A/N: A fandom based on a cartoon shows up in this chapter. The AU is post-S4.
15. Precious Cinnamon Rolls
As a reward for bringing Roman Torchwick to justice – as temporary as that ended up being – Papyrus had been granted a $100 gift card to spend at the New Vulpine mall. While Knightdock had shopping enough to fulfill everyday needs and quite a few frivolities, its fare paled in comparison to the New Vulpine mall, which was a triple-decker of boutiques that seemed to sell everything from cradles to coffins. Papyrus had gotten a bright and early start on traveling over to the metropolis in order to begin questing through the labyrinth of clothing and gift shops. After a few minor purchases of keychains and similar trinkets, he found himself hungry. A pretzel stand set into the wall advertised having varieties of pretzel for both human and monster digestion systems, so Papyrus was drawn to it. It was no spaghetti, but pretzels were a close second.
"EXCUSE ME!" he said to the man behind the counter. "I WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ONE OF YOUR PRETZELS!"
"Yeah?" the man replied grumpily. "Which one?"
"HMMM…" Papyrus thought it over, his eyes scanning the menu. There were quite a few varieties to choose from. As a teenage boy and a girl around the same age lined up behind him, he mused out loud, "PERHAPS I WILL TAKE ONE OF YOUR CHEESE STUFFED…NO, A SEASONED…NO, WAIT, A CLASSIC! WAIT. CAN I GET IT AS BITES? DO I WANT IT AS BITES?"
"Look, bonehead, will you hurry up?" the cashier groaned. "I've got actual human customers waiting!"
Papyrus was momentarily struck speechless by this. Of course, it wasn't the first time he'd been referred to as being less important than humans, but it still always gave him pause to hear it. It hurt, but perhaps this man was just having a bad day, he figured. Before he could say anything more, the boy behind him spoke up: "Hey! You can't talk to him like that just because he's not a human!"
"And we don't mind waiting," the girl added. "I don't even know what kind of pretzel I want anyway."
"I think I can say what I want," the cashier replied. "And I also think once you figure it out, you can go ahead and cut in front of this bag of bones. He doesn't have a brain in there to make up anyway, so you'd be waiting forever."
"And I think we don't have to listen to you or get your pretzels after all," the boy resolved, crossing his arms.
"You're not the only food stand in the mall, after all!" the girl added. "…I think. I'm new here."
"THERE IS A CINNAMON ROLL STAND AROUND THE CORNER," Papyrus pointed out.
"Then that's what we're having," the boy decided. "You should come with us! You don't have to put up with this!"
"THAT'S RIGHT!" Papyrus decided. "I CERTAINLY DON'T! YOU, SIR, ARE OBVIOUSLY HAVING A BAD DAY, BUT IT WILL STILL BE A COLD DAY IN THE HOTLANDS BEFORE YOU SEE ME PURCHASING ANY DELICIOUS PRETZELS FROM YOU!"
"Aw, c'mon, all this for one of THEM?" the cashier sighed. "Isn't it enough that we make the weird food for them?"
By that time, the boy and Papyrus were already striding off toward the cinnamon roll stand. The girl turned to stick her tongue out with a "Nyah!" before following them.
"YOU DID NOT HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL OF THAT TROUBLE AND FORFEIT YOUR DELICIOUS PRETZELS FOR ME!" Papyrus told the pair in awe.
"Well, he wasn't being nice," the girl stated.
"The pretzels wouldn't have been that good anyway," the boy added.
They rounded the corner to where a much friendlier-looking cashier was staffing the cinnamon roll stand; her menu, as well, boasted both human and monster fare. "Hi there!" she greeted with a smile. "What'll it be?"
"I AM FEELING RATHER INDECISIVE AGAIN," Papyrus admitted, looking over the advertised wares. "YOU SHOULD GO FIRST!"
"Well, I know what I want!" The girl sped up to the counter; more quickly than most humans did, Papyrus noticed. "One cup of cinnamon bites, please!"
"And I'll just take one regular roll!" the boy ordered. He turned to his female companion; "I got this." He then proceeded to remove a small drawstring purse from his pocket, and from within, he removed several small glittering crystals of various colors; more, in fact, than should have fit in that purse were it not magic.
"Um…sorry, sweetie," the cashier said, "but I don't think we take those here." She wondered if the boy was from out of the country, and exactly what nation used those small crystals as currency. "The register just isn't set up for them, and I wouldn't know the exchange rate."
"Oh…" The boy was rather flummoxed.
"FEAR NOT!" Papyrus stepped forward. "I WILL COVER ALL THREE OF OUR ORDERS!"
"Really?" the girl replied, in awe. "You don't have to do that!"
"WHAT'S A CINNAMON ROLL OR TWO BETWEEN FRIENDS?" Papyrus offered.
"We're already friends?" the girl asked.
"Of course we are!" the boy supplied. "We took down the evils of the pretzel man together!"
"WOWIE!" Papyrus squealed. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I'VE ALREADY MADE TWO NEW FRIENDS! OH, AND I TOO WILL HAVE THE BITES."
The cashier nodded; she knew what recipe to use for each to make it palatable for their respective digestive systems. "Coming right up!" She swiped Papyrus' gift card and set about readying the rolls.
"NOW THAT WE ARE CINNAMON ROLL FRIENDS," Papyrus decided, "IT IS TIME WE ARE PROPERLY INTRODUCED! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! WHAT ARE YOUR NAMES?"
"I'm Sora!" the boy introduced proudly.
"And I'm Ruby," Ruby added. "Ruby Rose!"
As one, they said, "Nice to meet you, Papyrus!" before turning to point at each other and yell, "JINX!" They then burst into a gigglefit.
