The League of Sweetie Belles

by GMBlackjack


Pit Stop (Sweetie Belle and the Tablet of Knowledge)

“OH NO!”

Cinder looked up from the book she was reading - The Science of Traversing Dimensions - to see Seren stare at her engineering console with a look of horror on her face.

Cinder leapt to her hooves. “What? What’s happening? Are the engines about to explode!?”

“There would be more than one person screaming if that were the case,” Swip muttered.

“What then? Are we lost? Stuck? Under attack!?”

Multiverse Heroes: Synthesis isn’t available for long-beam download!” Seren wailed, a dramatic tear falling from her eye.

“...What?”

“Only the most anticipated game of the relative year!” Seren said, lifting a hand to the air, producing magical sparks to accentuate her dramatic pose. “I have been waiting - in agony - months for this.”

“First I’ve heard of it.”

Seren shrugged. “I’m not the sort to express my pain.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Really.”

Seren was ignoring her, running out of Engineering. “Suzie! Suzie!”

With a curious shrug, Cinder closed her book and trotted after Seren. The mage leaped into the bridge and landed on top of Suzie’s console so she would be eye-level with the woman. “We need to go to headquarters.”

Suzie didn’t miss a beat. “Oh, the game’s out?”

Cinder cocked her head. “...Why do I get the impression I’m the only one who doesn’t know about this game?”

“Because you are,” Squiddy said, leaning on Cinder with a smirk.

“We haven’t exactly turned Swip’s console on since Cinder joined,” Suzie pointed out. “We shouldn’t expect her to know.”

“Suzie,” Seren said, grabbing her captain’s face. “The more time we spend talking translates to more time spent not having the game!”

“Oh, all right, we don’t have any missions, I suppose we can return to Celestia City for a pit stop. We just have to get everything organized for giving a summary report.”

“That’ll take too long!”

“You can wait twenty minutes,” Suzie said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s not like it’s possible to run out of digital copies.”

Seren pouted, crossing her arms - but she knew it was futile to continue arguing.

Suzie stepped away from her console and leaned down to Cinder’s level. “You haven’t seen a core Merodi Universalis world yet, have you?”

Cinder shook her head. “No… I haven’t! And you’re taking me to the capital?

“It’s where the primary League Headquarters are.” Smiling softly, Suzie continued, “you’ve seen a lot of chaos and questionable things out here in the multiversal wilds. You’re well overdue to see what we’re actually working for.” She gingerly tousled Cinder’s mane. “It’s going to be a little overwhelming to see it all at once, but I think it’s exactly what you need.”

Cinder smiled. “Overwhelming? I’ve seen a new world almost every day since I joined you girls, at this point I’m ready for anything.”

“Famous last words,” Squiddy chuckled.

