//------------------------------//
// Unforeseen Complications! Friends give their Advice. 
// Story: Crossworlds Guardian, Sailor Orbital! 
// by Masterweaver 
//------------------------------//

	"....so after Kikai finished, uh... well, after that, we gathered up everything we could and jumped through the Gate. Of course, we ended up in Neighpon, but between her archaic speech and the ubiquity of wranglish we were able to pidgin-speak our way to somebody who we could actually talk to. He got us in touch with the Aztlan Institute, we spent a day or two helping them figure out the Gate chamber and showing off all the Munarin gizmos, then we got a private jet back home."

Blue Oyster and Raspberry Fluff both stared across the picnic table at Ditzy as she casually ate her ham sandwich.

"...Whunf?"

The blue-skinned girl shook her head slowly. "Only you, Ditzy. Only you could end up in Neighpon, find ancient alien technology, kill a monster, and shrug it off like it was tuesday."

"It was a Friday, actually."

"So..." The pink girl tried, and failed, to hold back a snicker. "So, you've got a talking cat, and you fight monsters with a crescent wand. Does that make you Sailor Luna?"

The grey girl put on a thoughtful expression. "Well, I still need the miniskirt and the odango, but--"

"Ditzy, you remember what happened when Octavia arranged that music show? What did I say?"

Ditzy sighed, turning to her other friend. "Come on, Blue."

"What the absolute crap did I say!?"

"You're scaring Dinky."

Dinky shook her head, idly chomping off a bit of her granola bar. "No, this is pretty much what I expected from Aunt Blue."

Raspberry Fluff doubled over, laughing to hard to keep standing.

"And if we're being technical," said Ditzy, "this is living anime."

"THAT'S WORSE!" Blue exploded. "There's a reason anime is fictional! There's a reason fiction is fictional! All the stories have heroes going against dangers and surviving not because of their skill or their experience but because it makes a good story! And they never go into detail about, about trauma and, stuff like that!"

Slowly, the grey girl put down her sandwich. "...you're really worried about this, aren't you?"

"OF COURSE I'M WORRIED! This isn't some sort of joke, this is serious!"

Ditzy took a breath. "...Look, Blue? Ever since the Saturation, I've been bounced across universes, met several versions of myself both human and horse, fought off a giant swarm of replicating cybernetic waffles, visited by a spirit of Yuletide past who got the wrong address, shanghaied into finding incredibly saucy pirate booty, interned for a transdimensional organization responsible for space expansion in some universes, stopped no less than thirteen apocalypse cults, contracted the first case of teleportitis despite not having a unicorn aspect, stripped naked for science three times, encountered an invisible fluffy tentacle monster that demanded entirely platonic cuddles, crashed Vinyl's car through the roof of a skyscraper, and had to babysit my own daughter from the future."

She turned to Dinky. "No offense meant, of course."

"None taken."

"What I'm saying," she continued, "is that I'm a weirdness magnet. At this point, I just roll with it."

Blue Oyster clacked her fingernails together in frustration. "That's not--arrrrgh! You. You're just not..."

Raspberry Fluff put a hand on her shoulder. "Blue. Blue. You're overthinking things. What Ditzy's saying is, she can handle it." She patted her reassuringly. "It'll be okay."

"...I guess," Blue grumbled. "I don't know..."

"Look, Dinky's here, right? That means Ditzy survives long enough to raise her. Stable time loop and all that."

"It's not a direct case of cause and effect," Dinky noted. "I mean, if I pushed Mom towards Dad, sure, but this is more acausal."

Blue slumped onto the bench. "Yeah, okay. Sure. I guess."

Raspberry tapped her chin. "Say, who is your dad, anyway?"

Dinky rolled her eyes. "Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn't. Psycholock keeps me from telling you anything you couldn't learn in at least three hours."

"And I am super grateful for that," Ditzy added. "This is all awkward enough as is. Do you know how much worse it would be if I bumped into her father before we even started dating and I knew it?"

