"So, what's the plan?" coughed Bolt as soot came out of her mouth.
"Well, we were going into Aaira's mind and getting the blueprints of the Element Pillar. Using it and Tank here can increase Dr. Wonder's Harmony Stone, boost the power of her time spell, and help her look into the past. While looking, we can understand what happened here and maybe fix this universe. But that's the plan anyway." answered Wanda
"That sounds simple enough," said Heat as tiny flames danced around her.
"Yeah, it is, but we have one big problem. Terra showed me this as she saw it in Aaira's mind before you showed up."
"Which is?" asked Layla.
"This," sadly spoke Dr. Wonder as she waved her hand. In front of them was a holographic projection of Aaira's mind world. It was filled with many objects, places, and black, dead-looking creatures as said creatures stared at the group.
"Whoa," said Rain, as she was scared by the number of creatures inside Aaira's mind.
"These creatures are what Aaira told us about. They infected Aaira's mind, and before I was pulled out, all I could hear was..." explained Terra as she turned to Aaira.
"Make them whole again," finished Aaira as she held her head in her hands.
"Make them whole? What do these evil spawns mean by that?" asked Eirika as she gripped her sword hilt.
"They want me to make the Element Pillar."So they can infect more minds and turn people into black-twisted monsters. Someone back in my world told me this before I had to put him down," said Aaira.
Layla stepped forward and couldn't believe what she was looking at. Does every universe have an infection like her world? Where do people turn and hurt others? She wondered how many other universes were suffering.
"There's so many of them," whispered Layla as she could feel the eyes of the creatures staring at her.
"There were once millions of these things. Each one was a person's body part that was infected and controlled. Each one is a nightmare that is made real. That's what's been haunting me, along with the loss of Faye. Her death was the worst pain ever, and seeing her ghost was even worse. Knowing that she was taken from me. By these fuckers." Aaira looked at the creatures and grew sad as she remembered what was happening in her world. "There's another outbreak in my world; I don't know if I can stop it this time."
"I understand; it must have been a lot for you to go through and all alone. And I'm sorry about your lover. But you can't let them continue infecting people." Layla said as she walked up to Aaira. "In my world, most of the planet is infected by the Chaos sickness. I've seen how bad it can get. It's a plague. I can't let the disease take any more lives; I made that my oath to my teachers and friends, even to my enemies. There's always a dawn after the dark. You must bring it!"
Aaira stared at Layla with a bit of hope before Terra joined them.
"She's right. In my world, there's a war between the Changelings and the Greys. It lasted for years, to the point that the war didn't touch a few planets. My race is dying off as we're in the middle of their damn war. All hope is fleeing as many are killed by the Changelings and harvest for biomass. I saw living nightmares—things that shouldn't exist. It feels hopeless, but we keep going. We keep fighting. That's all we can do. Even if our chances are low, the hope that we can change our future makes us continue the fight. You, both of you, can't stop moving forward."
"Right," smiled Aaira, who looked at Layla, who returned her smile.
Dr. Wonder summons away the projecting and hovers over to Aaira.
"The problem is, those things can damage your mind further if Terra and yourself enter that part of your mind. If you are the only one who can save your world, I can't allow this plan to continue. I'm not going to hurt someone else," explained Wonder as she turned to Berry and Tank.
"Don't worry about me; I'll be fine. I've gone through worse," replied Aaira, filled with more hope after hearing Layla and Terra struggle and how they keep pushing forward. "This might be the only way!"
"Sorry, but no. There's always another way," said Wonder. Flare smiled a bit as she saw her teaching stuck on Wonder.
"Sorry, but we have no time for that. Look around us! We're about to be sucked up by this colorful void!" shouted Aaira in anger.
"Hey girl, chill," said Bolt as she flew between the two.
"No, we're losing time!"
"But if we go ahead with this, we could lose you. That's something I'm not willing to do!" shouted Wonder.
"You're an idiot. This is the only chance we have!"
Bolt pushed them to the ground and shouted for them to chill out.
"Aaira, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to be patient. Dr. Wonder is right; we shouldn't risk your mind further."
"But..."
"No! I don't know what you're going through, but you need to listen to me. You are important, and I will not let anyone get hurt. You are not doing this; it's the end of the story. Understood?"
Aaira stared at her before letting out a sigh, knowing that she wouldn't get her way.