As the cashier handed out their cinnamon treats, the trio walked deeper into the heart of the mall. "YOU AREN'T FROM AROUND HERE, ARE YOU?" Papyrus asked. "I SAW THE MONEY YOU TRIED TO USE."
"Yeah…" Sora used one hand to scratch at the back of his head while using the other to support his cinnamon roll. "I guess munny only works on worlds that have knowledge of each other. Or with the Moogles. They know all about every world!"
"YOU ARE FROM ANOTHER WORLD?" Papyrus' eyeballs nearly bugged right out of his skull.
"Strange but true!" Ruby confirmed.
"We actually came here looking for bad guys," Sora explained. "But so far, we haven't turned anything up. So we decided to go shopping for a bit to see if we could find any new accessories that might be helpful in battle."
"We were also hungry," Ruby added. "Very, VERY hungry! ThankyouthankyouTHANKYOU again for picking up those cinnamon rolls for us! I promise we'll pay you back!"
"NO NEED!" Papyrus told the duo.
"It might be a little hard to do that right now anyway, if nobody around here takes munny," Sora remarked.
"EVERYONE AROUND HERE TAKES MONEY," Papyrus told him, confused. "JUST NOT YOUR KIND OF MONEY."
"But we'll do something to make it up to you!" Sora resolved. "So…what were you shopping for, anyway?"
"I DON'T KNOW YET!" Papyrus told them. "I WAS REWARDED WITH A GIFT CARD FOR STOPPING A DANGEROUS EVIL IN MY HOMETOWN, AND I WAS JUST DECIDING WHAT TO SPEND IT ON! ARE YOU THINKING WHAT I AM THINKING?"
"That it would be super fun to get to know each other better while touring this mall?" Sora suggested.
"IT'S LIKE YOU READ MY MIND!" Papyrus cried happily. "WHICH I DO HAVE, BY THE WAY."
"Then let's do it!" Ruby announced. "Sora, Ruby Rose, and the great Papyrus will CONQUER THE MALL!" She popped a cinnamon bite into her mouth. "Mm. That's the good stuff!"
"AND YOU CAN TELL ME ALL ABOUT THE WORLD YOU'RE FROM AND HOW YOU CAME HERE!" Papyrus decided. The idea of other worlds was a little strange to him, but what reason did these two have to lie?
"It's kind of a long story," Sora began, "but here goes!"
...
Mozenrath's gummi ship made a rough touchdown at the edge of a thick, dark forest, at which point Even hurriedly urged everyone to "Get out, get out, and get undercover of the forest! And keep moving! It won't take them long to catch up to us!"
As Mozenrath, Mim, Aghoul, Wuya, and Even progressed further into the wood, they found that it only became darker and wilder. It might even have been frightening to less hardened souls.
"So what makes this world so special?" Mozenrath asked.
"As I said, there is not one human to be seen upon it, save for now us," Even answered. "It has a particular brand of complex magic that frightens many interdimensional travelers away. But the majority of them simply do not know it is here. I doubt our pursuers even had this space on their map labeled before they followed us."
"If humans don't live here," Wuya asked, "what does?"
"Something we don't want to be seen by," Even answered. "Not unless we want to waste our time answering a lot of questions or draw attention to ourselves by putting down all witnesses."
The quintet became aware of a distinct rustling in one of the bushes. "That's one of them now!" Even hissed. "Out of sight!"
"Hold still," Mozenrath commanded.
The next thing Even knew, he was looking at four trees where once there had been mages. Obviously, it was another of Mozenrath's glamours, and he could only assume that he too looked like a tree.
The source of the rustling finished working its way through the bushes, coming into full view. It was a pony, soft yellow in color with a flowing mane of powder pink. A pair of delicate feathered wings lay folded against her back, and her flank was adorned with a sigil of three butterflies. She carried a wicker basket in her mouth. She set it down on the grass in order to speak: "That's strange. I could have sworn I heard somepony talking."
A lithe white rabbit bounded its way into the clearing, hopping over to a bush ripe with purple berries and pointing at it excitedly.
The pony shook her head. "No, no, Angel. The berries we're looking for aren't purple. But thank you anyway. What we're looking for is red berries. Like those!" She picked up the basket again and trotted over to another bush, this one adorned with berries of crimson. After spending a while plucking the berries out from between the leaves with her hooves, somehow not squashing a single one, she picked up the basket, turned around, and left.
After some time had passed, Even announced, "I believe the coast is clear."
The five trees once again became five mages. "I take it this whole world is filled with winged ponies, then?" Mozenrath asked, rather intrigued.
"Ponies make up the primary population, yes," Even told him. "They are divided into three sub-races: the winged pegasi like that one you saw there, unicorns that wield powerful magic, and 'earth ponies,' which have neither wings nor magical horns. The government, on the other hand, is composed of 'alicorns,' or ponies that bear both wings and horns. That's not to speak of the other races that populate this world, such as griffons and dragons."
"Did you say DRAGONS?" Mim's interest was immediately piqued. "Well, if I have to become a dragon to fit in…" She gave a playful shrug.
Even fired her a glare. "No. If you want to walk amongst the inhabitants of this world without raising suspicion, you will do so as a pony."
"Oh, fine!" Mim shimmered into the body of a magenta unicorn around the size of the pegasus they'd seen come through earlier.
"No, no, no!" Even shook his head. "You're forgetting the mark! They all bear those marks on their flanks to display who they are! It is a symbol of their very soul, and for a grown pony to be seen without one, well, you'd be better off not drawing attention by turning into a dragon!"
Mim turned to look back at her flank for a moment. After some deliberation, she chose a design: a withered, dead flower with black petals drew itself upon her coat. "There!" she remarked proudly.
"That's all well and good," Mozenrath commented, "but the rest of us don't change shape that easily. I suppose I could whip up another glamour…"
"Well, I assumed you would be able to change forms by conducting Mim's shapeshifting power through your gauntlet," Even said sternly.
