The Great Multiverse Theory: Repairs and Recordings

SuperNova

The young forest (later to be named the Everfree) rustled, as bullets and small shockwaves blew the leaves off several branches and scared the local wildlife away. A moment later, I burst from the undergrowth, muttering “I hate ambushes!” as my pants burned. I barely managed to escape another laser beam by detonating some of the matter in my butt. A hit the ground hard, but managed to whip out my katana and activate its shielding ability to knock away a tree.

I tossed a finger onto the ground to summon a giant smokescreen. With the cover in place, I frantically dug a hole and buried myself. I quickly started manufacturing my heavy revolver and a few shotguns. Halfway through the second shotgun I remembered that this was what attracted the alicorn’s attention to me in the first place. I facepalmed before getting blown out into the sky by another super powered flare. And once again, I was on the run. Crap. I need to end this soon. The battle needed her.

meanwhile

The Janitor held up a 3D model of a white alicorn with a pink mane. “This is what she roughly looks like.”

“Remind me why I am doing this again?” Elma asked.

“We need to keep the time-space continuum stable until Shtik can get his shit together,” said the Janitor’s disembodied voice. “Right now, I assume he has caught the unfortunate attention of this mare you will be imitating. Until he has repaired the divergence, we must trick the universe that all is well. And plus chaos magic is going to be very hard to repair. There is a high chance he might screw with our work or even escape. And by that, I mean find out that there are more besides the universes, which we cannot let happen. Now shut up and shoot things the squares tell you to.”

Elma groaned audibly and strained her magic reserves to blast more creatures. Underneath her, hidden by a cloaking device, the Janitor gleefully shredded his foes apart with a portable rotary machine gun, the Grinder (G-6). He glanced up at the false alicorn and frowned. Wimp, he thought. He casually knocked a bolt of magic away before realizing that it was targeted at the mech behind him. “Sorry, that was meant for you.” He tossed his broom into the air, jumped, then stabbed the broom through the driver. He momentarily uncloaked to provoke a surprised reaction out of the pilot. “Oh, I love this too much,” he cackled to himself. He pulled the broom out and kicked the mech onto his side, ignoring the look of fear the pilot made as he realized his guts were spilling out.

He went back to his observation of Elma. As an afterthought, he sent a tiny stream of black matter into her. He slowly grinned as the dark energies ran through her body, lightly corrupting her. Yes...let that power flow through you. He mentally applauded her for finally going all out. Besides, Shtik would probably reset everything anyways. No one will remember a thing. Elma wouldn’t want to remember this anyways. She holds back too much, in his opinion.

“Alright, that’s it!” I shouted, spinning around to face the princess. “If its a fight you want, then its a fight you’ll get. I grabbed three cards. A sent a short burst of energy to activate the matrix holding the constructs, dropping a centimeter off of the remaining meter of my bandanna. Two cards went in front of me, the other was tossed over my shoulder. One card summoned a robot with a thin head and a large right arm. Its wrist flipped down to reveal a minigun. The other card summoned a middle aged guy holding a staff with a spiral head stabbed on top. Both were accented in blacks and greys. The third card just vanished.

I smiled at the memory of getting the second card...

The alicorn charged forward, heedlessly ignoring the summons, thinking that their low power levels made them gnats not worth paying attention to. Of course, that’s why I made them. The blue haired man tilted his staff and sent its stretching spear point underneath her chin. With another flick of his wrist, he gave the alicorn a hard uppercut. She managed to repair the damage to her spine with a bit of energy, but was met with the spinning barrels of a minigun. Hundreds of rounds spilled out, tearing countless holes through her body.

Twelve seconds of hot lead spilled out of the gun until it went empty, clicking a few times. As the robot paused to examine the smoking barrels, the princess pushed her way out of a desperately made shield, seething in anger at having to waste more energy at repairs. She only managed a few steps before getting slammed into the ground again by the blue-haired man’s spiral staff. He managed to get several more whacks and energy boosted jabs before getting caught in a telekinetic push. The distraction allowed the robot to sprint behind her and gave a solid overhead smack into the grass, pulverizing her head.

As the two continued to fight. I shakily pulled out my revolver and started to insert rounds. And more. And more. Once the chambers/belt went past 270 degrees, it was empty again. Sweat actually started to form on me, though it more resembled a slight cloud of dissipated gas due to my massive body heat. The only reason fires don’t start around me is because of an anti-gravity field I generate around me. I sometimes explode if the field gets too damaged to quickly.

