The ghost did not really know how it had ended up in that place ; a moment ago it was in Hyrule, roaming into a cavern, waiting for a poor soul to come, and the second after it heard the call, it was here, in absolute darkness. The lost soul knew it was not the afterlife that was refused from it a long time ago, not after that call. Something called it here to fulfill a purpose, and it knew that every monster and undead being had received the same call, but it was it, a Poe amongst hundreds of others, that was selected the first. The ethereal remains of a dead being suddenly sensed a presence and right in front of it, the thing manifested : even for a soul, the vision was terrifying ; it was also incomprehensible : the being, if it could be called like that, kept on collapsing on itself, its shape transcending dimensions and its power ripping bits of existence from everywhere. For the first time in its existence as a ghost, the Poe felt fear : it was literally nothing before what stood in front of him, something that was above life, death, or everything : it quickly realized it had no choice but to obey its new master. The thing began to speak to him, in a language unlike any other ; it was trying to grasp the concept of ideas, and to communicate with that rudimentary, broken knowledge that was keeping on being forgotten and being learned again in an endless cycle :

"Go. World. Other. Send I you. Take. Parts. Now not. Wait. When. Gone they. Parts bring I. Mission. Understand".

"I understand what you need, Master. I will bring it to you".

The specter paused and hesitated before speaking.

"May I ask, O Master, for what purpose do you need this ?"

The thing took an infinite time to understand the question and answer, although there was no time where they were : it has been destroyed along with everything else.

"Others I bring. I. Create. Soon".

The ponies spent the following two days to learn more about the Mushroom Kingdom, to visit some places thanks to Bowser’s teleportation powers and enjoy the festivities. On Celestia’s recommendations, they also visited Bowser’s main castle in the morning before their last night in the Mushroom Kingdom.

The towering mass of black stone surrounded by a lava sea crushed the guests under its size when they teleported in front to it on the narrow stone path ; even Bowser’s other form was small beside it. Circling the lake of molten rocks, on the horizon, were abrupt slopes with a forest of twisted black trees growing at the top. The sky had taken a dark bluish tint and the moon, green like she was sick of being there, was perfectly visible ; if it was really the moon however. The heat was unbearable and the stone almost burned their hooves, but Bowser promised it was far cooler in its castle ; Celestia confirmed. As they approached the structure, Twilight asked if they were in a volcano, but Bowser replied that his castle was in fact in the center of an old, large crater, surrounded by an almost endless forest that was stopping at an unending ocean : this sea was not on the official maps of the kingdom. When interrogated as to why by Starlight, the Koopa King explained that the woods transported anyone and anything to another dimension : technically, the castle was not in the Mushroom Kingdom either, and not even in the universe ; Bowser further explained that he had found this universe just after he gained his powers, but had become aware of its properties days after his installation. The only thing manmade that was present in this dimension before Bowser’s settling was a huge, limitless wooden boardwalk leading to derelict warehouses filled with crates of all sizes and materials ; interestingly, the boardwalk and the warehouses emerging from the centimeters-level sea still had functioning lights here and there ; it was greatly appreciated, as the sky in this region was pitch black, without a single celestial body. Bowser explained that few of the crates in the warehouses were empty ; most still contained numerous traces of a mysteriously vanished, technically advanced civilization : weapons like laser guns and swords, space-time warping bombs and grenades, armors and battle suits, two nuclear warheads, combat knives, rifles and revolvers but also futuristic toys breaking the laws of physics beside common ones, wardrobes and dressers of infinite storage capacity, cellphones, human and non-human clothes, five touchpads, paper, fans of various models, cameras, freezers, CDs, tables, lamps and light fixtures, razors, cable, USB and flash drives, eleven televisions ranging from a plasma screen to totally unknown models, normal trashes beside disintegration-based ones, sofas, floor, walls and roof tiles, speakers, jewelry and accessories, beauty products written in several unknown languages, bricks, railroads, film projectors, vacuum cleaners, kitchen robots, pans of near unbreakable glass, flashlights, video cameras, video games consoles, eight computers and computers screens, magazines and books of all kinds were present in the crates, neatly arranged and presumably ready to be shipped. Twilight lit up when Bowser mentioned the last objects, as she did not know half of what he was talking about ; however, she remembered computers, televisions, touchpads and cellphones from her stay in Canterlot High ; she was not picturing what a nuclear warhead looked like, but the words “nuclear” and “warhead” put together were already too descriptive for her tastes.

"You have computers and… things like that here ?" She asked.

-"Yes, we do have these technologies in the Mushroom Kingdom", Peach replied. "They are, for the most part, confined to cities : a lot of my people are not really fond of them. However, what Bowser is talking about is on a whole other technological level ; the machines here are so advanced that I cannot even start them ; Bowser will tell you more about this".

"Most of the things I salvaged are just scrap for the most part. I destroyed some of those pieces of junk and I got rid of the nuclear warheads by detonating them in lifeless worlds. Junk seems to come from all eras and places ; I found jewelry carved from bones and flint stones just next to a touchpad. I’ll show you everything you want and what I managed to operate… or kind of. There still are crates to open : you can search if you want, I’ll lead you to the boardwalk ; as long as you’re with me, you won’t get lost. And for what happened here and what this place was…"

"A manufacturing or shipping hub", Starlight deduced.

"Yes… something along the lines. You’ll soon know how far the warehouses go ; it was a gigantic platform that probably deserved a whole planet or more, but… I have a theory. Everything here comes from past, present and future times…" Bowser explained as he opened the huge double door of his castle.

They went inside the huge place ; once Bowser closed the doors behind them, the air immediately got cooler. They found themselves in a brightly lit corridor with a carpeted floor and a glass roof through which the strange sky could be seen.

"I think this place is a nexus of sorts for all past, present and future technologies… Maybe there weren’t people here in the first place. But I can’t affirm it for sure".

The Koopa showed them three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms.

"How can you have water here ?" Applejack interrogated.

"At the West side of the castle, just below that section of the lava lake, there’s a water table. It’s not deep, but just like the sea, it’s limitless. Celestia swam inside".

"Yes. And it’s a magnificent place. Can you show us ?" Celestia asked.

Bowser took them to a spiral staircase that was plunging in the dark ; he hit a switch and the lights illuminated the entire stairwell ; it was so deep they could not see the end. Seeing everyone uneasy, Bowser directly teleported them at the bottom, sparing them a long and perilous descent.

The cavern was breathtaking : above and under the clear water, sparkling with every possible color, were crystals ; they formed a limitless roof of brilliant diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, rubies, topazes and other gemstones that radiated a soothing light, dispensing the need for lightning.

Rainbow Dash flew next to the stones to observe them while Fluttershy tasted the water with her hoof.

"Oh, it’s so refreshing !" She exclaimed.

"It’s drinkable water", Bowser informed. "I tested it : there’s not a single germ inside that pool, and there’ll never be, even if you bathed covered in mud and detritus ; it stays at a constant temperature too. If any of you wanna bathe, that’s okay, but I must warn you : after one hundred and fifty meters in all directions, there’s no bottom anymore".

Fluttershy precipitately backed away from the pool, and Rainbow Dash made a quick turn to come back on the rocky ground.

