Author's Note

The three of us worked on this chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 199: Void Versus Cosmos

Dream Warper and Solis stared at where Sweetie Void and Cosmo had been, then the lavender mare sighed.

“Of course Sweetie ends up fighting Queen Cosmo… Of course…” She then looked at Solis. “While they have their fight, we should do something else.”

Solis agreed with a nod. “Yes. Their battle could last a while.”

“So… Who was this alicorn who talked badly to you? Opaline?”

Solis was silent for a moment, then sighed. “Our mistake, both to me and Luna. You know this by now, we are just ponies, like you, so we made lots of them throughout our life. Opaline… is our first really bad one.”

“How so?”

“When we were fillies, we were close friends. But then, Luna and I got our Cutie Marks. Suddenly, we were worshipped, it got to our heads, and we rejected Opaline.”

Dream Warper gasped.

“We… weren’t really good fillies once we got our Cutie Marks. Starswirl helped us a lot with that once he took us to our destinies. But by then, it was too late to ask for forgiveness from Opaline.”

Dream Warper raised an eyebrow. “What stopped you from returning to Skyros and talking with her?”

“...Guilt, I guess. Shame.”

Dream Warper sighed. “Let’s go then. You have a friend to ask for forgiveness.”

Solis nodded sadly. “I don’t know if she will forgive me after all this time, but I guess that we can at least try.”

At that, the two mares left the Throne Room.

With a mighty swing of her flail, Cosmo sent a volley of starfire at Sweetie Void, who shifted her whip to a staff and twirled it before her, blocking the firebolts. Another swing of the flail was blocked, but even so, Sweetie was sent flying from the force of the blow, the star on the head growing in the moment of impact before shrinking back down. The filly loosened her staff back into its whip form and cracked it against the head of the flail as Cosmo brought it in for another swing, only for a swarm of nearby asteroids to begin crumbling and swarming her. Sweetie Void raised a shield to defend herself from the onslaught of stones, but this only lasted until Cosmo herself punched the shield, shattering it, and sending Sweetie Void flying once more.

It then became clear that Sweetie Void was not going to win in terms of sheer strength and raw power. Luckily, she could tell that each blow was causing the Alicorn Queen to tire, something that the filly didn’t need to worry about.

She just started however, and she could tell she was gonna have to try to completely tire her out.

A quick hummed tune allowed Sweetie Void to charge a blast which she split into multiple beams sending them to swarm Cosmo, only for the beams to miss their target and suddenly turn back towards the filly, much to her shock.

Sweetie Void quickly teleported to avoid the beams only for Cosmo’s morning star to come where she appeared right away. She quickly sent her whip to counter it, her weapon clashing with the star. The two weapons then clashed several more times until Cosmo took Sweetie by surprise by wrapping her chain around the whip before pulling it out of the filly’s grasp, disarming her.

Sweetie Void caught her weapon in her telekinesis and pulled back, trying to get it back, but Cosmo’s magic was much stronger and Sweetie Void was losing ground. But then, she smirked, and the next instant, taking Cosmo by surprise, the whip divided into its ten parts which began to float around before they fired beams at the mare.

Only for the projectiles to be stopped and sent back at the cannons, to Sweetie’s frustration as she made them dodge.

Cosmo then advanced toward Sweetie Void. They were far from each other, so the filly prepared herself. But then, Cosmo brusquely accelerated, looking as if she teleported when she was actually moving very, very, VERY fast. This caught Sweetie Void off guard, resulting in her getting a light speed boosted punch in the face, sending her flying very far away.

But then, Sweetie Void hit what seemed to be solidified space that acted like a trampoline, sending her flying back toward Cosmo who readied her weapon. Sweetie Void curled into a ball and surrounded herself in energy before she crashed into the star, making it explode. She then caught the chain with her hoof and transformed into pure electricity, moving up the chain until reaching the club beside Cosmo where she solidified back into her filly-self and blasted the mare with her horn, sending her away. Surrounding herself with her ten beam swords, she then flew after her.

Cosmo saw her coming. Looking quickly to the side, she saw a Moon. Using her power, she destroyed, then reforged, the Moon into ten swords to match Sweetie Void's, each sword possessing the magical properties of a Moon.

The twenty swords clashed with a force that sent ripples across the nearby space. A look of focused glee contrasted with a stone-faced glare of determination as the very fabric of reality around them seemed to momentarily crack between the blades. Cosmo swiped away Sweetie Void and her blades, clapping her hooves together, then pulling them apart as what seemed to be a white fireball spawned between them. The Alicorn Queen then raised the ball above her in one hoof before it grew.

