A Most Mysterious Comic Indeed
It was all and all a very average day in Canterlot; as average as it always is. The only thing somewhat out of the norm was that this particular day had a not-unfamiliar face in town. Spike The Dragon, called into town for an errand for the Princess, had managed to complete his duty somewhat early, which left him with some time to kill before the next departure to Ponyville. All of his friends, as well as his big sister, were having a day to themselves anyway, so Spike wasn’t even in that big of a rush to get home anyways. Unless he was going to relax with his comics and a nice plate of gems to snack on.
He was walking down a side street when this errant thought crossed his mind, which alerted him to a store he had been to once before. It wasn’t a grandiose, fancy place of business, but rather it was fairly quaint and unassuming. In the storefront window, the shop’s name was embroidered across the glass for all to see:
Fatal Planet: The House of Enchanted Comics
Spike came to a dead stop as he looked over to the local comic shop, his hands coming together as temptation had reared its ugly head once again. After the last snafu, he had promised that he wouldn’t ever patronize the place ever again. He frowned as he remembered getting, admittedly half-playfully, scolded by everypony when he revealed where he had bought that comic to begin with.
“The name still is misleading,” Spike muttered to himself, “It still sounds like the comics are enchanting, not enchanted…”
But the store had some nice employees who he had chatted with on his previous visit, and the comic was very entertaining, up until the whole ‘sucking everypony into it to be superheroes’ thing. Past Spike had been naïve in the ways of this store in its wares; now he was FUTURE Spike and would know to ask how to avoid that whole ‘Customer Beware’ bruhaha. This time he’d ASK what any of them would do before he’d buy them!
Determined, Spike marched up to the store and entered, the bells in the frame proclaiming his presence.
There was only one employee in the store that Spike could see, a tan unicorn tidying up a wall full of colorful comics. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses, despite the fact that he was indoors, and he had no mane; his cutie mark an open comic book with a King chess piece printed on one of the pages. He glanced over at the entrance way and, giving an acknowledging nod towards the dragon, resumed his work.
“Lemme know if’n ya got any questions!” he exclaimed, his voice carrying a deep accent.
Not familiar with this employee, Spike decided to let him be for now and browse the store.
There were a few titles that caught the dragon’s eye, but every time he asked about the book, the employee’s explanations of each one’s enchantments seemed too much of a hassle, especially if he didn’t want to be berated for visiting the store if he dared bring them home. Upset that he seemed to be wasting his time, Spike turned to his left when something caught his eye.
Hanging on the wall, amongst a plethora of colorful covers, was what initially looked like a gap on the wall at first glance. Walking towards it, Spike could actually see it was a largely blank cover, with the only color being the logo towards the top. Spike was never a big fan on the idea of buying blank cover variants when he normally got covers; wasn’t the point to make a snappy cover to attract attention?
‘But then again,’ he thought to himself, ‘I suppose you could draw your own cover for it if you wanted.’ That seemed like a logical thing to do. But then again, drawing on enchanted comics seemed like an invitation for disaster.
The comic hung a few feet above Spike, so he had to crane his head to look at it.
“The Multiversity Guidebook… issue 1?” he asked aloud, more to himself.
“Ahh… looks like som’thin’ special’s caught yer eye, right lad?” a voice stated from behind Spike, startling the dragon. Turning his head, he could see the unicorn employee observing him with amused interest from behind his sunglasses. “Tha’ righ’ there… may be one o’ tha more… UNIQUE books we got.” he added with a grin.
As Spike’s eyes flittered back to the blank cover, he had to ask, “So~ what’s the story with THIS one?”
The unicorn chuckled and, using his magic, lifted the comic off of the wall to look it over, a grin growing across his face. “Ahh… ya know how we get our stock?” he answered with a question. Spike shook his head; he was still unfamiliar with the shop after all. “Heh, well some o’ ‘em ‘re just normal books we get from tha printers. We get some verry talented magicians ta work their stuff; make ‘em more… entertaining…
“Tha rest? We git ‘em made special from some ‘o those magicians directly. …Rumor has it, even tha Archmage has penned a number o’ them ‘imself…”
Turning the comic around so it’s cover faced the dragon, the unicorn continued, his grin growing slightly larger, “But this…? ‘Tis a real mystery. Showed up one day, all outta tha blue. ‘Multiversity Guidebook’, published by DC Comics…”
Spike eyed the logo in the upper right corner and, sure enough, there was ‘DC Comics’ printed beneath the decal. “I’ve never heard of a comic company with that name before…” he trailed off, more to himself than to the unicorn.
“So, what’s it about?” The dragon’s question was simple, and to the point.
So it was a bit of a shock when the unicorn shrugged. “Who knows? Nopony’s read it since it arrived. Never took it outta the sleeve.” Spike just barely opened his mouth when his question was pre-empted. “Don’ think we din’t check it ta see if t’were dangerous. What magic rests inside ‘ll only work if tha reader wishes fer it to.”
