Nestled deep within the scaffolds of Celestia City, there was a small community. Only one way in, one way out – the rest of the ‘secluded’ living area was surrounded by an abandoned factory district and a crystal garden. Above them was a flat, metallic ‘roof’ upon which were pipes that carried water to a large portion of the entire city.
This community was simply called Armadillo Street, after the only ‘street’ that led into the place. It wasn’t an abandoned street by any means since half the residents of the place had to use the street to drive to the rest of the city for work, but it wasn’t very high-traffic. Besides the storm of cars and hooves that scrambled in the ‘morning’ and ‘evening’ with the work cycle, the street was a ghost town.
Today it would be a ghost town all day because it was the weekend. Morning came – but since Armadillo Street was not in a section with lights above that created a day-night cycle, they had to make do with alarm clocks or, in the case of Aiskera, beautiful melodious music and a robot that would flick the light switch on and off if that didn’t get her up.
This morning Aiskera didn’t even need the music; she was up and dressed due to excitement long before the song was set to go off. She was the Flat version of Fluttershy. Human, very yellow, and once an emissary of the gods themselves. But that was all behind her. She was just Aiskera now. Aiskera, the community planner for this tiny little street. The closest they had to a leader of any kind.
Today, she was throwing an evening potluck for everyone in Armadillo Street. It would be an amazing community activity that would bring all of them much closer together. The possibilities of this day – oh she could scarcely imagine them! Great food! Discussions about life! Plans for the future! Everything was going to be just perfect.
She had this.
When her music started playing, she danced out of her bedroom and into the living area of her house. She lived alone with her robot and cat, both of whom were absolutely adorable but didn’t really make good conversation partners. She didn’t mind at all – the whole street was her conversation partner.
She kept herself from humming to the music – even though she had learned to keep her voice consistently feminine long ago, it was still monotone like all Flats. Her ‘singing’ was completely pointless, not to mention annoying to all who could hear it. She allowed herself to enjoy the song in silence, cooking herself some breakfast.
The magic crystal stove activated in an instant at her thought of breakfast. She pulled eggs out of the fridge and cooked them up in a jiffy. She loved the word jiffy. She also loved peanut butter. The two things were probably related, but she never thought about it that hard. Who needed to? Life was simple and enjoyable.
She set her eggs on the table and began to dig in, using her free hand to pet her cat and keep him from getting to her food. He was way too fat; she needed to stop giving him part of everything she ate. Just cat food for him now! Always!
Upon finishing her food, she opened her front door, marching out onto Armadillo Street itself. She took in the houses of all her neighbors, the street itself, and the blue and beautiful sight of the crystal gardens in the background. She ignored the other half of the background, which was the abandoned factory district’s metal pylons that seemed to go on forever, because that was just depressing and ugly to look at. Not to mention that part of the street was dark and hard to see without light from the crystals.
She walked up to her front door and took a blue spellcube out of her house. She walked to an empty lot next to her house and threw the cube on the ground. In an instant, the lot was covered in a raised wooden platform, ready to be decorated for a potluck. All she had to do was actually set it up.
Aiskera grinned. “This is going to be a good day,” she decreed.
~~~
Bon Bon had lost Lyra.
One would think it would be easy to find a hyperactive unicorn mare with a plethora of odd spells and a penchant for shouting conspiracy theories to anyone who would listen, but this turned out not to be the case. Not even special agent Bon Bon was able to track her down in the mess that was Celestia City.
The trip had started off so well too. Lyra had suggested going on a weekend vacation, and Bon Bon had decided it would be good for them. But less then an hour after arriving Lyra had gone “Ooooh! Look at that!” and vanished completely.
Bon Bon had looked high and low, low and high, under and over, and everywhere in between. She wasn’t in the stores, she wasn’t in the restaurants, and she wasn’t even in the more questionable locales. Bon Bon had long since accepted the fact that Lyra had probably just vanished off the face of the universe.
She probably should have been worried sick.
She was just annoyed instead.
“Who does she think she is dragging me all the way over here and vanishing like that? Really?” She groaned, walking down a street covered in both sides with exotic fruit stands. On the ceiling above her, the gravity was reversed and the buildings were styled like an Earth western. She paused for a moment, taking in the bizarre truth that was ‘desert sky.’ It occurred to her that she could probably jump high enough to get to the western…
She did exactly that, using her training to perform a high jump, launching herself into the air. Gravity flipped, but because she was expecting it she stuck the landing perfectly. She much appreciated the atmosphere change – though having the sky made of fruit was a little odd. Glancing around, she noticed a larger section devoted to housing larger creatures – full sized dragons, giant ponies the size of mountains, the like. She’d actually been to the giant pony homeworld – Equis Tremendous – and knew what it was like to live on a larger version of herself. That was enough to tell her she didn’t want to go there.
So she trotted along the dirt path rather aimlessly, admittedly not even looking for Lyra anymore. She’d show up when she wanted. She knew Bon Bon’s phone number. Probably. She’d be able to find Bon Bon’s phone number, at least.
“You’re just going to drive yourself into more and more doubt, Bon Bon,” she muttered to herself. “Lyra will show up eventually. She always does. Just enjoy yourself while you can.”
After a short drink in a nearby saloon, she continued trotting. The western area gave way to a river flowing through a scenery made of metal where every surface was a building. She was positive the ‘street’ she was on was actually the wall of someone living in a sideways cube with vaulted windows.
Celestia City could get weird. Mayor Blumiere’s answer to ‘can we do this crazy architectural thing?’ was almost always ‘go ahead but make it even more insane’ and then Squeaky would say something like ‘insanely brilliant’ and then there’d be a cheesy laugh track.
I’m getting cynical, Bon Bon thought to herself. I’m not old enough to be this cynical yet. I’m not even eighty for Celestia’s sake! Only sixty. That’s young for a pony. …Young-ish.
She sighed, not really sure what she was doing anymore. She supposed she could probably go find a hotel and sleep for a while. See i-
She saw something out of the corner of her eye – a tall, humanoid figure cloaked in black. The figure saw Bon Bon see it, and ducked behind a nearby building – ducked behind it quickly. Like it didn’t want to be seen.
