//------------------------------// // Safety // Story: Home // by Homeshine //------------------------------// Safety "You led them here. You led them Home!" It was Homeshine's turn to put hoof-marks in Commander Hurricane's desk. "The distraction gave the rest of our citizens a chance to escape. With the unicorns focused on the Platinums, their missiles weren't targeting the city. We were able to move it off successfully." "I want my glasses back." "What glasses?" "Switch is wearing my glasses, as hers arrived broken. She couldn't see. You know she's blind without them." "Why didn't you requisition another pair?" "I did." "If I'd seen a requisition for glasses for my daughter, I would have granted it." "But you didn't. I ordered new glasses for me. Which you denied. Just like you brought up your daughter and left my Home to take the fireball. You lied to me. You don't lie to friends. You lie to enemies. You lie to hurt them." "It was a sound strategic decision." "You backstabbing … Unicorn." Homeshine was glad the sisters weren't there to hear that. In response to that, he got deadly calm. He inhaled like a bellows furnace making steel. Homeshine had never seen him so mad before. That word had made her point more strongly than a thousand others. "Speaking of, turn over the unicorns. They are no further use to us." "No, Sir. They escaped in the explosion." "You were ordered not to let them escape." "We were kind of on fire at the time." "Insubordination. That's grounds for arrest." "Then I am under arrest." The blast furnace completed its breath back out again as they stared across the desk at each other in the Battle of The Desk, the most telling battle of the war. Commander Hurricane retreated for perhaps the first time in living memory. "Your glasses will be returned to you. Seeing as you are no longer the matron of the home, you are relieved of duty until it is rebuilt elsewhere. Dismissed. * * * "I like your glasses," Celestia said helpfully, once Homeshine was back on the ground with all of her other personal possessions in her saddlebags. What was hers and what was Home's? The two had been intertwined all her life; it was strange to think about them as separate entities. Homeshine walked up to the plaque above the door, with the letters written in Gold. She carefully pried off the board and placed it in her bags in a place of honor. It was going with her, "I'm taking this. And no one is stopping me." Luna looked up curiously, "What are we doing now?" "We're going to see your aunt and show her you're okay, Luna and Celestia Platinum." * * * The saddlebags hid their wings, but there was no explaining Homeshine's lack of a horn. Homeshine planed to come up with an explanation before one was needed. But thankfully, there was too much running around in Unicornia for anyone to look at them twice. Unicornia, like Pagasopolis, was relying on the strategy of constantly moving around as a defense against attack, albeit using teleportation instead of clouds. When combined with the castle-built-into-a-freaking-mountain architecture they'd borrowed from the Earth ponies, there were pretty impregnable to any large-scale areal bombardment. But Homeshine had never seen so much running around! There was absolutely no attempt at security. Not a single store was open, but everyone, everywhere was franticly focused on construction. From the tiniest of children to the oldest of elders, not a single head could be spared. "What's going on?" Celestia asked the first person who managed to stop long enough to go around them, rather than barge right through. "You don't know? The final teleportation." "The FINAL teleportation?" Homeshine asked, arching one eyebrow. "You need to report to our section leader. I can't spare the time!" With that, he grabbed up a hammer and some nails and started frantically nailing little silver disks into the side of a building. Homeshine, Celestia, and Luna looked at each other. Celestia spoke first, "With no other option, we should find this person." Luna asked the hammering stallion, "Where might we find this section leader?" He stopped hammering but a second to point in a direction, then resumed hammering, "Clover the Clever." Celestia and Luna gasped at hearing the name. Seeing Homeshine's questioning eyes, Celestia explained, "Clover is Princess Platinum's right hoof vizier," they ran off towards the castle with Homeshine in hot pursuit. * * * Ordinarily, she would have glided instead of ran such a distance, but Homeshine didn't want to unfurl her wings in a Unicorn city. It would certainly attract unnecessary attention. Luckily, those running around the castle recognized Celestia and Luna immediately. "Oh, Princess Platinum and Clover will be so happy to see you! They'll be down as soon as the Final Teleport is complete." Said a rather ancient janitor, carrying around a binful of silver disks in a repurposed mop bucket, with the mop still sticking out of it. Homeshine asked "What