//------------------------------// // Flipside Grows // Story: Worlds Apart: The Chosen of the Prognosticus // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// If Twilight was being honest with herself, this was all happening too fast. She’d just spent… had it been weeks working on that machine while completely oblivious to Mimi and Lulu’s efforts to delay her progress? She wasn’t sure, she’d slept so little. And now, in the span of a couple hours, their treachery had been revealed, a ton of new friends came down from space, there was an alien fleet of cyborg creatures that went into the Void, and there was a new hero of prophecy right next to her! Twilight examined Cosmo. She… well, she seemed quiet and reserved, but she’d been able to speak her mind to Eggman when the situation had called for it. In a way, she reminded Twilight of Fluttershy, except… there was a slow sadness about Cosmo. Twilight had only known her for a few hours, it was impossible to tell what that was about, if it was anything at all. It was a rush, was what it was. Toph had had weeks to get to know Twilight and Tippi in Diqiu, Cosmo had met them at the end of the journey. But they had to keep going, had to save all worlds. The Void was already larger in Flipside, almost the size of a moon. It wasn’t anywhere near as oppressive as the Void in Mobius had been when they flew right up to it, but that was in space. Flipside wasn’t in space—at least not in the traditional sense—and the Void stood as a brutal reminder of impending doom. They had three hearts now. One more world and they’d be half done. There was hope. Toph, Cosmo, Tippi, and Twilight descended to the Heart chamber directly, walking into the presence of the red and orange Hearts. “My…” Cosmo said, approaching the central pillar with careful, nervous steps. “They’re…” “They’re amazing, yeah yeah,” Toph said, trying to sound dismissive. “Just get on with it.” >> A new hero? << Merlon asked from his screen. “Yes,” Twilight said. “She’s the flower.” >> The “Flower of hopeful love?” << Twilight thought back to the few interactions she had seen between Cosmo and her friends. There was a hope there—and she certainly cared for Tails a great deal. “It seems to fit.” “If we’re finding them in order…” Tippi said, trailing off. >> “Ruler to clever beasts but servant of one” << Merlon offered. “Ahem,” Toph coughed, prompting Twilight to repeat Merlon’s message aloud. “Oh. Animal king next. Got it.” She pretended to write a note in the air. “Or queen. We’re all girls so far.” “Hmm…” That hadn’t struck Twilight as odd until just that moment. After all, back home she and her friends were the heroes, and they were all mares. So far that pattern had continued out in the multiverse, but she’d heard about many other heroes. Was there a pattern here, or did it mean nothing? Cosmo finally reached the main pillar and released the yellow Heart into it. It joined the others in a cyclic dance, taking the form of a triangle slowly rotating along two different axes. The yellow burst of light shot to the top of Flipside, creating a brand new door to another world. >> A new world is ready. << “Great! We can go immediately!” Cosmo clapped her hands. “Actually,” Twilight said, holding up a hoof. “We need a rest. Some of us have been beaten up.” Toph glared at Twilight with her hands on her hips. “And some of us haven’t been sleeping.” Twilight let out a half-hearted nervous chuckle. “Oh, right, my apologies,” Cosmo bowed to them. “I’d forgotten you may not be as rested as I am.” “It won’t take long,” Tippi said. “A few hours rest in Flipside rejuvenates you completely.” Cosmo’s eyes widened. “Oh, really?” “You should try it!” Toph grinned. “I had a broken arm and then I didn’t!” “That sounds too good to be true…” “Ty Lee runs the inn…” Twilight scratched her chin. “Is it really an inn or just a place she threw a bunch of beds?” “Don’t care,” Toph said with a shrug. “Need sleep.” “Okay, okay! Let’s go get some rest!” ~~~ Ty Lee was not as surprised as she probably should have been to find a yellow two-tailed fox sitting outside the little “inn” she had created. Noticing him, she set down her box of randomly collected knick-knacks from the rest of Flipside—mostly rather useless junk, but there were a few loose pieces of paper, technological gadgets she thought looked interesting, and miniature statues. With a cartwheel, she landed right next to him. “You realize you don’t pay me to sleep, right? Inn’s free.” “Oh, uh, I’m