He was met with a silence that told him all too much. "DON'T tell me you don't know what I'm talking about!" he groaned. "Must I do EVERYTHING for you? Particular specialty powers can be temporarily transferred through an act of physical contact and a sharing of will. In other words, if Mim were to put her hoof in Mozenrath's hand, and the two of them connected mentally in a way that they would allow each other permission to use their power, then Mozenrath could not only shapeshift, but cast shapeshifting over everyone else present. Is that clear enough for you?"
"For the record, I knew you could do that all along," Wuya commented.
"Then why didn't you say anything earlier?" Even accused.
"Well…" Mozenrath looked to Mim. "If you'll let me use your power for my own…"
"Just so long as you don't go making a big mess with it!" Mim replied. "That's MY job!"
"I'm well aware."
Mim reached up a hoof, and Mozenrath awkwardly settled his left hand around it. It took them a few moments of silence and confusion to connect their energies, but soon, Mozenrath was able to find Mim's aura at the edges of his own: a highly pressurized entity, ready to blow up at any second. Mim was more surprised by what Mozenrath's felt like: chilling and rotten. After a brief period of focus on each other's energies, Mozenrath clenched his fist, and the magic that sparked around it was not blue but purple. He cast his hand outward, sweeping across all of his current companions, and they changed immediately.
All were unicorns, and all had manes that resembled the hair that dominated their heads as humans – Aghoul, of course, had no mane, and instead just a twisted dark beard. Mozenrath was a deep hue of royal blue, with a black swirl vaguely identifiable as windblown sand as his Cutie Mark. (Even declined telling him the proper name of the design, as he knew it wouldn't go over well, and might result in the crucial Cutie Marks being eliminated from the new forms on principle.) Though the others' clothes had been mostly neutralized, Mozenrath retained his gauntlet, now more hoof-shaped, on his right front leg; beneath it, the leg was as skeletal as the limb had always been. Wuya was jet black, with a Cutie Mark that resembled the puzzle box that had once been her prison. Aghoul was light lavender, with a skull as his Cutie Mark. Even was light blue, with a slightly darker blue Cutie Mark in the shape of his shield.
"Satisfactory," Even remarked, turning a 360 to look himself over. "Now we can blend in long enough to formulate a plan to lose our pursuers."
"And how exactly are we doing to do that, Mr. Smart Guy?" Aghoul asked.
Something tingled at the edge of Wuya's senses. "There's something magical nearby," she observed. "It isn't a Shen Gong Wu, but…something similar."
"If it's magic," Mozenrath resolved, "we might as well take a look into it."
"What about our pursuers?" Even snapped.
"Think of it this way, Even," Mozenrath told him. "If whatever we find is powerful enough, it might just solve that little problem for us."
Even snorted. "I must admit that has merit."
"To the magical whatever-it-is!" Aghoul crowed as the quintet of unicorns meandered further into the heart of the Everfree Forest.
...
Aboard Grimhilde and Cruella's ship, which had landed some distance away from the forest, the Mirror's glass showed a fresco of multicolored ponies trotting back and forth down the streets of a nearby town: shopping, heading to and from school, making deliveries, and other such errands of life.
"There seems not to be a single human among them," Grimhilde observed.
"Why, DARLING!" Cruella gushed, positively giddy. "Look at all of their beautifully colored coats! Do you realize the clothing that could be made out of those colors? Of course, horsehair isn't in high demand, but the people would certainly make an exception for this. Especially if I trimmed them with the feathers from the winged ones! Of course, I'd save the best for my own personal use, but there are so MANY. By selling them off, I'd make millions! And those unique marks on their behinds would make such novelties. Grimmie, dear, it's positively perfect!"
Grimhilde bristled slightly at the nickname. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, especially given the speech it had come at the end of, but she was quite unused to pet names. She cast her hand over the mirror, and it showed her different scenes: ponies in a larger kingdom, ponies in a modern cityscape, dragons in the mountains, griffons on the peaks. No humans whatsoever. "Perhaps, in order to travel this world discreetly, we shall need to change form," she mused. "There are certain forms that would also give us distinct advantages against Mozenrath and his cohorts…not to mention the sheer amount of unicorns I have seen. This is a realm of powerful magic."
"Where is the little brat, anyhow?" Cruella asked impatiently.
Grimhilde kept her eyes on the mirror. "Where the unicorns frolic and the pegasus glides, show me wherein this Mozenrath hides."
The solemn voice came once more from the man in the mirror: "The whereabouts you want to know upon this world are what I show." Flames rose up in the glass, then immediately gave over to a buzzing static screen not unlike what would be seen on an electronic television and certainly not something that happened routinely to magical mirrors.
"Is it supposed to do that?" Cruella asked.
"No…" Grimhilde scowled.
The mirror was then filled with the image of a stained glass window. A long and limber creature, part dragon and part pony, was depicted in the angular glass, doing a repetitive dance, shuffling its feet over the head of a larger image and extending and retracting its fists. Obnoxiously loud dance music blared from the Mirror.
"WHAT in the worlds!" Cruella spat.
"A draconequus," Grimhilde identified stonily. "A creature of great power. No doubt he is preventing us from seeing what we wish to see."
"Well, why would he want to do that?"
"Perhaps keeping Mozenrath's location a secret is beneficial to his own end," Grimhilde suspected. "Or perhaps we are merely his most recent victims in a line of trickery."
"Well, turn it off! I can't stand that MUSIC!"
Grimhilde cast a hand out before the mirror, and the glass went completely blank, the music cutting off as well. "It seems we shall have to locate them ourselves," Grimhilde huffed. "Come with me, Cruella."