Blue Oyster nodded. "Yeah, that... that would be weird." She sighed, rapping her fingers on the table. "...I guess I should look at the bright side of things. We've got actual confirmation of aliens!"

"What am I, chopped liver?"

Ditzy, Blue, Raspberry, and Dinky all turned to see a mint green unicorn walking up to them, with a blue-gold feline riding on her head and a cream-skinned teenager just catching up.

Ditzy waved. "Hey Lyra! Hey Bonbon!"

The feline hopped onto the table and gave the cream teenager an odd look. "I thought your name was Sweetie Drops."

"It is. The Bonbon thing..." Sweetie flushed. "It's an awkward story. Only Derpy gets to call me that, cause I get to call her Derpy."

Dinky tilted her head. "Why? How did you get that name anyway?"

Raspberry grinned. "Well, you see--"

Ditzy clapped her hands over Dinky's ears. "NO. Not until she's twenty."

"Chronologically, biologically, or personally?"

"All three!"

Sweetie Drops' face was now as pink as her forelocks. "ANYWAY. Moving on from my name, me and Lyra just finished helping Kikai with the citizenship papers."

"Ah." Blue nodded, ignoring Raspberry trying to pull Ditzy's hands of her daughter's ears. "I take it that's why you're not wearing your gorget?"

"Yep. Showing PAULDRONS solidarity." Lyra brushed some dust off the shirt she was wearing. "Mostly we just tweaked my own special needs records, although we ran into a small snag and had to talk to Gillion."

"Really?"

"Munarin are genetically sexless, but we had seven genders," Kikai explained. "After some discussion, I decided that feminine pronouns were the best fit."

"Yeah, that's a remnant of an outdated classification system. I'd like to change it, but..." Lyra shrugged awkwardly. "PAULDRONS is focusing more on species normatives than gender normatives right now."

"I know, Flippr's been going wild over your supposed 'bias.' Not that I buy it." Blue leaned sideways, just dodging Raspberry as she stumbled past. "But still... aliens! Actual aliens, that look like cats!"

The unicorn gave her a flat look. "I've lived here since I was five."

"You're from another universe, not another planet."

"How is that any less impressive?!"

"One: You swapped with your alternate when you were a kid, pretty much by accident. Two: you used magic, which was esoteric at the time, where the Munarin used technology, suggesting we could eventually achieve the same accomplishment with our own wit."

"There is some magic in our technology," Kikai pointed out, her eyes fixated on Raspberry and Ditzy's slapfight.

"Okay, but three: the universe Lyra came from is apparently an alternate of our own, and crossing realities might require some different mechanics from space travel but apparently not nearly as much energy, if Ditzy's any example. And... if I'm quite honest, after all the crazy shit that's happened in the last year, my sense of wonder is desperate for something new. Hence, aliens."

Lyra held up a hoof, paused, and lowered it. "I can't really argue with that."

Kikai cleared her throat. "I do not wish to interject, but... is it normal for two people to battle in such a manner these days?"

Dinky shrugged. "Well, maybe not for most people, but for auntie Razz this is pretty typical." She watched her future mother headlock her laughing friend. "They should be done any second now."

"ALRIGHT! I give! I give!" The pink girl laughed. "Yeesh, Ditzy, you've gotten way too good at this."

"Survival instincts." Ditzy released her. "After all I've been through, I pick up some things. Sorry about that," she added as she walked back over to the table. "Motherly duties, you know how it is."

Kikai looked from her to Dinky. "...Ah. Forgive my ignorance, but... I had assumed you were below the age of consent."

"I am. Dinky dropped by from the future." The teen noticed the feline's befuddled expression. "You know, time travel? I haven't had her yet but I will some time in the future and send her back to now?"

"I... do apologize. My specialty was always more in the fields of social trade and communication. I left the technicalities of Gate resonance mostly to..."

