“I think this is it,” Sunny said looking out over the latest world they had found, holding her hoof out to frame the beautiful rolling hills, the perfect cascading waterfall, the spotless pristine weather, the flowers the size of trees, and the abundance of blue lightning bugs. “This is the world.”
Sunburst looked up from his notes. “Wait, really?”
“Yes. Really.” Sunny smirked. “Everyone pack up. The largest mission this survey team has undertaken is complete.”
Josuke and a Starlight with cybernetic implants named Beam stared at her, disbelieving.
“Are you telling me we can finally go home!?” Beam shouted. “We’ve been out here for months!”
“And we’ve finally found a distant colony,” Sunny said. “This world… is completely uninhabited, lacks large predators, has absolutely stunning scenery, and has a unique magical mineral under its crust. I’m calling it. This is what we were looking for.”
“Geez, finally,” Josuke muttered, hands behind his head. “Can’t wait to get to my own bed…”
“Do you have any idea how deep we are into the E-sphere?” Sunburst asked. “It’s going to be a while before we get back!”
“…Why are we making a distant colony if it takes forever to get to it, again?”
Beam nudged him. “Jojo, come on, I’ve explained it millions of times. Because we wanted something in a completely new part of the multiverse. Or, conversely, because why not!?”
Sunny nodded. “Yep. But hey, we’re done now and can go back home, be with our loved ones.” She glanced at Josuke and Beam. “Those who aren’t here, anyway. The Great Survey is over!”
There was a chorus of celebration cheers.
“Let us leave this… Farpoint behind and get moving.” She placed a stake in the ground that displayed the Merodi Universalis symbol - signifying more than just a simple ‘claim’ that a beacon provided. There was intent to develop.
She pulled out a dimensional device and began the long trek back home.
~~~
Present day, relatively speaking…
There was an explosion the likes of which denied comprehension. Out of the remnants of this blast a green star formed, shining against the blackness in its impossibility. Bubbles of varying colors appeared around it, fusing into one singular orbiter. Vast, screeching tentacles came from the darkness, attempting to latch onto the verdant fire, but electric shocks pushed them back.
A spirograph surrounded the entire image.
And then Eve woke up. “Mmmf…”
Flutterfree lifted her head off of Eve. “Oh. You’re awake. That was quite the nap you were taking there.”
“Loud enough to be heard in the neighboring universe!” Rainbow Dash shouted.
Eve let herself remember where she was. That was right, her personal ship, the Astra. She had decided she was going to take her friends on a vacation to the distant Farpoint resort. They were currently mid-trip, flying through innumerable dimensions to get all the way to Merodi Universalis’ furthest colony, deep within the E-sphere. Or closer to the other side. They really weren’t sure; nobody ever shared their full maps with them.
“I don’t think she’s awake yet,” Nova commented, waving a hoof in front of Eve’s eyes. “Yoo-hoo! Equis to the Charter!”
“Nova, shush,” Eve muttered, putting a hoof to her face. “I’m waking up. You may not know this about me, but I need to process everything when I wake up. So give me a moment.”
“Moment’s up!” Pinkie shouted, dragging Eve off the couch she had been resting on and to her hooves in the middle of the room. “Hey look, you’re up!”
“And about to fall back asleep,” Eve muttered, rubbing her eyes.
Applejack let out an amused snort. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Pretty sure she’s at least a bit richer than she was early on,” Allure mused.
“Nobody likes a math geek, Allure,” Renee chided with a smirk on her face.
“…You’re quoting something.”
“…Possibly.” Renee chuckled. “You see, Daniel – or, well, Jack actually – has this love for human science fiction shows…”
“X-Files actually exists,” Corona said. “Remember the Sherlock incident?”
“Not at all.”
“I was there, I remember,” Jotaro said. “Just before Unification we stormed an alien compound and ended up needing to use a Sherlock to complete the mission.”
Vriska gasped. “The great Jotaro allowed someone else to take the glory? Well, I can tell you that’s not what I would have done. I would have dragged him right into the open and told him not to interfere!”
“Vriska, stop pretending like you’re an arrogant self-absorbed prick,” Nova said. “That’s what you would have done in the past.”
“That’s what I said. Did you not hear the ‘would’ in that sentence? Past tense!”
“Yare yare daze,” Jotaro muttered.
Allure put a hoof to her chin. “I bet there’s a translator issue there.”
“Or maybe every language has its failings in communicating certain concepts,” Corona suggested.
Allure shrugged.
Eve smirked. “Or maybe, just maybe, Vriska’s being clever.”
Vriska facepalmed. “No shit, Einstein.”
That got a small laugh out of everyone. The sight of her friends talking together brought a big smile to Eve’s lips.
“This was a good idea,” Flutterfree told Eve. “Getting all eleven of us out here… The old gang and the new.”
That it was. Eve looked at everyone. The original elements of harmony: Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow, Flutterfree, Renee… and then there was Nova, completing the seven’s original grouping. But the new friends were here as well – Corona and Allure, both of whom had come a long way from before the multiverse was uncovered. Vriska and Jotaro, the new friends. Everyone was here and getting along famously… It was just a great thought that warmed eve’s heart.
Part of her wished Spike had come, but apparently the disappearance of so many prominent figures had triggered the planning of a ‘guys’ night like you wouldn’t believe.’ …They still called it guys’ night even though Jolyne and Trixie were part of it. It was just tradition. She hoped they were having the most epic of quests.
Or maybe Discord had finally convinced them to go to a club in the middle of it. With Trixie involved anything was possible.
The thought made Eve chuckle slightly.
“Thinking about home?” Flutterfree asked.
“Yeah. I hope they haven’t burned it down by the time we get back.”
Nova heard that. “Oh no, Stardust. I’m not going to be there to stop her…”
“Sunburst can take care of it,” Allure said.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Have you thought about who’s taking care of Minna?”
“Apple Bloom. Though I secretly suspect Alushy is going to show up.”
Nova blinked. “How can you be calm about that!?”
“Alushy and I have an understanding. If she ruins Minna, I toss her into a universe that is literally hell.” Allure smiled innocently. “As it is, Alushy brings out parts of Minna I… can’t. My past self would scream in fear at me for saying this, but knowing Alushy has actually been better for Minna. Allowed her to feel more comfortable with herself.”
Nova stared at her, speechless.
“I’m sure you have similar feelings about Stardust though, right?”
Nova rubbed the back of her head. “Not… really? She’s a quiet kid who takes more after her father than me. She’s absolutely adorable but isn’t really one for… how do I put this? Interacting with ponies. There we go.”
Eve was suddenly next to Nova. “I haven’t done any Princess of Friendship duties in forever. This sounds like my calling.”
“Oh, she has a few friends. They’re all just as quiet as she is,” Nova said.
Eve glanced at Flutterfree. “That’s fine, but are you sure she knows the magic of friendship?”
“…Yeah, not really?”
“Man, Glims, you need to get to know your daughter better. Speaking of daughters!” Rainbow pulled out a small book out of her saddlebags. “I’ve got pictures of Prism!”
“Uuuuugh how many times have you showed us that!?” Vriska muttered. “We get it! Your kid is awesome!”
“Children are worth bragging about,” Jotaro asserted.
“Not every ten gogdamn minutes!”
“Hey, I haven’t brought this out since the start of the trip,” Rainbow chided. “Plus, you don’t have kids, you wouldn’t understand.”
“Newsflash, I’ve explored the multiverse for centuries, of course I have a couple kids around.”
“No offense Vriska, but you didn’t raise any of those,” Pinkie pointed out.
Vriska blinked. “Technically not…”
Flutterfree nodded. “Plus, given troll reproduction, none of them could be natural anyway.”
“You’ve been talking to Aradia haven’t you?”
“…It’s a distinct possibility that I have.”
“Hey! Guys! Talking about Prism here!” Rainbow blurted.
“Rainbow Dash, eternal attention hog,” Renee said, giggling.
Corona leaned in. “Even more so than me, and I’m literally a lightbulb.”
“Not literally,” Allure corrected. “See, flesh and bone filled with magic glowing blood. Not a lightbulb.”
