Cipher

by Alfoals Trottenbauer

Rating: teen
Tags: Thriller, Original Character, Mystery, King Sombra, Horror, Crossover, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Other, Gravity Falls
Length: 3776

Ace gets caught up in a deal.

Ace's world is invaded by an interdimensional being, he must make a deal with it in order to keep Equestria intact.

Published 2017-06-04 17:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-06-08 00:19:57 UTC

II - Gravity

Ace appeared in a forest unknown. He looked around urgently for some sort of landmark. Just then, a water tower walked through the forest, knocking down trees as it went. He galloped toward what seemed a town in shambles. He eventually came upon a creature strange to him, though he had read about it in some ancient history books. This example of the species was wearing a hat with a blue pine tree on it, a blue vest and orange t-shirt. Grey shorts were tattered on his legs. Ace tried to recall what the kind was. Hooman? Human? Whatever it was, 'Human' would work for then.

"What is that?" The human pointed to Ace, rather impolitely.

"I am an Equestrian, thank you." He stated, rather annoyed.

"Well, are you on Bill's side?" The human asked.

"Not really, I was forced into a deal with him." Ace answered.

"Are you going to fight against him?" He inquired.

"I guess." Ace replied.

"Well, I'm Dipper Pines, your name?" He greeted.

"Ace Sparks. Is that an unusual name for around here?" He asked a half question.

"You're a human, right? I thought your kind was dead." Ace asked, not realizing what he had just said.

"...No, I don't think we did." Dipper answered awkwardly.

A giant floating eyeball flew by, turning someone into stone.

"We'd better get away from here." He suggested.

Dipper started sprinting away, Ace in a gallop close behind until they finally stopped at a clearing. A giant, fortress-like pyramid towered over the trees in the distance. A beam of blue light shone from the tip of the pyramid into the sky.

"There it is. That's what we're against." Dipper remarked.

"I have a dumb question." Ace considered.

"Who is Bill? Why is he so much of a big deal?" He asked.

"Bill is a being who lives in a place called the nightmare realm. He will trick anyone in order to get what he wants. He wants to take over every dimension." Dipper answered.

Through the brush, a lavender-coated mare with a black mane and tail emerged.

"Ace! I've got the knowledge we need to defeat Bill!" She practically screamed, galloping to them while holding a stack of books resting shakily in her hooves, another stack being levitated by her horn.

"Twilig ht! How did you get here?" Ace inquired.

"That isn't important." She responded.

Twilight made a sudden movement, causing the stack to fall in a pile on the ground. Dipper ran over to them, opening one, squinting his eyes.

"What language is this? I can't read it at all!" He seemed to complain.

"This is Equestrian. You don't have this as your language?" Twilight asked, confused.

"No, I speak English." Dipper clarified.

"Well, you seem to be speaking Equestrian."

"Nevermind that." Dipper dismissed. "What's important is that we find Bill's weakness."

"Yes, it says here that Bill's only weakness is to trap him in somepony- I mean someone's mind. " Twilight agreed, almost forgetting the presence of the human in the process.

An eye floated over the three. They galloped out of the way as a beam turned Twilight's books into stone. More floating eyeballs flew overhead. They made for cover under an rusty, old, metal shed. The three closed the shed's door quickly. An eye looked into the window, bobbing upward and down from levitating. It flew away, knowing it couldn't get them yet.

II (Alternate) - Capture

II (Alternate) - Capture

Ford wrestled in his cage. Bill laughed at his feeble attempt of escape.

"You humans never know when to give up, do you? Look, you and those kids are the only ones stopping me from owning everything. Do you think you can get rid of a multidimensional being?" He ranted.

"I know Dipper can stop you, he has the journals, he knows your weaknesses." Ford retorted.

"You're funny, you know that? Those journals aren't worth the paper they're on. You and Pinetree are going to be the main piece of my throne." Bill laughed.

"You'll regret your choice, Bill just watch." He warned calmly.