Suspicious, Bon Bon thought, leaping into action. Her instincts took over and she galloped across the uneven ground toward where she had seen the figure. She turned the corner and saw the figure slip into a little offshoot road that headed into a sheer metallic wall. Spray paint lined the wall with more than a few vulgar words and images there for all who found this back alley to see. The road wasn’t completely covered in dust, so there must have been at least some people who drove or walked by here.
She turned the corner, chasing the shadowy figure down the side road. This road was long, narrow, and surrounded by simple metal on all sides. The figure was running. However, the figure was a humanoid; not only was Bon Bon a pony, she was also an agent. She was really fast.
The figure must have had some sort of power, though, because when Bon Bon started running at full gallop the figure began to move faster as well.
More and more suspicious.
Bon Bon passed a sign – Armadillo Street – but paid the name little mind beyond a subconscious mental catalog. The street eventually opened up to a small, secluded set of buildings ranging in construction from human suburban, to futuristic, to the signature Gem geometric and orderly designs. The figure took a sharp left and Bon Bon pursued.
Thoughts of where Lyra was had been left at the entrance to Armadillo Street. Now she had her own adventure to focus herself on.
~~~
Lily Valley loved weekend mornings. She didn’t have to get up, didn’t have to worry about the kids, school, or work, and as far as she was concerned there wasn’t even need to make breakfast. Just sit, asleep, in her nice room. Her safe room. So safe…
She eventually woke up on her own, sighing contentedly. She opened her eyes to find her room a dull blue hue from the glowing crystals outside. What a wonderful view. She really had chosen the best house in this little place. Who cared if the drive to school and work was longer than it would have been otherwise? It was quiet out here. She wasn’t constantly on edge.
With a satisfied grunt, she sat up and stretched out her pink hooves, ready for the day. She checked her yellow mane to ensure it looked presentable, stuck one of her signature lilies in to complete the look, and trotted down the stairs.
She failed to realize the TV was on until it was too late. She caught the image of a player character in a video game blowing a head off a zombie. She screamed and scrambled up the stairs.
“Mom?” her daughter called. “Mom, are you okay!?”
Not coming down the stairs for fear of seeing more gruesome scenes, Lily managed to blurt a few words. “Petal! How many times do I have to… Only play those games when I’m asleep!”
“You were asleep until just a minute ago! You came down the stairs pretty fast!”
“Just… Just shut it off, Petal.”
“But moooooo-“
“Petal! I mean it!”
Petal sighed and turned off the TV. “There you go. It’s safe now.”
Nervously, Lily poked her head around the edge of the stairs. The TV was off and Petal was looking at her with a somewhat annoyed expression. “Better?”
Lily was still grabbing her chest like she was about to have a heart attack. “Y-yeah…” She shook her head. “Where’s your sister?”
“Numysitr,” Petal mumbled.
Lily narrowed her eyes. “What was that?”
“Uh… I think she’s still looking at those books of hers. Up all night. Like always.”
“Petal, you know she doesn’t need sleep. And I let you stay up later than me.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Petal muttered as her mother trotted over to her other daughter’s room. She knocked. “Velvet? You okay in there? It’s tomorrow!”
Velvet opened the door. She was a small Gem of a deep red color with her gemstone on the back of her left heel. “I’m fine. School today?”
“No, it’s Saturday,” Lily said with a smile. “What did you learn today?”
“Guys are always stupid.”
Lily laughed a little too loudly. “You certainly found that out at a young age.”
“Four-hundred-seventy-eight days?”
Lily blinked. “I know I said to stop thinking of your age in years, but that’s just as odd.”
Velvet shrugged, walking past Lily to the living room. She sat on the couch, taking a book off an end table and reading it.
“Mooooom, Velvet’s reading that book you told me I couldn’t touch!”
“Huh?” Velvet said, looking up. “What di-”
Lily poked her head in. When she saw what book it was, she let out a panicked yell. “AIYEE! Uh… That book will be for when you’re older! Wait, would it even apply to you? I don’t…” Raising a Gem makes no sense. “Wait, why was this even out?”
“I find it likely that Petal put it out so I would pick it up by instinct,” Velvet said.
“Nuh-uh,” Petal denied, shaking her head profusely.
“It seems highly probable.”
“Stop it with the big words! You’re the little one! Stay little!”
“Gems do not grow, we are born as we are. All we can mature in is understanding, and that can be done quickly.”
“Moooooom, Velvet’s doing the condescenthing again! You heard it!”
“I am merely stating facts, Petal.”
“Girls!” Lily blurted. “Neither of you are in the right! Could you just… Not fight for one morning?”
“We didn’t fight two days ago,” Velvet pointed out.
“Mom, Velvet’s being technical again,” Petal jabbed.
Lily took in a breath to calm herself. “Okay, let’s put it this way. Petal, Velvet? You’re trying to get each other to fight. That’s not good! Look at what you’re doing to each other!”
The two looked at each other – and looked away in a huff.
Lily facehooved. There was no talking to them when they were like this. She’d need to pull them aside when they were in a better mood and have a more serious talk. She told them to just entertain themselves and not bother each other for the next little while and left it at that.
Arriving in the kitchen, she remembered that today was the potluck. She would have to bring something for Aiskera to serve – the Flat was always so nice to them. Lily was thinking her special ‘lily sandwiches’. Only the ponies on the street would actually like it, but that was just fine with Lily. She opened the cupboard, a smile on her face.
She screamed.
Her kids ran into the room. “Mom, what is it!?” Petal blurted.
“I… I… I forgot to go shopping! We’ll have to get ingredients today!” She grabbed her head. “I’ll have to take you two into a store!”
~~~
Within a community as small as Armadillo Street, one would be surprised to find enough teenagers around to constitute an actual ‘troublemakers’ group. But this didn’t stop three friends from getting into all the trouble they could think of on any given day.
The leader of the troop was a teenage blue dragon with red highlights named Tyr. He looked rather predatory and menacing – until he talked in a squeaky voice that was annoyingly stupid, even to his ears. The other two were significantly younger – one was a markless Sweetie Belle known as Lemon for her bright yellow color, and the other was a human boy, Edmund.
Both Lemon and Tyr knew Edmund was an absolute idiot. Edmund was only sometimes aware of this fact.
“So… What are we doing here?” Edmund asked, leaning over the edge of a factory platform. Tyr grabbed him by the shirt before he fell into the abyss.
“We’re here because our parents told us not to be here, obviously,” Lemon declared. She levitated a rock and threw it into the abyss. She didn’t hear it hit the bottom. “Tyr?”