Cinder, despite the growing knot in her stomach, took on a determined demeanor. “Bring it.”

~~~

They could have just opened a portal in Celestia City directly. It would have been much simpler and faster - but Suzie had Swip take the long way around.

The dolphin-esque Sweetie Ship tore a hole in the fabric of reality and deposited herself in the midst of a sea of stars, in orbit around a blue-green gas giant with a double ring system. Cinder was pretty sure this was impossible in her universe, prompting her to wonder what sort of physics would allow such a cosmic criss-cross to form.

But that wasn’t what they were here to see - they were here for the city that was in orbit around the planet. Celestia City, unlike most capitals, was not a stationary installation; rather, it consistently shifted universe, giving its inhabitants a new world to call home every few weeks.

Celestia City itself was somehow both a piece of art and an utter mess at the same time. It was clearly a mish-mashed hodgepodge of dozens of architectural styles sprawling out from a single center point, creating a vaguely spherical shape composed of crystal, metal, plants, and the occasional hunk of rock or magic energy conduits. There was clearly no overall plan in the city’s construction whatsoever, the result of continually slapping new buildings on the outer edges, eternally increasing the City’s mass.

It was easily the size of a moon at this point, casting a tremendous shadow upon one of the gas giant’s own rocky satellites.

All around Celestia City, portals opened and closed with endless bright flashes. Ships popped into existence all over the place - smaller ones like Swip heading into the city itself, while larger ones docked with exterior clamps that adjusted to suit the needs of the ship. Cinder got to watch as a city-sized ship was slowly grabbed around the midsection by an amorphous claw attachment.

It made her realize how big Celestia City really was. It was far too large to even be called a city, in her mind. Over a billion people lived in there, and the number only grew exponentially as time went on…

Swip moved into formation with several of the smaller ships, entering one of Celestia City’s many highway tubes, acting like a car on the interior of a cylindrical road. They moved along the section marked with soft blue arrows pointing forward - which took up most of the highway, only a small section of the surface area being reserved for ‘outgoing’ traffic. They zoomed past several holes in the tube where ships and hover cars constantly flowed in and out, moving like ants in a colony. There were no craft in the center of the tube, though there were some floating screens with helpful directions printed on them, along with a few announcements. ‘Blumiere wins mayoral re-election.’

“How do they not crash into each other?” Cinder wondered.

“The city’s AI drives them all when you’re on a highway,” Suzie explained, a smirk on her face. “Swip’s not in control right now.”

“I can change the destination,” Swip argued.

“And you wouldn’t be the one making the turns.”

“Hmph.”

Swip eventually came to an outgoing tunnel, making a smooth turn into a much smaller tube. They traveled along for about a minute before taking a turn out of the tube and onto a flat highway - one side had craft going one way, while the underside was the reverse. It clearly wasn’t as efficient as the tube highways, but efficiency wasn’t the point. The road was here so anyone driving along the ‘road’ could see Celestia City.

Cinder’s jaw dropped.

They weren’t zipping through a city. They were zipping through multiple cities. That was the only way Cinder could think about the sheer volume around them. Skyscrapers didn’t just rise up and up and up - they went from the ground to a ceiling several kilometers apart. Large spires of metal were lined in suburban houses, and she could see that the undersides of those houses had more houses under them, and presumably it went down even further than that. Some of the buildings moved, while others remained perfectly stationary but floating without any physical supports.

There were numerous neon billboards and screens all around the city - a few were three-dimensional projections, but those were a notable minority. As Cinder acclimated to the sights, she noticed that very few of the screens displayed advertisements. There were a few, but most were reserved for news, announcements, and the local equivalent of a weather report - though Cinder didn’t know yet why that would be needed.

‘Overhead Evening Sparkle encourages Cultural Division to display Skarn’s donated works in the Celestia City gallery’ was the biggest story apparently, since it was on multiple screens, though she noticed numerous other interesting ones. ‘Strange prophecies from mystics: who is the one with a silver tongue?’ and ‘Earth Shimmer stability improving, possible visit from Celestia City in the works.’

There wasn’t just so many things, there was also so much stuff happening. Just from a glance, Cinder already knew there were billions of lives in this City working hand-in-hand to create this truly enormous community. Behind every story on that billboard were hundreds if not thousands of people. Every ship, car, or other device she saw belonged to someone. She even saw a few dragons and other large flying people moving between the buildings along with the smaller hovercraft. It was astounding how intricate it was.

But they weren't done yet. The road took them out of the area of Celestia City that looked like a traditional city, entering a park. The trees were so dense and covered every surface so well that Cinder would have thought she was on a planet rather than inside an artificial moon. Here, people and animals walked with smiles on their faces. Humans and ponies were the most common thing she saw, followed by a strange race of neon colors with a crystal embedded in their bodies - but there were many others. Goblins, griffons, dragons, robots, bird-people, floating brain aliens, gray humanoids with orange horns, a swarm of bees that took the shape of a face...

All of them were walking through the immense park, appreciating the complex nature around them.

Swip switched areas again, this time running through a complex corridor of geometric patterns, every surface made of cleanly-cut neon crystal. The neon-crystal race was a lot more prevalent here, outnumbering all others easily. They walked to and from their many magitech bridges, every surface pulsating with glimmering light. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two of the beings combine into one much taller being.

Oh. Those are Gems. Can’t believe I didn’t draw that connection, I’d seen them referenced numerous times…

Her thoughts were once again scrambled as Swip kept moving - through an aquatic area, through an area with no gravity or atmosphere where strange beings bounced to and fro with ease, through an area made of shifting magic patterns that was hard for Cinder to look at…

And then they returned to a standard city area, complete with billboards and skyscrapers. Swip pulled off the neon highway and onto a docking tube. They passed by several buildings quickly since they were the only ones on this private ramp.

Then she saw it. Headquarters.

It wasn’t anywhere near as impressive as many of the other buildings she had seen on her journey through Celestia City, but there was something about seeing her cutie mark given such a place of high honor - towering over the road below with a shimmering magical glow, above the words The League of Sweetie Belles Primary Headquarters. The building itself was built into a ‘wall’ of Celestia City, making it look relatively small compared to the giant skyscrapers that criss-crossed the open expanse, but Cinder was smart enough to realize there were probably dozens of floors hidden past the unassuming revolving doors.

They didn’t take the doors - Swip was far too large for that. Instead they took a small ‘Private Entrance Only’ tube that went into the wall and directed Swip several stories into the ground. She eventually popped out into a large hangar filled with small ships. None of them looked quite the same as Swip, though many were colored in similar ways.

“Oh for the - Minfrim is being a sparkplug,” Swip groaned. “I’m here for one second and he starts commenting on how his last military op was the best thing ever…”

Minfrim - a box-shaped ship covered in guns - made a ‘beep beep’ noise that was heard by all the Sweeties on Swip.

“You’re going to end up scrap one of these days, Minfrim! You hear me? Scrap!”

He laughed - a strange digitized gargling noise.

“We’ll leave you two to catch up,” Suzie said, adjusting her uniform. “Seren, you go get your ga-”

Seren teleported out of Swip, her destination somewhere out of sight range.

Suzie rolled her eyes. “And I’ll go hand in those reports. I might be a few hours, depends on the situation. Enjoy yourselves!” And for the first time in a long while, she didn’t walk to the dimensional ring to leave Swip - she walked to the back of the hangar and pressed a button, opening the docking ramp.

She waved to every Sweetie and trotted to the hangar exit, soon blending in with the dozens of Sweeties moving about.

“Holy Celestia…” Cinder said, still gawking. Not at the structure - the interior of the League was rather simple, sticking with simple pastel colors alongside the white metal of the floors and walls. No, it was the sheer volume of Sweeties. She’d thought she’d gotten used to being around herself after being on Swip for a few weeks, but that was definitely not the case. In the hangar alone, she saw Sweeties with cutie marks, Sweeties without cutie marks, an earth pony Sweetie, a handful of humans, a few stallions, a batpony, a Sweetie with a midnight black coat, and what looked like a sapient onion.

Blink put a hoof on Cinder’s back. “Welcome to our home, Cinder.”

“Gimme a moment…” Cinder said, holding her chest. “This is… amazing, but it’s also…”

“Oh, wait until I show you around!” Blink said, pulling Cinder close. “This is just the hangar. We’ve still got the main room to show you, the research labs, the phone lines, the game room, introduce you to some of the Founders, and there’ll probably be time for an in-City mission.”

“Mission!?”

“Yeah, the League operates mostly within Celestia City, believe it or not!” Blink smiled. “Most Agents handle things within the confines of this floating mishmash of everything. Our team is a little unusual - it’ll do you good to see what some normal Agents do.”

“...So you’re police…?”

“What? No. Well, yes. Uh…” Blink pondered this. “With all the bizarre powers and interdimensional chaos about, a standard police force and the strict regulations that come with it tends to not be as effective. It’s better to have something under the purview of the Expeditions Division handle anything high-profile. They call it in whenever it gets too hairy - and we receive lots of reports from concerned citizens too. Simply being a Sweetie in Celestia City gets you a lot of respect, even if you aren’t an Agent yet!”

“Woah…”

“I know right? It’s awesome, the system’s totally rigged in our favor.” Blink giggled. “Now come on, let’s get you to the main lobby, there’ll be some cool stu-”

“MY NEMESIS, WE MEET AGAIN UNDER THE MOST UNUSUAL OF CIRCUMSTANCES!”

Cinder and Blink stared in shock at a cutie-markless Sweetie with ice-blue eyes galloping right at them. Cinder was alarmed to find that the Sweetie was looking at her, not Blink.

“W-what?”

“We never got to face each other when you visited my world, but now the duality of fire and ice will form the true conflict it was meant to have!”

Cinder’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’re that ice Sweetie? From the anime world? Your eyes weren't blue!”

The Sweetie grinned excitedly. “I got some contacts so I could have a ‘differentiating feature’ from all the other Sweeties! I’m Cryo now - a perfect name to oppose my NEMESIS, Cinder!”

“...Nemesis.”

“Yes! Ice and fire, a duel as old as time!” She lifted a hoof, generating an ice crystal in the air.

“...I thought your powers were temporary?”

“Oh, they were, but I talked to Discord. And since I was going to join a multiversal society, well, he decided to let me keep it.” She tossed an ice spike into Cinder, knocking her back. “Still completely harmless, though. Rarity insisted.”

“C-c-cold…” Cinder shivered, pulling the crystal out of her, just as unharmed as expected.

“I do apologize,” another Sweetie said - this time one Cinder recognized easily. Skuldie Belle, the future-seeing human from Earth Shimmer. “She was looking for you, and I knew… well, predicted you would arrive soon. She got decidedly excited.”

“No problem,” Cinder said with a chuckle. “I can understand the need for a ‘nemesis’, I guess. Though, Cryo, have you thought out a tragic backstory?”

“...Ponyfeathers, I need to work on that…” Cryo put a hoof to her chin. “...You killed my brother?”

“We don’t have brothers.”

“Exactly! That’s why it works!”

“...Keep working on it.”

Blink spoke up. “While I’m sure this is a great reunion, Skuldie, I am a bit confused. I thought Earth Shimmer was unstable…?”

“It is,” Skuldie admitted. “I left out of curiosity - and because major strides are being made in dimensional stabilizing technology here. I’ve been spending my time with local mystics trying to learn how to factor multiversal influence into my future sight. Results have been… mixed. I correctly predicted you would arrive, but I did not see Cryo’s ‘nemesis fangirling’.”

“I’m not even mad, that’s an amazing description,” Cryo giggled.

“Though… I have just made another prediction,” Skuldie said, hand to her chin.

“Is it us taking Cinder on a tour?” Blink asked. “Because that’s the plan!”

“No, actually, there’s going to be an interruption.”

“...Great.”

“BLINK!” a completely normal looking cutie-markless Sweetie yelled, scrambling into the hangar.

“Uh… which one are you?” Blink asked.

“What do you me-” she realized she was running past at least three Sweeties that were all but indistinguishable from her. “Right! Uh, I’m the Sweetie from the ghost world, Equis Ectempora? I go by Curio, but that’s not important.”

“Wow. We’re all here at once?” Cinder furrowed her brow. “That’s… cool!”

Curio ignored her. “I came here with Scootaloo and now I don’t know where she is! This isn’t good, Blink!”

“...What’s the worst thing she’d do?”

“Worst case scenario, she kills a Pinkie. I really, really don’t think that’s going to happen, but that’s worst case. Worst! Imagine all the things that aren’t that bad but are still pretty bad!”

“Then we’re going to find her!” Cinder declared. “...How are we going to find her?”

“She’ll need to be wearing the same kind of reality anchor rings I am,” Blink commented, checking the rings on her hoof. “We can probably trace them… But I’m not a technician.”

“I am!” Curio said, lighting her horn and tapping it to one of Blink’s rings, popping it open to reveal circuitry. “I… Well I’ve got a signal but I’m not sure how to follow it.”

Blink turned around. “SWIP! I know you’re listening!”

“...Apparently I’m the eternal digital slave. Bah.” Swip let out a digitized groan. “Here, I don’t have a specific location with that haphazard jurry-rig of a detector you have, and there are at least three sets of rings nearby, so good luck with having nothing more than a vague direction.”

Blink pulled out her phone. “Thanks! All right, let’s go hunt her down!”

“Even in the League, there’s adventure,” Cinder mused.

She was smiling brightly, the strain of the last week pushed to the back of her mind. The novelty of everything around her was simply too overpowering to dwell on those things.

