//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 - Astronomical Artist! 
// Story: When Stars Come Out to Play 
// by Chicago Ted 
//------------------------------//

Mercury showed up at a red sandy planet not long after. She stopped and checked her stopwatch. “Six-and-a-half minutes,” she read out. “Either I broke the lightspeed barrier, or time dilation’s playing tricks on me.” She shrugged. “Either way, I’m here and I’ve got a while to wait.” She sat down, leaned her back against the globe, and waited patiently for the others to appear on the pathway.
After several minutes of almost-agonizing boredom, she caught a glimpse of the Sun’s brilliant glow. She sighed in relief, and got up to greet them. “There you are!” she shouted out to them. “I was getting lonely out here without you.”
Eventually the group halted at the planet. “There’s no need to get brash, Mercury,” the Sun replied. “Although. . . you haven’t chased Mars off, have you, sugar?”
“Nope!” Mercury replied. “Haven’t seen her yet either.” She looked around, but couldn’t find anyone. “Might be in her studio for all we know.”
“Her studio?” Milky Way asked. Twilight hopped down from her shoulder. “What does she do, exactly?”
“She is an artisan,” the Moon replied. “The finest in the system, and perhaps the galaxy. Her works have wrought my most unique words.”
“I beg to differ,” Venus opposed.
“What Venus means to say,” the Sun said, “is that Mars’s work tends to be rather. . . weird, if that’s the right word to use. You’ve never seen anything of hers before, and you won’t ever again.”
Can’t be as weird as the surrealist exhibition at the Canterlot Museum of Fine Arts, Twilight thought. Still, I should keep that in mind. “Where is her studio, anyway?” she asked aloud.
“Why, I’m glad you asked!” Without warning, a hatch opened on the northern pole of the planet, and Mars stuck her head out. The first thing Twilight noted about Mars was her neon green complexion, with hair to match, and two thick protrusions on top of her head. Are they eyestalks? Antennae? And just what is she?
“Hey, girls!” she greeted. “And I see you’ve got new friends!” she added, when she noticed Milky Way and a very perplexed Twilight. “Come in, come in!” She gestured them inside, through the hatch.
Twilight struggled to rationalize what she saw next. One at a time, each of the girls climbed inside the hatch and descended into. . . wherever that hole went. And yet, the planet was able to hold much more than its external appearance would suggest. Twilight kept telling herself not to think about the logical leaps it would require for this to work, but her innate urge to understand kept her right on edge. And from the looks of it, it seemed Milky Way was confused as well, though probably not as much as Twilight.
“Well?” Mars asked the holdouts. “Won’t you come inside? There’s plenty of room left!”
Twilight looked at Milky Way, raising an eyebrow. Milky Way simply shrugged, and took Mars’s offer. Twilight went down after her, and Mars shut the hatch behind them.
Twilight looked around and her jaw dropped. This thing’s way bigger on the inside, she thought, and I don’t think we’re in the actual studio yet. Mars wasn’t kidding. And speaking of, she turned her head and got a better look at their host.
Her appearance was unlike any of the other girls she had met, and her outfit didn’t help matters much either. She had on purple skates and skirt, socks striped with two shades of green, an orange fur jacket, and a white shirt. All in all, between her artworks and her appearance, she was definitely without fear.
“So, what brings you all out here to my humble abode?” she asked.
“That would be me, actually,” said Milky Way. “I’m Milky Way, and this is Twilight. We’re looking for pieces of a planetoid that I accidentally broke – ”
“That contained a super evil bad guy who’s trying to suck everything into a black hole as we speak?” Mars finished.
Milky Way and Twilight were spooked. “How did you guess?” Milky Way asked.
“Call it an artist’s intuition,” Mars replied. “And what about you, Twilight? Haven’t seen a unicorn before – well, not in real life!” She giggled. “I’ve got plenty of sculptures of unicorns, though!”
Twilight ignored Mars’s comment. “That’s a long story,” she said. “All that matters is that Milky Way promised me a way back home if I helped her with these planetoid fragments.”
“And she has been a big help, see,” the Sun added. “You should’ve seen her try to get one piece of the puzzle from my star – that was something else!”
