And Carry a Big Torch (4)
12
“Lo ucciderò,” Rainbow Dash muttered, wringing more ice water out of her hair.
“I’m sure that could happen to anypony with combustion powers,” Fluttershy murmured awkwardly, unable to keep from glancing back at the steam and splatter that had been an Alicorn ice sculpture over the buffet.
“Y’know how often he used that ‘sorry babe, I just sneezed!’ bit back in the day?” Dash growled. She glared at Quicksilver, lounging on a divan while an afterimage at the nearby balcony glanced over its shoulder from the noise. “Shut up.”
The other speedster smirked even more. “You are quick.”
***
“Do you know how much that cost?” Sue was hissing at her brother in another corner.
“Do you know how much my mane cost?!” Rarity snarled, her fringe now a tangle of soaked trails over one eye. Sue shut her own.
“It’s barely noticeable!” Johnny insisted, waving one hoof to clear black smoke streaming from his nostrils.
He homed in on Crystal’s pole, carrying him over the nagging frequencies of his sister and Just Friend. She was talking to Medusa and Black Bolt by the balcony as the Thing made Lockjaw sit for an entire platter of shrimp.
“Mmm-hmm, yuh-huh, ‘kay…” he mumbled to keep them going while his eyes tried to find Dash. Rarity was with him, Crystal was over there, and, yeah, there was Dash talking to the Panther and Twilight now, though Silver was hovering patiently. The thought of those two hanging out made something in his gut turn metallic, but it kept her away from Crystal, which kept his heart from bursting in his chest in self-preservation.
Something was wrong. Rarity wasn’t talking. Sue wasn’t talking. He followed their carefully blank gazes over his shoulder and almost nosed Princess Celestia in the chest. She was looking at a roiling haze of steam where the ice sculpture had been.
“I don’t want to know,” she decided. “Ladies, Johnnycake.”
“Princess,” they all said, bowing as she trotted towards Reed, who was making frantic notes on multiple levitated pads as Pinkie Pie happily spoke at length into a recorder. The golden sheen of her magic restored a surprised Rarity’s mane.
Crystal and Medusa were whisper-snapping at each other as the younger Unknown tried to stop fidgeting red tendrils adjusting her drying mane. Black Bolt stepped between them sharply, horn glowing. Medusa glared between them, then rounded on Johnny.
Oh good, she was coming over here. Crystal took an indignant, protesting step but he gave her a smile and she hesitated.
“Tropical Storm,” Medusa said, rearing up on her foremost tendrils only slightly.
“Your majesty!” Johnny gave a sweeping bow on the basis that digging was an inevitability, which rendered deeper a moot point. “Did you do something with your hair?”
“My sister informs me you two have been…talking.” She pronounced it like a stabbing.
Sue blinked. “You didn’t know?”
“You did, Sandstorm?” Medusa’s tone would have sounded accusing if you didn’t know her better. She just had that kind of voice. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“How exactly was I supposed to bring it up?” Sue shrugged.
“You weren’t,” Johnny said with a frigid smile. “Because it’s none of your business.”
“My family is very much my business,” Medusa said in her Big Sister voice, reminding him why she and Sue were friends despite months without seeing each other. She glared at Rarity. “Who are you?”
“Um, Rarity…your highness,” she added quickly, managing a bow. “I…um--”
“Don’t snap at her!” Johnny snapped, locking glares with Medusa. “This is between you and me, apparently!”
“It’s between you and my sister,” Medusa snarled back. “I would know your intentions.”
“Not threatening your friends.” Johnny’s eyes were starting to light up. “So nice to know what all those times we saved your home really count for.”
“We welcomed you into our home and you broke Crystal’s heart,” Medusa seethed. “If you think I’m letting you do that again--”
“I knew it!” the world’s most perfect voice snapped from behind her.
The group turned to almost catch Crystal taking aim with a gathering Milky Way galaxy of snow before it hurtled towards them. Medusa rocked back on the two tendrils of hair she’d been rearing up on, blinking through her new full-face mask.
“Is everything alright?” Princess Celestia called uncertainly, frozen mid-petting Lockjaw.
Rainbow Dash had almost fallen out of the air, too startled to even laugh. Shuri was, but had her hooves clamped over her mouth. The Panther gestured frantically, and the Dora Milaje whirled around the princess to provide a muffling wall.
“Oh fine, thanks!” Crystal snapped. “It’s just my sister deciding my life for me!”
“Crystal!” Medusa sputtered, wiping at her face.
“Oh, am I embarrassing you, your majesty?!” the younger Unknown snapped. Black Bolt put a hoof on her shoulder but she shrugged it off. Static danced along her coat and fire flickered around her eyes. “Good!”
Lockjaw sat up, almost knocking Celesita and the Thing over as he whined. A roiling thundercloud formed under Crystal’s hooves. She snorted steam at a bewildered Medusa and spun around, surfing her ride out a window.
“Crystal!” Johnny called, igniting and rising off the floor. “Wait--”
The air in front of him shimmered as he thudded into it. “I will talk to her,” Sue said firmly, rising on her own invisible platform.
Lockjaw whined again. The Thing gave him a consoling pat.
Celestia fluttered over, placing a wing on Medusa’s shoulder. The queen turned to Johnny but there was no anger in her eyes anymore. She just looked very tired. Black Bolt glided across the room to her side, but she simply patted his arm with a hair tendril. “Bathroom?” she asked.
“First on the right,” Celestia said, nodding to a nearby hallway.
Medusa tendril-walked across the floor before turning to Johnny once more. “If it was your sister?” she asked, incongruously dignified considering only her muzzle was snow free.
“Yeah,” Johnny admitted distantly. “Fair enough.”
He gave her enough time to half turn away before adding, “But so’s Crystal’s point.”
Medusa froze and Johnny would never be entirely sure if she wasn’t about to lash him to ribbons. Years later he wouldn’t even be able to remember if he was still alight at that point.
All the queen did was sigh and trot away, leaving him to realise there were still multiple political sets of eyes on him. Including Black Bolt, who was only a few inches away and the air between them was becoming very pressurised and tasting of ozone.
“I must apologize, King Black Bolt,” Celestia said, stepping between them. Johnny had to back up to avoid being smothered by her tail. He saw Black Bolt accept a hoofshake and shake his head simply.
“The royal gardens and, um, restrooms are quite secure. I’m sure both their highnesses will be fine until they calm down. If you would join me and my sister?”
Celestia gave Johnny an inscrutable look over her shoulder as she led Crystal’s megaton of a brother-in-law away.
“Way to go, small-fry,” the Thing muttered, fetching himself another plate of salad and some o’ them fancy noodles.
“What, you’re ragging on me ‘cause Sue’s not here?” Johnny muttered.
“Like I got nothin’ better to do?”
Johnny raised an eyebrow as Reed walked over. “What about you, leader-man?”
“You moved out, son,” Reed said with a diplomatic smile. “We’re fine with you making your own decisions and mistakes.”
“Gee. Thanks.”
“Well,” Reed sighed, his abdomen creasing slightly like a paper bag. “It is a political summit, Johnny.” He gave Rarity a pensive smile and nod. “Ms. Belle.”
“Doctor,” Rarity replied. She smiled at Johnny as his team-mates moved back into the throng, which was really only the Wakandan delegation at this point. “No judgement.”
“Uh, lotta judgement. Bad enough she keeps Crystal cooped up basically her whole life, she doesn’t get to treat you like something she found in her bangs. Not when I’m around.”
“And they say chivalry is dead,” Rarity chuckled, rolling her eyes.
“Y’know she was a super villain for a while?”
She blinked at him.
“Well okay,” Johnny admitted reluctantly, “she had amnesia at the time, but.”
“But she’s just looking out for her little sister.” Rarity glanced at the hall. “If it was Sweetie Belle I can’t say I wouldn’t be a bit…you know.”
“You’d make it work, though.”
“Thank you.”
“And have better hair.”
“Oh, the things this fringe could do if it could move…”
Johnny laughed along until he realised her eyes clouding over, entering some new, terrifying universe of possibilities.
“Hi, Johnny!” Shuri said, suddenly upside down.
Johnny flamed on, the startled thermal almost sending him into a wall shield before realising she was hanging from one of the drapes. “Shuri! Hey! Still thinking outside the box?”
“I find it easier to just rebuild the box!” the young zebra grinned, flipping herself right side up to land in front of him. Not quite Spidey-style but with a lot of that trademark Wakandan sleekness. Her hoof jewellery had turned into a set of those clawed gloves T’Challa used when he wasn’t fully suited up, and Johnny admired the ballet of their switching back.