Corona put her hands on her hips and looked down at Allure. “It was a figure of speech, little miss actually.”
Allure twitched. “Oh?”
Eve chuckled. “Corona, give her some leeway. You and I both are known to get on the ‘actually’ train occasionally.”
“Occasionally?” Flutterfree blurted.
“Okay, most of the time.”
“Everypony stop the presses!” Pinkie shouted. “WE’RE HEEEEERE!”
The Astra jumped into orbit around the green globe that was Farpoint. They were hailed by one of the ships in orbit, the captain appearing as a holographic screen in the middle of all of them. “Welcome to Farpoint.”
“Jack!?” Renee blurted. “What are you doing here?”
“Out on a cruise across the multiverse,” O’Neill said with a wink. “Stopping here a few days for relaxation, resupply, the works. Windshield needs cleaning too, but I haven’t found a big enough space squeegee yet.”
“Have you found any space squeegees?” Vriska asked.
“That information is classified.”
Eve chuckled. “Good luck on your classified squeegee mission then. We’ll be on the surface, taking a vacation. Maybe we’ll run into each other!”
“Probably not. I’m confined to the bridge, the horror.”
“Then order someone else to take over for a while when you get too bored to listen to regulation.”
“Yes ma’am.” O’Neill said with a salute.
Eve smiled. “See you around. Hey, Astra, take us down to our hotel.”
The ship beeped in response and descended into the planet’s atmosphere.
Corona started laughing. “Oh wow, all it took was one beep and Raging Sights already thinks the ship is obnoxious!”
Everyone had a chuckle at this.
Except Raging Sights, who would have blushed if that were possible.
~~~
Farpoint didn’t have that many settlements on it, largely due to the fact that it was exceedingly distant from Merodi Universalis proper. Most of these settlements were just simple towns, or, in a few cases, research outposts devoted to testing the magical stone, laria, that was abundant beneath Farpoint’s crust.
There was only one city on all of Farpoint: the aptly (if unimaginatively) named Farpoint City.
From the moment of its inception, the architects of the city knew it needed to look spectacular, so as to best suit the beauty of the planet it was built on… and to attract tourists. Anyone with a lick of sense knew the latter reason was by far the biggest reason.
The buildings of Farpoint City were designed unlike any standard Merodi constructions – the majority of buildings were designed with height in mind, appearing to be the conglomeration of dozens of pointed spires looking toward the sky, with numerous bridges moving between different towering buildings. Every building was covered in a precious metal of some sort to make it look like something out of a legend, even though magically speaking it wasn’t that hard to create enough of any standard precious metal to coat an entire city. Gold, silver, copper, and platinum shone in the sun, protected from wear and tear by simple protection enchantments.
Farpoint City was very shiny and everyone who lived there was a little tired of it. Tourists on the other hand…
“This is simply divine!” Renee said, doing a twirl as they walked along a bridge from the copper tower where the Astra was docked to the platinum hotel they would be staying in.
Flutterfree looked around, worried. “I know there are no birds on this world naturally… But people will bring their pets, and they will escape into the wild, and eventually all these skyscrapers are going to be a problem.”
Allure tapped through an informational data pad she had been given. “Looks like the city has a magical aura spread around the edges designed to deter animals from entering. Mainly vermin, but I bet it keeps birds out as well.”
Flutterfree nodded slowly. “…I guess that’s fine.”
“Hey, they live here, we don’t,” Eve said, putting a wing around Flutterfree. “Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they know what they’re doing here.”
Corona reached the end of the bridge first, opening the platinum doors with her magic. The interior of the hotel wasn’t anywhere near as overtly reflective as the exterior – while still platinum themed, the reflectivity was toned down, and the floor was just a high quality white carpet.
A receptionist welcomed them – she was a white pony with wings and a glowing ring above her head. “Hello! Welcome to Platinum Suites. You all have the Royal Adjunct.”
Renee gasped. “Stars, a halo-pegasus! Oh, forgive me for staring. It’s just… haloes are so rare even on Lai and rarely interact with us, to see a combination this far out…”
She smiled. “I used to work for Princess Luna exploring the stars. After the Bloodbath I lost direction for a while – heard about this place, was one of the first settlers. Name’s Anesthesia, but you can just call me Anna like everyone else. I own this hotel!” She beamed.
Corona raised an eyebrow. “Why are you acting as receptionist then?”
“Because I knew you were coming and wanted to let you in personally,” Anna said. “Also, if I’m being perfectly honest this hotel mostly runs itself and I get bored a lot.”
“Oh, I know what that’s like, darling,” Renee said. “Did you know I still own Rarity for You in my home universe – oh, if you know what that is.”
“I do,” Anna admitted. “There’s one in the shopping district. The Rarity there is a bit… eccentric, but she’s nice enough.”
“I know where I’m going later,” Renee declared.
Anna’s halo flashed for a moment and executed a simple ‘toss’ spell, giving Eve several keycards to the Royal Adjunct. “Right this way to your spectacular accommodations.”
She took them all into a large, cylindrical elevator with more than enough size to fit all of them. It rose to the very top floor. They came out into a simple, square room with a single door at the end of the hall. Anna gestured at the card reader.
Eve slid her card through the slot and the door swung outward. They walked out into the Royal Adjunct of Platinum Suites. The ‘room’ was huge. It was a circular expanse larger than most houses, with ten king-sized beds arranged equidistantly around the edges. There were numerous televisions on the walls, all of which were currently off, and dozens of chairs around a handful of tables ringed the middle of the room. The middle composed of the door to the elevator and a large, walled-off bathroom.
Anna beamed. “Welcome to the most advanced Suite we have, and also the largest. It may seem like one room with a bathroom and an exit attached to it, but there’s so much more. Every bed has a set of controls at the head which can be used to erect walls around it – for privacy or whatever other reason you could imagine.” She demonstrated, letting her halo flash to tap one of the buttons. A square set of walls with a door appeared around one of the beds, sealing it off in its own little enclosure.
“The controls can also open the walls up to the balcony.” A slit opened in the wall, revealing a walkway that went all the way around the room, from which all of Farpoint City could be seen.
Rainbow flew out onto the balcony. “This is so awesome. Pinkie! Why doesn’t the Pinkie Emporium have this!?”
“Because all the tall buildings become part of rollercoasters!” Pinkie called. “Also stop pretending I’m employed by the Emporium!”
“Nah!”
“Dashie!”
Anna smiled warmly at their interaction. “You can also set the ceiling to clear, if you want.” She gestured with a wing and suddenly they could all see the sky above them. “It’ll still block rain, so feel free to leave it clear regardless of the situation.”
“We are never closing this,” Corona said, eyes sparkling.
“But what if the sun gets too bright?” Applejack asked.
“Never closing this.”
“Ah. Gotcha.”
Anna turned around, looking at Eve. “Room service and maids are available by request. Though the food replicator over there and the self-cleaning spells contained in that cupboard should service most of your needs. If you need anything don’t hesitate to call.” She gave Eve her card. “My personal number’s on there too if you really need anything. Or, y’know, just want to talk or something.”
Eve smiled warmly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Well, I’ll let you all get settled in! Enjoy your stay!” She beamed and flashed her halo – teleporting away.
“Enough people believe in her that she can execute a teleport. Interesting,” Corona observed.
“Hm?” Jotaro asked, raising an eyebrow.
“The halo’s magic is determined by how many people believe in it and how strongly. A halo that nobody knows can’t even execute a telekinesis spell. But those who become leaders can basically do anything that comes to their mind on a whim.”
“An interesting power…”
“You should see deer. Their magic makes less sense. I still don’t know how they have any idea what their spells are going to do before it happens. It’s completely dependant on the environment, but they can work it out somehow even if they’ve never been somewhere before.”
“One of the many mysteries of nature,” Flutterfree said.
Jotaro sat on a bed, claiming it as his own.
“Oh, I just realized! There’s eleven of us and only ten beds!” Pinkie blurted. “We need to fix that right now! Who wants to double up with the best sleepover friend Pinkie Pie?”
“Nobody. Ever,” Nova deadpanned. “Your level of sleep chill is almost nonexistent.”
