Chapter 6: Prissy Princess Star part 3
How did it all go wrong so quickly? What exactly was the misstep we took?
How in Allmother's name did we all die so quickly?
Wiped out like a colony of ants being snuffed by poison. Technically we weren't dead yet. Since I was still breathing, only barely, however. Not thinking straight. Need my wand. Pray to Skyland.
Again, with that word. How on Mewni did I know that word? What did it mean?
No time! Quasar was lying unconscious over there near the crumbling rubble of the burning crystal. Her head bruised by the massive impact. What I would give to have this view photographed. You looked real stupid right now. Flatten me like a bug, give me a break. You couldn't even hold onto your bell. It flew off with the explosion to Allmother knows where. Who's laughing now?
A shame MonStar and 63 couldn't be around to laugh with me. Wait, why weren't they around again? Oh right, they were dead. Killed in the commotion, now those crystal snakes will eat all our bowels.
How did we get into this mess again?
Oh right – because of that message: 'Fire's weakness is crystal.'
I should never have listened to that cursed message.
3 hours ago…
"A letter?" I asked, glancing down the peculiar envelope, "For us? Are you sure? I didn't think we'd get a response that quick. We'd only just sent out our multiversal message. Who did you say you were again?"
The courier monster was no taller that four feet, wearing a blue uniform with a cute little round hat on top. She looked harmless enough despite the two horns on her head and her green bushy tail. She seemed familiar somehow, couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"I am from good ol' T… um… wait no… I mean… from good ol'… um… Messagegram?" The monster replied.
"Messagegram?" I raised my eyebrow.
"Yeah. It's a telegram… of sort. And a message. So a two in one. Welp, gotta go now!"
And with that – poof. She was gone.
"Hmm… weird," I whispered under my breath as I ripped open the envelope. Inside was a plain sheet of paper with a single line scribbled within:
"Fire's weakness is crystal."
Impossible! I thought to myself. This must be a prank of some sort from some cosmic trickster. But who would have the power and reach to find us here in this sixth-dimensional space? The courier monster never gave me any information on where it came from. What kind of postal service did she even work for? Sloppy work I must say.
It might not be that big a deal, though. I had bigger fish to fry. And that fish was all about proving to Quasar that I was right.
"I'm telling you – time travel," I told the rest of the Stars, their reaction was as expected – complete rejection.
"Don't you even dare think about it," said Quasar. "If I have to explain to you why that's a bad idea, then maybe you shouldn't even be entrusted with a wand."
"Don't you want to go home sooner?" I asked, "the wand is the most powerful weapon in the universe. What's stopping us from using time itself to our advantage?"
"Of course I want to find the Giant and end this," she said.
"We are in a higher spatial dimension above the traditional time and space," I explained. "Conventional temporal laws and paradoxes may not apply. As we are dealing with higher abstracts and concepts."
"Conventional paradoxes may not apply but what of the unconventional ones?" Quasar raised an eyebrow.
"Quasar is right," said MonStar. "We can't just go on willy-nilly about all this. It's time we're talking about – time!"
"What if…" Star 63 decided to chime in, "what if we don't actually time travel? Instead just speed things up? Just to get things move along a bit quicker. Not like outright travel to the moment we defeat Fire. For one we don't even know when that is. But maybe just speed up the more menial tasks, the in-betweens to make it less of a chore."
"We don't even know everything about Father Time," said Quasar, "a fourth-dimensional temporal entity. We know even less about Reynaldo's Boat, a fifth-dimensional temporal being. How could we hope to know about time as concept here in the Magic Source? Assuming it even exists at all that is. The Many Worlds Interpretation suggests a diverting of history to be a fix to a paradox that normally would be a problem within a closed system of a single timeline. But we are in a place beyond conventional time. There is no guarantee that what we do here would divert into a different timeline because we aren't even sure if this spatial bulk operates in that same way."
"Of course it doesn't," Metal popped into the conversation, smiling. "What do you take us for? Lower dimensional entities?"