A floating eye hit Ford with a beam, petrifying him. Bill lifted Ford out of his cage, placing him at the top of the throne of petrified citizens of Gravity Falls.

III - Secrecy

Dipper, Twilight, and Ace hid away in the shed, waiting for the eyeballs to pass. Ace trotted to the other side of the shed, one of the tiles beneath his hooves pushed in. A door identical to the wall in aesthetics opened slowly. A case of stairs led beneath the ground.

"Twi, Dipper, I found something." He motioned to the doorway.

The three went, the stairs took them to some sort of lab with three books on a shelf. The books were numbered four, five and six, a hand imprint behind the number of each. The hand on the sixth had seven fingers, the middle finger aligning with the number six. The center of the palm had an eye imprinted, fitting perfectly in the loop of the number. Ace levitated the book off the shelf, flipping through the pages.

"This one seems dedicated to Bill." He observed.

"I thought there were only three journals." Dipper remarked, confused.

A childlike voice with a drawl called from the top of the stairs.

"Dipper Pahnes, ah should've known." He said, resting his chubby hand on the door without a handle, barely halfway tall as it.

"Gideon! Don't do it!" Dipper shouted.

"Oh, what, this?" He asked rhetorically as he slammed the heavy steel, trapping them inside.

An audible laugh was heard behind. Dipper ran over to the entry and knocked furiously. Ace trotted over, his horn glowing dark red in the almost pitch darkness. He used a kindling spell on the steel door, fire licking at the edges for a few moments, to no avail. He tried bucking it, using the strength he gained from helping harvest apple trees. With a loud thud, the door remained in place. Twilight's horn glowed a lavender, within seconds, she had disappeared from the room. The door opened as the mare was on the other side. It was now night outside, a chill settled in the room from the breeze. Ace and Dipper left the room, Dipper carrying the three journals.

IV - Encampment

Ace's horn lit up the forest as he kindled a fire in a clearing among the trees. A warm glow filled the air as Dipper, Twilight, and Ace sat in front of the flame. The floating eyeballs' numbers seemed to have died down for the moment, allowing a calm few minutes for then. Dipper was reading the sixth book intently. Twilight stared out into the woods cautiously. The fire crackled, rarely ever breaking the silence. The earthy scent of cedar wood filled the air. Ace levitated one of the other two journals and started flipping through it, looking for anything interesting. For the time being, the pages turning felt ten times louder. Ace came upon a page that caught his eye. He could not read the words, however as he could only read Equestrian, and English was vastly different. The picture showed what seemed like a glossy human dressed as Sherclop Pones, wielding a hatchet. Since he could not read the language, he decided to imagine what it said.

"Sherclop Pones copies, while seemingly harmless, may turn into wax and hold axes when unattended."

This thought amused him for a small bit.

"So, Dipper. Do you know anypony- anyone else?" He awkwardly asked.

Dipper didn't respond, reading just as intently as before. The silence persisted seemingly forever, seconds felt like hours. Loud tapping of woodpeckers on trees echoed through the forest. The fire started to die down, the warm light of the flames started fading. Ace got up off the ground, trotting into the thicket of trees for more wood. It was pitch black outside. Ace needed some sort of light. He strained his eyes, scanning for something to use magic on. He continued trotting forward. He then stepped on a twig. Ace levitated it so that his horn would give off light. The dark red glow attracted fireflies to his horn. He dropped the twig for a log, turning around and cantering back to camp.

A rapid fluttering of wings made Ace jump. He came to the clearing, the fire almost gone. He dropped the piece of wood on the fire, using a kindling spell on it. The light grew far more intense.

The fire started blowing smoke, in strangely triangular puffs. The new wood started creaking from the heat. Dipper looked up at the puffs of smoke, staring at them. Twilight looked over as well. The triangular smoke started glowing yellow as of itself. Suddenly, the glowing smoke started forming one large triangle. It came to life as Bill.

"So, you've decided to stab me in the back I see. You know, I was going to hold my end up. I'll give you another chance. Deal?" He floated over to Ace, holding out a hand.