“I just wanted to say I thought it was so cool how you stood up for Crystal like that.”
“Cool is one of many things I do,” Johnny chuckled. He looked her up and down. “So you know Crystal? Guess you’re not sitting at the kid’s table anymore, huh?”
“Did I ever?” Shuri chuckled. “Remember that one time I stowed away in your kart?”
“Which one?” Johnny laughed.
“So I was thinking,” Shuri said quickly, “you know if you’re not too busy, this exchange thing's coming up and you know, there’s lots of haters like Warmonger out there, well, he’s cool with me, but you know what he and ‘Challa are like, anyway, it can be rough out there and we’ve known each other since I was a kid, so for the exchange would you like to maybe bodyguard or somethi--”
“Hello.” There was suddenly a chic wall between them. Rarity had returned from whatever dream domain she’d been ruling over with an iron fringe. Shuri’s stymied face shimmered in her eyes. “I am Rarity! We’re going to be best friends.”
“We are…?”
“Oh yeah, you’ll love it,” Johnny beamed as Rarity put a hoof firmly around her new charges shoulder and began to lead her over to Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. “Rarity and her friends are all about friendship. It’s why they’re here.”
“Yes, well, got to have something to do in between bailing you out, darling, ciao!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Johnny wondered as Reed stretched over for a refill of punch.
“You don’t know?” Mr. Fantastic blinked. “Gosh. I thought you were being diplomatic. You know, for you.”
“Reed, c’mon. Grim’s just gonna find a more politically inappropriate way to tell me whatever you’re trying to say.”
“Mmm,” the genius conceded with a shrug. “Shuri’s had a crush on you for about the last six or so years now.”
He savoured the bouquet of royal jelly mixed with a certain Neighponese blend as the Torch’s brain began tipping bricks of ‘A-DOI! ™’ over the sides of the mountain that comprised his feeling for Crystal down onto him.
“Where’s T’Challa?” Johnny said with urgent realisation.
“Where he needs to be,” said a rich voice right behind him. Johnny wondered how he hadn’t noticed the shadows getting deeper.
“I. Am,” Johnny managed in a strangled voice. “Going? To. See how Crystal’s doing?”
“Do as you will my friend,” the Panther Prince said pleasantly.
He held out the tip of a hoof glove towards some buffet salmon. One of his four claws, which Johnny knew could disrupt things at the molecular level at the right frequency, whispered it’s way out like a speeding bullet and speared a slice.
Johnny (stylishly) bolted.
13
“So supervillain demo tapes, huh?”
“Docu-dramas, you fillystine!” Mysterio snapped, vanishing in another whirl of smoke as a wad of webbing covered the walls of the stairwell.
“Doc-yo’-mama,” Spidey quipped just to not waste the line, and bounced off the wall to roll through the doors into—
“Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere!”
—a nightmarish colosseum full of green smoke and Mysterio gladiators fighting skeleton-ponies where The Bugle’s legal department should have been. Classy.
“If nothing else you’ll have some cool behind the scenes featurettes,” Spidey concluded, flinching away from a trident thrust even though there was no Spidey-Sense buzz.
He sprang to crouch on the green void between two columns. Mysterio liked to make it look like he had a perch point where there was actually a fall out an open window and he couldn’t trust the seeming miles of open terrain because the place would be full of desks to bump into.
“Of course, then they’ll kick you out of the stage guild for giving away magician secrets, destroying the magic for children everywhere, that kinda thing…”
“Those hacks could never think big enough!” a cheering section of Mysterios cried in unison.
“I was joking, but cool.”
Couldn’t just take a swipe at any of the combatants even if they came at him, since they were likely office workers caught up in the terror of the illusion. The riot was keeping his Spider-Sense humming constantly, making it hard to pin down Quark. And he’d lost sight of Grimidor, not good. That Mysty on the throne with the crown and waving a turkey leg around, maybe? Would he be that obvious?
Spidey launched to another “column” (probably one of the exposed beams on this floor, but Spider-Sense said it was definitely there whatever it was, so) as a mace hurtled towards him. It struck the (probably) wall and shattered into a broken desk lamp. He began firing a couple of web-nets around the place to separate the combatants on general principle, relieved as some of them flickered into startled office workers for a second.
“Getting desperate?” Mysterio’s voice sneered from everywhere.
“Waiting for your little buddies to show up, actually.”
Peter listened for the whir of propellers over a looping soundtrack of tormented screaming as some drones whizzed around him. Didn’t need to be the big one, just solid…
“Eger for a close up of our imminent demise, are we?!”
“Nah, just giving you the spotlight you so richly deserve!”
Smoke curled away from the one closest to him. Bingo.
Spidey turned to face it head on and slapped the spider logo on his chest: the upgraded Spider-Signal spell Twilight had helped Gem finish off. Not only did the logo beam a Spidey mask decal, his lenses now burst into floodlights, lighting up his surroundings. Or, in this case, slamming through the drone’s high-def camera and into Mysterio’s scrying helmet.
“MY EYES!” yowled an incongruous potted plant, standing up and clawing at its face. “MY BEAUTIFUL EYES!”
A web-line smacked into the polished surface, dragging Mysterio forward…or more accurately his helmet forward as Spidey’s hind leg snapped into his sternum, hurling the master of illusion backwards into Rocky Road’s waiting grip. “Gotcha,” the editor snarled.
“phwuagh…” said Quintillion Quark, would-be master screen writer.
“Where’s Ferocious?!” Rocky demanded. He blinked as Spider-Pony hefted the helmet, gingerly slipping his own head inside.
“Working on it…” came the vigilante’s muffled voice. “The great auteur here’s gotta have at least one drone on the action. Let’s see…gah, so many playlists!”
“Inspiration…” Quark wheezed. Rocky gripped his shoulders even tighter and he shut up.
***
Several floors below, Escorpión’s tail tore a gash in a shuttered door as easily as a can opener to a tin of tuna. His moustache rattled as he was forced to duck one of Mysterio’s stupid camera drones, glaring around as he stalked into The Bugle’s loading bay. His eyes narrowed as he spotted two figures galloping between delivery trucks.
“In here!” Flattop barked, hauling open the doors of an armoured car. “We use it for the payroll! Can’t trust anypony these days! You’ll be safe in the meantime!”
“But what about you?!” the director boggled, trying to keep her cap on her head as she dived inside.
“Somepony’s gotta flag down the M.E.U.P. and round up all those menaces! No one invades Ferocious Flattop’s place of business and gets away with it!”
He slammed the doors on the mare’s protests and turned to gallop…almost into the barb of Grimidor’s tail.
“Admiring your handiwork?” the fencer asked casually as he languidly extended the appendage, forcing Flattop towards the side of a nearby truck.
“Giving you these powers was one of the greatest mistakes I ever made, Mueca,” Flattop gulped as his hind hooves brushed against tires. “I admit that.”
His eyes narrowed so intensely the villain hesitated. “The other was not seeing WHAT A TUCHES YOU WERE THE MOMENT WE MET!”
“You know what?” Escorpión seethed, rearing up. “Forget the tape. When everypony sees your remains they’ll know to never mess with Escorpión!”
“Y saber es la mitad de la batalla?”
Two web-lines enveloped the tail, yanking it off course and almost down one of Grimidor’s ears. As the villain staggered off balance Spider-Pony used another yank to haul himself hooves first into the side of Escorpión's head, sending him rolling across the bay to slam into another truck.
“WHAT KEPT YOU?!” Flattop bellowed, the acoustics of the parking garage making it so much worse.
“Get lost, pickle puss!” Spidey snapped. “No, seriously, book! You know he’s not gonna stop until you’re in your own obituaries!”
“And I won’t stop until you’re finally run out of town!”
“Alright then, so you go find a new town, and I’ll show up to be run out once I’ve finished with your biggest fan!”
“And abandon my faithful staff?!” Flattop huffed. “And the other, less faithful, more useless staff?!”
“Parásitos!” Escorpión bellowed, springing to his hooves. His tail stabbed into the side of the truck and swung it in a shower of sparks towards the two little ponies he hated most in the world.
It glanced off the armoured car, shattering one of the cab’s headlights and whipping up Flattop’s tie from the impact. Because the publisher was slung over Spider-Pony’s shoulder, sandwiched between it and the ceiling as the wall-crawler hugged that.