“Puzzle?” Mars asked. “What puzzle!?”
“Just a figurative one, I’m afraid,” Twilight said, noting the apparent disappointment on Mars’s face. “We’ve been collecting pieces of the planetoid around this solar system, where according to Milky Way all of them should be. We thought maybe there’d be one here too, around this planet.”
“Well,” Mars said, “I wouldn’t really know anything about that, I’m sorry. But hey! While you’re here, why don’t we take a look inside my gallery?” She put her hand up to a panel on the wall, and firmly pressed it in. A hidden door slid away, and what Twilight saw inside made her wish she was looking at the Canterlot Museum’s exhibits instead – at least that tried to make sense.
Here were shapes Twilight had never seen before – carved or sculpted from a dizzying array of materials. Some were extremely angular, with more edges and corners than she could count. Others were polished to a brilliant sheen, their curves flowing fore and aft. And several more she hadn’t any words for. The best Twilight could do to describe them all was that these were sculptures – and even then, she could be wrong. Still, she kept her mouth shut to avoid embarrassing herself. From what little she knew about Mars, this was likely just the tip of the iceberg that was her gallery.
Her assumption was correct. As she rounded the corner into the next room, she saw this was the painting section. Maybe, she thought. Maybe this isn’t actually paint. And that was to say nothing of what the paintings depicted – some depicted other girls, either the ones she had met so far or ones she had never seen before – perhaps ones I’ll meet at some point. Several more looked like random starfields – one in particular kept her attention for quite some time, as she tried to find whatever pattern it was apparently depicting.
“Did something catch your eye, Twilight?” Mars’s voice asked behind her.
Startled, Twilight jumped. “Uh. . . .”
Mars just giggled. “That’s okay – happens a lot with this painting!” Mars turned her attention to it. “I could never get what’s so fascinating with it, though.”
“I’m just trying to find a pattern in it, that’s all,” Twilight answered. “I’m sure the other girls were, too.”
Mars stared blankly at Twilight. Then she burst out laughing. “‘Pattern’?” she asked. “There’s no pattern here – I just threw some paint onto the canvas, literally!” She stopped laughing, trying to catch her breath. “Not everything has to be in order – sometimes it’s just chaos, and it’s no less beautiful that way.”
With this in mind, Twilight looked at it again. Yes, she thought, it does look very chaotic. Any way she looked at it, none of the elements lined up – almost as if this chaos was orchestrated. But if it were, she thought, it wouldn’t be chaos. “Any other sections in your gallery?” she asked Mars.
She pointed at another doorway. “Down there’s where I keep my collages,” she said. “Further beyond’s where I do some “free-hand” writing – the Moon’s probably there right now.” A sharp ding! sounded through the gallery. “Oh! Kiln’s done!” she said. “Gotta go!” She quickly skated off to wherever her kiln was, leaving Twilight alone in the painting section.
Well, let’s just see about her collages, she thought. She dipped her head in and looked around. All with the same trademark Martian uniqueness, these were made from clippings from all sorts of sources Newspapers and magazines, sure – do they even have these things out here? – but she also spotted some with dictionary pages on them. Twilight was a bit disappointed at seeing the remains of a useful tome used in such a manner, but reminded herself that more than one copy was likely to exist somewhere.
At the other end of the section were two doorways – one led to the “free-writing” section, where she thought she could hear the Moon’s signature metric voice talking to herself, and the other was some sort of fashion exhibit. You mean there’s more where that outfit came from!?
Indeed there was – and for a brief moment, Twilight was glad that was the particular outfit Mars chose for herself. There must be a fine line between creativity and presentability, she thought to herself. But she heard the alluring siren’s call of the other section, so she peeled herself away and went to take a look.
What writing Twilight saw had more of an emphasis on ‘free’ than ‘writing.’ She felt like something was wrong with her – is this induced dislexia? Am I having a stroke? Fortunately, the Moon seemed as perplexed as Twilight. “I take it this is not how you normally write?” she asked the Moon.
“Not at all,” the Moon replied. “And yours is not like this?”
“Nope!” Twilight kept looking around her, seeing the writing in several mediums – ink on paper, pressed into clay, even a few ‘verbose’ paintings Mars deemed inappropriate for the other section. “Wonder what they’re all supposed today.”