"Mind telling us how it operates then?" I asked excitedly.
"No can do, Princess," he waved his hand. "That is the law, and the law must be upheld."
"See?" Quasar pointed her finger, "Even he understands the importance of cosmic laws."
"Okay, fine, ugh" I rolled my eyes. "I'll do as you say and won't time travel, happy?"
"You're just saying that but are in fact planning to time travel anyway, aren't you?" Quasar glared at me.
"What?" I looked about nervously, "What makes you say that? I would never do that. Though to be fair, for all we know, one of us could've time traveled already somewhere, in the past, the future, and we wouldn't even know it."
"Leave me out of your madness," said Quasar, "there is no 'one of us' or anything of the sort. Only you. You and… and… dang it, your craziness is contagious, now I lost my train of thought."
"Praise Allmother."
"Enough!" Quasar cried, "Not another word of this."
"Hmm… fine."
"I must say, 63," said MonStar, "I love these new emblems you made for all of us. They're so sleek."
"Ah, it's nothing really," 63 grinned. "It's a simple design. A unicorn. Just thought we'd have some recognizable mark of some sort. I never really liked uniforms. Just these capes and the emblems are enough I feel."
"Agreed," I said. "Simple, but effective. Let's move on now. Shall we make our ways to Universe SVT49 then?"
"We would be if it actually exists," said Quasar.
"What?"
"It's very bizarre," said Quasar as she scanned the bubbles floating off in the pool of magic, "I could've sworn I saw it right here last time we were arguing over which universe to fly off to. Right before we defeated Pride."
"Huh, you're right," I said, just now noticing. "Where did it go?"
"A whole universe can't just up and leave like that!" said 63, "Can it?"
"A whole universe is pretty large," I said. "No way to disappear without a trace. Try finding some clues."
"Um, guys," MonStar pointed her finger, "something's going on with this universe right here."
And sure enough there was another bubble glowing red, just as before in Universe SVT63. Another impending danger must be coming.
"Which universe is that?" Quasar talked into her bell, pointing it at the glowing bubble.
The wand responded with a soothing lady's voice:
"Universe SVT18, bordering the Tavern and under the blinding light of Rhombulus's Field of Indestructible Spatial Crystal."
"Crystal?" I raised my eyebrow, "No way… could it be?"
"What's wrong?" Quasar asked.
I pulled out the letter I had crumpled into my pocket earlier. Straightening out the paper and sure enough the message was still there, clear as day – 'Fire's weakness is crystal'. Could this be somehow related?
"Take a look," I handed over the letter, "I got this from a monster courier earlier. Said she was from Messagegram? Whatever that means."
"What did the monster look like?" MonStar asked.
"Kind of small," I described, "wore a blue uniform and a blue hat. She had two horns and a tail. Why do you ask? That rings a bell?"
"No idea," said MonStar. "Never seen 'em in my life."
"Hmm, very peculiar," said Quasar, passing the letter to 63. "No address, no sender. Not even a stamp. Where did it come from?"
"I do not know," I said. "But should it be something worth investigating? It's not like we're going to be taking a massive detour or anything. Maybe we can see what the light of the Crystal Field looks like in that universe."
"I have a bad feeling about this," said 63.
"WAND!" I commanded, "Open a portal to Universe SVT18."
With a blinding flash the device blasted forward a tear in the fabric of space, prying open a big hole with white rainbow lights pouring from within. Thank Allmother for sixth-dimensional magic. One of the new perks was that now we could create portals much easier without the need for a pair of scissors. Before, it was difficult to forcefully pry open a wormhole of any kind with just three-dimensional magic. Theoretically I could probably accomplish it back then with the Moonforce, but I wasn't about to touch that with a ten foot pole. Manipulating the wand on its own was a challenge enough even with the new Magic Source. I never had the proper training.
"Let's go," said Quasar.
And into the universe we went.
Out on the other side of the portal was a familiar sight. The kingdom of Mewni – still in its glorious stature of cosmic influence with its castle towering towards the heavenly sky. The pink clouds native to this land circled the tall walls of the kingdom, dropping its breath to the people below.