"You're not thinking of…?" Cruella followed Grimhilde out of the mirror room and into a part of the ship that had been converted into an alchemical laboratory, with book-laden shelves and glass beakers and goblets scattered around.
"Giving us new, more powerful forms?" Grimhilde finished for her. "That I am." She began to sweep around the laboratory, gathering powders and pastes made from plants, stones, and things both recently and long dead.
Cruella gave a short laugh to hide her discomfort. "Darling, please. You wouldn't expect me to ruin this beauty by transforming into some animal, would you?"
"If I can do it…" Grimhilde paused as she opened a jar that let out a scream; once the scream was collected in a beaker, she shut the jar and all was silent once more. "Then so can you. Though you may in fact find it liberating."
"Well." Cruella folded her arms, watching Grimhilde work. "I'll take your word for it."
Grimhilde mixed, brewed, and boiled for quite a while, at last producing two glass goblets filled with potions. The liquid in Grimhilde's was a deep violet color, fizzing with bubbles. Cruella's, on the other hand, was silver, and its surface sparkled. The stark difference between the two potions made Cruella wonder if she'd in fact been given a poison instead of a transformation elixir. However, she figured if Grimhilde had wanted to get rid of her, she would have done it much earlier.
They lifted the glasses to their lips at the same time, taking long swallows. At the very least, Cruella thought, the liquid in her goblet didn't taste like poison. It was actually sweet. She watched as Grimhilde finished off hers, then dropped the goblet, letting it thunk against the floor, clutching at her throat.
"Grimmie - !" Cruella called out before she too was overtaken by the sensation of something metaphysical gripping her entire body. She was forced down onto her hands and knees, the room spinning as her body contracted and stretched. Perhaps she'd been poisoned after all, she thought, but when the transformation was over, she felt well again, and she knew Grimhilde had been sincere with her. She hustled into the adjacent room to get a look at herself in the glass of the Mirror, which was now reduced to an ordinary reflective surface. She was much shorter now. While her body was still bipedal, she had become a fluffy dog, black-coated on one side and white-coated on the other. Her arms were twice the length of her legs, able to reach the ground when she stood; leaning forward just enough to put them on the ground was a comfortable stance.
A throaty chuckle sounded from behind her, followed by "You're a Diamond Dog now, my pet!"
Cruella whirled to see Grimhilde looming in the door behind her. The queen had opted for an entirely different creature. Her lower body resembled that of a large black-feathered bird, with two large sets of talons protruding from her legs to scrape at the floor. Her spine was hunched over, and she kept her voluminous black wings huddled around her like a cloak. From the collarbone up, she had a more human appearance, though barely. Her skin was purple, matching that of her legs, and instead of a nose and mouth, her face was taken over by a deep plum-colored hooked beak. A wild mane of black hair spread out from the top of her head. Her eyes were solid black, with no discernible iris or pupil.
"And what are you supposed to be?" Cruella asked.
"Why, a harpy, of course!" Grimhilde threw back her head and laughed, sending a chill through Cruella. With the transformation of body, there was beginning to show another side to Grimhilde; Cruella hadn't seen the queen smile once since meeting her, but now, despite the beak, she could tell that a form of mirth had overcome the woman. "Those ponies will be much less of a match for us now!"
Cruella raked her own claws against the floor. "I suppose they won't, will they?"
"Now come!" Grimhilde beckoned. "We must find Mozenrath, and we will do so even if we must claw our way through every pony village on the map! And when we find him, we shall TEAR him limb from limb!"
Cruella had to admit she liked the change that had overcome her partner. "Well, then, what are we waiting for?"
...
In the end, Papyrus didn't spend any more from his gift card. After all, it would have been rude to buy extravagant things in front of Sora and Ruby when they had no money they could use, and they'd already made it clear they didn't want him to buy anything else for them. Besides, what purchase was worth more than spending a day at the mall with new friends? Even without buying anything, the trio still had a good time trying on flamboyant clothes, gawking at gift shop fineries, and reading the summaries of the wares in the used bookstore to see what sounded interesting and what sounded plain ridiculous. Sora explained the Destiny Islands, Radiant Garden, Disney Castle, and his quest; Ruby explained Remnant and how she'd come to cross paths with Sora. Papyrus, in turn, told the pair about how he had once lived in the underground kingdom, but had recently moved aboveground to join human society.
Ruby was by now used to the sight of him. When she'd first seen him, she had been afraid; skeletons, in her mind, weren't supposed to move around with no skin or muscle to propel them. However, Sora had known a living skeleton on another world, not to mention all sorts of monsters, and he explained to Ruby that in some worlds, it was more common to see walking and talking skeletons than it was to see humans. This made Ruby wonder what else all existed out there among the stars on the different worlds. Putting her best foot forward, she had soon bonded with Papyrus as much as Sora had. There was something she couldn't put her finger on about him, something familiar. He was so eager to make friends, and though she guessed he was older than her and Sora, he had a certain naiveté about various situations.
The moment came when the trio had exhausted the mall. "Well, I guess that was the last store," Sora announced.
"What are you going to do now?" Ruby asked Papyrus.
"WHAT AM I GOING TO DO NOW?" Papyrus repeated. "YOU ARE THE ONES ON THE HEROIC QUEST! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?"
"Same quest, I guess," Sora said with a shrug. "We'll keep exploring this world to see if we turn anything up."
"Do you want to come with us?" Ruby asked. "It's okay if you have other things to do. But today was so much fun!"
"IT REALLY WAS!" Papyrus agreed. "I'LL TELL YOU WHAT. I WILL GIVE YOU A TOUR OF MY HOMETOWN AND SHOW YOU EVERYTHING WORTH EXPLORING! THAT WAY, WE CAN CONTINUE YOUR QUEST TOGETHER! MAYBE YOU WILL FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!"
