Fair warning: massive existential author rant ahead. Feel free to skip it, I wouldn't blame you.
Hey guys, long time no see. For those concerned, I am fine. I've actually had the next three chapters written for quite a while now, but I fell prey to a common enemy of the aspiring artist - self-criticism and doubt. This story keeps getting longer and longer and I felt like I'm going nowhere. I know I said somewhere along the line that I was just going to keep writing and not dwelling too much over what I or anyone else thought about it, but there's only so much heart and soul you can pour into a project before it becomes a part of you. Recently I began to ask myself: what's the point? Are arcs like these just artificial padding? Are they too ridiculous? Has this entire story been a waste of time? Should I have written something original instead of clinging to fanfiction?
The answer: probably not. In that period, I forgot the real reason I began this project, and that was to have fun with it. Honestly, self-improvement was second to the entertainment value, and creating a quality piece of art was third. I put too many eggs into that last basket over the course of the story, however. I'll never get anywhere if I worry too much about the quality of my work, and if there's anything I learned that I would advise to others, it's that. Don't spend too much time looking back or else you won't enjoy the ride!
That said, please enjoy the ride. :L
Chapter 38: March of the Automatons
The plan was decided upon. Spike and Fluttershy each sat at a computer console and, after a quick primer on strategy games, the two jumped right into commanding their own squad. They were both naturals, to everyone's surprise. Meanwhile, Hailstorm helped himself to a pack of titanium crossbow ammunition that Eggman had set aside for a rainy day - quite literally, in case his bots' guns jammed in the rain or something ridiculous like that. The other ponies used the monitors to get a good lay of the environment and plan their movements.
As for Robotnik himself, he ducked into a side-hangar to fetch one of his mountable giant robots, a relatively new one that he had been working on in case of an emergency like this. He flipped on the lights, revealing a 20-foot-tall red-and-black humanoid mech with a wide cylindrical body and many secret panels that harbored guns and missiles, topped with his trademark glass control dome. Bold, square letters on the side christened it the Egg-Desperado.
"Everyone in position?" chirped Light Star's voice over the radio headset that he and the others had been given.
"This is Spike and Fluttershy standing by at the command console," Spike answered for the both of them, hands and hooves poised over their respective mouse and keyboard.
"Twilight Sparkle here with Rarity in the balconies," Twilight sounded off, each unicorn taking a separate sniper's nest on opposite sides of the tower.
"Rainbow Dash and Hailstorm ready for liftoff," Rainbow announced, standing with Hail on the roof with wings spread. Hail loaded a bolt into his crossbow.
"Pinkie Pie and Applejack ready to make robot confetti spaghetti!" Pinkie cheerfully affirmed, waiting with Applejack in the lobby and taking cover.
"The Eggman has boarded the Desperado," Dr. Eggman said as he sat in the driver's seat of his new, expensive ride, getting a feel for the controls.
"That's everyone, then," Light finished, adjusting his gold helmet. "Send in the first wave!"
Spike and Fluttershy each took a number of reinforcements from the ground floor and send them out into the battlefield, unleashing gunfire as they pushed ahead. Many were shot down in an instant, but neither side was without casualties. The pegasi took off. Hailstorm fired deftly from above, his air control allowing him to dodge enemy fire as he took out his share of bots one by one. Rainbow landed swiftly behind a large number of foes on the opposite side and proceeded to kick them into pancakes; by the time they realized what was going on, the female flier had taken out nearly half of a squad. She took off into the air again to dodge most of the retaliation, taunting them.
The confusion allowed Twilight and Rarity to settle down and begin firing without fear of getting spotted. Twilight fired a continuous burst of magical beams, delighted at her armor's supply of energy making it a breeze. Rarity, on the other hand, focused on single, precise shots that were just as deadly.
With the invaders overwhelmed by firepower, Light gave the order to send in the rest of the ground troops, the three earth ponies leading the charge. Hooves and bullets flew everywhere, giving new meaning to the term "buckshot". Pinkie bounced nonchalantly across their heads, stunning them just long enough for Applejack or Light to give them a solid rear-hoof slam. Spike got the hang of placing his troops just where they could cause the most damage, and Fluttershy had a knack for micro-management, sending an allied bot in the way of just about every imminent attack on the main ground force.