~~~

Blink had told everyone to check the research labs first. It didn’t take long to get there - but it took a bit longer than it should have, mainly because Cinder kept gawking at all the unusual sweeties. The vast majority were white unicorn mares like herself, but there were so many others it was astounding. Alligators, robots, bugs, a talking flower…

“Spider-belle, Spider-belle, does whatever a spider can,” a unicorn sung, slinging overtop the group with webs shot from her hooves. Presumably she called herself Spider-belle. Cinder liked the red supersuit.

The rest of the crew had been right. This was overwhelming and then some. The fact that they had to find Scootaloo was one of the only things keeping her grounded in reality.

...Not that she really knew who this Scootaloo was. Cinder didn’t even know Curio that well, she’d spent the adventure in that universe getting her memory scrambled. But still, a Scootaloo was a Scootaloo, which meant a friend. Probably.

They had passed through the lobby, which had been a sea of Sweetie Belles, and were now in one of the basements next to the laboratories. There were less Sweeties down here and a lot more boxes filled with equipment such as microscopes, all-purpose scanners, and energy crystals.

Blink was fixated on her phone, tracking the closest signal. “Let’s see… along this conveyor belt…” She furrowed her brow, laying a hoof on the slowly rolling belt. “Why do we even have this?”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Engineers Yay!” Cryo offered.

“That’s… actually a good guess,” Blink said with a chuckle. “We can be so efficient and so impractical at the same time.”

“Yes, definitely sounds like us,” Curio said, tapping her hoof nervously. “...Are we close to Scootaloo?”

Blink shrugged. “Dunno.”

Skuldie put a hand on Curio. “Don’t worry - we’re going to find her. I see it.”

“Didn’t you just say your sight isn’t very accurate here?” Cryo asked.

“Not helping,” Cinder commented.

“Oh. Sorry. Wait, I’m not supposed to take advice from my rival!”

“I thought I was your nemesis…?”

“...Same thing!”

“If you’re smart you’ll listen even to those who disagree with you,” Skuldie offered.

“Within reason,” Blink commented, jumping onto the conveyor and trotting along it for a few meters. “There have been looooots of smooth talking villains.”

The conversation was cut short when Blink’s phone started ringing.

Blink groaned. “Oh for the - Cinder, we’re close, I’m transmitting the information to your communicator. Hopefully this won’t take long, but you never know if one of these calls is gonna take forever or not.”

Cinder nodded, taking out her communicator, finding that it now had a different setting besides ‘call Rarity’. At this rate it’ll become a full-fledged phone-thing.

“Yes?” Blink said into her phone, trotting behind a box. “Look, I’m a little bus- okay, yeesh, I get it…”

Cinder trotted forward, staying on the ground next to the conveyor rather than trotting on top of it. She led the not-Blink Sweeties along, discovering the signal getting stronger and stronger. It wasn’t too much longer before Cinder was pretty sure she knew where Scootaloo was.

Inside a large black box rolling toward the part of the conveyor belt that disappeared into a wall - a security checkpoint wall covered with pulsing, electrified drapes. “That’s it!” Cinder shouted, pointing. “Somepony grab it!”

Skuldie and Curio didn’t have much in the way of grabbing magic since their telekinesis wasn’t that strong - and neither did Cryo, but she wouldn’t have to grab it if she froze it in place, would she?

“Gotcha!” Cryo shouted, launching a spire of ice from her hooves at the box. It froze to the face of the box she hit.

“Woohoo!”

In her excitement she forgot to anchor the ice to the ground in front of her. The box was launched right through the checkpoint, sending more than a few sparks flying.

“Scootaloo!” Curio shouted, running toward the wall. Cinder shot Cryo a look.

Cryo flushed. “Er… whoops?”

Cinder shook her head. “It’s fine - come on.”

“Wh - that’s not how a nemesis acts!”

Cinder rolled her eyes, approaching the wall behind Curio. She had just laid her hoof on the door control next to the conveyor belt - getting an access denied message.

“...Do you think I can run through the way the box went?”

“You’d probably lose all your fur,” Skuldie commented.

“We need Blink, she has access,” Cinder said, laying her hoof on the door. “The problem is finding her. Maybe we can use th-”

It was at this point she realized she had just gotten an access granted message. The doors in front of her hissed as the compressors activated, sliding apart into the walls.

“...Since when did I get access!?” Cinder gawked.