“Admit it,” Spidey simpered, springing down and off the trailer to give them some distance, “you miss being in the thick of the action like this.”
“I’LL GIVE YOU THICK OF THE ACTION, YOU--"
“Because you’re never gonna give me a break, huh?” Spidey ricocheted off a support beam so they could take cover behind a row of trucks delivering printer rolls. “Well it’d sure foil my nefarious plans if you were to stay here and keep your head down. Be good and maybe I’ll let you pose over Scorpy’s unconscious body in Trotter’s photos and take all the credit.”
“That individual no longer works here,” Flattop muttered, adjusting his lapels.
Behind the mask Peter Trotter stared at the old pony. “That individual?” Where’s the venom? The volume?! I knew he was mad at me for…whatever reason he picked out of hat but he’s so…cold! I practically set fire to the place looking for Snappy Scoop a couple moths back! Does he still not care?
…and why do I?!
…is my Spider-Sense goi—?
“Cobardes!” Escorpión bellowed. Another truck crashed into the wall behind them, inches from their hiding space.
“See, this is cosy, huh?” Spidey muttered to a frozen Flattop.
He waited until the shadow of that lashing tail had passed before scuttling on his belly under the trucks, emerging right behind the villain. Grimidor’s tail was sensitive to vibrations, his own weird kind of Spidey-Sense, but if Peter was quick enough—
“HA!” Escorpión crowed, stabbing backwards.
Spidey flipped out of the way, letting the impact of the barb colliding with the floor fling him towards a loading dock and, more importantly, away from Flattop’s hiding spot. He landed on a dolly and surfed it backwards, springing off and onto the wall behind it before it hit.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he decided as Escorpión sprang to the ceiling, “these evaluations are better done face to face.”
“¡El español no es la única lección que estoy a punto de darte!” Murita sneered. “¿Alguna última palabra?”
“Decisiones, decisiones,” Spidey mused. Then sprang head on! “Vamos a bailar!”
14
“You dance divinely, Captain Grim Skies,” Princess Celestia smiled as she waltzed with a rock monster.
“Ya wanna be an idol o’ millions, ya gotta be good at millions o’ things, ma’am,” the Thing said, winking. He looked over his shoulder, monobrow creasing as he checked on Rainbow Dash, dancing with Quicksilver a little further up.
“She can look after herself, believe me,” Celestia assured. Though she did have to admit the two smirking speedsters, while agile as ever, did look like they were having a hoof-wrestling contest. To the death.
***
“Soooo…” Applejack had found herself sharing the same patch of ballroom with some of the Dora Mailaja. “Is it, uh, interestin’ bein’ a royal bodyguard? Thought about it as an alternative a time or two.”
“The hours are long but you get to travel a lot,” a wildebeest said.
“And the prince is very considerate,” the gazelle next to her supplied.
“I do like to travel,” the farmgirl agreed.
“Of course,” the gazelle admitted, “there’s always the possibility he’ll ask your hoof in marriage, choosing your tribe over all others and inciting civil war.”
“Indeed,” the wildebeest said, idly cleaning out one ear with the tip of her spear. “Sclerocarya here is one of my best friends, and she’d be as obligated to strangle me with my own beads as I would if our tribes ordered it.”
“I’m, ah…” Applejack searched for something that would put her back on a sane planet. “I’m in the apple farmin’ game myself.”
“Huh!” Sclerocarva cheerfully indicated the wildebeest and herself with the tip of her spear. “Our tribes hang out because they’re big into peach farming. Small world!”
***
Fluttershy was sharing a table with Black Bolt.
“This is nice,” she concluded after ten minutes of total mutual silence.
Black Bolt nodded.
***
A blue flash in the middle of the dance floor! The band stopped dead.
Celestia squinted, then saw what it was and dropped the Thing to the floor as her pupils shrank to outraged pinpricks.
Luna: grinning, hooves on the shoulders of a startled looking Namor.
She shot a defiant look at Celestia, who’s mane seemed to be getting larger and more storm tossed, as she made her way over to the band and whispered something to the lead cello player. The Unicorn nodded and cast a spell over his band’s instruments. They all nodded and seamlessly struck up a dance-on-the-tables, drive-ins-and-malt-shops rockabilly number.
Namor had just finished wiping down his dusty scales when Luna’s hooves clamped around his and whirled him into a tango. It was more of a tangle on the Sub-Mariner’s part for the first few minutes.
***
“Huh,” Spike mused, hopping off Twilight’s back, “didn’t know they served toast at this function—”
“Because this is your jam,” Twilight muttered under her breath.
“—'cause this is my jam!” Spike strutted towards the dancefloor, waving over his shoulder at her. “See ya!”
“Have fun, I guess,” Twilight chuckled.
She sighed, looking at the various little huddles she wasn’t sure she could or should make herself a part of. Although Spike and Pinkie Pie dancing back to back made her smile.
Fluttershy came up beside her. “Um, is everything alright?”
“The summit? Oh, I think it’s going better than expected, don’t you?”
“I suppose so…”
Twilight followed Fluttershy’s gaze. Rarity and the Panther Prince were dancing. Or the Panther was simply standing there while the fashionista tried to show off how well she could trot, moonwalk and shimmy all at once. No, wait. His tail was flicking around like a conductor’s baton. That seemed to be as far as it went.
“Wildcats don’t dance?” Twilight grinned lamely.
“They can if they want to,” Fluttershy chuckled.
“♪They can leave their friends behind!♪” they opined off key and dissolved into giggles.
“I hate to be a bother,” Fluttershy tried once they’d caught their breath, “but are you sure? It’s just, I know why I’m in the corner, but you’re just sort of…standing here, and your binders were so comprehensive! You must have so many interesting questions.”
“In my defence half the summit left after an hour, and one of the Attilan delegation's taking a really long time in the restroom.”
“Well, all that hair…” Fluttershy suggested, hoping this didn’t condemn her to the gossiping level of Hades.
“Point,” Twilight sighed. “I dunno. Research is one thing, but I’m a little out of my depth here. I mean, Princess Luna’s cutting up the dance floor! And she’s had to quickly add on a lot of stuff to her hundreds of years worth of experience! What’s one little Canterlot filly going to say to the prince and princess who were groomed for the power of Bast? Or-or-or not waste the Sub-Mariner’s time even more than he already assumes she will? I was practically raised by Princess Celestia and I still get tongue tied around her!”
“You know she wouldn’t have invited you if she didn’t think you could do those things, right?” Fluttershy asked gently.
“Yeah, invited to a secret summit,” Twilight said, looking at Celestia pretending to laugh at whatever River Reeds and Johnnycake were saying, while glaring at how close Luna had pressed her cheek to Namor’s. The Mariner was having to use his fins to hover above the floor and keep up with her hoofwork.
Fluttershy’s ears drooped slightly. There hadn’t been resentment in Twilight’s voice, but there was something there. “Um...”
“Hey, party ponies.” Rainbow Dash flapped over, trailed by Quicksilver. “Grabbin’ some air and humiliating the ambassador into the bargain. Wanna watch?”
Twilight blinked. “You’re going to race? At night? In the dark?”
“We’re going to talk,” Quicksilver said. She wasn’t smirking anymore.
“About how awesome my victory is, yeah,” Dash said casually but too quickly. “Oh, hey, figured out where you guys’re going for this exchange deal yet? Leadfooted here keeps tryin’ to sell me on a Genoshian vacation.”
“Not…yet?” Some back-of-the-neck sense made Fluttershy look back to the dance floor. Rarity was marching over with the Panther Prince and Shuri behind her.
“His majesty wants to talk to you,” she told Fluttershy with a brittle smile.
“T’Challa,” Quicksilver said, nodding as she joined Rainbow Dash on the balcony railing.
The Panther nodded in return. “Silver.”
Dash’s wings flared, passing through a swirling afterimage of a launching Quicksilver, tapestries billowing in their wake. The party watched as two multicoloured streaks blazed along the great arc of the Castle’s main tower, then flickered back into existence over the ribbon of a mountain stream.
“Rainbow Dash is a, uh, sports enthusiast,” Twilight offered with an awkward smile.
“One surmises,” the Panther agreed. “It’s clear why Quicksilver speaks so highly of her.”
“She’s rad as all hay,” Shuri put in. “Can we keep her?”
“Sister.”
“What? I just wanna hook her up to my equipment and figure out how she does that boom thingy! It’s not like I’m gonna ask for blood samples or anything!” Shuri folded her forelegs grumpily, then gazed thoughtfully at the ceiling. “Although…”
Rarity and Fluttershy looked at Twilight.