Spike’s eyes occasionally moved from the still floating comic to the unicorn as he debated with himself. Buying a book that nopony’s read was not a smart decision; since it could very well be filled with chicken scratch for pages. He remembered back when he was younger when Still Image, one of the biggest names in comics who founded his own company with other artists, flooded the market with poorly drawn, badly told books that nearly killed the industry’s respectability. Some stores insisted that the books not be removed from their sleeves until after purchase just to make sure some of them would get bought, to the expense of the customer.
Not to mention that if the cover was right, the book was roughly worth 8 bits, possibly more depending on the shop’s own appraisal.
And yet… there was something in the back of his mind that told him he should get it. That there was more to the comic than meets the eye, more so than the other enchanted books which filled the store. And so, against his better judgment…
“…How much do you want for it?” he asked, as he pulled his bag of bits from behind his back, from a place that Pinkie Pie called ‘Pinkie Space‘. The unicorn’s grin nearly filled his face as he signaled the young drake to follow him towards the register.
As he added the total, he answered, “Yer in ‘a bit o’ luck, me boy. ‘Spite tha cover price, we’re only sellin’ fer… 5 bits, tax included!” Sure enough, the numbers on the register did come out to five.
Satisfied at the price, Spike paid the full amount and his comic was placed in a paper bag with the receipt. As he took his purchase into his hands, his eyes focused on a clock hanging on the wall; his train was going to leave in ten minutes! He had to book it now if he was going to make it to the station on time!
“Uh-oh! I gotta go! Thanks a lot for everything, mister…” Spike tried to be polite, but realized he never asked for the unicorn’s name.
The unicorn’s smile was pencil thin, but he seemed to still be jovial. “Oh, me name. Fergive me fer not introducing’ meself,” he waved off, “Just call me King Mob ‘an’ be done wit’ it. Don’t let me hold ya up.”
Bowing his head to show his appreciation yet again, Spike then turned and ran out to the store and towards the station.
Luckily, he was in time and took his seat as the train departed the station, heading towards home.
As Spike entered the door to his home-slash-library, he could tell that he was the only one there. Noticing a note on the desk, he walked over to it and read it:
Spike,
If you’re reading this, then I won’t be home until late.
Don’t wait up, and make sure you make yourself dinner.
Take care!
-T
Upon reading the word ‘dinner’, Spike’s belly gave a low rumble, demanding it be fed. Choosing to obey, he placed his bag on the desk and went to cook himself up some grub. It took a little longer than expected, but he managed to make and enjoy a nice plate of spaghetti with emerald shavings and a hearty tomato sauce. As he cleaned up the kitchen, he decided to spruce up the library as well.
He wasn’t raised to be a lazy slob after all.
By the time he was done, the sun had set and it was getting darker. Taking his bag up to his shared room, Spike curled up into his comfy basket and, with a lamp by his side, he removed the Guidebook from its sleeve. It was easily one of the biggest comics he had ever bought, page wise. No wonder its cover price seemed high.
With a bit of apprehension, he trusted Mr. King’s words, and opened to the first page!
......
Simply enough, the book opened in Canterlot. It wasn’t too surprising, until he noticed one panel with a familiar looking purple baby dragon.
He blankly looked at the panel for nearly a full minute before realizing with quiet terror that he was looking at himself. Quickly dropping the comic like it had burned him, Spike retreated into his blanket in panic. ‘Just what in Tartarus was THAT?!’ he thought, hugging his pillow for comfort. He tried to calm himself down as the minutes passes and, eventually, worked up the nerve to emerge form his blanket cocoon. With apprehension, he grabbed the comic and again tried to read it.
There was no change, the comic did indeed open on him in Canterlot. With the use of the narration boxes, Spike read on in horror that the comic was recounting his day. From him coming across the store and his debate on whether to enter, to meeting Mr. King, to even… finding and buying the Guidebook.
Dragons, despite similarities to reptiles, are not cold blooded, but as he continued to read the story, his veins felt like ice water were flowing through them. A turn of the page and there was a timecut: the scene was now in the library. As Spike saw his inked counterpart make and eat dinner, clean, and go upstairs to read his new comic, his eyes darted around the room.
He felt as if he were being watched, like some sort of voyeur were documenting his every move. Although in this case, it was is if HE were watching himself.
The comic’s narrative seemed to be following him and he wondered, briefly, what would happen if he skipped some pages down the line. Would he see the future? His future? The idea terrified him more than he possibly realized, and he dare not try.
Soon, the comic had almost caught up to him; he could see himself getting settled into bed and picking up the comic. The last panel on the page showed him opening the book getting ready to read, hesitation on his face. With a quivering hand, Spike slowly turned the page…
Some time ago.
The black-furred mare twitched slightly in her slumber. But in her sleep she could feel that something was wrong; she felt weaker somehow, as if something was terribly wrong. Her body twitched and slowly she began to awake, the royal regalia she wore seeming to weigh down upon her in a way they had never before. Her eyelids fluttered slightly and then shot open, her slitted pupils contracting in the light.
