//------------------------------// // 5: Milkshakes and Tape Recorders // Story: Auroras & Souls // by Blues Rider //------------------------------// Chapter 5 The time was half past five. Seven friends were sat at a booth in the diner on the corner of town. One Spike from Equestria, one Twilight Sparkle wearing glasses, one Applejack, one Rarity, one Rainbow Dash, one Fluttershy and one Sunset Shimmer of Equestria. A one Pinkie Pie was whizzing around on roller skates serving milkshakes. "Here's your Bananana Flipper Shake, Swirly Strawberry shakes, three Coffees and two waters. I'll be over in a minute guys when I get my break." The pink waitress whizzed off again. It was amazing anyone could understand her considering how fast she could speak. One minute later the springy pink hair of Pinkie Pie joined the table. With a slice of pie. “So what’s crackalackin Spike doggy.” “Spike was just going through what’s happened to Equestria.” Sunset replied dismally. “It sounds ghastly darling.” Rarity chimed in. “Basically there’s a place called the Crystal Empire and it and it’s people lead by princess Cadence help spread hope and love across Equestria.” “Go on...” Pinkie mumbled through a mouthfull of her pie. There being only half left already. “Well, we believe something is using it's power to send an energy out to steal pony's souls.” “Just show me where they are and I’ll pound them, no one does that to our friends!” Spike admired Rainbow's enthusiasm. “That’s just it, we don’t know what would happen if we head to the Empire, It's the centre of the power, that’s why it only ever is used to affect Equestria with love. The whole land is covered by the auras and if ponies get stuck in it, it seems their soul becomes trapped or stolen. I'm not a pony and I don't seem to be affected, but if any of you enter the portal, you might disappear as well!” “Oh no!” Fluttershy exclaimed quietly from the window side of the booth. “What happens to their souls?” Rarity asked horrified. “We don't know that either. We barely know anything about it, but that, me, a dragon, doesn’t seem to be affected and I haven’t seen your guy’s counterparts since yesterday. Although Twilight was out at a breakfast picnic with them this morning, she didn’t mention anything about it. Twilight's trapped in her throne room which Starlight protected with a spell, that's why I had to rush here.” “What about Princess Celestia and Luna?” Sunset inquired. “Luna and Celestia were last seen vanishing into thin air, like they stopped existing or something. There was talk of Limbo maybe.” The whole group gasped. They all had experience with Limbo. "We've had magic in this world which created limbo, is there some way that same magic is in your world?" Twilight asked both Sunset and Spike. This was a bit weird for Twilight, her dog being sentient was strange and she knew about the doppelgangers in another dimension but this Spike was seemingly more intelligent than her dog, but then this Spike was a dragon, and they supposedly have a more consistent education which fell in line with human education....... She tried not to think too hard about it. "I don't think it would have, that mirror was completely destroyed. What Spike is suggesting is on a far grander scale than anything one small object would be capable of." Sunset countered Twilight's theory. “We don’t know what’s going to happen but the whole of Equestria is affected. Apparently communication by magic is another trick it uses to steal souls so we can’t write to you via the diary Sunset." "The auroras and magic communication might work along similar spell bases. Maybe that's part of the Crystal Empire's trick. I never got a chance to study it fully when it appeared." Sunset suggested. The rest of the group observed Sunset with curiosity, she never really got a chance to talk about Equestrian magic with them, it was litterally a different reality to try to comprehend. "Does your telepathic magic here work similar to Equestrian communication Sunset?" Fluttershy piped in. "Not really, here the magic is, one way or another, contained within our geodes so it's a lot closer to using an enchanted object's encantation than performing a soulfully generated casting. I'll go over it with you later if you're interested." All her friend's nodded. “With the diary not an option, would you be able to keep an eye out for unusual magical leaks from the portal?” Spike tried to get his quiery accross all the excitement about protecting Equestria. "Dang it Spike you know we will!" said Applejack, adding enthusiastic support in this troubled time. “Thank you, thank you all of you.” A timer alarm inturrupted spike and Pinkie pulled out her phone. She swiped the red bar across while simultaneously finishing up her strawberry milkshake and gave Spike a goodbye hug, laying over Fluttershy and Applejack's laps to do so. Rarity and Sunset rolled their eyes to Applejack as Twilight gave a small giggle at the awkward movement. “Well I have to get back to work, I’ll help keep an eye on it, text me later girls. Bye Spike.” With a ruffle of his fur she was off. No wonder Pinkie eats so fast with breaks that short, thought Spike. “I guess I had better get back too." Sunset sighed half heartedly. "You can stay a bit longer with me if you want Spike.” Fluttershy offered hopefully. “No no, Endangered Equestria and all that.” His answer was very matter of fact, it was indeed time to go. Fluttershy sighed in disappointment, the prospect of truly conversing with the dragon-dog again was so exciting to her. “Thank you Fluttershy, another time, I promise.” He felt professional. The girls minus Pinkie walked him back to the portal and there he was gone in an instant this time running into the statue base head first. ------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Sunset felt a small loss as the only other Equestrian went back home but she loved her friends in this world