Curio took a moment to stare at Cinder awkwardly before galloping into the new area of the labs. The interior was not a bunch of box storage, but rather a small room with several whiteboards covered in complex equations, numerous doors leading into deeper parts of the lab. There were a few Sweeties working that didn’t pay them any attention at first.

That is, until Curio tackled a box off the conveyor belt, popping it open - revealing several dozen packages of seemingly random technical components, and one very dazed looking Scootaloo.

“Scootaloo!” Curio called. “Wh - what were you doing in there!?”

“Bh-wha…?” Scootaloo shook her head. “Sweetie? What the fuck, I feel so tingly…”

“Scootaloo!”

Scootaloo stood up, checking the reality anchors around her hooves for a moment. “Fine, I was... “ she glanced at the other Sweeties in the room, pondering her exact wording. “Curious, and this muscular Sweetie told me about the boxes. So I started looking into them. Then this one slams shut for no good reason an-”

“You locked yourself in a box,” Cryo simplified.

“I did not!” Scootaloo huffed. “And you won’t spread that around if you know what’s good for you.”

Cryo chuckled. “Psh, I’m the only one who can decide what’s good for me. Are you suggesting you know me better than myself?”

“I’m suggesting that you have no idea what you’re getting into.”

“Good! That’s what makes life fun! Bring it.”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. “I... what? Wasn’t the ponies being idiots thing specific to our world?”

“Equis Ectempora,” Cuiro chimed in.

“Whatever.”

“It’s how her world works. Sorta.” Cinder rubbed the back of her head. “I’m really not sure how much of this is her putting on a persona.”

“As much as I need to!” Cryo said with a grin.

Scootaloo groaned. “This trip was a bad idea.”

“Scootaloo!” Curio gasped. “This was great until you went and wandered off! I was learning so much!

“Yeah. Sure. Meanwhile I got stuck in a box and didn’t even figure out what the things in the box were.

“They’re self-actualizing truncators,” Skuldie offered.

“...That was an alien noise that left your mouth. Explain.”

“I can’t, I just read the labels. She can explain.” Skuldie stepped to the side, revealing yet another Sweetie - this one in a labcoat with a tight glowing ring around the base of her horn.

“...Hello. I’m Tab. Yes, I can explain what a self-actualizing truncator is. But first I need to know what you’re all doing here. This is a secure area.”

Cinder laughed nervously. “Oh…”

~~~

“And here’s the in-person check-in!” Suzie declared, sliding into one of the League’s main offices. Which was to say, a relatively empty room with a big screen and a lot of chairs around a long table.

Currently only two Sweeties were in the room, a robot filly and a fully grown unicorn with red eyes and an aura of darkness - Sweetie Bot and Thrackerzod. The two founders were engaged in a game of cards.

“Suzie!” Bot declared, dropping her cards and ruining the game. “Set phasers to hug!”

Suzie laughed and pulled Bot into an embrace. “How’s my favorite robot doing?”

“Maximum cheer!”

“Sore loser,” Thrackerzod said with her signature deep, dark voice, glaring at the ruined game. “How goes things on the neighboring fringes, Suzie?”

“We’re not calling it the neighboring fringes,” Suzie commented.

“What are we going to call it?”

Suzie shrugged. “They’re just worlds in-between. I don’t see any need to change that.”

Thrackerzod shrugged. “You are the pioneer. I take it you’re here to give the summary report?”

“Yep, already transmitted and everything,” Suzie confirmed. “I’m letting my crew take some breaks.”

Bot pulled up the report on her internal connection to the League’s database, printing out a sheet of paper for Thrackerzod.

“...I don’t have to review that in front of her,” Thrackerzod commented, taking the paper and glancing at it regardless. “Minor incidents, one major incident. Ah, new crew member - I was wondering about that.” She folded the paper up and set it aside. “I really don’t need to look at this, I know you know what you’re doing.”

“You’re not the only one I have to impress.”

Thrackerzod shrugged. “You’re one of us.”

“Doesn’t mean they won’t go blow something out of proportion.”

“Your little ‘anime’ jaunt?” Thrackerzod asked with a smirk.

“Endless action fun!” Bot added.

Suzie nodded. “Not so much that as the accidental activation of U-Catastrophe.”

Thrackerzod quickly glanced back at the page. “Ah. Missed that. That is… unfortunate.”

Suzie nodded.

“But nothing went wrong, and nobody’s about to take that Stand away from you.”

“Something’s going to go wrong one of these days.”

“Guaranteed,” Bot confirmed, “but there’s so many other times it goes right!”

“The tin can’s right,” Thrackerzod added.

Suzie smiled awkwardly. “She has a habit of making points like that. I just have doubts sometimes, is all.”

“No need for doubts!” Bot chirped. “We’re in this together! And w-”

The door to the office opened, revealing a tall pegasus Sweetie holding a data pad. “Hello!” she said with a smile.

Suzie forced a smile. “Ah, Nausicaa! Wasn’t… expecting you.”

“I got Sweetaloo’s psych report,” Nausicaa said, holding up the data pad with her wing for them all to see. “I figured I might as well look through all the reports you sent.”

“Right…”

“Can this wait?” Thrackerzod muttered.

“The bureaucracy levels are too much,” Bot whined.

“This house of cards would fall apart without me and you know it,” Nausicaa commented, rolling her eyes. “And while this could wait, I only have a few comments - really I just wanted to see Suzie before she dashed off again.” She scrolled through the files. “Everyone’s psych profiles have improved significantly, I’m impressed with your leadership, Suzie.”

Suzie was mildly surprised to receive a compliment. “Thanks.”

“Normally I’d question the addition of a new crew member so quickly, but her effect on the rest of the crew has been surprisingly positive. Really, the only things I could complain about are nitpicks. Pretty sure you know what the worst of those is, but yeah. If I were a kindergarten teacher, you’d get a gold star.”

“Yay!” Bot said, clapping.

Suzie smiled. “I haven’t gotten an endorsement from you in a while. It’s… nice.”

“All you have to do is prove yourself,” Nausicaa said, putting the pad away. “Anyway, I’ll let you catch up with your old friends. I’ve got to go refresh the dimensional device directory. See ya!” She trotted out of the room, ruffling her wings as she did so.

“...Why one of us would bury herself in bureaucracy I’ll never understand,” Suzie said.

“Don’t you work with Celia?” Thrackerzod asked.

“She’s a special case. And she doesn't particularly enjoy it.”

“True enough. Want to join us for cards?”

“Are you playing with the eldritch rules?”

Thrackerzod gave her a ‘seriously’ expression and gestured at the softly screaming cards. “What else would I be playing?”

“The robot rules,” Bot beeped.

“No, we established the inferiority of the robot rules, the eldritch rules provide a dynamic no other rules can have.”

“That fleshy minds can't comprehend.” Suzie sat down and drew some of the screaming cards. “So of course I have to play.” She smirked. “Go fish touchdown, by the way.”

“Lucky draw,” Thrackerzod hissed.

“Actually, the probability of that specific hand is about one in three hundred an-”

Suzie laughed, allowing herself to relax and enjoy herself. She loved every member of her crew, but they still thought of her as the captain. ...Perhaps her connection was a bit closer than that, more akin to a mother, but it was still one above them. Here she was with equals, just playing a stupid card game.

She was already looking forward to dinner with Button and Railgun. She didn’t see them face-to-face too often these days. Every opportunity to return to Celestia City was a treat to the captain of the Expedition Team.

And the best part about this treat? She wasn’t in any danger of cutting loose.