Into a white dwarf star.

Well, shi-

Language, DD interrupted Sweetie Void’s expletive thoughts.

Cosmo sent the star flying at Sweetie Void, who teleported out of its way just before impact. With another wave of her hoof, Cosmo collapsed the star as Sweetie Void popped out of her teleport, causing a Supernova that Sweetie Void managed to regenerate herself through. As the supernova condensed into a black hole, the Alicorns of the Cosmos and Void stared each other down.

Yours is a will stronger than steel, Cosmo noted through telepathy.

I prefer to call myself, ‘stubborn,’ Sweetie Void replied with a physical chuckle.

Whether willful or stubborn, it is useless if you are unable to fight, the Alicorn Queen said as divine energy wreathed her form. The same energy suddenly started to flow out of the black hole and darted like a swarm of snakes towards Sweetie Void’s limbs, only for the filly to absorb the energy on contact. The sight and feeling of her power being absorbed stunned Cosmo long enough for Sweetie Void to rush her and tackle them both into a nearby planetoid, just beyond the range of the newly formed black hole. The impact of the two combatants crashing into the planetoid nearly shattered it, a dust cloud visible from orbit forming and then clearing as the alicorns returned to swordplay and hoof-to-hoof combat.

Suddenly, Sweetie Void felt as if some of her swords hit a wall while the others became immobile. Then, Sweetie Void felt herself not able to move anymore. The next instant, Cosmo repeatedly punched her in the face, Sweetie’s body not reacting to them, before Cosmo blasted her with a giant beam.

Time then resumed for Sweetie who took everything at the same time, receiving several dozen punches to her face at once while her body burned as she was propelled several hundred meters away. Once she crashed, she quickly shook her head to recover her senses before she got up, her body healing.

Cosmo then repeated what she did, stopping time for the filly to attack her repeatedly. However, Sweetie Void pushed all her will and her power into her body, and with a roar, she broke out of Cosmo’s power before she put energy into her hoof and countered Cosmo’s punch with her own.

The two hooves clashed, creating a huge shockwave that destroyed the planetoid, the nearby black hole, and even the fabric of space and time in the whole area.

Cosmo overpowered Sweetie Void, sending her flying away. Sweetie Void turned herself into a full grown adult and clashed again with Cosmo, this time the two of equal strength. They then began to fly and teleport across the galaxy, repeatedly clashing, each clash creating a shockwave that destroyed everything around.

Cosmo then made several stars and planets and countless meteors orbit her before she threw everything at Sweetie Void.

Sweetie Void slalomed as best she could between the celestial bodies, having to blast a few apart, before managing to catch sight of Cosmo herself and charging an Ultimate Doom Laser. But before Sweetie could fire, Cosmo teleported right in front of her and punched her in the chest.

And suddenly Sweetie Void was looking at her own body from behind it.

Wat?

She was then pierced by a small beam where her heart should be. It didn’t bleed however, but it hurt like Tartarus, and the resulting hole was closing VERY slowly, even with her best healing.

You are now at a disadvantage. Your soul is exposed to me, and as you can see, the damage taken by it is harder to recover from. I suggest you give up.

Sweetie Void looked down at herself, seeing that she was transparent and back to her filly-self, and entirely black, like a filly-shaped hole in reality. Exactly like when she unleashed her Soul, except that she was still herself, so her Soul wasn’t unleashed even if it was out. It felt as if her brain and heart were still part of her.

She then looked back at Cosmo and glared.

I’m not scared of my soul getting hurt, or even being destroyed. I faced death countless times before I even became an alicorn. What you did to me doesn’t scare me.

So be it.

At that, Cosmo levitated Sweetie Void’s body and trapped it inside a sphere of solidified space that she shrunk and put into her mane.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Void divided herself into two dozen doubles. Being a single soul divided into twenty four parts, it could be seen that the doubles were linked together by an ethereal black web of strings coming out of their backs.

I just have to avoid being hit. Easy peasy.

At that, all twenty four Sweetie Voids charged toward Cosmo who threw planets and stars at them.

With the help of some alicorns, Dream Warper and Solis found Opaline’s house, alone on an island.

It really saddened Solis to see what her old friend became because of her.

The two alicorns landed before the door, and after a few seconds, Solis hesitantly knocked on it.

After a long moment, the door opened, revealing Opaline.

Opaline took one look at Solis, frowned, and slammed the door shut.

Solis cringed, and Dream Warper sighed.

“Alright, I guessed it was not gonna be so simple…” Dream Warper said as she knocked on the door.

Opaline opened the door again and looked unimpressed at Dream Warper.