"Good. Now, Doc, you said you needed a power boost for the spell?" asked Bolt.
"Yeah, we need another version of the Harmony stone with the same power. It can increase my spell and recover the lost time," Wonder explained as she got up.
"Harmony stone? What kind of stone is it?" asked Heat as she approached Wonder.
"The power source of the most powerful magic in my world is this."
Dr. Wonder showed everyone the stone around her neck as she removed it from its box. It was glowing with seven different colors and was a perfect round sphere about the size of a basketball. It was beautiful.
"Whoa." everyone said in amazement.
"What is it?" Rain asked as she noticed Bolt, Heat, and Eirika staring at it like they saw a ghost.
"It's like..." Heat took out a purple Harmony Diamond.
"My emeralds..." added Bolt as she took out a blue Element Emerald
"Glowing bright, just like the Sol Harmony Emblems." chimed in Eirika as she showed them her shield, which has five color orbs in it, and her sword, which had a blue orb in its hilt.
Wonder's eyes went wide as she saw the counterparts of the Harmony stone.
"These are called the Element Emeralds, which hold unlimited power, and when all seven are together, a miracle is born," spoke Bolt, who showed them the seven different colored emeralds floating above her.
"The Harmony Diamonds are the same thing in power and feats," said Heat as her colorful diamonds hovered around her
"The Sol Harmony Emblem shield was forged by the Sol dragon goddess, Helios, from one of her scales; it was used to seal away the demon dragon, threatening to destroy humanity. She then gave me the Rainbow Sword, made from her fang, and fused with the divined and greatest Element Emblem of them all, Spark of Magic," explained Eirika as her items summoned the same spirit dragon from the fight she had with Layla.
"Whoa, that's a big dragon." said Rain as she stared at the majestic beast
"This is the echo spirit of Helios; it's not her, but it carries her hope and dreams for humans and dragons to live in peace," explained Eirika as the dragon flew around, giving her a warm hug before vanishing into the weapons.
"So these stones are the same thing?" asked Wanda as she checked out each item. "Then with these!"
"Yeah, there's another way..." whispered Aaira, as she realized her sacrifice wasn't needed
"We can make this work," said Wonder as she smiled.
"Great, how are we going to do it?" asked Layla
"It's simple. I can make the spell more powerful, but it won't be easy, and I will need all three of you. This boosted spell will drain most of my magic and energy as I rewind time, so I will need someone to be a power source to keep me stable and active. Any volunteers?" asked Dr. Wonder.
"I'll do it," smirked Bolt as she flipped an emerald up and down on her wing. "The emeralds can control time and space. Like this! Element Control!"
Everyone but Heat was shocked to see Bolt just gone.
"Where's she go?" asked Berry as he looked around.
"Up here!" shouted Bolt as she stood on the last remaining tree in the area.
"Oh, my," said Wanda, fixing her glasses in awe.
"Wow, that's awesome," smiled Flash.
Bolt used element control again and was now standing next to Wonder, who gave a thumbs-up with her wing.
"Let's do this then," grinned Wonder, impressed by the feat.
"Right"
Wonder sat in the middle of the crater while Bolt and Heat turned super and placed their hooves on her shoulder. Eirika stood behind the three and stabbed her sword into the ground. An intense beaming light blasted out of the blade as the dragon came out of the light and flew into her. She placed her hand on Wonder's back.
"Eirika, Bolt, and Heat, I need you three to channel the power of your gems into my stone through me. You ready?" asked Wonder
"Yes, just give the word," replied Eirika.
"Ready!" replied Heat and Bolt.
"Okay, then, let's do it," said Wonder, who felt the three's immense power.
A blinding light appeared, and the area around them grew white. Soon, broken time shards started to return, and the blurry vision became clearer. But at the same time, the remaining land started to fall apart as the void crept closer to the impact site.
"Okay, the spell is working, but we don't have much time, so I'm going to start rewinding time!" shouted Wonder
"Do what you have to!" shouted Eirika.
"Right, okay. Let's do this! Reverse time!"
A rainbow light came out of the Harmony stone, and the area around them started to rewind. Everyone could see the bright pillar of rainbow energy before returning to the fusing shards.
"That must be it! That must have been the cause of all this!" shouted Wanda as she saw the two shards defusing and returning to the ground.