“It’s like you turn into a hamster ball,” Rainbow said, hoofbumping Nova.
“I don’t turn into a hamster ball!” Pinkie objected from inside a giant hamster ball.
“I’ll double up with Allure,” Renee said, pulling her sister close. “Just like old times!”
“...Just like?”
“Well, no, but you know what I mean.”
Allure raised an eyebrow.
Vriska turned to Jotaro. “You know, your wife must really trust you. Ten beautiful women in the same room as you. How will you cope?”
“Vriska, we’re all ponies except for you,” Nova pointed out.
“And how exactly does that invalidate her point?” Renee interjected, indignant.
“Okay, fine, most of us are technically related in some way or another at this point. That work?”
Jotaro grunted. “Yare yare daze…”
Eve rolled her eyes. “We’re all good friends and we all trust each other. Vriska just needs to stop instigating.”
“Me. Stop instigating.” Vriska laughed. “There’s something that’ll never happen.”
“I can think of several times you didn’t instigate a conflict,” Flutterfree commented.
“That’s because you spend every waking moment of your life in my proximity.”
“I can also think of times you haven’t exaggerated.”
“Give up while you’re ahead,” Corona whispered to Vriska. “Facing the Flutterfree head-on is a bad idea.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Oh, no. I’m just trying to produce a response.” Corona grinned. “Instigating, if you will.”
Vriska blinked. “…Why do we never hang out?”
“Because ka has deemed that the two fiery vixens shall never bond, alas!” Corona said, putting a hand to her head.
“Been taking acting lessons?” Nova asked.
“Nope! I’m just a big ham.”
“Bacon,” Jotaro corrected.
Corona opened her mouth to correct him, but realized he had a point. She shrugged.
Renee cleared her throat. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going to go check out the local Rarity for You. See if it’s up to my standards. Probably buy a vacationing outfit.”
“Ooh! Ooh! I’m coming too!” Pinkie declared. “I have the sudden uncontrollable urge to add a bizarre dress to my collection!”
“Anyone else?” Renee asked. “Allure, want to go shopping with your dear sister?”
“Pass,” Allure said.
“Your loss!” Pinkie declared. “Avast Renee, let us go shopping!”
The two of them bounced off to the elevator to see the rest of the city.
“You know, if I actually had anything planned today, I would be annoyed they ran off so quickly,” Eve muttered. “Luckily my master schedule only starts tomorrow!”
“Do you have to be such an accountant?” Vriska asked.
“Yes!” Eve said, gleefully. “Enjoy your free time while it lasts because tomorrow the schedule begins! Up at the crack of dawn we go see the legendary sparkling sunrise, and then we get to experience the chilly wafts of the city on the high-rise bridges. Then I’ve chartered a ride through the hole in this world’s moon, where we will enter the legendary casino a-”
“Oh my gog you’ve ruined everything,” Vriska groaned.
Flutterfree coughed. “Um… Eve’s messing with you.”
Vriska looked at Eve’s cheesy grin. “…You bitch.”
“Thank you!” Eve chuckled. She pulled the real schedule out of the aether. “There’s actually nothing until after noon tomorrow, and for the most part I don’t have anything scheduled for anyone specifically. There’s just events. We all have to go on the ride through the Moonhole, but otherwise you’re free to come and go to most the rest of these or do something else. I even have ‘relax time’ here. Of note is this entire day filled with ‘amusement park’ which, against my better judgment, I haven’t planned anything specific at all.”
“…Since Pinkie’s not here, the honor falls to me,” Nova said. She created a scoreboard with her magic. “Eve: one. Vriska: zero.”
“I was letting out spicy one liners the whole trip!” Vriska shouted indignantly.
“The scoreboard has only just begun. You’ll find that, as Pinkie’s replacement, I am a lot less spontaneous about the whole thing and follow a strict set of ‘funny’ regulations.”
Vriska blinked.
“Nova: one. Vriska: still zero.” Nova grinned.
“You’re enjoying this aren’t you?”
“Yes. Oh hell yes.”
Vriska shrugged. “Fine!” She put an overdramatic hand to her forehead. “I know when I’m not wanted! Spiderbitch out, it’s time to find adventure!”
“Oh sweet!” Rainbow said, flying in from outside. “I heard adventure. Where!?”
“I have no idea! Want to help me find some?”
“Am I awesome!?”
“Oh, so that’s a no?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “That’s a yes numbnuts.”
“Right! AWAY WE GO!”
“Don’t leave me out! I have to keep score!” Nova said, running after them.
Vriska took one look at her and decided not to throw her off the balcony. Instead she grabbed Nova and carried her like a suitcase. “Unwelcome baggage accepted! Anyone else want to find random bits of adventure?”
“You really goin’ out on a wild romp before the first day even begins?” Applejack asked, raising her eyebrow. “Ah thought you were more mature than this.”
Allure quietly put her hoof down, deciding she suddenly didn’t want to go on the adventure.
“You thought wrong!” Rainbow declared, winking at Applejack. “TO THE SKIES!” She flew out over the balcony and into the sky, Vriska flapping along behind her, dragging Nova along.
“Well, if we’re having a sudden ‘do our own thing’ moment,” Eve said, “I would very much like to look at some laria – I hear the mineral has very peculiar and arcane properties.”
“That sounds like something I can get behind,” Corona said. “Count me in.”
“Oh, me too,” Flutterfree said. “Sounds fun!”
Corona blinked. “…Really?”
Flutterfree nodded. “Really.”
“Huh. Sure. To the magic crystals!”
Eve teleported them away, leaving only Applejack, Jotaro, and Allure in the room.
Allure blinked. “So… What do we do?”
“Relax,” Applejack said, leaning back in a rocking chair.
“…You know, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Allure said, crawling into a chair next to Applejack. “Just take a moment to rest on a vacation. What a crazy idea.”
The sides of Jotaro’s mouth curled up. “Someone’s figured out what a vacation actually means.”
Silence fell over the Royal Adjunct of Platinum Suites.
~~~
“Laria isn’t exactly a crystal per se, since it has no structure,” Eve said as they flew through the shimmering skies of Farpoint City. “It’s a completely amorphous substance that adheres to itself through thaumic attraction, not through any sort of chemical or molecular bond. It grows like a crystal, and has the appearance of citrine when cut, but if you actually see any in the wild it’ll just be a big blob of yellow stuff, somewhat like amber. Except it doesn’t move anywhere near fast enough to trap bugs in it.”
“Wow,” Flutterfree said. “Sounds like some really useful stuff.”
“We’re still researching it,” Corona said, flying in a lounging position. “As a pure power source, we have better options. But I heard that you could carve spells onto its surface and create complex charms even mundane individuals could use.”
Flutterfree nodded. “And it’s really common here.”
“It’s only found here,” Eve corrected. “There are a few other substances like it in the multiverse, but we’ve never recorded it naturally anywhere else.”
“Wow. …I say that a lot.”
“It’s what happens when Eve talks for long enough,” Corona said.
Flutterfree giggled. “Don’t I know i- oh!” She dive-bombed into the lower levels of the city like a bird of prey. A few seconds later she flew back up to them and put an excessively long fuzzy scarf on Eve. “Perfect!”
Eve was momentarily startled. “I uh… what?”
Flutterfree pulled at part of the scarf – revealing it to have a hood built in – and put it over Eve’s windswept mane. Two giant googly eyes on springs bounced into existence, hanging just past Eve’s horn. “You look so cute!”
Eve looked at the spring eyes. The spring eyes looked back.
“It also looks ridiculous,” Corona commented.
“I like it,” Eve declared.
Corona stopped looking where she was going and ran into a silver wall. “W-what?”
“It’ll make a nice souvenir. ‘Eve, why do you have this scarf-hood-eye-thing?’ ‘Well, hypothetical young individual from a future generation, this is from a very dear friend of mine who thought it was cute. It reminds me of a great vacation.’ ‘Oh wow, cool story!’”
“…That wasn’t a very cool story,” Flutterfree pointed out.
“Let me have my fantasies.”
Corona shrugged. “Whatever floats your crazy boat.”