not tired,” he said, standing up suddenly. “I’m just… waiting, is all.” Ty Lee poked her head in the door, finding Twilight, Toph, and a plant girl sleeping while Tippi fluttered over a table, reading a book. Ty Lee focused back on the plant girl. “She’s cute.” The fox raised an eyebrow. “Oh come on, it’s obvious.” “W-well, uh…” “I’m sure she’ll be up soon, people don’t need to sleep as long here.” Ty Lee started doing her stretches. “Guess she’s one of the heroes then, huh?” “Apparently. It all happened so fast…” Entering a warrior pose, Ty Lee cocked her head towards him. “The worlds are at stake. All sorts of things have to happen fast. We’re in a race against time!” “I… I know.” The fox sagged, looking down. “Still. She hasn’t even gone and I already miss her.” Ty Lee whistled as she entered a handstand. “You have other stuff you do besides hang with her, right?” “Er…” “Oh, wow, emergency!” Ironically, she entered a meditative seating pose when she said this. “You have forgotten how to live! Go, do whatever it is you do for fun. What’re your hobbies?” “I tinker with gadgets?” “Amazing!” Ty Lee put her hands to her cheeks. “I only figured out real gadgets existed a few weeks ago! Tell me more!” “Well, I made a lot of planes to help Sonic—he’s a hedgehog from our world—save the world a—” “RISE AND SHINE!” Toph shouted at the top of her lungs from inside the inn. “Agh!” Twilight shouted. “Toph, I was having the nicest dream!” “I wasn’t…” another voice—presumably the plant girl—said. “Then you both should be glad!” Toph declared. “Dreams aren’t for heroes—they’re for delusional crazy people!” Twilight groaned. “Toph, dial it down just a bit, okay?” “I will when we’re through the next door and exploring somewhere new. We’ve got a Pure Heart to find! Up and at ‘em!” “Breakfast…?” Twilight suggested. “I’m sure Iroh will have something for us at the Jasmine Dragon. Which is next to the other door. Move it!” “Fine, fine…” Twilight walked out of the inn, nodding pleasantly to Ty Lee and the fox. Toph came out afterward with Tippi fluttering behind—despite all her bravado, Toph was yawning and stretching as though she wasn’t ready to be awake. The plant girl came out last, brightening visibly when she saw the fox. “Tails!” She pulled him into an embrace before he was finished standing up. “C-cosmo!” “Why don’t you join us for breakfast?” Cosmo suggested. “We aren’t going anywhere right away.” Ty Lee scratched her chin and nodded slowly. “Breakfast is acceptable.” “...What?” Cosmo said, glancing at her. “Oh, nothing, we were just talking about how ‘Tails’ here needs to get back to gadget tinkering.” She leaned down to Tails’ level and raised her eyebrows repeatedly. “W-which I’ll do after breakfast!” Tails asserted. “Slowpokes!” Toph shouted back at them. “We can’t waste all day!” “There’s no day or night in this place!” Cosmo called back. Toph pointed a finger at Cosmo, struggling to figure out what to say. “...How was I supposed to know that!?” “I… am uncertain.” Cosmo frowned. “Apologies.” “Just get a move on.” Cosmo and Tails ran after Toph, entering the elevator and returning to the upper levels. Ty Lee picked up her box of collected knick-knacks and took it into her inn, laying it on the counter. “Now, time to figure out if Merlon knows what any of this stuff is…” “Perhaps I can be of help, my dear.” Ty Lee looked up at the fat man walking through the doorway. “Who’re you? And how do you get such an amazing mustache?” “I’m Doctor Eggman, and this mustache is the result of years of work! ...And genetics.” “...Genetics?” “Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho!” Eggman laid a hand on Ty Lee’s shoulder. “My dear, you really are at a disadvantage when dealing with all these devices, aren’t you? Do you even know what electricity is?” “Nope!” Ty Lee said, beaming. “Well then, allow me to be of assistance!” He walked to the box and took one of the devices out. “See, I have a vested interest in making sure the multiverse doesn’t collapse into a Void of nothingness for the petty desires of some mad Count. And it occurs to me that unlocking the secrets of this interdimensional city may be the key to defeating him.” “So… you want a job?” Ty Lee put on a smug smirk. “I can’t pay you.” Eggman grinned, rubbing his hands together. “I’ll work for free. I bring the brains, you bring the cheerful attitude and the ability to run everywhere. Deal?” “Deal!” Ty Lee shook Eggman’s hand vigorously, straining the muscles in his