//------------------------------// // Chapter 25: Not Built in a Day // Story: A Rift Between Worlds // by Cinders of War //------------------------------// “No…” Twilight Sparkle gasped as she hurried over to the destroyed Warframe pods. “How…?” Nyx placed a hand upon the cracked glass gently. “My brothers and sisters… The Stalker will pay.” “We were foolish, princess,” Eclair bowed sadly before the lavender girl. “I should have seen this coming and prepared for a better fight. The fault is mine.” “It’s not Eclair’s fault,” Home Run stepped in to join them. “It was me. I wasn’t at my best...” “It cannot be helped, Home Run. My suit has been damaged. We cannot be at maximum capacity.” “Doesn’t matter!” Applejack interrupted. “Stop hittin’ yourselves. It’s not doin’ any of y’all any good! We… We just have to hope the others get back with what we need.” “AJ’s right,” Sunset nodded. “The enemy is still out there, and no matter how many of us we have, we’ll have face him and we’ll show him what true friendship can do.” “Of course, Sunset,” Twilight smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. “How silly of me to forget. The Stalker’s all alone, while we have each other. Perhaps a friend is all he needs?” “You know… I doubt that,” Home Run admitted, leaving his suit. “He keeps talking about reckonings and stuff. He’s out for revenge, but for what, I don’t know at all.” “If the Stalker was looking for friends,” Ember replied flatly. “Then he should have thought about it before attacking us. If he’s still looking for friends, it’s our blades and guns he’s going to receive.” The Tenno turned back to the pods one more time, placing their hands and lowering their heads. Even without an expression, Home Run could tell that Vauban was depressed that he couldn’t save the others. “I’m sorry, buddy,” Home Run patted his partner on the shoulder. “I wish we could help.” “It is fine, Home Run,” Vauban sighed and turned around. “Nothing can be done now, but to end the Stalker. He will regret what he has done.” “We’re going to stop him,” Sunset assured the others. “We will.” Nyx and Vauban were the first to lift the pods, bringing them back towards the stairs. “We should return them to Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. They deserve a proper resting place.” “Are you sure they can’t be rebuilt?” Twilight asked, walking alongside the grey-green Warframe. “We fixed Vauban and Rhino. Though, not fully.” “It might be a possibility, actually,” Vauban told them. “Perhaps we might still see the other Tenno once more. I will need to research this.” “Truthfully for myself, I do not know, Twilight Sparkle…” Nyx replied solemnly. “But I hope your friends from the Void return with the new Warframes. I want to see the Stalker’s face when he has to deal with one of those.” Home Run dropped his bag by the bleachers after changing into his sports attire and ran over to join the other baseball players on the field. Everyone was already there, except for Rainbow Dash, who was still in the Void. He had grown to like the captain, but after his talk with her the night before, he figured he should just leave it. He himself didn’t need such distractions at a time like this. Home Run felt like he didn’t do his best against the Stalker because she was still on his mind, and because of him, they had lost all the other Warframes. Come on, Home Run. You can do better than this. It’s final already, just deal with it! Come on! “Hey Homey!” Jetstream shouted and waved. Home Run only noticed the sly smile on his face when he got closer. “How’s your day? Did you hear? I’ve got another date with Lightning Dust later today! Great, right? The only person who actually cares is-” “Me, of course!” Lightning Rain stalked over and grabbed the wooden bat out of Jetstream’s hand. “I don’t understand what she sees in you! Why? Why my sister? Why me?” “Obviously, she has taste in great people, dear LR,” he smiled and patted his friend’s head. “I’ll show you great taste!” Lightning raised his hands to strangle Jetstream, but Sundown was there again, holding him back. “Really, you guys?” he grunted as he held back the taller boy. “Even after all the hoo-ha about yesterday’s dance, you guys still gotta fight? As if you didn’t give me enough problems in a day!” “Yeah!” Jetstream added before turning back to Home Run. “Oh yeah, Homey. I wanted to ask you something. You know all that robot stuff yesterday? I want to know what’s going on. Mind filling me in?” “Erm… well, we’re fighting this guy called the Stalker? Apparently he wants to kill us all.” “Stalker? Close enough. I decided to call it the Creeper, you know, cause it looks a lit-” “You’ve already said that, you windbag!” Lightning grabbed for the brown haired boy again, but Sundown pulled him back. “Guys! Enough!” “Well, anyway, ignoring LR, it was a robot wasn’t it?” Jetstream put a hand on his hip and smiled. “I know a robot when I see one.” “How many robots have you seen?” Lightning Rain challenged, still trying to get out of the pitcher’s grip. “Plenty! And besides, Heavy Wind shows me a lot of robots on that phone of his. One of them even looks kind of like Sundown, only it’s got explosive armor and stuff.” “Are you sure it’s all not from Wooden Cog?” Lightning wasn’t impressed. He finally got out of Sundown’s hold, but stayed where he was. “I doubt you even know the