He hummed an old familiar tune late that night. Nobody was around to hear him humming or they would have said something. Not that it mattered, nothing really did. He paused before he began to hum the next verse as he typed on his omnitool. He closed all external connections and set it to privacy mode. Privacy … the one thing he really wanted right now.
He closed his eyes and the memories flooded his mind. He hated them, hated how they made him feel, and hated what they clearly said about him. He needed to get away, but where. And how?
As he sat in the darkness of his study humming the next verse he realized that there was one place they wouldn't expect him to go. And one way that he could get there. His desires filled him with determination, and he could see the flowers clearly now. A fitting enough place. In a flash of green he was gone.
Lucca rolled over to find she was alone in bed. This wasn't too uncommon, James probably had work to do, or another late night visitor. Or he visited someone else late at night. Her omnitool blinked to life briefly as she sent him a message before climbing out and getting to the shower.
Starlight was curious about her glowing cutie mark. This was the third time she'd been called by the map, she knew that it called based on what was needed but her problems were never really straight forward, and always about family. She grinned as she walked out of her room. I've got this, no problem.
The glowing was really pretty. Though Derpy couldn't help but wonder what was causing it. Somewhere she knew she had heard about glowing cutie marks before but she couldn't remember what it was. With a shrug she left for Sugar Cube Corner to get some muffins. That sounded good about now, nice warm muffins.
It was so close to nighttime that Luna decided that unfortunately Twilight would have to wait, even though she knew the urgency of her glowing cutie mark. She prepared a scroll to inform the Princess of Friendship that she would be there shortly. She didn't like having to put off setting out but she was responsible for the moon and had to do her duty to all of Equestria. She closed her eyes momentarily and with a quick spell the message was off.
Spike was glad that these messages weren't frequent. No one in their right mind enjoys the sensation of indigestion. He could tell the message was from Princess Luna from it's seal, not that it mattered, it was still for Twilight. He knew right where she was, where she always was at this time; reading in the library.
As Starlight opened the door she saw Spike walking towards the Library with a scroll. “Hey Spike. Guess Twilight's got some Princess stuff going on.” She casually said.
Spike was about to tell her the message was from Princess Luna when he noticed that her cutie mark was glowing. “Wow, I guess Twilight's going to be busy. Between the friendship mission and this letter from Princess Luna.”
Starlight froze as she considered the scroll. “Oh no, you don't think the Princesses are fighting again?”
Spike stopped at the door as he thought about it. “Well, if they are then they're not just letting things deteriorate this time. Besides, I'm sure this has nothing to do with the Friendship mission.” He smiled as they both walked into the library.
Twilight looked up from her book as the door opened. “Oh, hi … Starlight? Another friendship mission? This is amazing!”
“Yeah, and you've got a letter from princess Luna.” Spike added as Starlight was about to speak up.
“Thanks Spike.” Twilight said as she opened the scroll. It didn't take her long to see that Princess Luna had been called for a friendship mission as well. Twilight gasped as she shot out of the chair and ran for the throne room to check the table, simply repeating “no” over and over.
Starlight's face fell as she thought she'd have to do another mission with the sister princesses.
“Maybe it's not as bad as you think. Maybe Luna's just coming along with you for a friendship mission.” Spike unhelpfully offered.
“How is that better? I mean, it is because I'm not holding Equestria's fate in my hooves, but what kind of problem needs a Princess to solve?” Starlight asked as she began to panic.
“Twilight goes on these missions, and she's a princess.” Spike said with a grin as he led them towards the map table.
“Yeah, but she's the Princess of Friendship. You'd expect her to be called on these things.” Starlight explained as they entered the throne room and watched Twilight run around the table. “Uhm, What's wrong Twilight?”
Twilight looked up at her, confusion and panic painted on her face. “I don't see your cutie marks anywhere on the table.”
Sugar Cube Corner had closed for the evening, but Pinkie Pie usually kept a few muffins for Derpy. She really liked Pinkie Pie, no matter how she messed up Pinkie never got upset with her. In fact Pinkie tried to make her feel better about her mistakes.
Pinkie Pie smiled at Derpy when she walked in. She had her basket of muffins ready to hand over and was about to when she saw Derpy's cutie mark glowing. With a gasp she dropped the basket and ran for Derpy. Derpy watched heart broken as the muffins hit the floor, they had looked so good too.
“Derpy, this is awesome! I am so jealous!” Pinkie Pie happily shouted.