~~~

“We were here to get Scootaloo,” Skuldie said, saving Cinder from her blank brain. “She was lost, and we found her through the reality anchor signal.” She took Cinder’s communicator and handed it to the scientist Sweetie - Tab? Cinder’s mind wasn't exactly clear enough for her to be sure that was the scientist’s name.

“That’s evident,” the scientist stated, examining the device. “Perfectly standard… readings are optimal…”

“Woah, where’d that tablet come from?” Curio asked.

Everyone turned to stare at her like she was crazy.

“...Please tell me you have a magic tablet floating in front of you,” Curio asked the scientist.

“I do, actually,” the scientist said - almost definitely Tab, given the tablet. “Most people can’t see it though. It’s an artificial intelligence that helps me manage my research and anything else I ask it to.” She furrowed her brow. “This is distracting us from the point. I now know why you’re in here - the question remains, how.”

“I, uh, apparently have clearance?” Cinder offered, managing to step out of her delirium.

Tab’s eyes darted around far faster than a normal unicorn’s should have been able to. It appeared as though she was looking at nothing - though clearly she was examining the invisible tablet for information. “Huh. It appears you do. Cleared by Suzie, nonetheless. Only basic clearance, but that’s enough to get in here.” She looked up from the invisible tablet and smiled. “Forgive me for being suspicious, things just weren’t adding up. You are certainly allowed to be in here. And before you ask, yes, clearance means you can bring others with you - at least at level 1. There’s nothing really secret going on here, we still file public reports, it’s just that we don’t want things like replication or theft happening.” She dusted off her labcoat - checking something on the tablet once more. “This is your first visit to Celestia City, Cinder?”

“Uh, yes.” Cinder said.

“Then why not extend your tour to the mildly-secret-but-not-really research sector? I don’t get to talk about my work to people other than my assistants, and that always ends up with mixed results.”

“That sounds great!” Cinder chirped, grinning brightly.

“Ahem,” Scootaloo said with a cough. “I’m still waiting for an explanation. I still have no idea what the self-activating trunk... thing is.”

“Self-actualizing truncator,” Tab said, picking up one of the devices with a hoof. It was small, metallic, and had two ports: red and white. “This takes a signal and manages it to a readable input - whichever one is closest. We call the process of adjusting to readability ‘actualizing’, and this does it all on its own. As for the truncator…” She furrowed her bow. “Truncate means to shorten, but it doesn’t shorten the signal in any way…”

“So the name’s stupid. Alright.”

Tab consulted her tablet, furrowing her brow. “You’re being helpful today.”

“It doesn’t know everything?” Curio asked.

“No. It sure tries, though,” Tab looked up. “Regardless, tour of my lab?”

“Yes,” Curio and Cinder said a little too eagerly.

“DID I HEAR A TOUR COMING ON!?” Blink shouted, sliding gracefully into the lab and tossing her mane back. “Because I want in on that action.”

Tab gestured with a hoof and led them through a large compressed doorway into a large room filled with endless tables, wires, and a few large machines hanging from the ceiling Cinder couldn’t possibly hope to identify. Unlike Celestia City itself, which seemed rather haphazard and disorganized, this space was neatly arranged into compartments. There were a few messy areas where things were being actively built, but for the most part all the microscopes and scanners were clean and neatly stacked, all the wires moved at right angles and were organized by color, and there was a large calendar screen one wall that displayed a nice color-coded to-do list for everyone who worked there.

“Welcome to LSB Lab 3. We have seven, but you won’t get to see most of those. Here we work on the cutting edge of dimensional technology. Currently, my specific projects are about creating the dual of the reality anchor, the reality bifurcator, where reality isn’t held constant, but allowed to drift and ripple constantly - a technology that has any number of uses. It could be used to reveal the invisible, trip up complex quantum systems, interfere with magic casting…”

Her words began to fade into the background of Cinder’s thoughts. Instead of being taken in by all the devices, however, Cinder was taken in by the ponies she was surrounded by. Of everyone here, only Blink was part of her crew - the rest of the Sweeties were people she had just bumped into by chance, and they automatically assumed that everyone else here were friends.

She was beginning to think she understood why the League was so popular. Friendship and comradery was just assumed here. The default reaction when meeting a new Sweetie wasn’t neutral, it wasn’t cautious - it was undeniably positive. She fully expected that if seven Sweeties were chosen at random from the League, they would be able to stand together and face just about any foe, all ready to have each other’s back.

Her grin widened and she let out a contented sigh.

“You look happy,” Curio observed.

“So do you,” Cinder countered.

Curio chuckled. “It’s just… this trip has been amazing. So many of me, so many of them so curious about everything existence has to offer. Scootaloo may not like it here, but this… this place is basically the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“I’m just thinking about how everypony just trusts one another,” Cinder said with a smirk. “Even Tab - she was concerned about us at first, but the moment we gave her anything, she was more than ready to show us around like old friends.”

“It’s really different from my world…”

“It’s different from mine too. We have some serious magic of friendship, but we don’t really have this.” She beamed. “...As crazy as today has been, and how overwhelming… I know I belong here.”

Curio shrugged. “I don’t have that feeling. My home is still my home.”

“And mine is too…” Cinder furrowed her brow. Was it? She hadn’t exactly gone home since she’d joined the crew, and she hadn’t felt homesick either. Talking to Rarity and Apple Bloom on the communicator had given her all she needed.

Am I supposed to be feeling different?

“Hold that thought!” Tab called - though not to Cinder, more to herself. “Hey! Entrapta! I’ve got a question for you!”

A human woman - clearly not a Sweetie - lifted up a welding mask with red lenses. She didn’t use her hands; those she kept firmly on the circuitry she was working on. Rather, she used her long purple hair like a pair of limbs to reveal her face. “Oooh, I like questions!”

Tab dropped the self-actualizing truncator on the desk in front of Entrapta. “Why do we call this a truncator? It doesn't truncate!”

“It truncates the amount of wires we have to use,” Entrapta offered, tinkering with her circuit without even looking at it. “Inaccurate but memorable name.”

Tab pulled up her tablet again. “That was simple. You should have got that one…” She shook her head. “Anyway, this is Entrapta, my number one assistant.”

“Oh, a Spike?” Cryo asked.

“Hah. Funny,” Entrapta said, laughing halfheartedly. “I get that a lot!”

“One hundred sixty-two times now,” Tab reported.

Entrapta rolled her eyes and turned back to her work.