But… wait a minute, where did everybody go?
The towns, the villages, the houses – the whole kingdom was empty.
Small cottages left unattended with its doors swinging in and out, small shops being unguarded from thieves and scoundrels with all their goods in public display for all to see, but there were none around to witness, nor anyone around to steal. The ground and the roads the people once walked on was now left blank without any previous trace. No footprints to be found. Washed away by the winters perhaps. If so, how many winters had it been since the people disappeared? What year was this universe in?
"Bell," Quasar commanded her own device, "scan for any sign of life on the planet."
With a ring of the bell, she echoed its magic across the vast surface of this realm, letting it travel at powerful speeds into the horizon beyond.
Shortly afterwards, the echo returned to the bell, capturing the sound, she rang it once more to have the device analyze the data. And the result?
"Population of living creatures on the planet: 324,627. Occupying 21 percent of the planet's total land mass."
"So few left behind? How many of them are sentient beings?" Quasar asked the bell.
The device calculated, giving its answer shortly after:
"Zero."
"Impossible," Quasar cried.
"What does it mean?" I asked. "Where did they all go?"
"Um, guys?" 63 called as he stood staring into the sky, "Do any of your home universes have that many asteroids orbiting the atmosphere?"
I glanced up to where he had pointed, and sure enough there beyond the clouds and deep into the space beyond – a field of asteroids so numerous it would be impossible to count them all, like sand in the beaches or stars in the sky. I probably wouldn't have been able to notice that if it weren't for the wand giving me extra visions. Now I could see miles and miles into the distance with little trouble.
"What on Mewni are those things?" MonStar gasped.
"Wand," I commanded, "scan the asteroid field."
The device lit up with rainbow flashes for a brief second, calculating what it was seeing. Shortly afterwards it gave us its results:
"Detecting life signature. Brain wave patterns emanating from each individual asteroid."
And at that moment it suddenly hit me. By the Allmother, my eyes flew wide open. Could it be? No, what kind of madness would it be if my theory was correct? But this was the multiverse we were dealing with. Many bizarre things will happen.
I must check to see what the truth was.
And so I gathered my strength, wielding my cape, I boosted myself off from the ground, letting myself be launched through the air like a soaring arrow. The sensation of flight gave me an overwhelming sense of ecstasy. Most mortals had only dared to dream of the day they could fly and soar through the atmosphere.
Not having that power was the first thing that restricted them. Another thing that forbade such a thing was the physics itself. Flying at immeasurable speed was dangerous, without sufficient power to overcome wind resistance one wouldn't be able to see where they were going. Fly too fast and you risk creating nuclear fusion caused by ramming into air molecules at that speed, in a way where the atoms wouldn't even have time to get out of the way. I must thank Allmother once more, for the magic of the wand and its energy shields that protected me from all that, allowing me to bypass into a place far beyond, letting me breathe in a place where one could not breathe.
And when I reached above the place beyond, into the atmosphere above the clouds – there I saw everything. The asteroid belt, it hemmed into the planet in a form of a massive ring, spreading far beyond into the edge of this globe. And then over yonder, above the asteroids – were moons.
Many of them. Not as much as the asteroids, but I was absolutely certain Mewni did not have this many moons orbiting my planet back home. Something was different here in this universe. And I was pretty sure I knew what it was.
"Princess!" Quasar shouted, following me shortly after, "what is the meaning of this? What did you find?"
"Look there," I pointed my wand. "Can't you feel it?"
"Dear Lord," MonStar gasped, finally feeling the energy her wand detected.
"The Mewmans aren't gone," I explained. "The asteroids, the moons – they ARE the Mewmans."
In the field, so many one could not count them all. A field of uncountable stones and orbiting bodies – I could hear their whispers.
Whispers gradually became private conversations, louder and louder, and before long – I could hear all of their voices. Voices of Mewmans.
"Holy mother of god," 63 stared in disbelief.