“Come on,” I muttered. Another few centimeters of energy burned up

The robot had finally reloaded his minigun, but the princess was ready. He only grazed a hoof before her shield went up. Several bullets ricocheted back onto the robot, crippling its system. The man moved in to help but was smacked aside by a fireball, burning away a layer of his shell. Some energy leaked out, causing me to wince. It took me a year to get the energy matrix just right, and in just a few minutes it was destroyed again. Despite the fear, I managed to steady my hand and continue to feed in bullets, though they started to deteriorate in quality.

The princess used the lapse to tackle the robot, crushing its legs and gun arm. The robot merely raised its only undamaged arm and gave her the bird. She opened her mouth to drain its power, but was interrupted by the robot’s self destruction, searing off another layer of armor and dissipating more energy from her body. Out of the smoke clouds, the crumbling man shot through holding his staff in front of him with his remaining hand. The tiny drill on top lengthed, then grew to the size of a large dinner table. Green fire exploded out of his legs, spinning and accelerating him through the alicorn’s body once more before exploding himself.

I clenched my teeth, but said nothing, trying to not look nervous. I slowly closed the chambers and jitterily raised the gun. I used what little acting skills I had to pretend that I was paying complete attention to the battle. With a pop, the third card revealed itself. It was merely a turret with a firehose. The hose had a backpack attached to it and a bottle of glowing fluids hanging underneath. With the mandatory Russian accent befitting the occasion, I yelled, “Kritz me, doctor!”

The tool glowed, shooting a crackling beam of energy towards my back. The most noticeable effect it made was to my gun, now glowing a solid green with lightning jumping all around it. Slightly hidden under my hat, my left eye exploded into flames. The “skin” around it completely melted off, leaving behind a floating eyeball vibrating with power. In my PoV, the world slowed slightly, and I could see the currents around me, and by currents I mean pretty much everything. I could see the magic building up inside her horn, the wind blowing molecules across my path, the fallout of my destroyed warriors. I could also see the weak points in her armor/skin.

I pulled the trigger, growling under my breath. A tiny, barely visible laser line emanated from the end of my gun’s barrel. Normally, I only sent a small bit of energy into my eye, dubbed Level 1: Crosshair. Basically, it let me line up my shots better. My pupil becomes overlaid with a small crosshairs symbol. When times were bad and a full blown battle was going on, I might use Level 2: Eagle eye. This created a holographic laser line that pointed at what my weapon was aiming at, eliminating the need to “aim down the sights” all together. My reflexes get boosted along with it, making aiming even easier. This time, the aforementioned crosshairs start spinning. When diarrhea has hit the jet engine, I pulled out Level 3: Spiral Eye. This time, the entire eyeball spun, its energies burning off part of my face every single time. Its also extremely power consuming.

I watched the bullet soar gracefully through the air, smashing against her horn and disrupting her spell. The recoil pushed the slide (again, think of the Nerf Maverick) back, and moved in the next round. The slide fell back forward and sent the next shot though her neck. Then a hoof and a wing. Another glowing bullet shredded her ribs and the organs that haven’t been consumed yet. For a few seconds, the revolver became a fully automatic, handheld minigun. Come on, I’m almost there I pleaded, straining to keep my energy as stable as possible. After a measly eight seconds, and about 100 rounds, the gun ran empty. The turret dissolved. My eye collapsed back into its socket from the sudden loss of energy, along with part of my knee and hand. I could see my burnt bones in front of me, weakly grasping my gun. With a sigh, I flung the gun, using it as an improvised grenade by breaking up its atomic framework to further drain the princess’s energy levels. I slid out my katana with my boney hand and held it in front of me vaguely imitating a fencing position. Though my skin acts as both a form of armor (when solidified, anyways) and as a battery, its jelly like consistency often times slows me down.

10 centimeters.

The pile of burnt limbs slowly yes! pulls itself together. Both of us were at our limits, and probably be unable to cast any more energy attacks, which is why I pulled out my blade. She merely snorted and started charging at me. Once she was two feet in front of me, I quickly sidestepped and attempted to slash at her back. Apparently she was thinking of the same thing and was going to send a spear of her flowing hair at my chest. Our respective attacks collided and pushed us apart. I pushed off the ground and managed several light cuts upon her back. Annoyingly, without the mass of my arm boosting the force, all it did was annoy her. This is why I don’t try to fight like this often. Her wings snapped out; it was rather easy to block the attack, and I got a few more stabs into her wings.

This time, she jumped and tried to gain a height advantage. It didn’t work very well due to her wings having a few holes in them. The princess fell short and carved up a small furrow. I tried to hack at her neck with a rocket boosted stab, but it was a trap.  My blade got imbedded into her back, momentarily trapping me. She snapped her head upward, catching me on her horn and knocking me backward. The tumbling impact snapped my left foot off at the knee due to the weakness from the earlier drain. She telekinetically yanked out my blade and tossed it towards the forest.