"Don’t worry", Bowser reassured. "There’s nothing at all in that pool ; maybe it’s the most terrifying thing after all, as water’s a sign of life, but there’s no life in there".

"I bathed in that water", Celestia added. "I went to the limit, where the gemstones under my hooves are no more. This is really strange, but so beautiful, seeing only a white space beneath your hooves and crystals above your head. You still float even at the bottomless place of course".

"I sent thousands of kilometers of weighted cable without reaching something other than water, so in the end I just stopped", the King of the Koopas explained.

"Woohoo ! Hey girls, lifeless water’s so fun !" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, swimming on her back in the middle of the pool.

"When did she get in there !?" Twilight panicked.

"I don’t wanna know", Rainbow Dash mumbled before flying to observe the crystals again.

She touched them with her hoof : in spite of the light they emitted, they were extremely cold.

"Wow, they’re like ice !"

"I analyzed them : normal crystals in regards to composition, even the ones I didn’t know of. The strange thing’s their electrons : they’re moving very slowly around the atomic core, that’s why they’re cold", Bowser explained.

"You’re a scientist !" Twilight exclaimed joyfully.

"More or less. I don’t know if someone told you, but I lack the… patience to study complex things ; anger takes over and I destroy anything that starts to annoy me… that’s just part of my nature", the Koopa replied.

Pinkie Pie touched the bottom with one of her hooves, and then dove to clearly see the crystals underwater.

"They’re cold in the water too ! "She told the others as she surfaced ; her mane took its original fluffy form back almost instantly.

"So I can’t taste one", Spike mumbled.

"I advise against it, yes", Twilight replied. "Spike, these gems are so cold you’ll literally freeze your mouth !"

"Okay, okay…" The young dragon grumbled disappointingly.

"But I can use them for my dresses !" Rarity exclaimed. "Do we sense the cold through fabric ?" She asked to Bowser.

"You’re a fashion designer, right ? I’d opt for a thick fabric if I were you, or a juxtaposition of layers ; if the gems touch your fur for too long, you’ll probably get frostbite. I can detach some of them for you, but be careful when handling them. How much do you need ?"

"For testing, twenty-two pounds. But I don’t want to bother you, I can detach them myself", Rarity replied.

"It’ll be hard. They’re not covering the roof, they are the roof ; and each of them is fused with the other, that’s why they form such a patchwork. I’ll take care of it while you enjoy the books and machines I found in that dimension. It’ll take me less than two minutes".

"You’re such a sweetheart, thank you", Rarity thanked.

Once Pinkie Pie got out of the water devoid of life, Bowser teleported everyone back into one of the living rooms ; from here they took a small corridor, opened a double door and stepped inside a room of huge proportions : while the roof was at a normal height, Twilight could not see the end of the room, hid behind countless bookshelves and furniture. The room, if it could be called like that, was filled with the things Bowser had salvaged from the crates ; the floor was covered with a thick red carpet, and the walls and the roof were painted in white ; there were numerous lights, sconces and chandeliers fixed on them, and halogen lamps were installed where the other lights could not reach. Bowser had tried to make the room feel comfortable, warm and cozy by placing the furniture at its would be place in a normal house : it was a success, although the sheer dimension of the room and the abundance of objects were taking away some of the illusion of being in a real home.

"Celestia told me you loved books", Bowser told Twilight. "Feel free to take any of them, I give them to you. Just show me what you choose just in case I need to make a copy".

"I-I… It’s-it’s too much ! I just can’t accept ! These books are precious, there are probably just a few copies of them, if any !"

"It doesn’t matter : I know you’ll take good care of them. The knowledge contained inside will profit to Equestria… if you manage to decipher some of them though", the Koopa laughed.

The ponies noticed a very thin computer screen on a table : it was turned on, showing a strange polygon-like cube projected in three dimensions ; its faces were moving in an incomprehensible way, apparently bending space-time with their movements ; everyone except Bowser and Pinkie Pie turned their eyes away from the tesseract.

"It gives me headaches", Applejack mumbled.

"Why ?" Pinkie Pie asked as she approached the projected image and turned around it.

"It’s just woooooing and woooooing and woooooing with its faces, so funny !"

She wanted to touch it, but her hoof – harmlessly deformed in the process – passed through the hologram.

"Silly me !" She exclaimed before bouncing towards another screen as Bowser turned off the projection.

The pink pony sat on a chair in front of another computer screen : this one was looking old by the standards of the Mushroom Kingdom ; however, it was not powered by anything but itself ; on the black screen were flashing an endless amount of nonsensical data made of known and unknown numbers and symbols. There was no switch to turn it off. After one second of watching data scroll, Pinkie Pie decided it was boring, and Twilight took her place ; the young alicorn managed to make a little sense of some of the green data, but it was scrolling so fast it was impossible to decipher a complete line.

"It’s part of a file regarding fifth dimensional objects", Bowser explained behind her back. "This computer’s a three-dimensional object linked to a five-dimensional universe".

"How do you know that !?" The Princess of Friendship exclaimed in disbelief. "I can barely identify anything !"

"My power allows me to sense the slightest ruptures in space-time. If you wanna know, I even managed to reach that dimension with Boo’s help, and even though there are no words to describe it, let’s say it was… bland… nothing interesting to see I mean. It’s very small too. Besides that, five-dimensional shapes just stay shapes and…"

Bowser interrupted himself ; the screen had suddenly cut to black and the machine had turned off ; the Koopa was stunned with surprise and fear.

"I… I think you just… witnessed the end of a universe…" He whispered worryingly.

"What !?" Twilight exclaimed.

Bowser took a deep breath as he rubbed his eyes ; he sensed a small surge of rage rising inside him, but managed to contain it ; destroying was not going to solve anything.

"It’s that thing… It pulverized the gateway alongside the dimension, or vice-versa. There’s no more data, because there’s no universe to collect it from anymore… I just sensed the breach closing abruptly : everything on the other side’s irremediably destroyed… Rest assured though : it was a lifeless universe… But it worries me, to say the very least, that that thing, or part of it, was there. We’re... extremely lucky it hadn’t taken the breach to get here".

No one said a word for a minute ; Bowser sighed with relief, satisfied to have avoided the worst ; his anger subsided.

"I don’t believe you", Rainbow Dash finally stated.

"I can transfer what I saw to you. I think your mind can handle that. Witness this and end your doubts", Bowser said.

Without waiting for an answer and in a swift motion, one of his claws touched Rainbow Dash’s forehead. The pegasus opened her eyes wildly, almost enough for them to fall out of their sockets. In her mind, she saw ; she witnessed. She clearly saw the white breach, exactly like a ripped cloth, from where descended innumerable strands of data ending on the computer. She could not see much of the other side of the breach, but she caught things moving nonetheless : she was unable to describe them, the way they were moving or even their color, if they had one anyways ; Bowser had talked about five-dimensional shapes, and it was the closest thing that could be said about these objects. And abruptly, the breach disappeared and with it, the strands of data powering the computer ; Rainbow Dash glimpsed what could have been a part of the thing, but she could not be sure : it was far too brief, far too incomprehensible. She shook her head : the whole flashback had taken less than one second, and everyone was still in the exact same place, atom-wise, than before. She barely sensed one tear running down her right eye. Maybe it was lifeless and small, but it was still a universe. And what about the shapes ? How to be sure they were not alive ? Maybe they were scared ? Maybe drifting aimlessly into oblivion was simply their form of life, or whatever it was called there ? And that thing had pulverized them with its mere presence. Now they were gone forever. And no one to remember them.