"You can say that again," I said.
"Holy mother of god," 63 repeated.
"Wait a second," said Quasar, "if the asteroids, the moons are the citizens, the people… then… who is the s…"
A bright flare of overwhelming heat burst open from afar, throwing all of us off balance. The magic of the wand swiftly readjusted our bearings, however. Flipping us all back to right side up and there far beyond the planet, beyond the belt – a shining mighty celestial body. The sun of Mewni.
A new hunch came forth from this theory. I pointed my wand towards where the sun was to scan its life force. Instantly, the wand hit me with a vision of rose-colored energy, letting me look deep into the core of this celestial body – there inside, the heart, its heart… no, her heart, her marks, the marks of the hearts, and its mighty greatsword.
There was no question about it now:
"The sun – she is Star Butterfly," I said aloud.
"WHAT?" The other three shouted in unison.
"Don't think about it too much," I told them. "We don't need to know about the history and the how. It's just the multiverse. We're here for the distress signal, nothing more."
"Fair point," said Quasar. "But what is the distress here? I don't…"
"WATCH OUT!"
In the distance far, a whirlpool of bizarre creatures came slithering towards this solar system. It was difficult to make out what they were from this distance. But once the magic wand adjusted my vision for me to see far beyond, I looked in horror at the sheer size of these monstrous forms – gigantic snakes made of crystal.
The snakes viciously crawled towards this solar system with murderous intent. They were so incredibly massive they could easily dwarf the sun Star with ease. Wrapping around Mewni and crushing it would be child's play to them. Their crystal skin was hard, yet glistening of cosmic light. I recognized where these snakes came from. Universe SVT18 was reflecting the light under the Indestructible Crystal Field, Rhombulus's Field. A thought of wishing them out of existence or out of this universe did occur to me, but I deduced that these snakes were much more powerful than anything in the third dimension. Putting two and two meant that the wand we were wielding now will not be effective, because they were commanded by third dimensional minds.
I figured that Quasar must have deduced the same thing as well when I looked over to her. She was clever. A little too clever for my taste. But for now, that will come in handy. We were about to enter the biggest battle of our lives.
"MonStar, 63," I commanded, "you two spread out, protect our flanks. Put up a shield around the asteroid belt and the moons. Reduce as much casualties as you can. Quasar, you take command in the center here. Hold them off for as long as you can."
"What will you do?" Quasar asked.
"I will talk to the sun," I told her. "We will need her strength to fight off these snakes."
Faster than thought, faster than light, we nodded our heads and sped off into different directions. Space was a vast ocean, but the speed of the wands made it so we could cover these distances in mere seconds. It was an exhilarating feeling traveling so fast.
The sun was big, not as big as the snakes, but still a sight to behold. The mighty weight of this celestial body made me look like a subatomic particle compared to her. And her heartbeat was strong, steady. I knew she noticed me.
Channeling great magic, I concentrated my wand, expanding the forces and energy towards my ears and my voice. The molecules were vibrating, and the power were pouring into my veins. It gave my voice a booming strength, echoing straight to the heart of the Star.
"STAR BUTTERFLY!" My voice exploded, "HEED ME!"
With no time at all, the heat of the sun shattered into a million flares, throwing me off balance. My wand had protected me from the heat thus far, but only because this Star wasn't actively concentrating heat towards where I was.
But now she was – and here she spoke:
"LEAVE – THIS – PLACE – AT – ONCE!" The angelic voice boomed within my mind, "YOU – DO – NOT – BELONG – HERE."
"Listen to me," I said. "I am Star Butterfly of Universe SVT1435. We are the Space Warni-Corps. And we are here because we received a distress signal broadcasted across the multiverse."
"I – DID – NOT – SEND – ANY – SIGNAL. LEAVE! MEWNI – IS – MINE – ALONE – TO – PROTECT."
"You cannot defeat these snakes!" I shouted. "These are fifth dimensional beasts sent from a higher spatial dimension. Your three-dimensional magic cannot harm them."