“Of what?” Derpy asked, still fixated on the wasted basket.
“Your cutie mark, it's glowing! You know what that means!” Pinkie said as excited as ever.
Derpy suddenly remembered that it was glowing. But no, she had no idea what it meant. “Yeah, it's real pretty.” She said as she turned to look at it again.
“Yes!” Pinkie exclaimed before she caught herself. “I mean, no. I mean it's pretty, but it also means you've got a friendship mission!” Pinkie emphasized the announcement with an explosion of confetti from her party cannon. “Ooh, I want to know where you get to go. This is so awesome!”
“Friendship mission?” Derpy asked. She knew she had heard of it, but she had no idea what it was or meant.
“It means that you get to go somewhere super fun and awesome and help ponies be friends again! It's super cool, like one time Rarity and I went to Canterlot and helped out this restaurant and made the father and daughter friends again. And got rid of all that stuffy flavorless food that had infected the other restaurants. It was so neat!” Pinkie Pie managed to say in one breath. Pinkie Pie stared smiling at Derpy for a moment as she took it all in. “Why are you still here? You need to go to Twilight's castle to find out where your friendship mission is.” She added as she pushed Derpy out of Sugar Cube Corner.
Derpy had really wanted those muffins, but it was too late now. With a shrug she began to fly for Twilight's castle.
Pinkie Pie hung out of her window as she shouted at Derpy. “I want to hear all about it when you get back, Okay?”
“Well, maybe something is wrong with the table.” Starlight suggested. “I mean I kind of broke the table once, so it's possible that it could be a mistake.” She didn't believe her own statement as she said it, but Twilight's panicking and frantic search of the table was even more troubling than the thought of helping Celestia and Luna get over another problem.
“Do you want to be the one that has to tell Princess Luna that it was the first false alarm the table has even given? And that she came all the way here for nothing?!” Twilight said as she sat on the table panicking.
As she spoke there was a loud crash just outside the door.
Twilight screamed as her mind raced. “She's here!”
“I don't think that was Princess Luna.” Starlight said as she thought about it. She opened the door and saw Derpy Hooves trying to navigate the castle, she had just knocked over a vase as she was backing into a tapestry.
“Derpy?” Starlight said as she watched her accidentally pull down the tapestry and cover herself completely. Starlight shook her head as she walked over to the unfortunate pony. “Here let me help you.” She offered as she lifted the tapestry enough for Derpy to look out. “What brings you out here this late?”
Derpy stared blankly for a moment before she slapped her own face. “That's right, Pinkie Pie said I needed to come her because my cutie mark was glowing.” She explained.
Starlight's eyes could not physically open anymore even though it felt like they were. “You're cutie mark is glowing?” She asked as she lifted the tapestry up further to confirm.
“Yeah.” She laughed. “It's really pretty.”
Much to her astonishment as she lifted the tapestry she noticed the magical glow. “Oh this is going to be interesting.”
With the moon raised Luna flew out to Ponyville towards Princess Twilight's castle. She always enjoyed visiting when she could, the problem was that there was so little time to visit as there was usually some sort of emergency that needed her attention. This was no exception, but she could say hi while she discovered where she was to be going.
She landed at the front door and calmly walked inside towards the throne room. Twilight was most likely waiting for her with as much information on the location as possible.
Starlight's and Twilight's search was going nowhere as they scoured the table looking at every last inch of it. Derpy had gotten distracted by the chandelier and was blankly staring up at it when she saw something. It was as if a piece of the map were hanging like one of the crystal ornaments. It was then that she saw something moving around. Twilight had said that their cutie marks would circle over the place they were needed.
“Twilight … I think I found it.” Depry calmly said.
Twilight shot up and looked her direction. “What? Where did you find it?” Her voice was frantic as she ran over to Derpy.
Derpy used her wing to point up to the chandelier, never looking away from the princess.
Starlight sighed as she looked to the perpetually confused pony. “Derpy, that's the chandelier.”
As Twilight looked where she was pointing, she did see something that looked like it could be from the map, and a flicker of motion grabbed her attention as she flew up to it. She saw a familiar structure on this unconnected portion of the map, and four cutie marks floating around it. She readily recognized Starlight's Luna's and even Derpy's, but the forth one she had never seen before. It had a winged circle with three triangles beneath it. Twilight screamed as she fell back to the table.