so she turned back to them. Twilight was talking with Applejack just a little way back. Sunset turned to Fluttershy. “So we’ll have to all organise shifts as to who will look after the statue then. I’ll tell Principle Celestia why on Monday.” “Oh good! Umm. I think you and Twilight should take the first shift till tomorrow morning then, maybe.” Sunset was a tad cautious as to Fluttershy's insistence that she and Twilight go first. “Sure Fluttershy.” Sunset glanced over at Twilight, she didn’t know why but she felt she needed to be suspicious of her. Her stomach was slowly filling with butterflies, she suspected Fluttershy's fascination with them had infected her. Rarity linked arms with Applejack and Fluttershy, she gave a quick skip. "I know it's all so serious, but we could stop at Sassy Saddle's new boutique on our way home. I hear she is working for one of the next BIG designers again and they opened YESTERDAY!" she sang tunefully, and loudly. Fluttershy giggled. "Oh alright then!" Applejack concurred, "See you later girls. Best of luck." "Oh yes, text us if you need ANYTHING, we'll be here instantly." Fluttershy supported. "Are you going to come with us Rainbow?" Rarity asked. Rainbow, who had been leaning against the concrete statue base getting to seventy-five keepy-uppies with her soccer ball, had been listening in with great detest at the idea of clothes shopping once again. "Oh, uh, no, I can't, I have too, go help Pinkie with her... um, driving theory when she finishes work." The girls gave each other cheeky smiles, they all knew what Rainbow was trying to avoid. "That's such a shame..., well if you're sure... I wouldn't normally go to such a frufru fashion boutique mah-self, but I hear she's promoting a new line of sportswear too. leggings with integrated shin pads or somethin." Applejack threw in the temptation. "Well if you change your mind." Rarity finished off. The three girls left for the high street. leaving Rainbow in a state of social limbo herself. "Well I guess that organises the shift partners we'll be taking then." Sunset jested. Rainbow got to 95 and bounced the ball off the concrete and into her grasp. "Well if Pinkie isn't out yet, I gueeeessss I can pop along to see how the girls get on at the boutique...Anyway, see you later guys!" Rainbow yelled as she shot down towards the high street after them. Sunset laughed and turned around to find Twilight on the other side of the square statue. "Twilight?" Twilight stormed at Sunset but her words were quiet. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” “Twi, I’m sorry, what?” she was stunned, her friend had been so serene all evening. “I know you’re seeing Flash Sentry.” How on earth did Twilight know she had been seeing Flash, they were always careful not to get caught. She was stunned. "I could smell him on you earlier... Look I know you guys have a past, the girls have filled me in, but I'm concerned for you. He's a nice guy, but what about the other me, from in there?" She indicated to the portal. "Don't they still have feelings for each other?" Twilight calmed down, she realised she was being maybe a bit erratic about this. "Sunset, I just don't want you to get hurt okay?" Consoled by Twilight, Sunset sat down, leaning against the statue they so often hung out at. Her connection to her home. Her old home. "Twilight, I am okay, I promise. So is Flash. We're both just. We both felt a bit lost okay, adjusting to life. He went through a lot recently and me? Living here isn't an easy adjustment. Sometimes I get so worried that I'll wake up and never be able to go back to Equestria..." "Do you want to?" Twilight asked. "Yes, well no, I don't want to go back, but just in case you know? In case, I fail at absolutely everything here, I can always go back to magic school. Ever since that whole mirror incident and the Friendship Games it's been..." Twilight pondered this quietly. "I love you guys, all of you. Flash, well... we were there for each other, we helped each other get through that point in our lives. I don't expect it will last, we didn't really work truly before, but for now..." "You do care about him don't you...?" Twilight had started to notice tears forming in Sunset's eyes. Sunset nodded. "I was so mean to him once, I used him, now...." Twilight waited for Sunset to finish. She took her time but came round to it, "now I can be kind to him. I don't love him, but we can help each other for now." They shared a moment of silence and Twilight sat down with Sunset by the portal, She held Sunsets hand for a moment, and then placed an arm around her, supporting her ss best she could, running her hand down her back to comfort her. "For what it's worth, I think you'd make a good match, if you want. But as for the rest of it...." Sunset looked up. She was about to get a lesson, she just knew it. Twilights always had the same 'giving a lecture' approaches. "If you keep worrying about 'just in case' things, you'll never get to do what you really want to do, because you'll be constantly stopping yourself from doing one thing, because of the fear of missing out of a lot of things. "I may not have had masses of experience with friendship and choices at Crystal Prep, but one thing that always helped me was commitment. I made a choice and stuck with it. Only when my plans HAD to change, did I change them. "For now, you can go back to Equestria anytime you want. But if this portal closes and you NEED to go back, I'll bet my chemistry textbooks on you finding a way back. Because you are an amazing person Sunset Shimmer, and pony, and your friends are always here for you." Sunset welled up and a tear of joy rolled down her cheek. She gave a big deserved hug to Twilight and breathed in the fresh air. "Thank you Twilight." They had until morning to watch the portal, maybe they would see the sunset and rise too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Luna felt.... She certainly felt. You know those headaches on hot days when you’re in bed with twenty-seven duvets on you but it’s actually thirty-five Celsius outside and you can’t quite figure out why? She felt like that. Only everything was blurry. In her dreams. It was obvious it was a dream, she couldn’t feel the ground. Not the physical ground. She felt like falling asleep. 