“What’s the blue light mean, by the way?” Curio asked, pointing at the empty space in front of Tab.

“...Blue light?” Tab asked.

“On the back of the tablet.”

A confused expression appeared on Tab’s face. She turned the tablet over, and suddenly her face was overcome in shock. “What in the…”

Blink hopped over to her and waved her hoof around, removing the hidden nature of the tablet. It was a simple gray rectangle - with a blue disc affixed to the back of it. An alien device that clearly didn’t belong.

“...How in…” Tab turned the tablet over, quizzing the device as to what the blue light was. The more she learned, the more haunted she became. “Entrapta, I need a quantum reverberator knife, stat!”

“Always have one on me,” Entrapta said, absentmindedly taking a vibrating blue blade out of her pocket and tossing it toward Tab. Tab caught it in her hoof and stuck it onto the back of the tablet, prying the blue thing off. It didn’t take much effort - it popped off easily, losing its blue glow the instant it lost contact with the tablet.

Tab glared at the device. “How dare they…”

“What is it?” Curio asked.

“It’s an advanced scaretra. Scanner-replicator-transmitter. It was trying to copy my tablet…”

“How bad is that?” Cinder asked.

“The tablet has many issues, pitfalls, and questionable protocols for the alteration of one's mind,” Tab explained. “The League has agreed never to replicate it for that reason, using other technologies to accomplish similar tasks. The number of things the tablet could be used for if it was replicated…” She shook her head. “Luckily, it had only been taking readings for a few minutes, nowhere near enough to figure anything out, but…” She glanced at Cinder’s group. “...That means you’re probably the reason it was here.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!” Blink said. “None of them woul-”

Tab pulled out the tablet - still visible since Blink hadn’t removed her power from it. “There is a ninety-five percent chance that the attempt to duplicate my tablet was perpetrated by one of you. The other five percent is mostly composed of options where you’ve been framed by someone else.”

“Just five?” Cinder said, aghast.

“Yes. Just five.” Tab ran through some calculations on the tablet for a few seconds. “The most likely candidate is you, Cinder, followed by Scootaloo.”

“ME!?” Cinder gasped, gawking. “But I… I don’t even know what I’m doing!”

“You are an unknown Sweetie who didn’t go through the standard sign-up procedures who has been promoted to Agent alarmingly quickly, and just so happens to be the one who not only let all these Sweeties in here, but also are linked in some way or other to all the other Sweeties here. You visited all their worlds in under a month!”

“That’s just… coincidence!”

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Tab said - all trace of trust gone from her eyes, replaced with disdain.

Disdain mixed with a painful look of betrayal.

It didn’t matter if Cinder was really guilty or not - Tab knew that a Sweetie had tried to take advantage of her. A Sweetie, or somepony closely associated with a Sweetie. She had been betrayed by a pony she was supposed to be able to trust.

