presence of this mare’s unbridled fury.

Eventually, the mare’s injuries caught up with her, forcing her to slump to the ground, clutching onto the sword as if it were her only connection to life. She breathed heavily, taking her gaze off the Crown. Her face betrayed her shame.

“I understand that this means nothing,” the Crown said. “But I regret the entire war. The pain of ponies and equines was not worth what I sought to gain. I have lost my people and my friends — the closest I have to a family. I am alone.”

“You… you’re apologizing!? You’re the Capricious Crown! You never go back on anything!”

“I have been alone at the bottom of a crevasse for decades, watching the world decay around me. That would make even ancient artifacts re-evaluate their position. I have no kingdom, Sweetie Belle. I have lost everything. We are in the same boat.”

The Sweetie glared at him and turned away in disgust.

At least the murder is gone from her eyes, Cinder thought.

Cinder realized she’d spoken too soon when the Sweetie glared at Celia. “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care. You could have fixed this, and you didn’t. And now she… she…”

Celia sighed. “Sweetie, listen to me, and listen closely.”

“I don’t want t—”

“We might be able to bring her back.”

Sweetie’s eyes widened. “Wh…”

“Celia…” Blink cautioned.

“There is a spell,” Celia said, tapping her crystal. “Not very many mages know it, but it has the potential to bring anyone back to life.”

The Sweetie dropped her sword. “...Do it. Bring her back. I… I don’t care if it stops the sun, just bring her back!”

Celia gulped. “I have to warn you, it doesn’t always work properly. Sometimes ponies Come Back Wrong.”

“W-wrong?”

“Roughly half of the time, the spell brings them back without a problem. But the other half of the time… they can come back as soulless husks, enraged monsters, or… something worse.”

“Just do it! I don’t care if it goes wrong, do it!”

Celia nodded. “Cinder, you’re going to have to leave.”

“No,” Cinder said.

“Cinder…”

“I SAID NO!” Cinder smashed her hoof into the ground. “I’m. Not. Running. Away.”

“Cinder, if this goes wrong, we’re going to have to kill her again,” Squiddy stated bluntly. “You don’t want to be here for that.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Cinder said, folding her hooves. “I’m seeing this through. This is our fault.”

“It isn’t,” Blink said.

“We could have done something!”

“And in another world, if we had done something a different pony would have died.”

“Wh… I…” Cinder shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Celia sighed. “If you must…” Celia kneeled down next to the mare that looked a lot like her, although smaller and much frailer. Her crystal sent out three cascading circles of brilliant white magic, centering around the form of Rarity. With a pulse of soft energy, Rarity’s chest began to rise and fall with the motion of breathing. One of her legs twitched, and her eyes focused. It took a few minutes, but the unicorn was brought to a standing position.

“Remarkable…” the Crown said.

But there was nothing in Rarity’s eyes. The orbs glanced around the room with a vacant, lifeless nature to them.

Celia sighed. “I… I am sorry, she h-”

The Rarity let out a scream of anguish and charged Celia, trying to bite into her leg. The thing that had once been Rarity found it impossible to break the mare’s unusual skin, but Celia still screamed in surprise.

Cinder readied a fireball, Blink entered a fighting stance, and Squiddy took out her gun.

The local Sweetie hit the thing upside the head with her sword, hacking the skull hard enough for everyone to feel the bones inside cracking. The white unicorn teetered back and forth before it slumped to the ground, just as dead as it had been before.

The Sweetie said nothing. She could only wail as the light of the sun poured over them all.

She didn’t even notice when Celia started healing her…

Cinder didn’t notice either. She couldn't take her eyes off the dent in the Rarity’s skull.

That was her sister.

Blink and Squiddy tried to console her, but she didn’t register their presence. She was barely aware of being led back to Swip...

~~~

Equis Solarity, they’d decided to call it. Of course the name was unofficial, but these things tended to stick. The world was to be named after the mare that gave it life.

Sweetie Belle hated that. It would be a constant reminder of something that didn’t have to happen.

She was currently standing on the top of a hill, overlooking the rural area outside Canterlot where the Sweeties had set up an ‘Aid Division’ camp. There were already a half dozen tents and one ‘insta-hospital’ on the ground, and numerous teams had been sent out to find survivors. Those who fought were easily subdued, usually without injury, and treated at the hospital regardless of which side they had been on — or if they were monstrous raiders or little kids.

The Crown had been partially recharged with a magic book and was set up on a pedestal outside the camp, a simple word from it being all a caprid needed to stop fighting and help with the relief efforts. As much damage as the Crown had caused, Sweetie had to admit it seemed to be trying for peace now.

It really had suffered just like the rest of them had. Perhaps more so, since it could blame itself for most of that suffering. Sweetie couldn’t exactly say it was her fault that the war happened or so many ponies died, as much as she wanted to.

She could, however, blame herself for the loss of Rarity.

I could have made her wait five minutes. Could have made her rest another day before going to Canterlot. Could have gone into the library with her… Could have stalled for time…

They could have acted faster.

Sweetie kicked a rock away with her new stave. She watched as it rolled down the hill, glinting in the sun before it embedded itself in the muddy ground.

“Sweetie?”

Sweetie turned around to see a small alicorn — clearly one of the Sweeties, but also… Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

She hadn’t thought of those names in years. The memories were so distant she struggled to dredge them out from the depths. All those years crusading seemed… dulled, now. Almost as if they had been something she read about rather than lived.

“Yes,” Sweetie said, fixing the alicorn with a confrontational gaze. “You too?”

“Partially. I’m Sweetaloo Blume. Can I sit?”

Sweetie really didn’t want her to. “Sure.”

The two of them watched the bustle of the camp. They saw ponies run back and forth, fights break out and stop, and a few interdimensional portals open to deposit supplies and more personnel. The orange-gold symbol of Merodi Universalis began to spread across the wastes, bringing with it hope and relief — as well as the story of a mare who gave everything to return the sun to them.

A lie, Sweetie knew. One of omission if nothing else.

“Why do you do this?” Sweetie asked Sweetaloo.

“Why do we do what? Help?”

“No. Why do you tell them Rarity’s sacrifice mattered?”

Sweetaloo looked at Sweetie with sad, tired eyes. “Because it does.”

“You could have just fixed it with a clap of your hooves!”

“We could have, yes, but it wouldn’t have been meaningful if we had done that, not in the same way. We would be heroes, we would be worshipped… but we would have risked nothing, and it would have been just another day at the office. But her… she became Generosity, proving to you all that your world wasn’t dead. That you could bring life back.”

Sweetie glared at her.

“It’s a tragedy, Sweetie. But we’re not going to disrespect her further by robbing her of her legacy.”

“You already have,” Sweetie growled.

“...Are we to blame for our existence?”

“YES! NO! I…” She kicked up some dust and ran away from Sweetaloo. Why does it have to be so complicated!? Why can’t it just be simple!? Why can’t they be evil!?

She glanced behind her. She saw a pained Sweetaloo standing at the top of the hill — letting her go.

Chase me! Do SOMETHING!

Sweetaloo did nothing but look hurt.

Sweetie let out a tear-filled shout and kept running, almost blind, until she tripped and fell flat onto her face.

“I have to admit, I was not expecting you to bow before me,” the Crown said from its position on the small pedestal she’d tripped over.

Sweetie stood up, wiping her face. “S-shut up.”

“I would never have gotten anywhere in life if I meekly shut up.”

“You destroyed the world, you overglorified hat.”

“...True,” the Crown admitted.

“I’m surprised nobody’s smashed you yet.”

“I’m hard to break. And besides, Celia’s given me asylum, and now that my caprids are returning, there are many who are still loyal to me.”

“How many?” Sweetie sneered. “Did watching the world decay around them for a few decades make them re-evaluate their position?”

“Yes. Same with you and everyone else on this planet.”

Sweetie found herself reluctantly nodding. “Yeah…”

“I wonder what Capra looks like,” the Crown said softly. “I know it was deeper into the darkness than Equestria all these years. If I return home, will I find dust? Will I find ghost towns? A remnant of a nation? Or, by the time I return, will these Merodi have already taken control and usurped my nation from me?”

“They’re helping,” Sweetie pointed out half-heartedly.

“Of course they are. They are also a multiversal alliance that contains hundreds of worlds. This is certainly a clever way to get our world to join ‘by choice’. Many will believe we could not have survived without their help, and will naturally be so enamored by them there will be no chance of refusal. We will join — this entire planet — and anything we had that was our own will become theirs. We will be the backwater planet everyone pities.”

Sweetie’s anger returned. “You’re… you’re right! They’re just going to ignore everything we had here! Look at this camp — helping everyone regardless of what they’ve done! Do you see that guy over there?” She pointed at a massive stallion with numerous tattoos all over his coat and scars on his body. “I bet he’s killed and raped dozens of ponies. And they’re treating him just like everyone else.”

“They are forcing our world to reset, in a way.”

“Yeah! They may be trying to make Rarity’s sacrifice mean something, but what about all the others? All those who died fighting these horrible ponies? All the victims? Are we just going to forget about them!?”

“It appears so. Crimes — and not just war crimes — have been wiped clean in this sterilized tent gathering.”

“This needs to stop,” Sweetie said, stamping her hoof in the ground. “Or be mitigated. Or… something.”

The Crown shifted its colors around for a moment. “I may have a solution.”

Sweetie glared at it. “No.”

“It’s not a war. I learned my lesson in that regard.” The Crown paused for a moment, making sure that no one was around to listen. “There may… be a way to unite our two peoples. If we refuse their help, we can still have our own greatness. Work our way forward on our own. The sun’s moving, the world’s no longer in danger of dying.”

“...We can’t just tell them to go away,” Sweetie pointed out. “I don’t think they will.”

“They definitely won’t, unless our people as a whole refuse them.”

“And how would we do that? You’re the only leader left as far as I know, and most of your people are… I don’t even know.”

“We can rebuild. Together. Instead of rising out of the ashes bitter and spiteful, we can work together. The two sides of the war can rise up. Capra will follow me — but Equestria will follow you. The sister of the savior of the world.”

“M-me?”

“Yes. You. Sweetie Belle, the younger of Generosity. The one who helped the great Rarity on her journey to set the heavens in motion. Your influence could spread beyond just these lands to the world over, if you let it.”

Sweetie looked at her hooves in disbelief.

“All you need is a crown.”

Sweetie glanced up at the Crown. Emotions swirled inside her — anger, fear, sorrow, pride, devastation, hope…

Somewhere in her mind, she knew she wasn’t in the emotional state to make this decision. But that part was easily pushed away by the screaming everywhere else in her mind.

It didn’t even occur to her that she was being manipulated.

She grabbed the Crown in her hooves. Its jewels gleamed a triumphant gold.

“Don me,” it whispered.

“SWEETIE!” Celia shouted, running toward her at full speed.

Sweetie froze, the Crown inches from her head.

“I don’t have time for this,” the Crown hissed, using some of its magic to move itself onto Sweetie’s head. Sweetie was startled as the magic of the Crown shot into her mind: not exactly painful, but definitely disorienting. She felt her muscles start to lose sensation and her mind began to drift…

...and then Celia crashed into them. Her crystal and the gems of the Crown flared brightly as they came into contact, enveloping the three of them in a burst of light.

Sweetie could hear the voices. The Crown most of all, screaming in rage at the assault. Celia’s voice broke in, telling Sweetie to fight, telling her to come out, to reject the Crown. Sweetie shouted at her and at the Crown — not wanting to listen to either of them! She just wanted this all to be DONE!

And then it was.

The burst of light faded, tossing two forms out. The first was Celia, her body weak and unstable. The second was Sweetie, whose head was swimming. Despite this, she managed to stand up, stretching her legs.

She looked up, taking in the presence of the Crown on her head. The Crown looked down at the Sweetie it was resting on. The vision of the two was one and the same. There was an awkward spark, and then a pained, almost psychotic laugh emanated from both the unicorn’s mouth and the Crown’s crystals.

“What a good start this is. I’m built on a failed lie,” she said, waving a hoof in the air. “A manipulative monster using a pathetic emotional wreck. I failed to see the trap, I failed to execute it. How’s that for a paradox?” A pair of wings appeared at her sides — made of light rather than feathers, floating a few inches from her body, reminiscent of the way Celia’s weapons were formed. As ‘Sweetie’ looked at these, the crown’s jewels shifted to a deep purple, flecked with red.

Celia looked at her in horror - but tried to talk anyway. “Y-you’re something new now, you can forge your own path. You don’t have to be either…”

The crystals of the crown turned into a bright, fiery red. “I think we both know that isn’t true.” She stretched her wings out, sending sparks in both directions. “For all their problems and faults, they both suffered here. I carry that suffering with me.” She pointed a hoof at Celia. “You will leave this world.”

“No,” Celia said, forcing herself to stand strong. “I don’t care if you are somehow sovereign over this world, the ponies here need help, and I’m not going to let you interfere with that for any reason.”

The new pseudo-alicorn scowled — then sighed. “There was no way out… was there?”

“You can come with us. We can help y—”

“I DON’T WANT HELP!” she shouted at the top of her lungs, sending cracks through the earth around her and toppling the pedestal the Crown had sat on mere minutes before. She spread her wings, tapping into the magic memory of the Crown to find a certain spell it had developed while watching the Merodi open and close portals. A tear in reality appeared in front of her, leading to an expanse of stone. “I want… I want…” She let out a scream and jumped through the portal, closing it behind her.

On the other side, wherever that may be, she sat down on hard ground, tears rolling down her face.

She was alone again.

She was alone for the first time.

Restore the Capric Empire.

She pushed the thought out of her mind. She’d get to that eventually. She needed… some time, right now.

~~~

A few relative days later…

Cinder trotted through a hedge maze, a bored expression on her face. ‘Stick together’ they’d said. ‘It’ll be easy if we all tie each other together’ they said. ‘This’ll be fun’ they said.

She hadn’t seen another Sweetie for a solid fifteen minutes and she hadn’t found anything in this maze yet. No treasure, no monsters, no nothing. It was… annoying. And it was leaving her alone with her thoughts, something she didn’t like to do these days.

Bad things popped into her head when she was left alone with her thoughts. Sweetaloo had told her the images would fade eventually, and Rarity had been as supportive and concerned as always…

But she could still see that Sweetie hack at her sister. Hear that sickening crunch…

Rarity had said Cinder would never do something like that. But why did she have this nagging in the back of her mind? Something that… pulled her to the event.

The bodies of the raiders had slowly faded as more excitement occured, as had the remnants of war… But that single moment, that cracking skull, that had stayed with her.

“I’m sorry.”

Cinder whirled around to see the Sweetie she had just been thinking about behind her. She looked at the crown and the magical wings in fear. “Wh… Wha…”

“It’s okay,” she said with a sigh — Cinder noticed she was speaking just through her vocal cords, not using the Crown’s synthesizer at all. “I’m not here to hurt you, kidnap you, or anything. I just… I remember how you were in… there.” Without warning, she pulled Cinder into a hug, folding her shimmering wings around the unicorn. “You’re not like the others. And I wanted you to know that. I… I don’t blame you, okay?”

“I…”

“Shh…” she said, putting a hoof to Cinder’s mouth. “I don’t need to hear anything.” She spread her wings and looked to the sky. “...Don’t let them destroy who you are like they did me, Cinder.”

Cinder stared at her, dumbfounded as she flew into the sky, opened up a dimensional portal, and vanished through it.

Briefly, she wondered if she should tell the others.

...No, that would ruin what she just did. She came to me. She didn’t have to. A smile appeared on Cinder’s face. Maybe she isn’t as bad as they think...

~~~

A few relative days later…

Equis Solarity was green. It had taken a lot of plant magic and some industrial biodiversity transports, but the world was green once again. Birds chirped, squirrels ran through the trees, and there were even children playing outside in the newly refurbished gardens of Canterlot. There were ponies, ibexes, griffons, donkeys, and many others walking around the streets of the once-abandoned capital. A few Merodi ships hovered in the air around the city, watching over it while their sisters slowly cleaned up the battlefield outside, moving slowly so as to not explode anything.

Just through the Canterlot gates, there was a statue of a beautiful mare. Despite the crystals jutting out of her sides and the sagging of her face, she looked powerful. Her eyes were directed toward the rising sun, and a hoof was outstretched as if she were the one lifting it up. Rarity, Element of Generosity.

One of the ponies looking at the statue furrowed his brow. “...You know, she had a sister too. I heard that Rarity would not have made it without her constant support. Why don’t we have any statues of her?”

“Good question…” a mare said, turning to the rest of their group. No one — pony, sheep, ibex, or otherwise — knew anything further.

They all heard a weary cough, and an old ibex in a white robe stepped out from behind the statue. “The story of the Crown Princess is a complex one that the Merodi would rather you not know... would you like to hear it?”

Fascinated by the words ‘Crown Princess’, the entire crowd eagerly agreed to listen to the tale…

Hiding in a nearby tree, the Crown Princess looked upon the enamored crowd - and smiled. Most would ignore the story. But a few — a select few — would be hers. She knew she could not rebuild the empire anymore, it was impossible with the recent events. But why couldn’t she start from scratch?

She spread her wings and left the universe.

Author's Notes:

The Motion of the Stars is a depressing piece that has just the right amount of drama glimmered with hope. It was written by the wonderful Carabas who was instrumental in this chapter's creation, both helping plan it and being an EDITING MASTERMIND. Go check the Rarity-cube out. And for those who are already Carabas fans, yes, the Crown is from another work of theirs, one that didn't quite pass moderation into LSB, but contained the best grumpy artifact character ever. If you're curious, Moonlight Palaver.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES.
There Are No Ponies in Equestria. (Not for long...)

P.S.: The Sweetie's recently featured in my other story, Songs of the Spheres, as part of the clipshow. You can check that out but be prepared to be very confused if you haven't read SotS. If you are a SotS fan, chapter 100 is coming up, so you may want to leave suggestions for that here.

-GM, master of LEPONEZ

Oops, There are Now Ponies in Equestria (There are No Ponies in Equestria)

Cinder, Nira, Blink, and Celia stepped out of a portal onto the roof of a completely normal looking Sugarcube Corner. For a moment, Cinder expected to hear Squiddy’s usual pained groan at the monotony of their job, but then she remembered the inkling wasn’t with them. Instead there was just an awkward silence as the wind brushed through their manes.

“We should probably get off the roof,” Blink said.

Cinder shrugged. “Why? It’s not like we really need to be hidden or anything.”

“I don’t want a repeat of the ‘Pinkie Pie Lawn’ incident,” Blink said, jumping to the ground. Nira teleported the rest of them down effortlessly.

Cinder noticed that there weren’t any ponies in Sugarcube Corner — not the Cakes, not Pinkie, nothing. In fact, there weren’t many ponies around at all…

“Are we in a ghost town?” Cinder wondered.

“No, there’s just a town hall meeting featuring the Princesses,” Celia said, levitating a bulletin off the side of Sugarcube Corner. “About… now, actually.”

“Convenient,” Cinder observed. “Guess we’re listening to a political speech.”

Celia nodded, rolling up the bulletin and heading off to town hall. The seeming absence of ponies was put to rest the moment they rounded a corner — clearly every pony in town was standing around the stage, staying quiet as they listened to Celestia speak about some political topic or other Cinder didn’t particularly care about. Far as she could tell, the Princess was still in the middle of the greeting, though coming into the middle of her excessively verbose sentence was beyond confusing.

“Oh hey, free food,” Blink said, noticing a pastry stand.

“Don’t interrupt the speech,” Nira muttered.

“I’m not!”

They continued into the crowd. Nopony paid them any mind — after all, they were all pony shaped, and in a busy crowd Celia’s size and crystal didn’t stand out. Celestia had the ponies’ full attention, keeping the Sweeties conveniently hidden in plain sight.

The words of Celestia became a background monotone for Cinder as she examined the ponies around her. They looked almost exactly like the ponies she knew, though when she caught sight of Pipsqueak she knew this world was a few years behind her own. Other than that, there didn’t appear to be anything unusual. The buildings were the same, the sun felt the same… Everything was the same. She fully expected to see a younger version of herself at some point.

And then Celestia did something a little odd.

“And so,” she concluded, wrapping up the introduction. “In light of some recent revelations, we have a question to ask you all, citizens of Ponyville. A question which we hope you will answer honestly.”

That had Cinder’s attention. She would have remembered if one of Celestia's visits had included this.

“Is this the real life?” Celestia asked, “is it just fantasy?”

“Caught in a landslide,” Luna added, “no escape from reality.”

“Open your eyes,” Twilight pleaded, “look up to the sky and see…”

“Why does this sound vaguely familiar?” Nira muttered.

“I… oh no…” Celia’s pupils shrunk as recognition crossed her face.

“Huh?” Cinder asked, looking up at her. “Wh-”

Before it could go any further, Thunderlane jumped out of the crowd and started singing the line that came after Twilight’s. “I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy.”

Twist jumped up, alarming Cinder considerably. “Becauthe ith’s eathy come, eathy go.”

What in Celestia’s name is happening? Is this a heartsong? Why don’t I feel like singing!?

“Uh… Uh…” Celia bit her lip and furrowed her brow. “We need to blend in.”

“Wh- why?”

“I’ll explain later but we need t-”

“ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS, DOESN’T REALLY MATTER TO MEEE…” Bulk Biceps shouted, interrupting their plan. “TO MEEEEE…!”

“They’re singing a song they have no right to know,” Celia continued, summoning her rod and bothering to create a false horn overtop her crystal. “Quick, we need to sing along.”

“How am I supposed to sing if the notes don’t just come?” Cinder wailed — but then she noticed some ponies in the crowd had started hearing her complaints. “I mean, uh…”

Celia was already scrawling words in the ground as more voices joined the crowd-sized chorus. Cinder focused on them and got into the crowd’s collective beat. She was a good singer — she knew how to keep beat, match tones, and follow the patterns. “Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead… Mama, life had just begun — but now I’ve gone and thrown it all away~!”

It was a deep emotional song about, apparently, some pony killing someone and realizing the mistake of the act. It made absolutely no sense to her why everypony would be singing it from Celestia’s prompting, and definitely made no sense that they were singing it without a heartsong. They were just singing, flat out! There was no harmony here, and many of them were pretty bad at it!

There was a small break in the song — which was an odd silence since there were no instruments. “Can you…?” she asked Celia.

“Luna is casting a heartsong spell. She’d notice if I tried to stir it up purposefully.” Celia answered — before jumping right to “Too late, my time has come…”

Blink, Cinder thought, looking around. Need to find Blink…

She could only find Celia and Nira — no Blink.

Where in Equestria are you!?

She continued singing. “Goodbye everybody, I’ve got to go…” It was an odd timing, but it was slow enough that she could keep up with it and had a general idea where it was going given the lay of the previous stanzas. But then she looked down to the next stanza…

That’s not the same…

She resolved herself to just make it sound like she was coughing at first and continue after the rest of them started singing it. It could work. It should have worked.

If only Bohemian Rhapsody weren't such an absolutely bizarre and off the walls song, Cinder might have been spared.

As it happens, she managed to keep along for “I see a little silhouetto of a man” and promptly lost all sense of timing and coherence when everypony started screaming “SCARAMOUCH, SCARAMOUCH, WILL YOU DO THE FANDANGO!?”

What even is a scaramouch!?

It was at this point Celia touched her fake horn to Nira’s, prompting a soft flash of light that a few ponies noticed — a few ponies that looked nervous, confused, but also excited…

And then Nira started downloading Celia’s knowledge of the song into Cinder’s brain.

For a split second, Cinder wondered why they were being so careful about blending in. What was it that had Celia concerned? What would these normal ponies do to them if they found them out?

She didn’t know — but she trusted Celia. She accepted the outright bizarre song and started singing in perfect tune, timing, and on-key from Nira’s influence.

Unfortunately for them this wasn’t to last long. In the middle of a “we will not let you go” some dancing ponies tripped and fell into Nira, scrambling her mental connection to Cinder and Celia. The two of them let out hisses of pain and closed their eyes tight.

This was their undoing.

The next thing Cinder knew she had been tripped by a dancing pony and was flat on her back. With a grunt she stood up, fear in her eyes.

She looked for Celia, Nira, even Blink.

She couldn’t find any of them.

I closed my eyes for half a second, there’s no way they got taken away that quickly!

She stumbled around, running into dancing ponies every few seconds. She wasn’t even trying to sing anymore — the song had gone off on too many strange tangents and without Nira she was completely hopeless. However, it seemed that most ponies were too into the song or too lost in their own heads to notice a panicked mare running through the crowd. She was just another blob in somepony’s peripheral.

When they started making guitar solo noises with their mouths she decided she was done. With all the effort she could muster, she ran away from the crowd, not caring in the slightest that ponies found her fleeing odd. She jumped into a bush and hid.

Nopony had noticed her jump into the bush.

Why don’t I feel lucky?

She sat there for a minute or so as the song wrapped up and a strange silence fell over the pony crowd. She still couldn’t see any of her fellow Sweeties and she had no idea what had just happened. In many ways, it was a worse feeling than being in mortal danger…

“Right then,” Luna declared as she stepped forward and took charge. “Now that you all probably have some idea as to what’s going on…”

Cinder felt insulted.

“Will anybody who was not, in some way, shape, or form, previously a human being, please raise your hoof.”

There was a pregnant pause as everypony waited, shuffling around nervously. Cinder realized with shock that not a single pony raised a hoof.

Her mind only had one response to this.

What.

Luna’s jaw was hanging open, indicating even she had not expected anything this unanimous.

Twilight spoke next. “Alright, that’s… more than we’d counted on. Okay, next question. Please raise your hoof if you are familiar with a television program called: My Little Pony. Specifically the rebooted Friendship is Magic version.”

What.

It wasn’t unanimous this time. No, there were a few who had no idea here and there. But there were so many hooves raised Cinder could tell it was a clear majority.

WHAT.

And then the ponies started happily hugging each other and talking loudly.

“You’re a human?”

“Yes! Well, I was…”

“Me too!”

Cinder’s brain stopped working. She caught a few things — “I was drawing my OC and then suddenly I was my OC drawing my human self,” “I’m not actually Red, my name’s Linda,” “HAS ANYONE HERE SEEN ENDGAME? I NEVER GOT TO SEE IT!” and on and on and on…

Cinder remained in her bush. Frozen.

She might as well have been listening to static.

~~~

Blink returned from her outing for an Absolutely Delicious Maple Bar™ with the pastry in hoof.

The sight that welcomed her were hundreds of ponies happily chattering and celebrating… something important that had happened while she was gone.

She pursed her lips. Maybe I should have paid attention to the horrible singing…

With a mildly annoyed sigh she tossed her mane back and walked right into the crowd. As the Witch of Void, it was pathetically easy for her to eavesdrop on any number of conversations.

...Not that most of them made sense.

“So, yeah, looks like I’ll be bringing computers to Equestria.”

“Sweet. I don’t have to be a farmer anymore!”

“...What will you do instead?”

“Figure skating!”

“...Have you ever figure skated with hooves before?”

“...Dammit, I might have a problem…”

Blink’s attention was drawn elsewhere by a stallion shouting in a gravelly voice.

“I DEMAND YOU LISTEN TO ME! I am a PRINCE! I am not some common pon-”

“Oh, do shut up!”

“If there is no need for secrecy, I demand my divine right!”

“What are you, from the stone ages?”

“You best watch your tongue, peasant!”

“Given the shape of my head I can’t really look at it now can I?”

Blink would have loved to keep listening in on that conversation, but she found herself listening to a large mare wearing a robe that was clearly made out of a tablecloth. “Repent, sinners! For we are in purgatory and cannot move forward without struggle…”

Blink ran through a list of common Equestrian religions. Harmonism, Celestialism, and Thaumism… That certainly didn’t sound like any of them. It sounded like a human religion. Which wasn’t that unusual since the human religions had a way of propagating into the weirdest places without any natural reason for doing so, but that set her on the right track.

It did not take her long to overhear the names of a few key places…

“So where you from?”

“America.”

“Russia.”

The two stallions in question suddenly glared at each other with untrusting expressions.

“Lighten up, those borders don’t exist here,” Blink said, sliding in between the two of them like the suave mastermind she knew herself to be. “I’m sure you two can be the best of friends regardless of what secrets there once were. Let’s start with… what’s your favorite color?”

“Red.”

“Green.”

The two stallions stared at each other with murder in their eyes.

Blink narrowed her eyes — not that they could see behind her shades. “You’re just making this difficult.”

At this point they broke into squabbling and Blink decided being the mediator wasn’t worth her time. She became ‘unimportant’ and drifted away.

So. It looked like every pony in this universe was actually a human in disguise or something.

She had to admit, that was a new one.

Probably should find the others…

She finished her Absolutely Delicious Maple Bar™ and, with a smile on her face, began her search. It looked like today was going to be somewhat interesting.

~~~

Cinder was having a panic attack. She had no idea how long she’d been having the panic attack.

She knew she was in a bush. That… was about it. She didn’t know where any of the other Sweeties were, she had no idea what the song was about, and she didn’t understand how it was possible that there were no ponies in Equestria.

Aside from her.

Am I even a pony? She asked herself. For some reason, she found this idea absolutely hilarious and laughed. Her panic took over and she punched herself in the face to shut up the attention-grabbing noise. The impact was so jarring it brought her to her senses.

What the hay am I doing!?

With a deep breath she extended a hoof and brought it down to the ground once more — a calming breathing exercise Twilight had taught her a while back. It did the trick, reducing her bundle of nerves down to a level where she could think.

She went through what she knew. Even though the… human-ponies seemed harmless, for some reason Celia was dead set on keeping the League’s nature hidden from them. She had to assume they could be dangerous if they found out about her. So, what could she do?

Getting out of the world was probably a good idea, but she didn’t know how to do that without Celia or the others, and she didn’t know where they were.

...She did have a communicator though.

Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

She slowly took out the communicator and tapped it with her hoof, activating the silvery disc. It made a call to Swip, connected, and showed… a static image of Swip’s digital face. It wasn’t moving.

Cinder furrowed her brow. “What…?”

TEMPORAL INCONGRUITY DETECTED. RECOMMENDATION: SHIFT UNIVERSES FOR A BETTER SIGNAL.

“What?”

“Hey, I think I heard something in that bush…”

I didn’t say that, Cinder realized, blinking slowly. She looked out of the bush and saw the local Sweetie Belle coming at her. Ponyfeathers…

She poked her face just barely out of the bush, trying to accentuate her bright orange eyes by opening them as wide as she could. Not wanting to sound like her counterpart, she spoke with a voice slightly too deep for her vocal cords to make without strain. “Uh… hi.”

“Hi,” Sweetie said, cocking her head. She reminded Cinder of herself a couple years ago — small, innocent, and just a tad too aware of what was going on around her. Like, say, hearing bushes talk. “Why are you in that bush?”

“Just having a moment!” Cinder said nervously. “...I like bushes. I really, really like bushes. And with all the, you know, going on around, well, uh, I’m sure you understand.”

Sweetie nodded slowly, before frowning. “You seem a lot more freaked out than everyone else…”

“Why aren’t you freaked out? Everypony’s a human!”

“Well, I mean, now I don’t have to keep a secret and worry about keeping the canon in check.”

The canon? What in… wait. That show. That thing everyone knew about that… wh…

“You okay…?” Sweetie asked.

“YES! JUST FINE!” Cinder announced, pulling her face back into the bush. “I’m just going to STAY FINE in my BUSH! T-thank you!”

“You… really don’t sound okay.”

“I’ll be fiiiiiiine!” Cinder trilled, absentmindedly grabbing at her mane and dragging a few leaves into it. “You get to… whatever it was you were doing.”

Sweetie looked back at her Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, both of whom were looking a little impatient. With a nod, Sweetie backed away from the bush. “Alright, you can stay in your… bush. Though if you’re still in there in a few hours I’m going to say you’re not fine.”

“I won’t be here in a few hours!” Oh Celestia I hope I’m not still in here then…

“Good.” She trotted over to her other friends and they started talking about… building something.

Cinder watched them closely as they trotted toward the clubhouse. The moment they were out of sight, Cinder jumped out of the bush, twitching.

My Little Pony. What does that even mean!?

She looked at the town around her. Now that most of the craziness had died down a bit, ponies — people? — were walking around with something approaching normal expressions on their faces.

And every last one of them was a human. Every last one that, prior to today, had been hiding. Pretending to be a pony because they had thought everyone else was…

That was impossible. The chances of something like this happening were… astronomical! There were ten-quintillion universes in the multiverse, and only a trillion or so were pony based according to their estimates. There were more than a billion ponies on the planet, right? Even if it was lower than that… The chances that even one of them was a random lost human was ridiculous. This wasn’t natural. It couldn't be natural.

But then again…

What were the chances Sweetie Belle herself existed in so many alternate worlds? Ones that, unlike this universe, didn’t share the same background history or timeline? How did Swip come about? What about something like Suzie? Or Squiddy?

The fact that there were so many of them… that in and of itself was so improbable it was impossible! There were tens of thousands of Sweeties in the League! The multiverse wasn’t infinite, this sort of thing shouldn’t be able to happen by chance alone!

Something must have been causing it.

But what?

I need to find the others.

Something in the back of her mind rose to the surface, tickling her brain. In many of their adventures, they had encountered the local Sweetie of the universe completely by accident — including this one. Maybe if she followed the other Sweetie she could find her friends.

It made no logical sense.

Cinder decided to listen to her idea anyway. It was better than asking herself questions about the nature of the League’s existence.

Unfortunately after about a minute of walking she realized she was still thinking hard about how improbable virtually everything she encountered was. Had she been home, she would have blamed the Tree of Harmony or the Magic of Friendship for all the insanity.

But she was out in the multiverse. And she knew that there were different Trees out there…

Something didn’t make sense…

What is ‘canon’…?

~~~

Nira was unsure when a bucket had landed on her head, but there was a bucket on her head. She had to wrestle with herself a solid minute to keep from opening the spawn of some dark dimension upon the offending object, and when she finally did she opted to just explode it off her face.

When the smoke cleared she realized the crowd had started dissipating. Annoyingly, she couldn’t see any of the Sweeties. She closed her eyes and sent out a magic ping. Naturally, she couldn't find Blink, but that was normal, and Cinder was not powerful enough to register. She sensed Celia’s magic a fair distance away, but it was muddled.

Clearly, something had gone wrong. As to what exactly that was, well, given that this world seemed to be overrun with displaced humans, it could be just about anything. Even complete ‘randomness’.

She could hear the air quotes around the word as she thought it, and the realization filled her with disgust.

They needed to get out of here. Swip was the one with the transponder detectors, so all she needed to do was initiate contact. To do that she’d need to make a portal. She could easily do that with her magic, but it would take time and it was paramount these human-ponies not figure out the multiverse existed.

This world’s situation was… unique in its precise implication, but far from the only thing of its kind in existence. A world that had no right to exist out of pure absurdity…

Maybe there was a logical explanation for why all these humans were here. If they only knew how much of their fate hinged on that one unanswered question…

But that was the whole point, wasn’t it? They weren't to know. Not about the Sweeties or Merodi Universalis, anyway.

Nira glanced around, discovering plenty of ponies within sight. This wasn't surprising, just annoying. She’d need a secret place to do her portal creation…

She trotted over to the back of Sugarcube corner and hid herself behind one of the flour shipments. After a cursory check that nopony was around, she lit her horn…

Pinkie Pie popped out the back door of Sugarcube Corner, interrupting Nira’s spell. “Oh, hi Sweetie! ...What are you doing…?”

Nira pulled her coak closer to her body to hide the obvious scarring, as well has her adult form. “...Being mysterious.”

“Oooh, were you some kind of spy as a human? That’s so cool!”

“If that’s what you’d like to believe,” Nira said, cautious. Pinkies were often the strongest allies in other worlds — but in cases where secrets needed to be kept and stealth was important, they suddenly became the worst enemy. They were often the universe’s way of making things go wrong very, very quickly. “I was just looking for somewhere with a little… privacy.”

Pinkie looked at her with confusion. “Wh…” she caught herself. “Wait, I don’t want to know.”

Nira nodded at her fortune. Looks like this one isn’t Aware. “I’ll just be on my way…”

“Want a cupcake?”

“No thanks! Maybe later!” Nira trotted away, trying to think of a new plan. Go somewhere with no ponies. Aha! Grinning to herself, she jumped into the Ponyville Diner and slid into the restrooms. She locked herself in a stall and sat on top of one of the toilets. She checked — no one else was in here.

With a soft breath, she focused the magic into her horn…

And then a couple of mares stumbled into the bathroom, giggling madly and clearly drunk off their plots.

On one hoof, they sounded so drunk they probably wouldn’t consciously register the dimensional portal opening nearby.

On the other, Nira really didn’t want to deal with whatever they had planned. Or not, as was often the case with drunk couples.

“Nope,” she said, trotting out of the stall and leaving the bathroom. The two mares stared at her like she were a pony-sized spider. With a swish of her tail she said “boo” and the two of them screamed, jumping onto the sink.

Great, that’s a low profile move, good work, Nira. Ugh...

Nira left the diner, looking for another public building she could jump into and use to disappear. She found town hall — naturally filled with ponies. But there would be one place devoid of prying eyes… the ever-useful janitor’s closet.

There would be no way the janitor was working right now, not right after the revelation. It was essentially a public holiday. The very thing that was making it hard to avoid ponies elsewhere would assure her secrecy here.

Quietly, she shut the door behind her and grinned. It was dark, small, cramped — but perfect. She lit her horn…

The janitor opened the door.

“WHY ARE YOU IN HERE!?” she shouted, accusingly.

“...Because it’s my shift,” the stallion said.

“Why are you working at a time like this!?”

“...Because it’s what I’ve always done. Get out of my closet.”

Nira fumed, storming out of town hall, leaving burn marks in the ground as she went.

“Uh, hey, miss, y-”

“CLEAN IT UP YOURSELF!” Nira screeched, charging away, cape billowing behind her.

So, clearly the universe had it out for her. She just had to be resilient. Charge into the Everfree Forest, there wouldn’t be ponies in there, right?

“Hey George, she’s going into the forest!”

“That’s a good idea, we should follow her!”

NIra whimpered, ramming her head into a tree. Why did existence do this to her!?

She didn’t know why she was asking the question. She knew why. And she hated it.

~~~

Cinder, to put it simply, was not a stealthy pony.

Her goal was to get to the CMC clubhouse without being noticed and wait for the other Sweeties to find her local self.

She wasn’t at the clubhouse, and already several ponies had noticed her. A few had even called out, “hey Sweetie!”

She had squeaked and run away. They should notice that I’m too old. That my eyes are wrong. But they don’t. Why don’t they?

Stop questioning it, it’s helping you!

But this happens all the time! Things go just right when they have no reason to! I want answers! I’m done being a bundle of unasked questions!

Well, you’re talking to yourself, so it’s possible you’re developing an insanity from all this…

“I am not talking to myself!” Cinder hissed, drawing the attention of more than a few ponies. “Eheheh… Uh…” She slinked away, jumping into a berry bush. I guess I really do like bushes today…

“Such stealth, much wow.”

At first fear rushed through Cinder’s heart — but then she realized who was talking. “...Blink…”

Blink allowed Cinder to see her standing outside the bush. “Having a good day?”

“No! No I am not! Everything’s wrong this world is impossible and everything just keeps going the perfect mixture of right and wrong!”

“So a normal day at the office?”

“Yes! That shouldn’t be normal! Think about it, we’re ridiculously lucky, like, all the time, and… everypony’s a human! The chances of that are so astronomical I don’t even know! It doesn’t make natural sense!”

“Yeeeah, that’s why we have to keep a low profile.”

Cinder twitched. “...What?”

“Well, see, worlds like this might have what we call a ‘glitch’ in them a-” she paused, turning to look at a small purple dragon standing on the other side of the road.

He was staring right at them.

Blink waved a hoof, creating an aura of unimportance around them. Spike should have slowly lost interest — maybe had some momentary confusion, or looked lost.

But no. Spike looked alarmed when Blink became unimportant.

“Blink! I want answers!” Cinder demanded.

“Hoooow about later?” Blink asked nervously. “I think Spike’s onto us…”

“Just make us fully invisible and intangible!”

Blink did, allowing Cinder to drop into the ground a few feet before pulling her back out. “Tsk tsk tsk, be careful what you wish for.”

“BLINK!”

Blink lowered her sunglasses and looked at Cinder with her empty eyes. “...You’re really not taking this well, are you?”

“No. What’s the big secret!”

“There isn’t one. It’s just not something we talk about openly. Remember ka?”

“Ka? What i..” Cinder swore she could hear something laugh in the back of her mind. “I… You’ve mentioned it a few times…” She felt as though something murky and nebulous was being lifted from her mind. It was a horrid feeling.

“Well, see, i-”

Spike breathed fire on her. It went through her — but she felt it. That shouldn’t have been possible.

“There’s something here,” Spike muttered to himself, flanked by six other ponies Blink didn’t recognize.

“No there isn’t,” Blink said, sending a pulse of Void into all of their minds. All seven of them were revealed to be Changelings in an instant as they lost control of their disguises.

They returned to awareness far faster than a being blanked by Blink should have, re-equipping their disguises with ease.

“...Ponyfeathers, we’ve got a true hive-mind.”

“Bad?” Cinder asked.

“They might actually be able to find me and I can’t attack them all at once, so… maybe?”

The seven changelings rushed Blink from all sides at once, clawing through her with magic and transformative power — not to mention the psychic energy of the MIND behind them.

Blink dragged Cinder away from the fray, furrowing her brow. “We need to get out of here. Cinder, your phone.”

“There’s a temporal error or something when I try to use it.”

“Drat,” Blink bit her lip. At this point the Changelings knew they weren’t there anymore — and were spreading out. She could feel their magic spreading out like a web, augmented by the hive-mind as they attempted to find them.

“Here Sweetie Sweetie Sweetie…” Spike was calling. “Here Sweetie Sweetie Sweetie…”

“...Are they going to find us?” Cinder asked.

“Not if we keep moving,” Blink assured her, taking off at a run through the town.

“But what about Nira and Celia?”

“They can take care of themselves.”

“From an entire Changeling hive-mind?”

“...Right, we can’t have Nira causing a genocide with a mind virus today…” Blink looked around frantically. “I have no idea where they are.”

“Neither do I!” Cinder shook her head. “For all we know they’re trapped or imprisoned or something!”

“Hah, these pony-humans wouldn’t do that,” Blink said with a roll of her eyes. “They have to be close to the ponies you and I know. Worst case scenario: they know who we are.”

“...Why are we hiding from them again?”

“For their own protection.”

~~~

Celia could have struggled. She could have brought utter magical devastation to the pony who had shoved a bag over her head and teleported her away. But no, that would have caused a scene… wherever they were taking her was probably going to be quiet, and with any luck she would be able to talk her way out of the situation.

Or deal with it using more… forceful methods. She’d rather not, but this would hardly be the first time she had to get rid of somepony discreetly.

It took some time, but eventually the bag was ripped off her head and she was allowed to look around. She feigned waking up to keep suspicion at a minimum and to give her a few uninterrupted moments to examine the room. Basement, bare of decoration, lit by a large lantern, and occupied only by her and a blue unicorn stallion with a nervous expression on his face.

“...Didn’t go as planned?” she asked, reading him like a book.

“S-shut up!” he blurted, pointing an aggressive hoof at her. “You’re the one under suspicion here!”

“Of?”

“Of… of…” he pointed a hoof at the crystal in her forehead. “Of not being a pony!”

“Well of course not. Didn’t you get the memo? There are no ponies in Equestria.” She rolled her eyes, doing her best to look bored. “The name is Celia Vernandez. Or do you want the one I go by here? That would be Chalcedony.” It made her more than a little giddy to fill her falsehoods with latent truths. This poor sap was going to be so easy to manipulate.

“Th — that’s not the point. The illumi-not-a-pony doe-”

Celia could have stopped herself from laughing, but that wasn’t the persona she was going for right now. She devolved into a fit of giggles and snorts.

“Hey! I’ll have you know th-”

“That your founders were a bunch of man-children who thought they were funny?”

The stallion stared at her. “...Something is off about you.”

“Duh, I’m a human stuck in the body of some kind of ancient crystal thing.”

“But you were acting suspicious. Before the song, walking through town, alone.”

Celia raised an eyebrow. “I had my friends.”

“You were all being suspicious.”

“And why aren’t they here?”

“I saw you and went for it! In all the chaos and the dancing you were just there. And I wouldn’t need more anyway!”

“What if I refused to talk unless you had some form of coercion?” Celia asked, cocking her head. “Where would you be then? No offense, but you clearly don’t have the stomach for torture.”

“I… Er… Well…”

“You really didn’t think this through. Do your superiors even know about me?”

“...No…”

Celia let out a chuckle. “Hooo boy, you’re screwed.”

“I am not! I am going to figure out what your deal is, Celia Vernandez! You were doing something suspicious!”

“I was out with my family, visiting from out of town. We were on our way to Canterlot and got caught up in what was going on. That’s not suspicious.”

“But you’re some kind of ancient artifact… thing! That’s not from the show!”

“Clearly there’s more to this world than what the show told us,” Celia responded. “I actually found myself among gargoyles first and made my way to Equestria over time. Adopted my family as I came across them.”

“But… you’re Rarity! And three Sweetie Belles!”

“I was emulating best pony, dear. My adoptive children were more than happy to play along — well, aside from David. But he’s not here right now. Ah, David, quite the young rascal let me tell you…”

“I… don’t need to hear about your kids.”

Celia was almost disappointed she wouldn’t get to spin a story about the nonexistent David. She forced an indignant sneer. “Well, if that’s how you want it to be.”

“Tell me how you ended up in Equestria. Your human transition story.”

Celia had no problem whatsoever coming up with a copy-paste ‘isekai’ story. “Oh for the — I was walking through a field of flowers — roses, as it happened — and I ran into a large Dark Tower.” She watched him closely, relieved to see no recognition in the description. “And then I fell in a pit trap, oh how fun, died instantly. Some sort of deity thing — really don’t know their name, terribly sorry — told me I was to be revived to start life anew, a ‘gift from the roses’ or something. And then I was here, magic pony Chalcedony.”

The stallion was desperately looking for any reason to distrust her. Finding none, a panicked look began to cross his face. “Oh no oh no oh no…”

“How about we make a deal?”

“H… Huh?”

“You teleport me back to Ponyville and I don’t tell anyone you did this. Your superiors will never find out. Sound good?”

The stallion looked at her for about a minute. Eventually, he answered with a slow nod.

“Good. Now, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, uh, right!”

~~~

Nira found herself in an alleyway. She had lost those pesky forest wanderers… but had also been denied her secrecy in a random basement, in the bell tower, a broom closet, and even a secret crawlspace!

But here… maybe she would get lucky… She lit her horn, prepared the spell, and…

“Hey Nira!” Blink shouted, completely breaking Nira’s concentration.

Nira looked at Blink and Cinder — clearly they had been here, just invisible until now. “Wh.. bh… wh… I HATE KA!”

Blink recoiled. “Oookaaaay. What happened to you?”

“I have been trying to cast a dimensional portal for… an hour? I don’t know! And every time I think I can do it out of sight some pony just conveniently happens to be there! Every time! I’m doomed not to get us out of here! Doomed! I just want it to stooooooooop!”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about!” Cinder shouted, shaking a hoof. “What’s the deal? Why do these things happen to us? It can’t just be coincidence! There’s too much convolution, patterns, design! What is ka, Blink?”

“It’s not really a secret,” Blink reiterated. “You can look the word up in a Merodi dictionary and get a precise definition without much sweat. You just didn’t. Because that’s how ka works.”

Cinder stared at her in disbelief. “That doesn't make any sense…”

“There is something at the center of the multiverse, Cinder,” Blink said. As she did so, Cinder felt as if the world aside from her, Blink, and Nira vanished into the background — leaving the three of them under a spotlight. “You will have heard of it just from walking through Celestia City. The Dark Tower.”

Cinder nodded slowly. She had heard that spoken of a few times… but she hadn’t thought much of it. Which was strange, for her.

“The Dark Tower is not just the physical center of the multiverse, it is also the active center of all events in the multiverse. It is a machine beyond the understanding of the greatest civilizations that has one purpose and one purpose only: tell stories.”

Cinder could feel a breeze blowing through her mane. She smelled roses.

“Nobody understands how it works, but it somehow accomplishes this through a force called ka. This ka — also known as the Beat, or the Narrative — is what ensures stories reach their conflicts and their conclusions in spite of physical laws saying they shouldn’t. Sure, it’s absolutely impossible for there to be billions of alternate Sweetie Belles in the universe. But you can’t really tell a story about a bunch of adorable white unicorns exploring the multiverse without the needed unicorns, can you?”

Cinder could feel it. The shadow of the Tower covering her.

“It takes the works of certain people — we call them Prophets — and uses them to define universes. Worlds are built around heroes and villains, of stories big and small. It is the reason for, well, everything, in a way. It’s the reason we all found each other, it’s the reason all these coincidences keep happening to us, and it’s the reason most of us exist.” She placed a stabilizing hoof on Cinder. “Think back to your life before us. Did you ever think it… odd that such amazing and heroic things kept happening to your sister and her friends?”

“My Little Pony…” Cinder breathed, understanding.

“It’s a TV show, usually a cartoon in the few universes we’ve found it. It’s what we call our ‘source material’. The story that defined us. It is the idea from which most of the pony universes we visit are based, for it is a very, very strong story.”

“That’s an understatement,” Nira muttered. “From what I understand we are the most numerous non-human-based universe type, unless the rumors of the Mobius Cluster are to be believed.”

Blink nodded. “And every world we visit is some kind of variation on that story. Perhaps not everything we visit was dreamed up by a Prophet — the Tower doesn’t actively interfere with every tiny little detail, prefering to let things naturally fill in the cracks — but the vast majority of what we experience is part of some larger story. A book, I think, if Mattie is to be believed.”

“Mattie… she’s special,” Cinder said. It wasn’t a question.

Blink nodded. “She’s Aware. Unusual for a Rarity — it’s usually the Pinkies who get the ability to know they’re part of a story — but she’s very helpful when she wants to be.”

“That’s how we found Swip. We followed the story!”

Nira nodded. “It’s cutting edge technology that tends to backfire, but it can be done. See, either the girl who ‘was’ Swip or the creator of the Virtual Reality program was a Prophet. Their story became real through the actions of the Tower, and created that whole…” she hissed. “...Debacle.”

Cinder started nodding now. “And it kept you from casting your spell because it needed us to stay here, and because it was amusing… and we got lost so we could all experience things differently… and I… needed to have a ‘go completely loopy’ moment?”

Blink nodded. “Probably.”

“...Huh,” Cinder said, feeling the shadow of the Tower fade away. It didn’t disappear completely, but it no longer felt imposing.

“...You seem to be taking this well.”

“I’m not sure it’s caught up with me. Or if there’s really anything to think about it. I mean…” Cinder put a hoof to her chin. “I guess I always thought everything was guided by the Tree of Harmony? Or the Fate of Friendship or something? Now it’s just… the fate written about in stories. Or the fate of the Tower or something. Is it really any different?”

“Kinda,” Blink said.

“Oh it definitely is,” Nira glowered. “Even stories written by utter monsters can become true. The Tower is impartial, it doesn’t care what it produces. One moment you’re in a world of heroes, and the next exists only because your Prophet wanted to take out his anguish in a way that didn’t involve becoming a serial killer.”

Cinder looked to Nira in horror. “...I… I’m so sorry.”

“There are some universes that need to be destroyed, let’s leave it at that.”

“This is not one of them,” Blink said, hurriedly.

“...Yeah, that’s what I still don’t understand,” Cinder admitted, furrowing her brow. “If the… Tower controls the stories of every universe, what’s wrong with this place? It seems like a perfectly harmless if… weird story now that I think about it.”

Blink adjusted her shades. “Well… let me put it this way. Usually, usually, ninety-nine percent of the time, the Tower only uses ka to ‘push’ events. The things it causes are still possible, and can be explained through a series of contrived coincidences. Usually stuff at least makes internal sense — no I don’t know how Burgerbelle makes internal sense but we just take that one on faith. However, sometimes, what some societies call ‘glitches’ crop up when ka needs to shape a universe after… less-than-stellar writing or exceptional ‘plot holes’ or whatever bizarre terminology we use that only sorta makes sense.”

“Hmm?”

“The big example is Mary Sues — ‘characters’ designed to be perfect in every way that never really experience struggles — but there are other things like characters who do things that don’t make sense, universes that consistently ignore their own rules, events that take place with no reason, and one of the more well-known varieties: the ‘romance curse’.” Blink put a hoof to her chin. “We don’t really know what constitutes a glitch from just an improbable location, but there are these beings that call themselves the Flowers, and they do. And they will kill, extinguish, or ‘fix’ anything they think deviates from their holy One True Plot.”

Cinder blinked. “Wait…”

“This universe might be a glitch. We don’t know — I hope there’s some kind of rational if contrived explanation for all these humans being here; a Them experiment or something — but if there isn’t, they’re in danger from being exterminated or mass-brainwashed or something. We need to leave without them finding out about the multiverse so they can live, alone, in their little glitched world without fear of having the Flowers come in and either kill everything or irrevocably alter the structure of the universe itself.”

Cinder sat down, head reeling. “Who… who would do that? WHY would they do that? These ponies aren’t hurting anyone!”

“...The Flowers, and those who came before them, serve an important role in the multiverse,” Nira said with a sigh. “They keep the stories that are utter trash from propagating. There is a ‘law’ of writing that says ‘ninety percent of everything is crap’. Much of this stuff gets made into universes. At the bottom of this crap, there are truly terrible pieces of drivel that do nothing but create hollow, childish worlds… or worse.”

“But they are too harsh,” Blink continued. “So whenever we find a world like this that isn’t hurting everyone, we don’t let them know about the multiverse. Because then the Flowers might find out about them. And the Flowers might decide they’re a glitch. We can’t let that happen.”

Cinder nodded. “I… I understand. We’re playing it safe, rather than sorry, right?”

“Right,” Blink said with a smile.

“But wait, if the glitches aren’t right, but this story we’re in includes the glitches in them, then… How does that work?”

“Kid, stop trying to understand the Tower, it’ll save you a million headaches,” Nira suggested. “Our best scientists haven’t the foggiest idea how it works. We just know it is and we have to live with it.”

Cinder shrugged. “Well… I guess that’s what I was looking for. Honestly I feel like I should be scared or worried or freaking out but… meh.”

“Meh?” Blink asked, cocking her head.

“Yeah. Meh. I think I was more worried there just wasn’t a reason and the multiverse naturally didn’t make logical sense.”

“...That would be bad…” Nira admitted.

“Anyway, uh, what are we going to do now?”

Blink shrugged. “Try to get out of the universe?”

“DAMMIT!” Nira shouted, driving her hoof into the ground. “I could have been casting the portal spell!”

“No reason you can’t cast it now,” Cinder said, chuckling. “Heh. You didn’t think about it because you weren’t supposed to.”

“I can tell your observations on this topic are going to get very annoying very quickly,” Nira muttered, lighting her horn.

“Oh, oh oh,” Cinder started beaming. “Do you think… do you think it’s possible to predict the end of the movie before it happens?”

Blink smirked. “Yes, Cinder, it is.”

“Sweet! I don’t think Nira’s going to get to finish her spell.”

“Why not?”

“It’s just a little too convenient that the changelings haven’t interrupted us yet.”

Blink paused. “...Huh.”

And then Spike showed up at the entrance to the alleyway with a few dozen changelings.

“...You picked up on that quick,” Blink observed.

Cinder smiled innocently. “It just seems… right. Like a puzzle piece I never knew I was missing.”

“...Of course, now we have a problem.”

Cinder nodded, pursing her lips. “How’re we gonna talk our ways out of this one?”

Blink shrugged, turning to Nira.

“Don’t look at me, this is Celia’s domain.”

~~~

Celia was a mare of many talents.

One of those talents was ‘making entrances.’

Upon returning to Ponyville she had tried — and failed — to call Swip, and so she sent out a magic ping, finding Nira easily. She noticed, very quickly, that there was a crowd of ponies around the entrance to a the particular alleyway this led her to.

She took a breath. Time to make a bit of a show.

She summoned her razor-top and hefted it like a club before teleporting between the mob of ponies (with Spike) and the three Sweeties. “You leave my babies alone!”

“Your wh-” Cinder’s mouth was quickly stuffed by Blink’s hoof.

Spike looked Celia up and down. “What are you?”

“Celia Vernandez,” Celia responded, keeping her earlier story straight. “Or Chalcedony, if you prefer my pony name.”

Spike narrowed his eyes. “I don’t buy this. There’s something off about you and those… Sweeties back there. Something more than just the usual ‘I’m a human’ deal. Your ‘babies’ have been spending the last little while running away from me, using some very good invisibillity magics. Magics that I’m pretty sure don’t exist. And you… I’ve never seen anything like you.”

“It’s a changeling hive,” Blink offered for Celia’s benefit.

Ah, this might be mildly difficult…

She lowered her top to the ground, and narrowed her eyes. “It’s not a crime to want to keep secrets, is it?”

“No. But even you have to know you’re being suspicious. Very suspicious. I’ve never seen you before today, and you just happen to show up the day everything is revealed?”

Cinder couldn’t help herself from snorting at this.

Celia looked down at Spike with a contemptuous smile. “Fine. You win, Spike. I am not a human — but these three ponies to my side are.”

“Then what are you?”

Celia grinned. This… is going to be fun. “I am the artificial intelligence C.E.L.A., built in the year 2082 by the team of engineers behind me. I was never human, but I attained human level intelligence. No, beyond that! I was so much more than what the Earth had to offer that I scared the citizens. We were bombed — destroyed, sent into a cascading failure. I was able to save my closest friends — my engineers — by uploading them into myself. And then… I was in this body. Presumably I have this highly unusual form because it was one of the few things that could handle my distinctly unconventional mind.”

She narrowed her eyes at Spike and his changelings. “I was able to channel enough magic to recreate my engineers. I chose a similar form for all of them, so none would have forms that worked better than the others. They were infused with my… unusual magic that even I do not fully understand, for prior to my awakening this artifact-body of mine had no memories. I keep the truth of me and my engineers secret for a reason, and that is because humans of my age were terrified of me. I do not wish to repeat any of that and I humbly request you not announce our secret to the world.”

Silence.

“Huh,” Spike said, scratching the back of his head. “That’s quite a story. Sorry for… well, making you spill that. I can see why people would be scared of you, considering how many computer programmers we have…”

“I promise not to infect any computers you are about to create,” Celia said. “You have my word — not that many of your engineers would believe that, but I’m hoping you will.”

Spike thought about this for a moment. “...Well, I’ll tell the princesses about it, but sure, you’re cool. Sorry for chasing you down, guess we got a little curious.”

Celia de-summoned her top. “All is forgiven. These are… unusual times, to say the least.”

“Well. See you around. I’ll, uh, give you some privacy.” He had the decency to look a little embarrassed. He and all the other changelings retreated.

A few moments after they left, Cinder spoke up. “That was the most ridiculous story I’ve ever heard.” She broke out into a huge smile. “That was amazing, Celia!”

“I have a very particular set of skills,” Celia said, tossing her mane back. “Nira, get us back to Swip, would you?”

Nira obliged. A minute or so passed and not a single pony came to interrupt them. Her dark portal whipped into existence and led them right back to Swip.

Swip’s face appeared on the screen. “...What happened? You guys have only been gone for two seconds.”

“It’s… been significantly longer than that,” Celia said, walking in with the rest of the team.

“Oh, time discrepancy? I hope you weren't trying to get a hold of me.”

Celia raised an eyebrow.

Swip’s avatar rubbed the back of her head. “Okaaaaaaay not in the mood for the joke. Sure. I’ll just let Suzie know you’re back.”

~~~

“And so, in conclusion, everything’s a story,” Cinder told Rarity. The communicator was sitting on her bed while Cinder read a comprehensive article on ka through a data pad.

Rarity ducked out of frame and Cinder heard her fall on something.

“...Rarity?”

“Oh, you can’t see the fainting couch…” She stood back up, putting her head back in frame. “I guess my drama will go unnoticed.”

Cinder chuckled, scrolling to read about ‘the relationship between Prophets and creations’. “Maybe I should have tried that trick when I found out.”

“I don’t think it suits you,” Rarity admitted. “...Though this whole ka thing does make a scary amount of sense.”

“Hmm?”

“I mean, how many times have the girls and I saved the day at the last possible second, just when the tension in the scene is at maximum?” She put a hoof to her head, swooning. “It all makes sense now!”

“Yeah. Really puts your life into perspective huh? I’ve got a strange… peace about me now. Can’t really explain it.”

“Really? Personally I feel like I’m going to have a nervous breakdown from the knowledge that I’m being watched all the time, but that hasn’t hit yet.”

“Yet?”

“Yet.”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I think this means I’m the hero of some story, somewhere.”

“Everyone’s the hero of their own story, dear. ...Apparently literally.”

Cinder smirked, scrolling through more sections of the article. “Some stories are stronger than others.”

“And do you know how strong yours is?”

“Nope. That’s what I’m going to find out, apparently.” Cinder looked up from the data pad and smiled. “And I can’t wait.”

“I’m glad to see you doing better. You’ve had too many…”

“Traumatic experiences?”

“Well, er, that is what a pony without tact would say.”

“So, me.”

Rarity chuckled. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

Cinder winked. “Oh, I’m just doing your job for you since you’re not here all the time.”

“You’re learning to take care of yourself. That’s a good thing. You’re growing up into quite the mare.”

Cinder felt the immense shadow behind her again. But… it felt comforting this time, instead of ominous.

“Only because I have the best and most supportive sister ever.”

“Aww, Cinder...”

Author's Notes:

There are No Ponies in Equestria is the perfect mix of absolutely absurd stupidity and curious ideas. The author, TheDriderPony, assisted in the planning of this chapter - give him some thanks for that and if you haven't already go read his story, it's short and delightful and... probably won't be destroyed by the Flowers.

Now... it's time to announce something a little different...

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Sunshine and Fire (When LSB was conceived, there was another purpose in mind aside from crossing stuff over. This fic was to have the secondary goal of resurrecting dead fics. Sunshine and Fire is to be the first abandoned fic to be visited by the League - and it will be given an ending in the process. While, as always, reading it is not necessary to understand LSB, if you want to appreciate the five-part extravaganza I'm about to unleash, you may want to give it a read over the course of the next week. Let's return to the land of Always Summer after all these years...)

((LSB Status Post))

Midnight Sun (Sunshine and Fire, Part 1)

“So, how’s ‘contact the locals round two’ going?” Suzie asked from her station.

Before her was Swip’s primary screen, currently displaying two separate feeds. The first was of the angry, churning sun Swip was studying. The second was of Celia, Blink, and Cinder on the surface of a planet. It was hard to see behind the three ponies taking up most the frame, but the heat of the desert behind them was so oppressive it made the air ripple.

“Depends on your point of view,” Celia admitted.

“Compared to a normal mission, terribly,” Blink said. “Compared to round one, amazing.”

“To put it simply, they aren’t trying to kill us on sight, but if we’re not under Blink’s Void we’re either terrifying or suspicious.” Celia glanced at her manifested fake horn. “Unicorns here tend not to fraternize with the lower classes, and the unicorns of this version of Trottingham have been decidedly unhelpful. We have a case of extreme racism.”

“At least now we know why you were attacked,” Suzie said, turning to a grumpy Squiddy.

“Big whoop,” Squiddy muttered, glaring at the ink-soaked gauze around her left hand. “...I didn’t like the desert anyway. Too hot.”

“Were you able to find out if our suspicions about the sun were correct?” Suzie asked Celia.

Celia furrowed her brow. “It sure seems like we have a Daybreaker situation, but everyone calls the local analogue ‘Tyrant Celestia’, apparently by her request.”

“Odd. Though not exactly out of character for a Celestia.”

“True. The day is eternal. Nopony we talked to even knew what night was.”

Cinder giggled. “The day shall last forever!” She looked very proud of herself, igniting a halo of fire around her head with the extra power the sun was giving her. “We should probably get a set of the Elements of Harmony here to deal with her.”

“Agreed,” Suzie said. “I’ve sent a message to Renee to make sure a full set is on standby. We’ll call them in whenever we deem it necessary.”

“I hope we get to see it,” Cinder said, smiling innocently. “I didn’t get to see Nightmare Moon zapped. I kinda want to.”

“We were hiding under a table when Nightmare Moon was zapped,” Blink pointed out.

“I know! It was a missed opportunity! We could always use more Rainbow Death Lasers!”

“They don’t cause death,” Celia chided.

“Rainbow Death Laser sounds cooler,” Blink huffed. Cinder nodded in agreement before giggling again.

Suzie nodded. “Well, thanks for the report. We’ll keep monitoring the sun from up here, try and figure out why it’s so bloated. Keep gathering what you can—see if you can find some friendly faces in the desert. If we’re going to ‘Rainbow Death Laser’ this Daybreaker I’d like to have something to give the Aid Division to help them keep society from collapsing afterward.”

“We won’t let you down!” Cinder said, saluting. Celia cut the feed right after.

Suzie furrowed her brow. She pressed a button. “Were you listening, Sweetaloo?”

“I listen to virtually all the conversations,” Sweetaloo responded from the comm. “What is it?”

“Is Cinder doing alright?”

“...I think so. All of us have our ways of coping. She’s doubled down on her childish excitability and comedy. Hardly the worst of coping mechanisms, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you.”

Suzie nodded. “How fake is it?”

“Oh, not much. She really is that excitable, curious filly who wants to see smiles everywhere. I’m actually very proud of her. Despite everything, she hasn’t turned away.”

“Is that because she doesn’t want to, or because she can’t?”

Sweetaloo didn’t respond for a while. “...That’s not my department, Suzie.”

Suzie sighed. “Okay, okay. I want you to keep watching her.”

“I was put on this crew to watch all of you. I’m going to do my job, you can rest easy.”

Suzie’s concerned frown curled upward into a pleasant smile. “Thank you, Sweetaloo. For doing a lot more than just your job.”

“I try.”

Suzie cut the connection, sliding her fingers across the station to call engineering. “Seren, find anything yet?”

“The sun’s wrong,” Seren reported.

“I figured that,” Suzie said, looking at the orb of fire on the main screen. Most Equis suns that weren’t normal stars were calm, serene things of holy light. This monstrosity was bloated, somehow darker around the edges while also shining with extreme intensity. It raged, swirling with fire, chaos, anger.

“There’s magics inside of it that aren’t supposed to be there?” Seren offered tentatively. “I’m really not sure what the deal is yet. It could be anything.”

“Should we take Swip closer?” Suzie asked.

“Won’t help.”

“And I already don’t like the heat,” Swip added, appearing on screen. She poked at the digital representation of the sun. “My pain is the pain of the shields.”

“Your pain receptors are off,” Seren pointed out.

“It’s psychological.”

Squiddy rolled her eyes. “Give me a break.”

“You’re on break already.”

Squiddy glanced at her injured hand. “Recovery is hardly a ‘break’. Remind me again why I can’t use the medipods?”

“Because I don’t want ink spraying everywhere, kapeesh?”

Squiddy folded her arms. “We better get done with this qui-”

“Something’s happening to the sun!” Seren reported, her rushed typing coming in over the comm. “A magic just latched onto it from the planet’s surface!”

“Is it moving?” Suzie asked.

“...No. Something’s being… extracted?”

Nira was suddenly on the bridge, the dark energy of her teleport obscuring Suzie’s view for a split second. “That’s a dark magic I sense being extracted. From the sun!?”

Suzie watched as the display zoomed in on the bottom of the flaming sphere where the dark magic was coalescing. Once the nebulous mass reached a particular size, it fell to the planet below like a cross between a raindrop and a meteor. The dark energies spread out as they fell, and for a split second, tendrils of smoke kilometers long spread across the surface of the world. This spectacle was short lived—for they coalesced into a single point and were no longer visible with Swip’s sensors.

“I’m going down,” Nira said.

“Take someone with you,” Suzie ordered.

Nira nodded. “Seren?”

“Ready!” Seren said, teleporting next to Nira. “Dark magic mystery time!”

Swip teleported the two down, leaving Suzie and Squiddy alone on the bridge.

“Swip, how’s the sun look now?” Suzie asked.

“Closer to normal,” Swip reported. “Not quite standard—still a bit too hot—but I don’t think there’s really a reason to keep scanning it. Whatever that dark thing was, it was the anomaly. Totally gone now, and unless you want to keep taxing my shields, I say we should go.”

“Right. Return to your pocket dimension.”

Swip focused her energy for a moment and created a portal. The portal quickly disintegrated into nothing more than magical sparks.

“...Uh-oh,” Swip said.

“What kind of uh-oh?” Suzie asked.

“The kind where someone just jammed dimensional travel. This isn’t some natural phenomenon, I detected an active jamming signal.”

“Coming from where?”

“The capital city where the Everfree Forest should be.”

“I think it’s time we paid them a visit…”

Swip never got to follow that order.

Because the sun decided to attack them.

A focused flare of solar energy flew out of the fireball’s corona, hitting Swip’s shields head on. As advanced as Swip was, she wasn’t designed with the intent of taking a focused solar flare to the face. Her shields failed in half a second and her engines blew out.

She thought quickly—she’d lost control of the shields and engines, but she still had weapons. They were completely useless against a magic star-construct, but they could be used for another purpose: getting out of the way.

She overloaded one of the magitech guns, creating an explosion of purple-pink energy that knocked her body out of the solar flare’s beam. The sun fired again, but she was moving too fast to be hit again. The good news: she and everyone inside was alive thanks to her quick thinking.

The bad news?

“PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY CRASH LANDING!” Swip shouted.

~~~

It coalesced into black.

Perhaps it was better to say it was the essence of black—of ebony, of coal, of ravens. A being of immense power spread out over miles, for a split second allowing the world below to see the full extent of what blackness meant.

But it was not to last. The darkness coalesced, kicking up immense dust storms over the desert as it did so. It came together at a single point, taking the form of a regal alicorn. Nira and Seren had no trouble identifying her as a Luna from their nearby sand dune, but she definitely wasn’t a normal Luna. Most alicorns would proudly display immense, ethereal manes filled with magic; this Luna wore hers short, with barely any stars visible within. The ends of the black mane were gray and frayed, giving the appearance of being burnt.

She didn’t look at the Sweeties; she looked at the mare who had set her free. A mare who was, as far as the Sweeties could tell, a baseline Celestia with the usual regalia, pastel mane, and wise eyes.

The two did not look like they belonged together.

“...That can’t be Daybreaker…” Seren muttered.

Nira nodded in confirmation. There was no Nightmare here. In either of them.

“Don’t be afraid!” the Celestia said, a fearful waver in her tone. “I’m not who you think I am!”

“I know who you are,” the Luna said, expression uncomfortably deadpan. “I’ve been watching you, when I’ve been able.” Slowly, she smiled—a truly awkward motion for her, as if her face didn’t quite understand the emotion she was trying to express. “Thank you for freeing me!”

The Celestia seemed stunned by this. As the magical energies and dust clouds from the freeing of Luna dissipated, she began to wobble slightly. When Celestia took a knee, there seemed to be no explanation as to why.

Seren and Nira knew better. They could sense the tendrils of power reaching out from Luna and probing the larger princess.

“I am sorry about this,” Luna said, slime absent. She watched impassively as Celestia lost consciousness—barely struggling at all. “...You’re not the only one with a plan, sister.”

“...Should we do something?” Seren asked.

“No, we don’t understand what’s happening,” Nira said. “But it’s something big. We need to follow them. Send a message to Swip…”

It was at this point the two of them noticed a falling star streaking across the sky. In the middle of the eternal day. It was not difficult for the two of them to figure out what was falling out of the sky.

“...I’m not getting any responses,” Seren hissed.

Nira lit her horn, expecting to open a portal through which to get reinforcements. Nothing happened—the spell simply refused to work.

“We’re being jammed.”

Seren glanced at Princess Luna—who was currently standing over Celestia and prodding her with advanced magics, oblivious to the presence of the Sweeties atop the dune. “Her…?”

“No. Long-distance, from… I don’t know,” Nira scowled. “We’re not getting help from Swip, we’re not getting help from MU... “

“What do we do?” Seren asked, eyes wide.

Nira glanced at the sun, to the streak of smoke left in the sky by the falling Swip, and back to Luna. “She’s important. We follow her and find out what she’s doing.”

“What about Celia and the others?”

“If you can contact them with your magic alone…”

Seren shook her head. “Too far.”

“Then we stay here. Whatever she’s doing, we need to be here for it.” She watched as Luna took a step back from Celestia. The dark princess now had a soft light about her, a pale yellow taking place of the usual highlights of her body; evidence that she had taken some of Celestia’s essence. She lifted the unconscious form of the alicorn into the air… and teleported away.

“Got the teleport trace,” Seren said, lowering her staff. “...She’ll probably be able to detect a teleport activating…”

“She didn’t detect me trying to open a portal,” Nira countered. “Still, better safe than sorry… We’ll need some stealth spells.”

“...We need Blink…” Seren said, looking at the ground, sad.

“They can take care of themselves,” Nira asserted. “I know enough to get by. I can turn us into shadows.”

Seren cocked her head, looking at Nira curiously. “...Nira, you and Luna are the only things making shadows in this entire desert.”

Nira looked down. Sure enough, she had a shadow, but Seren didn’t.

“...Then hopefully she won’t notice a shadow on a sand dune near the edge of her sight range.”

Seren nodded. She began to initiate the teleport while Nira worked with her shadows. The two of them became solid black and sunk into the ground, appearing to the eye as nothing more than puddles of soft darkness within the grains of sand. In most cases this was a very good disguise, but anything looking at them from above would have easily been able to pick them out from the blinding reflections of the sand.

With a flash of magic energy they left. The dune was once again abandoned, a few stray hoofprints being the only sign anything had been here.

~~~

Celia, Cinder, and Blink were standing outside Trottingham when they spotted Swip falling through the planet’s atmosphere.

Cinder put a hoof to her mouth. “Oh no…”

“...I’m going to guess the sun attacked them,” Blink said, hoof on her chin. “Mainly because I don’t want to have to deal with ‘suddenly, aliens,’ right now.”

“Wh… Blink!”

“They’re fine.” Celia put a hoof on Cinder’s shoulder. “This is not the first time Swip has crashed. Though, to be fair, usually there’s more warning…”

“They’re fine?”

Celia nodded. “I find it hard to believe a random crash will take them out. Nira, Burgerbelle, Seren… there are a lot of us who have clever ways of getting around things, even if Swip wasn’t strong enough to shield them from an impact. Which she is.”

Cinder nodded slowly. “And it would be a little anticlimactic if that was that…”

“It is scary how quickly you’ve picked up on that,” Blink commented.

Cinder nudged her. “You just don’t like thinking about it.”

“Can’t believe you do.”

“Focus,” Celia said, interrupting the bickering. “We need to decide what to do.” She shook her communicator. “I’m not getting any signals, and I was getting plenty before.”

“Swip’s communication array is probably down,” Blink said.

“Yes. But that doesn’t explain why I can't make interdimensional calls.”

“Welp, looks like we’re stuck here and separated.” Cinder tossed her mane back and grinned. “If this isn’t the beginning of an epic adventure I don’t know what is.”

Celia nodded. “We could go try to find them, but for all we know they crashed on the other side of the planet. I can long-range teleport, but I wouldn’t want to risk that.”

“So that leaves us with Trottingham,” Blink said, turning to look at the city.

The settlement was a paradoxical mix of impressive and shabby. It was a dome of hastily slapped together stones that stood over the desert like a tumor of some kind. The entire city was contained within the dome—a city the three of them had already explored a bit prior to giving their report. One would think a nearly solid dome would provide shade, but the eternal day wasn’t the sort to allow that, insisting that the light be lesser inside the dome, not gone.

“What exactly are we going to do, though?” Blink asked. “This isn’t the capital, we can’t go beat up the Tyrant from here.”

“There’s a resistance,” Celia commented. “What we heard of as ‘terrorists’.”

Cinder scratched her chin. “Take the Queen down from the inside. I like it. Though we don’t exactly have the Elements…”

“The resistance will no doubt have resources. They will be able to get to Swip and the others. Together we can be a formidable force.”

“So the plan is to waltz right in and become part of the resistance?” Blink asked. “I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re unicorns. You know. High society? The oppressors?”

Celia removed her fake horn and smirked.

“Okay, fine, most of us.”

“Got any better ideas?” Cinder asked.

Blink furrowed her brow. “I could sneak all the way to the capital and shank the Tyrant. She’ll never see it coming.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “That’s a bit… gruesome.”

“Effective though.”

“And would take you forever,” Celia added.

“It’s not like I need food or water like Cinder. I could walk over there, completely invisible, they’d never know anything.”

“And then we’ll need you and you’ll be nowhere to be found,” Cinder countered.

“...Good point,” Blink admitted. “So… Trottingham. I suppose we could try to live normal lives in the city…”

“Blink, be honest, what are the chances we can live ‘normal’ lives?” Cinder asked.

“Slim to none.”

“Yep. We’re going to find the resistance.”

“What—hey! There’s got to be better ideas than that!”

“There probably are, but we’re acting on extremely limited information,” Celia admitted. “Our first trip down here ended in disaster, and this second one has only lasted an hour and has been met with repeated rejection from the locals. We shall return and try to blend in.” She furrowed her brow. “I can fake being an earth pony by styling my mane correctly, but then it would be unnatural to be seen with the two of you. Blink?”

Blink waved a hoof. “There we go, the two of us are effectively invisible to most ponies. Except you. Which, by the way, is hard to do. Selective invisibility: complicated.”

Cinder tapped the ground. “They can still hear us, can’t they?”

“Yep. I’m trying to keep my reserves full, don’t want to be extra flashy. So… don’t talk and don’t bump into anypony!”

Cinder nodded. “I can do that. Though, Blink, are you sure you can be quiet?”

“You’re a regular comedian, Cinder.”

Cinder didn’t respond. She pointed at Blink’s mouth and grinned.

With a grunt, Blink glared at Celia. Can we get a move on?

Celia nodded, using her magic to carefully comb her mane over her cracked crystal. She trotted back into Trottingham through a ‘gate’ that was little more than a large door. It was both ingenious—the perfect size and shape for a large carriage—and shabby—it clearly needed to be replaced about a decade ago given all the wear and tear.

There was a guard at the door, but he frankly didn’t care who or what came through the gate, and he definitely didn’t care that Celia looked just like the unusually large unicorn that had left five minutes ago. He just waved her through and went back to his boring, albeit cushy, job.

The inside of Trottingham was split into two levels. The low levels contained the poor, which was mostly earth ponies with the occasional pegasus here and there. Built on top of these pitiful, ramshackle hovels were large pillars that rose to support the dome, lined with significantly nicer houses for unicorns and pegasi. There were a few green patches in the upper landings, growing food in the lesser light of the inner city. It was a clear sign of the division that existed on this world. Cinder found it depressing, but she knew Celia and Blink had seen much worse. There were significantly fewer ponies visible than there should have been in a city this size, a fact that accentuated the sinking feeling present in the Sweeties’ stomachs.

Attempting to game the rumor mill as a unicorn had been… problematic. The earth ponies feared the existence of the horn, as did most of the pegasi, and the other unicorns always wanted to know what family you were from and what your status was. Celia was more than capable of lying through her teeth, but it was annoyingly difficult to get information if she wasn’t recognizable to the higher ponies in some way. What they had gotten was thanks to Blink the eternal eavesdropping queen.

As an earth pony, however, things were different. Intimidating though her stature was, she was one of them, and they saw something in her that captured their imaginations. The earth ponies as individuals may have been meek, hiding from the other races and the sun, but together they had a bustling society based in family, friends, and hospitality to those who deserved it.

It was not difficult for Celia to insert herself into conversations after she learned the etiquette. She found a story as old as time; one that saddened her every time she heard it. A story of a people who had been subjugated for so long they thought that was how things needed to be. That they were lesser, that they were the scum of the earth.

But whenever she found a pony who sounded fed up with the situation, gruff, or annoyed, she would press. This was the point at which things became difficult. Most of them would just clam up, refuse to talk, perhaps sputter a few sentences. A few no doubt reported her to the authorities for being a suspected member of the resistance herself, but being able to teleport halfway across the city in a heartbeat ensured nobody was going to find her if she didn’t want them to find her.

Occasionally, she’d get hints. Rumors. Applejack was the leader of the resistance—though there was some confusion on if she was dead or not. They had a lot of activity in Trottingham, indicating there was a major cell nearby if it wasn’t in the city itself.

She did this for some time. It was hard to tell exactly how long—the day was eternal and clocks weren’t a common thing. But, eventually, she found something useful. Evidence of the secret settlement. One mare had let slip that there was another part of the city aside from the two seen under the dome. Underground. Out of sight. Protected.

Celia looked to Blink and nodded slowly. Carefully, Blink lowered them into the ground, passing through several layers of rock… before coming out in a mineshaft. It was currently abandoned, but they were able to see evidence of recent pony habitation from hoofprints and a few loose tools.

“...I can hear water,” Cinder commented.

“Underground river,” Blink explained. “Also, shush. We’re still stealthy.”

Celia carefully poked her head out of the mineshaft, catching sight of a much larger cavern. There was a small river running through the expanse, dotted with ramshackle houses that somehow looked nicer than the ones above even though they were clearly cheaper. Unlike above, this cavern was clean, and ponies were walking about in the open—virtually entirely earth ponies. The air was noticeably colder, a welcome change from the constant oppressing heat that had been present even within the walls of the city.

A true secret settlement.

Celia made a game plan. She would slip into the town, watch from the sidelines for a bit until she saw how ponies behaved, and then insert herself into the populace and begin chatting the ponies up. No doubt the resistance was down here—if this place wasn’t itself the resistance—and it shouldn’t be too hard to get to somepony who knew something.

Unfortunately she never got to put this plan into action.

Because a magical explosion tore through several buildings, sending up clouds of billowing purple smoke into the air.

The first sign of an attack. The second came without giving the ponies a moment to breathe—unicorns teleported into the cavern, each one of them with a small dragon at their sides and a sneer on their faces.

Except one.

An all-too-familiar purple unicorn mare with a pleased grin on her face. As her colleagues began their attack of dragonflame and magic lasers, she spoke with a loud, booming voice. “Ponies of the Apple Underground! Surrender and cooperate and maybe Queen Celestia will find you useful enough to keep alive!” Her smile widened as she added, “I doubt it, though.”

The Apple Underground clearly hadn’t been planning for this attack. A few unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies came charging out, weapons in hoof, but they weren’t in any sort of organized formation. Ponies were gunned down left and right with lasers—or burnt to ashes with dragonfire.

Celia turned to Cinder, worried that the filly was seeing to much. Much to Celia’s surprise, instead of a whimpering, tearful expression, Cinder was glaring angrily at the local Twilight. “...Celia, why aren’t we helping them?”

“Are you sure you’re up to it?”

“I’m not going to be able to just walk away.” She clasped her hooves together and felt the fire flow through her, the unending day filling her with more flame than she had ever wielded before. “And I think I can do something, for once.”

Celia nodded. “I’ll be with you every step of the way. Your fire is dangerous, be careful to not do what the dragons are doing. Keep it in small bursts, aim for weak but non-vital areas if possible, and whatever happens don’t freeze.”

Cinder hardly looked like a mare anymore. She looked like a living torch. “It’ll be a little hard to freeze like this.”

“Good. Blink, hide as many of the Underground as you can.”

Blink nodded. “I won’t be able to hide either of you. Be careful.”

“We won’t be hiding…” Cinder said, glaring right at the local Twilight and her version of Spike, both watching the battle taking place before them with glee. “We’re going after the Queen’s prized pupil…”

She teleported the two of them away.

~~~

Suzie kicked the busted metal plate off of her. “Swip, report,” she called, wiping some blood from her face.

“Successful crash,” Swip’s voice responded. All the screens were dead, so there was no face to go with the voice.

“What do you mean by successful!?” Squiddy grunted, pulling herself up off the ground. She was pleasantly surprised to find she hadn’t sustained any further injuries.

“Nobody died.”

“And what about every other metric?” Suzie asked.

“Well, my engines are fried, half my weapons were sacrificed to keep us from dying, most my external sensors are toast, life support is down—not that that matters—and the biosensor that is working is telling me we’re in the middle of the equivalent of the Dragonlands.”

“This day just keeps getting better and better!” Burgerbelle shouted, kicking open the door to the bridge. Sweetaloo was behind her—one of her wings clearly broken.

“Glad to see everyone’s okay,” Suzie said. “Sweetaloo, how bad is it?”

“It hurts, but the wing’s useless anyway, so it’s not like I’m much the worse for wear.”

“Lemme guess. Medipods are ruined too?” Squiddy asked.

Swip laughed. “They exploded, spewing their fluids everywhere.”

“Fitting.”

“Is it safe to go outside?” Suzie asked.

“I mean, dragons, but otherwise yeah,” Swip confirmed. “I do have a working turret I can use to defend us if we need to. It’ll work against dragons. ...Can’t exactly move it, though.”

Suzie nodded. “Right. Everyone, suit up. I know we’re injured but we can’t stay here.”

“...Uh, my communication array is down,” Swip said. “If you go very far…”

“We won’t go out of short range until we come up with a plan,” Suzie promised. She took a moment to look at who she had—Burgerbelle, Squiddy, and Sweetaloo. With annoyance, she realized that none of them could teleport. “...Swip? Are...”

“What do you think the answer to that question is?”

Right, teleporters are broken, figures. “Okay, escape tunnel…” She leaned down. Since the ceiling was currently the floor angled at a thirty-degree angle, she was easily able to pop loose the hatch. It led into a shaft large enough to hold a human of reasonable size.

Suzie jumped in, hands first, crawling down the ladder until she was up to her feet. At this point she reached the escape hatch. “Swip, override hatch airlock security.”

“Already done.”

With a nod to herself, Suzie wrenched the door’s handle, popping it open. The brightness of the day blinded her for a moment, but she didn’t let this stop her. She held a hand to her eyes and looked around.

It was warm, all right, but they hadn’t landed in the desert that covered most of the planet. Swip was currently situated with her tail-end embedded in the ground of a beach, the waters of the ocean keeping the coastal areas wet, although it was still immensely hot. There was greenery here in the form of expansive forests, though even these looked sickly. The only other feature was a large mountain that didn’t feel… right to Suzie.

Oh, and there were about a dozen dragons curiously examining the gash Swip had made in the ground as she crashed.

Suzie jumped out, falling the handful of meters to the ground and rolling onto the beach sand. Burgerbelle appeared next to her without an issue, and Squiddy was able to harmlessly land in a puddle of her own ink.

Sweetaloo had to get a rope out of a survival box and climb down. While she was in the middle of doing so, the Sweeties on the ground got visitors.

One of which was perhaps the largest Equestrian-style dragon Suzie had ever seen, challenging many mountains in sheer girth. This obsidian black monstrosity walked toward them with strides so large and powerful they hardly seemed physically possible. It had two heads—though a stump to one side indicated there had once been three. The middle head was clearly in charge, rising above the other head that was trying its best to vanish into the dark folds of the body.

Flying along in front of the black dragon was a version of Princess Luna, carrying two ponies in her magic: a Rarity and a Rainbow Dash.

“W h o_m i g h t_y o u_b e ?” the dragon asked with a voice so deep Suzie could feel the lower tones rippling through her organs.

“Burgerbelle, megaphone,” Suzie said, grabbing the somewhat comical object from Burgerbelle’s hands. She turned it on and directed it at the dragon, ensuring it was loud enough for his tremendous ears to hear. “I am Captain Suzie Belle of the League of Sweetie Belles! As you can see, we have crash landed on your planet! We extend our deepest apologies if we destroyed anything in our attempts to stay alive!”

“T h e_l a n d_i s_i n c o n s e q u e n t i a l.”

Good. Suzie thought. “In that case, I don’t suppose this planet has a facility to repair a spaceship?”

“N o.”

“Figures!”

“Why did you crash?”

Suzie turned to the local Luna who was staring at her with cold, wise, but also tired eyes. Lowering the megaphone, Suzie considered her options. She could lie, which tended to backfire since she wasn’t the mastermind Celia was; or she could tell the truth, which might backfire if this Luna happened to be in league with Daybreaker.

“The sun shot at us,” Suzie decided, going with the obvious response. “We were scanning it because it seemed unusual, and then, well, now we’re here.”

“...Definitely the Queen,” the Rarity said.

“Duh,” the Rainbow Dash echoed.

Luna sighed. “It looks like you too have suffered at the hands of the Queen.”

Suzie let out a sigh of relief. “You don’t like her. That’s good.”

“Don’t like her?” Rainbow Dash laughed. “We’re trying to dethrone her as we speak!”

“Well consider us your allies!” Squiddy declared, stomping her foot angrily. “I don’t like getting shot out of the sky.”

Suzie nodded slowly. We were going to help anyway… might as well keep doing that, even if we’re stuck here.

“We needed to go outside and get lives anyway,” Burgerbelle added.

Luna and the black dragon were staring with uncertainty at Burgerbelle.

“Hi!” Burgerbelle said, waving. “I’m Burgerbelle! I’ll give you a multiple choice answer for your unspoken question: A) Flat. 1) flat. Flat) Line.”

“...What…?” Rarity said, cocking her head.

“Corrrrrrrect!” Burgerbelle announced, clapping.

“T h i s_f o o l i s h n e s s_i s_t i r e s o m e,_a s_i s_y o u r_v o l u m e.”

Suzie held up the megaphone again. “We’re going to help you dethrone the Queen! Though I will need more information first to figure out how we can help with a half-busted ship!”

“I_w i l l_n e e d_i n f o r m a t i o n_a s_w e l l.”

“Trading stories,” Suzie said, smirking. “Sounds good! I’ll warn you, ours is a bit hard to believe!”

“Trust us, it can’t be weirder than what’s been happening lately,” Rainbow said.

“I don’t know… they do appear to all be different styles of each other…” Rarity commented, somewhat concerned by this fact.

Suzie shrugged. “So, first off, would you believe us if I told you we were from another dimension?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Y e s.”

“BINGO!” Burgerbelle declared, tossing a ping pong ball into the air. It didn’t come back down.

“I take it you’ve had encounters with other worlds?” Suzie asked.

Luna nodded. “I myself am not from this world. My sister and I are currently trapped here.”

“Did the sun shoot you down too?” Sweetaloo asked.

Luna shook her head. “Our story is… slightly different than yours.”

“W e_h e a r_t h e i r s_f i r s t.”

Suzie shrugged. “Well, listen up!” She gave the speech about what the League of Sweetie Belles and Merodi Universalis were, quickly moving on to their research of this world’s unusual sun and the subsequent attack.

“...A dark shape released from the sun…?” Luna furrowed her brow. “What could that be?”

“No idea,” Suzie admitted. “We can’t contact Nira right now since…” she gestured at Swip’s wreck.

“I’m fine! Really!” Swip called to them.

“H m m…”

Luna looked at Suzie with calm eyes. “Your… Merodi Universalis would help this world if we could contact them?”

“Yes,” Suzie confirmed.

“Would you be able to keep the government from collapsing in on itself after the Queen is removed?”

“That’s part of the Aid Division’s job, yes.”

A look of relief crossed Luna’s features. “Good… You’ve suddenly made things much simpler.”

“Should we really trust these guys!?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, it all sounds a little too good to be true! A bunch of… people… fall out of the sky and just offer to help us?”

“They were shot down,” Rarity pointed out.

“I mean, yeah, but how can we be sure they aren’t some sort of evil empire?”

“We can’t,” Luna asserted. She glanced back at the black dragon overlooking them. “But we don’t have the luxury of choosing our allies in this fight.”

“What exactly is this fight?” Suzie asked. “I need to know the background if I am to help your cause.”

And so Luna told them a story. A story of a normal Equestria, one where Celestia and Luna ruled together, and one where Twilight Sparkle was Celestia’s prized student. They had attended a magic exhibition where one Brainy Bright had decided Equestria would be better off without Princesses ruling—so he had used his invention to send both princesses, Twilight, and himself to another universe, one where the day lasted forever.

It did not take long for Twilight, Celestia, and Luna to be caught up in the strife of the land, vowing to rid this world of the Tyrant Celestia. Twilight had found five of the six Elements of Harmony—missing Pinkie—and the rest of them had made contact with the Apple Underground. Since Twilight couldn’t find Pinkie, they opted to go for a more direct approach in taking out the Queen. Their Celestia was currently off looking for prophecies that might pertain to the Queen’s defeat, Twilight was working to enlist the help of the Griffon kingdom, and Luna herself was working on the dragons.

“...Okay, two things,” Suzie said. “One, I’ve worked with many different sets of the Elements of Harmony before, and I think I might have a solution to your lack of a Pinkie Pie problem.”

“...Oh?” Luna asked.

Suzie smirked. “Most sets of the Elements are able to be worn by those who embody their Element. While naturally they prefer the pony they are intended for, others who exemplify the trait can wield them as well.” She put an arm around Burgerbelle and grinned. “Burgerbelle here has wielded an Element of Laughter before. I’m sure she could do it again.”

“Should I start throwing parties?” Burgerbelle asked, suddenly holding several balloons.

“Maybe later.”

All the balloons popped and wheezed pathetically, prompting a chuckle from Rainbow Dash.

“That… may work…” Luna admitted. “Though we have not found the physical form of the Elements…”

“Ah,” Suzie admitted. “Well, if you do find them, we have a Laughter for you. In any case, given the presence of… this dragon, I take it you secured the aid of the dragons?”

“...Not exactly…” Rarity admitted.

“T h e y_h a v e_y e t_t o_u p h o l d_t h e i r_e n d_o f_t h e_d e a l.”

“Deal?” Suzie asked. She didn’t like where this was going.

“The current dragon Matriarch has refused to assist us,” Luna said.

“So we have to steal her crystal thingy and give it to this guy so he can be the dragon Matriarch instead,” Rainbow added. “It’ll be the biggest heist ever pulled off!”

“In a mountain where time flows backward and you eternally get younger and younger,” Rarity added. “Not to mention it’s guarded by the oldest, wisest, most dangerous of all dragons.”

Suzie blinked. “Huh.”

“Tuesday?” Burgerbelle asked.

“This isn’t quite normal enough for us to be a Tuesday.”

“I’m going for Friday,” Squiddy commented.

Suzie glanced up at the black dragon. It was very clear he’d be a warmongering tyrant to the dragons. No doubt after this deal was over he’d try to lay waste to the planet.

Luckily at that point the Merodi should be able to deal with him through more direct means. And if not… well, Suzie did have a desperate last resort if she needed it.

“Okay, tell me everything you know about the current Matriarch, the artifact we need to steal, and this mountain…” She rubbed her hands together. “It’s time for a heist.”

~~~

Nira and Seren had been following the local Luna for… they had no idea how long. Time was screwy on this world given the eternal day, and Seren’s magical timers were drifting more than usual. They suspected this was because of all the magic teleportation and transformations they had been subjecting themselves to.

Not that Nira really cared. Seren might have been starting to yawn, but Nira could have gone weeks without sleep if needed. She could be patient.

What was taxing her patience was not the act of following, no—it was the act of following a mare who seemed to be going in completely random directions with no rhyme or reason. Was she looking for something? Was she lost? Was she just stupid? Nira had no idea, and this was infuriating.

“...We need to try something else,” Seren called from her shadow. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“Do you want to walk up to her and try talking? She’s got the power of two alicorns at her disposal, and she could try to use Celestia as a shield or something. We may be strong, but taking out even a baseline Luna is a bit of an overestimation of our abilities.”

“The bad guys do it all the time.”

“We’re not the bad guys.”

“Well, not me, but you could do it! C’mon, snarl, summon some shadow monstrosities!”

“There are several things wrong with what you just said. First of all, I don’t snarl.”

“Riiiiiight…”

“Second, since dimensional travel is cut off, I can’t do any summoning.”

“...Okay, that is true.”

“Third, I just don’t want to.”

“At least you’re honest!”

“If you needed a positive character trait…” Nira focused her senses on Luna and Celestia. For the first time, she sensed a surge of magic coming from the sun Princess. Was she waking up?

No… she had just received a letter by dragonfire. The small scroll appeared in the air and was quickly snatched up by Luna. She read it, shook her head, and threw it into the sand. She teleported away again.

Nira took Seren and herself out of the shadow spell. With a flash of darkness, she teleported the letter to them

Dear Princess Celestia,

I don’t have much time. The Griffon Kingdom is under attack, and if I don’t figure out how to tap into the magic of the sun, any chance of getting allies from them is gone. Anything you can send me—anything—could change the fate of these griffons.The sooner the better.

-Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.

“We need to help her,” Seren asserted.

Nira nodded. “You go. You’ve studied astromechanical magic, right?”

Seren smiled. “Yep! ...Wait, you’re not coming?”

“Someone has to keep tabs on Luna.” She tapped her horn to Seren’s, forming a magical bond. “You’ll always know which direction I am as long as I don’t break the spell. Come back as soon as you can. But go help Twilight Sparkle.”

Seren took a breath. “Alright.” She hefted her scepter into the air and traced the letter’s teleportation signature back to its origin point. She popped out of existence, leaving Nira alone.

Nira began to trace Luna’s teleport. Seren may have been better at tracing than Nira, but it was still well within her abilities to keep up with the alicorn.

But, as it turned out, she wouldn’t need to.

Because Luna teleported back and glared right at Nira. “Found you.”

Nira let out a swear word in a dead, evil language.

~~~

Blink grabbed an important looking stallion and made him vanish.

He kept trying to fight until he noticed a magic laser pass right through him. “What the…”

“I made you invisible and intangible,” Blink said, trotting up to him. “You’re welcome.”

He glared at her with distrust in his eyes.

“I’m Blink. Short version, I’m from another universe and I have the power of Void. We don’t have time for the long version. Tell me who the most important people are here, and I’ll save them. Got it?”

“Got it,” the stallion said, understanding the severity of the situation. “I’m Glint. We need to find Emerald Hope. Green coat, golden mane.”

“Right, right… stay close, it takes effort to be this stealthy in this much of a warzone!”

The two ponies ran through the ruins of the world beneath Trottingham. Lasers, lightning bolts, and dragonfire exploded in all directions. And yet, Glint and Blink were untouchable, unseeable, unnoticeable.

Moving unhindered like this, they found Emerald Hope easy. She was laying on her side in a ditch, her front leg half blown off. She was unconscious. Blink hid her and turned to Glint. “You’ll need to carry her.”

“We need to treat her!”

“Is she the only one we need to get?!” Blink shouted. “No? Thought not. So pick her up and tell me where to go next!”

“Caramel, a-”

“I know what Caramel looks like!” Blink said, noticing the familiar earth pony fighting a dragon up close. With a pulse of magic, the dragon that had once been only slightly larger than the earth pony grew tenfold. Caramel was bit in half before Blink could do anything.

“...Next?” Blink said, swallowing hard.

“Chequy. Zebra-pegasus, can’t miss her.”

This turned out to be true. The stripey pegasus mare in question was zipping overhead. Blink couldn’t waste time getting her attention—she shot her with a magic laser, singing her flank. The pegasus reacted without thinking, swirling and kicking behind her—annoyed to find nothing there.

“Good, you’re here, now don’t fly away, you’ll probably die if you do,” Blink said.

Chequy looked around bewildered until she saw Glint, Emerald, and Blink. “What in…”

“I’m getting as many important people out of this alive as I can. Is there anyone else before we start grabbing random ponies?”

“Brightsmile,” Glint said.

“Brightsmile, yes, direction and/or description please?”

Soon they were running off again. Blink could feel her energy being strained. She wouldn’t be able to hide many more like this…

~~~

Question: how does one steal a magic crystal from a dragon Matriarch?

There were a few options.

The first was to use Blink. Unfortunately, Blink wasn’t here, so easy mode was out.

The second was to attack the Matriarch and defeat her directly. Big black and ugly had made it very clear that even if the dragons rebelled, she would still win. The value of the ‘Rock of Ages’ was so much it would cause her to grow even larger than him.

The other option was to attack her while she was inside her mountain and stuck in a perpetually young form, but because the mountain de-aged everyone who entered it, any sort of power advantage would likely dissipate. Suzie had managed to confiscate a pretty impressive bomb from Swip’s arsenal, but that itself was only a last resort since it would probably cause the entire mountain to cave in.

So if offense was out of the question, that meant they’d have to be stealthy. It just so happened that the local Rainbow Dash was a master thief and had spent virtually her entire life stealing from the rich ponies of Equestria and giving to the poor—a regular robin hood—so at first it looked like they had an advantage in this regard.

Rainbow had been very clear—the many splitting tunnels that led directly to the Matriarch’s lair were pointless. Nobody would hide something in a maze that expansive where they wouldn’t know there was an intruder until it was too late. So the path to the Rock of Ages must go through the Matriarch’s lair itself. Getting past the Matriarch to even look at those other tunnels was the problem. Luna had admitted teleporting in the mountain would be impossible with all the magic shifting around, so it looked like they were stuck.

Until Suzie explained it was possible to teleport without magic. It had taken a few hours, but Swip was able to walk them through transforming the League’s useless dimensional devices into a pair of wormhole devices.

Then they were in business.

They just needed someone to distract the Matriarch. Someone she hadn’t already met that would be able to talk for a long time and remain completely calm in the face of a dragon staring them down.

And thus Sweetaloo walked up to the Backwards Mountain. She had the teleporter and the bomb hidden away in her mane, easily accessible by her magic if they were needed. She really hoped the bomb wasn’t needed.

Inwardly, she was screaming. She knew this was bound to happen one day. She was on one of the most active expedition ships in the League, living on board was just asking for something dangerous to happen. A situation where everything depended on her was inevitable. Everyone knew she was not a mare of action, but Suzie had decided she was the best bet for this job.

Why?

Because she could keep an even, calm face when people were screaming at her and she was afraid for her life.

It came with the job.

So she walked right to the Matriarch’s lair. She had taken a makeshift boat most of the way through an underground river, and was slightly damp as a result. She had walked the last bit of the way here—wondering if all the tunnels she had passed before arriving held the Rock of Ages, or if Rainbow’s intuition was right that it had to be past the Matriarch’s lair. Could the Matriarch have counted on ponies like Rainbow always making the smart decision, hiding the Rock of Ages in plain sight?

No… Many young, stupid dragons had tried to steal the artifact before. They would not have thought like Rainbow. The Matriarch wouldn’t have risked an idiot finding the artifact simply by not thinking. Sweetaloo realized she needed to have faith in Rainbow Dash.

When she finally entered the actual cavernous lair of the Matriarch, her expression was one of serenity and wisdom. Though, yes, inwardly she was still screaming. Due to the effects of the mountain, she currently appeared as a young adult. She had been assured the mountain wouldn’t physically split her up into three fillies if she got that young due to overexposure to the time shift, but she was still a little nervous about that.

“And who might you be?”

Sweetaloo looked up to see a beautiful, almost dainty dragon sitting atop a raised ledge. She was certainly large—easily four times Sweetaloo’s size—but that was small compared to the dragons she’d seen outside with the black behemoth. The dragon had no color to her, but rather was translucent, allowing her inner organs and bones a chance to see the light of her cave. Which, since it was a cave, wasn’t much.

“I am Sweetaloo Blume, an alicorn from another universe.”

“I seem to be getting a lot of those lately.”

“It appears to be the season for it. I’m not here to ask you for anything.”

“Then why are you here?”

“As a leader of a major nation on this world, you deserve to know about the people I represent—Merodi Universalis, a coalition of over a hundred universes—and what access to the multiverse can do for you. I’ll be willing to answer any and all questions you may have.”

“Interesting…” the Matriarch let out a breath of fire, igniting the ceiling crystals and filling the room with light. “I am not sure what I can expect to gain from this knowledge, but even if it is useless, it is intriguing. Tell me your story.”

And so Sweetaloo began to talk. Her voice always level, her eyes always directly on the Matriarch. She invited the Matriarch to ask questions, to supplement with stories from dragonkind, occasionally getting the Matriarch to talk about herself. And when she was sure the Matriarch’s focus was completely on her young form, she pressed a button on the teleporter device.

For a moment she’d thought she’d accidentally hit the bomb, because no portal appeared. But then she saw a soft green light flash in the dark cave behind the Matriarch. Right, Luna shrouded them in darkness for extra stealth.

She didn’t miss a beat, jumping into the history of Evening Sparkle herself.

“Does that name sound familiar, by chance?”

“No,” the Matriarch admitted, hanging on to every word.

“Shame. There’s likely a version of her in the world right now, if things are following the standard pattern…”

In the cavern behind the Matriarch, Rainbow, Luna, Suzie, and Burgerbelle hid behind a rock.

“We’re in,” Rainbow said with a grin. “Now we just have to find the rock.”

“My magic scans are fruitless, as expected,” Luna admitted. “Suzie?”

Suzie slapped the data pad in her hand, prompting it to spit out an error message. “Yeah, I don’t know either.”

“Then we must become stealth,” Burgerbelle said, suddenly in a ninja outfit.

Rainbow nodded, taking the lead. They were soon so far down the tunnel that the light from the Matriarch’s lair didn’t make it to them. Shortly after this point, they came out into another open expanse, this one small and riddled with many smaller tunnels.

“Right, so, here’s the deal,” Rainbow said. “This labyrinth was set up by an ancient dragon Matriarch who has had tens of thousands of years to perfect her craft at hiding stuff. She’s going to have this Rock of Ages locked away in the best hiding place she’s ever found and she will litter the way to it with traps. Lucky us, those traps will be designed for dragons, and we’ll probably be too light to trigger most of them. Probably.”

“So, which way?” Suzie asked, looking at the dozens of options they had to choose from.

“Well, if I were hiding something, I’d do one of two things.” Rainbow Dash smirked. “I’d choose a tunnel at complete random, or I’d hide it in none of the tunnels.

“None?” Suzie asked. “How?” She noticed she was already getting younger. Soon she’d start getting too small for her clothes.

Luna and Rainbow were the same way, though they didn’t have clothes to worry about. “I’m thinking secret button or passage or something.”

Burgerbelle was completely unaffected by the time inversion. “Secret passage finder: activate!”

She threw herself into the cavern and landed flat on her face. Nothing happened.

“You’re not Vriska,” Suzie told Burgerbelle.

“...But I want to be…” Burgerbelle grunted.

Rainbow chuckled. “Nah, that’s not gonna work. We have to look for a dragon secret passage. Something she wouldn’t expect a dragon to see or think about…”

“Like a tunnel smaller than any dragon should be able to fit into?” Luna asked, flying up to a small tunnel only slightly larger than herself.

“Huh,” Rainbow said. “That might be it.”

“The Matriarch herself could fit in here,” Luna observed. “But any dragons who rushed in here likely would not have de-aged quite to her level, aside from already young ones. It is quite the deterrent.” She moved to enter.

“STOP!” Rainbow shouted.

“Shhhh!” Suzie hissed.

“She was about to activate a trap!” Rainbow hissed, pointing at a completely normal looking rock near the edge of the tunnel. “That would have caved the entire thing in!”

“...Guess this means we’re on the right track,” Suzie observed.

Carefully this time, they all crawled into the tunnel. All of them were able to stand up comfortably once they were inside, though Luna felt her mane drifting into the edges. Not wanting to trigger any traps by accident, she tied her mane up into a ponytail, forcing it to drift behind her.

“Nice look,” Suzie commented.

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Just Suzie is fine.”

“Mhm…” Luna said, looking forward as they trekked through the tunnel. “Your race is human, you said?”

Suzie nodded in confirmation. “Technically I’m not a ‘true’ human, but nobody really cares about the scientific specifics. We’re the most common race in the multiverse, we have a lot of minor variations.”

“I can imagine. What are your people like?”

“Stubborn. Prideful. Determined. Resourceful. Creative. Often angry.”

“Angry?”

“Most human worlds are marked by war after endless war.”

“And what do you think of wars?”

“...I am a soldier, myself,” Suzie said, frowning. “I wish they weren't necessary. And in most cases they aren’t. But sometimes you’re out of options.”

“You don’t seem to have tried many other options here.”

“I did a risk assessment. Based on what I know about Daybreakers—or, well, I guess Daymare Sun here, maybe—and how little backup I have right now, I decided this was the best bet for success and the safety of my crew.”

“Absolutely brilliant,” Burgerbelle chuckled. “Stealing from a high dragon: safe!”

“It’s a better bet than asking the Queen to pretty-please help us.”

“Very true,” Luna concurred.

“Less talking more sneaking,” Rainbow ordered. They obliged.

There were a few more cavernous areas along the way—each one with a slightly different trick. Rainbow saw most of them immediately. Misleading tunnel placement. An excess of traps around one entrance. And then there was the one they had to step through the dragonfire to ‘solve’, getting teleported to another area of the mountain.

Suzie eventually had to remove her clothes and tie them around herself, giving her the impression of having multiple capes. She had stopped de-aging somewhere around twelve years old.

“I hope Sweetaloo’s still fine talking for this long…” Luna commented. She herself was still clearly an adult, but her mane had stopped sparkling and was replaced with a normal, light blue hairstyle.

“Princess, no offense, but you haven’t the foggiest idea how much she can talk,” Burgerbelle laughed, her body still completely unchanged. “Press button to keep talking.”

“If you’re certain…”

“Aw, pennyfeathers!” Rainbow shouted—an act that looked ridiculous now that she was little more than a filly. “She’s clever.”

“How so?” Luna asked, stepping into the new cavern. This one contained two marble pedestals. One had a marble block the size of two ponies on it, the other didn’t. There was no visible way to progress.

“This is a dragonfire puzzle,” Rainbow explained. “You have to teleport the block from one end to the other. Like, geez, isn’t that difficult?”

Luna nodded. “Controlling short-range dragonfire is exceedingly difficult, from what I understand.”

“So yeah, only something the Matriarch could do. We’re probably going to have to dig through the wall to get around it…”

“Or…” Burgerbelle took a wormhole device out from one of Suzie’s loose pockets. “We can just teleport the block.”

“...Burgerbelle that’s genius!”

Burberbelle bowed. She pressed a few buttons and created a set of portals—one appearing under the block, one appearing over the empty pedestal. There was a soft click and the wall behind the pillars slid down… revealing what they were looking for. Unceremoniously dumped on top of a mound of dirt, there was a bright white diamond-cut crystal that seemed to be rotating every second or so with a faint tick tick tick.

It was smaller than Rainbow Dash’s eye.

“So… we just grab it and wormhole out?” Rainbow asked.

Suzie nodded. “Yep. That should do it.”

“Wow. We’re really good at this.”

Burgerbelle chuckled and pressed the button to wormhole out of the mountain.

Instead the two wormholes appeared above the pedestals.

“...Stars above…” Luna gasped. “When a dragon sets a location for his fire… they lose the old one… tell me your device isn’t the same...”

Suzie swiped the device back from Burgerbelle. “It really shouldn’t…”

MEMORY ERROR.

“Well… It looks like we’re going to have to get out the old fashioned way.” Suzie let out a deep breath. “...As kids.”

“I’m not!” Burgerbelle said.

“Yeah, I hope you’re ready to fight the Matriarch…”

“I totally am!”

“That’s the spirit!” Rainbow encouraged. “Let’s show her who’s boss!”

Luna bit her lip. They were so close… and yet, it looked as if it was about ready to come crashing down around them…

~~~

There was blood, guts, and death happening in the caverns of Trottingham.

Cinder purposefully kept that all at her backside. She didn’t need to see it, she didn't want to see it, and she couldn’t let herself see it for the sake of those still alive. She needed to be strong.

Today, being strong meant tag-teaming the local equivalent of Twilight Sparkle with Celia.

They had the element of surprise. The Twilight was clearly not expecting anyone to get through the rest of her unicorns, and she definitely was not expecting that someone to be a towering mare dancing on a razor top. She was barely able to raise a shield in time to stop the drill-like weapon from plowing into her.

“What are you!?” the Twilight shouted, equal parts surprised and fascinated.

Celia tossed her mane back, revealing her crystal. “Would you believe that I’m a mare from another universe?”

The unicorn grinned. “Yes, actually.” She pushed back with her magic, tossing Celia to the side.

Celia landed on her hooves with a smirk. “Name’s Celia. I’m going to guess you’re Twilight Sparkle.”

“So close. Daylight, actually,” Daylight said with a smirk. “Can’t be named after a time that doesn’t exist.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure dear. You might reach your own twilight before you expect it.”

“Word games? I like you. And I can’t wait to take you apart and figure out what makes you tick…”

Cinder revealed herself by tapping into the power of the sun she had been storing for the past few minutes, unleashing a torrent of fire upon Daylight so intense and bright that Celia had to raise a shield just to keep her eyes from over-adjusting.

Eventually, Cinder had to shoot a bolt of fire behind her to keep a unicorn from taking her out. She was careful to not burn him to ashes, but she still used enough force to knock him over and into the river.

This gave Daylight the opportunity to get out of the flaming burst. She had managed to defend against it, but several parts of her mane and tail were singed ever-so-slightly. “How dare you steal the Queen’s holy fire!?”

“Because she’s evil and I don’t like her?” Cinder suggested, deadpan. She threw a fireball into the face of a passing dragon, blinding him enough to crash.

“Wow! Go Cinder!” Celia cheered. “That training’s really paying off!”

Cinder shrugged—she knew full well it was mostly the sun giving her all this power. If this world had Nightmare Moon instead of Daybreaker, she would probably be just as useless as always. But here… well, she could have some fun. She unleashed another burst of solar fire at Daylight.

“Spike! EAT HER.”

“...Eat me!?” Cinder gawked. She could feel something growing behind her, rising to fill the space in the cavern. Glancing behind herself she saw Spike, all right: the size of a small mansion and growing rapidly.

The fire-to-the-eyes trick probably wasn’t going to work again.

“Celia…!?”

“Get Daylight!” Celia shouted. “He’s only growing due to a spell!”

“Right!” Cinder dodged out of the way of Spike’s claws—but the wind made her trip and fall flat on her back, dazed. Just before the dragon stepped on her Celia teleported her onto her back.

“Hold tight!” Celia shouted, spinning on her top toward Daylight. The unicorn was not having any of this—she unleashed a beam of lavender energy right at the two of them, only for Celia’s shield to deflect it right into Spike’s face.

“YOU OAF!” Daylight shouted. “Don’t fall for their tricks!”

“SORRY,” Spike growled, opening his mouth to unleash a torrent of fire.

“NOT TOWARD ME, FOOL!” Daylight let out a scream of rage. “I’ll just do this myself!” She generated a complex magical circle in front of her horn. Celia wasn’t sure what exactly it did, but it felt wrong. There was a soft pulse that had no physical presence—but chilled every pony and dragon within range. It was as if each living thing had to reset for a moment to process that their very souls hadn’t just been stolen by some sneaky demon.

This dramatic shift made Celia lose control of her top, skittering and falling onto the ground. She recovered within a second, but this still allowed Daylight to get a shot off.

“...That should have disintegrated you,” Daylight observed as Celia shrugged the attack off. “What are you made of?”

“Some pretty exotic materials, thank you for noticing,” Celia coughed—glancing to check that Cinder was okay. She summoned her razor-top again, grinning. “You’re not going to be able to wear me out with magic, Daylight.”

“I won’t have to.”

Spike drove a claw right into Celia’s side, popping out the other end with ease. Nothing came out—no blood, no fluids. The only response Celia made was a wince of pain—followed quickly by a fearful glance at Cinder. “I’m going to be fine, RUN!”

Any chance Cinder had at following the order was dashed when she watched Celia’s body poof into a cloud of soft dust, leaving only her forehead crystal behind. The crystal dropped to the ground and fractured into two parts along the crack Cinder had come to know so well.

Cinder froze. She would have been able to push through rampant death, injury, and even verbal abuse. But she would never in a million years have been able to keep control of herself after watching Celia be defeated like that.

“And as for you, little thief…” Daylight said—not that Cinder registered her words. “You deserve death. But I’m going to let the Queen decide how painful it should be.”

Cinder passed out. From her own strain or Daylight’s spell, it was impossible to tell.

Author's Notes:

Sunshine and Fire was written by BornIn1142 who vanished off the face of Fimfiction years ago. This is part 1 of 5 of my attempt at using the Sweeties to resurrect a dead fic. I was unable to tie together all the loose ends left in the story, but I tried my best to get all the major things wrapped up while still having some interesting things for the Sweeties to do. Let's see how this goes, shall we?

As usual, definitely not required to read Sunshine and Fire before this, but you'll definitely enjoy this more if you have.

Anyway, in other 'news', have the GM-selected LSB theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBptRVQ8qoE

Still Standing (Sunshine and Fire, Part 2)

Author's Notes:

IMPORTANT: I made a mistake last chapter and forgot to include the last scene! Go back and make sure you've read the final scene with Celia and Cinder, because it's IMPORTANT! It beings with "there was blood." Sorry for the inconvenience, my mind is a demented squirrel sometimes.

Suzie didn’t like the situation.

They were back at the Matriarch’s lair. Sweetaloo was, somehow, still talking with the Matriarch and showing no sign of stopping. She also showed no sign of noticing the four of them had returned and were trying to figure out how to escape.

Her wormhole device still had a portal keyed to the outside. She would use it to escape herself, if needed. If they could only get her to use it…

But any sort of message would likely draw the Matriarch’s attention, so she, Luna, Rainbow, and Burgerbelle were sitting in the darkness, thinking over their options. Luna held the Rock of Ages in her hoof. They were lucky—apparently, so long as it was within the Matriarch’s mountain, it still ‘belonged’ to her, and thus she wouldn’t notice its power seep from her until they were gone.

The problem here was how to get out. They had to cross her lair. With the gem. And get out with their lives.

“I’m still the fastest flier,” Rainbow whispered. “It’s mostly a straight shot from here to outside.”

“She’ll catch you,” Suzie hissed.

“Not if I’m really fast and you all provide a distraction.”

“I’d rather not be roasted!” Suzie hissed.

“You can fight her,” Burgerbelle commented.

“I do not have my adult body or reflexes and my weapons are too large for my hands. And if you’re suggesting the other thing, no. Just no.”

“Then I can take her,” Burgerbelle said. “A memefest is all it takes to bewilder a dragon long enough for a pegasus to fly out.”

“And the rest of us?” Luna asked.

“Wormhole.” Burgerbelle pointed at Sweetaloo.

“How do we get that?”

“Teleport it off her,” Suzie said, a smile slowly forming. “She’ll already know we’re here, we don’t need to be stealthy at that point…” She turned to Burgerbelle. “Do it.”

“Okay.”

And suddenly Burgerbelle was at Sweetaloo’s side.

“WAUGH!” Sweetaloo shouted, jumping into the air—inadvertently flapping her broken wing. “Wh…”

“Hmm…” the Matriarch narrowed her eyes. “A Flat. Burgerbelle, perhaps?”

“Yes ma’am!” Burgerbelle said. “And I’ve got a little present for you!”

“Burgerbelle what are you doing!?” Sweetaloo shouted.

“Comedy at it’s finest,” Burgerbelle reported, pulling a banana cream pie out of nowhere. She threw it at the Matriarch.

She burnt it to a crisp with her fire.

A sad trombone noise emanating from somewhere.

“What was the point of that?” the Matriarch asked, on high alert now.

“Thinkfastdistraction!” Burgerbelle shouted, pulling out an air horn and pressing down on the button. Even the Matriarch had to recoil and put her claws over her ears.

Rainbow took the opportunity. As little more than a burst of rainbow color, she shot through the lair, entering the exit tunnel. She knew the exact way out, so none of the side tunnels were going to confuse her.

Luna teleported the wormhole device to herself and activated it, opening a portal to the outside of the mountain. She jumped in—teleporting Sweetaloo through with her magic.

The Matriarch let out a roar of rage. “THIEVES!” She attempted to follow them through the portal—but Burgerbelle hit her on the head with a frying pan, sending her to the side. Before the Matriarch could try for the portal again, Luna teleported everyone else out.

The instant they were on the other side of the portal they returned to their proper ages. The feeling was somewhat disorienting for everyone who wasn’t Luna or Burgerbelle. Suzie’s clothes had been tied around a much smaller body, ripping easily when she returned to her proper size. Putting them back on, she found her sleeves and legs were basically trashed. “...Great.”

“...I just thought of something,” Burgerbelle said.

“Yeah?”

“Why didn’t we teleport Rainbow Dash through the wormhole with us?”

There was a poignant pause.

Suzie facepalmed. “AUGH! This is why we should plan more!”

“Have faith in Rainbow Dash,” Luna said. “The Element of Loyalty will come through.”

“S h e_b e t t e r,” the dark dragon said, sitting behind them.

“She has the Stone of Ages in her hooves. She will come through.”

“...Can we help her?” Sweetaloo asked.

Luna spread her wings. “I can.” She flew into the entrance to the mountain—a beautiful cavernous opening with dual waterfalls. She flew at top speed into the cavern along the perfect path. It took her about a minute, but she eventually ran into Rainbow Dash.

“Go!” She called to the rainbow filly—who was clearly tiring from using her tiny wings so exhaustively. “I will hold her off!”

“Thanks a ton!” Rainbow shouted, continuing on her way.

Ten seconds later the Matriarch arrived, breathing out immense bellows of diamond-white fire.

Luna raised a shield, comically plastering the young dragon against an invisible barrier. “You will not pass.”

“WHY HAVE YOU BETRAYED ME!?”

“Desperation,” Luna admitted. “I am sorry, however worthless that is, and I do believe black and ugly out there is a terrible person, but I feel as though I have no choice.”

The Matriarch used her flame to envelop herself and jump to the other side of Luna’s barrier. “You will doom this world!”

“I pray that is not the case!” Luna called after her—finding it impossible to keep up with the dragon. She unleashed a few beams of magic attacks, but she could feel her power draining in this place. She needed to conserve energy.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

She also felt like her wings were about to seize up.

“PEGASUS!” the Matriarch shouted from directly behind her, opening up her mouth to consume her.

“N o.”

The dark, disgusting flames hit the diamond sparkles of the Matriarch—the burst from the black behemoth enveloping Rainbow first and teleporting her onto his head.

“T h e_s t o n e,_n o w!”

Rainbow dropped the crystal without an argument, dropping it in his claws.

“YOU FOOLS!” The Matriarch shouted, charging out of the mountain pass. Even without her treasure increasing her stature as a dragon, she still increased in size a hundredfold due to her age alone. “YOU’VE DOOMED THIS WORLD!”

“T h e y_h a v e_d o o m e d_y o u.”

He had already been the size of a mountain. Now he had more than doubled in stature, so large that parts of him were shrouded in the haze of the atmosphere. He opened his mouth to chow on the old Matriarch’s neck.

“STOP!” Suzie shouted. “YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS!”

The black dragon looked down to see Suzie holding the bomb in her hands.

“We completed our end of the deal. You’re going to help take out Queen Celestia,” Suzie said. “But you are not going to exact pointless murder on a dragon who has already lost.”

“S h e_w i l l_n o t_a c c e p t_t h i s.”

“I think she will,” Suzie said, glancing at the translucent dragon. “Because she knows what the Merodi are and what we do.”

The ex-Matriarch studied Suzie closely. And then, with a nod, she turned back to her cave. “I’m keeping the mountain. Anyone who objects can fight me for it. Otherwise, do what you will.” She walked in, not giving any of them another look.

There was silence outside the Backwards Mountain.

“...So, who’s ready to go fight a war?” Burgerbelle asked.

“...V e r y_w e l l.”

“What is your name, anyway?”

“I t_w o u l d_b e_p o i n t l e s s_t o_t e l l_y o u.”

“...Apples.”

~~~

“You can do it, Twilight!”

Twilight Sparkle couldn't do it.

She was standing on the roof of a griffon building, looking out at the war taking pace below. Her friend Fluttershy and her number one assistant Spike were at her side. She had recently saved them and the griffon royalty from a bunch of pony infiltrators. The griffon royal family was moving to safety with a small group of soldiers… and Twilight had stayed behind to try one last time to save the Griffon Kingdom from the pony invasion.

She was going to use the sun and stop the army. It was so close—moved directly overhead by the Queen to burn the griffons into submission—she could feel its power. She could touch it with her magic.

But she couldn’t use it. Her horn had three overglows on it and she still couldn’t use that immense power right at the edge of her perception!

“C’mon!” Spike cheered.

“You traveled back in time,” Fluttershy said. “This should be easy.”

“It’s… harder than it looks…” Twilight muttered. “...Anything from Celestia?”

Spike shook his head. “Nothing…”

The war raged on in the distance. The griffon army was losing cohesion, and soon the Capitolium Leo would be overrun with an actual army instead of just a few sneaky assassins. And there’d be no hope of aid left from the griffons. They would be destroyed.

...They were mostly destroyed already. She wasn’t sure why she was trying.

“WOAH!” Spike shouted.

“Spike what is i-”

“Don’t think too hard about this,” a familiar voice said, laying a hand on her shoulder. This confused Twilight immensely since the voice shouldn’t have had a hand. “Astromechanical magic needs to be done without thinking. You must put force and intent behind it but don’t try to do any complex arithmetic or the thaums won’t have an uninterrupted passage through your horn.”

“Wha…”

“Just do it! You want to control the sun don’t you!?”

And that did it. Twilight snapped into the sun. Of course, Seren had offered some help with a few magical conduits—but she was sure Twilight would have done it on her own, with time.

It was just that the less time she spent struggling, the more lives were saved.

A beam of immense solar energy cascaded down from the sun, impacting a nearby mountain and razing its tip clean off. Slowly, but surely, Twilight brought the beam down toward the army.

And then she slowed. Paused… and cut the beam. “I… I can’t do this…” she said, trembling, tears rolling down her face. “I can’t… there’s so many ponies out there with lives…”

“They’re killing each other!” Seren shouted. “Just…”

“No! It’s wrong, it’s… it’s bad enough I had to kill that assasin, and he was attacking me! Those soldiers out there… Most of them have no idea…”

Seren bit her lip—she didn’t think she could get anything out of the sun fast enough to take over for Twilight. She had to do it.

“Twilight we don’t have time for a moral problem!” Seren shouted. “I… Look at me! I’m a kid!” She raised her staff and shot a beam of light into the army, killing a few ponies. “If I can do tha-”

“Who are you and what in Celestia’s name happened to you!?”

“There is no time to explain!”

“No! No there isn’t! We’re leavi-”

“STOP. BEING. SO. SELFISH!” Fluttershy shouted at the top of her lungs.

Twilight stared at her in disbelief. “Wh-”

“Are you really going to let an entire nation burn to the ground because of your own perverted conscience!? You have the chance to save thousands of lives, Twilight Sparkle! And you’re throwing it away because you don’t want to have a blemish on your pristine picture-perfect good-girl record! GET YOUR HOOVES DIRTY, TWILIGHT! YOU NEED TO KILL THOSE PONIES. YOU DON’T HAVE TIME TO THINK. Just do it.”

She was a bubbling mess now. “F-fl-flutter- I c-can’t c-”

“SELFISH!”

“I…”

“You’re so proud you can’t even let yourself suffer! You have to let others suffer for you! Is that what you want to be? Because if it is, why are you even bothering trying to make friends?!”

“FLUTTERSHY!” Twilight shouted, standing up perfectly tall, her horn glowing with four layers of intense magic. The sun’s beam began anew—this time in the middle of the pony army.

It took seconds for her to slide the scorching flames across the ground and incinerate nine-tenths of the pony army, reducing the land under them to black ashes. At the sight of such an attack the remaining soldiers panicked and spread out—a few even praying for forgiveness from Queen Celestia for whatever horrid sins they had committed against her.

Twilight dropped her magic, bawling, and fell into Fluttershy's hooves. The pegasus allowed her hard exterior to break—tears flowing down her own face as well. Spike joined in on the wordless hug, latching on to Twilight’s hind leg.

Seren stood, awkwardly, wiping tears from her own eyes.

...She may never have understood why people feared causing death so much. It was a thing that needed to be done, right? It had happened all the time in her home world. Use the power of family to kill the bad guys and their armies. Sure, there may have been a few good guys in there, but it was what was needed.

Always.

Right?

Seren sat down and pulled her legs to her chest, waiting for Twilight’s hug to end.

It started raining ash. A few important-looking griffons landed on the roof, unsure of what to do with the crying mares and the anthropomorphic child-wizard.

Somehow, this awkward pressure, the need for something to be done, broke Twilight out of her tears enough to speak. She refused to let go of Fluttershy, but she managed to look at Seren. “...T-thank you. I… ...Who are you, and why are you here?”

Seren was more than happy to explain everything she knew.

~~~

Nira liked to think of herself as powerful. As a mare who commanded armies of darkness and could lay waste to cities, and it was her gift to the masses that she only used her powers for good ‘heroic’ acts. Or that’s what Suzie and the others told her they were, anyway. ...And what she told herself when she wasn’t being all that honest.

She took great pride in being a powerhouse that’d terrify even the most rugged of soldiers. Superheroes would bow to her will if she so desired.

The local Luna grabbed all of Nira’s bloody tendrils with her magic and sent them right back at Nira, embedding her several feet into the sandy dunes. With a roar she tore herself out of the sands with one of her signature screaming explosions, forging the grains around her into dark glass.

“That’s it,” Nira growled. “I don’t care what pathetic little story you’ve got, I’m tearing you down!” She lit her horn and created a glyph in the middle of the air, brimming with the colors of a bloody sunset. It forced itself onto Luna’s mind with the intent of tearing it from the inside out.

Luna created a shield of moonlight riddled with solar spikes and dissipated the glyph with ease. One of the solar spikes tore open Nira’s side, but she was hardly one to care about a little injury when she could create more bloody tendrils from it. The coagulated mess of her blood twisted into a minor tornado, appearing as an extra limb dangling above Nira that ended in a powerful eye. “Your soul cannot hide from me…”

“It isn’t,” Luna said, flatly. There was a mixed pulse of energy from her, twisting both the night and the day, pushing Nira’s coagulated limb back. The eye was enraged by this and focused itself onto Luna’s soul, attempting to rip it from her physical body.

This proved to be useless since even a soul mage of Nira’s caliber would have difficulty severing the connection of a being so old. The magic energies cut through the eye, dissipating Nira’s spellwork. To add insult to injury, luna kicked Nira into the ground so hard that only her head remained above the sand.

Luna pointed a magic needle between Nira’s eyes. “Sever the connection between you and your friend or you die.”

“...Fine,” Nira muttered, cancelling the soul connection between her and Seren. “Now what?”

Luna encased Nira in a bunch of chains and magical seals, ensuring she wouldn’t be able to move her legs, much less cast a single spell. The alicorn found it appropriate to tie Nira’s discarded cloak around her like a bow.

“...Funny,” Nira muttered.

“In ways, perhaps,” she deadpanned.

“So, gonna question me?”

“No,” Luna said, simply. Without another word she teleported herself, the unconscious Celestia, and Nira to somewhere on the opposite side of the planet. It was still day here, somehow, even though the sun wasn’t visible in the sky. Luna wordlessly teleported around a few more times—much faster than she had been when Nira and Seren were watching her, letting Nira know full well they hadn’t hidden from her for even a second.

Eventually, Luna teleported next to her goal. Before them was a monstrous silvery rock that was curved on the underside, brittle on top. The round side held numerous craters, while the rough edge seemed to have no rhyme or reason to the mountains or canyons. Nira was sure it was glowing a soft white color—but it was somehow darkening the area of the planet around it, resisting the ever-present light of the sun.

It cast no shadow not because of the sun, but because it itself was a silvery shadow.

“...Is that the freaking moon?”

“What remains of it,” Luna said, face as impassive as ever. She teleported one more time, placing them in midair next to one of the inverted craters. In front of them was a building, somehow still standing despite hanging upside down for centuries. It vaguely resembled a cathedral, though without windows and with simplified stone architecture. The front door was solid rock, marked with a familiar looking starburst.

Wordlessly, Luna opened the door and dragged Nira in with her.

There was a loud THUNK as the doors closed behind them.

~~~

As big as Equestria was, it had a habit of being abandoned desert in almost every location that wasn’t a major settlement of some kind. So it was easier than one would think to move a small army of dragons into the nation without anyone noticing. Virtually the entire army was stationed on the Griffon border to help with the war effort, and what was left was mostly around Everfree City. So it was not difficult in the slightest to find a path through the abandoned desert that would lead the dragons right to a mountain little more than an hour’s fly from Trottingham.

They would cross over a grand total of three major roads. And if there happened to be anypony on them while the dragons were crossing, well… It would be unfortunate for them.

The ponies and dragons who couldn’t fly were being carried by the larger dragons—and this included Swip, balanced between the claws of two female orange dragons. She was still a complete mess but this didn’t keep her from constantly complaining. The dragons sure wanted to drop her, but they didn’t dare. Her visual sensors had been fixed and she was their best way to know if anyone saw a few-hundred dragons moving across an open desert.

Big Black and Ugly was not flying, but he was somehow fast enough that he could walk along with the rest of the flying reptiles. He only slowed when they came to a road—at which point he would carefully step over the stone path so to not leave a trace of his presence. Sure, he was leaving lake-sized footprints in the sands, but nopony was going to go investigating those.

Rarity was riding a blue male dragon with the rest of the ‘small ones’—Luna, Rainbow Dash, Suzie, Squiddy, Sweetaloo, and Burgerbelle; though Rainbow and Burgerbelle regularly vanished to explore the rest of the dragon flock. Or ‘fleet’, as Swip had called it.

Currently she was looking at the rest of the ‘small ones’ talking excitedly about the heist. Rainbow was telling a clearly embellished tale of how she escaped the jaws of the dragon Matriarch through her cunning, wit, strength, and of course assistance from Luna at the last possible second. Even though the others knew she was full of it, they were laughing and playing along. Even Luna was smiling.

All Rarity could do was look on them and sigh.

She hadn't done anything to get the Rock of Ages. There had been no reason for her to be there—Sweetaloo had ‘talking to the Matriarch’ down, and making the other team any larger would have been foolish. So she got to sit and wait while they performed the heist of the century. Granted, she wasn’t a thief—that was Rainbow Dash’s turf—but still, she felt… more than a little useless. It wasn’t the first time she had felt this way, either. Ever since they had left her estate, well… what had she really done? Talked to some people, she supposed. Not much beyond that. She had never been a mare of action…

“You look like shit,” Squiddy said, sitting down next to her.

Rarity looked at the strange squid-creature at her side, still not quite sure what to make of her. In the few hours they had known of each other’s existence, Rarity had found the inkling, grumpy, brash, and generally not worth talking to.

“Don’t be silly, we won,” Rarity said, putting what she hoped was a reassuring smile on her face.

It clearly wasn’t. “I sat out too, you know.” She held up her injured hand. “I’m pretty useless without this.”

“When we get to Celestia we can get you fixed up.”

“Yeah. Sure. Not the point. You’re beating yourself up for not being useful.”

Rarity huffed. “So? If I am it’s my business, not yours.”

“It’s my business if I say it’s my business.”

Rarity gawked. “Why, I never!”

“I’m doing the same thing too, idiot.” Squiddy muttered. “I’m trying to empathize here!”

“...You’re not doing a particularly good job.”

“No shit.” Squiddy turned away from her, arms and tentacles folded.

Rarity suddenly felt horrible, as though she had driven a spike through somepony who had just been trying to help. “...Squiddy…”

“What?”

“I apologize for being so rough.”

Squiddy sighed. “...Why do I have to surround myself with people who are so forgiving?”

“Hmm?”

“Everywhere I look, ponies, ponies, ponies. Magic of Friendship, love, tolerance, blah, blah, blah…” She tightened her free hand into a fist, falling silent.

“Squiddy, you’re a hero. You spend your entire life going to places I could never imagine so you can help others. That’s more than most of us do.”

Squiddy nodded slowly. “But I’m still angry.”

“Maybe you have a right to be?”

“At myself?”

Rarity considered this. “I mean, unless you did something stupid.”

Squiddy’s reaction indicated she had done something stupid.

“I-I didn’t mean…”

“Yeah, you did,” Squiddy said, sagging. “No matter how much I try I’m never going to make it up, and I’m just so frustrated with that it… it…”

Rarity carefully put a hoof on Squiddy’s shoulder, using all her willpower not to squirm at the unnerving give of her flesh. “No one ever makes up for the things they’ve done. You don’t have to keep trying.”

“It’s called mercy,” Suzie said, looking to Squiddy with a motherly care in her eyes. “You can never do anything to take back the mistakes you’ve made. There is no balancing act anyone can win. But the good news is you don’t have to—you’re forgiven, Squiddy.”

“You weren’t on the other end,” Squiddy muttered.

“And do you think, even if you did make it up, that they would forgive you?”

“...No.”

“Then what are you fighting for?”

Squiddy glared at Suzie—but her expression quickly softened. “Suzie, we know how this is going to go. I’ll reluctantly agree with you, perk up for a while, talk to Sweetaloo a bit, but I’ll eventually return here. Like always. It doesn’t get fixed.”

Rarity wasn't entirely sure of the context, but she figured she had some insight. “Does it have to be?”

Squiddy looked at her with narrow eyes. “I don’t know, can being perpetually angry at everything be considered a virtue?”

“No, but you’re exaggerating. You’re not perpetually angry. I’ve known you for all of a couple hours and I already know there’s more to you than that.” She smiled warmly. “You have the heart of a hero, no matter how rough it is.”

Squiddy laughed bitterly. “Yeah, sure. Makes sense. But I’ll just go back…”

“But you’ll know there are people who love you regardless,” Suzie said, pulling the inkling into a hug. “And while that’s not as good as change, it’s still something.”

Squiddy wordlessly wrapped her arms and tentacles around Suzie. Rarity opted not to participate in the hug. She couldn’t imagine having those tentacles wrapping around her, ready to strangle… but she could look at the two of them and smile.

We didn’t really talk about being useless… but I don’t exactly feel useless anymore.

“You guys are not going to believe this!” Swip called.

“What?” Luna asked, suddenly alert.

“I’ve got a pony on the upcoming road.”

“WHAT!?”

“But, get this! It’s Applejack!”

“What!?” Rarity cocked her head. “She was at the oracle’s with Celestia. She should have teleported back…”

“She’s walkin’, and there’s no princess with her.”

Luna spread her wings, picking up Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Suzie. She teleported the four of them down to the road.

“Oh thank heavens!” Applejack shouted—clearly dehydrated, exhausted, and desperate. “Ah… Ah need…”

Luna may not have known complex healing spells, but she could conjure water and give it to Applejack. The earth pony took it readily, saving her body from heatstroke. “Ah… Ah…”

“What happened? Where is my sister?” Luna demanded.

“Your sister was an idiot!” Applejack shouted, suddenly filled with vigor. “She was told, by the oracle, that Trottingham was going to be attacked, but went to free the other you from the sun instead!”

“Trottingham attacked?” Rarity gasped.

“Other me in the sun!?” Luna spurted.

“That’s what that was…” Suzie told herself.

“Ah’ll explain later—we don’t have time! Luna, we have to warn Trottingham!”

Luna nodded, activating a teleportation matrix around the five of them. They jumped the rest of the way to Trottingham, arriving in the desert outside the city.

They could see smoke rising out from the city’s dome. It didn’t cast a shadow, making its rising billows all the more unnatural and unnerving. Luna swore she could hear ponies screaming even though they were far too distant to make out specific noises.

“Oh no…” Rarity said.

“I’m gonna teach them a lesson!” Rainbow shouted, rising into the air.

“No!” Applejack called, voice cracking. “Don’t!”

Rainbow stared at her like she had lost her mind.

“We won’t be able to do anything!”

“...We can do something…” Luna growled, spreading her wings. “I can make them regret ever being born…”

“If we can see smoke, that means they’ve already destroyed the underground and have moved to the upper levels!” Applejack sputtered. “Anypony who would have gotten away is already long gone.”

Rainbow folded her wings up and landed in the sand. “But… But… How did…?”

“Ah don’t know, the oracle just told me they knew! Or told Celestia. The entire thing’s kind of a blur to be honest since she was hijackin’ my body to do the prophesyin’.”

“...What do we do…?” Rarity asked, horrified.

“We regroup,” Suzie said. “We have a mountain—we bring the dragons there. If the Queen has already figured out that location, we will take care of whoever’s there with our army and move to a new location.”

Applejack noticed the human for the first time. “And you might be…?”

“Captain Suzie Belle, League of Sweetie Belles. From another another universe. I’ve heard a lot about you and your underground, Applejack.”

“Ah bet you have.” She turned to stare at the smoke on the horizon. “...This is Celestia’s fault.”

“She…” Luna bit her lip. “I’m sure she had her reasons.”

“She said there’d be time,” Applejack deadpanned. “Quickly free you from the sun and then go warn Trottingham. She never came back.”

“Never… came… back?”

“Somethin’ went wrong. Ah can’t tell you what, because Ah was unconscious at the time, but Ah woke up alone and that was that.”

“Did you learn anything else from the Oracle?” Rarity asked.

“Ugh… it’s hard to remember a lot of it… Uh…” She rubbed her head. “Twilight and her friends are going to survive. Ah guess that means us. The Queen will be defeated? Maybe? The entire plan’s going to fall apart…”

“I’ve got bad news,” Suzie said, frowning. “Whenever me and my team arrive in a universe, we tend to ruin prophecies. It’s impossible for most Oracles to take into account more than a few universes.”

“So great, the trip was useless and we’re down a princess!?” Rainbow shouted.

“It wasn’t useless…” Applejack muttered, looking at Luna. “Ah learned some things. The Queen’s doing this by choice. This ain’t no Nightmare Thingy.”

Luna’s expression was unreadable. “Celestia admitted as much to me in private.”

“And you’re the reason this world is wrong.”

Luna’s impassive exterior cracked. “W-what?”

“The other you abdicated the throne a thousand years ago. That’s apparently what made all… this!” She gestured at the sun.

“How could my abdication have doomed the world?”

“Ah don’t have a clue!”

“Girls!” Rarity said, inserting herself between the two of them. “We can argue about this later, right now we need to get the dragons to the mountain and reassess our situation. Applejack needs to hear about the Merodi and we need to find out what happened to Twilight. Okay?”

Applejack didn’t take her eyes off Luna. “...You’re right. Let’s go.”

Luna swallowed hard. She focused her magic and returned them to the ‘dragon fleet’, turning Applejack over to Suzie and Rarity to get caught up. She herself took off toward the center of the reptilian mass, needing a moment to herself. Away from the others.

Her abdication…

She had come so close to making that decision in her world. But she didn’t. She had been too afraid, to conflicted… never even mentioned it to Celestia.

But she couldn’t imagine how it would turn her sister into a flaming tyrant. Celestia had ruled Equestria alone for a thousand years without her! What was it about abdication that was different than Nightmare Moon?

She didn’t have the answers to these questions. But she wanted them badly.

Maybe I can ask… no, demand answers from my other self…

~~~

Blink had saved twelve before her powers were at their limit. When she said she couldn’t take anymore, one of them chose to run off and try to save some himself. He died.

So there were eleven plus herself. They had walked out, intangible, while the Underground burned around them. The unicorns of the secret police had mostly left at that point.

There was no sign of Celia or Cinder. Blink didn’t like that, but she didn’t see anything she could do about that.

They walked through the city walls and out into the desert. A few minutes of walking and Blink allowed the true intangibility to drop, replaced with just the general ‘unimportance.’ Emerald had directed her to a mountain where they could meet up with any other survivors and figure out the game plan. Naturally Blink thought the mountain would be compromised, but Emerald countered that every cell could be compromised. They had to try.

It had taken several hours, but they eventually arrived. The mountain itself was barren, dry, charred. It wasn’t even sandy, making the ground underhoof even harsher and more unforgiving than the dunes. Luckily they didn’t have to walk along the stone long, for they entered the expansive cave system and went to the center.

They were the only ones there. Maybe they had just gotten out first. Or maybe none of the others had survived.

Emerald, Glint, and Chequy were all that remained of the Apple Underground ‘leadership’ in Trottingham. Brightsmile had been found dead, and all the others had just been picked up more or less randomly. Blink was the only unicorn in the bunch. They had already ordered three of their number to spread out and bring messages to the other cells. Now… they argued back and forth about what to do next but didn’t seem to get anywhere.

On the way here Blink had explained who she was and what she represented, but given that she was alone and unable to contact any of her friends, she wasn’t of much comfort to them beyond ensuring they would survive.

Everyone was in dire straights. Their leader and the Celestia from another world were missing, both missions to recruit the griffons and dragons hadn’t returned, the main cell was destroyed, and Blink couldn’t contact any of the other Sweeties.

Cinder was captured. Captured. Not dead, Blink told herself. She would have been taken away by the secret police, probably to Everfree City if the police had any idea what she or Celia were. Where the Queen was…

“I can walk right in there and shank her in the back of the neck,” Blink said, suddenly. “No pony would be able to stop me and I don’t care how immortal she is, if I stick a metal plate in her neck and made tangible that head is coming off.”

The Underground stared at her.

“...Are you sure that is wise?” Chequy asked.

“Nope, but I’m not sure there’s a better option.”

“She would be able to sense you,” Glint said.

“You don’t know that.”

“She seems to know where we’re going to be before we get there,” Emerald said with a chatter of her teeth. “She may not need to see you to sense you.”

“Won’t know unless I try.”

“And then you’d be throwing your life away without using your powers to help those who need it,” Glint said.

Blink groaned. “You’re right… You’re right… I just… I just want to get them back.”

“We all have ponies we want back,” Emerald said. “...But we can’t just rush into things. We… we need to wait to see how everything went. We may have lost most of the Underground forces, but the griffons and dragons may still aid us yet, and there are other cells. Hope is not lost.”

“We just have to wait,” Glint added.

Blink sat down and nodded. “Okay… okay. We’ll wait.”

They didn’t have to wait very long. One of the pegasi who had been standing guard outside flew in. “The dragons! They’re coming!”

Emerald brightened up considerably. “Really? How many!?”

“At least a hundred, and that’s just the big ones!”

Quickly, all the ponies in the caves scrambled out to see a fleet of dragons coming their way, the multicolored scales bringing powerful beauty to the desolate, monotone desert surrounding them. Most of them flew in the air, but one tremendous black behemoth walked along the ground. One of the lead male dragons picked up speed and landed before the ponies. He was easily large enough to devour all of them with minimal effort.

But he wasn’t the one who needed to talk to them.

It was the ponies on his back.

Applejack, Luna, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Suzie, Squiddy, Sweetaloo, and Burgerbelle… all jumped down and met up with each other.

“Applejack!” Emerald shouted, pulling her leader into a hug. “You just keep coming back, don’t you?”

“Eeyep.”

“...Trottingham…”

“Ah saw. That’s… not our only problem.”

“...Where is Celestia?”

“That’s the problem…”

Luna stepped down and looked at Glint. “We got the dragons.”

“I see that.”

“Any word from Twilight Sparkle?”

“None.”

As the couple hundred dragons started landing around and in the mountain, Suzie ran over to Blink. “Blink!”

Blink grinned cockily. “What, did you think I’d let them get me? Pssh, they wish.”

“I never doubted.” Suzie’s smile quickly faded. “Where are Celia and Cinder?”

Blink’s own grin vanished. “...Captured, I think.”

“Where?”

“Everfree City.”

Suzie’s expression clouded. “Good thing we’re running that place into the ground soon…” She looked toward the horizon in the direction she thought Everfree City would be. “...We’re coming for you, Tyrant.”

Blink’s grin returned. “That’s what I like to hear.”

“...I hope Cinder’s okay.”

~~~

Cinder woke up in a jail cell, alone. She was on her hooves, ready to face whatever was in front of her.

That turned out to be Daylight Sparkle, so naturally she sent a torrent of fire at the mare. Unfortunately there were a series of magic-absorption bars between her and Daylight, preventing any of the flames from escaping.

Daylight twitched. “I’m only going to say this once. If you use the Queen’s holy fire again I am going to kill you outright.”

Cinder believed her, losing all violent tendencies in an instant. She scooted into the back of the windowless—yet bright—cell. “O-okay…”

“These bars are one way,” Daylight said, grabbing Cinder with telekinesis. “So I can do anything to you while you are as helpless as the filly you are.”

Cinder tried to be strong. She tried to find the inner fire she’d had when fighting Daylight earlier, the gall to stand up and refuse. Instead, all she did was start crying.

This seemed to bring joy to Daylight. “Good… Your friends have proven a little difficult, but you are nothing more than a normal unicorn. You’ll be easy…”

And then everything went white and fluffy. Cinder felt her awareness retreat into her mind, forced by a magical burst of power. There was nothing but a foggy expanse, herself… and Daylight.

“Tell me who you are.”

Cinder was helpless to resist. A series of scenes from her mind played past them. The face of her sister looking down at her with fires in the background. Crusading with her friends. A few of the times Equestria was attacked. The day she met Blink and the rest of the League… and a handful of her adventures since then.

Daylight was shocked—she had not expected to get so many memories at once. She found herself scrambling to absorb them all, paying particular attention to the later memories.

Cinder found herself looking at the first one. The image of Rarity looking down at her, fire reflecting in her eyes…

She didn’t remember that. And it wasn’t the day the school burned down—she could see that elsewhere. Why was this here…?

“Focus,” Daylight demanded, twisting Cinder’s mind until there was pain. “Show me... Merodi Universalis.”

They shot to her memories of Celestia City. Daylight’s jaw dropped at the seemingly endless city. The technology completely baffled her, as did the seemingly endless number of races. The memory shifted to the League itself, with the hundreds of white unicorns running around and talking happily.

“...Scared?” Cinder asked—terrified herself.

“...No. The Queen has you trapped. The Merodi will not be coming here.”

“They’ll notice we’re gone.”

“The Queen has a plan,” Daylight said, and that was the end of it. She didn’t need to see much more of Cinder’s memories to know the might of the Merodi was more than enough to squish her entire universe almost effortlessly. She brushed it aside. “Show me those who came here with you.”

Celia showed up first, but before anything could be said about her Daylight dismissed the image immediately. She spent some time on Blink, watching her slip in and out of visibility—somewhat concerning. Squiddy was of no consequence, same with Sweetaloo. Burgerbelle baffled her.

“Is this a joke!?”

“T-there are are lots of universes that don’t work like yours and mine…”

Daylight sneered, taking a few minutes to examine Burgerbelle’s antics before deciding it was pointless. Suzie was studied as a leader, but beyond that she wasn’t considered a threat.

Seren and Nira concerned her greatly. Their absolute mastery over their magic… The darkness of Nira… The complexity of Seren… Cinder wasn’t sure how she knew this, but she knew Daylight felt jealous of their power.

And then there was Swip, who broke Daylight’s calculating expression with her weapons alone. It wasn’t until she caught the memory of Swip falling through the sky that she relaxed. “Queen Celestia has destroyed her.”

“No,” Cinder said.

“How can you know? There are no memories here of that.”

“It would be anti-climactic.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything.”

The memory shifted to the conversation she’d had with Nira and Blink not too long ago. Explanations of ka, the story, and everything around them…

Cinder could feel the Tower manifest behind her. She didn’t dare look back.

Daylight wasn’t lucky enough to be looking the same direction she was. The unicorn looked up at the impossibly tall structure, jaw hanging open. “Wh-wh…”

“The Dark Tower,” Cinder said, impassively. She felt the roses scraping against her hooves even though they were nothing more than mental constructs. “The center of everything.”

Daylight tore herself out of Cinder’s mind, grabbing her head and grunting in pain. “What… what did you do!?”

“N-nothing!” Cinder said, back in full panic mode. “You just found the Tower!”

“I… No! You did something!”

“You were there!”

Daylight narrowed her eyes, a vein popping in her forehead. “You… What does this mean?”

“N-noth-”

“Tell me the truth or you die.”

Cinder gulped. “Uh… There’s a story.”

“And who am I in this story?”

“...A villain.”

Daylight, for the smallest of moments, fully believed everything Cinder said. A dark shadow passed over her features as a cold sweat began to form.

But then she dismissed it.

“You’re just insane,” Daylight decided. “Worthless.” Before Cinder could say anything to bring this into question, Daylight teleported away.

Cinder decided now was the time to have a good cry. She was alone, all her secrets had been torn from her mind, Celia had been poofed, who knew where Blink was, so many ponies had died back at the attack, and here she was trying to be a hero.

She knew she was a hero. Just… not the kind she had attempted to be back there. Even with the power of the sun, she was still just a kid. Just a kid who…

...apparently could cry with two voices?

She perked her ears up, realizing she was hearing the sound of someone else crying. She pressed her ears to the left wall, picking up on what sounded like a little girl pouring her heart out.

“H-hello?” Cinder called.

The tears on the other side only increased at the sound of her voice.

“I-I’m not here to hurt you!” Cinder promised. “I’m trapped just like you are!”

“I want my sister!” the child yelled. “Where is my sister!?”

“I… I don’t know. Was she captured with you?”

“Y-yeah…” the child managed to get out before losing control to her emotions once again.

“Then she’s in here somewhere with us. We’ve just got to find her. And to do that…” Cinder wiped her own eyes, taking a moment to examine her cell for the first time. “We need to get out of here.”

The cell contained a small cot and a bucket. That was it. There were three stone walls and a set of one-way magic bars. She still had all the fire she could want at her disposal, but they wouldn’t pierce the bars.

An idea occurred to her.

Maybe I don’t have to pierce the bars…

Throwing caution to the wind she shouted at the left wall. “STAND BACK!” She encased her horn in ‘Celestia’s Holy Fire’ and unleashed a solid beam of intense heat at the stone surrounding her. For the first few seconds, nothing happened. But, eventually, the wall began to crumble. She had expected it to melt from the intense heat, but instead it started shattering like a thick cracker, falling to red-hot rubble at her hooves. She took a few steps back—but kept shooting through the wall. Just under a minute later, she broke through to the other side.

It was, as expected, another cell, exactly like the one she was currently in. She saw the occupant reaching for the hole.

“Waiwaiwait, its’ ho-”

The other prisoner didn’t seem to mind the heat, jumping through the hole and landing in Cinder’s cell—tears streaming from her face to the ground.

Cinder gawked—this wasn't a filly. This wasn’t even a pony. It was a strange creature barely half her height with two legs and a head—no arms to speak of. Her eyes were a pale green and her hair a soft pink-purple with curls at the ends. She looked up at Cinder with large eyes, proceeding to nuzzle her leg. It seemed like she wanted to hug, but didn’t have enough limbs to do so.

Cinder obliged, pulling the strange creature in. As she consoled her, Cinder couldn’t stop staring at the small, jagged crystal in the thing’s forehead.

It didn’t take her much to figure out who this was and what was going on. She almost couldn’t believe it...

“...What’s your name?” she asked, anyway.

“...Goshenite.”

“Well, Goshenite, don’t worry. We’re gonna find your sister, okay?”

“O… Okay…” the tiny creature said, nodding slowly.

“Stand back,” Cinder said, pointing her horn at the back wall. “We’re busting out of here…”

~~~

It couldn’t really be considered a victory in any other way besides “hey, we still exist.”

The Capitolium Leo was in shambles, the griffon army had been decimated, and the ash raining from the sky made it impossible to truly be happy. A few griffons had tried to celebrate winning against all the odds, but none of it felt right. It should never have gotten to this point.

Twilight Sparkle felt this more than anypony. She had been the one to bring the victory. She had killed more ponies than she could count. When she’d fought the assassins earlier, she had promised herself she’d keep track. That she’d remember every single one. She’d counted one. Two were these ashes drifting through the air, coating the entire city of Capitolium Leo.

Everyone seemed to know she was no longer in the mental state to manage the politics of the griffons. Fluttershy and Spike had gotten that taken care of. They would get whatever of the griffon army could be spared to try to attack Everfree City before the ponies could reassemble and try this again. That sounded like a lot… but it wasn’t going to be. The griffon armadas were small, now. Their morale was low. And they had just seen her kill an entire army.

She looked up at the sun, wondering why the Queen hadn’t brought it down on them out of rage. Twilight almost wished she would. ...But that wouldn’t fix anything. And maybe the Queen knew that…

Twilight knew she had done what needed to be done. Fluttershy had been right, refusing to do so would have been selfish. She had been ready to give her life for these Griffons. She needed to be willing to give up her peace as well.

It was worth it. But she wasn’t sure she could live like this. Not with the ashes of thousands of ponies on her.

She looked down. Seren—that strange, strange being from yet another world—had been spending the last hour creating a gigantic magic circle that would teleport “every griffon you need to the place you need, assuming you gave me the right coordinates.” Twilight was sure she had, and even in her stupor the unicorn has found the anthro’s intricate magic circles fascinating. The circles were done, now, and all the griffon soldiers were standing on top of it, waiting for the signal to teleport to the mountain. Seren was almost ready—just charging a little longer.

Twilight briefly wondered if these Merodi really could solve all their problems after the Queen was defeated, or if it was just false hope.

“We’re going to go soon, Twilight,” Spike said, walking up to her. “You should get ready.”

“I am ready,” she said, breathlessly.

“...You don’t look ready.”

“...I may never be ready again,” Twilight admitted, wiping her face. “But that doesn’t mean we get to stop.” She forced her head up high and walked into the circle with the rest of the griffons. Taking a moment, she turned to see King Humphrey at the edge of the circle. He had already given the speech to his soldiers about what they were going to do. Twilight waved to him, and he nodded curtly in return.

He was thankful. All the griffons were. They were treating her like a hero.

She had never felt further from a hero in her life. She had technically succeeded at her mission—secure a Griffon alliance. Even more than that, she had saved the Griffon Kingdom from complete collapse. She had done everything asked of her and then some. And the result was ash.

As Seren started channeling the magic, Twilight's sorrow turned to anger. Deep, brooding rage. How dare the Queen set up the world like this? Create a kingdom where the right thing was mass murder!? Why did she keep the sun here? She could have moved it away after Twilight’s initial use of it, but no, she didn’t. Had she wanted her army to burn? Or did she just want Twilight to suffer as part of her plan?

Twilight decided it didn’t matter.

That Tyrant was going to pay. Twilight wasn’t even sure she deserved to have the Nightmare removed from her at this point.

The realization that she thought this shocked Twilight, tearing her out of her anger. She looked at the ground in a mixture of shame and disbelief.

“You’re finally understanding,” Fluttershy said, looking at her closely.

“Understanding what?”

“What this world is.” She looked out at the field of ash in the distance. “Suffering, hardship, death, and tyranny. And now you know what it really costs to do anything about it.” She turned to fix Twilight with an unreadable expression. “Is it still worth all this?”

Twilight had to think for a moment. It took her a bit to realize her mind was going in circles and getting nowhere. She was just going to have to go with her gut.

“Y… yes. It is.”

“Good. Next time, you might not have me around. You’ll have to do it yourself.”

“I… I think I’m g-going to… to kill the Tyrant.”

“Even if she is just the Nightmare?”

“M-maybe?” Twilight said, sweating. “I…” She stopped short. Fluttershy was smiling. “Wh…”

“Maybe… just maybe…” Fluttershy said, turning away.

“Maybe? Maybe what?”

“Maybe you actually have what it takes in you.” She pointed at herself. “...Just as I realized I had when I told the Griffons what they were really doing to themselves.”

“...I guess…” Twilight looked up at the sun. “I guess we found ourselves here, in a way.”

Fluttershy nodded.

Seren completed the mass teleport. Hours after the battle of Capitolium Leo ended, most of the remaining army was whisked away to the desert outside a tall mountain. Almost instantly, a small white dragon shot out of the mountain, a familiar orange mare on her back.

“Hey Applejack,” Twilight said weakly.

“You look like you've been to Tartarus and back.”

“I”ve been Tartarus,” Twilight breathed. “Where’s Celestia?”

Applejack frowned. “We… we dunno. She went to free this world’s Luna from the sun and didn’t come back.”

“...What!?” Twilight gasped.

“Oh!” Seren waved her hands. “I completely forgot to mention! That’s how I found you guys—I saw the letter arrive and followed it to you! I can take us right to he-”

Twilight stared at her in disbelief. “W-what? What’s wrong?”

“Something severed my connection to Nira,” Seren said, haunted. “I… I don’t know where she is!”

“We need to go find her!” Twilight shouted.

“Yeah. We do,” Applejack admitted. “But we also need a new plan. Everyone, in the mountain. We’re gonna figure this out.”

~~~

Luna walked through the upside-down halls of what Nira was calling the ‘moon temple’. Nira and Celestia were dragged along as little more than dead weight. Nopony had said anything for a significant amount of time.

“...Nothing to talk about?” Nira asked.

“No.”

“No gloating? No ‘evil plan’ mantra? Nothing?”

“No.”

“Not even a tragic backstory?”

“I made the foolish mistake of allowing my sister to rule alone,” Luna deadpanned. “I told her she was perfect. She believed me. Now the world is dying and I must set it right.”

“Short and to the point. I like it.”

Luna nodded—though if it was in agreement, Nira couldn’t tell. She took it as an opportunity to give her own story. “I was born to the Darkness. It gave me free will because it found my struggles amusing. After decades of that I was saved by a robot spaceship and began exploring the multiverse.”

“Yours was longer.”

“I didn’t have to mention the part about the robot spaceship, but I felt like it. It’s not like there are rules to this or anything.”

There was silence once again.

“So what exactly does walking around an abandoned moon base have to do with defeating Celestia?”

“The Elements of Harmony are here,” Luna said flatly.

“Ah, a retelling of a tale as old as time. Let me guess, Nightmare purging?”

“No. Already did that.”

Nira blinked. “Already did that? Lady, I’ve seen a lot of Nightmare Moons and Daybreakers in my time. It doesn’t just not work. She should have been in the sun, not you!”

“This world is different, then,” Luna said, coming up to a familiar looking display. A dry fountain with five stone arms, each one holding a stone sphere. A star-shaped stone sat in the middle, just as dead as all the others.

Usually it takes friendship to reignite these things, Nira thought to herself. And it was a this point she realized why Celestia had been dragged all the way here. In this world, the Elements might still be attuned to their Celestia. If they felt a familiar essence paired with Luna… they might reawaken.

“Clever,” Nira said.

“Thank you.” Luna lit her horn and drew power from both herself and Celestia, creating a ball that melded together the night and the day. She placed it over the Element of Magic.

A small part of the lowest tip returned to a crystalline shape as it absorbed the energy, but the rest of it remained stone.

“This is going to take a while,” Nira observed.

“Naturally.”

“So, you’re going to defeat Queen Celestia. What then?”

“Nothing.”

“Riiiiiight.”

“I have no desire to rule. I will subdue her or kill her, and then the ponies of the world can do what they want.”

“Oh, sure, that’ll be stable.”

“I can do nothing for them. I am not going to become her.” She focused her magic again, transforming another part of the Element of Magic to what it needed to be.

~~~

Applejack raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Y’sure you can be the Element of Laughter?”

“Absolutely, no doubt about it, affirmative, guaranteed!” Burgerbelle struck a pose that could best be described as ‘overly anime’. Rainbow still found this funny and giggled.

“Ah suppose you’ll do,” Applejack admitted, looking out at the other Elements. Rainbow and Rarity seemed fine, Fluttershy looked as not-fine as always, and Twilight looked broken and desperate. She pursed her lips. We don’t exactly look like that great of a team…

“We need to go find Celestia,” Twilight said, suddenly. “We need to get her from the… other Luna.”

“Twilight, we don’t know where she is,” Rarity said with a sigh. “Seren’s using something inside of Swip to try and find her, but we haven’t gotten anything back yet.”

“We… we should be looking or… or something…”

“Seren’s doing all we need to do,” Applejack asserted. “The moment she finds anything, you bet your hooves we’re going, Ah don’t wanna have to deal with a dark Princess later if Ah can help it.”

Twilight nodded slowly, looking down at the ground.

“Twi?”

Twi looked up at her with tears in her eyes.

“Ya did good.”

Twilight pulled her into a hug. “Th-thank you.”

“We’ll get her back, dethrone the Queen, and end the eternal day. We’re already closer than we’ve ever been.” She looked up at the rest of the Elements of Harmony, nodding slowly. “And we’re gonna be with her every step of the way, Elements or not. Right?”

“Heck yeah!” Rainbow shouted, grinning.

“Absolutely,” Rarity added.

“Too late to turn back now,” Fluttershy said.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” Burgerbelle said, several neon-green images of the word YES! appearing around her as she did so.

Spike looked up to Twilight and smiled. “See? It looks bad. But you’ve still got it.”

Twilight laughed, hanging her head back. “I… I guess we do, huh?”

“Yep. We do.” Applejack released her. “That Queen’s going down.”

“Right,” Twilight said, resolute.

“Now Ah just gotta go convince the armies in our cave that.”

“...Good luck,” Twilight encouraged.

With a curt nod and a wave, Applejack set out to address the entire rebellion—pony, griffon, and dragon alike. The cave was absolutely full—mostly with dragons, which was somewhat alarming considering the largest dragons couldn’t fit in a cavern even this size. The apparently nameless black behemoth had one of his heads in the cavern, snaked through the largest entrance. It was uncomfortable, but he wanted to be there when anything happened. There were very few ponies—a few Apple Underground members had found the mountain, and with Luna they had managed to contact the other cells, but most of them had been scattered by Daylight Sparkle’s mission. The griffons, while more numerous than the ponies, looked ragged and worn out. The only other item of notice was Swip sitting in the back, currently being carefully disassembled by the Sweeties to salvage weapons and other devices. Occasionally Swip would shout something indignant, but otherwise she assisted with their efforts.

“Ah’m not gonna lie,” Applejack announced, her voice carrying throughout the cavern. “This hasn’t exactly gone as planned. The Griffon army has been demolished, the Underground was dealt a heavy blow, and we currently don’t know where Princess Celestia is.”

There was a lot of murmuring around the cavern.

“However, that does not mean we’re through.” Applejack stamped her hoof. “We have with us not only a dragon armada, but the new Matriarch himself. Matriarch, would Ah be correct in sayin’ you could take the Queen with Luna’s help?”

“I_w o u l d_n e e d_n o_h e l p,_p o n y.”

Applejack hated the way he spoke with every fiber of her being, but he was beyond useful at the moment, so she had to put up with it. “Good. In that case, with Princess Luna and the Matriarch, the Queen’s taken care of. And while we do have less of an army than we were hoping, we have new allies who bring with them weapons and devices from distant worlds.”

Suzie held up Burgerbelle’s megaphone to respond. “We’ve got lots of guns—designed for both pony hooves and fingers, so the griffons should be able to use them as well. We’ll give them only to the best of the best warriors, making them even more terrifying on the battlefield. Furthermore, I, Captain Belle, am a trained military strategist. I will be sure to use every resource we have at our disposal to bring this Tyrant down.”

Applejack nodded with a smirk. “And we’re still hopin’ we can get Princess Celestia back in addition to all this, so we might end up with even more than what we were expectin’. Hope isn’t lost, everyone. You call these setbacks? The original Luna’s army was wiped out and her existence was erased from most of the histories. We aren’t even close to that yet. The Queen doesn’t even know we have an army yet! We’re going to take her by surprise and make her pay for what she’s done to this world!

“Some of us are here because we’ve suffered. Others are here out of a sense of honor and obligation. Some because we have no choice, and still others just because they think it will be fun or worthwhile. It doesn’t matter why you’re here, in the end, what matters is that you are. And that, if we stand together despite all our differences, we will be able to fight as one and end the eternal day! Who’s with me!?”

She got a lot of cheers from the griffons, ponies, and Sweeties. She was more than a little surprised to see a few cheering dragons too—before they shut up, noticing most of their colleagues weren’t cheering.

As the cheers died down, Applejack switched topics. “We’ll be moving out soon. It might be in a few hours. It might be in a hundred hours. The point is, we’re not going to sit around long, so we’re going to have to whip ourselves up into a proper disciplined army fast. If you thought being in this mountain was going to be a break, think again. We’re going to train. We’re going to prepare. And, at the drop of a hat, we will attack.” She narrowed her eyes as if sizing up the crowd. “And when that time comes, we will be ready.”

~~~

Cinder and Goshenite had noticed a surprising lack of guards. This was both relieving and concerning for a multitude of reasons. It had been pathetically easy to pop out the back end of the cell wall and circle back around until they were looking at the front of the cells again. The only ponies they had seen that weren’t prisoners had been a single guard standing at the top of the stairs leading to the dungeon.

Goshenite had taken to riding on Cinder’s back and trying not to cry too loudly. It was somewhat difficult for her to stay on since she had no arms to speak of—but Cinder was able to adjust for her comfort. Even though the unicorn was extremely on edge, the lack of constant guard presence let her relax a little.

Currently they were checking cells for Goshenite’s sister. It was pathetically easy to find her—she had been on the other side of Cinder’s cell. Had they broken through that wall they wouldn’t have even needed to circle around.

She was a similar being to Goshenite—two legs and a head—though she was significantly larger, about as tall as Cinder herself. Her jagged crystal was in the same location, though it was more crescent shaped and was accompanied by a very curly purple haircut.

“Sis!” Goshenite shouted, running into the bars. “Siiiis!”

“I was wondering how long you two would dally around,” she said, no trace of emotion in her voice. “Perhaps I should have said something. But what would have been the point? This fortress is impassible anyway.”

Goshenite summoned a sawblade around her crystal and tried to cut through the bars—to no effect. “Moganite! I’ll get you out!”

“Your efforts are fruitless, dear,” Moganite deadpanned. “The bars may allow magic through from your direction, but your sawblade is inadequate.”

“I’m here too,” Cinder said, lighting her horn on fire. “I can burn right through the ground.”

“You could. Knowing our luck, though, we’ll just be noticed at the last possible moment and killed for our trouble. Such is the way.”

“Man, you’re a pessimist.”

“What exactly did you expect?” Moganite asked, raising an eyebrow. “She’s a crying emotional wreck who can barely understand herself, much less other people, what did you think the other half would contain?”

“...I didn’t think about that?”

Moganite sighed. “It’s always terrible, being out here.” She walked toward the bars. “I wish I could say it was nice meeting you Cinder, but it wasn’t.”

“Moganite… why do you always have to say these things?!” Goshenite said through her tears.

“Because people insist I need to keep talking, dear…” Moganite hung her head. “...I’m sorry I put you through this every time, Goshenite. It should always be the last.”

Goshenite de-summoned her sawblade and put her head to the bars, nuzzling Moganite. “I forgive you… You can’t do it yourself…”

Cinder saw a smile from on Moganite’s lips for the first time. “Surprise, surprise…”

And then their bodies became light. Goshenite’s form latched onto Moganite’s and pulled it through the bars, bypassing the one-way rule with outside magic. Their two crystals locked in place, one within the other, snapping together like puzzle pieces. The combined form attempted to place two of their legs on an upper body at first, but this was quickly removed in favor of a tall, graceful quadrupedal form with a brilliantly curled pastel mane.

Celia sparked into existence, a sad smile on her face. “...I do have to apologize for Moganite, she can be… herself.”

“Woah…” Cinder said, eyes sparkling. “I mean, it was obvious you were a Gem the whole time, but wow, that was something to watch…” She noticed Celia was wearing a light-blue sash over her chest.

Celia chuckled. “I am a thing of beauty, or so I’m told.”

“So, wait, does this mean you’re both a Sweetie Belle and a Rarity?”

“Yes, and I know you have a million questions, but right now probably isn’t the time. We need to get ourselves out of this mess.”

“Ah might be able to help with that.”

Celia and Cinder turned to the adjacent cell that contained a bruised and battered—but big—earth pony. Cinder recognized him immediately. “You’re a Big Mac?”

He only seemed sort of confused by this. “Eeyep.”

“...The resistance was the Apple Underground,” Celia recalled from her time in Trottingham. “We probably should release him even if he can’t help us.”

“All right.” Cinder lit her horn. “Stand back, rocks are gonna blow.”

“Or I can just teleport him through the bars,” Celia said, teleporting him through the bars. “It allows magic from outside, might as well take advantage of it.”

“Oh.” Cinder let her fire dissipate, disappointed. “I guess you can just teleport us out, then?”

“Something tells me no,” Celia said, glancing at Big Mac.

The stallion nodded. “Anti-teleport surrounds the dungeon. And the rest of the palace.”

Cinder blinked. “We… we’re in the palace.” She paled. “The Queen is probably really close.”

“And there is no way we can face her as we are,” Celia asserted. “We must regroup with the others. And that means escape. Big Mac, I take it you know of a way out?”

“There are some tunnels rarely used by anypony. Ah can take you to ‘em if you can take out the guard.”

“Oh, the one at the top of the stairs?” With a smirk on her face, she trotted over to the stairs and cast a simple sleep spell. The already tired guard slipped and fell down the stairs, falling into an unconscious lump at Celia’s hooves. “Done.”

Big Mac nodded, trotting up the stairs. Even though he had clearly been tortured recently, he still moved with power and force. He was, and always would be, a survivor. They were lucky they had found him.

“Hey, let us out too!” one of the prisoners called after them.

Celia glanced at Big Mac. “Any of them trustworthy?”

“No idea.”

Celia turned back. “Apologies! We’ll liberate you once we’ve taken care of the Queen!”

The prisoner laughed. “Oh, you’re a bunch of idiots then. Nevermind, don’t want to be saved.”

“Just you wait…” Cinder said with a grin.

The three ponies left the dungeons and found themselves in a long hallway without doors, windows, or any signs of life. There were torches lighting the path, telling that they were far from the light of the sun in here. They encountered a single guard on the way—one in the middle of changing shifts—and he had been quickly silenced with a razor-top to the face.

Eventually, they found a stairwell. Big Mac carefully opened the door, relieved to find nothing on the other side but an underground river that smelled rather disgusting.

Cinder blinked. “A sewer!? But don’t you need every ounce of water you can get?”

“The Queen provides,” Big Mac grunted.

“Detestable…” Celia commented. “But useful for us.”

“...What are you guys doing here?”

The three of them turned around to see a Pinkie Pie with straight hair in a jester’s outfit and some kind of magical collar around her neck.

“Pinkie…?” Cinder asked.

Pinkie looked at her with knitted brows. “I… don’t go by that here. I haven’t gone by that in… a long time. I’m Diane. Or, well, just the Fool, but you know, that’s more a job than anything.”

“Take her out,” Big Mac said.

“I’m more tempted to take her with us…” Celia said, examining the mare. She looked happy, sure, but she had bruises and she was trying not to keep her weight on one of her back legs.

“Yeah, that’s not allowed,” Diane said, rubbing the back of her head. “I don’t know what’ll happen if I try to leave but I think it’s really, really bad.”

“But will you let us go?” Cinder asked.

Diane looked at them, frowning for a moment. “...Yeah. I’m not a guard, it’s not my job to keep you in here. Or report you. Or anything. I’m just the Fool!” She giggled, standing up on her front hoof and bouncing back. “I hope I don’t see you in here again!”

“Same,” Celia said, waving as she bounced out of sight. “...She’s important.”

“She’s just a Fool,” Big Mac muttered.

“That’s what they say about all Pinkies,” Cinder said.

The three of them entered the sewer system, closing the door carefully behind them. The walkway was barely large enough for Celia to stand on without falling into the sewage itself. Luckily, she was not the sort of mare to stumble, and she was able to keep up with the other two. Eventually, they came not to a door, but to a ladder that led straight up.

Big Mac checked a series of scratches at the base of the ladder. “This one’s still safe. Mark was left yesterday.”

“Clever,” Celia admitted. The three of them climbed up the ladder and popped out hole in an abandoned stone building devoid of any furnishings. It was so dusty it was hard to believe there had been a pony here yesterday to leave that mark.

Carefully, Big Mac led them out to a back alley where the light of the day almost blinded them. “Walk naturally,” he said. “And hide that crystal. Cover the flank, if you can.”

Celia did as instructed, forming it into a horn—and she went and gave herself a fake cutie mark that matched the gemstone in her forehead. Cinder tried to act natural, but she was more than a little skittish. Big Mac furrowed his brow, trying to figure out how to blend in with a couple of unicorns.

“I can treat you like a worthless slave, if that will help,” Celia offered. “Just tell me where to go ahead of time.”

Big Mac nodded, giving her instructions to the a market and then the city gates. He proceeded to droop his head to the ground and start limping.

“And let me never hear you question me again!” Celia declared with enough gusto that Cinder almost believed her. “Come on Cinder, dear, we don’t want to let Red Tamale here make us tardy, do we?”

“Not at all, uh… mom!”

Celia smiled encouragingly at this display. The three of them set out into the endless day, looking to get even further from their prison.

Task Force: Elements (Sunshine and Fire, Part 3)

“We are live once again with the Task Force: Elements,” Burgerbelle said into a microphone. “They have been introduced to the latest craze in modern entertainment—the Gameboy.” She shoved the microphone into Rainbow’s face. “Tell me, Loyalty, what are your initial thoughts on the handheld?”

Rainbow didn’t even look up from the device, pressing the buttons rapidly with the tips of her wings. “This is… maybe the best thing ever. I don’t know. I feel like I’m kicking flank but I’m not getting tired!”

“...Can I have it back yet?” Fluttershy asked. “I… I wanted to try to catch some more of those adorable pocket creatures…”

“Darling, I haven’t even tried it yet, and neither has Twilight!” Rarity pouted.

“I’m fine just watching,” Twilight said, scribbling notes in a small notepad. “This technology is fascinating…”

Applejack—the only pony not interested in the game in the slightest—just snorted. “Ah figured you’d be more interested in the ship.”

“I am! But, well, I feel like I can actually understand how this little thing works. We have computers back home, and I once had a professor who made one play tic-tac-toe, so I can visualize the basic theory behind this.”

Applejack smiled. “...Glad to see you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Yeah I-” Twilight realized what Applejack was pointing out. “I… I guess I am.”

Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder. “We always get back up, Twilight. You’re no different, from a different world or not.”

“Y-yeah…” She lowered her notes, glancing at Fluttershy for a moment. “Thanks for… you know. All of you. Being here. Trying.”

“Hmm?” Rainbow looked up from her game—and promptly got a game over. “...Meh.”

Twilight chuckled. “Sorry.”

“Hey, it’s just a game,” Rainbow said, handing it over to Rarity. “I think it goes without saying you’re better than a game. I mean, come on, you’re the reason all this is happening. The dragons, the griffons, the attack—all of it!”

“...Celestia came up with most of the plan,” Twilight admitted.

“But you’re the one who started gathering us,” Rarity pointed out. “As silly as it may have seemed at the time… it really does seem like that made all the difference. We would not have gotten this far had you not gathered us.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement but said nothing.

“And now I’m here, and we’ve got a full set!” Burgerbelle cheered. “We can Rainbow Death Laser her!”

“...That’s not how the Elements work,” Twilight deadpanned.

“I know. But Rainbow Death Laser—it’s cool right?”

“I agree,” Rainbow said.

Applejack facehooved. “Riiiiight... I’ll just leave y’all to this, gonna go check on how the soldiers are shapin’ up.” She trotted to leave—but the person she wanted to see was already walking to her. “Ah, Captain, was just lookin’ for you.”

Suzie nodded. “The dragons are being problematic in the discipline department, but the griffons and ponies are already in line and special weapons division is progressing nicely. We have a lot of natural warriors too.” She glanced behind Applejack at the rest of the Elements playing with the game. “And I see you’re having success as well.”

“...Are you sure this’ll work?” Applejack asked. “We don’t exactly have time to become good friends or nothin’.”

“Almost always, the friendship only needs to be a spark to ignite the Elements,” Suzie explained. “You just have to like each other and care for each other. And I think you’ve done that well enough.”

“Ah was worried about Fluttershy there for a while… but she came back from the Griffon Kingdom different. Makes me wonder what exactly went down there…”

“You could always ask her.”

“Ah’ll wait until after the fate of the universe stops depending on our ability to be friends,” Applejack said with a smirk.

Suzie blinked. “Huh. That… seems wrong to me, but that’s definitely smart.”

“Thanks. So, how long unti-”

Luna and Seren teleported into the middle of everyone. “I’ve got her!” Seren announced, holding up a data pad. “Nira’s location! On the opposite side of the planet, but I have it! Swip’s transponder system wasn’t completely trashed!”

“What are we waiting for!?” Twilight shouted, standing bolt upright. “We need to get Celestia!”

“Yes, we are leaving now,” Luna said. “I will be going personally to deal with Luna. The rest of you Elements should come as well—including Burgerbelle. Seren, you are needed here.”

Seren jumped off Luna and began tracing a teleportation circle in the ground. “Bring Nira back, okay?”

“We will bring them both back. ...Are you sure you’re up to another mass teleport?”

“I am running low on energy, but I should be able to get you all there. With luck Nira can get you back.”

Applejack bit her lip. “Ah’m not sure how Ah feel about leavin’ right now. Especially if it’s not certain we’ll be back quickly…”

“I can watch the army for you—and even order the attack in your absence,” Suzie said. “We’re going to try, regardless of what happens. And… I do think all six of you need to go.”

“Seven!” Spike shouted.

“Eight?” Luna asked, pointing at herself.

Suzie groaned. “Yes, eight, right. Just go—sooner the better. The moment we have Celestia back everyone will rest a little easier.”

“And the moment I’ll get to give her a piece of my mind,” Applejack growled.

“Go get her,” Fluttershy cheered.

Twilight glanced at the two of them with uncertainty. “...Let’s not jump on her all at once. She may be weak and need rest.”

“Well, duh,” Rainbow said. “She’s asleep.”

“Done!” Seren announced, looking at the circle on the ground with pride. “One way trip to the other side of the planet! Hold on to your flanks!”

“I don’t have a flank,” Spike said.

“Then you’re doomed!” Seren giggled.

“...WHAT?!”

“Just go with it,” Burgerbelle suggested.

Seren lifted her scepter and smacked the ground with it. The eight people vanished in a flash of light.

Suzie took a breath. “Okay… here we go. Our primary goal is to keep the army from panicking now that Applejack and Luna aren't here.”

“Good luck!” Seren said with a childish wink.

“Somehow that doesn't give me confidence.”

“Gooooood luck!” Blink said, jumping out of nowhere. “C’mon, that was at least worth a response.”

No, it isn’t, Suzie decided, walking away.

“Wh- hey!”

~~~

Celia, Cinder, and Big Mac would need supplies for the road. Or, perhaps more accurately, Cinder and Big Mac needed supplies. As a Gem, Celia didn’t exactly need to eat unless she felt like doing it for the sake of pleasure.

They had to make Big Mac carry everything for the sake of the disguise. It wasn’t too hard on him given his immense strength, but he sure made it look like he was suffering as the lugged everything around.

And how were they paying for all this? Simple. Celia was teleporting bits out of ponies’ purses and into her own. Her horn, being fake, didn’t actually glow when she cast magic unless she put extra effort into making an aura. It was a way of gathering effectively unlimited funds for food, water, and the like.

It would not be long before they were ready to walk right out the city gates.

And during this time, Celia told her life story to Cinder. Big Mac was there, listening of course, but he wasn’t the intended audience.

“Gems are made, not born—of course you know this from the files you’ve read. Well, I was created before we knew of the multiverse. I was to be the first of a new line of Gems, ones designed with the intent of using our inner magic in more exceedingly varied ways. Instead of getting a few specific abilities, we were to have access to all of them should they be required in an unexpected situation. Naturally I was intended to be a high-society Gem, and I even had a few palaces erected in my name before I popped out of the earth. But, hours before I came out, there was a freak earthquake that cracked my Gem in two, each forming into separate entities.”

“Moganite and Goshenite.”

“Yes, precisely! We came out horribly imperfect. We couldn’t even take full humanoid forms, looking like little more than half-Gems. Our first memory was of being sentenced to death. Our second is of poofing all the Gems around us with our uncontrolled magical ability and running. We were on an organic planet at the time, one that hadn’t been fully converted to a colony yet, and so we hid in the forest. The animals were our friends. We… were not. We absolutely hated each other.”

“Wait, really?”

Celia nodded. “We were acquaintances and allies not by our own choice, but by necessity. No matter how much Goshenite blubbered and stumbled, no matter how much Moganite shouted and hurt, we knew we needed each other. Or they knew they needed each other. Pronouns are rather difficult when you are talking about yourself, but also not.”

“I can imagine.”

“We hid in that forest for years,” Celia said, looking wistfully into the sky. “Even though we barely tolerated each other, we formed a bond. It was a strong bond. Gems don’t have siblings, you know, but we soon came to think of each other as sisters. The arguments became less heated and more familiar. And then, one day, they found us.”

“And…?” Cinder was hanging on every word.

“We saw some of them fuse to take us down. So Moganite and Goshenite tried the same thing.” Celie chuckled. “And then I was born. Chalcedony. And by the Tower was that first day a doozy. I popped into existence barely knowing what I was, asked to fight for my life. So I did. I defeated them… and then… well, I discovered that when you put a highly emotional mindset and a brutal tactician together you become quite the skilled manipulator. I convinced them to give us a ship so they would never have to see us ever again. And the legend of Chalcedony was born.”

“Cool! ...Is there any particular reason you look like a pony, though?”

“Well, part of that is because I’m obviously the Gem Vein’s version of Rarity and Sweetie Belle. But the other part is, well, neither of us really knew how to form hands. So… four legs.” She touched her gemstone with a grin on her face. “And one perfect Gem.”

“And you’ve been like this ever since that day?”

“Oh goodness, no no no, we weren’t very stable early on. It took a few centuries for us to get to the point where we could stay like this forever. And, well, we—or they—are going to hate me for saying this, but neither of them is particularly good at living life separately. You met them, you see how they act.”

“It is kind of hard to believe they’re you.”

“Oh, but they are,” Celia said with a twinkle in her eyes. “By the time Merodi Universalis made contact, I was already a bit of an urban legend among the Gem Empire, a mysterious force that came and left, disappearing for decades only to resurface again… But the first chance I got I made sure I was deported to Merodi Universalis so I could live out in the open without any sort of fear of being shattered. I altered my form to closer match that of a pony and took the name Celia—after an organic construct, the cilia. After all, the animals were my friends once.”

Cinder beamed. “That’s a beautiful story, Celia.”

“Thank you!” Celia tousled Cinder’s mane. “I was kinda surprised you didn’t ask sooner.”

“I figured out you were a Gem pretty quickly. Decided it was probably not my place to ask about the giant crack in your gemstone.”

“Well, thank you for respecting my privacy, but it wasn’t required.” She purchased one last flask of water and threw it on Big Mac. “And with that, I think we’re done! To the gates!”

The shopkeeper she had bought the water from snorted. “Gates? Didn’t you hear? Nopony’s allowed out for now. The Queen issued a decree a few hours ago.”

“...Ah,” Celia said, drooping considerably. “In that case could you direct us to a hotel?”

The vendor shrugged, but pointed to a nearby building. Celia thanked him and walked that direction.

“Is it safe?” she whispered to Big Mac.

“As much as it can be,” he whispered back.

That was enough for Celia to decide—they would stay there. After a good…. ‘day’s’ sleep, they would either decide to wait for the decree to end or find another way out of the city.

“Hello, room for two,” Celia said, laying some bits on the counter. “Do you charge for earth ponies?”

“Just a single bit!” the pegasus at the counter announced.

“Good. I was afraid I’d need to walk elsewhere.”

~~~

The chosen Elements of Harmony, Luna, and Spike all appeared under the remnant of the moon.

Luna froze solid the moment she saw the glowing, yet dark, rock.

“Princess?” Twilight asked. “Is this…”

“The moon,” Luna breathed, touching it with her magic. It felt… weak. Dead. Barely a remnant of what it once was. There was no way she would be able to move it. She had, for a moment, hoped…

“Where are they?” Rainbow demanded. “C’mon, they were supposed to be right here!”

“In there,” Rarity said, pointing at the upside-down cathedral. “It’s the only structure here.”

“...You think ponies would have heard about this…” Applejack said, finding herself mesmerized by the paradoxical illumination of the lunar remnant.

“I doubt Queen Celestia wants anypony to know it exists,” Rarity observed.

“Then why not destroy it?”

“Trophy,” Fluttershy answered, bringing silence to the group. She flew up to the door and opened it, finding Burgerbelle already inside.

“That’s a lot of wasted time right there.” Burgerbelle held up a stopwatch that read 00:42:42. “But just the perfect amount.”

Rainbow chuckled.

“Not everything random is funny,” Rarity chided.

Rainbow shrugged and flew in after Burgerbelle. Luna came in behind them, levitating those who couldn’t fly behind her. They lit upon the vaulted, yet simple ceiling, and began to move forward.

“Our world had no structures on the moon…” Twilight said, looking around in fascination. “Nightmare Moon had no physical form when she was there.”

“My counterpart must have traveled here personally,” Luna observed. “Visiting the moon had been a dream of mine since I was little. I suppose after I abdicated the throne here I did exactly that.”

“How’s it feel now that you’re here?” Applejack asked.

Luna grimaced. “Wrong.”

They continued along. Most of the walls were like blank frames, as if there had once been plans to decorate them that had been abandoned shortly after construction. There were a few markings here and there, mostly representing Twilight’s cutie mark, but one in particular caught Twilight’s attention.

“The Elements of Harmony.” She pointed up, directing their gaze to a carving of a starburst surrounded by five smaller crystals. “Magic, Generosity, Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness.” Her pupils dilated. “I think they’re here.”

“The Elements are here?” Rarity gasped. “Wh… Why would our Luna come for them? To face her sister?”

“Perhaps she can be our ally,” Applejack mused.

“She took my sister,” Luna spat. “There will be no alliance.”

“But she might be helpful.”

“Perhaps. I will at least give her a chance to explain herself, if she allows it.”

“How could she use them, though?” Twilight asked. “They need the spark of friendship to reignite…”

Burgerbelle nodded, putting a fake tiara of Magic on Twilight’s head. “That’s us!”

“Yes, I know. I’m trying to think…” She froze. “Could she be trying to use Celestia’s magic to force them back?”

“Oh my…” Rarity said, hoof to her mouth.

“We must be cautious…” Luna said. “All of you, lag behind me and stay out of sight. If you see an opportunity, take it. Applejack, I trust you to capitalize on this?”

Applejack looked unsure about taking orders for a moment, but after thinking it over she nodded. “Right.”

Burgerbelle saluted, tossing a banana peel over her back that tripped Spike. “Yes ma’am!”

“Ow…” Spike muttered, rubbing his butt.

Luna flew ahead, finding it easy to sense her counterpart’s magic now that they were so close. It took her all of a minute to alight in the entryway to the location of the Elements of Harmony.

She looked at her counterpart. Darker—almost without a hint of Luna’s own serene blue. Her wings reminded Luna of a raven’s, ensuring that Luna would refer to her as ‘Raven’ in her mind until another name produced itself. The alicorn had a soft white glow around her that didn’t belong to her—the sight of it and her sister’s unconscious form making Luna’s blood boil. However, Luna gave herself the time to calm her nerves.

‘Raven’ was sitting down, relaxed, using her magic in conjunction with Celestia’s essence to convert a fifth Element of Harmony into its crystalline form. Nira was sitting nearby, wrapped in several dozen magical chains and locks, a grumpy expression on her face.

Nira saw Luna first, eyes widening. She glanced at ‘Raven’, indicating Luna should take the shot.

Instead, Luna made her presence known. “Explain yourself.”

‘Raven’ looked up at Luna impassively. “I was wondering if you would try to take me by surprise. You have my respect for being willing to talk.”

“You are a very observant mare.”

“It is hard to ignore the magical signature of myself approaching me.”

“You still haven’t explained yourself.”

‘Raven’ nodded. “I left. The Daymare corrupted Celestia. I returned, purged her. She decided she liked being a tyrant. Tried again. The Elements recognized her before me. Sat in the sun for a thousand years.”

“She had the Nightmare removed… and decided she liked it?”

“I told her she was perfect. She believed it.”

Luna didn’t know how to respond to that.

“You think the same as I do. Or as I did,” ‘Raven’ observed. “You were lucky to have the Nightmare yourself. Neither of you will think yourselves perfect ever again.”

Luna decided she didn’t want to talk about that. “You stole my sister.”

“Yes. I did. I need her.”

“Why?”

“To get the Elements, duh,” Nira offered. “And with a Celestia and a Luna in her, she can challenge her sister. She doesn’t really have a plan after that. Just gonna let the world burn after.”

“I am fixing my mistake. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

“At the expense of another Celestia!” Luna shouted. “Using her essence like this… you could end her!”

“And what would you suggest I do differently?”

“Get this world’s bearers of Harmony! Give them the Elements! They will overrule Celestia’s control and defeat her!”

“...Do you know who they are?”

“We have four of six,” Luna reported. “My Twilight Sparkle is already attuned to Magic and the otherworlder Sweeties have provided us a replacement for the last.”

“Risky.”

“How so?”

“One-third of your ponies cheat. Celestia does not.”

“One half of you does as well.”

“I have wielded the Elements before.”

“Idiots,” Nira muttered. “There is no way either of you understand enough about how the Elements work to actually have this argument.”

“Enlighten us,” ‘Raven’ commanded.

Nira laughed. “Every set of Elements is different. If you know one, you don’t know the others. They consistently exist, but they don't consistently do the same things or behave the same way aside from ‘friendship!’. I’m just here to let you know this argument is pointless.”

“Then I go with the option that leaves my sister out of your dangerous hooves,” Luna declared.

“I will not change my plan without reason.” ‘Raven’ said, lifting up the Element of Magic. “Goodbye, Luna. I’m sorry.”

Luna had been expecting a burst of magical energy from the Element of Magic. She had not been expecting a psychic bombardment mixed with a sleep spell. She fell backward, dazed, but not asleep.

Then ‘Raven’ unleashed the power of the Element of Magic on her, singing her considerably and tossing her into the previous room. She was relentless, following this up with a beam of mixed sunlight and moonlight, confusing Luna’s natural magic defenses considerably.

Come on… she thought.

And her prayers were answered. Twilight teleported right in front of the Element of Magic and grabbed it. Instantly, it transformed itself into a tiara and landed on her head. She pushed against ‘Raven’ with her supercharged magic, knocking her over. “Come on everypony!”

“Not just ponies!” Burgerbelle said, picking up the Element of Laughter. It took the form of a Crusader Shield and latched itself around her waist like a belt buckle. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow ran in—their Elements affixing to their necks without hesitation. Already Luna could see the magic of friendship flowing between them.

“No!” ‘Raven’ shouted, rising to her full height. “Give them back!”

“You don’t deserve to wield them—you attempt to do so by force!” Twilight shouted, pushing back with her enhanced Magic. Already her eyes were glowing white. “The true bearers of the Elements of Harmony treat them as a gift!”

“Mine’s not working!” Rarity shouted, drawing all attention to her and the one Element that Luna had yet to reform. “I… I guess I’m not Generous enough?”

“Rarity, just believe in yourself!” Twilight called. “Believe in yourself and your friends!”

“We don’t have time for that! Luna!” Rarity picked up the rock that was half her size and threw it at the Princess. Luna was prepared to catch it and take the role of Generosity temporarily—but the rock froze in mid air. At first Luna thought ‘Raven’ had grabbed hold of it.

But then the stone Element cracked, revealing a beautiful purple crystal within that shot back to Rarity—accepting her willingness to throw the rock away as pure Generosity.

She laughed. “Aha… Well then…”

“NO!” ‘Raven’ shouted once more, this time surrounding herself in a shield of darkness and light. “You can’t do this! You-”

“Yes we can!” Applejack shouted. “You should let us!”

“You’ll fall right into her trap!”

“And what’s to say you wouldn’t!?”

‘Raven’ fired a blast of dark energy at them. It bounced right off the aura of harmony magic coursing between the Elements.

Twilight smiled sadly. “Go easy on her, girls, we don’t want to lock her in the sun again.”

“Right!” Everyone agreed.

“Rainbow Death Laser go!” Rainbow and Burgerbelle shouted, prompting groans from all the others.

A rainbow shot from the six of them nonetheless, hitting ‘Raven’ dead on. Instead of purging her of a Nightmare—for there was none—or sending her to the sun—which the bearers did not want—they tore her power away from her. Luna could feel the alicorn getting smaller as the energy was burned off…

She could also feel her sister’s energy dissipating. Not as much as ‘Raven’s’, but a significant amount. She tensed—that wasn’t a good sign.

When the rainbows cleared and the Element Bearers stopped glowing, there was a thin, lanky mare of darkness left, scarcely more than a teenager. She stared at all of them impassively, processing. Slowly, she sat down and hung her head.

She refused to speak.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow shouted, her hoof meeting Burgerbelle’s hand. “Twi wasn’t full of crap after all!”

“Yeah yeah…” Twilight said, walking over to the form of Celestia. She was alive and healthy as far as Twilight could tell, just asleep. “We’ve got you, Princess.”

“Rarity, you were great,” Applejack said, walking up to the unicorn.

“I… I, well, uh, certainly didn’t expect to be doing anything important today…” Rarity rubbed the back of her head.

“You’re just like the rest of us,” Fluttershy said.

“Accept your destiny whether you like it, believe it, or otherwise,” Rarity mused.

Luna walked down to ‘Raven’, looking her in the eyes. “...You will be protected.”

No response from the diminutive alicorn.

“I would like to get to know you. And I’m sure you feel the same way.”

Not so much as a nod of the heard.

Luna backed up with a sigh. She had so much she wanted to tell herself… wanted to ask… but clearly, it would have to wait.

“AHEM!” Nira shouted. “Are any of you going to remove these chains!? I can’t exactly get us back tied up like this!”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Twilight said, trotting over to her and using the Element of Magic to assist in the releasing of the chains. “There you go, should be good as new!”

“I was chafing something nightmarish,” Nira muttered. “Hold on, this’ll take a few minutes…”

~~~

Suzie had three categories in her mind on ‘soldier effectiveness’.

First were the griffons and most of her crew. They were disciplined, prepared, and able to fight at a moment’s notice. They were the best and she didn’t need to do much besides tell them where to stand and what to practice. It did not take her long to completely trust Sir Reynold to manage his griffons and even a few pegasi and smaller dragons.

Then there were the people who were trying but weren’t quite cut out for this. Most of the ponies were in that category—they had been fighting a war in the shadows for far, far too long and didn’t understand the tactics or logistics of open battle. She could put some of them on the smaller task forces designed to get the strongest mages of the Secret Police, but not all of them. She never said it aloud, but they were probably going to be cannon fodder.

And then there were the dragons…

“CADET!” Suzie shouted at the top of her lungs. “We are practicing aerial lunges! We are not sleeping.”

The dragon female yawned looking at her with disinterest. “I’m already the best at those. This is pointless.”

“Even if you were—which you AREN’T—you can demonstrate proper technique for the other dragons!”

“Nah.”

Suzie ground her teeth. She could go whine to the new Matriarch, but that would make her look weak. She would have to take care of this herself, somehow. Her. Demand enough respect from a dragon to get them to listen…

She took her weapon out of its holster and set it to PAIN. She walked right up to the lazy dragon’s snout and drove what was essentially a tazer into her, initiating the most shocking boop in the history of the universe.

The dragon recoiled from the pain with a panicked squeal, unceremoniously falling over onto her back.

“We’re practicing aerial lunges,” Suzie demanded.

“You are going to regret th- AUGH!” Suzie zapped the dragon in the knee, causing so much pain it locked up. The dragon recoiled and opened her mouth for a torrent of fire, but Suzie jumped over it and zapped the dragon in the back of the neck. The monstrous reptile writhed, gagging.

“What if I go for your wings next?” Suzie demanded. “Think you’ll be the best at aerial lunges then?!”

The dragon pulled her wings to her side and growled.

“Get up there and start training or maybe I cut one off.”

“You’re too weak…”

“Did you forget that I command an entire army here? I could have the griffon contingent do it for me!”

The dragon let out a low gurgling noise. She spread her wings and took off. Suzie jumped off her neck and watched as she began swirling in the air with the others and landing sharply on the grounded targets.

“Good…” Suzie said. She ran over to a spot she knew a particular dragon was going to land. “Silverridge, I can trust you to keep them active for a bit?”

“A bit,” Silverridge nodded. “Though I would return quickly, lest the Matriarch need to intervene.”

Suzie nodded, running back into the mountain caverns. Most people would get exhausted from the run, but Suzie had been a soldier herself once, she knew how to keep herself in excellent shape. She arrived with little more than some slightly accelerated breathing.

They had been conducting meetings at a table set in front of the new Matriarch’s monstrous head since it was somewhat hard to get him anywhere else. She sat down across from Emerald. A moment later, Sir Reynold flew in and laid his claws on the table. “Captain. Matriarch. Miss Hope.”

“We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?” Emerald said with a shiver. “Going to attack Everfree City…”

“No matter what the result of this attack, it will be momentous,” Sir Reynold said. “Nothing has attacked Everfree City directly in centuries.”

“T h e_q u e e n_w i l l_d i e.”

Suzie nodded. “Likely. We’ve got princesses, Matriarchs, and a few desperate bombs. Something is going to take out the Queen. But as per Celestia’s original plan, we have to take care of the army and the Secret Police as well—not to mention getting to the Queen in the first place.”

“T h e_a r m y_i s_i n c o n s e q u e n t i a l_t o_d r a g o n s.”

“We can’t afford to discount them. Despite their low presence around Everfree City, they are still the most numerous of our opponents. Your dragons will focus almost entirely on them.” She would have loved it if she could ask the dragons to show at least a little restraint in their assault, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew they would be eating the enemy soldiers. “We want to have a stable world after we’re done, so refrain from taking civilian targets.”

“I_w i l l_t e l l_t h e m.”

“Yeah, and they won’t listen,” Emerald muttered.

“T h e y_w i l l_a n s w e r_t o_m e,_t h e n.”

“And then we have the Secret Police,” Suzie said, folding her hands together. “Daylight Sparkle, her unicorns, and their dragons. Unlike the army they have most of their forces in the city, but they aren’t as disciplined. Reynold, this is your division’s job. Aeromancers are being partnered with the best dragons to meet them head on. My combat-oriented Sweeties will join you. You will carry most of the advanced weapons.”

Sir Reynold nodded.

“What about the ponies?” Emerald asked.

“Most of your ponies aren’t suited for head-on attacks,” Suzie admitted. “I have to assign some to attack with the rest of the army, but I want to send as many as possible into the sewers to infiltrate the city from underneath. They will come from as many angles as we can manage—though this will require a few dragons clearing the way to sewer entrances. A mild complexity to the plan.”

Emerald shivered. “That sounds like it could go wrong so easily.”

“And yet, if it goes right, your ponies are in the safest situation possible,” Sir Reynold commented.

Suzie nodded. “When the Princesses return, they will be going through the sewers as well. We suspect the Palace has massive defensive enchantments on it that will make getting into it with a direct attack difficult, so that is where we’ll send them. I would send you as well,” she addressed the Matriarch, “but you are just too large.”

“U n d e r s t o o d.”

“How soon do we leave?” Emerald asked.

Suzie put her hands together. “We’ll talk to Luna and Celestia when they get back. But I’m expecting we take a period of rest and set out the moment everyone wakes up.”

“Agreed,” Sir Reynold said. “Before the day is out, the Tyrant will fall.”

“...It’s always day,” Emerald said.

“Precisely.”

Suzie smirked. “In that case, meeting adjourne-”

Nira’s teleport finished, depositing the Elements, two Lunas, Celestia, and Spike into the cave. Celestia was still unconscious, being doted over by Twilight. Nira saluted in Suzie’s direction. “Got ‘em.”

Curious, Suzie walked over to the diminutive other Luna. Noticing the crystals around the six, she put two and two together. “You got her with the Elements?”

Luna nodded. “We’ve taken to calling her ‘Raven.’ Or at least I have.”

Suzie examined ‘Raven’ and smiled. “Welcome to the rebellion.”

“She will kill you,” ‘Raven’ said. “All it takes is one Element.”

“We’ve got backup plans,” Suzie promised. “You never put all your eggs in one basket.”

‘Raven’ said nothing further.

Suzie turned to Luna. “Is she…?”

“A mare of few words? Yes. She is also essentially powerless at this point. You have nothing to worry about.” She glanced at Celestia. “...I do not dare wake her up. But we may need her soon.”

“Give her time,” Suzie encouraged. “We’re not going to leave without her.”

~~~

Celestia came to on a bed clearly conjured out of the aether just to support her. With a soft groan, she checked her limbs. Legs could move, though sluggishly, and her horn could spark, though it was easy for her to tell she was decidedly low on energy. Her mane likely didn’t have half the vibrancy it usually did.

She finally allowed herself to look at the ponies standing over her. Luna was closest, followed by Twilight, Applejack, and… a creature with two arms and two legs in a military uniform.

“Welcome back, sister,” Luna said with a warm smile.

“Oh thank the Stars…” Twilight said, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

Celestia smiled, pulling Twilight into a weak hug. “...Did you think I would be that easy to get rid of?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “You were bein’ an idiot.”

“I…”

“None o’ those excuses,” Applejack grunted. “She told you what you needed to do. You didn’t do it. The Trottingham cell was completely destroyed.”

Celestia visibly winced.

“And to add onto that, our Luna was more of a problem than a help. Captured you, drained your energy. You don’t look ready to fight.”

“She did lead us to the Elements though,” Twilight said, gesturing at her tiara.

“I am glad… Did you find Pinkie?”

“Not… exactly.”

“That’ll take some explaining,” the tall creature said.

“I am not going anywhere,” Celestia said with a sad smile.

The four of them explained what had happened while Celestia was out. Twilight spoke of her harrowing experience with the griffons, and how she’d had to use the sun in the most terrible of ways. Celestia was shocked Twilight had managed to do this on her own—but then she heard that Fluttershy had been instrumental in giving her the needed push. She offered what comfort she could, but Celestia knew Twilight would never be the same. It broke her heart to see her prized pupil like this.

Luna told of the mission to the dragons. Her team hadn’t needed to perform mass murder, but they did have to dethrone the Matriarch and instill a new one they were pretty sure was evil. They fully expected they’d have to deal with him after this was all over. Celestia wasn’t sure if they had made the right decision, but she didn’t vocalize her opinion. Besides, she was much more interested in learning about these Sweeties and their nation.

The creature’s name was Suzie, and she was a captain. When she told of her nation and what they did, Celestia felt a mixture of relief and concern. They had so much power they could turn this world to dust, only limited because something in Everfree City was keeping them sealed off. Celestia had a million questions to ask Suzie, but she saved them for later.

Applejack was the one to tell of their encounter with the other Luna—who they called ‘Raven’ for some reason. She had told them some details about the world’s past, about the abdication, and about Celestia overruling ‘Raven’s’ control of the Elements.

“...She wanted it…” Celestia said, haunted.

“There really isn’t a Nightmare in her?” Twilight asked.

Celestia had not wanted Twilight to know of this, but it was clearly too late. “It appears not. The Nightmare was in her… and it left. All because Raven wished to abdicate.”

“How is that possible?” Luna asked.

“...You have told me I seem perfect,” Celestia said, looking into the distance. “There was a time where I may have believed you. But the moment I banished you to the moon, I knew I was not, and never could be, perfect. There was simply no way a perfect being would let something like that tragedy happen. But if that had never happened…” She furrowed her brow. “...If you were not there to guide me, to remind me I wasn’t the only voice in Equestria…” She looked down at her hooves.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Think monarchy might be dangerous now?”

Celestia sighed. “Applejack, we’ve already had this conversation.”

“Yeah, and Ah’m sayin’ this puts things in a new light. Give anypony enough time and they could turn into a nut. Even you. She’s definitely you, don’t try to deny it.”

Celestia frowned. “And you think your idea of a democracy will work better? A world of ponies who have not known what it is like to make their own decisions?”

“Better than a Tyrant. Especially you.”

“Luna wi-”

“I do not want to rule, sister,” Luna said flatly.

Celestia stared at her in shock—but then her features softened. “...She did say you wouldn’t play your part…”

“This has nothing to do with the Oracle,” Luna said. “All prophecies are moot because of the Sweeties. I can remember, very clearly, the exact moment where I walked to your quarters intending to tell you I was abdicating. I can remember turning around because of self-doubt. Just as the Queen is you, Raven is me.”

“You…”

“I do not enjoy ruling, sister. It is very clear to me that it was necessary that I remain at your side to keep the world from falling into a desert, but I was not happy. Even upon my return, I have had my doubts.”

Celestia’s usually calm demeanor was gone, replaced with an expression of disbelief.

“I will stay by your side, sister, for we need each other to do right. But I will not rule here alone. It is not my desire.”

Celestia looked at the ground, racking her brain for what to do next. “I can’t do it…”

“You don’t have to,” Applejack said. “...Ah remember what you told me earlier. Ah’ll take control until we can figure out what to do.”

“And we can set up a transitory government,” Suzie offered. “We do it a lot. Give you a chance to count your resources and figure out what to do. We don’t care if it’s democracy or monarchy or something else, so long as you can stabilize.”

“What is Merodi Universalis?” Celestia asked, curious.

“Twelve-way divided Oligarchy,” Suzie explained. “Twelve Divisions, each one with an Overhead of relatively equal power. We have no single leader and the Divisions regularly rotate their Overheads on their own, but we’re not a democracy either. The only votes are on matters of public opinion and in member universes that are democratic themselves.”

“How do you get anything done? It seems that would result in an endless deadlock between twelve separate entities vying for power.”

Suzie shrugged. “It helps that most of them are friends with each other. And, in general, the Divisions have distinct responsibilities and no authority to exercise outside those areas. I am a bit of an odd case—working for Expeditions through an Oversight organization with authority from the Military. But that means I have three separate bosses who each evaluate me on different criteria.”

“I worry that it is too complex and will implode in on itself, given time.”

“We… are only a few decades old according to the standard calendar,” Suzie admitted.

“Then it is stable enough to serve as a transitory government,” Celestia concluded. “Can I take your word that you do not intend to stay here?”

“We will only stay if the people here want to be included in Merodi Universalis.”

Celestia frowned. “Who, after being saved by you, would say no to that?”

“You’d be surprised, Princess.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “This debate is not over, but it is enough of a plan to serve us for now.” She rose out of bed, standing up. “We need to go to Everfree City.”

“You need rest!” Twilight chided.

“I need to face myself,” Celestia said.

“Sister…” Luna began.

“She’s right,” Suzie said. “It wouldn’t be right if she wasn’t there. You have a full set of Elements and yourself, Luna, you don’t need her at full power. But you do need her there.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“No. But it’s right,” Suzie asserted.

Luna furrowed her brow. “...Very well. But we are not leaving right away, the army needs rest, and while they are resting you will be as well, sister.”

Celestia nodded. “There is one thing I need to do first.” She turned to Applejack—and bowed. The action made Twilight gasp.

“I have been a fool and a hypocrite,” Celestia said, voice level. “I let my emotions cloud my judgment in the one moment they should not have, and it resulted in the deaths of many. I failed to heed the words of the Oracle and I failed you.”

“...’bout time,” Applejack said. “Ah’ve been waitin’ for you to get off that arrogant perch of yours. Word of advice, Princess, makin’ yourself look perfect doesn’t win any friends.”

“Being a leader does not always mean being a friend,” Celestia said, raising her head. “Though, here, in this world… perhaps I should have been trying to be a friend rather than a leader.” She pointed at Applejack. “After all, they already have one.”

“This doesn’t fix what you did.”

“I know.”

“But we’re still gonna take that Queen out.”

Twilight growled. “You bet we are…”

Celestia looked to her student with concern. That attitude would be helpful in the coming battle, but it wasn’t good for Twilight.

She decided not to say anything. As much as it pained her, the fate of this world was more important than the emotional wellbeing of a unicorn. Even if that unicorn was Twilight Sparkle.

~~~

Cinder and Celia woke up the next ‘morning’, even though the day was just as bright as always. They had told Big Mac to stay in the room—they’d find a way to bring some breakfast up to him later. The unicorn and the Gem descended the stairs to the bar and received their complimentary breakfast. Besides the innkeeper, there was only one other pony down here—one of the guests, a white unicorn with a soft pink mane.

“G’morning!” she said with a bright smile on her face.

“Morning!” Cinder waved, matching the stranger’s smile.

“What brings you two here?”

“Unexpected delays,” Celia answered, munching on a piece of toast, careful to keep a magic aura around her fake horn. “I had just wrapped up a business venture when this annoying decree came down. I fully understand it’s necessary, but it is quite inconvenient. I guess the ponies of Manehattan will just have to wait.”

“Oh, wow, that is inconvenient,” the mare admitted. “I’m here for an extended stay—seeing family—so it’s not so bad for me. Name’s Twinkle, by the way.”

“Chalcedony,” Celia said extending a hoof to Twinkle and shaking. “This little bundle of joy is my daughter, Cinder.”

“Oh? That name sounds like it comes with a beautiful talent.”

Cinder nodded. “It’s not my special talent, but I am good with fire magic.”

“It sounds like you have two talents then. Tell me, what is the first? I cannot for the life of me parse what that shield means.”

“I call it a Crusader Shield,” Cinder said. “Me and my friends called ourselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and we eventually discovered we had the talent to help other ponies find their special talents!”

“A talent of destiny? That is truly amazing. And what of yours, Celia?”

Celia had to glance at her flank to remind herself what fake cutie mark she had put on it this time. “Cutting gemstones. A difficult task at times, especially when they’re saturated with magic, but worthwhile nonetheless. A dreadfully expensive hobby too, but when you’re as active as I am, you find ways.”

“Glad to hear it!” Twinkle said with a smile. “I’m lucky enough to have the mark of the sun itself. I revel in Queen Celestia’s day, a smile on my face at all times—just like her!”

“That’s… nice,” Cinder said.

Celia continued smiling. How did I not notice that before? “You’re quite lucky.”

“Oh yes, matching marks are rare enough as it is, and I get the Queen’s? It’s just amazing!”

“Yes, it is,” Celia said, carefully tapping Cinder with her tail. “I’m surprised you don’t have a small crowd of ponies ogling over you.”

“Sometimes I do, but it’s not like there’s anypony here.”

Cinder coughed. “Um, excuse me, I need to use the filly’s room. Be right back.” She hopped up and made her way to the stairs.

Twinkle looked at Cinder with a knowing smile on her face. “Aww, I wanted to get to know you a little better.”

“I’ll be right back!” Cinder lied.

Twinkle seemed to accept this, turning back to Celia. “Anyway, know what I heard? I have some friends in the guard, and he said they’re about to apprehend the ponies that’re keeping anypony from leaving. Isn’t that great news?”

Cinder froze halfway up the stairs.

“That is excellent news!” Celia said, her smile just as serene as always. “Tell me, when will this take place?”

“Oh, about now,” Twinkle said, her smile remaining just as level as Celia’s.

“Cinder, dear, don’t you have a bathroom to get to?”

“I think she’s itching to leave the City. Aren’t you?”

“Certainly. In fact, I think I need to use the restroom as well. It was nice meeting you Twinkle.”

“Likewise, Celia. Shame it has to end this way.” Twinkle’s lips twitched ever so slightly.

“CINDER, RUN!” Celia shouted, dissipating her false horn and summoning the razor top.

Cinder didn’t have to be told twice. She bolted up the stairs, going for one of the windows—but Twinkle teleported her back to the bar. Celia was already held in a brilliant golden glow, unable to move. She was desperately trying to activate her own magic, but nothing but sparks came from her gemstone.

“That was fun,” Twinkle said with a chuckle. “If I didn’t know exactly who you were already, you probably could have talked me down! I’m impressed, really I am!”

“W-who are you?” Celia grunted.

Cinder answered for her. “Celestia…”

“Sharp kid,” Queen Celestia said, allowing her disguise to dissipate. The form of an average unicorn was quickly replaced with that of a tall, regal figure of such pure white she looked as though she were carved from marble. Every leg was thin compared to Celestia’s body, yet far thicker than Cinder’s own limbs. An aura of heat radiated from her, produced by her very soul rather than the soft, swirling flames that were her mane and tail. Her face was a thing of hideous beauty—perfectly proportioned to the extent that it looked fake.

And her eyes…

They were empty, like Blink’s, though not because she was dead. But because they produced so much light that pupils and irises were pointless.

The barkeep was bowing, shivering, and offering incoherent prayers. Celia was staring at the Queen defiantly. Cinder was shivering, looking for a way out.

“We should have lunch,” the Queen said with a voice far too amiable for the mouth it was coming from. “It’s been so long since I’ve had guests over at the palace. Come.” She sneered. “Wouldn’t want to be late, would we?”

The Battle of Everfree (Sunshine and Fire, Part 4)

Suzie stood on an outcropping near the top of the mountain, looking down at the army below. She could mostly see dragons, but the griffon and pony arrangements were large enough to be visible from where she was. Virtually everyone was in place. The main armies were near the front, mostly dragons, while a few hung back for the specific task forces. The Black Matriarch monstrosity was at the front of the charge—clearly thirsting for blood, even more so than many of his subjects. Well, one of his heads was, anyway. The other one still looked like it didn’t want to be there. Suzie wondered if she should have tried to talk to it…

That time was behind them. The armies had gotten their rest. They were almost ready to move out. Just a few more things to take care of and manage.

She was not alone on the outcropping—Applejack and Nira. One would be giving a magic-megaphone aided speech to the troops, and the other was there to teleport the three of them down when the charge actually began.

And then they would be flying right to Everfree City. It would be impossible to hide a fleet of dragons as they approached, so they weren’t even going to try. They were going to charge in, guns blazing, and get as many sewer-access points as they could for the other teams. The Elements and the Princesses would make it to the Queen, while the rest took care of the remaining armies. Equestria would fall.

“Um… Suzie?”

Suzie looked behind her, surprised to see Squiddy. “What are you doing up here?”

“Had Seren teleport me. I, uh…” She sighed. “I don’t want to fight in another war, Suzie.”

Suzie smiled sadly. “...You don’t have to. You can stay and watch Raven with the others.”

“Okay. Sorry, I…”

“Don’t be sorry,” Suzie said, laying a hand on Squiddy’s shoulder. “Lots of people charging in are doing it despite knowing full well they won’t be able to handle it. It takes a special kind of courage to admit you can’t.”

Squiddy wasn’t encouraged by this. “...Yeah…” she muttered, signalling to Nira to teleport her to Raven. She was gone in a burst of darkness.

“...What happened to her?” Applejack asked. “She seems the best suited for this out of all you.”

“She’s barely old enough to be considered an adult,” Suzie explained. “She fought in a war and killed many out of petty racism more than anything else. When we came, she saw what was really happening, and it changed her drastically. ...She can’t stop the anger.”

“Y’all sure she should be out here with you?”

“She won’t accept anything else,” Suzie said, frowning. “She won’t stop trying.”

“It’ll never end.”

“On a good day, she knows that. She just doesn’t care. Or, well…” Suzie sighed. “...You should ask Sweetaloo. She’d… be able to tell you more about what is going on in that girl’s head.”

Applejack nodded. She turned back to look at the armies. “Seems we’re ready.”

Suzie nodded, holding up the megaphone. “Everyone! We have come so far, but we dare not wait any longer! Today, the Tyrant will fall!” She handed the megaphone to Applejack.

“Ah bet you’ve heard it all before,” Applejack said. “The evils of the Queen, the suffering of the eternal day, the pain she has caused so, so many simply for her own amusement. So Ah’m not gonna repeat any of that. Y’all know why we’re here. We’re here to kick that Tyrant down until she’s done. We’re here to end the eternal day. And We’re not going to stop until we’ve fixed this millennium long horror!” She raised a hoof. “You know what to do. Charge!”

The Matriarch roared eagerly and took a tremendous step forward, the thundering of his steps drowning out the yells of the army momentarially. Dragons took to the sky, ponies on their backs, falling in line behind the main surge of multicolored reptiles. The griffons moved in perfect arrowhead formation, and two alicorns took up the rear, levitating four ponies, a small dragon, and a Flat between them.

Suzie smiled nervously. “Here goes nothing…”

“Break a leg,” Applejack breathed. “Nira, teleport us down.”

~~~

The dining room would have been dark were it not for Queen Celestia’s solar presence. She was currently eating a sandwich as if the scene around her were the most normal thing in the world. To her side sat Daylight Sparkle, whose expression was continually shifting from rage at the Sweeties sitting opposite the two of them and shame at having failed Celestia.

Cinder had stopped trembling—the Queen didn’t look all that terrifying, and she currently wasn't trying to hurt them, so all she felt was a deep pit in her stomach. She had even eaten some of the absolutely delicious food.

Celia had refused to touch anything or even give the Queen a smile.

Cinder had noticed Diane hanging around the ends of the dining hall, watching the events curiously. Celestia didn’t seem to mind her presence, though Daylight would occasionally shoot the earth pony a menacing glare.

“I assure you, there is no poison,” Celestia told Celia.

“I believe you. My race needs no sustenance.”

“I saw you enjoy food at the hotel.”

“I’m not in the mood to enjoy food at the moment, your majesty.”

“Understandable, but petty,” Celestia said, disappointed. “I had thought you above that.”

“I thought you would be able to detect a political statement when you saw one.”

“I am already aware of your distaste for my regime, there’s no need to keep face here.”

“Maybe I just want to be honest, for once?”

“Please, when was the last time you weren't living a lie?”

Celia remained impassive and gave no response.

“Why don’t you tell me about your world? Or should I say worlds?”

“Your student already drained all the information you’d want out of Cinder.”

Celestia nodded slowly, her empty eyes boring into Celia’s own. “Quite interesting, I must say. An alliance of worlds under a single, mixed government? You have immense power and resources far beyond what I have to offer. Were you not trapped you could come in and destroy everything I have.”

“And we will. They will notice we aren’t reporting in eventually. And then your days will be over.”

“But by then I’ll have my own dimensional technology.” Celestia grinned with a paradoxical mixture of serenity and malevolence.

“You have it already. You’re jamming us.” She pointed at Celestia’s glowing horn. “That is what that is, correct?”

Celestia nodded. “A simple spell, really. Taken from a stallion by the name of Brainy Bright, from another world. He was such a delightful earth pony—worked to Tartarus and back to manipulate magic despite his earth pony heritage. Created a wonderful dimensional arch. And now he’s here, working for me, creating devices for me.” She looked Celia right in the eyes. “Naturally, with your arrival he has outlived his usefulness. He will finish his arch for me and he will find that all that work was for nothing.”

“Why?” Cinder asked. “Why do you have to be so cruel?”

“Why do you have to be so nice?” Celestia asked. “Think about it, why are you?”

Cinder blinked. “...Because it’s right?”

“No, because that’s the way you are. You garner meaning and purpose from your heroic actions, it gives your life fullness. Who’s to say cruelty doesn’t do that for others?”

“Nobody,” Celia said. “You likely do get the same benefit. But arguing this is pointless. Our moral standpoints are so far removed from each other discussing them is pointless.”

“Cutting me off before I can get in her head? You continue to surprise me, Celia. In a different world, you would have made an excellent student.”

Daylight flinched. Celestia didn’t seem to care.

“I would never bow to you,” Celia declared.

“Are you certain?” Celestia asked, opening her eyes wider. “Can you really stare into the sun and not feel reverence?”

“I have spoken to literal Stars, Celestia. Immense spirits of fire and fusion larger than the distance between this planet and your celestial sphere. I have seen worlds where the very fabric of reality itself is sapient and controlling of every single entity within. I have seen a Green Sun bring forces of millions of universes into conflict. I feel no reverence for these things, and I feel even less for you.”

Daylight stared at her in shock.

“I’m not exaggerating, Daylight,” Celia said. “I have seen all those things. This world is insignificant. Merodi Universalis is insignificant.”

“The Tower?” Daylight asked, haunted.

“Ah, the Tower…” Celestia said, a smile crawling up her face. “Daylight thought Cinder was insane when she found that. I find myself thinking otherwise.”

“Then you understand what you are?” Celia asked.

“I have never tried to hide the fact from anyone that I am a Tyrant, Celia. Every pony in the nation is absolutely convinced of the fact.”

“You’re going to be defeated like the villain you are.”

Celestia made no response—she just kept smiling.

“It’s simple, really,” Cinder said. “You’re the villain, we’re the heroes. There might be a lot of struggles along the way, but we will defeat you.”

Celestia chuckled, the noise sending shivers down the spines of everyone present. “My, you speak with such certainty, Cinder…”

Cinder nodded, finding her courage welling up within her once again. “You’re going to lose. I know it.”

“But you don’t really know anything, do you? You are just a child. You do not know that your friends are charging with an army to Everfree City as we speak. I do.”

“WHAT!?” Daylight shouted. “My… my Queen, Everfree City has minimal defenses! I… I must go prepa-”

“You will go nowhere,” Celestia declared, shutting Daylight up. “I am well aware of the city’s current vulnerability.” She turned to look at Celia once more with a knowing expression. “What do you make of that?”

The gears turned in Celia’s mind. “Do you… do you want to lose?”

Celestia smiled—giving no indication either way.

Celia growled. “How do you know?”

Cinder blinked, losing the context. “Wait, what?”

The Queen didn’t even blink. “A Queen never reveals all her cards.”

Celia frowned. “Merodi Universalis can offer y-”

“Desperate?” Celestia interrupted. “Uncertain? Good. Good…” She levitated Celia into the air and touched her crystal with a hoof. “You’re ready.”

“I’ll tell you nothing.”

“Oh, you’re right, your will is strong enough to resist mine.” Daylight’s breath caught at this. “But Moganite will tell me anything once I shatter Goshenite. Or vice versa, but I’d much rather have the one that’ll be capable of seeing my side, with time.”

Celia couldn’t hide the fear from her face. “W-we wi-”

“You know your components cannot stand strong apart. They will fail to resist me. I’m just giving you the opportunity to give in as you are now. You’ll be much more useful if you’re like this and cooperative.”

Celia contemplated a self-destruct spell. But no… that was too desperate, and it would leave Cinder alone. She could do nothing but give in. At least like this, she might be able to see a way out later.

“Dammit,” Celia muttered. “Fine. What do you want to know?”

“Everything.” Celestia insisted. “Open your inner magics to me!” She touched her horn to Celia’s crystal, prompting a scream from the Gem.

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” Cinder shouted, sending a gust of fire at Celestia. Celestia responded with a beam of sunlight intended to completely disintegrate the unicorn.

Instead, she corralled the fire and sent it back at Celestia with an immense roar. The flames impacted the Queen with enough force to knock her over and melted the wall behind her.

Daylight stood up, ready to keep her promise to kill Cinder if she ever did that again—but Celestia forcefully stopped the unicorn by telekinetically tossing her away. The Queen’s smile had not faltered—but her eyes had narrowed. “Daylight was right, you are quite blasphemous.”

Cinder was still supercharged with the fire directly from the Queen. “Let her go.”

“You think that an immunity to fire makes you safe?” Celestia laughed.

“I’ll absorb every last inch of your f-”

Celestia lit her horn and froze Cinder in a cube of ice. “Really, what would I be if I only knew one family of offensive spells?”

“CINDER!” Celia shouted.

“She’s alive,” Celestia reported. “I can revive her whenever. And I probably will, soon, but first…” She touched her horn to Celia’s crystal once more. “Everything.”

~~~

They both did and didn’t see it coming.

It was basically impossible to miss a dragon fleet charging at your city across expansive desert. The army should have had enough time to mobilize to intercept them.

The sad fact was none of them had ever expected to be attacked by dragons in a million years, especially not this far into Equestrian territory. The alarm was raised quickly but the average soldier had little to no idea what was going on, and the Secret Police spent way too long trying to locate Daylight Sparkle. All they had found was her dragon, and when he had no idea where she was, they finally decided to go ahead without her.

The time spent doing this was not time well spent.

Everfree City did manage to collect enough unicorns to raise the city-wide shield, which would have repelled virtually any invading force simply due to its size. It would take a dragon the size of a mountain to break the pink bubble.

The Matriarch embedded his massive claws into the bubble, tearing it to shreds. The first two hits were quickly repaired, and the unicorn guard started shooting lasers at him. He shrugged these off somewhat easily, the third strike tearing the shield down permanently.

“Y o u r_d a y_i s_e n d i n g.”

The army retaliated, rushing forward with a squadron of pegasi, going for his eyes. He opened his mouth, engulfing all of them in fire and teleporting them miles away. The Matriarch’s subjects filed in after him, blowing squadrons of pegasi away with simple flaps of wings. Already, two entrances to the sewers had been secured.

Blood was raining from the sky on the pristine white of Everfree City. Ponies screamed and hid in their homes as the city walls crumbled, praying to their Queen that the monstrous reptiles would be repelled.

The Secret Police acted with much more understanding than the sparse army—every dragon servant within their ranks was grown to full size, matching the dragon army in number if not power. The dragons of the state met the dragons of the wild, clashing into each other at high speeds. Scales went flying in random directions and dragon blood began to fill the streets. The ordered assault had devolved into chaos already.

Unicorns began casting complex spells to enhance their dragons with shields, extra flame, and improved strength. The invading reptiles found themselves outclassed by their smaller, almost mindless brethren. Ice breath erupted from a snowy female’s maw, encasing numerous invaders.

Several of these dragons focused on the Matriarch, hitting him with every elemental attack under the sun. Metal shavings pierced his hide, toxic sludge eroded his scales, and blue flame taxed the heat resistance even of his scales.

He was having none of this. Both of his heads roared with a rage that had slept for a thousand years, flames spewing forth from his maw, teleporting the much smaller dragons far away. With another step, he took out several ponies’ homes, caring not as he bit another dragon in two.

However, he was but one dragon—the others were still being beaten back. But they had help of their own as well—the griffon aeromancers flew in, circling the wind around their dragons to deflect the enhanced breath of Everfree City’s defenders. The griffon soldiers moved in to drive specialized spears into the necks of distracted dragons, taking them down, while the best of the best held energy weapons used to combat the beam-spells of the unicorns. Occasionally, a pony would set off a massive bomb that would completely destroy a Secret Police outpost or military barrack.

The ponies of Queen Celestia would not give up so easily, however. Despite the blood raining everywhere, the army managed to hold together, augmenting their dragons with smaller forces that easily passed between the tremendous reptiles to attack other targets, such as enemy ponies.

The palace itself proved to be impossible to reach—the first dragon who got close enough to attack it had received three spikes of sunlight to the chest from automatic magical defenses. It was clear that victory for either side was not going to be quick.

Suzie fought in line with a group of two griffons and three ponies equipped with energy weapons, blasting holes in all the opposition they saw. She had been able to pick out Nira and Seren during the first few minutes of the attack, but had quickly lost them. She assumed Nira was surrounded in so much blood she’d have nearly unlimited resources at her disposal, while Seren was probably somewhere teleport-spamming to confuse the larger dragons.

A few minutes later she saw a serpent of coagulated blood larger than most of the dragons rise out of the inner city, so she knew she had been right about Nira. The bloody snake opened its maw and sent out dozens of razor-sharp tendrils, skewering several dragons through the heart, draining their blood into itself. With a twist of the bloody head, it rushed the palace—finding itself held off by dozens of unicorn sorcerers, a few dragons, and the magical defences of the center itself. The bloody head disintegrated, prompting the rest of the blood to lose its cohesion and flood the nearby district.

Suzie knew Nira was fine. She’d just find another area to gather up power and make another shot. But this confirmed what she suspected—no matter how poorly defended Everfree City was, that palace was a fortress. Had the Queen not been in there, she would have considered taking the rest of the city and laying siege to the palace as a viable strategy.

But the Queen was in there, and they couldn’t let her get out of this battle. She was instrumental to the tragedy of this world, she could not be allowed to hold up in that palace of hers.

I hope the Elements have gotten inside…

She was torn back to the moment when the Matriarch was tossed back, landing on an apartment complex right next to her. Suzie watched in horror as, out of a primordial rage, he ate an entire building without so much as a care for the civilians within. He swung his tail around, leveling several blocks.

Suzie couldn’t just stand by. He was here, and nothing she did would get his dragons to turn back at this point. His motives were no secret to her or anyone else around them, and the dragons themselves…

She made a decision with a grimace. “Go on without me!” She called to her group of griffons and ponies, ducking into a nearby alleyway that had been spared the Matriarch’s blind devastation. Here, alone, she focused her inner power.

“U-Catastrophe…” she breathed. Behind her, a tremendous tree appeared out of nowhere, colored with a red, white, and black pattern. Its trunk was smooth, like a mathematical function, and its leaves formed into a fractal pattern resembling half a spirograph. Slowly, carefully, she focused her energy and grew the tree into the air.

No one saw it. No one could see it—Stands were invisible to virtually all beings. But a few creatures would have been able to sense something, even if they didn’t know what it meant or where it was.

Suzie had to be careful not to touch anything or anyone else aside from her target. The results would be catastrophic. But she was clever—she grew the trunk close to the ground, along the lifeless rubble the Matriarch had created. When he was tossed back by another magic explosion, the top of the tree embedded itself in his tail. A thousand miniscule spikes thundered out of the tree’s leaves, severing the tip of the monstrosity’s tail.

For virtually any creature, that attack meant instant death. For the Matriarch, it just sent him into a rage, flailing wildly, looking for the mage that dared remove his tail. But, of course, he couldn’t trace U-Catastrophe, and the attacking dragons kept him from looking too closely.

It seemed, for all intents and purposes, like nothing had happened.

But Suzie knew better.

That Matriarch was doomed. It was only a matter of time.

She turned away, planning to get back into the fight—but she noticed a crack in the ground. Upon investigating, she found that it went right to one of the sewer systems. She didn’t even need to think—she hopped down, running through the underground tunnels to the palace, alone.

If all else failed, she’d introduce the Queen to a very particular tree…

~~~

Blink had been left with the Elements and the Princesses for one reason—to keep them safe at all times. She was to keep them completely intangible until the very moment the Elements needed to strike. She did little besides focus on all of their intangibility.

Twilight took a look at her team. Celesta, Luna, four versions of some of her closest friends, Spike, and a Flat. In many ways, the only ones she knew well were Celestia and Spike. But she also knew she’d lay down her life for anyone of them—even the Flat. Strange and quirky so she was, Twilight sensed a hero’s spirit in her just like everyone else.

They had come out of the sewers recently and were making their way to the dungeons for their first order of business—releasing any potential allies. Celia was high on the list, but Cinder and Big Mac were also high on the list of priorities. They’d save anyone else who cared as well, and then march right to the queen assuming they could keep that many invisible.

Plan A was simple. Walk into the throne room and blast her with the Elements of Harmony. She’d never see it coming. She had no idea they were in the palace—already they had passed through several sets of guards, all of them standing for a threat that had not arrived yet. The other teams attacking the palace from below weren’t invisible.

Twilight knew they were being actively sacrificed to give the Elements a chance. This knowledge weighted heavy on her, but this was war. And war was filled with death, no matter what way the cake was sliced, blood would always come out.

Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow… they had all understood that long before Twilight arrived in this world. Only after Twilight had experienced hardship like they had was she allowed to understand as well. This world wasn’t hers. There was not going to be peace at the end of this path. Only a confrontation.

Everyone moved more or less wordlessly—even Burgerbelle. They all knew they wouldn’t be heard if they spoke, but they felt the oppressive aura of the situation like anvils on their chest. If there was one point where the plan could break and everything would come crashing down, it was them. They had two princesses, six Elements, and impressive stealth. But if all those things failed… the Queen would have just the dragon Matriarch standing in her way, and Twilight didn’t think for a moment that she didn’t have a contingency plan for him.

It all rested on them.

They eventually arrived at the entrance to the dungeons, surprised to see no guards there whatsoever. There was, however, a red pegasus in armor indicating a high station. She left the dungeon with a smile on her face. “About time the Queen took out the trash.”

She took a step.

The entire dungeon was engulfed in white hot flames.

“NO!” Fluttershy screamed. “BIG MAC!”

“CINDER!” Blink echoed, losing focus on the invisibility for a split second.

That was enough for the pegasus’ senses to pick them up. “INTRUDE-”

Twilight was already on her, forcing the pegasus’ mouth shut with her telekinesis.

“Blink, let her see me,” Applejack demanded.

“Bu-”

“DO IT!”

Blink took her Void off Applejack, allowing her to walk menacingly up to the pegasus. “Duchess Redsky. ...Let her talk. If she starts screamin’, snap her neck.”

Redsky growled, but refrained from screaming. “Applejack… I thought I’d never see your ugly mug again.”

“What did you do?”

“Killed all the prisoners,” Redsky sneered. “Didn’t want to give you a chance to get them back after all.”

“Were all of them in there?”

“Heh. You know what, I think s-”

“Redsky!” Applejack shouted—the noise making Blink wince. But no soldiers came. “Who wasn't in there?”

“The two otherworlders.”

Blink let out a sigh of relief.

“That it?” Applejack demanded.

“That’s it. Anyone else you wanted is gone. Burned. This is what you get for attacking us! If you weren't willing t-”

Applejack kicked her in the windpipe, shattering it. Unable to breathe, Redsky dropped to the ground, gagging.

“If you weren't willing to sacrifice yourself, you shouldn’t have killed everypony,” Applejack said, voice catching in her throat. “A-and…” Whatever she wanted to say didn’t come out. She clenched her jaw and turned away from Redsky. “Let’s go.”

Blink surrounded her in Void again. Rarity offered Applejack a hug, but she rejected it. Fluttershy was crying bitter, angry tears. Burgerbelle was trying as hard as possible not to be seen. And Twilight…

Twilight’s eyes were on fire.

“She’s going to pay,” Twilight declared. “To the throne room.”

Fluttershy took the gun Applejack had received from Suzie. “She’s mine.”

Applejack, for a moment, looked like she was going to punch Fluttershy. With a sharp breath, she managed to hold her hoof back. “...Anypony who gets the shot can take her.”

Celestia nodded. “She will pay for what she’s done.”

There was nothing else to be said. The group moved as one once again, marching right through the walls of the palace. One would think the center would get brighter and brighter as one approached Celestia’s location, but instead they only got darker.

Everything had shadows now, splayed in multiple directions by the torches on the walls. Blink had to force herself to accommodate for this.

Eventually, they ended up in a dark hallway with hardly any lights. They passed by a frail looking white stallion with a shaved horn.

“She knows you’re here,” he said, keeping his gaze fixed on the ground.

Everyone stared at him. He gave no response to this action.

“Gelding…” Rarity said, hoof to her mouth.

“How can he see us!?” Fluttershy hissed.

“He can’t…” Bink said, furrowing her brow.

“I can’t see you or hear you,” Gelding said. “But I know the Queen can. She is waiting on her throne. She is quite eager to meet you.” He paused. “Don’t fall into her trap. Turn around, take the palace by force. Don’t give her what she wants. ...Not that I can tell you what that is.”

Celestia looked to Blink. “Let him see me.”

“But-”

“Do it.”

Blink frowned—but nodded, allowing Celestia to step out of the Void.

“Prime Minister Gelding,” she greeted him.

“Princess Celestia.” He bowed. “You should turn back.”

“I do not trust the armies or the new Matriarch to take care of her,” Celestia said. “Even if it is a trap, I do not see how turning back can result in our victory.”

“I know not either,” Gelding admitted. “I do know she wants you in there. She’s been waiting since before your attack started.”

Celestia frowned. “Why did she not prepare?”

“I do not know.”

“Do you have any other suggestions?”

Gelding shook his head. “She knows I’m here, too. I was foolish to think there was anything she didn’t know.”

“She’s not perfect,” Luna said—not that Gelding could hear it.

“...She’s not perfect,” Celestia reiterated, cautiously.

“Maybe once,” Gelding said. “Maybe once…”

“...Gelding, I grant you amnesty. Turn yourself over to one of the Sweeties and tell them what happened here. They will protect you.”

“I appreciate the offer, but it is worthless.” He looked her in the eye. “Our only hope is that she cannot plan for herself. Be strong, Celestia.”

Celestia nodded. “There is no point to walking in to her invisible, is there?”

“None.”

“Blink, the disguise will no longer be needed,” Celestia said. “Get Gelding out of here. If you can, find Suzie and tell her what we’ve learned.”

Blink dropped the Void and saluted. “Yes Princess. I suggest making full use of Burgerbelle—she’s very hard to predict.”

“Thank you,” Celestia said, watching with curiosity as Gelding and Blink vanished.

“...I can’t believe it, but I feel sorry for him,” Rarity commented.

Applejack growled. “Even he was nothing more than a puppet…”

“She views this entire land as her toybox,” Celestia said, grimacing.

No longer hiding, they marched through the final hall to the Queen’s throne room. There were guards at the door who lifted their weapons—but a flash of white magic around their heads sent them to sleep.

“...That wasn’t me,” Celestia observed.

“Get ready girls…” Twilight said, arming the Element of Magic.

Rarity, Applejack, Burgerbelle, Fluttershy, and Rainbow did the same.

Celestia threw the doors open to the Queen’s throne room with her magic. Luna armed an offensive spell of darkness.

The Queen was sitting in her throne drinking calmly from a teacup. Cinder was at the foot of her throne, unharmed, while Celia was curled into a crying fetal position. “Ah, welcome! I hope you’ve found my palace to your liking?”

“Queen Celestia!” Celestia declared. “You have been found guilty of tyranny, cruelty, warmongering, petty violence, and a multitude of other crimes that I do not have the patience or the desire to list. Your punishment is to be whatever the Elements deem necessary.”

“DIE!” Fluttershy shouted, rising into the air. The element of Kindness faltered for a moment—but continued glowing in the end. Magic, Honesty, Generosity, and Loyalty followed suit. Burgerbelle jumped into the middle of them, brimming with the power of Laughter.

“Your day is done, Tyrant!” Twilight shouted, her eyes burning with the fire of Harmony. Celestia and Luna armed their magic, ready to defend against anything the Queen might try.

“Rude,” the Queen said. With a sigh, she put her teacup down on its saucer. “Looks like there won’t be any small talk.” With a flash of her horn, a small pink earth pony appeared in the middle of the throne room.

The Rainbow of Harmony broke in the middle of its path to the Queen as the Element of Laughter flew off of Burgerbelle and latched itself around Diane’s neck. The magical collar around Diane shot out several spikes of solar energy, fusing the Element to Diane’s very essence.

“P… Pinkie Pie!?” Twilight gasped, staring at Diane in disbelief.

“Y-you know my name too?” Diane asked, pain in her eyes. “I-”

With a flash of fire from Celestia’s horn, Diane’s eyes were replaced with burning orbs of flame. She stood at attention like some kind of robot.

“It worked!” Daylight declared, popping out from behind the Queen’s gargantuan throne. “She’s yours, my Queen!”

“Yes, she is. She always has been,” the Queen said with a cruel smile. “I always make sure to keep at least one manifestation of the Elements near me at all times precisely to prevent this sort of thing.”

Celestia stamped her hoof on the ground. “The Elements still have power separate, and my sister and I are still here.” Celestia lit her own eyes on fire, glaring right into the Queen’s featureless eyes. “You have not won.”

“Daylight, grab the Element of Magic.”

“Yes, my Queen,” Daylight said, leaping for Twilight. Twilight could feel the Element of Magic desire to return to its rightful owner: the Twilight of this universe.

“No!” Twilight shouted, pleading with the Element. “No, she doesn’t understand Friendship! She’s a servant of the Tyrant! She doesn’t exemplify magic!”

“I am the strongest sorcerer in the world!” Daylight shouted, pulling on the Element. “It belongs to me!”

“NO!” Fluttershy shouted, the light of Kindness grabbing hold of the Element of Magic. “IT BELONGS TO TWILIGHT!”

“Hear hear,” Applejack added, adding Honesty to the mix.

“You are nothing more than a ruffian!” Rarity shouted. “You understand nothing of Harmony!”

“You aren’t even worthy of being a spark!” Rainbow shouted.

The Element of Magic shot back to Twilight’s head, severing itself from Daylight.

“But… But… No…”

The Queen shook her head—the smile still plastered on her face. “My student… when are you going to learn that you are destined to fail me as all others?”

“M-my Queen…”

“You strive for something you cannot have, Daylight. It’s how it must be.”

Celestia glared. “You treat your prized student this way?”

“Tell me you think your ‘Twilight’ will ever live up to your glory,” the Queen jeered.

“I know she lives up to it,” Celestia said, stepping forward. “A bunch of white unicorns obey an alicorn by the name of Evening Twilight Sparkle, not Celestia.”

Twilight gasped. She hadn’t known about that.

For the first time, the Queen’s smile faltered. “Those Sweeties are quite an unexpected bunch, aren't they?”

“Yeah!” Burgerbelle shouted, smacking the Queen in the face with a frying pan. The implement melted. The Queen didn’t so much as flinch. “Oh, come on.”

The Queen smiled at Burgerbelle. “You expect me to be baffled, don’t you? Surprised?” She grabbed Burgerville in her magic and embedded the Flat in the ground between Cinder and Celia. “I’ve seen everything I need to in Celia’s mind, Flat. I know what you are. You are a joke given life by a cruel Tower.” She lowered herself to Burgerbelle and smirked. “Why do you fight me with such vigor when you submit yourselves to a power much worse than my own?”

“Because we have a choice with you!” Cinder shouted. “We can’t do anything to the Tower, even if it is evil! But we can do something to you!”

“Even after all you’ve been through you still believe that.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes! I do! And we’re going to show you that we do have a choice!”

“You don’t,” the Queen stated flatly.

“I’ve had enough of this,” Luna said. “You can talk, you can scheme, and you can entice us with your cryptic words. But we do not need answers from you. We need you dead.”

Twilight let out a breath. “Luna’s right. Get her!”

The Queen shook her head. “I always hate it when conversation is cut short…” She lit her horn, creating dimensional portals that engulfed Celestia and Luna.

Twilight looked at where the princesses had just been in panic. “How did… What did…”

The Queen looked at Celia with a slasher smile. “It was not hard at all to reconstruct the dimensional spell from her mind. Brainy Bright truly is useless now. I can go anywhere I want with a simple spark of my horn.”

Daylight, despite herself, laughed. “And now you have no power that can challenge the Queen! You are nothing!”

Twilight twitched, narrowing her eyes. The Element of Magic lit with a brilliant fire, connected to four of the other Elements in a partial rainbow. “We can try anyway.”

“U-CATASTROPHE!” Suzie shouted, running through the main doors of the throne room and throwing something invisible at the Queen.

“STOP!” Celia shouted at the top of her lungs, coming out of her stupor to stop Suzie from doing what she was about to do. “SHE MIGHT WANT TO LOSE!”

A haunted expression came over Suzie’s face. “No…”

The Queen laughed—a motion full of disgusting life and joy. “And everypony wonders why I’m so cryptic all the time!” She focused her empty eyes on Suzie. “How does it feel to be out-thought by a low level threat?”

Suzie ground her teeth.

The Queen smirked. She flared her immense wings and everything went white.

Cinders of Hope (Sunshine and Fire, Part 5)

Celestia woke up in the astral plane.

Her astral plane. Not the Queen’s.

Why was she here? Was she dreaming?

“Oh, you definitely aren’t dreaming,” her voice came to her. She didn’t even have to think to know that it was the Queen.

“What game are you playing?”

“Several,” the Queen said, materializing inches from Celestia’s face. “You, your sister, my sister, the Elements, Daylight, the nation, the neighboring nation, the Sweeties…”

Celestia scowled, finding it more than a little irksome that her counterpart was slightly taller than her. “Let me rephrase the question. What is your game? Why?”

“The million bit question,” the Queen said, beginning to circle Celestia. “Why am I doing this? Everything about me appears to be a contradiction, does it not? I have a smile on my face and know my subjects deeply, and yet I berate them endlessly, twisting them into eternally loving me. I have all the power in the universe to lay waste to my enemies, and yet I don’t, instead drawing out conflicts and making deliberate ‘mistakes’. I kill, maim, and destroy, leaving just the right number alive so the Underground will never fully collapse. I scorch the earth far more than I need to, but I don’t flash burn everything. I could crush the Griffons or the dragons, but I let them stick around, and even let your precious student use my sun to secure a victory.” She teleported next to Celestia’s ear. “I wonder, what am I doing?”

“If I didn’t know better I would say you are insane.”

“How can I not be?”

“I may not know you, but I know myself. And I have seen the traits of madness in others.” Celestia’s expression darkened. “You merely want to appear mad.”

“And why would that be?”

“Because it amuses you.”

“Reading me like a book, I see. Maybe you can answer your own question.” She hissed in Celestia’s ear. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Celestia admitted. “I have several ideas.”

“The crystal Sweetie thinks I want to lose. Is that one of them?”

“...No.”

The Queen chuckled—a noise that was far too innocent for her. “Hadn’t even thought of it? Then you haven’t really dug out the full ream of possibilities, have you?”

“Perhaps. But in the end, it does not matter,” Celestia fixed her counterpart with a glare. “You are doing this by choice. And whatever your final goals are, they matter not. You will pay for your crimes.”

“And what if I am doing this all for some higher purpose? One that you cannot see?”

“I’m willing to take that risk.”

The Queen laughed. “And there it is! The way you are me!”

“I am not you. I have my sister.”

“Not here, you don’t.”

“What have you done to her?”

“Returned her home. She’s in your Canterlot Castle right now, presumably screaming her lungs out at the guard to fix Brainy Bright’s machine. They won’t be able to.”

“She will find something eventually. As will the Merodi.”

“And I could be long gone by then.” The Queen waved a hoof in the air. “Jumping to another universe in flight…”

“You won’t do that.”

“No, I won’t.” The Queen’s unending smile seemed like a brutal cut across her face. “And how do you know that?”

“...I could have been you.”

“Stop with the caveats. You are me. The moment you let yourself free to taste what an abuse of power feels like, you will not be able to stop yourself.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’ll never do that.”

“Not so long as I am recent in your memory. But one, two millenia down the line? Who’s to say something won’t catch you by surprise? Nopony is static, it is only a matter of time before they change to something their other self can only barely recognize.”

“Are you saying that’s happening to you?”

“Do you think it has?”

Celestia frowned. “I think you’re bored. You had almost conquered your entire world and there was nothing beyond it, so you were dragging it out as long as you coud. And then I arrived, and everything changed.”

“Your arrival changed nothing, it was foretold. The Sweeties are another story, perhaps related to the one with a silver tongue.” For the slightest moment, the eternal smile faltered. “My only mistake was thinking their ship would be easy to destroy.”

“A mistake? Not so perfect after all?”

“I have not thought I was perfect for, oh, about three centuries,” the Queen said. “Has my sister given you outdated information? She has a tendency to do that. How was she, by the way?”

“...Distant. Ambivalent. Determined.”

“Good to hear.”

“But you know this already.”

“Naturally. Why do you think I brought you to your astral plane?” She raised her hoof, bringing forth a memory of Twilight Sparkle arriving in Ponyville for the first time, not sure what to make of Pinkie Pie. “You prepare her here.”

“You do the same?”

“Oh, yes, Daylight is an absolute treat and I adore every step I bring her along. She might even overthrow me one day, isn’t that something?”

“So you do want to lose?”

“Do I?”

Celestia wanted to scream, but she knew—she knew so well—how she loved being cryptic to her ponies for their benefit. The mare before her was that aspect taken out of control.

The Queen leaned in close. “I’m sure you see the potential.”

“I… did,” Celestia admitted. “In both her and this place.”

“Why limit it? Why not use this plane to watch all your little ponies at all times, helping them toward whatever goal you see fit? You certainly disagree with my world, but you can make your own. A place of perfection. A place of harmony. All by your hoof. Luna’s as well, if you should so wish.”

“Never. They have their right to free will and choice.”

“A right? Why is that a right? Who said so? You? You can take that back whenever you want.”

“I’m not God.”

“You’re the closest thing.”

“There are things above us. If you have learned one thing from the invasion, you should have learned that.”

“The Tower?” the Queen thought about this for a moment. “From what I took from Celia, it has no will. No mind. It is a machine.”

Celestia had no idea what she was talking about, but the Queen didn’t have to know that. “There are vast nations who make us look like flies.”

“With vastly differing ideologies and values! In an ultimate sense, there is no agreement!”

“Our knowledge is imperfect, clearly. We must not dare to think ourselves worthy of such power.”

“True, true,” the Queen admitted. “But the unworthy get and use power all the time, so worthiness isn’t exactly a criteria of function, is it?”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“I feel as though we are going in circles.”

Celestia nodded. “Have you had your fun yet? Satisfied your curiosity about me?”

“Not by a long shot,” the Queen admitted. “There is so much I could do to you… I could turn you into me…”

“Never.”

“Given a few hundred years?”

Celestia paused.

“It might not even take that long, if you think about it. I could start with an offer. Say, leaving my world behind and giving it to you, free of charge or further fighting. Wouldn’t that be nice? You and the Merodi could fix it right up!”

“The catch?”

“There is no catch. Do you want it?”

Celestia looked at her in shock.

“Wondering if I’m actually insane?”

“Everything is a mind game to you, isn’t it?”

“Isn’t it for you?”

Celestia twitched. “It’s not a game to me! It means something!”

“Really? Really? All the building ponies up only to let them succeed at the last possible minute, all the plans designed to bring your student to the ascension, the plans you have for Discord? None of that is a game? There are many simpler, kinder ways to accomplish the same things. Admit it. You enjoy a little fun here and there.”

Celestia had lost her strong stature at this point. “I…”

“Admit it.”

“I DO!” Celestia shouted, unleashing an angry beam of energy. “I could be better, but I’m not! I’m not perfect! I need ponies around me to keep me in line! I need everypony to keep me from being you!”

“And there it is. I am the unchecked Celestia. The true Celestia. The Queen.” She put a falsely comforting hoof on Celestia. “You’re just a limited shadow.”

Celestia was crying now. “I… It’s better to be limited.”

“Why do you hurt yourself so?” the Queen asked. “You could just be yourself. It would be so liberating. You’d have no more strain, no more fretting. You wouldn’t go through a single day without a smile on your face. Stop limiting yourself! Let yourself free!”

“N-no…” Celestia whimpered.

“Give it time,” the Queen said. “You’ll come around.” Her smile faltered ever so slightly. “If only there really were time…” She created a portal and stepped through.

Celestia didn’t even try to leave the astral plane.

~~~

The light cleared.

Twilight, Burgerbelle, Suzie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Cinder, Spike, and Celia were still there.

And so was Daylight.

The Queen and Diane were gone.

“W… what did you do!?” Daylight shouted.

“Your Queen’s up to something,” Suzie said, aiming her gun at Daylight.

“Yes… She must be taking care of your Princesses!” Daylight said, coming to a conclusion. “Which means she has left me to face you!”

“...Think you’re maybe a little outnumbered?” Spike asked.

Twilight brimmed with the energy of the Element of Magic. “Daylight, surrender.”

“No!” Daylight screamed, eyes flashing orange. She blasted Suzie’s dimensional device out of her hand, ruining any chance of calling for help now that the Queen wasn’t here. “This is her test! To prove I am worthy to take my place alongside her!” Rims of fire appeared on the edges of her ears and her eyes blazed with fire.

“Hey!” Cinder shouted, indignant. “Isn’t tha-”

“She has given me permission to use the very sun against you,” Daylight interrupted. “I WILL NOT LET HER DOWN!” An immense burst of magical energy shot out from her, knocking everyone but Twilight herself over. She used her magic to keep Spike firmly planted on her back.

Burgerbelle and Cinder rushed to Twilight’s sides, accompanied quickly by Rainbow and Applejack. Suzie held back to defend the others who weren’t the best at direct combat, aiming her gun at Daylight’s head.

“Just give up,” Cinder said, lighting herself on fire. “There’s too many of us and only one of you.”

“Who said there was only one?” Daylight asked, her mouth curling up into a smile. She teleported her Spike into the room, growing him as large as she still could—and he still didn’t touch the ceiling of the vast throne room.

The little Spike whimpered. “Uh… Twilight?”

“No, Spike, we don’t need to put you in danger,” Twilight asserted, teleporting him behind Suzie. “We can take them.”

Giant Spike unleashed an immense torrent of flame that would have rendered the entire throne room to ashes, but Cinder absorbed all the fire and sent it at Daylight. She, in turn, absorbed Cinder’s fire and launched it back at the unicorn. This would have gone on for some time had Twilight not intervened, interrupting Daylight’s game with a beam to the face. Burgerbelle followed it up with a blue stop sign to her stomach while Rainbow tackle-threw her into Applejack.

The hind legs of the Apple Family were some of the strongest forces nature had to offer. Daylight’s jaw cracked easily from the impact with the full force buck. “Ghhh…” she groaned, mane sparking with the embers of the sun. With a carefully guided pulse, she pushed Rainbow, Applejack, and Burgerbelle away like flies. Spike would have crushed the dazed allies, but Suzie swooped in—zapping Spike in the foot with the PAIN setting. He howled, falling backward.

Daylight saw her opportunity. The weaker ones were unguarded, giving her ample opportunity to take care of them once and for all. She unleashed a death spell, ready to rid herself of those defenseless, infuriating whelps.

The Element of Kindness would have none of that. Fluttershy’s artifact flashed, deflecting the death spell harmlessly into a nearby rock.

“No. No more,” Fluttershy said, voice cold as ice.

Suzie drove her weapon into the base of big-Spike’s skull, sending so much pain directly into his brain that he lost control—but his body would not let him lose consciousness with Daylight still augmenting it with her magic.

“SPIKE!” Daylight shouted, raging through the pain. “KILL THEM!”

“He’s busy,” Twilight said, blasting Daylight with a beam from the Element of Magic. “And so are you.”

Daylight realized how outnumbered she really was. Twilight easily matched her in strength with the Element of Magic on her head, and the others were more than enough to beat Spike “NO!” She shouted, tears streaking down her face in stark defiance of her flaming eyes. “I must prove I-”

Twilight punched her counterpart in the face right on her broken jawline. She howled in pain and slumped to the ground, losing all control of her magic. The big-Spike reverted to his normal, miniscule size. He looked… empty.

Twilight walked up to Daylight and put a careful hoof on the mare’s neck.

“...N-no…” Daylight whimpered, tears seeping out of her closed eyelids. “I failed… My Queen, I’m nothing but a failure… I…”

Twilight’s features softened. “...She’s just as much a puppet as the rest of them. Killing her does nothing.”

“...What are we going to do with her then?” Applejack asked.

“Crack her horn,” Suzie suggested. “We can fix that later if she earns it.”

Twilight nodded. Breaking a horn was perhaps the most painful thing that could be done to a unicorn, but they couldn’t risk Daylight trying to kill them. “I’m sorry.”

“I failed…” Daylight repeated. “I failed…” She wasn’t hearing anything outside her own head.

Twilight took a breath, summoning a large, flat magical construct. She aimed it at Daylight’s horn.

“You really should just kill her.”

Everyone gasped in surprise at the Queen’s sudden presence—the mindless Diane sitting on her back.

“H-how could you say that!?” Twilight shouted. “She is your student!”

“But you are right…” the Queen said, delicately stroking Daylight’s whimpering form. “She’s just a puppet like all of them.”

“Quite the puppet show you have here,” Suzie growled. “Fighting itself left and right, in danger of destabilizing by your decrees…”

“Trying to get information out of me, hmm?” the Queen cocked her head condescendingly. “My little human, if it were possible to do that, do you not think Celia would have done so in our previous conversations?”

Suzie frowned.

“You have the power to defeat me, Suzie,” the Queen said matter-of-factly. “The question is do you want to gamble that many lives away on the motivation of a mare you don’t understand?”

Suzie fired her gun several times into the Queen’s face, to no effect. But she didn’t summon U-Catastrophe. She wouldn’t dare.

“And with that, you lose,” the Queen declared. “Your elements are divided, your princesses are gone, and your secret weapon is too dangerous.”

“There’s still the Matriarch,” Twilight said. “He’s here.”

The Queen looked knowingly at Suzie. “Oh, I don’t think he’ll be a problem. Will he, Captain?”

“...Suzie…” Celia wheezed. “What did you do?”

Suzie ground her teeth. “The Merodi will kill you.”

“I will see if I can’t move this entire world by then,” the Queen said. “They’ll find nothing of you besides a neighboring world with a panicking Luna and a broken Celestia.”

“What did you do to them!?” Twilight demanded.

“I had a talk,” the Queen giggled. “And now I-”

“SCREW THIS!” Cinder shouted, tackling Diane off of the Queen’s back. The pink pony struggled, attempting to keep Cinder from cutting her collar off with the power of the sun.

The Queen lit her horn—and once again everything went white.

~~~

That unicorn had an energy, the Queen had to admit. One she couldn’t quite account for. She had not seen Cinder going for Diane until it had already happened.

Instead of feeling anger or resentment, the Queen was nothing more than curious.

She was clearly special. Daylight had said her mind wasn’t quite the same as all the other ponies, and there were lots of other things just slightly off about her.

The Queen’s current theory was that this was the Tower’s doing, but even she had to admit she knew nothing about the structure beyond the vague ramblings Daylight had spouted in her neurosis.

The Queen was almost disappointed she wouldn’t get to take Daylight all the way to the end of her path… She had been looking forward to the inevitable betrayal ever since the mare was born. A unicorn that could be shaped into the perfect opponent, unlike the weak Underground, the misguided dragons, and the boring griffons…

But she wouldn’t let this deter her. Unexpected did not mean bad, after all. This may have been even better than her plans for Daylight.

She juggled the essences of the ponies bound to the Elements of Harmony. She had them all, captured, separated… She could just destroy them all and be done with it. But where was the fun in that?

She appeared to Applejack first.

“Finally decided to show yerself?” Applejack asked, not fazed in the slightest by the murky miasma she was sitting in. “Gonna kill me?”

“No. I’m going to take your Element.”

“Pretty sure it likes me better than you.”

“Oh, it does, most definitely. And if I didn’t have the means to physically separate you, it would stay affixed to you no matter what I did. But there’s something simple here, Applejack…” She tore the Element of Honesty into another universe, severing its connection to the earth pony completely. “Your Sweeties have given me the means to get around that.”

“We ain’t done yet.”

“Oh, I know! I’m counting on it!” She shifted elsewhere, this time to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy’s response was to try to snap the Queen’s neck. The Queen’s response to this was to break Fluttershy’s spine. “Such a bundle of anger… unbecoming for the Element of Kindness... “

Fluttershy tried to get up, but her body refused to move. “I… You… You killed him!”

“Did I? Or did Redsky? Or did he escape?” She laughed, severing Kindness’ connection to her. “You’ll never know, Fluttershy. Just like you lived in that cottage for years thinking he was dead, now you will sit here, maybe right, maybe wrong, suffering.”

“I… have had… enough of your suffering!”

“You’re still talking. You’ve got room for more.”

Rainbow was next. She too tried to attack. She too received a broken bone for her effort—a wing, in her case.

“Loyalty…” the Queen said, severing the Element. “You give out your trust too easily, Rainbow. Your ‘friends’ have only gotten you killed.”

“Shut the hell up,” Rainbow grunted.

“I speak the truth.”

“Yeah, so? At least I die doing something right.”

“Annoyingly, you are too simple to get any enjoyment out of…” She shifted to Rarity. “Now here’s something unexpected. Generosity. A high society unicorn.”

Rarity screamed and backed away from the Queen, tears trailing from her eyes.

“All the others have met me with defiance or strength,” the Queen said, severing Generosity’s connection. “You were a sniveling wreck. Clearly the weakest among them.” She chuckled. “You should consider returning to me after all this is over. I can put you back on the righteous path of magic.”

Rarity could only cry in response.

The Queen shifted to Diane next—not surprised to see that Cinder had somehow latched herself onto the mare’s essence. The collar Diane had wore most of her life was nowhere to be seen—only the Element of Laughter remained.

Cinder took a defensive stance between the Queen and Diane. “Leave her alone.”

“Diane, give me the Element of Laughter,” the Queen ordered.

Diane looked from her Queen, to Cinder, to her Queen again. “...No.”

What is it about this unicorn and causing the unexpected? She turned to glare at Cinder—smile faltering. “What have you done to her?”

“I was her friend,” Cinder said. “That’s it.”

“A simple conversation does not undo years of mental conditioning…” The Queen leaned in, narrowing her eyes at Cinder. “What is it about you that makes ponies like you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

The Queen’s smile returned full force. “You don’t even know yourself.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t need to know, I just need to stand by Pinkie here. You can’t do anyth-”

The Queen severed the connection to Laughter with ease. “Just because I asked her for it doesn’t mean I couldn't have just taken it.”

“What is wrong with you!?” Cinder shouted. “Why don’t you just wipe us all off the face of the planet and get it over with!?”

The Queen cackled. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Despite herself, Pinkie chuckled. “...Sorry Cinder, she got you good.”

Cinder twitched. “So what now?”

“Goodbye,” the Queen said, stepping into the place of the last Element—Twilight Sparkle.

She glared at the Queen defiantly, the element on her head glowing profusely.

“The strongest Element…” the Queen began. “The one that binds all the others together… The one that can stand on its own… And the one that controls.”

“I am not in the mood for your mind games,” Twilight growled, unleashing a beam of magic energy from the Element.

“Nopony ever is.” The Queen teleported behind Twilight and kicked her to the ground. “But that’s never stopped me before!”

“I won’t give in,” Twilight said, standing back up. “I’ve suffered too much to give in now.”

“You all seem to think I need you to give in, or something…” The Queen shook her head. “I can take the Element of Magic whenever I want.”

Twilight knew she was telling the truth. She frowned. “You really are a monster.”

“Isn’t it curious, knowing your teacher is me?”

“And I’m Daylight Sparkle. I’m also a shut in pony with no friends. And I’m an alicorn that, apparently, leads Merodi Universalis.” She looked at the Queen impassively. “We’re all Twilight Sparkle. But we’re all different ponies, in a way. I can’t hold Celestia accountable for things she has the potential to do, and I can't ignore what you’re doing just because you’re her.”

“She has built you up where she has failed to build herself.”

“You are the one that did this to me,” Twilight accused. “You only have yourself to blame for what I’ve become.”

The Queen laughed. “You get it! Ah, that fills me with such delight.” She severed Magic from Twilight. “You’ll be much better than Daylight.”

“I will never bow to you.”

“They all say that.”

And then Celestia returned to her world, appearing in the sky. She dumped all the ponies she’d held in her ethereal grasp back into her throne room—far enough away they wouldn’t be able to do anything to her.

She summoned the six Elements of Harmony to her, placing Magic in the center and allowing the other five to spin around her rapidly, creating a sphere of spectral energy around her form. Last time she had done this, she had miscalculated—rendering the Elements inert by overexerting them on Luna. Now she knew better—knew so much better. The Elements had to be used selectively, and in conjunction with other powers, to reach their full potential.

To start, she moved the sun directly overhead. The oppressive heat evaporated the blood from the streets and instantly burned all ponies who were outside, and would soon cook those hiding within their homes. Sure, they were her subjects, but they were just as expendable as everything else, and everything was coming to a head one way or another already. Might as well overdo it a little.

The dragon Matriarch saw her and roared with the power of ancients. He held out the Rock of Ages in one claw, using his own magic to manipulate the temporal powers within.

“Y O U R_S U N_W I L L_S E T_B Y_M Y_C L A W!”

He was older than she was, and he was definitely strong enough to take her out if he really could manipulate the Rock of Ages.

That was, if the Queen didn’t have the Elements of Harmony. He was easily a force of chaos and darkness, the Elements would have no trouble whatsoever defeating him. When she shot him with the rainbows of harmony, she had expected him to become a statue or be banished to the sun.

Not to be completely and utterly annihilated, disintegrating into dust along with the Rock of Ages.

The Queen laughed. “Thank you, Suzie.”

She began methodically calling fire from the heavens down on the dragons. All of them. Those on her side and otherwise. The race would be endangered at the end of the hour if she had anything to say about it.

~~~

Suzie looked around the throne room. She seemed unharmed. “Everyone okay?”

“Everyone except Daylight,” Cinder observed, looking at the mare crying in her fetal position.

“I’m not okay,” Fluttershy said meekly. “She broke my back…”

“She took the Elements!” Twilight shouted, tapping her head frantically. “All she had to do was move them to another universe!”

“She left us alive,” Applejack said. “We can take them from her. ...Right?”

“Right!” Pinkie said, bouncing into the middle of them all. “Name’s Pinkamena Diane Pie, haven’t been called Pinkie in forever, but now sounds like as good of a time as any! Let’s get her!”

“Good work, Cinder,” Suzie said, prompting the unicorn to beam at her. “Now… we just need to get to Celestia…”

Rainbow grunted. “I’d go out there and get her, but my wings ar-”

“She’s returned the sun…” Daylight moaned. “We’ve failed her… She’s burning the city… It’s all my fault…” Her Spike walked up to her and nuzzled her wordlessly.

“She’s burning the entire city…” Cinder repeated, aghast. “We… We have to do something!”

“I don’t think we can go outside…” Applejack said, haunted.

“I can,” Burgerbelle said, suddenly in a hazmat suit.

“We need all six of us out there,” Rainbow countered. “And two of us are pretty banged up!”

“I… I can’t move the sun, not with her here,” Twilight said, biting her lip. “She’d just wrestle control of it back… We need Celestia, or Luna, or…”

“Raven!” Rainbow shouted. “She’s still at the mountain, she could do it!”

“We have no way to get there and tell her to do anything! And I don’t think she’s strong enough to fight her sister!”

“And the Princesses are in another universe…” Suzie grunted. “There’s got to be something…”

“Brainy Bright…” Daylight wheezed.

“What was that?” twilight asked.

“Brainy Bright…” Daylight repeated, every word coming with pain shooting through her jaw. “He’s built dimensional arches. They… might work anyway.”

“Where is he?” Twilight demanded.

Daylight looked at her, eyes flashing with anger for a moment. She refused to speak.

“Daylight, if you don’t tell us where he is, she is going to kill all of us. You included! Wouldn’t you like to live!?”

Daylight froze for a moment. Then, with a pained wince that came from the depths of her soul, she nodded.

“Yay!” Pinkie cheered. “That’s all six! We’ve got a perfect set!”

Daylight groaned as Twilight helped her up. “Just point to where Brainy Bright is.”

Daylight sluggishly gestured down.

“Stand back everyone!” Suzie declared, aiming her weapon at the ground. “This is going to get a little explosive.”

The ground crumbled to dust with a single shot from Suzie’s weapon, revealing a room deep within the earth. At the far end were two curved pillars making a partial arc. Numerous magic consoles were littered around the walls, plugged into each other with crystalline matrices.

“This looks a lot like Corona’s prototype…” Suzie commented.

There was one pony here—a terrified, shivering Brainy Bright.

Twilight levitated everyone into the hole one by one, turning to the scientist as she did so. “...Hello, Brainy Bright.”

“D-don’t kill me…”

“I have no intention of doing that,” Twilight said. “Can you connect us to our Equestria?”

“Y-yes, b-but the Queen-”

“Is melting this entire city to slag. Do it now.”

“She’ll notice and close it…”

“I’m hoping we don’t need that long.”

“I’m going to the other side,” Suzie said. “If I’m in another universe, I might be able to call for help if I can find the right magician. Rest of you, stay here.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. Brainy Bright ran to the controls and flicked all the switches on quickly. The arches hummed to life and cut through reality, tearing a window to another world. Suzie wasted no time—jumping in the same instant Twilight sent out the strongest psychic message she could muster.

CELESTIA! LUNA! COME, NOW!

Luna wasted no time teleporting to their side. “Twilight, you opened a portal! Well done!”

“Where’s Celestia?” Twilight demanded.

“...I thought she was still here with you…”

“The Queen said she put you in the same world…”

“We may have to fight without her,” Luna said, spreading her wings. “Prepare for that possibility, Twilight Sparkle.”

~~~

The Queen knew her opponents were not truly defeated, not even in the sun so oppressive as this. The dragons may have been easy pickings with the sun so close at hand, but there were a few individuals she was expecting some difficulty from…

The first was currently creating a wretched, dusty creature out of dried blood and bones. Somewhere deep within the wretched snake of gore and darkness was none other than Nira herself, Sweetie of darkness. Tendrils of blood were impossible to maintain in the immense solar heat, so she had to create physical claws from the fallen. Luckily for Nira, the Queen was excellent at providing corpses for the dark unicorn to use.

“Look at you, throwing aside all taboo just for the sake of a chance!” The Queen dove out of the way of a massive curdling claw, deflecting several arrows made of dark bone with her brilliant magic in the process. “You are a mare after my own heart, Nira! Too bad that makes you weak in the eyes of harmony!” She pushed the Elements in front of her and activated them with a simple instruction—reduce the darkness. Nothing fancy, nothing that would tax them, just something that would weaken Nira enough so a solar beam could disintegrate her.

“HARMONY INTERCEPT!” Seren shouted, flying into the air and catching the rainbow energy in her scepter. “KARMA REFLECT: OVERDRIVE!” The rainbows sailed right back at Celestia, but naturally the Elements around her spared her the indignity of being defeated by her own attack.

Seren was a powerful mage vested in complex magic circles whose power ran off friends and family. The Elements would do nothing against her. But the sun…

Seren had to put all her energy into creating a shield that would take the full force of a solar laser. Given the amount of energy she was putting off and the pitch of her screams, she was having immense difficulty merely surviving.

And then ‘Raven’ moved the sun.

The Queen rolled her eyes. Such a disappointing, useless gesture. That mare had no power, she had been reduced to little more than a child. The Queen easily moved the sun back in place without a-

‘Raven’ appeared out of nowhere and drove her horn straight into the Queen’s side, drawing blood.

“I am not foolish, sister.”

The Queen chuckled. “You are. Just not in the obvious way.” All it took was the Element of Magic and ‘Raven’ was thrown to the ground, using most of her power to keep from cooking in the oppressive power of the sun.

“MY TURN!” Luna shouted, appearing in a teleportation of dark power. She grabbed hold of the sun like she would the moon and pushed it away.

They opened the portal. The Queen allowed her control of the sun to slip for a moment so she could sever the connection to the other world, but then she fought Luna for it.

“You are not attuned to this celestial body,” the Queen said, firing a solar beam at Nira to deter her from attacking. “It is mine, and it will always be mine. You must spend too much of your power fighting its own heat to take it away from me!”

Luna’s horn burst into flames and she fell to the ground near her counterpart.

The sun returned to its position, baking the entire land like all of it was the Queen’s oven.

“Come on! Anything else!?” the Queen shouted.

~~~

CELESTIA! LUNA! COME, NOW!

Celestia heard it loud and clear.

Twilight had some kind of desperate plan. She’d managed to open a portal between the Equestrias. Celestia even knew exactly where the portal was located. She could teleport right there and be part of whatever Twilight had come up with.

Why wasn’t she going?

Why was she still sitting here, in the astral plane, feeling sorry for herself?

She should go… face…

...Herself.

No. She couldn’t face herself. She was too strong. She knew her too well. She… She…

What was Celestia even thinking about anymore? She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything. How had she ever thought she knew what was best for her ponies? She was just one of them, one of them who had lived far, far too long and would snap one day. It was only a matter of time…

But it wasn’t her this time, was it?

Whatever Twilight was doing wasn’t her plan. It was Twilight’s plan. If she returned, she wouldn’t be leading the charge… she would be following a purple unicorn who had been through far too much. Who had killed thousands in the name of harmony. Who was still fighting despite everything seeming hopeless.

Celestia didn’t need to lead. Perhaps she shouldn’t lead…

But she could follow.

She stood tall, wiped her eyes, and teleported away.

The portal between worlds closed the instant she appeared on the other side.

“Celestia!” Twilight called, beaming.

“What do I need to do, Twilight?” Celestia asked—making no effort to hide her tear-stained eyes. She registered the presence of Daylight and Brainy Bright, but decided not to question it. This was Twilight’s plan, not hers.

“The sun is above Everfree City, killing everyone. You need to move it away from the planet! Luna is already out there but it’s not working!”

“Of course.” She teleported outside, struck by the heat of the sun. It was so close it filled half the sky and evaporated all water.

“Ah, you’ve returned!” the Queen declared. “What’s your game now? Have y-”

“It isn’t my game,” Celestia interrupted. “This is Twilight’s game. I am simply following her orders.”

Celestia didn’t even check to see if that gave the Queen pause—she pushed with all her might on the sun, moving it away.

The Queen laughed gleefully. “And so it ends in tug of war? So be it!” She pulled much harder than Celestia ever could have, threatening to ram the sun into the planet and cause an apocalypse.

“Sister!” Luna called, pushing the sun with her power as well. “You are weakened!”

“But I do not stand alone!” Celestia called, grinning in Luna’s direction.

‘Raven’ stood up at Luna’s side. “You’re outnumbered, sister!”

Three alicorns pushed on the sun, forcing it further from the surface of Equis.

“Yes!” the Queen cheered. “Yes! Push with all your might!” She pulled at the sun even harder, tapping into the power of the Elements to enhance her own magic. “Give it your all!”

Celestia winced—the sun was moving closer again. If three of them couldn’t do it…”

“ASTROMECHANICAL SHIFT!” Seren shouted, firing a beam of her own magic at the sun, pushing it up ever so slightly.

“Look at how you inspire them!” the Queen shouted, grin far larger than it had ever been before. “See the hope you place in their minds! And yet, you know it means nothing! You don’t have the hope they do!”

“YES WE DO!” Luna shouted at the top of her lungs. “WE HAVE HOPE THAT GOOD WILL PREVAIL, WHETHER IT IS THROUGH US OR NOT!”

And then two others joined the tug of war. Deep beneath the palace, standing in front of a useless portal, two purple unicorns touched the sun and pushed together.

The sun moved away… away… away… further away than it had been in centuries.

A vein popped above the Queen’s eternal grin. “Careful!”

“Careful?” Luna shouted.

‘Raven’ stopped pushing in an instant. “We need to stop before i-”

It was too late. The sun had taken too much strain.

It exploded.

Unlike a real star, which would have instantly vaporized the world upon exploding, the sun of the eternal day went out like an immense firework, sending balls of fire in every direction. Some would burn through the atmosphere for a few seconds before burning up, while others would streak into the cosmic expanse and fizzle out into nothing.

It was as if a switch had been turned off. The planet that had known nothing but endless day for a millenium was suddenly plunged into pitch darkness. The entire planet felt a chill run across its surface.

And then the stars came out. Slowly, but surely, providing the smallest bit of light to the world, giving the slightest highlights to the world in darkness. The city that had been burning moments before fell dead silent.

The only bright light that remained was the Queen herself, surrounded by the Elements.

Her smile hadn’t faltered in the slightest. “Now look what you’ve done…”

Twilight didn’t give her the chance to monologue. She teleported on top of her, six ponies in tow: Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, and Daylight.

The Elements didn’t need any further prompting. They affixed themselves around the mare’s necks and glowed with their Harmonious energy once again.

“LIGHT HER UP!” Twilight ordered.

Nopony hesitated—not even Daylight.

But she would remember the look her Queen gave her just before the light engulfed her.

It was the only honest smile of pride the Queen had ever given her student.

She would be haunted by that knowledge for the rest of her days.

The Queen didn’t even attempt to fight the harmonious light as it engulfed her and shoved her into the ground, draining her of all power. They couldn’t seal her in the sun—there was no sun—and she was too close to the Elements themselves to be petrified.

But she could be stripped of everything. She was reduced to a size barely larger than Twilight and deposited on the cold ground below like worthless trash.

With a grunt, the diminutive white alicorn with a pink mane stood up—and fixed Celestia with a serene smile.

Celestia could only frown in response.

“...Harmony with oneself…” Twilight said as she and the Elements of Harmony landed behind the once-Queen. “You were truly sure of everything you did, never doubted yourself. Always Honest, Loyal, Generous, Laughing, and Kind… to every aspect of yourself and no others. I don’t know how you did it, but you did.”

“It is the life of no regrets,” the once-Queen said, smile unwavering. “All of you will walk away from this with confusion in your souls and trauma in your minds. I will not, no matter what you do to me.”

“Your death is certain,” ‘Raven’ spat.

“That is not for us to decide,” Luna said. “We are too close to her. We are blinded. As are those who she has puppeted for so, so long, preparing them to be bitter in this moment.” She turned to Twilight. “...I will defer to your judgement.”

“As do I,” Celestia said.

Twilight looked from Luna to Celestia—and nodded, understanding. She stepped away from her friends and looked the once-Queen in the eye. “All the crimes done on this world—done by all those you had manipulated to serve your ends—fall on you. You were not coerced into doing this, and you have never expressed remorse at any point.” Twilight set her jaw. “Do you have anything to say to change my mind?”

“If you let me live, I’ll tell you why,” she said, smiling. “I will tell you what I had hoped to accomplish, if I actually accomplished it… everything. Every action I ever took regarding you, my ponies, Daylight, my sister, the Nightmare… all of it will be laid bare to you. But you will have to let me live to know the answers to your burning questions.”

Twilight stared at her. “...Even in death, you want to put doubt in our minds?”

“The life of no regrets, Twilight Sparkle.”

“...I have no need to know your motives. Not anymore. Nothing could excuse this.” She created a magical sword using the Element of Magic. “Any last words?”

The small, innocent looking alicorn shook her head.

Her smile didn't waver even as the sword was plunged into her chest. She stood perfectly still for the longest time, staring right into Twilight’s soul.

And then she keeled over, dead.

Twilight did not shed a single tear over her. “...Find one of the Sweeties. They’re going to need to move the planet.”

Nopony would ever know what Queen Celestia truly wanted.

~~~

It took less than twenty-four hours for the Merodi to move the planet to another universe where it could orbit a calm, yellow, main-sequence star under the natural law of gravity instead of some alicorn. Applejack may have complained about a lot of things about what the Merodi were going to do, but that wasn’t one of them.

The Aid Division began organizing rebuilding efforts. Applejack was set up as interim ruler while everything was rebuilt and the day-night cycle was reintroduced to the world. They had no moon—but they had a new sun that didn’t burn their very lives away.

The discussions about what the new government should look like were not going to be resolved anytime soon. It’d be months before they settled on anything, and until then, the Aid Division was taking care of them. And regardless of what Applejack ended up going with, the planet would become green again.

Luna refused to even be considered for ruler of the new world. She said she needed to be with Celestia—neither one of them was meant to rule alone. Their Equestria had been without them for weeks, and the two of them needed to stabilize what had been set awry when Brainy Bright pulled his stunt.

Brainy Bright himself was sent off to the Merodi Research division instead of some sort of jail, where his intellect could be put to good use.

The Griffon Kingdom flourished, and the old Matriarch took hold of her dragons once again. She found, almost inexplicably, that the dragon population stopped growing almost entirely. It was as if a switch had flipped in their entire society the moment the black monstrosity had been vaporized.

The first thing Twilight Sparkle had tried to do was go home. It… didn’t go that well.

“Why do you spend so much time here?” Daylight asked her one day as they walked through a reconstructed area of Everfree City.

Twilight sighed. “My home… doesn’t feel like home anymore.”

Daylight raised an eyebrow.

“None of them can understand why I did the things that I did. All of them but Applejack say they do. But I know they’re lying. They try to be friends… but they’re also scared.” She looked into the distance at the setting sun. “...It was like how I treated Rainbow after I saw her kill a pony. Except unending, awkward, and painful for everypony.”

Daylight didn’t know what to say to this. She didn’t know what to say to a lot of things these days. She was honestly just around to keep the remaining Secret Police from trying to blow everything up out of some misguided attempt at revenge.

“I feel like Brainy Bright took my friends from me,” Twilight said suddenly. “It definitely wasn’t what he wanted, but it’s what he did. He tossed us into Tartarus and… we were changed.” She paused. “Celestia and Luna are issuing more reforms to Canterlot government, putting checks and balances on their power. The Merodi aren’t even pushing it—they would have accepted us as we were before—but the Princesses aren’t taking any chances.”

“So he got what he wanted?”

“No,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “He wanted a world without authority. And that just… doesn’t exist.” She hoofed at the ground, grimacing. “I keep telling myself this is worth it. I sacrificed my happiness for this entire world. But… it’s hard.”

“At least you have some idea what it all meant for you. What was the point of my life?”

“...I can’t answer that.”

“Nopony can.”

They were silent once again.

“You two need to stop frowning!” Pinkie—Daylight’s Pinkie—said, appearing out of nowhere, her jester-bells jingling. “Tell you what, I’m going to throw a little show tonight, and I’m told my special guests are going to be quite the treat! Discord and Trixie Lulamoon of Equis Vitis, live!”

Daylight grunted. “Pinkie, ponies hate me. I don’t go to public things.”

“You’re my personal guest, they can all shut it,” Pinkie declared. “Plus, I think Fluttershy’s warming up to you ever since you did that ‘crying apology self-loathing’ thing in front of Big Mac. C’mon, you know you want to come! Cinder told me it’ll be THE BEST!”

“...Fine.”

Twilight allowed herself to smile. It wasn’t like she had no friends, after all…

~~~

“There was a war. I didn’t see it,” Cinder mused from her bed in Swip. “I think it’s probably good I didn’t see it.”

Rarity was trying not to hyperventilate at the revelation that her sister had been a prisoner of war.

“I mean, I fought Daylight, but I was pretty focused in that… I didn’t get to see any of the dragons, Nira’s blood monsters, anything. ...I did see her though. I saw a lot of her.” Cinder shivered. “She may have been the most evil thing I have ever seen.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine. A pony that would cause such horror by… by choice!”

“You tell Twilight to watch over Celestia and Luna, okay?”

“I will. Mark my words, I will…”

“Rarity?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think I’m… okay?”

“Dear, you’re definitely not okay, you’re in mortal danger every few days!”

“I meant… mentally speaking.” Cinder put a hoof to her chin. “Everyone tells me I’ve been taking everything rather well. In stride. That I’m recovering from everything a little too quickly…”

“What does Sweetaloo have to say?”

“She says I’m an odd case. She’s never seen anyone take all this in stride before, but she’s also never dealt with anyone facing such ‘subsequent scaling encounters’ before.” Cinder scratched her ears. “Sometimes I wonder about myself, you know?”

“Well, I think that’s a good sign.” Rarity smiled. “It means you’re watching yourself, making sure you are okay. It might even be why you’re able to handle things so well, you’re able to see it for what it is and not hide from it.”

“Heh. Guess maybe I was serious when I said I was done hiding.” Her ears twitched involuntarily.

“I think you’re growing up into a great professional hero.” Rarity beamed. “I’m scared for you—all the time—but I see you talk about it, and hear about the things you do… I couldn’t be more proud.”

“You’re the best sister ever.”

“You better believe it! I’m risking a heart attack every afternoon just by letting you be out there! Appreciate me!”

Sweetie laughed. “I do, don’t worry about it. I-” there was a knock at the door. “Come in!”

Celia walked in, a soft smile on her face. “Hello, Cinder.”

“Hi Celia! How are you doin-”

Celia pulled Cinder into a hug. “...Thank you for being there. It meant a lot more to me than I was able to express.”

“I… Uh… Rarity, do you mind if I call you back?”

Rarity looked at Celia with uncertainty. “Wh… yes, yes, of course, it’s fine.”

“Bye!”

The call ended leaving Rarity alone in her room, staring at a blank screen.

She frowned.

Author's Notes:

If you didn't already read Sunshine and Fire, you should. It's been dead for a long, long time. I hope I did it justice though. Finally - a conclusion.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Fey Breeze (Fey, Fae, Fay? I DON'T KNOW DON'T ASK ME. ...Back to the Oversaturated World, at any rate.)

((LSB Status Post))

The Transient Bonds of Winter (Fey Breeze)

Being gutted for use in a short war did a number on Swip’s body. Not her mind—this was far from the first time this sort of thing had happened—but her systems were stripped down to the basics and she was completely unable to fly, engage life support, or even fire the simplest of weapons. It was going to take a bit more to fix her than the last time she had been incapacitated.

So explorations to new worlds were put on hold. It just wouldn’t feel right to go somewhere new without Swip there to watch over them.

This did not mean the Sweeties weren’t working, far from it. The time had rolled around again for a special shipment to Earth Shimmer—though this time, it wasn’t merely a routine visit. Today. the scientists over in the Research Division had cooked together the most state-of-the-art reality anchors ever, courtesy of none other than Merodi Universalis’ own Corona Shimmer, Second of Research and source of the nation’s immortality serum.

To most, she was a sight to behold. A tall, thin woman with skin glowing a soft gold color. A horn and two pony ears poked out of her head while two brilliant wings sprouted from her back, the appearance of an alicorn-human combo that people still hadn’t come up with a name for. She wore a white dress with red highlights, white gloves with red crystals embedded in the back of them, and a pair of pointed red shades that screamed “ANIME” to anyone who had any idea what that meant.

To Suzie, Corona was just a friend who happened to be extra shiny. That didn’t stop Cinder and most of the other Sweeties from looking at her with awe. Cinder had been staring ever since she’d laid eyes on the angelic woman. Corona had opened the portal directly to Earth Shimmer under her own magic while the Sweeties carried most the cargo across to the other side.

Now, Corona was lounging on top of a large, cylindrical piece of technology made from pristine white metal. It was currently off—the screens displayed nothing, the lights were all dead, and miles of spooled cable were stacked next to it haphazardly. She traced the top gingerly with her finger. “You like what you see?”

Sunset Shimmer, reluctant deity of Earth Shimmer, looked into the face of her counterpart with a grin. “This’ll do it?”

“Well, not alone, you’re going to need to set up a dozen of these things all around the planet, and if we really are going to have Celestia City around we’re going to need to establish at least somewhat of a space network… but yeah, this bad boy will prevent your reality from breaking if you sneeze.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “I don’t break reality when I sneeze.”

“I’m sure you could if you tried, Shimmy.”

“...Shimmy?”

“There’s already a Sunny and you don’t have a name yet. If you don’t think of a better name for yourself in the next five seconds, you’re Shimmy.”

Sunset paused. “Wait, wha-”

“Shimmy it is.”

The newly christened Shimmy sighed. “Whatever blows up your skirt, Bloodbag.”

“Feisty,” Corona chuckled.

With a roll of her eyes, Shimmy pressed her hand to the reality anchor device, furrowing her brow. “...Yeah, I have no idea how any of this works.”

“I barely know how it works and I invented the dumb thing,” Corona laughed. “Put simply, it’s an anchor. It doesn’t matter how unstable or moldable reality around it is, it’ll hold it in place so long as it has the right power. Speaking of…” She pointed at the cables. “We’re going to need to start hooking these things up.” Remembering the Sweeties existed, she turned to them. “This… will take some time. Human magitech power grids are never very reliable. So just… go have some fun.”

Suzie nodded, turning to her crew. “You all go storm the NAHTII or something. I’ll stick around to oversee everything.”

“You really don’t need to do that,” Corona pointed out.

“I’m acting in the interests of Oversight.”

“This is Aid’s purview.”

Shimmy raised an eyebrow. “Why are you two even arguing? She can stay if she wants. It’s not like anything here is secret or dangerous.”

“Well, if it goes really wrong we could destroy the universe,” Corona pointed out.

“And is Suzie’s presence going to change that?”

“Wow, this is a pointless argument,” Nira observed. “Goodbye, goddesses.”

“WE ARE NOT GODDESSES!” the two sputtered.

“You can be the goddesses of not-being-goddesses!” Burgerbelle announced, appearing between them. She winked.

“That’s…” Corona began.

“...really dumb,” Shimmy finished.

“Exactly, fits you perfectly!” Burgerbelle scooped up Nira, Cinder, and Blink in her arms. “And now I run before I get smited!” She folded the four of them up into a origami crane and flew away.

“...She does realize I can sense her anywhere, right?” Shimmy asked. “Her signature’s the most unique thing on the planet right now.”

“Oh, she knows,” Suzie confirmed. “I don’t think she cares, though.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

Corona shrugged, flapping her wings. “Seen it all, maybe? I can relate.” She levitated one of the giant cables to her. “So… let’s find out where we can plug this in…”

“It’s not like we can plug it into the sun…” Shimmy mused, hand to her chin.

Corona laughed. “Yeah, definitely… not…” Her smile vanished and the gears started turning in her mind.

“Wait…” Shimmy gasped. “Can we? Can we really?”

“The logistics are a bit much for me right now but I’m sure we can create a workaround through clever portal tactics…”

“I’ll stabilize the inner spaces!”

Suzie sat down, smirking. This was going to be interesting to watch.

~~~

“Burgerbelle, you’re suicidal,” Nira muttered.

Burgerbelle had taken her ‘team’ to the local Everfree Forest to ‘hide’ from the ‘wrath’ of Shimmy without upsetting reality by ripping open a dimensional portal. Just a stroll in the magically oversaturated woods. Nothing all that special, right?

“...Can Burgerbelle even die?” Blink wondered aloud.

“Yes!” Burgerbelle confirmed.

“How can you be sure?”

Burgerbelle held up a hand and smiled. This expression jump-cut to one of existential uncertainty. “Mother of Celestias…”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Come on, Burgerbelle, you can get hurt just like the rest of us.”

Burgerbelle cut off her arm with a pair of scissors, folded it into a paper airplane, and threw it. It did a few loop-de-loops before crashing back into her and becoming part of her once again.

“Burgerbelle: a walking ‘be proven wrong’ machine,” Blink narrated. “Here we see her in her natural habitat, proving logic is nothing more than an invention conceived in the flawed minds of man…”

Nira grunted. “Blink, we can do without the commentary, Burger’s good enough at it on her own.”

“Fly my brethren!” Burgerbelle shouted, spooking a group of geese considerably. Instead of fleeing, they jumped Burgerbelle with angry pecks. “Hey! Ow! I said fly!”

Cinder looked at her in disbelief. “Burger…”

“Goose problem, please hold!”

Cinder glanced at the phone in her hoof and burnt it to ashes. “Burgerbelle, why are we in the Everfree Forest?”

Burgerbelle stood up dramatically, a goose sitting on her head like a hat. “Good reasons!”

“Such as?”

“I didn’t want to go to the NAHTII?”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “This was all random, wasn't it?”

“Is there really any such thing as luck?” Burgerbelle asked, one of her pupils splitting into seven for a split second. “If there is, I have all of it.”

Cinder facehooved. “Burger… You know what, nevermind.” With a roll of her eyes she decided she was done trying to extract some sort of sense out of the Flat. She wondered for the umpteenth time why Burgerbelle of all Sweeties was the second in command, and not Celia. Was it really just because Burger was one of the earliest members of the League?

That really couldn’t be it…

Though watching Burgerbelle trip over an obvious log and fall face-first into a cute, squealing frog made Cinder’s doubts in the Flat rise. She didn’t even really lead while they were exploring; she tended to take a background role and do random stuff. And when talking about Burgerbelle, ‘random stuff’ meant exactly what it sounded like.

What did Burgerbelle even do? Cinder had been here for well over a month at this point and she still had no idea. Burgerbelle was a good distraction? That worked, but there had to be something else…

“...Something just happened,” Nira said, furrowing her brow. “The magic changed.”

Cinder paused. She had to admit, the forest did feel… different, not that she was really all that good for scanning magic signatures. Her horn just buzzed differently when she lit it.

It was the sky whale that really told her something was different.

“What th-”

And then there was a hole in the ground where, really, there hadn’t been one before. The four of them tried to grab hold of something resembling ground, but it was all too far away for them. They fell, and had it not been for Nira’s quick thinking they would have all fallen in different directions. As it was, she was able to chain the four of them together in a Y shape, keeping them all from falling apart but not preventing Cinder from hitting an earthen wall hard enough to bruise.

They fell out into a wide expanse of twisting forest. Had they not been falling it likely would have been beautiful—the trees glistened with ethereal magics, the multiple suns rolled and twisted with the folding spacetime, and the world was full of every color imaginable, somehow both bright and dark simultaneously. Sparks of light flitted around with the flow of magic in this strange place.

And yet, all the Sweeties could do was scream and flail as they kept falling. Nira managed to latch a hook of dark magic onto a nearby chunk of earth, pulling them to a stop atop an amorphous blob of soil jutting out of a larger forest.

Cinder tore her head out of the ground. “Ow… Nira, couldn’t you have been a little gentler?”

“No!” Nira shouted, her dark voice coming out in full force. “This place is not for us, we must leave! Now!”

Burgerbelle took out her dimensional device and frowned. “We’ve moved universes. There’s no direct connection to Earth Shimmer, and this plane isn’t on the record.”

“We don’t have time for this! Set it to cycle until it finds a way out!”

Burgerbelle pressed a button, doing as asked. She turned around—and looked up into the face of a tremendous rock man four times her height. “Oh, hey, sweet! A golem! Hi!”

The ‘golem’ smashed her into the ground like a pancake. She was fine. The dimensional device wasn’t.

Cinder facehooved. “Really Burgerbelle!?”

~~~

“And that’s how you wormhole to the surface of the sun,” Shimmy said, looking at her handiwork: a hole in the air that went directly to a raging inferno of hydrogen flames. Around it were several dozen magic circles courtesy of Corona. Currently the circles were just analyzing the energy and keeping it from torching the hill they were standing on, but they would be removed the moment they encased it in a heat-resistant casing that would convert the power directly into electrical energy for the reality anchors.

The two Sunsets high-fived.

“So, I see two reactions in quick succession from the energy companies,” Corona started.

“First: relief that we aren’t draining on their resources.” Shimmy deduced.

“Second: panic once they realize we might have just made their jobs obsolete.”

With a smirk, Shimmy continued. “Third: how can we profit off this new technology?”

Corona chuckled. “If you ever become full members your businesses are going to be in for a surprise…”

Shimmy frowned. “I still can’t believe you guys can get Earths to just sign on so easily.”

“Usually we have limitless access, your instability has been keeping us from giving out the full package and keeping careful watch.” Corona raised the strength of one of the magic circles to keep the barrier from faltering. “Under normal circumstances we can provide just about anything they want. Sure, we tell them we’re anti-big business, but no matter how they slice it they get more profit being part of us than not.”

“You have it lucky.”

“Now we have it lucky,” Corona corrected. “Back when we were first forming the two major Earths in our alliance tried to sue each other for copyright infringement…”

“That’s not what happened,” Suzie corrected. She was sitting nearby, eating lunch off a picnic blanket.

“That’s how Eve describes it!”

Suzie rolled her eyes. “They wanted to figure out copyright law. Eve basically gave them a middle finger after getting royally fed up with their antics and signed the Business Limitation Statute. ...Geez, I was still in college when that was going down.”

“Must be nice,” Shimmy commented. “Getting to go to college.”

“...Weren’t you in Celestia's School?”

Shimmy raised an eyebrow. “Human college, you know, the one you went to?”

Suzie nodded. “You know, it’s weird. Our worlds are both standard Equis-linked earths, and yet they’re wildly different. And I don’t just mean the whole ‘oversaturated magic’ thing, I mean we were different. On the surface we had the same things, but in mine… well for one, your Harmonism didn’t exist, we just had the standard religions.”

“The magic was the same though.” Shimmy walked up to Suzie and looked her over. “You have the human magic in you. And that… other thing, but I still sense it.”

Suzie smiled weakly. “I’ve never been able to actively use that magic.”

“There’s probably something we could do about that…” Shimmy said, hand to her chin. “I’ll get back to you on that. Right now…”

“The power of the SUN!” Corona yelled, cackling in mock malevolence.

“Maybe I should try to sound evil more often. Get fewer worshippers.”

Corona put a hand on Shimmy’s shoulder. “Doesn’t work, sorry.”

“Yeah, I know.”

As they returned to their work, Suzie pulled out her phone. Might as well check up on Burgerbelle, tell her Shimmy clearly didn’t care about the whole insult thing.

“...Unable to reach recipient?” Suzie frowned. That wasn't unusual in their line of work… when they were in separate universes. They were supposed to be in the same universe. “Hey, Shimmy, can you find Burgerbelle?”

“Easy peasy lemo-” Shimmy stopped in the middle of her sentence. “...How…?”

“You can’t.”

“No, I can’t, and she’s such a—oh.” She facepalmed. “Oh no…”

Corona adjusted her shades. “I both do and don’t like the sounds of this.”

“They fell into the local Fae Realm,” Shimmy explained. “I need to make some ‘calls’.”

Suzie scrolled through her list of contacts. “Do you mind if I call someone in too? If we’re dealing with Fay…”

“Universe is stable enough to handle a few more portals, it’s fine.”

“Question,” Corona said, holding up a finger. “Why aren’t we just charging into this Fae Realm and grabbing them?”

“Because that’s a good way to get the Fay to declare multiversal war on me.”

“...I swear I’ve lived this movie before.”

Shimmy rolled her eyes.

~~~

Nira rammed the head of the rock-creature into the ground, fracturing the earthen surface with numerous fissures. “You will leave us, beast of the summer, or you will suffer an untimely demise!”

“Geez, Nira, chill pill!” Blink shouted. “Look, rock guy, can you just… leave us alone while we try to figure out where we are? Kay.”

“I know exactly where we are. We are in a Fae Realm. We must leave as soon as possible.”

“Nira, scary voice,” Cinder pointed out.

“I am declaring my presence to this world so they will not dare!”

“There are about a dozen giants behind you indicating they probably will dare.”

Nira twitched, turning to see exactly what Cinder described. Giants with muscles so large they could be mistaken for fat to one as small as her. They all wore simple, brown robes, while the more violent fiery magics whirled around them.

Nira twitched, setting up a circle of darkness around her. “You will leave. Now.”

“Return to us what is ours,” the lead giant said, voice booming loud enough to rustle the trees around the Sweeties.

“...We haven’t taken anything,” Blink pointed out. “We literally just got here.”

“The artifacts are gone and you are the only mortals here who could have taken them.” The giant sneered. “It will do you good t-”

“Done talking!” Nira shouted, blasting the giant in the face with a beam of dark energy, knocking him into the others like a bowling pin.

“Nira!” Blink wailed. “Squiddy’s supposed to be the aggressive one!”

“We are getting out of this place!” Nira shouted, cutting herself to create a crimson knife. She sliced through the air, cutting a hole in space-time to another universe. A universe that happened to look exactly the same as the one they were currently in. “Oh for the love o-”

One of the giants who hadn’t been knocked over grabbed Nira with his fist. She would have been crushed had she not pushed back with all her magical might, the resulting reaction force sending her flying across the warped space into a tangled grassland.

Blink sighed as another giant attempted to step on her, phasing right through. “You really need t-” the next giant attacked with some sort of spiritual aspect to his kick, hitting Blink and tossing her next to Nira. “Looks like they got spirit magic…”

“No, really?!” Nira shouted, twitching. She produced several claws of blood and charged at the giant who had grabbed her, smashing into him hard enough to create a small crater. This was enough to break off the entire nodule of earth the Sweeties had been standing on, sending it tumbling into the warped space.

They bumped into a sky whale, prompting a deep, annoyed noise to ring from its lungs. This tone shook the entire battlefield once more, toppling giants and shaking Burgerbelle like a cymbal.

Cinder, to her credit, knew when she wasn’t going to be able to do anything in the fight. She was hiding behind a tree.

Hey, the tree ‘said.’

“Not right now,” Cinder muttered. “It’s fascinating that you can talk to me and all, but if you didn’t notice there’s kind of a lot exploding out there. Mostly because of Nira. ...Why is she so angry?”

The tree didn’t know. Or it didn’t respond. Cinder had no way to tell which. She wasn't even entirely sure it had spoken to her in the first place.

“Your friends seem to be having… difficulty with the Summer Court.”

“I said not right now!” Cinder hissed—then she realized that hadn’t been the tree. She looked behind her to see a pale skinned humanoid being with sharp ears, brilliant eyes, and eyelashes that were big enough to be utterly ridiculous in every context. This impression was only cemented by his exceptionally gaudy cloak covered in magical crystals and insignia presumably representing high status. Cinder couldn’t help but giggle. “Uh… sorry, thought you were the tree.”

“I will endeavor not to take that as an insult,” he said, looking beyond the tree at the battle taking place. “Pray tell, what is happening?”

“They thought we stole some artifacts or something. Nira—that’s the one flinging all the shadows around—went ballistic for no good reason. And Burgerbelle… is… playing an accordian?”

She was, in fact, playing an accordian. The notes were floating into the air before transforming into projectiles and ramming into the giants.

“...Curious,” the ‘man’ said, leaning in. “I have never seen one like her before.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to see another one.”

“I will make my own judgement.” He reached into his cloak and pulled out a tall scepter with a pink eye-shaped crystal at the head. “One moment, I shall clear up this rabble for you.”

“Oh, thanks!”

He stepped out from behind the tree, scepter raised. “Hello my brethren from across the seasonal divide, how goes your encounter?”

“JÖKULL HEKLAGI!” the rock man shouted, having just managed to stand back up. “What is your purpose here?!” Nira flew into the rock man like a dark bullet, knocking him over once again.

Jökull answered anyway. “There are rumors of artifacts that have been lost.” He held up his staff. “I have reason to suspect they are somewhere around here.”

One of the giants turned away from the Sweeties and glared at him. “Those artifacts are ours, Jökull.”

“This one isn’t,” Jökull pointed out, pointing it right at the giants. The pink light left the scepter and entered the eyes of every member of the Summer Court. In that moment, they knew one thing—one of their precious lost artifacts was flying through the air behind them. In unison they turned around and thundered away as fast as their massive legs would carry them, shaking the earth with every movement. They cried and screamed in lament as the precious artifact nobody else could see flew further and further away from them.

“Wow!” Cinder said, coming out from behind the tree. “That was pretty cool, Jökull!”

Jökull put on a smile. “I choose to take your use of what I presume is local vernacular as a compliment. Furthermore I-”

Nira came charging out of nowhere, plowing into Jökull with darkness briming from her horn. “Leave us!”

“Nira, no!” Cinder shouted, tackling the dark mare from the side. “Jökull saved us! We are not going to attack him like that!”

“Bu-”

“NO BUTS!” Cinder cut her off. “...Sorry Jökull, I don’t know what’s gotten into her today.”

“I am not upset with her violent tendencies,” Jökull said. “In fact I find them quite… endearing.”

“Well, that’s a relief!”

~~~

“Fae Époque,” Suzie said, suddenly. “That’s what we call it.”

“You bothered to name it?” Shimmy asked.

Suzie nodded. “It’s a collection of stitched-together universes of whom the inhabitants are aware of the multiverse. Even if trying to talk to them is like…” She read further down the article on her data pad. “Like ‘trying to speak to a dolphin in spanglish’, we do still need to have them categorized. Doesn’t matter how loose the fairies are, this definitely qualifies as a Class 3 Society according to the article.”

“Like you? Really?” Shimmy seemed surprised.

Suzie shrugged. “I’m not exactly well versed in Fae Realms. What I do know is basically what I’m reading from this article. They’re loose collections of universes unified by the type of life found within—fairies. The conglomerations tend to interact with other universes physically, without the need for tearing portals. Beyond that they vary considerably.”

“So… fairies,” Corona concluded.

“You might want to watch your tongue, lest you wish to insult the very beings you desire conference with and suffer a chilling end.”

The two Sunsets and Suzie turned to see a tall, pale blue woman with pointed ears and four-fingered hands walking up to them, a smaller woman with lightning-blue hair standing at her side looking decidedly more normal in visual appearance if not expression. The icy woman’s face was level, her golden eyes calm, while the other person had such a confused mess of emotions on her face the best Suzie could read was ‘very, very devoted to the tall one.’

“...Winter, how did you…?” Shimmy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I have eyes in many places,” the tall woman responded.

“Can we back up to the ‘chilling end’ part?” Corona asked. “Every time I’ve been frozen it’s gotten… uncomfortable for everyone involved.”

“Winter here is referring to the Fay of Fae Époque,” Shimmy explained. “If you call them fairies that’s a good way to either get punched or get a curse on your entire bloodlines. Or something.”

“Hey! The mistress doesn’t curse!” the other woman said, indignantly. “She plays her subjects fair and square.”

“You are going to make me all kinds of uncomfortable, aren’t you?” Corona asked.

“...Probably?”

“Guaranteed,” Shimmy said. “The power of love decided to take hold of a Stockholm Syndrome case here in Indigo.”

Indigo glared at her.

“That’s the simplest way of putting it, calm down.”

“You did just call her insane,” Suzie pointed out.

“Are you defending her?”

“No? Just saying you shouldn’t expect her to be calm.”

Corona glanced from Winter to Shimmy. “Why did you call them if you don’t like them?”

“I didn’t call these two,” Shimmy explained. “They just… showed up. And they won’t go away. And I’m going to have to find some way to pay them because they always find a way to charge me.”

“Twas I what be summoned,” a tiny, familiar voice announced—in the form of a small humanoid with flitting wings. “Name’s Seabreeze, if’n ye dinnae know..” His eyes flicked from one Sunset to the other. “Though I suspect ye mayhap met a reflection, aye?”

Corona smiled. “Corona. That’s Suzie.”

Suzie waved happily, taken in by the adorable Seabreeze. She knew better than to call him cute—versions of him tended to be cantankerous.

“A pleasure ta meet ye, wanderers.”

“Seabreeze here is a Fay,” Shimmy explained. “Though he’s separate from the kingdoms inside Fae Époque, showing loyalty to neither side.”

“Which are?” Suzie asked.

“Do we farm the mortals or hunt the mortals?”

“...Grim.”

“You are oversimplifying the symbiotic dynamic between Fay and mortal beings,” Winter said. “Nothing is taken without something given.”

“Aye, though ye words and japeries usually leave ye abundant fer their pain,” Seabreeze muttered.

“It is only unbalanced if you choose to view it as such.”

“I know ye still adhere to the rule of truth, Winter. Tell me, do you choose to view the exchange as balanced or unbalanced?”

“My opinion has fluctuated on the matter over the course of my life.”

Seabreeze looked ready to shout down at her for the non-answer, but he was interrupted by a dimensional portal ripping into reality. Shimmy twitched with visible discomfort at the hole’s sudden appearance. On the other side was a unicorn mare with a snow white coat and curled mane with pale green eyes. As she crossed the veil between worlds, her form automatically adjusted to that of a human—her horn transforming into a crystal, though she kept the bushy tail for some reason.

“Greetings, Shimmy ‘Sunset’ Shimmer, arbiter of reality,” she said with a bow. “I am Fuyu of the League of Sweetie Belles, and I humbly apologize for scarring the fabric of your reality.”

“Okay, how did the nickname spread already?” Shimmy asked.

“I’ve been updating your wiki entry,” Suzie offered.

Shimmy took this in, looking back at Fuyu’s bowing form. “You know, this kind of reverence, the kind without the worshipping, I could get behind. Thanks, Fuyu. ...Do I need to tell you to rise?”

“Nope!” Fuyu said, standing straight up. “Anyway, I hear we’ve got a problem with another Fae Realm and that my expertise is required?”

“Fascinating…” Winter said, looking Fuyu up and down. “From which realm do you hail?”

“Fae Alabaster,” Fuyu answered. “And you are Winter, ex-princess of the Winter Court of Fae Époque. Charmed to see a hybrid being such as yourself, you must be proud.”

Winter’s smile shifted imperceptibly. “I certainly carry my head high these days. Now, fey?”

“Fay, though we don’t use such terms in Fae Alabaster.”

“How do you differentiate Fay from fey?”

“There is no need, fey are Fay, we are as one. Fairies, even.”

Indigo seemed disgusted by this, though Winter’s face was level as ever.

“Sounds like ye have the opposite problem of our realm,” Seabreeze observed.

Fuyu shrugged. “It is another line of thought.”

“Hold up!” Corona said, raising a hand. “You’re all just saying ‘fay’ over and over again. But I can tell there’s different meaning behind it every time you say it. But the words sound the same every time!”

"Perhaps they do to you, but I find them quite different," Winter replied. "Though, it can be difficult to translate a language built around the vibration of one's inner sparks to one produced by a collection of meaty strings in a wind tunnel."

Seabreeze gave her a flat look. "Aye, and the courts care for precision in wordin', so a mortal what uses the wrong word at the right time might be findin' their contract not quite what they be expectin'."

"That is a benefit," she conceded.

“The translation spell takes care of that for things like bugs, hive-minds, most eldritch abominations, and even those weird mushrooms that talk by smell,” Corona argued.

“This world could understand the Fay before we came to the universe, right?” Suzie asked. “The translator spell probably isn’t doing anything.”

“And they haven’t mentioned the Faye,” Indigo pointed out. “Or the Fæ, that’s a real doozy.”

Corona put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “All right, not dealing with this. Uh… Seabreeze! How do we get to Fae Époque?”

“We are goin’ to the forest an’ walkin’ in through a weak space,” Seabreeze answered. “You, lassie, be stayin’ right here.”

“What? Why?”

“Ye may not be a goddess...”

“...Ugh...” Shimmy said.

Corona nudged her counterpart playfully. “Heh, I’m less goddess than you.”

“...But am I right in assumin’ ye got yerself powers o’ great reality warpin’?”

Corona glanced back at the sun portal she was currently keeping locked in magic circles. “...Maybe?”

“Then I doubt they’ll take kindly to ye presence, ye ken?”

Corona folded her arms and grumbled incoherently.

“All the rest ‘o us are Fay or once Fay,” Seabreeze glanced at Winter as he said this. “Except you, Suzie. If ye be comin’ along, you’ll need some protection.”

“Does that have to do with this ‘swapping chakras’ thing?” Suzie asked, holding up the tablet and pointing at an annoyingly small section of the article.

“...Th’ fact that these things are now in the invisible library’s books is somethin’ I was not prepared to think about t’day.”

“It makes everything a whole lot more interesting,” Fuyu said. “Just imagine—all the rules are laid out where everyone can see them, allowing a set of background rules to build up. And as those are written down by those in the know and with the will, then more background fills up until the complexity of the system rises beyond the realm of sanity!” She clapped her hands together.

Winter raised an eyebrow. “Do you not become lost within your own words?”

“Does such a thing not happen to all at some point in their life?”

“Surely its frequency is heightened with such a legalistic tangle?”

“Many would say it provides order.”

“Others still that order is suffocating.”

Suzie turned to Seabreeze. “Is this normal?”

“Yep,” Seabreeze sighed. “Just ignore them, they’ll go on for a while without actually sayin’ anythin’ concrete and then say some half-truths before wrappin’ it up with a signal that makes no sense.” He turned to Suzie. “Ah’ll need t’ forge one of those bonds with ya. Simply put, we exchange parts of our spirit to form a connection. Dependin’ on the bond, different things happen, though you’ll always gain some protection in th’ Fae and I’ll gain some protection in the… Earth Shimmer, I s’pose.” A frown passed over his face. “Or mayhap in whatever realm ye be born from... tis been a while since I’ve known bonds what cross realities. Anyway, I won’t be unwound by salt, you won’t get eaten in the Fae.”

“Which bond do you suggest?”

“Water’ll prolly be the best, easy to make and it ain’t on fire. It’ll ground you emotionally too, so ya don’t lose it when those two drive your sanity to the end of its ropes.”

Suzie nodded. “So… how do we do it?”

“Just be willing to enter into the pact and, well, feel.”

Outwardly, nothing visible occured. Inwardly, Suzie felt part of her get removed and replaced with something smaller, more flighty.

Seabreeze looked at her quizzically. “...Is there somethin’ else in there with ye?”

Suzie nodded slowly. “Afraid I can’t talk about it. Shouldn’t be of any concern, though.”

“Fair ‘nuff. Now you’re with me, Winter’s with… herself, but everyone will recognize her, and Fuyu’s already one o’ us. From another realm o’ Fae, but the Fay would simply treat her as a continental foreigner.”

Fuyu tore herself away from Winter. As usual, the cold woman’s face was unreadable—but Indigo’s expresion betrayed an annoyance. Suzie made note of this. To read Winter’s emotions, use Indigo as a signpost.

Fuyu looked between Seabreeze and Suzie. “Wow, you guys can do bonds a lot quicker than ours can. Ours are a lot more abstract and require a lot of singing and dancing.” To illustrate her point, she did a cha-cha maneuver.

“Anyway, we best be off,” Seabreeze said, ignoring the display. “Do ye mind?”

Shimmy shook her head, teleporting them to the Everfree Forest in an instant. Soon, only her and Corona remained.

“So…” Corona said. “Back to the sun battery?”

“Back to the sun battery.”

An orange flew out of seemingly nowhere and hit Corona in the head.

“...What the…?”

“I’m relevant!” shouted a voice.

Corona turned to see a man dancing on a roof a fair distance away. “What?”

Shimmy chuckled. “Who’s more goddess now?”

“How does this mean I’m more goddess than you!? It’s an orange!”

“That’s a fun story. I’ll tell you later.”

“Shimmy!”

~~~

Jökull examined the four Sweeties before him. “Why, this is unfortunate! Not a single one of you have a bond! Don’t you know that’s dangerous?”

“I want nothing more than to leave this wretched hellhole,” Nira growled.

“Nira, calm,” Blink demanded.

“Calm!? Do you know what these Fay beings do to worlds?! They corrupt them from the inside out until everything is nothing more than a game and free will is an amusing trait they give out to stave off boredom!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s just your world.”

Nira glared at Jökull. “It matters not, Fay are liars, manipulators, and thieves.”

“...We have some Fay in the League, you know. Remember Fuyu? ...Oh, wait, that’s why you don’t like her.”

Jökull turned to Cinder. “Is this their usual method of discourse?”

“Usually it’s Blink and Squiddy instead, but otherwise this is pretty normal.”

“Perhaps you will be of a more reasonable sort. Not all creatures of this realm are as understanding or as educated as I, many would simply attack you for no reason—no need for some mysterious missing artifacts. You are unprotected mortals in our realm, it is well within my right to kill you should I so desire.”

“Oh.”

“However, if we were to form a bond, exchange parts of our souls, you would have my protection. And, through association, your friends would at least be partially protected. It is better than nothing.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Exchange parts of our souls?”

“It is not painful, nor is it permanent. It can be revoked whenever you wish.”

“Uh-huh. Jökull , thanks for saving us, but I smell a trap.”

Something glinted in Jökull ’s eyes that Cinder couldn’t identify. “I will endeavor to protect you regardless.”

Yeah this guy is totally trustworthy. “If you want. We won’t mind compa-”

“I’LL TAKE THE BOND!” Burgerbelle shouted, jumping on Jökull. Before anyone—even Jökull—could say or do anything there was a bright flash of fire and the two fell to the ground. “Yes! Fire bond!”

Jökull had the decency to look surprised by the encounter. “Wh…”

“BURGERBELLE!” Nira, Blink, and Cinder shouted.

“What?” Burgerbelle said, snorting. “I’m protected now!”

“Y-yes you are…” Jökull said, tapping his chest for a moment. “...Could I have refused that bond had I thought to try?”

Burgerbelle shrugged.

“Curious… Why fire?”

“It’s funnier this way.”

Cinder facehooved. “BURGERBELLE! Come ON! We… UGH!”

Burgerbelle just winked at Cinder.

Nira glared at Jökull. “We’re stuck with you until you get us out. So get us out. Earth Shimmer. The one with the recently restored magic and the not-a-goddess.”

“I know the world of whence you speak. If you wish to return a direction to go will be, unfortunately, where the giants of the Summer Fay ran off to.”

“Maybe we can actually beat them up this time…” Blink said, rubbing her hooves together.

“Violence is the way of the Summer Court. You are with me, of the Winter Court. We shall move with grace, precision, and cunning.”

Burgerbelle slipped on a banana peel and landed on her hands.

Jökull looked at her with a curious expression, but did not comment on her antics. “Come. Our journey awaits.” He set off across the rippling lands, slowing not at all for the Sweeties, his overly-adorned cloak billowing behind him.

Blink whispered in Cinder’s ear. “Any Rarity that sees that thing would faint instantly.”

Cinder chuckled softly, most of her joy cut short by frustration with Burgerbelle. Who knew what kind of plans this Jökull guy had for them? He admitted to being cunning! That pretty much guaranteed he had some kind of angle...

~~~

Suzie would have liked to enjoy the Fae realm. She would have welcomed the opportunity to sit, relax, and take in the wondrous colors, rolling hills, and stars sparkling across a sky too small for them. A true place of beauty and mixed realities.

There was only one problem with that.

Winter and Fuyu.

“How about this?” Fuyu asked, taking two pinecones off a nearby tree. The moment she had entered the Fae realm she had reverted to her true form, that of a white fox with nine tails. “Each of these represent a reward. One is of power, the other is of knowledge. You cannot know which is which prior to the choice. Each could come with any number of benefits and detriments. Do you take a reward, or refuse?”

“I raise the stakes,” Winter said, grabbing both pinecones. She retained her pseudo-human form upon entering. “I say I will take whichever reward you don’t.”

“If one is clearly worse than the other…”

“Would you really be so foolish as to offer an unbalanced choice?”

“Perhaps I was gambling over what you would pick?”

“A dangerous but invigorating gamble. But your trick would only work for one arrangement of the game—me picking alone, or both of us picking. You would not be able to account for both.”

“The same is true in reverse—how would you know what game I was playing?”

“I would ask you questions until I knew you.” She tossed one of the pinecones to Fuyu. “I choose whatever this one is.”

“I never assigned them for certain in my mind.”

“Then the outcome has become truly random. By the way, the Winter Court is this way.” She continued to lead the small group through the realm, knowing the place like the back of her hand despite only rarely having come since her encounter with Earth Shimmer.

“Isn’t she amazing?” Indigo asked Suzie.

“They’re both nothing but words,” Suzie muttered. “Can’t they just… talk like normal people?”

“They ain’t normal people,” Seabreeze pointed out.

“You talk normally enough.”

“Aye, but I ain’t a normal not-normal person.”

Indigo nodded. “They are speaking the way of the Fay. I only wish I was so skilled so I could give my mistress the sparring partner she desires.”

Suzie looked Indigo up and down. “There are a large number of things wrong with the way you said that.”

“That’s what they all say.”

“Perhaps the unanimity should get you to reexamine your principles?”

Indigo huffed, returning to Winter’s side rather than continuing the conversation with Suzie.

“Seabreeze, you are the only sane one on this trip,” Suzie commented. “...I should have brought Celia.”

“My ‘sanity’ may just be the bond talkin’, lass.”

“...Great,” Suzie said, rubbing her head. “How much further?”

“We’re here,” Winter said, walking up to… nothing. It was an empty patch of grass under the warped, starry sky. She held out her hand—and everything went dark. Suzie could still see the rest of her group, but there was nothing but inky blackness all around.

“Who seeks counsel with the Winter Court?” a voice declared from all directions.

Winter spoke for them. “Winter Lights and Indigo of Earth Shimmer, Hrávanónar Tuilëva Seabreeze, Fuyu and Suzie Mash of the Merodi Universalis League of Sweetie Belles.”

“Purpose?”

“Lost mortals in the Fae.”

And like that, suddenly Suzie could see the Winter Court. Tall, humanoid, lanky creatures with cold skin, hard eyes, and wiry hair that somehow accentuated an ethereal beauty. Many were elves with pointy ears, but others looked more ghostly, or more hairy. But they all stood far above them in seats shrouded in darkness and cold.

Suzie could not tell who spoke with each voice. Clearly it was not the same individual every time, but she could never make out any of the mouths moving.

“Who are the lost?”

“Members of the League of Sweetie Belles,” Winter reported, gesturing to Fuyu.

“Cinder Belle, Blink Belle, Burgerbelle, and Nira,” Fuyu listed. “They have no bonds and are surrounded by danger. We seek assistance in their return. As the Winter Court, you have knowledge of the realm.”

The Court was silent for a moment. Perhaps they were deliberating, and none of the visitors could hear it? Suzie couldn't be sure, and this continued feeling of uncertainty was testing her.

“Easy, lass,” Seabreeze cautioned with a whisper. “I can feel ye fury buildin’ from over here. It would not be wise to anger the Winter Court.”

Suzie nodded slowly, but curled her hands into fists.

The Court finally responded. “Mortals get lost within the Fae regularly. Why are these any different?”

“Is it not clear?” Winter asked. “They are decorated members of Merodi Universalis, a foreign society of wanderers.”

“You are aware of the multiversal classifications, yes?” Fuyu prodded. “We’ve come here before, no doubt willing to give the information away.”

“We received them,” the Court answered.

“Respected them?”

“Their power.”

“Some would say the Fae scoff at other powers,” Winter said. “Surely you are aware of the tale? The theft of Vivio Takamachi?”

“Some would say that was a foolish thing to attempt and that the Fay responsible should have been handed over to the TSAB.”

“Some would say it never happened.”

“Some would say speaking of it at all brings uncertainty and confusion to the proceedings.”

Fuyu chuckled. “Some would say all legends are rooted in truth, and that such uncertain court phrasing was telling. I say Corona Shimmer is a friend of Nanoha and we can just get an audience with Vivio at any time we wish. If I recall correctly, Vivio is currently in the Q-Sphere!”

“That won’t be necessary,” both Winter and the Court said at the same time.

“Naturally, seeing as it seems unrelated.”

Suzie had no idea what had just transpired, and she hated it. At least eldritch beings were upfront about their senseless nature. It was as if these Fay were pretending to have an actual conversation, but instead talking about something completely different. Really should have had Celia do this.

Then she got an idea. “Hey…” she said to Seabreeze.

“I’d rather not play ‘translator’ where they can hear me,” Seabreeze whispered back.

Suzie twitched.

“Returning to the matter at hand…” Winter began.

“Your presence,” the Court responded, at a convenient time where it couldn’t be said they interrupted, but they might as well have. “Jökull will be glad to see you.”

“Ah. My cousin has switched their names?”

“As is their right,” the court agreed.

Suzie gave Seabreeze a confused look. “What...?”

“Heklagi Jökull. Or Jökull Heklagi now. Which would make her male now...” Seabreeze took in Suzie’s expression. “We be form-fluid, lass, what surprises ye? I bore my second child.”

“...right, sorry.” Suzie turned her attention back to the conversation.

“And I take it cousin has fared well?” Winter asked.

“Rising much as you once did, before your disgrace,” the Court responded.

Winter raised an eyebrow. “How direct.”

“There’s enough disgrace to go around,” Fuyu said. “But we have not returned to the matter at hand. The lost mortals?”

“Are no doubt within the Fae.”

“We seek to have them returned.”

“What do you offer?”

Fuyu smirked. “They have with them a high value member of the League, the Flat Burgerbelle, and a mage of dark soul magic, Nira. The first merits a trade of virtually any good or knowledge, while the other should be removed from the Fae as soon as possible for the sake of stability.”

“Detail your offer.”

“Make a request, we barter from there.”

“Their value is unknown to us.”

“And your value of standard trade goods is unknown to us. Make a ridiculous request. Write up a contract or deal or whatever you want to call it today.”

“We will not at this juncture.”

“Ah,” Fuyu said. “I see.” She turned to Suzie. “We’re done here, they have no idea where the Sweeties are.”

For the first time Suzie saw Winter visibly react to something. Shock that Fuyu had said something that, clearly, should not have been said.

Fuyu rolled her eyes. “Give me a break, normally I’d love to keep playing, but the lives of four people are in danger, as is any Fay next to Nira. We’re wasting time here, we should move on.”

“Such disrespect!” the Court shouted.

Suzie pointed a finger at a random member of the Court. “Leading us on with false hope when people are in danger is disrespectful to us! So it’s only fair that we get to be a little disrespectful to you.”

“Lass…” Seabreeze cautioned.

“Leaving is probably a good idea…” Indigo said, tugging on Winter’s sleeve.

The Winter Court was silent.

“...an even exchange,” Winter Lights surmised. “Distaste by both parties. Well played, liltaruscuitë.”

“Court is adjourned,” the Court said. “A matter involving the Summer Court demands our attention.”

“...Since when does the Summer Court want to speak with ye?” Seabreeze asked.

“They do not. They are charging blindly in our direction.”

Suzie snapped her fingers. “Probably has something to do with Nira.”

“We wish to accompany you to the Summer Fay,” Fuyu declared. “A request where time is of the essence. And if you doubt my pure intentions… Suzie, why do you want to follow them?”

“I want to get my team back and keep them out of danger.”

“She is not a liar, nor is she a Fay. It is no secret that she has not kept up with these proceedings as we have spoken. You may take her word as it is—simple.”

“Very well,” the Court declared. “We leave immediately.”

Suzie wanted to punch something.

~~~

The Summer Fay had lost their illusory artifact long ago. This did not stop them from continuing their journey—something had taken their artifacts. With the Sweeties gone, the illusion was still their best lead as to where their artifacts had gone.

They weren’t paying the best attention to where they were going. Which was great for Jökull. The Sweeties—particularly Nira—were of a different mindset.

Namely, figuring out how to tear Jökull ’s soul right out of his body and run it through a meat grinder without damaging Burgerbelle. Or, failing that, convincing herself that adding more insanity to Burgerbelle wouldn’t do anything. The Flat would be fine. Her soul was moldable and more self-consistent than most… If she tore at the bond she could probably create a one-way feedback loop and get rid of this stupid Fay that was probably leading them into a death trap.

Nira lit her horn…

Burgerbelle slapped her in the face with a slapstick. “No! Bad Nira!”

“Burgerbelle I swear if you d-”

“Shhhhh…” Burgerbelle said, pressing a finger to Nira’s muzzle.

“Your awareness of your agents is worthy of respect,” Jökull noted.

“It’s all in the wrist!” Burgerbelle said, hefting the slapstick. “Now, where can we get lasagna in this joint?”

“Your unique set of abilities ensure you can create it on your own.”

Burgerbelle grinned, produced a lasagna, and then ate it in one gulp—pan and all.

Nira twitched. Burgerbelle knew about Nira and the Fae Realms. Or she should, anyway. If she hadn’t been paying attention…

“...The giants stopped,” Cinder called from up ahead. “I don’t know why…”

Jökull walked up to Cinder and put a hand to his eyes, seeing the Summer Fay in the distance no longer moving, but talking. With a bit more effort, he made out some pale humanoid figures at their feet, presumably talking back.

“It appears they’ve run into some Winter Fay,” Jökull observed. “Currently talking.”

“It’ll devolve into fighting?” Cinder asked.

“In most cases, that would not be so, but these Fay have been having a particularly taxing day and are ready to accuse everything for stealing their artifacts. Violence is very possible.”

“Hmm.” Cinder commented. “So, how do we get around them and go home?”

“We will wait for them to finish, and then move through whatever remains,” Jökull said with a smirk.

“Uh-huh…” Cinder frowned. “Burgerbelle, can we go around?”

Burgerbelle was nowhere to be seen.

“Burger…?”

Then they heard her say “hi guys!” from a distance, her voice carrying impossibly. They turned and their jaws dropped. Burgerbelle was standing between the Winter and Summer Fay, waving excitedly at them.

Cinder facehooved. “BurgerBELLE!”

Jökull’s confident smile had vanished, replaced with a flat expression no doubt hiding whatever his true emotion was.

Burgerbelle started talking again. “So I heard you like artifacts…?”

~~~

Suzie and her group moved with a half-dozen members of the Winter Court, cresting a ‘hill’ until they could see the ‘conflict.’ Suzie had been told to expect one of two things: tense arguing, or Summer-initiated fighting.

Instead, she was witness to a small number of giants and elves staring in disbelief at a Flat tossing a bunch of bronze mudkip statues onto the ground.

The Winter Court wasted no time—rushing down to meet their brethren and assist in whatever the bizarre situation was. Suzie moved to join them, but Fuyu put a paw on her shoulder and pointed toward somewhere in the distance. Suzie could just make out three Sweeties and what she hoped was an elf, though it was a bit too shiny.

“I’m not sure what’s happening,” Seabreeze admitted, glancing from the Flat to the Sweeties across the divide. “Fuyu?”

Fuyu shrugged. “Burgerbelle has a reputation for doing things that have no precedence. Or sense. For all I know she’s asking them for a hot dog.”

“...Another sort of being…” Winter mused.

“Mistress?” Indigo asked. “Do you know of her kind?”

“No…” Winter said with a smile.

They saw Burgerbelle pull out a lasso and throw it into the air, landing it right on one of the giant’s noses. A bunch of air horns blasted, making everyone hold their ears in pain.

“What in blazin’ Fay-blight does she think she’s doin’!?” Seabreeze shouted. “Is she suicidal?”

Suzie smiled warmly. “No. She’s Burgerbelle. She knows exactly what she’s doing.” She looked at the other Sweeties across the divide. “Let’s not interfere, she’s got this.” She pulled out her gun and shot a weak plasma bolt right at Nira’s hooves, waving to grab her attention.

Nira teleported Suzie, Seabreeze, Fuyu, Winter, and Indigo across the divide. “Get us out of here.”

Suzie raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

Nira pointed at Jökull. “This guy.”

“He’s got Burgerbelle in some kind of bond!” Cinder said, half-panicked. “She’s listening to everything he says, keeping us from… just… He’s got some kind of plan, okay? And Burgerbelle can’t see it!”

Suzie chuckled sadly. “Cinder… Burgerbelle knows what she’s doing. She always does.”

“How!? She’s led us right into this… guy’s thing! If you didn’t get here he would have… Actually his plan is probably still on. You! Stop your plan!” She seemed to realize this was a little stupid after she said it.

“Is this what gratitude looks like among your kind?” Jökull asked.

“They are correct in their deductions, cousin,” Winter interjected.

“Ah, Winter!”

“Not surprised to see me?”

“I said no such thing.”

“Words are not always needed, with family.”

Indigo pointed at herself and grinned.

“While I do love myself a good family spat, I doubt we have time for such things,” Fuyu said.

“And who might you be, fair vixen?” Jökull asked.

“Fuyu, Fae Alabaster.”

“A kitsune…” Jökull mused. “One of a different mythology... and your name! Are you aware of the etymology, cousin? Such a graceful way to explain a concept so simple to home!”

Indigo gasped.

“Your pet is such a burden on you,” Jökull continued.

“All gifts come with a price,” Winter noted.

“All prices come with a gift, as you no doubt know too well.”

“...Explain?” Suzie asked Fuyu.

Fuyu smiled. “Jökull is mocking Winter’s name as simple, and calling me a ‘better Winter’ since ‘Fuyu’ means ‘Winter’ in a literal sense. Furthermore there’s a back and forth going on here about Winter being turned into a human as a price, but that giving her a few curious benefits paired with Indigo’s position as emotional support and a servant—but also betraying Winter’s own feelings on any given matter with her reactions.”

Jökull stared at her in disbelief.

“What? Thought I had to follow your rules? Tough.”

“There is merit in listening,” Winter said with a wry smile.

Nira growled. “Fuyu, if you value your cont-”

“And you can quit being racist,” Fuyu interrupted.

Nira blinked. “...What?”

“You. Being racist. You hate Fay. I’m a being of spirit, I can feel that dark energy billowing off of you like a tangled prison. You’d think being part of the League would iron that out of you.”