‘This is not my moon!’ her panicked mind raced, her surroundings letting her know the wonderful, yet awful truth.
Nightmare Moon shakily rose to her hooves, feeling more exhausted than she had ever felt in her life. As she took time to calm herself from her building panic, she observed her surroundings. The room she was in was made of metals and materials she was unfamiliar with, but even she could where she was: jail cells tended to follow familiar patterns after all.
Her eye turned to the apparently open cell door and she grinned. “It seems as if whomever my captor is, they were foolish or stupid enough to leave my bars open,” she mused to herself.
Taking no time to hesitate, she ran towards the opening to her freedom.
+=~”I wouldn’t do that if I were you…”~=+ a voice called from behind her.
Nightmare paid it no mind and jumped through the threshold… only for her to be repelled back, in pain. A crackling hiss could be heard and a layer of energy briefly appeared in the ‘empty’ doorway. The mare was shocked, literally & figuratively. She had sensed no magic, yet she was indeed locked up! It was lucky that her helm had protected her from most of the shock, but she was still hurt somehow. HER! HURT!
+=~”Told you not to bother trying,”~=+ the voice spoke again, this time someone dismissively, +=~”Just because you don’t see a door, doesn’t mean one isn’t there.”~=+
Though she could not understand the words, Nightmare could tell the tone behind them. Enraged, she turned to the direction the voice had come from. Sitting in a corner was a creature she had never seen before. It seemed to appear bipedal as the primitive Tauren, yet appeared to have more primate features and bovid. It had no fur as she could see his olive colored skin, save for a short black mane top its head, and its body was covered in strange clothing that Nightmare had never seen before. By its side was a bag which Nightmare could only equate to a saddlebag.
Suspicious of the creature, but sure it was not her captor, Nightmare mulled over options. Obviously, the fact that she could not understand him and the fact it did not acknowledge her earlier when she had spoken mean that they did not speak the same language. Despite how weakened she felt, Nightmare still possessed some magic left in her body. So taking a risk, her horn charged and, lowing her head, she fired a spell upon the creature.
Understandably, it panicked at the action. It let out a yelp of pain as the magic permeated his body, but it was not for very long. It had shut its eyes, but slowly opened them when the last vestiges of the energy was absorbed by his body. It was not happy.
“What the hell was that?!” he shouted at her. Now that Nightmare had cast her translator spell into the creature, she could tell he sounded similar to a stallion. “What the hell did you do to me?!”
A cold mask of rage spread to Nightmare’s face. “You had best watch your tone, ape. I have enabled you to speak, and that is all. But if you wish to feel pain, I have many spells to make you regret your insolence,” she spoke with a tone which could kill by itself. The creature quickly shut up, realizing the threat was real. “Good,” Nightmare continued, “you know your place. Now speak, I demand answers. Where am I and which fool has believed they can imprison Nightmare Moon?”
Realizing that he had better keep his cellmate happy, the creature answered, “Well… right now, we’re in the cellblock in Kanjar Ro’s ship. Aside from us, there seem to be a few others here too,” he gestured his hand towards the door where other cells could be seen.
“As for why we’re here?” he let the question hang in the air for a moment, “I have no friggin’ clue at all. My only guess is that he wants to put us in some kind of alien zoo or something.”
The words shocked Nightmare. Alien. Indeed she had never seen this whelp’s kind before on Equuis, yet…
“You mean to say that this ‘ship’ has creatures from other worlds. That this vessel can travel through the stars,” she interrogated, demanding to know. He nodded. A chill went down Nightmare’s spine as her rage built yet again. After her sister Celestia had used the Elements of Harmony on her during her rebellion, Nightmare Moon had been exiled to her namesake for nearly a millennia; the bulk of her powers sealed beneath the moon’s surface while she had been left to wander in near insanity for all that time. And some… alien had taken advantage of her weakness to capture her!?
Now she knew why she felt so weak, she was obviously not on her moon anymore, she was separated from her powers! In recent years, she had felt the seal on her powers grow weaker, and it would fade completely in a few days. But if she wasn’t there to reclaim them when they were freed… they would fade completely. She had finally obtained freedom she had desperately yearned for, and it had come at the worst possible time. How ironic.
Turning her head over to the cell door, Nightmare narrowed her eyes. “Tell me what you know about the workings of this prison,” she ordered, “I cannot sense magic keeping us within, so there must be a way to escape and take charge of this vessel.” Nightmare was a mistress of many kinds of magic, but even she would not last long in the cold of space without her magic, and her connection to her sealed powers indicated that she was some distance from them. Too far to risk trying to destroy the ship and fly back; it was small comfort that it appeared that the ship was not currently moving further away from her moon and her home.
The creature raised an eyebrow, but answered, “There isn’t any magic, just alien tech..nology. Pretty sure that a big surge of electricity would short out the circuits maintaining the door, but I don’t have a clue how to do that.”