"Yes! That was it!" confirmed Wonder, who was sweating like crazy and feeling her body getting heavy.
Bolt noticed this and used element control to keep the witch going.
"Thank you."
"No prob." smiled Bolt.
"I can see it happening," smiled Heat.
"Keep going; we're almost there! Where did those shards come from?" shouted Layla
"Just a little more," said Wonder, as everyone could see two figures appearing between a broken portal and touching the shards. Bolt and Heat were shocked to see a lookalike of Bolt touching the shard.
"Is that me?" asked Bolt, who was confused.
"No, not really!" yelled Wanda as she hovered over to them. "It's why you and the other versions of you are here. Of course! Look, she and a human version of her touched the shards at the same time. Those shards must have reacted to each other's energy at the same time and blasted the walls between the universes, which created an overlap and dragged "you" here," explained Wanda before the vision kept going, revealing a heat lookalike and a human version as they were sliding up the crater.
"So that's why we're here," Wonder said, her body feeling weaker but held together by Bolt. "But where did these shards come from?"
"Wait, we're about to find out," said Eirika as everyone watched the vision.
Everyone watched as the four girls reversed and walked out of the crater, the shards undoing the impact and flying back into the night sky. Everyone looked up as the shard returned to the Rainbow Comet, which was bleeding a black ooze.
"I think my new theory was correct," whispered Wanda, making Layla ask her what she meant. "There is a rainbow comet in my world, and Terra told me there is one in hers, Flash and Rain's world. Tell me, the rest of you, do you all have a rainbow comet?" shouted Wanda as she started to panic, which made every nod
"The comet passed my planet hours ago, and I was in space collecting a sample of its weird rainbow trail," said Flare.
"The Rainbow Comet appears every 200 years, and it appeared two years ago in my world," answered Layla.
"The emeralds flew to the Wish Islands after the weird Rainbow Comet appeared in the night sky a few days ago. Long story short, I kicked an evil moon's butt before coming here," explained Bolt
"There was a Rainbow Comet that appeared over my kingdom two days ago, and the Harmony Diamonds came to me the next day before I found myself here," replied Heat as she looked at Bolt.
"I suddenly saw a Rainbow Comet last night and just defeated a cult leader before coming here!" shouted Eirika as she could see the black ooze falling on them.
"The Rainbow Comet appears in my world as well!" Berry replied as she could sense something within the black ooze.
"I just saw records of the Rainbow Comet," said Aaira as her helmet covered her face and the face grill lights turned on.
"In my world, there's a record of a Rainbow Comet as well." chimed in Wonder as she turned to Wanda. "What was your theory?"
Wanda sweated as she reviewed it in her mind and said, "My theory was, like Terra believed, that the comet was a natural phenomenon in every universe, but something kept bothering me about it. Then, seeing those shards as they broke the walls of the multiverse, it's making sense now."
Everyone waited for Wanda to finish but watched as the black ooze almost reached them.
"What are you talking about, Wanda? Spit it out!" shouted Flash
"The comet exists between the universes; it's how those shards can break the walls in between. Ever notice it's still in this universe? It looked frozen, but its tail still flows like it's moving. So my new theory is that the comet is some dimensional comet; the walls of the universe are weakened enough by it to allow it to cross the multiverse, but seeing it still here...almost like it's watching and waiting." explained Wanda, who was trying to put the new pieces together.
"Waiting for what?" asked Flare as the ground shook, and the void almost reached their feet.
"Waiting for... dear god, no..." weakly said Wanda as she went over and over the completed puzzle in her thoughts.
"Waiting for what!" questioned Aaira, who was getting agitated.
"The shards broke through the universe, which the comet would pass through. The shards must have sent us here. No, I stand corrected," explained Wanda, who was panicking as the ooze landed on the ground. "It was looking for the versions of "us" that were blasted with the shards. It pulled us here, thinking it was "them!"
"So the comet is sentient? It can think?" asked Flash as the ooze started to form something.
"Ha! I fought a living, talking moon! This is another Monday for me!" Jokey said Bolt as she watched the ooze create two white eyes and a slime body. Everyone watched as the ooze creature finally took the form of a pony. Its hallowed white eyes stared at them. The head, chest, body, and hooves were all melting ooze while the man was trying to form but failing as it bled back into its body, and the tail was a long, melting, and dripping rainbow.