"Stop", Bowser ordered as he snapped his claws.

Rainbow Dash came back to reality, only to realize she was really crying and had formulated all her ideas out loud.

"Trust me, I’m really sorry to make you cry, Rainbow Dash", the Koopa apologized sincerely. "You must understand that the threat is real. I wouldn’t lie about that. Don’t worry about the shapes though. I touched them. Talked to them. I even sensed their souls ; they don’t have any. Do you know what they were ? These were five-dimensional astronomical objects seen from our three-dimensional perspective ; to put it simply, they were stars, planetoids, asteroids, black holes, galaxies… just a bunch of objects, and none of them harbored the slightest trace of life, I thoroughly checked multiple times. Tell me… do you cry when you break say… a mug ?"

The shaken pegasus weakly shook her head.

"That’s exactly the same thing. Calm down".

Rainbow Dash slowly came back to her senses under Fluttershy’s hugs and kisses.

"You should not have done that", Peach reprimanded.

"What choice did I have ? She wouldn’t believe it. It’s really important to understand : a universe has ended, just like that, in no time. You know what it took for that being to do that ?"

Bowser snapped his claws.

"Less than this".

Everyone shivered.

"I… I feel better now", Rainbow Dash assured with her usual confident voice. "It was dumb to say I didn’t believe you and… I… I huh… I’m sorry", she whispered ; Bowser smiled.

Pinkie Pie was jumping from object to object ; she stopped in front of another computer : this one was a modern laptop, showing a double sun setting on the horizon. The sky was colored with red and orange hues, as the ocean beneath it ; in the left corner of the wallpaper, an indistinct celestial body could be seen. There were just a few icons on the virtual desk : a recycle bin, a system folder, a music folder, a video game folder, a movie folder, a notepad and what seemed to be an antivirus. Pinkie Pie tried to use the touchpad, then the mouse, but gave up after three trials.

"These are made for hands", Twilight laughed before using the mouse with her magic. "But I think I can circumvent that".

She quickly opened all the files.

"You use that thing pretty well", Applejack complimented.

"My time in Canterlot High taught me some things about computers. Not everything, but enough to use one", Twilight explained. "Starlight can use it too".

"Factory settings", Bowser pointed out.

"It seems so", Peach replied. "I think I remember this one. Isn’t it the one with strange music ?"

"It is", the Koopa confirmed.

Intrigued, Twilight clicked on one of the ten songs available in the music folder ; a virtual player appeared and the music started. Except it was not really music, not as it was currently defined anyways : everyone was abruptly mentally submerged by waves of dozens of images that were forming a film, or rather a slideshow inside their mind : they suddenly found themselves under stars, then looking at the six branches of a galaxy, on a beach of white sand, at the edge of a tropical forest, in a volcano, just above the clouds, next to a waterfall and at least in a bed ; all with their respective lover beside them.

"It’s a love song", a visibly unaffected Bowser explained with a shrug. "That “music” sends low-frequency waves…"

"Don’t explain it, please…" Starlight cut him ; she was visibly shaken by the experience.

"You’re the one who’s asking that !?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

The video file Twilight played erased everything around them to replace it with a view of a futuristic white city filled with white towers from which trees sprouted, growing vertically on the surfaces ; some silent airships were hovering in the sky, under the double sun. The city was surrounded by layers of a dense tropical forest, then other buildings ; behind them, this repetitive ring-shaped sight stretched as far as their eyes could see, but in front of them, a few kilometers away, it was stopped by dunes, a beach and a sea. They were on the roof of the tallest building ; there were two emergency doors on each side of the roof ; one of them opened abruptly on a woman. They slowly detailed her physique : she was taller than Peach and was wearing a bright red evening dress along with matching stilettos ; a thin golden chain was hanging from her neck, with a light green gemstone lost between her opulent breasts. The diva turned her emerald gaze everywhere without seeing the ponies, Bowser, Mario, Luigi or Peach. Her long orange hair were flowing around her face – covered in a short soft white fur – with each movement ; her muzzle seemed to pick up a scent and her triangular dog ears a sound. Twilight found her absolutely beautiful despite the woman being an anthropomorphic female Labrador. The door on the left burst open, and what were four near identical, anthropomorphic grey wolves wearing black suits took position and pointed silenced guns at her. They moved away from the door and another character entered the scene : it was an old-looking fox almost swallowed by his three-piece golden and yellow suit and black shirt covered by a bright red tie ; the fedora and the round sunglasses he was wearing were further obscuring his traits ; he smiled, uncovering his fangs.

"You lost Sarah", he affirmed with a heavy, indistinguishable accent mixed with a growl.

"Do you really think I took that roof without planning an escape route ?" The woman replied.

"Don’t make me laugh. You can’t jump anywhere or take the door, because we’ll shoot you first ; at that distance, it’s almost point-blank range y’know, there’s no chance we’d miss. Or you wanna say you’re quicker than a bullet ? I’m thrilled to test that theory actually".

The wolves readied their weapons.

"Give it back, or I’ll take it from your lovely, but dead body".

Sarah clenched her pointed teeth, looking at the jewel between her breasts.

"You’ve got no right to even touch that stone, Henrick ! You stole it from my parents ! I just took back what belongs to me !"

"Find it, keep it, it’s what they say", Henrick replied. "I’m in a pretty good mood today, I’ll ask it one more time : give it back".

"Never !"

A white airship suddenly obscured the sky above them, and Sarah smiled.

"Jack ! At least !"

And suddenly, without any transition, everyone was back into Bowser’s castle.

"It’s the trailer, or a clip, of an action movie, with a touch of romance I suppose", Bowser explained. "There’s another trailer with the actors’ names this time. I didn’t find the whole movie, maybe it’s still in a crate".

"I see dog people", Pinkie Pie told Fluttershy in a spooky voice as she loomed over her on two legs ; the pegasus hid behind Rainbow Dash and Twilight, Rarity and Starlight chuckled.

"Do the other movies show the same race of… huh… dog humans ?" Twilight interrogated.

"Yes. There are two computers here that show multi-dimensional movies too ; I don’t want you to watch them though : they’re projected in twelve and thirty-six dimensions ; that’s enough to fry your brain. I’m not sure about you though", Bowser corrected himself, looking at Pinkie Pie.

The next things he showed them – behind a reinforced polymer – were the weapons ; their sight was highly unsettling for the ponies, as there were no such things in Equestria, and Celestia and Twilight mentally swore that there would never be. Bowser explained that the grenades were creating a miniature black hole absorbing everything in a three meters range ; the swords and guns used a powerful plasma laser ; the battle suits were biomechanical ; the knives vibrated their atoms so fast they passed through almost any matter and the revolvers and rifles were shooting powerful explosive bullets. On a table in front of the pan of glass, there were the almost exact same weapons : Bowser explained it was the safest ones ; among them was a humanoid, medieval armor made of common iron beside a quadrupedal one forged in a light blue crystal, and a switchblade next to a flint arrow tip. Other things included arrows, spears, shields and helmets, multiple kinds of swords, nets and clubs. Once they reached the end of the deadly objects and Bowser’s terrifying explanations about their purpose, the ponies felt relieved.