“I am the Charter-Princess-Overhead. Eccentricity is to be expected. If at any point I stop being eccentric, someone please remove the changeling from the picture.”
Flutterfree chuckled. “We’d know if it wasn’t you, Eve.”
“Yeah…” she said, a faraway look in her eyes. “Oh hey, there’s a store!” She dive-bombed, gesturing for the others to follow. They landed on a mid-level balcony outside a store. Laria Central. A giant stone hung from the shop’s sign. It was a pristinely-cut sphere of a brilliant yellow luster that reflected the sun right into Corona’s eyes.
“Shiny,” Corona observed.
“It’s so beautiful…” Flutterfree added. “Like a star came down to warm you with proximity…”
“…It’s just a pretty rock.”
Eve looked deeply into the sphere. “You aren’t looking at it closely enough, Corona. There’s something truly magical about this stone.”
“Brainwashing?”
Flutterfree and Eve giggled. “Oh no, no, of course not!” Eve said. “There’s just more to it than being a simple rock. ...Though I do think the one on the sign is just enchanted to look like the real thing. Come on, let’s go in.”
The three of them strode into Laria Central, not at all surprised to find virtually everything in the store was made from the carved magic gem – the shelves were covered in paint made with laria dust, the tiles had small gems embedded in them, and the lights were made from engraved laria spells.
“Welcome to Laria Central, the go-to stop for all your laria needs,” a Gem droned, clearly uninterested in her spiel. “I am Citrine. How may I be of assi-” She realized who she was talking to. “O-Overhead Evening! I-I’m so sorry for the disrespect!”
“I know all about it, Citrine,” Eve said with a smile. “I worked at a hayburger once, I know what it’s like.”
“Y-you did?”
Eve rolled her eyes. “I was once a lowly college student, believe it or not.”
“You were Celestia’s prize pupil,” Corona said, raising an eyebrow.
“That doesn’t change the fact that she worked at the hayburger,” Flutterfree pointed out. “Such a thankless job…”
“Probably worse than here, come to think of it,” Eve said. “At least the crystals in here are cool. And might explode. Gives it an air of danger!”
Citrine blinked. “…You weren’t what I was expecting.”
“I’m purposely letting myself cut loose. You have no idea how much I don’t realize I need vacations until I’m already on them.”
Flutterfree put a wing on Eve. “There there, reel it in. Let’s go look at these fancy laria vases, okay?”
“Okay… Okay…” The two walked over to the vases.
Corona glanced at Citrine. “Hey, am I crazy, or am I the tag-along here?”
“Don’t ask me, I’m still having my worldview challenged about my figures of authority. Come back in two to three weeks when I’m able to think straight again.”
~~~
“What do you mean you’ve got nothing?” Vriska asked.
On the screen of Vriska’s phone O’Neill shrugged. “I mean there’s not any unusual magical readings on the planet you can check out.”
“This entire planet is filled with golden magic rocks!”
“Yes. And they’re on the entire planet.”
Vriska twitched. “But we need to go look for something! I’m not just going to go waltz into the forest and hope we find something!”
“I am,” Nova said.
“You’re a walking scoreboard, you don’t count.”
“Removing my personhood, are we?”
“Look, O’Neill,” Rainbow said, dragging herself into the conversation as well. “You have ka sensors up there right? Just look for something, anything interesting!”
“Interesting is relative,” O’Neill said, pushing a few buttons. “For all you know I’ll pick on a romantic story and you’ll all get dragged along as side characters for daring to look.”
Rainbow Dash blinked. “Can we not look for the ka now?”
“Right, that settles it!” Vriska declared. “Biggest source of ka you can find on the planet.”
“Eve.”
Vriska facepalmed. “That isn’t one of us.”
“There’s a library in the mercantile district that’s shooting stuff up like a beacon.”
“We are not playing the egghead with the magical book,” Rainbow declared.
“We don’t know that’s what it is!” Nova pointed out.
“Next!”
O’Neill smirked. “And the next one’s in the middle of the jungle on a continent that hasn’t been settled yet.”
“BINGO!” Rainbow blurted. “Let’s go there.”
Nova rolled her eyes. “Using the most advanced and least understood technology of our time to find random ways to enjoy ourselves. What is this world coming to?”
“I don’t know. I do know we need to get the coordinates.”
O’Neill sent them over. “Good luck! Those probably aren’t accurate at all given how much wilderness is out there!” He cut the feed.
Nova pulled up an image of the planet on her hoof screen. “Let’s see… I should be able to initiate a point-to-point teleport across the planet. Just give me a sec. Or two or three. …Don’t look at me like that, long-range teleportation takes a while!”
The three of them were silent for a moment.
Vriska grunted, leaning against a golden wall. “You know, I wonder why I’m here.”
“It’s one of life’s great mysteries,” Rainbow said.
“Not that. I mean here. With you guys. With Eve’s little vacation of the closest of friends.” She held out her hand. “I don’t exactly know Purple Smart all that well in case you didn’t notice.”
“It seemed like you were getting along fine to me,” Rainbow pointed out.
“She’s the Princess of fucking Friendship, of course she gets along with me if she wants to. But think about it. You’re all either her oldest friends, or you’re Renee’s sister, or you’re Jotaro. Whose entire family owes its continued stability to Eve. And then there’s me. Spiderbitch.”
“Man, Vriska, do not sell yourself short,” Rainbow said. “You’re her friend just like the rest of us. Sure, you may not know her the best, but you’re a big part of a lot of her good friends’ lives. Why wouldn’t she invite you?”
“Corona and Allure came without their teams,” Vriska pointed out. “Where’s Lady Rarity? Zod? Huh?”
Rainbow Dash facehooved. “That’s different and you know it.”
“I’m just here because she thought it’d be rude if I was left alone.”
“Teleport ready,” Nova declared. “But before we go… Vriska, what on Equis is up with you? It’s unlike you to be bothered by this sort of thing.”
“You ponies are making me soft, that’s what.”
“While true, you’re not this soft. What’s up?”
“Nothing! Not a thing.”
Nova raised an eyebrow. “Rainbow Dash, how much bullshit is coming out of her mouth right now?”
“All of it,” Rainbow Dash said.
“All the bullshit.” Nova added a number to the scoreboard in her favor.
Vriska twitched. “I don’t have to say jack anything.”
“No, you don’t. But you know you should.”
“Damn you ponies,” Vriska muttered. “Fine! I miss Starbeat already!” She threw her arms wide. “Been away from her for less than a day and already it’s messing with me!”
“…Not Hastur?” Rainbow asked.
“Troll romance is complicated, now is not the time to call it into question,” Nova told Rainbow. “You need to get some ‘feelings jamming’ out?”
Vriska raised an eyebrow. “Given my sudden outburst right there, what do you think?”
“My answer is ‘probably’,” Rainbow said. “Hey, if you don’t want to do it with me, I gotcha, you don’t know me. But Nova’s certainly available.”
“…I think I’d prefer someone that didn’t look like Starbeat, frankly.”
“Flutterfree?” Nova suggested.
“Flutterfree,” Rainbow decided.
“Fine, fine, I’ll go have a nice long discussion with the absolute master of ‘feelings jamming’.” Vriska rolled her eyes. “This does not stop our adventure.”
“Oh, of course not,” Nova said. “Unless you want it to.”
“We’re already out here, I’m not crawling back to the hotel like a beat up puppy.”
Rainbow snorted. “Nice.”
Vriska bumped Rainbow’s hoof.
Nova rolled her eyes. “Right. You good for now?”
Vriska smirked. “Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”
“Okaaaaaay… Initiating teleport.”
They were suddenly in the middle of a jungle composed out of giant orange flowers instead of trees.
“Sweet,” Vriska said. “Now where’s the thing?”
Nova shrugged. “Dunno. Somewhere around here. We’ll have to look for it.”
“Oh, hey, this is just like the first place!” Rainbow said. “We all got lost in the jungle and didn’t know how to get back home!”
Nova nodded. “Yeah. I don’t remember. I wasn’t there.”
“Ah, psh, so here’s what we do. We walk in a random direction until we find savage ponies or a village of demon-bugs!”
Vriska smirked. “THIS WAY!”