"STAR, LOOK OUT!" Quasar called from afar, forcing my head to turn.
And there, the snakes grew even more numerous, uncountable. They each snapped their heads violently backwards, baring their sharp fangs, and deep in their throats they began charging up a vortex of cosmic fire, the fire burned hot, hotter than supernovas, and they were aimed directly at the sun.
Wait a minute… could this…
Could this be what the message was talking about? What if… what if the flame of the snakes was the weapon we needed… the weapon we needed to defeat Fire… what if…
"Get out of the way!" Quasar yelled, "I'm teleporting this solar system out of here, now!"
"What? Wait…" I cried, unknowingly charging up my wand, "NO!"
With great force, I bent the space around and launched myself off into the vast ocean. The shortened distance put me up against Quasar face to face within the blink of an eye, with my hand grasping onto hers, holding her back.
"What are you… let go of me!" Cried Quasar.
"We need those snakes alive," I explained. "They're the key to beating Fire."
"What? Are you crazy?" Quasar shouted.
"LOOK OUT!" MonStar and 63 yelled, pointing their fingers.
And before we knew it – we were dust.
The cosmic fire of these gigantic snakes swallowed us whole. I could barely move an inch while consumed by this flame. It burned off my protective energy shield with ease, searing my skin. I could even feel the heat penetrating my innards, as if a spear had just stabbed straight into my gut. I tried to focus my energy to the wand, willing it so that we would be out of this hellish flame. But a fruitless attempt that was, for my own willpower was like a candlelight compared to the flamethrower of the snakes.
The great pillar of fire forced the four of us straight down unto the surface of the sun, cracking our skulls on the fiery ground while simultaneously pushing sun Star right out of her orbit, violently pulling Mewni and the asteroid belt with her. Sun Star was hurt, I could feel her heart beating faster by the minute.
How did it all go wrong so quickly? What exactly was the misstep we took?
How in Allmother's name did we all die so quickly?
My mind went blank, couldn't think straight.
This was it, this was how we were going to die. Right on the first day on the job.
Well, I guess technically it was the second day, since that whole thing with 63's universe and the Giant Unicorn, what the hell am I babbling on about?
We died.
End of story.
OR at least, we would've died if I didn't do the one thing I said I would not do.
Time travel.
Ha-ha, who's laughing now, Quasar? What I would give to have this view photographed. You looked real stupid right now. Flatten me like a bug, give me a break. You couldn't even hold onto your bell. It flew off with the explosion to Allmother knows where. And now I shall be the one to save the day, again.
All in the day's work.
So I told my wand to open a portal – and wind back time. Taking me back moments before. Just enough for me… to warn myself.
It was a foolproof plan… except…
The problem was I wasn't the first person to come up with this idea.
Or rather I should say I wasn't the first Star to come up with this idea.
Let's rewind a little bit.
Flash of blinding light, yaddi yaddi yadda, and there we were.
"Get out of the way!" Quasar yelled, "I'm teleporting this solar system out of here, now!"
"What? Wait…" the me from a few minutes ago cried, unknowingly charging up her wand, "NO!"
And there I came, shouting from the time portal:
"NO! Stop."
And what the blazes? Standing next to Quasar – I could not believe my eyes – two Princess Stars.
The me from just a few minutes ago, before attempting to grab Quasar by her hand, and another me?
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I'm… you?" The second me answered. "I come from the future. To warn the Corps about what's going to happen. Wait, who are you?"
"I also come from the future," I said, "in the future, we died. I'm here to prevent that."
Quasar shot me a look of disgust.
"What did I tell you about time traveling, Princess?" Quasar cried.
"Don't look at me," the original me said, "technically I haven't time traveled yet."
"Don't you dare give me that," Quasar shot back.
The madness of course did not stop there. Because over yonder behind me, came another portal.
"HEY, you guys. I come from the future, I'm here to warn you… what in Allmother's name is going on here?"