Tyr spread his wings. “On it.” He flew down, leaving Lemon and Edmund on top.
“So… Ed. It’s just you and me…” Lemon said.
“Yeah. It is.” Edmund smiled stupidly, playing with his firebending in his hands.
“Why don’t we do something fun? You know, like m-”
“Play dodge the fireball!?” Edmund squealed with glee.
Lemon facehooved. “No, Ed, no… I mean you, me, maki-”
Tyr returned, interrupting Lemon’s plot. “Nothing down there. Lemon, I told you to stop hitting on Edmund.”
“Well what else am I going to do?”
“Get over this ‘I need a boyfriend’ phase quickly,” Tyr muttered, stretching his wings.
“Uh, how about you find me some eligible bachelors on this street that aren’t you two!?”
Tyr grabbed the bridge of his nose. “Why do I even have to say this? Edmund is only like… Edmund, how old are you?”
“Eleventy-six!” came his response.
“Right. I don’t even know why I asked. The point is maybe he’s in double digits, but I doubt it. Too young.”
“Oh and you’re too old, mister ‘teenage’ dragon?”
“I am just flat out not interested.”
“BUT ALL THE OTHER GIRL-”
“All the other girls on the street are fine, Lemon. Actually, here’s an idea, how about you go check one of them out?”
“Ew.”
“Why is that ew?” Edmund asked.
“Shush, grownups are talking,” Tyr said.
This made Lemon laugh. “Grownups? Us? Wow you’re delusional.”
Tyr looked angry for a moment – then he laughed. “I forget you can have good points sometimes.”
“All part of my charm,” Lemon said, tossing her mane. “Does this mea-”
“No,” Tyr said. “No it does not.”
She humphed. “You’re going to need to drive us to a club or something in your car one of these days.”
“The moment I figure out how to remove the tracker we’re leaving this place and never coming back,” Tyr declared. “FREEDOM!”
“Freedom!” Edmund echoed without any real idea what he was agreeing with.
There was silence after this.
“Okay, bored again,” Lemon declared. “Edmund, bring out your Stand and do something fun.”
“But Squishy Beats doesn’t come out when I tell him!” Edmund complained. “Only the fire does… Sometimes.”
“Tyr, scare the living bejeezus out of him,” Lemon ordered.
Tyr raised an eyebrow. “Last time I did that I got a broken nose. Also who made you in charge?”
“Both of you by refusing my advances.”
“That’s not how this works.”
“It can if I say it does.”
“But you’re not in charge!”
Lemon giggled. “Nice paradox, huh?”
Edmund clapped. Tyr rolled his eyes.
“…Still bored,” Lemon said a few seconds later. “We need to do something. Besides throw ourselves into the bottomless pit.”
Edmund raised his hand. “Ooh! Ooh!”
“Yes, Ed,” Lemon said, pointing at him. “What is it?”
“Let’s go visit the Witch! Get her magic!”
The two looked at him with fear for a moment. Nobody bothered the witch. Then the two of them realized they didn’t know why nobody bothered the witch. They decided it was time to find out.
“We’ll need a plan. And supplies… Especially cloaks. I saw a guy wearing one and I couldn’t even tell who he was! Gotta get those…” Tyr rubbed his clawed hands together. “Oooh, time to solve a mystery…”
“Grab some magic artifacts from the hands of evil magic users!” Lemon declared. “That’ll move me up in the League for sure!”
“Yay!” Edmund decreed, launching fire into the air. The way he did it provided enough force to make the floor around them creak, threatening to fall into the abyss.
The three of them got out of there quickly.
~~~
Aiskera was beyond happy. Everything was going unbelievably smoothly. All the tables were in perfect condition, the tablecloths were all clean without so much as a blemish, and the centerpiece plants were excellent in every case. Along one side of the wooden platform ran a long table, upon which dozens of cooking utensils were sat. Aiskera would wait for it to be closer to potluck time to actually start cooking, but that didn’t stop her from being proud of what she’d done. She’d even left spots for others to bring their own food! How wonderful!
She rubbed her hands together. What to do now… What to do… She adjusted some of the napkins, but realized it didn’t need to be that neat. She didn’t want to turn into Twilight, after all! That would be a little extreme. No Twilights lived on the Street, so everything was going to be fine.
It was at this moment Aiskera realized, she was bored. She couldn’t do any more work for at least a little while, she was already done with all the prep that could be done now. Pride in her work or no, she had a few hours before she actually had to do anything.
What was she going to do until then?
Cat? No… Robot? No… TV? No…
She wished someone could come talk to her. But nobody was going to be here until the potluck…
“Hey, you.”
Aiskera looked down at a cream-coated earth pony. “Yes? Can I help you?” It was so rare to see visitors on Armadillo Street. Clearly this was a version of Bon Bon, but she couldn’t be sure which one.
“Yeah, I’m Bon Bon – Equis Vitis – and I was chasing a cloaked, humanoid individual through here. Have you seen anything like that?”
Aiskera shook her head. “No, nobody’s been around here except you.”
“Oh.” Bon Bon blinked. “What are you doing here anyway?”
“It’s a community potluck!” Aiskera beamed, happy to talk about her day’s work. “See, I thought it would be a good way to bring our little community together – you know, since we all kind of live our own separate lives. Everyone will come here and have a nice meal together! Oh! You could come too if you wanted! Don’t worry about bringing anything, it’s not required.”
Bon Bon smiled warmly. “Maybe if I’m still around here when it happens. But I am going to search this street for that shadowy person first.”
“I could help!”
“Eh… Do you have tracking expertise?”
Aiskera deflated. “Ah… No.”
“Sorry. I’ll do it myself. Thanks for the offer though. Nice to meet you… Uh…”
“Aiskera.”
“Oh, right. How’d the Flat Fluttershy end up down here?”
“Needed a change,” Aiskera said. “Was tired of being the emissary of the gods and having three voices and all that chaos. Moved to Celestia City on the first ship. Ended up here because… Really not sure. Ka, maybe.”
“Everyone blames ka for everything these days.”
“Well, it is responsible for everything, isn’t it?”
“And it’s never the only thing responsible for anything,” Bon Bon said. “…Almost never.”
“The Beat Curse?”