difference between a robot and a cyborg, Jets.” “Oh yeah? Do you?” “Of course I do!” Lightning shot back. “That… Stalker or whatever isn’t a robot.” “Yeah, because the Creeper is you, right?” “Why I oughta!” he scrambled for the boy again, but Sundown pulled him back by the collar and held him still. “Lightning, stop! Ah thought Jetstream was the problematic one, not you!” “Yeah, that’s right!” Jetstream folded his arms. “I’m the cool one.” Home Run coughed to get their attention. “Can we just get to practice, guys? It’s... been a while, and I want to get some batting done.” “Oh, sure Homey. For you, I’ll start up immediately.” Jetstream went to the field first, grabbing a mitt along the way. Today’s practice was like any other practice day. The team trained their batting and throwing skills, and ran laps around the field, seeing how fast they could go. Home Run felt a little more relaxed after this, returning more to his normal self after a few rounds with the bat. After four hours, they left the school, heading to a sandwich shop by the subway for some food, while Jetstream left for home to prepare himself for his date with Lightning Dust. “Cheer up, Lightning,” Heavy Wind smiled and put an arm around the boy’s shoulder. “Here, check this out.” He raised his phone for everyone to see. “Swiss cheese has holes, so more cheese equals more holes, so more cheese equals less cheese.” “Yeah, great meme, Heavy,” Lightning chuckled lightly. “Really?” Cold Wind shrugged. “I thought it was okay. Heard it before.” “I think it’s neat,” Shortstop replied, while First Base was still trying to figure out what it all meant. The baseball team arrived at the sandwich place; Sundown held the door open for everyone before entering himself. Home Run had never been here, but from what he saw, it didn’t look like things were going to be easy. First, you had to pick your own bread, then your meat, vegetables, and sauce. “So Home Run,” Cold Wind asked from in front of him. “What’cha getting?” “You know, I have no idea…” he admitted. It was all new to him. “What do you recommend?” She looked back at the rows of food and thought about it. “I’d get a Prench bread, some ham and cheese, garlic, and mustard. That’s a great combination.” “Hmm… It does sound rather delicious. Just that I don’t really like garlic and mustard. Guess I’ll swap those two out for something else.” “Sure,” she pointed at the array of meat and vegetables. “Plenty to choose from.” Home Run eventually settled on pickles, tomatoes, and some barbeque sauce for his ham and cheese sandwich. He found the process a little slow, but quite effective, seeing as you just slide the bread along while putting whatever you wanted inside. Soon, he found himself seated at a round table with the rest of the baseball team, biting down into his tasty looking sandwich. “Hey, not bad,” he said as he chewed. “You guys come here often?” “Time to time,” Heavy Wind replied, taking a bite out of his hotdog. “Though, mostly it's just Cold and I.” “Yeah,” his twin agreed. “We’ve been coming to this place since we were in middle school. How about you, Home Run? You don’t talk about your time in Fillydelphia.” “Well…” Home Run watched as all their eyes turned to him. “Umm… It wasn’t that bad. I had friends, I had a good time. It was just that one baseball game where I cost my team the victory, because I thought I could win it. I messed up, got injured, lost the game.” “That’s rough,” Lightning Rain nodded his head, swallowing a chunk of his steak sandwich. “Don’t worry. That’s the past. It’ll be different now.” Cold Wind could see it was upsetting the blue haired boy, so she changed the subject. “Well, enough of all that. How about we talk about something more recent, say, the dance? What was that… thing that attacked us? Jetstream kept insisting it was a robot, but… you fought it. You must know what it was?” Home Run mused about it. How much would his friends believe? After all, they have seen Grineer before, but how about the Warframes? And Princess Celestia and the mirror? “Hmm… Would you guys believe it if I told you there was a world, sorta mirroring ours?” “Another world, you say?” Heavy Wind scrolled through his phone, looking at something. Probably Neighgag. “Like there’s another me? And another Cold? And another you? Another Jetstream?” “Gross…” Lightning Rain turned away in disgust. “Well, yes. I believe so.” Home Run went on to explain about Principal Celestia’s counterpart, who was a pony princess who could use magic and such. He wanted to laugh when the rest of the team widened their eyes with surprise, but he held it back. “Cool!” Shortstop’s jaw dropped, along with a piece of cucumber. “Wish I could see all this!” “Well, this sounds all very dangerous to me, so…” Cold Wind clapped Home Run on the back. “Thanks for taking care of this without us, slugger.” “You guys aren’t surprised?” Sundown let out a bellowing laughter, almost dropping a portion of his sandwich while doing so. “Homey, after everythin’ we’ve seen at CHS, this ain’t nothin’ new. Just another day at school is all.” “Huh…” Home Run thought about it for a while, but just shrugged. “Good on you guys, then.” Soon, they were all done with their food and heading out, with everyone already having plans for the evening. Home Run made his way back by himself, keeping a steady pace on his bicycle. There was