And another portal:
"Hey! I come from the future…"
And another:
"Hey there, fellow Stars…"
And another:
"Hey!"
Kept going on and on.
Until the space we were occupying were filled with enough Princess Stars to the point where it wasn't even possible to count them all. It filled up this solar system like jellybeans filling up an empty jar. Even the giant crystal snakes stopped momentarily, trying to decipher what was going on.
"Welp, this is the weirdest thing I've seen all day," said MonStar.
"You can say that again," said 63.
"What have you done, Princess?" Quasar asked.
"I… this doesn't make any sense…" I said, "this wasn't supposed to happen."
"You idiot!" Cried Quasar, "We are in a three-dimensional universe with a linear timestream, thus making what we do subject to its quantum laws. You go back in time, you're going to create a timeline divergence, thus technically meaning that you can't actually change the future."
"What?" I cried. "No, that doesn't seem right. We come from a timeline outside this one. What we do shouldn't have any effect, we are a foreign force."
"There are things we still do not fully understand about sixth dimensional magic," said Quasar. "With that kind of powerful extra dimensional magic, the divergences are somehow merging back into one singular super state, as if there is no divergence at all, and only one outcome is possible. Where you keep coming back in time to the same point, over and over again, to see yourself going back in time."
"GUYS, LOOK OUT!"
The great pillar of fire forced every single one of us straight down unto the surface of sun Star's fiery ground while simultaneously pushing her right out of her orbit, pulling Mewni and the asteroid belt with her.
How in Allmother's name did we all die so quickly?
Let's rewind a little bit.
"HEY, you guys. I come from the future, I'm here to warn you… what in Allmother's name is going on here?"
"I'm here about to tell this idiot Quasar not to teleport us away, because we need the crystal snakes alive."
"GUYS, LOOK OUT!"
The great pillar of fire forced every single one of us straight down unto the surface of sun Star's fiery ground while simultaneously pushing her right out of her orbit, pulling Mewni and the asteroid belt with her.
No way I will let it end like this.
Let's rewind a little bit.
"I'm here to warn…"
"LOOK OUT!"
"I'm here to warn you guys…"
"FIRE INCOMING!"
"Don't teleport…"
"WATCH OUT FOR THE SNAKES!"
"We need them alive, so don't tele…"
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
"I'm from the fut…"
"ENOUGH YOU FOOL!" Quasar cried, shaking off my strong grip, "Stop time traveling. You are IN the universe, part of this universe, no longer an outside foreign force meddling in a timeline you don't belong."
"The snakes!" I shouted, "Their sheer size must be warping time and space, merging the timelines."
"None of this nonsense make any sense to me," said 63, nudging the monster princess. "Are you following?"
"Nope," MonStar replied, shaking her head. "I think I'm going to… take a nap now."
"LOOK OUT!"
The great pillar of fire forced every single one of us straight down unto the surface of the sun, pushing sun Star right out of her orbit.
Let's rewind a little bit.
"So what exactly are we supposed to do to stop this?" I asked in the midst of the noisy crowd.
"I don't know!" Another me shouted.
"Think back," another me said, "what did we travel back here to do? To warn the Corps? Why?"
"Why do we have to warn the Corps?"
"Because we need to keep the snakes alive. And why is that?"
"Because Fire's weakness is crystal, so we might be able to get something out of these crystal snakes."
"Where did we get that idea?"
"THAT'S IT!"
"THE NOTE! The Messagegram!"
"I knew my bad feeling about the note was right!" 63 shouted.
"No address, no sender," cried Quasar, "and you're taking that god damn thing seriously? Enough of this nonsense. You are to drop this foolish path you are on and you are to help me teleport us the heck out of here, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
I gritted my teeth, and begrudgingly answered:
"Fine."
"Bell," Quasar commanded her wand, "teleport this solar system out of here."
"Error, error. Insufficient energy. Crystal energy interfering with magic frequencies."
"Star Butterflys!" I shouted towards my fellow future selves with a booming magical voice. The magic allowed the sound to be loud enough to catch their attention, "on my mark, together now. We teleport this solar system away from the snakes!"
