“So are we there yet?” Twilight asked.
“Not yet, sugar,” the Sun replied. “We haven’t even gotten to the Belt yet – though we should be coming up on it pretty soon.”
“Is that it?” Milky Way pointed ahead. “Looks like small specks floating around.”
“Sure is,” said the Sun. “And look on the ground – looks like our friend Mercury might’ve gotten a mouthful of rock. Hey, Mercury!” She waved at the track racer.
Mercury stood up on shaky legs. “I was wondering when you’d get here,” she said. “Guess I should pay more attention to the Belt – it’s constantly shifting around. Even I couldn’t navigate it fast enough.”
“Here’s the secret,” the Sun said. “You’re not navigating it slow enough. Not everything needs to be done quick, honey.”
“Alright, alright, I get it,” said Mercury. “Glad you’re here. Mind leading the way?”
“I’d be right happy to.” Unlike Mercury, apparently, the Sun took the Belt in stride, deftly skirting past countless asteroids, taking an ever-shifting path. Once she reached the outer edge of the Belt, she shouted back, “The path is something you have to look for!”
Venus slipped inside a moment later, but before Milky Way could follow her, Twilight leapt off her shoulder. “I’ve got a better idea,” she said. She lit her horn, pictured a spot next to the Sun at that moment, and cast a teleportation spell. She instantly reappeared at the other side, much to everyone else’s shock.
“Sorry!” she shouted back. “I’ve only got enough magic for myself!” All these asteroids this close together should’ve coalesced into a much larger body by now, she thought. What’s keeping them apart? “I take it this isn’t your first time in the outer system?” she asked the Sun.
“Nope, though it might be Milky’s,” she replied. “The others know their way through – though Mercury, bless her heart, she is a bit reckless when it comes to going through the Belt.”
Mercury apparently took the Sun’s words to heart, since she soon emerged onto the other side – then immediately took off, unhindered by a mass of flying rocks.
Mars was not far behind her, with her arms full of small asteroids that had caught her eye. From what Twilight could tell, none of them were fragments. Oh well.
Venus waltzed out – literally – a few moments later, with Milky Way as her apparent partner. The impromptu dancing lessons had not been lost on her. Twilight leapt back up onto Milky Way’s shoulder. “I’m not getting too heavy for you, am I?”
“Nah, you’re fine.”
“So, now that everyone else is here, minus Mercury,” said the Sun, “let’s get going!”
As they took off together, Twilight had to ask, “So where are we going again?”
“This is where Jupiter usually hangs out,” the Sun explained. “You’ll see she’s very fond of animals. She’s going to love you, I can tell. She’s never seen a unicorn before – at least, I think so – nor any talking animal. And you’re both of those things!”
Oh, like I need any more reminding of that. “How much further?” Twilight asked.
“Just a bit further aways,” the Sun replied. “Just hang tight!”
After a few minutes of surprising silence – I guess it’s best not to talk when you’ll be interrupted pretty quickly – the girls pulled up to their destination, where Mercury was already impatiently waiting for them.
To say Twilight was stunned would be quite the understatement indeed. For starters, this planet was huge – easily surrounding her entire field of vision, with enough of itself to spare.
Its orbit was also littered with several dozen satellites of all different sizes and shapes – some appeared to have been captured from the Belt. Each one, however, was inhabited by an animal – she saw dogs, cats, birds, fish, and some more unusual choices. All of them had their heads sealed inside helmets, presumably to breathe, but left the rest of their bodies exposed to the vacuum.
So animals do exist out here, Twilight thought – but why are they afforded this protection, while I’ve gotten by without it? After a moment of thinking, she just chalked it up to her magic sustaining her. Magic, as usual. Right.
Twilight took a cursory glance at the Moon, and saw she was somewhat uncomfortable being here, with her face withdrawn inside her hair. Twilight then understood it might have been a crisis of some sort – Being the Moon herself, and seeing these animal-inhabited satellites here. . . oh dear.
And there, upon the top of the planet – Twilight really had to crane her head to see that far up – was their next girl, who appeared to be deep in meditation. Probably doesn’t want to be disturbed right now, Twilight thought – even though we’re going to have to anyway.
“Hold on, I’ll get her attention,” the Sun said. She started skating her way up to the planet’s north pole.
“She seems to be really good at that, isn’t she?” Twilight asked aloud.
“You have no idea,” Mercury told her. “Just like she’s the center of this system, she likes to be the center of attention.”