“Yeah. That.” Bon Bon shook her head. “I’ve got to search around. I’ll probably look very suspicious while doing it, so you’ll have my back?”
“Of course!” Aiskera said, beaming. “You go find your mysterious cloaked person!”
“I will,” Bon Bon said, walking over to the next house.
Aiskera took a moment to look around after Bon Bon had left – and sighed. What was she going to do now?
…Maybe she should just go watch TV…
~~~
Bon Bon pondered what her next move should be. She didn’t really have much in the way of leads, the trail had ran completely cold. She supposed she could just stay here until the potluck, but waiting that long while there was some kind of prowler on the loose?
…Why did she even care so much? It was just some guy in a cloak. Suspicious, yes, but not necessarily dangerous. Perhaps she was just trying to distract herself.
Exactly like that woman back there was trying to do. She was clearly putting up a façade of happiness just to fool herself. Most of the people on this street probably didn’t care in the slightest about this potluck. Bon Bon felt sad for the Flat – she put so much energy into what she was doing, and yet there was nobody helping her or even looking her way that Bon Bon could see.
All the more reason to show up for the potluck herself. At least give her someone to talk to. It would be good for both of them, frankly.
Bon Bon shook her head – that was a future concern. Now she had a very present concern, one of trying to pick up the trail again. If that was even possible. As far as Bon Bon knew, it was a teleporter she was chasing, or a shapeshifter, or some other esoteric power that could easily make all her efforts poitless.
Did she miss her days as an agent? Was that it? These days she was sitting behind a desk. It was a very important job that required a quick eye and the ability to judge people, but it was still a desk job. She sat around all day, rarely finding any reason to detain anyone. Very few fought back. Those that did were either pathetically easy or needed high-level magics to keep subdued.
Should she go back to the life of danger and the edge? Renee was always looking for more explorers. And Bon Bon had heard from the many contacts she’d made over the years that there was a secret agency she could be a part of if she just brought it up with one of the Overheads.
Was this a midlife crisis? It felt like a midlife crisis.
Some ponies did only make it to one-twenty…
She sighed. She was depressing herself again. This is what happened when Lyra wasn’t around to talk to. Which was more often than Bon Bon would have liked. Bon Bon checked her phone – still no calls from Lyra. She tried to call, but got nothing.
Bon Bon sucked it up and shook her head – she should focus back on her self-given mission. Observe the people in this town… Er, street. The suspect was probably one of them, in here. For all she knew he could be preparing some nefarious scheme, and she had to stop it.
She saw a version of Lily – possibly even the Lily that Bon Bon knew back in the day – dragging two kids to a ‘store’ across the street from Aiskera’s potluck. The ‘store’ was a teleport depot. Not everyone had easy access to one of the supermalls of Celestia City, so numerous locations had cropped up with a teleporter to order items directly as needed. This particular ‘store’ actually bothered to have some goods pre-teleported and a few displays, which was more than Bon Bon had seen elsewhere.
Bon Bon’s thoughts on the ‘store’ were forgotten when she noticed that one of Lily’s kids was not a pony. A small, deep red Gem. Probably an off-color, since Bon Bon didn’t recognize the type. She would have been ejected from the Gem Vein at birth and sent to one of Merodi Universalis’ Gem outposts where the off-colors were accepted. Why was she here? Was she lost, and Lily found her? Probably… Bon Bon realized it didn’t matter. Judging by the expression on this Lily, she was one of the skittish kinds that would scream at everything. Even if she had a human transformation pendant she would not have been able to keep her cool like the figure Bon Bon had chased.
She sighed, deciding she might as well just talk to anyone she saw.
~~~
Lily ran into the doors of the teleporter store, dragging her two children behind at high speeds. The ‘store’ had two aisles of random assorted goods and a refrigerating unit embedded in the left wall. The right contained the counter that a deer stallion named Fern normally sat behind, next to the teleporter itself.
Lily needed to be in and out of here fast – agh, but she never shopped here. How exactly did it work again? She k-
She didn’t finish her thought because she saw Tyr and the troublemakers standing at the counter. She screamed, rushing herself and her kids out the door and holding her chest.
“Mom, you’re embarrassing us!” Petal blurted. “I’ve told you not to do that in front of Lemon!”
“Hmph. Lemon specifically is telling,” Velvet commented.
Lily put a hoof on Petal’s mouth before she could retort. “Right, right, I’m sorry. I’m going to go back in there and… Check out the aisles. Stay close to me.”
“Yes mom,” the two said in unison.
Lily took in a breath, overcoming her natural skittish fear and marching into the store. She didn’t even look at Tyr. Dragons terrified her. Any dragon that wasn’t a baby dragon was absolutely monstrous. She knew he wasn’t a… horrible kid, but she just couldn’t deal with him. Ever.
“Bread, bread, bread…” Lily muttered, holding her ears to her head, trying not to listen to what was happening at the counter. She failed miserably.
“We’ll need magic improvement vitamins,” Lemon said. “Or, I will, but you know.”
Fern nodded, marking a few things on a notepad. “Going on an outing?”
“Yeah!” Edmund blurted. “W-“
Tyr shut him up with a finger to his mouth. “What we’re doing is none of your business.”
The deer raised an eyebrow. “Dudes, I will literally sell you anything I legally can for literally any reason. You make this boring street interesting.”
“Thank you, Fern,” Lemon said.
“We’ll also need masks and dark cloaks,” Tyr said.
“I’m loving the sounds of this,” Fern declared with a big smirk. “Anything else? Foam weapons?”
“We haven’t broken the last ones yet,” Lemon declared. “We’re still prepared. We just have to liberate them.”
“The evil parent chest!” Edmund said, raising a fist in the air.
“Yeah, that,” Lemon said.
Lily couldn’t find any bread that wasn’t bagels. She was also liking less and less what she was hearing come out of the troublemakers’ mouths.
Come on Lily, you’re an adult. They’re just children. You don’t have to be scared of them.
She turned around, saw Tyr, let out another eep and turned back around. Something within her terrified mind still made her blurt something out. “W-What are you kids doing?”
Tyr, Lemon, and Edmund froze. “Uh… Nothing!” Lemon blurted.
“What she means is that we’re having a little party, just to ourselves. Themed costumes,” Tyr explained.
Lily whimpered at the sound of his voice. “I… Uh… Okay. Right. You have everything you need?”