"Who are you?" asked Layla, who felt like the creature was looking straight through her and the others.
"Rainbow..." spoke the Ooze pony, her voice sounding like it was coming from a radio with a lot of interference. "Breaker."
Everyone watched as a bright white halo appeared behind its back.
"Rainbow, Breaker..." repeated the pony monster as she looked around at them and slowly started to move toward the group.
"What the hell is it doing?" asked Rain, ready to fight.
"I don't know, but I think we should kill it before it can do anything," replied Aaira, loading her horn cutter gun and getting ready to fire.
Suddenly, two large, melting wings pop out of its sides and shoot towards Bolt and Heat, carried away into the sky.
"Heat!" yelled Flash.
"Bolt!" shouted Eirika.
Wonder's body started to feel heavy as she realized the spell was draining her. She quickly stopped the spell but was covered by an ooze attack. The attack came out of the monster's horn and tried to drag her into it.
"I don't think so!" shouted Wanda as she tried to save her but was attacked by the ooze as it created tentacles around itself.
"I got you, Wanda!" shouted Flare as she grabbed Wanda before the black slime could hold her.
"Don't touch the black ooze!" shouted Wanda. Flare was able to throw her back to the group, and she flew quickly to save Wonder. She fired off her heat vision, hoping to cut off the slime that had Wonder, but it did nothing.
"Get off of me!" screamed Wonder, who was being dragged into the ooze monster, who was melting her into itself.
"I'm coming, Wonder!" shouted Flash as he flew over and punched the monster.
"IDIOT!" screamed Wonder as she disappeared into the slime.
Flash watched as the monster slowly turned to her and slowly sucked her into itself, forcing Flash to pull her arm out, but she couldn't. She is being eaten as she struggles to free herself.
"Hold on, Flash!" yelled Eirika as she jumped on Aero's back, flew above them, and summoned her dragon, but watched as the monster's bleeding rainbow tail shot up and grabbed onto them. Everyone watched the dragon scream in pain before melting into the creature's tail while Eirika and Aero tried to fight it off.
"Enough!" cried Layla as she summoned her crystal sword and wings and flew to Eirika and Aero, cutting the rainbow slime and saving the two.
"Are you okay?" asked Layla, as Eirika and Aero were shaking in fear.
"We're fine," answered Eirika as she watched the ooze grow two large arms and punched Layla, but she blocked it with her black rune barrier.
"You're going to have to try better than that!" grinned Layla as she kept the barrier up but quickly realized it was creeping its way over it and trying to get Eirika and Aero again, so she spread the barrier over to them, but only for all three to be covered by the slime as the barrier was covered. The large ball of slime fell into the pool of ooze, which increased the slime's size.
"Shit! They're dead!" shouted Rain as she, Terra, and Aaira were shooting at the coming black slime while Wanda put her bubble barrier up.
"We need a plan!" cried Wanda as the slime was trying to push through the bubble.
"There's no way; we can't kill that thing!" replied Aaira as she reloaded her cutter gun.
Blue Berry was hiding behind the group and crying. "What can I do? What can I do? Oh! Tank, what should we do?" she asked as she looked down at the scared little turtle she was holding. He looked up and smiled.
"You're right; I can do this!" shouted Blue as she stood up and looked at the group. "Everyone! I'll save the day!"
"What! No!" shouted Wanda as she watched Berry fly out of the safe area and summon her decisive attack move, but she was grabbed by the rainbow tail slime. She was being eaten alive by it.
"Berry!?" yelled Aaira, firing at the creature's head but doing nothing as she saw the black ooze slowly creeping into the barrier.
"She's in trouble! I'll save her!" yelled Flare as she hurried to Berry.
Berry was trying to get out but couldn't. She was scared. Was she going to die like the others?
"You won't," said a voice inside Berry's mind.
"Tank? Tank! What are you doing?" asked Berry, as she could see Tank glowing blue and pushing Berry out of the rainbow slime.
"No, no, no! Please! Don't go, Tank!" cried Berry, who was trying to hold him but couldn't.
"It's going to be okay, Berry," said Tank as the rainbow slime took him and melted into the rainbow ooze.
"Please, I can't lose you too." Berry, crying and falling from the sky, knew Tank was gone forever as her body started to change colors.