"Ace, Don't listen to him!" Dipper called.

Ace started raising his hoof out to Bill's hand. He quickly redirected the hoof to Bill's eye, using all his strength.

"Ah! You shouldn't have done that, horse man!" Bill shouted, holding his singular eye.

Bill disappeared into the smoke once more, leaving them to the calm, eerie silence.

V - Tower

The fire died out as the sun rose, the sun bathing the forest in dim light as it did.

"We should start moving." Dipper suggested as he stood up.

The other two rose off the leaf-covered ground. A few eyeballs hovered a distance from the camp. Ace cantered along, keeping pace with Twilight, though keeping his distance from the human since he still didn't quite trust him. Twilight however, had no problem with Dipper because she had no reason to not trust him. The eyes looked their way, lazily floating toward the three. After a bit, they came to a large cabin with a sign saying 'MYSTERY HACK' in red. A red letter S had fallen off the sign, now upside down resting on the lower part of the roof. The building was in a bad condition, the roof had moss growing on it and there was a gaping hole in the top of the shack.
The word 'MYSTERY' was crudely painted on in black. Dipper walked in without hesitation, Ace and Twilight cantering cautiously.

An audible creak echoed as the door opened. The inside was pitch, save for one sole lantern in the middle of the room. The lantern had a flickering candle lit inside, the fire waving in the wind from the door opening. The lantern gave a warm light. A tall, young woman wearing a tattered green flannel, a strip of the flannel torn off, being worn as a headband sat in front of the lantern..

"Wendy? Why are you still here?" Dipper questioned.

"I thought I could use this as a shelter for now, what's with the horses?" She glanced at Twilight and Ace.

"We have names, mine is Ace, this is Twilight." Ace pointed towards the lavender mare.

Wendy looked at Ace like she had never seen anything like him.

"We come from Equestria, a different dimension, I guess. I was forced into a deal with Bill, should I not have accepted, he would've destroyed Equestria, but I turned my back on him." Ace explained.

Wendy still stared at him.

"What, have you not seen a talking pony before?" He inquired.

A silence settled in for a few seconds.

"No, I haven't." She replied after a while.

A fumbling somewhere else inside was heard by the four, followed by some footsteps. The footsteps kept getting closer, heavier until another shape emerged from the dark. It was a large figure, wearing a baseball cap.

"Wendy, I got another candle." He said in a slightly baritone voice.

"Good job, man. Ace, Twilight, this is Soos." She introduced.

Soos walked into the light, giving a much less threatening appearance. He had a dark grey T-shirt with a question mark on.

"Hey dudes." He greeted.

"Hello." Ace greeted back awkwardly, gently sweeping a hoof at the floor.

"Woah, the horse is talking, guys." Soos remarked.

"Yes, they know." Ace responded.

"Ace, it's highly unlikely anypony- I mean anyone, here has seen an Equestrian, since this isn't where we're supposed to exist." Twilight corrected.

"I guess that's true, sorry." Ace apologized.

"So, anyway, do you guys have a plan?" Dipper asked.

"Just last out the apocalypse, I guess." Wendy responded.

"I'm just going to try to get back to Equestria." Stated Ace

A loud thumping echoed outside alongside a sloshing of water and screeching metal. A crash resounded from elsewhere within the shack. As if out of nowhere, a piece of the building was ripped from the foundation, a colossal metal support skewered the roof and floor, taking bits of the walls with it. Sunlight poured in as an animate water tower walked along like nothing had happened.

All five of them, pony and human, stared at the now missing chunk of the shack. Their jaws all had dropped.

"S-sweet Celestia..." Ace uttered.

"We should get out of here before it comes back around." Dipper advised.

The five left the building through the new entrance.

VII - Rift

Wendy and Dipper ran through thickets of trees, Twilight and Ace galloped in front of them, Soos lagged behind the rest. The five climbed up an incline ending on a cliff. Ace looked over the cliff. A small town was visible, though in shambles. At the furthest side of the town, a large pyramid levitated in the air. Above the pyramid, what could only be described as a tear in reality shone in the shape of an X.