Tab turned her back to the group of Sweeties. “Entrapta, call League Enforcement. We’re going to need to run an investigation.”

~~~

LSB ‘jail’ had multiple beds, a plush couch, a wide-screen TV with 3D options, internet access, and a gourmet food replicator. The only indication it was a holding cell of any sort was the advanced magitech forcefield-bars keeping them from accessing the exit.

“...Wow,” Curio observed. “Extravagant.”

“You Sweeties are too fucking hospitable,” Scootaloo spat from her position atop a bed.

“The idea is we don’t want anyone we accidentally lock up to get that mad,” Blink offered.

“Too fucking late,” Scootaloo growled.

“Hey, you’re being framed, we’ll find out who did this.”

“Really?” Cryo raised an eyebrow. “It’s obvious she did it.”

“Shouldn’t you be pointing hooves at your nemesis!?” Scootaloo shouted.

“What? I mean, maybe, but this is serious! She wouldn't do that.”

Curio was clearly conflicted. “Scootaloo wouldn’t do this either! She might be a bit violent and grouchy, but she’s not like that!”

Scootaloo glared at her. “Gee, thanks.”

“...The point is, not only would you not do this, you don’t have the motive to do so. Plus you don’t even know how toasters work, you couldn’t do it even if you wanted to.”

Scootaloo rammed her head into a wall.

“Skuldie?” Curio said, turning to the human. “You can see stuff. Can you…?”

Skuldie had her hands on her hair, clearly trying not to let out a frustrated hiss. “Every time… one of you talks… the future changes…”

“Oh. Should we stop talking?”

“NO DON’T STOP TALKING!”

Everyone was taken aback.

“Just… act normally?” Skuldie pulled on her hair. “We don’t want a particularly horrid alternate future to crop up even though it’s horrendously unlikely and my powers are just on the fritz and…” she took a deep breath. “Let’s pretend I’m not here.”

“Well now I’m curious, what kind of fucked up shit are you even seeing?” Scootaloo asked.

“Scootaloo!” Curio chided.

“I kinda wanna know too,” Cryo added.

Skuldie looked up, pupils shrunk to pinpricks. “Lots. Explosions. But then there are flowers everywhere. Everyone’s eating cake. Then I see Celestia City exploding followed very quickly by there being two of them. Something quantum or other I don’t know. There’s a silver tongue. And then there’s a version of me telling me to ignore everything I see because the ‘flow’ has changed and I don’t know how to adjust for that yet.”

Cinder walked up to Skuldie and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey. It’ll be okay. Suzie and the other Sweeties will come here and sort this all out.”

Skuldie nodded, trying to even her breathing.

“Blink, do you think you can… shroud her, or something?”

“Not in here,” Blink said. “The ‘prison’ has the most advanced observation technology in the League. I won’t be doing anything obfuscatory.” She tapped the force field with a hoof, prompting a large spark to erupt. “This is what it takes to keep me imprisoned, by the way.”

“Geez…”

“Cinder, for what it’s worth, I know you didn’t do it.”

Cinder nodded. “I know. Thanks. We just… need to find a way to get Tab to realize that. Which means we wait for Suzie.”

“Suzie can’t always help you,” a Sweetie said. Cinder turned to see a tall pegasus Sweetie holding a data pad.

“...Who’re you?” Cinder asked.

“Nausicaa. I am an Agent who specializes in paperwork and criminal investigations.” She pressed a button on the wall to drop the force field and slide the bars into the floor. “Blink, we know you didn’t do it, you’re free. Get out of there.”

Blink looked like she wanted to say something - but in the end just dejectedly walked out, taking a position at Nausicaa’s side. The force field shot back up, bars and all. “Why’d you do it, Cinder?”

“I didn’t!” Cinder retorted.

“Yeah, she didn’t!” Cryo said. “My money’s on the Scootaloo!”

“...I don’t think she did it,” Curio said, softly.

Skuldie had regained enough of her composure to nod in agreement with the sentiment of Cinder’s innocence.

Nausicaa glowered. “You’ve managed to make all of them vouch for you. They barely know you. That’s suspicious. You come into the lives of the Sweeties on the Expedition Crew almost randomly, and they take you in without question, bypassing the normal protocols. You’ve been able to acclimate to the drastic changes in the world around you with ease. This isn’t normal, Cinder.”

“I-I’ve just been shown a lot!” Cinder retorted. “And it hasn’t been easy! I’ve seen ponies die! I may look fine, but I’m not!

“...Sweetaloo appears to have given you some pointers…” Nausicaa mused.

“What?”

“I’m the one asking the questions, Cinder. Now, I want you to explain to me exactly h-”

“THAT’S ENOUGH NAUSICAA!” Suzie shouted, storming up behind her, furious.

“Suzie, I am questioning the witne-”

“She. Didn’t. DO IT!” Suzie bellowed. “She is a kid! A kid who barely has any idea what’s going on and is getting by on the seat of her pants! She has a good heart, a wonderful spirit, and the innocence all of us crave. You are not going to take that from her.”

Nausicaa let out a dejected sigh. “You’re letting your anger get the better of you again.”

“You’d be angry if you were in my shoes.”

“I would not be angry if Blink were being held by you under suspicion of criminal acts. No one should be above scrutiny, not even those close to us.”

Cinder tried to catch Blink’s eye - but the mare refused to look up from the ground.

Suzie growled, tapping her fingers together to relieve some of the strain in her. “Fine. Regardless of anger, you’re still going to release her, she didn’t do it. I’ve lived with her for three whole weeks. She simply does not have the capacity to do this.”

“I need to see that for myself.”

“I’m vouching for her.”

Nausicaa’s expression became disgusted. “Suzie, do I need to remind you that you do not have a very good track record for judging your own crew?!”

Cinder could see the power behind Suzie crack away like a plate slammed onto concrete. Blink audibly winced at the comment.

Suzie stuttered. “N-nausicaa, this is different.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Now pleas-”

“Get off your high horse,” Sweetaloo spat, trotting to Suzie’s side to support her. She shoved a ream of paper into Nausicaa’s face. “This is my entire analysis of Cinder’s psych profile. This includes transcripts of all our sessions, and while I can’t give them to you without her permission, I will vouch that her psyche simply does not have the capacity to pull something like this off.”

Nausicaa looked at Sweetaloo in bafflement. “Sweetaloo, yo-”

“I’m doing my job, Nausicaa,” Sweetaloo interrupted. “Is it not to your satisfaction?”

“...I will accept this if she gives me permission to see what is contained within,” Nausicaa said.

Sweetaloo gawked. “Nausicaa, this i-”

“I have no secrets, read whatever you want!” Cinder shouted.

Sweetaloo turned to Cinder. “Cinder, you don’t have to. At this point Nausicaa is just being unreasonable.”

“I just want this dumb fight to end,” Cinder said, shaking her head. “This entire fiasco wasn’t supposed to happen - it’s freaked Skuldie out! Please, let’s just end this. I’ll publish those conversations on a public board if it’ll help get this over with.”

“...I’m convinced,” Nausicaa said with a sigh. “You’re free to go, Cinder.”

“...I’m going to stay in here until everyone else is cleared too,” Cinder said, folding her hooves in defiance.

Blink twitched.

“Oh, no, Blink, I didn’t mean…”

Blink adjusted her shades. “No, no, it’s fine, I…” She glanced at Nausicaa, gulped, and decided to shut up.

Nausicaa shrugged with her wings. “Unfortunately I cannot legally keep you in this cell if I don’t have you under official suspicion. Furthermore to prevent further interruptions, I am asking that all non-suspects vacate the premises.” She opened the force field and took Cinder out.

“...Merodi Universalis isn’t about the letter of the law, Nausicaa,” Suzie grunted. “It’s about the spirit.”

“And you no doubt could easily win that argument given enough time, resources, and heartache,” Nausicaa confirmed. “Do you really want to do that over a small investigation and jeopardize my investigations into the true culprit?”

Suzie shook her head. “...No.”

“Good.” Nausicaa turned back to the cell, waving Suzie and the others away. However, before they left, the pegasus sighed.

“Look… Suzie, I know we have our differences. And I know I’m… a bit of a hypocrite, to be honest.” She looked to the human with sad eyes. “...If I’m too rigid and unwavering, you’re too much of a free spirit.”

Suzie’s expression softened. “Nausicaa… We may disagree. A lot.” She smiled softly. “But we’re still Sweeties.”

“Standing together against all odds…” Nausicaa nodded. “Until next time. Here’s to hoping we can have an encounter where we don’t come to blows.”

“That’ll be the day.”

“Quite.”

Suzie led Blink, Cinder, and Sweetaloo out of the room. Then she pulled Cinder up into a big hug. “...I’m sorry.”

“...I’m sorry,” Blink said, hugging her back. “The fact that I was there…”

“Was no fault of yours. If anyone deserves the blame, it’s me.” She smiled sadly. “If I was a smart rule-abiding citizen, I would have put you through training first. And yet, I can’t bring myself to regret bringing you with us.”

Cinder smiled sadly. “And despite it all, I wouldn't change a thing.”

There was awkward - but joyous - laughter all around.

~~~

“...do you ever have a day that isn’t full of the most ridiculous over the top stuff?” Apple Bloom asked from Cinder’s communicator.

“No, dear, she doesn’t,” Rarity said from behind her. “Not a single day has gone by where she hasn’t had something absurd. Or dangerous. Or borderline traumatic.”

Cinder giggled despite herself. “Yeah.” She was laying on her bed in Swip, taking a little break from all the excitement.

“So who actually put the thing on the tablet?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I dunno,” Cinder asked. “I think the investigation is ongoing. Nopony’s found anything as far as I know.”

“...Well Ah wanna know.”

“I’m thinking it’s the five percent option. Somepony tried to frame us or use us. Nopony there really has it in them - and even if the Scootaloo did, Curio’s right, she doesn't seem to have the capability to me.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that!” Apple Bloom chuckled.

“Definitely not!” Cinder said with a laugh.

There was a knock at the door of Cinder’s room. “Come in!” she called.

The door opened, revealing the last Sweetie Cinder had expected to see at her door - Tab. The scientist had a conflicted expression on her face.

“...I’ll call you back,” Cinder told Rarity and Apple Bloom, hanging up. “Tab…?”

“I’m… sorry,” Tab said, nervously scratching her hoof.

“It’s okay. What you did made sense.”

“Yes. That’s the problem.” Tab slumped down, sitting on one of Cinder’s loose pillows. “I did what made sense. I listened to the tablet, and my logic, again. I’m supposed to have moved past that.”

“...I don’t get it, sorry.”

Tab looked at Cinder sadly. “This tablet… It was forced upon me by random chance on my home world. It jump started a huge adventure about ancient ruins and the fate of my Equestria. Ruined my magic in the end - that’s why I need this ring around it. But it did something more than that. I was just a filly, but I told the tablet I wanted it to make me smarter. To let me figure things out on my own, instead of listening to it.” She paused. “It rewired my brain. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it basically removed my empathy, innocence, and intuitive understanding of others. Not completely, but it shoved the ‘unimportant’ stuff out of the way in exchange for quote-unquote, ‘genius’.”