“On the way I can tell you about Prism’s big recital!”
Nova facehooved as she saw Rainbow taking out the photos again.
~~~
Allure opened her eyes.
“Huh. You know, I never really knew how nice sitting and doing nothing could be.”
Applejack chuckled. “That’s just because you’re holdin’ onto your inner child.”
“No I’m not,” Allure grunted.
“Uh, yes, yes it is,” Applejack corrected. “You’re still a filly at heart. You’ve seen a lot, but the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you think about things… There may not be an innocence to it, but there’s definitely a young spark in there.”
“I’m almost fifty!” Allure blurted.
This made Jotaro’s eyes open wide. “…Nani?”
“Translates to something like mid-thirties in human years,” Allure clarified.
“It ain’t an exact science, that’s for sure,” Applejack admitted. “But that number doesn’t mean anythin’ anyway. It’s how you act that determines what you are at heart.”
Allure twitched. “I don’t think that’s it. I’m not a filly at heart – it’s just that all of you can’t help but see me that way! Every one of you but Vriska and Jotaro knew me as a kid, and you just can’t let go of it! I’ve seen you treat Apple Bloom better than me!”
Applejack turned to Allure blinking. “…Why’ve you bottled this up for so long?”
Allure sighed. “…Sorry.”
“Ah asked a question, Allure.”
Allure nodded slowly. “Renee can’t move past looking at me as her little sister. She’s tried – she’s really tried. But even once I adopted Minna, she couldn’t adjust. She’s able to change on a practical level – getting me different presents as I get older, not expecting me to keep liking the same things – but she still dotes over me.”
“Ah. Mothering,” Jotaro said.
“…What?”
“She’s mothering you.”
“But she’s my sister.”
Applejack smirked. “Hey, didn’t she watch you a lot more than your parents did after you formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders for a long while there? You were in the boutique more than you were at your own home and room as Ah recall.”
Allure blinked. “…Right.”
“So she watched you a lot more than Cookie. Ah’ve got nothin’ against Cookie, mind you, but she basically let Rarity mother you.” Applejack adjusted her hat. “Ah’m just sayin’, that might have somethin’ to do with it.”
Allure nodded slowly. “That does make some sense… But it’s also really weird. She’s not old enough, we fought a lot, and…” she blinked. “None of that matters, does it?”
“Not in my book,” Applejack said.
“…Huh. Well, that’s given me something to think about.” Allure shook her head. “Wait, we’ve gotten off track. I’ve accepted Renee, it’s the rest of you I’m on about. You all look at me like a kid. I have an eleven-year-old daughter for crying out loud!”
“Maybe you’re seeing something that isn’t there,” Jotaro said.
“You aren’t guilty,” Allure pointed out. “Probably because you work for Renee more than you’re her friend. I bet it doesn’t waft off of her onto you like it does the others.”
“Ah don’t hang with Renee as much as Ah used to either,” Applejack pointed out. “Sure, we get together from time to time, still good friends, but Ah don’t see her rubbin’ off on me. What Ah see is a child at heart refusing to accept who she is. A little rascal to the end.”
Allure twitched. “Little rascal? Really?”
“There’s nothin’ wrong with keepin’ some of the traits usually reserved for the young,” Applejack said. “Innocence… wonder… curiosity… energy… some of us would like those things back, y’know.”
Allure cocked her head. “But...”
“No buts about it. You’re clearly not innocent because of what you’ve been through, but you trot around as if it didn’t affect you. You’re almost always smiling, laughing, and having fun. Those eyes of yours see the world anew every day. It’s an amazing thing you’ve managed to keep for yourself, Allure. You shouldn’t resent it.”
Allure looked down. “…But I don’t want to be seen as a kid.”
“Being young at heart and being a kid are not the same things and Ah think you know that. You just don’t wanna think about it.”
Allure allowed a small smile to come to her face. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Guess this is what I get for hanging around with myself all the time. Tends to produce an echo chamber.”
“Ah bet.”
“…Question, though. Applejack, why are you talking like you’re an old mare. You’re almost sixty, not one-twenty!”
Jotaro put a hand to his head. “Yare yare daze…”
Allure facepalmed. “Yes, Jotaro, we get it, you’re almost sixty and you’re old, but you’re not going to age anymore so shhh.”
Jotaro blinked, trying to process whether she’d insulted his age in there somewhere or not.
Applejack cleared her throat to answer Allure’s question. “Ah dunno for sure Allure. Ah guess Ah’m the opposite of you, in many ways. While the other five – six if you count Nova – were developin’ and learnin’ how to be themselves, Ah already knew what Ah was for the most part. Honest, steadfast, and hardworkin’. Maybe it was because Ah’d been through hardship and come out of it better than Ah would have been otherwise, Ah dunno. But it was always clear Ah was the mature one of the group, even though Renee and Flutters were older. Ah got married first, had kids first, ran the farm most of my life…” She pursed her lips. “Ah guess my life was just geared to make me an early old mare.”
“You sure fit the part,” Allure said. “And that’s a good thing.”
“Ah’m smart enough to realize getting the wisdom of old age early is a blessin’,” Applejack chuckled. “It’d be best if you learned the opposite.”
“…Thanks. I’ll try.” She stretched her legs. “So, what do we do now that we’ve relaxed?”
“Keep relaxing,” Jotaro said.
Allure blinked. “…But we’ve been here for hours already doing that.”
“Exactly,” Applejack added.
“…Great.”
~~~
The local Rarity’s name was Affix. Her version of Rarity for You was built into the ground floor of an iron-dusted building, making it stand out from the more traditional ‘precious metals’ that coated most of the others. The interior of the store decided to forego the general metallic feel of Farpoint City altogether, instead opting for bright colors punctuated by completely black backgrounds.
The store hung clothing of all colors and sizes for both equine and human customers – and there was an ‘other’ section in the back, with a sign that said ‘designs transferable to other body types by request.’ The designs themselves looked precisely like something a Rarity would design if they felt a sudden need to pop out with bright expressions of color.
“…I like it,” Renee said, looking at a dress composed of bright blues in varying hues. “Bit more dependant on intensity, but I could see myself wearing a lot of these dresses.”
“Sweet!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down. “Then let’s buy some! Let the shopping begin!”
They heard a sigh of relief from behind them. Turning, they saw Affix herself standing behind them. “You know, I’m always decidedly worried when another Rarity comes strolling in here – always judge, judge, judge with us isn’t it?” Her appearance was a bit jarring, to say the least. One of her ears had the top half bitten off, and there was a scar across her face that started from her chipped horn and went all the way down her neck, vanishing under the collar of her suit. The suit itself was of a black and white design generally seen on stallions rather than mares, but she pulled it off excellently. She clearly designed it to fit her form and to accentuate her cutie mark, since the diamond made out of four smaller diamonds was perfectly visible through a hole in the suit of a matching shape.
“That seems to be the case much of the time, unfortunately,” Renee said, shaking Affix’s hoof. “You look like you have a story.”
“I most certainly do, and we can definitely get into it, but first, dresses. Oh I love every last one of these colorful little flowers but they must go! I have the perfect one for you, Renee. Don’t you worry!”
“I have no doubt the perfection will be astoun- Great Heavens what is that?”
Affix had pulled a curtain off a pony-shaped mannequin. “Behold. I call it Five.”
“Why would you call something so fantastic such a mundane name!?” Renee blurted, placing her hoof on the vibrant green sleeves; the material unknown to Renee, soft and comfortable enough to send shivers up her spine.
“The art of the dress is within the dress itself, is it not? Who cares about names? You can name your own dress anything you wish! I own five Bertas.”
Renee stared at her.
“Joking. I’m not that eccentric. They all have different names. Benny, Berta, Bart, Beatrice, and Baroque.”
Renee glanced at Pinkie.
The party pony shrugged. “Don’t look at me, I’m not always a joke radar.”
Affix chuckled. “Ah, it’s always nice to see bewildered looks on my own, undamaged face. I am sorry if it’s a bit much, but I’m not going to change myself.”
Renee smiled. “Your pride in yourself is something to be admired.”
