Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers

The army walked in the direction of Khadein, stopped every now and then by the robots. It wasn’t long before they reached the desert that spread over most of the northwest of Archanea, which Khadein was part of.

The heat immediately hit the army hard, but thankfully, Sweetie Void was able to help by covering them with a giant magical shield not letting the sun’s rays pass. She then gave an ice enchantment on everyone at once, keeping everyone fresh.

Thanks to that, the army was able to advance with the only difficulty being the sand slowing them down.

They reached an oasis where they took the chance for a small break before resuming the march.

Sweetie Void was flying around, keeping watch like always in case Eggman decided to throw in a surprise attack. However, she started to notice an odd thing: every now and then, one of the warriors of this world would observe her flying by, her gaze following her. She didn't mind at first, but then she noticed that she seemed worried over something as she saw her.

Thus, she decided to just descend and ask her what's the matter, which it seemed she didn’t expect, surprised as she saw her approach.

“Hi! I noticed you have been observing me for a while, what's your name?” Sweetie Void asked.

The warrior, a woman with long green hair and a white bandana, responded, “Oh, my name is Palla.”

Sweetie Void nodded. ”Palla. You seemed rather worried, so I mean to ask if I can help with whatever it is.”

At that, Palla shook her head a bit. “No, it’s nothing, just… I've noticed that since you arrived here, you haven’t really taken any breaks at all. Look, your wings are all ruffled, your mane looks wild, and you certainly could use a bath in my opinion.”

Sweetie Void arched an eyebrow and looked at herself, summoning a mirror. Sure enough, she had not really been taking care of herself lately, and she was rather dirty.

“If you will, I can assist you. As a falicorn rider, I know my way in taking care of winged, horned equines. It’s the least I could do as a thanks for all your hard work.”

Sweetie Void thought it over. Sure, she could easily decline and just wash herself over with a wave of a hoof, but at the same time it did sound rather nice. She didn’t remember last time Rarity had taken her to the spa back at Ponyville, plus If Eggman did launch a surprise attack, one of her doubles could warn her and she would be there in an instant.

“Mmm, you know what? Sure! I could use a break.”

Palla's face lit up. ”Excellent! Follow me, please.”

And so Palla brought Sweetie Void near the pond of the oasis, getting ready to wash her.

However another woman, this one with short blue hair, a white bandana and armor identical to Palla's appeared shortly after they arrived.

“Sister, I’ve been searching for you-oh, what are you doing?” she asked upon seeing her and Sweetie Void, the latter finishing taking her usual attire for adventures off.

“Ah, Catria! Good timing. I offered to help one of the warriors from another world to have a break and tidy up. Care to join me?”

Catria looked a moment at her sister, then at Sweetie Void, and couldn’t help but approach with curiosity.

“Wow, she is really similar to a falicorn…” Catria said.

“Where I come from, we call ourselves alicorns. We also usually are all princesses although my case is… a bit special,” Sweetie Void said.

“Princesses? Huh. Well, falicorns are rarer than pegasi, but they can be both male and female. Both them and pegasi do have a quirk in that they almost never like human males which is why only females ever become pegasus knights,” Catria said.

As they conversed, both Palla and Catria began to go on washing Sweetie Void, taking special care with her wings and mane. They certainly knew what they were doing, and Sweetie had to admit there was a strange but pleasant feeling with their fingers going through them.

By the end of it, Sweetie Void felt really refreshed. It was almost as good as the trips to the spa!

“Now then, let’s get you dried up and take care of that mane!” Palla declared.

Yet again, more women suddenly appeared in their spot by the pond. This time it was Caeda, accompanied by a girl of striking features with wavy blonde hair, wearing a dress that seems to act as a gambeson and bits of armor on her extremities with shoulder pads and some kind of helmet that let out her hair.

“Ah! Here you were! I wanted to catch up with you for the longest time now,” the blonde said.

“Clair! It is good to see you well. And Your Majesty? What are you doing here?” Palla asked.

