An Unusual Request

by Allenator05

Happy Holidays

Nyx found herself in the ruins of Trostland, sitting on the edge of a large crater and staring off into the distance. Some distance behind her, Devrim Kay kept vigil in the old church watchtower, looking for roving Fallen patrols, but Nyx wasn’t too worried about enemies at the moment. She had a sneaking suspicion that she was about to receive a rather eccentric guest. As if the gods heard her thoughts, a twig snapped and Nyx heard footsteps behind her. “Hiyah! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?” a cheerful and energetic voice called out.

Nyx looked back over her shoulder and found a bubblegum pink pony wearing a huge smile. Her mane was a slightly darker shade of pink and her bright blue eyes seemed to sparkle. Nyx let out a sigh and shook her head. “I suppose I should ask what you are doing here.”

Pinkie recoiled with surprise. “Really? That’s all you have to say?” she asked.

Nyx slowly rose to her feet and turned to face her guest. “It’s a legitimate question. Believe me, I have seen stranger things than pastel colored talking ponies.”

The Pinkie’s eyes went wide and her mouth gaped open. “Really? Then what IS the strangest thing you’ve ever seen, huh? Tell me, tell me, tell me!” She then started to bounce around while shrieking “Tell me!” Nyx was pretty sure she could hear springing sound effects. “To be perfectly honest, I lied.”

At this, Pinkie stopped bouncing around and frowned up at Nyx. “Lied about what?”

“The strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Nyx said.

Pinkie tilted her head to the side. “Now I’m confused. So am I the strangest thing you’ve ever seen or not?”

“The short answer is no,” Nyx admitted. When Pinkie opened her mouth, Nyx put her finger up for silence. “But I don’t know what the strangest thing I’ve ever seen is. After a while, you sort of become numb to all the weirdness that goes on.” Nyx shook her head and put her hands on her hips. “Just how did you get here anyway?”

“Oh! So Princess Twilight Sparkle is the Princess of Friendship, and in her castle is the Cutie Map, which is a map of alllllllll of Equestria. When there is a friendship problem, our cutie marks will appear on the map and show us where the problem is so we know where to go. So anyway, I went to the castle to talk to Twilight about an upcoming party we were having, when suddenly, my Pinkie Sense started to tingle. I knew it was a big one because my whole body started to shake all over like this,” Pinkie said and demonstrated for Nyx by vibrating at high speed. “So anyway, I checked the map and I saw my cutie mark hovering over the map and going completely bonkers! I had no idea what was going on since the map had never acted like that before! To my complete shock and amazement, my cutie mark left the map and began buzzing around the mirror that Twilight keeps in her library to go to the human Equestria to visit Sunset Shimmer. At this point, my Pinkie Sense was shouting at me REAL loud, so I guessed that I should go through the mirror. To be completely honest, I thought I would end up in the human Equestria, but here I am instead!” Pinkie took a deep breath and made a squee sound when she smiled.

Nyx listened to Pinkie’s story and thought carefully. “So let me ask you this. When the Cutie Map shows a friendship problem, how do you know what the actual problem is and how to solve it?”

At this, Pinkie’s face fell a little. “Well, it’s not very obvious at the start. Usually we go to the location, ask around, and kinda figure it out as we go.”

“That doesn’t seem very efficient,” Nyx said.

“Not really, but we get to meet interesting ponies and other creatures of Equestria so that’s kind of nice,” Pinkie replied. “Like this one time Rainbow Dash and I went to Griffonstone and ended up helping all of the griffons realize that they didn’t need a fancy golden statue to restore their kingdom.”

“By the power of friendship?” Nyx asked sarcastically.

“Yup!” Pinkie replied with a smile.

Nyx considered this for a moment. “So you think the Cutie Map called you-” she pointed at Pinkie, “here-” she pointed at the ground, “for a friendship problem?”

At this, Pinkie rubbed her head and smiled sheepishly. “Well, yeah. The map hasn’t been wrong before!”

Nyx shook her head. “There’s no way I can convince you otherwise?” she asked.

