Penn narrowed his eyes at the quickness of Missy's responses. He'd been quizzing her like this for nearly half an hour, refusing to believe that she was the exact spirit of the same card he had owned for years. Sunset and Isis had simply been watching for some time, only stopping so she could snatch a burger from the pan to munch on.

"Final question... Where did I get the first copy of your card?" He leaned back with a wide grin on his face, clearly certain he'd stumped her. Missy sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You and your best friend used to go to Hastings on fridays to open booster packs. You were looking for my card, but it was NICK who actually opened the pack I was in! He gave it to you because he knew you needed it, though."

Sunset covered her mouth to suppress a snicker as Penn's attempt to dumbfound her rebounded on himself. There was a long period of silence, and he finally pressed his forehead against his hand.

"Well, denying it sure isn't going to work any longer, she really IS my Ghostrick Angel of Mischief..."

"I TOLD you!" Missy shouted, gleefully jumping up and wrapping her arms around his neck. He took her weight with ease, quickly wrapping an arm around her to return the hug.

"But- I still don't understand how you're HERE! I mean, I even tried using the cards to summon earlier and nothing happened!"

Sunset shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Well, it didn't work until I was in that 'shadow game,' maybe that had something to do with it? It seemed to really blur the lines between the spirit world and the real world..."

Missy flapped her wings, putting enough distance between her and Penn to look down on him and pout. "Plus, you didn't even do it right!"

Penn counted with his own look of indignation. "'Didn't do it right?' What's that supposed to mean?"

"You tried to normal summon Ghostrick Doll without having another Ghostrick already out! You know that's not how it works!"

The silence that followed was long, but far from empty. Sunset was fairly certain she counted at least five different expressions cross Penn's face as he processed the information before finally setting into numb complacency. He rose up from his place beside the campfire and began to walk back towards the car.

Sunset and Missy exchanged a short glance, each shrugging to the other as he calmly opened the door and seated himself in the passenger seat. The moment the door was shut, however, he immediately began to vehemently scream and yell, shaking the entire car with the force of his actions. Most of the sound was sealed off by the doors and windows being completely shut, leaving only a muffled, incoherent vocalization that eventually reached them. Missy simply removed her tiny hat and reached inside, retrieving a steaming cup and saucer that she took a long sip from.

Sunset rolled her eyes and took another bite of her burger. She had to admit, if Penn wanted to eat dinner tonight without making a second batch, he was going to have to finish yelling soon, she was about to steal the last patty in the pan.

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The four of them stood together, staring at the sign by the side of the highway with a mix of reactions. As with everything, Isis expressed only pensive indifference. Missy was hopping up and down, lightly clapping her hands together with excitement for the unknown. Penn was a difficult read, seemingly filled with bemused resignation, but there was something to his smile that felt forced. Personally, Sunset was feeling as though the sign were a monument to just how much charity she had taken from her new friends.

Welcome to Oklahoma, discover the excellence!

"We've come so FAR!" Missy cheered. "Imagine how many things we're going to see by the end of this trip!"

"Searched every town from Seminole to Oklahoma. Only took us a month, I'd say that's pretty good time..." Penn chuckled softly to himself and rubbed at his neck.

"Guys, I'm sorry! I had no idea this would take so long or take us so far!" Sunset sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I would have thought we'd all land at least REMOTELY close to one another! I swear, I'm not trying to take advantage of you!"

"Don't worry, Sunset! As long as Isis can keep airdropping us supplies, we'll be fine. I made a promise to you that I'd get you and your friends home safe, and I intend to keep it!" Penn finally smiled in earnest and placed his hands on his hips. "On the bright side, we're headed North, my favorite direction! We should cross Oklahoma's panhandle in a day, maximum. From there it's... uh..."

"And once we're through there, we can say 'I don't think we're in Kansas, any more" and really mean it!" Missy cheered, the force of her glee carrying her up into the air.

Penn and Sunset looked at one another. Sunset searched his face for any sign of regret, any sign that he was forcing himself to be here. He seemed to have other things on his mind, nodding towards Missy and giving a genuine smile. Sunset looked back, watching for a moment as she flew several laps around the sign before finally leaning over the top. A few seconds later, she jumped off with a yelp of surprise.

This made both of them laugh, well and truly breaking the tension in the air. Sunset collapsed into a fit of giggles while Penn laughed a hearty belly laugh, one that got shriller and shriller the more he ran out of air. By the time they had both recovered, Missy was giving them both a pouty glare.

"It- it kinda was..." Penn snickered, resisting the urge to start laughing again. "I mean, it's a hundred degrees out, not a cloud in the sky, and you leaned on a metal sign!" He wiped a tear from his eye before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. "Anybody want a souvenir photo before we take off?"