Cinder nodded, paying rapt attention to Tab’s story.

“I’ve spent my entire life since then trying to regain that,” Tab said with a sigh. “And on good days, I like to think I’ve done that. That I can look at a pony and make a good judgment of their character. Today… well it’s one of those fun ‘double fails’. I trusted you initially, then, thinking I had failed, I over-corrected, not thinking at all what such an accusation might mean to you or the Sweeties there. Yes, I had to do something. I could have been nicer about it. I could have respected you more.”

“The fact that you bothered to come here and apologize makes me think you’re doing better than you think.”

Tab smiled sadly. “You’re not the first to say that. You probably won’t be the last. But we’re all so skewed in our perceptions, Cinder.” She looked at her tablet, not that Cinder could see it. “I lost the tablet, once. I eventually decided I needed to get it back so I could figure out how to undo what it did to me. But once I got it, I…” she sighed.

“You would have given up what you were then to be what you once were.”

“Both Tabs couldn’t exist,” Tab said sadly. “And I wanted them too. And I never realized this - never let myself think it - until that last moment. ...This tablet can cause a lot of pain. Even if you just give it to people as an education tool and not try to exploit it as a weapon, it can easily cause irrevocable psychological damage. I’m living testament to that.”

“You seem fine to me.”

“I… am. But I’m also not. It’s not really a definable thing. And I don’t like that. ...The part of me that’s the ‘genius’, anyway.”

“I think you’re being too hard on yourself, trying to compare yourself to your past, or some idea, or something. You should just live in the moment, being you.”

Tab shook her head. “...If only it were that easy.” With a deep breath, she stood up and put on a cheerful smile. “Listen, if you or your crew need anything tinkered with, my door is always open. Just drop by and use that handy-dandy base clearance of yours to say hi.”

“I will!” Cinder said, winking. “See you around, Tab!”

“Yeah. ...And just in case you haven’t heard yet, Nausicaa’s called off the investigation. There wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute anyone.”

“Oh… so we don’t know who did it?”

Tab shook her head. “No… and that concerns me greatly.” She left without another word.

Tab waved - and left Cinder alone in her room. She pulled out the communicator and called her sister again. “Well, I feel a strange mixture of happy and depressed. Didn’t think that was possible… Eh who am I kidding, you know what my life’s been like the last few weeks, it’s not that surprising.”

~~~

“And at last, it’s time for the star of the show to make her move,” a Rarity said, trotting up to the doors of Swip - speaking with a decidedly comedic Australian accent. “Watch and learn as Mattie makes her entrance, striking a pose like a knife across skin!” She stood up, showcasing her tall leather boots to nobody in particular. She stroked the dual whips at her side like they were folded wings, and she shook her rump rather suggestively.

“Please leave,” Swip beeped.

“Oh come on!” Mattie pouted. “I haven’t gotten any screen-time and you’re just going to go waltz off into the cosmos again and leave me here! Alone! Without a plot thread in sight!” She put a dramatic hoof to her head and swooned - purposefully landing in an awkward and painful position. “Hrm… I’d give that a two. I need to come up with more awkward ways to fall… Perhaps if I angle my tail between my legs and pull really hard… Oh that sou-”

“Would you stop talking?”

“Never! The world must endure the simultaneous punishment and delight that is Mattie ‘Rarity’ Belle! None shall escape the raunch! Especially not you, since I can tell your discomfort with my presence is going to become a running gag. Shall I start the clipshow of our fabulous moments together already?”

“I am being harassed by a unicorn! Somebody help!”

“Psh, if I was coming onto you you’d know it. There’s little ambiguity when someone’s attracted my attention.”

“Don’t you have better things to do?”

“Swip, let me put it plainly. My job is to tell everyone where the story is. Guess what? This is where the story is. So let’s revel in it. I’d suggest a montage but this hangar is so boring I doubt it would work. I’m the only thing keeping this show running.”

“Right, whatever, what can I do to make you leave?”

“Create some resolution! Like, oh, introducing me to someone aside from yourself?”

Cinder was suddenly teleported outside Swip, blinking. “What i-”

“Hello my dear!” Mattie said, placing a booted leg around Cinder’s shoulder. “I’m so glad we finally get to meet! I was dying with anticipation over here ever since your adventure began, waiting for those rosy cheeks to grace my eyes!”

“...What?”

“Crikey, you’re still pretty clueless, aintcha?”

Cinder cocked her head. “Who are you?”

“Mattie. One of the oddball members of the League. Pushing the rating since… some year, I don’t even know really.”

“Rating?”

“Ah, little one, see, the legends speak of an overarching power called ‘the rating’ that determines how much ‘stuff’ I can spout out of my mouth. Previously, this was dreadfully limited, but in this case I can talk about di-”

“Mattie, stop corrupting the youth,” Squiddy said, poking her head out of Swip.

“...Those kinds of jokes are overrated anyway,” Mattie said with a sigh. “I am not corrupting her, I’m expanding her horizons!”

“Cinder, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Nope!” Cinder responded.

“Thought not. Mattie, get lost.”

“You can’t get rid of me forever!” Mattie shouted, acting as if she were being pushed away by a tidal wave. “I will be back! And everyone will stare at all the plots!”

“I hate her and her double meanings,” Squiddy growled.

“You’re the one who doesn’t say you’re shooting ink!” Mattie called as she trotted away.

“That’s different!”

“It really isn’t!”

Cinder shook her head. “...I’m going back into Swip. You two keep arguing about… whatever it is you’re arguing about.”

Mattie was suddenly right next to Cinder - there was no sign of a teleport spell.

She lifted Cinder’s tail and stroked it with a warm smile. “You’re something special Cinder. Don’t think of yourself as just another Sweetie. Mate, you’re so much more than that, never forget that. Also, don’t forget me, especially when you realize what Squiddy’s so upset about at the end of the scene.”

She started trotting away once more. “Also, final piece of advice, swish the tail more, the stallions will love it!”

“...Bye?” Cinder said, cocking her head. “...What’s her deal?”

“I’m not explaining shit,” Squiddy muttered, marching back into Swip.

Seren appeared out of nowhere, grabbing Cinder. “Cinder. I have. The best game. In the multiverse. We are going to play it. All night.”

“...Maybe not all night but I’ll pla-”

Seren teleported her into Swip, leaving the hangar relatively empty and boring once again.

“Told you,” Mattie commented from atop a pile of unloadead cargo. “Don’t go yet! Need to wait just a little bit for…” She held a hoof to her ear.

It should have been impossible, but the sound of Cinder’s “EEEEEEW!” met her ear, bringing a delighted smile to Mattie’s face.

“And my work here is done! Until we have the grace to meet again! G’day, and try not to think about it.” She giggled. “You’ll fail though.”