"Sounds great!" Sora replied. "The more, the merrier!"
"RIGHT THIS WAY!" Papyrus beckoned, beginning the walk to the parking lot of the New Vulpine mall. "PREPARE FOR THE MOST THOROUGH TOUR OF KNIGHTDOCK YOU SHALL EVER RECEIVE! I KNOW THE TOWN LIKE THE BACK OF MY HAND!"
Soon, Sora and Ruby were sharing the back seat of Papyrus' red convertible, which cruised at a quick pace down the road beneath the bright summer sun. They weaved around traffic downtown, then left the New Vulpine limits on a course for Knightdock. From the radio, a jaunty song played, accentuating the good mood everyone seemed to be in. When it ended, a dramatic voice announced, "I do so love that one! Don't you, Blooky?"
"I guess," a monotone voice responded with a sigh.
"Well, we aren't going to stop the beat yet!" the dramatic voice continued. "Broadcasting right out of Knightdock, you're listening to the Double Trouble Hour on MTT Radio!" An even more upbeat song took the place of the last one.
"There's one thing you didn't tell us," Sora realized. "You said you got all that money from stopping some bad guy. How did that happen?"
"I'M GLAD YOU ASKED!" Papyrus replied, keeping his eyes on the road. "IT STARTED OFF AS JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS. I WAS TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS AS USUAL, BUT I HAD AN EYE OUT FOR EVIL, AS USUAL. AFTER ALL, MY ROYAL GUARD TRAINING STUCK WITH ME! I AM ALWAYS COMBAT READY!"
"Wait, what did you just say?" Ruby prompted.
"I SAID, DUE TO MY EXTENSIVE TRAINING FOR THE FORMER ROYAL GUARD, I AM ALWAYS COMBAT READY!"
It clicked. Ruby knew what Papyrus reminded her of. For a moment, she had to close her eyes hard.
"Ruby?" Sora asked. "Are…you okay?"
"I'm fine," Ruby replied, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill forth. "It's just something a friend of mine used to say."
Knowing the general fates of most of Ruby's friends besides Jaune, Ren, and Nora, Sora formulated a theory in his mind about what might have happened to the friend Ruby had known who liked to use that phrase.
"I'm sorry." Ruby blinked her eyes open, having conquered the wave of emotion. "Keep telling your story, Papyrus."
"ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE OKAY?" Papyrus asked; having kept his focus on the road ahead, he hadn't seen Ruby's reaction, but it had sounded like she wasn't quite all right.
"I'm good," Ruby told him. "I promise. And I really wanna hear this story! Especially the part where you triumph over evil!"
"WELL," Papyrus picked up, "ALL OF A SUDDEN, I HEARD A COMMOTION COMING FROM A NEARBY GAS STATION! SOME VAGABOND HAD STOLEN SEVERAL CANDY BARS FROM IT, AND HE HAD A GUN! I IMMEDIATELY ENGAGED HIM IN COMBAT, THOUGH I DID ALSO ASK HIM TO GIVE THE CANDY BACK. BUT OF COURSE, THE EVILDOER THAT HE WAS, HE REFUSED TO, AND I WAS FORCED TO DUEL HIM IN ORDER TO STOP HIM FROM STEALING ANYTHING ELSE OR HURTING ANYONE ELSE! IT WAS A LONG AND HARD BATTLE. I USED ALL THE MAGIC I COULD THINK OF, AND HE USED HIS VERY STRANGE GUN. BUT EVENTUALLY, I WAS VICTORIOUS! WHICH CAME AS NO SURPRISE TO ME, OF COURSE."
"Strange gun?" Ruby asked, interest piqued by the idea of an elaborate weapon. "What kind of strange gun?"
"WELL, IT ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE A CANE, BUT IT FIRED RED MAGIC OUT ONE END – "
Ruby shrieked, startling Papyrus into momentarily swerving; he got the car under control immediately. "WHAT IS WRONG?" he asked worriedly.
"A cane that's also a gun!" Ruby reiterated. "Did this guy have red hair? Was he wearing eyeliner, a white jacket, and a bowler hat?"
"Hey," Sora recalled. "That sounds like…"
"THAT WAS EXACTLY HIM!" Papyrus cried. "HAVE YOU DEALT WITH HIM BEFORE?"
"THAT'S ROMAN TORCHWICK!" Ruby shrieked. "HE'S HERE ON THIS WORLD!"
"That's one of the guys who was messing around with our friends!" Sora recalled.
"Is he still in town?" Ruby asked hurriedly. "What happened to him after you fought?"
"HE WAS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY BY THE POLICE," Papyrus answered. "AFTER WHICH THEY PRESENTED ME WITH MY REWARD, WHICH LEADS ME TO THE PART WHERE WE MET!"
"Can you take us to where he is?" Ruby asked.
"Maybe we can finally get some information out of him!" Sora added with a nod. "It's also good to know that one of them is locked up. Now we just have to find the rest!"
"SO YOU'VE DEALT WITH THIS 'ROMAN TORCHWICK' BEFORE!" Papyrus identified.
"He's a dangerous enemy," Ruby explained. "I'm really glad he didn't hurt you."
Ruby had explained more about Remnant and Roman to Sora on the gummi ride to this world. "Ruby's fought a lot of bad guys," Sora explained, "but I think Roman is the one she's fought the most often."
"HE IS YOUR ARCHNEMESIS!" Papyrus proclaimed.
"He kinda is," Ruby realized. "I have an archnemesis. That's weird."
"ONWARD WE GO," Papyrus announced, "TO INTERROGATE YOUR CAPTIVE ARCHNEMESIS!"
...
Deep in the Everfree Forest, one tree stood out among all the others. Nestled in the back of a hidden grove, it was much shorter than its fellows, glimmering a luminescent white-blue. Its branches bore drooping leaves like those of a willow, and a six-pointed star design was set in its trunk where its branches came together.
