//------------------------------// // Trinity Final: Derparture for Space. // Story: The Arising Cartoon Pony // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// I didn’t know where I was after the white room, but it sure looked different if familiar than it did a second ago. Looking behind me there was the building with a destroyed section of wall that for some reason didn’t fix itself like the rest of the world. Maybe something about it was different from every other part of this world? Well I was happy to see my ant friends were around, Screwball looked to be okay too… but where was, oh wait there she is appearing in a bright flash like the one that took me to the white room. “Ugh, I really hate whoever designed whatever that room was.” Wow Lyra was being really cranky, I wonder if what happened to me happened to her too. What can she do now? In fact how do I do it? “What in the world is that?” I was brought out of my thoughts when she pointed out the things I noticed earlier, it was like a giant whale. It was a large metal contraption and we could see it’s insides from the ramp leading up to it, there was several neat looking metal things that reminded me of that one time me and the Doctor got stuck in a universe filled with chest bursting aliens. We were still ponies during that adventure and it was scary, but everyone who trusted the Doctor lived at least. Come to think of it why hadn’t I ever told Lyra I’ve met a human before or that one was a friend of mine living in or around Ponyville at random points of time? Well it was not like she would believe me in the first place, she didn’t seem to care that I believed her about the humans and she seemed to be a little overly obsessive about it. “Spoony, Muffins, I need you to get your flanks up here! While you’re at it Muffins call your friends to retreat and have some take control of my SCV’s. We’re going to need them to repair the inside of this thing while we’re flying through all the crap that will be shooting at us on our way out of here.” It was Kazooie she seemed genial enough and I kind of liked her, she did give me half a muffin once. I knew she was a princess… well technically she was born a bird but she’s also the Princess of Adventure and I was certainly having one now, she could transform into a pony so it counted right? Well at least she wasn’t a changeling, those guys weren’t very nice when they cornered my little muffin Dinky, they quickly learned not to mess with me or my daughter. “Hey you guys she wants us all on this… uh…?” I turned to look at Kazooie after turning away from the frantic fighting of the thirteen Mizar ants in the streets. My friends were really putting up a vicious fight against those other alien things. They weren’t having any casualties ever since I organized them to worry about their other friends around them. It was like they didn’t know the first thing about friendship until I came along. “It’s a Hercules class Drop Ship, carrying capacity of thirty… now get them moving and make sure to have them man those SCV’s.” Then she pulled out a strange device rectangular device and started talking into it. “Quote we need you to cover us while we load up, Canjo plant that tank on top of my drop ship and lock it down, we’ll need you’re fire power so I’ll see if I can tie the ships health into the your tank once you’re settled.” Like that Banjo’s sister was off; it sure was strange that a bird and a bear worked so well together given Mr. Banjo was with Honey and using one of those creatures own weapons against them while holding a big blue magic looking shield in front of him. I shook my head, I had to stay focused my friends were in danger and Kazooie wanted them to get to safety. “My friends, we have to go now!” As I called this out all the Mizar Ants immediately reacted by bolting for the back of the ship and up the ramp while under fire, I was already quickly running up followed by Lyra with this odd look on her face. “Derpy since when do you know a bunch of giant ants that walk like humans?” I really didn’t care what they looked like if they were my friends and I should probably answer Lyra’s question about it. “Well me and Honey, you know the big lady bee thing, went to their ship and we had to negotiate something I wasn’t really paying attention and then we all became good friends. They all really like me too, I don’t know why though.” I smiled happily, at least I was safely inside this ship and out of harm’s way quickly followed by Lyra and thirteen Mizar Ants including Retch who gave me a big hug and asked me what to do next. I still thought it was kind of odd that she kept calling me her queen and leader; I must really be her best friend then or something was up with the text box translations. “Oh, can some of you get into those things I think Kazooie called them Skivvies?” Immediately the ants followed Derpy’s commands by gathering together talking it out, two of the green ants, one brown ninja ant and a blue separated from the group. They all jumped into the things and they were suddenly hovering and looking at her for more directions. She didn’t have any more to ask of them so she just shrugged, that was basically an order the Mizar Ants took as ‘you can do anything you want now’. A few of the blue soldier ants moved over to cover the ramp in case any of the Space Pirates now invading this planet tried to take the ship or worse hurt Derpy in a boarding attempt. Within a minute a familiar hero character shot up the ramp driving chimera model ride armor and he quickly hopped out wielding his pistol also pointed towards the ramp. The ride armor was in a state of disrepair and looked to be damaged, the SCV piloting ants immediately moved over to start repairing it on instinct as the