Luna heard the scream and came running, clearly something was horribly wrong. She chastised herself for not coming sooner as she ran the rest of the way towards the throne room. “What is wrong?” She said as soon as she entered. She saw Twilight laying on the table with Starlight Glimmer and Derpy Hooves standing around her, looking as confused as she felt.
Twilight jumped at Luna's voice, unable to hide her own surprise and embarrassment.
“It can't be that bad.” Starlight said as she looked to her friend and former teacher.
Twilight looked around the group. “It's in New Guardia Castle.” She moaned as she got off the table and pointed to it with her wing. “And somepony's not even here it seems.”
“Who?” Spike asked as he flew up to get a closer look along with Luna.
“I have never seen this mark as I traveled the dreams of Equestria.” Luna said as she investigated the symbol.
“We should go to New Guardia as you try to find out about that cutie mark.” Starlight suggested. “Maybe one of the students have it.”
“But what about the problem?” Twilight moaned. “If it's James and one of his wives then this problem is huge!”
Luna smiled patiently at Twilight. “James is a forgiving and understanding man, if a little strange. Any problem concerning him should be readily resolved.”
“Ooh, I like visiting James.” Derpy said happily. “He's nice.”
Twilight looked over the group again. This more than anything else confirmed her worst fears, they were each one of James's friends. With them going to his castle there was no way he wasn't at the center of this. One thought gnawed at her as she tried to calm herself down. With these three there, why wasn't the fourth one Rainbow Dash?
“That's a good idea. Who knows, maybe you won't even need this mysterious pony.” Spike hopefully offered.
***
Asriel had no idea what was going on. In the centuries he had lived as Flowey, never once had the Delta Rune appeared on him, let alone glowed. And this couldn't be something his parents would know either, he'd have at least had a feeling that they knew. The only one he could think to ask right now was James. Without a second thought he put on enough shirts to dim the glow on his chest so he could sneak out. He'd just have to deal with the discomfort until he got to the castle. Fortunately he lived in the older section of Truce which was closer to the castle.
His mind made up, he opened his window and slipped out so he wouldn't have to explain anything about it to his mother.
The forest between Truce and New Guardia Castle was always a nice calm place. Asriel would often come here just to relax on a nice day. The forest however didn't help him this day, he needed to speak with someone who understood unusual magic, and James was the head of the Sorcerer's Guild.
His tension wasn't helped any when he got to the castle and found it eerily silent. Something had happened and they weren't telling anyone about it. His problem would just have to wait as he rushed to find someone. Tali and Lucca had their workshops, he could easily find one of them.
As he searched it became more and more obvious he was alone in the castle, that is until he heard a clopping sound coming from one of the hallways. He carefully sneaked towards the sound, listening closely. It wasn't odd for James to have visitors, but it was also not out of the question that his connections to the other universes may have let something undesirable in.
“I guess there really is something wrong here.” One female voice said. “Even if we missed Amber and Sara going to school we should at least hear Tali or Lucca doing something.”
“I fear I do not visit as much as would be nice but I have to agree that this silence is rather unsettling.” Came another female voice, this one spoke more carefully and formally.
Asriel relaxed as he heard them talking, clearly they knew James. He wanted to go right out and meet them but he felt he should listen a little longer. Possibly a remnant of habit from when he was Flowey but it seemed prudent.
Derpy had been here a few times, she usually visited to talk to James or play with Amber and Sara. She always had lots of fun but this time felt different, and not just because of the silence. There was something missing, a sense of happiness that had vanished. She kept her head down and stayed quiet as she walked along with Luna and Starlight.
Starlight looked into the foyer as they came around the corner, much like what they had seen so far it was empty. This was getting creepy now and she really hoped for a change soon.
“Perhaps we should look from room to room. If someone is here we must find out what has happened.” Luna said as she approached a nearby door. She didn't want to say it, but she was getting worried about the abandoned feeling from the castle.
Derpy took off into the air to look for the game room, maybe someone was there.
Asriel had a much harder time hiding than when he was Flowey, but he was still able to stay unseen as he followed the group. He only recognized one of these Equestrians from the events they they would sometimes attend. But the only other Equestrian he had actually met was Pinkie Pie, and she was clearly not a barometer for them as a whole.
It seemed the one with both wings and horn was considered superior to the others for some reason, he could see from how they talked to her and moved around her. In her and the unicorn there was a way they carried themselves that told him that they held onto the memory of pain. Possibly something done to them, or that they had done. He'd seen it a few times as he tormented the underground. The pegasus was just innocent and carefree, possibly a ditz too. She reminded him of Papyrus.
