//------------------------------// // Gotta Go to Space // Story: Worlds Apart: The Chosen of the Prognosticus // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// “All right, magic butterfly Heart-sensing powers go!” Toph said, pointing at Tippi. “It’s right here,” Tippi said, shocked at her own deduction. “I… I swear it’s right here.” Toph stamped her foot into the ground, jostling a stone in the temple’s foundation. “Good news: earthbending works flawlessly. Bad news: don’t feel any Heart.” Twilight lit her horn, levitating a small pebble off the ground. “My magic is functional, it appears. I’m sensing a strange… aura, similar to the other Hearts, but I can’t pinpoint it.” “Great, some kind of puzzle nonsense.” Toph crossed her arms. “What do we have to do this time, turn out all the lights?” “I doubt it’ll be that simple.” Twilight lowered her head, examining the empty pedestal in a vain hope of finding some inscription. “We need a clue…” “Or we could just talk to the locals…” Tippi suggested. “Locals?” Twilight asked. “She’s talking about the giant rabbit that just climbed up the stairs,” Toph said, gesturing behind them. Sure enough, there was an anthropomorphic rabbit standing at the top of the stairs, looking at them with shock. Clearly female, the rabbit had a simple violet dress with a burgundy vest and wore her ears like hair, drooped behind her head. She had simple white gloves and shoes that, while they had low heels, looked fit for running in. Even though she was taller than both Twilight and Toph, she was short when compared to the average human. Most striking of all, however, were her eyes that took up most of the volume of her face. Not quite as large as Twilight’s own, but decidedly huge compared to Toph and the human baseline. “Are you from… Earth?” the rabbit asked. “No,” Toph said. “I’m from… Uh… What’s my world called?” “Diqiu,” Tippi offered. “Yeah, I’m from Diqiu.” Toph’s grin faltered. “Wait, who came up with that name?” “I am afraid I am not aware of the history of the name.” “And I’m from Equis,” Twilight explained. “Though I’ve been to Earth. Why do you ask?” The rabbit put her hands behind her back. “Oh, it’s just that sometimes people send things through for Chris. He’s been visiting, and I come by every now and then to see if more things are dropped off for him.” “...Did he travel here before the Void in the sky appeared?” Tippi asked. The rabbit looked at the moon-sized swirl in the sky. “Yes, it was before.” “Then I’m afraid no normal portals will appear. That Void is blocking almost all travel.” “Oh.” She tapped her fingers together. “I’ll still keep dropping by, if you don’t mind. You never know!” Twilight nodded in agreement. “You never do. I’m Twilight Sparkle, this is Toph and Tippi.” “I’m Vanilla,” she said, curtsying slightly. “Nice to meet you!” Twilight extended her hoof and shooked Vanilla’s gloved hand. “We’re looking for something called a Pure Heart. Have you heard of it?” She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry.” “We think it’s somewhere here, hidden through some kind of spell really close by. Probably in this temple!” Vanilla frowned. “I don’t think so… but I don’t know much about this place, you’d have to ask Knuckles about it.” “And where can we find this Knuckles?” “He’s in space.” Toph and Twilight stared at her in disbelief. “He is,” she insisted, raising her hands in emphasis. “They took the Master Emerald off that pedestal right there, put it in one of Tails’ amazing machines, and went into space.” Toph stretched. “Welp, looks like we gotta go find him and this Master Emerald. Vanilla, how do we get to space?” Vanilla put a finger to her chin in thought. “Well, they had the only ships I’m aware of…” “So… you couldn’t go to space, even if you wanted?” “No.” She rubbed the back of her head. “You know, last time something like this happened, a spaceship fell out of the sky for some friends of mine to use, but…” She glanced at the sky hopefully. Nothing came. “I suppose that’s not going to happen.” “It’d be way too convenient,” Toph admitted. “So, no spaceships…” Twilight started pacing around the temple pedestal. “No way to contact them… Hmm… Could we try to get to space on our own, somehow? Like… are there magic spells for it, or something?” “I don’t think so…” Vanilla clapped her hands together. “But Eggman’s base is currently abandoned! You might be able to use one of his many robots.” “And where is Eggman’s base?” Twilight asked. “It’s not far. I can take you.” ~~~ “There it is, the home of our resident mad scientist,” Vanilla said, holding out a hand. “He’s really not that bad once you sit down to have tea with him, but he does cause a ruckus with all the ‘taking over the world’ nonsense he tries every now and then. It has been nice and quiet around here with him gone.” The base was a cylindrical hunk of purple metal sitting garishly atop a pristine green hill. There were many dents, scorch marks, and holes in the structure from wear, tear, and what was presumably a large number of explosive battles. None of it seemed recent, so that gave Twilight