“Perhaps they’re nothing. Just a load of filler.” The Moon conjured a scroll and showed Twilight. “This is how we always write, for reference.”
Twilight looked at it – “Hey, this is what we also use back in Eq – ” she caught herself before she sent the Moon down that particular rabbit hole – “back where I come from! At least I can read your poëtry, thankfully.”
The Moon smiled – “I suppose that much is true.” She turned back to the writings on the wall.
A legitimately legible sign caught the unicorn’s attention – Ceramics. She did mention attending to a kiln, Twilight thought. Let’s see what she’s thrown together. Twilight followed the sign into the next section.
As expected, there were various pots, plates, bowls, and mosaics on display, in a wide range of shapes, sizes, and colors. No statues here – those must be for the other section, she surmised. She was a bit disappointed that they weren’t sorted out in any meaningful order – Remember Twilight, chaos is okay here. Just live with it.
A moment later, Mars skated right in with a brand-new ceramic creation. “Was that in the kiln?” Twilight asked her.
“Sure was!” Mars replied. She set it down on an empty stand. “It’s a mosaic I’ve been working on for the past day. Made sure to bake it extra hard – some pieces were pretty resistant.”
“Oh, I’ll bet.” Twilight trotted over to where Mars set the mosaic down, gently, making sure she didn’t knock anything over. The design looked abstract, but Twilight was used to that by now, but it also had a certain symmetry to it – one she couldn’t put a hoof on. Then she noticed four pieces on it looked familiar. She looked up to Mars. “Where’s Milky Way?” she asked. “It’s rather important right now.”
“I just saw her in the fashion section, actually!” Mars replied giddily. “Why?”
“Just got a hunch, thanks!” Twilight, without thinking, galloped into the fashion section. “Milky Way? You’d better come in here, quickly!” At least I didn’t knock anything over.
Milky Way forced her attention to Twilight. “What is it?” she asked.
“Just come in here, would you!?”
“Alright, alright – don’t see what’s so important about ceramics.” She skated into the gallery, over to where Twilight was standing and pointing so urgently. “What? Do you like this or something?”
“Not exactly.” Twilight gestured Milky Way to let her whisper into her ear. When she knelt down, Twilight told her, “I’m pretty sure some of those pieces were once a fragment of that planetoid.”
That got Milky Way’s attention. She pulled the already-collected pieces from her pocket and one by one held each one up to the mosaic. When she got to the last piece, her already-pale skin somehow lost even more color. She turned to Twilight. “What are we going to do about this?” she whispered to her. “We can’t just upset Mars!”
“Why?” she shot back. “Is she more sensitive than the Moon?”
“I dunno, but she seems dedicated to her crafts.” Milky Way gestured around her, indicating the rest of the section.
“Then that’s the chance we’ll have to take.” Twilight turned her attention to Mars – only to find she had already left the room. “Well, momentarily. I’ll check the free-writing section.”
“Got it; I’ll go see in the fashion section.” Milky Way and Twilight parted ways right after.
Twilight trotted into the previous section, almost running into but still startling the Moon, whom the pseudo-literature still enraptured. “Say, have you seen Mars lately?” she asked.
“I believe she went into her workshop,” the Moon replied. “Pray tell, why?”
“I’ve got a lead on the next planetoid fragment, but I need to see her about it,” Twilight replied. “Where’s her workshop?”
The Moon pointed into the collage section. “Through this door, and through the next two, past her paintings.”
“Thanks!” Twilight quickly galloped off, ripping through the collages, and the paintings, and up to a door she hadn’t noticed before. On it was a plaque that said:


Mars’s Workshop
Do Not Disturb!


No disturbing her, Twilight thought. Well, this hardly counts now, in an emergency. Gently, yet persistently, she knocked her hoof on the door. C’mon, c’mon, open up!
Mars eventually did open her door. She looked around, expecting one of the other girls, but finding none of them. At least she doesn’t look cross, Twilight thought. Then Mars looked down and found the unicorn sitting at the entrance. “Well well, Twilight,” she said. “Can’t get enough of my artwork, can you?” She blocked Twilight from entering. “Can’t let you in,” she said. “Gotta wait until they’re finished, silly!”