"Don't worry, Berry. We will get him back and save our friends." Flare said as she caught the little pony, only to see that Berry wasn't blue or had a rainbow mane.
Her skin was light tan now, and her mane was dark brown. Berry lost her magical girl powers.
"We'll save him?" Berry asked, wiping away her tears and looking up at Flare.
"Of course. I will protect you with my life and get everyone back. I promise," smiled Flare, which made Berry smile.
Flare flew back to the others and could see the barrier was almost eaten. She had to hurry and do something but was shocked to hear something.
"ELEMENT CONTROL!"
Flare and Berry watched as the others disappeared and reappeared next to them, surrounded by a golden barrier. They all watched as Bolt and Heat appeared in front of them.
"You two are alright!" cried Berry
"Yes, thanks to Bolt," smiled Heat, which also made Flare smile.
"What's happening!?" shouted Wanda, who was confused about the barrier.
"We can't talk now! Heat, keep them safe!" ordered Bolt as she turned to her.
"Of course!" said Heat as she took over the golden barrier.
"Bolt! Wait!" called out Flare as she grabbed her tail. "I'm not letting you go alone!"
"Flare, I'll be fine! Just keep everyone safe," smiled Bolt as she gave her thumbs up with her golden wings
"Don't go!" cried Berry as she tried to reach out to her, but Bolt softly petted her.
"It's okay, Berry. I'll be right back; watch." winked Bolt.
"But," replied Flare.
"Trust me, you two," grinned Bolt.
Flare and Berry nodded as they trusted her, letting her go and being placed under the golden barrier.
"Just be careful, Bolt," whispered Heat as she watched Bolt rocket off at the slime monster.
"Hey, ooze face! You forgot about me!" shouted Bolt as the slime turned its attention to her and fired more tentacles at her, but she used lightning speed to avoid the slime.
"Not going to work, ugly! I fought a water monster; it was just a big drip, like you!" yelled Bolt as the tentacles tried again, and once more, she dodged them and flew closer to its head as she landed a punch. "Is that all you got?" smiled Bolt as she saw the monster getting annoyed and tried again, but the tentacles came from the rainbow tail this time. She dodged them and punched its face again, but the ooze monster didn't like it this time.
It was angry; the more Bolt hit it, the more its anger grew. The ooze was forming a giant fist made from black and rainbow ooze this time, and it swung its giant fist, punching Bolt hard and knocking her back into the air.
"You want more! Bring it!" taunted Bolt as she rubbed her face, knowing the punch hurt slightly but not as much. The ooze monster roared, creating a loud screeching sound that echoed across the once-colorful void.
Bolt watched as the creature grew the size of a large moon. As it finished growing, it shot out all its slime attacks and covered Bolt in them, as the golden light disappeared into the darkness. Everyone screamed in horror. Heat wanted to help but couldn't, as she held the barrier up, keeping the others from falling into the endless dark slime that somehow was filling the universe.
Inside the mixed black and rainbow ooze, Bolt was giving it everything she had to keep herself from being crushed. She knew she was a strong Pegasus while in this state, but the slime was somehow overpowering the emeralds. She could feel the emeralds within were weakening, and she knew she couldn't lose to this monster, but the others would die if she did. She closed her eyes, remembering what the Elders of the Wish Islands had taught her. It was her last resort, which she didn't want to use again, but there was no choice.
"Sorry, Elder Tia and Lu, but it looks like I'm going all out again!"
Her body started to glow with a rainbow aura. Bolt opened her eyes; her usually pink iris was replaced with shiny blue ones.
She smiled and started to push her wings out with force. The ooze monster was losing; it felt the pressure from Bolt and tried to crush her. It could feel something growing with such raw power in its slime and watched as a flash of rainbow energy blasted out, destroying the slime that covered its prey.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you for making me angry," laughed Bolt as she slowly floated out of the slime. Her whole body was glowing, but it was much brighter now, with strong purple and red energy sparkling around her.
Everyone looked in amazement, while Heat knew she shouldn't be surprised by Bolt's power, as she sighed with great relief.
The whole falling universe was covered in black ooze; the colorful void and cracks were gone as well. The only things left were the Rainbow Comet, the monster, as four new white halos appeared behind its back, and the last remaining golden light within the darkness.
end of chapter 6