"This is it," Wuya announced. "This is what I was sensing!"
"It's definitely magical," Mozenrath observed. "Trees don't usually glow like that. I wonder…" He stepped closer to the tree, giving it a good look. Wuya, Mim, Aghoul, and Even crowded in around him.
"Now I bet you're wondering what that is," a sixth, unknown voice chimed in.
All five unicorns whirled about to see quite a strange sight indeed. The creature that had crept up on them appeared to be an amalgamation of several different animals: his body was furry, his tail scaly, his head horned asymmetrically, his left front leg a paw, his right front leg a talon, his lower legs a reptilian claw and a bovine hoof respectively, two mismatched wings protruding from his back. Mozenrath recognized his ilk as easily as Grimhilde had; this was a draconequus, and more to the point, though Mozenrath had no way of knowing it, it was the same draconequus that had interrupted Grimhilde's ability to scry for him. This draconequus was making himself comfortable reclining on a hammock that was held up by absolutely nothing and hadn't been there before. "Well?" he reiterated. "Aren't five seasoned sorcerers like yourselves just itching with curiosity about what kind of magic could be in that tree?"
Mozenrath didn't like his teasing tone. "And you are…?"
"Oh, just one of this world's many colorful inhabitants," the draconequus replied. A tall glass of limeade appeared in his talon, a crazy straw sticking out. He swished the drink around for a few moments before taking the straw out and biting off a chunk of it. "Who happens to know a thing or two about magic."
"This is some kind of trick, isn't it?" Wuya asked, raising a brow.
"Why, not at all!" After he finished off the straw, the draconequus proceeded to start drinking the glass from around the limeade, which had solidified into a cylinder. When he finished, he crushed the limeade in his hand like an aluminum can, dropping it to the ground, where it caught on pink flames. "I just thought that since you were new here and all, you might appreciate having somepony show you some of the ropes."
"And how do YOU know where we're from?" Even barked.
"I guess I didn't make myself clear." The draconequus got up out of the hammock, rolling it up before using it to beat out the flames on the limeade. "I know just about EVERYTHING that goes on in this world." He produced a scissors from thin air, using it to cut at the rolled-up hammock at specific angles. "And a few things that go on outside of it. For example, take a look at this." He dismissed the scissors, and when he unfolded the mass of string in his hands, it was a perfect woven design of each of the five mages' human forms, connected to each other by one common string. "Ta-daaaaaaa!"
Mim applauded with her front hooves. Mozenrath remained suspicious. "So you know who we are," he reiterated. "Why are you so interested in us?"
"Well, you see," the draconequus replied, "I have a particular history with that tree you're looking at. Once upon a time, I was a very, very bad draconequus. Can you BELIEVE I even tried to take over this world? Oh, but that's all behind me now. I've learned my lesson. I am a reformed Discord!"
Something in his tone led his listening audience to be skeptical.
"That's my name, by the way," the draconequus went on. "Discord. What are yours? No, wait, don't tell me. You look EXACTLY like a Mozenrath, an Ayam, a Mim, a Wuya, and an Even. Am I close?" Discord winked.
"You were exact!" Aghoul replied, legitimately stunned.
"He knows everything about us," Even sighed. "He's just toying with us at this point."
"You were saying something about the tree," Mozenrath urged.
"Oh, yes, the Tree of Harmony!" Discord went on. "It's the home of a very powerful magic known as the Elements of Harmony. The physical incarnations of Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, and Magic itself."
"How disgusting!" Mim broke in, flinching. Wuya had to admit she felt the same way about the prospect.
"How are those things actually magic?" Mozenrath sighed.
"How do you think?" Discord challenged. "Isn't there a very powerful subset of magic that can transmute things like light, gravity, and intangible concepts?"
"You are referring to Aether," Even stated, matter-of-fact.
And Mozenrath knew exactly where that was leading. "You know we need a powerful element of Aether."
"You do? I never would have guessed!" Discord chuckled. "Anyhow, the Elements inside that tree were brought out to defeat me, and I became imprisoned in stone for over a thousand years. Then, when I finally got back out to this glorious world, I was defeated by the Elements again." He fumbled with the string, and now the design showed six ponies: two unicorns, two pegasi, and two earth ponies. "They just couldn't let me catch a break. Then there was another stone prison, then I came back OUT, then – "
"Get to the point," Mozenrath growled.
"I used a little trick to get them to put the Elements back in that tree," Discord continued. "That way, they wouldn't be in my way anymore. We've found our ways to make peace with all the little ponies. I have my little fun with them sometimes, I back down and let them have the stage sometimes…still, if anything ever were to take the Elements out of that tree, this world would be a lot more fun. Well, except for the fact that whoever did it would probably use the Elements to be a complete killjoy and get rid of any chaos I tried…or anypony else tried…to make. Unless, of course, somepony took the Elements COMPLETELY away. To another world, perhaps?"
"You want us to take the Elements of Harmony so you can have a free reign," Mozenrath deciphered. "Is that it?"
"I was just throwing some hypotheticals out there," Discord said with a shrug, cracking the string design like a whip; it burned out like a fuse until it was gone.
"I think we'll be taking whatever's in that magic tree whether you like it or not," Aghoul stated, spinning on a hoof to face the tree again. His horn glowed with a purple aura, and a bolt of pure energy struck the tree with no result.
"You see, that's the thing," Discord went on. "There are a few certain rules about the Elements of Harmony. First of all, only ponies who intend to use them for good can take them out of the tree. Second, the same ponies can never take them out of the tree twice. Third, if you wielded the Elements at all at any point, you still can't take them out of the tree. There are currently eight living ponies who already had their run and can't touch them again."