"So now… Toys and books. Pick anything you want", Bowser said. "The most dangerous of the toys and books aren’t here, so don’t be afraid. The books are ordered alphabetically and by theme. I’m gonna pick up some gems for you", he told Rarity before teleporting.

Twilight exploded with happiness ; she hurriedly ran to one of the numerous bookshelves and randomly picked a book about magic in a language she could understand ; she sat on a sofa and began reading. Everyone did the same, except Pinkie Pie, who decided to make origami with what seemed to be normal sheets of paper ; once she finished a crane however, the paper bird suddenly took off the ground, flying around her creator with the agility of a flesh and bone creature.

"So fun ! Another one !" Pinkie exclaimed.

When Bowser came back two minutes later with an insulated bag full of gems, there were dozens of various paper animals and objects flying, scuttling, floating, running, jumping and crawling around Pinkie Pie.

"They stop “living” after five minutes and become inert. They’ll transform back into a sheet of paper in two days, unless you paint them or make the same model twice in a row on the same paper", the Koopa explained.

Pinkie Pie frowned :

"No fun if they become normal paper again".

"I have yet to find a way to make them animate for longer. Here, for you…" Bowser presented the bag of crystals to Rarity and opened it. "This is what you wanted ?"

"It’s perfect ! Thank you !" The unicorn beamed. "And to think that I’ve found this book about dresses… it’s just wonderful !"

"You can keep it. To be honest, you can keep all the books about fashion, I’ll teleport them to Equestria with everyone. I wanted to study the dress code of other species, but these books and magazines didn’t give me any useful insight for most of them. If they inspire you, I’d be glad to offer them ; consider this a small apology for what I’ve done to your world".

"But-But I… I can’t accept !" Rarity spluttered. "First I rob you of crystals, and then of books ! I just cannot !"

"Don’t be like your friend ; these books are useless here. Put aside what you want and when we’ll leave, I’ll take care of them".

Rarity smiled and tears of joy filled her eyes ; without thinking and despite his height, she kissed Bowser on the cheek.

"Thank you", she repeated.

Bowser smiled and approached Twilight.

"It’s the book about fighting magic, I see. There’s quite the list of offensive and defensive spells inside. I know a talented princess like you can take advantage of them if they apply to your magic, but I hope you’ll never have to use them", he said. "I was thinking of another book you might enjoy", he added before going to pick a huge black book in the section dedicated to magic.

Twilight closed her book and took the other one with her magic.

"Wow, it’s so heavy !" She exclaimed, her magic briefly faltering with surprise.

"“Wielding chaos power and magic : a complete guide”. But… but this book can’t exist ! Only Discord can use that kind of powerful magic !"

"In your world maybe, but not in the world from where this book was written. You know, basically speaking, chaos magic’s just normal magic applied to the very foundations of reality ; once you learned how to do that, all you have to know is the effect you want to produce, the necessary force to apply and the place where you want it to appear ; so you can inverse causality, break the laws of thermodynamics and so on… Your imagination’s the limit", Bowser explained.

A stylized pink heart suddenly appeared next to Twilight, who looked at it with a mix of surprise and confusion. Peach snapped her fingers and the heart burst into dozens of others which sprouted tiny legs and danced in the air like they were on the floor ; another snapping of fingers and they exploded into miniature, harmless fireworks.

"Just like that", the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom said in a giggle.

"Awesome !" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "And I’m not into that kind of stuff, y’know, hearts and everythin', but that… that was just amazing coming from you !"

"You can wield that kind of magic ?" A bemused Twilight asked to Peach.

"Just a little", her fellow ruler replied. "I am very far for being proficient with it, and most objects I create are related to love".

"The power I use isn’t magic or anything close, so I can’t use that book : I can’t create anything with Darkness, not even chaos. I can still create things based on elements however, but my true power can’t take any shape other than clouds and flames of Darkness that just destroy ; the creative power given to me is just the ability to craft and think about creation ; it’s pretty disappointing since I love that book. I hope you’ll fulfill my wishes of creating some interesting and funny things", Bowser told Twilight.

"I’ll do it", Twilight promised.

"Discord will be very surprised", Celestia giggled ; she was resting on a red sofa, barely reading a book about astronomical objects.

Everyone read and played for two hours ; Bowser then asked if they wanted to see the warehouses and the crates he had yet to open : they all agreed, and he teleported everyone on the wooden boardwalk.

Spike and Rarity instinctively hugged each other once they found themselves under the pure black sky ; Fluttershy hid behind Rainbow Dash. Starlight looked at the sea, five meters under the planks ; there was little to no water above the sand : she was not even sure if the water could reach her body should she wanted to go in. There were no waves or currents, no fishes or shells and no seaweed ; not the slightest trace of life. She thought that eternally walking on this endless flat ocean was the most terrible punishment to ever exist ; she also noted the cool air despite the absence of anything that could provide any kind of warmth, except the antic-looking lanterns suspended under square wooden arks. Starlight could feel the heat that was emanating from them, but it was clearly not them that were maintaining that cool atmosphere.

"I analyzed the lifeless water and the sand, they’re… normal, except that sea isn’t that salty : its salt concentration’s sixty times less than a common sea, more than an half ; you can drink it in fact. I wouldn’t recommend to go in the water far away from the boardwalk though : I can’t be sure there’s nothing in the places where the light doesn’t reach, although I checked some of them", Bowser warned.

Everyone stayed far away from the edges of the planks. The outlines of a warehouse took shape in front of them, and they went inside the derelict grey building that was missing its doors. Besides the crates, there was nothing inside it ; it was totally bare : a perfect concrete cube. The crates of various sizes were neatly piled up in three rows of thirty-six containers ; two rows were against the two side walls and one in the middle.

"They’re arranged like a six on a dice", Twilight pointed out.

"All the crates I found were impeccably piled up, but not always in a geometric fashion like these ones", Bowser said.

"Found a box of tissues ! And a pouch full of coins ! And a paper note ! And a flute ! And… huh… what’s that ?" Pinkie Pie asked to herself as she was emptying a tiny crate.

"When did she…" Mario said before shaking his head.

The object Pinkie Pie could not identify was a laptop battery ; Bowser picked it up.

"That’s the power source for the laptop with the video and music files", he explained.

