//------------------------------// // Chapter Two // Story: Save The World, Duh! // by TheKing2001 //------------------------------// Minuette “This is worse than any college party hangover and I’ve had a lot of those,” Berry Punch moaned as I pushed myself to my hooves. My fiancee laid on her stomach with a hoof pressed over her mouth. “Do you want a hoof?” A familiar voice came from behind me. I turned my head as Berry Punch lifted hers up. Both our eyes widened at the orange unicorn with a fiery red and orange mane and a sun tattoo. “Sunset?” Berry asked in surprise. “Is that you?” “In the flesh,” Sunset chuckled as a light blue glow enveloped and picked up Berry. She started flailing her hooves before they straightened and she stood on all four legs. “There you go.” “Look mom I’m walking like a pony!” Ruby exclaimed as she wobbled from side to side. The little unicorn tipped over and her eyes widened as she landed on a grey unicorn foal. “Quick Cherry Berry get the camera!” Berry demanded as Cherry Berry felt around her neck and let out an eep as she turned bright red and covered her chest with her hooves. Sunset rolled her eyes and trotted over to her, gently moving her hooves. “It’s normal to not wear clothes as a pony,” Sunset explained as she levitated Cherry Berry onto her hooves. “You’re fine.” “So who’s who?” I asked as I took a shaky step towards Berry Punch. “That’s Bon Bon, Lyra, Octavia, Derpy, Adagio, Sonata, Aria, Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo, Mom, Ruby and I would assume that’s Dinky,” Sunset said as pointed to each pony one by one. “I would assume the lavender unicorn with the blonde ponytail and exploding firework for a cutie mark is Lavender and the turquoise pegasus with the tornado and lightning bolt is Lightning.” “You look adorable!” Silver Spoon gushed as she hugged Sunsets foreleg. She had a silver coin tattoo on her flanks, Diamond had a crown with a heart background and Scootaloo had a sword with a shield. “You have tattoos?” “They’re your cutie marks,” the other mare in the room commented. I didn’t recognize her. I don’t remember her coming with us. “They represent your true self. Yours is a coin so your fate is probably a banker or you have a lot of money, you with the crown is either from royalty or you are destined to lead. You with the shield are probably meant to be a royal guard and protect ponies.” “I’m not from royalty,” Diamond said with a small smile. “I don’t want to lead anything either. I’m going to be a police officer, Scootaloo here wants to be a professional rally driver and Silver Spoon wants to be a lawyer.” “Huh,” the mare mused with a hoof on her chin. “Interesting. I’m Starlight Glimmer by the way. The others know me but you all don’t. Cutie marks do represent your true selves so I would assume you like helping people, you are good at leading and you are good at managing money?” “Sounds like them,” Sunset chuckled as she hugged Silver Spoon back. “You three look adorable as well.” “Why don’t we have cutie marks?” Dinky pouted as she gestured to Ruby. “That’s mean!” “Probably haven’t discovered your true talents yet,” Sunset answered as Ruby and Dinky looked even more upset. “But everybody has one! You’re still young. You’ll find your calling!” “Uh oh,” Lavender muttered as we all looked at her. “Oh not again,” Lyra groaned as she and the others took nervous steps back. A blue shield formed in front of us as Ruby and Dinky were placed next to Lavender by Starlight. “What’s going on?” Cherry Berry asked worriedly. “Achoo!” Lavender sneezed and a light purple laser shot out of her horn and bounced off the wall. “Achoo!” “That,” Octavia said flatly as Dinky and Ruby started sneezing themselves and firing off lasers. “You remember when we were doing that?” Lyra laughed as she nudged Vinyl. “That was awesome!” “Oh yeah real awesome,” Bon Bon glared at the two. “You almost decapitated me and Twilight!” “But we didn’t,” Lyra countered with a grin. “What on earth is happening?” Berry Punch demanded as she stared at the lasers hitting the shield. “They’re experiencing a magic overload in a sense,” Starlight explained. “Happened apparently when Sunset brought the others over. They destroyed this room last time. We just got to teach them how to control their magic and it should stop.” “Should?” I echoed in shock. “That’s not very reassuring.” “Oh don’t worry,” Sunset reassured us as she stepped out from the shield. “It’s easy. It was last time. Where’s Twilight anyway?” “She and the others are currently trying to calm down Steven Magnet again. After the last time I went with them and found out he was crying over a scale being a shade different than the rest, I quit helping,” Starlight admitted with an eyeroll. “He’s just a big drama king.” “So a male version of Rarity?” Aria asked with a smirk. She lacked wings and a horn with matching hair to Starlight and had a purple star cutie mark. Sonata had two two blue hair with a heart cutie mark covered with a music note. “Pretty much,” Starlight chuckled as we watched the three other unicorns quit sneezing. Adagio had large orange hair similar to her human form and had a yellow gem with a music note behind it. “Why are they earth ponies?” Vinyl asked and pointed a hoof at the three sirens. “They flew during the battle of the bands.” “Those were our true forms,” Adagio agreed readily. “In the history books, they are signs of terror. As humans, we carried them in our gems. Those bodies were like a vessel in a way. These are our vessels in a way over here. Sonata prefers this over flying.” “Do you still have them?” Bon Bon asked as I tilted my head to look back at my cutie mark of a clock. “Nah,” Aria shook her head. “If we did, they would have came out after we absorbed enough magic when we sang recently. Those are gone unfortunately.” “You guys can go explore,” Sunset said as she looked back at us. “It’s gonna take me a bit to teach these four. Starlight will show you around.” We all nodded as we followed Starlight out. “Bye mom!” Ruby waved a hoof as she tilted forward. “Woah!” Sunset caught her with a hoof and snickered. “Bye Ruby. I’ll meet you after you’re done! Behave for your cousin!” “I will!”