Fern teleported the items and accepted Tyr’s card as payment.
“We do now!” Edmund said, grinning. The three of them ran out of the store.
Lily let out a sigh of relief – she didn’t know what had come over her. “H-hey F-fern? Can I have some b-bread?”
Fern nodded, teleporting a loaf. He took Lily’s card. “You know, that was really dumb back there.”
“I k-know…” Lily said, still shaking. “I don’t know…”
“I don’t either. Here’s your bread. Anything else?”
“I… I don’t know, let me think…”
She heard the familiar sound of Velvet and Petal fighting behind her. She didn’t even know what over – could have been anything. Literally anything.
“I said it’s mine!”
“You haven’t bought it yet!”
“I will! I have the money!”
“But I saw it first!”
“No you didn’t! Stop lying!”
Lily sighed. “That’ll be all, Fern.” She turned around to look at the kids.
They were fighting over a firework.
Velvet had her Gem weapon – a sparkler stick – out.
Lily screamed.
The sound made Velvet twitch in just the wrong way, lighting the firework. It blasted right through the window and across the street, embedding itself in the side of Aiskera’s wooden platform. For a moment, it seemed like nothing would happen.
Then the firework exploded in an impressive shower of blue, catching the wood on fire.
Lily fainted.
Velvet and Petal glanced at each other, panic on their faces. They took off in a run.
Fern put his face in his hooves and sighed.
~~~
“We sure fooled her!” Lemon blurted, a smile on her face. “Lily suspects nothing!”
Tyr chuckled. “We got her, all right. Flawless plan. Absolutely flawless.”
Edmund whooped.
“Cloaks! Now!” Tyr said, ordering everyone to put the dark hoods over their bodies. Edmund’s was far too large for him, but he didn’t care. They looked ready to handle absolutely anything.
They left Armadillo Street and walked into the crystal garden, the blue glow giving their forms eerie highlights. They walked along the smooth ground, the pillars of minerals acting like trees for them.
Lemon munched on a magic vitamin.
“You need to save those,” Tyr said.
“If we get attacked by a wolf I’ll need it.”
“Wolf!?” Edmund blurted, clinging to Tyr’s leg.
Tyr removed him with his claw. “This isn’t a real forest. There are no wolves. There’s just the Witch.”
“No wolves?”
“No wolves.”
Edmund decided this was enough for him and he started taking point.
“Other way, dumbass,” Tyr muttered, facepalming.
“I’ve never been to the Witch’s house! You’re the one who told me about it!”
“His descriptions are pointless,” Lemon said. “The Witch’s house is a towering blue monstrosity in which she cooks kids like us to feed her horrible spells!”
“She’d never get away with that,” Tyr pointed out. “Her evil is going to be more subtle. Our job is to find out what it is.”
Lemon smirked. “Cutie mark crusaders witch hunters yay!”
“By Torch, stop, stop,” Tyr insisted. “That call is so annoying.”
“I know. That’s why I did it, genius.”
Tyr grunted and shook his head. “Look, we’re almost there. Prepare yourselves.”
They found a house made of the same material as the rest of the crystals, albeit much more organized. It was, of course, blue. The structure had three stories, the boundaries between each one decorated with teardrop designs. There were no lights on whatsoever, and the pointed spires of the construction made it even more menacing. The troublemakers swore they could hear the sound of a river running through here, but there were no rivers or even visible pipes.
Tyr crouched down, prompting the other two to do the same even though they were already plenty short enough. He gestured for them to follow as he snuck across the ground to one of the first floor windows. The three of them poked their heads up so they could look in. The interior room was lit by the glowing of the crystals, showing what appeared to be an abandoned painting studio. None of the paints were open, the canvas was blank, and everything was clean.
“Let’s go!” Edmund shouted.
“SHHHHH!” Lemon and Tyr hissed.
Edmund shut up.
Tyr looked around to see if they’d been heard – and saw nothing. He pushed his claw into the center division of the window set, forcing it to swing open like a set of doors. He crawled in, the two others following behind him. Lemon munched on a magic vitamin and Tyr didn’t scold her.
They were inside.
Edmund was shaking, Lemon was chewing far more than she needed to, and Tyr was struggling to get his breathing under control.
Lemon was eventually the first one to speak. “W-we should open the door and look around.”
“Yeah,” Tyr said, turning the doorknob and entering a darker, but still blue hallway. He briefly wondered how the walls of this place didn’t glow.
The three of them snuck around, wordlessly, hearts racing. All of them pondered saying they should just give up and go home – but they knew that if they were the first one to chicken out, they’d never hear the end of it.
They eventually came to a staircase and began to move up it, slowly. Since it was made mostly of crystal, it didn’t creak when they stepped on it, which did wonders to calm their nerves.
Of course the noise they heard behind them did the exact opposite.
The three troublemakers turned around – and saw a tall, humanoid figure shrouded in a dark cloak.
They screamed.
~~~
Bon Bon had gotten lucky – she’d seen three hooded figures out of the corner of her eye. None of them had the same build as the one she’d been chasing, but that didn’t mean they weren’t related. She’d followed the three of them at a distance through the crystal garden.
She was unable to hear what they said from her vantage points, but they were certainly arguing with each other a lot. A lot of evil minions did that. They might serve the real threat that was somewhere out here in these woods…
They were leading her right to where she needed to be.
She followed the three of them all the way to the mysterious house. Gem construction, clearly, though strangely modeled after human architectural ideas. Slightly unusual, but given the rest of Celestia city not all that unexpected.
She noted that the three of them were breaking in. So this wasn’t their base… What could it mean?
Bon Bon stopped when they entered – if she followed them, she would be breaking and entering. She had enough connections to get her out of trouble, yes, but it wouldn’t look good on her record at all. She was on vacation and hadn’t worked as an agent in the field for… she didn’t even know anymore.
Shaking these thoughts from her mind, she moved closer to the house, poking her head up to see through the window. The three of them had already moved deeper into the house, leaving the art studio as empty as it had been for, apparently, quite a while. Bon Bon noted that the room hadn’t even been dusted in a while.
Bon Bon looked at the slightly open door the three had left through. Should she chase them? Should she call some actual authorities? Call and then go in anyway? Or maybe she could crawl around the outside of the house and do something without even ente-
The sound of screams decided for her – she was going in. She galloped into the art studio and through the open doorway. Her ears told her that the screams originated from right… here.