“She seems rather restrained for an attention-seeker,” Milky Way commented. “I wonder if it’s to do with Black Hole.”
Mercury shrugged. “Eh, likely, if it’s important enough.”
Twilight turned her attention back onto the girl – Jupiter, she remembered – and saw that, while the Sun did indeed rouse her from her meditation, she didn’t seem to mind that much, and was in fact glad to see the Sun this far from her star. Even with all these animals, Twilight thought, is she really that lonely?
The Sun and Jupiter both started making their way down to the rest of the group, where Twilight could get a better look at Jupiter. Somehow she looked like what the unicorn expected – flowing, loose-fitting clothes, a small red bindi between her eyes, and a great big head of hair, and very smooth movements – where Venus’s dancing was meticulously orchestrated, Jupiter was more free-flowing and natural.
“Hey girls,” she greeted, “good to see you drop by again. And I see you brought a new friend?”
“Well, just here in passing,” Milky Way said. “I’m Milky Way, and this is Twilight – ”
“Is that a horse?” Jupiter interrupted, her attention focused all on Twilight. “Wait, scratch that, is that a unicorn?”
Twilight sighed. “Yes, I’m a unicorn,” she snarked. “I can talk, my horn is real, and it can do magic. Anything else you want to know?”
“Never knew you unicorns existed,” Jupiter said. “Maybe Mars was onto something after all. . . .” She finally turned back to Milky Way. “Where did you rescue her?” she asked.
“She’s not a rescue,” replied Milky Way. “I mean, she kinda is. . . or, well, she will be soon enough. One of Twilight’s magic spells went wrong and she ended up stranded out here – at least, that’s how I understand it.”
Sure, let’s go with that. “I promised Milky Way I’d help her if she could find me a way back home,” Twilight said. “That’s really all why I’m here.”
“Why go back to your old home?” Jupiter asked Twilight. “I can find you a home somewhere in the galaxy – or you can live with me if you’d like.”
“I’ll be fine, thank you,” Twilight said. “Besides, we have a much more serious problem at hand.”
“Can’t be more serious than a little lost unicorn,” Jupiter insisted.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “You see,” she said, “Milky Way here accidentally touched a planetoid that she shouldn’t have, which freed someone named Black Hole, who is now trying to squeeze the universe back down into a singularity – nothing, if you will.”
Milky Way sighed. “Look, I didn’t want to alarm you too much, but I guess Twilight beat me to it.” She pulled the five fragments from her pocket and showed them to Jupiter. “These are all the fragments of his planetoid that we’ve collected, and I know for sure they’re all here in this system.”
“The Sun said that you might have one here,” said Twilight. “Have you captured any new asteroids lately?”
“I can’t say I have, love,” Jupiter asked. “But don’t you worry – you’d be first in line to have it. . . .”
Gah, she’s not getting it, is she? “That’s not the point,” she said. “Well, that eliminates one possibility. Has anything landed on the surface of your planet?”
“My planet doesn’t have a surface,” Jupiter said. “It’s clouds all the way down.” I’m sure the gas pressure would still make some kind of solid surface. “Most things that can get in there, they’re pretty much lost forever.”
“I’ve managed to pull fragments out of Venus’s planet, and even the Sun’s star,” Twilight asserted. “I think I can handle your planet just as easily.”
“Didn’t you need our help to do those things?” Milky Way whispered to Twilight.
“She doesn’t need to know that,” she whispered back.
“Oh yeah?” Jupiter asked. “What can you find inside my world?”
Twilight lit her horn, and carefully approached the planet, teleportation spell ready to fire instantly – lest the gravity pull me in. Using the same technique she used with Venus’s planet, she started feeling around – but was hindered by a lack of solid ground. Maybe Jupiter does have a point. Then, by chance, she found what she thought was some tightly-crumpled metal – and with a firm grasp, and a good deal of strength, she pulled it free from its cloud-covered prison. “What am I looking at here?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, I think that used to be a probe sent here from. . . somewhere. Maybe the Moon might know.” Jupiter took it from Twilight’s telekinetic grasp. “I was wondering what happened to it after a while. I hope they got what they wanted in the end.” She gently tossed it back into the planet, and let its gravitational pull and atmospheric pressure do the rest.
She sighed. “Guess I’d better eat crow with what I said earlier – oh, I’m sorry Thebe,” she added, to a crow the others didn’t notice until then. “I didn’t meant to scare you like that.”
A bubble-helmeted crow with a bandaged wing simply cawed out a response.
