//------------------------------// // Loyalty Mission 5: Derpy's Quest Pt. 8 // Story: Sparkle's No. 1 Assistant // by Wanderer D //------------------------------// Sparkle's No. 1 Assistant Loyalty Mission 5: Derpy's Quest Pt. 8 By Wanderer D The Tempest "Alright, Ryder, we're on a stable orbit," a voice called over the speakers. "If you want that meeting to happen, this is the time." Sunset leaned and pressed the communicator button next to her computer. "Roger that, Kallo, have the crew gather in the Meeting Room. I'll be there in five with our guest." "Understood, Pathfinder." Sunset sighed, glancing back at Dinky who was chasing her pet pyjack, Sunburst, around the room. "Alright, kiddo, it's time to meet the others." Dinky stopped. "Are Mister Liam and Miss Vetra going to be there?" "Yep!" Sunset said, tying her hair back in a ponytail. "All of them." Her face darkened. "All. Of. Them." She closed her eyes. "I hope I survive this." "Is everything okay, Miss Shimmer?" "Yep!" Sunset replied, Ryder smile #3 crossing her face. "All good! Nothing that could go wrong, my little pony!" She ignored the dubious look Dinky gave her and led her fellow Equestrian to the back to the ship, where they could take the hold elevator up, and then guided her all the way back, to the front. "Miss Shimmer?" Dinky asked, glancing at the stairs that led down from their current location to right next to Sunset's door below. "Yes?" "Why did we take the long way?" "Perceptive little filly, aren't you?" "Hey, Ryder!" a voice made them both look up to the asari leaning over the rail of the meeting room above. "Stop hogging the new alien all to yourself and get here already!" Sunset took a deep breath. And turned around, only to smack onto Vetra's chest. "Wh—" "Oh no, you don't," Vetra hissed, looking down at her. "You are going to be a responsible leader, and march up there with the cute unicorn and explain how you too are a cute unicorn to everyone." "But Peebee…" Vetra crossed her arms and raised a plated eyebrow, making Sunset wince. "And Cora!" Sunset hissed quickly. "If she kills me, I won't get to do that thing you li—" "Sunset." Vetra placed a clawed hand on her shoulder and looked at her steadily. "Up there. Now." She could feel her crew watching in amusement as they made their way up together and Dinky hopped onto a chair next to Liam, giving him a hoof-bump that drew an "awww" from both Gil and Suvi, while Peebee studied her with little subtlety. "Anyway," Sunset said as the whole crew took their seats. "This here is Dinky Do, she's from a planet called Equestria. Equestria, apparently has already made contact with some of our Alliance friends and—why is everyone looking at me like that?" SAM's holographic display appeared in the middle of the table, a glowing, soft ball of energy. [I took the liberty of turning off the language translation for Equestrian,] he said. [I felt it would emphasize the Pathfinder's questionable origins into the realm of "actually possible."] Sunset gritted her teeth. "This is some kind of revenge for hiding it from you, isn't it?" she asked in Alliance Standard. [I would never.] "Right. Turn it on again, please." "So… what the hell was that?" Cora asked after a moment. "It sounded like you were pretending to be a dolphin." "A DOLPHIN?!" Sunset turned to her friend. "A dolphin!? I'll have you know that—" "Equestrian is an ancient language with plenty of nuance and a poetic natural rhythm," Vetra and Liam finished in chorus. "Right! And don't you forget it!" Dinky giggled. "Right. So how is it that you speak it, Ryder?" Dr. Suvi asked. Sunset froze. "Right. About that..." She had thought hard about how to break the news, ever since she had arrived. These were her dearest friends, people who had crossed an unknown galaxy with her, fought an alien empire and commented on the similarities of what they had done with the old Star Wars movies she had not quite forced them to watch. These guys were her family. No explanation would be good enough to express to them what she had gone through, how she had felt changing into a human, stepping into someone else's shoes and life, learning… and losing part of her new family that fateful day. So instead, she thought to herself: just what exactly could she, as a responsible adult, say to these people to mess them up? "I'm a horse alien from another galaxy that transformed into a human and was adopted by Ryder," she said looking at Cora straight in the eye. "Oh. And my real name is Sunset Shimmer." "This planet used to be so hot, staying in the sun for a few seconds would start cooking you." "Wow!" Dinky stared at the planet below. Elaaden looked like a huge ball of sand with occasional craters from where they were floating above it. "And that's where the Krogans settled?! You must all be as tough as Wrex!" Nakmor Drack chuckled. "That we all could be, kid." "I admit I'm not very well versed on Krogan legends," Jaal spoke up, the feline-like alien walking to stand next to them as they surveyed the planet from the conference room within the Tempest. "It seems like he was a figure of some importance?" "Urdnot Wrex had just become the leader of Clan Urdnot in Tuchanka just as the Andromeda Initiative was about to leave," Drack explained. "That kid dreamed big. He wanted to reunite the all Krogan." "He's awesome!" Dinky added, excitedly leaning over to look down at the planet again. Slowly her smile faded. "I hope I see him again. And mom." "Hey kid, chill." Liam walked up the stairs, a plate of veggies in his hands. "That's why we're here. Ryder has a bunch of contacts here who might know something, and if not, we have a bunch of other planets where someone important might've heard something." "I hear that she already contacted The Charlatan," Jaal added, nodding. "With some luck we will learn more than he does." "Yeah, I wouldn't count on it," Liam muttered. "Where is miss Sunset?" Dinky asked. "She's working with Peebee, Cora and SAM, trying to figure out if the Remnants knew anything about your world." "Should be coming up soon enough, now that we're here," Drack said, "That is if Peebee doesn't throw her in a containment unit of some sort until she tells her everything she knows." "Hm." Liam tapped his finger on the edge of the table, then activated his comm link. "Kallo? Where's Ryder and Cora?" "She's currently in PeeBee's quarters. Cora left earlier." Drack, Liam and Jaal shared a look. "She's trapped." There was an awkward moment when all three made half-spirited attempts to imply that they were going to go, but they really wanted someone else to do it, until Liam sighed in resignation. "Fine. I'll go." "Is Miss Peebee that interested in other cultures?" Dinky asked, turning her wide eyes to Drack. "Don't you remember what happened earlier, kid?" "You mean when miss Cora got enveloped in magic and teleport-crashed into Miss Sunset? And then Miss Sunset threw her across the room, and then she was trapped by Miss Peebee?" "That'd be it."  "You might have also noticed," Jaal spoke next, "that after Ryder explained everything properly, Peebee had a lot of questions for her." "Yes!" "Well, Peebee is very insistent."