S5E09b: Our Humble Abode

Upon finally learning the truth, the Anathemites and their compatriots return to the Dream after so many years...but how have things changed in the meantime...?

Plot Summary
Stepping through the doorway, the Anathemites finally re-emerge in "Techquestria," onyl to find it in a much worse state than when they left it. The ground beneath them was dead and dry, and the vast glittering cities of shiny technology were now obscured by several large domed fortresses as smoke poured into the air, partially obscuring the sun. Dim red lights reflected from the distant urban locations, including Canterlot, announcing that they were operating in low-power mode. All together, it gave the impression of war.

An impression soon verified as they observed a battle waging ahead of them. Entering the fray, they found RFI locked into a deadly battle with a horde of mostly skeletal horses that crawled from the earth. Superintendent Hood himself was commanding the battle, and set aside his confusion at their return to have them assist.

As the Guardian foretold, while the Anathemites lacked their Nihility-based powers, they had full access to their original powersets. Meanwhile, Aurion and Wicker to free to begin experimenting with their lucid dreaming power, to mixed results. The battle ended once one of the Arathemites opened a chasm that swallowed most of the horde and split the front lines, finally allowing RFI to press an advantage. Ultimately, the undead sunk back into the earth without a trace, with Hood solemnly informing the Anathemites that the enemy had been far from defeated. "She" merely called them back. He then ordered the Anathemites to assist with RFI in packing up their equipment and returning to the Factory, as well as incinerating any corpses. He was briefly taken aback by Executor's "robotic" speech, but dismissed it, saying both sides clearly had stories to tell.

During the cleanup, Aurion asked Olyn about the world he was in. She had to tell him that this was not her home; this was Terminos' home instead. He tried to get information out of Terminos instead, but in his usual glum manner was not of any particular help. Then he tried asking a random RFI agent, but to similar results as the agent dismissed him since he had work to do. Figuring Hood would probably provide him with the answers, Aurion then went silent. As RFI finally pulled back, an unknown shadow watched the new group depart.

Upon returning to the Rainbow Factory, they discovered that it had since entirely overtaken Cloudsdale, with the entire city seemingly replaced with various extensions and floating support buildings for the Factory itself. The outer hull had also shown signs of scarring, made only worse by the state of the interior, with various panels loose and an overall severe lack of maintenance against the scars of war. It was also discovered that production had been entirely re-purposed for weaponry, armor, and other devices of war. Offices and adminsitration areas had been gutted and reworked into training grounds, barracks and medical stations. Very few actual employees of the Factory were to be seen, with contless soldiers in their place. To the group's horror, it was also observed that children were being recruited and being trained to handle RFI weaponry.

Not even the Superintendent's office was spared a military refit, as the one window that overlooked the rest of the Factory had been barred up and reinforced with steel to protect its occupant. Hood hmself was also asissted by a new face, a fairy, who floated beside him. He asked them directly where they had been for the past two and a half years, having long ago since written them off for dead.

Heeding the Guardian's warning, the group explained that they had been trapped in the Rift, but the warping of time and space within must have displaced them chonrologically. They mentioned encountering Nihilius within the Rift, and defeating him, which seemed to satisfy Hood for the time being.

Regarding Executor, they explained that that it wasn't really him, but a robot replica. Hood mentioned that 117 reminded him of the time when Executor beleived he was a Sayan Extermination Unit. As a matter of fact, he went on, their own de-spored Hellgate behaved similarly and disappeared a few months prior. He hoped that they didn't have to deal with Sayans now.

To the group's confusion, Hood revealed that the Rift was still in existence, having never been closed. They may have defeated Nihilius, but that did not necessarily mean his portal would dissipate. In fact the open hole in reality wound up leading to an even bigger problem.

For the past two years, RFI had been engaged with a brutal war with an extradimensional entity calling herself "the Witch." A few months after the Anathemites were lost to the Rift, a major archaelogical discovery was made deep beneath the city of Canterlot. An ancient ruin that had come to be known as the "High Castle." An RFI garrison was postioned around the excavation site as the ruins were explored and studied.

Not long after, the Witch appeared and began trying to break into the High Castle. After numerous failures (one of which led to the shearing of part of the whole mountain), the Witch gave up on the "subtle" approach and declared war on the Rainbow Factory. Using the Rift as a dimensional highway, she channeled many creatures from beyond the realm and used them as her army. RFI had been locked in war ever since, with the cost growing by the day. Without Terminos to man the Arachnos Array, it began to malfunction and none of the staff knew the device as well as he did. The constant drain needed to supply the war did not help matters either, which is why the rest of Equestria suffered with minimal power. Hood mentioned that he had to make a lot of decisions he did not care for, but it was the only way to keep the nation alive. Time and manpower were severely limited between the Witch's constant attacks.

Unfortunately, information on the Witch was scarce. She was clearly not a horse so they assumed she must have come from beyond the Rift. They did not even know the full extent of her power, and only were sure that everything they had seen until now was nowhere near her upper limit.

Likewise, they were not sure what her intent was with the High Castle. While research had contnued on the High Castle in the time since, no information had come up that may reveal her goals. Regardless, since the Witch was willing and eager to pull demons from Hell itself, Hood felt that it was best kept out of her hands, and not worth risking turning it over. Privately, the group later discussed the need to defeat the Witch. Beyond wishing to help the world, RFI and its vast resources would almost be necessary to recover the Factory's consciousness. But it would be impossible for RFI to lend support to such an endeavor so long as they were engaged with the Witch.

Hood granted them access to investigate the Ruins and perhaps assist with attempting to discover what the Witch needs it so badly for. The group prepared to leave right away, but Terminos demanded to stay behind and work on the Arachnos Array. Aurion also needed to use the bathroom, delaying the group further.