She found herself in a small room with two staircases and numerous other doors. There were no signs of anything – this room had been well dusted, and crystal floors did not lend well to tracking. She wrinkled her muzzle, annoyed. Some people had screamed in terror here. It must had been for a reason…
She opened one of the doors and walked through, finding a living room. It had nobody in it, but a television was on. Set to… static. Who would set their TV to static? She touched her hoof to the screen, examining it closely. There seemed to be nothing to it. Just standard static.
Standard creepy factor item, Bon Bon thought, already on edge. The silence of this place was getting to her as well. She wished she had her gun, or her grappling hook, or anything. She was very capable with her own four hooves, but that didn’t stop her from wishing she had her equipment.
She entered another room, this one a parlor. She expected to find some picture frames or belongings that could tell her about the person who lived here, but there was nothing. Every type of furnishing was generic, blue, or just slightly creepy. There was a mounted gemstone on a nearby wall. Clearly not a Gem’s gemstone, but that was still unnerving, especially considering how the wood it was mounted on was bordered in teardrop shapes.
It’s blue, I get it, I get it, Bon Bon thought to herself. She found a flight of stairs and went up, finding a room with nothing in it, and yet it was so clean it sparkled.
The windowless room really should have been dark, but it wasn’t.
Bon Bon felt her coat hairs stand on end. She was scared. But she was one of the best agents ever, why would she let herself be scared? That was dumb. This was just some house in the middle of Celestia City, and there hadn’t been anything besides the screams that had actually seemed dangerous. Merely a creepy aesthetic… Lack of family photos… And a possible person menacingly planning evil…
She needed to stay strong. She needed to-
Freezing, Bon Bon’s ears started swiveling around. She heard water. Water in the walls.
It had been a background noise until just now – she’d assumed there was a pipe running under the ground, delivering water to the rest of the City. But in the house? What was going on?
The water switched the direction of flow as she thought that. A small crack formed in the wall and sprayed her in the face.
She didn’t scream – but she did run away.
~~~
Aiskera smelled something burning. At first she thought it was just the food – but then she remembered she hadn’t started cooking yet.
She leaped off the couch, upsetting the cat enough to prompt a loud yowl. She ran to the window and saw the fire. Her beautiful wooden platform – being reduced to cinders!
She ran to her closet and pulled out a fire extinguisher. In her rush back to the front door, she tripped, spraying the foam inside her house. She ignored this, continuing outside and unleashing the rest of the foam all over the fiery platform.
When the fire was put out, she fell to her knees.
It was ruined. It was all ruined. The platform wasn’t strong enough to stand on anymore. The tables were blackened in a few places and the tablecloths were nothing but tatters. She couldn’t even see the centerpieces anymore. There was no way this would be a potluck anymore. It was gone.
She started crying.
Who was she kidding? It wasn’t going to be a potluck anyway. There wasn’t a sense of community on this street. Everyone lived here because they liked things to be quiet. Because they wanted to be alone most of the time. Who cared about a party? Nobody, that’s who. Lily would come just to pity her, and then she’d scream and run away some point in the middle…
Nobody was going to bring anything. It would just be a wash. It was always going to be a wash.
She didn’t know why she even tried so hard for this community. They didn’t care.
Then she saw them.
A humanoid figure, shrouded in a dark cloak. They stood among the ruined potluck preparations, taller than anyone Aiskera knew. It must have been the one Bon Bon had warned her about.
“You…” Aiskera said, curling her fist. “You did this!”
The figure made no response, simply standing impassively.
It had been a long time since Aiskera had fought anyone for any reason. She had left those days behind her. But she was so done with today. She took a fighting stance and rushed the cloaked figure.
The figure receded, dashing out of Armadillo Street and toward the abandoned factory district.
Aiskera pursued relentlessly. She saw Lily’s kids hanging around behind a house, watching the chase with mesmerized eyes.
Aiskera didn’t care what they saw – she needed to catch this… potluck crasher! Catch them and make them pay!
It was at this point Aiskera realized she no longer had sight of the dark figure. They had… vanished?
Aiskera shook her hand and punched the air – stupid magic powers, making things like this just more and more difficult! They’d gotten away, and now she was here in the depressing abandoned factory, standing on a rickety metallic platform above a bottomless pit. At least this area had hand railings, but it was still horribly unsafe.
She started walking around aimlessly, despondent.
~~~
Lily sat at the edge of one of the abandoned factory’s platforms, staring at the bottomless pit below.
Something in the back of her mind told her she should be terrified and run away from the falling hazard, but for once that side of her was in the background. Right now, all she could think of was her own failures.
She had passed out when the fire had started, and when she came to her kids were gone. Fern had told her where to look, and she’d ran, screaming their names. But they didn’t come to her. No matter how much she wailed and promised they wouldn’t be in trouble if they just told her where they were…
She was a failure as a mother. She had lost both of them. For all she knew they were in that bottomless pit, having fallen down because they had run from her. Because she had scared them.
She put her head in her hooves – she should have dropped everything and had that conversation with them, even if they were still angry. She… She would have found some way to not let them walk over her, right? She wasn’t that much of a pushover…
Who was she kidding; she was the biggest pushover in the world. The moment Petal was a little older she was going to figure out all she had to do to control her mother was scare her a little. Velvet had already figured it out. They were going to fight each other their entire childhoods and then grow bitter as they aged, and she would never see either of them…
What would have happened if she never found Velvet that day? Would Petal be… Okay? Not angry all the time?
She hated that thought. She hated it so much. But that didn’t keep her from thinking it.
She removed her hooves from her eyes, staring at the abyss below.
Such nothingness.
“Lily?”
“AUGH!” Lily shouted, leaping back from the edge, whirling around as if she were about to be attacked by a predator. “AAA- oh, Aiskera.” Lily grabbed her chest. “Don’t sneak up on me like that… There was an equal chance I could have jumped off the edge in fear!”
“I would have caught you,” Aiskera said, her eyes telling of her own tears. “What are you doing out here?”
“I… I was looking for my kids. I couldn’t find them. They… They could be…”
“I saw them back at Armadillo Street before I came here,” Aiskera said. “They’re fine.”
“Oh thank Celestia… Wait, you didn’t punish them did you?”
“Punish them…?”
“…They lit your potluck on fire.”