“Or to be ran out of town by an angry mob for daring to wear something risqué out in public,” Affix said, tapping her cracked horn. “Scar wasn’t from that. The scar’s from my world’s version of Discord. Less jokes, a lot more sadism and cruelty. Gave all six of us a permanent affliction of some sort or other so we would never forget him.”
Renee winced. “I’m so sorry.”
“I got it easy – after it healed it was just a visual disability, one that could be worked around. Rainbow’s wings stopped working, AJ got muscle atrophy, poor Twi lost her horn entirely… Merodi technology has fixed most of that now, thanks in no small part to your efforts in bringing us together, but it still happened.”
“Life is brutal, huh?” Pinkie asked.
“I am tempted to say you wouldn’t know, but you most likely do.” Affix smiled awkwardly. “Anyway, this is just my best fit for you. Feel free to look around the store and find anything else you want.”
Renee teleported Five onto her body, allowing the green dress with the natural vine-like highlights fit her body. Even the tail-hole in the back was perfect, something a lot of dresses didn’t bother with. So rarely found it be made comfortable. “You’ve certainly outdone yourself!”
“It comes with a headdress,” Affix said, pointing at the leafy laces wrapped around the mannequin's ears.
“Right,” Renee said, absent-mindedly teleporting it on to her, spending all her focus on the smooth feel of the fabric. “Simply divine…”
“I FOUND A DRESS FOR ME!” Pinkie said, pulling a red one off a nearby rack. The fabric had hundreds of little reflective plates all over, making the dress sparkle in every angle of light, almost like glitter.
Affix raised an eyebrow. “Huh… I don’t remember making that one.”
Pinkie put it on. It was surprisingly form-fitting to her body type, including the tail hole. Only one of her front hooves had a sleeve, the other completely bare. She somehow had also procured red teardrop earrings.
Renee raised an eyebrow. “Looks a little… I dunno. It’s pretty, bu-”
Pinkie pulled out her hammer and stood on her hind hooves only, smirking cheekily at Renee. The dress suddenly fit perfectly and looked amazing – though had it been a human dress, it would have been rather lacking since half of her chest was exposed. The dress was almost design-free, save for a curious eye icon sewn in that appeared just below Pinkie’s neck. She bounced around a bit, showing that despite the bottom part of the dress being form-fitting, she was still able to move with amazing agility. “I knew I’d find something!”
Affix put a hoof to her chin. “I really think I would remember designing something like that…”
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth – you’re getting paid for it!” Pinkie produced a small treasure chest filled with miniature doubloons.
“…Unconventional payment is accepted at this Rarity for You,” Affix said with a chuckle. “The dress of the crimson eye is yours.”
“Yay!”
Renee chuckled. “I’ll purchase this dress at checkout, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
Pinkie grinned. “Woo! Hey Renee, isn’t it nice to not have any interpersonal drama going on?”
“Why? …Is everyone else having interpersonal drama today?”
“Yep!” Pinkie grinned. “Corona’s feeling left out, Vriska’s struggling with odd-man-outness, Allure feels like a kid, and we haven’t even got to Nova’s thing yet!”
“Ah. Think they can handle it on their own?”
“Oh yeah, easy.”
“Then I’m going to return to my shopping.”
“Okie dokie loki!”
~~~
“Flutterfree, look at these earrings!” Eve said, pointing at a glistening pair of laria earrings shaped like hourglasses. She used her magic to affix them to Flutterfere’s ears. “Oh, they look great on you!”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, not like these silly little spring eyes that are just cute, but kinda silly.”
Flutterfree blushed. “Yeah, sorry about that. I couldn’t resist.”
“Oh I don’t mind!”
Corona let out a pained grunt. “Would you two just kiss already!?”
The two of them stared at her with blank expressions.
“I mean, come on, you two have been focused on nothing but each other the entire trip. Get it over with already! Chop chop!”
The pegasus and the alicorn were quiet for a moment. Then they both burst into laughter.
Corona stared blankly at the jovial pair of pegasus and alicorn, the latter with two annoying bouncy spring eyeballs on a hood. It was very distracting.
She tried to parse the reaction. “…Was this some kind of joke?”
“Wha – oh no no no no no!” Eve said, coughing to stop herself from laughing further. “Don’t go storming off, okay? This clearly isn’t what you think it is o-”
Flutterfree snorted, her hooves over her mouth.
“F-Flutterfree, stop, we need to stop making Corona confused!”
“I know… I know!” She put her wings over her eyes. “But it just came out of nowhere.”
“Nowhere!?” Corona blurted. “This didn’t come out of nowhere! I’ve been sitting here like a third wheel while you two talk back and forth about how cute the other one is or how great the other one looks, enjoying each other more than anything else here.”
Flutterfree and Eve weren’t laughing anymore.
“S-sorry,” Corona said, sitting down on a nearby chair. “I let my anger grab a hold of me again. It’s okay if you don’t want to talk magical theory, Eve. I was just… expecting something else.”
Eve walked up to her. “I… I’m sorry. We were ignoring you, weren’t we? …Not actively, but pushing you to the side.”
Flutterfree nodded slowly. “I didn’t know we were making you feel left out. I’m sorry for not paying enough attention to see that.”
“It’s fine,” Corona said. “I just… I’m just seeing things where there isn’t anything. …Right?”
“Oh, Celestia no, we’re not together,” Eve said. “That’s not my thing – last time I had romantic feelings toward anything I was a human teenager and I felt like the dumbest thing in existence afterward. And it’s definitely not Flutterfree’s thing.”
Flutterfree nodded. “It wouldn’t be… proper for me.”
“Ooooh, right,” Corona said, understanding. “But then… what’s going on?”
Eve and Flutterfree looked to each other and nodded. Eve spoke up. “You can touch us to find out. It’s not the simplest of relationships.”
“…You sure?” Corona asked.
“Very sure,” Flutterfree said. “Feel free to go beyond the surface memories.”
Corona dissipated the gloves around her hands and touched both their minds at once.
The emotions came first, as always – concern, minor amusement, nerves, and some very potent form of the love of friendship.
Then she arrived in a memory – a memory where Flutterfree almost killed Eve in her sleep, and then Eve did kill Flutterfree with a cruel trick. The Hunger Games. Corona had heard about this, but it hadn’t been something Eve and Flutterfree advertised. She hadn’t felt the need to pry.
The memory shifted to Rainbow Dash lecturing the two of them on what Loyalty meant. And how, now that they had both betrayed each other seriously, everything was going to change. They needed to not try to keep things the way they were and accept what they were going to become – a different sort of friendship.
The next set of memories were all blurred together. The two of them specifically going out of their way to meet up with each other – go to the park, go to lunch, sit around in the Canterlot Library, go for walks in the woods…
They may have taken Rainbow Dash’s advice a bit too far, down to the point where Eve would wait outside Flutterfree’s house after she was done working on some days so they could catch up on what happened.
Corona pulled back, blinking. “…A relationship based in… guilt?”
“Yeah we’re not too sure if it’s the healthiest thing either,” Flutterfree said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “It just seems to… work.”
“It’s turned us into really close friends,” Eve said. “…Frankly, I needed it, since I was drifting away from everyone. I became the Charter-Princess and just let my work take over, and… Well, I talked to Luna and Spike regularly outside of political engagements or crises - that was mostly it. She brought me back.” Eve pulled Flutterfree close. “And it was her idea to go on this vacation.”
Flutterfree nodded.
Corona stared at them. “…Huh. I’m not sure what it is between you two, but I’m fine with it.”
“I think the closest we could find was Vriska and Starbeat,” Eve said. “It’s clearly not the same thing – we have no psychological or biological drive to seek each other out – it just kinda happened.”
“We know everything about each other at this point,” Flutterfree said.
“Yeah… Everything,” Eve said, a warm smile coming to her face. “…It can be a very big load off your chest, having somepony who knows.”
Corona only vaguely knew what Eve was implying – and she didn’t push. She did feel like testing their bond though. “Right, here’s a test. Flutterfree, besides you, who is Eve’s favorite friend?”
“Pinkie,” Flutterfree answered without hesitation.
“Flutterfree’s is Discord, to the surprise of absolutely no one,” Eve offered.