Pinkie Pie read the long note she found aloud :

"To the unlucky soul who find this place : go away. Since you found that note, it means you probably searched through the other warehouses. You probably found tons of things that are defying your imagination, depending from where you come from ; don’t let these so called wonders fool you : this place’s everything but fun. I know for sure, because I work here. Or I must say : worked here, since I’m dead with everyone else. I’m writing this as all life’s disappearing, but I’m kinda cool with it, I don’t know why, maybe because I was right all along. Maybe you’ll find this note half-finished, which means I disappeared while writing. Let me introduce myself posthumously : I’m Jerry, a thirty-six years old Galanian with no family and no relatives alive. I work for Everything Inc. and I’m in charge of Sector Z ; that means I had thousands of people under my command, ready to ship orders to Sector Z, that’s not far away : ten light years from here. But this sector’s fairly populated, so it gives me tons and tons of work, I don’t always sleep at home. Maybe you wonder how that’s possible, or maybe you don’t understand me at all : that’s fine, I don’t really expect someone to find my note. In case you’re wondering, Everything Incorporation is a company that manufactures and ships everything everywhere, that’s all. It has a… holding ? Group ? Something like that called Everything Shipping Solutions, ESS for short, and that’s where I work. I pass you the details of my life, it’s as mundane as it could be ; all you have to know is that I took a job at this company and I climbed the ladder to my current position ; that’s not very impressive, trust me : there’s so much people above me I can’t even begin to count them. That’s sad, really, because if I was one of the higher-ups (maybe I could’ve been… in a thousand years or so ?), maybe everything’d been avoided ; it’s too late now. It’s funny when you think about it : when everything started to go wrong, the ones above us said : “Keep going, everything’s fine, don’t worry”, something like that, and they believed it, while here, guys like me knew the company screwed up. Screwed up badly. The company’s motto’s “Everything for you” ; sounds silly, right ? But it was true, so true, too true. You probably can’t imagine it, but the factories were universal in scale ; I think there were six of them, so six vast universes filled with machinery alone. I got a glimpse of one of them, and I think everyone who’s seen these… things has thought the same thing : “We’re doomed”. The higher-ups didn’t know, or maybe didn’t want to know. If only they had seen… You can produce weapons, toys, books, computers and everything with any properties you want by tearing through reality with machines, because that’s how stuff’s made, but you can’t simply put them in crates stocked at the same place. But we were doing that for thousands of years, why stopping, they said ? Because pieces of reality react in unpredictable ways when in contact with other ones, causing repercussions through every world ; the factories, the manufacturing company, and the shipping hub were so disconnected in terms of communication (except for orders of course) that when the problem became apparent, it was too late. It was nothing at first : crates displaced or becoming intangible, nothing that we couldn’t handle. But it got worse : employees started to become affected by reality changes, time and space warped randomly, cases of radiation poisoning, etc. All the sectors were affected. And one day, I heard that one of the factories was… destroyed I guess. It was here at a moment, and the moment after, it was gone, replaced by void. And then another. From this point onwards, everything degenerated, despite the efforts of the company ; all life disappeared within entire sectors, and when they were quarantined, they disappeared too. One day… I… The… the dimension where the company was, physically speaking, disappeared. Just like that. My home. Vanished for eternity… Customer dimensions did the same. Everything that was tied to the production, one way or another, simply ceased to exist. I saw the rest of my employees (a few hundred at this point) breaking into panic before rushing through the bridges to try to go home : they vanished into the oblivion that was now our universe. That was one month ago. Now, the other ones still alive are disappearing as I write these lines ; I don’t know why I’m still here, or why the crates or that whole place doesn’t disappear ; maybe it will though. But I’ve got the feeling that this place isn’t normal : from what I know, the warehouses, the light and the boardwalks were here when the company installed the hub, they just used them. I looked at the water for the last time : I could’ve sworn I saw things in the water, under the boardwalk and in the dark places… I’m gonna put this note (I attached my photo to it) in a crate with my pouch and my flute. Then I’ll wait in the water until I disappear or… worse, but, let’s be honest, what could be worse ? I secretly hope that place will be left intact, and that someone will find that paper to see the folly of our actions. The actions of the people of Galania, the Factory World. I hope the better for you and your world,

Sincerely,

Jerry.

PS : If you have the power to do it, destroy that place and the junk inside, so it won’t endanger anyone else. You can keep the books though ; they’re not produced by the factories.

PPS : I found a strange crate in this warehouse, don’t know what it is. Don’t open it, probably some weapon of mass destruction."

Everyone stayed silent after the reading. Peach suddenly broke in tears, and everyone else sensed their eyes burning ; Bowser looked at the ground and shook his massive head.

"It’s…" Starlight said with a shattered voice as salty trails covered her muzzle. "I… I just can’t…"

Attached to the paper with a thumbnail was a photo : it was displaying the smiling face of an anthropomorphic black Shiba Inu ; the back of the picture was signed “Jerry” in blue ink.

"I want to keep Jerry’s possessions", Pinkie Pie suddenly stated.

The tone of her voice surprised everyone : it was filled with a seriousness that no one could have imagined coming from Pinkie Pie ; her pony friends stared at her with surprised looks.

"I want to remember Jerry", she added with the same voice. "When we’ll come back, I’ll throw a party for him".

"S… sure Pinkie", Twilight agreed.

"I think he’d be happy", Applejack approved.

It was decided to leave the crates where they were ; Bowser would open them alone another time ; however, he teleported the strange crate mentioned by Jerry : it was a smooth rectangular metallic cube with no markings or seams of any sort.

"I forgot to show you the castle’s garden", the Koopa King remembered as they were leaving the warehouse.

"You can grow plants under that sky !?" Rainbow Dash asked skeptically.

"It’s a very special garden, you’ll see", Bowser replied.

Fluttershy was not really paying attention to the conversation : she was looking at the water ; it was so calm, almost relaxing if it was not that static and uniform. The boardwalk was projecting its very opaque shadow under itself, covering the sand and water ; mechanically, Fluttershy gazed at the dark place for one second ; suddenly, her eyes glimpsed something ; a movement, a shadow on a shadow, a bit of darkness crawling ; she was not sure ; but there was clearly something under the boardwalk. Her body froze and she began to shiver uncontrollably.

"Fluttershy ?" Rainbow Dash asked. "What’s wrong ?"

"U-U-U-U-Under… Under the-the-the boardwalk… Mo-mo-moving…" Her lover spluttered.

"I’ll check it out…" Rainbow Dash decided before leaving the ground, only to be immediately restrained by Bowser’s huge hand.

The weight and force of the palm instantly calmed her down.

"You-you’re quicker than you seem", she told Bowser as she folded back her wings.

"I’m not fast, but I do have reflexes", the Koopa said, shrugging. "Don’t go. I’ll tell you if there’s something there. I doubt I can be harmed by whatever that thing is".

He jumped in the water – for the first time causing waves – and examined the dark place ; he slowly approached it, his throat glowing with a deadly fire.

The thing sensed the incoming threat and decided to move : it was a bad decision : the wave of destructive fire hit it at the first hint of a twitch. The enemy was far too strong this time : it was over before it had even begun.

Bowser looked on as the whole shadow of the boardwalks caught fire before writhing in agony, twisting itself in improbable angles and twitching with spasms of unbearable pain. He teleported everyone beside him to observe the sea illuminated by an impossibly long ribbon of inextinguishable fire ; after only two minutes, the flames had consumed the entirety of the un-being, leaving no traces of the shadow that had plagued the undamaged boardwalk since its creation.

-What in Equestria was that thing !? Applejack exclaimed once in safety in the castle.

-An ancient form of un-life from the beginning of this world. Maybe created along the boardwalks, Bowser replied.

-It was thousands of kilometers long ! It’s just impossible ! Spike exclaimed.