"What the hay is that..?" Ace let out under his breath.

Spheres drifted out of the rip in time and space. The pyramid bobbed in the air as if floating in water. The tear extended a bit further. Beams of bright darkness poured from the crevice between unreality and existence, unfathomable, but still seen. The rift was both of sky and sea, while at the same instance being land. It was solid, liquid, gaseous, and plasmic all at the same time. It was everything and nothing all the same. The tear was not perceivable yet still perceived. An equine figure emerged from the rift, just as the three humans and two Equestrians turned and trotted away.

As they did, hoofbeats slowly grew louder, the five stopped to listen, the steps weren't theirs. A silhouette was in the distance. As it got closer, Purple mist trailed off the face. Getting closer, Ace's jaw dropped as he recognized him:

King Sombra.

"Twilight Sparkle. I see you were sent to this miserable dimension, too. You see, that triangle has given me a second chance to exact my revenge." Explained the former tyrant.

Twilight stared unafraid at Sombra.

"I thought Radiant Hope settled you out." Twilight remarked.

"Once powerful, always powerful. Kings don't change their ways, Peasant Sparkle." He retorted.

The king's red horn lit ablaze with a spell of petrification, aimed at Twilight. As it was about to be cast, Ace galloped to and shoved her out of the way with force. The spell hit him in the front leg he had pushed her with. Ace closed his eyes as his hoof started turning to stone, quickly spreading over his whole body. Dipper, Soos, and Wendy could do nothing but stare.

Twilight had been knocked over by Ace, she looked over her withers.

"Ace!" She called as his head hadn't yet been covered.

"Don't worry Twi, I'm fine." He answered calmly to her, eyes still closed.

"For Celestia's sake, Ace. You're not!" She called again, as the stone spread to the latch of his throat.

"I'm not, but don't worry, getting Bill is more important than me. Do it for Equestria." He barely managed to get out before the stone froze over his head.

A rage ignited in Twilight she had not yet encountered before. Her horn glowed a purple as she painfully lifted Sombra and galloped to the edge of the cliff. Sombra struggled in the glow surrounding him.

"Put me down Peasant! I am your superior! Do as your king says, you worm!" He commanded.

Twilight heedlessly levitated the king over the cliff face.

"Goodbye." She responded coldly, dropping him.

VIII - Ḃ͉̣͔̗̱͗̎͡i̸̢̲̝̹ͫ̀̊̓̄̔l̶̴̢̧̳̻̠̬͂̒͜l̯̫̝͚͕̞͆̐ͩͤ͘͢͡

Ace awoke weightless, free of the constraints of his body. He was in the same hole in time past the conceivable. The stars that were not what they seemed surrounded his being, the same triangle beyond existence that tended to reside within reality appeared.

"So, Gothic A, you and Starbottom met an old enemy, right?" He inquired.

Ace said nothing, only stared directly into Bill's eye. There was a long pause before anything was said.

"I'll make you a bargain, despite how many times you've turned your back on me, I'll let you break free of your encasement of stone."

"I like to see sacks of flesh like you try to get rid of me, so this should be a good laugh." He continued.

"Good luck." He said after a long pause.

With a snap of his fingers, the hole dissipated, Bill disappeared. Reality poured in around the stallion once again.

Twilight turned away from the cliff side and faced the sculpture that was once Ace.

"Celestia... May you shine your light on him." The mare whispered under her breath as she sat next to him.

A light shone as the stone crumbled, Ace within it as he opened his eyes.

The light faded and he fell to his knees.

"Ace! You're back!" She exclaimed.

"I saw Bill again... He said he wants to see me fail." Ace breathed out, completely ignoring that he had come back from a probable death.

X - Dreamscape

Ace shakily stood up.

“We need to get to the pyramid. We have to get as many ponies- I mean people, as we can.” Ace indicated with a hoof toward it and the rip in the fabric of reality itself.

“That’s easier said than it’s done, Ace.” Twilight asserted.

