//------------------------------// // Final Phase // Story: Velvet Missteps // by PhycoKrusk //------------------------------// An indeterminate amount of time later, the front door of the Retinizer opened quietly and allowed Sombra and Velvet inside, the latter with a nondescript, brown paper bag gripped between her teeth. The door closed just as quietly, and they both knew they’d managed to slip in without cluing anyone in to their arrival. “Well, well, well.” Naturally, this didn’t apply to any individuals who were expecting them, and also naturally, they reacted with inappropriate amount of startle. Velvet dropped her paper bag and Sombra, the instant he realized that most of the attention was not on him, smoothly slid away from Velvet, leaving her to face the bus alone. “Look who’s finally back from their grand adventure,” Twilight said, her narrowed eyes actually less worrying than the fact that she was right there, mere inches from Velvet’s face. She hadn’t been when they entered, but now she was, and this time, Velvet was dead certain that it was not any kind of editing mistake. She would have to tread very carefully. “Before you say anything else, did you spend any time last night sitting at the table in the dark crying?” Velvet asked quickly. “What? No! Why would you even ask something like that?” Twilight replied, recoiling slightly. “No reason. Here.” Twilight stared at the nondescript, brown paper bag that Velvet slid across the floor in front of her, and then slowly opened the top wth her magic and peered inside. “Oh, I get it. You’re trying to bribe me,” she said with a scowl. “Well, you can’t buy my forgiveness for anything. Not even with this —” The contents of the bag drifted up lazily in Twilight’s magical field. “Thick, succulent, juicy double western hayburger with extra onion rings. Just for that, I oughta settle your hash right now!” A full third of the burger disappeared into her mouth and was quickly chewed and swallowed, her face smeared with barbecue sauce. “I should at least give you a stern talking to about bribery.” A second third vanished. “Although I guess this is really pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.” The rest of the hayburger went down Twilight’s gullet, and a quick application of magic pulled all the sauce off of her face just before it went down after the burger. “Oh, heck, there’s no sense in holding a grudge over this. Especially not with a best friend.” “Best friends, huh?” Velvet asked. “No, Velvet. Best friends.” Twilight winked. “Oh!” Velvet grinned a conspiratorial grin and winked back. “Gotcha.” “And you accused me of being here for a cutie call,” Sombra snarked from further inside the foyer. On the streets of Ponyville, outside of Twilight’s castle, the citizens were treated to a loud “boom!” that all of them, after a moment of contemplation, proceeded to ignore. Inside the castle, Sombra glared at Twilight, mane blasted backwards and face darkened with soot until a vigorous shaking returned everything to normal. “Lucky shot.” “In any case, you’re both just in time!” Twilight said, suddenly excited. Her horn began to glow. “In time for —” There was a flash, and all three of them were in the lab again. “— what?” Velvet asked. Then, she looked around, and saw it. It was like a giant metal ark, 8 cubits by 6 cubits by 3 cubits what the frell is a cubit large and boxy, with a funnel-like structure on top and a window on the side providing a clear view of a small sphere of absolutely darkness. “Sparkle, what the heck is that thing?” Sombra demanded on behalf of all the readers. “Well, I don’t remember how, but I got to thinking about clouds, and then the atmosphere, and then how hard it would be for anything to survive without the atmosphere, one thing led to another, and presto!” She reared up, arms spread wide at the contraption in front of her. “The Atmonihilator!” “But that… that sounds like a doomsday device!” Velvet squeaked. “How’s that going to get me home?!” “Right! Home!” Twilight dropped back to all fours and gave Velvet a sheepish grin. “That place we’re sending you to, ha ha… ha… give me five minutes.” Six minutes later…. “Of course it’s different!” Twilight said in protest. “Just look at it.” Velvet looked again. “It just looks almost exactly the same to me. I mean, I’m not really into all this science-y stuff, so maybe I’m just not seeing it?” she replied. Twilight looked again. “Well, I guess I can see where you’re coming from, since I just reused it. But it’s different. I disconnected the suction module, and also added the needed additional hardware to the front.” Velvet couldn’t argue