And then... the hangar doors opened. The Egg-Desperado leaped out of the tower, already landing on and crushing several of the opposition, then turned to fire a barrage of missiles at a squad that was just starting to regroup. Pivoting on one foot, Eggman extended the panels on his mech's arms to reveal massive machine guns powerful enough to be standalone mounted turrets, using them to gun down an entire line of reserve forces that were desperately piling in.
"Their numbers are dwindling!" Light exclaimed as he plowed into an adversary that had paused to frantically reload its gun.
"They would be retreating by now if they knew what was good for them!" Eggman stated as he slammed his metal fist into a bot.
It did seem odd to most of the defenders that the enemy were still trying, despite the crushing loss that they were being subjected to... until a piercing voice cut through the uproar.
"Enough of this foolishness!" the semi-monotone, dominating voice boomed. It was far different from any robotic voice the ponies had heard. "You leave us with no other alternative but to show our full strength!"
A wave of several dozen somewhat short, stout metal figures descended from the sky. They looked more like metal-plated pillars than robots, equipped with two appendages each that resembled egg beaters and plungers. From their flat, circular heads extended two light bulbs, positioned almost like horns, and a single eye-stalk of a lens watched the battlefield unwaveringly from forward-center. They did not look particularly threatening alone, but there was something about the way they spoke and approached that conveyed vast amounts of hatred and power, bringing chills to all of the organic fighters.
"You will submit to the Daleks!" another one droned.
"Exterminate!" echoed a third, inviting further, similar cries from the others.
"Daleks?!" repeated Light. Something about that name gave Light in particular an all-encompassing wave of dread, though he couldn't quite place why.
"Whatever they are, they're going down!" Rainbow Dash made a beeline for the nearest Dalek hoof-first. She was convinced that her speed was so great that the new challenger could not react in time, but after a quick bolt of energy fired from its limb, heading straight for her heart, she was proven wrong. She could barely lean far enough for it to glance off of her armor, but at that speed, the change of course sent her plummeting to the ground.
The gloves were off. The Daleks opened fire on the rest of Eggman's robots, cutting straight through their hulls and dropping many of them on the spot. Fluttershy barely managed to save a few of them by sending them into cover behind a nearby building, and the exposed ponies followed suit under continued heavy fire. The Daleks gave chase, showing no signs of mercy.
A few of them headed for the top floor of the tower, as if they knew who was giving the orders. "They're headed this way!" squeaked Fluttershy.
"I'm on it!" Dr. Eggman activated thrusters on the feet of the Desperado, blocking their path. "Take this, you cheaply made garage projects!" Eggman bantered as his palms opened up, launching an impressive array of miniature rockets at them. They were all direct hits, as the Daleks did not try to dodge them... but it was soon evident why, as when the explosions cleared, they emerged without a scratch.
"Blast! They have some kind of advanced shielding!" Eggman lamented, slamming his fists on the interior console, and quickly reviewing his other options. They gave him little time to do that, unfortunately for him, as they fired straight into the glass dome, shattering it and hitting the mad scientist directly in the torso. He slumped over, and without a conscious pilot, the Desperado spiraled downward.
"No!" Twilight called as the mech crashed below her. Determined, Twilight aimed her horn in their direction and fired a thick, solid beam, but all it did was bounce off of their exteriors and get their attention. She quickly dove back into the tower as they fired upon her.
"What can we do?!" Spike panicked. "Most of our troops are down for the count, and there's no way the ones that are left can do anything to them!"
"I... I don't know...!" Hailstorm responded as three Daleks approached the rest of the ponies' hiding spot. "Light, any ideas?" He turned to address Light Star, but the dark-coated earth pony was nowhere to be found. "Oh great, he flew the coop and he doesn't even have wings..."
"Wait, there he is!" Pinkie Pie pointed to the roof of a smaller building, where the unmistakable silhouette of Light Star stood. He had removed his armor somewhere along the line, and appeared to be chanting something inaudible - whatever it was, it wasn't broadcast over their airwaves.
"What's he doin' without his armor?!" Applejack questioned.
"Shush, this is going to be sweet!" Pinkie silenced her as a dark sphere formed in front of her love interest. Taking a running start, Light proceeded to dive into the sphere, kicking it at the Daleks that were approaching the tower. They fired upon it, but it merely absorbed their beams, increasing in size slightly. It was a miniature black hole! Clearly built for power and not speed, the Daleks could not avoid being crushed and assimilated into the black hole.
