//------------------------------//
// 十九 (At Least There's Pizza) 
// Story: Divine Move 
// by Ice Star 
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Two days ago there had hardly been any great escape. I disappeared the first chance I got, when my magic returned enough for a teleportation spell as soon as Celestia, speechless and seething, returned to Canterlot with me.

Nopony knew what to do with me, the wild card. Within a blink of the sun princess' eyes I was gone, the last she's seen of me so far would be my smug face.

It's hardly going to be the last time she sees me either, I think we both know that. However, I think our paths will merely be parallel the next time around since we have no mutual goals.

She's given me quite a gift, even if it was only a mistake on her part. I'd say it's the second best I've gotten, although it does pale in comparison to the first.

I'll be lasting just as long as you, Celestia.

I think I have much more of a shot now because if I last forever I can try time and time again. There's time to pursue so much more as well. The world is going to be seeing so much more of me in time because her students are just ages, kingdoms that rise and fall and are as temporary as a storm. They'll pass and who will be left in our playing field? Mortals are hardly an adequate barrier between us.

Even if we were playing your game all along, Celestia, when will we finally accept that there's a new player?

From my mountain below me, Canterlot only offers a small breeze in response before I'm called away by another presence working its way up the mountain. I know exactly who it is but am unsure why her of all ponies would be here.

Soon her voice joins her magic and her pink coat appears as she works her way up the mountain. She looks tired and a few leaves have found their way into her ruffled mane. Her horn is alight and she carries a box along with a map.

"Sombra!"

"Umm... Pink One...?"

She finally gets within a few steps of me and sets the box down, folding the map on top but still needs time to catch her breath, and when she speaks again she doesn't seem to notice that I'm looking at the box instead of her.

"You live on a mountain!"

"Yes."

"But Sombra... even with the tracking spell... I mean, I knew you lived somewhere around Canterlot so that helped since ponies don't exactly go looking for you... but oh my gods! It took me hours to get up here! Hours!"

"It's a mountain, Pink One. Why are you here? I didn't exactly summon you."

"You can't write well, so of course you weren't going to summon me."

"Shut up."

"Yes, it's nice to see you too. But I thought I'd try to come by since it was kinda sorta, well I'm not quite sure, but there was a birthday on the 20th as you should remember and it's associated with you, and since you've probably never had a birthday before, and a ton happened apparently - I won't go into Auntie Celestia's letters and the like - I decided to find you and throw you a little party so at least for like, an hour you're a bit less of an antisocial weirdo and that's what friends-"

"Shut up and give me that pizza sitting right there."

"Well! I never, Sombra. That really hurts," Pink One said, obviously faking wounded emotions, "Also, you like pizza?"

"Pizza is a god."

"Well it looks like I made a good guess since I can't picture you eating a cake. It's still warm, thanks to a spell I used but anyway-"

"Give me the pizza now or I will raze your empire within a fortnight."

"Gosh," she mutters while flipping open the box with a hoof, "You could at least say thank you."

"No."

A sigh spills from her, but it doesn't sound sad. "What kind of toppings do you like? I got a whole bunch."

"Green peppers and pineapple."

"Well, lucky for you that's Shining Armor's favorite as well and I got a quarter of the pizza like that. Me, I like black olives."

"I call heresy on that," I say pulling up a bit of grass and tossing it at her as she levitates two slices from the rest. She giggles a bit as the grass gets in her already messy mane.

I take my slice from her and we sit down and look out at Canterlot. She tries to uproot some grass and throw it at me but I draw my hood in the sun and light the remaining bits on fire.

"So," she asks in between bites, "The last time we saw each other you weren't doing so well. You seem alright now, though."

"I am."

"Wait... did you just eat that entire slice in the three seconds I wasn't looking at you?"

"It was twelve seconds."

She passes me another slice. "You are so lucky I got an extra large pizza."

"What did you do after I saw you?"

"I trespassed repeatedly."

"Ah... sounds fun? Hey, you did some work on the sword I gave you!"

"You didn't give it to me, I just refused to give it back, and this is a new sword. I made it."

When she isn't paying attention I grab the entire box from her side.

"You could always ask for a third slice."

"Just because I could doesn't mean I will."

"Happy 1,124th birthday, Sombra," Pink One adds with a smile.

"I'm seriously considering murdering you for making a quarter of this thing black olives."

"It's nice to know that you and I are such good friends that we can talk about murdering each other freely."

"Even if you had a plan to murder me it won't work now since you'll be putting up with me for the rest of your life."

Pink One drops one of the remains of one of heresy slices and brings her forehooves to her face but I can still hear her muffled plea.

"Save me from this pizza existence."



...



She is saved from her pizza existence by none other than me since I eat all except the quarter with black olives, those are eaten by her with the exception of the slice that I threw in her face when I thought she was trying to tell me that my mane was too long.

I didn't talk too much but she sure did. I half listened to everything she said and lit the empty box on fire.

Pink One told me that after I left the Empire she continued to talk with Silver Lining more and they were on very friendly terms with each other.

Silver Lining told Pink One more about Onyx and about crystallokinesis, the natural magic possessed by many crystal ponies that allows them to control and produce crystals, as well as, so I learned from Pink One, to survive many days without food since they developed in the Arctic.

She also said that Silver told her that it's impossible to tell if a crystal pony has this or not until a foal is a little over two years old and that ponies without the ability aren't loathed even though they can't be scried or detected with magic they can become very good in jobs that require stealth, if the Empire were in need of such individuals. About of the quarter of the Empire's natural population doesn't have crystallokinesis according to most of the records that Pink One found.

That explains the hollow ponies like Onyx.

Pink One continued to hang about the mountain with me for a few hours, although I wouldn't let her in my pocket dimension. After a while she asked me to tell her the time using the sun, and I did. She'd been here for about three hours and was only slightly bored with the fact that I didn't talk much.

Before she had to go to catch her train she asked me a final question.

"Sombra, you realize that if future events go as you wish that... well you know how Celestia is like my aunt, and the same with Luna? You've heard me call them that, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Would you let me call you Uncle?"

She twitches a little bit when I don't answer.

"S-Sombra, would you let me be your niece?"

"Pink One, you'd be my favorite niece."