“Do you mind? I'm trying to have peace and quiet here,” Opaline said, annoyed.

“Listen, Miss Opaline. You can call me Dream Warper. I'm So… Celestia's student and Princess of Friendship-”

“Your mortal-hooved titles mean nothing to me. Now please scram,” Opaline said coldly as she was about to slam the door again but Twilight stopped the door with her magic.

“J-just listen! I know both of you have problems, and Celestia made mistakes! All I ask is that you give her one chance, just one!” Dream Warper pleaded to her.

Opaline looked at her for a moment, then at Solis. She then groaned loudly.

“If it gets the both of you to leave me alone… enter. BUT, once you’re done with whatever you wanna say, you go immediately, capisce?” she said as she reluctantly let them in.

Solis and Dream Warper walked into the living room, and looked around.

The walls were deep purple with golden pillars. The ceiling and the floor were a lighter, lavender color. The furniture was all the same purple as the walls with golden designs.

The decoration was minimal save for some flowers, a photo of who Dream Warper presumed must be Opaline's parents and… a stone statue of Opaline Dream Warper had to admit was very well made. She even had a crystal chandelier!

“One moment, I have to go get something from the kitchen… Gonna need it…” she said and, without another word, opened a door and went in, closing it behind her.

Left alone and without anything to do, Dream Warper decided to look at the photo hanging on the wall.

There were three alicorns. The first one she noticed was Opaline herself, much younger and… happier-looking.

Behind her and to her right was a crimson red alicorn mare with lidded, lighter red eyes and a white mane like hers. She had a modest smile.

To her right was a light green alicorn stallion with deep blue eyes and blond mane. His smile was a bit wider.

“So, these must be…” Dream Warper was asking.

“Ruby Arcana and Demethreus, Opaline's parents,” Solis confirmed. ”Good folks, both of them. Their farm happened to be on an island next to ours, and as the only two couples that had foals in Skyros at the time, both our parents became fast friends, and we followed suit.”

“A farm… So Demethreus is an Earth Alicorn?”

“And Ruby is an Anger one. If there was one mare who had us three collectively terrified of getting into too much trouble, it was her.” Solis laughed a little with nostalgia in her voice.

“They were good, simpler times.”

“Well, you didn't seem that fond of said memories last time I saw you,” Opaline’s voice cut through the air, snapping Solis out of her memories.

In her magic was a cup of steaming tea.

Solis sniffed once, then said, ”That aroma… It is-”

“Father's brand of tea. It helped mother whenever she had to deal with unpleasantries. Amazing, you remember even that…” Opaline said, sitting on the couch of the living room, her tea floating beside her.”Well then, go on. Say your piece so you can leave already.”

Solis looked at Dream Warper, who nodded and smiled reassuringly at her.

Taking a deep breath, Solis looked straight at Opaline.

“Opaline… I'm sorry. Really, truly sorry. I know I should have said this too long ago but truly, the way Luna and I treated you after we got our Cutie Marks was neither right nor the way true friends treat each other, and I understand that you felt hurt, used even. And it shames me even more the fact it took the current events that made me return to Skyros to come up and say this to you now, hundreds of years after the fact.

I will understand it if you never forgive me, we don't have to be friends again. I Just…wanted you to know this.”

For a moment, no one said anything. Both Dream Warper and Solis simply stood there looking at Opaline, expecting.

“...Ha. Haha, seriously? That's it?” eventually came Opaline Voice. Instantly, both alicorns could tell something was not right.

“you…think, that after all this… millennium of the both of you being gone,” Opaline began, rising from her couch.

Dream Warper noticed that the temperature of the room was rising.

“That you could just come here… and apologize? To me? Do you seriously expect I would just take that? Call it quits and just clean the slate?”

Solis tried to reason with her. ”Opaline, I know it's not fair for you, I get that, but I’m really just-”

“Fair for me? Get it!? No, Celestia… You don't, you don't get it at all!” Opaline roared, and all at once, the interior of the house caught fire with intense blue flames. Immediately, Dream Warper covered herself with a shield to protect herself.

“You have no idea how it was for me all these years! All this fury and resentment and… sadness! Festering decade after decade! You don't know how it was, having to see you both be praised to no end while you forgot about me!” she said, her anger seeming to feed the flames.

Solis just bore it all, her eyes never leaving Opaline’s.

“How could you!? Did all we had matter that little!? And after, you two left with that stupid mortal to be praised even more! To live and rule as deities for beings that would kiss the very ground you step on!”

All those words, all their feelings, their pain, both the ones they caused and the ones they carried, Solis stood there and took them all.