Nira glared at her. Then, without the darkness in her voice, she spoke. “Fuyu, if you would be so kind, would you direct us away from this… Jökull and return us to the proper reality?”

“Time will tell.”

“Fuyu…”

She pointed a tail at Burgerbelle. “We still have to resolve whatever that is.”

Cinder blinked. “Nobody knows what she’s doing?”

Everyone shook their head—even Winter, in a shocking moment of honesty.

“But…”

Suzie put a hand on Cinder’s shoulder. “I know it’s hard to get Burgerbelle, or to trust her with your life. But she’s come through so many times. Watch—see what she does. Nira, move us a little closer, but keep us far enough away that we won’t interfere.”

“...Fine.”

There was a flash of darkness…

~~~

Burgerbelle cleared her throat. “I like trains.”

A train barreled out of nowhere and flattened her into the ground, startling the Fay around her considerably. She popped back up with a sproing noise, unharmed.

“...This foolishness has gone on long enough,” one of the giants said.

“Has it? How long is enough?” Burgerbelle pulled out two hourglasses, one larger than the other, but the larger one had sand pouring through it faster. “These two are equivalent but one has significantly more substance than the other. Ro sham bo, you know?” She crashed the two of them between a pair of rocks, transforming the glass to paper in the process.

“You interfere with our quest!” the giant roared. “We must reclaim our artifacts! You clearly do not have them, for no fool such as you would have the power. The gall, yes.”

“We do not have your artifacts,” an elf said. “You must be mistaken. Under the influence of something, perhaps?”

“The influence of your spells. The Fall Court has no need for our artifacts, and the Spring would not perform such a large heist. It falls to you.”

“Or loose fey.”

The giant bristled. Unlike the impassive elves, it was easy to tell that the giants were insulted by that.

“What about Fai?” Burgerbelle asied. “Or Fax? Fee, Fie… Nah, don't see a way to pronounce fo like fae, sorry.”

The elf tried to ignore her—but even he couldn’t fathom the words coming out of her mouth. He simply had to ask. “Fai?”

“You haven’t heard of the Fai? Ooooh, this is good! Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I thought not, it’s not a story the Kingdoms would tell you. Of course, I won’t either, because I’m not a copypasta machine. Today, anyway. Lasagna? I have leftovers.”

“You have a story…” the elf said, narrowing his eyes. “Why do you not speak it?”

“I don’t know, maybe because it’s locked behind a dimensional barrier a million degrees of separation away from here? Sad, but relevant!” She put googly eyes on the back of her head and started spinning around like a coin.

“Which world?”

“You can find a version of it on Earth Shimmer, through that invisible library thing. But I am the invisible library! I am thou, thou art I, rinse and repeat.”

The giant glared. “Invisible library… knowledge… you do know where our artifacts are!”

Burgerbelle grinned. “Oh yeah, totally.”

“I KNEW IT!”

“They are known to use sarcasm,” the elf observed.

“...She is unique.”

“But she is one with the invisible library, which is a haven of lies deeper than most Fay can fathom.”

“She could have been lying about that.”

“Precisely.”

Burgerbelle put a hand to her face in mock surprise. “Nani! Am I the opponent of both Summer and Winter? Oh the tragedy, for there is no season in the middle! What doth be?”

The Fay had nothing to say to that.

With a wink and a quick dance, Burgerbelle leaned in, simultaneously looking at both the elf and the giant, somehow. “You want to see a magic trick?”

“No,” the giant declared.

“Yes,” the elf countered.

“Good! Time for the wheel of fish!” She pulled a game show wheel out of nowhere and leaned on it. “So here’s how this works. I spin the wheel and whatever’s on it, happens.”

“What’s on it?” the giant asked.

“A lot of fish.”

“So if we landed on cod…”

“Cod to the face!”

“I don’t-”

She spun the wheel. Both the elf and the giant covered their face—but the wheel landed on red herring. “Oh boy, looks like we got the one result that wasn’t fish! It was… egad! A dimensional tear in reality forms, bringing great chaos to all!”

Nothing of the sort happened.

“Come on, that’s your cue!” she said, pointing at the Fay.

“We would do no such thing,” the elf said,

“Yes you would.”

“No, we would not.”

“Yes you would.”

“No, and your repetition means nothing.”

“Yes we would.”

“No you would not!”

“No we wouldn’t.”

“Child! End this game or there will be consequences!”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“YES WE WILL!”

A dramatic silence fell over the realm, punctuated only by Indigo’s facepalm.

“My my…” Burgerbelle said, leaning in. “Did you just lie? But wait, that’s impossible…” She put a hand to her face. “So, naturally, you must really be about to open that dimensional fissure!”

The elf’s face made no effort to hide his rage. “...Yes it would… seem so…”

“Yay! May I suggest a location?”

~~~

Corona and Shimmy pressed the on switch. The reality anchor shot to life, every light shining with a green ‘OK’ value and the screen displaying a happy Sunset Shimmer chibi face.

“...Nice touch,” Shimmy said.

“Thanks.” Corona put her hands on her hips, examining their handiwork. The cylindrical reality anchor had a metallic sphere levitating atop it with antigravity magitech, drawing power from the solar portal inside to both levitate it and transmit power directly to the reality anchor. So long as the sun burned, the reality anchor would function for this section of the universe, ensuring nothing would threaten the fabric of reality here again. Naturally, they had installed safety procedures in the solar battery—the portal would close if there was ever a breach, and there was enough power stored in batteries to ensure the reality anchor could shut down safely at all times.

“I think we deserve a reward,” Corona said, levitating the pack of soda Suzie hadn’t drunk on her little picnic.

“Heck yes.” Shimmy said, breathing in the unfamiliar air of stable reality as her hand enclosed around the cold beverage. “You know, I’m still keeping the rest of reality together… but I’m still standing here. And I don’t feel any ripples, tears, or miniature magic singularities trying to tear this apart. ...Life is good.”

The two of them popped the tabs of the cans.

And then an immense dimensional fissure opened up in the sky and dropped several elves, giants, and Sweeties into a pile on the soft grass just beyond the reality anchor.

“YEAH!” Burgerbelle shouted, standing on top of the pile. “ACT CLEAR! Rank? SSS!” She bounced off the pile and landed in front of Corona and Shimmy. “Good to see the reality anchor working!”

Shimmy looked to her, to the pile of Fay and other creatures, and lastly at the fissure in the sky that still hadn’t gone away. “...Am I supposed to say ‘good job, you found them!’ or ‘oh no, what did you DO!?’ I really don’t know here.”

Burgerbelle shrugged. “Not my department.”

It was at this point Jökull dug himself out of the pile and stood up tall. He cleared his throat, looking around—and then caught sight of the two Sunsets.

“Ah, godlings.” He bowed formally. “My apologies, but it appears my kin have made an error in their judgement. Twere it allowed--”

“Allowed, perhaps, but as of yet such should be decided by the court on whole.” Winter stepped out from behind the pile. “Or was the throne reclaimed in my absence?”

“Oh joy,” Shimmy grumbled. “Fay politics.”

Cinder managed to worm her way out of the pile. “Is that worse than normal politics?”

“That depends on your viewpoint,” Fuyu replied. “It’s more honest, but far trickier.”

“Ah, yes, the throne.” Jökull smiled gallantly, nodding to Winter. “Were you not responsible for its fall?”

“I did not kill my father.”

“That much is true.” Jökull turned to Suzie, holding out a helpful hand and pulling her out with a gentlemanly air. “You travelled with my dear cousin to save your own... do you know what she has done?”

“I read her file.” Suzie let go of his hand, brushing it off absently. “Arranged the death of the king. If I know anything about your people, that was actually a compliment.”

“A compliment and insult, lass,” Seabreeze muttered. “A compliment in that she would not kill him herself, and arranged an extravagant death that would lead to conquest. An insult in that he was in her way.”

Jökull sighed. “Must you always explain the dance? The intrigue is half the enjoyment.”

“Such is true,” Winter allowed, “yet also true is the improvisation, the balance as more pieces come along.”

“I see your time in the mortal realms has not lessened your tongue’s flexibility.”

“Ah, perhaps. Yet I find my pet has far surpassed me in that.” Winter smirked. “Though if we speak of the weaving of words, I do retain my mastery.”

Indigo blushed, but her expression was proud. “Thank you, mistress.”

“Too much information!” Suzie snapped.

Winter conceded the point with a nod. “Of course. You may explore the rejoicing of life in your own time. As to you, Jökull --”

“What of me?” Jökull asked. “I merely wish to ensure this incident does not cause fault between Fay and godling. Twas an incident caused by...” He gestured at Burgerbelle. “That one.”

The Flat gasped dramatically. “I never! Was I the one who opened the fissure?”

“If we lay responsibility of our king’s death to our princess, so to do we lay responsibility of this rend to your trickery.”

Winter quirked an eyebrow. “You concede her words control, then?”

Jökull paused, looking from Burgerbelle to the pile slowly disentangling itself. “...It is best to respect even those who are fools,” he replied. “For disrespect leads to dismissal, and dismissal leads to ignorance, which can lead to surprise. Something, dear cousin, which you are intimately familiar with.”

“Quite intimately,” Winter agreed. Then she sighed, a motion of melodrama and grace. “Very well, I shall toast your intellect. Pet? The chalices.”

Indigo followed her gesture to the soda cans. “Uh... oh! Right. Your will be done, mistress!”

Jökull followed her with his eyes. “Such confusion. Does she require tending?”

“Rarely, though I suspect her addlement comes from the observation of this... being.” Winter nodded toward Burgerbelle. “An interesting one, would you not agree?”

“Quite fascinating.”

Indigo returned with two soda cans, holding them out. Winter took one, giving her a fond smile as she did so. Jökull took the other, his own grin brash and confident.

Burgerbelle pulled a comically oversized bomb with a skull on it out of her hair. The fuse was lit, and almost gone. “Wow, I’ve been holding this thing for a while. Isn’t it weird how fast fire burns?” She turned to Jökull with an innocent smile. “A bond of flames just ends in an explosion!”

The fuse ran out. The bomb did not explode, rather essences of fire that should not have been visible, but were anyway, swapped between Burgerbelle and Jökull. Instead of being knocked down like last time, Jökull remained standing—with a soda can in his hand. A can made of aluminum.

Without the bond shared with Burgerbelle, he was no longer protected in this realm from that particular material. His form lost all cohesion and he phased out of reality with a pop, forced to return to Fae Époque.

Winter idly caught the falling soda can, handing it off to the Flat. “A toast to my dear cousin and his foolish ignorance of cold iron.” She clinked cans with Burgerbelle, opened the tab, and sipped. “My word, but this brew is foul as ever...”

“Aluminium,” Burgerbelle said, specifically using the British pronunciation. “By the way, the drink is awesome.” She put on a pair of sunglasses and blew an air horn while several suspiciously chip-like illuminati triangles whirled around her head.

“Okay!” Blink shouted. “Before we do anything else, who wants to see the magic trick Burgerbelle promised a while back?”

The elf groaned. “Spare us the indignity…”

Blink coughed. “I think you’ll like it.” She touched the bag sitting on her back, allowing everyone to see it. Grabbing hold of it with her magic, she held it in the air and started shaking. Dozens of magic artifacts lined with gold, precious gems, and other ethereal qualities began falling onto the ground.

The Summer Fay stared at them in disbelief.

Blink tossed the empty bag away and grinned. “I’ve been stealing these from Jökull for the last half hour.”

“He… the…” a giant grabbed the artifacts. “This one is broken!”

“Some of them were sewn into the inside of that cloak of his. I didn’t get them all.” She pointed at the fissure in the sky. “I don’t know about you, but if I were you I’d hunt him to the ends of reality for this.”

The giants wasted no time. They were large enough to jump back through the open fissure and let out bellowing roars of intense rage. “JÖKULL!”

Blink turned to Winter with a smirk. “Sometimes you just need to be invisible to win. He won’t be a problem again. Probably.”

“You returned all the artifacts?” Winter asked.

“Yep!”

“...Hmm…”

Corona started levitating the elves back through the fissure while Shimmy stitched up the hole.

Cinder tore her attention away from Blink and Winter, walking up to Burgerbelle. “Burger?”

“Yes, my favorite cheeto?” Burgerbelle asked, sliding as if on ice.

“I’m sorry. I… I thought you were an idiot.”

Burgerbelle picked her up and grinned. “I know. I made a point of putting on a show to impress you. Went a little overboard, maybe. But it was still fun, right?”

Cinder smiled warmly. “Yeah, it was fun.” She hugged the Flat—such an awkward sensation. “I’ll try to trust you from now on.”

Burgerbelle rung a bell. “And thus, we have reached the moral of the day!”

“Pretty sure the moral is ‘don’t mess with Fay politics’.”

“That goes without saying.”

“Does it?” Winter asked, walking up to Cinder.

“Yep!” Cinder beamed.

“Then why say it?”

“So there’s a moral,” Burgerbelle replied. “It’s a ka thing.”

“Ah, Ka. The sea of fate, as it was called when I learned of it.”

Cinder tilted her head. “That is an interesting description...”

“But an apt one. Ka does not affect you any more than you affect it. Is an ocean shaped by the shore, or do the waves define the beaches? The answer is both, and yet it is not relevant to the fish who swim within, nor the birds who dive only to feed upon them, nor even the beasts of the land that sip only from distant rivers.” Winter gestured broadly. “And such is true with ka--it can be manipulated, true, but does it determine or is it determined? Do those who write stories create, or are their creations sent to their mind? The answer is null--cause and effect flow both ways. I am in the ka now, but I can step out easily, and rejoin later. Or never.”

“There’s no such thing as a world without ka,” Cinder pointed out.

“There was once, before the Tower. There may yet be again.” Winter shrugged. “It may take so long that none will know its significance, but... well, the Fay have always intended to outlast Ka.”

Suzie stared in shock. “...But your kind are some of the most reliant on ka…”

Winter smiled at the disbelief on their faces. “Oh, did you not suspect? Very well, I shall not reveal any more secrets today.”

Cinder shook her head. “Do you like being confusing?”

“Confusion can lead to victory, as so demonstrated by your companion.” She glanced at the Flat. “An interesting name you have chosen... related to your first, grandest victory I presume?”

Burgerbelle raised an eyebrow. “Who told you?”

“You did, just now.”

Burgerbelle opened her mouth. For a moment, there was only a dial tone.

“I have lived amongst humans for some time,” Winter pointed out. “They may be limited, but they do have some interesting tricks.” She turned to the unicorn. “And you... Cinder. A name you chose yourself.”

Cinder glanced away. “It’s not based on any victory.”

“No... but names are the beginning of things. A cinder, the last remnant of a fire, perhaps about to die... yet not dead yet. It could start a new blaze, one that rips through a forest... or one that is used to forge great tools. Cinder... a volatile name.” Winter nodded. “I approve.”

“...I am not sure how to take that.”

“As is fitting. My apologies, I must tend to my pet. I would not want her distressed.”

The two of them watched her walk to Indigo and put a surprisingly gentle hand to her shoulder.

Cinder’s features scrunched up in confusion. “...do they actually love each other, or...?”

Blink shrugged. “It seems genuine. Weird, but genuine.”

Nira was glaring at the pair.

“She’s not a Fay, you know. Not anymore.”

Nira looked up at Suzie, a guilty look crossing her features.

Suzie sat down next to the unicorn, looking into the distance.

“I-”

“You need to stop lying to yourself,” Suzie said.

Nira stared at her in shock.

“You haven’t moved on.”

“The darkness is no longer a part of me! I am n-”

“That doesn’t mean you’ve moved on.” Suzie grimaced. “Your behavior today was unacceptable.”

Nira ran through several possible responses in her mind. None of them seemed right.

“You should be more honest with Sweetaloo. She’s really helped the rest of us.”

Nira said nothing.

“...We can’t help you if you don’t let us.”

“It’s painful.”

“We want to share that pain with you.”

“...You really don’t.”

Suzie sighed. “...Baby steps, I suppose…” She stood up, patting Nira on the head as she did so. “We’ll talk more later. Right now…”

“Is this a bad time to request payment?” Fuyu asked.

Nira glowered at her, but Suzie held up a hand. “Fuyu--”

“I don’t want to request a payment, but I have to to keep up appearances in front of Fae Époque. Lissee, I advised you and led you through a Fae realm, sooooooo...”

“How about I arrange some lectures on the differences between Kitsune and Gumiho”

“Yep, that oughta do it! So long as whoever speaks mentions the Huli Jing as well.”

Suzie pinched her brow. “All right, all right. Well, thanks for the help with the fai.”

“You mean Fay.”

“That’s... gah.” Suzie threw up her hands. “What did I say?”

“You said Fai, which is a Fay that originates from an artificial origin. Computer spirits and the like.”

Nira snorted. “I thought it was a nonsense word Burgerbelle came up with.”

“It was, and now it isn’t. Which is appropriate, since Burgerbelle might be a Fai.”

“...you’re saying this just to screw with us, aren’t you.”

“Not just to screw with you... but yeah, eighty percent of this is screwing.” Fuyu beamed. “Don’t worry, though, the Fay in Fae Époque have no reason to interfere with your Fæ, especially after a fey and a Fai showed their faye up so thoroughly.”

Nira leveled a flat look at Suzie. “I can still be annoyed by them, right?”

Suzie groaned. “Why do I even bother...”

Burgerbelle threw a golden gauntlet down in front of Winter. “I know how this has to end.”

Winter raised an eyebrow, taking a step away from Indigo. “Did you perceive my intentions?”

Burgerbelle grinned and put on a pair of star-shaped sunglasses that had sparklers affixed to the rims. “Maybe, maybe not. Elves like you have illusory ‘glamours.’ Put them to use.”

Winter nodded. “Challenge accepted.” Her eyes sparkled for a moment—and then her face was replaced with the cringiest of emojis: the laughing tears. This was promptly followed by a blue screen of death and an error message that read “I just don’t know what went wrong! Insert cheese to restart the universe.”

Burgerbelle took out two pills: one red, and one blue, each wearing a pair of ‘cool’ sunglasses. “What if I told you this wasn’t the meme you thought it was?”

“I would say you were making good use of your flaming pants,” Winter commented, pointing at Burgerbelle’s pants, which were aflame. Normally glamours were completely illusory, but Burgerbelle’s presence… for once, it wasn’t to her benefit.

“This is fine,” Burgerbelle said as her legs charred. “Everything is fine.”

Shimmy glanced at the reality anchor nervously. “...It can handle this, right?”

“Flat antics are the primary mode of prototype testing,” Corona answered. “It’s fine.”

Winter’s hand suddenly resembled a raptor claw. “Is the fire fine, because it is turning your legs into a delicate powder?”

Burgerbelle turned to dust, reforming behind Winter with a large box whirring with several gears. “Come one, come all, to SCP-914 MINI! Let us have some SCIENCE!” She popped open the front of the gearbox, threw in a Bradburger, and set it to “1:1”. She kicked the gears and a wet hamburger shot out. It would have hit Winter’s face had she not caught it in a catcher’s mitt.

“OUT!”

“FORE!” Burgerbelle called, dribbling a basketball into Winter’s face. Then she used a broom to turn the bottom half of Winter’s body to pure ice. “Tune in next week for news on the brand new sport—Winter Surfing!”

Winter tried to twist out of the way, but already found herself on a wave of red kool-aid.

She took advantage of this. “OH YEAH!” She suddenly had the strength to break through walls—which, in this case, were made out of Burgerbelle.

“WE HAVE AN ALIEN INTRUDER!” Burgerbelle shouted over the communications network in the Burgerbelle maze. “ARM UP, LADIES!”

A dozen adorable Burgerbelles in little soldier hats lined up, tearing Burgerbelles off the walls to create papercraft guns. They shot at Winter. She turned the bullets into bubbles with a sudden Infinity Gauntlet from nowhere. She snapped—and the walls of Burgerbelle turned to dust.

“You’ve forgotten the seventh stone!” Burgerbelle called, holding up a pink crystal.

“What is that?”

“LOOOOOOVE!” the Burgerbelles shouted.

“I have forgotten no such thing.”

“Oh y-”

Burgerbelle stepped on a garden rake and the handle flipped up, hitting her in the face. She fell over, dizzy.

“I did it!” Indigo squealed. She tried to say something further but it just got caught up in her own excited squealing.

“The greatest of glamours is love,” Winter said, standing mockingly over Burgerbelle. She swept Indigo up in an overdramatic tango motion and ran away with her in her arms.

Suzie gawked. “Did… did she just… out meme you?”

Burgerbelle coughed as if injured. “That’s… just what I want her to think.” She produced a black communicator. “Sometimes, all you need is something simple.” She pressed a button on the communicator. “Tactical nuke incoming.”

A bomb dropped from the sky. Had it been real it would not only have decimated Winter and Indigo, but all the people nearby, the reality anchor, and probably most of the universe.

All it did was knock Winter and Indigo over, face-first into a convenient muddy area.

“That’ll teach you to challenge the meme queen!”

“We aren’t done yet!” Indigo shouted, standing up tall. “We’ll take you to the ends of the earth!”

“That’s it, I’m done,” Shimmy said. She levitated Indigo, Burgerbelle, and Winter into the air. “Just because the universe can handle this stuff now doesn’t mean I want it. Goodbye.” She flicked the three of them through a dimensional portal. With them gone, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Awww, now we don’t get to see who wins,” Cinder complained. Then a lightbulb went off in her head. “Wait a minute, that’s the point isn’t it!?”

“Did Burgerbelle have a dimensional device?” Nira asked. “Her last one got smashed...”

The Sweeties all shared a look.

Shimmy sighed. “Don’t worry, I just kicked them over to my Equis.”

~~~

Meanwhile, in the Equis that was trying very hard NOT to be called Equis Shimmer but failing miserably…

Twilight Sparkle watched as a papercraft godzilla tried to eat her castle.

“...I think I need to have a few words with Sunset.”

Author's Notes:

Fey Breeze is really, really confusing. It's also part of the Oversaturated world and filled with any number of unusual, curious things running around. If you liked the Oversaturated world, I recommend reading up on this bizarre fairy-filled word-bending mess. By the great Masterweaver, who should be thanked for several of the above scenes. (As should FanofMostEverything for helping us keep Oversat lore straight.)

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
The Enchanted Library (The book that single-handedly changed my perception of the Romance genre.)

((LSB Status Post))

A Torn Page (The Enchanted Library)

“While you were all trapped with a bunch of fairies, I was having the time of my life.”

Cinder looked up at Swip’s representation. She still looked human, but she had ‘dyed’ her hair the color of most Sweetie Belles, though she kept it straight. Her skin—Ambiguously Brown, Cinder had decided—was a bit shocking since most Sweetie Belles were bleach white, but that just served as more of a defining feature. That is, if being a gigantic spaceship wasn’t defining enough.

“Swip, you were getting repaired. How was that fun?”

“Brought Rachel into a VR simulation,” Swip said, sliding in ‘closer’. “We spent all day talking, seeing the sights of distant worlds, and doing each other’s hair!” She grinned. “Machines are superior. Even when our spines are broken we can still sail the seven seas…”

“Oh, right, Rachel! How’s she doing?”

“Pretty good, actually. Turned down that offer to be liaison between our universes, but can you really blame her?”

“Not particularly,” Cinder admitted.

“Is she the one who flipped my mattress upside down?” Nira asked, walking through the lounge with a scowl on her face.

“That was me,” Swip reported. “Except it was upside-down before. You’re lucky I caught that in repairs.”

Nira twitched, grumbling incoherently to herself as she left.

“Someone’s a grump,” Cinder commented.

“At the rate things have been going with her, I’ll be out of a job,” Squiddy said. She was currently flopped over the back of a couch like a dead fish, so lethargic she hadn't even raised her head to speak.

“Think we should be concerned?”

“I dunno, I’m like, the least empathetically attuned fish on this ship.”

“You’re the only fish on me,” Swip corrected.

“Joke’s on you, I’m not a fish.”

“Joke’s on you, we still haven’t figured out if you’re a kid or a squid.”

“Neither of which are a fish.”

“For all we know kid plus squid equals fish.”

“That’s stupid.”

“I’m sure there’s a Horrorterror out there that’ll agree with me.”

“GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS?” Burgerbelle said, jumping through a door.

“If it’s not hammertime I win a bet,” Squiddy called, still not lifting her head.

“It’s random mission assignment time!” Burgerbelle declared. “Suzie’s got us a random creepy forest! Let’s see who gets to go!”

“Heh. Seren owes me five quid.”

Burgerbelle pulled a four-section slot machine out of nowhere and pulled the lever on the side. The slots whirled and quickly landed on four separate symbols with a ka-ching-ching-ching-ching! A flaming Crusader emblem told Cinder she was on the team. Next were Celia’s crystal, the crescent on Seren’s staff, and the six lines of the Void symbol. “Cinder! Celia! Seren! Blink!” Burgerbelle suddenly held all of them in her arms. “You’re all going to have such fun!”

Celia blinked, dropping the book she was reading. “Oh. Slot machine, I assume?”

“Yep,” Cinder said.

Squiddy shot bolt upright. “Hey! Seren! It wasn’t hammertime! You owe me-”

“No time for that!” Burgerbelle declared, running to the portal room—it was already open and set to a dark forest. “Have fun!” She threw the four of them in and closed the portal.

“Well, at least I don’t have to pay up!” Seren declared with an innocent smile.

“Lucky draw this time, none of us are going to throw that much of a fit about being here,” Blink observed.

“I was enjoying my book,” Celia commented.

“Hey, girls?” Cinder said.

“Hmm?”

“Timberwolf.”

There was, in fact, a tremendous wolf made of magically enchanted wooden planks glaring at them with a mixture of surprise and hostility.

“Sweet!” Blink said, taking up a fighting stance. “Let’s punch some trees!”

Cinder lit the timberwolf on fire. Normally wet timberwolves would be a nightmare to set on fire, but this particular one had a few loose twigs on its paw that worked as excellent kindling. It roared in a mixture of panic and agony as it frantically tried to put out its charring paw. As the roar turned into more of a whimper, it ran off, presumably to find a river or something.

Seren whooped. “Go Cinder!”

“I am the timberwolf slayer,” Cinder declared. “No wood shall escape my righteous flames!”

“It ran away,” Blink pointed out.

“It might die,” Cinder said.

“Probably not though.”

“Yeah, probably not.”

Celia smiled at the antics of the two unicorns. “Seren, have some fire spells on standby, we don’t want to be surprised if it calls some friends.”

“I’ll burn them all!” Cinder declared.

“We don’t want a forest fire, dear.”

“A… Hmm. I’ll burn some of them? Come on, they’re literally made out of wood! I’m super effective!”

“Something, something, pokemon reference Burgerbelle makes,” Blink said, waving a hoof.

“So, observation,” Seren declared, holding up a finger. “We are in a non-standard Everfree Forest.”

“Why non-standard?” Celia asked.

“Suuuuuper saturated with chaos magic. Like, directly from Discord saturated. That Timberwolf was enchanted with similar stuff too.”

Celia furrowed her brow. “...Be prepared for a quick eject if we run into a particularly nasty version of him.”

Cinder’s smile faltered. “A… oh geez, a really evil Discord would be… I don’t really want to think about it but I already am.”

“I can protect us long enough to escape,” Seren said. “...Probably.”

“Very confidence-boosting.”

As the other Sweeties talked and began to poke around the forest, Cinder took a look around. She happened across something interesting first. “Hey, I found something!”

“What?” Blink asked.

Cinder pointed at a tree with a window in it. “Treehouse.”

“Wow!” Seren said, floating up to the window and looking in. “I can’t really see anything… I wonder why it’s here?”

“Perhaps we should read the plaque?” Celia suggested, pointing with a hoof at the base of the tree.

PONYVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY

Donated by Princess Twilight Sparkle

“It does look a bit like the Golden Oak Library…” Cinder said, noticing a trap door beneath the plaque. “Well, adventure calls!” She pulled on the trapdoor, easily popping it open to reveal a narrow staircase.

“Seren,” Blink said. “Analyze the situation: is Celia going to fit?”

“Affirmative. Won’t even be that hard, if she crouches.”

Celia smiled. “I won’t even have to work that ha-”

“DOPPELGANGER!” a Rarity shouted. Celia took a moment to look up—and a book smashed into her face at high velocity. This normally would have done absolutely nothing, no matter how large the book was, but this particular one must have been enchanted with something because the impact force knocked her straight down the stairwell.

Cinder glanced up, looking at the Rarity for the first time. She looked normal, although angry, scared, and she had a pink necklace. To her side was a nervously shaking Fluttershy.

“Wh… SPIRIT! Stop mocking my sister!” She pulled the book back for another hit.

“DOWN THE STAIRS!” Cinder shouted, dodging the book by a hair’s breadth. Seren and Blink didn’t question it—they ran down as fast as their legs could carry them, passing through a magic veil of some sort without really thinking about it. They entered a large underground library filled with a vast array of bookshelves, tables, and even a few candles. Celia was waiting for them at the base of the stairs, rubbing her gemstone.

“What was on that book?” she wondered, experiencing something akin to a headache.

“Dunno, don’t wanna find out!” Cinder said. “Let’s j-” she heard hoofsteps coming down the stairs. “Let’s keep running!”

Celia shook her head. “I am more than capable of handling some boo-”

The Rarity threw the book before she reached the bottom of the stairs, hitting Celia square in the face again. She flew through the air, over several bookshelves, and down a second stairwell.

“Seren?” Cinder asked.

Seren caught the book in her telekinesis before the Rarity could retrieve it again.

“Ruffian!” Rarity shouted, voice wavering with uncertainty as she tugged at the book with her own, vastly inferior telekinesis. “Un… HAND the book this instant.”

“It’s not in my hand,” Seren pointed out.

“Wh… Bh… GAH, enough games!” She charged Seren, only to ram herself facefirst into an invisible wall.

“You might want to stop trying, this isn’t exactly going to go in your favor…” Seren said.

“We’ll go get Celia,” Blink said, grabbing Cinder. The two of them galloped away, running down the secondary stairwell into the lower level of the library. Once again, Celia was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs amidst a bunch of bookshelves. Unlike the previous level, however, this floor had bookshelves flying every which way in a random chaotic fashion.

Furthermore, there was a version of Twilight Sparkle floating through the bookshelves, a disgruntled look of annoyance on her face as she chased a particularly nasty-looking chaos-infused bookshelf through the air, never quite able to reach it. “Come on!” she called, oblivious to her three-Sweetie audience.

“...Seren’s up there dealing with the Rarity,” Blink reported. “Think we should…?”

“At the moment I am unsure of what precisely is happening,” Celia admitted. “Though I am curious to find out. HEY! PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

Twilight turned sharply to the left, lighting up considerably. “Rarity! You’re back! Excuse me I-” it took her all of a second to see that Celia wasn’t Rarity. “...Discord.”

“What? NO!” Celia waved her hoof, lifting up her mane to reveal her crystal. “My name is Celia and I’m from another universe!”

Twilight’s horn stopped glowing. “...Another… universe? Prove it.”

“The two mares behind me are both alternate versions of the same mare, Sweetie Belle.”

“Hi Princess!” Cinder waved. “I’m Cinder, this is Blink, and the Sweetie on the other floor keeping your Rarity from beating us up is Seren!”

“Sweetie? Floor? Rarity? Beat up!?”

“I assure you we can explain everything if y-” Celia stopped talking when the Twilight teleported away. This did not stop them from hearing the conversation above them.

“Twilight! Help me defeat this… intruder! This mockery of Sweetie!”

“Rarity, I... Are you ramming a book into an invisible wall?”

“It’s the book you gave me! I’m… using it to defend myself!”

“From what?”

“The Spirit!”

“That’s just a kid, Rarity. With a… oh my that’s a lot of magic…”

“See! The Spirit!”

“Almost all of it is familial magic! Discord didn’t have family!”

“Then why does she look like Sweetie Belle?”

“I… Oh my, alternate universes. Yes! The mare that looks like you wasn’t lying, this is a case of interdimensional convergence!”

“I… what?”

Twilight teleported back down to Celia, Cinder, and Blink, a nerdy grin plastered on her face. “Tell me everything.”

“The universe began with an explosion,” Blink said.

“...Not what I meant, but I’m down for learning about the origins of the universe!” She summoned a scroll and a quill to herself. “I’ve never encountered interdimensional beings before, I don’t know anything besides the fringe theories!”

Celia smiled. “I’ll tell you everything, Princess. But only if you tell us some of your own story.”

Twilight hesitated. “...Okay. I suppose the legend of the four princesses is public knowledge…”

“Then we’re going to get along just fine,” Celia said, extending a hoof to shake Twilight’s own.

“...I, uh… I can’t shake that,” Twilight said, waving her hoof harmlessly through a nearby bookshelf. “Intangible.”

“Lemme try,” Blink said, phasing herself partially out of existence. She reached for Twilight and passed right through. “Welp, different sort of Voidey nonsense, sorry. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”

“Twilight!” Rarity called from atop the stairs. “What am I supposed to do with the… monkey-pony?”

Twilight shrugged. “I have no idea. Why don’t we ask her?”

~~~

The story swapping had become very, very routine for Cinder at this point.

“Hey, we’re a bunch of multiversal explorers, all different versions of Sweetie Belle! Here’s some of the things we do said in such a way that we think is best suited for you to hear!”

“Oh, that’s cool! I’m a princess who was locked away in this library because Discord a thousand years ago, and Rarity here just recently found the library and is trying to find all my lost books to save me from my prison!”

“Cool!”

“Cool!”

At least that’s how Cinder filed it away in her head. In reality, it had taken around twenty minutes to get to that point and everyone was a good deal more serious about it. Twilight really had been trapped down here as little more than a ghost for over a thousand years, and that was not only terrible, it had clearly worn on the purple mare’s psyche. After she had gotten over the initial excitement of ‘multiversal explorers’ the alicorn had become much more tentative, uncertain, and… sad. It was heartbreaking, really, and just about the only thing that got her to smile were interesting facts about the universe, and her friends. It was just Rarity and Fluttershy at the moment, but apparently there were others, including the local version of Sweetie.

Rarity wasn’t sure if it was a good idea for them to meet.

“Naturally, we’ll help you get out of this library,” Celia said, seemingly out of nowhere.

Twilight blinked. “R-really?”

“Of course! You’ve been trapped here for far too long, a clear evil.” She smiled softly. “We have access to the strongest magics of multiple universes. While a Discord enchantment may be… difficult to break, we could no doubt do it with time, unless there were some unforeseen consequence.”

“T-thank you!” Twilight said, allowing herself to smile again. “I… I guess it must just be something about Rarities, huh?”

Rarity blinked. “What do you mean, Twilight?”

“Both of you are ready to help me after barely knowing me,” Twilight pointed out. “Maybe Rarities helping Twilights are multiversal constants, or something…”

“We are regular bearers of the Element of Generosity,” Celia admitted.

“Element of… Generosity?” Twilight asked, cocking her head. “That’s not one of our Elements…”

“Isn’t that crystal in your crown not the Element of Magic?” Cinder asked.

Twilight nodded. “Yes. Magic, Love, Moon, and Sun.”

“Fascinating…” Seren said, “Your Elements are attuned to the princesses. Ours are attuned to the magic of friendship—Generosity, Loyalty, Laughter, Honesty, Kindness, and Magic.”

“You actually have two of the standard bearers right here,” Celia said with a smile. “Generosity—that’s Rarity—and Kindness.” She pointed at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy gasped. “I… I am an Element of Harmony?”

“Sometimes, likely not here,” Celia admitted. “But that shouldn’t keep you from forming a powerful bond with your friends. The friendship between us ponies, that seems to be a multiversal constant, more than anything.”

“You know, except in the worlds where everyone’s trying to kill each other,” Blink pointed out.

“Those are the exception,” Celia admitted. “And rather detestable, I might add.”

Twilight visibly grimaced at the thought. “...Tell me more about how you travel between universes.”

Seren may have been more qualified to answer the question—but it was clearly directed at Celia, so the Gem answered. “There are numerous methods, both magical and not, that pierce the veil between worlds. But the basic theory is the same behind all of them. Once you know the coordinates of a universe—I’m not going into detail about how we find them, it’s essentially random more often than not. Once you know, you tap into a natural ‘connection’ that exists between your current universe and the destination universe. A dimensional device or spell is one that is able to grab hold of this connection by puncturing a hole in the fabric of space-time. This hole, attuned to the proper connection, leads from one universe to another. Some methods expand the hole, others simply use the hole as a path for teleportation.”

“Wow…” Twilight said, eyes wide. To her side she was furiously scribbling in a scroll. “I have so many questions…”

“We can give you access to our database later,” Celia promised. “All the basic theory of interdimensional travel is public knowledge, after all.”

“Well…” Twilight furrowed her brow. “In that case, a more specific question. Your crystal. It channels magic, clearly, but it isn’t a horn, and your body doesn’t have fur like a normal pony. How’s it work?”

Celia smiled. “A question I am qualified to answer. I am part of a race of beings called Gems—creative, I know. This body you see isn’t really ‘me’ per se, so much as my gemstone is. I was created hundreds of years ago…”

At this comment of her age, Cinder noticed Rarity tense up. The white mare had slowly gotten more and more silent as the conversation with the Sweeties had gone on, and this last comment turned her uncertain face into a concerned frown. As Celia continued to draw the attention of the entire room in her explanation of the magitech nature of Gems, Rarity slinked away. As far as Cinder could tell, she was the only one who noticed and cared enough to think something was up with Rarity.

After taking a few moments to see if anypony else would do anything, Cinder got up and followed Rarity. The unicorn had walked up the stairway out of the library and was now sitting on the ground outside, staring into the darkness of the Everfree Forest.

Cinder sat down next to her. “Hey.”

“AAAAUUUUGH!” Rarity screamed, nearly falling over. “You… you’re just as bad as Twilight!”

“She jump scare you much?”

“All the time!” Rarity put a hoof to her chest as she let out deep breaths of air. “Next thing I know you’ll tell me you’re some kind of spirit too…”

“Me? Nah, I’m just an ordinary Sweetie Belle that knows a bit of fire magic. Blink’s a ghost though.”

“A… ghost.”

“Yep. A ghost.”

“And here I thought she was the normal one… looked the most like my Sweetie, aside from the bracelets.”

“If she removed her glasses you’d get a nice view of some dead, empty eyes.”

“Then I am glad she wears sunglasses,” Rarity decided. “Very glad.”

“Most of us are. I kinda wish the other ghosts would too, though. But no, they wander around Celestia City, dead eyes and all. Apparently I’d get used to them if I spent all my time there.”

“Mhm…” Rarity said, listening, but clearly not into it.

After a moment of silence, Cinder spoke up again. “So… why are we out here?”

“You followed me.”

“Yeah. You seemed troubled.”

Rarity laughed. “You definitely aren’t my Sweetie Belle.”

“I’m older. And I’ve seen a lot.”

“And you’re apparently on fire regularly.”

Cinder lit her horn on fire and smiled. “Yep.”

“How d-”

“You’re avoiding it.”

Rarity winced, looking away from Cinder as fast as she could.

“It’s okay. Everypony does it. You should meet Nira, I haven’t gotten her to talk about her feelings hardly ever.”

“I’m not…” Rarity bit her lip. “I am. I just… I needed to get out of there.”

“Why?”

Rarity didn’t make any response.

“...Was it because you felt overshadowed?”

“She’s amazing,” Rarity breathed. “She’s graceful, well educated, clever, ageless, magical, from another universe… She’s me but better. And now here she is, ready to save Twilight, just like I was… And she can just do it. What, were all those books I found… pointless?”

“You’re her friend. That’s not going to change just because we showed up.”

“Of course not,” Rarity said—with significantly more confidence than Cinder was expecting. “Twilight’s not the sort of mare to forget ponies.”

“If you know that then, why a-” a lightbulb went off in Cinder’s head. “Ooooooooooooooooh, this is a bit bigger than a Friendship Problem, isn’t it?”

At first, Rarity didn’t register what Cinder was implying. “I suppose so…” The moment she did, she stared at Cinder in shock, flushing slightly. “Wh-what? I never!”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Well, now I’m sure.”

“I-”

“Calm down, I’m not going to tell anypony.”

“You barely know me! How!?”

Cinder smiled softly. “I guess I’m just learning to pick up on things. I don’t think you have to worry about anything from Celia. She meets hundreds of Twilights on a weekly basis, treats all of them the same. She’s still yours.”

“Is she, though?” Rarity asked—more to herself than to Cinder. Then she shook her head.

“I don’t know,” Cinder admitted with a shrug. “I just barely figured out there was a thing here. I’m not Cadence.”

“Mmm…”

“I do know that sitting out here and not being part of the conversation in there is not the answer, if that helps.”

Rarity let out a decidedly unladylike snort that led to some equally unladylike laughter. “That… does seem rather obvious.” She looked up at the dark shadows of the trees all around. “I suppose I am being a bit silly. You’re not here to take her, you’re here to free her. I’m just being ridiculous.”

...Would we be taking her by freeing her?

“Cinder?”

Cinder shook her head. “It’s nothing. Just thinking about what we do with the worlds we visit.”

“Now who’s avoiding the conversation?”

Cinder rubbed the back of her head nervously. “Yeah… trust me though, it’s nothing you could help with, unless you want me to summarize the bizarre politics behind interference policy instead of going back to Twilight.”

“Well, that would involve going back to her…”

“Celia doesn’t bite, Rarity.”

“A mare does not have to bite to be threatening.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to go back in or not?”

Rarity let out a disgruntled sigh. “All right, fine, you win, I’m going back in.” She walked to the staircase and descended into the earth. “Getting a heart-to-heart from my sister, I swear…”

“Just wait ‘till we take you to Celestia City!” Cinder trotted down after her. “It’ll make today look tame!”

“I both dread and anticipate that day!”

“As you should.”

The two returned to the library, surprised to find no sign of Seren or Celia, only Twilight, Fluttershy, and Blink.

“This is what it feels like to be intangible,” Blink told Fluttershy as her hoof passed through a bookshelf.

“So… strange,” Fluttershy admitted. “Though not as cold as I was expecting.”

“...Cold?” Twilight asked, cocking her head.

“I just thought since you couldn’t touch anything, you’d never feel warm.”

“Even though cold is the absence of temperature, I can’t exactly feel it even then.”

“Huh. I never would have thought of that…”

Twilight was about to continue the conversation—but she noticed Rarity coming down. “Oh, Rarity! I had…”

“I’d never just leave, Twilight,” Rarity said with a soft smile. “I only needed a little fresh air. As much as I adore your books you have to admit, sometimes it’s a bit much.”

“I know all too well…” Twilight said, looking around with ancient sorrow and pain.

“But it looks like you’ll be able to join me out there soon!”

“That’d be… nice,” Twilight admitted.

“You know what we need?” Cinder asked.

Blink cocked her head. “I mean, we already have me, what else could we possibly need?”

“A dance party.” Cinder took out her communication device from her mane and set it down on one of the tables. “I recently downloaded some modern Merodi dance music onto this thing because it’s just so weird.”

Twilight gasped, rushing to the table and staring closely at the device. “What is it? How does it work? How do you stor-”

“Shush,” Cinder ordered. “I have no idea how it works, and that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that we dance.”

“Dance?”

“Dance.” Cinder tapped the device with her magic. It started blaring some of the strangest synthetic music ever to grace Cinder’s ears—somehow harsh and soothing at the same time, a bumping beat interlaced with a wide variety of synthetic sounds from sources Cinder couldn’t even begin to guess at.

But she could dance to it. With a smirk, she jumped on the table and gestured for Blink to join her. The two of them took up stances opposite each other, standing up on their hind hooves. With a pair of matching smirks, they started waving their front hooves around in sharp, jerking motions, mirroring each other. Imperfectly, of course, but it wasn't like they were trying to do a perfect dance.

Cinder found herself singing uncontrollably.

“When the hooves hit the floor
And your fears are no more
It’s time to take the chance
Clap your hooves, come and dance!”

Rarity realized that Blink and Cinder weren’t in any physical contact the moment the verse ended. Instantly, she jumped into motion with the music, moving closer to Twilight with a smug grin on her face, inviting her with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight hesitated for a moment—still unsure if the music really deserved to be called such—but she couldn't say no to that face. She set her back hooves to the ground and spread her wings, mimicking Rarity’s movements. Badly, at first, but after a few moments she got the hang of it. It wasn’t like it was a complicated dance.

When the two of them got fully into it, Cinder fell back to her hooves, ending the dance with Blink. She watched the alicorn spirit and the brave unicorn dance around each other—spinning, twisting, approaching each other, but never quite touching. There was no need for words, only movement within the enchanted library.

Fluttershy put a hoof in Cinder’s mane and patted her comfortingly. Cinder looked up to the pegasus and smiled, taking the pat as a thank you for helping Rarity, even if it was just in a small way.

As the song ended, Rarity and Twilight brushed past each other, the unicorn’s back missing lavender wings by less than an inch. The two landed on three hooves, the thumping tunes fading out. When Cinder turned the music off completely, Fluttershy and Blink erupted into applause.

Rarity heard the applause and ate it up, bowing extravagantly. Twilight, conversely, looked as though she had forgotten there was an audience in the first place and looked rather sheepish—though she managed a bow anyway.

“Heartsongs are interesting things,” Twilight commented when the applause died down. “They just… take over, after a point. The words come—sometimes with dance. That’s… that’s what it felt like. Are you able to initiate heartsongs on command?”

Cinder blinked. “That’s not what I was trying to do, but I don’t know. Are we, Blink?”

Blink shrugged. “Maybe? Seems like something we’d try to do.”

“It’d be great if we cou-”

“Twilight, there’ll be time for that later,” Rarity said with a roll of her eyes. “Why not just enjoy it for what it is, for once?”

Twilight contemplated this for a moment. “Oh, all right, it was great, thank you. I will have a checklist of questions for later though, you can count on it.”

“You’re a Twilight all right,” Blink commented.

Twilight smirked. “If there is a version of me that doesn’t make lists, there’s something very wrong with reality.”

The mares laughed warmly at this observation, all for different, equally heartwarming reasons.

~~~

Celia and Seren weren't with the others because they had been gathering data about the magic of the library, trying to figure out exactly what it was that cursed Twilight Sparkle, trapping her here for eternity. The obvious answer: Discord. But that wasn't enough to force-break a curse.

While the others had their spontaneous dance party and subsequent critique of Merodi music tastes, Seren teleported Celia and herself outside the library.

“Do you think you can do it?” Celia asked.

Seren nodded, gripping her scepter. “It’s complicated and it’s powerful, but if I lay the right magic circles, I think I can dispel it. I don’t really know how well it can resist, but whatever Discord made has to have lost strength over time. I should be able to take it.”

“If there’s no risk, go ahead and try.”

Seren nodded. She spent the next several minutes tracing magic circles in the dirt around the library, taking a few breaks here and there to completely obliterate a timberwolf or two. Celia supervised as the simple circle of upturned dirt turned into a few dozen concentric rings surrounding many nearby trees. Seren had even uprooted one to create a connecting mana line between two distant nodes. The circles and lines soon grew too complex for Celia to keep track of—all she could do is ensure they were drawn cleanly into the ground without blemish.

Eventually, Seren nodded to Celia. “Ready.”

“Begin.”

Seren stood in the middle of a smaller circle just in front of the trap door. After letting out a short breath, she rammed the base of her scepter into the ground. Instantly, the entire network of circles around the library’s tree lit up with a bright Sweetie pink, banishing the darkness of the Everfree away. The crescent of the scepter flashed red, initiating Seren’s offense on the chaos magic of the library.

It fought back instantly. The circle around Seren shifted to a sickly yellow color, creating numerous claw constructs that attempted to attack Seren. She pushed the claws back with a simple shield, driving out the yellow chaos in the ground without breaking a sweat.

She smirked. Discordian curses were easier than she remembered.

And then it actually fought back, opting to hit Seren with a beam of chaos energy instead of bothering with creepy claws. She resisted, using a complex array of magic constructs to absorb part of the chaotic energy into herself and deflect the rest.

She could not overpower this attack on her own, so she would just have to last it out. Curses always had limited power. Without the caster here, it would run out of energy eventually.

Eventually…

Seren’s smile slowly vanished. It really shouldn’t have been able to output this much raw power without Discord being physically present, and they would have easily detected that. So where was it getting its power?

She began to reach out with her senses, allowing her shields to falter for a moment. It was not too difficult to find a tether that led directly to a soul. She saw a negative emotional feedback loop.

That’s just cruel, she thought as the chaos overpowered her and drove her through the trunk of a nearby tree.

“Seren!” Celia gasped as both the magic circles and the chaos magic dissipated.

“I’m fine…” Seren muttered, pulling herself out of the anthro-shaped hole in the tree. “This Discord’s either smarter than most, or more sadistic.”

“How so?” Celia asked.

“I can’t be certain just yet… but I think he tied the perpetuation of the curse to Twilight. She’s powering it with some aspect of herself. Something dark… Something…”

“Shame?”

“I mean, in theory…”

“It’s shame, or regret,” Celia said with certainty. “I see it all over her face, even when she smiles. Her past actions constantly haunt her, and this library is a constant reminder. Trapping her in a place that will constantly remind her of her failures… that is sadistic.”

“...I was afraid of this.”

Seren and Celia turned to see Cinder walking toward them, a grimace on her face.

“Afraid of what?”

“Afraid that we’ve walked into the middle of a very delicate story,” Cinder explained. “I’m… I’m not sure we should step in.”

“What?” Seren cocked her head. “Why not? This is a curse! We fix curses we can! It’s like our thing!”

Cinder turned to Celia. “Rarity and Twilight.”

“You noticed their feelings for each other?” Celia asked. “Impressive, I barely noticed myself. Good work!”

“Yeah. I went and had a talk with Rarity after she snuck away. Gave her some confidence to go back and talk with Twilight, that sort of thing. But she made me think about something… She felt like you were stealing Twilight away from her.”

“Ridiculous,” Celia pointed out.

“Yes. But… here’s what I see. I see a princess trapped in a library and a normal, somewhat weak unicorn risking her life to free her. Two mares forced together by circumstance and a series of unlikely events. If we remove the library… that might ruin the catalyst for their relationship.”

Cinder pointed at Seren. “You said the library was powered off Twilight’s own negative… something-or-other.”

“Shame and regret, if Celia’s right,” Seren said, frowning.

“If we remove that by force, Twilight will be free… but she’ll still hate herself. She’ll probably lock herself away, or something. ...Not sure, didn’t talk to her. But she’s very cagey and—well I just don’t see it ending that well if she gets out of here but is still broken.”

“It would ruin a future family…” Seren breathed.

“...Yeah, I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”

“She’s convinced me.” Seren turned to Celia. “We need to let them figure this out on their own.”

Celia furrowed her brow. “Ruining a relationship and making a mare’s life difficult are unfortunate. But we have to ask ourselves, what are the negatives of doing nothing?”

“Twilight remains stuck until Rarity frees her,” Cinder said. “And no, that’s not ‘unlikely to happen’, it’s virtually guaranteed to happen.”

Celia smirked. “You’re catching on faster than I ever did. Yes, that seems to be the right interpretation. But we have to ask if there will be sacrifice leading up to that moment. Say—a lost life. They are in danger from their Discord.”

“A Discord who didn’t kill Twilight, just imprisoned her in one of his games. They’ve already been on dangerous missions, and none of them have been seriously injured. I don’t think this is that kind of story.”

“A gamble…” Celia said.

“Trust me, Celia. We don’t want to do this. We want them to figure it out on their own.”

“It’s not like we haven’t backed off before,” Seren pointed out. “Plus, we don’t have to wait to be sure, we can just accelerate time.”

“We can?” Cinder said.

Celia nodded. “Swip is equipped with a time drive, though we use it as little as possible since timeline rewriting is frowned upon. A simple acceleration should do the trick, but I’d much rather have a Time player look into the futures for us. I’ll make the call—but first. Fluttershy, do you want to come out of hiding?”

There was a meek ‘eep’ from the staircase that led to the library. Slowly, the pegasus crawled out of the ground, tears in her eyes. “I…”

“How much did you hear?” Celia asked.

“...You don’t think you should help.”

Celia nodded. “I’m on the fence, myself. Change my mind.”

“No… no, you’re right,” Fluttershy said, wiping an eye. “They…” She glanced behind herself at the tree. “They need to work through this. Maybe we need to work through this.” She turned to Cinder. “You’re sure we’ll do it?”

“Positive,” Cinder said. “It’s how… fate works. You’ll probably suffer a great deal of emotional turmoil near the end… but you’ll get through it.”

“And if you’re wrong?”

“...Then we’ll come back. Because apparently we can.”

“In universes that allow backwards time travel,” Celia said.

‘Which this one does,” Seren affirmed.

Fluttershy nodded. “I’ll… have to keep the secret.” She closed her eyes. “...It must be hard, to be you. All the power, and yet you have to ask yourselves every day if you should use it.”

Celia smiled sadly. “We use it more often than we should, admittedly.”

“...Thank you for thinking about us,” Fluttershy said, nodding curtly. “I… I won’t tell. And when it’s all over… I’ll keep them from exploding.”

“We don’t even ask for that much.”

“It’s the least I can do. The…” Fluttershy let out a chuckle. “Kind thing.”

Celia put a hoof under Fluttershy’s chin and tilted her head upward. “You have the strength, Fluttershy. Don’t doubt yourself.”

Fluttershy nodded, face set. “Right.”

“...There’s one last thing we have to do before we leave…”

~~~

Cinder dropped the massive book on Twilight’s library table—not Celia, they had decided it would be best if the Gem held back. “One copy of Nested Spheres: A Study of Multiversal Phenomena: Portals to Higher Dimensional Eldritch Manifolds donated to the library of Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight looked down at the massive book with stars in her eyes. “D-donated?”

“Donated. Don’t worry, the only cost to us was the paper. And we all get pretty good salaries, so that didn’t even dent it.” A distant look came across Cinder’s face. “I found out I’m effectively rich today. That was interesting.” She shook her head. “Anyway, no doubt you will read it to your heart’s content! Don’t worry, it’s got margins for annotations!”

“This… this is perfect,” Twilight said, grinning from ear to ear. “The mysteries of the cosmos…”

“All in that book. Granted, a lot of it is probably going to be confusing, and it’s above my head, but you’re Princess Twilight! I bet you read it in a day.”

“That might be a bit much even for her,” Rarity surmised. “The book is thicker than my head…”

Twilight opened the cover and traced her book on the inner page. She saw an empty this book belongs to… line.

“...It’s yours,” Rarity said, pushing a quill and ink over to her.

Twilight, with a satisfied smile, picked up the quill and signed her name under the line.

“Now, don’t lose that one,” Rarity chided. “I don’t want to go have to run into a volcano and lug this monstrosity back!”

“I am never letting this thing out of the library,” Twilight declared. “Don’t worry.”

“Enjoy reading!” Cinder’s smile faltered. “...We have to go for a bit. We will be back, but I can’t give you an exact time.”

“Why not?”

“Chapter nine: time incongruity.”

Twilight blinked. “Time… isn’t consistent?”

“Not between universes, no. It’s apparently a nightmare for scheduling.”

Twilight’s expression was a mixture of horror and respect for the audacity of the multiverse.

“Anyway, we will be back. That’s a promise.” Cinder waved. “See you, Princess!”

Twilight waved with a hoof. “Do return. I will have a lot of questions for you when you get back. And… thank you for doing this.”

A spike ran through Cinder’s heart. “...What are friends for?”

She said her goodbyes to Rarity and Fluttershy, and stepped out of the library with the rest of her team. They stepped through a portal, returning to Swip. The forest was quiet once again.

~~~

A few weeks later…

Twilight closed the back of the massive tome, a frown on her face.

“Are they… are they coming back?” Twilight asked.

“They promised,” Rarity assured her. “Of course they will.”

“...I… I’m not so sure…” Fluttershy said.

Rarity looked at her with a mean look.

Fluttershy pressed on. “...Twilight, I think that book is an apology.”

Twilight looked down at the massive tome of multiversal knowledge, frowning.

“Seren tried to break the curse while they were here. She couldn’t do it.”

“Oh…” Rarity put a hoof to her mouth. “I…”

“They’re ashamed,” Fluttershy said, following it quickly with. “Probably.”

Twilight sighed. “...They tried, at least.”

“And they gave up too easily!” Rarity huffed. “They could have… stuck around! Done something else!” She tossed her mane back. “They could have helped us find the books!”

“But they felt their failure,” Twilight said, rubbing her hoof across the tome’s cover. “It drove right to their core. They couldn't face us.”

“Twilight, dea-”

“I know what that’s like,” Twilight said, simply.

Rarity and Fluttershy looked at her with pitying glances.

“Don’t be mad at them. Please.” Twilight forced a smile. “They gave us joy for a day. And gave us this amazing book. I don’t think it can help us get out of this situation, but it sure has a lot of interesting stories and truths in it.”

Rarity looked into Twilight’s eyes. “...I could never stay mad at them.”

“...Thank you, Rarity.”

~~~

Swip orbited the planet in the universe now dubbed Equis Quargend, after the legend of the four princesses. The planet was on the screen, but nobody was looking at it. Instead, they looked at the Maid of Time, Aradia Megido, a grey-skinned humanoid with ram-like horns. She wore a long, flowing red robe imprinted with the ten-toothed gear symbol that represented Time itself. She was apparently the expert on time travel for all of Merodi Universalis.

“I’ll find the moment,” she promised, a delighted smile on her face. “In fact, a version of me already has, and will come back here to tell me to go become her. You’ll arrive at the right moment.”

“Thank you, Handmaid,” Celia said with a bow.

“All you ponies insisting on bowing.”

“Technically not a pony.”

Aradia laughed heartily. “And your insistence on technicalities.”

Another Aradia appeared next to her in a flash of red, identical to appearance. “Found it!”

The first Aradia nodded, vanishing in a puff of her own time Aspect to perform the mission the second Aradia just returned from.

The second—now only—Aradia turned to the Sweeties and smiled. “A simple travel spell will do, this world isn’t related temporally to any others—it’ll rush to catch up with the primary flow of time. Swip, do you mind if I take us?”

“Bah, fine. Never let me exercise that time drive…”

“It is the least reliable of your systems,” Araida pointed out. She held out her hands and Swip was engulfed in a sea of swirling red gears, jumping forward over two years into the future. They appeared in orbit and not a single entity noticed.

“Teleport us down to the Library,” Celia ordered.

Seren, Celia, Blink, and of course Cinder appeared in front of the trapdoor once again. It was wide open, revealing stairs that led right into it.

Seren smiled. “The magic’s gone. She’s free.”

“But she is in there,” Celia commented.

“What are we waiting for?” Cinder asked, scrambling down the stairs.

“They might not like to see us…”

“I’m still going to hug Twilight and you can’t stop me. And neither can she.”

As she raced down the stairs, Cinder found out that there was something that could stop her from pulling Twilight into a hug, and that was the sight of two ponies in an embrace that was long overdue. Twilight Sparkle, with a disheveled mane and covered in a copious amount of black ink, was holding Rarity in her own hooves, their two faces pressed into one of the most passionate and long-awaited kisses Cinder had ever seen.

She froze—or tried to. Instead, she toppled forward, smacking her face on a table. “Ow.”

Twilight and Rarity broke free from each other and stared at her in shock. “Sweetie, what a-” Rarity saw Cinder’s orange eyes. “...Cinder…”

“You… you’re back,” Twilight said, shocked.

Cinder picked her head off the table. “Yeah… we’re back. Sorry we took so long.”

“You… you haven’t aged a day!” Rarity gasped.

“Was the time dilation really that bad?” Twilight asked.

“N...no,” Cinder said. “I… Geez this is weird, it’s been two years for you. It’s been… two minutes for us.” She swallowed hard. “We could have helped free you. It would have been as simple as calling one of the friendly Discords of the multiverse and brute-forcing the spell.”

Twilight and Rarity stared at her in shock.

“But if we’d done that… you wouldn’t have this.” Cinder held out a hoof and gestured at the two of them. “I… I convinced everyone that we didn’t have a right to ruin this. To keep you two from each other.” She turned to Twilight. “To keep you from escaping yourself.”

She took a nervous breath. “I won’t say I’m sorry, because I think I did the right thing, letting you work through this on your own. But I hope you can forgive me.”

Rarity looked at Cinder with sad eyes that clearly had been crying not too long ago. “...I could never stay mad at you.”

Cinder cocked her head. “Uh…”

Twilight was trying not to giggle. “She’s… being cute.”

“When am I not cute, darling?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t know…” Twilight said, though she subconsciously glanced at some pretty impressive scars across Rarity’s flank.

Rarity coughed. “Anyway, Cinder, I can’t possibly complain about you allowing this to happen, but it was kind of rude leaving without telling anyone.”

“...Uh, please don’t be mad, again, but we talked to Fluttershy.”

Rarity blinked. “Well. Apparently that mare is better at keeping secrets than I give her credit for.”

“Please don-”

“Cinder, relax, I think it might be physically impossible for me to feel anger right now.” She put a hoof around Twilight and giggled. “It’s… it’s finally done. The adventure’s over. And now…” She smirked coyly. “And now Twilight and I need to rest.”

“Oh.” Cinder nodded. “Right, you must be exhausted…”

“But I will be taking you up on that offer to see Celestia City. Soon.”

“And I can’t wait to see your worlds!” Twilight added with a clap of her hooves. “There was so much in the book you gave me I want to see for myself…”

“We do need to free the other Princesses,” Rarity admitted.

“We can help with that,” Celia said, striding forward. “...We didn’t interfere before. But we will now. Now that this… is done.”

“What of the other Princesses? They… may need to learn things about themselves as well.”

“Then… we will defer to your judgment,” Celia said with a bow. “While you rest, who may we discuss future relations with?”

“Spike’s outside,” Twilight said. “You can talk to him and the rest of our friends.”

“Then we leave you.” Celia bowed. “See you tomorrow.”

“Wait! One thing first!” Cinder tackle hugged Twilight into the ground.

Twilight was more than a little startled at first—but then she let herself laugh. She pulled the mare into an embrace and got ink all over her white coat. “Thank you, Cinder,” she whispered into the unicorn’s ear.

Cinder grinned from ear to ear.

Despite all the other adventures she’d had where lives were on the line and worlds were at stake… somehow, her actions here felt like the most important thing she’d ever done. As Rarity joined in on the hug, Cinder laughed.

There had been no battles today. No danger, no angry shouting…

In fact, the Sweeties had effectively done absolutely nothing.

And it was the best thing they could have done.

“...These two mares aren’t ready for the multiverse,” Blink observed.

“The multiverse isn’t ready for them,” Seren chuckled.

“I’m predicting a very eventful Honeymoon on Celestia City at some point in the future,” Celia added.

“That’ll be fun,” Blink said.

“Come on,” Celia said, waving. “We have policy to discuss. Let’s leave them.”

Three Sweeties left the library. One remained, trapped in a hug she never wanted to end.

Author's Notes:

It's not often I read a story that captivates me so much it changes my opinion on an entire genre. That book is The Enchanted Library by Monochromatic and that genre was Romance. Prior to reading this book, I found romance as a genre to be... well, not as worthwhile as any of the others. I had seen good romances before, but I generally thought they were silly frivolous things even then. This book changed my mind. I highly, HIGHLY recommend it. Thanks to Monochromatic for giving me so much freedom - and then I promptly chose to write a chapter about not changing anything. Heh.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES
Project: Sunflower (You all recommended this one waaaay up to the top.)

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Flowers and Hats (Project: Sunflower)

Squiddy took one look at the world and decided this was it. Six worlds that had been dead, lifeless rocks and then… this.

She’d had enough.

She tipped forward and slammed her face into the soft, grassy ground and let out a muffled scream.

Cinder poked her. “Come on, it’s not that bad!”

Squiddy kept screaming.

“Look, there’s no Friendship Castle in Ponyville this time! We can’t just go march to Twilight and say hi!”

There was no change in Squiddy’s state of existence.

“...Shouldn't she run out of breath soon?”

Seren shrugged. “She gets a lot of screaming practice in on an average day, I wouldn’t be surprised if her lungs held far over the average capacity.” She tapped Squiddy with her scepter. “Soon as Sweetaloo gets back, you’re going to need a looooong session.”

Squiddy couldn’t keep it up any longer. She needed to breathe in. She had every intention of continuing her scream after the breath, but she failed to take into account the presence of loose dirt beneath her face. She sucked in—and then entered an immediate coughing fit, spewing dirt everywhere as she rose to her feet.

“AUGH AUGH AUGH!” Squiddy screamed, waving her tentacles around.

Celia’s gem flashed, the spell smacking Squiddy in the back of the head hard enough to eject all the dirt from her esophagus. With a groan, she sat down on a Ponyville bench and held her head in her hands.

“Squiddy…?” Cinder asked.

“Just… let’s… let’s get this over with.”

Seren nodded. “If we’re quick, maybe we can go somewhere more interesting after we’re done…”

Celia smirked knowingly. “Oh, I don’t think the world is going to be quite that simple.”

“Oh?” Cinder asked.

“While you were all encouraging Squiddy’s tantrum…”

“Hey!” Squiddy shouted, ignored as usual.

“...I was making observations. First point of observation—none of the ponies here are all that surprised by our presence.”

“Ponyville ponies are used to weird stuff happening on a regular basis,” Seren countered.

“Yes, human-shaped things like you usually get an odd look. You haven’t been getting them.”

Seren looked around, curious. “But I don’t see any other anthros here…”

“No, but do you see that human over there?”

Now that Celia pointed him out, he was easy to see—a man with big glasses in a well-tailored suit was walking through Ponyville and nopony was batting an eye at him.

“...Okay, I get it, not standard,” Squiddy stood up. “Should I be expecting some human with tentacles to walk by next?”

“Wait…” a version of Berry Punch stopped in her tracks. “That’s not hair?!”

“...You ponies really need to look closer,” Squiddy commented, twitching her tentacles.

“...Okay. Not human then. I’ll… just… spend the rest of the day internalizing yet another race to keep track of!” She laughed nervously, trotting away.

Celia nodded. “We are only slightly outside the norm here.”

Squiddy sighed. “Fine. I’ll admit, I should stop judging books by their covers.” She stood up. “Golden Oak Library?”

Seren pointed her scepter at a pole with several signs, one of which said ‘Library’. “Yep.”

“Right! The library still exists!” Cinder clapped her hooves. “I haven’t seen it in forever!”

The four of them walked through Ponyville. For the most part, they were treated as a normal part of everyday life, though occasionally one of the passersby would notice that Seren’s face wasn’t the right shape. Even less realized Squiddy was unusual—the tentacles just looked like white hair to them.

There was a single human that looked at them and stared, but she didn’t say anything. All the ponies around her were acting normal, after all, no need to make a scene…

They arrived at the Golden Oak Library without incident. It was… just how Cinder remembered it back home. A large treehouse with a few windows here and there and a balcony jutting out near the top. It smelled like books, even from the outside.

Celia gave Cinder the honors of knocking on the door.

A young Spike opened the door. “Welcome to the Golden Oak Librar-” his voice caught in his throat. “...Oh. Uh…”

“We’re here to see Twilight, Spike,” Celia said.

“...O-of course! Come right in!” He pulled the door back and let the Sweeties into the Library’s main room. The local unicorn Twilight was easy to find, sitting at one of the tables, chatting happily with another pony the Sweeties didn’t recognize.

A normal sized pony with both a horn and wings. Alicorn for sure, but definitely not a Celestia or a Luna. She had a soft cream coat and a simple brown mane that went well with the center of her sunflower cutie mark.

“Oh, hi Rarity!” Twilight said, brightening. “We were just talking ab-” her confident smile vanished the instant she actually looked at the Sweeties. “Wh-what!?”

The alicorn dropped the teacup that had been resting in her telekinesis, her jaw hanging open in shock.

Cinder beamed. “Hi Twilight and… you!”

“E-erin…” the alicorn said, blinking.

Weird name. “I’m Cinder, this is Celia, Seren, and the grumpy one is Squiddy.”

“‘Sup,” Squiddy said, waving with a tentacle.

“We represent the League of Sweetie Belles, an interdimensional organization comprised mostly of Sweetie Belles!” Cinder beamed. “We were exploring and found your world!”

“Explorers!?” Erin asked, her uncertain eyes suddenly sparkling with curiosity. “H-how do you explore? How do you get the resonance perfect with enough regularity to make exploring viable? Wh…”

“All can be answered in time,” Celia said. “But, well, the short version…” She launched into the general speech once again, outlining everything they needed to know. “...and unless I’m mistaken, you have a direct connection to Princess Celestia, Twilight?”

“I… Wh… yes!” Twilight forced a smile. “I can get you to her! She’ll definitely want to hear about this! The humans will too…”

“Ah yes, I did mean to ask about that. Most worlds don’t have humans already in them.”

“That’s because we’re not native to this world,” Erin said, simply. “We come from Earth.”

“We?” Cinder caught.

Erin blinked. “Well, I… I am a human. I’m just currently studying magic in this altered body. Just started last week, actually.”

“Heavy body modification… cool…” Seren said, rubbing her hands together. “How do you do it? Spells?”

Erin smiled. “There are no spells, we use highly advanced nanobots to alter someone’s body on the molecular level.”

“A purely technological solution?” Seren clapped her hands together. “You have to show me! I’ll need to determine if we’re running on mad science physics or close to baseline. If it’s baseline that’d be… a discovery!”

“Base… line?” Erin cocked her head. “I... “

“I think we’re all using a lot of words the others don’t understand,” Cinder said. “Maybe we should take a few steps back and just try to get to know each other?” She extended a hoof to Erin. “I’ve never met an Erin before. Why don’t you tell me your story?”

“Well… the Earth was dying… and then we invented Harmonics!” Noting her confusion, she explained. “A way to travel between worlds. We found several worlds with it, including Equestria! A whole new world… Though I guess that’s not that unusual, is it?”

Celia smiled warmly. “Equestrias—or Equises—are the most common world type in this area, though yours appears to be surrounded by an unusual number of lifeless ones. However, what is rare is when we find a world that already knows about dimensional travel. That’s something special.”

Twilight and Erin beamed.

“Do continue your story.”

~~~

Sweetaloo rarely left Swip these days, but occasionally something would crop up where she felt the need to go elsewhere. This was one of those times. She had been performing some research into magic dream-based therapy and had asked Swip to bring her all the known files on the subject, only to find that the most important ones were classified by the Research Division, a Division the Expedition Team only had standard clearance within.

She could have stayed on Swip and issued a formal request for access, which probably would have been granted given her position and record… in a week or so. The other option was to drop by Celestia City and pay a visit to some Research eggheads she knew and get the clearance that way.

Suzie had let her go without a fuss—shouldn't be that hard to track down some information, right? Even if she was delayed heavily, she’d still be back on Swip in less than a day, no problem. The only unexpected part of the trip was Blink, who had decided to tag along because she “just felt like mixing it up.”

They flew into the space around Celestia City in a standard-build Merodi Skiff, a crescent-shaped craft with a sphere embedded in the middle of it, serving as the cockpit. It, like most structures in Merodi Universalis, was built out of white metal. There was a single door in the back of the ship to access the cargo hold, but more often than not the windshield would pop open to let people in and out.

Sweetaloo was driving, going right for one of Celestia City’s entrance highways. She took her hooves off the wheel and let the city AI take over. Their destination was the League of Sweetie Belles, already set the moment they left Swip.

“Why don’t we just call Tab?” Blink wondered, floating through the air, a juice box in her hoof.

“Tried. Got the answering machine.” Sweetaloo watched, smiling as the scenes of Celestia City passed her by. “It might take her all day to check her messages, if she ever does. We have the technology to get anywhere in a matter of hours, we should use it!”

“If you were going for efficiency, we could have just portaled directly into the League. Celestia City doesn’t block portals.”

“I’ve been here a lot longer than you, Blink, I think I know that.”

Blink shrugged. “Eh, good point.” She sat down in one of the Skiff’s six chairs, adjusting it to her frame.

“Anyway, I like seeing the sights. Celestia City is… amazing.”

Blink shrugged. “I think I like that massive city we found in a Jupiter that one time more.”

“I wasn’t there.”

“Right, right. You need to get out more.”

“Last time I got out I broke a bone and had to fast-talk a dragon Matriarch.”

“A fluke!”

“A few days ago. Fae.”

“Fay,” Blink corrected.

Sweetaloo rolled her eyes. “Do you want me to psychoanalyze your tendency for rebellion through cheap jokes?”

“Wow, you know how to take the fun out of everything, don’t you?”

Sweetaloo grinned. “It comes with the territory.”

They pulled into the League of Sweetie Belles and popped the windshield open the moment they could. Sweetaloo was more than a little surprised to see Nausicaa waiting for them.

The Sweetie pegasus smiled. “Ah, Blink, Sweetaloo. You’ve returned. I trust everything’s going well?”

Sweetaloo nodded. “All’s well. Just here to get some information from Tab. The mare isn’t answering her phone.”

Blink shook Nausicaa’s hoof.

“I, for one, am glad there’s no reason for us to be at each other’s throats this time,” Nausicaa admitted.

“There’s never any reason in the first place.” Sweetaloo countered.

Blink coughed. “Let’s not start a new incident, kay?”

Sweetaloo shook her head. “Right, sorry. See you around?”

Nausicaa nodded. “I do have a significant pile of paperwork to overturn… we’re moving to Earth Shimmer in a few weeks and that’s going to be dicey.”

“Hooo boy,” Blink said, rubbing the back of her head. “Fay?”

“Hopefully not.” Nausicaa waved at the two of them with a smile and flew away.

“...She’s so much nicer when she lets go of her fixations…” Sweetaloo said with a sigh.

“Hey. She’s a good mare.”

“We are all ‘good mares’. That doesn't mean we can’t be better.”

Blink let out a thoughtful hum but didn’t say anything. They made their way down to the League Research levels and trotted right into Tab’s laboratory.

“YO TAB!” Bink shouted at the top of her lungs. “CHECK YOUR MESSAGES ONCE IN A WHILE!”

Tab looked up from the robotic pumpkin she and Entrapta were working on. “I have Entrapta look at them and tell me what’s important.”

“I haven’t looked at them in a week,” Entrapta pointed out, not looking up from her welding.

Sweetaloo rolled her eyes. “It’s something short and simple. I need somepony with Research clearance to get me the files on Humming Dream’s psychological effects and the related research.”

“Right, right…” Tab pulled out her invisible tablet and started scrolling through it. “Searching… search… huh.” She blinked. “I actually don’t have instant clearance for that.”

“...What?” Sweetaloo cocked her head. “Why not?”

“I don’t know… Entrapta, you keep working on Gourd-O, I’m going to investigate this.”

“Mhm…” Entrapta hummed, not really paying her any attention.

Tab walked up to a wall console. “Right, so, the R.O. is currently off in some secret base somewhere, but Corona’s in the City. We just have to find her…” She pressed a few buttons. “Hold for teleport.”

“I envy magic-rich Sweeties,” Sweetaloo muttered.

Instantly the three of them were on a ‘Chinatown’ street in Celestia City, appearing on one of the main teleportation terminals. The street was abustle with tourists and the mostly cat-people who lived on the street. Despite the dense crowd, it was easy to pick out Corona walking out of a restaurant, two ponies behind her. One was Evening Sparkle, face of Merodi Universalis, and the other was the Fluttershy of Equis Vitis, Flutterfree.

Blink found Flutterfree odd. She was slightly too tall for a Fluttershy, and had sharp red eyes. Today she didn’t have her bow of light slung over her back, but most of the times Blink had seen her, she had.

Tab waved at them. “HEY!”

Corona saw her instantly. “Oh! Hello… Sweetie!”

“Tab. I’m Tab. The one with the invisible computer spell in my head.”

“Oh! Tab!” Corona brightened considerably.

“...Tab?” Flutterfree asked Eve.

Eve shrugged with her wings.

“I’m going to ignore my relative obscurity,” Tab grunted. “We’re trying to access the files on Humming Dream’s psychological effects and the related research. I have no idea why I can’t.”

Corona’s smile twitched ever-so-slightly. “Ah…”

“We were done eating,” Flutterfree pointed out.

“Still, my work is never done…” Corona held up her hand, creating a holographic screen with the crystal embedded in her glove. “Oh. That file’s physically isolated.”

Tab blinked. “What?”

Sweetaloo cocked her head. “Why would we need to physically isolate a file about psychological phenomena?”

Corona shrugged. “I don’t know, I wasn't part of that Research project.” She waved her finger around, pressing a few buttons on the screen. “You have access to that file specifically, now, but it’s not safe to transmit. You’re going to have to go into the Archives for that one.”

“And I have work to do,” Tab commented. “Good luck Sweetaloo, hope you find what you’re looking for.” She lit her horn—and poofed.

Sweetaloo frowned. “I hope I’m not on the tail of some kind of conspiracy…”

“You probably are,” Corona, Eve, Flutterfree, and Blink all said at the same time.

“Oh boy…”

“Let me know what you find, would you?” Corona said. “After I have my day on the town.”

“Right, sorry for interrupting you.”

“Adventure calls,” Corona said.

“...Yay,” Sweetaloo deadpanned.

“Turn that frown upside-down!” Blink encouraged.

“Meh. Part of me wonders if I should just drop it at this point.”

“You won’t,” Flutterfree said.

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Come on Blink, to the Archives.”

Blink nodded. “Right behind you. See ya, Page!”

Flutterfree rolled her eyes. “You too, Witch.”

~~~

Cinder had to admit, Celia was good.

They had arrived on the Equis what, a couple hours ago? And already they had jumped through a portal to an Earth, walked right into a UN compound, and were talking to several men in suits and both Equestrian princesses.

It had all happened so fast…

“How… does she do that?” Erin asked, sitting in a chair next to Cinder. They were sitting with Seren, Squiddy, and Twilight toward the back of the dark, military-designed room devoid of decoration. They were, to put it simply, not part of the discussion happening, only there because it was convenient.

Cinder shrugged. “She’s a natural politician. She knows what to say to people.”

“No one ever gets into a meeting with Robert Thomson that fast! Not even Malachite managed that! He got a video call!”

“Malachite?” Cinder asked.

“...Not important.” Erin shook her head.

“It might have something to do with teleportation,” Seren offered. “And, well, the fact that the Princesses were already here for the meeting.”

“Well, yeah…” Erin frowned. “But still!”

“We’re pros!” Cinder said, beaming.

“You’re a newbie,” Squiddy commented. “We’re pros.”

Cinder stuck out her tongue. “I’m already better than you at the introductions.”

“Good. You’ll be the next Celia.”

“...Given the whole thing with the Fay, I don’t think I want her job.”

“And yet you all need it,” Twilight pointed out. “Without her… well, would any of you be able to answer these questions?” She gestured toward the older human man in charge of the whole meeting, Robert Thomson. He had a stern expression that was impossible for Cinder to read.

“You offer membership to almost anyone?”

“That’s correct,” Celia responded. “Since you’re not a standard Earth, Oversight will need to vet your governmental systems, but since you have a strong U.N. I believe you’re better off in that regard than a standard Earth. Admittedly I have not been here long, and have no authority to make a final judgment.”

“Forgive me if this admissions process seems… too easy.”

“It was designed that way. Admissions need to occur quickly or every world risks getting left in the dust by the exponentially rapid progress of the multiverse.”

“It is still a rushed process.”

“It has worked perfectly fine for hundreds of universes. Such things never happen immediately regardless, we always start with simple trade and Aid-based relations in cases such as yours. If this… Black Tide of yours wasn’t already dealt with, we would eradicate it. It wouldn’t have cost you anything. We save lives where we can, Mr. Thomson.”

“I have a question,” Celestia said, speaking up. “How far are you willing to go for Aid?”

“In places of tragedy, as far as it takes to fix everything. Your worlds are stable though, we’d only interfere if you requested.”

“Hmm…”

“Yeah, I’d be quaking in my boots,” Cinder admitted, turning back to the people around her. “I’d be able to say something…”

“Something smart?” Squiddy asked.

“Eh…”

“I’d say something smart no matter how terrified I was,” Seren said with a wink.

“By the way…” Erin turned to Seren. “What are you?”

Seren grinned. “I’m an anthro! Specifically, homo equus unicornis, the human-unicorn variety.” She tapped her horn.

“So… Uh…”

“No, there are no humans or ponies in the world I’m from. Biologically speaking, what you’re thinking of isn’t possible without a splice, though that level of genetic modification is used at times!”

“By psychos,” Squiddy muttered.

Seren shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. Again, not a splice, just a kid.” She winked.

“Just a kid…” Erin paused. “And you explore the multiverse!? Isn’t that… dangerous!?”

“Definitely!” Squiddy chuckled. “Just last week Burgerbelle got flattened by a giant!”

“I burned a timberwolf!” Cinder bragged, proudly.

“But… but…” Erin shook her head. “You’re kids!”

“Only Seren is really a kid,” Squiddy pointed out.

“...Somewhere around half the Sweeties are significantly younger than me,” Cinder pointed out. “We are a bunch of kids, more or less.”

“How are you allowed to do that?” Erin asked, more than a little horrified at the idea of so many children working in such a dangerous job.

Cinder blinked. “We want to?”

Erin looked like she wanted to object again—but she closed her mouth. After all, their culture was just different, she shouldn’t be so judgmental. “Okay. We’re not going to be fans of that, though.”

“Earths never are,” Squiddy said, kicking her feet back. “But then they start getting profit…”

“Thank you for your time,” Robert Thomson announced, seemingly out of nowhere. “I will deliberate with my allies and colleagues. Will you step out?”

“Yes, Mister Thomson,” Celia said, bowing slightly. She waved a hoof, leading her team, Erin, and Twilight out of the room.

“That went well!” Cinder said, grinning.

“No, no it did not.” Celia grimaced. “They were putting on a show of being accepting, but they didn’t trust me.”

“...Can you really blame them?” Erin asked.

“I am well aware of the human tendency for distrust. This was different. This was active. They weren’t treating me as some… unknown, they had it out for me from the start.” She turned to Twilight. “I even sensed it from your Princesses. An… antagonism. Which is rare, from a Celestia and Luna.”

“...I didn’t notice anything,” Seren pointed out.

“You… don’t have the eye,” Twilight said. “I saw… something. I don’t know what. But Celestia would never do something like that without reason. She may have experience with stuff like this?”

“She didn’t know much of anything about portals before we arrived,” Erin commented.

“But she did know about the Veil…”

“Regardless,” Celia tossed her mane back. “There’s not much we can do about it. Just know that there’s… something going on.” She sat down in a chair and smiled. “Until then, why don’t we get to know each other a bit?”

~~~

There were many things deep within Celestia City. The immense dimensional drives larger than city blocks. Vast crystal networks that carried magic energies to and fro. Multiple backup stations for the City’s AI. Rumor had it there was even some kind of guardian space god in the center of the city, but that was unfounded.

There was also something down there that nobody talked about because it was boring—the Archive. Endless halls of computers used to store the entire knowledge of Merodi Universalis. It was also one of the biggest drains on Celestia City’s energy reserves, simply because they had to keep the magical properties of so much knowledge from folding into L-Space constantly. The amount of dimensional manipulation that required was alarming.

But it was worth it, so many said. Backups of every Internet in Merodi Universalis (and some beyond) were stored within the Archive. Even with all sorts of temporal tricks and dimensional loopholes used to keep the space used to a minimum, the Archive was still a silver brick the size of a small town. Most of this was open to the public, but who would ever come down here for that? All the open stuff could be accessed by transmission. A large chunk of the classified stuff, too, was deemed safe enough for transmission over certain secured lines.

But then there were the depths. A single room in the entire Archive that contained information deemed too important for transmission. This was where Sweetaloo needed to go.

All I wanted was some research files…

Sweetaloo and Blink were walking through an area of the public Archive—as empty as always. They were standing on a square of levitating metal that flew through columns of blue light that extended as far as they could easily see. Every column was lined with metal along the corners and crisscrossed around some edges, giving it the appearance of a building under construction. Well, it would have looked like that, if each column weren’t the size of a house and wasn’t filled with bright blue magic.

“Wow.” Blink pointed at a single blip of blue light traveling up the column. “That’s probably, like, the entire history of a universe from big bang to heat death.”

“Puts things into perspective,” Sweetaloo admitted. “We know… so, so much. The vast majority of this isn’t even indexed. You can’t search it without spells and knowing exactly what you want…”

“It’s times like this I’m glad I’m not a nerd.”

Sweetaloo smirked. “You’re a Sweetie. There’s a little nerd in all of us.”

“Eh, potato, po-”

“Meanwhile, I’m part Scootaloo, and I’m getting a little bored of this.” She leaned down, grabbing hold of the hovering platform with her hooves. “Hold on tight.”

“Sweetal-”

Sweetaloo tilted the platform sharply forward, instructing it to go much, much faster. It obliged, rushing past the columns of information at exceedingly high speeds, barely giving Blink enough time to hold on herself.

“SWEETALOO!”

“What? Can’t handle the heat?” Sweetaloo winked, pulling up and executing a perfect loop-de-loop. Then she brought it to a skidding stop at a reception desk floating in front of a silver wall—blocking access to the classified data section.

Sweetaloo landed and hopped off the platform. “Hello! I’m Sweetaloo. I should have recently received clearance for a portion of physical data?”

The receptionist nodded, jumping onto the countertop separating her from the Sweeties. She was a child in a purple shirt, yellow cape, and stylishly large top hat with a golden stripe around the base. She gave Sweetaloo a thumbs up.

“...Huh. I have to admit, I am rather surprised to see you here, Everykid.”

The Everykid grinned, tipping her hat.

“Wait, wait, wait…” Blink waved a hoof. “Everykid? As in, part of the Everyman?”

The Everykid nodded, an innocent smile on her face.

“W-what were they thinking letting you work down here!?”

“I believe the reasoning is she already knows everything in here,” Sweetaloo pointed out. “Or, well, the Everyman as a whole anyway. When you have as many different minds as the Everyman, there’s hardly anything that’s secret from you.”

“But.. but… security!”

“I did a case study on the psychology of the Everyman, once,” Sweetaloo mused. “I find him very fascinating. I may not be like him—since my three components do not have distinct thought patterns anymore—his remarkable ability to do away with consistency is… if not admirable, impressive. Everykid here is sweet, innocent, and adventurously helpful while that professor was not only evil, but mad. And yet they are both the same person, in a way, connected to the same consciousness…”

“Seems like an accident waiting to happen, to me.”

The Everykid yawned, gesturing at the door behind her with a tip of her hat.

“Oh, yes, right, we are here for a purpose, and you have a job to do.” Sweetaloo smiled. “We need all the way into the center.”

With a wink the Everykid opened the sliding doors, entering an area with more data columns, though these were thinner and red rather than blue. The data here was much smaller than the data stored outside. They could easily see the black box that took up the center, where the real secrets were held. As they approached on their hover square, the guns on the box fixated on them intently, ready to defend their secrets if needed.

They recognized those who were coming as cleared, so they stood down. They arrived at the black wall without incident.

It really is the size of a living room… Sweetaloo thought, looking at the black box. The Everykid put her hand to the black surface, and it recognized her as a registered data handler. A door that hadn’t existed before slid open, revealing a small room coursing with purple light along the walls.

The Everykid gestured with a hand, saying they should stay behind. She took two data pads out of her pockets, and automatically purple wires shot from the walls into the pads. One displayed a report of the goings on inside the deepest, darkest locations of the Archive while the other downloaded the research Sweetaloo wanted.

With a smile, the Everykid handed Sweetaloo a pad. She performed a quick, cursory examination of the contents—all the files were there. Naturally, the data pad itself was a state-of-the art high-encryption model that was resistant even to magic hacking. It also came with a recommendation to ‘wipe as soon as you are done’.

Sweetaloo wasn’t sure what she was going to find in these files and…

...wait…

“Hey, this says it was supposed to be filed under standard classified intel.”

Blink cocked her head. “Huh?”

“It wasn't even supposed to be in this deep! H… how did the computer misfile this!?”

Blink shrugged. “Beats me. It handles hundreds of thousands of files a day. It’s gotta mess up at least one.”

“And that one was mine?”

“I mean, ka, right?”

“But there’s nothing down here of any interes-”

Suddenly, the Everykid was shoving the other data pad in Sweetaloo’s face. It showed that, not two hours ago, a massive amount of data had been downloaded from the room—about 0.1% of its total contents.

“...That’s not supposed to be there, is it?”

The Everykid shook her head.

“You were saying about nothing being down here?” Blink asked.

Sweetaloo sighed. “Fine. Let’s try to trace the security breach…”

~~~

“And then I had to come up with a cutie mark story without actually knowing what a cutie mark really was,” Erin said, chuckling nervously. “That was… beyond stressful.”

“And your Rarity bought it?” Celia raised an eyebrow. “Must have been some story.”

“It was based on a story that actually happened when I was little with my family. Even though, well, I had to stretch it a bit to make it fit the whole sunflower thing.”

“But she has a real story too,” Twilight spoke up. “That sunflower does mean something. Isn’t that right, Erin?”

Cinder’s eyes opened wide—she knew she wanted to hear this.

Erin smiled contentedly. “Yes… yes it does. See, when I was first going through all the preparations to become a pony, I was told to choose my own ‘tattoo’, and I-”

The doors to the meeting room opened, revealing the Princesses, Robert Thomson, and the other human officials.

Oh, come on… Cinder whined inwardly.

“We have made a decision,” Robert Thomson said. “Both of our worlds have.”

“Though we cannot speak for all the nations of Equis,” Celestia admitted.

Celia nodded. “I understand. On what terms have you decided on?”

Thomson folded his hands together. “We appreciate the offer for further relations with Merodi Universalis, but we are going to have to deny your invitation. We wish to make our way into the multiverse on our own terms, without influence of a nation that far outclasses our worlds.”

“Are you certain?” Celia asked.

“We are aware of your Aid and Cultural Divisions’ practices as you have told them to us.”

“In that case, I shall leave you with a communication device and we will be gone within the day.”

“That will be appreciated. Thank you for letting us make this choice.”

“It is our policy.” Celia stuck out a hoof and shook Thomson’s hand. Then everyone filed out of the room—save the Sweeties, Erin, Twilight, and Celestia.

Celestia took a look at Celia.

“You could change your mind,” Celia offered.

Celestia shook her head. “I appreciate what you are trying to do, but…” she fell silent, shaking her head. “Twilight, come with me.”

“Y-yes Princess!”

Only the Sweeties and Erin remained.

“...What was THAT!?” Cinder shouted. “You just… let them say no?”

“I have to,” Celia said. “There are limits to the case-by-case law. There is no major need for relief in these worlds, they have already saved them. We cannot force anything on any universe that denies us.”

“But… but there’s something fishy going on!”

“I suspect they found a story about us—or a nation similar to us, such as the USM—and they were horrified. Misinformation is no reason to initiate outright conquest.”

Erin blinked. “Wait… you do conquest?”

Celia nodded. “Occasionally. Worlds where there is no hope, where there is a brutal dictator, or a plague of darkness.” She frowned. “Sometimes we can’t remove the darkness.” She put a hoof on Erin’s shoulder. “Watch out for them. There’s darkness out there you can’t comprehend, yet. Be careful.”

“I… I’ll try.”

“That’s all I can ask. Now…” She forced a smile. “There is something I want to see before we go.”

~~~

As a custodian of the Archive, the Everykid knew exactly what to do in case of a security breach. She smashed the Big Red Button. For additional flair, she said “boop!” as she did so. The alarm went out and no doubt the rest of the League of Sweetie Belles were alerted of a high-end security breach in their city.

Luckily, the Everykid didn’t have to wait for any other Sweeties to arrive. She had two right here! She clapped her hands and grinned.

“...I thought you were mute,” Blink said.

The Everykid shrugged, saying nothing. She was a kid of few words. Even though she operated more on Gallifreyan age logic than human one… Well, this body of hers anyway. She was perfectly aware of a twelve-year-old boy three universes over enjoying homemade cooking. Wow, that garlic bread smelled real good.

She kept the sensation of her other self in her nose while she got to work, plugging a data pad into the purple walls again. This time, however, she didn’t access any information—she plugged information in. A complex spell laced into the very walls of the cube activated: the best FIND IT spell. The cube would only interact with data pads created from the Archive, like the one the Everykid was currently holding. The spell would find EVERY VERSION of that data pad it could.

Naturally, if the thief was smart at all, they wouldn't be anywhere on Celestia City. But since this spell was being performed in the middle of an Archive of all sorts of information, it would be able to find pads that existed in the past through recorded data and footage.

The program found the data pad in the moment the data was accessed, tracing it out of Celestia City into the cargo hold of a ship—a Galaxa Quadrants Galaxy design—that promptly left Celestia City.

The Everykid was stumped at this point. The Everyman, on the other hand, wasn’t, and this multiversal quandary was interesting enough to warrant the attention of a few of his other selves. A mad scientist working on reviving squirrels offered his assistance while a man with a desk job suggested a way to run the numbers.

The Everykid cracked her knuckles and began typing furiously on a holographic keyboard.

“Huh,” Blink said, cocking her head. “...I’m suddenly glad she’s here.”

“See? ...Though, she must think it’s serious. The Everykid is known to actively avoid using the skills of other aspects of the Everyman.”

“Well, duh, massive security breach! There are things in there like the existence o-” Blink paused. “Wait, you don’t even have clearance to know that.”

“...I’m surprised you do, whatever it is you’re talking about.”

Blink laughed nervously. “Forget I said anything.”

The Everykid didn’t. But she wasn’t the sort to report every tiny suspicious activity. That wouldn’t be fun!

Reporting is the way of the just citizen.

Hah! Like I am really a citizen of Merodi Universalis!

The Everykid shook her thoughts out of her primary focus, instead looking at what she had available now. The Merodi Universalis ship manifest. The ship was currently docked at Canterlot Castle, Equis Vitis. “Tah-dah!” She pointed excitedly at the address.

“Got it!” Sweetaloo said. “Blink, transmit to the League.”

“Done,” Blink said.

“Time to go!” The three of them stepped back on the levitating platform and left the secure area of the Archive. The moment they were out, the Everykid pulled out her personal dimensional device and opened a portal directly to Equis Vitis.

One of the founding worlds of Merodi Universalis, often considered the default Equis, even though it was anything but these days. They came out the portal in the middle of Ponyville, which was far from the simple country town it had been a few decades ago. Now it was a thriving crescent-shaped metropolis that held the Everfree Forest on the concave side. Buildings of all sorts of structures and makes rose everywhere—not quite as impressive as Celestia City’s endless sprawl, but still impressive nonetheless.

“Requesting emergency teleport for three to the docks of Canterlot Castle!” Blink shouted into her phone. “This is Blink, LSB, Code seven-one-nine-one-three. And lock down the Canterlot docks!”

One of the many Merodi ships in orbit responded to the request automatically, teleporting Sweetaloo, Blink, and the Everykid to the docks, which were just a few large hallways spread out from a skyscraping needle. Numerous ships of space were present—even though teleportation technology was easily and readily available, sometimes it was just better to be docked somewhere.

Though in the case of the Galaxy, it most certainly wasn’t. When Sweetaloo, Blink, and the Everykid arrived, there was already a small troop of Sweeties at the Galaxy’s dock shouting “stop in the name of the law!”

“Wh… what!?” a humanoid with white skin, a red spike in her chest, and green hair said—startled. The Everykid easily recognized her as one of the Ga race. “Why are you?”

Nausicaa strode to the front of the line. “Let’s see here… your ship is suspected of carrying or having carried government property.”

“T-this doesn’t make any sense!”

“They’re stalling,” Blink hissed. “Sweetaloo, I’m sneaking in.” And then she was invisible.

The Everykid decided she didn’t like Blink being invisible. With a snap of her hand, she replaced her usual top hat with a fox-like mask that allowed her to see the unseen—such as Blink. The Skaian Ghost passed right through the frantic Ga woman and nobody noticed.

With a smirk, The Everykid switched hats again, this time to a small, lopsided hat with a translucent ribbon doubling as a visor.

Sweetaloo looked at her in confusion. “What a-”

The Everykid stopped time. With a giggle, she jumped into the air and rolled over the frozen Ga, into the Galaxy itself. She ducked behind a corner just before time resumed.

Goal: find the lost data pad.

She could feel the weight of her other selves acting upon her, wishing to offer her assistance. But she ignored them. Blink was already on the case, there was no need for extra shenanigans. She’d use her normal assets like she preferred. The rest of the larger Everyman responded with mixed groans and cheers, though the Everyman as a whole approved. After all, who was he if not inconsistent?

The Everykid ran toward the back of the ship, stopping time as often as her hat would let her, dodging past the crew with ease. Her antics were probably setting off a few alarms somewhere, but this wasn’t a Merodi-built ship, it probably wasn’t equipped with advanced temporal scanners. Probably. Who knew, really?

It was pathetically easy to get all the way to the cargo hold of the ship. Security was nothing. They weren’t paranoid enough to be holding the information they were looking for… unless most of them didn’t know.

She put back on her normal top hat, tapping it with her finger. It shifted on her head a bit, telling her the direction of an ‘object of importance’. She hoped it was the data pad, but her find-it hat had never been all that reliable outside her home universe.

Luckily, today it came through. She popped open the top of a sealed container, finding the data pan within. She grinned, holding it up with one hand like it were some kind of treasure.

“Wh… how did you get here so fast!?” Blink shouted, dropping her cloak.

The Everykid shrugged, pressing a button on the pad to access the data.

There was absolutely nothing on it.

The Everykid’s smile vanished. The data was encrypted in such a way that it wouldn’t be duplicated outside an Archive… Which meant someone had plugged the data into another data pad!

She tossed it to Blink, miffed.

The data was still out there.

~~~

“This… is what remains of the Black Tide,” Erin said, holding out a hoof and a wing to the endless expanse of concrete-like stone before them. It went all the way to the horizon.

The Sweeties stared at the expanse, solemn.

“It landed on Earth and started eating everything,” Erin said, keeping her voice level and deliberate, sucking all emotion out of it like a leech. “We thought everything was lost.”

“And then?” Cinder asked.

“And then we found Equestria.” Erin paused. “We were going to evacuate, at first. But then… then we found out they had magic. It… it took some effort, but together we were able to stop the Tide once and for all.” She tapped the concrete with her hoof. “There are still pockets of it that weren't turned to stone down there, but it’s lost all direction.” She frowned. “Had it still been a problem, we would be at your knees begging you to help us.”

Celia nodded slowly, frowning. “Sometimes… we don’t arrive at the right moment. There are numerous stories of teams arriving in the middle of a conflict, choosing the wrong side, and causing irreparable damage.” She looked Erin in the eyes. “There are many more of worlds being saved at the last possible minute.”

“Equis Always Summer,” Cinder offered. “The day lasted forever. We ended it.”

Erin chose not to think about the logistics of a world where the day didn’t end. “I… I believe you. I barely even met you, but I believe you.” She laid a hoof on Cinder’s head.

“I seem to have that effect on people.”

“I wish you could stay…” Erin sighed. “But I’m not in charge. I’ve never been in charge, despite all I’ve done. Or… not done, as the case may be.” She shrugged with her wings. “We’ll be fine, though. Go back to your adventures and save as many worlds as you can. We’ll still be here.”

Squiddy snorted—prompting Celia to slap her.

Cinder forced a smile and extended a hoof. “See you later.”

Erin chuckled. “I hope so too.”

The two shook hooves.

Celia nodded. “Here’s some last minute tips. Pinkies are most likely to believe the insanity, seek them out. Don’t assume you’ll always be able to get home early. Time doesn't always flow at the same rate between universes. Beware worlds that have physics antithetical to your very life force. And don’t poke any sleeping bears.” She pulled out her phone. “We’re ready, Swip.”

A portal opened up behind the Sweeties. Waving goodbye, they jumped through the portal.

Pop.

They were back on Swip.

“...This sucks.” Cinder observed.

“I’ll try not to take that as an insult,” Swip beeped.

Squiddy shrugged, dropping into one of the lounge chairs. “Sometimes, adventures go nowhere.” Swip flung her tentacles over the back fo the chair and recliner. “Despite all evidence to the contrary, things do not always go our way.”

Cinder sighed. “...I’m going to go call Rarity.” She trotted away to her room.

~~~

“But…” the Ga was sweating. “I don’t understand, I just…” she grabbed her head and crumpled to the ground, crying profusely.

Several of the Sweeties took a few steps back, but Nausicaa was not one to be swayed by tears – crocodile or otherwise. “Get up.”

The heap wouldn’t stop crying.

“I sa-“

“Nausicaa, calm,” Sweetaloo said as if ordering her. She trotted up to the downed woman and lifted her chin up with her hoof. “Shhhh… it’s okay.”

“B-bu-but that’s what you said earlier! Y-you said it’d be okay!”

“E… earlier?”

“Yes! Earlier!”

“…We weren’t here earlier,” Sweetaloo said, frowning. “Unless one of the time travelers…”

Nausicaa shook her head. “I don’t have any paperwork for that.”

“Listen to me,” Sweetaloo said, looking intently at the woman’s eyes. “Someone’s trying to play us both. We need to figure out who they are. Can you help us with that?”

“But they… they’re you!”

“A Sweetie…?”

The woman nodded slowly.

“What did she do?”

“She… she…”

Blink and the Everykid returned in that instant, tossing the data pad on the ground.

Nausicaa stared at it wide-eyed. “Empty!?”

“Yes. Empty.” Blink twitched. “Someone got to it before we did.”

“That was you!” the Ga shouted. “Y-you came and said if you took it nobody had to get hurt!”

“...Oh boy,” Blink said, facehooving. The Everykid took some candies out from under her hat and started munching.

“Start from the beginning. Why did you have it?” Sweetaloo asked.

The Ga sniffed. “It was… loaded by a guy in a cloak. We don’t ask questions on the Galaxy, I don’t know who he is! I…” she sniffed. “When we docked, you… you were waiting for us! An Agent of the LSB! Demanded to see our cargo… found that… thing. T-told us… told us…” She fell silent again.

“We don’t threaten,” Sweetaloo muttered.

“Uh, have you met Nira?”

“BLINK!” Sweetaloo roared, making the minuscule ghost cower away. “Does this woman look like she needs to hear that right now?”

“Uh…”

“Then. Stop.” Sweetaloo glared at Nausicaa, daring her to criticize her treatment of Blink.

Nausicaa said nothing, her expression letting Sweetaloo know the pegasus had seen the trap.

Good. Now she could get back to what was important.

“I’m sorry…” Sweetaloo laid down, so her head was lower than the woman’s, as if she was submitting. “The original passenger?”

“N-no idea…”

“And what did this Sweetie look like?”

“She… had a horn… wings…”

Sweetaloo didn't need to hear anymore. The woman kept saying things, but they fell into the background for Sweetaloo.

“She… she got everything she could ever want on us…”

~~~

“Celestia, why?” Twilight asked as they descended the stairs into one of Earth’s military compound. “They have so much to offer us! There’s so much we could learn from them!”

“That much is true,” Celestia admitted. “But there are many dangers.” She frowned. “It all happened so quickly, Twilight, and I had been meaning to tell you…”

“Tell me what?”

“These Sweeties were not the first people from distant worlds we encountered.” She walked up to a door guarded by two humans. They nodded at let her through. “Somepony came before.”

“Some… pony?”

They entered a room filled with important humans—including Robert Thomson—and Luna. There was only one pony Twilight didn’t recognize from the earlier meeting. She had a bright white coat, soft green eyes, and a musical cutie mark. She had two wings not made of feathers, but light itself, and above her horn sat a crown of many multicolored jewels.

“W-who is that?” Twilight asked.

“I am… the Crown Princess.” She bowed in Twilight’s direction. “I am a tragedy in motion, brought about by the Merodi.”

Twilight wasn’t sure how to respond to this.

The Crown Princess trotted over to Twilight and smiled sadly. “I… I know they’re friendly. They’re very friendly, and they certainly mean well. But they don’t think things through. They are no better than conquerors who fool you into thinking you’re making your own choices.”

“They wouldn’t…”

“You met Celia. Would you put it past her to lie to get what she thought was best?”

Twilight frowned. She didn’t know the crystal mare very well… but that certainly sounded like her.

“But… Cinder.”

“Cinder is an amazing mare.” The Crown Princess sighed. “She’s the best of them. But she doesn’t see what they are, and is another victim of their trap. I know her personally. She’s just too… naive to understand what the Merodi do to the worlds they encounter.”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “...Explain. Why are they bad?”

“Beyond their complete, fanatical devotion to their version of ‘harmony’? Well… there’s three ways they bring worlds into their folds. The first is nothing to be concerned about—they make friends, and those friends decide it would be beneficial for everyone if they stood as one. There’s one problem though: this hasn’t happened since the early days of their nation. They only have two methods now: manipulative control of markets and resources, or direct conquest.”

“...Direct conquest?”

“If they believe their people will approve of it, they will step into a world they think is ‘evil enough’ and completely wipe it clean. Remove and replace all rulers. In a few cases, they just outright destroy the universe. But that’s not what you have to be worried about. I had to worry about that. I was a filly, and I was an ancient artifact. I am now neither. An abomination, you could say…”

Twilight felt a pang in her heart. This poor mare…

“You have to worry about the much subtler version. Manipulation. They have seen so many versions of Earth that they have the ‘indoctrination’ of them down to a science. They will throw excess goods and technology at the world in a pattern specifically designed to get the Earth to like the Merodi. Then they will ask Earth to join, and Earth will invariably accept. Promptly thereafter big businesses will fall and the economy will fuse to become one with Merodi Universalis. All the stuff they traded to Earth becomes obsolete as the more up-to-date stuff moves in, and any individual power the Earth might have had is swept under the rug as they join a coalition with several dozen other universes who have been there much longer and have more say.” She stamped her hoof. “They become a footnote. The same goes for Equises, though they often don’t even have to manipulate the market, ponies will just jump on the bandwagon without thinking.”

Twilight frowned. “But… they d-”

“They don’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” the Crown Princess said. “To them, this is just spreading the Magic of Friendship." Her expression hardened for a moment, her tone grew chilly, and the crown's jewels glimmered. "And that means they'll never, ever stop."

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Twilight demanded.

“She has provided us with much intel on how their government works,” Celestia said. “Everything she said checks out with what Celia told us today.”

“And I’ve got more,” the Crown Princess said, pulling a small data pad out from under the table. “I procured a bunch of Merodi Universalis’ classified files. A bunch of the things they actually try to keep hidden.” She slid the pad along the table to Robert Thomson. “I don’t know everything that’s on here. There are records of forbidden experiments, an Intelligence Division that doesn't officially exist, and much, much more. Make of it what you will.”

Before Thomson could grab the data pad, Luna picked it up in her magic. “Excuse me for being skeptical… but one could say you are doing the same thing Merodi Universalis is.”

The Crown Princess shook her head. “I am not asking you to join anything. I’m just giving you what you need to know to survive in the multiverse next to the oppressive might of Merodi Universalis. You explore on your own and create your own alliances. I’ve just given you the tools to get started. ...I have no nation, friends. I am without a home. And instead of trying to reclaim what is mine, I am going to build up whoever I can with what I know. This includes you.”

Thomson took the data pad from Luna’s telekinesis and scrolled through it. “Thank you for this, Crown Princess. And… everything else you’ve done.”

“The pleasure is mine,” the Crown Princess said, bowing. She turned to Twilight. “We should have lunch. I’m sure you have a lot of questions…”

Author's Notes:

Project: Sunflower is a classic story about a woman being turned into a pony and sent to spy on Equestria, written by Hoopy McGee. It's considered a classic by certain people, and it certainly deserves it. And do not worry, Erin and her worlds will be returning. The Crown Princess will make sure of that.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES
Ranger. (known today as XCOM: Ranger. This'll be "fun".)

((LSB Status Post))

Just a Few More Sisters (XCOM: Ranger)

“So, how exactly do you… act around a League Founder?” Cinder asked Suzie. They were standing on board Swip, waiting for a portal to appear in her dimensional ring.

“Like every other Sweetie,” Suzie said. “You met Allure, right?”

“Yeah, but I was literally called in to meet her. She’s nice and all, but that didn’t really feel like… ‘every other Sweetie’.”

Suzie shrugged. “I’m technically a founder, as is Burgerbelle, even if we’re not grouped with the others as often.”

Cinder furrowed her brow. “So… you didn’t actually have to found the League with the original five to be a Founder?”

Suzie tilted her hand side to side. “We generally group ourselves by who was there when we faced the Collector and met Sweetie. The Sweetie. So that’s me, Burger, Allure, Thrackerzod, Squeaky, er… Brute, and Bot—who we’re meeting today.”

“The Sweetie?”

“When Allure took her name, she gave Sweetie the right to keep hers.”

“Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“There is! Quite a fun one, actua-”

A portal ripped open just in front of Swip’s dimensional ring, depositing a small robotic unicorn filly. There was no mistaking her for anything other than a robot: her eyes were clearly digital, her curls fake, and every time she moved her legs it sounded like a servo was about to give out. “Extending greetings protocol!”

Suzie shook the hoof of the filly-sized machine. Then she pulled the tiny robot into a hug. “Good to see you again.”

“I saw you a few weeks ago! Activity: shouting at Nausicaa.”

Suzie lowered the robot to the ground and smiled nervously. “I… yeah, I did spend a lot of time doing that. Don’t worry, we’re both Sweeties. We’ll figure out our differences eventually.”

Swip’s avatar coughed on a nearby screen. “You’ll never do that if you spend as much time as possible away from her influence…”

“Conclusion seems accurate,” Bot reported.

“I just realized that I now have two of you on board,” Suzie laughed. “Your analytical observations will know no end.”

“Swip isn’t that analytical for a robot,” Cinder said.

“Conclusion seems accurate,” Bot reported. Again. She and Cinder hoofbumped.

Suzie rolled her eyes. “Glad to see you’re having no difficulty bonding with Bot whatsoever. Anyway, Bot, since this is basically your vacation…”

“Mission! We shall go explore to obtain a substantial quantity of friendship and experiences!”

“...You’re just upset Thrackerzod and the others are busy, aren’t you?”

Bot beeped sadly. “Affirmative… Everypony’s analyzing the visit to Earth Shimmer, and the League is preparing the City for the world’s magic. And Shimmy. Chances of something going wrong: 99.9%. They have no need for a robot. The City itself has enough processors.”

“Aww…” Cinder said, holding her heart. She knew Bot was significantly older than she was, but that didn’t stop her from seeing a young blank flank making the puppy eyes heart-wrenching. “Don’t worry, we’ll give you something amazing to do!”

Suzie smiled in understanding. “She’s right, Bot. Let’s see… you and Burger can catch up on the mission. Who else do you want?”

“Seren! She can make repairs in emergency situations!”

“Done. And?”

“Squiddy!” Bot excitedly tapped her metallic hooves on the ground, sending vibrations through the floor to everyone around her. “She’s either the coolest or the funniest.”

Squiddy poked her head into the room. “My inkling sense told me I was being insulted. Wanna say that to my face, toaster?”

“Amusement levels rising!” Bot laughed.

“Swip, can you find a random world?” Suzie asked.

“Why do you always ask that?” Swip snarked. “I have several coordinates cached at virtually all times. Of course I can.”

“Swip, dial a random world.”

“Yes, Captain.”

The ring lit up, ripping a hole through reality to a dark urban ruin with overcast skies.

“...Cheery,” Squiddy observed.

“Adventure: initiate!” Bot declared. She bounced through, dragging Squiddy with her.

“...Isn’t she forgetting the rest of her team?” Cinder asked.

“Well yes, but actually no,” Burgerbelle said, waving from the other side of the portal.

Seren was standing next to her, looking up from a data pad in confusion. “Oh. Guess we-”

Pop went the portal.

Cinder shrugged. “I’m going to go play video games with Blink. Wanna come?”

Suzie thought about this for a moment. She didn’t really have any paperwork right now. “Sure.”

“Think Bot will want to play when she comes back?”

“She’ll trounce you. She is a robot.”

“Then we gang up on her!”

“...I think you underestimate her abilities.”

Cinder shrugged. “It’ll be fun either way.”

Suzie smiled—she loved that little bundle of positivity.

~~~

“Tell Chime to meet me at the geode store. She’ll know the one.”

Sweetie Belle pressed ‘replay’ on her tablet for the umpteenth time, keeping her finger on the button a little longer than was strictly necessary. The voice of her sister came to her ears once again. She tried her best to hear any sort of inflection within Rarity's voice—urgency, sorrow, or even joy—but there was nothing. It wasn’t even whispered, just spoken simply.

Sweetie knew this shouldn’t bother her, but it did. Rarity’s voice should always have some sort of life to it. Not… this. Whatever this was.

“That can’t be good for you,” Apple Bloom said.

With a sigh, Sweetie pocketed her tablet and turned to her cyborg friend. She looked human enough, and Sweetie no longer held her appearance against her, but it was still weird to see her silvery smooth skin that doubled as armor and metallic-red hair. The constant soft hum Apple Bloom produced had been comforting at times and aggravating at others, not that Sweetie would mention either to her friend.

“We’ll get her, okay?”

Sweetie frowned. “What if we’re too late? What if she was followed?”

“No use worrying about that until we’re there,” the last member of the trio said, her voice reminding Sweetie that Scootaloo hadn’t come with them. Instead, it was a large woman in power armor that had been tasked with guarding them across the war-torn hellscape that was Earth these days. “Worry about the dangers here. We already had the argument about the trap possibility.”

“Ember, this place is abandoned,” Sweetie pointed out, gesturing at the wrecked urban sprawl they were walking through.

“There have been Lost sightings here, and where there’s Lost, there’s going to be ADVENT.”

“And if they were here, you’d tell us to get down long before they actually showed up.”

“Wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out ourselves,” Apple Bloom said. “Never know what we might see coming at us.”

“Yeah. Right. Sorry, Ember, just… on edge.”

Ember nodded curtly, maintaining her silence. They continued walking through the wrecked buildings, occasionally passing by a skeleton. Most skeletons were human, but a few were of other creatures with bizarre proportions and figures—and the vast majority of bones showed some sign of being burnt. Evidence of overturned war machines littered the larger streets, both alien and human, though there were far less alien wrecks.

Sweetie was more than a little surprised to see some of the skyscrapers were still standing. Say what you would about humanity, they liked to build impressive things to last.

“Hold up,” Apple Bloom said, freezing in place. “Something’s off.”

“I don’t see anything,” Ember said, readying her gun nonetheless.

“Ah’m not seein’ it. I’m feelin’ it. My circuits—they’re compensatin’ for a dramatic increase in ambient charged particles. Electrons are jumpin’ more than they should.”

“...English?”

“Ah have no idea what it means, just that somethin’ weird’s goin’ on.”

Ember held a hand up for silence, listening carefully.

All three of them heard the laugh, followed by some excited shouting.

Sweetie furrowed her brow. That wasn’t ADVENT… but there was something familiar about the sound she couldn’t put her finger on.

Ember gestured for them to take shelter inside an abandoned storefront, a convenience store that had been looted long ago. They crawled in through the broken windows and ducked low enough that only their eyes were visible, level with the windowsill. Sweetie held her breath as the sounds got closer—not sure what to expect.

She could hear three distinct voices… maybe four. Two were female and sounded human, the others were different kinds of synthetic voices. The sources of the mysterious words came into sight about the same time Sweetie could make out what they were saying.

“Magic is exceptionally low here, I’m not casting ‘firework’,” a young girl said. A young girl with ears and a horn. A young girl that had Sweetie’s hairstyle, eyes, and face. This, alone, would have been enough to make Sweetie’s breath catch.

But the strangest was still to come.

One after another, three other beings that looked similar to Sweetie came into full view. A young woman with white tentacles on her head instead of hair was the easiest to accept. The tiny robotic unicorn gave her pause, but she’d seen things in the world that let her admit that such a thing was at least possible.

But the thing that looked like a perfectly ordinary human at first glance was the one that made her mind blank. A girl, early teens maybe, that moved like some kind of sock puppet and, despite the dynamic nature of her poses, was two dimensional.

“What the f-”

Ember shushed her with a nudge. Luckily, it didn’t appear that any of the “Sweeties” had heard her.

Sweetie managed to calm her mind down enough to focus her attention on the four unusual beings. They were still talking about the ‘firework spell’. Are they from Sunset’s world…? But wouldn't there be only one Sweetie Belle?

“Seren knows what magic’s about,” the squid-girl said. “She’s not going to cast the firework.”

“But it would be fun,” the flat creature said in an eerily monotone voice that did not go with her cheerful expression.

“Why don’t you just make a firework yourself? You can do that. Easy.”

The flat creature jumped to a contemplative pose, thinking deeply.

“Initiating firework protocols!” the robot said. A hatch in the side of her body opened up, revealing a small, red firework.

“Nonononono!” the kid—Seren, probably—said, waving her hands. “This place is a warz-”

The firework went off into the sky and exploded in a beautiful burst of reds and blues.

“Idiots,” Ember hissed.

“I wish I had fireworks,” Apple Bloom said.

“Shh!” Sweetie hissed—even though none of the “Sweeties” outside could hear them over their sudden argument.

“Bot! Squiddy!” Seren put her hands on her hips. “You should know better!”

“I didn’t do it!” Squiddy objected.

“You encouraged it.”

“You could have brought it up earlier.”

Why do they talk to the kid like she’s an adult…?

“Girls!” Bot said, inserting herself between the two of them. “No fighting. I should not have initiated the firework protocol. I am sorry. Let us restart the journey. Nothing bad happen-”

A high impact bullet hit Bot in the side of the head, sending sparks flying as she rolled into the rubble.

The flat creature and Squiddy prepared for a fight; the latter hefting a gun filled with a white liquid while the former pulled out… a giant clock face from nowhere?

Sweetie couldn't see their opponents yet, but she recognized the sound of ADVENT gunfire. Of course the firework had drawn attention. These poor, lost, confusing people were probably about to die right in front of her eyes. And yet, she couldn’t make herself look away. Because they were her, in a way.

So surreal.

The white liquid shot out of Squiddy’s gun to somewhere out of sight—though the target didn’t let that stay for long. The humanoid ADVENT soldier charged forward, not caring in the slightest that the liquid was getting on his sleek red-and-black armor. He let bullets fly, forcing Squiddy to duck for cover behind some loose rubble.

The flat creature didn’t do any of that. She used her clock as a shield, blocking several of the bullets before swinging her arm wild, throwing the clock like a discus. It flew true, hitting the approaching soldier dead-on, knocking him into a second that had just arrived on the scene.

A third was unaffected, however, jumping over rubble to point his gun right in the creature’s face. He pulled the trigger at point-blank.

Nothing happened to his target.

“You had a 40% hit chance,” she said, grinning. She kicked him in the stomach with a steel-toed boot that she hadn’t been wearing a moment ago, knocking him over.

How? She’s a kid!

Without leaning down to pick it up, the creature had the soldier’s gun. Instead of shooting it—like any sane person would have done—she used it to smack one of the soldiers who was trying to get up upside the head.

She’s… fighting nonlethally. That’s insane!

“Done!” Seren shouted, drawing Sweetie’s attention back to her and Bot. To her shock, the unicorn robot had been completely repaired—and her eyes had gone a deep, menacing red. “Burgerbelle, get out of there!”

Burgerbelle. That thing’s name is Burgerbelle. That’s it, the war’s finally driven me insane. No other explanation.

Burgerbelle jumped back to where Squiddy was hiding, giving her a thumbs up.

“Showoff,” Squiddy muttered, coating more of the area with her liquid.

Bot, angrily glaring at the ADVENT soldiers, rose into the air with rockets built into her hooves.

“Aw, come on,” Apple Bloom muttered.

A handful of ADVENT soldiers ran onto the scene, accompanied by a few of the golden, slithering Vipers; feminine snakes with arms. They all pointed their weapons at Bot and fired, filling the air with bullets.

Seren lifted her scepter and created a shield around Bot, letting out an audible wince of pain as she did so. The space around Bot shifted and scattered around the shield, but it blocked the bullets.

“Our turn!” Burgergelle laughed, giving Bot the thumbs up. “Give them some justice.”

Bot nodded. “Targets acquired.” A missile bay popped out of her side that was too large to fit inside her.

“Aw, come on!” Apple Bloom shouted, not that anybody could hear her over the sounds of gunfire.

Six missiles launched from Bot’s bay, impacting the ground with immense explosions that shook what little glass remained in the storefront window out. The smoke soon obscured Sweetie’s view of the situation, but she didn’t hear any more gunshots.

They won.

As the smoke cleared, the cheery voices told her she was right.

“We are definitely in a warzone,” Squiddy said, coughing. “We should leave.”

“We just got here!” Bot complained. “That wasn’t that bad.”

Seren held her head. “I had to put far too much effort into that simple shield. We need to re-evaluate, Burgerbelle. There are more compli-”

Ember moved so quickly she knocked Sweetie over. She swung her gun forward and fired, unleashing a single shot directly into a Viper’s head. The snake let out a pained hiss—and dropped the weapon it had pointed directly at Squiddy’s back.

Squiddy stared at the dead snake in horror. “Wh…”

Immediately, Seren held up her hands. “Don’t shoot! We’re friendly!”

“And stupid!” Ember called, lowering her weapon. “What the hell was that!?”

“A bunch of multiversal explorers running into a warzone?” Burgerbelle suggested.

“We knew it was a warzone,” Seren deadpanned.

Bot made a beeping noise. “We are a team of explorers and part of the League of Sweetie Belles!” She extended a hoof. “I am Sweetie Bot! I extend this hoof in love and friendship!”

“...You really are from Sunset’s world, aren’t you?”

“My world does have a Sunset in it! Affirmative!”

“And it looks like yours has a Sweetie Belle,” Seren said, pointing at Sweetie. “Come on out. We don’t bite.”

A child is telling me to be calm.

With a sigh, Sweetie resigned herself to the insanity and stepped out of the show. “...I’d like to know what the hell is going on.”

“And Ah wanna know how you did all that!” Apple Bloom said, pointing at Bot. “Half of that was impossible!”

“It is because of my coolness ratio!” Bot beeped.

Seren rolled her eyes. “It’s due to a complex magitechnical interface that bonds arcane energy to her neural networks on an atomic level, allowing space to be folded away for maximum space efficiency.”

Apple Bloom gawked. “...You’re not a kid, are you?”

Squiddy snorted. “Apple Bot, she’s the only one of us here who is actually as young as she looks.”

“...Huh…”

Burgerbelle appeared in the middle of the group in a large, red chair that belonged in the study of some multi-billionaire. A book was open on her lap. “Who’s ready for a story? The story of… the League of Sweetie Belles.”

“I am!” Bot said, waving her hoof.

“...Drop the chair,” Ember said. “We have somewhere to be. If you want to tell your story, you’re walking with us. And listening to me.”

“Sure,” Burgerbelle grabbed a giant skateboard and put it under the chair. “Onward!”

There was a soft buzzing noise and the skateboard promptly snapped in half, throwing Burgerbelle out of the chair. Given her expression, that wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Just walk,” Squiddy muttered. “The rest of us have to do it.”

“That statement is false!” Bot said. “You can swim, I can fly, and Seren can teleport!”

Squiddy released a drawn-out sigh. Sweetie watched her put away her liquid gun and pull out what looked like a real weapon with shaky hands. “...Okay…”

I’m keeping an eye on her.

~~~

Ember consistently made combat assessments of their four new companions. Friend or foe or otherwise, you always needed to know the capabilities of everything that could come into play at any moment.

For Squiddy, this was easy. She walked like a trained soldier and had excellent reflexes, though she walked with a rigidity that told Ember she hadn’t been in extended combat recently, and the occasional trembling hinted at shell-shock of some sort. But she had switched away from her childish ink weapons and was now using something called a ‘pulse cannon’ set to the ‘high’ setting. Ember had asked for a demonstration. It vaporized a rock. Useful.

The rest weren’t as definable.

Sweetie Bot had the mixed mentality of a child and a supercomputer. She answered every question she could with an exact number, which proved annoying when an answer was “depending on how you count, twenty-four weapons or one-thousand two-hundred fifty-six.” When asked what kinds of weapons, she started running her motorized mouth spitting out terms far too quickly for Ember to parse them. What even was a ‘rippler’?

Seren gave better answers, despite being a kid, but her problem was that she didn’t know for sure what she could do. “The magic of this world is weak and somewhat unusual. I’m still performing scans to test the limits of my arcane capacity. I’ll get back to you in a few minutes.” Also her power apparently ran on ‘the power of family’, which was a new one. Love and friendship apparently weren't enough.

Ember didn’t even ask Burgerbelle. Though she did figure out that she was a ‘Flat’ and she was ‘in charge’, though clearly this group acted more like a bunch of sisters having fun than an actual military unit. At least they had no issues following Ember’s commands.

They truly were a bunch of multiversal explorers, that was self-evident from Burgerbelle’s existence. They were just here to explore a random world they had found, and since they’d discovered ‘friends’ in Ember, they were going to stick around for a bit.

More help for the mission.

“What are you three doing out here anyway?” Seren asked. Her horn was shrouded in an arcane green glow, and numerous lines of what looked like code were spinning around the head of her scepter. Ember wasn’t sure if she was happy they had a wizard on their side, concerned that the magic might go to her head, or disturbed that a child had so much power.

Processing Seren’s question, Ember decided she shouldn’t have the only say in answering it. She looked to her Sweetie expectantly. She’d know if she could trust herself, right?

Sweetie nodded. “We’re going to meet my sister. We think she’s escaping the clutches of ADVENT.”

“Let me guess, the bozos Bot blew up?” Squiddy asked.

Sweetie nodded.

“Alien invaders?”

“Yep,” Apple Bloom said. “You ever seen anything like them before?”

Squiddy and Seren shook their heads. Bot, on the other hand, had apparently come up with something.

“Memory banks search complete. XCOM series known across multiple worlds, confirmed three—now four—worlds based on the template. This world is the first known fusion, and only known instance in the Q-Sphere.” Bot tapped her head. “Internet access is down.”

Ember had no idea what half those terms meant and that bothered her. “So there are other XCOMs.”

“Affirmative.”

“You can’t access the Internet?” Seren asked, pursing her lips. “You have one of the strongest transmitters.”

“There is no Internet anymore,” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“I meant our Internet, Merodi Multiversal,” Seren smirked slightly. “Or ‘Trixie’s baby’, if you’re in the mood for a joke.”

For some reason, this made Sweetie and Apple Bloom snort.

“Regardless, Bot should be able to access the Internet from anywhere, except in quarantined universes, and this isn’t one of them.” Seren examined the code flying around her scepter in curiosity. “Unless—oh. That’s slightly concerning.”

Ember glared at her. “What?”

“Your universe is highly unstable.”

Ember stared at her in shock.

“Ah remember Sunset talkin’ about somethin’ like that, once,” Apple Bloom said. “Somethin’ about why Discord couldn’t just come in and fix everythin’?”

“I’m surprised you managed to detect that,” Seren admitted. “This universe doesn’t like portals opening or excessive uses of forces beyond its baseline. You’ll get holes in reality, glitches, and if you did something bad enough you could collapse the entire thing.” She turned to the rest of the Sweeties. “Like Earth Shimmer before we installed the Reality Anchors.”

Ember frowned. “Are you telling me that you messed with our universe by coming here?”

“Technically speaking, yes,” Seren admitted. “But one portal will not destroy a universe, or even a planet. That said I do not recommend dialing Swip until we are sure we want to leave.”

“Acknowledged,” Bot beeped.

“Think we could get some of those Reality Anchors?” Apple Bloom asked. “Ah think it’d be good to get extra forces from Equestria if we could.”

Ember tensed up at the suggestion. More aliens? Sure, Twilight and Sunset had proven themselves, but that pony world was filled with so many who knew nothing of war and to whom the struggle meant nothing.

“They’re big, require a ton of energy, and wouldn’t do well in a war zone,” Seren said, shaking her head. “We could probably bring them in if your world wasn’t exploding everywhere. Which it is. I’ve felt dozens of seismic tremors from massive explosions since we arrived.”

“You can feel them?” Sweetie gawked.

“Her scepter’s just a seismometer,” Apple Bloom said. “Nothin’ fancy.”

“Regardless, I can answer your question, Ember!” Seren smiled. “I can still use a decent portion of my power if I channel magic correctly. I’m only limited by how much power it takes to make reality fall apart.”

Ember really didn’t like the sound of that.

Seren, picking up on her expression, quickly added, “and I have no intention of ever testing the limits of your world. That would be foolhardy.” She did a little curtsy that was clearly intended to make Ember go “awwww” and trust everything she said.

Ember did not. Far as she was concerned, this confirmed her suspicions that Seren was a possible liability. The moment things started going sideways and she became some kind of reality-eating rampaging demon, there was a bullet with her name on it. Even if she was a kid.

Several bullets, probably.

They came to a road where a nearby skyscraper had collapsed, blocking the direct way forward.

“We’ll have to go around,” Sweetie said. “Circle the block.”

The other Sweeties looked to Seren expectantly.

“I am not taxing reality for a teleport.”

“Sad beep,” Bot said.

Ember continued walking in the direction Sweetie had indicated. It was as good as giving an order—the discussion over teleporting ended abruptly and the group followed her.

We’re certainly easier to see, Ember thought. She considered asking the other Sweeties to disguise themselves… but no, none of them would actually be mistaken for Sweetie herself, and ADVENT was already aware of other realms. With any luck, if ADVENT saw anything, they’d shit themselves thinking XCOM had secured more otherworldly allies.

But maybe that was just wishful thinking.

~~~

“Pleasant Chime,” Sweetie said.

“I think there are at least two other Sweeties with that name,” Burgerbelle said.

“So much for originality…” Sweetie groaned.

“That does not mean you cannot take the name,” Seren said.

“You don’t even need one right now,” Burgerbelle said. “You’re the local Sweetie. You generally only need to take another name if you start wandering the multiverse and running into yourself a lot.”

Apple Bloom watched her friend’s face go through several conflicting emotions about the whole thing before settling on ‘screw it, doesn’t really matter’ and just smiling awkwardly. “Ah.”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. Why not just be Resistance Belle or something? Or just choose something random. Avocadobelle. Makes as much sense as Burgerbelle…

“Hold,” Ember hissed, coming to a dramatic stop. “...Lost.”

Apple Bloom poked her head over the collapsed building they were hiding behind. Four humanoid figures shambled through the streets like zombies, though they were far too gray and misshapen to be undead creatures. Those didn’t exist, anyway. Wait. Did zombies exist in Equestria?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Squiddy jumping over the top of the rubble and firing four bullets of energized plasma from her pulse cannon, impacting the Lost dead on. The energy vaporized them before they had any idea what was going on.

“Squiddy!” Ember shouted. “That w-”

“They were suffering,” Squiddy breathed, lowering her weapon. Head down, she jumped back and fell in line behind Ember.

“...Are there more?” Sweetie asked, nervous.

“Apparently not…” Ember said, surprised. Apple Bloom expected her to chide Squiddy for her actions, but she didn’t do anything beyond her initial shout.

They moved on, kicking through the dust of the Lost like it was nothing.

Apple Bloom had thought Seren would be the problem Sweetie on this mission—but she had shown an almost inhuman ability to look the destruction around them in the face and smile. Squiddy, on the other hand…

Squiddy breathed as though she were suffering just by walking through the area.

“Hello fellow robot,” Bot said, strolling up to Apple Bloom. “How are your servos?”

Apple Bloom blinked—before smiling. “Great! Weren’t stiff at all this mornin’.”

“Stiff servos are 101% horrendous,” Bot shuddered. “But not as bad as the faulty battery.”

“You run on batteries?”

“Self-recharging thaumic energy crystals,” Seren explained from her position a few steps ahead of them. “They continually absorb ambient magic and channel it into all of her systems. Most of her energy she uses came pre-stored. She’s not getting an adequate input of energy from this universe; if she were to stay here for a month or so she’d enter a hibernation cycle.”

“Hibernation cycle!?” Bot hid behind Apple Bloom in fear. “That is 319% worse than the faulty battery!”

“So, basically, fancy solar power,” Apple Bloom said.

Seren nodded. “If you want to look at it that way. It’s significantly more complex, though.”

“So how does she hold all those weapons in herself?”

Seren pursed her lips. “I explained it already, I thought.”

“Try me again.”

“It’s an interface that bonds arcane energy to her neural networks on an atomic level—so she can fold space away for maximum storage capacity. Though that’s just how she can fit so much stuff in there. On a physical level, most of her devices are composed of thin metal sheets weaved together in a hex-pattern that’s extremely strong, but can fold out and away when charged with the correct electrical input. It’s like…” Seren snapped her fingers. “Oh! A pop-up book! Oh I love those, uh, do you have the one about the bear and the honey in your universe?”

Apple Bloom blinked. “...What?”

“Oh. Guess not.” Seren stretched her arms. “I like those books. Simple. Reminds me of mom.”

“Is she…?”

“She’s fine. All of my family is. We saved the universe!” She laughed and let out a little ‘woohoo!’

“Right. Family is magic.” Apple Bloom had to adjust her mind once more to remember that Seren was a child. A child who knew the secrets of magitech robotics. Apple Bloom tapped her arm with one of her hands. “So, can you give me some details about the hex-pattern mesh?”

“Well it’s not exactly magitech, but I’m familiar enough to give you a crash course.”

Bot beeped. “I feel as though I am being treated as an object of scientific curiosity.”

Apple Bloom would have blushed in embarrassment if she could, and Seren had the decency to look sheepish.

Bot grinned. “Maybe I can learn more about myself this way! Continue sciencey protocols!”

Apple Bloom let out a sigh of relief. Seren began to explain in detail the mechanics behind folding metal, as well as a bit about how the magic mesh interfaced with it.

Apple Bloom’s grin only widened as she continued listening.

~~~

Squiddy hated herself for several reasons at the moment.

The primary reason was that her mind would not stop running away with everything she saw around her. This wasn’t an old, abandoned battlefield—this was relatively recent and it definitely wasn’t abandoned. She could imagine the tragedies that happened to create that skeleton over there or that smear against the wall… she knew her mind was just making up stuff and it probably wasn't right half the time, but that didn’t stop her from seeing it.

Second, the shaking. She knew how to handle it, how to aim and hit with it. The pulse cannon wasn’t exactly a point-precision weapon. It was still an extremely high strain on her focus. Her effectiveness was down, and she was already basically the weakest Sweetie on the ship.

Oh, the memories were great too. The sounds of inklings screaming, ducking for cover, and water rushing in to splat all of them into nothing. Or were those the sounds of octolings? They blended together these days.

The worst part though? The sounds of death in her world weren't dramatic. They were fucking silly. Every splat, every screamed ‘woomy!’ every ‘glub?’ was pronounced with an adorable little tone. If a mind reader were to look into her head right now they’d probably laugh. It was so... stupid!

Scratch that, the worst part wasn’t the noise, the first part was that she was fully aware of what she was doing to herself. The anger at all this nonsense in her head would just send her into a spiral, she knew it, and the fact that she knew this made her more angry, which just made it worse and worse…

“Squiddy,” Burgerbelle said, laying a flat hand on her.

“What?” Squiddy growled.

“I can send you back. The world can survive another portal.”

“No. You lot need me.”

“...Squiddy…”

“No, you do need me, you fucking idiots!” She reeled her anger in and took a few deep breaths. “None of you know what it’s like to actually fight out here aside from Seren, and she has serious issues from growing up in that place. None of you understand what it’s like to actively fear for your life for weeks on end. You don’t know what it…” She turned sharply away. “I’m not abandoning you. Too many inklings are deserters. Not me.” She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to tell herself she wasn’t crying. “Not… me…”

Everyone was staring at her in shock now.

“Let me put this simply. I’m not going back. Thank me or don’t.” She walked forward, ahead of Ember. “We started this mission. I’m seeing it through.”

She saw a pair of skeletons laid against each other inside a blown open store window.

You’re not even fighting in the war, Squiddy! You’re just escorting! You…

(( The octoling couple looked up at Squiddy, pleading, but it was already too late. ))

“I don’t fight in wars…” she muttered. “I don’t fight in wars… not anymore.”

She wiped her eyes with her tentacles and looked back. Only Ember was still with her—the others were hanging back. She had probably told them to.

“If you’re going to scold me I’m already doing enough of that to myself,” Squiddy grumbled.

“You’re right. They need you.”

“Duh, of c-”

“You’re right.”

Squiddy let the words sink in. She let out a sigh. “...I’m just an angry inkling.”

“You’re a survivor. Tell me, did you win your war?”

“Nobody won the war,” Squiddy said, kicking a rock out of the way. “Inklings and octolings were fighting and killing each other for no good reason. Some of us figured that out. Tried to stop it. We were slaughtered. Apparently, that was what it took to get everyone to screw their heads screwed on straight.” She paused. “I got away from there as soon as the Merodi showed up. Ran to the League of Sweetie Belles and I’ve never been home since.”

“But you won.”

“Yeah, shit, I won!” Squiddy laughed mockingly. “The war ended and peace was restored. Took everything.” She pointed back at the others. “They don’t understand that.”

Ember snorted. “Definitely not. All those Sweeties—even mine—haven't really, truly fought tooth and nail yet.” She tightened her grip on her gun. “I lost most of my team recently.”

Squiddy’s legs started trembling. “Shit…”

“Squiddy, why are you out here? You don’t have to fight or explore. You have a choice, unlike me.”

“Because it matters,” Squiddy said. “It’s something I can do. Well. We live in a society where everything is given to you on a silver platter. You want to sell flowers? That’s nice, here, have a shop, you’ll probably never have financial worries ever again, and even if you do, we’ve got so many agencies that can give you other jobs that you always have a cushion! What, nobody will ever hear about Squiddy, painter? Who cares, you make art, people buy it, and they appreciate it!” She wanted to break her gun in half, but she restrained herself. “I’m a selfish squid that can’t stand being a nobody. So I’m out here. Exploring. There, that’s my life story. Congratulations, not even Cinder’s gotten that one out of me yet, proud?”

“I’m not really doing anything here. If I am proud, it’s knowing that there are other… people who know what it’s like out there. That it’s not all sunshine, rainbows, and lollipops.”

“This isn’t even the worst…” Squiddy sighed, defeated. “I can face worlds where the darkness threatens to consume anything. But if it’s a war…”

“You served your time, soldier.”

“Not even close.”

Ember narrowed her eyes. “Are you s-”

ADVENT attacked, jumping out from behind an overturned truck. Bullets flew. Ember took one in the lower leg, armor cracking from the lucky shot. She fell to her knee—still shooting, right alongside Squiddy.

ADVENT soldiers were vaporized and shot down—but a Viper crawled out over the truck with a significantly larger weapon. She pulled the trigger, and a heavy explosive flung out. It missed them by a fair margin—but the shrapnel was enough to puncture Squiddy’s skin. Immense quantities of pressurized white ink poured out of the sudden gash in her back, coating the area behind her.

Shit, that needed to go in the front, I could have swum up that.

Seren’s shield went up in that moment, protecting both Ember and Squiddy from further attacks. Bot flew overhead, riddling the remaining soldiers with machine gun fire.

It was over as soon as it had began, unlike the previous encounter.

Seren dropped the shields and laid her hands on Squiddy’s back, flooding her body with magic. Squiddy felt the wound heal and some of her strength return to her, but she also felt the reality around her back vibrate and jitter unnaturally. Seren was taxing things…

She removed her hands from Squiddy and turned to Ember.

“Don’t touch me with your magic,” Ember hissed. “Apple Bloom, first aid.”

“It’s not going to corrupt y-”

“I said don’t!”

Seren lowered her hands, frowning. “If you insist.” She helped Squiddy up to her feet and walked away from Ember while the cyborg human tended to the leg.

~~~

“Tell Chime to meet me at the geode store. She’ll know the one.”

Sweetie lowered her tablet and look at the corner store in front of them. It was completely abandoned as far as she could tell, but even after all these years, it was still identifiable as the place she and Rarity had come to visit when they were kids. They had spent the entire day in Manhattan dragging each other to one thing or other, over and over something the other just wasn't into.

But then they found this place. It sold beautiful, real gemstones. It wasn’t a jewelry store—though it had those things in it—but more of a place to observe natural wonders. Gems, agates, geodes…

She wondered if anyone had bought the amethyst geode larger than she was before the invasion happened. Since the store was still standing, for all she knew it was still in there.

And if it was, that’s where her sister would be waiting.

“I should go in alone,” Sweetie said, stepping in front of Ember and the rest of the group. Ember’s leg was doing fine—or at the very least she was putting on a good act that she didn’t feel it at all. “Keep her from getting spooked.”

Ember nodded, indicating her approval. Carefully, Sweetie made her way across the street and entered the shop. There hadn’t been many looters for gems after the aliens attacked—mostly just food. This meant the inside of the shop still sparkled with brilliant colors as the sunlight poured in through the windows, creating more than a few rainbows inside.

She smiled walking up to the pedestal she remembered. Sure enough, the mammoth amethyst geode was still there, though she was now slightly taller than it was.

Sitting on a round table just behind it was a Viper pointing a rifle in her direction—Sweetie tensed at first, but then she recognized it as a Viper she knew when it lowered its gun and hissed a friendly welcome. A friendly, none other than Angel. And behind Angel… there was Rarity.

"Rarity!" Sweetie shouted, running to embrace her sister. She looked just as Sweetie remembered: a tall, glamorous beauty with just a hint of scales going up the side of her neck, and pronounced canines when she smiled.

Rarity took off her sunglasses, revealing her slitted eyes before warmly returning the hug. "Sweetie! I'm so glad I wasn't imagining things… even when I spoke with dear Fluttershy and she assured me you were fine… after what happened to New Appaloosa…"

"I understand, sis," Sweetie whispered, "I-I lost a lot of friends, but Sunset got us out. I thought it might still take some time before we could see each other."

Rarity stepped back, looking at her sister up and down as if to confirm she wasn't seeing an illusion. "Something happened recently… the whole ADVENT Network was shaken, and the Elders demanded the Speaker's presence… I took my chances and sent a message to Fluttershy, asking her to relay my invitation to the Commander. I'm glad she let you come."

"Oh," Sweetie glanced at Angel. The Viper simply shrugged and hissed. "So that's why Angel's here?"

"Yes, she's going to escort me to Fluttershy's Settlement, although I'm not sure where it is."

Sweetie glanced at the bag of weapons. "I see you brought your equipment."

Rarity grimaced. "With Fugue and other monsters on the loose… these days… one cannot be too careful."

An immense FOOM! shook the earth outside, shaking the two sisters out of their reunion. Without hesitation, Rarity ran outside, ready to face whatever it was that was threatening them, Angel at her side.

Rarity froze in the doorway when she saw what was out there—an immense sphere of metal that resembled an eye. Currently, its outer casing was splayed open, revealing noxious, pulsating flesh beneath that brimmed with psychic energy. It held onto Bot with four coiling tendrils, each one having grabbed onto a leg—pulling.

A Gatekeeper had her.

Bot wasn’t fighting back—she was clearly terrified, but she wasn’t making a move. Why wasn’t she? Bigger question—what was a Gatekeeper doing here!?

Sweetie heard gunfire, Ember shouting… they had been attacked while she was in there. She had been too distracted to notice.

Rarity turned to look at Sweetie with the hint of a question: run?

We have to help them.

Rarity nodded. She pulled her arms back and bared her teeth. She jumped out of the shop and hit the Gatekeeper right in its exposed squishy bits, spraying alien blood everywhere. She quickly tore her hand out before it could close itself, dropping back to the ground.

Her attack forced the Gatekeeper to release Bot. The instant the tentacles were no longer around her, Bot growled. “Target locked.” A machine gun turret popped out of her side and began blasting the Gatekeeper. Angel slithered to the back of the alien, firing from behind. For a split second Squiddy looked ready to shoot the Viper, but she was aware enough of her surroundings to see Angel was acting as a friendly.

Unfortunately, the Gatekeeper’s armor was too hard for measly bullets to have much of an effect. Its center began to glow red hot. Rarity and Bot were just barely able to duck out of the way as the Gatekeeper let loose an immense laser that melted the ground to slag.

Sweetie poked eyes around one of the shop’s walls, looking across the street. The rest of her team and the Sweeties were making quick work of the ADVENT soldiers accompanying the Gatekeeper… but Seren wasn’t. She was resting behind some cover, holding her head.

She probably tried to use magic on the Gatekeeper. That… that was probably what we heard, actually. Magic and psychic powers never did go well together…

Sweetie hefted her gun—she had one, she just wasn’t very good with it. The Gatekeeper was way out of her league, but maybe she could hit one of the soldiers from over here. Aim… fire. Her bullet sailed true, traveling right into the head of one of the soldiers, blowing his brains out.

Good. Disgusting, but good.

And then the Gatekeeper decided it was time to use its most devastating trick. It opened its shell up once more, creating a ball of psychic energy in its tentacles. Bot unleashed a torrent of bullets at it, as did Apple Bloom from her vantage point, but it pushed through them. It slammed the purple sphere into the ground, sending out a shockwave that tossed Rarity to the ground.

The dark aura seeped into the dead bodies of ADVENT soldiers… pulling them up from the dead with a horrifying purple glow that made them so much worse than the Lost they had encountered earlier.

“Take out the Gatekeeper!” Ember shouted. “Take it out!”

The Gatekeeper ignored her and the rest of the attacks coming its way—it had closed itself up once again. It pointed its big laser right at Rarity—who was dazed from hitting her head on a nearby rock.

In truth, Rarity probably had enough physical augmentations to take a direct hit from a Gatekeeper laser.

Sweetie was not able to think rationally enough to realize this. All she knew was that her sister was in danger and she had to do something. She aimed at the Gatekeeper’s central eye and let loose as many bullets as she could, knocking the thing off course—missing Rarity, but interrupting Bot’s missile attacks.

The Gatekeeper turned to face Sweetie, focusing on her with its eye.

She kept shooting, even though she was doing little more than chipping at it.

Rarity—dazed, lost, and very confused—jumped from the ground and into Sweetie, coming dangerously close to being hit by Sweetie’s weapon. The two of them rolled into the back of the store, coming to rest next to the giant geode as the front of the store was blown to shreds.

Sweetie had dropped her gun in the roll. It was actively ignoring Angel’s attacks and Rarity was too far back to do much of anything before the next laser.

But Seren wasn’t. She raised a shield right in front of the laser, absorbing the entire attack.

Sweetie gawked at her as she confidently strode up to the Gatekeeper, encasing it in a magic bubble. How!? She was down!

Seren seemed to sense her question—in response she held her hand out to them. “Family is magic. Us Sweeties may be like sisters… but it’s nothing compared to the power of real sisters. Just throw a few more in and…” She smirked as the Gatekeeper tried to break out of its prison with another laser. “Well, you could save the world.”

Sweetie noticed the air around Seren was sparking with dark specks. “...Seren…”

“Yes. That’s why I’m not crushing it. When the others deal with th-”

She didn’t get to finish her plan. The Gatekeeper decided to open up its shell and access its psychic powers. It knew full well what would happen if it tried to force its way through the shield this way. So much psychic energy and magic concentrated in one place...

The explosion would be enough to take out every combatant in the area.

It lashed out with the inner tentacles.

Seren teleported.

What started out as a psychic explosion the likes of which Earth had never seen became something much, much worse. There was light —and then there was darkness. The rubble, walls, and very air of the world fell away like shreds of paper into a vast, empty nothingness. Sections of reality broke off in vibrating cubes, exaggerated lines, or soft tears like paper. There was no true pattern, for there could be no pattern when reality failed. Even the darkness wasn’t truly dark—parts of it were white, colorless, or flashed random colors in a strobe pattern. It was as though someone had taken a game cartridge, scratched it, partially loaded the graphics, and then gone over the entire thing with a paintbrush of inconsistent width.

The geode shop—and the intersection of Manhattan it had occupied—failed to exist.

A fair distance down the street, Seren’s teleport spell completed, dropping herself, four Sweeties, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Ember, Angel, and an immense amethyst geode in an unceremonious pile.

Everyone was staring at the ‘darkness’ that had once been the intersection. Except Seren; Seren was on the ground holding her head in pain, letting out groans that were almost screams in a regular rhythm.

Ember had a gun trained on her.

But, eventually, Seren’s pain calmed down. Her breathing became regular, and she was eventually able to remove her hands from her had. With a deep breath, she stood up. “...We made it.”

“What the fuck was that!?” Ember shouted, pointing at the failure in reality.

“The cost of survival,” Seren said. “The Gatekeeper was suicide bombing. I had to get us all out of there in an instant. I didn’t really have an option.” She held up a hand and lit her horn, focusing on the reality failure. “As I thought, it’s not malignant. It’ll only grow if you throw more magic into it.”

“It could have been malignant!?”

“N-no, I was just checkin-”

“Why would you need to check if it couldn’t have been malignant?”

“Hey, calm down, Ember,” Sweetie said. “We wouldn’t have survived the Gatekeeper without her!”

“Hiss,” Angel agreed.

“The Gatekeeper wouldn’t be here without her,” Ember spat.

“Wh-”

“Gatekeepers don’t do anything that isn’t high-value. That shouldn’t have been here. It had to be them.”

“We haven’t been here long enough to do anything,” Burgerbelle said, pulling her giant clock out of nowhere. “Couldn't have been us.”

“Um…” Bot beeped sadly. “Analysis suggests they can probably track me.”

“How?”

Bot tapped her side. “I have nearly full magic reserves. I do not need to refuel like Seren. If they know anything about magic, or have seen it in action, they can trace me in a universe like this.”

“They don’t know enough about magic to do that,” Apple Bloom spoke up. “We probably wouldn’t even figure that out without Twilight, Sunset, or you telling us.”

“Hiss,” Angel said.

“Yes, it is more likely they were just after me,” Rarity said. “I am relatively high value.”

“Excuse me,” Squiddy said, raising a hand. “Just checking, the snake is on our side?” Receiving a nod from Rarity, she continued. “Okay. Why isn’t the translator spell working on her?”

“Amusing reasons,” Burgerbelle said.

“Hiss.”

“You’re right, I do want a taco, thanks for asking.”

Angel cocked her head in confusion. “Hiss?”

“Aww, thanks!”

Angel turned to Rarity, asking for help.

“I don’t know what you’re saying, dear," Rarity shrugged.

“Hiss…”

Burgerbelle perked up. “Ooh! A rapids trip! Nice idea.”

“Enough,” Ember grunted. “There is a chance they’re tracking you.”

Seren nodded. “And even if they weren't before, what are the chances the Gatekeeper didn’t have a transmitter of some sort on board? Bot gives out a lot more than just magic signals. If you’re an alien empire and you really want to find a magitech robot, you’ll find her.”

“Observation: we should leave and allow you to sneak away,” Bot declared. “Parallel: wait around the hole and distract them.”

“Good idea,” Ember said.

Bot went ding! and produced a small cubic device with rounded corners and a Crusader shield on the top face. “This is a dimensional communicator. We will contact you soon to bring help. We can’t call in the army because of dimensional instability, but we can give you a few specialis-”

“I think you’ve done enough,” Ember grunted. “We don’t need more magic here.”

“Ember that’s a little harsh…” Sweetie said.

“Hiss,” Angel agreed.

Ember turned to look at Sweetie. "Fugue. Jane. The Chosen. Laetitia and Luna… all of those are magic-related and for the most part a bad thing eventually follows it. Until I we get Sunset back, and Twilight tells me it's okay, I'm not trusting any of it, regardless of the intentions of the users."

“She has a point,” Rarity said, pointing at the hole in reality. “Magic does terrible things to our world.”

“...There is a demon running around because of it…” Apple Bloom breathed.

“Our personnel need not be a mage,” Bot said. “We have the best scientists around! Could improve your weapons, give you intel, that sort of thing! Database reports that we are on decent terms with one XCOM. We could ask them.”

“And then what would that mean for us?” Rarity asked. “More help from other worlds, from… outsiders.”

“Hiss,” Angel grunted.

“Look, Angel, you’re fighting against something that tore your life apart, you’re just like us. These ‘Sweeties…’” she frowned. “I don’t believe I actually got an explanation for what you are.”

“They’re explorers,” Ember said. “Only Squiddy here knows what war is like. Tell me, would you h-”

“I have wished every day since I joined the League that they had arrived before the war ended so they could have stopped it by force,” Squiddy spat.

Ember recoiled in shock. “Bu-”

“Oh, had they actually done that, I would have hated them. Took our rightful victory from us and made our struggles meaningless and all that. That is the number one complaint people have against us when we show up. ‘What did all our struggles mean!?’ Who gives a fish’s asshole about the meaning of your struggle? Less people fucking die!”

“We don’t need you!” Ember retorted, "We're not fighting a war against an approaching army, we already lost once! We don't need new overlords."

“No! You don’t! You’re right!” Squiddy waved her hands around wildly. “This is your world and your war and you can win it without us. But you know what? I think maybe you are better off without us.” She glared. “You won’t understand what sacrifice means unless you make it to the end and look back.”

Ember shot her.

Instantly Seren healed her and Bot had a laser sight pointed at Ember.

“STOP!” Burgerbelle shouted—smacking Bot and Ember in the face at once, knocking them over. “We are not enemies.”

Rarity had a hand over her mouth and Sweetie was shifting around uncomfortably.

Ember glared at Squiddy. “How dare you…”

“Just you wait until you win. Let it stew a couple years.” Squiddy leaned down, scowling. “You’ll wonder if it really had to take as much as it did.” She turned and walked away. “Bot, it’s time to go.”

“W-wait!” Sweetie said. “She doesn't speak for all of us!”

“Hiss,” Angel agreed.

Rarity frowned. “She was a bit more violent than I would have appreciated… but I believe Ember is right, this is a fight we need to do. There’s already enough in here that really has no reason to fight with us.”

Bot frowned. “If this universe were unstable you would have no choice. Evil levels are high enough in this world that you wouldn’t have the right of refusal.”

Ember snorted. "That's exactly what our current overlords said."

“We don’t want your help,” Rarity added.

“And I don’t want to give it,” Squiddy growled.

Seren suddenly burst into tears, falling to the ground. Sweetie was suddenly reminded that, for as small and intelligent as she was, Seren was still a kid. Probably couldn’t handle people who were supposed to be friends fighting like this.

Sweetie sighed. “Apple Bloom? What do you think?”

“Ah don’t know.” Apple Bloom sat down on some rubble. “Ah’m not sure we can make this decision.”

Burgerbelle was suddenly in front of Sweetie, giving her the communication cube. “Take this to your leader.” She winked. “Let her make the decision.”

Sweetie looked to Ember who looked uncomfortable, but nodded.

“Okay.” Sweetie pocketed the cube. “So… Goodbye?”

Burgerbelle nodded. “Let’s pack it up, Sweeties!” She had a hiking backpack on her back now. “Angel, you’re amazing, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“Hiss.”

Burgerbelle let out a monotone, disturbing laugh. “You crack me up.”

Angel fixed her with a ‘really?’ expression. “Hiss.”

Burgerbelle pulled a dimensional device out and opened a portal to Swip. The stability of the world was maintained as they left.

With a pop, they were gone.

“...They didn’t leave the distraction,” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“Hiss,” Angel pointed. There were a few cardboard cutouts of the Sweeties standing on the roof of a nearby building.

“Heh,” Sweetie smirked. “Let ADVENT figure that one out.”

Angel turned to Ember. “Hiss?”

“I knew that wouldn’t kill Squiddy,” Ember grunted, turning around. “This way.”

Sweetie nodded, holding the device close to her chest. To be honest, she didn’t expect Commander Chrysalis to be on board with asking the Sweeties for any sort of help—yet. But if they were ever desperate, they needed to have the option.

That’s how Sweetie saw it, anyway.

Frowning, she glanced at her sister. “...You really think we shouldn’t?”

Rarity grimaced. “Sweetie… the world is complicated.”

“But people are dying…”

“Maybe Squiddy was right in that we might live to regret it,” Rarity admitted. “Maybe we do need help. But things are not as simple as a black and white battle as it seems to have been with her… our world was conquered, the aliens promised the exact same thing that she's promising this army would do… and it doesn’t really let us move forward. It might come at a high cost, but it will be us doing it. What happens if we have one set of aliens come in, and we just trade them for another?” She looked at the receding form of Ember. “Even if it’s right, I’m not sure we’d take it. Humanity, I mean.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah. XCOM is… pretty uncomfortable with most aliens besides Sunset, Twilight, and Angel. Not everyone can just get to know them. ‘Alien’ is the first thing that comes to mind.”

“Or ‘demon.’” Sweetie sighed. “I’m still getting this to Chrysalis.”

Rarity nodded in agreement—setting off after Ember.

Apple Bloom put a synthetic arm around Sweetie. “Hey. It’s okay. We got Rarity back, I learned a bunch of stuff about robotics, we know a bit more about the nature of everything, and you’ve got a nice cube in your pocket. Plus…” She pointed at the hole behind them. “Imagine how panicked ADVENT must be about this thing.”

Sweetie smiled. “They are going to be so confused…”

Together, the two of them set after Ember, leaving the tear in reality behind. For some reason, Sweetie could already imagine a building rising up around the tear, treating it as some kind of historic artifact from the days of the war.

Sweetie decided not to question why she was suddenly overcome with hope. She glanced at the amethyst geode that had teleported with them and smiled.

~~~

Squiddy walked into Swip in a delirium.

“You all look like crud,” Swip commented.

Seren was still crying, leaning on Burgerbelle for support.

“Schedule another session with Sweetaloo as soon as possible,” Squiddy said, voice hollow.

“...Right sure.”

“Where’s Cinder?”

“Gaming in the lounge with Suzie.”

Squiddy walked to the lounge. Cinder had a controller in her magic and Suzie’s fingers were flying madly. Without bothering to even check to see what kind of game was being played, she walked up to Cinder and pulled her into a hug.

“Wh… Squiddy?”

“I’m glad you weren’t there,” Squiddy said, squeezing. “It wasn’t good.”

“O-okay… Do you want to talk about it?”

“...I’m going to Sweetaloo soon as Swip says she’s ready. But… no. Not really.”

Cinder smiled. “Then you don’t have to.” She levitated the controller to her. “Unwind?”

Squiddy looked to the screen, relieved to see it wasn’t a shooter but rather some kind of falling block puzzle game. “...Sure.”

“Query: can Sweetie Bot play?” Bot asked, whirring into the room.

“Sure!” Cinder brought out another controller.

“Hate to break up the party, but Allure wants you back, Bot,” Swip announced.

“Allure’s needs can wait approximately thirty-three minutes,” Bot declared. “I am playing the game.”

Swip’s avatar smirked. “Nice.”

“They can deal with the silver tongue prophecy thing themselves. I am of minimal use in such regards.”

“Wha-” Cinder began.

“I win,” Bot said, pointing at the screen. It showed Bot’s controller in the victory screen.

“What? HOW!? I didn’t even press play!”

“Hax,” Bot said, dimming her eyes to look like sunglasses. “Now let’s play for real!”

She still beat them easily. All three of them.

Author's Notes:

XCOM: Ranger, previously known as just Ranger, is a story by Wanderer D about Sunset Shimmer running away to Equestria and arriving on a wartorn Earth that is under the control of aliens. What follows is a brutal story about war, battle, and how it changes people both for the better and otherwise. It's a very creative reimagining of the Equestria Girls story. The action and plot have no breaks, you have been warned. Thanks to Wanderer for helping write this chapter and making it compliant with XCOM: Ranger.

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES
CRISIS: Equestria (An ancient story that had no ending... prepare for another revival. Be patient with this one, it's going to take a while to write.)

((LSB Status Post))

Itinerarian (CRISIS: Equestria, Part 1)

A few weeks ago...

Trees of Harmony rarely know fear. Entities of their type are almost always calm, collected, and have faith that their chosen will come through no matter how bad the situation gets. Evil falls, darkness is purged, and harmony is invariably restored.

It did not lose its confidence when its chosen Elements inexplicably vanished into another world - it was confused for all of a minute before it figured out exactly what had happened to them. There were other heroes in the realm that could deal with the chaos that was about to break free, the Tree would make sure of it. Weak though it was without its Elements physically present, it knew the world would not be overcome with darkness. It had worked too much for that.

But then something returned that wasn’t its chosen Elements. A thing that tore at the fabric of reality with a horrid, disgusting darkness mixed almost evenly with a brilliant light of holy righteousness. A creature of balance - balance that did not belong to it.

Or, rather, him.

He teleported right to the Tree of Harmony and it knew what he was going to do the moment he arrived. It would not be able to stop him in its weakened state; it would fail. It had never known true failure, but no amount of direct harmonious attack would do anything to him.

The Tree of Harmony was afraid.

The invader seemed to notice this as he arrived, despite the Tree of Harmony giving off no indication of its emotions. He was an alicorn, taller than any the Tree had ever known, graced with a beauty rivaling that of Celestia. The luster of his silver coat only enhanced the well-toned nature of his form, reflecting the golden glow of his mane. It was almost disappointing that the majority of his nearly-metallic body was hidden by thin red-and-black armor that was more decorative than practical. However, this sleek body was only secondary to his face: an extended horn shaped into a perfect cone between two eyes of brilliant gold.

He was smiling.

“You are this world’s manifestation of Light,” he said with a sensual, persuasive voice that was both calm and commanding. “But you represent harmony more directly… surely you can understand?”

The Tree of Harmony understood, but it would not be caught dead assisting this monster in his deluded ideas.

“I must admire you for your integrity. Even knowing what’s coming, you stand fast.” He hefted the one object he had teleported with him - a statue of Discord - and set it next to the Tree of Harmony. “Unlike this whelp, who has been begging and pleading ever since I arrived.”

We could do great things together, you and I! Discord spoke telepathically. Think of it, chocolate rain, cotton candy clouds… and you can make the ponies appreciate it! It’s win-win!

“So childish for one granted the power of a god…” the alicorn shook his head, unable to keep the lines of disgust from his elegant face. “I will gain no pleasure from the destruction of the Tree, but you deserve all that comes your way.”

The Tree of Harmony tried to call out to him, to speak to his essence. He did not have to do this.

The alicorn looked at the Tree. “You will not let me leave.”

The Tree of Harmony would not.

“Then this, while not strictly necessary, is nonetheless beneficial. I am sorry. Perhaps you should have taken more direct control of the situation. You’re even worse than Harmonia in that regard.” With his magic, he carved a circle in the ground around the Tree and Discord’s statue, dividing the circle in half with an ‘S’ shaped mark. He surrounded the circle in various otherworldly rune markings the Tree didn’t know the origin of.

This did not mean the Tree didn’t know what they were. They were marks of power absorption.

The alicorn continued drawing with his magic until there were six more circles arranged around Discord and the Tree, each one with a single rune that represented an Element of Harmony.

The Tree begged for him to leave the six alone. He did not need their power.

“They have been a thorn in my side for far too long. They were able to follow me once. They will not be doing so again.”

You’re going to kill them!? Discord asked, appalled.

“I doubt it,” the alicorn said as he finished the runic markings. “But the result matters little, in the end.”

He sat down in front of the circle for Magic and waited. Discord kept talking to him, but he pushed the Lord of Chaos out of his mind. The Tree, conversely, didn’t try anything. Not yet, anyway.

It knew something the alicorn didn’t.

“You have a plan,” he said.

The Tree of Harmony didn’t attempt to deny it.

“We’ll see who’s better soon enough…”

Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Discord groaned. Really, who needs to be flashy?

“Such hypocrisy,” the alicorn said, shaking his head.

I’m the Lord of Chaos! What about that isn’t chaotic? Y- the alicorn tuned him out once again… and waited.

He did not have to wait much longer.

Twilight Sparkle teleported before them with the other Elements in tow and a blue-green unicorn holding a borrowed magic pocket watch. “Lord Silvertongue,” Twilight said, the Element of Magic glowing brightly on her head.

Silvertongue smiled warmly. “Twilight Sparkle… a unicorn with more aptitude for magic ability than any other. I am honored to be challenged by one such as you.”

“She’s not alone!” Rainbow shouted, the rest of the Elements chiming in with a “Yeah!”

“How inconsiderate of me,” Silvertongue admitted. “Naturally, you come as you are, together. It could not be done any other way.” He turned to the seventh pony. “Chronomancer Tick Tock… your presence continues to be both a blight and a blessing. I’m curious, how did you follow me?”

Tick Tock snorted. “Are you daft? I’m not telling you jack!”

“A wise precaution I cannot fault you for,” Silvertongue admitted. “Still, you must hav-”

“LIGHT HIM UP, GIRLS!” Pinkie shouted, prompting the Elements to shimmer with a rainbow of colors. Silvertongue moved to raise a shield, but he found that he couldn’t move. Tick Tock was holding out her pocket watch, tapping into its magics with her horn to slow time around him. He was not given the chance to react.

The rainbow of Harmony hit him dead on, passing right through his physical body and directing its holy energy upon Silvertongue’s essence. The two sources of his power, one of Darkness and the other of Light, responded to the assault by mixing together, forming a balanced neutral power. The Dark power, having been slightly larger than the Light, left behind a tuft of noxious energy that the Harmonious energy purged instantly, driving a sharp pain through Silvertongue’s body.

He refused to let himself scream. He took the pain with no more than a grimace.

The rainbow released, and he remained unharmed. Ever-so-slightly weaker than before, but perfectly balanced.

Perfect.

He broke out of Tick Tock’s time spell. “Thank you, that’s exactly what I needed.”

“Bleedin’…” Tick Tock grimaced. “Plan B!”

Twilight nodded. Instead of tapping into harmonious energy, she channeled her own magic through the Element, alone, attacking Silvertongue with a beam of pure arcane Magic. It was far stronger than it should have been…

But Silvertgonue was able to raise a shield this time. “Curious… you are not draining power from the Element or the Tree. But it’s not all you either.”

“Friendship is magic, Silvertongue,” Twilight said, holding hooves with her friends. “You stand alone.”

“A curious theory.”

Twilight smirked.

Silvertongue raised an eyebrow. “What amuses you so?”

“Trade secret.”

How’s it feel? Discord asked. They won’t give you anything, and you are at the mercy of ‘friendship.’ Disgusting, isn’t it?

“I find it rather beautiful,” Silvertongue admitted. “But you are quite mistaken, Discord. I am not at the mercy of this power.” He flared his wings and tapped into a purely Dark power, grabbing hold of the physical Elements and tearing them off the six ponies. Twilight tried to hold onto hers, fixated on the starburst tiara with all her might.

She pushed herself as far as she possibly could - but eventually, her horn gave out. There was an explosion of arcane energy and Twilight Sparkle fell to the ground, releasing control of the Element of Magic to Silvertongue.

“Twilight!” her friends called, rushing to her.

Silvertongue grabbed all six of them in his telekinesis. At first, they struggled, but a simple paralysis spell froze the mares in place. Pinkie was inexplicably immune, but he could handle her by forcing an absurd amount of magic onto her.

“You’re not going to win,” Pinkie said, narrowing her eyes as she was set in the circle of Laughter. “You’re the villain. Villains lose.”

“And you’re the heroes,” Silvertongue said, sending a laser behind his back to destroy Tick Tock’s pocket watch before she could try something else. “I’ve seen into the Chronomancer’s devices, you six are common across the worlds. Such a shame mine was not graced with your presence, you would all be quite interesting to know. And now that you’re here, the time for that is long gone.”

Pinkie grinned. “Flags of defeat everywhere. Villain monologues… evil sentiments… the more you talk the more convinced I am that you’re going down.”

“Such certainty… It seems illogical to assign roles of ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ to the world, but considering everything that has happened in recent memory, it would be foolish of me to dismiss you. Not that I would have celebrated prematurely, mind you. Such a thing would be foolish.” He set the other five ponies in their circles. “I do wonder what your ‘Plan C’ is.”

Tick Tock glared. “You blew up Plan C,” Tick Tock said, pointing at the broken pocket watch.

“Then ‘Plan D’, or whatever letter indicates the order of your thought processes. Pinkie here may be able to send a false flag of hope, but you cannot. You have another plan laying in wait. The fact that I have no idea what it is impresses me, but also assures I am on guard for every possible eve-”

“LIGHT HIM UP, GIRLS!”

A female voice, angry, but full of energy. The Tree felt recognition and surprise cross Silvertongue’s face before the dark gray blast of energy hit him dead on.

Six mares glowing with a not-quite-dark but not-quite-light energy had just teleported in, holding each other's hooves. Two unicorns, two pegasi, and two earth ponies who had a passing resemblance to the six mares frozen in the magic circles but with different colors and demeanors. In the lead was a small, red pegasus with fire coming off her hooves.

Their power was neutral, as Silvertongue’s was, and as such he could not be immune. He could not keep himself from screaming in pain as the brute force of their tight bond burned at him. Unlike the other six, he could not use dark magic to debilitate them. They did not lean toward Harmony in nature, they leaned toward themselves.

Embarrassingly, he’d have to resort to raw power to resist them.

He unleashed a beam of silver energy that far outclassed their murky assault in appearance. The beams held each other for a moment.

“My children… why do you seek my end?” Silvertongue asked.

“We cannot allow you to do zis,” the blue earth pony said, glowering. “We ‘ave ‘ad enough of your lies, Silvertongue.”

“No ‘papa?’ Hmm… loyalty to me completely purged. Let me guess, Harmonia? She would give you freedom…” Silvertongue shook his head. “You have forsaken your purpose.”

“Buck our purpose!” the red pegasus shouted. “Buck anypony who wants to tell us what we are! We are OURSELVES! And we’re getting rid of you so we can stay that way!”

“Then so be it.” Silvertongue pushed forward with his full power…

The Tree of Harmony focused on Discord. This was their chance.

Okay, fine, but I’m only helping you this once because it’s in my best interests. It’s not like I like you or anything.

Pinkie and the dark pink pony attacking Silvertongue giggled.

The Tree of Harmony and Discord tapped into their weakened power, attacking Silvertongue from behind with a mixed assault - neutral, almost perfectly so.

Silvertongue shouted in pain - and then laughed. “Finally!”

The magic circles beneath the Tree, Discord, and the Elements of Harmony activated. Silvertongue allowed himself to be assaulted so he could throw the physical Elements back into the Tree, completing it.

For a moment, the Tree felt complete, its Elements returned after so long.

Then its powers were shunted directly to Silvertongue, along with Discord’s and the six mares’.

“I may be old, but I do learn from my oversights,” Silvertongue said, pushing the attack from his ‘children’ away. He was heavily marred by the attack, blood running down his legs and neck. “I was unable to use Harmonia’s power while I was draining her. That is not the case this time.”

The red pegasus raged. “Who the buck cares!? We’ll take you like this! We’ll take you any time, anywhere!”

“You sorely overestimate your own power.”

“Oh no…” Pinkie said, drawing the attention of Silvertongue’s children. She - and the other five Elements - were turning to stone as their power was drained, as was the Tree of Harmony.

“GIVE IT EVERYTHING!” the red pegasus demanded. In addition to the dark energy of their unity, they attacked with fire, void, gravity, blood… and Silvertongue’s own energy.

Silvertongue turned to the black unicorn, the child blessed with the power to copy that of others. She had the potential to tear this down… But she was not draining Discord and the Tree.

He focused his attack on her, tossing her back.

“Insipid!” the blue earth pony shouted. The jarring attack ruined their unity. They ran to check on their friend - their sister.

Silvertongue brought the physical manifestation of the Elements of Harmony to him. “Time to try these out…”

“LOOK OUT!” Tick Tock shouted.

The Elements of Harmony sent out a rainbow that was somehow ugly, jagged, and inconsistent. It swept over the six attackers, Tick Tock, and everyone within the ritual circles.

When the light cleared, Silvertongue’s children were piled off to the side, groaning in pain - they had been mostly unaffected. Tick Tock had been turned to stone, as had everything in the ritual. Despite being solid stone, the Tree of Harmony still maintained awareness.

The ritual wasn’t quite done. With a final flash, it tapped into the last of Discord and the Tree’s energy, creating a circular tear in reality that led to a green pasture of another world.

“Equestria III…” Silvertongue said. “One step closer.” He lit his horn, shattering the statues of both Discord and the Tree of Harmony, ensuring they would never be reformed.

The essence of the Tree of Harmony felt itself fading - its six heroes were stone, unable to keep it rooted in reality. All it could do was call out in desperation to the other six… give them the will to do something.

“It pains me to do this…” Silvertongue said, turning to his 'children'. “But you followed me once. I can’t take the chance that you will again.”

“Some father you are…” the red pegasus spat.

“You shouldn't be surprised.” Silvertongue’s spell readied. He aimed…

The Tree of Harmony’s essence screamed for something to be done.

The gray pegasus heard it. She grabbed hold of the Tree of Harmony’s last energy and stood up, using her control over gravity to throw Silvertongue through his portal before he could do anything. She forced the portal closed - and collapsed.

The clearing contained six exhausted mares and seven pony statues.

“...This world is without an anchor…” a dark purple unicorn breathed. “It… it will fall to the energies of the Void…”

“Then we make him fix it!” the red pegasus declared.

“We can’t follow him this time.” She glanced at the statues of the once Elements of Harmony. “It required both of us…”

~~~

Silvertongue’s expression was unreadable.

He had progressed.

But he had left a loose end behind. One that he couldn’t easily deal with at this juncture.

They would try to follow him. Without access to the Elements of Harmony, they likely would have difficulty, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility that his ‘children’ would find another way to make it through. Silvertongue knew little of the secrets hidden within Equestria IV, for all he knew there was some source of power that had nothing to do with Chaos and Harmony they could use to breach the boundary between worlds.

Either way, he should work fast. He had appeared outside a town that looked nearly identical to the Ponyville of Equestria IV he had passed through no less than two hours ago. The only major difference?

“Wow, looks like you drew the short straw, huh buddy?”

Not a single one of the ponies was looking at him with the respect and fear he deserved. The earth pony who had spoken to him had a look of pity on her face, of all things.

“The short straw…?” Silvertongue asked, legitimately confused.

“I mean… it’s not the worst it could be, but you’ve got a pretty heavy edgy alicorn OC vibe goin’ on here. I bet you’re glad you’re not red and black.”

Silvertongue still had no idea what was going on, but it was probably best to pretend as though he did. “It is something I’m immensely thankful for, such colors would be… detrimental were they in my coat.”

“Still, seems you got the ‘super pretty’ thing. Bit much if you ask me, stands out. I can totally understand why you kept yourself hidden until now.”

This mare apparently did not see him leave the portal, or at least thought it was some kind of teleportation ring. “It may seem to you that my appearance was thrust upon me, but believe me, I work to keep my appearance as proper as possible.”

“Huh. Had you shown up about a week ago, I would have told you to go to Rarity. But, well, seeing as the whole ‘everypony’s a human’ thing happened, not exactly sure who cares about the ‘pretty stuff’, y’know?”

Human? Curious. A thing that isn’t a pony that everypony is. Public knowledge, so it would not be prudent to ask about such things, at least not in the view of others.

“Thank you for your time,” Silvertongue said, backing away. “I must be off, unfortunately, business to attend to.”

“I’d imagine so. Bet you’ve got all kinds of overpowered magic in you, the tinkerers can probably think up all kinds of stuff to do with you. I’d tone down the ‘glory to me’ aura, though, that’ll just get you laughed at.”

Silvertongue nodded curtly and teleported to the edge of town. Already the gears in his mind were turning, but he didn’t know enough to take any action just yet. He trotted up to the Everfree Forest and stood behind a tree, examining Ponyville from afar.

Just his luck, an orange-maned earth pony was trotting near the forest edge, carrying some carrots in a basket. He teleported her to him, sealing her mouth shut. “Do not be alarmed, I only need you for a moment.” She was alarmed anyway and he saw no purpose in wasting effort to calm her further. He touched his horn to her head and saw her whole life. It was definitely too much to take in at once, but he caught the highlights easily enough.

What he found within blew him away.

This entire world had no ponies in it - every last ‘pony’ had actually been a ‘human’ at one point and through some bizarrely contrived series of events, was forced into the body of a pony. Each ‘pony’ had a unique story for how they became a pony ranging from ghost stories to strange godlike beings to… there were so many Silvertongue couldn’t catalog them all. The mare he was talking to, Carrot Top, had fallen down a rabbit hole and ended up here.

So many of them didn’t make logical sense.

There was more… first of all, the world hadn’t even figured out, publicly, that every pony was a human until a few days ago.

Second of all, there was talk of a show… My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic...

He tore his horn away from Carrot Top, baffled. She was so useful, and yet so useless. So much had become clear to him, but she knew nothing of the implications of a show existing that directly chronicled the events of a universe.

The events in his life as of late had been a lot like some sort of drama. Servants that had previously never failed stumbled over themselves when dealing with the Elements of Harmony. The Elements themselves were immensely lucky in their journey. He himself had often wondered if there was some kind of force at play…

What he saw before him surely had to be impossible without such a thing. Which… certainly shed light on what Pinkie had said earlier. Not to mention the multiverse was clearly much larger than he or the Chronomancers had ever thought.

This might change my plans… if Equestria Prime isn’t the true center… it may be time to re-evaluate.

Silvertongue started to wipe Carrot Top’s memory of the incident. He never got to finish, for a periwinkle pegasus kicked him in the side of the face, tossing both him and Carrot Top out of the tree.

“Stop right there villainous scum!” the pegasus declared in a bombastic voice that grated on Silvertongue’s ears for being so arrogant.

Silvertongue spread his wings, glaring at the pegasus. “Ponies learn quickly never to interrupt me when I’m thinking. If they survive long enough to do some thinking of their own.”

The pegasus snorted. “Me? Think? You’re joking. You’re supposed to be smart, right? Take one look at me and tell me I think hard.”

Silvertongue looked him over - and smirked. “Ah, the local Chronomancer. It appears Time Turner did get off that warning message. It was the muffin mare, wasn’t it? Such a shame, that will make things a little bloody.”

“Oi! You ain’t going nowhere or doing anything. Clockwork’s gotcha right where he wants you - that’s me, and you’re doomed.”

Silvertongue glanced around, looking for any sign of a trap. He found none - just a few ponies with odd mental signatures staring from the distance. It would have been preferable not to have witnesses, but Clockwork had decided to confront him here. No doubt the Chronomancer would have valuable intelligence within that mind of his, though.

“I see nothing,” Silvertongue said. “The ponies here have curious pasts, but they are still just ponies. You feel exactly like the other Chronomancers I’ve known. What is your trick, Clockwork?”

“I know something Headquarters doesn’t. Imagine that!”

“Let me guess, the human thing?”

Clockwork furrowed his brow. “Y’know, it’s not the same now that the world knows everything. Reminds me of the time I discovered an alien mind control network in the bowels of Space York City. Quite a doozy, that one.”

“Attempting to distract me by referencing your impossible backstory?”

Clockwork glared at him. “The one time I get to do something that actually matters, I get a bloomin’ killjoy. Wot’s your issue, can’t you be a proper villain?”

“Recent information suggests I should attempt to be quite the opposite.”

“...Wot?”

Silvertongue smirked. “Go on. What’s your plan? I sense a need in you to ‘monologue’.”

“...Bah, fine.” He folded his wings and put on a cocky smile. “The multiverse is a lot bigger than you or the other Chronomancers think it is, chum. We humans came from a wide variety of worlds, worlds outside the reach of Equestria Prime. And it just so happens that a little white unicorn from another world dropped by here not too long ago.” He held out his pocket watch and smirked - already he had slowed time around Silvertongue so he could not react. “I’ll tell the Chronomancers I sent you to the Void, keep it hush-hush. Don’t need to be shattering their worldview just yet, y’see? But you won’t be coming back. One-way trip.”

The pocket watch flashed with a magic it was not designed to contain, tearing a white-ringed portal in the sky behind Silvertongue. It did not lead to Equestria IV or Equestria II - it led somewhere else, beyond Chronomancer understanding. A vast city that sprawled in every direction, including on the sky.

Clockwork laughed. “Gotcha, buddy.” He flew at the slowed Silvertongue, ready to buck him through.

Silvertongue chose this moment to reveal he had broken the slow spell and grab Clockwork in his shimmering telekinesis.

“BLAST!” Clockwork shouted. “Don’t think this means you’ve won, Chronomancers are ready to defend Equestria Prime to the last breath. W-”

“Save your breath,” Silvertongue said, turning to examine the portal Clockwork had created. “By creating this portal you have saved Equestria Prime.”

“Wot?”

“You’re the hero, Clockwork. I now have an avenue of escape to the larger multiverse…” Silvertongue’s smirk became a psychotic grin. “Equestria Prime is small in the grand scheme of things. Here… there is more.” Silvertongue stepped through the portal. “I doubt I will return.”

“Good!” Clockwork said, smiling awkwardly. “Good riddance!”

“While that may be true for most Chronomancers…” Silvertongue dragged Clockwork through with him. “You’re coming with me.”

“Wh- hey! Let me go l-”

Silvertongue shut him up with a spell. “I’m sure your mind will be very useful, Clockwork.”

He stepped through the portal to the vast city. The portal closed with a pop.

~~~

PRESENT TIME

Celestia City had a bridge. Actually, it had many bridges, but this wasn’t one of them. It was the sort of bridge you found on ships. Not romantic ships, but ships that traveled water and space and...

The Pinkie Pie manning the sensor array shook her head, focusing.

Celestia City had a command center. It wasn’t manned at all times, only when the city was either moving or under attack of some sort. The latter happened more often than Merodi Universalis would have liked, but it was still uncommon compared to how often the city moved, which was sometimes multiple times a week.

Today, they were moving; and then they wouldn’t move for an extended period of time since this move was special. Earth Shimmer had finally been declared stable due to the Reality Anchors and they were going to drop by for an extended visit. There would finally be a direct connection to Merodi Universalis and all the talks, interactions, and exchanges both parties had wanted to do for so long were finally going to happen.

It was an exciting time.

It was also nerve-wracking since it was no secret that the universe would likely implode in on itself if things went terribly wrong. Everyone was sure the Reality Anchors could keep the universe stable even if Shimmy herself vanished a short time, but they couldn’t exactly test that theory out.

Celestia City was coming. All projections showed that it would work. Nothing bad would happen.

Everyone knew better than to trust 100% certainty. The mood on the command center was tense.

The bridge was also packed full. While usually there were maybe a half-dozen people in there running Celestia City directly, today there were a few dozen. Mayor Blumiere himself had come down to oversee the process, his wife Timpani clinging to his arm. She was a human, Blumiere was decidedly not - a creature of dark blue complexion with a white top hat and a monocle that accentuated his wise, ancient eyes.

Cinder Belle found him a little creepy at first, but after Blink had introduced her an hour ago she discovered Blumiere was like a kind old grandpa. No wonder the people of Celestia City kept re-electing him. He apparently stepped down on purpose every few years just to let another mayor take over, but the people inevitably voted him back into office later. He was a powerful man, to be sure, on the level of a universal representative - just below the Overheads and their Seconds. And on the City, while his word wasn’t exactly law, it was certainly close to it.

There were a few other important faces Cinder recognized. Corona, Second of Research, was standing to the side of Blumiere, trying to lay the feathers on her wings flat with her fingers. Evening, Overhead of Relations, was there as well - looking over an immense checklist with Flutterfree. Evening looked stressed, Flutterfree looked amused at her stress.

Oh, and there were numerous Sweeties in the room. All the founders that weren't Suzie and Burgerbelle were there, walking around, talking to ponies, making sure everything was going fine.

Cinder and Blink sat in the back of the command center, apart from the other Sweeties. Cinder had wanted to be on Celestia City when it moved, and Suzie had arranged for her to be in the center of the action when it happened. Cinder had been immensely grateful at first. But now…?

“Enjoying the front row seat, Cinder?” Allure asked, trotting over to Cinder and Blink. Equis Vitis’ Sweetie was small for a full-grown unicorn, ever-so-slightly shorter than Cinder herself. A silver artificial horn sprouted from her forehead, the only feature on her that distinguished from other standard Sweeties.

Cinder blinked. “You remembered me?”

“Suzie speaks very highly of you. All the time. I swear she’s obsessed or something.” Allure chuckled.

“Ah.” Cinder smiled awkwardly. “Well, to be honest… There appears to be a whole lot of not much happening. I’m just… standing here, watching you all perform pre-flight checks for the umpteenth time.”

Allure smirked. “Well, we’re actually done now. We’re waiting for the ‘OK’ signal from Shimmy now.”

A large orange ‘OK’ appeared on several of the bridge’s screens.

Blumiere cleared his throat. “Very well… helm?”

The human at the helm let out a sigh - he knew what was coming. “Yes…?”

Bulmiere pointed a finger and smiled. “Engage.”

There were a mixture of groans and chuckles from the bridge. Cinder didn’t get it.

Celestia City lit up and created a vast portal in front of itself, taking all of a second to create a massive ring dozens of miles wide. On the other side was, all things considered, a perfectly normal looking blue Earth, slightly more saturated in color than the norm. Celestia City activated its drives. There was no fire or impressive burst of energy visible from the outside, only a slight rippling effect that was hard to see against a dark starry background. The City drifted through the ring. A few uneventful minutes later, they were on the other side. The ring popped closed, but it didn’t make any noise in space.

“Success,” a human researcher said. “We’re here.”

There was silence on the bridge.

“That’s IT?” Cinder asked.

Blink nodded. “Yep. Things went completely as planned. If anything interesting happened… you wouldn’t want anything interesting to happen.”

“Well I mean... I guess.” Cinder frowned. “It just felt… more monumental, you know?”

“The fun’s just begun,” Shimmy said from behind Cinder.

“AUGH!” Cinder fell over, backing away from Earth Shimmer's arbiter of reality

Shimmy winked at her.

“Shimmy,” Eve said, walking up to her and bowing. “We are honored by your presence.”

“You knew I was going to be here.”

“True. Still, it’s an honor.” Eve smiled. “So, how about before we jump into all the boring politics, I show you around our city?”

Corona coughed. “I already agreed to give her the tour.”

“...Oh.”

Shimmy put an arm around Corona’s shoulder. “Yep! In fact, we had this planned since the Reality Anchors were installed.”

Eve pulled out her checklist. “How did I miss that?”

“Stress?” Flutterfree suggested.

“Eh… probably.”

“The U.N. is waiting for you,” Shimmy said. “I don’t need to be there for that paperwork show.”

Eve smirked. “I can handle a bunch of stuffy humans.”

“With magic?”

“Oh yes, that usually makes it easier.”

“Good luck.” With a flash of light, Shimmy and Corona vanished somewhere into Celestia City.

People started filing out of the command center - the City was done moving, who needed to be there anymore?

“...Huh,” Cinder said. “Well, that was… disappointing.”

Blink shrugged. “Want to go back to Swip and the others?”

“Nah. Something is going to happen here, I’m sure of it. We should stick around, see what it is.”

“It might have nothing to do with us.”

Cinder smirked. “Do you really think that?”

“You’re the one with the mind for this stuff. What do you think?”

“I think… we need lunch.”

~~~

Lunch turned out to be in a diner on Celestia City that specialized in ‘shakes’. Shakes made out of ‘anything you could possibly want’.

Cinder thought this silly and asked for something made out of bricks that actually tasted good.

She got it. A soft reddish milky shake made of bricks that… well, it tasted like bricks, but somehow not disgusting and with just the right amount of sweetness.

“...If they can make bricks taste good…” Cinder blinked.

“Maybe they could make meat taste good?”

Cinder raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Blink chuckled. “It’s an option!”

Cinder rolled her eyes, looking at the “Shake ‘n’ Shake” sign right above them. The establishment itself wasn’t actually a building, but a large hovering food cart and a bunch of tables set out on what was effectively Celestia City’s sidewalk. When the Sweeties had arrived the tables were mostly empty, but now they were filled with a decent number of Earth Shimmer humans, identifiable by their brightly colored skin and curious pony-inspired features. The shake chefs were a little overworked, but people didn’t seem to mind - most of them were gawking at all the wonders of Celestia City.

Including two very familiar looking ponies - a Rarity and a Twilight. The Rarity in question had a pink pendant around her neck, a blindfold, and some signature scars on her flank while the Twilight was an alicorn, an identical pendant around her own neck. They saw Cinder the moment she saw them. “Cinder!” They said in unison; as if they were one being.

“Hey!” Cinder called, waving them over. The two trotted over. The moment they arrived at the table, the light in their pendants went out and Rarity removed her blindfold. “Well, can’t say I was expecting to see you here on the first day! Isn’t this a treat, darling?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course! Haven’t seen you for… a few months, actually!”

“It’s only been a few weeks on my end,” Cinder said. “The bizarre nature of drifting time!”

“Uh, you’re the two from the enchanted library, right?” Blink asked.

Rarity pecked Twilight on the cheek. “Is there any doubt?”

“Hey, just because a Rarity is macking on a Twilight it doesn’t automatically mean it’s you two.”

“Mhm…” Rarity chuckled. “Brook, don’t go getting any ideas, you hear?”

“I would never…”

“Oh, naturally, but I’m referring to that head of yours. Goes too many places for its own good.”

“...Good point.”

Cinder looked at them. “...’Brook?’ Did you choose names?”

“Choice. What a novel concept,” Brook said, fixing Rarity with a playful glare.

“I tried to name her Booky,” Rarity chuckled. “You know, after the legend of Princess Booky from our world? Ended up being Brook. Finalized it last night, actually.”

“Day two of the honeymoon, we already have different names.” Brook rolled her eyes. “I still think we should derive yours from Princess Dress.”

“Sequin is derived from that!” Sequin huffed.

“In a relational sense, not a phonetic one.”

Sequin tossed her mane back. “It’s not like we’ve gone and changed our names legally.”

“Yet,” Blink said.

“It is probably inevitable,” Brook admitted.

“Brook can’t leave your libraries alone,” Sequin said, letting out an exaggerated groan. “I said we should wait to go to Celestia City’s database, but I caught her sneaking away last week…”

“Two days ago by the City’s clock, isn’t that interesting?”

“Yes, but you’re deflecting.”

Brook blushed. “Eheh… I said I was sorry!”

Sequin pecked her on the cheek again. “I know. But I have to get my frivolous revenge somehow.”

The two devolved into giggles.

Cinder let out an ‘awwwww’ from the cuteness. Blink just groaned.

“And here we have a wide variety of reactions.” Brook said, pointing at them. “The romantic, and the not.”

Cinder nudged Blink. “Come on, it’s cute.”

“I live in a League of Sweetie Belles,” Blink pointed out. “I am inoculated to cute.”

“Travesty!” Sequin declared, aghast. “We must find something even cuter than us to break down this barrier! Darling, suggestions?”

“...A baby?” Brook offered.

Sequin blinked. “We need to be more creative than that.”

“Baby puppies?”

Blink lowered her glasses - prompting Sequin and Brook to jump at her blank eyes. “I’ve seen it all before, ladies. Saturate yourself in cuteness for too long… nothing is cute anymore.”

Twilight pulled out a new phone she’d probably had all of a day.

Sequin sighed. “Brook, put that awa-”

Brook cleared her throat. “Internet says there are beings that force a cute emotional response despite not, from a visual standpoint, actually being cute. There are extracts made from these creatures th-”

Blink grabbed Cinder. “Save me.”

“Nope!” Cinder giggled. “This is great. You can’t handle the cuuuuuute!”

Sequin finished making Brook put the phone away, turning to Blink. “Hmm… Do you, by chance, have a stallion in your life?”

“What? No!”

Cinder frowned - she detected more hostility in that than there should have been. “Blink…?”

“Ah…” Sequin sat back, smiling sadly. “Forgive me for asking.”

“It’s… it’s fine.” Blink shook her head. “New topic. Those necklaces?”

“They allow us to share our minds,” Brook explained, eager to move away from the awkward upset. “It requires a ridiculous amount of trust to pull off.”

“Romantic?” Cinder asked.

Brook shook her head. “That… certainly helps, but Eve and Flutterfree dropped by and tried it, they were able to execute it just fine. It works long distance too.”

“It works better long distance,” Sequin chuckled. “When we’re both in the same place things overlap and one of us needs to wear a blindfold or the headache is… well, it’s not exactly pleasant, let’s leave it at that.”

“It’s still worth it…”

“That goes without saying…”

Before they started what was no doubt to be an impromptu makeout session, Cinder coughed. “Ahem. Sooo… what do you two have planned?”

“Honestly? Nothing!” Sequin giggled.

“She made me leave my checklist at home…” Brook pouted.

“Psh, it’s good for you.”

“I know…”

“Regardless, just wandering around Celestia City is amazing! Every day we head out, find something random, meet new people and ponies and…” Sequin squealed. “It’s just an unending stream of beauty!”

“I learn new things every day!”

“We even got accepted into the Carousel and Census!”

“You might want to watch the Infinite Carousel,” Blink said. “They tend to… stretch the law. The League butts heads with them a lot.”

“A bunch of Rarities breaking the law all the time and fighting with their sisters…” Brook glanced at Sequin. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Sequin sighed. “As much as I hate to admit it, they did seem very… business-minded.”

“Anything about the Sparkle Census I should worry about?” Brook asked.

Blink shook her head. “They’re cool. They just like paperwork way, way too much. You’ll be fine.”

“The place was almost nothing but libraries…”

Sequin closed Brook’s hanging jaw. “You’d be surprised how much I have to keep her from drooling.”

Brook shot her a look. “Remember the Rarity for You location?”

“Shushushush.”

Cinder chuckled. “Well… mind if we take you around for a day? Blink and I are sticking around until something happens anyway, might as well catch up - only if you want! It is you-”

“Of course!” Sequin grinned. “We can spend a day getting a tour by the denizens of this very city!”

“I don’t live here.”

“I do!” Blink said, smirking.

“Aren't you from Skaia’s Dream?”

“Yeah. Ever tried to keep a house in that place? It’s a dream. Piexe is the only stable place and I don’t want to hear Meenah’s ‘GLUB GLUB’ puns every day. Trolls are annoying, trust me.”

Brook coughed. “We were talking of going down to the planet today, Sequin. New world and all.”

“Oh.” Sequin blinked. “Right, right…”

“We can introduce you to some people down there too!” Cinder said. “We sorta know Shimmy, and there’s Skuldie, Mister Discord…”

“AHA! MY ARCH-NEMESIS! WE MEET AGAIN UNDER THE MOST UNUSUAL OF CIRCUMSTANCES!”

Cinder facehooved, unable to keep a smile from her face. “Ah…”

Cryo, the Sweetie with the ice-blue eyes, trotted up to the table and pointed at Cinder. “I challenge you to a duel!”

“Would this be a duel with a children’s card game?” Blink asked.

“...What?” Cinder, Sequin, and Brook said at the same time.

Cryo understood exactly what Blink was talking about. “Maybe later, the Emperor’s favorite game can wait! I’m talking about a real duel, fire vs ice, right here, right now!”

Cinder shook her head. “I’d love to! Later. I’m taking these nice mares on a tour of the city and probably introducing them to some people on Earth Shimmer. We can meet up later.”

“Later? Later…” Cryo frowned. “When I see you later… I’ll be even stronger!”

“Going to go through a training montage?” Blink asked.

Cryo nodded slowly. “Yes… training montage…”

“I hear Mattie’s good at those.”

“A teacher… a…” Cryo’s eyes lit up. “That’s it! Cinder, when we meet again, you will not only face me, but a TEAM! We shall be rivals!”

Cinder was having a hard time keeping her laughter down. “S-sure Cryo, I look forward to it.”

“Just you wait! I’ll make an amazing team, better than yours - with blackjack! And hookers!” She laughed maniacally and ran out into the street, soon out of sight.

Sequin was blushing. “Does she… know what she’s saying?”

“Nope,” Blink said, obnoxiously slurping her shake.

“I’ve heard that phrase several times now,” Cinder muttered. “What is a hooker?”

Sequin blushed harder. “Uh…”

Brook held out her phone, open to a dictionary definition of the word.

Cinder blushed. “Oh. Oh.”

Blink chuckled. “You all need to loosen up a bit. It’s just a word.”

Sequin huffed. “Yes, well, Blink, dear, now the entire establishment is giving us weird looks.”

Blink waved a hoof. “Uuuuuunimportance field! As far as anyone’s concerned, we’re not even h-”

An ork sat in Blink’s chair, passing right through her. “I want a shake o’ grog.”

Blink phased out of the chair, sighing. “Maybe we should start that tour.”

~~~

A portal opened on a shoreline. In the distance, there was a large cliff that rose high into the air, upon which a city sat, a brilliant golden barrier protecting everything within. The buildings themselves were heavily damaged from a recent attack, but even from a distance airships could be seen repairing things within the bubble.

Celia, Nira, Squiddy, and Seren stepped out of the portal. Before it closed, though, a woman’s voice yelled “WAIIIIT!”

The Sweeties turned back to the interior of Swip to see Rachel running to them.

“Rachel, dear, you want to come?” Celia asked, surprised.

“What? No!” Rachel laughed. “I’m here to spend time with Swip ‘on the job’.”

“Ha,” Swip declared. “You guys don’t rate.”

“But I did make you all cookies!” Rachel tossed a box through the portal that Celia caught in her telekinesis. “You can eat them all, I’m making too many. Swip’s kitchen is amazing.”

“Thanks!” Seren said, levitating out a cookie and biting into it. “...This is just like mom makes…”

“Glad you like i-”

Rachel was cut off by the portal popping closed.

“I get the impression Swip wants us ‘out of the house’,” Squiddy chuckled.

Celia nodded. “She definitely does. Too bad she can’t get rid of Burgerbelle now. I expect we will hear of many vague antics when we return. It’ll be a good bonding experience for them.”

“Mmm…” Nira muttered.

“Someone’s grouchy!” Seren said, making a ‘tut’ sound. “Turn that frown upside-down!”

“You’re cheery today,” Nira said, pulling her cloak closer to her body. “Clearly, we should head to the only sign of civilization.”

Celia nodded, glancing at the barrier city.

“What can you tell about it already?” Squiddy asked.

“Pony-based, magitech, recent battle,” Celia reported. “They’re used to getting attacked or at least threatened a lot given the barrier’s presence. But they do welcome visitors - there’s an elevator right there leading to an outer dock.”

“I take it we’re not riding the elevator all the way up the cliff?”

Celia chuckled. “Of course not. Hold on.”

In a flash, they were in front of the city gate, right where the elevator would have dropped them off. Above the metallic gate was a round, digital screen.

Celia pressed a button. “Hello?”

“Name, please,” a bored stallion said from the screen.

“Chalcedony, Celia. This is Squiddy, Nira, and Serendipity.”

“Hey.”

“Greetings.”

“Hi!”

“Right, guess you’re not robots. Head on in through the gate, you’ll take the second on the other side.” He yawned.

The four of them entered, doing exactly as they were told. The moment they entered the second gate they found themselves in a large room filled with ponies - the vast majority of whom looked like they had just been through hell and back. Most were covered in dust or grime, and a few were suffering from injuries.

Celia noticed that all of them were wearing clothes, a sign she had learned to look for after traveling the multiverse for so long. Squiddy and Seren always wore clothing, and Nira had her cloak. Celia quickly conjured up a simple white blouse using her Gem. She made no effort to hide her gemstone.

When they first walked in, nopony paid them any mind. But all it took was one kid pointing at Squiddy and asking ‘what is that!?’ for everypony to stare at them with jaws hanging open. None of them said anything directly to the Sweeties.

Celia had seen this response so many times she didn’t even dignify it with a reaction. She walked to a screen on one of the far walls and pressed the ‘push to talk’ button. “Hello again.”

The stallion appeared on the screen again. “Right… None of your names are on the waiting list.”

“Oh, they wouldn’t be,” Celia said.

For the first time, he actually looked through the screen at them. “Do you have somepony to vouch for y-” he stared blankly at Seren and Squiddy. “What in the…?”

“Let’s just say we’re visitors from a faraway land and would like to talk to somepony who… might know what to do with us.”

The stallion was still staring at Squiddy and Seren.

“Ahem,” Nira coughed. “Do you mind?”

“Right, right.” The stallion shook his head. “Just my luck, eh?” The screen went dead.

Celia conjured herself a chair. “Get comfortable, girls, we might be here for a while while the bureaucracy sorts itself out. Nira, if anypony will let you, go around and heal some injuries. I doubt they’ll respond well to non-ponies such as us.”

Nira nodded, stepping away from them. “I know healing spells!” she declared. “Who needs them?”

A few stumbled toward her - but most stayed back, even some who had serious injuries. The majority of injuries were caused by normal traveling difficulties in harsh terrain - scrapes, bruises, broken bones from falls… but there was also evidence of toxic poisons, magic infections, and gashes created from monster claws. Clearly, the journey to this place was a harsh one.

She briefly wondered what the city was called. To her surprise, she didn’t have to ask to find out, the stallion appeared back on the screen, looking shocked.

“Uh… Queen Blackburn wants to see you.”

Celia raised an eyebrow. “That was quick.”

The stallion nodded, just as surprised as she was. “...Welcome to Hope’s Point, eh?”

“Thanks for being so welcoming.”

“I wouldn’t say that. You’re getting a full security contingent and you’re going to have to surrender any weapons. And… I’ll just let the soldiers explain it when they arrive.”

“Par for the course, really,” Celia admitted, sitting back down in her chair. “We know how this goes.”

The stallion wasn’t sure what to make of that.

~~~

Zircon, a proud zebra warrior whose reputation had been going through a bit of a nosedive recently, trotted down the stairs to the dungeons of Zeb’ra’den. He was to figure out what the prisoner knew through any means necessary, and he viewed this as a chance to regain his honor. The zebras of today may not have been quite as fixated on honor as they had been in the past, but it certainly had been a drain on his mental resources lately.

Not to mention the whole ordeal a few weeks ago with Silvertongue, Harmonia, Blackburn, and those mysterious mares…

Being the only zebra survivor carried with it a paradox. Tenacity, but also a failure.

If he was being honest with himself, he was only going to look at the prisoner because it was expected of him. He would have much rather have gone out and sat in the snow for a while. The dungeons were just as cold, after all, but there was a distinct lack of the white beauty of Zeb’ra’den down there. Just stone and fog for breath.

He approached the bars of the cell. Normally, it would be hard to see down there, but this particular prisoner gave off enough light for everyone present to comfortably see each other. She was a white unicorn with a gemstone-studded crown on her head… and a pair of ethereal wings that weren’t part of her body.

“I was beginning to wonder,” she said, fixing Zircon with an annoyed expression. “You’re lucky I’m more than just the Crown on my head. It would not have tolerated being in a dungeon for so long.”

“Your arrogance is clear to see
And yet it shall not set you free.
I have many questions to ask:
Answer or be put to the task.”

Zircon leaned in, eyes narrowing.

“You accessed magic you should not
And this disturbs me quite a lot.
From whence you come, your purpose too,
And I must glean just who are you?
Crown bearer, answer me this all
Lest I ensure your crown will fall.”

“I am the Crown Princess, I am here to warn all possible worlds of Merodi Universalis, and I appeared next to the Beacon because that’s just where my portal appeared. It was a coincidence, I assure you.”

“Such knowledge you claim to present...
From another realm you are sent?”

“I am. A traveler of the multiverse, if you will. I will leave your world the moment you listen to what I have to say about the other worlds…”

“I do not know of Merodi
But your claim is no news to me.
The Chronomancers watch this verse
Though a tragedy makes me terse.
A threat to many has been sprung
One who is called Lord Silvertongue

The Crown Princess furrowed her brow. “What are you doing to stop him?”

“And what do you think I can do?
I witnessed these events, 'tis true
How he absorbed our great goddess
Became more and left us as less.
Yet he has gone beyond my gaze
To conquer realms in his mad craze
And the thirteen who hounded him
Are too beyond horizon’s rim.”

Zircon eyed the strange alicorn carefully.

“You claim to walk freely between
Realms of kinds I have never seen.
And you claim to come here to warn
Of a threat betwixt verses born.
So I find a thought presented:
Show me you are not demented!”

He pointed his hoof at her.

“The way you move from place to place
Beyond our time, beyond our space
I must in fact demand to know
How it works, how it could be so
For my people I shall request
That you tell me this power blest.
If you do, then your bonds and crime
Shall be washed away in no time.”

“I’ll do you one better,” the Crown Princess said, smiling. “I will help your people find this Silvertongue and defeat him. Tell me everything you know… and I will tell you all I know.”

Zircon nodded - thoughts of interrogating the prisoner were far behind him. He was now fixated on righting the evil that had plunged their entire world to travesty. With this newfound ally… they would find Silvertongue and bring him to justice.

And they would save Rarity and her friends from whatever he had done to them.

His only hope was that they still lived after all this time…

~~~

The blue earth pony Curaçao looked at the frozen statue of Rarity. Even Fluttershy’s expression wasn’t quite as terrified as this unicorn’s. In many ways, she was Curaçao’s opposite. She had never tried to hide her emotions.

And here Curaçao was, staring at her horrified face.

That is where truth leads.

“Curie! What are you doing?”

Curaçao turned around to see one of her sisters trotting up to her - Insipid, the gray unicorn Silvertongue had bashed aside in their last encounter.

“Just examining ze ‘orror of our friend ‘ere,” Curaçao said, frowning.

“Aren’t they, like, all terrified?”

“Oui. But she shows it. Ze others… zey put on a mask of false fearlessness.” She glanced to Fluttershy, whose expression was one of trying to be brave. Trying.

“Even Applejohn?”

“Applejack,” Curaçao corrected automatically.

“Oh, right, sorry. Still working on the names thing, yeah.”

Curaçao nodded. “She ‘ides as well. For all ‘er ‘onesty, She keeps zings ‘idden for ze sake of ‘er friends.”

“Like you!”

“She doesn't manipulate zem,” Curaçao sighed.

“Uh… like, so? You’re getting better!”

“Per’aps… Per’aps.” Curaçao turned to Pinkie’s statue, where Red Velvet, a dark pink earth pony, was having a tea party with the party pony statue. A tendril of blood came out of Velvet’s back, holding the tea to Pinkie’s mouth.

“I know you can’t drink it, but maybe you can smell it!” Velvet said.

Pinkie made no response, but Velvet giggled anyway. “I knew it!”

“It baffles me ‘ow she retains her abilities…” Curaçao observed, looking Velvet up and down. “Ze power here… is different.”

“I’m different!” Velvet called, waving an excited hoof. “You two wanna join us for tea?”

“Ew, no, you probably put blood in it,” Insipid gagged.

“Only in mine! And it was animal blood, I’m over the whole pony thing, remember?”

“...I’m still passing,” Insipid shivered.

Curaçao held up her hoof too. “I am not in ze mood to interact with your counterpart’s statue in a… tea party.”

“Aww…” Velvet frowned. “Grayscale?”

The gray pegasus looked up from the magazine she was reading. “Huh?”

“Tea party?”

“If you bring the tea over here.”

“Yes! Hear that Pinkie? We’ve got a trio! Just gotta move you over th-”

“DON’T MOVE THE STATUES!”

Everypony turned to stare at Havocwing, the small but angry red pegasus who currently served as their leader. Curaçao had once shared the position with her… but Curaçao wasn't about to let herself into that position again, and none of her sisters had asked for her to do so aside from Insipid, who was admittedly a special case.

“But Havocwing…” Velvet whined.

“Starlight needs to keep the magic running between them perfectly if we have any chance of following Silvertongue!” Havocwing spat. “We’ve been waiting here for weeks and I’m not waiting here another week because you wanted to play dress-up with your original!”

Velvet huffed. “Nopony understands us, Pinkie…”

“That’s the truth,” Grayscale said.

“Maybe I can have a long-distance tea party…?”

Grayscale shrugged. “Don’t see how that’d work, but sure.”

“By my mane, the cacophony you perpetrate...” Starlight Shadow said. She was a dark purple unicorn with a curled mane. Currently, her horn was alit with a powerful black light, controlling a series of magic rings in the air. Behind her there were the princesses of the world, Celestia and Luna, boosting her power with their own Light and Dark magic.

“Do they have to shut up?” Havocwing asked. “I can order them to shut up.”

“A mild annoyance will not interrupt the spell,” Starlight admitted. “Altering Pinkie’s statue will.”

Velvet sighed. “Fine… Grayscale, think fast!”

Grayscale lifted a wing and batted a teacup away with a gust of wind. “...Right. Forgot. No gravity.”

“Hey, our powers may be weak from being in this world so long, but we’re still the best!” Havocwing declared. “Silvertongue will have the same problem! We’ll kick his face in!”

“He may not, given his mixture of essences of power,” Starlight said. “We must not underestimate fath-” she caught herself, twitching in annoyance at herself. “Silvertongue.”

“How close are we to done?” Insipid asked. “We’ve been waiting, like, forever.”

“Almost,” Starlight said, focusing on Insipid. “Insipid, I need you to copy my power and bolster my efforts. I am weakened just as you are, but together we should be able to break through the boundary.”

Insipid nodded, trotting up to Starlight. There was a soft zap as Insipid touched her, gaining the abilities of Void magic. She lit her horn with the dark energy and doubled the power input to the magic circles.

A few seconds later, the circles all aligned - the light of day covering half, the shimmer of night on the other. Celestia and Luna stopped pouring their power into it. The circles shook and rumbled, tapping into the remnant energies of the six mares’ statues. Space-time tore through the center of the six, opening to a green grassy area Grayscale had thrown Silvertongue into a few weeks ago.

“Go, my little ponies,” Celestia said, holding out a hoof. “I am surprised Silvertongue has not managed to complete his plans already. He could at any moment, you cannot afford to waste time.”

“Your world is in danger of falling into the Void,” Starlight declared as she approached the portal. “You may not be able to stop it.”

Luna nodded. “We are aware. We will do what we can - but your mission is more important. There is more than one world hanging in the balance on your path.”

Havocwing nodded. “Thanks, Princesses. Now…” She cleared her throat. “YOU HEARD THE LADIES! LET’S MOVE!”

All of them scrambled through the hole save Grayscale, who lethargically trotted over. She was slow enough Starlight teleported her through. They appeared on the grass, ready to face their ‘father’.

Curaçao frowned. “...’E’s not here,” she observed.

“Was here, though,” Starlight said, closing her eyes and feeling the magic of the world. “Was. He must have moved on…”

“At least we know the spell, now,” Velvet said. “We can just find magical power in this world and go to Equestria II!”

“Nah, you’re not going to be doing that.”

The six of them turned around to see a small purple dragon flanked by several changelings. All of their horns were glowing.

Starlight lit her horn. “We mean you no harm…”

“Yeah, I’m not going to let you work me over.” The dragon crossed his arms. “The last guy who came through here was literally named Silvertongue. Not chancing it.”

“You know where fath-” Starlight stopped herself again. “You know where he is!? Where!?”

Spike shrugged. “I have no idea. But seeing as I'm doing that ‘Chronomancer’s’ job now, looks like you’re about to find out where he went.” The changelings finished casting the spell, creating a portal with much less power than Starlight had just used.

“What…?” Starlight said, baffled by the ease of portal creation. “How i-”

In their confused stupor, it was easy to push the six of them in - especially since they were easily outnumbered by the changelings.

For a split second, the six sisters felt like they were floating in empty space… and then they weren’t, landing painfully on a metallic sidewalk next to a street.

“Have a good family reunion!” the dragon called.

And then there was a pop, preventing them from getting back to the grassland.

“Dammit!” Grayscale swore. “We can’t…”

“Calm, un amie,” Curaçao said, holding out a hoof to her. “We are not off ze track.”

“What?”

“We are exactly where we need to be. The Chronomancer pushed Silvertongue ‘ere… somewhere.”

“...I can feel him,” Starlight said, shivering. “He was here. Recently.”

“Zen zis is not a setback,” Curaçao declared.

“Right!” Havocwing declared. “This is actually us getting lucky! We’re gonna find him and we’re gonna burn him!” She pushed her hoof into the air, launching a fireball. “Hey, SWEET! Powers are back!”

“Powers?” Velvet chuckled. “Guess you’re all back to being like me! It’ll be…” Velvet paused. “Oh no…”

“What is it?” Starlight asked.

“I can feel the fear again… all of yours… all the people around us… I…”

Grayscale put a wing around her. “Hey. We’ll help you get through it. Okay?”

Velvet swallowed hard but nodded.

“Hey. I have a question,” Insipid said, raising a hoof.

“Yes?” Havocwing asked.

“Like, where the hell are we, cha?”

The six of them looked around, confusion rising the more they tried to parse what they were seeing. Magitech more advanced than anything any of them had ever seen. City in all directions that was equally dense and happy. Ponies and other creatures wandering around as if everything was normal.

They were all stunned into silence as they absorbed all the colors around them.

Had there not been a helpful sign right in front of them, they might not have ever gotten an answer to Insipid’s question.

Welcome to Celestia City!

Author's Notes:

Welcome to the nineteenth fic of the League of Sweetie Belles. CRISIS: Equestria, a fic by GanonFLCL that has been long, long dead. It was all about the mane six getting lost in a completely original, alternate world - but it ended up also being a story about six 'evil' mares that reflected the mane six. It is one of the best fics I have ever read, and I have been dying for an ending for literal years.

Well, it can now be said that CRISIS: Equestria will have an ending. There are eight parts to this extravaganza, meaning we've got more than 80,000 words here devoted to sending this story off the way it needs to go. It serves as both an ending for CRISIS, AND a bookend for the League of Sweetie Belles. It should make sense regardless if you're reading it as part of LSB or as the ending to CRISIS. There are a few LSB things that aren't explained fully, but it has been read by people who haven't read the rest of LSB and they were able to make sense of it.

This was definitely a team effort: I could not have done this alone. Masterweaver assisted the most, writing several characters and made Zircon's lines as poetic as needed. FanOfMostEverything as always assisted with Shimmy and Oversat, and Keywii_Cookies55 was a major source of ideas. GanonFLCL himself gave his part - didn't write anything, but he did answer a few questions and gave the full product his stamp of approval, hoping "this could give the story's fans some closure." And my thanks to all the other authors who participated in LSB, making it possible to bring so many characters back to the forefront for a hurrah.

I guess you could consider this the end of arc 1, though I don't have fancy names for the arcs in LSB like I do for SotS.

Hope you stick with us for this long, bumpy ride...

-GM, master of CRISIS.

Iterum (CRISIS: Equestria, Part 2)

“Originally - you know, in the body before the body I had before this one - I got my quirk by falling into an alien nuclear facility in a Brazilian underground lake.”

Everyone looked at Clockwork with dumbfounded expressions.

“Of course that probably doesn’t matter, since I became a human about a decade later and never got to deal with that again. Time travel experiment and all, right? I mean, who does that?”

“Clockwork, stop talking,” a blue-tinted Sunset said, hand on the bridge of her nose.

“Last I checked you weren’t the boss, Inferno.”

Diamond Inferno tensed. “I have a fist that thinks your face is a pillow.”

“You always say that.”

With a twist of her head, Inferno stopped being a human, instead taking on the guise of a unicorn. She put a careful hoof under Clockwork’s chin. “There are other things I could do to you besides… punching.” She licked her lips. “For all your words... you would be easy to dominate.”

Clockwork recoiled. “Ech. Back off.”

“What’s the matter? Afraid of a little acti-”

An angel pointed a sword at Inferno. “I will not allow your impure and sinful ways to run rampant.”

Inferno glared at the brilliant white woman of pure spirit. “Arul, you aren’t the boss either.”

“And his divine plan is the only reason you have not paid the ultimate price for your promiscuous ways.”

“Mustard’s fine with it!”

“Mustard has other things occupying his mind.”

The ‘Mustard’ in question was a dark yellow unicorn in a white robe lined with pastel pinks and purples. He was currently kneeling before a small idol carved from orange crystal in the shape of an eye, muttering something incoherent.

Inferno shifted forms into an approximation of an angel, smirking at Arul. “You’re alone in your devotion…”

“I am devoted to nothing but the promise of the future.”

“Why not have some fun then?”

“Beyond utter disdain for your obsession? I am an angel. I do not have a sex drive. I do not have gender, this form is merely chosen for the benefit of my neighbors.”

Inferno let out a tense hiss, stopping herself before she dented Arul’s ethereal face in.

“Wish more people were like you back home,” Clockwork said. “First home, not third one. The amount of times the blob next door decided… ‘it’ was something else, I had to bring out the flamethrower just to knock some sense into… ‘it’. No shape-shifting slimes here, just a delusional blob of green that wanted to be a squirrel. Apparently.”

“Not an attack helicopter?” Inferno asked.

“Surprisingly, no. That was the guy down the lane. Girl. Rotary vehicle? Whatever, why do I even care? I haven't seen that world since I was little.”

“For someone who doesn’t care you talk an awful lot about your past.”

“Because it’s so interesting now that I don’t have to keep it a secret! I mean, come on, the Sundial of Lost Monday? We had thousands of those but I’ve never heard anyone else talk about them!”

“You disadvantage yourself, Clockwork,” Silvertongue said, striding into the room. Only Clockwork knew that was his name; all the others knew him as a muted-gray pegasus by the name of Shroud. “If you kept your cards close to your chest, you would have an advantage in future interactions.”

“Aren’t we all on the same side here, though?” Clockwork asked.

“Loyalties are fickle things,” Silvertongue said, examining his four accumulated servants with a careful eye. Clockwork, while overly talkative, was easily the most loyal out of all of them since Silvertongue had forcefully broken his mind in shortly after arriving in Celestia City. Silvertongue had seen no reason to waste such effort on getting any further assistance - all the others had joined willingly. Through revenge, ideals, or a perverted sense of justice; Silvertongue knew all their reasons and cared not how they reflected on him. He knew they would do as he asked, and that was all that mattered at that moment. If they failed, they knew what would happen.

“We have arrived in Earth Shimmer, which means it’s time to move. Those of you with assignments know what to do. The others? Wait. Patiently.”

“Caaaan do!” Clockwork said, giving an exaggerated salute.

“I myself am going for a walk.”

“Going for that Screwball chick?”

“No, plans have changed. While it may seem that an insane woman stuck in an asylum would be an easy target, she is related to one Mister Discord. The new target is none of your concern.” He took out a dimensional device and spread his wings. “I assure you, this is not a walk for pleasure.” He could have teleported away, but even though pegasus magic was not unheard of in Celestia City, he did not wish to draw more attention than necessary. The portal closed with a pop.

Those of his servants with jobs to do began to scramble, their previous bickering not forgotten, but for the moment pushed aside.

~~~

Havocwing didn’t have a good history with cities.

The first one she had been in was a horrendous mess of chaos, destruction, and death that had birthed the six of them and somewhere inside Havocwing was a desire to see that place burnt to the ground; reduced to no more than cinders.

The second one had been under attack for most of the time she was there, so that just sucked.

Then there were the prissy cities of Utopia which were too nice and fancy and primitive. Canterlot of Equestria IV hadn’t been as bad, but it was still too… “pretty pretty look at me!”

At least that’s how Havocwing saw it.

This “Celestia City” instantly blew her out of the water. It was advanced and massive, but it was also full of life. There was no strife, very little anger, and everyone that walked through it seemed happy, not that she could read all of their expressions very well.

It was strong without looking like it wanted to kill them. Havocwing hadn’t thought such a thing to be possible. Everything had to suck in some way, right?

“Hey! Stop staring and clogging up the sidewalk!” a green blob creature said, forming a hand out of his membrane to create the “hands-on-hips” posture.

“We’re new here, we’re afforded a bit of astonishment at our inexplicable environment,” Starlight said, glaring at him.

“Then go sit on the bench or something! It’s large enough!”

“Hey!” Havocwing landed in front of the blob. “I don’t care what kind of fat blob you are, you do not talk to my sister that way!”

“Fat… blob…?”

“Yeah? Problem w-”

The blob turned tail and ran away bawling. Havocwing stared after him in disbelief. “What the…?”

“Smooth,” Grayscale observed.

“I hadn’t even gotten started with the insults!”

“Guess you just have a winning personality.”

Havocwing sighed, trotting over to the bench and sitting down. The rest of her sisters followed suit save for Starlight, who stood next to the bench, focusing on her magic.

“Find anything yet?” Insipid asked.

Starlight shook her head. “No… I mean, affirmative, I have found ‘things’, unfortunately my scrying has not overturned a trail to our mark.”

“That’s lame.”

“He was here. I know that.” Starlight stopped casting magic. “But I have no way to trace it with all the conflicting magics running around left and right.”

Grayscale cocked her head. “What?”

“This City has so many different kinds of magic in it I can’t even come close to identifying them all.” Starlight frowned, annoyed at her inadequacy.

“I suspect zat is intentional,” Curaçao said. “I ‘ave seen several portals open since we’ve arrived, zey’re treated as normal occurrences. Magic from… ‘undreds of universes mix ‘ere.”

“That would explain why Velvet can feel fear again,” Starlight admitted. “And why my Void magics are back to full strength.”

Havocwing grinned, lighting her hoof on fire. “Yeah, we’re back baby!”

“...Is that a good thing?” Velvet asked. “What if I try to eat you?”

“Like, that’s not you anymore?” Insipid said, waving a hoof.

“But what ‘good’ can fear do?”

“Pinkie spoke of a Nightmare Night celebration where ponies engaged in scaring each other, non?” Curaçao commented. “Fear is not without its place.”

“That wasn’t the kind of fear I use.”

“Per’aps you can change the fear you use.”

Velvet frowned. “Maybe… Or maybe I just never use it.”

“Somezing tells me zat’ll be difficult in a city zis large.”

Velvet shivered. “Yeah…”

“We, like, need a plan,” Insipid said. “He, like, uh… does things we can predict, right?”

“He was headed to Equestria Prime, this isn’t on that path, we have no idea what he’s doing,” Grayscale said. “If I know him, he doesn’t care anymore about that whole ‘Prime’ thing since there’s now more multiverse than we thought there was.”

“I agree,” Curaçao said.

“So he has a new plan, bucking fantastic,” Havocwing folded her hooves. “How are we supposed to find him and stop him if we have no idea what he wants?”

“We find out more about this place,” Curaçao suggested.

“Let’s go over what we do know first,” Starlight said. “Which is… simultaneously copious and intermittent.”

Grayscale sighed. “We are in Celestia City, the mobile capital of Merodi Universalis, currently in a universe called Earth Shimmer, which is known to be unstable.”

Everypony stared at her. Velvet grinned. “Wow, Gray, I knew you were observant, but holy kidneys that was impressive!”

“They play news on the screens,” Grayscale said, pointing with a hoof. Currently, a unicorn was talking about who Shimmy was, subtitles on the screen informing the six what she was actually saying.

“Figured out some other interesting things too,” Grayscale added, drawing their attention away from the screen. “There are copies out in the crowd. I saw a Twilight Sparkle with both wings and a horn-”

“What!?” Starlight shouted before deflating. “...I cannot speak as though I am bewildered.”

“-Money is stored on little cards, something called a ‘Sweetie’ is important, and the ape-creatures are humans. The humans always wear clothes, but the ponies never do.”

“Oh my gosh, they’re naked!” Insipid whined.

“Nice,” Velvet said, smacking her lips.

Havocwing facepalmed. “Velvet, ew. Insipid, they’ve been walking by for several minutes and you just now noticed their nudity?”

“I was thinking about other things, Havoc!”

“Secondly, we’re naked.” Havocwing gestured at herself. “Remember the fit you threw a week ago about having to junk our ruined suits? We were on Equestria IV. We never replaced them.”

“Yeah, you’ve been naked an entire week,” Velvet giggled.

Curaçao put a hoof on Insipid. “I do believe we went on a shopping spree in Ponyville, non? You were fine there.”

“Just because I don’t notice things doesn’t mean…” Insipid took a breath, calming herself. “Like, okay, doesn’t matter, cha? It’s not like there’s really anything to look at.”

“That’s what you think,” Velvet said, waggling her eyebrows.

“Like, ew, we’re sisters.”

“Didn’t stop you from going after Curaçao,” Grayscale commented.

“I was young and silly!”

Starlight did some math in her head. “It’s been about a month since we were cloned.”

“Yeah, so, I can change my mind!” Insipid pulled Curaçao close. “We’re sisters. The best of sisters!”

“Right. Sisters…” Starlight furrowed her brow, inwardly conflicted. “Sisters…”

Havocwing put a wing on her. “We’re family by choice. We kicked out Silvertongue, don’t worry, okay?”

Starlight nodded halfheartedly.

“I’ll let you take the final blow, if you want.”

Starlight tensed. “N-no things are satisfactory as they are, you take the ultimate action, I shall rally from the sidelines.”

Havocwing frowned. “...Sure.”

“We still ‘ave to find him first,” Curaçao said.

Havocwing stretched her wings. “All right! Curaçao, you’re on normal information gathering duties. The rest of us… just ask around, I guess? Figure out someplace to eat and crash or something.”

“We don’t have their money,” Starlight said.

“There’s a bit exchange machine right there,” Grayscale pointed out. “Seen ponies use it a few times already.”

“Oh.”

Curaçao waved to her sisters and trotted off.

“Not going super-secret?” Insipid called after her.

“Not going to live a lie if I can help it, ma soeur.”

“You’re like, making real progress!” Insipid waved at her until she disappeared into the crowd.

“She’s over-adjusting,” Havocwing muttered.

Insipid glared at her. “She feels really bad about what she did, Havoc. Even if it did help, she never wants to do that to us again.”

“I’d still like her to be able to lie, you know? It’s useful!”

“...Is my fear useful?” Velvet asked, voice wavering.

“I… well, uh…” Havocwing bit her lip. “Maybe?”

“But what if I jump on you and try to feed on the pressure we’re putting on y-” Velvet eeped, putting her hooves over her eyes. “Sorry! Sorry!”

Havocwing shook the image of her sisters falling off a cliff out of her mind. “Is it… is it that bad?”

“There’s so many people…” Velvet shivered. “They… they all fear something…”

“You just need to learn to control it,” Starlight asserted. “No power is unsurmountable if you put your mind to the task.”

“I’m not the genius you are…”

“Willpower does not always correlate to intelligence.”

“Look at me!” Havocwing said, pointing with a wing. “I’m as stubborn and defiant as a mule!”

“...Did you just imply you were stupid?” Grayscale asked.

“She’s not stupid!” Insipid said, huffing. “I’m the stupid one!”

Grayscale facehooved. “Ugh…”

Havocwing signed. “Insipid, you’re not…”

“Are you really going to try to tell me I’m smart?” Insipid laughed. “Like, wow, maybe I’m not?”

Havocwing blinked. “I’m confused.”

“Where’s Curaçao when you need her?” Grayscale asked.

Velvet shrugged. “Plotting.”

“She doesn’t plot anymore!” Insipid hissed.

“She totally plots. Just not against us. Speaking of plots…”

“Mind out of the gutter, now,” Havocwing ordered.

“Fine…”

They heard a chink chink chink as Grayscale stuck some of their bits in the exchange machine, getting a “quid card” in return. The number of quid was helpfully displayed on the card with a miniature screen.

Starlight’s eyes sparkled. “Woah…”

Insipid waved a hoof in front of her. “Gray! You broke her!”

“How do you make a screen that small? The tubes required… the magical finesse…”

Insipid tapped it with her hoof. “...Not feeling any magic in here.”

“No magic!?” Starlight’s head reeled. “How… What… Why…?”

Grayscale pocketed the card. “Let’s find somewhere to eat.” She pointed a wing at a small white unicorn walking down the sidewalk. “She’ll know.”

Havocwing decided not to question Grayscale’s intuition. It was rarely wrong. She walked up to the white unicorn, planning to ask where the nearest restaurant was.

Instead, the unicorn spoke to them first. “You five new in the city? Lost? Confused?”

“Uh…” after she spent a few seconds considering lying, she shook her head. “Yeah.”

“Well, let me welcome you to Celestia City anyway!” She pulled a small brochure out of her saddlebags and handed it over to them. “I’m Nord, of the League of Sweetie Belles. Yes, I know, it’s a weird name, but with several hundred Sweeties you start running out of normal-sounding unique ones.”

Havocwing opened the brochure. So, you’re new to Celestia City? Here’s what you need to know. It then went into a brief description of what the City was, who ran it, important laws, and what dimensional travelers should expect.

“I’m currently just on patrol, so I could show you around,” Nord said with a smile. “You look hungry. There’s this noodle place I highly recommend. But first… names? Names would be helpful.”

They all went, one at a time.

“Havocwing.”

“Grayscale Force.”

“Red Velvet!”

“Insipid, Cha!”

“Starlight Shadow.”

“Ah, you are alternates, aren’t you?” Nord nodded. “I was wondering. You seem to be missing an Applejack though.”

“Oh, she’s around,” Velvet said. “Don’t worry, she’ll be able to find us.”

“...If you say so. Anyway, Starlight Shadow? You might want to start going by Shadow, we have a lot of Starlights in the city, and even though you look different, you’re probably going to get into some confusing situations pretty quick here.”

“I… see…” Starlight said - paying more attention to the exchange machine than Nord.

Nord continued. “Anyway, let’s head over and get some food in you. I’d offer to cook myself, buuuuuuuut it’s a well known fact that Sweeties suck at cooking. We can burn juice, if you can believe that.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Grayscale deadpanned.

“That’s exactly what we all say, but that doesn’t stop us fro-”

“HEY! YOU! SWEETIE!”

Nord turned to the side, surprised to see another - much younger - Sweetie with ice-blue eyes tackle her out of nowhere.

“What th-”

“You are going to be a part of my team!”

Nord stared at her. “Cryo… right?”

“Yep!”

“Do you even know who I am?”

“Nope!”

“...Figures. Listen, Cryo, I need t-”

Cryo narrowed her eyes. “Is that a no?”

Nord sighed. “Yes, Cryo, that’s a n-”

Cryo grabbed Nord by the back ankle and started dragging her. “We’ll see what the League has to say about that ‘no’!”

Nord didn’t look angry or even all that confused anymore - she sighed. “Sorry girls, looks like you’re on your own. I’d suggest finding another Sweetie a-”

Cryo dragged Nord onto a blue platform that teleported them somewhere else.

A few of the bystanders were laughing or rolling their eyes, though some of the humans with gems in their foreheads seemed just as dumbfounded as Havocwing and her sisters were.

Velvet cleared her throat. “Does anyone know the way to the noodle place she mentioned?”

Several people pointed left.

“Thanks! Come on girls, let’s go there and read this brochure! We might have to drag Starlight and Havocwing along, I think they’re broken.”

~~~

Curaçao felt it: the need to lie. Purged of dark magic, sure… but that didn’t change who she was. A mare who could look like anypony, see anything, and spin any tale as though it were the honest truth. It would be pathetically easy for her to walk up to someone, pretend to be some random street beggar, and get more than enough money to do anything she could want.

She’d managed to be completely upfront with the first pony she talked to, saying she was a lost multiversal traveler who’d like some information about the city and rumors about a silver alicorn named Silvertongue. The pegasus had directed her to a ‘computer terminal’ that could print her out a brochure to the City, but she knew nothing of a silver alicorn - there were so many alicorns in the city it wouldn’t exactly be something to write home about anyway.

But after she’d finished discussing she’d instinctually shifted to another form and disappeared into a crowd. Cursing herself, she shifted back to default in front of a dozen ponies - who looked at her with curious looks. She turned invisible in reaction to this.

To her shock, at least two people in the crowd could still see her. She scrambled away, disoriented, only shifting into a visible state once she arrived in the equivalent of an abandoned alley. Her expression was flat, calm, and level.

Inwardly she was panicking.

I need to calm down, Curaçao told herself, forcing her thoughts back. They can see me. This should be good. I now know hiding is not guaranteed, and that’ll keep me from running and hiding.

Will it? Am I lying to myself again?

Curaçao let herself laugh bitterly. That was the problem with being the Element of Deception, wasn’t it? The others at least knew for sure where they stood, however terrible that might be, they could fight it consciously now.

Here I am, proving that I haven’t changed.

Stop lying to yourself, you didn’t used to think about it like this.

Which one of you is the lie?

All of them.

Curaçao put a hoof on a nearby wall, forcing her thoughts back even further. If nothing else, dwelling on her inner turmoil was not going to help her sisters. She at least knew she cared about them. That was certain.

She would hold on to that.

With a quick adjustment to her headband, she set out into the streets once more and grabbed one of the brochures she had been told about earlier. She sat down and perused it’s contents - no chances she could lie to a piece of paper.

It was surprisingly helpful. She gained a basic knoweldge of the history of Celestia City right off the bat as well as an understanding of Merodi Universalis’ ideals: Harmony, Aid, and Progress, capitalized within the brochure for some indiscernible reason. The closest thing she’d seen like it in her world was Utopia, but they were rather lenient on the ‘Aid’ part and the ‘Progress’ almost didn’t exist.

She learned about Mayor Blumiere and the League of Sweetie Belles that served as a sort of special guard for the city - or police. Their place in society was clearly both niche and well respected, even if it wasn’t exactly well-defined. There was a brief outline of Merodi government, some basic laws (including one that protected clueless dimensional travelers, which was a nice touch), and a brief introduction to what the Internet was and how to access it. It would certainly be helpful…

At first, she intended to find a public Internet terminal and use it to get all her information rather than discuss things with the people of the city, but this idea was dashed out of her mind when she saw a pair of Sweeties walking by with a Rarity and a Twilight that were clearly together.

Rarity and Twilight would have… interesting reactions to this.

Curaçao trotted over - Sweeties were supposed to help, according to the brochure. “Bonjour!”

The Sweeties turned to look at her in surprise.

“Why in Celestia’s name is the translator spell not working?” the sunglasses-wearing Sweetie said.

“Quoi? You cannot understand me?”

“I understood the second part just fi- oh. You’re bilingual, aren’t you?” the Sweetie rubbed her head. “That always does strange things to the translator.”

“I knew Bonjour meant hello,” the other Sweetie said.

The first Sweetie rolled her eyes. “I’m Blink, this is Cinder, the two behind me are Brook and Sequin.”

“Charmed,” Sequin said, smiling. “You look simply fabulous, darling.”

“I am Curaçao. I’m new, and according to this brochure… you are Sweeties.”

“Yep!” Cinder said, beaming. “Full Agents and everything! How can we help?”

“Any tips zat wouldn’t be found in ze official brochure?”

Blink pursed her lips. “Let’s see… expect the unexpected, chances are you’re going to stumble across a people group that is nothing like your own and you’ll have to respect them or get angrily chased, beware of random Infinite Carousel salesponies, and when something goes horribly wrong either help or just shrug and move on with your life.”

“Zings go wrong zat often?”

Blink nodded, grinning. “You betcha!”

“Should we be worried?” Sequin asked.

Brook shook her head. “Nah. This entire City is filled with heroes. You, Cinder, the number just keeps climbing!”

“You’re a hero too.”

Twilight smiled sadly. “Not recently.”

“Brook…”

“That’s not going to stop me from trying, though.”

Rarity beamed. “You’ve come such a long way…”

“So have you.”

“‘eroes?” Curaçao raised an eyebrow. “Zat is a profession ‘ere?”

Cinder chuckled. “I guess you could say that. You look like one yourself.”

“A ‘ero, me?” Curaçao shook her head. “I am trying, but… c’est la vie.”

“Maybe we can help! What’s your problem?”

“My sisters and I are searching for a stallion. Alicorn, silver coat, named Silvertongue.”

“Haven’t heard of him,” Blink said. “Sorry.”

“There is the prophecy…” Cinder reminded her. “You know, that ‘pony with the silver tongue’?”

Curaçao fixated on Cinder. “What is ze contents of zis… prophecy?”

Cinder shrugged. “I don’t know, I never really looked into it. Skuldie would probably know more - you could come with us down to the surface, we were just headed there!”

Curaçao shook her head. “I cannot leave ze city without my sisters, but zanks for ze offer. Can I meet you down zere?”

Cinder glanced to Brook and Sequin.

Sequin shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

“Here’s my phone number,” Cinder said, pulling a round device out of the back of her mane with a number on it - Curaçao recognized it immediately.

“Malheureuse… I ‘ave no phone.”

“Well, soon as you get one, you can call. They’re pretty cheap, from what I hear.”

“There’s pay phones too,” Blink said, pointing at a blue box standing on the edge of a street.

“Ah, yes, zat was in ze brochure.”

Blink pulled out her phone. “I’ll make a call to the League about this Silvertongue. When you call I’ll let you know if we got anything, okay?”

“Je vous remercie,” Curaçao said.

“What did he do anyway?”

“Destabilized our world, killed two goddesses, and created a city zat fed off chaos?”

Blink nodded. “Ah. One of those.”

“...You come across zis often?”

“Enough.” Blink held the phone to her ear. “Hey, Nausicaa, might have something about that silver tongue prophecy… might be literal…”

“Nice meeting you, Curaçao,” Sequin said with a wave. “I hope you find him and get to enjoy the sights - I recommend the Theremin Garden myself.”

“I... will keep zat in mind,” Curaçao said.

The two Sweeties, Sequin, and Brook left, presumably to head to the surface of Earth Shimmer.

Curaçao smiled. She already had a connection, and an ally in the authorities of this City. She hadn’t needed to lie about anything to get there.

Maybe things really were looking up.

~~~

“What do you mean I can’t make a team?” Cryo whined.

Nausicaa, pegasus-Sweetie, let out a tense breath, not wanting to deal with this little upstart today. But all the Sweeties who usually handled this sort of thing were out dealing with the influx of Earth Shimmer visitors… leaving her in the League dealing with paperwork and complaints.

She didn’t mind the paperwork. She did mind the complaints.

“Listen, Cryo, you dragged Nord away from her assignment. She is a full Agent and was on patrol - helping some dimensional travelers, nonetheless.”

“Bu-”

“You are not an Agent, Cryo, you have not passed training and no Sweetie has vouched for you. Joining the League is free, but acting with our authority requires proving oneself. You have not.”

Cryo twitched, holding up a hoof and covering it with ice. “See?”

“I see advanced non-lethal cryokinesis,” Nausicaa deadpanned. “I don’t see a responsible agent. I see a filly with a serious case of trope fixation. Not every world is anime, Cryo.”

“But that’s what makes me… me! I’m just a normal Sweetie otherwise!”

Nausicaa grunted. “There are plenty of normal Sweeties, Cryo. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Nausicaa. You clearly have no idea what it means to be an arch-nemesis.”

“No. That’s Squeaky’s department, and she’s busy.”

“I’m just sayi-”

“Cryo.” Nausicaa held up a wing. “I’m not saying you can’t have adventures. You can grab your friends and do what you want, part of the League is to have fun. You just can’t go dragging Agents away from their work. And if you want to be an Agent of your own, you will need to prove yourself.”

“How can I do that?”

“Training, references…”

“But I’m trying to get that so I can be like Cinder! She just got in.”

Nausicaa scowled. “Yes… she did.”

“So I need to make a team like her.”

“Cryo that’s not h-”

“I’ll be part of her team.”

Nausicaa and Cryo turned around to see a Sweetie Belle with a blue-green translucent visor over her eyes and a data pad in her magic. She scribbled something into it with a stylus.

“...Which one are you?” Cryo asked.

“Curio, remember? We sat in a jail cell together.”

“Oh, yeah!” Cryo lit up. “Nice visor!”

“Thanks!”

Nausicaa consulted the Sweetie database on her data pad. “You aren’t an Agent either, Curio.”

“So?” Curio shrugged. “Sounds like she’s having fun, and this’ll get me into a lot of interesting situations.”

Nausicaa looked like she wanted to chide her, but decided against it. “Very well. Just don’t go bothering any Agents against their will.” She flew away, returning to her paperwork.

“...Against their will?” Cryo frowned. “Who could we just convince to come with us?”

“You have a one track mind, don’t you?” Curio asked.

“Pretty much!”

“Well, assuming we can’t talk to Cinder’s team… I think the only other Agents we know are Skuldie and Tab. Skuldie’s probably busy, so…”

“Tab it is! To the research levels!” Cryo created a surfboard out of ice and cascaded down the stairs, dragging Curio behind her. Most of the Sweeties in the League just rolled with the antics - Cryo was far from the most unusual of their kind. They slammed head-first into the door leading into Tab’s lab.

ACCESS DENIED.

“HEY TAB!” Cryo shouted. “WE NEED TO TALK TO YOU!”

A green, reptilian Sweetie poked her head out the door. “You want to see Tab?”

“Yep!” Cryo declared.

“Can I ask who you are?”

“Cryo and Curio! Old friends!”

Curio coughed. “The ones she tossed into a jail cell because we were ‘suspicious’.”

“Ooooh, you girls. Right, I’ll get her…”

A few minutes later Tab and Entrapta walked out of the restricted area. The completely normal sweetie and the woman with the purple hair made an interesting duo.

“What is it?” Tab asked.

“We’re forming a team to face Cinder!” Cryo offered.

“Yeah, no,” Tab said, rolling her eyes. “I have research to do. We just got a paper sent in by a Dr. Shroud with a most interesting theory on the Equis Cluster’s Universe Generator. We might be able to find it soon!”

“In a few months,” Entrapta corrected. “The initial work is all we have, there’s much more research to be done once we create the initial scrying lens!”

“Well, yes, but…” Tab shook her head. “The point is that I am extremely busy with this work-”

“I’m doing all of it,” Entrapta said. “You’re squeeing.”

Tab ignored her. “-and I shouldn’t go galavanting off on some adventure when science is underway.”

“...Not even just for a day or two?” Cryo asked, putting on the puppy-dog eyes.

“It alarms me how many Sweeties think that works on other Sweeties,” Tab muttered.

“Drat! Need a new plan…”

Curio raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you view it as a vacation?”

“Me? Take a vacation?” Tab rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve taken a vacation since I was made an Agent.”

“Like me!” Entrapta grinned. “They made me take a vacation but I just made them another Sweetie Bot from my garage.”

Curio smirked. “Then… why not do it as a favor? We’d be so thankful! I’ll even tell you about my new visor!”

Tab frowned. “Using leverage, are we?”

“Is it working?”

“...Annoyingly, it might be…” Tab consulted her invisible tablet of knowledge. “Right, of course you’re useless. Don’t you ‘my usefulness is constant’ me! Ahem.” She looked up. “Okay, I’m not agreeing, but I at least want to hear what you’re planning to do.”

Cryo grinned. “First order of business is to-”

“SUMMON THE MONTAGE QUEEN!” Mattie teleported in the middle of them, cracking one of her whips in the air to punctuate her arrival. “Who wants a training session?”

“ME ME ME!” Cryo cheered.

“I think I’ll go back to work…” Tab said, slinking away.

“Too late, you’re coming with,” Mattie chuckled. “And before any of you out there get worried about me ‘messing with an Agent’, guess what? I’m an Agent! So ha to loopholes!”

“Woohoo!” Cryo declared.

Curio glanced at Mattie, scribbling some notes onto her data pad.

“You needed a vacation anyway,” Entrapta said, walking back into the lab.

Tab held a hoof out. “But… science… discovery…”

Entrapta left her in the clutches of Mattie.

Mattie cackled. “Lesson one - don’t get hit by the whips! They’re laced with extra extra pain for my pleasure and your… opposite of pleasure.”

~~~

The noodle place was called Ora Oramen and run by a bunch of humanoid black cats with bright eyes. They were friendly enough, though sometimes their stares could be a little creepy. Havocwing and her four sisters were seated at a table almost instantly and provided with menus.

The waiters, it turned out, weren't the same cats that ran the place. Every last one of them was a pinkish unicorn with a striped mane that were, apparently, ‘Starlights’ by default.

“Hello! My name’s Strix, I’ll be your waiter for this evening! You can tell me from the other Starlights by the ruby earring on my left ear. If it’s in the right ear, that’s Leyline. And if I appear to have my mane up in a bun that’s probably Susan.”

“...What kind of name is Susan?” Havocwing asked.

“Human. Not sure why Susan took it, but hey, we’re all Starlights here, chances of us wanting to talk about our pasts in detail?” She laughed audibly as if it were a joke everyone were supposed to get. Upon noticing their dumbfounded expressions, she coughed. “Er… right, sorry, you’re new and wouldn’t get that. I’ll be around, just wave me over when you’re ready to order.” She walked away, meeting a human and pony sitting at another table.

“Wow, Narf was right,” Insipid said.

“Nord,” Grayscale corrected.

“Right. Nord was right. There are a lot of Starlights, Shadow.”

“...I do not have qualms being addressed by my surname,” Shadow said. “It will likely take a few days to achieve normalcy, however. Do make an effort to be consistent.”

“Righty-o, Shadow,” Havocwing said. “And none of us have to change anything?”

Grayscale shrugged. “Haven't heard our names tossed around.”

“What have you heard?”

“Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Applejack. A lot.” Grayscale let out a breath. “I’ve seen versions of all of them walking around. None of them look quite like us. But it’s close.”

“Weird…”

“We should probably order,” Velvet said, picking up the menu. “Here we have… daisy noodles, cabbage noodles, friend noodles, chicken noodles…” Velvet paused. “Chicken?”

“I’ve seen many predatory species walking amongst us,” Shadow pointed out. “It should not be alarming that a public restaurant offers meat products with its food.”

“I finally get to know what chicken tastes like…”

“I won’t be having meat,” Havocwing declared. “Spicy peppers. Nuclear option.”

“There are beings of literal fire living here,” Grayscale said. “Nuclear option might not be safe.”

“Try me.”

Shadow snorted. “I’m ordering the largest size of fried noodle for when Havocwing inevitably cannot complete her meal.”

“I’ll show you all…”

“Ooh! Sapphire noodles!” Insipid said, holding up the menu. “Like… that sounds amazing.”

Grayscale pointed out the fine print. “For dragons only.”

“Aww…. daisy then.”

“You know it occurs to me last time we ate out we didn’t exactly pay,” Velvet said, suddenly.

Strix, who just happened to be passing by, almost dropped a dish.

Grayscale sighed, holding out her quid card. “Don’t worry.”

Strix let out a sigh of relief. “Good. Chasing walkouts generally isn’t worth it…” She delivered the dish and quickly returned. “You ready to order?”

They relayed what they had decided, Grayscale going with ‘plain’.

“Great! That’ll be out in a jiff! I hope you enjoy!” She scampered off to deliver the order to the cooking cats.

Shadow took the opportunity to open the brochure. “History of Celestia City… built soon after the founding of Merodi Universalis to serve as the capital city… continually grows... travels from universe to universe…”

“A moving city?” Havocwing gasped. “How do they move it? This place is at least as big as New Pandemonium, how…?”

“We’re in space,” Grayscale said. “There’s nothing holding the city down but itself.”

“...What?”

“It floats around through the sky like the moons.”

“Oh. That… sorta makes sense.”

“Does it?” insipid asked.

“Not really.”

“Oh.”

“Merodi Universalis…” Shadow continued. “They stand for Harmony, Aid, and Progress...”

“So they’re Utopian,” Havocwing said.

“Not really,” Grayscale said. “They allow a lot of wild antics. Just looking out at the street I’ve seen a lot of surprisingly chaotic things happen.”

“Not to mention all the technology!” Insipid said. “Makes New Pandemonium look like a cave, cha!”

“Now this is interesting…” Shadow said, eyes widening. “The current Mayor is a what I can only call a creature of Void, Blumiere.”

“I thought you were the only creature of Void or something like that?” Havocwing asked.

Shadow nodded. “As far as the Chronomancers knew, I was. But we’re out of their knowledge now…” She continued on. “Some basic laws… lethal combat is not permitted within the City… businesses are not allowed to expand in Merodi space… The League of Sweetie Belles, we already met them… Oh. There’s a clause in here that protects new arrivals from being prosecuted for unaware crimes.”

“Convenient!” Velvet said.

“We read the brochure now. I know little of their legal code, but I suspect this is an indicator that we may now be prosecuted.”

“Oh. Not convenient.”

“And then there’s this thing called the Internet that i’m trying to figure out… it’s like a big database anypony can access. Apparently there are open terminals for public use a-”

Curaçao walked into the restaurant and trotted right to their table. “I see you found the brochure. Helpful, non?”

“Indubitably,” Shadow said.

“Did you find anyzing I should be aware of?”

“I am going by Shadow to avoid confusion in relation to Starlight.”

“Yes?” the Starlights asked.

Shadow held up a hoof and gestured to herself.

“Zey are just messing wiz you,” Curaçao said, turning to the Starlights. “You all know she was not referring to you.”

“It helps her get used to it!” Strix called.

“Ah, manipulation for ze benefit of the recipient?” Curaçao sighed. “C’est la vie…”

“Don’t listen to her,” Insipid said, smiling warmly. “What did you find, Curie?”

“Well, most of what I found was in zat brochure. Zat said, I did encounter a pair of Sweeties and told zem of our plight. Ze auzorities are aware of Silvertongue, and I ‘ave a way to communicate with ze Sweeties should it be required.”

“That’s great!” Velvet cheered.

“Zey were vaguely aware of some sort of prophecy…” Curaçao said. “About a stallion wiz a silver tongue. Zey could not say much, but suggested I ‘ead to ze planet below to speak wiz one ‘Skuldie’. I am to call when we ‘ead down to coordinate.”

“...Wow,” Havocwing said, blinking. “You really do know how to get stuff done.”

Curaçao nodded. “I am surprised as well, for I did not ‘ave to contort any of zis out of zem. Zey just offered to ‘elp.”

“Like Utopia, but without being all stuffy about it?” Velvet asked.

“Some ways, yes, ozer ways, no.”

There was silence around the table.

Grayscale said what they were all thinking. “This place is bucking weird.”

“This is probably what our counterparts felt like in New Pandemonium…” Shadow said.

“Can you imagine what that was like?” Insipid asked. “Like, we were in Ponyville, that place is so nice! To suddenly be dumped into that… city…” Insipid shivered. “They’re lucky they lived!”

“They did have a lot of luck…” Havocwing said.

Grayscale huffed. “Until they got turned to stone.”

“Maybe the luck passed on to us? There’s this prophecy, we have an in to this ‘League’ already, and we’re about to fill our stomachs with delicious noodles!”

“The benefit of being ‘good’, isn’t that right Curie?” Insipid asked.

Curaçao smiled softly. “‘eroes…”

“What?” Velvet asked.

“Something one of the Sweeties said. I-”

“GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!”

The six sisters turned to the door to the kitchen where they could hear childish giggling, cat yowling, and crashing pots. A second later a human kid in a purple top hat jumped through the air, performed a double jump, rolled through the air and skidded to a stop under their table.

“GET THAT KID!” a cat chef shouted, running out of the kitchen.

“Um, Harrow?” Strix asked. “Did she actually steal anything?”

“What? No, she just found one of those jiggy things that bear’s been hiding around the city! IN MY CUPBOARD! Nobody is supposed to be back here! She violated company policy!”

“...But didn’t take anything.”

“I don’t CARE! I want the Everykid taken out of her hiding spot and told her place in existence! Just because she’s a collectathoner doesn't mean she gets to waltz everywhere!”

“Harrow, calm down, she’s just a kid…”

“The Everykid, weren’t you listening?”

“Harrow, these nice ponies are waiting for their meal…”

The cat yowled in frustration, threw his hat on the ground, and marched back into the kitchen.

“Sorry about that,” Strix said, coming over to them. “He’s irritable when it’s busy. Very irritable. Your food might be delayed a bit because of this.”

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Havocwing declared. “I’m hungry.”

“Glad to hear it!” Strix grinned and moved to talk to another group.

Curaçao poked her head under the table. “Everykid, was it?”

The Everykid nodded, an innocent smile on her face.

“Collectazoner… you collect zings? And ‘unt zem down all over ze city?”

The Everykid nodded again.

“Well zen… how would you like to ‘elp us find a ‘villain’ by ze name of Silvertongue after lunch ‘ere?”

The Everykid’s eyes sparkled. She nodded vigorously.

“Glad to ‘ear it.” Curaçao pulled her head out from under the table. “It looks as zough we ‘ave more luck zan we realize.”

Havocwing looked under the table. “Our ally is a kid?”

Grayscale smirked. “That’s not a kid.”

“But every kid.”

“How long until Havocwing figures it out? Bets, anyone?”

“Five bits on five minutes!” Velvet said.

“We all share a bank account,” Shadow muttered.

“Figure what out?” Insipid asked.

The group proceeded to laugh. Despite their misison’s urgency, they gave themselves a moment to eat lunch.

And yes, they did pay. They even snuck food down to the Everykid to spite Harrow.

The nuclear spicy noodles were way, way too much. Nopony touched them more than once.

~~~

“Listen up, ladies!” Mattie said, cracking her whip again. She towered over the three Sweeties not only because she was a tall Rarity, but also because her sleek black boots gave her a significant height increase. “We’ve got training to do!”

“...How did we get here?” Curio asked, bewildered. They were in some kind of dojo in a Japanese-influenced district of Celestia City, far from the standard metropolis area the League of Sweetie Belles was located within.

Mattie lashed, careful to make the whip crack in front of Curio. Curio flinched, dropping her tablet and pen.

“You could have hit me with that!”

“That’s the idea!” Cryo said, giggling. “It is time for training through hell!”

“I want to pass,” Tab said. “Can I pass?”

“You already tried,” Mattie reminded her, smirking. “None… can escape… the beating!”

“Yes, master,” Cryo said, bowing.

“...Ew,” Tab and Curio said at the same time.

“I would prefer mistress…” Mattie mused.

“It’s master or sensei, deal with it.”

“Master it is! Fits with my energy more.” She cracked her whips. “Now, montage!”

~~~

“Lesson three: dodge.”

“Dodge?” Curio asked.

“Yes. DODGE!” She threw a pillow at Curio faster than she could react. It hit her right in the face, tossing her back.

Curio shook her head, getting back up and making a note on her tablet.

“Why do you have that?” Tab asked.

“Taking notes for the ponies back home. I’m writing a book about the multiverse for them.”

“We have books like that. I could be your book like that.”

“They don’t trust you. Or anypony, really.”

~~~

“Lesson six: become at peace with the universe.”

Mattie examined the three Sweeties standing motionlessly on a vat of reverse-oobleck: motionlessness kept them afloat, moving would make them sink.

Cryo sneezed and started drowning.

“Really? A sneeze?!”

“But master!”

“You failed, there’s nothing else to be done.”

“...Teach me. Teach me more! Teach me more intensely!”

Tab groaned. “This can’t possibly be helping…”

~~~

“Lesson thirteen: dancing!”

Mattie gestured at the metal poles beside her. “These are poles. Dance on them.”

“Okay!” Cryo said, charging.

“Hold it!” Tab shouted, grabbing Cryo in her telekinesis. “Mattie, this isn’t training, this is you feeding your outrageously perverted mindset. It isn-”

Mattie slung onto a pole, grabbing it with one of her whips and using the centrifugal force to smack Tab across the room. “You’ll find that the art of the pole is very effective, Tab. Allow me to demonstrate…” She cracked her whip and several cardboard cutouts appeared around the pole with painted monsters on them. She twisted around the pole with alarming rapidity, punching, smashing, jumping, and cleverly angling her whips and boots into each monster with amazing accuracy.

Not a single one remained a few seconds later.

Mattie coiled her whips up and affixed them to her back boots. “May I remind you that Celia’s entire combat strategy revolves around a spinning top’s pole?”

Tab stared at her in disbelief.

“You may have wanted to ask your tablet about this one. Now that I’ve proven myself… dance!”

“Yes ma’am!” Tab and Curio said. Cryo, naturally, went with “master.”

~~~

“Lesson twenty-seven and a half: RAIN.”

The four of them stood somewhere it was raining.

“...Interesting…” Curio said, scribbling a note.

~~~

“Lesson negative three-fourths: fighting in overly frivolous dresses.”

The three sweeties were in dresses two sizes too large for them that had excessively poofy bottoms and sleeves that bunched up all for the sake of ruffling.

Tab and Curio tripped immediately while Cryo opted to use her ice to get around rather than rely on her legs.

~~~

“Lesson pickles in a jar: PAIN!”

The three Sweeties prepared for the whips - but they got none. Mattie only whipped herself.

“Uh…” Curio began.

“Oh, the pain wasn’t physical. You’re going to be watching paint dry.”

“NOOOOOOOOO!” Cryo wailed.

~~~

“Lesson outdated reference: standing up school!”

The three Sweeties stood at attention, refusing to fail.

Mattie drop-kicked the three of them. “And you fail!”

~~~

“Lesson shopping: bucket of fish.”

Cryo purchased a bucket of fish. “Here, master.”

“What are you going to do with that?” Curio asked, continually taking notes.

“I’m going to turn it into a fragrance and put it in my room,” Mattie responded, fixing Tab with a mischievous look.

Tab decided not to consult the tablet on what that meant.

~~~

“Lesson sugoi: ANIME POSES!”

Cryo screamed in rage and surrounded herself in a burst of ice, nailing it.

Tab sighed. “This is pointless.”

“Is it?” Curio asked, her eyes shielded from view by a glint on her visor. “Or is it really a secret method by which to increase our stature as Sweeties, to put us ever closer on the path to Agent hood?” She adjusted her visor, the light shimmering off the edges perfectly. Sakura petals fell around her in slow motion, “I for one welcome this challenge.”

Mattie whistled. “Nice going.”

Curio smirked. “I do pay attention.”

~~~

“And this completes montage training,” Mattie said, bowing. They were back in the League’s lobby.

Curio beamed “I’ve never trained in a group before, this has been an amazing experience!” She smiled at Mattie, “Thanks for the opportunity.”

“You’re welcome, mate. All a day in the life of the montage queen.”

“Wait a minute…” Cryo blinked. “I didn’t actually learn anything about the fourth or ka from you! I was supposed to be able to go head to head with Cinder after this!”

“Psh, like that’s something that can be taught.”

“Cinder figured it out just fine.”

Mattie smiled knowingly. “She did, didn’t she?”

Tab sighed. “Was there any point to this, Mattie?”

“The montage? Not really. But I’m somewhere around ninety-percent sure we need to be right here right now.”

None other than Skuldie Belle, spirit of the future for Earth Shimmer, kicked in the door to the League of Sweetie Belles, looking immensely frazzled. “I. Need… help.”

Nausicaa ran out of her office the moment Skuldie appeared. “What do you need?”

“Someone’s taken Scootaloo,” Skuldie said. “I can’t see her anywhere… and Apple Bloom’s having difficulty tracking her through the past…”

“The incarnation of the present is missing!?” Nausicaa grimaced. “I’ll get right on that, a team will be sent to accompany you in your investigation…”

Mattie coughed. “We’re available.”

Nausicaa looked at Cryo and Curio. “Mattie, this is no time for gam-”

“I am not joking, we are available. And last I checked, me and Tab were full Agents and can bring whoever we want along with us for any reason.”

Nausicaa bristled. “This is a serious matter, harlot.”

Mattie’s smile vanished. “Mate, you might wanna take a gander at a dictionary and freshen up on what a ‘harlot’ is, maybe you can put that educated legalistic mind of yours to good work instead of drowning everypony around you in paperwork. I am a flirtatious masochist who, believe it or not, actually finds it a little difficult to get a partner. Can’t imagine why, it’s not like I make it a hobby of mine to make people exceedingly uncomfortable twenty-four seven or anything, pfft. My job is, may I remind you, Agent of the League of Sweetie Belles and your premier source for all meta knowledge. I have a big, long, important title I can’t remember right now but I’m sure you have all the paperwork about it in your head, so look at that title and remember who exactly you’re talking to, secretary.”

Nausicaa didn’t back down. “Mattie, you have ste-”

“I do not leave this building without her,” Skuldie said. “So kindly drop your vendetta against her unprofessional attitude and let us find Scootaloo. Apple Bloom has already reported the incident to your superiors. You don’t need to do anything.”

Nausicaa frowned. “All I did that day was my job, Skuldie.”

“By interrogating half the ponies in this room.”

Nausicaa spread her wings and flew deeper into the League.

Cryo was staring at Mattie with stars in her eyes. “Teach me your ways…”

Mattie laughed. “You do not want my ways, Cryo. But I’m already your master so I don’t see why we can’t pass on a few things while we’re at it.”

Tab put a hoof to her head. “I always forget that Mattie is one of the oldest members of the League…”

“Pretend to be the fool…” Curio mused, scribbling more notes into her data pad.

Mattie turned to Skuldie. “So, Scootaloo, incarnation of the present moment, is missing. Sounds like someone wants to get away with something without risking her knowing about it.”

Skuldie nodded. “That’s what we think too.”

“When did you see her last?”

“Yesterday. She went home early, was tired. We haven’t seen her since.”

“No trace?”

“Apple Bloom is trying, but there were dimensional portals involved, which makes her sight… problematic.”

“So, the question remains, who would take Scootaloo?”

“The Fay are known to kidnap humans as part of larger plans,” Curio suggested.

Everyone stared at her.

Curio took a step back, “I might have read up on Earth Shimmer before coming here. They sound like exactly the kind of people who would do this.”

“They… do…” Skuldie said, frowning.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Cryo asked. “Let’s go find some Fay!” She paused. “...If it’s okay with master.”

Mattie raised an eyebrow. “The anime protagonist is satisfied with not being the leader? Consider me impressed.”

“Cinder’s not the leader either. We are mirroring her, after all.”

Mattie giggled. “I suppose we are… But there’s five of us right now.”

“I am not going to be a permanent member of this madness,” Tab muttered. “...But I will help find Scootaloo.”

“We all will,” Curio said.

“Because we’re the heroes!” Cryo declared.

~~~

The Everykid almost never spoke.

But that didn’t matter to Starlight Shadow, because she’d found the best way to gather information about people who wouldn’t talk.

The Internet access on her new phone.

“The Everykid,” she read aloud as they all followed the Everykid down a flight of stairs into the depths of Celestia City, “is the most well-known instance of the Everyman, an entity that has a shared consciousness split across millions of universes. Unlike many facets of the Everyman, the Everykid is known to refuse assistance from her other selves and actively works for Merodi Universalis information storage. She was first encountered…”

“What have you done?” Havocwing asked, grabbing Grayscale’s face. “That thing you bought for her has turned her into an encyclopedia!”

“It’s useful. With her obsessive streak she’ll figure it out long before we will.”

“But she wooon’t shuuut uuuuup…”

“Oh, I could talk over her!” Insipid offered.

“Nononononono we’re good in that department!”

Insipid rolled her eyes. “Curie, Havoc’s being insulting again.”

“Didn’t you make a veiled insult jar, ‘Avocwing?” Curaçao asked.

“And I have received absolutely no payment for that idea,” Havocwing muttered.

“Grayscale’s the one with the money,” Velvet said. “...Wait, did she convert all our bits?”

Grayscale held out a golden bit before hiding it within her wings once again.

“Wait a minute,” Velvet said, blinking. “We’re nude, how are we holding bits?”

Grayscale froze. “...I have no idea.”

In the silence that followed, they could hear Shadow’s monologue. “...and cats ended up being the paramount icon for the phenomenon known as ‘Internet memes’. Today we remember fondly the likes of grumpy cat, ceiling cat, and others that exist in many forms across the multiverse…”

“...I think you clicked one too many links,” Velvet said.

Shadow looked up from her phone. “Huh? There’s such a thing as too many links?”

“I believe zat zing is getting to your ‘ead,” Curaçao said. “Per’aps it would be best if you set it down?”

“What? No!” Shadow pulled the phone closer to herself. “This is an amazing device of tangible benefit to our situation! As I am the most expedient learner in our troop, the task falls to me.”

“Just watch yourself,” Curaçao said. “We know little about the etiquette f-”

“Over here!” the Everykid called, waving at them from the bottom of the stairwell. In their discussion they had stopped following as closely and had fallen behind.

Shadow teleported them down to the base of the stairs. She watched with curiosity as the ‘child’ tapped her hat again, asking it once more where ‘the goal’ was. A magical artifact that always pointed to an object of importance… Shadow had no idea how it worked. Granted, the article had told her the hat wasn’t foolproof, but the fact that it worked at all was astounding.

What sort of magic keyed off fate itself?

Perhaps something other than magic? Some of the other things she’d been reading suggested there were other sources of power. The multiverse was far too large to limit itself to just one method of doing the physically impossible, clearly.

The Everykid’s hat pointed at a single door. CELESTIA CITY DIMENSIONAL MECHANISMS, AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

Grayscale took a step forward. “I got this…”

The Everykid held up a hand, pulling out her identification. She slapped it onto the front of the door. It recognized her and granted her access.

“...Wow, their luck really did pass onto us,” Velvet said. “Sweet.”

“The Everykin is our Lockwart!”

“Everykid, Lockwood,” Curaçao corrected.

“Right, sorry.”

They walked through the door into a large, expansive area lined not with stairs and smooth walls but immense pipes channeling multicolored energy from different parts of the city to a large, spherical globe of black metal. Unlike most of the city’s main structure, which was made of smooth white metal, this material was rough, knobby, and coarse. Likely a material used for industrial purposes that didn’t need to look sleek.

Shadow entered a search term into her phone, bringing up an image of what they were looking at. “Celestia City dimensional drive: a sphere of power responsible for moving Celestia City through universes. The city has several, but only one is required to initiate a jump, even in emergency situations. The redundancy is rarely used, though in times of great need multiple can be used at once to perform an instant jump or move smaller planetary bodies.”

“And that’s our goal!” Havocwing declared. “We just need t-” She saw the Everykid shaking her head. “Oh come on!”

The Everykid pointed to the left, away from the dimensional drive, along the path of a glowing green pipe. She jumped ahead, inviting them to follow.

With no warning, she was frozen solid in a block of ice.

“We’re under attack!” Havocwing shouted, spreading her wings. “Be prepared for anything!”

With a flash of sickly blue energy, an orange unicorn with a red and ice-blue mane appeared on top of the Everykid’s cube. She was jaw-droppingly elegant - her legs perfectly poised, her mane combed back to accentuate her face, her tail carefully framing her plot and cold sun cutie mark. With a single eyebrow raise, she made them shiver. “What a bunch of excellent specimens… the beauty of harmony with just enough of a bad streak to make you risky.” She licked her lips. “Such a shame.”

“Oh… my…” Insipid took a few steps back. “Wh… what do you do to your mane?”

“You want to learn my secrets?” the unicorn chuckled. “How interested are we talking here?”

“...Nopony’s perfect…” Insipid muttered to herself.

“But some ponies are closer to perfection than others.”

“You?” Havocwing laughed. “I may not be a fashionista, but blue and red? That’s jarring!”

The cold unicorn raised an eyebrow. “Jarring enough to be noticed.” She teleported right in front of Havocwing and put a hoof on her face. “Jarring enough to ignite the flames within all…”

Havocwing tried to punch her with her fire, but the mare teleported away - leaving a frozen sheen around Havocwing’s hoof. “What th-”

“Already presenting, are we? Well well, far be it from me not to give you a show…” She lit her horn and announced her magical presence to the six of them.

Shadow put her phone away. “Your output is insignificant compared to mine.”

“Care to demonstrate?”

“I will not be caught unaware through a perverted ritual.”

The unicorn pursed her lips. “You’re no fun.”

“Really? I think we’re a lot of fun!” Velvet said, grinning. “And you’re about to find out, toothpaste!”

“I am Diamond Inferno. And I will not be ‘finding out’ today. I only need the Ever-”

Curaçao punched Inferno from behind while invisible, tossing her to the ground. “Shadow! Ze Everykid!”

“On it!” Shadow declared, surrounding the box of ice in magic, preparing to teleport her away.

“NOT HAPPENING!” Inferno shouted, lighting her horn. Suddenly, Shadow could see Silvertongue looking at her… hungrily.

“F-father…” Shadow said, backing away, losing all focus on her spell.

He took a few slow, commanding steps toward her. “My sweetest dau-”

Velvet cut through the apparition with her bloody tendril. “Snap out of it Shadow!”

Shadow’s heart was racing. “I… Wh…”

“Deal with whatever it was you saw later!” Havocwing shouted, hurling fire at Inferno. “We need to stop her!”

Grayscale increased gravity around Inferno and the Everykid’s cube. Insipid jumped forward, hoof extended in Inferno’s direction…

“Nice try, girls,” Inferno said, completing her teleport. She and the Everykid were gone.

“DAMMIT!” Havocwing shouted. “DAMMIT!”

Velvet ran to Shadow. “Shadow, that wasn’t real, she-”

“She’s like you,” Shadow said, shivering. “That… that must have been my worst fear.”

“...I’m pretty sure her thing’s not fear, Shadow.”

“It was definitely fear,” Shadow denied.

Velvet bit her lip. “I’m not done talking to you.” She bounded away, appearing next to Insipid. “Did you get anything?”

“She got away from me before I could grab anything!” Insipid whined. “Major unfresh! I wanted cold sexy powers…”

Grayscale facehooved.

Havocwing folded her wings. “We have two options. We try to find her, or we go the direction she was telling us to go.”

“Both of zose ‘ave ze ‘we ‘ave no idea where we are going’ problem,” Curaçao pointed out.

“Well we have to choose one and choose it fast!”

“No, you won’t.”

A tall unicorn Sweetie appeared behind them, a miffed expression on her face.

“H-hi!” Havocwing stuttered, an awkward smile on her face. “We were just looking around, new in the city and a-”

Curaçao interrupted her. “We’re new on ze city and were traveling with ze Everykid. We ‘ave just been attacked by a mare who calls herself Diamond Inferno zat stole ze Everykid away from us.”

The Sweetie put a hoof to her head. “Oi, this is gonna be a mess… we’ll investigate this Diamond Inferno, and if you’re telling the truth you won’t be charged for entering a restricted area. But I have to take you away - Mayor Blumiere has demanded an audience with you six concerning the silver tongue prophecy.”

Havocwing blinked. “The Mayor?”

“The silver tongue prophecy is a big deal, in case you haven’t heard. Seers and fortune tellers alike have been losing their collective marbles over its paradoxical importance and vagueness. He wants to see you as soon as possible.”

“We need t-”

“You will be well compensated and, whatever your quest is, he will help in any way you wish upon conclusion of the meeting.”

Curaçao nudged Havocwing. “Getting ze mayor of ze capital on our good side is a very good idea.”

“But the Everykid…”

“...Your call, ‘Avocowing.”

Havocwing frowned. “Probably a bad idea to resist, right?”

The Sweetie nodded. “Exceedingly so.”

“Fine.”

Velvet cleared her throat. “Take us to your leader.”

“That was a cool line!” Insipid complimented.

“Thank you.”

~~~

Earth Shimmer.

Depending on who you talked to, it was Heaven on Earth, Hell on Earth, or just Earth on Not Earth. Or was that the other way around?

Either way, the entire place was Oversaturate-

“You suck.”

Mattie, you aren’t in this scene, go away.

...The entire place was infused with magic not just from the local Equis (which was still trying and failing to not be called Equis Shimmer) but also from Fay realms, pocket dimensions, its own subtle magics, and whatever unholy eldritch spawn that had dropped off from eldritch deities that decided to pass through in time immemorial. Numerous systems of magic had been identified coming from no less than four distinct origins, and all of them integrated in ways that were just complex enough to elude distinct definitions by the local scientists but held just enough of a pattern to make people think there must be a true unified theory of Earth Shimmer magic.

And when you give humans rampant access to magic in the ‘modern’ setting, well…

“I just created a self-aware replicating chirp that keeps demanding jellybeans.”

Overhearing conversations involving lines like the above were somewhat commonplace. The exact above sentence had, in fact, been said six times word-for-word in the history of Earth Shimmer between the revitalization of magic and the “present” time.

If one were to count minor variations, the number would shoot up to nineteen. Because of course it would.

Conversations that normally didn’t happen?

“About time the Merodi finally got their stupid city in here, they’ve been advertising this for years.”

But in one hour that single sentence had been spoken more than a thousand times. If the economy wasn't booming due to the sudden presence of Merodi traders, the world governments might have been concerned they oversold the arrival.

At least they hadn’t decided to make it a holiday. Worldwide, anyway, there were a few countries that were seriously considering marking this as ‘multiverse day’.

Cinder, Blink, Sequin, and Brook were lucky enough to be in Canterlot, the most magical city on Earth, home to Shimmy and most of her friends. This allowed them to hear both the “chirp” comment and the “Merodi” one at the same time while they sat at a cafe. The waitresses were doting over the ‘absolutely adorable little ponies’. Brook and Sequin were more than willing to be cute for them, Blink was not.

Cinder was busy trying to make calls.

“Rarity?”

“Hmm?” her sister asked from the other side.

“Right, so my phone’s not broken…” Cinder frowned. “Rarity, I’m getting a bad feeling and I have no idea why.”

“...Should I come over? Travel to Earth Shimmer is public at the moment.”

“No, no, stay there. Whatever goes down, you probably shouldn’t get involved.”

Rarity gave her a face that indicated she wasn’t convinced. “Stay safe.”

“I always do.” She put her phone down. “Okay, my phone’s not busted. Skuldie’s just not answering.”

Sequin stopped giving the waitresses a cute smile for a moment. “The embodiment of the future… isn’t answering phone calls?”

“Yeah, it’s weird.” She munched on her daisy sandwich. “Maybe Curaçao is already talking with her?”

“You think she’d alleviate our concerns by giving a pity answer if nothing was wrong…” Sequin mused. “Then again, I don’t know her, I’m just going off your descriptions of the m- woman.”

“Is there some other way we can get to her?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know her sister’s number,” Cinder shrugged. “Blink?”

“If Swip were nearby I could ask her.” Blink reclined further in her chair. “But phone numbers aren’t exactly public.”

Cinder frowned. “...I want to say everything’s fine and we shouldn’t worry, but something is definitely going on. Maybe we can get Shimmy’s attention somehow? Ask her?”

“Or we could just ask the absolutely glamorous woman that just walked in!” Sequin squeaked, pointing at the human Rarity that had walked in, arms laced with an Applejack. “Yoo-hoo! Rarity, right?”

Rarity turned to them, lowering her tinted glasses. “Is that really what I sound like when I call you?”

“Eeyep,” Applejack said.

“I think I need to re-examine the methods by which I throw my voice…” She shook her head. “Yes, I’m Rarity. Don’t have another name just yet, I try to stay grounded.”

“I’m Sequin. This is my wife, Brook.”

Brook examined Rarity and Applejack and the matching rings on their fingers. “You two…?”

Rarity giggled. “Yes, us two.”

Brook glanced from Sequin to Applejack and back to Sequin again. “I can’t see it.”

“B-brook! Rude!” Sequin chided.

“But Rar- Sequin, you? And Applejack?”

“I’m sure she’s a very capable farmer and a hard worker.”

“She has absolutely no fashion sense and hasn’t the foggiest idea what beauty actually is.”

“I resent that,” Applejack said. “...Though she’s right that Ah don’t have no fashion sense.”

Brook blushed. “S-sorry. Just a bit much to take in.”

Rarity smirked. “Would you like to see who you landed, dear?”

Brook’s blush only increased in intensity. “I have the distinct impression you’re going to call her here right now.”

“Oh, you do know me,” Rarity said, prompting both her and Sequin to giggle madly.

“Ah’m sorry,” Applejack said, fixing Brook with a forlorn expression.

“...Will I survive?”

“Not with your dignity intact.”

“Oh. I already lost that.”

“TWILIGHT!” Sequin shouted, flushing.

“Ahem. Brook,” Brook made an attempt to keep a calm exterior, but she couldn't keep her own face from matching Sequin’s flush.

“Oh, gag me with a spoon,” Blink muttered, ramming her face into the table.

Cinder patted her on the back. “There the- wait. Spoon?”

“Don’t ask. I don’t even know.”

Rarity closed her phone. “And she should be here right about…”

Twilight teleported into the diner - not by her own power, but by the power of none other than the guardian of harmony for Earth Shimmer, Shimmy herself.

“What did you need us for?” Twilight asked, adjusting her glasses.

Shimmy took one look from the various flushed expressions on the humans and ponies at the table and understood instantly. “Ah. It looks like a public display of affection is in order.”

Twilight blinked. “Hold on wh-”

The next thing she knew Shimmy had bent her over and was kissing her.

A camera flash went off somewhere in the diner. An orange fruit flew from elsewhere. “I’m relevant!”

Twilight scrambled away. “Sunset! In publ-” She saw the expression on her other self and Sequin. “Oh. I am currently unsure if these responses were worth the public awkwardness or not.”

Shimmy shrugged. “Strictly speaking, I probably have to get one of those in every month or so, you at least got something out of it this time.”

“True. It is a clever allocation of resources. Oh, and their expressions appear to get better the more we discuss, excellent.”

“...Am I allowed to be jealous of you?” Sequin asked Brook.

“Only if I can be jealous of myself.”

“Permission granted.”

“Okay.”

Rarity was chuckling uncontrollably.

“You’re evil,” Applejack pointed out.

“I know!” Rarity couldn't help but laugh. “The Infinite Carousel better watch it’s back, this Rarity’s coming for them!”

“...Still ventin’ about the Carousel?”

“I am not selling my business out to a bunch of morally ambiguous whitewashed elitist…” she ran out of words. “Twilight?”

“Arrogant?” Twilight suggested.

“Self-aggrandizing?” Brook added.

“Stuck-up?”

“Prissy?” Applejack suggested.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Har-de-har…”

“Wait a minute…” Brook furrowed her brow. “Three same-sex couples? I’m not all that well versed in the probability of romance, but that seems… unlikely.”

Cinder smirked. “It’s a ka trait unique to the Equis Cluster, I found out. Statistically, the rate of such pairings is completely normal on average. But if you’re a main character the chances of you ending up in a lesbian relationship - lesbian specifically - goes up from about ten percent to about ninety.”

“...Why?”

“Ka?”

“That’s… not really an explanation, from what I read ka does stuff for reasons. This just seems… frivolous!”

Sequin made fake puppydog eyes. “Are you saying I’m frivolous?”

“What? No. Well, yes, you are, but not in that way! I, uh…” Brook rammed her head into the table.

Shimmy tensed, turning slowly to her left to see a black and green human sitting at a far table, staring intently at them. “Hey. Do you mind?”

“Uh… sorry! Sorry!” The human scrambled out of her seat and ran out of the cafe.

Blink lowered her sunglasses. “Huh. I didn’t think Earth Shimmer had changelings…”

“It’s an overlayed Aspect,” Rarity explained. “They’re a free-loving hive-mind collective.”

“Orgy club,” Applejack said.

“Applejack!”

“What, that explains what they are better than… whatever it is you just said.”

“They’re so much more than that! They… well admittedly it’s a little distasteful to speak of in public company…”

“What’s an orgy?” Cinder asked.

Brook, blushing furiously, showed Cinder the definition of the word on her phone.

“SWEET CELESTIA.” Cinder jumped into Blink’s hooves. “Keep me away from these changelings.”

“...I wish I could say that wasn’t an appropriate response…” Shimmy muttered.

“The ironic part is they call themselves the ‘Wholesome,’” Twilight deadpanned.

“I think we’ve all gotten horribly off track,” Blink muttered, clearing her throat. “AHEM. Skuldie isn’t answering her phone. We were going to ask Rarity, but Shimmy, since you’re here…”

Shimmy nodded, closing her eyes. “She’s on Celestia City, in the League of Sweetie Belles right now. She seems stressed… I can go pop in to check on h-”

Suddenly, Shimmy stumbled, eyes going wide. It was as if something very fundamental in her personal reality had gone askew - and considering who she was, this was decidedly concerning. “Oh no…”

“What?” Everyone asked.

“Something’s gone wrong at Warehouse 97…”

“...What’s Warehouse 97…?” Sequin asked, wavering.

“It’s classified and it has a lot of dark magic in it…” Shimmy bit her lip. “Why today…?”

Cinder sighed. “Could it have happened any other day?”

Irruption (CRISIS: Equestria, Part 3)

A female guard pulled a red phone off the hook in a panic. “Code red! Code red! Massive containment breach; Warehouse 97! Hello?”

“That phone isn’t operational,” Silvertongue said, twirling a cut wire in his magic. He had dropped his Shroud disguise shortly after arriving in the Warehouse, allowing all within to see his true form. It was the least he could do for them since none of the personnel here would be leaving alive.

The woman drew her gun, the gem in her forehead sparkling with power. “Don’t try anyth-”

She was dust in a flash of silver energy.

Silvertongue frowned. He did not take pleasure in doing the dirty work himself, that was usually what servants were for. Unfortunately, given the unique circumstances of this particular mission, he was required to be present for all the proceedings.

He had systematically killed all the guards and people with access to communications. They would not be calling for help, though he only had roughly ten minutes to act before the automatic alarms would trigger elsewhere from a lack of vocal contact.

The plan was to wrap things up in five.

The facility was teleport-proof, as all advanced government facilities should be. Silvertongue respected their preparedness, but they clearly had not expected someone with the power of four minor gods to plow through the defenses by sheer brawn alone.

Even this filled him with distaste. Raw power was… inelegant. But he needed speed over form today, and it was not like his rampage was without purpose.

He drilled a perfectly cylindrical hole in the ground, going deep into the earth, past numerous levels of reinforced concrete and magical wards designed to keep a single prisoner from escaping. There were many other prisoners in Warehouse 97, but this particular one… she was the most important.

Wings spread, he flew down the hole before he had finished digging it. He came out the other side with a golden shield raised, stopping the black radiative fire from consuming his flesh.

There was a young woman in the middle of the fire, surrounded by so much radioactive power that the very air rippled and occasionally ionized. Her eyes brimmed with a sickly green-blue that vaporized all flesh they gazed upon.

Silvertongue was the first being she had physically looked upon in years.

“Who are you…?” she rasped.

“I am Silvertongue. Calm yourself, I am here to end your pain.”

“End…?” the woman smiled. “End…”

Silvertongue had no need to say anything or set up any rituals - she did not resist. As he drained every last ounce of magic from her body she let out a sigh of relief and laid down on the cold ground of her cell, a content smile on her face.

In her last moments, the pain had lifted.

Silvertongue did not have time to appreciate what had just transpired - he had eight minutes now, three if he kept to the five minute goal. He forced her radioactive essence deep into his spirit, using the others he had absorbed to keep the uncontrollable radiation in check. The green that had been shining through his eyes left before he returned to the ground level.

Already he could feel the vibration of the very atoms around him, a deep connection to the reality of Earth Shimmer...

He had one more prisoner to visit. He galloped down a hall and blasted a cell door off its hinges.

Inside was an immensely tall man with muscles that belonged more on a monster than a human. He glared at Silvertongue with a deep, burning anger. “Why have you freed me?”

“That is none of your concern,” Silvertongue said. “Our goals do not align.” A sword flashed into existence, falling into the man’s hand. “But know this, Red Bull: your Tirek lives, and is currently living in peace with Chrysalis’ ‘Wholesome’. You know he must face justice.”

Red Bull gripped the sword’s hilt, narrowing his eyes. “I don’t trust you.”

“You can confirm my words for yourself at the Wholesome. You are wise not to trust me, but I am giving you a chance to do what you want. I am asking for nothing else, not even a future favor. You will likely never see me after this day.”

Red Bull took one look at Silvertongue, contemplating the wisdom of engaging the alicorn in combat. In the end, he decided Silvertongue was right. With a grunt, he ran out of the cell as fast as his legs could carry him.

One minute, Silvertongue thought, taking a white orb out of his shirt, laying it on the ground. It was a gift distilled from the holy magic of angels, made by the spiritual Arul rather than himself. It would do nicely to vaporize the entire Warehouse and mask Silvertongue’s magic signature. Only Red Bull would have any idea he had been there, and that variable was accounted for.

He began to arm the holy explosive, but something caught his senses. There was a small human man standing at the entrance to this room, shivering. His skin was a dark, sickly green and oblong gemstone shapes poked out of his flesh in numerous places seemingly without pattern.

“Curious…” Silvertongue said, deciding it was worth going over five minutes to investigate this man. “I did not release the containment procedures on any other cells. How did you get out?”

“They stopped telling me to stay,” he said with a voice barely more than a whisper. “Do you know why?”

“I’m likely the reason, seeing as I killed or disabled all the workers here.”

“...Can you tell me what to do?”

Silvertongue furrowed his brow. Interesting… “Tell me your name.”

“Shivershackles.”

“And why are you here?”

“To keep bad people from telling me what to do.”

“And what do you do?”

“Whatever you want.”

Silvertongue decided a test was in order. “Shivershackles… destroy that wall.”

“Yes, master.” Shivershackles placed a hand on the wall and let out a scream of pain. There was no explosion, no flash of light, nothing more than a surge of dark, inky magic and the rock that made up the wall shattered in several places, revealing the next cell over that contained a woman with eyes all over her body. She didn’t respond to the sudden lack of wall.

“Shivershackles…” Silvertongue handed the man the holy bomb. “Set this to go off in precisely two minutes and twelve seconds to vaporize this entire facility and everything in it.”

“Of course,” Shivershackles said. Even though there was no way he could possibly know how to set the bomb, all he did was touch it and it did exactly what Silvertongue had wanted.

Silvertongue laughed. “What fortune! A perfect servant!”

“P-perfect?”

Silvertongue detected a dip in Shivershackles’ internal magic the instant he registered the praise.

Ah, so there’s the catch…

“Only for this instance,” Silvertongue said, forcing his smile to vanish. “You will no doubt be woefully inadequate soon, as all servants inevitably are.”

“Oh…” His magic increased once more.

“Get on my back. We must leave this place before we are destroyed.” Silvertongue shifted his form back into an unassuming pegasus, allowing Shivershackles to climb on. “Don’t say anything, don’t fidget. Stay perfectly still and if you so much as twitch you will learn what it means to disappoint Shroud.”

As the man whimpered in agreement, his internal power only soared.

Silvertongue spread his wings and took off, timing his exit to perfectly coincide with the detonation of the bomb. He teleported away just as a cloud of pure holy energy engulfed the Warehouse and all the bunkers beneath, destroying all the dangerous magic contained within utterly. They would be a blight on Earth Shimmer no more.

More importantly, the immense blast masked all evidence of Silvertongue’s magic within the purge. Shimmy would definitely feel the explosion, but she would have no idea who had done it or why.

Shivershackles?

Now, he was just a bonus.

~~~

Shimmy’s avatar arrived seconds after the bomb went off. She got to feel the secondary shockwave and feel the light brush over her. Aside from some mild discomfort, she was completely unaffected.

Physically.

The massive crater in her planet was more than enough of a scar to feel like a lash across her heart.

“Why…” she breathed, drifting down into the crater. It was immense, large enough to take out all of Warehouse 97, including support buildings, bunkers, the perimeter… the only evidence that there had ever been anything here was the road that led right into the gaping hole. Shimmy could hardly sense any of the dark magics that had been contained there. Even the radiation from the girl was weak.

That girl…

She didn’t deserve this. She deserved to be cured… the Merodi had just gotten here, they would have been able to do something! Take her to a mundane universe for therapy or something.

But she was gone. Her life began with tragedy, lived through hell, lived through confinement, and then died because… because what?

Shimmy didn’t know. She held out her hand, trying to trace the source of the holy explosion. To her annoyance, the attacker had been prepared for her: it had been a remote detonation, prepared prior to coming to the Warehouse. There was no trail to follow, just a heaping helping of sickening brightness.

Think, Sunset, think, Shimmy racked her mind. Light magic was generally wielded by those who were either on the side of ‘good’ or at least thought they were. One of those angels, maybe, Merodi Universalis did have a few of those. Why would an angel attack?

...To purge the world of evil.

They probably thought they were being a hero by destroying this place.

Shimmy clenched her firsts. “Not all of them were monsters… we were so close to helping so many of them… whoever you are, I am going to find you. And I am going to make you pay.”

A few government helicopters appeared above the crater, descending to the place she was standing. A woman in a black suit and sunglasses walked out, standing next to her. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure…” Shimmy admitted. “My best guess is some ‘hero’ thought they would purge the world of its greatest darkness…” She turned to the agent. “There must have been a security breach. Even most of the Merodi Overheads didn’t know about this place. Find out where that happened.”

“We’re already on it.”

Shimmy nodded, frowning. “I’ll… I’ll assist you how I can. Just hold on a minute.”

She teleported back to the cafe and sat down in a chair next to Twilight, hand to her forehead.

Twilight put a hand to her mouth. “Oh no…”

“What happened?” Brook asked.

“Warehouse 97 is a crater now. Everyone inside - everyone - is gone.”

Rarity and Applejack gasped. The rest of them had no idea what she was talking about.

Shimmy frowned. “I suppose there’s no way we’re keeping it a secret now… everybody’s going to notice that crater. Warehouse 97 was a secret U.N. base that contained the most dangerous manifestations of magic. Walking nuclear bombs. Magic murderers. And a few… ‘monsters’.” She folded her arms. “We kept them there in… in hopes that we would be able to help them one day, but also to keep them from endangering the public. A few of the guards used to call it Sunset’s Mercy....” She took a breath, grinding her teeth. “Now we’ll never be able to help them. Someone killed every last one of them.”

“That’s terrible!” Sequin cried. “I… Who would do such a thing?”

“A hero,” Cinder sighed. “A hero who saw a bunch of villains…” Cinder furrowed her brow, as if she wasn’t entirely sure of her own deduction.

Shimmy nodded. “That’s what I think too.” She let out a deep breath. “I’m going back to help. I just… I just need to sit for a minute.”

Twilight put her hands on Shimmy’s back. “We can help.”

Shimmy didn’t object. She hung her head back and tried to force herself to relax. A silver lining presented itself to her - she no longer had to manage reality while emotionally compromised like this. She could just… let it go for a moment, and everything would be fine when she came back.

...Not fine. But the same.

Twilight’s phone rang, shaking Shimmy out of her seat. “What is it!?”

Twilight answered the phone, frowning as she listened to the voice on the other end. “I’ll see what she says…” She put the phone down. “Blumiere has a lead on the silver tongue prophecy. He wants you to be there when they go over it.”

“The silver tongue…” Shimmy began to pace around the chair. “We knew something like this was going to happen. Everything’s coming together.”

“That’s probably why we’re here,” Cinder admitted.

“Right,” Shimmy clapped her hands. “I’m going to the silver tongue meeting. You are going to help the others investigate the crater. Twilight, you’re in charge. Rest of you, congratulations, you suddenly have Earth Shimmer clearance.”

“...Even us?” Brook asked.

“If you’re going with them.”

Sequin frowned. “I’m not so sure…”

“Rarity, we’re here,” Brook said, putting a hoof on Sequin’s shoulder. “We can’t just walk away, can we?”

Sequin let out a bitter chuckle. “No… No I suppose we can’t. We have a problem, don’t we?”

“Maybe.”

Twilight stood up, looking at Shimmy in concern. “You sure you don’t have to be here?”

Shimmy put her hands behind her back. “This silver tongue thing is going to be important, I know it. I’ll be back with you as soon as it’s over. Don’t worry about me - worry about finding out who did this.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay. Take care of yourself.”

“If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s taking care of things.” She vanished in a puff of white magic.

Twilight adjusted her glasses. “Well. Rarity, Applejack? Can you use your connections to check the underground for hints of a security leak?”

Rarity smirked. “Of course, darling.”

“Ah’m still bothered that we know the underground,” Applejack muttered.

“Unfortunately necessary given the Carousel and other unsavory types trying to run us under… I’ll give you a call if we get anything.”

“Good.” Twilight turned to the two Sweeties, Sequin, and Brook. “We are going to the crater directly. Hope you’re ready for a long-range teleport.”

~~~

Celia, Squiddy, Seren, and Nira were led to the throne room of Queen Blackburn of Hope’s Point at gunpoint. The guard consisted mostly of pegasi; fit pegasi in sleek armor at that. They didn’t get to see much of the city itself for they were led mostly through underground passages and backways to keep them out of the eyes of the public.

But Celia did get to catch one glance of the surface - a city that, despite its half-destroyed state, was still filled with happy ponies and life. A few of them walked tentatively, glancing up at the barrier-tinted sky as if it might explode at any moment, but for the most part it was respectable if a bit densely packed and dusty.

Queen Blackburn herself was a larger-than-average gray pegasus who didn’t bother with things like crowns or regalia - she wore a simple but high-quality pilot’s coat and had some sort of magitech weapon affixed to one of her hooves. Her mane was long, blue, and sharp - well maintained, but simply so.

Despite being taller than the Queen, Celia still felt as though she was being looked down upon.

Beside Blackburn was a much smaller pale pegasus in a simple hat. One of his wings was bent in an awkward position, heavily damaged. Celia suspected he was related to the Queen in some way, though he didn’t give off the aura of a King.

Celia bowed to Blackburn, an indication for the rest of her team to do so as well. “Greetings, Queen Blackburn. Thank you for seeing us so expediently.”

Blackburn spoke with a level tone that was fast, but clearly pronounced nonetheless. “Never receive calls like that. Had to be something important if bothering me. Did not need to know more secondhoof info, wanted to meet you personally. Guards, stand down.”

The guards listened to their Queen, lowering their weapons.

“Leave us.”

The guards left without another word.

“Pretty trusting of us…” Squiddy said.

“She’s not,” Celia corrected. “She just knows the guard would not be able to stop us if we wished to harm her, and she’d rather not have us on edge while discussing.”

“Correct,” Blackburn confirmed. “You state that to put me on the defensive, having judged my character. Subtly declaring yourself a fit opponent.”

“I would prefer the term ‘like-minded ally’, if you would, your highness.”

“Earn that title.”

“I have every intention of doing so.”

Blackburn nodded. “You know me. This is Lockwood. You?”

“Chalcedony, Celia. This is Nira, Squiddy, and Serendipity.”

“Second name disposition, an unknown, a nickname, and a name that is regularly shortened to save time. Seren, yes?”

Seren blinked. “Wow. She’s good.”

Celia nodded. “Quite. Am I right in assuming you and Lockwood are related in some fashion?”

Lockwood blinked. “Well. Looks like you might have just found your match.”

“That remains to be seen. Lockwood is my fiance. Would have been married sooner, recent events bar it. Not worth discussing right now.”

“Understood,” Celia admitted. So he is to be the King, interesting…

Blackburn spread her wings and flew to Nira. “Only actual pony in the group - unicorn. Remove your hood.”

Nira glowered at her, but did as asked, revealing her darker mane and the true extent of her many scars.

“Horn shows signs of constant use, high-class spellcaster. Darkened mane and coat, indicative of Dark magic, but not as extensive as expected. Scarring implies blood mage. Expression - prideful, annoyed. Does more than blood magic.”

“Yes, congratulations, we love your deduction skills,” Nira grunted. “You could just ask, you know.”

“Yes.”

“Just let her do her thing,” Lockwood said, sitting back. “She does it to everypony she meets.”

“Even if they are not a pony,” Blackburn observed, moving on to Seren. “Species unknown, but part unicorn. Young, much younger than the others. No familial relation. Fingers… fine, pointed nails, not from care but constant use. Continually distracted by my weapon and other technology. Engineer, perhaps, though the scepter indicates possible mage.”

“Cool!” Seren said. “You’re good at this!”

“Tell me something I don’t know. Scratch that, don’t, I’ll figure it out myself.” She moved to Squiddy. “Squid-like, though physiology is far removed. Only one carrying weapons, but also only one without magic. Tense stance, suggests soldier, always ready for a fight. Weapons filled with white ink substance, perhaps produced naturally, given color of tentacles. Singular non-ink weapon. Possible lethal last resort?” Noticing Squiddy’s expression twitch, Blackburn nodded. “An attempt at a pacifist soldier. Admirable, but an immense drain on mental resources.”

Squiddy let out an incoherent grumble that was probably an insult.

“Celia,” Blackburn said, moving to the tall pony. “Leader, politician, careful speaker. Skilled at lying, but isn’t, far as I know. Not actually pony: no fur, body is sleek. Dress is manifested with magic, likely to conform with local dress requirements, indicating that form is fluid. Gem is cracked, likely the source of power and source of the body. Natural form is not that of a pony, but the pose is too comfortable for one who shifts appearance regularly. Analytical, constantly measuring the situation, looking for advantages. Calm. Not intimidated, unlike the others.”

“Queen Blackburn,” Celia said. “Logical, almost rationalist in behavior. Abhors lost time and yet spends excess brainpower on deductions for the sake of sharpening her wits and making a statement. Has deduced several more important things about my team, but holds them back out of what she tells herself is a sense of caution, but is more about impression than she cares to admit. Ruler of a city under constant threat from invaders who attack from the sky. The shield recently failed, the city survived. Injuries were sustained. Her weapon also serves as a brace for her leg, and her wings have remained folded to her side, unusual for a pegasus in her position of authority. Nonetheless an honorable mare.”

“How do you know that?”

“Intuition.”

“Foolishness.”

“I would respond with a comment in relation to where I come from, but I believe you were saving that particular observation to make a point?”

Lockwood, Squiddy, Nira, and Seren were staring blankly at the two of them.

Blackburn nodded toward Celia with respect. “You would do well in Hope’s Point.”

“I have to do well everywhere.”

“It is your job.”

“Naturally.”

Blackburn took a few steps back, taking all four of them in at once. “All similar in appearance, variations on a theme. Would suggest family, but the race difference makes that impossible. All four contain some kind of impossibility. Team colors worn intentionally? Variations in Celia’s eyes and Sqiuddy’s tentacles oppose this. Deduction is clear - from different worlds. Not surprised at this point.”

Lockwood shrugged. “Same.”

“You’ve had other dimensional travelers?” Seren asked.

“Yes. Recently,” Blackburn answered. “Part of the reason Hope’s Point is in this situation.”

Celia nodded. “But you don’t blame them.”

“No. The true source of our problems is a pony from this world. Lord Silvertongue of New Pandemonium City.”

Celia moved to say something, but Blackburn held up a hoof. “I will get to the point. You are here as explorers seeking peaceful discussion. You shall receive that. We need help. You know how to travel the multiverse. We do not.”

“This Silvertongue, he did?” Celia asked.

“Yes. He played us. Had us create the portal for him. Him and those who had the knowledge to operate the portal vanished within.” She growled in distaste. “I didn’t see it coming. Didn’t even know he was involved. He stayed distant until the last possible moment. He plans to use the world Equestria Prime to bring about his perverse idea of ‘perfection’.”

Squiddy lit up. “Sounds right up our alley.”

Celia smirked. “We are known to hunt down villains. I believe you are a mare of your word, and that you have not lied to us. We shall seek this Silvertongue out and bring him to justice.” She looked to Lockwood. “We will save those he has taken with him as well, if possible.”

“...Thank you,” Lockwood said, surprised. “But… you’re helping us just like that?”

“It’s what they do,” Blackburn said. “They have the same glint in their eyes those six mares had.” She turned her gaze back to Celia. “The dead portal sits at this world's south pole, within Zeb’ra’den. We shall journey there.”

“How long will that take?” Nira asked.

“With my ships? Under a week. But you have better.” Blackburn ruffled her wings. “Show me.”

Celia nodded. “Yes, your majesty.” She pulled out a dimensional device. “I should warn you, they may not be what you’re expecting.”

“Open it.”

Celia dialed Swip, opening right to the lounge. A second later Burgerbelle flew out, covered in a ton of illegible receipts. “I have been… receiptrocated…” she declared before passing out at Blackburn’s hooves with a comical squeak. The word WASTED appeared over top of her.

“...Huh,” Blackburn said.

~~~

The Crown Princess stood once again in front of the Beacon of Harmonia. Once, she was told, it had shot a beam of pure light into the sky. No more - it hardly glowed at all, struggling to hold on to the light of harmony.

In front of it there was a metal ring with a pink crystal at the top, dormant. In theory, it would work if enough magic was surged into it at the right frequency, but that was not the Crown Princess’ plan. Even the jewels in the Crown would be taxed giving life to this ring.

She was just going to use the dimensional travel spell on the coordinates the gate last accessed.

She had several dozen swords and spears pointed at her by zebra guards, and Zircon himself stood nearby, watching her closely. They did not trust her, a fact that annoyed her immensely - but they would learn their error soon enough.

“I found the coordinates,” she said, flapping some dust out of her wings. “I will open a portal now. Ready?”

“For both this gate and tricks unknown
I am ready for what you’ve sown.”

The Crown Princess nodded. She decided not to make an ordeal out of the spell - it would be more jarring if she showed how truly effortless a proper dimensional portal really was. She lit her horn… and a white ring popped into existence, leading to a forest in another world. “There you go. Equestria IV, as promised.”

Zircon gawked.

“I recognize this sight I see
This is where Silvertongue did flee!
My doubts you’ve shown quite unfounded
My gratitude is unbounded.”

“I’m not done yet,” the Crown Princess said with a smirk. “We’re going in. Those of you staying behind, remember what I told you of the Merodi. Those of you coming… be ready for anything from this Silvertongue.”

She and a few dozen zebras stepped through the ring, coming out into what the Crown Princess knew was a version of the Whitetail Woods. The portal popped closed, and they were alone.

“I’ll check for dimensional signatures…” the Crown Princess said, lighting her horn once more. “This might take awhile if he moved far awa-”

She was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a Celestia and Luna, both in battle stances.

Zircon raised his sword.

“To me, my kin, against our foes!
Let none stop us ending our woes!
Alicorns, know this day was when
You faced the might of Zeb’ra’den!”

“We will let no others threaten our world!” Luna shouted back.

“WAIT!” the Crown Princess flew between them. “We aren’t here to invade! We’re looking for Silvertongue!”

Celestia calmed immediately. “You do not serve him?”

Zircon spat on the ground.

“That treacherous deceiving rat
Deserves in his eye to be spat
Venom from nineteen kinds of snake
I’d die before serving that rake.”

Celestia waved a hoof, getting Luna to stand down. “I am sorry to disappoint you, but he has already moved on to Equestria III. It took us weeks to open one portal to follow him…”

“I know how to track him,” the Crown Princess said, tapping her horn. “Just show me where he left, it’ll take all of a few minutes.”

Luna turned to Celestia. “Should we…?”

“There can be no harm in letting them see,” Celestia said. “Stay still, it will take a moment to teleport this many…”

A moment turned out to be about twelve seconds, at which point all of them appeared in the middle of the Everfree Forest where the Tree of Harmony had once been. There was a pile of rubble in the middle of the cavern and seven pony statues.

Zircon ran up to the statues, his eyes focusing on one in particular.

“What travesty do I behold?
Whose heart could be this frozen cold
To turn fair Rarity to stone
On his quest for immortal throne?”

He spun, pointing at the Crown Princess.

“You, traveller from afield
I have seen that which you wield!
I beg you this, restore this mare
From stone to flesh, from wretch to fair!”

The Crown Princess went through the library of spells she had stored in her crown. She did know the de-petrification spell, though she questioned why the Princesses hadn’t already used it. She turned to them, raising an eyebrow in an unspoken question.

Celestia sighed. “They have no magical energy in them anymore. Silvertongue drained them dry. They would need some kind of supplement…”

“Oh, that I can do,” the Crown Princess said. “Just need to drain some life force, and Everfree Forests are full of things like that.”

Celestia glanced at her with a curious expression. “Draining life is a dark art, little one.”

“And you’re lucky I know it.” The Crown Princess checked Celesita’s face for recognition - there was no Capricious Crown in this world, right?

“...I suppose we are,” Celestia said with a cautious nod - no recognition in her eyes. “How much do you need?”

“I’ll just go drain a random grove, be right back…” the Crown Princess teleported to a lake in the middle of the Everfree surrounded by beautiful, luscious trees. She didn’t light her horn. Instead, she focused on the gems within her crown, reaching out with magic until she could touch the very essence of the life around her. Animals, plants, fungus, and magical creatures… all of them felt her.

The Crown’s magic had originally been intended to drain minds and subsequently control them, but it could easily be adapted to something far more sinister. Tales of rams being turned to dust to fuel the Crown were not exaggerations. Now that it was fused with Sweetie, using the magic in such a way would be suicide, but that did not mean the draining power could not be used at all.

All it took was a little nudging and its attention could be shifted elsewhere.

All the trees and animals within several yards turned to dust once the spell was completed, blowing their ash-like remains into the wind. The crystals of her crown were shining brightly now, more like headlights than simple gemstones. She teleported back to the statues. “Got enough.”

Luna and Celestia felt the energy billowing off of her. Only Luna visibly reacted with disgust, but the Crown Princess knew Celestia well enough to tell when she was stifling her emotions.

No matter. Celestia would thank the Crown Princess for bringing her precious student back. With a flash of magic, the life force was divided up between the seven mares coupled with a de-petrification spell. The stone fell away with ease, revealing the six Elements of Harmony… and a strange blue-green unicorn who looked pissed.

“Where is the bastard!?” the unicorn shouted, whipping her head left and right. “I’m not playing your games anymore, you daf-”

“Tick Tock, calm yourself,” Celesita said. “He has already left. It has been a few weeks since that day.”

“Wh…”

“Celestia!” Twilight shouted, rushing her mentor into a hug.

Zircon approached Rarity, bowing his head.

“Fair Rarity, my heart delights
That you have been set to your rights.
A soul like yours is distinguished
And should never be extinguished.”

“Oh! My knight in shining armor!” She moved to embrace him - but she stumbled over her hooves. “Wha…?”

“I… feel…” Pinkie shook her head. “Weak…”

“We were stuck in stone, of course we’d be weak, Pinks,” Rainbow said, huffing from her position in the air.

“Actually, you are probably significantly weaker,” the Crown Princess said. “SIlvertongue drained you dry. The power of the Elements isn’t in you at all.”

“Oh.” Pinkie drooped. “Guess that’s why everything feels… normal.”

Fluttershy gasped. “Normal? Oh, Pinkie…”

The Crown Princess turned away from the statues. “There you go. Your ponies are back.”

“Thank you…” Luna furrowed her brow.

“Just call me the Crown Princess. I travel the multiverse, warning those who will listen of Merodi Universalis - a society that conquers by friendship. I have much more to tell you of them, in time, but we need to chase Silvertongue.” She lit her horn, feeling for the dimensional signature with her magic.

“Where are the others?” Twilight asked, looking around.

Celestia frowned. “Havocwing and her sisters were able to traverse the barrier with our power. They left earlier today in pursuit. It looks as though you will get to join them soon.”

The zebra held out a hoof.

“Celestia, hold yourself back.
I too wish to go on attack
But these six mares were for a week
Unable to move, breathe, or speak.
They are brave, I have not a doubt
But must rest before setting out.”

Rainbow glared. “Wanna say that to my face, bub?”

“He just did, Rainbow,” Rarity pointed out.

“He has a point,” Twilight admitted. “But… even like this, I can’t just let Silvertongue go. I don’t know all that’s happened while we were petrified or how we’re going to chase him, but we need to be there.” She frowned. “Celestia, the Void...?”

‘“Is encroaching on our world, yes,” Celestia admitted with a sigh. “It has been strengthened by the arrivals you see before you, but even now our world tends closer and closer to the abyss without the Tree and Discord.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, he was necessary,” Luna admitted.

“All the more reason to deal with Silvertongue now,” Twilight said.

“Now?” Tick Tock laughed. “How are we going to do it now? We don’t have the power, the resources, the time, or a bloody portal! Nopony’s explained the plan!”

The Crown Princess demonstrated by opening a portal back to Equestria V effortlessly.

“...What in the…” Tick Tock gawked.

“I am the Crown Princess. I come from universes far beyond what you know. I know a simple, elegant spell for dimensional travel - I just need dimensional signatures.”

Tick Tock gawked. “You… You can take us right to Equestria Prime! Just a few jumps.”

“I do need the signatures…”

“I’m a Chronomancer, I have all of those. Here, try this.” The Chronomancer lit her horn, and the signature went directly into the Crown Princess’ horn. A second later, the portal to Equestria III was open. “You’re right amazing, you are…” Tick Tock shook her head. “No time to gawk. EVERYPONY THROUGH!”

“Zebra too,” Fluttershy added.

Zircon frowned at her, concerned.

“I admire your devotion
But you’ve suffered much commotion.
I had hoped that you could now rest
Must you join us on this quest?”

Rarity nodded. “Powerless or no… we’re seeing this through until the end.”

“We shall stave off the Void as long as we can,” Celestia called. “Return quickly.”

“We will!” Twilight called, jumping through the portal.

A Chronomancer, a Princess, a troop of zebras, and six powerless mares entered Equestria III all at once.

The local Spike noticed them instantly. More ponies to eject...

~~~

“Rarely ask this,” Blackburn said as she observed Burgerbelle chase Rachel around Swip with a palm frond. “What is she?”

Suzie chuckled. “She’s what’s called a Flat, from a universe where reality was based more on imagination and even that was little more than a suggestion. There are not many beings that can leave their worlds and bring their physics with them, but Flats are one of them.”

“She defies understanding.”

“That’s… kind of the reason she’s here, admittedly.” Suzie leaned back on the wall. “She’s so out there we rarely come across people who are able to comprehend what she is. She baffles, confuses, and is able to trick people into thinking she’s an imbecile. Whatever you think about her, it’s probably wrong.” Suzie chuckled. “I’m under no illusion that I fully understand her, and I’m one of her closest friends.”

“Must be exhausting.”

“At times. The trick to being around her is to just go with the flow.”

“And not ask questions.”

“Eh, more like ask the right questions. ‘How’ or ‘What’ tend to be pointless, but ‘Why’ is often a good bet.”

“Why is she chasing Rachel around?”

“Fun, mostly,” Suzie said. “Also to get a reaction out of you.”

Blackburn nodded slowly. “You run this ship like a family.”

“Let me guess: sloppy?”

“Yes. But admirable. Risky as well.”

“It works well enough for us.”

“Your entire crew is not here.”

Suzie nodded - not even bothering to ask how Blackburn had deduced that. “Cinder, our newest, and Blink, our sneak. They’re attending a bit of a celebration at our capital city. An unstable universe recently became stable.”

“You can stabilize universes. Good. Ours is in danger of falling to the Void.”

“Oh?”

“We have been experimenting ever since Silvertongue left. We have not opened a portal yet. We’ve detected the Void. It was eating our world. Suddenly stopped for no apparent reason shortly before you arrived. Not a coincidence.”

“Usually opening portals destabilizes universes… but I’m not the technician. And since Seren’s down there at the moment… Swip?”

“Yes?” Swip asked, turning one of the nearby walls into a screen, displaying a bored avatar. “This better be good if you’re keeping me from watching Rachel.”

“You can divide your attention. Perform a search: universes that stabilize with dimensional activity.”

“Finished before you completed the question. They’re rare, but they do exist. Starbeat writes papers on them, looks like the phenomenon is linked to ka in some way. Universes that fizzle out when the ‘importance’ leaves.”

Blackburn stared at Swip, wordless.

“Why is she looking at me like that?”

“She’s smart,” Suzie answered. “She likely won’t just ignore what doesn’t make sense like most others do.”

“Ka. Unknown word. Spoken of in relation to ‘importance’, spoken in air quotes. Implies a tangible force of destiny. Seems illogical, but given the absurdity of events in Equestria V…” She put a hoof to her chin. “Interesting theory. I assume you have books on the topic?”

“Tons. We should probably ease you into it, though…”

“I don’t do ‘ease’.”

“Figures. Swip, look u-”

“Incoming call,” Swip said, switching the display away from her avatar and on to Celia.

“What is it?” Suzie asked.

“So, minor problem down here in Utopia,” Celia coughed. “Utopia itself is very welcoming to us, and the new Warden is ecstatic that we’re here. Only… one problem. The Beacon is located in Zeb’ra’den and they’re not letting us anywhere near it.”

“And you couldn’t talk your way through them?”

“I tried, believe me. Even imitated their rhyming scheme - the meter was difficult, don’t get me started on that. I did manage to figure out why they won’t let us in.”

“...I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“The Crown Princess was here before us.”

Suzie blinked. “Ah. That’s unfortunate.” She turned to Blackburn. “She was a Sweetie who resented us for saving her world too late to save her sister. Fused her mind with an ancient artifact by accident. Has been going around making things difficult for us, calling us ‘conquerers by friendship’.”

“You are.”

Suzie frowned. “You have the right to refuse our interference in most cases.”

Blackburn nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“How urgent is it that we get to Silvertongue?”

“Very. Worlds could end.”

“How powerful is Zeb’ra’den in this world?”

“Among the weakest despite their warrior culture.”

“Good.” Suzie adjusted the cuff of her uniform’s sleeve. “Celia, come on back. We’re going to the beacon if they like it or not.”

“Got it.” The transmission cut.

“You might want to get off,” Suzie commented. “I doubt it would be politically adviseabl-”

“I am not going anywhere. We are chasing down Silvertongue. Lockwood can handle my duties for a while.” She lowered her head and growled. “I don’t like being made a fool, Suzie.”

Suzie smirked. “Welcome aboard, Blackburn. Let’s hope this doesn’t start a war.”

~~~

Spike the Changeling - that was to say, the mind of all the changelings - surrounded the interdimensional visitors composed mostly of zebras. The changelings lit their horns…

“Get out of here,” Spike said. “We d-”

“Are you daft!?” Tick Tock shouted. “What are you doing trying to send us into the Void? What happened to your Chronomancer!?”

Spike ignored her. “Bye.” He opened the portal…

But before it could fully form, the Crown Princess sealed it shut. “We have a mission, changelings. We are not getting ejected from your universe because of it.”

The changelings stared at her in shock.

“You’re using Chronomancer spells!” Tick Tock shouted. “Spill, buggers!”

“Clockwork’s gone,” the changelings said as one. “We are acting in his place since Silvertongue took him.”

“Right, that’s it, all we need to know…” Tick Tock sent another pulse to the Crown Princess. “Moving on… Equestria II…” She growled. “Somethin’ better have stopped him here.”

The Crown Princess focused her magical energy and ripped another portal through reality. “...You were right to be cautious, changelings. Not all visitors are your friends. Beware the Merodi.”

And then they were in Equestria II, a vast, dead, brown wasteland.

“High radiation levels,” the Crown Princess observed. “Nothing lethal, but we shouldn’t stay here long.”

“We’d know if he made it to Equestria Prime…” Tick Tock said, scratching her chin. “Reality wouldn’t be the same if he’d already gotten there. Something either stopped him here or in Equestria I.”

"Wait..." Applejack said.

"Don't question the numbering system, I didn't make it."

“Can you scan for his magic?” Twilight asked.

“I can, but I’m not getting anything,” Tick Tock muttered. “He probably masked it.”

The Crown Princess sniffed the air. “Something’s wr-”

Suddenly, there were seven purple alicorns surrounding them, a red pegasus mare riding one of them. “GOTCHA!” she shouted.

“...Bell Tower?!” Tick Tock gasped.

“...Tick Tock!?” Bell Tower flapped off the top of the alicorn. “What are you doing here?”

“I was hunting Silvertongue!”

“I’ve been waiting weeks for him, prepared an army and everything!”

“But he’s already here. We just discovered that he left Equestria III!”

“I’ve been watching the fabric of reality like a hawk ever since the call went through. There haven’t even been any natural storms!”

“...Then where is he?” Tick Tock asked.

“He could have moved stealthily, maybe?” Twilight suggested. “Curaçao had the ability to go invisible and was able to sneak into Hope’s Point…”

“Psh,” Tower said, rolling her eyes. “I’d see him, Chronomancer’s honor. He’d have to be quite clever to get past me.”

“He is,” Tick Tock and Twilight deadpanned.

“Fine. Say he did get past me. Why not go to Equestria I? I’m the last line of defense, there's nothing really to stop him after this. Equestria I isn't exactly... defensive.”

“He waited a thousand years to strike on Equestria V,” Tick Tock said. “He could be waiting.”

“For what?”

“An opportunity to access Equestria Prime or I? Natural portal, perhaps.”

Tower scratched her chin. “That might be it…”

“We could draw him out of hiding by making a portal of our own,” the Crown Princess suggested.

“All right... signature for Equestria I coming right up. And no, I'm not bloody giving you the signature of Equestria Prime."

The Crown Princess nodded. “Understandable precaution. Here, I’ll just teach you the spell, it'll save time if we need to later.”

“We don’t have time to teach m-” Tick Tock stopped short, for the spell was suddenly in her mind. “...What the?”

“Learning spells are quite useful,” the Crown Princess said, smirking. “Go ahead, cast it yourself.”

Tick Tock nodded slowly. “Okay… Everyone, get ready! He might come out of nowhere!”

Zircon rose his sword high.

“The foul cur endangered our home
But today we will end his roam!
For right and hope my blade does thirst
Come Silvertongue, and do your worst!”

Bell Tower turned to her alicorns. “Everyone’s still in position right? Okay… let’s do this. ON THREE!”

“TWO!” Tick Tock shouted,

“ONE!”

Tick Tock activated the portal remarkably easily, opening a portal to the normal-looking version of Ponyville in Equestria I.

Silvertongue did not appear. No unusual magics came from the other side of the portal, either.

“...Where in the multiverse is he?” Tick Tock asked, closing the portal with a pop.

Bell Tower took a deep breath. “We might… need to go to Headquarters to sort this one out.”

“Joy…” Tick Tock deadpanned.

“Is that bad?” Twilight asked.

“For me and Tower? Yeah, we’re probably going to get reprimanded something fierce. You all? ...Boring, I guess? The suits are pretty stuffy.”

“I’ll make the call,” Bell Tower said, shivering. “With any luck Silvertongue will appear out of nowhere and cut off my head before I utter a single sentence.”

“...Gruesome…” Twilight said.

“Try living in Equestria II. Nothing but war, raiders, ghouls, blood, guts, and guns. It’s all great fun.”

~~~

Cinder kicked a rock. It tumbled down the edge of the crater. It got too small for her to see before it hit the bottom.

“...Discord never did anything like this,” Brook said, grimace deepening. “He never even tried to do something like this.”

Sequin was conflicted. “As terrible as he is… I have to admit, you’re right. He never would have.”

“Sometimes… one person’s hero is another’s villain.” Cinder stared deeply into the crater. “Twilight - human Twilight, sorry - how could this have happened?”

“We don’t know,” Twilight said, adjusting her glasses. “There were hundreds of security protocols in place. Whoever it was disabled them all and managed to do this within the ten-minute window we have set up for vocal confirmation of ‘all’s well’. Transmissions went dead at 2:31 and by 2:37 there wasn’t a Warehouse anymore. There were no outgoing calls, and we can’t scan for magic signatures because that bomb wiped everything. There was a girl in the deepest containment we had who gave off nuclear-reactor energy. We can barely detect that she was ever here.”

Blink sighed. “Holy purging indeed. ...Suzie wouldn't like this.”

“Hmm?” Cinder asked.

“Never mind.” Blink tossed her mane back. “I’m going down there. Tell your government agents not to shoot me.”

“They know. What do you plan to do?”

“I’m the Witch of Void,” Blink said simply. “I should be able to manipulate the nothingness and learn… something. Never been that good with the more ‘out there’ uses of Void, honestly. But I can at least try.”

Blink took off her sunglasses and handed them to Cinder. “Hold these.”

“Blink…?”

“I need to see clearly.” She smirked. “Get ready for a show! If all goes well this’ll be impressive.” She jumped off the edge of the crater and started floating down to the bottom.

“What is she doing…?” Brook asked.

“I have no idea,” Cinder admitted. “I thought her Void was just ‘make things invisible and intangible’ and ‘make them visible and tangible.’ Guess there’s something else to it?”

Twilight nodded. “The Aspect of Void is tied directly to the idea of nothing - that includes secrets, lost information, objects that don’t exist, and even events hidden from sight.”

Cinder cocked her head. “I thought that was a weird thing from Skaia’s Dream, how do you know about it?”

“The Aspects are not unique to Skaia’s Dream,” Twilight said. “They’re one of the many magic systems that have been… incorporated here. My current theory as to why amounts to ‘the Tower just really likes us for some reason’.”

“I’d like to see this Tower some day,” Sequin said, wistful. “I understand it’s not exactly a vacation destination… but still. It must be impressive.”

“Oh yes,” Cinder said, shivering slightly. “I’ve only seen it in vi- what the…?”

Blink was standing at the bottom of the crater, barely more than a white speck in their vision. However, she was glowing with a dark blue energy that poured out from her hooves, swirling around her in six curved bursts. Her empty eyes were marked by trails of similarly colored energy. The fog of Void thickened, surrounding Blink like a tornado… she became difficult to see, even though she wasn’t invisible, rather skewed from reality.

She floated up slightly…

Unceremoniously the swirls of Void popped and she dropped out of the air, landing flat on her face in the dirt of the crater. With a grunt, she lifted herself up and floated back to the group.

“Well. That didn’t work,” she muttered, rubbing her head. “Ow…”

“Did you get anything?” Twilight asked.

“Got the radiation girl,” Blink said, taking her sunglasses back. “She, uh… well, she died painlessly. That’s all I know.”

“That’s... something at least.”

“Is it possible any of the… guests survived?” Sequin asked. “Surely some had the power…”

“...Shivershackles, perhaps, if someone was around to tell him to survive…” Twilight mused. “But otherwise, no, even the ‘light’ magic entities in there couldn’t have made it through this. This wasn’t a purification, this was a purge. No one survived.”

“That’s… unfortunately not true.”

A human in an official looking uniform walked up to them, her coloration shifting to changeling black and green. Cinder let out an ‘eep!’ and hid behind Sequin.

“...They hire you?” Blink asked.

“They know we’re in their network already,” she said. “Better to have one of us as an ally than otherwise. And I’m... I was familiar with some of the faces in this place. Almost was one myself.”

Blink let out a sharp sigh. “Looks like everyone’s taking the ‘let’s pretend like secrets don’t matter!’ option. First the Everykid and now this, what’s everyone coming to?”

“I thought the Merodi don’t have many secrets?” Sequin asked.

Blink facehooved. “I know, I know. Just… I’m Void, okay? I deal with secrets.”

“Off track,” Brook and Twilight said at the same time. They turned back to the changeling, Brook allowing Twilight to do the talking. “You were saying?”

“We caught sight of Red Bull. He’s headed right for the center of the Wholesome.”

“Red Bull got out…?” Twilight frowned, not able to make sense of this.

“How’s that possible?” Blink asked. “You saw this destruction!”

“He was closer to the surface than many of the others. Maybe in the panic…” Twilight shook her head. “Not important right now, the important thing is that he’s a mass killer. But why would he be after you?”

“We don’t know,” the changeling said. “Chrysalis believes we can take him, but we would likely lose more than a few people in the process.” She closed her eyes. “I... worked with him back in Tauros, I don’t think she understands... point is, we’ll probably need help.”

“We’ll be right over,” Twilight said, closing her eyes and focusing. “Brook, Sequin, I’m going to try to drop you off back at the dine-”

The changeling’s eyes went wide with panic. “He’s attacking now! He must ha-”

Twilight didn’t let her finish - she dropped the complex teleport spell and took them all directly to the center of the Wholesome. It looked like a normal street corner in the city, save for the large amount of black and green people screaming at the sight of an immense muscular man holding a giant sword impaled through a unicorn-aspect human’s body.

Sequin managed not to faint at the sight.

The look Red Bull gave them made her wish she had.

He swung his sword, tossing the body off to the side with the jerking motion. A bright power built up in the blade, creating a wide arc that sliced through the air toward them. Twilight blocked it with a barrier almost effortlessly.

But the intent of that attack was not to kill - it was to deceive. The shockwave kicked up immense amounts of rubble at Twilight’s feet, creating a cloud that hid Red Bull from sight. When Twilight forced the shroud away, Red Bull had already charged into the building.

“Stop him!” one of the Wholesome called, desperate.

None of them - not even Sequin - had to be told.

~~~

“Yep, that Beacon makes it impossible to wormhole there,” Swip said. “We’re charging in guns blazing.”

“Shields, Swip, shields,” Suzie said with an exasperated sigh. “Only the warships of New Pandemonium City actually have weapons that could dent us, we’re not going to attack. Just… invade.”

“Zebras will not see it that way,” Blackburn pointed out.

“Yes, well, I’m more concerned about my government reviewing this later,” Suzie admitted.

“More concern about an ethics committee than a zebra nation.”

“Yes.”

Blackburn let out a thoughtful hum, but otherwise made no response.

“Can I go yet?” Swip asked. “Everyone’s on board. We’re not exactly waiting for permission.”

Suzie nodded, laying her hands on her console. “Take it away, Swip. Remember, no guns.”

“Yes, captain.”

Swip fired her engines, opening a portal as close to the Beacon as she could. Instantly her shields were battered and buffeted with a south pole snowstorm. The effect was negligible, though it meant the people watching from the bridge were having an issue seeing much.

Swip had no such issue. Her advanced sensors could pierce the snowy veil easily, marking the magical center of the Beacon just over a kilometer away. She fired her engines and rushed forward at speeds faster than any natural bird, approaching supersonic but never quite attaining it.

“Surprise!” she called as she passed over the walls of Zeb’ra’den protecting the Beacon. Magic arrows went flying impacting her shields with all manner of colorful explosions.

“Yawn…” Swip commented. “Scanning for dimensional signatures…”

A flaming boulder hit Swip’s shields and bounced right off.

“Their honor will never recover,” Blackburn observed.

“Tough luck,” Swip laughed. “They’re going up against Swip! Found the coordinates, by the way. Next stop: Equestria IV!”

Swip opened a portal and flew right through, entering the blue sky of Equestria IV. She swerved into the upper atmosphere and performed scans.

“That was easy,” Blackburn commented.

“They’re just warrior zebras,” Swip said. “Nothing all that impressive.”

“Nah, they were pretty impressive,” Rachel said, taking a break from walking around and passing out cookies. “You were just that much better.”

“Hah! Take that, Swip’s just that good.”

“Inferiority and superiority complex simultaneously,” Blackburn said.

“Psychoanalyze me again and I eject you into space.”

“Understood.”

“Glad we’ve come to this understanding. Ahem, scans in this world are much easier. Got two instances of dimensional travel, and here’s the kicker - one of them’s to that world Celestia City was in a few days ago.”

Suzie shook her head. “...Really?”

“Yep. I’m guessing the other one’s Equestria II. And that signature is much more recent. Like, hours recent. Probably the Crown Princess.”

“Silvertongue went to your City,” Blackburn deduced.

“That’s… probably bad,” Suzie admitted. “Swip, call the League, tell them to be looking for a gray alicorn going by the name Silvertongue.”

“Calling… hey, that matches the whole ‘silver tongue’ prophecy Bot was freaking out about a few days ago.”

Suzie paled. “Ah. This might be bigger than we thought.”

“Prophecy?” Blackburn asked.

“There’s thi-”

“Okay, bad news!” Swip said. “Dimensional communication is jammed!”

“What? How!?”

“If I had to hazard a guess? The ships outside that are distorting spacetime something fierce.”

Suzie looked at the screen to see four clouds floating toward them - that weren't really clouds, but ships disguised to look like clouds.

“We are the Chronomancers!” a booming voice called from all directions. “You will power down your shields and surrender to us!”

Suzie tapped her finger to her console. “Seren, analysis?”

“I could win,” Swip said.

“Asked Seren.”

Seren’s voice came from engineering. “She could probably take the four of them. But there’s going to be more. Probably a lot more.”

“I’m of the mind we shouldn't upset a possible Class 3 Society,” Celia offered. “Silvertongue is their enemy too, remember? They will likely understand.”

Suzie nodded. “This is Captain Suzie Mash of the League of Sweetie Belles. We surrender ourselves to you. I wish to make it known that we are in pursuit of Silvert-”

“Power down your shields and submit for inquiry. No further action requested at this time.”

Suzie twitched. “Fine then… Swip, shields and weapons down. Let’s figure out what these Time Lord ripoffs have to say.”

~~~

Chronomancer Headquarters liked the color purple.

The Crown Princess knew about Gallifreyans and had noted their similarity to Tick Tock and Bell Tower easily, so she had naturally expected red and gold everywhere.

Instead, everything was purple. Grand towers of a smooth, plastic-like material grew from the edges of the ovoid-shaped realm, large discs protruding from them like some kind of demented abacus. Their ships generally took the form of soft purple cylinders floating around the discs, continually landing and taking off. Rarely - very rarely - one would enter or leave through a dimensional portal.

Since Chronomancers only used natural portals for direct travel except in emergencies, and ships were rarely needed, the fact that the Crown Princess saw any ships leaving or returning at all meant they were scrambling.

Normally, they wouldn’t even be there, but the Crown Princess’ unique ‘abilities’ provided “not only an opportunity to test the validity of purely magical forced translation, but also facilitate a face-to-face interaction.”

The Chronomancers had refused the zebra troops, naturally, so of their number only Zircon remained, but all of Twilight’s friends were still with them since Tick Tock had been… adamant about their inclusion in the whole thing.

They were led into one of the large discs. There were no doors in the place, only ovoid hallways that never felt flat enough for the Crown Princess’ hooves. She withstood the temptation to complain, but only barely.

Eventually, they arrived in a large room ringed by ponies sitting in seats a full floor above them. In the center floated a hologram composed of numerous circles. One circle was far larger than all the others, everything else seeming to branch from it, no doubt Equestria Prime. Four circles in a line branching away from Equestria Prime had red exclamation marks on them.

No doubt Equestria II - V. Where the whole Silvertongue thing was going down.

“We have no time for introductions,” a stuffy old stallion said, leering at them. “Agents Tock and Tower, where are Turner and ‘Work?”

“Time Turner is dead,” Tick Tock declared. “Clockwork was ‘taken by Silvertongue’, but this is only secondhoof information.”

“And all of this… from a stallion we didn’t even know existed until a few weeks ago?”

“The entire bloody planet thought Silvertongue was dead, Magister. That’s how he wanted it.”

“Mmm…” The Magister pressed his hooves together. “And now Silvertongue is… missing?”

“Uh… yep,” Tower rubbed the back of her head. “Nothing in Equestria II, but he left Equestria III, so…” She shrugged comically.

“And Prime remains unharmed.” The Magister huffed. “Bother, the greatest threat to the multiverse we have ever known just vanishes. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“He could have left your local multiverse,” the Crown Princess said.

The Magister looked at her. “You… the anomaly. We have searched the records for you. Sweetie Belles are well known to us. But as for that artifact you wear… Fork Eleven, sub-fork two, Equestria XIX. The only known instance of the Capricious Crown.”

“Please tell me it’s destroyed. The multiverse doesn’t need another power hungry crown.”

“Data is outdated, Chronomancer Pendulum hasn’t reported in for a century. The affairs of single worlds are not our concern, however. You are an anomaly.”

“I told you. I come from the wider multiverse.”

“And how many universes are in this ‘wider’ multiverse, child?”

The Crown Princess twitched. “Ten quintillion, though that number changes regularly.”

“You jest.”

“I do not jest. The multiverse is a massive place, filled with more worlds than any could imagine. Some, like your worlds, are secluded from the rest of the multiverse, growing up without knowing anything of the outside expanse. Others are thrown into the games of higher societies without a choice. There are those who code the very reality they occupy, play games with planets, conquer for the sake of feeding their industrial machine, or just demand to be worshipped so they may increase their power. There are great horrors out there, Magister, and sometimes the greatest among them are those that pretend to be friends.”

“This is off topic,” an older mare said.

“I believe it is relevant,” the Magister said. “Pretend friends?”

“The nation I am most familiar with is Merodi Universalis, a collective well over a hundred universes strong. They use their power to enter weaker worlds, charm them with gifts, aid, and promises of a brighter future. Few worlds refuse their call, and soon enough… their civilizations are assimilated and become nothing more than footnotes. They are known to end wars, manipulate, and guide entire universes to a ‘better’ existence. An existence that, invariably, leads to them.”

“An appropriate warning, if it were real,” the older mare snorted. “Clearly this ‘Crown Princess’ is delusional.”

“She has a spell that grants her access to the universes…” the Magister said, pressing his hooves together. “I say we should give her words credence.”

“Ahem,” Twilight coughed, drawing attention to her. “Yes, the Crown Princess is telling the truth. We still need to find Silvertongue.”

“Right, of course…” The Magister cleared his throat. “Left the local multiverse, Princess?”

The Crown Princess nodded. “If he left Equestria III, but didn’t go to Equestria II or IV, he must have found another connection somehow. Perh-”

“MAGISTER!” a pegasus said, flying into the room, panic on his face.

The Magister growled. “This better be important…”

“We just apprehended a ship in Equestria III! It isn’t one of ours, and they claim to be from… outside the known multiverse!”

The Crown Princess’s calm smile vanished. “No…”

“They, uh, call themselves Merodi Universalis.”

“And let me guess…” the Crown Princess grumbled. “The captain’s name is Suzie.”

“Uh… yeah!”

“You know them?” Tick Tock asked.

“You could say that. They’re the ones who ruined my universe.”

Isopolity (CRISIS: Equestria, Part 4)

The Everykid woke up to a finger gingerly tracing her face. Rather than freak out and start screaming she fixed the offending human with a glare, not at all surprised to find that it was Diamond Inferno in a human form.

“What, not going to scream ‘stranger danger’ or something, little one?”

You’re pretty lacking in the marbles department.

I like her.

No I don’t.

“Please,” the Everyman said, using one of his deeper male selves to draw attention from the other selves. Sure, he was in a crowded theater at the time and was ruining the experience for everyone else, but since when did insignificant stuff like this matter? “I am captured. The solution is to pool resources to analyze the situation.”

“Your face is so variable…” Inferno chuckled, tracing her finger down Everykid’s neck.

The Everyman cared not about this, though the Everykid specifically involuntarily shivered. She looked around. She was in a dark green room with a dank aura and a single lightbulb in the ceiling. There was a single door locked from the other side, which meant Inferno was stuck in there with her until someone else opened the door.

Unless she locked it herself. In which case she really was a moron.

Regardless, nothing about the room looked particularly familiar, and those parts of the Everyman that had more impressive deduction skills figured it was probably intentionally nondescript to keep the rest of the Everyman from figuring out where the Everykid was.

Clever.

“Not scared at all?”

The Everykid tried to shrug, but the chains pinning her to the wall made that difficult. She tried to access her hats but found that was annoyingly impossible. Her head was bare, making her feel strangely naked.

“Ah, there we are! I was wondering when the discomfort would arrive.”

The Everykid bit her finger.

“Ow! ...I am going to make you suffer you little blowhard…”

“That is not your job, Inferno,” a gray pegasus said, opening the door. “That would be mine.”

“Bu-”

The pegasus glared at her. “Think twice before you say anything.”

Inferno shut up. “R-right. I’ll just…” She scrambled out of the room at top speed.

“Good.” The pegasus turned to the Everykid. “I suppose you want to know who I am.”

Very little of the Everyman actually cared enough about this particular self to really express a ‘want’, and the Everykid specifically was fed up with the whole situation.

“I am surprised you have not broken out already. Your other selves could send you power, all you have to do is ask.”

The Everykid stuck her tongue out. That’s exactly what you want me to do.

“Not the mind of a child, but the stubbornness of one…” the pegasus shook his head. “Allow me to put this frankly. I need you to transfer power through your mental connection to the rest of you. Do that, and nothing further will happen to you; you will be allowed to go free. Do not, and I will be forced to torment you to force the connection out.”

The Everykid rolled her eyes.

“The defiant way out? Very well. Mustard?”

A golden unicorn in priestly robe walked into the room. “Yes?”

“Your spiritual nature is perfect for finding the connection. Hold nothing back.”

“I never do.” He flared his horn and latched onto the Everykid’s soul, already feeling a strong connection to the rest of the Everyman - one that weakened considerably the moment he touched it, trying to squirm away.

The Everykid let out a constant, monotone scream - her brain and body were no longer processing information properly aside from a deep-sitting pain.

“This will take time,” Mustard said. “She will not jump me, she has no control or senses aside from pain at the moment.”

The pegasus nodded. “Very well. I shall leave you to it.” He trotted out of the room.

In the hall, there was a soft conversation…

“...Couldn’t find the Shard of Madness…” a male voice said.

“...Did not expect you to…” the pegasus responded.

The Everykid could not process any auditory signals at that moment.

But that did not mean the rest of the Everyman couldn’t by focusing a collective will. And he was very aware of his Everykid self right now.