"Why TELL us about them if we can't TAKE them?" Mozenrath growled.
"So we can figure out a way to get them by actually using our heads instead of blasting our way through everything," Even broke in. "Presuming everything Discord has said is true, which it might not be, what we would need to do is create some sort of threat that would require a new set of ponies who wish to play hero to come retrieve the Elements, at which point we would take them for ourselves."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mim crowed excitedly, bouncing up and down on her hooves. "Let's go cause some chaos!"
"And be found by our pursuers immediately?" Even barked.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about them," Discord remarked. "I gave the five of you a bit of a…head start."
"Now here's an idea," Wuya brought up. "What if we did give them a reason to bring the Elements back out…but not to use against us?"
"You're suggesting we lead Maleficent's henchwomen to their midst," Mozenrath realized, "and make the locals bring out their little Elements to vanquish THEM!"
"Precisely," Wuya confirmed.
"Well, it's not as fun as making the mess ourselves," Aghoul commented, "but it definitely has potential!"
"Not to mention that if the locals finish them off for us," Mozenrath concluded, "we don't have to worry about them anymore."
"But then how do we get the Elements away from them before they use them on us?" Mim pondered.
Mozenrath looked to Discord. "I don't suppose you would be of any help in that department."
Discord shrugged. "I've played the game for myself enough times. Now, it's more fun if I MAKE the game and watch YOU play."
"So that's a no," Mozenrath translated.
"I will give you one more hint," Discord decided, "and this is your last freebie. You might want to read up on the Crystal Empire. You should have no problems getting ideas what to do with THAT."
"The Crystal Empire," Mozenrath repeated. "Sounds promising."
"Well, you kids have fun now!" Discord teased. "Don't play nice!" He twisted into an impossible contortion of physics before disappearing into thin air.
"And we know he's not trying to trick us how?" Even snapped.
"We don't," Mozenrath admitted. "And he did make it seem a bit too simple. But there is something magical inside that tree, and we might as well figure out what it is. Maybe someone else can back up his story. After all, he said the Elements had been wielded before. Well, Even, since you know so much about this world, what's the quickest way to civilization?"
"This way." Even began down a path. "The nearest town is called Ponyville. I haven't spent much time in it myself. It's dreadfully boring. But at the very least, it should have a library or another source of information we can use to corroborate Discord's story."
"Ponyville," Wuya repeated. "You're not serious."
"Unfortunately," Even confirmed as the others fell into step behind him, "I am."
...
After a night had passed, Yzma, the Huntsman, Snatcher, Roman, and Neo had to admit that Mozenrath, Wuya, Mim, and Aghoul weren't coming back at the planned time.
"I swear, if he ditched us here…" Roman grumbled.
"He wouldn't," Yzma reassured him. "Not while we were in possession of the Cornerstone of Light and the Dust. Now, if he had those things, maybe THEN we could worry."
"Time passes differently on each world," the Huntsman reminded the others. "Perhaps to them, it has only been an hour."
"Yes, but Lord Mozenrath would have known and accounted for a time difference in Radiant Garden," Snatcher pointed out. "It was a world he was familiar with."
"Whatever happened, we currently have to go on without them," Yzma stated with finality. "As it stands, we know where the monster queen is." She held up an article trimmed from one of the newspapers they'd accumulated; the headline read "FORMER MONSTER QUEEN SETTLES DOWN AS LOCAL TEACHER." "Once we learned her name and occupation, it was a simple matter to track down her place of residence. As discussed, Neo and I shall infiltrate."
"You sure you don't need us for this?" Roman asked.
"You two will be active later," Yzma reminded them, "and it would do us well to have different faces out and about. All the better to cover our tracks. Besides, Neo and I have everything planned to the letter!"
Neo nodded enthusiastically.
"The rest of you can stay here and keep an eye on the eel," Yzma concluded.
"Xerxes hardly requires three sitters," the Huntsman growled.
"And you three would just be in the way of our plan!" Yzma hissed. Neo nodded her agreement. "We'll be back shortly. Just try not to destroy the base while we're gone."
After Yzma and Neo had departed, Roman huffed, "Like we're going to let anything happen to the base. Like anything exciting is even going to – "
A great gray ostrich, making a panicked yell, crashed through the hallway, heading down a side corridor; the sound of a knocked-over bookshelf and breaking glass came soon after.
"Don't tell me," Roman sighed.
"Xerxes," the Huntsman supplied. "He must've gotten into Yzma's potions."
"Again," Snatcher groaned.
The trio readied their weapons; they had a rogue eel-turned-ostrich to catch.
...
Yzma took a deep breath, then knocked at the door of the squat one-story white house. After waiting for a minute, she remembered that the people of this day and age used doorbells, and she pressed the one set in the paneling next to the door.
There came the sound of feet shuffling through the hallway, and Yzma suddenly found the door open and herself face-to-face with a woman who appeared to be mostly anthropomorphic goat, clad in a skirt and cardigan of lavender. "Can I help you?" the former queen of the monsters asked.
"Yes, Miss…Toriel?" Yzma replied.
Toriel nodded.
Yzma's eyes flicked to the side of the house, where some of the decorative shrubbery rustled. She knew Neo was on her way to crowbar open one of the back windows. All Yzma had to do was keep Toriel occupied, and she knew just how to do that. After all, the newspapers had provided her with one other crucial piece of information: the name of the fallen child who had brought all the monsters to the freedom of the upper world, and who had consequently been named their ambassador: a close friend of Toriel's. "I wanted to talk to you about how Frisk has been doing in school," she stated.
"Oh?" Toriel replied, rather surprised. She didn't recognize this woman in the slightest.
"You see…I'm Frisk's uncle's cousin's nephew's half-brother's great-aunt," Yzma lied.