SCV functions demanded repair for friendly units or nearby allied vehicles when not mining. “Hey, where’s Honey?” I asked turning to Retch who answered with a varied amounts of squealing. “Okay, I hope we take off soon, these Space Pirate things look like really bad news.” “Derpy how exactly are you talking to that thing and how can you understand it?” I turned to Lyra wondering what she meant. The text boxes were clearly visible with what they were saying and it even had their names on them and everything. They came in all sorts of assorted colors which made it kind of neat that Retch’s text box was grey and yellow like me. “You can’t see them?” I asked wondering if Lyra needs to be put into that pause thingy that Honey did to help me see them. I smiled in what was hopefully my most cheerful facial expression yet, even in these trying times of getting shot at a lot, as long as I had muffins I would be okay. “Oh well, don’t worry about it, they aren’t really saying anything interesting.” “Do not make us sad, you honor us with your presence oh wondrous Queen of Muffins!” One of my friends said from off to the side, I just gave him a shy smile while a blush ran across my face and I rubbed the back of my head with my right hoof. There was a large thunk on top of this ship and then something sounded like it was attaching itself to the hull, loud blasting sounds followed as if that thing was now shooting at something. “Alright I’m in; get this brick in the air Kazooie!” I turned back to the ramp where several of my friends and that strange white guy that rode in on the giant metal thing were firing down the ramp at the black carapace creatures with clawed hand and some with arms ending in scythes. Honey made it onto the ship and the ramp started lifting and the ground started falling away. “Hang on everyone things are going to be bumpy from here on.” Banjo was certainly on board judging by his voice on the ship wide communication thing seemingly standard in all vessels of these realms. Coming through a door in the front of this now sealed vacuous space was Kazooie carrying Screwball; she laid her onto the bed near the door. I really wanted to see if she was alright, dying must have hurt a lot and it seemed she was alright now. I grabbed Lyra’s hoof and flapped my wings cheerily dragging her along with me towards Screwball and Kazooie. “To think she has gained that much power in such a short time.” Kazooie blankly stated as we came close to her, she was lifting Screwballs hat and looking into it with interest. She turned to us with a serious expression. “What happened to her baseball bat?” “She used it to protect us and it shattered and all the chunks went into her body, I’m so sorry she got badly hurt… is she okay?” I was really worried about her, though the extra lives thing seems to really work and like those Gemini crystals too. Honey did explain some of it to me, but not exactly how it all works and I should be thankful that it just did. I didn’t get an answer except the bird pulling out a yellow emerald from the hat and holding it aloft in her right wing. “Chaos control, absorb, recreate.” I think Lyra was a lot more stunned then I was as the emerald flashed and a massive amount of energy seemed to be sucked out of Screwball into the gem. Soon the energy emanated and a new bat was completely formed from out of thin air into Kazooie’s left wing. She shoved the length of the bat under Screwballs hat and followed by putting the gem in there to, they were a lot bigger than the space the hat occupied and I really didn’t feel like pointing that out considering how often I’ve been in the TARDIS. “Hopefully I drained off enough of it to not cause a relapse; it’s why I gave her this chaos emerald replica in the first place… well at least I think it’s the fake one, now I’m not so sure having just used it. I should probably warn someone about this…hmm, nah.” “What did you just do to her?” I turned to Lyra; she was at least a little curious and had a guilty look on her face. “Something I didn’t expect I had to, unfortunately it seems like her powers growth rate have accelerated recently. Must have been all the adventuring and soul searchi…” A loud crash was heard and we all nearly fell down because of the sudden jerk of the ship. My friends in the Skivvies immediately set to work on the walls with those sparking machines releasing lances of energy into the walls around us, they really didn’t seem to be doing much. “Would it kill someone to learn how to avoid giant dragon shaped missiles? Anyway quick question you two, are you still friends of my daughter despite the fact that she may be born mostly out of chaos magic and came from a slightly malicious source of nearly phenomenal cosmic power? Oh and knowing that she may eventually transform into that creature that could rip off your face again?” I nodded without a second thought, sure I couldn’t do all that cartoony stuff Pinkie could and I couldn’t do much more then inflate myself, but if that’s all I could do as a cartoon character then I was happy to be living balloon. Meeting her was how I learned I was a cartoon character, it didn’t change who I was and it just added on to what was already there. I wasn’t afraid of her just because she got a bit cranky and went on a nearly homicidal rampage, she needed a friend now more than ever when she woke up and she liked muffins so she couldn’t have possibly been pure evil. Oh and I also have a cool new powers for when I next go adventuring with the Doctor! I wonder if Dinky will think I’m cooler then Rainbow Dash, a mother can dream I guess and I know my little muffin loves me no matter what I do because I care about her so much. Lyra on the other hand bit her bottom lip and I sent her a confused