“It was just a couple dozen!” she protested. And realised she’d said that out loud. In front of strangers. She wondered if she could beat herself to death with her own wings.
“You’re speaking about these fine ponies as if they’re not here,” T’Challa gently rebuked.
“More like the one I’m talking about just left,” Shuri muttered. Her eyes focused so suddenly they could all swear they heard shutters buzz and she bounced up to Twilight. “Wait. You’re Twilight Sparkle! Oh man, I’ve wanted to talk to you for forever about that binding thing!”
“Oh.” Twilight blinked. “Um, thank you! Which…?”
“The one where you bound you and your friends’ destines together and then to the Elements of Harmony!” You could’ve shone Shuri’s grin on the clouds and used it to summon the world’s greatest detective.
“I take it nopony would be opposed if my sister were to stay in Ponyville?” the Panther asked, politely but carefully.
Twilight looked at Rarity, who gave her a look containing a lot of information. She intuited more by taking another look at Shuri.
Smiling like a six-year-old on too many amphetamines, but capable of conversation about at least two very nuance laden (ridden?) schools of magical thought. Born into royalty, which must’ve come with everything ever written about diplomacy, but thinking so fast she couldn’t register the concept of boundaries. Privileged, with a tight familial circle that occupied an important societal and spiritual position.
All that was missing was a little brother familiar.
“The mayor’s office would be honoured,” Twilight smiled.
“We do live next door to the Everfree Forest though,” Fluttershy mumbled honestly. “And not too far from Ghastly Gorge. Oh! And the gates of Tartarus are somewhere in the mountains, too. But we have some very nice public parks! And, um…a bowling alley?”
“The Everfree Forrest?!” Shuri was dancing in place hard enough to send up sparks. “When can we leave?! I’ve got a sample kit in the trunk, oooh, but they grow them big out there don’t they, ugh, and the Doras will want snacks--”
“I can do snacks!” Pinkie Pie called, ice skating past.
“The Wakandan consulate shall be in touch,” the Panther said, a smile in his voice as he shook Twilight’s hoof.
“A week?” Shuri’s eyes bugged. “’Challaaaaa, c’mooooon! Is this about the Great Sun Race? I can go next year!”
“You’ll honour the racers of Wakanda with your royal presence like the rest of us and be distinguished about it,” the Panther said pleasantly. “There’s also the matter of which of you ladies will honour us with your presence.”
“Quite,” Rarity said between smiling teeth.
Fluttershy’s head slowly turned to take in each of the group as it sunk in that, yes, they were all looking at her. “Oh! Gosh! I’m flattered, your majesty, but I wouldn’t want to be a bother!”
“That is most kind of you,” the Panther said. Something about the impassive cover of his mask made the amiable tone of his voice…worryingly so.
“Twilight!” Fluttershy remembered hastily. “…is a princess!”
“With no real diplomatic experience,” the mage said cheerfully, as the Element of Kindness started at her with screaming eyes, “so it makes about the same difference whichever of us goes, if you think about it.”
“Rarity’s the most seasoned traveller! And she could…make you a nice…cat suit?”
“I’m sure she could,” the Panther said distractedly. This was because he was frowning over his shoulder at Shuri, who was watching rapturously as Johnnycake argued with the Thing and Princess Luna about how best to extract Spike from the neck of a vase his fiery dance moves had plugged him into. “But I feel Ms. Rarity is the best suited to watching out for my sister.”
Shuri blinked. “She is?”
“I am,” Rarity said firmly.
“There’s just so many little animals I have to look after though,” Fluttershy tried desperately. “I’m the town veterinarian, you see.”
“And she’s super good at it,” Twilight said, beaming. “In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had everything wrapped up before the week is out. Oooh, I could make a schedule to maximise efficiency! How fun!”
If Fluttershy had been the type she’d have kicked the princess right in the cutie mark.
“That is part of why we would like to extend the offer,” the Panther said. “The royal sisters tell us you have a close bond with nature. A trait all of Wakanda prises highly!”
He and Shuri both gave slight bows. The zebra princess winked at Fluttershy.
“Oh, thank you, that’s very flattering!” Fluttershy managed to smile. “I’m not really familiar with your region though…”
“We would be happy to help.” The Panther held up a foreleg. Rarity and Twilight clustered even closer to Fluttershy, all three wondering if the thin card-like piece of glass(?) had materialised on his wrist or had always subtlety been there.
“Kimoyo,” the Panther enunciated carefully. “Archive. Wildlife.”
Runes danced across the card’s surface and a golden phantasm of a book wafted out from T’Challan’s wrist. Fluttershy’s eyes lit up as a pop-up diorama spread out before her, a holographic valley full of miniature creatures, incredibly life like even with small scroll icons hovering over them.
Shuri stifled a laugh as all three Elements gasped: the animals had started moving! Even the grass and the branches swayed in a non-existent breeze. Some danced up out of the book and froze in mid-motion, their scrolls unfurling.
Fluttershy turned as Lockjaw lumbered up to her, offering a devastated trey of hors d'oeuvres. Rarity gave her an encouraging smile.
“Oh, why not?” Fluttershy grinned, giving Lockjaw a pat.
Twilight’s own smile faltered slightly as she looked between her friends and the two royal zebras as they began talking things over. Without her.
“Everything seems to be happening in this corner!” Princess Celestia enthused, trotting over. She laughed as Lockjaw lumbered over and tried to follow the swirls of her ethereal tail. “Yes, yes, hello! Have you all come to an agreement yet?”
“I’m going to Wakanda, I suppose,” Fluttershy giggled as she bowed.
“And Princess Shuri shall be staying under my watchful eye in Ponyville,” Rarity beamed. Shuri raised an eyebrow. T’Challa’s shadow lengthened to consume hers and she lowered her eyebrow.
“Splendid!” Celestia practically clapped her hooves. “Everything alright, Twilight?”
“Fine, your highness!” Twilight forced a better smile. “Just…feel like some air. So I suppose I’ll, uh, also see what Princess Crystal’s up too?”
“A marvellous idea,” Celestia said then started up a conversation with the Panther.
Twilight gave an uncertain Fluttershy and Rarity a reassuring smile and teleported out. Lockjaw spun so fast he almost knocked a startled Celestia through a column. His eyes rolled to Fluttershy.
“Go on,” Fluttershy said, nodding. “She needs it.”
***
Twilight materialised under the stars, savouring the cool air of the gardens, then blinked at a sudden wave of pressure. She yelped, shielding her eyes against a burst of light, then yelped even louder when she looked up into Lockjaw’s face. “Wha?! Um…hi? Lockjaw, right?”
The dog’s jowls spread in a smile. If he hadn’t been holding onto the tray, Twilight supposed, his tongue would have been lolling. Or concussing her. She teleported a few experimental feet away. Lockjaw let out a muffled bark and vanished, materialising behind Twilight and almost driving her headfirst into a tree. “Whoa!”
She staggered in a circle until she got her balance back then looked into those innocent ball bearing eyes and chuckled. “Fun, isn’t it?”
Lockjaw barked again. He held out the tray with a questioning expression. Smiling, Twilight levitated one of the most intact looking samples and patted his jowls.
“Thanks!” She popped it in her mouth. “Wanna go find your princess?”
She trotted off along the winding path, the great creature lumbering happily behind her, and felt her spirits perk up.
Gloriously crisp mountain air washing over her. Luna’s stars tumbling past. Her entire body pulsing as she neared Rainboom speed. The theme park sets of the landscape vaulting all around her and the satisfaction of the gap between her and the Hex-Breed behind her.
“And that!” Rainbow Dash cut her wings and thrust out her forelegs to meet the castle cobbles, leaning into the move and only regretting she didn’t throw up sparks as she performed a perfect 360 skid through the archway of the courtyard, stopping dead in the middle. “Is how it’s done.”
“Your turnings gotten better at least,” Quicksilver smirked, breaking on a dime beside her. Dash let her have the sleekness of the maneuverer because the confirmed looser needed something.
“Yeah? ’Least you race better than ya dance!”
“I swear, you make Cliff Bastion look modest some days. It’s almost mesmerising.”
“Dunno who that is.” Dash glided over to a fountain and splashed some water in her face.
Silver shrugged. “A friend. He’s not important.”
“You wanna maybe talk about that?”
“I thought you were trying to avoid our discussion.”