Flutterfree smirked. “Oh look at you and your playful implications.”
Corona put a hand to her chin, smirking. “Oh, I think I’m going to enjoy this. Eve, embarrassing fact about Flutterfree. Go.”
A few things flashed through Eve’s mind that made her laugh – but were clearly a bit too personal to tell Corona. “You know how she’s partial to meat now, right? Due to the whole quasi-vampire thing?”
“Yeah…?”
“Whenever she cooks she’ll absent-mindedly lick the juices off the meat.”
“I’m sorry!” Flutterfree wailed. “I didn’t know!”
“You served me drool-covered steak the first time I was over. I think I have the right to never let you live it down.”
“Yeah, well, uh… You sing in the shower! Really loudly! And badly! And try to make dubstep noises with your mouth!”
“I use my horn too!”
“I can hear the mouth noises from veeeeeeery far away.”
“Man you two are lucky you aren’t humans,” Corona pointed out.
“Hm?” Flutterfree said, looking up.
“Knowing about shower habits implies things.”
Flutterfree rammed her face into a shelf, breaking a vase.
“You break it you buy i-” Citrine began before she realized who she was talking to. “Oh! Uh… On the house, Evening!”
“I’ll pay for it,” Flutterfree said, groaning. “Just let me wallow in cross-cultural embarrassment for a minute.”
Eve patted her on the back gently, right between her wings. Probably the perfect spot, Corona noted.
“You okay with this?” Eve said, turning to Corona. “Because I’m sure we ca-”
“I’m fine. You two are fine.” Corona smiled warmly. “Don’t worry about me. Though I would appreciate it if we could have a discussion on the magical science of these rocks eventually.”
“Well why not now, while Flutterfree is busy wallowing in cross-cultural embarrassment?”
Flutterfree’s ears twitched, but Corona saw a smile on her face she was trying to hide.
“There will never be a better time.”
~~~
“And this is her at her graduation! Look at that little hat!” Rainbow said, holding the image in front of Nova and Vriska for them to see.
“Delightful,” Vriska deadpanned, cutting down another flower.
“Oh, and here she is showing her love for danci-”
“PRISM IS IN COLLEGE FOR BUCK’S SAKE RAINBOW DASH!” Nova shouted. “Could you COOL IT!?”
Vriska and Rainbow stared at Nova, blinking. Vriska decided a smirk was the best reaction. “And I thought I had unresolved baggage I needed to deal with.”
“No, that’s not what this is about, you shut up for one minute. Rainbow, Prism is in college. She’s a grown mare – or at least old enough to not be heralded as the best thing in Equis!”
Rainbow facehooved. “Nova…”
“Didn’t your parents do this exact same thing to you? Didn’t you make a big deal out of it?”
“Uh, yeah, but then I realized lots of support was nice and totally shouldn’t be hated. Also, I don’t do what they do. I never do this when Prism is around. I don’t think she has any idea I brag about how amazing she is – which she is, by the way, totally amazing – because she’s her own mare.”
“I… Eh…”
“Let’s see… Hrm, I think I did a pretty good job parenting her, considering I was completely alone and working as a Wonderbolt.” She pulled a photo out of the album showing a white mare – Prism – with several friends standing outside of Eve’s School of Friendship. “I let her grow, and she showed me you can be an athlete and an egghead. If you were paying attention, you’d know that. Look at those glasses over here, surrounded by books and technical weirdness I can’t even hope to understand. Then look at this one. She beat me in this race, fair and square.”
Rainbow butted noses with Nova. “Maybe she deserves a little praise, huh?”
“It does get annoying, Rainbow,” Vriska pointed out.
Rainbow twitched. “All right, all right, I should stop, I know I should, but this is how I let out the inherent mothering instincts! I don’t wanna turn into my mom! Nova, you’ve met my mom. How crazy is she?”
Nova sighed. “Supportive to the point at which she’d break a wing for you to get a little extra adrenaline rush.”
Vriska blinked. “I want to meet this woman. She sounds hardcore.”
Nova tilted a hoof from side to side. “She doesn’t throw herself off waterfalls in barrels like Eve’s mom does.”
“Why have I never met any of your parents? …Aside from Renee’s.”
“We never meet yours,” Rainbow said.
“Trolls don’t have parents,” Nova pointed out.
“Oh. That’s lame.”
Vriska nodded. “The closest thing I had to a parent was a genocidal spider monster that made me kill other trolls to feed her. I believe I speak for all of Alternia when I say ‘good fucking riddance’.”
Rainbow blinked. “…I know nothing about trolls.”
“Moving back to Nova,” Vriska said, leaning down to be eye level with Nova. “Something’s up with you.”
“Uh… Would you believe me if I said I was just annoyed at Rainbow Dash?”
“Nope. Come on, I spilled my beans to you, you spill your beans to me.”
“Now I’m hungry,” Rainbow muttered.
Nova gulped. “Well… I… You see…”
“It’s about Stardust, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked.
Nova sighed. “…Yeah. I don’t… I don’t understand her. I love her more than anything, but I don’t get her. I hear you talk about Prism with such intimate knowledge, I see Allure with Minna all the time, I see Applejack’s family, see Jotaro’s own powerful connection, and I… I don’t understand my daughter.” There were tears in her eyes.
“Hey, hey. Not every parent is going to understand their kid,” Rainbow said. “I still don’t know how Prism became half-egghead. All I know is that it’s awesome.”
“But at least you’re able to connect with her. To be there with her. I…” she shook her head. “I’m the bad cop in the house.”
“…Huh?” Rainbow said, cocking her head.
“Sunburst doesn’t have the will or the guts to go up against her for very long – she’s able to get what she wants from him. More sweets, later bedtimes, etcetera. And since we don’t want her becoming spoiled, I have to be the one to play hardball with her all the time. No more TV, time for bed, no you can’t whine to get that toy, I won’t let you get out of your punishment young lady, blah, blah, blah…” Nova sighed. “I can tell she’s scared of me when I come home. It’s like she dreads the hour. Sunburst told me she watches the clock with a haunted expres-ssion…”
Rainbow put a wing around her. “Hey, hey, look at me.”
“I’m just trying to be a good mother and she’s scared of me because of it!” She wiped her hooves. “It’s not every night, but it’s enough of the nights. No matter how much I try to make up for it. And then Sunburst and I argue about it… And that doesn’t help…”
Rainbow slapped her. “Nova. Get a hold of yourself. Just because Stardust is afraid of you doesn’t mean you are a bad mother.”
“W-what?”
“What is she, seven?”
Nova nodded slowly.
“She’s just a kid, Nova. Prism was afraid of me at that age too. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I can be a bit… angry, at times.”
Nova let out a short snort.
“I eventually had to dial it back – but she needed that strong hoof in her life. If she only gets what Sunburst wants to give her, well…” Rainbow bit her lip. “…I didn’t get much in the way of a talking-to when growing up, at all. I was allowed to be as arrogant and selfish as I wanted, I could do no wrong in my parents’ eyes. That was a bigger mistake on their part than being overly supportive.” She looked to the sky. “Deep down, I do know that I’m not the best thing ever, or really that awesome. But it’s really hard to fight that now. I wish they’d been a little more strict, y’know?”
Nova blinked. “…Rainbow, when did you get so mature?”
“I had a kid of my own. A kid without a dad. It does things to your head.” She hit herself in the skull and laughed. “Takes a lot to get through my hard head. Vriska back there can relate.”
“Hey wait a minute I’m not getting dragged into this…”
“Hey, you just told us you were raised by a genocidal spider. How long has it taken you to fully move past that?”
“She’s over nine-hundred years old,” Nova offered.
“There we go,” Rainbow said with a laugh.
Vriska shrugged. “Eh, fair point.”
Rainbow turned to Nova. “The thing is… I don’t know if you’re doing perfect. Sounds like that household of yours has some problems.”
“Understatement of the century,” Nova muttered.
“Just… As long as you let your daughter know you love her, I think she’ll return the favor, even if she is afraid of you. Got that?”
“Yeah…” Nova said, wiping her eyes. “I think… I think I want to go home.”