The focus of our willpower was strong, and thus our magic wand was able to light up like a thousand suns. So bright not even my protective energy shield could fully protect my eyes from this blinding flash. To top that off, the light began to engulf the crystal snakes as well, bouncing off their innards and illuminating this solar system as if this were a big bang. This power was incredible.
So this was what the power of an army felt like – a proper Corps.
But it wasn't enough. The snakes were just too big, and their mass and gravity too heavy, pulling the entire solar system from the teleportation process out of the light speed. Like a rope with a hook tugging onto our side, except in this case the rope was the snakes and their monstrous fangs themselves.
"We need more power over here!" 63 shouted.
"Can't hold it any… longer…," MonStar strained her face.
"KEEP PUSHING!" Quasar yelled, with her bell furiously ringing, "We cannot let this world die. Not another one!"
"Wait!" A thought popped into my head, "I have an idea."
Turning around I commanded my cape and flew right towards the sun. She was beautiful, the celestial body before me. And the mighty greatsword she still hid within the sheath that was her heart was practically rupturing from within, anxious and eager. I could feel her blade vibrating with excitement, waiting to burst forward and obliterate them all.
"Sunny Star Butterfly!" I shouted, "Heed me. We need your help. Lend us your power and let us teleport this solar system far away from here."
Without a moment of hesitation, the sun began to rumble, vibrating incredible strength.
"CLEAR THE WAY!" I shouted, catching everyone's attention.
What a sight to behold that brief moment of power was. An exploding supernova expertly blasted towards in the distance as a massive beam, a pillar of pure plasma, giving power unto the spell the Corps was casting while simultaneously shielding us from crystal fire of the snakes. It gave us time, gave us energy, the strength to push forth and finally, after all these efforts, to focus our willpower and wish all of us out of this warzone. Not a moment too soon. I had a feeling that Sunny Star wouldn't have been able to hold the shield from the crystal fire for any longer than a few seconds at best. But a few seconds were enough.
What an intense first mission this was. We managed to save an entire civilization of millions if not billions of innocent lives. We even managed to shield these guys away from further prying eyes with the scissors Metal gave us. I had worried that we might not be able to return here again after using the scissors, but thankfully Metal told us that the only universe we could not go back to was our own home universe. We will still be able to travel freely to and from with other universes even if we had used the scissors for them.
The thought made me happy that I will still be able to help these people if more danger were to show up. But it did bring up certain personal feelings of longing, for it had been long since I last saw my father, my Allmother, my family.
Still, helping these folks was a good enough reward for me… I supposed. Sunny Star was a very responsible Star Butterfly. Even when we offered her help in relocating and settling the asteroid folks down to their new home, she still insisted she could accomplish such a feat by herself, because thankfully, she could tell that cleaning up the bunch of time traveling Stars would be much more tiresome than the problems with her own people. And she was right. It took quite a while to get everything back in order, all thanks to sixth dimensional magic. The incomprehensible magic that helped us clean up this timeline mess, finally merging all the future Stars back to me, somehow.
This was still one peculiar universe at the end of the day, a thought that never left my mind, lingering in the back. We asked her why she was a sun and why the rest of the Mewmans were either asteroids or moons. She told us her tale, or rather, she told us the reason for her tale anyway. A lot of things were still incredibly vague, all we knew then was that it was a long and tragic story, feeling responsible for her own mistakes of the past, she took up the responsibility as guardian and protector of Mewni and transferred her consciousness to the heart of this dying celestial body. How the rest of the Mewmans followed suit was, in her words, a story for another day. Very peculiar indeed, it was actually very fascinating talking to her. You wouldn't be able to tell from her looks, but she was a sparkling conversationalist.
In the end, I thanked Sunny Star just as she thanked the Corps for helping their people battle the crystal snakes. I even offered her a place in our Corps. And her answer?
"I – THANK – YOU – BUT – MY – PLACE – IS – HERE – WITH – MY – PEOPLE."