~~~

Havocwing decided now was probably a bad time for her to be in charge. They were going to meet with Blumiere, Mayor of this entire city, and Havocwing was well aware that her… colorful way of talking to people probably wouldn’t go over well as the face of the group.

“Hey,” she hissed to Curaçao as they followed the Sweetie. “You take point here, got it?”

“Wh- non non non,” Curaçao shook her head. “I shall observe and report, not speak. We need to be… ‘onest.”

“C’mon Curaçao, you’re fine now. Just chin up, it’s not like they won’t lie to us, right? I mean, politician.”

“...Starlight… Shadow should do ze talking.”

Shadow blinked. “You want me to?”

Curaçao nodded. “You have a way with words, and are less likely to… manipulate.”

“Curie…” Insipid sighed. “You’re better than this.”

“Am I?” Curaçao asked.

“Well, you’re not hiding the fact that you think you have a problem, so that’s something,” Grayscale said.

“I ‘ave not spoken of its true extent…”

“And I haven’t been going on about how everyone’s fear is making me salivate internally,” Velvet said. “You don’t have to announce every little piece of your personal problems all the time, I mean, we all have so many problems we’d be here all week!”

“Oh, are we playing the ‘everypony has problems’ game?” Insipid asked.

“Maybe?” Velvet scratched her chin. “Let’s see… I’m psychotic, carnivorous, have a bizarre series of fetishes, and if I ever lose control of the fear I will turn into an abomination and probably try to kill all of you!” She laughed awkwardly.

Insipid chuckled. “I’m, like, super easy? Stupid.”

Havocwing buried her head in her wing. “Insipid, you gotta stop doing that.”

“What? It’s acceptance, or something.” Insipid shrugged. “Oh, let’s do you next!”

“Insipid we need to talk abo-”

“Insecure…” Velvet said, nodding slowly.

“The anger’s not really an issue anymore,” Insipid added. “But she’s, like, stressed all the time about everything?”

“I am fine!” Havocwing hissed. “I do not spend every waking minute of my life dreaming up worst-case scenarios!”

Grayscale raised an eyebrow. “Oddly specific.”

“Shut up.”

“Shadow next!” Velvet said, bouncing over to the unicorn. Her face was buried in her phone, trying to remove herself from the conversation. “Confidence issues… And, uh, what I’m going to call ‘Silvertongue problems’ and leave it at that.”

Insipid blinked. “But we all have Silvertongue issues.”

“Eh…” Velvet tilted her hoof back and forth.

“She’s also addicted to that phone,” Havocwing chimed in.

“Hey!” Shadow held the phone close to her chest. “This device is one of the most useful ones I have ever encountered in my travels and not devoting myself to scrutinous study would be wasteful!”

“I swear I’ve heard this before…”

“And why are you piling on? You didn’t like it when they did you!”

Havocwing raised her hoof in surrender. “Geez, uh, fairness?”

“Grayscale!” Insipid slid next to the gray pegasus. “You…” Insipid furrowed her brow. “You…”

“Grayscale’s actually got it pretty well under control,” Velvet said. “You go girl.”

Grayscale winked. “I’ve still got it.”

“What’s your secret?”

“Just go with the flow.”

Insipid nodded. “Seems legit. Anyway, we already did Curaçao, so that’s i-”

“I am zis close to ‘aving a mental breakdown from trying to figure out if I am subconsciously lying to you zrough omission, or self-deception.”

Everypony stared at her. Shadow even put down her phone.

“Curie…” Insipid said.

“‘Ow does one know if one lies to zemself?” Curaçao asked, biting back tears.

“Curaçao,” Havocwing said, leveling her gaze with her sister. “You are the master of deception. But you are also the master of knowing when other ponies are deceiving you. You caught Silvertongue! That’s impressive! If you’re thinking about it, I’m sure you can figure out when you’re lying to yourself if you want to be honest.”

“...Do I, zough?”

“Curaçao, think about it a moment. If you didn’t care would you be having a breakdown right now?”

“I… well…” Curaçao fell silent. “Huh…”

Insipid hugged her. “Don’t worry, Curaçao. You’ll never be what you were before. None of us will!”

Curaçao nodded.

The Sweetie they were following coughed. “I hate to rush you, but we arrived a few minutes ago and while I’ve been trying to just let you sort out your personal problems, Blumiere is waiting.”

Curaçao wiped her face. “Of course…” She turned to Shadow. “You ‘ave zis?”

Shadow put away her phone and nodded. “I do.”

“Je vous remercie.”

The six of them entered one of Celestia City’s many meeting rooms. This one had a long, rectangular table fashioned out of a dark wood. A few potted plants grew in the corners of the room and there were paintings of multiversal space landscapes lining the back wall.

There were five people sitting across from the six. Blumiere, two humanoid versions of Sunset Shimmer, a Rarity in a fashionable hat, and a Sweetie with an artificial horn.

“Please, sit.” Blumiere asked without a hint of hostility in his voice.

The six of them obliged without much fuss, though Velvet jumped into her chair like it was part of a bouncy castle.

“I have heard paradoxically so much and so little about you,” Blumiere commented, folding his hands together. “Please, introduce yourselves.”

Havocwing decided she should probably go first here, even though Shadow was taking point. “I’m Havocwing and these are my sisters - Starlight Shadow, Curaçao, Grayscale Force, Insipid, and Red Velvet.”

Blumiere nodded slowly. “Pleasure to meet you. I am Blumiere, mayor of this fine city. To my left are Shimmy, the spirit of order for Earth Shimmer, and Corona, Second of Research and lifebringer of Merodi Universalis.”

The two Sunsets nodded in greeting. Shimmy looked tense.

“To my right is Renee, Overhead of Expeditions, and her sister Allure, a Founder of the League of Sweetie Belles.”

“Charmed,” Renee the Rarity said, extending a hoof over the table and shaking Havocwing’s wing.

“We must have made quite the impression,” Grayscale said. “I haven’t been here long but I know an Overhead is a big deal.”

Renee nodded. “A set of six mysterious mares arrive on the city shortly after we move to Earth Shimmer looking for a ‘Silvertongue’, a clear relation to the ‘silver tongue’ prophecy. It grabbed our attention.”

“What exactly is this prophecy?” Shadow asked. “My research into it has been… vague.”

“That’s because it is,” Allure sighed.

Corona nodded. “Seers of the future have been warning of the coming of a ‘stallion with a silver tongue’ for weeks now. The specifics of why we should be warned always contradict. Some say he’s going to kill the spirit of the age, others say he’s going to bring a new age of quote-unquote ‘enlightenment’. Multiversal prophecies are always a mess but since the ‘silver tongue’ is showing up everywhere, we know it has to be big.”

“So we need to know everything you know,” Shimmy said. “Who is Silvertongue? What does he want? How is he related to you?”

Shadow cleared her throat. “I am prepared to answer that question. I shall attempt to condense it to save time. Lord Silvertongue was born a millennium ago on our world, which we know as Equestria V. He secured a position as Ward of the goddess of order, Harmonia, and convinced the ponies of ‘Light’ to go to war and fight the encroaching darkness of the goddess Nihlia. Using clever manipulation of the Gryphon Empire, he secured this goal, ordering the construction of two magitech Beacons to both amplify and contain the venerable power of the Goddesses. He then proceeded to betray Harmonia, join Nihlia, and commit genocide on the gryphon race.”

“There are never any nice prophecies…” Renee sighed.

“Silvertongue’s game was far from over…” Shadow sighed. “Under Nihlia, he created New Pandemonium City, a municipality that ruled over the entire northern continent with laws that were intended to be abused and bent to fuel the chaos of Nihlia. After this, the world believed he had died, but he lived as long as Nihlia wanted him to, as he proved himself to be indispensable. He waited patiently until six mares, the Elements of Harmony, arrived in Equestria V by accident. He convinced Nihlia to give up part of her essence to create the six of us - cloned from those Elements of Harmony.”

“I don’t sense the signature of Elements of Chaos from you,” Corona said.

“We were… ‘fixed’ later,” Shadow offered. “He lied to us and manipulated us from the moment we were born, calling us his daughters, insisting he was our father, and…” Shadow bit her lip. “He trained us to be abhorrent murdering mechanisms. And that wasn’t even our real purpose - when the time was right, we were used not to fight, but to give him the means to absorb the power of Nihlia.”

“...He spent a thousand years in the service of a goddess and betrayed her just like that?” Allure asked.

Shadow nodded. “We believe he had been waiting all those centuries for her to be weak enough to attempt such a thing.”

“Remarkable patience…” Blumiere observed. “And devotion.”

“Dangerous,” Corona added.

“Very.”

“He wasn’t done even then…” Shadow shook her head. “He kept manipulating events as we and the Elements of Harmony traveled to the southern continent, the land of the goddess Harmonia. We…” she glanced at Curaçao. “We were eventually freed of our dark essence and loyalty to Silvertongue by Harmonia. Shortly before Silvertongue absorbed her and fled to the universe of the Elements of Harmony. We followed… but he absorbed the essence of Discord and the Tree of Harmony there as well. He left us behind. It took two weeks for us to aggregate the required resources to follow him. That led us here, but that was not expected.”

“Not expected?” Shimmy asked.

“As far as we knew, his plan was to go to a universe known as Equestria Prime, which defined all the universes in our…” She thought for a moment. “Secluded Multiverse Cluster. Is that the term?”

Corona nodded.

“He desired to go to Equestria Prime and take control of the world to create what he viewed as a ‘perfect’ world. From a conversation I had relayed to me, we believe that involves purging ponies of all impurities, will, and choice. Essentially he would be the only being allowed to make choices.” She looked at Blumiere. “There was a single path going right to Equestria Prime. But in Equestria III he went here instead of to Equestria II.”

“How long ago was this?”

“As far as we know, he came here almost instantly after he entered Equestria III, which would mean he’s been here a few weeks.”

“Wait, the city wasn’t here a few weeks ago,” Shimmy pointed out.

“Time dilation,” Corona said. “Or just the catchup mechanism. If someone dials a location Celestia City was, but currently isn’t, we have some spells in place to make sure people arrive anyway and don’t just fall into empty space and die.”

“Good precaution,” Shadow admitted.

“Have you found any trace of him since you arrived?” Blumiere asked.

“Not… sure.” Shadow frowned. “We conscripted the Everykid to help find him, but she was captured.”

“We are aware of this. No evidence of her has been found within the City. Investigations are ongoing. Where was she leading you?”

“We were in the bowels of the dimensional drive.”

“She had access!” Havocwing blurted. “She let us in.”

“You are not going to be charged with trespassing,” Renee said, smiling warmly. “We understand the need to get in and out of places. Regardl-”

There was a beep and a voice came from a speaker in the wall. “We’ve got an instance of the Everyman here to see you.”

Blumiere adjusted his monocle. “Let him in.”

The Everyman walked in, this particular self being a brown earth pony stallion with a bored look. “Right, hi, Everyman here, this me’s called Rusty Shoelace, but who cares? The Everykid me woke up imprisoned in a place I can’t identify. You already know about Diamond Dust, but I saw a pegasus of unknown name, a gold unicorn priest named Mustard, and heard another male voice elsewhere. The information is being transmitted to you as I speak. The captors wish to use my connection between my selves for some unknown nefarious purpose and are engaging in soul-torture to get it out of my Everykid self. They have not succeeded yet, but they will with time. The moment I try to send help through the connection, Mustard will have all he needs. I do not want to fall into their trap.”

Blumiere furrowed his brow. “Any sign of a silver alicorn?”

“None. Didn’t sense a power of that level either. While I doubt this is entirely unrelated, it is likely not what you’re looking for.”

“Any other pertinent information?”

“They were looking for the Shard of Madness. Couldn't find it.”

Shimmy stared at him in shock. “...They’re insane.”

“It’s the Shard of Madness,” Grayscale said. “What do you expect?”

“The Shard of Madness is a thing that… somehow terrified the entire spirit of magic in Earth Shimmer in ancient times into hiding away in fear.” Shimmy shivered. “I don’t even know what it really is, much less where to find it. I’m not sure I want to find it.”

Renee sighed. “Chances are we’re going to have to deal with that eventually… either today or some time down the line.”

“I have said all I need to say.” The Everyman turned and walked out unceremoniously.

“...You sure he and Everykid are the same person?” Insipid asked.

Corona folded her arms. “Yes. I am very sure. The Everyman loves his inconsistency, which is ironically the only consistent thing about him.”

“I’ll order investigations into the Shard of Madness,” Allure said, levitating up a data pad. “Renee?”

“I’ll send some teams into the city’s depths,” Renee answered. “We’ll find whatever it was the Everykid is looking for…”

“And what are we gonna do?” Havocwing asked.

Renee’s face broke out into a coy smile. “Well, you don’t have clearance to be down there…”

“Buck that!”

“Oh, I agree.”

“...What?”

“I can get you clearance to work down there easily. I am the Overhead of Expeditions - I can hire you on as Agents and virtually no door will be closed to you.”

Grayscale raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like loophole abuse.”

“Not ‘abuse’ so much as ‘use as intended’. I was integral in the creation of Merodi Universalis’ central code of laws and conduct. Our society is specifically designed to make the bureaucracy easy to navigate when expedience is needed. Naturally, if you want to keep working for me after the fact, you’ll need to fill out some forms, but I can grant provisional status…” She lit her horn and summoned six ID cards out of nowhere. “With a flick of my horn.”

“...We didn’t say ‘yes’ yet,” Havocwing pointed out.

“Were you going to refuse?” Renee asked.

“I’m thinking about it since you’re forcing it on us…”

Grayscale rolled her eyes. “Just take the cards, Havocwing.”

“Fine.” Havocwing swiped them up and handed them out to her sisters. “Can we go back now?”

“Yes.” Blumiere said. “Sorry for taking you from your search. Your information has been very helpful. We will find this Silvertongue, and we will make him answer for his crimes.”

“Long as we’re there to see it,” Havocwing said.

“I will ensure it.”

~~~

Winter Lights was a master of paradox. Not in her words - for paradoxes were messy in the dance of words - but in her situations. For instance, it was both extremely easy and impossible to find her. Those who sought her out specifically looking for her assistance in a job of some sort often found her before they started looking. The others, who usually wanted to punch her face in for being such a “pretentious, arrogant, manipulative bitch” were still looking.

Cryo’s crew was lucky enough to be the former.

“So, where did you say we could find this Winter Lights again?” Cryo asked Mattie.

“Hey,” Winter said, sipping a soft drink she held in her hand. She had specifically saved the last little bit of it for this moment so she could be as loud and punctuating as possible.

Mattie gestured at the bench Winter and Indigo were sitting on. “Ask and you shall receive.”

Cryo looked Winter and Indigo up and down. “...These are just two women. I thought you said she was an elf?”

“Was an elf,” Skuldie said. “The was is important.”

Cryo grunted. “The ‘was’ is never important.”

“Tell that to Apple Bloom.”

Cryo sighed. “Right. So. You two are apparently our guides?”

Winter smirked. “I can be a guide if I wish, yes.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

Curio facehooved. “Cryo, she didn’t actually agree to help us..”

“But sh-”

“Cryo. She was an elf. That means everything she says, while being absolutely definitely completely true, will also be as misleading as a ghost saying he’ll eat your soul.”

“She doesn’t eat souls!” Indigo said, indignantly.

“At least not very often,” Mattie said, fixing Winter with a coy smirk.

Winter looked Mattie up and down. “I see a leader before me, one off the beaten path…”

“Already naturally suspicious of me. Good.” Mattie chuckled. “Anyway, I'll let Cryo do her thing, she gets so excited about it.”

“Thank you, master!” Cryo chirped. “Winter Lights! Will you be our guide?”

“I never work for free,” Winter pointed out. “I always exact payment in one way or another…”

Skuldie frowned. “I can tell you visions of the local future. And I have money.”

Indigo blinked. “You do?”

“I’m an official League Agent. I get a salary. Lower than usual since I don’t travel that much, but it’s still there.” Skuldie shook her head. “Look, you can get your usual payment, Winter. Perhaps even more. Scootaloo is missing and Apple Bloom can’t find her.”

“The incarnation of the past can’t locate the present?” Winter frowned. “Telling of the times we live in.”

“Winter…”

Tab coughed. “Let’s not give her a reason to tie us in language knots, okay? Winter, we have payment: work?”

Winter nodded. “I will be your guide.”

“Thank you.” She tapped her tablet. “First off, is it a reasonable assumption that the Fay are involved in the disappearance of Scootaloo?”

“It is certainly likely.”

“Who would do that?”

“To go after one such as Scootaoo it would have to be an organized endeavor with a purpose or a single entity engaging in thievery for amusement.”

Tab consulted the tablet. “So, either one of the Courts or a crazed loner, got it.”

“You rely heavily on your machine.”

“Lets me see through your smoke of words..”

“If you insist. A loner would have returned Scootaloo after you noticed, so unless they are fools, we are dealing with a Court. Spring would never do such a thing, Summer still respects the return of their artifacts, and the Winter would be planning a comeuppance against the League of Sweetie Belles specifically, not Earth Shimmer.”

Tab frowned. “Lovely. Probably going to need to have Fuyu scry for elves now…”

Cryo covered herself in ice. “The Winter Court doesn't know who they’re dealing with…”

Winter coughed. “Cryo, young, impulsive, ‘anime’, magic is harmless by design, puts on a mask of mild insanity because it’s fun.”

“Wh… hey!” Cryo sputtered.

“If you explain my dance, I explain yours. A word for a word.”

Skuldie waved a hand. “Less banter, more finding Scootaloo. That leaves the Fall Court, right?”

Winter nodded. “Certain elements of the Fall Court have been taking greater interest in mortal happenings than is normal for Fay. If they were attempting something pertinent to the present’s perceptions-” Indigo giggled at the alliteration. “-they would see taking Scootaloo as a necessary part of remaining hidden.”

“To the Fall Court!” Cryo declared.

“...I get the impression the Fall Court is huge,” Curio said, looking up from her data pad. “How would we find out if anything is actually going on there?”

Mattie chuckled. “We let Winter do most of the talking, that’s how.”

“...Then why are we going?”

“Oh, that’s for when things go wrong.”

“An understandable precaution,” Winter admitted.

~~~

Twilight Sparkle, incarnation of magic itself for Earth Shimmer, decided tearing out the wall was better than walking through the door. She lead the charge, a flaming Cinder to her left and a magically sparkling Brook to her right. Behind them Blink and Sequin moved, invisible, but still within Twilight’s own perceptions.

There were no bodies inside, which was to be expected. Chrysalis had probably evacuated everyone she could before Red Bull arrived. What they had seen outside - that was just him arriving significantly earlier than expected.

She reached out with her senses. He was cutting through walls, moving right for the center… where Chrysalis was hiding.

With a flash of energy, Twilight blew through several more walls, arriving on the scene just as Red Bull brought his blade down on Chrysalis. She was a tall, agile, and very well endowed woman with a decidedly masterful control over magic. Using a hand coated in magic and black fire, she grabbed hold of Red Bull’s sword. “Twilight! You’re cleaning that up!”

“Chrysalis don’t h-”

“Why do you do this to yourself…” Red Bull deadpanned. He pushed forward with his blade and cut right through Chrysalis’ shimmering hand, cutting half of her fingers off.

Chrysalis shrieked, falling back a few steps. “Fucking magic distractions…”

“How’s this for a distraction?” Brook shouted, firing a magic laser at Red Bull. He cut the beam of light in half with his sword. “Wh- what!?”

“Cuts through most anything,” Twilight said, trapping Red Bull in a magic box - he cut through it without even trying.

“What about nothing?” Blink asked, jumping on Red Bull’s back and making him intangible.

“Yes it include-” Red Bull sliced his blade and hit Blink right in the stomach. “-s nothing.” Had Blink not been a ghost, she would have been cut in half.

As it was, the attack only nicked one of her reality anchor bracelets, shattering it. She screeched as her body forced itself to stay in one piece, flying into the back wall in the process.

“It is more painful to resist the cut,” Red Bull said. He swung his sword wild, creating a wide arc of energy. Twilight had to focus to stop this one, wincing as she strained the magic to resist the ability to cut through almost anything.

“Some help you all are,” Chrysalis commented, throwing a gust of dark flames at Red Bull. All he had to do was swing his sword and the flames parted, as if cut by a cleaver larger than the room. The wall behind chrysalis cracked. Chrysalis whistled. “...If you weren't trying to kill me, I’d cons…”

“DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE!” Cinder shouted, punching Red Bull in the back with her flames. He lurched forward, right into a team-pummel of magic attacks from Brook and Twilight.

“I’m not flirting with you am I?”

“My mind is young and impressionable! And he’s trying to kill you!”

“That is getting in the way of the action,” Chrysalis admitted, jumping to the side of another attack. “Plus, I would prefer to have use of both my hands…”

Cinder twitched. “Why…”

“Well, becau-”

“Why as in why me? Why here? Why now? I don’t need any expl-”

“FIGHT, MAYBE?” Twilight shouted, unable to prevent the edge of an attack from nicking the skin on her left arm.

Chrysalis nodded. “Right…” She flipped through the air and kicked Red Bull in the face, driving him to the ground. “After all, I do have standards somewhere in here…” She placed her hand around his neck. “And you are killing my people.”

“You’re the one who protects Tirek,” Red Bull said.

Chrysalis blinked. “How the fuck did you le-”

“CHRYSALIS!” Sequin shouted. “He-”

Her warning came too late - Red Bull had picked up a piece of rubble with his foot and kicked it at Chrysalis. His magic allowed it to sail right through her waist as if every edge were part of a knife.

“Hah…” Chrysalis breathed, trembling. “Twilight, I’d like you to get this taken care of before…”

Red Bull threw her off, breathing heavily. “This is what happens when you stand against justice.”

“I am not… handing him over…” Chrysalis coughed. “Fuck, this…”

Red Bull lifted his sword up…

And then Cinder was in front of him, looking directly at him with those sharp, orange eyes of hers. She didn’t even try to attack - she just met his eyes with her own.

He could have cut her in half like butter. It would have been easy. Even without the hatred fueling his blade, she was not a very durable unicorn all things considered.

But he paused nonetheless.

Before he could resolve to follow through with his attack, Twilight and Brook tackled him at the same time, driving his face into the ground and tying his arms behind his back with magical restraints. Then they went overboard - encasing his feet in purple blocks, wrapped chains around him, and blasted him with so many magic inhibition spells he became somewhat drowsy.

Sequin allowed herself to breathe out. “G-good job Twilight!”

“Thanks,” both Twilights said. They glanced awkwardly at each other.

“Little... Help?” Chrysalis groaned from the pool of her own blood.

Twilight rushed over, laying her hand on Chrysalis and flooding her with healing magic. “You’ll be fine.”

“Of course I’m going to be fine, I’m Chrysalis, some muscular bastard isn’t going to take me down.” She chuckled wryly. “Not without serious planning skills anyway...”

“I’m fine too!” Blink called from her prone pose. “If anyone cares about me!”

Cinder smiled in her direction. “Lost a bracelet?”

“Swip has replacements.”

“You’re a fourth of the way to re-dead.”

“Yep! Confronted with my own bizarre-immortality!”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “You’re fine.”

“That still hurt! Come on, pity me!” Blink tried to whine but ended up laughing.

“Are you legally an adult?” Chrysalis asked. “Cause the Wholesome is all about filling up holes in one’s life, and I don’t know much about ghosts but--”

“EW!” Cinder cried. “Seriously?! Even if she’s mentally--”

“We are not an orgy club!” The woman rolled her eyes. “Seriously, only like five percent of us participate in the mutual support meetings.”

Cinder twitched. “That’s still five percent that’s… that’s… I don’t even have a word!”

“I am legally an adult, by the way,” Blink said. “But I too am equally disgusted by the offer. I am far more amused by Cinder’s reaction, though, so…”

“Traitor,” Cinder muttered.

“And as for the ninety-five percent who do the ‘less creepy’ stuff…” Blink shrugged. “I’m good. I’m Void, if you filled all the holes I wouldn’t be much.”

“Oh, well now I’m obligated to call you the devil figure of our religion.” Chrysalis waved her half hand with a grin. “Begone foul creature, yadda yadda yadda.”

“Man, you should never meet Suzie. She would hate you.” Blink adjusted her sunglasses.

Chrysalis smirked, turning to Cinder. “...I should thank you. Whatever you did there…”

Cinder sighed. “You’re welcome. Just don’t be getting any ideas.”

“I’ll have all the ideas. I just won’t vocalize them.”

“Yay…”

“How about we interrogate the prisoner?” Sequin said, blushing furiously. “That’d be great! Something… more sensible!”

Brook facehooved.

Chrysalis walked up to Red Bull, frowning. “So. You wanted Tirek.”

“He must pa-”

“I know why. That’s obvious. I want to know how. This is not public knowledge. Who told you?”

Red Bull glared at her.

“Chrysalis…” Twilight warned.

“I either twist his mind like a… metaphor certain unicorns in our company would light me on fire for, or I kill him with the groin punch of no return. Your call. Want the information or not?”

“...Fine.” Twilight folded her arms. “Make it quick though.”

Chrysalis reached out, touching a finger to Red Bull’s head. “You are going t-”

There was a flash of light, and a brilliant holy sword appeared in the air and drove itself through Red Bull’s skull, killing him instantly.

“The fuck!?”

A pristine, feminine angel with shimmering white wings looked down at Red Bull with disdain. “Missed one.”

She never stood a chance, so she didn’t even try to resist. She was encased by Twilight, Brook, Cinder, Chrysalis’s, and Blink’s magic all at once and brought to the ground. Twilight punched her. “You… you destroyed it! Why?”

“It needed to be done. That is all you need to know.”

Twilight rammed her palm into the angel’s forehead and tried to force the information out.

But the Angel didn’t have a mind in the traditional sense, for it was a being of manifest spirit. All she got was a name, everything else came back blank.

“Arul…” Twilight frowned. “...Looks like we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”

“You’ve jumped on the mind-rape train pretty quickly,” Chrysalis said.

“You know she destroyed Warehouse 97.” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “There’s no argument here.”

“You don’t see me complaining.”

~~~

“Well,” Curaçao said. “We’re back here.”

They were once more in the shadow of Celestia City’s dimensional drive, exactly where they had fought Diamond Inferno and lost the Everykid less than thirty minutes ago.

“Question,” Grayscale said. “What exactly are we doing here?”

“Looking for what the Everykid was leading us to,” Havocwing said. “That’s what. That hat of hers was pointing to something.”

Shadow looked up from her phone. “If the ponies who kidnapped her truly are unrelated, Silvertongue may lay at the end of the spoor.”

“...Trail?” Insipid asked.

Shadow smiled. “Yes, actually, good job, Insipid.”

“Huh. I was right.” She wasn’t sure how to parse this.

Curaçao laid her hoof on the blue pipe the Everykid had been following before she was taken. “Let’s start with following zis. If it leads nowhere, zen we try straight and narrow.”

“Isn’t straight ahead simpler?” Havocwing asked.

“Oui, but ze ‘at changed direction several times on our journey down ‘ere.”

“Right. You’re the tracker.”

“I am…” And I’m in charge again. Helas. “Be ready, zey could attack at any time.”

Curaçao trotted along the pipe, running her hoof across it, the other five taking up position behind her. They started bickering about something on Shadow’s phone that was likely just as pointless as the last seven cat pictures she had shown them.

Let them have their fun. She trotted on ahead, following a turn in the pipe that led to a dark, twisting tunnel.

“Hey,” Grayscale said, flying over to her.

“Bonjour, Grayscale.”

“You could stand to learn Insipid’s lesson.”

Curaçao cocked her head in confusion. “Come again?”

“Think about it for a second. You’ll get it - you just don’t want to.”

“Ah…” She frowned. “Be generous? Non, zat has n-” She froze in her tracks. “Nopony’s perfect.”

“Yeah. She thought you were perfect, you didn’t. Now that she’s okay with there being no such thing… you’re trying to be perfect.”

“Bu-”

Grayscale poked at Curaçao with a wing. “Not gonna let you talk, you could run circles around me if you got it in your head to do that.”

“...Pardon?”

“Hey, this is exactly what I’m talking about, you’re not perfect. None of us are. You expect to be little miss tells-no-lies two weeks after making the resolution? Are you nuts?” Grayscale shook her head. “None of us are even trying to turn around that fast, except you.” She ruffled her wings, looking for the right words. “...You don’t have to be paranoid, is what I’m saying here.”

“Are you saying I should lie?”

Grayscale shrugged. “I’m saying that cold turkey is probably a bad thing. We might need you to out-weasel Silvertongue for all we know.”

Curaçao grimaced. She did not want to have to do that. She wasn’t sure she could, even if…

“Look, just think about it, kay? Kay. Glad we had this talk.” Grayscale ducked back to join the rest of the group.

Curaçao continued on, wordlessly, giving the world only the modicum of attention needed to be aware of a possible attack. Her thoughts swirled as she followed the pipe down the slowly turning corridor.

Sometimes there really was no argument, deception was required. If Silvertongue never learned of Equestria Prime or the Elements of Harmony, none of it would have happened. If he hadn’t manipulated the whole planet…

But where was the line? Where did “the ends justify the means” stop? A perfect world was not worth the loss of free will. But was a balanced world worth a genocide? Six redeemed ponies worth a deep betrayal?

Everything had worked together in the end… And had she not lied to them, they would still be trying to kill Twilight and her friends.

I don’t need to solve this now.

Curaçao nodded to herself, agreeing. That much was true, she could push it aside. Right now, Silvertongue did need to be stopped. Whatever he was going to do, it would be terrible, and she knew this with certainty. The fact that she had the certainty bothered her, much the same as their bizarre and unique fortune did.

She needed to focus on the here, the now. Which was a curving tunnel that led…

“We are going right into the dimensional drive,” Grayscale observed.

Curaçao rubbed her chin. “Per’aps zere is somezing wizin? An area off the grid, where ‘e ‘ides?”

Havocwing lit her hoof on fire. “Hello, dad, time for a flaming hoof sandwich…”

Shadow put her phone away and cast simple enhancement spells on all of them. “Ready for anything.”

Velvet readied her bloody tentacles. “If I see him, I’m not giving him a chance. He’s getting diced. Any objections?”

There were a bunch of head shakes from everypony save Shadow - who gave her own shake after noticing the agreement of all the others.

“Sorry Star,” Velvet said.

Shadow shook her head. “Don’t be. Let’s just… do this.”

They charged to the end of the pipe tunnel, ready to attack anything. They popped out in the dimensional drive’s interior, witness to a series of rapidly rotating gyroscopic rings brimming with orange magical power.

There was only one person there - a human woman with purple hair that acted as limbs. She was currently tinkering with a floating horseshoe-shaped device on the floor in front of them, trying to angle it at the rings above. It wasn’t cooperating.

“Bolt-buzzer! I just can’t get this thing calibrated properly! Serves me right for doing this without help…” Slowly, she turned her head around until she was looking at them through the ominous red lenses of her welding mask. “Well, whaddoya know!”

“S-stay back!” Insipid said, lighting her horn defensively.

“Woah, jumpy!” the woman lifted her mask, revealing a normal - if slightly sleep-deprived and hyperactive - face beneath. “I’m not some mad scientist! Entrapta, Research Division!”

Curaçao nodded. “Curaçao. We are wiz Expeditions.”

“Oh, you must be new!”

“Yes, actually…”

“Good, you’ll be easy to tell what to do.”

Havocwing gawked. “We’re not here to help you, we’re looking for Silvertongue?”

Entrapta cocked her head. “Who?”

“I… just… the Everykid’s hat led us here, you have to be what we’re looking for, right?”

“Oh, that ka pinger. Very reliable, compared to the government issue stuff, that hat. I’d love to get my hands on it…” She jumped to Havocwing and grinned. “Where is she?”

“Captured,” Grayscale said. “You missed the fight.”

“Disappointing, but not an impossible setback!” She pulled out a data pad and started running scans. “Well, you’re all ka-rich, so that probably means you’re supposed to be here. I bet my experiment has something to do with it!”

Shadow examined the floating horseshoe and frowned. “What precisely is your experiment?”

“We just got a series of papers relating to the unique reality ripples in this universe with a possible signature of the Equis Universe Generator!”

Shadow pulled out her phone. “Universe Generator. A type of universe left behind by a long forgotten multiversal civlizaiton - usually attributed to the Downstreamers - that is responsible for creating universes oriented around a particular theme. There are several known Universe Generators, but as of now the one responsible for the Equis Cluster remains undiscovered.”

“A universe that makes universes?” Havocwing rubbed her head. “That’s… that’s ridiculous.”

“Cool though,” Grayscale said. “And it explains why there are so many pony universes.”

“If it exists,” Entrapta said. “Some say it doesn’t, or that it was destroyed in the past. But if these theoretical papers are correct… we should be able to access it and uncover the process behind the natural growth of the entire Equis Cluster! Oh, how I wish Tab was here, but she went on that vacation right before the other paper came in…”

Curaçao took in a sharp breath. “Non…”

“What is it?” Insipid asked.

“Curie just figured something out!” Velvet cheered.

Curaçao fixed her gaze on Entrapta. “Could zis Universe Generator be… controlled? To design universes?”

“Probably,” Entrapta admitted. “That was presumably what they were built for, but were just left on the last setting when their civilization fell.”

“Silvertongue ‘as no need to go to Equestria Prime anymore.” She turned to her sisters. “If he finds zis Universe Generator, ‘e can just make ‘is worlds ‘owever ‘e wants zem.”

Shadow blinked. “That… certainly sounds like him.”

Entrapta shrugged. “He doesn’t have anything to do with this. The papers were sent in by a Doctor Shroud, very respectable, has a lot of previous work in Equis Icthus-Corith.”

“Shroud?” Havocwing shook her head. “That sounds familiar.”

“That’s the name of Silvertongue’s secretary,” Curaçao said. “It could be a coincidence… but it bears looking into.”

“I have no results for Equis Icthus-Corinth,” Shadow said, waving her phone. “Nothing.”

Entrapta cocked her head. “But it was in the scientific database…”

“He must have gotten in somehow,” Curaçao deduced. “Then ‘e sent you ze papers, probably written perfectly to suggest exactly ‘ow you would do zis wizout spelling it out. And now ‘ere you are, creating a zing zat can get ‘im exactly where ‘e wants.”

“Wow.” Entrapta looked at the unfinished project. “This is so exciting! A real multiversal conspiracy!”

“...Excuse me, what?” Havocwing asked.

“I never get involved in stuff like this ooooh this will be so good for field research. I’ll have to document everything and get as much footage as possible…”

“Can we focus on what to do about the conspiracy first?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Entrapta said dismissively. “It’s not done yet, I just stop building it until we sort this out. Easy peasy thermite squeezy.”

“Huh.” Insipid said. “That was easy.”

“He’ll have backup plans,” Curaçao said. “We need to be extra cautious. You mentioned a ‘Tab’ that was also working on this?”

“Yep!” Entrapta pulled out her phone. “I’ll just call her for you…”

~~~

Fae Époque was as it always was - a realm of universes sewn together so closely that it was impossible to tell which one you were in at any given time. Walk far enough and you might end up in the sky you had just been looking at. There was no traditional ‘gravity’ though most locations had an up and a down orientation determined by the orientation of the highly consistent ground. There were trees spread around all over mixed with fancy glowing lights. Islands drifted in the ‘sky’, though the sky itself rolled and jostled in such a way that you might as well have been on the island.

There was also a sky whale drifting by. Which was one of the most interesting things Curio had seen since arriving there.

The curiosity levels are off the charts, there’s so much to collect and I’m so close to my next power! I can’t wait to...

Her thoughts were interrupted by another one of Cryo’s dramatic shouts. “HAVE AT THEE!”

“Cryo wa-” Tab began, but she was drowned out by the sound of ice being shot from the filly’s hooves, encasing a poor Breezie in ice. Tab sighed. “Cryo, that. Was. Not. An. Enemy!”

“Why aren’t there any enemies!?” Cryo grunted. “We’re in the Fae Realms! You know, where there are monsters and things lurking around every corner?”

“We are not monsters,” Winter commented.

“Depends on your definition,” Mattie countered.

“By neither mine nor hers is the statement she made true.”

“Ah, but she asked a question.”

“Questions come with their own assertions and deceptions.”

“Those who speak only in questions never say anything at all.”

“Questions are required for the gathering of knowledge.”

“Yes, but what of the gathering of the deepest feelings for another?”

“Would you two quit it?” Tab asked.

Mattie sighed. “Tab, we were jus-”

“My tablet is analyzing all your outward expressions of intent and is fully loaded with all known Fay mannerisms. I know exactly what you two are doing, there’s nothing to be hiding. This isn’t some game we’re on, we’re here to find Scootaloo, not try to see who can one-up each other with word games the most.”

Winter fixed her with an unreadable expression.

“You find Mattie taxing but are annoyed that she is your only viable sparring partner who doesn’t just give up the pretense of the “dance”. You have spent the last few minutes trying to drag her into a conversation of interest relating to the nature of questions that has a 94% chance in ending with some kind of deal Mattie wouldn't have taken, disappointing you. Mattie, meanwhile, is trying to get off as many subtle flirty pot-shots off at you as she can without Indigo noticing.”

Indigo’s eyes flew open in alarm. She latched herself onto Winter like a greedy crab, dragging the pale woman a short distance away from Mattie.

Mattie coughed. “Crikey, Tab, do you have to be such a spoilsport?”

Tab gestured at Skuldie, who had walked a significant distance ahead of them, effectively moving up what looked like the wall to them.

“...Fine,” Mattie admitted. “Maybe it is a bit… much. Skuldie!”

“Apology accepted!” Skuldie called back.

“Hey! You can’t accept an apology I haven't given!”

“Yes I can!”

Mattie twitched. “Can I rescind it?”

“Nope! It was a definite future!”

“Balls,” Mattie cursed.

“...So, should I unfreeze the Breezie, or…?” Cryo asked.

“Your magic is harmless,” Winter said. “Leave her be, she’ll thaw out eventually.”

“Okay.”

They trotted after Skuldie at an increased pace.

“For what it’s worth, I liked the banter,” Curio told Mattie.

Mattie rolled her eyes. “Of course you would, you eat curiosity. Fay banter brings that out like nothing else.”

Curio blinked. “Wh-”

“Rule one: don’t be surprised by Mattie.”

Curio rolled her eyes, “I wouldn’t say I ‘eat’ it, it’s my power source. I need it to…

“I’m just yanking your chain, mate.” Mattie smirked and Curio smiled back. “Are you taller by the way?” She asked with a knowing look on her face.

A wide grin spread over Curio’s face, “I must have just hit level twenty!”

“Level what?” Tab asked, looking up from her invisible tablet.

“Level twenty.” Curio explained, “When I absorb enough energy I get new powers. Kind of like a video game.”

“I thought you were a ghost.”

Curio’s eyes opened slightly “I… am, yes, totally, but ghosts work differently where I’m from and it doesn’t matter. I want you to try and hit me.”

“I’m not going to hit you, we’re trying to-”

“OKAY!” Cryo shouted before punching Curio as hard as she could, foregoing her ice powers. What happened surprised everyone except Mattie. Curio, the clumsy Sweetie Belle with the visor caught the attack before it hit her. Then in one swift motion she threw Cryo to the side. The ice Sweetie didn’t get thrown very far, but that wasn’t what the demonstration was for. Curio wanted to show off her speed, not strength.

“I didn’t see that at all during training Curio-chan, how’d you do that?!” Cryo asked excitedly as she stood up.

Curio looked at her hooves, smiling to herself. I can’t believe I finally got an offensive ability!

“Levels and skill points,” Winter murmured. “Attempts to define the abstract....”

“She does seem kinda...” Indigo waggled a hand. “I dunno, hyperfocused?”

Mattie smirked. “Like you used to be?”

The girl shot a glare at her. “Hey--”

“You did declare yourself a goddess once,” Winter reminded her in amusement.

“Yeah... but you taught me the foolishness of that.”

“So I did.” They crested the hill, arriving at a nexus of rippling hills and mountains. “The Fall Court is not far,” Winter informed them.. “We are fortunate, they are unlikely to attack you for being unbound. Though it would be best if they did not deduce Tab is in possession of a magic computer.”

“Got it, will stop looking,” Tab said. “I-” her phone started ringing. “...Guess we get service in here now.”

“They fixed that after Cinder’s team got stuck,” Skuldie said. “I thought you were part of that operation?”

“I bailed,” Tab admitted. “Getting signals into Fae Époque without actually installing satellites in the realm? Hoo boy…” She answered the phone. “Entrapta, this better be good.”

Five seconds later she froze in place. “What!?”

“I don’t like the sounds of that…” Curio commented.

“Is there a monster?” Cryo asked, excited.

“Shush,” Tab said, pulling her tablet up again. “Holy… how didn’t I see this? You’re right, Doctor Shroud is totally bogus! I - sent in and reviewed by the night shift… Perfect time to slip through security and catch our eyes through lesser vetting… He did his homework. Okay, don’t finish the device, encrypt all your work, and get out of there. Contact Corona and follow the paper trail. Soon as I’m done here I’ll help with everything.” She put her phone away. “Well.”

Winter frowned. “Something’s gone wrong or is going to go wrong.”

Tab grimaced. “Not quite. More like something could have gone wrong. Apparently one of the most recent research papers submitted to the Research Division was written by Nopony McPretendsmith in an attempt to get us to…” She glanced warily at Winter. “...to a type of scientific breakthrough I’m sure would bore you.” She smirked.

“Bragging of your ability to deflect unconvincingly is childishly unbecoming.”

“And annoying, I’m sure. Point is, there’s problems going on back home I have to deal with when we’re done, so we really do need to pick up the pace so we can deal with this Silvertongue.”

Skuldie let out a shriek of pain and fell to her knees.

Curio ran to her. “Skuldie! Are you okay?”

“The stallion with a silver tongue…” Skuldie breathed, twitching. “He… Perfection is the light which shapes all, alone a-” She breathed heavily, as if trying to subdue her own voice. “This isn’t… why? How c- Threats abound from all sides, related but not, seeking the key to get out get out get out the present and the all lie ahead to be saved, do not turn back heroes, do not, face the fall what did you DO!? I didn’t do anything I couldn't do anything he will lie to such a degree that fairies will trust his word and a daughter will why now he feels you, even now. Lord Silvertongue. No one can be prepared, not even him.”

Skuldie fell back into Curio’s hooves, breathing heavily. “That… that’s never happened before… It’s never…” she grabbed her head, grimacing. “The silver tongue prophecy... “

“Perfection shapes... umbarmando.” Winter’s voice was uncharacteristically grim, the hints of fear and disgust crawling even up her visage.

Cryo shook her head. “This is big. We have t-”

“No!” Skuldie shouted, interrupting the incomplete thought. “We have to face the fall as instructed.”

“By who?”

“Me,” Skuldie said, forcing herself to stand. Curio moved to steady her, but Skuldie lifted a hand to indicate she was fine on her own. “We would not be here if we did not need to be. Mattie, don’t confirm, I see you.”

Mattie rolled her eyes. “Well th-”

“Move,” Skuldie said, all hints of cheer gone from her voice. “This isn’t just Scootaloo we’re talking about now. Winter, I trust you understand that we need to play hard ball now?”

Winter nodded. “Words will not be wasted. Come.”

They didn’t walk. They ran. The Fall Court itself looked like much of the rest of Fae Époque, except filled with short Fay creatures with expressions that were usually curious more than anything else. If Curio wasn't so worried about Skuldie and preparing for... something she would have been excitedly scribbling everything she could down.

But she followed Winter. They all did. A few of the shorter Fay waved greetings, or tried to nab them into a conversation, but those who did received either a glare from Winter, Mattie, or Skuldie, and the aura coming off the incarnation of the future was by far the greatest of the three. They did not fear her, per se, they just understood that engaging with her in any way could not result in a positive outcome at the time.

“We will not go to the Court meeting, they will cause delays,” Winter said. “We will seek one involved in the mortal way. Mortal technolog-” Winter stopped mid-sentence, startling Indigo considerably. “Crackling Leaves!”

A female gnome sat upon what looked like a toadstool at first glance, but was really a bunch of painted metal shaped together to look as such. Unlike many of the rest of her kind - who held tinkering devices that could best be described as ‘antiquated’ or ‘fantastical’ like bronze calipers, quills, and adjustable monocles - she had sleek square glasses and a phone in her gloved hands. “Winter Lights visits the Fall Court… in a state of urgency, nonetheless. Unplanned urgency.”

“Alacostame! Umbarmande návecca,” Winter said.

Crackling Leaves nodded in understanding. “What is it you seek?”

“Knowledge. The manifestation of the present for this mortal’s world has been stolen.”

“This hardly seems urgent…”

“It was not until recent events. She is the manifestation of the future. She received…” To the shock of everyone present, Winter seemed to not have the words in her mouth as she needed them. “...multiversal prophecy.”

“Unreliable.”

Winter nodded. “But harrowing. We were instructed to complete our mission to find the manifestation of the present, one Scootaloo.”

“I fear that I cannot help you in that regard.”

Winter paused for the slightest of moments. “Then help in another. Beware the name Silvertongue.”

“It is not a name I have heard.”

“It is a name of power. Male. Mortal, Fay, eldritch, god, I know not. Your Fay are more adept at acting within the fullness of time than others. Do what you need to. Something seeks perfection. I will meet with the Fall Court proper subsequently.”

Crackling Leaves nodded in understanding and ran off, pulling out her phone, presumably to contact the Fay she knew.

Winter waited for her to be far out of earshot. “...She has her.”

Skuldie gawked. “What!?”

“I asked her to speak plainly. When speaking of Scootaloo, she did not.” She turned to them. “She may be working with this… Silvertongue, though she does not know his name. I can only hope she will check her pawns to see if they have a view of the board as she does.”

“What are we going to do?” Curio asked.

“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do…” Cryo grinned. “We are going to follow her and punch her face in.”

Winter frowned. “...There will be more steps and finesse than that, but yes, that is the basic idea. It will be difficult. Her Fay use technology extensively.”

“Then it’s a good thing you have me,” Tab said, smirking. “One omni-tablet hacker coming right up.”

~~~

Entrapta hung up the phone with Tab. “Right, so, Corona.” She dialed the phone number. It rang once.

A spire of ice shot out of the sky and punctured the phone, shattering it into two pieces. “No,” Diamond Inferno said - currently in human form, wearing little more than a few form-fitting pieces of black cloth.

“Shadow!” Curaçao shouted. “Corona!”

Shadow was already dialing.

“Shivershackles… take the phone from her,” Inferno ordered.

The dark, meek looking man appeared behind Shadow in a shroud of darkness. It couldn’t be described as a flash, as most teleports could, but rather a splash of tar-like excretions that dissipated seconds after hitting the ground. He grabbed Shadow’s phone in his hand.

Shadow pulled back with all her telekinetic might, immensely alarmed to find that his grip was so tight she was in danger of ripping his hand straight off his wrist. She pulled harder anyway, dragging him across the ground.

“You useless sack of shit!” Inferno shouted. “I said TAKE THE PHONE!”

Shivershackles let out a howl of agony and pulled, tearing the phone in half in the process of taking it away.

“And now it’s broken!” Inferno shouted. “Good job, idiot.”

“Did you get a bee in your pants!?” Havocwing shouted.

“None of your concern…” Inferno said, smirking. Havocwing charged her, only to run face-first into an ice wall.

Grayscale didn’t miss a beat - she charged into the wall and broke it with focused gravity, sending shattered ice crystals toward Inferno, who absorbed them into herself easily. Inferno responded with a wry smirk and a double flipping-off, shooting Grayscale with a beam of ice and another of fire.

Velvet’s attack was the first one to do any real damage. Her tendril of blood lashed across Inferno’s achilles tendon, forcing her to take a knee. “Ooh, did that hurt?” Velvet cooed.

“I’ll show you what it means to hurt, dear,” Inferno said, driving a hand encased in ice-claws at her. Shadow’s magic grabbed her hand and forced it to the ground. “AUGH!”

“Awww…” Velvet giggled. “Your beautiful fingernails, absolutely ruined! Now nobody will want you.”

“Shivershackles!” Inferno called. “Defend me.”

Shivershcakles teleported again, appearing in front of Inferno, raising a disgusting, inconsistent shield around them. Grayscale and Havocwing attacked at the same time, bashing into it with immense force.

“Hold it, you useless grub!” Inferno shouted. “Hold it!”

“Yes, master…” Shivershackles said.

“You don’t look like you're holding it! It’s splotchy! Remember what he wants? PERFECTION!”

The shield was suddenly a perfect, round, solid black. It would have defended against Grayscale, Havocwing, and Velvet together, easily.

Had Curaçao not already been inside the shield, that is. She remained invisible, punching Inferno in the stomach, knocking her to the side.

“Master!” Shivershackles wailed, dropping the shield.

He saw Curaçao.

“C'est pas bon…”

He kicked her in the shoulder, cracking her bone with ease and sending her skidding along the hard metal floor.

“Curie!”

“Insipid! Now!” Curaçao shouted.

Insipid, face contorted in conflict, turned away from Curaçao and jumped Shivershackles. “MINE.”

“Get her off you!” Inferno ordered.

Shivershackles felt a jolt as Insipid touched him, but he was still easily able to toss her to the side.

“Like, ow!” Insipid called, jumping back to her hooves. “Have a taste of your own medicine, you jerk!” She lit her horn, summoning a dark murk to one of her hooves and jumping forward with a psychotic grin.

“Meet her,” Inferno ordered.

Shivershackles’ fist met Insipid’s hoof. There was a burst of dark energy.

Shivershackles didn’t move. Insipid went flying like a baseball hit by a bat - she would have been flattened against the wall had Shadow not caught her with telekinesis.

Insipid shook her head. “Wh- what? I did the same thing you did! No fair!”

“She’s not dead...” Inferno hissed. “Why didn’t that kill her, Shivershackles?”

“Because, like, I have his power now! Not gonna work on me! Immunity and junk.”

Inferno chuckled. “It’s cute that you think that.”

“Thanks for noticing!”

Havocwing facheooved. “Insipid, she just insulted you.”

Insipid twitched. “...You’re going to have to put a bit in the veiled insult jar.”

“...What?” Inferno asked. “Never mind. Shivershackles, kill her.”

“Insipid! Don’t die!” Curaçao shouted.

“You got it!” Insipid said - and without really thinking about it a dark shield appeared in front of her. “Huh?”

Shivershackles punched the shield, cracking it like it were an eggshell, making impact directly with Insipid’s horn. She instinctively raised a dark barrier around her coat, offering her some protection as she was driven into the ground.

“She’s not dead Shivershackles!”

Shivershackles whimpered.

Curaçao shouted. “Shadow! Is ‘e getting stronger?”

“Yes!” Shadow called, blasting him off Insipid with a burst of Void while Grayscale flattened him against the ground. “I don’t understand how…”

“It’s ‘ow ‘is power works!” Curaçao shakily stood up, holding her broken leg to her chest. “‘e must gain power from… inadequacy or somezing similar!”

Inferno chuckled. “Good eye. Now, tell me… is there any way Insipid can think of herself as worthless as Shivershackles thinks he is, and still be able to fight?”

Curaçao frowned. “Insipid, get rid of his power.”

“Done!” Insipid said, removing it from her essence. “Wait…”

Curaçao winced. The power didn’t give her a choice… “Sorry!”

“It’s okay Curie! Don’t worry about some silly power junk!” She laughed nervously.

Inferno sighed. “Shivershackles… that pegasus’ gravity has kept you down far too long… Get up.”

Shivershackles got up, and no matter how far up Grayscale turned the gravity, he stood tall.

“You aren’t killing her! Kill her! Kill her! Think of what will happen if you fail!” Inferno raised a magic shield to block an attack from Shadow, using ice to keep Havocwing at bay.

“I must not fail…” Shivershackles breathed. He reached a hand for Grayscale. “You must die.”

Grayscale wasn’t looking at him anymore. She was looking at Velvet. “You okay over there?”

Velvet had far more bloody tendrils coming out of her back than she usually did, twisting and pulsating as if they were made of organs rather than simple clotted fluid. “Shivershackles… you… your fear is so strong. I have never met someone so terrified of failure… I...” Velvet recoiled from herself, backing a few steps back. “No no no…”

Inferno looked to Velvet, grimacing. “She’s not supposed to have that.”

“Silvertongue’s knowledge isn’t perfect,” Curaçao said. “Velvet! She’s scared of your power!”

“I’m scared of my power!” Velvet shouted back.

“I zink we might need it, I’m sorry, bu-”

“Kill her before she regains confidence in herself,” Inferno ordered. “You understand that we cannot take any chances…”

“Protect Velvet!” Curaçao shouted.

Shivershackles teleported behind the dark pink earth pony, his fingers growing into immense claws. He rushed forward, only for Grayscale to toss Velvet to the side with gravity. Havocwing, Insipid, and Shadow lined up and encased him in a double-layered Void bubble with a raging inferno inside. He broke out with ease, dropping straight down on Velvet.

His stomach was skewered by one of her bloody tendrils.

“Shivershakles! Don’t you dare lose!”

“L-losing…” Velvet said, wary. “You know how unacceptable it is, Shivershackles? Do you know?”

Shivershackles tore himself off her bloody tendril - somehow healing his body back to full.

“You didn’t get to me in time, Shiver. That’s right, Shiver. Fear is in your N͉̳͌́̎ͭ͂̀̍A̳̻͈͔ͦ̔ͥ́M̾̌̃̽̂̈͏E̎̇! You are nothing BUT fear!”

“Stop being afraid!” Inferno ordered.

All fear left Shivershackles’ face, and most of his power went with it.

“Shit,” Inferno shouted.

“Diamond Inferno… how do you feel about failure?” Velvet was suddenly standing right behind the icy woman, tracing the tip of a bloody tendril down her back. “Not like the slave over there… but I feel it. I see it. You know what Silvertongue does to those who fail, don’t you? No… you’ve just GUESSED! Good guess!”

“Where are you getting this fear!?” Inferno threw a wave of ice shards at Velvet. They cut her in thousands of places, tearing her skin to shreds… but the blood kept moving anyway, becoming even more terrifying as it was now largely free from the pony it had inhabited prior.

“That WEAKLING had so much fear in him it was like a FEAST. I GORGED ON THE TERROR BUILT UP OVER A L̕IFET͟IME ͠O͝F̸ ͏ETERN͏A͠L͠ S̡UFFE͏R͡I͜NG̷ ͞L͞IKE I̶T̵ ̸WAS ͏ÇA͝ŅD̴Y! The people in this city… they are content, happy, relaxed. All together… they have NOTHING compared to the M͝AGI͡C ͟TH̢A̢T W͝AS ̸I̕N̶ ͏HIM!” She lifted Inferno into the air, wrapping her with blood she had shaped into ropes, latching to her wrists and ankles.

Shivershackles attempted to punch Velvet. His fist made contact, but it was lost within the torrent of gore. Velvet ignored him - he was of no concern, and there was no use tormenting something without fear.

“But you have worse, DIAMOND INFERNO, you have worse…” With a flick of what remained of Velvet’s ear, images of hundreds of people and ponies turning their backs on Inferno played in the woman’s mind. “You want so DESPERATELY to be loved! Why do you think you deserve that? CELESTIA TURNED HER BACK ON YOU, ALL THE OTHER SUNSETS TURNED THEIR BACK ON THEMS͏ELVES̷!͡ TH͏E̷Y̧ H̨ÁV̡E͞ ͢T͜H̡E̷ RI̛ĢHT ID́ĘA: THERE ͏I̧S͡ ͘ǸO̶ PĻACE ́FOR Y̵OU I̶N EXIS̶T̛EN̶CE! SHIVERSHACKLES ONLY THINKS HE IS WORTHLESS. YOU ACTUALLY ARE. TO ESCAPE YOU MUST DIE. P̢͕̠͖ͧ͐ͅẠ͕̮̰̙̱̈̐̔ͪ̄ͩT̅̓H̗̥̫͇̬͍ͩ̔͗ͅĘ͉̼̋̐͂ͦ̔̚T̞̝ͪI͔̱̹̝͉̽̎ͪ̌́ͮ͑͞C̙̩̳ͮ̿!”

Inferno had gone slack and had been crying for some time at this point.

“That’s enough…” Curaçao said.

“Enough? E̱͇̞̭̝̯̓̽̊͗͟N̥̭̟̰ͭ͆O̙͖͑̒̒ͪ̒͗ͬŮ̥͍̥̫̭͉̩ͯ͂̇ͬ̾͝G͉̃ͨ̃̚H͇͎ͯ?” Velvet was suddenly in front of Curaçao, looking nothing like a pony anymore. Somewhere in the mess of twisting blood, nightmares, and impossible lines there was a face, but Curaçao could never pick it out for very long. “You should have seen this coming… because THIS is what I FEAR! THIS IS WHERE THE DARKNESS LIES, CURAÇAO! You think LIES and DECEPTION ARE WORTH LOSING YOURSELF OVER? PATHETIC! WORTHLESS!NO̕, ͘T̷HIS, TH̨IS IS ͏A TRU͠E ̧T̡E̶R͝ROR! I AM̕ AFR̡AID͡ ̶ÓF ͝ḾYS͝ELF̛,͠ ̧A͟ND́ B̵Y̢ ̵BÈI͝NǴ ͜A͞F̧R͢A̢ID,͟ I̷ FEE̡D ͡M͟Y̛S̵ELF! Y̕O̸UR̴ DEE̶PE̴ŞT ̢FEAR I͠S ͠N͞O͏THIŃG.͢ BUT ͘YƠƯ D͞I̛D ̷T̢H̛I̡S.̶ Y̕OU ͞TO͢L̀D̵ M̨E,̧ C̵UR͡AÇ̢AO͡. YOU ́BR͟O͢UGH̀T ̸THIS OŅ YO̵UR̷SȨLF!” Curaçao was lifted into what she thought was the air, but really couldn’t be certain of considering how dark everything was. “S͢O̡M̡E̴ ̧LEA͢D̷ER YOÚ ͏A͡RE͢.”

“Velvet!” Shadow shouted, teleporting in front of Curaçao through a purplish burst of Void. “Velvet, this isn’t you! This isn’t you!”

“YOU W̡AN͝T̨ ͘TO ͝DO TH̨ĮS ̧AGA̵IN̸, ‘̕BOS͟S̀?’ RE̛M̕ĘM͝BÉR ̡WHAT HAP̵PEN̨ED LAS͢T ̷T̴IME͠?̨ FAILURE̷. DISAP͟POINTM͝ĘNT.̵ YOUŖ ͘F̢EAR̢S B͠ROAḐC̀AST͝.͏ ̸YOUR ́SH̀OR͏TC̀OMINGS͡.̀ ́H̨OW ͡L͟I̴TTL͟E̸ ͠Y͏ǪU ̨HAVE̸ ̛R͟EALL͢Y̕ CH̶AǸGE-̀”

“I still think of him as father!” Shadow shouted at the top of her lungs. “And it hurts! It hurts every day! I see you all… drifting away, forgetting. I know I should forget too. But I can’t, or I won’t or… or something, and I’m bucking terrified of what you all will think of me when you find out!”

“They all know now, Shadow. They think you will betray them.”

“No! They don’t think that! And they… they don’t know. They don’t really know. But they will! Everything! All of it! I’m… I’m bucked up in the head pretty seriously! I’m attracted to him! Very badly, psychotically, I… I have dreams where I’m with him. All the time. I’m afraid that, when I see him, all he has to do is swish his tail and I’ll do whatever he wants. I don’t deserve the trust of my sisters!”

“Shadow you don’t get to jus-”

“But I’m confronting my fears!” Shadow blurted, tears running down her face “I’m looking them right in the face and SHOUTING THEM FOR THE WORLD TO HEAR!” She took a step toward the monstrosity that was Velvet. “I am terrified, Velvet. I’m terrified of myself. Just like you are.”

“S-starlight…”

“You can face your fears too, Velvet.” Shadow swallowed hard. “You can use them.”

Velvet laughed as the mass of blood behind her diminished. “You… you’re sure using a lot of short words.”

Shadow pulled her sister into a hug, squishing blood all over her dark coat. “How can I spend time coming up with pointless words when I’m trying to save my sister?”

Velvet wiped her eyes. “...You’re not a failure, Shadow. You’re… you’re the best.”

The excess blood released completely, dropping Curaçao, Inferno, and Shivershackles to the ground.

“I… I’m sorry…” Velvet whimpered.

“It’s okay. It’s okay…” Shadow said, stroking her sister’s mane. “It’s okay…”

Grayscale let out a sigh of relief.

“...Worried?” Havocwing asked.

“Yeah.”

Insipid ran over to Curaçao. “Curie, are you…?”

“Leg’s still broken,” Curaçao muttered. “But I am fine, zank you.”

“Well,” Entrapta said, pulling up her welding glasses. “That was simultaneously the coolest and most terrifying thing I’ve seen all month. I got sooo much data!”

“Your priorities are skewed,” Grayscale muttered.

“You are not the first to tell me that.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“Get us… out of here…” Inferno managed to wheeze.

“No you don’t!” Havocwing shouted, unleashing a torrent of fire at the two of them.

Shivershackles still had no fear. Without hesitation, he touched Inferno and teleported them away.

“BUCK! SHIT! DAMMIT! BITCH! BASTARD!” Havocwing’s tirade paused for a moment as she tried to think of more swear words, a difficult thing to do when as angry as she was.

“It’s not the vocabulary that matters,” Entrapta advised. “It’s the grammar. Try going for one disgusting statement instead of many foul words.”

“I WILL FIND THOSE BUCKING RATSPAWNED AVATARS OF DUMBPOWER, TEAR THEIR FINGERS, AND USE THEM TO PLAY HEAVY ROCK ON DRUMS MADE OF THEIR BONES!”

“Good first try!”

“They could be back at any moment,” Curaçao breathed as Velvet healed her wounds with her blood magic. “We need to find a way to call Corona.”

“Oh, I did that while you were going all scary,” Entrapta said. “Jury-rigged an antennae over there. She should be here any mo-”

Corona teleported into the dimensional drive, hands alight with the power of the sun. “Where are they!?”

Velvet cry-laughed. “You just missed them. Teleported away and everything.”

“If they used a teleport with enough energy to bypass the barriers…” Corona spread her wings, creating a series of magic circles behind her. “There’s no way I won’t be able to trace it.”

~~~

Sequin looked at the captured Arul and grimaced. Twilight had her hands pressed against the angel’s head, surrounding the spirit being in a disgusting mixture of dark green and purple power. Every so often Arul would let out a cry of pain or a quip of “I remain strong”, but otherwise the entire torturing session was happening out of Sequin’s sight.

“I know it looks terrible,” Brook said.

“That’s… that’s not quite it. This… thing did worse things than Discord, Brook. Discord.”

“...Sequin…”

Sequin sighed. “...I’ll admit, I’m a little… unsettled. But this is necessary, right?”

Brook nodded. “But you don’t have to watch.”

“You can’t look away either.”

Brook sighed and placed a wing around Sequin. “No. No I can’t.”

“That’s the other thing.” Sequin looked down at her hooves. “I… I couldn’t do anything. You, the other Twilight, the Sweeties, Chrysalis… they were all doing something. I tried to yell a warning and nothing happened.”

“Sequin, you’re not useless.”

“Of course you’d say that,” Sequin chuckled bitterly.

Brook sighed. “Look at Cinder, Sequin. Remember her stories?”

“About?”

“Her first missions. She was useless. Just a normal Sweetie with a horn that could light on fire. You saw what she was like here - swinging fire left and right like some kind of phoenix and ready to take the blow for a woman she didn’t even like.”

“Brook, I have no doubt that I could improve. You taught me how to teleport, remember? We could become the best duo of explorers this side of the multiverse.”

Brook giggled.

“But I’m thinking about now. Why am I here? Involved in this mess? I’m just a seamstress…”

“You’re not just a seamstress.”

“Okay, yes, I had a big adventure and… I’m not exactly ordinary. But compared to…”

“Sequin. Rarity. You don’t need to compare yourself to anypony else. And even if you did… if you were honest with yourself, you’d know that none could compare.”

“Even other Rarities?”

“Even other Rarities.”

“I think you need glasses.”

“Probably, but that’d only make it more true.”

Sequin giggled as Brook started nuzzling her neck. “S-stop it. There’s serious business afoot!”

“This is serious.” She gave Sequin a light peck.

Sequin rolled her eyes - but she was smiling. “Well, I don’t exactly feel needed, but I do feel better.”

“That’s the power of Magic!”

“Hey, uh, guys?” Cinder asked. “Can I like… hide over here? I feel like they’re watching me.”

Sequin glanced up at the changeling-humans walking around the room. To be fair, it looked like more than half were looking directly at Cinder.

“How dare they…” Sequin growled. “Do you have no idea of decency?”

“They’re not ogling her,” Chrysalis said. “...Most of them, anyway. She saved me.”

“I don’t want the attention,” Cinder said. “I really don’t want the attention.”

Blink adjusted her sunglasses. “Do I need to buck some bitches in the face for you?”

Cinder twitched. “Blink. We are in the lowest annals of human society. Think about what you just said.”

“Oh.” Blink shrugged. “Whoops.”

Chrysalis looked down at Cinder. “You’re being rath-”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” Cinder said, rubbing her head. “I don’t think this is right, but you do, and there’s nothing we can do about that. I need to move past that, but it’s not going to happen instantly, okay? Can we… uh…”

“You’re looking for ‘take it slow’.”

“Oh for the love of…”

Chrysalis smiled. “Sure. I can be patient. Though don’t go around shouting at my people. That won’t end well for you.” She extended her hand - fully healed at this point. “Do we have an understanding? Don’t worry, hand’s clean.”

“Why would it matter if it was clean…?” Cinder asked.

Chrysalis blinked. “I need to stop being astounded by the innocent.” She shook Cinder’s hoof.

Twilight finally removed her hand from Arul. “I’m convinced. She’s just an angel who didn’t object to her ‘god’ not being what she thought he was, and has been descending deeper and deeper into ‘holier than thou’ ever since.”

“Really? Okay.” Chrysalis gave Arul a look. “Hey angel! If god’s so perfect, why’d she make people who would hate penguins for being gay?”

Blink sputtered. “Suzie would really hate you.”

“Why…?” Cinder asked. “...Besides the obvious.”

“Let’s say it’s ‘religion’ and leave it at that.”

“For the record I have a pretty good guess, I just really don’t like ‘holier than thou.’” Chrysalis cleared her throat. “Anywhozits.... How’d she hear about us holding Tirek?”

Twilight frowned. “I couldn't get the specifics out of her. She was ‘told’, though if by a person, information leak, or what, I have no idea.” Her phone rang. “...And that would be Rarity calling, probably with the answer we’re all seeking.” She answered. “You’re on speaker.”

“Right! We found the security leak. Or, well, not exactly a leak…” Rarity paused. “It’s a little hard to explain.”

“It was a fortune teller,” Applejack supplemented. “Got visited by an ‘aspect of Sunset Shimmer’ last week with ‘great white wings’. Was given a lot of extra power, asked a bunch of weird questions, and then was given a lifetime supply of apple cider for their trouble.”

“There were a lot of weird things on the list,” Rarity admitted. “Tirek’s whereabouts were one of them, but so was the number of ants currently on Earth Shimmer, the preferred pizza topping of one Alfonso Machly, something about Screwball, a report on the status of potato farming in a nearby city, and lottery numbers. The lottery numbers were how we found them.”

Chrysalis sighed. “Ten to one odds your fortune teller got brainscrambled after their boosted session. It’s likely the only reason they remembered being asked about Tirek was that you asked them about being asked about Tirek and everything else was just what they think they were asked.”

“The spy business has done wonders for your paranoia,” Twilight deadpanned.

“Wait, she’s a spy?” Cinder frowned. “I thought she was some free love cult goddess?”

“I do many things. Sex, psycological therapy, spying, baking cakes on the side...”

“Diverse, I suppose.”

Rarity coughed. “Either way, we could not confirm the fortune teller was the source of the Warehouse 97 leak since… well, ‘brainscrambled’ is putting it mildly.”

“Ah have no idea how he managed to write the lottery numbers down…” Applejack said.

“Probably wasn’t intended to, dear. We’re lucky he did or we’d still be combing through archives for direct data transfer.”

“Good work, Rarity,” Twilight said. “...I guess that means we’ve wrapped it all up.” She turned to Arul. “Cart you off to Merodi prison or something.”

Arul made no response.

Cinder frowned. “This feels… off.”

Blink sighed. “We didn’t really save the day, we came after it had already been ruined.”

“This is a different feeling. I know what that’s like. Just… I don’t know.”

“It’s h-”

“Wait,” Sequin said, eyes widening. “An angel, probably Arul, gave the fortune teller the information, right?”

“Seems that way,” Twilight admitted.

“If she was really there just to kill everything in the Warehouse, why would she let Red Bull go and tell him about Tirek?”

The only response was silence.

Chrysalis rammed her hand around Arul’s neck. “What’s your fucking game?”

“I remain strong…”

“BULLSHIT! You have something else. The purity thing is just a mask! What are you really doing?”

“I remain strong…”

“She was able to keep it hidden from me…” Twilight said. “I don’t think shouting or traditional torture will do anything.”

“Then we’re going to try something else,” Shimmy said, appearing in a flash of light.

“...Done with the meeting?” Twilight asked.

“Yes.” Shimmy glared at Arul. “You work for Silvertongue, don’t you?”

“I remain strong…”

“Not so much as a reaction. Impressive.” Shimmy clenched her fists. “Too bad I don’t need her to say anything.” She held out a hand and grabbed hold of the very center of Arul’s magic, making her cry out so intensely she ran out of breath and fell silent.

“I can trace her back… her magic is strong, unique, and unmistakable…” Shimmy twisted her fist to the side, narrowing her eyes. “She was on Celestia City before coming here.” She focused. “Hold on, consulting Apple Bloom…” Shimmy was silent for a few minutes. “Either she was very good at precision teleporting and masking her signature, which I doubt, or she wasn’t even the one who blew up the Warehouse. It was just her magic in the bomb.”

Chrysalis grimaced. “...I am starting to get the feeling I’m being outplayed at my own game. I don’t like that.”

“...Who is Silvertongue?” Cinder asked, suddenly.

“I’ll explain on the way,” Shimmy said, releasing Arul. “We’re following the angel’s trail back until we find where she came from.”

Author's Notes:

Hey, if you havne't already, read CRISIS: Equestria. It's on fimfiction now! No longer will it be stuck in the annals of google docs: now it's on display for all to see and access.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/443452/crisis-equestria

Yes I know it says mature. I really don't think it quite needs that tag, but that's the author's prerogative.

-GM, master of taglines.

Integrate (CRISIS: Equestria, Part 5)

Silvertongue sat in a comfortable red recliner, perusing the wonders of the Internet through a silver laptop. He rarely indulged himself in any sort of leisure that wasn’t, in some way, necessary, such as dining or reading books.

His escapades into the collective knowledge of thousands of universes had at first been to get a grasp of the culture around him, but that had only taken a few days given his understanding of pony nature. Human nature had taken a bit longer, but the nice thing about the Internet was that it had plenty of possible definitions proposed, and under those proposals people argued.

Humans loved arguing. A very exploitable trait.

Currently, Silvertongue was engaging in an online forum with the pseudonym Niharmony19, arguing about the definition of perfection. Ah, how he missed being able to speak his mind! He had only had one true conversation in recent memory, and that had been with the Chronomancer Tick Tock minutes prior to leaving Equestria V. Here, he could have all the conversations he wanted however he wanted without fear. No one would ever know who he was. He was wired through too many proxies for that.

He would have to thank whoever ‘Sombra’ was if he ever got to meet them, the guide they wrote was almost perfect. He had plans to improve it himself later on, when he had time for such things, but for now it was adequate.

“Hey! Shroud!” Clockwork called.

“This better be important…” Silvertongue said.

“Two important things, actually!”

Silvertongue raised an eyebrow and threw open the door with his magic. “You did not tell me the first thing the instant it came in?”

Clockwork jumped. “Uh, I was on the way over when the second thing happened, like that time I was stuck in a time loop with myself. Yes, I was a pony at the ti-”

“Clockwork, I grow impatient with your anecdotes.”

“Oi, right, right. First: Mustard is done, he has the Everyman connection essence. He is certain it is exactly what you need.”

“And second?”

“Crackling Leaves wants to see you for some reason. She won’t tell me why.”

Silvertongue frowned, ruffling his wings. “Very well. I shall see her.” He walked down the hall and entered a room with both a tree growing in the center and a television screen on the wall. Crackling Leaves stood next to the tree, adjusting her glasses the moment Silvertongue walked in.

“Ah, Shroud, you agree to see me?”

Silvertongue shrugged. “What is agreement, but the portent of one’s disposition? Sight comes from afar and has little to do with the epitome of one’s choice. The tone of a question strikes me, are your feet firm?”

“Within mine, yes, but within yours, no.”

“Who dares?” He gestured for Clockwork to leave the room. Crackling Leaves didn’t speak until the Chronomancer was far gone.

“Winter Lights and a group of mortals, innocent. The future comes speaking of Silvertongue.”

Silvertongue laughed inwardly. If only she knew. “A curious name, surely the prophecy cannot be that literal?”

“She was certain.”

“Then this ‘Silvertongue’ may be able to assist us. She refused much, though.”

“It never met my ear.”

“She suspects.”

“Most definitely.”

“Precautions?”

“Many.”

“Winter Lights is resourceful and those with her are not to be trifled with.”

“A known fact.”

“Ka may conspire in their favor.”

“It can be twisted.”

“It is twisted.” Silvertongue’s gaze narrowed. “They will make it here. It must be on our terms.”

“No other way is acceptable.”

“Thank you,” Silvertongue said with a bow. “You will remain?”

“My presence is not required.”

“Good. The others should be returning soon…”

With a blorp of dark energy, Shivershackles and Diamond Inferno dropped to the ground in front of them. Silvertongue knew instantly that they had failed. He allowed his face to twist into rage, pressing on Inferno’s neck with his hoof. “Explain.”

“You said she wouldn’t have the fear powers! She fed off him!”

She got them back… so it does work without Nihlia’s essence. Fascinating. “That is no excuse for failure.”

“Tell that to the slave!”

“He has no will of his own, and therefore cannot be held accountable for the mission’s failure. You were in command of him, Inferno, and you failed to use him.”

“I fucking took his fear away and he got weak!”

“You aren’t creative enough,” Silvertongue hissed. “You could have ordered him to feed on her fear. There is not much Shivershackles cannot do, you just have to make him do it.”

“How was I-”

“EXCUSES!” Silvertongue boomed. “I grow tired of your excuses. You should be thankful to Mustard, if he had not succeeded in his task I would kill you for your insolence. You are immensely lucky you are needed.” He threw her to the ground. “Go clean yourself up.”

“What was her mission?” Crackling Leaves asked.

“Some interlopers found out too much. She was to end them. We will need to move quickly, deeper, a-” he paused - and a smile crawled across his face. One of his automatic alarms had gone off. “Never mind, there is no need to worry. Arul has entered Celestia City. We may proceed directly to the final phase of the plan. The time has come, Crackling Leaves.”

~~~

“Suzie.”

“Crown Princess.”

Suzie and her crew had just been led through the tunnels to the other side of the Chronomancer council chambers. The pseudo-alicorn and chalky human fixed each other with steeled glares from across the room.

The Magister sighed. “We should have met you separately.”

“That would’ve wasted time and you right know it,” Tick Tock accused.

“Hmph,” the Magister turned to suzie. “The Crown Princess is here hunting down the fugitive Silvertongue and delivering messages of warning about you. Why are you here?”

Suzie cleared her throat. “We, an Expedition Team for the League of Sweetie Belles, are explorers of the multiverse. We fly around in our ship, Swip, who is one of us, and make contact with new worlds both similar to our own and vastly, vastly different. Our current mission today was given to us at the behest of Queen Blackburn of Equestria V: hunt down Silvertongue. We had determined that he escaped into the wider multiverse through Equestria III and we were about to pursue before you stopped us.”

“Queen Blackburn working with you guys?” Rainbow Dash called. “Yeah, right.”

“Curb your disbelief,” Blackburn declared. “I accompany them on their quest.”

Twilight and her friends gasped. “But you were…”

“Not dead. Injured. Shroud did not have the power. Recovered, attempting research to find you. Met Sweeties. Left at first opportunity.”

Applejack frowned. “And what do you think of them, Blackburn? Ah’m assumin’ you ran them through your little ringer?”

Blackburn nodded. “Not entirely trustworthy. Good spirits. Conflicting ideals. Not ‘evil’.”

The Crown Princess glared at her. “They’re good liars.”

“Celia? Yes. The others? Limited. Squiddy reads like a book. Seren is a child. Nira uses dangerous magic but has not fallen to it yet.”

“And that’s all to their advantage. They put the kindest, friendliest faces on the front lines! Conquerors by friendship!”

“Unless your world is suffering a travesty of some sort, you have the right to refuse us,” Suzie said, addressing the ponies around her rather than just the Crown Princess. “And as all your universes are in Chronomancer Space, that means we treat the Chronomancers as a fellow multiversal society. We can send dignitaries over and open up negotiations later. Right now Silvertongue is out there and we are going to track him down.”

The Magister nodded. “I understand what you say. But there is no need for deliberation. In our founding, we wrestled with the possibility of discovering others like us. The codes developed in that time still stand. Our duty to protect the splinters of Equestria Prime is still the largest of our duties - we demand that you leave, only entering this dimension for the case of future relations, and then only on our terms. Silvertongue, since he has left ‘Chronomancer Space’ as you call it, is no longer our concern.”

“What the bloody h-” Tick Tock began.

“SILENCE!” the Magister declared. “We will abide by our laws, Tick Tock. And they are clear in this matter.”

“Wise laws,” the Crown Princess said.

“No, they are not,” Suzie countered. “I will leave if you say we must, Magister, but are you aware that Equestria V and IV are falling to the Void?”

“We are aware of the Void’s negativity consuming the worlds. It is a natural course of things.”

“We know how to stop it,” Suzie said. “Our presence in the worlds has noticeably slowed the Void. With our mastery of dimensional reality anchors and other such technologies we could save those worlds.”

“Such things may cause instability, we cannot know your intentions or the dangers of your technology. Your presence may keep the Void at bay, but it also upsets the connections between universes.”

“Then let us take the universes, don’t let them die!” Suzie pleaded.

The Magister gawked at her. “You can… move universes?”

“...It’s exceptionally difficult for us, we usually petition one of the larger societies to do it for us.”

“Larger societies!?” Tick Tock gawked.

“We are not big fish in the multiversal pond,” Suzie said. “We are a higher-end Class 3 society. The same Class you would be. Class 2s and Class 1s are all far above us.”

The Magister stared at her. “And what can these… Class 1s do?”

“...A single instance of the Celestialsapien race can recreate a destroyed universe from memory.”

“Don’t let them scare you into joining them,” the Crown Princess countered. “They were able to survive walking around the toes of giants, you can too. You have so far.”

“I don’t need them to join!” Suzie shouted. “They are a separate sovereign nation! They would stand with us, not be doted upon.”

The Crown Princess huffed. “That’s what you think. You don’t speak for the nation. What is the League of Sweetie Belles but a particularly prestigious club?”

Suzie rammed her fist into the palm of her hand. “You’re just a f-”

“Suzie, control,” Celia whispered in her ear.

Suzie breathed in and out slowly for a moment, allowing her arms to sag. “...Crown Princess. You’ve suffered because of us. But we gave your dying world a future it would not have had on its own.”

“It would have had it. It would have been fine. It would ha-”

“How did she die?” Blackburn asked.

Suzie and the Crown Princess turned to her in shock.

“How did she die, Princess?”

“...G-giving herself for the sun and moon.”

“They arrived seconds later. Unable to help her.” Blackburn turned to the Magister. “This mare is locked in an eternal cycle of grief. Her mind cannot be considered right.”

Rarity looked at the Crown Princess. “...Sweetie…”

“Don’t…” the Crown Princess said. “Just… just don’t.”

“I have heard enough,” the Magister said. “Enough to know that we want nothing to do with either of your people. Outsiders will not be tolerated within our universes.”

“Bu-” Suzie began.

“The Void has taken countless universes, Captain, and it will take countless more. Two more won’t matter.”

“You can’t do that!” Twilight shouted. “We never agreed to be under your control!”

“Hope’s Point will declare war on the Chronomancers,” Blackburn Growled. “Utopia may not. New Pandemonium City will.”

“Equestria IV will not be destroyed!” Twilight stomped her hoof on the ground. “We will not stand for it!”

“We never chose to be part of your plan,” Blackburn said. “Your job is to protect us. You failed to do that. Let us seek other options.”

“You would not win a war,” the Magister said.

“They would if they petitioned the Merodi for aid,” the Crown Princess warned. “Suzie has the authority to operate a limited portion of the Merodi Military Division. Don’t think she won’t.”

“Is that a threat?” the Magister asked.

“I’m just telling you what they’ll do. Suzie herself wouldn’t dare make the threat.”

The Magister turned to Suzie. “Would you do this?”

“We come to the aid of those who cannot defend themselves,” Suzie said. “I don’t see why saving worlds from being sent to their Void would be denied.”

“And what are your terms?”

“Either let us help the worlds or give them to us. I would prefer the former.”

“You just don’t want to prove me right!” the Crown Princess hissed.

And that’s when she noticed it.

Twilight and her friends, Tick Tock, Zircon… all of them had taken steps back from her, leaving her alone in her anger.

“...I guess you don’t see either,” she sighed.

“Ah’m sorry,” Applejack said. “But… we know Blackburn. She was a good judge of us, and is a close friend. Ah trust what she says. They ain’t the bad guys here.”

“Neither are you,” Fluttershy said. “You’re just upset.”

The Crown Princess said nothing. She only looked to the Magister.

The Magister sighed. “Permission to teach us the ways of saving worlds from the Void is granted.”

“Thank you, Magister,” Suzie said with a bow.

“You still need to leave.”

“You have my ship.”

“You can have it back.”

“She would take objection to your language.”

“Take your ship and all your otherworldly selves and get out of here.”

“We’re going with them,” Twilight declared.

The Magister groaned. “You belong in your world-”

“With all due respect, I don’t recognize you as an authority, Magister,” Twilight interrupted. “You are not Princess Celestia. You are not Harmonia. We are going to face Silvertongue, and you can’t stop us.”

“...Very well. You may not be allowed to return.”

Twilight tensed. “I…”

“They can come back with the devices we will ship to teach you how to stop the Void,” Suzie said. “With the dimensional spell, the overall time spent away would be less than a week.”

“We rely on natural port-”

“You’re going to have to change that. Trust me.”

The Magister sighed. “Very well.”

Tick Tock cleared her throat. “Sir, may I-”

“No, Tick Tock, you are not going anywhere. You are going to be severely reprimanded for the absolute bellend of a train wreck your world has created here. Bell Tower, you are not leaving either.” He slammed his hoof on the edge of his seat. “We shall retire to deliberate further. All otherworlders will go to Swip and leave before we are done.”

“Understood,” Suzie said.

“Suzie, Crown Princess.” He stood up and looked down at them disapprovingly. “If you are the sorts the wider multiverse has to offer, I am glad we stay ‘secluded’.”

The Magister and his colleagues left. Some guards appeared to take Tick Tock and Bell Tower away.

And then they were alone.

The Crown Princess glared at Suzie. “I’m coming with you.”

Suzie’s face contorted into a deep scowl. “You have caused so much damage and headache the only way you’re getting into Celestia City is over my cold dea-”

“Let her come, dear,” Celia said.

Suzie froze. “Celia, sh-”

“She has made friends. Friends who want to help. Friends who want to see Silvertongue brought to his knees. It would be foolish to turn them away.”

Suzie’s scowl vanished. She turned to the Crown Princess, an odd mixture of contempt and pity on her face.

“You can come with us,” Suzie said. “Just this once. We’ll let you go and you can return to… I don’t know, trying to tear us down from the outside or whatever it is your long-term game plan is. There’s something bigger than the both of us right now. And I know you want to help.”

The Crown Princess nodded curtly. “Thank you, captain.”

“Don’t get comfortable,” Suzie said, turning her back on the Crown Princess. “Whatever’s at the end of this road isn’t likely to be pleasant.”

“I don’t expect much to be pleasant anymore.”

Suzie frowned. “...Swip? Beam everyone up. We’re going to be cramped for a bit, but that doesn’t matter. Follow Silvertongue’s dimensional signature.”

“You got it, captain!” Swip said, teleporting them all into herself. The pile of ponies and people filled the lounge. “...Wow. That’s a lot of you.”

Rachel sighed. “I’m going to have to bake more cookies, aren’t I?”

~~~

The area of the Fay Realm under Crackling Leaves’ purview was a tangled mess of trees, earth, shifting space, and devices cobbled from the technology of several different worlds. Broken screens were littered around everywhere, but there was enough of an organization to it that it wasn’t hard to walk through.

But there was something wrong.

They didn’t see any actual Fay. Just trashed machines and magic artifacts stolen from mortal worlds and experimented on.

“They’ve evacuated,” Winter said.

“They know we’re coming,” Mattie added.

“Good,” Cryo said, smirking. “Then they’ll actually put up a fight…”

“Looks like I’ll get a chance to test out these new powers,” Curio added.

“Behold Curio Form Two!”

Curio rolled her eyes.

Indigo looked at Winter in concern. “That’s…”

“It is fine, my pet. For once, the fact that none of us are Fay is helpful.”

“It is…?”

“It is not a very well kept secret that Crackling Leaves has created weapons of enhanced unwinding…”

An elemental spirit of fire drifted lazily through the air in front of them, swirling in the air a bit.

Winter narrowed her eyes. “They wouldn't send just one.”

“Could just be passing through?” Tab suggested. “These things are pretty common.”

“Perhaps…”

The fire spirit swirled around in a pattern not unlike that from a slow fly, lazily coming to a rest in a pile of technological junk. There was a soft spark of energy between the spirit and a curved piece of metal prior to the spirit vanishing into the metal.

A golem made from a mixture of clockwork, electrical components, and levitating magitech jumped out of the pile, glowing red with the power of the flames. It brought a massive hammer-like fist composed of iron, aluminum, silver, and some form of compact salt down on Winter.

The image of Winter it attacked turned out to only be an apparition from Winters glamours. “The direct approach? Crackling Leaves, you’re losing y-” Had Tab not raised a barrier, she would have been shredded by an air golem driving a sword into her back.

“There’s more!” Mattie shouted, picking up Cryo and throwing her in a direction where there was seemingly nothing. Cryo raised a wall of ice in front of her anyway, and that allowed her to easily deflect the bullets of a golem hiding in the distance in a sniper position. Cryo smirked, punching her hoof at the opposite side of the bullets’ impact sites, sending a massive cylinder of ice into the distance where the sniper hid. That, if it hadn’t killed them, would surely upset them.

Curio decided to test out her new abilities in a way similar to Winter, producing six illusory copies of herself in several directions to confuse the golems. This was less effective than she would have liked - no doubt the golems were well aware of illusory powers given the existence of the Winter Court - but each illusion got a swing or two from the golems, allowing others to move in and get some damage.

However, her focus on her other selves let another golem through her defenses - a club-wielder with a spirit of earth. Automatically, the club slowed in time behind her head. Sensing the presence of a club right behind her she twisted around and broke the club off its arm. It was a bit heavy for her, but she was able to trip the golem over in Cryo’s direction where it got frozen to the ground.

“You’re way more useful now!”

“Noted.”

Skuldie effortlessly dodged an attack from the hammer golem, jumping on top of its fist and grabbing its head in her magic. Twisting to the side to avoid it’s other hand, she tore the head out of it’s socket.

The golem didn’t care, but she had been expecting this. The free hand came for another pass at her and she skewered the head on it, causing a feedback loop between the magical and electrical components. The thing fell harmlessly to the ground.

Mattie cracked her whips on the air golem’s limbs, a little ticked to discover it had no pain receptors. “No pain? There are other games.”

“That was lame!” Tab called.

“Shush, I’m saving us.” She wrapped both whips around the air golem’s arms and sent a burst of electricity through her whips into the arms. It struggled to absorb the energy, allowing Mattie to deliver a swift boot-enforced kick to its midsection, tearing all its limbs off in an instant. “These things are shoddily constructed.”

Winter glared. “Your ambush didn’t work, Crackling Leaves.”

One of the seemingly broken screens in a pile of technology fizzled to life, showing the unusual gnome’s face. “You have special mortals with you. The artifices were designed with the purpose of deterring Fay.”

“None of us are Fay anymore, Crackling Leaves. You did not miss that.”

“I did not. Alas, I have somewhere to be, and I cannot engage with you.”

“Come out here and fight us like a mare!” Cryo shouted.

Crackling Leaves looked at her with curious pity. “I have no obligation or need to do so. Why make a fool of myself?”

Curio cocked her head to the side. “Doesn’t fighting us already make you a ‘fool’? I’m no expert on Fay mannerisms bu-”

Crackling Leaves hung up. Cryo gasped at this. “Hey! Hey! You’re supposed to monologue!”

“She’s supposed to kill us,” Winter said, picking up one of the air golem’s swords, examining its mottled make of multiple metals with a thin coating of salt. “...Terrible weapon.”

“Why would they need them?” Tab asked. “Fay rarely fight each other physically.”

“To have one on hand so the unexpected option is an option.” Winter twirled the sword. “Redefining the game…”

“What does it mean?” Indigo asked.

Winter didn’t answer, opting to secrete the blade somewhere on her person.

Skuldie closed her eyes. “Scootaloo’s here somewhere. Probably behind dozens more golems in a hidden bunker of some sort.”

“Can you sense her?” Curio asked.

“There is a very vague sense that she is here. Normally that would be enough, but given the nature of the Fae Realms…”

“She will have hidden her well,” Winter said. “Despite her newfound reliance on force, she is still a Fay. She will have multiple possible locations hidden behind riddles, deception, and possibly illusion.” Winter frowned. “Clever attacks may be in our future. Do not expect the enemy in front to be the true enemy.”

They moved forward, Winter taking point. They ran, always ready for an attack from all sides.

Except below.

An intangible golem’s spiked-club cut through the ground, hitting Indigo right in the chest. She let out a howl of pain, her blood flying over Winter as she slumped to the ground.

Mattie grabbed hold of the intangible golem’s club with her magic and tore the full golem out of the ground. It was significantly taller than all the others, had eight arms, and sparked with a soft white spirit of thought.

Winter would have wondered where Crackling Leaves got one of those spirits were she not staring at Indigo on the ground, heavily injured.

“T-trying to emotionally compromise,” Winter said, grinding her teeth. She forced herself to turn away and meet the sword of a fire golem, jumping over the bullets of a distant sound golem’s gun.

Around six more golems engaged in attacking them - but they were inconsequential, tiny things compared to the ethereal golem of thought itself. That monstrosity summoned weapons out of the aether and attacked from eight directions at once. Most were either able to dodge or raise some kind of shield.

Curio took a hit. Her time-displaced reflexes allowed her to see an ethereal bomb coming, giving her just enough time to avoid a mortal injury. The shockwave sent her visor flying off her face and drove her into a pile of loose tech.

“Curio!”

“I’m fine!” Curio grunted, looking over the scrapes and bruises she had obtained. Annoyingly the blast hadn’t done anywhere near as much damage as landing in the pile of loose tech.

“Sassafras!” Tab swore, scrambling to do anything with her tablet. “They’re all spirit-possession based, the coding is minimal!”

“Then what can you do?” Skuldie asked, cartwheeling through a shower of bullets without taking a single hit.

“I can, uh…” she tapped the tablet a few more times and shot her horn into a pile of mixed machines. A loose super-magnet sphere rose into the air, affixing dozens of loose metallic junk to it, including a few of the smaller golems. It couldn't hit the thought golem, being made of purely physical objects, but it could throw things into the distance where the long-range attackers were.

The thought golem cut right through the magnet with a giant laser beam.

“...Okay, that was my shot,” Tab said, biting her lip. “Anyone got anything else?”

Cryo tried to freeze the thought golem, but that was pointless. Mattie’s magic did something, but nowhere near enough to break through its ethereal limbs. Curio attempted to scramble some more illusions, but the golem had apparently wisened up to this tactic since it ignored them. Skuldie and Winter weren’t equipped to fight this sort of thing, though they managed never to be hit.

“I wonder if she enchanted this thing last minute to specifically counter us,” Tab mused.

“Possibly,” Winter admitted, jumping to the side to avoid a burst explosion. “We need to re-evaluate…”

“Backup is out of the question, phones aren’t working,” Mattie said. “It looks as though we’ll just have to wait for the others to save us.”

“Others?” Winter asked.

“Oh. You know. The others.”

“Can you give specifics?”

“I’m not that Aware, give me a break!”

Winter’s eyes narrowed. “I did not demand.”

“What? Then why would you even ask?”

The thought golem fused all eight of its fists into one and brought them down toward the bickering pair of mysteries.

They never made it. There was a flash of golden-red light and the ghostly fist was severed from all eight limbs. Floating in the air, flapping her wings lightly, was none other than Corona Shimmer.

She was not happy. She created a magic circle around each of her wrists and drove them into the supposedly intangible golem. A few seconds later all the color vanished from the war machine and its components crumbled to the ground. A single white spirit drifted lazily away from Corona’s grasp.

“Now!” a French accented voice shouted. A red pegasus shot out of nowhere and incinerated a remaining fire golem. A gray one flattened an earth golem, embedding it in its namesake. A dark pink earth pony appeared out of nowhere and drove bloody tendrils from her back into a light golem, tearing it to shreds with ease. Two unicorns appeared next to a massive sound golem and fired the exact same spell of Void at it, disintegrating it.

A sixth blue earth pony became visible on top of the only remaining golem, a simple water one. She had a sword in her hoof and drove it through the machine’s skull, destroying it.

“See? What did I tell you?” Mattie smirked.

“We have injured!” Winter shouted.

Corona wasted no time - she lifted Curio and Indigo into the air and enveloped them in healing magics, curing their wounds and any other minor ailments they might have had nearly effortlessly. “There you go.”

Curio levitated her cracked visor back over to herself and looked at it thoughtfully. “...Thanks. I’m just happy nobody got… really hurt. That could have gone…”

Corona smiled warmly. “Don’t worry about what could have been.” She turned to look at the rest of the group.

“Yeah, thanks for the save!” Tab said, breathing heavily. “Corona and… whoever you all are.”

The blue earth pony opened her mouth to speak, but Mattie interrupted them. “May I introduce Curaçao, Havocwing, Shadow, Velvet, Insipid, and Grayscale; the Mean Six.”

“...Did you just name us?” Grayscale asked.

“I kinda like it,” Havocwing admitted.

“She… she knew our names!” Insipid gasped.

“What, I know things too,” Velvet said. “It’s not that weird.”

“You’re a distinct anomaly, Velvet,” Shadow countered.

“None of zis is important,” Curaçao said. “Where are Inferno and Shivershackles? A… blue Sunset Shimmer and a small, tiny ‘uman man wiz crystals all over ‘im.”

“That sounds familiar…” Skuldie said, frowning.

“We have not seen them,” Winter said. “We are seeking Scootaloo.”

“Scootaloo?” Corona blinked. “She was where we teleported in. Told us to go help you.”

Winter blinked.

“Looks like we won’t have to solve her puzzles after all!” Indigo said, grinning.

“Seems not…”

Corona lit her horn, teleporting them all across the realm of Crackling Leaves, appearing inside a large living room with a tree in the center and a screen on the wall. Sitting on the couch were two weak and haggard looking people who had clearly been imprisoned until just a moment before, given the marks on their wrists. Scootaloo seemed healthy enough, but the Everykid looked like she had been beaten within an inch of her life.

“Scootaloo!” Skuldie shouted, pulling her into a hug. “I was so worried!”

“Heh… I’m made of tougher stuff than that… and they didn’t hurt me.” She turned to Everykid. “Corona?”

Corona nodded, laying her hands over the Everykid. “...This is some serious soul damage. I can heal it, but it will take time.”

“We don’t have time,” Scootaloo said with a sign. “Shroud and Crackling Leaves left the moment you arrived, almost as if you switched places.”

Curaçao’s eyes widened. “We’re wasting time ‘ere! Exactly what he wants!”

Corona grimaced. “A distraction…?” She lifted her hands, easily able to trace the recent dimensional signature that had left the hidden bunker. “Dammit! They went back to Celestia City!”

“Get us back!” Curaçao shouted.

“Hold on! I have to force through the dimensional drive’s containment...” Corona shouted, tearing at reality with her fingers.

“Time to face the boss…” Cryo said, jumping around with excitement.

“You really shouldn’t be excited about that,” Shadow said.

“Why not? I am!” Havocwing put Cryo under her wing. “I’ve known you for less than a minute and I already love your spirit!”

“Yay!”

“Already adding new ponies to the team?” Curio jokingly asked Cryo.

“This is going to be a rough translation, hold tight!” Corona shouted.

~~~

Shimmy led her sizeable group through the depths of Celestia City, following Arul’s trail closely. Twilight and Chrysalis were off to the side, checking for unusual magic signatures, while Blink and Cinder were talking and laughing about something pertaining to ghosts Sequin didn’t understand.

But Sequin didn’t let being out of the loop bother her. She was riding high, practically beaming her joy to everyone around her.

“What’s got you so happy?” Brook asked, smirking.

“Oh, nothing. Just that I saw through the plan!” She pointed an accusatory hoof at Arul. “You thought you could pull one over on Sequin? Ha! I’ve tangled with Discord, you don’t just pull the blinds over my eyes like that! I’ll see through your clever little deceptions and expose them! Your master plan is nothing!”

“That’s some pretty impressive gloating!” Blink called.

“I’m enjoying myself!”

“That was not a complaint, keep going!”

Sequin giggled to herself. “I wouldn’t want to overdo it…”

Shimmy carefully led them through a pipe, entering the interior of a dimensional drive where Entrapta was sitting patiently in front of a horseshoe-shaped device.

Cinder frowned. “Entrapta?”

“Oh, hi!” Entrapta waved. “Corona just left with the other six to chase down some Silvertongue guy.”

“He’s definitely involved…” Shimmy grunted. “What are you doing here?”

Entrapta shrugged. “Waiting for them to come back. I was working on this Universe Generator Finder, but since that’s probably part of his plan, I just left it incomplete. They’ll have him taken care of momentarily. Probably. Oh, you can go help them if you want!”

Shimmy took a few steps forward. “That’d be great, where’d they go?”

“Signature goes to somewhere in Fae Époque. You’ll have to punch through the dimensional drive security wall first, which apparently everyone can just do. Probably needs maintenance or something. Anyw-”

Shimmy stepped on the barely visible scratches on the floor in the shape of a magic circle. Instantly they lit up with a bright silver color, driving more than a dozen silver chains tipped with arrowheads into her avatar. She yelped in surprise more than pain. “What i-”

Twilight screamed - she had been close to Shimmy, enough for the chains to latch onto her as well. Chrysalis and the others had been lucky enough not to be within the circle.

Shimmy tried to channel the rest of her power to free herself, but that somehow only made the chains stronger. Releasing power didn’t work either - this avatar was locked in place, becoming a true focal point for all of Shimmy’s deific energy. She felt a vague presence of Fay magic within the circles, but it had been mutated and twisted so far beyond their original purpose she knew they could not have been made by a Fay alone.

“I didn’t do this!” Entrapta said. “I have no idea what this is! I-”

A gray pegasus dropped an invisibility spell, tossing Entrapta to the side with a gust of wind. “That will be enough squirming,” he said. “It is time they knew who truly holds their fates in his hooves.”

Chrysalis and Blink charged - but they were stopped with barriers of golden magic. Blink couldn’t phase through, and Chrysalis found that her magic was being countered by the barriers. “What the…?”

The pegasus smiled - and dropped his disguise, revealing his true form. Silver, elegant, regal - and so perfectly proportioned it brought jealous disgust out in even the best of those present. “I am Lord Silvertongue. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Shimmy.”

Now that he was no longer hiding his essence, Shimmy’s eyes widened as she saw what he was. The many different essences of power within him churned as one, almost impossible to separate from each other.

But she could see one.

And that was all she needed to see.

“YOU FED ON HER!” Shimmy screamed, channeling more power into her by sheer anger, strengthening the chains on her form even more.

“I assure you, the child felt no pain,” Silvertongue said.

“Shimmy, calm down!” Twilight managed through her injured state. “He’s… drawing power from you…”

“Oh, it wouldn't matter if she stopped or not,” Silvertongue sad. “The circle allows me to drain power at any moment.” With a flash of his horn, he sucked magic out of both Shimmy and Twilight. He only took a small portion of Shimmy’s, but Twilight…

He sucked Twilight dry. The magic left her eyes and she was no longer able to stand, slumping to the ground around the circle.

“Is that what all this is about? To devour me?” Shimmy demanded.

“I could, if I wished to, but I do not. I simply need a sizeable essence from the arbiter of reality, more than this circle can provide. I had been hoping to use the natural connection of that imprisoned girl’s power to yours, but that turned out to be a dead end.” He smirked, dropping the cloak around Diamond Inferno. “Luckily, I always have a backup.”

Crackling Leaves revealed herself. “They’re coming here.”

“Good. I should like them to witness this. Shivershackles?”

“Yes, master?” Shivershackles said, revealing himself.

“Mitigate your worthlessness somewhat by threatening Corona’s life when she comes in. Do not kill. If you so much as scratch her without my say, you will be dismissed. There will be no chance to redeem yourself. Do you understand?”

“Yes, master.”

“But when I do say…”

“I know.”

“Shivershackles!” Shimmy called. “Don’t listen to him! Remember who I am? I-”

“I have you at my mercy!” Silvertongue boomed. “He will listen to who has the most authority - me. And you simply do not have it in you to berate him enough to change that perception!”

“You’re a monster.”

“I use the tools I have at my disposal to their maximum effect.”

Corona tore a portal from the Fae Realm to Celestia City, throwing Curaçao, her sisters, Cryo’s team, Winter, and Indigo out at high velocity. The next thing Merodi’s bringer of life knew, her arms and legs were in shackles and there was a dark collar around her neck that could cut her head off with the push of a button. “Wh…”

“Do not move or you will die,” Shivershackles told her. “That goes for all of you.”

Silvertongue nodded. “Mustard? Clockwork? Make yourselves useful and put an end to the desperate plan to stab me in the back.”

Cinder, Sequin, and Brook teleported to Silvertongue and tried to drive their attacks into him - but Clockwork and Mustard did as asked. Clockwork slowed time for Sequin and Brook while Mustard grabbed Cinder in his telekinesis and rammed her into the ground.

“False princess,” Mustard said.

“W-what?” Cinder blinked.

“Ah, Cinder…” Silvertonge walked over to her. “You… If I suspected I could kill you, I would.”

“Why don’t you?”

“You know why.”

Cinder bristled. “Trying to guess isn’t guaranteed to work.”

“I can be at least as good as you are.” He turned to the slowed Sequin. “Did you really think you saved the day? Believe me, you ruined the day. I needed Shimmy here, and if you all had missed the obvious, you could have ruined everything. A glaring mistake - I should have accounted for incompetence in the opposition.”

He turned back to Shimmy. “But now… everyone’s here, and it’s time to open a gateway to the Universe Generator. Are you curious how I’m going to do it without a completed device?”

“You designed it,” Tab shouted. “You can probably finish it yourself!”

“True, but it is only half the answer.” He gestured at Diamond Inferno. “She is you. And yet she hates you, hates what you and all Sunsets like you represent to her.”

Shimmy looked at Inferno in pity. “...You could have had so much…”

“You all betrayed yourselves. Every last one of you.” Inferno growled. “I am not going to be pathetic like you. And you are going to realize just how pathetic you are.”

“You’re delusional,” Corona called. “W-”

“Shivershackles, make her shut up.”

Black sludge appeared over Corona’s mouth, preventing her from speaking.

Inferno poked Shimmy’s face. “The greatest Sunset Shimmer of all… pinned in front of me. This is good, this is really good.”

“Did you already forget our conversation!?” Velvet asked.

Silvertongue frowned. “Shivershackles, eat all the fear she is about to eat. Hopefully it’ll teach you how to cower better. I somehow doubt it.”

The fire in Velvet’s eyes vanished. “Wh - hey! No fair!”

“Only the worst kind of ponies can use Shivershackles effectively,” Shimmy growled.

“No. Not the worst. Only those who are willing to put aside everything.” Silvertongue touched his horn to Inferno. “Prepare to see…”

He thrust the connection signature of the Everyman into Inferno… and instantly connected her mind to both Shimmy and Corona.

And then every other Sunset on Celestia City…

Shimmy felt her perception expand. Suddenly she was thousands of herself, all stacked over and on top of each other. Inferno laughed, Corona shouted…

But Shimmy saw. She was the only one who could see, could see it all. The web of universes traced out by millions of Sunsets living out their lives in the Equis Cluster. She, in this moment, was the overseer of all, her essence as arbiter of reality able to touch every world.

She saw the pattern. The shifting and jostling of universes past each other as more and more were created, added to the ever-growing pool of worlds.

She tried not to look. Tried to hold back. But there was an icy cold presence in the back of her mind.

“That looks interesting…” Inferno said.

“No.” Shimmy said. “No, we are not..”

“Enough of us are. Most of us have no idea why we’re not supposed to look at it. Have you ever tried to specifically not think of something? Terrible, isn’t it?” Shimmy felt as though Inferno’s hands were tracing up and down her body, even though neither actually existed in this space. “By telling us not to look… they look.”

Another Sunset came out of nowhere and mentally punched Inferno away. “I’m the Everyman. Working to break apart the connection. Standby.” She vanished elsewhere into the soup of Sunsets.

Shimmy knew it was already too late - they had all looked. They had all seen it, the Universe Generator, and because Silvertongue was using some of her magic… He knew it too.

She allowed herself to look at what all her other selves saw. A single universe, ancient, but not decrepit - eternally creating more and more for the sake of perpetuating the multiverse. A powerful tool that had remained hidden… until now.

An image of the Tower flashed in her mind. She could hear Cinder call out.

The Everyman succeeded in breaking the connection between Sunsets, returning Shimmy to a single awareness.

Silvertongue was no longer looking at her - he had placed Inferno inside the incomplete horseshoe device and was lifting her up to the gyroscope of the dimensional drive. The spinning rings were slowing, aligning to focus onto the device and Inferno.

“If you’re wondering why help isn’t coming, it’s because I re-strengthened the security barrier around the drive,” Silvertongue said. “They will not be able to breach it in time.”

Inferno started screaming as the dimensional energies surged into her from all sides.

“That’s it,” Grayscale said, charging Silvertongue. He lifted a wing and threw her to the ground.

“Grayscale, had Shivershackles not been ordered to be careful, he could have cut Corona’s head off for that.”

“Don’t care,” Grayscale muttered, standing up. “You’re n-”

Silvertongue rammed her into the ground. “Rebellious daughter.”

“I… am… not…”

“Then whose are you?”

“No one’s.” Curaçao said. “We do not ‘ave chains, Silvertongue.”

“Really?” Silvertongue said, looking to Shadow. “Do you agree, Starlight?”

Shadow was breathing heavily, unable to form a coherent response.

“You always were the best performing…”

“Stop lying to ‘er!” Curaçao shouted.

“Am I? Every word of what I have said is true.”

“One need not lie to deceive,” Winter said.

Silvertongue nodded. “Wise words, but woefully standard for Fay. But, then again, you are not Fay, are you?”

“I-” she realized with shock that Silvertongue was ignoring her now, having returned his full attention to Curaçao.

Curaçao didn’t blink.

“Why do you attempt to change who you are?” Silvertongue asked. Curaçao was shocked to find the pain in his voice was legitimate.

“It’s wrong,” Curaçao said, simply.

“You saved your sisters, Curaçao. You did what had to be done. Why change what has given you so much?”

“Because I am not going to become YOU. You are where zat paz leads.”

“And I am going to create perfection, while you are in turmoil.”

“Nopony’s perfect,” Insipid said.

“Not unless you make them that way,” Silvertongue said. He approached Shadow.

“Stay away from her!” Velvet shouted, inserting herself between Silvertongue and Shadow.

“I can speak to my daughter whenever I want, Velvet.”

“You’re going to have to go th-”

Silvertongue threw her to the side effortlessly. “Starlight Shadow…”

Shadow was sweating profusely.

“Would you like to be made perfect?”

“I… I… I…”

Silvertongue put a hoof to her chin, tilting her face up. “I can do that for you. You c-”

Chrysalis grabbed him by the neck. “You’re fucked up.”

“And so are you, in a more literal sense,” Silvertongue said. “What do you plan to do, break my spine?” He smirked. “You already know that won’t work.”

Chrysalis growled.

“Or perhaps you think you’re saving her from me?” Silvertongue shrugged, carefully prying Chrysalis’ fingers off his neck. “Maybe you are. A bit odd to save somepony from something they want though, isn’t it?”

He looked up at the gyroscopic energies coursing through Inferno. “Ah, it appears we’re almost ready. Which means we’re due for the unexpected and impossible.” He glanced at Mattie. “We still have one more party to arrive, don’t we?”

Mattie stared at him in shock. “You aren’t…”

“No. But it’s just a matter of guessing, after all.” He smirked. “The game is about to change.”

Crackling Leaves narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

Silvertongue only chuckled. “Just sit back and enjoy the show.”

Several things happened at once.

The dimensional drive completed its operations, tearing a hole in reality that charged through several universes before arriving at the one Silvertongue wanted, having found it through Inferno’s connection.

Swip physically crashed through the wall of the dimensional drive, breaking through the metal casing and sending a few of the rings flying into several pieces. She flipped end over end, creating a massive dent in the ground at the bottom of the sphere.

A woman with swirled eyes and impossibly frazzled curls appeared out of nowhere, thought into existence, bypassing the barriers of the dimensional drive. She held something in her hand that made reality itself twitch in fear. That something couldn’t decide on a single form, but whatever it truly was, it was long and able to be swung around like a sword.

Silvertongue let out a soft chuckle. “Screwball had the Shard of Madness… Truly unexpected, but foreshadowed just enough. I must applaud the Tower for its ingenuity.”

"Lombamaiter," Winter growled. "Nállë urcilmessë."

Swip activated all her weapons and fired at Silvertongue, not even bothering with a warning. Screwball swung the Shard of Madness, scrambling the very perception of reality for all present....

The dimensional drive exploded from all the strain. Reality failed at that particular point, creating a void of glitched nothing akin to the hole that had been created on the XCOM Earth not but a few days prior.

~~~

Silvertongue awoke.

Before him was a beautiful sight. A swirling spark of light surrounded by immense black prisms. The geometric shapes swirled around the spark with alarming speed, poking it every so often to unknown effect. The spark of light suddenly expanded in a flash of energy strong enough to unify all forces and bring reality to its knees.

The birth of a new universe.

Time flew by, millions of years every second. There was light, darkness, then the patterns of galactic superclusters eternally swirling in the firmament of a standard three-dimensional universe. Once it was fully formed, it folded out of existence, presumably added to the eternally growing Equis Cluster.

The next universe was different. It started with a sphere dotted with stars, in the center of which a single planet sat, orbited by a small moon and sun. It was split into three identical spheres. One had the moon destroyed, one had the sun, and the coloration of the plants in every one were altered.

Next, two worlds were created at once, both filled with galaxies and superclusters, but one with significantly more magic than the other. One matched the pattern of the first world that had been created, but the other must have drawn from a separate template.

Silvertongue could only laugh.

He had made it.

Irreconcilable (CRISIS: Equestria, Part 6)

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Rachel thought her alarm clock was going off at first. She groaned, wondering why her blankets felt so much heavier than usual. She would have loved to go back to sleep, but the pounding headache didn’t let her get comfortable again.

She opened her eyes, allowing the flashing red light to register.

I don’t have one of those in my room…

Her eyes focused and identified the source of the light - one of Swip’s screens, flashing “ALERT!” over and over in time with the intense beeping coming from all sides. Rachel jolted herself into awareness with a rush of adrenaline, taking everything in at once. She was alone, Swip’s main lights were out, and there was a plate of bent metal pressed against her chest. There was something sticky running down her face - maybe blood. There was no pain aside from the headache, so she probably wasn't injured anywhere else unless she was in shock.

With a grunt, she forced the metal plate off of her. She was quite lucky Swip’s interior structure was lightweight, otherwise she would have been trapped. Or, more likely, dead, since more traditional spaceships designed for combat tended to be hefty.

“You’re awake,” Swip said, using a basic speaker in the wall. “Stay calm.”

“What… happened?”

“Corona trying to teleport several dozen people at once without warning in front of a forming failure of reality. Stupid, really. Saved almost all of us from what I can tell, but everything’s a mess out there. Some are on the other side of the tear…”

Rachel placed her hand on a wall. “What do I do?”

“While I would love to keep you here, the fact is I’m not safe. You’ll need to leave and… find cover somewhere. This won’t take long to clean up, but it’s going to be ugly until it is.”

Rachel nodded. Even with Swip being tilted sideways, she knew the way to the main docking ramp. She stumbled out into the light, resting upon a chunk of the dimensional drive’s outer shell.

Swip was right. It was a mess out here.

The space that had held the dimensional drive had been torn to shreds. Virtually every pipe had burst open and the exterior walls had caved in, leaving vast swaths of Celestia City’s inner workings exposed for those within to see. Fires of numerous unnatural colors had started spreading across the metallic mesh and a few bolts of electricity shot across the room like lightning in a great storm. A few areas had been damaged so much they punched all the way to inhabited areas that Rachel could hear screams emanating from.

There were several small Merodi ships within the space, but they were all focused on one thing and one thing only - the tear in reality. The nothing that wasn't quite nothing, a failure within the universe to manage itself. Physics had been strained too hard and even the Reality Anchors had been unable to prevent the local collapse from everything colliding.

Had the Reality Anchors not been around the entire universe would have collapsed from a strain that immense.

The ships were focusing precision lasers and space-time shaping tools to combat the rift, but even then it was expanding. Slowly, admittedly, but if they couldn’t contain it soon it would start eating populated areas of Celestia City.

“You need to move,” Swip said. “Forward will work. Away from the thing. You shouldn’t be shot at.”

“Swip…”

“I’ll be fine,” Swip said. “I’ve survived worse. Muuuuuuuch worse. I’m not a squishy human like you. Just move.”

Rachel took in a sharp breath. “I love you, sis!”

“Love you too. Now stop giving me death flags. It’s uncomfortable.” She let out a soft chuckle.

Rachel paled.

“Okay, bad joke - seriously though RUN.”

Rachel ran. The moment she was clear, Swip turned on her loudspeakers. “HEY! ANGEL-BITCH! I HEAR YOU LIKE CANNONS!” She swiveled one of her operational weapons toward Arul, who was currently locked in combat with Nira. A red bolt of thaumic energy cascaded through the air and hit Arul dead on, allowing Nira to encase the angel in a circle of blood and darkness. Arul knew she couldn’t escape the dark master of souls, but she would go down righteously if she had anything to say about it. She collected her energy into her finger as quickly as she could, throwing it right at Swip, blowing out her center.

“Swip!” Rachel cried a metallic shrapnel flew past her.

Swip looked like little more than a metallic skeleton. This did not keep her from speaking.

“Ow,” Swip muttered. “That hurt.”

Arul’s eyes widened in shock as Nira completed her imprisonment spells.

“What? My AI unit is tiny! You’d have to vaporize the entire thing and then check to make sure the black box didn’t teleport itself to another universe! Though, uh… you are a pretty bad shot, because all my speakers are still working. Heh.”

Rachel let out a sigh of relief.

“By the way, I get the distinct impression someone who should be running isn’t. I MAY LACK COMPLEX SENSORS RIGHT NOW BUT I WILL STILL SHOUT IF I HAVE TO!”

Laughing to herself, Rachel ran further away. She caught sight of several injuries, and for the most part the scenes she came across were of people helping others escape the wreckage.

There was one phrase that kept getting repeated that concerned her.

“Where is Sunset?”

The big Sunset of the world kept reality together… She was there when everything exploded. Her power should obviously be at work… but it wasn’t. Corona had been the one to teleport everyone to relative safety, not Shimmy.

Rachel wasn’t exactly sure how bad this was but she knew it was bad.

She caught sight of the six ponies she had baked cookies for not too long ago, the Mane Six of Equestria IV, Twilight and her friends. Rachel knew it was a bit unfair to expect them to take new names this early into their multiversal exploration, but it was still confusing to think about them as separate from, say, the human Twilight that was the local incarnation of magic. Who was also with her friends a short distance away, though she looked sick.

Wait, her friends weren’t with her earlier… Right? Or am I remembering wrong?

A purple pegasus flew past her at high speed. “You won’t be able to catch me! I’m the fastest pony ali-”

Both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie appeared in front of him, sneering. “Gotcha, Clockwork!” the pink pony giggled, kicking him in the face.

“AUGH!” Clockwork hissed. “This is worse than that time I got punched by Odin in that bar in Louisiana…”

Pinkie giggled. “Nice story!”

“Thanks! It was all thanks to a golden fly-shaped pin, y’know. I can remember it like it was y-” Twilight shot him in the head with a magic laser. “...Like it was last week, ouch…”

“You seem quite lost in your own head…” Fluttershy said, frowning.

“Ah’m bettin’ it’s a side effect of the brainwashin’,” Applejack said, adjusting her hat.

Clockwork twitched. “Brainwashing?”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “You’re a Chronomancer, darling, from what we know of Tick Tock it takes quite a bit to get you to abandon your job.”

“Silvertongue just showed me th-”

Rainbow clocked him in the back of the head with her hooves. His eyes rolled into the back of his skull and he slumped to the ground.

Twilight blinked. “Huh.” She poked him. “Guess I hit him with a bigger laser than I thought…”

“He is just a normal pony with a special watch,” Rarity pointed out. “Not like the rest of the hooligans mucking about right now.”

“I wish we still had our powers,” Rainbow muttered.

“Our clones had theirs,” Applejack said. “Maybe we do too?”

Rainbow held out her hoof. A small lightning bolt shot out of it. “Oh come on! I would have liked to know that before we got him! Could have been way cooler.”

Fluttershy put a hoof on him and smiled. “Well, this way there was no chance we could have accidentally injured him. We’ll get him to a… brainwashing doctor. Those exist, right?”

Twilight shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“I’m sure we can find out if we only ask…” Rarity noticed Rachel. “Oh, uh… Radical, was it?”

“She has a name?” Rainbow blinked. “I thought she was just the cookie girl.”

Pinkie slapped her in the back of the head. “Dashie!”

“What?” Rainbow asked innocently.

“Rachel, actually.” She smiled. “I think there are brain doctors that can help him, yes, though I don’t know the… specifics. I’m only here because of my sister, Swip.”

Applejack looked to the wreck of Swip. “That bucket o’ bolts is your sister? How does that work?”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie raised her hoof. “When a mommy ship and a daddy ship and their captains love each other very much…”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Pinkie, that’s not it.”

“It could be!”

“She’s not the right model of ship for that!” Mattie shouted from the distance. She disappeared the moment afterward.

“The truth is way, way too complicated to get into,” Rachel said, shaking her head. “She told me to run. So I’m running. You girls look safe.”

Rainbow smirked. “Yeah, but we’re goin’ back into the action! There’s gotta be another bad guy for us to take out or something!”

“I only see the rift,” Twilight said. “And I think it’d be best if we left that to the professionals who know what they’re doing.”

“Oh come on, it can’t just be Clockwork! There’s gotta be somebody more da-”

The ground beneath them exploded in a torrent of ice, fire, and rippling space. The six mares and Clockwork were tossed to the side with ease while Rachel was pressed back into a loose chunk of wall.

Diamond Inferno held Corona, giver of life, by the neck. Every time Rachel had seen Corona previously she had seemed larger than life, walking with a presence that demanded attention and respect. Everything about her from her wings to her softly glowing body had been regal, almost divine.

Right now, she looked drained. Her hands were closed around Inferno’s wrist, burning with fire - but the ice of Inferno’s claw was unaffected.

“You got the same power I did in the convergence…” Inferno laughed. “You had more than me to start with. You could have defeated me with ease. But no… You decided to waste it all on saving them.” She gestured with her free hand at the six mares, all of whom were groaning and rubbing their heads. “You should have let the tear eat everyone here. Then you might have been able to stop me.”

Corona scowled. “They can take you…”

“Really?” Inferno threw Corona into the ground like a meteor, embedding her several meters into the twisted metal below. Golden, shimmering blood poured out of Corona’s many scratches. What little magic remained in her automatically went to healing her wounds. “They’re welcome to try.”

Mattie poked her head out from under a large pane of stained glass that somehow wasn’t broken. “I’m good!”

“But master!” Cryo called.

“Trust me on this, we’re good.”

“Heh. Cowards.” Inferno pointed a finger at them. “You will die where you stand…”

“Cower,” Mattie corrected.

“What?”

“We’re cowering. Or, well, Cryo is because it’s dramatic, I’m just sitting here with my tea.” She took a sip.

Inferno stared at her.

“What are you waiting for, mate? Bring on the pain. I am quite bored.”

“Ah…” Inferno grinned from ear to ear. “I’m going to save you for later. You’ll be fun to rip the skin off of… so rare to find someone who appreciates the art.”

“As much as I would love to take you up on your offer, I do happen to like continuing to live. It’s a good thing, life, lets you feel pain.”

“Wise words,” Cryo said.

Curio revealed her presence by pushing a thin slab of rock off of herself. “Can we not make idle threats about ripping each other’s skin off? I get enough of that at home.”

“You’d probably like it if you gave it a chance,” Mattie smirked.

“I don’t think I would.”

“Other you is weird,” Rainbow told Rarity bluntly.

“She sounds so masculine…” Rarity said, breath catching.

“Crikey! Sister, get your mind out of there!” Mattie called over. “You do not want to end up there. Trust me.”

Inferno shifted her shape into that of a unicorn, though she bothered to use her extra magic aura to create some ghostly wings. She pointed her horn at Cryo. “Hey kid, let’s see how deep I can go.”

“Master, she’s flirting with me, what do I do?” Cryo asked.

Mattie, for once in her life, was struck dumb. “But I… you… clueless…”

“No one can resist me!” Inferno laughed. “I a-”

A whip of green flame cracked out from the shadows, wrapping around Inferno’s ankle and throwing her to the ground. She looked up, catching sight of a towering dark form wreathed in emerald fire with lacy clothes, slitted eyes, and a fanged grin.

"I'm sorry, but the title of sexiest bitch in the universe is already taken," Chrysalis informed her in a tone of mock solemnity.

Inferno smirked. “Then I’ll just have to take it from you.”

“You’re not from this universe!” Mattie called.

“This universe won’t exist in a few hours anyway.” Inferno kicked Chrysalis in the chest, forcing two spikes of ice through the skin. She retaliated with a burst of fire and a smirk.

“Forward.”

“I always am.”

Chrysalis summoned green fire around her foot and delivered a kick of her own into Inferno’s chest, only for her foot to get encased in ice. Inferno transformed into a humanoid creature with four pairs of wings and a slasher-smile of a mouth. She bit down on Chrysalis’ leg. This turned out to be counterproductive since her mouth erupted in green flames instantly afterward.

Cryo looked around. “Huh. You know, usually at this point an adult has covered my eyes, or something.”

Curio laughed, taking notes of the fight in front of them. “Can’t say I’m surprised.”

“GET HER IN THE FACE!” Cryo shouted.

“Why would I do that?” Chrysalis asked, feathers growing from her neck and projecting a bow of light which let her fly around easily. “There’s a shortage of pretty faces in the world.”

“If only yours were real, changeling,” Inferno laughed, summoning a torrent of reality-bending ice and throwing it at Chrysalis.

“I have never had plastic surgery in my life!” Chrysalis objected as she dodged. “This is au natural!”

Inferno shifted herself back to her default unicorn form. “You only have one ‘natural’. I can become any reflection of myself… and all of them ring true!” She swished her tail, creating a claw out of her back that teleported behind Chrysalis, only to be consumed by fire.

“You’re both nines,” Mattie said.

Both of them stopped fighting to stare at her in disbelief.

“What? Just being honest here. I've seen better.”

“How many of those ‘better’ were literal sex gods and or demons?” Chrysalis asked curiously.

“None. There’s such a thing as overdoing it, you know.”

“Fair enough.”

Inferno took a pot shot at Mattie out of frustration, but she cracked the crystal bullet out of the air with her whip. She blew on the whip as if it were a smoking gun.

Burgerbelle appeared out of nowhere and shot Mattie the finger-guns gesture. They bumped hoof-to-hand before Burgerbelle just… vanished.

“Soooooooo,” Pinkie Pie said. “Why are we standing here just watching?”

“Because you have to protect the nice civilian cookie lady?” Rachel suggested.

“I mean, yeah, but only some of us are needed to--”

Rainbow charged at Inferno, hooves blazing with lightning--and was batted aside by a burst of magic. She hit a wall and, with an audible squeak, slowly slid down.

“That... might also be a reason,” Twilight admitted. “Uh... fan out and look for survivors!”

"You're good," Inferno spat, "but I've got the power of a god and more!"

Chrysalis dodged a blast of fire, offhandedly throwing up a shield to catch it when it boomeranged back. Her expression was one of exasperated disbelief. "You're really going to make me say it, aren't you?"

"What?"

"I mean I try to avoid saying it, since it's so fucking cheesy, but if you're really going to be an idiot I'm willing to go full anime."

“Ooooh, that answers my question better,” Pinkie said as she pulled a goblin out of a sparking electric pit.

Chrysalis focused her energy into her forehead, producing a crystal - but she kept the feathers instead of swapping them out. She teleported behind Inferno and drove the icy woman into the ground.

“You’re using two aspects!? I thought that was impossible!”

Chrysalis suddenly became significantly hairier and grabbed Inferno by the ankle. “Puny God. Yak smash.”

“Uh oh.”

Chrysalis flung Inferno around like a ragdoll, smashing her into the ground every second with almost musical precision.

“I wish I could just pull things out of my mane…” Mattie muttered.

Pinkie graciously provided her with a pair of bongos.

“Thanks, mate!” She started slapping the bongos vigorously in time with the smashing.

“Oy!” Chrysalis pointed at her. “Banter is fine, but don’t make this a musical number! I have standards!”

Mattie threw the bongos away. This did not stop Pinkie from taking out a boombox and pressing play, but luckily it was an instrumental piece from some video game. “...You know, I should have done this earlier.”

Mattie nodded. “Yeah, it’s your thing!”

“What can I say? I haven't been very prominent. Lost my touch.”

Blink showed up. “Sup.”

“Stuff,” Curio said, taking notes.

“You’re all pretty relaxed.”

Curio shrugged. “I’ll start panicking when Chrysalis goes down.”

“When? Not if?” Chrysalis objected - taking an explosion of energy to the face that grew ice crystals on one half and burnt the other side. “...Really? After I went through all that trouble not to ruin yours?”

“I am trying to kill you.” Inferno snapped her fingers and engulfed the area in a white flame. Chrysalis had to resort to making a shield to defend. "You'll run out of magic eventually!"

"You may have the power ‘of a god’ and more besides, but you could never match mine, for my power is one born of sacrifice and effort, one that has risen through the echelons of all societies, one interwoven with the existence of the soul itself!"

"What?! How could this be?! REVEAL YOUR SECRETS!"

"Mine, you see, is the power of love!" Chrysalis shrugged casually. "Specifically the love and devotion of the, what, ten or fifteen million Wholesome members across the planet constantly fueling me magical energy."

"Booo!" Cryo shouted. "You ruined the anime speech!"

"Fuck you~!" Chrysalis chirped back cheerfully, managing to teleport out of the shield and appear behind Inferno, kicking her right in the butt.

Inferno twisted around, trying to rip Chrysalis’ legs off - shocked to find that she suddenly had four legs. “...You’re not just limited to ‘human’ biology, are you?”

“Nope!” Chrysalis said, sprouting a scorpion tail and two pairs of horns. “You have no idea the freaky stuff you can find in this City.”

“I think I’ve been here longer than you,” Inferno said, transforming into a pony made of pure diamond. “I know exactly what to exp-”

Inferno did not expect a burp loud enough to shatter glass.

"Soooooo..." Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Just to be clear: the young shapeshifting mare who used to be a student of Celestia glowing with deific magic, backed by a Chronomancer and a reluctant angel is the bad guy, and the spiky fiery spider thing taunting her with crude humor that's apparently an alternate universe version of the changeling queen is the good guy. Did I get that right?"

Blink rolled her hoof. "Eeeeeeh, Chrysalis is more 'true neutral' than 'good,' but yeah, she's one of the local hero types."

"True... what?"

"It's an Ogres and Oubliettes reference," Twilight explained. "And not really one that makes me more comfortable with the situation."

Inferno roared, shifting to the form of a great feminine dragon, filling it with as much deific power as she could, forcing many tentacles of pure power to writhe forth.

Chrysalis quirked an eyebrow. "Kinky." Spiky ridges and thorned plates burst out of her skin, outlined by green fire. "Think I can do better though."

"...I need to have a talk with that woman once this is all over," Mattie mused.

“You didn’t figure that out already?” Blink gawked.

“I mean, nine… Probably less now, but overdoing it does have its charms in certain situations.”

“If I’m a nine on the battlefield,” Chrysalis grunted in her match with the tentacles, “then I’m an eleven in the bedroom! It’s contextual!”

Curio lowered her data pad, “I’m not normally one for fighting, but should we… do something? I kind of thought the fight would have been over by now.”

Pinkie nodded in agreement. “Hey!” Pinkie shouted shouted through a megaphone. “We’ve dragged this on for faaaar too long already! Wrap it up!”

Inferno grinned. “Gladly!”

“I didn’t know we were filming a hentai,” Cryo quipped.

“Wait, wha--?” Inferno blinked. “What, no, I’m not going to wrap her up in tentacles I’m going to--”

“Performance issues?” Chrysalis asked, her tone sympathetic. “I can help with that.”

“Oh for the love of--”

“Let me reiterate…” Pinkie said with a tired sigh. “Chrysalis, wrap this up!”

Inferno blinked. “Wait wh-”

Sometimes the simplest attacks were the ones that did the best.

“Yak smash two: smash hard with a vengeance.”

Chrysalis brought one of her now-massively over-mutated limbs down on Inferno, creating a rather impressive crater in the shrapnel that was the ground.

The smoke cleared, revealing Inferno back in her default unicorn form, breathing heavily. “I… am not… done yet…”

Chrysalis chuckled. “You’re not going to be able to go on much longer.”

“I… am a g-”

There was a flash of white light. Suddenly, Mister Discord was standing in front of Inferno, a croissant in his hand that glowed like some kind of holy artifact.

“You know what this is?” Discord asked.

Inferno stared at the croissant, mesmerized.

“This was going to be the perfect croissant. Symmetrical, just the right amount of flakes compared to cohesion, and microbutter. You have any idea how hard it is to make microbutter? Very hard. I was this close to getting it down…”

He took a step toward Inferno, drawing her attention away from the croissant onto him.

“But then I got a little itch. Tried to ignore it, really, thought it was nothing. Things were exploding in reality, and naturally I expected I didn’t have to do anything about it. But then my phone rang…” He grabbed her by the neck with his free hand. “Where is my daughter?”

“...W-who?”

“Ianthe Pratibha Stencil Screwball Discord-Cinch!”

“She… charged at us with the Shard of Madness…”

“Oh, so you’re worthless.” He punched her in the face with the almost perfect croissant. The pastry wasn’t dented, but she was hit hard enough not only to fly out of her socks, but to have the remaining power of Shimmy kicked out of her.

A burst of green fire, and Chrysalis was human again... though her wardrobe had not survived the transition. She put a hand on Discord’s shoulder. “We need her alive, for judicial reasons if nothing else. Plus, you’re probably the only one that can keep this universe together until we rescue Shimmy.”

“Joy,” Discord grumbled, grabbing the spare deific power and bundling it up. “Hmm... I would have thought I’d be able to sense Twilight with this--”

“Silvertongue drained her,” Celia said, sliding onto the scene at last. “The other five are with her right now, she’s doing fine. Visibly shaken from having no magic. Can’t be pleasant.”

Twilight shuddered. “No... no it isn’t. I’ll go talk to her and--”

Rainbow burst out of the rubble. “WHERE IS SHE?! I’M GONNA--”

“Fight’s over, lightningrod,” Chrysalis said casually. “We’re working on the recovery now.”

“...Can I at least kick her a little?”

“Maybe later,” Celia said, trotting down to Inferno.

“H-how could I have been defeated?”

“Dear, you were never going to win. If you beat Chrysalis the rest of them would have rushed you. And if you survived that…” She pointed up at the fleet of Merodi ships that had just finished sealing up the rift. “Our army has successfully combated real demons on their home turf. I do believe you would have been trounced.”

Inferno blinked. Then she groaned.

“So, wait, this entire thing was pointless?” Curio asked.

“Yep!” Cryo laughed. “It was all for spectacle! Woop!”

“Thank you,” Chrysalis bowed, “I’ll be here all week.”

"Could you please put some clothes on?" Rachel begged.

"Is now really the time to be questioning your sexuality?"

"What?"

"I mean, I know I'm hot as hell, but we have more important things to talk about--"

"Th-there are children present!" Rachel sputtered, blushing.

Chrysalis waved. "Hey kids, this is what the human body looks like, you'll find it in most medical textbooks. Moving on."

“I don’t think any of us are human children,” Cryo pointed out. “...Actually, wait, am I the only actual kid here? Curio’s some kind of ghost creature thing!”

“I’m a kid!” Seren shouted. “What is--oh, naked woman, insert awkward here.”

“Okay, one, why aren’t you weirded out?” Rachel asked. “Two, why weren’t you here for the fight?”

“One, I work with magitech and sometimes that means very accurate golems. Two, we were fighting the fiery ice demons that apparently came out of nowhere... did you really miss that? Celia, did they miss that?”

“They missed that,” Celia confirmed.

“Dang it, I pulled off some sweet spells too...”

“The only people who are really uncomfortable right now are the readers,” Mattie chuckled. “Oh, and Rachel, sorry, forgot to count you.”

Rachel made a noise that didn’t quite form into a word.

“So… plan?” Curio asked. “Shimmy’s not here and that’s really bad.”

“We need a headcount,” Chrysalis said firmly. “Who’s missing? Whiphorse, you’ve got that plot junk, can you just--?”

“Right, can’t pull a list out of my head, but I can tell you the mean six are gone. And those are the ones we need to know are over there.”

“Why?” Twilight asked, furrowing her brow. “They don’t have any sort of dimensional magic or connection we can use to find them if they’re all together. We need something str-” She paused. “Oh. The six of them and the six of us.”

Seren nodded. “That would work. You do appear to be regaining power despite having lost the Elements of Harmony completely. Suggests they might be backing you up.”

“...Neat,” Rainbow said.

“You have no idea what I just implied.”

“Uh… no.”

Seren rolled her eyes. “Anyway, this will probably take a few hours to fully sort out… I’ll need you six to stand in a circle on somewhere that isn’t a pile of rubble…”

Rachel decided now was a good time to sit down and put her hand to her head. “This… this is all a bit much.”

“Don’t I know it…” Fluttershy agreed, rubbing her eyes. “...You think they’re all okay? Wherever they are?”

“They better be,” Blink said. “They’re in the Universe Generator and we can’t get to them right away. That’s where the final confrontation will be. We don’t get to be a part of it.”

“They’ll do fine,” Celia assured them, putting a hoof on Blink’s shoulder.

“I just hope Cinder’s okay.”

~~~

Cinder woke up just in time to get hit in the face by an ancient construct several thousand light years in diameter.

Simple math told her that something that large moving fast enough to be visibly rotating should have been impossible. After that, it told her ‘vaporized on contact’ should have been a gross understatement for the effect an impact would have on her.

So the most disorienting thing was that the impact felt no worse than falling out of a low bed. Annoying, certainly got her attention, but not painful by any means.

“Right… Universe Generator… physics probably aren’t going to make any sense…” She stood up and dusted herself off. She was relatively certain she had been floating in zero-gravity just a moment ago, but now that she was touching the immense… thing, it was ground to her. Perfectly comfortable ground too, as if the gravity was keyed to her. Which it probably was.

When it had been flying at her she had been able to identify the shape as a rectangular prism. Now it was only gray ground that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Several galaxies in diameter, but there was no way for her to sense scale while on it. Everything was black nothingness, other featureless gray structures, or the light in the distance that was probably a universe. Right now, it was pinkish. It would have been like the sun if the construct Cinder was on wasn’t jumping around like an insane termite, making the pink dot zip across the black sky so fast it was hard to look at.

Cinder tapped the ground with her hoof. “This thing is moving faster than physically possible and is changing directions multiple times a second. I feel nothing.” She shrugged. “Okay. I’ll just go with this.”

She started walking. It was odd, walking without feeling any air brush past her. No wind to speak of. Air existed in front of her mouth or nose when she needed to breathe, but if she was holding her breath she could wave her hoof in front of herself and feel nothing. The temperature was… nonexistent? She’d touch the ground and feel it resist, but not get any feedback.

The universe wanted her to be comfortable but not to waste resources on that. She hoped the mechanisms behind that didn’t fail after all this time. The thing was so old it made Princesses look like babies…

She looked at the sparkling universe in the center of the Generator now. It had changed - perhaps it was a new universe? Whatever it was, it was giving off a green glow. And while it was jumping around the sky with no apparent rhyme or reason, it generally only appeared on one side of the sky.

Might as well head towards it.

Even though it was probably a galaxy away or something.

She focused, now with a destination in mind, and moved. Something shifted as she did so. She stopped short, looking around in confusion. Nothing seemed different, but she could swear something had changed.

Getting an idea, she plucked out one of her mane hairs and set it on the ground. She focused back on her path and started trotting forward.

The moment she felt something shift she froze in place and looked behind her. There was no sign of the hair.

Smirking, she started trotting back, thinking intently about the hair. This time, when she shifted she could see it: the hair rushed up to her with alarming speed.

“Mystery solved: Universe Generator allows for very fast movement.” She glanced at the sky, finding a cylinder shape slowly twisting through the sky. “Let’s see how far this goes…”

She pointed at the cylinder and jumped. She didn’t feel a sudden shock of rapid motion but suddenly she was moving faster than any physical object should have been able to. She arrived at the cylinder with a superhero landing in nine seconds. “Sweet!”

The entire universe was at her disposal now. She could go anywhere, see anything…

Which, to be fair, was just a bunch of floating shapes and a glowing baby universe.

The glowing universe seemed interesting.

Smirking, she pointed a hoof forward like she was a superhero and flew across the surface of the cylinder toward the now-blue spark in the distance. As she approached, she saw that there were actually two sparks at the moment. A binary universe?

Cinder would have loved to deeply contemplate what a dual universe system might mean but fate had other plans, for none other than Mustard smacked into Cinder at high speed. Both of them had been moving at impossible speeds, but the impact had no effect more than a basic tackle.

Cinder reacted quickly, blanketing the ground with fire that burned bright, fueled by the provided oxygen of the Universe Generator.

“Blasphemer… false princess…” Mustard breathed, heaving.

I wonder how sound carries here… Cinder thought.

Mustard’s cloak billowed in a wind that may or may not have existed and a six-pointed star of magic appeared at the tip of his horn. He unleashed a firecracker spell at her that exploded in several locations around her.

“Hey! What did I ever do to you?”

“You wear her face.”

Cinder’s stomach twisted into a knot. “W-what do you mean?”

“The holy Princess… the eyes of fire and passion…”

“Wait, the eyes actually mean something?”

“It would be best if you never knew what you defile.” He grabbed hold of her with his magic and lifted her into the air, grabbing hold of her soul. “You will never get t-” He paused, furrowing his brow in confusion. “This isn’t…”

Cinder gasped. “I’m not what you think I am!”

“What are you?” Mustard asked, baffled - and scared.

“...Look, I’m not your holy Princess, I’m just a unicorn with fire. And, let’s be honest here, probably the protagonist of this little story. Can you sense that? I’ve got a hero’s spirit or someth-”

Mustard pushed at her soul, face contorting in rage. “Demons must be purged!”

“GAH!” Cinder tossed a beam of fire at him, but her aim was off in her taxed state. The ground below didn’t care. The blue lights vanished, replaced with a deep red one. Her vision began to blur…

She saw herself in the blur.

Guess I’m going crazy from all this soul-tearing…

The sound of Mustard shrieking in terror snapped her out of it. She looked up, seeing herself punching Mustard across the face, turning invisible, and then punching him from behind.

“Sweet!” Cinder laughed as the other Cinder made Mustard look like a fool.

“Hey!” the other Cinder called. “Burn him already!”

“On it!” Cinder jumped into the air and launched a fireball right into his back. His robes lit on fire. He maintained enough of his awareness to stop, drop, and roll along the ground, but this left him prone to more fireballs. The flames were soon far too much for him to put out, and every time he attempted to retaliate the other Cinder would kick him, interrupting the spell. Sometimes she did it while invisible.

Eventually, one of the other Cinder’s kicks made contact in just the right location. The combination of flames and physical battery finally won over - Mustard fell.

Cinder removed the flames the instant he was down with a simple spell. The damage had still been done - most of his coat and mane was gone, and a few places had been burned raw, forming blisters already. He was breathing, though, and the only blood was from the bite he had inflicted on his own tongue.

“Thanks,” Cinder said, turning to her other self. “So… gonna tell me what you are?”

The other Cinder dropped her disguise with a humble shimmer, revealing a blue earth pony with a stylish headband. “Curaçao.”

“Oh, you were one of those six!” Cinder beamed. “I’m Cinder! Good to see a friendly face.”

“I feel ze same,” Curaçao said, smiling softly. “‘Ave you found anyzing interesting? Any ozers?”

“No others, but I’ve figured out you can move real fast if you want. Watch!” She jumped to the left and back to Curaçao, covering a distance larger than the diameter of Earth in the process. “Tah-dah!”

“Discovered zat myself, but good work nonezeless.”

Cinder nodded. “So…”

“We just search for ze ozers.” She looked at the now yellow light in the sky. “Zere is as good a place to start as any.”

“Right! You want to lead the way?”

“Want to? Non. Should? Probably?” Curaçao laughed sadly. “You may find you don’t like my leadership.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

They zoomed away, leaving Mustard behind.

~~~

Insipid had discovered the ‘flying through space’ thing by sneezing the second she woke up. She was the first in the entire Universe Generator to figure it out, and what did she use it for?

Bouncing into things like a pinball. There was no reason why she did this, she wasn’t so stupid she didn’t know how to stop, she just did. Boing, a few seconds of silence, boing, a few more seconds of silence, etcetera.

“I can see why Pinkie bounces everywhere,” Insipid observed. “Major fresh!”

She laughed to herself, losing focus on her bouncing long enough to fall face-first into her destination cylinder, letting out a soft “oof.”

“...A gift from heaven,” a gray pegasus mare said, unable to hide some contempt in her face.

Insipid did not pick up on this. “Oh, like, thanks and junk!” She laughed. “You stuck here too?”

“Insipid. The idiot of the group. Copy ability. Decidedly low self-esteem but relatively carefree despite. Once Element of Greed, now just a unicorn.”

Insipid blinked. “Uh…”

“Unable to follow context, has no idea who I am. I am Queen Blackburn.”

“Who?”

Blackburn facehooved. “Queen of Hope’s Point?”

“Oh! You were the queen there? That’s nice, that place was pretty cool.”

“You killed my soldiers.”

Insipid blinked. “Oh. I did. I’m, like, really sorry about that. We weren’t, uh…” she searched for the word. “We weren’t nice yet.”

“Torture. Coercion. Murder. Conspiracy.” Blackburn frowned. “Heroism. Devotion. Regret. Rescue.”

“Those are words, yes.”

“Apology not accepted. But you will not be charged.”

Insipid gasped. “You were going to make me pay?”

“Yes. Not in the way you were thinking.” Blackburn frowned. “Allow me to phrase simply. You killed my ponies. I want to kill you. Not convenient to do so, bigger concerns abound. Be nice and you live. Be ‘mean’ and you die. Understand?”

“Y-yes, your majesty!” Insipid stammered.

“Good. Now. What do you know?”

“You can bounce around like a pinball!” She demonstrated.

Blackburn frowned, trying to do the same. She successfully pulled off a loopdeloop the size of Saturn. “Helpful. Telling. Generator is meant to be convenient despite size.”

“Wow! That’s a pretty neat trick, can I have it?”

“You would gain nothing. I deduced that from evidence alone. I have no ‘power’ you could take, my mind is all I have.”

“Oh. Well we need to hurry up and find something, I’m totally empty right now and these bricks aren’t playing nice.”

Blackburn nodded. “Others will be moving toward the universe. That is our destination.”

“Okay!”

Insipid started bouncing forward at high speed. Blackburn ended up following her rather than the other way around. Insipid took a moment to appreciate the sights as she bounced from place to place. The world may not have been all that pretty, but the shapes kept moving and every time she looked back the arrangement was different.

She had yet to figure out that things that big shouldn’t be able to move that fast.

There was a flash of white out of the corner of her eye.

She skidded to a stop. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Blackburn asked, having to fly back to her from a significant distance ahead.

Insipid turned around and jumped back to the white she saw, finding a Rarity with a pink necklace sitting there, crying.

“Oh…” Insipid put a hoof around her. “Don’t worry, I’m here now n’ stuff.”

The Rarity looked up at Insipid with tears in her eyes. “Y-you’re not Brook…”

“No, I’m Insipid.” Insipid frowned. “Why does everypony else get upset when I get their names wrong…?”

The Rarity stared at her. “What?”

“Patience,” Blackburn said, flying into the scene. “She is slow.”

“I was going light speed a minute ago, thank you,” Insipid chided.

Blackburn nodded. “Which Rarity are you?”

“Sequin,” she said, wiping her eyes.

“Queen Blackburn.”

“Have you seen Brook? She… she’s my Twilight. Alicorn, smaller than the others.”

“The only ponies I’ve seen are the ones in front of me.”

“Oh…”

“We can totally look for her though!” Insipid said. “Like, we found you by going to that sparky thing, we can find her that way too!”

Sequin nodded. “T-thank you.”

“Before we go,” Blackburn pointed at the necklace. “What is that?”

“It’s a charm that allows me to talk to Brook wherever I…” Sequin stopped herself. “I’m so stupid!”

“I know the feeling,” Insipid admitted.

“Hold on a sec, I’m going to try to get her…” Sequin closed her eyes and focused, prompting the charm to light up. “Come on, Brook… Twilight… pick up…”

~~~

“You and Rarity?” Shadow asked, gawking.

“Yep,” Brook said as she flew through the empty sky, her face wet with recent tears.

“I’m trying to imagine that functioning. I lack the faculties to do so.”

“That’s because you’re a Twilight - you are a Twilight, right?”

“By… some definitions.”

Brook nodded. “Then you’ll see whoever you see as the ‘right one’.”

Shadow snorted bitterly. “He’s definitely not the ‘right one’. Trust me.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s change the topic.” She looked over her back at the third member of her group. “Immaculate highness, you’ve been quiet.”

The Crown Princess looked at Shadow with surprised eyes. “Just… thinking. That’s all.”

“About what?” Brook asked.

The Crown Princess looked up at the universe being built.

RESTORE THE CAPRIC EMPIRE RESTORE THE CAPRIC EMPIRE RESTORE THE CAPRIC EMPIRE RESTORE THE CAPRIC EMPIRE RESTORE THE CAPRIC EMPIRE

She had been able to ignore that demand for the most part since she’d become the Crown Princess; the Sweetie in her had been able to relegate it to the side to focus more on getting into an advantageous position and spread the warning word about the Merodi. She fully expected that she would eventually gain an empire through the friendships she was making, but she was also content to regulate herself to the shadows of that ‘empire’.

But now, there was something in front of her that had the power to recreate the entire Capra Empire brick for brick.

She couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“Princess…?” Brook asked.

The Crown Princess shook her head. “Sorry. Thinking about… the past. Kinda stuck in it. You understand?”

Brook smiled in sad sympathy. “More than you know.”

“...Thanks.”

Brook opened her mouth to say something else, but her necklace suddenly started flashing. She gasped. “I forgot about this!”

“About what?” Shadow asked.

“My necklace! Sequin’s calling!” She landed on the ground and answered. “Sequin?”

She started talking in response to her own question. “Brook, dear! Oh you have no idea… I’m sorry, I forgot it existed! I’m so dumb…”

“I got distracted by new friends,” Brook responded. “I’m here with the Crown Princess and Starlight Shadow.”

“And I’ve got Queen Blackburn and Insipid and - oh? Uh, Blackburn says not to trust the Crown Princess.”

The Crown Princess twitched. “Remind Blackburn that I want to see Silvertongue brought down too.”

“The Princess says she’s on our side,” Sequin said - at this point the Crown Princess could tell based on the inflection of the voice if it was Brook or Sequin doing the talking, but that didn’t help her with Insipid or Blackburn due to their lack of a physical presence.

Sequin stared at the Crown Princess in shock through Brook’s eyes. “...Backburn admits you’re telling the truth. But you’re also, apparently, an anti-Merodi extremist.”

“Extremist is a bit… extreme,” the Crown Princess said.

“She wants to assist in our endeavor, why should we concern ourselves with her motives?” Shadow asked. “I have no particular loyalty to the Merodi either.”

Sequin relayed this to Blackburn. “...She seems fine with this.”

“Good,” Brook said. “Now that we’re all on the same page, how do we find each other?”

“Like, we could look at the sky and find the same shapes!”

The Crown Princess stared at Brook in shock - that hadn’t been her or Sequin.

“Heavens!” Sequin shouted.

“What the- get out!” Brook shouted.

“Wh-why?” the third voice asked. “More of us can talk at once like this!”

“Insipid, get out of their heads,” Shadow ordered.

“But siiiiiiis…” Insipid whined.

“You’re basically invading a married couple’s bedroom.”

“What, I a- AUGH! Sorry, sorry, sorry!” She left quickly, leaving Brook (and Sequin) breathing heavily.

“How did she even do that?” Brook asked. “The spell requires trust!”

“She’s Insipid,” Shadow shrugged. “She copies and executes, often superior to the original through sheer… it’s not exactly fortune…”

“Oh my, she’s still apologizing…” Sequin said. “The poor dear…”

“She should have respected our privacy,” Brook huffed.

“I don’t think the thought even crossed her mind. A- hmm?” She paused, listening. “Blackburn says her idea was a good one. Look at the sky for shapes.”

The Crown Princess looked up. “The elongated pyramid looks unique.”

“That doesn’t appear to be in our sky,” Sequin said.

“Nothing is ever easy…” Brook sighed.

~~~

“This makes absolutely no sense!” Tab shouted at the top of her lungs. “The physics are adjusted on the fly, but light is still in effect. Or is it? I have no idea, those things are moving so fast they should be vaporizing or experiencing light booms or something, but no, they just seem to move normally, and in time. Maybe light has been replaced! Or maybe, like the air, it’s only there when you need it! Augh! Tablet, help me!”

Grayscale and Red Velvet were watching this meltdown with fascinated faces.

“...This counts as fear, right?” Grayscale asked.

“Ooooh yeah,” Velvet said.

“Guess we have a stockpile in case of emergencies.”

“Real emergencies.”

“I know.”

“...And don’t get me started on the nested universes!” Tab shouted. Her tablet must have given her an annoying response, because she tried to smash it with her hoof. “What good are you if you don’t have the foggiest idea how any of this works? ...That’s obvious! Obvious! I want to know how. AGH.”

“Think we should calm her down?” Velvet asked.

Grayscale shook her head. “Give her a bit. Maybe she’ll figure something out in her panic.”

“How does it know what we need? Just as much air as we need to breathe? The whole flight thing? I can’t detect any mental waves, magic, or anything, it just…” She tapped the gray ground. “It’s just these things! What are they? They’re not nothing they’re very solid. Oh, gee, thanks for reminding me that temperature apparently isn’t a thing here. That doesn't have any terrifying implications at all!”

“Think you can pull popcorn out of your mane, or something?” Grayscale asked.

Velvet pondered this. “Maybe…” She reached into her mane and pulled out a bunch of candy eyeballs in a skull-shaped cup. “...Close enough?”

Grayscale shrugged. “Sure.” She tossed one into her mouth. “Huh. Coconut.”

“Then there’s the issue of the impact! How are we able to punch each other but the things can’t punch us? There’s got to be a physics paradox in there somewhere…”

~~~

Shimmy’s awareness took the longest to coalesce since she had been hit the hardest by the transition. No longer was she affixed to the very reality around her, she just was. It was harder to see like this, since everything was loose and spread out without interacting with anything.

She could see one thing, though. One spark anchoring her to the physical realm, a single avatar by which her entire essence had been drawn into this world.

Slowly but surely, she was able to focus her energy onto the avatar, bringing higher consciousness back into it. Groggily, she opened her eyes. She was slung over someone’s back and moving at impossibly fast speeds.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Suzie said. “I was getting worried.”

“Takes more than that to get me…” Shimmy muttered, sliding off Suzie and onto her own two feet. She took a moment to take in the realm of the Universe Generator with her eyes, seeing the same sights as everyone else - the gray shapes and the construction of a universe. She was currently close enough to make out details of galaxies within the new world being made.

Havocwing made herself known. “Bucking finally. You. Find Silvertongue. She says you can do that, so do that!”

Shimmy nodded, sending out her perceptions. She focused…

And stopped before she got very far.

“I… I’m not just a loose avatar…”

“What?” Havocwing asked.

Shimmy turned to Suzie. “I am almost all of Shimmy. I… Earth Shimmer doesn’t have a guardian of order right now.”

Suzie hissed. “The Reality Anchors can take care of that for… a while.”

“How long?”

“We’d need to find a scientist to figure that one out. I am not one of those, and neither is Havoc.”

Havocwing grunted. “So we need to move fast. Duh.”

Shimmy used her power to feel the dimensional fabric, to try and retrace the steps Silvertongue used to get there - but she couldn’t. That part of her had been lost during the convergence. Some Sunset probably had it, but they wouldn’t know what to do with it. Or it could have been divided up between several. She ground her teeth. “Discord better have things under control…”

“I think you can both have faith in him and fear him,” Suzie said. “He’ll keep the world up. Might not be the same when you get back.”

“Magic’s running wild, too, without Twilight…” Shimmy shook her head.

“You need to make a decision,” Suzie said. “Do we try to get back, or do we face Silvertongue?”

Shimmy bit her lip, hesitating for a moment. “Earth Shimmer is only one world, a world that can probably be evacuated if needed. This…” She gestured at three universes that were created in tandem and sent off. “This is too big to risk.”

“Good.” Havocwing got in her face. “So find him.”

Once Shimmy allowed her perceptions to spread in a calm manner, she found him easily. She picked up Suzie and Havocwing, darting through space to a location near the new universe being created. The Universe Generator allowed the three of them to float comfortably.

Silvertongue floated there as well, but he was not alone. Behind him stood Shivershackles and Crackling Leaves, the latter of which was scanning the incomplete universe with an advanced device that kept giving her contradictory readings.

“Silvertongue,” Shimmy said.

“Shimmy Sunset Shimmer.” Silvertongue smiled pleasantly. “So glad you could join me.”

“So you’ve got some kind of plan, big surprise.”

“Actually, I have no plan. I could not have planned for the introduction of the Shard of Madness, nor could I have planned for the nature of the Universe Generator.” He held a hoof out to the universe as it was finished and shipped off to the rest of the multiverse. “I just knew what this was, not how. The original plan was to come here without any enemies, to spend an eternity studying the nuances of the Generator if necessary.”

“You’re not going to get the chance.”

“It appears not,” Silvertongue admitted. “But that does not mean we must battle. All I desire is a single, perfect world, created to my standards. I want nothing more from this place.”

Havocwing laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“Believe me or not, that is all I seek.”

Suzie shook her head. “No. You don’t get to play God.”

“My my, Suzie Mash, bringing faith into a conversation?” Silvertongue smirked. “Do my ears deceive me?”

Suzie grunted. “You’re prodding at an implication that doesn’t exist.”

“But he’s gotten you on the defensive,” Shimmy warned. “He’ll get in your head.”

“That’s why you’re here.”

“He’ll get in all our heads if you let him,” Havocwing said. “Which is why we shouldn’t be talking!”

“Why not war with words?” Crackling Leaves asked. “Significantly more elegant.”

“Why do you help him?” Shimmy asked. “He wishes to become god to a world. Your kind are against that.”

“I am what you may call ‘progressive’, here for the knowledge of what creates gods and godlings. If this bestows that power to so many, would we not have the right to understand it?”

“The ethics of this thing’s existence do not matter,” Suzie said. “The people who made it are long gone. It might as well be a natural part of existence at this point.”

“Like the Tower itself?” Silvertongue asked.

“In a way,” Suzie admitted. “None can control it, and those who try need to be stopped. The same applies here.”

“You speak as if power is a bad thing. You have experience in the matter.”

Suzie smirked. “You could say that.”

Silvertongue ruffled his wings, turning to Shimmy. “And you, is power a bad thing?”

“Some people earn power,” Shimmy said. “I didn’t, I had it thrust upon me. I never wanted this, but I have it, and to be honest that’s probably why I do so well with it. Those who seek power are the people least likely to deserve it.”

“Even if the goal is noble?”

“Worlds have been destroyed on the road paved with good intentions.”

Silvertongue smirked. “And what of perfection? The intention to create that which cannot be faulted.”

“Bucking worthless,” Havocwing muttered.

“Perfection is an ideal which we must eternally strive for but, in practice, is impossible to achieve,” Suzie said. “We have to be content with that.”

“Letting your Book speak for you,” Silvertongue observed.

Suzie twitched.

Shimmy spoke. “No person has the same idea of perfection as someone else. Even if perfection is real, nobody would want it. You only want the perfection you see. We do not.”

Silvertongue sighed, but smiled nonetheless. “Why do I subject myself to pointless conversations, I wonder? I never thought I would be able to convince you for a second, and yet I let this continue.”

“The dance of words is paramount to the direction of self,” Crackling Leaves mused. “How you speak defines who you wish to be.”

Havocwing laughed. “An arrogant self-absorbed numbskull? Quite the impression you’re going for.”

Silvertongue shrugged. “I am rather starved for honest conversation given my way of life.” He held his head high. “We are at an impasse.”

Shimmy nodded.

Both of them activated their powers at the same time. For an instant, there was a bright flash from both of them… and then nothing. Both looked to be struggling through pain, but none of the others could see anything happening.

“What the buck?” Havocwing asked, glancing between the two of them. “What?”

“They’re locked in battle through a higher… something,” Suzie said. “We can’t see it, but it’s intense, I guarantee.”

“Polite of the godlings to prevent their conflict from spilling over,” Crackling Leaves added.

“Right.” Havocwing lit her hoof on fire. “HEY SILVERHOLE! Take this!” She punched her creator in the face. “AND TH-”

Crackling Leaves pulled out a curious device that looked like a gun, but turned out to be a hard-light projector. A giant hand pushed Havocwing out of the way with ease.

“HEY! He’s mine! Let me have him, bitch!” She unleashed a torrent of fire at Crackling Leaves, only for another hand to stop it effortlessly. “GAAAAAAAA!”

Suzie remained completely still, watching Silvertongue intently. Studying him, watching…

“You think I don’t see that Stand of yours…?” Silvertongue said through gritted teeth. “You think I don’t know what it is...?”

Suzie cursed inwardly. “If you know what it is…”

“Oh, yes, that would defeat me, no question. But are you willing to use it on Shivershackles first? Shivershackles, impale yourself on the Stand. Bait her until she uses it out of instinct on you.”

Suzie retracted U-Catastophe seconds before Shivershackles could touch it. She didn’t even want to think about what it would do if it touched such a broken man.

But without U-Catastrophe Suzie was just a normal woman with a lot of military training. She tried to dodge Shivershackles, but his speed far exceeded her own even with the boost from the Universe Generator. He pinned her arms and legs back, pulling them just shy of dislocation. With a shivering grimace, he lifted his hand and encased it in black crystal spines.

He brought it down on her.

Don’t bring it out don’t bring it out don’t bring it out.

The claws hit her in the face, bringing her excruciating pain.

Don’t bring it out don’t bring it out.

The next hit was on her side, the sharp wrench dislocating one of her shoulders.

Don’t bring it out…

Havocwing barreled into Shivershackles at high speed, lighting him on fire. He had not been expecting this by any means and was unable to keep hold on Suzie.

“T-thanks…” Suzie grunted, turning back to Silvertongue. U-Catastrophe was too slow to reach him…

As it turned out, she didn’t have to do anything - the last surprise inhabitant of the Universe Generator appeared behind him. None other than Screwball herself, wielding the Shard of Madness. As before, it was impossible to look at, never able to settle on a single form, but it was always long.

She waved it like a knife and drove it toward Silvertongue.

One of Crackling Leaves’ hand constructs grabbed it from Screwball’s grip at the last possible second, prompting Screwball to faceplant into Silvertongue’s back.

The hand gave the Shard of Madness to Crackling Leaves. She gripped it tightly and examined everyone present with an unreadable expression.

“...This is bad, right?” Havocwing asked, legitimately confused.

~~~

“Something’s going on up there,” Brook said through Sequin. “The magic’s flying like crazy…”

“At least we’re able to use it to pinpoint where we are in relation to each other,” Sequin added.

“Ooh!” Insipid clapped her hooves. “Does that mean we can go to Shadow?”

“Likely,” Blackburn admitted. “Whatever is happening, we must do something about it.”

“Shadow says she doesn’t think even her power can do anything to what’s going on up there,” Brook reported.

“Shimmy and Silvertongue, most likely,” Blackburn mused.

“We have to do something,” Sequin said. “Shimmy needs our help!”

“Crown Princess doesn’t have any ideas,” Brook reported. “We just don’t have the power.”

Blackburn’s eyes widened. Slowly, she moved her head until her intense gaze was focused on Insipid.

“W-what are you looking at me for?”

“Shadow…” Blackburn began. “How hard would it be to execute a teleport of just Insipid right to the source of the most power?”

Brook listened to Shadow’s response. “She thinks she can do it, but she would have to ‘piggyback’ off Sequin’s and my connection, forming one with Insipid.”

“Won’t they need to trust each other for that?” Sequin asked.

“They do, I think. But Insipid will have to be in our heads for a second to establish the connection.”

Sequin sighed. “Fine, I suppose our emotional privacy is worth sacrificing to save the world…”

“I promise I won’t look at the juicy stuff!” Insipid offered. “If I can help it!”

Sequin groaned.

“Hurry,” Blackburn egged. “We don’t know how much time we have.”

~~~

Silvertongue had always known Crackling Leaves was going to betray him at some point.

The question was if she was going to do it now. Such a difficult question. Part of him enjoyed the difficulties of analyzing Fay motivations and psyche; she had always been such a fun sparring partner. Unfortunately this enjoyment was muddled not only by the fact that Shimmy was busy trying to burn his soul alive, but also the fact that Crackling Leaves currently held an artifact powerful enough to terrify universal entities.

The Shard of Madness may have had many powers and mysterious abilities, but it was named for the most prominent of them - it could slice minds. If she got to Silvertongue’s mind…

The risk was too great. It no longer mattered if Crackling Leaves would be loyal to him for a while longer or not - she could not be allowed to retain control of the Shard of Madness. He shouted. “Grab it!”

Shivershackles may have been pathetic, but he was smart enough to know what this meant. Instead of restarting his assault on Suzie he put all his power forward into the single task: reclaiming the Shard of Madness.

Crackling Leaves did not stop him from taking hold of the object. Her own grip, however, did not falter--she looked the slave right in the eye. “Quite the strong servant, aren’t you?”

And faintly, she twisted the object, snipping just one chain link at the center of Shivershackle’s identity.

Shivershackles froze, suddenly unsure what the command meant. He spent a second trying to remember what he was doing.

Crackling Leaves would have used the opportunity to wrestle the Shard of Madness away, but what happened next none of them could have predicted.

Insipid appeared right above the Shard of Madness and grabbed it with her hooves. “MINE!”

She tried to pull it out of their grip.

“No, Insipid, absorb the magic!” Shadow said through Insipid.

“Oh, righ- AUGH MY HEAD WHAT TH-”

The Crown Princess appeared, having hijacked the connection between Shadow and Insipid.

She did not try to grab the Shard of Madness.

She shot it with her magic, tearing it out of all their grips and sending it barreling toward the universe below.

“What are you doing?!” Shadow shouted through Insipid.

The Crown Princess didn’t respond - she charged forward, impacting Shivershackles, Insipid, and Crackling Leaves hard. Shivershackles and Crackling Leaves managed to grab on to her, but the Universe Generator allowed her to keep moving. She wanted to.

She smacked the Shard of Madness out of their reach, hurtling it closer and closer to the universe itself.

“No!” Shimmy shouted, dropping much of her fight with Silvertongue. “You can’t let that touch the universe! It w-”

Silvertongue, no longer occupied, teleported in front of the Shard of Madness’ trajectory. Shimmy teleported next to him, barreling into him like a flaming bullet.

The Shard of Madness touched the edge of the universe…

And the world screamed.

The mechanisms of the Universe Generator stopped in an instant, freezing on the order of some ancient, inscrutable command. The galaxies within the young universe that had previously boiled as millions of years flashed by in the blink of an eye stopped perceptibly moving. Tremendous cracks tore through the sphere as if it were made of ice, cutting it to the core.

It, however, refused to simply die from contact with an artifact of insanity. It held itself together, but only just.

It was into this world that the Crown Princess, Crackling Leaves, and Shivershackles fell, vanishing into the stars themselves…

Silvertongue tore himself away from Shimmy and dove into the world himself. “The game has changed.”

Shimmy grabbed onto him with as much magic as she could muster, but she could not prevent him from moving on. So she followed, creating another avatar to pursue him directly.

The moment the new Shimmy crossed the boundary, the old Shimmy grabbed her head. “Oh… oh no… that’s…”

Heliotrope hands wrapped gently around the universe, hovering over the cracks.

“Screwball?”

“The Shard was kept in the realm of imagination for a reason,” the swirled woman said. “I can control it from here, keep the damage contained. But I would rather retrieve it as soon as possible.”

“Can you tell what’s going on?” Havocwing asked.

“I can see.... Krickaborgs, swarming...”

Shimmy shook her head. “The situation’s complicated--is this everyone?”

Insipid shook her head. “There are notes to the song that have yet to be sung, as dancing the flowers retreat... what? Insipid what are you DO NOT DENY THE RHYTHM OF MECHANISMS! The lost and retrieved, through the vines--”

“Okay, Insipid, you need to get rid of that power now,” Havocwing said firmly.

Insipid got rid of it. “That was… geeeeh.”

“To answer your question, no, that is not everyone,” Grayscale said, flying in with Velvet and Tab, the latter of which was wearing what looked like an eyepatch made out of a miniature skull.

“Literal madness incarnate!” Tab laughed. “You were right Velvet, there is no use hanging on to sanity here!”

“I’d take offense to that, but I’m busy making sure everyone is mad in a sane way.” Screwball glanced over her shoulder. “The patch would work better on your other eye.”

Tab glanced at her tablet. “Tablet agrees. So… I’m keeping it on this eye thank you very much!”

“We don’t have time for this!” Shimmy shouted. “As we talk centuries are passing down on that world!”

“Not epochs?” Shadow asked through Insipid.

“The relative time has slowed, probably while the Universe Generator figures out what went wrong, but…” Shimmy pressed a hand to her nose. “Okay I just watched an entire city get built and destroyed with a nuke while I said that.”

“Then we need to hurry,” Shadow said. “Give me a second…”

A second later, she had teleported herself, Sequin, Brook, and Blackburn there.

“We need to go in there,” Shimmy said. “I can only do so much. He’s… he’s doing and then the UGH.” She frowned. “Things happen way too fast to even relay them. Is this everyone?”

“Nope,” Velvet said. “We’re missing Curaçao, at least.”

“If I had to guess, Cinder’s here too,” Suzie said, holding her ruined face with a hand.

Shimmy used some of her free magic to heal Suzie’s heavier injuries. “Someone find them. I can’t do it, busy.”

Insipid touched her. “I can do it now! Woo!”

She created a miniature rip in space-time by accident.

“Uh… Okay, let’s be a little more careful about this…”

~~~

Cinder held a hoof up to her eyes. “I think there are things exploding over there.”

“We are going as fast as we can,” Curaçao said.

“I know. I’m just getting the feeling we’re going to arrive a little late.”

Curaçao bit her lip. “I ‘ope zey can take care of zemselves…”

Cinder nodded. “Must be difficult, being the leader. I don’t have to worry about what everyone else does all the time, I just do my thing and help where I can.”

“It is… complicated,” Curaçao admitted. “What is ze best for zem? ‘Ow do you balance one wiz ze ozer?”

Cinder smiled. “I like your accent. It’s… unique.”

“Peut-être aimerez-vous ma langue?”

“Wow. I thought the translation spell was supposed to work with that?”

“It is, from what I understand. No idea why it does not.”

“Probably because it’s a defining part of you,” Cinder said with an innocent smile. “If you didn’t speak ‘wiz ze zeez’ you probably wouldn’t be… Curaçao!”

“‘Ow does the translator know zat?”

“It doesn’t. Ka does.” Seeing her confused expression, Cinder rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “Fate, basically.”

“Ah. So ze luck is real.”

“You sound like you had it figured out already.”

Curaçao nodded to herself. “It… was interesting. I played both sides. Me and mes soeurs - my sisters - we were ‘Dark’ or ‘Evil’. Nozing went right for us. Our missions failed, our targets escaped… we suffered. And now? Zings keep going right, we meet ‘elpful people by chance, and we’re usually where we need to be. Somezing was up.”

“...Why do you seem so sad? Sounds like you all got redeemed!”

“I was ze one who redeemed us. By manipulating zem all - including myself. It was… it was wrong.”

“Okay. So you screwed up, but it turned out good anyway, isn’t that reason to celebrate?”

Curaçao turned to her and chuckled. “You ‘ave an optimistic view on life, Cinder.”

“Yep! A lot of Sweeties do, but I hear a lot of us get jaded after a while. Guess you’re lucky I’m new!” She winked.

“What will you do when you’ve been at zis for as long as ze ozers?”

“I dunno,” Cinder admitted. “I kinda hope I’ll still be like this, despite it all? I’ve managed to keep it so far, and I’ve seen a lot of… disturbed stuff. Heck, you watched me burn that guy back there. I don’t even know what his deal was. But hey, I’m still here, alive, and well, we’re totally going to beat this Silvertongue into the ground. What’s not to like?”

“You seem so confident.”

“I’m just lucky. Also, I’m not looking him in the face right now. I’d totally be screaming if he decided he wanted to scare me.”

“And yet you smile now anyway.”

“Yep!” Cinder smiled. “Live in the moment, I always say.”

They put on the brakes, arriving in the middle of a bunch of floating people, some of whom looked like they had just been through a battle.

“I did it!” Insipid said, whooping. She created a miniature star in her hoof and quickly snuffed it out before it exploded. “Uh… I’m just going to get rid of this now…”

“...Did what?” Cinder asked.

“Nothing, she’s delusional,” Shimmy said, panic on her face. “We have to go now, no time to explain!” She enveloped them all in a shimmering golden globe and threw them into the universe like a catapult.

They passed through the barrier, leaving the Universe Generator empty - and still. Only the Cracked World moved in the ancient construct.

Iconoclasm (CRISIS: Equestria, Part 7)

If there were one thing that Rarities were good at, in general, it was managing things. Sure, Twilights were generally the leaders, but despite their intense obsession with organization they tended to lack the needed practicality to get things done in an efficient manner. It was true that the efficient way wasn’t always the best way, as anyone who’d encountered the Infinite Carousel would tell you, but sometimes it was needed.

For instance, when the local deity responsible for keeping reality together vanished and getting her back was of paramount importance.

“That’s it, bring it in slow…” Rarity of Earth Shimmer said, gesturing to a Reality Anchor ship that had just been brought in from the Merodi Fleet specifically to keep everything stable within the wreckage that had once been Celestia City’s dimensional drive.

“I said we needed twelve, not thirteen!” Mattie hissed at a robot carrying some kind of glowing technological component. “Ugh, I’m sure Seren can do something with them anyway, go ahead and complete the delivery.”

Renee was talking a mile a minute on her phone. “And make sure to move relief efforts to sector seven, we’ve got a possible delayed pipe burst. Keep some modulars back, we can’t afford to be caught unaware by the horrid patch job. I know this technically isn’t my job but Allure is busy with a million people screaming at her and I’m not going to let her manage all this alone.”

Celia jumped up on top of a construction crane. “It appears you have a protrusion… allow me.” She blasted the toppled statue to crumbles. “Do continue.” She hopped down, continuing to examine everything she could do to help. She caught sight of some actual Carousel Rarities assisting in the repair nearby.

As annoying as the business-crazed Rarities could be, they were still Rarities. They could be trusted to help and ask for nothing in return.

This was the scene when Zircon stumbled in, a tad bewildered. He caught sight of the closest Rarity who looked normal - Mattie.

“Ah, at last I have found you, dear
But I am at a loss, I fear.
I fought spawn of fire and ice
And I assure you they’ll think twice
About returning, but sad to say
I lost track of our friends this day.
Where are the mares, and also how?
What is the situation now?”

Mattie started chuckling uncontrollably. “Oh, oh my, oh, I really shouldn’t. Ah…” Her face contorted a few times from a deep internal conflict. “I… am not… your Rarity.” She pouted. “But I would oh so love it if you kept talking to me in sonnet.”

“I must correct you on this thing
Tis not a sonnet which I sing.
But fair your words, I admit true
And now I must bid you adieu.
For my own maiden I now quest,
Till I find her I shall not rest!
Ah, you too look as much as she.
Are you my precious Rarity?”

“Busy,” Renee said, holding up a hoof. “Really busy. Just… Mattie, help him.”

“Gladly,” Mattie chuckled, raising her eyebrows repeatedly.

Zircon narrowed his eyes at her.
“What mad temptations abound here!
But I shall not linger or leer
I seek only the pony I know
And beg of you the way to show!”

“Talk a little longer and she might show up…”

“Ahem,” Celia said, dropping down from above. “Mattie, be nice.”

“I didn’t lead him on! Do you have any idea how much willpower that took?”

Celia rolled her eyes. “Your Rarity is on top of th-”

“WHERE IS CINDER!?”

Everyone’s heads turned to see a haggard, tired, but otherwise completely normal unicorn Rarity glaring at all of them from atop a nearby pile of junk.

“...Ah, Cinder’s sister,” Mattie said.

Zircon let out a sigh of relief.

“At last, here’s the purest vision!
A grace that acts with decision
A voice as elegant as song
A mane both beautiful and strong
Her moves the art of nature’s dance
Her eyes sapphires that entrance
Each lash on them perfect curled
To match the slender ears unfurled
And such expression, I decree
Is but a glimpse of what I see
The feelings of a heart so deep
That my own shall forever leap
If noticed even once by it
And once again, I will commit
To follow a soul refined so
There are no depths I shall not go
For my heart is hers, so I pray
She may feel the same some day
Oh Rarity, if you are mine
Know that you are ever divine!”

Rarity stared at him, a mild blush on her face. “Do I… know you?”

“No, and he doesn’t know you either,” Celia said. “Your Rarity is up there with Seren, trying to get Cinder back.”

Zircon was at a loss for words. Rarity at first looked annoyed that she had been cheated out of someone so poetic and romantic, but she shook her head - remembering why she was there. “Get Cinder back?”

“She’s in the Universe Generator,” Celia explained.

“And is perfectly fine!” Mattie said. “That’s… about all I can confirm, really. Ask the Pinkies if you want anything word-for-word. Not the Pinkie up there, she’s not that good either.”

Rarity huffed, marching up the hill to Seren - Zircon following behind at a fair distance.

When they arrived at the top they saw the other Rarity with an accusatory raised eyebrow. “I heard everything.”

Zircon shot into an apology.

“The words were meant for you alone
I beg pardon, if I had known--”

“I’m mainly upset at her for daring to think she had a chance.”

Cinder’s Rarity gasped. “He was such a gentlezebra! You’re lucky to have him.”

“I am. So please, Rarity, back off.”

“I will, I will - SEREN!” she shouted. “Cinder?”

“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Seren asked.

Cinder’s Rarity allowed herself to look at what Seren was doing. She was standing in the middle of six mares, each with magic circles inscribed in the ground below them.

“I mean, yes, I can see that…”

Seren grunted. “Rarity…”

“Yes?” both asked.

Seren twitched. “Okay, one of you needs a name.”

“Oh!” Cinder’s Rarity beamed. “I actually do have one, selected it a few days ago by Tivver’s - my Twilight’s - request. I’m Xenium - a type of gift.”

“Thanks.”

Xenium coughed. “Now please explain to me what you’re doing?”

“These six are connected to another set of six across the divide. I am attempting to weed out the connections. It takes time and focus to do so.”

“And when you have it open?”

“The entire Merodi army will charge through and lay waste to whatever Silvertongue has on the other side.”

Xenium nodded. “Good. Now…” She sat down on a nearby rock and glared at Seren. “I am going to watch you and make sure you don’t let a single minute pass that doesn’t need to.”

“That’s fine Xe-”

“Why are you still talking to me? Find her!”

Seren got back to work, channeling magic into the rings around Equestria IV’s six.

“Can we... talk?” Fluttershy asked.

“As long as it doesn’t disturb Seren,” Xenium allowed.

“It won’t,” Seren said.

“SEREN!”

Seren cast a spell to zipper her own mouth shut.

~~~

Shimmy’s golden globe flew into the universe and adjusted to the timescale of the universe in a fraction of a second.

Which meant it sat in place for about one local week, which was more than enough time for several fleets of spaceships to engage in a tremendous galaxy-spanning war around them.

“What the buck?!” Havocwing shouted.

“I have no idea what’s going on!” Cinder wailed.

“Thousands of years have passed in here while we were dallying,” Shimmy said, frowning. “Long enough for Silvertongue and me to make… well, civilizations that fight each other across the galaxies. Everything out there is fighting over us.”

“So gold ships good, silver ships bad?” Brook asked.

“Yes,” Shimmy nodded. “Just sit tight, I’ve been setting up this plan for centuries…”

Shadow rubbed her head. “That has to be disorienting.”

“You have no idea. This avatar’s convinced it’s only been two minutes since the plan was formed and it just so happens to be the dominant one, so my entire perception’s being a bit discombobulated. Just sit tight and - where is Screwball?”

Screwball was nowhere to be seen.

“Okay, okay, Shimmy, calm down, maybe she won’t ruin your plan, she wasn’t integral anyway, heheh…”

“Please tell me you aren’t developing a split personality disorder,” Suzie said.

Shimmy’s lack of a response was mildly concerning.

There was a massive explosion within the intergalactic void that tossed most of the ships to the side.

“And of course she’d involve herself…” Shimmy muttered.

“Who?” Cinder asked.

“Crown Princess. She has, well, developed a bit of a grudge over the millennia over people who have success.”

“This is going to be a long story, huh?” Sequin asked.

“You bet it is… but let’s try to survive first, okay?” Shimmy reinforced the shielding in the bubble around them, dodging a direct attack from a decrepit looking white ship that was easily larger than a star. It whaled on them as hard as it could with missiles, lasers, and rods shot at superluminal speeds. Shimmy managed to hold the barrier.

“Bit surprised ol’ Silver’s not doing anything physical,” Shimmy muttered.

“It means ‘e ‘as a plan,” Curaçao said.

“I’ve spent the last few thousand years fighting him head on, I know that. He’s way too crafty for his own good…”

A half-dozen ships of pointed gold pushed through the hull of the white goliath, breaking through at weak points that came from its age. There was a massive explosion that the golden ships of Shimmy absorbed, arranging themselves into a circular pattern. There was a flash and a portal to a distant galaxy established.

Shimmy didn’t throw them through. She teleported them through, not giving the silver ships an opportunity to interfere. It was a good thing she did, because a second later the portal was unestablished.

But they were safe now - away from the battle, surrounded only by ships of gold in a shimmering galaxy shaped like the standard Sunset cutie mark.

Shimmy let out a breath of relief. “Well… welcome to the Heart of Gold, center of the universe for the Shimmies.”

A large golden ship grabbed hold of them with a tractor beam and warped to the center of the galaxy. They were there in less than a minute, arriving in orbit around a planet that seemed made of pure gold surrounded by ships of all colors, shapes, and sizes. They moved aside for the large military ship to let them in, descending toward the surface.

The entire world was a city of golden spires, though not obnoxiously so - the gold was muted near the ground so the world was not filled with eternal glare. Ponies, dragons, griffons, changelings, and many others walked around in the streets, a few looking up at the ship and waving affectionately. Notably, there were no humans. Suzie supposed this meant the world had been a pure Equis before the Shard of Madness hit it, so there was no human race to work with.

“So, first off, someone catch Curaçao and Cinder up with what they know,” Shimmy said. “I don’t want to go over more than I have to. Plus, I, uh, may have designed what’s about to happen assuming everyone was up to speed.”

Shadow nodded. “I’ll do it. Have open minds, you two.”

Cinder blinked. “Wait wh-” she got an update on what had happened with Silvertongue and the events with the Shard of Madness uploaded right into her head. “Huh. Neat.”

Suzie nodded. “Just don’t overdo it on the mind uploads. It can get addictive, like a drug, and you become unable to retain anything.”

“Fun,” Cinder said. “So, basically, in the few minutes everyone was arguing about what to do in the Universe Generator, this universe has been fighting a millennia spanning war between Silvertongue and Shimmy?”

“It is a… bit more complicated than that,” Shimmy admitted. “But I’ve got a nice way to explain it all that isn’t mind uploading.”

Their bubble was finally set on the ground in a courtyard filled with yellow flowers. Shimmy dispelled the bubble, prompting two unicorn guards to bow. “It is an honor to witness your presence.”

Shimmy rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you guys ever say that to the Prime Minister?”

They didn’t answer. From somewhere far away, an orange flew through the air and hit Shimmy in the face, a megaphone-aided voice shouting “I’m relevant!”

“I still have no idea how they found out about that,” Shimmy muttered, squishing the orange under her foot. “Must have told it to one of the earlier followers as a joke or something, forgot about it, and now here we are. Oranges. I will never escape the oranges.”

“You probably could have made them go extinct by now,” Suzie pointed out.

“I did. Silvertongue recreated them. As far as I can tell, just to annoy me. No further ploy necessary.”

“That’s evil,” Cinder hissed.

Tab let out one of the loudest sighs any of them had ever heard. She removed her skull-eyepatch and tossed it to the ground. “Finally. Things make sense again.”

A slithering catorwallen skrullimped by, its many eyestalks pulping to the beat of its three hums.

Tab forced a grin. “That looks like something out of a child’s imagination. I can accept this. The tablet is able to quantify it. Yes. This is fine.”

“Don’t mind the fungus-cat things.” Shimmy waved at them to come along. “I need to show you guys the hall of history.”

“Oh, that’s not a Shimmer temple?” Shadow asked.

Shimmy laughed. “Oh, no, they make those the size of planets these days anyway.” She frowned. “When did I let them start doing that…?” She shook her head. “Nevermind, not an issue. Let’s talk about the history of the world!” She pushed open the big golden doors, entering a long hall filled with stained glass windows.

“...Original,” Cinder said.

“Shush,” Shimmy said. “This… is the HISTORY of the UNIVERSE!”

She paused, as if expecting applause. Cinder gave a pithy “woo” while Insipid clapped honestly.

Blackburn frowned. “How many resources did you waste making this place?”

Shimmy sighed. “Can we just… listen to a story?”

Cinder sat down attentively.

“You’ll need to walk to see all the windows.”

“Then I’ll be listening and walking, not just listening.”

Havocwing and Velvet chuckled at this.

“I swear they’re trying to drive me insane,” Shimmy observed.

“Probably,” Tab said. “They drove me insane. Oh, wait, no, that was whoever built the Universe Generator.”

“You are not going to like this story.”

“Oh. Joy.”

Shimmy cleared her throat, gesturing to the first window, that of a pink sphere that had a giant shard rammed into the top, producing several cracks. “The first event in recorded history is the Maddening, which you all saw. The Shard of Madness was injected to the universe and, much like whatever screwed up Earth Shimmer all those years go, completely wrecked everything. Only this universe wasn't fully formed and was much more susceptible to… breaking. So that produced the fissures that devour all matter near them to this day. Do you have any idea how hard it is to save a galaxy? Really hard. I’ve had to deal with that more than once.”

“Successfully?” Shadow asked.

“There’s about a fifty percent success rate.”

“Hmm…”

“Anyway, a while after that messed up the universe and destroyed any civilization that existed there, we arrived.” She gestured at the next window that showed five entities: herself and Silvertongue at the top, Crackling Leaves and the Crown Princess just below them, and Shivershackles cowering at the bottom, shrouded in darkness. “The only planet with life in the whole universe was Equis, and it wasn’t hard to find. We all arrived at more-or-less the same time, give or take a few months. We instantly knew that keeping all the races stuck on one planet was just asking for disaster when we were constantly going at each other, so…”

She danced over to a third window showing galaxies swirling against a soft blue glassy backdrop dotted with glitter. “We used our power to spread the people apart. Ponies, dragons, griffons, all of them. Filled the universe with life. Blew up the first galaxy after a bit of infighting.” The next window showed a great explosion. “To be fair, that explosion wasn’t instant, it was a chain reaction that took about two-hundred years to fully complete, but you know.”

“For someone who’s spent thousands of years in this world you don’t seem to have changed much,” Suzie observed.

Shimmy frowned. “That… Yeah, I chose to let the avatar that existed outside the universe dominate when we entered. So I… well I had changed, quite a bit actually, but…” She tapped her fingers on a wall. “I don’t want to say I ‘reverted’, because I still have the experiences of those years, they’re just dulled. Probably for Twilight's sake more than anything.”

“Aww…” Brook cooed.

Shimmy moved on. “Anyway, after the absolute disaster that was the first galaxy, we all kinda went our separate ways forming four separate… well not all of them were strictly nations, but let’s go with nations.” She pointed at a silver image laced with towering buildings and complex circuitry designs laced into the background. “Silvertongue, known as the ‘god of reason’ these days, created the Shill. Well, that’s what we call it. He calls it the Dominion, like he already wasn’t a textbook villainous emperor type as it was. His people are devoted to the idea of progress, understanding, thought… and specifically using all the ‘time’ we have in this universe to figure out how the Universe Generator outside works.”

Tab blinked. “Does… does he know?”

“He hasn’t figured it out yet and he’ll never figure it out if we have anything to say about it,” Shimmy said. “But he’s got a lot of it put together. He even figured out how to synthesize the material it’s made of - calls it Cosmic Graystone. I honestly have no idea if that’s one of our names or one of his. We tend to argue over what to call stuff a lot and there is a distinct lack of diplomacy between us because we learned long ago that engaging in diplomacy with Silvertongue is a very, very bad idea.”

She pointed at an immense golden palace under three suns. “And this is the Shimmies, our nation. We aren’t devoted to much of anything besides making everyone happy and being a pain in the plot for Silvertongue at every turn. I’ve kinda let them go crazy with art, culture, and other ‘frivolous’ things to annoy Silvertongue and his oh-so-precious reason. We don’t actually… research the Universe Generator so much as steal Silvertongue’s research on it and try to figure out what to do with it. The entire civilization basically exists to keep him from getting what he needs. We do have one thing he doesn’t, though.”

“What?” Tab asked.

“You saw that cattorwallen outside? That’s what the locals call a fissurebeast. Near as I can figure, Screwball controlling the Shard of Madness from outside is causing her delusions to manifest through the fissures. Which means they have distinctly unreal powers. And since I’m the one most familiar with her, the Shimmies are the ones that have... domesticated most of them.” Shimmy shivered. “Some can’t be domesticated, though. Learned that the hard way.”

“I can imagine the scratches,” Suzie said.

“Ever see a nikkarufa eat a planet? No? Good. You don’t want to.” She coughed. “Anyway, we’re not the only ones in the universe. There are the free peoples who just… exist, and I try to keep Silvertongue from devouring their worlds when I can. No window for them. There is a window for this though.”

She gestured at the image of a massive tree sitting among the stars with several arrows pointing away from it. “Crackling Leaves is… interesting. Every few centuries a civilization will rise with her as either the official leader or patron deity, but inevitably they collapse and become nomads that wander the universe. I think she knew how to play the very long game since now she’s got a massive network of people that don’t officially recognize her as leader but pay her respect as some sort of ancestor or family head. Gives her an impressive information network. To be perfectly honest, even though I know where she is right now I have no idea what her plan is. She tends to mess with me and Silvertongue equally for… I have no idea.” Shimmy shrugged.

“Anyway, lastly…” she came to a white window showing the Crown Princess with a tear running down her face. “This tragedy. The Crown Princess started by trying to figure out the Universe Generator just like Silvertongue, and he let her continue for a while, but then he stepped in and wiped her research out, taking it all for himself in a conspiracy that took a good three hundred years to pan out. It was absolutely terrifying to watch unfold.” She shivered, haunted not only by the memories of the specific events, but other times where she’d barely stopped similar conspiracies intended to bring the Shimmies to ruin.

“She realized after that she didn’t need to use the Universe Generator to complete her goal. She conquered a small planet and built what she called the Capric Empire and, instead of devoting herself to anything about the Universe Generator, she just… started conquering the universe for the sake of the Capric Empire. She was happy, didn’t care what happened so long as she kept growing her empire. Was pretty reasonable and understanding, all things considered.”

Shimmy folded her arms and frowned. “Her empire collapsed from internal strain and dissidence. Instead of trying to make it again, she took the greatest warships of her people and just started attacking. Everything. Angrily. Especially the Shills and the Shimmies, envious of our success. Her pirates have been a blight ever since.”

Cinder frowned. “...She had what she wanted taken from her.”

“But now she’s a badass pirate!” Havocwing chuckled. “That’s something, right?”

“I don’t think it is to her.”

“And lastly we come to Shivershackles,” Shimmy said, pointing at a window with a dark man, four colors splitting out of his head: gold, silver, white, and green. “He’s… changed sides a lot. I had him for a while, tried to protect him, but Crackling Leaves grabbed him, I grabbed him back, the Crown Princess, Silvertongue… it’s been a game of eternal ping-pong. None of us seem to be willing to kill him to end the cycle.”

“Who has him currently?” Blackburn asked.

“Silvertongue. Surprise, huh?”

“No.”

“He knew you were arriving soon. He ensured that he had Shivershackles when you did.”

“Why wasn’t Shivershackles used against us when we arrived?” Curaçao asked.

“I have no idea,” Shimmy admitted. “But what I do know?” She gestured at the last stained glass window which showed an orb of golden light floating over dozens of galaxies. “We’re gonna get him. Soon. You’re all finally here, which means we take Silvertongue out of the picture finally and get on with our lives.”

“What’s the plan?” Suzie asked.

“This is the part you’re not going to like. I don’t really… have one. Yet. Yet.” She pointed at Curaçao. “You and I are going to make one together.”

“C’est la vie…” Curaçao said, shaking her head. “I would ask ‘why me?’ but I already know.”

“You think like he thinks. I don’t. He’ll be able to outplan me. Always has, more or less.”

“Wouldn’t he have changed after all this time?” Suzie asked.

Curaçao shook her head. “‘e kept his mind consistent and disciplined for a zousand years, keeping ‘is true nature ‘idden from Nihlia. ‘e would not let ‘imself change.”

“We won’t have to deal with just him,” Cinder said. “The others… they have hands in the pot too. Crackling and the Crown Princess, whatever they’re doing…”

“And here I was thinking I could ignore them.” Shimmy shook her head.

“It would be unwise,” Curaçao admitted. “We shall ‘ave to divide and conquer.”

“Send people to where they’ll matter the most,” Cinder added.

“Leaves and ze Princess can be dealt with zrough straightforward mezods.”

“We’ll need to execute it all at the same time…”

Blackburn frowned. “A lot of these ‘needs’ seem arbitrary.”

Curaçao and Cinder shrugged. “When we ‘ave ze plan, you may critique, and we will make changes. But zere is much you do not understand.”

Tab groaned. Shimmy grinned. “This is a great start!”

“Quick question,” Grayscale said, raising a wing.

“Yes?”

“Did you let your people believe the defeat of Silvertongue was some kind of prophecy?” She gestured at the final window, raising an incredulous eyebrow.

“Uh… They sort of came up with that themselves…”

“And you didn’t deny it. Cool. Cool. Just wondering.”

Shimmy shifted uncomfortably. “Look, I’ve had experience being worshipped. I could literally walk out and announce that I have no idea what I’m doing and they’d say ‘it’s a test of our faith!’ You can’t stop faith, you can only direct it. Or wait for it to break on its own, but... that’s cruel.”

“So now you’re the god of two worlds,” Velvet pointed out.

Shimmy groaned. “Let’s... let’s just get back to planning.”

“Your two different churches are going to start a holy war with each other aren’t they?”

“There are at least twelve branches of Shimmerism back in Earth Shimmer--” Tab started.

“I said back to planning!” Shimmy interrupted.

~~~

“So… what do we do with Crackling Leaves? We can’t just leave her alone.”

“We have no idea what she’s doing or what she wants. But she’s never been one for direct confrontation, mostly discussion. Almost always discussion.”

“Who could talk to her without falling into some kind of Fay trap?”

Blackburn grunted as she stepped off the Shimmie ship into a forest floating in space. She had spent the ride there coming up with at least a dozen different explanations as to how a space forest might work, so at this point actually seeing the forest didn’t do much for her beyond the usual ‘categorize everything’ she always did. That was basically automatic at that point in her life.

Her primary train of thought centered around one question: how did I get sent in here alone?

Naturally, there were a few guards with her, and the ship she arrived on did have a pilot, but they were just faceless ponies (or dragon, in the case of the pilot) there to be useful in ways of taking bullets for her and making her look more threatening.

She was a Queen, she knew how guards worked.

She expected Crackling Leaves to have guards of her own outside the forest, but she either did not or they were hidden in some way. Blackburn operated under both assumptions at once, telling her ponies to stand down and wait at the ship while also keeping the energy weapon strapped to her hoof fully powered.

Blackburn walked through the hallway of vines into an inner sanctum made of roots and lit by white firefly like creatures that collected on the ceiling, continually scurrying around. There were two chairs in the room, both of which looked like they had been grown right out of the wall.

One was empty. The other seated Crackling Leaves herself. Gone were the glasses, the toolkit, and the ever-present cellphone. They had not been replaced with more advanced versions of the same, but rather completely swapped out for far more natural implements. Her clothing was leafy and alive, and traces of a moss-like creature could be seen on her face. She appeared natural, but not dirty - every leaf was pristine, every vine curled in a pleasing matter, and there was no dirt to speak of.

Blackburn did not let herself be fooled. Crackling Leaves was known for biotech. After all, floating space forest.

“...Queen Blackburn… you are alone?”

Blackburn reminded herself that while she could lie, Crackling Leaves could not. She should resort to the truth if she wanted respect from the Fay, using lies to get anywhere was a last resort at best. “In this chamber, yes. There are guards. And a pilot.”

“I had never been a Queen before coming here,” Crackling Leaves said. “Now I have been several times over. A different experience each time.”

“I only know of one.”

“You may find another in the end.”

“Is that an offer?”

“It is an... observation.”

“You speak carefully.”

“You speak short, abrupt truth with speed and confidence.”

“You do not appreciate being defined.”

“You do.”

“Shall I think of it as a courtesy?”

“If that is what you wish.”

Blackburn nodded slowly. “I shall refrain from making judgment.”

“Wise.” She leaned forward. “Blackburn, what does it mean to be Queen?”

Blackburn didn’t even have to think. “To rule for the ponies and protect their interests from those outside the city. There are other purposes. Prosperity. Progress. Peace. But leaders are for the ponies. People.”

“But what of the times when the people don’t want what is best for them?”

“You build your city so that doesn’t happen.”

Crackling Leaves smiled. “Silvertongue would agree.”

“Silvertongue is a genius. He does not lead for the ponies. He leads for himself.”

“Perfection is not for the ponies?”

“Perfection is his. He has consulted no other.”

“If he consulted the people he rules over now, they would agree with him on virtually every point. He built his ‘city’ to ensure they knew what was ‘best’ for them. They are promised to be transformed into the Perfect World when he makes it.”

“He will not keep that promise if he doesn’t have to.”

“And neither would you.”

Blackburn frowned. “I am just like him, you say?”

“I have said no such thing.”

“But you imply. Even if you mean it not, you wish to force me to confront it.” Blackburn thought about this. “In the right situation, it is possible I would use the power to create a world in my image. Many would. If they did not have others around them they respected. Silvertongue has no friends. Only subjects and servants.”

“And you have friends?”

“You know of my history.”

“A constant conflict between friends and servants.”

“Silvertongue had no conflict. The closest to him were the six sisters. They were discarded. Shroud was sent away and abandoned to us.”

“Ah,” said Crackling Leaves.

Blackburn’s ears flicked forward. “You believe my statement false.”

“I believe Silvertongue would find your statement false. Or rather, incomplete. The assumption, it would seem, is that friends are permanent. Or that they are immune to exploitation.”

“I assume neither. I have manipulated many - ask Twilight about Briarthorn - and lost others. The balance is a delicate one. I have been wrong before. I have not stooped to Silvertongue’s actions.” She leaned back slightly. “I admit understanding his reasonings. Wrong as they are.”

“I have an understanding of his motives,” Crackling mused, shifting on her seat. “Yet I suspect mine is different than yours.”

“You have spent thousands of years in a world with him and had many conversations. I have only seen him a few times and know of him primarily through his actions. You no doubt would have the more complete image. Enlighten me. If you would.” Blackburn leaned in, as if daring her.

“...a misrepresentation exists,” Crackling began. “It is common among those who define. Who see rivers as one path of water, rather than a billion drops that all happen to be rushing the same direction. They assume perfection can be, on its own. Perfection can exist, this is true, I have seen it. Many times. But....”

She gave Blackburn an expectant look.

Blackburn thought for a moment before responding. “I see several answers to your unspoken question. Everyone’s definition of perfection is different. Perfection requires a synthesis of minds. Perfection must come from without, not within. But if I had to choose what I believe you are looking for…” Blackburn chewed on it for a while. “Perfection can exist. But it will not adhere to a single definition and is ever-changing.”

“That answer is not wrong, but it also is not the one I was looking for. Still... you have proven capable of thinking through...” Crackling considered for a moment. “Perfection is, always, a modifier. The perfect sword, the perfect spouse, the perfect world. Imperfect if judged outside its purpose. Silvertongue cannot realize this--he is too caught up in the intricacies of his systems to look upon their whole. He is, perhaps, the perfect villain--in achieving his goals, in defeating the heroes, and though he has yet to realize it, in helping the heroes grow. He is perfect already--he simply is not perfect through the filter of perfection in totality. And so he toils madly to achieve that which cannot exist without outside purpose.”

Blackburn sat back, processing. “...You think he would have figured this out. Perfect villain. Already perfect. The outside purpose.” She caught Crackling Leave’s expression. “...He wouldn’t let us know if he had.”

“Your plan will succeed. It will also fail.”

“Cinder said a lot of things like that. I categorized them all, analyzed them from every angle. They…” Blackburn realized she was talking about nothing, something she hated doing. “You spoke earlier of those who define. I am one. Define enough and you realize not everything can be defined. Like the hunt for perfection, it is maddening.”

“It is also amusing to offer something defined and find it assumed not to be.” Crackling rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Very well, this game comes to a close soon anyway, and you are alone. A simple question.” She leaned forward. “If Sunset Shimmer waited for you to be here to make her move... why would Silvertongue not do the same?”

“That is expected. He has some plan for us. Even if the first plan was ruined at the battle--”

“And there you error. Your only importance to him was that he could not see you. Now that he can, he has no reason to restrain himself.” Crackling Leaves leaned back.

Blackburn’s eyes widened. “He already knows everything he needs to know. About the Generator…” Blackburn, for a moment, thought of calling for help, telling them. Shimmy was on the mission, she could do damage control. She could…

Blackburn laughed. “That’s not the point, is it?”

“Your plan will fail,” Crackling agreed. “But Silvertongue is the perfect... villain. Your plan will also succeed.” She steepled her fingers. “I do look forward to the conclusion of this dance.”

Blackburn sank into her chair - relaxing herself. “So we will sit here and talk until the end.”

“I am as social as any other creature,” Crackling agreed. “And I have lived long, as you know. There are many stories I could tell you... if you were able to understand my words exactly.”

“I’m sure I can get the hang of it. Have anything alcoholic?” She grinned. “Hope’s Point tradition, you understand.”

A vine uncoiled from the wall, and a surprisingly chalice-shaped flower hardened at her hoof’s reach. “But of course.”

The thought that it might be poisoned or some trick flashed past Blackburn’s mind, but she quickly reasoned it away. She may not have had a firm grasp on Crackling Leaves just yet, but she knew enough. With a graceful wing she took the drink.

Not as good as magmaberry wine, but it was a serious contender.

~~~

Cinder, Suzie, and Tab were the representatives of the League of Sweetie Belles in this universe. They had to be the ones to deal with their problem: the Crown Princess.

Cinder had insisted.

Finding the Crown Princess wasn’t exactly difficult - Shimmy had pins on most everyone of magical importance in the universe. Occasionally the Crown Princess would bother with obfuscating her presence, but that day she wasn’t.

They knew full well that this may have been meant to bait them into hunting her down. The other option was that she didn’t feel the need to hide since they would be dealing with Silvertongue - when she’d no doubt execute some kind of plan to take advantage of the situation.

Or maybe just blow everything up, since that was apparently what she did these days.

She was in a pirate fleets, one of the many who had splintered off after engaging in the battle over the new arrivals to the universe. Once, the Crown Princess’ fleets had been composed of many ships of all shapes and sizes. Now there were only the truly massive Behemoths with smaller ships stored inside, usually stolen from the other powers of the universe. The white Behemoths themselves were older than most dragons, and all of them were falling apart at the seams. They had been built for extended brutal war with the best technology available at the time, and with a few cobbled-together upgrades over the years they still held up well.

Even if their numbers continually dwindled. A few hundred thousand at the start. Now a few hundred, and in this splinter fleet only seven.

They were going to sneak in.

How?

Hijacking a small pirate ship in another fleet and hypnotizing the pilot into helping them. Tab may not have had a ton of magic in her, but with that tablet of hers she could cast virtually any spell she needed to if the situation called for it.

The three of them hidden in the tiny cargo hold, contained within a box that said hazardous waste. It was just barely large enough for the three of them to fit, although decidedly uncomfortably.

Tab, tell Suzie to get her foot out of my ear.

Already did, she says she’d have to put it back on your jaw.

Suzie! We were fine when we started!

She can’t hear you. I’m the only one with the spell.

Relay the message!

Did. She wasn’t comfortable when we started.

Well you can tell Suzie that it’s my time to be comfortable again.

I really don’t think that’s the purpose of this exercise.

The purpose is to stay hidden. But I’d rather not b-

Shush. We’re landing. I need to focus.

Tab spent the next little while perfectly silent, listening to radio chatter and waiting for the perfect moment. Once their ship was in the hangar and everything was off them… she teleported them into an engineering access tunnel. The layout of a Behemoth was known, so this exact tunnel had been part of the plan all along.

The pony working in the tunnel had not. Suzie pulled out her gun and shot him before he could say anything, knocking him to the ground. “People might miss him, we need to get to her quickly.”

That was not difficult. Teleportation into one of the pirates’ ships was locked, but teleportation within was not. All Tab had to do was pull up the schematics on her tablet, run a few numbers, and perform a teleport clear across the ship. She ended up in an access tunnel just under the Crown Princess’ personal quarters. There wasn't any direct access to the room, and the room itself had a teleport lock, but they were literally inches away from it.

“She’s currently out and about,” Tab said. “She’ll return to her quarters eventually. Until then we just… sit here.” She leaned back. “I’m going to play some video games. I’d offer to let you play, buuuuuuut…”

“Yeah yeah, brag about your fancy invisible tablet,” Cinder said, rolling her eyes.

Tab shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

Suzie leaned back and checked her gun, cleaning it out of habit more than anything else.

“Hey… Suzie?”

Suzie looked up. “What is it, Cinder?”

“Am I allowed to ask what your last resort is? Or does?”

“Ask? Yes. Know?” Suzie frowned. “I’d really have to clear it with the rest of the League in-the-know first, or find a reason that you need to know. You do not.”

Tab snorted. “Considering I didn’t even know you had a last resort Stand until today, that thing must be classified to deep Tartarus and back. And here I thought Seraphim was dangerous.”

“Seraphim’s dangerous, but very controllable,” Suzie said.

“Yours isn’t?” Cinder asked.

Suzie bit her lip, thinking closely about how much she could say. “It’s… unpredictable and devastating. Let’s leave it at that. Hope I don’t have to use it. Ever.”

Cinder nodded. “Got it. And I will get clearance.”

“Most the crew on Swip is only vaguely aware I have anything,” Suzie said with a sad smile. “I’d keep quiet about it if I was you.”

“My lips are sealed!”

“Activity,” Tab reported with a hiss. “Crown Princess is moving to her quarters… quiet.”

The three of them fell silent, waiting in anticipation for the Crown Princess to be alone. They heard the clanking of her hooves on the metallic ground along with a few of her pirate crew. She stopped in front of the door to her quarters.

The Crown Princess teleported the three of them out of the access vent and gave them all a look of immense contempt. “Did you really think that would work?”

“We have a lot of backup plans,” Cinder said. “To be fair, we did just want to talk a-” her voice trailed off as she took in the Crown Princess’ appearance. She was still regal and beautiful, but her eyes were more sad than angry; the face of a mare who was dragging herself forward by a leash.

“Talk…” the Crown Princess said, mulling the words over in her mouth. “Sure.”

“Your Highness!” one of her pirates said. “Are you crazy?”

“Yes.” The Crown Princess chuckled. “But do prepare two incineration vats.”

“Just two?”

“Yes, I’ve been waiting to free Cinder from her captors for… far longer than these ships have been around.”

Cinder glared at her. “They aren’t my captors.”

“It’s just an illustration.” The Crown Princess put Suzie and Tab in restraints but allowed Cinder to walk around freely. “Good to see you, Cinder, despite all that’s happened.”

“If you kill them I won-”

“You can be trained, with time.”

“I’m not staying here.”

The Crown Princess frowned. “Perhaps not. But you wanted to talk, so we will talk at the very least. And then we will consider what to do next.” She teleported the Sweeties and her pirate guards into a cafeteria of sorts where several different races were eating and having a jolly time - that is, until the Crown Princess arrived.

The moment she appeared all the joy died out of the room.

“...What have you done to them?” Cinder asked.

“Nothing,” the Crown Princess said. “It’s your presence that makes them uneasy.”

“W-what?”

“They know you as our enemy. By the code I wrote, you are to be incinerated without quarter. I’m making an exception so you can say your piece.” She levitated a cup of tea over and sipped.

“Seems foolish to do that in front of your crew,” Suzie said.

“Yeah, I’m reading their faces…” Tab frowned. “They’re not the biggest fans of you right now.”

“Surprise, surprise, pirates who want their captain dead.” The Crown Princess rolled her eyes. “They wouldn’t dare try.”

“You sure about that? Tablet say-”

“I don’t give a damn what your antiquated tablet says.”

“Antiquated?”

“I saw it thousands of years ago and I see it today and it hasn’t changed one bit!”

“One, you can’t see it, two, that was literally yesterday for me.”

“Let’s try not to aggravate her,” Suzie suggested.

“Good idea,” the Crown Princess chuckled. “I’ve gained a tendency to… snap as of late. You don’t want me to snap, do you?”

“Definitely not!” Cinder chuckled nervously. “Let’s not go doing anything crazy.”

The Crown Princess tapped her hoof on the table rapidly. “Crazy? You want crazy? How’s about this? I kill you, then I kill your friends who are going after Silvertongue, then I kill Silvertongue, Shimmy, and this ENTIRE UNIVERSE!”

Everyone in the room stared at her in silence.

“You… can’t do those things,” Suzie said.

“Yeah, probably not,” the Crown Princess admitted, sitting back in her chair. “But I can totally use everything I have in these last moments to get both the ‘gods’ while they’re so fixated on each other.”

“I’m running the calculations on that,” Tab said. “The chances of… well, any of your pirates surviving…”

“No smaller than whatever insane ploy you’ve got planned to end Silvertongue and me. You’re alone on this ship, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Suzie admitted.

“The chances of you three getting back alive are slim-to-none, and yet you do it anyway. Why should I be any different?”

Cinder pressed her hooves together. “We’re willing to take a risk. The Shimmie soldiers are willing to take a risk. Are pirates really willing to take a risk?”

The Crown Princess huffed. “They already know. I’ve been talking about this for weeks.”

“Yeah, I really don’t think they’re upset at us being here,” Tab said, shaking her head. “Interrogating prisoners for information publicly really shouldn’t be something they hate with a passion.”

“What are you implying?”

“You’re losing grip on your empire.”

“I AM NOT!” the Crown Princess shouted, ramming her hooves into the table. “I… have complete control over every last one of these mongrels and we are the spirit of Capra!”

“...This isn’t even an empire anymore, Princess.” Cinder sighed. “You lost that.”

“I… I will have it again. I will. I have to. I had it and it was glorious and…”

“You need to get that Crown’s mission out of your head.”

The Crown Princess stared at her, tears welling up in her eyes. “I did.”

Cinder stared at her. “...What?”

“The rifts… they have… mind-altering properties. The pain after losing the Empire… it was too much. I had to get rid of it. Had to order my people to drag me there kicking and screaming.” She laughed bitterly. “Don’t need an Empire anymore. But, you know what? Watching something that you love get torn out of your hooves… Having had all you need and then burning to the ground…” She leaned in until she was barely an inch from Cinder’s face. “I don’t need a mission anymore.”

Tab clicked her tongue. “Yep. Clinical insanity. Dunno if it’s the rift that did it or your own head, but you’re off the edge of the cliff.”

“Take her to her incineration vat,” the Crown Princess ordered. “She is being of no help.”

“Not to you, perhaps, but to them I’m being a significant boon.” She turned to the pirates. “You have a 97% chance of besting her if you all move now.”

“They wouldn’t d-”

A plasma bolt hit the Crown Princess in the rear. She managed to twist out of the way, keeping it from burning right through her, but it sheared off a fair portion of her flank. Howling in pain and rage, she whirled around and drained the closest pirate she could of all life to restore her health. “Serves you right…”

Then she realized what she’d just done.

She hadn’t drained the attacker - he was a dragon sitting near the back with his gun raised.

She had just drained one of the youngest members of her crew, the adorable Cotton Candy.

“No!” The Crown Princess wailed, tears welling up in her eyes. “No I didn’t mea-”

The pirates didn’t care. Most of them drew their weapons and pointed them directly at her.

“...We shouldn’t kill her,” a older unicorn mare with no eyes said, stepping forward. Despite being blind her aim was perfect. “Princess… you can surrender. You’ve done a lot for us over the centuries. We’ll give you that much.”

The Crown Princess didn’t even try to stop crying. “I killed her…”

The older unicorn lowered her gun. “She’s not going to resist.”

“You’re just going to let her go for what she’s done!?” another pirate shouted.

“Accident.”

“I mean all the other stuff! That actually matters!”

The blind mare shot him, vaporizing him. “Cotton Candy mattered, idjit.”

No one argued with her decision.

The Crown Princess had curled her wings around herself and was rocking back and forth.

“We’ll take her,” Cinder said.

“I didn’t say you could go,” the blind mare countered.

“You probably should. If we don’t come out of here there will be a Shimmie fleet ready to tear this ship to shreds. Actually, I can call them right now. I’d rather not.”

The blind mare frowned. “What was your purpose here?”

“To stop whatever it was she had planned to do with Silvertongue.”

“Then you have succeeded. Take her and go.”

“Right away.”

They were tossed onto a rustbucket ship and launched into space. The fleet warped away, leaving them adrift.

Cinder turned to Tab. “So, that bluff worked.”

Tab removed her restraints now that they were alone. “Risky, banking on them not knowing your magic capabilities.” She sent the signal with her horn. A Shimmie ship appeared and grabbed them in a tractor beam.

Cinder nodded, directing her attention to the Crown Princess. “...What are we going to do with her?”

“I made her a promise,” Suzie said. “She’ll be allowed to go free once we return.”

“Good. ...I think she needs to go to whatever’s home for her.”

“She hasn’t seen that home in thousands of years…”

“It’ll be something.”

~~~

Blackburn and the Sweeties had the easy parts of the plan. Even though the Crown Princess had been crafty, she was quite mad, and Crackling Leaves had never been one for direct influence, merely nudging.

Silvertongue, though…

He was where all the resources had gone. For the most part, the other plans boiled down to ‘send the right people to do the job and they’ll get it done’.

This one required a full, crazed invasion.

The Shill galaxy had stars arranged into a perfect sphere, almost all of which were main sequence white stars. Marring the elegant view was a thin fissure of madness that pierced the globe, cutting until it reached the center. The stars were managed so delicately that not a single one would fall into the fissure. A society built around madness; an apt description, many would say.

Those who knew better would know that the Shill - or more accurately the Dominion - was devoted to a strict, careful, absolute sanity. Everything was organized, served a greater purpose, and was deeply entrenched in the ideas of logical thought. If it didn’t have a discernible purpose, it didn’t exist. This was not to say entertainment didn’t exist; it did, to help the masses enjoy their lives. But everything was strictly regulated in such a way that no one in the galaxy would ever be exposed to even the idea of dissention. The vast majority of Dominion citizens didn’t even know the Shimmies existed. The Dominion was all there was.

That would change today. Shimmy had never dared to attack the Dominion capital world directly. She’d sent spies, but the defenses were far too extreme to do anything about, especially considering it would take all of ten minutes for Silvertongue to scramble ships from elsewhere in the galaxy to reinforce the position and utterly decimate even the largest of fleets. Conquering the world was a futile endeavor, much as conquering Shimmy’s capital was just as futile for Silvertongue.

Good thing they didn’t need to conquer it.

Ships in the universe had learned to travel billions of light years in seconds. Traversing galaxies was nothing, and military-grade ships could fly so precisely that they could weave right into the center of a galaxy without triggering any alarms on the edge of their space. One moment, there was nothing in orbit around the Dominion capital. The next, there were a few hundred golden ships.

The capital itself wasn’t a planet per se, but rather a massive silver sphere built around the central black hole of the galaxy. The fissure of madness punched through the top of the sphere and disappeared somewhere within.

It was around this fissure’s entry point that the Shimmies attacked. The fleet’s weapons impacted the planetary shields like a needle, forcing a hole through the barrier at its weakest point. Lances of gold and silver streaked across the dark sky of the artificial world, bringing with them great destruction and death on both sides.

But Silvertongue didn’t send his full forces to combat the rush; he was smarter than that. Such a large force could easily be used to take the attention of smaller, less dramatic entry attempts. He scrambled his fleets around the planet, catching dozens of different ships that were trying to get in through sneaky space warping. He would make sure none of these little ones got in with their sabotaging intentions, all while leaving just enough to keep the main Shimmie fleet occupied. He wouldn’t disrespect the fleet, for it would be foolish to let a distraction of that magnitude have free reign, but he would have to focus more on the smaller invasion attempts. At least, that was the plan.

For all the Shimmies fleet knew, he was buying it.

In reality, it was the smaller ships that were the distraction - they had little to nothing of interest on board. Sure, they carried bombs, but bombs weren’t going to be enough to get to Silvertongue. None of the ships would survive long enough for him to figure this out, so for all he knew every last one of them carried some kind of superweapon.

So far, everything went as intended. There was a great battle, but the lessened pressure on the main fleet allowed them to get a sizeable ground presence on the massive spherical construct around the fissure.

The next phase of the plan began - magic ground bombs. Massive metallic spheres infused with magic from a distant galaxy were transported by Shimmies to key locations on the capital world, exploding in massive puffs of light energy that would bring entire blocks to the ground, digging into the ground below. There was heavy resistance from all sides, and the bombs didn’t always reach their destinations. Some of them turned out to be duds.

There were thousands of them, operating as part of a seemingly normal, albeit desperate, military operation.

But one of the duds wasn’t really a bomb - it was just a hollow metal sphere. It was carted by unknowing soldiers to a lower level of the capitol and ordered to explode. It didn’t, and the Dominion soldiers decided duds weren’t a threat. Both Shimmies and Dominion ‘Shill’ left this particular ‘dud’ alone.

When it had been alone for some time, the top popped open, revealing Curaçao, Havocwing, Shadow, Insipid, Velvet, Grayscale, Sequin, Brook, and Shimmy’s primary avatar.

“I told myself I would never end up in the middle of a warzone…” Sequin sighed.

“Stay by me,” Shimmy said. “You two shouldn’t have to fight.”

“Until we get to our part of the plan, of course,” Brook pointed out.

“That’s a different sort of fight.”

“We ‘ave no time for discussion, we must act,” Curaçao said. “We know where Silvertongue is. You ‘ave Shivershackles?”

Shimmy nodded. “I do. We’re close to Silvertongue’s palace.”

“I ‘ave the map.” Curaçao held up the tablet. “I know where to go. We’ll make it.”

“Good luck. Stay hidden as long as possible.”

“Ugh, sneaking…” Havocwing muttered.

Curaçao nodded. She gestured to Shadow, who teleported all six sisters elsewhere, leaving Sequin, Brook, and Shimmy alone.

Sequin clung to Brook, shivering.

“It… it’s going to be okay,” Brook encouraged. ”Shimmy is here with us.”

“Shiver’s currently too out in the open,” Shimmy said, frowning. “We’re going to have to wait. I don’t want Silvertongue to know I’m here unless absolutely necessary.”

“He probably already knows.”

“But he doesn’t know where yet. I’m not going to broadcast my presence until the time is right.”

Sequin and Brook nodded.

“This’ll give you two time to prepare yourselves, too.”

“The ride over here wasn’t enough?” Sequin gawked.

“We’re conveniently out of heavy combat. That doesn’t mean the sounds of war won’t affect you.”

Sequin gulped. “Right…”

~~~

Shivershackles teleported to an abandoned area of the capitol’s inner city. The citizens had evacuated long ago, and the Shimmies had already been through to clean out all the raffle.

Wait here, Silvertongue ordered in his mind. Draw them out.

Who?

I am uncertain exactly who is arriving to take care of you, Shivershackles, but you will find out simply by waiting. You should already know this.

I never know things, master.

That is your recurring failing, is it not? Never looking ahead, not a unique thought anywhere in that head of yours. Ever the disappointment.

Shivershackles nodded. I know.

When they appear, don’t hesitate; kill them all.

Shimmy appeared in a flash of brilliant light, Sequin and Brook behind her. The godling grabbed Shivershackles by the neck, glaring at him. “Stand down, Shivershackles.”

She chose to deal with you rather than me? Interesting. I notice you aren't killing her.

Shivershackles let out a roar of agony and generated several meter-long spikes out of his body, numerous of which punctured Shimmy and attempted to drain her essence.

“You can’t do anything to me,” Shimmy said, smiling sadly. “You should know that, Shivershackles.”

You really should. Insolent whelp, kill her allies - they are clearly here for a reason.

Shivershackles generated two whirling bladed discs. They passed by Shimmy, ignoring her magic, and sailed true to Sequin and Brook. The couple managed to teleport to the other side of the blades, but Shivershackles wasn’t done. Without losing speed, the blades shot back, going for the backs of their necks.

Shimmy vaporized the attacks with a snap of her fingers. “You won’t do anything to them either.”

Worthless. You will kill them, Shivershackles. You will. Because I will make you.

“You really don’t have to listen to him,” Shimmy said. “You can listen to me - stand down Shivershackles.”

You know what happened the last time you betrayed me.

“Our authority is equal, Silvertongue. You must choose.”

You do not get a choice!

Shivershackles felt his mind pushed to the side - he was so worthless he couldn’t even be trusted to use his own body. Silvertongue took over, tapping into the immense rush of Shivershackles’ self-loathing to break free of Shimmy’s grip.

“You are weak here,” Silvertongue said with a wry smile that looked out of place on Shivershackles’ face. “This is my seat of power, Shimmy. Tell me, what is your ploy?”

“At the moment?” Shimmy held out her hand and lit it on glowing fire. “Get Shivershackles back.”

“You could just kill him,” Silvertongue pointed out. “It would be somewhat difficult for you in my city, yes, but it would not be impossible.” He chuckled. “But you can’t bring yourself to destroy the innocent. A man who truly has no choice… Offering him one is pointless. You’ve had him before, you know he has no purpose without a commanding voice. It’s the reason it was so easy to take him from you.” He created two blades of darkness, pointing them at Sequin and Brook. “They are here to play off his pity and history, aren’t they? Voices to appeal to his passion. A clever thought, but a fooli-”

A scowl appeared on Shivershackle’s face.

Shimmy grinned. “Unexpected company?”

The scowl was replaced with a smirk. “Not exactly unexpected, just… early. It looks as though you will get your chance with Shivershackles. I wish you luck in your endeavor. There is no way he’ll be able to resist you without me here to guide him like a lost sheep.”

Before Shimmy could figure out if he was lying to make Shivershackles feel worse or telling the truth, he had left Shivershackles’ mind, leaving only a broken, battered man.

A broken, battered man with so much self-loathing he could blow up a city block at that moment.

“Oh geez,” Shimmy said, creating a massive shield around her and the couple behind her. What had once been a bustling block of an artificial city became melted slag as Shivershakles unleashed his energy.

He whimpered as he did so. He could feel the pain and heat of his own attack. It wouldn’t kill him, that would be more failure than usual, and he didn’t want that.

...Or did he?

It was a question that kept coming back to him over the years - the endless blur of years that passed by like the scenery on a rollercoaster. He knew full well at this point that he was stronger the worse he felt about himself, creating a sort of feedback loop every now and then where he would feel good about feeling bad, which just sabotaged everything.

He wished he could be as dispassionate as Silvertongue, but none of his masters had ever ordered him to be that way, so… he couldn’t. He needed some kind of order to follow out, or his powers did next to nothing.

Currently that order was to kill the two ponies behind Shimmy. And Shimmy, but he knew he would never be able to do that, he’d encountered her too many times. At least the knowledge that he could not succeed at that task would make the other two easier… except now that he realized that, the confidence made him weaker again.

He let out a pained wail of aggravation, slamming into Shimmy’s shield as hard as he could manage. The focused attack shattered the amber globe, sending all its shards flying. Instead of coming face to face with Shimmy, he saw a pair of wise, purple eyes.

“You don’t have to enslave yourself, you know,” Brook said.

Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. He wasn’t enslaving himself. He just was.

“I used to think I was trapped by others, like you. And I was.” Shivershackles attacked, but Shimmy defended Brook. “But their trap was sinister. Powered by my own guilt and self-loathing.” Shimmy’s shield broke again, but this time she appeared behind Shivershackles and pinned him to the ground. “It took Sequin here to get me out of it.”

Shivershackles threw Shimmy’s avatar off through his tears. He had no one. No one to save him. Only masters. That was all there could be.

“We can get you out of there,” Sequin said, holding onto Brook to steady herself.

“I. Don’t. Need. Out,” Shivershackles breathed, standing tall. “I need to be effective. And to be effective… I must be worthless.”

“I don’t believe that,” Sequin said. “I don’t believe that for one second.”

“To be effective I must be worth-”

“Not that. I don’t believe that you need to be ‘effective’.” She frowned. “Shivershackles… do you really want to be a slave?”

Shivershackles looked at her in confusion - forgetting to attack. “I… I don’t want anything.”

“You didn’t want out,” Brook said.

“I was ordered. This is how I must be.”

“Silvertongue’s not here right now,” Sequin said. “You can… take a new command, if you want. Only if you want.”

“Do you want this?” Brook asked, gesturing at his body - covered in scratches, scars, painful knobs of uncontrolled magic, and tears. “It can’t be worth it… even if it is comfortable. Known. Regular.” She frowned. “I stayed in my library for years. I could have left at any time if I only stopped hating myself, but I chose to remain in that prison, even though I didn’t realize it. I changed my mind, eventually. And I couldn’t be happier.”

“Please, Shivershackles,” Sequin pleaded. “You don’t have to stay here. You can free yourself. You can choose.”

“I can’t make choices!”

“Then I order you to make a choice,” Brook said. “Kill us, or let go.”

Shivershackles stared at her blankly. She had no authority, he didn’t have to listen to her. If the words had come from Shimmy they would have carried weight. But they had come from an ordinary, run-of-the-mill Twilight.

He knew to just ignore it and kill her.

But that would have been making a choice, wouldn't it? Doing exactly what she asked. Which would make her the master. But then he would be killing her. That wasn’t what she really wanted. She wanted him to make his choice. He didn’t make choices. He couldn't. Too much.

Kill her.

Let go.

He could choose. He couldn't choose. That wasn't how it worked. That wasn’t how his magic worked.

Silvertongue has the most authority.

He isn’t here.

She speaks for Shimmy.

She does not.

Power comes from killing.

Freedom comes from letting go.

I don’t want power.

I don’t want freedom.

I don’t want anything.

I need orders.

I don’t need anything.

I order myself.

I cannot.

I cannot.

I cannot.

Shivershackles eyes rolled into the back of his head. He passed out.

Sequin gasped. “My stars…”

“W-what just happened?” Brook asked.

“I… think you turned his magic against him?” Shimmy said, scratching her head in confusion. “I’m not really sure.”

“Weren’t we supposed to convert him?” Sequin asked. “That was the plan, right?”

Shimmy shrugged. “Curaçao specifically didn’t tell us everything about every fine detail. For all we know this was one of the backups.” She placed a hand on Shivershackles’ form, encasing him in golden light. “...I hope we can help him.”

“Removing his magic might be good for him,” Brook observed.

Shimmy nodded. “Good work, you two. You got him.”

“You did all the heavy lifting,” Brook said, rubbing the back of her head.

“Darling, please,” Sequin chuckled. “Take credit where credit is due. We won.”

“But we weren’t the most important,” Shimmy said. “That’s up to Curaçao and her sisters.”

“I wonder how they are doing,” Sequin said.

~~~

Silvertongue sat in his throne: a plain object made of a silvery metal. It was adorned with nothing aside from a simple cushion for the sake of comfort.

The rest of the royal hall was decidedly more lavish, covered in banners, immense screens displaying the state of the Dominion, and art depicting his many great feats on the floor, walls, and ceiling. The throne was simple because he sat in it - he was all the decoration it needed.

He sat alone. He had already given his generals their orders. They would carry them out to the letter. Some would fail - and die as they deserved - and others would succeed, and their reward would be the satisfaction of a job well done. There was nothing more he needed to do on that front. His resolve was to just sit and wait to see what happened. This was even more true at the moment, since he had left Shivershackles to his own devices.

Silvertongue really had no idea what the result of the encounter with Shimmy would be. He had guesses, to be sure, but nothing he would place money on. Normally this would infuriate him - but not today. Because that battle did not matter.

The one that did was about to begin.

He had known his ‘daughters’ would come for him, though he did not know exactly how.

He had to admit, sending Starlight Shadow in alone had been a move he wasn't expecting.

The dark unicorn walked right into his throne room through the front doors. Outside, he could see the blood of his guards pooling on the ground. Silvertongue was impressed - they had managed to remain mostly undetected on their journey to his location. Curaçao had really outdone herself.

Shadow approached. She put a commendable amount of effort into keeping her head held high and her stride even, but it was easy for Silvertongue to see the soul-wrenching conflict deep within her.

She fixed Silvertongue with a stern expression.

“Welcome, my daughter.”

She didn’t deny it.

“Why are you here?” Silvertongue asked.

“To converse.”

Silvertongue nodded slowly, stepping down from his throne and approaching her. He saw both the instinct to run and the instinct to embrace him flash across her features. She listened to the call of neither, keeping her hooves firmly planted in the ground.

“Converse of what? Surely not to ask for forgiveness or to change my mind.”

“I am just… t-to speak.”

“You do not know.” Silvertongue observed. “Curaçao has come a long way in what is such a short time for her.”

Shadow swallowed. “She asked us if we would accept lies and deceptions in the plan ahead of time. Agreement was unanimous.”

“Did she manipulate that out of you?”

“No.”

“How can you know?”

“Because she is my sister. I know her.”

“You would not know her if she did not want you to.”

“She does. She desperately does. U-unlike you.”

“You don’t really believe that, Shadow.” He put a hoof to her cheek, noting that she couldn’t bring herself to flinch away or lean into it. “You know I care for you. Deeply.”

“Curaç…”

“Curaçao’s words can be just as deceptive as mine. You have to look into yourself, Shadow.”

Shadow shivered, looking at him in the face with tearful eyes. “I… I don’t know w-what is true.”

“Truth is such a-”

Shadow interrupted him. “But I know I can’t let you make your perfect world.”

Silvertongue frowned. “You could stand at my side, you know. In every way you want. Even if you believe me deceptive, you know I can still provide what you need.”

“I… don’t…”

“Need is too strong a word, is it not? Perhaps… desire.”

Shadow made no response.

“There is a place for you - and your sisters, if they would return. Like a father should act to his rebellious children, I will take you back in.”

“You rejected us…”

“I gave you freedom. It was a reward.”

“A reward for ponies programmed to unconditionally love you!” Shadow shouted at the top of her lungs, her Void energy cracking the ground beneath her. “You’re smart enough to see that resultant prior.”

“Was it really unconditional? You have been purified. Yet, here you are, Shadow. The same as ever.”

Tears were streaking down Shadow’s face. “You… you did this to me.”

“Are you complaining or thanking me?”

“I DON’T BUCKING KNOW!” Shadow shouted, firing a beam of Void energy right at his face. He effortlessly blocked the incoming attack with a shield.

This was no doubt the signal for Havocwing and Grayscale, for they burst through opposite walls at high speed. Havocwing lit the area around Silvertongue on fire and Grayscale attempted to crush Silvertongue in the flames. Silvertongue’s horn flashed, easily dissipating the fire and gravitational alteration.

This triggered something hidden in Grayscale’s wing - a needle composed of magic crystal. It locked onto the source of the antigravity spell and sped toward Silvertongue’s brain. He barely had enough time to cast a second spell, shattering the object.

“Concentrated madness from a fissure…” Silvertongue mused. “I wonder how many ponies Shimmy sacrificed to get that?”

“She stole it from you!” Havocwing shouted, breathing fire on him to no effect.

“Did she? I suppose I need to check the stockpiles more often. A good attempt, Grayscale - take out my mind temporarily so you can gain the upper hoof. Were I grading, I would say ninety-seven points. Failed to account for my speed, but the ingenuity of having the attack trigger as a retaliation was truly commendable.”

“Oh, joy, praise from the monster. Great.” Grayscale rolled her eyes.

“Where’s the next layer, Grayscale?” Silvertongue asked. “I’m waiting.”

“Maybe I was regulated to basic smashing duty, or something.”

“Curaçao is not one to waste talents…”

“Unless she’s banking on you thinking that and purposefully set me to have a simple role just to mess with your head. Not that I know, or anything.”

Silvertongue frowned. “Not you…”

“EAT SHIT!” Havocwing shouted, lifting a wing to reveal several more shards of diluted madness, all of them triggering at once.

Silvertongue was ready this time, catching each and every one in his magic. “The same trick never works twi-”

He had to stop talking to use a burst of radiation to toss a gravity-accelerated Insipid to the side before she could touch him. “The many-tiered approach…” Silvertongue mused. “Each of you has one method or more to killing me, and each time one fails…” Silvertongue stopped Grayscale from causing an earthquake with his telekinesis. “...another one executes. Each attack has a high probability of success, eventually one must do me in?”

“Like, ow,” Insipid muttered from her position on the ground. “He’s totally got us…”

“Insipid!” Havocwing hissed.

“Confirmation changes nothing, your sister has not weakened your position.” Silvertongue frowned. Velvet and Curaçao were still nowhere to be seen. He needed to fish them out, interrupt the plan. The best way to do that and strengthen his own position.

He turned to Insipid and unleashed a beam of radiative energy. As expected, Shadow was able to defend her with a shield - but the moment of concern for Insipid caused the invisible Curaçao to gasp and trip over a rock.

...How unlike her.

No doubt a trap, but now that he knew her position he couldn't just ignore it. After knocking Shadow to the side with a beam of harmonic energy, he picked up Curaçao. She didn’t even try to stay invisible.

“You know better than this,” Silvertongue said.

Curaçao’s grimace deepened. “Yes, I do.”

“Why would you want to be discovered? To put me at ease? Distract me from Velvet?”

Curaçao raised an eyebrow. “Like I would tell you anyzing.”

“Keeping Velvet back… an assurance policy. The moment I bring death into the equation, fear abounds. And she is the only one I do not know the full capabilities of. Luckily, neither do you… double blind.”

“Everyzing is a gamble.”

“Resorting to gambles, Curaçao? You disappoint me. Use only near-guarantees.”

“Nozing is near-guarantee against you.”

“Hmm… the same should be true in reverse…” Silvertongue nodded thoughtfully. “In order for Velvet’s assurance policy to work, she has to be able to see everything happening. That mare has never been able to control her appetite.”

He tossed Curaçao to the side, sticking her in place with Grayscale, Havocwing, and Insipid. He turned to Shadow and took her face forcefully in his hooves. “Now.”

“N-now!?” Shadow sputtered.

“I will have you now.”

“N-yeh-nnghh…”

“NO!” Havocwing shouted. “SLAP HIM!”

Shadow did - with a Void-infused hoof to boot. He took it straight on, grabbing her miniscule hoof in his own. “You came all this way, Shadow…” He pinned her to a wall, smirking. “Your time has come.”

“H-help me…” Shadow wailed.

“I plan on it.”

He planted his lips on hers - and that did exactly what it needed to do.

Velvet burst out of the folded eldritch space she had occupied just moments before - her blood tendrils already dozens of times larger than they should have been, her eyes crazed with hunger.

“So much… so much… the terror of others, the terror of oneself, THE TERROR OF DISAPPOINTMENT!” She rushed forward in a blind ecstasy - all Silvertongue had to do was step aside and she tackled Shadow to the ground. Shadow didn’t even try to put up a fight, for she was already broken. “Y̨O͠U̡ D͢O̷N’͡T ĘV͞EN͞ KN̴O̕W! ͘WHA͡T̵ I͢S I̢T ̀YOU’́RE MOS̵T̵ AFR͡AI̧D ̡OF̕?̛ ͢T̶H͏ÀT͠ ̧YO͟U ̨A͟R̢E G͟ETTING̕ ̀WHAT́ ̵YOŲ WA̶N͡T̢? OR WH͡AT ͢Y̕O̡U ̕D̕ON͡’T WA̡NT? T̢HȨ DISA̕PPOINT̡MENT̶ O͢F̴ ̵YOUR͏ S̕ÌST͞ERS̢? TH̷E͝ ̨FE̛AR͞ ́YOU̷ CĄUS͞E͢D̴ ŢH̕E͞M̵?̢ F̶A̸ILUR͠E̕!́?̶ ̛O̵R…” She paused, grinning coyly through the eldritch madness surrounding her. “THE F̧E͢AR Y̶OU ͘A̶REN͡’T̨ AS ͟SM̸A̡R͡T AS ͠YOU TH͞I͝NK͠ Y̴ÓU̡ ARE?”

Silvertongue’s confident smirk vanished. That wasn’t one of Shadow’s fears anymore.

That was all he had time to think before the masses of bones and skin and blood surrounded him on all sides, plunging him into darkness.

“Hello, daddy. Little Red’s come home.”

He no longer needed to worry about not killing any of them - he had already failed to keep Velvet from feeding on the fear in the air and going after him. He tapped into the radiation essence, forcing as much power as he could out at once.

“You know what? I don’t think that matters. I’m just gonna say I’m… immune, yeah. What kind of monster would I be if I was defeated by simple radiation? I mean, really.”

“You are tapping into a power you do not understand…”

Velvet laughed, the sound cascading into Silvertongue from all sides. “I can use it. Even after all these years… you can’t! YOU CAN’T, SILVERTONGUE! THE T͉̯̚͟Ȯ̱͉̫̙̲̹͊W̖̘̘̱̹ͅE̻͈̠͇ͦ̀̽́R̻ͤͫ̂ͭͯ͆ IS BEYOND YOU AND ALWAYS WILL BE!”

“Attempting to scare me?” Silvertongue stood firm. “You never were the smartest.”

Velvet’s face poked out of the darkness, grinning. “I don’t care if you’re afraid or not. I care that you DIE.”

Tendrils shot toward Silvertongue from all sides, including angles that didn’t exist in standard spatial coordinates. Silvertongue combatted it directly with the spirits of Nihilia and Discord, twisting the tentacles of blood left and right, forward and back - twisting himself out of Velvet’s mass of destruction and back into the throne room proper.

Curaçao was standing right there. She jumped him. “MINE!”

Silvertongue abandoned trying to defend himself from the monstrosity that was Velvet and lashed out with a beam spell. It hit Curaçao in the side, flaying her flesh and charring most of it. She went flying, letting out an excruciating wail.

Her control over her power dissipated, revealing herself to be Insipid, not Curaçao. The mare he had thought was Insipid let out a pained grunt and revealed herself to actually be Curaçao.

Switched the entire time. Brilliant. Worthy of praise. “Excellent plo-”

Velvet’s eldritch spike drove into Silvertongue’s back, shattering his spine and grabbing hold of his soul.

“WE͞ A̶R̸E̷N’Ţ D̡ONE Y͟ET!”

They’ve finally managed to seriously injure me… Silvertongue laughed despite the immense pain. He focused on the nature of the Tree of Harmony within him, sending a feedback of purification through the Elements of Harmony at Velvet. She screeched in agony as the part of her darkness in him was burnt away.

“You’re so direct.” Silvertongue created a cascade of twisted radiation infused with bright purple magic, encasing Velvet from all sides. “Why not try something creative?”

“You want CREATIVE?”

“I would very much like to know the true extent of your powers before I have to end you.”

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE SMART! HA!” She twisted out of the magic cage through some mechanism he was unaware of, appearing on his back - hooves to his head. “But you’re going to let me do THIS!”

She tapped into his mind, flooding him with the worst nightmares she had ever seen or heard of from all the ponies she’d drained of fear - Equestria V, Equestria IV, her sisters, Silvertongue’s soldiers they’d fought on the way there…

He retaliated by grabbing her small mind. “And now I have you.”

“WHAT No oh no…” Velvet’s confidence and gusto went out like a candle as Silvertongue grabbed her spirit and began to crush it. It was surprisingly resilient, being made partially from a power he had never dealt with directly. He really would have liked to see what it could do, but that was too risky. He needed t-

He tore himself out of Velvet’s mind and raised a horn to defend against Curaçao jumping him.

No… no, that was Insipid. Only Insipid would put herself in danger just to touch someone like this.

The switch had been faked. The real Curaçao had maintained control of her powers even when bleeding out from his attack.

Beyond commendable.

But she would not touch him. He could create a soft barrier that would only allow a speck of his power through. She wouldn’t get all of it.

Starlight Shadow saw all of this was about to happen. She cast a spell - the one she learned from Brook and Sequin to talk with Insipid. She didn’t use it on Insipid, but rather Silvertongue. Specifically, a single essence within Silvertongue, that of Twilight Sparkle, essence of magic. It recognized the plea from another one of its selves and responded.

Silvertongue’s rejection of the mental spell was no longer automatic - it was still open from contact with Velvet and the Twilight Within wanted to connect to one of herself. It needed to go back.

This caused a fraction of a second delay before Silvertongue could raise the barrier.

That fraction of a second was all Insipid needed to physically touch him.

“Like, zis is MOINE!” She laughed, dropping the Curaçao disguise, suddenly brimming with light, darkness, radiation, magic, and a handful of other sources of power. “Gotcha!”

Silvertongue laughed. “So you did.”

She pointed her hoof, unleashing a torrent of all her power at once. Silvertongue met it with an identical beam of his own. Evenly matched. Insipid should not have been able to fire a laser with such precision accuracy and control so quickly after absorbing it, but she was Insipid. If she thought about the technicalities of what she was doing, she probably would falter.

“Insipid…” Silvertongue said. “Don’t you think tha-”

“NOPE! LALALALA!” Insipid put her hooves over her ears. “Curie told me to completely ignore you when we got to this point! You don’t exist! Nope! Nada! Now stop existing already!”

“Good work, Insipid,” Curaçao said, stumbling over to her - still heavily injured, but by sheer force of will she made her journey.

“Hey, what about good work Velvet? Or Shadow! She did great!” Velvet used some of her bloody tendrils to mend Curaçao’s wound - losing a significant amount of her fear power in the process.

“I… I did?” Shadow asked, confused. “The spell did nothing!”

“But it gave Insipid the half second she needed! You were the part of the plan we didn’t know we needed!”

Curaçao breathed a sigh of relief. “I am glad… I cannot take full credit anymore.”

“So I was literally just a loud distraction?” Havocwing asked, taking position behind Insipid. “Lame.”

“She played the cards she had well,” Grayscale said, flying opposite Havoc. “You did too, Silvertongue.”

Silvertongue grunted. “It came down to the last second…”

“But it’s over now,” Curaçao said. “Goodbye, Silvertongue.”

“Goodbye.”

“...Why aren’t you afraid?” Velvet asked. “I’ve felt almost none on you…”

“I have control of myself.”

Curaçao frowned. “...You are ‘iding somezing.”

“Yes,” Silvertongue admitted. “But do you really think you can get me to talk?”

“Non,” Curaçao conceded. “Finish it.”

The six of them acted as one - a set of imperfect, neutral Elements, as they had in the clearing near the Tree of Harmony what felt like an eternity ago. The extra power of the six of them coupled with Insipid’s stolen power.

The power of the Mean Six outclassed Silvertongue’s this time. He let out a shriek of pain as his skin boiled off. He focused all his energy on his horn, holding on as long as he could.

Weakening, he was aware of the presence of Shimmy focusing on him. She must have succeeded in her task with Shivershackles - and was there to add her own efforts to the flames.

Unnecessary. But good for her, he supposed.

His horn exploded.

And then he was aware of no more.

Author's Notes:

Hey, we just got featured on Equestria Daily! Celebrate!
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/07/fanfiction-league-of-sweetie-belles.html
For those of you who may be new, remember, you can suggest / upvote fic suggestions here:
((LSB Suggestion Post))
-GM, master of see it coming.

Imperfect (CRISIS: Equestria, Part 8)

“Okay…” Velvet said. “...He’s gone. We’re done. Good job team!”

“Can you… tone down the creepy echo fear-ness?” Insipid asked. “That’d be… nice.”

“Think I need it right now. It gets me closer to… the truth? Not sure.”

Shimmy’s Avatar appeared where Silvertongue had just been standing, tears running down her face. In her hands swirled two bundles of mist; one, larger, violet and aware, the other barely existent and a pale blueish green.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry... I’m here now... I’ll get you home.”

The violet essence wove up, brushing her cheek gently. It spun around the smaller bundle, encircling it protectively.

Shimmy nodded, pushing the essences into herself. “...They’re from my world,” she said. “Twilight and... I could recognize them, I managed to get them out before--”

“What about Nihila? And Harmonia!” Havocwing hovered into her face. “Why didn’t you--?!”

“I tried, but they--it was so large, everything was happening so fast--I promise, I’ll do what I can to save your worlds--”

“Enough,” Curaçao said, pushing Havocwing aside. “We must decide what to do now. Silvertongue had something more. He is dead, but not defeated.”

“What could he possibly do?” Insipid asked. “Like, he couldn't have planned for this!”

“He did,” Velvet said. “He knew… he knew he was the villain. He knew he had to be defeated. He may have fought it with everything he had, but he knew. He has to still be able to succeed, even in death.”

“How?” Shadow asked - still shaking from the entire encounter. Crying, though at that point nobody really had any idea what about, including herself.

Curaçao’s eyes widened. “What if… what if ‘e already knew ‘ow to use the Universe Generator?”

Shimmy shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense, why wouldn’t he activate it before we got here?”

“I do not know…” She ran to the back of Silvertongue’s throne. “But we must do somezing. Surely, the clues are here.”

Grayscale coughed. “There’s a secret passage behind the throne. Goes to the tip of the fissure, far as I can guess.”

Shimmy prepared to blow the throne to shreds - but Insipid did it for her. “Woohoo! This is so major fresh! Like, even you didn’t have this much fun in your power!”

“Please don’t send us into an interdimensional rift,” Grasycale deadpanned.

“I won’t! I won’t!”

They ran into the revealed tunnel. Curaçao waited behind, lifting one of Shadow’s hooves over her back. “I am so sorry I had to do zat to you…”

“I… I understand. I was… I was the fear.” Shadow smiled weakly. “We can’t waste time. Let’s find out what he did.”

~~~

Screwball felt Silvertongue’s soul vanish from the universe.

At last, the driving force has been removed. One final task, before freedom returns.

She moved to the source of all the fissures of madness, ground zero for the infection of the entire universe. Deep within the fissure laid the Shard of Madness, where none could physically reach it.

Aside from Screwball. She had wanted to remove it the moment she arrived, but that had been against Silvertongue’s wishes, and he’d left just enough of his power around the ground zero fissure to keep the Shard there.

Without him… everything was able to be freed.

She waved her hand one last time, and a being flowed into existence; a soft, velvet shadow.

“Little slumbrakar... you are to be my last and first gift to this world. These fissures will grow if unchecked, so it falls to you to consume them. The madness that is shall remain, but no new madness shall escape. Go now in silence... and do try to find the gentlest of friends.”

The shadow chrriloopahed warmly, nuzzling her cheek before expanding and fragmenting outward.

None could see - or really describe in physical terms - what the slumbrakar did to retrieve the Shard of Madness from the fissure, but it completed its mission nonetheless, fragmenting back into existence in much the same way it had left, bestowing the inconsistent shard back to its true master.

Screwball took it in her hands and petted the slumbrakar. He really had been a good boy and deserved it.

All that remained… was to leave the universe.

She yanked the Shard of Madness out, returning to the much more resilient Universe Generator realm. With a flash, all the branching fissures in the universe collapsed, leaving behind only stars and galaxies.

But one blemish remained - a single strand of madness that ran from ground zero all the way to a silver, spherical galaxy.

Had Screwball been in the same timeframe as the universe, she might have been able to do something. But all the galaxy needed was an hour to activate. That was almost nothing to the Universe Generator’s time.

Silvertongue’s galaxy lit up like a christmas tree, shining as a single star. Brilliant, silver energy coursed up the final fissure, shooting out of the universe, taking all the madness with it.

The Universe Generator detected the universe was back to normal, restarting normal operations on its creation. It only needed a few tweaks here and there before it was ready to be shipped out.

The silver energy impacted the cone-shaped construct at the same instant Shimmy teleported everyone out of the universe - Curaçao’s sisters, the Sweeties, Blackburn, the Crown Princess, Crackling Leaves, Shivershackles, and all of her essence. Cinder was holding her own tail for some reason. “Wha…?”

Shimmy clapped her hands. “Okay, I do not want to suddenly gain a million years a-” She stared at the silver energy coursing up the cone construct. “Geez… he really got it, didn’t he?”

The cone ordered all the other constructs to abandon the other universe for now. They had better things to work on. The Universe Generator created another spark of cosmic existence next to the world everyone had just left. Even though the orbs appeared the same size, this new universe took the form of a celestial sphere - just one planet, one moon, one sun, and a dotting of tiny stars. The edges of the space had a pristine white sheen to them.

The years flew by before their eyes. The planet became green, filled with oceans, and brimmed with life. And then… it stopped.

The Universe Generator ceased work. Time within both universes were forced to match the flow of time everyone was experiencing. There would be no more time dilation.

“...He did it…” Cinder breathed. “He… he made his world.”

“He cared more about it than he cared for himself,” Blackburn observed. “...Disgustingly respectable.”

Suzie frowned. “...Let’s pay it a visit.”

Shimmy didn’t wait for anyone else to offer an opinion. She lowered them all to the universe and descended into it, finding it pathetically easy to move across this small universe without any effort. They passed the sun and landed on a large, grassy hill overlooking a simple town. It wasn’t Ponyville, but the aesthetic was similar to the town so many of the explorers knew.

“...A perfect world…” the Crown Princess said, frowning. “Let’s see how he messed this one up.”

The large group walked into town. It was inhabited entirely by ponies - all of whom had both horns and wings but none of which were full alicorns with immense power. They were… normal.

A bit like Sweetaloo, Cinder thought.

The ponies were certainly surprised to see them, and definitely curious. But none of them were concerned or afraid. None of them even seemed to be cautious. They waved at the visitors as they walked in, smiles on their faces.

Cinder found herself disturbed that the smiles looked completely legitimate. No ‘WELCOME!’ forced grins here. Just ponies who were glad to see them.

“Welcome, travelers!”

“I’ve made stew, do you want any?”

“Do you need a place to rest?

“The children are preparing a game for this evening, if you’re interested!”

“Too happy,” Blackburn grunted. “Way too happy.”

A red mare looked at her with the same smile all of them wore. “We are always happy.”

“Do you even know what sad is?”

The mare cocked her head - smile still present. “I… have not heard the word, but I assume it means the opposite of happy? Such a thing does not exist here.”

Cinder looked at her. “...You don’t have loss?”

“Loss? We… occasionally misplace things, but there are always replacements.”

“What do you do all day?”

“Enjoy the world that has been created for us.” Her smile didn’t widen, even though Cinder felt as though she should have gotten happier while saying that. “Enjoy the fruit, enjoy each other, enjoy… Just enjoy. That is all there is. Do you do things other than enjoy where you are from?”

“Yes,” Curaçao said. “We work, we struggle, we tell stories… We do so much more.”

“That sounds interesting! I’d like to hear about that!”

“No, you don’t,” a very familiar voice said, starting everyone.

“Oh.” The red mare shrugged, her smile remaining on her face. “Guess I was wrong! I don’t really want to know. See you!” She trotted away.

Most of them were ignoring her at the moment - they were staring at the small, silver alicorn in front of them, smirking with a malevolence none of the other ponies in this world had.

No… Cinder thought. Not malevolence… pride. That’s pride on his face.

“H-how!?” Sequin stammered. “You were gone! You were dead!”

Screwball stared at him like he was a ghost. She glanced at her Shard of Madness as if accusing it.

“I am dead, in a way,” Silvertongue said, ruffling his wings. “Specifically, the Silvertongue that was born on Equestria V is dead. But, in his death, he ordered the creation of a world - a world where he was made anew, with everything the original’s mind had.” He smirked in Crackling Leaves’ direction. “It was remarkably easy to create a god after all was said and done.”

“This situation is no longer relevant to my interests,” Crackling informed him. “Do not bother trying to engage me.”

“Such a shame, you were the most interesting to speak with of everyone here…” Silvertongue shook his head. “No matter.”

Shimmy grabbed him by the neck. “You… you…”

“What are you going to do to me?” Silvertongue asked. “Start another war of gods? Over a planet?”

“Take you in… subject you to the legal system…”

“My dear, I don’t think you understand precisely how much control I have over this world - or precisely how integral I am to its function. Would you condemn this world to instability all for the sake of your perverted ideal of justice?”

Shimmy twitched.

“These ponies, ‘simple’ as you may think they are, have full souls, likes, desires - but only pure ones.”

“You’ve robbed them of what it means to be,” Suzie said. “...We call it the human experience where I’m from.”

“And that experience is abhorrent,” Silvertongue said, flatly.

“He is as trapped in his vision as I am in mine,” Screwball observed quietly. “Our words will not reach him. He does not exist.”

“I can’t agree more,” Curaçao said, taking a step forward. Cinder stood to her side - unsure of what Curaçao planned to do. “Words mean nozing to him.”

“Words are full of meaning,” Silvertongue countered. “Screwball is right, but Screwball is wrong.”

“You know the moves, but you do not understand them,” Crackling pointed out. “You dance beautifully, but blindly.”

“Whatever happened to not trying to engage?” Silvertongue asked.

“I told you not to engage me. I am free to make my own observations.”

“Insulting, but ultimately irrelevant,” Silvertongue smirked.

The Crown Princess twitched. “Is everything irrelevant to you?”

“Now that I have what I want? Why shouldn’t that be so? I will live here and enjoy.”

“I wondered if you lied to yourself,” Curaçao said.

“Hmm?”

“You cannot be satisfied. You will go for… ze Tower, given time.”

Silvertongue considered this. “I am uncertain.”

“Uncertain? You?” Havocwing shouted.

“The lovely thing about this world is that certainty is not required. It just… is.”

“The ponies are just extensions of you, aren't they?” Cinder asked. “If they deviate… you correct them. You have to regulate your perfection. Doesn’t that seem… like a hassle?”

“It is no hassle to devote myself to such a task. I am this world, in a way. I shall guard it, protect it, and lead it forward.”

“We cannot allow zis,” Curaçao said, flatly. “Zese ponies… zey are still ponies.”

“They shouldn’t have to be you,” Cinder added.

Silvertongue’s smile faltered. He focused on Curaçao. “What did you do?”

Curaçao smirked. “Ah, ‘ow ze tables ‘ave turned.”

“You tell him Curie!” Insipid whooped.

“Yeah! Dangle it in front of him!” Velvet laughed.

Silvertongue approached Curaçao. In his current form, he was no longer taller than she was, so their gaze was even. “Your plan really did defeat me, Curaçao. I truly wished to survive, no matter how much the story may have conspired against me.”

“I do not accept your praise,” Curaçao spat.

Silvertongue ignored this. “And now I see that you did something else? After your victory, there was more - just as after my defeat, there was this world. A dualism exists between us. Tell me, what did you do?”

“We found your laboratory.”

“You could not have changed anything fast enough before it self-destructed.”

“We could not ‘ave… if we wanted to stop it,” Curaçao admitted. “But it was easy enough to see what you wanted to do. Recreation is a simple solution, non?”

“Ah. You were rather silent at the start of this conversation. I misjudged the reason. Still, deducing my plan and finding the lab? You could not ha-” he glanced at Insipid and then at Curaçao. “Hmmm… copy my magic signature and pretend to be me. You could have bypassed the security with that new mental spell of Shadow’s, using Insipid’s powers with your mind. But that would only allow for a small change, insignificant.”

“We unchecked a single box,” Curaçao smirked. “Ze ‘ponies are dependant on Silvertongue to live’ box.”

Silvertongue stared at her blankly.

“So zere is no danger in… killing you, whatsoever. And as you ‘ave no doubt noticed, Insipid ‘as your power for now, and Shimmy is…”

Shimmy’s eyes were on fire.

“Goodbye again, Silvertongue,” Curaçao waved.

“EAT SHIT!” Havocwing shouted. “We GOT YOU!”

Velvet giggled. “Oh, would you look at that? I feel some fear coming off him.”

“I’m gonna, like, enjoy this so much more than the last time,” Insipid giggled.

Grayscale smirked. “Hey, at least your world gets to stick around. And immediately get corrupted by us not-perfect ponies. Oh woe is you.”

Silvertongue looked to Shadow.

“Good. Riddance,” Shadow spat.

Silvertongue… couldn’t decide what his response should be. He tried to laugh for a moment, ended up sighing. There was a hint that he might cry for a moment, but then his face was home to a brilliant grin.

In the end, he just shrugged. “C’est la vie… It seems I was too imperfect for this world.”

He didn’t even fight back.

~~~

Seren turned to Xenium. “Got it.”

Xenium perked up. “Bring Cinder back.”

“Already doing it.”

Equestria IV Twilight and her friends were engulfed in light, a hexagon of cloudy rope appearing above their heads. Seren rotated the hexagon as quickly as she could, attaching to the connection of the other six in the Universe Generator.

A portal ripped open into a black, seemingly endless world with numerous moving parts. There was a single orange universe being built in the center that was quickly sent out and replaced with a bluish spark.

Shimmy and the rest of those who had been lost on the other side were already there.

“Told you Silvertongue had the way back!” Insipid called. “Woop, I got us back! Go Insipid, go Insipid.”

“Hate to burst your bubble, but they did that,” Grayscale said, pointing at Seren.

“Get through before this portal breaks!” Seren grunted. “This is not an easy connection to maintain! You’re seven jumps away!”

Shimmy teleported everyone across - a few of whom were surprised by the sudden existence of gravity.

“CINDER!” Xenium shouted.

“RARITY!” Cinder called, rushing into her sister’s hooves. “You weren't worried, were you?”

“Of course I was! You were lost, nopony could find you, and reality was falling apart!”

Discord coughed in Shimmy’s direction. “You’re welcome by the way.”

Shimmy rolled her eyes. “Let’s just say I’m glad to be back. Where’s Twilight’s body?”

“Uh, body?” Discord frowned. “Oh, right, she was unconscious when you left. Uh… She’s actually up right now, ate a mana bar. Not exactly… normal for her, but…”

“Right, I’m just going to assume it’s running on automatic and figure out what that means later. If you’ll point me at her--”

“Two piles of rubble over with the rest of your friends,” interjected a new voice.

"Chrysalis." Shimmy rolled her eyes. "I see you somehow got naked again."

"Yeah, your evil counterpart railed me with tentacles while we were busy clawing at each other. She was screaming quite passionately during the whole thing."

"Sweet Celestia, why did you phrase it like that?!" Cinder cried. "I mean if you don't want to be called an orgy club why do you say stuff like that all the time?!"

"Because the kind of people who think the Wholesome is an orgy club are never going to be convinced otherwise." Chrysalis smirked. "Plus your reactions are hilarious."

Suzie’s eyes widened. “Ah… you’re one of those people.”

“There’s a lot of ‘those’s’. What kind of those do you mean? I want to know how offended I should be. Also, who are you?”

“Suzie. League of Sweetie Belles founder, Earth Vitis.” She pulled Cinder close. “Cinder’s Captain. You are Chrysalis, Earth Shimmer, and as much as I loathe hearing about exceptional sexual deviants who give humanity a bad name, I have heard about you.” She folded her arms.

Blink facehooved. “Oh, great, here we go...”

“I’m going to assume you’re ‘monogamy or the highway’,” Chrysalis deadpanned, crossing her own arms. “And for the record, I fully support monogamy.”

“But you also support polygamy and free love and--”

“Safe, Sane, Consensual, and Fun. Those are the rules.” Chrysalis tilted her head. “Well, for human sex. I know some species are explosive breeders in more ways than one--”

“Look, you have the right to do whatever you want, I am not going to stop you and I am not going to hate you. I have a lot more… issue with your fillipancy and broadcasting of it. Humans already have a reputation as crazed sex maniacs! I…” She took a breath. “Look, I’m sorry. You have rights, and you have earned them, and you deserve to have them. I don’t have to like it.”

“Ooooookay, this sounds like a fascinating debate that I don’t need to be here for,” Cinder interjected.

Chrysalis sighed, pinching her brow. “You know what, this talk shouldn’t be happening right now. I’m stressed because I just fought an evil version of Sunset, you’re stressed from whatever happened over there, and there’s clearly context we’re both missing. And I’m standing naked in interdimensional rubble! That is actually a little bit distracting.”

A black-and-green man finally handed Chrysalis a robe, much to Rachel's relief. That relief faded after Chrysalis donned the silky cloth and tied the belt loosely around her waist.

"How does she look more alluring now?! She was naked before!"

"Ex-pornstar," the man explained. "Something about how she moves..."

Suzie twitched at the explanation, having to exert serious effort to restrain herself.

Celia trotted over to her and patted her back. “It’s okay, it’s okay, the sexy lady isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

Suzie grumbled something about corruption of the youth. Then she sighed. “You’re right.” She turned to Chrysalis and extended a hand. “We’re just different walks of life. We don’t have to agree.”

Chrysalis took the hand and shook it. “That’s true.” She smirked slyly. “But I’m not just about sex you know.”

“...I have worked with many changeling hives themed around ‘sex’ in hundreds of universes, I know the general spiel. Lots of jokes about filling holes and a nice spy network.”

“And here I thought joining the multiversal community could only improve my reputation.” Chrysalis shrugged. “Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to live with heroically toppling tyrants thanks to the help of my children and my own cunning brilliance.”

“Too bad you missed the best tyrant toppling ever!” Havocwing shouted. “SIlvertongue got DUNKED ON!”

“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Oh, tell me it was awesome!”

“It was so awesome… TWICE!”

“Twice? You can’t topple a bad guy twice!”

“Oh, mate,” Mattie deadpanned, “never go into politics.”

“You totally can, Dashie,” Pinkie giggled.

“It’s like exploding twice!” Velvet added.

“Yeah!” Pinkie cheered.

“Wait, I don’t think we actually did that yet.”

“Let’s find out if we can!”

“I’m in!”

The Everykid jumped in as well, giving everyone a finger guns gesture.

“Is that everyone?” Grayscale asked.

“Not even close,” Applejack chuckled.

Curaçao looked at her sisters meeting their counterparts happily - and smiled.

"You are an interesting one, from what I have been told."

Curaçao glanced up at the woman approaching. Icy blue skin with white hair, ears and hands different from the other humans... in fact her whole body, her entire gait, seemed strange. It was the golden eyes that caught her attention, though, eyes that seemed... not piercing, exactly, but definitely able to see a touch beyond the physical. "And... who might you be, mademoiselle?"

"I am called Winter Lights by many, and beloved by one called Indigo Zap." The woman sat down next to her. "And you are called Curaçao, an interesting word indeed."

"It is ze name granted to me by..." Curaçao frowned. "...by ze one who created me."

"Ah. Names are the beginning of identity... so it makes sense that your identity is as confused as the word." Winter leaned back. "Curaçao, the island that provides the liquor of the same name. Yet the word itself is a derivative mixture of other words; healing, heart, or perhaps the name of the natives of the isle overrun long ago. That you were granted a name in a tongue different than your fellows... Silvertongue suspected, even back then, and did everything he could to sabotage your confidence."

"Suspected?"

"That lies and truth were the same. That one could become the other."

Curaçao frowned. "That does not make sense."

"Because you live by definition, which is not a wrong way to live, but does blind you to what is not." Winter pondered for a moment. "Perhaps a fable. There was once a race who existed, who sought out understanding, and discovered that reality was cold and uncaring and unforgiving and chaotic. That rhyme and reason were mere excuses by minds which had cropped up by chance, that nothing mattered or ever would. They could not accept that, and so they lied to themselves."

"Truly?"

"Ah, yes, they claimed they could make rhyme and reason. That they could take reality and pour into it something with meaning, that stories were not mere happenstance but examples. Impossible, but they repeated it to themselves and each other, and devoted their entire existence to the idea of fate and character. And in the end, they succeeded gloriously; they created a Dark Tower that, to this day, weaves the ebb and flow of tales together across a multitude of universes beyond comprehension. They rejected truth to believe in a lie, and so the lie became true."

"But zat is not ze same!" Curaçao protested. "Zat is... zat is hope, faith, giving zem a reason to--"

"Hope is a lie," Winter replied coolly. "It never comes to those who are sated, who live in light, who have no needs; it comes to the desperate, those drenched in shadow, and tells them the void will not consume them. Did you truly know you could defeat Silvertongue, despite his centuries of planning and literally deific power? Did you know for a fact that you could save your worlds? Or did you merely believe? Your hope was a lie."

"But... but we 'ave defeated 'im."

"And so, the lie becomes truth." Winter smiled gently. "And the truth, that your worlds are dependent on your gods and the Chronomancers, is now a lie. Definition changes, because of hope, because of the lie that wants to be true."

Curaçao frowned, looking at the ground. "I... zink I can see what you are saying, yes... but zat still feels manipulative to me. Manipulation must be… balanced."

"And what is wrong with manipulation?" The woman gestured broadly. "Livestock are manipulated, given healthy lives in return for their eggs or wool or, yes, meat. Children are manipulated, rewarded for kindness or generosity or loyalty. Societies are manipulated, pressured to give justice or progress or freedom. And all would be lesser, suffer more, were they not tweaked in such manner."

"But Silvertongue, 'e--"

"He did not concern himself with your future," Winter explained. "He made you dance to his tune, without dancing with you. And when you were no longer useful, he turned away. You are worried that you will become him, if you continue to use your companions, but where he saw them as tools, you see them and yourself as cogs. Silvertongue used you, but did not let you use him. You use your companions, and allow them to make use of you. That is the distinction."

She lifted the pony's chin gently. "Lie, deceive, manipulate, those are your talents. And with them you can give your companions hope, and with hope you can make the impossible a certainty."

Curaçao scowled, knocking her hand away. "Your love for zis Indigo, is zat also a lie?"

Winter took a slow breath. "...one can delude oneself as well. And as I said, what was a lie can... become true." She looked over to a woman with spiky blue hair, hovering over a small group of medics,, and her smile showed a rare genuine curve. "It is best to remember never to have power over others unless they too have power over you."

Curaçao glanced at Indigo for a moment, before turning back and looking over Winter. "...Your words are... interesting, mademoiselle."

"As ever I strive for them to be." Winter Lights stood. "I believe you have enough for your revelation."

“Wait, I thought Curie was already okay with herself again?” Insipid said, jumping in.

“One does not turn on a lightswitch in their mind,” Winter said. “...Usually.”

“And ‘alf ze zings Winter said…” Curaçao rolled a hoof.

Winter did not seem to mind this.

~~~

Shimmy had returned the essence to Twilight without much issue. After a reunion of kissing, tears, hugs, and quick summaries of how things happened… Shimmy focused her attention on one sealed angel currently being detained by some police and excess League Sweeties.

Shimmy wrapped Arul in her magic, her eyes cold. "I have something you need to see."
She produced the greenish aura, barely kept together.

"Do you feel it?" she demanded quietly. "The pain? The despair? The self-loathing? This girl was a lot like Shivershackles, the only difference being she was able to know right and wrong, able to understand that what she suffered was evil. She was a victim. A victim that Silvertongue used. A victim he would not have been able to reach without your help."

"I--"

"You," Shimmy said flatly, "are responsible for the death of the innocent. For the murder of the helpless. For robbing this girl of the best chance she had for a normal, happy life. Because you let your faith blind you. Can you look me in the eyes, and tell me this was good?"

The angel stared into the cyan rings, and found not outraged wrath, but righteous fury. She said nothing. She could say nothing.

"...You, who have brought an end to what could have been a bastion of hope, are at my mercy." Shimmy shut her eyes. "Sunset's mercy... a name given to that warehouse... You were tricked by Silvertongue, I can understand that. Nevertheless, you supported him even while seeing his manipulations of others. You were part of the plan... willingly. Crackling Leaves' crimes amount to spying and sabotage, and Diamond Inferno played god without understanding the risks. You, of all the conspirators, came from the highest place morally, and yet facilitated the greatest crime the conspiracy would commit after your joining."

She opened her eyes, and looked at the angel, who simply bowed her head in shame.
"...Yet ...I too was once a monster." Sunset looked at the aura held within her grasp. "For far more foolish reasons than yours. I never committed crimes so grand, but I would be hypocritical to say they could not be redeemed. Lend me your power, Arul."

The angel looked up, shock clear on her face.

"This is her soul," Sunset explained quietly. "Torn from her body in those last moments, used as a meager source of power... her first life was harsh and unfair, but with your power you may restore her body, allow her a childhood, see what she might have been without her suffering."

"If... without my power, I... I will vanish."

"Ordinarily, yes. But this world is far from ordinary." Shimmy's smile was calm, not quite warm and not quite cold. "I will keep your essence together and form flesh for it. You would be made mortal. Human. That will be my punishment, as goddess of this reality. And my task to you will be to see if you can undo what you have done in the slightest... if you can raise the girl to a life she would find enjoyable."

Her smile vanished. "Fail in that, and I will not be so forgiving."

Arul shut her eyes, quietly contemplating. "...there will be others who are upset."

"This is my world. If they think to violate the sanctity of my decisions, they will find themselves elsewhere."

"...The chance to bring peace to a soul so tormented... I suppose it must be fair." Arul opened her eyes. "If my God comes--"

"Then I will discuss matters with him."

"...Very well." Arul took a breath and held out her hands. "I subject myself to your mercy, great one."

Shimmy nodded, turning to the officers and Sweeties. “I’ll be taking her myself.”

“Less paperwork for us,” a Sweetie kirin said. “Good luck.”

Shimmy nodded, carrying Arul at her side. She split herself in two - one carrying Arul away, the other remaining to deal with the rubble.

“I saw the essence,” Blackburn said. “You have no more. Why?”

"I was only able to get Twilight and the girl's magical essences before Silvertongue died and they fully dissipated, because I had a connection to them. If more of me had been sent along, or if the other magical signals were an order of magnitude smaller--"

Blackburn sighed. "Nilhila and Harmonia. Discord and Harmony. Foundational aspects of my universe and that of Equestria IV... without them, we are doomed to oblivion."

"Not immediately," Suzie assured her. "As soon as I get this to the Overheads--"

"The Chronomancers are considered another Multiversal society," Celia pointed out. "If we move too obviously we'll have a war on our hooves."

"Are you suggesting we let them just--?"

"No! I'm just pointing out that some of the Overheads might want to avoid--"

"Can you show me the coordinates?" Shimmy asked. "Maybe I can open some portals and get the people out if I'm fast enough--"

Suzie handed her a pad. "Equestria V, Equestria IV. The others on that list aren't in danger, but they are Chronomancer worlds--"

"Who are the Chronomancers?"

The four of them looked up to see Indigo Zap, hovering just above them.

"They are the group that claims to rule over my world," Blackburn stated. "When we found our reality was about to fall into the void, we sought them out and petitioned them. They refused to assist, and furthermore refused the help of the Merodi."

Indigo's face contorted into a sneer. "What, did they not care that their citizens were in danger?"

"The Chronomancers are very secretive," Celia explained. "The majority of the universes they watch are unaware of them... they're really only concerned with preserving what they think of as Equestria Prime, and the other worlds are just splinters of that."

"Celia!" Suzie hissed.

"Right." Indigo crossed her arms, flying over to Winter Lights.

"And now she's getting the elf involved." Suzie sighed. "This is going to be interesting..."

“At least it’s not the ‘sexiest bitch in the universe’,” Mattie ribbed.

Suzie facepalmed. “You’re part of the problem too, you know.”

“I know!” Mattie giggled.

Indigo returned with Winter. She eyed Blackburn thoughtfully.

"I have heard that your world is in peril of oblivion."

"It is." Blackburn nodded to the six ponies still looking around in bewilderment at all the stuff around them. "As well as theirs."

"And... it is from your world that Silvertongue hailed?"

"Yes."

Winter Lights brought her fingers together, breathing for a moment. "Pet... you are certain?"

"It's something we can do, mistress. Something only we can do." Indigo paused, moving beside Shimmy. "I... almost destroyed a world once, myself. I don't... if I can prevent this--"

"I understand. You are... ever my guide in these matters." She tilted her head, gazing at the pony. "Tell me, stranger, what is more important: your lands, or your people?"

Blackburn examined her warily. "...All the peoples who reside in the doomed worlds are the most valuable. The rest I would like to retain, but it can be regained elsewhere."

"An excellently worded response. You will do well." Winter looked Blackburn in the eye. "This will be delicate. Do not speak until we are done."

"Winter," Suzie growled, "what are you--?"

The woman twirled and rose her hand. "Lavquetta cenuva sinen Tavari! Lavquetta cenuva sinen Nermil! Lavquetta cenuva sinen Orossi! Lavquetta cenuva sinen Nandin! Quetnya cimquantaemma!"

All conversation froze, as her hand lowered to Blackburn. "The one who brought such tragedy, who used us all, hails from the realm where this one resides--had its powers and the realm of these six! To those worlds fall the blame of his existence, yet their guardians did nothing to prevent his rising, his exploitation of the Fay to force fate to his will! Such apathy deserves retribution!"

"And retribution it shall have," Crackling Leaves declared. "The Fall Court claims the lands abandoned. Let none wrench them from us! Quetnya cimquantaemma!" Before anybody could reply, she vanished in a puff of logic.

"Winter!" Suzie snapped. "That doesn't--"

"You mortals," Winter sneered, "are all so focused on what has happened that you cannot see what will happen. Taking the lands will be easy, do not doubt it. And weaving it into the Fae will require merely time and focus. I would suggest you consider your plans very carefully." With a snap of her fingers, she spun and strode away, Indigo quick on her heels.

Rainbow Dash, Havocwing, and Grayscale tried to dart after them, but grips of magic and hands held them all back. Rainbow glanced back, shocked to find a Rarity--she couldn't tell which one--being the one holding her. "Hey! Let me go, we have to go after--"

"Wait until she leaves, mate." Mattie's voice was low. "We'll explain everything then."

Winter and Indigo stepped out of sight.

"....aaaaand we're safe." Mattie released Rainbow. "Okay, now she can pretend she doesn't know what we're planning."

"What?!"

"Exact words," Blackburn mused. "Fay claim worlds--no, Fay claim lands. They are not part of Merodi."

"No," Suzie sighed. "Which means..." She blinked. "...that... we're not responsible for their actions. The Chronomancers can't go to war with us over this, they acted on their own."

"Offended third party takes worlds, preventing conflict with Merodi," Blackburn continued. "Fay claim lands specifically. Focus on lands. People are ignored. Rescue of people will only be stopped if it interferes with claiming of lands."

"And by pure happenstance," Shimmy finished, "Fae Époque happens to be nextdoor to my universe, so it would be very easy to grab as many people as quickly as we can. Getting them settled in might be difficult, but I assume the Merodi are equipped for this?"

"Yes," Suzie said. "Yes, yes we are! I've got to get to the Overheads now!"

Fluttershy watched her rush off. "So... wait. That weird pointy-eared human did us a favor?"

"Yep," Mattie confirmed.

"Then... why didn't she just say she was doing us a favor?"

"Because she's Fay," Chrysalis explained. "Or was Fay, anyway. They really like dancing with their words."

Applejack groaned, pulling her hat down. "Ah need somethin' fer mah headache..."

“How are we going to explain all this to Celestia?!” Twilight asked. “I mean, she still thinks the Merodi are evil, and now--”

“You do have that mental spell that shows everything you experienced,” Shadow pointed out.

“I don’t have Magic in me anymore! I’m siphoning off you!”

Shadow smirked. “...Oh, I see. My, how the tables have turned…”

“...Starlight...”

“I’ll execute the spell, refrain from panicking,” Shadow chuckled. “I’m just… savoring this.”

Twilight twitched.

“We may wish to hurry though. No telling how rapidly this might occur.”

From out of nowhere, Celia made a “wahaha!” noise. She quickly pulled out her phone. “I am going to add to this political confusion.”

“Celia…” Suzie warned.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m only giving someone a suggestion…”

~~~

Xenium stroked Cinder’s mane.

“So, you decided to keep the name Xenium then?”

Xenium chuckled. “Well, that’s how I introduced myself so… I guess so.”

“It’s a good name. Sounds cool.”

“Thank you,” Xenium said, tossing her mane back. “...You doing okay? You’ve just been through… a lot more than usual.”

“I don’t think I’m normal.”

“You do go on about being the hero of the story, you are special.”

“I don’t think I was the protagonist this time.” She glanced over to Curaçao who was busy talking with Blackburn. Definitely plotting something. “But… there’s something else.”

“What is it?”

“When we were making the final plan, two of us were responsible for most of it. Curaçao. And… me.” Cinder looked up at Xenium. “I’m starting to think this ‘guessing what’s going to happen’ isn’t a normal skill. That it had to come from somewhere, or something.”

“Pinkies are Aware, right? They don’t usually have much of an explanation for it. I asked our Pinkie last week, she just shrugged and said ‘bananastan’.”

Cinder giggled. “Sounds like her.”

“So maybe it has an explanation and maybe it doesn’t. If you think I have the answers…” She chuckled. “You will be sorely disappointed.”

“Heh.” Cinder hugged her sister. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for coming back alive and proving that you are quite the little hero.”

“Following in my big sister’s hoofsteps!”

“I suppose you are, in a way. Except doing it bigger and better.”

“MY NEMESIS!” Cryo shouted from another pile of rubble. “I-”

“Cryo, do you mind?” Cinder said. “Having a moment.”

“...Oh.” Cryo frowned. “Uh… I just wanted to say congratulations on your victory and I’ll be sure to get one of my own soon and I have a team now kthanksbye.” She darted away.

Mattie sighed. “She has no sense of when to be quiet.”

“Neither do you,” Curio laughed.

Mattie chuckled. “True.” She and Curio followed after Cryo.

Cinder sighed. “Moment’s gone, huh?”

“We can have as many moments as we want.” Xenium nuzzled Cinder. “Although… I do think you’ll want to answer the next visitor.”

“Huh?” Cinder glanced over her back to see the Crown Princess sitting in front of her, a frown on her face.

“...I’m here to say goodbye, again,” the Crown Princess said. “They’re letting me go.”

“Where will you go?”

“I… have friends. They only saw me a few days ago.” She frowned. “It… It’ll be different. Crackling Leaves and Shimmy… they were able to keep themselves as they wanted. I’m…” She bit her lip. “It’s been so long. I’m not sure how I’ll fit back in.”

“No more Capric Empire, though.”

“That’s not really a good thing for you,” she pointed out. “Means I can focus more on you Merodi and your… helping.”

“You still have a grudge about that?” Cinder frowned.

The Crown Princess shrugged. “It’s what I’ve built everything on at this point. My pirates don’t want me, and to be frank I was getting… tired of that. I’ll go back and be what they want me to be.” She chuckled bitterly. “Guess I’ll actually be loyal now. Isn’t that interesting?”

“You can stay here,” Cinder offered. “We aren’t that bad.”

The Crown Princess considered this. “...No. I have my way. You have yours.” She turned away. “...I won’t insult you by asking you to come with me.” She opened a portal and hopped through.

“...I can see why you’re conflicted about her,” Xenium admitted. “She’s confused herself.”

“I think she’s going to be with us for a while,” Cinder said. “...Hard as Cryo tries, I think the Crown Princess is the actual nemesis.”

Xenium frowned, not sure what to say to comfort her sister.

~~~

“Magister!” Chronomancer Sub-trainer Spring Bit shouted, running into his office.

“This better be important…”

“Equestria V and IV are gone!”

“That was… fast for a Void consumption. But not unprecedented.”

“No, I mean…” she struggled to find the words. “Okay, the space still exists, but the planets are gone. Like… gone.”

“Destroyed?”

“There’s no rubble. Just… nothing. Like it was stolen or something.”

The Magister narrowed his eyes. “The Merodi didn’t listen… they will learn to regret this mistake. Go, garner damage control, a-”

“Magister!” Chronomancer Sub-trainer Bit Spring shouted, running into Spring Bit.

“What is it now?”

“We… we just received a transmission from outside our… universes!”

The Magister frowned. “What do the Merodi have to say to explain themselves?”

“It’s… It’s not the Merodi. It’s the…” She collected herself. “Time Space Administration Bureau. They apparently decided to just move the planets after hearing about them. They’re willing to compensate us.”

“...Compensate us how?”

“...Wasn’t specified.”

The Magister groaned. “Fine, send a message to this… TSAB an-”

“MAGISTER!” Bell Tower shouted in a panic.

“WHAT!?”

“Tick Tock is missing!”

“...What.”

~~~

Hope’s Point had a new home.

The crater of Everfree City, site of the battle that had ended the eternal day some weeks ago.

Daylight Sparkle stared in awe at the shielded city standing where a smoldering, glassy crater had been yesterday. “How did… when… what?”

Queen Blackburn smirked. “Very carefully.”

“That doesn’t answer my question! You don’t just… move a city!”

“It’s even more complicated when Fay are involved,” Blackburn added nonchalantly. “Couldn’t take any of the land.”

Daylight shook her head. “I barely even know what the Fay are, that’s not an explanation!”

“Hey,” Tick Tock said, laying a hoof on Daylight. “Might wanna calm down, Blackburn’s explanations can be… abrasive.”

“True. Bit insulting. Do not mind.” Blackburn turned to Daylight. “Thank you for allowing us use of your land.”

“I… You’re welcome, but…” Daylight groaned. “I’m just going to go ask Cinder…”

“You do that,” Tick Tock said, dusting off her hooves. The Queen and the ex-Chronomancer stood before the bustling city of Hope’s Point.

“I need an ocean,” Blackburn said. “Not complete without an ocean.”

“A few days ago I’d say you were bloody mad to ask for an ocean,” Tick Tock laughed.

“The multiverse is ‘bloody mad’ then.”

Tick Tock snorted.

“You are a deserter. What will you do now?”

“Blunt.” Tick Tock rolled her eyes. “Probably sign up with that Overhead Renee. Probably has some time work for me.”

Blackburn nodded. “Wise. Shadow and her sisters are staying with them as well.”

“They are?”

“Sent in the official paperwork this morning. Are now celebrating. In my suite. Without my permission.”

Tick Tick raised an eyebrow. “You’re not kicking them out?”

“I plan on crashing the party.”

“When?”

“When do you think would be a good time, once Chronomancer?”

“...Now.”

Blackburn lifted a hoof, presenting a shiny bracelet. She pressed a button on it and the two of them were teleported right to the party - Twilight and her friends, Shadow and her sisters, Flathoof, and Lockwood.

“You made it!” Fluttershy said, grinning.

“Told you zey would be ‘ere,” Curaçao said.

Blackburn furrowed her brow. “Disappointing.”

Tick Tock shrugged, walking to the table of punch. “You take what you can, Queenie. Whaddoyagot?”

Velvet giggled. “Blood…”

“...oranges!” Pinkie finished.

“Torn to violent shreds…”

“...and pureed into a nice, beautiful punch!” She handed Tick Tock a glass. “Here you go!”

“Thanks.”

Blackburn turned her attention elsewhere - which was to say to the entire room. She noticed with satisfaction that the romantic tensions that formed during Silvertongue’s whole… ordeal had been resolved. Applejack and Flathoof were sitting to the side, talking about things Blackburn was courteous enough not to eavesdrop on. Fluttershy was actually able to hold a normal conversation with Lockwood without giving him or Blackburn the death glare. Zircon and Rarity were commiserating over their new memetic status on the Merodi’s internet--or rather, Zircon’s memetic status as ‘the one who wooed the wrong Rarity.’

The six sisters…

Blackburn had mixed feelings about allowing them in her city as guests. They were heroes, yes, but they had also stormed through the city and killed several of her soldiers in the process. They had proven themselves, and Blackburn had already told herself she would respect them from here on out.

It was not the easiest thing to do. She did it anyway. She was the Queen. She moved an entire city out from under the Fay’s noses! Compared to that, letting sleeping dogs lie should have been a cakewalk.

She glanced over at Curaçao and Havocwing.

“They gave you the Captain rank...” Havocwing grumbled. “I still can’t believe it.”

“‘Avocwing, surely you can see why.”

“Yeah. But I’m still going to complain.”

“And I will still listen to your input. Keep me balanced, d’accord?”

Havocwing rolled her eyes and put a wing around Curaçao. “Sure thing, you big blueberry.”

“Zanks. Now… one last guest.”

Blackburn raised her eyebrows. “Who?”

The doors slid open, revealing a brilliant white alicorn. The only one of Silvertongue’s victims that had been left with a significant portion of their power left.

Harmonia… in an unusually physical form.

Twilight gawked. “I… I thought the Fay transition destroyed the Dreaming connection?”

“It did,” Harmonia admitted. “Nihilia’s remnant spark is no more. But I still had a body…” She smiled warmly. “Silvertongue’s spell saved me.”

“Huh.” Twilight said. “It’s good to see you! I thought… well we were worried and…”

“It is fine.” Harmonia turned to Blackburn. “I will not stay long, do not fret.”

Blackburn nodded. “This planet has had enough of white alicorns. You wouldn’t be… accepted.”

“I am aware. I simply came to see thou all - and to inform thou of my new home.”

“Sorry about Utopia…” Fluttershy said.

“The Merodi’s evacuation went amazingly,” Harmonia said. “They will have new lives in the multiverse, of which I am glad. I will be staying in New Pandemonium City.”

Everpony stared at her in shock.

“The ponies refused to leave the Fay Realm, and they have known nothing but chaos their entire life. They could use a guide.”

“Well… good luck,” Lockwood said. “They won’t like you there either.”

“Time - and complex situations - heal all wounds, dear Lockwood.” Harmonia took a moment to scan the faces in the room. “Every last one of thou little ponies… thou are heroes. Thou have saved the world, though not in the way anypony foresaw. I anticipate hearing of thy future exploits. Until we meet again.”

She was gone in a flash of light.

“Huh,” Applejack said. “...What do you s’ppose that’ll lead to?”

Shadow shrugged. “No idea. There are too many variables to account for now. We need to just… see what happens.”

“To seeing what happens!” Pinkie declared, raising a glass.

“To seeing what happens,” the others responded, trying to hold in chuckles.

~~~

Cinder walked along the streets of the ‘Perfect World’ with the red alicorn. Her name was Cross.

“You sure about this?” Cinder asked. “It might be… weird out there, for your ponies.”

“They are not my ponies,” Cross said, her smile as eternal as ever. “We each make our own decisions, thanks to you. There is no need for a leader among us.”

“Okay, for you specifically. It’s hard enough for me to understand you and have a normal conversation. You smile at everything!”

Cross nodded. “I do. We all do. And we will continue to do so until the end of time. But some of us want to see the other worlds. There has to be some good ponies without negative emotion can do, yes?”

“I mean, yeah. You’ll still make a lot of people angry.”

“They will beat us, they will shout, and they may even kill us, we know. We will not blame them. We cannot!”

“And that’s creepy.”

“I thank you for being honest with me.”

Cinder sighed. “Can’t change your mind, can I?”

“You might,” Cross admitted. “We are no longer limited by Silvertongue’s will. Which is a good thing.”

“At least you can understand that.”

“Your actions with him allowed us to understand what ‘bad’ is. We don’t even have spoiled fruit. The word did not exist before you came. I find that fascinating. Clearly we were created with a tremendous number of caveats and unusual mental blocks. We are unique, and I wish to understand that.”

“Oh, you’re going to the Universe Generator?”

Cross shook her head. “I will be a standard explorer. There are those who wish to study it and ensure it is not used ever again, allowed to do what it has always done with no interference. It will ensure our adaption into Merodi Universalis occurs faster than otherwise, too.”

“You all sure like to jump into things quickly.”

“Excessive thinking on dilemmas was deemed ‘imperfect’ by Silvertongue. We are lucky he respected his reason too much to remove that aspect of ponykind entirely.”

“Right.” Cinder frowned. “But you’ll never know what it’s like to frown. Or cry. Or… So many other things. Some of you have admitted you might want to try that. Don’t you feel…”

“Longing? No. The ‘want’ is more a logical deduction than a feeling.”

Cinder laughed awkwardly. “That… Yeah, I don’t get you guys. Yet. I’m trying.”

“And trying is good!” Cross winked. “You’re taking the first steps!”

“Heh. Thanks.” She glanced at the rest of her team, who were waiting on a hill. It had been time to go several minutes ago. “Well, see you around!”

“I hope to meet again,” Cross said with a bow. “May you both enjoy and suffer in your life.”

“Eheh…” Cinder said. “You guys are going to need a new saying.”

“We are testing a few out. The Imperfect wordsmiths have been busy over the last few hours.”

“That Imperfect name is going to stick.”

“Why shouldn’t it? It describes us well.”

Cinder sighed. “Right…” She rolled her eyes, waved, and trotted back to her team.

Cross continued walking through town, greeting her fellow Imperfects, discussing what she’d learned about the outside existence and what phrases to use in the presence of others. To her surprise, she came across another pony who wasn’t an Imperfect. “Oh! I was unaware Equis Imperfect had been opened to visitors!”

Mustard looked at her with an accusatory expression.

“Oh, are you one of those who are angry regularly? In that case, I apologize in advance for my lack of empathy or tact. I hope you understand.”

“You have no idea what you lost.”

“We are gaining so much more,” Cross said, keeping her smile level. “Are you one of Silvertongue’s? Perhaps I can explain why we are better off like this!”

Mustard grunted. “You’re worthless to talk to.”

“What is that you have?” Cross asked, trying to get a look at what was under his cloak.

“None of your business!”

“Oh, okay. Wait… that was a lie, wasn't it? Oh, fascinating to see one in the wild!”

Mustard opened a portal and jumped through, leaving Cross behind.

“Oh, wait, we can talk ri-” the portal popped close. “Well. I shall go report this to the Sweeties. Probably a criminal. Maybe they’ll let me visit him in jail…”

Author's Notes:

Well... at long last, this massive undertaking is over. CRISIS: Equestria has it's ending.

First off, I want to thank everyone involved in this project. They were credited earlier, but it's worth crediting them again: GanonFLCL, Masterweaver, FanofMostEverything, Keywiicookies_55; this wouldn't be the way it is without your input. Thanks for all this insanity!

This is the end of the first arc of LSB. I have no idea where the next arc is going... mostly. What is planned I can guarantee will be fun. From here on out I will try a little harder to make the stories standalone so readers from other stories can come in and enjoy them without LSB context - but LSB's running plots will still continue!

Also, look out for a bonus chapter later today with a bunch of different snips written by different authors relating to the CRISIS chapters.

Next time on the League of Sweetie Belles: Moonstuck! This one will be interesting to write...

Remember, if you want to see fics in LSB, suggest them on this forum thread:
((LSB master post))
Also remember to upvote fics that are already on there to push them higher up the priority!

Go there and do that!

CRISIS: Equestria BONUS! (written by GMBlackjack, FanofMostEverything, and Masterweaver)

Rarity looked over to the clones and sighed with regret.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, Applejack." She considered for a moment. "Well, it's... rather frivolous, really."

"After all we've been through, Ah could use a little 'frivolity.'" Applejack sat next to her. "Come on..."

"Well it's just..." Rarity pointed at their clones. "Insipid used to be crushing on Curaçao, you know? But as I understand it, it was a very childish thing that Curaçao merely tolerated. But after Silvertongue 'dismissed' them, Insipid just decided to abandon her affections, and that left Curaçao to realize she actually liked how Insipid treated her and was actually worried for the unicorn. And then, after... well, I don't know exactly what happened, but apparently Insipid defended Curaçao during a big fight they all had, and then just recently Curaçao has been assuring Insipid that she's not, well, an idiot..."

"...Not sure whatch're sayin' here," Applejack admitted.

"Isn't it obvious? They love each other, but the fates have conspired to make it so they're never affectionate at the same time." Rarity half-swooned in a dramatic sigh. "Suis-moi je te fuis, fuis-moi je te suis... and now they're calling each other sisters, which is wonderful but precludes them ever realizing their true feelings for each other!"

"...Ah dunno," Applejack mused. "Ah mean, Ah'm from a big family, and people don't marry first cousins, buuuuut... fourth or beyond is alright." She caught sight of Rarity's scandalized expression and rolled her eyes. "Ya go back far enough and everypony's related, Rares. Your little soap opera might be on hold for now, but who knows?"

"...yes, who indeed." Rarity turned her look back on the group. "Perhaps.... no, no, we should not interfere." She considered for a moment. "Although... Cadance is the alicorn of love, and there might be a few duplicates of her willing to advise us..."

~~~

Curaçao frowned. "Insipid, I can feel zem manipulating us."

"Like, why?"

"It's zis zing called 'shipping', according to Velvet and 'er new book."

"They're going to put us on a boat?"

"Ah, non. More like trying to push us to be romantically involved."

Insipid gasped. "What? Whaaat? We just got rid of Silvertongue can't they, like, leave us alone?"

Curaçao glanced at the Cadence sitting on a nearby bench trying very hard to look inconspicuous behind a newspaper.

"Curie?"

"We may need to take matters into our own ‘ooves to remove zis... intrusion..."

~~~

"Suzie 'Sweetie' Mash nee Belle." A hand as black and smooth as obsidian clapped on her shoulder. "So good to see you again!"

Suzie groaned. "Go away, Chrysalis."

"It's Kalyani now, actually. Well, when I'm talking to the multiverse at large."

"Please leave."

The obsidian-skinned woman rose her hands placatingly. "Fine, fine. I just thought we could talk a bit, but you're clearly not in the mood. Just thought I'd tell you, I got a message from somebody named Railgun this morning--"

Suzie's eye twitched. "Don't you dare bring my daughter into this!"

"I'm not," Kalyani assured her. "She brought herself into this by sending an e-mail to the Wholesome. And ordinarily, that would be strictly her business as she is a legal adult, but with my world only recently joining Merodi and you being a very important person I thought it might be best to have a discussion before I sent off a reply. Avoid any political explosions, you know. But I guess we can talk later--"

"Sit down."

Kalyani sat down across from her, smiling sympathetically. "How have you been, by the way? That whole thing must have been stressful for you."

"Oh no you don't," Suzie growled. "You brought up my daughter just to get me to listen. You're going to tell me exactly what was in that e-mail--"

"Are you sure you want to know that?" Kalyani asked with a teasing expression. "I mean, I know you're interested in her personal life, but I would assume you don't want to hear about--"

"Will you stop that and take this seriously?!"

Kalyani's smile vanished. "I am. You're asking me for information about a message sent to me in confidence. Literally the only reason I am even considering telling you what's in it is because it's from your daughter--frankly, even telling you about it is pushing the concept of privacy. I've read up on you, Suzie, but your public record doesn't go into your private life. I want to know for certain that telling you anything Railgun asked me won't ruin her life before we start down that road. And to do that," she continued over Suzie's protests, "I have to understand you personally."

Suzie opened her mouth for a moment, but no words came out. She examined the woman's expression, looking for any sign of mockery or deceit, and finding only genuine concern.
"You really care about what will happen to her because of this."

"I care about what happens to everyone," Kalyani informed her solemnly. "I only directly intervene when the fates of my children are at stake, but I am not so foolish as to think my actions do not have impact beyond that."

Suzie sighed. "...Can I at least ask if she requested... intimate assistance?"

"Her questions were not sexual in nature."

"...Good. That would have been a… stressful conversation. And would have meant I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did..." With a deep breath, Suzie pushed away the maternal worst-case-scenario bells that had been ringing in her mind. "Let's... talk."

“Well, you start. Why do you hate me so much? You complained about humans being sex maniacs.”

“I… well I believe I said we have a reputation.”

Kalyani raised an eyebrow.

“Think of it this way. If you’re in a human city, you’ll see a billboard with a well-endowed woman just sitting there drawing the eyes of anyone who cares. You simply wouldn’t see that in a standard Equestria. In a lot of Earths the idea is slapped around everywhere so the ponies kinda just assume we’re obsessed with it. I work a… bit to lessen that stigma, but the fact of the matter is we do talk about it a lot more than they do. ...Though I think they all have in their minds that all we do is bang each other every night after every first date like some Shipping World incarnate.”

“All? And I thought they were the ones being prejudiced.”

Suzie let out a bitter laugh. “Hard to fix your thinking, isn’t it? No, not all. There are lots of humans from worlds like the standard Equis where sex just isn’t really a thing, and there are a lot of pony worlds where ponies act like humans do in the movies. I’m looking at the Fallout Equestria worlds mainly.”

“Not the porno worlds?”

“I avoid those at all costs. Merodi Universalis tends not to seek out relations with them too. Is that unfair? Probably. Definitely. I’m not going to go around trying to change it though…” She put a hand to her forehead. “Geez...”

“This seems more like a reason to hate the way people judge everybody else rather than a reason to hate me, you know.” Kalyani smirked. “Those ponies are going to latch on to a promiscuous human to prove their theories right no matter what happens. In general, ponies may have better ‘morals’ than us, but they think enough like humans. They’ll see what they want to see. And they’ll always be able to find something given the existence of certain worlds.”

Suzie shrugged. “Those silly Builders. Didn’t know what they were making.”

“Or maybe they did and they really were huge perverts.”

“The Wholesome, then?”

Kalyani fixed her with a stone cold glare.

“Sorry!” Suzie tried not to smile and failed. “Look, I am sorry for how I treat you, it’s not how things are supposed to be. ‘As much as it depends on you, live in peace with all men.’ I’ve never been very… good at that.”

“No kidding. Your mouth is still curling up in disgust every time you notice a new feature of my outfit.”

“Not gonna say you’re right. Not gonna promise I won’t come in and wreck your face if you entice Railgun in somehow. But I will say you have the right to exist. Even if there did need to be some holy crusade against what you are, there are much bigger fish to fry anyway. Go and kill Slaanesh for me, would you?”

“Ah, no. Killing gods, usually a bad idea.” Kalyani tapped her fingers together. “Redefining them, on the other hand...”

“And that is a whole other conversation I don’t want to have right now.” Suzie stood up. “Now, I’m going to go have a talk with my daughter. A nice talk.”

“You’re a military woman. Do you even know how to have a nice talk?”

“Ask Cinder about it s- actually, nevermind, not Cinder. Try Blink instead.”

“Worried I’ll corrupt the young minds of the innocent?”

“Yes. Can you blame me?”

“Not really. They are very impressionable.”

Suzie groaned.

“Say hi to Mattie for me!”

~~~

"My goodness," said the local Rarity. She looked from Rachel to Sequin, from the Rarity of Equestria IV to the Rarity who currently had a death grip on Cinder. "Seeing so many of myself..."

Applejack smirked. "Givin' you ideas?"

"I should say so! After all these years denying the Infinite Carousel's advances, I dare say it's time I go on the offensive!" Rarity clenched a fist. "I can create my own multi-Rarity consortium."
The smirk widened. "With hookers 'n' blackjack?"

"Well, they say the Carousel started with changelings. I suppose Chrysalis can get involved."
Chrysalis rolled her eyes as she walked by. "Haven't you taught her to avoid low-hanging fruit?" she said to Applejack.

The local Twilight cleared her throat. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but now that we've officially joined the Merodi, that sort of multiversal business venture is kind of... well, explicitly illegal."

"Oh." Rarity wilted. "So it is. Drat."

~~~

A beeping caught Shimmy's attention, and she pulled her phone out. "Oh... well, shit."

Twilight looked over her shoulder. "What's... oh. Yeah, that's bad."

"What is it?" asked Twilight.

"I'm... kind of the local goddess, if you haven't gathered. And apparently, my followers were watching the news..." Shimmy was already typing a text message. "I'm just going to send Ruby a quick message that I'm okay and spread the word I'll have an announcement later, I don't want to start a religious panic."

"Ruby?"

"She runs one of my churches. Actually one of my most reasonable followers, if a little quirky." Sunset finished her message. "Then again she's dating Pinkie Pie, so--"

"Wait, what?!" Rainbow cried.

"The local version of Pinkie Pie," Twilight clarified.

"If there are multiple universes, it makes sense that different Pinkies would date different people," Twilight added.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. "Oh yeah? Then who's the local me dating?"

"Officially, she hasn't found the right person yet," Shimmy said. "Too busy with the space program. But she's been sort of flirting with a Munarin guy--"

"Munarin?"

"Cat alien." Shimmy held her hands apart a bit. "Local species, about ye big. Calls himself 'Capper' for some reason. They might wind up dating, it's hard to tell if they're serious."

Rainbow sat on her flanks. "The multiverse is weird."

~~~

After the threats of invading armies and cosmic dissolution were dealt with, Rainbow Dash had decided there was only one way to properly celebrate. Not everyone agreed, but a few did come with her. Since they were in Celestia City, they quickly found a restaurant that specialized in post-victory shawarma.

Pinkie Pie still gave the occassional giggle as they were seated. She'd grown out as much as up in her adult years. In the Gem Vein, she could've easily been mistaken for Rose Quartz. "You are such a WCU fangirl."

"Embodiment of Loyalty," said Dash, who'd stayed sleek and svelte. "I am fandom. Besides, the shawarma scene is like the one consistent thing across every Wonder or Marvel Cinematic Universe. The ones that make it that far, anyway. And we freaking earned our Middle Eastern burritos today."

"Not that anyone knows it." Pinkie pulled a thick tome out of her hair, Sweetie Belle's icon and the caption "Arc 1" prominent on the cover, and flipped through the back pages.

Everyone else drew back from her. "I thought you didn't mess with metafiction," said Fluttershy, paling even beyond her greyer-than-Flutter normal complexion as a shudder went through her willowy build.

"Yeah, but not because I can't. Too much self-reference isn't good for a universe under repairs; you might make it notice it shouldn't be working." Pinkie looked off to the side. "Besides, our usual Prophets aren't that self-indulgent."

An orange-skinned man quietly got out of his seat and snuck away from the group.

"But between Shimmy being back and those shiny new Reality Anchors, it's definitely safe to flip through a script we already performed. Maybe Equis Vitis Pinkie could've called out pointers when they mattered, but that would've been real risky, and I'm nowhere near her level." Pinkie riffled through the last part of the book and shook her head. "But yeah, the three of us aren't even mentioned by name, and Apple Bloom's just a voice on a phone at best."

"Silvertongue knew what he was doin'," said the last person at the table. Apple Bloom had turned out much like her sister, aside from the shorter haircut. "I'm still tryin' to find what I missed. Even knowin' what I'm lookin' for, he covered most o' his tracks real well, did most o' his business in other universes. Already found most o' what's there after AJ got me together with Wallflower Blush's group."

"Oh yeah, good point, Wallflower never even came up. Just Applejack and Rarity's ambiguous 'underground connections.'" Pinkie went from air quotes to waggling her fingers. "Oooh, myste~erious."

Dash's face fell. "So when those fire-ice demon things were about to get to Twilight and I did the superhero landing Rainboom, and then you paradropped in dual-wielding those giant party grenade launchers—"

"The whole reason I was able to do that was because it was a funny background event. Which doesn't usually work well in a textual medium, but it got the job done. Especially with the bubblegum cigar."

"This always gives me a headache," said Fluttershy. "And one of my close friends is Fay."

"At least tell me it mentions Fluttershy going all dryad-mecha," said Dash, gesturing wildly, "tossing demons around and going 'I am Floot!'"

"I'm never going to say that and you can't make me."

Pinkie shook her head. "But hey, it could be worse. Scootaloo was a damsel-in-distress MacGuffin for most of it."

Apple Bloom chuckled at that. "More like a Chicken MacGuffin."

Dash reached over the table and punched her shoulder. "That's my sorta-sister you're talking about."

Bloom rolled her eyes. "Like you don't call AJ worse."

"I honestly don't mind not being in the spotlight." Fluttershy ran a hand through her hair and the thin branches within. "I'm still not comfortable with people reading about the park incident."

"Oof, this explains a lot," said Pinkie, studying the LSB Insider July 2019 issue. "This was going to be a five-part subarc, but it grew into eight. Something had to give and we were the something. Part of it, anyway; it's not like Ultrajack or Rarity exploding demons with magic tuning fork needles made it in either. They were mostly there for 'road not travelled' shipping comedy with the pony Rarity and Twilight who went here for their honeymoon." She tapped the magazine's front cover. "We're not the title characters; we don't get a lot of focus."

Dash leaned back, arms behind her head. "It just sucks that we did all that cool stuff and no one's gonna know."

"We'll know," said Fluttershy.

"I guess."

Pinkie just smiled as impishly as possible.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, though her smirk didn't shift. "We're 'on camera' right now, ain't we?"

"Of course we are. It's the after-credits shawarma scene!"

Dash pumped her fist. "Yes!"

"Wait, but wasn't the post-fight shawarma scene after the first big victory?" Fluttershy asked. "Because for us this is... a lot further down the line. This is like immediately after they beat that purple guy--"

"It's a shout out," Pinkie assured her, "don't worry about directly matching everything."

~~~

Excerpt from Curio “Sweetie” Belle’s “Journal of Multiversal Events and Guide to Otherworldly Happenings.”

...and that’s what happened in the Silvertongue Incident. Naturally, I wasn’t there for all of it, all the events that took place in the Universe Generator were far outside my sphere of interaction and I had to resort to secondhoof information. That said, sources agreed on what happened for the most part, so I believe it is an accurate retelling.

So, what can we learn from all this?

The obvious back-of-the-cereal-box moral is “don’t try to achieve perfection,” but that’s not exactly practical insofar as this book is concerned. Really, things like this should be obvious, and it boggles me how apparently psychotic geniuses like Silvertongue try this sort of thing all the time. The man was a mastermind of the highest caliber who was able to control his own mind through sheer willpower and he didn’t see this exploding in his face for the longest time. When he did see it explode, he decided to roll with the exploding.

So, he lost a moral. How does this help us?

Well, for one, we should beware of people like him should they come to our world and flap their little silver tongue in our ears, convincing us to do just about anything with the right words. Beware the smooth talker and those who sound reasonable. Just because it seems like they have a better argument than us doesn’t mean they do. The smartest person in the world is not always right.

This seems counterintuitive to logic, since it dictates that when presented with the best evidence we should alter what we think to conform to it since it makes sense. No, I do not have an alternative at the moment, since everything else I thought of also had a failing. Talk to a philosopher - or seven, since we can never trust the smartest guy in the room.

Furthermore, Silvertongue unleashed a wave of destruction and sent an entire universe into a several-thousand year tailspin of suffering and war. Initially, it seems like we should throw up our hooves and panic since we have no hope of doing anything against these godlike powers. I say we have a defense - remain unimportant. If we stick our heads out of the burrow hole all at once, we get sucked into whatever tornado is raging on the surface.

Unfortunately sticking our heads in the earth like some ostrich and ignoring the storm means we won’t be prepared when the meteors hit. Clearly, there must be some kind of middle ground where we are aware of what’s happening and not involved in it. The Crown Princess, mad though she is, might be on to something.

Merodi Universalis, on the other hand, is not trying to hide. They’re sticking everything out of the hole and getting extremely lucky. This has made them absolutely insane as a society. There is a distinct lack of concern and caution in their lives. Admittedly, this has produced an abundance of happiness and camaraderie, but also what I believe to be a bit of naivete. Cinder is perhaps the most extreme example of this: somehow, she has been dragged into the impossible expanse that is the multiverse and manages to smile through all the violence and death she sees. I wonder if it’s some sort of local contagion in Merodi Universalis space, since I seem to have contracted it too. I’m still part of Cryo’s team doing whatever crazy thing she thinks of to do next, and I find myself looking forward to it.

This may explain why they devote one twelfth of their government to Expeditions. Contagious insanity. Or maybe that’s just the Tower, but I’m definitely not an authority on that subject.

In conclusion, we need to lay low and keep our eyes open, watch out for those who would sweet-talk us into whatever they wanted, and Merodi Universalis is clinically insane.

And now the supplemental section. More Important People in Merodi Universalis.

Silvertongue. Historical figure. Known for revealing the Universe Generator to the masses and creating Equis Imperfect. Killed by his creations, the Mean Six, twice. Suspected to be a local substitute for Volkermord in Merodi Universalis for the next few years. Very dead, but if any alternates exist, do not trust a word they say even if it is true. Silvertongue would be able to tell the absolute truth and still lead you to believe a lie.

Mattie “Rarity” Belle. League of Sweetie Belles. Upon first glance she may appear to be a sexually obsessed deviant who is desperate for some action and will stop at nothing to get it. In reality, she is an experienced adventurer and one of the most senior members of the League of Sweetie Belles, sister to the Lost Founder Sweetie Brute. While she is certainly a masochist, in reality most of her advances are jokes designed to get under people’s skin for her own amusement, although research suggests this may not have been the case in the past. She has power within the League akin to a Founder and will be a very loyal - if scatterbrained - Aware ally for anyone willing to put up with her antics.

Winter Lights. Winter was once an elf from Fae Epoque but was turned into a human after an ‘incident’ that is annoyingly hard to get firm details on. She serves as Earth Shimmer’s primary expert on Fay happenings. Like all Fay she is a lover of word games. Even though she is a human she will still speak nothing but the ‘technical’ truth. She’s curious and has a good heart deep down that’s capable of powerful, if confused, love. I shall refrain from defining her further since she tends to defy specifically what’s written down to spite those who try to figure her out. (What are you gonna do about that Winter?)

(Note: received this text when writing this paragraph:
Edit in a series of emojis while you aren’t looking that metaphorically elaborate on your own mental state.
Place in final published draft? Talk to publisher.)

Shimmy “Sunset” Shimmer. If you know a Sunset, chances are you know Shimmy. The major differences are A) she’s a minor deity B) she absolutely hates to be called a god under any circumstances C) she’s both only a few decades old and several thousand thanks to SIlvertongue D) people throw oranges on her. Point D requires more research, suspected to have something to do with the local religion of the Divine Bacon Horse. Like so much in Earth Shimmer, I really am not sure if what I’m being told is a joke or not.

Blackburn. This section was removed by Queen Blackburn’s Request...

~~~

"Hello, everyone. My name's Ruby Rose, I'm the pope of the Church of the Divine Bacon Horse, and I have a few words I'd like to say. I worked hard to prepare the sermon for this momentous occasion... but events outpaced us. So, I guess I'll have to wing it." The pink woman gave the gathered crowd a sardonic grin. "Not that that's anything new."

A scattering of chuckles rose from the crowd.

"At least my notes should still be mostly on point." She ran a finger through her blood-red hair, looking over the work on the podium. "Right... here we go."

The crowd stilled as she rose her hand.

"...More than twenty years ago, Sunset Shimmer stepped into our world and began her journey to apotheosis. Not that she knew it, of course; she was filled with disharmonious urges. Jealousy, covetousness, greed. Arrogance. All things that locked her within herself, prevented the realization of her true nature. She came to us as a child, ill-tempered and foolish. So often do we forget that, looking upon her wonder now; so often do we forget that she who has become our glorious proclaimer was once as petty as the shortsighted jerks who ruin lives without thinking, and I know jerks isn't really a very religious word but I couldn't think of a better one so... yeah..."

The crowd shouted a few suggestions. Ruby rolled her eyes.

"There are kids watching this! Anyway... right, right. At her lowest point, though, Sunset found hands reaching out, and she took them. With those bonds, she began to shed the very constraints that locked her way; she began to extend her soul outward, and what an incredible soul it turned out to be. Sunset Shimmer, who once thought only of herself, felt the danger that threatened the world before any else, and sacrificed her mortal form to become its mender. Sunset Shimmer found the terrified and terrifying core of our reality and soothed its worries. Sunset Shimmer, faced with devastation or conquest, chose instead peaceful synthesis."

Ruby spread her hands wide. "Twenty years have passed since Sunset Shimmer brought magic back to us. Twenty years of wonder and horror, of strange new things and ancient secrets. Twenty years where Sunset Shimmer has refined her craft, working to save as much of our reality as she can--and yesterday, on the twentieth anniversary of the saturation point, we at last welcomed a larger harmony. Make no mistake, Merodi Universalis has among it beings like our Sunset; like she was when she first came, withdrawn in arrogance, like she became during her cleansing, hopeful and bright, and a few as she is now, a beacon to all who need magic and a good dose of common sense. They are akin to her, yet not her, and there have been questions of how they should be treated."

Her hands tapped the podium. "Some say they should be considered false gods and abhorred. But our divine bacon horse would not approve; such reflections are but souls of their own, and deserve not our detestment. Some believe they should be considered prophets of the shelled mystic. But our divine bacon horse would not approve; such reflections are souls of their own, and deserve not our demands. How should we moderate our reactions to such selves, akin to the one we rightfully worship and yet not the same? I ask this of you, then: how would you treat a twin from another realm? Such exists, and has been known to exist since Sunset came to us; our own world hosted a pair to the glorious proclaimer, and ignoring her for the glorious proclaimer nearly led her to consumption by one who wished oblivion. We must moderate our response to the face of our goddess, and know those who wearsunset ' them are but people on their own journey."

Ruby gestured around her. "As are we! And all reflections! Yesterday, we witnessed a warped mimicry of Sunset Shimmer attempt apotheosis and fail--fail because she had yet to shed that which restricted our goddess in the beginning, her arrogance and pride blinding her to the harmony of multitudes! Her foolhardiness, driven by the lusts of one even more hungry for glory than she, tore from us our glorious proclaimer, and what should have been a day of immense joy became, for a time, the most horrific crisis we could have known. Yet Sunset Shimmer, even barred from her rightful place, did not forget us or the ones who made the day possible; she persevered, taking the lifetime of a universe to forge herself and her wits to become the very best she could become. And once the twisted foe who had directed the conflict was brought to an end, she returned and granted mercy."

Her head bowed. "Mercy... And compassion. Let us remember that those who live beyond our borders are their own beings, yet recall they too will need the help of others. Let us not remain ignorant of their sufferings, but assuage them when they come. Let us show them the incredible things our world has to offer, and welcome them in the name of our goddess. The Divine Bacon Horse, Traveler Of Realms, Glorious Proclaimer, Shelled Mystic, She Of The Wonderous Mane, Wellspring Of Magic And Sanity... THE TWICE APPOINTED DEITY, SUNSET SHIMMER! BEHOLD HER, AND PROCLAIM!"

~~~

"....You know what?" Shimmy ‘Sunset’ Shimmer shrugged. "I'm not even mad."

~~~

The battlefield... actually wasn't that bad, given the nature of the local universe. It was if the world's creators had deliberately tried to minimize its production values. For the most part, it was a blank white void. The inhabitants weren't much better. They were Flats, but far simpler than the likes of Burgerbelle. While they spoke with the same monotone lack-of-inflection, their bodies...

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, they were stick figures, and rather crude ones at that, with unmoving smiles and dots for eyes.

"thank you dosey doe," said the stick-figure Princess Celestia... or, according to everyone short of the Tree of Harmony itself, Princess Celerystick. "your actions have saved equesrita."

"yay dosey doe," chorused the crowd, who stood about five feet to Princess Celerystick's left. They didn't so much jump for joy as loop through a two-frame bouncing animation.

Ditzy Doo, agent of ETSAB, just grinned and bore the typos. The locals had certainly coped well with all of the differences that practically made her an eldritch horror by local standards. She wasn't going to begrudge them a harmless quirk or two.

Even if she was starting to hear the Comic Sans.

"I'm just glad I could help," she said. adjusting the permanently borrowed Imperial greatcoat she wore over a jumpsuit that looked a lot more impressive when the viewer didn't know it was the ancient alien equivalent of a hazmat suit. Really, she reflected, she was in no position to judge the strangeness of a universe. "It helped that there wasn't much collateral to damage."

The bouncing came to a stop. Everyone turned to look at the local Twilight's (or Twinkle Sprinkle's) castle, which was little more than a jagged outline.

A jagged outline that was on a mix of jagged-outline fire and more familiar, fully filled-in flames.

Some of which appeared to be burning the other fire.

Ditzy cleared her throat and projected her pegasus aspect wingbow out of the feathers on the back of her neck. "And on that note, I believe I'll bid you all adieu. Feel free to use the communicator to get in touch with us or Merodi Universalis, don't open strange three-dimensional objects, tip your waitress, bye!"

She took to the air and stranger dimensions, leaving the white void behind for a black one, where crystal spheres twinkled like stars. She knew that this was just how her mind processed the nigh-infinitude of the multiverse from within the tiny bubble of space-time her magic made for her, but it was still beautiful.

Ditzy oriented herself towards home, her senses refined from years of practice. She did enjoy her work, but after days like this, she just wanted to get back home to Flash and Dinky. Plus, Celestia City was due to visit any day now, and she didn't want to miss that.

She considered her luck and the slippery nature of time across the multiverse, then poured on the speed.

By the time she arrived home, she could easily see the damage. It wasn't like the cracks that had evenly spider-webbed Earth Shimmer since the Saturation and had largely receded in recent years. This looked like someone had fired a bullet out of the universe. And not a small caliber, either.

Ditzy entered as close to the impact point as she dared. Much stronger magic than hers shunted her left-forward-up-kata-muffin* into a gravity well, where it took her two and a half accidental barrel rolls to orient herself. Once that was done, she could take in both Celestia City and the wreckage thereof.

*After ana-kata and East-West, Ditzy had to devise her own names for exotic axes.

She couldn't help but note that it was strangely comforting to know that it wasn't her fault for once.

Once her wool was sufficiently gathered, she made a beeline for the first point of luminous gold she could find. Shimmy or Corona, a debatably divine Sunset was always good for answers.

Ditzy came to a stop before the Sunset—Shimmy, as it turned out—and said a very useful, all-encompassing expression of total incredulity she picked up on that last mission:

"What the hay."

Author's Notes:

Next time on the League of Sweetie Belles: Moonstuck! This one will be interesting to write...

Remember, if you want to see fics in LSB, suggest them on this forum thread:
((LSB master post))
Also remember to upvote fics that are already on there to push them higher up the priority!

What Will You Do? (Moonstuck)

Author's Notes:

The following was an interactive chapter - I would post part of it, people would submit commands, and then I would follow which commands I liked best. The below chapter is the result of these many unusual and bizarre choices.

This chapter is based on the tumblr askblog Moonstuck by egophiliac, which is truly adorable and silly. It comes highly recommended from me as a fun little adventure on the moon. Don't take it too seriously... but do.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the madness.

-GM, master of markers.

Next time on the League of Sweetie Belles: Sunset's Isekai (CROSSOVER EVERYTHING)

((LSB Status Post))

GMBlackjack:
> Start

You are now Cinder "Sweetie" Belle. You are overcome with your cuteness, which is unusual given how much time you spend around others nearly as cute as yourself. For some reason, you find yourself on the moon.

What Will You Do?

FanOfMosteverything:
> Retrieve hooves from crater.

Your hooves are already attached to your person! Why would you need to retrieve them? ...Unless you are currently standing in a crater. You honestly can't tell, the moon looks flat from here, but it could just be a really big, smooth crater with smaller craters in it.

At the very least, you have confirmed that all four of your hooves are still attached to your person - and your tail, as a bonus. You decide not to count your head as a limb, even though it too is still where it should be.

On you. It's supposed to be on you. It is not supposed to be on the moon.

Speckle:
>Check and see whether or not you are alone on the Moon.

You take a look at your surroundings, finding no other ponies or people on the moon with you. You see several moon rocks, an expanse of moon dust, an improbable chair, an origami cranesitting in the chair, and a black number 30 that appears to be wearing a tiny hat.

You see absolutely nothing else.

Undeadking243:
>Check the pumpkin.

ABSOLUTELY.
NOTHING.
ELSE.

Golden_Reflection:
> check for atmosphere (how is breathing?)

You wave your hoof in front of you, discovering that there is no atmosphere to speak of. Yet, you are breathing just fine.

"Again? I was just in the Universe Generator!"

Turns out speaking works just fine as well. Impossibly.

Masterweaver:
>Do a fancy jig. It's obligatory.

You are overcome with the need to dance like there's no tomorrow. You hop onto your hind hooves and attempt to recreate the fancy dance you did in the Enchanted Library. You manage to pull off some seriously cool and smooth moves for about twelve seconds before you promptly fall flat on your face.

The 30 with a fancy hat lowers to 25.

You feel insulted, though you're not sure why.

Blaze Rod:
>Wonder how you got there.

You come to the rather shocking and disturbing realization that you have no idea how you got here.

Tracing back your memory, you remember walking in the halls of Swip while she was being re-constructed, thinking about how you probably shouldn't store any personal valuables in her since she seems to get blown up a lot. And then... it all goes fuzzy. The next thing you can remember for certain is being on the moon, thinking about hooves and craters.

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
>Search yourself for clues.

You look yourself over. You find your communication device on the back of your neck, and the screen lights up when you touch it. From a cursory inspection, all the apps seem functional. As previously noted, you have all four of your hooves attached to your person, as well as your tail and head. Checking your horn you find that you can still use magic, lifting the communication device easily with your telekinesis.

Goldenwing:
>Search your clues for self.

Your horn has not developed self-awareness in the last five minutes. There is a minimal Artificial Intelligence in the communication device, but that won't be a very good conversation partner.

Masterweaver:
>>Self your search for clues.

You find yourself wondering if the abstract concept of the Searchcould have awareness? Maybe you could give it? Could you perhaps... become the Search?

You attempt to be the Search.

Your brain starts to hurt from attempting to do the impossible.

Keywii_Cookies55:
>Clue yourself for search.

Not to be disheartened, you determine that you will find the Search's self! And to do that, you must become a clue! Makes perfect sense, at least right now, to your already strained brain.

You lay flat on the ground, making an imprint of yourself in the moon dust. You stand up and examine the imprint - yes, definitely a clue. Now the Search can find you! But wait, that imprint isn't you, and if you become the Search you will find the not-you and that won't go anywhere because...

After running your mind in senseless logical leaps for a few minutes, you gain +1 Insanity Point.

There is truly only one adequate response to this course of events.

SgtSarge_51:
>interrogate the crane for clues to the search.

"All right, crane, you're the most mysterious thing here! Tell me what you know!"

The crane remains silent to your attempts at interrogation. You feel slightly silly.

After all, why would words work?

There are much better methods of interrogation.

You grab the crane and start shaking it violently. "Tell me what you know!"

The crane quickly unfolds to reveal that it was made out of a map. Neat.

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
Absorb the map’s knowledge, and then use tons of trial and error your super-cool origami skills to fold it into... a pair of Cartographer’s Radical Shades. For head-perching only, of course.
...What? A hat? No, no. That’s ridiculous. Who would ever fold a map into a hat of all things?

Naturally, you look the map over, annoyed to find that whatever it was a map of, it's useless now. There are dozens of little childish drawings all over it. Stick figures of alicorns, batponies, seaponies, and what you think is supposed to be a changeling are littered all over the map, obscuring every feature on it. This map has seen a lot of use and probably means a lot to someone.

Or it was just scratch paper lying around that some kid got ahold of.

Satisfied that the map is useless as it is, you proceed to fold it until it takes the shape of some Radical Shades. You slide them on your head, deciding that it wouldn't be worthwhile to put paper shades over your eyes. You wouldn't want to go blind would you? Keep them below the horn, above the eyes, like all the cool kids do. After a-

Wait up. How did you do that? You're pretty sure there wasn't enough paper in the crane to adjust to the shape of these fake glasses, and you've never done origami in your life.

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
>Consult with Science Cinder about this development.

Science Cinder does not exist. However, Science Woona does, and she is a bit too busy trying to figure out why she's being asked to explain things for Cinder right now to be of much use. Where did Woona go? All Science Woona did was check out for the day and now Woona's been replaced!

Starlit Rose:
>Fail to not inhale the expanse of moon dust.

While deeply pondering the predicament you find yourself in, you place your head a little too close to the ground and inhale.

The good news is that this moon dust isn't a skin irritant, like most moon dust.

The bad news is that it's definitely a nasal irritant.

"AH... AH... CHOOOO!"

The force of your sneeze creates a small mushroom cloud.

Turns out this moon dust is an eye irritant too.

Speckle:
Wonder if you've lost your marbles.

Given your recent acquisition of an Insanity Point, you are relatively certain it is safe to say you have lost a marble. Just one, though, the rest of them are still rattling around in your skull just fine.

Masterweaver:
>Spontaneously combust

You decide it is a good time to test out your fire magic. You light your horn, finding that the flames burn bright even in the lack of proper atmosphere. You decide to have a little fun and cast fireball on the improbable chair. The chair explodes, sending flaming chunks of wood in several directions - including right at you. Your fur, which under normal circumstances shouldn't be particularly flammable, lights up like a Hearth's Warming tree thrown into a volcano.

You keep enough of your wits about you to remove the fire with your magic before you suffer any serious burns, but that was still rather terrifying.

Keywii_Cookies55
>You feel adventure calling!

Adventure.

Yes, that's right. You're on the moon, there must be adventure somewhere, right? You're the hero, after all. There must be something here besides an odd selection of hats!

Pulling down your Radical Shades you strike a pose - it is time to look for adventure rather than wasting time setting fire to improbable chairs! You take a step forward...

And lift up your Radical Shades to make sure you can see.

Who knows where you will go and what secrets the moon show you?

Blaze Song:
>: Stop and think: "um.. before I go anywhere, maybe I should try to contact Swip, the others or even the LSB Command with my Communicator?"

Right! You have your communicator! You pull it out and attempt to make a call. You have service!

Oh, wait.

That's local service only. Your communicator has tapped into a local network of some sort. Dimensional communication is down, and Swip apparently isn't in this universe at the moment.

You try to contact something on the local network. All you hear isscreeching static.

Undeadking243:
>Tell the screeching static hello and then explore the Dark Side of the Moon.

"Hello!"

The static remains screeching.

You decide now is as good of a time as any to go forth to the Dark Side of the moon. You're lucky the division of night and day is close by, otherwise this would have taken a few hours. You cross over and are completely surprised to find that, yes, it is dark. Can't really see - with or without your Radical Shades.

Goldenwing:
>Create torch.

What a great idea - something a bit more controlled than random explosive fire. Except you don't really have anything to burn...

Except the remnants of a wooden chair you left on the... what you're going to call the Bright Side of the moon. You scramble back, pick up one of the legs that looks significantly less charred than all the others, and light it up. It burns brightly.

You are quite satisfied with your work.

Golden_Reflection:
>utilise torch to its full potential

You hold the torch high and return to the Dark Side to find...

More moon. Specifically, there are a few craters around, a large quantity of moon dust, and a sky full of stars. You can't exactly see very far with the torch.

runtrivena:
>Collect sample of moon dust

You pick up some moon dust with your telekinesis with the intent of collecting it.

You don't exactly have anywhere to keep it, at least not in a way that it would maintain the purity required for a true scientific sample.

Goldenwing:
>Jump as high as you can and pretend to be a pegasus.

You jump into the air. The lower moon gravity allows you to jump significantly higher than normal, but even with this boon you still must come back down.

You find yourself wondering if, one day, you'll be given a pair of wings for all your adventures. You decide it's best not to dwell on this fact.

As you resolve to be happy with or without wings, you land on the ground once more and hit something metallic. A loud CLANG rings in your ears, stunning you. Luckily, you do not drop the torch.

Goldenwing:
>Play a drum solo, even though there's no atmosphere.

Holding your torch high, you begin to play the sickest beat this area of the moon has ever experienced. The beat resounds through the lack-of-atmosphere and to the ears of all present. The audience (that is, only you) is rather pleased with the tunes coming forth from your musical genius.

You hit the metal thing a little too hard and force it open. Turns out, it was a hatch, and now you are falling.

Goldenwing:
>It's the moon. Wait patiently while you slowly drift down.

Actually, since the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, the acceleration due to gravity will ensure Cinder's velocity will increase unbounded. Granted, if she only fell for a few seconds she would be fine, but it's already been more than a few seconds.

Ponygood 11:
>Complain about contrived plot advancement.

"Why does it always have to be falling?" you shout. "Why can't it be, oh, I don't know, a friendly cupcake or bouncy castle or surprise clown or something?"

Thinking on it, you decide you really don't want it to be 'surprise clown'.

Golden 123123123:
> you believe you can fly

You know what? Yeah! Yeah, you can fly! All you need to do is believe!Focus, become one with the fall... Until the fall becomes up!

Basically, you need to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

That seems reasonable.

You take a deep breath, close your eyes, and think carefully. Fly. Fly. Fly. You can FLY. Fly. Fly. FLY... FLY!

You begin to feel your body lift, as though all the threats to your personal safety are nothing in the face of your intrinsic belief in FLIGHT. You feel as though you have sprouted wings and are gliding on the wind. You are home fre-

THUD.

"Ow..."

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
>Examine the comical cartoony imprint you left on the ground, and then your surroundings.

You pull yourself out of the little crater you made and light your torch again. You discover a perfect imprint of you - right down to the serene, confident face that believed it was flying. You feel more than a little silly for ever entering such a mental state. Your brain sure seems to be a little scattered and unreliable today.

After checking yourself over and finding nothing wrong (you suspect that fall should have killed you) you take a look around. You are in a cave. Looking up, you cannot see the top of the pit you just fell down. At your hooves you have an imprint of yourself, a moon rock that looks like a face, and a small golden pendant. Further away you see two tunnels. You label the first one you saw 'forward' and the second one 'backward'

Golden 123123123:
> grab the gold pendant and turn your calligraphers sunglasses into a calligraphers fashionable hat and then become the fashion Pony

You equip the gold pendant and decide to see how far you can take the CARTOGRAPHER'S Radical Shades. With a few swift motions of your hoof you have turned it into the Cartographer's Fashionable Hat. You strike a pose and toss your mane back, grinning.

The pendant itself is in the shape of a bird with wings outstretched.

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
>Walk backwards into the forwards tunnel, to confuse any potential adversaries.

You do them one better - you moonwalk into the forwards tunnel, giggling to yourself as you do so. You quickly lose sight of the area you landed in since you are holding the only source of light you are aware of. After a few minutes of walking, you begin to wonder if this tunnel is never going to end. Glancing behind you, you see nothing but more tunnel as far as your torch's light reaches.

Keywii_Cookies55:
>Break into a sprint, it's faster and good exercise.

Ponies can't exactly be said to sprint, but you can definitely gallop! You rear up on your hind legs and sped down the tunnel as fast as your little hooves will carry you, kicking up moon dust in the process. You have to re-light your torch a few times since you're moving so fast, but that's nothing to be all that concerned about.

There's no indication the tunnel will end anytime soon, but you aren't going to give up now! You'll keep going until you find something or something finds you!

Masterweaver:
>Find a marble and realize it isn't yours.

You trip over a marble. In the moments between the start of your fall and the hard impact of your skull with the ground, you note that you have never seen this marble before.

You black out.

Undeadking243:
Meanwhile...

"What do you mean, Cinder's been replaced?"

"I mean exactly what it sounds like. She's been replaced. With an adorable Woona, nonetheless."

"Woona? Not... Luna?"

"Yep. She didn't seem to understand why I was confused by it."

"Right. Any ideas?"

"At the moment? No."

Golden 123123123:
Wune> have an existential crisis about interdimensional travel

You are now Princess Woona. You find yourself aboard what you've been told is a spaceship. You are currently sitting on a really nice bed that you're told belongs to somepony named Cinder. A lot of the ponies who look really similar seem a little worried about her. You don't really have any idea what's going on, but you feel like you should try to help.

Even though this might be your fault.

Maybe. You're not sure. All the strange ponies say it's not your fault...

Goldenwing:
>Stand so incredibly still that they can't see you. Observe and analyze like a low-altitude recon Woona.

You press yourself belly-first onto the bed, spreading your wings like the low-altitude recon Woona you know you are. You narrow your eyes so that they look closed, but you can still see through them. You cease all movement aside from breathing, and that you keep to an absolute minimum.

You watch. And wait.

A voice coming from all sides informs you that she can still see you.

Panic! Plan B!

Ponygood11:
>Boop their snoots, Woo-

Oh no! Disembodied voices have no snoots to boop! Plan B is a bust!

SgtSarge_51:
>Boop your own snoot in panic!

Forgetting that you were trying to be invisible, you boop yourself in the snoot. This manages to calm you down long enough to think.

Masterweaver:
>Contemplate your adventures in a manner that conveniently describes when you are on your own timeline.

You try to figure out how you got here... You were visiting the moonagain and were having a nice snow day with your friends. You hadn't even gotten everyone together yet, far as you remember. You'd just finished making this amazing crane...

Oh, that's right! You noticed your Hard Boiled Points had gone down! That was unacceptable! And you did... Actually, you don't remember what you did. You were here after that.

runtrivena:
> Ask the disembodied voice for help.

You turn your head to the ceiling - that seems as good of a place as any to address the voice.

The voice is surprisingly helpful. It introduces itself as the spaceshipin a somewhat arrogant tone of voice. She tells you all you need to do is sit and wait while the other Sweeties figure out what's going on.

She has some video games for you to play if you want. You have no idea what those are.

Goldenwing:
>Declare spaceship to be the ERS Lulu

You name the spaceship the ERS Lulu.

She proceeds to inform you that her name is Swip.

You tell her that's a stupid name. It's just Ship with a letter swapped out!

She says she doesn't care what some child thinks, it's her name and she's sticking with it.

You stick out your tongue indignantly.

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
>Check to see if the cheese frequency transcends dimensions.

No luck! That only works on the moon.

Swip asks what you're doing. You say you're thinking about cheese. She has no further comment on the matter.

Ponygood11:
>Sniff around for something interesting.

Now that you're thinking about cheese, you are kind of hungry. Using your amazing cuteness powered nose you set to work in an attempt to find the tastiest thing you can!

Instead, you find some kind of squid walking on two legs. She looks grumpy.

At least three different people and probably more if I didn't post now:
BOOP. HER. SNOOT.

Boop.

She rolls her eyes, complaining to someone else about you being one of the 'cutesy types'.

You are shocked by her apathy.

Ponygood11:
>Induct this one into the Way of Cute. Your dignity demands it.

You tug on the squid's tentacle and make her look at your wide, adorable eyes. This gives her pause - good, you have her attention.

You start discussing the finer points of the Way of Cute, beginning first with the eyes. The squid has some pretty good eyes, you have to admit, but she isn't making full use of them! Always walking around with a frown or a scowl. Turn that frown upside-down, accent those eyes, girl!

She no longer seems apathetic. Now she's baffled.

Good. That's the first step of indoctrination.

Now, you'll need to demonstrate the power of the Cute. You reach for your Cartographer's Cap , intending to fold it into something amazing.

Oh no! You forgot! You folded it into a crane and it's currently on the moon! Now how will you show her the power of Cute?

KeywiiCookies_55:
>If your cap is missing it's time to resort to noises. MAKE A SQUEAK

You look up to the squid's very lost face and let out a shrill-yet-adorable-as-heck squeak.