Sunset grabbed her own phone, only hesitating just as she was about to hand it to him.

Penn blinked, taking a moment for a quick head count. "One, two, three, four... Who's going to take the picture?"

Sunset sighed and slipped her phone back into her pocket. "I guess so, but don't think I'm not going to be taking plenty of pictures with you later!"

Together, the three of them arranged themselves under the sign. She and Penn each wrapped their arms around each other's shoulders, while Missy positioned herself on top of them, folding her arms and resting them on top of both of their heads. Isis flapped her way up to the roof of the car, staring intently at the three of them. A moment later, she nodded and began walking towards the front of the car.

"Cool, let's get back into the AC!" Penn replied. His attempt to walk away was foiled, however, when Missy wrapped her arm around his head and yanked him back.

"What? That's it?" she whined. "What about saying 'CHEESE!' or 'One, two, three!' You've gotta do ONE of those when you take a souvenir picture!"

Sunset glanced up as best she could at Missy, noticing a playful glint in the little girl's eyes. Missy looked down at her, then nodded at Penn. Sunset smirked, instantly getting the message. "Yeah, I wasn't ready... I'm not sure I was smiling right!"

At the last moment, Missy and Sunset both leaped at Penn, wrapping their arms around him and throwing him off balance. For a second it seemed as if he would be able to hold them both, but moments later they were all laying in a heap on the dead grass. The only interruption to Sunset and Missy's laughter was the exaggerated sound of a shutter click.

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Come sail away, come sail away!
Come sail away with meee!
Come sail away, come sail away!
Come sail away with meeeeeeee!

Sunset bobbed her head up and down to the music. With Isis joining the crew, their options for music had expanded far beyond just the three CDs Penn kept in his car, a fact for which she would be eternally grateful. One thing that had NOT changed was the fact that Penn seemed to know the words to every single song in the massive library. Sunset had tried making requests of her own, but it appeared that Isis hadn't managed to find any of the music from her world. So, until she had learned what bands and artists she did and didn't like, she was at the whim of her companions. She had to admit, she liked this "Styx" group so far. It was a nice mix of guitar and psychedelic sounds she might expect from Rarity's keytar solos, and their harmonies were on point.

It was the moments like this that made the trip feel like one constant day: nothing but music, the hum of tires against asphalt, and the open highway. From what Isis had told them, it looked like the majority of rural areas had been abandoned in favor of grouping together in large cities for safety. That meant less time running up and down alleyways looking for her friends, plenty of abandoned gas stations to fill up at, and a highway that was almost completely abandoned by all traffic. She tried not to think about the unfortunate implication that, if her friends had been moved to a city, it meant that it would be all the more like looking for a needle in a haystack to find them. For now, her geode kept them out of the urban areas, and all four of them were fine with that.

"Hmm..." Penn grunted unhappily to himself between lyrics, forcing Sunset to open her eyes. The reason made itself clear: the fuel gauge was hovering dangerously close to the "empty" marker.

He nodded, squinting his eyes to get a better look at the signposts. With a smile, he turned the car onto the next exit. "Looks like there's another gas station up ahead. Should only take a few minutes."

"Look! The lights are on!" Missy added, clambering her way into the front between the two of them.

"How many times do I have to tell you to keep your seat belt on?" Penn countered, wrapping his non-steering hand around her forehead and shoving her back into the backseat.

As they pulled in, Sunset noticed that she was right. The station was still lit and, apparently, staffed. Penn began to rifle through his pockets, finally emerging with his wallet. He let out a long sigh as he opened it, revealing only one twenty-dollar bill remaining.

"I was afraid this would happen..." he muttered. "Just enough to fill up one more time."

Penn shook his head as he cracked open the door and stepped outside. "They'd notice if somebody started filling up without paying."

"Don't worry about it. You didn't break the bank for me, I never had much to begin with."

Sunset sighed. "I actually took out a bunch of money from my account before we left, the Rainbooms were going to go on tour, but it's not the same currency..." Just as she was beginning to mope, she felt a light punch on her arm.

"I said don't worry about it! We'll figure this out. I mean, we've got to be sitting on a goldmine with that portal gun in the trunk, right? Even if it can't be used, it should be worth plenty!"

As the two of them pushed through the doors of the gas station, Sunset was suddenly struck with an overwhelming sense of deja vu.

The clerk. It was the SAME clerk. The SAME gas station she had saved on her first day in this new world. Even Penn seemed flabbergasted. The two of them looked at one another, each confirming that the other was seeing the same thing before rushing back out the door together.

Nope. They had definitely moved. It was still Oklahoma outside. It had definitely been more than a month since they had saved the gas station all the way back in Seminole. They stepped back inside.

There was the same clerk, right down to the pistol Sunset had given her tucked into her belt.