“Alright, little pony,” said Jupiter, “you’ve got my attention now. You said you had to stop someone named Black Hole?”
“We all do,” said Milky Way, “or else this entire universe goes bye-bye. Or as Twilight keeps saying, ‘compressed into a singularity.’”
“Well, as much as I’d like to be one with the universe,” Jupiter said, “I don’t mean quite literally like that.” She firmly approached the group. “Whatever it is you’re doing, I’d like to help.”
“It’ll definitely take a while for me to go through your planet,” Twilight said. “Maybe we can get some of your. . . friends to help me?”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Jupiter said.
“And to say nothing about the Belt!” Mars interrupted. “Why don’t we look there, too? It could be anywhere for all we know!”
By Celestia! Twilight thought. As big as this planet is, the Belt is even more massive. Better take care of the planet first, while we still have time. “I call the planet!” she declared.
“Yeah, I figured as much,” Mercury said. “Who’s up for the Belt with me?”
“Shoot, I’m in,” said the Sun.
“As am I,” said Venus.
“Count me in!” Mars chimed in.
“I shall remain with Twilight,” the Moon said.
“So will I,” said Milky Way. “We’ll move to the Belt once we finish our search here – assuming we don’t find anything.”
“Good to know,” Jupiter said. “I’ll bring some of my own pets with me.” She turned to the satellites behind her. “Io! Europa! Ganymede! Callisto! Come on!”
Following this cue, four animals appeared – a dog, a cat, a rabbit, and a ferret – all helmeted in glass bubbles and, unlike the other animals, used jetpacks to get around in the vacuum.
“Io here is really good at sniffing out items,” Jupiter said, indicating the dog. “Just show him one of your pieces, and he’ll go tracking.” Really! Smelling through his helmet! “On the other hand, Callisto is more visual,” she continued, indicating the cat.
“I’d say the fragments are pretty shiny,” Mars said. “Good for Callisto, I imagine?”
“Indeed.” Jupiter indicated the rabbit. “Europa can dig through clouds like nobody’s business. And Ganymede can burrow into even tighter spaces. They can both make it in and out without a problem, unlike most everything else.” She turned to Twilight. “You wouldn’t mind working with them, would you, little pony?”
“No, not at all!” she said. “It’ll be pretty helpful, actually!” Like a certain dragon assistant I miss so sorely.
“Alright girls,” said Jupiter. “Now let’s get searching already!” With these words, all the girls split up into two groups – most went into the Belt, to search out each asteroid for the fragment, a monumental task that frankly needed more people – and the rest searched the planet’s atmosphere.
First, Ganymede and Callisto needed to get a ‘scent’ of the fragment, which Milky Way provided. After that, they both took off for the Belt, to join the other girls.
Twilight, this time, was much more gentle with coaxing through the planet’s clouds. Gotta remember, she reminded herself, smooth, light strokes. Who knows? Maybe you might find the core in all this gas.
As for Europa and Ganymede, they were both ruthless in their exploration. Twilight imagined they knew the planet far better than even Jupiter herself, the way they were going. Once or twice, she heard a shrill yip! as her magic grabbed one of them by mistake. Whoops. Fortunately for her, they were quick to forgive her.
At one point, she found a solid mass. She gave it a strong tug – and it didn’t budge at all. After some prodding, she found it was almost perfectly spherical. Ah, this must be the core, she surmised. I knew it had to be in here somewhere.
Then Twilight heard some rumbling – deep, but very faint. “I wonder what that could be,” she said aloud.
“What what could be?” Milky Way asked her.
“Did you hear rumbling just now?” Twilight followed up.
“Perhaps it is that raging storm of red.” The Moon pointed to their left – and Milky Way’s and Twilight’s jaws dropped.
A great swirling mass of clouds came into view – easily the size of a proper planet, and trumping any satellite in this planetary system. As it rolled into view more and more, the rumbling continued to get more prominent. When Twilight noticed her horseshoes were shaking against her hooves, she quickly scrambled to get on Milky Way’s shoulder.
Say. . . . Twilight continued her search, and this time started combing through the storm. It was. . . an interesting feeling, to say the least. Some clouds in the storm blew so strongly she thought they were solid – only for her to stir them and find they were simply gas. “Ganymede!” she shouted. “Can you find anything in that storm?”
Even though she couldn’t understand Ferret, a few squeaks told her enough – and in her magic, she felt a long, furry creature brush past as he went to town on the storm, somehow not losing his grip on. . . whatever it was he was holding on to.