“Well, Clair here was looking for you and I just happened to see you two coming here. Then she started to ask questions about you and how you were in past wars, and…” Caeda was saying before Clair spoke up.

“We just hit off quite well! And so I thought it would be fine to bring her along and… Oh heavens! Now what do you have here!” Clair said upon laying her eyes on Sweetie Void, quickly approaching and crouching down. ”Awww, what a cute falicorn filly!”

“She's Sweetie Void, she's one of the warriors from another world. She also says she's an ‘alicorn' “ Catria said, sighing when Clair seemed to keep gushing over Sweetie instead of listening to her. Sweetie for her Part couldn’t help but Giggle.

“Oh! Her mane needs brushing,” Clair noted. ”Why, I’ll make sure it looks absolutely divine!” she said with conviction.

“We actually were just about to, though we don't mind if you join. What about Your Majesty? You used to also be a pegasus knight before switching to wyverns,” Palla said, and Caeda nodded.

“Sure, I don't mind.”

Thus the four went on brushing sweetie's mane and tail, even managing to give them its characteristic curls. All the while, they kept talking. Apparently, Palla and Catria knew Clair since way back and even were part of a war on Valentia.

“Really? What were you guys doing on another continent?” Sweetie Void asked.

“Oh that's easy, we were there initially to rescue our dear sister Est-” Palla was saying, before suddenly going quiet.

Likewise, Catria tensed up.

“Oh, yeah! Now that I remember, weren't you three? What happened to-" Clair was saying but then saw Caeda shaking her head.

“Oh…” was all she said.

The mood visibly soured, and Sweetie Void even heard Palla sniffing, starting to tear up.

She decided to get off her lap and look up to her.

“H-hey, it’s fine. Sorry I asked, I-”

“No, it's fine. You wouldn't know your question would bring… Est up.”

Seeing Sweetie Void's lost expression, Catria signed. ”A couple of years ago, our sister Est went missing without a trace. Before that we used to be inseparable: both in and out of battle. We had quite the reputation actually. These years without her have been… hard.”

“Oh, Est…!” Palla kept lamenting, and both Clair and Caeda moved close to comfort her.

Catria grimaced. ”Palla's been taking the worst of it, being the oldest. she thinks Est's disappearance is in part her fault to this day,” she said this time whispering to Sweetie Void.

For her part, Sweetie Void didn’t know what to think of this. For a moment, she thought of what it would be if one day she disappeared too, what would be of Rarity.

She decided that she should do something nice for her after this adventure.

“And no one has been able to find her or a clue of where she went?” Sweetie asked after a time.

Catria shook her head. ”Her Husband was the first to go out to search for her, but he too ended up disappearing, never to be heard of again.”

Sweetie Void grimly nodded. She really hoped and wished that somehow they were fine.

Palla, who seemed to have calmed down, said, ”Apologies, for letting you all see me in such a state…”

“Hey, none of that now! I have a sis too, and so do my friends. Tell you what: after this war, I will look out all over the world for your sister. Who knows, she and her husband could actually be fine! So don't lose hope just yet okay? I’ll find them no matter what,” Sweetie Void said, and she meant it. Whatever the state they were in, she would make sure that at least they knew.

At that, Palla couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. ”Hehe, well, you’re certainly optimistic. She… Est… She was also like that. So bright and cherry. Somehow… you remind me of her…”

Sweetie Void decided to get on Palla's lap, and let the woman idly pet her mane for a while. All while the others kept her company.

Eventually, the break in the oasis came to an end, and the army had to resume the march.

The good news was that there were practically no bases in the desert. The army didn’t encounter any as they traversed it. As such, the robots weren’t as many, resulting in just a few skirmishes.

The bad news: they reached Khadein.

Only to find the city in ruins, entirely destroyed. Nothing was left. Eggman didn’t even bother to build a base or a new city in its place.

Merric was devastated by that, as well as pretty much all the mages in the army that were from Archanea. Seeing the City of Magic itself, such an iconic part of Archanea, gone…

They couldn’t get closer to the city to see if there was anything to save however. A huge number of robots was present, obviously waiting for them.