‘So,’ Nightmare thought, ‘mere electricity will free us. Foal’s play.’ Despite her predicament, she wasn’t completely powerless just yet, but she’d need time to gather enough magic to make sure she’d be able to accomplish her goal. She needed to kill some time. “You are very fortunate creature, I shall soon free us from our bonds,” she bowed in great exaggeration, “In short while, you shall see a small taste of the power of the true mistress of Equestria, Nightmare Moon!”
She flashed him a smile of razor sharp teeth, making the alien jump in surprise. “But please… forgive me for being so rude. I have not allowed you to introduce yourself, creature…” she trailed off. “Tell me of yourself, and what you know of this… Kanjar Ro.”
The creature looked upon the large black pony, clad in blue-silver armor. Feeling he had nothing left to lose, he decided to humor the mare. Either she COULD free them both, or she wouldn’t.
“…My name is Marco Morales,” he began quietly, “I’m a human from the planet Earth.” His eyes turned to his backpack. “I work as an intern for Mr. Fox in WayneTech research & development. I… only got it because his son Luke is a friend of mine.”
Marco’s voice became more stern, filled with panic & rage that he had thought had already subsided. “I have no… NO god damn idea why the hell I’m here! I don’t have anything some freaking alien would want! If I had anything that Mr. Fox was working on then, maybe…” His emotions petered off into defeat as quickly as they had come. “But all I have left are my personal notes. Nothing any alien would want…
“But as for Kanjar Ro…” he sharply inhaled, “Never met him before I got abducted by him. All I know is what the government released in their Justice League declassified files. He used to be the ruler of his world, but pretty much got deposed after trying to fight the League… my world’s heroes and the Green Lanterns… officers who patrol the universe.
“If you are queen of your world, then maybe I can understand why he wanted you… but I’m just an ordinary guy,” Marco finished quietly. His eyes flickered up to Nightmare and was compelled to ask, “So you know about me. What is your story?”
Nightmare turned and trotted away from the still prone human, considering her options. She had amassed a good deal of magic, but felt it might not be enough to get the job done. This was strange technology that was frankly beyond her, and she’d rather be safe than sorry and make sure she had enough to take down a full grown dragon, just in case. She still needed more time; so… why not humor him?
She sat opposite him from the other side of the room and told him her story. About how she was once Luna, weak and meaningless to her older sister Celestia, whom their subjects loved more than herself. How despite her hard work to create beautiful nights and guard their subjects, she was ignored for too long. For how she finally had enough and tapped into a greater power deep inside of her and became Nightmare Moon. And how she had overthrown her sister and ruled their country, their world for nearly a year until Midsummer’s Night when Celestia had done the unforgivable and used the Elements of Harmony upon her; sealing her away for one thousand years.
As she told her story to this insignificant human, her rage grew once more, fueling her magical spark and helping her magic gather quicker. “…And when I return, I shall take my proper place as the true ruler of Equuis… and neither Celestia nor anypony else shall stop me,” she hissed, her draconic eyes fading in a white glow as power surged through her.
Marco felt sick with terror; this horse was not messing around. She was being dead serious as even he could feel the vibes spreading from her. His back to the wall, he slid upwards until he stood up fully. So, with nothing to lose, he asked her the question: “So you would kill your sister?”
A simple question, but enough to shock Nightmare out of her temporary lunacy. She snapped her head over to the human and looked at him with a horrified look on her face. ‘Kill Celestia?’ her mind boggled from the implication. She might have hated Celestia, despised her for her neglect and indifference towards her, but kill? “You must feel brave indeed to have the gall to think I would stoop as low as that,” she seethed, standing. Both Marco and Nightmare were nearly equal in height, though the human stood just barely taller than her, not counting her horn. Marco was still intimidated nonetheless.
Feeling brave (or suicidally foolish, he couldn’t tell) Marco decided to keep pressing his luck and gage just how much of a planet conquering tyrant Nightmare really was, “So what about the subjects you demand love from so much? You would kill them too?” Again, Nightmare’s hackles were raised at his question.
“Because despite what you might think,” he tried to finish quickly, before her patience ended, “the very moment you start executing your people, you will forever lose that love you crave so much. And there would be those who would do anything to end your rule.” He pointed his thumb behind him, towards what he hoped was the direction of the command section of the ship. “Kanjar Ro ruled his people much the same way, and now he has nothing. No people, no home, just a pirate who’s gotten into intergalactic poaching.
“Is that what you want to become of yourself?”
Nightmare’s sneer grew, but she held her tongue. Despite the stupidity of the human, there might have been half a point in his slander. She only need to think of Discord or Sombra of the Crystal Empire and know how they met their ends; after all she had played a part in them both.
Minutes passes and Marco, feeling cautiously optimistic that he wasn’t going to get impaled on the end of Nightmare’s horn, gave a small sigh of relief, closing his eyes.
“I am curious…” he heard her speak, frightening him yet again. He turned his attention back to her, seeing her eye his backpack. “What kind of research do you possess that this Kanjar Ro would allow you to keep it even in prison?”