some peace with the situation. Furthermore, the fact that it was all metal gave her hope that maybe there was a way to get into space hidden within. Although, the black mustache’d logo on the front made her uneasy. If Rarity were here, she’d probably faint at the jarring sight. “Have fun!” Vanilla waved. “I’m going back home—my house is the one at the end of that street over there. I’ll have warm milk if anyone wants it. Oh, and since I forgot to say it earlier, welcome to Mobius!” “Bye!” Twilight waved. As Vanilla vanished over a hill, Twilight turned back around. “What a nice woman.” “She was smothery,” Toph grunted. “Waaaaay too sickly-sweet.” “Her name is Vanilla.” “What’s that have to do with anything?” Twilight put on her “explaining things” face. “Well, my name is Twilight, and I’m related to magic and the stars. You’re Toph, a play on words for ‘tough’. Names have meaning.” Toph raised an incredulous eyebrow. “...You don’t know how names work, do you?” “Au contraire, I think you just haven’t sat to think about it.” “What does ‘Iroh’ mean, then?” Toph crossed her arms and leaned in. “Hmm?” Twilight blinked. “Uh…” “C’mon, genius! I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.” “Okay, maybe names don’t always mean things,” Twilight grumbled. “Let’s just have a look inside.” They walked up the dirt path to the base, finding dozens of destroyed robots laying around outside. On one hand, this made the area look like a graveyard. On the other, the advanced technology had Twilight practically salivating. These devices were even more advanced than what she had seen on Earth—metal mechs taller than buildings, laser guns, massive treads… the structural integrity of the metal alone was astounding! “I can feel your heart racing,” Toph said. “I’m just… I could spend years here reverse-engineering every last machine here to find out how it ticks.” “We don’t have years.” “I’m still going to have to investigate some of these to make a way into space, most likely.” Twilight reared up and clapped her hooves. “I can’t wait to get started!” They approached the main doors to the base, each the size of a royal Canterlot airship and wide open. Right there, sitting before their eyes, was what appeared to be a black plane of some kind. It glinted in the sun, promising to take them to distant stars with its aggressive points and sleek aerodynamic design. However, while its front was amazingly pristine, the rest of it was either broken, incomplete, or in the process of being repaired. Panels hung wide open and so many wires were sprawled loosely over the floor. It was clearly a huge project. As they approached, they were surprised to find that the base wasn’t completely abandoned. A human girl jumped out of the half-broken ship, landing delicately on her feet. She was a bit younger than Toph and wore a set of fancy red robes that matched her feathered cap. The girl saw them approaching and folded her arms. “Well, what’s all this then?” “We’re trying to figure out how to go to space,” Twilight explained. “Vanilla told us this was a good place to start.” “Vanilla?” “The rabbit that lives not all that far away?” “Oh.” The girl shrugged. “I’m new here, haven’t met many people.” “You’re not from this world?” “I’m afraid not. I got here a few weeks ago. Don’t know why, something black and flashy. It was rather upsetting, if I do say so myself.” She walked up to them and glared at how much taller they were than her. “Hmph. I’m Lulu.” “Twilight,” Twilight said with a bow. “And this is Toph and Tippi.” Lulu corked a brow. “Are your names thematic, or something?” “...They do all start with T,” Tippi admitted. “Unintentional. Probably. Unless the letter T has some kind of special meaning...” Twilight scratched her chin, pondering this for a moment. “Anyway, that ship you were working on looks great. Think we could work on it to get it flying?” Lulu crossed her arms indignantly. “I don’t know. Would you actually be any help?” “I’m sure we have many skills that would be of great help.” “I can bend metal!” Toph offered. Stomping, she erected a burst of earth that threw a robot to her. She pried the metallic plating off with her bare hands and shaped it into a crumpled, ugly approximation of a cube. “Behold.” “Hmm… heavy lifting. Adequate.” Lulu turned to Twilight. “And you?” Twilight levitated several chunks of the robot Toph threw into the air and fused them together with her magic. “I am an accomplished magician.” Lulu grinned. “I’m a wizard too. Watch this.” She waved her hand, summoning a swarm of lazy bees to her hand. “An animal spell! Fascinating… most of my spells are more direct.” Lulu waved a dismissive hand, dismissing the bees. “We can compare notes later. Right now… Oi! Blaze!” What appeared to be a native Mobian poked her head out of the ship. She was shorter than Vanilla, and was a purple cat rather than a cream rabbit, but her eyes were of a similar size. Curiously, she wore gloves and shoes fit for running just like Vanilla did. “Yes, what is it?” “I’ve got a magical pony and a tough girl who want to help fix the dinghy. Might be helpful?” Blaze