"Did he just dropkick a black hole?!" Twilight commented, but that was just the beginning. Light disappeared, then reappeared in front of the black hole, kicking it another direction in midair at the Daleks that were threatening the hiding ponies. They helplessly fell into it, and as it neared the ponies, its gravity began to pull slightly on them as well.
But, just in time, Light appeared before the hole again and kicked it back at another attacking Dalek force. It was then that the observers had a good view of Light, and they noticed that he had taken on a lime-green, almost radioactive aura the likes of which none of them had seen before. Light looked back at Hailstorm in particular and winked before disappearing again.
"We must regroup!" one of the surviving Daleks announced to its neighbor.
"You have not seen the last of us," the other promised, "we will return and have our conquest!"
The remaining Daleks turned tail and began to flee. Light let his black hole reach just in front of the tower before he warp-kicked it again.
"Wait, they're retreating!" called Twilight. "We're better than them, we don't have to kill them all...!"
"I thought they were just heartless automatons," Rarity scoffed.
"They seemed a bit too expressive and advanced to be robots," Hailstorm observed.
"Guys, I don't think it matters," Spike said, peering out of the window. "He wasn't aiming for them..." The black hole's trajectory seemed to be straight off into the distant sky. "I guess he was just getting rid o-"
BOOM! An explosion cut the black hole short. A massive silhouette in the distance flashed, light bending around it in an odd way before it solidified completely. It was some kind of flagship, apparently cloaked and hovering near Metropolis. Now revealed, a grand chunk of it had been absorbed by the localized gravity of the black hole, causing it to fall.
"Huh... how did he know that was there...?" Fluttershy uttered, starting to fear Light's new-found power almost as much as the Daleks.
On its way down, a smaller, circular ship ejected from it, setting a course into the sunset, but Light was prepared - he materialized above it and slammed it ground-ward.
Unquestioningly, the ponies all flocked to the site of the escape pod crash, their respective weapons at the ready, prepared to confront whoever was behind all of this. Light, however, had already disappeared again.
As the door slid open, Hailstorm kept his crossbow trained on it.
Coughing and sputtering, a female brown bear crawled out of the wreckage. She had a similar height and build to Amy, perhaps a bit taller, and much of her body was covered with metal, most notably the top left quarter of her head, giving her a piercing red eye. It was difficult to tell which parts were grafted to her body, and which composed the cybernetic suit that she wore. She made sure to put her hands up as soon as possible.
"I should've figured it would go down like this..." she sighed, more disappointed than afraid.
"Who are you and why did you attack Eggman's tower?" Hail demanded.
"Rochelle is my name," she answered. "And, I'm one of the bad guys. That's just what we do." She smirked.
"Clever, but that doesn't tell us anything we wanted to know," Twilight scorned.
"Then why don't you ask better questions?" Rochelle patiently sat on the edge of the wreckage, crossing one leg over the other, her arms still raised.
"Who do y'all work for and what are y'all tryin' to accomplish?" Applejack articulated rather curtly.
"That's better," the cyborg bear calmly complimented. "I work for a powerful man... a few of you have already met him."
Hailstorm exhaled sharply as he recalled the one person whom she could possibly have meant. "Charge."
"And as for your other question," she continued, before anyone had a chance to react further, "We're only trying to do the same thing all of you are. To make sure these universes get put back in the right places."
"But you JUST said you were a bad guy," Rainbow cut in.
"Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it?" Rochelle refuted. "I'm only trying to lighten things up a bit. Besides, Eggman is a bad guy too, isn't he?"
"It's a gray area at this point," Eggman muttered, granting him stares from just about everyone.
"Eggman? You're okay?!" Hail shouted in disbelief. Eggman looked like a million bucks.
"That spacey stallion friend of yours gave me one of his 'magic potions'," he emphasized the last couple of words with finger quotes as Light Star shuffled up to the scene, once again wearing his full golden armor.
Pinkie gasped at the sight of him. "Oh, Lightsy!" she cried, tackling him with a leaping hug. "That black hole thing was AMAZING! How did you do that?"
"Ack, what?" Light was caught completely off-guard in more ways than one. "What black hole thing?"
Pinkie released him. "You know, the hodge-cake spacey thing. That must have taken a LOT of cake!"