“Nope!” Pinkie replied.

“And you have no idea what you are supposed to do here?” Nyx asked.

Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Obviously, there’s a friendship problem somewhere, or I wouldn’t be here, duh!” She cocked her head to the side and squinted up at Nyx. She made a hmm sound as she walked around the Hunter, taking in every detail. Pinkie stopped in front of Nyx and an actual lightbulb appeared above her head and clicked on. “Ah ha!” she proclaimed in a loud voice.

“Did you finally figure out why you are here?” Nyx asked.

“Nope! But I know who you are!” Pinkie said happily.

“Oh? Do tell then,” Nyx replied as she crossed her arms and leaned against a crumbling stone wall.

“You must be that crazy robot lady that Princess Luna met that one time she came here!” Pinkie exclaimed. Her face was glowing brightly, showing how impressed she was with herself. “Ah yes, how silly of me,” Nyx replied flatly.

Pinkie looked around and finally noticed how run down everything was. Her smile faltered a little. “What happened here?” she asked.

“The princess didn’t tell you?” Nyx asked and Pinkie shook her head. “Well, a long time ago, something very bad that we call the Darkness came and made everything look like this. Lots of people died.”

“But not everyone right?” Pinkie asked hopefully. “You’re still here right? How did you survive?”

“I’m not sure that I did,” Nyx said.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes and she stared hard at Nyx. “Now I’m confused. First you say that almost everyone died, but you’re standing right there saying that you didn’t survive the Darkness?” Pinkie’s eyes suddenly went wide and she disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Nyx looked around and found Pinkie eyeing her suspiciously from behind a large rock. “I knew it! You’re some kind of zombie!” Pinkie shrieked. She stood up on her hind legs and started throwing cupcakes at Nyx.

Nyx shook her head and put her hands on her hips. “How can I be a zombie if I’m a crazy robot lady?” she asked. At this, Pinkie stopped mid-throw. “Huh. I guess you’re right,” she admitted, then stuffed the cupcake in her mouth.

The wind picked up and Nyx saw several snowflakes dancing lazily through the air. She looked around at the cupcakes Pinkie had thrown and a sudden idea struck her. “You’re the one who does all the baking, yes?” she asked.

“Yup! That’s me! Party planner and cake maker supreme!” Pinkie said, looking very pleased with herself. Nyx looked around and found the closest abandoned building. “Come with me. I think there’s something you can help me with afterall.”

“Ooh! What is it?” Pinkie asked and followed Nyx inside. Nyx cleared away the rubble so they would have space to work. When she was satisfied, she pulled out a large blue box with a small glass door on one side. It looked like a large lantern. Pinkie looked closer and saw a small fire was burning inside. “What’s this?” she asked.

“This is a small oven used for baking,” Nyx said. “During the winter, there’s a festival called The Dawning. Since there’s so many people with different beliefs that live in The City, we kinda just mashed up all the winter season traditions and festivals into this one big thing. Over the years, The Dawning has become a time for people to get together, give gifts, and wish blessings for the new year.”

“Ooh! So it’s like a big party?” Pinkie asked excitedly. “We have something like that too! Back in Equestria, we have the Hearth’s Warming Eve celebration every winter! It’s when we celebrate the founding of Equestria by singing songs, giving gifts, making treats, and being with loved ones. It’s one of my favorite holidays!”

“Why do I get the feeling that every holiday is your favorite holiday?” Nyx muttered to herself. She slapped her hand on the oven and said, “Anyway, this year is a little bit different. You see, everyone was given an oven like this one, and we were told to go out and gather ingredients to make treats for some of the more important characters, like the Vanguard for instance.”

Pinkie rubbed her hooves together excitedly. “This is gonna be good! I’m the best baker in all of Ponyville! So where do we get ingredients from?”

Nyx held out her hand a little metal ball with a ring floating around it appeared. “What is that!” Pinkie shrieked.

“Wah!” the Ghost startled and hid inside Nyx’s cloak. “This is my Ghost,” Nyx said and pulled it out.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “So, like, a dead pony then?” she asked.