-Probably far much more than that, maybe light years, but it caught fire rather easily for a thing of its size. I think I scared it and it tried to flee ; thing was hungry though, it probably hadn’t eaten anything since the incident with Galania, that could be thousands of years ago or way more. Don’t worry about it, it wasn’t alive, not in that sense anyways ; things like that are just remnants of power or magic that take shape and consume everything that’s unfortunate enough to get close. It’s gone forever now. So, about the garden…

He guided his still shaken guests through the castle until they reached the exact center of the gigantic building : Twilight briefly believed that they were outside, but when she looked up, she realized she was under a huge pyramidal glass roof : it was an indoor garden.

The deformed trees that surrounded the castle were almost everywhere, but it was not them that were attracting the attention of the ponies : growing on them were mushrooms ; there was an infinity of mushrooms of all sizes and shapes, most of them glittering or even shining pale colors : white, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, violet, black and everything in between that was constituting a marvelous, otherworldly sight.

Twilight mistook a mushroom for a tree when she approached the twisted fungi.

"How can you cultivate these mushrooms so efficiently ?" She interrogated. "Fungi require precise atmospheric conditions and soil microbiology to grow, among other factors".

"Don’t you sense the humidity in the air ? These trees, if I can call them like that, are very peculiar : they require no sunlight to grow, and can survive with little to no water. Once they get so much as a mist, they stock the water in their bark. Then, by enzymes and chemical reactions that’d be hard and long to explain, they create more and more water, until they sweat profusely ; it releases a mist around them : they absorb it and then, the entire process starts over. They probably can last thousands of years since their last watering. And that’s not all ; they also create nutriments in excess, so the mushrooms can perpetually grow on them without killing their hosts. As for the mushrooms themselves, I got them from different places in the Mushroom Kingdom and some other dimensions, because, except the trees, nothing grows here naturally. I was careful when bringing them here ; none of them can hurt you and the air’s free of spores these days, but I’d be careful to not touch most of them, I’ll tell you which".

They visited the garden, observing the luminescent mushrooms ; Pinkie Pie found one with a large soft cap, safe to touch, allowing her to bounce on it to impressive heights.

"So funny !" She exclaimed before going to search another mushroom to play with.

Bowser went to explain that, in the center of the garden, lightly buried in the ground, was a time-space bomb : if the castle was attacked, the bomb could be detonated : it would relocate the precious garden to another castle in the Mushroom Kingdom. It had taken one year and a half, plus the brightest engineers from all races, to create that bomb ; Bowser was working on another for the living room filled with objects from other dimensions.

"I wonder… what in the world is that crate…" Luigi mused aloud.

"Hmm ? Do you wanna know ?" Bowser asked. "I can open it in a highly secured room, with you behind reinforced glass ; I’ll be the first to see what’s inside, so no danger. Well, almost".

"I am worried, to say the least, at the prospect of opening this container", Peach declared.

"I must say I wanna know too", Applejack admitted.

"Me too", Rainbow Dash concurred.

"Me three !" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"Can you assure us that we’ll be safe ?" Mario asked to Bowser.

"Eighty-five percent, can’t say more", the Koopa said while shrugging. "Shielding from memetic hazards can’t be totally guaranteed".

"Let’s do it !" Pinkie Pie encouraged as she bounced from mushroom to mushroom.

Peach gave up ; even her fellow rulers, the Princess of Friendship and Princess Celestia, were thrilled at the thought of opening the strange metallic container.

Bowser led them through the living room to the weapons storage ; there was a door on the right, next to the shelves filled with deadly weaponry ; everyone shivered when looking at them this close : some of these things could potentially pulverize the castle and almost everyone inside it, and that was when excluding a probable chain-reaction. They entered another gigantic room ; the crate was in the middle ; there was nothing else in the white cube, except, on the left, a grey wall with a large pan of glass in the center.

"I built it for my researchers, Bowser said".

Everyone got inside the bunker comprised of two airlocks equipped with heavy, sliding metal doors, and the observation room. There were video cameras monitoring everything in the bunker, but none inside the white room ; in front of them, many consoles and screens were shut down.

"We don’t need these for now. No offense, but if I start to explain how they work, we can add some weeks before our departure to Equestria…" Bowser told them before leaving the control room.

Everyone watched him approaching the container ; he observed it carefully before touching the top : a blue interface appeared on the metallic surface. He looked up and spoke; they could hear him perfectly.

"Virtual interface. Displaying…" He stopped suddenly, visibly surprised.

"What ?" Mario asked.

"I think you better come with me. The air in the room’s filled with a powerful, harmless disinfectant : it’s germ-free here, it’ll simplify everything", Bowser mumbled. "No mental hazards or anything even remotely dangerous, don’t worry".

The puzzled ponies, Mario, Luigi and Peach left the bunker and carefully stepped in the white room; they approached the container to read the information displayed on the surface.

"That’s… !" Twilight exclaimed.

"Yes. That’s why I mentioned the disinfectant earlier", Bowser replied.

"What the hay are you talkin’ ‘bout ?" A confused Applejack asked.

"We must open it at all costs !" Starlight panicked. "We don’t know how much time…"

"Probably plenty of time given what it is. But I’m gonna open it, just give me one minute", Bowser cut her off.

His huge claws danced on the flat surface, confirming and denying options so fast that Starlight was struggling to keep up.

At least, a red message appeared on the virtual interface : “CONFIRM OPENING OF STASIS CAPSULE ? THIS ACTION IS IRREVERSIBLE YES NO”. The “YES” answer was displayed along with a warning sign.

Bowser finger hit the “YES” : “Processing the opening of stasis capsule : 0%” appeared with a progress bar on the surface. The crate hummed and vibrated as the percentage rapidly increased ; the progress bar hit hundred percent in less than a minute.

"What’s inside ?" Pinkie Pie interrogated.

"It’s opening. Just wait a second", Bowser replied.

An opening line appeared around the container, forming a five centimeters thick lid which opened slowly to the right, before falling on the floor with a metallic thud.

Everyone looked inside before recoiling in shock, but Bowser immediately plunged his hands into the container.

"Bed. In the living. Bring it here, it’ll be sterilized. Now", he ordered to one in particular.

Mario and Luigi hurried out of the white room and came back one minute later, carrying a wooden bed with white sheets ; they put it next to the container. Delicately, like it was the most fragile thing in existence, Bowser put the fluid covered, naked body of Sarah on the bed.

"Is she alright ?" Twilight asked a few minutes later ; everyone, including herself, was disoriented by such a discovery.

"She… she’s not breathing !" Starlight panicked.

The body suddenly came to life and a violent spasm contracted it ; Sarah threw up a large quantity of green liquid on the floor, the same liquid she was in moments ago. She coughed violently before gasping ; her respiration regulated itself in seconds, and she opened her green eyes on Bowser, Mario, Luigi, Peach, the ponies and Spike.

"W… Wa… Wa… ter… Water…" She whispered with a dried throat, pointing at it with her shaking hand.

Bowser teleported and reappeared the second after with a large glass of water between his thumb and index, the only way to not break it, and a full carafe in his other hand.

Sarah drank avidly without pausing, and poured herself another glass which she emptied too.

