Spare Parts

by Crack-Fic Casey

Shopping for the Stars

Sunset sat down with an uncharacteristically grim face. "Okay, I'm facing a serious crisis, and you three are best suited to helping me deal with it."

Cadence slowly raised her hand. "Um, I don't want to be rude, but what could you need help with that we could possibly—"

"Anniversary present."

"Ooooohh."

Sunset sighed. "I mean, I know its not the end of the world, but if I don't get her something really good she might be disappointed and that's basically the same thing in my head? So I thought I'd form a committee meeting to help me decide."

Rarity frowned. "Oh, do we really need to call it a committee meeting? That's not... especially romantic."

Sunset shrugged. "I guess, but I'm pretty sure Twilight would think it was sweet, and this whole thing is about finding ways to impress her, so..."

Applejack leaned forward. "Alright, I get why Cadence is here; she knows Twilight from when she was little, and she's in charge of love or somethin'. And Rarity is here 'cause she's the single most romantic person whose ever lived—"

Rarity flushed. "Oh, thank you dear."

"—but what can I do to help? I ain't super good at them big gestures and stuff."

"You're here to rein us in if we go crazy," Sunset said bluntly. "All my ideas keep going too high-concept, and I need someone to tell me not to have the stars rearrange themselves as her face."

Rarity frowned. "That actually sounds lovely—"

"A future me from a timeline that did that came back to tell me that the catastrophic shifts in gravity I make by moving that many stars and planets around nearly ends the world."

The three girls stared at Sunset, who shifted uncomfortably. "But then she vanished!" she added, "so I... thinkthat means the universe doesn't end anymore? Or my better judgement was just being overly dramatic, which is possible. Anyway, I just need to find something smaller than that."

The three girls nodded quickly. "What kind of things do you think Twilight likes?" Cadence asked.

Sunset snapped her fingers, and an amateurish painting of Twilight appeared next to the table. Glowing script hovered over-top of it, listing Twilight's traits. "I've compiled a complex checklist of Twilight's favorite things and why she likes them, as well as things that should be avoided. Using this list—"

"Why does it say where she's ticklish?"

"WHOOPS THAT'S THE WRONG LIST HANG ON HERE WE GO." Sunset frantically waved her arms at the painting, and the script was replaced. "Right. So." Sunset coughed to buy time. "This is the list of traits. That we're using. That other list was a— decoy! Decoy list. Is what that was."

Applejack held her face in her hands, shoulders shaking from suppressed laughter. Rarity glared at her and laid a comforting hand over Sunset's. "Don't worry, dear. We shan't tell anyone."

Cadence nodded. "We've all done embarrassing things because of love. Let's just focus on the present. What are you thinking right now?"

Cheeks steaming, Sunset stared a hole in the table and continued. "So, the most obvious thing is Twilight loves books. The question is finding books she couldn't get elsewhere."

Cadence smiled. "And you want us to help you choose?"

"No, I decided to get her all of them," Sunset clarified. "I built a complex space-time fold and filled it with a duplicate of every book ever made, plus some shelves for everything. But something about the fold isn't working right, and I keep getting lost."

Cadence wasn't used to hanging out with Sunset, and wasn't really prepared for that sort of thing. Her mouth gaped uselessly, leaving it to Rarity to ask the important questions. "How do you keep getting lost? You're the Spirit of Harmony."

"I don't know. Normally, I'd ask Twilight, but I can't tell her, and if I have a hard time figuring out how to leave she might get stuck forever. I conjured a search spell to find books that can help me, but it just brought me a bunch of Turtleworld novels before it read enough books to gain self-awareness and asked to leave."

Rarity found herself out of her depth and joining Cadence in gaping, but Sunset didn't notice. "I did think about making another one, and getting as far along as I could before it asked to leave too, but even if I'm letting them go as soon as they want it feels a little user-y—"

"Okay," Applejack said. "I'm officially reinin' it in now."

Author's Note:

Part of the Oversaturated 'verse