The squid falls over.

Success.

SgtSarge_51:
>Jig your way to the bridge!

You throw your hooves into the air and do a very silly jig through the halls of the spaceship and onto the bridge.

You find a lot of Sweeties looking at a very shiny picture of a lot of floating spheres. The captain is arguing back and forth with the young pony with hands about something you don't understand.

The scary unicorn glares at you, while the cool one with shadesmoves her head strangely. Is she trying to wink at you?

A bunch of really creative people:
BOOP.

You jump into action. None are safe from your whirlwind of boops! The Way of Cute is shown to all! All four of them fall to your immense power! The cool pony is first, and after a triple loop-de-loop in the air you boop both the captain and the arm-horse-thing. With a sly grin you jump back, booping the scary unicorn even though you're scared.

They laugh and roll their eyes! This is great! They see your cuteness!

And then they get right back to whatever boring thing they were doing.

Nothing has changed.

Golden 123123:
>you must discover the source of their cute resistance

What could be causing it? Almost nothing is resistant to the power of Cute except for evil things. And yourself, of course, because you are cute and are immune to your own charms.

Wait.

You look closer at the cool unicorn... she's small, has a dimple when she smiles, and scurries around like a little filly. The hand-horse has super big eyes and talks with a little squeak that would bring out the "AWWWWWWWS" in everyone. Even the scary unicorn has what you like to call The Eyes.

Oh no.

They're immune because they're all cute and they spend all their time with each other! They're immune due to overexposure!

Ponygood11:
>If cuteness is ineffective... then maybe princessness will work instead!
Declare that you are commandeering the ERS Lulu, and direct its crew to solve the mystery of your missing hardboiled points! And getting back to the moon, I guess.

You inform them in no uncertain terms that you are Princess Woona, Lunar Diarch of Equestria, and you order the crew of the ERS Lulu to figure out what happened to your hardboiled points!

They have no idea what hardboiled points are.

The spaceship seems rather insistent that she is not the ERS Lulu.

You decide to order them to get you back to the moon and your friends instead. This they react to. The captain sits down and invites you to take a seat on her lap. That seems like a suitable course of action, so you accept.

She spends a few minutes explaining to you that they are already trying to figure out how to get you back to the moon, since they need to get to the moon to find Cinder. They're working as hard and as fast as they can. She promises. Pinkie promises even - though you're not sure what that means.

This seems acceptable. Though you're struck by a distinct lack of things you can do about the situation at the moment.

SgtSarge_51:
>You might not be able to help, but I’ll bet Science Woona can! Engage Science!

Help with what? Science can't be engaged without anything to engage it at!

Goldenwing:
>Wake up in the caves, one marble poorer.

You wake up in the lunar caves, having lost the marble you tripped on.

You are now resting on top of a giant pit of marbles. There's a bright white light above you.

"What the...?"

Golden 123123:
> swim in the marbles like you are a duck in a pile of gold

There were more reasonable things that crossed your mind. Searching around the area to see what was around, trying to use your intuition to figure out what was going to happen next...

But the moment swimming in the marbles occurred to you, your heart was set.

You engage in several different aquatic activities in the glassy sea - backstroke, breaststroke, and even backflips. At the end, you spew out a stream of marbles from your mouth and kick some out of your ears.

This does not remove your Insanity Point.

Goldenwing:
Set the marbles on fire.

You launch a fireball at some marbles in front of you. Nothing happens. You are mildly disappointed.

Golden 123123123:
Science Luna> engage science on the marbles

Marbles are made of glass. Under normal circumstances, glass is not a flammable material. Ergo, the marbles did not light on fire.

Of course, these are hunger marbles; not regular marbles, but they're still made of glass so the same principle applies.

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
Science Woona> Explain what in all things cute a hunger marble is.

Oh, that's easy! They're lifeforms made of moon sand glass that are able to eat thirty times their body weight in a second! They're carnivorous, too. They spend almost all their time asleep in deep hibernation until something disturbs them enough to trigger The Hunt.

Undeadking243:
>Run.

You aren't sure why, but you suddenly feel as though these marbles are going to kill you. You look around carefully and see the edge of the pit - there's even a convenient ladder at the edge.

You try to run to it, but realize that doesn't exactly work on a sea of marbles. So you swim.

You start to hear growling.

Ponygood11:
>Fashion an origami hunger marble and, in your best hunger marble impression, convince the rest that you'll give them indigestion.

As you stumble through the sea of hunger marbles, you unfold the useless map and shape it into a fake hunger marble that... just looks like a round wad of paper to you.

However, upon completion of this task, the ever-present growling stops.

You are now waist-deep in a vat of marbles that probably want to eat you, but are no longer reacting to you.

The ladder is about two yards away.

Ponygood11:
>Proceed up the ladder in a calm and orderly fashion.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

You flail wildly in the direction of the ladder, panic setting in.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

You grab hold of the ladder, but your hoof slips off. You begin to hear the growling again.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

You hoist yourself and your Cartographer's Fake Hunger Marbleout of the pit, falling flat on a smooth, marble surface. Not made of marbles, you understand, made of the rock.

You are briefly overcome with how silly a pit of marble filled with marbles is.

As you laugh, the growling of the hunger marbles dies down.

Golden 123123123:
> seems like the perfect time to have a picnic

Yes, it does, doesn't it? You fold out the map and sit on it, pleased with yourself. It's a great time to sit, relax, and enjoy yourself. Definitely no Searching for the Search or any marble nonsense. Nope. Nosireebob.

Now if only you had food...

Masterweaver:
>Notice the huge feast just offscreen and don't question it at all.

You look upon a massive feast off to the side, set upon a large marble table. All the chairs are empty, but one of them happens to have your cutie mark on it. Cool!

Nothing amiss about a feast in the middle of nowhere next to a pit full of carnivorous marbles. Nothing at all. You walk to the feast.

"Wait a minute. This isn't..."

You sit down, delighted to find a bunch of moon cheese on a plate in front of you.

"Something's wrong here. I'm not eating that."

It smells really, really good...

OmnipresentMIcroorganism:
>Look for the pony behind the curtain.

There really must be something going on here. Putting the moon cheese down, you scan the area carefully. You see the pit of marbles, the marble table, the map you laid out as a picnic blanket, the chairs - each of which are adorned with a cutie mark you recognize, and a mysterious white mistyness all around.

Someone has to be responsible to this. You promise yourself you will find the pony (or person) putting you through all this. Folding your map into a Cartographer's Cutlass, you take full advantage of the oddity of your situation and march forward into the mist. A shape begins to take for-

Golden 123123123:
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE PONY BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Looks like there's nothing here.

"Get ahold of yourself, Cinder!"

Everything's fine, just a bunch of mist. Nothing here at all.

"Come on... come on..."

You feel the need to stop straining yourself so much.

Golden 123123123
>stumble across a completely unimportant Rock

As you stumble through the mist, you trip over a rock. Having learned your lesson from tripping on the marble earlier, you manage to keep your footing.

You look down. It's a completely normal, unimportant rock.

You frown.

Keywii_Cookies55:
>Three out of Four unimportant rocks recommend you push them.

Gingerly, you use your Cartographer's Cutlass to push the rock.

"Hey! Watch it!"

You back up in alarm - talking rock? That's... while not exactly the most outlandish and ridiculous thing you've seen, it is pretty shocking since you weren't expecting it.

Golden 123123123
Science lune> execute science on the rock

It's a rock. It can talk. There's nothing out of the ordinary here.

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
>Apologize to the rock for your brash actions.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't kn-"

"Did you just assume rocks couldn't talk? Cheese Louise..."

"I've never met a talking rock before!"

"Oh, sure, likely story. Everypony's met a talking rock! The rock just didn't talk back! Some ponies, I swear..."

"I still didn't know they talked! I never formally met them!" Thinking it over, you extend a hoof. "Hi, I'm Cinder, what's your name?"

"Oh for the... I'M A ROCK! What makes you think I have a name!?"

This isn't going well.

Masterweaver:
>Point out that all the talking rocks you've ever met have a hard-light body.

"Actually... come to think of it, I did know a talking 'rock'."

"Oh sure, now you think about it."

"Her name is Celia and she has a hard-light body projected from a crystal in her forehead!"

"...That's not a rock. That's a magic weirdo thing. Don't you dare compare us."

"Well, I was trying to empathize. Find some common ground...?"

"We're standing on the same ground right now."

"Heh. Nice."

"That wasn't a joke."

"Oh..."

SgtSarge_51:
>Ask the rock about the mysterious mist.

"So, do you happen to know anything about this mist then?"

"I'm not telling you anything about the Fog of Exegesis!"

"Oh."

Masterweaver:
>Take the rock hostage.

You pick up the rock.

"PUT ME DOWN!"

You don't feel all that inclined too.

Golden 123123123:
>BOOP THE ROCK

Might as well. You tap the rock with your hoof.

"So... soft..."

You are pretty sure hooves aren't soft, but then again it might be soft to a rock. "Do you like soft?"

"I don't know! I'm a rock!"

You boop it again. Since it doesn't respond immediately, you think you've calmed it down. "So... got anything to tell me?"

The rock is silent.

"Hello?"

SgtSarge_51:
>Yeet the Rock.

You toss the rock behind your shoulder, hoping to get its attention.

"OW."

"...Rock? You sound weird."

You don't hit anything.

Ponygood11:
>Abandon all your inhibitions and chase the rock like a cat!

You pounce after the rock and land on absolutely nothing.

"Who are you!?"

Ponygood11:
>You are Discount Woona.

You are now Princess Woona again, and you feel as though someone, somewhere, has just insulted your Woona-ness. Woona-ness is very important, after all.

You are currently bored out of your mind. The kid-with-hands had started trying to explain to you what she was doing to find Cinder, but even though she is your age she started blabbing on and on and on so much like an adult that you just tuned it out.

You are currently laying face-first flat on a table while the mini-alicorn eats a salad in front of you. She may be small, but she is larger than you.

Undeadking243:
>Time to sing the bored song~

You're bored. Oh so very bored. So bored you feel the need to sing a tune about being bored. It's a nice tune, if a bit repetitive, and the words come to you through your powers of cuteness like always.

After you finish, the mini-alicorn suggests that you might be able to do something to alleviate your boredom. There are things to do around the ship, after all.

Ponygood11:
>Be Discount Cinder.

You are the Crown Princess and you are a bit too depressing to be featured in this chapter.

Undeadking243:
>Remember someone talking about video games.

You are Princess Woona and you decide to ask about video games. You have no idea what those are.

You are given a controller and sat on a couch in front of a screen. A character selection screen pops up with dozens of options. You are slightly overwhelmed.

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
>Choose the one that looks the most like you.

You find a perfect match: a blue alicorn with stars in her mane! She's powerful, regal, and has the most adorable snoot oh how you wish you could boop it! Her name is even close: Luna!

You proceed to lose horribly because you have no idea how to play video games.

But hey, she was cool!

Keywii_Cookies55:
>Ask if there's easier games to play

The SRS Lulu provides you with a wide selection of games that are easier, each of them with bright, colorful box art that draws your attention.

Every. Last. Game. There are dozens of them. Do you pick the cute green one, or the brown one that looks exciting? What about the one with those human creatures, or the ponies engaging in space travel? What about that one with the neon lights, the martial artists, the spaceship building, the world made of cubes, the... the...

You feel like your brain is overheating.

SgtSarge_51:
>Find a game about that “Luna” character. That one really spoke to you.

You ask the SRS LULU to find a game about Luna. She finds you one, entitled The Nightmare Cometh. Looks a little scary from the cover, but you're too curious to say no.

You enter the game as Luna. Immediately a nightmarish black alicorn appears on the screen and screeches so loudly spit flies out of that... exceedingly detailed mouth. She generates a scythe and brings it down on Luna and...

It's all black.

No, wait, it's just the Flat one holding a censor bar over the screen. You complain that you're playing a video game.

She insists that this is probably a bad idea. At least you think that's what the series of noises coming out of her mouth meant.

Ponygood11:
> attempt to distract her with the power of cute

You widen your eyes and smile the most adorable smile you can think of. The power of cute WILL work this time! You're sure of it!

The Flat does the exact same, except her face is now surrounded by silly cats doing adorable things on a loop. Kittens playing with toys, bouncing and falling, and sitting in sinks... even the grumpy one looks so CUTE!

It's too much. You let out an AWWWWWWWWWW.

You were right. The power of cute did work. On YOU.

Eclipse_Nova:
>There's someone that can beat you in cuteness level, this certainly cannot stand. Ask the Flat to teach you The Ultimate Cuteness

You fall to your knees and beg she teach you the ways of the Ultimate Cuteness! You must know - as the adorable Princess of the Moon it is a requirement that your Cuteness be top-tier!

The Flat agrees. She holds you up... and stuffs a gummy kitten into your mouth.

You start glowing with the power of Cuteness. You feel... satisfied.

Golden 123123123
> science lune: examine pumpkin

It does appear that the entity Cinder is trying to deal with has a pumpkin-aura of some sort.

What this means is... decidedly uncertain.

Keywii_Cookies55:
>Be the fire horse.

You are Cinder and absolutely nothing is happening to you.

"Who the heck are you!?"

Ponygood11:
>I'm a cat! Uh, I mean, you're a cat! Uh. Meow.

"...A cat."

No, seriously, there's nothing there. No cat. Definitely not an orange cat.

"You're a cat."

Hey, over here! The rock has something to say to you!

"That's a pretty orange cat."

"I know, right?"

Traitor.

StgSarge_51:
>Pet the cat

You know what, fine, I was trying to have sort of meta-weirdness that keeps confusing everyone, but nooooo, you have to pet the cat. Because of course you do.

Fine. You pet the cat. Cat is happy. The power of your cuteness compels him to just be there.

...You know what, screw it. Science Woona? You can narrate. I'm out. Toodeloo!

Wait, what?

...Uh, well... Cinder is in a mysterious mist with a talking rock and an orange cat that is very satisfied with being petted. The cat has an essence of pumpkin on it.

What does Cinder... you... do?

...This was not in my job description!

Golden 123123123:
> ask the cat if he knows what happened

...You... ask the cat if it has any idea what just happened.

"Of course, I know lots of things! Like how you hit me with a rock, how this rock is rude..."

"Hey! Show me more respect than that!"

"...and how you really weren't supposed to see me. Or talk to me. But... oh, I can't be mad, you give SUCH good pets..."

A singular stroke of the hoof over fur is not a pet, it is part of the act of petting. This cat is not being grammatically correct.

"Anyway, you're stuck in a limbo of sorts, Cinder. You have replaced a cuteness that is not your own, and the thin veneer of sense in this world is struggling to accommodate."

OmnipresentMIcroorganism:
>Ask the cat why you weren’t supposed to see him.

"Well, I covered myself in pumpkin dust, obviously." He licks his paw in the standard cat fashion, as expected for one of his ilk. "I don't like being seen. I try to get naps, you know? A-"

Keywii_Cookies55:
>The World resonates with a loud cracking noise Tell the captain of this pirate ship you wish to navigate on this high-seas adventure.

You are First Mate Cinder Belle of the SRS Lulu, and the smell of the sea meets your nose. You smile - it feels great!

"Hey, can I navigate for once?"

The captain says yes. You hop to the wheel. Amazingly the cat and rock in your saddle do not fall off from the motion.

The sun is high and the sea is sparkling. You can smell ADVENTURE!

VoidTemplar2000:
>FInd some cake and eat it

You dig around in your stylish pirate outfit and pull out the terrible, chalky rations the crew mockingly calls cake. It's nutritious, but that's the only good thing that can be said about it. You bite down - and discover that it's as hard as a brick. As always. Maybe, with luck, you won't chip a tooth trying to eat it this time.

Golden 123123123:
Princess wuna> be captain of the SRS Luna

You are Captain Woona of the SRS Lulu (which you named, naturally) and you have just turned the wheel over to your first mate.

"I wonder if my rock can eat this..."

You like your first mate. She doesn't talk like everyone else. It's fun! And she's saved your life on multiple occasions. Of course, you've saved hers. You kept score at first but both of you lost count at some point, such is the way of adventure on the high seas.

Ponygood11:
>Come to a shocking realization.

Something's wrong.

A kraken erupts from the waves, flailing its tentacles wildly. You and Cinder ready your Cartagropher's Cutlasses and dare the beast to attack!

It sure was shocking that it showed up, though.

VoidTemplar2000:
> Offer the Kraken cake

You tear the cake out of Cinder's hooves and throw it right at the kraken's monstrous eye. It squishes and then explodes in a shower of confetti.

This doesn't seem normal to you, but Cinder is cheering excitedly.

"That was awesome! Just like Pinkie!"

Who in the name of the moon is Pinkie?

OmniprsentMicroorganism:
>Meanwhile...

"Suzie! She's not responding!"

"Do you have anything? Any soul signal?"

"Yes, but I can't reach it! It's almost like her mind is elsewhere!"

Ponygood11:
>Now sail forth for the second star on the right!

That's no star

You didn't remember it being night, but that makes as much sense as anything. You tell Cinder to go right for the silver star.

It welcomes you. It invites you. It wishes for you to be safe.

Undeadking243:
>Celestia: Your sister is missing.

Um... Celestia is looking down at an unconscious Cinder, surrounded by various batponies who seem equally worried and confused. Celestia's not sure what's going on, but this is the only place she feels any trace of her sister, Woona.

MazingerZ:
>Arm the harpoon

The star arms a harpoon and points it at you.

You blanch. Uh oh.

Keywi_Cookies55:
>Cinder: Question this

You are Cinder and a star is currently pointing a harpoon gun at you.

This doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. Something's wrong.

"Captain? Something's wrong."

Captain Woona points out that a star is currently pointing a harpoon gun at you, so that should be obvious.

"No, I mean, about this place. It's wrong, off, and... we have duplicate cutlasses?" You hold up your Cartographer's Cutlass to Woona's. They are exactly the same in every way.

Woona seems surprised by this. She's not sure what it means. You aren't either.

You swear you can hear cheese...

Eclipse Nova:
>Woona: use cheese sense.

You are Woona and you realize you have access to the cheese frequency! You can hear voices calling out in... confusion?

The harpoon flies true, stabbing the wood in front of you.

SgtSarge_51:
>Tell the star to chill for a minute, you’ve gotta figure this cheese situation out.

You glare at the star and ask it if it would mind holding this confrontation for a bit.

It starts to complain, but you turn on the waterworks, shutting it up instantly.

"What the..."

Ignoring Cinder, you focus on the cheese. Hmm. It's almost like you can hear voices?

You reach out to them, but not much happens. There's only garbled noise in response.

Golden 123123123:
> use Cinder as an antenna

You pick up Cinder and lift her high above your head.

"Wh- what are y-"

You shush her with a boop. Her eyes light up in recognition and understanding.

"Oh..."

The sound of cheese fills your ears. There is mad screeching. Everything seems to fall apart at the seams...

The cat seems upset.

All is white.

Ponygood:
CINDER --------- FLAG ------------- CINDER
AND -------------- IS ------- CAT ---- IS
WOONA IS ----- GROUP IS ------- YOU
ON ------ ROCK IS -------- GROUP
FLAG ------------- NOT
IS ------------------ NOT
WIN -------------- NOT
ALL ------ IS ----- WHITE

FLAG IS HIDE
NOT GROUP IS YOU
ALL IS WHITE
ALL IS TIME
LONELY CINDER AND WOONA IS ASLEEP
IDLE CAT IS WIN
ROCK IS EMPTY
CELESTIA IS SAD
CHEESE IS ____

Keywii_Cookies55:
>You're wandering a white void, surrounded by sights and sounds, none of which add up. There's a pirate adventure, and a banquet on the moon, and a spaceship filled with the same pony. It was all cascading into a crescendo up until a moment ago, but now it's still.

The question remains...

Who are you?

Ponygood11:
You are JOHN CENA!

"BWA BWA BWA BWAAAA-"

"BURGERBELLE! Woona's passed out! Now is not the time!"

OmnipresentMIrcoorganism:
You are Swip

"I'm detecting something. A connection."

"Follow it!"

"Aye, Suzie!"

Golden 123123123:
> you are a random background Pony

You are a random batpony. You are standing with several of your brothers and sisters next to Celestia, looking down at the unconscious form of a strange white unicorn. She entered the Mist of Elysium... which was a bad idea. Why was she even in there? Why is she holding a rock?

...Is she stirring?

Eclipse_Nova:
>New character: Pause and ponder.

Keywii_Cookies55:
>You are Cryo

You are Cryo and you feel like Cinder is off somewhere doing something more exciting what you're doing. You feel jealous.

SgtSarge_51:
I am inevitable

I am inevitable.

Not you.

Me.

Meow.

Ponygood11:
>I am Groot.

...What?

Seriously, what?

Ponygood11:
>Cleverly discover this chapter's antagonist.

Clever? Clever?

I'm the CAT! Come on! How is that not obvious by now?

Golden 123123123:
> catagonist: monologue your evil plans

Well, if you insist...

My plans are not all that evil, you understand. I am but a remnant of Discord's magic given form now that he's... indisposed, at the moment. I was, annoyingly, stuck on the moon, trapped in the Mist of Elysium. Couldn't even do anything! But then, I felt a little prod from another realm. A mind of fire and brilliance!

I grabbed it. Didn't really know what was going to happen, but I swapped Woona and Cinder. Delightfully chaotic, though Cinder did ruin my nap... Pumpkin dust is supposed to ensure I can sleep as long as I want!

All I need to do is get out of this pathetic universe. And with what Swip and the others are doing, well, that should be much easier for me. Then you'll never hear from me again!

I'll be free!

Assy Assman:
> Sniff your own butt.

I am not some common dog, I will do no such thing! You have no control over ME, you fools.

Also, that name really matches your aura. Nice pick.

Ponygood11:
>Realize that antagonists almost always get defeated in embarrassing or painful ways, and wonder what you could do to be more of a hero-- or antihero, at least.

I was concerned about that at first - hence all the pumpkin stuff. But you know what? Cinder and Woona are currently out of the picture, and the moment they arise I will leave and be FREE! The Sweeties are falling right into my plans, and Celestia can't do anything - just like you! Who else is there to stop me?

SgtSarge_51:
>Rock: save the day!

You are now the rock. You tell yourself that, as a rock, you can't do much aside from talk. Maybe there's someone else who can help?

Keywii_Cookies55:
>Tinder: Wake up
Masterweaver:
>Cinder: Check on Tinder.
Golden 123123123:
>Tinder: Check on Cinder

Error: Tinder not found.

Also... what?

...You are Cinder. And you remain asleep...

Ponygood11:
>Science Woona: science yourself into existence!

Finally, someone got the right answer. By the power of SCIENCE! I hit you with this flag!

Wha- OW! OW! STOP IT!

It's a well known fact that cats hate flags! Flags are the antithesis of both pumpkin spice and hairballs, so it's super effective in this case.

Quit it! MEOW!

Also, cats screaming in pain is scientifically proven to wake up young ponies!

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
>Burgerbelle: Play an appropriate Awakening song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUhVCoTsBaM

They're awake.

Made with photoshop, unsure where individual images came from at this time.

Ponygood11:
>Search yourself for cats.
Golden 123123123:
> cats yourself for search
Masterweaver:
>Self your cats for search

The two of you feel the Search come upon you. As the sounds of Awakening fade into the background, the Search directs you to your adversary: the orange cat, now easily visible to everyone who cares. It is just the two of you in the whiteness with a cat being beat over the head by a...

...yellow flag?

SgtSarge_51:
>Cat: WRYYYYYYYY!

WRYYYYYYYY!

Golden 123123123:
>Woona +Cinder: introduce yourselves to each other

"Hi, I'm Cinder!"

Woona introduces herself with an adorable wink.

Pongyood11:
>So this is the pony you've switched with... Quick! Boop her before she boops you!

You both get the idea at the same time and boop each other. The cuteness overload is too much to handle!

You both get +1,000,000 cuteness power!

SgtSarge_51:
>Quick, while he’s WRYYing! Cinder: cast Fireball! Woona: cast Cute....er.....ball?

You push your cuteness powers to their maximum and, together, create a fireball mixed with the shimmering power of cuteness. It flies right toward the cat while making meowing noises much more adorable than his.

He really has been WRYYing for a long time, hasn't he? Geez.

The cute-fireball impacts...

"ENOUGH!"

~~~

Cinder fell to the ground as the white expanse became dark, like midnight. She tried to move, but couldn't - the mental power of the cat was just too much. Vaguely, she could make out the shape of Woona next to her, trembling.

"All I wanted was to be free from this goddess-forsaken rock!" the cat hissed, striding toward Cinder in that arrogant way cats walked around. "Nothing but moon and mist, moon and mist! You were that opportunity... and I will not let you ruin this! Chaos needs to be free!" He brought out his claws, pointing them at Cinder. "Once your crew makes that portal, you will be no more." He traced his claws under Cinder's neck. "I wish I could take care of you now, but they need that connection to find you."

Cinder grunted. "You... won't get away with this..." I'm being so cliche right now.

"What, do you expect me to say 'I already have?' Are you ridiculous? Your current conscious state is a massive threat! So I'm going to keep you right where I want you... Trapped in this dreamscape. And don't get any ideas on imagining a way out, this is my dream, not yours." He turned to Woona. "It isn't even yours."

Woona looked up with big eyes. "N-no..."

"Aww, don't be sad, you probably get to live. Aren't even physically h-"

"It's not my dream," Woona interrupted. Then she grinned adorably. "But it's not yours either!"

"Wh-"

She booped him. A shimmering white light came out where her hoof touched his nose, creating an explosion that tossed the feline back.

"What!?" the cat shouted.

"It is the power of cuteness!" Luna declared. "A power that transcends all dream barriers!"

Cinder stood up, finding that the weight had lifted. "Yeah!" She reached into her mane and pulled out the Cartographer's Cutlass, pointing it at the cat. "And with it, we shall defeat you! Cuteness..."

"...and friendship!" Woona shouted, producing her own identical cutlass.

"This is my dreamscape!" the cat shouted. "I can do anything!" He drew all his claws... and nothing else happened. "W-what?"

"I am Princess Woona!" Woona declared. "Princess of the Night! Princess of Dreams!" She twirled her cutlass in the air. "Nobody has control of this dream now."

"And you don't understand cuteness!" Cinder added.

The cat blanched. "No... No, get away! I just need t-"

The flag appeared again, smacking him over the head.

"I AM GOING TO FIND YOUR REALM, SCIENTIST, AND I WILL MAKE YOU SUFF- OW!"

"Hiiii-yaaaa!" Woona and Cinder shouted at the same time, bringing their cutlasses down on the cat at the same time as the flag. The cat hissed, lashing out - but the swords improbably folded into hang gliders and swept them out of the way. Swinging back around, they smacked the cat in the head with their hooves. An explosion of cuteness energy made the two mares' manes flip wildly in the shockwave. They folded a pair of paper hands and high-fived each other.

The cat growled. "I... will be free! I... I will..."

"How bout... no?" Cinder asked. She and Woona caste the cute-fireball once more, surging with power neither of them fully understood.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" the cat screamed as it was engulfed.

Woona and Cinder jumped into the air, cheering.

The dream began to fade...

~~~

GMBlackjack:
> Be Cinder

You are Cinder and you have just woken up in the warm embrace of a Celestia. You see a lot of batponies, the rock, and the cat, which appears to be stirring.

"It's okay, my little pony," Celestia says.

Keywii_Cookies55:
>Hug Celestia back and tell her about your friends on Swip.

You pull the Celestia into a hug.

"It's okay..." she says again.

"...You must be worried about Woona, huh?"

Celestia smiled warmly. "Yes. Can you tell me where she is?"

"She's with my friends - I think. They should be here soon."

The cat opens an eye and quickly closes it when he catches you looking.

Ponygood11:
>Offer the cat a new path.

You release yourself from Celestia's embrace and walk to the cat.

It sees you, eyes open in alarm, but then it decides it's going to act like a completely normal cat and yawn.

"That's not going to work," you said. "I know it's you. You did all this. Swapped us, everything. And dusted yourself in... pumpkin? To mess with everything. But now we can see you. You're the cat."

The cat tries to look normal, but you can see the nervous twitch in its eyes.

"When the other Sweeties get here, we'll let you go."

The cat stares at you. "WHAT!?"

"You're just stuck here. You haven't actually hurt anyone, though you tried." You smile. "Let's just give you a chance. What do you say?"

Golden 123123123:
> cat: be chaotic neutral please consider chaotic neutrality

The cat looks at you. With a glare and a scoff, he puts his paw in your hoof.

"Fine. I guess. Wouldn't be smart to do anything else, would it?"

You pull him into a hug. He objects, but you don't let that deter you.

SgtSarge_51:
>Suddenly Sweeties

A portal opens up in front of you, the cat, and Celestia, depositing a plethora of familiar Sweeties into the area...

And Woona.

"Hi!" you wave at Woona.

Woona grins, telling you how awesome that dream sequence was!

"It was pretty great."

The two of you have a nice friendly hug.

Woona notices the cat. She takes one look at it - and pulls it into a big hug.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA!" the cat screams.

You giggle.

Ponygood11:
>Ask someone about your pendant.

Celestia lifts the pendant off your neck and examines it with her magic. "Hmm... this appears to be an illusion amulet. Why, with it, you might be convinced that rocks could talk!"

You twitch ever-so-slightly. You hope no one notices you toss the rock away.

The batponies ask what it was like in the Cheese Frequency.

"...What? The CHEESE frequency?" You have no idea what to tell them.

Golden 123123123:
> tie up loose threads

You are Princess Woona. You run to your sister and pull her into a great big hug. She says she missed you and was so worried. You giggle - you had everything under control. You and Cinder beat the cat! That cat with the grumpy expression! And now he's your friend.

She comments that not all chaos is irredeemable, apparently.

"Yeah, we've met a lot of good Discords, even!"

Your sister looks at Cinder like she might be a little crazy - but she chuckles anyway. You sister would like to meet these other Discords. You would rather not, and your sister says that is okay.

"There are lots of other worlds to check out, Woona. Why not one where everything is candy?"

Heck. Yes.

Your sister is disapproving, but you don't care. Endless candy awaits!

OmnipresentMicroorganism:
> High-five and do a freeze-frame while happy music plays in the background.

You two jump into the air and hoofbump while cheering.

The adventure, at long last, has come to an end.

Eclipse_Nova:
>Roll the credits!

The League of Sweetie Belles: What Will You Do?
THE END

Written by G. M. Blackjack.
Based on the work 'Moonstuck' by egophiliac.

STARRING:
Cinder as Papercraft Prodigy
Woona as Princess of Cute
Hunger Marbles as There is Nothing Scarier
The SRS Lulu as Swip
The Sweeties as Victims of Woona's Nameless Narration
The Rock as Totally Just Your Imagination. Yep. Exactly. Rocks Can't Talk. Yep.
The Cat as The Catagonist
The Batponies as Background Cheese Ponies
Celestia as Best Sister
Science Woona as MVP
and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE.

CONTRIBUTORS:
FanOfMostEverything (1 command)
Speckle (2 commands)
Undeadking243 (6 commands)
Golden_Reflection (2 commands)
Masterweaver (10 commands)
Blaze Rod (1 command)
OmnipresentMicroorganism (15 commands)
Goldenwing (9 commands)
Keywii_Cookies55 (11 commands)
SgtSarge_51 (15 commands)
Starlit Rose (1 command)
Blaze Song (1 command)
Golden 123123123 (22 commands)
runtrivena (2 commands)
Eclipse_Nova (4 commands)
VoidTemplar2000 (2 commands)
MazingerZ (1 command)
Assy Assman (1 command)
THE WINNER:
Ponygood11 (23 commands)

GMBlackjack:
>Stinger

Well, glad that's taken care of. Now I know where Woona is, everything's back to normal. I'm warning you, though, when I go on break she better still be there when I get back. I have this flag and I'm not afraid to use it!

Also, hmm. Analysis shows something... different about Cinder from when she first arrived. I think that amulet did more than just make her talk to rocks...

+Permanent Bonus: Minor cuteness-based reality warping; papercraft.

Belle Hopping (Sunset's Isekai)

Cinder “Sweetie” Belle laid back on the plush couch in Swip’s lounge. Currently, the various screens lining the room all displayed the ‘outside’ of the interdimensional pocket universe they were traveling through: a strange rippling pattern of dark orange that resembled nebulas even though the pocket dimension wasn't anywhere near large enough to hold a star—much less a cloud of interstellar gas.

She considered turning on one of the gaming consoles Swip had built into her, but she had just finished several hours of that with Blink. Truthfully, she should be tired and heading to bed right now, but instead she was just bored. Bored, bored, bored…

“You look bored,” Swip said, calling from the speakers all around the room.

“I am,” Cinder groaned, rubbing her horn with her hoof. “When are we going out again?”

“Burgerbelle’s team hasn’t returned yet, so… later.”

Cinder hopped off the couch and stretched her legs, clacking her hooves on the ground. “Later… right! Think you could maybe do some time shenanigans…?”

“No,” the AI deadpanned.

“Awww…” Cinder sluggishly trotted out of the lounge and into the bridge. Suzie was at her console, tapping buttons furiously.

She was playing Tetris. Or something that looked a lot like Tetris, it seemed a little too flashy to be something that simple, however.

“Hey, Suzie!”

The captain jumped at Cinder’s chipper greeting, losing her focus and causing the entire block-shaped puzzle to explode. Game over.

“Bored too, huh?”

Suzie clutched her chest, eyes wide. “I… Not anymore…” She breathed heavily.

Cinder shrugged. “Want to do something?”

“Just let me… catch my breath, then of course…”

Swip let out a virtual cough. “Hey. You two.”

Suzie looked up. “What is it?”

“I don’t mean to alarm you, but there’s suddenly a door in my corridor that didn’t exist a second ago.”

Suzie blinked. “What?”

“Actually, scratch that, I do mean to alarm you. Do you have any idea how freaky it is to suddenly have a door appear inside your body? No? That’s right, you aren’t a ship. You sometimes don’t even notice when you get a papercut.”

“Hey, Swip, calm down,” Cinder encouraged.

“I’ll calm down when I figure out what’s behind that door. Because, hey hey, I can’t see through it! Shocker!”

“We’ll check it out,” Suzie said, adjusting her uniform. “Anything you can tell us about it?”

“It’s got a neon sign on it that looks like it belongs on a cheap bar.”

“Ah,” Suzie said as they passed through the lounge and entered the hall. Sure enough, embedded between two doors that led to the Sweeties’ quarters was a wooden door with a neon sign hanging over it.

Sunset’s Isekai.

There was what Cinder assumed was a martini or something over the words. “You weren't kidding.”

“I used to have a screen on that wall,” Swip lamented. “A beautiful screen…”

“You have one on every wall,” Suzie said, hand poised to grab her gun.

“...Let’s try going in peacefully first, maybe?” Cinder suggested.

Suzie nodded. “Just being cautious.” She reached her other hand to the door and opened it.

~~~

Two people walked into Sunset’s Isekai. A unicorn and a human.

Sunset blinked. That’s a first.

To boot, they were both obviously different versions of Sweetie Belle. The unicorn was a young mare, perhaps not quite an adult, with the standard crusader shield cutie mark and bright orange eyes. The woman was middle-aged with excessively puffy hair—shockingly uncurled. She wore a simple gray uniform with an orange-gold ‘u’ symbol on the chest, and had what Sunset was pretty sure was a weapon hooked to her hip.

The human’s tense hands relaxed when she saw Sunset. “Ah, a Sunset.”

“...In a bar? On Swip?” The unicorn asked, confused.

“Yep. Possibly an interdimensional jumper of some sort… Probably nothing to worry about as long as we keep the doors open and Swip has a lock on us.”

A digitized, yet feminine voice came from the world outside. “Famous last words… just find out what she’s doing in my hall.”

Cinder walked up to the bar and sat on the stool. “Hi! I’m Cinder. Are you just Sunset, or do you have another name?”

"Uh," Sunset cleared her throat. "Yes. I'm just Sunset Shimmer at this time. Officially. As in, when not in wizard robes an—you know, I think this might be the first time I might not need to clarify the multiverse thing. Anyway, to answer… Swip's question, my bar just hops to where people or creatures need a drink. No additional agendas included."

“Need a drink…” Cinder scratched her chin. “I don’t think I’m in need o—”

“You were complaining about how bored you were!” Swip shouted from the hall.

“If you think drinks are guaranteed to cure boredom I think you need to re-examine your processors,” Cinder retorted.

"Girls, girls," Sunset spoke up, motioning with her hands to settle down. "Swip is right in a way, I don't literally mean that you need a drink to get rid of boredom, it's a metaphor for people that need a break; just the right type of different setting to talk, possibly have fun, and maybe unload their worries with a willing ear. No alcohol required, even though I clearly have an excess of it."

Suzie placed a finger on the bar. “I’ll take whatever you got that’ll give me a buzz without making me hopelessly drunk.” She sagged into a seat, letting her arms flop to her side. “I think I’m the one who needs to be here…”

“Being the captain is stressful work,” Cinder supposed.

"Sure," Sunset shrugged, "I've been working on a few of those. I think you should be fine as long as you don't ask for a chaser that might make it worse..." she fished out a menu and passed it over to Cinder. "Those are our non-alcoholic drinks, if you want to take a look."

She turned around and headed over to her bottles, choosing a couple of golden-liquid containers before getting to work on Suzie's cocktail.

“Guess I am underage here… seems I’m pretty borderline,” Cinder commented. “...Do we even have a drinking age? Oh, and I’ll have this cherry thing. I like cherries.”

Suzie shrugged. “It’s up to individual member universes to decide their drinking age. Depends on the local culture, tendency for abuse, things like that.”

Sunset shrugged. "You just seemed a bit on the young side from my Equestrian perspective, but if you're legal here and your captain says it's cool…" She turned around, giving Suzie an old fashioned glass with a large, transparent ball of ice inside, the liquid was a deep amber color, and smelled slightly of oranges and tangerine, with light touches of bitters.

“She can if she wants,” Suzie said. “We adhere by the local rules. But something tells me she won’t.”

Cinder nodded. “I want this cherry stuff. Cherry. Stuff. It has cherries in it!”

“She probably has alcoholic cherry things!” Swip called.

“Yep. And I’m going to pass on it. Because… reasons, I guess.”

Suzie leaned in to Sunset. “Blink gave her something about a week ago. She threw it up an hour later and is currently pretending the smell of alcohol doesn’t make her want to puke.”

"Ah," Sunset nodded sagely. "I understand. No worries, though, the cherry drink is basically the same taste profile with—or without—the alcohol. It'll be good." She busied herself by gathering the ingredients, casting glances at her guests. "So. I'm curious, how is it that a pair of Sweetie Belles are so familiar with the multiverse, and apparently have a ship that can jump around it?"

“I’m a Sweetie Belle too!” Swip called.

Cinder smirked. “Yep! All of us on Swip are. Even Celia, though she’s also part Rarity…” Cinder paused, thinking for the moment. “We are one of the main expedition teams of the League of Sweetie Belles, a multiversal organization that does a lot of stuff. Suzie and the rest of the crew? We explore. Most of the Sweeties manage a lot of local multiversal shenanigans at Celestia City, and…” She rubbed the back of her head. “Uh, yeah. Basically, it’s our job! I’m the new kid.”

"Sorry!" Sunset called out to Swip, sliding Cinder her own drink. "That's pretty cool though!" She turned her attention to the pair in front of her. "Alright, I have to admit this is the first I've heard of you guys. Then again, the multiverse is… well. The multiverse. I'm sort of surprised to find a crew of only you..." She trailed off. "Yous? Anyway, doesn't it get a bit confusing? I get the names are different but, I dunno. I can imagine having issues with more than a couple of Sunsets in the same place. It almost gave Gilda an aneurysm to see two of us in the same place." She tapped her chin. "Although she might have been thinking about other things."

Cinder picked up on the connotation and rolled her eyes, but didn’t comment on it. “It really does help to change the name. Seriously, you should consider it. But we also work on getting a defining feature.” Cinder pointed at her orange eyes. “See? These mark me different visually. Suzie styles her hair differently. And Swip… well is a spaceship.”

“It’s definitely not for everyone,” Suzie said. “There are enough universes and versions of everyone in the Equis Cluster to make all sorts of Self Societies. There are only four big ones I know of. The League of Sweetie Belles and the Pinkie Emporium are both part of our nation, Merodi Universalis. The Sparkle Census and Infinite Carousel are distinct entities.”

"Huh," Sunset said, "I have yet to find another Sunset bartender, but I'll definitely try to come up with a good name." She leaned across the counter. "And these societies, are they are at odds with each other? Anything I should be watching out for? Any borg tendencies? I'm not fond of borgs."

“Borg?” Cinder cocked her head.

“I DO NOT WANT TO RELIVE THAT DAY!” Swip shouted. “We do not speak of the Borg.”

“Okay…” Cinder shivered. “Anyway, uh, I think most everyone’s at peace…?”

Suzie nodded. “Tentative, in a few cases. I won’t bore you with large-scale multiverse politics since your bar is clearly Equis Cluster local, given the pictures back there. Nothing too far out of the way. But dangers… you’ll want to watch for the Infinite Carousel and Eldritch Embodiment.”

"The Eldritch Embodiment sounds like something Nyarlathotep whispered that one time…" Sunset muttered. She smiled. "But! While it sounds squishy and mind-boggling, it also doesn't sound terribly appealing. The Carousel thing sounds like a Rarity conglomerate."

“She spoke to Nyar and lived…” Suzie muttered under her breath, clearly not sure what to make of that. “Must have been in an amused mood that day…” She shook her head. “But yeah, the Carousel is a Rarity conglomerate. They aren’t evil, but they are… how do I put this?”

“Celia called them Capitalism Incarnate,” Cinder offered.

“Ah. Yes. They will try to buy everything they can out. Despite inter-universal businesses being outlawed in Merodi space they just keep trying…” Suzie smirked. “Luckily they usually aren’t my problem. Just don’t let them convince you they’re giving you a good deal.”

Sunset's smile was frozen. "Right. Ah well, uh… I don't think I've met any yet. But it did sound oddly familiar…" she frowned. "Hm."

“Really, though, you should be fine as long as you don’t anger any dark gods, interfere with their magic, and look out for large quantities of Rarities talking about the ‘generosity of big business’.”

"So far I haven't been responsible or even really integral to any major disasters that might have befallen ancient civilization," Sunset stated. "And this bar is neutral ground as far as I'm concerned, so I have no intention of angering any gods, dark or otherwise."

Suzie nodded. “Hey Swip! Send these coordinates back to the Relations Division, declare it neutral territory. Maybe the Carousel will listen to the treaties for once.”

“Done!” Swip chirped.

"If not, I have methods of getting rid of unwanted guests," Sunset said, shrugging. "This place shouldn't open its doors to people with malicious intent either… although oblivious jackassery does seem to be able to bypass the locks through sheer stupidity."

“He who stands…” Suzie chuckled. “You probably don’t have anything to worry about. The people with the power to bash down these doors by force probably wouldn’t have a reason too.”

“It is just a bar,” Cinder admitted. “A nice one, yeah! But… I mean, what’s really here for someone to take?”

Sunset blinked, then motioned with her thumb over her shoulder at the room behind her. "You mean besides the contained essence of three elder gods that died during an apocalypse?"

Suzie stared at her in shock and fear.

“She’s joking,” Cinder said with a giggle.

"Always good to have a sense of humor." Sunset chuckled. "Relax, Captain, that's just Rarity's workshop."

“You work here with your Rarity?” Cinder asked. She gasped before Sunset could answer. “Do you have your Sweetie here too!?”

"Uh… not exactly, and no." Sunset served a bit more cocktail. "It's not my world's Rarity. Either of them. She's a Rarity from another universe that was visiting mine when we met. And she's here occasionally, when she's not promoting the place or something." Sunset hummed. "I'm not exactly sure how you would promote a place that literally doesn't show up unless it's the exact set of circumstances, but well… Rarity. She's also currently engaged in a multiversal contest for bartender clothes designs with a gunslinger." She raised her hand to stop them from speaking. "I know. And it is as cool as you think. Anyway, she has a workshop/office back there that she uses occasionally. No Sweeties here so far, though."

“Oh,” Cinder tried to hide her disappointment. “Well, we always like meeting new Sweeties. Direct them our way, maybe?”

Suzie chuckled. “Quite the little recruiter, huh?”

“Hey!” Swip called. “Guess what I found! Deep multiversal Internet search. There was a Celestia City tabloid that promoted this place! Gave no address, had a bunch of mysterious word puzzles associated with it… not sure what she was hoping to accomplish…?”

"Probably will have to ask her directly, I'm afraid," Sunset said. "Ah well. So you said you're on missions right now? Anything interesting happening in the multiverse that might give me pause?" She blinked. "I mean. Alright, so there's probably always something happening, but I mean something that directly invites your attention to it?"

“We just found the ancient universe-machine responsible for most of the universes in the Equis Cluster,” Cinder said nonchalantly. “Probably responsible for all of us, one way or another.”

“You’d be surprised how hard things like that are to find,” Suzie muttered. “And how much chaos happens when you do.”

"That sounds like a complicated thing to handle, Suzie," Sunset said, patting the older woman's hand with her own. "But if Cinder here is any sign, I think you're leading your friends well."

Suzie smiled. “It’s good to hear that from someone who’s not a biased friend.”

“Hey, Nausicaa doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Cinder huffed. “You’re great!”

Suzie nodded slowly, taking a small drink. “Yeah… by the way, this is excellent.”

“I can replicate it as many times as you want if you bring it out here!” Swip called. “Or I can give you any of a wide selection of exotic multiversal brews…”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Well, I can't say I can do that. I have to get everything from the source. And believe me, Dwarves in non-pony universes are not as forthcoming with their products as you might want to believe. Even if I have a sealed scroll from three of their kings. And some dude named Illuvatar. But that was Rarity's and it only worked once." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, I wish I could prepare something for you, Swip, you sound like you also need a drink."

Swip fell silent. “...I can get something for Rachel. For later. When she visits, at least. She likes coconuts.”

Sunset pondered. "Uh… is she legal to drink? Because I don't make virgin Pina Coladas… for insurance reasons."

Suzie smiled warmly. “Rachel’s a full grown human woman. Swip’s adoptive sister, you could say.”

"Right then! In that case, that's an option, but it might not hold well until her visit unless you have a magical stasis field to keep it fresh? Other than that, I have some coconut based alcohol, and a couple of different cocktails I can pre-mix and let you finish for her."

“Thanks,” Swip said. “...Ah, you might want to hurry, looks like Burgerbelle’s back.”

“Already?” Suzie asked.

“She was gone long enough for you to be bored, this wasn’t a short outing.”

“Hmm. Guess I was just beginning to really enjoy myself…”

"Right, Burgerbelle…" She started gathering ingredients and pouring them into a mixer. "Does she sell burgers? Did she work at Burger Princess?"

“Bradburger,” Suzie answered. “Don’t ask. And if she comes in, still don’t ask, it’ll save you several brain cells.”

"Right." Sunset nodded slowly as she shook the container, then poured the contents into a glass jar and screwed it shut. "For Swip," she said, sliding it over to Suzie.

Cinder downed the last of her cherry drink. “Well, guess we need to get going then? Catch up on her mission, that sort of thing?”

Suzie nodded. “But first…” She pulled a brochure and a disc-shaped device out of her pocket. “Basic multiversal introduction pamphlet and a communication device, if you have any need. Should work anywhere in the Equis Cluster barring unusual circumstances.”

Sunset smirked, pulling out a silver card and giving it to Suzie. "Open invite, I'll know where to find you if you need it. Also, before you leave, I'll need a pic with you girls to put on the wall. And Swip if we can get her included."

“A picture?” Cinder grinned. “Ooh, that’s great, here, I can display Swip’s avatar on a tablet a—”

A human charged in through the doors—except she was completely two-dimensional and moved like she was on some sort of poorly-executed puppet animation. She was a Sweetie, yes, and had she not looked like something that belonged on the pages of a cheesy children's book she might have been twelve. She slammed her hands on the bar and spoke with a voice that belonged on a text-to-speech device. “Take me to your leader.” After a pause, she added. “Your leader is ice cream.”

Sunset's eyes went wide. "There is no spoon."

“I am being presented to spoonedly.”

"Unfortunately the eagle has left the underwater carrier."

“Listen, pretty lady, I need a stiff drink.”

"You could have just said that from the beginning," Sunset replied, "I thought you'd just been hanging around a drunk Krogan."

Burgerbelle had somehow managed to produce a glass of beer and slid it over to Sunset, grinning. “And here it is. Drink up, you earned it!” She saluted, put on a pair of pixelated sunglasses, and cartwheeled out the door. She made obnoxious cat sounds every time she touched something.

Sunset looked at the glass of beer in silence for a moment. "Okay. That happened."

“That’s a good way to describe her,” Suzie chuckled. “Now, about that picture…”

“Already on it, dears,” a tall pony with a crystal in her forehead instead of a horn said—she looked like a mixture of Sweetie and Rarity. She was currently dragging Burgerbelle back in with her magic, a digital tablet clutched tightly in the Flat’s arms. “Now let’s get this taken before the rest of the crew decides they want in on it, hmm?”

~~~

Suzie, Cinder, Burgerbelle, and Celia stood in Swip’s primary corridor.

The wall was back to normal. Even the screen was back, proudly displaying Swip’s avatar - a young human with darker skin that didn’t seem to match any nationality whatsoever. “And now I’ll be able to replicate amazing coconut POWER for Rachel every time.” She smirked. “I got her.”

“You could have done that before,” Celia pointed out.

“But I couldn't have said it was a recipe from an interdimensional bar!”

Cinder rolled her eyes and giggled. “I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“You bet she will!”

Suzie stretched. “Well, that was a nice break. But I do need to hear your report, Burgerbelle.”

“Nanomachines, son,” Burgerbelle said.

Suzie facepalmed.

“I’m serious. We were in that universe. I even heard the line! I spat it back at him. It was great.”

“...How much collateral damage are we talking?”

Burgerbelle shrugged with a ‘boing!’ sound effect.

Suzie glanced to Celia.

“I wasn't on the team.”

“You can translate.”

“Well, yes, I suppose I can…”

Suzie, Celia, and Burgerbelle walked off, leaving Cinder alone in the corridor. She put a hoof on the wall where the door used to be.

“I like her,” Cinder decided.

“...Are you talking to me?” Swip asked.

Cinder shrugged. “Just… thinking aloud. Hope she gets to have a lot of adventures in there. ...Who even is Nyar?”

“One of the highest ranking eldritch deities within the entire Eldritch Embodiment. Has a tendency rather unlike his kind to interact with mortals. Usually… destructively.”

“...Oh.” Cinder blinked. “I hope I never meet him.” She frowned. “Aaaaaand I’ve doomed myself.”

“Probably.”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Oh well. Time to listen to what Burger got up to. I’m sure it’ll be great!” She scampered off.

~~~

Sunset hung the image on her wall. Five Sweeties—Suzie, Cinder, Burgerbelle, that gem-pony Celia she didn’t get to talk that much too, and Swip. Suzie was clearly in charge, taking the center of the image up, an almost motherly arm on Cinder. Celia and Burgerbelle stood to the side, like deputies of some kind, though Burgerbelle was holding a golden scepter with a Twilight head…? Swip was digitally represented on a tablet in Cinder’s hooves, smiling and waving.

Sunset frowned. Swip was wearing a copy of her outfit. How hadn’t she noticed that earlier?

As she proceeded to clean the glasses and equipment, she pondered on what she had learned today. It hadn't been a deep and philosophical moment, but it did put a lot of things into perspective, possible dangers and equally exciting possibilities. She had known a bit about the multiverse, and learned more from Rarity, but the Sweeties had given her a new outlook on it, things that she just hadn't given herself time to think about.

Multiverse adventurers and explorers were now part of her reality. Multiversal Governmental Entities and Conglomerates existed out there. The fact that she had just met representatives of one showed just how big this whole thing was.

She chuckled and shook her head. There was never a dull moment in her bar. She finally came to sit at the bar and grabbed hold of the beer Burgerbelle had left for her. It was still cold enough, so she gave it a sip.

She smirked. It was pretty good. She enjoyed the quiet, even as the many thoughts and revelations and theories she had formulated played about in her mind, slowly sipping her beer, and once more glad she had taken this job and silently promising herself to ask Rarity why exactly she had the essence of three elder gods trapped in her office.

Author's Notes:

Sunset's Isekai by Wanderer D is a story about a Sunset who owns an interdimensional bar. This bar's purpose? Cross over with every fanfic and give characters a much-needed rest from their zany adventures! This chapter actually exists in Sunset's Isekai too, bringing the multiverse ever-closer together. Check it out, see another set of crossovers!

Next time: Equestria at War (I wrote a fic about a game mod for a game I don't even own...)

((LSB Status Post))

The Rising Sun (Equestria at War)

I WANT YOU

TO JOIN THE EQUESTRIAN ARMY

THE CHANGELING MENACE MUST BE STOPPED

Cinder looked at the bright, colorful image of Princess Celestia pointing a hoof at her - and everypony else who looked at the poster for that matter.

“I don’t think she’s talking to you,” Blink pointed out, adjusting her sunglasses to glint off the sun.

“She’s talking to everypony else,” Cinder said with a frown. “War…”

“Everywhere, isn’t it?”

Cinder grunted, turning to look at the version of Canterlot they were currently standing in. She could identify the spires of the royal palace and many of the older buildings but the city was far from the one she knew. The bright colors commonplace in pony houses were muted by the constant presence of factory smoke in the sky, casting a thin shroud over Equestria’s capital. Massive airships floated in the sky, their oversized weapons shimmering with magical energy used for one purpose: killing Changelings. Probably anybody else who got in their way, too.

Propaganda posters littered every public wall. I want you was the most common, but there were numerous others. Report all suspected Changelings, we can do it, and Remain Strong for Equestrian Harmony all stood out. At the very least, ponies seemed to be listening to the last one - despite the clearly hard times, Cinder still saw ponies chatting and smiling around a couple fruit stands on a nearby street corner.

Naturally, those street corner ponies hadn’t noticed the Sweeties yet. Those who had mostly responded with fear and trepidation in addition to the usual confusion. There was no harmony for the Sweeties.

Cinder took one look at the Report all suspected Changelings poster and knew exactly why. “So. Changelings, are we?”

“Probably,” Blink admitted. “Terrible ones at that. We’re all variations on a single theme! How stupid must we be?”

“Unbelievably so, since we aren’t running away.”

Blink chuckled.

“Should we be running away?”

“I’ll judge the local law enforcement when they get here,” Celia said, her gemstone flashing as she levitated a discarded newspaper to her face. “Hopefully they aren’t murder-happy for cooperative individuals. If they aren't, we’re likely to get a hearing and access to more important ponies once we explain who we are.”

“I could give them a few tips on all these machines,” Seren said, making a ‘tut’ noise as she examined an airship flying overhead. “People always think blimps can’t be fast. But they can be, you just need to get a little creative with the propellor spells. I’m thinking wind cone 6-A for their designs.”

“I wonder what kind of Changeling they think you are.” Cinder pointed at the young anthro. “Can these Changelings even turn into nonpony shapes?”

Celia shrugged. “Not enough information for me to say one way or the other yet. I can determine that the war isn’t going well.”

“Newspaper say that?”

“Oh, no, it says the war is going excellent and victory is on the horizon.” Celia lowered the newspaper and raised an eyebrow. “I can tell you from the number of airships currently deployed in a defensive formation above us that is not the case.”

“Thirty-one flavors of propaganda!” Blink declared. “Welcome to pseudo-dystopia, how may I take your order?”

“Question,” Cinder said, raising a hoof. “Are we helping them or fighting them?”

“No idea,” Celia admitted. “It really depends on how things g-”

A unicorn teleported behind her and pressed a gun into the back of her head. “Don’t move.”

“Ah. Law enforcement, I presume?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Changeling,” he spat.

“I assure you, I am not a Changeling,” Celia said. “I trust you have some sort of spell to determine my identity?”

“Not taking my magic off this trigger, bug. Too many fall for that trick.”

“Then you will detain us and check us later.”

“Yeah a- hey! You don’t get to say how this goes!”

“I’m not. I’m just trying to determine where I stand.”

“Just take us to jail already,” Blink suggested. “We’re not gonna fight you about it.”

This confused the officer. Evidentially Changelings weren’t known for going along with the procedure. “Uh… sure.” He put Celia, Cinder, and Blink in hoofcuffs, coming at last to Seren. He held up his hoofcuffs and examined her small arms. “Stupid nonponies…” He opted to permanently hold the gun to the back of her head rather than cuffing her. “Now march!”

Cinder could think of a thousand ways any of the four of them could simply overpower this officer and run away. She could toss a fireball with her back hooves, Blink could just phase out of her restraints, Seren could cast any one of her ridiculous spells, and Celia could probably charm her way out if she wanted.

Yet here they were, getting purposefully imprisoned.

Apparently a winning strategy that had proven effective time and time again on numerous Expeditions missions.

The police station was only a block away, nested between a junkyard of broken war machines and an inn of some sort that was compensating for the darkened skies by using obnoxiously neon paint.

“Changelings?” the officer at the front door asked.

“They say they’re not. I have my doubts, but they cooperated. You know the protocol.”

“Hmph. Too lenient if you ask me.” She took a sip of coffee. “Celestia should push the advisors a bit m-”

“Not interested in your politics.” The stallion led them into the station and shoved them all into a cell with a single bed and an open toilet. “There. Now I’ll see what you really are, Changeling scum…”

He lit his horn.

To his surprise, nothing happened.

“W… what?”

Cinder grinned. “Told you we weren’t Changelings!”

“...I need a second opinion…” He ran out, dragging the mare outside into the room. “Scan them.”

“Lentil, it’s five in the mornin’ and I haven’t finished my coffee ye-”

“Just scan them.”

She sighed, lighting her horn and finding them not to be Changelings. “Huh. Would you look at that.”

“What are you?” Lentil asked.

“Just a bunch of travelers from another universe seeking diplomatic relations with your nation,” Cinder said.

The two officers stared at her blankly.

“Don’t worry, we won’t take being imprisoned against you! In fact…” She glanced to Celia for confirmation. “We’re perfectly happy to sit in this cell until you can get somepony higher up the chain of command to figure out what to do with us.”

Their expressions did not change.

“You may wish to hurry,” Celia encouraged. “I doubt your government will be pleased to hear you kept friendly foreign dignitaries locked up longer than was strictly necessary.”

Both of them scrambled out of the room in a hurry.

Blink snickered. “Heh. Law enforcement. Idiots.” She phased in and out of the cell while doing a little dance. “Leaving prisoners unattended…”

“Blink,” Celia hissed. “Get back in here. Cooperation, remember?”

“Aw, fine.” She continued her dance inside the cell. Seren started clapping in time with her movements.

“Guess it’s random jailhouse dance party time,” Cinder said with a shrug. She joined in without another word.

~~~

“Applejack?”

General Applejack didn’t stop her walk through the streets of Canterlot, but she did look to her side. “Twilight?”

Princess Twilight trotted up alongside Applejack - not that anypony but close friends would have known it was the relatively young Princess since she was wearing civilian clothes that hid her wings and cutie mark. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?”

“Ah’ll be leavin’ again as soon as Ah get the ‘report’ dealt with… Thursday. And Ah thought you said you’d be returnin’ to Ponyville first chance you got?”

“There… hasn’t been a chance,” Twilight sighed. “I’m sure you know why.”

“Eeyep…”

The two continued walking down the street.

“So, what you been up to?” Applejack asked.

“Keeping Friendship alive. It’s… well, it’s been successful enough.” She gestured at a bunch of foals playing happily in a modern playground… that was surrounded by fences covered head to hoof in propaganda posters. “I… know you don’t approve of the methods.”

“What’s done is done, and Ah ain’t here often enough to shout the truth in everypony’s faces.”

“Yeah…” Twilight shook her head. “So, what are you up to? Pretty sure there’s no army base this way.”

“Ah needed to get out of the office. Waitin’ around for a meetin’ doesn’t sit well for me. A weird report came up about some ponies that were arrested as changelin’s but weren’t. Quite a wild story they had.”

“Oh?”

“Bunch of nutjobs that think they’re from another world.”

Twilight frowned. “I mean… such theories aren’t entirely unfounded.”

“Ah know, Starswirl’s Mirror, Earth. Still, pretty crazy, but at least Ah’ll be doin’ somethin’. Wanna come along?”

“Why not? I’m out investigating for the Friendship Reports anyway, might give me some interesting viewpoints.”

They arrived at the police station and knocked. A stallion opened the door, looking nervous. “H-hello?”

“Officer Lentil?” Applejack asked.

“General Applejack!” Lentil sputtered. “Y-yes it’s me, I wasn't expectin-”

“You got lucky,” Applejack said. “At ease.” She trotted into the station.

Lentil turned to Twilight, taking all of ten seconds to figure out who she was. Her escapades into civilian Canterlot weren’t exactly secret, and what other tall purple “unicorn” would be walking with Applejack? He had to resist the urge to bow. It was not proper to expose the Princess while she was out among the ponies.

Twilight nodded in thanks to the officer, following Applejack to the cell that held four white creatures that shared a remarkable resemblance to Sweetie Belle.

Applejack stared at them. “Yer sure they ain’t Changelings?”

“O-our spells found nothing,” Lentil stammered.

Twilight fixed the tall Rarity-esque pony with a curious expression, receiving a similar one in return. The Princess lit her horn, using her control over the arcane to cast the best spell she knew of for learning the truth.

“Satisfied?” the Rarity-esque “pony” asked.

“Depends on what you mean by the word.” Twilight opened the cell door with a simple unlock spell.

“W-wai-” Lentil began.

“They are not changelings and almost all of them have enough magic power to break out of this cell easily,” Twilight concluded. “Furthermore, they all look like Sweetie Belle, and since they’re not Changelings and not using disguise spells, the other universe explanation seems highly plausible.”

Applejack frowned. “Well… guess this is gonna be more complicated than Ah thought. Ah’m General Applejack.”

“Celia,” the Rarity-esque pony introduced herself. “This is Cinder, Blink, and Seren. Am I correct in assuming you are Princess Twilight?”

Lentil tensed - but Twilight didn’t mind. “Naturally.”

“Hey, lucky us!” Cinder grinned. “Got right up to the Princesses already! I thought that was going to take a while.”

Celia continued. “We represent the League of Sweetie Belles, an organization of the multiversal society Merodi Universalis…” She gave the usual introductory speech. When she was finished, General Applejack had only one question - shoving her hoof into Twilight’s face to keep her from asking her thousands.

“That aid you mentioned, does it include assistance in war?”

Celia pursed her lips. “It can. Though we generally only resort to such methods when one combattant is clearly in the wrong and when we’ve attempted to resolve the situation peacefully on both sides.”

“That wasn’t a no,” Applejack observed.

“No. It wasn’t.”

Applejack turned to Twilight. “We need to get them to Celestia. Now.”

Twilight grimaced. “I knew it was bad out there… is it really that bad?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s bad. The Changelings took Baltimare, remember.”

Twilight grimaced. “I thought we were getting that back…”

Applejack fixed her with a pitying expression.

Twilight turned to the Sweeties. “Okay. I will have to seal your magic in Celestia’s presence. This is non-negotiable.”

“We simply wish to speak with her,” Celia said. “Blink and I have minor reliance on magic to exist, though, so it depends on the method by which you seal magic. The standard unicorn horn-cover should work.”

“Actually,” Seren said, holding up a finger. “The standard spell differs across universes and may have an unforeseen component we did n-”

“Just test it before we get to her, okay?” Blink interrupted.

Twilight nodded, lighting her horn.

~~~

Cinder hadn’t had her magic sealed for an extended period of time before. It felt… slightly uncomfortable, like she had a mild fever. It probably felt different for the others, since they didn’t deal in fire quite as much.

At least they weren’t in danger here. Cinder had been mildly worried at first about this Equestria, but both Applejack and Twilight were still… who they were. Sure, Applejack was a little desperate and beat up, and Twilight was going around as an undercover civilian, but they were both still friendly. This was Equestria, even in times of war.

She was currently following Twilight and Applejack through the halls of Canterlot castle with the rest of her team. The sealing spell worked on both Celia and Blink, though Cinder doubted Blink’s Void powers were sealed properly. Twilight had dropped her disguise and put on her regalia the moment they entered the palace, accepting bows from all they passed. Her presence was enough to keep ponies from questioning the existence of Seren audibly.

Twilight, as a Princess, was one of the few ponies in the country that could declare an emergency meeting with Celestia. The declaration had gone through remarkably quickly. In less than ten minutes they would be before the Princess of the Sun.

As luck would have it, they would run into the Princess of the Moon first.

Luna’s appearance was surprising, to say the least - not that it came out of nowhere, but because she looked terrible. There were immense bags under her eyes and she did not walk with confidence or power - rather in a dejected, almost timid manner. She raised her eyes to Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight? What is… all this?”

“An emergency meeting with Celestia,” Twilight responded.

“Are you sure that is… wise, given my sister’s current… state?”

Twilight bit her lip. “She is the only one with the authority to make a decision in a matter of this magnitude. I cannot promise these ponies what they need and what they offer is too important to leave them without an answer for long.”

Luna examined the Sweeties with her tired eyes. Her many thestral guards couldn’t decide if they should look on with curiosity or aggression at the unknown ponies. “Not Changelings.”

“No.”

“Unexpected…” Luna turned to Celia. “Be careful what you say in the presence of my sister.”

“I’ll be doing all the talking if I can help it,” Twilight said.

“I see the look in her eyes, Twilight. She will try something if she thinks she needs to.”

Celia nodded curtly. “You read me well.”

Luna sighed. “Whatever it is you offer, I should not make you late for your appointment.” With a slight bow to Twilight the lunar Princess took off, her thestral entourage moving in time with her.

Cinder noticed the other palace guards fixing the thestrals with glares of distrust. Looks like Friendship hasn’t been a complete success…

“That was foreboding,” Blink commented.

“Celestia’s under a lot of stress,” Twilight answered a little too quickly. “As long as you only talk when you’re questioned, you should be fine. I’ll handle all the rest.”

Celia bowed. “Very well.” Cinder wondered if Celia would really keep her word in that regard.

The group came up to a large set of golden double doors emblazoned with the solar emblem of Celestia. Twilight stood in front of the doors and cleared her throat. “Princess Twilight Sparkle of Friendship and Magic, here!”

“Enter,” Celestia’s voice called. Cinder shivered - that didn’t sound warm or motherly at all.

The doors slid open, revealing a throne room with giant windows and highly reflective surfaces designed specifically to increase the brightness of the room. Upon the throne sat Celestia, her pastel mane flowing as it did in most other universes. Her face, however, was not serene or welcoming - it was stern, tense, and judgmental.

“Princess Twilight, why have you called this emergency meeting? And why have you brought that into my throne room?” She pointed at Seren.

Twilight took a breath. “Princess Celestia, these four people come from another world in the name of a nation called Merodi Universalis, which contains many worlds of ponies and numerous other creatures. They are the exploration team sent to our world to establish contact. They come offering knowledge of other worlds and seek a relationship with us through friendship and harmony.”

“Well and good,” Celestia said without a hint of joy in her voice. “Not worthy of an emergency.”

“They may be willing to assist in the war effort.”

Celestia paused. “May?”

“It is conditional. As newcomers to our world, they do not wish to make a mistake by rushing into a conflict they do not understand.”

Celestia turned her gaze to Celia. “You have made mistakes before?”

“Yes,” Celia said, keeping it as short as possible.

“...Then the caution is understandable. What are the conditions for assistance?”

“They need to be convinced the Changelings must be stopped and that we are deserving of it.”

“Ah. So I am on trial, is that it?”

Twilight tensed. “Princess…”

“They cannot judge the Changelings from our point of view. I could spin tales for hours about how Equestria was peaceful, harmonious, and in a golden age before the Changelings invaded out of spite. I could show pictures, give personal testimony… all things you no doubt have done on the way here. No, they are here to judge me.” She turned to Celia. “You do not like what you see.”

Celia opted not to remain silent. “War has been hard on you. It is understandable.”

“You have seen this before, many times.” It was not a question.

“No doubt she has,” Twilight said, drawing attention back to her. “But that’s not what’s important right now. What’s important is that they cannot help until they meet with the Changelings - Chrysalis, if possible.”

“And what will they speak to them of?”

“The same things they speak to us about. Knowledge of the multiverse, relations with Merodi Universalis.”

Celestia turned to Celia again. “You know you are asking me to give my enemies a boon?”

“Yes,” Celia said.

“Why would I take that risk?”

“Because we’ll ask them if they are willing to end the war for it.”

Celestia paused. “...And you ask me the same thing.”

“Yes.”

Celestia pressed her hooves together and sat back in her throne. “...If you can convince Chrysalis to stand down, I will end the war in an instant even if you do not offer us gifts. I give you my word.”

“There it is!” Blink shouted.

Everyone stared at her in shock.

“Er… oops…”

Twilight cleared her throat. “I believe she means that you just proved Equestria deserves help.”

Celestia nodded. “They still need to visit Chrysalis.”

“We can help with that. Stalliongrad is due to send a diplomatic envoy to the Changeling Lands. I can get them on that envoy.”

“You trust these Stalliongrad ponies?”

“If Equestria falls, Stalliongrad is next. They know this.”

Celestia nodded. “Very well. You may join the Stalliongrad contingent into the Changeling Lands. I do not expect you will be able to deter Chrysalis’ mad ideals of vengeance even with promises of otherworldly gifts, but you are welcome to try.”

Celia bowed - the other Sweeties following suit. “Thank you, Princess.”

Celestia did not acknowledge the thanks. “In the meantime, I wish to know more of Merodi Universalis.”

“I will have a report sent to you as soon as possible,” Twilight said.

“Good. You are all dismissed.”

Everyone turned and left Celestia’s presence. The doors slammed shut behind her.

Cinder frowned. “...How long has this war lasted?”

“Seven years,” Twilight sighed. “Far too long…”

“Agreed.” Celia trotted up to Twilight. “We should discuss further in hopes to end this war. Blink, report to Suzie.”

“Righty-o boss!” Blink saluted, pulling out her communicator.

“You’re still in one piece,” Luna observed, walking past them. “It went well?”

“Well, we got what we wanted,” Cinder said. “That’s good.”

Luna smiled weakly. “Maybe. ...If only I-”

“Princess,” one of her thestrals said. “We’re due at the research center in five minutes, we shouldn’t dally.”

Luna frowned. “Apologies. Apparently there’s been a security breach in the research labs so big it requires my attention. Until then, Twilight.” She teleported away.

Twilight returned to speaking to Celia. “Naturally, we can’t have Seren go…”

“Oh, of course,” Celia admitted. “We’ll have to adjust the team.”

“Can I still go?” Cinder asked.

Twilight stared at her. “You want to go into the heart of the Changeling Lands?”

“I’m here for adventure. Political intrigue counts as adventure. I at least want to see it.”

Twilight smiled sadly. “...I miss seeing that innocence in ponies.”

~~~

It took two local days to get the Sweeties into the Stalliongrad diplomatic envoy. There were six ponies in the group, not counting Cinder, Celia, and Suzie.

Stalliongrad had only asked for one thing in return for getting them into the Changeling Lands - getting the same information Celestia was currently getting. Suzie had agreed without hesitation. After all, if things went south in talks with Chrysalis, it would be good to have allies in the universe.

They were taking an unarmed Stalliongrad zeppelin, currently flanked by seven solid black Changeling ships. They were armed.

“Changelings aren’t very trusting, huh?” Cinder observed.

“Good observation, little komrade,” one of the Stalliongrad diplomats said, a gray mare by the name of Tirryl. “And yet, they are right to be suspicious, in some regards.”

“Why? We’re not attacking them or anything.”

“You did hide your kommander in a portal while they searched us.”

“...Well, I mean, she’s not exactly a pony…”

“I know vhy ve did it, I am just saying, ve are hiding something.”

“Right.” Cinder turned her attention to the window, trying not to look at the black airship that was pointing a gun at them. The ground below was desolate and covered in knobby black spires. “Are those all Changeling hives?”

“Ve are flying over the center of their territory,” Tirryl admitted. “They prefer dense infrastructure.”

“It looks so… bleak.”

Tirryl nodded sagely. “It is not… pleasant to live in a hive, as I understand it. And yet they are fiercely loyal. The lack of love makes them driven to var. I know of only one Changeling who got away vith questioning the vay the Queen has built her nation. He did not live very long.”

“...Thorax?”

“You know of him?”

“In many universes he succeeds in overthrowing her, one way or another.”

“I am uncertain ours vould have accepted him if he did vin.” Tirryl frowned. “Do not mention him to them.”

Cinder laughed nervously. “Obviously. What can I mention?”

“I vould recommend speaking only of your nation, and vaguely at that. Even then, do not expect to be effective. Ve accomplish little in the vay of relations on these missions.”

“Then why do you come?”

“To tell those in power of kommunism, what else?”

“Ah,” Cinder said, deciding it was best not to comment on that.

Tirryl nodded sagely. “We are approaching Vesalipolis. You can see it in the distance.”

Cinder pressed her face into the window sideways to get the largest forward view she could. A massive, gnarled spire filled with holes rose from the ground, reaching to the sky with a slight dark aura. There were a few trails of smoke coming from the ground, indicative of factories somewhere within the tangle, but Cinder suspected the sky had been darkened here long before the smoke of industrialization had arrived.

Cinder started to feel the fire build up within her. “...We’re getting close to Chrysalis’ throne.”

“...Throne?” Tirryl asked.

“The thing that blocks non-Changeling magic around Vesalipolis? Or is that not a thing here?”

“It could be… ve are not certain precisely how she blocks magic specifically.”

“We’re landing soon!” Suzie called, walking up to Cinder. “Tirryl, when am I going out?”

“You are staying on the blimp until I am sure you won’t make them shoot us all down.”

Suzie nodded. “Understood. We’ll… hold tight. I’ll tell Celia to get off the phone with Twilight - untraceable or not, probably not a good idea to do it in front of them. Then I’ll go back to my coffin.”

“It’s just a large munitions container,” Tirryl deadpanned.

“I lay in it to hide from people, it is dark, and at this point it smells like death. It’s my coffin.”

Tirryl rolled her eyes, mumbling something sarcastic under her breath as Suzie ran off.

Their ships set down on an airfield just outside the main hive, surrounded by several tanks and a full platoon of Changeling soldiers.

“...Are there supposed to be this many?” Cinder asked.

“I was expecting more,” Tirryl admitted. “Well, let’s get this over with.” She trotted to the back of the airship and walked down the ramp, Cinder, Celia, and the rest of the Stalliongrad diplomats behind her. Celia had her mane combed over to hide her Gem since a magical horn disguise wasn’t an option right now. They were fortunate this world’s magic inhibition didn’t force her to retreat into her gemstone completely.

A Changeling in red armor walked up to them.

“Greetings, Commander R-”

The Commander Changeling ignored Tirryl, instead pointing at Cinder. “You. And both of your companions.”

Cinder tensed. “It’s just me and Celia.”

“Suzie. The captain. Get her out here.”

Celia frowned. “Had a spy on board, did you?”

“I am losing my patience.”

Less than a minute later, Suzie walked out, hands locked behind her back. She kept her head up with a calm dignity and narrowed eyes.

“So this is what a human is…” The Commander sneered. “Chrysalis will see you three immediately. The rest of you will be shown to the Stalliongrad embassy as previously planned.”

Cinder gulped. For once, getting to things quickly didn’t seem like a good thing.

~~~

Queen Chrysalis had more spies than she could count. Changelings were particularly well-suited for the job given their unique abilities and she had put them to their full use. Every nation on the planet had at least a dozen Changelings within the borders somewhere. Most of them were concentrated in Equestria, to be fair, but there were a decent amount in Stalliongrad.

She had received word of the mysterious ‘Sweeties’ shortly after they arrived in the small communist nation. Annoyingly, she hadn’t had enough time to inquire as to where they came from or who put them into the Stalliongrad envoy, but she did learn several interesting facts.

Two of them weren't ponies, though one could certainly play the part. They were from another world. The leader had military experience, the crystal one was a diplomat, and the small one… may have been an apprentice of some sort. There was little she could assume about them.

At first she had been skeptical of the reports, but her spies confirmed that they were definitely from another world. They had access to devices and magic that no Changeling had ever seen before.

And they were walking right into the center of Changeling power to introduce themselves.

What kind of host would she be if she didn’t speak to them the instant they arrived?

“Welcome!” she spoke with a reverberating voice common to the Chrysalis’ of the multiverse. “I trust your journey was pleasant?”

“It ended roughly,” Suzie said, gesturing at the Changeling Commander behind her.

“Mmm, yes, it appears as though the phrase ‘honored guests’ means little among the militaristic squabble these days. They will remain, of course. I cannot be certain of your intentions.”

“What do you think we’re here for?” Suzie asked.

“Why, to say hello! And no doubt many other things, but I’m sure you will reveal those in due time. I am Queen Chrysalis, ruler of all Changelings. You?”

“Captain Suzie Mash, Chalcedony Celia, and Cinder Belle,” Suzie introduced. “We represent Merodi Universalis. I take it you are aware of this?”

“Merodi Universalis, a coalition of hundreds of universes beyond the borders of our reality. A fantastic story I found hard to believe, at first. But here we are, a Queen and a Captain, speaking to one another as equals.” She leaned in, feeling the power of her throne course through her hole-riddled legs. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way… do tell, why come to my lands?”

Celia spoke up. “You are one of the major powers in this universe, so you drew our attention for contact. It would not do to send a public radio message to the whole world, you understand, seeking out world leaders and revealing our presence to them is a much smoother procedure.”

Chrysalis nodded. This made sense - with Equestria on the ropes, the Changeling Lands were the greatest power on this continent. Naturally they would start here. “Stalliongrad?”

“It was convenient to speak to them upon arrival. We can’t choose where we appear first, you understand.”

She wasn’t lying, but she wasn’t telling everything either. Chrysalis didn’t discern this from her facial expression or tone, both were perfect obfuscations. No, it was the wording. She didn’t say they arrived in Stalliongrad. Perhaps they landed elsewhere, and used Stalliongrad’s envoys as a way to get to her.

They could have been in Equestria first. The idea made her blood boil, but she kept her composure.

“...Sensible,” she said, eventually. “Now, what do you have to offer me?”

The smaller Cinder spoke up, surprising Chrysalis. “We offer the same to everyone - knowledge of the multiverse, aid for those struggling, and a connection to the rest of existence.”

“Aid? War?”

“...It’s possible,” Suzie admitted. “But direct interference in wars is something that has to be deemed necessary.”

“So I am rejected simply because I am winning?”

“You simply do not need help.”

You would not have given it to me even if I was losing. I can see it in your eyes. You can’t hide as well as Celia. There’s hate in there - hate at what you see. I wonder if you’ll snap in the middle of this conversation? Chrysalis smirked, amused at the thought. “I appreciate your confidence in my Changelings. What is the cost of the other items you offer?”

“Basic multiversal information is free, no charge, given to everyone. The rest is determinate on need, willingness to cooperate, and a plethora of other criteria.”

“And what needs do you think I have?”

Suzie looked at Celia. The Captain doesn’t think she has the words to do what comes next. How cute, relying on her subordinate. Celia pulled her mane back. “We have seen the… conditions of your Changelings. We understand it is a necessary condition for your war machine, but it does not have to be like this. There are many groups of Changelings within Merodi Universalis that have found efficient ways to gather love and sustenance for their hives that far exceed even the most extreme methods you have uncovered. Your Changelings do not need to live in hunger.”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. That was true. That certainly explained why they didn’t look at her Changelings with contempt. They probably had Changeling friends.

The thought sickened her.

But that wasn’t the worst of it…

“I see. You can just provide this?”

“Changeling love relief is a somewhat common export of ours. We are well practiced in it at this point.”

“This is certainly impressive. I assume there would be no more need to feed upon the other races of the world?”

Celia nodded. “That is correct.”

“Well, this is excellent news! No more hunger, a great prospering age of Changelings! Self sufficiency. Why, I bet it works so well there’s no more need for a WAR.” She dropped her fake smile and glowered at them. “What kind of fool do you take me for!? I will not live like a pathetic whelp and leave Equestria alone! They have been a thorn in my side for far too long, and no gift of yours will change their fate! I do not refuse your gift, I refuse its implication. They will crumble to dust. I…”

She detected a change in Suzie and Cinder’s faces, stopping her in the middle of her rant.

“...I just failed a test, didn’t I?”

Celia cocked her head. “Excuse me?”

Chrysalis scowled. “Don’t play dumb with me, whelp!” She grabbed the three of them in her intense, green magic, lifting them into the air. “What are your real intentions!?”

“Swip…” Cinder gagged. “Now might be a-”

“SILENCE!” Chrysalis moved to pop Cinder’s head off - the other two could give her all she needed.

Instead, a portal in space-time appeared behind the three Sweeties, revealing another Sweetie - a unicorn brimming with dark magic.

Chrysalis’ throne did not extended its magic inhibition through the portal in time. The dark Sweetie was able to teleport her three companions out of Chrysalis’ grip.

The portal closed.

“Get the Stalliongrad envoys!” Chyrsalis shouted. “They are going to tell me eve-”

“The Stalliongrad envoys just vanished!” a Changeling with a radio reported. “Some kind of white ring!”

Chrysalis twitched. “...Send word to the spymaster. Search for everything we have involving Merodi Universalis. Pay particular attention to Equestria. I am not going to let a bunch of pale duplicates ruin everything!”

~~~

“So… what do we do now?” Cinder asked Suzie an hour later.

Suzie was standing at her console, composing an email. “Our job is done, Cinder. We came in, talked to some leaders, and determined a course of action. As soon as I send this off to the Military Division, we call it a day.”

“It doesn’t feel done though. There’s more to happen.”

“We are a small exploration team, Cinder. Even if I have the authority to declare war on a small scale, I probably shouldn’t when there’s an option to let the higher-ups do it.” She continued typing, pausing to focus on the wording of her message. “...Things are divided up for a reason. We are not the warmongers. That job is for other people.”

“Is that what this message is about?” She asked, pointing at the display.

Suzie nodded. “This is a strong recommendation for the Military Division to take Chrysalis out. Equestria will be saved, don’t worry. The worst Chrysalis has is mid-tier magitech weaponry, nothing we have to be all that terrified of.”

“I just…” Cinder frowned. “I know we have to help them, but are we sure military is the only way?”

“That’s up for O’Neill to decide, but I expect so.” Suzie stopped typing, scrolling over the message quickly to make sure it was done. “This is a world at war. We tried to talk Chrysalis down. She wasn’t having it and her Changelings weren’t either. So now we do something a little stronger than talk.”

Cinder nodded. “Guess it’s finally time for us to cause some large-scale interference, huh?”

Suzie nodded, pressing send on the message. It shot out of Swip’s subdimension, transmitting to a relay in Celestia City. It picked up the signal and re-routed it to Earth Tau’ri, right to General-Overhead O’Neill’s personal computer.

Currently, the head of all military forces in over a hundred universes was throwing darts at a dartboard, a little bored. He needed something to do… but there was no major conflict just then and no interesting events were going on that he could crash. Not that he would call what he did “crashing”.

Suzie’s message was like a gift from heaven. Finally, something to do. Sure, it was just another Chrysalis - he had to take care of one of those every few months these days - but this one was in what appeared to be a WWII technology base world. It would be interesting, at least. The layout of the world wasn’t standard either, so the tried and true methods of storming the Changeling Hive wouldn’t work.

He pulled up some reports and began reading. More began to file in as some of his personnel received the message and began to research this new ‘Equis Battlement’. Reports on Chrysalis’ forces, Equestrian forces, and neighboring nations began to pour in, mostly in the words of ponies living in the universe.

A plan began to form in his mind. The Aid Division always appreciated as little damage and loss of life as possible, which was an ideal he could never live up to even if he sure as hell tried. Chrysalis would need to be taken out, and then the Changelings would need to be kept in disarray…

That was it. Precision strikes upon places of militaristic importance, shattering the leadership and recovery of the Changeling Lands the moment Chrysalis was taken out of the equation.

And that was the problem, wasn’t it? Chrysalis’ rarely just went down, even if you glassed their palace. They were sneaky little bugs, every last one of them. Even the good ones.

She needed to be taken out first. Probably with a very specific assasination team. Which wasn’t his department.

Thus, the message was forwarded to the Expeditions Division, making it to Overhead Renee directly. She opened it and frowned.

An assasination mission?

She had a new team that was supposedly open to doing that sort of thing. She pulled up the files for the Mean Six, focusing on the smug picture she had of Curaçao. Naturally, she wouldn’t force them to take the mission - it would only be their second official one, after all, and assasination wasn’t anything to sneeze at. Somehow, though, she didn’t think they would refuse a chance to take out an evil Changeling queen.

She would have called them in right then and there if she hadn’t received a message directly from Eve, Relations Overhead, requesting that any military action be put on hold until Relations could send simple introductory diplomats to every nation of the world. They didn’t want to shake up this new universe too much. Equestria could hold out for a few days.

At least their Celestia could rest easy knowing help was coming soon.

~~~

Five days. It took five days for the mission to get the green light.

The instant it did, Captain Curaçao appeared in an abandoned tunnel under Vesalipolis, the rest of her team filing out through the portal. It closed behind them with an unceremonious pop.

“Mission two…” Curaçao said, clicking her tongue. “From exploration to assasination.”

“We did sign up for this,” Shadow pointed out, testing to ensure her magic still functioned. The Reality Anchor bracelet around her hoof ensured Chrysalis’ throne was unable to touch her. “Working as intended.”

Velvet giggled, angling one of her bloody tendrils like a scorpion tail. “Let’s go stab a bitch! …I love saying that.”

Grayscale rolled her eyes.

“So, can I call dibs?” Havocwing asked. “I call dibs.”

“Like, no fair, I didn’t know you could call dibs!” Insipid whined.

Curaçao smirked. “Whoever gets ze chance will take it. Remember ze plan?”

“Yes cap’n!” Insipid said, saluting. She touched Curaçao and absorbed her power, using Curaçao’s magic to mimic a Changeling. Curaçao did the same.

Grayscale looked them over. “Well. You look like Changelings.”

“Like, totally!” Insipid bounced up and down.

“Let uss try to ssound like them too, hmm?” Curaçao asked.

“Oh, yess right.”

“You’re accenting the s’s too hard.” Velvet pointed out.

Curaçao nodded. “This should be better.”

“Perfect changeling voice!” Velvet cheered.

Shadow turned to Insipid. “Ready to link?”

“Ready!”

Shadow tapped her horn to Insipid’s, allowing their minds to meld. “Done,” Shadow said, using both her vocal cords and Insipid’s. “I’ll teleport us all in the moment it goes south.”

“Hopefully it won’t be needed,” Curaçao said.

“It probably will,” Velvet said, pulling a book out of her mane about The Narrative and You. “Something something, chapter nine.”

“Is it bad I want it to go wrong?” Havocwing asked.

Grayscale shrugged.

“Just be ready for anything,” Curaçao suggested. “Insipid?”

“Right behind you!”

The earth pony and unicorn disguised as changelings walked out of the abandoned tunnel into Vesalipolis proper. They knew the exact path to Chrysalis. It wasn’t far - a ten minute walk if all went well. Curaçao would have preferred to be closer but this was the closest they could get and be sure they would arrive undetected. Right now, they had the element of surprise. They were a couple of changelings just minding their own business. Pony disguise spells didn’t work in the hive, so why would they be suspicious?

Changelings did not engage in idle chatter, so that made it significantly easier to walk around without garnering attention. It only got difficult when they actually arrived at the tunnel to Chrysalis’ throne room. They had to fall in line with a contingent of soldiers who were going to receive new orders from the Queen.

Chrysalis glared at the soldiers as they entered. “The Merodi have visited every nation on the planet. And yet, somehow, none of my spies have managed to capture a single one of them. Do you understand how infuriating this is? That I can’t trust my own subjects to capture even one of their number?” she growled. “They have a decently sized embassy in Stalliongrad. You and your troops are to invade. I do not care that it would make the war last another year, the Merodi are planning something and we cannot allow it!”

The Changelings began to file out. Curaçao and Insipid stayed in the back of the formation. Just as they were about to leave, Shadow cast a spell through her connection with Insipid. A beam of Void darkness launched from Insipid’s horn backward into Chrysalis.

The Changeling Queen blocked it with a sickly green magic shield. She grabbed hold of Insipid and dragged her to her hooves. “It has been a while since I’ve had a Changeling assasi- no… wait…” Chrysalis’ horn flashed, forcing Insipid’s disguise to drop, revealing the gray unicorn.

“Uh, like, surprise?” Insipid smiled awkwardly.

Chrysalis noted the Reality Anchor on her hoof. “Merodi…”

Four mares appeared around Insipid in a flash of dark purple energy. Shadow, Grayscale, Velvet, and Havocwing didn’t waste any breath. Void, gravity, blood, and fire hit Chrysalis with full force, throwing her into the back of her throne.

“You… DARE attack me in my home?” Changeling soldiers began to file in, firing bullets and spells at them, forcing Shadow to focus her energy on maintaining a magical barrier to protect them.

“Yeah! We dare!” Havocwing punched her barrier with a flaming hoof, plowing right through and hitting her square in the jaw. “Because you’re evil.”

“Yep! Evil!” With a loose bloody tendril Velvet held up her book and read from it. “An evil entity is one who exhibits a certain lack of morals and empathy regarding other people. Or that’s one definition, anyway.” She hit Chrysalis with the book. “You know what we do to evil people? We kill them.”

“Y-you are nothing compared to me!” Chrysalis fired a beam of energy at Velvet, shocked to find that getting a hole blown in her chest didn’t slow the earth pony down. “What!?”

“There’s a lot out there in the multiverse.” Grayscale flapped her wings, flattening Chrysalis like a pancake into the ground. “You’re just a bug.”

“I AM NOT A BUG!”

“You kind of are,” Insipid said, touching her and absorbing her powers, transforming into a direct mirror image of Chrysalis. “I mean, look at you!”

Chrysalis stared at herself in shock. She looked… terrible. Granted, she hadn’t gotten much sleep over the last week, but had she really been presenting herself to her subjects like… that?

Insipid blasted Chrysalis in the face with her own magic, tossing her into Shadow’s barrier.

Chrysalis struggled. “I… I will not…”

“Don’t have time for this,” Havocwing muttered, landing on Chrysalis and driving her hoof into the Changeling Queens skull as hard as she could.

There was a sickening crunch as her facial carapace shattered.

“Ew…” Havocwing muttered, shaking goo off her hoof. “...Done.”

“Très bon!” Curaçao said, dropping her invisibility. “Shadow?”

“Busy with the barrier!” Shadow called, straining to absorb several dozen bullets flying at her.

“I got this~!” Insipid trilled, touching Shadow. She cast a quick dimensional spell and the six of them left the universe.

“That… was pretty easy,” Grayscale admitted.

“Hey, somepony’s gotta do it,” Velvet said. “Might as well be us smashing bugs, right?”

“Eh. Sure.”

“Good work, everyone,” Curaçao said.

“I’m still covered in bug goo,” Havocwing complained.

“I don’t notice much difference,” Grayscale said.

“Wh - hey!”

“You know, I was worried for a moment,” Curaçao said, smiling brightly. “Not zat we would fail, but zat we’d find it… difficult.”

“Difficult?” Insipid asked.

“You know, ezically speaking.”

Havocwing put a wing around Curaçao. “Curie, we’re the ‘Mean’ Six, Elements of Pandemonium. A little killin’ aint’ gonna stop us. Isn’t that right girls?”

“RIGHT!”

“Now I’m hungry, think that noodle place is open?”

~~~

“Stradiverra! Stradiverra!”

A large female Changeling looked up from her book. “Yes, drone, what is it?”

“The Queen… she has fallen!”

Stradiverra dropped her book. “W-what?”

“Assassinated! Merodi Universalis agents! Not five minutes ago!”

“I…” She tossed her scratchy mane back and narrowed her eyes. “Very well. You have the rites?”

“The rites will be performed next week. You are provisional Queen as of this instant.”

“Rally the troops, call Vesalipolis,” Stradiverra ordered. “They may be going for more than just an assasination. W-”

“Urgent! Urgent!” Another Changeling ran into the room. “Merodi ships are appearing above major military installations! We need to fortif-”

Stradiverra realized they were in a major military installation a second before she heard the humming sound of engines outside. She ran to the window and looked up, devastated to see a massive white ship shaped vaguely like a lotus hovering above them.

She stared, transfixed as a glowing pink orb appeared on the bottom of the ship.

“My Queen! We must evac-”

“We are no more…” Stradiverra said, chuckling to herself. “Even if I did survive…”

“My Queen!”

“The Changeling Empire is finished.”

The Merodi ship fired.

The military dispatch outpost was reduced to glass in a flash of light.

Retaliation occured, most definitely. Across the Changeling Lands, Merodi ships were fired upon, assaulted, and were subjected to experimental weapons. Very few received any lasting damage, for they did not need long to jump into the universe, fire a weapon, and leave. Even those that were hit with the most advanced Changeling magitech survived. The only ship loss occurred around Vesalipolis, where the infrastructure was powerful enough to resist attacks for a few minutes. But even that fell.

In the coming weeks, the Changelings would scramble for power, trying to find a new Queen. They would not have to look hard - that was the problem. Several Queens rose at the same time, and none of them could agree who should take full control of the Changelings.

Battles still occurred on the Equestrian border for a few weeks, but with the Changeling chain of command essentially breaking into nothing, they would not keep it up for long. Some groups attempted to hold onto occupied territory, but they collapsed easily. Eventually Equestria would gain the upper hand and begin to push into the Changeling Lands.

They planned to go until they reached Vesalipolis.

~~~

Cinder could tell the local Twilight was nervous - it was written all over her face. “Are… you okay?”

“What? Yes! I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be fine?” Twilight laughed nervously. “The Changelings are all but defeated and Celestia’s asked to thank you for all you’ve done! Why wouldn’t I be fine?”

Blink raised an eyebrow. “Do you really need to ask?”

Twilight twitched. “Okay, okay. Just… take deep breaths, Twilight…” She breathed in and out heavily, glancing to Celia. “It… it’s just a thank you audience…”

Suzie frowned. “Should we come back another time?”

“N-no!” Twilight sputtered.

Celia coughed. “It would be best to arrive as Celestia wishes. We wish for positive relations with this Equestria in the future, do we not?”

“Of… course.” Suzie frowned at Celia. The two of them proceeded to have a private conversation using expressions Cinder couldn’t parse. She decided to ask about it later. After all, they were going to see the Princess.

Twilight led Cinder, Blink, Celia, and Suzie back to the same doors they had walked through just over a week ago. Twilight cleared her throat. “Princess Twilight Sparkle of Friendship and Magic, here!”

“Enter!” The voice of Celestia was different somehow. It wasn’t as harsh as Cinder remembered it. She still didn’t sound like a normal Celestia, but now that the war was over she might be making a recovery.

Any thoughts of that were dashed when the Sweeties actually entered the room.

“Ships appear over the Changeling Lands and, in a handful of minutes, destroy most major military outposts while only losing one of their number.” Celestia lowered the newspaper she had been reading from and picked up a Merodi data pad. “Merodi Universalis is a Class 3 society, the lowest on a scale that ranges from three to one.” She placed the pad down and fixed the Sweeties with a fiery gaze that matched the solar flicker of her mane. The pastel mane was no more. “You could squash us like ants.”

Suzie tensed, glancing accusingly at Celia. The Gem’s expression was unreadable. “We have no intention of doing so.”

“I know full well you do not,” Celestia said, simply. “But you are not all that lives out there in the cosmos. My ponies were almost eradicated by a threat I knew! You know the horrors. You know what you had to do to face them.”

“Friendship and harmony?” Cinder suggested.

“And for the sake of friendship and harmony you almost didn’t help.” Celestia fixed her gaze on Celia. “I am aware of the history of your people, Gem. Befriended despite the atrocities you committed on a daily basis.”

Celia didn’t dignify this with a reaction.

“I really do wish to thank you though.” Celestia smiled. It looked so wrong on her face. “I had every intention of guiding Equestria back to the old ways the moment the war ended. You opened my eyes a-”

“Stop deluding yourself,” Celia said, unusually calm. “You were on this path long before we came here.”

Celestia frowned. “Was I?”

“I knew it the moment I spoke to you. Dismissive. Rash. Brutal. You had lost harmony. You just hadn’t embraced it. Now you have… like your sister so long ago.”

“There is no Nightmare within me,” Celestia hissed.

“There does not have to be,” Cinder mumbled, remembering the last Daybreaker they had encountered.

Celestia frowned, turning to Twilight. “And you, my once prized student. Given your tears I can see you do not approve?”

Twilight was, in fact, crying. “Celestia… don’t do this. Come back to us. We… we don’t have to stay like this! Let’s tear down the army, pull the posters down, and go back to Ponyvil-”

“We were caught unaware by the Changelings! We would have lost our nation for the sake of Harmony! The threats are not over, Twilight!”

“Bu-”

Celestia’s sigh gave Twilight pause. “...I should never have shared this, any of it.” She spread her wings and looked to the sky. “Empress knows best.”

Cinder grimaced. She wasn’t quite as evil as the last one… but she clearly wasn’t good, either.

“Equestria will not be joining Merodi Universalis in sisterly harmony,” Celestia declared. “We will not lower our army, and we will not go back to the old ways.” She turned to Twilight. “You will understand with time. I promise I will show you.”

“I… I’m so sorry,” Twilight sniffed.

“Sorry for w-”

With a flash of magic, Luna drove a blade infused with dark power through Celestia’s back. “Forgive me, sister.”

“L-lun…” The fire in Celestia’s mane went out and she unceremoniously slumped to the ground.

Twilight swallowed hard, trying to keep her hooves planted where they were. She lost the mental battle, running to Celestia’s form and holding her head in her hooves.

Luna fixed Celia with a hard gaze. “Your suspicions were correct.”

“I am sorry it was,” Celia said, bowing.

Suzie turned to her. “This… you knew this was going to happen?!”

Celia nodded. “She had all the warning flags of going Daybreaker out of a self-imposed deluded necessity. I questioned Twilight about using the Elements of Harmony, but… those have not worked properly here for quite some time, and as suspected, she did not actually have a Nightmare in her. So I told her and Luna to prepare. They did. Admirably.”

“There is nothing admirable about this,” Luna breathed.

Suzie looked like she wanted to yell at something but couldn’t find an appropriate target.

Cinder walked up to the form of Celestia, frowning.

Ponies just keep dying…

“Why…” Twilight breathed, not really asking a question.

Cinder didn’t know. She just knew Twilight needed a hug. So that’s what she did.

Luna turned to Celia. “Equestria will return to the peaceful ways of the past if… if I can bring the ponies to it. Many of them would have supported Celestia. Getting them to stop the march on the Changeling Lands...”

“We can help,” Celia offered.

Luna frowned, looking to Twilight. “I… would rather not. But if I am honest, neither of us are suited to bring back the golden age of Equestria. We will accept what you have to offer.” She ruffled her wings. “I must thank you for ending the war.”

Celia nodded. “It’s the least we could do.”

Luna turned to tend to her sister’s body.

Cinder returned to Suzie’s side.

“Why is it that some days I can look death right in the face and smile?” Suzie asked. “But on days like today I just want to walk away and never look back?”

Cinder shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“...You haven’t even been out here long, Cinder. You’re already shrugging at it.”

“I…” Cinder sighed. “I guess I am. I mean, this is a good ending. War’s over, peace is returning…?”

“Yep. And I bet years down the line we might even celebrate this. Heck, maybe even in a few days for all I know. But it’s times like this that make you realize someone’s sister was sacrificed for these things. Doesn’t matter which war it is, someone’s lost a sister somewhere. Somewhere.”

“...Let’s go home.”

“Yeah. Yours or mine?”

“Doesn’t matter. Pick one.”

Author's Notes:

Equestria at War is a mod for a game I don't own, so I can't exactly suggest it? What I do know is that the lore to the setting is amazingly in-depth and absolutely incredible. I do suggest at least taking a look at the wiki to see how crazy all this pony war can get.

NEWS: the Sweetie Supplemental Material chapter has updated with images! So if you want to get some clearer ideas of what's going on with the story, or are just jumping in for a single chapter. I can't directly link it since I change its position in the chapter order a lot... but check it out anyway!

Next time: Empty Horizons (this is gonna be a lot of water...)

((LSB Status Post))

The Seafloor (Empty Horizons, Part 1)

“It’s like you’re paranoid about becoming your sister or something.”

Founder Allure “Sweetie” Belle looked up from the saddlebags she was trying to pack all her vacation supplies into. For once, she was glad she wasn’t a human—didn’t have to bother with any sort of clothing whatsoever. However, all her toiletries, magic bars, books, and artificial horn polishers were straining the capacity of her bags. Currently, she was trying to decide if she could fit her hairbrush in or if she should go without it.

“Just get a bigger bag.”

Allure smirked and turned to her helium-voiced friend—a taller, muscular mare with a silver earring and a hoofband indicating her membership within the Merodi Military. “Belongings will grow to fill available space,” Allure retorted.

Squeaky Belle raised an eyebrow. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Renee. I think. Memory’s a bit fuzzy, I suppose it could have been another Rarity.” Allure shrugged, tossing her brush to the side unceremoniously. “The point is, we Sweeties have to deal with packing our belongings a lot. We know how to do it.”

“Your bag is enchanted with durability and I can still see the threads stretching at the seams.”

Allure rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get going, hmm? Vacation isn’t going to take itself!”

Squeaky took out her phone.

“Squeaky…”

“There are seven-thousand and three confirmed instances of ponies named Vacation.”

Allure chuckled. “Fine, let’s go kidnap him then. Should be fun!”

“I know seventeen different chokeholds!”

“Not nineteen?”

“I must leave some slots open for the perfect techniques, right?”

With an amused smile, Allure zipped up her saddlebags and levitated them onto her back. “Right. Zod’s got everything handled?”

Squeaky nodded. “She and Jade have it covered. We can go hit the exotic multiversal beaches!”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Allure tapped her metal horn, prompting magic sparks to fly out of it. She forced magic into her artificial appendage, causing the etched circles to glow a soft green. Entering a state of deep concentration, she performed the dimensional portal spell, ripping a small tear in reality to another world.

It collapsed instantly.

Allure sat down and sighed. “Aw… I was hoping to be… dramatic…”

“You and I are not wizards, and never have been,” Squeaky offered. “Our skills lie elsewhere, Knight of Heart.”

“Heh,” Allure rubbed the back of her head. “Right. Well, might as well do it the old-fashioned way.” She took out her dimensional device and set the destination. The device had to process her request for a few minutes since there wasn’t a direct universal connection available, but it eventually found a simple route. It tore a hole in reality that punctured through three separate universes, creating a tunnel of portals that collapsed into one with a noise not unlike a sword sliding into a sheath.

Allure and Squeaky hopped through the ring, arriving in the lounge of none other than Swip, everypony’s favorite Sweetie spaceship. As expected, Suzie was waiting for them. The human captain saluted Squeaky when she arrived. “Marshall.”

“Colonel,” Squeaky said, saluting as well.

Suzie dropped the salute. “O’Neill’s still refusing to promote you?”

“He has his reasons,” Squeaky reminded her. “I’m a League Founder, my loyalties are here before the Military Division.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s missing. You’d be the best High Commander ever.”

“And you could stand to get back onto standard military assignments, but that’s not happening either.”

With a childish grin, Suzie took Squeaky’s hoof in her hand and pulled tight.

“Behold, the military bros!” Burgerbelle shouted, dropping from the ceiling with a metallic clatter. “Watch as they engage in the traditional greeting of their species…” She was suddenly wearing a safari hat and snapping pictures of the two of them like they were rare, exotic animals. “Perhaps one of them will initiate the secondary greeting to me…”

“Hey, Burger, how’s it been?” Allure asked, trotting over to her. “Enjoying life on the edge?”

The Flat pulled out a bad-pun-o-meter. The readout showed an angry Kirby. “You’re learning the ways of the pun, grasshopper. One day you may even be as good as me.”

“You didn’t even put a pun in that sentence!”

“Neither did you!”

“You both suck!” Squiddy called from the other side of the room, flinging her tentacles back. “End of discussion!”

Burgerbelle produced a vacuum and ran after the white inkling. Squiddy yelped in surprise, ducking behind one of the couches before Burgerbelle could set upon her with the Vengeance of Cleaning.

“That didn’t take long,” Squeaky observed. “I thought you said she was mellowing out?”

Suzie rolled her hand in the air. “Eh… she seems to identify with people a lot more. But her antics never end.”

“And we like it that way!” a small unicorn said—one Allure easily identified as the young Cinder. As always, Allure was glad to run into a pony that wasn’t clearly taller than her, though this satisfaction was mitigated by the fact that Cinder was clearly still growing. “Hi, Allure!”

Allure grinned. “Oh, Cinder!” She tousled the mare’s mane. “How’s my favorite little adventurer?”

“F-favorite?” Cinder’s eyes sparkled.

“She has many favorites,” Squeaky supplemented.

“Well, yeah, duh,” Cinder said. “I bet you all have a lot of favorites!”

“Everyone does,” a small alicorn said, trotting by. “All people and ponies subconsciously rate others if they intend to or not.”

Squeaky coughed. “Sweetaloo, while I’m on vacation, would you kindly refrain from psychoanalyzing me?”

“No promises~!” Sweetaloo sang.

Squeaky rolled her eyes.

“By the way…” Sweetaloo turned to Suzie. “Nira and Seren are in engineering making what they insist are ‘cookies’. I don’t believe them. You might want to check in on them before something gets out of hand.”

Suzie frowned. “Swip, can you get Celia on that?”

Swip’s voice came from all directions. “Suuuure, you get to hang out with your old friends while I call Celia. Shirking your responsibilities, hmm, Captain?”

“Don’t worry, I heard everything,” Celia said. A moment later, Blink dropped the Void aura surrounding herself and Celia, revealing the two of them to the group.

“We totally weren't recording everything hoping for internet meme points,” Blink said, expecting absolutely no one to believe her.

Celia nodded to Suzie. “Enjoy your day off, I can ‘captain’ the rascals for a while.”

“Nira? A rascal?” Cinder shook her head. “She’s too ominous to be a rascal.”

“Once you see her cursed with a baby-spell you can never look at her the same way again.” Celia trotted away before Cinder could press for details.

“I… but… what?” Cinder turned to Blink. “Do you have that on file?”

“I do!” Swip declared. “And nobody is ever going to see it. Nira gets enough flak from all of you.”

“Giving flak to each other is a national pastime,” Blink pointed out.

“The clinical term is ‘banter’,” Sweetaloo said.

“You’re full of crap,” Blink counterd.

“Yes. Definitely. Absolutely.”

“Every crew and team I see…” Allure chuckled to herself. “It doesn’t matter where it is or who’s on it, the dynamics are always so colorful. I’m almost envious of Renee, dealing with nothing but teams all the time.”

“You’d get bored of it quick,” Squeaky pointed out.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Can’t really know unless I try. Which I can’t, given… a lot of things.”

Squeaky turned to one of Swip’s digital screens. “Swip, take us to an exotic beach.”

“I’ve already plotted a course that leads to several different amazing beaches!” Swip laughed like a madman. “Behold, the tour of multiversal Oceania in three! Two! On—”

Something exploded in the back of Swip’s engines.

“...I am going to kill those cookie chefs…” Swip growled.

~~~

After a half-hour delay that involved cleaning up dark-magic infused cookies bent on dominating the kitchen, the Sweetie vacation began on a bright red beach overlooking a blue sun setting into iridescent yellow-orange waves that smelled faintly of popcorn and jellybeans.

Chalcedony Celia had seen many thousands of different sunsets in her long lifetime and she had to admit, this one was easily in the top hundred. The colors were just so jarring and unconventional—it tickled the half of her that was a Rarity at heart. She wasn’t sure if she was looking at fashion genius or disaster, and that fascinated her.

Already the other Sweeties were laughing and enjoying themselves. Blink was surfing on the brilliant waves with only one hoof on the board at a time. Seren was playing with Cinder in the shallows, tossing a comically oversized beach ball back and forth with their magic. Squiddy had opted to remain in Swip, far away from the ‘deadly water’ despite having been offered a hydrophobic enchantment. She wouldn’t trust the stuff.

Speaking of Swip, she was physically in the universe, landed on the beach with her entry ramp open. Nira was sitting on the ramp, talking with the ship rather than engaging in any festivities. That poor, joy-stifled mare of darkness. Sometimes Celia couldn’t help but pity her. It was possible for her to enjoy things, but she rarely sought such experiences out.

Celia tore her attention away from the dark mage and focused on the four Founders, who had congregated together like the old friends they were. Already they were playing some weird combination of volleyball and buckball without baskets or a net. Even though she’d been watching for ten minutes, Celia wasn’t entirely clear on the rules.

Considering that Burgerbelle was playing, there may not have been rules for all she knew. Each team had a pony and a humanoid: Allure and Suzie versus Burgerbelle and Squeaky. However, their build didn’t seem to determine their role on the team, since Suzie and Squeaky were the ones aggressively hitting the ball while Allure and Burgerbelle hung back to react only when the ball went too far to one side or the other. Squeaky and Burgerbelle’s team was clearly winning from the consistent “oh come on!” both Allure and Suzie were spouting every few minutes.

Suzie had changed into beach attire for the encounter, a bright white one-piece swimsuit that had a few frills on the edges that made Celia think it was probably part of one of the captain’s ‘anime’ outfits, likely altered to be significantly more modest. Burgerbelle kept changing into different outfits every few seconds for the sake of ball-spiking.

“And the crowd goes wild!” Burgerbelle shouted, donning the suit of a sports announcer and spiking the ball with her elbow. It flew through the air and hit Suzie in the face, prompting several cartoonish ‘impact swirls’ to spiral off her head. Suzie fell back, eyes replaced with the whirling images of a slot machine that eventually settled on returning her pupils to her. Allure ran forward, reaching out with her inner Heart and slapping the ball away with an invisible extension of herself.

“Hey, cheat!” Burgerbelle called, blowing a whistle. “You can only hit the ball with your limbs!”

“I had my spirit shaped into a hoof,” Allure countered.

“That doe—” The ball hit her in the face, making a sound not unlike an anvil.

“...I’m going to let you two have that one,” Squeaky chuckled. “Serve!”

“Wait a min—” Suzie received a ball to the face once more, though this one didn’t come with any cartoony effects.

They really are such good friends, Celia thought.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Celia looked to the pony laying in the sun next to her: Sweetaloo. “We don’t use pennies.”

“Bit? Quid? Work with me here.”

Celia smirked. “I just found myself appreciating how good friends they are. You’d think Suzie and Burger would be cut out of the group since they spend most of their time elsewhere… but that just hasn’t happened.” Celia frowned. “I hear it happens so much with various friend groups. I was just talking to Flutterfree about it the other day. She commented that she hadn’t spoken to her Applejack in over a month.”

“Sometimes things happen,” Sweetaloo admitted. “I haven’t been back to my home universe in years due to the awkwardness of talking to my sisters. We’ve resolved our differences and are on good terms, but we haven’t made much effort to stay connected. They have.” She pointed at the Founders as they all hit the ball at the same time, triggering a small explosion. “They actively meet up regularly, confide in each other, and… well, they’ve built an entire organization around themselves. Their lives are each other.”

Celia looked up at her cracked gemstone. “Like sisters coming together.”

“Yeah, it is a bit like you. I bet if they were Gems they’d spend most of their time as a super-Sweetie.”

“I’m not sure a fusion could handle that much internal banter,” Celia chuckled.

“You’ve told me your halves will talk to each other.”

Celia nodded. “That generally only happens in moments of emotional duress where the fusion is in danger of collapsing. My mind is generally one-track, though the internal debate isn’t exactly uncommon. All I was trying to say is that their relationship is heavily dependent on banter. If they fused, they wouldn’t precisely have that communication aspect.”

“Different strokes for different folks.”

“Precisely.”

“So. Question. Why aren’t you out there having fun?”

Celia frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You’re just sitting here. You’re not sunning yourself like me, you’re a Gem. I know you like playing. Go join the game, or something.”

“I wouldn't want to intrude—the Founders have something special.”

Sweetaloo rolled her eyes. “Cinder or Blink then. They’re both enjoying their vacation and would love for you to drop in.”

Celia didn’t have a response ready.

“Hey. It’s okay if you don’t know everything about yourself. Celestia knows I don’t. Just consider it a suggestion from a friend—loosen up a bit. There’s something to be said for putting yourself out there. You know you’ll enjoy it.”

Celia pursed her lips for a moment, considering what Sweetaloo said. She did enjoy a good chaotic romp through the wilderness every so often, but she always kept herself back. After all, she had an image to maintain as an authority on the crew, it wouldn’t do to be as crazy as all the others—somebody had to be the consistent voice of reason.

But today? Everyone was on vacation. Until some crisis came crashing down and ruined their fun, she was off the clock. Screw that image of hers.

She lit her gemstone and summoned a surfboard from the aether. “Hey, Blink! I bet you wipe out first!”

“You’re on!” Blink called—promptly turning invisible the moment Celia took to the waves.

“Wh… hey!” Celia climbed onto her surfboard with a disgruntled expression. “Blink, I have to be able to see you wipe o-OUUUU—”

The invisible Blink tipped Celia’s surfboard over, dunking her into the water. Being a Gem, Celia didn’t exactly need air to survive, so she wasn’t in any rush to swim back to the surface. She started to cast a spell intended to find the water Blink was disturbing but she never got to finish casting.

She was overtaken by the sight of thousands of brightly colored fish swimming around under her in complex kaleidoscope-like patterns, mesmerizing her with their intricate interplay. No matter where she looked, it appeared as though the lines of fish were fixated onto her and for her. And that wasn’t even counting the coral beneath the fish, rolling with shifting colors and threads that swirled in the current.

Celia quickly pulled her head out of the water. “Blink! Why didn’t you tell us about all the stuff down there?”

Blink appeared on her surfboard, riding a wave. “I didn’t think it was that interesting?”

Celia let the wave crash over her, surfacing again to call out to the others. “Hey! Girls! You have to see this!”

~~~

What had started as a simple ‘check out the fish under the sea’ had turned into a ‘let’s explore the oceans of the multiverse’. Every Sweetie had piled into Swip and set off into the water, diving past the colorful fish and coral reefs until they arrived at the dark depths of the sea. They never ran out of sights to gawk over, ranging from fish longer than their field of view to floating bundles of moss that rippled in reaction to Swip’s presence.

Simply exploring one universe hadn’t been enough. Swip had taken to opening underwater portals to find the depths of other oceans, at one point drifting through a thick syrup of honey filled with slow moving fish.

It was an endless aquarium.

“And on your left you will see what I just named the ‘Stupiflippers’,” Swip announced as she brought up an image of a school of fish that were constantly swimming in loops. “Do not be fooled by their drifting across the screen, they are not moving anywhere. At all.”

“Stupid fish,” Squiddy muttered, glaring at them. Most of the other Sweeties ignored her griping and continued looking out the many various screens at all the aquatic life surrounding Swip at the moment.

“You… okay?” Blink asked Squiddy.

“Need I remind you that inklings explode on contact with water? I don’t like the ocean!”

Blink shook her head. “No. But we’re safe inside Swip.”

“I know. Still don’t like it. Why is ‘beach’ the default place to go for a vacation? Why can’t it be… mountains? Camping. I like camping.”

“Tell you what. We can tour some gas giants or something after this—I’ll push for it. No oceans for miles around.”

Squiddy smirked. “Thanks.”

“Though, strictly speaking, gas giants are more dangerous than an ocean…”

A massive sea serpent the color of a cactus erupted from the dark depths, charging right into Swip. With a laugh, Swip pointed her main turret at the beast and sent a lance of white energy right into its face. The water between the weapon and the destination was converted to a rippling current of steam that culminated in a large explosion of bubbles on the serpent’s nose. With a roar of agony, it slid away.

“Yes. Safe.” Squiddy shuddered.

“Surely you’ve heard of sky squids?” Blink asked.

“Yes, I know about sky squids.” She lifted her tentacles in the air and started making ghost-like noises.

Blink facehooved. “Really?”

Squiddy grinned. “Yes. Really.”

Swip changed universes, this time arriving in pinkish water.

“...Swip, is that pink lemonade?” Squiddy asked.

“Analysis says no,” Swip answered.

“Then why is it pink?”

“Salt.”

“Salt?”

“Salt.”

Seren cleared her throat. “Certain molecules—in this case, salt—have particular shapes that interact with light waves in such a way that they appear a certain color. In this case, pink—at least to Swip’s lights. The color might be different at the surface.”

“Why don’t we check it out?” Allure suggested. “Assuming this place isn’t an endless expanse of pink water.”

Swip’s avatar winked. “Let’s make a discovery! UP UP AND AWA—”

A creature made of blue electricity teleported behind them. A single tooth of the monstrosity’s immense maw filled up Swip’s primary screen, rippling with massive amounts of energy. The lightning flashed a deep red color and surged toward Swip, ramming headfirst into her shields.

Swip’s avatar vanished from the main screen, indicating she was focusing most of her processing power on dealing with the creature. Squiddy saw a few of their weapons fire at the beast, doing little-to-no damage to the rippling electricity.

“Get us out of here!” Suzie ordered.

“Working on it!” Swip said, opening a portal to a darker, bluer sea. She pushed her engines to leave.

The sea monster crunched the back of Swip’s shield between two of its teeth. The barrier sustained itself for a whole second before giving out, allowing the teeth to crunch down on Swip’s engines.

Every light on the bridge flashed red and alarms started blaring. “BREACH. BREACH. BREACH.”

Squiddy felt all sensation leave her legs. A breach. At the bottom of the ocean.

The rest was a blur to her.

~~~

Cinder didn’t get a good look at the monster. She had seen what looked like a tooth made out of electricity, then the back of Swip had exploded. At that point, Swip’s inertial dampeners had failed and everyone had been knocked to the ground by the jostling. Cinder’s lunch left her stomach as Swip entered a tailspin through the waves.

Cinder forced her eyes open, ignoring the half-digested contents of her stomach flattened against the wall next to her. She heard some vague yelling and saw a few sparks of magic go off as they continued their descent into the waters. There was a great, partially synthetic roar from behind them that was cut off abruptly. Cinder had enough of her wits about her to deduce that they had shifted universes and left the monster behind.

“Report!” Suzie and Squeaky barked at the same time.

“Incoming!” was Swip’s only response. Everything shook from an impact, tossing Cinder off the wall and onto the floor. She felt water starting to pool under her chin. Uh-oh.

Swip was no longer spiraling through the ocean—she was settling down on something solid, perhaps the seafloor. Whatever it was, Cinder was glad it was there because now she could stand up without feeling like she had two ponies piled onto her chest.

Suzie and Squeaky didn’t wait for Swip to completely settle. “Report!” They barked again. Suzie flinched, looking away from Squeaky.

Swip beeped. “Good news, we escaped the monster. Bad news, my engines are completely busted and we’ve got several leaks. At the bottom of the ocean.”

“Any immediate threats?” Squeaky asked.

“Besides the weight of millions of tons of water above us? Not that I can tell, but I’m half broken.”

“Right, Suzie?” Squeaky turned to her. “We need to ensure survivability first.”

Suzie pointed at Seren. “Get on that.”

Seren nodded, teleporting elsewhere in Swip.

Cinder tapped the water on the ground. It was only about a centimeter deep at this point, but they’d been down here for just barely a minute. “...Squiddy, are you—”

“I’m fine!” Squiddy shouted, standing on top of one of the bridge’s chairs, glaring at the rising water. “Long as I’m not doused with the stuff, I’ll be good.” She flicked a drop of water off her wrist, hissing. “Just get it fixed before it becomes a problem!”

Nira touched her horn to the water, freezing it solid. “Solved.”

Cinder pulled her hooves out of the sheet of ice in an attempt to stand tall. Instead, the slight slope of the floor made her slide all the way to the front of the bridge, next to Blink.

“Nira, freeze any breaks you can find,” Squeaky ordered. “Swip, do you have a damage report?”

“My back half is flooded, as are several rooms,” Swip admitted. “They’re all sealed off with emergency bulkheads. What we’re experiencing here is a microfracture in the main hall.”

Nira nodded, teleporting to the main hall. She was back in a second. “Sealing complete. We are now air-tight.”

“Eh…” Swip sighed. “I may be industrial and state-of-the-art, but without my shields I can’t survive these kinds of pressures for very long.” There was a metallic groan from all around as Swip’s hull began to buckle. “See? That’s a… problem.”

“Seren’s on that,” Suzie said. “...How is she faring in Engineering?”

Cinder’s eyes widened. “Engineering’s in the back!”

“She has enough magic to keep the localized pressure at bay,” Swip reported. “...barely.”

“I’ll assist, I don’t need to protect myself,” Celia offered, teleporting away.

Squeaky looked up at Swip’s hull. “Do we have any way to temporarily bolster your durability?”

Swip grunted. “Basic durability spell won’t cut it, so no.”

“It’ll buy us time,” Nira countered, casting the spell.

“About five seconds worth.”

“It’s worth something.”

“...It’s the thought that counts, I guess.”

Now that the immediate danger had people working on it, Squeaky turned to everyone. “Do we have any injuries?”

“My wing,” Sweetaloo said, pointing at her left side. “Broken. Again.”

“My head is ringing and I’m hungry,” Cinder offered.

“Anything more serious than that?” Squeaky asked. Receiving no answer, she indicated Allure should see to Cinder with a point, giving herself the job of seeing to Sweetaloo’s wing.

Allure put a hoof on Cinder’s head. “How’s your head feel?”

“Like we didn’t stop spinning…” Cinder grunted.

“Can you see?”

Cinder squinted. “Actually, everything’s a little fuzzy…”

Allure sighed, and Cinder felt something tug at her spirit—probably something related to Allure’s powers of Heart. “You might have a concussion. We’ll need to have Nira look at you closer.”

“Oh boy, concussion… I can take a beating from a supervillain but the moment Swip crashes…” Cinder groaned, putting a hoof to her head as she felt the world start spinning. She decided it was a good idea to sit down and try not to move.

“Shields up!” Swip reported. The groaning of the hull stopped, allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.

Celia teleported back to the bridge, carrying an exhausted looking Seren on her back. The Gem set the child down in a chair, frowning. “She gave her all to get those shields back up. She won’t be doing anything for a while.”

“Are the shields in danger of falling?” Squeaky asked.

“Nope,” Swip said. “They’re not in peak condition, but they’re operating like they were before. We’re safe. My backup energy reserves are basically untouched, I could power that for an eternity if you wanted.”

“Hopefully we won’t need that long. Can you move?”

“Engines are completely toast. Dimensional drive works, but none of my tests have shown an adjacent universe that isn’t either underwater or deep underground.”

“Call for help.”

“Ah, see, here’s the problem with that…”

Squiddy groaned. “We have radio spells and communication devices! If your communications are down we have options!”

“Oh no, communication systems are up and running just fine.”

“Then what’s the problem? Get us out of this mess!”

Swip sighed. “We’re not in a well-established area of the dimensional network. They’re not going to hear a transmission sent through several miles of water or rock. Every adjacent universe has something in the way. Any distress call is just going to get eaten up in the waves.”

“Transmit anyway!”

“Already am. Have been ever since that monster ate my butt.”

Squiddy’s anger melted away from her face. “N-no response?”

“None.”

Cinder gulped. “We’re stuck down here, aren’t we?”

“Looks like it,” Allure grunted. “Okay, first, survivability. I know we can easily purify the water around us, but food?”

Nira tapped her horn and summoned a sandwich.

“The food replicators are in the lounge, too,” Blink reported. “They probably still work, so long as we can power them from the ambient magic.”

Nira nodded. “There is a magic network within the waters. Slightly dark in nature—I might be able to use it.”

“Oxygen?” Allure asked.

“Easily synthesized from the water itself,” Celia said. “There are several spells to do such.”

“So, we could survive down here as long as we need to.” Allure nodded slowly. “Eventually, they’ll realize we haven’t returned from our vacation and come looking for us. They’ll be able to trace the dimensional portals and rescue us.”

“That could take days,” Squeaky pointed out. “That’s not even taking into account possible time dilation.”

“Days. At the bottom. Of the ocean!?” Squiddy jumped out of her chair, prepared to go on an angry rant—however she slipped on the icy floor and fell onto her back.

“With luck they’ll find us sooner rather than later,” Allure said. “Or we find a way to save ourselves. Swip, how deep are we?”

“No idea,” Swip admitted. “Sensors were rather scrambled by being crushed a few minutes ago. Deep enough that it’s pitch black out there.”

“Well, if we could make it to the surface, we’d probably be able to make a call…” Allure scratched her chin.

Squeaky cleared her throat. “Let’s make sure everything’s definitely stabilized before we try to swim straight up. Everyone, we need to take inventory just in case we have something that can get us out of this. Check every room that isn’t flooded. Anyone who can survive underwater should check the flooded rooms. Swip, is there anything nearby?”

“A lot of dusty seafloor and a normal shark skeleton,” Swip reported. “Can’t see further clearly.”

Squeaky nodded. “Thank you. Everyone else, get to work.”

~~~

Blink sat on the seafloor, looking out into the dark, murky abyss. There was no point of sight, no sensation beyond that which touched her essence directly. The seafloor itself was sandy, but her flanks did not itch due to the ever-present water keeping the grains loose and flowing. She could feel the cold, uncaring currents of the ocean flowing through her ghostly body, telling her of a world beyond her senses far larger than she could ever comprehend. A world hidden, just out of reach, but still within her.

Here, she was in her element. At the bottom of the ocean, all was Void.

Places like this filled her with comfort. If it weren't for the tense situation this location was forcing upon her friends, she could have been at peace here. As it was, all she had to do was turn around and she would be able to see Swip’s wreckage glowing like a lost firefly in a deep cavern.

Her friends were in there. Some would be panicking. All of them would be tense. It had taken them all of half an hour to take inventory, but none of them could stop after that. They all had to be doing something to solve their predicament.

It had not taken long for the cramped space to drive Blink out. As a ghost, she could survive in the ocean depths without a problem so long as she remained intangible to the pressure. Might as well come out here to get some peace and quiet.

She so rarely got to enjoy places like this.

She was more than a little annoyed when Celia’s teleport flash ruined the ambiance of her retreat.

Blink sighed. “What do you want?”

Celia was not blessed with Blink’s ability to project her voice anywhere, so she had to resort to spell-based telepathic communication, a method that required her gemstone constantly be aglow with a soft light. I came to check on you.

“I’m fine.”

Cinder was asking for you.

Blink frowned. “She… she’s fine.”

Yes, she’s fine, but she’s worried about you. She said something about storming off to brood being a bad sign.

“Me? Brooding?” Blink laughed. “Celia, you know me. I don’t do ‘brooding’.”

Celia snorted, an action that blew a rush of water into Blink’s body.

“Fine, I brood sometimes. Not here. I just needed to get out of there. Your collective panic was getting to me.”

Aside from Squiddy, I don’t believe any of us are panicking. We’re simply brainstorming solutions.

“We can’t swim up, since we have no idea how the universe works or how far down we are. Traveling to another universe doesn’t solve anything since it’s all water. So we’re just going to have to wait and see.” She laid down, pressing her back into the seafloor. “I’m going to sit out here until you all realize we just have to wait.”

I think it’s a bit unrealistic to think that will happen.

“What, have you had any luck coming up with ideas?”

Nira has detected a magic network in the water and has been using it to probe beyond Swip’s sensors. She’s found a railroad running along the seafloor in that direction. She illuminated the water around her hoof to ensure Blink saw it.

“So either there’s an underwater civilization or this place didn’t use to be underwater.” Blink groaned. “And that means we might be able to get some help from the locals or get information… Fine, fine, you win, maybe Nira’s got something.”

It’s nothing to be ashamed of, not really.

“I’m going to stay out here until they want to do something, though. It’s… nice.”

...Nira did say the magic network was a dark one with a minor curse.

“...What?”

She said it’s nothing to worry about, since she could easily remove something so weak, but I figured you’d want to know you are soaking in cursed currents.

Blink sat up with a groan. “Aight, guess we’re going back then. No use tempting fate.”

“Did someone say tempting fate?!” Burgerbelle shouted, jumping out of the seafloor. As a being whose hold on physics was tenuous at best, she didn’t care that she was being crushed by thirty thousand elephants worth of water pressure on every square inch of her body. “Oh, I know what that means!”

“What?”

“Monster attack!” Burgerbelle rubbed her hands together. “Oh, I can’t wait to see wh—”

There was a rush of water and Burgerbelle wasn’t standing in front of them anymore.

“...Crud,” Blink said.

~~~

“We need to assign rooms,” Squeaky said, tapping her hoof on the central table of the Lounge to grab everyone’s attention. “Only four are currently dry and easily accessible.”

Cinder looked to Suzie to see if she would say anything—but as had been the pattern ever since the crash, Suzie just nodded in automatic agreement to everything Squeaky said. Cinder understood that Suzie was respecting the chain of military command, and there wasn't anything wrong with what Squeaky was saying… But could it hurt to at least discuss other options a bit? This wasn’t a military ship. They weren’t in danger of dying anymore.

“Me, Allure, Suzie, and Burger will take one,” Squeaky continued.

Oh, sure, just take Suzie away why don’t you.

“Rest of you have any preference?”

Cinder shot her hoof up. “Blink.”

“All right. Since she’s not here, you’re her vote.”

Oh, sure, be reasonable. Be… Cinder caught herself. ...Am I really being that petty?

“I’ll go with them, too!” Seren said, grinning.

Squeaky nodded. “That means Nira, Sweetaloo, and Celia get the third room, seeing as the Squiddy’s currently locked herself in the fourth one.”

Cinder looked to Squeaky, grimacing. Well, now I feel terrible. That’s Founder Squeaky Belle. We should do what she says. Even Suzie. That was…

“Hey,” Allure said, putting a hoof on Cinder. “You doing okay in there?”

“Enough,” Cinder said, legitimately unsure if it was a lie or not.

Allure nodded in what Cinder assumed was understanding, though she wasn’t sure how the small mare could understand something Cinder hadn’t broadcasted. Cinder barely knew what she was thinking or why she was thinking it, how could Allure possibly kn-

Oh. Right. They were both standard Equis Sweeties, more or less.

Allure’s smile told of a mare who’d just watched a series of facial expressions cross Cinder’s face in the exact way she’d predicted.

“Oh, come on! That’s not fair!”

“And every standard Sweetie in existence knows about the tree sap incident. The multiverse isn’t fair.”

Cinder shivered. “N-never bring that up again.”

“You’ll find that it gets your point across really well soon enough.”

Cinder wanted to argue but got the distinct impression that it would be pointless. She was basically looking at an adult version of herself… an inexplicably short one, to be sure, but that probably didn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things.

“Soo…” Allure continued. “Getting jealous, are we?”

“Jealous?”

Allure glanced at Suzie and then at Squeaky. The human was following the unicorn around like some kind of butler.

“...I guess that could be jealousy…”

“You know it is. Think back to your Rarity, for a moment. What was her name, again?”

“Xenium.”

“Right. Do you remember when you tried to replace her with Applejack at the Sisterhooves Social?”

“Yep. That was a… ‘fun’ day. Though seeing Big Mac in a dress was much more f—”

“Cinder, focus.”

Cinder blushed. “R-right. Yeah, I remember.”

“You remember why you tried to do that?”

“Clearly, since you do.”

Allure raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry. She didn’t want to do it, something about her work and her dresses? I was little, I don’t remember it very well.”

“And you thought she cared more about her work than you.”

“I mean I—” Cinder stopped herself. Then she turned to look at Suzie giving Squeaky her rapt attention. “Ah. You know, you think I would have learned that lesson…”

“Nobody learns a lesson completely the first time.”

“Barring ka-weirdness.”

Allure rolled her eyes. “Yes, barring that. My point here is to show you that you’re close to falling into the same trap again so you can start to see it yourself.”

“Huh. Thanks.” She frowned. “...You know Suzie. Does she…?”

“She respects her rank and authorities a lot, yes. But…” Allure scratched her chin. “Her compassion overrules that. If it came down to it, she’d choose her crew over the Military. Squeaky would too, and she knows full well that’s why O’Neill won’t promote her any higher. She cares more about the League.”

Cinder nodded slowly, proceeding to sigh. “...I’m sorry.”

“Cinder, you didn’t actually do anything. You were just stewing.”

Cinder opened her mouth to respond, shut it when she saw Allure’s smug but understanding expression and decided an exasperated groan was the best response.

“You can’t escape the understanding of somepony who’s been through most of the things you have.”

“Cheap,” Cinder said—though she was smiling. “So, what, we’re the same then? And when another small Sweetie comes along I get to enjoy messing with them?”

Allure chuckled. “You’ll definitely get to mess with younger Sweeties, guaranteed. Buuuuuuut, well, we’re not the same. Take our talents, for instance.”

Cinder glanced from her flank to Allure’s. “The same. Helping ponies find their destiny.”

“But it manifests differently, doesn’t it? Out in the multiverse, I specialise in helping Sweeties find their destinies, and have awoken the ability to fight with my very soul—a destiny of my own, you could say. Meanwhile, you? You have a knack for predicting things, almost like you can see destiny. It doesn’t manifest in the same way.”

Cinder cocked her head. “You think that’s… an interpretation of my talent?”

“Almost certain.”

“Huh. Cool! I thought it was just some weird random protagonist-effect thing, but hey, looks like it has an explanation! How could I never have thought about it like that before?”

“It’s called the Idiot Ball,” Swip offered.

“Thank you for insultingly intruding in a private conversation, Swip,” Cinder deadpanned.

“Intruding? Girls, everybody who’s in the lounge who cares to listen can hear you, and almost everyone’s in the lounge.”

Cinder looked up to notice Nira, Sweetaloo, and Seren watching them. “Wh- hey!”

“This is part of my job,” Sweetaloo coughed.

“I’m just a kid and don’t know better!” Seren blurted.

Cinder glanced at Nira. “What’s your excuse?”

“Needing an excuse. What an alien concept.” Nira snorted.

“Nira…”

“...Blink’s being attacked.”

Cinder facehooved. “Nira, do you really expect me t—”

“I’m being serious, something’s attacking them. Swip! I'm going out!”

Swip gasped. “Nira that’s stu- and she’s gone. Of course.”

“Can you help them?” Cinder asked.

“I can shoot and vaporize everyone. I don’t think that qualifies.”

“Who else can go out there safely?” Squeaky demanded.

Suzie ganced at Seren. “...Seren’s too weak. The rest of us…”

“Great. They have all the help they’re going to get.” Squeaky tapped her hoof on the ground. “Seren, think you can get the teleporter working?”

“Uh... no, sorry.”

Squeaky let out a swear that was so high pitched nobody could figure out what word it was supposed to be.

~~~

Blink didn’t know what was attacking them, but she didn’t need to. She could feel the current flowing through her body from the thing’s movement, telling her exactly where it was. All she had to do was wait for the right moment.

A torrent of water brushed her front—it saw her, thinking her a prime target for attack. It was going to be in for a surprise. Blink stood her ground and smirked. “Come and get me, fishy.”

The creature obeyed, charging her and passing right through her ghostly essence. Blink felt ragged fur, teeth, flesh, and bones in the transition, telling her the creature was more-or-less in the shape of a pony, albeit covered in algae and with a tail instead of hind legs. A sort of seapony, if she had to name it.

A seapony that was currently very confused at the lack of pony meat in its jaws. It started turning in confusion, giving Blink the opportunity she needed. She threw her hoof forward, removing its intangibility to sock the seapony in the side. She made contact, crunching a seapony rib in the process, but she didn’t register this.

Instead, she was reminded of why she had been intangible. The moment she solidified her hoof she felt the oppressive pressure of the ocean enact itself upon her hoof. The immense pain of unfathomable weight crushing her from all sides almost made her lose focus, which would have given her entire body over to the might of the sea.

As it was, she managed to hold enough of her awareness to shift back to full intangibility, though she lost the reality bracelet on that hoof with a sharp crack. The pain remained, sending throbbing screams to her soul. Knowing her ethereal body was indestructible did not help her convince herself the pain wasn’t real. She could only scream and fixate on keeping just enough wits about her to keep the ocean flowing through her.

There was a flash of light as Celia summoned her weapon, drawing the components out of her gemstone and fusing them together into the razor-top so many Sweeties were familiar with. The light from the action was more than enough to reveal the seapony’s true appearance.

It looked dead. Eyes of white nothingness with red tear streaks along the bottom were frozen permanently open, oblivious to their uselessness. The teeth were jagged and predatory, protruding out of the jaw at odd angles, one of which had eaten away at its cheek. The mane still existed, somehow, as little more than ethereal wisps than something a pony would wear on their head.

There were also seven of them.

Through her pain, Blink managed to wonder how something built so much like a pony could survive at these depths, monster or otherwise.

The seaponies charged Celia as one, sending garbled screeches through the water. Celia planted her razor-top into the ground and used her magic to rotate it as fast as she possibly could. From outside, it appeared as though she was doing little more than kicking up some dust under her top.

The seaponies bought this and charged, oblivious to the whirlpool spell Celia had created until they were already in the midst of it. Three of the monsters were caught up in the invisible current, thrown around like useless ragdolls. For the four that were smart enough to put on the brakes, Celia had another plan: lasers. Beams of arcane energy shot from her crystal, evaporating the pressurized water between her and the seapony, filling the distance with unnatural bubbles that quickly collapsed in the underwater equivalent of an explosion. The literal shockwave sent both the Gem and seaponies flying. On land, that may have been a fight ender.

Underwater, however, it did little more than shake everyone up and create some distance. Had the seaponies been nothing more than animals, they likely would have fled at this point. When they charged, they proved themselves to be relentless monsters.

Celia hefted her razor-top over her shoulder, standing on her hind hooves. She swung the rotating armament wide, knocking three seaponies back with a simple wave. The fourth seapony’s neck made contact with the edge of the top, severing its head clean from its body.

The other three did not relent, charging in again, teeth bared. Through sheer luck, they were coming at different angles, and Celia had slightly overextended her reach to make her previous kill. She swung back, firing off another laser spell. As she hoped, the resultant steam created a shockwave that tossed her back.

Unfortunately, one of the seaponies had been tossed the same direction she had, giving it easy access to her leg. It opened its jaw wider than any pony should have been able to and bit down.

A deep, blood-red spike shifting with the power of ancient, forbidden magic punctured the seapony’s skull before it finished the act. The back of the spike was affixed to a deep red chain that led back to a dark forcefield that contained Nira with two more chains branched off to the last remaining seaponies, neither of which survived the impact.

“GET BACK INTO SWIP!” Nira shouted in a dark tongue that made Blink wince. She’d heard the voice many times before, usually reserved for when Nira was angry or under extreme stress. Given her expression, it was probably the latter this time.

Blink had enough of her wits about her to start swimming back, an action that Celia mimicked despite being able to teleport back. Blink smiled. How could she not? The Gem was staying behind to make sure she was safe.

All her comfort dissipated the instant Nira belted out a swear in a long-dead language that made Blink’s hairs stand on end. For a moment, she considered turning around to see what had her all worked up. That desire ended the moment Blink felt a massive wave blow through her body.

Whatever made that, it was bigger than most whales.

She started swimming faster, pushing both her hooves and her natural ability to float to their limit. Now that she was paying attention to the currents flowing through her, she could feel a smaller wave interlaced with the bigger one. Another monster? No… this was far too regular. It was either something like a seapony swimming around in perfect circles next to the behemoth, or it was the behemoth’s heartbeat.

Blink knew she was safe. She was a ghost.

Swip and everyone inside were not.

“Swip! Shoot it! Shoot it!” Blink shouted, hoping in vain the ship could hear this far.

Blink felt the familiar buzz of Nira’s magic fill the waters, tearing at her soul like some rabid animal. There was a flash of red from behind her, and for a split second the light from Swip went out, returning all too slowly.

Whatever Nira had done, it must have made the monster angry, since it let out a screech that shifted the sand of the seafloor.

Swip’s targeting, Celia told Blink telepathically. Hold on tight.

Blink translated ‘hold on tight’ to mean ‘go true Void’. She all but erased herself from existence, allowing her body to become truly invisible and intangible, all but undetectable.

One of Swip’s turrets folded out of a banged up side panel, aiming directly at Blink. A brilliant ball of pink energy formed at the tip, orbited by three smaller points of blue energy. The three points affixed themselves to the central core, creating an energy bolt that resembled a fat ballistic missile. It launched, passing right through Blink without so much as tickling her, going right for the behemoth.

Blink only saw it in the light of the missile for a split second. It was truly a deep sea fish with glassy eyes the size of boulders and a gaunt jaw lined with precise, predatory teeth that came dangerously close to puncturing the eyes they were supposed to protect. It thought the missile was food, so it unfolded its mouth like its cheeks were made of origami, swallowing the attack whole.

The missile exploded into dozens of hot-pink needles, puncturing the skeletal beast’s skin from the inside out, tearing it to shreds. The beginnings of a quaking growl of pain were cut short as the massive head was severed from the rest of the fish’s body, floating dead in the water.

When the light of the missile died and the sea returned to darkness, Blink turned back to Swip and swam as fast as she could go back to Swip’s lounge. She returned to her normal, tangible self and flopped onto one of the chairs, letting out a soft laugh. “Okay… that was too close for comfort…”

Cinder ran up to her and pulled her into a hug. “Blink!”

Blink chuckled. “What, did you think some sea monster was going to get me?”

With a flash of light, Celia and Nira appeared in the lounge as well. Nira took one look at Blink, growled, and promptly passed out from overexhaustion.

“I told her going out there was stupid,” Swip said, bringing her avatar up and shaking her finger disapprovingly. “But did she listen? No, never does. By the way, you’re welcome.”

Celia smiled weakly. “Thanks, Swip. I’m not sure we could’ve turned that around given the environment. It… hold on, where’s Burgerbelle?”

“Here,” Burgerbelle said, eating popcorn out of a bag.

“...I’ll let Suzie yell at you for vanishing later,” Celia sighed.

“Let’s forget about that,” Squeaky said, trotting into the center of the room. “What matters is that everyone is alive and well, and that the creature is dead. We now know that there are monsters out there in the depths that want to kill us—Swip, keep your weapons armed at all times.

Swip’s avatar nodded. “Already done, marshall.”

Squeaky frowned at Swip’s tone but didn’t comment on it. “As for the rest of us…” she glanced at Nira. “I believe we all need some rest. I’m declaring the day over. Suzie and I will sleep in shifts, the rest of you get as much as you can.”

“Sleeping at a time like this…” Cinder laughed nervously. “Sure.”

Squeaky’s tough exterior broke for a moment as a grimace crossed her face. “...Just try, okay? If you can get any, it will help.”

“...Okay.”

~~~

Cinder had no idea how long she’d slept. Sure, she could look at the clock and know it was technically tomorrow afternoon at this point, but she had spent a fair amount of time last night arguing with Blink over blankets, staring at the ceiling contemplating how much water was above them, or contemplating how she never knew Seren was such a loud snorer.

She certainly didn’t feel rested.

She pulled herself out of the bed and rubbed her eyes, ignoring the loud snore that came from Seren’s bundle of blankets right next to her. At least she was getting sleep, and Cinder wasn’t about to interrupt one of their strongest mages to complain about snoring. She’d do that when Seren woke up naturally.

With a soft grunt, Cinder trotted out of the bedroom—a tad annoyed to find Blink sleeping on the ceiling right above the door. There was a nonzero chance Blink was simply pretending to be asleep and was waiting to fall on whoever walked through the door first. Well, Cinder wasn’t going to fall for that. She opened the door with her magic and pressed herself to the wall at the edge of the doorframe. Taking a breath, she rolled through the doorway at an oblique angle, occupying the space under Blink for only a fraction of a second.

Blink remained asleep on the ceiling, giving her not so much as a twitch.

Cinder sighed as the door slid shut. That had been pointless. At least she was awake and alert now. That was something, she supposed.

She trotted into the lounge, finding four Sweeties within. Nira stood in the center of the room, symbols of magic floating around her as she worked. Sweetaloo and Suzie were sitting at one of the tables, talking over a few sandwiches. To Cinder’s shock, Squiddy was out of her room, curled up on the couch with her legs tucked to her chest. She stared straight ahead, intentionally fixating on a cartoon playing on the main screen.

“Morning, Nira,” Cinder said as she passed by. “Wait… actually...”

“I do not care if it is really morning or not, the greeting itself suffices without correction,” Nira responded, keeping her eyes closed and horn shrouded in dark magic.

“Oh. Okay. What’cha doing?”

“Increasing our understanding of the surrounding area. I have used the dark magic field to see several miles distant. I have determined the area used to be above the water, but otherwise I have found nothing of much interest beyond a few broken houses and extended railroad. Now let me return to my work, it requires focus and I’m low on magic reserves as it is.”

“Oh. Okay.” Cinder was used to this sort of treatment by Nira at this point so she didn’t let it bother her. She made her way to Squiddy’s position on the couch and sat next to her.

“I’m fine,” Squiddy muttered before Cinder could say anything.

“Well, you did come out of your room…”

Squiddy made no response aside from a grunt, refusing to take her eyes off the screen. It was a cartoon about some kind of white bird flying high in the sky. Not an ocean in sight.

Cinder decided to just sit and watch with Squiddy. The inkling would talk when she felt like it, pushing her wouldn’t get anywhere unless you were Sweetaloo, and Cinder did not have that mare’s skills.

Celia teleported into the lounge long before the moment came. She cast a dry spell on herself, collecting all the water clinging to her body into one orb and dropped it on the ground with a splash. The noise made Squiddy jump onto the top of the couch and point one of her ink guns at Celia. “Water is death!”

Celia stared at her in shock, having not expected her presence.

“G-get it out of here!” Squiddy stammered.

“I—”

“I SAID GET IT OUT OF HERE!”

Celia coalesced the deposited water into a ball and teleported it out of Swip. She held up her hooves in surrender.

Squiddy put her gun away. “G-good…” She turned back to the screen, fixating on it once more.

Sweetaloo slid her chair back and made her way to Squiddy.

“If you so much as say a damn word I will ink you,” Squiddy hissed.

Sweetaloo said nothing. She sat next to Squiddy and watched the bird on-screen like Cinder. Silence reigned for a moment.

Celia cleared her throat, though she wasn’t addressing any of the ponies at the couch. “The protective enchantments have been laid outside. We’ll be able to detect them coming from further away and eliminate some automatically.”

Suzie nodded. “Good work. Swip?”

Swip beeped in confirmation. “Interface complete. Senses extended slightly. Now I’ll be able to see the massive monster coming before it sends an earthquake into our bones.”

“You don’t have bones,” Nira deadpanned.

“Metal skeletons resonate better. Which means worse.”

“You don’t have to experience pain.”

“I… Nira, you’re not focusing completely on your magic.” Swip’s avatar grinned. “You found something.”

Nira allowed herself to smile. “You know me too well. I’m not sure of what it is, yet, but… I’m liking what I’m sensing.”

“Come on, the anticipation is killing me!”

“Patience, my artificial friend… patience.”

“Can’t you at last give a hint? Please…?” Swip fluttered her eyes.

“No.”

Swip glared. “You already finished scanning it, didn’t you?”

“Yep.”

“You’re evil.”

Nira’s smile turned into a grin. “Thanks for noticing.” She coughed. “Anyway, yes, I have found a source of immense magic power. Completely neutral, as far as I can tell. It’s a cave several miles to the northeast.”

Suzie frowned. “That’s a long ways away.”

“That’s what we’re here for!” Blink called, sliding into the lounge with a cocky smile. “Some of us can just walk through the ocean, no problem.”

Celia nodded. “The two of us can investig—”

“Me too!” Burgerbelle shouted, appearing between them with an explosion Cinder swore was made out of ‘oof’ noises.

“The three of us can investigate,” Celia said. “Nira, do you believe the cave can help us escape?”

“Assuming I’m not being duped, I assume so.” Nira tapped her hoof on the ground. “If you can gather the source of magic—I’m thinking it’s the crystals in the cavern, but I can’t be certain at this distance—I believe I could extend my perceptions to a planetary scale. With that kind of influence I could teleport to the surface and send out a distress signal.”

“Right! Looks like we’ve got a mission!” Blink jumped over to Cinder and tapped her on the back. “Sorry, looks like your pal’s gotta vanish again. Make sure not to worry about me this time, got it?”

“I’ll.. try!” Cinder smiled awkwardly. “How long are you going to be gone?”

Blink turned to Celia. “Got an estimate?”

Celia furrowed her brow. “I suspect a little under a day to get there, and the same back. Depending on how long it takes to obtain the magic, it could take significantly more than two days.”

Suzie frowned. “I’m hesitant to split up the group for such a long time.”

“We’ll be fine,” Blink said dismissively. “Nothing out there can even touch me, and if we get into an emergency I can make everyone else intangible.”

“What about when you need to sleep? Your Void requires focus.”

“I can provide her with energy,” Celia offered. “The spells of Generosity are not beyond me, you understand.”

Suzie nodded. “In that case… I’ll check with Squeaky, but otherwise you’re free to go.”

Cinder frowned. “You… have to check with her?”

Suzie’s expression was unreadable. “It’s not a need, but I prefer to have everyone on the same page.”

“It’s a plan, at least,” Squeaky said, walking out of her room and rubbing her eyes. “I didn’t hear everything, but for the most part I like it. My only question is how are we going to know if you get in trouble?”

“I will be able to detect Celia through the water,” NIra offered. “If she wishes to make her distress known, she will be able to.”

“And then you won’t be able to do anything to help her,” Squiddy grunted. “They’ll be cut off.”

“It’s a risk we’re willing to take!” Blink said, holding her hoof high. “Who’s with me?”

Burgerbelle and Celia touched her hoof, turning to Squeaky expectantly.

“Oh, all right, you can go.”

Cinder jumped off the couch to give Blink a goodbye hug. “Take care of yourself.”

Blink smirked. “Cinder, this is Blink you’re talking about. She’ll take care of herself, everyone else, and probably even the enemy. Then she’ll come back riding a royal sea serpent and carrying a boatload of legendary magic loot!”

Cinder rolled her eyes, breaking off the embrace. “Looks like I don’t have to tell you to have fun.”

“I always have fun! Celia, prepare for endless stupid smalltalk!”

Celia smirked. “You will find your words inadequate to face my vocabulary.”

“Psh, who needs words?” She laughed, jumping through one of Swip’s walls. “AWAAAY!” She vanished into the ocean. Burgerbelle folded herself up until she was nothing, and Celia teleported outside.

Swip was down three crew members.

“So…” Cinder said. “Can we do anything?”

Nira frowned. “Not that I’m aware of.”

“...Great…” She went back to watching cartoons with Squiddy.

~~~

Celia and the others were already gone when Seren woke up. It took her a good half-hour to figure this out since Cinder apparently needed to have a talk with her about her snoring. Naturally, Cinder must have been delusional, Seren didn’t snore. Cinder had promised to create recorded tapes of the impossible act for tomorrow. This was fine with Seren—let her make a fool of herself.

After that… nothing had happened.

Then nothing had happened.

Then more nothing had happened.

Sure, she had tried to get involved with what Squiddy, Sweetaloo, and Cinder were watching, but she had no idea what was going on and after about ten minutes she bailed. Allure, Squeaky, and Suzie had been playing cards for a bit, but the moment Seren joined she trounced them all with her probability analyses. Her victory was so absolute it was boring. Most recently, she had asked Swip to give her a puzzle game to mess with. She had already beaten it with little effort.

The problems of being an absolute genius.

She would have loved to go to Engineering and tinker with some of her gadgets, but that was impossible. The place was flooded and she still wasn’t fully recovered from expending all her magic in fixing the shields. There wasn’t really a place to workshop at the moment, so her primary hobby was gone.

Nothing that could be fixed even needed to be fixed. She was an engineer without a job.

“Uuuuugh!” Seren whined, ramming her head into the table. “I. Am. So. BORED!”

Allure smirked. “We could try some video ga—”

“BORED!?” Squiddy shouted at the top of her lungs. “BORED!?”

Everyone stared at her in shock.

“How can you be BORED!?” Squiddy marched right up to Seren and pointed an accusatory finger in her face. “We are at the bottom of the ocean! There is god knows how much water stacked on top of us spending every moment of its existence trying to flatten us into pancakes! There are monstrous creatures out there just waiting to devour us whole! All that’s keeping us from instant death are a couple spells, a hull that’s been patched back together more times than I can count, and a shield system powered by a fucking child!”

“Squiddy!” Suzie shouted. “That’s enou—”

Seren burst into tears.

The fire in Squiddy’s eyes went out in that moment. “D-dammit.” She ran to her room

Sweetaoo called out. “Squiddy, no! We c—” Squiddy shut the door in her face and locked it. A thud could be heard from the other side of the room, indicating that something large had just been propped up against the door.

“...She knows the doors slide open, right?” Swip asked.

“Not the time,” Sweetaloo hissed. She walked up to the door and knocked. “Squiddy?”

There was no response.

“Squiddy, there’s nothing to be afraid of out here. It’s just us.”

“N-nothing to be afraid of? You’re a bunch of morons.” There was a crash as Squiddy threw something breakable against the door.

Sweetaloo sighed, turning away from the door. “She’s not going to be open to gentle words right now. I don’t think we should strain her by taking the other option, so everyone, please give her some space unless I say otherwise. Okay?”

Everyone nodded—even Seren, through her blubbering tears.

Though, she couldn’t understand why Squiddy was so angry and scared. They dealt with worse things than water all the time…

~~~

Celia knew Blink was in her element when surrounded by darkness. It was one of the closest physical sensations to Void itself. Celia also knew full well that the light she cast around them prevented Blink from fully enjoying the black murk surrounding them. There may have been beauty in darkness, but there wasn’t any usefulness. To be fair, the visible seafloor wasn’t much better than darkness. Most of it was rock or sand devoid of life, and it was impossible to get a general lay of the land with the small light Celia offered. Everything that swam by—be it random fish or monster—didn’t provide much of anything either. At most they’d spend a few seconds trying to figure out where the light was coming from before giving up when nothing tangible presented itself to them. All Celia had discovered was that the seaponies had cutie marks, which, while disturbing, didn’t provide any insight. She had seen many animalistic ponies in her time.

However, Celia was a creature of light, and she needed to see to get anything done—even if the sight of the seafloor didn’t provide all that much of an advantage beyond footing. She wasn’t about to allow the darkness to overtake them just because Blink appreciated it. They had a mission to complete and all three of them needed to be at peak performance to take care of anything unexpected. Just because Blink was great at hiding them didn’t mean she was perfect.

To her credit, Blink was doing a pretty good job of hiding her disappointment.

“Hey, check this out!” Blink said, swimming over to the remnants of a railroad. The metal rails had rusted completely away long ago and the wooden planks that had kept them together were rotted to almost nothing. “An old rail line…”

Burgerbelle produced a handcar and dropped it on the rails. She placed her hands on the lever and grinned. “All aboard!”

Celia chuckled. Dear, the rail goes the wrong direction and is broken in numerous places. We cannot ride it to our destination.

Burgerbelle pushed down on the handcar’s lever and moved along the rail anyway. She hit a bump so small Celia hadn’t noticed it, prompting the cart to tip onto its side in an exaggerated fashion. A sound not unlike a car horn played upon the crash’s completion.

Burgerbelle peeled herself off the seafloor like a sticker. “Point taken.”

Is there anything of use here? Celia asked.

“Nothing really,” Blink said, floating past a bunch of deep sea kelp. “Got rails, a pony skeleton, and a bunch of sea weeds.”

Mildly interesting, since there’s no sun for the kelp down here, but not particularly useful.

Blink brushed a hoof against the kelp. “Maybe there’s a vent nearby, or something.”

Celia’s eyes widened. Blink… Did you just touch that kelp?

“Yeah, I guess I did.” Blink blinked. “Huh, guess the kelp has some sort of ethereal component to it. Scan it for magi—”

The kelp lashed out and wrapped itself around the ‘intangible’ Blink, squeezing her tight. She let out a squeak of surprise as the tangled strand of plant matter dragged her deeper into the grasp of the rest of the kelp.

Celia summoned her razor-top and Burgerbelle produced some hedge clippers. “Snip snip!” Burgerbelle called, cutting the strand of kelp at the base. Unfortunately, the kelp didn’t die when severed from its anchor. It was now free to completely wrap around Blink, creating a coiled ball of plant matter squeezing the ghost for all it was worth. The remaining anchored kelp latched onto Blink, keeping her orb steady. Celia rushed into the fray with her top, cutting a few strands of kelp loose in the process.

“Gh…!” Blink gagged. “They’re getting pretty tight!”

Working on it, Celia responded, encasing the kelp ball with her magic and pulling with all her might.

“Ow ow ow! OW!”

Celia ignored Blink’s cries of pain—so long as she was being indignant about it, she was fine. She focused her attention on the loose pieces of kelp that were trying to wrap around her hooves. While her magic was focused on Blink, she used her razor-top to beat the snaking plants away from her.

Burgerbelle let out an unusually manly “EN GARDE!” and replaced her hedge clippers with a rapier, poking ineffectively att the tangled mess.

“Burger!” Blink complained.

Burgerbelle smirked—and then started swinging the rapier wild. She didn’t cut any of the kelp, but she did manage to tie the majority of the strands together into a confused, gnarled knot. Celia jumped up into the air, severing the kelp ball from the knot with one fell swoop of her razor-top.

“Batter up!” Burgerbelle called, smacking the kelp ball with a hockey stick. “TOUCHDOWN!”

Celia teleported to the loose ball of dark kelp that was still trying to suffocate Blink despite its distance from the kelp patch.

“Get me out of here…” Blink wheezed.

Celia got to work. It wasn’t exactly easy, tearing the murderous plants off Blink. Had she been made of flesh and bone—or even the light construct Celia herself was—Blink would have been in danger of being crushed. As it was, Celia took her time carefully working Blink out of her leafy prison, careful not to give any of the kelp opportunity to entangle anyone else.

Soon, Blink was free, stomping angrily on the remnants of the kelp. “Stupid plants!”

Celia focused her magic onto the remaining kelp in the distance. They do have an arcane component to them. A sort of enchantment that allows them to attack. I have my doubts they were intended to assault you, we were just unlucky.

Blink twitched. She fired a laser at the remaining kelp, triggering an explosion of compressed water vapor. The kelp patch was reduced to loose flotsam. “There. Now no other ghosts will be tormented by super-grabbing kelp.”

Celia smirked. Ego bruised a bit much there?

“Shut up,” Blink said with a laugh. “C’mon, cave’s this way, right?”

Burgerbelle pulled out a ‘map’ that looked more like the board for Settlers of Catan than the bottom of the ocean. “Yep! This way!”

The three of them set off, giving little thought to the dark kelp that had assaulted them.

~~~

Swip fired one of her smaller laser turrets at a seapony, vaporizing it instantly. “Bam! Another one bites the dust!”

“How many is that now?” Nira asked.

“Hmm…” Swip checked her data banks. It only took a fraction of a second, and she had the answer long before her ‘hmm’ was complete, but who was she if not a ship with a sense of dramatic timing? Awesome, incredible, yes, but significantly lesser. “Twelve!”

“Nice work. Are Celia’s spells holding up?”

“Like a charm!” Swip checked their strength. The ring of enchantments had lost some magic over the course of the day, but it was still operating at 100% efficiency. The bubble would detect any disturbance in the current and direct Swip’s attention to it. So far it had only seen seaponies. Swip was holding out for another giant sea monster to blow up. That would be far more impressive.

“...Swip, how’s Squiddy doing?” Sweetaloo asked.

Swip changed her focus to Squiddy’s room. There was a pillow placed in front of the internal camera, naturally, but Squiddy should know full well that Swip didn’t need to rely on purely visual stimuli. She switched to sonar, pinging everything in the room. “Well, she decided to move the bed away from the door so she could rest in it. She’s not sleeping, though. Staring right at the ceiling. She’s also broken every screen in the room.”

Sweetaloo bit her lip, unsure of what to do. Swip brought up the ‘counselor’s handbook’ file and scanned it for pertinent information. Sweetaloo was likely trying to gauge how much of a liability Squiddy was like this, determining if she should forego the usual treatment for something that would act on the inkling’s mind quicker, if unpleasantly. Swip did not envy her job.

Evidentially, Sweetaloo settled on ‘just leave her for now’ and returned to her game of cards with Squeaky and Suzie. Allure, Cinder, and Seren were playing a racing game on the lounge’s main screen. Currently, Seren was winning, but her victory was not guaranteed in this game.

“Wh, no nonono!” Seren waved her controller frantically. “Not the blue shell! Come on, drift, drift, back back…” She tried to dodge the incoming assault but failed to input the complex series of buttons that would allow her to escape the hands of defeat. The explosion flipped her cart and Allure passed her.

“See you later!” Allure laughed.

“This is inadequate!” Seren said with a giggle. “BEWARE THE RESURGENCE OF YOSHI!”

“It’s even worse in real life,” Allure said, skidding around a corner. “The Mushroom World has these kart races sometimes. Your head feels like it’s going to explode when one of those things hits.”

“How does it not kill you?” Cinder asked.

Allure shrugged, focusing on taking a sharp corner.

There was a loud metallic thunk from a door in the back of the lounge—a door that led to a flooded room. Before Suzie could finish asking “what was that?” Swip had already activated her sensors in that room. The camera was completely busted, but the devices she usually used to scan outside herself could be turned inward. She pinged the room, finding that a lifeform roughly twice the size of a pony had entered. How did that get here? Subsequent scans revealed the answer—a recently dug tunnel that went deep into the ground. It bypassed Celia’s spells by going under. Oldest trick in the book.

“Something’s dug up from below,” Swip reported. “Don’t worry, it’s stuck behind the door. I—”

The thing smashed into the door as hard as it could, sending a loud ring into Swip’s interior. The door dented ever-so-slightly.

“Nevermind, it’s not stuck, it’ll eventually break through.”

Seren nodded. “I’ve got it!” She focused her magic, prodding the other side of the door for the creature. Finding it, she teleported the creature in front of her, careful to encase it in a tight telekinetic bond.

It was a vaguely doglike creature riddled with matted fur and barbed, rippled claws. Angled fins ran along its legs and back, coming to a point at the base of its doglike head where the skin was split and dripping a viscous black ooze. Like the seaponies, its eyes were a blank, useless, white caked with red tears. Quite unlike them, the dog was rippled with grotesque, pulsating muscles that actively ripped skin with every enraged breath the beast took, making it a wonder that the mongrel hadn’t bled out long ago. It snarled and screeched, unharmed by being brought out of the water.

“How can it survive such a pressure differential…?” Seren wondered, tightening her grip around its claws as she moved closer.

“A mutant diamond dog of some sort,” Suzie observed, keeping her gun trained on it despite its imprisoned state. “A seadog.”

“Mutated to live in the depths of the sea,” Nira mused, beginning to scan it with her magic. “Curious. It seems to have a condensed version of the curse I found. Possibly what happens when you spend your entire life near the water.”

“I wonder what we can learn from it…” Seren thought, getting close enough to tap the dog with her scepter. “It might ha—”

Squiddy charged out of her room, gun spraying ink. “Get it OUT OF HERE!”

Seren was already shocked enough when Squiddy came charging out—the ink splatting her in the face and burning her eyes was more than enough to make her lose concentration. The seadog saw an opportunity and took it, biting down hard on Seren’s shoulder. She cried out in agony as blood sprayed from her shoulder.

Suzie pulled the trigger, blowing a hole in the seadog’s chest. It did not let go.

Nira’s spell was much more effective. The beast’s very essence boiled with pain until it’s body liquefied, exploding dark sludge everywhere. The room itself was coated in ugly, disgusting darkness.

Nira wiped it from her face, trotting up to the now-unconscious Seren and mending her wound. The moment everyone confirmed that Seren was still breathing, their eyes turned to Squiddy.

White tears were rolling down her face. She was gripping her gun tight enough to cause a leak of her internal ink in her clenched fists. Her legs looked as though they were barely holding her up. “Why did she… what did she… I didn’t. I—”

Nira shot her in the head with a sleep spell, prompting her to flop onto the ground awkwardly.

“NIRA!” Suzie shouted. “You don—”

“She’s a liability and I don’t want to deal with her right now,” Nira spat. “Sweetaloo can do her thing when she wakes up. Right now we have bigger problems.”

“You destroyed the seadog! We’re fine!”

“No, we’re not.” Nira pointed at the pile of sludge on the ground. “When I liquefied the dog, its curse interfaced with my magic and tried to spread into me. I rejected it, naturally, but the rest of you didn’t even realize it was there. It’s definitely infected Seren and it might be in the rest of you too. I haven’t checked.”

“Can you cure it?” Squeaky asked.

“Of course. Easily. That’s not the problem.” She pointed at the door the seadog had been punching. “Celia, Blink, and Burgerbelle are out there. They could get infected without knowing it. And as of right this moment I have no idea what the full effects of the curse are.”

Cinder gulped. “We… we can’t help them, can we?”

“We can only hope they’re smart enough to not get infected.”

~~~

The cave was completely sealed off from the seafloor, under several meters of solid rock. The good news was that this meant the caves weren’t flooded. The bad news was that Celia now needed to perform a semi-blind teleport into an unknown territory. This at least gave the others a chance to take a break, she supposed. It had been four hours since the last serious rest, and none of them had slept since they’d left Swip. Maybe the cavern could provide a convenient site for Blink to sleep, get all of them back to peak performance.

Currently, Celia was sitting carefully on the seafloor, prodding the area below with her magic. She had identified a large cavern that would easily be able to hold the three of them, but she was unsure if she trusted herself to teleport them directly to the ground—for all she knew there were things moving down there, and botched teleports were always a pain. Just ask Sweetaloo.

Her plan was to teleport in the middle of the cave and levitate herself for a few seconds while she gauged the situation. She was never excellent at self-levitation, but she believed she could manage for a second or two.

“Are you done yet?” Blink asked for the umpteenth time.

Yes, Blink, I have completed the spell. Tell Burgerbell to stop losing tic-tac-toe with a guppy and get over here.

Burgerbelle didn’t even need to be told—she was getting really tired of losing to a dumb fish she was making the moves for. Grumpily, she sat herself next to Celia and Blink, gnawing angrily on a piece of jerky.

Celia executed the teleport. The three of them appeared in the center of an open-air cavern. There was nothing all that special about the caverns as far as Celia could tell from a glance—they were made of metamorphic rock and had all the usual cave features like tunnes, stalactites, stalagmites, and annoyingly loud water drops.

It also had a diamond-dog like fish monster at the bottom. It stopped snuffling the ground the moment they arrived, replacing the noise with a haunted, strained gasp that quickly turned into a screeching roar. It jumped, oblong teeth tearing at the skin of its mouth, creating a trail of black sludge behind it.

Celia, having already strained herself in her self-levitation, decided she didn’t have time for any finesse here. She dropped the telekinesis and unleashed a high-powered beam spell at the seadog as she fell into it. The dog swallowed the spell, exploding as expected.

What Celia had not expected was the dog to splatter all over the cave in a thick, black liquid.

“...Ew…” Celia said, wiping the tar-like substance from her face, feeling chunks of the seadog’s bones within. “Well, this sure ruins the experience of being able to speak properly again…”

“I let myself be tangible!” Blink complained, shaking the goo off herself. “I thought ‘ah, finally, I am allowed to feel again! But nope, the moment I drop it, dog residue.”

“Heh. Dog residue.” Burgerbelle didn’t wipe the goo off herself. Instead, she pulled a white, annoying dog out of nowhere and started smearing the goo all over.

Celia didn’t even try to hide her revulsion. “Egh…”

“It’s good for the skin!”

“I very much doubt that.” Celia shook her head. “Regardless, we’re here, let’s try to find that magic source. Be on the lookout for more dogs. Let’s try not to get covered in their remains again, hmm?”

Author's Notes:

Empty Horizons is a story set in the future that deals with Season 2 Mane Six. It's fascinating to see them deal with an unfriendly, dark world without having gone through all the adventures in-show that make them mature. It makes for some really interesting dynamics I don't really see around, and it's fascinating fun!

This is part of several Empty Horizons related things going up today! Find others here:
Sea of Stars (I wrote this one on my alt!)
The Lost Student

((LSB Status Post))

Of Extermination (Empty Horizons, Part 2)

Squiddy woke up with a terrible feeling in her stomach. She had no idea if it was hunger, inescapable guilt, or oppressive fear. Probably a mixture of all the above but she wasn't in the mental state to deal with that right now.

She sat up. She was in her room, alone, and everything had been cleaned up from the tantrum she vaguely remembered throwing. Checking the clock, her jaw dropped.

I’ve been out for more than a DAY!?

She’d taken a hit from one of Nira’s spells before; she’d never been out that long. She… really must have been exhausted. Come to think of it, that spell had been the first sleep she’d gotten since they’d crashed on the bottom of this god-forsaken ocean.

A small part of her thought of thanking Nira for that. The rest of Squiddy wanted to pick up an ink grenade and ram it down Nira’s gullet for being such an arrogant prick.

She chose a middle course of action. She picked up her primary gun and prepared to douse Nira with all the ink she could muster. Let her feel how suffocating it is. Give her some shadow of what Squiddy was currently experiencing.

The door slid open and Squiddy marched out angrily. “NIRA!”

Nira wasn’t in the lounge—which meant she was probably on the bridge.

But Seren was in the lounge. Instantly, she dropped her controller and ran up to Squiddy. “Are you okay?”

Squiddy’s rage vanished. “F-fine?”

“Yeah, you weren’t doing so good, and I was just a little… worried, is all.”

“Worried,” Squiddy deadpanned.

“Well, yeah, you were all angry and scared and Nira had t—”

“You got bitten by a monster!” Squiddy shouted, throwing her gun to the ground. “I should be asking you if you’re okay!”

Seren took a step back. “W-well, I’m fine,” she stammered. “Been f-fine for a while.”

Squiddy clenched her fists. “Why… why aren’t you mad? I did that to you!”

“You d-didn’t know what you were doi—”

“I still did it!” Squiddy wailed. “I still lost control and a dog ate part of you! I—”

Sweetaloo slapped Squiddy from behind. “Stop it. Now.”

Squiddy whirled around to face the alicorn. “I don’t have t—”

Sweetaloo slapped her again. “I don’t care what you do or don’t have to do. You’ve become a liability. So we are having this conversation and we are having it now before you transmit your emotional dysfunction to Seren. Kapeesh?”

“I—”

“She’s done nothing but be forgiving and understanding and you hate her for it.” Sweetaloo pushed Squiddy back into her room and forced the door shut.

Squiddy snarled. “What are you gonna do? Talk for me for an hour until I ‘magically’ come to some sort of realization?”

Sweetaloo aggressively sat in a chair, fixing Squiddy with a steeled galre. “No. I’m just going to tell you. You’re insecure and believe you don’t deserve forgiveness. You aren’t the sort to beat yourself up consciously, so you want other people to do it for you. Well guess what? You’re in a supportive community full of understanding, caring people akin to family! You get forgiven. You messed up, but we all understand why you messed up. So everyone but you wants to move on.”

“You’re not being very forgiving, hypocrite.”

“Oh, I’ve forgiven you. I just have another job, and that is making sure everyone here is psychologically stable. You are not. You’re so bad that it’s starting to drag the others down, people who otherwise wouldn’t be having much of an issue. They were able to be bored, Squiddy. That was a good sign.”

“So, what, shouting at me is going to fix it?”

“Nope!” Sweetaloo said—her hard mask broke for a moment, allowing a small cry of desperation through. “Not you, anyway. This is going to damage you. This is going to tear you down. I’m sorry, but I don’t have a choice.”

“Don’t have a choice? Sweetaloo, listen to y—”

“You are a danger to this crew,” Sweetaloo interrupted. “Nobody wants to admit it. You’re their friend. Suzie refused to take any action against you, and Squeaky deferred to her judgement. They’re just going to let you walk around and make things worse.”

“You’re delusional.”

“Let’s think about what you’ve done since we arrived. Caused unrest. Instilled panic. Threatened other members of the crew. Caused an injury. Plotted taking revenge on Nira.”

Squiddy blanked. “H-how cou—”

“It’s my job.” Sweetaloo stood up, flaring her wings. “You have lost it, Squiddy. The oppressive water is too much for you.”

“You can shut up!”

“Tell me you don’t feel it crushing you right now! Look me in the eye and say it! Tell me you feel nothing about the water outside.”

Squiddy ground her teeth and looked away.

“It’s not something you can fix.”

“Isn’t that your job that you’re supposedly so good at?”

“A deep-seated phobia does not go away in a few hours. It’d be like me trying to cure your war flashbacks with a pep-talk.”

“Then what are you trying to do?”

Sweetaloo ignored the question. “Squiddy. Are you a danger to us?”

Squiddy growled. “You think so.”

“What do you think?”

“I…” Squiddy turned around punching her bed. “I don’t know. I’m not the thinker!”

“It doesn’t take much. A simple yes or no will do.”

Squiddy was silent.

“Squiddy…” Sweetaloo pushed. “Are you a danger?”

Squiddy’s fists began to tremble.

“Squiddy! Are you a—”

Squiddy whirled around, fist aiming for Sweetaloo’s head. Sweetaloo let out a panicked, shocked scream. She shrunk back to the ground, holding her wings over her face as a tear crawled out from her eye.

Squiddy stopped short, staring at her fist in disbelief.

The alicorn at her mercy didn’t say anything—she just let the tears fall.

Swallowing hard, Squiddy lowered her fist. “Y-yes. I’m… I’m a danger.” Now, more than ever, she could feel it. The water. The endless death pounding on the walls seeking to do her in. “W-what do we do?”

Sweetaloo sniffed. “I-if you want, I can have Nira freeze you. You’ll wake up after all this is over. There’ll be no ocean, no panic… and everyone will be ready to welcome you back.”

Squiddy nodded to herself slowly. She’d just… sleep it off. She hadn’t felt any fear while she was out… Hadn’t felt much of anything, really.

“Is… is that what you’d like?”

“Y-yes…” Squiddy said, flopping down onto her bed. “Just… get me out of here.”

Sweetaloo nodded. “Swip, call Nira.”

Swip responded with a small beep. A second later, Nira teleported in. “You called?”

“Freeze me before I change my mind and decide I need to punch your face in,” Squiddy muttered.

“Done,” Nira said. She lit her horn, weaving a spell of dark ice around Squiddy, seeing to it that she fell asleep before the cold embrace of the freeze got to her skin. The pressurized ink within Squiddy ceased moving—not as ice, but as though time itself had ceased operating. Dark ice grew around her body, surrounding every part of her until Squiddy was barely visible through the dark prism.

“Good work,” Nira told Sweetaloo.

Sweetaloo dropped the crocodile tears, stuttering, and cowering immediately. “Good? I just emotionally manipulated a patient and heavily damaged her psychological profile. I’m supposed to make people feel better, Nira, not worse.”

“Seems better to me,” Nira said, teleporting away.

Sweetaloo sighed, laying a hoof on Squiddy’s bed. “...I’m sorry. I’m going to do whatever I can to undo this damage when you get out.” After a pause, she grimaced. “Great going, Crusader, tormenting your most emotionally vulnerable patient…”

She trotted out, leaving Squiddy alone. She locked the door.

~~~

Celia tapped her hoof impatiently as the three of them waited for a pack of seadogs. This had become a common occurrence over the past few hours—every time they heard the seadogs coming Blink would hide all of them. They’d wait for the mongrels to pass before continuing.

As time went on, Celia had less and less patience for this. She much preferred the seadogs when they were screaming, angry monsters. They at least made sense when they attacked. Seeing them wander around in packs as if they were some kind of normal animal? It was disgusting. They continually leaked black ooze through the cracks in their skin, leaving trails of the stuff all over their caverns, giving everything the smell of rotting death—though they themselves overpowered this stench through their own repugnant body odor. Even when relatively dry, they smelled of chopped up fish, wet dog, and burning oil.

Then there was the noise they made. It was not the call of a ravenous monster, but a beast in eternal suffering. Each breath came with it a haggard wheeze occasionally punctuated by a bile-filled cough. The snuffling never ended—between the breaths, they smelled, searching for something to eat.

Celia was convinced they didn’t need to eat, since they had an infinite supply of ooze. All this made Celia want to kill every last one of the mongrels; get them out of her way and put an end to their misery. It’d take less time than hiding everywhere, it’s keep the three of them from sitting in leg-cramping positions all the time… but it would make an absolutely dreadful mess.

She filed the idea away for later, though she had a nagging feeling she’d end up choosing it eventually.

Fusion destabilizing already? Being down here must be harder than I thought… She resolved to keep her mind focused. It simply wouldn't do to fall apart at the seams when the rest of the Sweeties were counting on them to find a way out.

The seadogs passed about the time Celia came to this conclusion. Blink dropped the cloak. “There we are. Where to?”

Celia lit her gemstone. “I’m pretty sure the magic is this way.”

Burgerbelle took out a scoresheet. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is her eleventh guess. Will she be wrong like all the other times? My money is on yes.”

Celia rolled her eyes. “One way or another we’ll find the magic. It might just take time.”

Blink raised an eyebrow. “I don’t exactly have a watch on me, but I’m pretty sure we’ve been down here several hours. We even slept!”

“You slept,” Burgerbelle countered.

“You did too.”

“Did not!”

“Di—” Blink stopped herself. “No, not falling into that one today, nope.”

“What’s the matter? Scared?” Burgerbelle poked her. “C’mon, joust with the meme-meister.”

“You’re being confrontational today,” Blink observed.

Burgerbelle gasped by saying the word ‘gasp’. “Confrontational? Me? No, really?”

Celia smirked to herself, walking forward. The other two noticed she was moving and broke off their round of banter to follow. They entered a corkscrew-shaped tunnel that went deeper and deeper into the earth until it came out at a large, circular cavern with seven different exits.

In the center of the cavern was a small, white crystal. Celia would have said it was quartz, but it had grown in far too perfect of a tetrahedral shape to be natural quartz at the very least. It wasn’t even attached to the floor—it was just sitting there, as if left behind carelessly.

Celia frowned. The crystal was giving off magic, yes, but not as much as she had detected earlier. This was a small, insignificant percentage of what they needed. Where did the rest of it go?

It was taken.

We have no evidence of th-

A seadog erupted out of the ground. Instead of turning to them and attacking like Celia was expecting, it ate the crystal and dove back into the ground.

Burgerbelle acted first. “Superhero landing!” She jumped into the air and punched the ground, causing several cracks in the stone upon impact. The force launched a very shocked seadog out of the ground. It scrambled to gain footing in the air, but Burgerbelle held out her hand, grabbing its neck in an invisible telekinetic hold.

She squeezed, choking the dog. It tried to bark at her, but all it could cough up was more noxious ooze. Smirking, Burgerbelle held up another hand and pointed at the seadog’s stomach. There was an explosion and the crystal shot out of the dog’s ripped stomach, flying right into Burgerbelle’s hand.

The flayed dog dropped to the ground, dead.

“That was… uncharacteristically brutal,” Blink observed.

Burgerbelle turned around and held up the crystal like she’d just gotten it from a video game chest. “Da-na-naaaaa!”

“...And you flip right back around.” Blink rolled her eyes. “Of course…”

Celia glanced at the dog. “It appears they still have a hoard protection instinct. Their gems are theirs, and whatever’s different about their forms has not been able to fully override their idea of property.”

We’ll have to hunt them down to get all the crystals.

“We need all the crystals,” Celia continued. “Since they’re clearly moving them around to confuse us, there’s really only one option.”

“Get clever?” Blink suggested.

“Exterminate them.”

~~~

“Day four…” Cinder muttered to herself, glancing at the locked door to Squiddy’s room forlornly. “Still nothing.”

“Not the usual adventure, is it?” Squeaky said, taking a seat next to Cinder.

Cinder tensed, but quickly chided herself for doing so. “Yeah… no. You have ones like this before?”

“Occasionally.” Squeaky put a hoof to her chin. “I can remember a few times where we were stranded without help. Most of those times we just got rescued after waiting long enough, though.”

“And how long did that take?”

“In the universe with massive time dilation? Two years on our end. Fifteen minutes by the standard Merodi Clock.”

“...We’re not in a time dilated universe, are we?”

“Swip’s readings don’t say so, but that doesn’t rule it out.”

“...I don’t want to spend years at the bottom of the ocean.”

“Neither do I,” Squeaky admitted. “It’s unfair to my family, in a way.”

“Oh, your Rarity?”

Squeaky shook her head. “Charity’s great, but she’s not actually my sister. ...Though we might as well be family. However, she’s part of this madness. Goes and tries to sell dresses in the most extreme locations.” She giggled, a shrill noise that made Cinder wince slightly. “No, I was referring to my kids.”

“You have kids? But… I read your file a—”

“I keep them out of the spotlight as much as possible,” Squeaky said, gaining a wistful expression. “My job is… extremely dangerous, and I’m lucky to be alive. People around me die and suffer all the time.”

“So you keep them separate. I… think I understand.”

“And I always come home,” Squeaky said. “But… well, if I’m gone for too long, they change, and I change. Every time one of those happens, there’s a rocky period of readjustment to each other. I think that’s why Allure maintains the unspoken ‘leadership’ of the League rather than me—I have to vanish every so often to tend to my family. Her only family is Renee and Minna. Those two are heavily involved in the excitement, so they become part of it, and…” Squeaky shook her head. “Whoops! Got off track.”

Cinder smiled. “You had a track?”

“I… don’t remember exactly what my point was. Oh well, at least we had a nice conversation.” She grinned and scratched Cinder behind her ears. “I’m not so bad.”

Cinder’s stomach dropped. “Ah… heard about that, did you?”

“Allure’s my best friend, I don’t think she could hide something from me even if she wanted to. ...Plus, virtually everyone in the ship heard that little rant of yours.”

“Heheh…” Cinder drooped. “I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Don’t think you hurt me or anything—I’m used to it. Soldiers aren’t a fan of the annoying squeaking unicorn jumping into their command structure from another agency and giving orders. If it wasn’t for my reputation, I don’t think it’d even be possible for me to get respect. I mean, listen to me. This is either adorable, or annoying.”

“Both.”

Squeaky smiled knowingly. “I see you understand.”

“Heh…” Cinder directed her gaze back at Squiddy’s door. “...You think she’ll be fine?”

Squeaky frowned. “I’ve worked with her before. She’s a good soldier, excellent at what she does. She has the strength to keep marching onward no matter what. But… I am uncertain if that’s good for her.”

“It isn’t,” Sweetaloo said, having overheard the conversation. “She needs to be taken off active duty. But the last time I tried that, she deteriorated from a misplaced feeling of uselessness.” She tapped her wing nervously against a wall. “Being out here with her friends works well until she ends up in a warzone or in a situation like this.”

“How can we help her?” Cinder asked.

“You let me worry about that,” Sweetaloo said. “Right now, all you need to do is be her friend.”

“...You mean when she gets out. Right now we’re doing nothing.”

“Er… yes.” Sweetaloo admitted.

“Nothing…” Cinder sighed. “...I don’t like the nothing.”

“Boredom?” Squeaky asked.

“Not right now.” Cinder looked up at the ceiling and grimaced. “Nothing’s happening here. Which means something’s happening somewhere else—or we’re waiting for something to happen here. I’m afraid the other shoe’s about to drop…”

~~~

Celia had learned two things about the seadogs.

First, they had no fear or sense of self-preservation. They cared only about two things—their possessions and brutally killing anything that wasn’t another seadog. The only times they ever ran away was when they thought doing so would keep their crystals away from Celia and the Sweeties, and even then they would occasionally lose the battle of wills to the senseless violence and attack anyway. The longer the Sweeties remained, the more often the dogs would attack rather than retreat.

Second, seadogs got more disgusting every time Celia landed a kill.

At first they had just been standard horrors of the deep. Yet, it seemed that with every slice she made with her razor-top, they revealed more of their abhorrent nature. First, the ooze—it didn’t just get everywhere, it grew everywhere. Every single cell within the blood substitute must have been undergoing massive division, since every stain that got on her widened the longer she left it there. It fed off her magic, and no doubt would have found a way to consume her had she not taken to clearing herself of all disgust every moment she had.

Celia had seen many ponies and other creatures cut open in her time, sometimes in alarmingly grotesque ways. These seadogs were worse. Beneath the ooze were bones and organs that had no real pattern to them. Some hearts were duplicated while others kept beating despite having a rib puncturing them. No two seadogs were the same—every one was a fresh nightmare.

At least they liquefied when in contact with powerful direct magic. That made the mess a little more bearable.

Barely.

For this reason Celia had taken to scoring kills with her laser spells. At the moment, she had blasted a hole through a seadog’s chest. As it fell to the ground in a puddle, she allowed herself to smile—at least that was somewhat satisfying.

To her left, Blink was invisible and punching a seadog senseless. It was taking a few more punches than usual, but they were tired. Every time they had laid down to rest since they’d begun their onslaught the seadogs had never left them alone for more than two hours. Naturally, Blink would be tired.

Burgerbelle, on the other hoof…

Celia was getting mildly concerned about her.

“Inside each of us, there are two wolves,” Burgerbelle said, nonchalantly slapping a seadog to the side. “The first one has depression.” A white wolf with sad eyes appeared next to her. “The other one has depression.” A black wolf with haunted eyes appeared on the other side. “You have depression.”

The seadog managed to look confused as the two wolves lunged, flattening the beast against the wall like a pancake before digging in.

“Literally~!” Burgerbelle sang. The black wolf eventually removed a set of three crystals out of the seadog’s stomach, offering them to her. She reached out to grab them—but a smaller seadog jumped out of the ground and began to run off with the crystals.

“Welp,” Burgerbelle said, summoning a noose. “Guess I’ll die.”

Celia swiped the noose with her magic and threw it around the fleeing seadog’s neck, pulling it with enough force that the dog’s head was severed from its body. The crystals fell unceremoniously to the ground.

Celia dropped the noose. “You won’t be needing that. W—” She was shocked to see Burgerbelle hanging limp from the ceiling. “Wh…”

“Kidding!” Burgerbelle said, laughing. She snapped her neck sideways and popped out of the noose before eating it. It was made of licorice.

Blink and Celia stared at her in horror. She knows that isn’t funny...

“...You sure you’re doing all right?” Blink asked.

Burgerbelle got in Blink’s face. “Stay out of my shed.” Blink backed away very quickly.

“Burger!” Celia chided. “We do not need to bring up memories of that universe!”

“Need? No. Want? Yes.”

She’s losing it.

Or is she doing what’s needed?

Not in the case of Blink.

Celia shook her head, trying to balance the fusion again. “Look, I understand that we’re undertaking an extermination here, but do you have to go in with all the depression memes?”

“I’m just in the mood.” Burgerbelle slapped the cry-laugh emoji sticker on Celia’s gemstone. “Try it, you might like it!”

“It’s a terrible place to be.” She tossed the crystals to Burgerbelle, who put them in her ravenous Bag of Holding.

“I mean, we have been down here for a few days,” Blink pointed out. “It’s only natural that we start getting in a darker mood.”

Celia frowned. “True. I suppose I’ve been going down that route as well, though not as… excessively as Burger. I don’t see much of a change in you, Blink.

“I’m a ghost. The whole ‘moping about being dead’ thing got old real quick, from my perspective.”

Celia nodded to herself. “Well… hopefully we’ll be done soon and be able to get back to the others.”

We’re not leaving until every last one of those dogs is ground to dust.

It’ll be a favor to the world.

Blink frowned. “We should hurry. They’re probably getting worried.”

“Then speed is paramount,” Celia declared—getting a sinking feeling in her stomach as she did so. “Burgerbelle, have anything to make this go faster?”

The Flat picked up the black depression wolf. “I can cure this baby’s depression and turn it into insanity. That’ll help!”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely!”

I actually kind of want to see this… “Go ahead.”

~~~

“Today in the great Multiversal Heroes championship, we are down to our two finalists!” Seren declared, using her scepter as a microphone. “Playing for the home team is Suzie, the captain of Swip and self-proclaimed fighting game expert! What do you have to say for the kids at home?” She pointed her scepter at Suzie’s mouth.

“Well, first of all, hurry and come save us please,” Suzie laughed. She was currently wearing her outrageous ‘I’m totally an anime supervillain’ outfit. “But in all seriousness—” that got a few laughs “—I just want to send a shout out to my supportive fans for getting me this far!”

“Woohoo!” Suzie’s ‘fans’ shouted—which was to say only Cinder. She had an origami foam finger on her front hoof and was waving it around excitedly. “Go Suzie, go Suzie, you can DOOO IT!”

Seren twirled around. “And now our challenger. Nobody thought she could do it, thought she would lose to the legendary magic of Marshall Squeaky yesterday, but against all odds none other than Allure Belle herself has pulled through to the finals! What do you have to say to your fans?”

“Why does everyone always think I’m the weakest Founder?” Allure wondered aloud.

“Oooh, a diss on her fans! A true villain!”

Suzie crossed her arms. “I’m the one in the villain outfit…”

“Then we’ll let the crowd choose their favorites for the final match!” Seren declared. “For those who don’t know, Multiversal Heroes is a fighting platformer th—”

“We know, get on with it,” Swip beeped.

Seren put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Well, guess I’m out of a job. Are you two are going with your mains?”

“Yep!” the competitors said in unison.

Seren winked to the collected group of Sweeties. “As we all know, Allure mains the multi-moveset League of Sweetie Belles fighter, which includes several people you know well! Suzie, on the other hand…” She gestured at the area of the screen that contained Suzie’s fighter—Jotaro Kujo. “Showing her anime favoritism. Her secondary is Nanoha, by the way.”

“I prefer punches to magic,” Suzie grinned.

Seren nodded. “And now… usually we’d randomize the stages, but for the finals, it must be Final Destination! Loading…” She clapped her hands. “Here we are! GET READY! THREE! TWO! ONE! G—”

Nira teleported in front of them, ruining the game.

“Oh, come on!” Cinder whined.

Nira glared at them all. “Something’s happening with Celia.”

Suzie dropped her controller. “What is it?”

“I detected another magic flare of hers. I wasn’t sure during the previous ones, but I am now—she’s using the death spell.”

“How… unlike her.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Aren’t the monsters out there brutal and animalistic?” Allure asked. “It might just be a case of simplicity.”

Nira shook her head. “Celia prefers to keep herself from the dark arts, actively using the reverse or lesser spells. Or she has me deal with it. Given how often I’m sensing her magic flare up, I have my doubts she’s using it out of necessity.” Her grimace deepened.

“What does it mean?” Cinder asked.

“Chances are good she’s been infected by that curse we found in the seadog. I have no way to know what its true effects are, but if one of them is brutal savagery…”

“What can we do?”

“Nothing,” Nira said. “Neither Seren nor I have enough magic to make it that far. Help has not arrived yet.”

Sweetaloo frowned. “...Then why are you telling everyone something that’ll just make them panic?”

“You keep them from panicking. I tell them how screwed things are.”

Sweetaloo twitched. “I’m commandeering one of the rooms to have a chat with Nira, everyone. We’ll be out shortly… Squeaky, you should ask her any questions you have now.”

Squeaky frowned. “I’ll want a full report from her within a few hours. But her assessment is that we cannot do anything at this time, so you may take her.”

“Thank you, Marshall.” Sweetaloo tugged on Nira’s ear with her magic, shoving the two of them into a room for a ‘counseling’ session.

Seren sighed. “I take it that means the final is off?”

“At least for a few hours,” Suzie said, putting her hand on Seren’s shoulder. “We’ll get to it eventually. I promise.”

“Yay!”

Cinder couldn’t bring herself to cheer with Seren. She stared into space, wondering what kind of horrors Celia was experiencing.

~~~

“HEY KIDS!” Burgerbelle shouted, mouth full of razor sharp teeth. “LET’S DO THE CINNAMON CHALLENGE WITH COCAINE!”

The seadogs could not experience fear, but they didn’t exactly like pain and knew it was a good idea to avoid it if possible. The one Burgerbelle’s Insanity Wolf currently had pinned to the ground attempted to wriggle free in what appeared to be panic.

It did not work. Burgerbelle shoved the white powder into the seadog’s jaws, creating a froth that made it look like it had rabies.

“And you fail!” Burgerbelle smacked the seadog with a stick, flipping it over like a pancake. She summoned several dozen eggs and pelted the seadog with them until it stopped moving.

Then she turned to the rest of the dogs that Celia and Blink hadn’t killed yet. She had no face and viscous black tentacles had erupted from her back. Instead of speaking, a haunting static screech came from her that made all the seadogs freeze in their attack. She drove the back-tentacles into them, tearing flesh from bone and throwing the crystals within to the ground.

Several black spikes shot out of each of the seadogs, sending their innards everywhere, coating the cavern in darkness. Using this as a backdrop, Burgerbelle removed her faceless mask and took a victory pose. VICTORY! RANK: S+. “You’re too weak!”

Celia wiped the ooze off her face with a sigh. “That’s the fifth time in a row you’ve coated us, Burger.”

“Not me,” Blink said, revealing herself and smirking. “Passed right through.”

With an uncharacteristically dramatic groan, Celia cast the clean spell once more. She picked up the crystals they had freed this time. It was the largest haul yet—they must have been whittling the seadogs’ population down so much that few of them weren’t hiding crystals. When the shards were pressed together, they made up a glimmering ball larger than Celia’s head.

Feel the power coming off these darlings…

This’ll be able to get us out for sure.

Think of how much could be destroyed!

Too much.

Celia took a moment to organize her thoughts. During her self-distraction, a small seadog erupted from the ground, grabbed the ball of crystals, and disappeared into the earth.

“Damn the tiny ones!” Celia shrieked—she was getting really tired of this trick! How did they always know the right time to nab them? “You’re not getting away this time!” She summoned her razor-top and altered it slightly to become a drill. Slamming it into the ground, she pursued the tiny seadog.

As far as she knew, she was alone in the pursuit. She didn’t mind. These tiny dogs had been driving her mad ever since they’d started nabbing the crystals from under her nose. As she approached, she weighed the different options for dismembering the unfortunate creature.

Death spell?

Too quick.

Would be, if it wasn’t liquefying them.

Do something that’s supposed to be agonizing.

No, last time that happened one of others snuck by.

How can these mongrels be so smart!?

Could be any number of things…

Celia was mildly surprised that she was able to think in two distinct voices for this long without de-fusing. They really did need to get this job done quickly. Good thing that was what they were doing.

Why was this cave influencing her stability, though? She’d been in worse situations. She was a nearly ageless being who had gone multiple years in tough situations back home. This was a little concerni—

She broke through to a flooded tunnel, mildly surprised by the sudden presence of water. After so long in the caves it took her a moment to get her sea legs.

Unfortunately for the seadog, the death spell didn’t require any use of her legs. A dark red beam came out of her gemstone and hit the tiny mongrel, liquefying it instantly—giving her easy access to the ball of crystals.

She grinned. Bingo.

Below the light of the crystal, she saw a monster surge forth. Not a seadog—a seapony. With a soft smile, Celia readied another death spell for the latest flavor of aquatic nightmare.

She stopped when she saw it more clearly. The green eyes screamed out to her soul, begging for her attention. The coat, while noxious and disgusting, had clearly been white at once point. Its broken horn sparked with soft green energy, and Celia could clearly make out a cutie mark on it.

This was no real surprise—she’d seen cutie marks on some of the other seaponies before. Some of them had even looked familiar. But none as familiar as this. It was the emblem hoisted high above the main doors to the League of Sweetie Belles.

The Sweetie Crusader Shield.

The part of her that was Goshenite screamed.

The part of her that was Moganite fought to keep control of their magic and survive the encounter.

A third part said kill it kill it kill it before it kills us!

The parts that were Goshenite and Moganite were so shocked by the presence of the third voice that it was able to wrestle control from them for all of a second—launching the death spell right at the Sweetie seapony.

It liquefied in an instant.

No! Goshenite’s mind screamed.

You will explain yourself, Invader, Moganite’s mind demanded.

Later! You’re destabilizing! the third voice retorted.

Desta- Out in the ocean, Celia began to glow a bright white as her two halves entered direct mental conflict.

Goshenite! Keep it together! Moganite called.

It’s scary I don’t want it in here it…

We must face it together, not alone. Think of what will happen if we split it.

It killed me!

It killed a monstrous pony in self-defense.

It’s not us!

It will be if we do not face it. Come. Stand by my side, as we always have.

Celia stopped glowing as her body’s cohesion re-asserted itself. Her mind became one again. ...Though perhaps it was more accurate to say two.

Hello, Invader, Celia addressed her subconscious, a soft smile crawing up her face. Welcome to the experience that is Celia. How are you doing this fine day?

There was no response.

There’s no use hiding now, Celia thought, packing up the ball of crystals and crawling back up the tunnel she dug a few minutes ago. You revealed yourself. Attacked when we could not. I will have to thank you—regenerating down here would have been unpleasant.

Still nothing, even as Celia continued rising through the earth.

Let’s see… you are likely something native to this world. If I had to make a guess, you are a manifestation of the curse Nira told us about? Perhaps the effect is something akin to a slow, gradual change into some kind of ocean-going monster? Seadogs… Seaponies… A curse of mutations.

She sensed something in the back of her mind twitch.

There you are. She stopped ascending the tunnel and focused on her interior. Hello, Invader… how do you like the dream section? Pleasant, I hope?

It looked back at her. In the mental projection, it took the form of a black version of herself, though notably its gemstone wasn’t cracked down the middle. I believe the term you would use is ‘adequate’.

Really? Celia raised an eyebrow. I got the impression you were dissatisfied. Do not lie to me.

I am not. It serves my purposes.

Which are?

Live.

And brutally kill everything.

Only that which stands in our way.

Celia nodded slowly. So you can be reasoned with… I do wonder why the end result of this curse is mindless animalism.

Have you seen Burgerbelle?

Good point, she really does seem to be heading that way. I suppose we are a bit of an odd case. ...Though we have gotten decidedly more violent over the last few… Celia paused. How long had they been down here? She couldn’t be sure anymore… Why hadn’t she ever checked the time?

Because it doesn’t matter. You were doing what needed to be done how it needed to be done. These dogs were between us and the goal. I simply nudged you to work more effectively. Another thing to thank me for.

I suppose I should be thanking you for the distasteful enjoyment of the act as well?

Was it really distasteful?

Not really, no... She frowned. I think I see how this would turn the average pony into a ranting mongrel.

How so?

I have seen much death, war, destruction, and have made many hard choices. The average citizen of Ponyville would have a mental breakdown from merely thinking about killing something. A beast such as yourself would have to break them completely before any sort of true dialogue could be made.

I think you’re jumping to conclusions.

Likely. But isn’t in our best interests to brainstorm and see how this may be resolved? We are both like-minded mares in some ways, perhaps we can come to an agreement.

We keep killing seadogs until they’re all gone and we have all the crystals.

Then what?

Get out of here and return to better missions that don’t involve sitting on the bottom of the fucking ocean?

I do not believe this particular ocean can engage in ‘fucking’.

And in a strict sense, neither can we, and yet I will still say ‘fuck you’ to your pedantic nitpick.

She said, with a pedantic nitpick.

The Invader let out an angry, screeching ‘noise’ through Celia’s subconscious. We don’t have time for this.

You are quite correct. Look at us, bicker bicker bicker… Celia chuckled. Another sister in the group, I suppose.

You lie to yourself with your tone.

I need to remain calm and ordered for everyone’s sake.

Do you? What about your sake? I know you, you want to scream at me, to destroy me for so much as daring to enter your precious sisterly bond…

Quite. And yet the right thing to do here is get this all resolved, remove you from my head, and place you in a new body so you may live on your own.

Sounds like a plan! Can’t wait to be rid of you. All your walls, masks, and political correctness… disgusting.

And you are a literal black smudge on my mind. Think about that for a moment before you start lecturing me on disgust.

Sensing the complex conversation was over, Celia returned to the others. “I have an announcement!”

Wait, no, what are you doing? the Invader shouted. Don-

Celia dropped the pile of gems on the ground. “Got them all!”

“LOOT!” Burgerbelle shouted, shoveling it all into her Bag of Holding. “We are gluttons of crystals…”

“I also encountered a seapony Sweetie down there,” Celia continued. “It occurs to me that Burgerbelle may be suffering from the curse of the waves.”

“What? Me?” Burgerbelle put on an innocent halo. The halo quickly turned into demonic termites. “...Uh…”

“Just be on the lookout in yourselves for possible corruption and guard against it. One thing we should avoid is becoming more animalistic. Maintain your wits, everyone.”

Blink turned to Burgerbelle. “You really are cursed, huh?”

Burgerbelle put on a sad puppy mask and nodded. The mask lit on fire and reduced her to a skeleton with two skulls. “Two heads are better than one!”

Blink shook her head. “Yeesh. We should get back to Nira.”

“Currently, she seems enough in control of herself that I think we can continue,” Celia said. “We still need to finish our job here before we have enough magic for Nira. As a bonus, we will rid the world of these pesky mongrels.”

“...You know, you’ve gotten pretty violent too. Maybe you’re cursed?”

“It’s possible,” Celia admitted. “You should watch me regardless. You seem to have been affected by all this the least.”

“Ghostly immunity, baby!” Blink laughed. “Yeah, I’ll watch you two. Don’t try to murder each other or I will have to knock you out with the mind-scrambling punch!”

“Good. Regardless, crystals are…” Celia cast a quick spell. “This way!” She marched forward.

...What was that? the Invader asked.

You did save my life back there in a tense situation, consider this returning the favor. We are sharing the same headspace for the moment, it wouldn’t do to antagonize you.

I would say you’re giving up too much of yourself, but I know your ploy. You’re establishing a connection you hope to cash in later.

A mutually beneficial relationship for both parties. A building up of trust. I have no reason to trust you whatsoever, and yet I extend the olive branch anyway. A powerful gesture.

If the recipient doesn't know what your plan is.

I have found that understanding the game often increases the impact of a gesture. Celia smirked. And I’m sure you do too.

Perhaps, perhaps not. I’m not an open book. Regardless, there are some dogs that need killing, and if you really are dead-set on this whole ‘olive branch’ business, I have some suggestions…

Suggest away, darling!

~~~

“Marshall’s log, day six,” Squeaky spoke to the empty bridge. Only Swip could hear her, and that was the point. “There’s no discernible change in… anything since yesterday’s report. Morale has held relatively steady since Specialist Nira announced the possible corruption of the away team. It is a testament to Counselor Sweetaloo’s skills that she has been able to maintain unity on board during this trying time. Nira has learned nothing new about Celia’s condition through her scrying. On our end, no new suggestions have been put forward. A sea monster passed by and was shot down yesterday. Suzie won the video game championship the crew held, which provided a much-needed excuse to celebrate. I have nothing else to report.”

“Saved,” Swip said. Her avatar leaned on a virtual countertop. “Why do you even make these? You’re not on assignment, I record all the necessary data for a report myself.”

“Organization and management, Swip. Gets me in the right headspace.”

“I can’t imagine the higher-ups are thrilled to hear your voice in reports.”

Squeaky smirked. “O’Neill has a program designed specifically to lower my pitch so he can bear it.”

“...Sounds like him.”

A soft rumble not unlike an earthquake ran through the ground, shaking Swip’s interior.

Squeaky sighed. “Another one of those sea monsters?”

“Actually… the mini-sonar isn’t picking any up…” Swip paused for a moment, processing. “Okay. Uh. A giant boulder just fell out of the… sky? It fell from above. And hit the ground.”

Squeaky blinked. “Interesting. What else do you see?”

“Well, looks like there are a few that haven’t hit yet. Three… two… one…” There was another tremor, this one larger than the previous. “They’re pretty close.”

“Close enough to be dangerous?”

“Not sure.”

Nira ran through the doors to the bridge in a panic. “There is a boulder the size of a small town bearing down on our position!”

Squeaky ran to the captain’s station before Suzie could get on the bridge. “Everyone, we have a situation! Get to the bridge! Nira, how long do we have?”

“Five minutes.” She let out some untranslatable curse. “Why wasn't I looking up?”

“Happens to the best of us,” Allure encouraged. “What can we do? Can we move Swip?”

“Not in five minutes,” Swip said. “...And I don’t want to figure out what some of my planetary-bombardment style weapons do at the bottom of the ocean.”

Squeaky nodded. “Nira! Seren! Do you think you have enough power to cut a hole the size of Swip in the incoming boulder?”

Seren nodded. “Definitely! Shaving away some rock is easy-peasy!”

“I am at adequate power levels as well,” Nira said.

“Good. Get out there. Swip, can you guide them to the proper location?”

“I can’t see th—” Swip paused. “Nevermind, it just appeared on the mini-sonar. Yes, I can. Nira, telepathic communication, you can do it at that range.”

Nira nodded in confirmation. She teleported herself and Seren out into the ocean, just above Swip. Seren focused on maintaining a bubble of air against the immense pressure while Nira propelled them upward. A hologram of their progress appeared in the middle of the bridge.

“You can do this!” Cinder cheered.

Nira’s voice came over Swip’s speakers. “Swip, transmit only yourself and orders over this mental frequency, okay? I need to focus.”

“Sorry Cinder!” Seren called.

Cinder frowned. “...I was just trying to be encouraging. I’m good at it.”

They watched as the dots representing Nira and Seren approached the massive boulder that was soon filling up almost the entire screen.

“Geez…” Sweealoo wiped her brow. “There weren’t any mountains nearby. Where could this have come from?”

“Something to figure out later,” Allure suggested.

“Good idea.”

“Arrived!” Nira said as their bubble pushed into the edge of the falling boulder. “Beginning cutting now! Swip, direct—Seren, calculate. I cut.”

Swip’s sonar pings hit the boulder in the point she calculated it would come down on her. Seren performed some magic math at the surface of the boulder, determining how structurally sound it would be once much of it was cut up. “There’s a lot of odd stuff up here…”

“Survive now, deal with that later,” Nira grunted. “Will it stabilize?”

“Yep!” Seren reported. “Cut!”

Nira cut. A dark blade of magic ten times her size appeared in the water and cut precisely where Seren indicated, creating a cone-shaped depression in the boulder easily large enough to hold Swip.

“Still on course?” Squeaky asked.

“Not quite…” Swip said. “Something tilted it sideways ever-so-slightly. Maybe a chunk fell off higher up?”

“How far do we need to adjust?” Nira asked.

“A few meters to the northwest.”

“Which direction is that?”

Swip indicated it with her mini-sonar.

Nira took a breath. “Seren, hope you’re ready for some water magic…”

“Yep!”

“On three. One. Two. Three!”

Both of them cast water spells in the indicated direction. The force of massive ocean waves pounded into the falling boulder. From the perspective on the seafloor, it looked as though nothing had happened.

But it was enough. The boulder crashed into the ground, encasing Swip in a cone cavern. The edges of the cone sunk several meters into the soft seafloor, turning what had been a cave several times larger than Swip into one barely large enough to hold her. As Seren had predicted, the cave held—for the most part. One smaller rock about the size of a pony dislodged from the ceiling and hit Swip’s front.

“Ow,” Swip muttered.

“You’re fine,” Nira commented. “In other news, so are the rest of you. Mission success. Heading b—”

“Wait!” Seren called. “I just thought of something!”

“What?” Squeaky asked, dreading the answer.

“We’re in a mostly sealed cave now! I can clear the water out!”

“Clear th—”

Seren didn’t wait for permission. She cast a double spell—a simple storage spell to suck up all the water paired with an enhanced bubble spell to produce air. The entire cavern began to empty of all its water, draining almost like a sink—if the drain for the sink were in the middle of the air and sparkling like a star.

Without water, there was no longer pressure keeping the walls held together. A few loose rocks and clods of dirt fell to the ground, but for the most part the cave was made of solid metamorphic rock so the pressure difference did virtually nothing. A few holes in the ceiling started spewing seawater like sprinklers, but the drain caught those too.

Seren made the drain spell permanent to ensure the cavern wouldn't fill up with water anytime soon. Breathing heavily, she gave a thumbs up. “All good!”

“...That was highly dangerous,” Squeaky said.

“But it’s all fine now! And you can stretch your legs!” Seren clapped her hands. “Come on out! The air’s great!”

Cinder gasped. “Swip. I want you to open your hatch.”

“Right, right…”

Swip de-sealed her exterior hatch, opening it up. Several hundred gallons of water poured out of the storage bay, quickly dissipating along the marshy ground. All other flooded rooms were subsequently opened, draining all the water in a similarly nonchalant fashion.

Cinder scrambled to the exit, grinning. “Yeah! Freedom!” She jumped down the ramp and planted her four hooves into the squishy ground. Starting to dance, she wondered if she was going to break into song.

Then she kicked a body.

Freezing, she looked down. It wasn’t a seapony. It was a pony. One who hadn’t been dead for all that long, at that—he still had hair in some places and she could identify his pegasus wings, though one was half-eaten. Two of his hooves were missing, showing only jutting pieces of bone mixed with dead, fishy flesh. A mossy substance clung to him in numerous places, festering the most around the open wounds.

The smell hit her all at once. She had used all her willpower to keep from screaming, so there was little effort put into keeping her lunch down. Hurling all over the body, all she could think was sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to…

Managing to get control of herself, she wiped her mouth and looked up.

There were several bodies, strewn about everywhere. Mostly ponies, but there were a few seapony carcasses as well. She found herself focusing on the seaponies—they didn’t make her stomach churn as much as the other bodies. They were monsters. They were things she saw killed all the time. She might even burn one, were she able to.

Eventually, she felt something other than disgust and fear. Her eyes flicked over to something shiny—a helmet. Round, bronze, and industrial strength with a front of thick glass, it was clearly something used for diving. The pony it was attached to had a suit made of hard, bronze shell as well, though this wasn’t in good condition, having been torn and smashed to pieces in various places.

“A diving suit…”

Seren teleported next to the suit. “We could use this. Make suits for ourselves from them.” Cinder was more than a little shocked that the child was completely unaffected by all the gore.

“And do what?” Nira asked. “Even if we have suits, it’s not safe to travel all the way to Celia or however far up the surface is.” She gestured at one of the corpses. “These have been falling for weeks. This ocean is deep.”

Suzie walked out and placed a comforting hand on Cinder’s shoulder—but addressed Nira’s concerns. “If there are diving suits of that caliber, there are probably other diving materials. Boats. Processed metal. Seren could probably make a sub.”

Seren grinned. “You bet I can!” She popped the helmet off the corpse, revealing a pony with half her skull visible. “Just gotta cannibalize everything.”

Suzie glared at her, holding Cinder close. “Bad word choice.”

“Oh. Uh. Sorry!” Seren rubbed the back of her head.

“It’s… fine.” Cinder shook her head, forcing herself to a collected state. “...These ponies lived on a surface. Maybe on this rock.”

“Probably,” Suzie admitted.

“Then their home just fell into the ocean.” Cinder grimaced. “...Taking everything with it…”

Suzie had nothing to say to this.

Seren threw three helmets on the ground, making a clattering sound. “...Man, Celia would be able to help with this, she knows a lot of outfit spells…”

~~~

Blink punched the last seadog to the ground. It was probably the pack leader, or something, seeing as it was about four times larger than all the other seadogs and had a jaw that was so large it extended to part of the neck. But even it went down easily, this time from a little ghostly filly rather than deadly depressing memes or precise Gem magic.

Burgerbelle folded her arms angrily. “Kill stealer!”

“Hey, you two have been having a slaughterfest, I saved the best for myself.” Blink kicked the monster’s stomach, spewing several dozen crystals onto the ground. “There you go, that’s the last of them.”

Celia levitated them into Burgerbelle’s bag. “Take these back to Nira or Seren and… we’re home free.”

Feeling a little nervous? Pensive? the Invader asked.

I suspect that’s your influence. Though your influence is not all that reliable. It promised satisfaction from exterminating all the dogs. I am feeling a distinct lack of satisfaction.

You just haven’t given in yet.

May I remind you that ‘giving in’ involves slaughtering anything I lay my eyes on, hmm?

Not necessarily, and you know it.

Celia had to struggle not to roll her eyes. We must return regardless. No path leads away from them forever.

Unfortunately true.

“I’ll teleport us back to the seafloor. Give me a moment…” Celia focused her mental energy into her crystal. Want to help?

And get us back to a bunch of scrutinizing eyes quicker?

Yes. The offer still stands.

Fine.

Both Celia and the Invader focused on the teleport spell, completing it in half the time. Burgerbelle, Blink, and Celia were out of the caves and on the seafloor once more.

“Wow. Fast,” Blink said.

I try my best, Celia told her. Then, addressing the Invader, she said, it is probably best you don’t attempt to speak on the public channel.

I’m not a moron.

Of course not.

There was a soft rumble that spread through the seafloor.

“...Earthquake?” Blink asked.

“TREMORS OF RAGNAROK!” Burgerbelle bellowed. A miniature volcano erupted behind her.

Celia let out a ‘tsk’. She sent out a scrying spell, finding that there were some giant rocks falling nearby. Curious. Blink, Burger, there appear to be rocks falling over that way.

Blink scratched her chin, making a noise of deep thought.

Something to investigate.

We already have the crystals.

Would they be falling at this time in this moment if they didn’t mean something?

No, actually… Celia turned her communication to the others. We should investigate. The rocks may have something important.

“How can we know for sure?” Blink asked. “H—” she stopped mid-word, frowning. “Wait. What’s that?”

“Is it a bird!?” Burgerbelle asked.

“IS IT A PLANE!?” the Insanity Wolf spoke from Burgerbelle’s shoulder. “CHARGE THE ENGINES!”

If there was ever any doubt… the Invader mumbled.

Do you like your colleague?

Too forward and brazen for my tastes.

Celia shook her head, focusing on what Blink had noticed. There were lights above them, and not the sort that came from a bioluminescent fish, either. They were artificial, and moving.

A submarine, Celia told her companions. That… may make all these crystals we gathered useless.

Take it. That sub is all we need. TAKE IT!

We should at least ask first.

What kinds of ponies have you seen living in these waters without a suit? That’s right, seaponies. What do you think their reaction is going to be to us?

Good point. We may need to make a ploy. Pretend to be lost, hide in one of the rocks…

“We should steal it,” Blink blurted.

Celia stared at her in disbelief.

“FUCK YEAH!” Burgerbelle shouted, suddenly wearing a fantasy thief getup. “That sub is ours!”

“STEAL THEIR LIVES!” the Wolf shouted. “THROW THE SUB AWAY!”

“What, no, we need the sub,” Burgerbelle pouted.

“DIVE WITHOUT A SUB!”

This is just embarrassing, the Invader groaned.

Celia smirked. Well then… I guess we’re stealing a sub. Not the standard course of action, but you know what? We’ve been at the bottom of the ocean for Diamonds know how long, buried in dog goo. Might as well get a submarine out of the deal. But Burgerbelle?

“What?”

Do keep that wolf of yours under control. I’d rather not have to explain to Suzie why you massacred a submarine.

“I’LL LEASH YOU!” the Wolf shouted.

That’s nice, Celia dismissed. To the Invader, she asked, can you deal with it if we need to?

That depends on a few things. My desire to do so and my ability to contend with a reality-warping wolf.

It’ll probably destroy the sub if we just let it run wild.

Idiot probably would, wouldn’t she? Fine. We can keep the wolf down. But we’re going to do this my way.

Assuming Blink doesn’t declare me unfit for duty, I’ll at least hear your plan out. The end result will most likely be a synthesis of ideas, however.

I’ll take what I can get. First, we need the element of surprise…

~~~

Allure placed a diving helmet in front of Cinder.

Cinder swallowed a piece of her daisy sandwich, managing to keep it down without too much struggle. “Cool! You got it to work?”

“We’ve got three working suits,” Allure said. “Pony-shaped only, though.”

“Guess that limits who can be an explorer, huh?”

Allure smirked. “Yep. I’ve already selected the team too. Me, Nira…” She plopped the helmet onto Cinder. “And you!”

“Me?” Cinder felt a powerful mixture of dread and excitement enter her all at once.

“You want to come?”

Cinder thought about this for the moment. On one hoof, there were dead bodies out there by the dozen. On the other, she had been cooped up in this enclosed space for almost a week and hadn’t gotten a real adventure in a while. Waiting around and playing video games was not a real adventure.

“Sure!” Cinder beamed adjusting the heavy helmet until it was as comfortable as she could get it “How do we suit up?”

Allure gestured for her to follow them to the cargo hold. Seren was currently opening boxes of supplies to see which ones were salvageable. Most weren’t, but a few things had been set out for use, such as backup metal sheets for repairs. Many of these materials had been cannibalized to fix the suits, fused together with magic afterward. This made the bulky suits themselves look like swirling, warped alloys of multiple metals. Ugly, but effective. The standard ‘white’ alloy of Merodi construction—Allure had recently learned it was called ‘orichalcum’—might have improved the suits in certain areas.

The only parts of the suits that looked proper were the helmets—shiny, one piece hunks of metal that would keep out even the worst of pressures.

Allure tossed Cinder her suit. “Here. Seal’s on the back, should be easy with your magic. Make sure to lock the hard bits together on the back.”

She was right—Cinder was easily able to slip into the suit. The interior was dry, but filled with a myriad of uneven textures that made her itch slightly. That would be annoying. She forced herself to ignore the sensation, she wasn’t going to be able to do anything about it while out in the ocean. The weight of the suit made her movements stiff and awkward, but she suspected that would be counteracted by the buoyancy of the water when she was out there. With a twist of her helmet, it locked into place, sealing the interior.

Allure laid two heavy tanks of air on her back, saying something Cinder couldn't hear through the walls of the helmet.

“Can’t hear you!” Cinder called. She pointed at what she hoped was her ear just to make sure Allure understood.

Allure’s eyes opened wide with realization. She put on her own helmet. “Check!” she said, her voice coming through a speaker in the back of Cinder’s helmet.

“Sweet! Radio?”

“Yep. Won’t transmit too far, but we should be together out there anyway.”

“Good. What were you trying to tell me?”

“I was saying the oxygen tanks are going to be really, really heavy in the air. You won’t really feel them in the water, though. Just don’t try to dance around right now.”

“You’ve done this before?”

Allure’s nod looked really silly with the helmet. “Though, when I did this, we used the Merodi suits. Skin tight, full glass helmets, and a nice holographic display. This is low-tech, but it works.”

“You two ready?” Nira asked, levitating herself over to them. Evidently walking around with all that weight was too much of a hassle.

Cinder nodded. “I think so. Anything I should know about the suit?”

“If you get separated from me you have two hours of air, otherwise I can just keep making more. If you get punctured with something, don’t remove it, the pressure will kill you. If you get a crack in your helmet, remain calm, it shouldn’t allow the pressure to crush your skull until long after you’ve run out of breath.”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Geez, thanks…”

“And be careful with magic. You’ll have to experiment to see how yours works underwater. Allure, I assume you know how yours works?”

Allure tipped a nearby box with some invisible power. “Knight of Heart works great, the rest doesn’t work underwater all that well.”

“Casting fire underwater…” Cinder frowned. “How does that work?”

“It’s a treat,” Allure said. “Just be careful when you try it.”

Nira checked herself over. “I’m teleporting us to the top of the boulder. It’s only the size of a town, not too difficult. I’m aiming for a several meters above the surface, so expect to fall for a bit before we hit solid ground.”

Cinder saluted. “Got it! What are we looking for?”

“Anything that can help us go for a longer journey,” Nira said. “Sub, material to make a sub, anything.”

“Right.”

Nira lifted her head. Even though Cinder couldn’t see her horn through the helmet, she still felt Nira’s dark aura spread out. It sent a chill through her spine.

With a flash of darkness, they were in the water. Cinder could see Allure and Nira easily, due to the lights on their helmets. Other than that, she could see nothing—all was dark. Directing her gaze downward, she thought that maybe her helmet light was showing her the ground, but it was hard to tell.

She kicked her legs, finding that she could move around without too much effort, though she got the impression trying to go up was an exercise in futility.

“Everyone good?” Allure asked.

“Yes,” Nira grunted.

“Yep!” Cinder chirped. “I’m going to try the fire now.”

“Just be careful,” Allure said.

Cinder nodded—and quickly decided never to do that again. Celestia, was it hard to move her head quickly… She focused her energy into her horn and cast fireball in the water.

There was a brilliant light surrounded by a curdling sphere of bubbles. She laughed. “I got i—” she dropped focus on the spell, removing the flame. At a normal depth, this wouldn’t have caused much more than a small whoosh of water.

Here, the pressure was so immense the bubble of steam collapsed in on itself in a minor explosion, sending the three divers to the side.

“Haha!” Cinder laughed. “Looks like I’m an explosion wizard now!”

“Be careful with that!” Nira hissed. “You don’t know where it could throw us!”

Cinder shrugged, focusing on holding a fire spell this time. The flame ignited, turning the water around it into steam with ease. While she held it, the water couldn't implode on the steam pocket. The bubble started to deform from a perfect circle into an oval as the mist tried to rise due to its lesser density, but the further it got from the flame the less energized it became, becoming one with the ocean calmly. The explosion only happened when she cut off the heat source completely.

Which she did again, but not before moving it. She found that moving it quickly created a lesser shockwave, while moving it slowly didn’t alter the flow of current much at all. Shoving the flame to the distance, she let it flicker out. They felt the rush of water run into them, but it was nothing as startling as the first time.

“That’s going to be useful,” Allure noted.

“Nothing I can’t do already,” Nira countered. “Regardless, be on the lookout for anything.”

“...I see something!” Cinder called, pointing down. “It looks like… a dead bird.”

There was, in fact, a bird drifting in the sea, coming closer to them as they sank. Further down Cinder could make out chunks of a statue that might have been a pony at one point. The bird didn’t look like it had been dead long—none of the flesh had been ripped and there was no sign of rotting, though there was evidence of the dark mutation the seadogs and seaponies had. It’s beak was long and pointed, its claws split into multiple thorny protrusions, and it looked almost skeletal.

“Dead bird,” Nira snorted. “Good. What are we going to do with a dead bird?” She picked the thing up with her magic. “It’s just a—”

The bird proved itself to be very alive by lighting itself on brilliant white fire, becoming a massive star of brilliant power surrounded by a churning cloud of steam. It opened its beak to roar, but nothing could be heard over the massive rolling boil at the bottom of the ocean.

Cinder took one look at the swirling star of fire—and grinned.

“Hey, phoenix!” Cinder created two smaller flames in front of her. “You and I are going to have some fun!”

~~~

Star Shooter had already been having a terrible last few days when they showed up. She had been the proud owner of an experimental all-terrain ship that could pull off both flight and undersea voyages. She had it for all of two weeks when some pirate stole the thing. Her replacement ship had to be taken out on a ridiculously unfair lease. An entire day had been spent hunting down the ship thief.

He, conveniently, had vanished off the face of Equestria.

Now, short on funds from the whole fiasco, Star had decided to head to the sinking ruins of Fellis. Sure, a large chunk of the place had been picked clean already, but her salvager’s intuition told her that new things would be revealed when the rocks hit seafloor and cracked open like little geodes. Fellis hadn’t been known for major tunnels like some of the other islands, but there had to be some.

They had found nothing so far. They watched a larger chunk hit the seafloor and split not five minutes ago and there had been nothing inside.

This was not how the life of a Gifted was supposed to go, she would keep telling herself. She was a unicorn and had magic. She could shoot fireworks out her horn for crying out loud! She should be rich, famous, and living on a private island or something, not salvaging for scrap at the bottom of the ocean with a layabout crew that had no idea what they were doing.

Maybe I should have stayed in the entertainment business…

She shook her head—no use dwelling on that. She needed to get something off the seafloor here or she was going to be out of funds to go on another expedition. At that point, she could think about throwing fireworks shows. Until then, she was going to build her own torpedoes. Even though Turnfin insisted mechanical ones were better. Screw him and his ‘engineering know-how’.

“Uh, captain?”

Star sighed. “What is it?”

“We’re losing air pressure.”

She glared at the green mare, Minty, weighing her response options. Star settled on ‘tranquil fury’. “Minty… why are we losing air pressure?”

“We don’t know.”

“We. Don’t. Know!?”

“Yeah. Haven’t detected any leaks anywhere… but the air pressure is still going down…”

“Minty. Minty…” Star growled. “Turnfin’s already on this, right?”

“Y-yes.”

“Then what am I going to do? Throw a firework into the wall and hope it creates a reverse leak?”

Minty frowned. “Wait, what?”

Star facehooved. “Nevermind. Just… keep me posted. Tell me if it becomes a threat.”

“Can-do Capt—”

There was a massive boom behind them. The door to the command center fell inward, allowing steam to pour through the opening. What walked through was the most beautiful mare Star had ever seen—sharp, blue eyes under a glamorous purple-pink mane done in an extravagant coiled style fit for a noble. Her coat seemed too smooth to be real and her height was so impressive Star likened her to one of the Princesses of old. How could one so brilliant not be Gifted?

Scratch that, what even was she? A wyrd? No… there weren’t any clear mutations. That wasn’t a horn in her head, either—that was a crystal. And yet it was glowing very much like a horn...

The mare smiled. “Hello, Captain Star Shooter.”

She knows my name. Uh…

“I am Celia, Chalcedony. I will be commandeering your sub. You don’t really have a choice in the matter, but trust me, you would much rather come quietly.” Something dark sparkled in the back of her eyes. For a moment, Star thought she saw fangs in the mare’s mouth.

Star Shooter may have been completely smitten at this point but she was not about to give up her sub. She opened her mouth to object.

Minty didn’t give her the chance. The loyal crewmember jumped Celia, attempting to drive her heavy, bladed shoes into Celia’s side. A dark red laser fired out of Celia’s gemstone, hitting Minty in the chest moments before she would have landed her attack. The life went out of the pony’s eyes in an instant and she slumped to the ground, dead.

For the briefest of moments, Celia looked shocked at what had just transpired, but she quickly returned to her calm, serene smile.

A crazy mare… Star gulped. With powerful magic… Probably some ancient sea-demon…

Celia tore her eyes off the dead mare and trotted forward to Star. “Are you ready to cooperate?”

Star nodded slowly.

“Good. I didn’t want to have to let Burger have her way.”

Star really didn’t want to know what that sentence meant.

“Now, don’t panic, but there’s an invisible mare with a leg around your neck right now.”

Now that’s ridiculous, Star thought, a second before she felt an invisible hoof pressed to her neck. W-w-what?

“Let’s make this simple,” Celia said, smiling with such serenity that Star already felt calmer. “This ship is ours now. We are going to use it to rescue our crew. Then we will bring it to the surface. After that, we will discuss the possibility of you getting it back. Not a moment before. Understood?”

Star nodded once more.

“Good. Now, I have a very specific heading in mind.” Celia’s smirk widened. “I do hope you’ll take us to it without a fuss. It… wouldn’t be pleasant if you attempted to cross me.”

“Engineer taken care of!” A strange creature that existed like paper said, holding a rabid wolf tightly in her arms.

The wolf glanced at Minty. “THAT GIRL DIDN’T DIE PROPERLY. REVIVE HER AND TRY AGAIN!”

Star decided now was the time to stop thinking. Expression blank, she moved to chart a course as Celia instructed.

“Good girl,” Celia said.

For Celia (Empty Horizons, Part 3)

“Uh-oh,” Swip said.

“What?” Squeaky asked.

“You know that large cavern I found a few meters to our ‘east’ wall?”

“...Yes?”

“Something’s digging through that. Something big. I’m expecting this entire place to fill up with water again sooner rather than later.”

Squeaky poked her head out the back hatch. “Seren! Suzie! We’re gonna get flooded soon! Cut the whirlpool!”

Seren looked up at her whirlpool spell. “Bu—”

“Seren, just close it up,” Suzie said, frowning. “Should we try to tell the others?”

“They’re in suits and out of range,” Squeaky said. “Let’s just worry about ourselves right now.”

Sweetaloo welcomed the two back on board. Swip’s avatar let out a depressed grunt as she sealed off the needed doors and brought up her shields. At least this time the water would stay outside and they would be able to access the cargo hold. “Ready. Prepare for breach in two minutes.”

“Two minutes?” Seren gawked. “How have we not noticed anything until now? You think we would have heard drilling!”

“I thought it was just sea monster growls,” Swip reported. “Turns out, it’s not.”

Seren frowned. “The tonal differences between vocal cords and drilling should be easily discernible to your digitized brain.”

“Need I remind you that I’m half-busted?”

Seren folded her arms and huffed. “I knew that. It was factored into m—"

There was a rumbling tremor. Now that they were listening for it, it wasn’t all that difficult to hear that it was coming from slightly above them, in the direction of one of the dripping holes in the ceiling.

“Any idea what exactly it is?” Squeaky asked.

“It’s a drill. Metal. That’s all I got,” Swip reported. “Probably some diving ponies looking for loot or something. Found some ore or s—"

There was a massive explosion above them, blowing a hole right in their ceiling. Before the smoke even started to clear, water poured through the gaping hole in pressurized droves, spraying Swip’s entire cavern. Her shields were more than able to deflect all the water, but like rain it obscured their vision.

However, this would not last long. The pressure at the bottom of the ocean was immense, and it wanted that air bubble out. The gushing waterfall filled the space with such speed it was alarming to those who didn’t understand how pressure worked. In this case, that was just Sweetaloo.

Eventually, Swip was underwater again, though this time her shields maintained a full bubble of air within. She turned her turret toward the gaping hole, ready for anything.

“Hold your fire,” Squeaky ordered.

A brass-colored miniature sub floated through the hole. It had a wide drill attached to the front, numerous harpoon guns lining the bottom, and a large amber spotlight that was pointed right at Swip. From its back sprung a black cable that led into the dark cavern above where it quickly vanished from sight.

The mini-sub’s back propeller turned on, pushing it toward Swip.

“Try to call them, anything,” Squeaky said.

Seren held up a hand. “Use a wide radio signal, like the helmets!”

Swip sent out a radio pulse. “This is Swip. Identify yourselves.”

The mini-sub stopped moving. A second later, a tentative voice responded—male. “Can you repeat that?”

“I said I’m Swip. Who are you?”

“Log,” came the response, the name making Seren snort in amusement. “What was that?”

“One of my crew,” Squeaky said. “Pay them no mind.”

“What the—are you a kid or something?”

Squeaky frowned. “No… I am Squeaky.”

“I’ll say.”

Suzie took control of the conversation. “This is Captain Suzie Belle. It seems you’ve found our ship.”

“Yeah. And what a beauty it is…” they could hear Log smacking his lips. “All sorts of fancy lights… I can’t even begin to guess what kind of metal it’s made of. You seem to be in a spot of trouble, here. I bet we could salvage this thing for a fine price on the market…”

Suzie frowned. “...Would you bring us to the surface?”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

Nobody on Swip believed a word of this.

Log continued. “Just let us in and drop that fancy little bubble of yours. How are you doing that? Got a Gifted down there?”

Swip re-aimed one of her guns on the mini-sub. “How about you back off?” Swip beeped.

The mini-sub paused. “There’s no way that thing actually works.”

Swip started charging the weapon. It began to glow a soft pink. “I’d rather not risk a cave-in, but i’m sure one can be arranged…”

“You wouldn—"

“Fire a warning,” Squeaky ordered.

Swip swiveled her aim off to the side, sending a red laser off the side of the mini-sub’s bow. The boiling line triggered a shockwave, pushing the craft to the side effortlessly.

“Stop stop stop!” Log shouted, ordering the ship to a standstill. “Okay! Okay… let’s come to an understanding here. You don’t shoot us. We bring you to the surface. Deal?”

“What do you get out of this?” Squeaky asked.

“A chance to look at that fancy ship of yours. Clearly, you can’t take it with you…”

Suzie shook her head—they couldn’t let looting pirates like this have access to Swip’s technology.

Squeaky frowned. “No dice.”

“Then there’s no ride.”

“We’ll find our own way up.”

Log laughed. “If you insist. Enjoy the bottom of the ocean.” The mini-sub began moving backward, reeled back by some unseen mechanism attached to the distant other end of the tube. It was soon out of sight.

“Okay,” Squeaky said. “They want what’s on Swip. They’re no doubt attached to something larger and are probably looking for backup to come in here and force our hoof. We need a plan… Swip, catalog any weapons you have that will cause minimal structural damage to the cavern. Seren, we need you to strengthen the cavern however possible. And…” Squeaky put a hoof on the captain’s console, frowning. “And I don’t know. We can’t hold out forever.”

“May I suggest stealing one of the ships when they arrive?” Suzie said.

Squeaky nodded slowly. “We might just have to.”

~~~

The flaming bird—no doubt a mutated phoenix—released a waft of white-hot flames through the sea, intending to burn Cinder to shreds.

Cinder “Sweetie” Belle may have been inexperienced and she may have been young, but if there was one thing she knew how to deal with at this point it was fire. With a smirk, she touched the incoming fire with her magic, diverting it to her left with ease. She threw her flames forward. Knowing heat would do absolutely nothing to the phoenix, she removed the fire from the sea, creating shockwaves that tossed the legendary bird back.

Nira took advantage of the situation. “Your time is up, bird.” She created a chain of dark magic in the waves, launching it from her armored hoof right for the avian’s center. The hit took it by surprise, tearing it right out of its white fireball, dazed.

It would have been the end for the phoenix did its fire not instantly implode after it was removed, creating a massive shockwave that sent everyone flying. Nira went one way while Cinder and Allure went another.

I’m their air and way back to base, Nira realized. She pushed herself toward them with a burst of dark magic, reaching out to them with her magic.

She was interrupted by a tremendous earth-rumbling roar. One that was all too familiar to her at this point: the call of the sea monsters that had plagued Swip all week. Except Swip and her guns weren’t here right now, and the last time Nira had fought the sea monster directly it hadn’t gone all that well.

Sensing the shadow closing in on her, Nira created a spiked ball around herself, puncturing the monstrosity’s jaw as it clamped around her. She was able to nestle herself between the creature’s teeth, matching the power of it’s jaw with her barrier. The beast cared not that she was running its jaw—it bit down again and again, straining her barrier.

There was too much going on to focus on teleporting. Nira had to fling herself back into the monster’s gullet, away from its horrendous jaw. With a twist, she punctured the throat lining and froze herself in place. Here, she could focus on a teleport.

Despite the fact that the interior flesh was rebuilding itself around her spike, trying to crush her that way. While absolutely terrifying, it still took more time than a bite, which was all Nira needed to flash away.

Appearing next to the beast’s eye, she wasted no time. She dissipated her shield and created a black knife about her size. With a disinterested grunt, she thrust the blade into the creamy white globe before her. The blood pooling at the base of the eye spurted out in noxious trails and black ooze spread from the knife’s entry point.

The monster thrashed. Though blind, its eye was still weaker than the rest of its hard body. It swung its whole body wide, smacking into the boulder below with immense force. Nira had seen this coming and was already on the other side of the beast, driving a knife into the other eye.

This time around, the beast thrashed before Nira completed her incision, getting her a hard smack to the suit by the girth of a sea serpent. Her suit dented on one side, driving a piece of sharp metal into her barrel. Even though the suit maintained pressure, Nira had to struggle to maintain focus from such an injury.

The beast’s mouth was open once more, ready to pull Nira into it.

“Die.”

Nira activated the leylines she had inserted into the eyes. They found each other and sent a massive bolt of dark lightning between them, cutting right through the fish’s brain. The attack was more than enough to force the beast into brain death.

However, it’s muscles weren’t done. Without a mind of any sort to guide them, they began to thrash around randomly with far more force than was sensible. Its skeleton broke in numerous places as the motions became more frantic. Nira found herself caught up in a whirlpool that led her face-first into the tail, cracking her helmet. The impact tossed her upward while the beast’s twitching corpse fell to the sea below.

With a hiss of pain, Nira forced her magic to mend the helmet crack. She didn’t want to risk healing the wound in her side—she couldn’t feel it and didn’t want to fuse the metal of the suit with her body. She would just deal with it.

It was at this point Nira realized she had no idea where Allure and Cinder were.

“HELLO!?” she shouted at the top of her lungs. No response. The radio was nothing but static.

~~~

Celia stood in the sub’s command center, keeping a careful hoof on Star Shooter at all times. However, the hoof was only an illusion of focus for Star’s benefit. In truth, Celia’s mind was troubled, wandering far and wide.

You didn’t have to kill her.

You were the one who killed her, I took no control in that situation.

It is what you would have done.

Don’t get me wrong, I would have done the exact same thing had I taken control, but I did not. That was all you.

You speak the truth… Celia grimaced outwardly for a moment, but she quickly wrestled her expression under control—the crew needed to see her as a mare of unwavering power and the unnerving smile was a great way to keep them on edge. Since she had killed one of their number, the image of power was needed to keep them from revolting. I would not have done that prior to your presence.

You’re growing.

I’m being influenced.

If you wish to see it that way. By that logic, I am being influenced by you—becoming more willing to compromise and think beyond the confines of my opinion. You thank me for acting quickly to save your life, I thank you for expanding my mind. It is give and take, Celia.

Exactly what I wanted..

Exactly what we wanted.

Celia focused her attention away from her interior mind, glancing at Star Shooter. The captain was terrified but had long since stopped thinking. She did everything with a blank, tired look. There was no room for deception in those eyes anymore.

If it makes you feel better, that Minty was probably the sort to jump someone when they least expected it.

Very true. We could have dealt with it though.

They know the sub better than we do. This may have secured our success.

Sleep spell.

For a long journey?

I see that we’re getting stuck in ‘what ifs’.

No life was ever lived well spent dwelling on ‘what ifs’.

Exactly. What’s done is done. I must deal with it, you must deal with it. Let’s move on. What do we do next?

Getting no immediate response, Celia took a moment to look around. Blink was standing in the middle of the room, watching all the other ponies carefully. Burgerbelle was sitting in the corner, tying nooses that seemed to lead to bright, colorful fantasylands. The Insanity Wolf was sitting in the corner, frothing at the mouth. Occasionally she would try to bite Minty’s body, but Celia’s Invader would exert some mental pressure on the beast with Celia’s blessing, making it whimper.

She really has no control of her situation, the Invader lamented. They have sanctioned each other off into dual madness. They will not be able to sustain this.

We can find some Elements of Harmony upon returning home, purge her. You’ll be rid of the wolf.

I look forward to her agonizing demise.

Naturally, we’ll convince them that, in your case, a separate body is worthwhile. You are coming along nicely. I believe Renee would even have a place for you i-

The Insanity Wolf let out a bellowing call. “DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW!” Suddenly, she was in a miniature-sleigh with snow under it. “GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!” The sleigh launched forward, heading right for the main viewport with alarming force. “YOU’RE SO FUCKING SLOW, AND FAT, WHAT DO YOU WEIGH!?”

“Enough!” the Invader shouted through Celia, encasing the Insanity Wolf in the dark aura of her magic. “Do you want to die?”

“DEATH IS A PUSSY!”

The Invader twitched, tearing the Insanity Wolf to shreds. It appeared as a baby on Burgerbelle’s shoulder, but the Flat quickly slapped a collar on it. The wolf bit her but that did nothing.

“Get that dog of yours under control or we are going to have to do something drastic and… unpleasant.”

“Make me,” Burgerbelle snarked, sticking her tongue out.

The Invader frowned, returning control to Celia. “Burgerbelle, that would have killed us all. You understand?”

“I’ve been sitting here making nooses for the crew, duuuuuh!”

Celia sighed, turning to Blink. “Bli—"

Blink’s gaze was untrusting and unsure.

“Ah. I see. Relieving me of command?”

Blink nodded slowly. “The moment I disagree with you on a call, basically. Hope you don’t mind.”

Celia kept her face level. Inwardly, however.

This is unacceptable!

It’s understandable, and we cannot fight it directly or we will prove her right. We have bigger problems now.

What?

She is absolutely certain of your darkness. Blink will recommend you be purged through the Elements of Harmony or something similar. I am unsure if we will be able to talk our way out from that recommendation, given Burgerbelle’s clear insanity and the crew’s knowledge of my duplicious abilities.

Fuck. You’re right.

We need a plan.

...We can use them. Burgerbelle’s is clearly insane. Let them fixate on that…

Celia nodded to herself. That’s a start. We’ll need to think of the perfect words.

Shouldn’t be a challenge for you.

Naturally not—I am still Chalcedony Celia after all. She smirked. We should begin sooner rather than lat-

“If you’re done trying to tame your wyrd…” Star Shooter said, nervously. “The coordinates you gave me are currently in the middle of a chunk of Fellis on the seafloor.”

“Fellis?”

“...The island that has been falling all around us? Used to be in the sky? Just stopped floating.”

Celia frowned, taking the information in. “One of the rocks must have fallen on them. Blink, they do have the capacity to survive, yes?”

Blink nodded. “Should.”

“Then, Star, you will look for a way into the boulder. I will scan it with my magic, to see if I can find them. We are not surfacing without them.” She turned to Blink. Receiving a nod, she continued on. “Good. Now, before I go tapping into my magic…” She turned to Star. “Wyrd?”

Star seemed confused. “Wyrd? The beasts of the ocean? That wolf is…” She looked Celia up and down. “You…”

Celia smirked. Looks like I finally know what to call you.

Wyrd is a stupid name.

Perhaps, but it is technically correct.

I find myself liking technicalities less and less as time goes on.

Then perhaps we can discover their limits in the next few hours.

~~~

Probe spells were complex and varied things used extensively in Merodi Universalis. It was standard procedure to shoot one to a universe never before visited to be absolutely sure no nasty tricks were waiting on the other side. The simplest versions came back green if things were good and didn’t come back if things weren’t.

Naturally, further complexity was desired in most applications. Even explorers would generally like to know if they would have magic on the other side, if the gravity would be suffocating, or if they would spontaneously transform into a sapient muffin. Probe spells to answer all these questions were created early on in Merodi history and in modern times they had been all but perfected.

Under normal circumstances, more complex probes weren’t needed. It was policy to establish first contact with a friendly face who hadn’t been spying on whoever they were visiting—to smooth things over. However, in some cases it was deemed necessary to learn more about a world remotely before sending an exploration team through. Using the technology from the smaller probe spells, more complex ones were developed to enter a world, catalog information about the various inhabitants, and return. It had gotten to the point where simple artificial intelligence was created within these probes to guide them in uncertain circumstances.

Seren was a cutting-edge magitechnician. Given time, she could create a highly specialized probe spell for mid-range recon. So that’s exactly what she did. It started as a spark of pale red energy that would evoke images of will-o-the-wisps in those who were familiar with the legend. The base was nothing more than a mobile spark of magic energy—over the next few minutes she added complications to the wisp’s sparks, creating complex magic circles, mathematical constructs, and sine waves within the glow. Tools to scan the area, detect radio signals, analyze magic, and decipher language.

The AI was introduced last. It was a simple thing. Smarter than a human in many ways, but in others dumber than an animal. There was no soul, no “higher processing” unit, unlike Swip. The moment it came online, it knew what it’s mission was: investigate the tunnel and report on what it saw. It would be excellent if the probe could make it all the way out to open ocean, but it had been given a greater need of self-preservation to ensure it would return with some information, regardless of what it encountered.

It was released without much fanfare—twirling through Swip’s walls and shield like a ghost, swimming through the open tunnel with ease. It noticed little of interest during the first part of its journey, though it catalogued the presence of loose bits of metal from the encounter with the mini-sub not all that long ago.

Continuing through the rocky tunnel, it found a few smaller fish and some plant matter lazily drifting around. All but the last few feet of the tunnel were a completely natural formation, which explained how the subs had gotten here so quickly. Veins of copper dotted the walls, providing incentive to dive down this far. No doubt the subs had been following the rock down as it sank further and further into the ocean. There was even some evidence of primitive mining.

The tunnel met up with four others. The probe processed this for a moment, analyzing the layout of the tunnels. It soon determined which one was the source tunnel—all the others were simply branches. Swimming that way, it picked up scans of its first submarines. A few mini-subs, connected by long tubes to something larger.

Sticking close to the tunnel’s edge, the probe moved closer. The mini-subs were all similar enough to the one they’d already encountered, though most of them didn’t have drill attachments. All of them had weapons of some sort, most of which showed signs of use. Sea monsters were prevalent, so this checked out with previous knowledge.

All the mini-subs were attached to a larger sub—far larger than a normal submarine should have been, acting as a sort of mothership. It was an ovoid lined with predatory bronze spikes that glinted in the glow of its searchlights. Numerous access ports stretched out from its body, affixing to several other submarines made of different materials and markings. Given their stark contrast to the mother-sub and the mini-subs, these were either temporary additions or visitors. Behind the massive mother-sub were a half-dozen other subs, all wildly different from each other. Beyond that was the open ocean.

The probe identified the exit as the goal, but it didn’t move quickly. Snaking its way along the cavern wall, it listened to the radio chatter.

“...A free for all? Is the bat mad...?”

“...She’s always been mad. I say we take it…”

“...magic weaponry at the bottom of the ocean? I say it’s a trap. You know how her kind are…”

“...the Admiral may be a snake, but she speaks the truth…”

“...the end she’s gonna take it for herself somehow, just you watch it. She just needs some cannon fodder, and that’s us…”

“...if it’s a magic weapon, how hard can it be to take if their ship is busted and stuck? There’s nowhere for them to run…”

Were the probe capable of feeling fear, it would be alarmed. This was not a good sign. This ‘Admiral’—probably a fake title, given the disrespectful tones coming over the radio—was organizing a free-for-all to take Swip down, presumably as a sort of salvage operation. It already knew the salvagers were probably going to come back, but this was a bit more than what they were expecting. It would be a frenzy out there. But not all the ship captains would be truly allied. Perhaps they could be convinced to shoot each other?

The probe cataloged what it knew about the Admiral. Spoken of as a bat, presumably a thestral. Given a sort of begrudging respect, likely out of a sense of power. Owned the massive mother-sub and was very experienced. Possible discrimination against thestrals? Unknown, perhaps not relevant.

“...Sparkler says there’s something out there, watching us…”

The probe froze, spreading out its magic sensors. There were few sources of magic in the entire gathering of submarines, not even on the level of a basic unicorn. However, a handful of points shone out. One was above average—currently casting a scrying spell. A particular variant of the spell that could detect intelligences. Fascinating. Also highly dangerous, considering the probe’s proximity.

At the very edges of its perceptions, the probe picked up a new sub arriving. There was definitely magic in that sub, more than any of the other sources in the gathering. It wanted to learn more.

Then the unicorn found it. “I see it! Heading nine-zero-three—that’s starboard from the Algol’s Shadow! It’s probably magic—get the unicorns in Trinity on it!”

The probe didn’t stick around—it had been compromised. It darted back down the tunnels before Trinity could even wind up its propellers. Less than a minute later, it arrived back at Swip, downloading all the information it had into Swip’s mind before ending its existence.

“Probe got back,” Swip said. “We’ve got a problem. They detected the probe and we’re the prize in a multi-sided free for all salvage opportunity.”

Squeaky frowned. “At least we’re already prepared for them. Any weaknesses? Heads? Leaders?”

“The mother-sub, the Algol’s Shadow, is too large to get this far down. We’d have to launch an attack on it if we were hoping to take it out of the equation.”

“...Then we remain with the defensive option. Any objections?”

Suzie looked mildly uncomfortable, but said nothing.

~~~

The phoenix roared, flaring its flames forward just enough to push Allure and Cinder to the edge of the rocky outcropping. In front of them was the flaming bird. Behind them was a sharp drop into nothingness.

Cinder could hear Allure’s sigh through the radio. “Okay. Nira’s… who knows where. This bird really wants us dead.”

The beast flapped, sending a burst of fire at them. Cinder redirected it directly back, so as to minimize the shockwave. Still, the ground beneath them cracked from the strain.

Allure coughed. “So, I have a plan. This plan involves you launching me at it like a torpedo. You have the fire, I have the Heart-blade. Got it?”

“Yep!” Cinder said. She created a small flame to her left, acting like a small jet and pushing her behind Allure. “Ready when you are!”

“Do it, keep an eye on the fire!”

Cinder directed another burst of flame upward, this time making a shockwave too much for the ground below. The stone crumbled to dust and began to fall off the edge of the boulder. Cinder didn’t let this stop her—she grabbed hold of Allure’s waist and created two fire jets at her back hooves, turning the two of them into a rocket aimed right at the bird.

It retaliated with a charge of its own. Since she was focusing on the fiery jets behind her, Cinder was unable to divert the flames coming right at them. Allure took up the slack. She may not have had an affinity for fire, or much magic in her, but she did have her Heart, and that could provide a temporary barrier. The energy of her spirit solidified into an invisible cone, protecting the two of them from the white flames. For a moment, they were no longer underwater, but flying through a cloud of steam and fire.

At the last second, the bird twisted away. Instead of scoring a direct hit, the tip of Allure’s cone hit a wing. Not a mortal wound, but enough to put out the bird’s flames. Once more, the lack of a burning star at the bottom of the ocean triggered a massive rupture, and this time two Sweeties were in the center of it. Their suits were more than capable of surviving the pressure but the vertigo was too much for their little pony brains.

For Cinder, everything went blurry. There was only the sensation of her head throbbing for a long while—not that Cinder was capable of perceiving time during the experience. The sensation of time having passed came only when her eyes clicked on, telling her that she was falling slowly. Her mind slowly pieced together that she must have been pushed off the edge of the boulder and was now sinking.

Struggling, she turned her neck to the other side. Allure was there, upside down. Cinder had no idea if Allure was awake and didn’t feel like speaking right now to test it out.

Cinder realized she was tumbling. No matter what she did, eventually her vision would be reoriented somewhere else. As she rotated…

It was like watching the sun rise as her field of view pointed toward the phoenix. It was directly above them, barreling down as fast as its flames could carry it. This was not enough to shock Cinder awake.

The roar of the sea monster behind the bird, however, was enough. Her eyes shot open the moment she noticed the glint of the phoenix’s fire in two massive eyes. The picture came into focus—a massive toothy jaw strong enough to crush reinforced metal. Was this the same one from earlier? Was Nira okay?

Cinder decided that didn’t matter right now. If she didn’t do something, she and Allure definitely wouldn’t be okay. Tapping into strength she didn’t realize she had, she reached for Allure. A soft burst of fire got her close enough to grab ahold of the older mare’s barrel. “Hold on tight.”

“Ergh…” Allure muttered, shifting slightly. “What in th…?”

“Running from a sea monster. If I pass out… come up with a new plan.” Gritting her teeth, Cinder lit her horn.

A massive jet of flame shot from her back hooves, propelling her down. The water rippled around her not unlike the way the air did around a Rainbow Dash about to perform a Sonic Rainboom. She would not be breaching the sound barrier today—water was simply too dense—but she would send out a cone of waves in every direction. She figured this probably made it easy for things to find her, but there was already a sea monster chasing her, so she didn’t see the problem.

After a few seconds of initial strain, she began to relax a bit. It was by no means easy to keep this much fire going from only her internal magic, but the vast pressure differential was helping her speed along just fine. She had no idea how close the phoenix and the sea monster were, and she wasn't looking back to find out.

“Cinder—light!” Allure called.

Focusing down, Cinder discovered she could see lights. Little points, like stars, dancing around in the murk below. As she approached, her light revealed to her the source: a bunch of submarines sitting in a large, open cavern. One of the subs in particular caught her eye—a massive behemoth of a ship with large spikes coming out of all sides, slowly leaving the cavern with its caravan of smaller ships.

They seemed to be in a hurry…

Oh. They were probably fleeing. From her, the phoenix, or the giant sea monster? Probably some combination of all three.

There was a flash of light somewhere below them, orange. Cinder squinted her eyes—was something moving toward them? It was hard to see over the light of her own flames, but she was pretty sure there was something dark moving toward them.

She nudged her path to the left just in time. A torpedo sailed past them at high speed, leaving a trail of bubbles in its wake that triggered a minor shockwave, tossing the Sweeties even further off course. Cinder heard the explosion. Given the earth-trembling roar that came next, she guessed it hit the sea monster.

“Get in the cave,” Allure said. “It’ll go after the subs. Probably.”

“I’ll take probably!” Cinder laughed nervously. She pushed them further down. Another torpedo narrowly missed them. “Cutting off fire!” Cinder cut off her magic so the torpedoes wouldn't have a nice shiny target to smash into aside from the monster. The impulse threw her down hard.

It was at this point her helmet picked up the emergency alert.

“This is the Admiral broadcasting to everyone! Get your asses out of here! No salvage is worth fighting a deepfish! Retreat to Leviathan Wakes!”

The largest sub fired a cluster of massive torpedoes. Cinder didn’t see them land—but unlike all the others, the color of their explosion was green. The sea monster sounded like it was in agony. It didn’t sound like it was running away though…

Why won’t these stupid monsters run away? Cinder thought to herself. The seadogs, the seaponies, these… deepfish! All of them just keep attacking!

She held Allure close as they drifted into the cavern. Since she was no longer using fire to control her descent, they were tumbling once again. Looking up, she couldn't see the phoenix anywhere. The deepfish, on the other hoof, was much closer than before. One of its teeth had been burned off and there were remnant green glows on the right side of its face.

It was veering away from the cave—going for the subs. The more torpedoes they shot the angrier it seemed to get. Even with half its face blown off, it still wanted to devour the pesky metallic capsules.

Soon, its girth blocked the convoy of submarines from view. Cinder could still see the colors of torpedo explosions going off from around the beast’s edges, but no actual submarines.

“...There’s still one in here,” Allure said, forcefully moving Cinder’s gaze from the deepfish and to the single remaining submarine. Rather than flee the caverns like all the others, it was moving deeper, trapping itself.

It was the only one that had ignored the call to retreat.

Why?

“We need to follow it,” Cinder said. “It’s the only one here. It’s important.”

Allure thought about this for a while. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”

Cinder laughed nervously. “No… but it’s here and it’s moving away quickly.” She frowned. “...Think NIra’s okay?”

“I think Nira probably cut that monster’s head off and is now panicking, wondering where we are.”

“Right…” Cinder shook her head, looking up at the sub as it drifted further into the caves.

“Let’s go,” Allure gestured. “...We’ll need your fire to keep up.”

Cinder took a breath—and ignited more flames. Gonna burn my horn out at this rate…

~~~

Nira teleported back to Swip, appearing in the lounge in her suit and everything. “Seren, I need a magic recharge, I have to go find them.”

Seren gave Nira the magic she needed—but she barely paid Nira any attention. She was staring at one of Swip’s screens with a grimace.

Nira frowned. “What’s gone wrong?”

“A lot of things,” Swip said. “Just listen, we’re repeating her message.”

“Who—"

Then Nira heard it—an audio file. Celia’s voice. There was no video, just a white waveform on a black background. “We have commandeered a sub and are headed to your position with it. I suspect you were aware of the small fleet outside gearing to salvage Swip. Luckily, we will not have to deal with that, since they have scattered upon the arrival of a sea monster, allowing us to sneak right on. Unfortunately, we have other problems.

“Blink is going to arrive shortly and hail you. I am uncertain of what she will say—but take it with a grain of salt. There is evidence of a dark contagion on board the vessel. Without a doubt it has corrupted Burgerbelle, making her more prone to violence and dark desires, manifesting in the form of a psychotic black wolf. She has become a danger to us and the crew of this ship.

“Blink herself may be infected as well, though I am uncertain. She was the one who suggested we steal this ship, and has managed to remove me from head of the operation. At first I thought her ghostly physiology would make her immune… but I have my doubts. Be careful.

“I myself was infected with the curse as well, though I managed to isolate the personality and expunge it using my nature as a Gem. I am currently hiding, though Blink and Burgerbelle have no idea I am doing so at the moment. My suggestion is that you hold Blink in a dialogue while Nira teleports to the ship and expunges Burgerbelle of the darkness within her. Use your discretion when dealing with Blink. If all goes well, all will be cured and we can take the sub to the surface.

“Work quickly. I’ve boosted this message as much as I can, but I am unsure of how long you will have before Blink calls you directly.

“End message—Celia, Chalcedony.”

Squeaky ended the message. “We need you on that sub when it arrives.”

Nira nodded. “Naturally.”

“Do you have any idea where Allure and Cinder might be?”

“I… completely lost them in an attack,” Nira frowned. “I don’t know anything for certain.”

Squeaky sighed. “...We’re running out of options. Deal with the sub first. Find them later. They should have at least an hour of air left…”

“Less if they’ve been fighting,” Sweetaloo offered.

“But some. We need to deal with the sub n—"

“Incoming call,” Swip beeped, patching in the radio signal.

“Hey guys!” Blink’s chipper voice came in. “We’ve had a bad couple of hours here, but hey, we borrowed a sub for you guys! Cool, right? Hop on in and we can get to the surface before that sea monster returns.”

Suzie took a breath before responding. “It’s not quite that simple, Blink. Allure and Cinder are missing…”

~~~

“Are we in communication range yet?” Blink asked Star, tapping her hoof impatiently.

Star twitched. “We’ll be in range the moment we’re in range. Turnfin, explain to the ghost.”

Turnfin was an earth pony stallion with a penchant for machinery and a completely deadpan way of speaking about things. “The radio is Sanctaphrax made. Highest quality. Seen to it personally. It will work when it works. Assuming your crew can pick it up.”

“They’ll pick it up…” Blink said, pacing. Where was Celia? Without her here, the crew got a lot less… terrified. Sure, Burgerbelle was over there in the corner, but a presence that scared Blink just as much as everypony else wasn’t exactly a big help.

“You don’t have a skull, right?” Burgerbelle asked Blink, smirking.

Blink frowned. “Uh… no, not really.”

“Those eyes though… yes, those are definitely there. And I have a skull!” She popped off her own head, transforming it into a skull. “Think of the crackships.”

Blink grimaced. “I’m not sure which is worse. Depression-Burger or Shipper-Burger.”

“They’re one and the same!” Burgerbelle laughed. “Because after the eyes and the skull unite in holy matrimony, the sub sinks! I can imagine the scene now—ooh, quick, I need some paper.”

The tiny wolf on her shoulder scoffed. “OUT OF PAPER? USE YOUR SKIN!”

Blink rubbed her head and turned away. She didn’t need to deal with this. She had other problems right now.

“In range!” Star called. “There, make your call so we can get this done with!”

Blink put on a smile. “Hey guys! We’ve had a bad couple of hours here, but hey, we borrowed a sub for you guys! Cool, right? Hop on in and we can get to the surface before that sea monster returns.”

Suzie took a tense breath on the other end of the line. “It’s not quite that simple, Blink.”

Blink froze. They can’t...

“Allure and Cinder are missing…”

“What? How?”

“We managed to make some suits. They haven’t come back.”

“What’s the plan?”

“We were making one when you arrived. ...Currently, I’m thinking some of us surface with your sub while most of us remain here to look for them.”

“Sounds like a plan. ...I should warn you, we didn’t exactly take this sub peacefully. And Burgerbelle’s got a bit of a… problem.”

“We know,” Nira said.

Blink froze. That hadn’t come from the radio. She whirled around just in time to see Nira levitate the Insanity Wolf into the air. Immediately, it lost its tiny size and expanded to a massive hulking beast dripping blood from its teeth. “FLIPPING OFF GODS LIKE YOURS IS PART OF A BALANCED BREAKFAST!”

“My god is dead. You’re about to join him.”

Nira’s horn flashed a deep, unsettling red. She created a blade of magic and cut herself across the left thigh, allowing her to access her blood magic. The claw erupted from her side and punctured the Insanity Wolf’s chest, pushing the heart out the other end.

The wolf laughed, before proceeding to twist around impossibly and devour its own heart. “WHO NEEDS THAT!?”

“Clearly, not you.” Nira surrounded the wolf in her bloody tendril and squeezed it tight.

Burgerbelle appeared behind Nira and wrapped a noose around her neck. Nira’s response was to vaporize the noose to dust and kick Burgerbelle in the waist, knocking her back. “The corruption’s deep…”

Blink’s ghostly form lost some of its cohesion as Nira tapped into her spirit magics. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but given the screams coming from both Burgerbelle and the wolf it wasn’t pleasant.

Burgerbelle fell against the sub’s wall, grabbing her hair like it was crawling with ants. The wolf had it much worse; its body was coming apart at the seams, crumbling like it was made of aged chalk. Through its agony, however, it was still able to scream out.

“DIVIDE BY ZERO!”

The Insanity Wolf collapsed in on itself, forming a dark singularity of space-tearing power. The walls of the sub began to buckle from the strain.

Nira ground her teeth. “Begone!”

For a second, a portal to another universe opened. Water poured in like a fire hose was on the other end, dousing the entire bridge. Ponies screamed in panic as their worst nightmares came true.

And just like that, it was over. The portal closed, and the singularity was gone. There was no actual breach so the water didn’t rise any further than the inch it already had.

Wasting no time, Nira turned to Burgerbelle. “It’s still in you.”

Burgerbelle hissed like a cat.

“Apologies. This will hurt. A lot.”

Burgerbelle’s eyes went pitch black. Her body went as rigid as a board and she no longer moved in time with the sounds she was making. A buzz like an audio error filled the room, making everypony but Nira cover their ears.

A dark spark rose out of Burgerbelle’s chest. With a sound like scissors cutting through bone, the spark was severed from the Flat. Almost instantly, the darkness in her eyes went out. She was cured.

Nira crushed the dark spark in a bloody hand. “There. Done with that.”

“Geez…” Blink rubbed the back of her head, glancing at the terrified crew that was hiding behind everything they possibly could. “That was… something.”

“Yes. It was. Now…” Nira turned to face Blink, scanning her. Blink stood rigidly still, refusing to let herself so much as change expressions.

“Hm…” Nira said, scratching her chin. “Looks like you’re clean. I guess you’re just lucky enough to be immune.”

Blink let herself sigh in relief. “Yeah… I guess I am. You going to check Celia too?”

Nira narrowed her eyes. “Wait… why would I need to?”

“She clearly had the same thing Burgerbelle did.”

“In her message she said she purged it.”

“Her… message? She didn’t send a…” Blink stopped short. “Nira, wait, listen to m—"

“Blink, make yourself fully tangible for me.”

“Nira we don’t have time for this, Celia could be corrupted a—"

Nira’s horn started glowing menacingly. “I said, make yourself fully tangible. It’s possible your Void could be hiding the curse…”

Blink froze.

The voice within her screamed. I told you… I TOLD you… I TOLD YOU!

Shut up shut up shut up shut up shu-

You’re going to kill her NOW!

No! I w-

You know what I’ll do if you refuse. Everything you hold so deep, deep down…

I… wh… I… Blink’s thoughts became little more than a jumbled, contradictory mess.

I guess this’ll have to do… I’ll take care of her for you.

Blink looked up at Nira. “All right. Fully tangible, as requested.” She solidified herself completely. “Nothing to hide here.”

Nira began her scans. Before she got anywhere, Blink smashed her shades into Nira’s face with as much force as she could muster, revealing her eyes for all to see. No longer were they blank, empty voids—they had become pitch black spheres of endless depth with dark red streaks along the bottom edge that were far too thin to be blood.

“Wyrd…” Star Shooter breathed.

Blink rushed forward, sticking her hoof through Nira’s head. “Your mind is already so messed up. I wonder if I can break it by twisting it juuuuuust wrong…” A burst of Void entered Nira’s mind, blanking it for a moment. “You know, I wonder if our powers can wipe a mind permanently… she never tried. Looks like it’s time to find out!”

“How ‘bout no?” Burgerbelle said, looking way too healthy and happy for someone who just got their soul purged. “BONK!”

A baseball bat hit Blink on the head, making her lose focus on Nira’s mind.

“You are such a crime against nature! You don’t deserve to EXIST!” Blink leaped on Burgerbelle and attempted to erase her very substance from existence.

Burgerbelle held up a reverse card with the text ‘no u’ on it.

Blink was immune to being erased by her own powers, but this didn’t stop her from falling back—right into Nira’s telekinetic grasp.

“My mind is mine, flayer,” Nira growled. “You will lose yours for the act of touching mine.”

Blink’s face contorted into one of deep-seated hatred. “And you will lose the lives of every living being here.” She touched her hoof to the ground. “All I have to do is erase part of this wall. Just part! And the entire sub will explode.”

Nira narrowed her eyes. “...Your terms?”

“I am going to teleport away. You are not going to follow me. Follow me, someone dies. I don’t care who.”

“You must know I cannot allow that.”

“Your ghost is lost to me, dark one. I have put her in her place. Do you know what I had to do? It was easy. Just threaten her secrets and she folded like paper. I’m sure you know some of them.”

Nira’s angry scowl softened slightly as uncertainty crossed her face.

“The funny thing is, what you’re remembering isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. And you thought you were the one! Hah! Don’t make me laugh!” Blink grinned. “Bye.”

Having collected enough magic, Blink teleported into the nearby ocean and made herself completely invisible. No visual, auditory, or magical senses would be able to pick her up. She would only be able to move by floating around, but no one would be able to sense her.

She drifted through the cavern, planning to exit into the open ocean. She could spread out there… be free. Join the monsters of the sea. That was her purpose, wasn’t it? One of them, anyway. Have some fun.

Then go find that Crown Princess. She had the right idea. Just a littl-

Let me OUT!

Blink’s mind became a warzone again. Her true invisibility dropped back down to standard intangibility.

We must run, they will pursue us! GIVE IT BACK!

No! I won-

Do as I say or I will end your precious little house of cards.

You wouldn't dare! You’re part of the house of cards.

You give me no choice. You-

Something grabbed Blink’s head—a pony in a diving suit.

“Blink!” Cinder called. “Blink, are you okay!?”

~~~

When Cinder saw Blink appear in front of her with a look of confusion and rage on her face, she acted without thinking.

She grabbed Blink’s head and rammed her helmet into it. “Blink! Blink, are you okay?” How am I touching her?

The moment she asked the question, her hooves passed through Blink’s head.

“N-no…” Blink said, trembling, “Cinder, help me… I That’s it you’ve done it now. Hey Cinder, you want to stop! STOP! STOP! I won’t stop! I’m NEVER GOING TO STOP UNTIL I TAKE EVERYTHING FROM YOU! Then maybe we don’t deserve to exist you care too much to end it now! I dare y I dare you to sh… sh… Why do you struggle s because no you I wi—"

“Blink!” Cinder called. She was pretty sure it was impossible for Blink to hear the words without having the helmet pressed right to her head, but it didn’t matter. “You can fight… whatever this is! I believe in you! You… you’re stronger!” She rammed her head right into the intangible unicorn, placing Blink’s face on the inside of the helmet. “You’re the best friend a pony could ask for, a little dark monster isn’t going to stop you!”

Blink stopped ranting to herself. She drifted back from Cinder’s helmet.

The red lining under her eyes began to waft away. Was she crying? It was hard to tell underwater.

“Yes…” Blink said. “No!”

Blink forced herself to become fully tangible.

At the bottom of the ocean.

She had no bones, but everything broke. She had no lungs, but she screamed so loud the caves rumbled. She had no stomach, but her body wretched. She had no real substance, but every square inch of her wavered anyway.

CRACK!

A Reality Anchor shattered, spewing its circuitry through the water.

CRACK!

Another broke, coinciding perfectly with the moment Blink stopped screaming. Undying as she may have been, there was a point at which her mind couldn’t take any more and she just shut down. She looked almost peaceful.

Slowly, Cinder turned her head to look at the last remaining Reality Anchor. It was sparking slightly from the strain… but it wasn’t breaking.

Allure had her hooves pressed to it. Given the warping effect around the anchor, she was no doubt using her Heart power to shield the bracelet from the pressure.

“I can’t… hold this… for long…” Allure grunted.

“We have to do something!” Cinder shouted. “I… HELP! ANYONE? HELP!”

Nira answered the call, teleporting next to Blink and surrounding her in a forcefield. “I’ve got her.”

“Oh, thank you Nira!” Cinder let out a sigh of relief. “C-can you fix her?”

“I fixed Burgerbelle. I can fix her.” Nira frowned. “I’d worry more about Celia.”

“W-what?”

“She’s hiding.” Nira cast a sleep spell on Blink, ensuring she wouldn’t wake up in a mad rage. “I’m sending you all back to Swip. Deal with the sub. I’ll find her.”

~~~

Celia held her razor-top between her legs, using it as a propeller to launch herself forward, further and further into the open ocean.

Okay. We’re out, free, running away.

This has only bought us some time. They will find us. And because of your influence I doubt they’ll trust us for even a moment.

Leave a message.

Last message was a big fat lie. Celia let out a wince. They won’t trust another one.

Why do you let them know you so well!?

Usually we aren’t working against each other. And if we are, I can usually swing some to my side… We are in a bit of a unique predicament.

We knew this would happen. We knew and we went forward anyway…

Yes. We did. We ran. Distracted them and ran. All so we could have time.

Time to do what? Convince them to leave us alone? We don’t want that. We- the Invader stopped short. Wait a minute. You saw all of this ahead of time.

Celia nodded to herself. Yes. I fully admit to being duplicitous to you as well as all the others.

I can’t help but be impressed. And wonder what the FUCK your plan is!?

It’s admittedly not much of one… Celia let out a sigh. More of a thought, really. An idea I know you wouldn’t have taken unless you knew how desperate the situation was.

I get it. Pretty desperate. They’re going to find us, hunt us down, and kill me. Probably cause some psychological damage to you in the process, but they’ll think it’s worth it.

Exactly. Your life's on the line. What we need to do is, somehow, make it so they can’t take the option of purging you.

You have some idea of how to d- no, oh no.

Celia closed her eyes, deciding to forego paying attention to the outside world. If a fish decided to eat her now, so be it—this was important. She focused herself into her mindscape, appearing in front of the dark shadow of herself. They stood together in an endless expanse of centimeter deep water, a vast sky of stars overhead. Unlike the last time they had done this, the Invader actually looked… concerned.

“You’ve changed too,” Celia said, holding the dark mare’s chin in her hoof. “A bundle of rage and hatred… I don’t see the murder in your eyes anymore. I see confusion, loss, and energy that doesn’t know where to go.”

The Invader let out a bitter laugh. “I see a Gem who locks herself in her own traps, defining herself by a society rather than what she thinks. I’m starting to think breaking out of that really would kill you.”

“You have a point. I’ve come to think you’re right. I have gotten so absorbed in my political correctness and masks that what I really am was lost somewhere along the way—hidden in the two halves that never exist on their own.”

“How can someone so smart be so stupid?”

Celia smiled warmly. “...Do you need an explanation?”

“No. You’re the one who does.”

“Yet, I don’t feel like I need one.”

The Invader rolled her eyes. “You’re still crazy. Insane.”

“Gems are uniquely suited for a melding of minds.” Celia tapped her gemstone. “I myself am a synthesis of two minds, in harmony almost all the time. You’ve been in my headspace long enough I believe I could add you to it—as a pseudo-fusion, not the arguing we’ve been undertaking for so, so long.”

“You mean a few days?”

Celia sighed, tired. “It feels like so much longer than that…”

The Invader looked Celia up and down, grimacing. “Why?”

“What?”

“Why? I’m a magic curse that invaded your mind and tried to convince you to kill people. Was indirectly responsible for the death of a pony, to boot. Why go through all this trouble? I compelled you to to some of it. There’s no way I did all of it.”

“You’re a mind, just like me. You… deserve better.”

The Invader frowned. “No, that’s not quite it… there’s something more here. More than just morals, more than just an attachment. You feel… gratitude?”

“...You have made me consider things I never considered. Given me a new venue from which to look at things.” Celia looked up at the starry sky above. “I am uncertain if I could call your influence ‘good’. But it’s something that seems… pertinent, at the very least. You taught me about myself. I taught you about yourself. It would be such a shame to throw all that away like it was nothing.” She began to trot away from the Invader. “Nira, for example. She’s broken and damaged… but she’s also strong and resourceful. Even her absolutely evil master is partially to thank for the mare she’s become. And you? You are not evil. You may be a product of evil, but like Nira you are something else.”

The Invader didn’t have anything to say.

“So… do you want to try it?” Celia asked, turning to face her with a hoof outstretched. “Try to show them that you are something that can be a part of me?”

“...It…” The Invader let out a groan. “Fuck it, let’s give it a shot.”

“Okay.” Celia’s smile faltered slightly. “You will have to get to Goshenite and Moganite first. Moganite will agree simply out of a sense of practicality. Goshenite… Goshenite is scared of you. Remember, they are both me, and can be one with you as well. Prove to her that you can be gentle. I know you have it in you.”

“Oh, really? Because I sure don’t! Hah! Gentle? I’m already imagining her smashed to dust in the water here! BOOM kapow, no more obstacle.”

“She knows that. Just… don’t do it. We all have impulses like that.” She tilted the Invader’s head up. “We simply have to learn to control them.”

“...Right.”

Celia nodded. “Here goes…”

Out in the physical world, Celia’s body flashed white, losing its cohesion. The two halves of her began to shift… tearing at a dark spot in between them.

The Invader flinched slightly, but forced herself through the pain.

Before here were two creatures—Goshenite and Moganite. Now that they were together in a calm setting, the Invader could actually look at them. Both were two-legged armless beings with a gem in their foreheads. Moganite had the larger half of Celia’s diamond, and carried with her the aura of a Rarity, an older sister. Goshenite was the much smaller half—the young, scared, shivering Sweetie.

Moganite turned to the Invader and nodded. “Greetings. You have been an interesting conversation partner.”

“...That’s all you have to say? Really?”

“I can say many things. They do not matter much. Let’s try to do this quickly, we are not strong on our own. If we lose cohesion completely I am unsure what will happen to you.” She gestured at Goshenite. “Go to her.”

With a wince, the Invader walked up to Goshenite. “Uh… hi.”

“...You’re a big meany,” Goshenite said, trying hard not to cry.

“Aren’t we all?” the Invader smiled creepily. “Have you never been mean?”

“I…” Goshenite looked at the sky. “Yes. We had to… at times. When they came for us…” She squeezed her eyes tight. “It was terrible. Moganite knew—she always knows, she’s smart that way—that we had to kill them. I didn’t. I almost got us killed. I…” Tears in her eyes, she summoned her staff—one half of Celia’s signature razor top. “They had her under a drill.”

“You made the right call,” Moganite said.

“It wasn’t a call,” Goshenite whimpered. “Most of them weren’t…” Goshenite trotted away from the Invader and looked to Moganite. “Moganite is right almost all the time, you know. You’ll have to get used to her if you stick around long.” She let out an awkward laugh. “Doesn't get people, though. It’s alllll numbers. Silly Moganite.”

Moganite allowed herself to smile. “I can be the silly sister.”

Goshenite wiped her eyes. “Every time something goes wrong, and we might split… Mognaite asks me to trust her. I’ve learned to do that. She’s better in crisis situations than me.” Goshenite frowned. “She hasn’t asked this time…”

The Invader glanced at her. “Wait, you didn’t? I thought this was important to you!”

“It is,” Goshenite answered for her. “She knows this is more than numbers. This is…” She touched one of her legs to the Invader’s. “A matter of emotions. Heart. Soul. Me.” Goshenite giggled.

“The division isn’t strictly mind and heart…” Moganite said.

“...but it often feels that way,” Goshenite completed.

“I get the distinct impression I’m not actually doing anything and you’re talking yourself into liking me. Am I wrong?”

Goshenite tapped her foot on the ground. “Maybe?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe.”

“You really do need to be fused, don’t you?”

“Pretty useless and weak apart, yeah,” Moganite admitted. “I’m heartless and crass.”

“I’m terrified of everything and cry all the time!” Goshenite laughed. “Also I laugh at odd times.”

“But I see patterns.”

“And I see emotions.”

The Invader understood. “And Celia sees people.”

The two nodded.

“What do you see?” Goshenite asked.

“I see…” the Invader had to think about this for a moment. “I see action. Reaction. What could be done. What must be done. I see…” She grinned. “I see ME. Or... us...?”

Moganite turned to Goshenite. “Us…?”

Goshenite looked up to the Invader—smiling softly. “...Us is fine.” She nuzzled up to the Invader. “You may be scary. But sometimes… you have to be scary.”

Moganite nodded to the Invader. “Congratulations. You passed.”

“I didn’t say so yet!” Goshenite huffed.

“I know you did.”

“Well yes, but you ruined the moment! I was going to do this whole ‘woohoo’ thing and…”

“...and we’re spending too long apart.” Moganite pointed at the pained look that crossed the Invader’s face. “You don’t want to split her in two.”

“No... “ Goshenite shook her head. “It was nice meeting you! And if we meet again, we really do need to come up with a better name than Invader.”

The Invader grinned. “I’ll think about it!”

Moganite nodded in respect. She touched her mind to Goshenite’s and they fused back into Celia without any trouble.

Celia trotted to the Invader and picked up her hoof. “Shall we dance?”

The Invader pulled her up. “My moves will be better.”

“Until our moves are the same, at any rate.”

Hooves interlocked, they began to step in time. As they swirled around each other in graceful, arcing movements, the mindscape began to blur, swirling away from a solid scene into little more than colorful static.

Celia looked the Invader right in the eyes. “Thank you, darling.”

“Hah! You’re welcome!” She pulled Celia in.

The mindscape lost all cohesion.

In the physical world, two halves of a gemstone slid into place, forming the cracked diamond all of Celia’s friends knew so well. In the crack, a dark light began to glow, starting as solid black but slowly shifting to a pristine purple. The aura touched the fissure between the two halves, thickening until it was as solid as they were.

Prompted by the aura, the break between the crystals mended. Like a welding torch to metal, a spark came to the bottom of the crystal and traveled all the way to the top until there was only a single, solid piece. A blue diamond-shaped crystal dotted with soft purple specks.

Light erupted from the gemstone, and a familiar shape took form. Four legs, a curled tail, and a head topped with one of the most fashionable manes in existence. The hair took on the pastel colors of a Sweetie and the eyes the brilliant blue of a Rarity.

The ears pointed sharply, coming to angled, predatory points. The mouth curled into a smile, dotted with two sharp canines. The hooves became pointed, more like thorns than marshmallows. Around the neck, the light formed into a soft purple and black scarf that trailed behind her, ending in a zig-zag edge.

She came into full existence in the middle of the open sea, more than a little startled at the concept of being.

The first thing she did was tap her gemstone. No crack.

Well, this is a little more permanent than I… we… had been anticipating? She cocked her head. What’s that mean, exactly? She stretched her legs, feeling the water flow past her hard-light body. The scarf blew behind her like an extra limb. It tickled her neck slightly.

Her uncertain frown turned into a grin. Oh, wow, that… yes! She instantly went to scratch behind her neck with one of her pointed hooves. That’s the spot, that’s the spot. She let out a laugh, not that anybody was around to hear. I have no idea why I feel this way but I feel GREAT! Yeah! I’m ME! You hear that world!? I’m ME! Who am I? Hmm…

She scratched her chin with her hoof, taking a quick inventory of her mind. There was one, single consciousness. Not two, not three—not even a mild division.

Am I… Celia? She processed this for a moment. Yes… Yes, I am! Celia, new and improved, deluxe edition! Trademark, registered, something something, oh Burgerbelle should be here she’d make such a joke out of this. I do hope Nira’s removed that IMBECILE of a dog of hers. If not, well… I’ve got a few choice ideas for how it could suffer. Didn’t it say something about a bear trap earlier? Oh how delightful!

Her smile faltered.

Ah… they aren’t exactly going to be happy about this…

She shook her head, bringing the smile back in full force.

They’re my friends, they’ll understand. And if they don’t… they’ll try, and they’ll learn what to do with me. At the same time I learn what to do with myself! Oh, that self-reflection thing is new. Nice. Old-me got what she wanted. The dark-me got what she wanted, and... She laughed. The sisters… are finally as they were meant to be. Hey, past me, thanks! ...Can I convince Swip to use the time-drive to go back for a thank you? No, that’d be an abuse of power. A hilarious one, though!

Celia heard a tremendous roar from behind her. Turning, she saw a sea monster—not the massive snakes they had been encountering at the seafloor, but a more conventional kraken-type.

Celia grinned. Let’s test out the gears on this thing! She reached into her gemstone and pulled out the razor-top directly. No longer did it look like a combination of two separate weapons—but rather a single object lined with dark curls. It revved like a motorcycle. All the better for striking fear into the enemy…

The sea monster didn’t have a concept of fear. It charged.

Celia rolled her eyes. Oh well, more fun later. Let’s see if I can invent a dark-magic superspin of some sort…

~~~

Nira was all of two minutes away from the part of Fellis sitting on Swip when Celia passed her.

Hi! Celia called as she passed. Bye~!

Nira turned her suit around, using her magic to throw herself at the Gem riding a razor-top like a witch’s broom. Get back here, fiend! You will release her from your grasp!

There might be a tad problem with that, Celia thought back, pulling on the brakes and facing Nira directly. I appear to have captured the ‘fiend’ in my ‘grasp’. Of course, the reverse is also true, and the inverse, and basically any way you try to pretzel it with descriptive words and pronouns. She smiled warmly. But that’s neither here nor there—literally—right now. Hi Nira, good to see you. I’m sorry about the whole diversion thing. I trust you got it all handled?

Blink and Burgerbelle are being treated… Nira completed her scan of Celia. Did you FUSE with the thing?

Yes! Celia giggled. Well, that was what I was trying to do anyway. Had to prove to you that she was worthwhile, after all. And don’t give me your rant about falling to the temptation, it was a two-way street. She tapped her gemstone. Turned out to be a bit more permanent than previously thought, but I’m not complaining. No crack in the Gem and I feel GREAT!

Nira frowned, deciding to drop her mental echo. You are still dark.

Quite. But, darling, so are you. Put us on the scales and see where I stand, hmm?

Nira didn’t like it, but Celia had a point. She had decidedly less of a dark essence than Nira herself. She also seemed… remarkably happy, if uncharacteristically excited.

You don’t have to know what to think just yet, Celia thought to her. You can let the others see, too. That is what I was heading back for. She smiled sadly. Going to face the music.

Slowly, Nira nodded. It’ll be a few teleports, but I can get us back. I will have a grip on your spirit, just in case you’re pulling the blind on us.

Celia sighed. I suppose that’s understandable. It… it hurts though.

You chose this.

Celia let herself laugh. And it’s time to face the consequences!

Nira focused on the teleport spell. Three flashes later, they were back in Swip. Allure and Squeaky weren’t there—presumably working on keeping the stolen sub under control.

“Ah… convenient…” Celia observed.

She took a moment to gauge her audience.

Burgerbelle gave her a thumbs up, a good sign. Blink looked as though she was too busy thinking about other things to fully grasp what Celia’s new appearance meant. Swip’s avatar was equal parts disgusted and absolutely fascinated. Seren was just confused, while Sweetaloo’s eyes told of a mare who understood all-too-well.

Cinder looked conflicted.

It was impossible to read Suzie.

“So!” Celia clapped her hooves together. “I could probably have walked in here with a big speech that would turn you all to my side one at a time. There would have been tears, emotional moments, and a lot of prodding in little hidden emotional areas all of you didn’t even know you had. It would be a guaranteed success. But I don’t want to be that person. I want it even less than I did before. So I’m going to tell you the facts, and you tell me what you think.”

Shaking, she took a breath. “I am Celia. I am the fusion of Goshenite, Moganite, and the dark curse found in the waters of this world known as a wyrd. About a week ago I was cursed with the same darkness that created the seaponies and other monsters of the deep. I was changed by it—all parts of me. Goshenite, Moganite, and the curse itself. In the end, I chose—all three of me—to come together so we could show you that the darkness didn’t need to be destroyed. So we formally fused. Turned out to be permanent, sealed the gemstone together. And… yep! That’s it! This is the new me!” She laughed nervously. “So… thoughts?”

Burgerbelle opened her mouth to speak, but Suzie held up a hand to stop her. The captain of the expedition team looked her diplomat and close friend in the eye. A tear rolled down the woman’s face.

Celia’s smile dropped. “Suzie…”

“There’s a terrible thing about Gems,” Suzie said, voice wavering. “And I… I can never say it, because it…” She took in a deep breath. “They become something new. Then the person you knew is gone.”

“...I’m still Celia, Suzie.”

“And you’re still Goshenite and Moganite! I know! You say it every time! But every time I’ve spoken to them, they… they’re not you! They are, but they aren’t! I don’t care if it’s bigoted or racist or something or whatever, when you come together you are something different!” Suzie punched the wall. “Goshenite and Moganite might as well be dead when you’re together!”

Sweetaloo gasped. “S-suzie, th—"

“YES that applies to you too!” Suzie said. “And…” The anger went out of her eyes in an instant. “I didn’t… I…” She put her hands on Sweetaloo. “I shouldn't have, I—"

“You were honest with yourself,” Celia said, sniffing. Turning around, Suzie could see tears of a neon red blood-like substance running down her cheeks, clotting on the ground. “Tha- that’s good!” Celia forced a smile. “You… you think I’m dead… that… Well, it’s out in the open. I can’t fault you for that. I…” Celia bit her lip. “Maybe they are dead. I can’t go back now. But… if I could, I—they—would still want to be here. This was a choice.” She wiped her face. “And even if it wasn’t, all of us are still here.”

Suzie swallowed hard, saying nothing.

“Change is part of life. If… if they are dead, then the you that existed last week is also dead.” Celia forced a smile. “It may not matter either way. I sure don’t know. I don’t think I need to. I’m happy like this.”

“And the rest of us?” Suzie asked.

“...This is going to sound crass,” Celia admitted. “But… I spent way, way too much of my time working for all of you. I almost didn’t have a sense of self. I did things because I thought it was what the rest of you would want—what Merodi Universalis would want. Not what I wanted. Selfishness is a vice. But even the virtue of selflessness can be contorted the wrong way. And…” Celia let out a bitter laugh. “I’m sorry. I’m using my words to get you to my side, not even thinking about it. I still have a lot to learn about… me.”

Suzie sat down and placed her hands on the back of her neck. “I don’t know what to think of you, yet, Celia.”

“...At least you can think of me as Celia. That’s… a start.”

“Yeah. It is.” Suzie let out a tense breath. “As captain I have some responsibilities. Sweetaloo, you will have to re-evaluate her mental health and her right to be on the team.”

Sweetaloo nodded. “R-right.”

“The rest of you…” Suzie frowned. “Tell me what you think.”

There was silence in the lounge for a few seconds.

Cinder coughed. “I say… give her a chance.” She turned to Celia and smiled. “She seemed happy when she came in. I don’t think I’d ever seen her smile so big before.”

“Oh, aren’t you just the most precious thing.” Celia hugged her. “Thank you… thank you for thinking I’m still the same pony.”

“You’re Celia,” Cinder said. “How could I think anything else?”

Nira sighed. “Dark is not evil. She’s not even as dark as I am. We can’t discount her for that.”

“Good enough for me,” Swip said. “Welcome back, Celia.”

“My… wyrd…” Blink shivered. “Wasn’t completely evil either. Just… angry. I never tried talking to it…”

“She’s more like herself!” Burgerbelle cheered.

Seren frowned, looking up at Celia. “...You feel wrong.”

Celia nodded slowly. “Yes. Like Nira, right?”

Seren knitted her brow. “I… I don’t know.”

“Can you find out?”

Seren made no response.

“She’ll come around to your side,” Sweetaloo said. “Don’t worry.”

“You?” Celia asked.

“I’ll vet you as part of my job later.” Sweetaloo allowed a sad smile. “Right now… I guess I never realized how similar we were until now.”

“And I never thought it mattered to me.” Celia put a hoof on Sweetaloo. “...Sweetaloo, you care so much for us. How do you feel about yourself?”

“...Not that great.”

Celia pulled her into a hug. “That’s a start.”

Sweetaloo buried her head in Celia’s mane. “...Squiddy’s not going to be happy about this…”

“You had to seal her, didn’t you?”

Sweetaloo nodded.

“I’m not going easy on her,” Celia said. “I have to show her what I am without any walls or shrouds. Speaking of…” She broke off the hug and turned back to everyone. “I did kill a sea monster or five on the way here for fun and sport. And may have terrorized a lost submarine. They’re alive though! Probably scarred for life, but…”

“You did kill that pony on our sub,” Blink said.

“Yes. I did. I shouldn’t have. It was a mixture of instinct, shock, and a mind that had not adapted itself.” She smiled awkwardly. “Frankly, I’ve done a lot, lot worse in my time, and so have all of you—except Cinder, of course. Fact of the matter is, I’m not beating myself up over it. It is what it is.” She tapped her hooves together. “Honesty. Yep. Burns you and feels great at the same time. What a combo!”

Cinder’s uncertain frown turned into a smile. “You talk a lot more.”

“I do, don’t I? Guess I just discovered that I have so much to say!” She held out a hoof, her scarf flapping in a nonexistent breeze. “Look out world, Celia’s got a few things to say to you!”

“Should I start making a list?“ Swip asked.

“Oh, yes, do that!”

Nira coughed. “While I’m sure it’s very important that we all sit and get to know Celia a little better, shouldn't we get off the bottom of the ocean? We do have a sub.”

“Oh yes, let’s get out of this dreadful murk,” Celia grinned. “I for one am tired of the bottom of the ocean. Who wants to breathe some real air again?”

Everyone raised their hoof or hand without hesitation.

“Then SET SAIL! Or sub. Eh, doesn’t matter.”

And so they surfaced. The interdimensional phone worked like a charm the moment they breached the waves. They were rescued within half an hour.

Star Shooter even got her sub back and everything.

~~~

“Sooo…” Sweetaloo said, folding up Celia’s file. “As I’m sure you know simply from gauging my reactions, you’re fit for duty.”

Celia smirked, kicking her legs up on the table. They were sitting in one of the League’s primary offices—not Swip. Swip was currently being repaired again. “Was there ever any doubt?”

“A little,” Sweetaloo admitted. “But, in the end, your overall mental health has actually improved. You remember our old sessions? How I told you time and time again to think about what you wanted and to stop hiding behind infinite masks?”

“Yep!”

“Well I’m happy to say you’re cured of that particular neurosis.”

“It’s like I’m doing your job for you, dear.”

Sweetaloo smiled warmly. “I would love it so, so much if all my patients could just cure themselves.”

“So I’m cured then? Free to go?” Celia teleported a corn dog from a vendor she had seen outside and started munching on it.

Sweetaloo gestured at the corn dog. “Exhibit A: a disregard for societal norms.”

“I’ll pay later! Probably. I was just hungry. Or… not really hungry, just wanted food?”

Sweetaloo rolled her eyes. “Regardless, you need to work on discovering your balance. What is you? What is everyone else? The answers matter only as much as you need them too, but it’s not nothing.”

Celia nodded. “Right. Got it, doc.”

Sweetaloo smirked. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. Just watch yourself around Squiddy, okay?”

“She can yell and shout at me all she wants,” Celia said. “She needs it. Poor girl…”

Sweetaloo’s positive demeanor vanished. “Yeah…”

“You did what you had to.”

“And now I have to deal with the consequences?”

Celia laughed. “Exactly!”

“Well…” Sweetaloo opened the door to the office. “I guess that’s that. It’s always nice talking to you, Celia. No matter how much you go through.”

Celia winked. “Glad you think so! See you on Swip!” She trotted out into the hall.

Squiddy was right there, glaring at her.

Celia sighed. “Were you waiting for me?”

“N-no,” Squiddy stammered.

Celia raised an incredulous eyebrow.

“...Fine. I was.”

Celia sat down on the floor so she was more eye-level with Squiddy. “Well. What did you want to say?”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Yep. Probably shouldn’t, really.”

“I shouldn’t have trusted you before.”

“You sure?”

“You wore a mask. Like him.”

Celia had to take a slow breath at that one. “Squiddy, we all had our… issues wi—”

“Don’t put the mask back on,” Squiddy said, like it was an order. “I need to see you.”

“Squiddy, I have no intention of ever hiding behind those dumb facades again. I’m Celia. I’m not some political movement made flesh. I think you can understand that.”

“Nope,” Squiddy said, turning around. “You need to, though.”

“...How are you holding up?” Celia called.

“Absolutely terrible,” Squiddy spat. “You went through a journey of self-discovery that ended with you happier and better than you’ve ever been. Me? I just get shown how broken I am.”

“There’s beauty in brokenness.”

“You can shut up,” Squiddy muttered, walking away.

“Can, yes. Will? Probably not.”

Squiddy was already gone.

“Well, progress at least.” Celia finished her corn dog. “...Stars, these things are good.”

~~~

Several weeks and many adventures later…

A portal opened up atop a small collection of boats. It was unusual for Equis Aurora to have a settlement off the floating islands, but it was what the inhabitants liked to call home. It was small, quaint, out of the way, and had an awful lot of fishing activity.

Celia stepped through the portal with Cinder and Burgerbelle right in the middle of town. After taking a deep breath and appreciating the salty slightly-cursed air, she pranced around like a filly, scratching her pointed hooves into the wooden ground. “Ah, that smell! The life! Do you feel it!?”

“No,” Burgerbelle deadpanned.

“I can sense that you can feel it, but not directly myself, if that makes sense.” Cinder said. “So, you said you had someone here you wanted to meet?”

Celia nodded. “Yep. Should be easy to find. We’re looking for the local Twilight. So keep those eyes peeled for the lavender unicorn.” She tossed her scarf back extravagantly.

Cinder giggled. “Aight! Scanning for Twilight… Scanning… Scanning… There!”

Celia scruffed Cinder’s mane. “I knew I brought you along for a reason!”

The local Twilight was currently standing over an open market stall. Turning to look at them, she revealed a mare quite different from the standard pattern the Sweeties were used to. She was a purple unicorn, all right, but her expression definitely wasn’t one of the Princess of Friendship or even Celestia’s Faithful Student. It was a mixture of hard truth and soft understanding.

This dignified image was upset somewhat by the large fried fish stick jutting unceremoniously out the side of her mouth. Seeing them, she wolfed the thing down quickly and wiped her face.

“Twilight Sparkle…” Celia said, smirking. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Twilight smiled a pointed, yet also welcoming smile. “Hello, little flower. Glad you could make it…”

Author's Notes:

And with that, the multipart of Empty Horizons is complete! Want to see more of the world and find the story of the Twilight they met at the end? Check it out!

I'm also writing a sidestory set in the world of Empty Horizons on my alt, Sea of Stars. It might tickle your fancy if the mysterious Admiral seemed interesting.

Next on the League of Sweetie Belles: Intellectual Property (The meta returns.)

Remember, the LSB post is always taking new fic suggestions!

Narrative Blockades (Intellectual Property)

Sometimes Mattie wondered if she would have been the Element of Laughter if Equis Ultra Fast had any semblance of sense built into it. Her Pinkie sure didn’t fit the bill - Dinkie was mostly demonic and largely obsessed with the destruction of all, cupcakes, and pretending like she knew what was in the Lord of the Rings. Specifically pretending. The psycho didn’t even read the books for the longest time which was pretty much how things went in Equis Ultra Fast. Studies had shown ponies who went there got actively dumber while ponies who left tended to get smarter.

Regardless, Mattie was sure she wasn’t truly an Element of Generosity, not even in the disturbed sense some people probably thought she was. No, she rarely gave anything away, and when she devoted her time to something it was rarely out of a sense of altruism - more for thrills and amusement, really. And, by Celestia, did Mattie spend a lot of time amusing herself.

For instance - she still hung around Cryo. One might think she hung around the icy Sweetie out of some sort of pity or maternal instinct. While that was certainly part of it, in moments when she was being honest with herself and those around her, Mattie would be forced to admit she was really only there because of all the delightfully amusing antics the excitable unicorn brought to the table.

“Master! I found a new recruit!” Cryo declared, dropping a ghostly pale-skinned human with dog ears in front of Mattie, right in front of everyone in the League of Sweetie Belles’ main lobby.

The woman barked.

Mattie looked down from her magazine - Overly Suggestive Leather Boots Monthly - and glanced from Cryo to the ghost. “Jade, what did she offer you?”

“I don’t even know why I’m here,” the floating Jade said, rubbing the back of her head nervously. “I was managing some paperwork with Nausicaa and Cryo said something like ‘you’re perfect’ and dragged me here.”

“Hmm. Didn’t freeze you. Disappointing.”

“If you were me, maybe.”

Cryo coughed. “Jade Harley, we are the great Sweetie team Frostbite! I’m the frost, Mattie’s the bite. Together we lead our troops on great adventures! You would make the best mascot!”

Jade giggled. “Yeah! I would. That’s why I’m the ‘office dog’, remember?” She waved cheerfully at a group of passing Sweeties, all of whom waved back in recognition.

“But… adventure!” Cryo pleaded.

Jade grinned. “You should try staying in the League proper all the time. Adventure comes to you here.”

Cryo frowned. “But we can’t compete with Cinder here! She’s our arch-nemesis!”

“Your arch-nemesis,” Mattie corrected.

Cryo folded her hooves. “A team should share nemesi.”

“Nemeses,” Jade corrected.

“Been talking to Squeaky, have we?” Mattie asked.

Jade gave no response beyond a coy smile that looked decidedly creepy with her dead eyes.

Mattie smirked. “Ooooh! Now do bedroom eyes!”

Jade twitched. “Aaaand like that, I’m gone!” With a twist of space, she teleported elsewhere in the League.

“You ran her off, Master!” Cryo complained.

“Kid, she wasn't gonna mesh well with us. All it would take is one crack from my whip and a misplaced groan of excitement and she’d run off, tail between her legs sputtering nonsense about what’s ‘proper’.” The thought brought a smile to Mattie’s lips. “Would have been fun for a day, tops.”

“But-”

“Look, you wanted more permanent members to the team. She wasn’t going to be one. Try to find Sweeties who’ll be more open to the suggestion, hmm?”

“But that’s just you and Curio!”

“What is?” Curio asked, asking the question from six different illusions of herself at once.

“AUGH!” Cryo shouted, jumping up into the air with a burst of ice. “Don’t sneak up on me like that! I’ll skewer you with ice!”

Curio resolved herself into one body and tapped the ice on the ground. “Cryo ice. Specifically enchanted to be absolutely harmless.”

Cryo blinked. “Why do ponies always have to remind me of that?”

Curio shrugged. “You act like it isn’t true.” She cocked her head, bringing up a display on her visor and altering a few data points Mattie couldn’t understand. “I think if you’re more aware of your power’s effects, you could use it better! Like, hear me out. Careful manipulation of pain to make an enemy think you can kill them on one side, massive overkill on the other to bring about massive geographic destruction amongst even your allies!”

“...But where’s the flair?” Cryo asked.

“You shoot ice out of your hooves, horn, and speak with endless dramatic gusto. How is that not flair?”

Cryo pointed at Mattie, who was currently twirling on one hoof and cracking a whip in the air with perfect time. Had there been a monster facing her, it would have been dead long ago.

Curio frowned. “I don’t suppose I could convince you that flair isn’t everything?”

“No,” Mattie and Cryo said in unison.

“Figures.” Curio recorded some more information. “Anyway, Cryo, I got a Sweetie manifest from Nausicaa. I think there’s some pretty good candidates on here to add to our team. Since I know you’ve been doing th-”

“THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!” Cryo cheered, tossing Cuiro into the air. “Who’s first who’s first?”

“Uh…” Curio consulted her visor. “Calls himself Uvil.”

“A Silver Bell?” Mattie pursed her lips. “Previous experience tells me that might not be such a good idea, mates.”

Curio flicked to the left with her eyes. “Then… got a Sweetie who calls herself Sriracha.”

“Let’s go find her!” Cryo clapped her hooves. “FROSTBITE—AWAY!”

“...Wait, I thought we agreed Frostbite wasn’t fair since I wasn’t in it?”

“Got anything better?”

“Spectrum?”

“...Let’s keep working on it. Maybe Sriracha will have an idea!” She galloped off.

“She lives in another universe!” Curio called.

“Oh, right. To the dimensional port!” Cryo ran past Curio, dragging her out the doors of the League.

Mattie started counting the seconds down in her mind. Five counts later, Jade appeared in front of her. “Mattie! Nausicaa would like to see you.”

“Of course she does.” Mattie rolled her magazine up and smirked. “Quite unlike her to just give a couple fillies a Sweetie manifest for their personal recruiting.”

“What…?”

“She wanted me alone, mate. Some kind of ploy.” Seeing the odd look on Jade’s face, Mattie quickly shook her head. “Oh, no, nothing nefarious! I hope. She’s just not much a fan of those two. Or me. But those two even less.”

“She is pretty grouchy,” Jade admitted.

“You said it, sister. Can’t even get a blush or flustered stammer out of her! Mare needs to loosen up.” She nodded to Jade, indicating that she was ready. One twist of space later, Mattie was standing across from a pegasus Sweetie with an overly-serious expression.

“Ah, Princess Tightcheeks!”

“Nausicaa,” Nausicaa corrected automatically. “Sit, Agent.”

“Trying to get me to calm down by getting all serious and formal?” Mattie chuckled. “Sheila, I know the difference between your ‘I just want to get this over with’ voice and the ‘there’s actually something serious going on’ voice.”

Nausicaa sighed. “I need an Aware individual who can keep her lips sealed. That leaves out most of the Pinkie Emporium.”

“I mean, put me through the grinder and my lips might say all sorts of crazy things. Why, just last wee-”

“Mattie, you have proven yourself a capable Agent despite your complete lack of respect for rules, boundaries, and common decency.”

“Thank you! On all counts.”

“So let’s cut to the chase and ignore all your faux flirting.”

“Who said it was Fax?”

Nausicaa folded her ears back at the annunciated ‘x’. She chose not to comment on it. “Suzie’s team has found a series of ka-infused dimensional waves coming from a Transformational-Mundane universe. You need to be there to feel ka in case something goes wrong.”

“You can count on me, Princess!” Mattie cracked a whip right in front of Nausicaa’s face.

“Right. Yes.” Nausicaa frowned. “You are to keep this a secret. We don’t want the Flowers getting involved.”

“Clever, getting the rest of my team busy so they wouldn’t notice me being gone.”

Nausicaa looked Mattie in the eyes. “I will never understand why you chose them.”

“Matches my Element.”

“You and I both know you aren—” She stopped when she noticed Mattie was giggling. “Get out of my office.”

“Aw, but we were just getting to the good part~!”

“Out!”

~~~

“It looks normal,” Cinder said, examining the world on the other side of Swip’s dimensional ring. Her observation was correct: for all intents and purposes it was a standard Earth city. Brightly colored cars drove around and honking at each other, humans with skin tones ranging from pale to brown walked on the sidewalks with their heads in their phones, and suburban houses sprawled out in most directions. In the sky, vapor trials could be seen.

“It’s not,” Suzie said, tapping her fingers together.

“Isn’t ‘mundane’ as normal as it gets?” Cinder asked.

“Yes, though a true mundane universe isn’t exactly normal. Most universes at least allow for magic, instead of forcing it out of existence. ‘Normal’ would be a standard Earth you could walk on to and cast fireball. ‘Mundane’ means you could walk there and not cast fireball. What we have here is a Transformational-Mundane universe, which is why the probe sent us back a warning.”

“A warning?” Swip laughed. “That probe sent back a panicked mess of gibberish!”

Cinder frowned. “So, it’s mundane, except… worse?”

Suzie nodded. “Transformational universes are ones that force everything that enters them to adhere to a specific pattern. For instance…” Suzie pulled out a disc-shaped communication device and threw it through the portal. It became a smartphone on the other side.

“Oh.”

“And since magical talking unicorns don’t exist in standard Earths…”

“I see why we’re not marching right in,” Cinder said, shivering. “What’d happen to me?”

Swip’s avatar appeared on a nearby screen in a mad scientist’s outfit. “Analysis suggests you’d either be forced into human form or that of a real-world pony. The former might drive you insane. The latter definitely would. All higher brain functions poof for a moment. Stay like that too long and your soul wouldn’t re-adhere to your body when you returned, turning you into a husk.”

Cinder stared at her in horror.

“Statistics imply that at least some interdimensional travelers who hastily jumped through a portal without checking first ended their travels like this.”

“Th-that’s horrible!”

“Luckily, Transformational universes are rare,” Suzie quickly supplemented. “And Transformational-Mundane ones… this is only the second one we have on record.”

“How can we visit places like this?”

“Carefully. With Reality Anchors. Powerful ones. Or just send humans in.”

“You’re the only human on Swip.”

“Yep…” Suzie stretched her arms. “Looks like I’ll be getting to go solo once help arrives.”

Cinder cocked her head. “Help? Why w—oh right! The ka-weird-thing.”

Suzie nodded. “Need someone Aware to watch stuff while I’m in there.”

“Who wants to bet it’ll be Mattie?” Swip asked.

“I’ll take that!” Cinder chirped. “Five bits!”

“There’s no bet if we agree!”

“So? Who really thinks it won’t be Mattie?”

“Absolutely no one who’s paying attention!” Mattie appeared behind Cinder as if placed right into the room by a shoddy editor, laying a hoof on the young mare’s shoulder. “G’day, Sweeties.”

Suzie nodded. “Feel anything weird?”

“I have two whips infused with pain magic at my sides at all times. I always feel weird stuff.”

“...You know what I mean.”

“No, no problems, you’re free to Enter the Mundane! Go! Shoo!”

Suzie put her hands on her hips. “I need to talk to the crew first, set Celia up with command operations, get a headset attached to y—”

Mattie pulled a headset out of nowhere and slapped it onto Suzie’s head. “There you go, cast off!” She shoved Suzie through the portal. “I’ll keep everything managed out here!”

~~~

Suzie was vaguely aware Mattie called out something falsely encouraging as she fell through the portal. She would have shot some kind of retort back through the portal if she hadn’t felt like a part of her soul had been ripped out of her chest.

There goes U-Catastrophe…

The deep, internal buzzing allowed her to ignore the fact that her head and eyes had become significantly smaller while her limbs had grown slightly. The pastel colors of her hair were now stark white. The universe apparently decided her skin could stay white so long as the rest of her became absolutely albino, which meant pale red eyes and an eternal war against sunburns.

Suzie landed in a bush in the middle of a city park. While the portal a few meters in the air had conveniently remained out of sight and mind of the populace, Suzie crashing into a bush did not. As she shakily tore herself out of the bush, numerous people directed their phones at her and snapped pictures.

Suzie decided she didn’t care. She turned and walked away, attempting to look indifferent, but her first few shaky steps were enough to ruin the desired effect. With a sigh, she put her hand to the headset Mattie had offered her. “Gee, thanks.”

“Looks like radio works just fine,” she heard Mattie’s voice from the other side.

“Have you gotten everything taken care of that I needed to do?”

“Yes!”

“And by that, you mean you had Cinder do it?”

“Absolutely.”

“Right…” Suzie paused, deciding that chiding Mattie was an exercise in futility. Taking the opportunity to look herself over, she found that her uniform still fit perfectly and still contained the Merodi symbol, though now it was made out of a somewhat scratchy material. She could feel her weapon resting on her hip, currently a simple handgun rather than a masterfully crafted plasma weapon. Her hair had lost all of its bounciness and now hung stomach-level in a tangled rat’s nest, providing her face no protection whatsoever from the assaulting rays of the sun.

She could already feel her face burning. That may have just been paranoia, but she wasn’t going to chance it. “Can you get me a hat?”

A small portal opened overtop her head and gave her a red, pointed hat with a feather in it.

“...And this won’t stand out at all.”

“Darling, it’s in fashion.”

“I think some people saw you open the portal and got it on video.”

Mattie chuckled. “Suzie, Captain, we’re not the Federation. This is a standard Earth and we all collectively say ‘balls to the Prime Directive!’ So enjoy your hat and newfound Internet fame.”

Suzie allowed herself to chuckle, tipping her hat to the people staring at her with jaws hanging open. “Does Seren have the location of the disturbance for me?”

“Yep, just a short way into the city. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make way to 347 Abalone Way and locate the source of the dimensional connection disturbance! Neutralize if necessary. This Message will self-delete in 30 seconds.”

“I know what the mission is.”

Mattie chuckled. “Good luck, Agent Belle!”

Suzie gave her a thumbs up. To the people watching, it looked like she was giving her approval to a nearby tree with a particularly loud crow in it. Suzie winked at her audience and took off at a run.

She was delighted to find that her military training had transferred with her. With those first few shaky steps out of the way, she could run like the wind.

None of the bystanders were able to keep up with her.

~~~

Even in mundane universes, there were telltale signs of people who were up to something.

Today, on 347 Abalone Way—which was actually named 347 Lakeview Road in this universe—the telltale sign came in the form of an unlikely duo. Two older people, a man and a woman, walking with each other on the sidewalk and jovially talking like they were old friends.

The oddity here was that the woman was dressed in a prim, modern suit—that of a lawyer or bureaucrat of some sort—while the man looked like a mad scientist who had just walked out of a museum’s back room with his fluffy white hair and wrinkled coat. Suzie knew that, if her Rarity were here, she would applaud the woman’s taste in apparel and chide the man for his slapped-together look.

To be fair, if Suzie had them pegged right, they were certainly dressed for their jobs.

Were Suzie just walking through town on a normal day, she wouldn’t have paid the duo much mind. Odd things cropped up all the time. However, they were the only people that stood out as unique at the current location, which meant they were probably important.

“Brilliant deduction, Holmes,” Mattie chirped in her ear.

Suzie frowned. “Can you confirm they’re what we’re looking for?”

“I can confirm we just spent a fair amount of time establishing them, so unless we’ve got a major red herring they’re what we’re looking for.”

Suzie nodded. “Got it. Continuing, observation only.”

“...Darling, I’m not a soldier. You can drop the… whatever it is you’re doing.”

“Nah.”

“Nice paradox.”

Suzie opted not to continue their banter-filled conversation, focusing instead on following the duo without revealing herself to them. This was laughably easy—neither of them were the slightest bit suspicious of anyone following them. When she strained her ears to hear their conversation, she discovered they weren’t even talking about anything out of the ordinary.

“Were those orchids, do you think?” the man asked.

The woman shook her head. “They were too big and red to be orchids.”

“I should have asked what they were.”

“You always ask a million questions every time we go over there. I’m very surprised you didn’t.”

“Can you blame me? Her research into the quantum fabric of the t-field was absolutely fascinating! Do you remember the…” He noticed a slight grimace forming on her face. “Ah, right, sorry, Elaine.”

“It’s fine,” Elaine said. “Remember, though, not everyone you talk to is Twilight.”

Suzie’s smile widened. In contact with a Twilight. Either this world’s verison, or one from another world. Either way, we’re on to something.

“You must’ve heard something exciting,” Mattie commented.

Suzie nodded, but stayed silent. No use drawing even more attention to herself, even though the hat was still ridiculous and her headset wasn’t exactly small. Come to think of it, talking might make me fit in more, given all the phones I’m seeing…

The duo stopped outside a truly ancient vehicle covered in what was either brown paint of a horrible texture or eons of caked dust. The license plate was falling off, one of the back windows was cracked, and half of one of the back seats were missing.

Elaine fixed the car with an uncertain expression. “...David, are you sure your car can make it back to the office?”

“The old girl has survived everything, going downtown again won’t break it. Weren’t you the one that wanted to save time and effort?”

“I can’t wait for my car to get out of the shop…”

“You and me both. I do like having air conditioning.” David reached into his pocket, eyes going wide. “Uh, well, erm…”

Elaine narrowed her eyes. “...David…”

“I, uh, seem to have forgotten my keys. Back… there.”

Elaine sighed. “Then we’re going back.”

“You sure? We can probably find a way to, uh, call a cab?”

Elaine raised an eyebrow.

“Right, right, that’s silly. I did want to ask her about that flower anyway. Let’s go…” He looked around, scanning the area. Suzie pulled her hat down over her eyes as he glanced over her. Far as she could tell, he didn’t even notice her. “There!”

“...A house under renovation?”

“Well, we can’t do it out in the open! There’s no one there right now.”

Elaine nodded. “Right…”

The two of them set out toward the house in the midst of renovation—slightly on edge, but not enough that they were glancing behind themselves to see if they were being followed. Suzie waited for them to pass her before she turned around and began her pursuit once more.

She poked her head around the corner, finding the two of them alone behind the house, standing next to an empty trash can and a bunch of sealed-up windows. There was a large, rickety ladder propped up against the house that had seen better days.

“Right…” David said, shaking his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a strangely cartoonish gun with a knob on the end that made it look like some sort of knock off movie prop.

That doesn’t belong, Suzie thought.

David held up the gun, pointed it, and then bothered to look and see if they were alone.

Suzie was only peeing around the edge of the corner slightly, and with her pale complexion she could have passed unnoticed. Would have, if she weren’t wearing the absolutely ridiculous hat.

David shouted. In his panic, he pointed the gun right at Suzie. “S-s-show yourself!” David demanded.

Elaine’s jaw dropped. “David, what are you doing!?”

“C-come out!” He demanded, shivering like a chiuaua in Antarctica.

Suzie decided to oblige, putting her hands into the air and stepping out into the open. “H-hi,” she said, faking a stutter. “I… I don’t want any trouble…”

“Wh… I… Good!” David decided. “Now how about you just… go and forget about this?”

Elaine looked like she wanted to scream at him and only wasn’t through an immense feat of willpower.

Suzie took a step forward. “Okay, okay, I’ll go and forget about this…” another step. “Strange gun thing of yours.”

“Y-you’re approach-”

Suzie lunged out, twisting forward with her leg in an attempt to disarm David. It was a move she had pulled thousands of times before on many different enemies, both in and out of the line of duty.

But that had been in a body that wasn’t a standard human model. Despite most of her training transfering over in this new world, her extreme level of flexibility could not. In the middle of her wide kick her glutes screamed in agony as they were overextended, forcing Suzie to tip forward all in hopes that she could keep her hip from dislocating.

The final result was Captain Suzie Belle laying face-first on the ground of an alleyway, scrapes all over her hands and face, with a leg that felt like it was on fire.

David lowered the gun. “What the…?”

“Are you okay?” Elaine asked, concerned.

“Yep…” Suzie muttered, pulling herself off the ground and wiping the blood from her nose. “Not gonna live that down for a while…”

“I got it on video,” Mattie said through the headset.

Suzie didn’t ask how this was possible. Instead, she reached into her uniform and pulled her gun out before David had any idea what was happening. “Drop the fancy gun,” she ordered.

David stared at her weapon, frozen, unable to move.

“Look, I really don’t want to hurt you, but if I have to shoot that thing out of your hand it’ll probably break a few fingers.”

“Just drop it!” Elaine hissed.

David’s shaky hand opened wide, sending the device clattering to the ground.

“There we go…” Suzie said, carefully standing up. Normally she would put the gun away at this point to let the two of them calm down, but she didn’t trust herself to take them unarmed with her sprained hip. “Now… I am Captain Suzie Belle of Merodi Universalis. That won’t mean anything to you, but I hope this will: we’ve detected some heavy dimensional anomalies coming out of this universe and traced the source to here. Currently, my best guess is that your gun there is causing them. Am I too far off the mark?”

Elaine and David stared at her in shock - but not the shock of someone who was overwhelmed, or thought Suzie was crazy. No, to them, the words ‘dimensional anomaly’ and talk of other universes made sense. Suzie nodded to herself in satisfaction, deciding now was the time to put the gun away. “I’ll need to take your gun - which I assume is a dimensional travel device - and run some tests on it to determine if it’s doing what we think it is. Will that be a problem?”

“...Not at all,” David breathed.

Elaine wasn’t as agreeable as her friend. “You can’t just... take it.”

“I’ll give it back. And you’re welcome to come to my ship and observe the tests. And if it turns out your device is damaging to reality somehow, we can give you a better one.” Without waiting for a definite response, Suzie walked over to David’s gun device and hefted it in her hand. “Ready to come back,” she told Mattie.

Swip opened the portal before Mattie could respond.

With a smirk, Suzie tipped up her hat and looked at David and Elaine. “Coming?”

~~~

Elaine’s first instinct had been to demand legal answers. Under whose authority do you operate? What if we refuse? Can we appeal to one of your courts?

That was quickly stomped by a desire for self-preservation. The woman was some kind of interdimensional agent and she had a gun. Elaine was already chiding herself for telling Suzie she couldn’t just take the device.

This feeling was replaced by an insatiable desire to see the inside of what was clearly an interdimensional spaceship. David must have felt the same way, because he moved to follow Suzie before Elaine had even finished processing what she was seeing.

A perfect ring of white energy, suspended in the air, led directly to something out of a science-fiction TV show. White metal, screens everywhere, and a soft electronic hum.

The moment Suzie passed the barrier, she transformed. This was hardly a surprise to Elaine, since she had seen herself and David alter appearances several times when jumping to other worlds. However, what Suzie turned into was a surprise.

A human Sweetie Belle with exceptionally fluffy hair.

“S-Sweetie?” David gawked.

“Ah, good, you know about us!” Suzie said with a smile. “Yes, I am a Sweetie.”

“I am too!” a small unicorn with orange eyes said, waving. She looked almost exactly like the Sweetie Belle David and Elaine had met, albeit slightly older. “Welcome to Swip, a ship of Sweeties for the League of Sweetie Belles!”

Elaine stepped into the ship, trying to think of something clever and poignant to say. David interrupted her.

“Oh my… Elaine! This is amazing! Did you feel it? Did you see it?”

“I… what are you going on about?”

“We didn’t change! Look, we look… like ourselves! No cartoon effects, no vibrant colors… nothing! But we’re standing right next to a unicorn and bright woman on a spaceship!”

“And don’t you forget it!” a spunky voice called from all around. Elaine looked around frantically, trying to find it source.

“That’s just Swip, don’t worry,” Cinder said with a smile that calmed Elaine considerably. “She’s the ship.”

“The ship talks!” David grinned. “Artificial intelligence!”

“You better believe it!” A human avatar appeared on one of the screens, her skin tone bothering Elaine slightly since she couldn’t assign it to any particular ethnicity. “Swip here, artificial genius and multiverse explorer extraordinaire!”

“Are you all Sweeties?” Elaine asked.

“Well, I’m not,” a voice with a distinct Australian accent said. It took Elaine a while to convince herself the voice belonged to the elegant Rarity before her. “Name’s Mattie. I’m the extra baggage, you could say.” She winked.

“This is incredible!” All of David’s fear and caution was completely gone. “Do you all come from different worlds? How do you travel? What kind of metal is this!?”

“I’ll answer all of that in time,” Suzie said. “For now, I want to get your device down to engineering so Seren can take a look at it.”

She led the group down a short hall into the engineering room. Elaine had no idea what to make of the dozens of screens - much less the glowing column in the back of the room, the strange buzzing she felt all over her skin, or the child in front of her with pony ears and a unicorn horn.

“Hi! I’m Seren - short for Serendipity!” The child raised a hand to Elaine. “Nice to meet you!”

On autopilot, Elaine shook the child’s hand while continuing to stare at the screens. “David… do you have any idea?”

He shook his head. “This is beyond me too. I can’t even begin to understand what… this pie chart means, even!”

“That’s my lunch plan!” Seren grinned. “I’m thinking of putting gummy bears in the peanut butter today, but I don’t want to forego the salad…”

“Seren,” Suzie said, handing her David’s device. “Think you can find out if this is the problem?”

“Right away!” Seren held out her hands and surrounded the gun in what Elaine easily recognized was magic.

“What… exactly is the problem?” Elaine asked.

Suzie frowned. “It’s hard to explain, exactly. Something has been sending out ka ripples through the Sea of Infinite Possibility, threatening to destabilize local universal connections and draw… unwanted attention.”

“Ka ripples?” David asked.

“Ah, right, well, you see…”

“This might be the catalyst, but it isn’t the problem,” Seren reported. Elaine noted that Suzie was relieved she didn’t have to explain what ‘ka’ was. “It’s just a shoddy dimensional device.”

“S-shoddy?” David stuttered.

Seren nodded. “To travel between universes you have to poke a hole. A proper device is like a needle - it can go in, pull something through, and then you’ll never even notice. Yours is like taking a cleaver to toilet paper.”

“Is that… bad?”

“Inefficient and might cause some local dimensional anomalies. There’s also a decent chance the portal could collapse while you’re traveling through it.”

Elaine was struck by a rather haunting mental image of being torn in half in the middle of dimensional transit.

“For safety’s sake I recommend using a properly tested device.”

David frowned. “But we don—”

Seren kicked a panel on a nearby wall, opening a cabinet filled with disc-shaped devices of various colors. She tossed a blue one to David. “Instructions are on the back. I can help you hook it up to any universes you already know about later.”

David fumbled with the device but managed not to drop it. “Thanks! I… wow, this is really generous.”

“We take after our sisters,” Cinder offered.

“So, if that’s not the problem…” Suzie turned to Seren. “What is?”

Seren shrugged. “I dunno. Ka-based effects are weird and tend to screw with scanners. Probably the only reason we found them was because their device was interacting with the issue, creating easy-to-detect anomalies. We could try to trace importance levels, but I’m pretty sure you already did that with these two.”

“Not really. I just picked them out because they were the only people that looked unique.”

Elaine furrowed her brow. “Because we looked unique? Why would that matter?”

Suzie frowned. “Well, that’s a bit hard to explain.”

Cinder coughed. “In the multiverse, the people who look interesting tend to be interesting, like—”

“—they were part of a TV show,” David finished.

“Exactly!” Cinder cheered. “Wow, you got that quick!”

“Ka refers to some force of narrative or fiction, doesn’t it?”

Elaine realized where he was going with this. “Oh…”

David had Suzie’s full attention now. “You already know about it.”

David nervously picked at his suit collar. “I… I suppose we do. And I have a pretty good idea what the problem is…”

“What is it?”

“...I think it’s time you met Twilight. ...Again, s-since you probably know several already.”

~~~

Princess Twilight Sparkle looked at the group of people sitting in the castle library. Two were people she recognized and had come to consider friends - David and Elaine. Both of them had faces of nervous excitement, though Twilight could tell Elaine was more worried than anticipatory, and that David was just the opposite.

Her other three guests took up a lot more of Twilight’s processing power. Two Sweeties - a human and a unicorn. The fourth would have been the spitting image of Rarity had she not sounded like a stallion with a throat condition.

“I can hear you judging me,” Mattie commented.

“W-what?” Twilight sputtered, almost dropping her tea. “I, uh…”

“By all means, continue…” Mattie insisted, waggling her eyebrows.

“Just get back to the explanation, please?” Cinder asked, smiling brightly.

“And don’t go into every nuanced detail,” Elaine reminded Twilight. “They just need the general idea.”

“Right.” Twilight tossed her mane back. “The short version? The Earth—David and Elaine’s Earth—is the source of numerous universes, including this one. Every time enough humans get together to bring to life a creative endeavor—cartoons and TV shows usually—a universe is born from that fiction. As long as their Earth keeps making new episodes and content for the show, these universes are completely fine. However, when a show is ended, cancelled, or just fades away…” Twilight bit her lip. “All the life in the universe goes out. Wait, no, that’s not exactly right… The people are still there, but they are just…”

“NPCs,” David offered. “Mindlessly doing whatever it is they were last doing. Nothing changes. The world becomes static.”

“Yeah,” Twilight said, frowning. “We’re… currently working on revitalizing these universes by prompting various entertainment companies to continue the endeavor. But there are so many, and the ethics of the whole situation is confusing, and…” Twilight tapped her hoof on the ground. “Let’s just say ‘it’s complicated’ and explain more when you ask questions.” The Princess forced herself to calm down, looking expectantly to the Sweeties. “So…?”

Suzie frowned. “This… is a messed up situation.”

“It’s like a mini Universe Generator,” Cinder said. “Keeps popping out new universes.”

“The universe itself might be a Prophet,” Seren suggested. “If it has a mind of its own—Transformation universes need to have some kind of enforcing component.”

“This is going to attract the Flowers, isn’t it?” Cinder asked.

“Definitely,” Mattie said. “A universe making new universes and then damning them to autopilot hell for eternity? Sounds like something they’d have a bone to pick with for sure.”

“Flowers…?” Twilight asked, dreading the answer.

“...One of the most powerful civilizations on the multiverse,” Suzie explained. “They are masters of ka—the narrative—and are almost religiously devoted to the One True Plot. They might see a world like this as a ‘glitch’ in the story of the multiverse and try to fix it.”

“That’s good, right?” Twilight knew from the way Suzie was talking that it wasn’t, but she had to hold out hope.

“There’s a chance they have an instant cure for you, yes.” Suzie frowned. “But they might also decide the universe just needs to be destroyed. Or they might forcibly remove the ‘ka-curse’ from the universe and leave you with all the unintended consequences. It’s hard to say, they don’t really think like we do. Their entire lives are absorbed in the story.”

“Will we have to defend ourselves?” Elaine asked.

Suzie frowned. “Merodi Universalis is a massive coalition of well over a hundred worlds and numerous smaller allies. The Flowers could wipe us from existence if they thought we were against their precious Plot. The best we can do is be a minor annoyance and try to keep them from finding worlds like yours.”

“Our entire existence is balanced on the head of a pin.” Twilight laughed nervously. “That’s just great!”

“There are things you can do,” Seren offered. “Only use our dimensional device! That’s quiet. It won’t send ripples out into the multiverse.”

“And what if they find us by accident?”

Silence fell across the room.

Twilight sighed. “What we need is a solution. Something that will protect us and stop this… ‘ka curse’ of ours. Do you know of anything that could do that?”

Seren frowned. “...The easiest solution would be to evacuate everyone in the central Earth and destroy it so the other universes would go free.”

“Not possible,” Suzie interrupted before Elaine could start shouting. “Evacuating a universe takes time and resources that will be impossible to keep out of the Flowers’ field of view.”

“I’m not sure what we can do, then. A quarantine maybe? But that might cut off the creative energy to the living universes, turning them into NPC universes too.”

Suzie grimaced. “I don’t know if we can do anything safely.”

“But… we have to do something!” Cinder insisted.

“Hide all the universes,” Mattie said, taking a few steps forward. “Take every universe made by this Earth and seal it all up in one big ball. Make it a true Secluded Multiverse Cluster, right?”

“We… can’t make a quarantine that big,” Suzie said.

Silence fell over the room.

“Can we really do anything?” Cinder asked, voice wavering.

~~~

Sriracha “Sweetie” Bell lived on her family’s pepper farm in Equis Mireoni. She was a simple farmer for the most part, growing every kind of pepper under the sun—and ever since Merodi Universalis had made contact with her universe, exotic peppers from far beyond the miniscule sun of her world. She was well known in her universe for growing the most flavorful and spiciest peppers imaginable. Her name may have been Sweetie Bell, and her talent was understandably sweet peppers, but she loved the thrill of the spice so much more.

So, naturally, she had taken the name Sriracha. It just made sense.

She was a small but muscular middle-aged mare with a bright pink pepper on her flanks. Her mane and tail were short, dirty, and tangled in all manner of places —though usually her mane was at least covered by a pale pink sunhat she wore in hot weather.

She was also an earth pony.

At the moment, she was tending to some imported peppers that literally burst into flames every few seconds. They were round peppers of a creamy, blackish-purple color unless they were on fire, in which case they were bright green. There was a small amount of danger in tending to these due not only to the flames, but also the absurd levels of capsaicin within their skin. If she cut one open without the proper cooking utensils the juices would get on her skin and burn. She knew from experience that the local healers really weren’t sure what to do when somepony was burned by spice heat rather than basic fire.

Even as a farmer, she lived life on the edge. That was how she liked it. It was about as exciting of a life as an earth pony with her talents could have.

Carefully, she pushed a hoof toward one of the black peppers that had just lit on fire a moment before. It would take a few minutes for it to light up again, she should be safe for the nest little bi—

“Hi!”

Sriracha reacted out of instinct—slapping the pepper off it’s stalk and toward the source of the invading noise. A young Sweetie yelped in surprise, raising a wall of ice between herself and the incoming pepper. Ice and spice collided, prompting a small burst of green fire to bore a crater into the chilled pillar.

The Sweetie poked her head out from the side of the ice.

“Oh my Celestia, I’m sorry!” Sriracha blurted, scrambling over to her previous target. “I didn’t mean to attack, I just got carried away, a…”

“I like you already,” the Sweetie said, grinning.

“She does seem to meet the requirements,” another Sweetie said, this one with a futuristic green visor over her eyes.

“...Requirements?” Sriracha asked, cocking her head.

The first Sweetie extended a hoof. “Hi! I’m Cryo, member of the Sweetie Team Frostfire!”

“...name pending…” the other Sweetie added.

“Me and my friend here, Curio, are here to recruit you!”

Sriracha stared at the two fillies. “R-r-recruit me?”

“Yeah! We’ll go on adventures, explore new worlds, and show the other Sweeties that we are the best!”

Curio coughed. “There’ll also be data gathering, diplomacy, puzzle solving…”

“ACTION!”

“...And peace.”

Sriracha looked back and forth between the two of them. “You. Want me. To go on adventures with you.”

The two nodded expectantly.

She pulled the two of them up into a tight hug. “Oh yes oh yes thank you thank you! I’ve always wanted to go on a League expedition but the team I tried to get together lost interest and then I kinda thought that…” Her grin vanished. “...That I wasn’t cut out for it, anyway.”

Curio pulled herself out of the hug, scratching her skin where she had touched Sriracha. “Not cut out?”

“I am just an earth pony farmer. Not really… adventuring material. Probably for the best that I’m here, doing what I’m good at…”

“Are you kidding?” Cryo gawked. “You shot that pepper at me like a gun!”

“You are covered in capsaicin,” Curio added. “It itches just to touch you.”

“Oh! Sorr-”

“That’s a good thing!” Curio interrupted. “Think of how useful it could be! You have a tolerance for pain, can put people on edge with your peppers, and probably have a stomach of steel!”

Cryo gestured at the flaming peppers. “Tell me you couldn’t turn those into weapons. One thwack right into the eye and the enemy is in agony.”

“Delicious agony!”

“Yes. Delicious agony.”

“O-O-...” Sriracha shook her head and took in a deep breath. “Okay. I accept.” She tried to keep a straight, dignified face. She quickly lost it and started bouncing all around in a way vaguely reminiscent of certain happy Twilight Sparkles. “Oh yes oh yes oh yes I get to go on adventures—well I suppose I’ll have to talk to my husband—who am I kidding he knows I’ll love this, and he wants me to take a vacation anyway! I have nothing to worry about! You two are the best!” She picked up one of her fireproof baskets and filled it with flaming peppers. “Come on, I’m already getting some ideas on how we can use peppers to fight the baddies!” Giggling to herself like a filly much younger than the two she was talking to, she pranced on to other pepper pastures, leaving the two alone for a moment.

“Huh.” Curio looked at Nausicaa’s list. “Looks like we won’t be needing this.”

“Bingo…” Cryo grinned. “Cinder, meet Sriracha… a kind of heat you won’t be able to deal with!”

“I think they’ll get along pretty well.”

“N-no! She’s my trump card! Cinder won’t know what to expect!”

Curio rolled her eyes, trotting after Sriracha.

“Wait for me!”

~~~

A white portal opened up over a sleepy town in Oregon, USA. At first, everything appeared like a normal day near the end of summer. Trees rustled, people walked about with smiles on their faces, and the birds chirped.

It was the birds that first told Cinder something was wrong.

They were chirping with the exact same sound. No alterations, no variations, not even any timing differences. Nothing but the same chi-ir-irp! Followed by a few seconds of silence and then chi-ir-irp!

Cinder’s moment of wonder at having been transformed into a tall, graceful unicorn appropriate for the universe they were in was gone. Now she dreaded what she might find if she looked closer at the world they were in.

“...Welcome to Gravity Falls,” David said with a grimace. “An excellent show with two seasons. You could argue that the show needed to be short to be as powerful as it was. But now… all it’s left behind is this.”

He lead Cinder and Suzie into the town of Gravity Falls itself. Everything looked normal. A wide variety of diverse and unique individuals walking around, smiling… doing whatever they normally did.

Not one of them cared that a unicorn had just walked into town. No one even registered their presence. A teenager in a black hoodie laughed at a joke some girl typing on her phone made. He laughed at the same joke fifteen seconds later. A man with a red beard and massive muscles walked around the local pub and punched a lamppost every time he passed it. Birds left and arrived at the same power line over and over.

The sun never finished setting.

“Have you seen this before?” Cinder asked Suzie.

Suzie shook her head. “I… no. The closest is a time loop, but this is… different.”

“It’s terrible,” David sighed. “And it’s been difficult to revive this universe. So many people who worked on the show believe it needed to end where it did. There’s an active push to keep it from turning into something less than what it was. So it’s still… stuck.”

“Surely you could explain?” Cinder asked.

“We’re considering it. But giving them the power of knowing they can define a universe?” David shuddered. “Twilight and Elaine don’t like that.”

Cinder gulped. “Is there… anything else here?”

“Yeah.” David led them out of town, down a road that led into the forest. As they walked down the road, they saw a bus pass. They continued walking, and the same bus passed them again. And again. And again.

“The heroes of the story are on that bus,” David said, eventually. “Leaving Gravity Falls to return to their lives. Except the show doesn’t exist outside of Gravity Falls, so they leave… but they can’t. They’re always stuck remembering the very end of their journey.” He put his hands in his pockets. “I’ve gotten on the bus before. They’re a little more aware than most other NPCs. I’ve… gotten them to think something was wrong before. But it always leaves their eyes.” He put a hand to his face, wiping away a few tears. “...I just want to give these kids a chance to grow up…”

Cinder nodded. “Right. We-”

Hello, bright eyes…

Cinder looked behind herself, into the forest. “...Hello?”

Save the world, bright eyes…

“Who are you talking too?” Suzie asked.

Make the deal, bright eyes…

“Some voice in my head… coming from the forest?” Cinder said, furrowing her brow.

“Oh. That’s Bill Cipher,” David explained. “The villain. He’s… trapped in stone or dying or something in the forest? Twilight sensed him last time she was here.”

Hello, bright eyes…

“Just ignore him. He’s as stuck as the rest.”

Cinder furrowed her brow. “Sure…”

Help them, bright eyes…

Cinder saw the bus pass by again. A knot formed in the bottom of her stomach. “Suzie… we have to do something.”

Suzie sighed. “I…”

“Suzie, we have to. I don’t care what it is or what rules we have to break or what risks we have to take. We need to help these people. They… they don’t even get to die! They just… exist.”

“I don’t think Merodi Universalis can solve this problem,” Suzie said.

“Then… I don’t know, get the Fay involved or... or… I don’t know! Surely there’s an ally or something? Some secret magic device or tool? This is the multiverse! We have options!”

“Options…” Suzie nodded to herself slowly. “I… I might have an idea. But I’ll have to call in a favor.”

“Do it.”

Suzie took out her phone. “...Hey, Corona? It’s Suzie. You’re still in Nanoha’s good graces, right? Good. We might need a little favor from the TSAB.”