“Why does everyone think that?” Nyx sighed. “This little guy found me and brought me back to life. His name is John Carter.”

“Why that?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Because he found me on the planet Mars, and a long time ago, there was a series of books about a man named John Carter who went to Mars,” Nyx said. Seeing the confused look Pinkie was giving her, Nyx sighed. “Some people just don’t appreciate nerd humor.”

“Twilight likes books. She might get it,” Pinkie offered, but Nyx waved her off. “Nevermind about that now,” she said. John Carter’s eye flashed and a series of containers appeared. “What are these?” Pinkie asked as she looked inside one.

“These are the ingredients we’re baking with,” Nyx said.

Pinkie frowned. “But where are the eggs, milk, butter, flour, and sugar? You can’t bake without those.”

“I suppose you would be right, but these are special ingredients and this is a special oven,” Nyx said and gave the oven a pat. “Normally, we would just start combining ingredients and hope everything doesn’t blow up in our faces.”

“Yay! I like surprises!” Pinkie cheered.

Nyx pulled out a small notebook from a pouch on her belt. “However, in the interest of saving time and ingredients, I have all the recipes written down.”

“Okay,” Pinkie grumped. “How many do we have to make?”

Nyx scanned through her notes. “There is a total of fifteen people we have to make things for. Well, technically it’s sixteen.”

Pinkie thought to herself. “So, one thing for each of them?”

Nyx shrugged. “Sure, if I just want to make the oven a Masterwork. If I want to complete all of the Dawning baking requests, we’ll have to make 72 things.”

Pinkie’s eyes bugged out of her head in a comical manner. “72? That’s...that’s a lot!”

“I am well aware of this fact,” Nyx replied.

Pinkie carefully regarded the ingredients. “I don’t think we have enough to make all 72 at once,” she said.

“That’s fine. We’ll just start with one for everybody,” Nyx said. “Since we’re here in the EDZ, might as well start with Devrim Kay.”

“Who’s that?” Pinkie asked. Nyx pointed out the window and said, “He’s the old guy up in that bell tower who keeps an eye on this area and offers bounties and gear. A very proper English gentleman, he is.”

Pinkie pulled a top had an monocle out of nowhere and started sipping on tea. “Is that so? Sounds like a delightful old chap if I do say so myself.” Nyx couldn’t help but chuckle at her British accent. “In any case, we need one part Ether Cane, one part Perfect Taste, mix with fifteen parts Dawning Essence, and bake in the oven.”

Pinkie put the three ingredients together and gave a disapproving look. “I’m not really sure how this is supposed to work,” she said.

Nyx took the ingredients from Pinkie and put them on the tray. When she was satisfied with the arrangement, Nyx put the tray in the oven and shut the door. Seconds later, the oven dinged and Nyx pulled the tray out. To Pinkie’s complete surprise, the unlikely ingredients had transformed into perfect shortbread cookies. “They smell so good!” she said and smiled happily. “You know what? I take back everything I ever said about this new baking thing. How does it work?”

“Magic,” Nyx replied with a shrug. Before Nyx could stop her, Pinkie swiped the shortbreads off the tray and stuffed them into her mouth. “This is amazing! You’d never know these delicious things came from something so unappetizing!”

“And thanks to you, we have to do it all over again,” Nyx replied sternly. Pinkie stopped chewing and Nyx watched the comically large lump travel down her neck and into her belly. Properly chastised, Pinkie put in her best effort to help Nyx complete the baking. With how quickly the oven worked, it didn’t take very much time.

“So now we have to deliver them right?” Pinkie asked. Nyx placed the last of the treats into the decorative pointed oval boxes and John Carter scanned them into her inventory, along with the oven. “And this one is for the old guy in the tower?” Pinkie asked, pointing to the remaining box.

“Yep,” Nyx replied and scooped the box up into her hand. Pinkie followed her out of the building and across the square to the church. Once inside, Nyx looked around and gently pushed Pinkie out of the way under the stairs. “Look. Around here, people have seen a lot of strange things, but a pink talking pony will probably grab the wrong attention. Wait here and I’ll be right back.”

