//------------------------------// // You're Unique, Just Like Everypony Else // Story: Sweetie Belle Tastes Like Marshmallow // by Wiimeiser //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle's life would never be the same. Not that it bothered her. True, she was a weirdo. A freak that tasted words. Weird. But her Synesthesia was the least of her worries. She had better things to worry about. Like bullies. Or being a robot. Or having the front half of her skin burned off. Or losing a leg. Or dying in a horrific scooter accident. Or becoming a mare way too fast. Or developing a phobia of red stallions. Or anything else, really. Especially spinach. Though only she had Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia, as far as she knew, she was surprised to learn she wasn't the only pony in Ponyville with a similar condition. The local DJ, Vinyl Scratch, could see her music. One of the more common variations, and what most ponies thought Synesthesia was. Still very fascinating, especially considering she'd been deaf in one ear from birth and her other ear wasn't much better. What she heard, she preferred to see. Mayor Mare could look at a calendar and describe a personality for each day, or a list of numbers and find a personality for each. Seven was a personality closely resembling Sweetie Belle's, a fact which had the filly's jaw open for days. Even her own classmate Piña Colada Raintrap had something similar. Different sensations on different parts of her body had different smells, for example, tickling her fore-left frog smelled like sweat. The recent events had changed much of the classroom, if only temporarily. for a while, talks of Synesthesia echoed among the students, though eventually things settled down and mostly returned to the status quo. Sweetie Belle had learned to accept herself for who she was, and that being a bit different shouldn't change how she saw herself. She simply resumed life as normal, a little older, a little wiser, and fascinated by the legend of the inverted continent. During the incident in the forest, Lily Giggle had gotten her cutie mark: a comedy mask. Her jokes and laughter soon became all the rage. Pipsqueak kept his little secret a secret. Of course, he'd eventually spill the beans. But not now. Now was not the time. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had been sent to military school to try and get them on the straight and narrow. Surprisingly, Silver enjoyed it. Diamond, on the other hand, was often seen tucked away in the corner, speaking in tongues, muttering things in a strange language or claiming she was the reincarnation of a human woman named Chantal Strand. The instructors were concerned, but ultimately ignored her and her mentions of dragons returning to scorch the planet with their voice. Silver Spoon believed that she was simply broken by the events that transpired in the Everfree Forest that day. But one unicorn, General Rommelwood, feared much worse. "The usual notes, Sir." "What did she say this time?" "Something about a magic key at the intersection of the white unicorn of generosity and the system whose fourth hosts a worm and a hunter. I don't get it. Frankly, I don't think I want to know." "Hmm... Unicorn of Generosity?" "Yes, sir. That's what we deciphered from the recording." Rommelwood gave the officer a concerned look. "Major Hedgend Maze, you may take your leave now." "Yes, Sir!" Hedgend Maze slowly backed out of the room. "Could it be...?" Rommelwood muttered, "The key to the City of Phar Laputa, the capital of the legendary land of Balneighbari? Perhaps in relation to Fillyput and Brobdingneigh?" *** After Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had recovered and returned, Cheerilee had decided to forgive them. It was only a few days until Nightmare Night, and Diamond Tiara had been bribing herself back to the top, to the point of running for class president. Cheerilee was not amused. However, the lingering fear of being sacked allowed her to let it slide. Just this once... The Crusaders decided to leave their contact lenses off from now on. The cat was already out of the bag. Besides, it was just their irises, surely it wouldn't affect the usual canon, right? The trio sat in their clubhouse, brainstorming ideas to help them get their cutie marks. Apple Bloom began, "Okay, Crusaders! Back to the business of earnin' our cutie marks! Any suggestions?" "No, we've tried everything!" "We've run out of ideas..." *** I wonder how long it will take for them to figure it out? Their special talent? A mysterious cloaked figure stood facing the sunset, or rather, Ponyville's sunrise, before turning to observe a floating landmass above. Project Aikavaikutus... The end of Reality as we know it... Heh heh. Even they will not stop me. The inverted continent shall fall! Ha ha ha ha ha! *** The unicorn girl tilted her head in confusion. "So, according to Nicole, the nuke exploded in the silo? Thank Celestia it was contained." The amazonian cyborg ducked under a tree branch. "Eyup, 'parently the door jammed. Security footage showed a pink filly with a tiara cutie mark messin' with the power supply. Looks like Ah'll hafta redesign the silos again." "Don't feel bad, Abby. One failure in six thousand launches... That's gotta be a record." Abby ducked under another branch, "Belle, who fixes the weapons? Me. Not ya, not Lu, not cuz' Babs. Yer in charge a' robots, Belle." "Yes, Abby, and Luanne handles the vehicles. I honestly don't see why you're blaming me for this mishap." "Ah'm blamin' ya 'cause Nicole said ya were the one who launched the damn thing in the first place. An' ya know how the Captain gets pissed when we have mishaps like this!" "Must've been an ogledalo. You know, counterpart?" "Probably," The orange girl added, stretching her mechanical wings out before folding them back in, "But are we really that similar? It's an eye scan, for Reina's sake! Does an ogledalo really have an identical iris? When are houyhnhnm and ƥoni even sharing the same domain?" "It's an ogledalo, Luanne." Belle pointed out, "Why, I bet these ones even won a talent show for an act they didn't even rehearse! Know what I mean?" "Including the scenery nearly killing them?" "Yes! Exactly!" "Three preteen girls who founded a secret society?" "Exactly! Exactly like us!" "Girls, dis is stupid, ya know?" A bulkier girl in the back raised a pair of scissors, "An ogledalo, take it or leave it!" "Shut the fuck up, Barbara! I've had enough of your complaints!" "Well," Belle continued, "You lost my contact lenses! How can anyone see me like this?" "Belle," Luanne interrupted, "The scanner will know it's you with or without the contact lenses, Patchouli programmed it that way. Besides, the four of us all have heterochromia." "But were those ogledalos up to something?" "Maybe." "I swear that pink filly had the Soul Gem..." "You gotta be joking, Babs. There's no way a normal houyhnhnm could survive approaching an Infi--" "Quiet, y'all! We're here!" "Well, whatcha waitin' for, cuz?" "Nothin' really..." Abby observed the ship docked in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Still standing. Good. "Povratak na vaš poziv!" Her sobarica had appeared by her side. A yellow houyhnhnm with a red mane, dressed in a black jumpsuit with white stars and a matching skull bandanna, carrying a glass tube on her back tied with a strap, and holding some kind of vacuum. Abby approached a small device to the left of the door. Due to her abnormal height, she had to crouch to activate it. The machine beeped twice. Then the door swung open. "Nercäċuqa tseşiṕra. Ḃuśkr mvaqi mväśtra: 「Mƥlxòyc Mƥlzéñĝè」."