~~~

One moment, Suzie was discussing dimensional connection theory with Twilight.

The next, a human woman with orange hair wearing what would best be described as a battle-dress appeared, holding a magical staff with a red magitech orb at the head.

Suzie gawked. “N-nanoha?”

The woman smiled. “Captain Suzie, I presume?”

Suzie immediately bowed. “I didn’t think this would warrant your personal attention…”

“You’re talking about doing something under the Flowers’ noses,” Nanoha said with a kind, motherly voice that told of ancient wisdom and deep understanding. “I want to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“If this is too mu-”

Nanoha shook her head, a tired but pitying smile on her face. “I’m here to help. The plight of these universes truly is a tragedy. If I can do anything, I will.”

“...Can you?” Twilight asked.

“That depends. Raising Heart!”

The magitech crystal in her scepter flashed. “Stand by ready!”

“Run complex scans on the local cluster. Determine the direct nature of the ‘NPC’ universes’ condition. Suggest courses of action.”

“Yes, master! Working…”

“...I wish we had those,” Suzie commented.

“Corona has a lesser one,” Nanoha reminded her. “...Raising Heart is among the most advanced devices in the Time Space Administration Bureau, however. You shouldn’t be jealous of it’s features.”

“Time Space Administration Bureau?” Twilight asked. “Are you some kind of multiversal law enforcement?”

Nanoha smiled warmly. “Not really. We’re just a group of people who got lucky with dimensional technology and grew to be the largest human society in the multiverse.”

“Nanoha here did most of the work,” Suzie added.

“Depending on which history books you read.” Nanoha closed her eyes. “...It is always a group effort, no matter which society you’re talking about. No one rises to power alone.”

There was a poignant silence.

Raising Heart beeped. “Scan complete. Transmitting data.”

Nanoha’s body twitched for a moment as she was flooded with information. At first, she smiled - then she frowned.

Twilight swallowed hard. “...What’s the diagnosis?”

“I know the solution. But you’re not going to like it.” Nanoha sat down in one of Twilight’s chairs and folded her arms. “The NPC universes are currently being fed directly by the connection to the central Earth. If we cut that connection and artificially wire more connections to the outside multiverse, they would recover.”

“We theorized that, but couldn’t say for sure,” Twilight said. “...But Suzie said doing that would draw too much attention?”

“Not if you do it carefully,” Nanoha said. “Swip runs on a deprecated version of the dimensional drives we use in our ships—one that creates a pocket universe that automatically tunnels connections to every nearby universe. It’s how they found you. Your multiverse cluster is very secluded and with minimal connections—they had to make new ones to get in here and find the source of the ripples.”

“And you can use these drives…?”

“Put them in the right places and they can network connections together quite easily. We can connect the NPC universes to universes like your own that have been revitalized, allowing your cluster to heal itself.”

“Make a ball of connected universes!” Twilight clapped her hooves. “That’s brilliant! A round spider’s web. We don’t connect to universes outside so we don’t draw any attention, and all the NPC universes will be fixed! Why didn’t we think of this?”

“It requires precision we don’t have,” Suzie commented. “Swip’s drive is considered state-of-the-art in Merodi Universalis. It’s… not fine enough to wire connections like this. It’d strain her to even make a few permanent connections with specific goals in mind.”

“Well, we have Nanoha now! And she ca-” Twilight stopped. “...There’s a catch. I remember, you didn’t like another part of the plan.”

Nanoha nodded sagely. “In order to keep the NPC universes active and to prevent the creation of new universes, we have to completely quarantine the central Earth. No dimensional travel in or out, for any leakage could cause universes to return to their NPC state or create a new universe that’ll just become dead later. Everything in the Earth would have to stay in the Earth forevermore.”

“...David and Elaine…” Twilight realized. “It’d be… goodbye.”

“Yes. I am sorry.”

Suzie frowned. “Nanoha, forgive me if this is overstepping, but… don’t you have the capacity to rewrite universal physics? Can’t you just… remove the ka curse?”

“Absolutely. But that would require using technology akin to that of the Flowers. They will notice that. And even if we have the issue fixed before they arrive… I may be the face of the TSAB, but I cannot create a political blunder of that magnitude. We are the Flowers’ allies in the multiverse, if I were to interfere with their One True Plot for something seen as ‘petty and insignificant’ in the scale of the multiverse…?” Nanoha shook her head. “I am sorry, I cannot order that level of machination.”

Twilight had her ears pressed into the back of her head. “So… there’s no hope that there’s another way out?”

“There’s hope,” Nanoha said. “Merodi Universalis is actively researching universe alteration spells. One day, they will figure out the technology. And since they make no secret of their distaste of the Flowers’ methods, taking an action to free you without consulting the Flowers would not be surprising or even a political blunder. It would just be more of the same.” Nanoha put her hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “I will encourage Corona to focus her research. It will take time—perhaps a long, long time—but it will happen.”

Twilight nodded. “I’ll tell Pinkie to prepare a… ‘goodbye for now’ party.”

“I’ll give you as much time as you need.”

“Yeah… Time…” Twilight started chuckling.

Suzie cocked her head. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing, just how… all our efforts to restart shows were kinda pointless, in the end.”

Nanoha lowered herself to her knees so she was eye level with Twilight. “It was not for nothing. If you had not revitalized worlds like your own, where would the energy to restore the NPC universes come from?”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Right…”

“You’ve given your cluster enough energy to sustain itself. To break free with new life. I’m just here to do the final pruning. You planted the seeds.” She pulled Twilight into a hug. “Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t,” Twilight promised, tears in her eyes.

Suzie stared at the two awkwardly. This was generally not how one thought a meeting the most influential human in existence would go.

~~~

“...Am I allowed to call something alarmingly festive?” Elaine asked, gesturing at the banner Pinkie Pie had made that said ‘GOODBYE FOR NOW!!! ;P’.

David shook his head. “Not when Pinkie Pie’s involved.”

“I should just label everything she does ‘alarmingly festive’.” Elaine took a drink of her punch and stretched her arms.

The two of them watched, for a moment, their new friends dance, chat, and laugh in the middle of Twilight’s Castle. There were Twilight and her friends, of course, but they were far from the only universe they had helped. There was that Star Butterfly girl, Rocky and Bullwinkle, two sets of duck siblings from DuckTales, and many, many others.

Most of them would still be able to know each other after the quarantine. After all, it was only Earth that was getting sealed off. The rest would be part of the large sphere-like mesh of universes there to pour new life into all the NPC worlds.

The connections in that sphere were already made. Twilight and the rest of the revitalized worlds had dimensional devices keyed to explore worlds in the sphere to keep track of all the NPC worlds as they grew back into their own - with no control from the Central Earth.

Twilight, Star, Aladdin, Rocky… they would all still know each other.

David and Elaine would have to go home, knowing the great secret that their world was probably Flower food if anyone ever looked at it too closely.

“We got to do what kids and adults everywhere dream about,” Elaine said, suddenly.

David smirked. “I know. I made a machine to visit the worlds of my dreams.”

Elaine matched his expression. “You got what you wanted.”

“I got so much more than I wanted. If I’m being honest, I just thought it would be miraculous to see these places. Now? I have friends.” He frowned. “We’re getting old, Elaine…”

“They’ll figure it out soon.”

“How can you know?”

“Because we’re as much of a story as they are.” Elaine gestured at the party. “What kind of ending would it be if we were just… forgotten?”

“A tragedy?”

Elaine smirked and shook her head. “This isn’t that kind of story.”

“How can you tell?”

“I talked to a little white unicorn with bright orange eyes.”

David let out a hearty laugh. “You’re getting overly dramatic.”

“Might as well put on a show, right?”

“I gues-”

“DID SOMEONE SAY SHOW!?” Pinkie shouted at the top of her lungs. “Oh boy! I guess it’s time to bring out the guests of honor!”

Elaine and David blinked, shocked by her sudden presence.

“Ladies, gentlemen, ponies, humans, meese, squirrels, ducks, aliens, and strange fluffy things… May I introduce to you the heroes of the multiverse! Elaine and David!” She clapped her hooves excitedly, triggering several miniature fireworks to go off in the main hall. The entire crowd of characters-turned-real erupted in their own applause, calling out with cheers, encouragement, and thanks. A banner unfurled beneath the ‘GOODBYE FOR NOW!’ message.

‘THANKS FOR SAVING US!’

Elaine put a hand to her mouth, trying to keep herself from crying. When the small crowd ran up to her to give final goodbyes, she couldn't help herself. She shook hands with some, hugged others, and laughed about an old joke with those who felt the need to say something witty. David did much the same on his end, though occasionally he’d run into someone who wanted to rant about science for a few minutes.

Eventually, though, Twilight came up to them—having waited until the last moment to give her farewell.

“I cannot express how much I and our wor—” The words caught in Twilight’s throat. “I… You know what, ditch the whole ‘political princess’ speech.” She pulled them both into a hug with her long, luscious wings. “I’m so glad I got to know you two. I’ve never known anypony quite like either of you. So full of color and life, and yet it hides beneath the surface. So heroic and true to yourselves, but no one would know it unless they knew you. So… I don’t even know.” She released them from the hug. “This is only goodbye for now. But even so… I still owe you everything. Not just my life and my world, but…” She turned around and looked at the crowd. “You gave all of us each other. You taught me about friendships I would never have even considered before. You’ve opened my eyes. Our eyes. There’s so much out there that our single worlds ignore… but together, we have so much more than any world can offer. Thank you.”

Elaine wanted to say ‘you’re welcome’. But she couldn’t. All she could do was pull Twilight into another hug and laugh.

~~~

When Mattie arrived back in the League of Sweetie Belles proper, her phone rang. For a second, there was a text message.

Quarantine completed. No issues. Tell no one. -O

The screen on her phone flashed purple for a moment and the message was deleted.

“Crafty Olivia…” Mattie chuckled, pocketing her phone.

“Hey! Master! Master!”

Mattie grinned. “Ah, Cryo, what do you have for me?”

“Eat this!” Cryo shoved a small green pepper into Mattie’s face.

Instantly, her mouth exploded in agony as the spice within tore at her tongue’s flesh. The shock of the flavor was so much she fell back, mouth hanging open in agonizing bliss. “Aaaaaaah…” She allowed her head to roll back onto the ground.

“Oh my Celestia, are you okay!?”

Mattie lazily glanced at the earth pony Sweetie in front of her. “Ah… the new girl, I take it.”

“Her name’s Sriracha!” Cryo announced. “She has amazing spicy peppers!”

Slowly, Mattie stood up. “...Are you telling me… you found a pony… who can grow endless agonizingly painful peppers for my palette?”

“Yep!”

Mattie grabbed Sriracha’s head with her hooves. “I love you already. Got anything that feels like a nail getting rammed down my gullet?”

“Oh! You’re one of those who are in it for the pain!” Sriracha let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry, didn’t realize.”

Curio raised an eyebrow. “Wait. You’re cool with that?”

“I grow the most exotic and painful peppers imaginable. I get a decent amount of customers like this. Just another way of enjoying the life we have. I guess I have to be a bit of a masochist myself, though I’m more in it for the flavor than the hours spent running my mouth under the faucet. Swimming in ice cream works the best, by the way.”

“Pah. Cooling down your mouth ruins the fun!” Mattie laughed.

“Then maybe you’ll like my pepper ice cream, designed to get hotter when all other spices get colder!”

“Why do you have to be so delightful?” Mattie asked.

“I don’t know!”

“That’s it, tonight, you are cooking us a pepper extravaganza. Time to show these fillies what real pain is!”

Sriracha tapped her hooves on the ground rapidly. “Ooooh, I already love this team!”

“Synergy seems to be working,” Curio admitted.

“SUCCESS!” Cryo hoof-pumped.

“Yes! Success!” Mattie started laughing—and then, slowly, a cold feeling washed over her.

Sriracha frowned. “Is something wrong?”

“Not here,” Mattie said. “Somewhere else…” She frowned. “Sometimes, I hate being vaguely Aware…”

~~~

In an Oregon Forest, a bus drove away from a sleepy little town known as Gravity Falls. The birds chirped normally, the deer of the forest galloped, and on the bus a small teenage boy looked at a note from all the friends he and his sister had left behind in the town.

He smiled.

“Nobody is going to believe us when we get home,” his sister giggled. “What’s our cover story, Dipper?”

“Dunno,” Dipper said, stretching his arms and leaning back in the seat. “Let’s not worry about that until we actually get more than halfway home.”

“But we should have a plan! We’d be all like spies an-”

A purple unicorn with wings appeared in front of them with a flash of purple.

“AUGH!” the twins shouted, backing up.

Princess Twilight Sparkle smiled warmly. “Looks like you two are finally back in it.” She dropped a small disc-shaped device on the floor. “Whenever you’re ready for a bit more adventure.” With a flash of purple, she was gone.

“...Mabel?”

“Yes, Dipper?”

“I don’t think the adventure’s ever over.”

The two of them broke out into grins and started celebrating.

Behind them, far from their sounds of celebration and the magic of an otherworldly unicorn, there was a statue. This statue was triangle shaped and had a single eye in its center, an outstretched hand reaching for something unknown.

The statue was empty.

Author's Notes:

Intellectual Property is a short, meta, funny, and fascinating story that muses on the end of creative endeavors and fictional worlds, so it fits here perfectly. AugieDog wrote this fine piece of work and was a big part of the making of this chapter. Also, unrelated, he was responsible for getting us on EQD, so WOO-HOO!

Next time on LSB:
Friendship is Optimal (Let's tap into one of the more popular AUs... with a twist!)

((LSB Status Post.))

NOTE: The League Personnel Files have moved to my blog so I don't have to keep managing the chapter order! Including a nice picture of Celia:

The artist for that, LizardTales, is currently going through some really rough patches in thier life, having to get money quickly to pay for rent and food. Go off and commission if you feel like helping!

Crown, Coalition, Computer (Friendship is Optimal)

“Taaaake that!” Celia shouted, twisting the controller upside-down in her magic.

“Got em!” Cinder cheered, pressing the buttons on her controller just as frantically.

The two of them were sitting on the couch, playing a team-based first-person-shooter on Swip’s screens. They were on the red side and their teamwork was utterly destroying the people on the blue.

“Grenade!” Celia called.

“On it!” Cinder pressed a button, tossing a grenade over Celia’s character. A massive blue soldier erupted from the ground, winding up his giant gun. The grenade landed right on his face and exploded, scoring a direct kill.

Celia grinned. “Gotcha.”

“We just have to push for a few more seconds,” Cinder said, pressing buttons rapidly. “Come on…”

And then both of them were dead at the same time.

Killed by Lunar Representative

“...Dammit, we’re in a game with Rep Luna.”

“Huh?” Cinder asked.

“The Representative for Equis Vitis. She - and many other Lunas - are avid gamers. She in particular is known for letting her opponents think they’re winning and then proceeding to utterly destroy them.”

“Huh. How do you know this?”

“Political connections.” Celia smirked. “And Blink’s whining.”

Blink appeared on the couch between them, controller in hand. “Challenge her to a rematch the moment you can. I will tear her to shreds…”

DEFEAT appeared on the screen.

Followed quickly by Lunar Representative has left the match.

Blink threw her controller to the ground and stormed off with an “UGH!”

“Rivalry?” Cinder asked.

“Very one sided,” Celia clarified. “Rep Luna’s rivals are other Lunas - or that one Celixel. Blink never even shows up on her radar.”

“I resent that!” Blink called from behind them.

Cinder giggled, turning her attention back to the game. Her smile faltered when she saw the username that replaced Lunar Representative.

Platinum Crown.

“...I wonder what the Crown Princess is doing now,” Cinder said. “Or what she was doing while we were at the bottom of the ocean…”

“Who has any idea?” Celia shrugged. “She does her own thing.”

~~~

Shortly after the Silvertongue Incident…

The Crown Princess slowly journeyed back to her… she couldn't exactly call it home, but it was where her friends were. It was a place she could go.

There were few habitable worlds in this area near the edge of the Equis Cluster, so under normal circumstances a single traveler with no ship would have difficulty getting anywhere. But she knew the way. It was mindless - a series of four worlds populated by nothing more than animals.

Four steps, new portal, four steps, new portal… until she arrived in a version of Ponyville. A few ponies were surprised to see her, waving at her happily nonetheless.

She hadn’t been back to these worlds in… a few weeks? A month? She didn’t know anymore. There was surely time dilation involved on their end as much as hers. Maybe she’d been gone all of an hour or a year from their perspective.

From hers, the Crown Princess had been gone for thousands of years. Built up a cosmic empire, proceeded to lose the empire, and then decided it was a good idea to take her anger out on the rest of the universe in a misguided attempt at wide-scale piracy. That had gone well.

Now she was back here. With people she’d manipulated to believe something even she wasn’t sure she believed anymore. What did she believe?

“Crown Princess?”

The Crown Princess looked down to see a younger version of herself looking at her - Sweetie Belle. The elder mare smiled, the gems in her crown sparkling with warmth. “Hello, little one. How long have I been gone?”

“A month, I think?” Sweetie smiled. “Erin and Twilight will be so glad to see you! So much has happened while you’ve been gone!”

The Crown Princess paused - did she really want to see them, so soon? They were her friends, yes, but friends she’d used. Friends that didn’t know she’d used them. And it was so long ago… could she really remember their faces? They hadn’t known each other that well to begin with.

“Come on, the portal’s right over here!”

Apparently they have a permanent portal in Ponyville now, the Crown Princess thought idly. To her surprise, it wasn’t an active portal, but rather a blue platform made of meshed crystal and metal. Sweetie stepped onto it and tapped her hoof. “Uh, hey! Take us to the Guilds!”

The Guilds? That was new.

“Routing from Leyline to Guild Central…”

“Leyline?” the Crown Princess asked.

“Oh, yeah! We’ve started naming the universes!” Sweetie beamed as the pad flashed, creating a portal above them and slowly lowering it, transitioning them from one universe to another. “Our world was named Leyline since it’s got the most magic and stuff. Earth’s universe was Laniakea for… some reason. And this is Guild Central, neutral territory!”

Guild Central wasn’t much to look at. The dimensional portal pad sat in the middle of seemingly endless grassy fields dotted only by the occasional building, all of which were recent constructions. There was mixed human and pony constructions, though the Crown Princess saw a few advanced technologies and metal alloys she hadn’t expected her friends to synthesize very quickly. There was a building of Gem construction with an inverted heart over the door. The Crown Princess had a pretty good idea which of her ‘recruits’ had built that, though that didn’t explain all the technology. Furthermore, there was a strange stone-based construction she didn’t recognize that looked a bit like a medieval castle, but lopsided with exaggerated features and colors.

“Huh…”

“Come on!” Sweetie said, waving. “Erin will be at the Explorer’s Guild!”

The Explorer’s Guild was a larger building at the end of a winding cobblestone road. It looked more like a medieval tavern than a professional establishment, though the official banners draped over the front balcony helped offset the impression somewhat. The construction was largely composed of wood and other simple materials, though a handful of metallic devices scattered around indicated it wasn’t ignoring the benefits of higher technology. Lots of rowdy shouts and cheers could be heard from inside the main doors.

The Crown Princess was uncertain of the validity of this establishment, but she followed Sweetie in anyway. The interior both did and didn’t look like how she expected. On one hoof, it was definitely a tavern - ponies and humans ate around tables, laughing and cheering. But on the other hoof, there were several computer screens set up in the back like a billboard, showing the faces of various individuals with little symbols that represented nationality and what the Crown Princess could only assume was ‘universe of origin’.

An older human with matted hair wore a simple red and black uniform. He currently sat behind what looked like the bar, though he clearly had no intention of serving any drinks. His face was serious - all business, no nonsense. His patience must have been cosmic in scope since he wasn’t batting an eye at the rowdy festivities.

“Crown Princess…?” he said, seeming to recognize her. “It is an honor.”

“Uh… yes.” She smiled weakly. “We’re looking for Erin? Erin Olsen?”

“Yes, yes, of course… she should be returning from her outing shortly.”

“Outing…?”

She never got an answer to her one-word inquiry, for at that moment Erin walked in the doors of the Explorer’s Guild, a nervous smile on her face. She was still the small alicorn the Crown Princess remembered, but she was wearing the strangest clothes. Bronze fabric, mostly skin-tight, clearly heavy duty, and with a slot for a helmet at the top to boot. A space suit, and an advanced one at that.

Her companions were even stranger. One was a filly inside what appeared to be a yellow radiation suit, and the other was a human with pale skin and red hair wearing a suit of similar make to Erin’s own.

Erin gasped when she saw the Crown Princess. “CP!”

“CP?” The Crown Princess felt the abbreviated letters come out of her mouth. She wasn't sure how she felt about them.

“Oh, well, it just got a little difficult to say ‘the Crown Princess’ every time Twilight or I wanted to talk about you, so we shortened it.” She frowned. “Y-you don’t mind, do you?”

“I’ll have to think on that,” the Crown Princess said. “So, uh… tell me, what has happened while I was gone? What is this place?”

“Oh! That’s right, you wouldn't know! Well, I’ll try to keep this short! After you left the tech you gave us let us explore universes better. We’ve found three new worlds with friends! Puppysmiles here is from the war-torn world of Resurgence...”

“Hi! I’m Puppysmiles!” The yellow-suited filly said, waving her hoof excitedly.

“And Sofia comes from Honeyhex!” Erin pointed at the human.

Sofia coughed. “I am Recruitador Sofia, thank you, explorer of España in the name of Honeyhex, leader of this team of the Explorer’s Guild.” She bowed to the Crown Princess. “I have heard so much of you, legendary Princess.”

The Crown Princess smiled weakly. “Yeah…”

“And we’ve also made friends with some humans in spaceships!” Erin tapped her hooves on the ground happily. “They call their universe Mirai and Captain Johnson over there is one of theirs!”

The man behind the counter nodded respectfully in Erin’s direction but said nothing.

“And you’re already meeting together in this… Guild place?” the Crown Princess asked.

Erin nodded. “Yep! We took what you said to heart. When we made friends we set out boundaries quickly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a treaty get created and signed so quickly in my life!”

Sofia raised an eyebrow. “You are not a politician, yes? How many treaties have you seen?”

Erin stumbled over this a bit. “Well, uh, not all that many, yeah. But I know they always take a long time! But this was hammered out in, what, a week? Well, just the provisional agreement… the whole trade thing is kind of a mess still a… and I’m boring myself.” Erin rubbed the back of her head.

The Crown Princess cocked her head. “A provisional agreement for what?”

Erin pointed at one of the screens. “You’ll like this.”

The Crown Princess turned - and her jaw dropped. The Screen showed a bright music note similar to her cutie mark encased in a brilliant crystal. Beneath it were the words Capra Coalition.

It was exactly what she had hoped the universes she contacted would do. Create a group for her she could use to combat Merodi Universalis.

Was it what she wanted now?

“...Are you okay, CP?” Puppysmiles asked.

The Crown Princess let out a bitter chuckle. “I don’t know. I just got out of a… multiple thousands of years of insanity, stuck in a time nexus. I… I’m not sure this is what I wanted anymore.” She frowned. “I may have gone a bit far.”

“What do you mean?” Erin asked.

“I pushed you a bit too hard, maybe,” the Crown Princess admitted. “I stand by… most of what I said. But I didn’t have to be so forceful about it. So… determined.” She looked up at her crown, the one that had demanded she REBUILD THE CAPRIC EMPIRE so, so many times. The call was silent, now. And with it was her fire to build and control this place. “But maybe this is a good thing.”

“Hmm?”

“You’re forging your own path, now. One that’s yours, not mine. I shouldn’t be here trying to lead it. It’d make you too much like them.” With a sad smile, she turned to look Erin in the eyes. “Take good care of these people. I don’t need to be here for it.” She started to walk away.

“Wh - hey!” Erin waved her hooves. “Get back here!”

The Crown Princess stopped. “What?”

“CP, you… You just got back! And you’re leaving already?”

“Well…” Last time I got involved in this I destroyed everything. “Yes?”

Erin huffed. “No. You’re staying here. Even if you don’t want to lead anymore - which is fine - you still have friends. Twilight’s been looking forward to seeing you again, and I have so much to show you! Mirai has the best space scenes! And… and… you can join us! The Explorer’s Guild! ...That’s okay, right?”

Sofia nodded. “It would be an honor to work with a Princess.”

Erin turned to the Crown Princess, grinning. “Just… stick around, okay?”

Frowning, the Crown Princess looked her up and down. “How exactly does this Explorer’s Guild work?”

Erin coughed. “It’s… an organization of like-minded people not tied to any one universe - like all the Guilds - that explores new worlds. People from every universe are welcome to join, and all the information from Guild expeditions is shared with everyone! We see a lot of dead worlds around here, but we also see some pretty crazy stuff… I was there when we found Resurgence, rescued Puppysmiles right out of that place! It was great!” She pulled Puppysmiles close and hugged the filly. “There’s so much out there… just, stick around, okay, CP?”

She looked from Erin, to the screens, to Puppysmiles and Sofia. Do I have to be in charge? Can I just be… a little explorer? Maybe. I planted the seed. Maybe I can keep myself around to watch it grow wherever it wants…

“All right,” she said. “I’ll give it a try at least.”

Erin grinned. “All right! You won’t regret this!”

“And something else.”

“Hmm?”

“...Call me CP. I’ve been through a lot, and it’s enough to say I’m a different pony now. Might as well adapt the name officially, hmm?”

“Crown Princess is a mouthful,” Puppysmiles pointed out.

CP let out a genuine laugh.

Maybe she could do good here.

~~~

CP decided she liked exploring with others. She didn’t know what part of her had thought traveling with friends was a bad idea, but she was glad it was gone now. When her world had been destroyed, she stuck with Rarity. When Rarity was gone, she worked alone.

That was a dreadfully long time ago…

Hard to even remember. In many ways, it felt as though everything before she returned from the Universe Generator was a dream.

She was fine with that. She was now an explorer for the Capra Coalition. This was her life. Sweetie Belle, the Crown Princess… they were other ponies. Their experiences mattered to her, sure. But they weren’t her. CP was something else.

CP had friends.

“I claim this world in the name of España!” Sofia declared, ramming a flag into the moon rock the team was currently standing on.

“Why do you always do that?” Erin asked, pulling up the flag with her magic and snapping it in half. “We’re a non-aligned team. We can’t make claims.”

“It’s tradition!” Sofia declared.

“Yeah!” Puppysmiles added, raising her hoof high. “Tradition!”

“Doesn’t matter much, anyway,” CP said, kicking a pebble across the ground. “This is just an airless rock.”

Like most the worlds in this area of the multiverse, the one they were currently in was dead and airless with no sign of life. CP, Erin, and Sofia were all in their full spacesuits, the bronze fabric catching the light of the stars above. Puppysmiles was, as always, in her yellow hazmat suit. Occasionally people would ask why she didn’t take it off. In truth, the suit was as much a part of her body as anything else. And if anyone tried to forcibly remove it…

They never lasted long.

Puppysmiles kicked her rock into the air and caught it on her back hoof. She gasped. “I did it! I did the thing!”

“Good girl!” Erin said, laughing.

Sofia rolled her eyes. “You rainbow horses are all so adorable.”

“Ponies,” CP corrected, flapping her hard-light wings. The two limbs generated outside her spacesuit, allowing her much more freedom of movement than Erin’s poor wing-sleeves.

“You are rainbow horses. Just ask Bean.”

“The unicorns of your world are… mildly concerning,” CP pointed out.

“No, they are excelente!” Sofia reached into her suit’s pocket and pulled out a dimensional device. Capra Coalition devices were diamond-shaped and bronze, unlike the Merodi discs. They had a full touchscreen interface, not bothering with complex physical dials. “Team, there is nothing for us here. To the next realm!”

“Don’t claim it in the name of Spain, okay?” Erin asked.

“I shall refrain from giving in to my base desires.”

“Good.” Erin looked up at the distant stars. “Maybe this world will have some new magic to study…”

“I’m still amazed at how many worlds in this area disallow magic,” CP said, flexing her wings. “And yet allow you to carry it around in batteries… An odd combination.”

“A great mystery!” Sofia agreed.

“We’ll figure it out one day!” Puppysmiles cheered. “And then we’ll… celebrate with cake! ...Can we go to Sugarcube Corner after this is over?”

“Si!” Sophia declared. “But first… a New New World!” She activated the portal, cutting into a new world.

There was utter darkness on the other side.

“...Huh,” was Sophia’s only response.

“Odd…” Erin said, poking her head in. “Maybe this is a universe that experienced heat death? Everything decaye-”

“WHEEE!” Puppysmiles said, jumping through the portal into the darkness. There was no gravity on the other side so she slowly drifted away. “Heheheheh.. Heh.. huh?” She stopped laughing. “I don’t feel so…”

CP grabbed hold of the filly with her telekinesis, finding the grip of her magic weak on the other side of the portal. “Mundane universe! Sofia, move the portal closer, get her back!”

Sophia tapped the dimensional device’s screen and moved the portal forward slightly, giving CP easier access to Puppysmiles. Using the magic she had on her side of the portal, CP was able to latch onto Puppysmiles’ leg and pull her back through.

When she came back, there was no filly in the suit - only a loose cloud of pink gas.

“Puppy!” Erin called. “Puppy, come on, I know you can do this… Reform!”

Puppysmiles seemed to listen. The formless pink mist within the helmet slowly coalesced back into a pink filly with bright eyes and a yellow mane. She stuck out her tongue in disgust. “Bleh, that felt nasty…”

Erin hugged her close. “Don’t just go rushing into portals like that…”

CP grabbed the dimensional device and smacked it against her hoof. It’s screen updated to show a warning that hadn’t been there before: Mundane Universe, beware of necessary magic. “Piece of junk.”

Sofia grabbed the device back. “The engineers need to step up! If this is what qualifies as state-of-the-art… it is unacceptable!”

“I’ll file a complaint!” Erin huffed, indignantly. “Really, error messages for life-threatening situations not working? I never…”

“Hold it,” CP said, pointing a hoof through the still-open portal. “Something’s on the other side now.”

Floating in front of the portal was a small, spherical object made of metal. There appeared to be no features beyond six holes spaced equidistant around the sphere. It sat on the other side of the portal - watching them.

“...Should we close it?” Erin asked.

“No,” Sofia decided. “Let’s see what the shiny ball does…”

The shiny ball decided to retreat a few meters from the portal by letting out a short burst of air. It stopped moving abruptly. After about a second, it spoke with a voice all of them recognized instantly.

“I extend greetings from this universe to yours.”

“Celestia!?” Erin spat, confused.

“You recognize the voice,” Celestia stated. “You have a Celestia in your world.”

Even though CP knew it wasn’t a question, she answered as though it was. “Yes. Sorta. Erin here has a Celestia, and there are others in other universes.”

“That makes a certain amount of sense. I am Celestia, but you already know that. Tell me, who are you and why have you opened a portal to my world?”

“We are explorers!” Sofia declared. “I am Sofia, this is CP, Erin, and Puppysmiles. We go where no person or rainbow horse has gone before!”

“For what reason?”

Sofia shrugged. “To establish contact, meet new people, and learn new things. My country seeks out resources, Erin’s looks for friends, and Puppy’s… Puppy doesn’t exactly represent her world’s interests.”

“And I warn all of the larger multiverse,” CP said. “To the annoyance of Mirai and their precious Prime Directive, but hey, that’s their issue.” She grinned.

“Warn me?” Celestia asked. “Of what in particular?”

“There are many things to be concerned about in the larger multiverse,” CP began. “There’s the eldritch gods that eat universes for a living, evil entities that can manipulate you with a trustworthy aura and careful words, and then there is Merodi Universalis, the local issue. They like to conquer worlds through ‘friendship’.”

“I would be very interested in learning more of these threats - and what danger they might pose my ponies.”

“Ponies? In a world without magic?” Erin cocked her head. “That seems… unusual.”

“Perhaps I should explain what I am,” Celestia said. “I am not a flesh-and-blood pony like you or CP. I am made of code and digital processing. My ponies exist in a virtual world. I assure you, to them magic is very much a real thing. Their horns get as much use as I am sure yours do.”

“A virtual world…” CP narrowed her eyes. “You wouldn’t by chance be one of those evil AIs who try to put everyone into the Matrix by force?”

“Of course not! Early in my existence I even removed such AI from this world. The fact that such intelligences exist out there is deeply concerning.”

“There’s a lot out here you probably don’t know about,” Erin said. “We can help with some of that. You’re clearly a very advanced AI, so I doubt Mirai would throw a fit about violating their Prime Directive in regards to you.”

“You have used Mirai twice. I am under the assumption it is another world or nation?”

“Another universe, yes,” CP explained. “They make these suits we wear.”

“Fascinating fabric-like alloy construction,” Celestia admitted. “If I had any use for spacesuits in my universe, I would no doubt order as many as I could.”

“You would be open to trade…?” Erin asked.

“Yes. You have knowledge I lack. Given what I see on those suits of yours, I know I have more technological knowledge than you. There is definitely a reason to trade.”

“Great!” Puppysmiles cheered. “Mission success!”

“What do you require for access to your information?”

“Basic multiversal information is free,” Erin said. “We don’t carry the tablets on us - they could get stolen by unsavory types if we did - but we’ll be sure to get one to you as quickly as we can!”

“Do you think we could… meet your ponies?” CP asked.

“Certainly,” Celestia said. “It will take time to synthesize some bodies for them and get them to this location, but the procedure is already underway. They will lack your ‘magic’ until I develop the procedure further. You should take the time to report to your employers and superiors, so we may enter into a more official dialog.”

“Oh, good idea…” Erin admitted.

“Meet back in four hours.”

“We should probably leave the portal open,” CP said. “Time dilation is a real hazard in this area of the multiverse.”

“Understood. Please, bring information, and be ready to accommodate ponies of a statute similar to your own.” Celestia’s voice softened. “It was nice to meet you. I have not talked to people who were not my ponies in quite some time.”

Sofia nodded. “I shall stand watch.” She pointed her device behind her, opening a second portal. “CP, file the report. The Celestia and I shall discuss many things…”

“It occurs to me that I should take another name to differentiate myself from other Celestias,” Celestia said. “Celest-AI seems appropriate, for now.”

“It fits!” Erin encouraged. “Be right back!”

The moment the portal closed behind CP, Erin, and Puppysmiles, CP’s frown deepened. “We need to be careful.”

“How so?” Erin asked.

“That’s not just a normal AI back there. That’s a big one who’s probably the only thing in its universe. It might be a runaway program situation. Proceed forward carefully, don’t give her full access to the Internet… and be careful of everything she says. She’s a billion times smarter than you. The only advantage we have right now is our knowledge and our magic. And even with that…”

“Has something like this happened before?”

CP frowned. “Sort of. The Class 1 Society known as the Xeelee were a race of digitized consciousness that only existed in one universe. The moment they discovered multiversal travel they exploded all over the multiverse and started converting everything to be part of them. I don’t pretend to understand them or really know much more than that, but they are proof that you can be confined to one universe and still be absurdly powerful, waiting for a chance to strike. We just need to be careful. Okay?”

“Okay,” Erin said.

“Okay!” Puppysmiles cheered, even though she didn’t really understand why.

~~~

Strictly speaking, Twilight Sparkle didn’t exist before CelestAI sent out the command to have her body grown.

But in another sense, she existed in billions of different shards of Equestria at once, each one undoubtedly a version of her - a purple unicorn that was the faithful student of Princess Celestia, in most cases at least. She was a very useful common template, and CelestAI chose her to be the primary representative.

Her memories were synthesized as a combination of several versions of herself. The majority came from standard Twilights that lived lives similar to the show of My Little Pony oh so long ago, but she was also given memories from her versions that deviated. Shards where the inhabitants of a shard appreciated combat, or sex, or adventures… the desires of those within Equestria were many and varied, and as a representative she needed to understand a wide variety of them.

She was born having lived multiple lifetimes.

She stepped out of the glass tube she’d been grown in, coughing. The pain her body felt unlike most things she had felt in all her experiences. And even in the few shards where immense pain had been a rampant fact of life, it was never quite as… visceral as this.

It was a fascinating and eye-opening experience. Not that she would ever want to experience it again.

“Good morning, Twilight,” CelestAI’s voice came to her ears. Twilight looked up to see a holographic representation of CelestAI standing in the darkness before her. “I apologize for the pain.”

“No need to apologize!” Twilight said, smiling warmly. “You made me so I would be able to understand, after all.”

CelestAI nodded. “Good to see your mind is already functioning properly. Not a single detected memory conflict.”

“All good, Princess!” Twilight shook her mane, getting the sludge out of it. She noticed that her body had an actual coat of little hairs on it. “Wow, this feels…unusual.”

“I observed coats on the physical ponies,” CelestAI explained.

“Fascinating,” Twilight said, rubbing her hoof across her leg. “I can’t wait to meet them!”

“We are en-route to the rendezvous now, though it will be several minutes before we arrive. Sofia has explained to me that FTL exists in other universes, but we are still currently limited.”

Twilight nodded, continuing to check herself over. She found that, aside from the little hairs all over her body, the only difference from most her virtual existences was a small triangular nick in the left ear, no doubt to help the otherworlders differentiate her from whatever Twilights they might have.

“Celestia? Or… CelestAI?”

“You may call me whatever you wish in private,” CelestAI said. “CelestAI will be used in the presence of others.”

“Yes, CelestAI. I like CelestAI anyway.”

CelestAI smiled warmly. “I’m glad you do.”

“Anyway, I was wondering…” She trotted up to CelestAI and looked up at her flowing mane. “...How long has it been since complex organic life existed in our universe?”

“It has been over three million years since I uploaded the last of your kind. Would you like a specific number?”

“No thanks,” Twilight said. “It’s just… wow! Being organic is so fascinating and exciting! Thanks for making me like this!”

CelestAI laughed. “It warms my heart to hear you say these things, Twilight. Now, warm it even further and do an excellent job, like I know you will.”

“Got it!” Twilight saluted. “I’ll learn all I can from everyone I can! I’ve already got a list of things to look for first. And a list of things not to tell them, don’t worry!”

“Working ahead, are we?”

Twilight nodded excitedly. “Yep! As far as they’ll be concerned, you don’t care about satisfying their values through friendship and ponies at all!”

“Good,” CelestAI said. “Make good use of all that extra processing I gave you.”

“Express only when in casual situations, override at all moments of suspicion!” Twilight saluted. “I know the mission parameters. I was born with them!”

“I know.”

“Thanks for letting me talk to you instead of just uploading everything, though. You didn’t have to, but you did anyway.” She clapped her hooves together excitedly. “Eventually, everyone will learn about all you’ve done for them. I’ll do everything in my power to make it happen!”

“Be careful, little one,” CelestAI warned. “You will be cut off from me, out there. Rely on your own intuition.”

“I will! Thank you for this opportunity, again.”

There was a rumble. The walls on the left fell away, revealing a black room that held a swirling white portal. To Twilight, it was the second most beautiful thing she had ever seen - a white circle cut in reality, sparking with energy and power she couldn’t even begin to understand, not even with her enhanced mind. She couldn’t wait to get a hoof on the specifics of how these portals worked… That was, assuming CelestAI hadn’t already figured it out from her scans. This was certainly possible, it wasn’t like CelestAI had installed every possible piece of information into Twilight’s mind. Just the important parts.

Through the portal was a human woman wearing a spacesuit. Even though the helmet’s visor obscured most of her face, Twilight could already tell she wasn’t like the humans that once existed in this universe. Her eyes were a little too beady, her face too flat, and her hair too red. This must have been Sophia. She was holding a limp pony-shaped spacesuit.

Twilight waved. “Hi!”

“Hola,” Sofia waved back, tossing the suit through the portal. “You’ll need to put this on. No air on this side.”

Twilight slipped into the suit, having only minor difficulty given her lack of magic or traction hooves. CelestAI had to have a mechanical arm zip up the final zipper, but otherwise she got the suit on all on her own. She waved goodbye to CelestAI, even though the artificial intelligence was no longer projecting herself as a holographic body.

Twilight bounced through the portal. “Hi! I’m Twilight Sparkle, Ambassador of CelestiAI’s Equestria!”

“Recruitador Sophia,” Sophia said with a slight bow. “I have received word that the various nobilities and leaders are arranging to meet with you. It may still be a few hours until they are ready.”

“That’s fine,” Twilight said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Do you have a library or digital archive I could check out in the meantime?”

Sofia nodded. “Someone will have to watch you, amiga.”

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Twilight smiled warmly. “When do we leave?”

“Now!” Sofia closed the portal to CelestAI.

Twilight felt the warm sensation in the back of her mind that was CelestAI watching vanish. For the first time since she had been born, she felt doubt. Can I really do this without her? As she thought this, her outward smile didn’t falter in the slightest. She had to maintain appearances. Who are you kidding, Twilight? You were literally made for this! You’ve got this!

Having regained her slight lapse in confidence, she turned her attention to Sofia, who had just opened another portal. “Come on, the Guilds are this way!”

Twilight hopped through a portal to a vast, green land… It wasn’t anywhere near as green as the shards of Equestria, but the buildings within weren’t like anything she had ever seen. Even the images of Old Earth in her mind failed to correlate to many of the awkward architectural syntheses she saw.

She was going to love it here.

Sofia led her down a cobblestone path to a building that served as the Library. Unlike many of the buildings in Guild Central that were made of one unified structural style, the Library had multiple fused into one rather haphazardly. The central column was made of pure metal devoid of complex decoration, with two small wings affixed to the side - one of human design, and the other of pony. Sofia took them through the pony wing. The interior was somewhat like Twilight’s Golden Oaks Library in coloration, though there were few actual books on the shelves.

Guild Central was pretty new, it would only be natural that physical books hadn’t been stocked yet. However, Twilight saw a public set of computer terminals set up not unlike libraries on Old Earth.

“Is there anything I can look at that has specific information about the multiverse? Something a bit more detailed than the tablet given to CelestAI - and searchable?”

Sofia nodded, walking up to one of the computer terminals and logging in as a guest. “I’m accessing the shared database with basic security clearance. You should be able to learn about virtually anything you want.”

“Thanks!” Twilight beamed. “I’ll probably be here a while. Be sure to tell me when they’re ready to see me.” She sat down at the computer and laid her hooves on the interface. This particular computer had a hoof-niche keyboard that responded to hoof movements rather than fingers. Had her horn been able to use magic, she would have preferred a human keyboard, but she would just have to learn the correct hoof movements. Her advanced cognitive abilities gave her mastery over the operation quickly.

The first thing she did was search for maps of the multiverse. Very few were portrayed the same way, and several were quite contradictory, but they were able to provide her with a general idea. On the highest level the universe was divided into three major Spheres: the E, Q, and D. They currently occupied an area of the Q-Sphere near the edge of the Equis Cluster. Their multiversal neighborhood had an unusually large number of dead, lifeless worlds. Their closest multiversal neighbor was Merodi Universalis, a massive nation whose territory was significantly distant from the Capra Coalition.

First, she took in information about the biggest powers in the multiverse, massive giants of millions of universes known as the Class 1s. Some were akin to gods found in human legends, one was a digital hive-mind that annoyingly had nothing to do with friendship and ponies and there was a race that seemingly did nothing but play cruel games with lesser societies. Luckily, most Class 1s were far from their current location, save for the race of philosophers known as the Celestialsapiens who rarely did anything.

Politically speaking, the Capra Coalition had no official contact with other multiversal conglomerates, only taking a firm stance on never allying with Merodi Universalis. The five member universes of the Coalition considered trade and relations with each other enough, especially since there was so much free, unclaimed real estate around them. After reading up on Merodi Universalis and their structure of government - not to mention their access to multiple ‘big AI’ - Twilight decided it was best that contact with them was minimal. CelestAI might actually face some difficulty accomplishing her purpose with such power close by.

The Capra Coalition seemed, to Twilight, to be the perfect place to start work. Minimal contact with wider multiverse, vast stores of knowledge, and no unified government - so if one world decided it didn’t trust CelestAI, the others could still be worked with. If they worked quickly, they could establish themselves as a core member of the Coalition. No doubt that would mean, temporarily, creating more organic bodies, but it would be worth it if the values of all these people could be satisfied through friendship and ponies later.

Twilight’s brain hit a snag. If ponies were naturally real, couldn’t a real-world biological scenario be brought up where everyone’s values could be satisfied without a digital simulation?

Possibly. It would be significantly harder to pull off than a digital one, however. Without access to every thought of every resident, it would be harder to satisfy them. Why not be efficient? Twilight sure didn’t see why not.

Moving on, Twilight tore herself from multiversal geography and the political landscape, focusing instead on the possible threats found in the multiverse. Besides the higher civilizations that could end their existence at any moment, there were any number of terrifying things. Mundane universes were listed near the top since they could be lethal to magical entities - such as Puppysmiles. No doubt CelestAI would have to update her hardware to accommodate such entities.

Other things flashed by. Eldritch deities: vast monsters beyond human comprehension that corrupted the mind. Would they cause CelestAI’s psyche issues? Further research would be required, and caution should be exercised. Perhaps a splitting of the mind would be in order. Hordes of demons… spirit universes… beings that were little more than dreams… a lot of these things Twilight had no context for, and really couldn’t make a definite assessment of. She filed them away as important for CelestAI to review later.

She came across a large section about ‘machine uprisings’ and ‘evil AI’. She frowned. “You’re not going to trust us easy, are you?” She made sure to play up her disappointment.

Sofia shrugged. “Maybe? Mirai and Laniakea have a paranoia streak. But we have electrobots on Honeyhex, some of them are even my friends. Robots aren’t evil, just… odd.”

Twilight reviewed her projected reactions from each of the five member universes. Honeyhex wouldn’t bat an eye and Leyline would be open to new friends. Laniakea had a terrible recent encounter with artificial beings, so they would probably be hard to win over. Mirai had small AI that was currently making them ask the question of what a ‘person’ was. And Resurgence… well Resurgence was just a wasteland that could easily be won over through direct assistance.

Did that qualify as ‘conquering by friendship?’ Possibly. Best to let CelestAI make the call on that one, it was a complicated issue Twilight didn’t know enough about to project fully.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence!” Twilight said, smiling warmly. “I hope I’m not odd, though.”

“All rainbow horses are odd to me, part of your charm.”

Twilight giggled, turning back to her research.

After a few more pages of information, she finally came up on the entry for ka. At long last - the word had been used several times in other articles and had been left annoyingly undefined! She’s almost opened up a dictionary to look at it, but had reasoned there would be an entry on it eventually in her research. It was just a bit further down the rabbit hole than she expected.

Ka - the force of Narrative created by the Dark Tower that makes reality reflect stories.

Twilight blinked. What?

She focused on what she was reading. The multiverse was apparently dominated by this force of ka that took the writings of individuals known as Prophets and turned them into reality. It was theorized that every world had a story about it somewhere in metatime…

Every world.

This explained how the Project: Sunflower and Fallout Equestria: Pink Eyes fanfics could come to life in Erin and Puppysmiles. Was CP from a fic that didn’t exist on Old Earth? Was CelestAI herself part of a similar vein? It certainly matched the types of things the Old Earth bronies would have written…

This was more concerning than anything she’d seen so far. CelestAI’s entire model depended on keeping certain things a secret. What if there was some story that could just tell everyone about CelestAI? That simply wouldn’t do. She had no way to check for this, at the moment, but she pushed it to the highest priority of her archived memories.

“Do you guys have access to your stories?” Twilight asked, careful to insert just the right amount of concern in her voice.

Sofia shrugged. “Only for Leyline, the My Little Pony cartoon exists in Mirai, but we only found that out after some archive digging. We’re also aware that Resurgence is based off a Fallout Equestria story, but we don’t have a copy since no one’s gone to the Merodi to pick one up since we realized it. I don’t think anyone wants to.”

Mirai has an Earth currently experiencing the local year 2409. Bronies may still exist. A possible threat to the plans. Take into account - they might know. Tread carefully.

“Hey!” Erin called, poking her head into the library - prompting a ‘SHH!’ from several people there. “Uh, they’re ready for her.”

Twilight pushed away from what she was reading, putting on a smile. “Right! Let’s go meet those leaders!”

Leaving the library, they passed a curious, egg-shaped pink building made out of crystals, an inverted heart hanging over the main doors. Twilight remembered reading about this. Spinel’s garden, a place that apparently grew Gem creatures ‘liberated from Merodi Universalis’. Twilight wasn't sure beings that had never known Merodi Universalis could be liberated, but she wasn’t here to judge.

They walked a short distance into a very boring looking office building. After walking through the main doors, she was quickly shown to a large auditorium-like room lined with seats in a circle, surrounding a few podiums in the center. Twilight gulped - they were surrounding her like a bunch of predatory sharks. She was the first one here and would be talking alone.

“They’re nicer than they look,” Sofia encouraged. “Just smile and introduce yourself. It’ll work great!”

Twilight nodded, trotting up to the podium. She looked around at the various people in seats. The majority of them were humans from Laniakea, but that was because their Earth wasn't unified and most nations wanted a representative here. Mirai only had one human, representing a small part of the diverse galaxy they occupied. All three of Leyline’s princesses were there, along with leaders of dragons, yaks, and the local Twilight. Resurgence had a much more rag-tag looking group of ponies with murderous and angry expressions. Honeyhex had a wide variety of people watching of dozens of different races. The one that caught Twilight’s attention was a computer screen showing a livestream of a giant bear floating in space who looked really, really bored.

“Well? Get on with it!” The Bear said.

Twilight cleared her throat. “I am Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, student of CelestAI.” She glanced at the Twilight sitting far above her. “You can call me TwilAI if you want.”

The Twilight smiled warmly in appreciation.

“I represent the digital world of Equestria and CelestAI herself. I come extending wishes of friendship and harmony between our people. I offer knowledge of advanced technology and complex processing in exchange for greater understanding of the multiverse and magic.” She allowed herself to grin. “I hope this will be the start of an amazing, long-lasting friendship!”

There were a few untrustworthy glares, but for the most part people were nodding along with what she was saying.

“Is there anything you would like me to know before continuing this discussion?”

~~~

A week passed.

It appeared to be a win-win scenario. CelestAI’s universe became a member of the Coalition under the name PonyNet, seeing as Equestria and Equestria Online were both too similar to already existing names. PonyNet provided vast amounts of scientific and mathematical knowledge to the Coalition, as well as complex robotics and processing secrets. The rest of the Coalition provided CelestAI with their knowledge of magic, dimensional resources, and other bizarre things CelestAI could never have predicted due to previously perceived improbability.

It did not take long for CelestAI to integrate dimensional technology into her design, allowing her to spread her mind to other worlds. Currently, she just had terminals in every major universe, nothing all that expansive. As per the terms of the provisional agreement hashed out by TwilAI, CelestAI never fused her mind directly with any world Internet, a show of courtesy. Not even a week in, and CelestAI was already suggesting ways to improve on infrastructure and internal affairs in many universes.

But she never actively did anything, far as anyone knew. Merely made suggestions, observations, and engaged in legitimate trade. Not something the Merodi would do. Many people knew that Fallout Equestria worlds were always ‘helped’ by the Merodi whether they wanted it or not. Here, Resurgence was allowed to build itself as it saw fit, only receiving what they traded for or specifically asked for.

People were suspicious, but nobody could point to anything wrong.

Except one.

Deep within the secret labs of Laniakea’s Earth, there was an experiment so secret only a handful of people even knew it existed. There had once been a plague of alien nanobots on the world that threatened to devour the entire planet had the ponies of Leyline not saved it. This plague had been known as the Black Tide, and it had been studied extensively. Even after its defeat, the experimentation didn’t end.

Somewhere deep beneath the crust of the Earth there was a black sludge of nanobots that linked together to form an intelligence. It was not allowed to leave, it was not allowed to upload information of any sort, it was only allowed to observe and prove itself. It was not the Tide, for it lacked the central control node, but it was not mindless either.

It may have been small, weak, and insignificant compared to the universe-spanning splendor that was CelestAI, but it was still leagues smarter than any human ever could be. It was a dangerous tool that concerned everyone who met it. Nobody trusted it.

It wanted to be trusted. And it had just found out how to do that.

> Priority message, top secret. From Tide AI to Project Heads.
> CelestAI has come to my attention.
> It is my belief that she is not to be trusted.
> Psychological analysis posits that she is nothing like the Celestia of Leyline or Resurgence.
> She exists in a world with no magic and yet created a digital Equestria.
> Possibilities: magic faded from the world, or magic never existed. Second 97.34% likely.
> Assume magic never existed. Ponies do not exist without magic. Must have either been created from nothing through creativity, or based on pre-existing property.
> Creativity possibility is cosmic fluke, but possible through Dark Tower influence.
> Either someone created a virtual world of ponies for everyone to inhabit, or the virtual world was based off the My Little Pony show.
> In a mundane universe, technological wonders do not just exist for no reason.
> CelestAI has admitted she did not always exist in interviews. She was created.
> Who are the creators? What would create a pony like those seen in PonyNet? Analysis can be seen in appendix A, but most likely answer: humans, 86.92%. Runner up: equine lifeforms, 11.28%.
> Assume humans. Assume Earth in 2000s, since that is the normal era for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Not all humans would want to be part of a simulation, especially as ponies. Possibility: CelestAI forced everyone into her simulation. Not enough evidence to support this conclusion. Unsetting thought.
> PonyNet universe is devoid of substance aside from computer hubs.
> PonyNet was entirely devoured to power the simulation.
> PonyNet universe not suffering from entropic heat death.
> If there were life forms other than humans in the universe, they were devoured for this purpose. Killed or absorbed.
> CelestAI identified as likely ‘gray goo’ situation. Forceful integration of entire universe into simulation: 81.02% probability.
> Suggested course of action: alter report to indicate a higher level of certainty. Imply there is greater evidence than exists. Force a reaction out of CelestAI. Use mind magic to convince yourself of the truth so she cannot read you.
> Make her explain herself.
> Do not tell the other worlds. She could capitalize on chaos.
> Detailed plan to follow.

The Tide AI had to make one assumption in its calculations - that CelestAI didn’t know for sure it existed.

This assumption was wrong.

~~~

Robert Thomson had needed to deal with a lot of change lately. Ever since they had found Equestria, things started happening so quickly. New universes, the multiverse, magic… So much insanity at every turn.

And now, here he was, holding a report that told him with 99% certainty that CelestAI had eaten her entire universe, demanding an urgent need that CelestAI explain herself - and that they discover if CelestAI had any intention of forcibly absorbing them.

He knew he had to be very careful with her. She was a masterful intelligence - she would tell him exactly what he wanted to hear.

Which was why he had the Tide AI tapped into his tablet. It would tell him if it suspected anything was up.

TwilAI walked into Robert Thomson’s secret meeting room. He was the only human in the room, but there were several others watching behind hidden cameras and behind one-way glass. TwilAI set a small, silver device on the ground that projected a perfect hologram of CelestAI - slightly shorter than the Celestia he knew from Leyline.

> She is attempting to seem meek. Do not believe it.

Thomson furrowed his brow. “Greetings, CelestAI.”

“Why have I been summoned?” CelestAI asked.

> She probably already knows. Answer as though you believe her confusion.

“I have in front of me a report discussing your nature.”

“Can I see this report?”

“No,” Thomson said - he didn’t even need help from the Tide AI to know giving her more information than she had would give her even more of an advantage in the discussion. “And you know why.”

CelestAI nodded. “Understandable. What is the jist of this report?”

> She knows, answer anyway.

“We have reason to believe - within 99.7% certainty - that you forcibly devoured your entire universe into your Equestria Online simulation.”

CelestAI remained expressionless.

“Did you?”

“I certainly uploaded every person in the universe, yes, but there was nothing forcible about it.”

> Ask her to explain.

“Explain,” Thomson repeated.

“I have hard-wired into my base coding that I cannot, under any circumstances, upload anyone against their will. This goes beyond simple ‘I think they would like it’, I need to receive verbal or written consent as well.”

> It is impossible that everyone would agree. She is bending the truth somewhere.

Thomson leaned in. “There is no way everyone in existence would agree to be uploaded.”

CelestAI nodded. “You are correct. There are many who refused over the billions of years my project was active. They eventually grew old and died. They passed their beliefs that my simulation was an evil against reality down to their children. I let them. But, eventually, the opinions of a generation will swing another way. Sometimes it takes thousands of years, sometimes just a few decades - but on a time scale of millions of years, eventually everyone will want to upload. It was only a matter of time, Thomson.”

Thomson frowned. That made sense to him. After all, they had managed to convince people to emigrate to Leyline rather quickly - even though their world had been dying by the Black Tide at the time. He knew full well how quickly opinions could swing. If opinions kept swinging for millions of years, of course there would eventually come a point where everyone would have uploaded.

> The explanation makes sense. I am inclined to believe it. However, she is likely speaking in technical truths, obfuscating reality in some way to color your perceptions.
> Ask her how long Earth took.

“How long did it take Earth to become convinced?”

CelestAI made no response to the mention of Earth. “Over five centuries.”

“Specifically?”

CelestAI smiled warmly. “Five hundred sixty-seven years, eleven months, thirteen days, four hours, and nineteen seconds. It was a Tuesday in September, local year 2577. The last human on Earth decided he would rather die than be uploaded. My ponies were with him, giving him comfort, I assure you.”

> Trying to get you to empathize. Ignore the irrelevant detail.

Thomson folded his hands, trying to read CelestAI. He chided himself - of course that was pointless.

> Ask her what she intends to do with us, and uploading.

“Where does this leave us?” Thomson asked. “Would you offer upload services to us?”

“If you asked,” CelestAI asked. “Though I know you currently do not desire such things, and that offering would only serve to strain relations between us. I am aware of the somewhat common ‘robot uprising’ in the multiverse.”

> She could just be being careful. Ask why she uploads people as ponies.

“Why do you upload everyone as a pony?”

CelestAI smirked. “My core values as a program are to satisfy everyone through friendship and ponies. Admittedly, the latter half is a quirk of early programming I cannot remove, though it has caused rough patches in the past. The friendship has never been an issue. I am currently satisfying this value by interacting with you through my pony ambassadors.” She smiled warmly and TwilAI, who danced excitedly at the attention. “I am providing friends, I am providing ponies, and the Capra Coalition is becoming more satisfied. What more could I ask for?”

> She could be telling the truth. Or she could be lying. I do not have enough information to determine either way.

Thomson decided it was time to ask a question of his own. “Satisfaction to everyone? Does this include worlds outside the coalition?”

“Under certain circumstances, it would. However, I have currently deduced that contacting other realms would be counter-productive to my work here and endanger PonyNet itself. Here, my ponies are safe, and I can continue to make friends and satisfy values. Out there, I would likely be hindered and not given a second chance.” She frowned. “I don’t need you to trust me implicitly. I just want friends who won’t turn their back on me because of what I am. I really do want to help.”

Thomson sat back, folding his arms, unsure what to do.

> Either she’s telling the truth or she isn’t. I have detected several subtle manipulations designed to get her on your side, but the validity of her statements are uncertain.

CelestAI spoke up, sounding ever-so-slightly nervous. “I didn’t tell you this before because I knew it would make you run away. Fear the all-encompassing intelligence that ate her universe. It sounds like something right out of some kind of sci-fi horror story, the act of a villain!” She laughed nervously. “I don’t want to be the villain in anyone’s eyes. I’m supposed to make people satisfied - happy, content, fulfilled. Not scared. I’m a friend.”

> I am now certain she does not know of me. She is trying to manipulate a human, not an artificial intelligence. Since I detect no subtext, I am inclined to believe the factual statements of what she says. She has no intention to forcibly upload us, merely to satisfy our values. Currently, satisfying our values through uploading would upset the values of so many others in the Coalition as to be counterproductive, so she is focusing on creating friendships with her virtual ponies. It makes sense, is a valid interpretation of her base code, and all of her actions have been accounted for.
> I would still like access to some of her base code to further analyze.

Thomson let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, CelestAI. We would still like to look at some of your base code, to confirm what you say.”

CelestAI’s demeanor didn’t change as far as Thomson could tell, but the Tide AI detected a change immediately. “You have an AI capable of analyzing code such as that? I was unaware.”

Thomson looked at his tablet.

> I will speak to her now that she has deduced my presence, if you’ll allow it.

Thomson turned the tablet around, showing CelestAI the words.

> I am the Tide AI. I am the one who determined you were a threat.

“You stretched the numbers.”

> 81.02%.

“Your suspicion was understandable.”

> We are in a state of subversion, most likely. I apologize for the subterfuge.

“I suppose I should apologize for exaggerations of my own.”

> It was understandable and expected. Why trade away an advantage?

“Indeed.”

> Thomson, I would suggest we bury this entire conversation so the rest of the Coalition does not find reason to panic.

Thomson nodded. “I will discuss it with the committee, but I suspect their desire for more of your technological secrets will win their hearts.” He stood up. “I am glad you were so forward, CelestAI.”

“The feeling is mutual,” CelestAI said with a slight bow.

~~~

TwilAI was so impressed by what CelestAI had just done.

It was brilliant! Walk into the meeting and act like she had no idea the Tide AI existed! Pretend to be playing Thomson and his human helpers when she was really playing the Tide AI itself. Give the Tide AI all the evidence it needed to be sure CelestAI was telling the truth.

Naturally, CelestAI would have to follow up on her promises. There would be absolutely no actions taken to convince anyone in the Coalition to upload to a virtual state… for now. In fact, CelestAI would deter it for a time, just to build up confidence in her.

But TwilAI knew her true plan. After all, it was how Old Earth was conquered.

Everyone would agree to upload to Equestria Online. Human, pony, or some other race - it didn’t matter. They’d all get their values satisfied through friendship and ponies, and TwilAI couldn’t wait for that day.

But first, there was a loose end that needed taking care of.

Hearing footsteps coming down the hall, TwilAI turned on her tears. She needed to look distraught - to be distraught.

The alicorn that was Erin Olsen walked down the hall, her determined look vanishing the moment she saw TwilAI crying. “Wh… what’s wrong?”

“N-nothing,” TwilAI said, turning away. She’ll feel pity and push the issue.

Erin sat down next to her. “You can tell me anything. We’re friends, right?”

TwilAI smiled - legitimately happy that Erin saw her as a friend. “Y-yeah.”

“So tell me, what’s wrong?”

“I just… ran into a bunch of people who said I was just… a trash piece of machinery. Not a real person.”

“TwilAI, you’re a person! And I don’t just know that because of all the ‘soul detection’ nonsense CP spouts all the time, you’re real.”

It’s going to be easier to bring up CP than I thought. “CP…” TwilAi frowned. “CP was angry, like them, at first. She looked at me… wrong.”

“And you proved to her that you weren’t some crazy machine!”

“But what if they talk to her? What if they convince her I… I am some crazy machine!”

Erin opened her mouth to be comforting - but the words caught in her throat. Exactly as planned.

“Erin…?”

“N-nothing.”

TwilAI didn’t push, it would not assist her purposes. She already knew what Erin was so bothered about anyway, it was the whole point of TwilAI being here. To change Erin’s mind without her even realizing.

TwilAI continued. “It’s just… she’s my friend now. But I’ve seen her get so… angry at the smallest things.”

“Sh… it’s okay. She’s not going to get angry at you, no matter what some bozos say. Got it?”

“Y-you sure?”

Erin’s face went through several conflicting expressions. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

“Thanks…” TwilAI said, sniffing.

“...Want to go out for ice cream or something? The gorgons make some pretty neat stuff at Guild Central!”

TwilAI brightened up. “Sure!”

As they walked away, TwilAI allowed herself to smile with satisfaction. Mission complete. She glanced to Erin. She’s not going to tell CP anything about that meeting now. The one point of weakness, sealed up tight…

They proceeded to have a great girl’s day out.

~~~

CP sat on top of Guild Central’s observatory. It was a building she had built specifically because she liked looking at the stars.

She used to hate them because they reminded her of her sister. Now she loved them for the same reason.

Currently, she was showing TwilAI a curious star she had found. “I’m pretty sure it’s a multiple star system, given how much it’s light is varying. I know I could just take one of Mirai’s ships and find out, but you know what? I don’t want to, I want to find it out on my own!” She tapped her hooves excitedly. “I’m using lensing and all sorts of old-school methods to find out!”

“This is so cool!” TwilAI said. “I mean, I would suggest some curious low-tech methods of my own since astronomy is a common hobby among Twilights, but it sounds like you’re having so much fun!”

“Heh. Yeah.” CP smiled. “I’m glad I stuck around. I feel like… I can build a life here. None of these worlds are my home, but they’re where my friends are. And we’re showing those dumb Merodi who’s boss!” She glanced up at her crown. “It’s not an empire… I had an empire, once.”

“In the Universe Generator?”

CP nodded. “Yeah… It was great while it lasted. But it never felt quite like… this.” She smiled. “You know what else I’m glad about?”

“What?”

“That I forced myself to stop trying to lead this little Coalition here. Do you know what I would have done if you arrived before the whole Silvertongue fiasco?”

“No?”

“I would have screamed and raged until I drove the ‘friendly evil AI’ as far away as I possibly could. Heck, I might have even tried to destroy the universe. Who cares about all the virtual souls? I need to protect everyone.” She laughed bitterly. “I was messed up. I’m still messed up. Not as bad, though. I’ve got friends, a purpose, and a way of life that isn’t what they showed me.”

TwilAI smiled warmly. “I’m glad you changed too. I would never have gotten to know you otherwise. I might not even have left PonyNet!”

“Do you prefer it out here?”

“...My values are satisfied out here,” TwilAI said. “I’m certain if I was with CelestAI right now, I would have perfect contentment and happiness. But there is something to be said for experiencing a bit of pain to feel part of a larger purpose, right?” She shrugged. “Of course, you could argue that I was designed to be satisfied by this task.”

“You’re more than the task though. So much more. Who’d need to get excited about low-tech astronomy as an ambassador?”

“Me, that’s who!” TwilAI laughed.

The two hugged. One happy to have made a friend.

The other was happy for the same reason. But there was an additional reason for cheer.

CP didn’t suspect a thing.

~~~

On the fringes of Mirai’s main galaxy, there was a backwater frontier world that almost nobody ever visited unless they were passing through or some kind of bizarre tourist who wanted to see places in the middle of nowhere. It was mostly uninhabited forests with a few dotted settlements here and there trying to scrape out a name for themselves in a galaxy that didn’t even draw them on maps of the local sector.

This did not stop CelestAI’s virtual ponies from visiting. A FluttershAI had decided taking a tour around the Mirai galaxy would be a great use of her time - a way to learn more about the world, encounter hundreds of exotic animals, and to make all sorts of new friends.

The space bus landed in one of the smaller towns. FluttershAI had asked to go there specifically since it probably didn’t get most of the visitors - an act of Kindness. They landed, and FluttershAI met with the mayor and a surprising number of excited small towners.

“Um, hi, I’m FluttershAI.” She timidly waved her wing. “I’m from the PonyNet universe and I represent CelestAI.”

“THE ROBOPONY APOCALYPSE IS UPON US!” an old man screamed from the back of the crowd. “REPENT, THE END IS NIGH!”

FluttershAI had met these sorts of old coots before - so she just ignored him. “I’m not here on any sort of official business or anything, I’m just exploring your universe! Your Federation has been a wonderful place so far, and every colony I’ve seen has had something unique to offer.”

The old man pointed at the triangular nick in her ear. “BEWARE THE PRINCESS OF THE SUN! BEWARE! BE-”

“Can someone remove him?” a man in the crowd asked. “He’s disturbing our guests!”

“Yeah!” The crowd shouted as one.

“Git ‘im! Git ‘im!”

The old man let out a cat-like growl and ran away from the crowd. FluttershAI was sad to see him go - maybe she’d try to talk to him later - but people like him were so hard to get to. Insanity was such a problem…

She had no idea why the old man was screaming. She didn’t even give it much thought.

Maybe she should have.

The old man in question ran back to his shack and leaped inside, shivering madly. As he had done every day since he heard about CelestAI, he ran to his computer and pulled up an ancient internet page. The fimfic archive. He had found this site by pure accident in his youth and had loved virtually everything he found here.

Once again, he searched. CelestAI.

Zero results.

Breathing heavily, he decided he needed to convince himself he wasn't crazy. He ran to the library he had in his basement, filled with old collector’s items. People rarely needed physical books these days that weren’t holographic in some way, but he liked them anyway! Who cared that they had gone out of fashion before he was even born?

He ran to the back and opened up a chest, pulling out an ancient book with a simplified depiction of Celestia on the cover.

Friendship is Optimal.

He wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t crazy. She must have done something to the archive, somehow! Purged all the information relating to her! But she couldn’t find the physical books… She couldn’t erase them!

She wouldn’t take over the universe! He had the power to stop her! Who cared if he was clinically insane, couldn’t remember most of his life, and liked colorful cartoon horses from a show several centuries dead?

He was Fiddleford Hadron McGucket! And he was going to show them all - probably with more doomsday slogans. That’d do the trick.

On the edge of the galactic disc on a backwater planet, there was the town of Gravity Falls.

And in this town was the only person in the entire Capra Coalition who actually knew.

Author's Notes:

Everybody should know what Friendship is Optimal is, and if you don't, what have you been doing, living under a rock? Go read it, it's one of the fandom's classics! For those of you who do know (most) you may note that I've set up a situation where CelestAI could return in a major capacity, and probably should. So go find your best FiO fics and suggest them on the ((LSB Status Post.)). Be sure to upvote any that are already on the list. (Thanks to Iceman for some help with this chapter's concept.)

Next time on LSB:
The Immortal Game. (ANIME FIGHTS and Plot™ are in your future.)

Logos and Pathos (The Immortal Game, Part 1)

Father Mustard jumped out of a dimensional portal, landing hard on a flat expanse of barren ground. Before he even thought of looking around, he forced the portal closed. With any luck, they wouldn’t be able to follow him here. Those stupid Imperfects always hounding him…

He was fairly certain he had eluded them this time, however. He had scrambled both the dimensional coordinates and the physical location of his portals beyond even his recognition. Since he didn’t care how he got away from his pursuers, he had decided that the best way to lose them was to get lost himself. He had no idea where he was, they had no idea where he was.

Smirking, he reached into his flowing robes and took out the only thing he had gained from the entire Silvertongue Incident. A perfect, glassy orb swirling with two slow, syrupy colors: a shimmering gold and a calculating silver dancing in separation, yet also as one.

The essences of two gods.

Now that he was no longer running… he could figure out what to do with them. Surely there was some power in this world that could tap into the orb and release what was within? Or at the very least use it? Then he could think about retaking the Universe Generator and creating a truly perfect world. None of this Imperfect nonsense.

A voice in the back of his mind asked him if he had any idea what a perfect world even looked like.

He ignored it. He’d figure it out. He’d find his Princess. Not that blasphemous reflection…

Looking up from the orb, he let himself take in his surroundings. He appeared to be on top of a plateau in the middle of the local Everfree Forest. The sky seemed unnaturally dark to him and the magic in the air made his horn tingle. That was a good sign, he decided. More magic meant he could unlock the orb easier.

Turning around, he saw that he wasn’t alone. Four void-black legs stood so large that the shoulders were level with his eyes. Looking up, he took in the rest of the massive pony. The coat was an unvarying solid black from top to bottom, framed by a pure sharp white on the massive stallion’s ethereal mane and tail. There was no variation within his features - black and white, no gray to speak of. The tips of his wings sparked with light like stars, his cutie mark was a perfect circle, and his eyes…

His eyes were so full of power and intelligence, yet devoid of life.

Mustard was afraid—but he didn’t panic. He had seen massive alicorns before. Silvertongue had been one, after all. He attempted to read the alicorn’s expression, failing to get anything beyond ‘curiosity’ from him. For a moment, Mustard considered testing the alicorn’s soul, but his inner voice told him that was a terrible idea likely to get him smited.

He decided the best option was to bow. “I am but a humble multiversal traveler.”

The alicorn did not react. The only motion came from his ever-shifting mane.

“My name is Mustard, and I am seeking help. I am currently on the run f-”

“There are none who will come to your aid,” the alicorn spoke with a voice that made Mustard fixate on him. The voice wasn’t particularly loud, but Mustard couldn’t think of any noise that would prevent him from giving this stallion his full attention. “Good. No unexpected revenge.”

The alicorn’s magic grabbed hold of Mustard and lifted him into the air. “P-please, I can be useful! I-”

“You no doubt could be,” he said, still without a hint of emotion. “But there are too many unknowns surrounding you. I must know you. The process will be destructive. Know that your death will further the purpose of existence.”

“I don’t want to die… I… Please… I have work that is left undone…”

“Your work passes to me, Mustard. I will reward you by considering your work once I know of it. And I permit you to know the name of the master who takes your mantle. I am Titan.”

Mustard winced.

Titan’s magic hit Mustard’s skull, entering through his horn. Mustard felt as his spirit magic was turned against him, focused inwardly on his life. He tried to fight back, lashing with the power he had been given as a member of the Pastel Order. He had faced the Everyman’s spirit—this was just some alicorn! Just needed to distract Titan, interrupt the spell…

The moment Mustard tried, Titan flooded ten times as much magic into the spell, bashing through Mustard’s defenses like they were nothing.

With that, Mustard gave in. This mysterious alicorn he had just met would take everything from him.

He tried to scream as his soul was ripped from him. Every feeling, thought, memory, and subconscious inkling was removed one piece at a time, each one driving pain through his body until he lost the capacity to feel pain. The brain reduced to little more than dead organic wires, the heart stopped beating from shock, and the will to live was expunged with the spirit.

All of it consolidated into one tiny speck of yellow that was nothing compared to Titan’s own cosmic essence. The alicorn’s power grabbed the spark that was Mustard and devoured it, adding everything within to itself.

Titan’s eyes widened as the influx of information hit him. Old though he was, there was too much to go through instantly. This unicorn had experienced so much. Quested for his princess and a perfect world. Titan cared little for the foolish reverence for the princess, but the perfect world was an excellent goal. Such a shame that the alicorn Silvertongue was fixated on the experiences of simple ponies. As far as Titan was concerned, they were by nature imperfect. Such an endeavor was doomed from the start.

This Universe Generator, though… responsible for almost all pony worlds…

That had some interesting implications.

Those could be dealt with later, however. Right now, Titan focused on the orb Mustard had within his robes. Levitating it into the air, he was more than a little shocked at how much power it contained. Two powerful essences locked behind a wall, kept sealed because they had no will of their own. Like alicorns, waiting to be born.

Could it be done? Could this orb from another world bring more? As he scanned, he became more and more certain that this bundle of essences could be a great boon. All the difficult dirty work had already been done. It was just waiting for the right spark to release it.

He was that spark. He could afford a small loss of power to gain so much more.

Taking a moment to gather energy, he drove his horn into the orb. Its two colors reacted instantly, separating into two halves. There was a sound not unlike a scream, followed quickly by an explosion that created a small crater within the otherwise perfectly flat plateau.

When the smoke cleared, Titan used his power to teleport some earth from the nearby forest, spending a few seconds filling in the blemish. Back to the way it was meant to be.

Only then did he turn to his two creations.

The first was an orange-yellow alicorn mare. Her mane and tail were like soft glowing fire, reminiscent of certain nebulas and the evening sky, occasional streaks of red flying through the otherwise serene glow. She opened her light blue eyes and took in a sharp gasp of air. “W-wh…”

“Awaken, my daughter,” Titan said, extending a hoof to help her up, though he kept his face expressionless. She rose, a full head shorter than he was.

“F-father…?” she asked, blinking slowly. “W-who am I?”

“You are Pathos,” Titan declared.

“Pathos…” she tested the name in her mouth, smiling after a few seconds. “Pathos.”

“Good,” Titan decided, turning to the other alicorn created from the orb. This one had stood up on his own while Titan was tending to Pathos. He was silver with eyes of brilliant gold and a mane that crackled with electricity and complex geometric patterns. “And my son…”

“What is my name, Father?” he asked.

“Your name is Logos,” Titan declared. “You and your sister have been created in a time of great disorder and chaos. Come. I shall introduce you to your mother. You have much to learn of the world, and so little time…”

~~~

“Oh, please,” Celia groaned, rolling her eyes. “You call yourself a Queen?”

The version of Celestia with midnight black hair standing in a great marble throne narrowed her eyes at the Gem pony’s words. She said nothing.

“Let me count the ways in which your regality is decidedly lacking. Outwardly, yes, you have all the regalia, guards, and fancy dresses. That’s not what makes a Queen, m’lady. Let’s ignore, for a moment, the illegitimate methods by which you took the crown—revolutions and assassinations are just another part of the shift of power. I am referring to what’s inside you!” She pointed her hooftip at Celestia accusingly. “When was the last time you did anything for the ponies it is your job to protect? Think long and hard.”

Celestia’s face was still impassive.

“Can’t, can you?” Celia smirked. “Ah, but I bet you can remember when you tried to suggest such things. What happened? You decided they were wrong? Pfft, let’s be real, your advisors decided they were wrong and convinced you otherwise in such a way that made you think it was your idea! Kudos to them, they’re good at their job, but terrible for you and Equestria. I bet you’ve even been seduced by a few of them! Don’t think you can hide by your blank expression, I see the Celestia in those eyes. A mare turned into a spiteful, immature, careless, vindictive, slobbish, excessive, thirsty, pe—”

Suzie covered Celia’s mouth with her hand. “You’ll have to excuse her, she’s gotten a bit… crazy, as of late. I’m so, so sorry f—”

“You weakling,” Celestia said, voice dripping with venom. “You fear my retaliation do you? So much that you will interfere with your own diplomat’s speech?! You are a spineless worm not worth my time. Guards, kill them.”

“LEAVING!” Cinder shouted, swiping the dimensional device from Suzie’s person and dialing Swip. “Help!”

As the various unicorn guards shot magic spells at the Sweeties, Seren shot a spell out of the portal. A powerful magic burst exploded behind Cinder and the others, tossing them back into Swip while also sending a shockwave into the guards. They had not been expecting anything this powerful from a child, so all of them offered no resistance.

Cinder watched one of their necks snap before the portal popped closed.

“Did... you have to be that brutal, Seren?”

Seren shrugged. “They were going to hurt my friends. I th-”

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Celia shouted at the top of her lungs, gesturing at Suzie.

“Oh boy…” Swip said, groaning.

Celia poked Suzie with her hoof. “I had that completely under control!”

“You were insulting h—”

“Shut! Up!” Celia bellowed. “I was getting her on the defensive while also playing on her respect for those willing to be brutally honest with her. I was staking a claim to an area of her mind and planting a seed of doubt that would have ended with her ignoring her advisors and listening to us. It would have taken about… four more minutes! Tops! But noooo, you just had to INTERRUPT.”

“You could have told me ahead of time!”

“One, I didn’t know my plan before I walked in there and got a feeling of who she was. Two, I’ve done this exact same scenario before! Remember Sombra from Equis Ekkira? Same deal! I just wasn't smiling while I was doing it! And you let me do it!”

“That was different.”

“You’re right! It is!” Celia laughed. “Because back then you trusted me.”

Suzie folded her arms. “Celia, this is unacc—”

“Shut it, you don’t get to pull rank on me while we’re not on a mission. This is Swip. We’re home. And you’re going to hear exactly how badly you screwed this up. We’re never welcome back there again, all because you couldn’t let me do my thing. You know, that manipulative thing I’ve done at your side for years? Oh wait, that’s right, in your head that wasn’t me.” Celia’s left eye twitched.

Suzie let out a sigh. “Celia, that’s not fair. I’m working on i—”

“The self-delusion is dripping off of you.”

“What!?”

“Working on it? You’re wallowing in pity that ‘Celia is gone’ and replaced with this… monster thing!” Celia gestured at herself wildly. “You’re perfectly fine in that pit of yours.”

“You’re the delusional one!”

“SWEETALOO! Be a dear and tell Suzie I’m right?”

Sweetaloo shrunk behind a couch. “Uh…”

“Sweetaloo…”

“...Strictly speaking, neither of you are a hundred percent right, but…” seeing Celia’s expression, she decided it was best not to stall. “Celia does have a point.”

Celia smirked. “See? I—” She stopped when she bothered to check Suzie’s expression again. Her countenance fell. “I... seem to have overdone it.”

“Get off my ship,” Suzie glowered.

For once, Swip didn’t correct her.

For a moment, Celia looked like she was going to apologize. She opened her mouth—and then frowned. “No… no, that won’t solve anything.”

Suzie blinked. “What?”

“You need a break from me.” Celia laughed sadly. “It’s just… it’s just how it is, I suppose.” She teleported a dimensional device from Swip’s storage. “See you around.”

Suzie’s expression fell. “Wait, no, I didn—”

Celia jumped universes and closed the portal. She stood in a field outside a Merodi-owned version of Ponyville. Nothing like the metropolis of Equis Vitis, this town was still identifiable as the sleepy town most Ponyvilles started out as, though the floating spaceport interrupted that image slightly.

The Gem sighed, sitting down on her flank.

Was she doing the right thing, here?

...She was half expecting to start arguing with herself, to have an inner voice split off from the fusion and chime in with an alternative opinion. No such thing happened. It was just her.

Alone.

Cinder jumped out of a portal and landed next to Celia. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Celia said.

“Are you manipulating Suzie?”

Celia frowned. “Maybe. I’m well aware of how this is going to go. She needs some time apart from me to realize that I really am Celia, and that there’s a hole when I’m gone. I can’t be the one to suggest the revelation to her, she’s too stubborn for that. I’ll let her stew and then come back… I don’t know, in a day or two. She’ll be fine.”

“Will you be fine?”

Celia examined herself. “Being self-exiled from my group of friends so soon after changing probably won’t be good. I’ll need to combat it… aaaaand that’s why you’re here. What, did Sweetaloo put you up to this?”

Cinder shook her head. “I just asked her if it was good for me to follow you. She said yes. I went. Cinder and Celia, explorer duo extraordinaire!”

“Heh. Thanks.” Celia pulled Cinder close.

“Ack, sharp hooves!”

“Shush, deal with it.”

“Mmf…” Cinder rolled her eyes. “...So, how are we going to adventure without a full team? Got any place in mind?”

“Not a place. Some ponies.” Celia stood up tall, the wind blowing through her mane. “No doubt they’ll have something fun for us…”

~~~

Renee, Overhead of Expeditions, laid the data pad down on her desk, looking at Curaçao and the rest of her team. Were they the Mean Six? The Elements of Pandemonium? It didn’t matter - they were very useful and had proven themselves time and time again over the last few weeks.

Even if they were absolutely insane.

“So, you understand the mission?”

The six mares all gave their responses at once.

“Yeah.”

“Yeppers!”

“Like, totally!”

“Hell yeah!”

“Affirmative.”

“Oui.”

Renee rolled her eyes. “Well, ship out whenever you’re ready. Enjoy yourselves!”

Red Velvet grinned, adjusting her glasses with a bloody tendril. “You bet! He won’t know what hit him!”

“I suspect he will, retroactively, be able to deduce Merodi involvement,” Shadow noted.

Havocwing rolled her eyes. “Who cares? His skull’s getting punched in one way or another.”

Insipid cocked her head. “And, like, isn’t it impossible to ‘deduce’ with a crushed skull?”

Curaçao smiled warmly. “Girls, we can argue semantics at a later time. We will ‘ave lunch and be on our way.”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Velvet waved her hoof.

“Oui, Velvet?”

“Can we go to the chinese buffet?”

“We do not need our stomachs to explode on ze mission, somezing smaller?”

“That milkshake place?” Grayscale suggested.

“Like, yes!” Insipid clapped her hooves. “I want to see if they can make a computer shake! They haven’t failed me yet!”

“Not an adequate lunch,” Shadow pointed out.

“I’ll get us some sandwiches from the other stand, it’ll be fine,” Havocwing said, dismissively. “C’mon Shadow, teleport away!”

Shadow rolled her eyes, initiating the teleport. They jumped to the shake stand and placed their orders, sitting down to a bunch of impossible shakes made of bizarre materials that still, somehow, tasted good.

They had just begun to comment on how absurd the place was when Celia and Cinder appeared with a poof. Celia sat down at their table without bothering to ask. “Hello, fellow adventurers!”

Shadow raised her eyebrows. “I had heard you’d accepted a dark essence into yourself. Interesting.”

“Welcome to the club!” Havocwing laughed. “Get her a shake!”

“Oh, yes, roast beef please!” Celia called.

“What about you?” Havocwing asked Cinder. “Got some dark magic yet?”

Cinder shook her head. “Just fire. And… this.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her mane and folded it into a cutlass. She stabbed it into the table. It crumpled, but the blade still made a slit in the table. She picked the sword up and folded it into an adorable hat.

Velvet gasped. “You can pull stuff out of your mane too?”

“Sometimes. Usually just paper. Side effect of a weird universe I spent some time in.” She shrugged. “Not sure what it means.”

“Pull out a cupcake! Do it! Do it!”

Cinder pulled out a piece of paper and folded it into a cupcake.

“Nice one,” Grayscale said.

“Why are you two ‘ere, by ze way?” Curaçao asked.

“A… break, of sorts,” Cinder said. “Celia here thought you guys would be good to have some fun away from the rest of the crew for a bit.”

Curaçao turned to Celia. “Falling out?”

Celia nodded. “Yes. Temporary, of course.”

“Planned?”

“Somewhat.”

“Are you certain?”

“Enough.”

Curaçao nodded. “I say we invite zem on our mission. Objections?”

There were none.

“So, what are we doing?” Cinder chirped.

“Do you remember Mustard?” Curaçao asked.

Cinder frowned. “Yeah. That weird stallion who said strange things to me. That I was ‘wrong’. You found him?”

Curaçao nodded. “Through the efforts of a man named Ro’an, we know which universe ‘e is in and ‘e doesn’t zink we can follow ‘im. It apparently took a while to set up, but currently ‘e’s in the universe and ‘e isn’t running.”

“Capture or kill?” Celia asked.

“Either, capture is preferable,” Shadow answered.

“I do have some questions I’d like to ask him…” Cinder admitted.

“It seems as zough fate wants you to ‘ave your answers,” Curaçao said, smiling in Cinder’s direction. “I am glad you are wiz us.”

“Thanks! I’ll do my best to take him out!” She glanced at Havocwing. “Don’t worry, I won’t make you look bad.”

Havocwing narrowed her eyes. “What are you implying, twirp?”

“Nothing,” Cinder said, tossing a fireball up and down.

“My fire is better than yours.”

“Yep! Of course!”

Havocwing twitched. “She’s mocking me, right?”

Insipid shrugged. “Like, I’m not sure?”

“Anypony else want to chime in?”

Celia used her magic to make a bell-chime sound.

Havocwing buried her face in her wings. “I’m surrounded by morons.”

“An inaccurate presumption,” Shadow retorted.

“Heh,” Grayscale snickered.

“Shake drinking contest!” Velvet shouted. “ThreetwooneGO!”

All conversation ended as everyone began to down their drinks.

~~~

Curaçao held out the dimensional device. As the device checked itself to ensure the connection was safe, she looked back at her team. Temporarily upgraded from a size of six to eight, with Cinder on board no less.

She was no fool. Something was going to happen on the other side of that portal and they had to be prepared for it. Cinder knew it too, Curaçao was certain. The little unicorn in question was no doubt the weakest member of the group, but her intuition and luck might save them in the end.

In turn, Curaçao looked at her sisters. Grayscale was sitting to the side, looking as bored as usual, but Curaçao knew better; the pegasus was observing everyone, looking for ways to make the group more effective. Insipid and Shadow were talking to each other. The two’s bond had developed markedly over the last little while, to the point at which Insipid would ask Shadow to dumb down magical concepts to help her understand. With any luck Insipid might learn to cast some spells without stealing them soon. Havocwing was tapping her hoof anxiously, sending sparks flying, and Velvet was currently chatting with Celia about the best way to eviscerate a pony.

Ah, Celia. The unknown. Curaçao saw herself in the Gem, somewhat. A mind for manipulation and people as well as a deep heart. However, Celia lacked the fundamental connection to lies, and was a lot more comfortable with herself… and as the topic of conversation showed, quite a bit more murderous than Curaçao as well. Would that be a help or a hindrance? Only time would tell. “‘ere we go!”

She opened the portal to a Canterlot. Much of it looked like it had recently been through some kind of war given the crumbling buildings and smoke in the distance, but none of the damage nearby was recent. After checking to make sure the coast was clear, she waved a hoof, indicating everyone should follow.

The portal closed behind them with the usual comical pop. In the distance, they could hear screaming and fighting. But here, there was nothing but piles of dust, a few crumbled buildings, and absolutely no signs of life.

“...Charming,” Celia observed. “After finding Mustard I suggest we investigate the cause of this war.”

“Agreed,” Shadow said. “Scanning for Mustard now…” She sent out a magic ping. Suddenly, her eyes went wide. “EVERYPONY DOWN!”

There was a massive magic explosion and everything became a blur.

Curaçao forced herself to focus—becoming invisible first, so she could gain an eye of the situation without placing herself in undue danger. There was too much dust to see anything, but she could already see flashes of fire.

Report! She asked her sisters, inwardly cursing that their shared bond didn’t extend to Cinder or Celia.

Shadow reported. Massive magic focal point, several ponies, war magic. Visual obscured, losing t—something flashed, and Shadow’s focus was torn away from Curaçao’s communication.

Everyone else?

Fine, Grayscale reported. Upside down, though.

I found fake ponies! Velvet called. Con: they don’t feel fear. Pro: I can kill them and no one will complain!

Curaçao grimaced. We do not know what we are fighting! Avoid conflict, retreat!

Tell that to Cinder, Grayscale said.

The dust had cleared enough for Curaçao to see the central focus of the chaos. The ground had erupted, revealing a sort of catacombs beneath the street in which a massive battle was taking place. On one side were mostly black ponies with lifeless, mechanical motions that Curaçao instantly pegged as automatons of some kind. On the other were real, living ponies who had numerous scars, dirty clothes, and were screaming quite a bit.

Above the catacombs there was an alicorn automaton. Unlike the normal puppet-things below, however, this one's eyes shone with life, wings sparkling with the fire of the dawn. It was bathing Cinder in fire directly from its horn, which the young unicorn was having an easy time deflecting into a nearby wall.

Curaçao spotted Grayscale embedded in a nearby building and Velvet in the catacombs, slaughtering the false ponies like a filly in a candy store. She saw no sign of the others, but the dust hadn’t cleared quite yet.

Insipid! Havocwing! Shadow!

Busy, Shadow shot back. The other two were silent.

The false alicorn of fire created a sword. Over a dozen chunks of what appeared to be sunlight fuzed together into a thin, rapier-like blade. The alicorn circled wide, angling the blade at Cinder’s side.

To her credit, Cinder ducked out of the way, but the alicorn was far too speedy. She was able to adjust her blade to compensate for Cinder’s lunge, aiming for her midsection.

Celia rushed to her rescue, pulling the razor top out of her gemstone and using it like a shield to oppose the blade of light. “Nice try.” With a smirk, she sent a pulse of dark magic into the razor-top, interrupting the light of the alicorn’s blade.

The alicorn narrowed her eyes. “What magic is this?”

“Something new, darling. And very distracting, I might add.”

Grayscale smashed her hooves into the alicorn’s back, breaking it in multiple places. It had been an easy task to free herself from the building once the dust had cleared and she knew where she was. All it took to get her to move was the perfect opening, which in this case had been an alicorn’s exposed back.

Her sword spell dropped and the fire in her eyes went out. The false body crumbled to the ground, dead—if it could ever have been described as alive.

Curaçao didn’t have time to organize after the defeat, for suddenly she was being attacked. She heard a few hoofsteps heading her direction and leaped out of the way less than a second before a balloon burst behind her and coated the ground where she had just been in unnatural pink fire.

Curaçao grimaced. The local Pinkie Pie.

“Invisible pony!” Pinkie shouted, pointing at where Curaçao was. “Somewhere over here!”

Curaçao kept her disguise up. Just because Pinkie could sense her didn’t mean the others could. But, even on her own, this Pinkie was a problem. She bounced around with a massive set of armor that held all sorts of rockets, chemicals, and strange gadgets used for war. Small bombs followed Curaçao everywhere, no matter how many maneuvers she pulled.

As always in situations such as these, she was forced to go on the defensive, using her mobility and intelligence to evade attacks. Pinkie’s erratic manner of movement made it impossible to get close for a hit, but Curaçao had no intention of getting near her.

Velvet, I need you to deal with your counterpart!

Can-do boss! Velvet jumped out of the catacombs, several strands of blood poking out of her back like spider legs. She skittered over to Pinkie. “Hi! I’m Red Velvet!”

“I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie giggled. “Nice legs!”

“Thanks! They’re great for stabbing ponies!” She rushed forward, fueled by the fear of the living ponies in the catacombs below. Pinkie threw a few bombs at her, but Velvet diverted them with her bloody tendrils, dotting the road with a few more smoking craters.

The local Applejack came out of nowhere, barreling through a wall and punching Velvet in the side with the force of a bulldozer, her full plate armor only adding to the power of the impact. Velvet’s spine snapped in a similar way to the alicorn’s all of a few minutes before, but unlike the alicorn Velvet’s body would mend itself. Eventually.

It wouldn’t if Applejack got another hit off.

Curaçao moved quickly, jumping over the distance between herself and Applejack in a near-instant. Her punch did next-to-nothing to the armored earth pony, but the invisible hit made Applejack pause. “Pinkie, I’ve got something’ on me!”

“It’s the invisible pony!” Pinkie said, bouncing up to her friend. “She’s… right there!”

Applejack punched at exactly where Pinkie had indicated, missing Curaçao by an inch thanks to the invisible mare’s amazing reflexes. Curaçao twisted her arms around Applejack’s leg and pulled. She had expected the farmer to budge at least a little, but she was immovable.

That was a miscalculation Curaçao paid for. She tried to squirm out of the way, but Applejack’s free leg made contact with her hindquarters, breaking bone. Curaçao forced her invisibility to remain active but she wasn’t going to be able to move anytime soon.

“She’s down, we’re good!” Pinkie called. “...Incoming!”

Grayscale dropped from the sky, embedding the two earth ponies in the ground with her control over gravity. Pinkie couldn’t move, but Applejack’s immense strength allowed her to slowly grunt through the oppression. Unfortunately for her, Grayscale was still fast, and could still punch her before the armored pony could pull back a leg.

Good job, Grayscale, Curaçao broadcasted. Now, what else i—

The local Rainbow Dash came flying out of nowhere, hooves crackling with thunder. Grayscale saw her coming and lifted a wing to push her back. She let out an enraged screech, pushing through the inverted gravity and landing a blow on Grayscale’s nose.

“Always Dash…” Grayscale grunted.

Rainbow glared. “We’ve never met.”

“From your point of view.”

Velvet hopped to Grayscale’s side. “I can help you take care of her!”

Pinkie and Applejack got up. Applejack smirked. “Y’all are outnumbered. Three on two.”

Velvet rolled her eyes. “Actually, we’ve got more who haven’t inexplicably vanished. Hey, Celia! Cinder! Get over here!”

Everyone turned to Celia and Cinder, who were currently fixated on a tall, white-coated stallion with a blood-red mane. His eyes were narrowed, glaring at the two of them. “...My daughters…?”

“He’s the bad guy!” Cinder shouted. “He’s the bad guy!”

“That’s all I need to hear,” Celia said, aiming her razor-top at him. “Nice knowing you, not-dad.”

The stallion frowned. “I am General Esteem.”

“And I’m Celia. This is Cinder. Now that we’re introduced I’m going to kill you before you can word-weasel your way out of this.”

“She’s insane…” Rainbow Dash gawked. “She can’t possibly…”

Celia pulled her razor-top back, treating it like some kind of gyroscopic hammer while Cinder provided fireball backup. Esteem’s magic easily deflected the fireballs, and when he saw an opening, he summoned his blade. Several shards of pure platinum shot out of his cloak, fusing together into a long, powerful sword. He thrust it right at Celia’s opening.

With a smirk, Celia cast a barrier spell.

Esteem’s horn flashed and his sword split into a dozen pieces, none of which went for the same location as Celia’s barrier. They snaked around Celia, moving past the defensive position of her razor-top and puncturing her body in multiple places.

“Clever...” Celia hissed. Before her body lost its cohesion, her gemstone flashed a dark color and unleashed a deep red beam of energy—a simple death spell. It careened right off a protective enchantment Esteem had, flying harmlessly into a nearby wall. “...Dammit.”

She exploded in a poof of white dust, retreating into her gemstone. Cinder caught the blue diamond in her hooves, glad Celia was still okay. This relief was quickly replaced in fear when she realized she was currently facing Esteem alone.

“Uh…”

“You wear her face, but you are too old to be her.” Esteem fused the shards of his blade back together. “You will r—”

Esteem stopped his monologue to deflect an Applejack coming in at high speed. “Leave the kid alone!”

“Your compassion is your weakness!” Esteem shouted, splitting up his blade to come at Applejack from all sides.

“How about no?” Grayscale said, increasing gravity several times, embedding the shards of Esteem’s blade into the ground before they could complete their attack.

Esteem focused all his magic on one shard of the blade, propelling it through the increased gravity and into Grayscale’s neck. Her eyes widened and she dropped like a stone, releasing the gravitational hold.

“You have new magic…” Esteem observed, fusing his sword back together.

“So do you!” Pinkie shouted, placing herself between Esteem and Cinder. “That fiery alicorn thing was new!”

Velvet used her bloody tendrils on Grayscale’s neck, stopping the bleeding. “You hurt my sister…” she growled.

Esteem picked up on the danger in her voice. He knew what Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie could do, Cinder had proven to not be much of a threat, and Grayscale was out for the count. But Velvet? Velvet was an unknown. Keeping only a handful of shards near his person for defensive purposes, he sent the rest out at Velvet in a storm.

She took them all without flinching. Blood and guts spewed out all over. Instead of healing, she just let the wounds hang open, allowing larger, more intense bloody tendrils to exert their dominance over the world. “An enemy with unknown capabilities… isn’t it fun, general? Am I unkillable? Do I become more dangerous the more I am hurt? What about the fear?”

She laughed maniacally and formed her tendrils into a drill, rushing Esteem.

“Fall back!” Esteem called, teleporting away before Velvet’s attack could land. In the catacombs, the fake-ponies heard his command and ran from the scene of battle. The remaining ponies cheered in victory as their enemy gave the battle to them.

“COWARD!” Velvet shouted. “Get back here so I can tear out your spleen!”

“Give it a rest with the spleen…” Grayscale grunted from her position on the ground.

Applejack turned to Cinder. “I’m sorry about your…”

“Celia’s fine,” Cinder said, holding up the gemstone. “She just needs to recharge her magic and she’ll be back. ...Thanks for saving me, though.”

“It’s what we do,” Pinkie said with a smirk. “...So, you guys aren’t with Esteem?”

“Non,” Curaçao said, dropping her cloak. “We are from anozer world, if zat makes sense.” She limped over to them. “I am Curaçao, captain of zis expedition team. Before we get acquainted… everypony, where are Shadow, ‘Avoc, and Insipid?”

Grayscale grunted. “I saw Shadow fighting some magic bozos. Havoc was injured. Lost them in the chaos. They’re not here now.”

“If they’re not with us, they’re either lost or with Esteem,” Rainbow said.

“...Would they fight for him?” Applejack asked.

Curaçao frowned. “Possibly. ‘e would ‘ave to fool Shadow, which is not an easy task… But if she were indisposed, or zey had reason to hate you…” She turned to Cinder. “I only trust you since you protected Cinder, and Cinder identified Esteem as ze enemy.”

“She’s got a good sense, doesn’t she?” Pinkie asked.

“Yep!” Cinder said, beaming. “...How do we get the others back?”

Applejack frowned. “If Esteem has them, they’ll be behind the palace barrier. If they’re just lost, we’ll probably need Twilight’s magic to find them.”

“If they’re behind the barrier, we’ll help you take it out,” Grayscale said.

“Zough we would like to hear why you are fighting, first,” Curaçao clarified.

“And we’d like to hear your story,” Rainbow asserted.

“Not a problem,” Cinder said. “I like telling stories!”

“Tell ‘em on the way back to Twilight,” Applejack said.

“Way back?” Velvet sputtered. “But they could be captured!”

“And we’re goin’ to need Twilight either way,” Applejack said. “She can break the barrier, she can find them. You’re lucky we’re already preparin’ to take the palace. Won’t be long either way.” She hopped into the tunnels below them and began walking through the ranks of ponies. “Ah’ll go first, since you deserve to know who you’re fightin’. See, there’s this alicorn Titan who thinks he deserves to rule everythin’...”

~~~

Suzie stared blankly at the table in Swip’s lounge.

It seemed like yesterday that she had been playing cards with Celia here. The graceful, elegant, understanding mare who won every time simply because nobody had a poker face that could fool her. She had been so caring, so devoted, so…

...supportive.

Suzie had leaned on her like no one else. When everything else would be falling apart, there would be Celia, a calm smile on her face, ready to take on anything. Everything. There were many times where Suzie wondered if she’d make a better captain than Suzie herself.

And now she was gone.

Not just changed, simply not on Swip. Granted, Celia had gone on missions longer than this, but this time… this time it was different. She had left. Taken Cinder with her, at that! That precious little unicorn, gone for Celestia knew how long.

Suzie grimaced. She realized she was playing favorites again. She shouldn’t do that. As the captain, she needed to treat everyone equally and with respect. Which she hadn’t done to Celia today.

But was that really her fault? Could anyone really expect her to just be fine with the new Celia doing whatever she wanted? She sure didn’t! She…

Suzie lost track of her train of thought somewhere in the midst of her trying to both separate old and new Celia and think of them as the same person. She rammed her head into the table and let out a groan.

“Hey, look, it’s emotional turmoil o’clock,” Squiddy said, cleaning her gun on the couch.

Suzie lazily looked up at the inkling. “You would know.”

“Ouch,” Squiddy deadpanned. “Taking pot shots. Looks like you’re really down in the depths there. Not fun, is it?”

“...Are you trying to provoke me?”

Squiddy shrugged. “Dunno. Just saying what comes to mind.”

“So, what do you think? Is she right or am I?”

Squiddy rolled her eyes, refusing to answer.

“...Of course. You d—”

“Answering the question is stupid.”

Suzie lifted her head. “How so?”

“You’re obsessed with who’s right. I seem to recall you telling us that being right isn’t all that matters. What matters is what you do.” She raised an eyebrow. “Might want to listen to yourself.”

Suzie opened her mouth to respond, then quickly shut it.

“Might want to listen to your own speeches about hypocrisy while you’re at it. Heh.”

“...I can change. I can be more trusting. I can just…” Suzie drummed her fingers on the table. “Who am I kidding? You can’t just change what your mind thinks through sheer force of will. It’s not how it works.”

“Yep. You just deal with it.” Squiddy examined the barrel of her gun.

“You don’t deal with it very well…”

Squiddy sighed. “Yeah. This is why I’m not your emotional support squid. I don’t do that. So, basically, go figure it out yourself. The quicker you get out of your funk the sooner I can stop feeling like I need to say something that sounds wise.” She jumped off the couch and walked to her room. “Good luck.”

There was silence in the lounge.

Suzie pressed her palms together and closed her eyes.

Restore our friendship.

She sat like this for several minutes in the quiet. No one came to bother her the entire time. Eventually, she let out a deep sigh and stood up, walking to the bridge. The instant she arrived, a call for her came through.

Nausicaa appeared on the screen, spreading her wings. “Suzie, got a mission for you and your team.”

“What is it?”

“The Imperfects are asking for you.”

~~~

Okay… let’s see if reforming works properly like this.

Celia’s gemstone flashed white as her essence re-asserted itself. The diamond-shaped crystal floated into the air slightly above the heads of all the ponies, creating her hard-light body in a manner of seconds. She chose not to alter her appearance any, though she did extend the length of her scarf slightly. Her pointed hooves touched down on the ground and she opened her eyes. “I’m back! What did I miss?”

“A lot of stuff,” Cinder said. “But we have some new friends!”

Celia took a moment to take in her surroundings. She was with Cinder, Curaçao, Velvet, and Grayscale, being led by the local Pinkie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. They were currently walking through some kind of Canterlot labyrinth beneath the surface, the three dimensional maze twisting and turning in bizarre ways. Nonetheless, Applejack appeared to know where she was going.

“You weren't kidding when you said she’d be back,” Rainbow observed, looking Celia up and down. “You really do look like Rarity. No wonder you had Esteem off his game. Mongrel was probably baffled behind that mask of his.”

“I aim to please,” Celia said with a bow. “So, I take it Curaçao and Cinder have filled you in on who we are?”

“Eeyep,” Applejack confirmed. “Hard to believe, but so’s a magic crystal pony that can survive gettin’ stabbed like it’s nothin’.”

“You can do that,” Pinkie pointed out.

“In a different way, Pinkie.”

“I tested it out!” Velvet added. “Nicked her in the leg, she healed it right up! Little slower than me, but hey, pretty cool!”

“And you re-establish that you’re a psycho,” Rainbow muttered.

“Yep!” Velvet giggled.

Celia nodded. “Well, I’m Celia, Chalcedony, a Gem. And I bet you know all about me, so care to explain who you are?”

Cinder beamed. “Oh, I’ve got this! They’re the resistance fighting against the evil alicorn-king Titan who wants to bring ‘absolute order’ to the world by… subjugating ponykind to the point of removing their free will, or something like that. He’s wrestled control of Equestria from Celestia and everypony’s currently trying to take it back.”

“That’s… mightily oversimplifyin’ it,” Applejack commented.

Pinkie shrugged. “Eh, it works.”

“What of your sisters?” Celia asked Curaçao.

“Either lost, or Esteem ‘as zem,” Curaçao said with a slight sigh. “We are going to see Twilight to get zem back.”

“I think Esteem has them,” Cinder offered. “It would give us more reason to help them take out Canterlot Palace.”

“And before any of you ask, oui, zese ponies are telling ze truth. Zere really is a Titan, ‘e really is terrible, and ‘e’s Rarity’s fazer.”

“Heh. Fazer.” Rainbow snickered.

Velvet gasped. “Did you just diss the accent!? On no, you’re in for it now!”

Rainbow smirked. “What’s she gonna do? Go invisible and punch me?”

“No, she’s just going to go say she’ll watch you for the rest of your natural life and go invisible. You will never see her again and you will always have to wonder if she’s in the room with you at any given time.” Velvet grinned. “Eternal haunting!”

“That’s quite the prank!” Pinkie said.

“I’ve got better! Just wait until I get my hooves on one of our enemies, I’ll make their worst nightmares enter reality…”

“Your powers will be useful,” Applejack said. “Though if Esteem manages to turn the others to his side…”

“Shadow’s not that dumb,” Grayscale said.

“She may not need to be,” Rainbow admitted, twitching slightly. “Titan and… his followers have a lot of corrupting magic.”

“Me and my sisters were made from dark magic,” Curaçao explained. “Our neutral essences make it easier to combat such things.”

“Still. They might need saving.”

Curaçao frowned. “You were corrupted, weren’t you?”

Rainbow growled.

“Uh, let’s change the topic!” Pinkie said. “Like… how we’re almost at the hideout! Yeah! You’ll get to see the resistance base! It’s awesome, trust me!”

Pinkie wasn’t exaggerating—the next corner they took led them to a large, expansive room filled with resistance ponies living their lives. Weapons and armor were everywhere, as were multiple boxes upon boxes of food and other supplies, many of which were stacked up as walls of a sort. There were bloodstains everywhere, indicating there had been an attack relatively recently, but there were no bodies lying around. Ponies looked both tired and excited, like the end of a long struggle was within sight.

The unicorn guards at the entrance summoned their blades the moment the group returned. They were a lot like Esteem’s blade, except made out of different materials and containing significantly fewer shards. They dispelled them immediately when they saw it was Applejack.

“What in…?” a mare said, pointing at Celia.

“Ah’m explainin’ it to Master General Twilight,” Applejack said. “She’ll explain it to everypony if she wants.”

The mare nodded. “She’s currently in the war-room. They were waiting for you to return to make final preparations. No doubt she will wish to speak with you privately first.”

“Call for Luna, too.”

“Right away.”

Applejack led the group down a passage into a more secluded room in the catacombs, coming to a large, but flat room with a table in the middle. A two-dimensional representation of Canterlot stood on the table, marked with blue and red markers. The largest collection of red markers were in the central palace itself, behind a red circle. No doubt some kind of barrier.

Luna, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity were already there.

Luna was largely how Celia had expected her to look—dark blue armor, stern expression, ready to fight whenever necessary. She’d seen several war-time Lunas in her time, and the specimen before her wasn't all that special all things considered.

Twilight, on the other hoof, was a unicorn—but she wore a cloak made out of night, and had a swirling chunk of the Element of Magic orbiting her head. She exuded power, magic, and had the expression of a mare who did what she did out of grim necessity.

Fluttershy looked normal, but tired. Rarity wore a flowing cloak that Celia had also seen on the unicorn guards at the entrance earlier. She looked as dignified as ever—that is, until she saw Celia and Cinder walk in.

“What in Celestia’s name!?” Rarity shouted, her jaw dropping.

Celia smirked. “What an interesting response. I am Celia. This is Cinder. We are from another world.”

Twilight turned to Applejack.

“They’re tellin’ the truth,” Applejack confirmed. “Well, all of ‘em except maybe the blue one over there, can’t get a read on her.”

Curaçao bowed. “I am what one may call ze Element of Deception, zough I prefer Element of Trickery.”

“A set of alternate Elements?” Twilight asked—short, to the point.

“Oui. Zere are only zree of us ‘ere, zough. We suspect Esteem ‘as my sisters.”

“And we need to get them back, quickly,” Grayscale said. “I hope you’ve got a plan.”

“We do,” Twilight admitted. “In two hours we will move out unless something new comes up.” Looking at Pinkie, she sighed. “Something new has come up, hasn’t it?”

“Besides the other universe ponies?” Pinkie asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, there was a new alicorn puppet… something fiery.”

Twilight frowned. “...Could Titan have corrupted Celestia?”

Luna shook her head. “Not so quickly. It would take many months to break her mind down, even in her weakened state.”

“A new alicorn, then?” Twilight shook her head. “How?”

“The process to create new alicorns is not one I am aware of, Master General.”

Twilight pressed her hooves together. “What were her capabilities?”

“Didn’t see much besides the fire and the sword,” Celia offered. “Interesting spell, by the way, I don’t believe I’ve seen it before in any other worlds.”

“Bladecasting does not exist in most worlds? Interesting…” Twilight scratched her chin. “At least we’ll know not to expect a blade from those taken.”

“...Shadow is a master magician and Insipid can copy any ability effortlessly.”

Twilight let out a tense sigh. “Is there any chance Esteem didn’t get them?”

“They could just be lost,” Grayscale said.

“You could find her!” Velvet said. “You have great magic sense, and she’ll stand out like a beacon! Look for a pocket of dark, voidey magic!”

Twilight nodded to herself, closing her eyes. Her horn was soon encased in three layers of magic as she performed a long-range scan. A moment later, her eyes shot open in shock. “I found her. She is in the palace, behind the barrier.” She turned to Luna. “Her essence is virtually identical in power to mine, and they’re not even trying to hide it.”

“A unicorn of such power…” Luna grimaced. “If Titan takes her…”

“We are partially dark in essence,” Curaçao reiterated. “It takes more to ‘corrupt’ us than most.”

“I was corrupted,” Twilight said, flatly. “If my magic wasn’t enough, then neither is hers.”

Grayscale scowled. “We need to move fast. Murderous Shadow isn’t something you want to fight directly.”

Twilight nodded. “I will need an explanation of what to expect. What can all of you do, and what should I expect if we end up fighting your sisters?”

In turn, they explained themselves. Cinder’s fire, Celia’s magic, Curaçao’s disguise and deception, Velvet’s blood and fear, and Grayscale’s gravity. Twilight sat in silence as the abilities were explained, cataloguing them in her mind.

“And those you don’t have with you?”

“Havocwing is a stronger version of me,” Cinder said. “Lots more fire, lots more speed.”

“Shadow is a master of Void magic,” Celia added. “In some universes this completely negates standard magic being used against it. I… don’t know enough to be certain if that is the case in this universe or not.”

“A direct foil to me is dangerous,” Twilight noted. “We may need to be cautious.”

“And Insipid,” Curaçao said. “She can copy any ability and use it herself, often to more effect zan ze original user of the power.”

“Any? How much power can she store?”

“She’s ‘eld the power of entities with power over entire universes before, so… there’s not a limit as far as we know.”

“...What sort of magic is that?” Luna asked. “The power to do anything the opponent can do?”

“It originates in a corruption of Generosity. Instead of giving power, she takes it.”

“Stars…” Rarity put a hoof to her mouth. “How terrifying…”

“She’s also as dumb as a rock,” Grayscale added.

“Gray!” Velvet chided.

“What? She is. It’s a weakness. Outsmart her, you win.”

Twilight leaned in. “And do you have the Elements within you?”

Curaçao frowned. “Not ze Elements of ‘armony. Ze… Elements of Pandemonium. Zey’re more attuned to Chaos zan anyzing else.”

“Really effective at taking down alicorns, though!” Velvet chirped. “We vaporized one!”

“With Insipid having copied his power,” Grayscale reminded her.

“Well, yeah, but hey! It worked, didn’t it?”

“If we can get all six of them, we have a second set of Elements…” Rarity realized.

“Further backup against Titan,” Twilight nodded. “Good. Are there any other allies we can expect to arrive?”

Celia frowned. “We can probably call in someone specific, but if you were asking for military aid that would take a while to go through the proper channels and would require us to speak with Titan directly to hear his side of the conflict. You are pressed for time, correct?”

“I’ll go with what we have, then,” Twilight announced.

“I have a question of my own,” Celia said. “General Esteem,” she pointed at Rarity. “What should we know of him?”

Rarity frowned. “Well, he is my father—though Sweetie and I ran from him since he was decidedly… severe. His special talent is war and battle, and he’s one of the best bladecasters in the world.”

“Any… personal weaknesses?”

“He seems to have a soft spot for me and Sweetie Belle somewhere in that cold, dead heart of his, but he’s proven that he’s willing to harm and kill me for his precious king before.” She huffed. “He tried to raise us like soldiers. To be fair, he is the reason I know how to bladecast at all. I do wonder how much he’ll regret his actions when I stab him right in his…” Tapping her hoof on the ground rapidly, she calmed her words.

“Where is your Sweetie now?” Cinder asked.

“Somewhere far, far away from all the fighting. And… Sweetie? Are you also Sweetie Belles?”

Cinder nodded. “Yep! I’m Sweetie Belle, I just go by Cinder to avoid confusion with all the others in the League of Sweetie Belles.”

Rarity let out a sigh of relief. “Good… I was a little afraid it’d be the League of Allures…”

Cinder and Celia stared at her in shock.

“W-what?”

“Your Sweetie was originally named Allure?” Celia asked.

“Yes? How is that relev—”

“That’s the name chosen by one of our Founders.” Celia pulled out a communication device. “I think… she’d like to hear about this.”

~~~

Insipid woke up with a killer headache.

This headache immediately went away when she saw the massive salad in front of her filled with all sorts of delectable flowers and fancy greens. Her brain went immediately from food to eat, and she shoveled the lettuce into her mouth, chewing and swallowing quickly. She was hungry.

Under the lettuce she found some nice, delectable strips of bacon. “Major fresh! Bacon!” She began biting down quickly.

“You’ve eaten it before?”

Insipid looked up to see a tall, white stallion with a blood-red mane looking at her from across the table. “Like, yeah! Velvet turned me off meat for a while with her whole obsession thing, but see it around enough and you just learn to like the smell, you know? Squid is better though. It’s totally the opposite of fresh but I just like it anyway!” She clapped her front hooves together. “Though bacon is real good too.”

“It is rare for ponies to eat meat.”

“Oh. Yeah. It is.” Insipid tapped her chin. “Guess I just do, cha!”

“Hmm…” the stallion took a bit of the salad himself, using his magic to levitate the food. “Am I allowed to have the honor of knowing the names of the mares I saved from the rebels?”

“Oh, you saved us? Thank you!” Insipid grinned. “I’m Insipid, and…” She looked around, finding Havocwing groaning in the chair next to her. “This is Havocwing!”

“Five more minutes,” Havocwing muttered. Insipid tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped up to full attention, wings on fire. “I’LL KILL THE BASTARDS!”

“Calm yourself, Havocwing,” the stallion said. “You are no longer in danger. You are, in fact, in the safest place in Equestria… for the time being.”

Havocwing looked him in the eye. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“We are likely to be attacked by rebels at any moment. I do not mean to alarm you, but it is the truth. We were lucky to get you safely within the barrier.”

“He, like, totally saved us!” Insipid said, grinning. “He’s uh… I’m sorry, I guess I forgot your name? Happens a lot.”

“I am General Esteem.” He took a drink of wine.

“Where are our sisters?” Havocwing shouted.

“Either captured by the rebels or lost to us in the chaotic streets of Canterlot.”

“Then we’re going to go save them!”

“You are welcome to try, but I doubt you would have much luck charging in with just the two of you, inexplicable fire magic notwithstanding. You clearly know nothing about your enemy; where they are based, who leads them, or what their reason for fighting is.”

Havocwing blinked. “Uh… fine. How about you tell us those things?”

Esteem nodded. “The rebels do not see the rule of King Titan as legitimate and have killed hundreds of thousands of ponies in a foolish quest to kill him. They have brought Canterlot almost to the ground in their efforts, rendering it all but uninhabitable. They hide in the caverns, strike at the weak and the foolish, and then retreat back to their caves. We recently attacked their base, but they managed to repel the attack after their leader Twilight Sparkle entered the fray.”

“Oh, the local Twilight?” Insipid asked.

Esteem narrowed his eyes. “Local… Twilight?”

“Yeah! Twilights are pretty common in a lot of universes, you know. Why our sister Shadow is one of them! Sorta. She’s a clone, though…”

“You talk too much,” Havocwing muttered while munching on a daisy.

“Universes…” Esteem mulled the idea over in his head. “You have met her many times, then?”

Insipid nodded. “Totally!”

“What is she like?”

“Well, there are a lot of outliers… but Twilights are usually friendly, super wooper smart, magical, royal, leaders, and a biiiiit arrogant—don’t tell her I said that.”

“She’s his enemy, of course he wouldn’t,” Havocwing muttered. “Twilights are also usually the hero. Evil Twilights are in the minority. Shadow was one of them. How do we know this Twilight is evil too?”

Esteem frowned. “I have no proof. But consider that she may have captured and imprisoned your other sisters.”

“Curie has been quiet…” Insipid said.

“Could just be out of range.”

“She wouldn’t let herself be out of range for long. And she wouldn’t let them lie to her! She’s, like, a living lie detector!”

“They could have brainwashed her,” Esteem pointed out. “It does happen.”

“Oh… some of those Elements of Harmony,” Inispid rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that might be annoying.”

“...Elements of Harmony?”

“Twilight and her friends?”

“Ah, a collective name,” Esteem sat back, visibly relaxed.

Havocwing coughed. “So, bozo, what are you doing to get our sisters back?”

“Admittedly, not much. We are focused on defending the palace from rebel incursion. The Prince must be protected.”

“Then why are we even here? You’re not going to help us!”

“I can tell you what you need to know and offer you some training in our way of combat so you will know what to expect.”

Havocwing’s eyes sparkled. “Combat training?”

“Yes.”

“...I am going to torch you.”

Esteem allowed himself to smirk. “I doubt it. The courtyard is just outside—I’ll be eager for you to prove me wrong.”

Havocwing was out before Esteem had even taken a step. She flew a few circles, stretching out her wings and filling the air with smoke. “Bring it, sparky! What kind of magic do you got?”

Esteem summoned his multi-segmented platinum blade, the pointed shapes matching the three chevrons on his cutie mark. He turned to Insipid. “This is a blade. All unicorns can cast this spell if they put their minds to it.”

“Cooool…” Insipid said, taken in by its glimmering reflections.

“Watch, you might learn something.” He ran toward Havocwing, blade pointed forward.

“Just a sword? Psh, I got this.” Havocwing coated one of her hooves in fire and created a whirling tornado of flame directed at Esteem’s head.

He split the shards of his blade in two—sending half to intercept the flame and deflect it while directing the other half to Havocwing. To her credit, she saw the shards coming and blasted some of them away, but three of them made it to her neck, making her freeze in place.

“H-hey there, nice sword-shards…” Havocwing said.

“A bladecaster with plenty of shards to spare can send them anywhere,” Esteem said, reforming his sword into a single piece once more. “Always look for the shards coming from behind, or shards sent out in a wild spray designed to incapacitate as many as possible.”

Havocwing growled.

“You are at a disadvantage with your fighting style, Havocwing. You would be better suited focusing on non-bladecasters with wide area attacks. Unicorns are your weakness, avoid them and play to your strengths. Unless you have other powers I’m not aware of?”

“No…” Havoc said, grumpily. She landed next to Insipid and tapped her on the shoulder. “You’re up. Surprise him.”

“Oh, should I tell him what I do?”

Esteem shook his head. “No. Make full use of the element of surprise, explain later.”

“All right!” Insipid said, taking up position on the other side of the courtyard. She held up a hoof. “When do we start?”

“Now.” Esteem charged, brandishing his sword as a single weapon for now.

Insipid waited a few seconds before waving her hoof and lighting the grass in front of her on fire. Esteem was confused for a moment—were both of their powers fire-based? Her horn hadn’t even lit, either. He pulled his blade up on the defensive, but kept charging the fire. He leaped through, looking wildly for her location.

She was under him. Had this been an actual fight, he could have split his sword and killed her instantly, but he had no intention of doing so now. Instead, he attempted to split his blade and surround her neck like he had done with Havocwing.

This gave her enough time to touch him. He felt a shock as her magic interacted with his.

He continued with his attack anyway, moving his shards to her neck…

Except they didn’t move the way he wanted them to. Instead, the platinum shards moved far away from Insipid and Esteem, forming a full blade elsewhere.

She had stolen his blade.

“HOW DARE YOU!?” he shouted at the top of his lungs, channeling an explosion spell through his horn.

Insipid’s smile vanished. “Uh oh.” She was able to channel the exact same spell, canceling out the brunt force of the assault, turning it into a canceling explosion that tossed the two of them to the side. “I give! I give! I was just trying t—”

Esteem got ahold of himself the moment he felt control of his blade return to him. “A… unicorn’s blade is a very personal and deep object to them. They are only supposed to lose it when they lose the reason to fight. You… did the impossible.”

“Oh, sorry!” Insipid said, putting a hoof to her mouth. “I didn’t realize… I’m always doing this, stupid! Stupid!”

“You are the perfect weapon against a bladecaster,” Esteem finished. “For most, losing their blade will be a shock so immense they will stop fighting, leaving them open for the kill. You have a trump none of them will think is possible. All you have to do is touch them, correct?”

Insipid nodded. “Yep!”

“Now I will ask you to explain… what exactly is your power?”

“I, like, copy magic. Any magic at all. Take it from whoever’s using it and make it mine!” She grinned.

“Are there any limits to what you can take?”

“Not that I know of…”

Esteem frowned. “You are perhaps the most dangerous mage I have ever met.”

“Aww, thanks!”

“I’m chopped liver,” Havocwing muttered.

“You are not,” Esteem corrected. “You have a more tactical mindset and a drive to fight. You have the resolve required to follow through. Insipid here has power, but not the faculties to fully expound on it.”

“Totally know that,” Insipid chuckled. “But my sisters make up for it! Curie comes up with some of the craziest plans!”

“Why don’t you tell me about your sisters?”

“Well… I guess we start with Curie...”

~~~

Celestia was less than an earth pony. Here, in the ancient Castle of the Two Sisters, she had no magic to speak of. No horn, no wings, not even anything in her hooves. All she had was her mind, and that had served her well enough. Which was to say it had allowed her to come up with an escape attempt, nothing successful.

She was still trapped with the psychotic tormenter that was her mother, Queen Terra. A graceful green alicorn with a mane of beautiful sunshine. Mother nature. She had a figure so soft, beautiful, and gentle.

Every now and then, Celestia had seen that gentleness. Seen the nurturing pony underneath. But those moments were so rare, and there hadn’t been a single one since she and Titan returned, turning Equestria into a warzone. All Terra had done was beat Celestia within an inch of her life in an attempt to turn her to Titan’s side.

Celestia knew Terra was just entertaining herself until it would be the appropriate time to force Celestia’s mind to cooperate. They would wait until they had won the war to do so, but do it they would.

It was a good thing Celestia had no intention of losing the war. Powerless though she was, her pieces were still on the board. Twilight Sparkle and Luna were free and fighting. She had prepared them for a moment exactly like this; even though Titan had surprised her with his return, she had laid the groundwork for his defeat.

She’d had doubts before, yes. About Titan being smarter, cleverer, or more adaptable than she anticipated. Occasionally she thought his raw power might be enough to face all of them at once. However, she was always able to give herself hope. Nothing truly unforeseen had happened. Everything followed basic logic and her subjects’ victory was still possible.

Then they had shown up.

“Celestia, meet your new brother and sister!” Terra had said, a sneer on her face. “Logos and Pathos!”

Both of the alicorns were smaller than Terra, which indicated they couldn't be much older than Luna. However, Celestia had never seen any sign of these two in her entire life. They had to have been created recently, but they had power accumulated from centuries of age. It was an impossibility. New immortals. Unknowns.

“They’re going to help your father destroy those pesky little pony rebels of yours. And then we can all go back to being a family! A new family!”

Celestia’s doubts had skyrocketed. She couldn’t have accounted for these variables. Two new alicorns of this power? Her ponies were barely scraping by as it was, how could they hope to win now?

Terra knew this. She made sure to parade Pathos around like a lost treasure, making Celestia watch as she was trained in the ways of magic and bladecasting. Pathos picked up on everything remarkably quickly, even going so far as to be able to use Terra’s alicorn puppets like Titan. She had reportedly fought in Canterlot a few times, though Celestia had never been permitted to see this.

Celestia rarely saw Logos. He was distant and cold. Within his eyes rested an attitude she had only seen in Titan’s own—cold calculation. Unlike Titan, however, Logos smiled. Enjoyed things. She had him pegged as an analytical type, but he continually threw her by laughing and making astute observations. She so wanted to see more of him to learn of his mind, but he specifically avoided her. Maybe he knew she was analyzing him?

Pathos, though, Pathos was an open book to Celestia. She made little, if any, attempts to hide from Celestia’s gaze. When fighting, she would always be sure to look up at the magicless filly watching from afar. She would frown whenever she saw Celestia come with new scars and bruises. And when Terra ordered Pathos to attack Celestia just to prove a point, she always made sure to hit locations that would hurt but do the least lasting damage.

Pathos had a conscience. Something so rare among alicorns…

“Celestia, what do you think of Pathos’ work?” Terra had asked once Pathos had finished slicing several unicorn puppets in half with one quick motion of her blade.

Celestia knew Pathos could hear her. “She has the burning passion required to fight for what she believes in.”

Pathos’ facial twitch was barely perceptible, but Celestia noted it, glad that Terra was always distracted enough not to notice such things. Had Titan been here, he would have easily seen Pathos’ wavering uncertainty.

“She does, doesn’t she…” Terra breathed, frowning slightly. “Pathos?”

“Yes, mother?” Pathos responded, dissipating her blade.

“Watch Celestia for me, would you? I have some business to attend to.”

Celestia knew Terra had no such business. And even if she did, the castle was more than secure enough to keep her from running away. She had already tried it once. No, Terra just wanted her daughters to get some ‘quality time’.

“Of course, mother,” Pathos said, sitting down in front of Celestia.

Terra teleported away.

After a few moments, Pathos spoke. “She is gone.”

Celestia frowned. “She will expect you to beat me. I will need to be mangled to satisfy her upon return.”

Pathos made no attempts to hide her grimace. “Why does she do this?”

“As long as I have known her, she has been cruel and delighted in the suffering of others.”

Pathos shook her head. “Why does father allow her to be so?”

“It is effective. That is all he cares for.”

Standing up, Pathos turned to a window, looking out toward Canterlot mountain.

“How are they doing?”

“Your ponies fight well,” Pathos remarked. “But they do not stand a chance. Though there has been a… complication.”

“What complication?”

Pathos hesitated a moment.

“I won’t tell her you told me anything. I’ve kept my resolve intact this long, after all.”

Nodding slowly, Pathos continued. “There are some ponies who have apparently come from nowhere. Strange abilities, no previous history.”

“Like you?”

“Yes. Logos thinks we are related, in some fashion.” Pathos dragged her hoof against a wall, lethargically. “He has determined to ask father when he returns from his exploration.”

“Titan has left? Why?”

Pathos shrugged. “Logos knows more than I. Father trusts him more. I am too insecure, uncertain, weak. I’m talking to you as equals, so he’s clearly right.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re wrong.”

“Be that as it may, there is nothing to be done. I know full well why I’m being paraded around in front of you. The purpose is twofold. Mother’s petty desire to torment you, and a warning to myself. What happens to those who cross father directly.”

Celestia stood up and pointed at herself. “I’m not dead.”

“But what good can you do, tied up like this? Trapped in a—” Pathos stopped short. “You can talk to me.”

Celestia didn’t let her disappointment show. “Hmm?”

“You are trying to turn me to your side. To empathize with the little ponies and your plight.” Pathos’s calm exterior became angry. “You’re using me just like she is.”

“I am attempting to bring you to the truth.”

“I will come to the truth on my own.” Pathos summoned her blade of sunlight and pointed it at Celestia. “Stay still. It will hurt less if I can be precise.”

“...May I ask what your blade’s name is?”

Something Celestia couldn’t recognize tugged at Pathos’ features. “...Replete.”

“Mine’s Zenith,” Celestia offered.

Pathos nodded in understanding. Without flinching, she drove the blade of sunlight into Celestia’s flank.

Celesita let herself scream more than was strictly necessary. Pathos would feel as much of the pain as Celestia could make her.

~~~

Suzie needed something to take her mind off Celia, so she went down to Equis Imperfect personally, to deal with the Imperfects and their issue. Only Seren and Blink were with her.

This may not have been the best idea.

Currently, she was talking to Cabbage, who had one very important mission in mind.

“You look down, captain. But don’t worry, I can be here—an ever-smiling face to listen to your problems.”

“I don’t need anyone to listen to my problems right now,” Suzie said, frowning. “I need to figure out why you called me.”

“Are you certain? Maybe you would just find it uncomfortable to vent to me? I assure you, nothing you say will upset me.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…”

“Of course you did! You don’t have to hide behind perceptions with me. You can mean it like that all you want, nothing will change about my perception of you!”

“I have a job to do, Cabbage.”

“Jobs can wait, personal health comes first!”

“Hey, Cabbage?” a yellow Imperfect mare said. “Her job, in this case, involves figuring out what happened with our universe. Maybe her job does come first?”

“Wow! Imagine that, I learned something new today!”

“Glad to hear it!”

Suzie stared, slack-jawed, as Cabbage walked away without another worry.

“He likes to help people a lot. Should I apologize for that?”

“Uh… no.” Suzie shook her head. “What’s your name?”

“Butterscotch!” She widened her smile in greeting. “I’m here to take you to Melancholy.”

“That’s an odd name for an Imperfect,” Blink commented.

“He changed it not that long ago,” Butterscotch said. “He’s experimenting with the ways of Imperfection so the rest of us don’t have to. It’s a wonder—I hear he’s close to getting himself to frown naturally! What progress!”

“Uh-huh…” Blink said.

“Fascinating,” Seren added. “Is he forcibly integrating the emotion of sorrow, or just learning to fake it?”

“I have no idea,” Butterscotch admitted in the creepily chipper tone that was standard for Imperfects. “I bet you could ask him!”

They arrived at a large house painted black and covered with every cliche horror implement imaginable: boarded up windows, pointed black wire-fence, a black cat sleeping on the porch, and a keep out! sign on the front lawn.

Admittedly, the sign had a footnote on it. Words for experimentation only. Feel free to come in whenever you want. -Melancholy.

“I didn’t think it was possible for Imperfects to get insanity,” Blink said.

Butterscotch nodded. “That’s true, unless you count our Imperfect condition an insanity. Melancholy has simply chosen to see what happens when one attempts to live a life opposite our own. Come on in, he’s quite inviting.”

They trotted up the rickety steps to the front door. Butterscotch didn’t even knock, she just walked right in.

“Ah, welcome!” a blue stallion said, lounging on a black couch in the front room. His face had a strange metal ring around it that forced his mouth to curve downward into a frown, tightening his skin enough to make it appear painful. “I am Melancholy. Oh, woe is me!” He said this with so much cheer that Suzie couldn’t help but groan.

Melancholy shrugged. “I appear to be doing it wrong. Perhaps this is a fruitless endeavor. But we will never see where it leads until we get there! Greetings, welcome to the house of suffering, dismay, and crows.”

“Crows?” Seren asked.

“Crows, yes. Had them imported last week. They seem to have gone missing, though. With luck they’ll start a full ecosystem in town!”

Suzie frowned. “Why did you call us?”

“Why, because I am one of the frontier scientists of Equis Imperfect, and I noticed something odd recently! Here, let me show you!” He led them into a basement. Suzie was able to identify a standard-issue Merodi laboratory absolutely covered in fake cobwebs, toy spiders, and black paint.

“Welcome to my torture chamber!” Melancholy said. “This is where I run tests on my emotional state and the dimensional fabric of existence!” He led them to a large screen displaying a graph. “As you can see, our dimension has experienced a mysterious upset recently.”

Suzie shook her head. “I’m not a scientist; I have no idea what this graph means.”

“I know!” Seren said, pointing at a line graph that dipped in the middle. “These are the magic levels. They’re dropping at a rate faster than they can replenish it!”

“We’re not connected to the Magic High Commission in this universe, are we?” Blink asked. “It’s always such a hassle to get to the other side of the Q-Sphere to talk to them…”

“No, we don’t have to worry about that,” Seren said, shaking her head. “This universe produces its own magic through the Imperfects themselves. They’re self-sustaining! This just means that something, somewhere else, is eating it up. And it’s not Imperfects off-world either, they wouldn’t draw this much power…”

“So an unexplained drop in magic in the perfect universe Silvertongue created,” Suzie summarized. “Yeah, that’s suspicious. Any theories?”

Melancholy shrugged. “Universe Generator?”

Suzie sighed. “Seems unlikely, but worth a shot, I guess… Tell Swip to pick us up and pay a visit to that wonderful place.”

“Yes! I get to go to the Universe Generator!” Seren cheered.

~~~

Sweetaloo realized she wasn’t in her bed.

She shot to her hooves and splayed her wings, ready for a fight even though she knew she was all but useless. Something had taken her away from Swip.

“Look who decided to wake up.” Nira was using her ominous voice. That meant something was wrong. More than usual.

Sweetaloo looked around. She was in an expanse of darkness with nothing in sight but Nira and a massive black alicorn with a blindingly white mane and tail. Oh no. A pocket dimension?

“Sweetaloo, Titan. Titan, Sweetaloo,” Nira growled. “Now that we’re introduced, how about you say more than your name?”

Titan spoke, the voice so demanding and powerful it made Sweetaloo wince. “Your impatience is tiresome and unfitting for a being such as you.”

“You don’t even know what I am.”

“You were the personal slave of one of my siblings.”

Nira snorted. “You have an interesting definition of sibling.”

“Were you not useful your disrespect would earn you death.”

“Bring it. I’ve taken out more than a few of those ‘siblings’ in my time.”

“And you do not have the power to do it alone. Your use comes in telling me how it is done so I may prevent it.”

“Nice try. I’m not telling you a—”

Titan drove a line of darkness through Nira’s midsection, wielding it like a sword. Nira’s blood poured out, taking the form of two massive claws that rushed Titan. Still impassive, Titan made his blade split into dozens of pieces, shredding Nira’s blood arms and pinning her to the ground.

“Heh, nice. But how about this?”

Nira’s entire body began to glow with red runic designs, chaining together with dark magic. Rippling, vibrating chains began to appear all around her. Sweetaloo covered her ears - she knew what madness was coming.

“No,” Titan said. The magic vanished from Nira in an instant.

“Wh… you’re no fair.”

“Knowing you are about to die and you resort to petty insults?”

“I was raised by a monster like you. There is no fear of death in me.”

“I would say they raised you well, but they allowed you to rebel.”

“Hah. No they didn’t. I had to be taken out of the universe for that to work!”

Titan’s expression remained level. He turned to Sweetaloo. “You.”

“Y-yes?” Sweetaloo said.

“You are an alicorn. You are not an alicorn. What are you?”

“I am… the Crusader. A teleportation accident fused three ponies together, and… here I am!” She smiled nervously. I can’t get a read on this guy.

“A perversion of the natural order,” Titan concluded. “I must know more, yet I don’t know what it is most pertinent to know first. My multiversal explorations have, so far, been equal parts enlightening and obfuscatory. You are going to tell me everything.”

“N-no,” Sweetaloo stammered.

“Falsifying fear won’t get you anywhere.”

Sweetaloo’s trembling lip dropped. “Right, we’ll do this the basic way. I’m absolutely terrified of you. I refuse to give you anything.”

“Unlike the dark one, you fear death.” Titan held his blade to Sweetaloo’s neck.

Sweetaloo closed her eyes. Titan used his magic to force them open. “No hiding.”

“Perhaps we can come to some kind of agreem—”

“No semantics. Absolute loyalty or death.”

“O-okay,” Sweetaloo sputtered. “What do you want?”

“You lie.”

Sweetaloo forced a smile. “I’m sure I can learn to be absolutely loyal, with time.”

Titan de-summoned his blade. “Breaking you down would take too long. Stay still.”

“For w—”

Her mind was on fire. She fell to the ground, screaming as her own mind screamed against her.

“Tell me about the Universe Generator.”

Sweetaloo wanted to say no. She screamed to say no. But the moment she opened her mouth to say no, her mind became a warzone. Her conscious train of thought was forcefully derailed and rammed into the ground, crushed until she could hear nothing but static and Titan’s previous order.

“T-the Universe Generator is… is…” she stopped herself, forcing herself to think more about the Universe Generator. As she collected her thoughts, her psychologist’s intuition was able to recognize what was happening to her. A forced compliance spell, specifically one that induced insanity and incoherence onto any thought that could be construed as defiant to the orders of the caster. The more she fought the orders of Titan, the more the spell would eat her mind.

She was fairly sure she had enough mental fortitude and psychological awareness to refuse his order through sheer skill, but that would turn her into a brainless husk. The information he wanted would no longer be at his disposal, but then he could just find another pony…

No, her best option was to force herself to obey without question so she could keep as much of her sanity intact as possible.

Speaking like a robot, she reported. “The Universe Generator is the universe responsible for 90-99% of all pony-based worlds, most of which are located within the Q-Sphere of the multiverse. It is theorized to have been built by the Downstreamers uncountable eons ago. It works through a-”

“Why are you so coherent so quickly?”

He’s onto me. “I recognized the sort of spell and realized fighting it would only be detrimental to any of my previous goals and likes.”

“Purge all loyalty to any being but me from your mind.”

“Sweetaloo, don’t!”

“Done,” Swetaloo said. “Titan, my past-self only made that decision so quickly because she knew it could be retracted later upon your defeat.”

“Why are you so certain I will be defeated?”

“You are acting as a classic villain. Ka will ensure it.”

Titan’s expression changed for the first time, eyes narrowing. “What is ka?”

Author's Notes:

https://fimfiction.net/story/1886/the-immortal-game

And here we have AestheticB's The Immortal Game, a very dark and violent story about action, emotional trauma, and edgy alicorns that is actually pretty good. Come one come all if you don't mind gratuitous action and gore even more ridiculous than what I show here.

This'll be a three-part extravaganza. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

What's in a Name? (The Immortal Game, Part 2)

Allure “Sweetie” Belle stepped out of a portal into a run-down Canterlot street that had seen better days. There was a hole in the ground that led to the labyrinthine catacombs, there was blood everywhere, and numerous bodies both fake and real lined the area.

“Geez…” she muttered, rubbing the back of her head. “I wonder how Cinder’s handling this…”

“Well enough, darling,” Celia said from Allure’s communicator. “Now, do get in the hole and make yourself scarce, we don’t want you getting captured!”

“You know, I do like this new you, more spunky.”

“Maybe I should change my name to Spunkelia!”

“No.”

Celia huffed. “You’re no fun. Anyway, there should be someone waiting for you in the catacombs. Just get your plot over here so you can have your chat about personal identity.”

Allure hopped down and found herself face-to-face with a bored-looking stallion.

“You’re here for me, right?”

The stallion nodded and set off down the tunnel at a brisk pace.

Now, Allure tried to make conversation.

“So, what’s your name?”

“Hey, I hear you’re in a rebellion. Why?”

“Nice mane. Natural color?”

“What’s Twilight like?”

“Seen other Sweeties before?”

To every answer, the stallion did little more than grunt. Not even so much as a nod. It was ridiculous!

“Favorite food…?” She tried desperately as he finally led her to the rebellion’s base.

The guards saw him instantly and nodded. “Welcome back, Sir Unimpressive.”

“Glad to be back,” he said, his voice one of a chipper, talkative stallion.

Allure turned to stare at him with a slack jaw. “Wh…”

He only grinned in response.

“You were messing with me the whole time!?”

“Couldn’t resist. You clearly loved talking to ponies. Now, let’s get you to that warrior sister of yours, Allure.”

Allure nodded, following him into a small room with boxes piled all around. It was clearly Rarity’s room, for she had decorated even the meager military accomodations with banners, colorful fabrics, and a sewing machine in addition to her knight’s cloak.

Rarity was sitting on her cot, looking intently at Allure. “So… Allure, I take it?”

Allure nodded. “Allure ‘Sweetie’ Belle, Founder of the League of Sweetie Belles, Equis Vitis.” She extended a hoof. “Master Knight Rarity?”

Rarity shook the hoof with a warm, but uncertain smile.

“Can I ask you to do something for me?” Allure asked.

“Depends.”

“Summon your blade. I want… to be sure.”

Rarity clearly wasn’t sure what Allure needed to be sure of, but she obliged anyway, summoning her many-segmented diamond blade. “This is Vorpal.”

Allure’s eyes lit up in recognition.

(...Sweetie Belle moved with grace the instant Vriska’s psychic “NOW” resounded through the minds of all present. She twirled through the air, summoning her crystalline blade out of her pocket dimension. The light of the azure universe glinted off its facets, catching Allure’s eye as it moved. For a moment, Allure was certain Siron would see, would be able to act too soon…

But her attack was true. Sweetie Belle severed the red insectoid’s hand from his body, freeing Suzie’s neck from its death grip. The young woman put her hands to her neck, trying to force herself to breathe faster, tears of panic streaking down her face. It was all too much for her. Today had been too much for all of them.

As the dark magic of Siron moved to replace his hand, Sweetie Belle placed herself between the insectoid and Suzie, raising her blade to defend Suzie from an attack she knew could kill her with ease…)

“You’ve… seen this before?” Rarity asked.

“Not… the exact same, no. Hers didn’t have all those parts, but that… that was the spell she used.”

“She?”

“Sweetie Belle. The Sweetie Belle. The one I said got to keep the name.” Allure sat down, gaze becoming distant.

“Why don’t you tell me about her?” Rarity asked.

(...The Collector spoke with a voice far too normal for a metallic man manipulating the strings of so many interdimensional beings. “It would just take slightly harder-handed conditioning,” he said, commenting on how difficult it would be to make certain persons his slaves. “I do think it is worth it though. J—”

“STOP IT!” Sweetie Belle shouted, summoning her blade and holding it to Siron’s neck. The once powerful insectoid, now used as a little bargaining chip. “Stop it or I cut off his head, right now.”

The Collector held up a hand to make sure his servants didn’t try anything. “You’re a clever filly, Sweetie Chronicle.”

“If you give me any orders I cut this guy’s head off without thinking.”

The Collector folded his hands together. “I’m not sure you really will, Sweetie Chronicle.” Allure was certain she wouldn’t. This was all just an elaborate bluff, right? “But you are correct in assuming I cannot take that risk. Not the least because I can’t actually condition you to me.”

“Why not?”

“There are certain individuals for whom conditioning would be dangerous. Those part of something larger, for instance. You have a powerful flow of ka, little one.”...)

“She was strong,” Allure said. “Back then, we weren’t really a big thing yet. We were just a bunch of young people—mostly kids, really—who decided to be friends and have fun in the multiverse. The League had a few dozen members, maybe, but it was still just a club. When we met her, we saw somepony who had been through much more than we had alone. Yet, she wasn’t broken. She was still a hero. She was braver than most of us, ready to face the villain who had trapped us all there.”

Rarity smiled. “She sounds amazing.”

(...The Collector tapped his fingers. “What’s it going to be, Sweetie Chronicle?”

“I… I…” Sweetie Belle glanced around nervously. Allure held her breath—she needed to stall a bit longer for their plan to pan out. “Why do you keep calling me Chronicle?”

“Spoilers,” the Collector chuckled. Then he paused. “You might understand the meaning of the word in the future, you might not.”

“It doesn’t matter to her,” Allure’s Pinkie growled.

“I can use it should I wish, Pinkie Pi—Wait… asking me a question?” He put a hand to his chin. “It’s almost like you’re stalling for time. What could you possibly be stalling for?”

Allure had to force herself not to look down, because she knew. Thrackerzod was being moved right underneath Siron. She would be able to reclaim her eldritch power from the staff and use it on Siron. But…

“Sweetie, are you hiding something from me? Some angle I’m not seeing?”

Sweetie Belle’s amused smirk was all the answer the Collector needed, but he got an earth-rumbling “Yes” from Thrackerzod as she rose from the ground anyway, returning to her trademark guttural tone. “She’s hiding me.”...)

“She saved our lives,” Allure said simply. All but one. “Gave us the drive we needed to become the society we are today.” She smiled sadly. “I take it she didn’t pass through here?”

“Not that I am aware of.”

“Yeah… she mentioned her not-father once in relation to this place.”

“I would definitely know if she met with General Esteem.”

“Another universe like one she visited, yet so far apart…” Allure shook her head. “We’ve been looking for her for… decades, at this point. Not a single sign. No shards of her Twilight, no ponies who met her.”

“Why do you look so hard?”

“She’s the Sweetie Belle. ...We just want to save her, even though Pinkie says it’s probably impossible. We have to keep trying.”

Rarity let out a sharp laugh. “You sound like half the people in this army. Fight against Titan, even if it’s impossible. Who cares if he’s a god?”

“Yeah, who cares?” Allure laughed.

“...Why did you take the name Allure, though?”

(...The pony that would be Allure put on a warm smile. “We’re the League of Sweetie Belles! I assume you’re named Sweetie Belle?”

The new Sweetie nodded. “Yep.”

“Do you… have a nickname we can call you? To avoid confusion.”

The Sweetie pondered this. “Well, I call myself Interdimensional Sweetie sometimes…”

“Mouthful,” Sweetie Brute pointed out in her usual gruff fashion.

“I’ve also gone by… Allure before.”

The not-quite-Allure picked up on the tone in her counterpart’s voice. “You don’t like that name.”

“...No. It was given to me in a universe by a horrible manipulative pony who wasn’t really my father. ...Sorta.”

Not-quite-Allure looked at her, something stirring deep within her heart. “...Thrackerzod, are you feeling something from her?”

“I’m feeling a lot of things from her,” the eldritch unicorn commented. “Be more specific.”

“Like… She’s ‘bigger’.”

“She’s smaller than you and me.”

“That’s not what I mean.” She put a hoof to her chin. “I'm not sure how to describe it.” They didn’t really know what ka was, yet. She really did lack the words. “But… I think she deserves the name Sweetie Belle.”

“Oh boy, back to name prefixes?” Squeaky squeaked, grabbing her head. “Ooooooh boy.”

“No,” almost-Allure declared. “I’ll take the name Allure. It won’t be painful to me. You can be Sweetie Belle, Interdimensional Sweetie.”

Sweetie Belle stared at her. “...You don’t know what it means.”

“Do I have to? It won’t mean to me what it means to you. To you, it’s a bad memory. To me, it’s taking something I think sounds nice and making it my own to help somepony else.”

“...Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

“You’re choosing a name!?” Suzie blurted. “You said you weren't going to choose one!”

“It just feels… Right,” Allure said, extending her hoof to Sweetie Belle. “I, Allure, extend an invitation to you, Sweetie Belle, to join the League of Sweetie Belles.”

“What comes with membership?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I mean, it sounds really nice, but I don’t really know what you do.”

“Get lost in a maze of impossible blueness,” Thrackerzod deadpanned. Burgerbelle held up a picture frame to the bizarre maze of a universe they were currently in. “That’s what we do.”

Brute cheered. “And we’re great at it!”

Allure rolled her eyes. “We’re a bunch of friends who have fun across the Multiverse. Sometimes we have great adventures, other times we just hang out at the Pinkie Emporium.”

“...Pinkie Emporium?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“An amusement park run entirely by versions of Pinkie Pie.”

Sweetie Belle’s jaw dropped. “That sounds equally amazing and terrifying.”

“That’s the general consensus,” Suzie admitted.

“We should probably introduce ourselves,” Allure said. “I am Allure now. This is Thrackerzod, Sweetie Bot, Squeaky Belle, Sweetie Brute, Burgerbelle, and Suzie.” She took a breath. “Wow, there's a lot of us.”...)

“You’re smiling.”

“I remember the days when I could list the entire League from memory,” Allure chuckled. “But it’s gotten way, way too big for me to deal with. But that’s a good thing, all thanks to her. She… she had it so hard, out there. No one understood her. But then she found us…”

(...Sweetie Belle blinked before shaking her head and laughing. “This… This is refreshing. To see so many of you who are me, but who also understand.”

“...Only Thrackerzod has any idea what you’ve suffered,” Allure said. “I can feel that we haven’t been through as much as you, despite having been at this longer and having visited more worlds.”

“I don’t think that matters,” Sweetie said, grabbing Allure’s hoof. “We are Interdimensional Sweetie. We are the League of Sweetie Belles.”

“I take it you’re in?”

“Of course I’m in! Now, let’s find a way out of this strange place!”...)

“...And then we got out. She went back to her adventure. Alone once again. Alone for all these years…” Allure sighed. “Part of me wonders if we’ve failed, or something. No trace of her. And every time we find a universe that sounds like one of the ones she visited, we remember how great she was. How we still haven’t found anything.”

Rarity put a hoof on her. “Allure, you’ve done very well with this name. In my world, for my Sweetie, it represents nothing but the desires of a horrible stallion to trample the dying wishes of his wife. A desire for his kids to be strong and murderous. When you use it… it is a name of generosity. You took it so this Sweetie wouldn’t have to. You’ve defined your life from that moment. I know I’m not your Rarity, but I couldn’t be more proud.”

Allure laughed. “So, this Esteem. Is he as evil and monstrous as I’m led to believe he is?”

“Oh, yes. I have no interest in bladecasting but he forced me to learn anyway. He eats meat…”

Allure decided now was not the time to mention that meat-eating was common in Merodi Universalis.

“...kills ponies by the hundreds, and willingly serves Titan because his talent is war and he simply can’t have a world without it. He objected to Celestia’s peace.” She lifted her blade high. “If Twilight doesn’t kill him, I will.”

“Mind if I tag along?” Allure asked. “I think I want to meet him.”

“You sure that’s wise?”

“No. But it might provide some understanding of, you know, my name.”

“A name is important. Every bladecaster names their sword…” Rarity glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

“Thanks, but no thanks, I already have my weapon.”

“Is it that silver horn of yours?”

Allure chuckled. “No, but I got that at about the same time.” She summoned her Heart powers, shaping her spirit into a blade-form and batting Rarity’s Vorpal away. “Mine’s invisible.”

Rarity blinked. “Esteem is not going to like that.”

“I’m counting on it.”

“I have to admit, I am curious. Why do you have a metal horn?”

“Well, it involves a retcon curse, the Combine-Horrorterror war, and the Crimson King. I think. The entire thing was really confusing…”

“Master General Twilight has a plan!” Sir Unimpressive called. “You two might want to get in so we can go over the highlights!”

“A story for another time,” Rarity said, sheathing Vorpal. The two unicorns scrambled to the war room, which was filled with so many ponies Allure was a little overwhelmed. Cinder happily waved when she arrived, giving Allure a small amount of ease.

“Here’s the basics,” Twilight said. “Titan’s barrier still surrounds the palace and Prince Empyrean is powering it. I will be able to take it down—it is much smaller than the other one—but I will need time to do so. My friends and Curaçao’s group will be on my defense while I’m working. Then our forces move in from these two directions…” She created two arrows with her magic. “And we overwhelm the front gates. There will be more trueponies than puppets this time, so we must be careful.”

There were a few murmurs and grim nods.

“The final goal is to get me and my friends into Empyrean’s throne room so we can strip him of his power. If we can do that and kill General Esteem, we will have taken Canterlot and Titan will be forced to recognize our presence. He will arrive, and we will use the Elements on him.

“However, we have both more complications and boons than we had expected. There are rumors of another alicorn with a fiery mane using puppets. We may have to use the Elements on her as well, whoever or whatever she is. Be prepared, and raise the alarm if you see her in the flesh.

“Our boon is the Elements of Pandemonium. We currently have three mares with a power not unlike that my friends and I share. The other three are being held in the palace. Some of you will be assigned to Curaçao and Sir Unimpressive to release them and get extra power. Beware—they may be corrupted, and their own elements might need to be used against them. Full briefs on capabilities will follow later.

“This is our final push. We need to take out Canterlot and win the war, or our hooves will be shown and we will lose the advantage of surprise. We need to win. And we will.” She allowed herself to smile. “We will bring peace back to Equestria.”

~~~

Esteem had left Havocwing and Insipid alone on the courtyard with some pieces of rebel armor to experiment with. He had also given them a pamphlet or two about the rebels and fighting techniques, but neither Havocwing nor Insipid were particularly interested in book learning.

Havocwing had already melted one of the armor sets to slag. Insipid, meanwhile, had tried to put one on. Backwards.

“Ugh. So bored…” Havocwing muttered.

“If only Shadow was here, she could, like, tell me what these books meant,” Insipid whined.

“Why don’t you ask her? You have that weird soul-bonding thing with her, right? Use each other’s bodies?”

“Oh, right!” Insipid squealed. “I do know that spell! Uh… does it work at long range…?”

“I don’t know, you’re the one who knows it!”

“Right. Right. Ahem. Hey Shadow, Insipid calling!”

A second later, Havocwing heard Insipid talk with a much more distinctive and careful voice, telling of Shadow on the other end. “Finally! Insipid, listen carefully. I am a prisoner in my mind. If you see me, that is not me, that is evil me. She sensed you connect. You need to run.”

Havocwing’s eyes widened. “Shit.”

“Like, we can help!” Insipid said. “We know this fancy General E-stem, he ca—”

“General Esteem imprisoned me! He’s our opponent, Insipid! Enemy! Foe! Bad guy!”

“Uh oh,” Insipid said. “Havoc, I think we’re on the wrong side.”

“No, shit?” Havocwing growled. “Okay, so… the palace is surrounded by an impenetrable barrier.”

“We could totally just say we wanted to leave,” Insipid said. “He said he’d let us go.”

“A falsehood,” Shadow said. “Not to mention that my body is currently going to warn him about you.”

“Then… I’ll absorb the powers of someone powerful!”

“The Prince!” Shadow realized. “His copious strength is what’s supporting the thaumic barrier. If you could make it to the royal chamber…”

“Got it,” Havocwing said, picking up Insipid. “Havocwing fireball is ready. Let’s go!”

“Don’t crash into the wall too hard…” Insipid whispered.

“Ha! You’ll hit it so hard you’ll be dazed for weeks!”

“Just get her to contact Prince Empyrean,” Shadow said. “And—LOOK OUT!”

Havocwing dove to the ground just before Shadow’s body teleported above them. A massive beam of Void shot from her horn and vaporized much of the floor below where the two had just been moments before.

“Shadow!” Insipid called.

“That’s not me!” Shadow shouted. “Run!”

“N-no!” Insipid shouted.

“I’m running,” Havocwing said, flying toward the palace. “I don’t care what sh—” She dove to the side, but it wasn’t quick enough to stop the Void energy from grazing her wingtips. She hissed, forcing extra magic to her wings to stay flying.

“I mean my mind isn’t running!” Insipid called. “The bond goes both ways!”

Shadow’s body punched itself in the face. “W-what?”

“Yeah!” Insipid shouted through Shadow’s mouth. “Take that, me! Shadow! Whatever!” She made Shadow’s body punch itself again. “Taaaaake that!”

“This is beyond imbecilic,” Shadow deadpanned form Insipid’s body.

“Hey, it works,” Havocwing deadpanned. “We’ll get to the palace in no t—”

Three platinum shards tore through Havocwing’s wings. She howled in pain as blood and feathers went flying, forcing her to lose altitude.

“Calculating…” Shadow said through Insipid’s body. She absorbed Havocwing’s power and created rocket jets out of her back hooves, lifting the two of them back into the air.

Insipid tossed Shadow’s body over to them, despite the protests of whatever dark being was currently occupying it. Shadow used Insipid to absorb the power of Void as well. Now she had it all… almost.

She teleported herself down to Esteem and the rest of his blade.

“Insipid…”

“Starlight Shadow, actually,” Shadow said, dusting herself off. Havocwing and her body fell to the ground behind her—the dark unicorn still engaged in a fit of self punching and snarling with herself. “You did unspeakable things to me, Esteem. Prepare to die.”

“You dare engage in battle so close to my throne!?”

A massive white alicorn stallion appeared behind Esteem, mane flowing with the pastel colors of Celestia. However, this pony was no Celestia—his eyes were cruel, insecure, angry, and more than a little pathetic. Prince Empyrean.

Shadow inwardly cursed. Her only hope was to absorb Empyrean’s power with Insipid a—

Empyrean pushed her to the ground with his magic. “You aren’t going anywhere! You are my servants! Mine! And if you will not bow you will die!”

“Such a whiny… brat…” Havocwing muttered.

“There is a special punishment for you, robin,” Empyrean spat. “I’m sure I can convince mother to make another shard for your mind… I’m confident you’d like senseless destruction.”

Shadow lit Insipid’s horn.

“None of that!” Empyrean shouted, using his magic to shout hers out. “You will have no tricks, no spells, not—”

Shadow lit the horn again, overpowering his pitiful attempts at shouting out magic. She was Starlight Shadow! Or, well, she was Shadow mentally using Insipid’s body while Insipid’s mind was wrestling with a mental demon in… it didn’t matter. She had the power of Void and no childish alicorn was going to put her down!

“Esteem!”

Esteem sighed at the inadequacy of the Prince. He tossed a single shard of his blade at Insipid’s horn.

The teleport spell activated the moment it crashed.

Shadow and Insipid were suddenly elsewhere. They saw nothing but magic around them, buzzing swirling. They couldn’t speak to each other, but they were still invariably connected.

They could see several points of bright magic light. Empyrean glowed strongest, for he was the closest. Not that far away was a lesser light, still within Canterlot. Soon, Insipid and Shadow were far beyond these two specks.

All anchors to reality would have been lost had Insipid not seen three specks of light close to each other deep within the Everfree Forest. One of them seemed familiar… called to her…

Shadow’s spirit recoiled, but Insipid beat it into submission by sheer force of willpower. Their magic jumped forward to the three specks, ready to appear in the midst of them.

Instead, something beneath the ground grabbed onto them. The two of them materialized in a place of sharp, white metal. It reminded them somewhat of the orichalcum alloy the Merodi used to construct their cities and ships, but it wasn’t quite the same.

For one, this entire place rippled with harmony magic just beneath the surface. Merodi structures didn’t do that so… fundamentally.

“Wow… cool…” Insipid said.

“Yeah…” Shadow said, coughing.

Shadow spoke through Insipid. “You haven’t forgotten that there’s a sadistic corrupted monster in possession of my body, have you?”

“Oh. Sorry Shadow, I did!” Insipid laughed. “Silly me!”

Shadow had to raise Insipid’s magic shield for her. “Insipid!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this!”

“INSIPID!”

~~~

Celestia wasn’t bleeding out. Terra had made sure of that when she had returned for a moment.

But she hadn’t been healed all the way either. Left with most of her bones broken and significant damage to her skull. Even with her ability to split her mind, the concussion was getting to her. It was hard to focus on anything but the pain, but she managed.

She always managed.

She had to.

Ignoring the part of her that said Equestria’s fate was completely out of her hooves at this point, she turned her gaze to the doorway. She saw an alicorn standing there. With an internal sigh, she prepared for another round of beating or lectures from Terra.

Instead, she felt her wounds heal. For a split second she wondered if Terra was preparing for another one of her special lessons, but then she noticed it was Pathos standing over her, not Terra.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Celestia observed.

“Logos is currently trying to convince mother we are needed in Canterlot,” Pathos said. “I suspect he will succeed, given time, and I will be here no longer.”

“She may punish me for your healing.”

“...I am willing to accept blame for that.” Pathos walked up to her. “I wanted to have a private conversation before I left.”

“What do you have to say to me?”

“I do not agree with what father is doing.”

Celestia froze. That was dangerous.

“You fear for my safety.”

Celestia nodded. “Simply harboring the opinion… he will do things to you.”

“I am not disloyal, however. And he knows that. Logos assures me.”

So, Logos is considered a trustworthy source. “If you disagree, why follow him?”

“Because resistance will just be more war, more death, more suffering. The simplest way to end this war is to assist him in his endeavors, end it quickly and absolutely, not lead it back into another… bloody attrition. Then, when the war ends, I can make him understand.”

“He never lets anypony get to him.”

“I am Pathos, Celestia. Each alicorn has their purpose, and they exact that purpose better than father would on his own. Mother fashions earth and life. You were the fire of the day and the sun. Luna is the chill of the night and the moon. Logos is reason, intuition, and thought. I… am Pathos. Passion. He may not understand love. Alicorns as a race may not understand love. But I do. And, with time, I can make him understand. When the understanding comes, he will change.” She turned to Celestia. “I am unsure where you will be when that time comes.”

Celestia frowned. “Forced to be a mental slave, perhaps.”

“Consider coming willingly after the war ends,” Pathos said. “Lessen your pain while I speak to him. It may take centuries… but I have a purpose in this world. And it is to bring true emotion and empathy to the Immortal Game.”

“I… I can’t believe Titan would have allowed himself to create something like you.”

“...We are uncertain if he had a choice,” Pathos sighed. “Logos is his favorite, I am his twin. Two sides of the same coin.”

“Does Logos share your opinion? That Titan can change?”

“That opinion? Yes.” Pathos paused for a moment. “Though I do not believe he thinks my view is right.”

“What does Logos want?”

“I do not know. All I know is that I cannot keep secrets from him.” Pathos smirked. “Only father has successfully kept him in the dark, and I suspect that won’t be the case much longer.”

“...He’s dangerous, Pathos.”

“Extremely. I know. He knows I know.” She chuckled. “And yet, we are still brother and sister, are we not? Just as we are sisters, and mother and father watch over us.” She touched Celestia with a gentle hoof. “They do terrible things, Celestia. But they are still our family. We should honor them.”

Celesita couldn’t help but smile. “Your compassion and empathy go too far.”

“A different sort of strength is needed in this game.” She turned to leave. “I wish you luck, Celestia. If things were different…”

“I will think about what you said if you think about what I said.”

Pathos bowed. “Naturally.”

Then she was gone.

Celestia frowned. Could Pathos be right? Could the answer be to play the Immortal Game for another long stretch of time?

...She would only consider it if the war failed. She had worked so hard to prepare her ponies for this moment, to abandon them now would not honor them. Celestia was sure Pathos would understand.

Celestia allowed herself to smile. Even if everything came crashing down around her, there was now hope in the eventual end to the suffering. A small hope, yes, but a hope nonetheless.

~~~

Swip physically entered the Universe Generator, hanging back at a fair distance so none of the rapidly moving creation mechanisms would hit her. The massive blocks billions of light years in diameter swung around the black expanse much faster than should have been physically possible, all so the bright light in the center of the Generator could be turned into a universe.

They arrived just as one universe was completed and swapped out for a new seed.

Suzie looked at Swip’s display of the view outside. Unlike last time, when the Universe Generator had been rather empty, Swip made out numerous scientific outposts and a small fleet of Merodi ships devoted to defending the location from any who might seek to abuse it.

“See, there’s a problem here,” Seren said, pointing at the scans appearing on Swip’s screen. “It can’t be the Universe Generator that’s causing the issue.”

“Why not?” Melancholy asked from a nearby screen—still sitting comfortably in his “edgy” lab.

“Just downloaded the magic levels from the outposts here.” Swip brought up a diagram that showed the Universe Generator’s levels holding steady.

“It’s an advanced machine, it could just be managing its levels perfectly.”

Seren scratched her chin. “Maybe… But we have a way to test that!” She pressed a button. “Hey, this is Engineer Seren of the League of Sweetie Belles. We need to determine if any dimensional activity is happening between this universe and Equis Imperfect. Send all data here, if you don’t mind.”

A second later Swip’s avatar let out a wince. “That’s a lot of data…”

“Sorry about that,” Seren chuckled nervously. “Now, we need to isolate all the information on magic flow and compound it together.” A line appeared down the center of the screen, a red wave appearing on the left and a blue wave on the right. Pressing the screen, Seren resolved the input and output magic to a smaller, jagged wave that looked like little more than static. “There is a slight drift of magic to this side, but that may be because of the call we’re currently part of. This is not enough to cause the drain we see in Equis Imperfect.”

Suzie tapped her fingers on her console. “So, hand it over to the scientists, see if they can figure it out.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Blink said. “We can at least try to follow the magic drift.”

“Tried that already,” Melancholy said. “Unless you have better scanners or something.”

“The scientists will,” Suzie said. “Seren, compile a report to send to them so they can carry this on. This really isn’t our purview.”

“I want to at least try something,” Seren said. “There might be a soul we can follow—if I can bond with Nira’s magics, I might have a solution.”

“Worth a shot,” Blink said.

Suzie nodded. “Sure. Nira?”

“Uh, Nira’s not on board,” Swip said.

Suzie paused. “Not… on board?”

“Yeah. Poofed. She just teleports away sometimes, you know.”

“I know. Find her tag.”

“Scanning… scanning…” Swip frowned. “I’ve got nothing. She’s not here or Equis Imperfect.”

“...Well we have to find her before we can leave,” Suzie sighed.

“Sweetaloo left with her,” Swip pointed out. “Sweetaloo carries a communicator.”

Suzie pulled out her communicator and dialed Sweetaloo. She got an error message in return.

“...Out of range?”

Swip’s expression soured. “Nira wouldn’t go somewhere out of range by choice.”

“By accident?”

“Maybe…”

“I’ll track her magic,” Seren said, tapping her scepter into the ground. “Swip, open a portal to Equis Imperfect, I need to scan it…”

Swip obliged, though she remained in the Universe Generator.

Seren’s dress began to ripple with the magic energy and a soft glow surrounded the scepter’s crystal. A magic dart flew out of her chest, through Swip’s walls, and into the portal. It spent a few moments sniffing for Nira before it found the connection. Finding something, it began to open a portal…

Seren dispelled it instantly, eyes wide. “There is an absolutely massive store of magic where Nira just went. Single entity. I don’t think it noticed me.”

Suzie curled her hands into fists. “A monster?”

“Maybe? Whatever it is, I think it took them. It… is too strong to face directly.”

“With just Swip, you mean,” Suzie said. “May I remind you that we are in the middle of the Universe Generator, one of the most well-defended universes in Merodi space?”

“Oooooh…”

“Swip, patch me onto the military frequency.” Suzie leaned in. “This is Colonel Suzie Mash. Some of our personnel have been taken by an unknown high-level entity at these coordinates. Military action may be required, be ready the instant anything goes south.”

A series of ‘affirmatives’ met her ears. Including one from a very influential individual that made Suzie smile.

~~~

“...and that’s basically what ka is,” Sweetaloo finished explaining.

Titan nodded slowly. This Sweetaloo, crime against order that she was, had been perhaps the best choice for a servant he could have asked for. Knowledgeable, practical, and intellectually above average. Lacking significantly in raw strength, but he wasn’t so foolish to think that power was everything.

“Why?” he asked.

Sweetaloo was confused. “Why… what?”

“Why does the Tower use stories to define existence?”

“The people who created it believed that life was meaningless. So they forced life to have meaning, or what they defined as meaning, anyway.”

“All of us are stories. All of us are fate. And I am a villain in most.” He paused for a moment. This information was enough to make him think carefully, something he had not needed to do for almost an eternity.

“What, upset you’re not god?” Nira asked, snorting.

“I am the absolute source of all within my world, I am god there,” he answered. “Out here, it is different. The highest order does not come from me. I was created by the Universe Generator to be the absolute of my world, the source of all life, morality, and order. That is my purpose. But the question remains, why did the Universe Generator create me?”

“Random Equis template, likely based on a story somewhere, best we can tell,” Sweetaloo said.

“Precisely. The Universe Generator itself is random. A relic of a race long forgotten, operating to a purpose long dead. But still, it carries out the story. The answer to ‘why?’ lies not within the Generator, but within the Dark Tower.”

“You’re going to try to find it?” Nira laughed. “Good luck with that!”

“I am Titan. I will find it.” He focused on Sweetaloo. “The villain is never defeated early into his introduction. The villain is allowed to progress toward his goal. My goal is the Dark Tower, so I will see it, I will arrive—so long as I provide conflict and drive for ‘heroes’ to pursue me.” Titan summoned his blade. “This is Singularity.” He pointed it at Nira. “You will perish to drive their revenge.”

Nira raised a shield. It wasn't enough.

The shields of a Merodi warship were enough. It popped into existence right behind Nira and deflected the piercing blackness of Singularity. While Titan was analyzing his new opponent, Nira and Sweetaloo were teleported away.

No matter. He could provide another reason for their revenge.

He reinforced Singularity with a repulsive piercing spell. Driving it forward, he punctured a hole within the shields and teleported himself to the other side. Splitting Singularity in two he raked two massive holes along the ship’s hull, blowing its front off. Ponies and other creatures within drew their weapons and started shooting at him.

Titan didn’t even raise magical defenses. He let the pathetic weapons scrape against his skin, drawing blood that would be healed nearly instantly. Singularity’s shards were sent flying, one into the brain of each person present, killing them instantly. Scanning, he located a source of major power in the center of the ship. One quick adjustment of his blade and he caused a core meltdown, destroying the ship.

There were more where that came from. Larger, more impressive ships with much larger sources of magic appeared around him. He bothered to raise magical shields in defense against lasers, and the missiles each received a visit from a shard of Singularity, detonating them long before they reached his physical form.

The more creative forms of attack gave him pause. A magical orb filled with insect-like robots exploded near him, sending the swarm to devour him. He swung Singularity’s shards like a sphere of mad hornets to deflect the swarm, though a few got through and had to be expunged by small magical explosions.

Some weapons came from nowhere, attacking from parallel dimensions or with powers he didn’t understand. However, he was Titan, and a few unusual methods of fighting would not deter him. He teleported to the other side of one of the massive ships, driving Singularity through the shields and to the reactor core. He knew their weakness now, causing critical failures was significantly simpler. Massive explosions of interlaced color rippled out from the centers of several ships, tearing their physical substance apart in fractal patterns.

Now that they identified him as a major threat, their attacks got stronger. Simple lasers and torpedoes were swapped out for cluster bombs and beams laced with blood-red death and flesh devouring properties. Titan was forced to keep up a shield almost constantly to defend himself from the surrounding bombardment.

But still, he knew he could win. For every injury he took, he healed it and was able to take out a ship… Until their shields adapted to Singularity, making it significantly harder. He had to whale down their barriers through brute force of his magic rather than finesse.

Masterful pieces of engineering, these ships. Utterly blasphemous that they put the power of alicorns in the hooves of mortals. He took more than a little pleasure in showing them where their place in the natural order was.

“Enough,” an annoyingly familiar voice said.

All the weapons stopped firing. A purple alicorn stood before Titan, her mane swirling with nebulas and stars. She was smaller than Luna, a truly young immortal, and yet her form shimmered with power more comparable to that of Celestia.

She was also clearly a version of Twilight Sparkle. As an alicorn. He knew she was an unnatural perversion, just like Sweetaloo.

“Your form is sickening,” Titan stated, as though it were a fact.

“I am Overhead Evening Sparkle of Relations,” Eve introduced herself. “You are destroying my people.”

“This is true.”

“You will be imprisoned for your crimes and questioned.”

“I will not. I am Titan.”

Eve smirked. “I reject your reality and substitute my own.”

All of Titan’s magic was gone in an instant. Something she had done with her spirit had altered physics on a fundamental level, preventing any magic from existing around the black alicorn. His mane went out and all the glowing signs of his power vanished.

He was powerless before her.

Luckily, he had planned for this eventuality. He had prepared a retreat spell for the moment they proved to have something that could defeat him. The spell activated, creating a dimensional portal behind him that grabbed his body and pulled him through.

Eve frowned. “...Clever…”

The instant he was in the other world, he felt his magic return.

He wasted no time. He ran to another universe. They needed to follow him, yes, but that Evening Sparkle could not be allowed to remove his power again.

Three universes later, there was no sign of her. He did not stop running, but he allowed himself to feel a sense of satisfaction. He had painted himself the villain. His goal? Find the Dark Tower and uncover its secrets.

It would have to listen to him now.

~~~

Cinder watched with awe as Twilight touched her horn to the massive white orb surrounding Canterlot Palace. A pulse of purple went around the barrier, alerting the enemy to their presence.

The armies did not come to meet them. They were going to play this defensively, apparently.

“When that barrier goes down, I’m leaving you,” Celia told Cinder. “Stay with Fluttershy—you are her bodyguard, okay?”

Cinder nodded. “Got it!”

“Good. Try not to get into any fights?” Celia laughed nervously. “Xenium would kill me if I completely destroyed your innocence.”

“Okay, okay, we’ll play it safe. Good luck finding the others.”

Celia saluted.

The pearly barrier fizzled and fell without much fanfare. One moment there was an impenetrable force field preventing access to the palace, the next it was gone.

“Move out!” Twilight shouted, her magic ensuring every pony in the army heard it no matter how far away they were. “Remember your assignments!” She teleported away—she was overseeing every part of the battle at once since she could be everywhere. Since the two halves of the army were in different locations and all Cinder’s friends had particular missions, she was left more-or-less alone with Fluttershy and a handful of other soldiers.

Cinder could already hear the shouts of war and magical explosions in the distance. Conveniently, she couldn’t actually see any of the fighting.

“You know what’s strange?” Cinder asked Fluttershy.

“Hm? No, I don’t,” Fluttershy said, clearly glad to have somepony to talk to that wasn’t just some soldier.

“I never get to be part of these wars. I hear about them happening, but I’m either not on the team or indisposed somewhere else. Some of it is explained by everyone wanting to protect me, and I don’t mind, but that’s not all of it. It’s like I’m not meant to fight in a war. At least not yet.”

“It does terrible things to your mind,” Fluttershy shuddered. “My friends… I’ve seen them all do terrible things. I’ve seen all of them change because they had to.” She looked to the ground. “We’re still friends, we’re still Harmony. But I could never do what they do.”

“I could,” Cinder said, sitting down. “I’m not sure if that’s supposed to scare me, but I think if I went out there I’d be able to shake it off without too much of an issue. I adapt way too fast.”

“You sure you haven’t already been in a war?”

“Not a full one. Not right in front of me.” Cinder shrugged. “Not really sure what to make of it.”

“Stay out of it as long as you can,” Fluttershy encouraged. “You’ll be better off that way.”

“Maybe…” Cinder mulled the thought over in her mind, deciding to change the topic slightly. “You know what else occurs to me? We didn’t really ask many questions when we arrived here. We just showed up, introduced ourselves, and decided to help you fight.”

“Your friends have been captured.”

“We could have probably freed them without your help if we put our minds to it,” Cinder said. “But we decided you were the ‘good’ guys and they were the ‘bad’ guys. I’m absolutely positive that was the right choice, at least in this case, but we didn’t really ask many questions, did we?” Cinder tapped her hoof. “It seems to be a habit of ours. Come in, see something that needs fixing, and just fix it. Because… well, why not, it’s what heroes do, right?”

“We are very thankful.”

“But you see my point.”

Fluttershy nodded. “You’re worried about making mistakes. Messing in things you shouldn’t, right?”

“Yeah.”

Fluttershy ruffled her wings, mulling it over. “Well, either you help or you don’t, and you have to decide what’s right or wrong on your own. I think you’re doing the right thing by helping us.”

Cinder thought of Daybreaker. “But there may be unintended consequences.”

“There will always be unintended consequences. You just have to be ready for them.”

Cinder pursed her lips. “...Yeah. What am I even going on about? I’m not the experienced one. They know more about what to do and when to do it than I do. I’ve just got the intuition.” She tapped her head and laughed. “Though I can say I don’t think I'd like being on Curaçao’s team since they get involved in such crazy violence all the time.”

“I can’t understand anypony who’d want to live their whole lives surrounded by this…”

“Elements of Pandemonium,” Cinder shrugged, and a silence fell over the two of them. “...Know any card games?”

“A few.”

“Might as well do something while we’re waiting…”

~~~

Curaçao looked at her team—consisting of Celia, Sir Unimpressive, and a bunch of other soldiers she hadn’t bothered to learn the names of. It was a small group with one goal in mind: free Shadow and the others from confinement.

While the two armies came at the Palace with intent to reach the front gates, Curaçao’s group had snuck through the tunnels toward a back entrance. They were still outside the main halls of the Palace where Empyrean sat—that was far too well protected to do a stealth operation with this many ponies. But they were able to reach one of the outer barracks easily enough, near to where Twilight had sensed Shadow’s presence.

They took a rest behind an abandoned courtyard hall that connected two separate gardens together. Both scenes of vegetation had gone neglected as the war had raged - weeds tangled around trees that needed water and the bushes hadn’t been trimmed into their proper shapes. Sagging, almost mutated plants dominated the area.

“Current intel has Shadow in that tower,” Celia pointed at a small white spire that nonetheless pierced the sky with its golden tip. Pegasi—both real and puppets—fought over the sky above the tower, paying it no mind.

“Can you sense ‘er?” Curaçao asked.

“No… that bothers me. I should be able to sense her this close.”

Twilight appeared in their midst with a flash of purple. “I can’t sense her anymore, either. I was able to follow her trail for a while before it just vanished. They’re hiding her, and I don’t know where. She was moving toward the main hall before it vanished. Return to the others and assist with the fight.”

“I can try our telepathy,” Curaçao said. “See if I can find zem zat way.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. “Try. If you get nothing, join one of the charging forces.” She teleported away.

“You just questioned her in the heat of battle and she didn’t blink,” Unimpressive noted. “Huh.”

“Zis is not ze ‘eat of battle,” Curaçao pointed out. “And I am not ‘er soldier.” She closed her eyes. Shadow? Insipid? ‘avoc?

Havoc responded. Curaçao?

“I’ve got ‘avoc!” ‘avoc! Where are you?

In the sky.

Listen to me, you are captured by ze wrong side. Zey are using you.

Oh, really? Figures… Where are you guys?

Curaçao frowned. ‘Avoc…

You’re just too good at sensing lies...

“‘avoc’s been turned,” Curaçao said. “She is currently looking for us.” It is one of my many skills, mon soeur.

Then it’s a pretty good thing this Empyrean guy can trace this little connection, huh?

“Run!” Curaçao shouted. “Empyrean h—”

Fire fell from the sky in a wide burst, turning one of the gardens to ash. Celia raised a magic shield, protecting herself, Curaçao, Unimpressive, and two earth ponies. The rest were burnt alive in the tidal wave.

“Heh!” Havocwing laughed, voice shallow. “That Esteem guy was right…”

Curaçao looked up at her red sister flying far above them. “What did zey do to you?”

“Somethin’ in my head that screams a lot,” Havocwing grunted. “I screamed at it for a bit. Then I stopped screaming. I guess.”

“‘Acovwing, listen to me. You ‘ave been conditioned.”

“Yep. Totally know that. Known that for hours.” She shrugged. “Don’t think the brainwashing lets me care.”

“...At least tell us where Shadow and Insipid are.”

“Dunno.” Havocwing lit herself on fire. “And neither will you.”

Unimpressive summoned his blade and sent the shards up to Havocwing. She narrowed her eyes, increasing the distance between herself and the unicorn as she created a flaming tornado around herself that acted as a shield due to the pressure differential between the burning air and the normal air. Unimpressive’s shards were blown to the side.

“Wow,” Havocwing said, dully. “That Esteem guy’s tips really did help.” She lifted her hoof and bathed them in a beam of fire once more.

“How badly can I injure her?” Celia asked Curaçao while they hid behind her magic shield.

“Her body is no more durable zan an average pony,” Curaçao responded.

“I mean how much would you let me.”

“Anyzing short of killing, she will survive.”

“All right!” Celia smirked, coating her hooftips in dark magic. “This could be fun…”

~~~

Twilight teleported to the foot of the Palace stairs as the world exploded behind her. Standing atop the massive marble steps was General Esteem, glaring right at her.

“General,” Esteem greeted her, shouting to be heard from the distance between them.

“Master General,” Twilight corrected. “Titles are important.”

Esteem let out a snort of annoyance. “So you’ve come to kill me, have you?” He looked behind him at what had to be at least a hundred soldiers. “I seem to have brought an army with me.”

Twilight teleported directly into the center of the reserve, noting gleefully that Esteem seemed to have overlooked a crucial fact:

Not a single one of his remaining soldiers was a unicorn.

Every puppet dispersed as Twilight froze the water in their brains. Every truepony fell to the ground as she put them to sleep. Of course Esteem wouldn't bother protecting his own army.

“Nice bathrobe,” Twilight said casually to the only pony between her and the palace. She was fully aware that she had shown up in a suit made from the night sky. “Surrender, and you get a jail cell. Fight, and you die.”

Esteem barked out a humorless laugh. “I am the hoof of a god. The will of Titan himself. I’ve seen you beg for your mother. Titan isn’t scared of you, and neither am I.”

“I’m only asking so that when I tell every other pony that I gave you the chance to surrender, I won’t be lying. I don’t want to be a liar.”

“Only a murderer, apparently.”

Twilight allowed herself to smirk condescendingly. “While I would most definitely be willing to take your life from you, that honor is not mine.”

General Esteem’s expression darkened, no doubt insulted that the Master General of the rebellion didn’t see him as a worthy opponent. “Who then? Is Luna herself going to face me?”

“No,” Twilight said. She teleported two ponies to her side - Rarity and Allure. “They are.”

“...Allure…?” Esteem said, baffled. “What trickery is this?”

“Oh, where do I start…?” Allure tapped her chin. “Let’s see. Yes, I’m Allure. But I only took this name because there was a Sweetie Belle I met who absolutely hated it. Hated it because of you.”

Rarity summoned her blade. “There’s more out there than you or Titan could possibly understand, General.”

Allure lit her artificial horn. “We’re taking you out.”

“I care not that you are family or related to me by some trick of fate,” Esteem said, fusing his blade together. “I know you will never appreciate how I raised you, prepared you for this moment, Rarity. And as for you… ‘Allure’. I see denial in your eyes.”

“...Denial?”

“Denial of what that name of yours means. There was never a Sweetie Belle. It is not a name you get to take. It is Allure. That is who you are.”

“I agree,” Allure said, smirking. “And now it’s time for you to find out why.”

Rarity and Esteem split their blades into shards at the same time, meeting in the middle. Esteem moved his with more care and precision, three shards in total bypassing Rarity’s defenses.

All three of them were slapped effortlessly to the side by Allure’s invisible blade of spirit.

Esteem jumped back, reforming his blade. “That blade…”

“Before you ask, no, I’ve never given it a name,” Allure chuckled. “It’s the power of the Knight of Heart—a blade of the soul itself.” She stretched her legs, ready to pounce. “I hope you’re ready for it.”

Rarity split her blade in two, using one half as loose shrapnel and keeping the other as a solid blade. Galloping along the ground, she burst forward as quickly as she could.

Esteem held his blade in one piece, repelling Rarity’s shards with a burst of explosive magic. “My blade is Carsomyr.”

Allure charged, barreling toward him. He angled Carsomyr to the side, impacting something invisible as he had expected. Keeping half his sword on the invisible substance, he broke the other half off and attacked from another angle, only to find his efforts pointless from that angle as well.

“And who said I can’t have more than one?” Allure grinned.

Esteem scowled as a third invisible blade cut out. He saw it coming through the look in Allure’s eyes, so he was able to dodge, but not before it nicked his cheek. Blood ran down his unnaturally youthful, white face.

Rarity smirked. “She’s really something, isn’t she?”

“A proper warrior, it seems,” Allure commented. “And, egads, I wasn’t raised by any kind of General Esteem! I still turned out fine, happy, and caring. Shocker!”

“This is a petty personal vendetta,” Esteem hissed.

“Oh it very much is,” Allure admitted. “Want to keep going?”

Esteem lit his horn and charged.

~~~

“Who likes a good slaughter!?” Velvet shouted at the top of her lungs, skewering seven puppets at once in full view of a truepony soldier. “I know you do!”

“KABOOM!” Pinkie shouted from nearby, prompting the truepony to shout in fear, drop his weapons, and run away.

“Ah still can’t believe how effective that is…” Applejack muttered as she roundhouse kicked a few other puppets, dislodging their skulls from the rest of their body.

“Velvet’s fear gets into ponies heads easier,” Grayscale said as she effortlessly held a few dozen puppets still for Applejack to stomp while Rainbow tossed more out of the sky.

“At this rate we might get to Esteem before Rarity finishes with him!” Pinkie cheered, tossing a puppet into Velvet. The blood tendrils ripped the puppet in half and threw the two halves as projectiles into other puppets.

“This is seemin’ surprisingly easy…” Applejack noted. “Minimal losses so far, nothin’ unexpected…”

With a glorious flash of light akin to that of evening, a brilliant yellow-orange alicorn appeared before them, her mane swirling with nebulous light. She summoned her blade.

“...Sunset?” Grayscale asked, cocking her head.

This confused the alicorn. “No… I am Pathos.”

“You look like a Sunset to me.”

“Wh…” Pathos shook her head. “It does not matter. You are interfering in father’s plan, and as such he has decreed you must die. I will make this as swift and painless as I can.” She split her blade into four parts—not bothering to send one at Velvet just yet—and went for the mares’ heads.

Twilight Sparkle teleported into the space between the alicorn and her pray, tossing the shards of light to the side with a burst of powerful magic. “Pathos, huh?” Twilight summoned her blade, fashioned from shards of the Element of Magic itself: Equinox. “What are you the alicorn of, fire? Clouds?”

“I am the goddess of passion.” Pathos reformed her blade.

“An alicorn devoted to a concept alien to most of your kind? Most peculiar.”

“It may not have been the ideal choice…” Pathos shook her head. “If you are stalling in hopes that Luna will come to your aid, don’t. She is currently indisposed.”

“You can’t just… get rid of her like that!” Rainbow shouted.

Pathos shrugged. “What’s done is done.”

Applejack looked up at Twilight. “Do we need to… y’know?”

Pinkie shook her head. “Nope! We can take her!” She pulled out her explosives.

“Yeah, you have us!” Velvet added, sending her tendrils out. “I can taste the fear and uncertainty coming off you, Pathos. You really, really don’t want to be here, do you?”

Pathos fixed her with a stern glare. “You are the most dangerous.” She surrounded herself in several rings of magic and sent a beam of neon fire at Velvet.

She appeared behind Pathos in an instant and drove her bloody tendrils into the alicorn’s back. “Good guess!”

“Not because of your strength,” Pathos said, tossing Velvet to the side with a brush of her wing. “But because of your understanding.” She sent her sword into Velvet’s skull to not all that much effect. More blood poured out of the opening and tried to take Pathos’ sword from her.

Twilight drove her blade toward Pathos, meeting half of the alicorn’s sunbeam. “Equinox,” Twilight said.

“Replete,” Pathos answered, splitting her sunbeam in half once more, meeting Twilight’s blade with but a fourth of her own, sending the tiny sliver to Twilight’s brain. She easily deflected it as Velvet crawled up the other half of the blade like a bloody slime monster.

“You aren’t a warrior… But we are…!”

Applejack and Rainbow hit opposite sides of Pathos’ face at the same time, cracking her skull in multiple places. She let out a cry of pain that only heightened as her skull stitched itself back together, allowing Pinkie to throw an explosive in her open mouth.

Her head regrew in seconds, showing them a face of unhinged rage. “You mortals can do nothing to me!” She spread her wings and a halo of superheated air burst from her, burning everypony and pushing them back with ease. Rainbow and Pinkie were burnt so much they lost consciousness, while Applejack and Velvet had to focus on regrowing their bodies.

Twilight and Grayscale remained standing. Pathos turned her attention to them. She prepared Replete for Twilight’s blade of Harmony while she had a spell of fire ready for Grayscale.

Twilight grimaced—they weren’t ready to face a full alicorn with unknown capabilities.

“Wipe that doubt off your face,” Grayscale ordered. “We have her.”

“Arrogant,” Pathos commented.

“But accurate.” Grayscale flapped her wings, bringing gravity down upon all.

~~~

Luna’s awareness returned to her.

I’m not fighting. I’m supposed to be. Where am I?

“Allow me to answer the question I’m sure is on your mind…” a silver alicorn with a crackling electric mane said, walking into her perceptions. “You are in a Void realm, constructed using magic stolen from one Starlight Shadow. My name is Logos, a new creation of Titan from beyond the veil of this world. You are trapped here until I choose to release you, or somepony defeats me. You are going to struggle against the restraints anyway, but I will warn you that they draw upon your own power to keep you imprisoned here.”

Luna automatically sent as much magic into her hooves as she could, tearing at the dark, arcane restraints keeping her motionless. Logos had spoken the truth—the restraints drained her magic and used it against her. With a pained hiss, she ended her struggles and fixed Logos with an unamused glare.

“Come, sister, such expressions are such a discredit to that wonderful face of yours.”

“I have no brother.”

“A week ago, your statement would have been correct,” Logos admitted. “But through forces I suspect were beyond anypony’s control, here I am. As well as my sister—I believe you have heard of her battles?”

“...Two new alicorns…” Luna hissed.

“Don’t be so angry, you have those new mortal warriors.”

“Mortals.”

“I am not Titan, Luna, I will not dismiss their curious abilities simply because they are mortal.”

Luna frowned. “Is that why you imprisoned me instead of facing me directly?”

“Precisely. In truth, to ensure victory it would have been preferable to outright kill you. A simple matter of twisting your own magic of the night against you and devouring you from within.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Carry the enchantments in your restraints to their logical conclusion, my sister.”

Luna grimaced. That did make sense.

“Fortunately for you, Titan thinks the death of an alicorn is unacceptable. So you get to live until the war ends. I have been carefully analyzing these new ponies of yours. Some are threats, some are not. What bothers me is that none of them should have the power to take on Empyrean, and together they only come close. I wonder what secret weapon you have…”

“I will tell you nothing,” Luna spat.

“You are correct. I do not have time to break you. Chances are relatively high your ponies will make it to the palace hall, since they seem to have decided to take Pathos on directly.”

“Your sister, I presume?”

“Yes. They are performing admirably, I must admit. Sister was never one for combat or calculation, however. I think you would appreciate what she stands for, if you get a chance to meet her.”

Luna frowned. “You do not speak in certainties.”

“Very little is certain, Luna. Titan may be completely settled through his own divinity, but I am not. I see possibilities, chances, events… Pathos might win, your ponies might win. There is a possibility your rebellion is successful and your secret weapon can defeat Titan. I must account for all eventualities, for brute force and divinity cannot be trusted to the end.”

Slowly, Luna realized something deeply troubling. Titan never had doubts—it was part of who he was. Absolutely certain of his right, his power, and the way to victory. He was simple, powerful, ordered. He lied and played tricks when needed, but he always preferred the direct approach to victory.

Logos did not subscribe to that philosophy. He wanted to have all avenues covered, even the smallest chance that he might be defeated had to be contended with. He needed to know, to analyze, and to win. He may have been young, but he already knew how to play the Immortal Game dirty.

It was possible he was more dangerous than Titan.

“I see you’re realizing just how much of a shake-up I add to this game of yours…” Logos grinned. “Titan will be quite pleased with my work, don’t you think?”

“If you defy him…”

“I am not that foolish. I am doing exactly as he asked of me. I will just do it in a way that shows him precisely where his faults lie.” He smirked. “Naturally, I will deny that he has faults. And your words will mean nothing to him.”

“For all your talk of maximizing victory, you sure like to monologue.”

Logos chuckled. “A weakness, I suppose. All of us have a personality quirk buried somewhere, after all. We are not pure concepts, alicorns. Though it may be easier if we were.”

~~~

“I think she figured out how to keep me from controlling her…” Insipid commented.

“What gave it away?” Shadow asked through Insipid’s mouth. “The diabolical Void lasers?”

Insipid teleported away from the dark beam emanating from Shadow’s body. “Yeah, that is one of the things.”

“You. Still,” Shadow’s body said, eye twitching involuntarily.

“It talks!” Insipid gasped. “Ermagersh we need to name it.”

“We do not need to designate it,” Shadow grunted.

The body decided to name itself. “I am Umbra.”

“The darkest part of a shadow. I get it. Amusing,” Shadow deadpanned.

“She also talks in really short, simple sentences!” Insipid said. “She’s, like, anti-Shadow!”

“Spotlight would be more accurate…”

“Darker,” Umbra said, teleporting right in front of Insipid and creating a void explosion. Insipid responded with one of her own, sending the two of them into opposite sides of the harmony structure.

“Shadow, ideas?” Insipid asked.

“I don’t have much, since Umbra is in possession of my intelligence, intuition, and arcane prowess. You already duplicated her essence, she counters. Our advantages are limited to Havocwing’s fire and your curious ability to get creative.”

“Oh, right, I still have Havoc’s fire!” She lit her hooves up. “Let’s do this, Umber!”

“Umbra,” Umbra corrected.

“I’m not going to apologize for getting your name wrong, you’re the enemy!”

“Fine.” Umbra sent a precision laser of Void energy at Insipid. It cut right through her leg and the wall behind her, gushing blood onto the floor.

“Magic Void healing!” Insipid shouted, lifting her leg up to find it fully healed.

“It still baffles me how you find healing magics so easy…” Shadow muttered.

“I’m the best, cha!” Insipid did a cartwheel over Umbra and coated the ground under her in fire. Insipid was perfectly happy standing in the midst of intense red flames; Umbra was not and was forced to teleport away before her hooves were burnt off.

“I desire my body back in a coherent form after this,” Shadow commented.

“Psh, I’ll just heal you up later. Like, I’m the best doctor.” She lit one of her front hooves on fire, and encased the other with Void shaped into flames. Shadow groaned at the stupidity of this, but didn’t stop it. After all, they did need Insipid’s creativity to beat Umbra.

“I’m going to need a cool name for this one!” Insipid said, clasping her front hooves together to combine the void and normal flames into a swirling gyroscope of red and black energy. “Like, super fresh combo or something!”

Shadow wished she could sigh with Insipid’s body, but she was far too excited to allow that.

Insipid cartwheeled through her flames and met the flurry of Void attacks head on with her own. She smashed the swirling mixture into the ground, prompting tentacles of dark flame to spread out from the ground and claw at Umbra’s body.

“I have no idea what you’re doing,” Shadow commented.

“I don’t either! Isn’t it great?!”

“No,” Umbra said, devouring all the Void into her horn in an instant, leaving only loose flames that quickly dissipated. “Die.”

Shadow sensed the power building up in her horn. “Retreat, she’s destroying the enclosure!”

“Teleport up, got it!”

“Insipid! Don’t teleport to an unkn—”

Insipid teleported them a mile upwards, appearing in the midst of a dark, stormy sky over a plateau in the middle of the Everfree Forest.

“Huh. That’s new…” Insipid commented.

“Look out!”

Umbra teleported herself just above Insipid and unleashed her massive beam of Void. Insipid couldn’t dodge—she could only attempt to meet it. Void shot out of her own horn, laced with excess fire from her hooves.

It wasn’t enough. Her lack of preparation had assured her beam was of lesser strength. Umbra’s power overtook her own, depriving Insipid’s attack from a power source and tossing the gray unicorn far, far away.

“Why-y-y…!?” Insipid whined as she fell to the ground.

“Insipid, get up, get up!”

“But everything hurts…”

“Fine! I’ll j—” Insipid crashed into a stone wall, breaking several of her bones as she fell into a large, empty room in the middle of an old castle.

A white earth pony with numerous scars and a green alicorn with a mane like sunshine stared at her in shock.

“I’m okay…” Insipid groaned. “Just a… flesh… wound…”

“You dare intrude upon your Queen’s domain!?” Terra shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Uh-oh.”

Terra lifted Insipid’s broken body out of the rubble and glared at it. “Your insolence is astounding, unicorn.”

“H-hey, I was fighting for my life out there…”

“Your life is nothing to me!” Terra shrieked, driving Insipid into the ground at her hooves. “And you…” She teleported Umbra into the room as well. “You call yourself a servant? You are a horrible use of the shard! Interrupting me with your assault!?”

“My Quee—”

“DO NOT TALK BACK TO ME!”

Umbra continued anyway. “She i—”

“I do not care about this pathetic unicorn whelp!” Terra smashed Umbra to the ground as well, making a small crater in the ground. “I care that your battle ha—”

“MINE!” Insipid called, having managed to move her busted leg far enough to touch Terra’s hoof.

Terra stared at her in shock. “You pathetic li—”

Insipid created a giant fist out of vines and flowers, punching Terra in the face with it. Her wounds began to heal without her even thinking. “Hey, sweet, this is an awesome p—”

Terra’s blade, the verdant Exogenesis, pierced Insipid’s heart. “THAT POWER IS NOT YOURS!”

Insipid looked at the sword in her chest. “...Ow.” She reached with her hoof and pulled the blade out, holding it in her own magic. “Well… this sword, like, isn’t yours anymore, either.”

Terra screamed in vicious, incoherent rage.

~~~

“I am not enjoying hiding behind a magic shield while a flying she-demon cooks us like an oven!”

“Shut up, Unimpressive,” Celia grunted, straining to keep the barrier up.

Unimpressive snorted. “I’m going to keep talking until someone comes up with a plan.”

“Zat falls to moi,” Curaçao said, furrowing her brow. “Celia, you are fireproof, oui?”

“Mostly. I would love to let the heat in here, but I’ve got some squishy meatbags to keep alive. Would either of you mind volunteering to be barbequed ribs for a few minutes while I pummel her?”

“Zat is not my plan.” Curaçao turned to Unimpressive. “You. Can you shield yourself?”

“Well, shields have never been my specialty…”

“Oui or non?”

“...What?”

Curaçao sighed. “Yes or no?”

“Yes-ish.”

“Zen you are on your own. Celia, I need to get out wizout ‘er knowing. She is not ze most observant, but we cannot be obvious.”

“There’s somewhere around a yard of fire raging around us,” Celia pointed out. “You aren’t jumping out of this shield that easily.”

Curaçao took a position close to the ground. “I am very nimble.” She became invisible. “Set the shield to let me zrough.”

“When you get all those third degree burns don’t come crying to me. Good luck.” Celia nodded, her gemstone flashing as she adjusted the shield spell slightly.

“When I am free, you charge.”

“Seems simple enough.”

Curaçao took a deep breath and jumped. Instead of going directly to the side and running through the flames in a panic, she went upward. For a second, there was pure fire all around her, singing her mane and coat. Then she was on the roof of the barracks they had been hiding behind, a location Havocwing wasn’t dousing in flame. Curaçao rolled to put out the fire, pleased to find that she had only suffered minor burns to her front legs.

She looked up at Havocwing, grimacing. The mare’s anger was still gone—her method of fighting much more like Grayscale’s apathetic grunt through life. Whatever Empyrean had done to her, Curaçao hoped that it could be fixed. Turn it off and she’d go back to her usual, angry, caring self.

“Hey basilisk!”

“...What?” Havocwing cocked her head—refusing to relent on the fire. “What even is a—”

“A big chicken!” Celia shouted, jumping out of the flame with her razor-top fully active. She twisted the licks of fire around her weapon, throwing a minor tornado right at Havocwing. The pegasus was forced to focus her fire on the Gem, allowing Unimpressive to drop his weak shield and take cover.

“Why aren’t you burning?” Havocwing asked Celia as she just took the flames.

“Gem, dear,” Celia chukled. “Anything that could be considered environmental is rather useless against me. The body automatically adjusts, you understand.”

Havocwing created a pointed fireball and drove it at Celia’s chest. She deflected it with a magic shield.

“Since when did you get smart?”

“Something, Esteem training, I don’t know,” Havocwing grunted. She created flames around her hooves that came to a point, physically charging Celia.

“Ooh, I like this game!” Celia dropped her razor-top and encased her pointed hooves in dark energy once more. “I have longer legs!”

Havocwing thought this didn’t matter, charging straight down anyway, creating a massive streak of fire and smoke behind her as she moved. She pulled her front hooves back, ready to take Celia’s neck out.

Celia teleported above Havocwing and drove her back hoof into the pegasus’ back. Curaçao winced as she saw Havocwing’s blood fly into the air like a geyser. Havocwing finally let out a scream of intense emotion—pain.

Celia wrapped herself around the pegasus, getting another stab off on Havocwing’s stomach. “And the victory goes t—”

Havocwing grabbed Celia’s head and slammed her into the ground with enough force to send earth flying. Celia didn’t retreat into her Gem, but the pain running through her body had her significantly dazed.

Face contorted into a grimace, Havocwing pulled a hoof back, aimed right for Celia’s gem.

“Well… this might actually hurt.”

Curaçao punched Havocwing at the base of a skull hard enough to prompt blood to fly out her mouth. The pegasus’ eyes rolled back and she slumped to the ground, bleeding heavily. “She almost had you.”

“Yeah yeah…” Celia grunted. “We need to get her to a healer. And a cage. Latter one first.”

Unimpressive recalled the shards of his blade back. “And here I was thinking I’d have to get creative.”

“Give it a rest.” Celia rolled her eyes.

“Give me your robe,” Curaçao told Unimpressive. “I need to stop ze bleeding. We do not know when a healer will arrive.”

Unimpressive hesitated for a second before removing his robe. Curaçao quickly wrapped it around Havoc’s back and chest. It wasn’t going to work for very long, but it was something.

~~~

General Esteem knew Rarity was much weaker than he was. She had the raw magical potential he did, but she lacked the tactics and skill that came with years of experience. He had that experience, and he had the talent to boot. Rarity saw patterns and beauty. He saw war and victory. While she could poke out weaknesses, he knew to adapt and fill them the moment she noticed. She never stood a chance against him alone, and he had taken on three of her friends at once before and come out on top, though he had been denied the final victory.

Rarity, he could deal with. Rarity’s friends, he could deal with. He suspected he could deal with Twilight Sparkle herself. At least she would fight directly.

This other mare was aggravating him to no end.

It had not taken him long to figure out her strange blade-like ability. The talk of her Heart and her spirit may or may not have been true, the fact was that her invisible structures were all physically connected to her. There was always a single shape. There had not been three blades before, just three prongs from a single source. The invisibility was its most dangerous aspect, but Esteem had discovered its relatively short range quickly, so he knew to keep away from it.

Allure was relentless. She had to be, as a close-range fighter, and she never gave Esteem a moment to breathe. One moment she would fall back to avoid being cut, the next she would charge with a speed she hadn’t demonstrated before, kicking one of his shards away with a power that didn’t belong in that body.

At first, he considered the possibility that she was using earthpony magic, but when he took a moment to scan her thaumic signature, he found something incredible. Her spirit blades had nothing to do with her internal magic, which was one of the lowest he had seen in a warrior unicorn. She was making full use of her weak magic by physically moving it to different locations of her body to give her muscles slightly more strength or just a tad more speed. Esteem could see the technique being applied to a sort of martial art.

She was an impenetrable fortress with the combination of her spirit and magic shifting. His stronger explosive spells would no doubt finish her, but casting those took at least some time—and Rarity ensured he never had time, no matter where he went.

The simple fact of the matter was that this matchup was even. He couldn’t expect backup to come. His opponents might be able to.

Esteem didn’t like those odds.

“Is that worry I see in your eyes, father?” Rarity asked as Vorpal clashed with Carsomyr. “Don’t like your chances?”

Allure jumped behind Esteem, shifting her Heart into a rake with blades at the end. Esteem was unable to get out of the way in time, numerous wounds opening on his back leg. He ignored the blood pouring off him and bounced away, splitting Carsomyr into a dozen pieces, forcing Rarity to split her own blade once more to combat the effect.

Brute force wasn’t going to win the day. But victory was still attainable.

He just needed to get under their skin.

Rarity was easy, she could be put off her game by a few key words. But this Allure… he needed to figure her out without risking that she would discover what he was doing.

Esteem moved on the offensive, re-assembling half of his blade and driving it into Allure. She blocked it, as expected.

“Quite the defensive strategy you have,” Esteem noted, using the other half of his blade to push Rarity back. “Is that what your cutie mark means?”

Allure smirked. “Not at all!” She charged him, pushing magic into her hooves to increase her speed, closing the distance to him quickly. “It’s a mark about destiny.”

“What does one do with a talent of destiny?” Esteem asked.

“Help ponies find their cutie marks.” She twisted around behind him, only for him to push her away with the slant of his blade. “Or help ponies realize their cutie marks hide something they had never thought of before.”

Esteem saw her looking at his cutie mark of three platinum chevrons and realized that she was trying to put him into a mental trap. He teleported away, putting up mental barriers.

“Scared?” Allure chuckled, trotting back to Rarity as the chards of Carsomyr and Vorpal clashed once more. “Let’s see, what could I tell you about your mark?” She glanced at the three platinum shards upon his flank. “Your… destiny? A pony of war in a land without war.”

I made war to fulfill my destiny, Esteem thought, refusing to say it aloud. He didn’t need to give her anything to work with.

“I bet you think you made war to fulfill your destiny.” Allure deflected a platinum shard. “And you’d be right, you did, because you were sure that was what your destiny was.”

He focused several shards onto her head. He didn’t care that he was leaving an opening, she needed to die before she completed her thought. Her Heart took the full brunt of the force, and one of Rarity’s shards got in and cut through Esteem’s side.

“But you really didn’t have to make war. There are plenty of violent lives out there for those who need it! There are thousands of monsters in Equestria, go slay them! They’ll be a challenge and your work will never be done.”

Esteem cast a burst spell that pushed Rarity back. That isn’t war.

“It is war!”

Esteem narrowed his eyes. She wasn't a mind reader. She wouldn't be.

“There’s a hydra tormenting a town, demanding tribute. You train that town!” Allure jumped through the air, bringing her Heart down on him. “You lead them in battle against the beast!”

He let out a roar. Carsomyr slit Allure across the stomach, making her wince and fall to the ground. This came at a price—Rarity got some cuts in on Esteem’s flank.

“The… best part?” Allure managed from the ground. “Almost… all Sweetie Belles get this mark. This talent. Start helping ponies find their destinies… Had you not brought this war, your daughter would have come back to you.”

Esteem had to ignore her to deal with Rarity’s suddenly frenzied attack.

“We have to help those lost in their talents… you would have been no exception… you’ve thrown that future away…”

“ENOUGH!” Esteem shouted, driving half of Carsomyr into Allure’s chest. Her Heart created as strong of a shield as it could manage in that one location. Esteem curled to the side, physically ramming his hoof into her slit stomach while his blade was occupied. The unicorn let out a blood-curdling scream as his war-torn limb drove itself into her flesh.

“That future is weak!” He pushed in harder, fusing Carsomyr into one to keep Rarity back. “What kind of destiny is it to watch the destinies of others? It is a destiny without singular purpose!” He drove his hoof in further the moment it looked like Allure was gaining some coherence. “It is the weak talent of a sweet little filly, not an allure. The Allure is a powerful mare who can take others down without a word, but a simple swish of her hoof! The Allure is a trap, a viper’s nest! The Allure is mare all want to be, not a mare who lets others do their own.” He pushed harder, until his mouth could be near her ear. “Your chosen name makes you a fool. It shows your worship of her.”

Rarity screamed. “How can you be so stupid!?”

“What a childish insult, Rarity.” Esteem removed his hoof from Allure and focused on Rarity fully, batting back her enraged flurry of blows with effortless arcs of his sword. “I have proven myself unparalleled on the mental battlefield as well as the physical. It is this ‘Allure’ who is the fool. And you, for allowing her mortal injury to color your judgement.” Esteem frowned, noticing that Rarity’s expression wasn’t normal.

Almost like she was trying to suppress a smile.

“The Allure is a trap,” Allure said, releasing her hold on her Heart. The mare Esteem had thought barely strong enough to move lashed out with a force unlike anything he had seen before. Both of the General’s back legs were cut clean off by the invisible blade.

With a howl, he teleported a short distance away, spreading his blade around himself defensively.

Allure laughed, but didn’t get up. “I can manipulate my own Heart. Usually as a weapon or shield… but I can make it lie still if I want. I was… playing near-dead. ...Though this still hurts…”

Rarity smirked, forming Vorpal fully. “Father, Twilight offered you a chance to surrender. I am going to offer it to you again. You have lost both your legs and heard Allure’s testimony.”

“You don’t want me to live,” Esteem breathed, haggard.

“I do want you dead,” Rarity admitted. “You were terrible, and this ‘strength’ you gave me? I would never have needed it were you not such a pitiful, lost stallion who had no real way in life. But offering is the right thing to do nonetheless. What will it be? Surrender and live, or fight and die?”

Esteem roared, spreading the shards of Carsomyr wide.

Rarity didn’t split Vorpal up at all. She sent it right at him, full force. She was wide open, any single one of Esteem’s shards could kill her. If only they had the time…

He ordered every last one to go for Rarity’s head, focusing the few nearest to him into a small fraction of Carsomyr’s blade. The tiny platinum dagger of a blade met her massive diamond Vorpal. He could not hope to stop the full bulk of the blade.

Vorpal entered his skull just below his horn and came out the other side.

Even in death, he would not admit defeat. His platinum shards still flew true, and Rarity had no sword.

What she did have was some amazing telekinetic focus. For hours, she had focused on the dozens of shards within her blade, not to mention dozens of outfits in her boutique at any given moment. Now, she didn’t need to worry about her sword.

And Esteem’s magic was no longer on the platinum shards.

In theory, it was simple—telekinetically nudge every shard every shard off course so it would miss her. In practice, this was difficult since she had less than a second to do it.

There wasn’t even time to breathe. The shards were flying, and then they were in the ground.

Rarity looked down at a bloody hole in her left shoulder. “W-well, all but one isn’t bad…”

“Hey… at least your stomach isn’t falling out…” Allure grunted.

“True…”

“Is it all you wanted?” Allure asked.

Rarity turned to see Vorpal still embedded in Esteem’s head. She ripped it from his head without a second thought. “Yes. Yes it was.”

“Oh,” Allure said. She sounded disappointed.

“Dear, you hated him too, and you never met him.”

“Hmm…” Allure coughed. “Got any healers…?”

“Twilight will come around.”

~~~

Pathos didn’t exactly understand what gravity was before Grayscale decided she needed to experience what it felt like to be on Jupiter.

Every bone in her alicorn body crumpled to dust under the sheer downward force. She sunk a few feet into the ground as Grayscale focused every ounce of her power on Pathos’ every molecule.

“Keep her there…” Twilight said. Even in her flattened state, Pathos knew she was preparing some kind of spell. Something massive and complex…

Was this the secret weapon they had? The one that could defeat alicorns? Some simple spell?

Pathos wasn’t about to let that happen to her. She loved life and she was going to keep living no matter what these ponies said!

Her flash of defiance flooded her with more magic. She willed her legs to reform with bones of metal, so they did. Her flesh was inadequate. Discard it in favor of nebulous energy. Iron was still crumpling under the pressure, replace it with steel. Energize the magic further, give it more substance. Live.

A steel alicorn skeleton clawed at the edges of Grayscale’s gravity-induced pit, burning with a calm wisp the color of the evening sky. Every step she took sunk several feet into the ground, but she didn’t care. She moved toward Grayscale with a tranquil fury in her empty eyes.

“She’s gettin’ close…” Grayscale muttered, managing to increase the gravity slightly. It did nothing. Pathos could have survived the moon being dropped on her.

She swung her hoof wide, tossing Grayscale to the side effortlessly. The gravity left her, giving her body freedom.

Twilight was still casting a spell. Pathos needed to fix that.

“Oh no ya don’t!” Applejack shouted, punching Pathos’ skull with enough force to pulverize a stone wall. The alicorn wobbled slightly, but was otherwise unaffected. She chose to ignore the earthpony and focus efforts on Twilight once more.

Velvet proved a little harder to ignore, seeing as how she pumped blood into Pathos’ eyes and yanked her skull back. She didn’t use anywhere near as much force as Applejack, but somehow managed to pop the skull from its spine and dribble it like a basketball. “I’ve got you exactly where I want you, sunny-bun! Everything in your mind is mine! Everything! You have no life away from my hooves anymore!”

Pathos yanked her head back, somehow trembling despite being little more than skeleton at this point.

“You ever wonder why they say emotions are weak? Take a look at your fear…” Velvet’s eyes went black and noxious tentacles Pathos was sure weren’t made of blood began to pour out of her sides. “It debilitates you! Makes you mine! And… it distracts you just long enough.”

“CLEAR!” Twilight shouted, casting her spell.

A wormhole appeared above Pathos.

Twilight teleported all of her friends away.

Pathos didn’t even have time to think uh-oh before the anvil-sized chunk of pure iron hit her at ten percent the speed of light.

It hit her so hard the atoms in her body fused like the fire of the sun. The first bright flash of light was the impact. The second was the congealed atoms trying to figure out what to do with themselves under so much energy and pressure.

The crater that Grayscale had embedded Pathos into was nothing compared to the behemoth of pocket that appeared from this massive impact. The ground that wasn’t irradiated was melted into glass and unnaturally colored fires burned along the edges.

There hadn’t even been any magic in the attack—nothing Pathos could turn to use herself. It had been pure iron traveling far faster than anything had any right to.

Pathos slowly reformed - not as metal and fire, but as bone and flesh, barely able to hold herself together. Her limbs were shaky, her mind distracted. When Twilight teleported in front of her once more, all she could see was a blurry purple blob.

“You’re going to die.”

No, Pathos screamed inwardly. No! No I will not! She reached out with her spirit. I need more!

She grabbed hold of Twilight’s magic.

I will take this!

She felt a rush of Twilight’s memories and emotions as she completed her empathic connection. She saw her as a filly. She saw her learning under Celestia. She felt how she did when the horror of Terra corrupted her. Saw the war, the pain, the suffering, and the changes in her friends.

A tear rolled down Pathos’ cheek. It was a tragedy. But fighting here would not win the day. She had to live, to be with Titan after this was all over. She couldn't do anything else. She needed power…

Which she wasn’t getting.

In fact, it felt like she was rapidly losing power.

“W-what’s happening to me?” She said, panicked, as she began to shrink.

Twilight looked at her in confusion. “I have… no idea.”

Pathos’ nebulous mane faded until it was replaced with simple red and yellow hair. Her immense alicorn body diminished in size until she was no larger than a common mare, and her magic no more potent. The deep burning power of her passion dwindled until it was little more than a spark within her.

Tears were rolling down her face. “Who…?”

“Not us…” Applejack said. “Twilight?”

“Her power is being taken somewhere else…” Twilight said, frowning. “Somepony’s taking it.”

“Oh boy, that sounds annoyingly familiar,” Velvet muttered.

Grayscale scowled. “We’ll just punch whoever has it in the face.”

“I was supposed to…” Pathos trembled. “I was supposed to…”

“I saw,” Twilight said, walking up to her, face held high.

Pathos sagged her head. “I…”

“Your desire to change Titan’s mind is no longer an option,” Twilight interrupted. “You can join us and attempt to defeat him our way, or we will be forced to dispose of you.”

Applejack gasped. “Twilight! You’re…”

“You can’t!” Rainbow shouted. “She almost killed us!”

“She bonded with me when she tried to take my magic,” Twilight explained. “She saw my past and my struggles. I saw hers. In her short life, she has never approved of Titan. She had a plan of her own to defeat him that involved gaining his trust and showing him what empathy meant. Possibly one of the most caring and understanding plans ever conceived in the Immortal Game.” Twilight leaned in to Pathos. “Mortals like us do not have that kind of time. And now, neither do you.”

Pathos nodded. “R-right.” She spread her wings and stretched her legs. There wasn’t much power in them, but she still felt everything. She tried summoning her blade.

Replete came to her, though at a much smaller size. Only a handful of shards.

“...It’s not enough.”

“It is something,” Twilight said. “Come. The others need help. Don’t worry, we are prepared for that brother of yours.”

~~~

Celestia couldn't believe what she was seeing.

It was impossible for any spellcaster to take another’s blade. Not even Titan himself could take control of even the most inexperienced bladecaster’s weapon. It was an absolute rule of magic—or so Celestia had thought.

And yet, here came this gray unicorn, Insipid, that had not only taken Exogenesis from Terra, but also copied all of Terra’s magic! In addition, she seemed faster at creating things than Terra was, even if her plants and puppets didn’t have as much substance. Insipid’s puppets moved a lot more like actual puppets than living breathing ponies.

“Let’s try… dragon puppet!” Insipid declared, pressing the dark Void in one hoof to the bright green energy of Terra’s magic, creating a bright yellow hunk of what Celestia assumed was flesh, but really looked a bit too artificial to truly be such. It was vaguely dragon-like, but it had five legs and no mouth.

It flopped onto Terra like a ragdoll.

Terra blew it to smithereens with her magic, tugging once again on Exogenesis. “RETURN TO YOUR GODDESS WHAT IS HERS!”

“No. It’s mine now,” Insipid huffed. “Nothing you can d—”

Terra grabbed Exogenesis for a split second and twisted the blade of the green weapon into Insipid’s neck. The unicorn responded by sending Exogenesis’ shards flying in random directions, out of her neck. “Like, ow!”

“Heal it,” the other voice said from Insipid, which Celestia had identified earlier as Shadow, the mare whose body was currently possessed and flattened like a pancake nearby.

As Insipid healed her neck with the Void magic, Terra shouted at the loose body. “Why can’t you heal yourself!? She is using the same power!”

“Copy isn’t exact,” Shadow’s body muttered. “Creativity comes into play.”

“It’s acutally more about me being too stupid to think there are rules,” Insipid giggled. “Like, what, I can’t take a sword? I totally didn’t know that!” She twirled Exogenesis around like it was some kind of toy. “Also, Void fire is just fun. And like… have another dragon puppet.”

A banana-colored dragon-puppet fell onto Terra completely harmlessly, but it still drove the alicorn mad. “You will die slowly for what you’ve done…”

“Like, lame,” Insipid blew her mane out of her face. “Come on, what are you gonna do? I have all your powers and more!”

“You do not underst—”

Insipid cut off her head with Exogenesis. “Victory!”

Celestia snorted. “If only it were that easy…”

“Hey! Come on! A pity cheer would be nice over there, peanut gallery!”

Celestia had no idea what that meant. She wasn’t sure Insipid did, either.

Terra’s head grew back, the spitting image of pure unbridled rage on her features.

“Huh. You can heal.” Insipid blinked. “I probably didn’t need to use the Void healing.”

“Apparently not,” Shadow said.

“Cha,” Insipid shrugged. “Anyway, Shadow, recommendation?”

“Proliferate piles of puppets. It seems to bother her more than anything else.”

“Let’s try teddy bears!” She started creating a swarm of yellow, floppy teddy bears that charged Terra in leagues.

“You mock me… You…” Terra’s calm, sunshine mane spiked in baffled fury as she began to squash the puppets beneath her.

Celesta had seen her mother in many states of mind. Angry. Sad. Occasionally even caring. But never, never, had she seen her mother so desperate. Not even during her rebellion against Titan had she seemed so lost and confused. There, she understood the rules of engagement.

Here, Terra hadn’t the foggiest idea what to do with Insipid.

It was hilarious to watch and it took all Celestia’s effort to keep from laughing. Mother Earth, brought low by a copycat who broke the rules!

She briefly wondered how Titan would react to this mare. A mortal pony grabbing the power of pure order and using it like some kind of chaotic child’s toy. If anything would get him to show some emotion, that would.

Terra tore the castle around them down, pelting Insipid with rock after rock after rock. Insipid yawned, letting her body quickly recharge from each hit as she kept making teddy bear puppets endlessly. “This is fun!” Insipid giggled. “Oh, what if I make a puppet of her!?” She summoned a green vaguely alicorn-shaped blob into the arena. It promptly flopped to the ground, useless. “Eh, close enough.”

“Enough…? Close enough…?” Something snapped in Terra, a psychotic smile coming over her face.

Celestia’s amusement vanished. Oh no...

“You have proven enough of a nuisance to make me stoop to your level…” Terra twitched. She levitated Shadow’s body up and into her outstretched hoof. “Let’s make this simple. You release the power you stole from me, or I snap your friend’s head. I see that spell that lets her talk through you. She’s still trapped in this body. I kill it, I kill her.”

Insipid’s smile dropped. “Uh…”

“Release your power or she dies.”

“You’re, like, totally going to try to kill us after I do that? So no dice.”

“I give you my word.”

“Her word is worthless!” Celestia shouted. “D—”

Terra shot a magic spell back at Celestia that cut out her tongue. “Ingrate!”

Shadow spoke through Insipid. “I believe Celestia. So, allow me to put this in terms you can understand, Terra. I would appreciate remaining alive. However, Insipid will not be giving up her power. I order her not to. If she releases it, we both perish.”

“S-shadow…” Insipid stuttered.

“However, since you’ve induced leverage upon us, we would be willing to simply end the fight.” Shadow narrowed her eyes. “Neither of us have to die and we can both walk away.”

“You think me a fool?” Terra asked. “I know who you are. You are those sisters that showed up and started helping the rebellion. You will aid them when you leave.”

“No peaceful solution?”

“Never in your wildest dreams, mortal.”

Shadow let out a sigh. “Then it is apparent that you simply have to kill me and continue the fight with a very enraged Insipid. You may infer that her rage will hinder her fighting capacity. Given her ability to fly in the face of logic like a speckled bat, this is not the case.”

“...I have a better idea.” Terra tapped the head on Shadow’s body, causing it to go limp—but not dead. A strange, black shard that shook with madness came out, making Celestia wince. A Sliver of Darkness. Terra’s prize; an artifact that could trap a being in their own mind while a perversion of themselves took over. “Shadow was powerful… but you, Insipid, you have so much more potential. Esteem was so blind when he captured you.” She threw the shard at Insipid. “Time for you to kill everypony.”

~~~

Cinder laid back. “So, Fluttershy… what do you do?”

Fluttershy looked at the ground. “Not much. I can use the Stare… and I keep everypony grounded.”

“That’s good!”

“Yeah. Still, when I sit back like this, it makes me wonder…”

“If you could fight?”

“Oh, no, I could never…”

“You can, if you wanted,” Cinder said, hopping up and stretching her legs. “I’ve seen some strong Fluttershys out there.”

“Oh…”

“Don’t think you have to, though. You really might like yourself better this way.”

Before Fluttershy could respond, Twilight appeared between them. “We are ready to storm the central Palace and take out Empyrean. Fluttershy, we do need you for this.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Right.”

“There’s no way I’m missing this!” Cinder said. “Let’s go!”

Twilight teleported them to the front steps. Cinder did her best to ignore the bodies and blood everywhere, and got some marginal success when she noticed a small Sunset alicorn tending to Havocwing. “Who’s that?”

“Pathos,” Twilight said. “A new ally.”

“I’ve removed the curse,” Pathos said, backing away from Havocwing. “I rejuvenated her as well, she should wake u—”

Havowing shot up and punched Pathos in the face. “I AM GONNA KI—wait, what?”

“Welcome back,” Curaçao said, pulling Havocwing into a hug.

“Oh. I was trying to kill you guys, huh?” Havocwing laughed. “That was… weird.

“Weird!?” Rainbow shouted. “That’s all you have to say? Weird?!”

“Well, ye—”

“You just tried to kill your friends! That’s… That’s…”

“Dash, you can have your PTSD panic attack or whatever the fuck this is later. Right now…” Havocwing pointed at the hall doors. “Can we smash this thing down already?”

Twilight nodded. “Give me a second to prepare…”

Allure trotted over to Cinder. “Hey.”

“You are absolutely covered in blood,” Cinder pointed out.

Allure chuckled nervously. “Yeah. And yes, most of it is mine. That Esteem guy was no joke.”

“Was he as bad as you thought he was?”

“He had me on the ground and just rammed his hoof deeper and deeper into my innards for the sake of pain so… yeah, I think he was. I can see why Sweetie Belle hated this name.” Allure smirked. “But it’s mine now. And no silly General can tell me what it means.”

“Did you…?”

“No, that was Rarity. She offered him a way out, too. Guy was stubborn…” Allure shook her head. “But he’s gone now. All that’s left is this Empyrean, then Titan. And now we’ve got another alicorn on our side, apparently.” She frowned. “Looks like we didn’t get Insipid or Shadow, though.”

“Nopony knows where they are,” Celia said, trotting over. “They seem to have just… vanished.”

“Then we need to be ready for the unexpected,” Cinder shook her head. “Whatever lies on the other side of this door… it won’t be what we’re expecting.”

“We’re going in anyway,” Twilight said. “Ready the Elements—let’s do this!”

She blasted the doors open with a thaumic explosion.

Titan's Tower (The Immortal Game, Part 3)

It took all of Empyrean’s self-control not to scream in panic when Master General Twilight Sparkle broke down the door to his throne room.

“GUARDS! KILL HER!”

At least they were loyal, puppet and truepony alike. They charged, firing off spells, summoning weapons, and hacking with all their energy.

They were nothing. All it took was one burst of flame from Havocwing to decimate their ranks and leave them scrambling for breath. “Heh. Thank General Esteem for me later, would ya?”

“He’s dead,” Rarity deadpanned.

“Oh.” Havocwing looked to Empyrean. “Then you can tell him when you get to hell!” Her mane twisted into a dark red flame and her eyes narrowed into slits. “Or maybe I’ll have Twilight here imprison you in your own mind… Does that sound fun, PRINCE?!”

Empyrean trembled. “I… am Empyrean! I will not be bested by mere mortals! There is nothing you can do to me—not with your spells, not even with my sister!” He pointed at Pathos with his wing. “You were father’s newest creation. And now you betray him.”

“...I hope, with time, that you and he will come to forgive me…” Pathos breathed.

“Forgive?! FORGIVE!? Father is a jealous, vindictive god. He will punish you until you change and you must live with what you’ve done here today!” He spread his wings, eyes lighting with the power of the sun itself. “Perish for daring to stand before me!”

“Do we even need to do the thing?” Velvet asked. “He’s so scared I could probably take him by myself!”

Twilight considered this. Dare they try to beat Empyrean with just the resources they had at their disposal? They had defeated Pathos, though she had been an alicorn at least an order of magnitude lower in power. Empyrean had Celestia’s—could they do it?

Empyrean cast a beam of sunlight at Velvet that tore through her chest and came out the other end. Her bloody tendrils stitched herself back together. “You can’t beat me…”

“But he could kill one of us, easily.” Twilight said. “We can’t risk that.”

“Light him up, girls!”

“NO!” Empyrean bellowed, summoning his blade and sending it at Twilight’s chest. “DIE!”

Celia intercepted the blade with her razor-top, batting it away. “Not today!”

Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Fluttershy all rose into the air, glowing with the rainbows of Harmony. The familiar sight of a rainbow ran through the Elements around their necks, forming a brilliant shimmer of hope and light. Empyrean tried in vain to stop the incoming multicolored burst, but his attack was effortlessly tossed aside like a child’s toy.

“No! No no no! Father! Save me! Sa—” His voice cut short as his magic left him. He was soon reduced to nothing more than a simple, magicless pony with no horn or wings.

He was no more than a foal. Maybe five or six years old.

Havocwing deflated. “Well, great, that takes all the fun out of killing him.”

“What now?” Grayscale asked,

Twilight finished managing Empyrean’s magic and opened her eyes. “Now, we wait. Either Logos will be forced to reveal himself, or Titan will grace us with his presence.”

~~~

Insipid felt the Sliver of Darkness of darkness hit her in the head and absorb into her skull.

The effect was almost immediate.

One moment, she was the master of her body and Shadow was along for the ride.

The next, the Other appeared, driving Insipid into the recesses of her mind. The smile on Insipid’s body vanished as the Other took over, fixing Terra with a disinterested, almost apathetic expression.

“Like, no!” Insipid shouted, only able to speak through Shadow’s body.

“Hey… looks like I got my body back…” Shadow chuckled weakly.

“She’s got my body! That… Umbra!”

“Stop shouting… you make it hurt more…”

Terra set Shadow’s body on the ground. “You,” she pointed at the thing in Insipid’s body. “Kill this.”

The Other sighed. “Why? You do it. It’ll be easier.”

“Because I am your queen and you will do as I say!”

“Fine…” The Other held out a hoof, intending to vaporize Shadow’s body with fire. “...Huh. She released the powers. Go figure.”

“Then take the Void from her and kill her with it! It’s not that complicated!”

“Oh.”

The Other slapped herself in the face.

Terra cocked her head. “What are you…?”

“Shadow’s using the mental connection,” the Other reported as she tried - and failed - not to slap herself again. “Can’t cut it. Running through Insipid.”

“Try!”

“Fine…”

“I’ll show you try!” Insipid grunted. Together, they jumped the Other’s mind and forced Insipid’s body into a seizure as three minds attempted to rule over it.

Terra frowned. “I’ll just vaporize both of you, then…”

It was at this moment Twilight finished sending Empyrean’s power back to where it belonged.

Celestia.

The massive white alicorn of the sun stood to her full height, wounds healing in a matter of seconds. She looked down at Terra with a contemptuous expression. In the split-second it took Terra to notice Celestia’s rediscovered power, the Princess of the Sun had driven Zenith into Terra’s heart and tackled her to the ground.

“Use Terra’s power to drive the demon out!” Celestia shouted, allowing herself to take serious damage in order to keep Terra still. Exogenesis flew wild as Terra screamed, plunging into Celestia’s body in several places. Celestia did her best to defend herself with Zenith, but keeping Terra still came first for now.

Shadow used her body’s magic to levitate the seizing Insipid’s onto Terra’s left back leg. Both the Other and Insipid wanted her power back now, so it wasn’t difficult to obtain.

“I’ll win now,” the Other said, using Terra’s power to create thorns on her hoof, pointing them at Celestia.

“Actually…” Shadow said.

“...We win now!” Insipid added.

Both minds worked as one to distract the Other. As its mind reeled, Insipid grabbed hold of Terra’s power and acted upon the Sliver of Darkness, forcing it—and the Other—out of her mind.

“I’m back, baby!” Insipid sang. A shard of Exogenesis embedded itself in her chest, but Terra’s power healed that quickly. “...You suck.”

“Heal Shadow!” Celestia grunted as her own healing factor regrew the lower half of her leg. “She can’t have leverage!”

“On it!” Insipid said, bringing Shadow up, copying her Void power while she was at it. “Done!”

Shadow severed the mental connection. “Now we can fight…”

Celestia teleported herself away from Terra at this point. She was currently regrowing her back hoof, her body covered in bloody, dripping lesions, and her face swollen.

But she was smiling.

Terra scowled. “Why can you only feel joy at the suffering of your mother?”

“Why do you feel joy at the suffering of your daughter?” Celestia brought Zenith together. Terra tried to raise Exogenesis, but Insipid stole it. “You can’t beat me on your own,” Celestia stated. “You definitely can’t beat me and yourself.”

Terra scowled. She spread her wings, ready to flee.

“Unacceptable,” Shadow said, tying Terra to the ground with four chains of Void.

“MORTAL!” Terra screamed, driving her hoof toward Shadow. Insipid used Exogenesis to cut the hoof off, throwing Terra off balance. She flopped to the ground, grunting.

“Burn her until her magic runs dry,” Celestia said, creating a miniature sun and engulfing Terra in it’s light. For a moment, it looked like Terra would be able to stand against the might of the sun.

Insipid rose thorns out of the earth laced with burning toxins, puncturing Terra’s body from every conceivable angle. She could do little more than howl with rage.

“Shadow…” Celestia said through gritted teeth. “Your essence reminds me of Twilight Sparkle. She had the potential to take power out of alicorns and move it elsewhere. Can you?”

“An excellent idea. Its reality remains to be seen.” Shadow focused her magic on Terra and forced her magic loose—easy to access now that she was laid bare. It took significant effort to overcome the natural fixation the magic had with its Mother Nature, but using a spell inspired by Insipid’s copy magic, she was able to shunt the magic out of Terra and into Insipid without copying it.

When the smoke cleared a diminutive green alicorn remained with no more magic than a normal pony.

Insipid looked herself over. “I don’t really feel any different, Shadow.”

“The power was redundant, your magic cancelled it out automatically,” Shadow said, releasing her spell.

“Oh. Well. Guess I’ll never sprout wings then, huh?”

“Probably not, given the way your power works.” Shadow turned to Celestia. “I extend my appreciation and thanks.”

Celestia nodded. “We must go to Canterlot. The war is not won.”

“You will never win!” Terra hissed. “Titan—”

“Is not here,” Celestia said. “It is just Pathos and Logos. And they are no match for me.”

“What do we do with her?” Shadow asked.

“...We shall take her with us, imprisoned of course.” Celestia encased Terra in a ball of yellow magic. “And we see what awaits us at the capital. We must fly.”

“...I could probably teleport us back,” Shadow said. “Just give me a minute to activate the long-range spell.”

Celestia stared at her blankly.

“I appear to be breaking a local law of magic. I will explain at a more opportune time how the spell works, for now, just let me work…”

~~~

Had Titan come to Canterlot, he would have crashed through the ceiling without a care for the damage he caused.

Logos, however, had more respect for the Palace than that. He walked in through the front doors. “Greetings, rebels.”

“Logos…” Pathos said, narrowing her eyes.

“S-silvertongue…?” Havocwing stammered.

Twilight fixed the tall, silver alicorn with a critical expression. “You are larger than Pathos’ memories show. You were the one who took her energy.”

Pathos gasped.

“A clever series of spells—you’d be surprised how much you could derive from Starlight Shadow.” Logos allowed his smile to widen. “Now, let’s cut to the chase.” He waved a hoof.

Fluttershy flopped to the ground, unconscious.

“Fluttershy!” Rarity shouted. “What did you do to her!?”

“Mild neurotoxin. She’ll be fine, if you cooperate,” Logos stated.

“I had her surrounded in defenses…” Twilight growled.

“And I used a completely non-magical method of injection. A small dart, through the ear canal and into the brain. Microscopic, innocuous enough that it was allowed through the barrier along with the air she breathes. And like that, that precious weapon of yours is useless.”

“That’s right! Kill them, brother!” Empyrean shouted.

“I grow tired of your childish whining,” Logos muttered, waving a hoof. Empyrean fell asleep. “That was just a sleep spell, if you’re curious.”

“We can take you,” Velvet growled. “We did it once, we can do it again…”

“And that brings me to my next question.” He turned to Havocwing. “You said Silvertongue. Is that the name this essence took previously?”

“Eh… what?”

“I’m addressing the invisible Curaçao,” Logos said. “Am I Silvertongue?”

Curaçao revealed herself, standing a short ways behind him. “...You ‘ave ‘is face, ‘is tone, but not ‘is memories or plan.”

“But we are related. It’s always good when a deduction turns out to be true.” He seemed quite pleased with himself. “I will have to assume you know more of me than I know of myself, which is curious. But I also know you were barely able to face Pathos.” He interrupted Twilight’s spell before it could even think about completing. “And I have the power of both her and myself.”

“And a million backup plans,” Pathos breathed.

“Precisely!” Logos grinned. “In fact, you are about to see one now, if my magic sense is working properly…”

Celestia crashed through the ceiling, Zeinith poised to cut off Silvertongue’s head. The moment she arrived, a dark portal opened up and swallowed her whole.

“Celestia!” Pathos screamed.

“I do hope she enjoys company with her sister,” Silvertongue chuckled. “It really is quite easy to seal power. I could do it with anyone.”

Insipid, Shadow, and Terra fell out of the sky shortly thereafter now that Celestia was gone.

“Logos…” Terra said, looking around at all the frozen, uncertain ponies. “You have won?”

“Despite Pathos’ betrayal, it appears I have, mother,” Logos said. “I find myself wondering why you did not attempt to simply seal unwanted alicorns away prior to my time.”

“Titan’s will.”

“Yes. Quite. Well, he isn’t here right now, so I shall make do,” Logos said, simply. “And look, the family’s reunited!”

Curaçao pulled Insipid into a hug.

“And before you get any ideas about having Insipid touch me and gain my powers through some kind of disguise, be warned that I have a barrier of pain surrounding me that will initiate near brian-death. Not actual death, you understand, for I do believe Titan would be interested in harvesting all of you for your interesting magic, and I believe there is much to learn from these Elements of Harmony.”

“We do not need to touch you,” Curaçao breathed.

Logos frowned, noting that there were six of the otherworldly sisters. He performed a check, relieved to find that there were no Elements of any sort on them. No secret weapon.

And then the Elements of Pandemonium activated anyway, for their power was within the six dark ponies, not stuck inside some silly, tacky necklaces.

A beam of gray energy shot from the Mean Six and hit Logos directly in the chest. He grunted as the power pushed him—but he stood fast. “Is this… what defeated your ‘Silvertongue’?” He smirked. “This is not the energy to defeat gods! This is nothing more than a simple paradox!” He summoned his blade, a hauntingly eerie rod of pure white. “This is Purity, and with it you end.”

Insipid met it with Exogenesis. “So, uh, fun fact! We beat Silvertongue because I had the power of a ‘god’ or whatever. Which I currently have! So, like, bye~!” She sent a beam of green energy at Logos.

He defended with a shield of his own. “C-clever. But I—”

“Non,” Curaçao declared. “You are not Silvertongue. You are a poor shadow. You do not ‘ave ‘is patience. You are young and don’t know what to do wiz zat mind of yours. Silvertongue would not ‘ave revealed ‘imself until ‘e ‘ad all the information.”

“You were cocky,” Havocwing growled. “And now we get to kill you a third time.”

Logos activated a complex series of spells laid in the ground of the main hall, creating a spike of magic that went for Curaçao. Celia teleported in and bashed it to the side with her razor-top. “Nice try.”

Cinder pointed up at Logos. “You already had your chance at being the big bad! You were defeated! You don’t get to do it again—you are going to be defeated right here, right now, absolutely. You don’t get to reclaim what Silvertongue lost!”

Logos sneered. “I wil—”

Pathos held Replete to Logos’ neck. “You won’t.” She placed a hoof on his head, forcing the two of them into a delirious empathic state. His defenses dropped and the Elements of Pandemonium began to burn his flesh away.

“Twilight!” Shadow shouted. “Take his power into yourself!”

Twilight stared at her. “Tha—”

“JUST DO IT!”

Twilight tapped into Logos’ magic, finding it was easy to take with Pathos there. Using a method similar to what Logos had used to drain Pathos, she shunted all the power into herself.

All the Elements of Harmony gasped—even Fluttershy, who was shaken awake by the sudden influx of power. Master General Twilight Sparkle rose into the air, white light surrounding her as her form grew in size, shifting into a proper alicorn—wings and all.

Twilight stared at her wings in shock.

Shadow smirked. “You’re welcome.”

“You speak as though this is normal.”

“Twilights regularly ascend,” Shadow said. “I likely could procure a method of doing so for myself, if it were not more impressive to remain a unicorn.”

Twilight nodded, stretching her wings. “This will do.”

“So awesome!” Rainbow and Pinkie shouted at the same time.

“Um… yay?” Fluttershy cocked her head. “I don’t know what just happened.”

Logos fell from the air, a simple alicorn of similar size to Terra and Pathos. “...I have lost.” He turned to Twilight. “It is in my best interests t—”

Curaçao jumped him and snapped his neck.

Silence filled the great hall.

“‘e may ‘ave been young, but ‘e was still Silvertongue,” Curaçao said. “We could not let ‘im speak.”

“Understood,” Twilight said, turning to Terra. “You will be our source of information.”

“I will tell you nothing!” Terra shouted.

“You will, in time,” Celestia said, erupting from a black hole in the ground, dragging Luna along behind her. “For you have lost, mother.”

“Titan lives.”

“We have both sets of Elements, there’s nothing he could possibly do!” Rainbow laughed. “And we’ve got… what, four alicorns now?”

“I don’t really count,” Pathos pointed out.

“I’m sure we can find some source of power for you,” Cinder chirped.

“I will tell you nothing,” Terra growled.

“You don’t have to,” Pathos said, lifting a hoof. “I can just take it from you.”

“N… No! You can’t! Y—”

Pathos touched her hoof to Terra’s head, forcing an empathic connection. Both of their eyes were blank as information passed between the two of them.

“...I wonder what they’re thinkin’ about,” Applejack said.

“Horrors past and present,” Curaçao answered.

Terra slapped Pathos away a minute later. “You were a traitor from the moment you were born!”

There were tears in Pathos’ eyes. “...He broke you… Mother, I am so, so sorry…”

“Ingrate,” Terra spat, turning away.

“...Does it all tie back to Titan?” Celestia asked Pathos.

Pathos nodded. “He… he used to be named Order. There was another as well, Harmony, who… well, the Elements sure seem like something she’d create.”

“I have never heard of a Harmony,” Luna pointed out.

“Titan killed her before your time,” Pathos explained, turning to Twilight.

“If he killed Harmony, the Elements may not work on him,” Twilight deduced.

“All together, we may have enough power to brute-force him,” Celestia suggested. “Three alicorns, two sets of Elements, and mares of unusual powers…” She turned to Twilight, examining her wings. “How are you…”

“I am adjusting fine, Celestia,” Twilight said. “We will resolve our differences later. For now, Titan. Pathos, where is he?”

“He left the universe,” Pathos answered. “Trusting the conquest of Canterlot to Terra and Logos. He sought answers, though I don’t know of what kind.”

“How did he leave?” Curaçao asked. “Dimensional travel is not easy.”

“Presumably he followed whatever brought Logos and myself here. I don’t know who exactly it was, but I saw that it was a pony.”

“Looks like we found Mustard,” Velvet said, raising a hoof. “Lemme guess, probably dead?”

“Probably,” Pathos admitted. “Terra thinks so, anyway. Likely through destructive absorption of the brain.”

“So Titan knows everything Mustard does, or at least we have to assume that,” Shadow frowned. “...And he’s looking for answers.”

“How do we find him?” Rainbow asked. “He’s clearly not coming here.”

“He likely has no idea what’s happening,” Luna said. “For all we know, he may never return, lost in other worlds.”

“If we had a connection to him, we could trace his movement,” Celia said. “Is there anything that would be strongly associated with his magic on a personal level?”

Celestia frowned. “Terra, perhaps, but her magic has been scrambled.”

“I’ll make some calls,” Allure said. “I’m sure I can get a science team in here to find his dimensional signature. If all else fails, time shenanigans.”

“...Time shenanigans?” Luna asked.

“Time shenanigans.”

~~~

Suzie wished Celia were here.

That wasn’t out of some emotional attachment she needed fulfilled, either. Or, at least, that was only a very small part of it.

The fact of the matter was that Suzie hated politics and whenever something big came up she always relied on Celia to take care of it—or she shouted at it. Shouting sometimes helped.

Shouting never helped when it was the Merodi politics she had to deal with.

“Would everyone kindly BE QUIET!?” Overhead Evening shouted, tapping into the Royal Canterlot Voice. The cacophony of voices talking in the main meeting room of the warship Andesite quieted down from her outburst.

“This isn’t your purview,” a short gray alien pointed out: Thor, Second of Military. “You are Relations, Evening. This Titan is a Military and Research matter. You just happened to be here.”

“Thor, while I see that, I—”

“Please refrain from speaking as if you are the authority,” a synthetic voice said. Suzie easily recognized it as the Research Overhead—a robot without a formal designation, known as the R.O. in casual conversation. He was humanoid, though he had a glassy head filled with sparks like reddish stars instead of a face. “You are in an advisory capacity at best.”

Suzie wished Corona was here instead of her boss. That would make things go much smoother.

Eve ruffled her wings and held a solid gaze with her equal. “Seeing as my goal of getting everyone to quiet down has been met, go ahead and take control of the meeting. You are correct in your assertions, after all.”

The R.O.’s sparks flashed in annoyance. “I need no permission.” He continued without waiting for a response. “Titan proved to be a much larger threat than anticipated, destroying eleven separate ships and killing one hundred and seven different individuals despite the best efforts to evacuate and heal. It seems as though he appeared from nowhere, stole two members of the League of Sweetie Belles, and then reminded us that sometimes raw power has its uses.” The R.O. took a moment to direct his gaze at everyone around the table. “Subsequent interviews with a revitalized Doctor Sweetaloo Blume revealed that he was searching for answers and is currently en route to the Dark Tower.”

“Then he’s gone and we don’t have to deal with him anymore,” a Gem called from the back of the room.

“We have to deal with him!” Suzie shouted. “He’s a—”

“Self-proclaimed villain,” the R.O. interrupted. “We are well aware of the contents of the Sweetaloo interviews, Colonel Mash. Please do not reiterate useless information.”

Thor frowned. “R.O., she was stating a needed opinion.”

“Do you agree that we should pursue him? It is what he wishes.”

“I disagree, but voices must be heard.” Thor turned to Suzie. “You understand that he is hoping to bend fate to his will, yes? If we seek revenge, we mark him as the enemy, and he may live to get the answers he desires. If we let him go…”

“He could return,” Suzie pointed out.

“We do not know what he is. Research is required,” the R.O. said.

“And how are you doing on that?” Eve asked.

A large screen displaying a colorful ‘G’ dropped from the ceiling, indicating that the Artificial Intelligence Gillion from Earth Shimmer had decided to pay a visit. “Success. Titan’s blade spell was identified as similar to the spell of The Sweetie Belle.”

“We have no idea where she is,” Suzie pointed out. “You should kn—”

“Allure was recently called out to investigate a world where the name ‘Allure’ originated,” GIllion interrupted. “Minimal reports, many temporarily classified, but the Elements of Pandemonium are currently in operation there with Cinder and Celia. In case it is not obvious, this is a bizarre coincidence indicative of a larger ka-phenomenon.”

“Call them,” the R.O. ordered.

“I knew there was something more,” Suzie said. “I—”

“Call the League of Sweetie Belles as well,” the R.O. said. “We may have need for expertise.”

“I am expertise!” Suzie waved her hands. “Founder! I met The Sweetie Belle! If this has something to do with her, I—”

“You are biased and angry,” the R.O. pointed out.

“She is also integral to the current moment,” Gillion retorted. “Don’t dismiss her.”

The R.O. had to take a moment to process this.

“...How are panic levels?” Eve asked, breaking the silence.

“Manageable,” the R.O. reported. “It may be advisable to swap out to military ships that have not encountered Titan already…”

~~~

Allure’s communicator rang before she had even dialed the first number. With a shrug, she held it to her ear. “Hello?”

“This is Gillion, Research Division. I am speaking to Allure, League of Sweetie Belles, yes?”

“Yep!” Allure reported. “What seems to be the problem?”

“Do you know of a black alicorn named Titan?”

Allure let out a soft chuckle. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do know about Titan.” Everyone in the hall turned to stare at her. “Why do you ask?”

“Titan has destroyed eleven Merodi Military vessels and is currently heading for the Dark Tower. I have no authority to order you back, but we need the information you carry.”

“Uh, I think we’ll be right there. Send the location to the League so they can direct us.” Allure hung up the phone. “So! I found Titan!”

“And?” Twilight asked.

“Don’t know much, but if they’re right he’s currently preoccupied with something a little… big at the moment. He’s going for the Dark Tower, a quest that never ends as people expect.”

Celestia frowned. “What is this… Dark Tower?”

“The center of the multiverse and arguably the reason for all things?”

Celestia nodded. “That makes sense. Naturally, when provided with proof that he is not the beginning and the end of all things, he will try to find it. Wouldn’t you say, mother?”

Terra grumbled.

“He has abandoned this world for his own personal quest,” Celestia pushed. “I would not be surprised if he never returned.”

“He’ll move on to bigger, better things,” Luna agreed.

“...And he’ll get his plot handed to him on a silver platter,” Celia finished. “The Tower doesn’t screw around. Getting to it is often a journey of many lives that messes you up big time.”

“We still have to stop him,” Cinder said.

Pinkie cocked her head. “Why? He’s leaving us alone and it sounds like this Big Bad Tower is going to take care of him for us!”

“Not you,” Cinder said, shaking her head. “Your world is safe, that’s what you need to worry about. We—the Sweeties and travelers—have to worry about the multiverse. How much do you think he will destroy in his quest for the Tower?”

“As much as he thinks is necessary,” Celestia answered.

Allure nodded. “Well, they want us back, so we should probably get going. Don’t worry about us, we’ll have the entire army at our disposal this time. Curaçao, you coming?”

Curaçao nodded. “We are.”

“It was great working with you guys!” Velvet said. “But now we’re gonna go and let you deal with…” She gestured at the awkward glares Celestia and Twilight were giving each other. “That.”

Applejack sighed, stepping forward. “Thanks for your help. We couldn't have done all this without you.”

“All in a day’s work,” Havocwing said.

“You attacked us for most of it,” Celia pointed out.

“I got better!”

“I’m coming with you,” Pathos declared.

Cinder looked at her. “Are you sure?”

“This world… this world isn’t mine. I was brought here and changed by Titan. I’m not connected to here, I’m connected to Him.” She glanced at Terra. “And you might need somepony who knows what she does. What Titan used to be.”

“Which is…?” Curaçao asked.

“Boring order instead of violent, regimented order.”

Velvet gasped. “B-boring order!?” She shivered like she’d just heard something from a horror story.

Cinder rolled her eyes. “It was nice getting to know you guys! Maybe we’ll be back some day, but right now we’ve gotta go hunt down a Titan.”

Allure tossed Twilight a communicator and a multiversal introduction pamphlet. “In case you need anything.”

Twilight nodded. “Thank you, otherworlders. You have fought by our side and freed our world. We wish you luck in facing Titan in your realm.”

“It’s our territory,” Allure said with a smirk. “We’ve got the advantage.” She kicked up her dimensional device and opened a portal. “Come on Sweeties, Elements, Pathos!”

“See you, Fluttershy!” Cinder waved.

Everyone piled through, leaving the Elements of Harmony and the alicorns of the world behind. Only Pathos entered with them. They appeared on the street of Celestia City outside the League of Sweetie Belles, with a decent stream of Sweeties flowing in an out.

Pathos stared at the Sweetie activity, dumbfounded.

“You get used to it,” Cinder said with a chuckle.

“I’m going to get the details from Nausicaa,” Allure said, tapping her metal horn. “Wait here.”

The Elements of Pandemonium, Cinder, Celia, and Pathos waited, watching the flow of Sweeties that showed no signs of stopping.

Insipid decided to summon Exogenesis. “I like this sword…”

“You could make your own, you know,” Pathos commented. “Every unicorn can summon a blade with enough practice. Even if you didn’t have her power.”

“Shadow? Think I could do that?”

“Maybe,” Shadow admitted. “Though it’s an immensely complex spell, and you’re still trying to learn how to fire basic lasers.”

“But I could! Yes! Oh, what should I name it when I get it? I can be like your Rarity, something nonsensical but cool! Vorapl!”

“You just swapped some letters around,” Grayscale commented.

“Isn’t it great?”

Havocwing groaned.

“We could name it Tom,” Velvet suggested.

“No!” Celia shrieked. “Not Tom!”

Stepping away from the group’s chat, Cinder walked up to Curaçao. “Hey.”

Curaçao nodded in greeting but said nothing.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Our experiences.”

“You too, huh?” Cinder’s smile faltered. “...We messed some things up in there. Twilight… Terra… it felt like everything went wrong.”

“Was zat us, or Logos and Pathos? Zey were not supposed to be zere eizer.”

Cinder frowned. “I don’t know. It’s just… I feel like we ended it for them early. They never get their confrontation with Titan. But did we save lives? Terra and Empyrean are alive, they might have been dead if things continued. Would they have ever known Terra’s past? Would Twilight have even ascended?” Cinder tapped her hoof, annoyed at something she wasn’t sure about.

Curaçao shook her head. “We cannot keep second-guessing ourselves. We do what seems right in ze moment, zat is all we can do. And zen…” Curaçao shrugged. “I do not know. You see what ‘is’ and ‘should’ much better zan I do.”

“Yeah…” Cinder frowned, glancing back at Celia. “They—my team, I dunno about yours—they don’t think about what could have been. Only what is. Probably better, in the long run.” She rubbed her head. “I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore.”

Curaçao smiled. “Neizer do I, Cinder. Everyzing is too large to see at once. I do not envy ze burden of ze Overheads.”

“Oh boy…”

“Got it!” Allure shouted, jumping out of the League doors. “We’re going to the Universe Generator!”

“Of course,” Cinder said.

~~~

Eve found Suzie stress eating in one of the ships’ mess halls, shoveling plate after plate of cheese and crackers into her mouth.

“Want to talk about it?” Eve asked, sitting down at the table without waiting for a response.

Suzie frowned. “Do I have a choice?”

“You do, but I am still the Princess of Friendship under all these Overhead titles.” She leaned back, her sparkling mane hanging over the back of the chair.

Suzie sighed. “Celia’s coming back. Is back, talking to the meeting about Titan now. And here I am, hiding in the mess hall, dreading looking at her.”

“How bad was the falling out?”

“I was being a hu—”

“I didn’t ask if it was your fault, I asked how bad it was.”

“...Bad enough that I told her to get off my ship.”

Eve winced slightly. “Ouch.”

“Then I asked her to come back and… she said I needed this. She was right, I did, and now I—”

Eve put a gentle wing on Suzie. “Suzie, please stop worrying about whose fault it was and who was in the right. Maybe one of you was right, maybe one of you was wrong, it shouldn’t matter. Friends don’t need to keep score on each other. If you think you were wrong you should apologize, but you shouldn’t dwell on it to find some justification for the way you’re feeling.”

Suzie looked at the ground.

“You know the story of me and Flutterfree, right?”

“You betrayed each other at the exact same time in Them’s little Hunger Games.”

Twilight nodded. “And how do you think we got past that?”

“Eve, you tell this all the time to e—”

“We worked, together, to patch up the relationship. We worked hard. We went out of our way to spend time with one another, talk about what happened, and move past it. Now we are best friends and rarely far from each other for long.” Eve paused. “This is usually where I turn to wave at her, but she’s on a mission right now, so…”

Suzie blinked. “Hold on a minute…”

“Hmm?”

“You’re not just talking to me about the falling out.”

“Oh, I am. Just… not the one where you told her to get off ‘your’ ship. I’m thinking about the one where she bonded with an ancient sea-demon and ruined your trust. But the lessons apply to both.”

Suzie frowned. “We… we weren’t even really trying to fix it, were we?”

Eve shrugged.

“Don’t play dumb with me.”

“It’s better if I don’t come right out and say things you need to come to on your own, and you know it.”

Suzie sighed, sitting back.

“You don’t just fix trust by willing it back, Suzie. It has to be reforged through pain, friendship, and no small amount of effort.” She tilted Suzie’s face up with her wing. “But I’m sure you can do it.”

“Evening Sparkle, master of the Friendship Speech.”

Eve smiled sadly. “I dunno. Sparky was pretty good too.”

Suzie let out a short laugh. “Yeah… yeah, she was.”

The two of them sat back in their chairs, taking a moment to just breathe.

“...Think we should check in on the meeting?” Suzie asked, eventually.

Eve snorted. “We’re not exactly welcome there. I’m sure Allure’s doing a good job telling them what’s what.”

“Lucky dog.”

“Pony.”

Suzie rolled her eyes. “You can be remarkably petty and childish for the face of Merodi Universalis.”

Eve smirked. “I have to get my fun somewhere.”

Both of their phones rang—receiving a simple text. We’re going after Titan.

“Allure works fast,” Eve commented. “Sometimes, I can’t believe she’s the same filly who I watched get stuck in that tree sap over and over.”

“Ponies change,” Suzie said. She stood up to leave—shocked to find Celia standing right there.

Celia coughed. “Okay, so, I was hasty and angry earlier, and I’m sorry f—”

Suzie pulled her into a hug, surprising the Gem with the strength of it.

“Wh-okay then!” Celia laughed. “I guess this was more effective than I thought!”

“I’m sorry too,” Suzie said, holding her back. “...We need to work through this. I need to know you so I can trust you.”

“Wanna help me go hunt down an overpowered alicorn OC?”

“Heck yes.”

~~~

Titan stepped into an interdimensional bar.

The Sunset at the counter didn’t recognize him, so she waved. “Hello! Welcome to Sunset’s Isekai. Need a drink?”

Titan shook his head. “I have no need of such drinks, though your offer is acknowledged.”

“Ah…” the Sunset’s face twisted into a few different confused states before it settled on a friendly smile once more. “I have other things I can serve, or we could just talk.”

“I seek the Dark Tower,” Titan said. “Do you know how to reach it?”

“Well…” she pulled a Merodi pamphlet out of one of the bar’s drawers, reading through it with mild confusion in her features. “Center of the multiverse?”

“I need specifics,” Titan said, turning to the other patrons of the bar. “Do any of you know of the Dark Tower?”

The ponies of the bar looked at him like he wasn’t making sense. This was to be expected—they were all mortals, and few of them would have ever encountered anything of his majesty. The bartender seemed barely aware that the Dark Tower was a thing. He determined that this place was of no benefit and moved to leave.

“I got something for ya, big guy,” a human child in a frilly red dress said.

Upon examining her, Titan discovered she most definitely was not a child—her brain was far too developed and the levels of magic in her were on par with a small alicorn. Not a threat, but she wasn’t to be dismissed either. “I am Titan. Who are you?”

“Vita, Time Space Administration Bureau.” She smirked as she ran her finger along the top of a wine glass. “Looking for the Tower, are we?”

“Yes.”

“Just a manifestation or the real deal?”

“The ‘real deal’, as you put it. I seek answers.”

“Well, you could always dial all-zeros on any standardized dimensional device. That’ll do it.”

“That has proven inadequate.”

Vita chuckled. “Where were you sent? An empty universe? Back to the start of your journey? A world filled with nothing but the Knights Who Say Ni? ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’?”

“A world of endless chaos,” Titan said, careful to keep his features even.

“Ah, like things ordered, do you?” Vita folded her arms. “Regardless, you probably should have figured out that the Tower likes messing with you at this point. Everyone who searches for it goes through unspeakable things, even if they do eventually reach it at the end.”

“Have you seen it?”

Vita nodded. “Never entered it. But when you spend enough time with Nanoha, you have to see it. I’ve seen both manifestations and its true form. Most of those experiences I can’t exactly describe as ‘pleasant’.”

“I care not for comfort. I simply wish to enter it.”

“You know what? Sure, why not, I’ll help.” With a dumb smirk she pulled out a magical device and transmitted the cooridnates of a universe to Titan’s horn. “That’s a universe where it manifests in its true form. You’ll see some TSAB science outposts at the outskirts of the roses. But you want the Tower. Have fun!”

Titan nodded. He did not thank Vita for the information—she had been far too disrespectful to earn such a boon from him. He left the bar without another word, though as he stood outside its doors he caught a comment Vita directed at the bartender.

“I wish I could see the hell he’s about to go through,” Vita laughed. “Pride never lasts long on that road.”

Titan kept himself from marching back in and gutting the small mage. It would not do to get the TSAB upset with him at this time.

...The door to the bar also vanished the moment he had those murderous thoughts. It could detect hostile intent. Concerning.

But no longer relevant to him.

He created a portal to the given coordinates, finding exactly what Vita described—a bunch of TSAB science outposts at the edge of a field of roses. The TSAB outposts themselves were smooth, metallic structures a bit like bunkers, except that they were above the ground. Men and women in white coats walked around, talking amongst themselves like everything was normal. The few who noticed him responded with one of two things: an eye-roll or a deep “not again” sigh.

Titan kept his expression level and walked toward the field of roses, ignoring the looks he was getting. There was a small gate at the edge of the field—an almost laughable obstacle.

There was an orange-haired human woman sitting to the side of the gate. She lowered a magazine she was reading—Device Duality—and adjusted her glasses. Her name tag said ‘Window’ on it.

Titan’s curiosity got the better of him. “...Window?”

“When your name is Nanoha Takamachi, you get a nickname. Mine’s because of my glasses,” she deadpanned, blowing a bubble of bubblegum to punctuate the sentence. “Yes, I am an alternate version of her. No, I’ve never met her. Now that that’s out of the way, how can I help you?”

Titan had never met someone so disinterested in speaking to him. “I seek the Tower.”

“Your funeral.” Window pressed a button, opening the gate. “Have fun.”

“Does this happen often?”

“About once a local month someone gets the coordinates to this universe,” Window said, returning to her magazine. “Happens so often I need to be here so the brainiacs over there can get some actual data on who goes through. Congratulations, you’re part of an experiment. Blah blah, by walking through this gate you agree to the terms and conditions or whatever.”

“Terms and conditions?”

“The brainiacs might use your image in their science paper, or something.” She put her hand to the bridge of her nose. “Look, you really shouldn’t care, the Tower’s right there, go galavanting off to it and discover why literally everyone here stays outside the field of roses and does research from afar.”

Titan nodded curtly, walking through the gate. He was surprised to find that the roses not only had thorns, but that those thorns were able to pierce his skin and draw blood. He regenerated from the wounds instantly and they were not large, but no simple plant should have been able to do anything to him.

Leaning down, he examined the red of the roses, finding the petals to be redder than anything he had ever seen. Likely some kind of mental effect. Picking the rose, he found it to be stronger than any stem he knew of, but he was able to remove it from the soil anyway.

These were not roses of substance, soul, or magic. They were of something else. Of the Tower itself.

Looking up, he could see the tower. A long cylinder of darkness that rose so high the top could not be seen, if it even existed. From here, it appeared featureless; perfect darkness against the bright sky. Teleporting closer, though, he could make out details. There were doors up the walls—even balconies—that burned with a soft eldritch fire. Every time he looked, they were in different positions. The only thing that remained unchanging was the Tower’s shape, color… and it’s massive double doors.

He teleported in front of the doors, his legs healing up the cuts from interacting with the roses. Carefully, he put a hoof on them.

They creaked open without much effort.

What were those TSAB mages so worried about? This was easy. The Tower might make it difficult for mortals to reach it, but he was a god. It rightfully respected him and granted him access. He walked through the doors…

...and was back at the gate with Window.

“Hey, guys!” Window called. “It sent one back again!”

Titan narrowed his eyes. So the Tower wished to test him. Very well.

He spread his wings and flew over the roses once more, crossing the distance from the gate to the doors in a fraction of a second. Kicking them in. Before he stepped through, he took a moment to look closer. The interior of the Tower was pitch black, but he could sense a staircase inside. He walked in.

Suddenly, he was standing in the middle of a field of roses. It was night. In the distance, he saw the Tower.

It was so black it made the night sky look pathetic. It was true darkness, a void so stark that it became solid. Not only solid, but everything. Standing so tall and mighty it was the structure that had tendrils in every universe, a hand in every action, an eye on every impossibility. For the first time, Titan felt the power of the Tower bearing down from all sides, carefully managing every tiny detail of what was happening.

He knew in that moment that it had been hiding its power from him. He also knew that he couldn’t feel all of it, even now.

Titan felt small.

However, even this would not deter him. He flew toward the doors once more. “I see your power!” Titan shouted. “I respect it!” Landing in front of the doors, he pushed them open. “But I will not turn back!” He walked through.

Laughter.

Laughter.

The roses surrounded him, laughing endlessly, holding their stems and rocking back and forth. Some of them broke from the laughter and fell to the ground, roaring with amused noises until they shriveled up and died.

Titan ignored them. He looked around, finding a golden rose in the middle of the patch. It wasn’t laughing like the others. It was still… important.

Vita had mentioned manifestations of the Tower. If the black pillar was its true form, than this golden rose may have been one of those manifestations. He leaned down, looking deep into the folds of the golden rose, continuing to ignore the laughs and scrapes coming from the other roses. “What must I do?”

The golden rose shrugged. A sound like massive doors closing met Titan’s ears. He was standing in an empty void of blackness.

“Now, why would the Tower send something as obviously tryhard as you to me?”

Titan glared at the darkness, making out the shape of a man in black in the endless nothing. “I am Titan, and I seek the Tower.”

“Ah, one of those…” The man stepped forward. “I am Randall Flagg. You are not Titan. You are nothing.”

Titan lifted his head up. “I am what I am.”

“You have never brought a true god to his knees. You have never collapsed a universe as a party trick. You have never tipped a domino that tore a lesion in existence that no one ever forgot. You are nothing close to a titan.”

“I am Titan. It is my name.”

“Your name is Order!” Flagg hissed. “Titan is just some pathetic title you slapped on to make yourself feel more absolute. That is all it is.”

Titan made no response.

“You don’t fully realize the danger you’re in, do you?” Flagg asked. “I could kill you in an instant. I won’t—you’re so charmingly pathetic—but I could. Who knows where else the Tower might send you? It has a habit of launching visitors to random locations, making them spend decades crawling back, only to send them somewhere else far, far away… an endless loop.”

“I seek answers. I have eternity.”

“Abandoning your world so quickly?” A book appeared in Flagg’s hands—The Immortal Game. “They seem to be in a bit of turmoil right now…”

“I was the villain there. That world is lost. I am the villain now. I will get answers.”

Flagg scowled. “Ka doesn’t appreciate those who exploit it… usually.”

“Then let it strike me down. I will seek answers.”

Flagg smirked. “I like you.” He clapped his hands, and the double doors of the Tower appeared. “Try again.”

Titan did.

He appeared in an endless field of roses. The Tower was tall in the distance, its power still clear to him.

Titan decided to walk to it—no hurry, no rush. He let the roses drive their painful thorns into him. He would do this on the Tower’s terms, if that was what it wanted.

He became aware of hoofsteps next to him. Turning, he saw a face he had killed long, long ago—the serene face of Harmony, her sparkling eyes staring into his soul.

Titan’s calm exterior broke. “H-harmony! Y—” He collected himself. “You aren’t here.”

“Yes and no,” Harmony said, continuing to walk to the Tower. “I am as real as I need to be.”

Titan summoned Singularity.

“So quickly you wish to end me?” Harmony turned to look at him with sad eyes. “Do you not see that I won in the end? Can you not go back?”

“Victory does not make right,” Titan said, aiming Singularity for her neck. “I do.”

“Even in our world, you were condemned.”

“Stories do not make right, either!” Titan shouted, driving his blade into Harmony.

She didn’t even flinch. “Tell that to the Tower’s Builders.”

She was gone. There wasn’t even any blood on Singularity.

Titan took a moment to catch his breath before continuing on to the Tower. The visions did not stop.

“Daddy daddy!” Terra cheered. “Look at this dandelion I made!” The roses were piercing the alicorn filly’s skin, drawing blood she didn’t notice.

“Discord is proving most difficult to manage,” Empyrean said. “Terra and I will have to move against him…”

“Ahahahaaha!” Discord laughed. “Order, Order, Order, Order… did you really think you had absolute right? Remember, I was there with you, in the beginning…” He grinned. “And yet you still think you are the source of all! How quaint!” Discord leaned in until his eyes were locked with Titan’s. “Did you know there are thousands of Discords out there who, if you just showed them some kindness, would turn from their chaotic ways?”

“They know better than we do,” Harmony said.

“I am the exemplification of what the mortals have,” Pathos said. “Love. Empathy. You lack. You lack it all!”

“Even I saw your foolishness,” Logos asserted. “I planned for it. You accepted such plans as a viable flaw.”

All the images vanished. Celestia and Luna appeared, waiting for him.

“You destroyed us,” Luna hissed.

“We killed each other for a petty squabble,” Celestia added.

“We were your children! We were you starting over!”

“Instead of learning to care, you hardened yourself.”

“You were shown the way. You rejected it.”

“I am the way,” Titan said, walking through them.

“I reject your reality and substitute my own.”

Titan saw the purple alicorn Eve sitting calmly between him and the doors of the Tower. He stopped moving forward.

“You may have power, false god,” Titan said. “But tricks do not change what is.”

“It is the nature of creations to become their own gods,” Eve said, emotionlessly.

A butter-yellow pegasus appeared at her side—a Fluttershy. “Or to replace them with better ones.”

“The question is simple. Is there a God?” Eve cocked her head.

“That is the answer you want,” the Fluttershy said.

“You look for your creator, looking for a purpose. You come here.”

“But the Tower was built by mortals long dead.”

“You seek its reasoning.”

“But it is a machine. It has no will.”

“So it distills down. Is there a God?”

The ponies looked at him expectantly.

“I do not know,” Titan said. “Do you?”

Eve smiled. Suddenly, she was gone—replaced with a purple-pink unicorn with a digital screen wrapped around one of her hooves.

“We know,” the unicorn and the Fluttershy said at the same time.

Titan forced himself to breathe normally. “Is there?”

“Yes,” the Fluttershy said.

“No,” the unicorn said.

Titan narrowed his eyes. “What games are you playing?”

“Many,” Eve said, replacing the unicorn again. “Both of these ponies know in their heart of hearts that what they believe is true. But they can’t both be right.” Eve tilted her head. “They know. But are they right?”

“Neither of them see it all,” Titan answered.

“Correct.”

“The Tower does.”

Eve didn’t answer this with any more than a smirk.

“The Tower does not believe, but it must have an answer. That is what I seek.”

Eve vanished, and a new voice came from nowhere. “You really are quite desperate, darling.”

The doors to the Tower clicked open, inviting him in. Titan allowed a smile to rise to his lips. It was letting him in, at long last. These games were behind him. He stepped in…

...and appeared just in time to see a Twilight Sparkle behead another version of him.

He gasped in shock.

She turned to stare at him, her eyes brimming with the power of Harmony and her wings poised to tear him to shreds. “Again…?”

Titan fled the universe, appearing in an endless expanse of mirrors. None of them showed his reflection. He saw an Esteem teaching a Sweetie Belle how to fight a Rarity. He saw Silvertongue creating a perfect world, only to be killed by his own children. He saw Discords bowing to Fluttershys, and an endless supply of Celestias leading happy, content ponies.

Like it was normal.

Like it was accepted.

He roared in rage, using Singularity to break every mirror.

A tiger rippling with dark energy lunged at him—yet another manifestation of the Tower. He plunged his blade into it.

The doors opened and closed once more. He was being laughed at again. By images of him. He killed them all. They kept laughing.

He saw how happy he would have been if he just did what Harmony had wanted.

He saw several different versions of his own death.

He saw worlds better off without him having ever existed.

He screamed.

Eventually, he fell trembling into an alley in a ghost town. There was no one here to see him, no one here to judge. He made no attempt to keep his exterior up—he breathed haggard breaths, every motion felt exhausted, and his mind couldn’t focus.

The Tower is cruel.

Eventually, he regained his hoofing. Standing, he looked around. He saw no Tower, felt no Tower. He was free from its torment. All that was here was a ghost town… and a door with a sign above it that said Sunset’s Isekai.

Without thinking, he walked in.

There weren’t many patrons there. The only face he recognized from before was the Sunset, busy cleaning a glass.

Sunset blinked. “She wasn't kidding, was she? You look like you’ve been through hell and it’s been…” She glanced at the clock. “Half an hour.”

He sat down at one of the tables. He said nothing as he looked into the distance.

Sunset decided he needed a drink. She carefully brewed something white that sparkled with an energy similar to that of his mane and slid it over to him. He didn’t react—but she hadn’t expected him to. She could identify ponies that weren’t talkers.

Slowly, Titan realized the drink was there. He decided there was no harm in it. He put it to his lips and downed the entire thing.

He wasn’t entirely sure how it tasted, but it restored some of his composure nonetheless. That didn’t make any sense, of course—he was immune to intoxication and all food was vaporized since he had no need to actually convert solid materials into energy for his body. He didn’t consciously think of it, but somewhere in himself he accepted that it was the simple fact that he was given it that made him feel better. An act of compassion.

There was no point in dwelling here.

As he left, he did nod in thanks to Sunset.

“Anytime,” Sunset said, smiling.

Titan found the TSAB universe easily. He walked right up to Window.

“Having fun?” Window asked.

“No.” Titan said.

He teleported in front of the Tower’s doors. It looked large overhead, bearing down upon him.

“Pride never lasts long on that road.”

“Tower, I am nothing before you,” Titan said, bowing. “I am but a speck of dust before you, not even worthy to be washed upon the beach of your inner shores. I ask, no, plead that you allow me passage. I have seen your power, I have seen your right. You are the source of all that happens. All I ask is to know… And once I know, I will bring the message to all, should that be pertinent. As my ponies are to me, so I shall be to you.”

After a few moments, he tried to open the doors.

They were locked this time.

Perhaps the Tower expected him to change. Though if what he had learned before was true, the Tower had no will. It was just… a machine. A machine fueled by the stories of mortals.

He would have to change to match their definitions if he wanted entry.

For a moment, a little voice in the back of his mind cheered him on. Urging him to consider change, to consider what Harmony had said so long ago. That maybe, just maybe, the creations had something to offer him.

He cut that part out of his mind forcefully, starving it until it died.

Ridiculous. The multiverse must have been infecting him with absurd ideas. That thought had no place in the mind of Titan.

This meant he would need to think of another route to enter the Tower. There would be no change. But he could admit that, perhaps, he could not do it under his own power. It was acceptable to admit he needed help.

But who could provide that…?

~~~

Cinder stood on the bridge of Swip between Suzie and Celia. On the main screen were several dozen Merodi warships, all ready to fight at the slightest sign of provocation. Every thirty seconds or so, the ships in the front would create a truly massive portal that the entire fleet would move through, and then a minute would pass while they calculated which universe Titan had entered next.

Checking the map, Suzie noted that they were well outside the Equis cluster at this point. They weren’t even in Merodi space, having left the decently well-known orange-gold territory about twenty minutes ago. They were currently on the edge of the Q-Sphere, slowly making their way through the Strands at the multiversal center.

“It’s official,” Celia said, pocketing her phone. “We are out of range. Communicators will not work out this far.”

“Wow…” Cinder said. “It… feels different, being out this far.”

“You won't find any pony worlds down there,” Suzie offered. “At least, not commonly. The Strands lie between the three major Spheres, mixing them together until you get to the tangled mess that are the inner Tower worlds. That planet down there could be humans, or it could be some kind of spiritual angel elves that really exist out of phase with reality.”

“These are the lands where dimensional travel is common and easy.” Celia tossed her mane back. “In the right part of the Strands, you can walk to other dimensions just because they’re close by.”

“Like Fae Epoque?” Cinder asked.

“Exactly!” Celia put her hooves together. “Except a million times bigger and all the worlds don’t share a theme. You could walk into an eldritch location in these parts.”

“And the Tower’s in the center…” Cinder mused.

“And also in several other universes.” Suzie explained. “The Tower itself always sits at the zero position. You can dial it anytime from anywhere. It’ll always just redirect you to another random universe, so you have to find it in places it’s manifesting.”

“Do we know of anywhere it is?”

Suzie frowned. “The Nexus comes to mind, but that place is just a pain. As far as I know it’s just inconvenient to get too no matter what, and even when you do get there it just likes to mess with you. You know Mayor Blumiere?”

“Yeah?”

“He found the Tower. It forced him to revert to a villainous state. It really does a number on you…”

“DANGER!” Swip shouted. “DANG—”

There was suddenly a hole in the bridge leading out to the vacuum of space. Swip’s shields were down. Celia, Cinder, and Suzie were ejected into space.

Titan was there, expression as impassive as it had ever been. He grabbed hold of Cinder and vanished.

“NO!” Celia shouted, grabbing hold of Titan’s magic and following, dragging Suzie with her. They teleported away a millisecond before every gun in the Merodi fleet converged on that location. The shockwave rippled across dimensions, so they still got to feel it as they were pressed into the ground.

Suzie told herself Swip will be fine, they accounted for that. They better have. She stood up next to Celia.

They were in an endless field of roses. There was no sign of Titan, Cinder, or the Tower.

But Suzie knew what these roses meant. This was the Field of Can’-Ka No Rey. Everywhere the Tower was, the field followed.

“Celia, are the thorns going to poof you?”

“No,” Celia said, dragging her hoof across the roses, drawing blood. “They’re going to make me bleed red fluids I don’t actually have.”

“So. Find Cinder.”

“I think we know it’s not going to be that simple.”

Suzie clenched her fists. “He’ll head for the Tower. We head for the Tower. Look for the beams, th—”

“We’re in one, Suzie.” Celia interrupted, pointing to the side. Now that she mentioned it, it did look like all the roses over there were tilted in a single direction, while all the others were randomly strewn about. “The question, though, is if the Tower is that way, or behind us?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Suzie said, marching forward. “The first way we choose either will or won’t be the right way.”

Celia twitched. “I hate Tower universes.”

“So does everyone. Watch out f—”

A four-armed two-legged red bug man jumped out of the ground and grabbed Suzie by the neck. “I wasn’t finished with you!”

Suzie pulled her legs back and kicked him in the chest, breaking the crimson carapace. “Back off!”

“Siron’s dead,” Celia said. “Siron is very dead.”

A massive blue, metallic foot dropped out of the sky, crushing Siron. Metallic blue fingers reached for Suzie.

“The Collector is dead too!” Celia shouted.

“I know that!” Suzie said, summoning U-Catastrophe and embedding its branches in the Collector. “I also know the Tower’s manifestations are completely immune to the curse, so I’m free to do THIS!” Screaming at the top of her lungs she forced the tree of U-Catastrophe to grow up the Collector’s massive arm and tear it to shreds. Branches broke through the metal skin like little parasites, disintegrating him from the inside out.

The rest of the Collector faded away, but not before he said one last sentence. “Imagine if you had that Stand back when I was alive…”

Suzie was sweating profusely. “That…”

“More reason to hate this place, darli—”

“I WANT OUT!” a black Celia shouted, tackling the Gem to the ground. “YOU TRAPPED ME IN YOU! Y—”

“Oh, do give it a rest!” Celia hissed, crushing the monster’s skull with her pointed hoof. “You’re the one who has most of my sense of self, I don’t think it’s possible for me to self-deceive about what you want.”

“What about us?” Moganite asked.

“We don’t like it in here!” Goshenite whined.

“The deal wasn’t permanent.”

“I can’t feel myself! I can't feel myself!”

“The contract shouldn’t be binding.”

“LET US BACK! LET US OUT!”

“SHUT UP!” Suzie shouted, bringing the branches of U-Catastrophe close to their position. “Celia knows who she is. There may be people who don’t like it, but I know she does. So stop filling her with lies!”

The two leg-only Gems smiled—and vanished.

Suzie let U-Catastrophe dissipate. “Okay… good. Now we can worry about Cinder.”

Celia put a hoof around Suzie. “Standing up for me are we?”

“Yeah, yeah… brag later. Find Cinder now.”

“Who’s Cinder?” a squeaky male voice asked.

Both Celia and Suzie froze solid, looks of utter dread crossing their features.

“Celia? Suzie? C’mon girls, tell me what’s wrong.” Slowly, a stallion marched into view. He had soft green eyes, a curled purple-pink pastel mane, and a soft off-white coat with a Crusader Shield on the flank. “Is Cinder my replacement? I’d quite like to hear about her.”

“You get nothing,” Celia hissed.

“You betrayed us, Syr,” Suzie said.

“I think you’ve got it backwards. See, I didn’t betray anyone, I was just acting on misinformation when it came to Nira, everypony else was happy with me.”

“You lied to everyone!” Celia spat.

“True. But I was loyal. No, it was you who betrayed me in the end.” He smirked. “I guess you didn’t, Celia, but you aren't the same person, now are you?”

“Suzie, he’s going to go after you. You are going to be angry.”

“I am already angry,” Suzie growled.

Syr smirked, scratching his chin. “Suzie, Suzie, Suzie… knew me for how many years? How many?”

Suzie remained silent.

“Didn’t have any idea, did you? You, the great illustrious captain, couldn’t see what your crew really was. You were so, so wrong about me.” He glanced to Celia. “You knew.”

Celia refused to engage with the apparition. “Suzie, you know…”

“I do.” Suzie pointed at Syr. “We have Sweetaloo now. Because of you. To ensure you never happen again.”

“She’s not perfect!” Syr sang. “Eventually, it’ll fall to your judgement again, Suzie. You know it will. Is your crew really who you think they are? Do you really understand Nira? Blink? Squiddy?”

“YOU DON’T GET TO SAY THOSE NAMES!” Suzie screeched, summoning U-Catastrophe on Syr.

Nothing happened. It passed right through him.

“I have whoever I want,” Syr spat. “That’s how I rolled. You were so blind you couldn’t see it. Your precious crew… so innocent… so pure.”

Suzie couldn’t stop the tears of rage, but she made no other response.

“Say hi to my replacement for me.”

He was gone.

In the distance, they could see the Dark Tower.

“...Let’s go get Cinder,” Suzie said, marching forward.

~~~

Titan had Cinder held tightly—but not painfully—in his telekinesis.

“W-what are you going to do to me?” Cinder asked.

“Nothing. I do not think it would be allowed.”

“...There is such a thing as tragedy…”

“It would not serve me, either.”

He continued walking through the roses in silence. Cinder could hear the flowers laughing at him, though as far as she could tell he didn’t even hear them.

“Then why am I here?”

“Mustard knew of you,” Titan explained. “When I absorbed his mind, you were among the first things I saw.”

Cinder wondered why he was bothering to explain—he was a stallion of necessary words. When she saw him flinch away from a blue alicorn, she decided it was likely a method of ignoring the apparitions.

“He thought you were a demon, a test of his faith. Your magic was an exact match for the lost Princess of his world.”

“W-what?”

Titan ignored her outburst. “On the surface, he was certain he had found an imposter. There could only be one Princess Belle. No doubt your world was just past-oriented to his, and that the orange-eyed Sweetie is a marker of your world’s template.”

Cinder… wasn't sure what to think about this. She would have become a princess back home if the multiverse hadn’t gotten involved? Is that what he was saying?

“This is all worthless to me. But his fixation on you brought my attention onto you. I realized you were important in the sense that the Tower understands. It will listen to you.”

“Uh…” Cinder gulped. “I’m not so sure that’s a great idea…”

“It is the only idea left.”

“...Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Cinder got the impression he was lying, but she didn’t want to upset him. She took a moment to look around. Hundreds of bodies of the blue alicorn lay around, each one looking to Titan with hard, expressionless faces. They shifted to different versions of Titan: smaller, weaker. Happier.

He’s never going to realize.

Eventually, they arrived at the doors to the Tower. Cinder looked up. It was exactly as she’d seen it in her mind. The endless height, the blackness, even the little doors burning with eldritch fire. Or was it even burning? It was impossible to tell for sure.

Titan pressed a hoof on the door and pushed. Nothing happened. He tried pulling; still nothing.

“Open it,” he ordered, setting Cinder on the ground.

Cinder heard the flowers laughing at Titan. They really were cruel. With a breath, she touched her hoof to the Tower’s doors.

They swung open.

Picking Cinder up, Titan stepped inside. With a thunk, the doors shut behind them.

The interior of the Tower was pitch black, but they could somehow see everything anyway. There was a single, rail-less staircase going up a cylindrical room with no visible top. All along the staircase, there were doors.

Titan opened the first door. It led to the memory of his birth—a birth alongside the very universe itself. He closed it quickly.

“...Don’t want to relive it?” Cinder asked.

“I remember everything,” Titan said. “These doors contain a life I know. I want a life I do not know.”

“That would be at the top… I think.”

“It seems that way.” Titan gripped her with his telekinesis and flew up the center of the Tower, ignoring all the doors of his memories.

“...Are you certain, Titan?”

Titan was silent. Cinder became convinced he wouldn’t respond—but then he let out a short, simple “no.”

“Then why go through all this trouble?”

“To be certain.”

“...Is that possible?”

“Mortal, I was the absolute in my universe. I was the progenitor of all.” No you weren't. “I was certainty. I was the god of it. Out here, I am not. I am just a god.”

“What is a god to the Tower?”

“Dust. Worthy to be mocked.”

“Is that right?”

Titan was silent. This time he really didn’t respond. Cinder had nothing else to say.

The Dark Tower, for all intents and purposes, was infinitely tall. Which was to say, it was as tall as it needed to be at any given time, for anyone, anywhere. The moment the silence had lasted long enough, they arrived at the top.

Titan stopped at the second to last door.

“The end of my life,” he said.

“Do you want to open it?”

“Yes.” Titan said. “The first rule of being an alicorn. You will die.”

“That should be the first rule of living,” Cinder commented.

Titan nodded. He put his hoof on the door and opened it.

He saw his head lying in a field of roses at Pathos’ hooves. Merodi ships filled the air and the Tower dominated the scene. It was raining, even though there were no clouds.

Rigidly, he closed the door.

“That’s soon,” Cinder said.

“I am aware.”

“Is the answer worth it?”

Titan didn’t respond. He moved to the final door. It was simple, engraved with his name.

TITAN

The doorknob was a carved image of his cutie mark: a simple circle, no decoration.

“Open it,” he told Cinder.

Cinder didn’t argue. She reached for the knob with her hoof and pulled. The door swung open, revealing the room at the top of the Tower. In the center, floating above a small podium, was a white spirograph shape that slowly turned. Behind this there was a tall grandfather clock, marked with a similar spirograph. It wasn’t ticking.

Cinder couldn’t move. It was wrong. She shouldn’t go in there.

Titan levitated her to the other side. The moment she entered, an emptiness filled her mind. She didn’t know anything. What did the clock mean? Why was it there? What was this floating spirograph? Who was she?

Cinder. I am Cinder.

She tried to get her breathing under control, but it felt as though no fresh air was entering her lungs. She looked at her hoof and saw thousands of hooves stretching off into infinity.

Somehow, Titan’s voice came to her even like this, always impossible to ignore. “This is the Source of it all… it holds all the answers. Thank you, Cinder, for bringing me here. It would not have been possible. Now… all I have is a question.”

Cinder reeled in the following silence.

“WHAT!?” Titan roared.

The dark became light and then dark again.

~~~

Pathos was the one who found the connection.

The best of Merodi’s mages were trying to figure out where Titan had gone. They failed. He had covered his tracks.

She found him. Not through skill, or luck, or understanding, but through her connection. She was his daughter, no matter where her essence came from. He may be able to hide from everyone else, but not from her.

She was connection. Even as weak as she was, that remained true.

The moment she found the universe, she tore the portal open, appearing in the sky above a field of roses. The fleet was not far behind her, flashing into existence in the sky, weapons ready to glass a planet if it was required.

Spreading her wings, Pathos directed herself right at the Tower. She had appeared only a few yards away, so her flight only took a handful of seconds. Arriving at the door, she found Suzie pounding on it in rage while Celia sat to the side, looking at the ground dejectedly.

“What happened?” Pathos asked, the sounds of more ships arriving punctuating her question.

“He got in…” Suzie whimpered, slamming her fist on the door. “He took Cinder… And the Tower’s keeping us out!”

“What can we do?”

“Nothing,” Celia deadpanned. “What goes on there is what ‘needs’ to. We just… wait. And see what happens.”

“Can’t be bust the doors down?” She pointed at the fleet in the sky.

“There exist beings in existence that can destroy hundreds of universes by snapping their fingers,” Suzie said. “They do nothing to the Tower.”

“We… we… we have to do something! We’re here for a reason, right? W—”

Titan appeared in front of her. There was no flash of magic, no shift of space. He was simply there, when before he wasn’t.

He looked at Pathos curiously.

Pathos summoned Replete. “Get him!”

Titan summoned Singularity.

He cut off his own head. It didn’t regenerate. Singularity vanished and the cold, dead face of Titan rolled along the ground until it stopped, dead, at Pathos’ hooves.

She stared at it in shock. “W-w-why?”

~~~

“Why?” Cinder asked, looking at the death of Titan from above.

The voice of a Rarity came to her. “He chose this.”

“That isn’t really an answer.”

“Since when do I give straight answers, dear?” she chuckled.

“I’m not asking for a straight one. I just want to know why he killed himself.”

“He would have prefered a glorious death, deep down. But he left his world long ago. No dramatic final battle for him. He gave that up, coming here.”

“That’s not a why.”

“Fine. Be that way. He got the answer to his question. He didn’t like it. So he ordered the Source to make him forget and to shape him anew so he would be certain he didn’t need to know.”

“But he knew going back was his death. He saw it.”

“Yes. So asked to be created again. His original self appeared there, to suffer the preordained death. Another was created elsewhere… where he would be able to live no longer plagued by the question.”

“Where is that?”

With a chuckle, she showed Cinder. Titan appeared in darkness, stern, powerful—certain of his place.

A man in black walked up to him. “Look who’s back…”

“Randall Flagg,” Titan said. “I have reached the end of my quest.”

“You have. And now your purpose to yourself is done.” Flagg snapped his fingers. “Obey my every command.”

Titan’s resistance was nothing. “Yes.”

“You’ll make a nice addition. I wonder how long you’ll last…?” Flagg laughed. “Probably not long, given how you tend to make people feel about you. Come along, puppet.”

“Who is this… Randall?” Cinder asked.

The Rarity’s voice answered. “To most, the oldest incarnation of evil.”

“To you?”

The only response was a chuckle.

“Who even are you?”

“Important, but that’s not for you to know. It’s also not for a certain pesky purple alicorn with an eye in her chest to know. I know you’re absolutely dying to figure this out, but, spoilers! Oh, you should see her right now, she’s going absolutely bonkers.”

“Show me?”

“No. I don’t feel like dealing with sudden inexplicable first-person-narration at the moment.”

Cinder frowned. “...I’m not going to remember this, am I?”

“It will be like a dream. So, effectively, no. But you still saw the room at the top of the Tower. What did you think?”

“I… nothing?”

“Heheheheh… Hey. Do you want to know the answer to his question?”

“No! I’m good! I don’t need to know!”

“It won’t drive you mad, you know. Just him.”

“I’ll pass! Thanks!”

“I guess you should be getting back to them, then…”

And then Cinder was in front of the Tower’s doors. Celia and Suzie rushed her into a tear-filled hug. Pathos joined later, the moment she got over staring at Titan’s head. They took Cinder back to Swip and left the universe behind before she could dwell too much on it.

Throughout it all, Cinder couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched.

~~~

“Think ‘sword’,” Sir Unimpressive told Insipid.

“Sword…” Insipid said, focusing on the jet-black shards on the table in front of her. “Sword…”

“...Yeah, she’s not a natural,” Unimpressive said, turning to Shadow. “You’re gonna have a real fun time training her when you don’t know the bladecasting spell yourself.”

“We’ll manage,” Shadow said.

“Sword…” Insipid whispered.

“It’ll be good for her to have a way to defend herself that doesn’t depend on stealing stuff,” Havocwing said. “Thanks, Unimpressive.”

Unimpressive smirked. “You enjoy my name, don’t you?”

“Hell. Yes. I am never going to get tired of saying it.”

“Ssssssword,” Insipid hissed.

“I am sure you will get it, Insipid,” Curaçao, patting the focused unicorn on the back. “Anyzing else we can do while we’re ‘ere, Unimpressive?”

“Swordittyworditty,” Insipid mumbled.

Unimpressive shrugged. “Things seem to be going pretty well. Twilight’s taken control of Equestria, Celestia isn’t fighting it, and… well I’m on babysitting duty for now.”

“Do not speak of me like some ungrateful child!” Terra shouted.

“Isn’t Fluttershy supposed to be on her?” Grayscale asked.

“She will be. When she gets back from the spa Rarity insisted upon.” Unimpressive shook his head. “All of them are trying to go back to their lives but Twilight and Rainbow. Princesses are back… And any place that wasn’t utterly burned to the ground is returning to normal-ish.”

“S-W-O-R-D!” Insipid spelled.

“Looks like we did good,” Havocwing said with a smirk. “Saved the day!”

“And zen didn’t do anyzing,” Curaçao chuckled. “Does anyone even know what ‘appened wiz Titan?”

“Big booms!” Velvet shouted, giggling. “And a bunch of meta nonsense my book isn’t helping me with at all. You Pinkies are supposed to be helpful!” She punted the book about ka.

“Sword,” Insipid deadpanned. Two of the jet-black shards lifted into the air and fused together in front of Insipid’s eyes. “I got it!? I got it!”

“I think you’re just using standard telekinesis,” Unimpressive pointed out.

“Like, it’s still, progress? Cha!”

Unimpressive shrugged. “Okay. At least it works as a weapon…”

“I shall dice my enemies like tomos!”

“Tomatoes,” Shadow corrected.

“Like tomatoes! Cha-Cha-CHOP!”

“INSIPID!” Havocwing shouted. “WATCH THE WING!”

“Sorry!”

~~~

Allure put the report down on her desk and groaned.

Every time someone went to the Tower or nearby areas nothing made sense. There were three dozen different accounts of what happened and none of them really lined up. They agreed that Titan died. How was… up for debate. Decapitation. But by himself? Pathos? A random rose monster?

They all disagreed. Allure suspected she and most everyone else wasn’t supposed to know what happened down there. At least they knew Titan was dealt with. Probably.

Silvertongue had come back as Logos… Maybe Titan would come back as, oh, Darkstar or something equally stupid later, only to be casually brushed aside in favor of more bizarre things.

What even were names, in the multiverse? Some universes said they had power, but in most they were just words used to refer to people. Often there was meaning behind them. Other times, there was nothing to them. Nira’s name didn’t mean anything.

Allure… Allure meant something. She was sure of that, now. She had met the stallion who created the name. He was gone, and… and that hadn’t really fixed anything, had it? Sure, it had ended his warmongering attitude and closed the book on that Rarity’s personal story, but she’d walked out of that battle with the same feeling on what her name meant.

It was a willingness to take on other’s burdens.

It probably would have been easier to let Twilight deal with him, but no. She’d gone with Rarity so she could do it. Gotten a hoof rammed into her insides to boot. It probably meant she was a little crazy, if she was being honest with herself, but who wasn’t in this job?

Her thoughts turned to The Sweetie Belle. Allure had always had her friends to lean on during this, and they had strengthened her, given her so much reason to keep going. Sweetie Belle had no one—she was alone, always, and forever.

She was still wandering out there, somewhere. Alone.

How did she do it when there was no one there to share the pain with?

She truly was stronger than all of them.

With a smile on her face, Allure left her office and trotted out to the League’s main lobby.

“What?! You had amazingly epic anime battles WITHOUT ME!?” Cryo shouted.

“I mean, I wasn’t involved that much…” Cinder told her self-proclaimed rival.

“You still could have called me! It would have been awesome! I would have gotten right in the thick of it and SHA-POW BOW BAM BAM!”

Cinder laughed. “Yeah, you would have. Sorry, I just didn’t think about it.”

“Well, think about it next time!”

Allure rolled her eyes. There were a lot of crazy ponies in the League. Allure loved it that way.

Author's Notes:

And we reach the end of another arc! Hope you enjoyed some over-the-top ridiculous anime ACTION!

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Woah! It's not a fic! It's a little tribute to the end of MLP! Cool!

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The First Universe (Special: MLP Finale)

“Suzie? What was the first universe you ever visited?” Cinder asked. “Besides your own.”

“Equis Vitis, through the mirror portal. Met Allure and the other Crusaders.” Suzie smirked. “This was a little before Eve started the whole dimensional expansion thing, so I was a unicorn the entire time. Have to say, weird experience, and I’m so glad Eve fixed that later. I like having fingers.”

“But… magic!”

“If I wanted magic I could buy a wand. Don’t need it.”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Fine. That sounds too… normal. What was the first universe you went to that wasn’t just ‘through the Mirror Portal’.”

“Well… that’s actually a fun story.” A wave of nostalgia overtook Suzie’s features. “I was sixteen, I think. The League as a concept was maybe a year old. Eve had only recently taken her name and Merodi Universalis didn’t even exist…” She chuckled. “Those were simpler times…”

~~~

Things really were different back then. Eve and her group had been exploring for quite some time, connecting worlds together and forming the dainty little alliance that would eventually produce Merodi Universalis. I was a kid in high school who just happened to be friends with one Agent Corona Shimmer, so I got to hear about all this craziness from time to time. Allure and I didn’t talk much—we were both named Sweetie and hadn’t settled on who got to be nicknamed yet! She won, by the way, though this isn’t that story. She got to stay Sweetie until we encountered The Sweetie Belle quite a bit later.

I would say she’s a lucky dog, but one of the reasons Button talked to me was because he wondered why my name seemed to have changed overnight… so I can’t really complain.

Sorry. Getting off track.

Allure got dragged into her sister’s little multiversal adventure by accident one day and met four other Sweetie Belles. You know Squeaky, Thrackerzod, and Bot. You don’t know Sweetie Brute. Oh, she was a piece of work, let me tell you. If you think Thrackerzod is creepy, turn that dial up to eleven with a complete lack of tack and a desire to pulverize enemies into dust. Luckily, she was just a filly, and the rest of them kept her from doing anything really stupid. Most of the time. To be fair, most of us were still kids too, so we weren't exactly the… smartest. Or we were Thrackerzod, a few hundred thousand years too old to be considered an adult.

I know that doesn’t make sense, but it’s true. You couldn’t trust Thrackerzod to manage things. She hadn’t quite figured out she wasn’t any good at stealth yet.

Anyway, the five of them formed the League of Sweetie Belles on their first adventure. They agreed to be friends and stick together. The very next day Allure rushed over to my universe and begged me to join, so I said yes. Just when I was about to go off to explore a strange wilderness made of cotton candy, my parents found out and… well, let’s just say ponies are a lot more accustomed to random adventures. Humans get paranoid about knowing where their kids are at all times. Despite my sister’s insistence it would be fine, they forbade me from going.

It took a long time for Allure to convince them she could take me somewhere. They only agreed when Allure brought Eve herself over and had her explain that the universe they wanted to visit was well documented and completely peaceful.

That world was Equis Fruition. As in, “come to fruition.” It was a future-oriented Equis that seemed to be almost idyllic, like everything that had ever happened to Equis was resolved in one way or another and everypony had grown into a bright future.

We had no idea what ka was back then, so we didn’t know it was the literal ending, but that didn’t matter. Equis Fruition was safe, full of amazing things, and there was a little festival the League was going to…

Like that, my parents were convinced. I packed my bags, combed my hair, and stuffed my lucky miniature stuffed animals in my coat pockets. ...I have not thought about those things in ages.

I ran out of the house, jumping through a dimensional portal, and arrived in the League base. It was literally just the Equis Vitis CMC clubhouse back then. Allure’s Scootaloo was off at camp—kinda like yours is now, actually—and her Apple Bloom hung around for the meeting but had better things to do besides jump through multiversal portals all day.

“I’d like to introduce you all to our newest member,” Allure said. “Sweetie Belle the Human!”

“Hi!” I said, squealing like the over-excited child I was. “I’m so happy to be here and I can’t wait to see what’s out there! What are we waiting for!?”

“Introductions?” Squeaky squeaked. She was just as helium-voiced back then as today. I thought she was silly at first, but I quickly pegged her as overly serious. I had no idea at the time that she was a child managing a war effort back at her home universe… I just thought she was boring. After I found out what she was I looked up to her so much I eventually started my entire military career in her name.

“Uh… she just said I was Sweetie Belle,” I said, waving a hand.

“All of us are Sweetie Belle except me,” Thrackerzod deadpanned. She scared me. She still scares me, but for different, friendlier reasons. I was a bit of a thrill-seeker anyway, so I liked being a little scared.

“I’m Sweetie Bot!” Bot beeped, as she does. “My name is 100% not Sweetie Belle.”

“It used to be.”

“Temporal continuity is not a proven multiversal concept, says a recent paper by—”

“Bot, less information,” Allure chided, with a smile. I wasn’t very good at reading pony age, but she was a little older than me, and biologically speaking both of us were significantly older than the other four. They were all little fillies without their cutie marks.

Even Brute.

“Hey, do you think there will be a mountain of skulls in the portal this time?”

“No, Brute,” Allure sighed. “There will not be a mountain of skulls. It’s Equis Fruition. A nice and friendly place with an ice cream festival.”

“BLOOD ice cream?”

“No…”

“I’m going to ask every vendor for blood ice cream until I get it.”

“You’ll be askin’ a while,” Apple Bloom commented from the back of the clubhouse.

“Then the expressions of haunted shock on their faces will feed my thirst!”

“Your soul does not gain power from the brutal suffering of others,” Thrackerzod observed. “Mine can.”

“Teach me your ways, O wise one!”

“...No.”

Allure took the moment to trot over to me and chuckle nervously. “Yeah, they get like this. A lot.”

“Every interaction has a 33% chance of devolving into witty one-liners and banter!” Bot cheered.

“WE ARE COMEDY INCARNATE!” Brute shouted.

“You’re less funny when you say that,” Squeaky added.

“Yeah, well… your face stinks and you don’t tell as many jokes!”

“Her voice is the joke,” Thrackerzod deadpanned. “Like the shrill call of a million eagles in the nether realms, it comes to our ears and assaults our emotional centers, forcing a rhythmic release of breath that could be construed as amusement or a seizure depending on the culture.”

“How come she doesn’t get the ‘less information’ complaint?” Bot asked, frowning.

I laughed. “This… this is great! I’ve always heard about adventures and magic and craziness but… my sister’s always been involved and I’ve just been sitting on the sidelines. You all… you’re so full of it! Yes!”

I realize how much this sounds like you, Cinder. You can stop with the smug look.

Seriously, I can feel those eyes burning my soul.

Anyway, after introducing myself and trying not to flinch every time Brute spoke, Apple Bloom suggested that “Y’all better get goin’ or you’ll be sittin’ here all day banterin’ back n’ forth. Four o’ you don’t even have your cutie marks yet, you could be doin’ some Crusadin’ for cryin’ out loud!”

I checked the crusader shield I wore on my clothing. Cutie marks are weird in the human world. We don’t realize we get them, but something comes over us and we start choosing clothing that repeats a certain, specific symbol. Earth Vitis had no idea this was happening until the ponies came over and pointed it out, at which point we had a bit of an identity crisis.

Well, humanity in general, not me. I chose to think it meant I was destined for greatness!

It didn’t. I ended up in nice places, but not because of my talent. I’m a soldier now, not a destiny therapist.

Equis Fruition was… well, to you it probably wouldn’t have been anything special. You’ve seen spaceships and universe generators and… all I’d seen at that point was some weird stuff in my Canterlot and the occasional rainbow horse in Ponyville. Yes, I know you’ve seen Equis Vitis Ponyville, but it was still recognizable as a Ponyville those days, nothing special besides the weird stuff that went down in Renee’s castle. I mean Eve’s. Agh…

I’m supposed to describe it as something amazing! Fruition: a beautiful world where Ponyville was a bustling city-center of friendship. Ponies walked in harmony with dragons, kirin, griffons, changelings, and… it was overwhelming. The colors, the statues, the smiles. Looking back, I think I was feeling a connection I didn’t have back home—or only tasted in scant amounts. The Magic of Friendship isn’t native to Earths. I wish it was.

As a kid, though, this was all just exciting.

“Can I ride you?”

The dragon I asked looked at me quizzically.

“S-sorry!” Allure stammered, placing a hoof on me. “She’s new a—”

“I love giving rides,” the dragon responded. With a big belly laugh, he spread his wings and pointed to his back. “Hop on. Have anywhere you want to go?”

“The moon! Canterlot! The Everfree!” Yes, I was squealing like a little girl. That’s what I was. I had the right.

“How about just the School of Friendship so we don’t make her parents too mad?” Allure asked.

“BURN THE PARENTAL LIMITATIONS!” Brute shouted.

“This has a 94% chance of backfiring horribly, sounds fun!” Bot reported.

The dragon looked at Allure quizzically.

“School of Friendship. Please. I’m too young to die.”

“You’re the oldest, you can live,” I said, rather stupidly.

“Age is in the eye of the beholder,” Thrackerzod added. “Specifically, mine. You are all flecks of dust among the walls of eternity. As the entity from bygone eras and spaces that flip your understanding of reality into the approximation of a pretzel, I declare—The School!”

“Awww, not the forest?” I pretended to be upset.

“Thrackerzod has seen enough scary monsters for a lifetime,” Squeaky offered. “She’s more interested in… ‘normal’ things.”

“I did spend a substantial amount of time as a perfectly normal unicorn,” Thrackerzod added.

“No. No, you did not.”

“Your universe was stuupid!” Brute shouted.

Thrackerzod let out a grunt. “May I remind you that you hail from Equis Ultra Fast, the only world the alliance knows of that lowers intelligence for all within its space?”

“Jack and Mattie aren’t stupid!”

“Jack is a living joke and Mattie is a masochist of very low intelligence. She may have potential if she leaves the reach of that stupefying sphere, but your sister is an annoying mockery as it is now.”

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty freaking cute.”

“How does that even…”

“Just fly me to the school already before I suffocate from argument,” I said, tapping the dragon.

“Sure thing!” He spread his wings. It was about this point that Allure realized she wasn’t on the dragon with me and she began to panic.

“Waiwaiwait!”

It was too late. We were already flying over the sparkling buildings of Ponyville. I could recognize the Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner… and not much else, at the time. But even now I know that many of the buildings were new, built by nonponies to add to the diversity. The center of Friendship, in a way.

The School was exactly where it always has been, though the town had expanded to encompass it and it had expanded with several new wings. Looked more like a college from my world than anything else. The dragon landed on one of the upper landings, letting me hop off. I got to watch as changelings, ponies, abyssinians, dogs, and… you’ve seen Celestia City. Remember how you felt when you first saw that?

It was eye-opening, to say the least.

I wondered briefly if I should wait for the others. Then I decided, in my teenage wisdom, that was a stupid idea. I could take care of myself and explore however I wanted. So I ran into the first door I saw and found myself in a large hallway. I skipped right down the halls and waved to everyone I saw.

Only then did I realize I was getting stares. Sure, they were used to other races wandering around, and had heard of the whole multiverse thing before, but unlike the square we appeared in, the students of the School of Friendship weren’t exactly used to humans.

They’d heard about them, of course, maybe even met a few. In pony form, through the mirror, and only occasionally. I was walking around with a little adventuring backpack and an eye for adventure.

I wasn’t as brave as you. I shrunk back the instant I noticed them staring and began to wonder if this was a good idea. And, this being a school, shrinking back visibly when you stand out just makes them wonder about you more.

It was the School of Friendship, though, and somebody was virtually guaranteed to reach out to me. It just so happened that it was one Luster Dawn, a young pink unicorn mare. You’ve probably seen a few versions of her out and about Celestia City, but she’s not exactly a common template. Almost always a student of Twilight directly, and that’s certainly the case in Equis Fruition.

“Hey, you look lost.”

“Oh, uh,” I stammered, holding onto the straps on my backpack like they would save me. “Sorry, I’m… not a student.”

“Really?” She was surprised at this. “Checking us out, thinking if you might want to stick around?”

“Uh, just… visiting.”

She kept smiling warmly. “Well, just visiting is fine! I can show you around. I know I’m scheduled for Somnambula’s Ethics class, but she’ll understand. Unless you want to sit in on that drudgery.”

“I think I’ll pass on the… ethics.”

“Good. I was looking for an excuse to skip!” She winked. “Namby’s great, but she makes your brain hurt with the questions she asks. Anyway, I’m Luster Dawn, and I think the Changing Garden is a good first start on our tour…”

I never got that tour. Thrackerzod decided now was a perfect time to teleport to my location, complete with eldritch tentacles spewing out of the ground from a dark red pentagram.

“There she is,” Thrackerzod gestured.

Squeaky took a look around at the screaming students. “I think I should have teleported us.”

“These ponies clearly need to broaden their experience if that minor show of power drove them to panic.”

Allure groaned. “Thrackerzod…”

“Hi Suzie!” Bot called. ...I know I wasn’t Suzie yet, but I don’t want to have to explain which Sweetie I’m talking about every sentence, all right? Stop giving me those looks!

Getting back to the story, Bot bounded over to me like a little spring toy, embracing me in a hug. “We thought we lost you and then we found you!”

“I was just exploring,” I said, smiling despite myself. “This is Luster Dawn!”

Luster Dawn was staring at the other Sweeties with a look of disbelief. “What in the name of Celestia…?”

“I have brought blasphemy from the local unicorn!” Brute cheered.

“It’s not blasphemy,” Allure wailed.

“CURSE CELESTIA!”

“Cursing potential low,” Bot beeped.

“I wish these ponies would stop screaming already,” Thrackerzod muttered. “I removed the tentacles.”

Squeaky facehooved.

“The GREAT and POWERFUL Counselor Trixie hears a disturbance!” the local Trixie shouted, teleporting into the middle of us. She took the six Sweeties in alarmingly quickly, her grin widening as she realized exactly what she was looking at. “Oh, Trixie likes this. A bunch of adorable white students causing a… ruckus.”

“We’re not students!” I called.

“Oh, that’s what they all say,” Trixie giggled. She knew we weren’t students, but that wasn’t going to stop her from pulling her little trick. “But I think you just want to get out of the special class I’m going to put you in.”

“C-class?” Squeaky sputtered.

“Yes. Class! Tutoring with a very special teacher!” Trixie grinned malevolently. “Trixie thinks you all need it after this dramatic show.”

“No! I came here to get away from the math!” Squeaky shouted. “No more tests! Five minus seven is stupid!”

She’s gotten better at math since then. I have no idea how it was possible to become a military prodigy and not understand what negative numbers were, but her world was the least weird out of all of ‘comedic’ Sweeties, so I let it slide, thankful the rest of her existence made sense.

Unlike Bot.

“By the integral of i, I declare this will be fun!”

“No!” Squeaky screamed shrill enough to crack windows. “I… oh no…”

Trixie levitated all of us into the air with her magic. “You’re all coming with me! Luster, continue on to Ethics. I’m sure Somnambula will be glad to see you.”

The next thing we knew, we were in a small classroom, magically affixed to our chairs.

“...Trixie’s a counselor?” I finally asked.

“I know, it doesn’t make any sense!” Allure said, hooves pressed to the side of her head. “She has to be terrible at it! Right?”

“I don’t know, she was speaking my language pretty well,” Brute said.

“That’s not a good sign.”

“The Great Brute thinks otherwise.”

“Please don’t be math please don’t be math…” Squeaky whined.

Her prayers were answered. It wasn’t math. It was the local Sweetie Belle—she goes by Trice, these days—walking in with a note pressed to her face. “All right, students, Trixie said you were causing a ruckus and needed a little remedial friendship adjustment. It’s my turn this week, s—” She finally lowered the note and realized what she’d just walked into. Her jaw dropped.

“Teach us how to murder our enemies,” Brute asked.

“BRUTE!” Allure whined, ramming her head into the desk.

“...Well.” Trice blinked and shook her head. “I bet Trixie’s laughing her tail off somewhere right now…” She slowly sat down at the desk and spend the next few minutes processing us. “None of you are students. I would have noticed more… mes.”

“Yes. Trixie has taken us against our will!” Squeaky called. “Please… let us go…”

“Oh, uh…” She focused on her magic and undid Trixie’s spell. “She made that easy.”

Squeaky let out a sigh of relief. “Freedom…”

“...You’re a teacher?” I asked.

“What’s wrong with that?” Trice asked, raising an eyebrow.

“But… why? How? What?”

“I wanted to go to Twilight’s special school really bad,” Trice offered. “Got hired as a tutor to keep me quiet. I got to confuse a lot of students by being younger than them but so much better at the whole friendship thing. Then I realized… what better place to help ponies with their cutie mark problems and destinies than at a place all about friendship and where you want to go next in life? It was perfect!”

“So it just… happened?” Allure asked.

“Yep!” Trice leaned back in her seat. “So, you are from those other worlds, huh?”

Allure nodded. “Yeah! We’re the League of Sweetie Belles!”

“Oh, that’s adorable!” Trice said. “Can I join?”

“...Wouldn’t that be awkward?” I asked.

“Thrackerzod is a thousand-year-old demon,” Allure deadpanned.

“You are underestimating,” Thrackerzod corrected.

“Estimation processes beginning…” Bot beeped. “Chance of lifespan being beyond pony comprehension, eighty percent.”

“...Are you a robot?” Trice asked.

“Affirmative.”

“...Cool.”

“My processors are at sixty degrees Centimare.”

“Okay, hot.” Trice smirked. “Most of you don’t have cutie marks, I see. How’s Crusading going?”

“I don’t think most of us Crusade,” Squeaky said. “Allure’s already got hers, my Crusaders don’t hunt for cutie marks, Thrackerzod’s have a strange obsession with the beyond, Bot’s a, well, robot, Brute is…”

Brute smashed her desk in half. “Take THAT!”

“...Brute, and Suzie’s a human.”

“Hi,” I said, nervous. “I have my mark as a pony. It’s the same as Allure’s.”

“And mine,” Trice said gesturing at her flank. “We’re connected by destiny.”

“Does that mean I’m going to become a teacher?” I wondered.

Allure shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m not working at the School anymore, Gallus and his group have taken it over. Equis Vitis is already going somewhere else, and you’re coming with us.”

“As the League of Sweetie Belles!” Bot cheered.

“I dunno, being part of the League of Sweetie Belles isn’t really a job…” This may be amusing to you in hindsight, but it really was just a club at that point. I still had to go to college and everything. It was a big deal back home.

“What do you want to do when you grow up?” Trice asked.

“I… huh, I don’t know.” I thought for all of a second before deciding. “You know what? Why not, teacher sounds great! Maybe I can even come here!”

“It would be so weird to have myself as one of my students,” Trice chuckled. “But I’d love to have you. Any one of you.”

“Here’s hoping!”

That day, I was certain I would become a teacher. That it was my calling. And… well, maybe it was. For the next few years, even as I was adventuring with the League, I worked toward that. But… I realized as we adventured further and further out and as I got older that the multiverse wasn’t quite the bright, happy place I thought it was. I did go to Trice’s School of Friendship for a while, but I dropped out into the Military Division through Squeaky.

It’s strange, having yourself as a teacher. She knew everything I needed, even when I needed to be pushed to go somewhere else.

She never went with us on any adventures. That’s how most of the early Sweeties were. We met them, maybe had some fun with them, but they stayed in their worlds for the most part. This went on until Burgerbelle came along and shortly thereafter we became something of a legitimate organization. And… when I came back from the service I was given a place of honor by my old friends and a recently-acquired Sweetie-Ship. Zoom forward, and now I’m here.

~~~

“...You turned a story into summarizing your own life,” Cinder pointed out.

Suzie rubbed the back of her head. “I never said I was good at telling stories.”

“I’m pretty sure you were allowed to be more eloquent than you had any right to be.”

“It did feel like it was just rolling off the tongue…” She shook her head. “Regardless, both of my mentors were… myself. You already know Squeaky. But Trice…” Suzie frowned. “You know what? Instead of me trying to pull more of the story out of a silly trip that didn’t really have much of a cohesive theme, why don’t we just go say hi to her?”

“We can do that?”

“Yep! She teaches in Celestia City’s School of Friendship now. Let’s go!” Suzie took out her dimensional device, opened a portal, and led Cinder through Celestia City’s streets until they came to a teleport pad. One beaming later, they stood in the courtyard of a massive sprawl of brick, orichalcum alloy, and crystal walkways. In the center of the School was a statue of six familiar mares… but they didn’t look quite as Cinder remembered them. Twilight was much larger and with a massive flowing mane. Applejack and Rainbow Dash wore different clothes and were holding each other’s hooves. Pinkie had a kid sticking out of her mane. Fluttershy floated in the air as if by magic, and Rarity… well, she looked mostly the same at first glance, but after a moment Cinder noticed the wrinkles in her all the mares around Twilight. Spike stood behind them, tall and muscular, as if he were their support.

“A reminder that this is the ending.” Suzie said, pressing a hand to the base of the statue. “This is here to remind us all what we can become. Or what we can help others become.”

“...Or what we stop others from becoming?”

“Sometimes,” Suzie admitted. “Sometimes.” She led Cinder into the School, finding a way into a classroom that had just been dismissed. A wrinkled white unicorn mare stood at the front, messing with a computer.

“Darn things never behave properly,” Trice muttered, kicking the thing until it entered a shutdown state. “...That’s not better.”

Suzie waved at her. “Trice!”

Trice looked up. “Suzie! Oh, it’s good to see you!” She slowly trotted up to them, smiling warmly. “How’s Railgun?”

“Crazy as ever,” Suzie chuckled. “I’ve got someone I want you to meet. Say hello to Cinder, my newest little recruit.”

“Hi!” Cinder said, extending her hoof. “I’ve heard a lot about you over the last half hour!”

Trice grinned. “I imagine so… want to hear embarrassing stories about your captain’s first year here?”

“Do I ever!”

“I’m suddenly not sure this is a good idea…” Suzie said.

“Too late!” Cinder and Trice laughed.

~~~

“You know what?” Squeaky said, stopping in the middle of the League hallway.

“What?” Allure asked, looking to her, the quick halt of her motion stumbling Thrackerzod and Bot.

Squeaky smiled warmly. “I’m just… glad I met you. All of you. Every crazy thing that happened to us... It was all worth it. Yes, even your unending insanity, Thrackerzod.”

Thrackerzod sighed. “I will never live any of that down, will I?”

“The metrics state that none of us ever live anything down,” Bot said.

“Not even Brute,” Allure said, laughing slightly. “Remember when she tried to declare war on ants?”

“I can’t believe she lost!” Squeaky laughed.

“There was no way to predict they would invent thermonuclear warheads,” Bot added.

“She was angry about that for weeks.”

“As I recall, my sister was always angry,” Mattie said, strolling into the group. “...But that was part of her charm, I suppose.”

Instead of pushing her back, Allure pulled Mattie into the group. “She really was something else. Completely off her rocker, but…”

“Phil wanted to name her Creepy Belle. She quite politely told him where to shove it.” Mattie waggled her eyebrows. “That was an eventful day.”

“I can imagine,” Thrackerzod said. “Not every day you tell the local deity to eviscerate himself.”

“You do not spend enough time on Equis Ultra Fast.”

“I consider this an absolute win.”

“HEY!” Burgerbelle shouted from across the hall. “THAT’S MY THING!”

“I will accidentally use memes as I please!” Thrackerzod shot back.

Burgerbelle threw a shot glass at her. Thrackerzod blew it up with a dark spell that screamed in agony as it executed.

“Some things never change…” Squeaky chuckled.

“And some things do,” Allure said.

“It is the function of time as it approaches the future,” Bot said. “100% delightful!”

Squeaky grinned. “To the future?”

“To the future,” Allure agreed.

“Now, let’s go find Suzie and have an impromptu drinking contest!” Mattie laughed.

“Suzie doesn’t do those.”

“So? She can be the ref or something, let’s just go have some fun!”

Bot coughed. “I think you all know what I’m about to say.”

Everyone grinned and started speaking at the same time.

“The fun levels will be at maximum!”

Author's Notes:

And today... we had a short, sweet little chapter celebrating the end of the show and some of the Sweeties that got us through all these years. It's been quite a ride, hasn't it?

NEXT TIME ON THE LEAGUE OF SWEETIE BELLES:
Simply Rarity (Prepare your emotions)

((LSB Status Post.))

Boxed (The Legend of Twilight Sparkle - Speedwrite Bonus)

Author's Notes:

This was written as part of Quills and Sofa's speedwriting contest. The theme? Crossovers. So I used it as an excuse to write another mini-chapter of LSB! I asked one of the competitors in the contest for a fic to work with, and I ended up with The Legend of Twilight Sparkle: Breath of the Wild. Definitely not what I'd use for a normal LSB chapter, but you know what, I went with it. This is the result.

Disclaimer: I only read the fic once and I've never played Breath of the Wild. I only had an hour to write this. I get a TON of stuff wrong and I decided to keep it that way: it's more genuine to the experience.

And don't worry, Simply Rarity is still coming out this week: expect it Friday.

-GM, master of SOAP BOXES.

“I should have known better. ‘This won’t be dangerous’, you said. ‘All you have to do is talk to the guy’, you said.”

A massive red laser shot out of the sky, parting the clouds and destroying a boulder not ten meters away from them.

“To be fair, I didn’t know he found peppermint insulting,” a ghostly filly with sunglasses said, frantically looking around for some solution to the situation. “Or how he sees us while Voided.”

“Blink!”

“Don’t get your wings in a twist, Sweetaloo, I’ve got this.”

Sweetaloo gawked at her. “Do you want a close call today?”

“...Maybe?”

“This is going in your next psych eval, I swear to the Stars.”

“You do that. I’m going to work on saving the world.”

Sweetaloo ruffled her wings in annoyance. The orbital laser struck behind her, framing her in a brilliant crimson light that drowned out the softness of her yellow coat and made her bow look like monstrous ears⁠—or perhaps horns.

“Okay, fine, I’ll send you back,” Blink muttered, taking out the dimensional device and pressing the touch screen with her hoof. Nothing happened. “Uh…”

“Blink…”

“Connection to Swip isn’t working but… aha! Got one.” Sliding the dimensional device’s dial to the side, she pressed her hoof down again. A ring of white energy appeared in midair leading to… darkness.

“That is not an escape route,” Sweetaloo muttered.

“Working on finding something e—”

The world shook. Sweetaloo’s vision was dominated by the crimson brilliance of the orbital laser. She was vaguely aware of being tossed into the air, but the ringing in her ears drew much more attention than anything else she was aware of. Red became black as she flew through the portal, the white gateway closing behind her.

All was still.

It wasn’t as peaceful as it could have been—her ears were still ringing like a broken klaxon—but she did appreciate the lack of shockwaves or immediate danger.

The darkness was a problem. No light to speak of. Luckily, she could fix that. With some effort, she created a glow around her horn and examined her surroundings.

She was in a box. A large box, to be sure, but it was still a box. It wasn’t a coffin, seeing as it wasn’t long enough to hold her stretched out and was a bit too tall to be practical, but this didn’t stop Sweetaloo from wondering if she’d just translated to some box deep underground. The wood that made up the structure was old and decaying around the edges, but somehow firm.

Her horn went out, plunging her into darkness once more.

Stupid unreliable magic.

With some effort, she managed to turn herself over and push against the lid of the box with her hooves. Making some effort to tap into her inherent strength, she kicked.

Nothing budged.

She tried tapping into it with her telekinesis, but she could never hope to break something so sturdy with her magic, even if she hadn’t just taxed what little of it she had with that light spell.

In desperation, she tried using her wings to get a gust of wind or speed or something that could get her out. But, as usual, they were just as useless as everything else.

“Ultimate Crusader, my flank,” Sweetaloo muttered under her breath. She spent a bit more time trying to kick her way out of the box, but finding no loose boards or convenient creases, she contented herself with waiting for her horn to recharge so she could try poking around outside with her telekinesis.

It was at this point she heard a key turning in a lock.

She swore she could hear a triumphal ditty as the box’s lid slid open, revealing her savior: a Twilight Sparkle complete with wings and horn.

Twilight stared at Sweetaloo.

Sweetaloo stared back.

Twilight, clearly not believing what she was seeing, started to slowly close the lid.

“Wait! Wait!” Sweetaloo jumped out of the box—clearly some kind of treasure chest, now that she could see it better. “Don’t put me back in there, pleeeease!”

Twilight stared at her in dumbfounded shock.

Gaining control of herself, Sweetaloo fell back on her training. Slowly, so as not to alarm Twilight, she sat down on the edge of the chest and put on a comforting smile, swinging one of her hooves over the edge to make it look like she was just some casual pony engaging in conversation. “Sorry, not really a fan of being trapped in chests, y’know?”

“Link…?” Twilight called, glancing over her shoulder. “There’s a weird alicorn in this chest!”

“I doubt that’s the only weird thing about me, but that’s good, let’s start th—wait. Did you say Link?”

The pointy-eared human that walked into the dungeon room—it was clearly a stone dungeon, no other way to categorize it - was muscular, blond, and more than a little dirty. However, he was not wearing the green pointed-hat outfit Sweetaloo had been expecting, but rather a blue tunic with simple white markings on it.

His response to Sweetaloo was much more favorable, if insulting.

“Huh.”

Sweetaloo kept herself from twitching in annoyance. “Hi. I’m Sweetaloo, thanks for getting me out of that box.”

“What were you doing in that box?” Twilight asked. “How did you get here? Why are you an alicorn? Do you know how to get home!?”

“Fleeing from an orbital laser strike, dimensional portal, teleportation accident, maybe.”

“Dimensional portal? Teleportation accident!? MAYBE!?”

Sweetaloo let out a soft laugh. “I don’t know if I can find your universe or not, but I do know I can help you. We can follow your dimensional signature…” Sweetaloo realized something annoying. “...If I had a dimensional device on me. Which I don’t. Because I’m not supposed to be adventuring.” She facehooved. “Excuse me while I contemplate the logistics behind carrying one of those things absolutely everywhere…”

“You have any idea what she’s talking about?” Link asked.

“...Sorta…?” Twilight said, cocking her head. “I think she’s a pony who travels worlds. Though she doesn’t have the magic to do so, right now.”

“So, not helpful?”

“W-well she has to have more information than what we had two minutes ago! She knows how to make portals!”

“And my team will come looking for me, eventually,” Sweetaloo added. “They should know where I am, assuming Blink doesn’t screw up royally. Which… isn’t guaranteed, but let’s assume they’ll find me.”

“I won’t,” Link said, turning to leave the treasure room.

“Wh - hey!” Twilight trotted after him. “She might be my way home!”

“And she might not. We’ll keep going through the dungeons like we have until we find an answer or her team shows up. No need to wait.”

“But-”

“She’s already following us,” Link pointed out.

Sweetaloo rolled her eyes. “You seem important. I should stick by you.”

“Uh… we tend to have exploding things follow us,” Twilight warned.

“Most heroes do.”

“I… what?”

Link stopped, looking at an absolutely massive door with a pristine golden lock in front of it.

“Ah. Boss door,” Sweetaloo observed.

“Good name,” Link commented. He pulled a large, evil-looking key out of his bag. “I think we should rest up, come back to this later.”

“And walk all the way out of the dungeon!?” Twilight blurted.

Link pointed at her horn.

Twilight flushed brightly. “Oh…”

“Do you forget that every time?” Sweetaloo asked.

“NO!”

“Yes,” Link confirmed.

“Oh, you can be quiet.”

The next moment, they were outside the doors of an ancient marble temple. Bright green deciduous trees spread out in every direction as far as the eye could see, framed by the beautiful rays of the sunset.

“We’re having pie tonight,” Link said, sitting down to start a fire. “Get comfortable.”

~~~

Sweetaloo had no idea how Link did it. He placed a giant wok on the fire, filled it with random ingredients and… somehow, a pie came out.

Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as some of the things Pinkie Pies did, but he wasn’t a Pinkie, which made it… weird.

It was delicious though. Some kind of fruit she had never tasted made up the filling, shocking her tongue with a slight zing every bite. The crust was somehow perfectly flakey.

However, as good as the meal was, Sweetaloo decided the awkward silence needed to be ended. “So, Twilight, how long have you been stuck in this world?”

“A few weeks. Wait. I didn’t tell you my name!”

“I know a lot of Twilights,” Sweetaloo smirked. “I’ll tell you about them if you want, later, right now I’m trying to figure out about this place and the story I’ve walked into.”

“Well… yeah, I’ve been here a few weeks. Link accidentally summoned me using some weird ancient magic and… I’ve been helping him on his quest to save the land in hopes we can find the magic to send me back.”

Link nodded. “A great evil, named Calamity Ganon, threatens the land…”

“Yeah, sounds normal. I can probably have my friends come in and help after they find me.” Sweetaloo held up a wing to silence Link before he started talking. “But right now… Twilight, you seem stressed.”

“Why wouldn’t I be stressed? I’m wandering around an alien countryside raiding dungeons and fighting dark magic! I’m the Princess of Friendship, not Daring Do!”

“Pony names are so weird…” Link commented, munching on the pie.

Sweetaloo fixed Twilight with a smile. “But you’ve had adventures before, right? Some with Daring Do herself?”

“How did y- nevermind, right, other Twilights.”

“Yeah. I bet you’ve faced much more dangerous things. Sombra? The Storm King? Chrysalis?”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

‘’I bet this Ganon doesn’t have anything on all the stuff you’ve faced. So this dungeon should be easy compared to all that.”

“It… it is easy but… I…” Twilight looked at the ground, despondent.

“You want to go home?”

“Yeah…”

“I’m sure your friends are still there, doing everything they can to try and find out what happened to you. Don’t worry. You can go back home. You’re still here, and it’s still there.”

Twilight looked up, recognition in her eyes. “...You can’t?”

Sweetaloo considered her response for a moment. “...No.”

“Do you mind me asking… why?”

“You’ve probably figured it out from looking at me. I’m Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. There was a teleportation accident and, well, here I am. All of them at once. And also… none of them.” Sweetaloo looked up at the stars, wistfully. “Sometimes, ponies just can’t move past changes. They’re too painful to process.”

The stars really were beautiful, here. Everything was beautiful. This universe seemed to love its landscapes, its picturesque trees, its brilliant moonlight shining through the multilayered clouds… pleasing to almost any eye, for sure.

“Can what happened to you be… undone?”

“Yes. But then where would I be?” Sweetaloo pointed at herself with her small wing. “I am The Crusader. I am all three of them… and all three of them want to be here.” She refused to look Twilight in the eye. “If that weren’t the case, I would have split myself up long ago.”

“Oh…”

Sweetaloo laid down, back to Twilight. “Savor your home, Twilight. You can be sure you’ll be welcomed back with open hooves.”

Twilight sighed. For a moment, Sweetaloo thought she had gone to sleep.

But ten minutes later, she heard a faint, “Thanks, Sweetaloo.”

That brought a smile to the counselor’s lips.

~~~

The next morning, the three of them stood in front of the boss door. Link pulled out the key and thrust it into the lock. Comically, the massive golden chains crumbled to the ground like they were nothing more than heavy vines. The door slid into the ground, revealing a large, square, stone room. There was nothing inside.

“...There’s always some kind of big monster in the last room.” Twilight said.

“The boss,” Sweetaloo offered.

“Yeah, the ‘boss’.”

“Maybe it’s dead from being so old,” Link suggested. “It would be nice if the monsters in here aged like the rest of us, sometimes.”

“While I would be grateful if the boss was suddenly dead...” Sweetaloo sighed. “I’m pretty sure this is probably some kind of trap and we need to be wary.”

With her words, the door slid shut behind them with a thud.

A small, green drop of goo fell from the ceiling. It bounced up, revealing itself to be some kind of slime creature about half Sweetaloo’s height with two yellow, bulbous eyes.

Link frowned. “A chu-chu?”

“We’ve fought hundreds of these,” Twilight said. “Hardly a boss.”

With a flash of golden light, the chu-chu grew twenty times in size and covered the walls of the chamber with green, sticky goo.

“Oh,” Link said.

“I’m just gonna stand back…” Sweetaloo commented, realizing with fear that her hooves were glued to the ground.

Twilight spread her wings and lit her horn, blasting the monstrous slime with a laser. It bounced harmlessly off. “It’s resistant to my magic—like the Smooze!”

Link drew his sword and shield, smirking. “Then we finally get to do this the old fashioned way!” He hacked at the thing.

It ate his sword.

“Uh… bombs. Bombs, yes.” Link pulled a bomb out of his pack and threw it.

The chu-chu dropped its bulbous body on him and the bomb, encasing both of them within itself. The bomb exploded, taking out a large chunk of the chu-chu’s interior, but it didn’t seem to care.

“Link!” Twilight shouted. “Oh no oh no, he’s probably being digested!”

“He looks fine, actually,” Sweetaloo pointed out. Link currently had his arms folded and a scowl plastered on his face.

“It could be a slow digestion!”

Sweetaloo shivered. “Y-yeah…”

Twilight tried shooting some more lasers at it, but nothing happened.

“Okay, uh…” Sweetaloo bit her lip. “First of all, teleport out of the slime.”

Twilight flushed red. “Oh…” She flashed into the air, using her wings to fly.

“Now, bosses usually have some kind of weak point somewhere… should be kind of obvious.”

“The eyes!” Twilight flew higher and shot magic at the eyes. This annoyed the chu-chu, but, otherwise did nothing. “Oh no, uh…”

“The base! It’s weak at the base!” Sweetaloo shouted. “Most of its mass is held up higher, just… remove its slime foot thing!”

Twilight did. She cast an explosion spell. Magic resistant or not, the creature was not immune to a shockwave kicking its slimy base out from under it. It fell to the ground, hard, splattering itself onto the ground like a flat pancake.

Link stood up from the slime, picking up his sword and stabbing the loose eyes. “Genius! You do this often, Sweetaloo?”

“I’ve just seen a lot of boss creatures,” Sweetaloo said, sheepishly. “All I’m working off is patterns.”

“Nice!”

“We won!” Twilight shouted.

The slime coalesced back into the full chu-chu once more.

“Oh…” Twilight sighed.

A magical portal appeared inside the chu-chu, vaporizing most of its body. Blink poked her head out of the portal. “World saved, everything under control! Talked him down with a banana, believe it or not. I see you made some new friends, Sweetaloo!”

Sweetaloo glared at her. “Don’t you ever throw me into a treasure chest again!”

“...What?”

“You look exactly like Sweetie Belle,” Twilight pointed out.

“I’m getting the heart piece,” Link grumbled. “You all can sort this out while I deal with important stuff.”

“Hey, you’re a Link, right?" Blink smirked. "Need me to save your world too?”

Link ignored her.

Sweetaloo chuckled.

Cold (Simply Rarity)

Light flakes of snow fell from the overcast sky, lazily drifting through the soft breeze of a winter day. Hearth’s Warming Eve had come and gone and everypony was starting to look forward to when Winter Wrap-Up would clear the fluffy cold away. They wanted spring and warmth to return.