Seven centimeters. Dang it. I don’t think I can spare any more-

Ding

My eyes bulged open. Finally! I stuck my hand behind my back and pulled out a revolver dripping in black gunk. It had a wooden stick for a barrel. I slid behind a rock and cradled the gun in my lap, flicking open the chambers as I went.

It didn’t actually have chambers. In place of it was a cradle that held various power sources, often battery shaped. In place of a hammer, it  had a small LED screen. In some circles, it could be said that it looked like a tool gun. I gently blew on the battery like object. Six glowing lights spaced out equidistantly inside pulsed gently like fireflies. Ha ha! I got it out! Even while I was doing at least two other things at once. Now all I have to ... why is the rock floating?

The princess’s half melted skull, still dripping black tar, leered at me. The rock swung down and smashed me down. Once. Twice. Two more times. My vision shattered like broken glass and blacked out.

The gun got flung into the air and slid a few feet. The princess’s head snapped off. She shrugged and kicked the rock off to the side. A hand of fractured bone weakly clawed out of the crater and slowly dragged the rest of its body out. Half of his head was gone, he had no left hand anymore, and his legs hung loosely from his hip. His unfocused eye, a large scar going across its lens, turned toward the gun and continued to crawl towards the it.  The princess trotted over and stepped on his back. Shtik acted as if he couldn’t feel anything, see anything.

She reared up and slammed down. Her body ignited, illuminating the forest so much you could still see her ten feet in. Basically, she went SuperNova. The fire burned away Shtik’s legs immediately. Shtik’s response was to slowly stretch out his arm and attempt to escape the gravitational pull that started to pull him backwards. He tried stabbing his finger into the ground, but soil isn’t very good at resisting horizontal force. When the fire reached his chest, he gave up and curled up, protecting his core.

A small section of grass flattened. A haze reached down and picked up the Gun-Staff. The haze slowly faded away, uncloaking a six foot humanoid android. Classification, IN-4, the Infiltrator. He doesn’t actually infiltrate as much as one would think. He resembled the mannequins artists use, except with metal limbs, joints, a glowing stomach, a mouth, and glowing eyes. He carries a broadsword on his back, and can swing it just as fast as one can swing a bat, though right now it hung loosely in his left hand’s grip. He gave the battery a quick glance, then locked it in place. “Fooled you once, blame’s on me.” He raised the gun and pointed it at the star. “Fooled you twice. What do you think comes next?” He briefly thought how ironic it was that the same spell she had employed in a time far in the future towards her own sister is the one pointed at her this moment. He pulled on the trigger.

“Fly, Rainbow of Light.”

Sparks of energy went down the wires of the screen into the battery. A gaseous aura shot out of the back of the chambers as a massive beam of light blasted out the other end. Like being hit by a giant hammer, the SuperNova blew apart, the energies she wielded destabilized and destroyed. The rainbow did what it was supposed to: purify, and it did so with deadly efficiency. The princess’s shell of a body stood awkwardly, hooves went up to exposed muscle. A few inches higher the muscles were also burned away, leaving bones behind. Half consumed organs rolled around in her rib cage, or just fell out. Several neck vertebrae crumbled into pieces. Underneath her shadow was a small quivering ball of black matter. He picked up the ball and waved his hand.

Two forms stepped out of the shadows. Their cloaking systems weren’t as powerful, so they stayed back. The taller one (5’6”, about the same height as Shtik) had oversized forearms and lower legs. Everything else was pretty tiny in comparison to its bell shaped limbs, though its head was more or less average sized. Its classification was R-T, artillery and heavy weapons unit.

The shorter one was about three feet, though it varied often due to him not having limbs connecting his hands and feet to his body. Instead, he had glowing blue lines. A bandolier was slung around his torso, with two pistol holsters strapped to his “hips.” His number was TH-6, Gunner and an all around good support and scout class. Currently, his holsters were loaded with two semiautomatic 10mm pistols. Shtik managed to stick in a shrinking device within the barrel a while ago, making them really accurate up to at least 400 meters.

The two of them were carrying a steel tube about five feet long, and plopped it down beside IN-4. IN-4 lifted the ball of black matter and dropped it in through a chute on top. He reached down to a small panel on the side of the coffin and hit a green button. When he stood up, the black ball shot out of the vent and through IN-4’s stomach. He spased backwards in surprise, grabbing his body.

Green lightning sparked across his limbs. Slowly, IN-4’s golden eyes were replaced by a light grass green. A invisible grin shone in the darkness.

I stretched my borrowed arms. “It feel good to get my self awareness back.” I checked the power levels of IN-4. “Hmm. Back to business then. I got about ten minutes of juice I can use.” I raised a hand. A large ball point pen hologram shimmered around it. A LED screen appeared on the side.