“That’s fine, I wasn’t trying to peek,” said Twilight. “Listen, remember what I told you about Milky Way looking for planetoid fragments?”
“Oh yeah!” Mars said. “Didn’t think it was important, though. Why? Did you find a clue here? Oh hello, Milky Way!” she added, as she saw her pull up on her skates, coming from another section.
“Well,” said Twilight, “I think I did better than that – I’ve got good news and bad news. Good news is I think I found a fragment itself in the gallery.”
“Ooh, goodie!” Mars said. She noticed that didn’t exactly light up Twilight – or Milky Way, for that matter. “So what’s the bad news?”
“Bad news is,” Twilight said, “you may have unwittingly broken it up and baked it into your latest mosaic.”
For the first time, Twilight could see Mars genuinely disturbed. “Oh,” she simply said. “Oh honey, oh dear, oh my.” She started making her way out of her workshop, closing the door behind her. “We’d better see if that’s true, and if we can actually fix it. Come on!”
Sticking close behind Mars, Milky Way and Twilight followed the alien girl into the ceramic section, where they found the Sun looking around as well. “Well well,” the Sun purred. “What brings you girls – and pony – all in together?”
Mars wordlessly skated over to her new mosaic. “Twilight said this might have one of those fragments Milky Way’s looking for,” she said.
“Really now?” the Sun asked.
Milky Way pulled out one piece and held it up to the mosaic. “Look familiar?” she asked.
The Sun’s jaw dropped. “Mars, I – ” She quickly caught herself. “I can’t be mad at you, since you didn’t know what it was. I’m just worried about what we’re going to do now. Without it, I doubt we’d be able to stop Black Hole.”
“Perhaps I have a way to solve this.” The Moon at some point had entered the ceramic section.
A moment later, Mercury zipped right inside, somehow without dragging a lot of wind with her. “Heard a bunch of talking in here,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Twilight found the next piece,” the Sun told her. “Unfortunately, it’s baked right into this here mosaic.”
Mercury just shook her head. “Leave it to Mars to work something super important into a work of art,” she quipped.
“A pity too,” said Mars. “That fragment made the whole piece just come together. No other material would have fit here – and believe me, I’ve tried!” She turned back to Milky Way. “Are you sure you need every fragment to stop Black Hole?” she asked.
“Unfortunately, that’s the idea,” she replied. She looked at the mosaic again. “You wouldn’t happen to know a way to piece it back together again, would you?”
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” Mars said. “Still, I hope it’s worth destroying the rest of the mosaic.” After a bit of thought, she snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it! I’ll be right back!” And with that, she quickly zipped off through the gallery.
A moment later, she was back, this time with some fresh clay. “As for pulling out the pieces. . . ,” she mused, setting the clay aside.
Twilight lit her horn. “Let me handle that,” she said. She grabbed the pieces in question, and gently tugged on them, testing their brittleness. These feel like they might break before the clay – how is that possible? “How hot was your kiln when you were baking this?” she asked.
“I admit I got pretty frustrated with it, so I eventually cranked it up to its highest setting and left it in for longer,” Mars replied. “Why? Does it show?”
“Oh, it shows alright!” Twilight said. “It’s like concrete, the way you did this. Might have to do some light chiseling around the edges.” She worked her magic around each piece, eroding away just enough clay at the edges to work each piece out, one at a time. When she was done, she deposited all four pieces onto the table, right next to the clay. “There, they’re out.”
“Hmm. . . .” Mars’s artistic talents allowed her to arrange anything into something new, so restoring something would be tricky for her. “How did they originally fit again?” she asked to herself.
Hearing this, Twilight quickly pieced them together in her telekinetic grip. “Like that.”
“I can assist in reinforcing it,” the Moon said, scroll and quill already in hand. “Just speak.”
“Got it!” Using the clay as an adhesive, she gently pieced the fragment back together, in the way the unicorn indicated. Just to be sure, she even applied even more on the outer edges and on the sides – essentially making a new mosaic out of the old. Once she was finished, she held it up to Twilight. “Good enough for you?”