with that, although she could argue about the ’needed additional hardware’ being a giant horseshoe magnet that Twilight had bolted to it. “If you say so.” “I do, and besides, this gives me the perfect chance to try the reduced-length start-up procedure!” “You mean the start button?” Sombra asked from where he was seated across the lab, nose buried in a technical manual. “Jeez, is this a wiring map or a photo of somepony’s noodle pot pie?” Twilight ground her teeth just a bit. “Yes, Pops. I’m going to press the start button.” With a huff, she trotted over to the Atmo former Atmo thingie Dimensional Transmodulator’s control board, where the variety of switches, knobs, dials and levers that were typical of her contraptions — so we will have to assume, since this is only the second one we’ve seen so far — had been condensed to a streamlined format, which she promptly activated. That is to say, she pressed the only button available to her, which was plainly labelled ‘START.’ The Transmodulator whined and hummed and groaned and then proceeded to do nothing aside from lightly buzz. After several seconds of this, Velvet could stand no more. “Shouldn’t it be, you know, doing something?” she asked. “It is!” Twilight replied. “See, the rift you came through is still up in the Crystal Empire, and it’d be a real pain to get back up there, so instead, the Dimensional Transmodulator will move it here while enlarging and stabilizing it, so you can easily and safely move to the other side with minimal dimensional impact. We don’t want to cause some kind of panic, after all.” Out of the streets of Ponyville, panic was taking hold. “Look out!” one of the citizens shouted, pointing down the road. “It’s a bathroom!” Ponies screamed and scrambled out of the way as a not-too-terribly-large rift in the dimensional fabric of the universe went careening down the street like an out-of-control magicycle. Mares wept, stallions fainted, and one Applejack watched everything unfolding from behind her stall at the market and declared for all the world to hear, “Not today,” quietly and calmly before she went back to her business. Mere moments later, the rift phased through the walls of Twilight’s Crib and came to a rest a short distance from the Transmodulator, where it proceeded to hang in the air in a calm and slightly menacing fashion. “My bathroom! It worked!” Velvet said with a bounce. “Weird science is amazing!” “Frell yes it is!” Sombra said as he trotted over. “With weird science, almost anything is possible. Time travel, dimensional shifting, reanimation, deanimation, the list goes on!” “Don’t forget air conditioning,” Twilight added. “Oh, right, air conditioning. That’s probably the most important one of all.” “Air conditioning, got it!” Velvet concluded. A moment later, her ears drooped. “So, this is it then, I guess.” “Oh, it won’t be so bad.” To emphasize his point, Sombra threw an arm around Velvet’s withers. “Besides, you went riding through the Equestrian countryside on a magicycle, ate cupcakes, pranked a princess and went skydiving in another dimension! ‘Oh, so you’re still prima ballerina, Perennial? Well, guess what I did, you dockheaded harpy!’” “Hey, that’s not so bad!” Velvet replied energetically. She shifted slightly and wrapped Sombra up in a hug. “Thanks for everything, Pops. It was great meeting you.” She pulled away and repeated with the purple pony princess. “You too, Twilight. You’re my favorite princess ever. Even more favorite than Princess Luna-Sextus.” “We’re going to miss you around here,” Twilight replied happily. “Now get going before your roommate files a missing pony report.” Stepping back from both of them, Velvet walked to the portal and, after looking behind her and waving goodbye one last time, stepped through into her bathroom on the other side. Twilight delayed further action for several seconds, just in case Velvet came running back through, and then switched the Transmodulator off, watching the space the portal once occupied with a smile. Sombra narrowed his eyes at the space the portal once occupied with a frown, and then his horn lit up as he fired off his Omniscan spell. “You do realize you didn’t close that subspatial rift all the way, don’t you?” he asked. “Sure do,” Twilight replied, turning around and trotting out of her lab. “After all, you never know when you’ll hear the call, and I want to make sure I can answer it. Cutie all day every day!” Sombra watched her leave with a smile. “I’m so proud of her,” he said to nobody. He frowned for a moment as he considered something, and then his eyes widened with a realization. “I never got my sandwich!”