Without warning, Europa hopped out of the atmosphere, and plunged right into the storm, kicking away clouds without a second thought. As quickly as they reformed their shape, she was kicking them aside again, eventually forming a prominent indentation in the eye of the storm. Twilight thought she could see Ganymede worming through the storm.
“Guess it’s not here,” she said. “Moving on!” She refocused her attention on the rest of the planet. Ganymede and Europa took her cue and abandoned the storm, which eventually started rotating away and out of sight. The rumbling started to subside as well, but the unicorn wasn’t about to hop down onto her own four hooves just yet.
In due time, Twilight had exhausted her efforts in finding the fragment inside the planet – as did Europa and Ganymede, who both emerged unharmed from the planet to rejoin them. She turned to Milky Way. “I guess they could use the extra help in the Belt, huh?” she told them.
“I should agree,” said the Moon. “I itch for something I can do to help.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Milky Way. “I wonder how far they’ve gotten.” They both skated off back to the Belt, which was some distance off.
Mars met them at the edge. “We’ve been looking for a really really long time!” she told them. Despite her words, she didn’t sound the least bit exhausted. “The Belt’s just really big – like, way bigger than even I thought, and I live next door to it, you know?”
Mercury ground her skates to a halt – and unlike Mars, she looked tired. “No luck so far,” she told them. “And I think Io lost the scent. Good thing you’re here to remind him, huh?” She turned to the belt. “Io! Over here, boy!”
Even though Jupiter was his master, Io came jetting up to Mercury. “Io, can you find this for us?” Milky Way extended her hand, with a fragment in the palm.
Io started smelling it – just remember, Twilight thought, he had the scent before, so this is perfectly normal – and dove back into the belt.
“Should we follow him?” Twilight asked.
“I guess we should.” Milky Way, Twilight, the Moon, and Europa went after Io, who had jetted off upspin.
“I’ll go the other way, then!” Mercury took off downspin, still quick, but noticeably slower than usual. Slow enough that Ganymede had no problem catching up with her.
Twilight kept her head pointed down, to keep any particles from flying into her face, looking around with just her eyes for that familiar glimmer. Not long after, they ran into Venus. “I take it you had no luck with the planet?” she asked.
“Nothing there,” Twilight replied. “How about the rest of you?”
“We are empty-handed yet.” Venus pointed further down the Belt. “. . . though I believe the Sun may have a lead with Callisto. She has a better memory than Io, from what I hear. She’s further along upspin.”
“Thanks, we’ll check it out,” Twilight said.
“And another thing,” Venus added. “Would you mind if I borrowed Europa? I’d appreciate another pair of eyes with me.”
Europa didn’t seem to mind – she jetted up to Venus, without any of the others answering first. With the bunny in tow, Venus resumed looking. And Io was apparently not interested in this region of the Belt anyway, so the other girls continued skating upspin.
“Perhaps I should conjure a bit of light pierce the shade,” the Moon suggested. “As much as I prefer the dark, for once it shall not serve me well.”
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea.” Twilight lit up her horn, and cast an illumination spell. Her horn glowed brighter than ever, in a muted violet color.
“I’ll take anything at this point!” Milky Way said. “What else do you have in mind, Moon?”
The Moon cleared her throat, and recited a brief poëm:
O Light! Inside of Light!
Shine clear into the night,
A brilliant ball of white –
Bring dark into our sight!
When she finished, a ball of light emanated from the palm of her hand. She set it in motion in front of her, and told Milky Way, “Let us continue on.”
“Trying to outshine me, are we?” The Sun had just ran into them, her own brilliant radiance serving as her own illumination. “If y’all needed some more light, why not just ask me? I’m only happy to help.”
“I thought we were splitting up so we’d cover more ground that way,” Milky Way objected. Does ‘ground’ even apply here, where there is none? “Anyway, have you found anything?”
The Sun shook her head. “Nope. And I take it the planet’s bunk, little pony?”
“Right.” Twilight pointed at Io, who was still hard at work sniffing out one asteroid among countless others. “Io apparently lost the scent, so we got him back on track, and we’re just following him wherever he goes.”
“Callisto might need a little reminder as well,” the Sun said. “Here, kitty kitty!” She motioned her to come closer.
Which Callisto eventually did, gently jetting in on just her momentum. Milky Way showed her an already-collected fragment, turning it this way and that in Twilight’s horn-light to show its sparkle.