Aiskera blinked. “I coulda sworn that was…” She shook her head. “No, I didn’t, I didn’t know it was them.”
“Good. Because I… I need to talk to them.” She looked back toward Armadillo Street. “I need to head back.”
Aiskera nodded. “Mind if I keep you company?”
“Not at all,” Lily admitted.
The two of them set back to town.
“What were you doing out here?” Lily asked.
“Well… I saw a cloaked figure. I thought they were the ones who had started the fire, so I chased them. Then I lost them. Then I found you.”
“Oh… Did you at least put out the fire quickly?”
Aiskera looked down. “I… didn’t notice it until I smelled smoke. I was watching TV. I shouldn’t have been watching TV…”
“You did what you could,” Lily asserted.
“Yeah… But why did I bother? Nobody but you ever really comes to these things I organize. And yet I keep trying, and trying, and trying, all for nothing.”
“We enjoy them!”
“You enjoy them until your kids get fed up and then you go home.”
Lily looked down, ashamed.
“And nobody else is a regular. Nobody. I’m living in delusion, Lily. Big delusions…”
“...I was going to make lily sandwiches,” Lily said out of the blue. “I went to the store to get bread and everything, even facing Tyr down. I… I was looking forward to it.”
Aiskera smiled sadly. “You can bring it to my house. We can have a private dinner. But… There won’t be a potluck. And sadly nobody is going to care. There might even be a sigh of relief. ‘Aiskera finally got it through her thick skull that we don’t like community’. Gah…”
Lily sighed. “I moved here because I liked community, but didn’t like the noises of the city. It was the perfect place. You’re the one who convinced me to move in, remember?”
“Yeah… Yeah I do,” Aiskera said, looking up at the ceiling. “Maybe I shouldn’t need anyone else to care.”
Lily smiled. “That’s the spirit a- AUGH!” She jumped back, holding a shaky hoof forward.
Petal and Velvet were standing where the fire had been. They had removed the wooden platform and just set up the half-charred tables directly on the ground. They were currently arranging the cooking utensils on the larger table. They heard the scream of their mother and froze in place.
Tears came to Lily’s eyes. “You two… You’re fixing it? Together?”
Petal flushed. For once Velvet was at a loss for words.
Lily pulled the two of them into a hug. “You’re the best daughters ever!”
“Mooom!” Petal complained, struggling – but eventually she gave in.
She put the two of them down. “I… I’m so proud of what you two have done here. Rebuilt all of this…”
“It’s still charred,” Velvet said.
“We’re sorry,” Petal added. Velvet nodded in confirmation.
Lily turned to Aiskera. “Still think we might be able to have a potluck?”
Aiskera looked at the half-burnt tables and the lack of decorations. “Eh, screw it, who cares if it looks nice anyway?” She threw her arms wide. “Let’s make a potluck!”
“Yeah!” the other three shouted.
~~~
The troublemakers were on the third floor. They had stopped running a while ago, and realized they were well and truly lost in the maze of rooms.
Yet, still, none of them had suggested they just jump out a window. Tyr had wings, he could catch them easily. But even in their state of heightened fear, none of them would do anything to make themselves look more scared than any of the others. They had all screamed at once, yes, but that was a thing to never speak of again. There may have been a shadowy figure, yeah, but they could take them. It didn’t matter that Edmund’s Stand hadn’t hit anything – they weren’t a ghost. They definitely weren’t a ghost.
Definitely not.
Tyr had left his cloak behind, opting instead to be as obvious and menacing as he possibly could be. Dragons were never pushovers, and he wanted the Witch and that shadow person to know that.
That thought took his mind off of his fear.
“Do you think that was the witch?” Tyr asked.
“Of course, who else could it be?” Lemon blurted.
“But the Witch is a Gem,” Tyr pointed out. “I don’t think that was them…”
“Maybe she has a husband… Or a son…” Edmund suggested. “Or a dog!”
“Did that look like a dog to you?”
“Uh… Yes?”
Lemon facehooved. “Uuugh… Look, let’s just find the magic already.”
“You can’t rush these things,” Tyr said, opening another door. “After all, it could be hidden anywh-“
“Found it,” Edmund said, pointing at the center of the room they had just entered. A white crystal ball sat upon a pedestal, glowing with a soft light.
Lemon munched on a magic vitamin, walking up to the crystal ball. “Let me have a crack at it.” She surrounded it in her green magical aura, effectively poking it. “Docile…” She lifted it off of its pedestal. “Heh. Mission accompl-“
The water rushing in the walls of the house increased in volume tenfold. Cracks started appearing, spraying water at them.
Tyr smirked. Exactly the kind of thing he was there for. He sucked in and let out his blue fire, evaporating the water jets. Edmund joined in with his decidedly less impressive firebending, keeping them all dry. “Let’s move!” Tyr called.
Lemon nodded, hoisting the crystal ball toward the door they came in. They were about to leave…
But then the Witch showed up.
She was a blue Gem with a teardrop gemstone on her forehead. Her hair was long and flowed behind her almost like a cape, and she wore a dress of the darkest blue her gemstone could generate. In one of her hands was a purple wand that clearly wasn’t her Gem weapon.
The troublemakers screamed. Edmund summoned his Stand, Squishy Beats, transforming the floor below them to rubber. The Stand tried to turn the Witch into rubber, but the hardlight body of a Gem proved to be something Squishy Beats couldn’t effect.
With her free hand the Witch demonstrated powerful hydrokinesis that shoved all three of the troublemakers across the room. With the wand, she teleported the crystal ball to her, catching it in a bowl of water.
She took a step toward the three cowering forms.
Bon Bon crashed in through a nearby door; placing herself between the kids and the Witch, ready to fight. “That’s far enough!” Bon Bon said, hiding her own fear well. She was actually terrified and knew that, without her equipment, she couldn’t take a Lapis Gem in a fight, and definitely not a Lapis Gem with some bizarre magic wand.
The Witch blinked. “…Who are you?” she asked with a kind, simple voice.
Bon Bon blinked. “…I’m Bon Bon? I heard screams and I rushed to help. You were attacking these kids!”
The Witch raised an eyebrow. “They broke into my house and tried to steal my crystal ball. I wasn’t going to hurt them, just give them a good scare.” She placed the crystal ball back on the pedestal and cut all the water flowing into the room. “Thanks for ruining that, by the way.”