The clerk rolled her eyes. "I KNOW, right? My boss STILL hasn't shown up so I can get off-duty! It's ridiculous! You guys need gas again?"

"Well, yeah, but- How-" Sunset stuttered, still hardly able to believe her eyes.

"Oh, don't worry! Haven't had any more trouble since you gave me THIS..." she smirked and patted the gun with her hand. She tapped a few keys on the register and flashed them a thumbs-up. "You're all set! You want a gatorade while you're here?"

"Uh, thanks! We really appreciate that!" Penn said, carefully making his way to one of the refrigerators and removing a pair of red drinks. "Mind if we grab one for our friend in the car?"

"Sure, help yourselves!" the clerk shrugged. "Business has been dead lately, so it shouldn't matter. If the boss asks, I'll tell him money got grabbed out of the register while he was busy running late."

"We really... can't thank you enough..." Sunset said as she snagged a cold drink of her own. Together, she and Penn backed towards the exit.

And with the jingle of a bell, they were back in Oklahoma. Sunset blinked several times, then pinched her arm to make sure she was awake. Penn was busy pressing the cold bottles against his forehead.

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It was the shimmering city without shadows, the dragon's heaven: Radian. The alabaster jewel among the heavens, lit by twin stars so no night could ever come. Above and below, dragons of every shape, size, and color went about their lives. Each one of them was ready at a moment's notice to stand up and eradicate any threat to their home, avenge any dishonor upon their world and their god. The force of the light was as impossible to stop as a supernova, spreading out through the cosmos.

Of course, Elijah wasn't concerned with most of them. His greatest worry was the one that currently had driven the tip of its tail completely through his torso and out the other side. Without warning, it was yanked out again, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. Even as his head was spinning and gravity pulled him downwards, he gingerly reached up and felt around the edges.

He struck the floor, but it didn't stop there. He passed through it like water, plummeting downwards through level after level of Chirac's Iron Spire, each one a diorama of another battle he had lost. He fell faster and faster. He couldn't remember whether or not the spire was supposed to have a bottom. Did it pass through the other side of the world? Would he be flung into space? Things began to blur. He saw two tall figures staring at him, both in dark robes. One of them had the most piercing blue eyes he had ever seen, like blue lights in empty sockets. His face was covered by a skeletal mask, or... was it a mask? The other showed pale, bony hands without raising his arms, asking questions without moving his eternally smiling mouth. Glyphs spun around him before flying out into the tornado all around them. The blue-eyed one reached into his cloak, retrieving a large hourglass.

Yes, I agree. It appears we've come too early. We'll come back later. I do so hate impunctuality.

It was all a vortex of insanity and death, and he was falling faster and faster, out of control. He could stop it any time he wanted, but the moment he did it would all become real. The hole in his chest, the bottom of the spire, the two figures... It couldn't be real. He couldn't accept it. The words echoed and rattled in his head.

Again. And again. AGAIN. AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAINAGAINAGAINAGAINAGAINAGAINAGAINAGAIN-

Penn sat bolt-upright in the driver's seat, both of his hands flying to his chest, where there was no wound. His eyes darted to every possible angle, where there were no dark figures. He looked out the window, where there was no shining city. He grabbed at the handle, fumbling for the door until he stumbled into the dirt, gasping for air and shaking violently. His entire body shuddered until his stomach retched. It was all he could do to turn and direct the vomit under the car, where no one would see it in the morning.

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Sunset sat in her tent, staring up at her phone. There were her photos. High school. Her friends. The beach. The mall. All the best memories of high school, immortalized there in her phone. Pinkie's parties, Rainbow's games, hoedowns in Applejack's barn... They were all there. Years of memories... the beach, their cruise, shots of every single one of their concerts. She could see her entire old life laid out before her, everything she missed.

And then she reached it. All too soon, she reached the last photo. It was all of them, about to leave the band room for the last time. She felt a pang in her heart as she remembered what happened immediately afterwards. Every time she had seen that picture, she felt her heart break. It was the end of the story.

And then she pressed the button to move forward. And there was the photo of her, Penn, and Missy under the sign, and perched on top of Missy's head was the tiny form of Isis. They were like a pyramid. The next photo was all of them on the ground, laughing together as they rolled in the grass. After that, photos of Isis's tiny dragon body, curled up on the dashboard of the car "asleep."

The further she went forward, the happier she became. Suddenly, there wasn't an ending. Just a new story, and she knew where it was going. She went back, flipping back and forth between the photo of the Rainbooms and the photo of their road trip gang until she could visualize them combined. Some day, she promised herself, I'm going to have a photo with all of them. All of us together.

With that thought in mind, she finally switched off her phone, closed her eyes, and drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

Haven't We Been Here Before?