Marco’s cheeks began to grow hot in embarrassment; he really didn’t want to answer, but he knew he had poked the bear with the stick too much. He knew know was the time to appease before she decided she liked him being a stain on the wall… and the floor. He bent over to pick up his bag and unzipped it, pulling out his material.
“Have you ever heard of the Multiverse Theory?” he asked, trying to see where he should properly begin. A brow raised by the mare let him know he should start at square one. “Alright, so…
“You know how there are classifications of locations? Cities, countries, continents, planets, right?” She nodded. “Well, with planets which surround suns, or stars rather, they are classified as solar systems. Then you have collections of solar systems within relative distance from each other, separated by dark space, which are called galaxies. Galaxies can contain billions of stars and worlds, like yours and mine, yet they are not the whole of existence.
“All of existence, which is all known and unknown, is contained within a whole, called a universe…” he lectured.
Nightmare snapped at him, “Continue taking me for a simpleton further at your own risk, human. My people had already devised this model of existence before my banishment.”
Swallowing, he decided to quickly finish, “Right, sorry. So everything is classified as a universe. Multiverse theory is the idea that there is a number of other universes which exist close to each other, separated by quantum vibrational frequencies and metaphysical Bleedspace.
“Right now, the common number of universes which exist in this model is about forty-two, but… my theory is that there is at least fifty-two universes, including our own. I’ve… been trying to create a map based on my model, which is what my research has entailed.”
Surprisingly, Nightmare was intrigued at the human’s claim. She had built up enough magic she felt was sufficient to escape, but now she was genuinely curious. “This is indeed fascinating, human,” she faintly praised, “tell us how your research led you to your conclusions.”
Marco lowered his head in further embarrassment, feeling more and more foolish for even opening his mouth. Timidly, he decided to come clean, “Actually… I don’t have much solid evidence… I’ve just drawn what my dreams have showed me…”
Nightmare glared at him, silently telling him to explain.
“It… was about a year and a half ago. I was in Metropolis… another city different from where I lived, and I went to a… restaurant.. called Big Belly Burger to get something to eat. There was some weird employee there, asking some weird questions and I just- I started having these dreams, about this structure and other worlds like my own.
“I tried to find the guy afterwards, but apparently he was fired and I never saw him again. Then my world… faced a Crisis and nearly everything was destroyed. The dreams only got more detailed as I tried to chronicle them, but nearly every expert I tried to show them to laughed me off.
“The only ones who seemed interested in seeing my map was a comic company called DC Comics, when one of my friends contacted them a few months ago behind my back.” His eyes flicked over to Nightmare. “Comic books are illustrated literature for entertainment. They had heard about the current Multiverse Theory, and said they’d be willing to print it if I gave it some more material. It… oddly seemed appropriate, it being a comic.
“I already picked out a name for it: The Multiversity Guidebook.”
Letting out a snort of amusement, Nightmare teased, “How cute. A play on words with ‘university’. How quaint.”
Stuffing his notes back into his bag, Marco walked towards the door, his back to Nightmare. The mare felt a degree of pity. “I have many titles, human. One of them is Walker of Dreams,” she stated proudly, Marco tilting his head towards her slightly. “I am very well familiar with dreams and the power they can hold. If the Lord of Dreams has given you these shapes in your dreams for so long, then they are most likely of some importance.”
Marco digested her words carefully and, with a small smile, thanked her for the kind words.
“Now I believe,” Nightmare stated, charging her horn with power, “that it is time for us to leave. I have a world to return to.”
Backing away from the door and moving behind Nightmare Moon, Marco tried to find the safest place to stay. Lowering her head, Nightmare shot out a great torrent of lightning from her horn, filling the cell with near deafening thunder. The electricity was absorbed by the circuits in the floor and ceiling, but the great amount of power poured into it greatly overwhelmed their tolerance threshold.
Spreading across various circuits and systems within the ship, Nightmare’s overpowered spell began causing shorts and explosions all across the ship. A warning klaxon began to wail and the few other prisoners rushed to their doors, escaping when they saw their cells were now deactivated.
“…I believe I used too much,” Nightmare stated flatly “Come, we must find Kanjar Ro and force him to return us back to Equuis.” Marco decided to hold his tongue at her indifference to him being retuned to his own world and follow her.
Nightmare ran to the direction where Marco had vaguely implied was Ro piloted the ship, and which turned out to be true as soon, Kanjar Ro ran towards them in panic. Ro was also a biped, but seemed more insect like, with purple skin and yellow multi-lensed eyes.
“’Pick up some targets’ they asked. ‘You’ll be rewarded with enough money to build the Gamma Gong if you do’ they said!” he yelled to himself as he ran towards and then pass them. “Sprock that! Every man for themselves!” Kanjar Ro was the kind who always looked out for number one.
Stopping in his tracks, Marco watched the retreating figure of Kanjar Ro with mounting dread. He yelled to Nightmare, “Hey Moony!” The mare stopped and gave yet another of her patented glares for the use of such a familiar nickname. “They say that rats run towards the safest sections of a sinking ship. And I think the biggest one just went the other way for a reason…”
As soon as the words left his lips, he felt himself lifted off the ground, a glow of magic surrounding him as Nightmare carried him towards the direction Ro had retreated as she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Sure enough, they found what was obviously where the captain had decided to abandon his ship.