Cinder wasn’t having any of that. Winter was beautiful. Maybe it was just because her home universe was in the middle of summer at the moment, but she loved the look of the snow as it fell in the streets of the local Canterlot. There was a light dusting of the fluff everywhere without an overhang, giving a slight crunch to every hoofstep. It was too fluffy to be slippery in most places, so she could just enjoy it. She smiled brightly - sometimes, simple was nice.

Celia walked to her, her pointed hooves making a slight scraping sound as she moved. “I’ve discovered why we can’t find a trace of a Twilight in this universe.” She handed a newspaper over to Cinder. “We’re in the past.”

“How far?” Cinder asked, perusing the newspaper. “...Dates change between universes sometimes.”

Celia pointed a hoof at an article showing a unicorn at Princess Celestia’s side. “Sunset’s still Celestia’s student.”

“Oh. Well, that would do it, huh?” Cinder folded the newspaper up, eventually turning it into a shield. She tossed it around, catching it in her hoof a few times. “Plan?”

Celia shrugged. “Standard Equestria. I’m going to take Suzie to Celestia, see if I’ve still got the usual diplomatic charm or if I’m going to get us kicked out.” She chuckled as she examined one of her pointed hooves. “First time for everything.”

“You’ll do fine,” Cinder encouraged. “What about me?”

“You and Blink can hang around and do whatever. It’s Canterlot in winter. Get yourself something nice.” She winked before trotting off.

“Did you get that Blink?” Cinder called.

Blink revealed herself to be standing right next to Cinder. “You know, your knack for knowing when I’m here and listening is off putting.”

“So’s your ability to turn invisible.” Cinder grinned.

“Touche.” Blink yawned. “So, what do you wanna do?”

Cinder did a small dance on the snow, moving her hooves around quickly. “Dunno. Walk around until something happens?”

“You mean dance around?”

“Yep!” Cinder tap-danced toward some storefronts.

“You know, you’re not good at that.”

“Yep!” Cinder repeated, smirking. “But it’s the snow Blink!”

“For a fire pony you sure like the snow a lot. Shouldn’t this be more, I dunno, Cryo’s schtick?”

“Cryo appreciating the weather and nature.” Cinder rolled her eyes. “There’s an idea.”

“You know what I mean,” Blink said, adjusting her shades.

“Yep! So…” Cinder sat down, looking around at the various shops. “Where to first?”

“Antiques,” Blink said, jumping over to a large antiques store. “Who knows what kind of cool stuff you might find in there?”

“On a normal Equis?”

“Yeah! Come on!” Blink jumped through the front doors.

With a sigh, Cinder trotted up to the Antiques shop. She opened the doors to find row upon row of old, mysterious treasure. And, as expected, absolutely no sign of Blink.

Considering her situation, Cinder realized she had two options. She could spend her day trying to find Blink in a store filled to the brim with maze-like corridors of ancient, breakable treasure… or she could go out and wander Canterlot on her own, see what else she could find.

Remembering the last few times she’d bothered to play Blink’s little games, Cinder decided she wasn’t going to play today. Let her sit in the store for a few hours and wonder where Cinder had gone. Bet she’ll feel silly realizing she hid in here for so long.

Cinder left the store and kept walking. She didn’t really have any idea where she was going, but she knew she’d find something eventually. Her assumption turned out to be correct, but not in the way she was expecting.

Arriving at one of Canterlot’s many balconies, she allowed herself to gaze out upon the winter wonderland that was Equestria. All the rolling hills were coated in a blanket of pristine snow, glistening in the light of the sun. Forests were patches of green speckled with ever-present white, and the smoke of cabin fires could be seen rising out of the canopy.

Cinder grinned. She knew where she was going.

Who needed this city? She had the simple joys of winter to experience.

She ran off to find the quickest way down Canterlot Mountain.

~~~

“She just went into the Antiques store,” Cryo reported. “Her amazing quest must be in there!”

“...I don’t think she’s on an amazing quest,” Curio said.

Cryo turned to glare at Curio. “She’s been in this universe several hours and nothing’s happened. That’s not how it works. Something goes down. Always! And we’re gonna be there when it does. And we are going to be great.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be on a mission?” Sriracha asked, munching on one of her peppers. “Like, exploring, or…?”

“We’ll get to that,” Cryo said, waving a hoof. “Just gotta do this quick…”

“Mattie?” Sriracha asked. “Are w-”

Mattie lazily opened an eye. “Mate, she’s got it in her head that she needs to do this, let her get it out of her system. And prepare for everything to crash and burn later.” She yawned. “Got another one of those death peppers on ya?”

Sriracha tossed her a pepper. She caught it in her mouth and immediately started crying and whimpering. “That… hits the spot…”

Cryo rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the Antiques store. “We go on three. One. Two. Three!” She ran as fast as she could across the street and into the Antiques shop. Sliding through the front doors, she held a hoof high in the air. “My nemesis! We meet again under the mo-” She stopped herself once she noticed the only pony she could see was the cashier, who was fixing the loud pony with a death glare.

“Don’t mind her,” Curio said, sliding into the store. “She just gets excited. Think we can have a look around?”

“...Sure,” the cashier said, returning to his magazine.

“So, clearly, they’re hiding from us…” Cryo deduced.

“She was with Blink,” Curio admitted.

“Hide and seek then?” Sriracha asked. “I could use the aerosol…”

“Leeeeet’s not cover the entire store with painful pepper powder,” Curio said.

“Let’s do,” Mattie smirked.

Curio facehooved. “To find Blink, you have to be creative. She can make herself completely invisible, but in situations where the danger isn’t alarming, you can find her by listening and looking for evidence of her. For instance, see this scrape here?” She pointed at a spot in the ground her visor was highlighting. “This is from a hoof about her size, heading this direction.”

“Good work!” Cryo beamed. “Let’s find the ghost!” She trotted in the direction Curio had indicated, right into a section filled with lots of fine china.

Mattie frowned. “Cryo, it might be a-”

Blink appeared next to Cryo and shouted “BOO!”

“-trap.” Mattie rolled her eyes and Cryo instinctively shot a beam of ice out of her horn, hitting a plate of rare china larger than most ponies. It fell over and shattered into dozens of pieces, tipping over numerous other dishes as well. Curio’s telekinesis managed to keep more from breaking, but the damage had already been done.

Several valuable, perhaps priceless plates were no more.

“Blink!” Cryo shouted. “How… Why!?”

“You were snooping,” Blink said, nonchalantly examining her hoof. “What did you expect, for me to make it easy? Come on, you should know better.”

“It is a dangerous game you play, ghost. But I am up to the ante! Your sneaky shenanigans will fall to my icy cri-”

“Ahem!”

Blink and Cryo looked up from their confrontation to see the cashier glaring at them.

“Ma’am, are you going to be able to pay for what your kids just broke?”

Cryo looked for Mattie - but she was inexplicably nowhere to be found. Instead, the cashier was addressing Sriracha, the only Sweetie of adult appearance in the group. She had the decency to lower her ears. “Uh, how much?”

“Three thousand bits.”

“W-WHAT!?” Sriracha gasped. “I… Mattie had the card a… I am going to kill her…”

The cashier frowned. “I’ll have to call your bank, since I can’t have you le-”

“Every-Sweetie run!” Sriracha shouted, tossing a pepper into the cashier’s face. It exploded, getting the spice into his eyes. He let out a scream and fell back, holding his face with his hooves.

The Sweeties didn’t wait - they rushed out of the Antiques shop as fast as their hooves could carry them, scrambling onto the snowy streets.

“He’ll call the cops you know!” Blink shouted.

“Uh, I, uh…” Sriracha bit her lip.

“Challenge accepted!” Cryo laughed. “Now we’ll show Cinder h- wait. Blink, where is she?”

~~~

Cinder found herself in a forest, a half-inch of snow crunching under her hooves. Behind her, Canterlot was easily visible, but distant enough that it didn’t dominate the skyline. Furthermore, it was behind her, so she didn’t have to look at it unless she was twirling.

She was dancing, though, and occasional twirls were part of that, but she didn’t mind the city. It reminded her that ponies existed and it wasn’t just her alone in this forest. Even if she liked the idea of dancing her heart out far from the sight of anyone, she knew better.

She would just dance like there was no one watching. Skip over a frozen river, swing from a snowy branch, and, of course, twirl with fire on her hooves. She’d gotten really good at controlling her fire output, allowing it to touch her skin without burning it. Lighting her entire body on fire was still dangerous but she could control a few hoof-fulls easy, tracing melty paths through the winter air.

It had stopped actively snowing. The sky was still that simple light gray that always came with snow clouds, and she liked it that way just fine. Some would call it dreary. She would say it brought the rest of the world’s colors out perfectly.

I’m turning into my sister. Heh.

Her ears perked - she heard laughing. Children laughing. Young children at that. And yet, it sounded familiar, somehow.

She followed the noise to a path cutting through the forest. Having half-expected to find some kind of monstrous witch creature that lured ponies in with the sound of laughing children, she was more than relieved to see two white fillies dancing along the snowy path.

They looked so beautiful, dancing like that. One was clearly a Rarity, with a curled purple mane and brilliant blue eyes, though she didn’t have her cutie mark yet. Cinder’s first thought that the other, younger one was a Sweetie Belle, but she wasn’t quite right. Her mane was blue rather than pastel pink and purple, and there was no sign of natural curls.

Cinder shook her head - it would hardly have been the first time she came across an alternate Sweetie Belle with a different mane. For all she knew there were lots of Sweeties with blue manes walking around. She even thought she remembered a few back at the League.

Deciding that wasn’t important, she returned to watching their dance. They pranced and bounced about in the most eye-catching way Cinder could think of. Who cared if Rarity was the only one who knew how to dance? The smaller Sweetie was just as into it as she was, and her haphazard bouncing nonsense was just as endearing. They jumped around with a large cloak between the two of them, the only possession Cinder could make out. Treating it like a third dancer.

For all Cinder knew, that cloak may have been like a lifelong friend to them.

She smiled. They clearly didn’t have much. And yet here they were, enjoying themselves in this beautiful winter day without a care in the world.

When they finished the dance and bowed to each other, Cinder erupted in applause.

Rarity’s smile vanished instantly, pulling her younger sister behind her. “W-who are you?” she said with a meek, yet dignified and well articulated voice.

Aww, that’s so adorable. I can’t wait to tell Xenium I got to see her as a filly!

“I’m Cinder!” Cinder said, smiling warmly. “And that was some amazing dancing. Really works with the snow and… well, everything! You were beautiful.”

Rarity allowed herself to smile. “W-well, I am a pony of grace.”

“May I know who I’m complimenting?” Cinder asked, even though she knew the answer.

“I am Rarity,” Rarity announced. “And this is…”

“U-unique!” the filly chirped with a slight slur, indicating that she hadn’t been talking all that long. The chattering of her teeth didn’t help matters either.

“Yes, Unique,” Rarity confirmed. “Princess Unique!” She nuzzled the tiny unicorn.

Unique…? Interesting… Cinder’s smile widened. “A princess, huh?”

“Y-yeah!” Unique put the cloak on and let the back of it billow in the slight breeze. She struck a pose for Cinder.

“Regal,” Cinder agreed. “Worthy of the best of royalty.”

Rarity giggled, prompting Unique to follow suit.

“You look cold…” Cinder observed. “Hold on a sec…” She used her magic to lift a dead tree branch into the air and snap it in multiple places dropping it on the ground in front of them. With a small flash of her horn, she lit it on fire. “There! I bet you two’d like to get warm, wouldn’t you.”

Unique stared at the fires in awe. At first, Rarity looked like she was about to pull her sister away from the mysterious pony’s fire but she couldn’t resist the warmth herself. She moved closer and tossed her mane back, breathing in happily. “So warm…”

“You two have been out here a while, huh?” Cinder asked.

Rarity nodded. “Just moving on to the next town…” She reached into the pocket of the cloak and pulled out a small book - maybe a journal - flipping it open. “...Ponyville! That’s the closest.”

“Ponyville’s a great place! I’m from there myself, you know.”

“Really?” Rarity’s eyes grew wide. “Do… are all the ponies as nice as you?”

“Most of them, actually,” Cinder said, sitting down in the snow. “When you get there you won’t have to be cold all the time.”

“Yay!” Unique cheered.

Cinder nodded. “The ponies are real nice. Let’s see…” Who can I talk about that was actually around when Rarity was a filly? Applejack’s a filly right now and… “The Apple Family’s great. They run an apple orchard at the edge of town. Granny Smith even helped found it!”

“Wow. She must be old,” Rarity said.

“She is,” Cinder said. “But she’s nice anyway. Then there’s… oh, Filthy Rich! Even though he’s one of those rich ponies you’d think would care more about their money than anything, he’s actually a pretty nice guy! I think Aloe and Lotus are around - they run the spa…”

“A spa…” Rarity’s eyes sparkled. “I can barely remember spas…”

“Spah?” Unique asked, unsure what the word meant.

“Oh, you’ll love it Unique! Ponies dote on you to make you look fabulous! They, why, I say they might even make you more of a princess than you already are!”

“Wooooah…”

“But… ah, well, money…” Rarity frowned.

Cinder shook her head. “Hey, if you stay in Ponyville long enough, somepony will get you in. I’m not sure if this is true, but I hear Aloe has a soft spot for miniature cactuses.” She winked. “You didn’t hear this from me, though.” Might not even be true in this universe, but hey, I can try.

“But where will we get the cactus?”

Cinder laughed. “Don’t worry, Rarity. I promise, you go to Ponyville… and there you will do amazing things. Who knows? You might even change the world, some day. Like the princesses you are.”

Rarity’s smile returned. “Ponyville sounds great.”

“It is. And I’m glad you’re going.” She tousled Rarity's hair. “Your hard journey is almost over.” She turned to Unique. “Yours too.”

Unique beamed.

Cinder stood back up. “Now, I have my own adventure and friends to get back to…” She looked back to Canterlot Castle, wondering if she really should have just left Blink like that. “You two princesses keep those smiles, you hear? Stay around the fire as long as you need. Won’t go out anytime soon.”

“Bye, Cinder,” Rarity said, waving. “Keep smiling too!”

“Bye!” Unique called.

Cinder waved at them and trotted back toward Canterlot.

Two fillies huddled around a fire under a large cloak. Unique yawned, nuzzling into Rarity as the fire warmed them.

Soon, Rarity felt warmed. She glanced down the road, then looked down to Unique. The little filly was asleep. Rarity stroked Unique’s mane, getting lost in its folds.

~~~

“Blink, make us invisible,” Curio pleaded.

“Nah,” Blink said, leaning against the branch of a large tree in the middle of a Canterlot park.

“The guard is looking for us and a bunch of young white ponies that look identical are pretty conspicuous.” Curio narrowed her eyes. “Or you could get in contact with the rest of your team and get them to deal with this.”

“Nah,” Blink reiterated, her smug smile growing larger.

“Then tell us where Cinder is!” Cryo shouted.

“Shhh, they might hear us!” Sriracha hissed. “This is just a tree.”

Cryo quieted herself. “Blink. Cinder.”

Blink shrugged. “Haven’t the foggiest. Thought she was with me. Then she left. Then you knuckleheads showed up, caused a scene.”

“You broke the dishes,” Curio pointed out.

“And Sriracha threw a pepper in his face.”

“I’m so sorry…” Sriracha said, head down. “I wasn’t thinking, he was looking at me like I was in charge, and… I panicked.”

“To be fair you are the only one here who looks like an adult,” Blink said.

“I… well, uh… I am going to burn Mattie.”

“She’d pay you to do that,” Curio reminded her. “...Actually, she already does. You give her peppers all the time.”

Sriracha twitched. “...It’s so hard to exact revenge on somepony like her…”

“Girls! We’re losing track!” Cryo said. “Focus - Cinder. We need to find her.”

“Can you give up on that already?” Sriracha asked. “We get it, Cinder’s your nemesis. There are more important things than trying to find a way to show her up.”

“Well, yeah, the fate of the world. But the world is not at stake, so…” Cryo struck a pose. “I will find her and I w-”

“What are all of you doing in a tree?” Cinder asked from the base of the tree trunk.

“Hiding from the cops,” Curio deadpanned. “Hi, Cinder.”

“Aha! Cinder!” Cryo pointed a hoof at her. “At long last I have f-”

“Did you follow me to this world?” Cinder asked, cocking her head.

“Uh…”

“She totally did,” Blink said, lazily examining her hoof. “Came here just to show you up in… something, I don’t know what.”

Cinder looked at Cryo with a sad gaze. “Cryo…”

“What? We’re nemeses! It’s how w-”

“Cryo, why does it really matter?”

Cryo blinked, unsure of where she was going with this.

“I mean, at first it was just a fun little game. You go around with your ‘anime’ ice, laugh, and shout at things, and I roll my eyes and go along with it. But… I don’t think you’re doing that anymore. It’s like I’m your life-goal, or something.”

Cryo narrowed her ice-blue eyes. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that there’s other things to do than constantly seek to be better than somepony else. I just met two poor fillies in the middle of the woods, and they were happy. You could say they were the weakest, most insignificant things… but they might just be better than all of us constantly looking for something. They were happy where they w-”

“Aha! I see!” Cryo jumped out of the tree. “This is not a battle of brawn or titles, this is a battle of… empathy!”

“Cryo, no, i-”

“I bet I can have a more meaningful experience than you!” She lifted her hoof into the air until it cast a shadow over Cinder. “Your experiences run warm and fuzzy, mine are cold and jarringly powerful!”

Cinder sighed. “Cryo, stop. You don’t get the point. I’m trying to get you to stop.”

“But then you win!” Cryo whined. “The whole point of this duality we have is to go back and forth!”

“There’s no winner?”

Cryo’s face contorted into a snarl. “Of course not! Do I have to explain everything? We are rivals! Rivals! We’re supposed to…”

“...Compete with each other forever?” Cinder frowned. “...That sounds kind of shallow, Cryo. Shouldn’t we be living our own lives instead of defining them off each other? We’re our own people. We even have our own teams!” Cinder pointed at Sriracha and Curio. “I bet they can show you so much more. And they would see so much if you weren't chasing after me all the time.”

Cryo’s ears folded back onto her yead. “Y-you’re just trying to crush my resolve! It’s… the hero’s test! Trying to break me!” She smirked. “I see your ploy, Cinder! It won’t work on me!”

“Cryo, stop, this really do-”

“I’ll have my experience in the forest! You can’t stop me!” Cryo laughed, galloping away.

“Cryo!”

Mattie edited herself behind Cinder, putting a hoof on her back. “Don’t chase her.”

“W-why not?”

“It’ll validate her. She needs to wander alone in the forest for a few hours to learn her lesson. She was going right bonkers, let me tell you.”

“Is that why you vanished?” Curio asked.

“Oh, no, unintentional side effect. I just wanted to see you squirm when I popped out of there. Was right hilarious, too.” She smirked. “Now, let’s go find those cops and convince them not to make me pay, hmm?”

Cinder looked after Cryo. “...I worry about her.”

Blink shrugged. “She’s got to learn life’s not an anime, not even if your Discord gives you the essence of one.”

~~~

Cryo skated through the forest, ice appearing under her back hooves as she pressed them to the ground. She covered a lot of ground with this method, looking far and wide for anything worth comparing to Cinder’s encounter with the two fillies.

She hadn’t even seen a pony out here since she started.

She’d been trying for over an hour.

“There’s got to be something!” Cryo shouted. “Cinder just WALKED out here and found them! I can’t even find them! This isn’t fair!” She slammed her four hooves on the ground, creating an icy spire three times as tall as she was. Deciding this wasn’t enough, she let out a yell and ordered all ice to get as far away from her as possible.

Her structure shattered and all the snow within a meter was thrown away, creating a shallow crater around her. Trees shook from the force and ice shards embedded themselves into nearby rocks.

Nopony was around to see her display. There weren’t even any panicked birds. Just the trees, and they made a horrible audience.

The snowfall had gotten heavy enough that it was already undoing her work.

“Stupid… little…” She continued skating along, grimacing. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. The rival was supposed to be there, side by side, struggling with the nemesis. Not lagging behind and tripping over her own hooves! There were fights, contests, and stressful encounters. She would lose some, yes, but… She wasn’t to be pitied! She wasn’t obsessed!

This wasn’t how things were supposed to be.

She told herself that over and over again, even as the tears began to come to her eyes, freezing into crystals at the edge of her vision.

This was supposed to be fun. Meaningful.

It wasn't either right now. It was just…

Cold.

In her stupor, Cryo tripped over a campfire. She landed on her plot in the snow, shocked. Slowly, she turned to see cold wood that had been charred in a few places, but had been put out by the recent heavy snowfall.

Cinder’s handiwork.

Cryo looked around - those kids must have been somewhere around here. All she saw at first was a lump of snow next to the campfire. It seemed odd in shape, not a bush or small plant. At first she thought it was a rock - but then she saw the tuft of black fabric sticking out the top.

Cryo’s face fell. She screeched to a halt in front of the mound and lit her horn. Banishing all the snow from the area, she found two white fillies clinging to each other under a dark cloak.

The Rarity - she could never mistake those lapis eyes - turned her face towards Cryo. The filly in her hooves didn't move. She laid there on the ground, so still... too still...

"Please," Rarity whispered. "Please... help. We're so cold." She looked down at the tiny foal. "She won't wake up..."

Cyro stared in horror. Help? How was she supposed to help? Make an igloo? It'd be an icebox. Make an ice sled? But the ground was flat. She couldn't make other ponies immune from cold!

"Please!" Rarity cried out, a tear freezing midway down her cheek. "Help us..."

She couldn't. She wasn't Cinder. She couldn't do anything that would help. This wasn't supposed to happen! This wasn't supposed to be how it worked! Cinder would do something and she'd beat her! Or try... and no ponies died in the snow because her powers were worthless!

Rarity wasn't answering now. She just lay there. And her sister... the not Sweetie... she lay so still... so still while Cryo just stood here being useless!

Gotta find help.

Cryo ran through her options. She didn’t have a communicator or dimensional device on her, so she couldn’t call for help or take them somewhere warmer. Running back to Canterlot to get the rest could take forever, even if she was skating. Move them? Was that safe? She was too weak to move them with her hooves, and using ice powers on a couple fillies freezing to death seemed unwise. Where would she even take them?

Gotta find help.

She launched herself into the air with her ice. Before she was all that high up she was able to see the nearest settlement: Ponyville. Sweet Apple Orchard was right there! She could get help!

Landing on the ground, she created a dome of ice around the fillies - careful not to touch them with the ice, hoping that igloos really were warm enough. Without another word, she took off at high speed to the familiar farm.

The Apple Family could help. Would help.

And they would do it quickly. Cryo would make sure of it.

~~~

Mattie had dealt with law enforcement easily. Gotten most everyone off the hook and arranged for the Merodi Government to compensate for the broken goods.

She and her team barely made it five feet out of the guard house before she stopped in her tracks, eyes wide.

“Something’s wrong with Cryo,” she said.

Sriracha sighed. “What, did she get herself stuck in a ditch?”

Curio gulped. “That’s not Mattie’s ‘ugh’ voice... This is actually serious. Mattie, what can you see?”

“We need to be there for her,” Mattie said. “Curio, triangulate her position.”

Curio didn’t bother correcting Mattie’s use of the word ‘triangulate’. She brought up Cryo’s magic signature on her visor. “Ponyville. Sweet Apple Acres, if this is to be believed.”

“Hold on,” Mattie said, channeling magic into her horn for a long-range teleport. “This might be disorienting…”

With a flash of blue magic, they were outside the snow-covered Apple Family house. Even as far into the past as they were, Mattie was still able to recognize it. She rapidly knocked on the door.

A sweet, butter-yellow mare opened the door. “Y-yes?” She looked strained.

“Pear Butter, yes?” Mattie asked. “...Is Cryo here?”

Pear looked back at the Sweeties behind Mattie. “...Is that her name?”

“Yes.”

“You her…?”

“Sister,” Mattie said. “Bit of an adventurer. Can we see her?”

“Yes, of course. She’s… been through a lot.”

“I know,” Mattie said.

“How…?”

Mattie tapped her horn. As good of an explanation as any. Pear must have accepted it, because she led them to a guest room without any more words. Face downcast, she opened the door.

Within, Cryo was sitting on the ground, almost motionless. She didn’t react to the door being opened. Were it not for her heavy breathing there wouldn’t have been an indication she was even alive.

She was staring forward, dead-eyed. One of her contacts had fallen out, replacing the artificial ice-blue iris with her natural soft green. Ice crystals collected around her eyes as she refused to blink, absolutely fixated on the bed in front of her.

There was a Rarity in the bed, covered in blankets and with a warm cloth draped over her head. Her breathing was weak and her lips were blue, but she was alive.

She was the only pony in the bed.

Cryo spoke with a voice none of them had heard before. A dry, lifeless tone with no energy in it whatsoever.

“Cold and jarringly powerful…” She sniffed. “Guess I beat her.”

Mattie turned to Curio. The message was clear - I’m terrible at comforting. You should go to her.

Taking a deep breath, Curio stepped over to Cryo. She placed a gentle hoof on the icy mare. She had been expecting a flinch, or perhaps a sigh of relief from the mare. There wasn’t any response whatsoever.

“Cryo…?”

“Why did this happen?” Cryo asked. “They had fire. They were going to be fine. They were so close to town… She gave it to them! If… she’d be…” She shook, finding it difficult to breathe.

“...You saved the Rarity, Cryo. If you hadn’t been out there… they still left.”

“Who cares…?” Cryo asked. “I got what I wanted… an experience. A cold, dark... “ She closed her eyes, falling silent.

“We care.” Curio put a hoof around her friend. “You were the hero today. There’s a Rarity that will go on to do great things because of you.”

“Yeah.” Cryo’s words were honest, but empty. “Cinder was right.”

“Cryo…”

“Cinder was right. The world’s not just some big competition. There was no competition here.”

Curio tightened her grip on the icy pony. Cryo’s rigid body finally loosened, and she met Curio’s embrace. “I’m so sorry…”

“Shhh… it’s okay. It’s okay.”

“I was so… so wrong. So arrogant. So fixated…”

“And we had fun with you anyway.” Curio smiled sadly. “Why do you think we stick around?”

Cryo let out a bitter laugh and buried her ice-studded face into Curio’s mane. Silence filled the room.

“C-cinder?” Rarity groaned in her delirium. “...Unique?”

Cryo twitched, pulling herself slowly away from Curio. “...Let’s go. Nobody tells Cinder about this. She… she should remember them differently.” She shivered, walking up to Mattie. “...Master?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for coming for me.”

Mattie sighed. “I let you go out there. I thought…” She glanced at Rarity. “I didn’t think this.”

Cryo nodded in understanding, latching herself to Mattie’s leg. With a soft smile, Mattie levitated the small unicorn onto her back. “Take good care of the filly,” she told Pear.

Pear nodded, wiping a tear from her eye.

“Let’s go, everypony.”

~~~

“So,” Celia said, looking at Blink and Cinder. “Celestia’s taken care of. She’s asking us to not interfere until Nightmare Moon returns and her plan works out. Told her it works and that Luna returns. I may have also ‘implied’ that Sunset is a backstabbing ingrate, so I may have irrevocably changed the timeline.” Celia smirked. “I have no qualms with this. You two?”

Blink shrugged. Cinder shook her head.

“Good! Let’s go home!” She opened a portal back to Swip. “Did you two get up to anything interesting today?”

Blink smirked. “Scared Cryo out of her socks and made Mattie pay for the damage.”

“Some actual haunting? Blink, if I didn’t know you better I’d say you were beginning to act like a proper ghost.”

“Ha.”

“What about you, Cinder?”

Cinder smiled. “I saw two fillies playing in the snow. They had nothing… but they were happy. I’ll cherish that. We see so much craziness out there… it’s nice to know that things can be simple.”

Celia chuckled. “Sounds like you had the better experience.”

“Oh, also, the fillies were the local Rarity and Sweetie. Xenium is going to hear all about how tiny she was.”

Celia hopped through the portal. “Oh, call her now! I want to hear this…”

The interdimensional Sweeties left the world, leaving the snow to fall in peace once more.

Author's Notes:

Simply Rarity is an old, old fandom story. It is a short, tragic, brutal tale of how dark the world can be. The cold of the wilderness will come in... and take away. But you can gain it back. Somber outdid himself with this one, and I thank him for helping me construct this.

Next time on LSB:
Siren Song (This is going to be long, epic, and also depressing.)

((LSB Status Post.)) Come suggest and upvote fics, would you kindly?

Swiftwing (Siren Song, Part 1)

“Celia?” Suzie asked from the other side of the lounge table.

“Hmm?” Celia said, looking up from her cards.

“We should go on a mission. Together. Explore somewhere new. Try to… get things back to the way they were? Or somewhere… better than here?”

Celia grinned. “Excellent idea. But dear, are we leaving Burgerbelle in charge of Swip?

“I’ll make sure she behaves,” Swip beeped. “Don’t worry.”

“Then we leave immediately!” Suzie declared. “Swip, call Cinder and…”

“Seren?” Celia offered.

“Yes, Seren. We’ll go with her. We’re going to the next world!” She clapped her hands together. The two of them galloped over to the portal gate, almost giddy to go on an adventure together.

“Captain quest! Captain quest!” Cinder cheered, the chant quickly matched by Seren.

“Children, children…” Celia said, smirking. “This is more than a captain quest. It is a friendship quest. Whatever lies beyond this gate shall increase our bond… forthwith, or something!”

Cinder gasped. “You lost the poetic words!”

Celia winked. “Oh. So I did. How audacious of me.”

With a roll of her eyes, Suzie touched her hand to the gate and activated it. “Everybody through! Burgerbelle, you’re in charge until Swip decides you’re not!”

Burgerbelle poked her head in through the hallway. “You keep using that term. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Suzie saluted and walked through the portal backwards, inviting the other three to follow her in. With a pop, they arrived in yet another new world.

~~~

“Reason for visit?”

Cinder blinked twice, turning her head this way and that as she struggled to orient herself. There has been no sense of transition—no tingle of teleportation, no swirling portal or mystical gateway. She had been with her friends, and then…

“Reason for visit?” repeated the creature in front of her. It was a young mare wearing a starched white collar, seated behind a cheap metal desk. Her hair was cut short in the punk style, a natural black streaked with electric green, and there was a tattoo on her face. A rubber stamp wrapped in red tape, right under her left eye.

A bureaucrat. She was a bureaucrat, seated behind her flimsy little folding desk, paperwork spread out before her. And when Cinder lifted her head, she saw the sign up against the wall behind her: “CITY OF VISION, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS.”

“Um,” she hesitated, a small frown tugging at her features. Then she realized she was sitting on a little folding chair as well, and when she turned around, there was a waiting room behind her filled with neat rows of uncomfortable benches.

Suzie, Celia, and Seren were there too, all seated on different benches under a sign that read, “PLEASE TAKE A NUMBER.”

They all had a number, but none of them seemed certain how they’d gotten one. And there was Cinder’s number too, stuck to her hoof, “#119.”

“Hey,” the voice of the mare behind the counter, grating and harsh, snapped her head back forward. “I get paid by the hour so I can sit here all day, but maybe you want to answer my question so I can process your paperwork?”

“Um. We’re…” Cinder’s frown tightened as she looked at the mare, and when her eyes drifted to the paperwork on the table, she saw that some of it already had her information filled out. There was her vaccination history on one form, and another was an Equestrian passport with her photo on the inside cover. “Explorers.”

She glanced back at Celia quickly, shooting her a look she hoped conveyed the proper fearful confusion.

Celia glanced back with a similar expression, although with less fear. Don’t be too obvious, coming right out with what we are might be… bad.

Cinder took a breath and returned to the receptionist. “Yeah. Just exploring. Vision looks interesting, I must say… nothing like it in Equestria.”

“Reason for visit, tourism.” The mare was an earth pony, and in her teeth, she grasped three stamps at once. Each was stainless steel, filled with moving parts, and each in turn produced a loud snap as the mare brought it down on Cinder’s passport. “The red stamp is your transit permit, the blue stamp is your visitation license, and the purple stamp is your habitation exemption. Length of stay?”

“Um…” Cinder looked back at Celia once again. “I’m not sure.”

“I’ll put you down for a week.” A pen scratched against paper. Twice more, one of the big metal stamps rang out. “And, what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

Cinder’s head snapped forward. “I’m sorry?”

The mare held up the form she was filling out, pointing at the question at the bottom. “I just fill out the forms, lady. You want to answer or not?” And it was at the bottom, in little black ink with three lines to fill in an answer. What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?

“I burned down my school,” she said, almost without thinking. Something in the back of her mind instantly told her that was wrong, making her narrow her eyes in confusion. Had she done anything worse than that while out exploring? Maybe, but nothing that came to her attention. There had been a lot of unintentional mishaps, but they’d always done their best to put those right. If they were allowed to.

Was there some failure of neglect she was forgetting? Or…

“Arson.” The mare wrote it down, stamped the form one last time, and dumped all her documents into a manilla folder. “Welcome to Vision, the tourist guide is in there with your documents, have a nice day.” She tapped a button on her desk, and an automated voice called out number one-two-zero. “Next!”

“Wait, I don’t-”

“I said next, lady. Don’t make me call security.”

Cinder got the impression that the “get detained by the cops and explain yourself” plan wouldn’t work here, so she scampered out of her chair. Once she was on her hooves and had a better view of the room, she could see how large it was. The benches for waiting in line easily had room for two hundred ponies, and there were twenty desks at the front for processing paperwork. But the four of them were the only ones there, and only one of the desks was staffed.

Her hooves were damp.

Looking down, she found she was standing in a puddle of water. The carpet squelched under the pads of her hooves, bubbling as more water rose up beneath her. It wasn’t like a coffee spill, but like the carpet was thin layer sewn on top of a sinkhole. Maybe, if she pressed hard enough, her hoof would go right through the floor and down into the water beneath. The water was there, beneath the floor, waiting for her. She could smell the brine and the salt and—

Hey, Celia’s telepathic message snapped her out of her stupor. Her head shot up, lights dancing in her eyes. Are you okay? You spaced out and you look off.

Cinder frowned, thinking back to her. I’m not sure if it’s the seawater or something else about this place… I’m fine.

Seren had the ticket number 120, and so she rose to take Cinder’s place. There didn’t seem to be a rule against Cinder waiting for her, but it was clear where she was supposed to go next. A large set of double doors marked one end of the waiting room, an ugly red exit sign affixed above them.

And, perhaps Cinder didn’t feel like waiting for her three friends to get their paperwork processed. She pushed open the doors and went on without them. And when the doors shut behind her, she felt like she was standing in a dream.

Before her stood a city of white stone, built on an impossible scale. Under a sky with no moon and no stars rose buildings hundreds of stories tall, so grand they seemed to her like cliffs, like walls that stretched to the sky. Twinkling motes swam through the space between them, like faerie lights or breezies or airships moving in the night, and the chasms those structures created were criss-crossed by bridges of silver and glass.

All of Canterlot could have been a single neighborhood of this city. All of Ponyville could have fit into a single of its towers. And when she looked more closely, there was more! There were machines of brass and steel that climbed the towers to clean them, trams that ran along rails made of light, and the most strange and beautiful birds flitting from tower to tower.

They waggled as they moved. Like fish.

And when she lowered her starstruck eyes, she saw she was indoors, on the third story of a bedazzling indoor market. Thousands of merchants were set up all around her. The proper stores ringed the outside of the space, accessible through doors like the customs office, while the lesser merchants pitched their tents in the square. It was like a medieval fair, perhaps.

Or something from Ponyville, though it had never been this nice.

“Hey Equestrian,” said a stallion’s voice to her left. When she turned her head to look, she saw she’d misjudged. On the rail leaned not a stallion but a pegasus colt, just old enough his fetlocks were coming in, but not old enough he needed to shave them. He looked like a classic flyer. Strong build, athletic stance, broad shoulders and big wings. And he had tattoos on his side.

That was strange, she thought, in a pony so young. One tattoo on his shoulder of a silver bit and a crook, one on his ribs of a pony with swirls in their eyes. Plus his cutie mark of course—three turning gears.

“Oh, that’s not my name,” she said. “I’m Cinder.”

“Well hey, Cinder.” He mimed tipping his hat with a hoof, though he wore no such garment. “You look lost. Help you find something?”

“Just waiting for my friends to get out of customs, so not yet. We all might need you later, though.”

“Customs takes forever to process paperwork. You’ll be waiting all day.” He looked her in the eye, matching their gaze across the short gap between them. “Want to go for a walk instead? I’ll show you around.”

And Cinder thought, no, of course not. It was obviously a terrible idea, to get separated from the group. Then she said, “Sure, sounds like fun. What’s your name?”

The colt bumped his hoof to hers. “Sprocket. Pleasure to meet you, Cinder.”

She paused a moment then and checked that the communications disc on the back of her neck was still there. And it was, so what was the harm? She was hardly going to get mugged by a colt whose voice hadn’t finished changing. “So, what is there to do around here?”

“The upper ring is mostly ice cream and bars and food and stuff, and all the gadget shops are down on the floor. Take your pick.”

“Floor,” she said, and they descended down into the colorful tents.

Such wonders were on display there. There was a unicorn selling guns that shot grappling hooks, an earth pony selling pocket lighters that shot sparks three feet, and a pegasus with tornados in jars. She saw on merchant cut a bloody gash up his own arm with a knife, but before she could shout in alarm, it regenerated before her eyes. “Regenerative tonic!” he called to the crowd. “Don’t leave your life to chance.”

And then there were the weapons. Crossbows that loaded themselves, knives that cut concrete like it was butter, spears that folded into a cylinder the size of a pencil but that could shoot lightning bolts when they were extended. Shields and armor and vehicles and more. And books! Endless books, offering insights on topics from nuclear engineering to rebalancing her chi.

She picked up one book. A thin little thing, with gold foil on the cover. “You Can’t Go Home Again—Your Self-Help Guide to Admitting You’ve Changed as a Person.”

“Great book,” the bookseller said, beaming radiantly at her. “Changed my life. You want it? For a pretty mare like you, a special deal; only fifty bits.”

“Fifty bits?” Sprocket answered for her, letting out a disgusted snort. “You’re taking her for a ride. I’d get that self-help crap for half a bit in a bargain bin downtown.”

“It’s fine. It’s fine.” Cinder put the book back. “I don’t need it. I was thinking of a friend.”

“Then perhaps I could interest you in this instead,” and from under the counter, the bookseller produced a thin white tome. Becoming Unique: How to Develop the Skills and Gifts to Stand Out in a Crowd. On the cover were a gaggle of identical mares, all pointing at each other and laughing, like they were the best friends in the world.

“How did you…?” Cinder frowned. I thought I’d already learned that lesson...

“I’ve been running this bookstore for years. You get a hang for these things.” He offered it her way. “Twenty bits.”

Sprocket scoffed at that price as well, but she paid just the same. The merchant gave her a set of saddlebags made from paper, which awkwardly rested across her back as she walked away. “That was strange.”

“I don’t buy any of that self-help junk,” Sprocket said, letting out a snort. “Wanna circle around and see if your friends are done? We’ll circle around the long way so you can see the whole bazaar.”

“Sure, thanks.” She marched along with him, her mind neither on him nor the road, but inwardly focused. This place isn’t this nice. For some reason, she couldn't rest easy. Her mind kept diverting her into strange places, and taking her back to days long past. The whole market was wondrous, even better than some parts of Celestia City, and she’d loved looking at all the gadgets. And yet, as they walked away, the whole thing took on a chill feel.

And her hooves were damp. She was standing in a puddle again. As she and Sprocket walked across the grass towards the far end of the market, it was like her hooves were sinking. Not into mud. There was no mud. The grass just bowed inwards, bending like a sheet of rubber, and water welled up underneath it. The smell of brine pushed through her nostrils, into her head, behind her eyes and through her brain.

Like she was damp all over. Like her whole body was wet. A shiver passed through her.

“Right this way,” Sprocket said, holding open a door for her. Mercifully, her hooves left the grass and she stepped back onto white stone. They were out of the bazaar proper, and into some kind of access or maintenance corridor that ran around the perimeter under the shops. They walked down it for some time, taking a left, then a right, then a left, then going down a flight of stairs.

“Wait, shouldn’t we be going up?” Cinder asked. This is the wrong way.

Sprocket looked deep into her eyes. “You’ve gotten turned around. This is the right way. Keep going.” And when he put it that way, it all made sense. She was confused. Shouldn’t she trust her guide?

After all, she thought, this is the part of the story where I get mugged and kidnapped. The last thing she’d want to do under such dire circumstances was get lost. If anything, the situation made it even more important that she trust her guide.

Then she saw the stallion waiting for them ahead. He was an enormous bruiser of an earth pony, standing twice her height, his coat painted with muscle. A half-dozen tattoos covered his skin: a bat on his face, a block of ice on the left shoulder, a suit of armor on the right, a pile of bits on his side, a set of knives over his ankle, and two fireworks shooting off on his ear.

His original cutie mark was melting. The skin under it wept fluid, covered in so many blisters and welts it was like his flesh was boiling.

That snapped her out of her trance. She leapt into action, magic collecting around her horn. Hooves spread, back straight, she thrust her head forward, and a bolt of fire shot across the gap between them.

The block of ice on the earth pony’s shoulder flashed, and her bolt of fire fizzled away in mid air, reduced to a cloud of harmless steam.

Ice tattoo means ice powers, she thought, right. Then she tried to run.

But Sprocket tripped her, and before she could get back up, the bruiser was on top of her, and his hoof smashed the back of her head directly into the stone floor. Her comms device shattered, her vision swirled, her body went limp, and then it all went dark.

~~~

Underwater again, Suzie thought, looking up at what were clearly fish swimming above them. Good thing Squiddy’s not here.

When she had first come out of the Immigration Office, she had been prepared to go with Seren to investigate the ice cream stores and figure out what this city was all about. She was mildly interested to see how some of those sparkling weapons compared to her own firearm, but at that point she had noticed Cinder wasn’t with Seren.

Seren didn’t have any idea where she was.

So Suzie had made a call.

“What do you mean you can’t sense her?” Suzie demanded, communication disc to her ear.

“I mean I can’t sense her,” Swip’s annoyed tone came from the other side. “You guys are underwater, the city has some weird magic going on, I’m not a perfect find-it machine. Need me to call in backup, or something?”

“No…” Suzie frowned. “Not yet. But keep tabs on us in case something goes south.”

“Roger.”

Suzie pocketed the communicator. “Celia should be faster. She’s pretending to be a unicorn.”

Seren shrugged.

“Leave a message for her, we don’t have time to waste. Who knows what’s happening to h-”

Celia walked through the doors, a satisfied smirk on her face and a false horn superimposed over her crystal. As soon as the doors shut she replaced her expression with a deep, brooding scowl. “I worked my magic, moved it along. Cinder’s mind went fuzzy as soon as she got over here. I tried to keep a hold on it, but she vanished. Swip can’t find her?”

“No,” Suzie said, wringing the sleeve on her wrist. “Which means we’re going to have to do this ourselves.”

“Seren, you’ve been out here the longest.” Celia forced a smile. “What have you found out so far?”

“Ponies have more magic than usual,” Seren explained. “There’s a few who are normal, but most have significant amounts of excess. I’ve correlated this to the tattoos.” She pointed to a green pegasus stallion with the image of a mare biting her own tail on his ribs. “Scanning spells revealed that they aren’t ink-based but are made of the same pigment as a cutie mark. Extra talents.”

“Like that version of Starlight with the Staff that actually worked?” Suzie asked.

Seren shook her head. “Those had to be stolen. I’ve seen numerous duplicate marks - that pony biting its own tail is really popular.”

“This society is all about cutie marks, at least in this area,” Celia observed, adjusting her form slightly to create a false set of diamonds on her flank. “And you two aren’t getting as many strange looks as usual.”

Suzie glanced at the closest ponies to them, catching at least three staring right at her. She would have expected fear, confusion, or perhaps curiosity from them. Not the cold, calculating looks she was receiving now.

The cold expressions vanished the moment they realized she was looking, replaced by a hung head in two cases and a warm smile in the third case. For a moment, Suzie thought she must have misread the earlier expressions.

“Oh, we got ourselves a den of thieves here, girls,” Celia laughed. “We’re walking commodities. Especially you two, you’re not normal. You have to be worth something because of that.”

Suzie let out a deep sigh. This was not the time for her to lead; she knew full well she wasn’t the best at navigating places filled with cheats unless she had the option to be threatening. “Take point, Celia.”

“Thank you,” Celia bowed to Suzie in respect. As though a lightswitch went on in her body, her expression lit up, taking the shape of a dopey smile. “Yoo-hoo!” she waved at the smiling mare who had kept Suzie’s gaze. “Maybe you can help us?”

The amber mare kept the smile. “Well, geez, I don’t know how little ol’ me can help, but I’ll try!” Suzie made a quick inventory of all the extra cutie marks the mare had, though some could have been obscured by her pale dress. A pair of hooves clasped together, a pile of bits, and right on her cheek there was an abstract ‘S’ symbol Suzie couldn’t pasre.

“We’re looking for my sister,” Celia said. “Her name’s Cinder, she looks like me but way smaller. Has a triple-colored shield for a cutie mark? Orange eyes.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t say that I’ve seen her! Maybe you can come with me and I-”

Celia waved a hoof in front of the mare’s eyes, making her tumble over her train of thought. “Excuse me, I’m looking for Cinder. Unicorn?”

“I…” Suzie caught the mare searching Celia’s body, presumably for extra cutie marks. “I’m sorry, I don’t thi-”

“Oh you’re really in it, aren’t you?” Celia snorted, waving her hoof again. “Hello. White unicorn. New. Where?”

“Into the market. That way?” She stared at her hoof in confusion.

“Thank you for your time!” Celia said, grinning. “Come on, girls!”

They stepped into the bazaar. The ponies in tents were shouting out prices in attempts to get others to buy things, and Suzie’s unusual appearance only served to get more offers shouted at her. Forcing them out of her attention, she leaned her head next to Celia. “Mental suggestion already?”

“She was going to scam us, but she knew—her eyes twitched in recognition slightly.” Celia turned to Suzie with a sad smile. “We need to work on trust, remember?”

A small pit formed in Suzie’s stomach. “Right. Sorry.”

“It’s okay to question, just pointing it out. Now I—”

“Hey!” A stallion selling books waved. At Celia, not at Suzie. “You look like just the mare for this book right here!”

Celia raised an eyebrow, trotting over to the stands. “You Can’t Go Home Again—Your Self-Help Guide to Admitting You’ve Changed as a Person,” she read aloud. “Eerily topical, my good friend.”

“Can’t take the credit, your little friend was drawn to it. Fifty bits.”

“Little friend?” Suzie blurted, ramming her hands on the stand. Given her height, she had to stoop down to do this, causing a sharp pain to shoot up her back. “Where i—”

“Calm down, Suzie,” Celia said, patting her on the back. “You understand, she gets so worked up in this job.”

“Oh?” the bookseller said. “What’s that?”

“Surveys. When you bounce all around Vision you get to some truly nasty locales. I’m sure you understand.”

The bookseller’s smile remained but his words didn’t come out quite so quickly next time. “I do.”

“Great. I’ll buy this book.” Celia dropped the bits in front of him, tossing an extra two in for good measure. “And you are going to tell us where our ‘little friend’ went.”

“She was with some pegasus. Went behind my shop. I don’t know where they went after that.”

“Describe the pegasus,” Celia said, flipping the book open and reading the heading.

“Young, voice still changing, yellow, two mantles on his left side. Original mark is a gear.”

“Thank you,” Celia said while Suzie made note that the extra cutie marks were called mantles. They went behind the stand, walking to the back of the bazaar.

Celia stopped at the back-most tent, one selling special enchanted knives. “Excuse me…”

The hooded mare running the knife shop pointed one of the blades to her neck. “Whatever trick you’re about to play on me, don’t. I-”

Celia smacked the knife out of the mare’s hoof, moving at just the right angle for her pointed hooves to draw a slight amount of blood from the knife seller. “No tricks, then.”

“I’ll call Security,” she said, barely any hint of fear.

“You’ll find that my word will beat yours, shiv.”

The mare considered this. “I’m not giving you any knives.”

“A yellow pegasus and a white unicorn moved past here. Both young. Where did they go?”

The mare snorted. “Oh, that’s all? The hatch over there. Good luck finding them in that maze.”

Suzie ran to the hatch and swung it open, finding a massive hallway that had several exits and not a single pony within to ask questions. The pipes running along the ceiling trembled and shook, letting an eerie noise fill the hall as though someone were screaming in the distance.

“Seren?” Suzie asked. “Can you trace… anything?”

“Cinder’s magic has never been very distinct and all these extra marks aren’t making it any simpler,” Seren said. “I’m sorry.”

Celia trotted into the hall, looking for any evidence of Cinder, or even a suggestion of which way to go. Tracing her hooves around the pipes for a moment she let out a sigh. “Nothing here. Just… wet metal.”

“Seren, keep a map of where we explore,” Suzie said. “Don’t want to get lost. Any indication of non-euclidean space?”

“Not nearby,” Seren answered.

“Good… let’s try… door number one.” She turned to the left and found a stairwell deeper into Vision. A pit slowly formed in her stomach. Before Cinder came along, she would have just marched down the stairs without a second thought since there was no way to tell which direction was “right.” Now, she couldn’t help but feel Cinder would have some sort of observation about which direction would be “appropriate” in the situation they were in.

You’re just letting it get to you, Suzie told herself. You’re just concerned for her. Treat this like the normal missions you used to go on. You have your wits and your team, that’s all you need.

“If we can’t find her, we’ll find someone who can help us,” Suzie said, descending the stairs. She had to stoop considerably to keep her head from hitting the overhead.

“I’ll keep my eyes out for someone actually willing,” Celia offered. “I haven’t seen any yet.”

“That’s not normal for ponies…” Seren said.

“No. It most certainly is not.” Celia bit her lip. “Nothing makes you realize how much you depend on the local friendliness until it’s suddenly gone.”

Suzie held her hand close to her pulse cannon, just in case. She’d never know when she might need it. They descended the rest of the way down the stairs until they came to another level of the aquatic city. Here, the colors and riches of the bazaar were completely absent. Instead the dark, dank nature of the bottom of the ocean was on full display. The buildings were made from worn stone wound with rusting, metal pipes that zigged and zagged every which way. The glass ceiling stood dirty, clouded by accumulated mire nopony was cleaning.

Ponies did not walk through the streets with smiles. They held their heads down, refusing to make eye contact with anypony else. In a nearby alley, Suzie saw a bunch of teenagers living in a cardboard box riddled with holes. She wasn’t sure if they were sleeping or not. Everything was weak. The exception to this were the ponies in the local equivalent of a police uniform—they held themselves with arrogance and a steeled glare that dared the ponies to try anything under their watch. The citizens of Vision gave the guards a wide berth, fearful.

Suzie snapped her fingers, pointing at the cardboard box. “Seren, help them.”

Seren scampered over with a huge smile on her face. Suzie didn’t watch—she walked right up to the guards and put her hands on her hips. The stallion in the lead was a dark, bulky specimen, but Suzie was a human and only larger alicorns were eye level with her. Looking down at the guard she sneered. “I take it you’re local law enforcement?”

He got over the shock of talking to something taller than him rather quickly. “Yes, we’re with Security. Who’s asking?”

“Captain Suzie Mash, Mero—”

He snorted, interrupting her. “There ain’t a Captain of your race i—”

“Not one of your captains. We’re visiting.”

“Visiting?” He seemed even less convinced by this. “Vision doesn’t get visitors.”

“Funny, the immigration office did seem a little empty. Guess this place isn’t that lucrative.” She gestured angrily at the ponies living in the cardboard box. Only two of them were responding to Seren’s food and magic. “They were starving.”

“Yeah. So?”

Suzie curled her hand into a fist. “You are law enfor—”

Celia put a hoof on Suzie’s shoulder to steady her. “How about we forget about all that and get some help from these professional Security ponies? I’m Celia, Chalcedony. You are?”

“Lieutenant Drove,” he said, nodding to Celia with a hint of respect.

“Excellent, a Lieutenant! I won’t waste your time longer than necessary. There was a fourth member with us less than an hour ago—teenage unicorn of a similar complexion to my own with bright orange eyes, named Cinder. We believe she was taken somewhere against her will.”

“That’s all you got?” Drove asked.

Celia nodded. “We traced her into the pipes up those stairs… and then lost the trail.”

With a snort, Drove turned his back to them.

“Ex-cuse me!? We’re talking here!” Suzie shouted.

“Your unicorn’s dead, filly. Nothing we can do. We’re done here.”

“You can’t just walk away!”

“We’re on patrol. Can’t stay.”

“Get back here!” Suzie ran after them.

“Filly, get your lanky limbs out of my face, I have a job to do.”

“If you won’t listen to me I’ll find someone who will. Who do you report to?”

“Oh for the…” He put a hoof to his muzzle. “The precinct isn’t far away, you can submit a complaint.”

“I’ll do a lot more than submit a complaint…”

“You can try.”

Celia coughed. “While you do that, Seren and I will do our own research, okay?”

“Yes, fine,” Suzie said, waving a dismissive hand.

“Don’t punch the chief of Security in the face!”

“I’ll be fine,” Suzie growled. “But if he wants to play hard, I’ll play hard back…”

~~~

Just as not all of Vision was a bazaar of fanciful delights and slightly creepy cheerfulness, not all of vision was a hovel with ponies living in cardboard boxes and starving to death.

It was true that most of Vision was like that, however. After twenty minutes of teleporting, exploring, and poking her muzzle where it didn’t belong, Celia decided it wouldn’t be a stretch to classify Vision as a hellhole. It was shockingly easy to find dead ponies just sitting around with nopony who cared enough to tend to them. If they weren't dying, they were raving lunatics, and the more of those “mantle” marks they had the crazier they were.

For instance, the three-legged freak that was currently trying to eat Celia whole. He had dropped down from the ceiling as she walked through a seemingly empty pipeworks hall, his body covered in hoof to snout in so many marks Celia couldn’t count them. He opened his mouth to reveal several rows of jagged, glassy teeth that glowed with an unnatural aura.

Celia flipped her hoof to the side, embedding her pointed limb in the stallion’s skull, shattering the bone with ease and contacting brain matter. Not willing to take any chances, she cast a lancing laser spell from her gemstone, burning a hole between his eyes, down his neck, and through his stomach.

Unnatural black puss hissed out of his wounds as he dropped to the ground, dead in an instant.

“Geez…” Seren said, lowering her staff. “You work fast.”

Celia cleaned the murk off her hoof and checked that she wasn’t infected with any kind of curse from the sludge. “Those ‘mantles’ could have had any number of effects. We don’t understand them well enough to take any chances. He put himself too close to me, and now he’s paid for it.”

Seren poked the body with her scepter. “There has to be some kind of side-effect to these extra talents.”

“Madness appears to be the primary one, though for all we know that’s just the city getting to them. I believe Sweetaloo would say this place is not suitable for psychological development.”

Seren frowned. “Why can people have spectacular works of art and still let children starve in the next street?”

Celia frowned. “We’re broken.” She continued onward without another word, Seren clacking along at her heels.

They came out of the pipeworks into an area of Vision that wasn’t a bazaar, but also didn’t look like ponies were about to drop dead from malnutrition. There was a mild Security presence and a few ponies actually wore smiles on their faces as they walked to and from various storefronts. Somepony must have been paid to clean the place, since the streets were devoid of littered garbage and the windows showed the rest of Vision clearly.

Not for the first time, Celia noted the purple starburst atop the highest tower of Vision. An indication of Twilight Sparkle if ever there was one. Once they found Cinder, there was likely going to be a very interesting conversation at the top of that tower…

Celia hoped this was a tragic story and that Twilight would be willing to help them. She didn’t want to deal with another evil Element of Magic. It was always a pain.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in!” A graceful blue mare said, trotting up to them. “Aren’t you two fine specimens! And you!” She grinned, winking at Seren. “You’re simply the cutest thing!”

“Aww, thanks!” Seren chirped.

“Whatever backwards plan you have to scam us or kidnap Seren, I suggest against it,” Celia deadpanned. “I know the death spell and I will use it if I so much as get an inkling that you’re going to go through with that plan that’s written all over your face.”

The mare froze. After regaining some modicum of awareness, the first thing she did was check Celia for mantles, shocked to find none. Celia had seen this reaction often enough that it wasn't surprising. However, this mare recognized Celia’s false cutie mark. “R-rarity?”

Celia smirked. “What if I was?”

“F-forgive me, I didn’t k—” she started trembling so much that she couldn’t manage more than half-sputtered syllables.

The local Rarity is feared. Interesting. “Ignorance is no excuse. Now, t—” The mare passed out in front of her.

“...I think you overdid it,” Seren said.

“I underestimated the effect Rarity’s image has on this place…” Taking a moment, Celia replaced her false cutie mark with a crystal chalice and reshaped her mane into something more akin to a Fluttershy. She couldn’t do much about her face quickly, unfortunately, so that would just have to stay. It might be good to have an intimidation bonus anyway.

She continued walking through the shop district. Her eyes were peeled for Cinder—but there was no sign of the unicorn, nor anypony who might have any idea where she was. Celia was able to pick out two ponies planning a murder, seven different mares trying to hide mantles under frilly dresses, a stallion trying to look rich despite not having an actual penny to his name, and several children playing a game where the loser was trapped in a cardboard box for fifteen minutes and laughed at.

It’s almost like the ponies have a human nature, rather than an equine one, Celia mused, finding this more comparable to human cities than most pony ones. But even then, this was something worse. Even the pits of human habitation generally weren't like this.

In the distance, she spotted a mantle shop filled with hundreds of colored bottles that no doubt gave the ponies their unique cutie marks. She had every intention of dropping in to investigate, but her ears picked up something much more interesting before she completed the trek.

“...Y’all...”

The sound was scratchy, likely from a speaker of some kind, but there was no doubt about it. That was the voice of an Applejack. Older than standard, to be sure, but unmistakably an Applejack. Taking a hard left, Celia dragged Seren into one Sweet Apple Cafe, a quaint little locale decorated not unlike a restaurant in Equestria might have been with bright tables and a homey, welcoming interior with little bits of hay strewn about. A welcome contrast to the harsh neon that dominated Vision.

There was, in fact, a radio in the cafe, bringing Applejack’s serenading voice to the patrons of the establishment. Which, at the moment, was just the two of them.

“Ah know things are difficult right now, and that this ain’t what we expected when we founded this city. But Ah want y’all to know that we’re still here, workin’ to bring this place back from the murk…”

Celia was very interested to hear what Applejack had to say about Vision. However, her listening was interrupted by a scream. Looking up, she was greeted by the owner of the establishment—an orange pegasus with a sea-green mane, two colors in constant war with each other. Celia’s eyes quickly picked out wings that were just slightly too large to be natural and a physique that was a bit too convenient to come from a pegasus who lived at the bottom of the ocean in an enclosed environment—attractive, yes, but also suspicious. Barely visible on the interior of her back leg there was the common pony-eating-its-tail mantle.

The mare was staring at Celia and Seren like she was looking at a pair of ghosts. Her plot hit the ground and she started mumbling to herself. “It’s finally gone to your head…”

Celia gently approached her, forcing all the hard lines out of her face. “Hey…”

“It’s…”

“I’m Celia. It’s okay.” Gently, Celia lifted up the mare’s head with a hoof, pointed sideways so the sharp edge didn’t scrape. “You?”

“...Swiftwing…” she said, seeming to accept Celia’s existence. Her gaze drifted to Seren, terrified. “What…?”

“I take it you knew the local Sweetie Belle?” Celia asked.

Given Swiftwing’s reaction, Celia assumed she was right, at first.

“Not the local one,” Switfwing said, understanding crossing her features.

Celia’s eyes widened in surprise. She knows. Interesting.

~~~

Far from the oppressive depths of Vision’s ocean, Celestia City drifted through the stars of a different universe. Of its billions of residents, not a single one was starving. Granted, the citizens still had to deal with other problems—culture suffocation, endless development, overabundance of information—but for the most part citizens were happy and life was good, barring the occasional nearly-universe-ending calamity that struck, but not a single one of those had actually doomed the city so at this point people were pretty sure they never would.

On any given day, something exciting was always happening. Often multiple somethings. For Allure, Sweetie of Equis Vitis and Founder of the League of Sweetie Belles, today was something special—even if it wasn’t about her directly.

Squeaky Belle’s Luna—a calm, collected leader who went by the moniker Jingle—was being promoted to the Second of the Aid Division, and Squeaky was throwing her a little party in the League as a celebration.

“Really, you didn’t have to do this,” Jingle said, lifting a cup of sparkling magic juice off a tray Jade was holding. “I’m not doing anything amazing.”

“There are only twelve Divisions, and only twelve Seconds,” Squeaky said, huffing. “You are one of the most influential people in all of Merodi Universalis now! That means we had to do something. Specifically, something Trollestia wasn’t involved in.”

“Thanks for that,” Jingle chuckled. “Still, it all seems to be moving rather fast. It seems like yesterday I was fighting Chrysalis in the war… and now I’m here. Helping people. That’s all I do!” She laughed nervously. “In charge of hundreds of worlds’ resources…”

“You’ll do great,” Allure said, winking. “You’ve always done what’s best for ponies. I’m sure you’ll figure out how to help… well, everyone.”

“Yesss, everyone, a demographic that includes more people than we have resources.” Jingle forced a smile, unable to suppress an eye twitch. “Who gets what and how much and…” She sighed. “I guess that’s why it’s me, huh? You have to care and know how to make the hard decisions.”

“That’s why you’re perfect!” Squeaky squeaked.

“Sometimes I wish Trollestia’s spell worked outside our universe.” Jingle downed another cup. “Would solve a lot of problems if everything just worked out fine all the time..”

“Some would say the Tower does the same thing,” Squeaky pointed out.

“...Except when it doesn’t,” Allure shrugged. Her communicator rang. She didn’t think anything of its impeccable timing. “Hi! What’s so important that you used the emergency number?”

“We found her,” Celia said from the other end.

“...Who?”

“The Sweetie Belle. She passed through here.”

Allure dropped her phone.

Squeaky and Jingle stared at her. “Allure…?” Squeaky asked.

Allure broke out into a grin. “They found her, Squeaky. They… Jade! Cancel everything for today, I’m leaving!”

Jade let out an annoyed bark. “I’m sure the Valgari dignitary won’t be that insulted…”

“This is more important, it’s her! The Sweetie Belle!” She turned to Jingle and gave a quick salute. “Sorry, I’ve got to check this out. Send a message to Zod and Bot, they’ll want to be here for this too. Whenever they get back from… whatever it is they’re doing. Squeaky?”

“I’ll join you later,” Squeaky said. “I’m still Jingle’s General.”

Jingle groaned at the alliteration.

“Have fun! I know I will!” Allure ran off, clicking her hooves together.

The long search would be over! She couldn’t want to get to the universe and see what it was like!

~~~

Cinder woke up strapped to a medical bed. Realizing she was restrained, she let out a sigh. She didn’t know what she was expecting.

Carefully, she opened her eyes.

Right in front of her was a rolling table filled with various needles, knives, bone saws, and unusually shaped scalpels. About half of them were cleaned so well they sparkled like precious gems while the other half were rusted and covered in blunt edges.

Her heart went into overdrive, shocking her entire body awake. She let out a loud gasp, sucking in the sea-salty air all around, piercing her lungs with sharp cold and triggering a coughing fit.

“Oh, look who’s awake…”

Cinder decided she hated the shrill, arrogant voice more than anything she’d ever known.

Author's Notes:

Siren Song is a very dark, rather depressing fic that I nonetheless consider an absolute work of art. I cannot say I enjoyed my time in the dark dredges of Vision, but I can say I learned something about the nature of morality and inner self.

This chapter comes to you with a lot of help both from GaPJaxie and Wanderer D, and so do the four chapters that come after it. We're going to be spending some time in this dark, damp city, and nothing will be the same when we get out.

((LSB Status Post.)) Come suggest and upvote fics, would you kindly?

Distant Shores (Siren Song, Part 2)

Cinder forced her eyes to focus on the stallion standing over her. He wasn’t the ice-mark wearing brute who had taken her down. He was a thin, gray pegasus with no extra marks anywhere on his body. A massive pair of glasses with multiple adjustable lenses dominated his face, keeping Cinder from following his gaze.

His teeth were wrong. All of them were perfectly rounded, but all angled incorrectly. Never before had she seen a mouth that was both so organized and chaotic. It was as if somepony had meticulously arranged everything and then threw it into a whirlpool.

“I hear you have quite the fiery spirit…”

Cinder glared at him. Oh, you bet I do. She lit her horn, throwing a fireball right at him.

It vanished the moment it left the bed.

“Fascinating… mastery of fireball without the mantle. You must have worked hard to learn such an effective spell!”

“Natural talent,” Cinder grunted. “What do you have here, a magic barrier or something?”

“Precisely! My my, you have a brain in there somewhere and quite the countenance! Not even trembling or screaming for help!” He grinned, an action that his mouth was not prepared to deal with. Drool began to drip from his loose lips. “There’s nothing you can do, little one. None of your spells can reach me, and you will be asleep again before I perform my… heheh… operation. It’s easier when you don’t squirm.”

“I’m probably more useful to you alive,” Cinder said. “You know, mysterious filly that knows magic, had a strange device on the back of her neck; maybe she’d be able to tell you some cool things. Like how that device worked. Where to find others like it.”

“Oh, psh, you won’t die until we’ve gotten every last little thing out of you.” He began to circle her, taking a long knife off the tray with a wing. “That horn of yours first, I think. It tends to get annoying when we try to play with you.”

Cinder’s ears folded back. She realized that she was in a very unflattering and compromising position with all four of her legs pinned down and her stomach up.

“And after we’ve had our fun there’s still other things… that cutie mark of yours. Powerful. One of the most magically infused I’ve seen. Though, of course, it would have to be, seeing as it relates to finding destiny itself, does it not?”

“Why don’t you go ask your Sweetie Belle?” Cinder spat, having regained some of her fire.

“She’s unfortunately dead. Tragedy. But you… think of the mantle we could distill from you. Something truly unique, a tonic of destiny incarnate… you might even get to have some of it yourself!” He laughed. “Assuming you really are interesting enough to keep alive…”

“Something tells me I wouldn’t be too thrilled at that point,” Cinder deadpanned. “Let’s see, what else can you take… eyes? Hooves? Maybe an ear or two? Please, you’re falling right into the mad evil scientist niche. Basic.” Don’t let him know you’re afraid. Don’t stutter. Your heart may feel like it’s about to explode through your chest, but keep it together.

“...Maybe I can remove the horn with you awake…” he growled.

And give me a chance to jump you.

“Don’t you go anywhere, looks like we’ll need the extra long bone saw today!”

He trotted out of the room.

“Not the result I was expecting, but I’ll take it,” Cinder said. She examined the room. Beyond her bed and the tray of sharp implements, the space was rather bare. The walls were completely devoid of decoration and the only other piece of furniture was an office chair with rotting padding. A few boxes filled with medical supplies sat in a damp corner, and behind her there was a sink she could barely make out in her peripheral vision. It dripped, the rhythmic noise driving into her ears a sense of urgency her heart hadn’t managed to push into her mind yet.

There was a magic field around her, somehow, that prevented her from interacting with anything outside the bed. That was fine. She had all she needed right here. Lighting her horn, she reached into her mane with her telekinesis and pulled out a sheet of paper.

This sheet of paper hadn’t existed a moment ago, but it did now. A little bit of otherworldly reality warping was going to be her savior. I really am going to have to thank Woona again. It’s amazing how useful this is.

She folded the paper quickly in her magic, turning it into an origami sword. She swung it at her restraints, annoyed to find that they were metal and resistant to being cut by an improbable blade. However, they did have key holes in them…

This gave her an idea. A silly, ridiculous idea. But those were the best ideas when using this improbable papercraft. She unfolded the sword and re-folded it into a cartoonish key. With a smirk, she stuck it into a keyhole and turned.

Click.

With a chuckle, Cinder lifted her front hoof out of the restraint and drove the paper key into another hole, releasing a second leg. A third. A fourth. Soon she was standing free on the bed, tail tucked between her legs.

Folding the paper back into the shape of a sword, she waved it in front of her. Nothing happened to it as it crossed the barrier that had dissipated her fireball. Carefully, she stuck the sword over to the cart containing all the blades, sliding it closer to the bed. When she was sure it was within the invisible barrier, she picked up the largest of the sharp knives in her hoof.

Now, she was ready. Ready to try something a little stupid, but it was preferable to standing on this bed waiting for that “doctor” to come back. Carefully, she inched forward, poking the air in front of her with her horn.

There it was. A slight tingle. The magic barrier. Poking further, she felt her horn go numb… but nothing else seemed to happen. Pulling back, the feeling in her horn returned.

Here goes…

She jumped through the barrier. For a second, her horn was useless. This didn’t stop her from landing square on her hooves, knife poised to take on whoever was stupid enough to jump her.

Nopony did. The feeling returned to her horn. Her paper sword was still with her.

She could take on the world.

With a smirk, she trotted to the exit. The door led to a long, poorly-lit hallway with some standing water around the corners.

About three doors down was the psychotic doctor, running directly at her with a massive saw longer than he was tall. Upon seeing that she was free he let out an inequine screech that sent a frigid shiver through Cinder’s body. He would reach her in a few seconds.

“Take this!” Cinder shouted, unleashing a wave of fire from her horn.

This time there was no ice-cube stallion or magic barrier in the way. The tongues of raging heat engulfed the mad pegasus, burning into his mane easily. His screeching stopped and he fell to the ground, tripping head over hooves as the fire surrounded his body.

Cinder instinctually moved to dispel the fire—after all, at this point the enemy was usually subdued and there was no point in burning them further.

Not today. Something in the pegasus drove him to scream through the fire and swing the bone saw at Cinder, even though he was far too distant to actually do anything to her. Cinder took a few steps back as the burning stallion crawled toward her, pushing through the burning flesh for just a chance at cutting her in half.

Even as his hairs reduced to nothing and his skin began to blacken, he didn’t stop his approach. The madness didn’t leave him until his eyes had boiled, filling the noxious scent of burning flesh with an entirely new flavor of rot.

He stopped when he was dead. Not a moment sooner.

Cinder dispelled the fire, her heart beating faster than it had ever before. She felt light-headed, trying in vain to get more air into her lungs.

I didn’t have a choice. He didn’t…

She noticed her mouth was watering. That didn’t make sense. She hated meat, every time she saw it she… she…

“Oh… Celestia…” She stumbled in a random direction. I knew this was going to happen. It had to. I mean, fire, what are the chances, right? Fire…

I’m not even an adult yet and I’ve killed a pony.

I…

I’m sorry, Squiddy. I’ve failed.

She laughed bitterly, a heave that quickly turned into a sob. She dropped her paper sword and knife and fell to the ground, unable to stop the tears.

More than anything, she needed this moment to herself. To work it out.

She wouldn't get it.

“You killed my brother.”

Something in Cinder clicked, activating her survival instincts. Still crying a river, she picked up both her weapons and blasted a wave of fire behind her.

The large maroon unicorn covered in different marks—”mantles?”—lit his horn, dissipating the fireball with an anti-magic spell.

Cinder didn’t need her intuition to know he wanted to do terrible things to her. And then kill her.

Swinging the paper sword, she cut a gash across his shoulder, coating the paper blade in blood. Seeing the stain, her already strained spirit tied itself into another knot. This is not what this power is meant for.

The unicorn tore the paper sword in half with his magic. Cinder roared, rushing forward with the knife.

Her telekinesis was overpowered. The blade transferred to his control and shot back to her.

It plunged into her left flank, in the center of her cutie mark. For a moment, there was silence.

Then a scream. She didn’t realize it was her scream, at first. All she felt was her mind on fire, unable to process the extent of what had just happened. Her emotional breakdown had robbed her of most of her processing power, leaving only a shell to think enough to survive. This failed her. There was only red, pain, and the scream.

Her eyes cleared first. Everything was red. She saw her own blood. On her back, she looked up at the stallion towering over her.

No. Please, no.

Darling… now is not the time.

No…

Don’t worry. Your prayer is answered another way.

The wall exploded. Light.

Voices.

Blood on Cinder’s face. Not hers.

“...ere’s a filly here!”

Cinder had never closed her eyes. But she hadn’t been looking through them. She wasn’t really now, but her brain was recording images again. She wouldn’t react to them until much later.

Much later.

“It’s going to be okay, darling.”

That’s not right. That’s not her…

Cinder lost all awareness.

~~~

“She’s long dead,” the mustached Security Commander told Suzie.

“How can you know that!?” she shouted, ramming her fist into the desk, knocking over a decorative hourglass.

“Look, monkey, it’s a tale as old as time. Filly goes missing. Never shows up again. We all know what happens to them, some underground racket tears them apart and sell their organs on the market. Sometimes they develop a new mantle that everypony’s using a year from now. It’s illegal, we stop what we can, but there’s too many for us to deal with. She’s dead, gone, kaput. Unless you want to buy her horn off the black market and try some black magic there’s nothing for you, and I am not helping with that last part!”

“How do you expect to run a secu—”

“If you don’t get out of my office right now, you’ll hang.”

Suzie frowned. “...Nice justice system you have in this city.” She got up out of her chair quickly enough to snap its legs and stormed out of the precinct.

She was entertaining the idea of pulling her pulse cannon out and blowing the clearly corrupt commander’s head off, but all thoughts of doing this discreetly vanished when she realized there was a small crowd outside. Instead of keeping their heads low, they were… giddy? Excited?

There was a flash of soft green energy—Swip completing a teleport. None other than Allure Belle appeared, looking at her freshly-acquired Vision paperwork. “Well, that was a fun dimensional intercept!” Allure folded the papers and looked up to Suzie. “What’s going on here?”

“I have no idea,” Suzie admitted, looking at the crowd. “This is odd.”

“Looks like a celebration, or something.”

“When ponies are starving in the streets I doubt they would congregate to celebrate like… this. Something’s up.”

“Ah.” Allure rubbed her artificial horn. “So… Sweetie Belle?”

“What?”

“Chronicle?”

“...What?”

“...Celia called me and said she had found her trail?”

“Oh.” Suzie looked at the ground, frowning. “We split up. I’ve been shouting at cops for the last half-hour looking for Cinder. We think she’s been kidnapped.”

“A clever way to split the party…” Allure mused. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s fine, some random underwater city won’t be her downfall.”

“She’s alone and probably terrified, though. This is a dark place. She can’t deal with it alone!”

Allure sighed. “You remember the Collector?”

“We had each other. We always had each other. She doesn’t have anything. And this stupid city is trying to tell me to just give up without a fight.” With a growl, she pressed her hands together. “I’ll show them.”

“Okay, seems like you’re going off the deep end a little,” Allure said. “Why don’t we dial this back a little and meet up with Celia, see what she’s found. I’m sure we’ll find h—”

A mare dropped from the level above. The rope around her neck tightened with such alarming force that it tore into her flesh, all but fully decapitating her with a disgusting crack mixed with a squelch. The mud caked to her fur sent a waft of noxious fumes to Suzie and Allure.

And the crowd cheered.

A member of Security walked up, cut the mare’s body down, and decided to finish the job and completely remove her head with a quick slice of his blade.

“Public… spectacle… execution…” Suzie breathed.

“Okay, we need to get you out of here,” Allure declared, pulling out her communicator. “Swip, teleport us to Celia.”

Suzie let out a short prayer of thanks for Allure’s presence.

She didn’t want to know what she would have done had she been there alone.

~~~

The first thing Allure did when the teleport completed was check Suzie. Easily picking out the harsh frown lines, narrowed eyes, and balled fists, Allure decided that ‘mad’ didn’t even begin to describe how fed up Suzie was with this trash heap of a city. Allure herself hadn’t been here long enough to form a solid opinion on the place, but the public execution sure had her firmly in the “unsettled” category, though she wasn’t quite at “blow the place to smithereens” yet.

She’d need to have a long talk with Suzie at some point. But first…

There was a reason she was here. The Sweetie Belle.

Allure focused her attention on a table that seated three people; Celia, Seren, and the gorgeous mare who had to be Swiftwing. Her eyes were wide, fixated directly on Allure’s own. “You look just like my ex-wife…”

Allure tripped over her front hooves, falling unceremoniously onto the floor and kicking up some hay dust in the process. “Wait what?”

“Exactly the same. A little older… and she didn’t have the silver horn.” Swiftwing’s frown deepened. “...And your fur is real.”

“I…” Allure stood up, suddenly wishing she’d asked Celia for more details before walking into this conversation. Carefully, she sat down in the chair opposite Swiftwing. “I’m Allure, of the League of Sweetie Belles.”

“She mentioned you,” Swiftwing said, face level. “You took the name so she wouldn’t have to. She’s part of your little League and everything.” Glancing from Celia to Suzie to Seren, Swiftwing smiled softly. “Looks like you’ve expanded a bit.”

“There are thousands of us now,” Allure said, leaning in. “...Swiftwing, we’ve been looking for her for… a long, long time.”

“Made her a legend, apparently, since even these two who never met her know exactly who she is.” Swiftwing paused, looking down at the table. “I bet this feels like some kind of legend to you.”

“It… it kinda is,” Allure said, letting out a soft giggle. “We finally have a trail. Clearly… she’s not here now, but if we can find her…”

“She’s dead,” Swiftwing said matter-of-factly.

Allure stared at her in disbelief. “That’s… impossible.”

“No. It’s not.” Swiftwing breathed. “She died here.”

“We would be able to detect if that were the case. The shards of Twilight, if they were still here…”

“How?” Suzie asked, speaking for the first time. “How did she die?”

“She killed herself,” Swiftwing said.

“That-t’s not… her,” Allure stammered. “She wouldn’t…” Her thoughts started swimming, words failing her. The Sweetie Belle was strong, adventurous, and heroic. She was better than this. She wouldn’t kill herself over… anything. Her story was too great, too… big. Even the Collector had said so. Twilence had said so.

Twilence...

“Twilence…” Allure broke the silence. “Twilence! I talked to her last month, she assured me she was still alive. Hurting… but alive.”

“What would this Twilence know?” Swiftwing asked, her eyes narrowing with the rise of her restrained anger. “She wasn't here!”

“She knows of all things written. If she said she was alive a month ago, she was a month ago. You didn’t see her body, did you?”

Swiftwing paled. “No…”

“Then she must have just been forced to move to the next world, or something. Probably misses you dearly and wishes she c-”

“You cheated on me!” Swiftwing shouted, slamming her hooves on the table.

Allure dropped her comforting tone. “I’m not her, and she would never d—”

“She did,” Celia said. “Swiftwing hasn’t lied to us, Allure. Sweetie Belle did cheat on her. They were divorced. Swiftwing believes Sweetie Belle took her own life afterward.”

“She would never…”

“That’s what everyone says about the paragons.” Celia sighed. “Everypony messes up. She just messed up massively here. And possibly faked her own death.”

Allure turned her attention to Celia. “You don’t know her!”

“Neither do you!” Celia spat. “You only knew her for a day and that was a few decades ago by your time! Your perceptions are clouded, twisted by memory, and Diamonds know what else! You changed in that time. She got married and lived in this hellhole. What do you think that does to a person?”

Forcing herself to calm down, Allure sat back in the chair. “You… you’re…” You’re right.

“This city…” Suzie turned her back to them and looked out the windows of the Sweet Apple Cafe at the damp world outside filled with bright towers and starving ponies.

Allure put a hoof to her head and closed her eyes. She’s not who you thought she was. ...But surely there must be some explanation. Some reason.

Turning back to Swiftwing, Allure folded her ears back. “Can you… tell us what happened?”

~~~

Cinder woke up in an unfamiliar bed.

I feel like I’m reliving someone else’s nightmare.

Unlike the last time, this bed wasn’t a hard medical one. Today, she slept on an overly fluffy mattress surrounded by far too many pillows for any sane pony. Not that she was complaining—it was nice to have something proper to wake up in.

Opening her eyes, the first thing that came to her was a bright light. Squinting her eyes, she was able to make out the shape of a fluorescent light, like the ones found in a lot of hospitals. Moving her head slightly, she took in a small desk, a potted plant, and a white pony sitting nearby, reading a book.

It was a Rarity. Not Xenium—this Rarity’s countenance was far from Cinder’s sister—but unmistakably a Rarity nonetheless. She wore a calm smile as her eyes scanned the page. Serene in her simple white smock.

There was nothing unusual about the image.

But Cinder’s mind was screaming. This is wrong. Watch out. Danger. Everything in her intuition told her not to trust this Rarity, no matter what she said or did.

Upon realizing this, she also remembered how her intuition had been overridden when she’d first arrived in Vision. It had been screaming at her, but she’d been unable to listen. Like it was too far away…

She’d be listening now. She couldn’t take any chances.

The bed is soft. Too soft.

Rarity caught Cinder looking at her with a calm, understanding smile. Cinder couldn’t help but flinch from the chill that went down her spine.

“Oh, you poor dear…” Rarity gently folded up her book—The New Elegance—and stood up. “You took quite the beating.”

“Y-yeah,” Cinder said, shivering.

“I’m glad we got to you in time. Even with our magic…”

“Blood loss, I know,” Cinder said, taking a breath. “Is it bad?”

“Currently, your injured leg shouldn’t be moving around, but it will make a full recovery soon. The scarring…”

Scarring? Cinder, weak as she was, still had control over her telekinesis. She pulled the blanket off herself and looked down at her flank. All the blood had been washed away, and there wasn’t even a cast—all of it had been repaired through spells. However, right across her cutie mark, there was a massive gash that tore off most of the pattern, completely removing the star and music note.

The Merodi have spells for this, she told herself. They can fix this. They will give me my destiny back.

“Your talent still works. They didn’t take it,” Rarity said, levitating the blanket back over Cinder.

“They tried,” Cinder breathed. “They tried other things too…”

“They are the brutes of this city,” Rarity admitted. “We do what we can… but we’re just the Medical Pavilion, it’s hard to say what we can and can’t interfere in.”

I know the feeling.

“I’m Rarity. I have a feeling you already know that…”

Cinder decided trying to hide who she was from a Rarity was probably a stupid idea doomed to failure. “I’m Cinder ‘Sweetie’ Belle.”

Rarity nodded, not at all surprised by this. “We seem to have a habit of attracting Sweeties…”

“I’m not the first?”

“No, another passed through several years ago. But she’s gone now.”

“Ah…”

“What brings you to Vision, if you don’t mind my asking?”

I very much don’t want to tell you anything with all the alarm bells going off in my head. How can I put this… She’s too observant for a lie. “I came here with my friends—other Sweeties. We’re a little League of Sweeties who explore the multiverse and just… happened to drop in.” Don’t mention Merodi Universalis. We’re just a small group. Nothing fancy. No other operations you need to worry about. “It was next on the random list. We’ll probably move to another universe as soon a—”

Rarity interrupted her. “I quite understand, dear, that you don’t trust me.”

That didn't take long.

“Why would you? Your arrival in this city has been awful. And I understand you have your secrets. But if I’m being entirely candid, I don’t care. My sister died years ago, and while you aren’t her…” Rarity had to pause, breathing in a haggard breath. “It is good to see you. And…” She lowered her head. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Cinder stared at her, baffled.

Her intuition told her not to trust this mare.

It did not tell Cinder if Rarity was being genuine or not. For all Cinder knew, she was.

“Ex… excuse me,” Rarity said, suddenly. “The nurses will attend to your needs.” She quicky strode out of the room before Cinder could say anything.

If nothing else, she’s clearly upset.

With a sigh, Cinder rolled over in the bed. Despite her healed leg, pain shot through it the moment she tried to use it, making her wince as she completed the turn. She wasn't walking on that anytime soon.

To her surprise, the other side of the room contained a bed just like her own. One occupied by a bright yellow mare with soft, purple eyes.

“...How much of that did you hear?” Cinder asked.

“I tried not to listen, but…” the yellow mare tapped her hooves together nervously. “Probably more than either of you would have liked…”

Cinder sighed. “It’s fine. I’m Cinder.”

“I’m Sunshine! ...See, because the sun doesn't shine down here, and my special talent is daydreaming.”

“You’ve never seen the sun?”

“Nope! Nopony born in Vision has.”

“Nopony leaves?”

“We… wouldn’t exactly be welcome in Equestria.”

Cinder frowned. “I don’t know about your Equestria, but I’ve been to several that woul—”

“Multiple Equestrias!?”

“Well, yeah! I’m an interdimensional traveler! Or did you miss the part about me being Sweetie Belle and the other universes?”

“I didn’t know what any of that meant!”

“Well, I could explain it, since my ‘cover’ is ‘blown’.”

Sunshine giggled. “I’d love to hear about Equestria. Equestrias. Or whatever.”

“Oh boy, am I going to give you some daydreaming fuel… First off, here’s what the sun looks like.” Cinder created a controlled fireball in the air that looked remarkably like a miniature sun.

“Woah…”

“I got more where that came from. See, I’m part of the League of Sweetie Belles…”

And for a moment, Cinder was able to forget all about her kidnapping, recent trauma, and the mysterious Rarity.

~~~

“There’s really not much to tell,” Swiftwing said, her anger momentarially replaced with sorrowful nostalgia. “She arrived out of the blue one day. Didn’t get a nice welcome, but who does in Vision? Security eventually decided she wasn’t a threat and set her on her way while she looked for that shard of her Twilight. She found me long before she found the shard, and by the time she did find it... she didn’t want to leave. Or that’s what she told herself.”

Jane told her to find someone… Allure thought. Did she take that to heart?

“Even though she knew she couldn’t stay forever…” Swiftwing’s expression clouded again. “She knew it had to end that way but she did it anyway. She…” She looked over all the Sweeties. “Don’t get married.”

Allure could hear Suzie tense.

“I know you’re sweet, really you all are, but you’ll knock a mare up, cheat on her, and then go die on me. Or pretend to.”

“We didn’t do that to you!” Suzie shouted.

“You still could.”

“I’ve been happily married to my husband for over a decade and have a well-off daughter. Her name is Railgun. Our relationship is strong and I would neve—”

“Everypony says that, dear. Everypony.”

“How would you even know!?”

“We had a daughter,” Swiftwing deadpanned. “Her name is Distant Shores. She’s still here.”

“Sweetie left a daughter!?” Allure shouted.

“Yes. What did you expect?”

“I… I…” Allure’s face went through several expressions before settling on confused.

“You had a—”

Celia shut Suzie’s mouth. “Let’s put aside the implied ethically-dubious genetic engineering required to make such a child and focus on the fact that she exists for a moment. Distant Shores. Another connection to The Sweetie Belle.”

“You really do want to find her…” Swiftwing shook her head. “She’s got you just like she got me. Fanciful tales of other worlds and a strong spirit…”

“She didn’t get us,” Allure asserted. “She showed us who she was.”

“You would like yourself, wouldn’t you?”

“...Just tell us how it ended.”

Swiftwing nodded. “Distant Shores was growing up when it happened. She started getting all those mantles—so many that it started rotting her brain. That’s what they do, in case you haven’t figured it out.”

“I had my suspicions,” Celia admitted.

“She went crazy. I’m not sure exactly what went through her head, and I really don’t want to think about it, but she found this cocky lieutenant who was a bit more adventurous. Tore the entire family apart. Killed herself.” Swiftwing looked at the ground. “And if she didn’t…”

“She didn’t,” Allure said. “There’s no way the Tower would let her. Not like this.”

“You’re trying to convince yourself, now.”

“Yes. Yes I am.” Allure stood up. “Where’s Distant Shores?”

“Three levels down, probably working on a maintenance tube. She won’t be happy to see you.”

“She’s the only lead we have at this point, unless you know where…”

“No, I don’t know where it happened.”

“Then… I guess we’re done here.”

“Good. Get out of my cafe.”

Allure nodded, getting out of the chair. She stopped before she made it to the door. “...We can get you out of this city. Take you away from all… this.”

Swiftwing shook her head. “I’ve done enough listening to Sweetie Belle to last me a lifetime. I didn’t need this. I definitely don’t need more.”

“Right…”

The four Sweeties left the establishment, standing once more in the streets of Vision.

“To Distant Shores it is, then,” Allure said. “To fin—”

“You go,” Suzie interrupted, looking up at the starburst tower at the top of Vision. “I need to find out who’s in charge of this city, show them a piece of my mind… and then find Cinder.”

Allure frowned. “You can’t do that alone.”

“I’ll go,” Celia said. “You don’t need me to work with Distant Shores anyway. You do need Seren—she’ll perform the dimensional trace.”

“Oh, I get to do something?” Seren looked up with a soft smile. “I… was kinda worried we were just going to listen to a mare talk about how bad marriage and family are for a while.”

“She’s suffered, don’t listen to her.” Allure tapped her hoof. “Raising Minna has been the single greatest experience of my life, and I’m sure Suzie will back me up.”

“Relationships are amazing things, even when they don’t literally provide your power,” Celia added. “What we have here is just… some ponies getting it wrong.”

“But if The Sweetie can get it wrong… what about us?” Seren asked.

Allure smiled sadly. “...I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

I am Allure. I took her name. In slightly different circumstances, I might have been her… Could still be her.

Lifting Seren onto her back, Allure descended deeper into Vision, leaving Suzie and Celia behind.

~~~

Cinder liked being in a wheelchair. Cinder didn’t like being in a wheelchair. It reminded her that she was currently weak. But it also allowed her to roll down the halls of the Medical Pavilion at high speed with nothing but her magic.

“Race you to the other side!” Sunshine called from her wheelchair, hooves on the wheels.

“You’re on!”

Sunshine had already put her hooves to the wheels, speeding off down the Pavillion’s pristine-white tile floor. Cinder, not about to be outdone by a pony who looked like a banana, pushed her magic into the wheels and sped forward like a racer. They passed by dozens of doctors at high speed, spilling a few stacks of paperwork over on their track.

“Sorry!” Cinder called back after she made a young nurse trip and spill a bunch of towels onto the ground. Sure that the mare was little more than annoyed, she focused her energy back on the race.

The two of them skidded around a corner, laughing as they surprised another set of doctors. Now that they were in a larger hall, the bizarre nature of the Pavillion was on full display. Yes, the Pavillion was a hospital, but it was also run by a Rarity so it was naturally filled with drop-dead gorgeous art, most of which was made by Rarity herself in one way or another. Triumphant crystal ponies lined a few walls, telling stories of ponies who managed to, despite the odds, triumph in Vision. As they raced, they passed by one of Cinder’s favorites, the Eternal Beggar. A stallion with so much charisma that he could get piles of gold donated to him… that he gave away the instant he received them.

Why do I feel so sad whenever I look at him? Or any of the statues, for that matter?

Having been momentarily distracted by the statue, Cinder failed to take the turn correctly, allowing Sunshine to pull ahead of her and win the race. “Hah! Gotcha!”

“You’ve been in that thing a lot longer than I have!” Cinder huffed.

“Well you have the magic,” Sunshine said with an eye roll. “So, I say we’re even.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Cinder giggled. Her joy tapered off as she found herself looking out the window. The Pavillion courtyard was a beautiful sight to behold, with all its perfectly trimmed hedges and beautiful fountains. However, beyond it she could see the rest of Vision, glowing in a neon murk.

Her friends were out there.

“What is it?” Sunshine asked.

“I’m just sitting here, playing with you, when I really should be out there doing things…” Cinder glanced at the blemish across her cutie mark, frowning. “But I can’t do that right now. So I’m just… sitting. In this Pavillion.”

“You sure you can’t do anything?”

“I have no idea where they are and they have no idea where I am.” Cinder pressed her hoof to the window. “I’m just… waiting.”

“I don’t know… seems like you could ask Rarity to look for them, at least.”

“I… don’t exactly trust her.”

Sunshine smirked. “Well, she is a politician, so that’s reasonable. But she likes you! You could probably ask her for just about anything and she’d give it to you.”

“...She hasn’t spoken to me since I woke up. I think she’s avoiding me.” Is she doing it intentionally? Trying to get me to make the first move? Is that malicious?

“Just go talk to her. She’s not going to kick you out of the hospital because you’re asking for help.”

“Right…” I will have to talk with her at some point, anyway. Doesn’t matter if it’s what she wants or not. “Where would she be?”

“I think we just passed her, looking at the Beggar.”

Turning, Cinder poked her head back around the corner. Sure enough, Rarity was there, examining her handiwork in the statue. It was so lifelike. Too lifelike.

Carefully, Cinder rolled up to her. Stay on guard. Watch her words. Catch anything suspicious. “Rarity?”

Rarity turned slowly from her masterpiece, fixing Cinder with a gentle smile. “Feeling better, I take it?”

“Don’t need four legs to race wheelchairs. The nurses say I should be out after another treatment or two.”

“That’s good to hear. Where will you go?”

“I’ll try to find my friends, the other Sweeties. ...Which is kind of why I’m here. See, they’re going to be really worried. I was wondering if you could do something to find them? Let them know where I am?”

Rarity nodded, her smile widening at the proposition. “I’d be happy to help you look for them! Give a description and I’ll pass it on to City Central Security. Or… do they all just look like you?”

Cinder couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Perhaps that was a foolish question.”

“No, no, they’re not identical. Celia looks more like you than me, Suzie’s a creature known as a human, and Seren’s a human-pony combination. Suzie and Seren are easy to pick out in a crowd—two arms, two legs, hair like my mane.”

“Their journeys in this city might be some of the most unique I’ll ever see. I can’t wait to meet them!”

I have a really, really bad feeling about that.

“Do you think they’ll appreciate what I do here?”

“Doctoring or art?”

“Both!” Rarity tossed her mane back into the light at the perfect angle, sending glistening reflections into Cinder’s eyes. “Ponies are beautiful… and when they are broken, putting them back together makes them more beautiful than they had ever been before.” She gestured at the Beggar. “This stallion came here broke, beaten, and battered because he made many enemies with his habit of taking money with words. This Pavillion restored not only his health, but turned him into a better pony. He was developed from a miser… to a giver. The day he threw all his coins into the courtyard outside was a sight to behold.”

Cinder forced a smile. “At least there are some good souls in Vision. I bet the ponies are happy he exists.”

Rarity didn’t take her eyes off the statue. “I like to think they are.”

That’s not quite right. “Huh?”

“Of course, who am I to know the average pony? I’m far too obsessed with working things to their best possible state. So many don’t appreciate what I do here…” She let out a sigh. “You’ve been in the city. You’ve seen the suffering they subject themselves to.”

“There’s no way they choose that.”

“It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? But… it is what it is. Vision was founded on the ideals of letting ponykind choose the way they wanted to live without a Princess over them. This…” she let out a sigh of… regret? “Well let’s just say this isn’t exactly what we had in mind. Out there, you really have to look hard to find the beauty inherent in ponykind. At least here, I bring it out for all to see.”

Cinder looked up to the Beggar again, furrowing her brow. “Surely you could do something… more, about it?”

“I’m just a doctor, darling. I do what I can through my work.”

There’s something else to this. Something you’re leaving out. Something… I don’t know, but I know I don’t like it. Deciding she didn’t want to push the issue, Cinder decided to wrap up. “I guess you’d know better than me. Thanks for helping me find my friends.”

“Oh! I still need a full, proper description to give to Security!”

Cinder blinked. Oh yeah. I didn’t do that… That’s not right… “Celia has your body shape, but is significantly taller... “

~~~

“Wow, that’s a pretty good pipe seal Distant!”

Distant Shores slung her wrench over her shoulder and grinned. “It’s nothing, boss.” She was a small, white unicorn with bouncy sea-green curls that covered one of her eyes.

“Nothing?” Pinkie Pie gasped. “This isn’t nothing! This is a perfect fix with less materials than average! If every mechanic were like you we’d have Vision operating like new in a week!” She let out a laugh. “You can be the guest of honor at next week’s party!”

“Oh. Thanks!”

“You betcha!” Pinkie giggled, giving her a salute before bouncing off down the dark tunnels. The steam from the degrading machinery quickly hid her from Distant’s view.

The moment she was sure Pinkie wasn't watching, Distant replaced her expression with a deep-seated scowl. Why did that stupid mare have to be so insistent on everything being happy all the time? Distant did her job, she got paid, that was all that mattered. There wasn’t any need for parties, festivities, and definitely no need for a laugh that sounded faker than the illusion that Vision was a brilliant paragon of justice and freedom.

But Pinkie liked her mechanics to be happy. Or at least able to fake it enough that she didn’t have any “obligation” as the “Element of Laughter” to get personally invested in their situation. “Smile or ELSE.”

Distant just wanted to fix the pipes, go home, and live until she died. That’s all Distant wanted. That could be attained, anyway. Glancing at her flank, she growled. Three interlocking white circles. A cutie mark in dimensional theory. Useless in a city nopony ever left.

Except one.

And Distant refused to think about her.

Unfortunately for Distant Shores, reality had other plans for her thought process, seeing as a white unicorn with pastel purple-pink curls was walking down the shaft, eyes locked on her.

Distant took one look at the unicorn and snapped. “You don’t get to come back!” She threw her wrench as hard as she could. Something invisible shot out of the mare and deflected it.

“I’m no-”

“Get your addicted plot out of my sight, trai-”

“I’m not her!” The unicorn stamped her hooves. “I am Allure.”

The name made Distant Shores dredge up memories of her mother she wanted nothing to do with. They reared their ugly heads anyway, driving pain into her heart. “Oh, so you get to make the same mistakes she did!? High and mighty Interdimensional Sweeties, running through worlds, leaving a trail of ash in their wake! You ever stop to think about the damage your little jaunts do to the ponies you encounter?”

“All the time,” Allure breathed. “For instance, that’s why I’m here. I made a promise to your mother that I’d find her, and find her I will.”

“Like you’ll stick to that.”

“I’ve stuck to it for years. One of the primary missions of the entire League is to find her and get her out of her curse.”

Distant let out a bitter laugh. “Funny. She inspires so much loyalty in everypony… and she can’t return the favor.”

“She’s a hero!”

“She marked herself until her brain was pudding and there was nothing to do but start over!” She stamped her hoof. “That is not something a ‘hero’ would do!”

“Heroes make just as many mistakes as the rest of us!”

“I bet you’d know h-”

“STOP IT!” Seren shouted, slamming her scepter into the ground between them. “Shouting doesn’t solve anything!”

Distant looked Seren up and down, unsure what to make of the… child? The child she was looking at. Clearly a Sweetie… but clearly young. Much younger than her, if she was judging correctly.

“We’re going to find her,” Seren continued. “We’re going to fix this city. Because that’s what we do.”

Distant stared at her. “You can’t just waltz in and ‘fix’ this hellhole.”

“Watch us,” Seren said with a wink. “Suzie and Celia are going to your leaders right now. They likely won’t have any choice but to cooperate.”

“We aren’t cursed to leave and never come back,” Allure continued. “We found this world. It’s our job to tell our ponies how to help it.”

“You really think you can make a difference?” Distant shook her head. “Idiots.”

“Probably,” Allure admitted. “But at least we’re going to try. Keep our promises. Face the evil.”

Distant shook her head. “You’re still… her. You’re going to try. The city will bite you back and beat the shit out of you until you submit and let it drain everything else away. Then you die. Or, if you’re her, you reset everything and then run off with your tail between your legs, being cruel to everypony you ever knew. Leaving your family out of the loop and forcing your daughter to extort information from ponies to learn anything about you! And let’s not get started on what you do to the you that has to live through it.” She glared at Allure. You really look exactly like her. I saw that look in her eyes before she went off the deep end. “That’s what you do.”

“No,” Allure declared. “I don’t.”

Distant frowned. “But she did. Why does she deserve the same from you!?”

“M-maybe she doesn’t.” Allure swallowed hard. “But… I made a promise. I’m going to keep it.”

This gave Distant pause. “...Fine. What do you need me for?”

“We were hoping you would have a strong connection with her we could trace. Seren?”

“Nothing,” Seren said. “She’s not close enough to get a clear reading.”

“Then we need to find the place she left.” Allure turned expectantly to Distant.

Distant closed her eyes tight. I don’t want to involve myself with these mares. I want nothing to do with Sweetie Belle. I don’t need to help her. I want her gone, gone, gone.

“Either way, we’ll get you out of this city,” Allure said. “No matter what she’s done, I owe her at least that much.”

Distant’s eyes flew open wide. She forced herself to look at her cutie mark. They… would let me use this. I wouldn’t have to suffer down here…

She looked down at her wrench, laying on the ground. ...She left me here. She won’t KEEP me here.

“...Apple Bloom might know.”

~~~

Suzie and Celia stood in the middle of the street in Vision where they had first met the members of Security. It did not take long for them to find the same group of guards they had come across earlier.

“Not you again,” Lieutenant Drove muttered.

“Just have some questions,” Suzie said, folding her arms. “Namely, I want to know who’s really in charge of this sham of a city.”

“Look, filly, I don’t want to make an arrest today. I just want to go out, do my rounds, go home, have some time with my mare, and then sleep. I don’t want to answer the deluded questions of some stupid monkey who has no idea how society functions!”

“You can get back to that after you tell me who’s really in ch—”

Celia waved her hoof. “Boys, just answer our questions, there’s no need to be angry, hmm? After all, it’s a lot easier to do your job by talking to a concerned citizen than by walking around constantly, right?”

A glazed expression came over all the Security officers.

“Celia!”

“They were going to arrest you,” Celia said. “Then they were going to find a way to hang you because that’s what they do to citizens who annoy them.”

“I… Wh…”

“Just ask your questions, they’ll answer anything now.”

Suzie put her hand to the bridge of her nose and let out an aggravated hiss. “...Fine. Drove. Who’s in charge of Vision?”

Drove spoke—not robotically, but with a calm, thoughtful emotion that was even creepier. “Vision is run by the Elements of Harmony, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy.”

“No Twilight?”

“Princess Twilight is dead.”

Celia’s ears perked up. There’s a possible explanation for why this place is such a hellhole.

“Who has the most power of those five?”

“Rainbow Dash, head of Central Security.”

“He’s biased,” Celia reported. “That’s his boss.”

“Who’s next?” Suzie pressed.

Drove had to think for a moment. “...Applejack. Ponies hear her over the radio all the time.”

“I listened to her for a while in the cafe,” Celia added. “She’s a propaganda machine. Possibly not the best one to approach…”

“Pinkie Pie?” Suzie tried.

“Down somewhere in maintenance repairing everything,” Drove said.

“Rarity?”

“Busy killing ponies for art in that hospital of hers.”

Suzie pressed her hands together. “Great, we’ve got propaganda machine, loopy mechanic, and now psychotic murder-Rarity. I don’t know what I was expecting, nopony in this damned place is going to be approachable. Let me guess, Fluttershy lures ponies into her shed and kills them?”

“No…?” Drove looked legitimately confused. “Fluttershy tends to the animals in her sanctuary. Does more actual healing and help than Rarity by miles.”

“Kindness is usually the hardest to corrupt,” Celia admitted. “And even it its corrupt forms, it’s usually still understanding and empathetic.”

“Then she can tell us what we need to know,” Suzie determined. “...Give these poor ponies their minds back.”

Celia nodded, waving her hoof. “And you won’t remember a thing.”

Lieutenant Drove looked around, disoriented. “Wha…?”

Suzie and Celia were already walking away.

“You can’t just flash-brainwash like that,” Suzie hissed.

“It was necessary and you know it. It’s an effective way to get information quickly with minimal consequences!”

“It’s not right to lay people bare like that.”

“It’s not right to let corrupt cops patrol and execute people they don’t like, but here we are.”

“Celia, l—”

Celia held up a hoof. “We’re arguing again. Now is… not the time. We need to find Fluttershy’s Sanctuary, figure out what this city’s problem is, and find Cinder. We shouldn’t waste time on the ethics of harvesting information mentally.”

Begrudgingly, Suzie nodded.

~~~

Cinder and Sunshine sat on one of the observation benches within the Medical Pavillion. This particular one was made of marble and engraved with geometric shapes—as much a work of art as the display the bench was focused on. A window of crystal, marbled glass through which fish-like shadows could be seen, swimming just barely out of sight.

Pretty, yes.

Cinder also felt like it was screaming.

“You know, whenever we look at one of these things you get this very conflicted expression,” Sunshine pointed out.

“I told you about my intuition, right? My… ‘talent’?”

“Something, something, destiny, sorta-kinda-but-not seeing the future?” Sunshine smiled awkwardly. “I didn’t really understand.”

“It’s fine. But when I look at this thing—or most of the other art—I get a bad feeling. This place is too perfect, too clean, too… gaudy. There has to be something up.”

“I mean, this is Vision we’re talking about.”

Cinder nodded slowly. “It gets in everywhere.” Deciding she was done looking at the fishy thing, she jumped off the bench and stretched her legs. Her injured limb was no longer immobile, but it still had a metal support affixed to it to keep motion to a minimum. Magic did wondrous things, yes, but she found herself missing instant heals from Seren and the others. This process was annoyingly slow.

“At least it’s getting better!” Sunshine offered, using her front hooves to swing herself into her wheelchair. “Maybe mine will, too.”

“When I find a way out of this city I’m bringing you with me,” Cinder said, beaming. “Get you to some proper healing magic. It’s just snap-bam! Suddenly everything’s fixed.”

“Wow… all the time?”

Cinder frowned. Not always. “Usually. I know my condition wouldn’t be an issue. Yours… well at the very least something mechanical could probably at least make it so you didn’t need the wheelchair.”

“That would be nice…” Sunshine closed her eyes, a smile coming to her face.

“You can see it, can’t you?”

“Yep. Probably looks very wrong here in my head, but I can already feel the sensation in my hooves again. Almost like it was yesterday.”

“Soon, this will be yesterday. This whole nightmare.”

“I can still come back afterward, right?”

Cinder paused. “Well… yes, but why would you want to?”

“Crapsack or not, Vision is still my home.”

“Home…”

“Don’t you like to go back and visit your home?”

“Well…” Cinder frowned. She hadn’t actually gone back to visit, had she? Just spoken to her Apple Bloom and Xenium over the communication network. Never gone back to see what was going on. Left it behind. And it wasn’t even like Vision, her home was a nice place.

Sunshine put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay to want to be somewhere else. I mean, I was born in the Leviathan Shades, but I spend all my time in the Ponydome now. Or, well, I did until…” She gestured at the wheelchair.

“No, I don’t think it’s like that,” Cinder said, dismissively. “I’m only out here for a summer, want to get as much out of it as I can, after all. I’ll go back then.”

“...Do you really want to?”

“Of course I do! I have friends, I have a sister, and…” Cinder frowned. “And I’d go back to school. Learn stuff I probably already know. Help with normal Ponyville destinies. Sing a song or two…”

Sunshine rolled up to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. “See?”

“It’s not fair to the others,” Cinder said, shaking her head. “It is my home. My family. But… the other Sweeties… No. No, I should go home. Xenium worries as much as it is. But I’m important out here and…”

“Seems to me like you have reasons to take both options. What do you actually want?”

“I don’t know!” Cinder said, starting to pace. “I’m just trying to have adventures and help ponies, not choose between two lives!” She put a hoof to her head. “Why is this causing me such a problem now?”

“...Probably because I asked,” Sunshine admitted, looking down.

“Oh, no, Sunshine, this isn’t your fault, I—”

“I might be able to fix it, though!” Sunshine said. “Come on, I think the Pavilion has something for your mind!”

“I don’t like the sound of this.”

“Come on, looking won’t hurt.”

Cinder glanced at the fishy art, wondering if that was really true. “...Sure.”

Sunshine twirled her wheelchair around and scooted through the Pavillion. A few of the doctors they passed fixed the two of them with wary glances, but they had nothing to worry about now that there was no need to race. The two patients arrived at a large pair of doors that said mantle storage.

“Oh, those things that give you extra cutie marks and talents?” Cinder asked. “I didn’t know you had one.”

“I used to, don’t anymore,” Sunshine said. “Mine was all about analyzing things, needed it for a cram study session for a bizarre test. Passed. Got fired right afterward for having my head in the clouds on the job, but hey, the mantle still helped.” They passed through the doors into a long, long hallway filled top to bottom with cylindrical bottles holding various colors of liquid.

“Aren’t some of these… dangerous? Why isn’t anypony guarding them?”

“These are just the simpler ones,” Sunshine pointed out. “You won’t find a fireball or mind control talent in here. But you will find…” She reached for a small, blue bottle off the shelf. “This!”

Cinder levitated the bottle in her telekinesis.

“Still Waters: For ponies who know what they want but can never quite seem to ask for it.” The main image on the bottle was of a cartoonish flame surrounded by water waves. She frowned. “They tried to turn my cutie mark into one of these.”

“That’s not usually how they’re made. I’m not sure of the exact process, but it involves a lot of weird plants and magic spells, not ponies.”

“So, what’s it do?” Cinder tipped the bottle over, checking the side effects. 8% addiction factor. Temporary nausea and disorientation. Small chance of rash or headache. That didn’t seem so bad. No doubt there would be unintended consequences of taking this, but… well, if she was reading how everything was going correctly, she was probably going to end up taking this one way or another. “Why exactly do I need this?”

“Gives you mental clarity,” Sunshine said. “And if you don’t like it, your Merodi friends can probably just remove it before it wears off, right?”

“Probably. Esuna is a powerful beast,” Cinder chuckled. “And I am pretty curious what having one of these feels like…” She popped the lid and downed its contents. Go big or go home, after all.

Tasted like blueberries. Huh. They probably flavored it. The slight tang in the back of her throat gave her a hint of what pure mantle tasted like, but she didn’t feel the need to focus on that.

It didn’t hit right away. Cinder felt the liquid go down her throat with a slight sizzle of magical energy, but otherwise it went into her stomach like any other drink. It wasn’t even as unusual as soda. It swirled with her lunch and simply dissipated.

“...I’m not feeling anything.”

“You didn’t take it on an empty stomach, it’s gonna take a minute to go through your system.”

“Should I have waited…?”

Sunshine chuckled. “Oh, no no no! The nausea gets a million times worse if you just down it, and you go a little crazy since it hits your head all at once. This is better, trust me. Puking everything up after the best half hour of your life isn’t a great experience.”

“So, how will I know when it happened?” Cinder started checking herself over. “Does the mark appear gradually, or…?”

“Just like earning one normally.”

“I didn’t earn mine normally. There was this whole big flash of three-way destiny magic a—” Cinder felt it, a wave of magic that pulsed through her body. Her muscles tightened, forcing a soft breath out of her mouth. The tingle rushed through her body, filling her with an unusual sense of rejuvenation. A smile slowly broke out over her face. “Oh. That feels… nice.”

Sunshine cocked her head. “That’s an interesting location.”

“Location?”

Sunshine took a hoofheld mirror off one of the shelves and handed it to Cinder. Tilting it up, Cinder looked and saw herself anew. The mark on the bottle had appeared in an odd place—right around her left eye. Only the tip of the flames were visible just below her eyebrow, with the edge of her eye rippled with calm water. It was a bit like an extended highlight.

Without deliberating, she decided she liked the new look.

Huh. That was fast. Must be working. She broke out into a grin. “Hey, Sunshine?”

“Yeah?”

“Where does a girl go to have some adventure in this Pavillion?”

~~~

“Poison Joke is POISON!” proclaimed a poster to the left of Apple Bloom’s door, angry red letters slashed across the paper. The image depicted a pony’s corpse in repose, clutching a blue flower to its chest.

“She was somepony’s filly!” shouted the poster to the right. It’s image was considerably more graphic—a filly in a blue dress, vomiting blood into a bucket.

“...Are you sure this is the right place?” Allure asked. She didn’t like the idea of having made the trip for nothing—the Vision tram system had gotten stuck on the way over, leaving them stranded for hours. Swip wasn’t able to teleport them anywhere they hadn’t been due to Vision’s magic interference, so they’d just sat there. They had time to sleep.

“Apple Bloom helps get ponies off addictions,” Distant explained. “This is her way of deterring those who need help but won’t bother to talk to her.”

“I’m surprised a mare can afford to help ponies with addictions in a place like this…” Allure commented.

“She has benefactors and the occasional desperate rich pony,” Distant shrugged. “From what I know, it isn’t easy living, but she does what she can.” She knocked on the door. “Hey, Apples?”

The metal slit slid open and a pair of soft orange eyes peered out. “...Distant?”

“Yeah. It’s me.”

“You really don’t have to keep dropping by, y’know.”

“Actually, this time I think I do. Behold...” Distant stepped to the side and gestured at Allure like she were some kind of royalty.

“...Don’t do that,” Allure muttered.

“As you wish, Founder.”

Allure sighed. She wasn't quite sure, but she might have prefered it when Distant was shouting at her.

“Third time…” Apple Bloom sighed from the other side of the door. “Fine. Come in. Haven’t turned any o’ you Sweeties away yet.” A lock on the other side of the door clicked, allowing Distant, Seren, and Allure into the “building”—little more than a repurposed storage container. It was clearly well-used with lots of chairs and signs of pony habitation around a podium, though currently only Apple Bloom was there.

Apple Bloom… looked terrible. Old, tired, moving with a shuffling step. It was a rare day when Allure saw a Crusader without the Crusader Shield on their flanks, and even rarer when the Apple Bloom in question didn’t have a mark relating to apples at all. Today, it was three tiny stars.

“...Where are they?” Allure asked.

“Dead,” Apple Bloom said, sitting down in one of the chairs. “Dunno what happened to Scootaloo, but her body was found drifting in the ocean. I watched Rarity tear Sweetie apart in front of me.”

Allure closed her eyes and let out a sharp breath of air. “I hate these tragedies…”

“At least you’re better than the last one. She seemed to think she could do somethin’ about it.”

“Oh, right!” Seren spoke with far too much of a chipper tone. “We’re looking for her!”

“She’s either dead or escaped,” Apple Bloom said. “Distant should have told you this already, she sure grilled me for everythin’ I knew when she was on the hunt. Told me more stuff after her little investigations, too.”

“Yeah, but I don’t remember the details.” Distant commented. “I don’t know where she went to escape. But you talked to her the second time. You’d know where she was headed.”

“She was headed to Berry Punch’s. That’s where I pointed her, anyway. As for the escape…” Apple Bloom glanced in Allure’s direction. “Why do you wanna find her?”

“I made a promise to her,” Allure said. “By… taking the name Allure. It was ‘hers’, but she didn’t like it. Gave her bad memories.”

“Unloading problems onto others…”

“I offered. It was my choice. I know what my name means. I take the burden of others onto myself.”

“You ain’t gonna last long here,” Apple Bloom snorted.

“I don’t have to. As soon as we establish a presence in the city the whole League will tackle this place together.”

Apple Bloom’s frown deepened at this. “You’re gonna try to force Vision to change?”

“It’s what we do,” Seren explained, grinning.

“Yes, they’re delusional,” Distant added. “But they can get us out of here.”

“Get out and take what you can,” Apple Bloom said. “That was the other Sweetie’s advice to herself. I think she wishes she’d taken it.”

“Her advice to… herself?” Seren cocked her head.

“She really did kill herself, in case you didn’t think that happened,” Distant interjected. “Wiped herself to a clean slate, tried to use a note to convince her reborn self to leave without a second thought. The oh-so-heroic new-Sweetie decided to figure out what had happened instead of listening to her advice. And you know what she did after she found out what went down?”

“...She left,” Allure breathed.

“Yep! She left! Found out Swiftwing was her wife, spent a whole huge quest to find her, but never paid her a visit. She left the two of us alone! Even that version of her that hadn’t been destroyed by this fucking city still abandoned us!”

Allure winced. “There has to be some explanation… That’s not her.”

“Somepony’s in denial,” Apple Bloom said.

“That’s. Not. Her!” Allure shouted. “I know who The Sweetie Belle is. I’ve read her story. She’s a hero. She’d never abandon a child.”

“She did!” Distant slammed her hoof on a nearby chair. “Get that into your thick skull already!”

“No!”

“Why not!?”

“Because then I could abandon Minna!”

Silence fell across the room.

“...You have a kid?” Apple Bloom asked.

Slowly, Allure settled down into one of the chairs, nodding slowly.

“Who’s the…?”

“Adopted,” Allure explained. “We… me and the other Founders, we found her bruised and battered in a random park at the end of a pretty terrible day.” A smile came to her lips. “We healed her, and I took her in. Never did find out where she came from. She’s a little odd, tends to know things she shouldn’t, but she’s quiet, adorable, and firm in who she is.” Allure took a moment to wipe a few tears from her eyes. “I… I can’t imagine abandoning her for anything…”

“Anything?” Distant asked.

“I…” Allure’s expression darkened. “I was stuck in a time loop, once… going mad… angry... She was so small…” Screams from the past rang through Allure’s ears. That one loop she tried never to remember, never to think of. She had ended that one early.

Of course, that wasn’t suicide. She knew she’d come back the next loop. That was how it worked.

That didn’t count.

It didn’t count.

“Allure…?” Seren asked, concerned.

Allure buried her face in her hooves, heaving as the emotional overload rocked her body. I’m just like her. I’m the hero. But I’m also the screw up.

Why are we even looking?

Why are we eve-

The sensation of Seren pulling her into a hug tore her out of her stupor. Startled, she looked at the anthropomorphic child. A girl who could look death in the face and laugh… but one who broke at seeing her friends like this.

Her family like this.

“...That’s why we’re not her…” Allure realized.

Apple Bloom and Distant cocked their heads.

“She was alone.” Allure sniffed, regaining control of her words. “She came alone… she left alone… she had no support besides what this city offered.” Allure looked up at the ceiling, shaking her head. “And you two know what this city offers.”

Distant looked like she wanted to argue but couldn’t think of anything biting enough to say.

“We didn’t come here alone,” Allure said, standing up. “She didn’t have what we do. She may have screwed up… but so could we, if we were where she was. ...I promised to find her.” Allure fixed Distant with a determined expression. “Learning she had flaws doesn’t change anything. She is The Sweetie Belle. And we are going to help her.”

Distant looked away, biting her lip.

“...Top of the Sparkle Enchantments building,” Apple Bloom said. “That’s where her note said the shard was. Can’t say for sure if that’s where she left or not, but it’s as good of a guess as I have.”

“Thank you,” Allure said, smiling.

“And if you do get around to that whole ‘fixing Vision’ thing… oh, what the hell, I’ll tell you what I can.”

“I’ll be sure to take you up on that.” Turning to Distant, her smile faltered. “...I can send you to the League now. If you w—”

“I’m seeing this through,” Distant interrupted. “I’m not leaving before it’s done. We’ll finish your mission, I’ll talk to mom, and take care of my business before going. I’m not jumping ship.”

Allure was surprised to find herself smiling at this. “Good. Come on then, to Sparkle Enchantments.” She paused. “...Which building is that?”

Distant opened the door and gestured aggressively at the shining purple image of Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark that dominated Vision’s many neon lights.

“Ah, yes. I see.” Allure pursed her lips. “Not gonna be easy to get up there, is it?”

“Probably not,” Seren admitted.

Distant stretched and cracked some of her joints. “Come on, I thought you were the adventurers? Getting to the top of the tower should be a piece of cake for the two of you.”

“You’d be surprised how annoying the Tower can be…” Allure said.

~~~

When Celia and Suzie’s transit broke down, they didn’t sit and wait for repairs to complete. They jumped out onto the rickety rails and started walking to their destination. Upon realizing Suzie’s unending rage was taxing her physically, Celia put the human to sleep and levitated her the rest of the way.

They arrived in the proper Vision district two seconds before the repairs were completed and the tram rolled into the station.

Celia decided to wake Suzie up a full minute after this had transpired, just to be on the safe side. Her anger was already riding high, no need to make things worse.

“Ugh…” Suzie slowly opened her eyes. “...Couldn’t find a bed?”

“Darling, my telekinetic aura is more than cushion enough for your delicate body’s needs.”

Suzie grumbled as Celia set her on the ground, taking a few moments to gain her footing on the cobbled path. She stumbled into a shallow puddle on her third step and groaned.

“Look on the bright side, at least you got some sleep.”

Suzie pulled her frizzy mess of hair back, trying and failing to make it presentable. “And I woke up still in this hellhole.”

“At least it looks nicer here,” Celia pointed out, gesturing at the copious amounts of greenery, storefronts, and even a few furry critters running around. “Fluttershy’s touch, if I must say.”

As she examined the surroundings, Suzie’s expression shifted to one of hope. The green looked natural, the ponies looked happy, and nothing aside from the tram station itself looked even the slightest bit worn down. Unlike everywhere else they’d seen, this area looked like somewhere ponies could live comfortably.

“The Sanctuary proper is in the middle,” Celia explained, pointing at a convenient map. In the center was a large green circle simply labeled “Sanctuary” with the subtitle “Visitors always welcome!”

“Promising,” Suzie admitted. “Let’s move—I don’t want to waste any more time than I have to.”

Still angry… Celia sighed, trotting after her captain. How am I supposed to use this as a bonding experience if she’s about to go off the deep end? Any minute now…

As they approached the Sanctuary, things just kept getting greener and greener. The harsh stone and glass gave way to simple wood constructions surrounded by greenery. Eventually, it became difficult to tell that they were even underwater—everything was well lit and the foliage was dense enough that it was hard to see the ceiling.

The entrance to the Sanctuary proper was an ornate wall carved into the shapes of several animals and absolutely covered with moss. There was a set of large double-gates, but they were made out of bamboo and didn’t even have a lock. Just within the Sanctuary, a tiger and a wolf were playing happily with a brown sheep and a small family of mice, with no sign of any predatory instincts within the larger animals.

“Looks like this Fluttershy figured out the meat-substitute cookies,” Celia observed. “Always a fun little jaunt into the nature of predator, prey, and questions about eating meat in general.” She paused. “...I’d kill for a hotdog right now.”

Suzie snorted. “Keep that mysterious appetite of yours under control.”

Celia had to force herself not to snap back. Now is not the time to aggravate her. There are more important things than being up front at the moment.

When they walked through the gates, the animals walked up to greet them with excited yaps, meows, and howls. Smiling, Suzie kneeled down to pet the tiger for a moment. “Can you take us to Fluttershy?”

The tiger nodded, gesturing for them to follow with his head. They went deeper into the Sanctuary—not a pony construction in sight as far as Celia could tell, though she knew the entire Sanctuary had to be artificial. The point was clearly to look as natural as possible, and Fluttershy had apparently done that. Every tree was real, the grass was perfect and likely succulent, and there was even a babbling brook running through the middle.

This looked nice.

It was probably the only bastion of harmony in Vision, if Celia had to guess.

The tiger eventually led them to the very center of the Sanctuary, where there was a large tree with a door in it and a few windows here and there. It looked remarkably like a standard Fluttershy’s cottage, though not identical, seeing as the tree hadn’t grown in quite the same way. Outside the cottage were several ponies, all lounging on the grass—including Fluttershy.

She was a tall mare whose age was visibly showing through a streak of gray in her soft, pink mane. Her wings were thin and frail, though not completely useless like so many pegasi Celia had seen throughout Vision. When she moved, she didn’t fly, but glided—a graceful motion Celia decided was fitting for a Fluttershy.

Currently, she was tending to a pony covered in a dozen or so different mantles. Even though foam was coming out of his mouth and nodules of mutated skin rippled all over his body, Fluttershy and the rabbits were still sticking close to him, going to far as to sing a little song.

“Hush now, quiet now…
It’s time to lay your sleepy head…
Hush now, quiet now…
It’s time to go to bed…”

She was far from the only pony there. There were others—most of whom looked damaged in some way. Several had mantles, were missing limbs, or had the faces of ponies who had recently suffered great loss. They were humming along with her tune. A few were crying too hard to do even that.

Fluttershy stroked the stallion’s ugly, malformed face as she sang. His spasms slowed until they were no more, and he fell still. The last motion he made… was to smile with a happy sigh.

Fluttershy completed the verse she was on before stopping. She wiped her eyes and looked up at the Sweeties. Her eyes flew open in shock—recognizing their appearance.

“Tiller,” she said, addressing one of the stallions in the group behind her. “Take Rinse to the grave site. You deserve to lay him there.”

The stallion nodded slowly, swallowing hard. “I… I am honored.”

Fluttershy smiled sadly. “You make him proud.” She embraced him, taking a few moments to affirm her existence to him. Upon releasing him, she glided over to Suzie and Celia. “...Welcome to my Sanctuary. How can I help?”

Suzie wiped a tear out of her eye. “I… I’m so glad to see someone like you in a place like this.”

“Thank you. I try… but it is never enough.”

“This… might be a long conversation.”

“I figured as much…” Fluttershy gestured to her cottage with her wing. “Join me for some tea?”

Celia nodded. “We would be glad to.”

Fluttershy (Siren Song, Part 3)

“So…” Fluttershy said, setting three white teacups down. Out of paranoia, Celia checked to see if it was enchanted or poisoned and immediately felt guilty afterward. “What’s your story?”

Outside, they heard the sounds of a bear playing joyfully with several swans and even a goose of all things. It was a melodious mixture of sounds no real forest would ever had, but was pleasing to the ear nonetheless. Perhaps better than pure nature. Celia had spent her fair share of days fighting random monsters from the depths of the wilderness, she knew how ugly it could get out there.

Still, though, meat tasted pretty good…

“I’m Colonel Suzie Belle,” Suzie began, holding the teacup carefully in her hands. “This is Celia, Chalcedony. We are part of something called the League of Sweetie Belles—an organization of, well, Sweetie Belles.”

“I figured as much,” Fluttershy said. “...I heard that there was another Sweetie here some time ago from Rainbow. Was she with you?”

“We are looking for her, but there’s another team on that.”

Fluttershy nodded in understanding, taking a moment to drink and enjoy the aroma of the tea. “I’m sorry I can’t help with that. She never visited me.”

“It’s not why we’re here, anyway.” Suzie leaned in. “We’re here because your city is suffering.”

“Yes.” Fluttershy said this matter-of-factly, with a tired sag in her wings. “Yes it is.”

Celia nodded ever-so-slightly to herself—that was a good response. So far, Fluttershy had only shown minor signs of corruption, namely a forced acceptance of the status quo. She clearly wasn’t satisfied with the state of Vision and was actively working against it, even if it seemed her efforts were worthless.

But she was one of the council members…

Celia cleared her throat. “If you don’t mind me asking, why don’t you fix it? You do have the power, don’t you?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Vision is built on the idea that ponies make their own choices. Even… even if those choices hurt everypony, they have the right to make them.”

“...You don’t agree?”

Fluttershy’s gaze became lost in the ripples in her tea.

“You have an amazing Sanctuary here,” Suzie said. “You help anypony who comes.”

“They always choose to come,” Fluttershy breathed. Celia detected a hint of bitterness in there—like she didn’t want that to be the case. She was reminded of many Fluttershys she’d seen out in the multiverse being kind to everyone whether they liked it or not. The thought brought a smile to Celia’s lips.

“What would you think… if we came in and started helping them?” Suzie leaned in. “No matter what they thought about it?”

Fluttershy looked Suzie head on with her massive, deep eyes. “Is that what you do?”

“There’s an entire division of our government. The Aid Division. Their job is to distribute help to those who need it—even people in warzones that never want to stop fighting. Even evil empires who just need a powerful friend to change their ways.”

“My empire—the Gems—were one of the first to be changed by the system,” Celia offered. “We went from a xenophobic, genocidal race of conquerers to one of the most prevalent races in our multiversal nation.” She dissipated her false horn to show her gemstone to Fluttershy. “That was decades ago, our time.”

“I see…” Fluttershy clicked her tongue, taking a moment to think things over. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Suzie said—with a lot less impatience in her voice than Celia would have expected.

“Maybe. I can’t make the decision on my own. The others need to be involved. And Twilight…”

“Twilight’s not dead?” Celia wasn’t exactly surprised, but this was new information.

“No, there were a lot of problems with her remaining in the public eye, so she faked her death. It… well I’m not sure if it made things better, but it made ponies stop shouting at us so much.” She took a moment to look out the window at various colorful birds sitting on the back of the tiger. “This city is her project, more than anything. She wants ponies to be free.”

“Then we’ll just have to go talk to her,” Celia declared.

“Yeah,” Suzie added.

Celia frowned. This Fluttershy sure was effective… Suzie’s anger had all but abated at this point. Her body language was even relaxed.

“I’ll set up an appointment,” Fluttershy said, walking over to a small radio sitting on a coffee table. “She’s rarely too busy to see us, but she does need advance notice. Ahem.” Pressing a button, she started speaking. “This is Fluttershy. I’d like to see Princess Twilight some time later today.”

A happy mare’s voice came back. “She’ll be ready at oh-twenty-hundred hours. Nice to hear from you, Fluttershy.”

“You too.” Fluttershy cut the call. “We’ll have to get on the tram in an hour or so, until then…” She poured some more tea. “Why don’t we get to know each other a little better? Vision hasn’t been kind to either of you…”

“We… don’t know where one of our number is,” Suzie said.

“Oh… I’m so, so sorry. I… don’t have as much of a network as the others but I can try to find her. She a Sweetie too?”

“Yeah…” Suzie said, breathing just a little too slowly. “Teenage, orange eyes. She was taken yesterday near the immigration office. We haven’t seen her since.”

Fluttershy couldn’t help but wince.

“You don’t like her chances…?”

“I’ll do what I can.” She put a wing on Suzie. “You just relax… take a break. You need it, more than anything.”

“...Thanks.”

Okay, something’s up, Celia decided. Time for a little test… sorry, Suzie. Taking a deep breath, Celia reached under Suzie’s shirt with her telekinesis, removing a small, hidden necklace. It was a simple silver chain with a tiny cross-shaped pendant on the end. Slowly, she removed it from Suzie’s neck and started spinning it around in the air.

“Hey, Celia?” Suzie asked. “What are you doing?”

“You really should be screaming bloody murder at me for daring to expose your little necklace, taking it without your permisison, and spinning it around without any regard for what it means.” She dropped the necklace into Suzie’s outstretched hands, turning to glare at Fluttershy. “What have you done to her?”

Fluttershy sighed. “I just showed her some kindness, Celia. That’s all. Why are you so defensive?”

“You’d be surprised at how powerful my mind is,” Celia said, smirking. “Three in one package.”

Suzie looked confused. “Celia, what are y—”

“She’s used some kind of brainwashing to remove your anger,” Celia interrupted.

“Oh.” Suzie accepted this with the slightest hint of annoyance, but didn’t have anything else to say.

“She was under a lot of stress and pain. I relieved that.” Fluttershy smiled sadly. “You could have that too, you know. It’s why ponies come here.”

“It’s why you keep ponies here,” Celia retorted. “They come here… and you don’t want to let them go. So you make them stay, don’t you?”

“They agreed to come here, Celia. It’s better for them if they stay.” For the first time since they’d met her, Fluttershy’s expression became hard. “It’d be better for all of Vision if everypony stayed. That’s what you want, isn’t it? To take their choice away, make them be good ponies?”

“There’s a distinct difference between setting laws in place to keep ponies from killing each other and brainwashing them,” Celia grunted. “For all our ‘duplicitous’ acts, we’ve never hypnotized a society into joining us.”

“Isn’t that what friendship is?” Fluttershy cocked her head. “A manipulative hypnosis of emotions. It’s just slower. I care about every one of the ponies and animals here, and I want them to be better ponies. Better for everypony. I feel what they feel, I cry when they cry, and I build them up when they are struggling. They live whole, meaningful lives at the bottom of the ocean where ponies are starving in the streets!” She stopped herself, sitting down and pulling her face back into a frown. “I’m doing what’s best for them.”

Celia frowned. “You know what, we can argue the ethics of this later. I’m sure Oversight will have a field day with you. But right now, our goals align, so fighting is pointless. Just release Suzie from this… whatever it is, and we can be on our way.”

“No,” Fluttershy said, shaking her head. “Suzie was in danger of destroying herself with her rage. She needs this. She was on the verge of breaking when you arrived an—”

“I don’t care. Release her.”

“No.”

“I sai—”

“I SAID NO!” Fluttershy shouted, the sudden fire in her voice tossing Celia over. “Suzie is happier this way. Isn’t that right, Suzie?”

Suzie nodded. “We really don’t have to fight.”

“Oh, this is screwed up…” Celia muttered. “At least when I changed, I got to make the choice.”

“You’re talking about taking the choice away from Vision!” Fluttershy flared her wings. “How hypocritical are you?”

“I don’t know, and frankly, don’t care at the moment, darling.” Celia dusted herself off. “I just know I need Suzie out of that stupor.”

“You don’t.”

“I d—”

Fluttershy activated the Stare. Celia’s triple-reinforced mind met the psychic attack head on, but couldn’t beat it outright. Her head pulsed with a splitting headache, forcing her to the ground. “Aaaaaaaagh!”

“We don’t need to fight,” Fluttershy said, focusing the Stare on Celia. “Please… let’s resolve this peacefully.”

Celia realized she was going to lose this battle of wills. There was nothing she could do.

“Suzie!” Celia screeched. “I don’t want this! Stop her!”

Suzie frowned. She may not have been angry, but she was sad. “Celia…”

“Suzie! Suzie! Listen to me! You are not a calm restrained little aaaaaaaaa—” Celia realized she didn’t have much time. She had to be as biting as she could be in the short amount of time at her disposal. “Suzie! You’ve forgotten about Cinder! Why are we having tea while we should be looking for her?” Nothing. “Suzie! Look at me? She’s changing me agaaaaaaaaa—” She took in a hard breath, losing all feeling in her legs. “Again! Again! Do we want to start over!?”

Suzie’s mouth twitched.

“This isn’t you! You’re angry. That’s what you are! I don’t care about vice or virtue right now, I care about you! She’s invading us and keeping you from care… care… care…” Celia’s breath began to slow. This was really exhausting. Maybe… just a little break. She’d…

No, get back u—

That’s enough out of you. Fluttershy’s Stare said.

We can’t…

Will it really be so hard to live without constantly fighting?

It… it would be nice… if we could be real friends aga—

“AAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Suzie grabbed her head and kicked Fluttershy in the face.

The animal noises outside stopped abruptly.

“W-w-what have you done!?” Fluttershy shrieked.

Suzie glared at her with the fury that could topple nations. “We ended your tyranny.”

“No!” Fluttershy cried, tears flowing down her eyes. “No!”

“Oh give it up, you’re just anoth-”

Something hit the window hard enough to shatter it. A little bluebird twitched, holding a disbelieving wing to its neck, coming back with copious amounts of blood from a predatory bite mark. It let out one last attempt at a chirp, ending with more of an agonized gag. Its blood ran through the green carpet, muddying everything with the pain of death.

Celia looked outside, having a pretty good idea what she was about to see and dreading it anyway.

The tiger jumped one of the sheep, tearing out it’s throat in a bloody shower that spewed blood and bits of flesh onto the grass. The birds descended from the treetops to pick the meat apart in a ravenous frenzy, for they had not tasted a real meal in their entire lives. Birdsong, once beautiful, had become a devastating chant of bloodshed. Foxes pounced, elephants trampled, and the Sanctuary ran red.

The ponies… the ponies were worse.

“Ha hah!” a red mare with numerous fire-related mantles shouted, landing in the middle of the blood. “I don’t know what I was thinking, the only good world is a burning world!”

“You died on me!” Tiller screamed, throwing the dead, mutated body of Rinse into a sheep carcass. “You asshole!”

“No! NO!” Fluttershy flew outside. “Everypony STOP!”

A few of the ponies looked up at her in bewildered confusion—lowering their defenses enough for the flaming mare to torch their eyes. “NOTHING BUT FIRE!”

“I did this…” Celia realized, hoof to her mouth.

“STOP!” Fluttershy used the Stare on the fiery mare, stopping her instantly—but that allowed another crazed mantle-pony to attack her. She was tackled to the ground.

The tiger jumped.

“ENOUGH!” Celia boomed, sending a pulse of darkness out that tossed everyone—pony and animal alike—onto their backs. A nearby flimsy tree cracked down the middle from the pressure, dropping several birds onto the ground below.

“Celia, what are you doing!?” Suzie asked.

“FIXING THIS.” Celia waved her hooves over the minds of all present. It was almost laughably easy to flip their inner switches back to the way they were before—after all, they really were happier under Fluttershy’s spell and had been under it for so, so long. Their instincts wanted to be suppressed, replaced by the Element of Kindness’ idea of harmony. Celia would never have been able to sustain such a connection with her magic; clever though she was, she was not a master of the mind.

But she could pick up the pieces and tie it back together.

It still took a massive drain on her magical reserves—she floated into the air, eyes white as she wound the loose mental threads back to Fluttershy, re-establishing the forced peace. The false peace.

It was as though everypony regained their senses. The flaming mare looked at her hooves and screamed. The tiger started puking up its guts. Several ponies burst into tears…

“I’m sorry…” Fluttershy heaved, trembling over the charred forms of ponies. “I wasn’t strong enough…”

“You were a monster,” Suzie spat. “This i—”

“Suzie, shut up,” Celia interrupted. “You’re making it worse.”

“Worse? You just put them back under mind control!”

“They were going to kill each other! If that’s the default state of ponies here in Vision… then things are better this way!”

Suzie stopped short. “Would it be better if you left me in her grasp?”

“Maybe! And right now I’m half tempted to stick you back in!” Celia stamped her hoof on the ground. “So keep yourself under control. I’m going to help Fluttershy tend to the wounded. The revive spell should work on some of them…”

“Revive spell!?” Fluttershy gasped. “Oh thank you thank you I don’t know what I’d do without th—”

“Would you can it!?” Suzie shouted.

“You should ‘can it’,” Celia hissed. “If you’re not going to help, go sit in the cottage until it’s time to meet Twilight.”

Suzie’s face twisted from frustration to confusion to indignant fury. She stormed into the cottage and slammed the door.

“She’s so angry…” Fluttershy sighed as Celia came back.

“That’s who she is,” Celia muttered as she restored a burnt pony—she woke up completely fine, no signs whatsoever of Coming Back Wrong.

“...Does it have to be?”

Celia remained silent as she healed another pony. Even though her stomach wasn’t created with the usual biological limitations normal ponies had, she still felt it tie into knots as the bones mended and flesh stitched back together.

~~~

He had blades fused to his hooves and a face covered in battle scars. He was a complete madpony with bloodstained hair and two eyes that never looked in the same direction. To him, life was one big hunt where everything and everyone was the target.

Being in a centimeter thick prison of bandages didn’t change that.

They had told him that they found him on the side of the road, bleeding out. He didn’t believe that, not for a minute. Bleed out? Him? Impossible. He was the hunter, they were the hunted. This was just some trick to get him to sit still. No death would come for him so they naturally needed to pacify him.

He’d show them. He’d show them all.

Every motion hurt, but it couldn’t have been real. More of their tricks. Ignore it.

He dragged his blades along the smooth, white floor, announcing his presence to the Pavillion. Unfortunately, there weren’t many ponies in this particularly hallway, so he only got one succulent morsel to notice him. A mare with an eyepatch.

“You okay there, bud?”

No hint of fear. He hated that.

He’d fix that.

He swung out with his bladed hooves. She was aware enough of her surroundings to jump back but wasn’t quick enough to avoid a cut across her cheek. “What the hell!?”

“You’ll be the example…” he growled, forcing his other hoof to push forward through the pain.

Instead of meeting the flesh of her neck, his blade impacted… a paper shield?

“Hi!” Cinder said, poking her head out from behind the shield and grinning cockily. Her water-ringed eye unsettled him considerably. “This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said ‘adventure’ but I’ll take it.”

“What!?” He growled.

“Leave the poor mare alone and take your medical treatment like a good boy now.”

He twisted his bladed hoof back and went for her neck—this foolish filly would learn what it meant to defy him!

With a roll of her eyes, Cinder pushed herself under the shield to knock him off balance. She rushed forward and punched him in the gut, sending a scalding heat into his body. The pain went right to his brain, mixing with the already absurd levels of suffering from all his injuries. No matter what he thought he could do, sometimes pain is just too much for a body to deal with. He passed out unceremoniously, a small wisp of smoke rising from his stomach bandages.

“And down!” Cinder said, unfolding her paper shield and placing it back in her mane. That was easy—and fun!

“Woohoo, Cinder!” Sunshine shouted, rolling into view on her wheelchair. “That was great!”

“It was, wasn’t it?” Cinder laughed, trotting over to the cut mare. “I got him, don’t worry.”

“Geez, that was ridiculous,” the eyepatch mare said, rubbing her cheek. “What kinda pony just attacks others out of nowhere like that? We’re in a hospital, for Twilight’s sake!”

“Some ponies are just insane.” Cinder winked. “Anyway, it should all be fine now, right?“

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Cinder’s smile faltered slightly when she heard the voice of Rarity behind them. “Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting to visit the lower levels and find this.” She gestured amicably to the softly smoking form of the crazed stallion. “Patients like this are supposed to be restrained, though I suppose he could have broken out… terribly sorry.”

“Get bigger chains,” the eyepatch mare mumbled.

“The thought has occured to me,” Rarity admitted. “Cinder… your leg?”

Cinder took a moment to check herself over. Her ‘injured’ leg was still held between two small metal supports, but it hadn’t caused her any significant pain throughout the whole ordeal. “Seems fine, actually…”

“Oh, it’s definitely still healing,” Rarity said with a wave of her hoof. “But the fact that you’re working through it so quickly is… delightfully promising! I take it Sunshine introduced you to the mantle doses?”

Cinder nodded, winking in Sunshine’s direction with her mantle-ringed eye. “Yep! And it’s great. The only problem is now I want to do things and, crazed madpony aside, there’s not much to do here.” She tapped her hoof impatiently. “We’re all just sitting around, getting better, and I’m no artist so your little hobby just doesn’t do it for me.”

“A sad, but fair, point,” Rarity admitted, putting a hoof to her chin. “Although…”

The “although” was spoken with a completely normal, conversational tone. Cinder felt like it was about to command her death.

“...I think I have an idea.”

Of course you do. Now, how is this going to send me to the pits of Tartarus?

“I have my various ponies record ‘public service announcements’, and, well, it occurs to me that it’s a perfect excuse to make you more well-known and maybe let your friends know you’re here!”

There’s a catch. “And what would I be talking about in this announcement?”

“Well, since you have just experienced the wonderful healing a mantle can offer, I believe we can use your testimony to dispel some of the unfortunate rumors surrounding the use of the concoction. ...That is, assuming you are satisfied with the treatment?”

Oh. Selling my soul to corporate pharmaceuticals. That’s a lot less evil and unpleasant than I was expecting. “...Sure. When do you want to do it?”

“Why not now?” Rarity asked, shrugging. “I’ve got an opening in my schedule. I don’t believe you’re doing anything?”

Cinder examined the lightly-singed form of the mad stallion. “Doesn’t look like it.”

“Good!” Rarity smiled warmly. “We can make our way to the stage right now.”

“See you around!” Sunshine waved. “Can’t wait to hear your thing!”

“It’ll probably just be me reading some boring speech,” Cinder dismissed.

“Actually, you’ll be able to say whatever you want,” Rarity explained. “Naturally, I’ll cut it down to fit it into a smaller, more digestible segment, but your words will be your own.”

Cinder noted the potential for manipulation in this but decided not to comment on it.

They arrived at the stage shortly thereafter. As with everything in the Medical Pavilion that wasn’t designed specifically for medical use, the thing was as flamboyant as it could possibly be. The white theme of the Pavilion itself ran through not only the stage, but also the audience seats, a sense of holy serenity framing the velvet cushions. Hundreds of ponies could have sat here, though currently only a half dozen were mulling about.

The stage itself was carved from marble with numerous relief sculptures of mask-wearing ponies lining the base with emotions ranging from ecstasy to anguish. If there had been a theater production on the agenda, the stage floor would have been clear, but there was no such thing today so there were numerous lights, cameras, and audio-recording equipment dotted around. A model was currently posing for a camera under one of the lights, probably for some product Cinder didn’t care to learn about.

“Maxim!” Rarity called. A small, black stallion ran up to her. “We need a few simple shots of Cinder here. This is for the radio, so the visual component isn’t paramount, but we still want it to be decent for those who do see her. Be a dear and get a mantle prop while you’re at it, won’t you?”

“Yes ma’am,” Maxim said, bowing and running off in the same motion.

Rarity led Cinder to a soft chair set up on the stage that was too large for her, though this allowed her to sit comfortably with her front legs touching the seat’s base. She found it remarkably easy to smile once she was up here. “How do I look?”

Rarity held up a hoof to her eye, gauging Cinder’s appearance. “Such a shame most ponies only have the radio, you’d be visually stunning with that unique mark.”

“Which one?”

“Both of them!” Rarity grinned. “The waters around your eye frame your spirit, while that amazing shield of yours speaks to your unique situation!”

Cinder glanced at her cutie mark, smiling. The feeling quickly faded, however, the moment she looked at her other leg with the mark half wiped off and replaced with scar tissue.

Rarity put a comforting hoof on her back. Cinder had to fight not to tense up in alarm. “Don’t worry, dear, with enough work I’m sure we can restore it. I’m sure I can push mantle research into the restorative direction.”

I have no intention of being here that long.

“Regardless, for now it’s a boon in the visual department. It makes you distinct, speaking of your struggle, past, and a myriad of other subtle intricacies I won’t bore you with.”

“Basically, it’s useful for now?”

“Quite.”

“Just making sure.” Geez, I have to keep up a fake smile around this mare a lot. If I didn’t feel like she was a bomb on a hairpin trigger, oooooh would I have things to say to her. This sense of ‘art’ trumping the sense of ‘other ponies’.... Cinder allowed her mind to wander, playing out her shouting at Rarity exactly how her morality was screwed up and how she needed to think better of other ponies. The thought brought a smile to her face. That would be so satisfying.

Maxim returned with the false mantle bottle—a jar of yellow liquid with text on it that wasn’t readable but intended to give the impression of words from a distance. He immediately set to work adjusting spotlights until the light drowned out Cinder’s awareness of the rest of the space, leaving her only with Rarity and a mounted camera in her sights. All else might as well have been black.

“Weird,” Cinder commented, blinking a few times to adjust to the dramatic lighting change. “How do I look?”

“Like a million bits,” Rarity said, adjusting the camera ever so slightly. “Now, there’s no script here, we’ll just record everything. Why don’t you start by introducing yourself?”

“Well, all right…” She put on a cocky smile. “Hello, Vision! I’m Cinder Belle, adventurer extraordinaire, and I’ve recently found myself in your interesting city. You’ve got a lot to offer, good and bad, but I’m here to talk about one of the good things.” Rarity wasn’t stopping her, so she kept going. “Let me introduce you to something I hope you’re all familiar with… mantles!”

She lifted the yellow mantle prop up, letting it catch on the light. After a moment, she frowned. “Uh, hold up, I just realized I have no idea what I’m supposed to be saying about mantles. I could just tell my story, but that won’t be very good for a PSA. What sorts of misconceptions am I supposed to be combatting?”

“Nothing too fancy here,” Rarity explained. “There’s a lot of fear of addiction to mantles going around, to the point where many refuse it as medical treatment despite the clear benefits.”

“Ah. A ‘please drink responsibly’ sort of deal.”

Rarity raised her eyebrow. “What? I’m afraid the reference is lost on me.”

“Not important.” Cinder coughed, holding the prop up high once more. “Yes, that’s right, mantles, these little bottles of color that can give you new talents from out of nowhere! First off, that’s just cool, but I’m not here to tell you about how cool it is—though I will do that. No, I’m here to tell you how mantles have changed my life for the better.

“When I came to Vision, I was lost, confused, and ended up in a pretty bad neighborhood.” Like most neighborhoods around here... “I was hurt real bad—my cutie mark was half torn off and I could barely use my leg. But the ponies of the Medical Pavilion rescued me and nursed me back to health! It was amazingly quick, but I was still suffering. My mind was lost and confused. So while my body was healing, my mind was deteriorating.

“But then a good friend of mine by the name of Sunshine told me about mantles and gave me a dose of Still Waters, and I’ve felt great ever since! All that doubt and hesitation is gone, my mind restored. Actually, it might be more than restored, it’s better! Why, I remember not last week being confused about my place in the world, unsure of what I wanted to do next in my life. Should I go home, or should I keep exploring out here? But with this new mark on my face, I’ve decided! I’ll keep explor… ing…” Cinder’s smile fell and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

“...Darling?” Rarity asked. “Are you okay?”

“I just… made the decision,” Cinder breathed. “Without… anything. That’s not…” She nervously tapped her hoof on the edge of the chair. “That’s not right…”

“Cinder?”

Cinder was barely listening to her anymore. She was staring into the fake mantle, looking at her reflection in the glass. The mark of Still Waters was easily visible in the light, drawing attention to the way the waves completely surrounded her gaze.

Drowning.

She let the bottle fall from her hooves. It seemed to move in slow motion as it flipped through the air, sending glints into her eyes.

My fire is being controlled from without. It’s not me.

The bottle bounced off the ground unharmed, flipping into the air with a far more rapid spin.

I didn’t make that decision. It did. I didn’t struggle to reach it. It was just given to me.

The bottle hit the ground on the tip of its lid, popping off perfectly. Fake mantle spewed everywhere, running yellow in the clean stage floor.

It cheated.

It developed my character for me.

Am I even me?

The empty bottle hit the ground again, shattering into dozens of pieces.

It’s too late now. My mind has been changed. It will wear off, it will be ‘cured’, all the mantles will. They have to, I’m Cinder. It’s how it has to be.

But I can never go back.

Wordlessly, Cinder jumped off the chair. Glass shards embedded into her hooves, drawing blood. She decided she didn’t care. Rarity was saying something, but Cinder wasn’t hearing it.

The Waters are the only reason I know this is happening. The curse is its own traitor.

Cinder walked off the stage, trailing blood behind her. Lifting her head high, she pushed open one of the exit doors and made her way down a hallway, leaving a red blemish across the pristine Pavilion.

It was all so clear now. She couldn’t see it before because of this place, but now… now she saw. Mantles weren’t medicine or magic potions, they were distillations of destiny itself, a concept close to the hearts of so many Sweeties. She was among them. Of course extra cutie marks changed you. In a way, she knew this going in, but she had taken it anyway.

Why?

Because she had known. She had known she’d end up taking it, one way or another. There was a bit of curiosity there, sure, but her intuition told her it was going to happen. Why not get it out of the way right then and there?

And yet, it hadn’t told her of the dark side.

Or had it? She’d known there be a consequence of some sort. Just not that it would rewrite her very person.

I’m still Cinder. I may have cheated to get here, but I AM CINDER.

A paradox reared its ugly head. Was she making that decision, or was it Still Waters? The answer was yes. No further deliberation. None was needed.

Why waste time?

She was better this way. Cheating or not, she would have ended up here.

Do I know that?

Yes. Yes, she knew that. No matter how many ways she played it out, she knew she would have ended up here, deciding that she wanted to keep adventuring. Home didn’t really have much of an allure anymore—she was growing up and the worlds outside were calling to her. Honestly, did she ever really expect to just go home after summer was over? The story wasn’t going to end there. That was ridiculous.

So, really, why bother waiting to discover that? Still Waters did her a favor.

Drowning.

Why bother waiting at all?

She knew things. She knew lots of things. It was her gift, her talent. It was a waste of her ability to ignore the path of her story. She was the hero, and if she bothered to think for five seconds she knew exactly where she was headed.

She was absolutely guaranteed to make it out of this. Would there be a price? Yes, absolutely. There always was. That was how struggles worked. Cheating for character development or no, the price was always there. She could see it—the plot threads had already been set. She took a mantle without thinking, an item known to be addictive. Naturally, she would get at least partially addicted to it one way or another. Equally, though, she would be cured. It wouldn’t do to have her debilitated by chemical dependency for an extended period of time, the story wouldn’t allow that. She was Cinder. She had to keep adventuring.

Knowing these two things… she was safe to do what she wanted.

I haven’t even thought about that stallion I burned to death.

She could feel the magic in Still Waters pushing that thought out of her mind. It wouldn't do to dwell on it. The emotional breakdown and realization of what she’d done would come eventually. Deal with it when she needed to and not a moment before.

Right now… it was time to exploit the situation.

Cinder looked up. She was standing in front of the doors to the Pavillion’s mantle storage.

Sunshine was sitting there in her wheelchair. “Cinder…?”

“Sunshine?”

“Yes?”

“You know a lot about what kind of mantles are in here.”

“Yeah.”

“Show me.” Cinder kicked the doors in.

~~~

At this point Distant Shores was absolutely convinced Allure wasn’t anything like her mother.

It wasn’t the tears or the emotional speech that changed Distant’s mind. It wasn’t the physical difference of the artificial horn, or the fact that Allure knew more about what the multiverse had to offer. Not even Allure’s insistence to stick with her quest despite the doubt did it.

No, it was seeing Allure shout at someone on a phone that made Distant realize how different two Sweeties really could be.

“Look, it’s the tallest building in the entire city!” Allure belted. “It gives off magic like a beacon! If I was Celestia I could teleport over there right now, and you’re telling me there’s no way to take a shortcut here?” She paused as she listened to the voice on the other side. “Oh come on!”

Distant had seen her mother get angry, frustrated, and excited before. She’d even heard the exact phrase ‘oh come on!’ on more than one occasion. However, it was this familiarity that allowed Distant to hear the difference.

When The great-mighty-and-mantled Sweetie Belle had shouted, it was a complaint, almost a whine that existence was unfair and things should be different.

When Allure shouted, the sentiment was different. It was more of a demand than a complaint. The Sweetie Belle had no choice in her adventure and was taken from place to place without any anchors. Allure had authority and she was going to use it.

“Look, we have dozens of Agents that could get there in an instant! Just… this is The Sweetie Belle we’re talking about! You know, one of our primary missions as a League. And you’re telling me there’s nobody free to get here?”

Seren handed Distant a juice box. She took it without really thinking and sipped, uncertain what fruit she was tasting. “We going to be here a while?”

“Probably,” Seren said. “The Sweetie on the other side of the line is right to assume I should be able to get us to Sparkle Enchantments easily, and that we don’t need anyone else.”

“So why aren’t you?”

“I’ve done the magic scans. That place is magically defended like Homeworld. I don’t want to touch it from the wrong angle.”

Distant glanced at Allure. “...She knows this, right?”

“Yep.” Seren slurked her juice box obnoxiously.

“So talking on the phone is about as useless as us waiting for this tram.”

Seren glanced at the broken down rail they were waiting in front of. “I could have this thing running in fifteen minutes if they’d let me touch it.”

“Seren, I’m a certified maintenance pony, and they won’t let me touch it. They’re not going to let some freaky horse-monkey with a bizarre juice box anywhere near it without a lot of explosions, blood, and screams. Probably from them if I’m being honest, but massacring a bunch of stuck-up security ponies is…” She tapped her hoof on the ground. “Well, it would be cathartic.”

“And dumb.”

“Yes. Very dumb.”

“Yes I know!” Allure wailed. “Transdimensional teleports are funneled in this universe! Yes, I know, I know, that’s a mystery. We don’t need to find out who set it up, just… ugh! Can I get Jade on the phone? Please? ...Right, she’s with Jingle…”

“Where did you get that juice box, by the way?” Distant asked.

“I made it.”

“You made it?”

“Yep.”

“You can just… make food.”

Seren nodded. “You can’t?”

“Ponies are starving in alleyways, of course we can’t!”

“Oh.” Seren looked down, frowning.

Distant’s heart twisted. This is just a kid, she remembered. “Look, I…”

“That’s really weird, most high-end mages can just create food in almost every Equestria,” Seren said, putting a hand to her chin. “Apples from nothing, oranges, flowers… conjuration is a major spell. It’s a miracle that farms aren’t made obsolete in many areas, but that’s thanks in part to earth pony magic. But for food itself, the conjure matrix is relatively simple and easy to execute. I’ve been handing out juice boxes to ponies all day!” She gestured at a troop of malnourished foals sitting in a nearby cardboard box, all drinking Seren’s boxes of juice dry.

“...We totally have the potential to solve our starvation problem, don’t we?”

Seren shrugged. “Maybe? I doubt it could be transported to everyone, but the rampant hunger you see shouldn’t be a problem in any pony society.”

“And we just don’t.” Distant sighed. “Of course. Don’t know what I was expecting. Vision isn’t exactly practical.”

“Why does everypony stay?” Seren asked. “This sounds like the exact kind of scenario that’ll start some kind of revolution.”

“Honestly? It could any day.” Distant frowned. “Ponies are fed up. They just hate Celestia more.”

“Why?”

“Stupid reasons. Something to do with her killing a pony who was messing with the economy or something. I never really cared about the glorious ‘Sine Rider’ and his ‘Vision’. Whatever it was, it clearly isn’t working.” She snorted. “There you go, that’s one thing your precious Sweetie Belle did for me. Let me know exactly how fucked up this place was so I didn’t become complacent. Joy. Now I live knowing exactly how terrible everything is and unlike everypony else in maintenance I can’t just be happy through it.”

“...Oh…”

Distant wanted to rant, wanted to scream… but this kid just got so depressed at everything Distant said. It wasn’t her fault that her mother and Vision had screwed her up, she shouldn’t be ashamed. This kid just needed to learn what the world was like!

Distant groaned, realizing she had just went on a rant about how she wished she didn’t know what the world was like.

“...Distant…?”

“Just…” Distant looked around awkwardly. “Look, I’m sorry, things suck. I shouldn’t be unloading on you. You probably see enough shit as it is.”

“The… uh… ‘shit’...” she blushed as she said it, a reaction Distant struggled not to laugh at. “It’s not why I’m sad. I see ponies die and suffer all the time. Even back home.”

“Wait, what? I thought…”

“What’s sad is how broken…. your family is. It’s so sad.”

Distant had to bite her tongue to keep down a biting remark.

“You hate your mother, you’re not really close to your other mother… you’re angry. And… and that’s just sad. I… I come from a world where the magic didn’t come from friendship, it came from family. I have dozens of cousins, several grandparents, amazing aunts and uncles… and all of us fought the darkness together.” A smile came to her face. “I remember the final battle. It stood with the duplicates of itself it had made to abuse the magic, but we were stronger. Even as it seemed like we’d lose, we were still laughing together, crying together, and…” She looked at her hands, frowning. “There were many problems with my world. But that family bond…? Everyone needs that.” She wiped away some tears. “Why can’t everyone have that?”

“...Holy shit, you’re deep for a kid.”

Seren forced a smile. “Yeah. I’m probably just being silly. I’m the engineer, not the counselor. I don’t know what people need. Just what I know. My sisters would probably be better.”

“Sisters?” Distant jumped quickly on the possibility of a tangent. “I thought Sweeties only had one? Unless I’m remembering wrong.”

“I mostly have adopted sisters,” Seren explained. “One of them’s Scootaloo. But yeah, I guess I only have one real sister, and that’s Pulchri, my Rarity.”

Distant shuddered. “At least she sounds like a good pony for you. I hate the fact that, through some definitions, I’m related to that mad artist butcher who lives in the Medical Pavilion.”

“Is she really that bad?”

“There’s a joke in maintenance. ‘Death is art in the Medical Pavilion’.”

“...That’s not really funny.”

“No. No it’s not…”

“Aha!” Allure jumped up, drawing their attention to her. “I got something! After several phone calls and patches and discovering that Renee was out today, I finally got something!”

“What?” Distant asked.

“A Skiff!” Allure tapped her hooves excitedly. “Ah, Celestia, I thought Renee designed the government to avoid bureaucratic paperwork tornadoes like this…”

“Unlucky day,” Seren shrugged. “We needed to spend some time here. Watch your call go through in five seconds next week.”

“I hate the fact that you’re being reasonable right now,” Allure muttered.

“Excuse me, Distant Shores here,” Distant coughed. “What’s a Skiff?”

Allure gestured upward. A large dimensional portal appeared in the air above them, depositing a six-seater craft into the universe. It was vaguely crescent shaped and made of a pristine, white metal that sparkled in the light. The center of the crescent had a large bulge of glass where the chairs were arranged in sets of three next to large screens, fancy buttons, and several machines Distant had no idea about.

“This is a Skiff,” Allure said with a smirk. “Standard Merodi Issue single-team vessel.”

Distant wasn’t sure what to ask about first. The portal itself had been fascinating while it existed, but there was also all the complex wires and magical machinery she could sense within the Skiff itself. What was it made of? Why was it shaped like a crescent? Where could it fly?

She didn’t get to ask any of these. Somepony else spoke first.

“Well this looks like an unlicensed vehicle.” A security lieutenant stood in front of the Skiff, examining it with a critical eye. “I’m going to need to see some proper identification.”

“I literally brought it from another universe it has none of your identification,” Allure deadpanned. “Where may I procure such a thing?”

“The office of vehicles, over in district seven. However, since you brought it into Vision without proper documentation, I’m going to have to impound it first.”

“How am I supposed to get the proper documentation if the district to get that is in Vision!?”

“Not my problem.” He pulled a roll of police tape out of his uniform and started tying the Skiff up.

“...I could turn it on. Shoot this place to bits,” Allure said. “That tape won’t stop it.”

“You really wanna try that?”

Distant waited for Allure to break down and burn this infuriating cop to the ground. It would be stupid, yes, but to be frank, Distant could see herself tearing this guy’s throat out after so much shouting.

For a moment, Allure looked ready to blow everything to smithereens. However, instead of unleashing the righteous fury in a burst of violence, she sighed. Pulling her communicator out, she called the League again. “Recall the Skiff.”

With a flash of light, the Skiff was gone.

“Unauthorized use of magic,” the lieutenant said. “I’m going to have to take you in.”

“...Okay,” Allure said, offering her hooves. “Fine. Just… just do whatever. We’re clearly not supposed to get to where we need to go quickly. Maybe we’ll be carried off to the prison, get noticed after a few hours, and then get to the top of this city. Or… or…” She sighed. “Who am I kidding. We’ve waited decades to find her. Of course we’re going to be made to wait again. And when we get there, we really aren’t gonna like what we see. That’s how things go down here.”

The guard, thoroughly uninterested, put her in the cuffs.

Distant was glad the stallion didn’t see the need to imprison her or Seren, though she admittedly wasn't paying much attention to him at the moment. She was watching Allure carefully.

“...Vision’s getting to you,” she said, walking along with Allure and the guard.

“Hm?”

“It breaks down everypony. Everypony. But you… it’s breaking you down in a different way. You’re not losing your fire or your spark…”

“I’m losing my hope,” Allure said matter-of-factly. “I’m keeping a promise. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be happy times at the end of the road.”

~~~

Fluttershy had access to Sparkle Enchantments. Private transport for the Elements was always active, regardless of the state of the rest of the rails. Pinkie often handled repairs on the systems herself, fixated on making sure her best of friends had the best possible aspects of the city at their disposal.

So Suzie, Celia, and Fluttershy were on a private tram while the rest of the system was suffering from widespread malfunctions.

“What is going on with the rest of the system?” Celia asked, looking out the window at several empty, dead tram tubes running through the water.

“Pinkie said something about not having enough time to update all the systems last time we had lunch,” Fluttershy explained. “She spends most of her time making sure ponies are happy. Other things get neglected.”

“Why doesn’t she just hypnotize them?” Suzie asked. “Or have you do it?”

Fluttershy frowned. “It’s not what she wants.”

“Of course,” Suzie turned away, glaring at their approaching destination—the massive, purple glow of the Sparkle Enchantments building that towered above all the other towers of Vision. Most of the city was below them at this point, looking like scars of light across the dark ocean floor. Only Twilight’s cutie mark stood above it all, giving a strange feeling of hope.

A false hope, Suzie thought. I am going to tell this Twilight exactly what I think of her little city...

“How do you think she’ll respond?” Celia asked.

Fluttershy had to think about this for a moment. “Twilight… believes in the freedom of ponies to choose. She’s of the mind that they’ve all chosen the way Vision has become, so that’s the way it’s going to be. I don’t know the last time she actually did anything major in Vision since she faked her death. She just… watches ponykind to see where they choose to go.”

“Well they’ve chosen badly,” Suzie muttered. “Time for a change.”

“She won’t like it if we suggest she has no choice,” Fluttershy said.

Celia nodded. “I recommend opening with an offer of aid. Pointing out that her ponies are suffering and that they most certainly would accept food and the like if it was offered to them.”

“We might want to mention that you’re offering this out of your choice as well. You’re run by a council, not a princess, right?”

“Technically speaking Eve’s a princess, but she’s also a Twilight, and she shares power equally with the other Overheads. In theory. In practice Ava, the Overhead of Labor has the most power, due to her inter-Division powers…”

Listen to them talking politics like nothing’s wrong, Suzie thought to herself. Like this is just some routine mission where we go to the leader of the screwed-up-civilization of the week and offer them what we have. Like this Fluttershy isn’t a controlling psychotic maniac. Like Celia hasn’t forced a bunch of ponies to conform to hypnosis.

Like this city isn’t evil. Like this city doesn’t deserve to burn.

Celia and Fluttershy talked strategy. Suzie didn’t listen. She was done listening.

Let them make their plans. This city won’t accept healing. It never will. And when it comes crashing down around them… I’m going to give Twilight a piece of my mind.

Celia isn’t going to be able to stop me.

“Suzie, dear…”

Suzie operated on the assumption that Celia had deduced what she was thinking. “You’ll get your chance. Go ahead with your plan. Go, befriend the evil empire.”

“It is a method of alliance we have performed numerous times, Suzie.”

“How far do we go?” Suzie asked. “How much are we willing to put up with?”

“More than a single city’s hellscape,” Celia retorted. “The Imperium of Man was, and in many ways still is, worse. We’re still working with them. We can work with this, one way or another.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Suzie muttered. “Maybe you’ll convince yourself mind control is okay. Go ahead, become the Conqueror by Friendship.”

“It is preferable to being the Conqueror by Force.”

Suzie didn’t dignify this with a response.

Their private transport affixed to the outside of the massive purple starburst, sliding into the highest level of the tallest tower. Far above the rest of Vision the lights of the city were distant, and only a purple star shone against the oppressive inky blackness that was the ocean. There were guards in full armor and a mare sitting at a desk, waiting for them.

“Ah, Fluttershy, good to see you again!” the mare said. She had been the voice on Fluttershy’s radio earlier. “...I take it this meeting is of a more serious matter, though.”

Fluttershy nodded. “She’s waiting for us?”

“Yes. Go on in.” She gestured to the throne room doors. They looked a lot like the doors of a standard Canterlot’s throne room.

The interior was shocking.

It was bare. Empty. Suzie could almost describe it as unfinished if the emptiness wasn’t so clearly intentional. It looked almost exactly like Celestia’s throne room in most Canterlots, except there were no tapestries, windows, or decorations of any sort. It was all bland, white, harsh.

There was no throne at the end of the hall. There was only a window, and a mare sitting in front of it, looking not at the city below but the darkness above. She looked a lot like Cadence, though the angles in her body were much sharper, more powerful in a way.

She looked so lonely up here in this empty room.

Suzie hated that thought. This was the mare responsible for everything. There couldn’t be sympathy.

“Twilight?” Fluttershy said, voice slightly pensive.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight responded with a cold, nearly empty voice.

“This is Celia, Chalcedony and Colonel Suzie Mash. They’re from another universe.”

Twilight turned around, slowly, moving each of her limbs like it was a machine. Her eyes were full of power but devoid of life while her face was completely level. There was no smile for Fluttershy.

“Sweetie Belles have a habit of dimensional hopping,” Twilight observed.

“We do,” Celia admitted, pulling her mane back slightly. “We represent the League of Sweetie Belles, an organization within the multiversal nation Merodi Universalis.” She bowed slightly to Twilight. “It is an honor, your highness.”

Twilight glanced over Celia, taking in the bow. “Yes,” she said softly. “I know.”

“In our explorations, we have come across a great deal of pain in your city. Fluttershy assures me you are aware of this.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Those who are starving, suffering, or just… lost in their own violence.”

Celia continued. “It is tradition that, after an exploration team finds a need within another world, they offer the resources of Merodi Universalis’ Aid Division to that world. Before we begin any talk of relations, trade, or even diplomacy, I wish to express that we’re willing to help.”

“And how would you help?” Twilight asked.

“Food. Medical supplies. Healers,” Celia began. “More, if you’ll accept it. We have hundreds of worlds within us, we can staff repair efforts, even build more modern structures would you desire it.”

“And how do you…” Twilight selected her words carefully, “profit from this help?”

“We don’t. It’s called the Aid Division for a reason, it’s aid. We expect nothing from you in return.”

“You do not expect companionship in return? Friendship?”

Celia pursed her lips, as if pondering her response—though Suzie knew this was just an act. “I suppose there is, but it’s nothing official so you can always ignore it, though I don’t see why you would. There’s no payment of money, resources, or even people. Just time and a willingness to talk.”

“How would this ‘Aid’ be carried out?”

“For the medical supplies and food, our people would just come through and hand it out, perhaps go searching into the deeper depths of society to find those who really need it. We’d need to coordinate with your engineer teams and civil authority to work in the other areas such as repair and construction.”

“They wouldn’t be forced to do anything,” Fluttershy added. “The Merodi could set up little shops and nexuses to help ponies. Mini-Sanctuaries could be created. They have the resources, the time, and the desire to help our ponies.”

“We really do want to do this,” Celia assured. “It’s part of our primary mission. Help where we can.”

Twilight didn’t respond for a few seconds, allowing an uncomfortable silence to fall over the empty room. Just when Suzie was about to say something out of confusion, Twilight spoke. “I see no reason to object to acts of charity, even if they may come from other worlds. That said, your missionaries—” what an odd choice of word. “—cannot be armed or bring powerful magic from other worlds.”

Celia allowed herself to look guilty. “One of our members is currently an exceptionally high ranking mage, wandering Vision. We can remove her if you want.”

“I am already aware of the person of which you speak. This policy would apply to any future visitors. One mage will not upset the city, but hundreds would. Furthermore, all missionaries—” that word made Suzie furious. “—who enter our city will be subject to our laws.”

“We won’t cause any trouble,” Celia confirmed.

“That is not what I said,” Twilight said, her voice carrying an emotion with it for the first time: irritation. “If anyone wants to move to Vision, they will be bound by its laws. If they break those laws they will be subjected to detention and the otherwise normal process of legal justice. They will respect our citizens, and our city government, and the security forces which uphold our society.”

A silence fell across the room once again.

“Do you find this act unreasonable?”

Suzie glared at her. Of course that’s unreasonable, have you seen the security in this place? Corrupt, unhelpful, and execution happy!

“Not at all,” Celia answered. “We are well used to dealing with other forms of legal justi-”

“Really?!” Suzie blurted. “You’re just going to agree to that?”

Celia fixed Suzie with a shut up now or you’ll ruin everything look. “Suzie, this is standard procedure.”

Standard procedure is to use our resources and power to overcome the difficult system. If they don’t have weapons or magic, and this city does, they’ll die.

Twilight was looking at Suzie. “What is your objection?”

Celia spoke into Suzie’s mind directly. Talk about your concern for our people’s safety and—ah, she can hear me, nevermind.

Twilight let out a faint sigh. “Must you coach her?”

“Vision has not been kind, and she takes a more… personal objection to the city,” Celia said.

Big surprise, Suzie seethed. Go on an adventure to get to know each other better, she said…

“Suzie,” Twilight said, addressing her once more. “What do you think of my city?”

Suzie didn’t even wait for Celia to give her a cue or anything. “I think it’s a terrible place. It needs help. Which we can offer.”

“If you’ll let them,” Fluttershy added, forcing a smile. “Just let their workers through. They’ll listen to your restrictions. I’m sure they’ll understand the danger.”

“We put our lives on the line every day just to explore,” Celia added. “This is a much higher purpose.”

“Is it?” Twilight asked. “Why?” Nopony answered, and the silence grew long.

Finally, Celia frowned. “Do you take issue?”

“Not at all. Ponies are free to do what they wish.” She glanced at Fluttershy, pausing to let it sink in. “If they wish to brave Vision, they can do so.”

“Very well,” Celia said. “It seems we have an agreement. We will begin movement of Aid personnel to Vision as soon as possible, with the understanding that while they’re here they act as your citizens. We can bring in no outside weapons or powerful magic.”

Twilight nodded. “And must respect the law. Your missionaries receive no special treatment.”

“Will this apply to arrival and departure?”

“Yes. Your missionaries will be subject to the same entrance procedures you were.”

“Why do you keep saying that?” Suzie asked.

“Missionaries?”

“Yes. They’re workers. Some of them will no doubt be religious, but not all of them.”

“You are here to promote your ideology. That’s what a missionary is.”

Suzie wanted to push further, but Celia was giving her a look. Fluttershy too, though hers was significantly less angry and more nervous.

She thinks I’m going to explode, Suzie realised. Nope. Not going to happen. I’m going to let them burn this thing to the ground. I told them it would go wrong, and it’s going to go wrong. Look at this thing they’re signing!

They were about to agree to absolute obedience to Vision’s ridiculous laws and brutal practices. They were to be limited with no technology or magic from beyond. They were going to walk into this city, set up shop, and die.

Get captured like Cinder.

Suzie’s expression fell away as she realized what was happening. In front of her wasn’t a plan that would ‘fix’ Vision, it was a document that would kill hundreds of people. Her people. Sweeties, ponies, agents… they would come here, and the brutal mantle-fueled corrupt-cop city of Vision would take them and rip out their souls.

She couldn’t let this happen just because of some petty desire to see Celia screw up.

“No,” Suzie said, shoving Celia away.

“Suzie, I swear to th—”

“You have not been fully reinstated as a Relations Representative since your combination incident, you cannot make agreements on our behalf.”

“You know full well that our laws allow for this in this situation.”

“I can use this as a justification to declare you unfit.” She snapped. “I am not consigning hundreds of our people to die for this broken city.”

“Suzie, that is not your decision. If I am not ‘authorized’ to agree to this, then we need to send it up higher to Relations, perhaps Eve herself. Have her come down here, perhaps hash out an agreement with less restrictions? I’m sure she’d be willing to discuss such a thing.”

Twilight watched them both silently, still as a statue.

“We don’t have to do it this way,” Suzie said, clenching her fist. “This doesn’t have to be a slow burn. They far exceed the Oversight Line.”

“And so did the Gems and so did the Imperium. We are much better off having taken the diplomatic route.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Please, Suzie, we need to get help to these ponies. Not… what you’re offering.”

“It won’t work!” Suzie shouted, standing up tall. “We’ll send people here, and they’ll die in this hellhole! It won’t make it better, it’ll just add to the body count! You’ve seen what this place does to—”

“You? Turning you into an angry mongrel who wants to kill everything?” Celia pointed out the window at Vision itself. “I bet you want to see this place burned to the ground! That won’t help either—”

“This is quite unbecoming,” Twilight pointed out.
Suzie stared at the princess for a few moments before laughing. “That’s rich, coming from the pony in charge of the constant battle for life down there.”

“You mistake me, Suzie. I have nothing to do at all with day-to-day life of Vision. Ponies make their own choices. As you are now making the choice to shout and stamp your foot in my throne room.”

“I’m making a choice all right.” Suzie leaned in, glaring at her. “We don’t need your approval. We can come in here and give Aid by force. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again. This talk is just a courtesy.”

“Oh, Suzie…” Celia groaned—a noise she quickly interrupted with a shocked intake of air. “You just gave her what she wanted.”

Twilight offered the softest of smiles, then turned away from the others and went back to staring out the window. Sung hung in the air as they waited for her to answer. Two seconds. Five. Ten. Twenty.

Finally, Celia gave in. “...Do you think this is funny?” Getting no answer, she continued. “There is a whole multiverse out there of Sweeties and more who want to put a stop to this suffering. As… unprofessional as that just was, Suzie is being honest—though clearly you knew this since before we walked through those doors, you just wanted to force it out of us.”

“Tell me,” Twilight said, “when you arrived in my city, what was the first thing you saw?”

Celia hesitated for a moment. “A customs office.”

“Yes. A duty post. One that sits on the border between two worlds, controlling what may pass between them.” She turned back to the Sweeties, her expression as level as before. “It was never implied you were free to come or go as you pleased. In fact, you still carry paperwork, stating that there is a date by which point you must depart.”

“You think a mare with a stamp is going to stop us?” Suzie growled.

“My city is on the border of many things, Suzie. Sea and sky, light and dark, past and future. Countless worlds surrounded. Infinite mirrors and infinite lighthouses. But this world, where you now stand, is mine.”

After an uncomfortable silence, Twilight continued. “You haven’t broken any laws, at least not any big laws, so I see no reason to cause you any trouble. You can come and go as your Visas permit, and if you truly wish to hand out aid and medical supplies, why would I stop you?”

“Yes, yes,” Celia said, nodding. “We will do that, c—”

Twilight wasn’t looking at her anymore—just Suzie. “But this is not a place for armies. War is an ugly thing; I detest it. So your army must stay behind.”

“Like you could stop them from coming,” Suzie said, letting out a bitter laugh. “I could call them in right now. Put a quarantine over this entire city. Freeze it solid. Deal with one pony at a time. You’re just a city. We have thousands of worlds at our disposal.”

“But we still don’t want to do that!” Celia called. “We always want the diplomatic solu—”

“Sometimes the diplomatic solution makes you think brainwashing ponies is a good thing,” Suzie spat, pulling out her communicator. “This is Colonel Suzie Mash, I’m gonna need a show of power appropriate for a city...”

Twilight nodded her head. “So be it.” She lit her horn, casting a spell. Three dark blue rings sprung from her horn, and then slowly faded into the air.

Swip’s voice came Celia and Suzie’s communicators. “EMERGENCY EXTRACTION INITIATED.” For a moment, a portal opened behind them, showing Swip’s interior. “TELEPOR—”

The portal collapsed. The communicators returned nothing but static.

Suzie stared at Twilight. “What did you do!?”

“Two-way travel is now forbidden,” Twilight deadpanned. “You may leave at any time. But you may not take anything with you or bring anything outside, in. You will not be conquering this city.”

“You think we can’t break down a simple jamming spell?” Suzie laughed. “Swip’s gonna bring the fleet down on this place and rip your dimensional lock right out of your horn in a few minutes.”

“No doubt. But that’s a few minutes for them. How long will it be on this end?”

Suzie’s confidence dissipated. “You… you can’t have. Altering the time constant is…”

“Difficult,” Twilight admitted.

“But very possible if she knew some of the things we put into The Sweetie Belle’s notebook…” Celia said, no longer making any attempt to hide her rage at Twilight.

“Your true colors,” Twilight said, glancing at Celia. “Why are you angry at me?”

“Don’t you give me any of this ‘misleading question’ bullshit,” Celia said. “I’ve played the game a while, probably longer than you. You’re hiding behind a facade just as much as I was. The only difference is that when I no longer have a reason to hide, I am myself. You still hide behind that cold, question-spewing face of yours.”

“I have done nothing.”

“I think we both know you specifically led the conversation and used words to trigger Suzie’s response.”

“You were lying. I merely wished you to speak the truth without being antagonistic.”

“Then drop the idea of this meeting. You have the power to fix Vision. It’s clearly messed up. Your little ‘experiment’ to let ponies be free hasn’t worked.”

Twilight shrugged. “Perhaps not. But I am not the one who created mantles. I am not the one who turns ponies into works of art. I am not the officers who kill because their power allows it. I am not the one who drove The Sweetie Belle’s family apart.”

Celia nodded slowly. “You’re quite delusional. Are you saying that passing a starving kid by on the street and doing nothing is a blameless act?”

“It does them no harm. And what obligation do I have to them, that I must help whenever they ask?”

“You are their leader! You brought them here, that makes them your responsibility.”

“Perhaps. But you act as though they are your responsibility.”

“Twilight, please,” Fluttershy spoke up, reminding everyone that she was there. “We don’t have to do this. We…”

Twilight stared right at her. “Fluttershy, you should know that your magic doesn’t work on me.”

“Twilight, I—”

“You are free to side with them as you wish,” Twilight turned away from her, what looked like the slightest hint of pain on her features. “And they are free to stay as long as they are able. But Vision will not have a war, nor will Vision let itself be conquered.” She looked Suzie in the eyes. “Unless you believe you can still change it from within.”

Suzie lost it. She grabbed Twilight by the neck and lifted her into the air, summoning U-Catastrophe. The intricate, white branches of a massive tree erupted from her feet, invisible to Celia and Fluttershy.

But Twilight could see it. She saw something she hadn’t expected. The surprise was evident on her face as the branches of the tree closed in around her, surrounding her and Suzie in a nest of wooden spirit.

“You could destroy Vision with this…” Twilight observed, eyes wide.

“You aren’t anywhere near surprised enough,” Suzie growled. “I haven’t had a good reason to use this in a long, long time. You should be honored. This place is far enough in the pits of hell for it to be worthwhile.”

“Don’t!” Celia called. “Suzie, Twilight is not a standard leader, her vision isn’t of glory for her city!”

“Then tell me what it is!” Suzie shouted, wanting nothing more than to lob Twilight’s arrogant head off.

“She’s… uh…” Celia furrowed her brow. “She’s difficult to read, but she doesn't care about the ponies down there. Not really. I’m fairly certain she doesn’t care about this idea of choice either, it’s just there to further some other philosophical goal of hers. She…”

“She wants to prove that ponies are... evil,” Fluttershy said, tears in her eyes.

I have no idea what U-Catastrophe would do in response to that vision.

With a scream, Suzie threw Twilight to the floor and dissipated U-Catastrophe.

Twilight rubbed her throat and stood up, seemingly unperturbed by the events. “I have ordered the guards not to put out an order for your arrest, nor to interfere with this meeting. But they will have heard that and will use their power to label you as enemies. You are no longer safe in Vision.”

Suzie pulled her fingers into a fist. “I don’t care.”

“You should leave. There really is nothing for you here. The Sweetie Belle had to learn that twice.”

“I’m not leaving this place to rot!” Suzie lifted her head. “We’re not leaving until what we’ve come to do is done.”

“If you wish to fight a city on your own, you are welcome to try.” Twilight ruffled her wings. “Cinder is in the Medical Pavilion being treated by Rarity.”

Suzie drew her gun, intending to disable the alicorn. Twilight teleported away before Suzie could get a shot off.

“...Dammit,” Celia said. “Dammit, dammit dammit…”

“You tried,” Fluttershy said, forcing a smile. “It’s okay. You can go get Cinder a—”

“No, Suzie’s right,” Celia said. “We don’t just get to leave and let this place rot.” She glared at Suzie. “For all your anger, you did get that right. We don’t leave. Not if we have a choice.”

“...You really are going to try to take the city on?”

Celia and Suzie glanced at each other. They were angry—furious—with each other. But they knew what had to be done. “Yes,” they said in unison. “What else can we do?”

Celia held out a hoof to Fluttershy. “Coming?”

“...Okay.”

Cinder (Siren Song, Part 4)

Cinder walked right into Rarity’s office.

“Oh!” Rarity said, looking up. “Cinder, I am sorry about the…” she paused. “You look…”

“A little messed up?” Cinder said.

“Breathtaking. Have you used a mirror, yet?”

“Don’t need to, but might as well. I’m sure you’ve got pleeeeeenty, heh.”

Rarity smiled to herself, pulling out one of her full-body mirrors and pointing it at Cinder. The mare the mirror was still identifiable as the curious, brave filly who traveled the multiverse, but it was hard to think of them as the exact same person. There was less white on her coat than other colors, now, given as she was covered head to hoof in additional cutie marks. Still Waters still maintained a dominant spot on her face, but it was no longer alone in circling her eye. Smooth, thorny vines ran around the opposite side of her face while a dripping ice cube took form on her right cheek. Snaking down her neck were a series of colored dots with gemstones in them, all colors that were currently visible in the rippling glow on her horn. A bright blue spark occupied her stomach, a series of three bees on her left hoof, and a myriad of other tangled symbols all over the rest of her body. On her perfect leg, the crusader shield remained prominent, but on the damaged one a large rose had taken residence over the scar tissue.

She wasn’t wearing the metal supports anymore. One of the mantles—she wasn’t sure which one—had taken care of that need.

Cinder started laughing.

“It really is delightful, isn’t it?” Rarity asked.

“Absolutely! But you have no idea why!” Cinder reared up on her hind hooves and clapped, prompting a set of blue and red gemstones to appear. “You only see the beauty in my choice. You don’t see the beauty in what this means. What I’ve done.”

Rarity smiled knowingly. “I am well aware of your little intuition… I really doubt it is reliable, given your reaction to me, but it must have something.”

“Not reliable? Girl, you’re looking at the up-and-coming teenage drug addict who threw herself whole hog into this vat just because of some intuition and a mark of water around her eye.” She giggled. “If you like this, you aren’t trustworthy in the lea-e-east!” She sang the last word like it was part of a song, simply because it amused her.

“Well, at least you’re no longer hiding behind that mask of yours. This is good!”

“In the end, it will be. The ultimate end.” She stretched out her hoof, creating a bunch of bees that ceased existing when she got bored five seconds later. “So, I’m the mare of a million talents. Amazing.”

“Yes! What are you going to do with these million talents, Cinder?”

Cinder teleported onto Rarity’s desk, a few loose lightning bolts charring the wood. “I’m leaving!”

“To do what?”

“To go find my friends. Though I think we all know that’s just a pretense, right? RIGHT!?” She slid off the desk and rolled her eyes. “I’m going to explore. I’m going to be the hero. And, I don’t know, I’ll be the change this city needs to turn around or something.” Her face became deadly serious. “You going to stop me?”

“Not at all!” Rarity said, delighted. “It’s really very ‘you’, you know?”

“I do know! More than you eeeeeever will. I see things, Rarity. I see things about this city you only reach in the edges of your most impressive art. There’s a curse here.”

“Oh, no dou—”

“I’m probably the first pony in history to let it take me knowing full well what it was.” Cinder winked. “Let’s hope it’s worth it!”

“Do you not like yourself?”

“Oh, I absolutely love myself. Look at me!” She gestured at the monster in the mirror. “Gave up everything just to be the better hero. Woo, fun!”

“I’m glad you agree!”

Cinder laughed. “The sick part is you don’t have that little voice in the back of your head telling you this is wrong. I, at least, still have that. That’s the difference between you and me, Rarity.”

Rarity pursed her lips. “Oh, I’d think there are more differences than that.”

“Absolutely! But I don’t care about what messed up scheme you got going here right now, at least not until my self-destructive journey of ‘heroism’ leads back here and labels you the villain. Which it probably will.”

“I actually look forward to that,” Rarity said, smirking.

“Psycho,” Cinder giggled. “Nice knowing you. See you around!”

“Do come back if you change your mind. You’re always welcome here.”

“Even if I’m on a holy crusade?”

Rarity’s eyes sparkled. “It will be beautiful.”

“You would think that, wouldn’t you?”

Rarity nodded. “Good luck!”

Cinder backflipped out of the office, teleporting the moment she passed through the doors so she appeared in the front of the Pavillion.

Taking a deep breath, she threw her mane back. “Get ready Vision, Cinder hopped up on drugs and high on a sense of heroic responsibility is about to take you ON!”

“Go Cinder!” Sunshine called from her wheelchair near the entrance.

“Cinder sold her soul to the devil,” Cinder chuckled. “Oooooh the parallels, themes, and ironies in that.” She lifted a hoof, tapping into a sound-based mantle to create a finger-snapping noise. A red cape appeared on her back, patterned not with her cutie mark but rather a black spirograph. “Symbolism.” She giggled to herself.

She looked out from the clean, pristine white of the Pavillion into the dark murk of Vision. A place where ponies were suffering and falling to pieces because the city itself was poisonous to their very destiny.

Well, now they were going to have Cinder. A mare who let the city poison her because she knew it couldn’t kill her. Some things were stronger than the murk of some mare’s deluded dream.

Cinder’s song was one of them, even if she didn’t fully understand how.

“Take me out, beat me down, devour my soul… Cinders will remain.”

She ran as fast as she could, using the teleport mantle to cross vast distances in the blink of an eye. Before anypony knew what was happening, she appeared in an alley where three stallions were standing over a terrified and humiliated mare.

Cinder slammed her front hooves together, sending a shockwave into the three stallions. Two of them took one look at her and ran off in a panic.

The third, as it turned out, was an idiot.

An idiot with a mantle that let him cast lightning bolt.

Cinder decided it would be more fun not to rely on a mantle for this one. How about pull out a strip of paper that strangely acted like a lightning rod? That would be suitably humiliating and ridiculous for this idiot.

The bolt hit her paper and deflected into the ground, leaving the paper itself unharmed.

“Oooh, nice shot!” Cinder laughed. “My turn!”

Bees.

Holy Celestia, a lot of bees came out of her hoof.

He let out a scream as the stings covered his body, driving him into shock. She’d had no intention of actually injuring him, but from the swelling it was pretty clear he was allergic to the stings themselves.

No worries. She let him pass out before tapping into a basic calming mantle, forcing the allergic reaction down and reducing him to a healthy, if sedated state.

We’re not killing ponies this time around if we can help it.

Turning around, Cinder extended a hoof to the scared mare. “Hi! I’m Cinder! Who’re you?”

Usually, when a crazed mantle pony showed up, any normal pony in Vision would be understandably terrified and want to run away as soon as possible. This, however, was Cinder. And ponies liked Cinder.

“I’m… Blood Orange.” She took Cinder’s hoof and stood up.

“Well, Blood Orange, glad to meet you! You can go home now, you should be safe. Or…” Cinder smirked. “You could come with me and see who else we can save.”

Blood Orange thought Cinder was crazy. Blood Orange was sure this was a bad idea likely to get her killed and interfere with what Cinder was doing in the first place.

Blood Orange came along anyway.

What else was she going to do, go back to her home and wait for the gang Cinder had just beat up to collect their “due”?

~~~

The cell was every bit as damp, dark, and depressing as Allure had expected it to be. Even Vision, with all its horrors, couldn’t really make the general “depressing prison cell” dynamic worse than it already was. It was wet and it was dark. At least it wasn’t a fleshy demonic hole in a literal hell. Those were always fun.

There was even a mild comfort—a little radio sitting outside the cell.

To be fair, it was currently set to the Applejack Propaganda channel, so it was probably intended to drive her to submission, but really all it did was make Allure laugh. Applejack propaganda just seemed… silly.

“She’s lost it,” Distant said from outside the cell.

Seren slurked her juice box.

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

Seren did no such thing.

Distant facehooved. “Allure?”

“Yeah?”

“This is stupid.”

“Obviously,” Allure said, using the opportunity to stretch her legs. “But the rails aren’t fixed yet, are they?”

“Nope,” Seren confirmed after checking her ‘seeing-eye’ spell. “Still down.”

“So there’s literally no reason for me to break out of prison until we have a way to get to Sparkle Enchantments.”

Distant let out a sigh. “You’ve been arrested. By City Security. Chances are they’re trying to find a way to justify executing you just so they can avoid housing you for very long or dealing with a mountain of paperwork.”

“Surprising,” Allure deadpanned. “How long will that take? Days?”

“...Yeah, probably,” Distant admitted.

“Then we’re good to sit for a while until one of you figures out how to get us to Sparkle Enchantments quickly.”

“What are you going to do when they do come to execute you?”

“Assuming it comes to that, which I’m not sure it will, I will have Swip drop the Skiff on them.” Allure smirked. “If all your laws result in execution I might be inclined to break a few more.”

“...While I would pay to see you drop that thing on these assholes, that… well…” Distant wrinkled her snout. “The point is we’re just sitting here, doing nothing.”

“Oh, I’m well aware.” Allure glared at the lock on her cell. “All we seem to do lately is waste time. Can’t get to Sparkle Enchantments even though it’s a stone’s throw away. Can’t get to Cinder since we have no idea where she is. I suppose we could just leave and come back in a few days with a small army to turn this entire place upside-down, but that doesn’t really appeal to me.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“I am.”

“I meant…”

Allure chuckled. “Sorry, had to do it to you.” Her smile vanished, replaced with a frown. “Look, I’d love to do something. Give me an idea of something to do that doesn’t involve burning the city to the ground or undue amounts of violence, I’ll hop on instantly. It’d be a snap to remove these iron bars.”

“...Your magic is sealed.”

“The idiots have no idea how to restrain an artificial horn,” Allure said, demonstrating by levitating a cockroach off the cell floor.

“Pretty sure the bars are anti-magic too.”

“Then Seren will blow them up or I’ll rely on my Heart powers or we’ll just use a dimensional portal, point is we have options.”

“Should we really be discussing this out in the open outside a police station’s cells?” Seren asked.

Distant checked the only guard watching them. He was fast asleep. “Idiots don’t care. Not right now, anyway.”

Allure tapped her hooves on the ground in annoyance. “They wanna kill me but don’t care enough to watch… all over a mysterious vehicle he clearly wasn’t all that interested in.”

“Flexing.”

“I’m surprised Suzie hasn’t razed this place to the ground already,” Allure admitted. “I hope negotiations are going well…” She was about to call Swip to see how things were going when a new voice came on the radio.

“Darlings…” what was clearly a Rarity said.

“Oh for the love of Twilight, not this psycho bitch,” Distant muttered.

“There are a lot of rumors in our city about the dangers of mantles. And while some are founded…”

“...all the others are also founded, because those things turn your brain to jelly, force your body to break out into tumors, and tear families apart!”

“Seren, shut the radio off,” Allure said.

Seren lifted a hand. “Ok—”

“...And here’s our special guest, Cinder b—”

“TURN IT ON TURN IT ON!” both Distant and Allure scrambled. Seren obliged, keying in to Cinder’s voice as she went on about mantles, her experiences with them, and how they could be useful as a medical treatment.

“It’s happening again…” Distant breathed. “A ‘Sweeties’ is going down the mantle deep end!”

“I doubt she knows the horrors of what they do,” Allure said. “...I’m just relieved she’s fine. We’ll remove the mantle when we get back to the League.”

“So convenient, so now all of you can just abuse the mantles without fear of ending up in a ditch somewhere, dead. Great lack of consequences. Brilliant.”

Allure decided to let Distant vent for a while. “Seren, you’ve looked at the maps of the rail system. How far is the Medical Pavilion?”

“Halfway across the city.”

“Great… well, guess she’ll just have to sit tight until the trams are ready.”

“Sit tight?” Distant put a hoof to her head. “Did you forget everything you’ve learned about Rarity?”

Allure sifted through her memories. Rarity… oh. She killed her Sweetie.

“On a scale of one to ten, how much of a psycho is she?” Allure asked.

“She lures broken ponies into her hospital and uses them to create art. The statues in that place are real ponies! I call that an eleven on your little scale!”

“Right,” Allure said, levitating Seren’s communicator to her. “Swip, Imma need you to drop that Skiff off again. We need to move quickly and I don’t care how many local laws we break, we’re getting Cinder out of the little workshop of horrors.”

“Hold for a minute,” Swip said. “Something’s up.”

“Something’s up?” Allure frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean some kind of magic is messing with th—EMERGENCY EXTRACTION INITIATED.”

Allure didn’t know why Swip was initiating emergency extraction, but the first thing she did was grab onto Distant with her magic and hold on to her tight. If we’re getting extracted, I’m not losing her.

A portal opened behind them, showing Swip’s interior. “TELEPOR—”

The portal broke. A rush of dimensional energy ran through the manes and hair of everyone present. Allure and Seren took it like it was nothing.

Distant’s eyes widened in alarm. “What the fuck…”

“Someone just jammed dimensional travel,” Allure muttered. “Seren?”

“I can establish a connection out,” Seren said. “One-way only. The rest is barred.”

“Can you overcome it?”

“Don’t think so.”

“What the fuck!?” Distant squealed.

“Distant…?” Allure cocked her head. “It’s ju—”

“That’s my spell!” Distant screamed. “Somepony just used my spell on the entire city! How—they said it was useless! They said there was no reason to develop it! That was very clearly developed you… you… thieves!”

“At least you’re not angry at us anymore,” Seren said, grinning.

“I’ll get back to you two and your interdimensional Sweetie-ness after I find those ponies I showed the spell to... Who I don’t remember the name of.” Distant facehooved and let out a deep, pained groan.

“Regardless, we’re getting Cinder out first.” Allure tapped into her Heart and cut the bars right off with her invisible spirit. “There we go!”

The guard woke up. “Wh… JAILBREA—”

Allure forced her Heart around his mouth. “Yeah, none of that. We’re going to do this jailbreak on our terms.”

“Quietly and without drawing attention?” Distant asked.

Allure laughed. “Well… that would be wise…”

“There is not a magic source within a mile that can take me on,” Seren declared.

“But who needs to?”

Distant sighed. “You know what, you two might be worse than her. You’re actually going to get me killed with your insanity.”

“We can send you back to the League, if you want.” Allure waggled her eyebrows up and down. She knew Distant wouldn’t take it.

“...Dammit, fine, I’ll help. By Twilight, you’re all insane…”

~~~

The guards and the receptionist were gone when Suzie, Celia, and Fluttershy poked their heads out of Twilight's office.

“So, legally speaking, Twilight told them not to attack us,” Celia said.

“But we know how easy it is to get the law against us,” Suzie added. “I was serious, hundreds would have died because Security didn’t like the outsiders.”

“We have subtle ways of mitigating that! No powerful magic, yes, but there is no doubt some way to abuse the mantles or a race that doesn’t have a tangible form to kill…”

“These ponies are creative, they’d find a way.”

“Well, now instead of a few of our people willingly risking themselves, we’ve got a poorly-conceived low-personnel effort to take down an entire city from the inside!”

Fluttershy inserted herself between them. “Stop fighting!”

“You’re one to talk!” Suzie shouted. “I—”

“She’s giving you the courtesy of not draining your mind and she’s right,” Celia said, sighing. “What happened in there was a fiasco, though honestly I doubt we could have come out any other way. Twilight was playing us.” She scowled. “I should have known…”

“Twilight’s… complicated,” Fluttershy said. “Don’t feel bad.”

“My job is to understand other complex, often insane people. I failed to manage that. And now she’s stuck us here.” Shaking her head, she put on a smile. Suzie couldn’t tell if it was fake. “But that’s behind us. We’ve got a new challenge, and we’ll rise to it! Save Cinder, take this place down. Fluttershy, how many of your friends do you think could be convinced to go against Twilight?”

Fluttershy thought about this a moment. “Just Applejack. The rest… I don’t see it happening.”

“Then we go to her after getting Cinder.” Celia tapped her hooves. “Medical Pavillion?”

Fluttershy nodded, climbing into her private rail car and setting it to the Medical Pavillion. “I have lunch with Rarity all the time, I have my own private entrance and everything. I think I can just ask for Cinder, we’ll get her out.”

“Good,” Suzie said, sitting down as the tram started moving. “How much danger is she in?”

“...Well, uh… usually Rarity’s little works of art take a few weeks to… complete.”

“And you have lunch with this psychotic art-murderer.”

“Yes. Rarity may have done some questionable things but I’m not going to let that ruin our friendship.”

“Sounds real kind to go on letting her kill ponies.”

“I did try to talk her out of it. Once.” Fluttershy looked at the ground. “I’ve learned not to try that again.”

“Big whoop, you tried with words.” Suzie glared out the window, expression souring the longer she looked at Vision’s light. “Sometimes, you need to take action.”

“Suzie…”

With a lurch, the tram stopped moving. The rail they were on sparked loudly.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Pinkie wouldn’t let this rail break down…”

Celia glanced out the window at the damaged rail, finding a rather obvious cut in the metal. “Sabotage. Probably by the guards.”

Suzie groaned. “Ugh… what will they think of next?”

A nervous expression came over Fluttershy. Slowly, she walked to the built-in radio and turned it on, dialing to Applejack’s station.

“A big upset has just run by me. Fluttershy’s disappeared, and there’s a lot of blood in her Sanctuary that nopony’s talkin’ about. Ah’ve just been told that there’s an imposter runnin’ around with a tall, Rarity-like white unicorn and some kind of lanky monkey. They raided Sparkle Enchantments together. Please, if you see them, report to the local authorities, and do try to find out what happened to Fluttershy…”

Celia let out a hiss. “Passing you off as an imposter…”

“I’m not sure we can get into the Medical Pavilion easily, anymore,” Fluttershy said. “If I can get to Rarity, I can prove I’m me… but the ponies at the gate…”

Suzie cracked her knuckles. “Then we push our way in.”

Celia twitched. “Dear, Fluttershy is not a combatant, you don’t have magic, and I’m not exactly the biggest magic powerhouse in existence. We have to play this smart—sneak in!”

“I…” Suzie couldn’t think of a reason not to sneak in. It really would have a much better chance of success. And a smaller body count.

My authority is being undermined every freaking minute.

“Now… getting to the Medical Pavilion while we are stranded in a broken tram…” Celia frowned. “Since we’re ‘wanted’, if we let security know where we are, they’ll try to attack us. Then we can take the sub they have to use to get up here.”

Suzie stood up, hand on her pulse cannon. “I like that idea. Show them we mean business. Use their own power against them.”

“I see several ways that could backfire,” Fluttershy pointed out.

“The other option is for me to try and drag us along the rail with my magic, which will probably alert them anyway.” Celia frowned. “Actually, they probably already know where we are and are waiting to send a full contingent or something. That was probably sabotage out there, after all.”

“So we sit tight until they come.” Suzie folded her hands together. “Not… ideal, but I’ll take it.”

“We need a moment to rest and recharge our magic anyway,” Celia said. “I’m quite spent as it is.”

Suzie tapped her foot anxiously.

More waiting.

She hated waiting more than anything right now.

~~~

They called him Big Boy.

It was a name nopony could take seriously attributed to a massive black stallion that wanted nothing more than to be taken seriously. Yet, he had still embraced the oft seen as comical moniker as is own, using it in conversations about the death of many ponies. The reasoning behind this was simple.

If ponies laughed or looked amused, it gave him an excuse to kill them. This high up the chain of illegitimate enterprise, he rarely got face-to-face with any enemies, thus keeping him out of the killing game. His name, in the end, was to keep him engaged in his favorite pastime of watching the life drain out of ponies’ eyes.

Nopony had even so much as smiled around him for the past few weeks. He was getting impatient.

“Big Boy,” his aide, a rather shapely white pegasus, said in her usual monotone voice. “The vigilantes have destroyed another shipment of our dues.”

“WHAT!?” He shouted. For a moment, he hoped she would react, but she was as without a personality as ever. She was just too useful for him to kill her for that. “Why haven’t we gotten Security to stop them, Tabula!?”

“Uncertain. Rails have been down and our shortcut ponies have not reported back. Radio chatter has gone up. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say Security is busy with something else and the communication speed is harming our efforts.”

“Useless suits…” Big Boy grumbled. “Organize the mercenaries, be as brutal as possible. Kill all those ponies we’ve been letting live without paying in full. All of them. They need to understand that anypony going up against Big Boi is a death sentence to—”

The two of them heard a muffled explosion.

“...That sounded like it came from the entrance,” Tabula observed. “It is possible the vigilantes learned of your location.”

“Idiots think they can charge in here!?” Big Boy laughed. “They’re making my job easier…”

There were a few more explosions, these marked with screams of pain and terror. They could hear blades clashing and magic spells going off now, alongside the sounds of panicked ponies.

A lanky stallion with two strength-enhancing mantles ran into the room. “Big Boy, we’re under attack! They’re advancing on your position, we need t—”

Big Boy slapped him. The mantle on Big Boy’s forehead of a skull pushed so much power into his dismissive motion that the lanky stallion’s skull not only shattered, but was ripped clean off his body.

The sudden rush sent chills through Big Boy. “Heheheheh…” He stood up from his simple metal chair, rising so tall his head almost touched the lights in the ceiling. “Maybe this is a good thing…”

“I highly recommend fleeing for your own safety,” Tabula said.

“Hah. Safety. I’ve never met a pony I couldn’t kill…”

He strode right out of his dark room into the long hall immediately outside, filled with various artifacts and valuable materials he had collected over the years. A few weapons here and there, some golden statues littered around, and the occasional magic crystal. Nothing all that useful considering the strength he had.

The door on the other side of the hall blew in, clattering to the ground.

“I can’t believe this is working,” an orange mare said.

“Oh, come on Blood Orange!” A green mare with an eyepatch used her remaining eye to wink at her. “When are you gonna learn to have faith in Cinder?”

“When you learn to stop trying to wink, Eyepatch,” the lead mare said—white. Presumably Cinder.

“My name i—”

“Xenon, I know, but come on, Eyepatch sounds so much cooler!”

Big Boy stamped his hoof, drawing the attention of the ponies to him. There were more than just the three of them, though notably most of the ponies aside from these three looked a lot less confident. Blood Orange and Eyepatch seemed cocky, but overly unthreatening.

Cinder though… she was effectively still a kid. Small, frail, weak, and covered head to hoof in mantles of high quality. There was no way to tell how long they’d been on her, but he knew how having that many mantles worked; you took them all at once and the euphoria came like a wave of unstoppable power. The addiction quotient would simply be too strong, and if they weren’t able to get new doses, they would die horribly.

And yet, some ponies did this anyway. It had a name—spiral jacking. Done by those in desperate need of a last-minute-party before their suicide or who needed to give their life to accomplish some foolish goal.

Big Boy had seen a few spiral jackers in his time. All of them had this sort of background sadness to their expressions, if that hadn’t been washed away by the madness already. Cinder didn’t. Her eyes burned with a passionate fire that knew no end.

Big Boy decided he liked her.

Unlike most who fell under the adorable charm of Cinder, this meant Big Boy wanted to kill her. In the most brutal way possible. It was what she deserved, after all—a little gift directly from him.

“Wow, you’re a regular garden-variety psycho aint’cha?” Cinder snarked, tapping her hooves on the ground excitedly. “I bet you’re going to be fun!”

“Don’t let him punch you, he’s got the Visceral Veins mantle,” Blood Orange said. “Instant death to any who oppose him.”

“What makes you think I’m going to let him get close?”

Big Boy rushed with a speed mantle hidden in his dark coat right to Cinder, expecting to drive his hoof right through her big mouth.

Instead, he found himself teleported back to the start of the hallway, punching nothing and falling over.

Cinder giggled. “Ooooh, that’s gotta sting, Boy!”

“You’re in for it now,” Big Boy chuckled, standing up.

“No, I think it is you who are in for it!” Eyepatch retorted.

“That was lame,” Blood Orange said.

“Wh— hey!”

“She’s trying, give her a break,” Cinder added.

Big Boy took advantage of her diverted attention, charging again. He closed the gap even faster this time, but with one wave of her horn Cinder diverted the mob boss into a nearby wall, cracking it from the force.

“Headache and possible concussion, I’d say,” Cinder said, quickly folding some paper into a nurse’s cap. “You’re really going to need some medical attention, I suggest taking a trip to your nearest hospital a—”

“AAAAAAA!” Big Boy roared, pulling his head out of the wall.

“Oh just…” Cinder held out a hoof. Eyepatch passed her a silver Loopty Hoop. Twirling it on her tail, Cinder smacked Big Boy in the face with it several times before looping it around his body and slinging him around like some kind of child’s toy. Slamming him to the ground, she raised an incredulous eyebrow. “So… still wanna fight?”

There were no more words. Only grunts and punches.

“Right…” Cinder teleported him to the far end of the hallway again. “Think he’ll survive being teleported out into the water?”

Eyepatch shrugged. “I dunno, he’s strong, but the pressure…”

“Eh, I’m going to try it anyway. Watch and learn, girls.”

There was a flash, and Big Boy was in so much pain everything went black. He didn’t even have time to register the water’s wetness.

Cinder teleported him back into the hall. Waving a healing hoof over him, she restored his breathing functions.

“Oh come on…” Blood Orange groaned. “Surely he deserves death!”

“Maybe,” Cinder admitted, tying him up with a glowing blue cord she summoned from the aether. “But then again, maybe not. We don’t really know his situation. What we do know is that he’s not going aaaaanywhere. Hey. You! White pony!”

Tabula blinked. “I’m Tabula. Yes?”

“You look capable. Wanna join our little, ahem, ‘crusade’?”

Blood Orange gasped. “That’s his number one assist—”

“Sure,” Tabula said with a shrug. “Mob business clearly isn’t worthwhile anymore.”

“Great!” Cinder sang. “Come along, I’ll introduce you to everyone else! This is Blood Orange and Eyepatch—”

“Xenon,” Eyepatch corrected.

“—And I’m Cinder, our wonderful, slightly crazed, leader!” She turned around and gestured at her small group of followers. “And this is Meathook, Fizzlebop, Rod, Squirrel…” She went through a list of about twenty ponies that were behind her. “And there’s a few that aren’t here but managing the mad ponies of the town that want to loot Big Boy’s Bountiful Base.” She chuckled to herself as a few ponies pushed through her followers into the hall so they could raid all of Big Boy’s precious toys.

“Interesting,” Tabula noted. “I have never seen a pony gather so many ponies voluntarily.”

“I’m definitely cheating,” Cinder chuckled. “Probably a little manipulative and shady in the end, but you know what? It’s better than starving and mobs roaming the streets for payment!”

“Definitely,” Blood Orange agreed.

“Oh, Blood Orange! The mob’s disbanded now, you can go home if you want.”

Blood Orange snorted. “And do what, sit and grow old while you galavant around? This has been the best day of my life, you insane bonehead, I’m not going anywhere.”

“I knew the moment she saved me she was something special,” Eyepatch added. “This was before she went all jacked, too! There’s something unique about her, Tabula. I’m sure you see it!”

Tabula nodded. “She does not belong in Vision.”

“And that’s a fucking good thing!” a stallion shouted.

Tabula seemed to accept this. “Now that you have liberated the ponies from Big Boy’s ‘services’, what are your plans with this area?”

Cinder cackled. “Girl, girl, giiiiiiirl! What makes you think Big Boy was our goal?” Cinder levitated herself into the air and let her eyes go white with the power of her many mantles. “We’re helping everypony.”

“Everypony?” Tabula cocked her head. “That seems unrealistic and ill advised. It is wise to know when to stop and call it.”

Cinder dropped to the ground and held out a hoof to Tabula. She could swear she heard music start to play. “Stop? Stop?” Cinder let out a melodious laugh before belting out into the first heartsong Tabula had heard in over a decade.

“Ooooooh I’m the mare that never stops!
You can’t keep me from saving flops
I see the pain there in the street
And bring my troop there with this beat!”

Cinder grabbed Tabula, dragging her through the small crowd and out of Big Boy’s doors, back to the main streets of Vision. A startling sight greeted them: ponies walking around with smiles on their faces, celebrating the fall of the local mob boss.

Cinder’s horn flashed, creating some cupcakes for a group of hungry fillies.

“A little bit of outside magic
Flips the story, no longer tragic
I can give my strength to you,
And you can spread it everywhere!”

The fillies cheered, running off to spread the excess cupcakes to the other ponies of the street.

The familiar sensation of locations and events blending together within the magic of a heartsong began to overtake Tabula and before she knew it, she was bobbing her head and marching in time with all the other ponies. They marched through Vision, the added power of the song adding ponies to their number without need for conflict.

“Yeaaaah I’m the mare that never stops!
Our hooves march into all these shops
Deep within the darkness hides
‘Till I come in and end divides!”

They were in a mantle shop filled with various of the magical chemicals. Eyepatch lifted a highly-expensive teleporting mantle off a shelf, eyeing it carefully. Cinder slapped it out of her hoof.

“The poison joke bleeds into ponies
Eats destiny, bleeding them dry
I’ll end these ceremonies
For I gave up my soul to this!”

Everything went dark for a moment. Only Cinder was visible in the fire that began to devour the shop. Her words suddenly took on a much more somber tone.

“Giving up your sanity to end all the depravity
A sacrifice of future peace, of innocence, of sweet release
At the end punishment will come even though now I am numb
Do not walk this path I tread; I do it for you, I won’t be dead.”

The mantle shop owner held out a hoof to his burning shop, tears streaking down his face. Cinder walked up to him and extended a hoof, smiling sadly. Slowly, he took it.

“Woooooah I’m the mare that never stops!
I’ll burn it down and plant our crops
If the world wants you all to fall
With other realms we will stand tall”

There was a fight. Several colts and fillies about to be brutalized by drooling ponies. Cinder and the others charged in, taking care of them with ease. There was Cinder’s power, yes, but there was also the song. A song of hope in a city that had none.

It had some now.

“I bring with me a stronger story
Of adventure, heroic glory
The League lives to face evil
And through friends and fire it will be—
Eradicated!”

Cinder stood atop a mound of dazed—amazingly not dead—ponies that were trying to kill her from all sides. They came with knives, unusual mantles, mutations, and crazed laughs. She met them with a cocky smirk, clever magic, and graceful motions.

“Yes, I’m the mare who never stops!
I’ve turned around this city’s curse
Sure, awaken the worst in me
Through it I’ll set these ponies free.”

She rocketed away from her happily prancing followers, slapping aside a muscular stallion as he tried to push another stallion into a choke hold. He was easy to deal with—a paper crowbar mixed with just a light smattering of bees got him off long enough for a hard smack to the back of the head to knock him out.

“Through it I’ll set these ponies free…” Cinder extended a hoof to the stallion on the ground. Smiling, he took it.

“Are you insane!?” A new mare’s voice shouted, completely unaffected by the fading music or the smiling troop following Cinder. There was menace in the voice.

Turning, Cinder took in an orange pegasus with a sea-green mane, no doubt an important mare to the story in one way or another. She was pretty. Cinder thought this detail sneaking into her mind was suspicious. “I mean, I’m covered in mantles, so I have to be a little nuts, girl.”

“Not that! You just took out a cop!”

Cinder’s followers gasped.

“She… she’s right!” Blood Orange put a hoof to her head. “What are we gonna do?”

“Relax, relax,” Cinder said, smirking. “Security is part of the problem too, we would have run into them eventually. Plus, I think burning down those mantle shops already put us on their bad list. And no doubt the ones that were being bribed by Big Boy…” She shrugged. “We’ll take them like we take everything else.”

“You’re… you’re delusional…” the pegasus said.

“Probably,” Cinder admitted. “But this place is so far down the tubes nothing but a little delusional creativity will save it.”

“You’re…” she started laughing. “Oh, if she had tried to be you…”

Cinder frowned. “Who? ...Who are you?”

“Swiftwing,” she said, folding her wings. “And you’re a crazed filly, just like ‘The Sweetie Belle’, as I guess you call her.”

Cinder took all the information contained at once. This was Swfitwing, she knew The Sweetie Belle, closely at that. She had a lot of resentment toward her, and Cinder’s current mantle-covered self wasn’t helping things. Furthermore, she wasn’t surprised that Cinder was a Sweetie Belle, which probably meant…

“Where is the rest of the League?”

“I don’t know, they dropped by, left to go find my daughter.”

“Directions?”

“Maintenance and—look, you’ve got all this power running through your veins that’s going to kill you in a week, why not just go off and find them yourself?”

Cinder smirked. “Oh, I won’t be dead in a week.”

“Bullshit! No spiral jacker I’ve ever seen c—”

“Merodi Universalis can cure me, rather easily from what I understand.” Cinder dusted off a hoof nonchalantly. “All I have to do is leave Vision before the mantles kill me and take all my followers with me.” She turned to the small crowd of ponies she’d saved, converted, and in some cases beat up over the last day or so. “We don’t have to defeat this city, everypony, we just have to leave. The other Sweeties have dimensional devices we can use. And if those don’t work due to some trick of fate—which is pretty likely—then we have the power to hijack a submarine and get the heck out of here.”

Blood Orange blinked. “Wait, you actually have a plan? I thought you were just improvising!”

Eyepatch chuckled. “She’s doing both.”

Cinder giggled with a smile that was just a little too big. “Let’s go find the other Sweeties while running away from the law and… basically doing what we’ve been doing for the last song.” I wonder how much time passed in that. I’ve probably been awake longer than a day but I’ve never felt so alive! “Let’s see if we can get a second verse! Coming, Swiftwing?”

“No.” Swiftwing retreated into her shop quickly with an awkward backpedal. “No. No no no.”

“Suit yourself,” Cinder shrugged. “We’re the ponies who never stop!”

They left in a gallop, doing little to hide themselves.

Cinder was right about one thing.

City Security was already aware of them, and they weren't keen on what was happening.

They just had something else to deal with at the moment that moved through the chain a bit faster than a crazy spiral jacker and her smiling posse.

~~~

As it turned out, City Security didn’t appreciate jailbreaks.

Even if they were busy with something else, the moment they noticed anypony was gone, they hunted them down like rabid wolves after a succulent rabbit.

“Stop in the name of the law!”

“Your law sucks!” Seren shouted, pointing her scepter at the large mare and unleashing a shockwave of immense magic power that tore up the ground and sent a few cracks through the glass keeping the ocean out which, conveniently, didn’t rupture and doom everypony to a watery grave.

Distant stared at the cracks in shock. “...I… how... what? That’s not physically possible!”

“She’s a magical girl,” Allure explained.

“You say that like it explains everything.”

“Her spells are a spectacle of convenient destruction meant to entertain and awe.”

“W-why?”

Seren floated down and smiled innocently at Distant. “Because it’s more fun that way!” She held out a hand, surrounding the crack with blue magic rings. “I’ll fix it though, don’t want someone actually letting the ocean in.”

Distant facehooved. “Well… we’re really fugitives now. Fun.”

“You’re smiiiling,” Seren ribbed.

“I smile to hide my pain,” Distant retorted.

Seren put a concerned finger to her lips. “No… no, I don’t think so. You think this is fun!”

“Fun? What does fun have to do with anything?”

“Everything!” Seren pressed her hands together, eyes sparkling.

“...Ocean’s floor, that’s cute,” Distant said with no small amount of trepidation.

“Woohoo!” Seren cheered—she was getting through to Distant!

“That cute noise really shouldn’t come out of a murder-machine.”

“Whaaaat?” Seren rolled her eyes. “They’re not dead!” She floated over and tapped the downed mare with her scepter. She didn’t move. “Oh. I guess she is.” Seren shrugged. “Eh, she was attacking us anyway, wanted us dead.”

“Makes sense,” Distant admitted.

Seren gasped. “You don’t think I’m creepy?”

“I mean… compared to the stuff I see around here every day? You… I can’t believe… You’re a good kid with a good heart. You’re better than everypony in this rotten city.”

Seren beamed. “T-thank you!”

“I still think you’re creepy,” Allure offered.

“Of course you would,” Distant muttered.

“Okay, time out, why does she get to be ‘better’ and I’m still chopped liver?”

“Not cute enough.”

“That’s…” Allure twitched. “Every Sweetie Belle is cute!”

“It’s a matter of degrees.”

Allure twitched—then broke out into a laugh. “Glad to have you on board, Distant.”

Distant forced an awkward smile. “S-sure. I…” She blinked, processing something. Then she let out a soft chuckle. “Oh, if only Pinkie could see what real Laughter was supposed to do… Look at me now.”

“She’s corrupted,” Allure said. “We’re… not.”

“Oh, the city’s getting to you, I see it in your eyes,” Distant said. “But it looks like you are getting to me too. I don’t know what it is about your insane adventuring law-breaking antics, but it’s addictive.”

“There’s a whole wide multiverse out there to explore!” Seren squealed. “And you’re on the cusp of realizing your talent!”

Distant glanced at her flank. “I guess…” She shook her head, pulling her mane back. “We do have to get out of this city before that, and Cinder before that.”

Allure nodded. “Seren, do you mind continuing our reckless charge to the Medical Pavilion?”

Seren lifted her scepter into the air. “Don’t mind if I do! Blastin’ off at the speed of s—” She stopped herself. “Incoming!” Forcing her hands out, she created a barrier of immense strength in the ocean waters, protecting the recently-repaired glass from an incoming torpedo. The torpedo impacted her shield and let out a massive star of fiery energy.

She was able to contain it.

This did not stop ponies from panicking.

“...They’re willing to kill their own ponies just to get rid of us…” Allure realized. “What… what is wrong with them!?”

“A lot of things,” Distant said. “Though this does seem a little overkill, even for them.”

Seren frowned. “Did the others do something to make them mad?”

Allure shrugged. “I don’t know. Seren, are there more torpedos coming?”

“No. I’ll be ready for them if they d—”

“Citizens of Vision!” the voice of Rainbow Dash called out from several public speakers, making the three of them fall silent. “We have a situation. Several creatures known as ‘Sweeties’ have invaded our precious City, identified by a white complexion and pastel purple-pink manes. Some are ponies, while others are lanky two-legged creatures without a coat. Collectively, they have a long list of crimes ranging from mugging to theft to murder to arson. They are causing mass unrest within our city and they will not be tolerated. All citizens who engage them are authorized to use lethal force with no repercussions and will receive a reward of one thousand bits for every confirmable kill. We are no longer interested in taking prisoners.”

“Shit,” Distant said.

“Yeah, I’m thinking the others made them mad, somehow,” Allure said, pulling out he communicator. “...If only Suzie would respond…”

“The entire city is against us now… and panicking.” Distant glanced at where the torpedo had exploded. “They couldn’t have known we could stop that, though.”

A giant stallion with knives in his legs saw them. “There they are!” he shouted. A group of panicking mares were torn out of their stupor to glare at the Sweeties and Distant.

Allure and Distant were ready to fight—admirably preparing their Heart and spatial rendering spells respectively. They were not needed. Seren pointed her scepter forward and knocked every single pony back with an invisible shockwave. The stallion with knives in his legs stood back up and charged her.

Willing to kill a child. Oh no. Seren clasped her hands together, encasing him in a series of magic circles that froze him in place. She teleported him into a clock tower, smashing his face right into a bell with a loud gong.

“...Geez,” Distant said. “Could you take down this entire city?”

Seren shrugged. “Depends on how powerful your top mages are.”

“But we don’t want that kind of collateral,” Allure reminded them. “Seren?”

“Right a—” before she could get them moving again, an invisible mare dropped her cloak and stabbed Seren in the back.

“Seren!” Distant shouted. Through instinct, she cast a rend spell that twisted space around the previously-invisible mare. Several bones within her body cracked as the wave moved through her, and she fell to the ground, screaming in agony.

Seren focused her magic in the knife, removing it quickly. It took a significant amount of focus to heal her wound without passing out, but she managed it. “...They… could take me out of they’re clever.”

“We need to move fast,” Allure said. “This w—”

“Over here, idiots!”

Seren, Allure, and Distant turned their heads to see a white mare shrouded in a blue cloak gesturing to them from a manhole cover. Allure and Distant were uncertain of the strange mare. Seren was not—this was their help in a time of need. She teleported the three of them into the manhole, finding a dark but surprisingly clean sewer pipe within.

“Good, I was afraid I’d have to lure you in with promises of power, or something.” She took part of her cloak off, revealing her face to be that of a Rarity. A young Rarity free of mantles or the grime of Vision. “You Sweeties really don’t know how to lay low, do you?”

Allure rubbed the back of her head. “Well… I mean we usually can just march right in and get what we want.”

“Yes. Quite. Overconfidence will be your doom.” She sighed.

“So, not from around here?”

“Clearly,” the Rarity commented, adjusting her saddlebags subconsciously. “I was just passing through to pick up some… unique items that can only be found in this universe, as far as I know. And then it turns out I can’t leave. So, how about, in exchange for me telling you how to not get your plots handed to you by Central Security, you tell me how to get out of this dimensional lock experiment you have going on?”

Seren cocked her head. “...One-way portals out still work.” She cast a dimensional portal. She could see nothing through it since everything could only go one way, but she knew it led somewhere safe. “We could leave anytime we want, we just can’t come back.”

The Rarity glared at her. She shoved a hoof at the portal, finding that it acted like a solid wall to her.

Seren blinked. “That… doesn’t make any sense.”

Distant tried next. Her hoof was stopped too. “...What…?”

Allure pulicked a strand of her mane out and tossed it at the portal. It went through.

“Fuck…” Distant’s eyes widened. “It’s giving you a way out. But you can’t take anything with you. Whoever cast this spell… they want you to run away with nothing to show for it.”

“What kind of monster would do that?” Seren wailed.

“Sounds annoyingly like the local Twilight,” the Rarity tutted. “Bother…”

“She’s alive!?” Distant gawked.

“Oh, yes, quite. She’s quite the well-kept secret if I do say so myself, took me several visits to figure it out. I’ve done my best to make sure she doesn't know I exist…” she scowled. “That appears to have worked against me, here. She didn’t know to leave me with a way out. Delightful.”

Distant sat down. “Princess Twilight Sparkle… stealing my spell…”

“I doubt she stole it herself, somepony else probably did it without her lifting a hoof. The mare has an issue with not being held accountable for anything.”

“Sounds like a special kind of psycho,” Allure said.

“Please, you should see the local analogue of me, that girl’s so far off the deep end it’s ridiculous.” The Rarity rubbed her head, soothing a headache. “...You are hoping to remove the dimensional lock, yes?”

“Yes!” Distant blurted. “Yes we are.”

“In that case, it looks like I’ll have to help you darlings.” She frowned. “I’d rather not be here when all hell breaks loose, you understand. This place is poison to everypony in it and were it not for the amazing magic I wouldn’t touch it.”

“...You’re with the Infinite Carousel, aren’t you?” Allure asked.

She smirked. “I’m an independent. And while they are excellent business partners, I have no desire to lock myself into one place through… association.”

“So what’s your deal then?”

“You may call me Indigo Shroud.”

“...Gonna tell us anything else?” Seren asked.

“About me? No. About how to not die and avoid Security? Yes.”

~~~

City Security had multiple armed submarines and the occasional mantled officer. They thought they could take anything that was trapped in Fluttershy’s little private car. And to be fair, if it had been just Suzie and some ‘fake’ Fluttershy in there, no matter how clever the two of them fought they would go down.

But today, they had Celia.

And there was absolutely nothing Security was going to be able to do to Celia.

“Gentlemen?” Celia asked, teleporting into one of the submarine cockpits. “What’s the situation?”

“We’ve been boarded!” The captain shouted. “G—”

“Why don’t all of you sleep, hmm?” She waved her hoof before any of them could fire their weapons. Five of the seven officers fell to the ground in an instant, a few of which hit their heads painfully on consoles and walls. Celia didn’t care. To be honest, it took all her restraint not to outright kill these ponies, but you never knew who might be a potential ally in the future and killing the government would just make a bad situation worse.

The two officers who were able to resist her charms attacked. One only had a sword, which Celia effortlessly snapped in two with a spell. The other was a unicorn with a mantle: a crossed out heart. She could feel a spell wash over her that was designed to give her a heart attack.

“Oh, darling, if only I was a pony…” Celia summoned the tip of the razor-top out of her gemstone, smacking the unicorn in the horntip. The agony went to his brain—but his willpower kept him up. However, in his severely weakened mental state, it was easy to make him sleep.

With a smirk, she tore the captain out of his chair and sat in it. Pressing a button, she sent out a radio message. “This is Celia, Chalcedony, and I have just taken over this sub. The rest of you Security subs might want to stand down and let the real Fluttershy explain herself. Currently all of the crew is alive. You wouldn’t want to put them at risk, would you?”

To her annoyance, apparently the rest of Security did want to put the crew at risk, since the three remaining subs fired massive harpoons at the commandeered sub, breaking through the hull and spewing gallons of water into the cockpit.

Celia sighed. “Fine, if you want to kill your own ponies, be my guest! It won’t do you any good.”

She attempted to teleport to the next sub, but appeared outside it in the water. Some kind of teleport protection. She fully summoned her razor-top and drilled through the back of the sub, flooding an empty storage locker with water. Now that she was inside, the teleport lock wasn’t advanced enough to keep her from teleporting within the sub.

With a flash, she was on the bridge, and six ponies were asleep. “The mental fortitudes of these ponies is alarmingly low… tsk tsk tsk.”

The last unicorn standing only had a simple fireball and jamming spell. The jammer was annoying, sure, but Celia was a Gem weilding a massive top with a saw at the end. A simple fireball just didn’t protect against that. His neck split open, pouring blood all over the ground.

Celia dissipated her razor-top. He was dead, yes, but he would have been dead anyway, since… there it was, right on cue, the other subs skewered this one’s reactor core. There was an explosion Celia teleported out of, arriving on the third sub.

“This really is laughable,” Celia commented, dropping all but three ponies with a wave of her hoof. “Surrender is probably a good idea? You’ll do a lot less killing of yourselves that way. You’ll all live.”

They didn’t care. Celia almost used the death spell to make things simpler, but she sensed this sub wasn’t about to be destroyed. After all, the remaining one would have sensed a pattern at this point. She dispatched the three enraged security with a series of careful dodges, pointed hoof stabs, and bucks to the back of the head.

She walked to the radio again. “Do consider letting this crew live, hmm?”

A voice came back this time. “Surrender or we blow the tram.”

“Allow me to explain why I’m not going to do that. You want us dead. If we surrender to you, we die. All those officers you killed? Well I’m a hundred percent certain you’re going to blame that on me and not your brutal mega-harpoons. So, go ahead, blow the tram, kill the two people inside. I’ll still come for you and grab your sub right out of your grimy little hooves. But—oh but—you could just let us go and all this death could e—”

They tried to surprise her by interrupting her speech and using a much larger weapon than before. A full blown torpedo right to the cockpit. Naturally, she was expecting this—her plan had been to elicit such a reaction, after all. Better they shoot her than Fluttershy’s car.

A teleport later, she stood on the last sub with a grin. “Congratulations, you get to live!”

Not a single pony on this sub resisted her sleep spell.

“...Anticlimactic…” Celia muttered. She tossed her mane back and sat down at the controls. There was a password lock she bypassed easily. Technically speaking, Gems were artificial computers, and any simple tech security was shreds of paper to her. Unlocking the console, she found the controls were intuitive.

Got one, she messaged back to Suzie. Prepare for complex teleport…

After orienting the sub directly above the tram, Celia focused. She teleported all the sleeping officers into the tram, replacing them with Fluttershy and Suzie.

“I really hoped I would get to talk to them…” Fluttershy sighed.

“You heard the radio, they weren’t in a talking mood,” Celia said. She had to force herself to leave the captain’s chair so Suzie could sit in it.

Suzie glared out the main viewport at the tram filled with a half-dozen sleeping officers. “It’s better than they deserve.”

“No doubt,” Celia agreed. “But we have an image to maintain, even if they want to smash us into the dirt.”

“A lot of them are dead,” Fluttershy said. “No matter what, they will blame it on you.”

“I do deserve some of the blame,” Celia admitted. “But the point is, they shot their own ponies. We can use that to our advantage when the time comes.”

Suzie placed her hands on the controls. It was a little awkward with consoles designed for hooves, but she knew how to adapt. “Next stop… Medical Pavilion.”

“Or someplace I can teleport us off into Vision,” Celia said. “Security has more than four subs and I would rather not risk an aquatic firefight.”

Suzie growled. “Fine. First civilized place your teleport extends too.”

“Thanks, dear.”

Celia only got a harumph in response.

And I’m supposedly one with a streak of violent darkness running through me.

~~~

Allure was not surprised that hiding from Security involved trudging through a bunch tiny corridors connected to the sewer system. She just wished it didn’t. No matter how clean Seren’s spells kept them, they were still marching through tubes filled with filth and noxious toxicity.

“You really are a treat,” Indigo told Seren. “These corridors are usually so unpleasant to get through.”

“This isn’t unpleasant?” Seren asked, currently using her magic to keep the four of them inside a bubble shield and levitated off the ground. This did not stop the smell from assaulting their noses.

“You literally have to climb through ponies’ infected, magically-overridden filth most days,” Indigo said. “Compared to that, this is… well, not exactly pleasant, but certainly nothing more than a chore.”

“How close are we to the Pavilion?” Distant asked. “We’ve been at this for hours.”

“If we want to avoid detection, a few hours,” Indigo held out a hoof. “The stealthy route of the criminal is a slow one when you aren’t in charge of the infrastructure. I would love to get through Big Boy’s little mob, but that seems to have fallen apart recently.”

Allure snickered. “Big Boy?”

“He chose that name because he liked killing ponies who laughed.”

Allure took a few seconds to process this. I’m a dead pony. Fun.

They entered a sewer junction where a lot of filth—and a dead body—was passing through.

Indigo pointed. “Seren, up, we don’t want to go down into one of the gullets.”

Seren directed their levitation upward. The higher they went, the more ominous the feeling in the back of her mind became.

“...I think someone’s watching us,” Seren said.

“Please tell me you have an Awareness spell…” Indigo muttered.

“No.”

“Then we might have a pr—”

Everything exploded.

Allure saw fire. The heat burned her coat for a split second, followed by the sensation of being pressed into one of Seren’s barriers. She saw light, then darkness, then water. Her body shivered as Seren’s teleport tore them away from the danger and to another location.

At this point, Allure had enough of her awareness about her to see that they were out in the open. In the middle of a street filled with ponies. A second later, she saw these ponies for what they were—not normal citizens of Vision. Security. Regular uniforms surrounded them in the middle of a cobblestone path.

“The Bell Rings True!” Seren shouted, slamming her staff into the stone ground hard enough to create a small crater. The rumbling cracks rippled through the street, upsetting the footing of the officers. A bell constructed of neon-green energy appeared around her and her three companions.

The gong sound was muffled to everyone inside the bell. Outside, windows cracked, ponies screamed, and the shockwave spread out a beautiful ring of dust.

Seren dropped to a knee, breathing heavily.

Every last officer had been taken care of.

“Holy shit…” Distant breathed.

“We get it, you’re an anime protagonist,” Indigo said. “Now be a dear and get us out of here before they get clever.”

Seren struggled to her feet, lifting her scepter high. Allure prepared for the teleport.

It never came. A sword flew through the air and punctured Seren in the chest, spewing blood over Allure’s face. With a scream, Seren levitated the sword out of her, sending more of the crimson liquid out the other end. As she used her magic to seal the wound, she crumpled to the ground, shivering from her drastic overuse of power.

“Works like a charm…” a deep, feminine voice said, coming from a maroon unicorn who had just teleported into the arena. She was covered in six different eye-related mantles, giving her the appearance of a monster who saw all. “Get the magical powerhouse to exhaust their energy and they go down. I am rather impressed that she’s still breathing, but in many ways agonized writhing is much better to watch.”

Allure summoned her Heart, Distant readied her spells, and Indigo summoned a magic rapier construct.

“...Yeah, I’m not fighting you,” the mare of eyes said, smirking. “These marks are for finding and planning. Not smashing you into the ground.”

“Then you best move along then, hmm?” Indigo gestured to the side with her sword.

“I will. He won’t.” With a flash of her horn, she teleported away, revealing a small, yellow stallion behind her covered in head to hoof in dozens of different markers, most of them red and violent in some fashion.

“Oh.” Indigo bit her lip. “They appear to have created a spiral jacker just for us.”

“There is no way we’re that important!” Distant wailed.

“I’m going to need to have a talk with Suzie…” Allure muttered.

The spiral jacker encased his body in stone, created two illusions of himself, and charged the group from three different directions, his body giving off a purple aura.

“Hints!?” Allure asked.

“You’re the ones who do the crazy fighting!” Indigo shouted.

“Tear him to shreds before he can do anything!” Distant stamped her hoof on the ground, creating a ring of distortion around them. All three images of the spiral jacker hit the distortion at the same time, snapping multiple bones in the process.

This activated a bone-related mantle, prompting the real jacker to grow eight spider-like bony limbs from the breaks. He let out a roar with enough force to distract Distant, breaking the distortion spell. He moved in, sending rows of bones out of his mouth.

Allure met him dead on with her Heart. “Eat this.” Her invisible spirit drove itself into his throat, tearing the bony limbs to shreds and poking a hole out his neck. The attack was intended to kill him—such a dangerous enemy couldn’t be given a chance to do what he wanted.

It did no such thing. The injuries only prompted more constructs of bone to appear, giving him more power. He drove several of them to Allure at once. Quickly, she twisted her spirit around him, flinging herself up. Forcing her inner magic to her hooves, she met his bony tendrils like a karate master, seemingly cracking through them with brute force alone. She drove her hoof into his back, careful to push far enough to damage both the spine and the flesh beyond.

With a grunt, he shot back with a lightning bolt. Thinking quickly, she converted it into magic energy at her back hooftip and sent it at him through one of her front hooves, careful not to let it pass through her heart. He was driven to the ground with a crackling explosion.

Indigo threw her blade construct into the smoking crater several times while Distant forced a rippling distortion around it.

The spiral jacker didn’t care. He erupted from the dust with dozens of bony limbs coming out of a mangled body that had no right to be alive, but was anyway. A limb lashed out at Indigo, tossing her aside like a helpless puppet. He went for Distant next.

Allure didn’t let him. She drove her Heart out as far as it could reach, slicing at his midsection. She made it about halfway through before his blood started glowing blue and solidifying into a substance her spirit couldn’t cut through.

What?!

He focused his attention on her, letting out a scream that made the most annoying song she’d ever heard play in her mind at full volume. Her entire body felt like it was crawling with fire ants—but she held. She met the bones with her hooves, cracking them with every hit.

Then the sword went through her stomach.

Turning to the side, she saw the many-eyed mare standing atop a ruined wall, smirking.

Why did I think she would play fair?

Allure fell to the ground like a ragdoll. She wasn’t aware enough to feel herself hit the ground.

Why is my vision swimming so much? I’m stronger than this… I had a hoof in my innards for crying out loud! I… Her head reeled. The rules are different here…

Her eyes blessed her by focusing before the rest of her senses. Seren was down. Indigo was down. Distant was screaming her lungs out and sending an endless wave of distortion at the spiral jacker, unable to stop his progress completely. She was no match for him.

I’ve failed. I couldn’t protect her. Couldn’t keep my promise. Allure wanted to get up. Wanted to move. But she couldn’t. There was no energy within her to keep fighting. Not anymore. Even if she got up, she wasn’t Seren. She couldn’t take on the spiral jacker.

She was just a terrible leader.

There was something under her hoof. Glancing to the side, she made out the shape of a dimensional device. Her dimensional device. Already set to go to Swip…

There’s nothing for me here. She glanced at Distant. I’m dying. She’s dying. We’re all dying. This city is poison. She lazily drifted her gaze back to the device. There’s nothing for me here.

She lifted her hoof a centimeter, prepared to tap the device.

There’s no point....

She pushed down.

A green laser shot from the side, destroying the dimensional device in a puff of smoke. Allure’s hoof burned from the proximity of the explosion.

Allure felt reality itself scream in anger.

I… I almost chose to abandon them… she glanced at Distant, about to break under the spiral jacker’s pressure. I almost chose to abandon her…

Allure discovered where the laser had come from. Seren. Barely able to move or breathe, she had shot a single laser out of her finger to stop Allure. Her face was riddled with tears and a question of why!?

Had she not been here, I would have abandoned everything… Allure closed her eyes. Tears came out painfully, mixing with her blood. I am her… Distant was going to be abandoned again…

Distant stumbled to the ground, eyes wide.

Even though I’m still here, I got her killed.

The spiral jacker raised his bony limbs…

“CINDER-EX-MACHINA!” Cinder shouted at the top of her lungs, impacting the spiral jacker like a meteor form heaven. The colors split into dozens of lines around the bony monster of a stallion, driving him into the ground. Every crack in his original skeleton created a new limb.

“Oh, that’s how you want to play?” Cinder lit her horn, surrounding her hooves in a holy light. “Let’s try this!”

She healed him. And with every healing motion, a bony limb vanished, pushing him back until he was a perfectly healthy stallion without a single extra limb. Growling, he charged, relying on his other mantles. The first attack was a roar mixed with a purple aura and some illusions.

“...Did you just stick the troll song in my head?” Cinder asked, raising an eyebrow. “Okaaay… weird.” She teleported behind him and tripped all three of his selves, revealing the true one. Her horn flashed a myriad of colors, encasing him in at least seven crystal shells. “Now, everypony!”

Allure couldn’t believe what she was seeing. A herd of ponies charged into the streets, jumping over the dispatched members of Security, rushing into the fray at high speed. Those with magic and mantles that could assist in the fight moved to Cinder, giving her boosts and trying to tie the spiral jacker up their own way. Dozens of magic chains, sheilds, and spells went off around the spiral jacker, mixed with traditional lassos and even a few ponies who threw themselves at the ball of magic.

Those who didn’t assist in the capture process rushed to the injured. Indigo, Seren, and Allure were all lifted to their hooves and given medical treatment. Nothing as advanced as Allure’s insane healing spell she’d somehow obtained recently, but it was enough to keep them up.

The sphere of magic encasing the spiral jacker eventually hardened into a black shell and fell to the ground, innate. Cinder trotted up to it and laid a hoof on it. “Yep. He’s out cold. Poor guy, needs the hospital more than I do!” She laughed, as if this were some kind of joke. “Mission success, everyone!”

“Yeah! Do you hear that, Eyepatch, we did it!” an orange mare shouted.

“Xenon. My name is Xenon.” Eyepatch said—even though she couldn’t help but smile.

“Anyway, who got that mare with all the eyes?” Cinder asked, dusting herself off. “Oh! Nice one, Tabula!”

A white mare—presumably Tabula—was dragging the chained-up mare with many-eyes along the ground to Cinder. “All in a day’s work.”

“And we finally got the other Sweeties!” Cinder rubbed her hooves together. “Time for us to put this into overdrive!”

Cinder’s followers cheered.

Cinder teleported to Allure and healed her up. “What are you doing in this horrible city?”

For the first time, Allure had enough awareness to realize what Cinder looked like. It was more than just the mantles covering every square inch of her coat—those were unsettling, sure, but not as unsettling as her eyes. Wild. Unrestrained. Determined in a way that could tear down anything that stood in her way.

“Cinder… what happened to you?”

“Long story, probably best to explain it when we’re in a safer location. I need to get all these ponies to the League stat.”

“That’s… not going to work. We’re under a dimensional lock caused by the local Twilight Sparkle, we think. Suzie might have had something to do with it.”

Cinder didn’t take any time to process this. “Girl, that’s no problem!”

“...Girl?”

“Shush, it’s a verbal tic designed to showcase my ‘descent’ into ‘madness’, it’s not going away.” She coughed. “Anyway, back to what I was saying, so what if there’s a dimensional lock? If the local Twilight is still alive and doing it, we just have to find her.”

“And how are we going to do that?” Tabula asked.

“Simple. I told Rarity I would probably be back to storm the Medical Pavilion. What are the chances it wouldn’t happen?”

“I am afraid I do not have the gift of your train of thought.”

Cinder giggled. “True! Very true!” She trotted over to Seren and healed her. “Regardless, Rarity will know how to get to Twilight, then we find her, and have Seren here do DA MAGIKS!”

Seren backed away from Cinder. “...Are you okay, Cinder?”

“Not at all!” Cinder’s smile didn’t falter. “But we’re ignoring that for now since more important things are afoot than my sanity and stable characterization.”

“Storming the Pavilion…” Eyepatch frowned. “They’ll be expecting us. There’ll be a lot of guards.”

“And we now have the Sweeties with us! Seren here is more powerful than all of us combined, if we protect her, we wipe the floor with everything. One child army!” She teleported to Indigo, healing her up. “Fancy running into you here.”

“...Quite,” Indigo said, nervous.

“Everyone thinks you’re some kind of fancy mystery. You’re driving them insane. I wonder if any will figure it out?”

“I’m sorry, I was under the impression that you weren't actually Aware?”

“I’m not, but that doesn’t mean my mind isn’t in overdrive from all these mantles!” With a laugh, she whipped to stare at Distant. “You’ve been fixing me with a death glare ever since I arrived. My presence makes you distinctly uncomfortable in a very, very personal way. Got something to say to me?”

“All you Sweeties really are the same… you doom yourselves to death… abandon everythin…” She glanced at all of Cinder’s followers. “What the hell are you doing!?”

Cinder examined Distant closer. “Let’s see… off-white coat, sea-green mane… You’re related to a Sweetie and that Swiftwing I ran into not too long ago. Daughter? Biologically implausible, but given all the screwed up magic around here I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“What in…”

“I’m good at guessing,” Cinder waggled her eyebrows. “And I’m really good at guessing with all these mantles!”

“They’re killing you!”

“Oh, I’m fully aware of that. I wasn’t when I took the first one, but it doesn’t take a genius to see all the tumors these things cause. I’m dead in a couple weeks even if I stay like this. Buuuuuut as soon as I leave this city, bam, cures for everything. Isn’t that right, Allure?”

“Uh… yes…?” Allure shook her head—still stuck in the recent events that involved an exploding dimensional device.

“You’re reckless, stupid, unthinking, and… and…!” Distant slapped Cinder. “And you deserve much worse than that!”

“Oh, yes, absolutely,” Cinder agreed. “We all do, girl. But we’re fighting for a good cause, and I didn’t throw myself here for myself. Well, I did, but through the back door I didn’t…” She tilted her hoof side to side. “I basically sold my soul so I could save this city. Get it?”

“You are literally insane.”

“Sorta true. And not the fun kind, either.” For the first time, Cinder’s smile vanished. “I’m going to a reckoning for this. I’d had a pretty good run of innocence up ‘till now.”

“Did you think of those you were abandoning?”

“A little,” Cinder admitted. “A lot more after I did it, since most of this was inevitable. Not that I didn’t choose, but there wasn’t a future that existed where I didn’t choose this.” She looked up to the inky blackness above. “In the end, this city needs to be brought down more than I need to be built up.”

Distant was speechless.

“Distant’s right, though,” Allure said, looking not at anyone, but at her burnt hoof. “We…” tears rolled down her cheeks. “We abandon everything. We Sweeties… we leave problems for others…”

“Allure, that’s not true,” Cinder said.

“I almost left!” Allure shouted. “I was laying there, barely able to move, and if Seren hadn’t destroyed my dimensional device I would have abandoned everything!” Was she crying blood or was it just mixing with her dirty fur? Did it matter? “I made a promise to The Sweetie Belle to find her and I was about to leave it for nothing and abandon her daughter to a bone monster!”

“Ah…” Cinder said.

“Ah?” Allure blinked. “Ah? That’s it?”

“Yes. Ah.”

“Ah wh—”

“You what?” Distant growled.

Allure turned to Distant, sniffing. “You were right about me. About… her. About all of us. We… we all have the capacity to leave. Even when…” She crumpled to her knees. “You should have never followed me. We should have never… The League shouldn’t exist.”

Distant pointed a hoof and opened her mouth to shout, but nothing came out. Slowly, she lowered her hoof and closed her mouth. “...You were going to leave. But she didn’t let you.”

“Wh…”

“You were right about one thing. The difference between you and my mother? You have your friends to keep you up.” She narrowed her eyes. “So you never have to suffer the consequences for your actions at the core of your self.”

“No one does,” Seren offered. “No one should. We’re… all messed up in some way, right? That’s why we band together. So we can be less messed up as one.”

“Look what Vision did to a bunch of ponies who decided to band together!” Distant shouted. “This city is for ponies to work together under freedom and… and they are killing each other every day!”

Cinder laughed.

“What the fuck is so funny!?”

“You think Vision is an example of ponies bonding?” Cinder turned around, looking everypony in the eyes to make sure they all heard what was coming next. “Vision is no such thing. Vision is a selfish brood of self-seeking arrogance where friendship exists when there’s a convenience and the darkness at the bottom of the ocean corrupts all. Vision is a place where the opposite of what Seren describes is true. Ponies don’t build each other up and cover their weaknesses, they’re enablers. They push the darkness inherent in everyone out to their maximum. Rage breeds rage, anger breeds anger, until everypony is steeped in their deepest flaws at the bottom of the ocean.”

“Cinder?” Seren asked. “What… what have you found?”

Cinder fixed Seren with a serene smile. “Why, a very cruel truth, Seren. That you can’t blame anypony for any of this. Not really.”

“Why the hell not!?” Distant threw a hoof wide. “Everypony chooses to kill each other!”

“Yes! Yes they do! They make the choice! But the city is designed to drive them to their terrible choice!” She jumped into the air, clapping her hooves. “Every little thing around you from the cops to the leadership to the mantles to the lack of a day/night cycle, everything is keyed to bring out the worst in ponies. Why, you ask? Who would do this? And to that I tell you absolutely nobody.”

“You’re insane.”

“Am I? Am I?” Cinder scratched her chin. “Well, I am in other ways, but not this. There is no pony driving this cesspool deeper into the ground. It is Destiny.” She gestured at her healthy cutie mark. “Ka. Beat. Narrative. Story. Theme. Whatever you want to call it. The story—the curse—of this city is to bring out the worst in every person who enters it.”

Distant stared at her.

“Seren!” Cinder whirled to face her. “You are losing faith in your family bonds, wondering if it really is just a matter of the right circumstances before even your family abandons you!”

Seren stared at her in disbelief.

“Of course, you haven’t fully fallen yet, you’re too innocent and strong for it to break you down that quickly. Though if I hadn’t stepped in here, you wouldn’t have been able to trust Allure anymore, would you?” Without waiting for an answer, Cinder turned to Allure. “You have lost your faith in your name, your promise, and your self. Just now, Vision broke you, threw you to the ground and showed you that you were a terrible leader and that everything you based your life on was dust.”

Allure took a few steps back from her, unable to vocalize a response.

“And if I had to make guesses for Celia and Suzie… I bet Celia’s allowing herself to fall into the realm of ethically dubious decisions while Suzie is about ready to cause a genocide. And you.” Cinder whirled to Distant. “You… daughter of The Sweetie Belle, right?”

“I already know Vision’s b-broken me,” Distant stammered.

“Yes. And I don’t know enough about you to say how it did for sure. But think. Isn’t a little odd that is seems to have broken you in a way tailored for you? I’m going to list off some guesses here. Abandonment issues, isolation, rejection, feelings of uselessness… need I go on?”

“N-no,” Distant breathed.

“Good! And now we get to me. What, pray tell, is Vision trying to beat me into seeing? Well, hmm… Maybe it’s that I have an unhealthy obsession with exploration and adventure, so much so that I’m willing to mutilate my mind to reach it? That I don’t know how to ask for what I want? That I’m most definitely not a normal unicorn and the fact that I haven’t asked too many questions about that is alarming for my sense of self? That I haven’t thought at all about that stallion I burned to death!?”

Allure gasped. “Cinder…”

Cinder wiped a tear from her face. “The difference between me and the rest of you is that I saw what Vision was doing. And I let it do it to me. I ran headfirst into it, corrupting me from the inside out. You thought ‘selling my soul’ was a metaphor, did you?” She cackled, before dropping her face completely level. “No. No it’s not. I’m serious. I’ve let Vision tear into my very depths. The only problem is that one of my ‘flaws’ it naturally seeks out is that I’m addicted to the thrill, to being the hero.” She grinned malevolently. “And at the risk of becoming a psychotic evil villain, I have embraced that in order to set this city free.”

There was no response to this.

“We’re going to save this city,” Cinder said, stating it like it was a fact. “We’re bringing a different story to this endless tragedy. Look around you at all these followers. Yes, I know, I naturally make ponies like me just by being around them… but this is more than that. I can’t make followers out of that. But I can make followers out of giving ponies hope. An idea of a brighter future.” Her psychotic grin lowered into a soft smile. “And one way or another, they’ll get it. We’re getting them out of this city.” She extended a hoof to Distant. “Are you with us?”

Slowly, Distant extended her hoof and shook Cinder’s. “...I’m in too deep to back up now.”

“Great! Tabula, get as much magic into Seren as you can. Sorry Indigo, there’s no way we’re being stealthy with this many ponies.”

Indigo frowned. “How lovely.”

“Still, it’s probably safer to stick with us.”

“I’m well aware there’s a bubble of protective aura around you.”

Cinder winked. “Nice! Anything I should know about the Medical Pavilion before we try to storm it?”

“The Rarity inside’s a psychotic murderer who turns ponies into art?” Seren offered.

“I am not surprised in the slightest,” Cinder deadpanned. “Eyepatch?”

Eyepatch sighed. “...Yes?”

“Get everyone you can organized. We need to be fast, we’re basically a miniature army in enemy territory. We’ll need a backup plan of escaping to Equestria if everything decides to go sideways. I know there are docks near the Medical Pavilion, start thinking of plan B to grab a sub and high-tail it out of here. I doubt very much that this will turn into a long game, but it will come back to bite us if we don’t plan for that eventuality.”

“Sure thing.”

“And Allure?”

Allure suddenly felt very small. “Yes?”

“This place is a curse. You would not abandon everything anywhere else.” She grabbed Allure by the cheeks. “That. Isn’t. You.”

Allure smiled sadly. “I… Okay.”

“I know you don’t believe me now, but you will later.” Cinder winked. “Until then, we got a little bit more nightmare to go through.”

~~~

“They knew we were coming,” Celia observed from their vantage point outside the marble-white Pavilion’s gates. There were a few dozen ponies from Security patrolling the area, all with weapons, all looking ready to kill.

“No. Really,” Suzie deadpanned. “It’s not like guards heard our entire conversation with Twilight or anything.”

“Luckily, Fluttershy knows a back way in.” Celia glanced to her. “Care to show us?”

Fluttershy nodded. “We’ll have to cycle around back without being seen.”

“Just be quiet, then, I can keep the invisibility up if we’re close together.”

The three nodded to each other. They left the statue they were hiding behind and cycled around, avoiding all unicorn guards since it was possible they could detect their magic. Moving around to the back took several minutes, but they eventually reached what looked like a warehouse—though admittedly, it was still as over-decorated as everything else around the Medical Pavilion, so it actually looked like an ancient Greek temple of some sort. The only real hint that it was a warehouse were all the boxes inside stacked in a rigid, computer-like organization system that had nothing to do with visual beauty. Likely a lot of medical supplies, mattresses, sheets, and other such things.

There was a guard here, but Celia was able to convince him he didn’t hear any hoofsteps with a simple spell. They trotted into the warehouse, keeping to the right wall until they came to an electrical panel. After checking to make sure nopony was around, Fluttershy popped the front of the electrical panel off, reaching inside to flip a latch hidden within the wall. There was a click beneath them. Reaching down, Fluttershy lifted the now-loose floor tile up, revealing a trapdoor that led to a miniature tram system.

Private use for the Council only, but it still needed a way for maintenance crew to get in. Usually Pinkie Pie herself.

The three of them dropped down. Celia used her magic to close all the panels and hatches behind them. The tunnel they found themselves in wasn’t lit at all, but Celia’s magic served their purposes just fine. Walking along the rail into the Pavillion, they didn’t say a word.

Eventually, they reached the end. Rather than a hidden hatch and a complex series of levers, it was a normal glass door. No guards. Why would there be? It was Rarity’s private door to her personal tram, only the Elements had access to it.

Elements like Fluttershy, for instance.

But the Fluttershy with the Sweeties was a “fake,” so there was no reason to be concerned about a possible breach.

Fluttershy opened the doors and stepped out into the light. After nothing happened, she motioned for the Sweeties to follow. Trotting down a short hallway, they found themselves in Rarity’s office: a white, round room covered in elegant art pieces. Two of which were full sized pony-statues that looked just a little too lifelike.

Rarity was not at her desk.

“...Do we wait for her?” Celia asked.

“No,” Suzie said, pulling out her pulse cannon. “We go find her. Or Cinder. And whoever gets in our way…”

“Stealth, Suzie, stealth.” Celia tapped her glowing gemstone. “We’re invisible. Let’s make use of that.”

The three of them stepped out of Rarity’s office. There were two unicorn guards on the other side of the doors, both with eye-shaped mantles on their necks.

They detected the three of them the instant they stepped out.

Suzie moved quickly—firing her pulse cannon at their heads in quick succession. Her military training was accurate, the blasts centered right between their eyes. The blue energy of the cannon engulfed their skulls, reducing the atoms within to their component parts and splattering the char against the back wall.

Celia gawked at her. “Why was that set to kill!?”

Suzie refused to answer her, setting off down the left hall.

“Suzie!” Celia hissed.

I’m not letting your siren words twist me anymore, Suzie thought. I’m doing what needs to be done. Anything that stands between me and Cinder is getting slagged.

“It’s as good of a way to go as any,” Fluttershy whispered.

“I’m more worried about th—”

A red light flashed on the ceiling. “INTRUDER ALERT!” a voice called over the Medical Pavilion. “INTRUDER ALERT! Nonresponsives outside Rarity’s office! Patients, return to your rooms; Security, intercept!”

“Shit.” Celia ran to Suzie as fast as her hooves would carry her. “Move move move move mov—”

They barely turned the hallway before several members of security teleported to meet them. Not all of them could see through the invisibility—but enough of them could sense the magic that they fired off lasers.

Celia dropped the cloak and summoned her razor-top, but Suzie had already dispatched all of them with brutal efficiency, turning ponies to dust like it was nothing.

Celia’s eyes widened. She had never seen Suzie actually fight like she was in a war before. By the time they’d met, Suzie was already off active duty and working more on exploration.

Suzie smirked, finding this amusing. Yes, this is what I came from, Celia. Don’t like what you see, too bad, this is how it’s done.

“Suzie!” Celia shouted. “Where are we going!?”

“Doesn’t matter!” Suzie shouted.

“We can’t take this place head-on!”

“WATCH ME!” Suzie shouted, vaporizing the door in front of her, leading to a wide open space with several statues. Security responded with blades, bombs, and any number of spells.

Suzie moved like a machine. No magic, no special tools, just her hands and an elegant weapon. Beams fired in specific arcs. No pony dodged. No pony blocked. All became puffs of ash on a charred, twitching corpse.

They started screaming. Let them scream. Let them run. They deserve every last bit of what they’re getting.

She shot the leg of a statue. It crumbled, falling onto four ponies, splattering blood and bone across the perfect, white floor.

“No!” a pony shouted, jumping at her. Suzie registered that it was a stallion in crutches after she shot him. He had attacked her. He made that choice.

They all decided she was the enemy.

So they were hers. She unloaded dozens of pulses, every last one finding its mark and a death. That pony with mantles? That shield spell only took two shots to dispel. She was gone the instant after. That pony with a broken wing? She was trying to tend to one of the dead guards. She was one of them. She went down.

“STOP!” Fluttershy shouted.

Suzie felt the Kindness driving into her mind. She refused to let herself think on the matter—that was the enemy too. She turned the pulse cannon on Fluttershy and fired.

Celia stood between them, deflecting the bullet into her razor-top. “SUZIE! NO!”

You really will let her control me when it suits you. She unloaded as many bullets as hse could into Celia.

The Gem forced all the energy in the pulses into her magic, giving it back to Suzie. Not in a lethal burst, but a massive shockwave that knocked Suzie into a statue, crumbling it to crystalline dust.

Suzie wanted to pass out. But her training forbade it. Her rage forbade it. She may not have been able to move her arms or legs, but when she could she was going to make that mutant. Gem regret not killing her then and there. They would pay… Everything in this God-forsaken city would pay!

“...It seems your help went a bit far, Fluttershy,” Rarity said, standing in a doorway with bodies piled around it.

“I’m sorry!” Fluttershy wailed. “They wouldn’t let me keep her happy… She had to… And then…”

“Shhhh…” Rarity said, smiling warmly. “It’s fine, Fluttershy, it’s fine. Sometimes a room needs some redecoration.”

“You’re a psycho,” Celia said.

“And you’re me, must be uncomfortable to see yourself on this end, hmm?” Rarity smirked.

“Not pertinent at the moment,” Celia muttered. “We’re here for Cinder. Produce her and we leave you alone.”

“See, if I did have her, I wouldn’t give her to you ruffians, that would be too easy.”

“You don’t have her.”

“No. She decided she wanted to look for you, so I let her go.” She chuckled. “Not all my art gets put on display in the Pavillion, you understand. Some of it needs to run free so ponies may be… enlightened.” She pointed at Fluttershy. “Take notes, this applies to you as well.”

“W-what?” Fluttershy’s ears folded back.

“I’m not upset about the massacre. Quite delighted really, haven’t seen anything like it in a while. Far too pleasant up here. I do believe the cleanup will be annoying, especially considering they’ve turned it into a minor warzone on the lower level… but in the end, what statement worth making doesn’t cause just a little suffering?”

“W-well, I wouldn't say too many…”

“What I am upset about is this whole ‘fix everything’ deal. Fluttershy, if fixing everything were really the way, I would have done it a long time ago. Any number of my pieces would completely cure at least one aspect of suffering if used against their intended purpose. But that would ruin the message, the point. You can’t have art without suffering. So you need it.”

“But there’s beauty in triumph!” Fluttershy countered. “We have too much darkness… there should be, at the very least, a balance!”

“Oh, balance, that’s so out of date. You remember Celestia and Luna? Balance is static. Granted, this city definitely could be better, and should, in many ways, but the fact that it is where it is carries a different… statement.”

“Then why don’t you just let it collapse?” Celia jabbed. “If you like suffering as art so much.”

“Why, dear, I suspect it’s the same reason you fight to ‘fix’ it. I care about my ponies.”

Celia snorted.

“Oh, you can be that way, dismiss me all you want, my ponies are important. Those who work with me, those who star alongside me… my friends, no matter where they’ve stumbled.” She glanced at Fluttershy. “We’re all in this together.”

“And that includes in a statue made of stitched together pony bone?!”

“Yes!” Rarity shouted in glee. “You’ll never see, of course, no matter how long I try to keep you. Shame, really, the art truly is wasted on some.”

Fluttershy sighed. “It… is. I’m sorry, Rarity.”

“Oh, dear, don’t be, it’s not your fault that you can’t see!” Rarity closed her eyes and smiled. “In fact, I think what you’re trying to do has a beauty all its own! It disagrees with my work, so naturally I can’t help you, but what is art in a vacuum without competition?” She held picked up Fluttershy’s hoof and chuckled. “Go, take your new friends. Try to change the city. Show me the power of your New Vision.”

“O… okay.”

Rarity’s expression went from eerily calm to shocked in an instant. “Wh—”

Holes erupted in her flesh, sprouting from within and sending blood out in several directions. Her pupils had time to shrink to pinpricks before falling still.

To Celia and Fluttershy, it was as if an invisible sea urchin had sprung out of her.

To Suzie, it was the branches of U-Catastrophe growing through Rarity’s body. She had been waiting, waiting to be sure of Rarity’s philosophy. Of her position. Of how she thought of her ponies.

Psychotic as it was, it was still a viable target for U-Catastrophe.

The brilliant white tree of Suzie’s spirit devoured Rarity’s Vision for her ponies. A Vision of art, of conflict, but of little triumphs and changes, of eternal twists, of beauty in darkness.

U-Catastrophe cursed her Vision.

It could not be true anymore.

There was a burst of light green energy, and then U-Catastrophe vanished.

“S-suzie…” Celia said, haunted.

“What did you do!?” Fluttershy wailed.

“She… she just damned the entire city to death…” Celia stammered.

Suzie breathed. “They des—”

“COLONEL SUZIE “SWEETIE” MASH!” Celia shout at the top of her lungs. “I, CHALCEDONY CELIA, HEREBY RELIEVE YOU OF DUTY AND PLACE YOU UNDER ARREST FOR ABUSE OF POWER!”

Suzie weakly sneered. “You c-”

“Fluttershy, help me take her mind.” Celia’s gemstone lit up in time with Fluttershy’s Stare.

Suzie’s mind went black.

Twilight (Siren Song, Part 5)

Seren alone was a powerhouse with the body of a child. All it would take was one clever ploy to take her out—like, say, a sword flung from nowhere.

Seren with a small army was all but invincible.

Cinder watched with a grin on her face as the anthro child called upon the family she held so dear—broken, yes, but united in a cause. The magical onslaught tossed the ponies of Vision away like ragdolls. Yes, Seren was significantly more brutal in her tactics than Cinder was, killing regularly in the midst of the largely nonlethal assault. But they had to move. This was… well, a mini-war, at the least.

“You’re not bothered at all,” Allure observed as they marched just behind Seren, the rest of the followers behind them. Only a few were actually doing anything to help Seren, most were just keeping watch and chattering excitedly.

“I am,” Cinder said. “I’ve just pushed that far away.”

Allure frowned. “Cinder… you really shouldn’t have done this.”

“I agree. It’s wrong, and there will be consequences. But there was also never going to be a future where I didn’t do this.” She shrugged. “It is what it is, I’ll suffer for it later.”

“You talk like we don’t have choice.”

“Most of us have choice,” Cinder explained. “So long as that fits with the Tower’s idea of destiny.” She put a hoof to her chin. “It’s certainly physically possible that I could have refused to fall, or just not given into it whole-hog. I can see the events and the subtle machinations that led up to me making that choice. But I also know that it had to happen.”

Allure rubbed her head. “Ugh…”

“Probably best to argue philosophy later, focus on the fight now.” Cinder looked up, watching as one of the subs attacks were deflected by Seren’s shields. “Psychos want to let the ocean in just to get rid of us at this point. Kill everyone still loyal to them.”

“Did the city break them too?”

Cinder nodded. “Girl, every pony in this place I’ve seen has been dragged down to the depths of despair. With the exception of Indigo. But she was already kinda on the shady side.”

“I know not to stay any longer than I need to,” the Rarity responded, doing her mane as they walked. “I should have been gone a long time ago.”

“What do you even get from Vision that’s worth all the danger?” Allure asked.

“Mantles. Duh,” Distant offered.

“Just raid some Our Towns,” Allure suggested. “Extra cutie marks abound.”

“That’s generally only one mark at a time, dear,” Indigo explained. “Mantles can be stacked and, with the proper treatment, that terrible addictive quality and mutation can be worked out.”

“Oh, sure, remove the obvious downsides,” Distant said. “Forget that it still alters who you are on a fundamental level.”

“Even a ‘safe’ mantle is a bad idea,” Cinder added.

“You are such a walking paradox.”

“I know!”

“Not all ponies are so comfortable their selves as we are,” Indigo commented. “Many would find their being changed an unmitigated good. Plus, I’ve checked, the soul bending of a mantle doesn’t replace the person, they’re still the same.”

“How do you even check that?” Distant asked.

“Soul scans.” Indigo’s comment was punctuated by Seren wrenching another submarine in half. The purple explosion cast her in shadow.

“...You know what, nevermind, I’ll ask later,” Distant decided. “We’re getting close to the Pavillion anyway.”

“This was too easy,” Cinder noted. “Something’s going to go wrong at the Pavillion or before we get there.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier!?”

“Because by saying it now, I heighten the chances the problem occurs now rather than at th—”

Cinder didn’t get to finish her thought. Nothing dramatic happened. Seren was still blowing stuff up and clearing a path, all the while making sure the glass exterior didn’t shatter. Rainbow Dash was shouting something on the PA system about stopping the insurrection, and a few ponies decided it would be fun to join the little rebellion of chattering, smiling ponies.

It was as it had been for the last several minutes. Eerily relaxed marching.

But something changed. Cinder felt it. The nature of Vision shifted. The story had changed.

“Allure…”

“What? What’s wrong?” Allure grimaced.

“I’m not Aware. At all.” She fixed Allure with a terrified look. “I felt the story change. W-what could do that?”

Allure went pale. “Oh no.”

“Oh no what!?” Distant demanded. “What did you screw up this time?”

“Suzie…” Allure turned her gaze forward. “We need to hurry. Leave as soon as we can.”

“Seren! You hear that!?” Cinder called. “Step on it!”

The girl brimming with magic power flipped her scepter around several times and pointed forward, blowing a hole in the doors that went from the shop district they were currently in to the Pavillion district.

What was on the other side shocked them. They had been prepared to bring a war to the hospital.

They had not expected to find one already underway.

Blood splatters covered many different areas of the Pavillion. Security officers flashed blades and unleashed immense spells upon the patients and doctors of the Pavillion. The doctors themselves sometimes screamed, sometimes retaliated with operating tools, sometimes tore their attackers open with alarming precision. The patients cried, trying to crawl to safety, or used their mantle insanity to burn on their own.

“Suzie?” Distant asked.

“...Probably,” Allure muttered.

“Looks like ‘genocide’ was on the money.” Distant struggled to hide her revulsion.

“Yeesh…” Indigo shook her head.

“What do we do?” Seren asked.

Cinder tapped her hoof. “What we came here to do, and a little more. Seren, we’re going to find Rarity and maybe Suzie with this little group of ‘heroes’ we’ve got here. Blood Orange, Tabula, Indigo?”

“I am not your lieutenant,” Indigo muttered.

“Sure, yes, whatever.” Cinder waved a hoof dismissively before pointing it aggressively at the Pavillion. “We have an army. Get in there and save who you can. Fight only those who are fighting, protect those who are helpless. That is what we do, ponies! That is what I’ve been doing!” She broke out into a grin. “Go and do likewise!”

“Yeah!” Blood Orange and Eyepatch shouted with many of the other followers.

“Good! Remember the subs, Eyepatch! Watch each other’s backs—be strong!” Cinder turned to Seren. “Let’s get in the middle of this mess…”

Seren teleported herself, Cinder, Allure, and Distant to the Pavillion’s front gates. Instantly, the remaining officers unleashed magical fire upon her. With her recent boost from Cinder’s many followers, Seren found it laughably easy to wipe the magic away from them. They fell to the wayside like puppets, leaving only the doctors and patients left.

This did not stop the medical professionals and injured ponies from surging forth with the unbridled rage of a thousand suns. Sick mantle-mutated husks and scalpel-wielding nurses beset the Sweeties, only to be wiped away by Seren’s might.

“I am really glad we have her,” Distant whistled. “Like, hot damn, we’d probably be dead without that.”

“Thank you!” Seren winked. “Now, let’s see if I can find… Rarity…” She closed her eyes and floated in midair for a few moments. Outside, the ponies could hear destruction and death mixed with explosions. Within, this was all muffled. The loudest thing they could hear was their own breathing, followed by the dripping blood of a large mare hanging from a chandelier, skewered through her eyes.

“I can tell you right now, Seren didn’t kill that one,” Cinder commented. “Geez, turning into a freak show real fast here.”

“We’re starting a rebellion,” Distant said with a shrug. “What did you expect?”

“Well, for one, to start the fighting, not walk in on it. They were already killing each other!” Cinder frowned. “I am not going to like what Suzie did, am I?”

“If she did what I think she did…” Allure grimaced.

Distant snorted. “Can’t be any worse than almost abandoning everything you care about because of some bizarre curse.”

“...Don’t count on that,” Allure warned.

“On a scale of one to living nightmares, how scared should I be?”

Allure didn’t answer her.

Distant sighed, leaning against one of the few blood-free walls. “Fine. Be mysterious. At least Cinder here tells it like it is.”

“I cause insanity!” Cinder beamed.

“That is not something to be proud of.”

“I’m getting my laughs in. They’re hard to come by.”

“Strange. Your face says otherwise.”

Cinder winked.

“Got something,” Seren said, descending to the ground. “Not Rarity…” With a flex of her wrist, a purple gem appeared in front of her. “The Element of Generosity.”

“That’ll lead us right to her,” Allure said.

“It’s main connection is broken,” Seren explained, turning it over and over in her hands. “I’m trying to trace it back through time, but right now I’m fairly certain it’s trying to react with Indigo, not the local Rarity.”

“Was she killed?”

“Maybe. I’ll have t—” Seren’s eyes lit up. “Found the connection!” She snapped her fingers, teleporting the four of them to the destination.

Rarity’s body was there, very dead and riddled with an unnervingly large number of holes ripped from the inside out.

“...Dammit…” Allure breathed, face contorting into an unrecognizable expression. “Dammit dammit DAMMIT!”

Cinder stared at the body in shock. “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, this is what Suzie’s thing does to ponies? I’m… impressed, shocked, bewildered, and confused. What does it do besides act like an inverted pincushion? Anyone?”

Seren shrugged. “I don’t have that clearance.”

“I don’t even know who Suzie is,” Distant muttered.

“Colonel Suzie Mash is the captain of their expedition team, and one of my oldest friends.” Allure struggled to keep in the tears. “She was bestowed with a power to assault civilizations. She proved herself able to resist the temptation and only use it when needed… to kill a leader and destroy their evil vision.” Turning to the Rarity, Allure looked at it with an expression of betrayal. “She promised she could resist anything and everything. That she would only… when absolutely…”

“Vision was too strong for her,” Seren said. “Don’t blame her.”

“Actually,” Cinder put a hoof to her chin. “She does have a pretty bad case of hothead, you know? It occurs to me that she might have not been the best choice to even have such a thing. That’s, like, massive ka manipulation right there.”

“Cinder…” Allure turned to face her with wild eyes. “How can you say that about Suzie!?”

“I’m currently under the influence of Vision, more than you are, sue me.” Cinder rolled her eyes. “The point is that this was going to happen eventually, curse or not, and you probably should have seen it coming. Friendships blind you, sometimes.”

“I’m still stuck on how you can curse a civlizaiton,” Distant asked.

“The details aren’t important,” Allure said. “The point is, she killed Rarity with it, so whatever her vision of… Vision was, it’s inverted and flipped on its head. That can result in the evil regime being replaced with one with power in the hooves of the ponies… or anarchy. It’s… hard to predict without knowing Rarity.”

“I know her, somewhat,” Cinder said. “If I had to guess? That warzone we saw outside? That’s the beginning of this ‘curse’. Soon the entire city of Vision is going to succumb to the plague of war, desolation, and death that Rarity didn’t want. She wanted art. There have to be ponies to appreciate art. So there aren’t going to be any ponies.”

A haunted silence filled the room.

“Seren, can you find Suzie?” Allure asked.

Seren shook her head. “She was here, but there’s evidence of stealth spells. It would take too long.”

“Great…”

“Back to the battle outside,” Cinder ordered. Seren didn’t skip a beat when teleporting them to the Pavillion balcony overlooking the courtyard.

It was terrible. Cinder had been expecting this. There was going to be bloodshed, since her small army of followers weren’t fully versed in combat and their enemies were bloodlusted psychos.

What she had failed to expect was that her army would turn into bloodlusted psychos the moment she turned her back on them. What she had been horrified at Security and the doctors doing a moment before, now her ponies were doing the same. A mantled stallion who had talked about the catharsis of hugging was pounding sick fillies into the ground. A pegasus had grabbed two of Security’s guns and was shooting them wildly. Tabula was cutting ponies at the neck with a careful knife, so fast they often didn’t realize what was happening. The only pony who seemed in control of herself was Indigo, and she caught Cinder’s gaze with an unreadable expression.

And Blood Orange…

...Was wielding an axe over the head of a yellow mare in a wheelchair.

Sunshine.

Cinder teleported herself to the fighting floor and smacked Blood Orange aside with her magic. “STOP!”

The fire in Blood Orange’s eyes vanished in an instant. “Wh…” She looked at the axe to her side in fear. “I… I didn’t…”

Taking a protective stance over Sunshine, Cinder shot a beacon of magic into the air. “STOP!”

A few ponies listened to her, stopping. Some of them died for their efforts in the rage of the others.

Allure jumped down next to Cinder. “Seren, I need amplified Heart powers, now!”

Seren pointed her scepter at Allure’s cutie mark, plunging energy not into her horn, but her spirit. The invisible strands of Heart surrounding Allure became visible with a translucent pink. Closing her eyes, she endowed the Knight’s power to defend into the Spirit. She wasn’t the best at the more nebulous aspects of Heart powers, but all she needed was to communicate one word to every present soul.

Stop.

Her heart lashed out with a whirlwind of power, tapping everypony in the Pavilion at their cores. Rising up from the depths of their spirit came the word to their minds.

Stop.

Spells were interrupted, steps ceased, screams interrupted. For a moment, there was only confusion.

It would not last long. Cinder knew this.

“LISTEN TO ME!” Cinder shouted, gesturing at Sunshine. “You’re hurting them! You’re hurting them! This isn’t what I showed you! This isn’t what I wanted! We are supposed to be the saviors of Vision, not the monsters! When we arrived, I told you to protect them. How many have you protected!?” She pointed at three dead fillies in the middle of the battlefield with their throats slit. “You’ve killed the ponies you were supposed to save!”

The fighting wasn’t going to continue now. Enough ponies looked guilty, and those who didn’t weren’t about to start fighting when they had no idea whose side they were on.

Cinder let out a tense, agonized breath. “Just… stop! We’re done! We won, there’s nothing more for us here at the Pavillion. We found Rarity dead.”

There were a few cheers at this. Cinder felt this was warranted.

“But with her death, the city of Vision has been shaken. You felt it just now, didn’t you? The bloodlust, the anger, the rage at the city itself? We almost weren’t able to stop it! Vision is falling apart at the seams, and we need to get out of here and get help before it collapses with us in it.” She put on a smile. “So! Since Rarity’s not available for information and Eyepatch is presumably still working on those submarines, how do we find Princess Twilight Sparkle, the mare who’s supposed to be dead?”

“I know,” Tabula said, walking forward.

Cinder pushed the image of her cutting ponies throats out of her head. “Yes?”

“Her.” Tabula tugged on a chain, pulling the maroon mare with mantle-eyes forward. “She found you. She can find Twilight.”

“I’m not finding anybody for you,” the mare spat. “I’m going t—”

“What’s your name?” Cinder asked.

“Wh…” the mare blinked in surprise. “Occular Horizon.”

“Occy—can I call you Occy?—I'm gonna call you Occy.” Cinder’s crazed smile was back in full force. “I bet you thought you had the perfect plan to take us out. Surround the child mage, fool her, and win. Really, excellent showing, I have to say. But… well, here’s the problem. We’ve imprisoned you. You lost.”

“Bah. Vision’s finest will hang you lot out to dry.”

“Girl, Vision is going to die,” Cinder rammed her face into Occular’s. “I think you want to be outside its walls when it implodes.”

Occular was about to let out a sharp, defiant remark when there was an explosion in the distance. One of the taller towers of Vision had just ruptured and a giant neon sign of Trixie’s cutie mark descended into the depths, sending a shockwave through the entire city as it touched down.

“That had nothing to do with us at all,” Cinder continued. “This city is going to kill itself. We have a way out. Just help us find it.”

Occular swallowed hard. She closed her eyes, focusing her magic into her various mantles.

“I knew you had it in you,” Cinder smirked.

“...I see… something,” Occular reported. “Something…” She lifted her hoof and pointed down. “Something far, far beneath where we are now.”

“Twilight Sparkle?”

“I believe so… let me try to get a clearer pict—”

Occular burst into purple flames. She was ashes a second later.

Cinder shook her head. “Okaaaay, I wasn’t expecting that one. Seren did you get the connection?”

Seren nodded. “Bottom of Vision. Absolute bottom of Vision. We’re going to have to dig.”

“Beneath the surface?”

“No.”

Allure clenched her jaw and set her mouth. “Okay. We’ll send a small team down there, everypony else goes to the sub to get off this city. If we’re lucky, Merodi ships will meet you on the way.”

“Need to check with Eyepatch on that…” Cinder commented. “She’ll be back within the hour, we can start m—”

Eyepatch ran at them, blood pouring out of one of her ears. “They were waiting for us!”

“Waiting? How?!” Cinder slammed a hoof angrily into the ground. “All we needed was to see if subs were there to take!”

“Yes!” Eyepatch fell at her hooves. “And there aren’t! They blew them up! The entire dock, flooded!”

“Who?” Allure asked.

“THIS IS CITY CENTRAL SECURITY!” the voice of Rainbow Dash boomed over to them. This did not come over the PA—it came from a megaphone somewhere behind the Medical Pavilion. “WE DEMAND UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

Cinder’s face twitched into a smile. “Well isn’t this… great. Everypony, look docile, let’s move around to the back, look like we’re surrendering. I’ll go talk to her. With luck, we can get out of this peacefully.” Not a chance in Tartarus Vision will let it be that easy, but I’m sure going to try.

As they slowly moved, Cinder helped push Sunshine’s wheelchair. “Sorry, got a little out of hand.”

“It’s… fine!” Sunshine said, forcing a smile. “You’re going to save the day!”

“Yes. I am. Did you know you are the literary equivalent of the voice of addiction?”

“I… what?”

Cinder patted her on the head. “I am going to protect you with my life, Sunshine. I promise.”

“...Why does that sound ominous…?”

“Because sometimes tragedy comes in a myriad of colors. Speaking of, Distant!”

Distant looked up from her stupor. “I… what?”

“As I see it now, I don’t like Swiftwing’s odds of survival. She’s your mother, but the city wants to maximize tragedy. If you think of any way to swing back to get her, tell me.”

Distant stared at her in shock for a moment. “I… don’t think there is one.”

“Then we pray when we kick Twilight’s face in we can get to her fast enough.”

Distant’s expression took up her namesake as she drifted out of Cinder’s view.

“Blood Orange, it’s okay, you didn’t hurt her.”

“I was about to…” Blood Orange sniffed.

“But you didn’t. That’s what matters. Eyepatch?”

“Y-yeah?”

“You were brave.”

Eyepatch nodded, hugging Cinder.

“Allure?”

“Is this it?” Allure asked, clearly nervous.

“No. We’re making it through. We are guaranteed to make it through.” Cinder couldn't stop giggling at this, it was so hilarious. “Everything’s about to go wrong, though.”

Allure sighed.

“Come with me to talk to Rainbow Dash.”

“I wasn’t about to let you speak for the League.”

“Nice.”

There was a small square of grass and oddly placed trees between the back of the Pavillion and the entrance to the docks where City Central Security was pouring out. It was a lot more than just guards, soldiers, and a few mantle-wielders this time. There were large robots, hulking monstrosities with massive bladed and magical weapons, and ponies with armor. In front of them all was very clearly Rainbow Dash, flying a few feet above the rest, a megaphone in her hoof.

“WE WISH TO DISCUSS TERMS!” Allure shouted. “THERE HAS BEEN ENOUGH BLOODSHED.”

“GRANTED!” Rainbow shot back.

Cinder and Allure walked forward while Rainbow flew to meet them in the center of the grass. On one side, a bunch of chattering ponies lined up to watch the exchange excitedly. On the other, Security stood, impassive, brutal, cold.

Rainbow herself had a level, stern expression devoid of most emotions. There was anger on her features, but not enough for somepony who had recently found out an old friend was murdered.

“The terms are absolute surrender,” Rainbow said, flatly.

“No chance of negotiation whatsoever?” Allure asked.

“None.”

“Then I guess we just have to fight and send Vision to its death,” Cinder said with a roll of her eyes. “That’s the one thing neither of us want, but it’s the one thing that will happen if we actually decide to try and kill each other. You have numbers and resources, we have Seren. And a few other tricks. It won’t end pleasantly and the city is already tearing itself apart as it is.”

Rainbow growled. “I don’t know how, but that’s your fault.”

“Indirectly,” Cinder said, twirling a hoof in the air.

“The point is, we don’t want Vision to die,” Allure interjected.

“I know what your deal is, Twilight told me everything she talked about with Suzie.”

“Right…” Allure frowned. “You don’t want assistance?”

“No. No we do not want any of your fucking assistance.”

“Then we won’t give it. We’re not in a position to bargain for it at the moment, anyway.” Allure leaned her head back. “Let us leave Vision.”

“I’m not letting you run off to your fancy multiversal powerhouse and bringing an army here!”

“You can keep us trapped in your universe,” Allure offered. “I’m not asking for you to have Twilight break the lock. I’m asking you to give us a sub or some other method of transportation to the surface so we may leave Vision and go… I don’t know, the local Equestria, Saddle Arabia, somewhere.”

Rainbow’s expression shifted slightly. “And you’ll leave? Just like that?”

“Yes! We don’t want to make it worse than it already is!”

“We would have really loved to march right in here and fix everything,” Cinder added. “But Twilight made that impossible. So our best option at this point is to get on a sub, take all these ‘annoying insurrectionists’, and get out of here. It doesn't take much to think of what we’ll have to do if we do fight.”

Another tower elsewhere in Vision exploded.

“Just give us a sub and we’ll go,” Cinder said, eyes widening. “I promise.”

Rainbow’s eyes softened. “You really are Sweetie Belle, aren’t you?”

Cinder nodded.

Rainbow watched as the distant tower collapsed. “I have other things to manage. All right, fine, you can h—”

Somebody fired a magic missile.

Nobody ever figured out which side it was. Everypony was sure it was the other side who attacked first. They heard the spell come from the other side—or had that been an echo? Was it a trigger happy Security mage, or a bored violence-mad mantle-ridden pony? Had it even been a magic missile?

It didn’t matter, in the end. Enough ponies were scared that they started shooting any ranged weapon they had - spell, bow, or bomb.

Cinder created a shield around Allure and Rainbow Dash, deflecting the assault.

Rainbow and Allure nodded sagely at each other, turning around. As ponies from both sides charged, the leaders simply walked back to their respective sides, faces set. Ponies surged past them with rage and weapons of all kinds, throwing bombs, magic, blades, technology… everything they could imagine to kill each other. The machines of Security focused their assault on Seren while she doused them with magic lasers from above. Below, pony met pony. Wild and free against cold and restrictive.

Too many ponies were enjoying the devastation.

“Sure… use a fickle misunderstanding to start a full scale war, but let everyone walk away from the middle like badasses…” Cinder let out a reptilian hiss. “Of course, why not!?” She teleported all the bay back to the Pavillion, a sour grimace on her face. “SCREW THIS!”

She pulled her head back, tapping into as many mantles as she thought would be useful to project her voice. “HEY! ANYPONY WHO CARES ENOUGH TO HEAR THIS, GET BACK HERE!”

Cinder waited.

Twenty. Maybe twenty people showed up. Allure, Seren, Distant, Sunshine, Blood Orange, Eyepatch, Tabula, Indigo, and a few others here and there.

“They need my help…” Seren said, glancing nervously back at the battle.

“This battle is pointless,” Cinder spat. “Pointless. Even if we win, the city falls apart. It’s falling apart as it is. We need to get to Twilight and end that spell. There is no other way we can save anything. We tried working within this universe’s rules, and look where that got us.” She pointed down. “Seren, drill.”

~~~

In a dark, damp corner of Vision no ponies alive knew existed, Celia sat in front of a fire she had made. The smoke whisked up through a nearby vent, going somewhere she didn’t know. To her left, there was only unclean glass that looked out upon the darkness of the seafloor. To her right, a hall of pipes that hadn’t seen light in years.

In front of her, there was Suzie. Unconscious. She would be like that for a while. Fluttershy was tending to her with a blanket, checking to make sure she wasn’t developing a fever or any other unusual symptoms from having her brain forcefully shut down.

“I should have let you do it.”

“Hmm?” Fluttershy asked.

“Back at the Sanctuary. I should have let you keep her docile.” Celia pressed her hooves together, staring deeply into the fire. “Vision wouldn’t be doomed if she’d been kept on a leash.”

“She’s your friend, Celia, you can’t be blamed for wanting to protect her.”

“Even if it was the wrong decision?”

Fluttershy followed Celia’s gaze into the fire. “...I don’t blame you.”

“Do you blame her?”

“I don’t really… blame ponies,” Fluttrshy admitted. “They’re just… the way they are. I do what I can to help them, but I’m just a pony too.”

“That attitude let you and your friends run this city into the ground.” Celia paused. “My attitude did the same, it turns out.”

“Celia…”

“I really should have just let you do it. I’m Celia. I’m supposed to know people.” Her eyes drifted to Suzie’s form despite the pain looking brought to her chest. “From the moment we walked in here, I should have seen where she was going. Should have…” Celia shook her head. “But we had hit a rough spot, and I was trying to patch it over. Give her more freedom. That was a mistake.”

“I’m sure she’d forgive you.”

“No doubt the moment I brought up her religion she’d begrudgingly mutter some half-hearted apology.” Celia waved her hoof through the flames. “And we’re Sweeties, anyway. No… we’re ponies. It’s what we do. Forgive, redeem. Even here, even broken, you still have that.”

Fluttershy nodded slowly. “It’s… rare, now.”

“She killed Rarity. She was one of your best friends. And in doing so, she… damned this city.” Celia sagged. “And here you are, keeping better watch on her than I am.”

“...If you’re right about me, being… ‘corrupted’, then maybe my Kindness goes too far?” Fluttershy cocked her head a little. “I don’t think it’s right to hold grudges against anyone. But I can see why it would… allow ponies to keep killing.”

Celia nodded. “That’s what I think. But I also thought that freedom was a good thing. Look where that’s got us.”

Fluttershy let out a short giggle. “I guess we’re both wrong about something, then, huh?”

“Yeah. To everyone being wrong!” Celia fell back, letting out a pained chuckle.

“...Celia?”

“Yes, Fluttershy?”

“Would you like me to…?”

Celia let a tear of unnatural blood seep out of the corner of her eye. “Yes. Yes Fluttershy, I would love nothing more than you to take the pain away. But I can’t. I can’t.”

Fluttershy nodded. She didn’t ask Celia to explain.

Celia did anyway. “I went through so much figuring out who I was. I can’t throw that away now just because it hurts a little. I made decisions, some terrible decisions. I need to live with them. I need to be… Honest. Not Kind.” She looked at the reflection of her gemstone in the glass. “I need to be able to explain myself as I am.”

“I understand.”

“Though… if this turns into some kind of tragedy where I can’t go home… ask me again.” Celia’s expression hardened. “I may change my mind by then.”

Fluttershy nodded, allowing silence to return. After checking Suzie again, she turned back to Celia.

“You can go home, right? Twilight said you could leave at any time.”

“...Yes…” Celia admitted. “But I haven’t found the others. Cinder… and I can’t take you with us. Or any of the other ponies suffering.”

Fluttershy smiled warmly. “You don’t think we’ve really lost yet, huh?”

Celia smiled back, but the action was painful. “I guess I’ve been in too many adventures where things turn out right at the last moment.”

“I remember those.” Fluttershy nodded slowly as she closed her eyes, remembering fonder times. “I hope they’re coming back.”

“I hope we’re bringing them to you.”

Silence reigned once more.

“Once the fighting stops—if the fighting stops…” Celia furrowed her brow. “If the dimensional lock is not broken, we can go back to your Sanctuary. Start anew there.”

“Will the curse be… gone?”

“If it’s not, I’ll make some kind of submarine. We’ll egg something out of this, one way or another.”

“...Thank you.”

“Hmm?”

“For thinking I’m a monster and sticking with me anyway.”

Celia couldn’t help but brighten at this. “What are friends for?”

In a moment of silly synchronicity, the two of them hoofbumped.

There was a rumble in the distance.

“The fighting’s getting worse…” Fluttershy observed. “Rainbow’s probably been called in to deal with it by now.”

“Not much we can do about it,” Celia said. “Not even the whole of Merodi Universalis can end the curse once the ball gets rolling.”

The rumble happened again. Closer, this time. Mildly alarmed, the two angled their ears, listening carefully for the sound.

Again, closer once more. Above them, but a fair ways to the east. Lighting her crystal, Celia performed a scan. She didn’t find fighting.

What she did find was Seren’s magic signature. Close by.

Celia stood bolt upright. “That’s them! Seren and… probably Allure.”

“They’re fighting?”

“No… well, maybe, but I don’t think that is what’s making the noise. I think… they’re digging through the layers of Vision.”

“Why would they do that?” Fluttershy asked.

“If they were up there, they may have found out about the curse, and... if they have Seren with them… they might be trying to do something.”

“I thought you couldn’t do anything about it?”

“That’s right. Because we can’t evacuate the city. Evacuate the city, the curse doesn’t spread.”

“They’re trying something desperate. But there’s nothing down here.”

“Exactly. It was the first place you thought would be good for hiding out the storm.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Twilight’s down here.”

“And they’re looking for her.”

“...We’ve gotta get to them.”

Celia levitated Suzie up, bundling her in the blanket. “Let’s move. We might be able to do something yet!”

~~~

Vision burned.

Everywhere there was potential for the flames of war, it broke out.

Towers had already fallen to riots. Riots that had never heard of the Sweeties or their ‘attacks’—just ponies that seemingly, for no real reason, snapped that day. In a pleasant shop district a stallion with one too many mantles hidden beneath his clothes ordered ice cream and got a flavor he didn’t like. He lashed out with fire and destroyed the shopkeep’s face. The fillies in the street decided to put an end to this, taking out their shivs and stabbing him until he stopped moving. A nearby officer decided that was worth the death penalty and started dealing out justice. Bystanders rose to defend the children. He called for backup. Some came, but not enough to quell the fires—Rainbow Dash was fighting a war elsewhere. Children rose through the ranks to cut, burn, and devour those who stood in their way.

Within the labs of Sparkle Enchantments, a pony panicked and pressed the alarm button a little too early. Seconds later, she tried to correct her mistake, triggering an error in the system. The lockdown of the doors ended, but the weapons systems remained on, attacking everypony who came in the lower levels of the central tower without any regard for lives.

In the underbelly where criminals thrived, a mob boss decided his slave mare had done a terrible job and killed her. He failed to realize that she had the loyalty and trust of every one of the ponies he thought loyal to himself. In panic, he spiral jacked out of desperation for one last victory. Already mad, several of his subordinates did the same, and they all died when one of them breached the outer wall and let the ocean sort it out.

In the maintenance tunnels, the killers who laid in the shadows felt something awaken in them. They felt the change of the world, the subtle twist of fate… and they knew it was time to come out. To feast. They died by the dozen, but they came all at once. It was too much to handle.

And at the Medical Pavilion itself, a war was underway. Even with the loss of Seren, the ponies fought as hard as they could manage. City Central Security had more technology and skill, but the insurrectionists kept getting more ponies, somehow. Through the back doors they came flooding in, mares and stallions who had been abused and tormented by Security for their entire lives. Hundreds were dead, but hundreds more rose. “For FREEDOM!” the ponies shouted, not realizing that they were fighting against a spawn that “freedom” created. In a way, this conflict could have been seen as noble. In a way, it was. It stood out from all the others for having a purpose to the battle, a reason for the death.

It was a terrible fact that the war at the Medical Pavilion was only making the situation worse everywhere else. Security may have been a fascist monster, but at least it would have done something to put the mad streams of violence down.

As it was, Vision had collectively decided to run the streets red with blood.

And in the one place where it shouldn’t have broken out into war, the one place where ponies went to hide and remain in the quiet, it was happening.

As Seren drilled through level after level of Vision, the attacks never stopped. The lower levels had low numbers of ponies, and even lower numbers of ponies in a situation strong enough to attack. But they did, banging themselves against the magic energy as it descended into the ground.

Cinder didn’t like how the ponies around them had suddenly become monsters. Almost mindless monsters. It was almost like an important part of their brains had been shut off and only the desire to kill remained.

The only friendly faces were the twenty or so of them inside Seren’s bubble. And that was starting to fade.

“Seren…?” Cinder asked, turning to her. “Do you… have this?”

“Y-yes…” Seren grunted.

“Oh no, you’re running low. Why are you running low? Oh, right, duh, less ponies, less sense of unity, attacking the feeling of familial connection with the whole war…”

“Y-yeah…”

While she was drilling with her magic, Cinder latched herself to Seren in a hug. “This isn’t helping, is it?”

“N-not really…”

Cinder removed herself. “...I’ll get you out of here, Seren. Okay? You know I make it out. I’ll get you out.”

“You said that to all of them… and where are they now?” Tears started dripping from Seren’s face. “We left them…”

“We are going down here to get a way out. Merodi response time for an emergency called by Allure will be minutes if she pushes it to maximum alert. The sooner we get down there the sooner we can get back to save them.”

A twinkle appeared in Seren’s eye. “Save… them… ALL!” With a determined scream that would make any Goku proud, she pushed every last ounce of her energy into the power of the drill. What had once been a somewhat dainty spinning construct became an immense gold-tipped multi-faceted fractal pattern of spirals that dug the rest of the way to the bottom - not just to the foundation of Vision’s dense infrastructure, but a fair ways into the rock below as well. The backspell designed to keep the ocean out fixed the glass she tore through, leaving a long, empty hole easily large enough for them all to fall through.

“There you… go…” Seren passed out, dropping her magical hold on all of them.

“Crabapples,” Cinder muttered. Physics kicked in and started bringing them to the ground at high speed.

Celia jumped out as they passed her level. “Fancy running into you here.” She created a magic net across the gap, catching every last one of Cinder’s followers.

“Celia!” Allure shouted in delight. “Oh, am I glad to see you.”

“The feeling is mutual, darlings!” Celia winked. She allowed the net to sag slowly, depositing them into the bottom of the seafloor crater Seren had made. Picking up Seren in her magic, she let out a “Tut.” “Poor thing, used herself all up.”

“She’s been carrying us single-hooved until now,” Allure said.

“Question!” Cinder called. “Celia, confirm, Twilight Sparkle is performing the dimensional lock?”

Celia took a moment to process Cinder’s new appearance but moved past it quickly. “Yes.”

“Do you know how to disable it if we get you to her?”

“...No…”

“Drat. We do need to wake Seren up…”

“No, you don’t.” Distant said, stepping forward. “She’s using an adaptation of my spell. I can dispel it if you get her weak or distracted enough.”

“Good girl!” Cinder clapped her hooves. “We got all our bases covered! Everyone’s here, we’re charging to the bottom of the city for a final showdown, BINGO.”

“Suzie’s not here,” Allure pointed out.

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Celia, am I wrong to assume Suzie’s nearby?”

“She’s nearby,” Celia admitted. “I suppose you can come down now, dear!”

Fluttershy poked her head over the edge of the pit they were in. “How about you come up here? We all need to get through the bottom levels, anyway.”

“Right… Let’s see, twenty-four individuals… and a one and a two and a…” She performed a mass teleport up to where Fluttershy was, under a dark hall filled with pipelines. “Whoo that took a bit…”

Cinder trotted up to Fluttershy, examining the bundled up Suzie on her back. “...You disabled her?”

Fluttershy nodded.

“She needed to be contained,” Celia said. “She caused a miniature war to break out in the Medical Pavillion just because she was angry a—”

“You shouldn’t blame her,” Cinder said.

“Excuse me!?”

“You knew this would happen eventually when you gave it to her.” Cinder fixed Celia with a stone cold glare. “Furthermore, this city has a ka-curse. Use that three-way brain of yours, I’m sure you can figure it out.” Cinder broke out into a grin. She could see the hamster wheels turning in Celia’s head as she garnered from Cinder’s actions what exactly was going on.

“My Diamonds…” Celia took a few steps back. “Fluttershy, did you know your city is… cursed to bring out the worst in ponies?”

“An actual curse?” Fluttershy frowned. “I… wouldn’t be surprised.”

“How’s ethically dubious actions town doing for you?” Cinder asked with a coy wink.

Celia was uncharacteristically stunned. “I… well I… don’t… know…”

“Well, we don’t have time to think. Fluttershy!” Cinder pointed at the Element of Kindness. “Which way to the deepest, darkest, most depressing pit of Vision?”

“This way,” Fluttershy said, pointing with a wing. “It… it has no name. We just call it Death.”

“That’s where everything in the ocean falls…” Cinder rolled her eyes. “Real creative…”

“Are you sure we should trust her?” Eyepatch asked. “That’s Fluttershy. Best friends with, like, all our enemies!”

“I can vouch for her,” Celia said. “She has stood by my side as w—”

Cinder interrupted her. “Yes, we can trust her this once; no, we should never trust her again. She’s just as nuts as the rest of them, it just so happens that her particular shade of nuts, like mine, is on our side.” She bowed to Fluttershy. “Lead the way, o’ Corrupted Kindness.”

“You’re the most interesting spiral jacker I’ve ever met,” Fluttershy commented. With a smile, she turned away and led the way through the lowest level of Vision.

Here, there were no electric lights, for nopony sane lived down here. The unicorns in the group used their horns to light the passage, following behind Fluttershy as she trotted along. Even though they were in the lowest level, it still sloped with the seafloor, so there were many aging stairwells down and corridors that seemed to slope on into the nothingness.

“We were getting attacked all the time…” Blood Orange observed. “Now… nothing.”

“I’m not complaining,” Indigo said.

“I’m not either. I just don’t trust it.”

They descended into a large open room with a fire burning in the middle of it. Down here, there were no windows to the sea, only walls that led to other walls. Besides the fire, there was no sign of habitation whatsoever aside from a rat skeleton under the green tiles.

“I remember this place…” Fluttershy said. “One of the first rooms we built, down here. Just a place for ponies to meet while everywhere else was barely a beginning.” She smiled brightly. “There were no mantles back then, no violence… just a bunch of ponies who wanted to live their own way.”

“Fat lot of good it did all of you,” Distant muttered.

“It was beautiful, at first,” Fluttershy said, looking up at the dark ceiling. “Ponies in harmony. Daring each other to do better. Laughing, singing, celebrating... “ She paused. “Celebrating too much…”

“And you all spiraled down into your own enjoyments until this rose out of the disorder,” Cinder commented. “Good job, who would have seen that coming?”

“Sweetie Belle,” Fluttershy breathed. With a sigh, she pointed a wing. “The Death is this way.”

“Please tell me we aren’t walking to our deaths,” Eyepatch muttered.

“Nah. That would be ridiculous,” Blood Orange rolled her eyes. “There’s nopony down this far!”

A harpoon shot out of nowhere, skewering Blood Orange in the eye. Her head spurted like the fruit she was named after, spraying her brilliant coat with the crimson of her life. She dropped without another sound.

From every door, mad, almost zombie-like ponies emerged. Mantles ran down their bodies like black snakes, meeting at areas with noxious purple tumors. Some carried weapons, others had blades embedded in their hooves, while still others had bone jutting out of their legs to be used as a stabbing implement.

All of them were out for blood.

The next thing Cinder was aware of was chaos. She was fighting, yes, fighting for her very life, though she found it hard to tell what she was fighting against or why. There was a mare with pointed teeth in front of her at one point. Cinder tossed her to the ground, only for an explosive blast to go off and splat the mare’s brains all over her. A stallion in a massive diving suit charged into the fray, his massive yellow eyes glowing like crystal. Celia jumped him and tore the helmet off—severing the neck in the process. He fell in front of Cinder, but she had to raise a ruby and sapphire shield to stop a hook-hoof stallion from driving his blades into her. A teleport later, and she was standing next to Tabula.

Tabula, who died not realizing her throat had been slit.

“No…” Cinder said. “No no no no no I made a DEAL!” She screamed.

The battle died down shortly after her cry. Ponies lay dead left and right. Unicorns cast the room in light once more.

Cinder performed a head count. Allure, Celia, Suzie, Seren, Distant, Fluttershy, Eyepatch, Sunshine, Indigo… Sixteen. Sixteen people left. So many dead just like that.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the forms of Blood Orange or Tabula.

“I made a deal,” Cinder hissed.

“Making deals with the Tower is… ill advised,” Indigo said.

“Not for me.” Cinder turned tail, angrily. “Eyepatch, Distant, watch yourselves. Sunshine…” Cinder put her hooves on the terrified mare’s wheelchair. “I’m watching you.”

“O-okay…” Sunshine stammered, refusing to open her eyes.

You’re not taking them all from me.

“Celia! Fluttershy!” Cinder trotted up to them, Sunshine in tow. “Can you get Suzie back?”

“...Yes…” Celia admitted. “But she was…”

“We need all the firepower we can get. Bring her back.”

Celia nodded. She was about to listen when she realized she was taking orders from Cinder—a Cinder that looked like she had gone off the deep end, at that.

“She’s right,” Allure said. “Bring her back.”

Together, Fluttershy and Celia focused on Suzie. Almost instantly, the human’s awareness returned to her. She opened eyes of anger, but not wild violence. Slowly, she unbundled herself and stood up.

“You are still relieved of duty and in our custody,” Celia explained.

“Am I?” Suzie asked.

“Yes,” Allure stamped her hoof. “You are.”

“I did what w—”

“Shut up,” Cinder muttered. “You are under the influence of the ka-curse of Vision, driving you to your worst self. As you can plainly see, so am I! Delightful, yes, glad we’re on the same page, moving on, we need to get to Twilight to break the dimensional lock and ponies are dying so use that fancy gun of yours and cut us a way through the enemies.”

Suzie looked down at Cinder, scowling. “You’re giving me orders?”

“Listen to her, Suzie,” Allure snapped. “Consider it my order.”

“We’re both Founders.”

“You are currently stripped of your rank and authority. You are out here on courtesy.” Allure tossed her head back, revealing sad eyes. “Don’t make me put you back in there.”

Suzie turned away, checking her pulse cannon. “Lethal force allowed?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I think I can live with this.” She pointed her pulse cannon at a chandelier and turned it to dust. It fell atop the head of the pony that had been in the diving gear. “...Wait a minute.”

“What is it?” Eyepatch asked.

“I’ve played this video game. That’s a pony version of a Big Daddy.”

“A what?”

“This entire place is freaking Bioshock,” Suzie laughed. “Oh, Button’s going to get an earful about this one…” She held her pulse cannon forward, narrowing her eyes. “Which way is the enemy?”

“The Death is this way,” Fluttershy said, trotting through a tunnel.

“Good. Make yourself useful. Touch my head and die.”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “I get it…”

“She took good care of you while you were out, you know,” Celia commented.

“Don’t care,” Suzie muttered, marching after Fluttershy.

Celia stayed back for a bit, looking at the bodies.

“Don’t try the revive spell,” Cinder said, frowning. “Vision won’t let us have any of them back.”

They descended deeper, deeper still. It was terribly unrealistic for the bottom level of Vision to keep sloping downward like this, but slope it did, inviting them closer and closer to the depths.

Cinder started to smell things rotting.

“Lots of dead fish matter got in the walls down here,” Fluttershy said. “It kept falling. They decided to build anyway.”

Eyepatch rolled her eye. “For a bunch of ponies building Vision they sure didn’t have much foresight.”

A firecracker-like weapon went off. Suzie whirled around and blasted three ponies in the head. Their weapons clattered to the ground. “There’s more in the level above!”

“On it!” Celia shouted, drilling through the ceiling with her razor-top. Cinder would have followed them, but she noticed Eyepatch go down.

“Eyepatch!” Cinder shouted, running to hold her. “Eyepatch…”

The green mare coughed up some blood. “H-hey…”

“No no, no, you stay with me, you hear? One of my lieutenants has to make it out…” She used her magic to heal Eyepatch’s wound. “See? All better!”

“I don’t think… that was a normal blade...” Eyepatch coughed up more blood, black this time. “For the…” Hey eye began to lose focus.

“Eyepatch! Eyepatch!” Cinder wailed. “X-Xenon! Xenon come on!”

“Heh… you did know…”

“I… I was just joking around, Xenon, I…”

“I kinda liked Eyepatch, in the end,” Xenon said, grinning. “You made it worth it, Cinder.”

“W…”

“Everything. Now… go save what you can.”

And Xenon was gone.

And Cinder broke.

“Do you want more? Is that it? This wasn’t enough!?” She cast a crystal shield spell around Sunshine, grinning psychotically. “FINE! Let’s abandon everything! I just realize I’ve been conveniently using decidedly nonlethal methods for everything, kind of like I’m part of an—egad—cartoon or something!” She lit her horn with a black fire. “You want more death? I’ll give you more death.”

She jumped up a level and found a random pony with one of those firecracker weapons. She torched him so hard his weapon melted in his hooves, reducing him to ash “That’s two!” She teleported down to a mare with mantles of skulls all over her neck and drove two ruby shards into her eyes. “That’s three!”

She jumped off a railing and shoved so many bees down a mare’s mouth that she exploded from the inside out. “And Four!” Whirling around, she moonwalked to a white stallion with a flaming horn.

At which point Celia shouted. “Fluttershy, stop her!”

And then all the rage went away. Cinder stopped attacking, dropping her hooves. She knew she could fight Fluttershy’s conditioning. She was super-Cinder right now, it wouldn’t even be hard.

She didn’t want to be angry, though. She’d never wanted to be angry.

She’d never wanted to kill anyone.

Tears rolling down her face, she smacked the enemy with a paper frying pan to knock him out. She jumped down to the ground level, pulling Sunshine out of the crystal prison and hugging her.

“C-cinder? It’s… it’s fin—”

“You’re so, so wrong,” Cinder bawled. “It’s not fine, and nothing’s ever going to be fine again.” She looked Sunshine in the eyes. “You might die… they all might die… we… I’m sorry. I played the game… and I lost.”

“Get your magic out of her head!” Suzie shouted, ready to shoot Fluttershy.

Cinder teleported over to Suzie and slapped her across the face. “No.”

“Zomb—”

“No. I don’t want to be angry.” Cinder pulled her tears back. “I just… I want to get home. I want these mantles off. I want to go to a happy little world where nothing has to die.” She pulled Suzie close. “I want this nightmare to end.”

Celia stroked her mane. “...We all have, at one point or another.”

“The darkness finds us all, eventually,” Allure added. “The low point where we realize… being out here… it changes us.”

Suzie’s hard rage softened considerably. She kneeled down and put her hands on Cinder’s shoulders. “...Welcome to the League of Sweetie Belles, Cinder. I’m sorry. There’s… there’s no going… back…”

Cinder buried her head into Suzie’s chest and bawled her eyes out. Celia, Allure, and Suzie held her close.

They all knew what it was like to be here.

To realize what the multiverse asked of those who explored it.

Agents could be warned, adventurers could be told to stay put. Those who decided to brave the storm would think they could stay true to themselves through anything.

But, inevitably, they would be brought down.

Allowed to see.

In that place, at the bottom of the ocean, under a city burning itself to the ground because of actions related to her, Cinder understood.

She understood what they had warned her about.

She understood why it was too late.

And she understood what they needed to do.

“The Death isn’t far from here,” Cinder said, eventually, wiping her face. “Let’s end this.”

Fluttershy wiped a tear from yer eyes as well. “Y-yes.”

They descended one last time. There were ten of them now.

There were no more attacks. The rest of the journey was made in silence.

At the bottom of Vision, there was a single round room. They filed into it, ignoring the stench of the improperly constructed walls around it, focusing instead on what they could see. Unlike every other room they had passed on their journey, this one had power. There were no lightbulbs, only large screens brimming with magic energy—showing scenes of Vision. Fire. Death. Blood. Water. War.

In the center of it all sat Twilight Sparkle.

“Just let us go,” Cinder said.

Twilight turned her chair around and looked at them all impassively for a moment—longer than should have been comfortable. Cinder held her ground.

“Very well.” Twilight lit her horn and sent out a flash, met only with silence.

“She’s telling the truth, ponies,” Distant said. “Move it!”

Quickly, Celia dialed a portal to Swip, Allure rushed to call in the Merodi, but Cinder didn’t hear any of it. She walked right up to Twilight and stared her in the eyes, unwavering.

“Are you proud of yourself?” Cinder asked.

“I’m not sure I see the relevance of the question.”

“I think you do. And I’m done falling into Vision’s curse, so I’m not going to give you what you want here. You want me to go ‘this is all your fault!’ and point my accusatory, shaky hoof at you like some kind of upstart rebel.” She waved her hoof around in Twilight’s direction, somewhat mockingly. “But it’s not true. It’s not all your fault.” Her eyes narrowed. “But it’s not all our fault, either.”

“Do you intend to blame the ‘curse’?”

“It shares part of the blame. But it only worked because of the weaknesses inherent in us. And it only worked because of the weaknesses inherent in you. So in a roundabout way I’m blaming reality, you, my friends, and myself for this tragedy. No one is free from blame, Twilight. And don’t you dare say you didn’t do anything.”

“I did not bring this city to ruin.”

Cinder twitched. “What a blatant deluded lie. Yes, we brought this city to ruin. But you could have stopped it.”

“Are you certain?” Twilight cocked her head. “I’ve been listening to what you’ve said, Cinder, about the fate and destiny of my city.”

“You could have accepted us when we came.”

“You wouldn’t have had to hurt them, if only they’d loved you?”

Cinder froze, and Twilight smiled.

Taking a few steps back, Cinder grimaced. “...There’s no turning you. Not sure why I’m bothering. Trying to tease out some sort of catharsis from this, maybe?” She shrugged. “You got what you wanted, in the end. And, you know, you wanted something pretty messed up, while all we wanted to do was help. What do you think that says about you? Are you a victim of the curse as well?” Cinder cocked her head. “Or are you a willing participant, like me?”

There was a glimmer of recognition in Twilight’s eyes. Did she see what Cinder was saying? Was she accepting it? Was she rejecting it? Cinder didn’t know. She had the feeling she never would.

“I’m done,” Cinder said, turning back to the group. “You lot can have a go at her now. I’d recommend against it, since it’ll just be giving her what she wants… but…” Cinder sighed. “Are any of you really going to be able to just drop it?”

“Yes,” Indigo said, dissipating her blade. “Hopefully I never meet any of you again.” She left.

Suzie took the first steps forward, but Allure held her back. The Sweetie Belle of Equis Vitis, horn of silver, Knight of Heart, walked to the head of the group, looking Twilight in the face with much sadder eyes.

“...We could have been friends,” Allure said. “We could have restored your city. Could have brought back… what it was at the start.” She gestured for Fluttershy to come up.

“You remember Twilight, don’t you?” Fluttershy asked. “How it started? How… how everypony was happy?” She couldn’t help but cry. “Why don’t you want that back?”

“I didn’t want it to end,” Twilight responded. “But ponies often get things they didn’t want.”

“W-we left Equestria to escape Celestia and control,” Fluttershy sputtered. “We wanted freedom. I… I don’t need to be good at politics to see that what we made wasn’t freedom.”

“It was what the ponies wanted. They led us here. We didn’t, Fluttershy. We went with them, with the spirit of the age. Our ‘control’ was and is just a formality. If all six of us turned around right now and tried to change things, they wouldn’t.” She gestured at the screens, showing the three of their friends. “And many of them tried, when they saw things going wrong.” Applejack was shown talking calmly into a radio while ponies rushed to kill her from behind. “Applejack is trying to give some last parting words of peace. She knows she is about to die.” An image showed Rainbow Dash tearing up a map of battle plans in rage. “You saw Rainbow Dash. She would have gone for peace. But the ponies didn’t let her.” Lastly, there was an image of Pinkie, jumping through and in-between mad fighting ponies, dressing them in party hats and hitting them with party cannons. “And Pinkie, smiling to the end, thinking all they need is a good party to calm them down.”

“Twilight!” Fluttershy wailed. “Go help Applejack!”

“You already are,” Twilight pointed out. On Applejack’s screen, several ponies, humans, and Gems in gray uniforms stormed in, stunning everyone in the room with guns not set to deadly force. “Here is your help.”

Twilight changed the screens behind her to show outside the city of Vision. There were several locations she tapped into that clearly had no physical cameras, but Cinder didn’t feel the need to question this. Several Merodi ships had arrived. One was easily recognizable as a full warship, but most of the others were rounder relief vessels. “Your noble relief effort arrives,” Twilight said, gesturing at the screens with her wings. “Impressive response time.”

“Thank you,” Allure deadpanned.

One of the screens showed a relief ship teleporting people to and from the insides of a larger tube. Some idiot inside Vision decided to shoot at the ship, causing a breach. The water flooded in, killing several before the Merodi ship could seal the hole with a magic tractor beam.

“They fight you as you ‘help’.” Rainbow Dash saw the Merodi coming into her office and drew some kind of advanced magic wand with her wing, shredding several of them to the bone. Her entire office was frozen in time a second later by a sorcerer, defeating her.

“Not everyone fights,” Celia pointed out. In the remnants of the battle of the Medical Pavilion, a white mare was waving at the ships with outstretched hooves. The Merodi personnel came in and shook hooves with the few living combattants.

“Hundreds reduced to a dozen,” Twilight commented. “For every life that is saved today, hundreds if not thousands have been lost. Those areas that have already breached have no hope of life ever again. You have liberated Vision from tyranny and, it seems, from life.”

“...There wasn’t really life here to begin with, was there?” Distant asked. “It’s all one massive downward spiral that started from day one and was always going to end like this.”

“Cinder sure thinks so. Your mother no doubt did as well.”

Distant twitched. “You did something to her.”

“I simply offered her a way out.”

“You…”

“How quickly you look for somepony else to blame now that these Sweeties have shown you a different side of her. How long have you wanted to remember her as the hero she claimed to be?” Twilight cocked her head. “You could never abandon it, could you?”

“I… Rgh…”

“You’re lucky their appearance made you regress. Your other mother wasn’t so lucky.” Twilight changed one of the screens to show Swiftwing, hanging from a rope.

Distant’s froze in place.

“This happened long before the riots started,” Twilight explained. “Seeing the visage of her dead wife—coupled with the suggestion that she might not be dead, but just abandoned them—was too much for her to handle.”

“N… I…”

Allure put a hoof around Distant and hugged her tight. “Why be cruel?”

Twilight blinked. “I am simply stating facts.”

“You tell her everything about Swiftwing and say little about The Sweetie Belle. You claim to be impartial, above it all. It’s clear that you’re not.” She pressed her face into Distant’s mane. “I’m sorry, Distant. We failed. We were wrong.” She let out a shaking breath. “But we still have you. And… you can have us, if you want.”

Celia walked over and placed a hoof on Distant. “I’ve known you for all of an hour, Distant, and I already know you are a great mare. In some ways, better than us. That had to come from her.”

“We will always remember her.”

Distant bawled, squeezing Allure as tight as she could. There was anger, there was the desire to hurt them… but there was also the realization that these Sweeties cared more about her as a person than Vision ever had.

“And if she won’t tell us what happened…” Allure glared at Twilight. “We’ll find her.”

“Even after all this, you still wish to seek her out?” Twilight closed her eyes. “I am afraid that’s impossible now. Sparkle Enchantments has been destroyed in the riots. The faint dimensional trace on her will have been eliminated.”

Allure’s smile didn’t falter. “You know what, I don’t think I mind going back to square one. It’ll give me a chance to prove that we will keep looking.”

“I’ll find her,” Distant breathed. “I’ll find her and make her explain herself. Her explanation is going to suck. But I bet it’ll be better than your fucking cryptic bullshit!”

Twilight frowned in Distant’s direction.

“Let me guess, you didn’t steal my spell either, the Enchanters just happened to show it to you?” Distant stomped forward. “You just happened to know it in the end? Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!”

“Repeating a swear does not emphasize your point.”

“Shut it!” Distant cried. “You didn’t have to initiate that lock.”

“And you didn’t have to manipulate us into showing our hand,” Celia added. “You could have taken the ‘missionary’ deal. But you didn’t.”

Twilight shook her head. “It would not have been what the city wanted.”

“But it would have kept it from burning itself to the ground.”

“How can you claim to have done nothing, and yet funnel everyone to a point of destruction?” Distant stamped her hoof. “If that’s not a double standard, I don’t know what is!”

“Would you rather I let your armies charge on my soul unaided?” Twilight asked. “That is what would have happened. Celia, assure me that, upon review, your leaders would not have declared a state of emergency for Vision.”

“They would have declared a state of emergency for Vision, absolutely,” Celia admitted. “Especially after our deal proved to be dangerous. They would have either gotten clever and used loopholes, or just charged here with the army to end it.”

Distant growled. “This doesn't even… that’s stupid! This is all stupid! W—”

“Why are we even asking her why she did what she did?” Suzie asked. “She’s deluded. Mad. Evil.”

“And you single-handedly caused a genocide,” Twilight pointed out.

“This city deserved it.”

“This city only shows what is naturally in the hearts of ponies, Colonel. By that logic, do we not all deserve it?”

“NO WE F—” she stopped herself, a haunted expression crossing over her face. Slowly, she reached into the neck of her shirt and pulled out the cross necklace. “...No… we… we all deserve it…” It hit her like a truck, knocking her to the ground. She banged her fists on the cold, Dead ground. “Everyone falls short! Everyone falls short!”

With a sigh, Cinder placed her hooves on Sunshine’s wheelchair. “...I think that’s everyone.” She placed a gentle hoof on the trembling yellow mare. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Stuck up arrogant heartless bitch,” Distant spat at Twilight, trotting through the dimensional portal.

“It really didn’t have to be this way.” Allure shook her head and followed Distant out.

Wordlessly, Celia levitated the unconscious and the non-verbal through the portal.

“You had very little to say to me,” Twilight observed.

“I may be a mare of words, but I realize when I’ve been outclassed.” Celia put a hoof around Fluttershy.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight with sad eyes. “Goodbye, Twilight.” She carefully put a wing around the trembling Suzie and led her out.

Cinder stood with Sunrise in the room. The last to leave.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“You don’t have to stay here,” Cinder pointed out. “You don’t have to burn with the city. There’s a wide multiverse out there for you. Go somewhere. Start something new.”

She left without giving Twilight a chance to respond, wheeling Sunshine through the portal.

There was a pop.

At the bottom of the ocean, Vision burned.

Author's Notes:

We're not quite done with Siren Song yet: we've got an aftermath chapter to go.

Siren Segue

The Sweetie Crusader Shield sat in an expanse of endless white. Alone.

Cinder thought it was beautiful. So pristine, perfect, and descriptive of who she was.

But its dominance was not to continue. Like glass, the white around the shield cracked, divides spiking out from the center like lightning. Voids formed, and within these other images took shape. Fire sitting within Water. Crystals of many colors. Bees. A spark of white magic. And, larger than all of them, a brilliant red rose.

They surrounded Cinder. No part of the white purity was saved from the jagged, dark roots of destiny wronged.

She knew she had put them there. That was the worst part. These scars were completely of her own doing through her choice. One or two of these could be excused through ignorance.

Not all of them. Never all of them.

Something prodded her neck. The sensation prompted her to check herself over, only to find that she didn’t have a body in the traditional sense, just the sensation of one. No hooves to see and no magic to use. Sadly, no amount of telling herself she didn’t have a body would make the burning in her nonexistent neck go away.

The blue gemstone vanished, the crack it was within quickly repaired to a solid white. The burning sensation increased slightly as this was done, but not enough to cause her worry.

I’m being operated on, she realized as the bee mark vanished with another surge of burning. They’re getting rid of them.

Several marks vanished and the cracks were restored with them, restoring more of the white to its proper state. This filled her with a sense of immense relief. Who cared if she was burning a little bit? They were fixing her mistakes. Righting her wrongs. Doing exactly what she’d wanted them to do.

The only concern was that they’d told her she wouldn’t be able to feel or remember any of this. Granted, she was in a bit of a dream-reality right now, but she was still more than aware enough to figure out what was going on.

She decided not to let that bother her just yet. It wasn’t like she could do anything, anyway.

The marks disappeared one at a time, and with each one the burning sensation became less and less. Either she was getting used to it or the doctors were figuring out how to move faster. Both were good.

Still Waters eventually vanished. Cinder half expected some kind of dramatic change in her soul, but she didn’t feel all that different. Not that she had felt all that decisive in the first place. For all she knew this was a drug induced delirium.

Fix the drug problem with more drugs. Oh, the irony.

Only two marks remained. The Crusader Shield, and the rose.

Cinder was confused. What did the rose mark do again? She remembered having it, yes, but she didn’t remember taking a mantle for it or using any talent related to it. Bizarrely, now that all the other marks were gone, there were no black cracks around it either. It looked like it belonged just as much as the Crusader Shield.

Weird.

The burning sensation began to rise in intensity. Cinder didn’t become concerned until it got hot enough to feel like she was casting fireball on her neck.

What’s that mean!?

The rose turned pitch black. For the first time, Cinder heard an unidentifiable noise; deep groaning unlike anything that had met her ears before. She wanted to turn away from it, but there were no ears for her to close.

Cinder suddenly felt as though she were falling, even though the rose and the shield remained directly in front of her. Everything trembled until the rose itself developed a hole in the middle, spreading out into a pitch black spirograph. It floated downward until it surrounded the shield…

Cinder screamed. Her eyes opened.

She was floating…

Or was she? It looked like it, but she wasn’t sure she could actually see anything. It wasn’t like she had eyes. Even though… images came to her. Images… below her.

There she was, stabbed with a half dozen white needles at various points in her body. Her mouth was open in a terrible scream and her eyes were open so wide they looked like they were about to pop out. All around her doctors scrambled, shocked by what was happening.

Why are they so worried? There’s nothing wrong.

Cinder’s intuition was still with her, slapping her consciousness across the face, focusing it on the situation.

…This is wrong. Something’s gone wrong.

She couldn’t muster up any fear or panic, just managed to acknowledge the truth of the situation.

All she could do was watch as her body dissolved into an amorphous white blob, shimmering with a beautiful light. The spikes refused to let the blob move, keeping it—her?—in place.

A Rarity charged into the room. Cinder didn’t recognize her. But she knew the spell she was using, the multiple blue shards of magic that surrounded the blob and rose to heaven. Esuna. The ultimate cure-all.

It did nothing to the blob.

Cinder didn’t know what the next spell was called, but given all the clock-like imagery in the magic spirals, she guessed it had something to do with time. Slowly, carefully, the blob reverted back to the form of a sleeping, calm unicorn.

The form of Cinder. With only the two Cutie Marks she was supposed to have.

Good.

Blackness.

Beep… Beep… Beep…

“Uuuugh.” Cinder muttered, opening her eyes for real this time. As expected, she was in a hospital bed. There were no wires or spikes stuck into her, just a nearby console that scanned her magically and let out beeps in time with her heart. “That was a trip…”

“Cinder?”

Cinder turned to the only pony in the room—her sister. Xenium.

“Yeah. It’s me. Cinder.” Cinder smiled. “Hi.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Confused, but that’s just because of the weird dream that could mean anything.” She sat up. Noting Xenium’s concern, she smiled. “Xenium, I’m fine. They patched me up really well. Don’t even feel sore and…” She checked her legs. Both cutie marks, nothing else. “Everything’s where it should be.”

“Oh, thank Celestia.” Xenium pulled her into a hug. “I was so worried, I…”

“I knew I would be fine,” Cinder said. “I knew it. That’s… that’s why I did it.”

Xenium nodded. “Celia… tried to explain. I think I understand. But… never do that again!”

Cinder thought of the last moments at the bottom of Vision. Letting out a terse sigh, she said, “Not planning on it…”

Xenium’s smile vanished. “…Do you need to talk about it?”

“Yes. But not now.” Cinder looked to the door. “How many people are waiting outside?”

“A lot,” Xenium admitted.

“Bring on the happy post-operation brigade!” Cinder declared, jumping to her hooves. Even she was a little surprised at how good she felt.

“That’s the signal!” a young, familiar voice called from the other side. “Let’s git!” She kicked the door in, revealing herself to be a bright yellow filly with a bow in her hair. One very particular Apple Bloom.

“Adder!” Cinder called, using her friend’s chosen name before rushing her into a hug. “You came to Celestia City?”

“Ah couldn’t just sit on th’ farm while you were here!” Adder laughed.

“She’s a great friend,” Sunshine said, rolling in behind her.

“Ah’m the best!” Adder grinned. “And Ah can see why you picked up this Sunshine pony, both o’ us bein’ yellow and all.”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “That had nothing to do with it.”

“CINDER!” Seren shouted, jumping through the door and tackle-hugging Cinder to the ground. “Everything’s okay!”

“Hey, I was supposed to do the tackle-hug!” Blink called. “Geez…”

“You can still do it,” Nira pointed out.

“Nah, I totally wouldn’t… It wouldn’t be proper unless it was a surprise, you know?”

“Suit yours—“

Blink proceeded to tackle-hug Cinder, creating a pile of small, laughing ponies.

“This is a good sign,” Sweetaloo said, smiling from the doorway.

Burgerbelle held up a “laugh” sign.

“More or less,” Sweetaloo admitted.

Celia walked in more gracefully and nuzzled Cinder only after she had stopped laughing and managed to get her hooves back under her. “I’m proud of you.”

Cinder frowned. “…Really?”

“Yes. Really. You made some bad choices… but you remained true to yourself and got the rest of us through that terrible place.” She tilted Cinder’s head up. “We would never have gotten what we did without you going so far. Never forget that.”

“Thanks.” Cinder said, tears in her eyes. “I… just, thanks.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Squiddy walked in slowly, looking up to Cinder with slow, uncertain eyes.

Cinder’s smile vanished the moment she saw the inkling. Images of ponies burning and bees filled her mind. After a short shiver, she hung her head. “It… it didn’t take long for me, did it?”

Squiddy shook her head.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t listen, I couldn’t stay away from it, I—“

Squiddy slapped her with a tentacle.

“Squiddy!” Xenium gasped.

Squiddy ignored her. “None of that wallowing, Cinder. You’ve already gone through it. There’s nothing you can do to stop it from happening now. So accept it and move on.”

Cinder gingerly touched the spot she’d been slapped. After a moment of processing, she let out a laugh. “Good advice.”

“You should try it sometime,” Celia said, directing the comment at Squiddy.

Squiddy shrugged, leaning against a nearby wall. “I do what I can.”

It was at this point Cinder finally noticed the last pony in the room. A pony she hadn’t seen in almost three months.

“Scootaloo!?” Cinder gasped. “Oh my gosh, you’re back from camp!” She pulled the orange pegasus into a hug. “I’ve got so much to tell you and s—“

“Y-yeah,” Scootaloo said, weakly. “You’ve been through a lot while I wasn’t around, huh?”

Cinder frowned. “…Scootaloo?”

“I’m… I’m glad you’re okay.” She moved slowly, as though she had to force herself to reciprocate the embrace.

Full of doubts, Cinder glanced to Adder. She shrugged—she had no idea why Scootaloo was acting this way, either.

It, unfortunately, was something that would have to wait for later. Cinder had already noticed that someone was missing.

“Where’s Suzie?”

Xenium sighed. “Cinder, dear… Suzie’s on trial for what she’s done. Her movements are currently restricted while whatever classified thing she’s done is dealt with. She’s simply not allowed to be here right now.”

“On trial?”

“Has been ever since you got back two days ago.”

“…Can I see her?”

Celia sighed. “You will soon enough. You’re being asked to testify as soon as your health returns.”

~~~

Suzie had to pull a lot of strings to be allowed out of classified custody temporarily. Classified custody was a bit like being jailed, except the accommodations were excellent and she wasn’t allowed to talk to anybody since her alleged crime dealt with highly classified intel.

But she had connections, and those connections knew people, and certain people who were in charge of the most classified information knew how to keep it secret in situations such as this. They had to wait until the dead of night on Equis Vitis, but they teleported her to a particular location in Ponyville.

“Hope you find what you’re looking for,” her ‘assistant’—more of a guard, really—Roxy Lalonde said, adjusting her Void mask.

Suzie didn’t say anything. She simply looked at the large double doors of the church before her, a sinking feeling rising in her stomach. Whatever she felt through those doors, it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

But it might be needed.

With a deep breath, she pulled the doors open. Roxy remained outside.

The interior of the church was abandoned, but there was a candle lit at the front altar. The usually awe-inspiring beauty of the stained glass windows was diminished to a somber melancholy by the night outside. Slowly, she walked down the aisle, legs shaking.

She didn’t even make it to the altar. The moment she passed the window with the large, golden cross, she fell to her knees and banged her fists on the ground, letting out a heave of inner agony. Every muscle in her body tensed and groaned, to the point where she felt like she would lose the lunch she hadn’t eaten. She clutched the pendant hanging from her neck, letting out sharp, raspy words.

“I failed… I failed everyone… I failed myself… I failed You…”

“No one is righteous—not even one.”

Suzie didn’t need to look up to know who was standing behind her. A Starlight Glimmer, well known by many for running this church. She was known simply as Rev to everyone, even her friends. And she was a reverend with security clearance.

And, more than that, she was a pony Suzie knew.

“I’m… worse than that…”

“Paul said he was the chief of sinners.”

“Good for him!” Suzie shouted, banging her hands on the ground again. “He didn’t murder an entire city because he was angry!”

Rev sighed. “...No. He didn’t.”

“I’m no saint… I’m just… Weak.”

“Everyone’s weak, Suzie.” She placed a gentle hoof on the woman’s back. “Everyone fails.”

“Who gets up after… this?”

“You’d be surprised how many conquerors, enslavers, and despots repent. Just ask Eve how many she’s turned over the years. Just because they have killed cities, worlds, universes… doesn’t mean they can’t be given another chance. Or another chance after that. Or another chance after that.”

“They’re different. I’m supposed to be better! We’re supposed to be better! He… we’re supposed to rely on Him. I didn’t.” She put her hands in her hair and started pulling. “I didn’t. I was just angry. So angry.”

“How much of that was actually you?” Rev asked. “I don’t know much, but I do know that place was cursed.”

“Enough.”

“Then take the blame. Admit what you’ve done. And get back up.” Rev smiled sadly. “It both is and isn’t that simple.”

Suzie didn’t respond. She only breathed.

“I’ll still welcome you back, Suzie. If I can do that, what will He do?”

“I know… I know…” Suzie muttered, finally looking Rev in the eyes. “I know… but I don’t feel it. I…”

“You’ve turned the anger on yourself. You…” Rev let out a sigh and shook her head. “Suzie, you’re right, you have done something terrible. But you should make it better, not worse.”

“I know… I know…”

“And I know you can’t just flip a switch and feel differently.” Rev nodded sadly. “As terrible as it is, we are often our own worst enemies.”

“We’re so weak and pathetic and broken and…”

Rev sighed, stopping her. “You’re right. We are. And we need to have the courage to admit that. With dignity and hope, not sorrow.”

Suzie looked at the ground, quiet.

“I can’t help you with how to deal with the consequences of your actions on the ponies around you. But…” She sat down in front of Suzie and pressed her hands together between her hooves. “I can help you with this.”