Light blinked, but before he could find the words to answer, Twilight interrupted. "We can talk about that later. I believe Rochelle here was about to tell us why she attacked Eggman's headquarters, even though we're all supposedly on the same side?"
"Oh, I was just trying to liberate his resources and put them to better use, as my boss would say." Rochelle leaned back with her hands behind her head. "Nothing that Astra wouldn't have done eventually, at a slower pace."
"Well maybe if you had asked nicely, I would've let you borrow some," Eggman taunted, the sarcasm definitely evident in his voice. But Hail wasn't listening at that point. The mention of Astra's name flipped up a flag in his mind. They hadn't heard from her ever since she had left to help their potential eighth player. Hastily, he retrieved the mobile device that he had been given and attempted to contact her.
Hail began typing as a rather spiteful argument between Rochelle and Eggman ensued.
- hailStorm [HS] began pestering spacefaringPioneer [SP] -
HS: astra are you there
HS: please be alive
SP: _nice CHUMHANDLE, hamhooves._
SP: _where'd your ORIGINALITY go, south for the WINTER?_
HS: what who is this
HS: what have you done with astra
SP: _if you MUST know, i am the MAILMAN._
SP: _i'm just making SURE that the mail goes THROUGH._
SP: _through RAIN, or SLEET, or SNOW, or HAIL..._
SP: _something something without fail. MAIL._
SP: _you get the IDEA._
"...so who is this mailman, anyway?" Hail voiced, trying his best to keep his sanity. "One of your goons?"
"I see you've met Mefirst." Rochelle seemed rather enthused about his mentioning. "How's he doing? Is he delivering on his promise?"
"To... make sure the mail goes through?" Hail shook off his bewilderment, replacing it with anger. "Whatever that means, it doesn't explain what happened to DJ, or why he's using Astra's phone. What did he do to her?!" This seemed to get Eggman's attention fairly quickly.
"Relax, she's not dead," Rochelle reassured him. "She was just... an obstacle. A roadblock in between him and the mailbox."
"Yeah, but what about DJ?" Hail did not waver. "Did he kill him?" A thought struck him, which only served to heighten his rage. "Let me guess, your gang killed DJ so that Charge can take his place in the game, just like in that other timeline! That's why you all want us to play the game so badly, as long as he's a part of it you could end up with complete control!"
"Hah!" Rochelle broke into laughter. "If Charge takes DJ's place, it's only because you were too late to save him and the show must go on. What other choice would we have then? Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe Mefirst is facilitating the process? DJ was a good friend of hers, if she denied and pined over his death this game would never get started. It was for her own good!"
"I've heard enough," snapped Dr. Eggman. "All of you, follow me. Except for you, you lying patched-up old teddy bear! You're on your own."
"Where are we going, Humpty Dumpty?" asked Pinkie Pie innocently.
"We're going to rescue Astra and her friend," Eggman stated. "And cut out the cutesy nicknames, they're not helping."
"See if you can talk some sense into her while you're at it," Rochelle called after as the fed-up ponies followed the scientist. "Your clocks are still ticking."
"Ugh... grargh..."
Pained, Astra involuntarily rolled over in bed. There wasn't a lot of room, however, so gravity took its course. Plop.
"Ow... what..." She sat up, raising her hand to rub her eyes in a drowsy stupor, only to have it collide with her glasses.
She briefly wondered why she had slept with her glasses on. On top of that, it felt like she had been asleep forever.
Her eyes fully opened, she saw that she was in her room... except not quite her room. It was too purple to be her room.
"Yo, sis! 'Bout time you woke up, girl!"
The voice was very familiar. She looked at her windowsill, upon which sat a stout figure in shadow. It didn't take her long to deduce who that was - and doing so brought back her memory as well.
"DJ Beats!" she shouted, getting onto her feet quickly, only to stumble around dizzily, suffering from a massive headrush. "You're alive...?"
"Kinda," said Beats, hopping off of the window and into the light of her room. The light revealed the round form of a giant dark purple vegetable; more precisely, a beet with arms and legs. As well as a face, bearing peach fuzz and a pair of bold green eyes. His green stalk was tied back in a ponytail. Beats' appearance was not news to Astra, of course. What was news was that he was alive and here in the same room.
Which begged the question: "Where are we?"
"Only the hippest night club in the multiverse," Beats jived, gesturing his arms level as if scratching invisible records. "Which just so happens to be the dark moon Derse. Digging the duds, by the way."