"Thank… thank you", she said clearly. "I see you’re speaking my language, or at least understand what I meant… I think… I…"

She suddenly realized she was totally naked : her bare huge furred breasts and her intimacy were exposed to everyone ; she blushed furiously under her very short white fur and quickly covered herself with the sheets.

"I didn’t want you to be restrained by the sheets", Bowser explained.

"That-that’s alright… I did appear naked in some movies so…" The female anthropomorphic Labrador replied splutteringly.

Mario and Luigi had become totally red, earning a giggling from Peach ; despite being covered with a very short fur like the ponies, Sarah’s body was perfectly human ; her hands and feet, however, were clawed and covered with black pads on the palms ; above her buttocks, a tail was gently moving from side to side.

"I am Anita. Anita Garrett. Nice to meet you".

Everyone presented themselves to Anita.

"Sorry if I sound rude, but I really want to eat something. Anything. Please. I’ll tell you about me if you’re kind enough to bring me food", she implored.

"I don’t know what you eat", Bowser replied.

"Do you have some… fish ? Like shark… eel… salmon… Or some fruit or vegetable ? Mango ? Banana ? Apple ? Carrot ? Potato ? Tomato ? Do you know rice and pasta ? Beans ? Please tell me you have condiments ! Salt ! Pepper !"

Bowser smiled.

"You’re lucky : there’s shark in the freezer and leftover rice in the fridge. Shark with rice, is it okay with you ?" He asked.

"Perfect !" Anita beamed.

Bowser teleported in the kitchen to warm up the meal. Anita tried to get up, unfazed by the ability to teleport.

"I was immobile for… probably a very long time", she stated. "I must move my legs, if a little".

Wrapping herself in the sheets, she walked a short distance, leaning on Peach, the only one tall enough to support her. She sat down after a minute of walking. As she sat, the sheets covering her fell, exposing her bust once again. Mario and Luigi seemed to burn from the inside ; they turned in the opposite direction, too slowly for Peach’s taste.

"Go help Bowser in the kitchen, you two ! There is no need for males here ! Shoo ! Shoo !" She reprimanded.

Her husband and his brother complied and left the room ; Anita did not even try to put the sheets back in place.

"I’m a male too", Spike whispered to Rarity.

"I don’t think it applies to you darling", the unicorn replied.

"I don’t mind running around naked with you girls and with you little one, but I think those two won’t last long if I don’t put some clothes on my body. Body which they seem quite fond of actually", Anita laughed.

"You are very attractive and beautiful by the standards of us humans", Peach complimented. "Of course, my husband and his brother probably would not employ these terms", she sighed.

The actress laughed again.

"I’ll get you some clothes", the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom decided.

She went into the living room to search through the innumerable objects salvaged from the crates ; she recalled a section destined to clothes.

"You’re beautiful even by our standards", Rarity told Anita.

"May I ask you if you’re a… Galanian ?" Starlight asked.

"Yes, I am. How do you know that ? Do you know us ?"

"We found a note from Jerry, one of your fellow people in a crate here", Twilight explained.

Anita was about to answer when Bowser appeared in the room ; he was apparently indifferent to the actress’ body and served her meal on a table he had brought with him. Peach went back in the room with a simple, plain black dress in one hand and white panties in the other. Anita put them on and expressed her liking of the dress. She then ate the huge plate of shark and rice in five minutes.

"I’m full", she sighed once she swallowed her last fork."That was delicious. I want to go outside this room, is that possible ? You probably don’t know it, but we Galanians have really strong antibodies… stronger than most species that I know. So… keeping me here’s pretty useless".

Bowser scanned her for a few seconds, and then nodded.

"We’ll talk in the living room. Everyone, make yourselves comfortable, I’ll be there in a minute", he said.

As he was cleaning everything, the others installed themselves on the sofas. Once Bowser came back and everyone explained to Anita what Jerry told them in his note, she began her story, her voice filled with a crushing sadness.

"I am Anita Garrett ; I was born on the planet Galania, in a universe far away from here, from John Garrett and Martha Robinson ; I am their only child and I am thirty-three years old by Galanian standards : we count years by the time our planet fully revolves around our suns, which is three hundred and sixty eight days, and we count days by the time our planet fully revolves on itself, which is twenty-six hours. I just said thirty-three years old, but that’s barring the time spent in the capsule. As I’ve seen many other worlds, I can say that Galania was a planet of massive size in comparison to our neighbors, the other ones in our galaxy, in our universe and in other dimensions. We were billions and billions on our planet, and even more on others. In our million-year evolution, we’ve learned to respect our home, and then our colonized planets, through trial and error. Before its disappearance, the universe we lived in was revered by the others as the most perfect one, and also the number one in terms of trade by far ; some dimensional travelers even stayed there. But the age of our civilization and its technological advancement made us too proud ; we thought we could handle everything : universe-size factories manufacturing all kind of products and a vast shipping hub when the objects couldn’t be bought at the source. We’ve done this for thousands of years, what could’ve gone wrong and why now ? We’re the Factory World ! The trading universe ! What just could possibly go wrong ? I heard this countless times. Everything Incorporation was founded ten thousands of years ago ; it was a company that produced in normal-sized factories at first, and then expanded to planets, galaxies and so forth. One day, we discovered how to break through dimensions and by extension, the fabric of space-time and reality ; we discovered other universes, some devoid of life, other full of life with which we forged unbreakable bonds of trust. Everything Inc. seized the opportunity ; with their vast resources, they built factories in the lifeless pocket universes ; it was a risky move on their part, but they eventually rocketed in terms of business : with countless worlds ordering more and more goods, they built six of those factories. The higher-ups, the founders and their family I mean, were nothing more than about fifty, with these devices making you basically immortal ; they were so wealthy they could own just everything ; they were the rulers of our world. With this, we finally hit a breaking point ; we couldn’t go higher without losing what was making us Galanians, so we stayed like that, thinking it was perfect and would go on forever. We were wrong of course, but the voices that rose up were quieted by Everything ; think about it : they were so old, so wise, how could anyone tell them what to do ? The factories were running smoothly, everyone was rich thanks to them, it was perfect. Don’t think of them as greedy or spoiled or anything ; they were kind but proud. Far too proud. My father was one of the voices that tried to warn them ; even as a great physician, they didn’t listen. “Even though your mind is brilliant, it is too young : wait for a thousand years and if your results are still the same, we will listen to you”, they told him. Everyone, including my father, officially gave up. But in secret, with other great minds of everywhere, he thought of a plan in case of everything’d lead to a disaster. He worked in secret not by fear of Everything, which would had let him do, but to avoid a universe-wide panic. They achieved their project just as the collapse was worsening : the reality-anchored stasis capsule. They-they thought they had time to make more but…"

Her voice broke, but she shook her head and wiped her tears before pressing on :

"I loved my parents, and they loved me. So much that when they knew we were all doomed and that the capsule couldn’t be replicated in time, they chose me to go in it ; a DNA sample of almost every Galanian was to be put with me, but it was… too late too. The other scientists that had worked on the project thought their world wouldn’t be affected, or to a lesser extent ; they were the firsts to disappear. Jerry couldn’t have known as he was in the shipping hub, but at the time, some mass evacuations were occurring through our universe, despite the reassuring words of Everything which had lost most of their factories at this point. They really tried to save all the universes, but it was too late : the degradation was too advanced, and like that ancient illness, cancer, it was progressing too fast ; they contacted my father, he told them he had the answer, but… it was too late too ; the communication had cut off as they were talking. The last thing I remember was getting in the capsule, the reassuring smile of my crying parents… they had sedated me and forced me through, then the shipping hub, and then nothing. Until you resurrected me".