Instinctively, Toriel thought Yzma looked more like a great-great-great-great-aunt, but she kept that thought to herself. Frisk had never mentioned such a woman, but then again, Frisk didn't talk much about their biological family at all. Toriel had yet to meet the child's parents, though Frisk had insisted that was for good reason.
Neo slipped a crowbar beneath one of the windows at the back of the house, easily snapping it open. She slithered inside the house, glad that Toriel hadn't had the chance to rig it up with a burglar alarm. Once inside, she located the bedroom quickly. There had to be pay dirt in here. She rifled through dresser drawers, sifting through stacks of lavender clothing, making sure to put everything neatly back the way she'd found it once she was done seeking.
"I wanted to discuss Frisk's grades with you," Yzma told Toriel.
"Really?" Toriel was confused. "Frisk has had very good grades all year."
"…And that's what I wanted to discuss," Yzma covered quickly. "Thank you for being such a wonderful teacher!"
"You're welcome." Toriel nodded. "I just wish I could do something about Frisk's bullying problem."
"Bullying problem?" Yzma repeated.
"They haven't told you?" Toriel was surprised.
"Who's 'they'?" Yzma replied. "Frisk and who else?"
"'They' are Frisk," Toriel explained. "That's why they're bullied so much. Oh, dear, I suppose they probably haven't talked about it much with the extended family." Toriel was sure she'd just let something slip that Frisk should have been able to reveal to their relative in their own time.
"…I'm lost," Yzma admitted.
"Well, you see…" Toriel faltered. "Oh, I don't know if I should be saying this. It's Frisk's business, really."
"We have admittedly had some problems with this…sort of thing…at home," Yzma improvised. "Miss Toriel, if there is anything you can do to explain it more clearly so we know what is going on with Frisk, then we will do our best to help her."
Toriel thought it over. Frisk had said their parents didn't really understand, but perhaps this relative would. "Frisk…doesn't like to be thought of as a girl," Toriel explained at last. "Or a boy. The other children think they should be one or the other at the very least if not a girl."
"And what do you think?" Yzma asked. She couldn't have cared less, but she hadn't seen a sign from Neo yet, and she needed to stall for time.
"I think Frisk is what they are," Toriel replied. "And Frisk knows what they are. It's just a matter of getting everyone else to see it."
Inside the house, Neo finally found what she was looking for at the bottom of a sock drawer. Photographs. Seven of them. Each was of a different child. There was nothing else they could be but the children who corresponded with the dead souls; the ones who had met their final fates in the underground. She flipped one of the pictures over; it was labeled with a name. "Chara." In fact, they were all labeled with names. Neo couldn't have asked for better luck. She rifled through the drawer and found some more photographs featuring the fallen children. Some were of the youngsters helping Toriel out around a house, taken from a camera from Toriel's perspective. Other photographs, ones that had been given to Toriel by a certain friend, were of the little ones playing in what Neo recognized as the town of Snowdin, back when monsters actually lived in it. She stuffed all the photographs into a pocket and shut the drawer. Toriel would notice the broken window lock, and that the photographs were missing…eventually. But she wouldn't know when they were taken or who to trace it to.
Neo made her way back out the window, sneaking across the lawn. She made herself visible to Yzma, giving her a thumbs-up.
Yzma caught the signal as Toriel was saying, "So if you could please let Frisk know you're there to support them…"
"Yes, yes." Yzma waved her hands. "Thank you for letting me know about…all that." She couldn't even remember what it was that Toriel had been talking about. "I'll be sure to be of support, yes! I'm glad we had this talk! Well, so much to do, so little time! Goodbye!"
As the old woman sped off, Toriel wondered if she'd done the right thing in confiding in her. Then again, it would be good if Frisk could have one member of their biological family on their side, at least. And if not, Toriel would always be there.
...
Ponyville was a candy-colored town with a pleasant atmosphere. Almost everypony in it seemed to be happy as they went about their daily business. It reminded Mozenrath, Aghoul, Wuya, and Mim of Disney Town, and that made it sickening.
"You didn't mention it was this…" Mozenrath hissed to Even, trying to find the right words.
"Much of an eyesore!" Mim whispered.
Mozenrath nodded. Those were the right words.
"I didn't think it pertinent," Even hissed back. "And how was I to know what you would consider an eyesore?"
"Well, we're here, so we should make the best of it," Aghoul whispered. He then trotted over to where a cream-colored pony with a burgundy mane and a rose-shaped Cutie Mark was watering a patch of flowers. "Excuse me, miss!" Aghoul put on his best seductive face. "Would you mind telling a stallion which way it is to the local library?"
The pony set down her watering can for a moment to answer; "It's that way!" She pointed down the main street to where a moderately sized castle of blue and purple, shaped vaguely like a tree, towered at the edge of town.
"Why, thank you, miss!" Aghoul replied, batting his eyelashes. "Now, you wouldn't happen to be single, would y – "
"No time for that!" Wuya telekinetically dragged Aghoul away, surrounding him in green aura.
"Either this town really values reading," Mozenrath pointed out, "or their library is housed with one of their royals."
"I…haven't been here in a while," Even admitted. "That castle wasn't there last time I visited this place."
"How did you turn into a pony, anyway?" Mim asked.
"I would usually have been prepared with a transformation potion or other spell," Even admitted. "Given our hasty getaway and our unscheduled stop on this world, I didn't have time to prepare."
As they neared the towering castle, Even then added, "And by the way, if any one of you thinks to interrupt while I am reading, I will freeze you solid."
"Interrupt me," Mozenrath added, "and I'll incinerate you to ashes."
Even and Mozenrath then exchanged a look; what had just passed between them was almost kindred. They gave each other a half-smile of approval before Mozenrath reached up to knock on the castle door.