“Oh, god,” Marco observed in celebration, “escape pods. This ship actually has escape pods!” But his elation quickly died. It was fortunate that the designer of the ship had made sure the subsystems of the escape bay were unconnected to the rest of the ship’s network so Nightmare’s magic had not affected this area. But thanks to the quick thinking of their fellow escapees as well as Ro himself, there was an escape pod, singular, left. And thankfully it seemed wide enough for the two.
Nightmare threw Marco in and entered the small craft itself. “Get us out of here. Return me to my moon,” she ordered.
“Are you crazy?” the human exclaimed. “You might be able to survive there, but I don’t have magic to make sure I don’t die in a near vacuum. I’ll just take us to the planet…”
Nightmare gripped Marco’s shirt with her hooves and threw him against the side, baring her fangs yet again. “I MUST BE ON MY MOON BY THE TIME MY POWERS ARE UNSEALED BEFORE I CAN RETURN TO RECLAIM MY THRONE. I WILL KEEP YOUR INSIGNIFICANT LIFE PRESEVED UNTIL THEN UNLESS YOU WISH TO DIE HERE LIKE A FOOLISH FOOL WHO DOESN’T KNOW HOW FOOLISH HE TRULY IS!” she yelled in her Royal Canterlot Voice, this time definitely deafening Marco temporarily.
Nightmare let him go and, after pushing a few buttons experimentally, Marco was able to launch the ship and steer it towards the direction of Equuis’ moon. Kanjar Ro’s ship, surprisingly, did not explode due to the internal damage it had sustained, yet it was quite dead in the rhetorical water. Aside from the twinkle signaling the other pods in the distance, there was no way to find where Kanjar Ro had fled; finding out why he decided to say on the boundaries of Equuis’ star system and who his supposed bosses were would remain mysteries that might never be solved.
Content that their craft was getting closer to her moon, Nightmare relaxed as she could already feel her connection to her sealed powers regain strength. She turned her head over to Marco, who sat in a seat trying to deal with his newly found tinnitus. The human would remain safe under her watch; she was a mare of honor after all and had promised the alien sanctuary in her own way. He could very well provide some entertainment to her when she returned home. There wasn’t much else he COULD do anyways, she had no idea how to return the poor fool to his home anyway, nor would he be able to resist against her at her peak.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the fallen backpack, which had slipped off Marco’s shoulder when he was tossed in. Using her magic to bring it towards her, she decided to take a closer look at the designs which Marco had briefly shown her before. Shifting through the pages of notes, handwritten and what appeared to be professionally typed, she came across what appeared to be a very rough sketch.
It appeared to have been a very early sketch because eventually she was able to find a much more clearer, advanced version, with a note which seemed to have been made from this “DC” company asking for approval in the final design.
Spike was thrown off as the story ended upon the full sized Multiverse map which Nightmare Moon had just been reading herself. He was feeling confused, like the comic was trying to make his head hurt. Most of the terms and locations on the Map had no meaning to the young drake. Speed Force Wall? New Genesis? Rock Of Eternity? Apokolips? It might as well be alphabet soup to him.
Turning the page did not make things any clearer, as the dragon as assaulted with what seemed to be a history lesson about Multiveral birth, death and rebirth with more of those human creatures from the Nightmare Moon story. More and more went over his head, and he was seriously beginning to develop a headache. He was fighting himself to try to care about any of this, but the initial shock of seeing himself in the book had long since faded and he was faced with a growing sense of apathy.
“’What great Hand casts the Lightning… and remakes the World?’” he muttered to himself. “Who cares?! What is all of this?!” The dragon just wanted some superheroes beating each other up, and here he was like he was supposed to be taking notes in school. This comic was really beginning to annoy him and it still wasn’t done!
Spike could faintly hear something in the distance. “…Who’s that knocking at the door?”
He strained his ears, but it quickly faded. His attention back onto the comic, he decided to give it a few more page turns before chucking it in the trash for wasting his time. Serendipitously, the next few pages were much more clear to the baby dragon.
The Guidebook now focused on brief bios on Equestrias from the various Universes in the Map. Keeping his attention, he flipped through them, speedreading a number of vaguely interesting tidbits. After reaching Universe 51, he went back to the top and read them more concisely. He had to laugh upon reading the information listed for his; it was just so straight to the point it was amusing. He turned back to the first few pages and, sure enough, a caption box did list it as supposedly being his universe according to the list.
Spike’s ears picked up another noise, but this time it was MUCH clearer on what it was.
“Spike!” a voice called from downstairs, “I’m finally home! Are you awake?”
The dragon smiled and turned out of bed, dropping the Guidebook. He yelled back, “Yeah, I am! I’ve just been reading the most pretentious comic ever! How was your day?”