Astra looked down at herself, noticing that she was wearing a set of purple pajamas. "Since when did I own this...?"
"Listen, girl, Beats knows you have lots to ask, and normally he'd be up to the task, but time is just not on our side. We gotta figure how to change the tide."
"If we're running low on time, why are you bothering to rhyme?" Astra replied with a smile. Despite the irony, she couldn't help but play along.
"It's just an old habit of mine, one that I can't help but refine, but truth is, sister, I'm dyin'." Beats sat down on Astra's bed. "The thing about dream selves is it's like having an extra life. There are two of you, dig? And two of me, and everyone. Your real self goes to sleep, your dream self stops counting sheep. That is, if you've awakened. Something must've finally opened your eyes."
"I was... trying to save you, but there was this annoying mailman..." Astra rubbed her head, which was still a little sore.
"He knocked you out, but you just had to shout," Beats summarized. "So you woke up here."
"And what happens if your real self dies? You get to live on as your dream self?"
"It's not quite that simple. One self dies, the other starts to die as well. There might be a way to make it reverse, but how the heck can we do that from Derse...?"
"Perhaps I can answer that." A third, male voice spoke, sounding almost playful. Astra and Beats frantically looked around the room, seeking its point of origin, but it seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"Who's there?" Astra asked. She looked at Beats, expecting him to know, but he simply shook his head and shrugged.
"Just a... friend," the voice answered.
"Now, Beats once heard about this kinda thing..." the DJ strained to remember. "Something about a lunar eclipse, and voices from the Furthest Ring..."
"You're not wrong! But I'm far from one of those... what do you commoners call them... 'horrorterrors'? You just can't trust those guys."
"And we can trust you?" Astra said skeptically. "How can we trust someone who won't show themselves?"
"I can't show myself because I'm not actually here. The Medium is outside of my domain, I'm just talking through a proxy."
"What kind of proxy?" Astra pressed, crossing her arms.
"Look, if I explained every little thing, not only would it be BORING, but you would run out of time, and your smooth vegetable friend... would die!" Even though the voice was losing patience, it still seemed oddly expressive.
"He's got a point, sis," Beats surrendered. "Revivals first, exposition later."
Astra sighed. "Fine. What do you want us to do?"
"Someone very important and powerful is coming to help you. Not the you here, though, the you back on Earth."
"Sounds promising," Astra remarked sarcastically.
"Pay attention, this is where it gets weird. After he helps you with your mailman problem, you have two choices. You can take the normal route, which is to find and kiss Beats' dead body..." He paused intentionally, knowing of the upcoming reaction.
Astra looked at Beats, picturing the scene reluctantly. They both mentally agreed that any other option would be better than that.
"OOOOR, we can exploit all of the tools at our disposal, in a way we were never intended to, and possibly cause a paradox."
"A paradox?!" Astra repeated. Her studies of time travel and alternate realities had taught her that paradoxes were not to be messed with. "I'd rather not deal with a paradox right now..."
"Sis, the other option is to kiss my corpse. That's messed up, yo. Our choice is forced."
"Ha... rhyming even now? I love this guy!" The voice guffawed. "But seriously, that's how you revive people in this game. By kissing their corpses. I joke a lot, but this is too much even for me. The paradox is starting to look pretty good about now, isn't it? Also, between you and me... you'll kill a whole lot more birds if you throw the time-stone! And your session could use a good speeding-along, right?"
Astra jumped onto her bed, burying her face in her pillow. "Let's get this over with..." she muffled. "What's the paradox...?"
A small, pen-shaped object flew in through the window as she made her decision. It rolled until Beats stopped it with his foot and picked it up. It was the Sonic Screwdriver.
"Give this to your rescuer, he'll know what to do with it. Be sure to tell him it's from the best pony."
Astra lifted her head and stared at the object that Beats held. "How do we get this back to Earth?" Astra questioned. "If this is a separate body... we can't just take objects with us, can we?"
"You can if you believe hard enough!" the voice answered ambiguously. "Seriously kid, don't sweat the details. It'll work, just trust me."
At this point, they were running out of options. Astra took the screwdriver from Beats and collapsed in the bed. "So who is the 'best pony' anyway?" she asked one final question.
"Oh, just about everyone you talk to will have a different answer for that," the voice coyly replied. "Beats, play her a lullaby."