Callisto’s pupils widened, fascinated by the iridescent coloring, and at once she returned to the search, keeping her eyes opened and tuned into her surroundings, occasionally pawing one of the smaller ones. Twilight was watching her, but she didn’t appear to find anything among them.
“We should be good to go for a while,” the Sun said. “Thanks, and good luck yourselves.”
Without any further delays, Milky Way and the Moon started skating away. Twilight found Io again, much further ahead of them than she thought, still probing around for asteroids. Fascinating that smell still works through this helmet, she thought. But I guess that’s not the strangest physics violation in this universe.
Just as Mars’s planet started to swing into view, Io stopped and started barking, loudly – loud enough to get Milky Way’s attention as well. “Woah woah woah!” she exclaimed. “What’d you find, Io?”
Milky Way skated over to where Io stopped and knelt down. There, where Io’s snout pointed, was the prize they were hunting for for so long – an iridescent fragment of the planetoid. “Good boy, Io!” said Milky Way. “We found what we’ve been looking for!” She grabbed the fragment and added the fine addition to her collection.
Io just barked at Milky Way.
“No, I haven’t seen Jupiter yet,” she replied. How does she understand him? “She might be further along the belt, or even returned to her planet. Why?”
Io whimpered.
“I’m sure she can take care of herself,” said Milky Way. “But if you really want to. . . .” She motioned him to follow. “Let’s go back home!”
Io dutifully followed Milky Way. The Moon just shrugged, and tagged along with the girl and the unicorn. Skating downspin was a lot easier for them – they could easily keep pace with the current that made the asteroids drift, and exit the Belt at their leisure.
Along the way, they found the Sun and Callisto. Once they showed her the fragment, and the other five so the Sun was sure, they tagged along together.
Mercury raced up behind them, with Ganymede holding onto her for dear life – and once they got word that the fragment was found, she breathed a sigh of relief and, for once, kept pace with the girls.Perhaps even her heart needs a rest.
Venus saw the group approaching her and Europa, the latter of whom was still searching, perhaps even more frantically than usual. When they both got the good news, she felt and urge to dance – but restrained herself, admitting that such activities were best done on a clean stage.
And finally, Mars was still at the other end of the belt. Evidentially, at one point she got sidetracked and made herself a pet of her own, an asteroid with a crudely-carved face named “Rocky.” She was just as glad as the rest of them, but was reluctant to abandon Rocky after so long (read: twenty minutes). They compromised and let Mars bring Rocky with them.
When six girls, five animals, and a rock finally arrived back at Jupiter’s planet, the one with her pets was already there, in meditation upon the planet, but otherwise waiting for them. “Hello again,” she said. “I had a feeling that one of you found something and that everyone else was coming back here.” She stood up. “I take it you got what you came for?”
Milky Way held up her prize. “Yep, sure did!” She pointed at the dog. “Io sure was a big help, so thanks for that!”
“Hey, if it helps keep the universe safe and in-balance, then I’m more than happy to oblige. You got enough to stuff Black Hole back into his hole?”
Twilight grabbed the pieces in her magic and started arranging them. Two of them actually fit together – amazing how cleanly it broke! – but they were still quite short of what they needed. “Nope,” she said.
She slid down to meet them. “Well, what do you say? You keep looking for the rest, but you have five more join your posse. That’s five more pairs of eyes to search through a righteous system.”
“Five?” Milky Way asked. “But there’s one of you!”
“I know,” she said. “But don’t you think my favorite pets are down and out just yet.”As though on her cue, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto all appeared before them – and amazingly, not a single one of them looked the least bit tired. Jupiter raised an eyebrow. “So,” she said. “You haven’t answered my question yet.”
The girls all looked to one another, daring another to answer. Then Twilight spoke. “It would be a lot to keep track of,” she said, “but if you can keep an eye on your pets on the go, we’d appreciate it.”
“That won’t be a problem at all,” Jupiter assured, in a suave tone. She adjusted her skates. “How about we pay Saturn a visit?”
“Ugh, Saturn.” For once, Venus broke her usual façade of civility. “Don’t get me wrong, mon amie, I do enjoy what she uses for mixing, but I think it’s a tad bit. . . unsophisticated?” she said, after a bit of thought. “Are you sure we have to see her?”
“C’mon, Venus, Saturn’s music isn’t so bad!” Mercury was clearly roaring to go. “It’s been forever since I spent some time with her. Let’s go already!”
Nobody else seemed to have any objections, so without further ado, the girls and animals took off into ever-deeper space, with a pumped-up Mercury taking the lead, and a reluctant Venus trailing behind.