Hearing hoof steps climb up to their room, Spike’s big sister chuckled, “Sorry to hear. As for me, it was fairly exhausting, but when business calls…”
Trixie walked into the room and gave her little brother a hug. “…the Great and Powerful Trixie must answer. After all, is there ever any doubt?”
Spike smiled, his big sister could have quite the ego on her, but he’d never trade her for anypony in the world. Ever since she hatched him when she was a filly, he’d served as her ‘lovely’ assistant through thick and thin.
“I brought something for you, little bro,” Trixie levitated a magazine into the room and into the dragon’s claws, “advanced copy of next Wednesday’s Entertainment Equestria.” Sure enough, most of the stories were all about Trixie and the rest of their friends; a group shot of them adorning the cover and quick promises of individual stories all about them promised on the side. Spike chuckled at seeing Dash’s: ‘RD + Soarin’ + Spitfire? Fastest Pegasus alive tells all”.
Trixie leaned in to give him an apologetic kiss. “I’m sorry you weren’t able to join us for our exclusives. I promise you’ll be with us for the next.” Trixie wandered up to her bed and fell on it to relax from the last few hectic days. “Everypony is dying to hear if you and Sweetie Belle will get back together since your little breakup.”
Hearing this, Spike’s posture drooped. “Never wanted to date her in the first place…” he muttered quietly, so Trixie wouldn’t hear.
Sweetie & Spike’s ‘relationship’ was one of the things he wasn’t onboard with when it came to this whole celebrity thing. He wanted to date Rarity, but Trixie had admonished him after he tried wooing the fashionista, stating that their fans found his attraction to the older mare to be creepy. So the power-blue unicorn had tried to set him up with one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, leading to his ‘fling’ with Sweetie. Which she had ended so she could focus on her career- of finding herself via cutie mark.
Trixie rolled over until she was at the foot of her bed looking at Spike. “So,” she inquired, “just what was so important that the Princess called you to Canterlot, huh?” She was hoping it wasn’t anything too serious, even though it had messed up her plans of a 'Best Siblings In Equestria' piece she had planned.
Spike blinked and waved a claw at her, “Aw, it wasn’t anything that serious. Turns out that Princess Celestia wanted to try to bring blue skies back for the summer. Princess Luna wanted a mediator so her sister didn’t feel too frustrated.” A brief flash of memory hit Spike’s mind. “Oh, guess what else Celestia is trying to do!”
Trixie shrugged and waved her hoof for him to continue.
“Turns out Princess Celestia actually picked out a student of her own, so she’d have someone like you!” the dragon exclaimed. Trixie was thrown off guard; she was Luna’s star pupil after all, and Celestia wanted her own?
“Who is it?” the unicorn asked,
“None other than Twilight Sparkle!” Spike said, still incredulous at his own discovery.
Trixie couldn’t believe her ears. Really? Celestia picked her self-proclaimed rival to be her equivalent? The lavender unicorn had shown up several times in the past, crazily proclaiming that Trixie had stolen her life as Luna’s personal student and position in Luna’s School For Gifted Unicorns. Not to mention her role as the Element of Magic. “Well…” she tried to find some good in the situation, “…hopefully Sparkle will leave us alone now that she had a princess to dote over…” But odds were, things would only get worse.
“Not to mention that she’s also taken in Sunset Shimmer as her secretary…” Spike coughed into his hand.
This finally set Trixie off. “Are you serious?!” she exclaimed, jumping off the bed and stomping around the room in anger. “Giving that little thief a position in her cabinet?! I guess age has finally addled her mind if she thinks I’ll let that slide!”
Trixie conjured up a quill and parchment and began to write Luna an angry letter. Spike sighed, realizing he should have kept his big mouth shut. Dealing with Twilight was bad, but Sunset Shimmer was the one who REALLY got under Trixie’s skin. Sunset had been Trixie’s predecessor as Luna’s pupil, but lost her plot and tried to steal some magic mirror. Luna had caught her and exiled her from Equestria, opening up the position that Trixie currently has. Sunset had snuck back into Equestria a few months prior and the older mare had tried stealing her tiara, her Element of Harmony for herself, and the two did not get along. At all. She was only pardoned by the grace of Luna, after Trixie and her friends had put her in her place.
“Spike send this letter to Princess Luna at once, she must know about this… this insult!” Trixie all but shoved the letter in the dragon’s face. Not wanting to fight her, Spike let out a stream of enchanted fire and sent the letter to Canterlot.
Breathing heavily, Trixie tried to calm down, especially after blowing up right in front of her little brother. She had tried to teach the drake that a good showpony did not lose their cool under pressure. Controlling her breathing, she tried to steer the conversation to another topic, “So… you said you were reading some… pretentious comic, Spike?”
With her words reminding him of the Guidebook, Spike picked it up. “Yeah, I bought it at the House of Enchanted Comics…” he began before realizing his error.
“Spike, you promised that you wouldn’t buy from that place again after last time. I do not look good in spandex,” she admonished him.