"I understand," I said. "You're still welcome to accept as an honorary member any time. Even if you're not with us physically. You can still be part of us."
"THANK – YOU – ALL. I – WISH – YOU – LUCK – WITH – YOUR – PERSONAL – MISSIONS. MY – CONDOLENCES."
"And we wish you luck as well," said Quasar. "Please, spread the word of the Corps. Let the people know of the multiverse's guardian."
"I – FARE – YOU – WELL."
Thus, with that the four of us sped off into the distance of cosmic far.
We had a lot to think about after this quest, a lot to talk about. And I think I knew what the first thing we needed to discuss was.
"I was wrong," I told Quasar as we were flying, to her absolute shock.
"Whoa, really?"
"Yes, really," I said. "You were right. Time isn't just something to mess with. Messing with a traditional timestream was chaotic enough. I shake in horror thinking what would happen if we mess with the temporal field outside the three-dimensional universes, in the Magic Source for example."
"It's not your fault really," she told me, to MY surprise. "It was a tense situation out there. You did what you had to do. Not to mention the letter that was sent to you. It influenced your decision making."
"Speaking of which," MonStar joined in, "where did that letter come from?"
"Like I said, I do not know," I told her. "It just showed up from this Messagegram monster who…"
I paused, gears were turning in my head. A letter with no name, no address, no stamp. Messagegram? The heck was a Messagegram? Unless… it was just something to cover up…
"HOLY ALLMOTHER OF GOD!" I shouted with this new revelation, "I was played. PLAYED! Like a fiddle, a fiddle!"
"What?" The three all asked in unison.
"There was never any Messagegram," I explained. "That monster was not who she said she was. The letter, it's not a Messagegram. It's a Timegram."
"A – WHAT?"
"It's crazy but hear me out," I cleared my throat, "time travel – is crazy. It is unpredictable, and incredibly powerful. Capable of shifting the entire universe if used improperly. We hold in our hands the most powerful weapons in the universe, nay, the most powerful devices in the multiverse. We need to have rules to keep us in check, keep our powers away from corruption, from being abused, either by an enemy or even one of us."
"We would never abuse these powers for evil goals," said 63.
"Not willingly, no," I told them, "the possibility of mind control exists, and that is a scenario we simply cannot ignore. We need rules, we need laws…"
"Like, some kind of Corps Code?" Quasar asked.
"Yeah exactly, that has a nice ring to it actually," I laughed, "we finally agree on something. We should have a Corps Code. With the first law on that code being – NO TIME TRAVEL."
"What does this have anything to do with the letter?" 63 asked.
"Don't you see?" I smiled, giddy at the thought of blowing their minds, "I was the one who sent this letter."
"Wait, WHAT?" They all shouted in disbelief.
"Or rather, I will be the one who sends this letter… to myself… in the past. Think about it, we would've never even considered the danger of time travel if we didn't see it for ourselves, because I wouldn't have been desperate to stick around and face the crystal snakes, resulting in us dying over and over and over again. The letter called my attention to this lie, the lie that 'Fire is weak to crystal' thus forcing my curiosity and my obsession. For the sake of the Corps Code, we have to send this letter backwards in time, so that our past selves would have a chance of understanding the importance of this Code when they see the madness of time travel itself. Do you follow me?"
"Nope, you lost me at sending the letter to yourself," said 63.
"This is going to hurt my brain," said MonStar. "Wait no, it already hurt my brain. I don't like it."
"Oh boy," Quasar sighed in disappointment, "are you really sure this is a good idea? Because I would much sooner bite off an actual bootstrap before I even touch this whole mess with a ten foot pole."
"Don't worry about it, I'll have the Timegram monster do the dirty work, much safer that way. There's a postal service for us to use, we should use it to our advantage, no? This will be the last time we time travel before the Code, I promise."
"You're really going through with it?" Quasar asked.
"Yes, that's right."
"And nothing I say is going to stop you, isn't it?" Quasar asked.
"Nope."