teleport?" Celestia asked "What are these things everyone is nailing to the walls?" "Spell focuses. For the teleport. You know, the one that will teleport all of Unicornia to another dimension? We got the idea from Luna and yer spell. The Princess and Clover the Clever are casting it even now." With a lurch, everything in the castle shook. Little silver-colored disks jangled in place, occasionally falling from the walls like hailstones. The four of them ducked under a 20-seat dining room table to escape the rain of debris. "Yes, I recognize the spell. But on such a scale." Celestia looked around her, wide-eyed. "I can feel the connection to the cosmic clock. We're moving sideways against it. The janitor nodded, "The Pegasuses and Earth ponies can fight over Earth. We're going someplace else. Homeshine grinned "The pegasi had the same idea, although not as drastic. I wonder if the Earth ponies, too..." Homeshine stopped. "What?" Luna asked, "Are you okay, Homeshine? Did a focus hit you?" "Pegasopolis will be too close. They'll be teleported along with Unicornia." "What are you youngsters sayin'?" The janitor asked, and with a final, silver-rain-generating bone-startling clatter, the rumbling ceased. Cautiously, the four emerged from the table, looking around them at the carpet of bedazzling disks. "Well, I guess we don't need these, anymore." The janitor said, tumping them back in the mop bucket. Luna and Celestia enthusiastically helped. "Celestia?! Luna?!" "Auntie!" What could only be the regal Princess Platinum ran over and gathered them in a teary hug. "I thought I'd never see you, again. We'd put the teleport off as long as we could. When we found out where they were keeping you prisoner, we thought you'd escape, but you never showed as you were supposed to! Oh, how I missed you!" The patter of happy tears on the carpet was softer then the tintinnabulation of disks, but it was more audible in the soundlessness of the room around it. "Thank you so much for returning them safely. You're done your empire a great service, miss..." "Homeshine." "Wait … you are not a unicorn, GUARDS! I don't understand. Are you asking for a ransom?" "No. I'd rather not be arrested, though. I ask only for time to explain." "Perhaps we can give you that. I demand an explanation! Imagine, an airheaded pegasus." "But auntie, we're pegasi, too." And with that, Luna shed her saddlebag and unfurled her mighty wings. Celestia followed suit. Princess Platinum, leader of all the unicorns, fainted dead away. * * * "Why is it still cold? Even if the Pegasuses followed us, their spell should be limited to the old dimension." "The pegasi aren't casting this. We were told you unicorns were." "That's absurd. Why would we kill our own food supply?" Celestia stopped, horn lit with intense magic, "It's not. No one is casting it." Luna's horn sparked in tandem. They were casting their spell, but it was ... different. "What do you mean?" Clover the Clever was the world's foremost authority on magic theory, just as Starswirl the bearded was the foremost authority on magic practice. When Clover spoke, unicorns listened.. And when Clover listened, well... Celestia continued, still lit like a fireworks show as her analysis completed, "We are causing this with the war. The three pony tribes each focus an aspect of the cosmic clock. Unicorns are the masters of thought and logic, of mathematical exactness, propagating the cosmos from one tick to the next with perfect accuracy. Pegasi are masters of the weather and the sky, of the flow and ebb of the seasons, of the eternal cycle of creation. Earth ponies focus the power of life itself! of family and togetherness, of society. The same spell that sustains us is destroying us. We physically cannot be separated as we were becoming. Look what happened when we tried this teleportation spell, the cosmos itself conspired to bring us back together. That's why the windigos pull all the energy out of the world, like two gears grinding together, it jams the system." Clover the Clever absentmindedly sucked on one hoof, lost in thought. "That does seem to match the magical detritus from the cosmic clock spell. I'll have to explain it to the Princess; she's off to yell at the other tribes. I'm not sure she'll believe it. But having a pegasus return the girls... just maybe. What could we possibly give you in trade? "I've seldom known a Home. It pains me to see ponies without. I don't suppose we could find one for all the children traumatized by the war? I know that's a tall order, but I've been told thinking big is my specialty." "Starswirl has been doing research into a spell called Limbo. It's a magical location outside of space and time. I think he could do something for you." * * * "Hello," Homeshine says. "Are you hungry? Thirsty? Most everyone is. What can I give to you?" She fidgets, straightening her glasses with one wing. "This is Home, and everything that means. Everything. It is also your Home now." And it is.