“We still have to try, the world as we know it depends on us.” Ace stated.

The three humans and two Equestrians walked down the hill, with all their doubts of their duty in mind.

Despite his efforts, Ace couldn't help but feel a presence he never had before, like something watching him, menacingly.

I - W̘̔ḁ̶̴̢ͥͧ͂͢gḙ̞̓ͫͨ͘ŕ̠͙͔̓̚͘ͅ

Ace awoke in a void, but this time instead of nothing, there were stars, as if he were in an undefined part of space. Suddenly, a yellow triangle popped into existence. It had a top hat on, weedy little arms and legs on the sides. It turned around, a large eye on the front, a bow tie rested in the middle of the triangle.

“So, Gothic A,” It spoke without a mouth while looking at the cutie mark on his flank.

“You have two choices. Face the destruction of your dimension, or we can make a wager. I let your dimension free at one cost; You serve me. Deal?" He threatened, his body pulsating with every word.

He held out an arm, the hand was ignited with a cyan fire. Ace said nothing and reluctantly put his hoof out. The triangle grabbed the top of Ace's hoof.

"Pleasure working with you, Gothic A." He stated.

Ace felt his world surround him again. He was in an empty field next to the path to the square. He trotted over towards the path. He eventually arrived at Twilight's library. He knocked on the door, Spike answering.

"Come on in, Ace." He greeted.

He cantered to Twilight as she reclined in a plush chair.

"Twi, I think I might've done something extremely stupid." He warned.

"What did you do?" She asked.

"So, I woke up in somewhere undefined, a triangle with an eye in the middle threatened to destroy our dimension if I didn't serve him, so I made a deal with him." He explained.

"You... What?" She said suspiciously.

"I made a deal with a yellow triangle."

She galloped over to a bookshelf, tearing books from the shelves in a suddenly urgent search for something. She eventually found what she was looking for, almost slamming it on an adjacent table. She rapidly flipped pages until she came upon the same triangle that Ace had encountered.

"This one?" Her voice practically broke, her mane fraying slowly.

Ace had almost jumped out of the chair he had been sitting on.

"Y-yes."

She reared up at Ace, staring into his eyes intense with anger, but at the same time with fear.

"You made a deal with Bill Cipher!?"

"Bill..?" He asked.

“Oh, he’s nothing, just an inter-dimensional being, the likes of which destroys entire planes of existence, should he not get his way!” She informed sarcastically, still level with his face.

“I made a deal with him, he should keep away from this dimension, right?”

"Well, you should certainly hope he keeps his end!" She urgently advised.

Suddenly, in a puff of red dust, Ace disappeared.

"Ace?" Twilight called.

IX - Ṣ͕̙ͤ̐͜ti̵̓͆ͥ̾̃̏̆̌͘l͇̲̮̍̏͗͗̀̕͢l̨͑̄́ͦ̏̈̕n̺̤̝̔̓̊ͯ̀e̛̪͐͠҉̗̟̪͓̈ͤͯͪss̺̩̍ͮͮ

King Sombra awoke on a ledge at the bottom of the cliff face. His crown had fallen off his head and laid in the dirt. His hooves were broken, one's bone stuck out from the gaskin. The king attempted to stand up, a sharp pain flowed through his body, blood seeping from the bone penetrating the flesh.
Just before he could collapse, he started floating in the air, having lost any and all weight.
The world and it's reality shattered from under him. He had once again found himself within the void of Bill's domain. The being once again came into existence.

"So, Red Horn, I see you took a tumble. I can fix you up, but you're done for now." Bill said as he snapped his fingers, the bones in Sombra's legs healed.

The void broke in two, then disappeared as a whole.

The king found that his more familiar domain of Equestria had replaced it, though things were how he left them they weren't exactly how he left them. His mane was groomed like it had been before the deal, in his purple robe he had been wearing. A chair rested on the floor where it had been, but not quite how it had been. He looked outside, ponies were there like they had always been.

...But they were walking on two legs.