look as her eyes darted about. Kazooie put her wing on my withers and gave me a faint smirk, before glaring at Lyra. “Okay I got Muffins answer and she didn’t even need to think about it.” She sounded rather proud of me and I felt my heart warm, ponies should stick together and by their friends even if they could become horrible monsters on a moment’s notice. It didn’t stop the elements of harmony when they were twisted by Discord, speaking of which… didn’t I once see Screwball around the time he appeared? Well that might explain her being born of chaos magic. I slowly moved over to Lyra and hugged her, she wasn’t an action oriented pony and the moment of adrenaline had passed so she was living with the recoil of it all. I however was more used to this stuff happening every other week. “I think she’s kind of traumatized by all of this.” My voice was rather quiet, but Kazooie heard me loud and clear and walked to the back end of the vessel and lowered the rear loading ramp a quarter of the way open. She stopped it to look back at me. “You two take care of my daughter until I get back; I’ve got something to take care of. You, close the ramp when I’m out!” The ant asked to close the door nodded in affirmation and Kazooie leapt out the small opening into the light yelling the word ‘falcon’, it quickly shut and the entire vessel shuddered from some form of explosion. “Wow Kazooie really let him have it.” Let who have it? Banjo wasn’t forthcoming with the information and I’m not sure I wanted to know. I didn’t have any clue what was going on outside this thing anymore, I made my way over to Screwballs side as Lyra sat down look at the metallic floor wilting. I looked down at the restless face on the normal looking bed compared to all this weird technology around me and took her left hoof into my right and leaned down kissed her on the forehead. “It’s okay, everything will be alright.” I gently whispered, she wasn’t quite an adult mare yet and she needed her mother. The same mother that just jumped ship for some reason, probably protecting us from some form of large threat as that would be the only reason a mother would leave their child in such a vulnerable state. The ship around us started shuddering violently as it was rocked from numerous impacts. Outside the drop ship and a fair distance through the Space Pirate fleet above Clancer Empire City, things were heating up to a boil. “Bring it on scaly, I can do this all day!” Kazooie swerved out of the way of Ridley, the eternally reincarnating space pirate dragon that was sometimes a robot or mutant viral creature that just spat a series of fireballs at her. She wasn’t the only one in the air as three eagle ride armors swooped up underneath Ridley and blasted him across his chest and wings blowing him away from the breegull. “Keep pouring it on guys we have to get this ship through the rest of fleet after we exit orbit, so make sure you’re ride doesn’t get too heavily damaged. Once we’re space bound it’s only going to get worse from there. Kazooie tells me we can land in the drop ship for repairs, but I’d rather not expose them to all the firepower around here if I can help it. Do it only in an emergency basis as those SCV’s might be the only thing keeping it flying if it starts taking more heavy fire.” Khronozooie considered they’d need every ally they could get as facing the Space Pirates wasn’t going to be easy in these flying junk heaps. Sparkster and Curly answered this with a war cry; all three of them were firing blast after blast at Ridley barely putting a scratch on him. If only Khronozooie knew how right she was, because the ships that had been chasing Derpy, Honey and the crew of the S. S. Anubis have just shown up around the Space Pirate fleet in orbit from all directions. It was actually a good thing they showed up too, because the space around planet Clancer just became incredibly confusing and tracking three escaping ships was going to be hard. There were seventeen different fleets and they were all firing at random targets they immediately identified as enemies. Inside the drop ship Derpy was still comforting the sleeping pony, Lyra came over to them and sat down next to her looking down on Screwball. Slowly she brushed a hoof across Screwballs belly rubbing it faintly and she gave sigh upon hearing a faint giggle flow from the lips of sleeping pony. “I’m sorry I just sat there.” “I’m sure she’d appreciate that and would forgive you, do you want to take her other hoof Spoony?” Lyra looked up at me not even bothering to glare for being called that anymore and just threw her hooves around me and started sobbing into one of my wings. “My names not Spoony…” Lyra growled out, though it sounded rather like she was rather deflated at the moment and it was muffled in her crying. “How do you handle all this stuff? I killed something today.” “Not really, boss characters tend to revive back in their home realm so he’s not permanently dead just removed from existence for a short time.” I held her tighter with that one hoof while my other was preoccupied with Screwballs light grip and calm smile. The three of us would be just fine if we continued to survive the odds and at least two of us want to go back to Equestria. I won’t even begin to even know what Bon Bon must be going through right now with Lyra not being around; she was kind of a wreck before Lyra moved into her life and was the best thing to happen to the candy maker. “You mean to tell me that those two monsters are still alive!” Lyra yelled in my ears and I quickly shushed her, and motioned with my eyes… er… eye as one just went wonky, as I motioned to Screwball. “Sorry.” “Yeah, Robot Masters have a nasty habit of living twice and then staying dead for a year or two before