She trailed off, her eyes downcast. The humans and unicorn around the table all glanced at each other, growing more uncomfortable.

"...Hey." Ditzy put her hand on Kikai's shoulder. "We're all here for you. You know that, right?"

"I appreciate the gesture, miss Doo. It is just..." With a deep breath, the Munarin pushed her hand off. "I would rather not darken this day with talk of the dead."

"Alrighty then, subject changing prana!" Raspberry turned to Lyra and Sweetie Drops with a ludicrous grin. "You two still doin' it?"

"RAZZ!" Ditzy clapped her hands over Dinky's ears again. "Seriously!"

"Hey, I'm pretty sure we're all curious."

Sweetie Drops buried her hands in her face. "This. This is why only Ditzy would partner with you for the Battle of the Bands."

Blue Oyster cleared her throat. "What about me?"

Lyra gave her a flat look. "You, if I recall, are the one that INSISTED on giving me a physical."

"...More knowledge is always useful."

"Girls," Ditzy deadpanned. "We've got a kid here."

"I will admit to my own curiosity as to the logistics of your relationship," Kikai added. "It was part of my job to consider all the possible relationships between multiple species, after all--"

"Fine!" Lyra threw up her hooves. "Yes, we've mostly worked it out. Either I'm wearing my gorget or she's wearing a blindfold."

Raspberry quirked an eyebrow. "A blindfold?"

"Look at her!" Sweetie exploded. "I love her and I can work with touch but--but she's just too cute to be sexy!"

Kikai tapped her chin. "Hmm. I do believe I have heard of issues like that. I cannot be sure, but I think there might be some devices that would help you in some of the Gate chamber spheres."

"Yes! Alien technology!" Ditzy released her grip on Dinky's ears. "A much more child appropriate topic."

"Unless we count probing!"

Blue Oyster backhanded Raspberry off the bench without even glancing at her.

"Thanks Blue."

"Not a prob, Ditzy. In all seriousness, I am also curious about your technology."

Kikai shrugged. "Well, the Aztlan institute did ask me to categorize everything that I brought with me. It was fairly basic. Mostly tools and devices for maintaining and operating the Gates, a few personal effects... and quite a bit of trade material, if I am entirely honest. We were primarily merchants, after all..."

Blue nodded. "I see. I take it you weren't one of the ones educated in the mechanics behind your devices?"

"No. I apologize." The feline smiled faintly. "Still, I do believe a number of engineers underwent confinement. Once other Gate chambers are found, there should be plenty of technical knowledge available to the public."

"Of course, the issue is going to be finding them," Ditzy pointed out.

Kikai gave her an odd look. "Well... they are all registered in the master control computer."

"And where would that be?"

"On the moon. Well, under the surface, yes, but I would assume your moon base has been equipped with geosensors of some sort."

There was an awkward pause.

"...I am somehow getting the impression that I am missing something."

Ditzy coughed into her fist. "Yeah, we... don't have a base on the moon. Nobody does. We've landed there a couple times, but always came back."

"But... that would... oh." Kikai's ears flattened. "Oh dear."

"Still, that's not a big problem," Blue assured her quickly. "I mean, once they hear there's an alien base on the moon, NEISA will plan a mission. It might take a few years, but--"

"You do not understand!" Kikai cried. "When I activated the Gate, it automatically sent a signal to the moon computer! We programmed it to open other Gates in sequence once one of us was freed, because we thought the Munarin on the other side would be able to free us and reestablish contact with Earth society! But that was when we thought it would only be a few decades--not over a thousand years!"

"Wait." Ditzy braced against the table. "Are you saying we've got portals to alien worlds opening up at nearly random across the planet, with the last known contact longer than a millennium ago?"

"It is far worse than that. Some of the Gates connect to the same world--some of them connect to the world that corrupted Vaucoi came from." Kikai shivered. "And the only way to know where those Gates are is either to get to the moon... or wait for the Vaucoi to appear!"