“About your little island getaway, sure.” Dash used the rim of the fountain to boost herself into hovering over the cobbles. “I mean, if ya wanna get your tail kicked by the one and only Rainbow Dash (again), I could do it from home! (Again.)”
“I think it would be good for you,” an afterimage said. Dash turned to find Quicksilver posed on a lower balcony, like a jungle cat in foliage waiting for an incautious entrée.
Out of nothing more than pure competitiveness, Rainbow shot upwards, weaving between turrets and rolling into a landing on one of the opposite towers. An afterimage flickered curiously on the rim of its neighbour for a heartbeat and then another was kicking open the door while Silver lounged between turrets.
“Doubt it’d do your ego any good!” the younger speedster sneered.
“You’ll be delighted to know this isn’t about me,” Quicksilver replied, stone faced.
“Then what’s it really about?” Dash muttered irritably, folding her forelegs. “Tell me your dad isn’t on a recruitment drive. I’m team Celestia all the way!”
“I wouldn’t insult you.” Silver waved a languid hoof, looking amused. Light from the moon mingled with strange speed trials from her shoe even though the gesture was normal paced. “Although you’re the one who’s tried to indoctrinate me, if you’ll recall.”
Rainbow Dash blinked at her.
“Those little friendship lectures,” Quicksilver sighed (half im)patiently. “No offence but Captain Adventure you most certainly are not.”
“Yeah? Gimme a minute, I just made Wonderbolt reserves.”
“You did?” Silver’s grey eyes blinked in genuine surprise. “Oh. Congratulations!”
“Thanks.” Dash smiled, wondering why she felt so flattered and disconcerted at the same time. Almost familial. Was this what her cousins felt whenever she praised whatever adorable little thing they were doing?
“I still have no interest in them, but it’s good one of my few noteworthy competitors is achieving their goals.”
“Thank the Great Pony, for a second there I thought you were a changeling or something.”
“I think you need to hear what I have to say.”
“Can we do it inside?” Dash sighed, blowing some hair out of her face. “Burned a lotta calories.”
“Wherever you’d feel most comfortable.” Silver nodded, which made Dash feel like she ought to be tensing up.
She sprang off the ledge, free falling into the royal gardens. She flared her wings to slow her descent and an afterimage was halfway over the wall when she swung into a glide.
“Speaking of, y’know that offer goes both ways, right?” she mused as she flapped over hedges and around low branches. “Ponyville’s only like an hour and half away. By train. We both know that’s nothing.”
“To the likes of us, yes.”
Dash derived the purest, pettiest pleasure from the fact the land locked Silver had to go at a normalish jog to navigate how dense the immediate foliage around her was. She put a hoof to her chest to be a jerk. “An outright comparison?! Be still my beating heart!”
“What do you mean? Just because you have a charmingly supine first gear doesn’t mean we don’t share the gift. It’s refreshing whenever I can talk to somepony who does.”
“The gift.” Dash rolled her eyes. “Look, yeah I was born to be awesome, but nopony gave me my speed.” She squinted. “Huh. That your story?”
Silver smirked up at her. “Perhaps I’ll tell you when you’ve had enough of taking in the sights of Genosha.”
“Didn’t say I was going.” Dash perched on a statue to get her bearings. “Agh, this place is a maze! No, wait, there’s the maze over there, so to get to the mountains we--”
“You’re stalling.” She looked down at the bored looking speedster. “You’re perfectly capable of flying a few feet to look for a lit window.”
“In the middle of the night?” Dash scoffed.
“You outpaced me in the middle of those woods. Your eyesight isn’t just sharp, your night vision is excellent. Your tactics, however, are embarrassingly transparent. You’re hoping if you plod around long enough I’ll lose patience and race off.” She couldn’t break contact with those suddenly all-consuming grey eyes. “Because that’s what would work on you.”
“Yeah, I’m stuck with you in the cold and the smell of wet grass ‘cause I’m trying to annoy you,” the Pegasus deadpanned, hopping back to ground level. “Gimme a break, this place is huge!”
“And even if you were actually lost, you’re ridiculously well equipped to search it.”
“Y’know, you seriously need to work on your sales pitch.” She slicked her hair up in imitation of Silver’s mane. “‘Come to Genosha, Rainbow Dash, the great big island where you’ll be stuck with me for even longer!’ There a trivia night so ya can force even more boring questions on me?”
“There’s plenty of talented creatures there,” Silver said taking a step forward that made Dash freeze up. “But almost none like us.”
“Yeah, I’m one of a kind,” Dash smirked, buffing her chest to get some cool back.
“You’re rare.” Silver’s eyes flashed. “We’re rare.”
“You’re soundin’ a lot like your dad right now!”
They plunged into seething, freezing silence. An owl hooted in the hills, sounding almost close enough to land on either of their shoulders.
“You’re still trying to get out of this,” the Befriender said in a cold, self-steadying voice, silver and blue swirls trembling around her shoulders, “so I’m going to let that go.”
“Outta what?!” Dash snapped. “I don’t know what this even is! You’re just talkin’ in circles about gifts and cults! Is this because I won?”
“Yes!” Silver’s eyes went so wide Rainbow flapped a few inches back. She was actually smiling. “You can keep up! More than keep up! You have the gift, or whatever banal little term you want to use!”
“We’ve been over this!” Dash rolled her eyes, turning towards where, yeah, she knew perfectly well the mountain balcony was. “I’m just an awesome little pony from Cloudsdale! No Hex-Factor! No vat of chemicals or cosmic rays! I’m just that good!”
“That’s the point!” She drew up as the other speedster blurred into existence in front of her. “You’re, I hate saying this so much, but you are a natural! I took father’s offer to make Genosha into what he only talks about. A haven. You and your friends could help me do it so much faster. And neither of us would have to be alone!”
“What, I’m lonely now?” Dash couldn’t help the snigger. “Sorry, but, man, you should see my day planner! Well, okay, I don’t really use it and quest stuff means we’ll probably drop like 30% of it, but you saw who I arrived with, right? I am seriously only here because Princess-For-Real-Celestia gave me a holler! I hang out with my heroes every third week now!”
Silver rolled her eyes. “I’m happy for you.”
“Yeah? ‘Cause I’d get it if you weren’t.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Look, we heard about…y’know…” Dash shrugged a wing, strangely reluctant to be blunt to the other speedster all of a sudden. “Whatever went on with the Befrienders. Iron Mage.”
“Ah, that.” Quicksilver’s mouth curled with languid violence. “Yes, I’ll admit accepting to represent Genosha was a fresh start.”
“For real, I’m down to prove you’re a buster any day of the week, but are you doing okay?” Dash stepped closer to her, trying to appear non-threatening. “I heard you talking to Mr. Fantastic about your shoes. You gotta get ‘em custom to deal with the friction, right? And the jerk who made ‘em spied on you your whole friendship, so you’ve gotta be lookin’ for a new supplier. Hay, you moved back in with your dad! That’s gotta suck!”
“Eloquent as ever.” The Earth Pony huffed aristocratically, jogging back towards the party. “Dr. Rivers and I had already made arrangements. I was thanking him again, that’s all. His work is perfectly suited to my needs. Even if it wasn’t, I have nothing to say to Antimony Spark.”
Rainbow flapped alongside her in quick but uncomfortable silence.
“Thank you for your concern though,” Silver said eventually.
“Look, not that I need you even more in my hair, but y’know you can show up in Ponyville literally whenever you want, right? You could be on the east coast and back in a couple hours!”
“My people have lived on the boarders of many small towns, thank you.”
“And because of that jackass in a can you had to run out on all your friends!”
They were accelerating, nearing the edge of some trees, the mountain and the balcony back to warmth and music almost directly above them. Silver turned suddenly, Dash presenting her belly to the rock to keep up without losing momentum.
“C’mon! Would it really be so bad? Just ‘cause I don’t wanna check out your digs doesn’t mean you can’t crash at mine! Wait, you can’t cloud walk…”
“Actually…” Silver smirked over her shoulder.
She sprang through an afterimage, using a cart and a greenhouse roof as ramps. Dash’s eyes widened as her blue and silver trail bolted from one low hanging cloud to another.
“Oh, think you can jaywalk in my neighbourhood?!” she grinned, using one to springboard herself into a wing sprint that bought her back alongside.
“You really need to learn how to use coherent terminology. You were just trying to convince me to visit your neighbourhood.”
“Yeah, after you tried to annoy me into checking out yours.”