“Looks fine to me,” said Twilight. “Now we just need to bake it. Do you remember the settings from last time?”
“Yes! I’ll be right back!” Mars quickly skated off – to her studio, presumably. She reappeared a moment later. “It’s a smaller piece, and I didn’t use nearly as much clay – so it’ll be just a few minutes, I promise!”
“Alright,” Twilight said, “we’re holding you to it.”
“Honey,” the Sun interjected, “if you’re wondering why that mosaic took so long in the hotbox, I should remind you Milky Way and Twilight here pulled another of those pieces from my star – and another from Venus’s planet, through the acid clouds.” She noted the surprise, and then the realization, on Mars’s face.
“Yeah, these were particularly stubborn,” Mars commented. “Should’ve tipped me off about something.” She sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. I had no idea how important this was to you – to us all.”
“That’s okay,” said Milky Way. “Now that we know, we’re mending it right up. You don’t have to worry about a thing – I know you’ve got this.”
As though on cue, the girls heard the ding! of the kiln’s timer. “Exit stage right!” said Mars, and skated out. She returned within the moment, the piece in question still steaming in an oven mitt.
Twilight quickly grabbed it from her grasp, and held it up to her eye. “It’s definitely solid,” she said. She then turned to the Moon. “But just to be sure. . . .”
The Moon took Twilight’s hint. She cleared her throat.

What once was whole is now repair’d anew;
With earth and stone, this piece’s mend is true.
Its newfound strength shall hold against Black Hole,
And with the others, it shall see him through.

Twilight then cast her cyrogenic spell over it, making sure that the clay didn’t crack in the process. Although it wasn’t immediately effective, the Moon’s words made the fragment almost iron-clad. “Right,” she said. “That should do it.”
Mars sighed in relief. “Thought we were sunk for a moment!” she said. “Glad that’s fixed up.” She looked at the now-ruined mosaic. “Actually. . . that doesn’t look bad. In fact, it looks better with the pieces missing.”
“Indeed, c’est magnifique!” Venus said. “Those gaps promise a most peculiar tale, for those who care to listen.”
“Uh. . . yeah, what she said!” Mercury added.
“And another thing,” Mars said. “I. . . whatever it is you’re trying to do, I want to help. It’s the least I could do for the scare earlier.”
“Sounds delightful!” Milky Way said. “We’d be happy to have you with us!”
Oh great, another passenger on our quest. “Oh sure, why not?” Twilight said. “It’d be nice to have another pair of eyes to look around with.”
“Then I won’t let you down!” After a mock salute, she turned and skated out. “Unless you think I have any more fragments down here, I think we should get going.”
“Where to next?” Mercury asked.
“We’re already out here,” said the Sun, “and every inner world has been their fragment recovered. Makes sense we continue outwards, I reckon.”
“Here’s the ladder,” said Mars. “I’ll get the hatch!” She grabbed both sides, and in a gravity-defying maneuver, simply slid up the ladder.
“There’s no way I’m climbing it like that,” Milky Way said.
“Ain’t none of us do that, either,” the Sun said. “Just another of Mars’s quirks.” She went up the ladder, followed by Milky Way and Twilight, who clutched Milky Way’s shoulder even more tightly than usual, lest she fall off.
Mars was waiting for them outside the planet. As Milky Way got back onto the cosmic pathways, Twilight noted Mercury, Venus, and the Moon – in that order – follow them out. Once the Moon climbed out, Mars shut the hatch behind them. “Off to Jupiter, then?” she asked.
“Sure, sugar,” said the Sun. “Oh, and Mercury, before you take off – ” But she was too late – Mercury already left them behind for the next orbit. “I was going to warn her about the Asteroid Belt. Reckon she’ll have to learn that the hard way.”
“Asteroid Belt?” Milky Way asked.
“It’s a field of asteroids surround a celestial body,” Twilight explained. “No idea if it’s around the inner system – or just the next planet.”
“It’s the inner system,” the Sun said. “Though I gotta say, that ain’t bad – but I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that you know that.” She started skating off. “Let’s get going already!”
The other girls took off after her, leaving the inner system behind them.