Waving his hands in protest, Spike tried to argue, “No, no! I asked first. The salespony said it’s magic will only really work if I wanted it to and I don’t! It was freaky at first, then it got really wordy about its Multiverse Theory stuff. It even had a story where Luna was some freaky vampony thing called Nightmare Moon talking to some thing called a human!”
He opened the book and showed her the subtitle of him in Canterlot which labeled it as “UNIVERSE 16” and the Nightmare Moon story as “UNIVERSE 0”. Trixie tilted her head on seeing Spike in the book and cast him an questioning look.
“If you think that’s odd, take a look at this! We‘re all in it right here!” he continued, flipping to the list of Universes, flipping to the page where Universe 16’s bio was listed.
UNIVERSE 16
Star-Equuis - After a rift between the CELESTIAL SISTERS led to the older sister becoming the powerful SOLARIS - THE TYRANT SUN and the younger banishing her to the moon under her care, PRINCESS LUNA led the country of Equestria and the rest of Equuis to a new golden age of prosperity, wrapped in an ever present blanket of starry skies. After TRXIE LULAMOON became Luna’s protégé, she and her new friends APPLEJACK, RARITY, FLUTTERSHY, PINKIE PIE, and RAINBOW DASH managed to become the new BEARERS OF THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, returning Solaris to her normal state as PRINCESS CELESTIA.
Embracing their new found fame by becoming the biggest stars the world has ever seen, the Elements are more concerned with staying relevant in the eyes of their fans than living happy lives. SPIKE THE DRAGON tries to keep his friends from becoming fully devoured by their own self-absorbed lives, which are quickly becoming more meaningless by the day.
Trixie was not amused by the slanderous comic, and flicked back a few pages to see what the Universe 0 bio had to say. She scoffed at its information, “Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic. This IS a joke.” She tossed the comic back to Spike, her mood ruined completely.
Hoping to make sure she didn’t go to be completely mad, Spike decided to break out his secret weapon. “Hey sis, I think we have some peanut butter crackers in the kitchen~” he cooed coyly. Her unamused look stayed on her face as she turned and trotted to the door.
“Well, are you coming or not?” she asked dismissively and then continued towards her peanut-y goodness. Spike breathed out a sigh of relief and gave one last look at the Guidebook. ‘I’ll get rid of this thing in the morning,’ he thought to himself as he tossed it to the floor.
As he set off after his sister, he grew slightly depressed: comics just seemed to be getting less appealing ever since ‘Ultimate Ponies’ got cancelled. You don’t get sucked into a book like that, literally, without feeling some major pathos for its characters, and he was shocked when it was cancelled so suddenly right out of the blue, despite its apparent popularity since his endorsement of it during the Foal’s Choice Awards five months ago. Adding to his irritation of the whole thing, the Guidebook had listed them as Universe 7 in its list, and that it was destroyed by some Gentry-something or another. He’d never heard of it’s supposed ‘mirror’ universe of Universe 8 with its Power Ponies either despite it sounding… somewhat intriguing. But now he was more focused on getting some crackers before his big sister ate them all and complain they would all go to her thighs.
The window was left open in the now empty bedroom, and a stiff breeze blew in. The Multiversity Guidebook was blown open and its pages blown open towards the end, which Spike nor Trixie bothered to read. If they had, then perhaps they might have averted what was to come.
On its pages, the Guidebook showed a conspiring Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer getting ready to enact their plan of overthrowing the Elements of Harmony and Princess Luna. The spell which Twilight had devised would ensure all members of the Royal Guard, Solar & Night, would serve them and Princess Celestia who, for the sake of the plan, would not be informed of their crusade until after it was done.
Twilight is giddy, finding her passions in magic and historical battle tactics finally able to be of some use, allowing her to show off the intelligence she had that everypony seemed to want to ignore. But not for very long.
If only she could see the shadows of Dame Merciless and Intellectron from behind the panels, would she be able to try to save her world. But as it’s Earth counterpart, Equuis seems ready to fall. The Gentry are ready to feed here as well. Her only warning was a faint sound she hears in the last panel. “...Who’s that knocking the door?” she asks Sunset.
Another breeze floats in and the comic is blown shut.
Author's Note
Shaking off my hiatus hibernation with this quick story. Had the idea when I added the finishing touches (pre-re-editing) to my TSFTS uploads on Tuesday, promised it in the comments on Thursday, worked on it off and on until late Satureday/early Sunday where it was uploaded on Sunday proper.
Hope you enjoy this oneshot, even if you've never heard of what Multiversity is. I hope I explained the basic concept for those who haven't properly. This was mostly an exercise to get back into the saddle and get used to longer writing.
And I'm not sure if it's all that up to snuff, so please feel free to give criticism in the comments. Also hope that, despite the "Alt Universe" tag, I wasn't too off the mark with Nightmare Moon's characterization. Also that I wasn't too wordy. Can you tell I'm nervous after such a long while? 
And, no, this is completely unrelated to my Green Lantern fic. I severely hope that the use of the pictures I used is kosher with the site rules...
I can't write Scottish accents! Sorry Mr. Morrison and all other Scots!