She paused, but her story was not over :

"My father knew about the... strange nature of the shipping hub ; he couldn’t be totally sure about the efficiency of the capsule, so, as a complementary measure, he sent it here. I think you’re going to ask me tons and tons of questions, so let’s start here, I’m ready".

"I want to present my sincerest condolences for your parents and your world", Twilight said in tone crushed with sadness. "I cannot imagine how you’re feeling. Are… are you sure you’ll be alright ?"

"I was in a comatose state in the capsule, I had time to… mourn my world", Anita replied with hesitation.

"I have one question regarding that then. How the objects affected space-time to such an extent it destroyed everything ?" Twilight interrogated.

"My father was a scientist, I’m just an actress. I don’t know a thing about physics at that level, sorry. There’s something I can say though ; maybe it’s not useful to you, but there’s one thing Galanians never did despite our technology : travel through time. We all feared the consequences, even Everything, and no one ever attempted it ; everyone was watching, there were detectors, like the ones in the factories, everywhere… Don’t ask me how they worked… Our civilization could bend space-time, but even though we all used that kind of technology one way or another in our everyday life, only its creators knew how it worked".

"You said Everything was governed by kind people, so what about the weapons in the crates ?" Peach asked.

"It didn’t last long, two years at most. It wasn’t the higher-ups : as I said, we were in excellent terms with other dimensions, but dimensions that faced internal problems ; from some of them came new investors for Everything, which gladly accepted them. They had an ulterior motive though, and they managed to secretly take control of tiny parts of the factories ; innumerable weapons were created, leading to terrible wars in countless worlds. When Everything discovered these actions, they banished these people back to their dimension forever, seized and destroyed most of the weapons ; the ones you found in the crates were leftovers ready to be smuggled somewhere, had the universes still existed".

"There’s something that bugs me", Mario mumbled. "How much time has passed since the… incident ?"

"I don’t know. Could be some months. Could be some millions of years. The capsule doesn’t say anything ? I… I think there’s a photo of my parents inside too".

Bowser teleported and came back seconds later : in his right hand was a photo sealed in a plastic bag ; it pictured a male German Shepherd and a female of an indistinct breed of dog, both anthropomorphic. Anita opened the bag and took the photo in her hand ; she looked at her smiling parents and broke in tears ; she calmed down two minutes later, after a comforting hug from Peach. Bowser had his voice filled with bitterness and sadness when he spoke :

"The capsule indicates a two years and seven months long stasis. Everything ended some months before my arrival here. Everything ended…"

There was a full minute of a dead, crushing silence.

"What ?" Anita asked.

"I don’t know how to say that…" Bowser hesitated.

"Say what ?" The confused Galanian asked again.

"Your world. It wasn’t destroyed by the objects it created", Twilight said.

"But…" Anita spluttered.

"You’re mistaking, Twilight Sparkle : you’re confusing cause and effect. I understand everything", Bowser declared. "Listen, Anita. Your world was doomed the moment it breached space-time to access those lifeless universes. Among your culture, is there any mention of an inevitable apocalypse ? Sorry, I can clarify : do you have deities or something close ?"

"No… Not that I know ; we Galanians were a scientific race. We did respect the beliefs of the other worlds though. Why are you asking me this ?"

"Hmm. You never heard anything about this ? An eternity ago, far before the dawn of Galania and the universe it was in, something destructive, a literal incarnation of nothingness, was sealed somewhere, buried under countless spaces and times. And it has awakened… a bit less than two years ago. That’s a fact, not a belief or a hypothesis. Now…"

Bowser shook his head.

"No matter how far you dug through dimensions, you couldn’t have reached that thing. However, you were sufficiently close to it for some of its… essence to leak through. These lifeless universes were just part of the layers that were restraining it ; when you built your factories in these universes, slowly, over thousands of years, the power of that force, even greatly attenuated, corrupted the objects, or the machines that were creating them. It took time, but the more objects the factories created and shipped everywhere, the more bits of Darkness were dispersed through countless worlds. When the density reached a certain point, the thing had the pale fragments of itself… detonate, for lack of a better word, peeling away enough layers for it to break free. And now we’re here".

Everyone fell silent.

Twilight had indeed understood in reverse ; she had thought that the thing had destroyed Galania and the other worlds when it was awakened. But it was the contrary : the thing had destroyed worlds to awaken.

"What… what are you talking about ?" A confused Anita asked.

Bowser explained everything in details, and Peach took this opportunity to talk about her world, as the ponies did about theirs. The conversation lasted for hours, and they took time to eat dinner through it ; Anita managed to take the news in stride, with everyone assuring that her world could not have known what they were doing. When everything was over, Peach suddenly panicked :

"But… Our trip to Equestria ! With all these events, we must postpone it ! We are late too ! We were supposed to go tomorrow ! Maybe it is already tomorrow ! We…"

Mario gently took her arm.

"You’re worrying too much, love", he said calmly.

Peach took a deep breath and relaxed.

"I don’t wanna be a burden", Anita suddenly declared. "You said you’re going to the world of ponies... Equestria, if I remember correctly. I-I know it’s not" – she let out a small barking – "but I’d very much like to go with you. After-after all… I must find a new home. B-B-But ! Only if the inhabitants of Equestria are willing to… to let me settle among them of course ! I don’t wanna… I" – she barked again – "I-I can live in the Mushroom Kingdom too, if Princess Peach…"

"I think you are both welcome in either world", Peach giggled as she looked at Celestia who nodded.

"It would be an honor to welcome you to our world", Celestia said.

"As it would be in ours", Peach affirmed.

Anita smiled as her eyes teared up with joy.

"I think Princess Zelda would also welcome you to Hyrule", the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom said. "You can choose between three worlds, four with this one".

"I-I don’t think I can live there", Anita spluttered. "No offense", she added to Bowser who shook his head. "You said Princess who from where ?"

And the conversation about worlds resumed.

It was late in the night, or maybe early in the morning in the Mushroom Kingdom when Bowser teleported everyone and their gifts to Peach’s castle, but the celebration was still in full swing, just like the first day. Anita loved the castle and the scenery she could see from the many windows ; she was told by Peach she would be presented to everyone in the morning. Everyone besides Bowser, and at a less extent Celestia, was crushed by fatigue : they collapsed on their bed and promptly fell asleep.

Author's Note

The shipping hub's atmosphere sounds familiar to Mario Kart 64 players ?
Yup, it's inspired by the track Banshee Boardwalk ;)

I'd like to expand on the Galanians' "trial and error" , but I fear the subjects it brings along (eugenism, ethnic cleansing...) won't fit within the story's "T" rating, and/or will be treated too poorly to have a real emotional impact.