Asriel closed his eyes and reminded himself that he wasn't Flowey anymore. The reminder was both a comfort and a frustration. He hated that many of the habits had become so ingrained that he performed them almost automatically.
“Howdy.” He said as he stepped out of his hiding spot. “My name's Asriel, Asriel Dreemurr. Are you friends of James too?” He felt good that he was coming out of hiding. He wasn't that unfeeling creature anymore and he didn't have to hide.
Luna looked to the Caprine child astonished that someone was actually here. “Yes we are Asriel Dreemurr.” She politely said with a nod. “Would you happen to know where he is right now?”
Asriel shook his head, he had come here looking for James too and was equally baffled by his absence. “I'm sorry, I don't. I just had a question about magic to ask him.”
“I'm pretty good with magic.” Starlight said walking forward. “Maybe I can help.” They had been called to New Guardia Castle after all and this child did need some help, even if not much.
Asriel was a bit uncomfortable about this, James was the obvious choice for him as a friend, head of the Sorcerer's Guild, and a guy. But she was offering to help and James wasn't anywhere to be seen. “Alright. It's just that the Delta Rune started glowing and I have no idea what could do that or what it could mean, especially since it's showing up on my chest and that's never happened before.”
Starlight could hardly believe what she was hearing, they had assumed that the last mark was for a pony since it looked like a cutie mark. Then again, how was she supposed to know creatures in other worlds had cutie marks? “Glowing like luminescent and throwing off small light replicas of itself accompanied with a faint noise?”
Asriel was stunned, she had managed to describe the entire thing without seeing it. Thank goodness. “Yes, exactly. What's it mean?”
Starlight had no idea how to tell him, or Twilight since she would have to just to get her to stop searching for a pony. “Well, I guess it means you're supposed to be here helping us.” She said with an awkward smile.
Asriel was even more confused now. How had she known? How was he supposed to help? What were they doing that they needed his help? “Helping? With what?”
Princess Luna smiled and nodded to Asriel. “We are here to figure out and help resolve a friendship problem. Likely one James is having, judging from the state of things.”
“Friendship problem? And you don't even know what yet?” This was all confusing for Asriel. Friendship was important of course, but how could someone be called to solve a problem? without knowing what it was? or even knowing where the one they were supposed to help was?
Starlight smiled at his confusion. “Yes, there's a magical table that has a map that calls for help when there's a friendship problem that needs outside help to fix. Except once, but he wouldn't have fixed it without knowing there was a problem to fix. And I'm guessing if it called for the four of us it has to be a dire problem.”
“Well, since we're working together, my name is Starlight Glimmer, and this is Princess Luna. Derpy Hooves is around here somewhere, but she probably got distracted by something.” Starlight said with a smile.
Asriel nodded as he looked to them. “I didn't know that you're a Princess.” Asriel said with a polite bow. “I was a prince once myself. But that ended once the monsters moved to New Guardia.”
Starlight's mouth hung open at the casual reveal. She was going to work with a Princess and a Prince? All to, as was seeming more likely, help a king with a friendship problem. There was nothing about this that didn't scream catastrophe was imminent.
Then came the crash.
Starlight knew Derpy was a good girl, and even friends with James already, but why was she here? She just hoped that Derpy didn't break anything as she made her way back.
“He's not in the game room.” She called as she came flying back.
“Well, if he's not here there's people we can ask.” Asriel said. “Papyrus is pretty diligent and submits reports to James every day, but he doesn't always know where James is.”
“It is as good of a start as any.” Princess Luna said.
Asriel nodded as he walked back to the castle's foyer. It wasn't Papyrus' shift today to work at the castle so he was most likely enjoying some time off in Truce as he hadn't moved with most monsters to the monster community of Newer Home. Asriel shuddered at just how bad his father was at naming places, and James's quick approval.
The group left the empty castle, taking only a moment to question the guards along the wall if they had seen James and leaving with the exact answer they expected.
The walk to Truce was quiet, and would have been pleasant but the atmosphere had definitely changed and it just felt empty. The city, however, was as lively as ever, most likely because the news hadn't reached them yet. Starlight shuddered at the skeletal humanoid that was standing just outside his home. Is this what he did to enjoy himself?