“YOU… You… y-you two were my only friends… No, you were like the sisters I never-”

Opaline didn’t utter another word before she felt herself be embraced by Solis, who hugged her tightly.

“I know. I…we know. And we're sorry. Truly, genuinely sorry. Please… Just stop…Don’t hurt yourself further,” Solis said, her voice tearing up.

Opaline just stood there. Then slowly, the fire around started to get cooler and cooler. It went from blue to red, then it got smaller and smaller until it extinguished itself.

Opaline let herself be held by Solis for a moment more…

Then started thrashing to get off.

“What the-ow,” Solis said as one of Opaline's hooves ended on her cheek.

Once they separated, Opaline looked at her.

“S… s-sorry, but I don't… feel right with that just yet.”

Dream Warper looked around, surprised to find that the room had actually little to no damage!

“But-how is the room still standing!? Those flames should have collapsed the whole place in seconds!” she said.

Opaline rolled her eyes. ”Pfff, hello? Alicorn of Fire? You think I wouldn't fireproof my own house? Every centimeter is enchanted by Water Alicorns.”

Opaline then looked at her cup of tea. Or rather, her empty cup of tea.

“Ugh, great. Gonna have to make more…” she said, walking to the kitchen before stopping and looking at Solis and Dream Warper expectantly.

“...Well?”

“Uhh, well…?”

“Do you have anything else? I am kinda busy, so go already.”

Not knowing what more to say or do, Solis and Dream Warper started to walk and go outside Opaline’s house.

“Oh! And next time, bring Luna here,” Opaline said casually, making the both of them stop.

“After she comes here herself and apologizes on her own… both of you will have to make it up for me BIG… Then and only then I will entertain the mere idea of forgiving you two. Hmmph!” Opaline said as she entered the kitchen and closed the door with a slam.

For their part, Solis and Dream Warper got out of her house and gently closed the door behind them.

“Well, that was… I guess that uh, Friendship Mission accomplished?” Dream Warper said tentatively.

Solis couldn’t help a little laugh escaping her muzzle.

“Yes, Twilight. And thank you for being there, I don't think I would have had the courage to even come on my own.”

“It’s nothing, I’m only doing my duty. Talking about that… we need Luna to come.”

“That we do. For the time being, how about we go back to Queen Cosmo’s castle? Something tells me her duel with Sweetie Void is coming to an end.”

“Sounds good! I hope the queen is fine however.”

“...Twilight, like you, I know Sweetie Void is a fearsome foe. That said, growing up in Skyros with Cosmo as the champion of my people still makes me wonder if maybe we are underselling how much of a task beating her will be for Sweetie.”

Twilight thought a bit before smiling and shaking her head. “I know how you feel, but my friends and I have watched Sweetie defeat beings beyond our comprehension many times before, and I'm confident this time will be no different even if it’s someone like Cosmo. I'm sure that right now, Sweetie Void has everything under control.”

Reality-shattering explosions littered the universe as the battle between Sweetie Void and Cosmo continued.

I have NOTHING under control! Sweetie Void thought after another clash with Cosmo ripped another tear in the fabric of the universe.

The Sweetie Voids avoided celestial bodies and lasers while they chased Cosmo and attacked her with anything they had. They regularly found themselves hindered by space walls, and if one of them was getting too close, most of the time, they were time-stopped, or Cosmo accelerated her own time to gain speed. The filly, however, dodged almost everything that was sent at her.

Almost. She still received some damage that was difficult to heal for her soul, but nothing threatening yet.

Most projectiles fired at Cosmo were sent back, but between the twenty four Sweetie Voids, some still managed to pass and to hit the mare. However, she wasn’t the Alicorn Queen for nothing. Without surprise, she was good at healing.

But then, Cosmo suddenly said, This is getting nowhere, before she disappeared.

Sweetie Void stopped and looked around, trying to feel where Cosmo reappeared, but she felt her nowhere. Did she teleport to the other side of the universe?

Then, before the filly’s eyes, some of the galaxies began to move. It looked like they followed the curves of… a leg?

Yes, a leg formed out of space and galaxies.

And that leg, obviously, was attached to a barrel, with more space and more galaxies.

Sweetie Void looked up, and there she saw the head, with two large galaxies forming the eyes.

A being easily millions of lightyears tall was before the filly, looking down at her.

She… had to admit that if she hadn’t been just a soul currently, she would have peed.

On Equus, everyone could see the being in the sky, but nobody could comprehend what they were seeing.

Behold, my true unbound power. No being before managed to push me this far. For that, you have already earned my eternal respect.

Sweetie Void saw the massive Cosmo get on her hind legs, her front ones raised high.