Dash whipped back towards the treetops, watching afterimages tumble a little behind her. One used it’s tail like a propeller and Quicksilver was hovering above the ground before dropping into a trot as she pulled up for landing. “Sweet! Enchanted soles?”
“Vibrations spells, actually, and I have to be moving for them to work.” Silver looked down proudly at her shoes. “Impressive how you’re still keeping up.”
Dash shrugged. “We could do this a lot more in Ponyville. Rolling skies, fields that go on almost forever, mountains, even a couple of danger spots if we get bored!”
She held up a wingtip to act as a moustache and mimed adjusting a set of lapels. “And if you’re lookin’ for hin-tell-gent chonversation, Twilight knows basically everything and Rarity freaks out if her coffee isn’t imported. C’mon. You think Kang’s tough? Try not crying when Pinkie throws you your first ever welcome party! Hay, you’ve been workin’ on vibrating too, right? There’s this box in a cave that drives us nuts whenever we remember it’s there! Maybe we could race to see who cracks it first? Spoiler alert: probably me, but does it sound like you’ll be bored?”
“Do you get bored?” Silver asked casually.
“…sometimes?” Dash admitted.
“I can imagine.” Silver looked her right in the eye but it wasn’t a challenge. “You love your friends, I can tell. It’s one of the things I admire you for. But they aren’t like you. Like us.”
“Really?” Dash quirked a brow. “’Cause I’m gettin’ the impression you’d be a snob to all of us the exact same way.”
“Probably.” Silver smirked but her face became impassive instantly. “But you’ve given me your little sales pitch ever since we met and now, you’re finally going to do me the kindness of listening to mine.”
“Kindness is pretty high on our bucket list,” Dash sighed, reluctantly leaning against a tree.
“What you have works but you have to do this…” Silver became a blurring row of three afterimages before sliding back into one. “Alone. Because you’re the only one who can do it. You’re the only one who can come near that speed. I’ll wager you have to push yourself hard to keep up with your fellow Wonderbolts, but that’s different. You’re trying to keep formation. You’re trying not to outpace them.”
Dash shrugged. “Spitfire and Soarin’ have clocked way higher CAS and wing power records than I have.”
“Yes, after less than a decade of training. As a unit. And they help you, don’t they? Help you learn how to maintain control, how to keep yourself from accelerating and ruining a manoeuvre. Which takes the same level of high-speed coordination as, say, outdistancing a sub-sonic speedster through varied terrain, including a forest. At night.”
“Keep telling you: I’m awesome.”
“I’m trying to tell you that I think what the Wonderbolts are actually teaching you is how to relearn what you did as a child.”
That got her attention.
“I did a little digging,” Silver said with a shrug. “Speed’s never been a problem, has it? Stamina either, I’d wager. Control’s the big thing, even if you didn’t know it. And once you have that, who knows how much further you’ll be able to take things. All this and no meta-normal factors? Creatures who naturally have your potential only exist in legend.”
“You’re weirdly into flattering me tonight.”
“You’re strangely reluctant to accept, and I think it’s because it means admitting things about your friends and yourself you don’t want to.”
“Careful,” Dash snarled.
“You fight a lot, don’t you?” Silver waited through the nonplussed, outraged lack of response. “You make up, absolutely, but it keeps happening. They keep assuming things about what you and you keep assuming things before it’s clear what the question should be. You all coordinate in ways it takes the Befrienders months of training to accomplish and you do it practically every day, but there’s always that one day, isn’t there? Where you leap in before you know what’s happening…or you have to wait for everypony else to get there.”
More silence. Dash wasn’t moving at all.
“And there’s always a moment where you realise you have to go back a few thoughts because a conversation’s taking forever, and when someone asks you a question it’s not that you don’t know the answer, it’s that you came up with one forever ago and now you’re trying to go back and remember what it was. Because you were done with the topic hours ago.”
“Maybe,” Dash muttered.
“I know you didn’t finish school, but you’re not stupid.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You’re raw and in desperate need of focus, but you’re perfectly capable at what you do. The problem is your friends don’t always need what you do. And they don’t have to live with it like you do.”
“Live with what?!” Dash stomped a hoof. “Talk sense for five seconds, wouldja?!”
“The slowness. You have trouble even feigning interest in anything you don’t care about, correct? There’re things you do with your friends only because you’re friends. Because they matter to you. Because you can slow down for them. This is admirable. The problem is they never speed up for you.”
“You were goin’ about gifts a couple seconds ago!” Dash snapped. “If everypony could keep up with us how would what we do be special?”
“You can make a point like that because of what we do. You are, pardon the pun, a quick wit. Because you are a creature designed to operate in a fast-paced environment. Your mind makes connections and retains information at those speeds, but probably only those speeds. I’ve heard of Pegasi that can achieve at least a 180° field of awareness in flight.” Her eyes flashed as Rainbow’s flickered guiltily. “I thought so, and you’re only, what, 22, 23? What if that awareness grows the more you accelerate? And you can perform a Sonic Rainboom.”
“I…” Rainbow shook her head even though it was strangely clear. “You…I…”
“Want to know how much better you do at this level instead of your sleepy little town? I’ve been alternating the speed of my voice ever since we left. You keep up so well you haven’t even noticed. We slowed down and you performed that turn perfectly, communicating the whole time. You’re a speedster, Rainbow Dash. You’re meant to live at hundreds, thousands of miles an hour. And your friends aren’t.”
“Shut up,” Dash whispered, staring at nothing.
“Genosha is full of creatures like us. My father can play his little games and pretend the Brotherhood is off his leash, but we are giving them a place where they can be themselves. Your friends might accept you but they have no idea what you live with every day. They will love you but I’m sorry, they will never understand you.”
“I said shut up!”
Dash’s wings flared violently. The small pocket of speed burst. Quicksilver staggered back, shocked. Dash trembled. She didn’t even know how she’d known to do that.
“I…” Silver took a breath, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I…loose myself too sometimes. It’s easy, isn’t it?”
Rainbow Dash said nothing but her lip was curling, her eyes narrowed as they filled with tears. Silver’s ears folded, her head drooping so low her kerchief medallions almost kissed the grass.
“I’m sorry. I shall make my excuses to Princess Celestia and leave.” She turned towards the mountain and back again so fast an afterimage was still pointing at them as she looked over her shoulder. “And…perhaps I shall visit Ponyville. Someday?”
Silence.
Quicksilver vanished in a series of afterimages up the side of the mountain.
Rainbow Dash stood stalk still, the only movement baring her teeth as the silent tears streamed down her face.
“I cannot believe her sometime!” Crystal snapped. The water in a nearby fountain frothed violently. “Sometimes I just want to grab some of that hair and-and-and…UUUGH!”
She stamped her hooves. The water was now on fire.
“Feeling better?” Sue Storm smiled wryly, dancing firelight describing the outline of an invisible umbrella construct she’d created to protect herself from scalding droplets.
“A little.” Crystal blew a bang out of her face and sighed. The fountain was now obscured by steam but was settling down. “Sorry. Not very regal behaviour, huh?”
“We’re friends, Crystal. If we vent to anypony, it should be each other.” Sue gave the young Unknown a hug. Why yes, she had always sort of wanted a little sister, how did you guess? “Crown feeling heavier than normal lately?”
“No, my shoulders,” Crystal replied cheerfully. She swatted at some foliage, which became a starburst of ice. “Because my sister is almost always standing on them!”
“You’ve been in each other’s pockets almost your whole lives,” Sue assured, “it’s natural to get on each other’s nerves! That doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to let off steam. Hay, if not for the business I’d be worried I’ve too much peace and quiet these days. Johnny told you he moved into his own place, right? I miss him but it’s been good for him.”
“Yeah.” Crystal smiled then fidgeted with some leaves she was thawing out. “You seem okay with us talking again…?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Sue smiled. “You’re just talking.”
“Yeah, and Johnny’s making the outside world sound a lot more tempting every day.”
“What are you thinking?” Sue rolled her eyes at the innocent blinking. “Crystal. Johnnycake is my brother. I’ve been matching wits with Dr. Gloam since I was an undergrad. One of my powers is literally making invisible things visible.”
“Alright, alright!” Crystal grinned. “So I might be considering accidentally triggering Lockjaw’s powers and just happening to find myself on Bridleway.”
Her eyes lit up as she looked at some of the lights glinting over the garden wall. “Or maybe back here! I haven’t been to Canterlot since that trip way back when, and we didn’t see everything. The undercity sounds amazing!”