At the High Castle, the group met with Dusty, the head of the dig site. He explained that the High Castle seemed to ignore the laws of their reality, and bringing it with rules from another one. Case in point, the ruins were sun-bleached and contained a healthy growth of moss all across it despite having been firmly beneath rock and soil for the past several thousand years, predating even the earliest known texts on Equu. He then activates a small probe equipped with a flashlight that led him and the others into the ruins.

As soon as they crossed the threshold, all the lights of the base camp disappeared behind a wall of thick blackness. Dusty then rodered the probe to turn off its light, and suddenly the hall was lit up with faint blue lights, casted from glyphs written on the walls. The language was unknown and the greatest cryptographers had yet to make even a little headway, as every so often which characters lit up would change, with no known pattern to what the changes are or when they even happen.

Moving on ahead into a larger chamber, Dusty highly encouraged the group to stay close. Personnel and exploration teams were known to vanish. For similar reasons they haven't risked sending drones either as recovery could prove incredibly difficult if not impossible. The interior of the High Castle was known to "shift" through methods and for reasons unknown. An explorer could be in one room and when they exited it, they would be in a completely different part of the Castle, sometimes one even unexplored so they'd be lost in the dark. Equipment has also vanished, and only sometimes was the exact room they were left in rediscovered sometime later. Not helping was the lack of any landmarks, as the entire High Castle is empty and barren, with not a single artifact to be found of any kind. And just like with the shifting writing, there is no known pattern or method to what and when the High Castle changes shape.

Executor attempted to scan the Castle, but his data continually got corrupted. Dusty said they had evens ummoned Princess Twilight who likewise could not get a read on the structure, describing it as being overwhelmed with two polar opposites. As if she were reading two books at once, and one was written backwards. The High Castle was working heavily against RFI's attempts to analyze it, explaining the terribly slow progress made.

As the group discussed this with Dusty, a shadoy figure was shown to be viewing them again. It was missed the first time and observed by only a small handful the second. But the third time, it passed in front of one of the lights, casting a massive shadow over the chamber. The group immediately gave chase, against Dusty's warnings. Sure enough a distance down the well-lit corridor the group was inexplicably someplace else. Someplace yet unexplored, as inidcated by the lack of any floodlights, cables, or any sign of life whatsoever. Instead they found themselves in a pitch-black, large chamber.

The chamber had a very large smooth stone disk in the center, at the top of which stood some sort of altar. As they approached it, they'd see occassional flashes of lightning, followed by murmuring coming from the darkness around them, getting slowly louder. The voices, bizarrely, sounded somewhat like their own. Their eyesight also became strange, as they could faintly see what appeared to be clouds at the edge of the chamber, as if it were seen in their own mind. Even Executor was affected, proving that it was not a psychic attack. Something was altering the dream itself.

A figure is briefly spotted on the altar, surrounded by a whirlwind of red clouds that forcibly inserts itself into the creature. It was blue-skinned and humanoid, appearing vaguely familiar to the Anathemites for reasons they couldn't quite explain until it attacked, revealing itself as the Red Duke. The Red Duke was an entity battled in another dimension by other people 20 years in the future, but the Anathemties had some knowledge of the battle in spite of this.

However, the battle took a turn against the script halfway through, as its regeneration was interrupted. Some kind of demonic force invaded its body and shattered its physical form, leaving only a posessed spirit that continued the fight. When it was finally brought down, the ceiling of the chamber caved in, revealing Dusty, some RFI personnel, and an excavator. When asked about the shadow and what they had just endured, Dusty had no answers. They had explored a fair amount of what the High Castle would allow, and never once had they ever seen another soul. Regardless, he urged them to leave the chamber with them before the High Castle separated them again.

As they left, the shadow figure observed them once more, declaring to itself that "they're the ones" and that "the game has begun."

Soundtrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Tidal Surge (Renegade Remix)
 * 2) Center of the Conflict - Kumite (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)
 * 3) Back to the Factory - Poisoned Deserts (Maarten van Oostrum)
 * 4) The Enemy - Ghirahim (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)
 * 5) The Mysterious Old Ruins - Forest Temple (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
 * 6) Dark Halls - Chozo Ruins Depths (Metroid Prime)
 * 7) Vs. Red Duke - Touhou Metal 260
 * 8) ~Vs. Demon Duke - Rip & Tear (Doom 4)
 * 9) The Fiend - Palace of Winds (The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures)
 * 10) Ending Theme - Peril (Halo 2)

Trivia

 * This episode was an interrupted broadcast.
 * This episode introduces two new villains into the Mythos, the Witch and one referred to by SDM only as the "Special Mystery Guest Villain."
 * The episode contained numerous references to other series and franchises in the plot, indicative of the group's return to the Dream.
 * The song "Poisoned Deserts" was a last minute change, after SDM had changed his mind on about 4 other songs on the spot.
 * The first half of the Red Duke fight consisted entirely of paraphrased or quoted lines from the same boss battle in DEPTHS.
 * The second phase was intended to be longer and serve as the "real" fight while the Red Duke was considered a fakeout, but it was shortened to the same length due to time constraints.
 * The theme for the second half of the Red Duke fight, "Rip & Tear," was originally planned to be used for the Sayan Star battle over in the Alliance equivalent to this episode, while the "Armogohma" theme was intended ot be used here, but was swapped out last minute when SDM decided Rip & Tear did not suit the Sayan Star battle.
 * This, in turn, led to the battle being redesigned from the ground up to incorporate a more hellish theme while the old boss battle has been moved ahead and retooled.