Worry not, for even if you perish all it would take me is reversing the hooves of time to bring you back. Then I'll share the memories of your demise to your past self.

Until then, Sweetie Void.

And with that, Cosmo's front legs came at her, fast.

All of the Sweetie Voids merged back into one. Then she closed her eyes.

And she sang.

“Mistress of the planets and stars
But who has no scars
You never met
You just don’t get
What it’s like to face a real threat.”

As soon as she started, an astronomical quantity of energy gathered inside her. Then, she gathered her ten cannons into a staff that she grabbed. The staff became the handle of a giant void sword that she readied above her.

Then, just as a titanic hoof was about to strike her, she swung, and the sword clashed with the hoof.

After a couple of seconds, the sword sliced through the hoof, cutting open the fabric of reality and opening a giant gash.

WHAT?!

Cosmo immediately pulled her hoof back, staring at the slowly closing gash in shock. It wasn’t that big compared to her, but it was still several lightyears long.

“I faced monsters greater than me
I seemed like a bee
Impossible
Unstoppable
But we made it possible.”

A galaxy suddenly levitated beside Cosmo, and she covered it in energy before sending it toward Sweetie Void who readied her sword as it became bigger and bigger.

Then she sliced the galaxy in half, cutting the fabric of space again. And yes, she sliced the black hole at the center.

Cosmo couldn’t believe what she saw.

“Desperate battles
And a lot of travels
Made me grow as a pony
From the shadows I became me
Friends and rivals alongside me.”

Sweetie Void flew toward Cosmo, repeatedly teleporting very long distances to travel the lightyears separating her and her foe faster.

Cosmo recovered from her shock and sent more galaxies while firing countless galaxy-sized lasers. The filly slalomed between them, slicing one in two every now and then.

“So, do not think you have won yet
This battle’s conclusion is not set
Prepare to get the shock of your life
As I will win this strife!”

Cosmo stopped time, but it didn’t hold Sweetie Void for long. She extended space between herself and the filly, but she could only do it so long before the universe threatened to be torn apart like an elastic band that you force too much, especially with how much damage it was taking in this battle.

“To win! For my friends! Everyone, I will fight!”

Cosmo gathered several galaxies into a giant sword that she brought down on Sweetie Void. Her own sword clashed with it, making the whole universe shake.

“Mistress of the planets and stars.
I’m the superstar!”

Then, Sweetie Void’s sword cut right through the other, destroying it, before she began slicing the leg holding it as she flew around it, cutting it to pieces from hoof to elbow. The pieces broke apart, leaving behind galaxies, or pieces of galaxies.

“I am the void
You can’t avoid
Victory, you’ll be devoid.”

Sweetie Void flew to Cosmo’s torso and sliced it open, entering the giant construct. The inside was entirely empty. In its very core was the real Cosmo who could only look in horror as the filly approached.

Then Sweetie Void slashed at Cosmo’s torso, almost cutting her in two. All around her, the construct disintegrated, the galaxies composing it resuming their previous activity of floating in the vastness of space, letting gravity do its job.

Cosmo put a leg on the gash across her torso to limit the bleeding as she began to heal it.

You… You win…

Cosmo teleported the cage where she put Sweetie Void's body in and freed it from the solidified space, letting her soul return to her body.

Sweetie Void felt for a moment a great exhaustion before her energy began to refill immediately.

She looked at Cosmo who had finished healing, but looked completely tired. Her eyes were shining way less and even multiple of the stars in her mane were either off or sparkling less.

I… have no words, truly. You really have come a long way. I recognize it now… You're even stronger than me, and have defeated me.

Sweetie Void looked at her with a small smile. She flew towards her and put a hoof against her, restoring Cosmo's energy with her own.

At once, Cosmo’s eyes and mane started to return to their original, radiant state.

“Thanks, but… if I'm honest? You kicked my flank back there. If the power of the void didn’t just grant me infinite energy I wouldn't have liked my odds back there,” Sweetie Void said.

Cosmo hummed, I have lived and seen more than any living being in our universe, and had long ago reached the peak of my capabilities. In time, you would not only reach that same level, but surpass it to a point I couldn't ever hope to reach in eternity. Such is the potential of the void.

Sweetie Void only nodded, then looked around and saw the multiple tears in reality she and Cosmo left in the wake of their fight.

Cosmo also looked at them.

…It will take me some time to fix them all. I will not risk otherworldly beings slipping through.

“Want me to help? I think between the two of us we can finish it quickly and return to Equus by the end of the day.”

Much appreciated, Sweetie Void. Let's begin.