“The capital likes it’s secrets,” Sue chuckled. “I’m sure I could talk Medusa around, if you’d like. Would you be thinking of taking Johnny?”
Crystal looked away from the promise on the horizon and recognised the question within the question. “I’m…not sure. I mean, he never really learned how streets work here and he gets so touchy about it!”
“Crystal.”
“Not saying never.” She shrugged haplessly. “Starting again sounds good but so does just, you know…starting. Literally anything! You know what I did last week? I helped stop Maximus. Again!”
“You’re looking for more rouges?” Sue squinted. She didn’t see much difference between the never-ending swarm of goons they kept shepherding into the Stockade and the Unknowns’ own underworld. And that wasn’t counting the odd Kree detachment that sometimes made it through the atmosphere.
“Oh, no!” Crystal laughed. “But we broke things off so I could focus on helping my people. Maybe if I’d been there that Kree/Skrull thing wouldn’t have forced us to relocate so far away.”
“And if you’d been there anything could have happened, including us never seeing you again! It’s not wrong you were in Manehattan when it happened, just like it’s not wrong you made a choice.” Sue looked the Unknown over in the moonlight. “And that’s what this is about, isn’t it? Choices.”
“Options,” Crystal agreed, nodding . “I need some! The colony will be taking care of itself after I’m dust. And it’s great that the family got so tight after I came back, but what was the point if Medusa’s just going to tie herself to everything I do? It’s like, even Lockjaw wonders off to sniff things or take a nap, y’know?” She shut her eyes. “I know you’re friends, but--”
“We’re friends too,” Sue said, putting a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “And much as I love Medusa you’re not wrong. Filly needs to learn how to be a queen and a big sister. Which was probably what that was back in the hall.”
“She’s lucky it was only snow,” Crystal muttered.
“You and Johnny have to control more than most of us,” Sue agreed. “We should all remember that. Have you tried talking to Black Bolt?” She patiently tightened her grip slightly as the princess opened her mouth. “Talking, not venting.”
“…ask again later?” Crystal's abashed smile glinted in the moonlight before she looked down at her hooves. “And Bolt’s great, Attilan’s great, the entire Unknown nation is great! That’s the problem! We’re so…contained! Everything works so well even our dangers are routine. Gorgon was just grumbling about what he’ll do with himself when Maximus finally runs out of ways to break out of the Maze.”
“Pro-wrestling?” Sue smirked. Crystal burst out laughing so much she had to drop onto a bench. Sue sat next to her, sisterly stroking her mane as she lapsed into pensive silence. “So you want options. Would one of them be Johnny?”
“If he wanted to.” Crystal shrugged. “Although he’s always talking about this pony, Rarity? She sounds...What, what’s funny?”
“Johnny and Rarity?!” It was Sue’s turn to try and hold in her guts. “They’re not—! They…no, no they’re not. She’s far too sensi--”
She trailed off, remembering who she was talking about and cleared her throat. “No, Johnny and Rarity aren’t like that.”
“Oh.” Crystal sat up. She seemed relieved. “Well, he talks about her a lot. I was hoping to meet her actually, but then that ice sculpture exploded.”
“Yes, it did, didn’t it,” Sue smiled wryly. “But Rarity and her friends are great.”
She scrutinised the young Unknown, who was now trying to avoid direct eye contact. “Ah. So that’s it.”
“You’re as bad as Karnak sometimes, you know that?” Crystal smirked, wilfully looking straight at her.
“It’s not wrong to want friends, Crystal. In fact, the Elements or the Bearers, whatever they’re calling themselves this week will be the first to tell you that.”
“They do look fun. Especially the one with the rainbow hair!”
“…have you…not met?” Sue asked gingerly, partly out of shock that the Earth hadn’t been destroyed yet and that she seemed to be trying to hasten it.
“Someone that normal looking with that colour scheme? I’d absolutely remember her!” Crystal beamed. “I only really spoke to Pinkie Pie, and that’s just because, y’know, she’s got so much to say! But I didn’t really get to mingle too much. I wanted to but it’s been so long since I saw Shuri. Can you believe how big she’s gotten?”
“You’ve come a long way yourself!” Sue smiled. “Which might be Medusa’s problem.”
“She’s only got the one?” Crystal muttered.
“Queen’s can be pretty busy,” Sue said gently. “I mean, I worked two jobs when I was growing up, and if I wasn’t mad Johnny was underhoof I’d be worrying where he was. It was tough not to say anything when he gave up on college but even though I just said how proud I am of him? It was hard to watch him finally decide to leave, too. And that’s just two little ponies from Long Island! Your sister has to look after…how many colonies do you guys have, eight?”
“Point taken,” Crystal sighed.
“I’m just saying, honey. Sometimes I worry I was so focused on growing up I wasn’t there for Johnny’s own childhood. You and Medusa have had to go through so much more.”
Static danced up and down Crystal’s forelegs, her forehead brand pulsing briefly. “So, what, I have to wait for her to be ready to let me go?”
“Didn’t say that,” Sue soothed. “Just that you can make friends without having to fight her for them.”
“I can’t promise you Johnny would just be a friend.” Crystal removed her communicator, the twin of the one in her old flame’s custom hairbrush chest. “And I can’t promise him anything either. It’s been years, Sue. I love my family, I love you all, but I really need something new!”
They both looked up, startled as the nearby trees and bushes began to rock violently. Lockjaw erupted from the foliage, a terrified Twilight Sparkle clinging helplessly onto his antenna.
“Nononononooooo, slow down, that’s the princess’s prize winning wisdom-willow! Augh! Left, left! Stop! Good doggy! WUAGH!”
The dog bounded towards Crystal, skidding the last few inches to brake. Twilight, naturally, kept most of her momentum and was sent hurtling into the embrace of the statue atop the fountain. She hung there, eyes revolving in their sockets to cuckoo clock noises, as if dancing with the marble Alicorn.
“SIT!” Crystal thundered in an almost Medusa voice. Lockjaw euphorically obeyed, slamming to the ground. The movement sent tremors into the fountain and jolted Twilight lose. Her yelp caught in her throat and became more confused as she landed on an invisible cushion.
“Evening, Twilight,” Sue smiled. “You alright?”
“bIg DoGgY,” said Princess Twilight Sparkle, future Nobel prize winner, “hA hA hA.”
“I am soooo sorry!” Crystal appeared over the Phantasmal Ponies shoulder, almost pushing her into the dirt as she leaned as close to Twilight as she could. “Lockjaw must’ve caught my scent, he gets so excited! Did you rub his tummy? I’m afraid that kind of seals it, normally he doesn’t let anyknown touch his brand like that…”
“I’m more of a bird person, really,” Twilight mumbled, smiling gratefully as Sue helped her to her hooves. “Hi,” she began cheerfully, “I’m Twi--” Then she remembered who she was talking to. “Princess! I’m, uh, I--”
Crystal backed up as the Alicorn bowed hastily, her horn almost colliding with the Unknown’s brand.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight babbled. “I mean, you’re a princess too, I just, I’m, uh…”
“Oh, no, I get!” Crystal nodded hurriedly. “The dumb pageantry and stuff…n-not that you’re dumb! I just…um…”
“No, you’re right!”
“…I am?”
“…no! Yes? I mean…” Twilight shook her head. “I, ah, it’s dumb! The pageantry. It’s a lot, right?”
“Right,” Crystal agreed, smiling.
It wavered as the two stood there, wondering what on and under the Earth they were supposed to say next.
“I’m Crystal, by the way,” the Unknown remembered suddenly. “Crystal Amaquelin.”
“Oh, I know! I’m Twilight Sparkle!”
“I know.”
“Oh.”
Silence except for Lockjaw’s deep breathing as he looked between the two. Sue gave him a scratch behind an ear, and slapped her forehead suddenly. “Hey girls, help a mare out, how’s it go? Why’s the fraction worried about marrying the decibel?”
“Huh?” Crystal blinked. “Oh, that one! Because--”
“Because they’d have to convert!” Twilight grinned. She and Crystal dissolved into giggles, setting each other off even more. “Sorry, sorry. I just love that one.”
“No, I do too,” Crystal grinned. “You know more?”
“Almost as many as Princess Celestia! I guess it must be pretty big in your colonies? Math humour, I mean. You’re so advanced. It’s amazing!”
“Oh, thanks but not as much as you may think. Man, our best minds have struggled with magic for centuries and you guys run…y’know,” —Crystal gestured to the garden and the city beyond it— “all this off it! Talk about amazing.”