coming back to life in some form or another.” Honey hovered over to us and gave a simpering smile and looked down at Screwball brushing the hair from her eyelids softly with a hand. “So technically you just defeated them, permanently killing something is really hard to do in our realms. From the way Kazooie tells it your world has a permanence involved when you kill something by purpose or accident, which kind of explains all the glass metaphors she kept using. Since I took on the health system from Jet Force Gemini realm I’m capable of dying for the first time in my long history as an NPC, also I don’t have any extra lives so I can only hope to survive till I get some. It’s actually kind of exciting and I’m able to take part in combat actively for once.” “Well now I feel less guilty and more horrified that they are still running around.” I would have to agree with Lyra on that one. Killing wasn’t something I was good at either and I was much better at making friends who were. So far the total of things I’ve ever killed were with a plasma shotgun and all of them irredeemably evil bug things that were trying to kill me and my friends, a lot of which were also bugs. The Doctor usually handled all the massive threats by himself anyway when she joined him, with a little assistance from her now and then. The Doctor’s dangerous situations were quite boring in comparison to all this really, as those situations usually had a huge lynchpin that would cause everything bad to fall apart with minor incidents along the way. It was a forgone conclusion what will happen should the two of us be involved in such a situation; aside from the constant running from danger and then sonic screwdriver usage. The shuddering around the ship slowed to a crawl and I looked towards the door at the front of the ship that Honey suddenly buzzed through like lightning. I turned my sight back to Lyra and gave her a hopeful smile. “I know we haven’t been the best of friends Lyra, but I’m hoping we can be better ones. We’ll have you meeting a real human in no time and then take a picture so Bon Bon won’t get mad that you went missing for weeks or a few days like I tend to do. I’m sure we’ll make it back to Ponyville and Pinkie will throw us such a huge party to welcome us home.” At this point I made Lyra smile, it was the best I could do under such short notice as she had been depressed up until this moment. “I wish we’d all make it home safely then.” Lyra pulled away from me after stating this and walked towards the door leading to the front of the ship. “I’m going to go see what’s going on.” That’s when a strange star faced creature walked up to me, he was with Mr. Zero and here I was wondering where Chaos had gotten to because he was with Banjo and Screwball the last time I saw them. He looked at me and sloshed something I couldn’t rightfully understand. I looked to the star face thing for an explanation. “I’ll make sure her wish comes true, I promise I’ll see you both home safe as her heart is in the right place. I did help reunite Screwball with her mother after all. Even if I didn’t exactly do much in the end except wrestle a giant sumo robot to our near deaths, hi I’m Ristar! Chaos said that the ideals of Power, Courage and Wisdom have gathered together… I don’t know what he means by it though.” More sloshing noises from the fluid creature and he turned to point at Ristar with one of his three fingers, I think he was asking Ristar to translate. “He says that it’s only a matter of time before order asserts itself and that by then we’ll be far enough away from the danger zone.” I blinked, well that seemed rather prophetic. It’s like how Lyra’s never been in space before… I wonder what she’s seeing right now? Is she witnessing the planet with a strange face getting farther away? Is she seeing the vibrant stars of these interconnected realm filled universes? Or was she simply watching a lot of lights fly around and pretty explosions like fireworks from the battle going on around out there? I felt happier better off not knowing if we were seconds away from dying, so I decided to quit my current line of thought and wondered what the ants were doing. Looking over one of the ones sitting on the floor I noticed Retch and five other ants were trading little cards around. I looked down at the hoof still clasping mine loosely and slowly removed it; Screwball didn’t seem to be having any more disturbed dreams as she rolled over turning into a blanket burrito. I really miss the taste of Chimi-cherry-changa’s for some reason looking at that. I walked up behind them and saw that the cards had pictures of muffins on them in varying numbers. One of the cards had a gold lining and a picture of me on it holding a plasma shotgun and firing a large beam of electrical energy channeled by me. It was most likely I was shooting at the giant scorpion thing I fought back on Anubis while it was being overrun. Looking again there was even a card with Honey’s picture on it… were they playing a card game based around me? Where in the world did they even find the time to make them? My many insect friends were amazingly resourceful. I watched their game and it seemed that only four were playing, one proclaimed ‘full house’ with four pictures of me and the others sighed sadly at having lost. Still within the atmosphere of Planet Clancer, Kazooie was drawing Ridley away from the fleeing transport making sure to hit him with a lot of grenade eggs to garner all of his attention to her. Kazooie knew he just wouldn’t stay dead no matter how much she damaged him. Ridley’s been atomized enough times to make it well known that even if you saw his body dissolve or if he even left a dead body at that… he’d eventually be back in some form or another.