wrist. “You have far too much energy…” “I think it’s this place! I have a lot of energy most of the time, but I haven’t left here in weeks and every day I wake up feeling better!” She let out a delighted laugh and did a couple backflips. “Hmm. Perhaps at a later date, we should research into the addictive properties of Flipside rejuvenation… but for now—” He picked out an object from the pile: a black sphere with wires poking out of it in numerous directions. He extravagantly slammed it on the table. “We’re going to figure out what this is.” Ty Lee pressed her face as close to it as she could manage. “I think it’s a doohickey.” “As good of a guess as any,” Eggman said with a shrug. And thus began one of the strangest friendships in Flipside. ~~~ They had breakfast on top of Flipside rather than in the Jasmine Dragon since it was currently open and it wouldn’t exactly be normal to see a plant girl and purple pony walking in and enjoying breakfast and tea. Iroh still prepared everything in his kitchen and took it out to the rest of them. Vanilla had joined the heroes for breakfast, almost insisting that she help cook, but admitting that it would be hard to explain her presence in Iroh’s kitchen. The food was delightful, but rushed because of Toph’s eagerness to get somewhere that wasn’t going to involve building a spaceship for several weeks. Near the end of the meal, Iroh spoke up. “I’ve sent out some people to contact Avatar Aang and inform him of the situation.” “How’s that goin’?” Toph asked. “Mixed. He’s on one of his extremely distant meditative trips. Not even Katara knows exactly where he is.” Toph smirked. “Twinkletoes is going to be so upset once he realizes he’s missing out on an amazing adventure.” “The… Avatar?” Cosmo asked, cocking her head. “Our world has four kinds of bending, and the Avatar is the master of all…” Iroh began. “I’ll explain it to her later,” Toph said, jumping up. “Right now… a new world!” Vanilla glanced at the yellow door. “It hasn’t gone anywhere while we’ve been eating, it’ll be there in five minutes.” “Duh, but aren’t you excited to see what’s on the other side?” She realized she was talking to Vanilla. “Bad example. What about the rest of you?” Tippi replied first. “I am somewhat curious myself. Hume is known to have one of the most unstable time constants…” “Time… constant?” Twilight cocked her head. “Time does not flow at a constant rate between worlds. One day in one might be a year elsewhere…” “We haven’t been experiencing that,” Toph pointed out. “No, the Chaos Heart has forced all time constants to align… it’s quite unnatural. But for all I know, it’s been millions of years in Hume since Flipside last updated its records…” “That sounds like a great adventure!” Everyone turned to stare at Sonic standing in the doorway to Mobius. “Uh, Sonic, you aren’t one of the heroes this time,” Tails said. “I know! And you can all go do whatever you want to find this ‘Pure Heart’, I’m going to go for a run. See some new skies. That sort of thing. Won’t get in your way at all!” “I doubt that,” Tails grunted. “I also doubt we can stop him,” Cosmo added. Twilight let out a soft chuckle. “We’ll see how it goes, Sonic. Tails? If he’s coming along…” “Actually, I’m going to get some tinkering done,” Tails said, nodding to Cosmo. “I think I’ll be of more help researching things on this end.” Cosmo smiled brightly at him. “I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully!” Tails scratched the back of his head. “And you’ll do great at the hero-explorer business.” “Can we go yet?” Toph asked. “Or do we have to listen to sickly-sweetness for another half hour?” “All right, all right, we can go,” Cosmo said, standing and walking to the yellow door. Twilight, Tippi, Toph, and Sonic took up positions at her side. Gingerly, Cosmo pulled the doors open... ~~~ The woman held her pen in place over the period that concluded the section. She neither smiled nor frowned--her expression remained impassive. And yet, there was life to it, so it could not be considered blank. Unusual friendships were beautiful. But all friendships resulted in both parties being changed over time. Change was not always a positive force—nor was it a predictable one. Despite this, it was upon such connections that communities were built. In the end, it was good. But as with most good things, there was a stain. But that stain would manifest in an indirect, unexpected way… But that was not now. Once more, she set her pen to the page.