“We, uh, we try our best,” Twilight smiled, blushing a little. “I, um, I like your dog!”
“He’s okay,” Crystal smiled, rubbing Lockjaw under the chin. She leaned forward, looking him right in the eye and making him back into the edge of the fountain. “When he’s behaving himself.”
Lockjaw folded his ears and whimpered curiously.
“He’s pretty unique,” Twilight chuckled, “even by Equestrian standards.”
“Really? But you guys have dragons. In fact, I kept meaning to ask, that little guy who was dancing, is he with you…?”
“Spike? Oh, Spike’s been with me for…pretty much forever! And we don’t really have dragons, they’re their own thing. In fact it took Spike doing some soul searching for us to establish they have a culture at all. Oh, listen to me go on! Wanna meet him?”
“A dragon?! Are you kidding?! Of course!”
They began to chatter about Equestrian/Attilan ecology and then devolved into music and how the late 90’s had been where it was at. They were enjoying themselves so much they didn’t realise Sue had formed a force field bubble around them all to levitate back towards the party. Or that she circled the gardens to give them a couple of extra minutes.
Lockjaw leaned towards the Phantasmal Pony, panting expectantly.
“Good boy,” Sue smirked, giving the sneaky creature a pat just above the antenna he only allowed people he liked to touch and looking at the nose that could track Crystal practically anywhere. “Very good boy.”
“You and Tropical Storm?!” Twilight squawked suddenly. “No! That’s so weird.”
“Yeah?” Crystal snickered abashed. “It was a long time ago, and he’s changed, kinda…”
“No, I mean, he’s friends with my boyfriend.”
“Your boyfriend’s the roommate?!” Their delighted grins were reflected in each other’s eyes. “Oh wow, I’ve wanted to meet him for forever.”
Lockjaw turned, almost smacking Sue’s head into her own field and dropping them all to their deaths as he sniffed a bemused Twilight. He gave a satisfied yap and vanished in a burst of light.
“Um...” Twilight said, staring at an invisible floor that smelt of flea powder and ozone.
“Oh, I’m sure that’ll buff right out…” Crystal mumbled.
“Work out, hon,” Sue corrected from the driver’s seat with experienced resignation.
“Right! That is what I meant! Yeeeep…”
17
Yeah, sure, I’ll fight somepony with like twice my powers and a prehensile weapon in an enclosed environment. A low roof that cuts my reaction time in half, you say? We’ll pack a hamper, it’ll be a hoot!
Spider-Pony grunted as he smacked into the floor for the umpteenth time, just managing to roll as Escorpión’s tail shattered the concrete where his head had been. It followed him as he galloped across the wall, trying buy distance from somepony as fast as him.
“Payaso!” Escorpión sneered.
“Yeah?” Spidey shot back, tucking and rolling as another lash shattered a truck’s windscreen. “What’s Español for I’m a poser?”
“It’s a bit like the French,” Escorpión mused as his rival rolled to a stop in front of the armoured car. “Poseur.”
“So in a sentence you’d saaay…?”
“Oh! Soy un poseur!”
“HA!”
Mueca Esgrimidor blinked, howled with fury and lunged for his second-tier blood enemy, completely forgetting about his tail. And Spidey’s own amazing agility and reflexes, as he sailed between the jumping web-head’s legs to smash headfirst into the grill of the armoured car. The director yelped from the cab as the whole thing shook.
“Watch it, you clowns!” Ferocious Flattop barked (from hiding). “You know how much those things cost?!”
“Oops!” Spidey fired two web-lines, scuttling backwards to draw them taught. “Hey Mueca, you mind taking a closer look in there, make sure you didn’t break anything?”
As the enraged swordpony hauled himself out of the shattered grill, Spidey tucked his hind legs up, launching himself into an almost bullet speed kick that drove the villain’s head, shoulders and forelegs even further inside the poor thing. He was about to make a quip when a scream cut him off. He looked up, balanced on Escorpión’s back, and into the terrified eyes of the director.
Oh man, I completely forgot she was in there! Windshield’s cracked, what if it had burst?! Impact could’ve broken a leg! Or worse!
“Are you al—?” he started but—Spider-Sense! Suddenly he was in mid-air, wrapped in chitinous plating that smelt of dude bro aftershave and struggling to breathe.
“No…necesito…verte…” Grimidor snarled, muffled by the engine block his face was buried in, “para…aplastarte!”
Spidey grunted as the tail lashed, ramming him against the wall. One of the ceiling lights burst into sparks as it slammed him into the ceiling. He fired a blind web-line from his own tail, feeling the strain of it connecting with something and the tail’s momentum vibrating up and down his spine.
Okay, can’t take…too many more…of those! Need a…plan, Mr. thaumaturgical…physics degree!
Escorpión finally managed to burst out of the armoured car, spat out a piston and leered over his shoulder at his captured quarry.
His view was blocked by a massive canine face. Lockjaw sniffed the air, looked between both combatants, then ambled cheerfully over to the nonplussed Spidey. There was a flash of light.
“…yeah!” Ferocious Flattop said to the dancing remains of Kirby Krackle. “You’d better run!”
To be Continued
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He's leaving out the ever-present threat of death, but it's possible he hasn't realized that's not normal.
Wow, good for Johnny!
He might need to think about going ahead and unmasking.
Best Princess. No further comments.
They are rats with wings, but rats are actually really great creatures
Daaaw, he tried to help. And made everything worse, but he tried!!
She lives next to the Everfree Forest. Fun fact, in the original draft Zecora is an earth zebra that wandered ended up in the Everfree Forest because Magic. There's no telling what kind of magical creatures lives there.
I love everything about Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic's relationship! It's not like it's untapped but I guess healthy, adult married couples are.
Rainbow's whole things feel a little weird? I like it on paper but I don't think its ever come up before. And I will admit that my default reaction to Quicksilver is, "fuck off Quicksilver." But Genosha should be interesting.
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images2.imgbox.com/06/1c/bX21HUN4_o.jpg
He needed something to be doing besides hero stuff (which he gets paid for, even), but I can't promise either of the boys jobs'll feature that prominently in the series unless there's a story in it sometime. Also thinking Johnny's probably bouncing around garages both because of the in-universe danger of hiring him and because it's Johnny Storm and Plans (tm) are for squares. Peter's the 9 to 5 guy.
*Innocent Andy Griffith whistling.avi*
Call back to my RPG days! The joke is they were not even having problems.
Yeah, but I also just really like that first arc in New Avengers where Peter's complaining because you can't go to the Savage Land without crashing.
That'd be because it's made up for a setting where super speed is more of a thing. As a character thing I just like the idea that Dash loves the gang to bits but she's just built differently, y'know? She's built to go sick tricks at mach ten and she can brawl and sword fight like a champ...but she lives in a storybook kingdom which just doesn't need those skills 90% of the time. Also, qualifying this by saying it's up in the air if she does have speedster brain and Silver could be projecting. It is also bullshit that the group would't understand. It's just too hard for her to put into words.
Also I needed her to be in a bad emotional place to finally chew Johnny out, so, y'know. That was fun.
MLP Marvel World Tour is free to a good home if you have any ideas, since I don't and fantasy politics don't quite fit the tone of the series. Closest I have to A Thing is the temptation to do a parody/tribute to Priest's Black Panther run but with Fluttershy as the Ross, and I don't have the energy right now.
"Oh, hello! My name is Fluttershy. I'm the Element of Kindness and was charged by Princess Celestia to act as Harmonial attache to Prince T'Challa of Wakanda, who's duties include being a hundred steps ahead of literally everyone and often dressing up in a full body cat suit and leaping out of windows for cultural reasons. This was supposed to be for three days. That was three months ago..."
10129551
Which run was that? I tried to find some Black Panther Comics to read, but the first one I tried was Black Panther (2005) 1-6 and it made me give up almost immediately.
EDIT
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Found it.
10129551
Fluttershy doesn't seem very much like Ross. I liked him much better in the movie.
UPDATE
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I see it now.
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The role more than the actual character, yeah. Like T'Challa's jumping out of crashing planes to fix the Machiavellian scheme to ruin Wakanda's economy, and Fluttershy's just stuck in the middle.
Also the 2005 run was by Reginald Hudlin and yes he is such a weird idiot. Not only did the Boondocks run an episode about BTV and how racist and stupid it was, it named and shamed him specifically. The only good thing he ever did with his time on the character was his marriage to Storm.