ran up to them, examining them. Twilight felt as though she were getting her measurements taken by those massive eyes. “They’ll do. You want to get to space, I take it?” Twilight nodded. “Yes.” “May I ask why?” “Certainly! We’re looking for Knuckles so we can talk to him about the Master Emerald and the purpose of the old temple back on that floating island over there.” Blaze nodded. “I’m going to investigate the purple vortex in the sky.” “The Void, you mean?” Blaze leaned in. “You know of it?” “Yes, actually. I can tell you more while we work.” Blaze nodded curtly. “Good.” She turned to Lulu. “I’m glad for the help, but next time, maybe recruit some cute boys?” Lulu crossed her arms. “I will never help you with your ‘cutie-pie’ obsession. Never.” Blaze sighed. “You don’t know what’s good in life.” “I prefer having a brain, thank you.” Twilight and Toph glanced at each other and shrugged before entering the busted ship. ~~~ Repairing a spaceship when nobody really understood advanced technology turned out to be about as hard as you might expect. Even with the schematics right in front of them and all the parts they could ever need, the group could never make any progress. Twilight was learning more and more about power regulation and cable management every day, but she was a mage, not a mechanic. Technology, while fascinating, was not her area of expertise. She had not been kidding when she said she’d need years to reverse-engineer everything. Tippi, on the other hand, did know about machines. Machines like her. Which, as they quickly found out, had very little bearing on the scrap heap they were working on. There were no hard light regulation or consciousness integration systems anywhere in the ship—just endless wires, wires, and more wires; components Tippi didn’t even have within herself. All this wasn’t even considering the ridiculous supply of weapons studding virtually every edge of the craft. Blaze and Lulu weren’t of much help either. They just wanted to investigate the Void and figure out what it meant. Lulu was a wizard like Twilight, yes, but where Twilight performed magic as an academic discipline, Lulu’s spells were more esoteric and random, cast from “a spellbook” and not from any understanding of magical theory. And Blaze was just… a cat. Who, quite honestly, didn’t seem interested in the work at all, but kept at it anyway. Twilight had no idea why she was even here. Toph got the worst of it, though. Rarely did they need her to shape metal or move heavy objects. Most of the time she just sat around while Twilight and Tippi argued about wires, cables, and other things that went over her head. She’d even left to go hang out at Vanilla’s house a few times and nobody had noticed. After she’d told the stories about her adventures to Vanilla a dozen times, even that got a little boring. “I hate science,” she muttered, trudging back to Eggman’s abandoned base one late afternoon. Naturally, she found Twilight standing over one of the ship’s open panels, staring at a bunch of wires in frustration. “I don’t understand,” Twilight grunted, tugging at the wires with her magic. “You were working yesterday! Why aren’t you working now!? Agh!” She kicked the metal siding with her front hoof, left eye twitching. “It’s like every time I get you working, you fail an hour later!” “You didn’t sleep last night, did you?” Toph asked. “Nope!” Twilight shouted with a laugh. “I swear there are little gremlins running around that rewire things when I’m not looking!” Toph folded her arms. “I’ve never sensed anyone aside from the five of us in here.” “Maybe it’s that Dimentio guy! Popping in and out of existence just to mess with my wiring!” Twilight let out a demented laugh. “I’m gonna lay a trap for him! Yes… yes…” “Or the thing could just be doomed to break and you’re grasping at conspiracy theories.” “Let me have this!” Twilight shouted, falling at Toph’s feet. “I… I have to try something! Anything! It’s got to work!” Toph shook her head. “You really don’t like not being able to figure something out, huh?” “It’s poison!” Twilight wailed. Toph put her hands behind her head and stretched. “Well, I’ll let you get back to that. Let me know if you need me to punch a wall or something.” “Yes, yes, I will…” Twilight was already ignoring her, fixated on the wires once again. Sagging, Toph walked away. “Hello.” Toph almost punched Lulu in the face. “D-don’t… How did you sneak up on me like that?” “Invisibility and Float spell,” Lulu explained, adjusting the feather in her cap. “Testing your limits.” “Testing my… limits?” Lulu grinned mischievously. “It’s all in good fun! You’re such a bore if no one can pull a good one on you. Now we have… options.” “So I should be terrified and paranoid now? Little girl wants to prank me.” Giggling, Lulu vanished into thin air and Toph could no longer sense her. Even though she was just a little girl with a mischievously playful attitude, Toph still felt a chill run up her spine. Something about the way she’d said those things put Toph on edge. The repairs on the ship couldn’t come fast enough, Toph decided.