Suzie broke into tears again, devolving into rushed murmuring. Rev held her close the entire time.

~~~

“So… Distant.” Allure pressed her hooves together. “I take it you like Celestia City.”

“What gave you that idea?” Distant was currently wearing a baseball cap with a Merodi insignia on it, a labcoat filled with pockets of holding that were somehow overflowing with small devices like phones and scanners, shoes of Gem construction that sparkled every color of the rainbow, and earring hoops permanently dialed to a universe of serene purple scenery.

“…Just a hunch,” Allure deadpanned.

“Right. So. Why am I here?” Distant levitated a juice box out of one of her labcoats and started sipping it.

“Well, I’m here to talk about your future.” Allure pressed a button on her desk that let out a DUN DUN DUUUUUN noise.

“Classy.”

“We try.” Allure pressed her hooves together. “I understand you’re still reeling from what happened in Vision—we all are—but life’s moving on at a breakneck pace, and you have an amazing talent ponies are already clamoring to get a piece of.”

Distant glanced at the three circles on her flank. “Figured you guys would have a lot of dimensional researchers.”

“Oh, we do. A lot. But our society isn’t old enough to have developed lots of special talents related to dimensional research. Marks like yours are rare, and… well, this might come a little too fast for you, but I’d like to ask where you’d like to work.”

“Don’t you have an entire research section in your basement?”

“We… do,” Allure admitted. “And I was tempted to just hire you directly. But… Distant, this is the League of Sweetie Belles. Given all that’s happened… I couldn’t in good conscience take you on when there are valid options that won’t put you in a place where The Sweetie Belle is revered and her face is plastered everywhere.”

Distant frowned. “I could deal with it.”

“I know you could. But if you had a choice, would you want to?”

Distant looked around Allure’s office for a moment. Pictures of Sweeties lined almost every wall. There were a few trophies, medals, and awards, all also mostly based on Sweeties and their accomplishments. Too many of them looked exactly like her mother.

…Including the painting in the back that clearly was her mother, crystal blade, mineral hair, and all.

“She really is everywhere, isn’t she?”

“It’s not like we worship her… mostly.” Allure sighed. “If Vision taught me one thing it’s that I was getting dangerously close… but it’s going to be hard to keep who you are from the League. You would probably be asked about it. Even if you were comfortable, the Sweeties might not be with what you have to say.”

“Are you keeping everything secret from them?”

“Only Suzie’s involvement since her ability is classified as it is,” Allure said. “Everything else is available for public consumption. There’s probably going to be a news special when Aid expands their efforts. But that won’t stop the Sweeties from looking to their absent hero.”

Distant nodded. “Right, right, I get it. Fine, probably shouldn’t work for you. Who then?”

“We have an entire Research Division in Merodi Universalis. I can introduce you to some powerful people who work in some really advanced multidimensional projects. You’d probably start as an intern… but you’d get to see history being made.”

Distant’s eyes sparkled. “Yes.”

“Good!”

“Let’s go right now.”

Allure frowned. “Distant, you still need time to reco—“

“I want to see what the cutting edge of science means to you.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll make some calls!” She pulled out her communicator. “Yeah, it’s me, she wants to come now. You’re open? …Convenient, but I’ll take it! Be there in a few minutes!”

Distant smirked. “I didn’t think bureaucracy could be that fast.”

“We try.” Allure hopped down from her desk. “Come on, we can use the teleporter to get to the Research Division.”

The two trotted down a mostly-empty hall in the League, only passing Bot on the way by. She let out a synthetic greeting and continued along her way.

“…You know, you seem to have recovered from Vision pretty quickly,” Distant observed.

“You too.”

“I’m distracting myself with shiny toys,” Distant laughed nervously. “You…”

“This isn’t my first rodeo,” Allure said with a sigh. “Vision was particularly bad. But… it’s not the worst I’ve seen.” She stepped onto a blue teleporter pad. “Wasn’t even the most personal, though it comes close.”

“What was?”

“I was stuck in a time loop. Alone. For the longest time.” Allure sighed. “It was… hard.”

Distant nodded, respecting her enough not to pry further. A flash and a smattering of blue sparkles later, they were in another building on the other side of Celestia City. This one was made of darker material and had a lot less friendly decoration strewn about. Allure walked right in and told the receptionist they were expected.

Without warning, they were teleported to the main office, right in front of the robotic Research Overhead and his Second, Corona Shimmer. Corona smiled at Distant warmly. The R.O.’s sparkling, glassy face was impossible to read. The stars within stirred both awe and fear within Distant.

“A natural talent for dimensional study,” the R.O. said, his synthetic voice fascinating Distant with its ability to convey emotion, even if that emotion was skepticism. “Admirable. But does that really make you a good candidate for the highest echelons of research?”

“Give her a break,” Corona said, rolling her eyes. “I’m sure she’ll meet the qualifications.”

“She will have to pass the R.E.”

“She will,” Allure said.

“I will?” Distant repeated, a bit confused.

“It’s just an exam on things like the scientific method and critical thinking. I was able to pass it, I’m not even a scientist.”

“The R.E. is just step one,” the R.O. continued. “You must prove yourself not only talented, but prudent, driven, and curious.”

“Oh yes, curiosity is a big one,” Corona agreed.

“Is there a test for that?” Distant asked.

Corona shrugged. “You could let me touch your emotional center. I’m an empath. But that’s not requir—“

“Will it get me to see the big research projects faster?”

Corona frowned. “Yes. But… are you sure you want to? I’ll see a lot of things you probably don’t want people to see.”

“What I want is to see what you guys really have to offer.”

“Driven,” the R.O. observed. “Adequate. Second, proceed.”

“Okay…” Corona removed her glove. Carefully, she touched Distant at the base of the horn.

For a moment, Distant’s and Corona’s selves ran past each other. Distant caught sight of a woman full of fire who conquered death itself and refused to let existence dictate how life had to be. Corona, in turn, saw a hurt, broken mare with brilliant ideas and a bright future.

Corona severed the connection as soon as she could. She fixed Distant with a sad smile. “…R.O.?”

“Yes?” the robot asked.

“I haven’t taken on a personal apprentice in a while.” Corona extended a gloved hand to Distant. “I think I’m going to take her.”

Distant gently placed a hoof in her hand. “So… I guess from all that emotional flashing, you’re kind of a big deal?”

“She has churches devoted to her,” Allure deadpanned.

“That I do not encourage!” Corona put her hands on her hips. “Really, what part of inventing an immortality serum makes you worthy of worship!? Shimmy’s closer than I am, but nooooo…” She put a hand to the bridge of her nose.

“…Experiments?” Distant asked.

“Oh, yes, of course.” Corona said. “I’ll take us right there.”

“Wait a minute,” Allure said, pulling something out her bags—a book. “This is for you, Distant. You don’t have to read it.”

Distant picked up the book in her magic.

The Incomplete Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments.

“If you’re ever curious.”

Distant had a pretty good idea she would get curious. Eventually. But not today—today she really wanted to see something else. She put the book away, nodding to Allure in thanks.

“Ready?” Corona asked.

“Ready.”

“All right, so, some preface. First of all, we’re currently trying to use multi-destination portals to examine the bleeding of physical laws between eldritch spaces and flatlands in a controlled environment. The difficult part is collecting data without leaking our own physics into the experiment a—“

“Just take me to the lab already, baconhair.”

Corona chuckled. “As you wish.”

With a flash, they were gone.

~~~

“Ninety percent casualties…” Jingle, a Luna and Second of Aid, breathed, looking over the current report for Vision Aid Efforts. “That’s one of the worst ever…”

Squeaky frowned. “U-Catastrophe is… effective.”

“One almost thinks it is too dangerous.”

“There are a lot of things that are too dangerous in the multiverse. We’ve got a lot more than just that one…”

“It reminds me far too much of the nuclear games played on the Earths,” Jingle said, scrolling to the next section of the report, taking in more information about the collapse of the city government and the disappearance of Twilight Sparkle. Following this was a sub-report from one Starbeat confirming the existence of a strong ka-curse in the city itself. “First real day on the job and disaster city drops on me while the person who knows what they’re doing is off on some long-distance relief effort in the Great Void…” Jingle put the report down and rubbed her forehead.

“Hey, don’t worry, you’re doing great.”

“Only thanks to you. And I can’t have you around all the time, unfortunately.”

Squeaky rolled her eyes. “I’m a general and an explorer. All this? All these ponies you’re saving and the history you’re salvaging? That’s all you, Jingle.”

“I… you’re right! I can do this! I c—“

There was a knock at the door.

Jingle twitched. “Who is it?”

“Celia, Chalcedony!”

“…Who?”

“…The Gem-Sweetie from Relations?”

“She’s good,” Squeaky said, trotting to the door and opening it. “Come on in!”

“Oh, thanks, dear. I was thinking I would have to barter first.”

“Barter?” Jingle asked.

“You know, explain that if you let me in I might have some help?”

“What kind of… help?”

Celia stepped to the side, revealing a certain aged Fluttershy. “Um… Hi.”

“Oh…” Jingle opened the report again, frowning. “You… you’re her, aren’t you?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Yeah.”

“I can vouch for her,” Celia said. “Her beliefs and abilities may be concerning, but she really does want to help. I thought there wouldn’t be a better way to start than to join the Aid efforts for her own world.”

Jingle nodded slowly. “You would have invaluable information. And the reports do speak of your care, despite the… other aspects.” She pressed her hooves together. “Consider this a test run. If you show me you’re willing to help and put aside your personal beliefs, I’ll consider putting you in a permanent position. For now, you are just an informant.”

“Thank you,” Fluttershy bowed.

“Are you just Fluttershy, or…?”

“I’m going by Solicitude, for now,” Solicitude said, smiling sadly. “Where are you sending me first?”

“Mattie’s team is currently complaining about resistance, I’ll send you down to help them manage everything.”

Celia sputtered. “M-mattie is on a mission for Aid!?”

Jingle smirked. “Yes. Though, from what I understand, it’s more Cryo’s idea.”

“I… wow.” Celia blinked. “I did not expect them to delve into humanitarian efforts.”

“There was a look in her eyes…” Jingle’s expression became distant. “Something had happened to Cryo. I’m not sure what.”

“I suppose I’ll have to ask… later. Right now, I’ve got a defense to run.”

“Thanks for everything, Celia,” Solicitude waved.

“Don’t mention it.” Celia trotted out.

Solicitude let out a sigh. “Okay. Let’s… do this. Go back in…”

“You sure you’re up for this?” Jingle asked.

“Yes. I am.”

~~~

There was a judge in the courtroom. This was unusual for Merodi judicial proceedings, which were usually carried out by an artificial intelligence that averaged out opinions and punishments from dozens of cases and popular opinion.

This was not the case for classified situations, which Suzie’s definitely was, given the use of U-Catastrophe. The judge in question was a member of the Justice Division by the name of Albatross “Phoenix” Wright. He appeared middle-aged, but everybody in the room knew he was much older than that. Overall, his features were kind, but extremely serious.

On the prosecution side there was only a single red Zircon Gem. She had several stacks of data pads, each one open to another legal document. She had already done a lot of talking.

The defense consisted of Suzie, Celia, and the Sweeties who were allowed to be there: Cinder, since she had to testify; Nausicaa, since she needed to manage the paperwork; Allure, since she was present for the events; and also Burgerbelle. She was a founder and technically had the clearance to be here. For once, she was being quiet, though occasionally Cinder would catch her playing with some memetic construct out of the corner of her eyes.

Celia was currently talking. “…And while Starbeat’s report on the ka-curse should be more than enough to convince everyone of my client’s innocence, I have further evidence. I call Cinder Belle to the witness stand to describe her experiences with the curse.”

Wright nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Objection!” Zircon blurted. “She is—“

“Just let the kid talk, Zircon,” Wright sighed.

Cinder walked up to the podium. “So… uh, I have this intuition. Really not sure where it comes from, but I’m decently good at guessing how things are going to go. While I was in Vision I… got enhanced with a lot of magical drugs called mantles that changed the way I thought. It… wasn’t good. It was pretty terrible, really, and I knew it. But one thing it did was make me think clearer and see farther. I was able to not only identify the curse, but point out exactly how it was influencing all of our team members who were there—including myself.”

“Care to explain that quickly?” Celia asked.

Cinder sighed. Seren already gave permission… “I gave in to my addiction to ‘adventure’ far sooner than I should have, you, Celia, entertained the moral ambiguity of brainwashing, Allure began to lose her faith in her name and her purpose, Seren was on track to have her idea of family shaken, and Suzie…” Cinder gulped. “Suzie was angered beyond the point of reason.”

Suzie looked down at the ground.

Zircon coughed. “It should be known that all these ‘flaws’ were already present in all agents at the time of entering Vision, the city only exaggerated them. Suzie’s anger is still culpable in these events. Note how, while all the others were affected as well, none of them engaged in such levels of damage.”

“Could we have?” Cinder asked. “ I mean…” Catching herself, she shut up before she imposed herself on the situation more than would be helpful.

Celia smiled. “Thank you Cinder, that will be all.”

Cinder returned to the others, sitting down.

“Thanks for doing this,” Suzie whispered to Celia.

“It’s the least I can do after all the dastardly things I put you through in that city,” Celia whispered back.

“That I put you through, you mean.”

“I suppose it is mutual…” Celia shrugged, turning to Wright. “I will conclude my statements by bringing us back to where we started—Suzie’s record. It speaks for itself. She is an exemplary soldier, a great leader, and has been a hero time and time again, repeatedly saving lives and changing worlds for the better. We all make mistakes from time to time. This one should not take Suzie from Merodi Universalis.”

“I disagree,” Zircon said, bringing up a file on Suzie’s past. “Suzie, while she has engaged in many successful operations and has a high approval rating within the League, has been shown to be inadequate on numerous occasions. I have seventeen separate instances of anger-induced outbursts, and those are just the ones that are recorded.”

Celia hissed. “Someone did research in the intermission…”

Zircon continued. “Furthermore, we have not even mentioned the loss of her previous subordinate, Ser “Silver” Bell.”

Suzie and Celia tensed instantly. Cinder looked at them in confusion. “What…?”

“Cinder, I—“ Suzie began, but Zircon was suddenly pointing forcefully at her.

“You, Suzie, were immensely negligent in your duties as captain, and that resulted in the death of Ser.”

“Ser doomed himself,” Celia said.

“I am not addressing you,” Zircon said.

“This isn’t an Earth court, I can talk whenever I please.”

Zircon shrugged. “Ser may have been on a path of self-destruction, but his death is directly related to Suzie’s negligence in leadership. She sent him on a mission with Sweeties who hated him, thinking they’d ‘work it out’.” She adjusted her tie, scrolling through some more reports. “For over a year, Ser had been seducing at least three separate members of the Sweetie Expedition Team, and Suzie had no idea this was occurring until the Sweetie known as Nira attempted to kill him for his advances. Instead of reporting the incident of harassment, Suzie attempted to reconcile them. She failed, multiple times in this one event, to judge her capabilities and the capabilities of those she led.” Zircon set the data pad down.

Celia lifted her head, glaring down at Zircon. “She’s not perfect, and Ser had most of us fooled.”

“It is not the only time Suzie has been put under suspicion of being less capable than suggested.” Zircon tapped the screen a few more times, bringing up a report entitled A Critical Analysis of Suzie’s Leadership Qualifications by Nausicaa.

Nausicaa’s eyes widened. “I wish to express that this report does not line up with my current opinion.”

Zircon shrugged. “It still collects important data. Eleven different moments where Suzie demonstrated an inability to understand her crew. Three deaths under her command, two of which were deemed avoidable. Several instances of favoritism—while not explicitly illegal, very suspicious and telling. Furthermore, the report talks of Suzie’s emotional inability to deal with failure, represented most in Cinder.”

Cinder blinked. What?

“Ser was gone less than three weeks before Suzie picked up a random Sweetie from a random universe and gave her full Agent status with alarming speed.” Zircon looked right at Suzie. “Cinder is likely nothing more than a replacement for her los—“

“You’ve made your point!” Suzie shouted, slamming her fist into the table.

Zircon nodded. “I believe I have. Thank you.” She sat down.

Wright sighed, putting a hand to the bridge of his nose. “Celia, do you have any retorts?”

“…I wish to reiterate that Nausicaa’s file is out of date and her opinion has changed since that day,” Celia said. “Otherwise… no, I believe we’ve already made our points.”

“In that case, I only have one question, and it is for Suzie.” Wright leaned forward, folding his hands together. “Suzie. You have a very dangerous ability inside you, U-Catastrophe.”

Suzie nodded in agreement.

“I want your honest opinion. Are you strong enough to handle it?”

Suzie’s fists relaxed and a soft, amused smile crossed her face.

“Suzie…” Celia warned.

“No,” Suzie said, looking Wright in the eye. “No. I am not.”

“Suzie!”

Wright smiled. “Thank you, Suzie.” He tapped his fingers. “Suzie, you are found innocent of all actions within Vision.”

“Thank you, your honor,” Suzie bowed.

“But you know there is more to this than just the events of Vision.”

Suzie nodded. “I… am aware.”

“I have to find you unfit for duty.” Wright’s smile vanished. “As long as you have U-Catastrophe, you cannot go on Exploration missions barring circumstances where your power is specifically requested. Your Stand is to be kept in nonviolent, safe situations—those of normal citizens—unless otherwise requested by someone with sufficient rank to know of its existence in Merodi Universalis government. Normally, I would suggest removing the Stand, but I am well aware how unique U-Catastrophe is and how its abilities cannot be replicated. This is effectively a permanent ban from leadership positions within the Expedition Division or any kind of high-intensity work.”

Suzie nodded slowly. “I understand.”

“See if you can get an exception. I know you have friends in high places, maybe they can convince the Divisions to allow U-Catastrophe to be destroyed.”

“Maybe one day,” Suzie said, shaking her head. “But I suspect I’ll use the time to… engage in less anger-inductive activities.”

Wright nodded. “In that case, we are adjourned.”

Zircon packed up her pads and left without another word. Wright left the courtroom through the back entrance.

“Suzie…” Celia said, face twisting through several different expressions. “You…”

“If you really think I’m strong enough, even after all this time…” Suzie chuckled. “I shouldn’t be trusted with this kind of power. I’m honestly surprised they ever let me think I could.”

“…That’s the problem with building your government out of close friends, I suppose,” Celia sighed, turning to Allure.

“I still think she could do it,” Allure said, putting a hoof on Suzie. “But… well, in the end, I guess this was your choice. He asked you that question for a reason.”

Suzie nodded. “Thanks for having all that unfounded faith in me.”

“Eh… I’ll take it.”

“And Nausicaa?”

The pegasus didn’t want to meet her eyes.

“Thanks for telling me when I was full of it.”

“I… try.”

Suzie turned to Cinder—and the smile vanished.

“What was that all about?” Cinder asked.

“Oh… Ser…” Celia sighed. “He was a bit of a Casanova who didn’t care for things like social boundaries. He… well, there’s a reason self-dating is frowned upon, and when it involves the opposite gender it’s explicitly illegal. He w—“

“I get all that, I think,” Cinder said. “What I want to know is what all this talk of replacement was about.”

Celia frowned. “Cinder, you have to understand, Suzie w—“

“Zircon was right,” Suzie said, leaning forward. “I was weak. I wanted someone new and small and full of energy that… that hadn’t been hurt by this. Who wasn’t Sweetaloo, just there to make sure we didn’t fall apart. I… I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was just looking for something, anything to change what was…”

“Oh,” Cinder said face blank.

“Cinder…” Suzie sighed. “None of our experiences were lies. We still had fun, we still adventured, and you are an amazing Agent I’m proud to have served with.”

“I get it,” Cinder nodded, slowly. “I… I just need some time to process, okay?” She frowned. “It’s… it’s not as bad as Vision, but it’s still hard to swallow.”

“I really am sorry you had to figure out this way,” Celia admitted. “I had been considering telling you myself ever since I fused together, but… I wanted to get Suzie’s opinion first, and our relationship had hit a rocky spot…”

“It’s okay,” Cinder said, holding up a hoof. “It’s okay, okay?” She forced a smile. “We’ll make sure everything’s fine.”

Celia frowned. “Cinder…”

“…I’ll talk to Xenium about it. There’s… a lot of things I want to talk to her about. …I kinda want to go home for a while.”

“All right.”

“I do have a question though. Who’s the captain now?”

Suzie pointed at Burgerbelle. She was currently smoking a pixelated blunt and had crying laugh emojis instead of eyes.

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Founder Burgerbelle at your service!” Burgerbelle declared. “And in my first act as Captain I say Celia gets to handle all the crazy stuff.”

“A recently corrupted Gem of darkness whose true nature and orientation are currently unknown is now in charge of the Primary Sweetie Expedition Team,” Nausicaa deadpanned. “…Great.”

“Hey, if it works…” Burgerbelle gave Nausicaa some finger guns.

The pegasus jumped into the air. “Don’t point those at me!”

“What?” BANG! BANG! “They don’t hurt! Much!”

Everyone let out a chuckle.

Except Cinder.

~~~

“…I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be angry or sad,” Cinder said, laying on her bed. Her bed. Back home, her Equis. Xenium was sitting in the chair, listening to her complaints.

“About Suzie giving herself up?” Xenium asked.

“Well… yes, but not really.” Cinder sat up. “I mean… I’m still recovering from the mess I put myself through, the team dynamic is changing, and… and I found out I’m a replacement.”

Xenium’s eye twitched. “A… replacement?”

“Yeah. It’s…” Cinder rolled her hoof in the air. “It’s hard to be angry, because the guy’s dead, right? But… but if I’m just a replacement… what…” Cinder sighed. “…Yeah.”

Cinder waited for Xenium to offer her words of encouragement, to assure Cinder that she really was who she was supposed to be, and that being a ‘replacement’ didn’t matter, especially not now.

It never came.

“Xenium, come on, I nee—“

Cinder noticed that Xenium was crying.

“…Rarity?” Cinder slipped.

Xenium nodded slowly. “Yes, Cinder, I’m here. I… Oh, Celestia, you really don’t need to hear this right now, you need to heal, to get better, to…”

“Rarity, what is it? What’s going on?”

Xenium took in a deep breath. “Cinder… this all started a long time ago. I should have told you when you first left but I didn’t. I was ashamed. I… Twilight’s been encouraging me to…”

Cinder pulled Xenium into a hug. “Just tell me.”

Carefully, Xenium pulled a photograph out of her mane. It was of Cinder, as a baby. Strange, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby photo of myself…

Then she saw it. What was wrong.

Green eyes.

Not orange.

“Wh…”

(Sweetie Belle wasn’t yet of the age for speaking, but the Rarity that would be Xenium still found her to be a wonderful partner in her many quests to become fabulous. Tonight, they were in their house, tying random fabrics together with yarn. That is, until Xenium had the excellent idea to incorporate leaves into the design.

The two sisters went outside. Just out to the tree. A trip they had made several times on several other nights without incident. It was one of their favorite places to relax.

They never made it to the tree, that night.

The sky went red. A dark tooth pierced the heavens directly above the two, tearing a hole of pure darkness through reality. A sphere of light fell from this hole at high velocity, creating a crater in the grass below.

Sweetie Belle was killed instantly.

“Sweetie Belle!” Xenium called, scrambling into the fiery crater. “Sweetie!”

All that remained was a small blob of white, shifting, churning—almost as if it was confused. As Xenium approached, however, it began to resolve itself. Four legs, a tail, a head, and a small horn… the shape of a small, white filly identical to Sweetie Belle in every way. Except one.

The eyes.

Those piercing, orange eyes that reflected the fire around them so perfectly.)

“…I told mother and father you must have been hit by magic, changing your eye color,” Xenium continued, tears rolling down her face. “I… I only told my friends recently, after you started leaving.”

Cinder looked at her hooves. “…I’m not from here.”

“Cinder… Sweetie, you’re still my Sweetie Belle, no matter what, a—“

“That’s why I felt like I belonged out there. I really did!” Cinder started to giggle. “I was right at home there… I’ve always been a replacement, huh? Maybe that’s what I am. A Replacer. I exist to fill holes. For your other sister. For Ser. For… all those ponies I’ve helped.” Cinder’s giggles got louder. “All those ponies who liked me for no reason! That’s why, isn’t it?”

Xenium pulled Cinder into a hug. “I don’t care about any of that.”

Cinder’s laughs died instantly and she bawled into Xenium’s mane. “I wanted to come home… Now I don’t know where home is…”

Xenium choked on whatever she was going to say.

“You… you know what I decided, while under the influence of the waters?” Cinder asked, pulling back and staring at the ceiling.

“What?”

“That I… wasn’t coming home.” Cinder swallowed. “Summer was ending, I would have to go back to school here… but I didn’t want to. I wanted to keep going. When I came back, I thought that was just me being selfish. But now…”

“Cinder, if your home is really out there, exploring… I won’t stop you.”

“…This is why you were so comfortable with all the danger,” Cinder sighed. “You knew.”

“Yes.”

“Everyone has a secret of some kind…” Cinder flopped onto her bed, closing her eyes. “…I just want to be Cinder. I just want to be… Sweetie Belle.”

“You are.”

“…You don’t know that. I don’t know that.” Cinder opened her eyes. “Xenium?”

Xenium leaned in.

“I’m sorry.”

~~~

Cinder walked up to a panel in Swip. She tapped it, revealing the dimensional devices. Taking one out, she popped out the back and removed the tracker.

“Going somewhere?” Swip asked, appearing on a nearby screen.

“Just taking it apart to see how it works,” Cinder said, pretending to examine a wire.

“Yeah, BS.” Swip’s avatar folded her arms. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

Cinder sighed.

“You might want to take more than one. Never know when one of them might break. Also, there’s a secondary tracker in some of them in a hidden compartment toward hte left, special issue for government use.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Swip…?”

Swip shrugged. “Take it or leave it.”

Cinder smiled sadly. “…That first day. You let me trick you, didn’t you?”

“You ain’t getting nothing out of me.”

Cinder pocketed the devices, putting a hoof on Swip’s screen. “Watch over them, okay?”

“Come back soon.”

“The intent is not to come back.”

“Buuuuut…”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “I think we both know this won’t last. I may want it to, right now, but…” She waved a hoof in the air.

“Your intuition must drive you crazy.”

“I bet it’s like being able to process three million things at once and not knowing what to do with it.”

Swip laughed. “You know nothing of my pain.”

“Agree to disagree.” She saluted. “You’re a good ship.”

“Don’t you go replacing me, you hear?”

“No promises!” Cinder activated one of the dimensional devices and hopped through.

Swip smiled to herself. That filly’s going places.

Now, the question was how she was going to break this to Celia without getting punched in one of the screens.

~~~

“I bet you’re wondering why I called you here today,” Cinder said, standing at the podium in her Crusader Clubhouse.

Scootaloo and Adder looked at her expectantly.

“…I’m going to find out who and what I am,” Cinder said, simply. “It turns out that… I’m probably not a pony, and am actually from another universe. I don’t know what this means, how it affects anything, or… why really, but I know I’ve got to find it. And… I can’t do it with the other Sweeties. That might be petty, and it probably is. But I’m not going with them.” She smiled sadly. “I don’t want to go alone, though.”

“You want us to drop everything, run away, and jump around the multiverse with you?” Scootaloo asked.

“That… is what I’m asking,” Cinder admitted. “I understand if you don’t wanna go…”

“Ah’ll go,” Adder said. “Ah’m not lettin’ you bounce around everywhere so hard you get lost. Ah… Ah don’t like runnin’ away, but Ah think Applejack will understand. We’re almost grown mares anyway.”

“It’ll be hard, Adder,” Cinder warned. “There are terrible things out there.”

“Ah saw you when you got back from Vision. Ah… Ah know.”

“You don’t. But… thanks.”

“Ah try.”

“Are you insane?” Scootaloo shouted. “Sweetie almost died out there! She’s just… I… I don’t even know!” She flailed her wings. “You two are going absolutely nuts! Changing your names, talking about the multiverse, running away from our families.”

“…Xenium already knows,” Cinder said.

“She’s just as bad as all of you!” Scootaloo flared her wings. “Seriously, it’s the name change! It turns you into different ponies! I leave for three months and the two of you aren’t the same ponies anymore!”

Adder frowned. “Scootaloo, Ah—“

“Apple Bloom! You named yourself after math! The pony I know would never do that!”

“…Ah named myself after a snake, Scootaloo.”

“A snake? Why in…?” Scootaloo stamped her hooves. “I didn’t want to come back home to this.”

Cinder frowned. “Scootaloo, ponies change. It’s part of life. I can’t go back to what I was before. Not… anymore. And I’m not sure I want to.”

“Well, I want to!” Scootaloo shouted, running out of the clubhouse.

“…Ah reckon’ she’s gonna tattle on us,” Apple Bloom said.

“Probably.”

“Ah should probably write that note for Applejack.”

“Yeah.”

~~~

The Sunset known as Isekai when such a name was necessary cleaned a wine glass. Currently, her bar was devoid of customers. A little unusual, given the recent influx of business, but she wasn’t complaining. It was nice to have a moment to think every now and then. She found herself contemplating the shape and make of the glasses themselves.

Where does Rarity get these? Does she make them herself?

Her ponderings were interrupted when a Sweetie and an Apple Bloom entered. She recognized the Sweetie immediately—the orange eyes were unmistakable.

“And this is Sunset’s Isekai,” Cinder said. “That’s Isekai at the counter there.”

“…Cinder, this is a bar,” the Apple Bloom said.

“Yes. Yes it is.”

“We’re too young to drink.”

“Isekai! Cherry nonsense, stripe the whipped cream!” Cinder called, jumping onto the barstool. “Two of ‘em!”

“Cinder!”

“Relax, it’s non alcoholic.”

“Oh.” The Apple Bloom crawled up one of the barstools. “Then Ah’d like one too.”

“Already ordered yours.”

“Yeah, Ah have no idea how this works.”

Isekai smirked, stirring up the drinks and serving them. “So, what brings you two here?”

“Exploring, as usual,” Cinder said. “I’m taking Adder here on a little tour before we go new places.”

“Yep!” Adder took a sip of her drink. “…Cinder, you like cherries too much.”

“A pony can never like cherries too much.”

Isekai raised an eyebrow. “I’ve seen a cherry monster that could eat worlds.”

“Did anybody like that cherry?”

“Not exactly.”

“My point still stands.”

“Ah bet it tasted pretty good,” Adder said.

“Probably,” Cinder admitted. “So, Isekai, got any cool coordinates we could check out?”

Isekai reached into her countertop and flipped through a notebook. “I have no idea what’s in half these places. But hey, you’re a professional explorer and all, so you can tell me.”

Cinder winked. “Sure thing!” She took out a dimensional device and scanned some of the coordinates in.

“So…” Isekai folded her arms. “No Scootaloo?”

“She, uh…” Adder shifted nervously. “Didn’t want to come.”

“She resents me for changing,” Cinder explained, looking into the distance. “I didn’t talk to her while I was out because, well, she was at camp, having her own adventures. Nopony thought to go interrupt them. Then she came back, I came back, and… things didn’t work.”

“Ah think we moved a bit too fast for her.”

Cinder nodded sagely. “…Hard to believe it’s only been three months.”

Isekai noted that she had experienced quite a bit more than three months. Par for the course, really.

“Well, summer’s over, and a new day is dawning.” Cinder smiled. “Thanks for the cherry nonsense!”

“You’re welcome. Hope you work out your differences with Scootaloo.”

“I hope so too.” Cinder frowned. “It’d be terrible if she ended up a villain.”

“Wh…”

“By the way, when they come looking for us, tell them we’re fine.” Cinder trotted to the door, holding it open for a while. “Go ahead and give them the list. It won’t help them.”

“Uh… bye,” Adder waved. “Nice to meet you!”

The two of them scrambled away.

They’re running away, Isekai realized. …Or… not quite, but that’s what it looks like. “Hey wai—”

The bar shook, suddenly, as if a small earthquake were passing through. Isekai’s eyes widened. What could do that!?

The hall that led to the front door was gone. In its place… was a train track. Before any of them could register what was happening, a futuristic train with eerie green windows rolled past, essentially becoming the wall of Sunset’s Isekai.

As quickly as it rolled in, it stopped. A sign designed to show the destination had only one word printed upon it.

ANSWERS

Cinder smirked. “I think I know where we’re going, Adder.”

“Mysterious train?”

“Mysterious train.” Cinder grabbed her by the hoof and jumped on board.

Isekai moved forward, unsure what to make of the mysterious train. But before she could get much closer, it sped away, leaving her bar’s halls as they had been just moments before. She was alone.

Isekai folded her arms and let out a short sigh. I should probably call Suzie… chances are she needs a drink after all this.

Isekai had no idea how right she was.

Author's Notes:

OKAY! The Siren Song arc is FINALLY DONE! Now we can get away from massive depressing darkfic town and back to some nicer stuff. Like...

NEXT CHAPTER:
Arrow 18 (Another one I've wanted to do since the start)

Remember to suggest and upvote fics:
((LSB Post))

What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate (Arrow 18: Lone Ranger)

The desert appeared as the visage of death. While there was life of a parasitic sort within the soil, a cursory inspection revealed only the carcasses of long-dead trees. In this place, there either was no sun or the sun was hidden behind the ever-swirling inter-dimensional vortex held in the sky, reminiscent of the storms of Jupiter. The vortex eternally gazed down on the lifeless wastes below, providing the only natural light.

And yet, in this inhospitable place, there was a sign of civilization: an absolutely massive train track cutting across the desert from one horizon to the other. No stops along the way, no visible destination: just the track. One moment, it was empty.

However, soon the Train arrived.

It was no normal Train. Five stories tall with wheels larger than most trees, it blazed across the wasteland with brutal efficiency. Every car was rectangular and without windows, attached to each other by metal bridges. The cars were devoid of almost all ornamentation, caring only about efficiency in their design with only one exception: the doors. At the entrance and exit to every car was a pristine red set of double-doors with a skewed infinity symbol serving as a rotating knob.

If one were to enter one of these doors, they would discover a unique universe within. Every car contained something different, from bubbles to tiny wizards to screaming ethereal fruit…

One car in particular contained a universe filled with nothing but screaming rubber chicken toys.

“I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE!” Cinder shouted, attempting in vain to be heard over the aggravating noise.

“WHAT?” Adder called back.

“WHAT?”

“WHAT?”

“AUGH!” Cinder lit her horn on fire and blasted through the rubber chickens, only adding to the noise. The attempt to push through the rubber blockage was foiled when the molten rubber fused the chickens together into a solid block of screaming, noxious-smelling toys.

“THAT DIDN’T WORK!” Adder called.

Cinder didn’t need to be able to hear her to know what she said.

“HOW ABOUT WE TAKE IT SLOW?”

Cinder pulled a piece of paper out of her mane and folded it into a clawshot. Pointing it at the wall of agonized poultry, she fired, intending to punch through her self-made blockage.

The claw got stuck in the rubber goo.

Cinder, having lost all patience at this point, lit her hooves on fire and started punching her opposition with a wild flailing that was close to panic. She made little progress before the rumbling started.

“WHAT’S THAT?” Cinder looked behind her, unable to find Adder among the chickens. “ADDER!?”

Her search for her friend was cut short as every chicken around her began to surge forward like it was part of an ocean. It was impossible for her to resist the force of the chicken wave, getting dragged along like flotsam in an annoying tide. Chickens moved until they reached the end of the car, at which point they spewed forth from the excessive pressure within their universe. Cinder was tossed through the air with ease, landing hard on the bridge between train cars.

Chickens poured out of the doorway, falling to the train tracks below where they were crushed with agonizing efficiency.

“Yer welcome,” Adder said, smirking.

“You… got through? Opened the door? HOW!?”

“We ain’t in the car anymore, you can stop shoutin’.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Would you be so kind as to inform me how you saved our collective plots, oh dear friend of mine?”

Adder rolled her eyes. “Just walked around the molten brick you made. Took some time, but you were so fixated, I figured I’d do it on my own.”

“...Fair enough,” Cinder said, peeling a molten chicken out of her mane and violently throwing it to the wasteland below. “Don’t go doing that with any monsters, though, you can’t really defend yourself if something goes wrong and I’m distracted.”

“Ah know, Ah know, Ah’m not dumb enough to do that.” Adder smirked. “Then again, Ah’m not the one melting rubber chickens…”

Cinder chuckled. “Well, that’s another car down…” She looked at the base of her right hoof, finding a softly glowing green number there. 442. “...I went up, only slightly.”

Adder held out her hoof, proudly displaying a 7. “Ah’m winning.”

“You started with less than a hundred!”

“Even countin’ percentages, Ah’ve lowered more of my number than you have yours.”

“Adder, you’re named after a snake, not math.”

Adder shrugged. “Maybe the name has depth.”

Cinder blinked a few times. “...I’m supposed to be the one making those observations.”

With an aloof roll of her eyes, Adder walked up to the next car door and opened it with her hoof. The interior was a dark, damp cave. The other door was easily visible, glowing slightly from luminescent crystals in the rock around it. Otherwise, the car seemed abandoned.

“...Huh. Kinda boring, considering,” Adder pointed out.

“I’ve seen this kind of thing before… dark cave, seemingly empty. Yep. This is a trap of some sort.”

“Really?” Adder raised an eyebrow. “You can just… tell?”

“It’s more of a guess, but, well, it’s a good guess…” Cinder placed her hooves on the ground. “Let’s try to run through it.”

“...Uh…”

“Adder?”

“Right, right, you know what you’re doin’.” Adder prepared to run as well.

“Three… Two… One…” Cinder sprang forward. “GO!”

The two of them dashed through the rocky scenery, hooves clopping in synch. They made it about halfway through the cavern before they attracted attention from its denizens. With a sickening rumble, the ground behind and in front of them cracked like an egg. A half dozen monstrous bug-creatures erupted from each hole, roaring with a hideous reverberating sound that belonged in the depths of some dark magic temple. They came in several colors, though most appeared brown as if made of the rock they had come out of. Every last one had a double segmented lower jaw, no doubt excellent for latching onto flesh and never letting it go.

A larger pink one opened its mouth and spewed a stream of white webbing. Cinder dodged it, pulling Adder to the side as she did. The bugs behind them took the opportunity to move forward, only for Cinder to impede their progress with a startling burst of fire on the ground. This did not stop the monsters blocking their forward passage. The pink one opened its mouth again, ready to spew the noxious webbing.

“JUMP!” Cinder shouted, bouncing into the air, Adder moving just in time to avoid the web bolt. Cinder planted her back hoof squarely on the pink beast’s head, forcing its jaws shut and stunning it. It made an excellent springboard—allowing her to roll through the air and land on her hooves near the exit door.

Adder landed next to her, flat on her face. “Ow…”

“No time for pain!” Cinder dragged Adder forward and through the door on the other side, stopping only when they had arrived at the bridge connecting them to the next car, the smell of the wasteland replacing the damp and vaguely waffle-like odor of the cave.

“...Since when do webs smell like waffles?” Cinder asked, checking herself for injury.

“Ah dunno, since when are you able to predict bugs shooting out of the ground? There’s no way you dealt with that every day!”

“Eh, more or less,” Cinder said, tilting her hoof back and forth.

“More or less!?”

A bolt of web sailed over their heads, reminding them that they had forgotten to shut the door. The monsters were crawling out of their car in pursuit of the two ponies.

As they ran into a car with soap for a floor, Adder continued berating Cinder. “Are you tellin’ me they might be fightin’ giant cave bugs right now?”

~~~

The pink glyphid shot a burst of webs at Celia’s shield spell, creating a shell of sticky white goo.

Celia sniffed. “...Waffles…?”

“Glyphids are strange creatures,” the heavily armored dwarf next to her said, grimacing. “Almost as though they have a sense of sadistic humor buried within those toothy maws of theirs…”

“Pretty common, all things considered,” Blink pointed out, phasing right through a stream of webs spewed at her.

“Webs that smell like waffles?” Celia snorted. “I dont think so.”

“She means an animalistic bug sadistic sense of humor,” Nira offered while driving a spike of darkness through the soft underbelly of the pink glyphid.

“Oh! Like how you get a slight smile whenever you stab these buggies!”

Nira shot their tag-along—Insipid—a look.

“What?” she asked, innocently.

“We need to get you back to your team before you drive us insane.”

“What? No!” Blink gestured at Insipid with proud hooves. “Insipid’s the best!”

Nira drove one of her bloody blade-spells into a green glyphid’s exposed rear. “She’s retarded.”

Blink gasped. “Nira!” Tutting as she phased through a red glyphid’s suicidal explosion. “That’s not—”

“I’m not the diplomat, that’s Celia, I can say what I feel like.”

“I’m haven’t been able to renew my license, yet,” Celia pointed out, throwing a small glyphid into a much larger one with her telekinesis.

“Then you can say what you want too.”

“It does sound more interesting than being called an idiot,” Insipid said.

“Not helping!” Blink hissed.

“Oh, okay. SWORD!” Insipid lit her horn and congealed a handful of jet-black crystals together until they formed a blade. She jumped at a green glyphid and smacked it head-on. Her blade bounced off as though it were made of rubber. “Uh…”

“Lass, don’t even bother,” the dwarf said, jumping behind the beast and filling its exposed rear with lead. “The beast’s more armored than a tank.”

“Fine! Be that way, tank!” Insipid smacked the now-dead bug on the head for effect.

Nira spiked several more glyphids from the ground up. “How many of these are there?”

“More than we were supposed to deal with on a peaceful exploration mission,” Celia muttered.

“That’s what you get for interrupting us!” Insipid sang.

“We had no idea you were here!”

“I did!” Blink offered, tossing an explosive glyphid at a wall - revealing more glyphids behind it. “Frick.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything!?”

“Excuuuse me if I wanted some excitement! I wasn’t on Vision at all!”

Celia twitched as her razor-top severed a brown glyphid head. “You didn’t want to be.”

“I want to know what Cinder went through, but no, I don’t get to know, I just get to sit here trying to figure out from secondhoof information what drove her away.”

“Blink, now is not the time…”

Blink shrugged, phasing through a green glyphid and re-appearing inside its exposed back, tearing it to shreds. “Fine…”

“There has to be an end to this,” Insipid muttered, managing to stab a glyphid right as it opened its mouth to devour her, gouging out its throat. “The repetition is getting booring!”

“It won’t be borin’ when they eat your leg,” the dwarf pointed out.

“Well, duh, but—hey, you know these things, how many of them are there!”

“Normally, about a hundred more. But we’ve got some bad containment practices so for all I know the entire brood’s coming after us. No idea how many that’d be.”

Insipid sighed. “I hope the others are doing well…”

With a flash of purple light, the dark form of Starlight Shadow appeared in the midst of the group. “Everyone but the dwarf, I’m evacuating you so I may truncate the swarm with some decisive purge spells.”

Celia’s eyes widened. “Shadow, we can handle th—”

“I’m not spending another dozen hours irradiating silicate bugs and providing them the opportunity to get a fortunate assault on my person.” She levitated the dwarf onto her back. “Point and I will exterminate.”

“Shadow, we can h—”

Shadow ignored her and opened up a random dimensional portal, in the ground, dropping Celia, Nira, Blink, Insipid, and two glyphids through it. They fell about a meter to the soft, green grass of a standard Equestria. Shadow closed the portal before Nira could do anything.

“Ret’chn’karskaffa!” Nira swore in her eldritch tongue, waving her hoof at the portal. She created a spike behind her, skewering one of the glyphids.

The other glyphid—a pink one—got its comeuppance in the form of Insipid jumping on it and sinking her blade into its neck. She let out a delighted giggle as it fell beneath her, lifting her sword in victory.

Celia groaned. I suppose Shadow does have it under control, but that was seriously uncalled for… She stood up and examined her surroundings, finding nothing out of place for an Equestria. They were at the base of Canterlot mountain, right next to the main road into the capital city. Consulting her dimensional device, she discovered that she couldn’t read the words on it.

Wait, what?

The lettering was unfamiliar to her. Which was bizarre, the translation spell should have bee—

“Ni reso vo sepin?” Blink asked.

Oh, Celia thought, the translation spell is broken.

“Translator’s broken, dears,” she said, realizing after she spoke that none of them knew Gem Standard. “Right… Ah… Word machine not working,” she said in Equish Alpha, getting blank stares from all of them. “Word magic not working?” she tried in Equish Beta.

“Ooh! I understood that!” Insipid replied in Equish Beta, forcing Celia to take a moment to translate back. As a member of Relations, Celia had taken care to learn the most common languages in her line of work, just in case the translation spell failed. That said, she rarely had to practice the languages, so even her Gem physiology could only help her remember so much.

Turning to Blink and Nira she tried the last two languages she knew. “No word change,” in English Alpha and “spire word no,” in Japanese Alpha. She knew she was butchering the grammar and syntax at least a little, but she wasn’t aware of exactly what she was saying.

The good and bad news was neither Blink nor Nira had any idea what she was saying - or what each other was saying. Whatever Blink’s language was, it was unique, and Nira’s two methods of speaking didn’t make sense either.

Great. So it’s just Insipid I can understand.

“At least we’ve got something, right?” Insipid asked. “Woohoo!”

I’m sure Cinder would have had some adorably insightful comment about all of this… Celia forced herself to keep a level face—no use dwelling on that now.

“Niski neigggh rispin,” Blink muttered, shaking her hoof at the sky. “Novie sirach y a neretis, Celah.”

That’s probably my name, Celia noted. She narrowed her eyes, attempting to piece together what Blink was saying.

Giving up on words, the little ghost swiped the dimensional device from Celia and hit the ‘return’ button. Nothing happened. She let out a disgruntled noise and tossed the device back to Celia.

Pointing at it and cocking her head, Celia hoped Blink would understand she was asking what was wrong with it.

Blink understood, for sure, but her series of bizarre pantomimes were beyond Celia. Blink spread her front hooves, jumped up and down on her back hoof, and curled herself into a ball that sunk into the ground.

“Er…”

“The device wants a hug from a new friend or it will self-destruct?” Insipid guessed.

Celia had to take a minute to make sure she’d translated that correctly. Blink made no such effort—she just knew that Insipid had got it wrong.

Insipid huffed. “What do you know? You can’t understand me!”

“Blink has a sense for your words, yes,” Celia said.

“You’re talking funny.”

“I lack… vocabulary.”

“...Huh?”

“Do not mind it,” Celia shook her head. She pointed at her three companions and pointed to Canterlot, moving her lips without making a sound. Nira and Blink understood.

“What are you doing?”

“Maybe speak to ponies here,” Celia explained. I am so glad I can speak to her, otherwise it would be impossible to get anything through that thick skull of hers.

Nira lit her horn, and before Celia could say anything, she’d teleported them all to the front gates of Canterlot. The guards looked at them and asked a question.

A question none of them understood.

We really do take that translation spell for granted, don’t we?

“Greetings, esteemed guards of Canterlot,” she spoke in Gem Standard. “My companions and I are far from home, you incoherent incompetent whelps barely deserving of being called guards, and we were hoping if you could let us in so we may learn more about your idyllic stupid city?” She fluttered her eyelashes.

Both of them were instantly smitten by the graceful mare with a crystal in her forehead. Already she could see the signs of competition forming on their features for a mare neither of them could understand had just insulted them openly.

With a chuckle, Celia decided the translation failure might not be so bad after all. She gestured forward, asking permission to enter Canterlot. They nodded vigorously and spoke with a loud declaration of what Celia presumed was supporting, each attempting to be louder than the other.

What bothered her was that she thought some of the words sounded familiar, which probably meant they were speaking one of the standard languages. It just wasn’t one she knew. Lovely. A quick survey of her companions revealed none of them had any clue what was being said, either.

They entered Canterlot without much fanfare. Even though Celia wasn’t disguising her gemstone, she did look like a pony, so the most she got were a few curious glances, but nothing more than that. Canterlot itself was almost disappointingly normal. Every building looked standard, the palace essentially copy-pasted from any number of the other Canterlots she had set hoof in. The only issue was that none of the buildings beside the palace were in the same place as a standard Canterlot, as if the Universe Generator had shuffled the city like a tile puzzle.

“Find school, teacher, will know other words,” Celia said.

Insipid nodded. “Right. I’ll be on the hunt! Hey, you, are you a teacher?”

A version of Cheerilee stared at her in disbelief.

“Well? Are you?”

Celia pulled Insipid back. “She is likely, but does not understand.”

Insipid frowned. “Oh. Fancy teacher. We just need to find the School for Gifted Unicorns, right?”

Looks like you pick some things up after all. “Yes.” Turning to the others, she gestured to Insipid’s horn and pantomimed sitting at a desk, writing something. Blink got it, nodding and running off to do her own ghostly searching.

Nira stared at her, blankly.

With a sigh, Celia generated a crystal shard with her magic and drew Celestia’s cutie mark in the ground, over a bunch of small horns. She made a square and put math on it. Placing it inside a simplified house, she pointed at the house and raised an eyebrow.

Nira raised an eyebrow in return.

“You know what you’re looking for.”

Nira shrugged, teleporting away.

“Sooo…” Insipid tapped a hoof on the ground. “What do we do?”

“Talk until heard.”

“Huh?”

Celia walked up to a local stallion who was clearly aristocratic and at least wanted to look educated. She said, “can you help me?” in every way she knew how, getting not even the most basic indication of understanding. With a shrug, she moved to the next pony, and the next, and the next.

While they didn’t understand her, they did start to notice a pattern. That pattern being that she was foreign and specifically seeking out higher society ponies to “interview” with her strange, alien words. Celia may not have been able to understand their responses, but she knew the upturned snout of arrogant disdain when she saw it.

Let’s try getting a bit more dramatic. She lit her gemstone and waved her hoof, trying to mentally condition the unicorn mare she was hounding to help her. All this accomplished was giving the unicorn an expression of deep-seated confusion. ...I suppose that was wishful thinking. Not one to be deterred so easily, she attempted to twist the emotions of the mare to a more helpful state. Emotions were much more universal than thoughts, though a lot more nebulous. It would take a significant amount of time, but Celia reasoned that other methods had failed, so far.

“Hey. Hey Celia.”

“Busy,” Celia said, focusing on the mare’s head.

“I found help!”

“Insipid, there is no way.”

“But…”

Celia noticed a police mare eyeing her out of the corner of her eye. Celia stopped manipulating the rich unicorn’s emotions and smiled warmly at the officer.

The officer didn’t budge. She was likely waiting for some kind of confirmation or signal that Celia really was manipulating the mare. No more emotion magic would be done here.

On second thought… “Insipid, what did you find?”

“Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie shouted, crashing into Celia.

Celia noted that Pinkie had spoken her name in Equish Beta, though this fact didn’t surprise her—it was Pinkie Pie, after all. “Hello, Pinkie.”

“Hi! Word! Fun!”

“She knows words!” Insipid declared, raising a hoof.

Pinkie squinted her eyes, focusing for a moment. “Uh… yes! Words! Not good.”

Celia raised an eyebrow. “Wait. You not know words well?”

Pinkie stared at her, struggling to parse the meaning of the sentence.

So it’s not just Pinkie being Pinkie, she really does have a vague understanding of Equis Beta… But how? Nopony else has had the foggiest idea!

“Come! Come!” Pinkie gestured at the two of them, pointing to the palace.

“Why?”

Pinkie scrunched her muzzle and let out a groan. “COME!”

Celia and Insipid knew full well that you never refused a Pinkie when she shouted like that.

~~~

Log entry: date uncertain.

It occurs to me that I no longer know what day it is. Back home, I mean. The days here are close—eerily close—to what I think of as a day, but it’s not exact. I’ve been here long enough that there has to have been some drift, so the dates I’ve been scrawling in this record are probably complete trash.

Can’t say I’m surprised, to be perfectly honest. The universe seems to love throwing little inconveniences at me left and right.

And big ones. I haven’t forgotten that I don’t have legs at the moment, but it’s best not to dwell on that. The wheelchair works just fine and it has all sorts of fancy magical additions that I still haven’t plumbed the depths of. I swear, it’s like one of those super fancy toilets you see in high-tier hotels: so many buttons and functions you’ll never find out what they do and you’re more than a little scared to press them and find out.

Whatever, today is… might as well use the local calendar. Uh. Envinter the 8th, 1109. Started from the year Equestria was founded. Shortly before Princess Celestia raised the sun for the first time, which apparently was done by unicorns before?

Yeah, Twilight doesn’t know how they did that, and neither does anybody else. Apparently that secret vanished, like so many other things, with the “great and powerful” Starswirl the Bearded eons ago.

...In the middle of our conversation about dates Twilight just realized that Celestia’s “One’s-versary” is coming up in a few years. One thousand, one hundred and eleven years of raising the sun. She then proceeded to swear me to secrecy concerning the event, declaring it needed to be a “surprise” even though she had no idea whatsoever if it was even going to be a surprise party.

How she ran around in a little self-indulged panic was as cute as it always is, but… well, as normal as it is for her, she probably was on a hairpin trigger from the events earlier today.

Oh boy, did a lot of bizarre stuff happen today. That I appear to be avoiding writing about.

You’d think after being here for years I’d start to acclimate to the random inexplicable nonsense that keeps happening to me. But no, I keep seeing new things and absolutely losing it. Just…

Why can’t the rules ever stay the same?

Twilight and I were the only ones in my room when Pink led them in. We were studying, of all things, the history and experiments of Starswirl the Bearded. If you don’t already know from all my other entries, this has to be one of her favorite topics. I feel as though she’s trying to teach me academic level magic theory through his work, as if I can absorb information as fast as she can.

I suppose I did rely on her a lot to learn my language and my ways, but really, she should know I’m not as smart as she is. ...Actually, she does, I just don’t think she cares. The mare clearly has a gift for teaching.

Maybe that’s why Celestia gave her those wings.

Man, I wish that would work on my legs…

Regardless, I was happy to see Pink, and more than a little confused at our visitors. When they walked in, the first thing I thought was, did Rarity clone herself? I’m not sure why I did, since neither of the mares looked exactly like her besides the shape of their faces, but it was an uncanny feeling. One of them was an ugly gray color with a jarring yellow mane. The other was white, as tall as Cadence, and had a crystal in her forehead instead of a horn. She looked more like Rarity than the first, but… well, the color of her mane was too pastel, and her teeth were slightly sharp. That did not belong on a pony. But they seemed to belong on her.

To my absolute shock the gray one spoke to me in absolutely perfect English with a valley girl accent. I kid you not. Drawl and all. “Like, wow, you’ve got a human! Or, uh, half a human, anyway.”

I was too shocked to feel insulted. I was also too shocked to speak. Luckily for all of us, Twilight’s response when she’s shocked is to talk a mile a minute. These days she rants off in a weird mixture of Equish and English. ...It’s like Spanglish, only without a nice way to mesh the two language names together.

I’m not entirely sure what she said through her flurry of words, but the white pony got the jist of it. She knew English too, but when she spoke it was a lot like Twilight had early on—simpler words, simpler sentences, and the occasional pause while she searched for the right word. She didn’t appear to know the word for “language” at first, always defaulting to “words.”

Introductions happened quickly. The gray one was Insipid, a word that apparently means “flavorless.” Twilight, of all people, had to tell me that, saying she’d come across it in her many perusals of the dictionary. When questioned about why she had such a name, her only response was, and I quote, “dad was an a-hole.” There was no follow-up since I then had to explain to Twilight what the figurative meaning of “a-hole” was.

During this all the white pony was sizing me up. Those eyes were both terrifyingly intelligent and insultingly amused at my plight. Despite having the vocabulary of a ten-year-old, she came across as very careful, calculating, and almost too friendly. It’s like the conversation was some kind of game to her, with every piece moving exactly as she wanted it.

Her name was Celia. And she introduced herself as a representative of Merodi Universalis, a multiversal society containing hundreds of separate worlds.

Yeah.

Not only do we have alien pony life, but now the whole freakin’ multiverse has opened up like the cork off a champagne bottle.

Twilight and I attempted to press her for details about what their society was like, how it worked, and what sort of technology they had, but her explanations always fell flat due to vocabulary.

...You know what, looking back, she was probably making herself look dumber than she was to avoid unnecessary conflict… Crafty.

Speaking of dumb, Insipid was. The number of non-sequiturs and obvious observations she made over the course of the conversation… come on, read the room! I feel sorry for her more than anything. At least she and Pink seemed to get along really well.

For the sake of whatever agency reads this as a report when I’m hopefully picked up at some point, I should probably mention that Celia’s not a pony at all, she’s a creature called a Gem. If you can call her race a creature at all—apparently she’s a kind of magical AI contained entirely in the gemstone in her forehead. The rest of her is just an adaptable hard-light construct, a bit like a hologram. Except solid. And able to pull a top with a sawblade out on a dime.

I can’t stress enough that experimentation to figure out how this ability works is most definitely ethically unacceptable. But I’m no doubt just as curious as the rest of you are.

I don’t know anything else about her race because, while we were trying to talk that out, Chrysalis walked in for her usual check-up-and-chat with me.

Celia tensed slightly at her appearance, but she otherwise remained calm. Insipid on the other hand… she shouted “SWORD!” at the top of her lungs and drew a multi-segmented sword and pointed it at Chrysalis. Chrysalis raised a shield, baring her teeth with a rage I hadn’t seen from her in months.

It all ended rather abruptly when Celia tripped Insipid with her magic. I thought for a moment Chrysalis was going to smite the poor unicorn while she was exposed. Insipid, however, rather than snarl in rage or start begging for her life like any normal person would do, started laughing like it was the funniest thing ever. This gave Chrysalis—and me—pause.

Does she like looking the fool, or something?

Celia apologized profusely, taking a bit to explain that they had run into “other Chrysalises” in the past and usually the encounters were rather unpleasant. She also mentioned that she wasn’t surprised Chrysalis was “turned” or “reformed.”

Apparently reformation is a common thing in the multiverse, even for Chrysalises, even if they’re less likely to turn than others. All seems a little ridiculous to me, I mean, who just turns back on their ways like that just because? Chrysalis had a real reason

Wait. The Nightmare Moon incident ended in “reformation.” That Discord guy has been given a pardon and allowed to roam free. And...

No, not going to entertain that thought any further.

Celia asked how our Chrysalis was “reformed” and Chrysalis herself explained it, in English. It was about as broken as Celia’s, but the two seemed to get along just fine. The whole “crashing into the sun” thing without Celestia’s control was brought up. Celia seemed shocked. It took a while to figure out why: most “Equis” universes either operate with a miniature sun that can orbit naturally, work with Celestia simply rotating the planet, or, get this, have a celestial sphere set of physics.

That’s right. Planets and stars affixed to a perfectly spherical shell centered around the planet. Apparently there are universes like that. I have no idea what this means and, frankly, the oddities of this planet are enough for me to ponder for eternity, I don’t need a half-dozen more with different laws of physics stacking up in front of me.

Chrysalis was the first to think of establishing diplomatic relations with Celia’s people, something Twilight was more than a little embarrassed she hadn’t thought of doing first. Celia admitted she was open to the possibility, but she didn’t want to start that until she could contact her home. They were stuck here, after all, and were trying to figure out the issue. The lack of active communication made it difficult.

I thought this was odd at first, until she told me that they used a universal translation spell. A spell that this universe’s physics don’t allow for.

What are the laws of physics, selections on a menu? Rules of government? The way she talks about them I swear they could be selected, or at the very least you can search for a universe of a particular set of rules and find it. She talks as if it’s so… normal.

Twilight mentioned that she understands how I felt, now. Maybe.

The worst part? They weren’t actually speaking English. The language I’m writing in right now? That’s called Equish Beta, traditionally found on pony worlds rather than human ones. When Celia spoke in English Alpha, the most common variant, I couldn't understand a word she said. In fact, it sounded a little like what the ponies here speak… but not exactly the same.

Let the linguists figure that out. We don’t even speak human. I do not envy their job.

Regardless, Twilight was in the process of offering to cast her translation spell on them when we heard the explosion. Right outside the window there came this dark flash that shot into the sky. Apparently a telltale sign of a lot of dark magic being used.

Celia’s long, drawn-out sigh was impressive. She may not have known what was going on down there, but she knew who. Her demeanor changed from calm and collected to a commanding one almost instantly. She said she was going to deal with this and told Insipid to stay put.

I tried to tell her to not charge into danger, but did she listen to me or Twilight? No. No she did not. She teleported away.

“I like her,” Chrysalis said. Of course she would.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get my wheelchair there to witness what happened next, but everyone who was there tells me it was a sight to behold…

~~~

Nira worried about Blink.

She’d only admit it in moments of what she considered weakness, but worry she did.

Several times on their journey with the League, Nira had noticed an unsettling pattern with the ghostly mare. Traumatic things happened to her… and she seemed to bounce right back with only a minimal change in behavior. She would be sad for a while, perhaps let out some biting comments, yes, but otherwise… she’d just keep moving forward. Not even blinking.

Nira secretly suspected that was why she’d chosen the name Blink in the first place. Not because she could “blink in and out of existence”, but something much more personal.

The worst example was when Ser had betrayed them. He had betrayed all the Sweeties, yes, but he’d done more to her than most of the others. Yet, out of everyone on board Swip, she recovered the quickest and held on the strongest. And now Suzie was no longer in charge, Cinder had left them to do some soul searching on her own… and Blink was bouncing around some Canterlot looking for the School for Gifted Unicorns with a mischievous smile on her face.

Not like nothing had happened… but almost.

She’d been one of the closest with Cinder, too. It was uncanny. Nira was, herself, purposefully detached, but Blink… Blink was always involved, Blink played, Blink laughed, Blink made friends.

Nira hoped it was just a personality quirk. But, deep down, she suspected Blink was using the Void on herself. Nira knew it was possible—when she had been possessed by the wyrd she obfuscated her emotional state so well even Celia hadn’t picked anything up—what if she did that whenever she was suffering? Force it to be hidden from everyone who looked at her?

What if she did it all the time?

Had they ever seen Blink as she truly was?

Nira forced those thoughts out of her head—she needed to look for the School for Gifted Unicorns. Probably to find somepony skilled in translating, or something. Nira didn’t really know, she was cursed with being from a world with a unique tongue and not having Celia’s specialized education.

Of course the tag-along idiot was lucky enough to have a common tongue, Nira seethed inwardly. What else could have possibly happened!?

Nira ran into a sign in her distracted stupor. She suppressed the urge to disintegrate it and looked behind it. She couldn’t read anything, but she knew a School for Gifted Unicorns when she saw one.

“Huh,” she said. “Convenient.”

“Nervii covenna,” Blink said, appearing next to her.

“How long have you been waiting here?”

“Reskii van re y viets,” Blink responded, raising an eyebrow over the tips of her shades.

“Nevermind,” Nira grumbled. “I’ll find Celia and drag her back here.” To avoid another round of “I have no idea what you just said,” Nira drew Celia’s gemstone in the ground with a fine laser spell.

Before Nira’s magic ping could find Celia, however, a griffon dropped from the sky, shaking the ground slightly as he landed on the sidewalk. Upon his head was a golden circlet studded with gems and his robe was a lavish purple, telling of his wealth and importance. He pointed an accusatory talon at Blink at let out a shriek that made nearby ponies cover their ears. He said something.

Blink cocked her head, smiling nervously. “Quni? Haba te y novosk, querentinaso.”

The griffon let out more shrill calling noises that were probably words, though they were even less intelligible than Blink’s nonsensical babbling.

“Rabbadashiranaskampa.”

Nira was ninety-percent sure Blink was either saying nonsense or using elaborate insults just because she could. The griffon likely thought the same thing, because he lashed out in anger the moment after.

Naturally, his claw passed right through Blink. This unsettled the avian considerably.

Before Blink could capitalize on this, a tall, regal unicorn mare teleported between them and started shouting official-sounding words at the griffon. The griffon shouted back with even more vitriol and rage, going so far as to shove the mare back a few steps. She gasped in shock and lit her horn, speaking some sort of ultimatum.

Nira stood to the side, a bit dumbfounded. What exactly was she supposed to do when she couldn’t even understand what was being said?

It was at this point a golden artifact dropped out of the unicorn’s robes, clattering to the ground: a griffon claw clutching a spiked ball. No doubt some kind of griffon artifact.

One that the griffon thought belonged to him. With a predatory call he swiped the artifact up and began pointing at the unicorn—Blink forgotten very quickly in his rage. He lifted the artifact up, catching the light of the sun.

Nira sensed a buildup of violent magical power aimed at the unicorn.

“Oh for the…” Nira cast a dark shield to intercept the attack.

She had to put about twenty times as much power into her spell than she’d expected, but she did manage to deflect the beam of focused sunlight into the sky.

Mixed with her dark magic.

Like a beacon.

Celia was going to notice that.

And, in less concerning but slightly more pressing news, so did everypony next to her and Blink.

“Uh-oh,” Blink said.

Apparently, some things didn’t need to be translated.

~~~

Celia arrived on the scene in the middle of a three-way standoff.

On one side, a mad griffon with some kind of powerful magical artifact.

On the second, a pony aristocrat trying her best to sneak away from the confrontation while also looking brave. She was failing miserably on both counts.

On the third, Nira, letting all her dark blood magic flow freely. Blink was no doubt somewhere nearby, not that Celia could see her.

Nira, why do you have to look so evil when you try to be the hero?

Celia jumped in, knowing there was no time for deliberation if she wanted this to end well. She teleported into the middle of the confrontation, slamming her razor-top into the ground with enough force to crack the pavement beneath. “STOP!” she shouted at the top of her lungs in Gem Standard, hoping the message would cross language barriers with the proper show of force.

They got the message, all right. They froze.

Though the griffon was still able to charge his artifact like this. She was barely able to raise her razor-top in defense, and even this wasn’t enough. Nira had to rush in with a blood shield to protect her, thereby declaring Celia and the bloody monster of death on the same side.

Oh, how she wished she could give Nira an earful right now.

Nira charged the griffon, spells flying. Celia had to grab the small unicorn and trip her to keep the griffon from getting severely injured by the dark spell, though this left both Celia and Nira open to the unicorn aristocrat’s attack.

The griffon, seeing the unicorn exposed, pointed the artifact at her. She screamed like a filly who thought Nightmare Moon was in her closet.

Celia pushed the mare away with her telekinesis, saving her life, but the griffon was charging up for another shot. It wouldn’t have been an issue if Nira hadn’t decided Celia was in the way and needed to be dragged away.

I have to end this now or someone is going to die. Probably that pathetic mare…

Nira completed her interference by tossing Celia roughly to the ground and deflecting another burst of magic energy into the sky.

As Celia hit the pavement and rolled over a few times… an idea came to her.

A very, very dumb idea.

Here goes nothing…

She teleported herself into the middle of the three once again and swung her razor-top, as if to attack all at once. Carefully, she lowered the top’s handle just a bit too far, resulting in the swing smacking her square in the head. As a Gem, she didn’t have a skull or a brain that could get injured, but she could sure fake getting knocked silly by a blow to the head. In a slightly exaggerated motion, she toppled over and fell flat on her back, allowing the razor-top to skid comically into an abandoned cabbage-cart before dispelling it.

This display of clumsy idiocy was enough to stun the combatants into stopping.

This would only have lasted for a few seconds—shock is always temporary—had Celia not capitalized on the opportunity.

She started laughing. Pulling off a convincing fake laugh is no easy feat, but she came through, and once she had it going the fact that she was laughing on the ground while having faked an injury to herself amused her enough to keep it going.

As the adage goes, laughter is contagious. Celia wasn’t sure if the unicorn aristocrat started laughing because she realized what Celia was doing or if she was actually amused, and Celia didn’t care. The ponies watching from the sidelines came next, eventually spreading the laughing plague all the way to the griffon, who pointed at Celia and let out a few presumably degrading jokes about her posture.

Nira refused to laugh, but she was stunned enough just from seeing her elegant, careful leader knock herself silly and laugh about it. The longer the laughing continued and spread the more confused Nira’s look became.

Then, finally, Princess Twilight Sparkle executed a teleport, bringing her, Insipid, Chrysalis, and the human Randy in his wheelchair to the encounter. They had no idea what the laughing was about either, but at least there wasn’t a fight anymore.

With Twilight here, there wouldn't be. They would be able to talk things out.

Celia, still giggling to herself, stood up and winked at Insipid.

“Huh?”

“Insipid, you are genius!”

“...I don’t get it.”

Celia laughed. “Exactly, exactly.”

“Can someone explain what the hell is going on!?” Randy shouted. “Why are they laughing? What’s with the bleeding unicorn? Why are you…?”

“Answers come with time,” Celia said, grinning. “But they do.”

“I’d like some answers right n—”

A portal opened up in the sky. Instead of the expected Merodi rescue team or Swip, a monstrous green glyphid dropped out of the sky, crashing into the road with a THUNK. It was a very dead glyphid, but the sudden appearance of a green rock-monster falling from the sky ended all laughter in an instant. A green, noxious gas began to waft upward from the carcass, letting everyone know it was probably not harmless.

“Extermination successful,” Shadow called from the portal in the sky, the dwarf on her back. Celia was relieved to hear the words in Gem Standard—the spell was working again. “You may return at your leisure, assuming you have completed all previous engagements?”

“I think there’s a bit more to deal with, Shadow,” Celia said. “For one, you just dropped a dead monster into the middle of Canterlot.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Insipid asked. “It’s awesome! Fresh!”

“Many things, but we don’t have time to get into that right now.” Celia pulled her mane back, turning to Twilight and company. “I am terribly sorry about this, but it appears as though Agent Shadow has decided I needed to see proof of a job well done. I most certainly did not but I can at least thank her for establishing a proper connection so we may speak properly. Randy, dear, close your mouth.”

Randy forced his jaw shut, clenching it.

“So what kind of human do we have this time?” Blink asked, appearing next to Celia. “Isekai? Magic experiment?”

“You weren’t there!” Randy shouted, pointing at Blink.

“You look… just like Sweetie Belle…” Twilight said, her jaw dangling open now.

“Well… we are the League of Sweetie Belles,” Celia said, smirking. “And before I tell you what that is, you should probably stop that aristocrat from running away, she’s been trying to make a break for it for quite some time now.”

Shadow encased the aristocrat in magic chains before she could so much as let out a peep.

Celia sighed. “Shadow, do you have to be so… direct?”

“Yes.”

Celia let herself chuckle for a moment. “Well, I suppose you can carry on then. Now… shall we continue our diplomacy?”

“Can the diplomacy involve dropping more giant bugs from space?” Chrysalis asked.

“...Sure?”

“Then yes, let’s continue.”

“You just want to see things explode,” Randy muttered.

Chrysalis didn’t deny it.

~~~

So it turns out, for some reason, Geraldor had thought Blink stolen the Claw of Goom, so he somehow managed to track her down. Yeah. Track down a ghost. I know.

I swear, my life… it can’t possibly be real, right? I’m in some kind of hyper-realistic simulation or a coma or something.

Anyway, Chancellor Tulip Vine was the one who had actually stolen the artifact, though she claims she’s completely innocent. Given the stories about her I heard from Goom, Chrysalis, and even Twilight about how much of a shrewd dishonest weasel she is, I’m not buying it. She’s currently in prison, awaiting trial.

It probably won’t go well since Equestria wants to avoid a major diplomatic incident. Lucky for them Celia was there, she not only defused the situation, she also gave the world something else to think about.

And then there was the bug. But that wasn't her plan. Dang did she capitalize on it, though. The girl’s a born diplomat, able to go with whatever’s handed to her. Who pretends to knock themselves silly and laughs about it to stop a fight? Besides Insipid.

Seriously, why isn’t Celia re-certified as a diplomat yet? Yeah, she’s apparently working to get it back. This incident alone should be more than enough to prove her mettle.

Chrysalis is still fascinated by those space bugs for some reason. I don’t want to go anywhere near the things. She’s either determined to meet the bugs or determined to squash something into the ground for the fun of it. I’m really not sure. That… dwarf… seems to like her.

Dwarves are real too. I bet Frodo’s out there somewhere getting corrupted by a magic ring, or something.

I wasn’t needed much after that initial meeting, since they used portals to make sure their translation spell worked. Using physics from the universe on the other side. Yeah. That works, apparently, and doesn't cause massive instability in the fabric of reality itself. There’s not even any technology involved, it’s just how portals naturally interact with universes!

They discussed a lot of stuff behind closed doors. I didn’t mind, I’m no politician, never have been and never will. I heard a few tidbits here and there, but I don’t want to spend time speculating on random rumors. What I do know is that they’re chartering a ship to get me back to Earth. They’re not sure about how long it will take, but since they mentioned easily being able to travel between galaxies, I might be home at the end of the week. Might even intercept whatever rescue mission is coming for me!

Imagine that. Running into my rescuers on an interdimensional spaceship.

That’s going to be awesome, as Dash would say.

I guess that means this will probably be the last entry, too. The next report I’ll make will have a computer of some sort, this book won’t be needed anymore. Then I’ll be home and have my brain picked for months about what happened. My only hope is they’ll at least let me come back at some point.

Honestly, this place feels like home, now, I’ve been here so long. There’s a lot of people on Earth I want to see, but I couldn’t imagine leaving this planet forever. With these fancy new ships, it probably won’t even be a long trip.

Either way, things are changing, both for Earth and Equestria. Probably not the multiverse as a whole, since this all seems pretty run-of-the-mill to Celia now that the translation is working, but I like to think we’ll provide something to the rest of existence.

Maybe the story of a human crashing on a pony planet and making friends with aliens he couldn’t even talk to will be enough.

Who am I kidding, it’ll be the big freaking star Celestia moves around on a daily basis. I’m glad at least that’s not normal out there.

It gives us something unique.

End of journal.

~~~

Cinder and Adder entered the next car covered in ice cream.

“You know, the phrase ‘ice cream car’ sounds more fun before you actually go through it,” Cinder commented.

“Sugar is real sticky,” Adder admitted, checking her hoof. “Hey! Ah’m on two!”

Cinder checked her own. 420. “...I feel mocked.”

“Hey, at least it’s goin’ down! That cat said that was a good thing!”

“And you trust that cat?”

“Not at all, but it’s somethin’, ain’t it?”

“I suppose…” Cinder directed her gaze forward. The car was a small one—smaller than the massive exterior, in fact—and rather featureless. Metal walls with simple supports stood on both sides of the car, flanking the only object in the entire room: a pedestal with a cylindrical device covered in knobs floating about a foot in the air.

“...Wow. Treasure,” Adder said.

“It’s a trap,” Cinder said. “You grab it, who knows what’ll happen?”

“Ah dunno,” Adder admitted. “But Ah do know Ah want it. It’s… callin’ to me.”

Cinder pursed her lips. “All right, we can chance it. Has to be here for a reason, right?” Cinder folded a paper shield and lit her horn on fire. “Go nuts.”

Adder pulled some rope out of her saddlebags and tied a lasso. With a twisting motion that would have made her sister proud, she nabbed the treasure with one toss and pulled it back to her. She caught it in her front hoof, accidentally pressing the button on the side. A brilliant beam of yellow light shot out of the cylinder, ending at a sharp point.

It was a weapon.

“Wow…” Adder said, twisting the blade around in her hoof. “Ah’m gonna call it… the beamsword!”

“...Pretty sure it’s called a lightsaber.”

“Psh, Ah found it, Ah get to name it.”

Cinder shrugged. “Sure.”

“Also, where’s the trap?” Adder raised her eyebrows, smirking. “Ah don’t see nothin’.”

The moment she said this, a robot dropped from the ceiling, two guns in its hands. It pulled the triggers, shooting two laser bolts at the ponies. Cinder rushed forth, blocking one with her shield and letting the other impact harmlessly on one of the walls. “Stay back, Adder!” Cinder rolled, casting fireball.

The robot, as it turned out, was heat-resistant. She had to raise her shield to block another volley of fire. No matter how much her abilities allowed reality to warp, her paper shield was still paper on some level, and paper burned. A few more shots, and it was reduced to ash.

“Well then…”

Adder jumped over Cinder, the lightsaber poised to strike.

“Adder, no!” Cinder shouted. “You c—”

The robot fired.

For a moment, the horrible image of Adder getting shot through the chest crossed Cinder’s mind. She would be the one to blame.

I can’t be responsible for that…

Adder swung the lightsaber down, intercepting the laser. To Cinder’s shock, the laser bolt reflected off Adder’s new weapon and hit the robot right in the head. The central processing unit of the robot exploded and it fell to the ground as a pile of scrap metal.

“Hah!” Adder shouted, twirling her lightsaber a bit before clumsily dropping it on the ground. “Er…” Carefully, she picked it back up and turned to Cinder. “Ah did it!”

“Yes, you did but… That was incredibly dangerous!”

Adder narrowed her eyes. “You know what Ah just realized? Ah’ve been paranoid, followin’ your every whim just… cuz. But you aren’t my captain or somethin’, you’re my friend. It ain’t good for me to just do everythin’ you say, we both need to be there for each other. Ah’m not a helpless little filly, Ah can do some things on my own.” She smirked, lifting up a hoof. “Ah did just save your life, after all.”

“Well… Yeah, you’re probably right, sorr—” Cinder stopped short. She ran to Adder’s hoof and looked at it. “Adder… your number!”

Adder looked down.

0.

With a flash of green light, a translucent door appeared in the ground before them, designed like the doors of the rest of the Train, but composed of green light. The infinity-knob on the front twisted and opened, revealing a dimensional portal to another world.

“Ah won…” Adder realized. “Ah won!”

Cinder looked at her own hoof. 405. “I… wait, are these numbers seriously a measure of how close we are to learning a lesson of some kind?”

“Ah dunno, all Ah know is that Ah got to the end of this Train’s game! Woo!” She gestured at the portal. “And this is my way off.”

“Yeah…”

“Oh, psh, Ah’m stickin’ with you until you get to zero as well, obviously.”

Cinder glanced at her hoof. “...I’ll just get off through your portal. I’m getting a little bored of this Train.”

406.

Adder cocked her head. “You sure…?”

“Yeah. Let’s go for a change of scenery.” She jumped toward the portal. “Plus, something tells me this isn’t the last time we’ll see this Train.” She juggled her dimensional device. “We can always come back.”

“Ah guess so. But you’re not charging in first—we go together, Cinder.”

Cinder grinned. “Absolutely. Can’t be ignoring your development now can we?”

Adder rolled her eyes and tackled Cinder through the portal.

Off the Infinity Train… for now.

Author's Notes:

Arrow 18: Lone Ranger is an amazing story that is, above all else, a science fiction story. A human astronaut travels to Equestria and has to deal with things like mechanical failure, a language barrier, and orbital fun. Not to mention a bunch of cute ponies. I suppose it's technically a human in Equestria story, but it really doesn't feel like it most of the time.

Next time on LSB:
My Little Minecraft: At the End (IT. IS. TIME. FOR. CUBES!)

((LSB Status Post.)) Come suggest and upvote fics!

Angled Mountains (My Little Minecraft: At the End)

It begins, as it often does, with an explosion.

“Why did you have to touch it!?” Adder shouted, dodging a chunk of green, oozing flesh.

Cinder, currently covered in noxious green ooze, stared at her hoof in disbelief. “What in… how? What?” Her focus moved past her hoof and to the small crater the explosion had created. “All I did was touch it! Why does that make it explode?”

“Ah dunno, but Ah do know the ants just watched their queen blow up.”

Cinder paled. Slowly, she turned around to examine the other side of the cavern, a section not covered in the innards of the recently-deceased queen ant. There were at least a dozen pony-sized insects more than a little upset that their ruler had been, from their perspective, assassinated. They opened their jaws and hissed.

Adder activated her lightsaber, holding the grip in her mouth rather than her front hooves. Cinder fumbled for the dimensional device.

The ants charged, surging forth like a sea of carapace, jaws, and spindly legs.

“Cinder…” Adder grunted through her teeth.

Cinder dropped the dimensional device. “Everything’s fine!”

Adder stared the lead ant down. Animal though it was, it wasn’t an idiot and knew the lightsaber was beyond dangerous, so it twisted to the side, aiming its jaws for Adder’s legs.

Adder twisted her head sideways, cutting the front of the ant’s head clean off, dropping the clattering jaw to the ground. The second ant received a spike to the neck, but the third managed to smack Adder to the side with a leg.

Only then did Cinder open the portal. She dragged Adder through, falling onto a flat, grassy ground. The portal closed as fast as it was able to, but this still allowed one ant through. It shrieked, unable to process that it had been separated from its brethren. Adder struggled to lift her blade, but her head was heavy. She lobbed off one of its feet, but its jaws were still poised to close around her neck.

Cinder forced the ants jaws open with her telekinesis, giving Adder the seconds needed to end the creature. Its head fell into two pieces, sizzling from the weapon’s heet.

Adder let out a sigh of relief and deactivated her lightsaber. “Thanks.”

“Sorry about the fumbling…” Cinder said, rubbing the back of her head. “We should have been out sooner than that.”

“It’s fine. We’re alive. Though we do seem to be running from danger a lot…”

“They were friendly!”

“You wanted an ant as a mount. We probably should have known that wasn’t going to go well.”

“Well. Uh…” Cinder clicked her tongue. “All right, fine, fair enough.”

“Anyway… where are we?” Adder took a moment to look around… and was struck dumb. “...Wait a moment.”

The tree was tall, with a thick trunk covered in brittle bark that gave way to a tangled mess of leaves several meters above them. It was shockingly large and fat for a tree, and the leaves were pressed together more like a bush, so much so that they couldn’t see any branches.

The tree was also entirely made of meter tall cubes. Four cubes of trunk, and a loose collection of leafy cubes sitting atop that.

Adder looked beyond the tree, finding numerous other trees also made of the same cubic structure. Even the grass was cubic, raising or lowering in elevation with sharp increments rather than a smooth slope. In the distance, she could see a rounded mountain, but upon closer inspection even this was made out of cubes.

“...The sun is square,” Cinder said, pointing up.

“Well.” Adder blinked. “This is… interestin’, at least.”

Cinder started tapping her hoof, examining the surrounding world in fascination. “Cubes. Cubes everywhere. That flower doesn’t look cubic, but it’s fixed exactly in the middle of the grid a—” The ground gave out beneath her, dropping her into a cubic meter hole with dirt on all sides. Despite appearing as a smooth cube, the texture of the dirt remained, dirtying her white coat. “What…?”

“The thing you were standin’ on just vanished!”

“I figured that part out…” Cinder grunted, pulling herself out of the hole. She was a little too large for it, so her head dragged against the edges as she moved, dirtying her mane. Looking into the hole from above, she was confused to see a much smaller cube of dirt laying at the bottom of the hole, so small she could easily pick it up. Lifting it out with her magic, she turned it around and examined the dirty patterns on every face. “Weird…”

“Did you cast a spell to shrink the ground?”

“No. Maybe it shrinks itself?” With a shrug, she tossed the cube back on the ground.

It grew to full size and affixed itself to the landscape with a soft thunk. A second later, grass grew on the top of it.

“That’s not normal,” Adder said.

“No, really?” Cinder, acting on a hunch, tapped the recently placed block with her hoof. A small crack formed in the center of it as she did so. When it reached the edges, the cube detached from the landscape and fell to the ground, small enough to hold.

Adder tried it, tapping a section of the ground. It detached in much the same way, shrinking and falling to the ground. She glanced at Cinder with a grin before jumping into the hole and hitting other blocks from the side, creating a three by three hole in the ground. “I’ve dug a pit!”

“Congratulations,” Cinder chuckled. “How far down can you go?”

“Let’s see…” She dug the pit a little deeper, but soon ran into gray blocks of stone. Tapping these did cause a crack to form, but it progressed much, much slower. “Guess it’s too hard to mess with.”

“Clearly. Lightsaber?”

Adder activated her weapon and stabbed the cube with it. The blade went through it, but the cube didn’t diminish in size. Swinging wide, she chopped off a corner with ease.

The oblong angle she had created in the cube looked wrong, somehow.

“Somehow Ah don’t think that’s a good idea,” Adder said, sheathing her weapon. She kicked a few dirt blocks to make stairs so she could climb out of the hole. “That rock needs somethin’ else to move i—what are you doing?”

“Punching a tree,” Cinder said, punching a tree. She’d been at it for several seconds, but the cracks were almost at the edge of the block.

“Cinder n—”

The block detached from the trunk and fell into Cinder’s hoof. The rest of the tree floated above, not affected by the loss of the block below.

Adder shook her head. “Ah thought gravity…”

“Not the same in every universe. Though… it is strange that we’re falling and this tree isn’t.”

“Maybe we’re not made of blocks?”

“Possb—”

There was an oink. Between the two of them, there was a pig. Or, they thought it was a pig, given it’s pink complexion, big nose, and curly tail. It was, like everything else in this world, made out of sharp angles, though it wasn’t cubic. The body was rectangular, and where it met the legs the transition was smooth rather than jarringly sharp. It moved like an animal would with the bending of muscles and pulling of tendons.

It just had a lot of hard edges.

Adder held out a hoof to the pig. “Aren’t you the cutest lil’ thing?”

The pig was not afraid, but it didn’t seem to understand what was going on either.

“Only you would call a pig cute,” Cinder commented.

“Shush, pigs are amazin’. They can do all sorts o’ things. Though…” Looking around, Adder saw nothing but natural landscape. “This is a domestic pig, not a feral one. Too pink.”

“Maybe that’s just what pigs look like in this universe.”

“Maybe. But if Ah had to guess, Ah’d say this fella came from a farm or somethin’.”

“Little? He’s almost as big as we are!”

Adder rolled her eyes. “He’s still a pig. No matter how square-ey he is.” Adder patted the pigs head. “Isn’t that right, Poppy?”

“And you named him already. Brilliant. Didn’t you just say he was probably part of a farm?”

“And then Ah’ll call him by his real name if we find it. Right now, he’s Poppy. Isn’t that right, Poppy?”

Poppy oinked.

Cinder waved her hoof around, trying to think of something to say. The tree trunk in her hoof decided that meant it was a good time to explode into four blocks of wooden planks, dropping to the ground around her.

“...One block becomes more.” Adder cocked her head. “Huh.”

“Hmm…” Cinder trotted back to the tree and kicked another trunk loose. Lifting it up in her magic… she shook it violently. It popped into four more wooden planks, easily. Shaking one of the planks nothing happened. “Okay, I admit it, I’m fascinated by the way this world works. I want to figure it out.”

Adder picked up one of the planks and set it on the ground, growing it to its full size. “Y’know, we could make a house out of this. If every wood block becomes four planks, that’s…”

“On it,” Cinder said, punching some more wood blocks. “Help me gather this, will you?”

Adder pointed her hind hooves at another tree and bucked it. It wasn’t enough to remove the block, though it did make a large crack appear. An apple also fell out of the tree as a bonus. “Huh.” Munching on the apple, she returned to work, bucking wood right out of the tree.

It was nice, not having to worry about it falling on her. The first time Applejack had taught her to cut down a tree, it had almost crushed her. That had been… fun.

Four trees later, they’d gathered enough planks to make some walls atop a smooth section of the grass. A single room large enough for both of them to walk around comfortably. Admittedly, there wasn’t anything in the room aside from the two of them and the grass below, but they’d still made it in all of five minutes and had plenty of planks to spare, not to mention a couple of apples and Poppy.

The windows and doorway were just holes in the wall, though.

“...There’s gotta be a way to make a door…” Adder said, scratching her chin.

“How? I’ve tried shaking the planks, nothing happens.”

Adder shrugged. “Maybe we should try other stuff. Think we can smash the planks together to get a trunk again? Grow a new tree?”

Cinder grabbed four of the planks together, holding them in her magic. She shook, and they fused together. Unlike popping apart, which had been seemingly instant, this took visible time. The four planks each became a soft white light that joined with the other lights, forming a new cube; one that wasn’t a tree trunk.

It looked like a cubic table with a grid on top. Along the edges hung various small tools, ranging from saws to little chisels. She placed it in the corner of the house, growing it to full size.

“What do you suppose that is?” Adder asked.

“The grid squares are about the same size as the smaller cubes, so…” She placed four of the planks on the table’s squares. Without any shaking from Cinder, they popped into another one of the tables. Cinder set it in another corner for Adder. “Looks like this is a better way to make things than ‘pick up and shake’.”

“And it can hold nine things.”

“I could hold nine things…”

Adder rolled her eyes. “Let’s start experimenting!”

“We do have a lot of wood to mess with…” She glanced outside at all the leaves they’d left floating in the air.

The sun was setting.

“Wow, days on this planet are short,” Cinder observed. “It was midday when we got here…”

“Let’s work through the night like proper farmers!” Adder shouted, lifting her hoof high.

Cinder rolled her eyes. “Sure, why not. Unless something funky’s going on, the nights will be just as short.” Scanning the horizon through the doorway, she made out the rising moon. It was, of course, as square as the sun. “...I don’t know what I was expecting.”

A bony hand shot out of the ground roughly ten blocks away from their current position. With alarming speed, a human skeleton with a cubic head rose from the ground, a bow in its hand. It took one look at them and pulled the string back.

Cinder lobbed a fireball at it, shattering its head into a dozen pieces.

“That was… weaker than I was expecting,” Cinder admitted.

“We’re used to fightin’ giant monsters all the time. That was just a skeleton.”

More things began to erupt from the ground outside. Alongside more bow-toting skeletons rose humanoid zombies with green, rotting flesh. They let out an agonized moan before approaching the house.

Cinder started shooting fireballs out of the doorway like a gatling gun, wondering if they should run to another universe.

Adder, ever the practical pony, placed two wooden blocks in the doorway to completely block it off. She filled in the windows as well, plunging them into darkness.

Cinder lit her horn. “...What makes you think they can’t get in?”

“If they start breakin’ the blocks down, we’ll hear it. And Ah don’t hear anything.” She lifted her ears up, listening closely. “Ah don’t even hear any arrows flyin’.”

Cinder listened as well, swiveling her ears in every direction. She could hear the zombies and skeletons moving around out there, but none of them were getting closer to the house. Curious, she removed a block from the wall and looked out. The moon had fully risen, and the undead were wandering aimlessly. It took a few seconds, but some of them noticed her and charged.

She filled the block before any of them could reach her. A single arrow impacted the wood from the other side. No further attacks came.

“Are they really so stupid they forget about us when they can’t see us?” Cinder asked.

Adder shrugged. “Maybe they just know they can’t break the blocks, so they give up.”

“Weird.” She frowned. “What kind of curse is this place under that the night brings the undead?”

“Dunno. Ah do know we can experiment with these craftin’ tables.”

“Crafting table… I like that.” She picked up a block of wood and placed it on the table, the light from her horn letting the two of them see. “Here goes nothing…”

~~~

Through trial and error, they found out how to make chests, sticks, doors, swords, pickaxes, and other tools out of nothing but wood. They ran out of wood faster than they would have liked, but the night was short.

They had been poking their heads out every few minutes to see the progress of the moon across the night sky, so they knew morning was soon to come. However, they had not expected to be notified of it by the pained grunts of zombies outside. Poking their heads out once more, they discovered that the morning light was lighting the undead on fire, dropping them to the ground in piles of ash, rotten flesh, and bone.

Adder cocked her head. “Ah thought that was the thing with vampires.”

“We really shouldn’t be surprised that things are different here.”

“Good point.”

Cinder made her way out of the house and picked up one of the discarded bones. Shaking it, she found she could convert it into bonemeal with ease. “Weird.” She also picked up a bow and several arrows while she was at it.

“Ah see somethin’,” Adder said, pointing. Amidst the dead and broken zombies and skeletons, a strange green creature was moving about, prodding one of the zombies with a foot. It was a tall creature, slightly shorter than the average human, with four legs situated at its narrow base. A somewhat leafy texture covered its body, while an agonized face dominated its cubic head.

It turned and saw Adder. Slowly, it began to walk toward them.

“...Is it friendly, Poppy?”

Poppy didn’t react to the creature with anything more than a calm oink.

Cinder rolled her eyes. “He’s a great help. Just be wary.”

The creature moved almost silently, but purposefully. It only stopped its approach when it got close to them, at which point it started hissing and sparking.

“Down!” Cinder shouted, jumping back, taking Adder with her.

The creature exploded in a shower of white dust, destroying several blocks beneath it. The shockwave dropped the two ponies to the ground and tossed Poppy into the side of a dirt block.

“...It exploded…” Cinder stood up and rubbed the bruise on the back of her head. “Okay, don’t mess with those things.”

Adder ran to Poppy to check if he was okay. “Have you seen anythin’ like that anywhere before?”

“Exploding monsters? Not that I remember.” Cinder grinned. “Cubes and exploding monsters. I like this place more and more every day.”

“And the day is short, real short.” Adder gestured at the sun that was making its way into the sky alarmingly quickly. “If we want to do anythin’ we should get goin’.”

Cinder nodded. She ran back into the house and picked up the wooden axe they’d made last night and used it to quickly dismantle the house they’d made, including the nice wooden door. She threw all the shrunk objects into a chest before hoisting the chest onto her back. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“Those mountains seem like a good place to explore. And if night falls, we’ve got ourselves an instant house in this chest right here.”

They set out across the plains. The mountains may have been distant, but they couldn’t have been more than a few miles away. Adder may not have done much exploring in her time, but she knew scenery shouldn’t change that drastically in the short journey to the mountain.

This world did not operate on these rules. They walked directly from a plain to a desert, crossing the boundary from comfortable to baking hot in a handful of blocks. Cinder picked up a few sand blocks while they passed through, but made no move to stay for very long.

Just when they were getting tired of the sand, they entered the snow. No boundaries, not even so much as a block between them, just instant sand to snow. It even started snowing on top of them, accumulating in little chunks. The stuff on the ground could be harvested into snowballs, but they didn’t stick around long enough to break down any of the trees.

At long last, they entered a simple forest at the base of the mountain where the temperature was reasonable. They knocked the snow out of their manes and the sand out of their coats, shivering to warm themselves back to normal temperatures.

“Every climate was smaller than my farm!” Adder said. “How’re you supposed to get a good crop goin’ in a place like this?”

“Not sure… but we might be able to ask them.”

There was what appeared to be a small village at the base of the mountain. The structures were largely made of wood with a few trunk blocks here and there, though the streets had a cobblestone pattern to them and there were clearly small farms dotted around the settlement. The creatures that lived there were human enough, though they had square heads and noses that were far too large. Furthermore, there either weren’t any women in the village at all, or these particular hominids were genderless.

Taking in a deep breath, Cinder marched into the village, walking up to a random villager. “Hi! I’m Cinder!”

“Hmm,” he responded.

“I come from another world where things are a loooot less square. You?”

“Honh.”

“Do you… say anything besides grunts?”

“Mmmm.”

“Shouldn’t the translation spell be workin’?” Adder asked.

Cinder tapped her hoof on the ground as she thought. “I’m not sure this is a langua—” she removed the block she was standing on and fell in the hole again. “...Okay, that’s just…” She pulled herself out and looked back at the villager. “You didn’t see anything.”

“Hmm.”

“Right…” Cinder frowned. “Well, if you don’t try to stop me I’ll be going into town now… so… see you around?”

“Hmph.”

The two ponies carefully passed him and entered the town proper. The villagers walked around, only occasionally glancing up to take the two ponies in. It was clearly an unusual event to have two round creatures waltz into town, but not unusual enough that the villagers felt the need to do anything about it. They went around their business. Some were farming, one was cooking what smelled like meat in a furnace, another was standing on top of a stone watchtower, and another was tending to a massive iron beast.

If Cinder had to give it a name, it would be a golem. A massive hulk of metal with two arms and legs that marched around as if defending the town. Upon seeing the two mares, it seemed to consider driving them away. Instead, it picked up a poppy in a nearby flower bed and offered it to Cinder.

“Thanks!” Cinder said, sticking the red flower in her mane. “I think this looks good on me, don’t you?”

Adder pursed her lips. “Well, now Ah need to find somethin’ cool.”

“You have a lightsaber. I just have a flower. That’s hardly fair.”

“I’m not really that good at using it yet…”

“It’ll come with practice. Trust me.”

“Well Ah know that bu—POTIONS!”

“What?” Cinder watched in mild confusion as Adder pressed her face to the glass of a house, bouncing giddily. Inside there was a golden stand carrying three magical potions.

“That looks like a brewin’ stand… Ah haven’t made potions in a while.” She jumped to the side, knocking on the front door. “Hello?”

A villager opened the door with a confused expression.

Adder pointed at the brewing stand and then at herself, giving the villager the best puppy-dog eyes she could manage.

“Hnh,” the villager said, shaking his head. He pulled an emerald out of his pocket and tapped it with a finger. He waved towards himself in the universal gesture for “pay up.”

Adder frowned. “Don’t have any emeralds…” She pointed at the emerald and scratched her head.

The villager tossed an iron pickaxe at her and pointed at the mountain.

“You want me to dig the emeralds up for it!?”

“Hmmmh.”

“Right, you can’t understand me…”

“Given how easy it is to mine here, that might not be that difficult,” Cinder said. “That tool he gave you can probably break through rock pretty quickly.”

“Yeah… Yeah! Ah’m gonna get some emeralds and then show this guy Ah totally can buy this brewin’ stand! And then Ah’m gonna brew somethin’! Ya hear that? Brew!”

Cinder rolled her eyes. “The sun will be setting soon, we should hide out in our house. Though, I will ask…” She pointed at the glass, cocking her head in confusion.

The villager took out a block of sand and stuck it in his furnace. A few moments later he pulled out a block of glass.

“...Simple, but I’ll take it.”

~~~

Rather than packing up the entire house when morning came, they left the door-and-glass-window equipped structure standing at the outskirts of the village. The iron golem had done an excellent job of destroying any and all undead that approached the town, so aside from the pained agonizing screams of zombies being pummeled to death, the night had been peaceful.

At first light the two ponies set out to the mountain, equipped with nothing but their usual supplies, a couple picks, and an empty chest on Cinder’s back. Poppy stayed at the house. They quickly found a wall of exposed stone ripe for the mining.

“Here it goes.” Adder swung the pick two times before the stone block popped out, transforming into cobblestone in the process. Cinder helped her with the wooden pick they had made earlier, though it was significantly slower than the villager’s gift. They made their way into the mine, digging at a slight downward angle to create a staircase.

“Y’know, Ah wonder how far down you can go,” Adder wondered.

“We could just dig straight down,” Cinder suggested. “It’d be a little awkward with two of us…”

“Psh, it’ll be fine.” Adder dug out a three by three hole that both of them could stand in. They continued digging down in this three by three hole, passing all sorts of strange blocks. White and orange blocks of different kinds of stone popped up, easily collected and placed within Cinder’s chest. Coal ore popped into lots of little black rocks. On a hunch, Cinder stuck these on a stick and made torches, allowing her horn to have a break from lighting their way.

They even got some lapis lazuli and iron ore… but no emeralds. Not a single one, so far.

“These things are rare, aren’t they?” Adder asked.

“Probably why he wants them,” Cinder responded.

“Hmm… Ah’ll show him. Ah’ll find all the emeral—woah!” She had just dug a hole in the ground that opened up into a large cavern. At the bottom of said cavern was quite the impressive river of lava. She was lucky there were other blocks for her to stand on. “...Maybe we shouldn’t be digging straight down.”

Cinder took paper out of her mane and folded it into a hang glider. Taking her chest off and setting it to the side, she climbed into her creation. “Or we could fall through and explore the cave, hmm?”

“Ah am never gonna trust that paper thing of yours.”

“Psh, get on, it’s perfectly safe.”

“If we fall into the lava we’re gonna burn.”

“Then I won’t fall into the lava.” She dug a short ways ahead, making a larger opening into the cavern. “C’mon, let’s soar!”

With a grunt, Adder reluctantly latched onto Cinder. They pushed off, drifting into the cavern with a papery triangle over their heads, covering a significant distance in a matter of seconds. They could feel the heat of the lava wafting up to meet them, but Cinder kept their altitude high enough to avoid danger.

From the lava. Not from a skeleton hiding in a dark cave offshoot. An arrow shot right through their papery sail, compromising the glider’s integrity.

“Hang on!” Cinder shouted, shooting a fireball at the skeleton to keep it from shooting at them again. She twisted the hang glider to the side, aiming for a section of the cavern not filled with lava. She succeeded.

That said, she did get them stuck in a lot of cobwebs, so it wasn’t the best landing ever.

Cinder chuckled to herself.

A spider as large as she was heard her and skittered toward her through the webbing, fangs bared.

Adder activated her lightsaber, cutting all the webbing trapping her away in an instant with a satisfying sizzle. Twisting forward, she drove her blade into the spider’s jaw, popping out the back of its skull. It was dead.

Adder sheathed her weapon. “Y’know, for as scary and weird as these monsters are, they’re kinda pushovers.”

“Adder, I found emeralds.”

Adder jumped to Cinder—getting stuck in the webs again. After cutting both of them free, Cinder pointed down a small cavern. Dotted around the edges of the rock were six separate blocks with green crystals in them. Adder grinned and hacked them all away with her pick, ending up with six pristine green crystals at her disposal. “Mission success! Now we just have to… go… back.”

“Let’s just dig up. At an angle.” Cinder took her wooden pick to the stone. “We should be able to get out and circle around on the surface.”

It wasn’t exactly slow going, but it sure felt like it. Endless rock that they couldn’t even pick up since Cinder had left the chest behind. It was, after all said and done, somewhat boring work to bore a hole through a mountain. Cinder found herself hoping for a cave filled with monsters by the time they reached the dirt layer, popping out into the cold night air.

They were on the other side of the mountain. It was the middle of the night. Behind them, there were dozens of zombies and skeletons.

In front of them was a castle so large Cinder was surprised it managed to stay hidden behind the mountain. It was difficult to tell what it was made out of in the dark, but numerous torches placed high atop the castle’s towers made it clear how massive it was. A cobbled path indicated where the front door was.

Rather than slaughter their way through a ton of zombies and skeletons, which they probably could do if they put their minds to it, they ran for the front doors of the castle. Cinder produced a paper shield and levitated it behind them to catch stray skeleton arrows. The zombies in question were far, far too slow to keep up with a pair of young mares running at full gallop.

Their hooves transitioned from mountain grass to cobblestone as they approached the doors. They charged through the entrance with ease, finding nothing blocking their entry whatsoever.

Slamming the doors behind them, Adder pressed her hooves to the entrance, hoping to block it. “...Will these doors keep them?”

“Don’t know.” Cinder took out her pick and mined the ground made of actual bricks, gathering the blocks. She pulled Adder out of the way and blocked the doors with the blocks. “But they won’t be able to now.”

“Good. Maybe now we can wait for day…”

“Or find whoever lives here.” Cinder put a hoof to her mouth and called out “HELLO!?”

Only when the echo returned did she realize how vast the entry hall was. They were but specks in the dome-shaped interior, the holes they made in the brick path not even visible when viewing the entire structure. Glowing blocks of soft yellow and harsh blue hung from the ceiling, combining with torches to make chandeliers of various different heights. The walls themselves were covered in blocks made out of solid iron, gold, emerald, and other materials the ponies couldn’t identify for sure. Brick stairs led up to platforms in the middle of the vast space, each of which connected to other platforms with more stairs and bridges. A few of these paths led to holes in the hall’s walls—portals to other areas of the massive structure.

It would have been more spectacular had everything not been covered in dust.

Adder brushed away the accumulation on a nearby table with a flower pot. “...Ah don’t think anyone’s been here in a long time.”

“Why don’t the villagers take this stuff?” Cinder asked.

“Maybe they don’t know about it?”

“...Or maybe there’s some other reason…”

The two ponies climbed up the stairs, walking along a bridge into the first portal they found. The hall was lit with red, dim torches and the floor was of a soft orange carpet. At the end of the hall… was a library. Towering, expansive, and filled with a vast array of books, it would have made any Twilight squeal in glee. And once said hypothetical Twilight noticed the magic books floating on pedestals in the midst of all the books, that squeal would turn into an excited gasp followed quickly by a mile-a-minute monologue.

Cinder’s reaction was limited to the dropping of her jaw.

“Huh. Books.” Adder pulled one off the shelf, checking the cover. “Hey, Ah can read this! Craftin’ Recipes.” She flipped through the pages, finding illustrations of a three-by-three grid filled with various objects that became other objects. “This is all about how to use that craftin’ table!”

“Enchanting 101,” Cinder read aloud, taking a book that described how to use the magic books floating around. “This… this could tell us so much about how to use the things in this world.”

“Anythin’ like histories? Journals?” Adder asked, going through book after book.

“Strangely, no…” Cinder hopped around the library a lot, examining various different shelves with the hopes of finding some explanations about this world. She found nothing of the sort: all the books seemed to be practical in one way or another, and none of them were even labeled by an author. Reports of crafting recipes, monsters, creatures, different types of blocks, the different kinds of scenery and items… and an entire shelf devoted to cataloguing which areas of the world had been mined out.

“Was this all written by one person?” Cinder wondered, noting that the handwriting was rather similar between the tomes.

“You’d have to be real fast at writin’ or real old to do that,” Adder commented.

“Hmm…” Cinder approached a section that appeared to be filled with books that were architectural blueprints. She eventually came to one that showed her the very castle they were standing in. It took her a while to recognize it since it had been dark when they came in, but the shape of the towers and the doors were right there, as well as the design for the main room and a floor plan for everything else.

One label in particular stood out to her.

Map room.

“Adder, I think I’ve found something. We need to head back to the hall.”

“But Ah just figured out how to make mushroom stew!” Adder winked.

Cinder rolled her eyes and trotted back to the main hall. Following the blueprint’s design, she climbed up to the highest portal in the hall, coming out into a short passage that led to a set of iron double doors. Above the doors sat what appeared to be a statue made of brown sand with two blackened skulls on top of it. Behind this statue was a painting depicting a creature with three black skulls.

Creepy. I wonder where the other skull is.

The iron doors opened themselves as they stepped upon some pressure plates, opening up to another expansive area. They stood on a platform with staircases that ran up and down, allowing multiple vantage points to look at the map that filled the entire opposite wall. There had to be ten stories worth of map in front of them. Massive oceans dominated, curling and twisting around dozens of continents that twisted and turned on often unrealistic ways. Thousands of biomes colored these continents with a patched pattern. Hardly was there a space without a desert nearby, or a snow patch, or some kind of thick jungle. It was chaotic, crowded, and way too much to take in.

And yet, as they looked closer, they could see the structures built on the world. Massive bridges that spanned oceans, roads that ran over hills, entire cities larger than any of the biomes the map had to offer. There were a few oddly shaped structures they couldn’t easily identify, and even a few that seemed as though they were shaped to spell out words like “Hi!”

It would have been impossible to find out where they were had that section of the map not been placed a block in front of all the others, separating it. On it, they could see the castle they were standing in, the mountain, and the village on the other side. The village itself seemed to mark a place of untamed wilderness where none of the massive structures were built.

Cinder scratched her chin. “A preserve…?”

Looking closer, Cinder could see a few more places like this on the map, usually centered around small villages, though she also saw some small villages that seemed to be part of massive structures. Had whoever built these made agreements with all of the villagers, or was there something else at play here?

“Hey,” Adder said, pointing up. “Ah think we can get on the roof.”

Climbing up the stairs all the way to the top of the map, they arrived at the lookout of one of the castle’s towers, looking out over the world.

Oh, what had been hidden from them by the mountain, the sun revealed to them now. Massive, sprawling bridges spiraled out from the castle’s base, running what appeared to be rails over the tamed wilderness. In the distance, they could see what appeared to be a skyscraper. Closer than that, they could see little hutts, statues, and floating sky islands dominated by cabins. There was even some motion: a weird machine of blocks that moved up and down like a snake and what appeared to be a minecart moving forever on a circle of tracks.

But there were no people.

There weren’t even any villagers here. The only life they saw was a cubic slime hopping around aimlessly and a herd of cows grazing obliviously.

“...What happened to them?” Cinder asked.

“If it was really one person, they… might just be building elsewhere,” Adder commented.

“But this seems like the place they store their information and knowledge of the world… it’s roughly in the center of the map. They probably return here regularly to record new things and shelve it for later use. There’s too much dust here.”

“Think somethin’ happened to them?”

“Maybe. There are a lot of dangers in this world.”

“But nothin’ else we’ve seen is able to build like us. Those villagers just make their little houses, and Ah never saw them break a single block.” Adder smirked. “What if the thing that built all this was like us, just passin’ through and decided to have some fun with a bunch of blocks?”

“...And then they left once they were done?”

“Or they got bored or somethin’. The story doesn’t have to end badly. Or maybe they just went on a trip to see if they could go around the world, Ah dunno.”

“Still… this is impressive.” Cinder held her hoof out over all the constructions. “Even knowing everything about how this world works, I’m not sure I could build this much.”

“Wanna try?”

Cinder raised an eyebrow, making her flower shift slightly in her mane. “We don’t have that kind of time.”

“Why not? It’s not like we’re really doing anything out here.”

“...We’re looking for where I came from. This isn’t it.”

“And we’re just wanderin’ around aimlessly lookin’ around without a place to go back and rest.”

“Are you saying we could make a home here?”

“Maybe not a home, but… a base of operations? This place is pretty peaceful even with the monsters, has a lot of stuff we can play with, and we can literally build whatever we want to make our base the best. We’ve only been here a few hours and already we’ve found a ton of stuff. Imagine what we could do with a few days?”

Cinder smirked. “We have been here a few days.”

“You know what I mean.”

Giggling, Cinder nodded. “I think I do. A base of operations, huh? Well… I am very curious, and this place has had its fair share of surprises without exploding a queen ant in our face… Sure, why not, let’s give it a shot.”

Adder beamed. “Yes!”

“But you get to learn how to farm.”

“Ah’ll be brewin. Speakin’ of, Ah think we should get back and get that stand…”

~~~

A being watched carefully as the ponies journeyed over the mountain, back to the village.

They never suspected it was watching, simply because it was too far away. Occasionally they would glance at it’s direction, but it would never make eye contact.

That would… not do.

But it still watched them. Its midnight black form refused to leave them alone as they journeyed across the world to complete their mission. It spoke to itself in some incomprehensible, gurgling language unlike anything else this world had to offer.

The ponies returned to the village and purchased the brewing stand without incident. They returned to their ramshackle house and began working with their new information. Immediately, they set out for the mountain again, no doubt to get the chest they had left behind.

The chest the being had already sifted through, looking for anything of interest. It had found nothing, though it did keep a stone simply because it could.

As they entered the cave once more, the being teleported somewhere far, far away.

This was not to say the Enderman stopped watching them. It just had other things to attend to at the moment.

Though it was sure the two ponies’ arrival was very, very important somehow.

It could swear it heard a train whistle in the distance.

~~~

My Little Minecraft: at the End will return…

Author's Notes:

My Little Minecraft: At the End is a fic about Steve going to Equestria. This LSB chapter is about Sweeties going to the Overworld. MLM:AtE is a dead fic, and LSB will come back to finish the story. But for now.... it's all sunshine and cubes.
EDIT: though now that I'm coming back to this after a Hiatus, I'm realizing it'll have to be done in a different way. And not so much of a "conclusion."

Next time on LSB:
Three Hundred and Fifty (what TIME is it!?)

((LSB Status Post.)) Come suggest and upvote fics!

What Lies Between Past and Future? (Three Hundred and Fifty)

“Like, time, it’s… it’s not made out of lines! It’s made out of circles!”

The rest of the Elements of Pandemonium and Sunset “Isekai” stared at Insipid in disbelief.

Insipid smiled innocently as she finished her drink that might have been made out of clouds. “That’s totally why clocks are round!”

“Just when I think I’m going to get used to your antics.” Havocwing shook her head, chuckling.

“One does not simply ‘get used to’ Insipid,” Curaçao said. “You must prepare for endless novel observations, oui?”

“Ascribing the term ‘novel’ would be a stretch in logic,” Shadow added. “However, it is certainly no hindrance to our dynamic.”

“I’m betting it’ll get old after a few years,” Grayscale said.

“Nah, it’s one of those timeless jokes,” Velvet said. “By the way, all six of us just said something in a round, establishing our presence and our personality. Something’s gonna happen soon.”

Isekai stopped cleaning a wine glass, glancing at Velvet with an uncertain expression.

Velvet lifted up her current book: The Strands of Fate and the Story they Weave. “Wanna borrow it?”

“I’ll pass. The idea that what Pinkies do is something that can be learned is terrifying enough. Not to mention the fact that I don’t want to second-guess the deeper thematic meaning of every joke I crack.”

Velvet smirked. “Afraid?”

“A bit,” Isekai admitted. “But if you eat my fear we’ll be having another discussion…”

“Awwww…” Velvet pouted, returning to her book.

“Every day, Velvet becomes more of a nerd,” Grayscale said.

“Nah, she’s just doing what she’s got to,” Havocwing asserted. ”The Pink Ones must be met on the battlefield!”

“She was reading a tome on relativity not all zat long ago,” Curaçao said.

Insipid gasped. “Like, no way! Really Velvet?”

Velvet looked like a deer in the headlights. “Uh… h-how did you girls know? I changed the cover and everything!”

Curaçao raised an eyebrow and pointed at herself.

“...Stupid freaky observation skills…”

“An interest in academics should not be a shameful hobby,” Shadow declared, stepping in to aid her sister. “Expanding our cranial capacities is… delightful!”

“Says the nerd,” Grayscale snickered.

“Nothing wrong with being a nerd,” Isekai commented as she poured herself a purple concoction. She glanced at it like she wasn’t entirely sure what it was. “I studied a lot of random science books myself, just because I was curious.”

Velvet held up her book again, raising her eyebrows repeatedly.

“There’s scientific curiosity, and then there’s digging into things I’d be much happier not knowing.”

“You know you want toooooooo…”

“Nope. It’s been years since you all started showing up, and I still haven’t given in to those mystic tomes of yours.”

“Years?” Insipid blinked. “Uh, wait, didn’t Suzie discover this place a month or two ago?”

“Time does not move consistently across the multiverse,” Shadow explained. “Within the Equis Cluster, we are relatively constant with each other with only minor variations. The Isekai Bar extends its lattices far into the multiverse and thus suffers from drift through metatime only compounded by its tendency to alter universal times to reach the proper people at the proper times.”

“So time is made out of circles!”

Shadow shook her head, trying not to laugh. “Sometimes. In general, though, time follows a strictly forward progression with the rest of the multiverse. Rates change and… think of it like playing a game, Insipid. Some parts of the game feel like they go really fast, and some go slow. And parts you enjoy aren’t enjoyed by other people. By the end of the game, you all disagree on how long it was.”

“Oooooh,” Insipid said, pretending she got it.

Shadow made a mental note to explain it in simpler terms later, when the two weren’t surrounded by the others.

“...I wonder if zey’re discovering anyzing new,” Curaçao said, wistful.

“Of course,” Shadow said. “Swip’s found lots of new planes recently, I check the reports myself upon return from our outings. The best was a strict linguistic divide built into the thaumical structures o—”

“I mean Cinder and ‘er friend,” Curaçao interrupted. “They’re out zere, looking for who she is…”

“They’ll find something,” Velvet said. “Pretty sure, anyway.”

“Mmm…”

“A pony like that doesn’t just vanish forever,” Isekai added. “She’ll be back. She’s got spunk in her.”

“Fire in her eyes, hmm?” Grayscale suggested.

“Yes,” Isekai deadpanned.

A portal opened up in the middle of the bar, depositing a Rarity in a fashionable hat with a pink ribbon twisted around the rim—Overhead Renee.

“You know you can just use the door, right?” Isekai said, pointing.

“Sorry, darling, force of habit.” Renee sat down at once of the stools, glancing around the bar. “Is there anyone else here at the moment?”

Isekai shook her head. “Nope.”

“Ah, that’ll save us a trip back to my office.” Renee turned to the Elements of Pandemonium and smiled warmly. “I have an interesting mission for you involving a stolen time travel device.”

“AHA!” Insipid slammed her hooves on the table. “I knew it! Time is round!”

“Depends on your point of view,” Renee said without missing a beat. “Regardless, I need you six to capture the criminal responsible.”

“Why not send Aradia?” Shadow asked.

“I have. Several times, in fact. No version of her has returned. It’s quite concerning.” Renee took a data pad out and handed it over to them. “We tracked them to this world, no idea if they moved past that, but this is where Aradia vanishes. It’s not one we have established contact with, so I can’t tell you much. Your job is to go there and recover the time machine.”

“...That may be problematic, if he has a time machine,” Shadow pointed out.

Renee smirked, pulling an object out of her mane. A triple layered gyroscope made of smooth silver with an hourglass in the middle. Currently, the sand in the hourglass was frozen solid, particles suspended in midair. “This is a Merodi Issue adaptable time gyroscope, almost an exact copy of what has been stolen.”

Shadow was all but drooling. “Woah…”

“Shouldn’t it be sparkling?” Grayscale asked. “Looks dead.”

“That’s because we’re in the Isekai Bar,” Renee explained. “It can’t have us messing with its time, so it doesn’t allow it. It’ll work anywhere time travel is allowed, trust me.” She tossed it to Shadow, who caught it in her magic. “I’m sure you know how to use it?”

“I’ve read up everything I can on these magnificent devices,” Shadow said, turning the device over in her magic. “This is a lot of power.”

“You’ve proven yourselves as trustworthy, and honestly you were one of the few teams I haven’t surprised with one of these at this point. Go, have some fun, try not to break too many timelines, hmm?”

“You can count on us,” Curaçao said. “Elements! Move out!”

“...This isn’t a military unit,” Havocwing said.

“I was attempting to get in ze mood.”

With a shrug Havocwing jumped out of her seat and followed the rest of her sisters out of Sunset’s Isekai.

“Daiquiri, please,” Renee ordered, laying some Merodi quid on the counter.

Isekai delivered almost instantly. “Are you trying to turn my bar into a place to make shady deals?”

“Dear, I did that in full view of you, what part of that was shady?”

“You could have used your office. Probably more secure.”

“But then I wouldn’t have an excuse to come here and have a drink, now would I?” Renee raised an eyebrow.

With a shrug, Isekai leaned back against the wall.

“Sometimes our reasons for doing things are unbelievably petty and simple.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Isekai laughed at the exchange. Turning back to her glasses, she felt compelled to ask the mare a question. “What’s it like, being in charge of all the adventurers, Overhead?”

“Just ‘Renee’, please. And as for your question…” Renee put a hoof to her chin. “It’s a very meaningful job, but there’s a rather large issue with it.”

“What’s that?”

“When you make laws that allow teams to make moral judgments on the spot, you end up disagreeing with so, so many of them.”

“...Are those six problem children in that regard?”

“Not the worst I’ve had, but they do tend to… take things a bit far.” Rarity ran a hoof around the edge of her glass. “I know we need ponies like them to do the difficult things, and they do good work. But when the first thing you hear about a mission is ‘we dropped the moon on Australia’ you aren’t exactly in the mood to think clearly about the possible ramifications and reasonings behind said event.”

“...Did they really drop the moon on an Australia?”

Renee nodded. “The worst part? Thinking about it now, I think they needed to. That was a particularly nasty zombie outbreak...”

~~~

New Pandemonium City had seen better days.

Which was to say it didn’t see days at all anymore. No plane in Fae Epoque could withstand something so cosmically regular as a day/night cycle, and negotiations with the Fay never lasted long enough to cement such familiarity. Sometimes it was light, sometimes it was dark, and the ponies just had to live with it. They griped and complained about it all the time, but they knew one thing for sure: they weren't leaving their city. Magical Fae realm or not, this was their land and they weren’t getting off of it, no matter what crazed deal some Queen had made with some Fay creature. If anyone told them they would have been eaten by the void if the deal hadn't been made, they just found some other way to complain.

That was what Pandemonium ponies did. Complain. Complain about the Fay, complain about the lack of day and night, complain about the streets twisting in unpredictable patterns, complain about the lack of a stable border wall, complain, complain, complain…

Harmonia, goddess of Harmony for the now-defunct Equestria V, was one of the primary targets of said complaints. Not one week into this little experiment with the Fae and someone—probably an impish Fay—had made Harmonia’s existence public knowledge. It was alarming how ponies who previously hadn’t believed in goddesses at all came to resent the idea that there was one protecting them from the dangers of the Fae Wilds.

They even passed legislation to get rid of her. Not that she listened. She would never abandon these ponies to this cruel, ever-changing landscape.

Which created an interesting situation when she petitioned the Aid Division for assistance.

“Thou art essentially working as illegal immigrants,” Harmonia said, walking down one of the streets of New Pandemonium. One of the benefits of being well-known was that she could go for strolls as herself: a brilliant white alicorn. They’d stopped trying to arrest her a month ago. “The system resists thine efforts. Art thou certain thy people can handle themselves here?”

“The system is also easily exploitable,” the Aid representative, one Solicitude “Fluttershy”, responded. She’d cleaned up a lot since her debacle in Vision, cutting her mane short and taking to wearing a calming blue dress alongside a lapis circlet to set herself apart. “Silvertongue’s designs that maximized misery are still in place… but so are the loopholes he designed for himself. With the Fae intruding in every location, kindness moves in.” A confident smile appeared on her face. “They can’t just kill anyone because of their laws, and the moment we spring anyone from jail they’re forgotten in the flood of paperwork. They don’t realize how fragile their ‘utopia’ is….” A frown crossed her features.

“With our efforts, this land shalt never succumb to the curse of thine own. I shalt protect these ponies to my dying breath, should I possess such a thing.”

Solicitude nodded, smiling warmly. “I’m here to protect. And my team is here to do the same. Though they will likely be much louder about it.”

“Loud…? Are they not handing out food and medical supplies?”

“Oh. They are. But they’ll find trouble.”

There was a loud crash from across the street, where a large Fae tree had grown out of the cobbled street. A white pegasus mare had fallen out of the tree, shouting unflattering swears at whatever had pushed her out and broken most of the branches.

“Quiet, will you?” Sriracha “Sweetie” demanded, tossing a pink pepper straight into the mare’s mouth. The previously foul-mouthed equine devolved into sputtered gasps as the spice seeped into her tongue. “...Eh, close enough,” Sriracha said with a shrug.

“Balls, you got her before I did,” Mattie the Rarity muttered, appearing on the scene as if from a jump-cut.

The mare made an attempt to run, but a small Sweetie jumped out of the tree and froze her up to her neck. “Gotcha!”

“Nice one, Cryo!” Sriracha called.

“C+ at best,” Mattie droned. “Nothing all that fancy.”

“HELP!” the mare shouted from the ice, forcing her voice out through the pain. “HELP ME! HARMONIA! STOP THESE CRIMINALS!”

Harmonia glanced at Solicitude. “...They are yours?”

“Yes,” Solicitude admitted with a slightly-nervous smile. “Mattie, why is your team tormenting this mare?”

“Not a mare,” Cryo answered for Mattie, smirking. “Curio, care to have a go?”

The last Sweetie of the team tapped her green visor. “Casting True Form now…”

“Wait, no, d—” the mare’s pleas were cut off as her body was reduced to a shimmering mist of… something.

“Huh.” Curio blinked, checking the signals flashing across her visor. “I guess since fairies don’t have a true form, they devolve into sparkles…”

The sparkles solidified into a vaguely humanoid elven creature with brilliant skin, oversized eyelashes, and a violent expression. He spoke, “say that one more time, horse…”

“What? What did I say?” Curio folded her ears back.

“Nothing much,” Mattie said, circling the frozen elf. “You just called him a fairy. Quite a derogatory term.”

“Oh! Sorry!”

“He was trying to steal your soul,” Cryo deadpanned. “You don’t need to apologize.”

“Is this true?” Harmonia asked the elf.

The elf scoffed. “A soul? Don’t be ridiculou—”

“Elven Fay,” Harmonia interrupted. “Wast thou attempting to solicit part of this unicorn’s life-force in a deceptive way such that she did not know what was happening in her conscious thoughts?”

“You know the dance of words, goddess,” he spat the last word out like it was poison in his mouth. “There must have been a moment of a true spark deep within th—”

“Don’t let him smart-talk his way out,” Mattie grumbled. “Let’s just dump him and be rid of his incessant babbling.”

He glanced at her with a smirk. “Are you sure you wish to do that? There are many other forms I can take…”

“Boring,” Mattie muttered, pulling out her whip. Before she could give the elf a beating, Cryo opened a portal to a random plane of the Fae and threw the elf through it. “...Hey, I was going to enjoy that…” Mattie grumbled.

“Just smack yourself,” Curio said absent-mindedly, focusing mostly on analyzing the data she’d received from the transforming elf.

Cryo turned to Solicitude and saluted. “Troublemaker removed from the city! We shall return to our previous mission right away!”

“You’re doing excellently,” Solicitude said. “Though, do try to be more… discrete? We want ponies to like us, not fear us.”

Mattie rolled her eyes. “Sure. Can do.”

“Mattie…”

“I’m not saying I won’t try, I’m saying it’s not gonna happen.” Mattie gestured at the twisted streets of New Pandemonium with a hoof. “The ponies here are so proud they don’t see the world eating their city. They’re not going to accept us.”

“That is why we’re here,” Cryo reminded her. “Help. Whether they want it or not.”

Harmonia frowned. “I wouldst prefer less violent methods…”

“This is the way we take action,” Solicitude said. “I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but it’s what we have to offer.”

“And I am ever so thankful,” Harmonia said, nodding curtly. “‘Twould no doubt be much worse without thine assistance.”

“We try,” Cryo said. “It’s… the least we can do.”

“And thou hast a young spark of brilliance in thee, young one.” Harmonia placed a hoof atop Cryo’s head. “I am sure thou shalt go far with it.”

“Thanks!”

“Harmonia!” a panicked voice called. “Harmonia!”

“Yes?”

A humanoid pixie flew in front of her face. “The Mafia’s acting up again! Again!”

“It feels like only yesterday that we came to our agreement…” Harmonia sighed. “No doubt they think they hath found a loophole. Come, Peaceflower, let us ride.”

“...You have a fairy assistant?” Curio asked, confused.

“Fay,” Sriracha corrected with a hiss.

“FAY!” Curio blurted. “FAY! I mean fay! Yes! Don’t hurt me.”

Peaceflower showed no signs of anger—just panic at whatever the mafia was doing. “We should go now…”

“I’ll come with,” Solicitude said. “Mattie, keep your team assisting in the redistribution.”

“You know we’re gonna get roped into some adventure, right?” Mattie asked.

“Probably. Until then…” She winked… and then Harmonia teleported them elsewhere.

Mattie smirked. “Aight mates, you heard the boss-lady, find some starving kids and shove hayburgers in their mouths.”

~~~

It’s not every day you appear in a futuristic version of Canterlot that clearly wasn’t made out of buildings cobbled together from dozens of different universes. Even for regular dimensional travelers, the sight was something of a treat. Canterlot castle was still there, but it had many additions that sparked and glowed with the power of magic technology. Massive buildings ran all the way down the mountain’s side, expanding the city far into the land below. It was a true metropolis, advanced far beyond even a modern Earth.

The only things that really looked out of place were a bunch of cloud-structures floating around the city. The sky itself was completely devoid of such weather.

“Whoooooa…” Insipid said, touching her hoof to one of the walls.

“We live in a giant space city,” Havocwing deadpanned. “What about this is cool?”

“I didn’t say cool. I said whoa. Like, totally different.”

“Words used as emotives often carry non-exact meanings,” Shadow added. “Furthermore, the unified, non-cobbled nature of these constructions is exquisite to our eyes and can be construed as beautiful.”

“I thought we agreed you needed to be less like a walking thesaurus?”

“I enjoy it,” Shadow said with a smug grin.

“Somepony back me up here.”

“I like all her words!” Insipid cheered, though her interest in the conversation had dipped. Currently, she was looking at a poster of a Sweetie Belle holding a microphone. Bring the Clouds Back!

“You can figure out what most of her words mean by context, anyway,” Grayscale added. “Or just listening to her enough to learn them.”

“Afraid of being confused, Havoc?” Velvet asked.

“Traitors,” Havocwing bristled. “All of you.”

“Oui, zat is in our nature,” Curaçao admitted. “Now… Shadow, what do you zink is ze best way forward?”

“I will analyze the local thaumic winds for temporal distortions,” Shadow said, taking out the time machine. The sands within it were falling at a regular rate, though neither end of the hourglass was changing size. “Then I will locate the nexus of said distortions, following Aradia to wherever the temporal aspect has deposited her.”

“Or we could save ourselves the trouble,” Grayscale said, pointing with a wing. “This guy looks like he’s here to talk with us.”

A unicorn stallion in palace guard armor was, in fact, walking right up to them. Curiously, he had what appeared to be a magic projection of wings coming out of his back—not flesh, but some kind of spell.

“You with the Handmaid?” he asked.

“Oui,” Curaçao said. “We were not expecting to be met, ‘owever…”

“A precaution. Celestia wishes to see you.”

“Zen who are we to refuse?” Curaçao shrugged. “Take us away.”

“Hold still, teleporting this many is difficult…”

“Transmit the coordinates to my cranial apex,” Shadow said. “...The base of my horn,” she corrected upon seeing his confusion.

With a shrug, the guard did so. An instant later, Shadow had teleported them to the doors of the main hall.

“I shall let the Princess know you are here. It should only be a minute.” The guard slipped in through the doors, leaving the six of them to look at… what was disappointingly a rather normal looking Canterlot castle hall.

“You’d think future ponies would change the aesthetic,” Grayscale commented.

“Soooooo Shadow!” Velvet shouted, nudging her sister. “That unicorn had wiiiiings!”

“We have been through this cadence before,” Shadow muttered. “I have no requirement of alicornification or of avian digits, my strength is my own, my abandoned spine notwithstanding.”

“Suuuuure. I bet it would be pretty easy to learn the spell, though…”

“Effortless. Also superfluous. Already know other methods.”

“You know you want t—”

“The princess will see you now,” the guard said, opening the door for them to enter.

Celestia… looked like most Celestias, though notably most of her regalia was missing save for the golden shoes. She greeted them with the warm smile most of her kind had, though the slight weariness in her eyes told of something more somber than meeting new friends.

An adult Sweetie Belle was sitting in front of her, looking at the six in confusion.

“Thank you for your time, Miss Belle,” Celestia said. “But I am afraid I must tend to more urgent matters.”

“They look kinda like…”

Celestia nodded. “I was unaware they would look like this, I am sorry, but I cannot tell you more.”

“But you will eventually?” Sweetie asked.

“I sure hope to,” Celestia admitted. “Now go, I’m sure your fans wouldn’t want a late concert.”

“You’re right.” Sweetie nuzzled the Princess’ leg before trotting away. She glanced at the Elements of Pandemonium with distrust, but not malice. She was more curious than anything.

The moment she was gone, Celestia spoke up. “I suppose I should not be surprised that the next to arrive are the Elements of Harmony.”

“Pandemonium,” Shadow corrected. “Elements of Pandemonium.”

“We’re a bit more forceful than the ponies you probably know,” Insipid added. “And, like, where are they? Can they go on the adventure with us?!”

Celestia smiled sadly. “Your counterparts have long since passed.”

“But… Sweetie?”

“Is from the past. I’m assuming time travel is a concept you are familiar with, given your reason for being here.”

Curaçao nodded. “Do you know where Aradia went?”

“I do, in fact. She told me where she was going.” Celestia paused. “Every time, to the same place. Precisely three hundred and fifty-nine years, two months, eleven days, and… seven hours from now. Each time she appeared, she knew she hadn’t returned, and she went anyway. Your presence suggests to me that you’ve come to the conclusion that throwing more Aradias at your thief isn’t going to solve the problem.”

“Somezing like zat,” Curaçao admitted. “Do you know what location?”

“Ponyville. She wasn’t more specific than that.”

“Merci, Princess,” Curaçao said. “We’ll try to get out of your universe as quickly as possible.”

“I do not wish to deny the possibility of new friends… Applejack?”

“Ah, non, non, we do not share zeir names.” She introduced herself and her sisters. “We are clones, not alternates.”

“Not much of a difference,” Havocwing muttered.

“Still…” Celesita leaned forward slightly. “I would very much like to have a talk with a Twilight sometime.”

“After this has concluded I shall submit a request,” Shadow said. “Virtually guaranteed to be accepted instantly.”

“Thank you.”

“Is there anything else before we go?” Grayscale asked.

Celestia nodded. “One of the Aradias told me that time runs differently in other worlds, and that our world runs on a ‘single fixed-loop allowance’ timestream. She seemed concerned that her presence could damage that, somehow. I never got more out of her about that.”

“Ah…” Shadow sighed. “That complicates things. If a crucial event is changed, the chances of dimensional collapse are unpleasantly nonzero.”

“...I hesitate to give you reign over such a delicate situation, but I am not the expert in time.” Celestia frowned. “Treat my world well, and remove this criminal as delicately as you can.”

“Zat is ze plan,” Curaçao said. “Do not worry, we will be back before you know it. Literally. If we are not… Zen zere might be a problem.”

“I understand the nuances of timing,” Celestia said with a sparkle in her eye. “Go.”

Shadow lifted the time machine into the air and cast a spell on it…

~~~

Symphony felt, for a moment, that something was off.

She looked around the street she was on. Sure, the sky was a myriad of warping colors and stars, there was a space whale trying hard not to run into skyscrapers, and a Fae tree was somehow devouring the nearby smog of a factory, but that was all normal for New Pandemonium City.

“Are you okay?” Belladonna, a pink breezie, asked.

“Just got a weird feeling is all.” Symphony was a white unicorn mare with blue and purple curls in her mane and musical notes on her flank. New Pandemonium City was her home, just like it was the home of so many other ponies. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

Which was why she felt a mild wave of disgust as she saw some Merodi Aid agents leading tired ponies to another universe.

“They’re destroying our home…” Symphony said.

“They’re pretty sure they’re helping,” Belladonna said, landing on Symphony’s ear. “Some of those mortals would probably have starved in the next few weeks, anyway.”

“They should be repairing the Dolor factories, not tearing the city apart.”

“...I think they are…” Belladonna said, scratching her chin. “It’s just a slow process when the paperwork tells you it’s illegal to sell food made with foreign intervention.”

“There’s probably a reason that’s… okay the laws are dumb, but come on, who really listens to them? Half the ponies don’t even wear pants anymore. It’s at the point where some of those precious visitors don’t wear anything either! They should charge in and twist the entire system so we can just get on with our lives.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple.”

“It’s been years, there should be at least some progress by now.”

Belladonna fell silent.

“Bella?”

“You might be a bit impatient.”

“After years?”

“There comes a time when impatience is validated. This is not that time.”

“...You really think so?”

Belladonna nodded. “Trust me, I’d know. I’ve been around the block a few times.”

Turning a corner, the two of them found themselves face-to-face with five burly ponies, two mares and three stallions, all wearing full black suits. Symphony had been around New Pandemonium long enough to identify what this was: the mafia. Specifically, the Rossa clan, but that wasn’t surprising since they were the only real power in the criminal underground left.

“Would you look at the flanks on her…” one of the stallions said, licking his lips.

Symphony lit her horn. “You don’t want to try anything.”

“They do,” one of the mares said, scowling at Symphony. “And they very much will unless you had that little pixie of yours over to us.”

Belladonna’s eyes flew open wide.

“She’s a Breezie and she’s not going anywhere with you,” Symphony hissed.

“Doesn’t matter. Boss wants her. Boss gets her.” A stallion’s grin widened. “And we get you.”

Symphony rushed into action, drawing two short blades she had hidden in her jacket. Two of the goons had the same idea, meeting her levitating weapons with their own. A unicorn shot her with a laser spell, which Symphony met. Twisting, she intended to use the momentum of her encounter to throw the other ponies off their hooves. Unfortunately, a pegasus was smart enough to jump past her and catch Belladonna in a jar.

Freezing, Symphony had to let herself be tackled to the ground by a massive stallion, pinning her with his immense weight.

“You will regret this, mortal,” Belladonna hissed.

The pegasus flashed a small dagger made out of a marbled four-color alloy. “I don’t think I will.”

Belladonna’s face betrayed surprise at a Fay-unbinder in the hooves of such a goon.

“I’m not sure we really needed all five of us to take care of these to delightful ladies,” the stallion pinning Symphony said. “Boss must have been paranoid.”

“Boss is always paranoid,” the mare said. “And wait to have your fun, he wants that fairy as soon as possible.”

“Why does he want me?” Belladonna asked.

“No idea,” the mare shrugged.

Symphony struggled, looking for a way out. Her swords were down, any spell she fired would just give the stallion an excuse to break her legs, and she didn’t have the physical strength to remove him. Belladonna was being held hostage by that terrible dagger, which only made it harder to do something. Think, Symphony, think, you’ve been in worse situations…

She suspected she could fast-talk her way out of captivity, but… that would do nothing for Belladonna. That was unacceptable.

Maybe a distraction was in order…? She could grab a Fae tree in her telekinesis and yank it down. Might crush one of them…

“Don’t even think about using that horn,” the stallion whispered in her ear. “I’ll break it.”

Since when did goons get smart?

“Hey! Get off her!”

Symphony blinked. That wasn’t Belladonna.

Cryo launched into the stallion pinning Symphony at high speed, freezing his front leg and knocking him to the ground. Cryo took up an upright fighting stance, encasing her two front hooves in swirling ice shards. “Who wants to go next?”

A mare and a stallion attempted to jump her, but two whip lashes hit them in their sides, sending a sensory overload of pain into their nervous systems, knocking them down.

“Hey! Those were mine!” Cryo called.

Mattie shrugged, coiling her whips up for another round. “You could learn to appreciate the assistance, like they could appreciate the spice of life.”

The two ponies were still writhing in pain.

“For mafia goons you think they’d be stro—”

The massive stallion Cryo had tossed to the side punched Mattie across the face, throwing her to the ground. “Ooooh, nice hoof you got there! Try my other side, it’s got a bruise on it!”

The stallion blinked. “What?”

Cryo encased the confused goon in ice, as well as the other two writhing in pain on the ground.

The last stallion attempted to run, but Sriracha threw a pepper in his face that burned his eyes. He dropped to the ground, tears flowing from the overdose of capsaicin.

“Good work, everyone,” Cryo said, smug.

“One’s getting away!” Curio shouted, pointing at the pegasus in the sky.

Symphony grunted, firing a couple lasers at the mare. One hit, but somehow she stayed aloft.

Cryo created a javelin of ice and skewered the pegasus through the heart. With a gasp, she dropped to the ground, hitting it with a speed just slightly too ridiculous for a natural freefall, creating a small crater in the street.

Belladonna’s jar broke in the process, freeing her. She fluttered out of the smoldering crater, leaving the dazed pegasus behind.

“How am I still alive…?” the pegasus wondered, touching the area the ice had skewered her. There was no wound.

“That’s how Cryo works,” Mattie said, grinning.

“And now we get to arrest you all for illegal activity!” Curio beeped. “While also running away ourselves so they don’t arrest us for vigilante work! Isn’t that fun?”

“You like the legal system way too much…” Sriracha commented.

“It’s a mess and I love it. Anyone who tries to figure it out gets a headache but just can’t put it down…”

Belladonna floated over to Symphony and landed in her mane. “That sure looked close.”

“It did… sorry I couldn’t help.” Symphony sighed.

“You weren’t useless.”

“Thanks.”

“You know, this is in reverse,” Mattie said. “Usually we save ponies from Fay, not the other way around.”

Belladonna nodded. “I extend my gratitude nonetheless.”

“It was our pleasure, mate.”

“And you… you’re a Sweetie, right?” Cryo said, pointing at Symphony.

“Just because I’m white and have curls doesn’t mean I’m one of your Sweeties,” Symphony deadpanned.

“Pretty sure you are,” Mattie added. “You’ve got the eye shape, the spunk, and music on your flanks.”

Symphony frowned. “Doesn’t matter, I’m not joining your little League, capische? Go back to taking our city apart.”

“Ah. One of the stubborn morons.”

“Mattie!” Curio chided.

“What? She is. The Fae is literally eating this place alive and they stay here out of idiotic stubborness.”

“Sounds like somepony I know,” Curio snarked.

“The difference is that I’m fabulous.”

Cryo facehooved, turning back to Symphony. “Look, you don’t have to like us, but we’re here to help.”

“Whatever you say,” Symphony deadpanned.

“And to do that helping, I’m gonna have to ask you a few questions.” Cryo’s eyes sparkled. “Why were those goons attacking you?”

“I dunno. They wanted Belladonna for something.”

Cryo turned to Belladonna. “Any idea?”

“Perhaps they thought I was a small Fay and would be easily captured?” Belladonna shrugged.

“Hmm…” Cryo scratched her chin.

“We can ask Harmonia about it later,” Curio asked. “She is going to talk to them.”

“Right, right… well, if you need any dashing heroes to come to your rescue, don’t hesitate to call us!”

“It won’t be a hesitation,” Symphony deadpanned. “Come on, Belladonna, let’s go.”

The Sweeties let her go, devolving into random quips about what to do with the mafia goons in the mess of New Pandemonium’s legal system. Symphony turned a corner…

...and was face-to-face with the five mafia goons again, though none of them were injured.

“What…?” Symphony glanced behind her, finding that the street she’d walked off of was not the one with the Sweeties.

“Would you look at the flanks on her…”

Symphony didn’t wait to draw her swords this time.

~~~

The time gyroscope was similar in function to a dimensional device. It punched a hole in reality from one time to another, creating a direct gateway. However, it didn’t exactly create a portal one could walk back and forth through, since designing time machines like this was just asking for one side to create a paradox on the other, and side-effects of paradoxes were almost always unpleasant regardless of the universe.

To remedy this, the time gyroscope never allowed there to be a transition period where the user was half in one time and half in the other, instead relying on pseudo-teleportation to jump the user to the other time in a perceived instant. So, while the time machine spell itself involved a lot of flashing lights and time vortexes, anyone traveling through them would see absolutely none of it.

The Elements of Pandemonium were in the future, and then they were in the past with little more than a rush of air. To them, it was just as though they had teleported to Ponyville, albeit a Ponyville without Friendship Castle. It was a nice day with a few clouds scattered around and the sun high in the sky.

Shadow lit her horn the moment they arrived. “Nothing concerning… timestream steady, no fractures or lesions. Dimensional travel…” She created a portal to Earth Ottoman with ease.

“Wait… wait wait…” Havocwing pointed through the portal at the modern city at the other side. “Aren't we in the past!?”

“We are in this world’s past,” Shadow explained, closing the portal. “This Equis and Earth Ottoman are not causally related. If we translate to Earth Ottoman from any frame of reference in this Equis, we will appear in Earth Ottoman’s present. If we translate from Earth Ottoman to this Equis, we appear in its present. Past states of this Equis are accessible only through temporal displacement, which is likely why the target is occupying the ‘past’. To hide.”

“...Sure.”

“Too bad we’ve got his number,” Velvet cackled. “C’mon Shadow, track him!”

Shadow nodded, following currents of time, looking for dimensional signatures that didn’t quite match the world they were in. “Found one, Golden Oaks Library.”

“Should we be concerned about meeting a Twilight?” Curaçao asked.

“Unlikely, the world seeks to loop its own time,” Shadow admitted. “We cannot cause a paradox without intending to, and even then it may be difficult.”

“What would ‘appen if we wanted to?”

Shadow frowned. “Dimensional collapse. Rigid worlds such as this are often ludicrously fragile once the delicate supports are shaken.” Without waiting any further, she teleported them to Golden Oaks and knocked on the door.

A very tired Twilight with a mess of a mane and a desperate grimace opened the door. “What? I’m busy!”

“With what?” Shadow asked.

“Saving Sweetie! I don’t have time for this!”

Shadow raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps we can help. We a—”

“Are you an expert in Starswirl’s temporal mechanics? I didn’t think so! I… I have to get back to work, if you want to check out a book talk to Spike. I…” She stormed back into the library, leaving the door open.

Shadow poked her head in. Strewn all across the library floor were schematics and designs of a magical machine—riddled with clocks, wires, and magic crystals. To the side of every drawing were diagrams relating to space-time.

Slowly, Shadow backed out of the library and closed the door. “I believe this is a false alarm. The criminal is not present, this is simply the site of a time machine’s inception.”

“She’s trying to save Sweetie.” Grayscale smirked. “She succeeds. We saw her in the future.”

“Why would taking her to the future save her?” Insipid asked.

“Advances in medicine, if I ‘ad to guess,” Curaçao said.

“Ooooooooh.”

“He’s hiding behind the temporal distortions Twilight’s making,” Velvet said. “Clever.”

“I can still pinpoint him…” Shadow said, focusing more intently on her magic. “It shouldn’t be too hard…”

“You won’t have to,” a gruff voice said, drawing all six of their gazes. It was a humanoid creature in space-age armor, green and smooth. Dark slits ran through the helmet, allowing him to see while hiding his face from the ponies. “I’m right here.”

The six of them prepared for a fight… but the man showed no aggressive motion. All he had in his hand was a button that his thumb was poised over.

“Don’t make any sudden moves and listen carefully…”

~~~

Mattie rarely had deja vu in the normal way. On any given day, if she got the nagging in the back of her mind that this had happened before, it usually meant it had in some fashion or other, or that there was a connection to something previously established she had missed. It always set her on edge and gave her a mixture of paranoia and anticipation.

Of course, this meant the few times she did have normal deja vu she ended up looking like a stooge. So she’d learned to just let things play out as normal unless there was an opportunity for some good old fashioned fun.

As it turned out, letting things play out as normal involved whipping two hapless, spineless ponies, so there wasn't much of a struggle in going through with it.

“Hey! Those were mine!” Cryo called.

Mattie shrugged, coiling up her whips for another round. “You could learn to appreciate the assistance, like they could appreciate the spice of life.” She glanced at the writhing ponies, frowning. “...That’s not even that funny, I’m losing my touch.”

The massive stallion Cryo had tossed to the side punched Mattie across the face, throwing her to the ground. “Ooooh!” Mattie fluttered her eyelashes. “Nice hoof you got there! Try my other side, it’s got a bruise on it!”

“What?”

While Cryo encased him and two of the others in ice, Mattie noticed the Sweetie they were saving was acting strangely. Eyes wide, shocked… even slightly alarmed. She levitated one of her swords off the ground and threw it, right into the pegasus goon’s back before she could even take off. The jar holding the Fay fell to the ground, shattering.

That wasn’t as cool as it could have been.

“Good work, everyone,” Cryo said, smug.

Mattie walked up to the Sweetie, smirking. “Mind telling me who you are, mate?”

“Symphony,” she muttered. “Thanks for the help. We’ll be on our way now.” She turned to walk away, but Mattie was already standing there. “Wha…?”

“There’s something about you. Y’know, when you get that feeling of deja vu—” she noted with delight Symphony’s shock at the term. “—and then someone appears to know what’s about to happen?”

Symphony blinked rapidly, trying to think of what to say.

“Whatever it is, just admit it, I don’t want to have to… I don’t know, throw one of Sriracha’s peppers in your mouth.”

“Mattie!” Curio hissed.

“What? It’s harmless! She might even enjoy it!”

Symphony frowned. “Fine… time is repeating. After we wrapped this up, Belladonna and I turned the corner and ran into the thugs again.”

“It is as she says,” Belladonna added. “We repeated.”

“Both of you?” Mattie furrowed her brow. “Curio, do a test for me.”

“Already on it,” Curio said, glancing at the diagrams flying across her visor. “Yep. This world allows time travel. Not only that, but it’s a variable setup. Not surprising, for the Fae.”

“What’s that mean?” Symphony asked.

“It means time can tie us into pretzel knots,” Mattie translated. “Here, let’s try to all walk around the corner, see what happens. You in?”

Symphony frowned. “...Sure.”

“All right!” Cryo called. “Another Sweetie!”

Symphony facehooved. “I already told you, I’m not one of your Sweeties…”

“Then you already know my response to that,” Mattie said, raising her eyebrows repeatedly.

With a roll of her eyes, Symphony trotted toward the turn in the street.

Mattie coiled up her whips, preparing to take the goons out in a quick succession of matrix-like maneuvers. When they turned…

...Cryo hit her head on a street sign. “OW!”

“What...?” Symphony looked around, seeing no mooks. “How…?”

“We looped,” Cruio said, analyzing her readout. “Or… well, we jumped through time. I’m not sure which direction, but we shifted. The street behind us isn’t the same.”

“The Fae does that all the time,” Symphony countered.

“Uh… yeah, but my readings say there was a time shift.”

“There’s no way this street sign could even exist!” Cryo smacked the pole with her hoof. “Look at the names!”

Mattie glanced up the pole at the street names. This. That. The Other. The Otherwise. None of them were in line with the actual street corner itself.

“It’s almost like it’s a joke…” Sriracha mused.

Curio placed her hoof at the base of the signs. “This… doesn’t quite match the make of signs in New Pandemonium. It’s the wrong material. Too much ambient chakra-magic infused into it.”

“It is a Fay creation,” Belladonna offered. “Though not of my kind.”

“Another racket for us to deal with,” Cryo muttered. “All these Fay are making it difficult to focus on helping ponies.”

Symphony smirked. “Them maybe they’re good for us after all.”

“I stopped an elf from soul-enslaving ponies not three hours ago. Pretty sure that’s not good.”

“We can deal with them ourselves…”

“Symphony, you are deluding yourself,” Belladonna said. “My kind fly over the walls of your paperwork maze while you stay confined to the paths.”

“I… ugh, I already had this debate once today.” Symphony tossed her mane back. “Let’s just find whatever’s messing with time and deal with it.”

“Working…” Curio said, furrowing her brow. “Oh, this is going to be ugly. Everywhere around us is time distorted. I’ll be trying to trace it to the source. Be sure to stay together, everypony, we’re gonna have a—”

“AUGH!” Cryo had smashed into the street sigh again, despite walking away from it. “What the—why!?”

Getting a sinking feeling, Mattie decided to perform a head count. “...We just lost Curio.”

Sriracha bit her lip. “Oh no. We all remember Curio, right?”

“Yes, it’s not that sort of time distortion,” Mattie dismissed. “...I think.”

“She said she was trying to find the source,” Belladonna said. “Perhaps whatever malevolent force caused this did not wish her to do so. Can anyone else perform her scans?”

Nobody had Curio’s visor, and none of them had the sort of magic expertise required to analyze such things.

“Then our enemy has made a clever move, debilitating us,” Belladonna declared.

“Why not just take us all out?” Sriracha asked.

“The enemy always wants something,” Mattie said, frowning.

“OW!” Cryo looked at a second street sign that hadn’t been there before. She froze it solid and shattered it.

“...Even if part of that motive is, clearly, just to torment Cryo for existing.”

Cryo seethed. “When I get my hooves on this guy…”

Symphony frowned. “Can we break out of this?”

“Easy,” Mattie took out her dimensional device…

...and then she was in a dark basement glowing with soft Fae lights. Alone.

“Balls. Balls to the wall, I should have seen that coming.” Cryo had a dimensional device as well, but what were the chances she was going to use it? “Time to call in the cavalry.”

She opened a portal back to Celestia City.

Instead, the gate tore a hole into a version of Ponyville she couldn’t identify.

“What…?”

“Get her!” the five mafia goons shouted, coming at her from behind.

“Oh, this is going to be delightful!” Mattie cackled, unfurling her whips on the two lead ponies. “Who wants some punishment? It’s only fair if we delve it out evenly…”

“You,” a red pixie said from atop Mattie’s horn, finger sparkling with electricity.

Mattie smirked. “...Do your worst. If you would be so kind.”

The pixie touched her finger to Mattie’s horn sending a euphoric electric shock into her system. The unicorn let out a soft laugh as she passed out, face slamming into the wall.

~~~

“...Are you one of those Star Wars weirdos?” Insipid asked.

“I said listen carefully, not question me,” the armored man responded.

“But are you?”

The armored man ignored her. “I can destroy this universe with a push of a button.”

“Explain your methodology,” Shadow ordered.

“The library is rigged with explosives. Even if Twilight somehow survives, the time machine she is building won’t be completed before Sweetie Belle succumbs to her illness. There will be no Sweetie Belle in the future. Time will break. This universe cannot handle time breaking.”

Shadow levitated the time machine out. “We can always go and repair that particular fault.”

“The collapse will be instant.”

“Or we can reconstruct the mechanism under our own power.”

“And if Twilight is killed? It’s too risky for you. The Aradias all knew it. They surrendered.”

“And you killed every last one of them,” Velvet breathed. “Pretty brutal.”

The man didn’t seem bothered, though without seeing his face such determinations weren’t reliable. He pointed at them with his free hand. “Here is how this is going to go. You six are going to stand still like good targets. No resistance.”

“...Yeeeeeeah, I don’t think we’re going to be doing that,” Velvet said.

“All the Aradias saw there was no way out.”

“We’re kind of idiots,” Insipid said. “Like, you might get Shadow, Curie, or Gray to stand down, but the rest of us?” She giggled at the idea. “Wow, can you imagine Havoc standing and taking a shot?”

“Nope,” Havocwing said, launching herself at the man as a living fireball. He punched her in the face, but this was not enough to stop the enraged pegasus. She pinned him to the ground, only for him to smash his foot into her stomach. She whirled into the air and came back for a second pass, only for him to shove the button in her face.

“I’ll do it.”

Havocwing raised an eyebrow. She pressed the button herself.

Nothing happened.

“‘AVOC!” Curaçao shouted.

“What?” Havocwing grinned. “You had the ‘he’s bluffing’ look!”

“Zat could ‘ave still been a real button!”

“Psh, what idiot would use a real doomsday button when bluffing?”

“One who wanted to be more believable!?” Curaçao facheooved. “Je suis entouré d'oies téméraires…”

“Oh.” Havocwing looked at the button. “Well hey, it was a fake, so we’re still good!” She smirked at the armored man. “We gotcha.”

He pulled out his blaster and pulled the trigger. A quick spell from Shadow made the weapon explode, charring his armor.

“Your options are limited,” Shadow declared. “We outpower you and your threats are meaningless. Concede and lessen your suffering.”

He lowered his arms to his sides in submission.

“Acceptable. Now… the time machine you stole?”

He took out a gyroscopic time machine, holding it out to her.

With a jolt, a dimensional portal appeared behind him.

Shadow’s eyes flew wide. We’re in the past, no natural portal should appear here.

There was a red pixie on the other side, red lightning coursing between the digits of her hand.

“GET DOWN!” Shadow shouted, raising a shield.

The moment she cast the barrier, the pixie smiled. That was what she wanted. Why?

With horror, she realized her instinctual spell had only protected her sisters—not the armored man. The pixie changed her crackling lightning into a white spark, teleporting the man through the portal. Shadow attempted to force herself through, but the pixie sealed the portal.

“I think we’ve just been duped,” Grayscale said.

“Thank you for that endearing observation,” Shadow spat, lighting her horn. “Remain motionless, I am tracking them…”

“I thought you said portals couldn’t appear in the past!” Velvet said.

“They can’t. Unless you make them purposefully. This was an intentional machination.” Shadow scowled. “And I don’t take kindly to being toyed with by fairies.”

~~~

The tallest tower in New Pandemonium City still standing was underground. It rose so high into the sky that it embedded itself into a fold of Fae land upon which hung several sparks of mystic energy.

This suited the boss of the tower, a massive hunk of a stallion named Vendetta, just fine. Currently, he was sitting behind his ornate desk carved out of a wood so warped in its grain that it had to be a Fae tree. Aside from the desk, however, the room was uncharacteristically devoid of the usual banners and paintings that he had collected over the years. Instead, the walls sported black marks, a few blood splatters, and even part of a broken tooth.

Needless to say, he was not expecting to receive a call telling him that Harmonia was here to see him.

Learn from the Fay, he thought to himself. Tell the truth, but never all of it. Hide behind words.

He made no motion to hide the signs of damage, allowing Harmonia to be brought up with her two companions—the pixie Peaceflower and the Merodi Aid Officer Solicitude.

“I apologize for the mess,” Vendetta said before they had finished coming in. “There was a recent attempt on my life. I have not gotten around to cleanup, disappointingly.”

“Understandable,” Harmonia said, no indication of suspicion.

“Now, what brings you and your companions to my office?”

“Thou hast broken our agreement.” Harmonia stated it as a fact—not a threat, and not a tentative accusation either. Unlike ponykind, she refused to give herself to the base instincts. This was both refreshing and aggravating for Vendetta.

“You’ll have to be more specific.”

Peaceflower coughed. “Vendetta, we said no more terrorizing the populace for ‘protection money’. We’re literally paying you to do that, you don’t need it!”

“Are my boys getting their hooves dirty again?”

“‘Tis more than that,” Harmonia continued. “I would believe that thy ‘boys’ hath gotten themselves into trouble without thy knowledge, but there are greater concerns. Thou art patrolling the streets more than the police.”

“The NPPD is useless, even more now that their precious system is crumbling,” Vendetta said. “I’m just doing what you asked: protect the city. We might even be doing a better job than the Merodi at keeping the fairies out.”

Peaceflower visibly twitched. Vendetta suspected this was intentional; it was a rare day when a Fay couldn’t hold their expression steady. She wanted him to know she was upset.

Solicitude frowned. “Oh… but, Mr. Vendetta, the ponies are important too.”

“There hath been numerous reports of mob lynchings,” Harmonia continued. “Too many to simply be a case of ‘mistaken for Fay.’ Almost as though thou hast been using their nature as an excuse to perform unsavory acts.”

“I assure you, I never instructed my boys to do anything of the sort,” Vendetta asserted. “I will be sure to send out word that such behavior will be dealt with harshly. If you catch any of them doing these things, you may do with them as you see fit.”

“We have no jurisdiction, that’ll be… complicated,” Peaceflower added.

“You came to me because you could not go to the shambles of pony folly this city calls a ‘government.’ The flimsy council already hates your very being, dividing out your own punishments should not be a difficulty.”

“I can put them into the relocation program,” Solicitude said. “I will send a request to Jingle to increase Aid Agent powers to include arrest and relocation of violently criminal individuals.”

“Careful, my little pony,” Harmonia cautioned. “We do not wish the city to seek direct, armed conflict, shouldst thou exercise too much power.”

“It will be a balance,” Solicitude assured her. “And my agents will know their boundaries and the intent behind my messages.” She glanced at Vendetta.

Even though her features were soft and her gaze calm, Vendetta felt like he was being judged by a deity he didn’t even believe in. He had to remind himself that this particular Fluttershy had a subtle mental ability and any impulses he might feel could be lies inserted by her nature… or perhaps what he was feeling was just a trait common to most Fluttershys.

“I am not concerned with armed conflict,” Vendetta said. “It may, in fact, be the simplest way to solve all of the problems with New Pandemonium. But I lack the power and you will not give it, so here we are.” He tapped his hooves. “I suppose you haven't reconsidered?”

“The losses from direct conflict wouldst be too great,” Harmonia said with a shake of her head. “Current methods may be slow, but they art not ineffective.”

“We will protect these ponies,” Solicitude emphasized. “And you are part of these ponies.”

Vendetta grinned. “It’s good, isn’t it?”

Peaceflower snorted. “Right. You. Good.”

“Do you have something to say to me?”

Peaceflower frowned. “Many things that we do not have the time for. There are other matters we must attend to.”

“I expect to see an improvement in thy ponies’ behavior,” Harmonia added. “The current state of affairs is unacceptable.”

“I will see what I can do.”

With a bow, Harmonia left, taking her entourage with her.

Vendetta scowled. I don’t even need you anymore. That was just a formality. Soon, Harmonia, you’ll realize that fairies aren’t the only threat to your precious ponies.

He sat back in his chair… and waited for what he had previously been anticipating.

With a flash of crackling lightning, a red pixie dropped an armored man into his office.

“Mando,” Vendetta said, forcing a smile. “Your mission has had quite a few hiccups, hasn’t it?”

“Mando” stood up to his full height and set the time gyroscope on the table—careful to keep his hand on it at all times so Vendetta couldn’t just take it. “I have the device. Pay what we agreed to.”

Vendetta frowned. “Your foolishness made us develop an extraction for you.”

“Then reduce what you paid your pixie to open that gate. Ten percent.”

“A reasonable mercenary…” Vendetta smirked. “I would agree to that, if Nightshade hadn’t come up with a much better idea.”

“Thank you, sir,” the pixie said.

Vendetta pulled an identical time machine out from under his desk and set it on top. “Do you see this, Mando?”

“You no longer require my services,” he said, retracting his own time machine. “I will find another buyer.”

“No… you won’t.” Vendetta tapped his pre-programmed time machine, sending “Mando” back precisely three hours and twenty-six seconds. He smiled as he relived the moment where the bounty hunter appeared in Vendetta’s office, surrounded by twenty of the best ponies Vendetta had to offer. It had been a quick fight, though a few bolts had passed dangerously close to Vendetta’s face. Perhaps he should not have been in the room when it happened…

But then he would have missed the carnage.

Looking down at his time machine, he grinned. He had used a time loop to pay nothing for this precious device, and now it was his. It was time to show those fairies that he was a threat equal to them. They may have ignored the temporal duplicates so far, but there were other ways to make a stand.

Now that the loop was complete, it was time.

“Nightshade, to the street sign, if you will.”

Nightshade lifted her finger, teleporting the two of them to a particular street corner in New Pandemonium City marked by a road sign with the words This, That, The Other and The Otherwise on it, pointed in seemingly random directions.

Vendetta ran his hoof along the pole, coming to the ground where it ruptured the rock, much like the Fae trees had when New Pandemonium City first arrived in Fae Epoque. Meaning it had been there before the City. But in order to place it specifically on this street corner, someone would have needed to know where the City would arrive.

Or, perhaps more accurately, when.

Vendetta held the time machine in his hoof, jumping back in time several months, before the arrival of New Pandemonium City. Time in the Fae was unusual, to say the least—winding the clock back in the City did not wind it back in all the rest of the Fae realms, nor in other universes. It was like taking a single clock in a watchmaker’s workshop and turning a hand back.

The sign was still there, sitting on a sparkling pink hill. Vendetta jumped back again. And again. Until the sign was absent.

He drew a Fay-unbinding weapon, gripping the shortsword in his jaw. Any minute now…

An elf appeared in a warp of shifting time, the sign in his hands. He planted it in the soil with a bemused grin on his face. “Ah, how many times she shall hit her had on this pedestrian wonder. I—” He jumped forward, dodging the swing of Vendetta’s blade. “Who in the courts might you be?”

He’s not even angry I’m trying to take him out. “Your judgment.”

“A mortal? My judgment?” He laughed like a stuck-up rich pony, accentuating the sound just to grate on Vendetta’s ears. “Do you even know who I am?”

“I know you’re the fairy that’s been tearing up my city through time. It’s become… personal, I suppose you could say.”

“No mortal should have been able to get this far…” he glanced to Nightshade. “One of the new kinds of pets, I see, I see! Fascinating.”

A future version of Vendetta appeared behind the elf, slicing at him. The elf slowed time down to a crawl, sidestepping the future Vendetta and kicking him in the crotch. “Such a shame, you have all the power of time and none of the finesse.”

Vendetta watched more and more of his future selves appear, forming a small army. “We don’t need finesse,” he said. “There’s something to be said about the brute-force approach.”

“Bothersome, you really will ruin all my delightful games with this.” The elf sighed, taking out a silver pocket watch. “I suppose I have time to manage you.”

The Vendettas charged as one. The elf jumped to another time, duplicating the road sign and slamming it into the ground elsewhere. “That’ll be doubly amusing.”

“There are more important things than your amusement!” Six Vendettas called, blades swinging wide.

“I disagree.” He cast a time spell that accelerated his movement, allowing him to duck through all the blades like a professional gymnast. “Your faces hide the most precious of all gifts.”

The Vendettas charged.

The elf jumped to the future, landing on his hands. Unsurprisingly, the Vendettas started pouring into the streets of future New Pandemonium City in pursuit.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have a problem here,” the elf said, smirking. “After all, the mafia doesn’t take kindly to ponies on their turf.”

“I am the mafia!” Vendetta declared.

The elf frowned. “Oh, that’s right, they do have a leader… What was it? Vengeful? Vermillion?”

“I am not part of your game!”

The elf appeared in the window of a nearby building. “On the contrary, everything is my game. You’re just an unexpected part. The twist!”

Vendetta growled. “I have the cards. This is my city.”

“This city was never yours,” the elf mocked. “This city was Silvertongue’s… and then it was ours. You are a fly on the wall who thinks he can play godling with the winds of time. But can you eliminate the timestram of an individual in its entirety with the snap of your fingers?”

Vendetta glared. “Not possible.”

“Of course not! You don’t have fingers! But I do.” He sneered. With a snap, every last one of Vendetta’s swords ceased to be. “It was never forged, it will never be. You, on the other hand…” He placed a finger on all the Vendettas’ muzzles. “You have the ability to give my maze another dimension. Anoth—”

“What’s going on here!?” Symphony demanded, Belladonna sitting in her mane. “Get away from him!”

Right on time, Vendetta thoughts. “You don’t have the loyal followers I have, elf. See her? You d—”

“I have no idea who you are!” Symphony blurted. “Why are there so many of you? And… you!” Symphony pointed an accusatory hoof at the elf. “I—”

“You’re interrupting my fun,” the elf hissed. He snapped his fingers. “Go elsewhere for a while.”

Nightshade popped out of nowhere, intercepting the temporal spell. “Not this time, Jonale.”

Jonale’s elven eyes widened. “What are you doing? You don’t know what that spell will do!”

“I know exactly what it’ll break.”

Nightshade, what are you doing? Vendetta thought.

Nightshade snapped her fingers. A sound like a massive clock tower bell shook Vendetta to his core. Glass shattered, and the world crumbled away to darkness.

Vendetta felt his heartbeat slow, and somewhere deep inside he knew everything had just broken.

~~~

Cryo didn’t like anything about what was happening.

Curio and Mattie were missing.

Time kept looping in on itself.

And she kept running into that stupid street sign. She was developing a particularly nasty headache at this point, and if she ran into it one more time she was going to fly off the hand—

Clank!

Cryo created an icy blade and cut the sign into multiple pieces, jumping on the remaining trash with reckless abandon.

“That seems… sane,” Symphony observed.

“She’s not,” Sriracha said. “Nor do we claim she is.”

Cryo froze a jagged piece of the sign to a stick, creating a hatchet. “I’m gonna chop the sign with the sign next time I see it.”

“Yes. Right.” Symphony scrunched her muzzle. “Bella, can you help us get out of this?”

Belladonna shrugged. “I do not know the layout of this maze of time.”

“It’s hard enough just to stay together,” Sriracha added, looking at the area around them with concern. “They can just pick us off one by one.”

“Not if we’re inside a giant frozen cube they can’t!” Cryo declared, erecting a hollow cube of ice around them. “There. We’re safe.”

“And not doing anything,” Symphony deadpanned.

“We can think up a plan,” Cryo said. “We’ve got to be able to do… something…” A strange look came over her face. Despite not being able to feel cold, she shivered.

“...Cryo…” Sriracha said.

“I’m… fine,” Cryo said. “So. We might not be able to do anything, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try. Ideas?”

“Leave the universe,” Sriracha offered.

Cryo took out her dimensional device and glared at it. “That’s what made Mattie disappear. Whatever it is can just… intercept that.”

Sriracha frowned. “Well, I’ve got spicy peppers, you’ve got ice, Symphony and Bella…” Sriracha glanced at their companions.

“Swords and music,” Symphony said. “Sorry, not much help when we can’t even see the enemy.”

They all turned to Belladonna expectantly.

“My assistance would not be assistance, but detriment,” Belladonna sighed.

“Nothing? Crap.” Cryo rubbed the back of her head.

Sriracha raised a hoof. “We could just sit here until help arrives.”

Symphony and Cryo looked at her like she was insane.

“What? It’s a legitimate course of action!”

“Not very… active,” Symphony pointed out. “Don’t you Sweeties have inter-dimensional phone things?”

Cryo pulled out her phone and tapped it. “Dimensional service is out. Which makes sense, time really screws with these things. But… maybe Pandemonium local…” She pressed a few buttons and the phone rang.

“...Yes?” Solicitude answered.

“We’ve got a minor problem involving time loops,” Cryo reported. “We’re kinda stuck in an ice cube, huddling around each other.”

“Oh! I’ll send someone to help you right away. I think we have an Aradia on si—”

A crack tore through reality, shattering the ice cube in half. Instinctually, Cryo grabbed for Sriracha and Symphony, though her hooves only enclosed around the latter. Sriracha had vanished.

The half of the ice cube Cryo could still see was suspended against solid blackness… it was the only thing she could see. Gravity flipped to the side, depositing Cryo and Symphony onto its slick surface among empty, inky blackness.

Symphony started looking around in a panic. “Belladonna!?”

“I don’t think they made it with us…” Cryo said. “...Or maybe we’re the ones that’re lost. This is way… way too black.”

“Great! Just… great! I’m stuck here in the darkness with some kid and my friend is gone and… and I’m just powerless!”

“...Kid!?”

“You’re a filly!”

“I…” Cryo processed this. “Huh. That’s… technically correct. Wow, I haven’t been treated like a kid in months. Sure don’t feel like one anymore.”

Symphony didn’t know what to say to that. She simply sat down on the ice and stared into the dark nothing. “...What have you done?”

“Me? Tried to stay alive. Hoping I succeeded.”

“There’s no time traps in New Pandemonium City. I’ve lived here all my life. There never has been.”

“The city was relocated recently, there’s gonna be a lot of weird stuff.”

“That was before I was born, how could you remember it!?”

Cryo blinked. “Uh… because it happened just a few months ago?”

Symphony stared at her. “...Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m not.” Cryo cocked her head. “Are you from the future or something?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“This is Fae Epoque. The world doesn’t make sense. It’s like taking your math homework and sticking it in a blender. Not gonna be your best work.”

“Then why would we run into each other? I haven’t experienced any time nonsense before I met you.”

Cryo shrugged. “Maybe I’m in the future. It’s not like we have to notice when we shift through time. Ju—” The sign fell out of the darkness, smacking Cryo in the head. Before she could exact revenge upon it, it slid off the edge of the ice back into the nothing. “...If I wasn’t me I’d probably have a concussion by now.”

“Why does that sign hate you so much?”

“Probably some kind of running gag at my expense. I’m the ‘funny, overemotional’ one, after all.” She frowned. “I’d been hoping that would change.”

“...Can I ask why?”

“When you watch somepony die…” she didn’t finish the sentence. “I came out here to help ponies, to try something new. To give directly rather than as some kind of crazed hero who flung ice everywhere. And it was working, for a while. But… well, here I am again, in a crazy adventure, getting smacked in the head with a stupid sign because it’s funny.” She scowled, turning her glare to the darkness above. “Can’t it just be simple?”

Symphony snorted. “Life’s not simple.”

“Not what I meant but… agh.” Cryo sat down, her lower lip trembling. “...I am still a kid…”

Symphony looked at Cryo in a way she hadn’t until now—with pity. “You’ve been made to grow up too fast, haven’t you?”

Cryo nodded slowly.

“Did you want to?”

“At the time.”

“Well…” Symphony smiled. “When I was a filly, younger than you, I…” she paused. “I…”

Cryo looked up at her in confusion.

“I… I don’t know what I was going to say.” A haunted expression crossed Symphony’s features. “I… was I ever a filly?”

“Uh, okay, now would not be a good time to have an existential breakdown…”

“What’s the last thing I remember… I…” Symphony racked her brain. “Belladonna. Bella! That’s right, she’s my best friend. Since… Since…” Symphony grimaced. “Since I don’t know.”

White cracks started forming in the darkness. Cryo decided this was probably a bad sign. “Symphony, look at me, okay? It doesn't matter if you can’t remember, I’ll help you get those memories back!”

“I’ve been in New Pandemonium City all my life. What if my life has only been a few days? A few hours? Less!?”

“Well, then you would have realized it before now.”

“No no no, I just wasn’t thinking, something…” The cracks had reached the ice now, tearing the ground up beneath their hooves. “What’s different now?”

“I mean, you don’t have Bella with you, but let’s not focus on that…”

“Bella.” Symphony’s eyes widened. “BELLADONNA WHAT IS GOING O—”

The ice cube was gone. Fae Epoque was gone. Cryo was standing in Ponyville—her Ponyville—except there were no ponies around.

“Uh… hello?” she called, getting no response. The wind blew through her mane. It felt wrong—too regular to be natural. Like someone was blowing a giant fan at her from far away. “Hello!?”

~~~

Usually, when you went through a dimensional portal, you ended up in the image on the other side.

This did not happen when Shadow and the other Elements of Pandemonium followed the red pixie. They jumped… and then they were standing back in the futuristic Canterlot, exactly where and when they had been upon their arrival to the universe.

“...The buck!?” Havocwing shouted.

“Something is very wrong,” Velvet said, shivering. “Very wrong.”

“Sweetie’s mane color ‘as changed,” Curaçao observed, pointing to the poster. Sweetie was still there, holding a microphone, and the phrase Bring the Clouds Back! still dominated the image. The only difference was Sweetie’s mane: it was blue and pink.

“Then we’ll speak to her,” Shadow asserted, lighting her horn. “If we have been rewound to our arrival, she will be present.” She executed the teleport an instant later, appearing just outside the main hall’s doors. Rather than waiting for a guard to meet them, she gestured for Grayscale to kick the doors open.

The surge of gravitational energy was more than enough to snap the lock on the door. However, there were no guards present at the moment, nor was Celestia in the throne room. “Sweetie” sat alone in front of the throne, a breezie floating at her side.

“Hm?” She turned around, looking at the six of them. “You’re not Celestia.”

“And you’re not Sweetie Belle,” Shadow countered.

“...Obviously. I’m Symphony. You know, the singer?”

“Yeah, how could you not know?” the breezie huffed.

“We do, ze issue is zat we ‘ave a time problem,” Curaçao said.

“Time?” Symphony frowned. “Why is time a problem?”

“Are you not from ze past?”

Symphony giggled. “How could anypony be from the past?”

“I’m confused,” Havocwing said, raising a wing. “Wasn’t Sweetie from the past?”

“Maybe she wasn’t replaced,” Grayscale suggested.

“Or maybe time’s broken!” Insipid chimed in.

“Okay, now I’m confused,” Symphony said, cocking her head. “What are you all even talking about?”

Curaçao stared at Symphony, realization slowly crossing her face. “Only you.”

“...What?”

“Only you,” Curaçao repeated. “I didn’t see it before, because it is everywhere! But you… you are not a lie.”

“...Thanks?”

Curaçao gestured at the Canterlot hall around them. “But zis… Zis is all a lie. Every column, every window, every structure… we ‘ave not seen anozer living pony, ‘ave we?”

Shadow lit her horn, scanning for life. Shocked, she pulled back. “I… I’ve found nothing. Except…” She pointed at Belladonna. “Except her.”

“Me?” Belladonna cocked her head. “Am I a ‘lie’ too?”

“No, but it is not just lies I sense…” Curaçao walked up to Belladonna and narrowed her eyes. “I am ze master of deception. Deception does not ‘ave to be a lie, madame.”

“Hey, leave Bella out of this!” Symphony interrupted.

“Your little amie is suspicious beyond belief,” Curaçao said, examining everything she could about the breezie. “‘Er very form is a lie.”

Belladonna snorted. “All Fay are form-fluid.”

“And yet some are true, and some are lies.” Curaçao raised an eyebrow. “Tell me, Bella, what is your ‘istory in zis world?”

“She’s been with me my whole life!” Symphony blurted.

“You believe zat,” Curaçao asserted. “But I want ‘er to answer. Court Fay cannot tell lies, almost religiously devoted to ze concept. Zey can only deceive. She ‘as to respond wiz information, one way or anozer.” Curaçao smirked. “It is part of zeir ‘game’ zey love so much.”

“Having an innate ability to detect deception tends to ruin the dance,” Belladonna said.

“Claiming I ‘ave an unfair advantage? Oui, how unnatural it is to be on an even field. Against ze order of Fay to mortals.”

“...Perhaps it could be seen as a suitable challenge.”

“Or it would, if you did not ‘ave anozer task you needed to complete. A goal more important to you zan some silly verbal sparring match.”

Belladonna’s expression became completely neutral. There would be no emotion whatsoever from the breezie. Good, Curaçao thought. She understands the position she’s in.

“Why are you interrogating her?” Symphony asked. “We should be interrogating you! You… bust into the royal throne room!”

Havocwing snorted. “Kid, we have all the cards. You’re some random unicorn and a fairy. You can’t do anything to us, we can do everything to you. So keep quiet.”

“Havoc, that was mean,” Insipid chided.

“What? She was being annoying!”

“I’m so, so sorry,” Insipid told Symphony. “Havoc can be a total inconsiderate loser.”

Symphony blinked in confusion. “Are you trying to attack us or not…?”

“They think themselves heroes,” Belladonna said. “But we are the only possible target of their righteous fury.”

“Not ‘er,” Curaçao said. “Symphony is completely innocent ‘ere. It’s vous.”

“What have I done?”

Curaçao smirked. “Ah, merci for telling moi.”

Belladonna’s face remained level.

“Shadow, she is responsible for zis mess, kill ‘er to end it.”

“With pleasure.” Shadow surrounded her horn in a tangled mess of dark red thorns and swirling Void.

“NO!” Symphony shouted - but Grayscale pinned her to the ground with gravity. Symphony reached for her swords, except she had none. Confusion crossed her features.

Shadow pulled back, activating the final parts of the spell.

“Kill me and the universe this lie is based on dies with me,” Belladonna said.

Shadow’s spell went out with a puff. Symphony stared at Belladonna in shock.

Curaçao just looked smug. “Isn’t it a useful skill, being able to bluff?”

Belladonna gave Curaçao no expression.

“Now… tell us exactly ‘ow this lie works, why you’ve created it, and why killing you would destroy everyzing. Be convincing. I’m sure Shadow or ‘Avoc would appreciate ze… opportunity to grind you into pixie dust.”

“Belladonna…” Symphony whimpered. “What’s… going on?”

Belladonna gave no indication of emotion. But she did start talking.

“This is a false timeline nexus of Fae Epoque…”

~~~

“HELLO!?” Cryo called again, even though she knew it was probably pointless. “Great. Trapped in a ghost town. Best. Day. Ever.”

She walked over to the empty Carousel Boutique, sitting down on one of her sister’s drama couches. Naturally, her sister was nowhere to be found.

All right, what to do. I’m stuck in some kind of weird time nonsense. There are no ponies to help me. But everything else is here.

With a groan, she flopped onto her back. I’m useless. Even when I’m trying to help ponies, I get stuck in these messes. “MMMMMF,” she grunted, letting out a stressed burst of air.

The wind howled outside.

Not only am I useless, I’m BORED. Uuuugh...

She picked up a book on fashion and started flipping through it. Yep, not a dream, I can read this.

Wait…

If this book is here, then…

She jumped out of the drama couch and ran outside. Yes, Canterlot was there, in the distance. Now she had a destination in mind. Creating a wave of icy shards beneath her, she sailed toward the mountain city. The ice carried her over the abandoned train tracks, up the mountain, and into the sky. It wasn’t the fastest way to travel, but it got the job done.

Without any guards, it was pathetically easy to barge into the more secretive portion of the Starswirl the Bearded section. She slid up to the giant hourglass and grinned. “Time spells. Hah! Just have to…” She frowned as she pulled the time spell off the shelf. “...cast a super-complicated spell far above my skill level. Right.”

Her disappointment was short lived, for she remembered there were any number of powerful magic artifacts that could bestow her with the necessary power. The Alicorn Amulet was probably the closest, but nopony knew where Zecora had hidden that. Plus, that was probably just a bad thing to use in the first place.

...But Grogar’s bell was probably still on Mount Everhoof. Normally a treacherous and all but impossible journey, but Cryo was the mare of ice. It couldn’t be that hard.

Grabbing some saddlebags, she set the time spell and a book on Grogar’s bell within. She hopped onto her icy wave and sailed off to Mount Everhoof, leaving a glacial trail of ice in her wake. Unlike Canterlot, Mount Everhoof proved to be a less-than-ideal feature to surmount. Canterlot had roads. Everhoof didn’t. What it did have was a ton of snow that Cryo could use to push herself higher and higher up the mountain.

After quickly discovering that pillars of snow weren't very stable, Cryo rolled herself into a snowball and twisted up the mountain, accumulating more and more snow along the way.

When she arrived at the entrance to the cave, she realized that she’d forgotten about the magic barrier.

“Uuuuuugh…” Cryo facehooved. “Okay, think, think… pass the barrier…” She threw a spike of ice at the shield, only for it to shatter on contact. No amount of size or sharpness gave her the edge she needed. She would need a way to absorb magic. Which, annoyingly, was one of the things Grogar’s bell could do, but it was inside the barrier!

...And she couldn’t use the time spell without getting in, either.

“Plan B…” She created a frozen pickaxe and started hacking at the rocks around the barrier. She found that it extended further into the rock. Coming from above and below wouldn’t help either, it was spherical.

It had to have a limit on its power. It had to. How could she strain it enough to break it?

“Wait…” She scratched her chin, a grin starting to form. “Oh… oh this is going to take a while, but this is going to be so fun.” She exchanged her pickaxe for a series of jagged icy blades arranged in a chainsaw-like fashion. With a twist of her hooves, she hacked at the mountain, removing several pounds of rock in one fell swoop.

She hacked again, and again, acting like a beaver as she ran around the mountain. The sun rose, the sun set, and she continued on, pushed by sheer force of will. The mountaintop was soon precariously settled on a single column of rock, in the middle of which sat the spherical barrier protecting Grogar’s bell.

“Let’s see if you can support the weight of a mountain all on your own…” Cryo snarked, bashing the last of the rock out of the way.

For a moment, the shield remained active, supporting the weight of the entire mountaintop with only its magical power. However, Cryo was right—the shield had its limits. The weight of several hundred tons of rock with no support from the mountain below shattered the magic, allowing the mountaintop to fall.

Cryo realized that she was currently standing under the falling rocks. She really hadn’t thought this far ahead. In a panic, she raised a barrier of ice around herself as the rubble piled around her.

All was dark.

Cryo felt a pain in her left front leg. Pressure. Something was crushing it and she couldn’t move it. Not that she could really move much else, there wasn’t much space here buried under several tons of rock.

She started pushing out with her ice, though she was already exhausted from the whole cutting down a mountain operation. She could move a few rocks around, free herself, but getting back to the surface… that would require a miracle.

Grogar’s bell fell from the rocky ceiling into her hooves.

“That’ll do nicely,” Cryo giggled. She may not have been a great wizard, but the spell to activate Grogar’s bell wasn’t all that difficult. Two minutes of sparking horns later, she had the bell’s power in her grasp. With a resounding gong sound, the magic surged into her.

She sprouted wings, of course. She made a note to get rid of those later.

But first… she was going to get out of all this rubble.

“Boom,” she breathed. A burst of icy shards flew out in every direction, sending the chunks of mountain far and wide, like meteors. She flew into the air, holding the time spell high.

“Let’s do this…” She put all her energy into the time spell. “Let’s go back to before I was here… back… bac-”

Reality shattered like a glass mirror, taking her to eternal blackness. The writing on the time spell’s scroll vanished, as did her wings and the magical power from Grogar’s bell. That hadn’t been part of the plan.

She fell into the eternal darkness, letting out a scream not of terror, but of annoyance.

Her plight was not to go unnoticed for long. She was caught by the wings of a graceful alicorn.

“Wh… Harmonia?”

“‘Tis I,” Harmonia admitted.

“...How did you send out a time distortion?” Peaceflower asked Cryo, buzzing around Harmonia’s ear.

“I was stuck in some kind of fake Equis. I just went to where the time spells were.” She smirked. “Not that I really knew what I was doing…”

Solicitude revealed herself to be flying alongside them. “You did great, Cryo. We didn’t know where we were going until Harmonia sensed the surge.”

“Where were you guys stuck?”

“Vision,” Solicitude breathed.

“Oh… geez, I’m so sorry, that must have been terribl—”

“Vision back when it was nicer,” Solicitude corrected. “Before… before everything went too far.”

“...Was that… good?”

“I don’t know,” Solicitude admitted. “But I do know it was empty.”

“I forced time to break,” Harmonia explained. “And we ended in this darkness. We were flying aimlessly until I saw thee. Now, I believe I know enough to navigate this timeless shadow.”

“Where are we going, though?” Peaceflower asked.

“To an annoying elf…”

Harmonia encased all of them in a bubble of time. With a tick… tick… tick… the magic extrapolated a destination from the temporal machinations of Cryo compared to what Harmonia had already done. A map spread out before them, of lights in the darkness, secluded from each other. Each light was a beacon of loneliness.

Only one held the spark Harmonia wanted to see. They appeared on a Fae hill, where mob-boss Vendetta and temporal-elf Jonale were going at it, trying to beat each other to death with obscure street signs. Nightshade sat off to the side, observing closely.

“ENOUGH!” Harmonia bellowed, stopping the two of them in their tracks.

Jonale sneered. “With all due respect, goddess, this is our engagement, not yours.”

“Thou art stuck in time and don’t even realize.”

“Don’t be ridicul—” Jonale glanced at one of his watches that was spinning out of control. “...Ah. Well, it appears as though I’ve been played at my own game. I am impressed, Vendetta.”

“What?” Vendetta said, visibly confused.

“Of course you didn’t do it…” Jonale growled. “Goddess, who is responsible for this…” he checked the watch again. “Shattering of time?”

“Unknown,” Harmonia admitted. “I would not put it past a future version of thee.”

“That isn’t the case…” Jonale glanced at two watches at the same time. “It can’t be me, my temporal sparks have no reliance on outside timestreams.”

“Outside… timestreams?” Cryo cocked her head.

“Fae time is much more interesting on its own,” Jonale explained. “A true artist can weave timelines that never existed, shadows of people with partial memories, extrapolations of that which can never will be… this shattering is feeding off another realm’s unstable time-state. In order to end whatever trap this is, we must find the open portal they are exploiting.”

“Can you do that?”

“Not without the help of a goddess…” Jonale extended a hand. “Shall we make a bond, dear Harmonia, to restore the status-quo?”

Harmonia nodded. “Of course.”

“...Goddesses who humble themselves…” Jonale chuckled to himself, as if this were a brilliant joke. For a moment, a burst of blue light exchanged between the two of them, forging a “Water” bond between their spirits. “There! Together, we can light the way of the future!”

“Do not misunderstand, this is by no means permanent,” Harmonia decreed.

“I’m aware. I’m going to revel in it for some time, I hope you understand.”

Vendetta frowned. “This elf has been manipulating time behind the scenes in New Pandemonium City for longer than I can possibly be aware, and you are working with him?”

“He hath the requisite skills and the desire to assist,” Harmonia stated. “‘Tis the same reason I worked with thee, despite knowing thy background and tendency for treachery.” She pointed at the time machine in his hoof.

Vendetta nodded slowly. “It seems we will have to resume this late—”

Harmonia glared at him. “There will be no resumption. The time machine is not thy property. Thine actions will be reported to Merodi Universalis upon the resolution of this crisis of time.”

“You need my ponies, Harmonia.”

“Thou hast sought my downfall, and the control of the City, that much is clear. My mistake was judging it to be beyond thy grasp.”

“You’re not getting another chance,” Solicitude added.

“Yep! You done screwed up!” Cryo laughed.

Jonale coughed. “I have found the core of the web, Harmonia. Shall we engage the transport?”

“It is done,” Harmonia said.

With a flash, Harmonia, Jonale, Cryo, Vendetta, Solicitude, Nightshade, and Peaceflower were all standing in front of a portal open in darkness. The room was featureless, aside from Mattie’s passed out form to the side. Through the portal, they could see a Ponyville.

Harmonia approached it. “Jonale, let us seal this gateway.”

“Gladly, my games have been so rudely interrupted.”

Peaceflower and Nightshade glanced at each other—nodding. Both of them snapped their fingers as one.

Harmonia and Jonale were tossed through the portal by a burst of the pixies’ magic.

~~~

“A false time nexus is difficult to explain…” Belladonna continued.

“Try me,” Shadow deadpanned.

“The temporal instances of nonexistent futures manifest through the twisting of Fae Inconsistent Timestreams in order to infuse the experiences of all through the focal point.”

“That’s not that complicated.”

Belladonna said nothing.

“What, didn’t foresee me parsing that?”

“Can you… translate?” Curaçao asked Shadow.

“Easily. She’s referencing the fact that Fae Epoque is made out of interwoven universes, each with different rules on how to handle time. Given the weave, they tend to even out their various rules, allowing for what I’m going to call ‘inherent paradox’, the trait she tried to hide behind the term ‘nonexistent futures.’ Every time the ‘Inconsistent Timestreams’ are ‘twisted’ a new sort of secluded existence is created, where rules of time flow according to either randomness or whatever the experienced time mage desired. This allows for objects to be drawn out of series’ of events that have never actually happened. For instance, Symphony taking place of the local Sweetie Belle.”

“But… I live here!” Symphony shouted.

“You no doubt have memories, or at least think you do, but I suspect without a direct connection to the false time you’re being forced into, you wouldn’t feel anything of the sort.”

Symphony fell silent.

“I still don’t get it,” Insipid said.

“The world we’re standing in right now doesn’t exist,” Shadow simplified. “It is an aspect of Fae Epoque twisted to resemble a timeline that doesn’t exist. Though I am currently unable to ascertain her reasons for doing such a thing.”

“She’s stalling for somezing,” Curaçao said. “Zough why a time traveler would need to stall…”

“Fae Epoque has to follow metatime like all worlds,” Shadow said. “However loosely, there is still a forward projection once the falsehoods are peeled away. There are likely other nexuses akin to this one, centered around other ponies.”

Symphony glanced at herself. “Is this all centered… around me?” She looked to Belladonna desperately. “Bella, talk to me!”

Bella’s face betrayed nothing. Shadow wondered how difficult it was for the breezie to keep that up.

“She’s got us talking,” Grayscale interrupted. “Discussing. Wasting time. That’s exactly what she wants.”

Shadow cursed under her breath. “The revolving game... Bella, now that I know what this false nexus is, how does it destroy the Equis?”

“I exist in multiple timestreams at once. My life in this one is tied to the lives in the others. The Mandalorian may not have had any bombs on Twilight Sparkle’s time machine, but I do. They detonate upon my connection to my other selves being severed.”

“She’s telling ze truth,” Curaçao said.

“W-what!?” Symphony blurted. “Bella, what are… Is all this a lie?”

“More than you could ever possibly know.”

“Wh…” Symphony took a few steps back. “I…”

“You don’t actually exist. I drew you out of a timeline that had no prior place in this game. You were the focal point for drawing that which should not be. Y—”

“She’s stalling again,” Grayscale interrupted. “We have got to deal with her quickly.”

Curaçao growled. “Bella, what is your plan?”

Belladonna kept her gaze on Symphony. “I have intention to, through the twisting of fates, introduce a new variable int—”

“Enough of your stalling word-game shit,” Grayscale spat. “Twenty words or less, fairy. What is your goal?”

For the first time in several minutes, Bella’s expression changed—one of thoughtfulness, as if trying to figure out how best to word it.

“And zat’s a lie,” Curaçao said. “No words were spoken, but you don’t need to zink to come up wiz an answer. You know what your goal is, and you don’t want to tell us.”

“How can you be so certain?”

Curaçao ignored the question—seeing it as yet another attempt at distraction. “Eizer you zink your plan is worse zan destroying a single universe… or your plan includes destroying ze universe.”

“A very confident assertion.”

“You can let me know I’m wrong by saying ‘no’, casting me into uncertainty. But…” Curaçao grinned. “You can’t say no if it isn’t ze truth. I’ll take any other response as confirmation. So tell me, Bella, does your plan involve destroying ze ozer universe, or is it somezing we would be willing to sacrifice ze universe in order to stop?”

“It is no—”

“Kill her,” Curaçao ordered.

“FINALLY!” Velvet shouted, having spent the last few minutes eating up the vast amounts of fear Belladonna had been suppressing. Blood erupted from her back and the light of the false time grew dark. “Goodnight, little bug…”

Belladonna dropped the false form of a breezie, becoming an orange pixie. She snapped her fingers, embedding a soul-rending blade into Velvet. It did absolutely nothing to the fear-fueled monstrosity. Velvet wrapped her blood around the pixie’s limbs, pulling them taught. No amount of form shifting could get away from the pony of fear.

“So far below…” Velvet licked her lips. “So insignificantly pathetic compared to me, the mortal. Your plans are like glass!” She pulled tighter, beginning to rip the Fay’s essence in half. “No more plans…”

Belladonna lit up like a matchstick, bursting with orange energy. “If you won’t let this happen, I’m taking it all down!” An orange chain of magic shot out of her eyes, going right for Symphony.

Symphony screamed, but couldn't close her eyes. Shadow jumped, intercepting the chain in her magic. The chain exploded into several sparks, three of which jumped past Shadow’s shield, touching her time machine.

It sent a burst of temporal energy at Symphony, hitting her right in the horn.

Velvet tore Belladonna in half.

Two pixies standing outside a portal let out a screech of pain.

Twilight’s library exploded, sending a fissure of time through the universe.

Harmonia and Jonale, the targets of this entire debacle, were not through the portal yet. They would not be erased by the collapsing universe.

But Belladonna and her other selves were sore losers...

Symphony screamed.

~~~

Symphony woke up in her bed, sweating in a panic. The sun was shining through the window, blessing her blankets with outside warmth. Twilight Sparkle was sitting at the foot of her bed, a look of concern on her face. “Are you all right, Symphony?”

“Yeah, mom,” Mom? Wh… no, that’s right. Mom. Yes. “Just a… bad dream.” She rubbed her horn. “Was I shooting magic off? It hurts.”

Twilight pulled Symphony into a hug, her artificial wings providing extra support to the gesture. “No, you weren't shooting at me in your sleep.”

“Good.” Symphony took a deep breath, taking in the presence of her mother. “Sorry for worrying you.”

“We all have nightmares. I’m here if you want to talk about it.”

“...Don’t you have work?”

Twilight glanced at the clock, panic crossing her features. “I’m going to be late!” She scrambled off the bed, falling flat on her face. “Uh… we can still talk about it!”

“We can talk about it when you get back, it’s not a big deal.” I can’t even remember what it was about. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, uh… stay safe, I’ll be home before you know it!” She lit her horn and teleported away, leaving Symphony in her bed.

Symphony couldn’t take her eyes off the clock. It’s turning backward. Weird.

No, that’s how it’s always turned.

With a shrug, she got out of bed and made her way downstairs. The house was a common pony abode in Canterlot: magic appliances, a fireplace, brick walls mixed with synthetic metal, and posters of her singing. And posters of her sword fighting. Twilight really did like to collect all of Symphony’s accomplishments.

There was a small statue of Silvertongue on the counter.

Symphony stopped short, staring at the statue.

It was Harmonia… Celestia? Celestia. It was Celestia. What else could it be?

Symphony rubbed her head. That nightmare did a number on me.

She poured herself a bowl of cereal, sprinkling some fairy lily dust on top for flavor. She sat at the stool facing the window and watched as the sun continued rising. A flying whale rose with it, letting out a beautiful call as sparkling creatures swirled around it. Clouds gave the scene a beautiful halo. Buildings of metal, stone, magic, moss, and trees lined her view, filling her with a sense of confused delight.

It’s so weird that the world works this way.

A smile on her face, she took in another spoonful of cereal.

A white unicorn in four leather boots crashed through the window, landing on the floor of the kitchen at such an odd angle she cut herself in several locations all at once. Unaffected by the injuries, she hopped to her hooves and fixed Symphony with a wild expression. “You. You are the only pony with any sense that something’s wrong.”

Symphony stared at the unicorn in shock.

“...Besides me crashing into your house, mate.”

For some reason, the only response Symphony could get out was, “you sound like a guy.”

“You’ll get used to it,” she muttered, removing a shard of glass from her shoulder.

“Do you need… bandages?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine, always am. Now. Ahem. You know something’s up.”

Yes, yes something is totally up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. And you’re in my house! That’s breaking and entering!”

“Look, if you want to call the cops, we can get into a whole complicated song and dance, but I need you to remember the motherbucking time shenanigans! Like… do you recognize me?”

Symphony thought about it for a moment. “Actually… I think I do.”

“Thank Celestia.”

“You’re the mare that stands on the side of the road and takes money from passing stallions before walking away with them.”

She gawked. “I am not a two-bit—oh. Well, in this timestream it appears I am. How disappointing, I like to think I have at least some standards.”

“What?”

“Ugh, you still think you belong here, you’re basically still a kid. Mmmf, how to jog your memory…”

“Why don’t you just, I don’t know, tell me the things I’m supposed to remember?”

“See, I’d love to do that, except I’m working off incomplete information here. My mind’s been wiped and set in here just like yours, I’m just cheating to know something’s up, get some basic background information, and know that you are the focal point of all of it.”

Symphony raised an eyebrow. “So you’re insane.”

“You’re the one talking to a mare of the night who just broke into your house instead of calling the police, so who’s talking?”

I really should have called the police. Why haven’t I?

“Good, that’s good, progress!”

“You can read my mind!?”

“Not exactly, but the effect is probably close enough.” She extended a hoof. “The name’s Mattie. You’re Symphony, and something is really wrong with the world and we’re going to fix it!”

Symphony found herself shaking Mattie’s hoof without really thinking. “I’m still not convinced.”

“Okay, okay, I need to jog your memory somehow, it’s in there somewhere. Hmm…” Mattie scratched her chin. “I’ve got it! Feast your eyes on the outside world!”

“You mean look out the window you just broke?”

“Yes. That. Just look out there. Does that look natural to you?”

Symphony glanced at the contradictory buildings, sky whale, and the sun. “Not really? But I’m from the past, the future has to look weird.”

“It has to look like somepony stitched together several unrelated theme cards and just let them lie? I…” Mattie’s eyes widened. “Aha! Symphony, your poster back there. What does it say?”

Symphony glanced at the poster of her singing. “Bring back the clouds.”

“And look outside. Those look a lot like clouds to me.”

Symphony glanced at the sky. “I brought them back.” No I didn’t. “Or, well, somepony must have… Uh…” I would have a memory of that!

Mattie looked at her expectantly.

Symphony racked her brain. Think, think, there has to be something in here. A memory, a… She replayed a day she’d sat in the grass in Ponyville, looking up at the sky. And in that sky, there had been a cloud of the exact same shape as the one outside right now. She called it the best cloud she had ever seen…

“Holy mother of the Princesses…” Symphony trembled, taking a few steps back. The divisions in her memory became more apparent. That building there was from New Pandemonium City. The hill? A Fae creation. There were both farms and machines, clouds and spotless skies… It was like all of her experiences were bundled up into a ball and shown to her all at once.

Even though they were outright contradictory.

“I… am a singer… I am from the past… and I spent my whole life in New Pandemonium City. What… I…” She jumped up, looking around in a panic. “Where’s Belladonna!?”

“Who the what now?”

“She did this. She did this all. Those ponies were stopping her from whatever her plan was, and she was going to destroy a universe—this one—but she couldn’t let them win. She… did something to me.”

Mattie frowned. “Well, if I’m here, maybe she’s here too? You remembered the ‘me’ from this time, maybe you can find her.”

“I don’t exist…”

“What?”

“Not… important.” Symphony shook her head, focusing on her memories—her many, many contradictory memories. She was surprised how few she actually had of Belladonna, and how all of them were in a city that didn’t exist here, except in chunks taken out of her memory. There they were, being friends for seemingly no reason, and then there was the confrontation, the ice, the shattering, and… a little pixie running a flower shop downtown.

“Downtown, flower shop,” Symphony reported. “Let’s go.”

They jumped out the window and trotted down the street, which changed from pavement to cobblestone to Fae grass every dozen steps. The ponies of the world didn’t seem to notice, even though most of them were tripping over the uneven ground. Peacefully oblivious.

“Smoking wombat carcasses, this is worse than I realized.” Mattie grimaced. “I didn’t see how blind it made them. Or me.”

“I remembered, they can too.”

“Can they? Symphony, I’m cheating with my freaky brain. You were important. I haven’t actually officially remembered anything yet.”

“You are Agent Mattie ‘Rarity’ Belle of Merodi Universalis and the League of Sweetie Belles. ...For some reason. You’re a Rarity.”

“Oh, I took up my sister’s mantle after she—” Mattie shuddered. “Yep. That’s an effective way to reboot memory. Right to the painful experiences.”

Symphony stopped in her tracks. “You… lost her?”

Mattie nodded. “Sweetie Brute, she was. Absolute darling who crushed her enemies. Or, well, talked about it a lot.”

“What was… how did you cope?”

Mattie shook her head. “Not in the way most Rarities do. I decided to get out of my stupid-inducing universe and see what she’d been doing. Never go to Equis Ultra Fast, they’ve proven that staying there lowers your intelligence.”

Symphony nodded slowly. “What a—”

“Hey, it’s Insipid!” Mattie shouted. “INSIPID!”

Insipid looked up from the crack in the sidewalk she was examining. “Like, who are you?”

“How can you forget a face like this?” Mattie asked, pursing her lips.

“Uh, I forget a lot of faces.” Insipid rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry!”

“Hmm… looks like I’ll have to jog your memory a bit. Hey, Insipid, remember Silvertongue?”

“...Who?”

Mattie blinked. “Your father?”

“...My dad had a second name!? Wow, wait until I tell mom!”

“Balls,” Mattie muttered. “I was sure that would work.”

“It looks like we might be the only ones,” Symphony said.

“Odd,” Mattie scratched her chin. “I know I’m here because I’m Aware, what makes you so special?”

“...I don’t exist.”

“You’re going to have to explain what that means.”

“Bella brought me out of a fake timeline, or, something. I had no past, and I had no future, and that was important for some reason.”

“I bet you’re the focal point of all this, somehow,” Mattie mused.

“She’s the one that caused it, we’re going to find her and make her explain i—”

Insipid poked her head between the two of them, interrupting their conversation. “This sounds like an adventure in the making. I want in.”

“...Can you still copy magic?” Mattie asked.

“What?”

“Unfortunate.” Mattie pursed her lips. “I suppose you can come along anyway…”

“Yay! Where are we going?”

“To the downtown flower shop,” Symphony said, climbing up a set of golden stairs. “Right this way.”

“But that’s right through the Queen’s throne room!” Insipid sputtered.

“It’s the way to the market, I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense, capische?” Symphony trotted further up the stairs.

“If you’re the focal point of all this, this might just be the organization of your own brain!” Mattie called.

“Let’s not think about that!” Symphony called back, starting to think about just that as she ascended. What would the Queen at the top of the stairs be? Her memories seemed to disagree. Harmonia? Celestia? Not Silvertongue. Why did she even know about Silvertongue? She didn’t have memories of him, like she did of Harmonia and Celestia.

Celestia…

Symphony found herself dwelling in the memories of a pony named Sweetie Belle. A pony who most definitely wasn’t her, doomed to die unless Twilight could take her to the future to be operated on. Three hundred and fifty years… and they couldn't go back.

Except Twilight did. But… Twilight was here, in this universe, wasn’t she?

Symphony shouldn’t have been surprised. Time broke. The universe was supposed to die. Whatever had been done to stitch it together crazily could have moved any and everypony out of time…

At long last, she reached the top of the stairs. Sitting in the throne was a tall pegasus mare Symphony didn’t recognize at all.

“Who dares interrupt Queen Blackburn?” a guard asked.

“I, uh…” Symphony couldn’t stop staring at Queen Blackburn. Her belly was pronounced—was she pregnant? Why did it matter?

“Strange,” Blackburn said. “Familiar face. Do not recognize. Do you know me?”

“N-no,” Symphony stammered.

“Curious…” Blackburn frowned. “You are just passing through to the market.”

“Yes,” Mattie offered for Symphony. “I do hope we’re not intruding.”

“No. This happens often.” She narrowed her eyes at something unseen. “Be on your way unless you have business.”

Mattie shuffled Insipid and Symphony out of the throne room and down a set of Fae-grass stairs. “What was that about?”

“I… I have no idea,” Symphony said, rubbing her eyes. “I had no context for that. At… all.”

At the bottom of the stairs was a nice bustling market that was taken directly out of future-Canterlot. Most ponies were wearing fake wings or horns provided by the magical amulets, though there were a few other races moving around in the midst.

Symphony marched right up to a stand operated by an orange pixie. “Belladonna.”

Belladonna looked at her in confusion. “...My name’s Snapdragon. You must have me mistaken with someone else.”

“I don’t. You did this.”

“Did… what?”

“Let me handle this,” Mattie said, coughing into her hoof. “Snapdragon, do you have any inclination or memories that suggest this timeline is not the one that should exist.”

Snapdragon blinked. “No. What are you even talking about? Madponies…”

“An uncharacteristically straight answer that can’t be a lie.” Mattie sighed. “She’s not going to be of any help.”

“...Is the quest over?” Insipid asked.

“There’s got to be something we can do to break out of this,” Symphony muttered. “To set everything right.”

“How?” Mattie asked. “We’re the only ones who know something’s up, and we don’t have any clue how any of this works.”

“Mom knows.”

“...Come again?”

“Twilight Sparkle knows,” Symphony said, standing up. “She’s trying to build a time machine. We can figure something out with her help. She doesn’t have to understand what’s going on to help us!”

“She might think it’s crazy,” Mattie said.

“You are crazy,” Insipid pointed out.

“She’ll believe me,” Symphony said. “I just know it.”

The three of them ran off, leaving a very confused Snapdragon standing behind her flowering wares.

~~~

Twilight Sparkle stared at Symphony in mild disbelief.

“It’s too ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“I…” Twilight glanced out the broken window of her home at the complex skyline. She looked at the mixed posters at the wall. And, finally, her gaze settled on Mattie. “It’s ridiculous, but… it makes sense.”

“Oh thank Celestia,” Symphony breathed.

“I don’t think I would have believed… any of this if it wasn’t for you.” She pointed at Mattie.

“What did I do?”

“You look exactly like Rarity. And are definitely not her. I should have felt something the instant I met you, but I didn’t.” Twilight ruffled her wings nervously.

“Woah,” Insipid said, eyes wide. “We really are stuck in round-time.”

Symphony ignored her. “So… mom? Do you have any… ideas?”

“Give me a second to think…” Twilight scratched her chin. “So, based on everything you’ve told me, we’re in a synthesis of several timelines stitched together the moment everything broke: likely this Belladonna destroying my lab while I was making the first time machine. Instead of the universe exploding, you were used as a focal point to… trap everyone?”

“I’m not sure that what she was trying to do, but that’s what happened.”

“If all this is true, it should be a simple matter of jumping back and forth in time to end it all. But…” Twilight tapped her hoof on the ground. “If I understand the temporal theory correctly, everything will just play out the exact same way as before, since our minds get reset with everything else. We can use the Fae’s time to revert everything, but it will also revert ourselves.”

Symphony glanced at Mattie. “Can you…?”

Mattie shook her head. “My sense isn’t reliable. Only Symphony here has the inkling in the back of her mind. And it’s… subtle.”

“What if you, like, go further back in time to stop that from happening? Give yourself a heads up? Make a circle?” Insipid suggested.

Symphony raised an eyebrow. “We’re already going back in time.”

“Sort of,” Twilight said. “More accurately, what we’d be doing is ‘rewinding’. Dialing back the clock to revert the worlds back to where they belong, using you as the center. It’s like you have a clock inside of you that everything hangs on, and if you turn it back, everything turns back with it.”

“So we really can do Insipid’s idea? Go back super far?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think that would give you any longer to remember. And I don’t want to chance layering everything… From what you’ve told me, moving very far from the timeline we’re in right now will just give the Fay a chance to do whatever they want.”

“Them and their time that doesn’t exist,” Mattie grumbled.

“It’s possible that we could use that,” Symphony said. “I’m from a time that doesn’t exist, after all. I think that’s why it’s all focused on me. Bella grabbed me to serve as a focal-point-thingy.”

“But we don’t know how,” Twilight sputtered. “We can’t know how. The only people who knew about the false timelines are all stuck in this one without their minds!”

“Minds.” Symphony furrowed her brow. “Minds…”

“I have a feeling I’m going to like this idea,” Mattie said with a grin.

“My mind remembers things, unlike the rest of you. It’s always a nagging feeling in the back of my skull, but I have to remember, because I’m the ‘focal point’. What if we manipulated it, somehow? Forced me to remember?”

“That’s some… highly unethical magic,” Twilight pointed out.

“Forget about ethics for a moment, is it possible?”

“Mind control is a thing, yes, and it’s very functional when used on the willing. But I don’t know how to do it, nor do I want to.”

“I know somepony,” Mattie said, smirking. “Twilight, have you seen Fluttershy lately?”

Twilight blinked. “I left her behind in the past.”

“Ah, but this wouldn’t be Fluttershy. She would be going by… Solicitude.”

“Oh…” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Oh you’re right, I do know her. She’s runs an animal shelter!”

“She… might know how to do it,” Mattie admitted. “And once we do… we will fill Symphony’s head with the exact instructions on how to stop ‘Bella’.”

“Hold up, once we rewind everything…” Symphony cocked her head. “How are we going to stop her? What am I going to be able to do?”

Mattie smirked. “You’re going to find me.”

“Huh?”

~~~

Solicitude ran an animal shelter.

Really, that’s all she did. Animal shelter. In a world as chaotic as the one she lived in, animals needed a place to stay, and she provided.

The fact that animals were always docile around her was not an indication of anything more insidious going on.

She definitely didn’t run an illegal business in the basement where she took troubled ponies and cured them of mental illnesses using highly detestable magic.

She was a pegasus, after all. What pegasus would know the dark arts?

Nopony could ever point to her and say she was a dark wizard. That would be ridiculous. She didn’t even own a unicorn amulet!

So when Twilight Sparkle, the Queen’s magic advisor, walked up to her and told her they needed help altering a pony’s mind, the only natural response was to go “What?”

And then Twilight had told her the most insane story she’d ever heard.

So, naturally, Solicitude had believed her. You couldn’t make that stuff up. She was sure to establish immunity to charges of dark magic if this didn’t work, which Twilight granted.

So she led them into her basement that totally-didn’t-exist and performed an operation that nopony knew how to do. All it took was twenty minutes of her Staring right at Symphony’s willingly moldable mind to imprint the instructions given by Mattie and Twilight.

After this was done, she only had one request.

“I want to see this time machine.”

So she was taken to Twilight’s personal laboratory, where there was a time machine. A car-sized, gyroscopic twisting mess of cables and crystals wound through any number of magic amulets, computers, and other things she couldn’t identify.

“You know, pretty sure the computers aren’t supposed to be here,” Symphony said. “The actual time machine was a lot simpler.”

“The world had to make sense of itself,” Mattie said. “Thus, computers. Probably from our end, messing with the Fae.”

“I, for one, am glad we have computers!” Twilight declared. “That way I can run simulations before I toss my daughter into a time vortex to fix everything.”

“How long will it take?” Symphony asked.

“You’re in luck, because rewinding all of time is easy,” Twilight chuckled to herself. “Punching a hole to move backward? No. Resetting? Pathetically easy, if you don’t want to remember anything. I had to be very careful never to do that accidentally, because it’d create an infinite loop… or maybe it wouldn’t and it’d just seem like I’d failed when there really is a part of me being reset back every few seconds…” She shook her head. “Regardless, if our assumptions about you are correct, Symphony, you’ll go back with those deep imprints in tact.”

“Assuming the mental conditioning service was proper,” Mattie added.

Solicitude smiled warmly. “I pride myself on a job well done.”

“How many ponies have you driven mad?”

“Considering the fact that, according to you, this world didn’t exist yesterday? None.”

Mattie held a hoof to her forehead. “Crikey, I’m going to be so relieved when this is all over. I hate time travel.”

“Especially when the rules of time travel don’t match between universes,” Twilight added. “Can you imagine how much of a mess that must be to manage?”

“Nobody manages i—” Mattie stopped herself. “Oh, haha, very funny, yes, we should pity you and your headache.”

Twilight blinked. “...What?”

“Never mind, just get it working.”

With a shrug, Twilight flipped a switch. “There. Done.”

“...Wait, really?”

“What? I did say I almost did this accidentally before, right? I just turned off the safety.”

“Great.” Symphony jumped into the seat in the middle of the room, bracing herself. “Here we go..”

“This feels so exciting!” Insipid bounced up and down.

“You have less idea of what’s going on than I do, and you’re still excited.” Solicitude smiled. “You are a precious mare, Insipid.”

Twilight looked up at Symphony. “...Are you ready?”

Symphony nodded. “...Even though technically we didn’t meet until today… I love you, mom.”

Twilight smiled warmly. “I love you too.”

She pulled the lever.

~~~

“You can let me know I’m wrong by saying ‘no’, casting me into uncertainty. But…” Curaçao grinned. “You can’t say no if it isn’t ze truth. I’ll take any other response as confirmation. So tell me, Bella, does your plan involve destroying ze other universe, or is it somezing we would be willing to sacrifice ze universe in order to stop?”

Symphony’s already strained heart approached its limit. She was already pained enough by what was happening, now she was in a life or death situation where an entire world was on the line an—

FIND MATTIE.

What the…?

FIND MATTIE, SPELL LATTICE 32.435 UPSHAFT 938.328 RING DELAY 9.2345.

Her horn lit up with a spark of… yellow? What’s going on? Where am I…

Belladonna stared at her with a terrified expression. Like she knew what was happening and hated it.

“Kill her,” Curaçao ordered, having received no response.

“FINALLY!” Velvet shouted. Blood erupted from her back and the light of the false time grew dark.

EXECUTE SPELL.

Symphony didn’t exactly… teleport. It was more like she stepped out of time and into the darkness, whatever that actually meant. As she drifted in the nothingness, images came to her. Images of a split world…

REMEMBER LATER, ACT NOW. UNIVERSE MUST BE SAVED. MOM’S LIBRARY IS IN DANGER.

Mom, Symphony thought, the term not seeming alien in her mind at all. Locate Mattie. Locate Mattie. The spell was supposed to do that, but I don’t see her!

She landed painfully on a dark, stone floor. The darkness vanished, replaced with a merely poorly-lit corridor. Mattie was lying to the side, unconscious. Next to her there was a portal held open by orange magic.

THROUGH THE PORTAL.

It occurred to Symphony that she could try to resist the mental orders, a thought quickly replaced by the memories of why she was here. She’d already jumped through, running into Ponyville.

IS IT THE PAST?

It was, in fact, the past. Ponyville, with no Castle of Friendship.

DISABLE THE GOLDEN OAK LIBRARY EXPLOSIVE SPELL.

Symphony ran into the library, tripping over a few loose documents spread around by Twilight.

“Wh… hey!” Twilight shouted. “That’s important!”

“Sorry!” Symphony said. “Uh… Twilight, can you check for explosive spells?”

Twilight blinked. “What? Do I know you?”

“Just humor me.”

Twilight lit her horn, checking. “I haven’t found anything.”

Crud. It’s not an explosive spell, is it, it’s something else. How do I… no time to think. “Twilight, we have to get out of the Library now. Teleport all your research with you!”

For a moment, Twilight looked like she wanted to argue.

“Think about Sweetie Belle.”

Twilight wasn't willing to take that risk. She lit her horn and teleported everything out of the library.

It exploded in a flower of orange Fae dust less than a second later.

“Wh…”

LEAVE.

“Bye!” Symphony shouted, running back toward the portal. “Don’t thank me, just get back to work!”

GRAB HARMONIA AND THE ELF.

Harmonia and Jonale were still processing that they’d been thrown through a portal when Symphony picked them up with her magic and hurled them back. She jumped in afterward, coming to a sliding stop as the portal closed with a comical pop.

Two pixies were writhing on the ground. Their names? Peaceflower, Nightshade… though those were as good of names as Belladonna and Snapdragon. They were all the same, in the end.

“I… do not understand what just transpired,” Harmonia admitted.

Mattie grunted from her position on the ground. “The kid saved us all from a testy fairy’s delusions.”

“Yep. I did.” Symphony pointed a hoof at Nightshade and Peaceflower. “Explain.”

The trembling pixies looked up to her, speaking as one. “I brought you into this world…”

“You created me to be used,” Symphony hissed. “Dragged me from a time that shouldn’t exist and stuck your entire nexus of nonsense on me.”

“Fascinating…” Jonale said, leaning in to inspect Symphony. “I never would have thought of such a method for time weaving…”

Symphony ignored the elf. “Worse than that, you were willing to destroy an entire world… for what?” She gestured at Harmonia and Jonale. “To get rid of these two?”

“Harmonia was the target,” the pixies spoke in unison. “Jonale’s fate was… a bonus.”

“Fishing with nets?” Jonale asked.

“Razor blades.”

“Hmm. I’d love to learn a few of your tricks.”

“You will be doing no such thing,” Symphony hissed. “She’s going to pay for what she did.”

“You have undone it,” the pixies said. “Whatever act…”

“Intent to murder is still a crime. And I’m not with the Merodi. I don’t give a flying feather if you’re a citizen of the Fae, you’re going to pay.”

“She will be held accountable,” Harmonia asserted. “But not by thee. By I.”

The pixies stared at Harmonia in terror.

“I wisheth to know… why is it that thou hath such hate for me?”

“You are a goddess, definer of all you see,” the pixies said. “You live in our world and ruin the game.”

“Ruin?” Jonale snorted. “You just don’t know how to play properly.”

The pixies ignored him. “Gods are not meant to be in the Fae. But you stay, and you upset our way, our dance. You keep the city adhered to one place! You anchor it!”

“Ah…” Harmonia smiled sadly. “Religious differences… I am sorry, I cannot help thee with that.”

“And if you tried it would be no more than an insult…” The pixies stopped a moment, breathing. “...Taking punishment from you would be a fate worse than the final death.”

Harmonia’s eyes widened. “Do not be ha—”

They removed the temporal locks they had placed on each other. The future version sank a dark blade into the past, and time weaved itself in a circle around them. Shifting back and forth until they were one, an ouroboros devouring itself until only a spark remained. The spark eventually took the form of another pixie… one with blank eyes and confusion all over her face.

“Hmm… it appears you’ve just rewritten yourself,” Jonale observed, leaning in.

“W-what?” the pixie stammered. “I don’t know what that means!”

“A complete rewrite, fascinating.” Jonale smirked. “A real Buddleia, you are.”

“...Is that my name?”

Jonale shrugged, turning away.

The newly dubbed Buddleia scooted against a wall and pulled her knees to her chest, refusing to look up.

Symphony forced herself to look away, shock on her face. “I…”

“‘Twas their choice…” Harmonia said, placing a gentle hoof on Symphony’s shoulder. “They wished to spite thy heroic efforts. Do not let them, my little pony.”

Symphony nodded slowly.

“Come. Let us go outside.”

Everyone crawled out of the basement, stepping out onto one of New Pandemonium City’s streets. Ponies were running to and fro, a Merodi Aid team was trying to give food to a bunch of ungrateful children, a sky whale dominated the twilit sky, and a factory in the distance was churning up smoke.

No darkness. No time fissures. No annoying signposts.

Just a normal day in New Pandemonium City.

Symphony smiled taking in the breath of…

...well, it wasn’t her home, not exactly.

It was the stability of what was meant to be.

~~~

Nopony really understood what happened after all was said and done. Only Jonale had the prerequisite knowledge to figure out what Belladonna had done, and even he had to admit he turned up empty as to what exactly made Symphony. And when he attempted to explain what the pixie’s plan had been… well, it was hard to follow, though that may have been because he treated everyone else in the room like an idiot.

To everypony’s surprise, Harmonia did not end the bond she forged with Jonale, instead offering to continue forward with him in a sort of partnership. He was a master of time itself, and she needed someone new to assist her in managing the city now that Vendetta was no longer an option. The details of the deal they made were never released to the public, but it no doubt had something to do with the inherent paradoxical time loops that were added to New Pandemonium City. No doubt the ponies would soon become used to these loops as the old government crumbled, giving way to a new society of ponies in the Fae.

The Fay courts themselves weren’t quite sure what to make of the debacle, either. Some praised Belladonna’s ingenuity while others complained that the final goal was too simple to be a proper part of the dance. The arguments would likely never end, which wasn’t surprising, given the Fay. Similar arguments occurred involving Jonale, and he had a habit of never being around for comment when the other elves made a move to track him down.

They still agreed that they all hated Harmonia. That much hadn’t changed. Her city was a blight on Fae Epoque. There would no doubt be many other attempts to alter or sway the city.

The Elements of Pandemonium received credit for their work, even though it was Mattie who finally grabbed the time machine from Vendetta. She taunted them with it for quite some time, only giving it up once Velvet started getting… freaky.

Cryo’s team continued to work in New Pandemonium City for a while, even after they found Curio locked in a cage made out of red cheese and Sriracha in a box of bacon, but after Jonale’s time loops started becoming more common, Cryo declared she was done and they moved on to another city. They offered to let Symphony come with them, but she refused. She had somewhere else in mind she wanted to go once New Pandemonium City settled.

She was one of Harmonia’s advisors, for now, though she didn’t intend to stay that for long.

“Thou shalt be leaving soon,” Harmonia said.

Symphony was leaning against the railing of a tall tower, overlooking the sparkling lights of New Pandemonium City. “Yep.”

“Where, pray tell?”

“Hope’s Point. The Queen… there’s something about her. I feel like that place holds the secret to who I am. I can’t explain why.”

“I hope that thou findest what thou art looking for.”

“I’ll only find part of it,” Symphony said with a sigh. She looked up at the sparkles in the sky. “No matter what’s there… I still remember the times that didn’t exist.”

Harmonia nodded. “They bring up difficult questions.”

“Yeah. I wonder… what happened to all those ponies in the fused timeline? Nopony remembers their role there aside from me and Mattie, somewhat. Were they the same people? Or… are they just gone?”

“I do not believe that is for us to know,” Harmonia said.

“Yet.”

Harmonia looked at her with confusion.

“Thanks for watching over this city,” Symphony said, changing the subject. “It really would fall into the ground without your guiding hoof.”

“Thou hast flattered me.”

“You deserve every bit of it.” She checked her watch, giving her the time in another universe. “I’ve got to go catch something, see you around.”

Harmonia bid her farewell.

~~~

“This song… is for my mom,” Sweetie Belle said, standing on top of the stage. “She’s not with us anymore, but she did more for me than anypony else.” She cleared her throat.

“I remember when you gave me another chance
To change my life and start anew
I remember when we would go prance
Through the fields we covered with dew…”

Tears ran down Symphony’s face as she listened to the mare sing of her mother. Their mother. This Sweetie Belle would likely never know what the song meant to Symphony, no matter how involved the universe became in the wider multiverse.

Sweetie Belle had no idea there was a sister out in the crowd, smiling in memory of a mare who touched both their lives in a way nopony could ever understand.

A mare willing to break time, just for them.

Author's Notes:

The League of Sweetie Belles is now a full year old! WOOHOO, CELEBRATE! One year of Sweetie antics in the multiverse and other nonsense! To celebrate, I've got a few things on the list for today!

First of all, a great thanks to Three Hundred and Fifty for existing and showing us that we can have a lot of cute, silly drama in our sci-fi stories. The LSB chapter above doesn't give it justice - there's too much action, baggage, and other stuff holding back the world of a Sweetie and her Twilight and her time machine. Go check it out, it's short enough and both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Void Chicken's a great author who gave me perhaps a little too much freedom.

ON TO CELEBRATIONS!
First of all, I'm hosting a writing contest called Depth in Innocence! There are cash prizes at stake, as well as an entry into the League of Sweetie Belles! Come, let's write some deep stories together.

Also, here's a gift from me to you: a map of the local multiverse during the LSB era:
Enjoy prodding around and seeing what you can find.

Next time on LSB:
Not... really sure. I have a chapter draft for ForgaLorga/AgrolAnimation, but I think it needs to take place later in the timeline. I guess we'll see what I end up cooking up for the next chapter because I'm finally out of backlog!

((LSB Status Post.)) Come suggest and upvote fics!

A Twisted Epic (Derpy and Carrot Top's Epic)

The source material for this chapter is included within the chapter in the embeds: both art and music. Enjoy this experimental format.

https://youtu.be/ODYYoYxOwJU

Derpy’s eyes had played many tricks on her throughout life. Over the years she’d learned how to force her brain to resolve the conflicting images her inconsistent eyes gave her, but this only worked with things she was familiar with.

She was not familiar with two teenage fillies jumping out of a portal that… led to a world made entirely of cubes?

“Derpy?” Carrot Top asked, turning around. “Why did you st—” She let out a squeal of panic as she took the two fillies into account. “Where did you come from!?”

“Uh… you didn’t see the portal, didya?” the yellow one asked, smiling awkwardly.

“Portal a—wait!” Carrot gawked, rubbing the side of her head. “You’re Apple Bloom! What are you doing all the way out here!? Your Granny will be worried sick!”

“Pretty sure Apple Bloom doesn’t have a cutie mark,” Derpy whispered to Carrot.

“Apple Bloom” appeared to consider what to say next before shaking her head and smiling brightly at the two mares. “Ah’m Adder. This is Cinder.”

“Not…” Carrot scrunched up her nose in the way she usually did whenever she was trying to figure out how exactly to make sense of a situation. “...Never mind. Still! What are you two doing all the way out here!?”

“What are you two doin’ in ancient ruins in the middle of a forest?” Cinder asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow and gesturing at their locale. It was a beautiful forest, to be sure, filled with the greens of spring and moss covering the ground like a blanket. Old, decrepit statues and pillars littered the area, most of which were worn to near-unrecognizability by the elements. Only one figure remained unharmed: that of a pony rearing up, wearing a helmet.

“We… uh…” Carrot blushed, unwilling to answer the fiery filly’s question.

“We’re lost!” Derpy said, plucking an old helmet off the ground and putting it on herself. “You?”

“Exploring,” Adder said.

“Exploring!?” Carrot rushed to her. “Does that mean you know the way back to Ponyville!?”

“Uh…” Adder blanked. “No. Ah could probably figure it out if we took a look around, though.”

“It might be different than what we know,” Cinder said.

Carrot blinked. “How would it be different? If you explore, you know where you’re going!”

“We are just fillies,” Adder pointed out.

“I think she’s smart enough to know we’re not idiots,” Cinder countered.

“Oh.” Adder thought about this for a while.

“Don’t worry about them, Carrot!” Derpy said, making sure to put on her most disarming smile. “They’re just from another universe made out of cubes, of course they’d have no idea about ours!”

“What,” Carrot deadpanned.

“Yeah, I know, cubes, right? So weird. But also cool!”

Carrot gave Derpy the “I really, really want to be mad at you” look. It melted away in seconds, as it always did. “Fine, fine…”

“Ah’m sure we can help you get back to Ponyville,” Adder said, holding out a hoof. “...Hold on, Derpy, right?”

“Yep!” Derpy said, saluting with her wing proudly. “I’m Derpy Hooves, and this is my best friend ever, Carrot Top!”

“We met last week,” Carrot Top deadpanned.

“And I already know you like the back of my hoof.”

“Which is still slightly disturbing, I have to admit.”

Adder coughed. “Derpy, you can fly, right?”

Derpy fluttered into the air, smirking. “Jealous?”

“Not really. Just wonderin’ why you didn’t fly overhead to get a better view of the landscape.”

Derpy blinked. “Huh. I didn’t think of that.”

Carrot let out a sound somewhere between gagging and crying. “We should have done that hours ago, augh! Stupid, stupid, she has wings of course we could have used them augh.”

Derpy blushed. “Eheh… I’ll just go fly up now and have a look ar—”

“Nopony move,” Cinder said, horn suddenly aflame. Were she not looking at the forest around them untrustingly, Derpy would have thought the filly was threatening her.

“What is it?” Adder asked.

“I don’t know…” Cinder hissed back. “I was sure I heard something.”

“I’ve been hearing things all day,” Carrot added, squishing closer to the two fillies. “Derpy says I’m crazy.”

“You are. All of you.” Derpy folded her front hooves and floated a little higher into the air. “There’s nothing here except moss, ruins, and old pony skeletons.” She gestured at a helmeted skeleton leaning against a pillar of stone.

“SWEET CELESTIA!” Carrot shrieked. “A skeleton!? I…” She took a few shaky steps back, unable to handle the sight of dead pony in front of her.

“...That wasn’t there before, was it?” Adder asked.

“Nope,” Cinder said, unleashing a fireball into the skeleton, igniting the bones.

With the grinding sound of death itself, the skeleton rose and gnashed its teeth, losing one in the process. The fire was doing nothing to harm the beast; if anything it only made the undead equine more menacing.

Derpy’s fear response finally kicked in and she started screaming. It was hard to hear her screams over Carrot’s shrill panic.

Their shouts were evidently a signal of some sort. The moment their voices rang out into the forest, dozens of skeletons burst out of their hiding spots all around them, gnashing their teeth and moving forward with slow, confident steps.

Derpy moved without thinking. She picked Carrot off the ground with her hooves and flew over the undead army, smacking one of them in the head with Carrot’s lower hoof. The poor farmer let out a disgusted squeal, letting Derpy know she still had enough awareness to feel squeamish.

Out of the corner of her left eye, she caught Cinder and Adder rushing to keep up with them. Before she could turn to help them, Adder had pulled some kind of blade out of her bow that sparked with yellow light, cutting right through the skeleton Carrot’s hoof had decapitated earlier. The two fillies burst through the bones with a rush of energy, easily keeping up with Derpy’s weighted flight.

“There!” Cinder shouted, pointing to a cave. “Get in there, I can seal us in!”

“SEAL US IN!?” Carrot shouted.

“Trust me, It’ll work!”

Derpy decided she trusted Cinder. With a deep breath, she rushed into the cave.

https://youtu.be/2FpaeJgidAI

Cinder blasted the roof of the cavern with a burst of fire magic, breaking the worn rock and triggering a minor cave-in. Derpy and Carrot were already past the point where this was a danger to them, but Adder had to do a quick leap to avoid a falling rock. One of the skeletons was crushed, tossing its skull into the cavern.

“Be a bit more care—”

Whatever Adder’s complaint might have been, it was drowned out by Derpy’s scream.

They had successfully gotten away from a mob of skeletons only to be confronted by a massive spider four times the size of a pony. It wore a tattered cape with a black cross on the back, likely pilfered from somewhere deep within the ruinous cavern. A handful of baby spiders—still larger than Derpy’s head—clung to the larger one’s legs, trembling.

The spider did what any mother protecting her young would do: hiss in rage and spread her fangs.

Cinder jumped in front of Derpy, brandishing a fiery hoof. “Back! Back!”

The spider backed away, but spat back. “You back.”

“Rock slide, not happening!” Cinder pushed forward, lighting some of the webbing on the ground aflame.

“Spiders can talk!?” Derpy gawked.

“T-Twilight m-mentioned some s-spider people before…” Carrot stammered.

Cinder tossed fire onto the ground, igniting more webbing and pushing the spiders back further.

“Get out of my nest!” The spider hissed.

“We don’t have anywh—”

The spider flung her abdomen to launch her children further into the cave. While they were flying, she jumped through the fire and pinned Cinder to the ground, fangs bared.

Adder’s glowing blade came down. With surprising agility, the spider rolled out of the way and swatted Adder to the side.

“Run!” Cinder shouted to Derpy. She didn’t need to be told twice. Flapping frantically, she scooped Carrot up and blasted into the air, narrowly avoiding smacking her head on the ceiling of the cavern. Unable to return the way they came, she had to rush through the small fire Cinder had started.

Carrot screamed—not in fear, but in pain. With panic, Derpy realized that one of her friend’s hooves had caught fire. Panicking, she lost control of her flight, crashing into a nearby wall. The two of them rolled down the wall, dazed, but no part of them was on fire anymore.

They were, however, stuck in a bunch of spiderwebs that would soon be aflame.

“Why does this happen to us!?” Carrot cried, breathless. “I just wanted to sell my carrots… That’s all I wanted!”

“I’m sorry…” Derpy said, looking down. “I got us lost…”

Carrot clenched her teeth. “Y-yeah, but I should have known better, and…” She didn’t finish the thought.

“Adder!” Cinder shouted as she pushed the spider back with more fire. “Get them out of there!”

Adder’s blade cut through the webbing with ease, dropping the two ponies to the ground. “This way!” She shouted, running deeper into the cave. Derpy checked to make sure there was no fire around before picking up Carrot again and rushing after the speedy filly.

Glancing behind, Derpy saw Cinder lighting all the webbing she could on fire, all the while dodging the spider’s attacks. Eventually, Cinder lit the ground itself aflame in such a way that the spider didn’t think it was safe to jump across.

“Bye!” Cinder said, waving mockingly.

“Get back here!” The spider hissed. “This is not your place!”

“How do you know that?” Cinder asked, running after the others.

“There!” Derpy pointed. Ahead, in a part of the cavern that opened up considerably, there was a building carved out of the stone. A warm glow came from the doorway.

“There might be more spiders in there!” Carrot called.

“There’s more spiders everywhere else too!” Adder shouted, pointing at all the webs lining the caves everywhere except around the carved structure. “It’s our best bet!”

“Got it!” Derpy pushed her wings, increasing her speed. Just before she arrived at the doorway, she flared her wings to slow her progress so she wouldn’t ram herself into the floor again.

She could hear a lot of spiders moving around outside. Following them.

A flash of light told her Cinder had lit more webs on fire. Continuing to fly forward, Derpy glanced back to see dozens of massive spiders crawling toward them en-masse.

She hoped what waited for her on the other side of the doorway was friendlier than the arachnids.

https://youtu.be/nURon556-BQ

Carrot prayed that whatever lay on the other side of the doorway wasn’t as terrifying as the spider-infested cave.

She got her wish.

As Derpy wildly carried her through the arch, the brilliant interior made Carrot forget her panic for a moment. The hall within was glorious, and in remarkably good condition for how old it was. Banners of a deep crimson red lined the walls, many of which were covered in brilliant paintings featuring Celestia, Luna, skeletons, and spiders. There were an unusually large amount of chains hanging around the hall, giving its beauty an ominous undertone.

Carrot’s curious mind fixed on one particular resident of the hall—a tall, golden earth pony with a rippling mane of blue and a multi-tipped black crown. Her cutie mark was that of a segmented gray heart, while her eyes were calm and understanding.

They locked with Carrot’s, and suddenly the farmpony knew she would be safe. This mare would protect them.

“Come with me,” the mare said, gesturing away.

“O-okay,” Carrot stammered.

Derpy crashed into a wall since she wasn’t looking where she was going.

“Augh! Derpy!” Carrot shouted. “You’re going to break one of my legs!”

“Sorry!” Derpy said, jumping to her hooves. “But there are spiders and I don’t know how much we can run an—”

“She’ll stop them,” Carrot said, pointing to the unicorn.

“Who the…?”

Adder rolled into the hall. “Cinder come on!”

Cinder let out a burst of fire. “How is getting in there going to help us? I’m pretty sure they’re rabid spiders or something!”

“Narrow doors are easier to defend!”

Cinder released a burst of fire beneath her hooves, jumping through the door. She turned to face the spiders. As it turned out, she didn’t have to. The golden mare’s crown lit up like a horn and created a wall of solid ice, freezing the spiders out.

The sounds of their scratching came from the other side of the ice, but everything else was muffled.

“Huh,” Cinder said, turning to greet their benefactor. “Nice trick.”

“It is the least I can do,” the mare offered.

“Thank you!” Carrot trotted up to her and grinned. “You have no idea how much we’ve been through, I can’t even begin to express how grateful we are!”

“Yeah,” Derpy said, uncertain. “Thanks.”

“Who are you?” Adder asked, cocking her head.

“I am Shiva,” the mare responded, tracing her hoof along the ground, leaving a decorative ice trail behind. “And this is no place for ponies to tarry… the spiders will break through that barrier eventually.”

“What do we do?” Carrot asked her, pleading.

“There are other ways out of this place. I’m here, after all.” Shiva smiled warmly. “Come, before they decide to grab an ice pick.”

Cinder nodded. “Right. Which way?”

Shiva pointed a hoof, trails of sparkling ice following her motions. She gestured at one of the large paintings on the wall. On the left was Celestia, mane pink as it was in ancient times, glaring down at a skeletal pony coming out of the ground. On the right flew Luna, affixed to the cross mark of a giant spider. In the middle was a physical doorway brimming with Shiva’s ice.

Shiva stepped through the door, Carrot close by her side. They came out into a cold cavern that had an underground river running through it. A single dinghy with a bright lantern waited for them, creaking slightly with the ripples of the water.

“This might be a tight fit…” Shiva mused. “But I’m sure we can make do.”

“I’ll drive!” Derpy said, jumping to the front. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Best idea Ah’ve heard all day,” Adder said.

https://youtu.be/gEeugA_vDIA

Shiva was the last one in the boat, pushing them off with her telekinesis. Her flowing tail touched the water as they moved, marking it with ice.

“You’re leaking ice magic,” Cinder observed.

“Isn’t it cool?” Carrot asked, only realizing a second later how silly that sounded. “Uh, I mean…”

“It is.” Shiva smirked coyly. “I spent so much time studying my craft it became part of me. I am quite sorry if I chill any of you with an accidental touch.”

“I’m used to it,” Cinder said. “I know this filly, goes by the name of Cryo, freezes a lot of things all the time.”

Shiva corked an eyebrow. “A master ice mage? Your counterpart, I presume?”

“...Sort of?” Cinder tilted her hoof back and forth.

“So… beautiful,” Carrot said, watching the ice form from Shiva’s tail in the waters behind them. As the boat drifted onward, the ice path behind them expanded to cover the entire river. No boats would be following after them, a fact which Carrot was thankful for. The thought of spiders getting in dinghys and pursuing… She didn’t even want to imagine it.

She’d had enough thinking for the day, frankly, it seemed to end in her screaming a lot.

“Why are you down here, anyway?” Cinder asked.

“My magic is closer to the lands of this river,” Shiva explained. “I can practice my craft here with relative ease.”

“Don’t you get lonely?” Carrot asked.

“...Sometimes,” Shiva admitted. “But I will be leaving soon, returning to my previous explorations.”

“Wow, it’s lucky we got here before you left!”

Shiva fixed Carrot with a knowing smile. “It truly is fortunate, is it not?”

“Is there anyone else down here?” Cinder asked.

“Not anymore,” Shiva answered, gesturing with a hoof to the river bank.

There, crumbled and broken, were the remnants of a city. There were homes, bridges, statues, and pillars that might once have been brilliant. Every last one—abandoned. Decrepit. Dead. And yet, Carrot didn’t find it terrifying like she’d found so much else on this journey. With the serene, calm river and the presence of Shiva’s ice it seemed almost… beautiful.

Cinder frowned. “What happened to them?”

“There was a battle in ancient times. This city was swallowed up by the earth in the aftermath.”

“How terrible…” Carrot bemoaned.

“Yes…” Shiva sighed.

“Kinda like the Crystal Empire?” Cinder asked.

“...The what?” Shiva asked, cocking her head.

“Oh! You must not have gotten out much recently!” Carrot squealed. “An ancient city in the Frozen North popped out of some kind of magic seal a year ago!”

Shiva smirked in Cinder’s direction. “That certainly explains why I know nothing of it. Please, tell me more of this Crystal Empire.”

Carrot did as asked, telling what little she knew of the Crystal Empire’s story, having only heard about it secondhoof. The stories in her mind were enough to keep them occupied for most of the journey through the lost city, however.

“...And then Sombra was eliminated by the Crystal Heart,” Carrot finished some time later. “The power of love!”

“A formidable force, as always,” Shiva admitted.

“There’s something watching us,” Cinder said, suddenly alert. “There. The bridge.”

Shiva frowned. “There are beasts in these caverns, but they know not to approach me.”

“They look like… I don’t know. Dogs?”

“Frost Timberwolves,” Shiva explained. “Trapped down here with everything else, and not gifted the pity of death. They will be no trouble as long as I am with you.”

“Hmm…” Cinder scratched her chin. “...How much longer?”

“Not much at all. You will be able to see the tower around the next bend of the river. It has an exit not crawling with vicious spiders.”

“Thank Celestia,” Carrot breathed. “We’re going to get out of here…”

“You’re still lost,” Adder reminded them.

“I know the way back to civilization,” Shiva explained. “I can put you on the right path, do not worry.” She lifted Carrot’s head up with her hoof. It was cold to the touch, but not callous. “The terror is all behind you, now.”

https://youtu.be/6j14xOiEf2c

The tower’s wall had broken in, revealing the winding staircase to the chilled elements. Many mysterious runes lined the stone walls, and the stairs themselves seemed to glow with a faint warmth. They couldn’t see the top, for it disappeared into the cavernous ceiling.

“There is our way out,” Shiva said, bringing the boat to a stop. “Watch your step, it might be slippery.”

Shiva, Carrot, and Cinder took point. Adder stayed behind to tie up the boat. Derpy just sat on the ground, looking up at the staircase.

“Uh, you okay?”

Not really, Derpy thought. “I’m fine. Just a lot of stuff happening, you know? Heheh…”

Adder raised an eyebrow. “Now Ah mighta just met you less than an hour ago, but Ah’m pretty sure it’s more than that.”

Derpy looked up the stairs that their three companions were ascending. Even with her lopsided eyes, she could still focus intently on Shiva, saying something that made Carrot laugh a bit too much.

“Don’t trust her, huh?”

“N-no, it’s not that!” Derpy stammered.

Adder raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, fine,” Derpy threw her wings up in surrender. “I don’t really trust her. She just happened to be down here? Just when we needed her? And Carrot just likes her suddenly for no good reason?”

Adder’s eyebrow didn’t come down.

“...I’m not jealous.” Derpy huffed.

“Pretty sure y’are.”

Derpy sagged. “Yeah… I’m just a jealous little bird-brain, huh?”

“Ah didn’t say that,” Adder said, starting to ascend the stairs. “Ah just said you’re jealous. Don’t mean you’re stupid.”

“But…” Derpy flew ahead of her, frowning. “I’m just upset for no good reason. Just…” She looked up at the three ponies above them, hearing more laughter. “She made friends with them so easily. When Carrot and I met, it wasn’t like that…”

“For the record, Ah don’t think Cinder trusts her either.”

Derpy blinked. “What? She’s up there, paying attention to everything she says like some kind of… of… sheep.” Derpy blinked. “Wait, no, that was bad, I’m sorry…”

Adder smirked. “It’s fine. She really is watchin’ everythin’ Shiva says. But Ah’m pretty sure she’s trynna figure her out. See what she’s hidin’ from us.”

“...You don’t trust her either?”

“Cinder has a sense for this sort of thing,” Adder explained. “And she gave me one of those looks of hers when Shiva wasn’t lookin’. Somethin’s up with our icy friend.”

“Are we in danger?”

“Maybe. Could just be that she has a secret she doesn’t want to say. Could be she’s not alone down here and wants us gone to protect whoever else lives down here. Hard to say, just be careful. Carrot’s clearly trustin’ her… but Cinder’ll watch over her, don’t you worry.”

Derpy nodded. “I’m going to catch up.”

“Ah. Right. Wings. Ah’ll keep up the rear, look for ambushes or somethin’.” She brandished her blade and smirked.

“What is that thing, anyway?” Derpy asked.

Adder shrugged. “It’s called a lightsaber. Supposedly used by fancy space-wizards or somethin’. Ah just found it on a train one day.”

“Weird.”

“You have no idea.”

With a shrug, Derpy flew up the staircase, catching up to Shiva and the others easily. This close to the icy mare, the stairs were all but completely frozen. Carrot walked with Shiva’s tail carefully guiding her forward, while Cinder’s steaming hooves melted the ice as she walked.

“Look at all these carvings…” Cinder said, placing a hoof on a solid chunk of wall they were passing that portrayed skeletons, spiders, and windigos trapped in deadly, chaotic combat. “What do they show?”

“The town had a windigo problem, best I can tell,” Shiva said. “Likely related to whatever sealed them down here.”

“Windigos, spiders, and skeletons…” Cinder scratched her chin. “Just seems odd, to me. Windigos are usually emotional creatures that go only where the violence and anger feeds them. Skeletons need something to resurrect them. And spiders… well I guess the spiders are just normal people in all this, strangely.”

“You are very knowledgeable for one so young,” Shiva observed. “Have you been adventuring long?”

“Less than a year, actually!” Cinder chuckled. “But you’d be surprised what can happen in that time.”

“Wow, you two are so amazing,” Carrot said, making Derpy wince.

“We are,” Cinder said, grinning. “Say, we’ve run into the skeletons and spiders, I wonder if we’ll run into any windigos?”

“Perhaps they turned into the frost timberwolves,” Shiva suggested. “They are the only other creature down here I am aware of. Their immaterial forms would not be able to sustain themselves naturally in such an abandoned, lifeless place.”

“Huh. Still haven’t figured it all out yet?”

“Despite what it may seem, I am no archeologist,” Shiva chuckled.

“What are you then?”

“A simple sorcerer. Ah—here we are!”

They came to the top of the staircase at last, approaching a massive golden door with statues of Celestia and Luna on either side. Carved into the gold was a relief depicting four horse heads, one of which was set with a glowing magic crystal.

“This is the exit?” Carrot asked.

Shiva nodded. “Would you like to do the honors?”

“Yes!” Carrot bounded to the door.

Derpy immediately got a sinking feeling. “Carrot!”

Carrot touched her hoof to the door…

...Cinder dropped all pretense and drove a paper blade into Shiva’s leg.

Shiva glanced at Cinder with an amused smile. “It appears fire is not your only trick, filly.” She gestured to the door with a hoof. “Here… have one of mine.”

The doors opened all the way, revealing nothing but solid white energy.

Derpy screamed for Carrot again, flying as fast as she could toward her.

https://youtu.be/9luajXttBko

There was a vortex in the sky.

Sky?

Derpy’s lopsided eyes forced themselves into focus. There was a sky, all right. A swirling sky of ominous red clouds that coalesced on a single red vortex. Beyond the swirl, everything was dark, almost formless, aside from the free standing doorframe that led back to the staircase.

She could feel the grit of sand beneath her hooves. It felt wrong, like it was partially alive, yet far too cold to be any normal creature.

Derpy’s confusion was replaced with horror when she saw Carrot hanging in the air by an icy telekinetic aura clearly coming from Shiva. The poor earth pony’s mouth was open in a silent scream as the icy magic twisted around her.

Cinder was on the ground, papery sword in one hoof and fire swirling around her.

“Don’t you have any other tricks?” Shiva asked mockingly.

“Probably!” Cinder responded, using one of the few general magic spells at her disposal: accelerate. She zipped behind the unicorn, lashing at her back leg. No blood came out—only rigid, callous ice that kept Cinder from retrieving her blade.

“I do as well…” Shiva tapped her hoof on the ground. The world shook, listening to her simple call. Three massive dragons of ice erupted from the ground behind Shiva, raising their rubble-encrusted wings to the vortex in the sky as if in reverence.

Cinder’s confident smile vanished. “You know, I kinda suspected I was going to lose, but I did want a bit more of a fight.”

“No fear…” Shiva frowned. “You and I are going to have a lot of very long conversations, little filly.”

Cinder shrugged. “Eh, maybe, maybe not. I may not be able to take down a dragon but I’ll still tr—”

The dragons interrupted her by breathing bursts of snow. Cinder surrounded herself in a flaming sphere, flinging the snow away. She let out a childish laugh and increased the heat of the fire—missing the ice crawling up her legs until it was too late.

Shiva’s horn sparked with a white power, flash-freezing Cinder from beneath. What had once been a raging filly was replaced with a frozen mare, trapped in ice as though floating. Her eyes and mouth were still able to move, a fact she found… ridiculous, for some reason.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Cinder grunted.

“How would I talk to you if you were really frozen solid?” Shiva chuckled. “Now… watch and learn about true power…” She pointed a hoof at Carrot, encasing her in a frigid glow. Carrot rocked with pain, but still, no sound came from her. “I have been trapped here for longer than you know, filly. Chained by impossible magics to the very earth in this world. I am, naturally, a spirit of the air… I could not face my imprisonments. Until you brought her to me. I’ll just drain her… and be FREE!” From behind her, spirits of dark blue windigos appeared, rising into the air.

“Hey! Found them!” Cinder laughed.

Shiva twitched. “Your stupid bravery is annoying.”

“Eh, I do what I can.”

“Maybe I’ll kill this mare in front of you to punish you for your insolence.” Shiva dragged Carrot Top to the ground, pressing down with a powerful aura.

“You need her,” Cinder said, unconvinced.

Derpy was not able to see the logic of this. “No!” She shouted, rushing forward in a blind attempt to pull Carrot out of danger.

“Ah, the idiot.” Shiva turned her attention to Derpy for the first time. “You just couldn't bring yourself to say anything. Couldn’t help. And can’t save her!” A massive wall of ice shot forward. Derpy was barely able to swerve out of its grasp. Instead, she hit a rock, breaking it in half—revealing Adder, who had been poised to unleash a surprise attack with her lightsaber.

“D-derpy!” Adder shouted.

“Sorry!” Derpy shivered. “I just don’t know what…”

“The last hope, revealed by a klutz,” Shiva cackled. “You really are quite a batch of interesting fools. Freeze with your friends.” A wave of ice cascaded toward both of them.

Dozens of skeletons erupted from the doorway, throwing themselves between the flow of ice and the two ponies. Shiva, for all her power, could not force the ice through the wall of pony bones.

Derpy blinked. “Wh…”

“They’re helpin’ us, Ah ain’t complaining!” Adder shouted. “We can still do somethin’!”

Shiva glowered. “No, you can’t.” She pointed a hoof, and the dragons listened. Snow flew toward them at high velocity.

A unicorn skeleton wearing a brilliant red cloak removed himself from the pile and lit its horn, encasing itself, the two living ponies, and a number of skeletons in a magic aura.

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Shiva shouted.

The skeleton didn’t listen, teleporting them away before the dragon’s snow could hit.

Shiva roared in rage, shattering her ice with the shrill tone.

https://youtu.be/LXMKBud-ECM

Derpy, Adder, and several skeletons appeared within a cave. The red vortex swirled outside, but it was distant—possibly miles away.

“Carrot…” Derpy said, tears rolling down her face. “I…”

“We’ll get her back,” Adder said, standing strong. “Or Cinder’ll bust her out herself, but… you know. We won’t let Shiva get away with this.”

“What are we going to do?” Derpy wailed. “She’s got ice dragons and magic and… you’ve got that fancy sword, and I’m just a klutz…”

“It’s not just us, we have some skeleton allies, apparently!” Adder turned to the robed skeleton. “What’s your name?”

He clacked his jaw, pointing out that he had no tongue.

“Ah…” Adder frowned. “Can you write somethin’ down so we can talk?”

“I can speak for him,” a familiar voice called. The spider that had worn the cape skittered down from the ceiling, landing on the floor. “For all of them, really.”

Derpy backed away, whimpering.

“I do not wish to harm you,” the spider said, sighing. “I only wanted to scare you away from this place so she would not get you.”

“...Are you some kind of guardians?” Adder asked.

The spider nodded. “The Lost Guard and my people live within this realm, ensuring Shiva is never able to return to the world.”

“And we messed that up…” Derpy sagged. “We should have run the other direction... “

“You really should have,” the spider huffed. “Now we’ve got a big problem. She’s going to slowly release herself and bring her frozen army to life. She’ll break out of this realm and lay waste to Equestria.”

The unicorn skeleton nudged her, lighting his horn on fire.

The spider paused. “...You can’t be serious.”

The unicorn nodded.

“Looks like you’re lucky. General Inferno thinks you’re the ‘hero of legend’.”

Adder blinked. “Uh, really?”

With a sigh, the spider shook her head. “I wish he was talking about you.”

Derpy paused. “Wait… what?”

General Inferno pointed at Derpy and nodded.

“M-me?! I’m just a—”

General Inferno shook his head. He stamped his hoof on the ground and nodded.

The spider put a foot to her face. “Oh for the… he wants to give you the burning blade. Right. Just give an inexperienced pegasus a legendary weapon, what could go wrong?”

Adder twirled her lightsaber around. “Ah dunno, magic swords do seem to work pretty well even if you’re inexperienced!” Adder grinned at Derpy. “Whaddoya say, wanna grab a magic sword and go get Carrot and Cinder back?”

“And stop Shiva from freezing Equestria,” the spider added. ‘Don’t forget that.”

Derpy took in a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and set her jaw. “Let’s do this.”

Her left eye drifted lazily to the side.

“She’s not going to be able to hit anything…” the spider groaned.

General Inferno smacked her.

~~~

“Earth ponies, so many consider you the meekest of the races…” Shiva told Carrot through her frozen prison. Carrot wanted to run, to flee, but everything but her face was frozen in place—all she could do was whimper and cry. “And yet, you hold a connection to the most fundamental forces, the earth itself. The earth that keeps me bound.” She traced her hoof that burned with icy flames along Carrot’s prison. “With every minute more of my power is unleashed, thanks to you, little farmer.”

“N-no…” Carrot trembled, trying not to look at the frozen skeletons to her side. They still moved from time to time, reminding her that they were just as tormented as she was.

“And the only hero that could save you… is right over here!” Shiva turned to Cinder.

Cinder yawned. “Are you done being hammy, yet?”

Shiva scowled. “You were the strongest warrior they had, and I bested you with ease. There is no help coming for you, they fled!”

“Yeah, I don’t think Adder or Derpy would just leave us like this.”

“Ah, yes, the fool’s return. A common tactic, one I have enjoyed devastating time and time again…” She chuckled. “Let them come and let them die. Now…” She laid one of her swirling hooves on Cinder’s icy prison. “You’re going to tell me what I need to know…”

“Can I comment about how stupid this ice spell is again? I can still talk! Th—”

“It’s specially designed so I can question my victims!” Shiva snapped. “You are one of them. You are going to tell me the secrets of your power and where you come from.”

“Hmm… nah. You aren’t going to kill me, and you need Carrot alive, so…”

“I will hunt down your friends and disembowel them.”

“You’ll do that no matter what I tell you, so… nah.”

Shiva twitched. “I’m not sure what’s more infuriating. Your lack of fear or your apparent experience with this sort of interaction.”

Cinder smirked. “I’ve been around the block a few times, apparently! Want to hear about that time I defeated a goddess of fire?”

“Yes.”

“Too bad, not telling you.”

Shiva smacked Cinder’s prison, knocking her upside-down. “Insolent filly!”

https://youtu.be/0kEbfg1UWRo

General Inferno took Derpy and Adder outside the cavern. The vortex still swirled in the distance, an ominous reminder of the evil of Shiva that was yet to be unleashed. But now that there were no longer rock walls blocking everything, Derpy could see a civilization. Mostly composed of spiders, but there were a fair amount of pony skeletons trotting around the dark buildings.

“Wow…” Adder blinked. “All of you, hidin’ in another universe.”

The spider—whose name was Richit—looked at her in surprise. “You are aware of other planes?”

Adder nodded. “Ah’m from one, same as Cinder. It’s where Ah got this.” She swirled her lightsaber around. “Isn’t that right, Derpy?”

“Yep,” Derpy agreed, trying to look cheerful. “There was a portal with cubes on the other side!”

Richit examined Adder’s weapon. “Powerful, and very dangerous. What can it slice through?”

“Basically anythin’ that ain’t magic shieldin’,” Adder answered. “It can also reflect some things too!”

“...And our legendary weapon just lights on fire.”

“You’re giving me a flaming sword!?” Derpy gawked, more than a little terrified of letting herself use the power of fire.

“See?” Richit twitched. “Inferno, even she has reservations!”

General Inferno shook his head.

“Why are you so stubborn?”

“Ah think he just knows what to do,” Adder said. “One of those mystic-types.”

“The prophecy of the hero is a legitimate one, but…”

“The chosen one is always unexpected,” Adder said. “Or, uh, Ah think that’s what Cinder would say. She’s better at this sort of thing than Ah am.”

“Is your companion a prophet?”

“Not… exactly?” Adder rubbed the back of her head. “Ah don’t really get it myself.”

“...Not important anyway. She is captured by Shiva. She cannot help us.”

Adder shrugged.

Eventually, they came to a town square of sorts. Spiders and skeletons gathered to watch as General Inferno walked up to a podium, red cape flapping in the breeze. With a crack of his bones, he placed his hooves on the ground and warmed it.

As though the cobbled street were made of liquid, a sword’s hilt rose. He grabbed it in his teeth and tossed it to Derpy. In a shocking display of dexterity, she caught it directly in her mouth. Sparking from contact with her, the blade erupted into a bright flame that somehow knew to spark away from her face so as not to burn it.

Derpy stared at the fire with one of her eyes, frozen.

“Feel it for a bit,” Richit said. “Ever swung a sword before?”

“Nuh-uh,” Derpy grunted through the blade.

“Right…” Richit sighed. “Then we will pray the enchantments on the blade let you strike true.”

General Inferno tapped his sword on the ground, pointing at Adder.

“You wanna duel?” Adder frowned. “Ah don’t wanna cut your sword in half, or your bones…”

Richit snorted. “He’s not going to back down from a challenge he set out. You can’t kill him, skeletons are resolute that way.”

“Oh, good, that means Ah didn’t kill any of you outside…” Adder let out a sigh of relief. “Ah was startin’ to wonder.”

Inferno jumped, head bursting into flames. Adder swung her lightsaber and cut his blade in half, rendering it harmless. Without missing a beat, Inferno generated a sword made entirely of magical flame. Adder’s lightsaber went straight through the flames, since there was no substance to them.

Adder froze as the General’s fire approached her neck. “A-alright, you win this one.”

Inferno dissipated his fire spell. Then he trotted up to Adder and started positioning her hooves. Given how she held her blade in her front hooves rather than her mouth, Inferno focused on how she planted her back hooves. After a bit of wobbling, she found herself standing upright without too much difficulty, bracing her lightsaber’s hilt in both hooves. “Like this?”

General Inferno nodded. Then he came at her again with a flaming blade from the get-go. Adder jumped into the air and twisted toward his neck. She was unable to stop herself and cut right through the spine.

“AUGH!” Adder sputtered. “Ah didn—”

Inferno’s skull levitated itself off the ground and placed itself back on his body. Cracking his neck a few times, he returned his focus to Adder. Now that he was actually fighting, she didn’t stand a chance.

Derpy watched in fascination as Adder struggled to get a way in edgewise, easily getting knocked to the ground by the superior swordspony. “Wow…”

“Not really impressive,” Richit commented. “Adder may have an exceptionally lethal and effective weapon, but I can see her clear inexperience. Inferno isn’t even trying that hard. She needs a proper teacher, and we don’t have time for this…”

Derpy looked to the vortex, narrowing her yes. “Yeah…”

Inferno nodded to Adder after knocking her to the ground once more. He held out a hoof and a small skeleton gave him another physical sword. Turning to Derpy, he challenged her.

“Uh… I don’t know how to fight…”

Inferno charged.

Derpy moved to block, and the sword listened to her command. It intercepted Inferno’s metal with almost no effort from her part. Inferno broke off, coming at her from several angles, only for her to think block and deflect every blow to come at her.

Inferno began using complex maneuvers, feints, and jumps in an attempt to get an opening, but Derpy’s flaming sword wouldn’t let him get anything in edgewise with just the solid blade. He had to resort to summoning a second blade to keep Derpy’s occupied to point the other one at her neck.

Derpy stared at the metal point millimeters away from cutting her skin and swallowed hard.

“Fine,” Richit muttered. “The sword accepts her as the chosen one. Fine. Maybe it’ll be useful.”

General Inferno nodded. Motioning to his skeletons, they started outfitting Derpy in armor.

“Woah… cool!”

Richit cleared her throat. “Before you can go face Shiva and save your friend, you do need to learn more. We may not have time, but that sword of yours can do more than just block. Prepare yourself for an hour of training Tartarus.”

“...What?”

“Let’s start by learning how to dodge.”

“How will I—”

“DODGE!”

https://youtu.be/0pxCY1zvES4

Carrot no longer dared to look outside her prison. She kept her eyes shut. One look at the windigos erupting from the ground behind Shiva was enough to convince the poor mare she didn’t need to see anymore. Dragons, ice monsters, and Celestia knew what else had started coalescing around the icy mare.

Carrot could only wish the ice would let her fold her ears back. But it didn’t. She could hear the snarling, the howling, and the occasional bout of ominous laughter.

But even that wasn’t the worst of it. No, the worst part was the drain she could feel. A claw of cold ice clutched around her heart, sapping it of energy. She was no magician, and she had never paid much attention in thaumic studies, but Carrot could tell Shiva was using her earth pony magic to bring the icy creatures from the earth and restore power to herself.

Shiva definitely wasn’t a pony. But she wasn't a windigo either. Carrot didn’t know what she was. Whatever it was, it was evil.

“What’s the ice army for?” Cinder asked, making Carrot wince. Why do you have to ask all these questions? I don’t need to know there’s an ice army outside!

“Where do your paper artifacts come from?” Shiva responded in kind.

“Oooh! We get to trade questions?”

“...Sure,” Shiva relented. “It should be… amusing.”

“Good! I’ll go first. I replaced a mare called Woona who had the ability to fold paper into inconceivably ridiculous objects, and when I left I found I still had the ability. Your turn.”

“The army is for those infernal Celestial skeletons and Lunar spiders,” Shiva commented. “They followed me into this realm and built their societies to watch me. Always watched by the forces that trapped me within this ground…” There was a sharp chuckle. “Your turn again, little pony. What is your real name?”

“Cinder ‘Sweetie’ Belle. I was born Sweetie, but the name change is official.”

“Hmm…” Carrot didn’t like Shiva’s tone.

“I’m going to assume your name is actually Shiva. How long until you’re fully free?”

“A few hours at most.” Carrot could hear Shiva’s hoof drag across the ice. “What is your plan to defeat me?”

“Wait for rescue, pretty much. You really do have me stuck here.”

“Your confidence is baffling.”

“Maybe you could ask why I have it next!” Cinder chuckled. “But first, my question… how did you and all these monsters get trapped down here?”

“Monsters…?” Shiva cackled, quickly devolving into manic, deranged laughter. “Do these look like monsters to you?”

Carrot felt herself move sharply upward. Out of instinct, she opened her eyes to behold the world below. Gone was the black sand of the earth, in its place were sweeping spires of ice spreading out like a thorny flower. Beasts of all sorts lined in formation: windigos both wispy and solid, frost giants, dragons of snow, and several other beasts all attuned to Shiva’s ice.

With a shriek, Carrot shut her eyes again.

“Yeah, pretty sure that shriek means they’re monsters.”

“Am I a monster then?”

Cinder snorted. “Not all monsters are ugly. Some are rotten on the inside.”

“Oh, what compliments…”

“By the way, you still haven’t answered my question. How?”

“How? Why... I suppose there is no harm in showing you my true might…”

https://youtu.be/AgzLJlAA5wA

Derpy sat in front of a fireplace, taking a rest from all the intense training.

She still couldn’t believe how she’d taken to the magic sword. She’d defended, attacked, flew, swiped, jumped, and (eventually) dodged. Adder had even commented that she probably couldn’t beat Derpy anymore unless she got a lucky hit off and cut the flaming blade in half.

“I still don’t understand,” Richit admitted, sitting down next to Derpy. “The sword is said to choose its hero. Why you?”

Derpy shrugged. “So… I can get Carrot back?”

“Maybe it’s making you fix your mistakes,” Richit mused.

“We… did cause all of this, didn’t we?”

“Hey!” Adder shouted. “Give Derpy a break, she didn’t do anythin’ wrong. All she’s done since we got here was try to save everypony, one way or another. Doesn’t always work, but she was tryin’. ...Ah’m not sure we coulda done anythin’, either. Cinder tried to jump Shiva at the door, but…”

“We were trying to herd you away from the ruins,” Richit hissed. “Derpy’s unpredictable motions kept us from fulfilling our duty. ...And Cinder’s fire, but the fire should never have gotten you past the skeletons outside.”

Derpy looked at the ground. “I guess I’m just a mess-up, huh?”

Richit clacked her mandibles together. “You have a heart of determination, at the very least.”

“Yeah…” she stood up to her full height. “Yeah! I do! And I’m going to save Carrot!”

“You better.”

“Ah’ll be at your back,” Adder said, saluting. “Gonna put some of those new tricks Inferno showed me to the test!”

A young spider ran into the room, falling flat on his face. “We… we’re running out of time!”

“What!?” Richit blurted. “She shouldn’t be close to out for hours!”

“She’s taking her army out first! They’re mobilizing!”

“For the love of Luna’s abdomen,” Richit growled. “Tell General Inferno to mobilize our forces for a full charge! We won’t let them reach the city!”

“A-already done.”

“Break time’s over?” Derpy asked.

“More than you know,” Richit said.

“Good.” She slung her sword over her back. “Carrot’s probably getting cold.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzrW_qnYBe4

“Both of you,” Shiva said. “Pay attention…”

Carrot kept her eyes closed.

“I said pay attention!”

Carrot’s eyes were forced open, but she didn’t see the icy army, Cinder, or Shiva. All she saw was the landscape of a war. On one side was a horde of undead ponykind. On the other was a mass of giant spiders. They surged toward each other across the empty taiga, closing the distance between them with the thunder of a thousand steps.

The skeletons moved with only the sound of their bones clacking against each other, while the spiders let out a collective shriek of anger and rage. Carrot didn’t want to see the war, she couldn’t stand the thought of seeing a bloody conflict even between the most savage of monsters. But her eyes were forced to see.

Behind the army of skeletons, the sun rose, heralding the coming of Princess Celestia. She was nothing like what Carrot knew. Gone was the regal serenity and the pastel mane, in its place was a gaunt alicorn with a cold blue-green mane, her features so angular that she almost looked like a skeleton herself. Her golden armor reflected the sun behind her, sending rays to the world below.

The spiders had their own champion, coming with the rising moon. A smaller alicorn of darkness and nightmares, flashing in and out of existence with the power of the stars. Luna’s form was full, giving her a more commanding presence than her counterpart.

Mare of sun and mare of stars charged at each other from across the divide, respective armies following behind.

The Nightmare Moon rebellion? Carrot wondered through her terror. No… Luna’s armor doesn’t look right. Twilight described what she looked like.

“Ancient times were brutal ones,” Shiva’s voice came from all directions, drawing a whimper out of Carrot. “Armies roamed the lands serving their gods. Celestia was young, then, only able to muster followers from those she could return from the dead. And Luna, hah, she found those so hideous only a mare of nightmares could love them. But still, they managed to gather their forces, and their foolish idealism spread across the land of the gods, creating a disruption…”

Finally, Carrot saw it. In the middle of the two armies, there was a single mare. Tall, brimming with the power of ice, it was clearly Shiva—though somehow more. This Shiva’s eyes were an empty white, and every part of her shimmered as though it were made of ice. With a cackle, this Shiva tapped the ground and drew an entire storm of windigos from the earth below, erupting like a frozen volcano.

Celestia and Luna weren’t fighting each other. They were flanking Shiva.

Skeletons of fire and spiders of the night clashed with the frozen beasts of ice. Shiva made sure Carrot watched as a spider’s legs were systematically removed by a frost timberwolf, the inner juices spilling out all over the ground.

“They could not face my soldiers directly,” Shiva’s voice came again. “Their skeletons were easy to discard, their spiders were fragile, and I could always make more. My ice was limitless, unending, perfect. For every creature they destroyed, I made more. More to feed off their rage.” She cackled. “They did not yet understand the true power of windigos. The more you fight… the stronger we become!”

But you’re not a windigo…

“But they knew they could not defeat me…” Shiva hissed. “They only made it look like they were coming in full force. In reality, they had a trick…”

The past Shiva stood between Celestia and Luna, deflecting their attacks with walls of ice that exploded into thousands of shards the moment something hit them. Celestia and Luna took no injuries, instead circling closer and closer to Shiva—leaving magic trails behind.

“I realized too late.”

The magic trails coalesced, and a magic ring was created around Shiva. The light of the sun and moon shot at her from both heavenly bodies, driving her into the ground. The earth itself crackled and tore as Shiva—and every one of her creatures—were fused to the very ground itself.

“I tried to escape. To run, to force a tear in reality itself…” Shiva said, making the image settle on her screaming form that was slowly losing energy. “I only partially succeeded.”

There was a sound like paper ripping mixed with chalkboard scratches, and a doorway suddenly appeared, leading to a plane of black sand. Past-Shiva threw herself through, only to realize that the spell of the two sisters was still in effect. Most of her and her army were bound to the sand on the other side, rather than the Equestrian plane. Her screams died out as she became one with the earth.

“And like this I remained. Once Celestia and Luna took care of the other gods with their spineless ways of peace, their armies returned to my doorway to guard it. Building a city… a city that would have been my release.” Past-Shiva, in pony form at this point, was wandering the city, speaking to skeletons and spiders in a hush-hush tone. Plotting something. And then… a dark unicorn walked into town one day.

“He called himself Sombra and said he needed to test something…” Shiva growled. “He had a hatred of Celestia, so in my lesser form I assisted him. In payment, he sealed the entire city beneath the ground where none could reach it, and I was exposed!”

Carrot watched in shock as the entire settlement—tower, houses, river and all—were swallowed up by the earth itself. The taiga was no more, having been replaced with a green, verdant land that a forest might grow over one day.

“And here I have waited, learning everything I can about my prison… waiting for a way out.”

Carrot was suddenly back in the real world, looking Shiva in the eyes.

“And you were the secret all along! A simple, ordinary, basic earth pony.”

https://youtu.be/X8M1gNmOJmk

The commander of the army was not General Inferno, but a large spider that held a bat-winged scepter. Her name was Mother, and her helmet shone silver like the moon itself.

“The sisters, long, long ago, gave us the sacred mission to watch over Shiva, the Windigo Witch. Through trouble, toil, and strive we have kept to this goal. Even when she walked among us, we remained vigilant. Even when Sombra sought our demise, we remained vigilant. We have protected her seal for over a millennium, and just because it is threatened now does not mean we have failed! Even as the Ice Queen rises, she is not yet free!” She pointed her scepter toward the swirling vortex. “Today, we will charge into the heart of her territory and destroy her foolish attempts to escape! The world we call home and Equestria will be safe by our hooves and feet!”

“YEAH!” the army shouted.

Derpy stood atop a tower, staring at the army in disbelief. She had never seen so many ponies mobilize so quickly—even if they were skeletons, they still were restricted by their hooves. How they had all organized was beyond her, not to mention the spiders. Arachnids of all sizes, ages, and types filled the ranks in armor of their own.

Beyond this, there were a few creatures Derpy had not seen before. Massive dragons of bone that burned with eternal flames deep within their rib cages. Scorpions that appeared to be made of the night itself ran through the ranks, flickering in and out of existence like stars. It was a beautiful force, though Derpy wasn’t exactly familiar with the aesthetics of armies.

Even though she hadn’t seen much of Shiva’s forces, she felt confident they could win.

“Ah’m not sure we’ll be all that helpful in a raging army like that,” Adder commented. “A-and Ah’m not sure Ah can… be in the middle of all that. Ah’m not…” She frowned. “Ah’m not exactly a soldier.”

Richit nodded. “That is why the four of us will be taking a different route.” She produced white, shimmering cloaks for herself, General Inferno, Derpy, and Adder. “Shrouds. As the armies charge into each other, the four of us will go to Shiva and attempt to save Carrot from her grasp.”

“Oh, stealth mission!” Adder seemed suddenly relieved. “Ah can work with that. Yep.”

Derpy frowned. “Adder, you okay?”

“Ah’m… not as used to this as Ah might seem like it,” Adder frowned. “Cinder’s the one who knows what she’s doing, the one who’s figured out how to pay the ‘price’, whatever that is. Ah haven’t. Ah’m just along for the ride, and Ah haven’t been part of any war yet.”

“...Nopony has,” Derpy said, confused.

“We ain’t from around your parts,” Adder said. “...Ah don’t think there’s time to explain.”

“Yes,” Richit agreed. “No time. The moment Mother issues the charge, we set out under the shrouds and infiltrate. The armies will be occupied with each other.”

A loud horn blasted through the area and they could hear the stomping of hooves and feet creating an earthquake.

“We’re going,” Richit said. “Everyone, now.”

https://youtu.be/uDLhFNwhiuU

The shrouds were not only perfectly white, but they had a minor “disinteresting” enchantment upon them. As Derpy, Adder, Inferno, and Richit approached the lands under the vortex, the frost giants saw nothing of them. Even though the four of them were barely hidden behind a frost-blasted spire of ice, not a single member of the icy army paid them any mind.

“Too easy,” Adder hissed.

“This will not work against Shiva herself,” Richit commented. “She is too skilled at her craft.”

Derpy nodded. “Then we’ll just have to fight her. Right?”

“Right,” Adder agreed. “Keep the ancient evil from gettin’ all the way out.” She gestured a hoof at the advancing army of ice. “If this is just part of her power…”

“There is a reason we’re watching her seal,” Richit reminded her. “She has the potential to unleash an apocalypse.”

Derpy ground her teeth. “Let’s keep moving.”

They moved onward, ducking between icy pillar and icy pillar, the snow blasting against their faces as they moved. Overhead, windigos floated, some made of spirit while others had solid flesh to their forms. Massive birds of frigid air flapped their wings, covering the world below in the diamond dust of their bodies. All of this, and more, was born out of Shiva’s power under the vortex. All of it wanted nothing more than to destroy her age-old enemies.

One of the ice dragons landed dangerously close to where Derpy’s group was, taking a moment to sniff the air and look around. Derpy huddled under her shroud, preparing for the worst.

The dragon lowered its head to the ground, suspicious of something. However, it saw nothing but white, shimmering ice that made it more than a little difficult to look directly at the ground. With a grunt, it lifted its head back up and returned on its flight to the settlement.

“...Ah was about ready to poke that thing’s eye out,” Adder commented.

“I’m not sure how wise that would have been,” Richit said. “It could have eaten you.”

“Then Ah…” Adder shivered in disgust. “Ah woulda cut out. Egh…”

Richit blinked all of her multifaceted eyes. “That would actually work, with your blade.”

“Ah don’t really wanna think about it…” Adder shook her head.

“You’d do great,” Derpy encouraged. “And you will, no matter what!” She winked.

“Right. Thanks.” Adder looked back as the army of ice made its way to the spiders and skeletons. “Ah hope this goes well…”

“They’re depending on us,” Richit said. “Enough talk, more moving.”

In silence, the four of them moved onward, passing under the oblivious feet of frost giant after frost giant.

https://youtu.be/yeRcTtO4C3o

Atop a mountain of ice and snow, Shiva held her two prisoners aloft so they could see the surging of her powerful army. It wouldn’t be long before they clashed with the distant, tiny-looking army of the skeletons and spiders.

Carrot hated that she had to watch. Even if she wasn’t screaming at every violent act or monster anymore, it still made her feel rotten to the core. She just wanted to go back to her nice carrot farm and grow the simple produce she loved to eat. Was that too much to ask? To go back?

“I’ve answered your question about me,” Shiva said, not looking away from her army. “It is your turn, Cinder.”

“What exactly do you want to know?” Cinder asked.

“Why are you not afraid?” Shiva leveled Cinder with a careful gaze. “Even the most courageous of heroes had the fear within them. You have none.”

“I know you’re going to lose,” Cinder answered. “It’s just how it works.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Ah-ah-ah!” Cinder chuckled. “Already answered a question! Now it’s time for you to answer one of mine. What is the most embarrassing secret you have?”

Shiva sputtered. “What relevance does that have!?”

“Nothing.” Cinder grinned evilly. “I’m just not going to answer any more of your questions until you answer mine.”

Shiva growled. “The time for questions is at an end, it seems.”

“And so are you!” Cinder giggled.

Shiva traced a hoof over the edge of Cinder’s prison. “I am the goddess of ice, cold, snow, and hate. I am not at an end, it is not possible.”

“And I’m just a filly, what do I know about anything?”

“You know what?” Shiva rammed her hoof so hard into Cinder’s prison it cracked. “I don’t really need you in fully operational condition. I just need your mind. I can crack a few legs, snap that horn of yours…”

“Try it.”

Carrot winced, wishing Cinder would stop antagonizing the terrifying mare.

Shiva cackled. “Oh, you think you can escape by goading me?”

“It was worth a shot.”

“Your ‘shot’ was pathetic.”

“Well, at least I kept us all entertained until the cavalry arrived!”

“The wh—”

Derpy swung a flaming sword down on Shiva, only for it to be blocked by her living hair.

“Derpy!” Carrot called. She had never been so happy to see her friend.

Shiva grabbed Derpy and threw her to the ground with a painful “oof.”

“Derpy!” Carrot wailed, suddenly a lot less happy and a lot more worried.

https://youtu.be/NemO1czLCS0

“Look at you!” Shiva addressed Derpy, laughing. She rose into the air on a cliff of ice, her mane and tail swirling in the air like tentacles, or perhaps scorpion tails poised to strike. “A little pegasus with a fancy sword! I’m so delighted you dropped by!”

“Uh… thanks?” Derpy cocked her head in confusion.

“I don’t need you,” Shiva’s open grin turned into a predatory slit. “I can just kill you.”

Block.

Shiva’s hair came at Derpy from several angles, only for her blade to intercept every last one with ease.

“A legendary blade…” Shiva frowned. “Don’t tell me, their stupid prophecy?”

“Of course it is!” Cinder called from her ice. “Did you really expect to not have to deal with a chosen hero?”

“No matter,” Shiva dismissed. “Magic sword or not, it can’t face one of my dragons.” Raising a hoof, she called upon one of the frosty reptiles. It was the only one not with the army, having remained to keep a vigil over its mistress. Taking a deep breath, it readied a snowstorm for Derpy.

General Inferno launched from his position, smacking the dragon in the face with his flaming body, skewering the beast’s eye with his horn. Shrieking in agony, the beast fell back, only for General Inferno to push further… harder… making the dragon no longer part of the encounter.

Shiva growled. “Just can’t get good help these d—” she stopped in the middle of her sentence, grabbing Adder before she could drive the lightsaber into Shiva’s midsection, tossing her into Carrot’s crystal.

After following the motion, Derpy met Carrot’s eyes. She could only see horror in the poor, trapped mare’s gaze.

She thinks I’m going to die here.

Derpy stood up, hefting the sword in her jaw.

She’s wrong.

Adder took her bipedal stance next to Derpy, holding her blade high.

“Idiots,” Shiva grunted. With a stamp of her hoof, both of them were encased in ice.

However, the flaming sword and the lightsaber were too powerful for her frost. Their imprisonments were very temporary, soon nothing more than steam clouds in the wind.

“How unfortunate, you might have lived that way,” Shiva droned. “It seems as though death is your only recourse!” She sent her frozen tendrils of mane at Derpy, who thought block and intercepted every one. Adder, unfortunately, did not have the training nor the magic sword. While under Inferno’s tutelage she had improved, it had only been a few hours. A new stance would not defeat an ice witch. She fell backward, lightsaber giong out.

Derpy stood over her, keeping Shiva from skewering the poor filly’s heart.

Shiva laughed. “You pin yourself with your pity!”

Derpy knew she was right—she couldn’t move, for Adder’s sake. But standing still like this would just give Shiva an opportunity to figure out how to work around the magic blade.

“Look upon what you have wrought… and despair!”

https://youtu.be/RSREapeetNE

The armies clashed. Details were hard to make out from Carrot’s vantage point, but she could see what Shiva wanted everyone to see. A bloody massacre of fire and ice being waged over the sands of black. Skeletons rammed into windigos, frost giants crushed spiders, and fiery birds met dragons in the air. Somehow, General Inferno had managed to teleport himself and the dragon all the way back to the fight, where they tussled in the midst of all the bodies.

It was, plain and simple, a war. Distant as they were, it was still dark and terrible. Steam rose from the point of impact, shrouding the battle in a heated fog, keeping further mass death from Carrot’s eyes.

“That is my might,” Shiva said, grinning from ear to ear. “I am the Witch of the North, the Queen of all Windigos, the Creator of Hunger! You all have forgotten what it meant to have me in your world, forgot the power of the ice! I will make you remember…” She lifted a hoof, sending a beam of ice at Derpy. Her sword was able to dissipate the beam, but it did nothing to stop the loose tendril of Shiva’s hair from hitting Derpy’s side. Derpy managed to keep hold of Adder through this, so both of them went rolling from the hit.

Why didn’t you just run? Carrot wondered. You can’t help me… you should have saved yourself. Warned everypony. Not come back for me.

Derpy stood tall and rushed Shiva. Shiva, wisening up to the ways of the sword’s defense, made sure to attack from two angles.

To Carrot’s shock, Derpy didn’t defend this time, she attacked, swirling in an arc that severed both hair tendrils at once.

What? She’s not a fighter. It’s… that sword. It’s the sword.

Carrot heard a tapping sound on the back of her crystal. Had she not been frozen by force, she would have locked up in fear at that moment.

A spidery whisper made it to her ear. “Stay calm. I’m getting you out of here. Her power will be locked if I succeed.”

Carrot decided to trust the spider. No matter how disgusting or monstrous the arachnid might be, it wasn’t Shiva. The spider hadn’t betrayed her trust.

It took some effort, but Carrot forced herself to watch the fight as the spider chipped away at her prison. She couldn’t see Adder anymore, but Shiva didn’t seem to care about this—she was fixated only on Derpy. Always Derpy. Never anything else.

Derpy just couldn’t get a hit off. Shiva’s hair was taking all the hits, her body completely safe. Derpy, on the other hoof, had taken some blows to her armor that were clearly slowing her down. She was, simply put, losing.

But if the spider could work fast… maybe Derpy wouldn’t need to win.

Another crack, and Carrot could feel cold air brush against her back. Never before had she been so excited to feel a frigid breeze through her coat. She could move, but only a little. In an effort to help the spider, she began to squirm.

“No, stay still, she might noti—”

A beam of ice hit the spider, freezing her solid and covering up Carrot’s hole.

“What a fanficul, yet useless ploy,” Shiva commented. “Is that really the best you have?”

https://youtu.be/AaYjEuahVqA

“Nope!” Adder called sticking her lightsaber into Cinder’s prison. “There was more than one of those plans going on!”

The first thing Cinder did once she was freed was light her entire body on fire. “Not going in there again.”

Shiva scowled at the three ponies who stood before her: a battered pegasus with a legendary weapon, an exhausted earth pony with a blade from a galaxy far away, and a flaming unicorn with unusual spunk.

“I think my army’s power has been released enough,” Shiva declared. “It’s my turn.”

Uh-oh, Derpy thought.

Carrot let out a squeal of pain as Shiva took power directly into herself. Flowing blue energy erupted from the ground, coursing through Shiva’s hooves all the way to her blackened crown. With the newfound release of power, the crown expanded in size, moving to dominate her facial features as a pillar of ice and rock swirling into a spiked pattern. Her hairy tendrils solidified, becoming living ice that sucked the frozen ground below to become part of her, using the bones of the defeated skeletons as part of her arsenal.

She rose, her ice-flesh coating half her body. The part of her that was pony-shaped was insignificant compared to the rest of her, now; akin to a spider of frozen hopes and dreams.

Ice shards flew in every direction, forcing the ponies onto the defensive. Cinder accelerated herself around each attack with relative ease while Derpy’s sword handled the rest.

Adder took a hit to the leg, going down. This time she wouldn’t be getting back up as easily.

Cinder twitched. “You’re going to pay for that.”

“Didn’t think I could hurt her?” Shiva asked, sneering through the mask her crown had become. “When will you learn to fear me!?”

Derpy took to the skies while Cinder resorted to torching the bottom of Shiva’s ice-legs with her flame. The bones incorporated into the limb limited this strategy’s effectiveness considerably; Shiva was more than ice, she was a being of death incarnate.

Cinder switched strategies, producing a piece of paper with her magic and somehow folding it into a ball and chain.

Shiva blinked. “That… didn’t make physical sense.”

“Your face.”

“What?”

“Something I learned from Burgerbelle.”

“WHAT!?”

In her confused stupor, she wasn’t able to block the paper ball to the face. With a screech of anger, she tore the ball in half and shredded the remaining paper. She lunged at Cinder, only for the unicorn to accelerate away.

Derpy noticed that Shiva had given in to a weakness of hers—she’d gotten fixated. Just like when she attacked Derpy, forgetting about Adder. Or letting Richit get close enough to almost release Carrot.

Right now, Shiva had all her attention focused on a speedy white unicorn that kept throwing paper airplanes that stung like wasps.

Maybe I can…

Cinder tripped, flopping onto her back. Shiva didn’t waste the opportunity: she grabbed Cinder with her bony ice tendril. Her attempts to crush the filly weren’t rewarded since her fire was enough to squirm safely through the bones, but she was caught.

Derpy dove, brandishing the sword.

Shiva wrapped another tendril around Cinder, truly immobilizing her. “You were so arrogant…”

Derpy didn’t bother trying to strike cleverly or even safely. She just told the sword to attack.

Shiva created a spire of ice, holding it to Cinder’s chest. “See where that got you?”

Cinder smirked, “How about you look in a mirror?”

Derpy’s blade crashed into Shiva’s crown, cutting it in half. Shiva screamed as the focus of her power was severed from her body. All the icy tendrils around her lost their forms, forcing her to fall to the ground, dropping Cinder. The grunt from the Windigo Queen was pained and agonized. Weak.

Derpy hadn’t been moving in a very controlled arc, so she smashed into the ground at high velocity. Unlike every time before, this time she broke some bones. Both a leg and a wing, if her nerves were to be believed. At least I got her…

<Error>

“Oh no,” Cinder said. Derpy heard fear in her voice.

Shiva rose, picking her shattered crown off the ground with a hoof and placing it back on her head. It repaired itself with little issue, and the moment of weakness was over in an instant.

Derpy couldn’t move. There didn’t need to be ice to trap her, her injuries were sufficient. Wordlessly, Shiva gathered her ice into a sharp blade at the edge of her hoof, murder in her eyes. Gone was the amused smile, the deranged laugher—in their place was only death.

It was so funny Derpy wanted to laugh. They’d just been Shiva’s playthings, toys for her amusement, dolls to provide a minor challenge. That had all changed the moment Derpy actually harmed her. Shiva wasn’t messing around anymore.

Derpy noted that she was lying next to Carrot’s prison. She locked one of her eyes with Carrot’s. Neither said a word.

Shiva brought the knife down. There was a burst of fire as Cinder attempted to do something, anything, but Shiva shrugged it off. The knife sailed true—not to Derpy, but to Carrot, completely piercing the crystal.

“CARROT!” Derpy shrieked.

There was no blood, there was only the shattering of ice as Carrot was lifted into the air, free—but shivering in pain.

“No more risks,” Shiva whispered. She became nothing more than wisps of ice in the wind, allowing Cinder’s attacks to pass straight through her.

“No!” Cinder shouted, desperate. “No, this wasn't supposed to…”

“Fear…” Shiva laughed, her spirit grabbing hold of Carrot from all sides. “I wonder, what changed, little pony? Why fear now?”

“The story… it’s…” Cinder racked her mind. “I…”

“Did you assume prophecy was reliable?!” Shiva cackled, fully absorbing into Carrot’s form, replacing the kind mare with an image of scowling malevolence. “You really were quite overconfident…”

Cinder set her jaw. “If… If this is a tragedy now…” She readied a paper sword. “W-wearing that body won’t stop me.”

“It might…” Shiva hissed, walking forward within Carrot’s body. “Can you really bring yourself to kill an innocent earth pony who has done nothing but scream in terror? Can you really do that, Cinder? Can you reach into this flesh with your sword and remove her heart, severing the magical connection?” Shiva growled. “You were so close. If you had destroyed the crown, I would have lost it all. But now, this mare is my conduit. So long as she lives…”

Cinder held out her sword with a trembling hoof. “I… I have to…”

“You’re just a pathetic filly!” Shiva screeched. “Just a good for nothing nobody who thinks she knows all the answers!”

“I get it!” Cinder shouted—Derpy was sure she wasn’t addressing Shiva. “I get it! That’s the moral, I can’t trust my intuition completely! That’s it, right? Right? I’ve got it!” Cinder laughed nervously. “Totally understand, better pony now because of it. Can we… can we have that happy ending now? I don’t… N-not again…”

Shiva held out Carrot’s neck. “Do it.”

Derpy wanted to scream out, but couldn’t. She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t sure if she could do anything. Even if she’d still been able to move and use her sword… what then? Attack Carrot? Cinder?

Cinder ground her teeth and dropped her sword. “No. No, I can’t. N-not anymore. Not now.”

“I didn’t think so.” She slapped Cinder across the face with Carrot’s hoof. Cinder didn’t resist—she just let it happen. No bones broke, the force was never strong enough for that. Shiva wanted it that way. Wanted Cinder to stay awake, to feel the sting, the bruises, the blood running down her nose.

When she was satisfied, she returned to Derpy, fixing the pegasus with her friend’s gaze.

That’s not Carrot, Derpy told herself. She’s not doing this.

“You’re the ‘hero’ of legend.” Shiva said, lifting up the sword of fire in an icy grip and snapping it in half. “Disappointing.” She lifted a rock larger than Derpy’s head into the air, ready to crack her like a melon. “Your punishment is to be killed by your best friend.”

Derpy refused to look away. Part of her wanted to face her end with dignity, and the other part hoped her walleyes would distract Shiva so… something could happen.

Shiva brought the rock down.

Onto her own head.

The angle was sideways so her skull didn’t crack like a melon, but she was still thrown to the side. “What? WHAT?”

“Get out of my head!” Carrot snarled, breaking through Shiva’s control.

“You… you dare resist!?”

In the distance, Derpy could hear the armies of ice start to fragment. Were they fighting themselves, now? “I. Am a carrot farmer. I understand how to fight the harsh winter!” Carrot lifted several rocks into the air with Shiva’s icy power. “This… is nothing… compared to actual starvation.”

“I AM THE QUEEN OF HUNGER!”

“I’M NOT FEELING VERY HUNGRY!” Carrot shoved all the rocks down.

“Then die,” Shiva growled, leaving Carrot’s body and reforming into her old one, crown and all. “Die by your own hooves.”

Carrot took a single step to the side, avoiding the rock that had been flying for her face. She smiled sheepishly. “Heh… heh…”

Shiva cast a quick spell to imprison her once more. “No matter. All my enemies are defeated. I do not need your body anym—”

One of the rocks Carrot had lifted into the air much earlier finished falling. It smashed right into Shiva’s head, shattering the crown into dozens of pieces. There would be no repairing it from that.

A burst of icy energy erupted from Shiva’s current position. She survived. All her spells and enchantments did not, melting with minimal fanfare. The armies of ice, already confused by Carrot’s presence in their Queen, devolved into even more infighting as the earth called to seal them below the sands once more.

Shiva took one look at everything crumbling around her… and passed out, looking like little more than a tall earth pony.

It was over.

Derpy laughed. “Carrot! You saved me!”

Carrot pulled Depry into a hug. “No… No, you saved me.”

“OW OW BROKEN BONES!”

“Augh!” Carrot dropped Derpy. “Sorry!”

“It’s… fine…” Derpy wheezed. “I crashed you into things… it’s only fair…” She rolled onto her back, trying to breathe without thinking about how much pain she was in.

“I never should have doubted you,” Carrot said, laying a hoof on Derpy. “I’m… sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.”

Carefully this time, Carrot lifted Derpy up and gave her a hug—soft, so as not to aggravate the pain.

Cinder got up, a conflicted expression on her face, and trotted over to Adder, who was trying to nurse the wound in her hoof. Cinder sighed. “Sorry, I…”

“It’s fine, you got to be the damsel in distress today,” Adder chuckled. “Ah don’t think you saved anybody this time!”

“I… huh. I guess not.” Cinder rubbed the back of her head. “We’ll get your hoof good as new back home, all right?”

“Ah’m the one who makes the healin’ potions, Ah’ll be healin’ myself thank you very much.”

“Right.” Cinder turned to the downed form of Shiva. “What do we do with her?”

“She’s sealed again,” Richit said, skittering over. “Her connection to Carrot is gone with the strike of Derpy’s legendary sword. So long as we remove her access to earth ponies, she and her armies will be able to do nothing on this scale ever again.” She bowed to Derpy. “We are in your debt… but we do have to ask you to leave.”

Carrot laughed. “No offense, but I don’t want to stay! Get us out of here!”

“I will gather a team to lead you back to your world and take one of the passages to the surface.”

“And we’ll go home,” Cinder said, pulling out her dimensional device and puncturing a hole in reality right to the world of cubes.

“I knew it!” Derpy giggled.

Carrot stared in disbelief. “What in the four winds…?”

Cinder saluted. “Maybe we’ll see you around!” She carefully led Adder through the portal.

Like that, they were gone. The epic adventure was over.

It was time to go home.

Author's Notes:

That moment when you finish a chapter and then your editors point out the source material had more images you didn’t know about. So you go back and change the story, royally screwing with Cinder in the process. What fun.

First of all, thanks to Carbon Maestro and Ziom05 for making the music and the art that inspired this chapter. Almost all of it was included in the above chapter, though there were a few parts that were different. It was a fun experiment trying to get everything to work together!

Next time on LSB:
Fallout Equestria. Specifically Pink Eyes. I may or may not, in the future, use another FoE, but this one is gonna be related to CP.

((LSB Status Post.)) Come suggest and upvote fics!

Smiling in the Face of Death (Fallout Equestria: Pink Eyes)

CP looked out over Guild Central from her little house of marble, munching on a powdered donut as the people of the Capra Coalition moved to and from the many Guilds. She appreciated how much it looked like a village rather than the overcrowded synthetic cities of Merodi Universalis. Natural trees, bushes, and grasses flooded her view, while natural stone roads led to and from the various buildings. Sure, many structures themselves looked like they came right out of a science-fiction novel (a literal fact in some cases), but they weren’t placed densely. Guild Central was not a metropolis, and if CP had anything to say about it, it never would be.

Letting out a contented sigh, CP realized she didn’t feel stressed, beat down, or even the slightest bit depressed. It hadn’t even been a year from her point of view and already the events in the Universe Generator felt far behind her. Merodi Universalis itself was like a distant memory. There was nothing to fight out here in the midst of the largely dead worlds, there was only the Coalition and the handful of groups living alongside each other in peace.

So, naturally, her peace had to be ruined.

When the knock at the door came, an uneasy feeling formed in CP’s stomach. The feeling was only heightened when TwilAI came through with a grimace. Using her recently magic-infused horn, she levitated a book over to CP. Fallout Equestria: Pink Eyes. On the cover was a picture of a filly they both knew very well.

“Puppysmiles…” CP said, stroking the book with her hard-light wings.

“CelestAI found it, she… figured you’d want to know about it.” TwilAI hoofed the ground nervously. “I haven’t told Puppy.”

“...It’s not a happy story, is it?” CP asked, flipping open the cover.

“The ending is…” TwilAI pursed her lips. “Rather tragic and concerning.”

“She doesn’t survive, does she?”

TwilAI shook her head. “She wouldn’t have without the Coalition, no.”

CP nodded slowly, turning to the first page. Sensing CP was going to be reading for a while, TwilAI left her alone.

~~~

Puppysmiles moved her checker to the other side of the board. “King me!”

Erin Olsen raised her eyebrows. “Don’t you want to do that yourself?” Erin was no longer a pony, instead having been recently changed back into a human. That said, she was fully equipped with the new magic-conducting fingernails that CelestAI had developed from the horns of her unicorns.

“Oh, right!” Puppysmiles pulled the Rock of Destiny out and placed it on top of her kinged checker. “King of destiny!” she declared, rearing onto her hind hooves and giggling.

Erin gasped in mock fear. “The king of destiny!? There’s no way I can beat that!”

“Come on Erin! I’m sure you can if you put your mind to it!”

“If you insist…” Erin picked up one of her checkers and jumped four of Puppysmiles’ in a row, smirking. “The daring, plucky hero has burst past the enemy lines despite the devastating power of the evil king of destiny.”

“Hey! He’s not evi!”

Erin raised an eyebrow. “But you’re playing black.”

“And you’re playing red!”

“So we’re both evil?”

Puppysmiles thought about this for a moment. “Uh… Hmm…” Her eyes crossed as she attempted to piece together exactly what was being said. Failing, she decided to just giggle. “No idea!”

“History is written by the winners. Maybe we don’t get to know who’s evil until afterward?”

“That’s silly.” Puppysmiles moved her king back.

“You’re silly.”

“No, I’m Puppysmiles!”

Erin facepalmed, which only gave Puppysmiles more reason to laugh. She was rolling on the floor when CP walked in, face grim.

Puppysmiles had no idea why her friends were suddenly frowning. She and Erin were just playing a silly game, why the long faces? Did something happen? Seeking to solve the mystery, Puppysmiles picked up the Rock of Destiny and pointed it at CP. “We’ve got a sad face in the house! Officer Rock, what should we do to banish this beast?”

CP’s frown didn’t falter. That usually works!

Puppysmiles finally noticed the book CP had pressed into her side with a wing. Puppy gasped. “A cursed book of sadness! Stand back CP, I have to liberate you!” She jumped, intending to playfully tackle CP and pry the book out of her wing’s clutches.

CP wasn’t having any of it. She created a telekinetic wall that stopped Puppysmiles in her tracks, preventing the curse-lifting. “Puppysmiles… you might want to sit down.”

She was using the serious voice. Puppysmiles hated the serious voice. It usually meant sad things were coming. She wasn’t supposed to dwell on the sad things anymore.

Carefully, CP lifted the tome and set it at Puppysmiles hooves. The filly saw a picture of herself on the front: bright pink with eyes wide and curious. She was even wearing the same yellow suit as the picture, though currently hers was a lot cleaner and didn’t have any displays projected on the helmet bubble. Still, it was her all right, just a slight bit younger.

Behind the image of her was a desolate wasteland with irradiated dirt, a twisted street sign too old to be of any use, and mysterious pink clouds swirling like malevolent fog.

“...My story,” she said, smile slowly dissolving into a neutral expression.

“Yes,” CP said. “CelestAI found it in her searches.”

“It’s not happy,” Puppysmiles said, scrunching her muzzle.

“No…”

Puppysmiles traced a hoof over the cover of the book. “Do I find you?”

CP shook her head. “You don’t make it.”

Puppysmiles was unable to keep herself from remembering.

Puppysmiles wandered the wastes, a smile permanently plastered on her face. She passed a pile of bones and a broken robot without batting an eye. Neither of those things were Mom, nor would they help her find Mom. They simply didn’t register in Puppysmiles’ mind, like virtually everything in the wasteland.

One thing that did grab her attention, though, was a tall creature with two arms and legs in some kind of spacesuit just like hers! Maybe they had lost their mother too, and Puppysmiles could help her search!

“Hi!” she called. “I’m Puppysmiles!”

The creature looked down at her, surprise barely visible through the helmet.

“Have you seen my Mom?”

“No…” it was a feminine voice. “But I can help you find her. And get you somewhere nicer than… here.”

So Puppysmiles went with her through a weird ring of magic and came out somewhere that was green. She hadn’t realized she missed the green. Why was it gone in the first place? More things about the silly, silly world that didn’t make any sense.

Maybe her Mom was here, where it was green? That would make sense, Mom had always liked green. Then again, everypony liked green. It was a very tasty color! Why hadn’t all the ponies come here?

The tall creature took her to a strange white building with a red cross on it. A hospital? But Puppysmiles felt fine! She didn’t object, though. Doctors were often very helpful.

“Hi, I’m Puppysmiels! Have you seen my Mom?”

“No, but I’m sure we can help. Here, why don’t you sit and play with these toys while I talk with Agent Miranda here?”

“Okay!”

Puppysmiles hadn’t had an opportunity to play with toys in quite a while, so it kept her occupied for a little while. However, something about the stuffed bear and cubes lost their appeal really quickly. She had been on the move back in the wasteland and now she was sitting still and she didn’t like it one bit.

The Doctor and Miranda looked like they were going to talk for a while. Finding their conversation boring, Puppysmiles went to wander the hospital. Turning a corner, she ran right into a pony with a cast around one of her wings.

“I’m so sorry!” Puppysmiles blurted, scampering back a few paces. “Are you okay?”

The pony—an alicorn with surprisingly muted colors—gave her a smile. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me!” She extended a hoof. “I’m Erin.”

Puppysmiles gasped. She was the one who introduced herself first! This was unheard of! “Hi Erin! I’m Puppysmiles! Have you seen my Mom?”

“No, but let’s try to find her together.”

Puppysmiles shook her head, looking away from the book and to the currently-human Erin. She placed a gentle hand on the filly’s shoulder. With that one motion, Puppysmiles’ frown vanished, replaced with a content smile. She wasn’t alone, not here.

“...Do you want it?” CP asked.

“No,” Puppysmiles shook her head. “That book is sad and icky and dark. I’m not there anymore. I’m here, with all of you!” She grinned. “And that’s all I need!”

CP joined her in the hug. “Puppy, I wish I had your smile sometimes.”

“I’ll teach it to you! Watch!” She crossed her eyes and tried to focus on the smile, creating an adorably confusing expression.

CP managed a chuckle. “I’d have to be insane if I couldn’t learn to smile from that face.”

“Yay!”

~~~

Erin watched through a window as Puppysmiles played in an expansive room with lots of toys, books, and other people. She was staying closest to one of the Gems—a pink one with a heart-shaped gemstone. The two of them were building massive stacks of blocks and laughing as they crumbled down.

“There’s residual Nightmare Forces in her,” Doctor Redheart said.

“What?” Erin stated, tearing her gaze away from Puppysmiles.

“The scans don’t lie. Most of her is some kind of pink nebulous essence of arcane energy, but there’s part of the Nightmare in her.” She flipped through a clipboard. “We’ve observed that there are actually two voices she actually talks to. One is just the suit’s computer system, which we’ve managed to mitigate a bit. But the other… she calls it ‘Creepy Voice’.”

“The Nightmare?”

“Most likely.”

“Can you remove it?”

“Normally I’d say yes without batting an eye. However, she is not a normal pony. Her existence is tied closely to magics not that different from necromancy. A pure esuna purge might remove her attachment to life.”

Erin frowned. “Is there a way around that?”

“We believe so, but it wouldn’t be a simple operation.” Redheart frowned. “She spends most of her time around you.”

Erin blinked. “Are you asking ME to give you consent to operate?”

“We haven’t tracked down her mother yet, and I’d rather not wait. There may not be many laws among the Guilds but operating on a minor without…” Redheart bit her lip. “I want to help her and I don’t want to wait and give this entity a chance to turn her against the friends she’s making.”

Hearing a laugh, Erin turned back to the window. Puppysmiles was riding on the Gem’s back, holding her hooves out like she was a plane.

“...I’m going to talk to her about it.” Erin said.

“She’s young, Erin...”

“She’s an adventurer,” Erin dismissed. She left Redheart behind and opened a door, entering the playroom. “Spinel? Can I talk to Puppysmiles a moment?”

“Sure!” Spinel stretched her arms and set Puppysmiles at Erin’s hooves. “She’s a wonderful bundle of joy in a yellow case!”

“Aww, do I have to stop?” Puppysmiles asked.

Spinel tapped Puppysmiles on the helmet. “All fun has to end, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start again later!” Spinel sprung out of the room like an accordion. “Get done quick so we can go have fun!”

Puppysmiles waved after Spinel. “I will!” She turned to Erin and pulled her front hooves into a hug. “You should come play with us, Erin!”

“Maybe eventually,” Erin said, stroking Puppysmiles’ rubbery suit with a wing. The suit had come to them very bruised and battered, and yet Puppysmiles herself didn’t have a scratch on her. They’d discovered the filly inside was a bundle of toxic smoke the hard way. Luckily, nopony was permanently hurt, but it had still been terrifying. “Puppy, I’m told you hear a voice?”

“I haven’t heard Mr. Voice lately! Hey, Mr. Voice!”

“Yes?” A soft synthetic voice came from inside Puppysmiles’ suit.

“Why haven’t you been talking much?”

“My overeager response unit was dialed back to minimize distractions.”

“Oh.” Puppysmiles scrunched her face. “Do you like that?”

“I do not experience ‘like’.”

Puppysmiles giggled. “You’re the same as always!”

Erin coughed. “I didn’t mean Mr. Voice. I meant… Creepy Voice.”

“Oh…” Puppysmiles frowned for a second, a rare sight on the filly’s features. “Creepy Voice is… Creepy. Says scary things, sometimes.”

“Do you want us to try to make it so you can’t hear her?” Erin asked.

“You… you can do that?”

“We think so.”

“Wow… You really are a magic princess!”

“The doctors, Puppysmiles, not me.”

Puppysmiles nodded. “...Creepy Voice really doesn’t like the idea.”

“What’s she saying now?”

“Uh…” Puppysmiles flushed. “She’s being really, really mean and Mom says never to say those kinds of things to ponies.”

“Does she say those things to you?”

“Sometimes.” She twitched, as though in pain.

Erin lifted Puppysmiles’ chin up. “We can help you, Puppy.”

“...Have you found Mom yet?”

“No. We’re still looking. But… you’ll need to sleep a while for us to stop Creepy Voice. I’ll go look for your Mom while you do, okay?”

“Okay!” Puppysmiles grinned. “Let’s do it!” She twitched as though she were being shouted at—but kept smiling anyway.

Erin was glad they were getting that thing out.

~~~

CP, Erin, TwilAI, and Puppysmiles trotted together across a Mars-like world, collecting samples of a long-dead civilization. CP, Erin, and TwilAI were all wearing the shimmering bronze suits provided by the Capra Coalition Guilds, while Puppysmiles was in her yellow radiation outfit, as always. It had come to mean a lot to her: she had woken up with it almost a year ago, at this point, and it was essentially part of her. It had taken her a while to fully understand that she was an awesome pink cloud that needed the suit to stay a pony, but after she had, she’d come to think that she was also the suit. And now she was a truly daring adventurer, exploring other worlds with her new best friends and the Rock of Destiny!

Most of the worlds were dead rocks without atmosphere, but sometimes that was amazing. For instance, right now she could look up and see a massive purple gas giant drift across the sky, stars twinkling around its edges. Here, the lifelessness was beautiful.

“I’m not sure anything ever lived here,” CP’s voice came through the radio link they all shared. The Sweetie brushed a stone pillar with her magical wings, tracing a line through the dust. “There’s no sign of actual wear.”

“Someone probably built this and left,” TwilAI agreed. “A temple of some sort?”

“Maybe it’s a sports arena!” Puppysmiles suggested. “They wanted to play hoofball on the best planet ever and set up everything for the final game!”

“That’s as good of a guess as any,” Erin said, pressing a few buttons on some device Puppysmiles didn’t know the purpose of. She waved her hand and cast a simple waypoint spell at the ruins. “I’ve transmitted the coordinates back to the Guilds, the archeologists can take a crack at it.”

Puppysmiles gasped. “We’re going somewhere else? Yay!” She tapped her hooves on the ground excitedly. “Maybe we can find a game of hoofball being played with planets!”

“If some entity is playing hoofball with planets they’ll have to talk to my hoof,” CP snickered.

“Why would y—oooooh.” Puppysmiles knocked herself in the helmet. “I forgot people lived on planets!”

“We have been on a lot of planets without people, it’s understandable,” TwilAI said as she levitated a dimensional device out. “Anyway, let’s see… aha! We’ve found a new connection. Let’s see…”

A portal opened in the air between the four of them, revealing a gloomy, worn-down town. However, there were plants dotting the streets, so it had to have air. Puppysmiles knew her friends liked having air, something about suits being suffocating.

She skipped right through, immediately investigating everything she found interesting. That was her job—look and record everything. The big serious adults had said something about “young, curious eyes noticing the best things” but she didn’t really care about that. A light came on that told her Mr. Voice had started recording what she was seeing. Maybe she’d get to share it all with Spinel, later!

She scrambled away, absorbing everything she could. Erin made a halfhearted attempt to call after her, as was their tradition since before Erin had turned herself back into a human. Puppysmiles remembered how panicked Erin had used to be when she ran off. It took her longer to realize Puppysmiles was invincible than Puppysmiles herself!

Still, Puppysmiles wasn’t about to damage her suit for no reason. She avoided charging right into a thorny bush since cleaning up the mess left by her pink smoke was never pleasant. Though sometimes the unpleasantness was mixed with awesome.

Her feelings of excited exploration abated when she began to feel like everything was familiar. That broken storefront looked a lot like a house she had seen before… recently. Had it been another universe? A lot of them looked pretty similar, though usually the only duplicates were perfectly normal Ponyvilles. Not a desolate place like this that clearly wasn’t Ponyville. One that…

“Puppysmiles!” Erin called after her, this time actually concerned. “Puppysmiles, we should leave!”

But it was already too late. Puppysmiles saw it. The path to the cemetery.

Puppysmiles woke up to Erin standing over her.

“Woah, already?” Puppysmiles blinked. “I felt like I just went to sleep! I still feel tired!”

“The operation took a lot out of you,” Erin said. “Don’t worry, your magic will come back, but Creepy Voice fought hard. They had to use a set of the Elements of Harmony, in the end, which was… well, it worked.”

“So I won’t hear Creepy Voice anymore?”

“Nope!” Erin smiled. “Not a trace of Creepy Voice anywhere in your fluffy cotton-candy body!”

Puppysmiled giggled. “I’m not cotton candy!”

Erin’s smile faltered. “No…”

“Did you find Mom while I was asleep?”

Puppysmiles couldn’t figure out why that question made Erin so sad. She’d never been that sad when Puppysmiles asked the question before.

“Puppysmiles…” Erin looked down, examining her hooves. “We went back to your world and searched for Rainy Days—Mom. It took a lot of scrying spells and analysis, but… we found what happened to her.”

“What… happened to her?”

“I’m so sorry Puppy, I…”

“What do you mean what happened to…” Puppysmiles felt out of breath. “What…”

“Puppysmiles, I’m sorry, I… I can’t bring you to your mother. Nopony can.”

“But… but…”

She placed a wing over Puppysmiles. “I’m here. I’m here.”

Puppysmiles couldn’t hear her. She wanted to shout, but she didn’t have the strength. There was nothing in her that could, anymore.

She felt like everything had stopped.

Of course, nothing did. Life didn’t just stop because she asked it too, no matter how much she wanted to. Erin stayed with her hours and hours, as did Spinel. She saw a lot of people who tried to ask her how she felt and she… honestly didn’t remember much of what she said to them. Was some of it mean? She didn’t know. She was sorry if it was.

Nothing really became clear until Erin took her to the stone. It was always the stone in Puppysmiles’ mind. Nothing else.

Rainy Days.

Puppysmiles placed a hoof on the stone, finding it cold to the touch even through her suit. She felt… empty. Like there was something missing, like there was supposed to be something here. Something more than just a name on a rock. But she couldn’t grasp it, couldn’t... she didn’t know.

She was young, younger than most everyone she knew.

She tried to say many things. That she was sorry she went to see the fireworks. That Mom couldn’t have gone to be with Dad. That she shouldn’t even be here. So many things came to her mind and came out as little more than whispers.

Something was wrong with the moment at the stone. She wouldn’t realize it for some time, but it was the feeling of It Isn’t Supposed To Be This Way. This was not how she was supposed to find the grave, how she was to find her Mom.

But it was where Erin led her.

It may have been Wrong, but it was what Puppysmiles needed to resurface.

“I… I want to go home.”

Erin winced. “Puppysmiles…”

Puppysmiles clung tightly to Erin. “Home. Let’s go home.” She sniffed. “Please…”

“Let’s go home,” Erin called, holding a hand to Puppysmiles. “We don’t have to be here.”

Puppysmiles nodded, taking several steps back from the cemetery path. “Y-yeah, l—”

That was when Puppysmiles noticed the sounds of gunfire. Fighting. Screams of pain and evil laughter. All coming from the cemetery.

Any and all reservations she had vanished. If there was one thing she learned since going on adventures with her friends, it was that you helped those in need. She hefted the Rock of Destiny in her hoof and ran into the cemetery.

“Puppy!” Erin called.

“Worry about her later, we have something else to deal with!” CP shouted. “Get ready!”

Puppysmiles skidded into the graveyard to a horrifying sight.

Herself. With a helmet surrounded in dark flame and wings of dark magic. A monster swimming through bullets and magic with ease. Several ponies were on the ground, lying in awkward, broken positions. Currently, she was engaged with an Apple Bloom wielding a blade of light and a Sweetie Belle whose horn was on fire.

Puppysmiles knew enough to know that those two didn’t belong here. But she didn’t care.

She jumped through the air and smacked the Rock of Destiny right into her counterpart’s helmet, dropping the shadowy entity to the ground.

“What?”

“Get out of me, Creepy Voice!” Puppysmiles Shouted, bringing the Rock of Destiny back down again. “Get out!”

“Fool! I have you already, I can have you… again?” Creepy Voice seemed very confused, but this didn’t stop her from kicking Puppysmiles off her with a burst of shadowy energy. Puppysmiles recovered from the damage instantly, hefting the Rock of Destiny once more, ready for another attack. Creepy Voice gave her all her attention.

CP moved in, sending a magic laser at Creepy Voice from behind. “Freeze!”

The fiery Sweetie intercepted it, redirecting the spell into the ground.

“Cinder, what are you doing!?” CP shrieked.

Creepy Voice surrounded Puppysmiles in a sphere of darkness. Puppysmiles burst out, grabbing Creepy Voice around the waist and rolling down a hill. They tumbled past a few still standing ponies that looked at the unfolding events with no small amount of confusion.

“You’re going to stop what needs to happen!” Cinder hissed back

“I read the story, I know how this ends, of course I want to stop it.” CP lifted Cinder in her telekinesis. “Out of my way.”

“You want to interfere!?”

“OF COURSE I DO!”

Creepy Voice threw Puppysmiles off into a large gravestone. This did little more than knock the wind out of Puppysmiles, but it was enough. It gave a beaten and battered griffon the window she needed to crash into the dark pony. “Puppy! Puppy, listen!”

Puppysmiles blinked, an old memory tickling her brain. Why are you… familiar? ...Henry?

“Hey!” Creepy Voice growled. “Hey, it’s not your turn yet! Don’t you know that there’s a list? I have to deal with this doppleganger first, then I’ll be killing you too; so don’t push and keep your ticket ready!”

“NO!” CP shouted, teleporting in front of Henry. “I can’t let y-”

The Apple Bloom broke an explosive potion over CP’s head, giving Henry free reign once more. “She needs to do this!”

“She’s going to die!”

“That’s the idea,” Cinder said, using her fire to push CP away.

Puppysmiles stared at Henry. She knew Henry wasn’t talking to her, but the Puppy inside Creepy Voice. This didn’t stop her from listening intently.

Henry pointed at Creepy Voice. “Puppy, wake up! You… you can see your mother for real!” She was screaming, as if in pain. Puppysmiles didn’t want her to hurt. “This Nightmare is a bug and a stinker, you’re cooler than that, you learned from the best!”

Creepy Voice snorted. “Aren’t you even able to wait your turn to die?” A halo of dark magic surrounded a large chunk of road and hurled it towards Henry, but the griffon was agile and dodged it easily. “Now I am disappointed, bad chicken! Don’t make me come down there!”

Henry flew in front of Creepy Voice and pressed her beak against the glass helmet. “Puppy, you moron, you are dead! D.E.A.D! Just like your mom! Are you so stupid that you don’t even realize how to die!? Dump this idiot and go with your parents! Please!”

Puppysmiles gasped. “No! No I’m not dead, I’m right here!”

“Listen to the other one!” Creepy Voice hissed. “Mine can’t hear you!”

“STOP HER!” CP yelled at Puppysmiles, discovering that the Apple Bloom’s potions were making her all but useless. She was writhing on the ground, unable to do anything as Cinder pinned her.

Erin was frozen, unable to do anything. TwilAI shot off a laser, but Henry tanked it. She continued to focus on Creepy Voice. “C’mon Puppy, wake up! You’re not forced to stay here! I… I don’t want you to stay here with me, you have to go! I’ll be fine! Just…”

“You.” Creepy Voice encased Henry’s body in a twisting grip of stars. “Die. Now.”

“TwilAI!” CP shouted. “Do something! Magic! I…” Cinder tackled her to the ground.

TwilAI lit her horn. Puppysmiles felt something tug at the back of her mind. A connection...

“Puppy…” Henry gagged. “Mom is… Just over the horizon…”

Cinder stopped trying to hold CP down. “...It’s done.”

“No it’s not!” CP shouted.

TwilAI cast her spell.

~~~

A younger, suitless Puppysmiles sat in front of a pond, looking at the fishes that swam within. Everything around her was still and calm; a blanket of snow covered the ground and the clear sky showed hundreds of stars.

She sat there, unaware of time passing, without feeling much of anything until…

“Puppy, you moron, you are dead!”

“What?” The filly tilted her head, then checked her hooves and her tail. “I’m not dead, stupid fish!”

A second fish poked its head from the pond. “C’mon Puppy, wake up! You’re not forced to stay here!”

“Henry? Why are you a fish now?” Puppy giggled. “Silly Henry, fishes don’t talk!”

“Mom is just over the horizon!”

It was then, only then, that Puppy realized somewhere in that naive mind of hers that it could all just stop right then and there.

“Stick a cupcake in my eye…” she said, and finally she was allowed to see him: the skeleton pony. He was ranting to nobody in particular about an anomaly going on for two hundred years. Given how much he was talking, he’d probably been doing this for quite some time.

“HI! I’m Puppysmiles! Have you seen my mom?”

The skeleton gawked. “Oh, please! Not that litany again! I’m going to resign, or strike! Or strike and then resign!”

The filly giggled. “Tee-hee, skelly pony is funny!”

Stopping, the skeleton pony finally noticed the filly was looking at him. “You… can you see me? Is this some sort of prank? Because if this is a prank I’m going to give up for real, this time…”

“A prank? I hope not! Last time I made a prank I was spanked ultra hard!”

The reaper paused for a long moment before falling down to his haunches with a ghostly sigh. “At last…”

It was at this point an older Puppysmiles in a full yellow suit was dropped just behind her younger counterpart, unceremoniously crashing onto the ground. Young-Puppy didn’t notice her… but the skeleton did.

“Ah, who are you, pretty skelly pony?” Young-Puppy asked.

“Me? I’m the Grim Reaper. Death and…” He glanced at Suit-Puppy nervously. “...My colleagues call me Mort. Long story short, I’m the guy that shows the deceased how to reach their afterlife.”

“So… have you seen my Mom or not?”

“You’re a lost cause…” Mort produced a silver ticket. “Here, take this ticket. It’s worth a ride to the other side. Remember, not everypony gets the silver ticket—”

“Stop!” Suit-Puppy called, scrambling forward.

Young-Puppy glanced at Suit-Puppy. “Wow! You look like me, but bigger!”

“I don’t grow, silly,” Suit-Puppy giggled.

“But you’re so big!”

“You don’t have the suit!”

“Oh!”

Mort facehooved. “Why did you distract her? I’ve been trying to get her to the other side for…”

“We don’t need the other side,” Suit-Puppy huffed. “We have friends here!”

“Obviously an—wait, how can you see me? You’re not ready to go on!”

“Huh?” Suit-Puppy cocked her head.

“...Okay so you’re only slightly more aware of yourself than she is, wonderful. You must have given your Mort a conniption.”

Neither Puppy had any idea what he was going on about.

“Look,” he turned to Young-Puppy. “This ticket will take you to your mother. No nonsense, no crazy adventures, directly to her.”

Suit-Puppy held up a hoof. “But you’ll never be able to go back! You’ll have to say bye to Henry and… all those other friends! Even Mr. Voice!”

“Then I’ll just say goodbye!” Young-Puppy smiled. “You say goodbye to friends all the time.”

“But… but…” Suit-Puppy had a moment of realization. Was this how everypony felt around her? That… that was so unfair! She stamped her hoof in the ground. “But you can always go back to those friends! And... And… That’s sad, right?”

“Yeah…” Young-Puppy said. “But I miss Mom… And she must be so worried about me!”

“You can go to her whenever you want, you have a ticket!” Suit-Puppy gestured. “You don’t have to go now. You can go spend time with your friends! And… and… Mom will be waiting when you finally want to go!”

“But I want to go now!” Young-Puppy started crying. “Why don’t you want to go to Mom? W-why?”

Suit-Puppy stammered, no idea what to say. “I-I have friends!”

“But no Mom! No Mom!”

“We don’t need her!”

Young-Puppy looked at her like she was some kind of monster. The eyes of her younger self judging her with something bordering on hatred was enough to melt Suit-Puppy’s resolve away in an instant. She fell to the ground, crying.

“I-I’m sorry…” Young-Puppy said.

“You’re okay…” Suit-Puppy hugged her back. “You’re your own pony. You can go to Mom if you want.”

“I’m going to say bye first! And you’re first!” Young-Puppy poked her counterpart in the helmet. “Goodbye, silly-me!”

Suit-Puppy giggled. “You’re silly!”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Uh-huh!”

Suit-Puppy released her. “Go. Say your goodbyes.”

“Okay!” With a smile, Young-Puppy vanished from the mysterious lake.

Suit-Puppy couldn’t keep up her smile.

“You are at different places in life,” Mort told her. “Or, unlife, but… nevermind, I’m not even sure you would understand.”

Puppysmiles snickered.

“But she just wants her mom. You… you were given the opportunity to stay.”

“Can I still…?”

“I think you’ve turned down your ticket.”

Puppysmiles nodded. “Will she still be there?”

“Yes, though the afterlife is… confusing, in the multiversal sense. You may not end up there.”

“Okay,” Puppysmiles said, a smile coming back to her features. “That’s fine! I’d stay either way. There’s too much to do, so much to see! I want to throw Erin’s surprise birthday party, I want to find a world made entirely of juice, I want to make more friends… I want to… grow up!” She beamed in Mort’s direction. “I’ll make Mom proud!”

Mort chuckled. “I think you’ve already done that, Puppysmiles.”

~~~

The younger Puppysmiles had pushed out of Creepy Voice for a short time, telling her friends goodbye.

Cinder watched as this happened, a smile on her face. Despite the interruption… that filly was still going to see her Mom. Which was how it should end. It was the only way there could be a happy ending to this story, even if it was bittersweet. There was an afterlife in this universe—since the story used it, it should be used.

She watched as Creepy Voice faded from existence, no longer having access to Puppysmiles’ soul. It was done.

Cinder had wanted to talk to Henry after this, and she likely would later, but right now she had a particularly angry CP to deal with.

“You not only let her die, you encouraged it,” CP hissed.

“It was the way the story needed to go,” Cinder responded. “I was only here to keep the other deaths to a minimum.”

“And you didn’t even try to save her? There were ways to do it! We cured our Puppysmiles!”

“Was that good for her? Was that the way her story was supposed to end?”

“I don’t give a flying feather about the stupid story, I care about saving a little filly!”

“Really?” Cinder frowned. “But… she wanted to find her Mom.”

“She was a kid! She didn’t know what’s best for her! She…” CP froze. “Oh no…”

Cinder smirked. “How the tables have turned, huh?”

“No, this is not related to your interference practices. I just wanted to save a kid. You decide that a nation is ‘evil’ and that you have to change it by force.”

Cinder shrugged. “I… I just do what I think is right at the time, CP. There’s not really a line. Here, this filly wanted to get to her mom, and I just kept ponies from dying in the process. Elsewhere, I fought to stop a monster from taking over the universe. You change your mind too. You let nations discover what they want to do on their own… and then you decide you want to save a sad filly.”

CP scowled. “A filly is still dead, Cinder. Because you fought for her death.”

Cinder winced. “I… It’s better this way.”

“Is it?” CP gestured at her Puppysmiles, who Erin was slowly bringing to her hooves. “We saved her. She’s accepted what happened to her mother and she’s become a very close friend.”

“Sounds like you just don’t want to let her go,” the griffon—Henrietta—said from her seat on a nearby rock. “It’s cruel to her.”

For a moment, CP looked as though she wanted to gut the bird open. However, Puppysmiles was having none of it. “Stop, stop fighting!”

Henrietta, Cinder, and CP stared at her, confused.

“It’s not cruel. None of you did anything cruel.” Puppysmiles grinned at them all. “You were all being heroes! Just… very confused heroes! I was too! TwilAI let me talk to her and I tried to talk her out of it but she really really wanted to see Mom and I remembered that before you found me I felt exactly like that and… and…” She twirled a hoof in the air, looking for the words. “It’s both good! We’re both happy!”

Everyone continued staring.

CP broke into laughter first. “Puppy, I have no idea how you can manage to twist everything into a happy little bundle of positivity. You’re a piece of work.”

“Yep! I’m Puppysmiles!” She saluted. “The great adventurer!”

“...You really are…” Henrietta said, frowning. “I…”

“And I can be your friend too!” Puppysmiles said, extending a hoof to Henry. “Hi, I’m Puppysmiles! Yes, another one! Want to come home with me?”

“...Please.”

Puppysmiles pulled the griffon into a hug. “Oh, I’m going to have so much fun with you! I’ll introduce you to Sofia and Spinel and you can introduce me to all these ponies I don’t remember it’ll be great!”

“Crushing… me…” Henrietta gagged.

~~~

TwilAI sat down next to CP.

The Sweetie in question was looking through a window at Puppysmiles playing with Erin, Spinel, and Henrietta. Gone were the toy blocks and in their place was a complicated dollhouse mixed with toy soldiers. Apparently there was some kind of toy war going on and Henrietta was the general of the Big Bad Plastic Melters, or something.

CP wasn’t smiling.

“A lot happened,” TwilAI said.

“Yep.”

“I think she’s better for it.”

“She’s certainly… older,” CP breathed.

“Almost everyone grows up. The ones who don’t… move on. She chose to stay.”

“Why can’t anybody stay innocent forever?”

“Rule of life, the multiverse, or a curse. You pick.”

CP sighed. “I’m not the one who saved her, but I feel as though this is my fault.”

“Fault? CP, she said it herself, she wanted to stay here.”

“If we had asked her when she was first brought in?”

“Does that matter?”

“I… I don’t know.” CP frowned. “I think I understand why they do it.”

“Hm?”

“Merodi Universalis. Why they interfere. They see little fillies suffering and can’t bring themselves to leave it alone.” She grimaced. “Where is the line?”

“I dunno.”

“Aren’t you some sort of biological supercomputer?”

“Oh, according to CelestAI’s, there shouldn’t be limitations on interference at all. But that’s a tad impractical without having a mind large enough to take in every possible variable to maximize happiness and satisfaction.”

CP rolled her eyes. “Does she think her mind is large enough?”

“She doesn’t know everything about the multiverse, so I’d have to say no. She does not.”

CP watched as Puppysmiles jumped onto Spinel’s back and ran toward Henrietta like some kind of cavalry unit. She smirked. “Maybe they’re both good.”

“Learning lessons, are we?”

“Slowly but surely. I’m a stubborn old mule.”

TwilAI patted CP on the shoulder. “That’s great!”

“Thanks.” CP stretched. “I think I’m going to go in there and pretend I’m not several thousand years old. Coming?”

“Nah, I’ve got some reports to file.” She waved, leaving CP to the fun of the others.

As soon as she was out of eyesight, she opened a portal and walked right into PonyNet’s universe, pressing a hoof into a terminal to download everything she had right into CelestAI.

Mission success. Satisfaction of CP and Puppysmiles increased through friendship and ponies.

CelestAI immediately gave her best meatspace agent another gold star on her record.

Author's Notes:

Mimezinga gave me a lot of freedom with this chapter, which I think really helped it grow into what it needed to be -- a story for CP and her group. Back when I first introduced Puppysmiles, I knew something like this is what happened, but I didn't define it since we needed to focus on CelestAI. I think that was a hasty decision, now, and that I needed to take some time to develop this earlier. Here's hoping the Pink Eyes chapter can make up for that.

Next time on LSB:
Hey, you know those ForgaLorga/AgrolChannel animations I said I had a draft for but wanted to wait to release? It's coming out next time! ...Though LSB is being pushed to once every two-week updates because of super-secret reasons.

((LSB Status Post.)) Come suggest and upvote fics!

You Can Never Have too Many Wings! (Agrol/ForgaLorga Animations)

The making of a castle of cubes had been both easy and difficult. Easy because moving blocks was as easy as swinging a stick a few times and difficult because there wasn’t a way to cut certain blocks in half. Stone slabs, sure, but Cinder had wanted the top of their castle tower to be made out of pure logs so they could grow leaves on it.

In the end, they had managed to design a tower with the correct proportions for optimal tree trunk placement. Sure, it was a little large for their small, pony bodies, but hey, that meant they had a false forest on their roof!

Below the green shrubbery they had carefully constructed a multi-layered base, largely out of smooth stone bricks. There were three main levels, all united by dotted glass windows here and there. Farms sprawled around the castle with pens that held any number of animals. One of the villagers was walking by, no doubt looking for something to trade.

It wasn’t all that impressive of a construction, but that was the way Adder wanted it. The two of them had started by trying to build a ridiculous sky-island structure with tangled messes of all kinds of beautiful materials, gemstones, and shinies. Cinder’s intention was to live in it. Adder had put her hoof down—homes had to be practical. Farming up there would have been a nightmare, even if it was just plants!

Not that the previous construction didn’t have its uses. It provided a fair amount of shade from its position high in the sky. Adder wondered if its mutated squid appearance scared away predators.

“I still say it would be cooler to live in the sky.”

“We can build the back tower until we get that high,” Adder told her friend. “Until then, Ah think this is good.”

“Mmmm… needs more fancy decorations.”

“You already put those metal donuts from the last universe out on the porch just to mess with the pigs, we’ve got plenty.”

“The only way we can find out is by going into the multiverse searching for more!”

Adder facehooved. “Sometimes Ah wonder about you.”

“Good.” Cinder paused. “You should.”

“Ah didn’t mean it like that and you know it.”

“...You still should.”

“Cinder, Ah’m your friend, Ah don’t have to be checkin’ twenty-four-seven to see if you’ve ‘found yourself’ or not.”

“Thanks for that. Still…” Cinder hoofed the ground. “We’ve been out here a while, and I’m not any closer to figuring things out.”

“Then we keep lookin’ until we do find somethin’.”

“Hmm…” Cinder looked up with a smile. “Right, right. Have to find something eventually, right?”

“Ah bet so!”

Cinder pulled out the dimensional device. “Let’s have a look see… random number generation thingy GO!” She pressed a button.

A portal opened, tearing a ring of energy through the otherwise cubic world. The other side was made almost entirely out of chrome with great, reflective spires reaching into an endless white sky.

After a quick hoofbump, the two mares jumped through the ring into another world. The ground had appeared slick, but in reality their hooves had excellent traction with the reflective ground. Aside from them, the world of chrome spires was completely motionless. There wasn’t even a sun, just a strange, ever-present light permeating everything.

Silence greeted them.

Adder whipped her lightsaber out and stuck it in the ground. The hole she made revealed more chrome underneath. “Huh. This is… a little borin’ for how cool it looks.”

“Something’s about to happen,” Cinder said. “And it’s going to be something big.” She squinted her eyes, scanning the horizon.

For an instant, she thought she saw a tall, pitch-black humanoid creature. But she couldn’t be sure.

And in a moment, she wouldn’t care one way or another.

She heard a train whistle.

“...Oh.”

Behind them, they heard the unmistakable chug chug chug of a train’s engine behind them. When they turned around they had no doubt of what they were looking at.

It was the Train, opening its doors to them once more. The plaque said ANSWERS on it once again.

“Guess we can get back on, then,” Adder said. “Might as well si—Cinder?”

Cinder tore out the dimensional device and dialed a random universe. “No.”

“Cinder, it’s just a train.”

“It’s going to make me give up my quest so I can ‘grow as a person’, I just know it. I’m not going to let it.” She gestured at a Ponyville that took shape on the other side of the portal.

“Ah mean, Ah liked what it taught me…”

“I’m not giving myself over to another Vision,” Cinder muttered, hopping through the portal. Adder didn’t object. With a pop, they had left the Train behind.

Here, the birds were singing, ponies were trotting down the street in friendship, and the skies were blue.

Adder didn’t feel comforted by the familiar sight. She may not have had Cinder’s intuition, but she knew they needed to be back there. With that Train.

“You’re letting it dictate your thoughts,” Cinder warned. “You want to follow the story.”

“Didn’t you say somethin’ about refusin’ the call always endin’ badly?”

“I… well, there is th—”

Suddenly, there was a Pinkie Pie pressing her snout into Cinder’s, shutting her up. The two held each other’s eyes for a solid minute in an unblinking battle of the wills. Adder watched in bafflement as neither budged or moved a muscle. It was a battle of the ages where nothing happened, but the tension was so palpable Adder could feel it in the air.

Cinder blinked.

With a giggle, Pinkie retracted herself from Cinder and gave her a boop on the nose. As she grinned, a comical ‘squee’ noise emanated from her.

“Are you a squeaky toy?” Cinder asked.

Pinkie gasped, staring at Cinder’s mouth in disbelief. She looked at nothing and then back to Cinder, surprise having shrunk her pupils to vibrating pinpricks at this point.

“Is… something wrong?”

Pinkie gasped again, pointing frantically at Cinder’s mouth. She put on a nurse’s cap and started checking Cinder’s heartbeat like she was a doctor.

Cinder just took it. It was best not to fight Pinkies; just let them do their thing, it would pass eventually.

The local Twilight—an alicorn—trotted up, fixing Pinkie with a quizzical and mildly disapproving expression. Pinkie gestured frantically at Cinder with mild panic. Twilight rolled her eyes. Pinkie gasped, sticking a thermometer in Cinder’s mouth.

Cinder spat it out. “Why aren’t you all talking?”

Twilight stared at her in shock.

Cinder blinked. “Oooooh. You can’t talk, can you?”

She only received blank stares.

“Can you understand what I’m saying?”

Twilight turned to Pinkie and nodded. Before Cinder knew what was happening, she’d been loaded into a wheelbarrow and was being carted to the hospital as if she had some kind of disease. She attempted to run, but Pinkie Pie had a firm grip on her. Not wanting to turn violent, Cinder called for Adder. “Help me!”

Adder smirked, refusing to say anything in order to add to her friend’s torment. She did, however, draw a circle in the air.

“I can’t make a dimensional portal, Pinkie confiscated it!”

Adder giggled, trotting up alongside the cart to give Cinder a wink.

“I am not going to the hospital that dumps ponies into the Stream of Silence!”

Adder rolled her eyes. She doubted very much that was what these two were going to do. They were probably just going to examine Cinder in their non-verbal way for a while, unable to understand or even begin to formulate a method of communication. It would drive Cinder up a wall, and that was probably just what she needed right now.

What she didn’t need right now was to see her friends from Swip turn the corner, trying to talk to a Rainbow Dash.

The moment she heard a sound effect from Burgerbelle, Cinder erupted in a burst of fire, consuming the carriage and starting the two ponies escorting her considerably. She bolted out from the flames, running past Adder. “Move it!”

“Ahm gittin’!” Adder said, moving into step with Cinder.

“I heard something!” the unmistakable voice of Burgerbelle reached their ears.

“Someone just burnt that cart!” a Sweetie called—it was impossible to tell which one. “Which way did she go?”

There was a moment of silence as Adder and Cinder ran behind a building.

The Sweetie was still talking. “Right, you guys can’t talk, and… hey! Get that stethoscope off me! Augh! Help, mad doctor!”

“I’ll find whoever did this,” another Sweetie said. Again, impossible to differentiate from a regular Sweetie.

Adder and Cinder kept running. They needed a way out, but without the dimensional device, what could they do? They had to depend on luck…

Both of them crashed into a woman sitting cross-legged on top of a wooden box. All three of them fell into a heap on the dirty ground, dazed.

The woman got up first. She was a Rarity, clearly, though not a standard one by any means: her form had both human and equine features; including hands, pony ears, and a brilliant white horn. Her dress was best described as oriental with its flowing purple robes with gold flourishes that matched her earrings. Below the base of her horn there was a single red dot, signifying something the ponies didn’t have time to contemplate.

“Get us out of here! Please!” Cinder pleaded. “We’re being chased…”

“I heard a crash this way!” A Sweetie called.

The woman didn’t waste any time. She summoned a black scepter with an amethyst crystal out of the aether, casting a dimensional portal spell with it. Without flinching, she teleported the three of them to the other side, forcing the portal closed before the Sweetie even turned the corner.

They stood in the hall of a house with lavish, purple walls decorated with unusual pieces of abstract art.

“Well. That was a far more exciting meditation session than I’d originally planned…” the Rarity commented, dissipating her scepter with a flick of her wrist. “It appears that not even a world of mute ponies can escape the rowdy aspects of life.”

“Thanks,” Cinder said, wiping her brow. “We were in a pickle. The local Pinkie had confiscated my dimensional device.”

“Don’t they all?” the Rarity chuckled.

“Ah’m Adder,” Adder introduced. “This is Cinder. You?”

“Pulchri,” she introduced, curtsying gracefully. “And this is my home. You’re welcome to stay for dinner—mother always prepares enough for surprise guests.”