Bon Bon blinked. “Uh… Sorry.” She turned to the three kids. “What were you thinking?”
“Uh… save the world from the Witch’s evil schemes?” Lemon suggested.
“Yeah!” Edmund said. “Stop the evil plans!”
The Witch blinked. “…You thought I was evil?”
“Who else hides all alone in a creepy cottage in a crystal forest with strange magics?” Tyr asked.
“…Hermits?” the Witch suggested. She put a hand to her head. “Look, I’m not evil. I’m Lapis. The reason I live out here is because I could build my own house the way I wanted without worrying about space requirements.”
“Wow. You’re not scary at all,” Lemon commented.
Lapis pointed a wand at Lemon. “I can be.”
Bon Bon stepped between them. “Let’s not do that. I do have a question, though. Have you seen a dark, cloaked figure? Humanoid, definitely not draconic.”
“Yeah!” Edmund blurted. “They were in this house! Scared us silly!”
Lapis shook her head. “There’s no one else here. I live alone. You were seeing things.” She touched her crystal ball, frown deepening. “I’ve always been alone here.”
Bon Bon sensed that comment was an invitation. “You don’t want to be alone, do you?”
“Not really. I was happy here for the first little while… But then it got boring… I can’t paint anymore…” She shook her head. “But I don’t want to leave this house. It was so much work.”
“There’s a secluded ‘town’ of sorts at the edge of the crystals,” Bon Bon said. “Armadillo Street. They’re even having a potluck today and everything. I was invited, I’m sure they’d like to see another new face as well.”
“Oh?”
“And the woman running it could stand some new company, from what I saw.”
Lapis pondered this for a moment. “…You know, it would be really good to get out. Let’s go.” She turned to the troublemakers, smiling. “You three are coming as well, right?”
“…Sure,” Tyr said, thinking any other response was likely to get him doused in more water.
~~~
Bon Bon led the group back to town. They found the potluck in the process of being rebuilt by Aiskera, Lily, and her kids.
“Why hell- AUGH!” Lily shouted, seeing Tyr. “AUGH!” She blurted, noticing Lapis. She ran under a table and hid.
Lapis blinked. “Uh…”
“Don’t mind mom,” Petal said. “She’s scared of everything. Uh… Who are you?”
“I was wondering the same thing,” Aiskera said.
“A Lapis Lazuli,” Lapis said. “Though apparently you might know me as the Witch.”
Aiskera blinked. “Wow! I thought Tyr was just talking when he said you existed. I guess not!”
Bon Bon smiled. “She needs some friends. Think you can provide?”
Aiskera looked at the cowering form of Lily. “In time, yes. Give Lily a bit though, she’ll recover.”
Lapis nodded. She drew her wand. “Need any help here? I know a lot of spells.”
“Go right ahead!” Aiskera encouraged.
Lapis used her wand to strengthen all the tables and remove the charred blackness. She created some crystal-construct plates for the tables as well.
“Wow! You’re great at this!” Aiskera said, clapping. “Now we can start cooking!”
“Right. Food,” Lapis said, rubbing the back of her head. “I don’t need to eat so I don’t know how to cook.”
Tyr perked up. “…Would you like to know how to cook?”
“It could be interesting, I suppose. Food does taste good.”
Tyr rubbed his hands together. “Lucky you I’m a master chef.”
“Cooking is lame!” Lemon blurted.
“Ignore the yellow fruit,” Tyr declared. “Right this way. I hope you like shrimp scampi…”
Aiskera shook her head – she had no idea Tyr knew how to cook!
Velvet picked up Petal and shoved her next to Lemon.
Lemon glared at Petal. “What do you want?”
“Uh… Heheheh… Wanna… Erm, hang out maybe?”
Lemon groaned. “Ugh, Tyr, get her offa me!”
Tyr was ignoring everything she said, fully engrossed in his craft.
Petal smirked. “It looks like you don’t have anything better to do right now!”
Lemon facehooved. “Fine. What are we going to do, braid each other’s manes or something equally stupid?”
“How about just eat all the food that’s around?”
Lemon couldn’t find a way to declare this stupid. She grunted. “Fine.”
Petal turned to Velvet and winked. Velvet gave her a thumbs up.
Bon Bon walked up to Aiskera and smiled. “Is this what you were expecting?”
“No… Not at all. But I like it.”
“Y-yeah!” Lily said, poking her head out from under the table. “It’s… It’s nice!”
“Did you find the mysterious person, by the way?” Aiskera asked Bon Bon.
“Nope. I don’t think it matters though.” She gestured at the potluck. “This is a good enough ending for my tastes.”
“BON BON!” An overly excited voice shouted. “I found you!”
Bon Bon’s jaw dropped. “LYRA!?”
“Oh, Bon Bon! Do I have the story of a lifetime for you! I’ve just been jumping from universe to universe and OOOOH it was so awesome there were lasers there were robots there were humans I got to visit the ETSAB and we saved at least one universe from certain doom! It was soooo epic! I was standing next to you one moment and then BAM I was in a firefight for my li-“
Bon Bon put a hoof on Lyra’s muzzle. “Lyra, shut up.”
“Uh?”
“Just shut up.” She gestured towards the potluck around them. “Let’s enjoy the simpler things in life for once. Not everything has to be a big grand adventure. In fact… In many ways, I think it’s better if it isn’t.” She smiled warmly at the people she had met today. “Look at this Lyra. There was no grand quest for the fate of existence with these people. They’re just living their lives. Living good lives. Let’s not try to turn this simple get together into an adventure, okay?”
“But…”
“No buts Lyra. No. Buts.”
“Heh. You said butts.”
Bon Bon rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Let’s sit down. I hear there’s a good shrimp scampi that’s about ready.”
They did.
Aiskera stood at the edge of the new potluck and genuinely smiled.
Who cared if it wasn’t perfect?
It was everything she wanted.
~~~
The hooded figure watched the potluck from a distance, from the darkness of the abandoned factory area. Everything had gone exactly as planned…
The figure took off their hood, revealing a familiar face.
One of Aradia Megido.
She loved doing simple things for people as part of her job, sometimes. It helped her remember that the fate of everything was sometimes just as important as the feeling of community in a little street in the middle of nowhere.
She grinned, putting her hands together.
It was perfect. Simply perfect.