Searching...

Targets locked on. Ready for jump?

“Hmm. I must remind myself to give Elma her own amulet. That way I won’t have to deal with confusion each time I must explain this time repair nonsense.” I stabbed the pen through the ground. (*)

A bright light spread from the impact point, spreading through the universe. A giant pillar of energy slowly rises into the sky, garbled text swirling through the storm above me. Several miles away, the Janitor grins at the wave of light surrounding him. Elma briefly glanced at him, a moment of confusion piercing her blood lust. The light enclosed him completely and seemed to make him dissolve. Meanwhile, I just smiled through my borrowed body as the storm reached the zenith of its ascent after several minutes of charging up. Besides me, the robots were also covered by the light. I shifted my grip. “Activate the Retcon,” I said, swinging the pen-blade in an arc, spreading a wave of blackness outwards, enveloping everything not shielded by the light. The world dropped out underneath me and I saw nothing.

(*)(Its not easy finding your companions when they’re several miles away, so I put trackers on them to help me pinpoint their location and select them for transport)

The three of us, Janitor, Elma and I stepped cautiously through the forest. “Now, be careful,” I whispered. “he can sense your intent, so try to restrain yourself before - hrrk.” I chilling coldness spread throughout my limbs. For a moment, I was able to see a black silhouette staring at me overlayed with the forest. The Janitor flickered and disappeared, leaving Elma looking around in confusion. I was able to see the two paths that could occur. And it was ripping me apart as I neared the fork in the road, unable to choose either side. I tripped and fell through the leaves and collapsed toward the skull I fought earlier, or was it in the future? I usually tried to stay outside of these diverging paths, but I guess I wasn’t able to figure out which way I needed to go in time. Crap. Ha, the skull is suffering the same problem. Tunnel vision slowly creeped upon me the skull struggles to grab me.

“Oh right, this way.” Yank.

A powerful force pulled onto my spine. The skull screeched in outrage as I was pulled from that reality and stabilized into the “real” one. The shadow of the skull tried to jump after me but disintegrated as the universe collapsed around him. I looked at Janitor and nodded in thanks. He just grunted. I looked through the closing tear. The parallel universe I generated through the retcon dissolved as its reality destabilized and disappeared. Without me acting as a foundation, the only connection the parallel universe had, it had collapsed upon itself. Behind us, Elma looked on in confusion.

“What were you trying to have us fight?” Elma asked.

“We already did,” I chuckled. “I ended up accidentally summoning Celestia over, and I had to reset the universe due to her death. The guy I told you we had to fight has already been removed, since only one of it can exist, though shadows of them can still exist. Janitor here kicked him out into a parallel universe, and that took care of him. I kinda got stuck in there, though. I was temporarily immobilized from having to hold the rewind in place, and that affected my ability to escape. Don’t worry, I’ll get you an amulet so you will understand the next time I have to do this.” An idea sparked through my head. “Hey Janitor, don’t you have a few copies of those?”

The Janitor gave me a flat stare. Elma was fiddling with a necklace around her neck. A small prism hung from it. “Sometimes I wonder how you get by without me,” he grumbled.

I blushed slightly and rubbed the back of my head. “Alright, I get it.” I pulled out a phone and checked the timeline. “In any case, the universe should be fairly stable for the next thousand years or so, unless someone pulls another time traveling gimmick on me. You guys can … explore the world or something. I’m going out for some R&R, probably complete a few mundane missions.” I tossed them a red “easy” button. “Hit it when you got everything. We’ll make the jump together.”

I waved goodbye and parted. I clutched my writhing stomach. “Someone’s frisky tonight,” I muttered under my breath. Urgh. Still a bit woozy from the retcon.

C-6 pulled out a few wires out of the monitor and attached a few spare parts. A few of his marbles got scrambled during the jump. “Woah!” He grabbed a knob and spun it to stabilize his energy output. Must be a short somewhere. Somethings draining. He wandered down the hallways of his master’s head. “Oh.” In front of him, a black matter claw had broken free of its confinement and was trying to steal Shtik’s energy. He raised his own claw and blasted the black limb off from a laser diode imbedded in the claw’s center. One claw repaired the wires and covered up the plating while another claw held a remote. Flashes of energy brightened off of the cubes emotionless face, befitting an executioner, ignoring the cries of pain.

I took a deep breath as my energy levels stabilized and watched their retreating forms. I lied. I keep on forgetting, and refuse to put it off any longer. My skill lies in summoning but from what the short battle told me, I am still much too slow. Next time ... I’m going to remove the whole summoning process out of the equation. I sent a short command out to my ship still Outside to start manufacturing hundreds of weapons, traps, and rune-enchanted papers. I won’t be ambushed defenseless on this planet again.