Papyrus was quite tall, nearly as tall as James was, and wore the familiar blue and gray New Guardian service outfit with the silver shield badge and drill emblem emblazoned on it in emerald. There was a symbol on his shoulder denoting his rank as a captain. Those who knew him understood this was an honorary rank as he was not suited for combat and the training would likely cause him harm.
“HELLO THERE ASRIEL.” He said happily. “WHAT BRINGS YOU OUT HERE TODAY?”
Asriel smiled back to the skeleton, he knew him well and had used him in several plots across time lines. Even as James was trying to save them he had found ways to manipulate Papyrus into doing what he wanted. Asriel gave Papyrus a brief introduction to the ponies before he went into asking if he had seen James that day.
“SORRY BUT … NO, I HAVEN'T SEEN HIM TODAY. BUT I'M CERTAIN THAT WHATEVER HE'S GONE OFF TO DO IS TOTALLY COOL.” Papyrus looked to them and smiled, thinking about their fight when James had first gone through Snowdin. “POSSIBLY MAKING MORE COOL NEW FRIENDS TOO! PERHAPS UNDYNE HAS SEEN HIM.”
“Thank you very much Papyrus.” Luna politely said as they went to leave.
“I'LL BE HERE IF YOU NEED ME FOR ANYTHING ELSE!”
“So where's this Undyne live?” Starlight asked as they walked down the street.
“She lives by the beach, she's a fish monster so she stays close to water.” Asriel explained. Once again he remembered how he had manipulated Undyne, and used her injury to taunt James when he accidentally pushed her to the point of collapse.
Asriel had to push it from his mind as they walked along towards the beach. Undyne's home was considered part of Truce's new district set on a grid pattern as opposed to the old district that was laid out more sporadically.
There had been some compromise on the design of the house that Undyne shared with Alphys and rather than be a laboratory or fish they had built a normal looking house. They both said the design was boring, but that wasn't as important to them as what it meant.
Starlight knocked on the door as they approached, they didn't have to wait long as the door opened only moments afterwords. “Oh … um, hello?” Alphys said as she looked to the group. “Can I … help you?”
“Howdy Alphys.” Asriel said as he moved closer to the door. “We were just wondering if you or Undyne have seen James. He doesn't seem to be at the castle.”
Alphys fidgeted a bit as she realized she hadn't left the house for any reason other than work for the last couple weeks. “Sorry, I haven't. But you know him he's probably out doing something interesting. Or crazy … probably both. C-come on in.” Alphys awkwardly said as she opened the door wider. “I'll go get Undyne for you.”
They patiently waited for a minute until Undyne came running in through the front door. “James is missing!?” She demanded once inside.
Starlight and Luna were stunned silent at the sudden outburst and only nodded at the mad fish woman.
“Gyaaaahh! I wanted to go with him on his next awesome trip.” She growled as she gnashed her teeth. “We were going to do awesome stuff like in anime! And he just went off to save some world without telling me? He's going to get it when he comes back!” As she calmed down she noticed that there were guests that she hadn't acknowledged. “ … Oh, sorry. Can I get you something? Tea maybe?” Her tone changed completely as she addressed the ponies.
Luna quietly shook her head. She knew that James said the people here were sometimes strange, but this woman was explosive with drastic mood swings. “I appreciate the offer, but we are here trying to find James, unless there is some friendship problem you are aware of.”
“ … Friendship problem?” Undyne asked, not really understanding. “I guess you could count Asgore and his ex Toriel, but they're getting along better so it's not really a problem.”
“Asgore and Toriel?” Starlight asked.
“My parents.” Asriel quietly said. “And she's not wrong to still be mad at him. I don't think that's the problem we're here for.”
“What's that? You're here to help solve a 'Friendship problem' too?” Undyne asked as she looked to the former prince. She was about to laugh at the prospect until she realized that it might actually be something awesome. “What's that involve?”
“Just helping others resolve differences and repair friendships.” Starlight answered. “Or bring a community together again, or expose a hatemonger. You know the more I think about these the less defined they seem to be.” Starlight began mentally running through all of the friendship missions she had heard about and there was a lot that seemed to be considered a friendship problem.
“Well, I'm sure it doesn't involve James then.” Undyne said with a big grin. “He's a great guy and goes out of his way to help out.”
Asriel knew that James had his demons that tormented him. He could feel those demons too through the fragment of James's soul he possessed, and what James had told him in that cavern so long ago.