“I’m sure Eve can get you a small ship and get you back to your family,” Rainbow said with a smile. “Hey Vriska, turn around, we’re heading back.”
Vriska laughed. “Looking for adventure, we found drama instead. Pinkie will get a laugh out of this.” She took a step back – and hit something metallic. She looked down. “What in – Holy…”
She was standing on top of a circular piece of white metal embedded in the ground. On top of it, obscured by a layer of dust and leaves, was a faded imprint of a green spirograph.
She leaned down and touched it with her hands. “This… is an exile command station.”
“…What?” Rainbow asked.
Vriska turned to Nova. “This planet was part of SBURB. One that suffered an apocalypse… and failed to get repopulated.”
Nova wiped her tears away. “…Can we use this to find your home?”
Vriska shook her head. “The Horrorterrors destroyed all higher functions of SBURB after the English incident. There may be a connection to the past in there, but not any other sessions… though there might be a clue.” She turned to Nova. “…Can you stay just a little longer? This… this might be important.”
Nova nodded. “…They can wait a couple hours. You’re right, this is important.”
Vriska smiled. “Thanks.”
~~~
Allure finally got bored. “That’s it, I’m accepting my role as the ‘immature’ one and stopping this relaxing!” She leaped out of her chair and walked out onto the balcony, taking in the beautiful sight of Farpoint City. She felt the wind in her mane – and she smiled.
She felt really good for some reason. Had she accepted a new role in life? She didn’t really think so. She didn’t think anything had really changed.
But she felt good anyway.
She closed her eyes and just let her curls fly around her face.
When she opened her eyes, she noticed Jotaro was standing next to her. “What brings you out here?”
“You,” Jotaro said.
“Huh? What about me?”
Jotaro shrugged. “Applejack too.” He leaned back, hands still in his pockets. “Just sitting there wondering about age, maturity, and the way we see others.”
“…Wondering what about them?”
Jotaro was quiet for a moment. “I ‘matured’ quickly, more than Applejack. My growth happened when I was seventeen. People died in the fight against Dio. But even before that, I was far too serious for a teenager.” He folded his hands together. “Too guarded…”
“And…?”
“Some people are born more mature than others,” Jotaro said. “I just… was. The events of my life do not describe why I am the way I am. If anything, the events in my life toned my stoic nature and maturity down, letting me know it wasn’t everything.”
Allure blinked. “I think I heard one of the Sweeties talking about this once… Yeah, Savior. The angel? Part of Rev’s church? Got into a philosophical discussion with someone I can’t remember about ‘nature vs nurture’. It stopped when Thrackerzod hit both of them on the head and said ‘it’s neither one nor the other you stubborn mules’.” Allure smirked. “That’s probably the answer.”
Jotaro nodded slowly, saying nothing.
“You don’t need to be ashamed of being the quiet guy who guards his emotions,” Allure said. “Just like I don’t need to be ashamed of what I am.”
Jotaro let himself smile. “…I think I’ll keep searching for my own middle ground.”
Allure smiled. “You do that.”
Jotaro looked about ready to respond – but then Star Platinum saw something. Jotaro whirled around and looked at the sky.
Allure followed his gaze. “What? What it is?”
“Something’s coming down,” Jotaro said. “It’s big.”
Allure gulped.
~~~
Pinkie had only bought the one dress. Renee had bought seven dresses, two sets of shoes, a ‘darling’ suit, and a set of long socks. Because they looked adorable and definitely not because Daniel liked her in socks. Definitely not.
Renee had returned to just wearing her standard hat – few of the things she had bought would do for standard wear – but Pinkie had kept the red dress on. They were strolling leisurely through the streets back to Platinum Suites.
“I dare say, that Affix was quite the mare,” Renee said as they passed by a library. “Truly unique.”
“Yeah, she was cool,” Pinkie said. “Oh, by the way, we’re about to get interrupted.”
Renee sighed. “I suppose a vacation where something didn’t go wrong was too much to ask for then?”
“Probably.” Pinkie admitted. In a flash of purple, the two of them were teleported inside the library, specifically the basement where the super secret books were kept. The many bags Renee was holding in her magic were torn from her grip, vanishing in another purple flash.
“Wh- hey! Thief! Give me my things back right now or I swear to the Tower I will run you through!”
“Calm down,” I said, coming out of the shadows. “I just teleported them to a pocket dimension. You’ll get them back after all this is over.”
Renee blinked. “…Twilence, right?”
“Yep!” Pinkie confirmed for me. “The uber-duper-seer of all things!”
“Understander,” I corrected. “I don’t see everything. For instance I had no idea you were going to threaten to run me through. That was a bit more colorful than I was expecting. By the way, Pinkie, how do you like the dress?”
Pinkie did a curtsy on her hind legs. “It’ll do great!”
Renee glanced from the Eye of Rhyme on my chest to the eye design on Pinkie’s dress. “You designed that?”
I nodded. “I did. I’ve been around awhile, I know what works sometimes. I needed to grab Pinkie’s attention so she’d take you by the library, and I figured I’d give her a gift while I was at it.”
“I did have to pay for it in doubloons,” Pinkie pointed out.
“You have a functionally infinite supply,” I retorted.
Pinkie giggled. “Yep!”
Renee adjusted her hat. “I’d still like to know what’s going on. Twilence, why have you dragged us to this dark room? What’s going on?”
“We have to be here,” I said. “Actually, we just have to be together in a place they won’t find us. I chose the library because I wanted to read books while I was waiting. Ever tried Finnegans Wake? No universe based on that work ever makes sense. Consistently, anyway.”
Renee raised an eyebrow. “Twilence, you’re being a Twilight and glossing over the important detail. I don’t know who they are. What is about to happen?
I nodded. “Right, right, sorry.” I shook my mane. “You see… Farpoint is about to be invaded.”
Renee blinked. “Pinkie…?”
“Hey, I didn’t know! I thought today was just a drama chapter!”
“She’s telling the truth,” I said. “Pinkie’s usually more short-term in what she can see, though I know she gets a few longer-term inklings. The problem is there hasn’t really been any foreshadowing to the invasion.”
“There was the Green Sun though.”
“That’s something else,” I said. “Happens a bit later, according to what I know.” I took out a notebook and started scribbling down a few things. “Regardless, we’re going to need to be together.”
“What about our friends?!” Renee blurted. “We have to warn them!”
There was an explosion outside that shook the very walls around us.
I smiled awkwardly. “They know now. They need to go on their own paths. We have to take a slightly different one, which is why I’m here.”
“What path is that?” Renee asked.
“FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON SONGS OF THE SPHERES!” Pinkie cheered.
“Pinkie, this is serious!” Renee wailed.
“Also, there’s another scene,” I added.
Pinkie facehooved. “D’oh! My bad!”
~~~
O’Neill was not on a cruise to explore the multiverse.
He was here for a very specific reason – a mysterious source had suggested that Farpoint was going to be invaded. Giorno had said the information appeared legitimate, so O’Neill had taken it upon himself to take care of it. He hadn’t gone out into the field in a while, which meant he’d need an excuse to take the Enterprise and park it in orbit around Farpoint. Everyone thought he was just there on the middle of a cruise – but he and his crew knew why they were here.
To defend against a possible attack.
O’Neill was not surprised in the slightest when the red lights started blaring. “Send out the standard hail, but start charging all weapons. What do we have?”
“Unidentified ship, running through database…” a science officer said.
The tactical officer gave a report. “No response to hails. We detect weapons activating on their ship. …Ships now, more have appeared from other universes.”
O’Neill furrowed his brow. “Send out that report to Merodi Universalis. We might need backup. …Multiversal communications are jammed, aren’t they?”
“That is correct.”
“Just our luck…” O’Neill gripped the armrests on his chair. “This is going to be a fun fight…”
“No ID on the ships, but we’ve found their insignia in our database!” the science officer reported. “Symbol identified as belonging to the Combine, a rumored high Class-2 Civilization that operates within the E-Sphere. Known for conquering low-level worlds with shows of excessive force.”
O’Neill smirked. “They won’t be expecting a multiversal flagship then. Good. Let’s surprise them. Fire everything.”