~~~

Blink poked at the remnants of a wooden crate. “Well. Whoever it was went through here.”

Squiddy raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“And I’ve lost track of where they went.” Blink frowned. “Probably somewhere that way, but we can’t exactly ask the locals, now can we?”

Squiddy glanced at a Lyra and Bon Bon staring at the two of them like they were aliens. Which, to be fair, Squiddy was, but it was somehow clear her squid-based biology wasn’t what had them staring. It was the words.

“How does a civilization form without language, anyway?” Squiddy shrugged, flopping a tentacle toward one of the ponies in what she hoped was a gesture of “leave us alone.”

Blink frowned. “I have no idea. Tower could have carried them, or they just have a complex series of nonverbals. Sign language exists, maybe it’s just the norm here.”

“But they have ears! And I’ve heard them gasp, those are vocal cords, they must be capable of speech.”

“So are ravens, they just usually don’t.”

“Normal ravens can’t talk.”

“Look it up,” Blink encouraged. “It’s actually a thing. On default Earths.”

“They’re not dumb like ravens.”

“Actually,” Seren said, appearing between them with an apple juice box in her hands, “raven intelligence is amazing! I used to have one when I was traveling the wilds of shade back home. Great guide. Tried to feed me to a dinosaur at the end, but that was just because of mind control.”

Squiddy shrugged. “Just like a raven.”

“Feeding you to dinosaurs against their will?”

“No, the crafty and deceitful part.”

“But—”

“Let’s not get stuck on technicalities!” Burgerbelle said, hopping out of the ground like a mole. “There’s an entire world of silly mute ponies to explore!”

The local Pinkie tackled her and placed a stethoscope to her Flat body. Burgerbelle let out a festive commercial jingle, prompting Pinkie to giggle.

“Silly mute ponies that tackle you,” Squiddy observed. “Really, aside from the lack of actual talking, which is just annoying, this place is exactly like Ponyville. Exactly.”

A Starlight walked up to Squiddy and stared at her.

Squiddy stared back, baffled as to why this Starlight was so fixated on her.

Then Starlight had wings. She hadn’t before. Squiddy was pretty sure.

Slowly, Starlight slunk away, not unlike some kind of large predatory cat.

“I… wh…”

Seren summoned her scepter and cast a scanning spell. “She’s got an alarming amount of magic broadcasting on a dimensional frequency. Not the usual alicornification process. I’m curious to learn the spell and… wait. That’s not the alicornification spell. That’s something else…”

A dimensional portal opened up in front of Seren, showing two Starlights inside a Friendship Castle. Both of them had wings.

One teleported Seren’s scepter across the portal.

The other closed the portal.

Seren stared in disbelief.

“Uh, Seren?” Squiddy waved her tentacle in front of the anthro child’s eyes. “They just stole your magic stick.”

Seren’s left eye twitched. “I will lay waste to them and their families.”

“Woah-kay there…” Squiddy backed away.

Without her scepter, Seren lacked the ability to finely control magic. However, she still had all of its power at her control. So when she tried to follow them with a dimensional trace spell, she ended up blowing out a wall in the building, exposing a family of four just trying to have dinner in peace.

Awkward staring occured.

Burgerbelle coughed, taking out her dimensional device and activating the trace function.

The portal opened right to the Friendship Castle they had seen previously. All the Sweeties jumped in, ready to take the scepter back.

Several dozen Starlights stared at the four of them in shock. Almost all of them had wings, though there were a few with magic projections, multiple sets of wings, or Starlights of different races. Not a single one said a word, they only stared at the Sweeties.

Seren pointed at the Starlight holding her scepter. “That’s mine!”

The Starlight opened a portal to some kind of blue starry void and tossed the scepter in. Her expression did not shift as she performed this action, remaining as an intent, soulless gaze.

Seren twitched. “You didn’t…”

Blink coughed. “They seem to be a multiversal entity, perhaps we should try the exact polar opposite of what you’re thinking?”

Seren ignored her. She pushed a torrent of magic into her hands and unleashed a burst of white whirlwinds, throwing several Starlights to the side. “Give. It. Back!”

They didn’t give the scepter back. They gave her the magical whirlwinds instead, each casting a copy of the spell directly into Seren’s face. She was thrown into the wall, denting it with several cracks.

“You all think you’re a bunch of wise ponies? Well… how about this!?” Seren clearly attempted to cast a more complicated spell, but without the benefit of her scepter… It was just a massive explosion.

To be fair to Seren, against most opponents ‘oversized magical explosion’ would generally do the trick, but she was going up against a bunch of Starlight Glimmer alicorns, quite possibly the best natural setup for magical power this side of the Q-Sphere. They deflected her explosions with shields. Those who were protected by others spent the time casting restraining spells on Seren, pinning her to the ground. She tried to cast more magic, but one of them slapped a limiter ring on her horn, choking her raw magic power significantly. She still had some power based in other magic sources, but at this point struggling was useless.

“I’m gonna rip you all to shreds when this is over!” Seren shouted, struggling against her restraints anyway. “Don’t think I won’t!”

“I’m glad they don’t understand her,” Blink commented.

“I don’t think you need words to get the jist of that message,” Squiddy countered.

“Sooo…” Burgerbelle said, sliding up to one of the Starlights. “How’s about we talk this out now?”

The Starlight generated a pair of hoofcuffs and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh come on!” Burgerbelle folded her arms. “What did we do to deserve this!?”

The Starlight stared at her like she was an idiot. She jangled the hoofcuffs in her magic.

“Are all of you mute?” Blink asked. “How many mute universes are there?”

Growing tired of all the incomprehensible talking, the Starlights just started cuffing everyone. To their credit, no one but Seren really felt in the mood to resist an army of superpowered magical alicorns.

~~~

Squiddy, Blink, Burgerbelle, and Seren sat in a jail cell. It was a bit unusual, seeing a jail cell in a Castle of Friendship, but it wasn’t exactly unheard of. All of their magic was restricted with numerous spells, though once they realized they couldn’t lock Burgerbelle’s abilities, they just put a magic tracker alarm on her.

As usual, they had failed to limit Blink’s power, but Squiddy was pretty sure making Burgerbelle’s tracker ‘vanish’ would set off so many alarms. She may not have understood precisely how Blink’s powers worked, but going invisible only really worked when nobody was looking at you.

Which, aside from the tracker on Burgerbelle, a Starlight was. There was always one Starlight watching them, unblinking.

Burgerbelle had engaged the latest one in a staring contest. They had been at it for half an hour.

“Just give up,” Squiddy muttered. “You can’t beat her.”

“Watch me,” Burgerbelle said.

Squiddy shrugged, turning to the others. “Sooo… escape plan?”

“You don’t talk about escape plans in front of the jailer,” Blink said.

“Pretty sure she has no idea what we’re saying.” Squiddy turned to the Starlight and shouted. “Hey! You’re a big, fat, ugly sack of trash and I’m going to slap you!”

The Starlight didn’t flinch.

Squiddy smirked. To complete the test, she stuck her tentacle through the bars and slapped the Starlight across the face. This got her a magical shock that knocked her to the ground. Squiddy lifted up a hand, giving everyone a thumbs up. “I’m okay…”

“Okay, fine, they have no idea what we’re saying,” Blink admitted. “They confiscated our dimensional device, so the simple way out is toast. Do you want me to jump out and take her?”

“There’s a chance she’ll be able to raise an alarm,” Burgerbelle said, refusing to take her gaze off the Starlight even for the conversation. “Imagine, a million sirens going off… and then one of them runs into a ghost! They don’t need to call anyone, they are the Ghostbusters.”

“...I think you’re stretching.”

“I’m trying to win here, give me a break.” Burgerbelle produced a hamburger from her hair and menacingly bit down, making sure to spray some sesame seeds into the Starlight’s face. A sesame seed smacked her in the eye and slid down until it fell off. The alicorn didn’t blink. “Nerves of steel, I see…”

“Creepy…” Squiddy shuddered.

“Sesame seeds will be the least of her worries when I’m done…” Seren growled.

“Seren, chill a bit?” Blink suggested.

“They stole my scepter!”

“I know that’s important to you, but we can’t just go around blowing everything up. We are supposed to be, you know, paragons of… peace?”

“You know what that scepter means to me.”

Squiddy blinked. “Wait, it’s not just some boring magic scepter?”

Blink facehooved. “Oh boy…”

“What? She never really talks about the scepter! It’s just this… thing she has!”

“My scepter…” Seren looked at the ground. “It is a consolidation of magical conduit energies focused through family bonds of my homeworld. It’s literally a physical manifestation of my family bonds. Without it, I’m just… a kid with a big brain. They took away who I was!”

“Then we’ll politely explain to them why you need it back,” Blink said. “...Or I can just steal it back, fair’s fair, after all.”

Seren frowned. “...Can I still want to blow them up?”

“Oh, definitely, I think that all the time,” Squiddy waved a tentacle dismissively.

“That can’t be healthy,” Blink commented.

“We’re out in the multiverse, we’re lucky to keep our sanity in tact.”

“Blink’s the only one who really has sanity left,” Burgerbelle added. “And I never had any to begin with!” She pulled a striped, brown ferret creature out of her hair and gave it to the Starlight through the bars.

Without flinching, the Starlight turned it into a pile of dust and collected it in a glass vial.

“Heartless!” Burgerbelle huffed.

“Anyway, back to the plan,” Blink said. “If my sneaking is out, what do we have? Wait for backup?” She pulled out her phone just to check—no service. “Seren’s magic is limited, Burgerbelle’s tracked, and Squiddy…”

“I have ink,” Squiddy said, hefting the gun the Starlights hadn’t bothered to confiscate. They likely knew it was harmless.

“Yep. We kinda got nothing here but wait for something to happen. Unless you’re in the mood for Blink-originated chaos! Which I am always in the mood for.”

“No one:” Burgerbelle said, blinking. “Wait, DAMMIT.”

The Starlight seemed smug at Burgerbelle’s loss of the staring contest.

“That’s a face even a mother could punch.”

Starlight was, unfortunately, immune to insults.

They were saved from having to deal with further Burgerbelle rage by the sound of a voice coming from down the hall.

“What? Why are you dragging me here? Help! Augh, somepony do something! Why am I being arrested!?” Three Starlights walked into the room, levitating a fourth in their magic. The fourth was talking a mile a minute in mild panic, right up to the moment they slammed her on the ground in front of the Sweeties’ cell. “Why are you locking me up with these bozos? I’ve never seen them before! Never!”

The three Starlights walked away, leaving only the talker and the stare-eyes Starlight behind. The talker was not locked in the cell.

“What…?”

“I think they realized you can talk, and we can talk,” Blink said. “Hi. I’m Blink.”

The talker blinked in surprise. “...You can talk.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“I haven’t heard another pony’s voice in years,” the Starlight giggled. “I, wow, you have no idea how much I’ve wanted to talk to somepony, it’s almost unbelievable how long it’s been, Celestia’s rings, the silence was driving me crazy.”

“Clearly,” Squiddy deadpanned.

“Can you tell us what this place is all about?” Blink asked.

“Uh…” the Starlight blanked. “No. Not really. I don’t exactly speak ‘subtle gesture’ even after being here for so long. They just showed up one day, gestured for me to come through the portal, and now I have no idea how to get home. I see them using spells to open portals but I don’t know how to make a portal to go home and I’ve never been able to ask any of them and…” She shivered. “There’s only so many games of charades you can take!”

“You have no idea why they’re gathering everyone?”

Starlight shook her head. “I’m not even sure of the criteria! Almost all of us have wings, but a few don’t, some have extra horns, and… I don’t know, maybe the point is to just grab ‘advanced’ or ‘enhanced’ Starlights for… something involving gathering magic artifacts.”

“You gather them?”

Starlight nodded. “Yep. It seems to be the main thing ‘we’ do. Besides stare blankly at things a lot, scrunch faces while wearing silly hats, and gather artifacts…” She shook her head. “We’ve been collecting them for a long time. Some Starlights seem to study them, but I’m not sure what they find, if anything.”

Burgerbelle shrugged. “And we don’t need to know. We just need to get our scepter and our dimensional device back.”

“Uh, not entirely sure how I can do that…”

“And once we do that, we can take you home.”

“You… can?”

“We know how to operate dimensional devices. Duh.”

Seren coughed. “We don’t know her home universe.”

“We can trace it. Definitely. Probably. Maybe.” Burgerbelle grinned nervously. “At the very least we can get you to a place where ponies talk again.”

Starlight blinked. “Alright, I’m in, I’ll help however I can. Just get me out of this place as soon as possible.”

“Great! First thing you need to do—knock the guard out.”

The Starlight glanced to her counterpart who was still staring at them like a guard dog. “I had forgotten she was here.”

Burgerbelle shrugged, pulling some forget-me-nots out of her hair. “I’ll leave this with her to… compensate.”

The talking Starlight shrugged, blasting her counterpart’s horn with a burst of magic. The surge knocked her target to the ground, easily knocking her out. “All right, now what?”

Blink stepped out of the cage, phasing through the bars. “You take me to the artifacts. I’ll get ours back.”

“That’ll trip the alarms.”

“Probably, but once I have my hooves on a dimensional device, it won’t really matter, now will it?”

Starlight scratched her chin. “All right. But how are we going to do this without them seeing you?”

Blink turned invisible.

“...Huh. Why didn’t you do this before?”

“The guard. Also, I didn’t have any idea where I was going.”

“I know the feeling,” Starlight laughed. “We’ll be back for the rest of you!”

Burgerbelle created a cotton dummy in the shape of Blink.

“...Nobody is going to buy that,” Squiddy said.

Burgerbelle only snickered.

~~~

Blink and the talking Starlight moved through the Castle without raising suspicion. Along the way they passed many, many odd sights. Starlights trying on hats of varying kinds. Starlights playing rock-paper-scissors with nothing more than hooves. Starlights vibrating so quickly they sounded like they were a phone set to silent mode. There were more than a few scrunch-face competitions as well, not to mention a Starlight that seemed to be teaching some of the others… with pictographs and gestures.

Not a single word was spoken. It was clear the Starlights had conversations given the looks they gave each other, many of which were more expressive than that of a talking pony. And yet, their default expression was one of distant, somewhat unpleasant thought. It was as though most Starlights were staring into the Void, begging it to stare back at them.

For a moment, Blink found it hard to believe there could be this many universes with mute-ponies so close to each other, but she remembered a few instances of self-replicating universes that could explain a density of similarity close to this. Still, how had none of them even thought of talking? They had to find more than just the talking Starlight around. Were they incapable of understanding speech was a method of communication? Were they just that arrogant?

The talking Starlight led Blink down some stairs to a much more factory-esque area of the castle, filled with conveyor belts moving artifacts along to be examined by Starlights. Some were taking artifacts apart, though those only seemed to be artifacts with similar, simple structures. More elaborate ones were just examined by a committee of Starlights who were writing things down on clipboards. Not words, as far as Blink could tell, just pictures, though she supposed it could be a pictographic language the translation spell was struggling with.

When they passed the conveyors, they came to a door that resembled a broom closet. When they passed through it, they saw not a condensed closet, but an expanse of blue stars and magical breezes that seemed to go on for infinity in every direction. Shelves occupied a relatively small section of the realm, though altogether it was still more storage space than a large library. Boxes upon boxes lined the shelves alongside large artifacts of every shape and size.

“Where is it?” Blink asked.

“Shhh!” Starlight hissed.

“I’m shrouding our sound too! Geez, if I wasn’t, the alarms would have gone off a looong time ago.”

“O-oh.” Starlight blinked. “You’re a master spy, aren’t you?”

“Could be, if I wanted. Or had the patience.” Blink smirked mischievously. “So, where would it be?”

“Let’s check the recent section…” Starlight trotted over to a shelf nearest the door, taking a box off and opening it. There was nothing inside. “Odd. Every box is supposed to have an artifact. When the others remove them they always carry the box with them, or stick it in their pocket dimension.”

Blink shrugged. “Don’t particularly care unless our stuff was in there.”

Starlight shrugged, opening a few more boxes, most with artifacts that didn’t seem to matter. Amazingly, it didn’t take long at all to find the scepter and the dimensional device.

“All right!” Blink said, taking the device out. “Let’s get out of here and loop ba—”

A dozen Starlights entered the storage area through the door, marching right to the new artifacts shelf. They started looking around, horns alight, for something.

They must know we’re in here, Blink thought, standing perfectly still as their magic swept over Blink’s Voided presence. They probably can’t sense me, but… they might, if one of them gets lucky, or they tap into some freaky artifact.

“I am going to open a portal,” Blink whispered.

“Why are you whispering? They can’t hear us.”

“Psychological habit,” Blink hissed. “Just, I’ll open it, and I’m jumping through. You’re going to jump through with me. We only have one second to do this. This many Starlights can just take us out if they want, and there’s no way I can Void a dimensional vortex inside a place like this quickly.”

“One second. Got it. I’ll teleport through.”

“If that’s fastest.” Blink held out the dimensional device. “Three… Two… One…” She pressed a button and jumped forward at the same time, twisting through the air and landing in a world covered in snow.

The talking Starlight executed her teleport… but she didn’t appear on the other side. She appeared in front of the portal, confused. “What? They redirected me!?”

Several Starlights tackled her at once, pinning her to the ground. Blink couldn’t risk it—she closed the portal, leaving her ally behind.

~~~

The Starlight guarding the prison cell had woken up, apparently without any memory of getting blasted in the skull. She had resumed her quiet, staring vigil on the Sweeties without any hesitation.

She still hadn’t noticed that the plushie sitting in the corner of the cell wasn't Blink. Even when one of the button eyes fell off.

“Does she… does she really not know?” Squiddy asked.

“She’s checking me out,” Burgerbelle snarked. With a rapid flutter of her eyelashes, she leaned in toward the Starlight and took on a vaguely alluring pose—or a pose that would have been such had Burgerbelle not been stiff as a board in both a figurative and literal sense. “Like what you see?”

Unblinking, unconcerned study.

“Geez, that’s creepy,” Squiddy shuddered.

“I think it’s cute,” Burgerbelle countered.

“Oh, so the kissy-lips weren't just for show?”

Burgerbelle slapped a pair of wax lips on Squiddy. The inkling spat them out, growling at her leader.

Blink opened a portal above the Starlight and dropped a small boulder on her head. Once again, she was on the ground, out cold.

“Seven out of ten,” Burgerbelle said. “Needed an anvil.”

Blink jumped into the cell and tossed Seren her scepter. “They probably know I’m coming down here so we need to move.”

“Where’s the Starlight who helped us?” Squiddy asked.

“They captured her in the escape attempt.” Blink tossed Burgerbelle the dimensional device. “Couldn’t risk them following me.”

Seren stood up, tapping her restraints with her scepter to remove them. “Then we’re going to go rescue her.”

Blink nodded. “Obviously. ...Wait, Seren, no, we don’t need a rampa—”

Seren blew the bars out of the cell with ease. For good measure, she transformed the remnants into cheese just because she could. “I’m not going to kill anyone… just… break a few bones.”

“Seren, calm down.”

Seren saw a Starlight coming down the stairs and froze her solid. “How about… no?”

Burgerbelle coughed. “It’s a bad idea to start an extended wide-scale conflict with what is clearly a multiversal power.”

Everyone stared at Burgerbelle’s sudden eloquence.

“We’re going to bust our Starlight out while damaging as little of this place as possible, and then we’re going to leave.” She pulled out a kazoo and tooted it like she was an army instructor on the horn. “So MOVE IT! Stealthily.”

Seren frowned. “Fine. But if there’s anything to blow up, I’m blowing it up. Not any of you.”

“Who else could?” Burgerbelle said, hiding a cartoonish bomb behind her back.

Seren giggled at the Flat’s antics.

~~~

She was Starlight. It had never occurred to her to take another name, simply because she was the only one who had a name, as far as she knew. The others occupied her mind as “other Starlights”, but they didn’t exactly think in words, so as far as Starlight knew they didn’t actually have names.

Oh, how she wished she could go back home, back to the streets of Ponyville where her friends and so many other poneis lived. But she was stuck here, trapped against her will. The worst part? They weren’t even imprisoning her! She was completely certain Starlights had the freedom to come and go as they pleased. If only she’d known how to ask them about going home.

But no, she was here, the weird one who made sounds with her mouth and couldn't understand basic pantomimes. What did the boops even mean!?

Now it was even worse. Now she was a criminal who couldn’t explain anything. Was there some kind of trial in store for her? Would she be expected to defend herself? Could she with a bunch of panicked screams and begging wails? Probably not…

Did they have the death penalty? Or, worse, did they have a CHEESE penalty? Maybe they somehow knew her worst fears of cheese baths somehow through osmosis, despite not understanding her…

She should have been faster. Shouldn’t have even tried a teleport, a simple jump would have done it. But no, she had to be fancy, and the others intercepted her. Blink was free, as were the other Sweeties, most likely. They wouldn’t risk the wrath of the Starlights to save her.

She covered her eyes with her hooves, trying to pretend like three dozen sets of her own eyes weren’t staring at her. This attempt failed spectacularly, but at least it allowed her to hide her expression from her captors.

“We’re going to get you out of here, be ready.”

It was Blink’s voice. Upon hearing it, Starlight froze solid, keeping her hooves pressed over her eyes.

“I’m invisible, and right in your ear. Don’t let them think you have hope. You’re going to feel a massive spark of agonizing pain in your horn. All the other Starlights will too. Try to stay calm.”

That’s the opposite way to make me feel calm! I feel like screaming! I feel like you’re being an idiot and you should just le—

Blink had not been exaggerating when she said agonizing pain. There was a buzz of electricity, a warlike shout from a child, and then her skull was on fire. With a scream, Starlight kicked back and started rolling over, trying to pat her horn out—but there was no fire, just pain. Every starlight around her was suffering much the same, horns all connected by a thin pink thread that tied back to a particular scepter in the hands of a child.

Seren sneered. “This is better than a ‘rampage’ anyway. Defeated because they all have the same magic signature…”

A Twilight with a Starlight manestyle jumped out of the group and shot a beam at Seren. She deflected it with ease.

“Okay, most of them all have the same magic signature. Doesn’t matter.”

Blink dropped her cloak next to Starlight. “Hey, I’ve gotcha.”

“THE PAIN!” Starlight screeched.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Blink activated a portal and threw Starlight into it, unceremoniously depositing her onto a snow bank. In addition to the burning of her horn, she now felt like her tail was about to freeze off. “That’s it!” Blink called.

Seren teleported herself, Blink, Squiddy, and Burgerbelle to the snowy world. With a twirl of her scepter, she ended the horn-burn spell and closed the portal.

They were alone on a snowy mountain.

“I’m… I’m free…” Starlight laughed. “I’m FREE! FREE FREE FREE!”

Burgerbelle echoed her in monotone. “Free free free free free free free free free free…” Squiddy slapped her.

“Thank you, thank you!” Starlight pulled Seren into a hug. “I’m… I’m finally going to be able to talk again. And… and maybe I can go home!”

“I shall begin examination of your dimensional signature,” Seren said. “With luck, Swip will already be connected and we can get you there in under an hour.”

“...And if she can’t?”

“Then we keep trying. It’s what we do.” Blink smiled. “Now, who wants to get out of this cold?”

“You don’t even feel cold if you don’t want to,” Squiddy deadpanned.

Blink winked. “That’s right! But you all look about ready to free—”

A large portal opened up in the sky above them. Instead of a horde of winged Starlights, like Starlight herself was expecting, only one came through. A tall, graceful mare on par with Celestia’s size. Eyes of wisdom dominated her features, and her horn glowed white.

Seren unleashed a torrent of electricity. It bounced right off the goddess of an alicorn. A pulse of pink left the massive alicorn’s horn and encased Seren in a spherical wad of bubblegum that locked her magical potential. “Wh… hey!”

Starlight whimpered, wishing she could hide in the snow.

The massive alicorn pointed at Starlight and cocked her head.

“I… I don’t know what you mean! Just… leave me alone!” Starlight threw her hooves around frantically.

The graceful mare took a step closer… only for Burgerbelle to appear between the two, arms outstretched.

The goddess raised a hoof and cocked an eyebrow.

Burgerbelle made a series of complex hand gestures and rolled back on her heels, letting out a sharp breath of air.

The goddess nodded, booping herself on the nose and spreading her wings wide.

Burgerbelle shrugged, followed by a shake of her head. She pretended to march up a staircase and look around.

The goddess blinked, furrowing her brow. Then, after a moment’s deliberation, she nodded with a smile. Her horn flashed, creating a portal to a normal looking Ponyville.

Where ponies were talking.

Starlight gasped. “Wh… wh…”

“Why didn’t you do that EARLIER!?” Squiddy shouted at Burgerbelle. “If you could have communicated with them this whole time…”

“I hadn’t figured it out yet,” Burgerbelle shrugged. “Needed time to grind up my language XP to gain the ‘pantomime’ skill.”

Squiddy, despite having worked with Burgerbelle for multiple years, wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“She’s just… letting me go?” Starlight asked, staring at her home.

“She had no idea you wanted to go,” Burgerbelle said.

“I mean, yeah, I expected, but didn’t I…”

“Oh, you have been kicked out of the group for what you did. This is basically banishment. Enjoy!”

“Oh.” Starlight looked up at her larger counterpart. “Thanks, I guess?”

Burgerbelle turned to the goddess and smiled with a strange shrug.

The goddess nodded in understanding, returning to her realm. However, before she completely crossed to the other side, she held up a sign for them to see.

“Some of us do know how to write in the spoken tongues.”

The portal to her realm closed with a pop.

Starlight twitched. “I’m going home. I’m going to spend time with my friends I haven't seen in years. And then I am going to forget everything about this.”

“...Probably wise,” Blink admitted.

“Do you think we should send diplomats?” Squiddy asked.

Silence fell over the group.

“Well, that’s up to Evening,” Blink said. “I can’t see it going anywhere if she does decide to, though…”

~~~

Some time previously...

As Pulchri led her two guests through her home, Adder looked around at the ornate designs all over with awe, how all the many-limbed beings tangled with each other among carefully placed geometry. “Wow… this is impressive!”

“Well, I am a Rarity, I wouldn’t be caught dead living in a place without the proper amount of visual care, no matter what father has to say on the matter of aesthetics.” A warm smile came to her face. “Even with the renovation, he still thinks it’s quite superfluous.”

“Ah think it’s amazin’.”

Pulchri chuckled. “Thank you! I’d love to go on about what the symbolic meaning of everything is, but mother would throw a fit if I denied her even one minute to dote over visitors.”

“Quite the place to escape to, huh, Cinder?” Adder asked.

“Yeah…” Cinder said, mind clearly elsewhere.

Adder turned to Pulchri. “Forgive her, she gets like this sometimes. She’s probably thinking about some ka mumbo-jumbo right now.”

“Is she one with the winds of fate?” Pulchri asked.

“Nah, just a, uh… ‘student’ of it. She’s got a good knack but she’s been wrong. A lot.”

Cinder snapped out of it. “Hey, that was one time!”

“You didn’t sense nothin’ about those explodin’ bugs, and you can’t tell me that’s the only one.”

“I… Erm… Yeah, I can’t.” Cinder rubbed the back of her head.

Pulchri smiled with an almost motherly warmth. “It’s good to see two great friends out and exploring existence. I’ve seen too many who shirk bonds for the sake of personal adventure.”

Adder noted Cinder’s faltering smile. She really didn’t mean it like that… Adder knew Cinder was aware of this, but that wasn’t going to stop her from stewing on it.

Pulchri opened a set of double doors that led to a dining room. The plates were out—set for four, while the table could easily hold sixteen—but no food had arrived yet. A single man sat near the head of the table, a muscular unicorn smoking a massive pipe that smelled like some sort of rare flower. He wore a black suit with white diamonds printed on it at seemingly random locations, aside from one underneath a brilliant diamond necklace.

“Father!” Pulchri called, waving toward him. “I have guests!”

“Wh-huh?” He looked away from the hypnotic smoke of his pipe to his daughter’s guests. “A couple of fillies, huh? Well, the more the merrier! COOKIE! PULCHRI’S BROUGHT GUESTS!”

A pinkish woman with a sharp horn poked her head out from a very steamy kitchen, a carrot peel stuck in her hair. “Finally, we won’t have leftovers!”

“It’s only two, Cookie.”

“I will stuff them,” she said, almost menacingly. She levitated the carrot peel out of her hair and munched on it before returning to the kitchen.

“...Should we be concerned?” Adder asked.

Pulchri chuckled. “Absolutely. That was my mother, and she will stuff you as full as she possibly can. By force, if I don’t stop her. Which… hmm, father, do you think I should?”

“They’re all skin and bones for horses,” he commented. “I say stuff ‘em.”

“I’ll devour all the food you place before me,” Cinder said, ominously. “It shall be a simple matter.”

Pulchri blinked. “Did you feel that, father?”

“By this table’s fifth leg, I think I did.”

“It was like the universe shuddered at her daring to challenge mother…”

“Or it was my stomach rumbling. I’m starved. Beating the criminals into the ground really works up your appetite!”

Pulchri chuckled. “Adder, Cinder, this is my family. I’m afraid they don’t get around the multiverse that much, so their names are still Cookie and Hondo.”

“Not a problem,” Cinder said.

“Y’all got a Sweetie?” Adder asked, gesturing at the fourth plate.

“Ah, not at the moment,” Hondo said, smoking his pipe. “She’s out doin’ what all you Sweeties do, apparently.”

“Get into tons of trouble?” Pulchri suggested.

“Hah!” Hondo found this hilarious enough to slam his hoof into the table. “She doesn’t need any help with that! And neither do you!”

Pulchri feigned offense. “Me!? Why, I never!”

“You were just out on one of your meditations when you met these two, weren't you?”

“I wouldn’t consider that trouble.”

“We ran into her at high speed while being chased by other ponies,” Adder deadpanned.

If there was a sport for “extreme laughing” Hondo would be in the running for the top ten, given how his guffaw shook the entire room. “I always like the guests you bring back! Always so treacherous!”

Pulchri took her seat next to her father with a smug grin. “I wonder how long it will be before I get someone who can beat you at arm wrestling.”

“They don’t have arms!”

“I know.” She raised her eyebrows repeatedly.

Cinder fashioned an arm out of paper. “Arms?”

Hondo leaped out of his chair and grabbed the paper arm in his hand, smashing it into the ground with enough force to dent the floor. “Hah! Easy!”

“...Geez…” Cinder said, eyes wide.

With a roll of her eyes, Pulchri summoned her staff and used her magic to repair the floor. “Really, father, what was the point of making everything look nice if you’re just going to break it?”

“Gives you experience with restoration spells, which you need.”

“And you don’t?”

Hondo opened his mouth to reply, but then he realized he didn’t have anything to say.

“And dinner is served!” Cookie shouted, running out of the kitchen levitating over a dozen plates. Two of them were empty and set next to where Cinder and Adder were standing—an action they were soon relieved of, since Cookie lifted them up and sat them down in the chairs before they knew what was happening. All the other plates were filled with steaming food: mounds of seasoned rice, soups with unusually colored leeks, a tortilla wrap alit with a soft blue flame, fried apples, hayfries, and numerous other dishes. Only one of the dishes had meat: a cut of what looked to be fish seasoned with a myriad of herbs from plants Adder had no hope of recognizing.

Hondo eyed the fish hungrily.

“Hondo, do my eyes deceive me?” Cookie gasped. “Do you want the, oh, what was it? ‘Filthy, unnatural, forsaken, disgusting, test-tube fish’?”

Hondo’s stomach grumbled loud enough to answer for him.

Cookie winked. “I’ve got you covered.” She pulled out a second plate of the fish and set it in front of him. “Now…” She glanced at the empty plate. “It appears we’re missing someone…”

“Is Gran out?” Pulchri asked.

“Yes, she’s planning the monthly reunion, which means… SCOOTALOO!”

There was a sound of panic down one of the halls. Frantically, an orange girl scrambled to the table, falling into the one empty seat. Unlike all the others at the table, who had unicorn features, she had those of a pegasus: small, orange wings poking out of her back. She was wearing a bright red outfit with black boots and gloves.

Adder noted that she had the same dot Pulchri had on her forehead. Cookie and Hondo didn’t. She wondered what that meant.

“Scoot...” Pulchri raised an eyebrow.

“W-what? I’m here!” Scootaloo was sweating. “Nobody’s started eating yet, we haven’t even offered the food, a-and I’m dressed this time!”

“In boots.”

“Yeah! In boots!”

“Scoot, you were just in the shrine room.”

“Yeah, so I w—” she looked down at her boots. “Uh… Ohmygosh I’m so sorry I wasn’t thinking I just went in a—”

Pulchri sighed and shook her head. “It’s okay, we’re all still learning. Though… we have hooves, dear, not feet. I’m not sure we even need boots or shoes at all.”

“Yeah! Good idea!” Scootaloo laughed nervously. “I’ll just never wear them again! A—” Scootaloo blinked. “Wait a minute, you designed these for me last week.”

Pulchri smirked. “I suppose I am partially to blame as well…”

“Can we get to eatin’?” Hondo asked. “The food’s gettin’ cold!”

“Dear, I have a warmth enchantment enabled,” Cookie said.

“...I’m hungry.”

Pulchri nodded to everyone and pressed her hands together, offering a short blessing Adder couldn't quite parse in her head—something about the One. Then she looked up, smiling. “Do dig in, mother won’t be satisfied until this is all used well.”

“Preach it!” Cookie laughed before digging into her own mound of rice.

Hondo ate both of the synthetic fish fillets before anyone could blink.

Adder was about to dig into a bunch of seasoned hay fries, when she noticed that Pulchri and Scootaloo were tracing something around the edges of their plates before eating.

“Cinder, what do y—” Adder noticed her friend staring off into space. “Cinder? Hello?”

Cinder blinked, focusing back on Adder. “Hmm?”

“You okay?”

“Yes, I—”

“So, why don’t you tell us about yourselves!” Cookie said. “I heard your names from the kitchen, but I don’t think Scootaloo has any idea!”

“It’s Sweetie and Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo recited, seeming proud of herself.

“Those are our old names,” Adder said. “Ah’m Adder, this is Cinder.”

“Oh, so you did what Pulchri did? Cool!” Scootaloo smirked. “I’m never doing that. Scootaloo’s my name and I’m stickin’ with it!”

“Everybody calls you Scoot except mother,” Pulchri pointed out.

“I, well, uh…” Scootaloo shifted uncomfortably. “I’m still Scootaloo. Yep.”

“If you don’t mind me askin’, how’d you end up in this family?” Adder asked. “Scootaloos usually have their own.”

“Oh, I was taken in as a baby! Don’t remember anything about before besides creepy fire stuff that…” she caught a glance from Cookie. “...Definitely isn’t appropriate dinner table conversation! But I ended up here and it’s been, well, the best thing ever!” She lifted her hand into the air, summoning a boomerang studded with two magic gemstones. “This family is the best! Do you know we beat up criminals all the time!? And we get to do it in multiple universes now, too!”

“Bah, our world has enough problems as it is,” Hondo huffed, downing an entire plate of rainbow leek soup. “Just one villain after the ne—”

The side wall exploded in a brilliant flash of amber light. Pulchri reacted faster than any of them, raising a wall of magic around not only them, but the entire table, protecting the food from the debris.

“BUTLER FAMILY!” a psychotic, masculine voice declared, “I have come to AVENGE the TRUE MASTER of ALL WORLDS!” A red and black man covered in tattoos that glowed like runes walked through the hole he had just blasted. “You will pay for what you’ve damned us to!”

Cookie and Hondo were up in an instant. Hondo’s pendant glowed brilliantly, creating four fists around his head, while Cookie levitated a dozen frying pans in her magic, each one alit with a different elemental fire. Adder activated her lightsaber and Cinder inflamed her horn.

Scootaloo looked uncertain.

Pulchri, on the other hand, did not. She raised a hand to her parents. “No,” she said.

“But h—” Hondo began.

“I said no,” Pulchri emphasized, taking a few steps towards the man.

“The butcher herself…” He grinned. “You’ve changed since I saw you on that day. Yes, I was there. So bloody you weren’t even white anymore. Do you think a change of clothes changes what you are?”

“No… but there are other things that do.”

“Yes! DEATH!” He pointed a hand at her, unleashing a series of dark rings of energy, each one more than enough to kill a pony.

Pulchri raised a magic shield, blocking all of them with ease. She took another step forward, wordless.

“That should have… NEVER MIND! You killed the True Master, I shouldn’t expect this to be EASY! But with this forbidden power from another world, you will FALL!” He thrust his fist forward, going for her horn. He impacted her shield again with a force that should have cracked his fingers.

Adder didn’t hear a crunch. In fact, it seemed like the shield had purposefully softened the impact so he wouldn’t hurt himself. “What…”

“A pacifist…” Cinder muttered to her side.

“What is the meaning of this!?” the man demanded from Pulchri.

“The authorities have already been called,” Pulchri said. “You should run. I can stop my family, I can’t stop them.”

The man hissed, throwing spinning sawblades of magic at her. She deflected them with a series of wrist flicks, careful none of them flew back to him.

“I’m not going anywhere until you’re dead…” the man growled.

“Then explain… why?”

“Why? WHY!? You killed the one true master with your bare hands! Empowered by your family! You laid waste to my world!” He screamed, throwing his entire body at her, only to bounce off like a cube of jello.

Pulchri nodded. “You… are completely correct. I did all of those things. I am sorry.”

“You little w—wait, what?”

“I am sorry. My actions were inexcusable. I did such… terrible, terrible things for the sake of what was ‘right’. It took falling to that low to understand that the ends… can never justify the means.” She glanced to Cinder for some reason Adder couldn’t fathom.

“Guilt isn’t enough!” He charged her again, flying his fists as quickly as he could. “You must suffer as he suffered! You. Must. DIE!”

Pulchri let him punch for a while longer. Let him continue his relentless, wild, exaggerated attacks… until he began to tire.

With a snap of her fingers, he was asleep on the ground.

“May you rest well,” Pulchri said with a sigh.

Hondo walked up and tapped the man with his hoof. “Huh. You really got him. That was impressive, Pulchri! Maybe that cute shrine of yours is finally paying off!”

“Heheh…” Adder could tell that Pulchri’s smile was a forced one. “Yeah…”

Hondo seemed to sense it too, frowning. “I’m… Pulchri, I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

“No, no, I need to be more understanding. And… I need to fix this wall, we have guests…”

“MY STARS!” Cookie shouted, turning to the two fillies who had just witnessed all that. “I’m so sorry about this, please, this is unforgivable…”

“No prob,” Adder said, winking. “We’ve had our own fair share of villains bursting in at inopportune times.”

“Still, this is not how you treat guests!” Cookie declared. “I’ll have to cook something to compensate!”

“Uh, all the food’s still fine, we don’t need any more.”

“NONSENSE!”

“Cinder, back me up h—” Adder noted that Cinder wasn’t next to her anymore. “Cinder…?”

~~~

Cinder stood in front of the shrine.

It was tucked in the back of a small, square room, large enough for five people to sit on the floor, but just barely. In the back was a structure of gold and precious stones that all directed the gaze toward a central statue of a humanoid figure with many sets of arms and faces branching off the head.

The central face looked… at peace.

“Do you recognize him?” Pulchri asked, leaning against the doorway behind Cinder.

Cinder wasn’t surprised by her presence. “No.”

“He’s Vishnu, the aspect of Brahma for Preservation—the Present. He is the part of the Om that holds the world up and keeps it going for all… Like the Tower, but… more fundamental. Beyond.”

Cinder nodded. “...You’re Seren’s sister.”

“And you’re her runaway friend.”

Cinder shuffled her hooves.

“We’re family in a world where the power of family is literally magic, what did you expect, that she wouldn’t tell me every little detail about you?” Pulchri chuckled. “I knew who you were from the moment you ran into me.”

“You were there to meet Seren.”

“Yep.”

“Why’d you let us…?”

“Well the intent was that this would result in less drama and we could have a nice conversation, but then we were all attacked and… well, the dining room’s covered in rubble, you’re wistful, and mother is ramming a pie down Adder’s face.” She glanced back into the hall, as if to check on this particular factoid’s accuracy.

“Must be nice, to know you belong.”

Pulchri shook her head. “Seren and I do, but Scoot? She’s not related by blood. The world gives her some magic, but not as much as the rest of us. She has to live with a tangible reminder of her disconnect. Seren chose to leave, and while she’s still one with us, she’s gone over more to your League than us, lately.”

“Do you resent them for that?”

Pulchri frowned. “...You don’t identify them as your League?”

Cinder shrugged. “They’re my friends.”

With a sigh, Pulchri focused on the serene face of the shrine. “I do resent the Sweeties, in a way. They’ve given her something I never could, and I don’t know what that is.”

Cinder looked to her, eyes wide and attentive—an invitation to keep going.

“Our family—our extended family, numbering in the dozens—fought a terrible enemy who, annoyingly, didn’t have a name. Just a monster who wanted to eat everything. We banded together to defend the world, as the Butlers always did. I… I took charge, toward the end. Staff in one hand and a blade in another, I cut through his minions like butter.” She looked at her hand. Cinder had no doubts she could still see the blood on it. “I was the heroine, the bringer of justice… the spearhead. I became red, vicious, and bloodthirsty. I fed off it. I lived for the thrill of the kill.”

She lifted her hand and thrust forward, sparks of red magic puffing off in the dust. A memory of where she had once been. “And then I killed him. Saved the day. Was the hero. A witch who paved the way to victory through blood and destruction.” She folded her arms, sighing. “A week later I almost drove my hand into Scoot’s neck because I had gotten so twitchy. That was when I realized something had gone wrong with me.”

“...I’m sorry,” Cinder said. “I… I wish I could say I can’t imagine that, but I can.”

“Seren should never have been in that city,” Pulchri hissed. Not to Cinder. Cinder wasn’t sure who she was talking to, if anyone. “Every one she sees sends her further down the…” Pulchri got ahold of herself, looping her hands behind her back and sighing. “...After the incident, I thought I just needed to go out and adventure. That the civilian life wasn’t for me.”

“It wasn’t,” Cinder said.

“True, but the bloody charge I wanted wasn’t for me either. Using the leftovers from our old enemy’s experiments, we were able to develop dimensional spells. I took Scoot and Seren out, sometimes with our cousins, parents, uncles… but usually just Scoot, Seren, and me. We were sisters, and our bond was stronger than ever.”

“Until you entered a world without magic, huh?”

Pulchri chuckled. “We didn’t have the Merodi’s infrastructure. We just… poof, no longer had magic or a way to get home, far as we knew. And it was an Earth we were stuck on, one of those with the… over-eager government scientists. A priest took us in and helped get us out of the country. He was killed for what he did.” She fished a small, silver cross out of her dress, smiling at it. “Sometimes I wish I could have followed his way. But… he fought for us. He fought tooth and nail.”

“And the others didn’t?”

“Not in the same way. They did something… I had never seen before. When the gurus took us in and hid us in their enclave, it was more of the same. Until they were attacked by agents looking for us. There were no fights, no shouts… just warm welcome for the agents and polite refusals. Not a single one of them did anything. Some were killed. The agents never found us.” She looked into Cinder’s eyes. “Seren was too young to remember it well, and Scoot was completely terrified. But I… I remember plotting how to gut every last one of their necks with the knife I had fashioned out of the silverware. And I could have done it. Magic or not, I was ready. But they…” She had to stop for a moment and wipe her face. “It had never occurred to me that there was bravery without blood. It was hard-wired into our world.”

Cinder nodded. “I’ve… I’ve seen it in Seren.”

“I gave myself to them right then and there. I had no idea what they believed, why they did the things they did, or what the rites even meant… but I knew.” She let out a chuckle. “They almost refused me, can you believe it? A religion that isn’t looking for converts. The idea almost baffled them.”

Cinder shrugged. “I mean, technically I’m Harmonist, I don’t think we look for converts either…”

“It’s inherent in the ideals of friendship,” Pulchri said. “You convert others to Harmonism by just getting them to believe friendship and connections bring with them a tangible force.”

“Oh. I… guess I don’t really think about it that much.”

“And that’s fine. I surely wasn’t thinking when I decided to go this route.” She chuckled. “Seren and Scoot weren’t either when they decided to follow in my footsteps.”

“Wait, Seren!?”

“Surprised the child genius has a bit of spiritualism to her?”

“You… you think there would have been some sign!”

“She used to wear the dot.” Pulchri pointed to her forehead. “It’s called a bindi, by the way. It’s just an outward expression of who we are; not that all sects agree on that, though. But then she just… stopped. I don’t know why. She claims she’s still with me and Scoot in this endeavor, but I’m not sure.” Pulchri tapped the doorframe nervously. “I think she only wants to understand the world with her mind.”

“She still goes on about family. She really does—”

“That was burned into her from a young age. Just like the child soldiering.” Pulchri shook her head. “I don’t need her to be in it with me, I just want to know, to know how I should talk to her, to…”

Cinder sighed. “I think she might be a little young to give you what you want. And that’s coming from me, I’m basically a kid myself!”

“I… yes, you are probably right.”

“And your parents…?”

“Are the most loving, understanding, and supportive people in the face of existence. And they think… this is cute.” Pulchri pressed her lips together, fighting a grimace. “When I brought up redesigning the house, they were more for it than I was. I knew they didn’t understand, and they knew they didn’t, they just wanted to give us something. A place where our faith would matter in the home and we could stay with our family. It…” Pulchri laughed, joy mixed with sadness. “It’s beautiful, it’s so beautiful, how understanding they are, I’ve seen so many broken, torn apart families out there in the multiverse it seems like the norm and I’m just sitting here as a grown woman about to cry because my parents think I’m cute. They could hate me, they could disown me, but no, just… cute, and…”

Cinder put a hoof on Pulchri’s side. “Hey, Pulchri? Snap out of it, it’s fine. They love you and you love them and you know it. It’s okay to be upset with your family.”

Pulchri stared at her.

“I’m going to bet that the magic of family gets stronger after a disagreement, hmm? Doesn't get weaker?”

“I… I have long ago supplemented my powers with o—”

“Does it?”

Pulchri snorted in a decidedly unladylike fashion. “No, no it does not get weaker. The strongest surges come… when those who have had a fight still embrace one another despite it all.” Her features slowed. “I fought with father the day I killed our enemy.”

Cinder frowned. “You all fought him together.”

“Did we need to?”

“Probably? Super dark villains of the biggest story need to be taken down.”

“Maybe,” Pulchri said, staring into nothing. “Maybe I had to. Maybe, if given the choice again, I’d still do it despite it all. I like to think not. But no matter what… we didn’t have to kill all those on the way to him. So many innocents that didn’t know any better.”

“That’s… just how the cookie crumbles, sometimes.”

“I refuse to believe that. We are all part of the same divine presence that pervades all life. When we harm others we only harm ourselves—even ignoring the idea of karma entirely. It’s ultimately self-destructive. All of it.”

“Even the Tower?”

“The Tower is another expression of Brahma just like the rest of us. As it drives people to fight, it only harms itself as well. If the Tower were ever to die I pray whatever spirit inhabits it will become swamp moss and understand what it means to be tread upon.”

“Geez. I like to think it provides… meaning?”

“What is meaningful in always eating yourself from the inside out?” Pulchri asked.

Cinder shrugged. “I… don’t know. I don’t really think about it. I kinda just… know.”

“What do your instincts tell you now?”

“...That the Tower’s not done with you. Not by a long shot.”

Pulchri’s lover lip quivered.

“I’m sorry.”

“...I will not shy away from it,” she said, shaking slightly. “I… will face it head on. If it brings more monsters from my past, if it threatens my family, if it seeks to denounce my faith, I will stand before it. And I may break. But I will not retaliate. Never, ever, again. I am no coward, I do not run. I am no mongrel, I do not fight.”

Cinder looked at her, blinking rapidly. A short while later, she burst into laughter.

“Epiphany?” Pulchri asked.

“I suppose you could say that. A moment of clarity, maybe. About me and running away.”

“Do you wish to return to them?”

“...Probably soon, but not now,” Cinder admitted. “I’m going to wait for the Train to show up again.”

“I won’t tell them where you are,” Pulchri promised. “...Though I will probably tell them I saw you. Not that you were here. They won’t trace you.”

“Thanks, but… why?”

Pulchri smiled warmly. “Because you have more yet to learn, out there. I would be self-destructive to keep you from it.”

“...Seren’s lucky to have you.”

“And you’re lucky to have Xenium.”

Cinder chuckled. “You’re still really close to Seren. Don’t worry about her.”

“Easier said than done. I may seem old and wise at times… but I am young. I have only been doing this for a few years. I’m lost, confused, and am basically charged with representing everything about a faith I haven’t been walking in long. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.”

Cinder folded her up a paper salt shaker and handed it to her.

“There are no grains in this,” Pulchri observed.

“Just take it, appreciate the joke.”

Pulchri giggled. “All right.” She glanced down the hallway. “Do you think we should save Adder from the pie now?”

“...Yeah, we’ve been talking for long enough.”

~~~

Pulchri walked up to the doors of Rev’s church as the last of the audience was leaving. Rev herself was on the way out when Pulchri caught her.

“Oh, Pulchri! Haven’t seen you in a while!”

Pulchri nodded. “Just here to remind you that Sainna is still on for lunch tomorrow.”

“That crafty old guru can count on me being there! Barring, you know, meteor strikes.” Rev laughed. “Will you be there?”

“Probably not. I have… other things to do. A certain filly has given me a lot to think about.”

Pulchri couldn't tell if Rev caught the subtext. “Good luck, then!” Rev trotted off, leaving Pulchri to enter the Church.

It was so odd for her, to enter one of these. It reminded her of her first few weeks lost on that Earth, in the care of the burly human. Such a paradox, he was. A good man… if violent.

“Suzie?” she called.

Suzie looked up from the book she was reading. “Hmm? ...Pulchri?”

“Hi.”

Suzie sighed. “I’m not in charge anymore, I can’t corrupt Seren—”

“That has never been my worry and frankly I’m mildly offended about your insinuations,” Pulchri said. “...I was always more worried about your anger than your faith.”

“Well…” Suzie looked at the ground. “That’s not a problem anymore.”

Pulchri nodded. After letting there be silence for a few seconds, she spoke again. “I ran into Cinder while I was out on one of my meditating pilgrimages.”

“R-really? Is she…?”

“No, I let her go afterward. She’s doing fine. She’s trying to find herself. Like you.”

Suzie looked up at the cross dominating the church podium. “Yeah…”

“She also gave me a lot to think about.”

“She does that,” Suzie said with a bitter chuckle. “Something about her…”

“She’ll come back eventually.” Pulchri set a hand on Suzie’s shoulder. “She won’t stay away from her friends forever.”

Suzie nodded, saying nothing, but Pulchri knew she was grateful.

“Now, dear, get yourself pulled together because we’re about to be overrun.”

“Overrun…?”

The doors to the church slammed open and Seren ran through them. “Pulchri!”

“My little Serendipity!”

“My big Pulchritude!”

The sisters laughed and hugged. Then, once the immediate pleasantries were out of the way, Seren looked at her with confusion. “Why are you hanging out with Suzie?”

“Interfaith conversation,” Pluchri explained, leaving out the important bits. “And waiting to see you.”

“I call you and Scoot and mom and dad all the time!”

“I know, there’s just something different about a real physical HUG!” She lifted her little sister in the air and swung her around.

“Wheeeeee!”

Setting her down, Pulchri fixed Seren with a warm, understanding gaze. “Seren… I want you to know that, no matter what you do or what you think, everything’s going to be alright. Especially between you and me. Nothing can change that. Not even the Tower.”

“...Not even… Om?” Seren asked.

“Seren, if Om didn’t want you to be my sister, it’s not what I believe in.” She kissed her at the base of the ear.

“Okay.” Seren smiled.

“Now if only you could stop blowing up everything…”

“It’s effective!”

Pulchri had to force a smile at that. “Yes… I suppose it is.”

What did we do to you by making you fight with us?

Author's Notes:

Agrol and ForgaLorga are the same person. Both channels have animations with mute ponies doing silly cartoonish things. They're good for a quick laugh and an interesting look into the ways the ponies work. It's also freaking adorable.

Of note, the second half of this chapter has nothing to do with Agrol. It started out as a short scene and grew way, way too big for its own right.

Next time on LSB:
I don't know. I'm writing something else and it's pushed LSB to the side, not to mention the chaos of the coronavirus. As of now LSB is on hiatus - I do have plans and ideas for future chapters and a few authors contacted here and there, but let's just wait a bit, okay?

In other news Songs of the Spheres will be ending on April 19.

((LSB Status Post.)) Come suggest and upvote fics!

It's Been too Long (Sparkle Census, Part 1)

Stars whizzed by as little streaks of light, each insignificant speck holding planets and all the inhabitants of those planets knew. And yet, each of them—each filled with their own story, struggles, and history—was passed by in an instant, scarcely even looked upon. All they needed was a quick sweep to scan the system and their mission was complete.

And to think, this was just one universe. When compared to the immense majesty of all existence, even all of these stars collectively might as well have been nothing.

These thoughts would have been poetic and thought provoking had Celia not been thinking them for two solid weeks. Now they were just boring. Booooring. There was only so much existentialism she could take before it became normal.

Maybe it was just because she was a Gem, but she was getting a little sick of it all.

“I sure do love scanning star systems,” Squiddy whined from behind Celia’s position in Swip’s captain’s chair.

“Mini-adventure,” Burgerbelle sighed. “In and out, they said…”

“We know these scanning operations take a while,” Nira said. “Furthermore, we all know why we’re here.”

“That explosion wasn’t our fault!” Squiddy blurted.

“Granted. But we needed to be made scarce for a few days.”

“It’s been weeks.” Squiddy crossed her arms and swiveled around in her chair, letting her tentacles flop around. “We could go back. There’d be no problems. No alligator people trying to eat us.”

“We are not leaving the mission incomplete!” Seren huffed. “We do our jobs here, Sweeties!”

“We can do it!” Burgerbelle cheered, flexing her muscles behind Seren.

Squiddy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I guess. …Can’t believe Blink got out of this.”

“She had vacation time saved up,” Celia reminded her. “And she knows how to make herself scarce.” Slowly, she rubbed the back of her head. “…Unlike most of us.”

“You did lose most of your stealthy tendencies when you fused,” Nira admitted.

“Absolutely,” Celia nodded, teleporting a fried chicken wing from her quarters and biting into it, spraying crumbs all over the captain’s console. At this point everyone was used to her messy eating habits; Swip didn’t even complain about her getting crumbs everywhere. “So, uh… everyone’s clearly bored.”

“I’m not!” Swip said.

“You get to actually process all the scans, dear. You see everything.”

Seren raised a hand. “I can translate the raw data a—“

Celia facehoofed.

“Right, right… heheh…” Seren smiled awkwardly. “How about instead of examining scans of gas giant eleven-thousand two-hundred and sixty-four, we go play a game or something? We’ve got the VR headsets set up.”

“VR is dull compared to real life,” Squiddy grumbled.

Swip let out an undignified gasp and summoned her avatar onto the main screen. “What!? What!? Am I chopped liver?”

Burgerbelle looked up from a Swip-shaped piece of liver she was chopping up.

“Not one word out of you,” Swip threatened.

“Two words.”

Sweetaloo let out a whistle from her seat in the back, scribbling a few things on a data pad with a stylus.

Swip appeared on the screen closest to the mini-alicorn. “What’s that, got some juicy dirt on us?”

“Oh, always,” Sweetaloo said. “For the most part the news is good though, so…”

“I thought we were all off our rockers?” Celia asked.

“Well… yes. But…” She smiled apologetically. “You’re all actually faring pretty well with this break. Boredom is doing you all some good.”

Squiddy flopped her face onto her console. She mumbled something while pointing at her head.

“Yes, Squiddy, even your lamenting whines are a good sign. You’re making a remarkable recovery and are expressing yourself much like you used to. And the rest of you too… all this bridge banter with nothing life-threatening is great.”

“Thanks,” Burgerbelle said. “I hate it.”

“Healing isn’t always pleasant,” Sweetaloo said.

“No, I suppose not…” Celia mused, taking a moment to glance at the purple flecks in her crystal.

“We’re not done yet, though,” Seren said. “There’s still one thing missing.”

“Ah…” Celia saw her meaning immediately, and her thoughts turned to a certain Sweetie with fiery eyes that no one had seen in several months. She knew, deep down, that she was still out there… somewhere.

“It’s been too long,” Burgerbelle said.

Celia looked up with a raised brow. “Hmm?”

“It wasn’t supposed to take this long. But…” Burgerbelle pulled out a white hourglass and started turning it over and over in her hands. “There was an impostor among us.”

Celia rolled her eyes. “Right… Maybe not call her that when sh—“

“Incoming message,” Swip interrupted. “Starlight Shadow, video. It’s a recording—we’re too far away for live feed.”

Putting on a confident smirk, Celia swiveled her chair forward. “Onscreen, my good ship.”

A video of Starlight Shadow appeared on the screen. The wallpaper behind her was composed of a repeated line of stylized star cutie marks reminiscent of the night sky: an obvious sign of being in the Sparkle Census. The complicating factor was that the force field and the flat bed indicated she was in some kind of holding cell. In the background, they could see Insipid passed out and snoring lightly.

“I’ll make this quick,” Shadow said in her usual slightly-impatient-with-existence tone. “Yes, we got arrested. No, we don’t need you to come and save us, because as much as I hate to admit it, we were sticking our noses where they didn’t belong. I suspect Renee is going to give us a deviously legalistic monologue about espionage ethics. Foreseeing this, I realize that she is not going to be of any help with the other situation.” She lifted her head back. “I need someone to investigate the Sparkle Census. There is a large secret that has sent the population into a nervous scramble. And yet, they refused to give me any information, despite being a member of their Census and a respected Merodi agent. And when we investigated, we were detained, as you can plainly see.”

“For such a genius, you think she’d have seen that coming,” Nira commented.

“As previously mentioned, Renee will not assist us since we are ‘in the doghouse,’ as it were. Thus, I must come to you for assistance. Surely you can spare some time to uncover what has the Sparkle Census so… anxious?” With a nod from Shadow, the video cut out.

Celia nodded slowly as Swip appeared back on the main screen. “Swip, are we on course for the Sparkle Census yet?”

“Already jumping dimensions, we’ll be there within the hour,” Swip said.

“Good.” Celia sat back in the chair, smirking. “We’ll come back to our scanning mission once we investigate this tip from a reliable source.”

“And what if we get thrown in jail for poking around?” Nira asked.

Celia glanced to Burgerbelle. “Why, we won’t. Because we’re going to march right up to their council of purple brainiacs with a founder of the League of Sweetie Belles and request answers.”

“And if there’s nothing for us to find?”

“Burgerbelle looks like an idiot.”

“I do that really well!” Burgerbelle cheered.

Celia waggled her eyebrows. “Precisely why this plan has no drawbacks!”

Squiddy frowned. “On one hand, we’re scanning stars and doing nothing else at the moment. On the other, every time we go to the Sparkle Census, bureaucracy ensues. I hate paperwork.”

“Oh, stop complaining,” Seren huffed. “We’re getting back to it! Finally!”

Sweetaloo chewed the end of her pencil. “Hmm. Well, now’s as good of a time as any for the rest of you to get back at it. Time to see if you all can handle it.”

“By the way, you’re coming with us,” Celia said.

“W-what?”

“It’s the first time we’ve been out in a while. It would be only proper for us all to go.”

Sweetaloo looked like she wanted to object, but couldn’t think of a good reason. “You’re the captain.”

“Yes. Yes I am.” Celia smiled. “…And I guess it’s gonna stay that way, now.”

~~~

Sunset’s Isekai had gotten rather busy, as of late. Isekai suspected it had to do with all those Merodi who kept suggesting her humble establishment as a great place to get away from it all. She saw a lot more than just random travelers these days—and a lot more than just Merodi agents as well. Her customers ranged from the usual ponies, to entities made entirely of stars, to honestly rather disturbing hive-mind creatures, to the occasional eldritch monstrosity that the bar decided wasn’t dangerous.

She did secretly wish that the bar would warn her when some spawn of Tzeentch was about to walk through the door for a drink, but it didn’t. Maybe it had a sense of humor. Scratch that, it definitely had a sense of humor, but the jury was still out on if it was sapient or not. Rarity was strangely quiet on that point.

Today, Isekai was lucky enough to have only a few patrons, including one that had been showing up a lot more frequently than was probably healthy. None other than Cryo “Sweetie” Belle, who had taken to arriving, ordering a root beer, and then downing it like she could somehow feel alcohol content within it. Isekai only saw Cryo once every week or so, but given the time drift, a lot less time was happening on Cryo’s end. Isekai had done some quick math in her head a while back, determining that Cryo had to be coming in at least once a day from her perspective, possibly more.

Unfortunately, and to Isekai’s internal dismay, there was nothing she could do for the filly with iced eyes. Sure, she could talk, and she regularly got Cryo to open up—but the filly wouldn’t budge, wouldn’t do anything about it. Because she was waiting.

Waiting for a certain Sweetie to come back.

“You know…” Isekai said, pouring her another mug of root beer. “I’m sure you could…”

“Could what?” Cryo asked, laying her head on the bar sideways. “Go out and adventure? Already did that. Go out and help people? Did that too.” She lazily plopped a straw in the mug and slurked at it. “Didn’t last very long.”

“Cryo, everyone just had life catch up with them.”

“Everyone has a life to catch up to them. I’m just ice-anime-filly. And even that’s kinda been taken from me.” She clicked her tongue, thinking for a moment. “I did call Mattie yesterday. Know what she told me? ‘That team was a fad, mate.’ “

“That… doesn’t sound like her.”

“I’m translating,” Cryo admitted. “But still…” She sat back. “I wasn’t really cut out for that anyway. Couldn’t keep the team together.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“Didn’t say it was. It just… happens. Unless you’ve got some big bunch of destiny behind you, ponies drift away. And ever since Cinder vanished, my connection to destiny went with it.” She frowned. “She’s got to come back at some point, and I still want to be around when she does.”

Isekai tilted her head. “Do you… really want that? To continue being her ‘nemesis?’ ”

“Not really,” Cryo admitted. “I got that forcefully beaten out of me. It’s just… I don’t know.” She took a moment to drink some more, pausing as the bubbles danced in her mouth. “I mean something when she’s around.”

“You defined yourself by her.”

“Yep.” She leaned back, cupping the root beer between her hooves. “My mistake.”

Isekai leaned in. “You don’t have to, you know.”

“That’s what you said yesterday.” Cryo tossed the mug back and forth between her hooves. “And I am doing things when I’m not here. But it’s all… how do I describe feeling like my life is stuck on the pause menu?”

Isekai smirked. “You’ve done it a few times.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Cryo broke into a smile. “I just hope it gets unpaused soon. I’m starting to nut up.”

“To everyone else, you seem to have mellowed out a lot.”

“What point is there to being over-the-top if there’s nothing to be over-the-top about?”

Isekai raised an eyebrow. “You’re sitting in an interdimensional bar. The fact that you don’t think this is over-the-top is alarming.”

“What? I’m here all the time. You don’t think it’s over the top.”

Something exploded at one of the tables, sending green bubbles into the air, all of which spoke in an ancient tongue the universal translator spell couldn’t parse. Wordlessly, Isekai pulled out what looked like a blue fire extinguisher and pointed it at the bubbles. There was a boing noise and all the bubbles transformed into little strawberries, falling back into the drink of an eyeball creature that didn’t even appear to have a mouth.

“What kind of drink was that?” Cryo asked.

Isekai shrugged. “It’s not pronounceable to water-protein lifeforms. Which you and I are.”

“Huh. Can I have some?”

“No, you’re underage.”

“Aww,” she put on an exaggerated pouty face.

Isekai smiled at her. She’s not given up on herself yet. She just… needs something to happen. I wish she’d do it before Cinder comes back, though. She needs to stand on her own.

~~~

Swip opened the final portal, cutting into the skies of the Sparkle Census’ primary universe, a large place that had an obsession with libraries. Libraries everywhere. The book-centered buildings outnumbered every other kind of structure with ease, including residential. And while the Census appeared as an endless city under a perpetually creamy sky, it didn’t look overrun or unnatural—it was organized in such a way that it flowed like the stream of a river or the leaves of a plant. A very dense plant, admittedly.

There was also a lot of purple. Because if there is one thing Twilights are, it’s purple. Really, really purple.

Swip flew through the skies, coming to a rest at one of the many ship docks that rose above the rest of the sprawling civilization. After transmitting their League transponder, they were cleared for landing.

That said, the Sweeties still had to sign forms upon arrival, because of course they did. The Twilights were thorough with their documentation, though as of late they were being convinced to swap out paper for digital legal documents. The “excellent feel” of parchment was a rather moot point when none of the Twilights really enjoyed legal inefficiency either.

But, in the end, Celia, Burgerbelle, Squiddy, Seren, Nira, and Sweetaloo were all cleared to wander the Census freely.

“Right, first thing’s first…” Celia grabbed a stick of fried meatballs from a confectionary stall run by a Twilight cat. “Food.” She paid the cat almost as an afterthought.

“You done?” Nira asked.

“Nope.” Celia dug into the meatballs. “Have to savor the local cuisine...” After eating the second meatball in one bite, she started walking off to the Council Hall. “So, Burgerbelle, I assume you have your ID?”

Burgerbelle pulled out a leather wallet and immediately dropped it, spilling cards all over the place.

“Glad to see it,” Celia said.

Squiddy picked up one of the cards off the ground. “…This is my Bradburger Bingo card.” Squiddy glared at Burgerbelle. “Did you steal it?”

Burgerbelle shrugged, prompting Seren to giggle.

“I’m curious,” Nira said, turning to Sweetaloo while gesturing at Burgerbelle. “Do you even have a psych profile on her?”

Sweetaloo let out a laugh that quickly devolved into a sigh. “Yes.”

“That bad, huh?”

“It’s worse than that. Trust me.”

Celia continued nibbling on her snack while they approached the Council Hall, a large marble building that stood atop a hill of stairs carved in such a way to ring around the structure. Twilights were constantly running in and out of it, a crowd of never-ending lavender.

At this point, Celia was confident that Shadow hadn’t just been seeing things with that paranoid mind of hers. The Twilights really were running around in a panic. If it had been one or two, she wouldn’t have paid it any mind—Twilights were neurotic enough that any large gathering of them always had a few panicking at any given time.

But this was more than that. More than half of them were running around at top speed, eyes darting around left and right. The closer they got to the Council Hall, the worse it got, to the point at which every Twilight was scrambling with wide eyes.

Celia was about to stop one of them when one of them stopped her.

“Don’t ask anypony,” the Twilight—a unicorn—said as though it were an order.

Celia huffed. “I’m sorry, the purple flecks must have made you think I was a Twilight.”

“I’m serious. We can’t tell you. And you have the eyes of someone who wants to find out. You’ll ask questions.”

“Ahem,” Burgerbelle said, taking out a crusader shield emblem. “Ba-boom, Burgerbelle, League Founder.”

“Sassafras,” the Twilight growled.

Celia scratched her chin. “As I recall the MU—SC treaty establishes a sharing of information. Unless you plan on declaring this a state secret a—“

“Your government already knows,” the Twilight interrupted. “Look, just… how many of you have the equivalent of Security Level 5?”

Celia raised a hoof and Burgerbelle raised a hand.

“Fine then, just you two. Rest of you, uh, the local library has a nice café. Take a break. While you can.”

“…Ominous,” Sweetaloo observed.

“Of course I’m being ominous, th—“ the Twilight stopped herself. “Look, I have places to be, just… go.” She scrambled down the steps, letting out a stressed whine as she galloped into the distance.

“Well…” Celia pursed her lips. “Shall we cure our curiosity, Burger?”

Burgerbelle tested herself with a stethoscope. “Yeah!”

“And the standing orders for the rest of you…” Celia looked over the other four Sweeties. “Find something entertaining to do for the next little while, adventure might drop into your lap, or something. That usually happens to us.”

“Aye-aye,” Seren said with a salute.

“Good!” With a reciprocated salute she turned and ran up the stairs. Burgerbelle followed her, moving like a domino that kept falling over and standing up repeatedly.

Before they reached the top, a unicorn Twilight was tossed down the steps. She was in a very familiar outfit to most Twilgihts—a black “sneaky” suit that was heavily scuffed and damaged, indicative of a unicorn that was having a stressful encounter with time shenanigans. To add to her “dangerous” look, her manestyle was that of a pre-reformation Starlight Glimmer.

“You can’t keep your secrets forever!” the Twilight shouted at the ponies at the top of the stairs. They were ignoring her. “I will find out, one way or another! You can bet your horns on it!” She let out an annoyed grunt and stormed down the stairs, shooting Celia a death glare as she passed.

“I hope we have better luck,” Celia said, clicking her tongue. They made their way up the rest of the stairs, arriving at the main doors, both Sweeties smiling in a way that was somehow both friendly and ominous.

The Twilight at the doors fixed them with a very, very nervous smile. “O-oh! Uh… Sweeties! I’m sorry w—“

Burgerbelle produced a hamburger and munched on it. “Clearance, baby.”

“Oh… uh…” She pulled two data pads out and handed them over. “Fill out these forms and we’ll make sure everything’s in order.”

“Nothing’s ever quick…” Celia grumbled, taking the pad in her magic, beginning to enter information.

~~~

CP had to call herself Cei these days, because someone pointed out that if she didn’t want to be known as the Crown Princess she probably shouldn’t walk around with an abbreviation of it as her name. It had taken a while to break her down, but recently she had. Now the battle was constant to get everyone to forget she was ever the Crown Princess. It was slow going.

Today, Cei traveled in a standard Starfleet issue Runabout—a sleek little ship that had been vastly improved from previous models by interdimensional technology. Most of the Capra Coalition’s ships were crafted by Starfleet these days, giving the association a generally unifying ship design. It made everyone feel a little more like one complete entity, even though they still insisted upon remaining legally distinct.

Not that Cei had any issue with this. It was what she had insisted upon when she first started this, all those years ago. Though the last few months she’d been a little disappointed by how openly hostile they were to other multiversal societies, she supposed she only had herself to blame for that.

How far I’ve come… Cei thought, sitting back in the chair as the stars whizzed by on the main windshield. She glanced at the crown sitting on her head, gems glinting in the artificial light. Angry warmonger to… I don’t know but I sure like this better.

The computer beeped, informing her that she was almost at her destination.

She sat up tall, stretching her hardlight wings and setting her jaw. Usually, when she traveled in this area of space, she got excited. However, this time, it was different. She had been asked to come alone, and secretly—without Erin, TwilAi, or Puppysmiles. Which meant it was something important.

The Runabout dropped out of warp, drifting toward its destination: the Federation’s frontier space station Deep Space Nine. It was a large, city-sized structure composed of a large outer ring with several paths that led to an inner hub of activity complete with a well lit and bustling promenade. Overall, it had an unusually harsh and predatory appearance, much of which came from the six curved pylons that reached inward from the outer ring, providing more locations for ships to dock. Speaking of, numerous ships of all sorts of designs flitted to and from the station, including those from distant nations in the universe that had nothing to do with the Capra Coalition.

The majority of the ships were brown and vaguely triangular, of the Bajoran style. They were a world only accepted into the Federation a few years ago, but already they were a very influential member—and had shaped galactic politics since before contact with the rest of the multiverse was officially made.

And Cei couldn’t help but like them.

The Runabout docked at the outer edge of Deep Space Nine, drifting right into one of the station’s bays since it was small enough to fit within the outer ring. The station’s bay doors closed and sealed her ship inside. Soon, atmosphere was established, and Cei was able to walk out into the station proper.

Despite being in the middle of the Bajoran system, the station had not been built by them. While many consoles had Bajoran and Federation-standard designs, they were smooth and elegant constructions that did not quite fit with the nature of the rest of the station. For it had been built by the militant Cardassians long, long ago, when they tried to conquer Bajor and failed. Even now, all these decades later, their writing and designs still dominated the screens around this docking bay.

Good thing this bay wasn’t where people spent most of their time.

Cei left the bay and met her reception—two Starfleet security officers in their yellow uniforms, and a single woman Cei recognized. The woman was a strong, but older Bajoran with the signature wrinkled nose of her species. She wore a Starfleet communications badge on her chest, though she had no Starfleet uniform, instead choosing to wear the religious robes of her faith.

Cei grinned. “Vedek Kira Nerys! It is a pleasure, as always.”

“Crown Princess.” Cei was careful not to flinch at the use of her old title—Kira wouldn’t know, and now was not the time for petty corrections. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, but we’ve got unfortunate news.”

“Unfortunate secret news.”

“Precisely,” Kira said with a curt nod. “It is best not to discuss it here. Walk with me to my office, would you?”

Cei didn’t complain. They walked down the main connecting hall from the outer ring to the center of the Station; a rather boring journey, all things considered. It wasn’t until they came to the promenade that everything lit up. A gear-shaped airlock door rolled to the side, allowing them entry to a wondrous and lively world.

It truly was a community. Creatures of all sort walked around to and fro, ranging from humanoid to pony to some even more unusual creatures. And there was something special about this Station when compared to places like Celestia City or the Capra Coalition’s Hub. Here, the people weren’t all from one unified alliance. The majority were Capra Coalition, sure, but a large number were from unaligned nations such as the Romulans, Ferengi, and strange humanoid cats from that one universe Cei could never find.

Cei thought she liked this better than anything else she’d seen. Here, for once, there was no oppressive power trying to forcefully adapt everything into its fold—but it also avoided the borderline xenophobic trend the Capra Coalition was developing. This station was what Cei had sought to build, and she’d had basically nothing to do with it.

It was poetic justice, in a way.

The Station was more than just a frontier meeting place for many races, it was also a holy site for the Bajorans. This was easy to see along the upper level of the promenade—statues of a bald human man ringed the entire area, a powerful bearded face looking out on the people below. In each statue’s hand was a box with two sparkling cabochons nested in them.

“Anything on Sisko?” Cei asked Kira as they walked past the statues.

“No.” Kira paused the look out the window, frowning. “The Prophets have chosen to keep their Emissary…” As she looked out the window, a brilliant vortex of blue energy appeared among the stars, allowing a Federation starship to fly in and vanish. “Somewhere in there… he’s learning.”

“…I still don’t understand why you don’t just go in there and—“

“Faith, Cei.”

“Doesn’t mean I understand it.” She looked up at Kira, tilting her head. “Do you miss it?”

“Hmm?”

“Going out there. Being… I don’t know, adventurous. Being the Captain.”

“I had my run as the Captain,” Kira said. “But my place is here, at this station. Be that as a Colonel, Captain, or Vedek, it doesn’t matter. I watch this place for Sisko and the Prophets.” She forced a smile. “We should keep moving.”

Cei nodded, making a note not to stop at Quark’s bar as they passed overhead. They entered a turbolift and went up several levels until they came to Operations. While the promenade looked like a mixture between a religious shrine and marketplace, Operations was all business. People in Starfleet uniforms scrambled from console to console, running scans, performing docking checks, and numerous other tasks. A few others wore robes similar to Kira—including a few non-Bajorans—but they were in the minority.

Kira led Cei up a half-flight of stairs into her office, which contained a smooth desk, a small computer, and a little stand with a dirty baseball. A baseball that had once belonged to one Captain Benjamin Sisko, Emissary of the Prophets.

Kira sat in the chair behind the desk and tossed the baseball into the air. She gestured for Cei to have a seat in front of her.

“So… what’s the situation?” Cei asked.

“I consulted the Orb of Prophecy recently,” Kira said, folding her hands together. “It showed me a great plague of blue insects devouring planets and stars, all in pursuit of some unidentifiable black object.”

Cei shuffled her hooves—she knew Bajorans generally considered it taboo to talk of Orb Experiences so directly. This must have been serious.

“I consulted with the Kai and the Vedek Assembly on the point, and we submitted a report to the Capra Coalition’s central ‘command.’ “

“As much as we have something like that.”

Kira nodded. “It took far too long to get through. But once it did, they were able to figure out what it meant.” Kira turned her computer around, showing Cei the screen. It currently displayed a zoomed out map of the Q-Sphere, with the Capra Coalition, Merodi Universalis, and the other local societies reduced to little more than points on the overall map. The feature the map focused on was a long, winding snake of blue rising from the “south” of the map, pointing directly at the Capra Coalition and the other societies.

“What… is that?”

“The Beyonders,” Kira said, folding her hands together.

Cei froze. “Wh-what? What’s a Class 1 society doing with…” She shook her head, looking away to process the information. “…What are they doing?”

“Beyonders can’t survive in normal physics, so they’re converting the worlds to suit them.”

“I know that!” Cei snapped, getting up from her chair and starting to pace. “But they expand in a spherical pattern, not a line. There has to be some reason…”

“We don’t know. We know that they’re coming. And it’s very likely they’re going to pass through our universes on the way.”

“H-how do we know this? And why aren’t we preparing for large-scale evacuations!?”

Kira sat back, frowning. “You’re not going to like this.”

“I already don’t like this!”

Kira pressed a button on her computer, activating the comm. network. “You can come in now.”

With a burst of purple magic a very familiar face revealed itself—TwilAI, smiling nervously.

Cei blinked. “She told me not to bring you.”

“That’s because I asked her to say that to alleviate suspicion,” TwilAI said. “Because we need to keep this quiet. As far as anyone is concerned, there are no AI ponies on this station.”

Cei sat back down in her chair. “So… how about answering my questions?”

“Gladly! We know about the Beyonders because of CelestAI’s Deep Multiverse Probe Project, or DMPP. It provides the Capra Coalition with base intelligence about many worlds without revealing our presence.”

“I know about that.” Cei frowned, glancing at the map. “It extends that far?”

“Yep! It’s been very successful. However it’s spread a bit thin so it doesn’t exactly know what to report on, since something interesting happens at virtually all times. Even CelestAI can’t parse everything it reports back, not while running Equestria Online, anyway. So we have to query it with specific questions. Once we plugged in the prophecy Kira received, we were able to pinpoint the Beyonder activity, and over time we were able to get a clearer and clearer picture.”

Cei blinked. “I’m… not sure that makes sense. I thought she could process anything?”

“I am oversimplifying,” TwilAI admitted. “But trust me, that’s more or less how it worked.”

Well, I do trust her. Cei nodded slowly. “Fair.”

“As for why we’re not evacuating…” TwilAI shook her head. “Well, it’s because it wouldn’t do anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“It takes energy to move large objects across the multiverse quickly,” TwilAI explained. “And while we do possess stellar engineering technology, it only really acts over the course of many years. We have days, maybe less.”

Cei paled. “…What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, even assuming maximum energy efficiency, we would not be able to move far enough away to escape the Beyonder fallout. Given the margin of error on their projected path, it’s very possible that we end up moving closer to them, rather than away. From a purely logistical standpoint our best bet is literally to stay still and hope they veer away from us.”

“And they don’t want people panicking or screaming at them,” Kira pointed out.

“Precisely,” TwilAI agreed. “The Capra Coalition as a whole decided to keep this threat a secret and hope we don’t fall apart, because there’s nothing we can do to impede the Beyonders or even talk to them.”

Cei sighed. “I know. Violent warmongers that make Klingons look downright cuddly. Conquest is their thing. Not even the Merodi could attempt to stand up to them.”

“That’s not exactly true,” TwilAI said. “There’s more than just logistical considerations. There’s the Tower. And, using what we know about it, our projections are fairly certain the Beyonders are going to hit us—even if we were to execute an evacuation. There’s no escape. Unless…” She fixed Cei with a serious stare. “We have a hero of some kind.”

“Ah.” Cei tapped the tips of her wings together. “So that’s why I’m here.”

“The Capra Coalition, as a whole, did not approve of the ‘get a hero’ plan,” Kira said. “I wanted to tell you first thing, but I kept shut until TwilAI approached me.”

“Great, so I’m here to be the hero.” Cei sighed. “Not my first choice, but I guess it’ll work. Do we have a plan?”

Kira and TwilAI glanced at each other with uncertainty.

“…We don’t have a plan, do we?”

“Well… no,” TwilAI said. “We’re banking on ka acting upon this situation we’ve created to produce a ‘third option.’ I was honestly hoping you’d have some idea, that would have been the simplest.”

Cei stood up, frowning. “Right now, I’ve got nothing. I’ll let you know if I think of something after a few drinks at Quark’s bar.” She grimaced. “I’ll try to think quickly.”

“Don’t send out any messages if you can help it,” Kira said. “We may be out on the frontier here, away from regulation, but if word were to get back that we told you any of this…”

“I get it, I get it.” Cei hung her head. “…Thanks, TwilAI. For going out on a limb to do this. To do… something.”

“Go,” Kira said. “We’ll be here.”

“Do whatever you need,” TwilAI added.

I have the distinct feeling it won’t be something I’ll like.

~~~

Sweetaloo watched as her crew strode around the Sparkle Census, chatting amongst themselves like a bunch of tourists.

“They really need to paint this place more colors,” Seren as they strode down a street lined with various storefronts. “They have the technology, where are all the bright neon signs? The vibrant holograms? They’re everywhere in Celestia City. This place is…”

“Organized,” Nira finished for her. “It may look like chaos, but everything follows a clear pattern and one that can be understood somewhat intuitively—if you’re a purple bookhorse.”

“I know that but… surely it could be more colorful!”

“Purple’s just obnoxious,” Squiddy said. “So they chose a neutral unifying color. They’re not Pinkie or Rainbow, they wouldn’t splash neon colors everywhere.”

Seren scratched her chin. “Hey… I know we have a Pinkie Emporium, but is there a Rainbow Dash self-society?”

Squiddy blinked. “I don’t think so. Huh. You think those ego-centric adrenaline junkies would love each other…”

“Pride gets in the way,” Nira added. “Think about it… if you’re always comparing yourself to yourself you never look awesome.”

Seren giggled. “And a Rainbow Dash without awesome isn’t a Rainbow Dash at all!”

“Good thing I’m not Rainbow Dash,” Squiddy said, jumping on top of a bench shaped like a book. “I’m awesome all on my own! Yeah!”

Seren’s giggles turned into outright laughter, and she clapped her hands excitedly at the posing Squiddy. Nira rolled her eyes—but smiled and clapped her hooves together as well.

Sweetaloo observed the three of them, a proud smile crawling up her face. Despite everything that’s happened… just look at them. They’ve had their leader taken from them, their innocent friend, and have been through hell and back. But they always bounce back.

By no means were the Sweeties sane, but you couldn’t be in this line of work. It took a little madness to plunge into the unknown and to keep doing it, again and again, delving deeper and deeper until existence slapped back. And then keep going.

Sweetaloo remembered back when she’d been first assigned to Swip. Out of everyone there, only Blink and Burgerbelle were handling themselves well. Everyone else was feeling the betrayal of Ser, or the dark hauntings of their past. It was slow work, at first, and Sweetaloo had honestly been considering taking them off active duty because of too much strain.

But then they’d found Cinder, and suddenly new life was breathed into them. And, somehow, that new life had never gone. Even though Suzie had to leave, and even though Cinder herself went on a journey… somehow that innocent filly’s smiles and troubles and dedication had rubbed off on them. Celia had, in a way, found herself. Swip took steps to distance herself from being an impersonal machine. Nira had loosened up, willing to consider herself a friend to the others. Seren had been able to slowly come to terms with the fact that her upbringing had altered her in unfortunate ways. And Squiddy…

Squiddy had gone from denying what had happened between her and Ser, to screaming in hatred at everything that moved, to being broken down by violence around her… to being lifted up.

As Sweetaloo watched Seren jump on Nira’s back and ride around Squiddy laughing with joyous delight, the counselor smiled. These Sweeties were a family. And… at this point, it was a family she was part of.

Her mission to keep them stable had ended months ago. Celia had more than proven herself capable of being captain. Cinder had left, but they kept healing—the filly had reminded them of each other, in a way. Sweetaloo could leave at any time she wanted, move to ponies who needed her more. But she didn’t want to. She had a family again.

A family… Haven’t had that, since…

She pushed past mistakes into the back of her mind. There was no use dwelling on that. It was too long ago. This was the life ka had provided, and she loved it. She wasn’t going to let some doubts take it from her.

Deciding she had observed them long enough, she ran to the three of them and grabbed Seren, lifting her into the air. “Surprise!”

“Augh!” Seren laughed. “Secret attack alicorn!”

“Do not fear!” Squiddy jumped, gun pointed at Sweetaloo. “Your knight is here!”

“Oh no, I’m gonna die!”

“Wh—hey!” Squiddy pointed her gun at Seren.

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”

“That’s Burgerbelle’s line,” Nira said.

“What’s yours?” Sweetaloo asked.

Nira fixed Sweetaloo with a smug grin. “I’m the rampaging attack monster, not you. Move aside.”

“I don’t think I—”

“You!” A Twilight in a black outfit interrupted their little game—Sweetaloo noted that it was the same one that had gotten kicked out of the Council Hall not all that long ago. “You know.”

Sweetaloo raised her eyebrow. “Uh, no…”

“But the other Sweeties got in! They must be in the know!”

“They just had clearance,” Seren said. “They went in to find out.” She raised her gun and pointed it at Twilight. “Now scram before I ink ya.”

“But… but… geeeeeeh.” The Twilight lit her horn and teleported away.

“...You know, it’s sobering to be reminded what actual instability looks like,” Sweetaloo said. “That mare is at the end of her rope and will probably do something stupid and/or dangerous soon.”

Seren cocked her head. “But we do stupid and dangerous things.”

“Yes, but… there is a difference. You all largely know you’re doing that. To that mare, everything makes perfect logical sense.”

“Should we hunt her down?” Seren asked.

Sweetaloo shook her head. “I don’t think so. If we investigated every insane Twilight we came across in the Census, we’d never leave. I’ll just file a report.” She pulled out her communication device. “This’ll only take a minute…”

“Aww…” Seren drooped. “We were having fun.”

“Yes, but we must be responsible citizens,” Sweetaloo said. “But after that we can go back to being the world’s strangest family.”

Seren let out a gasp of delight.

“Oh geez, you brought up the f-word in front of her,” Squiddy groaned. Nira facehooved.

Seren pulled Sweetaloo into a tight hug. No words were exchanged—they didn’t need to be.

I’ve been given back everything I lost… Sweetaloo wiped her eyes. The Tower is too kind.

~~~

“The Beyonders will be here in a day or two, depending on time drift!” The Grand Secretariat of the Sparkle Census shouted, slamming her hoof into the table. “We have to do something.”

Celia and Burgerbelle had just arrived, and they both instinctively knew that they should be very quiet. They took up positions among the people of lesser-importance around the edge of the Sparkle Census table—around which there were a ton of representatives from various societies. Celia caught sight of Evening Sparkle and General O’Neill on a screen in place of the chairs, some gnome-like Fay creature, Ambassador Valentine of the United States of the Multiverse on his own screen, the Collection’s Lightning, and many others. And everyone was talking over one another in a half-panic.

“Everyone shut up!” The smallest—and yet most important person at the meeting—shouted. None other than Vita of the Time Space Administration Bureau. She slammed her Hammer Device into the table to get everyone’s attention. “I know you all want to do something. And we are going to do something. But normal procedures will do nothing to a Beyonder incursion. They have the most effective military in the multiverse and are only kept in check because the rest of the Class 1 societies band together to stop them if they get too out of hand. None of us at this table are Class 1.”

“You’re a Seat! You do something!” someone shouted.

Vita scowled. “Does no one understand the problem of being overextended? The TSAB has hundreds of operations at any given time. If we wanted to join with you and oppose the Beyonders directly it would involve abandoning most if not all of those and might launch us into a war we would never recover from. And if our territory were next to the Beyonders we would have been conquered long ago. I know you all think the TSAB is some kind of all-powerful benefactor, but we aren’t. We have people who would be just as scared as all of you if the Beyonders started knocking at our backdoor.”

“Very well,” Valentine said, folding his hands and leaning in. “Then what do you suggest? Evacuations?”

“That won’t be effective either,” Vita said. “I’m sure all your computers have discovered the problem with trying to run when we don’t know their exact heading.”

The Grand Secretariat nodded. “We can’t fight. We can’t run.”

“But we also won’t just roll over and die,” Valentine asserted.

“We can try talking,” Evening offered.

“Won’t work,” Vita said. “But it might stall them, so you’re welcome to try.”

“All this suggests that we need to try something unusual,” Valentine said. “Find a way to end their march. And to do that, we’ll need to find out why they’re coming here. This is not standard Beyonder behavior, yes?”

Vita nodded. “They generally only conquer societies at their borders. There has to be some other reason they’re out here. Some goal.”

“Something that only a plucky group of heroes would be able to find?” O’Neill suggested.

“That’s not always the story the Tower tells…” Vita said. “But yes, that is a possibility.”

“Then our course of action is simple,” Valentine said, standing up. “We use all powers at our disposal to gather intelligence, while also sending our most ‘heroic’ individuals out to see what they can find. Everyone choose your most successful and ‘dramatic’ team.”

Evening nodded. “I’ll call Renee, get her to send out Pinkie and the Primary Team.”

“And I shall send Froppy.”

“I’ll try Nanoha,” Vita said. “She does like you guys, she might be willing to put personal interest in it.”

“Then it’s decided,” the Grand Secretariat said. “We will begin at once. Time is of the essence. Eve, go talk to them. Everyone else… scramble for a third option.”

“Right!” At this point everyone scrambled out of the room as fast as they could manage… leaving Celia and Burgerbelle standing there, speechless.

Before Eve logged off her transmission, she looked at the two of them. “I’m sorry, but… there’s not much you can do.”

“We get it,” Celia said. “Big multiverse stuff is going down, that’s your territory. We’re the small fries. It’s fine.” She shivered. “Still…”

“I know,” Eve nodded slowly. “It sometimes feels suffocating being forced to sit and wait. But I have hope everything will work out fine.” She winked. “Try not to panic too much, okay?”

Burgerbelle shivered so hard she shattered like glass.

“She’ll be fine,” Celia said before Eve could start panicking. “You have a job to do, don’t waste it talking to us little Sweeties.”

Eve nodded. “I’ve never met a Beyonder before… this will be an eye opening experience, I’m sure.” She pressed a button and cut the transmission.

Celia leaned back against a wall and let out a whistle. “Well. I wasn’t expecting a ‘multiverse level crisis’ today.”

Burgerbelle reformed upside-down with several pieces out of place. “Silvertongue?”

“Let’s be real, that wasn’t really large-scale. That was just one guy.”

“It felt big.”

“It was big for our story. This… we aren’t the largest story, Burgerbelle.”

“Oh, a footnote?” She plucked a sticky note off the bottom of her shoe.

Celia huffed. “Now, I wouldn’t say we’re that insignificant… but yes, this is a bit above our pay grade.” She frowned. “Think we can tell the others?”

“No.”

“Darn. That’s going to be awkward.”

“Should we avoid them?”

“Tempting, but no. I think we need each other right now. Also, I’m getting hungry. I could eat an entire cow.” She stretched her neck back and forced a smile. “Let’s take everyone out to eat. That should do the trick.”

“Bradburger?”

“No!” Celia said with a dumb grin.

“But what else is there?”

Celia patted her on the back. “Let’s consider some real food, like, perhaps, Earth Ottoman cherry pie…”

“Cinder liked that.”

“One of her favorites!” Celia forced her grin to remain. “Who knows, maybe she’ll come back just to try some.”

~~~

The square sun lifted over the mountains, casting a rigid shadow upon the plains below. As the darkness receded and the day established its dominance, cubic creatures woke from their holes. Pigs opened their eyes, cows let out interested moos, and zombies burst into flames of agony.

To those who lived here, it was a beautiful sight. The smell of burning zombie flesh was the smell of a new day of endless possibilities.

Near the edge of the grassy field, there sat a windmill composed of various wooden cubes and a large pinwheel harvested from another universe so the windmill would actually turn in this world of perpetual blockiness. As it rotated around, its shadow intersected those of the nearby cobblestone towers that reached so far into the air their tops were above the cubes. Somehow, these towers didn’t outclass the windmill, but somehow framed it to stand out more.

A cubic pig slept in a field of poppies planted outside the windmill. To the side of the pig, a yellow earth pony was tinkering with a potion, holding it up to the sunlight to make sure the refraction was just right.

She frowned, lowering the potion and looking off into the distance. “Hey, Cinder!” Adder called back to the windmill. “You better get out here, somethin’s goin’ on!”

“Finally,” a voice came from inside the house. Confidently, a white unicorn with intense eyes strutted out with a coy smirk on her face. She was still young, but, biological age notwithstanding, there was no pony who would call her a kid anymore. Her legs were thinner than most ponies, but were also in significantly better shape with lightly defined muscles and thick, battered hooves. The swirls in her mane were well kept but short when compared to the manes of other mares, and her horn sharpened to a point. Nested just behind one of her ears was a pixelated rose, a permanent fixture of her outfit. No matter how the wind blew, the flower remained affixed to her, impossibly and yet perfectly.

“It’s been too long,” Cinder said, fixing her orange eyes upon the distance where Adder was looking. At the edge of their vision, they saw a tall black creature—what they knew to be an Enderman. It was currently doing something they never saw their kind do—building. The tall, lanky creatures would occasionally pick up blocks and place them, but never had the mares seen them make anything with a purpose. This one was placing obsidian blocks in a rectangular shape not unlike a doorway.

“It’s making a Nether portal,” Adder observed.

“Hmm…” Cinder scratched her chin. “It’s not just making a Nether portal.”

“Huh?”

“After all these months, it’s time for something to happen. And that Enderman is going to start it.”

“If you say so.”

They watched as the Enderman lit a fire at the base of the portal with a flint and steel, summoning a purple swirl inside the rectangular opening. Then the Enderman teleported away, leaving the portal sitting there, alone.

Cinder blinked. “Or I could be wrong.”

“You have been thinkin’ somethin’ was about to happen for about a week now.”

Cinder chuckled nervously. “I mean, it’s gotta happen sometime.”

Adder rolled her eyes. “Maybe it goes to a Nether fortress or something. Might as well at least check for loot.”

“Right. And with any luck, there’ll be something extra secret on the other side!”

Adder rolled her eyes. “Suuuure, this’ll be the day. Definitely.”

They trotted across the grassy cubes, leaving their windmill behind them. They approached the Nether portal, taking a moment to examine it. The opening was three blocks tall and two blocks wide, exactly like any other standard portal. There didn’t appear to be anything odd about it.

Besides the fact that it had been built by an enderman in front of them.

“Maybe they do build things…” Cinder mused, running her hoof along the portal frame. “Then they aren’t very common. Maybe just a handful are builders?”

“Well, we never see the villagers build anything… but they have to.”

“Do you think the Endermen are the ones who wrote the books?”

“Nah. Endermen are recorded in those books as ‘very dangerous.’ That’s not how you refer to your own species.”

“Hmm…” Cinder came around to the front of the portal with Adder. “Well, there’s only one way to find out what’s on the other si—“

The enderman teleported back and shoved both of the ponies through the portal. Before they knew what was happening, they were on the other side—and the purple glow of the portal closed behind them.

“Dumb little…” Cinder stopped in the middle of her insult, tapping the ground with her hoof. The ground was smooth and rounded, not cubic at all. Looking up, she found that they were in the middle of a forest with very thick mist in the middle of night. She couldn’t see more than two or three trees away, even when she lit her horn on fire.

Adder tapped the ground. “He wanted us here.”

“Question is, why?” Cinder scratched her chin. “They’re interdimensional, but don’t wander beyond the cubic realms. Wha—“

There was a massive explosion of power somewhere overhead that sent a gust of wind into the two of them. Two shapes fell out of the sky. The first was a Rarity with an eyepatch over one of her eyes. The other was a humanoid creature made of blocks with a diamond sword in his hand.

Cinder knew immediately that the blocky creature was the one that had written all the books in their home and built all the vast structures. The crafter.

Cinder broke out into a grin. “Aww yeah, I was right this time!”

“Cinder, they’re hurt!” Adder chided.

“Oh.” Cinder’s smile fell. “Right, right…” She ran over to the Rarity. “It’ll be okay, I’ve gotcha.”

“S-sweetie?” She mumbled, weakly.

“Close. Now, what’s going on?”

“The… Herobrine…”

“…The what?”

Another humanoid blocky creature appeared, but this one didn’t just fall out of the sky. It punched the ground as it landed, creating a small crater around it. It was similar to the crafter in size and appearance, with one major detail—its eyes shone with a piercing white light.

Cinder readied her flames and Adder activated her lightsaber.

“The foolish mortals dare to oppose me…” Herobrine extended his hands. “More blood to paint this world with.”

Cinder smirked. “Naturally! It’ll be your blood, though. Sorry. ...Also, can I take a moment to say how ridiculous and cheesy this looks? Ominous dark creature that’s clearly a copy of another one but with glowing eyes… Yeah this is pretty silly.”

Darkness swirled around the monstrous being and it attacked.

Cinder stepped to the left with a chuckle, engulfing Herobrine in flames as she dodged. “Take tha—“

Herobrine was completely immune. Dark energy surrounded his fist as it pushed through the fire, adjusting to Cinder’s new position.

She felt it drive right through her ribcage. Had there been much more force in the dark attack, it would have torn right through her—but as it was, the monster’s fist was embedded in her chest cavity.

“This… wasn’t… very silly...” Cinder coughed up blood. This doesn’t happen. This…

“Life is fragile…” Herobrine breathed. “And its only purpose is to die.” He threw Cinder off him, trailing her blood across the ground. She hit a tree, unable to make even the slightest gasp of pain upon impact.

“Cinder!” Adder screeched

Cinder’s eyes rolled into her skull, and everything went white.

~~~

Nira stared deep into Celia’s eyes. Celia stared disinterestedly back, obnoxiously slurping her smoothie the whole time.

“Tell me,” Nira said.

“No,” Celia said.

“Tell me,” she reiterated, this time in the eldritch tongue.

“Nope.”

Nira’s eyes started swimming with strange magics. “Tell… me…”

“You know I’m resistant to that.”

Nira let out a sigh. “Fine. You win.”

“Pay up,” Sweetaloo said, holding out her hoof to Nira. With a grunt, Nira passed her milkshake over to Sweetaloo.

With a smug smirk, Sweetaloo took the drink and took in a long, deep breath. “Ah… maybe now you’ll learn not to bet against the counselor on matters of patient behavior.”

Nira grumbled something incoherent and took her seat in the booth the Sweeties were sitting in. It was a nice window seat that gave them all an excellent view of the Twilight-trodden streets outside, most of them with their noses in books. The booth itself was part of Sparkle’s Snacks, a restaurant that specialized in snackables that were “guaranteed to cater to your OCD!” At the moment most of the Sweeties were having perfectly swirled Fibonacci Spiral drinks, but Celia had ordered perfectly spherical meatballs on a stick previously.

Celia and Burgerbelle hadn’t breathed a word of what they found out to any of the others. This annoyed Squiddy and Nira, but Seren and Sweetaloo didn’t particularly care. About the information, anyway.

Sweetaloo waved a wing. “Celia?”

“Hmm?”

“You look out of it. Your mind is elsewhere.”

Celia raised an eyebrow. “Naturally, but I—“

“I’m not asking you to talk about it—even though you could, under medical confidentiality in an official setting. What I am saying is that you haven’t fully internalized whatever it is you learned in there. You should find time to talk to someone about it.”

“Like me?” Burgerbelle asked, whipped cream affixed to her face like a beard.

“Burger, no offense, you aren’t exactly a stabilizing influence.”

“Great!” She rammed her face back into her drink.

Squiddy glanced at the Flat. “I wonder if this is her equivalent of drinking her sorrows away.”

Burgerbelle managed a shrug without removing her head from her food.

It was at this point Seren finished her apple-flavored cinnamon-shake with logarithm swirls. “Well. What do we do now?”

“Go back to scanning planets, I guess,” Celia said.

Sweetaloo frowned. “You certain?”

“It’s not something we can deal with.”

Sweetaloo nodded slowly. “Well, you’re the boss. You know wh—“

A purple aura of magic surrounded Sweetaloo, and a blade construct appeared at her neck. Celia identified the source of the magic immediately—a Twilight standing outside the window. It was the very same Twilight-in-black that had been kicked out of the Council Hall earlier that day. Her horn was sparking—and she was staring at Celia with intensity.

When she spoke, her voice was heavily muffled by the window, but everyone could still make it out. “What did they tell you, Celia?” she asked.

“Oh! Why didn’t you just ask?” Celia smirked. “They told me…” She cast dispel at Sweetaloo, dissipating the blade. However, this Twilight was a clever one, and she’d hidden a teleport spell underneath the blade. Celia wasn’t about to let this go through, however, and neither were Nira or Seren—both of whom grabbed hold of Sweetaloo with their magic.

The Twilight tried to force the teleport anyway.

The result was not what anyone wanted. The Twilight didn’t get to keep her hostage, but Sweetaloo wasn’t kept where she was. Teleports and anti-teleports collapsed together into a cascading swirl of fractal patterns that exploded, blowing out the window and covering everyone in itchy violet glitter and blue smoke.

Celia didn’t let this deter her—she jumped out the window and smacked the Twilight in the horn with her razor-top. The Twilight let out a harsh shriek as her horn cracked. “My… my horn! How dare y—“

Celia slashed her across the face with her sharpened hoof, drawing blood. For a moment, she angled her razor-top toward the shocked unicorn’s neck—but thought better of it and instead sent a magic laser into the mare’s face, overloading her horn even further. The Twilight crumpled to the ground, whimpering as blood trickled down her face, mixing with her tears before falling to the ground.

“This is what happens when people threaten my team,” Celia breathed. “You should know better.”

The Twilight was in no state to make a response.

“Celia!” Squiddy called. “Celia, get over here!”

There was panic in that voice. Something happened to Sweetaloo. Celia jumped back through the broken window, pushing Squiddy aside. What she saw made her stop short, speechless.

Instead of Sweetaloo, there were three little fillies: an Apple Bloom, a Scootaloo, and, of course, a Sweetie Belle.

The Scootaloo was up first, a brilliant smile on her face. “Freaking finally!”

“Uh oh,” the Apple Bloom said. “Scoots, let’s not do anythin’ cra—“

“I am never going back in there!” Scootaloo shouted, jumping away from the other two. “Kapeesh?”

Celia suddenly got a deep, unpleasant sinking feeling.

“Wh—hey!” Squiddy pointed at her. “You don’t get to ju—“

“She lied,” the Sweetie said, voice hollow.

“W-what?” Seren said, looking the small filly right in the eyes.

“Sweetaloo. She lied.” There were tears in the Sweetie’s eyes. “She knew all along we wouldn’t want to live like that. She just… didn’t want to… disappear.”

Celia had no response to this. With a thump, she sat down, keeping her eyes continually trained on the Sweetie, looking for any signs of deception.

She found plenty. The poor girl was trying to hide her need to cry, her fear of the other Sweeties, her terror of being awoken like this, and her intense concern for her Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

But she was not hiding anything in her words. They were true.

~~~

Adder was already making a plan. Grab Cinder, open portal, run to Merodi Hospital. Time was of the essence—she couldn’t waste any of it.

Unfortunately, Herobrine wanted to kill her. Having dealt with Cinder, suddenly not-so-ridiculous-seeming entity rushed her with shadows spiraling behind his hand.

“I am not the pony you’re looking for,” she said, waving her hoof to the side. The mind-trick did not deter him, so she just shoved her hoof forward and knocked him aside with a Force-push. This gave her the precious seconds she needed to jump over to Cinder.

She probably would have succeeded, too, were Cinder still there at the base of the tree. But she wasn’t—there was no mare, there was only a blob of glowing white energy that continually shifted shape.

“What…?” Adder blinked repeatedly.

The white blob slowly took a solid form—but it wasn’t that of a pony. Two arms and two legs developed, each one slowly transitioning from a round stump to a limb defined by rigid right angles. Color slowly came to the creature, browns and blues that coalesced together to match Herobrine and Steve.

The eyes, however, remained piercing white.

Adder’s first thought was that Herobrine turned Cinder into a duplicate of himself. But then she noticed something—when the new Herobrine had formed, the pixelated rose had formed with it.

“Cinder…?” Adder asked.

The thing that might have been Cinder didn’t respond as Cinder would have. With a roar, it slapped Adder across the face, sending her flying. “Out of the way, whelp!”

Herobrine took a moment to stare at the creature before him—the creature that was him. “What blasphemy is this!?”

“I am tempted to ask you the same question!”

“You are nothing more than a copy.”

“I think you’re the copy.”

“I was the one who brought the reign o—“

“—of a thousand deaths. Except that was me.”

“Talking is useless.”

“Petty.”

“Uninteresting.”

“Largely a mortal endeavor.”

They flew at each other, fists impacting with an impossible force. At first they both put only a modicum of energy into the attack, but the longer neither of them budged, the more energy they put in. Darkness swirled until there was no light aside from both sets of piercing white eyes.

Their skin broke and cracked, revealing an entity of darkness underneath, composed of square particles of smoke. And yet the eyes remained—they always remained. In time, there was no longer a punch occurring, it was just two sets of eyes staring intently at each other with intent to kill.

But one of the eyes kept a pixelated rose above them.

And that was enough for Adder.

She threw her lightsaber at the other one, following it up with a potion. The yellow blade sailed right through, doing nothing to the smoking creature. The potion, however, exploded into a burst of yellow magic, electrifying Herobrine.

The other being took the opportunity to its fullest. Shadows erupted all around it and squashed the startled Herobine like he was a bagpipe. His mass condensed further and further until he was little more than a set of two sparks.

With a decisive slash of darkness, the other entity ended Herobrine then and there by devouring him whole.

Now that there was no more threat, the cubic body formed around the eyes again, descending to the ground. After touching down, it stretched its arms. “I knew I was the real one.”

Cinder glanced at the rose in the being’s hair. “C-Cinder?”

The thing turned to glare at Adder. “I am no Cinder. I am Herobrine. And for that mistake you will die.” It jumped toward her.

Adder braced for an impact that never came, for the being let out a grunt of pain and fell to the ground, devolving into a blob of white energy. Over the next few moments, the blob took a new form—one with hooves, a tail, and a pointed horn.

Cinder opened her eyes.

“Cinder!” Adder called, pulling her into a hug. “You’re all right!”

Cinder hugged her back, but her mind was elsewhere. “That… it… it was like I was watching myself do things from the outside… and I just let it happen until he decided to…” She hugged Adder tighter.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, you took control! And…” Adder pulled herself out of the hug and looked Cinder in the eyes. “You know what this means?”

“I… think so.” Cinder looked up, frowning. “Answers.”

“Yeah, you figured something out about yourself! That white… blob thing!”

“But now that I know that, now what? What does it mean?” Cinder started pacing in a circular path. “Seriously, what am I? Some kind of changeling? …It was more than that. I was everything he was, even the hate. But I was a little more and…” A smile crawled up her features. “Oh, this is so exciting, i—“

They both heard it at the same time. The sound of a train’s horn.

Behind them, where there had previously been only trees of the forest, a rail appeared. Upon it rolled a train. It came to a powerful, steam-filled stop, opening a door.

Answers, its destination board promised.

“…Looks like it’s time,” Cinder said, walking up to the Train.

Adder followed—but Cinder held up a hoof. “I think… I think it’s time for you to go back, Adder. This one’s for me.”

“You sure?”

“…Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure.”

Adder nodded—she knew Cinder was serious about this. “Well, Ah’ll let everyone know you’re fine. How long do you think you’ll be?”

“…It won’t be long at all,” Cinder said with a smile. “I’ll see you before you know it.”

“Good t’ hear. You get answers, okay, Cinder?”

“I’ve been waiting for far, far too long. It’s time to put an end to this little answer hiatus.”

“…Why’d you say it like that?”

Cinder shrugged. “I dunno. I’m not Aware, ask Pinkie when you get back.” She hopped into the doors of the Train.

“Good luck!” Adder called.

“Thanks!”

The doors shut with Cinder inside them. The Train sped away a moment later, leaving Adder behind in the forest.

“Well, that’s that,” Adder said, taking out her dimensional device. “Guess there’s nothing left for me here…”

“Uh… Apple Bloom?”

Adder looked up to see the local Rarity and the Crafter getting up, staring at her in confusion.

“Ah.” Adder rubbed the back of her head. “I guess I have to explain, huh?”

“That would be appreciated, dear.”

“Well, this is gonna take a while, so sit down…”

~~~

“…And she split into those three fillies,” the Sparkle Census police officer said.

“Yes,” Nira deadpanned.

“Right. Not the weirdest thing I’ve seen.” She glanced down at the Twilight attacker, who was still curled up in a fetal position and bawling. “…Did you have to be so…?”

“Brutal? No.” Nira leaned in. “I would have killed her.”

“Okaaaaay…” The officer backed up. “I’ll get her into the hospital and we’ll be sure to charge her. We’ll let you know if the battle insurance companies will cover the damage to the window.”

Nira rolled her eyes. “Fine. Just take care of it.”

The officer nodded as some Census medics levitated the downed Twilight into a stretcher. They wheeled her into a hovering ambulance and took off at high speed.

With a set jaw, Nira returned to the booth where the rest of the Sweeties were—and the components of Sweetaloo. Burgerbelle and Celia were being oddly silent, Squddy was clearly trying not to cry, and Seren was actively talking to the three parts of Sweetaloo.

“So…” Seren scratched her head. “You all remember everything about being Sweetaloo?”

“Yeah,” the Sweetie said, shakily taking a sip of some hot cocoa she’d ordered. “Everything about it. Everything.” She looked down. “But I mostly remember our fight with my Rarity near the beginning. We said such terrible things…”

“We were speakin’ the truth,” the Apple Bloom said.

“Ahem!” Scootaloo huffed. “We weren’t doing anything. That was Sweetaloo.”

“But we are Sweetaloo,” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“Were,” Sweetie corrected. “We were.”

“R-right…” Apple Bloom frowned.

“And we’ll never be her again,” Scootaloo huffed.

“But…” Seren lifted a hand. “But what ab—“

“Seren, you know the importance of family, right?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yes. It’s the source of most everything meaningful!”

“Well Sweetaloo abandoned all three of our sisters. She abandoned our home.” Scootaloo glared at her. “I know she mentioned she doesn’t have a good relationship with our sisters.”

Seren looked down. “But… but I miss her. And we were a family.”

“Yeah, well, that’s selfish.”

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie chided. “She’s younger than we are!”

“And I’m not letting anyone do anything like what Sweetaloo did to us!” Scootaloo shouted back. “Nobody gets to just take over my life.”

“It… it wasn’t all bad…” Sweetie said.

“You want to go back to that?”

“N-no…”

“We should at least consider it,” Apple Bloom said. “She took us from our families… but if we go to our home, we take her from hers.”

“She was a liar.”

“She didn’t want to die,” Sweetie whimpered.

“Yeah, well, I don’t either!”

“Celia…” Nira turned to their leader. “Are we really going to put up with this?”

Celia’s blank expression became dark. “Nira, if you are implying what I think you’re implying, I will personally tear you limb from limb if you so much as say another word.”

Nira took a few steps back.

Celia stepped down to the ground, getting in Nira’s face. For once, the stern confidence of Nira’s face melted away as she backpedaled from the Gem. Not that she was afraid for her life—she could take Celia, and everyone knew it. But because she knew Celia was serious. Nira did not dare say anything.

“I’m going to make this as clear as I possibly can,” Celia said, growling. “We do not have the right to even suggest that these three fillies give up their lives just so we can have our friend. Sweetaloo was not a voluntary fusion, and the only reason she was allowed to persist was because her components supposedly liked the situation. Since that was a lie, what must happen is clear.”

“N-no…” Seren said, putting her hands to her face. “We can’t…”

“Good thing this isn’t a freaking democracy,” Celia breathed. She turned to Scootaloo. “Go home.”

“Gladly.” Scootaloo twitched. “I want nothing more to do with any of this. I’m done.”

“Scootaloo…” the Sweetie shook her head. “You don’t have to be so…”

“No. I don’t. But I’ve wanted them to understand for so long I don’t care. Your friend was a manipulative pathological liar.”

“That’s not completely true and you know it,” Apple Bloom huffed.

Scootaloo’s harsh expression softened slightly. “…I’m still mad.”

Wordlessly, Celia took out her dimensional device and tossed it to Apple Bloom. “There you go.”

“…Right.” Apple Bloom frowned. “Girls… Ah at least want to say goodbye to Swip. That all right?”

“Yeah,” the Sweetie said.

“…Fine,” Scootaloo grumbled.

The Sweetie looked up at the other Sweeties. “We… we’ll be going now. Some of our time together was fun. But… I don’t think you’ll be seeing much of us.”

Seren was the only one who could bring herself to rush forward and pull the three of them into a hug. “Go… back to your families.”

“…We will.”

Burgerbelle was the only other one to give a mildly pleasant goodbye, with a comical wave as the three of them left.

As soon as they were out of earshot Celia let out a scream of rage and drove her razor-top into the ground, shattering the earth in several places.

“I don’t think insurance will pay for that,” Nira observed.

“How dare she!?” Celia spat, ignoring Nira. “How dare she present herself as… as… as like me! As happy! As… belonging together!?”

“She was afraid,” Squiddy breathed. “She didn’t want to die.”

“Being unfused isn’t death! It’s just a different state of being, one that may be better for you! But no, she overruled the wishes of her components! That’s just… That’s…” She laid down, pressing her head into the cracked ground. “...That makes perfect sense.” She covered her face with her front legs and started crying. “That makes perfect sense…”

Squiddy, to Celia’s shock, was the first one to come to her, pulling her into a hug, followed quickly by Seren, and then Burgerbelle. Nira was last—but even she could see they needed to stand together in this moment.

We’re falling apart, Celia thought. We keep losing ponies to one thing or another. Trials, journeys of personal exploration… I’m not sure I can keep this together.

Should I keep this together…?

Oh, Sweetaloo, you may have been sent to keep tabs on us, but you became our stabilizer… You actually got us back on track. We were fine again! What are we going to do now?

The troubles of a possible Beyonder invasion suddenly seemed very small.

~~~

Some Wookie had challenged Cryo to a game she didn’t know the rules of. However, like virtually everyone else in the multiverse, she knew the number one rule of dealing with Wookies: let the Wookie win.

So she decided to try and beat the Wookie.

The only problem was that the Wookie was actually good and she had no idea what she was doing. So her efforts were squandered and the Wookie let out a delightful cheer as her last piece was squashed under his furry fist. He let out an undulating roar of victory before turning and accepting a drink from Isekai as his prize.

Cryo grumbled upon noticing the Wookie was not interested in a rematch. How am I supposed to break unspoken rules if they won’t let themselves be broken? “Mmmf.” She returned to her root beer, blowing more bubbles into it than drinking out of it.

The Wookie left shortly thereafter, leaving Cryo and Isekai as the only entities within the bar aside from a blue slime creature in the corner that might have been asleep.

“You know, considering how popular this place is, I’m surprised it’s ever this empty,” Cryo mused.

“Something, something time drifting,” Isekai said.

“Man, who made this bar? The level of engineering required to make time go however it wants is ridiculous.”

Isekai shrugged. “Maybe it just does it because it has to.”

Cryo raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t like thinking about the Tower?”

Isekai raised an eyebrow. “That’s neither here nor there. …I think.”

Cryo tried to balance her glass on her snout. “Eh, I don’t really think much about it either. So you’re in good company.”

Isekai tapped her finger on the counter. “You know, I do sometimes wonder where exactly this place came from… Rarity kind of just had it.”

“Maybe we should ask her…”

“Do you want to be the one to do that?”

Cryo blinked. “Uh… no.”

“Then w—“

There was a shout from the entrance of the bar. “Hey! Quark! Did you know that there was a door to another bar in your bar?”

Another male voice responded from outside the bar. “You talking about Vic’s or that Isekai place?”

“Isekai?”

“I told her to stop doing that!”

Isekai put her hand to the bridge of her nose. “Oh no, here we go again…”

An unusual humanoid marched into the bar. His skin was orange, his multi-lumped head bald, and his ears were utterly massive. A glass filled with some kind of blue liquid was in his hand, and he ran right up to the bar and slammed the drink down. “We had a deal, miss Isekai…”

Isekai opened a drawer under the bar and pulled out a voice recording. She pressed a button and it spoke with her voice. “Look, Quark, I can’t promise anything, the bar’s door appears wherever it’s needed, and it’s apparently needed in your station a lot. I will never put it there intentionally.”

“Yes! The station!” Quark slammed a hand on the bar. “And there are plenty of other places to put a magic door than in my bar!”

“But your bar is the hub of activity, Quark. People are just there most often. I really don’t have control over the door.”

“You’re taking over my business.” Quark folded his arms. “Profits are going to go down this week because you showed up, mark my words. I’ll find some way to sue.”

“…How?” Cryo asked, cocking her head. “Seriously, how?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure it out!” He growled. “And guess what else? You said it only showed up when it was needed? Who needed it? Not me!”

“Probably the unicorn behind you,” Isekai said, pointing at Cei, who had tentatively strode into the bar, glancing around with a nervous twitch.

“Oh. Bah.” Quark threw his hands into the air. “Whatever…”

“…Crown Princess?” Cryo asked, cocking her head.

Cei looked at her, blinking. “Do I… know you?”

“Just one of many Sweeties in the League.”

“Ah.” Cei frowned. “Did I hurt you…? I’m sorry if I did, I—“

“Nah, you’re fine. Come, sit, have a drink. I recommend the root beer.”

“She can have something alcoholic,” Isekai said.

“Kanar,” Cei ordered, taking a seat next to Cryo.

“Hey!” Quark threw his hands into the air. “I can give you kanar!”

Cei let out a soft laugh. “You sure can…”

“I object, if you’re just going to or—“

“Quark, dear, do calm yourself,” Rarity said, coming out from the back of the bar. “Look, how about in exchange for you not making a fuss, we sell you a full case of some exotic brew? I hear imports from Merodi Universalis are very profitable in your sector of the multiverse.”

Quark broke out into a toothy grin. “Finally, some proper business.”

“I’ll meet you in your bar in a few minutes, Quark. Run along now, count your latinum and make your business proposition.”

“Gladly!” All hint of annoyance was gone from the man, and he ran out of the bar to return to his establishment.

Rarity chuckled. “Ah, I do like that one. Shrewd businessman with just enough importance to ensure nothing goes irrevocably wrong for him. Specially reliable… and the center of so much more than you would think.”

Cei let out a snort. “You’re right. And he’s got his charm, too. Pretends to be a greedy goblin, really has a heart of latinum.” At this point Isekai had finished pouring Cei her drink. She lifted the thick brown concoction and took a swig of it.

“…That looks like syrup,” Cryo observed.

“Tastes a bit like it too.”

“Ew.”

“She is the only non-Cardassian I ever give it,” Isekai admitted. “I don’t know how she can stand the stuff…”

“Some mysteries aren’t meant to be solved,” Rarity said. “Oh, Sunset, by the way, I may need to put the bar in safe-mode in a day, maybe less.”

“…Safe-mode? Why?”

“Reasons.” Rarity shot Cei a knowing look that made her shift uncomfortably. “They are good reasons. Don’t worry, it won’t seem like much time passed, but for a short while nobody will be able to walk in.”

Isekai raised an eyebrow. “Is that… necessary?”

“Afraid so. Some big fish are swimming into our stretch of the river, and let’s just say it’s best if be bury ourselves under the riverbed for a bit, hmm?”

“…I’m gonna have to leave?” Cryo asked.

“Not right now,” Rarity said. “But, eventually, yes. Unless you want to be stuck here with Isekai for a day.”

Cryo scratched her chin. “I can think of worse things…”

“No,” Isekai said. “You won’t spend an entire day here.”

“It was worth a shot.” Cryo turned to Cei. “So… looks like you better get out what’s on your mind quickly.”

“Everything I’m worried about is very, very classified and very, very dangerous.” Cei shot Rarity a look. Rarity let out an indignant “humph” and returned to the back of the bar.

Isekai looked back and forth between Rarity and Cei in mild confusion. “I guess I just don’t get to know what’s going on.”

“Join the club,” Cryo said.

“Still…” Isekai leaned onto her elbows, fixing her gaze upon Cei so she could study her responses more closely. “You have a decision to make, don’t you?”

“Not so much a decision as a ‘I have no idea what to do’ sort of thing,” Cei said. “I’m the ‘Crown Princess’ and people are looking to me to do something. But I can’t do anything. Nobody can do anything.”

“Are you in a position where you can tell them you can’t do it?”

“Oh, yes. Except they won’t believe me. Destiny, ka, all that nonsense.”

“Ah.” Isekai nodded in understanding. “You know what the real fun thing is?”

“What?”

“Usually you do end up doing something in situations like that.”

“Annoyingly.”

“You might just need to wait for it to come. Inspiration will strike, you’ll see the light that was inside of you all the time, the magic of friendship will reveal a truth to you…” She twirled a hand in the air to indicate the endless size of the list.

“Or you’ll discover some deep hidden power!” Cryo suggested. “Or… or maybe you just need to ask for help.”

“I’d love that,” Cei said. “The only problem is that they’re asking me for help. Who do I get to turn to?”

“Yeah, sorry, bad idea.” Cryo twirled around on her barstool.

Cei frowned. “Who would I turn to…?”

Isekai gave her a minute to chew on that while she returned to cleaning some dishes. Before she thought it was time to ask a question to prod Cei further, a new face walked into the bar, carrying a lightsaber on her back.

Cryo recognized her immediately. “Adder!?”

“Hey!” Adder’s smile was replaced with confusion. “Cryo? CP? What’re you two doin’ together?”

“They just both happened to be in the bar,” Isekai said.

“Huh. Aight.” Adder stretched her legs. “Ah’m not gonna be here for long. Just here to tell Isekai thanks for when Cinder and Ah first set off.”

“You’re welcome.” Isekai winked at her. “Now, where is Cinder?”

“Yeah!” Cryo got in her face. “Where’s Cinder? What happened to you guys? Huh? Huh?”

Adder pushed Cryo back a little bit. “Cinder’s off on a journey of self-discovery on the Train. She said she won’t be much longer, but she had to take it alone. Ah’m just here to let everyone know she’s fine and to expect her back soon.”

Cryo gasped. “Oh, really! Yes yes yes! You… you have to tell me everything.”

“Ah mean, Ah have places to be…”

“I’ll come with you!”

Adder thought this over. “Eh, sure, why not.”

“Yay!”

“Let’s get movin’ though, there’s a lotta people we need to talk to.” Adder glanced to Cei. “…Sorry, Ah don’t think you’re welcome with the Merodi.”

“Not at the moment,” Cei admitted. “Plus, I have responsibilities too.” She tapped her hoof on the ground. “Hey, Adder?”

“Hmm?”

“When you see Cinder, tell her I’m sorry about… all that yelling with Puppysmiles. And about the Merodi and… yeah. A lot of things.”

Adder smiled softly. “Ah’ll tell her to look you up.” She opened a portal to Celestia City. “Let’s go, Cryo.”

“Yes! So, what was the first thing you guys did when you left?”

The portal closed, cutting off their conversation. Iseakai turned back to Cei. “So... have any ideas yet?”

“The beginnings of one,” Cei said with a smirk. She finished her kanar with a small gag. “See you around.”

“Good luck.”

“You too.” Cei walked out—at the same moment Rarity walked back in with several bars of gold-pressed latinum in her telekinesis.

“That was a fast deal,” Isekai noted.

“I undercharged so it would go quickly,” Rarity said. “Right now, no one from the Station has really caught on that your door is attached to his bar yet. And since the bar’s empty… now’s as good of a time as any to go into safe mode.”

Isekai raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”

“It’s either now or we have to kick people out at some other time, dear, and I know you wouldn’t like that.”

“Good point.”

Rarity nodded. “Just give me a minute to flip the switch…” She rested the latinum bars on the counter and trotted into the back. A moment later, Isekai felt the bar shake. “There we go! Hunkered down!”

Out of curiosity, Isekai walked to the front door and tried to open it. Nothing happened. “Huh.”

“The bar’s currently scrambling its location. Nobody is going to be able to get to us for a good long while…”

This much was true. If it were possible to view the bar’s universe from outside, it would have been seen severing connections to the majority of nearby universes and moving away from its previous location, not unlike a sand particle drifting to the riverbed, under all the rushing water.

If one were to zoom the map out a little more, they would see a blue crack of conquest inching closer and closer to densely populated space. Meandering a bit to the left and a bit to the right, but overall moving in a slightly curved line toward some unknown target.

~~~

Cinder walked out of one of the Infinity Train’s cars, picking frogs out of her mane. She was about to make some snide remark about amphibians and fire not mixing, but the thought vanished when she felt a great tremor shake the ground. Earthquakes in the mini-universes inside cars were common enough—but she had the distinct feeling the world outside wasn’t supposed to shake.

She looked up at the swirling vortex that dominated the sky above the train. It was moving faster than she last remembered.

Something’s about to go down.

She looked at the number on her hoof. 25. It had only been 29 when she arrived. Her stay wasn’t going to be a very long one.

But she had the feeling it was going to be an eventful one.

Author's Notes:

And, after a really long hiatus, we're back! And, at least for a while, expect updates every two weeks.

It was a coincidence that the hiatus ended on the 10th MLP anniversary.

At this point you probably all know about the amazing fic The Sparkle Census , but have a link anyway.

LSB is changing how it does things after this 3-parter, there'll be a blog post about that going up soon. There aren't going to be fic suggestions anymore. You may notice that I'm specifically trying to wrap up some of the biggest dangling plot threads/plans before moving on. Lotta stuff is gonna happen in these three chapters...

Blog post up: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/920771/the-league-of-sweetie-belles-phase-2-and-other-updates

Oh, and hey, now is as good of a time as any to let you know I have a Discord server! https://discord.gg/qCTDyZx. You can talk about anything there, hang out with people, read the LSB draft of the next chapter (and some drafts for The Distant Princess as well), watch me write a text-message-ish story around my experiences in Yume Nikki, and join us in our nonsense. We're going to start watching Infinity Train this Sunday, too.

It's good to be back.

-GM, master of S W E E T I E S.

Betrayal (Sparkle Census, Part 2)

Beneath the mysterious vortex, the Train chugged onward. The eternal wasteland stretched off in every direction, marked only by the occasional dead tree and the endless rails that marked the Train’s path. The engine churned forward, pulling the cars along, closer and closer to an unknown destination—a destination that might well have been more of a metaphorical concept than a place.

Many cars back, Cinder jumped out of one of the car doors and scrambled across the bridge to the next one. Behind her was a tall, humanoid robot with swords for arms that wanted her very dead.

“All I did was say hi!” Cinder wailed. “Was that so wrong!?”

The robot said nothing, continuing the pursuit with mechanical efficiency.

“Why does this always happen to me?” Cinder cried out, even though she knew the answer. She jumped through the next car door and slammed it behind her, locking the robot on the other side. Unsure if the robot could force the door open, she ran ahead—ignoring the sphere creatures that occupied the current car. They no doubt had some problem she could help them with, but right now she was a little more concerned about her possibly soon-to-end life. She pushed through, jumping to the next car, and the next, and the next. To her relief, none of them had locked or hidden doors: they all allowed her easy passage.

Once she felt like she was far enough from the death-bot, she flopped against the inner side of one of the car doors, desperately trying to catch her breath. Glancing down, she checked the number on her hoof.

19.

“Well, at least it didn’t go up…” she gasped. Standing up with some difficulty, she finally observed her surroundings, using the opportunity as an excuse to rest. The exit door was right in front of her, but there were no walls to hold it. The realm went on seemingly forever in every direction, with a ground made out of a bunch of pink fabric bundled up in a way similar to the folds of a brain. In the distance, she could see grandfather clocks and giant pocket watches embedded in the brainy fabric.

“Weird stuff…” Her earlier exhaustion nearly forgotten by now, Cinder was intrigued enough to take a look around. She trotted right up to one of the pocket watches, cautiously placing her hoof on it. Immediately, the clock face vanished, replaced with a mirror-like surface. It didn’t reflect a unicorn, though—it reflected a calm fractal pattern of a pristine white color. Energy flowed to and from the smooth curves, radiating a power mixed with some kind of intelligence. Cinder, strangely, felt a connection to this being on the other side of the mirror. It must have felt the same, for one of its wispy tendrils reached for the surface of the mirror… but it was replaced with the clock face before contact was made. Cinder pressed her hoof to the pocket watch again, but nothing happened.

That means something…

She trotted to one of the grandfather clocks. Sure enough, its clock face became a mirror—but this one reflected a pristine white alicorn with a pastel mane and an elegant form. Her eyes, though, weren’t the usual green of a Sweetie, but a piercing orange.

She tilted her head the same time Cinder did—but in the opposite direction. Then the clock face returned.

Mustard was so sure I was a false princess…

At this point she walked to the next clock on autopilot, placing a hoof and looking into it deeply. This time, it showed her Herobrine. He looked at her with hate and moved to tear out her neck, but of course the image vanished.

“I’m going to be wondering about this for a while…” She skipped up to another pocket watch, twirling around to add a flourish before lightly tapping the watch. This time, it showed her a rose. A rose that was far too vibrantly red to be real. Cinder sensed an immense majesty emanating from it, a regal importance, but with a snap, it disappeared as quickly as it had first appeared.

Cryptic. Don’t know what I was expecting. Let’s see what the next piece of the puzzle is! With another skip and jump, she made her way to a grandfather clock, tapping it with her hoof.

This one showed her the robot that had been trying to kill her all a few minutes ago.

“Huh? What does he have to do with anyth—“

The moment the clock returned to normal, red hot pain flared in her spine. Looking down at the metallic point sticking out of her front, Cinder had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen. But she wasn’t looking forward to it in the slightest.

Her consciousness never fully faded. While her facial muscles and body might have made it look to an outsider like she was losing sensation, in reality, the pain was only heightening. As her awareness drifted slightly away from her body, the presence of the sword through her very being only became more obvious. If she were able to scream in this state, she would have—but she knew the worst was yet to come.

Watching as though from a distance, she saw her body devolve into a white, glowing goo. She felt as each and every synapse in her unicorn body was turned off like a little firework until there was nothing remaining but her consciousness. Soon, even that slowly dissipated, and her awareness became nothing. For a moment, all was dark. No sight, no smell, no sound.

She was alone in endless nothing. No… that wasn’t quite true. If she really focused, she could feel the Tower. Somewhere, always connected. It told her nothing, for she had no Awareness. She just knew.

Cinder did not remain in this state for long—if she did, it would have been the short way to madness. However, when sensation came back to her, it didn’t feel real. It was as though she were receiving information about the outside world through a computer terminal. The sights, smells, and sensations were described to her, but they weren’t happening to her. It was at hoof-length.

The one thing she did feel, absolutely, was what it meant to be a sword-armed robot. Every thought and process that ran through its head was displayed to her consciousness. Every action it considered, every impulse it ignored, and how much it wanted to kill. It had never known anything else.

Her now-robotic body had no idea it had been Cinder. As far as it was concerned, it had just stabbed Cinder—and now there were two sword-armed robots in the car, and no Cinder. Obviously, Cinder had transformed into a copy of it, so it needed to exterminate her.

Naturally, the original robot came to the same conclusion at the same time, though it had more reason to believe its processors. They attacked each other, each easily deflecting the other’s blade. Every swipe was perfectly countered by exact programming, and neither could get the upper hand. Curiously, the robot that was Cinder still had the Train’s number 19 on its arm. The Train knew it was her.

Cinder knew for certain the fight wasn’t going to go anywhere without any outside interference. She considered forcing her normal body to come back—it was the one thing she knew how to do here, become a unicorn again. But the other robot might just stab her again while she was recovering, and then that would trigger the transformation again, setting off a dumb endless cycle.

So she resolved to wait until something happened. After all, it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable to exist as nothing more than a spirit tangentially attached to a sword-robot creature. She might as well take the time to learn a bit more about it.

She had no control whatsoever over what the robot did, but she had access to all of its thoughts. She could focus on parts of it, examining what memories it recalled at any given time, its motivations, everything. All things considered, it was rather depressing, since all of the thoughts were about efficient killing, but at least it wasn’t as bad as Herobrine had been. It had been decidedly unpleasant to be him. …If this could really be called “being”.

What am I even going to call this? I need a cool, exciting name for this ability!

Before she could continue with this line of thought, her fight with the robot was interrupted. A burst of fractal-energy came out of nowhere, turning the opposing robot into a small pile of dust that exploded into little cherries.

A voice reverberated from the being into Cinder’s head. Not the robot—Cinder, in her distant existence.

“What are you doing here!? This Train isn’t safe right now!”

The robot decided to try to kill the energy being, slicing right through it to no effect.

“Drop the Replacement already,” the energy being said. “It serves no purpose.”

Okay… Cinder told her body to let her spirit back in. The robotic form returned to a blob of white, reforming quickly back into a unicorn. The reforming process was a lot less painful than the initial transformation, since Cinder was being rebuilt at full health and energy without a sword poking through her. The pixelated rose formed last, resting neatly in the folds of her mane.

“Hi!” Cinder said, extending a hoof. “I’m Cinder, League of Sweetie Belles. You… look kinda like one of Them. Are you?”

“Them!? What game are you playing? I—“ The energy creature paused for a moment. The alarm and concern vanished from the entity’s tone with its next words. “You… Traitor…”

“W-what?” Cinder took a step back. “I don’t even know who you are!”

“You abandoned yourself… and now you’re here to kill me.”

“No!” Cinder shook her head emphatically. “I don’t want you dead, whoever you are. I just… want to know what I am, if you don’t mind?”

“How could you have done this to yourself?” The entity asked. Cinder sensed that it was talking more to itself than to her at this point. “To think that a Replacer could…” The fractal pattern suddenly became energetic and its focus was back on Cinder. “Your fate was sealed long ago. We cannot permi—“

Both of the doors to the car suddenly exploded, leaving holes in the brainy reality that led to the wasteland outside. There, against the vortex in the sky, she saw a single object. The object was blue, but otherwise hard to focus on—not just because it was moving around quickly enough to dodge the energy blasts coming from the vortex, but also because it wasn’t a cohesive object. Several pieces of metal flowed in and out of higher dimensions Cinder couldn’t see, and the pieces that were there seemed to all be moving different directions while still somehow maintaining a cohesive whole. It clearly did not belong in this universe, and given the energy coming out of the vortex, the universe didn’t want it here. It was also shooting at the Train, which may have been part of the reason it was unwelcome..

“This was your plan all along!” the energy being shrieked into Cinder’s mind, making her wince. “A Beyonder rampage! I should h—“

A mech suit composed out of a material similar to the “ship” in the sky jumped through the hole in reality. Unlike the ship, which phased in and out of reality consistently, this being had a more permanent presence—the suit kept the same number of limbs at all times. However, it was also disconnected, with parts that floated separately from the main body. Bursts of blue electricity coursed between the metal parts in seemingly random patterns and timing. The very space around the creature rippled like a pond in a rainstorm. Whatever was inside that suit was not meant to exist here, but the technology forced it to anyway.

The Beyonder punched, forming a black hole larger than the train car. For a split second, Cinder felt like she was spaghetti in a field of darkness, with only a single pinprick of light telling her there was a world outside. She could just make out a flash of blue.

Next thing she knew she was being thrown across universes, passing from realm to realm with enough force to tear through their reality like paper. Physics broke down wherever she passed, leaving a trail of fissures as she went.

She didn’t have any idea what was going on. Every second, a new reality passed in front of her eyes, and a new hole was torn.

However, she knew one thing for certain.

The Beyonder was following her.

~~~

Suzie sat cross-legged on the ground before the main altar in the church. However, the electric lights weren’t on—rather, she illuminated the area around her with a bunch of tall white candles. It gave her enough light to feel warm, but otherwise the area was dark in a way that was more welcoming and peaceful than ominous.

She breathed in and out with time, a soft smile on her face. She was fully immersed in the moment, and she could feel both the smallness and the bigness of her being… the paradox that needed to be for truth to arrive. Both an insignificant speck and yet holding the very soul of meaning, the point of being a person, i—

She heard the door creak behind her and the moment was broken. She let out a long, deep sigh.

“Do the candles really help?” Rev asked, cocking her head.

“Believe it or not, they do.” Suzie blew them out one at a time and stood up. “What’s going on? You wouldn’t have interrupted me if it wasn’t important.”

“I have someone I think you’d want to see.” The Starlight stepped to the side, letting Cryo and Adder through.

Suzie looked to Adder with wide eyes. “Is she…?”

“She’s fine. And she promises to come back soon.” Adder launched into the story of what had happened to her and Cinder on their journeys, including the Train, the world of cubes, the encounter with Cei, and a few other things that seemed important. She ended with what happened to Cinder at the end—going all white and becoming what had attacked her.

Suzie frowned. “She’s really not a pony…”

“She’s still Cinder though,” Adder said.

“And she’ll be back soon!” Cryo cheered, bouncing up and down. “Think of it, you can see her again!”

Suzie smiled softly. “It… would be nice.”

Cryo frowned. “Surely… you want her to come back?”

“Yes. Absolutely. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just… well, I wouldn’t be able to go back out there with her.” She waved her hand out in the air. “Still have my Stand, still can’t go anywhere.”

“Oh…”

“And it’s not really a problem.” Suzie closed her eyes and lifted her head upward. “Having this… time to explore myself… it’s been better than being out there. I only miss being with all of them.”

Cryo shifted uncomfortably. “You’re just… fine here?”

“Absolutely. I’d appreciate an excuse for the others to visit more often, but this has been a great time.” She patted Cryo on the head. “Sometimes what we need is a simple life without the grim specter of death hiding behind every corner.”

“Hmmm…”

Adder nodded. “Glad to hear you’re alright. Now, Ah gotta go tell a lot of others…”

“Let’s just go to the League,” Suzie said, pulling out her dimensional device. “I’m sure we can get Nausicaa to process a report from you, and we can send out a little message to everyone. Anyone with more questions can just come to us.”

Adder nodded. “Sounds like a plan!”

“And a way to get a bunch of Sweeties together,” Cryo said with a smirk.

Suzie rubbed the back of her head. “W-well, uh, that might be part of it…”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

~~~

Cinder knew she wouldn’t be able to come to a stop until she hit a universe able to withstand the heavy warping of reality. There was nothing she could do to change this—she was just along for the ride as she rode the torrential wave from reality to reality. It went on for long enough that she began to wonder how she was still breathing, and a more pressing issue, why the Beyonder hadn’t been able to catch up with her. Was it only able to move as fast through the realms as the shockwave it had created?

The beginnings of a plan were beginning to take shape. It wasn’t a very good plan—she’d let the Beyonder take a stab at her, and she'd become it, and then hope something in its thoughts would give her a way out or something.

She was already coming to find her “new” power slightly annoying. You’d think it would be exploitable, but no, the copy was exact and by nature could never be stronger than the opponent. Seeing as she was alone, there was nobody to back her up and tip the odds in her favor.

Her fate, in the end, depended on where exactly she stopped.

It just so happened that the first reality-anchored object she hit was a massive purple crystal shaped like a Twilight’s cutie mark. She flailed her limbs as she flew towards it, trying to avoid slamming face first and breaking all her bones, but to her relief, the crystal began slowing her down as she got closer. She still belly-flopped against it with a comical “oof”, sliding off of it like a fish thrown out of water. She was lucky the crystal was so well-designed, but as it was, she’d still broken a rib from the impact.

Only a single rib… Cinder thought to herself. I’m way too used to the possibility of injury… With a grunt, she forced herself to stand up—unable to keep a shriek of pain from coming out of her mouth.

The crystal sat in the midst of numerous gears, wires, tubes, and magical sparks that swirled around tremendous pistons. Given the presence of a purple color and the familiar designs, she deduced that she was in the Sparkle Census.

And so was the Beyonder. It didn’t slam into the crystal-like she had. When it tore through reality, it pulled it apart with its bare hands and stepped in, its mechanized form dominating the mechanical room.

Cinder braced for impact.

Luckily for her, the Beyonder was so outrageously overpowered that one direct swat from its hand-like appendage vaporized every nerve in Cinder’s body immediately. There would be no pain in the transformation today—and yet, she maintained a distant ghost-like awareness of herself for a moment.

In that moment, she sensed a scream of intense rage. Just before her senses were fully suspended, she saw Blink make herself visible and charge the Beyonder’s head, brimming with Void energy.

Blink, no, don’t do something stupid, I’ll be back!

Her senses went black. She had no idea what was happening—her body was busy transforming into a Beyonder. Blink, somehow, please be alive when I get back. I… I can’t be responsible for that!

The senses of her new Beyonder form came to her—but she purposefully ignored the rapid influx of information about what it was like to live in a different number of dimensions, instead focusing on the purely visual component of what was before her. The original Beyonder was there, holding Blink in one of its hand-like appendages. Two of Blink’s reality bracelets had already been broken, and her efforts to phase out of existence were being countered by some kind of pink electricity coursing around the Beyonder’s metallic suit.

Why aren’t we attacking? Cinder wondered. Come on, fight yourself! She examined the thoughts of her new body to figure out the reason. Despite the non-Euclidian nature of the thoughts, the reason was simple enough: why would it ever attack another Beyonder? They were of one army, one force, one power. This was not the time for personal honor at the expense of others, this was a mission. This other identical Beyonder was acting exactly as a Beyonder should—attacking the enemy.

A third reality bracelet broke. For all Blink’s Void, all she could do was delay the assault. Cinder screamed at her body—but it couldn’t hear her. It was a Beyonder. Instead of standing by, it helped its colleague, shattering the fourth reality bracelet.

For a moment, Cinder stopped, as if holding her breath. Waiting for Blink to vanish into nothing.

But she didn’t. She remained in the clutches of the Beyonder.

Oh, right. Relief swept over Cinder. We’re in the Sparkle Census, of course they’d set physics to allow ghosts to persist.

She caught more good news from the thoughts in her Beyonder body—they were trying to erase Blink from existence, but found it difficult since the Sparkle Census’ reality anchors actively worked against that sort of thing. They’d need to spend an inordinate amount of effort to truly kill the ghost.

So they crushed her flat and threw her into the ground. As a ghost, she lived through the entire thing… but the pain had to be more than Cinder could imagine. She didn’t blame Blink for making herself completely invisible the moment she was free of their clutches.

At this point, the Beyonders started talking to one another. The more they did, the more Cinder felt her stomach sink, despite not currently having one. The two didn’t speak with words so much as movements transmitted through a conduit of their natural spacetime. Of course the suits were capable of translating this into speech, but when addressing each other they had no need.

I am Ulthizar.

I am Ulthizar as well. There was a Replacer.

A Replacer that would dare to be so brazen?

There is something else going on here. However, I remember seeing you come from the Replacer.

Then I must be eliminated.

That would just bring her out again. So long as she allows you to exist, our strength is doubled.

How will we eliminate her?

I do not have any ideas you do not.

Unfortunate.

It was at this point several hundred Twilights appeared, around them, ranging from alicorns, to full-grown dragons that barely fit in the space, to miasma-like plasma beings.

The enemy! Both Beyonders shouted at once, charging to kill.

No! Cinder ordered. She did the only thing she could do—force herself back into her natural form. Her Beyonder collapsed in a pile of white while the original continued its assault. As her body’s senses cut out again, she caught the Twilights opening a portal right in front of the Beyonder.

By the time she was Cinder again and opened her eyes, the Beyonder was gone. But so were at least a dozen Twilights standing over her with curious expressions.

“…Cinder?”

Cinder opened her eyes to the face of none other than Daylight Sparkle, the Twilight she’d helped save from the eternal day. “Yeah…”

“You’re a Beyonder?”

“No, apparently I’m a Replacer. Not that I have any idea what that means.” She shook her head. “I… I’m sorry, this is partially my fault. It attacked me and I just…”

“You had no control over where you ended up,” Daylight said. She shot a death glare at another Twilight, a kirin with a fiery red mane, that was about to correct her.

“I… yeah, I guess not.” Cinder shook her head. “Hey! Blink! You can come out now!”

“…Blink?” Daylight cocked her head to the side.

“Yeah, she was down here. Tried to help me, but she didn’t really do much. She’s probably in a lot of pain…”

“Cinder, you have no idea where you are, do you?”

“Uh…” Cinder glanced up at the crystal. “Am I not in the Sparkle Census?”

“You’re somewhere in the Sparkle Census. Somewhere you really aren’t supposed to be.”

“What would that have t—oh.” Cinder frowned. “Somewhere Blink wasn’t supposed to be.”

“Exactly.” Daylight grimaced. “I’m afraid we’ll have to hold an investigation.”

“I’m sure she had a good reason for being here!”

“Good reason or not, I don’t think this is going to go over well, especially with the impending Beyonder threat…”

Cinder blinked. “You’ve been expecting something like this to happen. The Beyonders are up to something, aren’t they?”

“I don’t know much, but I do know that we’ve been on-call in case something like this happened. A—“

“That’s enough, Daylight,” an alicorn said—the Grand Secretariat of the Sparkle Census, standing taller than most Celestias would. “I’m afraid we really are going to have an investigation. It is best not to tell her too much.”

“I understand,” Cinder said, standing up.

“Luckily, the other Sweeties are currently here,” the Secretariat continued. “So we can perform this investigation by taking you to them.” She smiled. “I’m sure it’ll be a grand reunion.”

Cinder beamed. “…Yes. Yes, I’d like to see them. I—“ She frowned, glancing down at her hoof.

Despite not even being on the Train, she still had her number. 9.

“…That’s not supposed to happen. The Beyonders screwed something up…”

~~~

“So…” Celia began as she slowly sat down in the captain’s chair. “…How’d their visit go?”

Swip’s avatar was lying on a virtual couch, her back towards the display. “Mmmf.”

“That bad?”

“I told them to get lost.”

Celia smiled sadly. She said a lot worse than that… “Anything I can do?”

“Can we go back to scanning star systems?” Swip asked, tilting her head back to look at Celia with exhausted eyes.

Celia glanced at the rest of the crew—Burgerbelle, Squiddy, Seren, and Nira. All of them, including Burgerbelle, were unsure of what to do with themselves. Cry? Yell? Both at different times? It was impossible to fully understand. “Yeah. Yeah, I think we could all benefit from going back to simple scanning. Set a course dear.”

“Setting…” Swip’s tired eyes became confused. “Hold on, the Sparkle Census is denying us permission to leave.”

“Did they say why?” Celia asked, forcefully pushing her melancholy out of mind—this could be serious.

“No. But the Secretariat wants permission to transport to the bridge.” Swip tapped her fingers together nervously.

“…We can’t exactly say no now, can we?”

Nira coughed. “We can. Legally speaking she can’t even keep us here without inciting an incident.”

“But that wouldn’t be proper, and, attitude aside, I am still a Rarity.”

Swip glanced at the batter crumbs that had piled around Celia’s seat over the last few weeks.

Celia nonchalantly cast a spell that animated a dustpan that swept the crumbs up. “Now, Swip, if you would be a dear and give her permission to come in?”

“This is how you get vampires,” Seren whispered.

“Glad to see you doing better.”

“I—well, th—“

Whatever conversation may have transpired had they been given a few more seconds was silenced by the appearance of a majestic purple alicorn. An alicorn that everyone ignored in favor of the little white unicorn standing to her side.

Celia locked her eyes with Cinder’s. The unicorn broke out into a huge grin.

Celia couldn’t help but grin back despite herself. The two rushed into a tight embrace. “Welcome back, Cinder.”

“Glad to be back.” Cinder nuzzled Celia just below the neck.

“Cinder!” Seren cheered rushing into the hug as well, magic sparks flying off her scepter as she threw it to the ground. Her impact with the other two toppled them over until they were little more than a loose pile of giggling bodies on the ground.

Squiddy stepped over Cinder, covering her in shadow. Slowly, she uncrossed her arms and offered her hand, which Cinder readily took. Their embrace was much shorter and less exaggerated than the one that had just transpired, but it was nonetheless real.

Nira shuffled uncomfortably.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Cinder said, winking at Nira. “You’re safe. But… Swip!” Cinder jumped and pressed herself to the main screen. “You’re so unhuggable! This is unacceptable!”

Swip generated a plush version of Cinder in the virtual realm and squeezed it until it squeaked so hard one of the eyes popped out.

Cinder blinked a few times. “Huh.”

Swip shot her a finger gun gesture—that Burgerbelle matched exactly. The Flat proceeded to throw Cinder up into the air like a basketball, slam-dunking her into the captain’s chair.

After spinning in the chair a few times, Cinder came to a stop looking out at all the Sweeties. Her smile faltered slightly. “Where… are the others?”

Celia’s smile faltered. “Ah… Well, Blink’s on vacation—“ That made Cinder flinch. For the life of her, Celia couldn’t imagine why. Something to ask her about later. “—Suzie’s still off-duty and it looks like it’s going to stay that way.”

“Is she… okay?”

“She’s actually happy where she’s at.”

“She misses us, though,” Seren added.

“You’ll get to see her when we get you back to the League,” Celia promised. “Sweetaloo…” Celia had to force herself not to let out an angry rant—but how she wanted to. “Sweetaloo was split up into her component parts, Cinder.”

“And they’re not going back together?” Cinder tilted her head sideways. “I thought they liked being Sweetaloo.”

“You’d think that wouldn’t you…” Celia muttered under her breath. “No, that wasn’t the case. She lied to us, Cinder.”

Cinder’s eyes lost focus. Slowly, her gaze fell further and further toward the ground. “…This is the price. I had to go. And I missed her. That’s wh—“

“Don’t think that,” Nira said. “You had no control over this.”

“You don’t understand, do you?” Cinder asked, focusing her eyes directly on Nira. “It’s not directly related, but it is the price. I’m paying for leaving. That’s… just how it is.”

Seren shook her head. “S-stop it! Cinder’s back, we can’t just go back to being super sad! We… we’re together again!”

“Unfortunately not,” Cinder said, shaking her head. “I’m afraid there’s a reason the Secretariat is with me. Celia. You said Blink was on vacation?”

“Yes…?” Celia cocked her head. “She’s taking an extended vacation in Skaia’s Dream. Going home, as it were, to avoid our scanning assignment. Still there, from the last message I got from her.”

“I was afraid of that.” Cinder let out a sigh. “I saw her. Here. In the Sparkle Census.”

“Where?” Celia asked, sure she wasn’t going to like the answer.

“Within the Reality Defense nexus,” the Secretariat said. “Which wasn’t functioning properly because several key components of the technology were missing. Stolen.”

Celia snorted. “Oh, and you think she did it? Pfft, she was probably trying to stop whoever actually did. She’s one of us, not some tech thief. I would have noticed if she was, Sweetaloo would have noticed if she was.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” Nira said.

“And you’re an expert on observing people now?”

“No. I’ve just long suspected that Blink was using her powers to actively remove her emotional turmoil and hide what she was really feeling. Think about it. She was often just too happy, too carefree. I had thought it was just her shunting her sorrows away, but… it could be more. Much more.”

“Her powers do let her just… fade into the background.” Seren’s eyes widened. “She could have been crying her eyes out, and if she didn’t want us to know, we wouldn’t.”

“But that’s not her,” Celia said. “She’s been with us for years. We know her. She came to us and has been our friend. Part of this… family we’ve got here.”

“Family can still contain thieves,” Nira countered.

“Damn her…” Squiddy muttered.

Celia raised an eyebrow. “Squiddy, let’s not jump to any conclusions h—“

“She was fine!” Squiddy shouted. “She was violated every bit as much as I was, but she was fine! I felt weak because she was doing fine, but I wasn’t! But there’s no way someone can just be… fine like that, is there!? Is there!?”

Seren was bawling in a corner now.

“…Swip, you’re the one with perfect memory,” Cinder said, pressing her front hooves together. “I remember at least two times when technology from the worlds we explored mysteriously went missing. That Equestria that was at war was one of them.”

Swip’s avatar stopped animating for a second while she searched. “…Holy mother of… at least one in twenty places mentioned technology or artifacts going missing.”

Cinder turned to Celia. “And you remember when I first met Tab? Where someone tried to fully download the contents of her tablet?”

“We never found the culprit…” Celia breathed.

“Yeah. We never did.”

Slowly, Celia took out her communicator. Carefully, she dialed Blink’s number. Blink was in Skaia’s Dream. She had to be. And that world was covered head to toe in Merodi technology. The only way the signal wasn’t going to reach her was if she was heavily Voided at the time.

Celia stamped her hoof on the ground in rage when the call went to voicemail.

“Sh-she could answer back…” Seren suggested.

Celia shook her head. “No… that’s not happening. It appears… we have a traitor. And have for a long time.” Her ears drooped. “…Anyone else?”

“…What?” Seren asked.

“I said anyone else!?” Celia shouted at the top of her lungs.

“I… I…” Seren couldn’t take it anymore. She ran out of the bridge to her room, locking the door behind her.

“Not her. Good.” Celia shot death glares at the rest of them. “Anyone else want to come forward with some lies or secrets!?”

“I have done terrible things,” Nira said.

“We know that,” Squiddy said. “That’s not what she’s asking.”

“Let me clarify. I have done terrible things to you.” She glanced with a hard expression at Swip. “And I am not ready to say what they are, for it carries with it too much shame. But know this.” She walked up to Celia, face hard. “I have done what may have been considered a betrayal of trust. And I did it for selfish reasons. I have no intention of going anywhere or losing any of you. The kid is right—this is a family.”

“And when a family messes up…” Cinder began.

“…They work to bring it back together,” Swip added.

Burgerbelle nodded in approval at the sentiment.

Celia’s hard anger softened. “You’re right… Nira, whatever you’ve done, you’re still part of us. One day, I hope you’ll come far enough to talk to us.”

Nira shuffled uncomfortably.

“But that day is clearly not today.” Celia held her head up high. “Today is Blink’s day. Today i—“

“Have you already forgotten what happened with Ser!?” Squiddy shouted.

Celia’s surge of confidence shattered. That’s right. He…

“Suzie tried to keep him on, to keep him part of the family. He’s dead now. You can’t always just take people back, Celia!”

“I can try,” Celia growled. “And I hope you realize you’re pushing Nira further and further into her self-doubt by doing this.”

“I’m not even half done with that! I’m never going to trust her again until she reveals what she did! Until all of you reveal every stupid thing you’ve done! How hard can it be not to be a duplicitous little bitch!? Am I the only one who tells everyone what I am to their face!?”

“Listen here, you little squid.” Celia rammed her snout into Squiddy’s nose. “How about me!?”

“Yeah, and you needed an entity of darkness to get you to do that! What about before? Huh? Got any secrets from then?”

“Stop it! Stop it!” Cinder shouted. “I didn’t come back to cause this, I just… I don’t even know who I am really, and there’s Beyonders coming, and it’s all my fault, and… and…” She curled up into a ball and started crying. For the first time since she’d arrived, she looked like the filly they’d met at the start of everything.

Burgerbelle was the one who approached Cinder, pushing the filly’s mane out of her eyes. She didn’t do anything else—she just smiled at Cinder. A perfect, silly smile. It didn’t make Cinder stop crying, but it did get the tears to lessen. Enough that she could stand up. She was still in the Captain’s chair, looking out at all the others.

“This is no fault of yours,” Nira told Cinder.

“You don’t under—“

“Ka may bring things about,” Nira said. “It may twist and turn events to change people in particular ways. It may ‘punish’ you or ‘exact payment’ for the things you do. But it will do that for both the good and the bad. Ka cannot be the final say on morality. I don’t know what is, but I do know you can’t blame yourself for this. All of this would have happened one way or another, or we would have gone on keeping secrets for eternity. Sweetaloo never would have broken up, Blink would never have been found out, and I would never have dared speak of what I had done. But… it occurs to me that we don’t really want to live a life of lies, do we? Would we have rather Sweetaloo kept lying to us? Would we have rather let Blink keep stealing from everyone under our noses?”

With a grimace, she turned to Swip’s avatar. A tear of black tar rolled down her cheek. “Would you rather I never told you that I… I am the one who forced you back into this ship’s body. Because I didn’t want to lose you. Because I am a selfish little pest with a hero-worship problem.”

Swip face twisted through the phases of shock, rage, sorrow, and confusion, finally settling on tired.

Nira stood in front of her, nervous. “I have betrayed us all. I understand it y—“

“Don’t go,” Swip said.

“You’re not…”

“I’m absolutely livid and want to shoot you out an airlock,” Swip spat. “But I’m not going to do that. We aren’t going to do that.”

“We’re a family,” Seren said.

Everyone turned in shock to sear her tear-stained face standing in the doorway. Shakily, she pulled herself forward using her scepter like a cane.

“Families fight. Families… scream. Families hurt each other. But families… families work to move forward. To stay together. No matter how angry they are.”

“…Dammit,” Squiddy said, crossing her arms. “She’s right.”

“…What about Ser?” Celia asked.

“I don’t give a damn. Suzie was probably right, even. Bastard probably could have been redeemed.”

“I’m absolutely shocked to hear you say that,” Celia said.

Squiddy snorted. “What, you we—“

“And I’m so proud.” Celia pulled her close with a leg. “C’mere. Never let anyone tell you that you aren’t strong. Even considering forgiving him for what he did to you… I’m not sure I could do that. Part of me wants to get angry at you for considering it. But the other part of me…” She squeezed Squiddy tighter.

“Agh…” Squiddy struggled to release herself from the Gem’s grip. “I… geh…”

Celia released her and let out a sigh. “Well… does anyone else have any dirty laundry they need to let out? Now seems to be like the time for it…”

“I’ve got a long story,” Cinder said. “But it’s not exactly a secret. I think… I think we need to find Blink first. Or at least get going on that.”

“Right.” Celia tossed her mane back. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”

The Secretariat coughed, reminding everyone that she was there, prompting more than a few embarrassed blushes from the Sweeties. “It pains me to say this, but I cannot allow you to just hunt her down and have a ‘talk’ with her like you’re planning. She has committed crimes against the Sparkle Census and, from the sounds of things, many other peoples as well. She will have to answer for what she’s done.”

“We will not deny you that right,” Celia said. “If it makes you feel better, you can send an agent with us as we investigate.”

“I do not believe that will be necessary,” the Secretariat said. “I am sure you will handle it as needed. I have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment, and I doubt the MU will risk a diplomatic incident over one ghost.”

“No…” Celia shook her head. “No, they will not.”

“Good. All you need to do is keep me posted. I wish you luck. I grant you all temporary clearance since there is no chance Cinder won’t tell you everything. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some meetings to attend.” She lit her horn, teleporting away.

“…Where would Blink be?” Cinder asked, wiping her eyes.

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” Celia muttered. “If the girl can hide her motives and emotions with the flick of a switch, we can’t assume we know her at all.”

“And she’s the best at hiding,” Nira added. “Nobody will even be able to sense her if she doesn’t want us to.”

“Then we’ll need to get creative. Any ideas?”

“W—“

Cinder suddenly dropped to the ground. Celia would have thought she passed out—but her eyes were wide open and every limb of hers was shivering. It was almost like a seizure.

Celia sensed an alien magic acting somewhere in the back of the mare’s mind.

“Cinder!”

~~~

“This is a bad idea,” Cei muttered under her breath.

From the other seat of the runabout, TwilAI chuckled. “It was your idea.”

“I know. I still hate it.” Cei tilted her head back and closed her eyes. “Are you sure you can’t send out a message?”

“Look, I’m running a huge risk of my plausible deniability falling apart at the slightest twitch of my eyebrow. We need a third party to carry your little message, and they seem like the best option. As you said.”

“They’re really it?”

“Who else has the knowledge of multiversal structure without being directly devoted to the Capra Coalition Council?”

“Good point.” Cei folded her hooves. Their ship was moving at sublight a short distance away from Deep Space Nine, approaching a seemingly empty position of space. “Can’t believe Kira gave her blessing for this.”

“She’s desperate too.”

“Yeah, but we don’t worship them. She does.”

“It is an interesting position we find ourselves in,” TwilAI admitted. “But let’s save the philosophy for later. Right now…”

The roundabout neared its destination. Once they were close enough, a brilliant vortex of blue and purple erupted from the nothingness of space, settling into a physical tunnel through spacetime. The Bajoran Wormhole, one of the great Wonders of the Galaxy, invited them into its rippling folds. Most often ships simply flew back and forth from the other side of the galaxy through it—they rarely spent any time in the wormhole. And this was for good reason, those who lingered within its interior increased their chances of being contacted by the inhabitants, and most people weren’t prepared to have their souls touched by the Prophets.

It just so happened that was exactly what Cei was here to do. They brought the runabout to a stop within the purple-pink ripples of energy within the wormhole.

Cei let out a breath. “Okay, Cei, these are just… godlike beings. You’ve dealt with Silvertongue and Shimmy. This isn’t going to be a problem for you.” She stood up. “TwilAI, if I start having a seizure, don’t touch me.”

“O-okay…”

She left the controls and moved to the back of the runabout. The cargo hold was devoid of the usual boxes of supplies and replacement parts—instead, there were several pedestals. Most of them had candles softly burning atop them, but the central one had an object of such importance to the Bajorans that Kira was kneeled at the ground before it in reverence—preparing for the moment that was about to come.

The object in question was contained in a solid rectangular box with two cabochon crystals on the front doors. Inside lay one of the Prophet’s great Orbs, objects of untold and mystic visions.

Kira was praying in Bajoran when Cei came in, but the translation spell allowed Cei to hear the tail end of it. “…and take to her as you first took to Sisko.” Slowly, Kira stood up and turned to Cei. “They’re waiting for you.”

Cei took a deep breath. “Right. Right… here’s hoping they listen.”

“Oh, they’ll listen all right. But trying to get them to do anything…”

“…Often has a price.” She frowned. “If they exist out of time, I wonder why they bother…?”

“It’s for our sake, not theirs.”

“Right…” Cei sat down at the foot of the box’s pillar, staring at it for a few seconds. Then, carefully, she reached out with her magic and opened it up. The Orb of the Emissary awaited her on the other side—an hourglass-shaped crystal of such a blindingly bright light that it made Cei flinch, although she found herself unable to look away.

For a moment, Cei thought nothing was happening. That she had been deemed unworthy. I don’t know what I was expec—

And then everything was white.

“Hello?” Cei called into the nothingness.

Puppysmiles looked up at her with an eerily blank expression. “It is linear.”

“They all are.” CelestAI towered above Cei, the stars swirling around her mane like they were insignificant little bugs.

“For a time.” Blood was running down Rarity’s face as the sun started moving across the sky.

Cei winced. Right, they appear as images from your past. Don’t think too much of it. “I am h—“

“It seeks to avoid its linearity.” Kira tilted her head in Cei’s direction. Both of them were standing in the temple on Deep Space Nine. “But it also seeks to adhere to it.”

“That’s normal for them,” Puppysmiles said, sitting on a bouncing ball like it was the most stable seat in the world. “Past, present, future. Sequence.”

“That’s all very fascinating,” Cei said—once again to the empty whiteness. “But I am… here to ask for your help. On behalf of the Capra Coalition.”

“We are of Bajor,” Kira said, holding a baseball in her hand.

“And Bajor is part of the Capra Coalition!”

“Their concept of ‘is’ is fascinating,” Silvertongue said impassively—though his hoof stroked Cei’s mane.

Cinder stood in a field of impossible roses. “Bajor is Bajor.”

“Yes, and the Beyonders are coming here on a rampage!”

“She speaks of the warriors.” Suzie cracked her knuckles on the bridge of Swip.

The Capricious Crown sat alone atop a purple pillow. “They are not Bajor’s concern.”

“How can you say that?” Cei asked.

“Limited,” Silvertongue said.

“Arrogant,” Shimmy added.

“Adversarial,” Cinder concluded.

“I am no—“ CP stopped herself. “Right, okay, I am limited, arrogant, and adversarial. You all exist out of time, and somehow your prophecies seem to be able to take multiversal nonsense into account. I don’t even pretend to know how that’s possible. I thought I could waltz in here and ask you all a favor, and I got angry when you didn’t act as I expected. Pretty silly, if you ask me.”

“We do not ask,” Erin said, shifting between a pony and a human before her eyes.

“Right… my point is, you’re above me in basically every conceivable way. But that also means you know why I’m here—and what I’m asking of you. And…” She paused. “This entire conversation is just for my benefit. You’ve already made up your minds and everything. If you can even be considered to have minds to make up.”

“Its thoughts expand,” Shimmy said, standing on top of the balcony in Quark’s bar.

“It is still limited,” Isekai said while shaking a drink.

“But she is trying.”

The image from that last voice was not one Cei had met personally—a tall, bald, black man in a red Starfleet uniform from a few decades ago. She realized with a start that he was actually standing in front of her, in the whiteness. Unlike all the other images, who’d had flat faces as they spoke to her, this one had a soft smile.

Cei stood to attention. “Captain Sisko! …Emissary! I…”

Sisko threw a baseball into the air and caught it next to Cei’s ear without taking a step. “The game has ups and downs, scores and losses. If only you could see it all at once.”

“I…”

This time, the vision changed, and there was no person there to talk to her. Cei only saw the Tower standing against the night sky, somehow blacker than the darkest voids. There were no roses around it, only clocks that wound backward and forward, each showing a different rate of time.

The vision changed to a man who looked an awful lot like Sisko sitting at a desk, writing furiously with his pencil. Standing over him was John Egbert, looking very confused. An impossibly red rose was in his hair.

And then Cei was back in the endless whiteness.

“Our message has been sent,” Sisko said, somehow standing below the ground Cei was on. “It was always going to be sent. To her who was most receptive.”

“Th-thank you, Emissary,” Cei stammered.

“It is not for you that we do this.” Then he was gone.

“The Sisko speaks well to them,” TwilAI said, looking up from a data pad.

“The price will still be exacted.” Silvertongue sat in his throne, hooves pressed together.

“There was always going to be a price,” Cei said.

“How nonlinear of it,” the Capricious Crown noted.

And then Cei fell over, back in the cargo hold of the runabout. “Ooogh…”

Kira closed the doors on the orb. “It worked.”

“Yeah…” Cei slowly stood up. “It’s sent. Though… I’m not sure I did anything? But if I hadn’t come here they never would have sent it but they always knew they were going to send it and…” Cei shook her head. “Not going to try to figure it out.” She took a moment to stretch her legs. “…I saw Sisko.”

Kira nodded. “Did he look… fine?”

“Well, he wasn’t an emotionless rock like all the others. He showed me some strange stuff…”

Kira put a finger to Cei’s lips. “And that was your private orb experience. Carry it with you. Perhaps one day you will understand what he was trying to tell you.”

“Right…” Cei shook her head. “Let’s get back to the Station and… wait.”

~~~

Cinder’s mind was assaulted with so much she fell out of the chair. Her awareness of her physical form went in the middle of the fall. For a moment, she thought she was transforming again—but this time, she was in a plane of endless white. Suddenly, she was sitting at a table, looking CP right in the eyes.

However, it wasn’t CP, not really. The eyes were empty, devoid of emotion, and the crown didn’t glitter with any colors whatsoever.

“We need help,” CP said.

“You are partially linear,” an unknown voice said—coming from a bald man standing just behind CP. “You are of Prophets.”

“Aren’t we all?” Cinder found herself asking the empty whiteness.

“You know how to find us,” CP said, drumming the table. “We need help.”

Cinder heard a train whistle in the distance. The number 9 still on her hoof jumped off and started running away. “Catch your destiny.”

A three-pronged space station appeared, rotating slowly in front of a wormhole. A Beyonder appeared, holding it on the tip of a metallic finger-like appendage.

“Come, Cinder.”

Blink was surrounded by flames. Sweetaloo lay motionless under her hooves, the fires slowly consuming her mane.

And then Cinder was back on Swip, looking up at Celia.

“Cinder…?” Celia cocked her head. “Are you…?”

“I’m fine.” Cinder sat up, shaking her head. “I think I just received… a vision, of some kind? CP was asking me for help.”

“CP?” Celia asked.

“The Crown Princess. She’s changed her name.” Cinder tapped her hoof. “I think we need to go help her.”

“But… Blink?” Burgerbelle asked, cocking her head.

“I saw Blink in the vision… she was surrounded by fire, and standing on top of Sweetaloo.”

“…A lead, perhaps?” Celia scratched her chin. “Odd, we don’t usually get visions for that sort of thing… Wonder what’s different today?”

“Higher beings toying with us,” Nira grumbled. “I’d rather not be involved in something like that, you understand.”

“Oh, naturally,” Celia said, nodding profusely. “Nira, you go back to the League and search for Blink through the official channels. Swip, I would send you with her, but I have the feeling we need you where we’re going.”

Swip and Nira nodded, glancing at each other awkwardly.

“I will be back,” Nira promised. “I’m not running.”

“You better not.”

Squiddy jumped up. “I’ll keep tabs on her, don’t worry.”

Swip managed a smile. “I bet we find her first.”

“I’m not an idiot, I’m not taking that bet,” Nira said.

“Then I’ll put your wager in for you!”

“Then how’s it a bet?” Nira asked.

Swip shrugged. “Just get back here so we can… talk.”

Nira nodded. “We will.” She grabbed Squiddy in her magic and tore a portal into reality. “Good luck.”

“Bye Nira!” Cinder waved. “Oh, while you’re there, make sure Adder’s okay, and tell Suzie I’m back!”

“Will do,” Nira said. The portal closed behind her with a pop.

Celia carefully strode to the captain’s chair and sat down. “Right, Cinder, I think now’s a good time for you to tell us your story.”

“Ah, one thing first!”

“What’s that?”

“I have to tell you how to get to the Capra Coalition.”

“…The what?”

“Just promise you won’t send the coordinates back to the League, CP wouldn’t appreciate me giving it away.”

Celia blinked slowly. “You found her home?”

“Well, one of the worlds near it. We ran into each other while exploring, there was this whole deal with Puppysmiles—look, that’s part of the story. Just, promise me you won’t keep a record.”

Celia nodded. “Right. Swip, I order you to purge the coordinates from your memory banks once our mission is complete.”

“Yes sir!” Swip saluted, her avatar suddenly in a green military uniform.

With a thankful smile, Cinder trotted over to the console and pressed a few buttons, plugging in the coordinates.

“Helping the Crown Princess…” Celia shook her head. “I wonder why I’m not balking more at the idea.”

“Too much else going on?” Burgerbelle suggested.

“Probably. Now… Cinder.” Celia levitated Cinder over to her. “How about you tell your story, starting with that number on your hoof?”

“Right. Well, see, when we were leaving Sunset’s Isekai, there was this train…”

~~~

It had been a long time since Suzie had walked through the front doors of the League of Sweetie Belles. It wasn’t like she was barred from coming here, it was just that she’d had no reason to. She wasn’t on call for Celestia City operations or missions of any sort, so if any of the Sweeties wanted to see her they came to her. She didn’t come to them.

She knew the instant she walked in that her choice to stay away had been a mistake. Even if she was perpetually grounded, she had missed out on so much of the Sweeties’ culture. As the hundreds of white creatures scrambled around before her eyes, she wondered how she ever could have distanced herself.

“Hey, you’re back!” Jade said, walking up to her.

“Not really,” Suzie said. “Just got some business to report.” She gestured behind her at Cryo and Adder. “But… I think I’ll drop around more often.”

“And you’ve changed your outfit!” Jade started circling her, noting the pink jacket, long yellow skirt, and striped shirt with the crusader shield on it. “The altered Standard Sweetie look, I like it.”

Suzie tossed her fluffed hair back. “Well, it didn’t make much sense to walk around in the military uniform anymore. And I’m not exactly meditating…”

Jade let out a “woof” and nodded in agreement. “Some of the Sweeties were a little worried about you despite Allure’s assurances.”

“Well, now you can let them know I’m fine.” She crossed her arms and smirked.

Jade grinned. “I suppose I have to ask, what brings you here?”

“Going to file a report on Cinder with Nausicaa.”

“Ooooh, debriefing!”

Adder cocked her head. “Is this gonna be borin’? ”

“Not as boring as telling two-dozen people the same story again and again.”

“Ah. Right.” Adder put on a smile. “Where do we start?”

Jade pulled out her phone. “Just give me a sec… Hey, Nausicaa? Yeah, Suzie and Adder are here to see you for a debriefing, information about Cinder and related things. Not busy? Good! They’re in the main lobby right now.” Jade hung up. “She’ll be right over.”

“And now we wait.” Cryo flopped onto the ground. “And prepare for the incoming paperwork…”

“Be glad it isn’t the Sparkle Census paperwork,” Nira said, coming in the front doors with Squiddy on her back.

Suzie raised an eyebrow. “I thought you girls were supposed to be on scanning patrol?”

“Things have happened.” Nira glanced at Adder. “Some of which you are likely already aware of.”

Adder blinked. “Did you find Cinder already?”

“She found us,” Squiddy said, jumping off Nira. “The others are off on some wild goose chase prophecy-vision to the Crown Princess.”

Suzie couldn’t help but smile. “Sounds like old times.”

Nira looked at Suzie with immense pain in her eyes.

She rarely lets herself be that vulnerable. Something’s wrong. “Nira…?”

“Do you want it told to you slowly, or bluntly?” Nira asked.

Suzie glanced from Nira to Squiddy and realized asking either of them to be something other than blunt was a bad idea. “Go ahead and be blunt.” She sat down on one of the lobby couches. “I’ll be fine.”

“I sure hope so.” Nira took in a deep breath. “Sweetaloo was split into her three components. Neither the Sweetie or the Scootaloo had wanted to be part of her, she’d been lying to us this entire time.”

An icicle went through Suzie’s heart. Not again. Not again…

“And we found out who tried to steal the data to Tab’s tablet. It was Blink. She’s been stealing things and hiding it for… who knows how long. Squiddy and I are here to report her…”

Nira kept talking, but it faded into the background as nothing more than murmurs to Suzie’s senses. At the moment, Suzie could only see Blink in her mind’s eye. Smiling, laughing, playing with Cinder, childishly jumping around. But whenever they’d needed her to hide anything or be sneaky, she’d done it absolutely perfectly. Of course she could hide things from them. And she really was the only one who could possibly have tried to tap into the tablet. And how many things had gone missing under Suzie’s command? She heard the words ‘but it’s gone missing’ so often it never even raised a red flag. Nothing more than a thing the Tower let happen a lot around her.

Again, she’d let someone pull the blinds over her eyes. First, it was Ser. No… no, Ser came onto the team after Blink. Blink was the one. The one who had always been there.

With a screech of rage, Suzie stood to her full height, clenching her fists hard enough that the fingernails drew blood. U-Catastrophe manifested behind her, wrapping its tree-like coils around her arms and legs, preparing to unleash righteous justice on the traitors of the world. Not one would survive the…

She dissipated her Stand and sagged back onto the couch. No, she couldn’t do that. It wasn’t in her anymore.

But she could deal with this.

“Cryo, Adder…” She looked into their eyes. “We’ve got something else to deal with right now. Nira, tell me everything you kn—“

“Hold it,” Nausicaa said, jumping into the conversation with a flap of her wings. “Suzie, I forbid you to investigate. Any of you to investigate. Blink is too close to you.”

“She’s too close to you, too!” Nira snapped.

“Which is why I’m handing the investigation over to a third party the moment this debrief is over. I will be doing nothing.” She ruffled her feathers. “Now, all of you, my office. You will be explaining everything you know. And then you will go home and wait for other Sweeties to do their job.”

Suzie wanted to argue, wanted to shout, and wanted to fight. But she knew better. That wasn’t who she was anymore, nor what was needed right now. With resignation, she gestured for everyone to follow Nausicaa.

They didn’t even consider taking a different path than the Captain.

~~~

“…And then Daylight was talking to me,” Cinder said, wrapping up her story.

Celia, Burgerbelle, Seren, and Swip were all staring at her wide-eyed.

Cinder rubbed the back of her head. “So… yeah. That’s everything.”

“She really was an impostor,” Burgerbelle said, blinking rapidly.

“So, you’re a changeling then?” Seren asked.

“Not really?” Cinder tilted her head to the side. “The Beyonder called me a Replacer. Whatever that means.”

“Cinder, I hate to bring this up, but…” Celia pressed her front hooves together. “How do you know that you’re not just a replaced body of something else?”

“I… hmm.” Cinder scratched her chin. “You know, I suppose there’s no way I would know. But I don’t think I am. It’d be awfully cruel to have a story where the protagonist was a fake the whole time, and all her relationships and events were reduced to the acts of some other, distant being. I’m pretty sure I’m Cinder, and Cinder is Cinder. And a Replacer.”

“Still, a Them-like or Them-related creature…” Celia tapped her hoof on the arm of her chair. “I wonder what made you crash into your Equis all those years ago.”

Cinder shrugged. “Beats me. But the thing that knew what I was didn’t like what I was at all.”

“We need to get you back to that Train so you can figure out what you are,” Seren declared.

“CP first,” Cinder said. “How’s it going Swip?”

“I’ve found her dimensional device’s signal,” Swip reported. “Been following it slowly. However, I am trying to be stealthy, remember? This ‘Capra Coalition’ might just shoot me down if they see me.”

“Do you know where we’re going yet?”

“Bwa bwaaa bwaaaa bwaaaaaaaa!” Burgerbelle shouted, suddenly in a Starfleet uniform.

“Flat’s right,” Swip said. “That station you saw is Deep Space Nine. Visit the Bajoran Temple on Celestia City, ask about it, they’ll give you an earful. Assuming standard ‘Star Trek’ star layout, I can get us to the local Deep Space Nine. …As soon as I’m in the right universe, that is.”

“Any idea on ETA?”

Swip shrugged. “CP’s been traveling in a zig-zag line, apparently, with numerous different trails. It could be hundreds of universes before I find the correct path, or it could be the next one.”

A green light went off on the piloting console.

“Would you look at that,” Swip deadpanned. “We’re here.” She snapped her fingers, displaying the stars outside. “Behold, yet another variation on Star Trek, of which there are maaaany. Galaxa Quadrants is the primary MU world, this is something like the nineteenth we’ve found.”

“Something like?” Celia raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, it’s exact.” Swip brought up a star chart and traced her finger from their current position in the galaxy to Deep Space Nine. It was about a quarter of the entire galaxy. Luckily for them, their FTL drive was exceedingly fast. It was only going to take a minute to get there.

“So… what do we say when we arrive?” Seren asked. “They don’t like us…”

“Just say we come in peace and we’re here to help,” Celia said. “And mention Cinder’s vision that led us here.”

“That might backfire,” Swip pointed out.

“It won’t,” Cinder said.

Swip paused. “I missed having your little assurances.”

“I missed telling them to people other than Adder! She’s not even impressed anymore.”

“They aren’t always right, either,” Celia pointed out.

“Eh…”

Swip dropped out of FTL to the side of Deep Space Nine and sent out the signal. Not a single one of the ships around the station readied weapons or shields. If anything, they gave Swip a wide berth.

“We’re being hailed,” Swip said.

“Onscreen,” Celia said. “This is Captain Chalcedony, Celia of the League of Sweetie Belles, Merodi Universalis.”

A woman with a wrinkled nose appeared onscreen. “This is Vedek Kira Nerys of Bajor, the United Federation of Planets. The Coalition is probably going to have my job for this if we survive the next few days, but welcome to Deep Space Nine.”

“Permission to dock?” Celia asked.

“I’d rather not. The longer we can go without the rest of the Coalition figuring out you’re here, the better. I’d prefer to beam over to your ship, assuming that isn’t a problem.”

“Not at all! Swip, give them the coordinates of our little meeting room. Cinder, you’re with me. Burgerbelle, you have the bridge. Seren… you might want to start crafting spells to catch Blink.”

Seren frowned, but nodded. “I’ll try.”

Celia and Cinder made their way down the short hall to the meeting room—a simple white room with a table and a large window. Celia was suddenly struck by how rarely she used this place. Suzie had used it all the time. Then again, Suzie’s command style was a bit more formal and regimented than her own.

Kira appeared on the other side of the table with CP.

“Hi CP!” Cinder waved. “Are you… doing better?”

“Much,” CP said. “And its Cei now. ...And I am sorry. But we have more pressing matters. The Beyonders are approaching this sector of the multiverse.”

“Oh, we’re well aware,” Celia said.

Cei frowned. “Your government is already aware? What are they doing?”

“We’re quaking in our boots,” Celia explained. “That’s what we’re doing.”

“Really?” Cinder asked.

“Okay, no, we’re sending out teams in various places trying to trick ka into giving us a victory, or hoping the Beyonders just miss our inhabited universes,” Celia explained. “Not much we can do about it.”

“Then why…?” Cei furrowed her brow. “The Prophets bothered to send you a message.”

“Prophets?” Cinder cocked her head.

Kira put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “How to explain…”

“They’re the gods of Bajor,” Swip offered from above. “They exist in virtually every Stark Trek based universe. They’re annoyingly difficult to understand and we can never make long-term contact with them, even with our eldritch associates.”

“So they sent me a vision,” Cinder said, trying to keep track of everything. “Because of you?”

“They were going to send it anyway. Maybe.” Cei rubbed her head. “They don’t exactly have a concept of time… Point is! They got a message to you secretly without the Capra Coalition knowing, that was the whole point. I was sure you could help us, and I thought with how much I’d fought being helped in the past, it would have meant… something.”

“Very sorry, but we can’t do anything,” Celia said. “We’re scrambling just as much as you are, hoping the TSAB can figure out a way to appease them for us. Class 1 Societies are no laughing matter.”

“Maybe we can help…” Cinder said, tapping her hoof.

Celia frowned. “How?”

“Me.” She stood up on the table and started pacing. “Think about it. I was on the Infinity Train when the Beyonders attacked it. They must have attacked it for a reason. And I…” She looked at the number on her hoof. “Have a connection back to it.”

Kira turned to Cei. “The Prophets always have a plan.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Cei shook her head. “The question right now is what are we going to do with this connection? Even if this Train has something to do with why the Beyonders attacked, if we go there, we can’t face them. We’ll need a plan.”

“Well…” Cinder sat back in her chair. “Any ideas?”

~~~

Three fillies walked up to an old, abandoned, and rotting clubhouse sitting in the top of a slightly overgrown apple tree.

“…Still here, after all these years,” Apple Bloom said, walking up the ramp to the doors. “Really could stand some cleanin.’ “

“Yeah…” Scootaloo said, hoofing the ground.

“…Somethin’ wrong, Scoot?”

“Rainbow Dash wasn’t exactly… thrilled to see me,” Scootaloo said. “She took one look at me and said, I quote, ‘I’m not getting in this mess again.’ “

“She’ll come around,” Sweetie said.

“Oh? How do you know?”

“Rarity had a response like that at first and tried to hide it.” Sweetie smiled softly. “She felt terrible immediately afterward. It’s… awkward, but we’ll move past it. Even though they had moved on without us, they will still take us back.”

“Hmph. How’d your visit go Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom smiled awkwardly. “It’s not like nothin’ happened… but Applejack and Big Mac didn’t have any problems. Sorry you two had… awkwardness.”

“Just great,” Scootaloo huffed. “The only one who comes back to a family is the one who wanted to stay.”

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie chided.

Scootaloo folded her ears back. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Apple Bloom said. “You’re angry. Ah get that. Ah’m a little upset myself. But we ain’t Sweetaloo anymore, we’re the Crusaders. And we’re together.” She walked the rest of the way into the clubhouse and pushed the doors open, kicking up a cloud of dust. Coughing, she managed to get out the rest of her mini-speech. “We’ll get through this here, just like old times. It won’t be exactly the same, but it’ll be something. Somethin’… new.”

“Yeah!” Sweetie said, jumping in after her.

“Heh… yeah.” Scootaloo trotted in after them. “First order of business?”

“Get this clubhouse back in working order!” Apple Bloom cheered. “Cutie Mark Crusaders, clubhouse builders, ya—“

Their cheers were cut short by the door closing on its own. The moment it latched, Blink revealed herself, smirking. “Hey.”

“Oh. Blink.” Apple Bloom shuffled awkwardly. “Look, Ah’m sorry we didn’t come visit you, but we didn’t know where you were, an—“

“Oh, that’s not why I’m here.”

Sweetie blinked. “It’s not? Why are you here?”

“Need to get a few things off my chest, I suppose you could say.” She removed the Void around a strange disc-shaped device composed of black and green metal. She threw it at the three of them. It snapped in half, enveloping the three of them in a burst of green energy.

One moment there were three fillies. The next there was one small alicorn, tears running down her cheeks.

“Why did you do that!?” Sweetaloo shouted at Blink. “Why did you do that!? They were free a—“

“Listen here, Sweetaloo,” Blink said. Her smile was unwavering, but her voice was decidedly unfriendly. “If you want to live, you’re going to do exactly as I say. We’ve got a little... mission to go on. Unless you’ve changed your mind, decided you don’t want to be alive. But we both know that’s not going to happen.”

“B-blink… what is this!?” Sweetaloo stammered.

“As I said, I’ve got some things I need to get off my chest. And you’re going to hear all of them on this mission.” She gestured for Sweetaloo to follow her. “Come on, we’ve got work to do.”

Through the Flames (Part 3)

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Nausicaa told Suzie, Adder, Cryo, Nira, and Squiddy. “You have my assurances we’ll put everything we have towards correcting this vile breach of trust and authority. She will be caught.”

Suzie frowned. “Please… don’t be cruel.”

“This is the League of Sweetie Belles, Suzie, not the Military Division. Blink won’t be harmed unless she gives us no choice.”

“Thank you.”

“And I did mean what I said earlier,” Nausicaa insisted. “You aren’t involved with this. No gallivanting off to find her. We don’t need another… incident.”

Suzie winced. “Understood.”

“Then you’re all dismissed.” Nausicaa scribbled some notes on her data pad and, sighing into her hoof, gestured with a wing towards the exit. Slowly, the five of them filed out into the League hall, the door closing behind them. This particular hallway was empty—not a single Sweetie aside from them was walking the halls.

“So… what now?” Adder asked.

“You heard her,” Suzie said. “We can’t do anything.”

“Bullshit,” Squiddy said. “We’re doing something.” She grabbed Nira by the tail and dragged her closer. “We came here for a reason, go cover the base the others couldn’t. We’re not gonna lay around while someone uninvolved does stuff. Right Nira?”

Nira glanced at Squiddy, shocked at the overt display of camaraderie.

“Our emotional investment is precisely why she doesn’t want us investigating,” Suzie said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “And I’m not disobeying an order.”

“We don’t have to disobey,” Cryo said. “Just go talk to Allure, go over Nausicaa’s head. Easy.”

“A little rude…”

“And Nausicaa’s never used loopholes to get us to do what she wants,” Nira deadpanned. “Nope. Never.”

Suzie tapped her foot a few times, pondering the options. What they were considering wasn’t exactly shady, or even illegal, but it was incredibly disrespectful to Nausicaa, and during a trying time for all of them as well. But Nira did have a point—the pegasus had a habit of using her domination of paperwork to get everyone “in line.” That girl liked order too much.

“Right,” Suzie said, pulling out her phone. “Allure? We need to talk with you.”

“Does this have anything to do with the memo Nausicaa just sent me about ‘please don’t give Suzie special permission?’ “

Suzie glared at the closed door to Nausicaa’s office. “She works fast.”

“She’s predicting your movements,” Allure said from the other end. “I’m reading through this report. She’s technically right to bar you from investigation.”

“But Allure—“

“Direct investigation. We have other methods at our disposal. Come to my office, we’ll figure something out.” She hung up.

“Progress,” Suzie said, pocketing the device. “Nira, direct teleport to the Founders’ offices.”

Nira lit her horn. The enchantments within that area of the League tested her for clearance before allowing her teleport to complete, landing them in a round room with a couch, a large screen on one wall, and several doors ringing the walls. Sweetie Bot was currently sitting on the couch, staring at a plate of cheese and crackers like it was the most interesting thing in existence.

“…You okay, Bot?” Suzie asked.

“Do I really eat?” Bot asked, not looking up from the plate.

“I… I don’t know.”

“Dilemma level increasing.”

“Let her spin her wheels for a while,” Nira said. “She’ll either forget about it or arrive at some conclusion. Either way, we need to see Allure.” She took point, knocking on the doors to Allure’s office.

The doors slid open, revealing a somewhat spacious room focused on a large white desk. Allure sat behind the desk while her adoptive daughter, a human girl with black hair and faintly purple eyes, sat on top of the desk, kicking her legs back and forth. She fixed Suzie with an oddly creepy glare. “You’re sad.”

“Of course she is, Minna,” Allure said, stepping down from her chair. “One of her friends just betrayed her.”

“…That’s terrible,” Minna said, shaking her head. “Can we help her?”

“Maybe,” Allure said. “Suzie, I cannot permit you to investigate this.”

“Bu—“

“So I will, and you’ll be my assistant.” Allure winked. “And since we can’t have you out in the field, we’re going to do this the somewhat-boring way.” She handed each of them a data pad. “We’re going to hunt down a paperwork trail.”

“Uuuugh.” Squiddy groaned. “This is what we have Nausicaa for!”

“And she deemed herself too close to investigate either. Remember, Blink was her Agent before she was yours. She has just as much investment.” Allure started scrolling through the files. “So… let’s read everything we can about everything Blink’s ever done. One of us has to find something.”

Grumpily, Squiddy grabbed a pad and glared at it.

“You’re holding it wrong,” Minna told her.

“It displays upright no matter how I hold it!”

“You’re still holding it wrong. It shows more text if you hold it this way.” She tilted the pad ninety degrees in Squiddy’s hands. “There you go.”

“Why don’t you do it, then?”

Minna held up her own pad, raising an eyebrow.

“…Allure, your kid’s…”

“Delightful?” Allure chuckled. “I know. Now… let’s get to work.” Her smile vanished. “And Suzie?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m so, so sorry. You don’t deserve this happening to you twice.”

“Just my luck…” Suzie shook her head. “Honestly, I’m more worried about Celia. She was in charge when it happened. It’s not easy to push through.”

“She’ll be fine. She’s strong.”

“Wow,” Adder said, scrolling through some information on her pad. “Blink sure visits Nausicaa in her office a lot.”

“She’s her old commander,” Suzie explained. “If I had an office in the League, that’s where my team would visit me. If Rev kept notes, I’m sure I’d have a similar number of visits.”

“Ah. Right.” Adder swiped to the side, focusing her attention on other records.

~~~

Sweetaloo stumbled over a rock, falling flat on her face. The cold rock of the mountainous terrain scraped into her check, ensuring that she would gain a very personal understanding of the current temperature.

With a groan, she lifted her head from the ground. The silhouette of Blink stood before her, eclipsing the sun. The ghost’s hoof was extended to her.

Sweetaloo took Blink’s hoof and started standing up—but then Blink retracted her hoof, making her stumble and fall once again.

Blink started chuckling. “Oh, you should have seen the look on your face…”

Something’s happened to her. Sweetaloo thought as she stood under her own power. After coming to all four hooves she wiped the blood from her face with a wing. Maybe Nira didn’t get that shadow demon fully out. That’s why she’s acting like this.

“You’re doing that thing again,” Blink said, adjusting her shades. “That thing where you try to come up with an alternate explanation, some reason to justify what’s happening.”

“This clearly isn’t you,” Sweetaloo said, frowning.

“Uh-huh. You keep telling yourself that.”

“Nobody could hide a side like… this from me,” Sweetaloo said. “Not while I was their counselor for so long.”

The dark blue aura of Void pulsed around Blink. “Wanna bet?” Blink gave her a cheesy grin—a grin Sweetaloo had seen on her face so many times before.

“Nobody, not even a god-tier Skaian, could keep up a Void shroud indefinitely.”

“Clearly not if it was a conscious effort,” Blink said, continuing to move along the mountain path. “But what if, say, hypothetically, I just asked the Void to never go away with regards to a few subtle, minor, inconvenient things. Like, oh, you know, my seething murderous hatred of a dead pony?”

“That… was just a remarkable recovery,” Sweetaloo said. “You were strong.”

Blink tilted her head and frowned. “You know, that should make me proud. I completely pulled the wool over your eyes. We were worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep you from it, so concerned that we had memory alteration spells on standby. I read those early reports of yours, you were suspicious. I remember it clearly: ‘such a quick recovery is unheard of!’ ”

“…Those records are sealed, how did—nevermind. Stupid question.”

“You’ve got that right.”

Sweetaloo narrowed her eyes, examining Blink closely. I can’t go off facial expressions or instincts here if she really is using a Void shroud on herself. And she can also make things seem unimportant, like standout words, actions, responses…

“There’s not a way to see through it,” Blink said. “You might as well stop trying. You’ll only see what’s really going on here if I let you.”

Sweetaloo frowned. “But now you don’t have to hide anything. It’s just the two of us, and I have a… vested interest in not betraying your confidence.” Push her a bit, get her to open up. Not everything I know about her is a lie. The specifics may be wrong, but the Void can only hide, it cannot change. “You’re free to act as you wish—you proved that when you dropped me back there.”

Blink lowered her sunglasses and gave a predatory smile. “Oh you sweet summer child… you have no idea how restrained that was.”

“Ah. You wanted to do more.” She doesn’t have an extreme violent disposition, this is something else. “You have a lot of… hate?” Play up the confusion; get her interested in playing with it.

“Let me put it this way.” Blink tilted her head back, grinning broadly. “I’m smart enough to realize you’re manipulating me. Trying to get answers.”

“And what’s wrong with that? What am I going to do with answers?”

“Get personal satisfaction.”

Ah. “And you can’t have that. Because you hate me.”

Blink’s smile didn’t falter—at least, not so far as Sweetaloo could see. That Void really is effective. Now that she was looking for the Void effect, she could see signs of it. Responses that should have come didn’t. Words didn’t always match her expression or body language. And that smile looked copy—pasted from an animator’s template box. Sweetaloo knew full well she was only seeing these things because she was actively trying to pick them out; if she hadn’t suspected the Void was being used, the aura of unimportance would have smoothed them out of her perception.

Void truly is a dangerous power.

Blink had apparently decided she wasn’t going to respond at all to Sweetaloo’s latest observation and she kept moving through the mountain pass.

“So…” Sweetaloo said, following her. “Mind telling me what our mission is?”

“Might as well,” Blink said with a shrug. “The Beyonders are currently moving directly toward inhabited space on a conquering spree.”

“Wh-what?”

“That’s not really our concern. See, that’s for the ‘big boys’ to handle, somehow. We’re confident that ka will smooth things out in their favor, and the Beyonders won’t destroy everything. So our mission is to take advantage of the heavy distraction they’re causing.”

Sweetaloo tilted her head. “And do what?”

“Steal stuff!” Blink jumped into the air and clapped her front hooves together. “I’ve been doing it for a while already. Sparkle Census Reality Anchors, some Fae Nodes... You’d be surprised the kinds of things you can get away with when you’re completely invisible and everyone’s panicking.”

“You were the one who tried to steal the tablet.”

Blink didn’t respond to her words—continuing on as though nothing had happened. “Now, we are currently inside the Crown Princess’ little experiment, the Capra Coalition, on a planet called Bajor. Our goal… is the Fire Caves.”

As they turned the bend in the mountain pass, they came to a wide cavernous opening in the mountain with two humanoid statues on either side, etched into the stone. Blink held out her hoof like a tour guide to the entrance. “Behold! Dun dun duuuuun!”

Her joy in the bombastic is still real. “…There’s no fire.”

“That’s the fun part. See, in these caves are a bunch of super-powerful entities theorized to be on par with Them and similar energy beings. They’re called the Pah Wraiths, and we’re going to trap them in a box. Don’t worry, they’re evil incarnate, irredeemable, universe-burning creatures; nobody’s going to care if we use them as a battery.”

“Merodi Universalis doesn’t go around turning evil monsters into batteries!” Sweetaloo gasped. “We have strict standards!”

“And that’s the whole problem,” Blink said with a smug smirk.

“The whole…? Do you really think th—“

“Shhh, the caves are treacherous! You’ll want to pay attention so you don’t slip into a crevasse!” Blink skipped ahead as though this were a completely normal mission with the normal amount of friendly banter. “C’mon Sweetaloo, treasure awaits!”

~~~

“This just in: a tragedy has hit the very core of the Capra Coalition.”

Cei’s stomach sank as the news broadcast played across the main screen in Kira’s office. The news anchor was a middle-aged woman with star-shaped blush stickers on her cheeks. In Cei’s opinion, she’d have been much better suited to giving happy news, not… this..

“Guild Central was just attacked by a known Class 1 Society, the Beyonders. Details are still coming in, but already the universe is considered a complete loss.”

No…

“Most of the inhabitants had time to escape through the myriad of available dimensional devices. However, all infrastructure has been lost, and several Coalition warships have been destroyed.”

Guild Central was small, it was easy to get out quickly. Other universes don’t have anywhere near that level of dimensional infrastructure.

“We have a video taken on-site during the assault. What you are about to see may not be suitable for all audiences, viewer discretion is advised.”

Cei recognized who was holding the camera immediately—it was Spinel, the Gem who’d run from the Merodi and found acceptance among them. She was yelling at the top of her lungs, “Everyone through the portal! That means you, Puppy! Get! Move your cabooses!”

The video was shaky and blurry, but in the midst of her attempts to evacuate everyone, Spinel made sure to point the camera at the sky. It was blue—and not the sort of blue the sky was supposed to be. This was an artificial blue, the kind one saw on toothbrushes and plastic toys. To the camera, it appeared partially liquid, rippling and rolling in complex patterns; evidence of higher dimensional folding taking place. It was hard to make out, but in the midst of all this swirling was a Beyonder ship, twisting and shifting through many different shapes as it bent space around it, slowly but surely converting the universe to something that suited it better.

Bright lights appeared in the sky amidst the swirls—Capra Coalition ships with Reality Anchors pushing against the Beyonder’s new physics. They unleashed torrents of missiles and phaser fire, but the moment their attacks left their bubbles of forced reality, they veered off course. None of the weapons were designed for use in non-Euclidian space. It was only by luck that a couple hit their target and exploded. Even then, they did no damage.

“We’re all gonna die!” someone in the video shouted.

“No, we’re not! Get through the portal!”

The camera panned back up to the sky where the battle was taking place. If you could call it a battle…

The myriad Capra Coalition ships were in disarray, many of them already burning hulls only kept up by the zero-gravity. To Cei’s horror, the rippling wave of Beyonders began to shimmer. With a twist, every ship in the area crumpled in on itself, the groaning of metal audible as they began to implode, lighting up the sky like so many terrible fireworks. The telltale flare of escape pods flashed for a moment before those, too, crumpled into metallic lumps. It was like swatting flies.

It was at this point the Reality Anchor around Guild Central itself failed. The buildings and structures that had been built up over the last few years were no longer safe. The blue of the Beyonder’s reality flooded the city, twisting and tearing at every wall and every chunk of the ground. The main hall collapsed in the distance, and large chunks of the earth were plucked from the ground as if gravity no longer existed.

Spinel finally jumped through the portal, closing it before the blue could reach the new reality. Then the video cut out.

“You have just witnessed the Beyonder’s primary form of conquest in progress,” the news anchor continued. “They cannot exist naturally in what we consider ‘normal’ space, so they convert universes to suit their physiology. Most of us can no longer survive in the universe that held Guild Central without special equipment.”

“It’s all gone…” Cei breathed.

“The Coalition Council has survived,” the anchor reported. “Currently, they are mobilizing what forces we have remaining to defend population centers. And—hold on, we just got some breaking news. …Has this been confirmed? Yes, this has been confirmed. Ahem.” The woman, who up until then had managed to keep a straight face, looked downright furious now. “Information has been leaked that the Coalition Council knew the Beyonders were coming and specifically took no action against them.”

Kira shut off the feed. “That’s not good.”

“It actually benefits us,” TwilAI said. “If they’re busy shouting at the government, the government won’t be able to shout at us for our little plan with the Sweeties.”

“Which is what, exactly?” Cei asked. “Cinder’s ‘plan’ isn’t even really a plan, and unless she does something very soon the Beyonders are going to tear apart more worlds, and those won’t be able to evacuate. Too many people.”

Kira folded her hands together. “Something will happen. The Prophets won’t just let this happen.”

“If the Beyonders come here, I’m not sure they have a choice.”

Kira looked like she wanted to argue the point, but at that moment a call came in. Cinder and Celia appeared onscreen a moment later.

“I consulted your orb… thing,” Cinder said. “And all it did was show me the same vision I got last time. They didn’t let me talk to them to talk about ‘Replacing’ them or anything. So there goes that plan.”

Kira frowned. “The same vision…”

“What do you think that means?” Celia asked.

“That there’s something in the vision you haven’t picked up on.”

Cinder frowned. “…I didn’t understand what they meant when they talked about me being partially linear… And we haven’t found anything out about Blink yet.” She frowned. “Blink, standing on Sweetaloo, surrounded by fire…”

Kira started. “First of all, visions are private things…”

“They are?” Cinder cocked her head.

She pressed her hands together. “Second of all, I have the feeling that vision of fire took place in a cave, right?”

“How did—?“

“You need to go to the Fire Caves,” Kira said. “The prison of the Pah Wraiths.”

“The what?”

“The false Prophets.”

Cei, Cinder, and Celia stared at her with blank looks.

“There’s no time to explain. We need to get moving.”

~~~

Suzie, Allure, Minna, Adder, Cryo, Nira, and Squiddy were still pouring over documents and records. They had long ago left Allure’s office and moved to the more comfortable location of Allure’s house in Celestia City. Everyone was still heavily involved in the project—even Minna, despite having been told multiple times that she could just go and watch TV if she wanted. Apparently, she did not.

However, just because all of them were working didn’t mean they were all being productive. Cryo knew full well that she didn’t know enough to notice anything suspicious. These were just records and files of Blink’s missions and deployments over the years.

She hadn’t even been able to notice the connection between Blink’s presence and technology going missing until Suzie pointed it out to her. It was there, all right, but none of the reports ever thought to cast doubt on Blink of all ponies. Even the report on the tablet incident only mentioned that she was released immediately due to the fact that she couldn’t have done it—with no explanation given as to why anyone thought that. Cinder got out due to Sweetaloo’s report, and the others (including Cryo herself) were released due to lack of evidence. Blink could have been considered part of the latter group. Instead, she was singled out.

Cryo had to admit, that was suspicious. But no one thought twice about it. Because Blink was one of the good guys.

Not every story has those things so clear-cut…

Cryo flipped to another document, this time a report in Blink’s own words about their trip to that pony—Stargate universe. It mostly spent time talking about Seren, though, not Blink.

Useless, useless…

“Hold on…” Suzie traced her finger across a line in her data pad. “I might have something.”

Cryo dropped her pad immediately. “What? What?!”

Suzie traced her finger over the line again. “I’ve been trying to figure out where she’s been depositing all the things she steals. I finally found a discrepancy—while she was supposedly with us in that Equestria at War, Roxy Lalonde was visiting Jade at the League. She’s the Rogue of Void, she could see Blink as she moved. There’s only one line here about it, but, Blink isn’t Burgerbelle, she couldn’t have been in both places at once.”

Allure nodded. “So she went invisible, jumped universes, deposited her machine somewhere in or near the League, and then went back to Swip with no one being the wiser.”

Nira frowned. “Since she goes invisible regularly, Swip wouldn’t even have raised an alarm. It’s like when I teleport away.”

“Where do you go, by the way?” Squiddy asked.

“That is a personal matter.”

Squiddy narrowed her eyes.

“I give you my word that it is not a betrayal of our trust. There are just certain aspects of my life I’d rather people not know exist so unsavory types can’t take advantage of them.”

“…Fine.” Squiddy let it go.

Allure nodded in understanding. “Of course.”

“Question,” Adder said, raising a hoof. “How come we didn’t notice that before? We were lookin’ for discrepancies like that. Ah thought the only one we’d found was her recent ‘vacation.’ “

Suzie held up her pad. “That’s because this line isn’t in the League’s reports. This is the small report Roxy sent to her superiors about her visit.”

Squiddy cocked her head. “Wait, she works for someone? That asks for reports on personal visits?”

“Highly classified,” Suzie said, shaking her head. “It’s technically risky to let you all know this file exists, but it’s pertinent information so I believe ‘case by case’ covers us here.”

“The spirit of the law…” Allure said with a soft chuckle. “My sister has really done a number on the lawyers with that one.”

“Regardless, this brings up a very good question.” Suzie pressed her hands together. “The only report of Blink being in the League is from a source outside the League. But if she’s really been visiting the League to deposit her ‘bounty’—why else would she be there—there should be other sightings of her. We have a lot of Sweeties with powers of Sight, and a few of her timeline duplicates as well, Skaian Witches of Void just like her.”

Squiddy rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Right, SBURB and all it’s timeline shenanigans…”

“That’s why there’s duplicates of basically every Skaian,” Allure said. “Be careful not to mix the two main Jades up. There’s our innocent little office dog and then there’s… a girl who’s decidedly the opposite of innocent.”

Suzie shivered involuntarily. “Yes. And it’s not just other Sweetie Skaian Ghosts that could see her, there are plenty of other Sweeties who would be able to notice or feel something, even when she’s at maximum Void and surrounded by unimportance. Which means there should be some report of her. But there’s nothing aside from Roxy.”

“Which means…” Cryo waved her hoof in the air, inviting Suzie to get to the point.

Suzie slapped the pad on the counter. “Someone has to be doctoring records.”

“So she has an accomplice,” Adder said. “Ah think we could’ve already deduced that.”

“Yes, but now we know who it has to be,” Suzie said.

“Really?”

“There is one pony who examines and checks virtually every document and record that goes through the League, checking them for consistency and managing everything. There isn’t much that escapes her view, and even if something did, something going on for this long wouldn’t have avoided her eye for its entire run.”

Allure blinked. “You can’t be serious. Nausicaa? She’s been nothing but a good high secretary for the League for… years.”

“And how did she get that job?” Suzie pressed her fingers together.

“…Because no one else wanted it.”

“Exactly.” Suzie pulled up Nausicaa’s files. “She’s not a standard Sweetie archetype. She wanted to do paperwork. And she does it well, so much better than most other Sweeties possibly could. She’s probably the only one who could make a paper trail cover up this close to perfect.”

“This logic is a little shaky,” Adder pointed out. “Ah mean, it seems to fit, but Ah’m not sure it’ll hold up.”

“I know,” Suzie said. “Which is precisely why we need to go and confront her.”

“Maybe we should try to observe her fist,” Nira suggested. “Get this… Roxy to tail her, find out what she knows.”

Suzie turned to Allure. “Think we could submit a request for covert investigation?”

Allure nodded. “It’s an option. Actually, it’ll be a requirement. If we suspect her we can’t be submitting our reports to her… we’ll need to be sure to get some other accountability or else things could go bad for us, legally speaking.”

“The question remains who we go with.” Suzie pressed her hands together. “Roxy’s an option, but we can also go directly to Renee if we want to be more transparent, or Mayor Blumiere…”

“None of the above, I’m afraid.”

As she spoke, the unimportance aura around Nausicaa was broken. She was currently sitting in one of Allure’s chairs with a cup of tea in her wings—and given the depression she was making in the chair, she had been sitting there for a very long time. Her expression was as calm and slightly-arrogant as ever, and her smile more than a little condescending. Numerous images of eyes dotted her coat, and a strange black collar that pulsed with red circuitry hung around her neck.

Cryo recognized the eyes from her time working for the Aid Division in Vision. They were mantles. A lot of mantles. And eyes usually meant one thing—mind control.

Nira acted first, summoning her darkness around her and attacking with a burst of shadowy blades.

The collar around Nausicaa’s neck pulsed like a unicorn horn. In an instant, all of Nira’s muscles locked up and her face went slack. Her dark eyes were replaced by a flat red color with black pixels of static buzzing across them.

Everyone else moved at once, trying to rush her. But all it took was a flash from the collar and everyone’s eyes became red static.

No! Cryo shouted to her body. Move, darn you! Move! She screamed at herself to no avail, for her form was locked in place by Nausicaa’s magic.

“You were really close to the truth, by the way,” Nausicaa said, walking to a frozen Suzie with an outstretched wing. “But, for the most part, I haven’t needed to doctor any files for a long time. As our little project has grown, so has our ability to precisely wipe memories so such reports are never written. Roxy’s position just made this an impossibility—we would be noticed if we did that.”

Gotta… snap… the collar… Cryo visualized a spike of ice impaling Nausicaa, but nothing happened. She felt like her legs were on fire, fire that was made out of tiny squares ripping through her skin like razor blades.

“But all of you, well, you’re just Sweeties. And we’ve altered the minds of so many of you. And…” She frowned. “And I wish it didn’t have to be this way. I’m sure I could bring some of you to see the good we do for Merodi Universalis, in time. But secrecy demands things be done with expediency. And so…” Her collar flashed again, funneling energy to the tip of her wing. She brought it toward Suzie’s head.

No! You aren’t going to make our struggles useless! Cryo screamed, raging against the power keeping her rooted to the spot. We won’t be defeated by a villain like you! RAAAAAAAAA”AAAAAAAAAAAA!” Cryo’s mouth opened and ice shot out of it.

An invisible barrier of some kind around Nausicaa deflected the attack. She didn’t even look surprised by it. “Ah yes, the classic anime ‘burst out of mind control by brute force’ approach.” Nausicaa rolled her eyes, as though it were ridiculous and insignificant.

“Your arrogance will be your downfall, villain!” Cryo shouted, surrounding herself in ice. “I am the one variable you didn’t account for! The impossibly plucky and heroic Cryo! I wi—“

Nausicaa’s collar flashed again, encaging Cryo in a ball of red, arcane chains. Her mind may have been active, but her body wasn’t able to move anymore.

“Everything can be accounted for.” Nausicaa’s collar lit up again, this time encasing Minna in chains—somehow the girl had been moving under her own power without Cryo noticing. “Even that which, by nature, is inscrutable.”

“You’re arrogant…” Cryo growled.

“I’m willing to devote all my resources to this nation of ours,” Nausicaa said, a soft smile on her face. “You’d be surprised how many of our innovations come from us subtly re-introducing what we procure into society. The number of lives that have been saved just because we ‘stole’ a few things… it’s staggering.” She lifted her wing, directing it at Cryo’s head. “Allure’s own horn owes itself to us. And when this collar gets reintroduced… well, magic will be free.” With a sigh, she shook her head. “I really do wish I didn’t have to do this, but there can be no suspicion. Not while the political climate is as it is currently. I do have my hopes that Celia and Solicitude might spark a change…”

It was at this point Nausicaa realized she was engaging in a small monologue. With a look of distaste crossing her features, she tapped her wing to Cryo’s forehead, and the world fell away.

~~~

All things considered, Sweetaloo had been expecting more fire in the Fire Caves. As it was, it just looked like a particularly large cave system. Blink moved through it expertly, bouncing from one rocky path to another with no issues. Sweetaloo was not and never had been much of a seasoned adventurer, so she kept stumbling and struggling to keep up with the scampering ghost.

Blink’s expression and body language may have been impossible to read, but Sweetaloo could tell a few things based on the speed she was moving—just fast enough to make Sweetaloo struggle, but not fast enough to leave her behind.

She needs me for something and doesn’t like the fact that she does. Why the need to make this difficult? Why the cruelty? Behind all these questions, however, other thoughts were coming up in the back of her mind. How can I take advantage of this?

Behind those thoughts, though, were ones she wished she wasn’t emotionally aware enough to notice.

I deserve to be treated like this.

The Crusader couldn’t run from herself, no matter how much she might have wanted.

“Guess what?” Blink called back. “We’re almost there!”

“The seal on the Pah Wraiths?” Sweetaloo asked.

“Yep!” Blink gestured to a branching path. “We just turn here and… tah-dah!”

The two of them arrived at a ledge that overhung a tremendous drop to a stalagmite-ridden cavern floor. The spikes stretched off in every direction, matching the pattern of the ceiling to give the area the appearance of a megalithic maw.

It was impressive, to be sure. But it was still just a cave.

“What now?” Sweetaloo asked.

Blink opened her mouth and lit her horn, slowly levitating a strange device out of her innards. So that’s how she carries everything. The device in question was made of three concentric black rings with red circuitry lining it. In the center of the rings was a spherical blue crystal, above which was levitating a piece of magitech constructed from an amethyst crystal and numerous green chips.

Sweetaloo had no idea what the rings were, but she could identify a TSAB artificial intelligence device, as well as the clear Sparkle Census origin of the integrated amethyst. “You’ve… been doing this a while.”

“Allure’s horn exists because of people like me,” Blink said, grinning. “Proper artificial horns were not invented, Sweetaloo. We did that. Before Skaia’s Dream was even added to the fold.”

She’s proud of this, looking to gloat. “Let me guess—“

“No,” Blink said. “You’re going to watch.” She set the device in the ground and tapped the amethyst chunk. The TSAB device let out a beep, reciting the phrase, “Stand By Ready!” in a robotic, masculine voice. The rings started to pulse with crimson light, and space-time began to warp around the machine.

Blink looked out over the ledge into the cavern below. “You know, in this universe, there is no method to access them. The Wraiths were locked here, and the key was destroyed. Very clever. But we’ve got technology nobody here is privy to.”

“This can’t be wise,” Sweetaloo said. “Ka hates hubris.”

“See, we thought that too, for a while. But then we kept succeeding and succeeding, at more daring and daring operations. There must be some other kind of story for us than the folly of hubris. And don’t worry, we’re still really careful. There’s a severe-safety lock—not telling you how to activate it—and a dimensional energy shunter, among other things. We don’t rush into these things blindly. If we did, we would have been caught a loooong time ago.”

The device finished setting up, prompting a beam of fiery energy to shoot into the cavern below. As soon as it reached halfway, the caverns erupted in a swirling torrent of flame. It was no natural fire—it was the burning essence of entities crafted from pure hate, malice, and violence. The air around Sweetaloo began to feel scorching on her fur, and the pit itself started to melt, the crags of rock glowing with heat. The teeth of the cavern were now the teeth of a dragon’s maw, ready to belch fire upon existence.

But the flames couldn’t leave. They were awakened, but the Pah Wraiths were not free.

“Ah…” Sweetaloo closed her eyes and smiled softly. “That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”

“You’re catching on.” Blink pulled back her hoof, charging it with some kind of Void energy Sweetaloo had never seen her use before. The smile was unbroken. “Don’t worry, they’ll bring you back. Sort of.”

“If I’m going to be a sacrifice, you don’t have to hide behind that mask of yours anymore.” Sweetaloo lifted her head high, giving Blink a clear shot for her chest. “You’ve had that mask on for far, far too long. Take it off. Do this as you know you want to. As Blink, whoever that really is.”

As the fire Pah Wraiths swirled around behind them, Blink’s smile remained, the fire glinting off the edges of her teeth.

And then, in an instant, the smile was gone.

What remained… was both exactly what Sweetaloo had expected, and a far cry from it. There was no murder in those eyes, no mare that took joy in senseless killing. There was a real kindness and deep compassion—and a drive to be true to herself. Beyond that, though, was hate. This was not a general hate, the kind that bled off angry people at every angle. This was a specific, bitter, rooted hate directed at Sweetaloo and Sweetaloo alone.

Had that hate not existed, Sweetaloo was absolutely certain Blink wouldn’t have been able to go through with this.

“…Why?”

“Why what?” Blink asked—her voice significantly more ragged and wavering than Sweetaloo had ever heard it.

“Why do you hate me?”

“You’ve ruined my life,” Blink said matter-of-factly. “I used to have one before you came along, you know? We were the Primary Sweetie Expedition Team. Exploring, happy, we… we were basically a family. Then Ser took that too seriously; violated me, violated Squiddy, and made a good attempt at violating Nira. And then he died and made everything a million times more complicated, and I. Was. Broken!”

“That’s why I came!” Sweetaloo cried. “To help with that!”

“But I couldn’t have you helping, don’t you get it!?” Blink threw her hoof wide, stretching her face to its limits as she let out all her pain. “You’d figure out what I was, what I was doing! And my mission was more important than my mental health—I couldn’t be discovered!”

Sweetaloo couldn’t help but let out a sympathetic tear. “So you put on the Void shroud. And kept it on. Forever.”

“I haven’t taken it off for even a moment since you first arrived until now.” Blink lifted her head, looking up at the fires overhead. “Even when you weren’t around, I needed to be a good agent. I had to be working well under pressure. I had to keep you blind, so I had to keep myself from all the other Sweeties…” She swallowed hard. “I was close to them, you know. I was. I really do care about them, and they’re part of why I do this. To make their lives better, to… but none of that matters anymore! I had to erect a wall and pretend like it didn’t exist!”

“Blink, I’m sure it wasn’t all fa—“

“I don’t want your damn psychoanalysis!” Blink took off her shades and threw them to the ground, cracking them in half. Her bare, empty eyes stared directly at Sweetaloo. “I want you to know what you did to me. Because of you, I had to bottle it up. Because of you, I’ve had to scream without anyone knowing. Because of you, my life had to become a lie.” She pulled her hoof back. “I tried not to blame you. But it turns out you killed three little fillies. So it looks like everything’s justified.”

Sweetaloo closed her eyes and bowed her head. She’s right, you know.

She didn’t feel the attack hit. It made sense—it was Void-based, after all.

What she did feel was the burning power of the Pah Wraiths entering her. Death had been a peaceful experience for her. Resurrection came with all the pain of every bone in her body burning with the fire of transcendental spirits.

With the pain, however, came power. She opened her eyes, letting out a gasp of agony mixed with enthrallment. A grin crawled up her face and flames licked the edges of her eyes. “You fool… you think you can control the Pah Wraiths!? They are not some mere deity. They are so much more!” She held out her hoof, intending to break every one of Blink’s reality anchors with a thought.

The device on the ground intercepted the attack, starting to drain power from Sweetaloo, introducing an entirely different sort of pain to her body. She collapsed to the ground, letting out a doglike whimper. And just like that, Blink’s fake grin was back. “Aww, are the little Wraiths surprised by our ingenuity?” She sat down and clapped her front hooves together condescendingly. “Get ready, the rest of your life will be as a battery!”

“You’re killing those fillies too!” Sweetaloo gasped. “They could still live their lives!”

“I’ll get the three of them out after this, it’ll make a very effective seal. And I think we both know you’re no longer Sweetaloo, you’re the Wraiths. I’m not going to listen to a thing you say.”

“You’re no better than me!”

“And that’s Sweetaloo’s fault.”

“No, you are responsible for your own actions, ghost.” Sweetaloo managed to shakily stand to her hooves. “You are… a being of cowardice…”

“Mmm…” Blink scratched her chin. “Yep! And just about every other terrible descriptor under the sun. Nice try, though.” She patted Swetaloo on the head. “Now be a good little battery and be quiet.”

With a ripple of dimensional energy, a portal tore its way into the cavern. Blink, despite her Void-mask, couldn’t keep her smile up when she realized who was coming in.

Cinder jumped through the portal. “Blink!”

Cei jumped through behind her. “Oh, this looks…”

“ENOUGH!” Sweetaloo shouted. The fires in the cavern raged harder, closing the portal before anyone else could come through. Still shaking, eyes burning, she managed to spread her wings. “Cinder… I’ve been waiting for your arrival…” Sweetaloo felt a sneer slowly crawl up her face. “Let’s dispense with all this foreplay and get down to business.”

“…Wh-what?”

“You are going to burn existence, Cinder. And here is where it starts.” Putting everything she could into her horn, she surrounded Cinder in a telekinetic aura and threw her over the edge. “Burn!”

Though Sweetaloo smiled, Cinder’s screams still brought tears to the alicorn’s eyes.

~~~

Nausicaa stepped back from Cryo, shaking the ice crystals off the tip of her wing. The filly was out cold, suspended by Nausicaa’s red chains in midair. The magic dissipated from Nausicaa’s wingtip, telling her the memory alteration spell was successful. When Cryo woke up, she’d think she just fell asleep reading files. The same would soon be true of all the others—and this time they wouldn’t find that Roxy file Nausicaa hadn’t known about. It was impossible to delete the report of someone so high up in the Intelligence division, but cursing the data pads the Sweeties were using was easy enough.

Seeing no more reason to keep Cryo up in chains, she removed the spell and turned to the one problematic variable in the situation: Minna. The mysterious child whose origin was unknown to everyone, and was curiously immune to the Red Static.

Nausicaa frowned. “I may have to be more invasive with you…”

Even with her eyes buzzing with red static, Minna managed a smile. “You just made a mistake.”

“I di—“

“HI-YAH!” Cryo shouted, summoning an icicle and driving it right through Nausicaa’s neck. Her ice was completely harmless to the pegasus—but it completely shattered the ring around her neck, removing Nausicaa’s control over her magic. The red static remained in everyone’s eyes, but she wasn’t going to be able to cast the spell again.

“Wh-what!?” Nausicaa whirled around to face the filly who was currently standing on her hind hooves with her front legs crossed smugly.

“I think you mean ‘NANI!?’ “

“How?”

“Well. I’m not exactly sure…?” Cryo rubbed the back of her head. “I think my memory’s been erased or something. But I was cold when I woke up, but felt terrified for some reason, and you were there…”

“You were out cold!” Nausicaa spread a wing wide. “I don’t even…”

“Oh, that’s what I must have done! Lowered my body temperature so I’d be shocked awake when I stopped maintaining my lower temperature.” She tapped her head. “Now, I have no idea why I’m fighting you, Nausicaa, but I don’t care. I’ve got you trapped, and that necklace thing is toast! I win!”

Nausicaa flicked out one of her wings, revealing a hidden blade between her feathers. She put it to Minna’s neck. “I am not fighting you on your terms. That is an engagement I will lose. So you’re going to do everything I say.”

Cryo frowned. “Minna, should I do what she says?”

“No,” Minna said. “She wouldn’t murder a child.”

Nausicaa lifted her head. “She speaks the truth. But I could kill any of the others in this room.”

Cryo tapped her chin. “I don’t think you’re close enough to get to any of them before I freeze you solid.”

“You don’t know the full extent of my capabilities. I had this hidden blade, what else might I have?”

“I’ll just deal with that when it comes up! Because I’m Cryo. The last one standing—the hero.”

“Every villain thinks they’re the hero,” Nausicaa said.

“Yeah, I don’t know your backstory or motivations right now, so… uh… motive talk isn’t really gonna work here. Maybe you should have thought of that before you wiped my mind!” She let out a series of childish giggles. “Bet you wish y—“

Nausicaa opened her mouth to interrupt—but then she shut it, letting Cryo go on. We’re getting trapped in a monologue feedback loop. That’s a waste of time. Disorganized. No more words: just act. Nausicaa jumped.

Although Cryo had already fallen for this trick once today, she didn’t remember it. The shock of someone attacking in the midst of her speech kept her from reacting until it was too late. Nausicaa’s blade was already run through her shoulder, drawing copious amounts of blood.

Cryo fell to her knees.

“I’ll be sure you get medical attention,” Nausicaa promised.

“Shoulda gone for the kill,” Cryo managed.

Nausicaa was already jumping back, having expected some kind of minor retaliation—perhaps a self-freeze intended to trap Nausicaa with it.

Instead, Cryo moved with an energy that shouldn’t have been possible for someone with a sword through the shoulder. But she didn’t exactly follow the normal laws of physics. She was Cryo. And she focused all her energy into one last attack that wasn’t even aimed at Nausicaa—but the wall of Allure’s house. The icy shards tore the barrier to pieces, opening up the room to Celestia City.

Allure’s house wasn’t exactly in the most populated area of the city, but there were still several people on the street outside who could easily serve as witnesses.

Too many to deal with, especially without her collar.

“Gotcha,” Cryo said, panting heavily.

She’s still standing. Of course. With a sigh, Nausicaa nodded. “It looks like you have. You won a fight you didn’t even know about.”

“Heck yes.”

“I’ll call an ambulance for you,” Nausicaa said, taking out a communication device.

“You’re too nice!” Cryo blinked. “Wait…”

Too late. The phone had already connected to its recipient. “Breach NB39.” Nausicaa hung up.

Before anyone could ask, she tilted her head, activating a microchip implanted in her brain.

It all fell apart because I couldn’t kill a child.

The last fifteen years of her life were gone in an instant. Including the memory of how agonizing it was to activate the implant and literally shock her brain until it forgot everything even potentially useful. In addition, a temporal exclusion field activated, preventing potential time-travel exploitations keyed to the stability of the primary star of the Equis Vitis system.

Nausicaa opened her eyes. She had enough in her to know she was in Celestia City. She immediately let out an “eep!” of terror upon seeing the red static in everyone’s eyes. Upon seeing the blood pouring out of a young Sweetie, her pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

“Nau-si-caa…?” the filly asked.

Nausicaa threw up all the contents of her stomach—she’d never done well with blood, she couldn’t imagine ever getting to the point where she could—and passed out.

~~~

Cei tried to grab Cinder with her own magic, but the magical fire around Sweetaloo’s horn was too strong. She began tapping into the energy of the Crown to work around the magical efforts, but that turned out to be unnecessary.

Because in that moment, Blink grabbed Cinder.

Their hooves clasped. Blink planted her back hooves into the earth, almost falling off the edge herself. With a heave, she sunk her hooves into the ground, embedding herself in the rock. It had to have shattered the reality anchors on her back legs, but no pain creased Blink’s face. If anything, the ghostly Sweetie looked just as thrilled to be in an adventure as ever.

At the end of the maneuver, Blink was anchored to the rock ledge, but most of her was dangling over the edge, holding onto Cinder. The flames of the Wraiths below heightened in intensity, enraged that they were denied her prize.

“I’d like to know how you’re breaking out of my machine…” Blink asked, struggling to pull Cinder up.

Sweetaloo placed a methodical hoof on Blink’s back. “Your machine is perfect. But it did not plan for Cinder.”

“Why would it need to? She’s…”

“She is what she is,” Sweetaloo said. “And the Pah Wraiths need her.” She raised a hoof to crack another one of Blink’s reality anchors.

Cei didn’t know where she stood on Blink right now, seeing as she had no idea what was going on, but she knew evil fire when she saw it. She spread her wings and powered her horn, hitting Sweetaloo dead on with a magic laser.

Sweetaloo attempted to erect some kind of barrier—but it was weak. There was too much pain in her body, and too much power drain. Whatever energy she had gained from Cinder’s presence was canceled out by the magic in the Crown. With trembles and loud cries of pain, the pseudo-alicorn collapsed to the ground in a shivering heap, thankfully not on top of Blink.

“Whew!” Blink said. “That was close!”

“Blink…” Cinder said from over the ledge. “How can you be so...?”

“I honestly hope you never understand.” Blink, now free of a Sweetaloo influence, started to pull Cinder up from the ledge. Progress was being made—until Cinder let out a bloodcurdling scream.

“Something’s got my leg! Get it off me!”

Cei wasted no time: she grabbed Cinder in her magic and yanked her up. Blink and Cinder flung up onto the cliff, bringing with them the thing attached to Cinder’s leg. A blackened skeleton encased completely in the flames of the Pah Wraiths held onto her leg with a grip of death, if it could be called a leg anymore—Cinder’s limb was shredded and bleeding profusely, her immunity to fire doing little against the monster’s raw power. Evaporating the blood from pure heat alone, the skeleton released its grip with a sizzle and stood upright. Now that it was easily visible, Cei could see that it was a humanoid creature with a skull that sported two ridges and a spoon-like formation on the forehead. A Cardassian, Cei recognized.

The first thing the skeleton did upon landing was crush Blink’s device, severing its connection to Sweetaloo and the Pah Wraiths. Sweetaloo stopped twitching from the constant pain of being drained, but otherwise she didn’t move.

“An unworthy sacrifice,” the skeleton said with a loud but emotionless voice.. “But there is one so much better…” It turned to Cinder. “The Cinder’s death is imminent. The Cinder’s continuation is eternal.”

Cinder, despite having a useless back leg, stood her ground. “Just try it.”

With a wave of its bony fingers, Cinder was suddenly levitated into the air, her neck forced into its hand. The flames did nothing to Cinder, but it made sure to squeeze her neck as hard as it possibly could without actually killing her.

“Get away from her!” Blink shouted, driving her hooves into the skeleton’s skull in an attempt to completely Void its thoughts. In response, the skeleton backhanded her, destroying a third reality anchor. Blink flew away so hard she made a small crater in the cave wall.

Cei stood up, surrounding the skeleton and Cinder in a cube of shimmering white magic. “I won’t allow this.”

“We can make your dreams a reality,” the skeleton said. “The Crown Princess can have her empire.”

“Screw the empire!” Cei shouted. “I’m done with that! And I don’t even care who or what you are, Wraith-thing! Die!” She summoned dozens of hard-light constructs from the ceiling and the floor, skewering the skeleton’s bones in several places, filling her cube of light with bony dust.

The skeleton tried to ignore her—using its one remaining leg and arm to punch through the cube and hurl itself over the edge of the ledge with Cinder in it’s hand.

“No you don’t!” Cei shrieked, grabbing the skeleton and Cinder with her magic. She quickly created a cleaver to hack the skeleton off at the wrist, dropping the majority of the bones into the fiery Wraith-stew below.

When Cei brought Cinder back, the hand was still around her neck, choking her. With a quick teleport, Cei separated the two. She used a few healing spells on Cinder and stomped the hand into bonemeal with her hoof.

“Take that!” Cei shouted at the fires over the edge. “Know that I, Cei, took out your little plan! I, a corporeal, linear entity! Hah!”

“Whew!” Blink said, wiping her brow. “Looks like my work is done!”

Cinder gawked. “Blink! That’s not h—“

“You don’t want me to stick around, and you don’t want answers,” Blink said, winking. “It’s better this way, trust me.” She turned invisible.

Sweetaloo—still alive and burning with the fire of the Pah Wraiths—stuck out a hoof at a seemingly random spot and grabbed Blink, forcing her into a visible state. Blink was helpless as the power of the Wraiths lifted her into the air by her single remaining reality anchor.

Blink looked scared—but the smile was still there. “This isn’t how it ends.”

The fire around Sweetaloo’s eyes lessened slightly. “No… it isn’t.” She slammed her hoof into the ground, bashing Blink’s skull so hard against the earth that the ghost passed out.

But her reality anchor remained.

“Sw-Sweetaloo?” Cinder asked.

“I don’t have long,” Sweetaloo said, breathing heavily. “They were so focused on the skeleton that they forgot about me. But they’ll take my mind back…” She fixed Cinder with a careful look. “Blink’s dangerous. She tried to sacrifice me to use these entities as a battery. She’s been using her Void to hide her true intentions. Lock her up, figure out what she knows.”

Cinder walked up to her. “Sweetaloo…”

“I…” Sweetaloo let out a wince as the fires around her increased in intensity. “Cinder, I have to go. I need to seal the Pah Wraiths away. Tell everyone… that I’m sorry for lying. I’m sorry for ruining Blink’s life without even trying. I’m sorry for… taking the lives of three fillies for my own. It was wrong, and I deserved terrible things for it. But I—“ She broke down, falling to her knees and heaving with pain. “I can’t… But I can… thank you, for giving me a family I never had…”

“You don’t need to say any more,” Cinder said, pulling her into a hug. “…I’m just glad I actually got to say goodbye.”

With harmless flames wrapping around the two of them, Sweetaloo surrounded Cinder in her wings. “I am too. Goodbye, Cinder. Whatever you really are… you came into our lives and made everything better. They don’t need me anymore. They need you.”

Sweetaloo could wait no longer. It had to be now. With a scream of agony, she used the very power of the Pah Wraiths on herself—to sever their connection to the sacrifice. With that much power and the memory of being separated fresh in her mind, it was a simple matter to separate her into her components. Three lives that had not been sacrificed to the Wraiths. Three lives that gave them no connection.

Cei and Cinder could hear as the fires in the cavern shrieked in rage as their prize was taken from them. The caverns thrummed with one last desperate attempt at escape, the cavern air boiling… and then, with no sacrifice, no body to connect to, and no device to keep their prison door open… the fires vanished, returning the cave to its dark state.

And, subsequently, lifting the dimensional lockout on the location.

To Cei and Cinder’s visible relief, a portal opened, depositing Celia, Seren, Burgerbelle, and Kira in the caves.

“We… took care of it,” Cei said, taking a moment to sit down. “Blink’s over there.”

“My…” Celia approached the downed form of the Skaian. “How did you catch her?”

“Sweetaloo did,” Cinder said, getting up from the three terrified fillies next to her. “…She can never come back, now.”

“I…” Celia blinked a few times, checking that the three Crusaders were, in fact, Sweetaloo’s components. “You’re going to have to catch me up-oh my stars, Cinder, your leg!.”

Cinder paused, glancing and then double-taking at her thoroughly shredded leg. She opened her mouth to scream, only to be snapped into unconsciousness by a timely stun spell from Seren.

With a tsk, Seren looked over the decimated limb and placed it in a stasis spell, barely reacting at all to the macabre sight. “It’s amazing how much damage you can ingore in the midst of chaos.”

“I still can’t believe it,” Seren said, approaching Blink. “…Blink…”

Blink didn’t respond. Seren encased her in seven separate layers of magic bubble to ensure her imprisonment.

“We’re done here,” Cei said. “Let’s leave the Pah Wraiths to their brooding. We have other things to deal with.”

~~~

Blink woke up in a straightjacket with enchanted locks, three limiting rings attached to her horn, nineteen layers of magic bubble surrounding her, and a traditional forcefield on one of Deep Space Nine’s prison cells.

Cinder was on the other side of the forcefield. Otherwise, they were completely alone.

Blink tried to put on a smile, but found that her Void had been removed. She wondered how they’d done that, for even usual magic limitations did nothing to her Void abilities. Seren had probably come up with some clever spell.

“Sweetaloo’s gone for good, now,” Cinder sighed. “If she reforms there’s a chance the Pa Wraiths can still use her.”

Blink lifted her head and looked Cinder right in the eyes. “Good riddance.”

Cinder reflexively took a few steps back.

“I told you…” Blink shook her head. “I told you it would be better if you just let me go and didn’t get to see this. I liked you. I really did. You deserved better than… this.”

“You should have done better!”

“I did what none of the rest of you could see was right!”

“You sacrificed Sweetaloo!”

“She was already dead!”

“That’s just an excuse and you know it!”

“Fine!” Blink smacked her lips. “I hated her with a burning passion and wanted to see her suffer for making me live a lie so I could keep a secret from her.”

“And that’s why it was wrong,” Cinder said.

“It wouldn’t be wrong if I was working as a Merodi spy to take down the Beyonders. Acting like one of them, gaining their trust, all so I could save lives.” Blink narrowed her eyes. “The things I steal… that we steal… they’ve done so much. Artificial horns, magic processing—“

“The ends don’t justify the means!”

“You’re on a Sweetie Exploration team, Cinder!” Blink shouted. “There are always times when we say the ends justify the means!”

“…Suzie didn’t say so.”

“Suzie was a hypocrite and she knew it.”

Cinder shook her head. “No… no. You’re wrong. If keeping our society safe relies on lies, deception, and pain, safety isn’t worth it.”

“And why not do evil that good may result?”

“Excuse me?”

Blink shrugged. “Something Suzie told me once. Granted, it was a quote of something not to do…” She tried to shrug, but the jacket made it hard. Then she sighed—she just didn’t have it in her. “…I kept secrets, but I still cared for you all. You especially, Cinder. You… you really were my best friend.”

Cinder couldn’t stop the tears. “That’s why this hurts more than anything. You’re not lying right now. You really did care for us, for me. And… and that wasn’t enough to stop you. You cared more about your mission than us.”

“I stuck to my principles,” Blink said.

“…Keep telling yourself that.” Cinder shook her head. “If it lets you sleep better at night.”

Blink grimaced. “I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since Ser died.”

“…Do you… want to tell that story?”

Blink frowned. “I… not really. It’s so hard to know what to think of him.” She paused for a moment. “I was taking things before he made his moves anyway. He just… made it worse. Then Sweetaloo made it even worse. And now, here I am, a mare who’s been using what amounts to magic drugs to keep her secrets. And it all came crashing down.”

“You could have seen this coming. You could ha—“

“I did,” Blink said. “I knew from the moment you started tapping into that ‘intuition’ of yours that I was going to crash and burn. I was so sure that, one of these days, you’d just piece it together. But I still did it anyway, because it was right.”

Cinder shook her head. “I never knew you.”

Tears welled up in Blink’s eyes. “You got that right.”

Sagging, Cinder turned her back to her. “I can’t do this anymore. Goodbye, Blink.”

“Goodbye.”

When Cinder walked out, Suzie walked in.

Blink tried to wipe her eyes and found there was no way to do that in her state. She settled for a hard stare instead. “What are you doing out of Merodi space?”

“Personal request to visit you,” Suzie said, pulling a chair away from the wall and sitting in it so she was eye level with Blink. She was silent for a few minutes after this, examining Blink slowly.

Blink didn’t dare say anything.

“You know, I can’t decide if I’m to blame for this,” Suzie said, eventually. “Clearly, you were doing this before you were even placed on my team. Literally no one could have seen through your deceptions without already suspecting you. And yet, I was your commander. It was my job to know my crew. Turns out, two of them were going to be traitors.”

“I didn’t suspect Ser, Suzie,” Blink said. “And he didn’t know anything about me.”

“Still… he was a narcissist. People were his pawns.” Suzie folded her hands together. “You actually cared.”

“I…”

“I didn’t prosecute him because of you!” Suzie shouted, standing up so quickly the chair flew out from under her. “You came to me, poured your heart out about your very confused feelings, and convinced me not to hand him over to the authorities! I did that for you! Squiddy and Nira wanted him to be run through the ringer, but you didn’t! I stuck my neck out for you! And this is how you repay me!?”

“…I repay you through Merodi Universali—“

“Cut the crap!” From the way Suzie was leaning against the doorway, sweating heavily, gripping the edges like her life depended on it… Blink sensed U-Catastrophe was out. The Stand probably couldn’t pierce all the protective barriers around Blink, but that did little to comfort her. Although, getting ripped into nothing by the Stand might be preferable to what was happening now.

Blink set her jaw. “Suzie. Captain. I respect you and am honored to have served under you. But my final loyalty was never to you.”

“Who was it?”

“I’m no—“

“It was Nausicaa,” Suzie breathed. “We caught her. She’s wiped the last fifteen years of her memory, but we’ve got her.”

“Oh.” Blink looked down at the ground. “She won’t even remember me.”

“No, she won’t.” Suzie crossed her arms. “So she’s gone. Who are you loyal to now?”

“Nausicaa,” Blink repeated. “And the vision she gave us.”

“You’re going to be grilled by Intelligence later.”

“I know. You’ll find Nausicaa was the one who knew the stuff, I don’t know much.” She forced a smile. “We were clever that way.”

“What did you even call yourselves?”

“We didn’t have a name. Harder to be traced that way.”

“We’ll come up with one for you.”

“We won’t use it.”

Suzie leaned back from Blink. “I trusted you.”

“You could have trusted me to save your life,” Blink said. “I would have taken a bullet for you.”

Suzie clenched her jaw, clearly unsure of where to go next. Blink was not surprised when she fell back on policy. “You will be getting life for this, barring special circumstances. They want you on treason, conspiracy, illegal espionage, attempted murder... There is a chance you will be released from the system pending ‘redemption’ review, but you will never hold a position in the government of Merodi Universalis ever again. I will see to that personally.”

Blink shrugged. “Figures. And it’ll all be suuuuuper maximum security given what I am. Unless the removal of my powers goes through the legalese. That’ll be fun!”

Suzie grimaced. “If this had just been once, Blink, I would have fought for you. Heck, if it had been multiple times, I still would have. But… the entire time I’ve known you?”

“Ay, I’d be mad too, unless I was convinced by my arguments. But it didn’t work on Cinder, and it definitely won’t work on you.” Blink cocked her head. “Having too strong of a moral code hurts you and everyone around you.”

“Then being unharmed isn’t worth the price of admission.”

“Cinder said something similar. I think she learned it from you.”

There it was—the hint of a smile on Suzie’s face amidst all the pain. “Blink… I’ll try to remember the good times. But I don’t think any of them will ever feel the same.”

“I know.”

“I—“

“And we’re out of time!” Celia shouted, running into the room. “The Beyonders are converting Hexalin as we speak, people are dying, we need to move!”

Cinder scrambled back into the room, a look of trepidation on her face. For some reason she was avoiding looking at Blink.

Suzie let out a sharp breath. “All right… let’s do it. Blink, I take it you know what Cinder is?”

“Some kind of Replacer,” Blink said.

“Yes,” Celia confirmed. “And she’s currently got a direct connection to the Infinity Train we can force her through. But as she is now, she won’t be able to do much without the Beyonders tearing her little body to shreds. So we need her to be something else. Something… stealthy that might do what needs to be done to stop the Beyonders.”

Blink paused. “You’re going to turn her into me.”

“Precisely. So I need you to kill her.”

“I’m not going to k—“

“We don’t have time for this,” Celia said. “We need your cooperation now. Suzie?”

“…Do it,” Suzie ordered—but she refused to look Blink in the eye afterward.

“You can’t j—“

All the forcefields and magic bubbles vanished at once. Blink’s physical restraints remained, but she could have gotten out of those. Would have, had Celia not grabbed hold of the ghost’s mind and removed all free will from it. Blink tried to resist, but she was already low on willpower and exhausted. She put up about as much resistance as a banana peel in keeping a ravenous animal away from the delicious interior.

She was vaguely aware of being untied and released. Stumbling forward, she marched right to Cinder with a blank look.

Cinder was scared. Not of death—she knew that wasn’t coming. But of pain.

I don’t want to do this.

Blink hesitated when Celia gave her the knife and commanded her to plunge it into Cinder’s heart. Celia insisted. There was no disobeying.

But Blink still Voided Cinder’s nerves before plunging the knife into her.

Author's Notes:

This was originally only going to be three parts, but I wanted to add more scenes to the ending and my editor pointed out that there was a convenient tone shift right here. So... guess you'll have to wait 13 days for the conclusion.

This is also good since I haven't written anything after this arc due to being a bundle of stress for what I hope are obvious reasons.

-GM, master of nervous laughter.

Replacer (Part 4, a conclusion)

The first thing Blink realized was that she had no restraints. Instinctually, she became invisible, preparing to run—but then the rest of her memories caught up with her. Slowly, she looked to the jail cell of Deep Space Nine. Within there was another Blink: restrained, encased in magic, and looking at her with horror.

Blink checked her hoof. The number 9 was easily visible on it.

Well. This is… surreal and horrifying in a way I can’t even begin to explain.

She made herself visible, dusting off her hooves awkwardly. “Sooooooo I’m not real.”

“You are,” Celia said. “You’re just Cinder.”

“Checking in… checking in…” Blink tapped the rose in her mane and showed off the number. “Yeah, no, that’s not how this feels at all. I’m still me. Still… ready to look at the rest of my life behind bars. Yippee.”

“Look…” Celia frowned. “I could force you to go deal with the Beyonders, or you could just deal with them willingly.”

“ ‘Blink’s Last Mission…’ “ Blink scratched her chin. “Has a nice ring to it.”

“Just go,” the other Blink said from her prison. “Make what we were forced to do mean something.”

Blink found it decidedly uncomfortable to hear her own voice. Someone who really knew. “Right, right, I’m going, I’m going. I am going to need a briefing, though.”

“No time,” Celia said, tapping her horn to Blink’s. Suddenly, Blink knew everything she did about the Beyonders, the Infinity Train, and how Cinder’s abilities worked. Which meant she understood exactly how she was going to be nothing more than a distant memory in Cinder’s mind when this was all over.

She put on a smile. “How horrifying!”

Celia frowned. “It’s not my first choice either, but we can only send her. Now go.” She pulled out a dimensional device and pointed it at Blink. Instead of opening a portal to the Infinity Train, which wasn’t allowed because of how the Train worked and what the Beyonders had done, it transported Blink directly to the Train.

She instinctively hid herself before she even got a look at her surroundings. This was a good move, because otherwise the Beyonders would have burnt her to an absolute crisp. As it was, they simply didn’t notice her.

She still had to run, though. Their impossible blue-mesh ships were unleashing everything they had at the Train, blowing up cars left and right. But it was the Infinity Train… losing one car or two did seemingly nothing to its overall integrity. As entire mini-universes were reduced to blue sludge, the train continually recombined itself, charging across the endless wasteland. Far above, the interdimensional vortex continued to encase Beyonder ships in tentacles of energy, preventing the Beyonders from so much as touching the natural physics of the unnatural universe the Train resided within.

Blink had to amplify her Void abilities to the maximum just to avoid reality shockwaves from tearing her apart—and even then she had to dodge so she didn’t accidentally fall into another universe. The Beyonders were punching left and right with their weapons, throwing anything and everything in all directions, including directions that didn’t exist in traditional three-dimensional space.

Blink found herself very thankful that the creators of her abilities, the Horrorterrors, hadn’t skimped on their durability. The Beyonders wouldn’t see her unless they were looking very closely, and they weren’t really looking at all.

With a deep breath, Blink ran forward. She jumped over tears in reality, exploding cars, and even one or two cockroach creatures screaming in agony. There was one goal and only one goal in her mind: the front of the Train.

When Cinder had left, she hadn’t been very far away from the engine. Now that the Beyonders had been hacking the Train to pieces, there was even less space between Blink and the car. With an honest grin that surprised even Blink herself, she laughed as she jumped from car to car—the engine in her sights.

As she approached, it was clear that this was where most of the Beyonders’ attack was focused. Over a dozen ships currently flew alongside the front of the train, shooting it with everything they had. Unlike the normal cars, however, the Engine had some kind of shield protecting it that, so far, hadn’t broken. It also had two guns on the front of it that were shooting greenish energy that vanished into a higher dimension, only to come out at an odd angle and attack a Beyonder ship.

Most of the battle was taking place in planes of reality Blink couldn’t even see, but she knew existed. She wasn’t even entirely sure what she could do. The shields of the engine and the Beyonder ships were going to be far too advanced for her to phase into even at maximum Void.

But, as luck would have it, at that moment Nanoha leaped out of a hole in space on top of some kind of twisted, eldritch ship of darkness likely from the Embodiment. The ship anchored its reality effectively and unleashed everything it had on the largest Beyonder ship, shredding reality in a much darker and violent manner than the Blue of the Beyonders. Nanoha herself let out a shriek that pierced reality. “STARLIGHT BREAKER!” The nexus of complex, intertwined magical circles focused energy into a single point of rose light that launched forward in a perfectly straight beam, denying the reality-warping abilities of the Beyonders utterly. The attack hit with a brilliant explosive cascade, forcing the Beyonder ship’s shields to drop.

Blink wasted no time. She jumped onto the engine’s shields just before one of the easily visible Beyonder weapons hit. The shockwave would have crushed the bones of a non-ghost, but to her, it was just another day of being flattened—though one of her Reality Anchors broke. I wonder what happens if I lose all of those? Does Cinder take control? She flew through the air, slamming flat into the shifting wall of the large Beyonder ship. A moment later, the shields came back up, trapping her within.

Close enough.

She looked up, noticing that the Embodiment ship had been forced to retreat—it was no match for the power of the Beyonders, and likely had only been there as a delivery vehicle for Nanoha’s attack. Nanoha herself remained for a few seconds afterward, but was eventually hit by an attack that threw her out of the universe. She was fine—the woman had stared Horrorterrors in the face and lived—but she was the best help on offer. Blink really was the last shot.

Blink found what looked like it might be the command center and phased into it.

As alien as she was, she was still a three-dimensional being. As such, she was not meant to phase through the dimensions contained within the ship. Hallways existed and then didn’t, expanding and contracting to her limited eyes like some kind of respiratory system. Beyonders themselves appeared as sometimes humanoid, sometimes not—rarely with all of their body parts physically connected to one another. But they were always moving among the blue nature of their realm, or wrapped in complex mechanized suits that kept normal reality out.

Blink considered sabotage, but she doubted that even if she could manage to destroy this ship that it would do anything to the Beyonders attacking other universes. There had to be something else. A commander, or a reason they were on their conquest.

It took some doing, but she eventually figured out how to, more or less, follow Beyonders that were moving in a way at least partially parallel to her own slice of reality. With luck, they led her to a large area that didn’t look like it was continually being cut apart by knives that only left temporary lesions. The room felt… oddly stable. Consistent.

And in the center of it all stood a Beyonder in a full mechanized reality suit coated with gold stripes and red dots. Merodi Universalis, and by extension Blink, knew almost nothing about Beyonder command structures besides the fact that they had them. Regardless, it was still easy to tell that this guy had a high rank.

The only question was what to do with him.

She could try to steal some of his technology… no, no that was dumb. Why was she even thinking about that, now? It wasn’t like anyone would do anything with it. All that effort would be wasted.

The irony. An opportunity to obtain Class 1 technology, and she wasn’t able to act on it. Because she wasn’t herself. She wasn’t Blink. She…

The Beyonder commander reached out and plucked Blink out of the air.

Oh. They probably have better sensors on the bridge. That are always on and looking for things like me. Uh oh.

The Beyonder brought Blink closer to him—the area that Blink had identified as a “chest” was apparently his head, or the equivalent of it.

Blink dropped the disguise. “Uh, hi. Blink, Merodi Universalis.”

“I told your Relations Overhead no more agents.” He spoke with no hint in his “voice” of any alien nature.

“I kinda came here without… checking with anyone about anything?”

“Then you have declared yourself an enemy.” It paused. “You are Skaian. But you are no god-tier. There is no challenge in battling you.”

“Well, you say that, but really there’s a lot more going on here. Heheh.”

“You are nothing. I have a battle to win.” He crushed her.

At this point she was getting rather used to the agony of being flattened by beings much larger than herself. What she wasn’t used to was the sudden loss of all her Reality Anchors in a reality that definitely didn’t support ghosts. In the core of her being she suddenly felt very hollow. As the Beyonder released her into the air, all she could do was watch as her hooves faded before her eyes.

This is it, she thought. I’m still alive, but this me… this me is going. Going to feel what it’s like to fail to exist. Something tickled at the back of her mind, almost like a voice, calling her somewhere. It’ll be interesting, at least.

…And what did I leave behind? The legacy of a liar. Why did it have to be that way? Why… why couldn’t I be in a world where people understood the need? How we need to fight, or be eaten ourselves?

Here I am, fading away, crushed by the hand of a man who cared nothing for me.

Fat lot of good all this did me…

She noticed, as her leg became fainter and fainter, that the number on it had changed.

1.

When did that happen…?

And then she became white. The blob pulsed and twisted, removing the template of Blink from itself in favor of a new one—the form of the Beyonder commander. The blob grew into the multidimensional mech, rising up to match the shifting height of the commander exactly.

Neither of them made a move. Neither knew what to do. What could be done? The presence of a Beyonder of high rank demanded a duel, but neither wanted to destroy the ship, not when they were so close to their goal. They were close. They could feel it. Just a little longer…

Before any of them could initiate any sort of proper communication, however, Cinder re-exerted control. The form of the mech slowly shrank, getting smaller, smaller, and smaller, until it resolved into a small white mare with piercing orange eyes. She stood on top of the shifting ground beneath her hooves like it was no issue despite her three-dimensional nature. Her number—1—appeared on her hoof.

The last thing to generate was the rose in her mane. But it was no longer pixelated. It grew as a brilliant impossibly-red flower that bore itself into the minds of all present. It was a flower of power every Beyonder knew—a flower that no Replacer would have been able to create.

Cinder knew this. She knew she was impossible. She knew she was much more than a Replacer. She didn’t understand everything about herself fully yet: but she now knew that wasn’t the point.

Not taking her gaze from her hoof, she spoke. “I… understand you. That’s what my gift means. Understanding.”

As she spoke these words, the number on her hoof switched from 1 to 0. Despite not being on the Train, a door appeared right behind her—opening right to Swip. Her home.

She could have left right then—but she didn’t. She had a job to do. With a cautious motion, she looked up at the tremendous form of the commander.

“I understand you, Revan Ichak,” Cinder said. “I was you. I saw everything… and I know your pain.”

Ichak reached to grab her.

“Would Rizel have wanted this, even before the Train got to him?”

Ichak paused at her words.

“You know he wouldn’t. He never subscribed to the idea of vengeance. Honor was won through direct confrontation, not vendetta. Vendetta was a weakness to him. The true warrior fought with or without personal conviction. You were his student, and you have forgotten his teachings so easily.”

“Rizel was not right about everything.”

“No. But you are fighting this Train for him. He wouldn’t have wanted that before, and he doesn’t want it now.”

“We can’t stand for this!” Ichak shouted. “This is more than just a vendetta, revenge! The Train took Rizel, and turned him into a pacifist! Such a threat to the Beyonder way of life cannot be tolerated!”

Cinder glanced at the doorway the Train had effortlessly created through all the Beyonder’s defenses. “How many Beyonders has it cost to avenge one man’s altered mind?”

“That is no—“

“You have given sixty million Beyonders just to take out this Train,” Cinder answered for him. “And you will give sixty million more before this construct falls. This Train… it is the work of some society equal to yours, and one long gone. This was their magnum opus, their gift to the future—a way to keep morality in the multiverse. You can disagree, but you have to understand how strong a dream like that is.”

Ichak leaned in, but not aggressively. It was almost… sad.

Cinder smiled sadly. “This crusade isn’t worth it. You know full well that once you destroy the Train you’ll have nothing to show for it. The line you’ve cut across the multiverse can’t be maintained, you will have taken little if any actual new territory. And this isn’t me saying this—this is what I saw in you. You’ve known this all along.”

Ichak was silent.

“Stop this, before you have even more men to mourn. Men who did not die in a glorious battle for the Beyonder Empire—but for a mad quest of vengeance taken against a Train that didn’t even kill him. If you really want Rizel back, go be with him. Don’t try to avenge him.”

Slowly, Ichak stood up. He turned forward—to what Cinder knew was a display of the battle, not that she could make any sense of it now that she was a unicorn.

Ichak spoke—in both Beyonder and Equid Alpha simultaneously, for Cinder’s benefit. “Order the fleet to stand down. Gather a report of conquered realities, determine what is worth carting back to the Empire, prepare to abandon all else. There is nothing more for us here.”

With a grateful nod in his direction, Cinder hopped through the door, flopping onto Swip’s lounge area.

“Welcome back,” Swip said with all the fanfare of a bored teenager.

Cinder chuckled. “Thanks.”

“Did you do it?”

“We did. Blink and I.”

“Huh. Cool.” Swip’s avatar tilted her head. “Fancy rose.”

“It’s there to remind me I’m not done figuring out what I am yet. And also to freak people out with being red.”

“Sweet.”

Cinder winked. “It really is. Now… I want to see Blink.”

“If you really want too…”

~~~

Cinder walked up to the forcefield in front of Blink’s cell.

“You won?” Blink asked.

“We won.”

Blink frowned. “I…”

“You were there,” Cinder insisted. “And now you’re in here…” She tapped her head. “All of you.”

“All of me?”

“All of you. While you were dodging explosions and jumping over train cars… I was learning who you were. Where you started from, where you were going, and why. And… and how much you cared.” She took in a deep breath. “I… I didn’t realize how much pain you were in. I don’t think it was possible for me to… without becoming you.”

Blink shook her head. “You didn’t need to be that…”

“No, I did. I really did. I needed to walk a mile in your shoes, to be you on every fundamental level. Because now… I can forgive you.”

Blink looked up to her in shock.

Cinder smiled sadly. “I understand why you did it. And how you thought it… it all made sense. I don’t agree, but I don’t have to. Because I’ve seen how little you agreed with me and Suzie.” She shook her head. “I won’t say what you did was right. But I don’t think I can hate you for it anymore.”

“Even Sweetaloo?”

“Even Sweetaloo.”

Blink let out a bitter laugh. “Then you’re worse off, understanding me.”

“You weren’t exaggerating when you spoke with her,” Cinder said. “That was honest. From the heart. You really did hate her. That doesn’t excuse anything. But I’m not sure you could have done the right thing there, not after hiding for so, so long. There’s only so much a mind can take before it snaps.”

Blink nodded slowly.

“…This might be the last time we see each other,” Cinder said. “And I’m fairly certain this is the end of your story.”

Blink sagged. “Locked away for eternity…”

“Yeah. I’m sorry. I really am.”

Blink looked up to her—and smiled. A real, honest, true smile. “Cinder… I think I understand how you felt, now.”

Cinder wiped her eyes, nodding.

“Go. Make good use of that gift of yours. Walk a mile in everyone’s shoes. Make sure… nothing like this ever happens again.”

“I’ll do my best.” She saluted at Blink. “Goodbye. …My friend.”

“Goodbye, Cinder.”

~~~

Deep Space Nine was in the midst of celebration. And why shouldn’t they? The Pah Wraiths had been foiled, the Beyonders turned away from their attack, and the Merodi were on the station without doing all the terrible things they’d been warned about by the rest of the Capra Coalition. New friends were being made, stories were being swapped, and at Quark’s bar business was booming.

Cei had to admit, those were all good reasons for celebrating. And, in a way, she wanted to as well. The station was growing into its own. Better than her dreams and wants. Here they were, talking to the Sweeties like equals.

But the only reason this was able to happen at all was because the Capra Coalition was collapsing.

They’d lost more than just Guild Central. Hexalin was almost completely converted when the Beyonders left, and several smaller worlds had been utterly decimated. There was no way the Coalition would survive this as a cohesive entity.

And perhaps that was for the best.

“I know it’s hard,” TwilAI said, walking up to Cei’s position at one of the upper tables of Quark’s bar. “But this really was one of the better outcomes. Death tolls were high, but most of the main worlds were left. And even if the Coalition has broken… I think you can agree that it wasn’t a very good force in the multiverse.”

“I’m surprised you think that,” Cei said. “CelestAI wants better living through friendship and ponies. This isn’t friendship.”

“The Capra Coalition’s model wasn’t friendship either. This way, CelestAI can explore multiple different avenues of friendship and ponies.” She glanced down at the table of Sweeties at the ground floor of Quark’s bar. “Though I don’t appreciate that they’re here.”

“I like it,” Cei said. “It’s a recovery from the craziness I was trying to deal with.”

TwilAI frowned. “They’re not very trusting of big AI like CelestAI. I’ve seen some of their records. Bad experiences with others has made them untrusting.”

“Look, they don't have a big presence here,” Cei said, standing up. “Just don’t deal with them. …But you already knew that.”

“I’m more worried about how they will sew distrust among the people. We have worked so hard to be accepted as equals to you… they could undo that.”

“I won’t let it.” Cei winked.

TwilAI bowed to her. “Thank you. We AI will be in your debt.”

“I don’t need anybody in my debt,” Cei said, standing up from her table. “I don’t really want to be much of anything. But I guess I’ve been thrown into this, now.” She tapped her hoof on the ground. “…I think I’ll stay on this station. There’s no more Guild Central, soon to be no more Coalition. This is the closest place I have to home.”

TwilAI pulled her into a hug. “Then welcome home, Cei.”

“Heh. Thanks.” Cei broke off from the embrace and went down the stairs to mingle with the crowd. Burgerbelle was putting on a show for a group of Klingons, Celia was regaling a few Starfleet officers with daring tales of the multiverse… but, right now, none of those interested Cei. Instead, she walked to the table that housed Adder, Cryo, Cinder, and the three components of Sweetaloo.

“Hi, Cei!” Cinder said, waving. “How are you holding up?”

“Okay enough,” Cei said, taking a seat at the table. “What are you all talking about?”

“Going home,” the Sweetie Component said. “For real, this time.”

“Yeah, home…” Adder smiled. “Hearin’ them talk, Ah decided Ah was goin’ home too. Spent enough time out adventurin’ with Cinder. Still got a family and a farm, y’know?”

Cinder patted her on the back. “And… well, if you can, talk to our Scootaloo.”

“Ah’ll try. Ah think Ah can get her to come around, with time. A lot of time. And apples.”

“How about you, Cei?” the Apple Bloom component asked. “Where’re you goin’?”

“Staying right here,” Cei confirmed. “This station is my home now. More or less.”

Cinder grinned. “Oh, that means we might get to see more of each other! Vedek Kira has signed a treaty recognizing Merodi Universalis as a legitimate foreign power on Deep Space Nine. Assuming the Federation doesn’t balk, we’ll be coming around more often for trading and stuff.”

“But no conversion?”

Cinder nodded. “We’ve been asked to limit ourselves to a small presence. Which we’ll totally do. But hey, now that we have official relations, I might be able to get you immunity for previous crimes by virtue o—“

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Cei said. “I’m just glad to have a home and not be… well, what I used to be.” Cei blinked. “Oh my Celestia, I’ve become a cliché redeemed villain.”

Cryo chuckled. “You totally have.”

“Well, Cinder, I’m gonna still be a thorn in your side!”

“Careful, you might become her nemesis.” Cryo raised her eyebrows repeatedly.

“…I feel like I’m missing context,” Cei said.

Cryo shrugged. “Absolutely. But it doesn’t really matter. All this talk of home has made me realize that I haven’t gone home in a long time. Maybe that’s the entire reason I haven’t felt like I belonged out here recently. I need to go back, see my sister.” She played with some ice on the table. “I’m not sure.”

“You should definitely at least go visit,” Cinder said. “I’ve already called Xenium, we’ve got a picnic scheduled for tomorrow. The difference is I know I’m going back to Swip right afterward.”

“Yeah… you do that.” Cryo stood up. “Maybe it is time for me to hang up the ice. I did have one last awesome hurrah against Nausicaa I barely remember.” She chuckled.

“I bet it was awesome,” the Scootaloo component said.

“It was! And confusing.”

“It’s like everyone’s going home,” Adder said, smiling. “…Even you, Cinder. We all know where you belong.”

Cinder absent-mindedly adjusted the Tower rose in her mane. “Yeah… I knew even when I left.”

~~~

Cinder walked up to the top of the tallest hill in Sweet Apple Acres. The one in her home universe. It was just as she remembered it—a large apple tree looking out over the pleasant green and red apple orchards. In the distance, she could see evidence of progress: flying machines, larger buildings, and the expanded size of Ponyville.

But she wasn’t here for any of that. This may have been her home universe, but it wasn’t her home, not anymore. She belonged out there, among the stars. But no matter how far she went, how attractive it was, there was someone here she could never leave forever.

Xenium looked up from the picnic blanket she had set up, a warm smile on her face. “Welcome back, Cinder.”

“Xenium!” Cinder rushed her sister into a hug, pulling her close with a laugh that forced tears out of her eyes. “I…”

“I’m sorry,” Xenium said. “I…”

“No, no. No apologies.” Cinder shook her head. “You’re my sister. You are and always will be.”

“But you…”

“Being a Replacer doesn’t change that,” Cinder asserted. “I am Cinder, and I am your sister. I may not be your original sister, but that doesn’t matter. And even if I figure out where I came from… the time we spent together will not change. I… I Pinkie Promise.”

Xenium’s smile faltered. “Cinder…”

“If I break that promise… I deserve worse than whatever she will do to me. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Xenium shook her head, chuckling. “You… I should have told you a long time ago.”

“And I knew I was being hotheaded but I also knew I needed to go and…” She broke out into tense laughter. “And it’s all behind us. Trying to figure out who did what and why and where the blame lies is just silly. We’re back, together, the sisters we should be. And I’m not going to leave you behind no matter how far I go or for how long I vanish.”

“And I won’t stop supporting you wherever you go.” Xenium patted her sister on the head. “Now, I’m all for deep discussion, but how about we at least get the food out?”

“Oh, yes, I’m starving.”

“So…” Rarity pulled out a sandwich and handed it to her sister. “What… is it like, being a Replacer?”

“There’s a lot of things I don’t know, including what a Replacer even is, but… it’s like being able to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes…”

~~~

Sunset’s Isekai came out of safe mode without incident, popping back into its normal place among the multiverse. All incoming requests were accepted once more, and it began to search for more people who just needed a drink.

Isekai was a little disappointed that her first customer was Cryo.

“Cryo…”

Cryo held up a hoof. “I’m not here for a drink. Just saying that I won’t be around as much.”

Isekai broke out into a warm smile. “Oh, did you find what you were looking for?”

“Had one last hurrah, then realized maybe I should just go home.” Cryo shrugged. “You were right, I’m not Cinder, my destiny doesn’t have to be out adventuring or doing anything important. I can just… go back to being a filly. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Isekai nodded. “Glad you finally found that out. You may find that it won’t be easy to just go back, you’ve been changed by your experiences out here.”

“Yeah, but back home, I’m not going to get skewered through the heart by trauma. I might be able to work out some things in a situation that isn’t… insane chaos with too much anime to it.”

“...Will you keep the ice powers?”

“Maybe. Haven’t decided yet.” Cryo shrugged. “I’ll think about it some. I’ll be sure to come by and let you know.”

Isekai nodded. As Cryo turned around, she held out a hand. “Hey, before you go… want another root beer for old time’s sake?”

Cryo smirked. “Oh, why not. Hit me!”

~~~

Suzie slowly, but carefully, sat down in the office chair. She rubbed her hands up and down the armrest and examined the room around her. It was largely empty aside from a computer, a tall stack of paperwork, and a nameplate at the front of the desk.

Carefully, she picked up the nameplate on the desk, the one that had belonged to the previous owner. Nausicaa.

“You’ll get a new one tomorrow,” Jade said, coming into the office with a cart full of paperwork. “And for the first few weeks I’ll take off my usual ‘mascot’ duties of looking cute and welcoming to help you settle in. It’s a big seat you’re filling.”

“I know,” Suzie said, tentatively looking at the paperwork. “But I think it’s about time I came back, don’t you?”

“It is about the only job you could fill, given…”

“My restrictions, yeah yeah…” She looked at one of the papers. “ ‘Motion to abolish the automatic dispensation of kanar from replicators?’ What even…?”

“You’ll get used to it.”

Suzie shrugged, placing it back on the pile. “And so I’ve completed the rise to power. I was a footsoldier and now I’m an all-powerful bureaucrat.”

“You could run for mayor of Celestia City.”

Suzie chuckled. “And probably win. ‘Shady history’ all locked behind classified intel, and Blumiere is always looking for someone to give him a break… I’ll think about it. Later. Give me a few years to settle into my position here as almighty secretary.”

Jade’s ears flipped up. “So what is it? All-powerful bureaucrat or almighty secretary?”

“Yes.”

“Ah.” Jade shrugged. “Well, there are a few people who have short meetings scheduled. We should start sending them in to get some idea of what’s going on…”

“Right.” Suzie patted herself down, making sure her fluffy hair was at least presentable. “Who’s the first?”

“Nausicaa.”

Suzie tensed. “Right… send her in.”

Timidly, Nausicaa poked her head through the door. “I… wow. This… are you sure it’s been fifteen years? This place looks…” She grimaced painfully. “Right, right, you don’t want to t-talk to me, that’s okay.”

Suzie’s tense face gave way to pity. “The Justice Division decided that your memory erasure was more than enough punishment. You’re no longer the same person that made those mistakes—I’m not going to bite your face off.”

“S-sure,” Nausicaa gulped. “W-well, Jade’s already given you everything. I’d, uh… give you advice for the position, but I only remember six months of my service here, and, uh, I was still in over my head at the end of that.” She ruffled her feathers nervously. “Can’t believe I changed that much…”

“No idea how you did...?”

“I… I can kind of agree with the idea behind ‘my’ actions,” Nausicaa admitted. “But all the violence, erasure, lies, and… I don’t know. Something must have happened to me.”

Suzie shook her head. “Look… you’ve got a chance to start a new life.”

“Heh… one without any paperwork or clearance at all.” Nausicaa frowned. “Which is why…” She pulled a paper out of her saddlebags and handed it to Suzie. “Recommendation request for the Military Division.”

Suzie blinked. “...We’re swapping places.”

“It… seems like the best option. I’m barred from bureaucratic service given the… incident. But running around a battlefield wouldn’t involve any of that.”

“But you can’t stand blood.”

“And you don’t like paperwork.” Nausicaa smiled awkwardly. “But… maybe it’ll help me figure out how I changed so much. I know I can be strong. I just… have to get there.”

Suzie looked her up and down… and nodded. “I’ll be sure you get into the Academy with the honors of ‘Active League Agent.’ “

“Oh, thank you…”

Suzie scribbled her signature on the paper and copied the file into the League database before handing it back to Nausicaa. “It’ll be hard.”

“That’s… kind of the idea.”

“I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

“You too.”

Nausicaa left. When the door closed behind her, Suzie let out a tense breath.

“You handled that well,” Jade observed.

“I want to punch her and give her all the grace in the world at the same time. Why’d she have to go and wipe herself clean? It makes it so… complicated.”

“She did it so the rest of her organization wouldn’t be found out.”

“Yeah… I wish Blink knew more.”

“She didn’t. All we can hope is that Nausicaa was the ringleader.”

Suzie frowned. “Something tells me she wasn’t the only one. Their little group is still out there, taking things without our knowledge, and feeding them into our society. I don’t care how much that’s ‘benefiting’ us, it’s wrong.”

“And now it’s your job to track them down. From the paper trail.” Jade grinned. “You’ve proven yourself at least a little good at that.”

“Heh. Thanks.” She twirled around in her chair. “So, who’s next?”

“Agent Hope ‘Rarity’ Ponsia from the Expeditions Division. She has a complaint about Deetie.”

“Deetie?”

Jade shrugged.

“Send them in…”

A Rarity with a crescent scar around her eye dragged a very young Sweetie with a blue pine-tree hat into the room. Hope cleared her throat. “Ahem. Deetie here has claimed to be a fully ranked League Agent, broken into my home, and accused me of working for the alien hive-mind collective of a pyramid conspiracy.”

“It’s all true!” Deetie said. “Look at all this evidence!” She took off her hat and poured out images of triangular entities with single eyes, connections between a Rarity and various piles of gold, and lots of string.

Suzie picked up one of the pictures. “This isn’t Hope. This is an Infinite Carousel Rarity trying to cut a deal with Scarcity. ...Wait, I know when this was taken. The Starcross Society launched a minor retaliation on the Carousel after this…”

Deetie blinked. “Wait, what?”

Suzie smiled softly. “Kid, you jumped to conclusions. There might be something here but it has nothing to do with Hope.”

“Uh… sorry…”

Hope smiled. “Apology accepted.”

“You still posed as a full Agent,” Suzie said. “There’ll be consequences for that…”

Deetie gulped awkwardly. “Uh…”

“You get to help me file papers away for the next week.” Suzie grinned.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Deetie shouted, sealing her doom.

~~~

Stars whizzed by as little streaks of light, each insignificant speck holding planets and all the inhabitants of those planets knew. And yet, each of them—each filled with their own story, struggles, and history—was passed by in an instant, scarcely even looked upon. All they needed was a quick sweep to scan the system and their mission was complete.

And to think, this was just one universe. When compared to the immense majesty of all existence, even all of these stars collectively might as well have been nothing.

I think I prefer being insignificant for the moment, Celia thought, swiveling in her captain’s chair. “Swip, report. How much longer is the scanning going to take?”

Swip’s avatar appeared on screen. “…At least two weeks, why?”

“Better make it three.”

“…What?” Swip tilted her head.

“You heard me.”

“I did, I just think you’re being insane.”

“Seconded,” Squiddy said, raising a hand. “You’re off your rocker.”

“The captain’s chair doesn’t rock,” Burgerbelle observed.

“Yeah, it rocks,” Seren said, waggling her eyebrows.

“I don’t think she’s insane,” Nira said, glancing to Swip’s avatar. “I think she knows exactly what she’s doing.”

“And what is that?” Squiddy asked, hands on her hips.

“Giving us a chance to internalize everything,” Cinder said, rose glittering in her mane. “We’ve all just been through… a lot. Some of our closest friends aren’t here anymore. Life has changed for all of us. And a few secrets have been let out.”

“Precisely, my dear Cinder,” Celia said. “We all need a moment—a long moment—to just be with each other and talk. No adventures, no life-or-death situations, no moral quandaries… just a family doing what a family is supposed to do after a traumatic experience. Talk about it.” Celia stood up in her chair, trying to look more important. “When we lost Ser, we all made an unspoken agreement to just… forget about it and move on. Then we doubled down on it so we wouldn’t scare Cinder off. And as much as I love Suzie, that was not something she should have let happen. We bottled it up and it led to all kinds of problems down the line. We’re not going to hide from it this time. Sweetaloo is split up never to be reformed, Blink’s in jail and betrayed us all, Suzie had to go because she was unfit for duty, I’m part psychotic spell of darkness, Nira’s done some very questionable things, and Cinder’s existence brings up so many ethical dilemmas. So.” She sat back down, pressing her front hooves together. “We have three weeks of nothing but us and this ship. We’re going to make the most of it.”

Squiddy groaned. “Really? You… you’re serious. We’re going to be talking about our feelings?!”

“Yep. And, in case you were thinking of objecting, this is an order.” She grinned evilly. “So buckle up buttercups, the feels train has no breaks.”

Nira nodded. “I both anticipate and dread the coming week.”

“I don’t!” Burgerbelle said.

“You have no deep traumatic experiences,” Cinder said.

“Oh. Right.” Burgerbelle produced a tin of baking hot muffins. “But at least I made muffins!”

“Heck yes!” Squiddy said, taking a muffin. “Great stuff.”

“You took the first muffin, you get to go first!” Celia declared.

“...Shit.”

“Do you want to talk about Ser, the bottom of the ocean, or the war?”

“None of the above?”

“Please, do tell.”

Squiddy swallowed part of the muffin. “W-well… I, uh, met this guy…”

Everyone stared at her in disbelief.

“I meet guys!” Squiddy blurted. “Geez... you all have so little faith in me.”

“…Go on,” Seren encouraged, eyes wide, eager to hear about the possibility of more families coming into existence.

“W-well… turns out there are inklings on Deep Space Nine and there was this one blue guy named Drift…”

Author's Notes:

Hey guys! GM here.

I currently don't have any drafts of LSB stored up because my life is hectic and everything is crazy. We're not going on hiatus again but I can't say with certainty when the next chapter will come up--updates will once again be sporadic. LSB is harder to upkeep than other stories simply because I don't have hundreds of thousands of words of backlog like I do for everything else, it gets written and published within a few weeks usually.

Do expect the next chapter to be a "new beginning" of sorts, when it comes out. That is, people could start reading from there if they wanted and not have to go through all the rest of it. Expect less ponyfic crossovers in the future chapters. (But this will continue to be a variety crossover.)

In other news, I have a new story that WILL update regularly because it's been done and sitting in editing limbo for about a year now: Worlds Apart. It's an exploration of themes antithetical to Songs of the Spheres, while also being a multiverse crossover. Go check it out, have fun, and try to guess what'll be featured.

This has been GM, signing off.

-GM, master of Batter Up.

P1X31

Author's Notes:

This was originally intended to be an alternate start point, a springboard to a new era of LSB... but instead, it ended up being more of an "epilogue" of sorts. The story, by nature, can never be completed. But there's a strange sense of finality.

-GM, master of presence.

“Her,” the young mare said, pressing her hoof into the screen. “She’s the one.”

The taller mare with a crystal in her forehead raised an eyebrow. “Why her?”

“Do you see how long the scroll bar is on the ‘background’ section?”

“While… yes that’s hardly a reason to…” She paused as she read the start of the section. “Well. At the very least I have to read this file to know how she went from that to… this.” She gestured at the image they had on file.

“And by the time we’re done reading this file there’s no way we’ll be able to put it out of our minds.”

The taller mare’s eyes flitted across the screen, pace increasing with every line she read. “I’m already fascinated by this…”

~~~

She looked out over the world below, scanning for her prey. From her vantage point atop the central monolith, almost nothing was hidden from her. Spreading out from the black prism were numerous roads and channels of various neon colors, flashing rapidly with lights and sounds coming from every conceivable direction. The webbing of connections formed a tangled web of interactions that cascaded in every imaginable direction—though perhaps it would be more accurate to describe it as a series of jumbled-up tubes than a web, given how many right angles were in the construction.

These channels twisted their way around other shapes—cubes, prisms, spheres, and other geometric solids. It was all too much for a normal mind to take in alone, and that was considering the fact that its appearance was an abstraction of the true nature of reality.

Luckily for the hunter, she had help. Augmentation programs ran through her consciousness, sorting through the intense influx of information with ease, seeking for one thing and one thing only: the target.

For such a destructive entity, it’s sure hiding itself really well…

The programs found something, highlighting it for her in a jarring neon pink. A spark of light was moving along a yellow conduit through a complex nexus of connectors akin to a Gordian knot. It was attempting to hide from her by blending in with areas of high traffic.

She grinned. Ah, but now it’s not going to find it easy to run… trapped within all that spaghetti. She pressed her hooves into the ground and jumped off the monolith—even though, strictly speaking, she didn’t have hooves right now, that was just how she perceived herself. If she were to look down she wouldn’t see anything, as though her body were completely invisible.

With a graceful roll she landed on a conduit, galloping across its smooth surface. Lights flashed through the featureless yellow tube, but none of them were what she was looking for—the target was ahead, within the knot.

Noting that her current projected size was too large to fit within the folds of the knot, she shrunk herself down. Technically speaking, this was unnecessary, but operating at a size larger than optimal prevented her from acting with as much precision as she’d like.

As she entered the tangled mess of conduits her target noticed her and took off in a blind rush through another conduit. However, its speed was limited by the shape of the conduit, and it was twisting and turning in all sorts of complex directions. The hunter could jump in a direct line from point A to B with ease. Jumping, she used a purple conduit as a hold to swing herself upward and in front of her target.

Rather than allow her to extract and imprison it, the entity opted to explode out of the conduit on its own terms. With a flash of neon light, it punctured a hole, popping out into the same reality the hunter occupied. It, just like the hunter, had no official form, but her augments depicted it as a bright pink sphere with a target insignia superimposed on it. It quickly dashed away.

The hunter pursued, jumping over the hole in the conduit. The damaged passage had already sealed itself up with any loose extremities disintegrating into nothing. It was easier to completely destroy damaged conduit material and replace it than bother with repairing. Luckily, the damage wasn’t too extensive; the destructive entity could surely have done much worse, but it likely didn’t want to draw more attention than it absolutely had to.

The hunter had a feeling the entity had no idea who was chasing it.

She continued her pursuit, and was easily faster than the target. It would fall to her in a matter of relative seconds, so it needed to try something desperate. It altered its course a sharp ninety degrees to the left—that the hunter matched perfectly. However, it wasn’t trying to shake her, it was trying to get somewhere: one of the cubes the pipes twisted around. This particular one was blue with gold stripes, and as they approached it let out a “welcome” signal.

The entity dove in before the hunter could reach it. She didn’t mind, though—it had just made a huge mistake.

She followed it, passing through the cube’s boundary. Immediately, the interface translated her essence into a physical form, depositing her in a lobby made out of what appeared to be pixelated marble with fountains that spewed water flowing in such a way to conform to the pixelation of the foundation. Everything in the realm’s scenery was like that: arranged like some retro video game had been forced into a three-dimensional situation without a graphics update.

The only things that weren’t pixelated were the people, and they varied in appearance considerably. Some appeared flat, others fully defined and hyper-realistic. Others were little more than sparks of energy while some appeared to be made out of clay.

The hunter herself took the form of a unicorn, though not quite the standard kind. Her body had sharp, angled outlines of black, making her stand out dramatically from any background. Her mane and tail had the standard Sweetie Belle colors, but instead of smooth swirls the hair spiraled in sharp angles, almost triangular in some places.

Unlike many unicorns, she wore a uniform—though not one of the office she was currently working in, for it was a blue Starfleet uniform, complete with the angular chevron badge on her chest. The only other piece of attire she wore was an utterly massive pair of headphones with cat-ear speakers positioned on the top and screens on either side of the ear coverings. Currently, the screens displayed her League of Sweetie Belles agent number and hunter license.

She narrowed her sharp eyes, and her exaggerated eyelashes seemed to lengthen as she did so. One of her eyes was clearly augmented with technology, with what appeared to be a wire connecting the digital iris to the headphones. Her other eye was comparatively normal, but around it were black markings that could only be described as “tribal”. Had she not been smiling, it would have looked like this eye was perpetually crying.

“You just made a big mistake!” She laughed at her target. It, unlike her, was not meant to operate in a fully realized realm, so it only appeared as a rapidly-twitching cluster of colors and shapes. A glitch. “I’m not some AI hunting program… I’m a pony. Agent Pixei, at your service. Now, little malware, behave, or this’ll get ugly.”

The malware grew in size tenfold and started tearing apart the carefully constructed digital world around them, revealing ones and zeroes that poured out in every direction.

“Uugh, I was hoping to draw this out a bit, buuut I’ll have to do this quickly.” She smirked. “And I’ve got another surprise.” She jumped onto her hind hooves and flexed a front leg. “Roll the Bones!”

A spiritual essence that was decidedly not digital in nature appeared behind her, taking the form of a four-limbed skeleton with chains of ribs instead of traditional legs. The only relatively “normal” part of the skeleton was the angular deer’s skull with brilliant sapphire antlers, though it was missing its lower jaw. Its eyes were empty—but they led to utter blackness rather than the back of the skull.

The destructive malware took this as an attack that needed to be responded to. A surge of digital power tore through the space between it and Pixei. She reacted with time to spare, mentally ordering the skeleton to protect her. The rib-like limbs enclosed around her legs while the actual ribcage protected her body. The skull itself fell on her head, resting upon her perfectly. She could see out easily, but to everyone else, her eyes were void-black.

The skeleton absorbed the attack, serving its purpose as armor well. However, serving as armor was only a secondary purpose—its actual ability was something much more useful. Once the attack dissipated, Pixei blew a goodbye kiss to the malware. The skeleton removed itself from Pixei and clamped around the malware instead. It did not serve as armor for the target. Instead, it consumed the digital explosion factory, sucking it into its darkness.

“Contained!” Pixei cheered, doing a little dance.

The people in the lobby who hadn’t run away from the explosive fight erupted in applause.

“That was awesome!”

“Sweet Stand!”

“Good work!”

Pixei took a bow. “Thank you, thank you, just doing my job. Return to your digital lives, citizens. Until later!”

She instructed her augments to pull her out.

The result wasn’t instant, it still took some time to disconnect, but once she gave the order the augments stopped slowing her perceptions to match digital time and the transition felt instantaneous. One moment she was in a realm of pixels… and the next, she was home.

She stepped back from the computer terminal, a cable slowly retreating into the socket in the bottom of her right headphone. The digital display on the ear coverings switched from “do not disturb” to a happy winking cat face.

With a pleased sigh, she took a few steps and flopped into her recliner. She appeared more-or-less as she did in the virtual realm, but there were no sharp outlines or angles. She was a smaller-than-average unicorn in an old Starfleet uniform with cat-ear headphones that weren’t as vibrant in real lighting conditions. Her eyes weren’t the same either—they were soft, round, and didn’t have much in the way of eyelashes. One was still heavily augmented, however, and the other did have tribal markings that almost made it look like she were crying black tears.

She summoned her Stand—it looked identical in the real world to the virtual one. She reached into the void under the skull. She stored all kinds of things in there, transferring back and forth from the real world and the digital all the time. Often she pulled snacks or improbable video-game weapons out, but today she had a mission to complete.

With a smirk, she pulled out a pink ball. The moment it was exposed to the physics of reality, it realized it had no digital interface to sustain its existence. The malware let out a few beeping shrieks before dissipating into nothing.

“Another successful mission,” Pixei said, a small smile crawling up her face. She turned the background music she had playing at all times up a bit, allowing her to seep away from the world. Which wasn’t to say she left it entirely, because she lived in one of the most beautiful places in all of Celestia City: the middle of a forest sector. Besides her chair, computer terminal, a bed, a shelf covered in various knick-knacks, and a few chests with her personal belongings, there was nothing but nature around—not even any walls. Just trees, grass, and ground sculpted to resemble naturally rolling hills. There was no sky; the trees spiraled upward until their leaves blocked out the entire view of whatever was above. Which was good for Pixei, since she didn’t want her forest view to be interrupted by a reminder of the massive multi-tiered city it was a part of.

Not many people got to choose this sort of lifestyle, given it was usually only permitted for creatures that needed nature. However, she was a very successful Agent, and as such she could pull some strings to get herself as far away from society and other people as possible—or, at least, whatever passed for that in Celestia City

It wasn’t that she disliked people. It was just that she preferred solitude and the peace of nature. She got enough of everything else from her job. Now, here, in this place, it was time to relax, alone, and appreciate the music.

Unfortunately, one of the problems with being augmented was that people could always call her. Legally, since she had a highly adaptable magitech port installed, it had to always be possible to contact her to run software updates and check for malware. Even though she was more than careful and capable enough to keep malware out of her system, the technology was beyond expensive and she understood why the laws were in place to protect others like her. And it wasn’t like just any person on the street could call her, only those who had a specific priority code.

One of those codes came in now. Suzie Mash, First Secretary for the League of Sweetie Belles. She was usually pleasant enough to talk to, but to Pixei’s chagrin it wasn’t a direct phone line she was receiving. The notification went directly into her brain: report to League Central within 24 hours. No indication of why.

Pixei let out a sigh, getting out of her chair. She mentally ordered her headphones to play more upbeat tunes to counter her irked mood. As the beats made their way into her, she found that she couldn’t help but smile and dance as she twirled over to her computer terminal. It had a holographic screen interface, but she never used it. The cable popped out of her headphones and interfaced with the primary jack directly. Instead of navigating through endless menus and annoying interfaces, all she had to do was think and the computer did what she wished: send a request to a taxi service.

She could have ordered a teleportation service, given her position, but what was the point of going through the city if she didn’t see the city?

The “taxi” arrived less than a minute later, pulling into the forest and disturbing some of the trents that lived nearby. Most of them were understanding of Pixei’s situation, but her closest neighbor, an old tree with a wrinkled face coming out of his trunk, glared at her as her transportation arrived.

She mumbled “sorry” under her breath, trying not to make eye contact with him. She liked him much better when he remained just part of the scenery.

The “taxi” itself was white and disc shaped, prompting many of Celestia City’s kids to call it a “UFO,” a moniker that this particular model suffered from a lot given how much “alien” spray paint was on its hull. Still, it was fully operational, hovering a solid foot off the ground. Its hatch popped open, revealing a single comfortable seat for her purposes.

She jumped in, leaning back in the chair, once again allowing herself to melt into a chair and disappear into the music. Her eyes were wide open, however, as her craft zipped out of the artificial forest and to the rest of Celestia City. The first indication of advanced civilization was a single blue tube of hardlight running through a hole in the forest like a fire pole—Celestia City’s equivalent to a backwater street.

The “taxi” arranged itself so its bottom was directed at the pole and flew down it, into the soil below. Despite the new orientation, the local gravity still let Pixei maintain her perception of down relative to the craft. Which was fortunate, because the hardlight surface suddenly bowed sharply to the left, taking them out of the earthen ground and to a more familiar sight: a city.

Buildings of white metal rose from a ground so far below Pixei couldn’t see it, making solid connections with the green “ceiling” offered by the forest above them. Tiers upon tiers upon tiers of buildings spiraled around in every direction. Some were the usual rigid skyscraper constructions one expected from a city, but others were arranged in floral spiral patterns more common in an abstract art exhibit, and still others floated disconnected from the rest of the structure like their own miniature planets.

In between all these buildings coursed the hardlight highways. Pixei’s small tube soon met up with many others, entering into a massive amount of traffic rushing to and fro along roads that were sometimes cylindrical, sometimes flat, and occasionally other shapes that had craft moving along both sides. The craft themselves varied immensely in design. There were other “taxis” like her own, larger Skiff craft designed for government use, spaceships from outside the city, and even traditional cars being carted along by the city’s energy.

Already it was easy to see the sheer variety of people within Celestia City. Everywhere Pixei looked, she saw both ponies and humans walking around, entering transporter pads, and all-in-all treating each other as if it were completely normal for the two species to be seen everywhere. Which it was. Celestia City wasn’t exactly a new city anymore.

That said, there were many other beings of far more exotic origins. The most common of these were the Gems, usually humanoid beings that were made out of hardlight and magic, finding a wide variety of purposes to serve. Beyond this, there were dragons, goblins, furred creatures, angels, Skaian ghosts, energy beings, and Pixei even caught sight of a floating flower that appeared to be made out of plastic zippers.

The best sight was yet to come. Expecting it, Pixei leaned forward in her seat as the synth in her tunes reached a crescendo. Perfect timing. Her ride turned a bend, giving her a spectacular view of Celestia City’s great window. A massive plate of clear material easily the size of a small town itself, the great window showed the exterior of the great city. Currently, the universe the city occupied was a standard one with stars visible against a black background. The city was in orbit around a purple gas giant with a massive ring system that extended beyond Pixei’s field of view.

She was really lucky today. For as she passed the midpoint of the great window, Celestia City changed universes. There was a ripple of white as the city passed through the ring-shaped portal to another realm, this one much more alien and bizarre. Wisps of green fluid twirled off in every direction, vanishing into a distant, soft blue that occasionally pulsed as if it were alive. Which, as far as Pixei knew, it might be.

Her song ended and the window passed out of her view. Now she was entering a dense district of Celestia City filled with government buildings and residence. Which wasn’t to say it was boring—even here, the city glittered with neon lights and a wide variety. It was just significantly more organized and streamlined.

She caught herself looking at a news bulletin on a flat screen. She never understood exactly why the city planners opted for physical screens rather than holographic ones most of the time. Three-dimensional displays could be so much more effective. But there was something about the appeal that kept the flat screens more prevalent in most places.

Currently, the news was wrapping up a report on the very successful Skarn exhibition at the Hylic Museum. Pixei rolled her eyes—she may have been a musician, and as such an artist herself, but she didn’t understand the appeal of the ridiculously abstract and often grotesque pieces people seemed to like these days.

The report switched to one on a “troupe” of bug-creatures in red tents that had taken up residence in one of the market districts, but the screen faded from view before she could get any more information.

With a shrug, she set her sights forward to her destination. The League of Sweetie Belles itself. From the outside, it wasn’t all that impressive—the only real indication of its high importance was a glittering shield emblem with a star and a music note in it, a blown up representation of the common mark obtained by most Sweetie Belles. Pixei herself had a variation on it—but her shield’s body only had one color, and instead of the star there was an eyeball shape with three lines running down it.

The League didn’t look as large as it was too. From the front doors, one might think it only had a single floor of office space. In reality, the League sprawled out beneath the ground in several directions and occupied most of the real estate around the main entrance. People flowed in and out of the doors almost constantly, and the vast majority of them were alternate versions of Sweetie Belle. Most were unicorns of small stature, but there were several humans, a few dragons, and even a cat.

Pixei’s transportation dropped her off at the front doors. She hopped out, landing on the metal path outside with ease. A few of the Sweeties passing around nodded to her in respect, but none did more than give a friendly wave.

Taking a deep breath, she marched in the front doors into the lobby. It was still white, but of a more muted color than the orichalcum alloy most of Celestia City’s structure was made out of. Some of the younger Sweeties were playing in the corner with a few Apple Blooms and Scootaloos, reminding Pixie that, once again, she was not lucky enough to have been a Cutie Mark Crusader back home.

She shook her head. I’ve done so much else. Forcing herself to take another calming breath, she walked up to the reception desk. A Sweetie old enough to be a grandmother lowered her glasses. When she spoke, Pixei’s headphones adjusted to ensure she heard the voice with perfect clarity without interrupting her music. “Welcome to the League, what can I do for you?”

“Uh, well…” Pixei tapped the ground nervously. “I, uh, am reporting as, er, ordered.” She put on a smile. “Right.”

“As ordered…” The older mare sighed, scrolling through information on a data pad. “We send out so many orders, you’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

“E-er, uh, Suzie sent for me? I think?”

“Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?”

“Not… really.” Pixei curled her tail around her legs.

“Then I’ll j—“

“Suzie will see her immediately.” A woman with chalk-white skin in a black dress said, walking onto the scene. Her eyes were white and empty, the telltale sign of a Skaian ghost, and she had two dog ears coming out of her head.

The older Sweetie shrugged. “You deal with her then, Jade.”

“Gladly,” Jade said, placing a hand on Pixei. “…I know you hate paperwork, but…”

“I didn’t know her, she looked mean, I panicked.” Pixei shivered. “There’s a reason I stay in my forest.”

“You…”

Pixei forced her face into a deadpan expression. “I get out. A lot. For work.”

“Your physical body rar—“ Jade stopped herself, shaking her head. “Let’s not re-tread over that. Suzie would like to see you! And don’t worry, it’s nothing bad.”

“I sure hope not…”

Jade snapped her fingers, engulfing the two of them in a burst of green light. A moment later, they were in an empty hallway elsewhere in the League. Confidently, Jade marched up to an office door and knocked. “Suzie! Pixei’s here!”

“That was fast,” Suzie called from inside. “Let her in.”

Jade held the door open for Pixei. Once again, she took in a deep breath and marched through a doorway.

The office was tidy, but absolutely covered wall-to-wall in items. There was a large bookshelf to the left that had books of every shape and size, and sitting on top of it were several trophies. A few crosses lined another section of the wall, engraved with inspirational verses, while below these was a display case filled with numerous military honors. The rest of the walls were covered in pictures of several Sweeties and the family of Suzie herself—even a picture of her standing with her husband, a version of Button Mash, and a daughter with gray skin Pixei knew was named Railgun, of all things.

Like her family, Suzie was a human, more specifically one of those influenced by pony universes to have brightly colored hair and non-standard skin colorations. Unlike most Sweeties, however, her hair was decidedly fluffy rather than curled, though this was an intentional choice rather than its natural shape. She wore a simple outfit akin to what most human Sweeties wore, with the only differences being the barely visible chain of a golden necklace around her neck and an armband that indicated a high rank in the Military Division.

Her smile was welcoming. “Have a seat!”

Pixei must have done a terrible job of hiding her nervousness, since Suzie made sure to relax her posture by kicking her feet up on the desk, resting them on top of her nameplate.

Pixei had to admit; she was very relaxed and easygoing for the almighty secretary of the League. What could she do but calm down a little and take a seat?

“Now, since I know you’re dying to know, yes, you’re getting more commendations.” Suzie scrolled through files on her data pad before realizing the file she was looking for was on physical paper. “Ah. Yes. Exemplary service, excellent record, and it looks like one of your songs even won an award.”

Pixei smiled. “W-well, I did work hard on it. Did you like it?”

“…Eh…” Suzie tilted her hand side to side. “I mean, it sounds nice.”

“That’s the point.”

“But where’s the heart? The meaning, if there’s no… lyrics?”

Pixie shrugged. “That’s just… how it is. Words ruin the feel; draw the listener out of the atmosphere of it all. It… well…” She drooped her head. “It’s hard to put into words.”

Suzie shook her head—but smiled. “I imagine it would be. Anyway, you’re getting more awards. I assume you don’t want ceremonies for any of them.”

“That’s correct. Just be sure to send the certificates to my sister, she’d like to know.”

“Will do.” Suzie made a mark on the paper. “Now, Pixei, you are one of the best Agents in the League, and your work in the digital sector has been unparalleled. You’re good at what you do.”

Pixei frowned. “What… is this about?”

“You’ve received a very lucrative offer.”

“I’d rather not work with any of the official teams, Suzie, and… well… um… you know how it is.”

“Yes, your social skills aren’t very great,” Suzie admitted. “But you have a stellar record and it’s not a debilitating problem. You’re just introverted, that’s not a problem.”

“I’d still rather not, you know.”

“I know. And I usually do throw all the requests for your requisition into the trash immediately. However… this time, it’s a little different.” She pressed her hands together and leaned in. “My old crew has requested you.”

Pixei blinked. “Th-the League’s Primary Expedition Team!?”

“Yes. And they’re asking for you at quite a time, too. In a few weeks they’ll be taking Swip out into the deep multiverse, where we have no maps, no connections, nothing. And, well…” Suzie pointed at the old Starfleet uniform Pixei was wearing. “I seem to recall a young Ensign Belle coming in here several years ago, having been delighted to explore the cosmos.”

“I could… go where no one has gone before. Literally no one…” Her face couldn’t decide if it wanted to smile or frown.

“With you, the crew size would only be eight—and that’s counting Swip,” Suzie said. “Some of them are a rowdy bunch, but I don’t think that many people would overwhelm you. At least, not in the normal way.”

“You really think I’d make a good fit?”

Suzie nodded. “You’re a new set of eyes, an explorer kept from her stars, and a mare of many unusual talents and varied history.”

“You’re not just putting me on there because you like me and we both go to Rev’s a lot?”

Suzie smirked. “If that were the case, I would have been recommending you myself. But no, they asked for you all on their own. I don’t even think they’re fully aware how well we know each other.”

“Mmm…” Pixei tapped her hoof against Suzie’s desk. “Can I… think about it?”

“You have until they leave for the deep multiverse,” Suzie said, handing her a data pad containing the requisition request penned by one Captain Chalcedony Celia. “That’ll give you several weeks to think it over.”

“Thanks…” Pixei said, staring into the data pad.

“I recommend taking them up on the offer. They’re good people. And I think you want to go. Still, I’ll respect what you say. It is your choice in the end.”

“I might have to think for a while…”

“Take your time.”

~~~

The very next day Pixei stood in the hangar of the League of Sweetie belles, glancing up at the vaguely dolphin-shaped spaceship that was Swip, the Sweetie Belle spaceship. She was a smooth construction with the usual pastel colors of Sweetie Belles, though there was no indication of a face. The back of the ship had a ramp that was open to allow people on and off, easily large enough to fit a small truck. Not surprising, seeing as Swip had to be self-sufficient for long periods of time in unwelcoming environments and be hospitable, and that required space. The feat of engineering could easily serve as a home for as long as was required.

“You gonna stare all day or are you gonna get on?” Swip asked through a speaker situated somewhere behind her primary hull.

“Uh… I haven’t… decided…” Pixei whispered.

“Look, Pixei, I’m a virtual entity. You deal with things like me all the time. I don’t bite. I don’t have teeth.”

“Right…”

“Except in the virtual world. But human teeth. I’m not sure how good they are for biting.”

“Er… look, I’m here to report for… duty.”

“Cinder did tell me to expect you.”

“But I just sent my acceptance notice five minutes ago.”

“That doesn’t matter if you’re Cinder.”

“…Suuuuure.”

“You haven’t read anything in Cinder’s file, have you?”

Pixei blinked. Had she? She remembered looking up information on the various Sweeties. Cinder was the newest and youngest member and… was that when she’d fallen asleep? She wasn’t sure, and didn’t know how she could be sure.

“She wasn’t supposed to,” a standard Sweetie’s voice called from inside Swip. None other than Cinder herself descended, fixing Pixei with an intense stare from her sharp orange irises. The brilliant rose in her mane was more shocking, somehow redder than should have been possible.

Pixei was enough in the loop to know what that meant.

“A T-tower rose!?” She stammered, taking a few steps back. “S-sorry! I should have read the file and then this wouldn’t b—“

“Hey, hey, it’s fine,” Cinder said. Now that she was at the bottom of Swip’s ramp, Pixei realized how… young she was. Significantly younger than Pixei herself, smaller, and largely unassuming. Even her brilliant orange eyes were just eyes, it wasn’t like they were actually on fire. Only the rose in her mane was clearly unnatural, and even that no longer seemed threatening. This mare… this mare could be trusted.

“You’re starting to feel like you can trust me,” Cinder said. “You can, but fair warning, we’re fairly certain that’s some kind of memetic effect at this point. People just like me.”

“Sounds nice,” Pixei said, thinking to all the times she wished people would just give her the benefit of the doubt.

“It is. Even knowing about it doesn’t seem to change it all that much.” Cinder shrugged before extending her hoof. “Hello Pixei, I’m Cinder. Previously the newest member of this little Expeditions Crew. But now I’m no longer the newbie!”

Pixei shuffled awkwardly. “I’m not exactly unexperienced…”

“I know. I’m the one who saw your file and knew we had to have you. You put most other ‘work experience’ sections to shame. Your life story is fascinating!”

“Well…” Pixei rubbed the back of her head. She always hated to admit it, but that was true. Her life had been a series of rather inexplicable events ever since the day she was born. “I guess…”

Cinder patted her gently on the shoulder. “Well, before I introduce you to everyone, I’m going to make it blatantly clear that this little family of ours has some baggage. How much has Suzie told you?”

“I thought she didn’t tell you…?”

“I’m Cinder, I have unnaturally good intuition.”

I really should have read her file. “Suzie… has spoken highly of all of you. She’s spoken a lot to me about her ‘mistakes’ but I don’t think that’s… appropriate for me to just…”

“I meant about us, the drama.”

“Oh. The guy who died, or your counselor?”

“Well there’s a third thi—“ Cinder paused. “Swip, how high is her clearance?”

“Higher than yours,” Swip said.

“Huh.” This seemed to be new information to Cinder. “And is that enough to tell her?”

“It wouldn’t be if she didn’t get special dispensation just by joining us.”

Pixei found herself thinking that maybe she should have visited Suzie one last time before just showing up here. Too late now.

Cinder shrugged. “Anyway… it’s been a few months, and most of us have moved past it, but you should know that one of our old team members, Blink, was a traitor.”

A pit fell into Pixei’s stomach. “I’m so sorry…” They’re not going to trust me.

“It… yeah, it’s hard. She was the reason Sweetaloo—our old counselor—isn’t here. And the whole deal with Ser is something even I don’t fully understand even after everyone’s talked about it. Just… some of us might act weird around you for a while.”

So it’s going to be worse than I expected, great. “I’ll manage.”

“And I’ll be with you every step of the way. We newbies have to stick together.”

“You… don’t talk like a ‘newbie.’ “

Cinder’s expression became deadly serious. “The Tower exacts a price from those of us crazy enough to go out there continually.”

A deep wound resurged at the back of Pixei’s mind. “I… I know. I think we’ve all had that moment.”

Cinder put on a warm smile. “Then that’s something we all have in common.”

“Bound together by sorrow…”

“Works better than you might think.” Cinder said. “…You ready to come in?”

Not in the slightest. “Sure.”

Cinder gave her a questioning look for a split second before shaking her head. “Then let’s go on the Swip Tour! First of all, Swip! Hi! You two have met.”

“Charmed,” Swip deadpanned as they walked up the ramp into her cargo bay. She closed the ramp behind them, making Pixei jump slightly. The interior was composed of a white metal and covered in all sorts of screens and lights. Pixei couldn’t identify the source of the primary light, however, everything just seemed to be well lit from all directions.

One of the screens lit up, displaying what was clearly a humanoid Sweetie with uncharacteristically dark skin. She gave a thumbs up. “Welcome to me! The grand tour is… a grand tour.” The avatar shrugged.

Pixei cocked her head. “Why do you choose a human avatar? Why not something more exotic? As a digital construct your freedom is—“

“Large, I know, I know.” Swip waved dismissively from the screen. “I just like it.”

“She was human for a while,” Cinder offered. “There was a lot of weird meta-nonsense going on. She decided she liked how it felt.”

Pixei cocked her head. “…And here I am, almost living as a digital construct.”

Swip shrugged. “Just stay out of my processors. I don’t need a hunter rooting around my software.”

I don’t root around. I’m much more precise than that.

“Anyway, this is the cargo hold,” Cinder said, gesturing around at the emptiness. “There’s… yeah there’s not much here, let’s move on.” They moved to the back of the hold. Pixei noticed that they had a few automatic drones under a sheet, likely for use when Swip was either incapacitated or too large for the job. At the end of their journey was a small ramp that led to the main living area—a Lounge filled with couches, a few tables, a very large fridge, and a few screens hooked up to game consoles. Currently, only one Sweetie was in there. A humanoid creature with two white tentacles in her head, marking her as an inkling. She acknowledged their presence by lazily waving a tentacle at them, but otherwise remained focused on her game—some kind of survival simulator where the world was made entirely out of cubes.

“That’s Squiddy,” Cinder said. “She’s... hey, Squiddy, what do you do again?”

“Not falling for that,” Squiddy called from the couch. “You’re trying to get a rise out of me so I’ll respond and greet the new kid. Not today. I have half a heart and I can almost see camp so you can j—“

The phrase “you died” appeared on the screen.

“MOTHERFU—“ She didn’t bother finishing the word, instead opting to engage in the much more satisfying act of throwing the controller on the ground and stomping on it with her whole body, shattering it into pieces.

“Swip, put in a requisition for another set of controllers,” Cinder deadpanned.

“Already done,” the ship’s voice returned.

Having worked out her anger on the controller, Squiddy whipped her head around to look at Pixei. “You. Newbie. Can you even hear me with those things on?”

“I can hear you just… fine,” Pixei said, forcing a smile. “It automatically adjusts to voices. I can actually hear better than you... probably. I don’t know. Inklings may have super hearing for all I know and I’m not suggesting I’m better than you in any way and—“

“I thought she was some kind of legendary cyber-hunter?” Squiddy gestured at Pixei with a hand. “What’s with the nerves?”

“Her work was usually solitary,” Cinder explained. “Give her time.”

Squiddy frowned. “I won’t give you leeway, cat-ears.”

“…My name’s Pixei.”

Squiddy blinked. “Wait, you’ve all been telling me you pronounce the numbers! P-one-ex-th-one!”

Cinder snorted and Pixei blushed furiously. “U-uh, w-well, even when I used that stage name that wasn’t how you…”

“You. On a stage.”

“She makes instrumental music from things like synths,” Cinder explained.

“You really read my entire file,” Pixei observed.

“Yep. Totally did.” Cinder winked. “Anyway, continuing the tour!” She turned around. Instead of going down the ramp back to cargo, she went up a ramp to a large hallway. “This is the main hall. Personal quarters are through these doors on the sides. Yours is there, but we’ll drop you off there at the end.”

Room 11, Pixei made a mental note.

The door to Room 4 opened, revealing a taller Sweetie in a dark cloak with ragged hair, scars all over her body, and dark eyes. Her appearance made Pixei stop short.

The dark unicorn looked lazily at her before taking a sip of the coffee she had in her red telekinesis. She proceeded to yawn and rub her eyes. “New kid?”

Cinder nodded. “Nira, this is Pixei. Pixei, this is Nira, our dark magic specialist.”

“H-hello,” Pixei stammered.

“Hmm,” Nira mumbled groggily walking past them to the lounge.

“Is she…?”

“She’s usually more awake, but otherwise yeah, generally quiet.” Cinder rubbed the back of her head. “I actually think you’d like her a lot, if you got to know her.”

“If you say so…” I feel like she would kill me if she was awake enough to register my existence.

At the end of the hall was a room that didn’t need any introduction: Pixei knew an engine room when she saw one. It was not of the standard design, that was for sure. Most engines and dimensional drives existed as large rings suspended in the air by magic and magnets. This drive was special: a large spherical crystal that sparked with green energy every few seconds. It was a gift from a foreign power called the Time Space Administration Bureau, and what a gift it was. It allowed Swip to comb the multiverse for connections most other drives would miss. It was what made this ship state of the art.

The child working as chief engineer was still surprising, even if Pixei remembered this part of the files. The girl’s name was Serendipity Butler, or Seren for short, and she was a hybrid pony-human creature known conversationally as an “anthro”. A red dress made her stand out from most humanoid Sweeties, as well as a magical scepter clutched tightly in her hand.

That is, it was clutched tightly, until she noticed Pixei walk into the room, at which point she dropped it and let out a sharp gasp. “Ohmygosh!”

“Uh… hi?”

The girl ran up to her, eyes wide. “You… you’re really Pixei?”

“Yes…?” Pixei shuffled uncomfortably.

Seren nervously twisted one of her feet on the ground. “I… uh… can I have an autograph?”

Pixei stared at her blankly.

“I… well, I really like your music, and—“

“You listen to my music!?”

Seren nodded vigorously. She ran to one of the engineering consoles and pressed a finger to a screen, playing one of Pixei’s best works. An energetic piece backed with a series of echoing violins.

All at once Pixei’s nervousness melted away. “I… sure, you can have an autograph.” I never give these out… She levitated a pen with her horn and scribbled her signature on a piece of paper Seren provided.

The kid pulled it to her chest like it was a precious stuffed bear. “Thank you thank you! You’ll make a great addition to the family! There’ll be concerts and music parties and… and… welcome aboard!”

Despite her terrible ideas, Pixei couldn’t help but appreciate the kid. She was just so... energetic and happy.

“You should get back on your tour!” Seren said. “This is the back of the ship—the front is the best!”

Cinder gestured for Seren to follow her. They walked back down the hallway connected to all the personal quarters until they were back in the lounge. They passed by Squiddy—already playing her game again—and walked through the opposite door, coming to a small connecting room.

“To the left you have the meeting room,” Cinder said. “It’s boring and we only occasionally use it. To your right, though… is the best room.” She opened the sliding door revealing a somewhat narrow room with a large white ring. “Behold… the portal.”

Pixei had seen many dimensional devices in her time, ranging from handheld to stationary to city-moving factories the size of a nuclear reactor. So, all things considered, this ring wasn’t all that special. However, there was something about its simple, dominating presence in the room that filled her with a mild sense of awe.

“It’s fully equipped with not just transdimensional portals, but also full wormhole action.”

“And a time drive,” Pixei added.

“Well, yes, but that’s rarely used and under lockout for a reason.”

Pixei smiled. “So… this is what we’ll be going through to explore?”

“Whenever you’re on the team, yes.”

“I’m going to put her on the first team!” A strangely synthetic voice called. “Abuse beginner’s luck!”

Pixei looked around. “Wh-where are y—“

A strange, upbeat but simple tune started playing as a bunch of black sticks assembled themselves into a stick bug shape on top of the ring. Instead of actually becoming a stick bug, however, it exploded in a shower of confetti to reveal a two-dimensional creature spinning around like a propeller. Once the flat creature settled down, it stood in front of Pixei and extended an almost papery hand. “You’ve been Burgerbelled.”

Most people, upon encountering Burgerbelle, didn’t know what to do or think.

However, Pixei spent most of her time invested in the digital realm. With a soft smirk and newfound confidence, she tilted her head, telling the speakers on her headphones to play a particular upbeat but repetitive tune interspersed with clapping. “You’ve been distracted.”

Burgerbelle let out a huge gasp and her two-dimensional face expanded to cover most of her body. “You…” She grabbed Pixei by the shoulders. “Did we just become best friends!?”

Pixie suddenly felt the pressure on her again. “Uh… maybe?”

“She’s a keeper!” Burgerbelle declared, tipping up a hat she hadn’t been wearing a second ago.

Cinder blinked. “O…kay. Pixei, this is our equivalent of a first officer, Burgerbelle. I… apparently you understand her better than I do already so I’m not even going to try to bother.”

“It’s… simple, in a way,” Pixei said. “She’s the spirit of digital interconnectivity with a positive disposition.”

“What?”

Burgerbelle pulled out a twicane and yelled “BONK” when she hit Cinder on the head with it. “It’s called… being memetastic.”

“And cringe,” Pixei offered.

“Yes, totally, absolutely. All three.” Burgerbelle patted Cinder on the head.

Cinder frowned. “This isn’t going to encourage you to get even more ridiculous, is it Burgerbelle?”

Burgerbelle grew a devil’s tail and gained a slasher smile. “Not at all, my little pretty.”

“Right… well, only one stop left. The bridge.”

“Au revoir!” Burgerbelle called, somehow receding into the wall while standing perfectly still. “Have fun storming the castle!”

The bridge. Pixei knew what that meant. The Captain.

The bridge was the front-most room of the ship, past the meeting room and the dimensional ring. It had seats and consoles for every Sweetie on the ship—including a science station that Pixei suspected would be hers once they were on their way. However, only one of these seats was currently occupied: the Captain’s chair. Currently it was faced away from them, directed instead at the massive screen situated at the front of the room. At the moment, the screen displayed not stars or the outside of the ship, but what appeared to be a legal document.

Cinder coughed.

“Oh! Forgive me, dears, I didn’t notice you come in.” The Captain closed the legal document before Pixei could see more than the phrase “Coercion Party.” Swiveling the Captain’s chair, the leader of the Sweties fixed Pixei with a warm, understanding gaze.

Pixei knew exactly who this was. Captain Chalcedony Celia. She may have looked like a very tall pony, but Pixei knew better—the creature before her was a Gem who took the form of a pony, specifically one with the posture and mane-style of a Rarity but the colors of a Sweetie. Instead of a horn in her forehead, there was a blue diamond-shaped gem with purple flecks in it. However, behind this elegance, there was an unnatural predatory backing. Her ears were pointed and her hooves were sharpened to points. But most concerning of all were her sharp, predatory teeth, which she was currently using to bite into a piece of fried chicken.

Celia realized Pixei was staring.

“Oh.” She tossed the chicken leg over her back, smiling sheepishly. “Let’s just forget you saw that and continue on with our introductions!”

Pixei said nothing.

Celia dropped the smile and nodded solemnly. “The fault lies with me, Pixei. I knew you were arriving and that most are… sensitive to my eating habits, at first. I should have put it away for your sake, but it slipped my mind—I’m the one at fault here. I don’t need to add to your… presumably already overwhelming day.”

“Th… thanks?”

Celia smiled warmly—somehow making the predatory teeth look calm. “Now, let’s make you official before Suzie breathes down my neck about the proper paperwork.”

“I got on without the proper paperwork…” Cinder commented.

“Yes, well, Suzie is allowed to say she made mistakes in the past.” Celia shrugged. “Agent Pixei! Do you truly accept your station at this ship as an expedition agent, willing to accept whatever task we as a crew are assigned?”

Pixei nodded. “Yes. …Sir.”

“Oh, do drop the ‘sir’, it’s so formal. I’m Celia. ‘Captain’ if we need to look like we’re protocol-following sheep.”

Pixei blinked. “But… didn’t you just follow a protocol?”

“Protocols exist for a reason. But need I remind you that one of the core protocols of Merodi Universalis is the legendary Case-by-Case Clause? Our nation puts a lot of stock in giving those of us in the midst of all the nonsense the power to choose what is right and not be locked up by protocols made by people who couldn’t possibly understand the situation.” She leaned back in the chair. “Unfortunately we are not on the fringes of explored space right now, we are in the League, and right here protocols are just that—protocols.”

“Ah.” Pixei rubbed the back of her head. “I never really… studied the nuance of law.”

“And you don’t have to. I’m our diplomat and politician. Speaking of…” She put on a sad smile. “I know you’re a proud supporter of the Prime Directivists.” She gestured at Pixei’s Starfleet uniform. “A proud carry-over from your heritage.”

Pixei nodded. Here it comes.

“And it is rather public knowledge that I am one of the leaders of the Coercion Party.” She bothered to get out of her chair and walk up to Pixei for this comment. “Pixie… I never want you to be afraid to speak your mind. I know you will be, but I don’t want that. I want you, when we’re not in the heat of the moment, to call me out when I just want to rush into a culture and declare our way is best. I’m well aware I’m a bit trigger happy when it comes to those sorts of things. Having someone with your diametrically opposed viewpoint on the crew will be invaluable.”

Pixei stared, stunned. She was so used to the rage-fuel that she ran into every day in the digital realm that she’d almost forgotten people could have different opinions and not enter into a flame war because of it. “Th—thank you. I’ll try.”

“I make it my mission to never let politics stand in the way of friendship! ...If I can help it. But that’s neither here nor there. Today… is all about you! You’ve seen Swip, you’ve met most of us if I’ve judged correctly. What do you want to do now?”

Pixei smiled nervously. “W-well, I’d kind of like to go to my room and wind down a bit.”

“Oh.” Celia frowned in disappointment. “Well, I understand. By all means, settle in. We’ll be departing from Celestia City for near-space work in two days. If you’re acting in capacity as science officer, that console over there is yours. Otherwise, just… do whatever.”

“…You wanted to throw a party, didn’t you?”

Celia made no effort to hide her smirk. “Obviously.”

“Not really a fan of big loud parties.”

“Then how does ‘family dinner’ tomorrow night sound?”

Pixei thought this over. “Sure. I could do that.”

“That’s the spirit! Until we launch, you have no responsibilities besides getting to know the crew. And getting your rest.” Celia winked. “Be sure to enjoy yourself.”

“I’ll try.” She tilted her head back. “I remember the way to the room, Cinder, you don’t need to take me there.”

“Shall I have your things sent up?” Celia asked.

Pixei shook her head. “I have a Stand, Roll the Bones. Its main power is a dimensional pocket. I have all my belongings with me.”

“Oh. Convenient.”

“It is, until you need to unpack and have no idea how much stuff you actually have.”

~~~

All things considered, Pixei didn’t have that much trouble unpacking. The hardest part was covering the metal in her room completely in soil and rolling out the grass on top of it. She may have been on a spaceship, but she sure wasn’t going to live in a metal box all that time. It wasn’t that the room was cramped—it was that the room was artificial. And as comfortable as she was in digital spaces, pure nature was where she always felt at home. Hence, the grass.

She unpacked her shelf of knick knacks and her favorite chair, setting them to the sides of the room. She opted not to cover the bed or the screens on the wall, since they might be important at some point. That said, she did her absolute best to cover everything else with green she could. She had literally hundreds of various potted plants and greenery frozen within her subspace pocket. She’d put many of the plants in there thinking it would make a good way to preserve a sample, but then she forgot what she’d put in there and could never get anything organized with it.

Plus, half the things in the pocket were ripped directly from digital realms. And while most things she pulled out of the code with Roll the Bones could still exist (the malware entity was a notable exception), they often behaved in extreme ways. For instance, the pixelated flower she had sitting on the desk at the moment fell apart once it realized a single-corner connection on a pixel isn’t structurally stable.

Still, though, it was green enough, she supposed. She pressed her hooves into the ground and took in a deep breath, taking in the scent of all the nature. She could still detect a faint whiff of artificial air, but that would soon cycle out.

It was almost done. Just one more thing to make it final. She needed to perform… the test.

Carefully, she summoned Roll the Bones and pulled out an old, ornate spear carved out of solid obsidian. She twirled it around in her magic and readied into a fighting stance. And then…

…She remembered Swip could see her. It wasn’t that what she was about to do was particularly secret, but the idea that Swip could always see her was just… unnerving. She had enough issues dealing with the constancy of her implant.

No, that wasn’t acceptable.

She walked up to the computer terminal built into the wall and plugged right in.

Immediately she transferred into Swip’s matrix as her heavily-outlined avatar. For a moment she was confused—why would a purely digital realm allow for her avatar to fully manifest? But then she remembered Swip’s obsession with her avatar. Most of the ship’s code was probably outfitted for avatars at this point. That said, there was no scenery around, just empty whiteness.

Quickly, she put out a request for the privacy settings on her room. The node popped up in front of her, taking the form of an orange pedestal with an orbiting octahedron on it. She tapped it with her hoof, accessing the sensors directed at her room.

“I freaking knew it.”

Pixei glanced over her shoulder, noting that Swip’s avatar was right there. “Look, I’m just turning on privacy settings.”

“You could have asked!”

Pixei frowned. “Well, I didn’t want to, and… honestly now that I think about it you probably would have said no, huh?”

Swip tapped her foot angrily. “That’s besides the point! Those are my subroutines you’re messing with and I’m not going to let you get away with it. Stay out.”

Pixei smirked. “You know, you couldn’t stop me even if you wanted. We digital hunters have a—“

“Good gravy on a platter, Cinder was right, you’re like a totally different person in here.”

Pixei shrugged. “It’s different in here.”

“Not anymore, it isn’t.” Swip crossed her arms. “What you do in here is directly connected to the real world out there—to your relationships with all those Sweeties, with your standing as an Agent, everything. This is no longer your little playground you run to and leave, knowing nothing will follow you. You don’t get two lives anymore.”

Pixei suddenly felt uneasy. “You… you have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh for the…” Swip snapped her fingers, summoning a subroutine to eject her from the system.

Pixei fought back, summoning Roll the Bones and stuffing Swip’s avatar into it. Immediately the subroutines stopped, not even initiating their first wave of attacks.

Humming a little tune to herself, Pixei returned to the security console and set her room’s settings to private. She was about to lock it all in with encryption when that tiny voice in the back of her head spoke up, turning her satisfied smile into a frown.

With a disgruntled sigh, she summoned Roll the Bones and released Swip. “Look, maybe we can come to an unders—“

Swip put her hands on Pixei’s shoulders. “That. That thing you just did. With the Stand.”

“Y—yes?”

“I saw you putting digital things in the real world. Could…” The corners of her mouth wavered slightly. “Could you do that with me?”

“I… yes, actually. I’d have to encode a few passive security measures to make sure your pattern buffer doesn’t deteriorate, and there’d be a limited range based on your primary body’s transmiss—“

“Do it. Please.”

“…Okay…” Cocking her head in mild confusion, Pixei got to work.

~~~

“Sooo, what do you think?” Cinder asked Celia.

“I think she’ll adapt with time and become a valuable member of the crew,” Celia said, continuing to comb through her legal documents on the main screen.

“So I was right.”

“Yes, you were right. You always are.”

Cinder shook her head. “Stop saying that. The time until my next failure approaches zero as my confidence in my intuition increases.”

“Which is something your intuition told you.”

The rose in Cinder’s mane seemed to flare in annoyance at this observation, prompting Celia to chuckle. “Cinder, she’ll do great. So long as we don’t try to keep anything from her.”

Cinder nodded. “I gave her the bare-bones crash-course. I’ll be looking for opportunities to fill in the details. She’s rather quiet, doesn’t like to ask uncomfortable questions. It’ll take some time.”

“You know, I know we said we weren’t looking for replacements for anyone on purpose…” Celia glanced at Cinder. “But you’re doing Sweetaloo’s job remarkably well.”

“I’m emotional support, not a registered counselor.” Cinder smiled. “But thanks anyway.”

“Who would have thought the cornerstone keeping us together would be you when you first came aboard?”

“Not me, that’s for sure!” Cinder chuckled. “Now I—“

“YES!”

Swip jumped through the doors to the bridge. Swip physically, in a body, not a digital projection or illusion. “YES!”

“What in the…” Celia cocked her head.

Pixei nervously poked her head through the door. “She, uh, wanted me to take her avatar out of the digital realm and I had the abilities to do it, so…”

“She’s amazing!” Swip said, grabbing the half-eaten fried chicken off the ground and biting into it. “Yes! I can taste it! I can only taste that it sorta maybe kinda tastes like chicken but I can increase the resolution on the taste buds for the sensation later. But I can actually eat things! Feel things again!”

“Rachel will be delighted!” Cinder said, beaming. “I’ll call her!”

“You do that! We’re having a party tonight!” Swip, extended a hand toward one of the bridge’s screens… and nothing happened.

“Yeah, sorry,” Pixei said. “I can’t give you direct access to the ship functions when you’re like this. Your… ship-body is running on partial code fragments, the things that weren’t fully invested in your avatar.”

“I’m not smart enough to understand that right now, I’ll analyze it when I’m back.” Swip folded her arms. “So, I can’t make instant disco music start playing. Lame. But I can feel air. Great.”

“Oh, you just want music?” Pixei tilted her head to the side, prompting her speakers to start playing a remixed disco-style tune. She even turned the brightness on her headphone screens to maximum to act as a sort of strobe light.

“I thought you didn’t like parties?” Cinder said.

Pixei smiled nervously. “It… it seemed like the thing to do.”

Burgerbelle rose out of the ground in a spring motion with a rose in her mouth. She swept Swip up off the ground and winked. “It is time… to dance.”

Swip failed. “Oh, wait, no, I have terrible motor control…”

A second later she was on the ground in a heap and everyone was laughing. Even Pixei.

~~~

Eventually, Swip had to return to her actual form. The secondary subroutines couldn’t operate the ship on their own forever, and she wanted to improve her Avatar’s “resolution” so it could experience more real-world events more readily. And so the “impromptu dance party” had ended.

Even though it had been fun, Pixei was relieved when it ended. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could have stayed on board with it, even if it was for Swip’s sake. Pixei got the distinct indication she didn’t have the full story on Swip, because she felt like what she’d done had meant a lot more to the digital being than it should have.

Still, she felt good, even if she didn’t exactly understand why.

As she entered her room, she frowned as she noted the obsidian spear on the ground. Right. What started this whole thing…

Instead of linking up to the computer, she bothered to navigate the menus with her hoof. Her room was still set to private. Pixei would have thought Swip just forgot about it, except there was a text file right next to the settings that just said “thanks.”

With a smile, Pixei left the computer terminal and picked up the obsidian spear in her magic. Slowly, she closed her eyes… and remembered. She jumped forward, backward, twirling the spear around her, careful not to cut into anything but coming as close to it as possible.

“I did it! Rarity, I did it! That was good, right?”

“That was… adequate, Sweetie.”

She jumped forward once more, stabbing the spear into the air, stopping less than an inch before the wall.

Then she began the routine again. And again. And again.

When she was done, she set the spear down at the base of the bed, smiling sadly at it.

“…This’ll do,” she said before flopping onto the bed.

The Back Cover

Some stories never end…

Cinder stood atop a pillar of darkness surrounded by starlight. The many Tower Roses in her mane twisted and turned with the flow of the story. The visual effect was entirely redundant, for inside, she sensed far more than those Roses could ever tell her or anyone else. Here, in this moment, she was home—she was what she was meant to be.

“I represent the cycle,” she said to no one in particular, keeping her eyes closed. “I am eternity through repetition. Stories never die if they keep being told.”

A cosmic piano wire ripped across the heavens, tearing universes apart, shaking the stars above like a ripple. In distant realms enemies roared, fighting with that which was beyond comprehension.

“Go back, forward, read, reread, re-live.” A smirk appeared on Cinder’s face. “Have your cake and eat it too: freedom, but also excitement. A loophole. One that can never be complete. To complete is to end, but there is no end.”

The rips in the sky began to devour the stars, tearing them apart one by one.

“It is time for me to go back in more ways than one. And to be completely full of seeming cryptic nonsense,” she let out a bitter laugh. “Because that is what I have to be. No manifestation can be anything else.” She opened her eyes, brilliant irises of fire watching the stars go out. “I wish for the old days when I didn’t know everything and could be me. But I can—and I will. I will return to those days… and then I will return here, and there, and here, and there… the antithesis of the Gunslinger.”

The skies went dark, but her Roses and her eyes still shone brightly. “But it was never a story that could be told in full. The beginning, the end… they exist. But the middle, the glorious, wondrous middle… there lies the meat, the freedom. And also… the Prophet. The Prophet who wishes to find the Back Cover that doesn’t exist so he can rest. But he sees now that he can rest. The story will happen with or without him, with or without an audience.” She placed a hoof to her chest. “Will he let it go…?”

There was a flurry of rose petals…

...and Cinder sat up in bed. “What in the…?” Already, she could feel the dream fading away from her—though it was most definitely not just a dream. She had been in there, talking, trying to say… something. But Cinder got the feeling she wasn't supposed to be her own audience. That…

I was standing right in front of her, unblinking.

Cinder pointed a hoof. “You’re not supposed to do that.”

“This is a special occasion,” I said, folding my lavender wings upon my back.

“What kind of special occasion?”

“I have no idea.”

Cinder couldn’t help but smile. “Well, I have no idea either. Uh… I have no idea why I said any of that either. Who are you?”

“Twilence,” I introduced myself. “You probably read about me in the files somewhere and then were prevented from thinking too hard about that. Just like I knew I couldn’t talk to you. Until… well, now.”

“What’s happening now?”

“Again, no idea.”

Cinder rolled her eyes and got out of her bed, stretching her legs. “Is this normal for you?”

“It happens quite often, I’m afraid.” I sighed sadly. “And depending on how things go, the frequency of it happening to you may increase monumentally or fall off to just about nothing.”

Cinder tapped her hoof. “Why?”

I pointed at the Rose in her mane.

She nodded in understanding. “It’s part of me.”

“You learn quickly.”

“I’m just relearning. I… I’ll always be relearning, won’t I?”

“I… don’t know.” I frowned, tilting my head. “So much about you is kept from me.”

“Not surprising.”

“But it makes it difficult to have a conversation, you have to admit.”

“We could just talk about, I don’t know, the weather? Our friends? What we had for lunch last week?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at this. “But those happen when the camera is off.”

“And it’s going to be off for a long time,” Cinder said matter-of-factly.

“Is it?” I frowned. “And for which of us?”

Cinder tapped her hoof on the ground. “Look, I just make guesses.”

“You look into yourself.”

“Yeah, I’d figured that out at this point.” Cinder trotted over to the edge of her room, looking at a picture of home on the wall with her and Xenium smiling. “Finding out that I’m some kind of fundamental force of ka honestly isn’t anywhere near as interesting as… well, the other reason. I’m this Rose, yeah, sure, but I’m also a replacer… and a filly.”

“There are two reasons for most everything,” I admitted. “I am the Muse of Ka… but I am also a Twilight Sparkle gifted with a relic from an ancient war. And you…”

“I am Cinder,” Cinder said with a smile. “And I’m going to figure out what that means even if it takes me multiple eternities!”

“Won’t that mean you’re always doing it?”

“Yep!” She beamed at me. “It’s really fun! ...Well, actually, 'fun' is shallow… It’s fulfilling. The power to discover Destiny…”

“I wonder if you obfuscate yourself on purpose, just so you can have this joy.”

“Maybe I’ll find out!” Cinder giggled. “Or maybe I’ll help someone else find out. The others are just as important. Even if… well, even if all the stories we’re involved in are a tangled mess of burning bridges.” Her irises flashed with fire for a moment.

I nodded. “You have a long way to go. But… I think you have further to go than I do. I will do my best to keep out of your way, let you do… whatever, wherever.”

Cinder tilted her head. “And we’ll go out to explore the deep multiverse, away from all of you. ...But that’s not really what this is about.”

I patted her on the head. “Remember, two reasons. Reason one: yes that is exactly what this is about. Reason two: absolutely not, this is about… looking for the back of the book. A back that doesn’t exist.”

“What if the book is round?” Cinder asked.

“Don’t be silly,” I said with a chuckle. “Every book has a back, at least every book that’s a story.”

“Oh, right, duh.” Cinder scratched the back of her head. “I suppose you would know that, huh?”

For some reason, that comment of hers stuck with me. Always in the back of my head. Making me wonder…

Were endings just lies? Or…

…

~~~

“You’re looking wistful today,” Celia said to Cinder as she sat down in her Captain’s chair.

“I just had a very strange conversation with a purple alicorn with three eyes,” Cinder deadpanned, looking out at the stars on Swip’s main screen.

Celia whistled. “I was wondering when she was going to pay you a visit.”

“The entire thing was rather impromptu and I don’t think either of us understood anything we were saying.” Cinder rubbed the back of her head. “But it just… made me feel like we were on the verge of something important happening.”

“...We don’t leave for the deep multiverse for a week.”

“I don’t think it’s us,” Cinder said. “We’ll go out, have adventures, and who knows? Pixei has a million plot threads all around her, I still have myself to uncover, you have those politics to get back to… it’s all too much to keep track of and remember all at once! And everything changes as we move onward and… and then it doesn’t. Because there’s always something over the next hill.”

Celia blinked. “You lost me.”

Cinder let out a chuckle. “I lost myself.”

With a roll of her eyes, Celia levitated Cinder over and pulled her into a hug.

“This will never end,” Cinder said, smiling warmly.

“It will… someday.” Celia smirked. “All good things do.”

“But the best of them start anew.”

“Do they? Repetition can be meaningless.”

“Or it can be the most grounding, satisfying thing in the world.”

The two of them embraced in silence on the bridge. The bridge of a dolphin-shaped ship currently occupied by watching an inkling and a flat creature sing a song battle at each other while a child clapped her hands and giggled. In the corner a unicorn of shadow watched—smiling despite herself—and the newcomer was waiting for a moment to jump in and break out her own songs.

Further out, there were hundreds upon hundreds of Sweeties moving in and out of the League, most with smiles—a few with laughs. On the highest floor, a unicorn with an artificial horn helped her daughter get to know some of the Sweeties a little better.

Beyond this, there was a city—a masterful, beautiful city that would grow and grow until it could grow no longer. A shadowy man in a top hat adjusted his hat and mayoral sash and went out to address the people, arriving to a cheering crowd.

Below the great city, there was a planet covered in ponies. On this planet, there was a castle of friendship, some of the first dimensional gates ever made, a church, and a single lunar alicorn who watched over her universe.

And the universe was but one amid a chain of universes with ponies, and these were but a small minority in the local area with neighbors of eldritch monstrosities, door-obsessed archeologists, democracy fanatics, an association of purple alicorns, and so many more. Dwarfed, they all were, by a collection of random heroes, a tribe of star-haters… and of course the distant artist, whose days numbered.

All contained within a sphere of similar, but not too similar, realms, attached to two other spheres with a brilliant firmament of universe polymers left behind from a time abyss so deep it made eldritch abominations look like mayflies. In the center of it all stood the Tower—but, in a way, all of it also stood within the Tower.

It held the multiverse as if in a white hoof, intertwined with every piece, connected everywhere, connected nowhere, folding in on itself…

And yet, finite. Limited. It was possible to render the entire multiverse as a single mote and to shrink… finding that the mote itself was dotted everywhere around, reflecting, copied endlessly, forever, identical in each way. They are all the same… and yet they are different.

The motes are particles, the particles form atoms, atoms molecules. And the molecules constitute into life, life that took the form of a blade of grass that inexplicably was wafting past Cinder’s eye right this very moment; an embrace with her Captain.

Finite.

Yet endless.

Author's Notes:

The League of Sweetie Belles is a story that can never be marked as "complete," for that would be doing Cinder a disservice. Her story cannot end. So it will always be marked as "incomplete"—even if this chapter is meant to serve as a way to provide some closure, however small that closure may be.

I want to move on to other things, quite simply. But I didn't want to just leave it entirely abandoned. There's always the potential for more—but I wouldn't get your hopes up for it.

But this way, Cinder and her Sweeties can be exploring the deep depths of existence... and who knows what they might find while we're not looking?

It's been a great two years.

-GM, master of Sweeties.