Among them, Sweetie could feel the presence of a robot with the energy like Metal Sonic, or the one she destroyed back in Grust, or the giant Death Egg Robot.

There were many mages among the robots, defended by archers. No doubt these mages had Meteor or Swarm, ready to take advantage of the fact that the sand slowed down the army so they would have difficulty reaching them, and the archers were to keep away the flying units.

Thankfully, the army could fight fire with fire with their own mages using Meteor and Swarm tomes taken from the defeated enemies. Hopefully, Eggman didn’t manage yet to build robots resistant to magic like how mages were generally resistant to it.

And of course, there was Sweetie Void. No matter how good Eggman’s strategies were, as long as he didn’t find a way to deal with the filly, they would all fail spectacularly.

The battle began, and the filly went ahead like always to deal with the dragons and the mages suspected to have Meteor and Swarm tomes. One of the doubles also went to deal with the super powerful robot she felt, which revealed to be another mage, a sorcerer.

The Egg Merlin, cloaked in red and near the frontline, held a Meteor tome which it used as soon as it was in range. It summoned many meteors over the army, so powerful that they passed through the shield that protected them from the sun. The meteors caused huge damage to the army as a result, killing many soldiers, especially knights, generals, and barons, which were very weak to magic.

Seeing that, Sweetie sent doubles to defend the army from the meteors and to heal the wounded.

Thankfully, the Egg Merlin had no way to defend itself once Sweetie got too close, so she was able to destroy it very easily despite its power. The snipers surrounding it reacted too late, and were useless against the filly anyway.

The problem with the Meteor and Swarm tomes was that they only worked long distance. Get too close, and these mighty spells become harmless.

She quickly understood that the snipers were also a priority target. The sand really slowed most of the army down, so the flying units were the ones they had to count on, but because of the many snipers present, they couldn’t do much currently, to their frustration. The mages, which weren’t slowed down by sand too, understood that and targeted them in priority with the Meteor and Swarm tomes. They had to be careful to remain out of the range of the robots, or at least close enough to the others so they remained protected.

Once enough snipers were eliminated, the flying units were able to swoop down on the robots, destroying many of them. So far, they had been limited to fighting off the enemies’ flying units, far above, out of range of the snipers.

Caeda, Palla, Catria, and Clair targeted the remaining dragons, wanting to destroy their threat first before moving to the rest. They worked together to defeat them one by one, helping Sweetie Void reduce their number. They regularly had to fly back to be healed by the healers in the army before returning to the front.

Eventually, all the dragons were killed. Thankfully, no wyverns came to fire missiles at the army. And with most of the robot mages using Meteor and Swarm destroyed, with Sonic finishing the remaining ones, the offensive truly started. Everyone charged to destroy the robots and recover the roboticized.

Merric found himself face to face against a roboticized man that he was happy to find: Arlen, a blond man with a red cloak. Merric’s ancient rival. He possessed the powerful lightning spell Thoron, making him dangerous. He was able to fire the spell at Merric, hurting him rather badly, but he resisted and countered with his tasergun, ending the brief fight.

There were robots inside the remains of Khadein, so the battle turned into an urban one where the buildings had to be cleaned one by one. This allowed the heroes to see that the city had been entirely plundered of everything about magic. The city’s great library was now empty.

It saddened Merric, but it also gave him hope. It meant that the books were still probably intact somewhere else, certainly at Eggman’s HQ. They could be recovered, and Khadein could eventually recover its greatness.

The last robots in the city were eventually destroyed, ending the battle.

“Those special robots are really dangerous,” Alm said. “We lost a lot of good men today because of this one.”

“I’m sorry. It caught me off guard,” Sweetie Void said sadly.

“We can’t hold it against you. You are always doing your best to protect us. But you are not perfect. Things can always go wrong, no matter what. Let’s continue to do everything in our power to minimize the damage,” Marth said before he looked around at his men. “With Khadein destroyed, there is nothing for us to do here. Time to go to Altea.”