nothing much to be done now, except to wait till the others returned from the Void. Then he remembered he left his bag by the baseball field again and made a u-turn and a loud sigh as he headed back for school. The scenery around the liset returned to normal as it slipped out of hyperdrive, returning just outside Equestria’s planet before making its way down. “Woohoo! We’re almost home!” Pinkie pumped her arms into the air. “Party time!” “Someone say party?” Mirage asked. “I always find the best parties are the ones where we give out free bullets en masse to a bunch of fleeing Grineer.” “Mirage,” Trinity said. “There are no longer any Grineer here, and humans don’t like that kind of party! We’ve been over this.” “Meh,” Mirage scoffed. “That’s still the best kind.” “Party sounds good to me, Pinkie!” Rainbow whooped and looked out to the planet below. “After all, we did just get what the Lotus wanted, and with it, that Stalker’s going to eat it!” “But shouldn’t we watch out?” Fluttershy meekly raised a hand. “I mean, if it attacks us while we’re partying, we won’t be prepared.” “Well, I hope it won’t come to that, but we’ll be ready!” Pinkie replied, smiling from ear to ear. “Stalker! We’re ready!” “Not so loud, Pinkie!” Rarity complained, pressing both palms over her helmet. The spacecraft finally broke through the atmosphere, rattling violently as it made its way down. Fluttershy didn’t like it, but Trinity kept her safe, taking control of her legs to keep her down once again. The screen went dark as the liset approached what looked like a purple castle, plunging the whole space into darkness. “Safety precautions,” Mag assured the others. Before anyone could ask anything else, the liset stopped, then began righting itself vertically, like it had been when they first entered it. “All done,” Zephyr explained after the liset finally stopped moving completely, with the sound of the engines dying off. “We may exit the craft.” Fluttershy was the first one out, arriving back in Princess Celestia’s inner sanctum. The white alicorn herself was at her large console, her Lotus mask equipped. Something seemed to be troubling her. “Umm… Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy whispered as she got closer. “Is-Is there something wrong?” The princess turned around and shook her head, though with the mask on, it was hard to tell what her expression was. Her words told Fluttershy exactly what she was feeling. “The other Warframes… They’ve been destroyed…” “What?” Fluttershy was taken aback for a second, her mind working to comprehend the alicorn’s words. “D-Destroyed? H-How…?” Celestia looked up at her. “The Stalker. It got the upperhand while the others were looking for potential pilots. Home Run and Eclair did their best, but it wasn’t enough this time.” “I-I’m sorry to hear that, princess…” Fluttershy put a hand on the alicorn’s shoulder. She nodded slowly before turning her head to Rainbow Dash as she exited the liset with the golden Warframe pod. With renewed hope, she trotted over and pointed to the far wall, where the other pods used to be housed. “Set it down there. There is still hope yet.” After explaining the bad news to the others, Princess Celestia quickly ordered them to move the pod over. Rainbow jetted over and placed it down against one of the wall ports, watching as it connected nicely to the back of the pod with a small hiss and release of steam. “So, princess,” she asked as she lowered Zephyr’s helmet. “What happens now? Who’s the one who gets to use this supposedly awesome Warframe?” “It’ll depend on which Warframe is inside,” she explained as she levitated her Lotus mask off her head and onto its pedestal. “I believe I can transfer the consciousness of the Tenno if it's to the same frame type.” “What are we waiting for!” Rainbow replied impatiently. “Let’s see what we have in there! I hope it’s a Zephyr type. Then that Stalker is going down!” “Patience, Rainbow Dash,” her partner added. “Though, I would like to be the one to tear that rogue Tenno up. He destroyed our dormant brothers and sisters. He needs to be put down.” “We’re with you, Zephyr,” Mirage raised one of Pinkie’s fists. “After that, we’ll party over his corpse!” “Please… Not that,” Fluttershy asked politely. Princess Celestia approached her console again and inserted one of the void keys. Immediately, yellow energy pulsed out in the wires spanning to the Warframe wall, slowly traveling to the lone pod. The pod seemed to rock and shake as energy pooled into it, powering up the Warframe within. For a moment, the yellow lights shone out of the pod’s tinted glass, revealing the silhouette of the suit. “It should be ready,” the white alicorn nodded and hit a big orange button on her console. The energy stopped and the glowing lights receded, leaving the pod as it was just a few minutes ago. Slowly, the doors hissed open, releasing smoke into the inner sanctum, making vision somewhat blurry as the girls tried to see what Warframe was inside. Fluttershy coughed into her hand before looking back at the pod, squinting her eyes to get a closer look at it. She could vaguely make out the shapes of her friends and the princess around her, but she could barely see the pod itself. “Oh ho, this is much better than I expected!” Rainbow cheered, standing just beside the pod, looking inside. “That Stalker is going down for sure!”