'Why does one want to fall asleep when they are asleep?' she asked herself 'why am I asleep?' she asked herself 'What can I see?' she asked herself. She tried opening her eyes fully. They were heavy. Her mouth felt like she was eating an extremely cheap oat and honey breakfast bar. She tried to imagine a place she could pull herself into. Her dream bedroom, her old castle, her mushroom realm, her black night sky. Her mouth felt stiff like cardboard. She struggled to move it. She was determined not to sleep. 'why be sleepy?' Mmmmmm +++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++-+++++ Hidden in a rectangular concrete bunker, slyly hidden away beneath Ponyville, Doctor Whoves was urgently tapping the side of a dull metallic box. It had three big, round, black plastic dials on it. It also contained a keypad with sixteen keys on it. He turned a dial with his brown hoof. Above the box was another box, fronted by a brown wire mesh, behind which was a speaker of eight inches in diameter. This box had rounded corners unlike the metallic one below it. Above that was a brown shelf that ran the length of the wall. This contained a mixture of items: books, papers, black filing boxes, tape reel boxes, photo canisters, more books, book ends and a few photos of his friends – Muffins, Sweetie Drops, Slice Ray, Pinkie Pie, and the bowling club he joined a few months back after finally giving in when needing some trousers altered and a scarf repaired. Despite its chaotic nature he actually quite liked bowling now. The fact the club helped alter his suits for him was a bonus, they were excellent tailors though. The floor beneath his hooves was made of hard grey concrete. More contraptions of different styles to the metal box were stored all along the wall, some with flashing lights of yellow and red, some with electrodes that hung from small hooks attached to the machines. There were also a lot of tools, drills, saws, anything you might need to improvise many things. Along the far end was a staircase, also hard concrete, that lead outside. On the opposite wall there was his main workbench and research stations. Behind Doc stood an array of large and small contraptions and devices that blinked and beeped, produced smoke and sparked. Although most were, for safety, turned off: like the mind reading machine ponies could sit in and the flameless fireworks producer. There stood a large tank next to these containing any left over fireworks. It was always blinking blue – the flameless fireworks floating in a thick liquid mixture for safety reasons. Doc’s frantic tapping got him nowhere. The brown box above him just fizzed the same dull fizz. He stepped to the right with all four hooves systematically. There was a recording tape primed in a dull grey tape to tape reel recorder. He pressed a button and the two circles on the front started moving clockwise in sync. “Like a side on view of a four wheeled chariot.” He said to himself. Mostly out of worry. He normally spoke to himself a lot when working out puzzles but he had been speaking frantically for the last hour and a half and it had gotten him... This far... Which was barely a step from where he was at the beginning of that time. He pressed a stop button on the machine and both circular reels jammed in place. He reached up, flicked a switch above him to transfer the current of electrons from this machine to the brown box above the lighter grey box, and then pressed play. There was a dull fuzz tone. Then a click. A low warbling sound. Then another fuzz and a click. The brown speaker above started to make a sound. The voice was rough, higher in pitch than most Colts. And there was fear and anguish. “Slice Ray to all SMILE stations. Crystal Empi..e.. S..d.er..att..k...br...re..urn..d...sss..a....as...take...zzzzzzzzzzzzz.” Doc had played the clip back over and over. He had transcribed the entire message over and over, but he couldn’t figure it out yet. He had been trapped in the bunker for too long. The red light above the staircase was still flashing, indicating immediate danger present. Without word from HQ in Canterlot he would stay put and attempt to decode the fragments he had. He reset the tape machine to listen one more time. The tapes jammed still in the same place. He looked over to the far end of the shelf to the picture of the Crystal Anti-Monster Organisation. There were 10 of them in his graduating squad in the photo. He could just make out the image of Slice Ray sat on the front row in the middle, his yellow coat and black leather jacket with the agency sunglasses and grapple rope tied round him. It was the only picture they were allowed to have of their graduating squad mates because it was set to destroy itself if danger presented itself nearby. Doc pressed play and got back to decoding the message. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Sunburst lead on the floor of the crystal tower. Flurry had fallen asleep beside him. Younglings could sleep anywhere when they wanted. The rumble of the battle beneath had ceased for the past hour. He was scared but knew Cadence would pull through, he was sure, in his heart. He could feel the darkness resonating throughout the Empire. “We can’t leave it like this.” He said calmly to Flurry as she slept, “Everything will be sorted soon enough.” He hoped Starlight might get in contact somehow soon, knowing she knows what’s going on would make him feel worlds better. Together they had accomplished lots even from being at a distance. As long as she was around the two of them could fight this evil.