Starlight yawned as they left the home an hour later having heard Alphys and Undyne recount how they had met James in great detail. “I'm sorry, it was night when we left.” She said to Asriel as she walked along.
“Oh, I didn't realize. Let's get back to the castle so you can get some sleep.” Asriel suggested.
“We should also have you meet Twilight so she won't obsess over looking for whoever has the Delta Rune.” Starlight added with a grin as she nudged Asriel.
“… I guess.” Asriel said. He was nervous about meeting more ponies, but they were all friendly so far. Perhaps it was just his fear that he could turn back into Flowey and hurt them that kept him so distant.
Asriel had only experienced inter universal travel a couple times, and the sensation was still a little off putting. He followed the ponies as they walked through the large crystalline castle. The fascination of the place offset by his discomfort about the mission he was supposed to be on, and he had no idea who this Princess Twilight was. But he was going to face it head on without worry, he hoped. He had lost much of his confidence when he was no longer Flowey, part of being able to care again involved the fear of failure and rejection. But he had to do this.
“Derpy, Starlight you two should get some sleep. I will find Twilight and introduce her to Asriel Dreemurr.” Luna said as she turned towards the throne room.
Starlight and Derpy were too tired to argue as they turned down a hallway.
Asriel's discomfort was palpable as he followed Luna, eager to break the tension Luna spoke up. “So Asriel Dreemurr, how did you come to live in New Guardia? Not many would give up a title like yours for the sake of a new land.”
“It's … a long story. But basically our world was ending and James saved us. When we moved to New Guardia it was that or destruction. He offered for my dad to continue as King of the Monsters, but he abdicated to allow James to maintain total control of New Guardia. That and dad … really didn't want to be king anymore.”
Luna had never before heard of James saving an entire people. He had told her about times he had helped others save themselves, and even joined a team that saved far more worlds than either of them can imagine. As she thought about it she realized that James never really talked about his individual accomplishments. Only his feats with others, or just others. He seemed to avoid focusing on himself.
Luna felt that there was something to this and that Asriel might know more than she. “I never knew he was capable of such things.” Luna said. “He never talks about being the hero, only helping others.”
Asriel understood why, his centuries as Flowey made him really good at reading others and James wasn't hard: He hated himself and didn't want others to know. James had even told him once that he had done something that he was never able to forgive himself for, but he adamantly refused to say more on the subject.
“He has done some impressive things. In fact he's done the impossible, he held our world together with nothing more than his own DETERMINATION. That's how we were able to escape to New Guardia.” Asriel said as he walked behind her. “He even SAVED me.”
The last statement was one that truly confused Luna, something about saving him was less believable than holding a world together with nothing more than will power? “How was saving you more impossible than saving your people?”
Asriel knew he had said too much the moment he had finished talking, another part of having his capacity to care back was he would sometimes slip in ways he never would have as Flowey. “I'd … rather not talk about it.”
The rest of the walk was mercifully short as they entered the throne room and found Twilight pouring over student records. She looked up at Luna the moment the door opened.
“Wait? Are you done already? I thought all four would be necessary to finish the friendship mission.” Twilight said as she looked back to the map.
Luna shook her head. “We are not finished, just letting Starlight Glimmer and Derpy Hooves rest. I came here to let you know we found the forth.”
Asriel fought the urge to hide behind Luna and forced himself to step into the room. “Howdy, my name's Asriel, Asriel Dreemurr. It's nice to meet you.” He said with a grin.
“What?! The map not only called you, but called someone from another world? This is incredible! Terrifying, but incredible. What did James have to say about it?” Twilight was frantic. So many unheard of things all happening at once, this was astounding.
“James is missing.” Asriel said as he looked over the map. He couldn't see anywhere on the map that matched with New Guardia. The landscape presented was interesting and he wondered where on it he was. “We were asking to see if anyone had seen him but nobody has, at least not for the last day or two.”
“Perhaps Asriel and I should return to New Guardia and continue searching while the others rest.” Luna suggested.
Asriel looked to the two before his omnitool blinked to life. “I could try asking Lucca.” He offered as he brought up the messaging program. “That's assuming we can get through to her though.”
“Good idea.” Twilight said as she began to panic once again.
Asriel noticed the twitch and nodded. “It's not uncommon for James to disappear like this. It's kind of his hobby to find worlds on the verge of disaster and save them. Probably not the best hobby, but it seems to suit him.”