“Oh. Okay,” Pinkie said. Her face fell and her mane deflated a little as Nyx quickly jumped up the stairs. Pinkie sighed and drew circles in the dirt with her hoof. “This isn’t very much fun,” she said. She heard footsteps and perked up in time to see Nyx land in front of her. “On to the next location,” she said.

Pinkie looked up expectantly. “Are you going to make me wait around while you make all of the deliveries?” she asked.

Nyx made a show of thinking it over. “Well, I can’t really leave you here all by yourself unsupervised. Princess Luna would never let me hear the end of it if something happened to you.”

Pinkie put her hooves together and made the biggest and saddest face she could. “Pleeeeeeeeease?” she begged.

Nyx threw her hands in the air. “Why not? You’ve helped me out so far.”

“Yay!” Pinkie cheered and leapt for joy. Nyx quickly grabbed her and put her hand over her muzzle. “Hush! Now let’s go.” Pinkie nodded and Nyx put her down. She held out her hand and John Carter appeared. “To my ship!” Nyx said.

To Pinkie’s amazement (and Nyx’s growing regret) Nyx took her across the solar system to visit the various gift recipients. On Nessus, Pinkie and Failsafe hit it off immediately. Nyx made a note that for the continued sanity of the universe, they should never meet again. On Io, Asher Mir was grumpier than usual, most likely because Pinkie tried to cheer him up by telling jokes. On Titan, Sloane thanked Nyx for the gift and found Pinkie rather amusing. Ana Bray on Mars wanted to take samples of Pinkie’s hair and began mumbling to herself about cloning and genetic engineering. Nyx had a sudden premonition of Pinkie clones hopping around everywhere. At the Tangled Shore, the Spider wanted to keep Pinkie for his collection, but Nyx offered to trade for a dead Ghost shell she found. To Pinkie’s relief, he reluctantly agreed. Nyx wasn’t sure how Petra Venj would react, but took Pinkie along to the Dreaming City in the Reef anyway. Pinkie was more curious than anything and asked Petra why her skin was blue and glowy. Petra gave Pinkie a quick explanation of the Awoken, then asked about talking ponies. Pinkie did her best and promised to bring Princess Twilight the next time she came to visit to explain things better.

Once they were back in the ship, Pinkie asked, “Where are we going now?”

“To the Tower,” Nyx replied.

Pinkie heard the reluctant tone in Nyx’s voice. “Do you not want to go there?” she asked.

Nyx sighed. “I’m not a very welcome person there,” she said.

“Why not?” Pinkie asked.

“Once upon a time, I caused a lot of trouble and was locked up,” Nyx said.

“What did you do? Pull the wrong prank on the wrong person? Because that happened to Rainbow Dash. There was this one time-” Pinkie started, but Nyx cut her off. “No. I did something a lot worse.”

“And it was so bad they put you in jail?” Pinkie asked.

“Well I agreed to it,” Nyx said.

“But why?” Pinkie asked, clearly confused.

“Because I knew that when the time came, I would get out,” Nyx said.

Pinkie watched the stars race by the window. “So did you get locked up before or after the Darkness thingy happened?”

“After. Way, way, way after, but still a long time ago,” Nyx said.

“So what did you do if it wasn’t a bad prank?” Pinkie asked.

Nyx thought about what to say and how to say it. “A long time ago, a bunch of scientists built a machine to simulate probable outcomes.”

Pinkie’s eyes went wide. “You mean they built a machine to see the future?”

“Possible futures,” Nyx corrected. “The thing is, even the most powerful and advanced computers we have can’t accurately predict the future. There simply too many variables to consider and account for. As an added bonus, test subjects who used the machine were often driven to insanity.”

Pinkie frowned. “How is that an added bonus? Doesn’t sound very good to me.”

“It’s not. Just a figure of speech,” Nyx said. “Anyway, logs were kept of what was observed in the machine and everything was lost during the Collapse. Some time later, the journals were found and the machine was uncovered. And it is still used to this day.”

“Why? Doesn’t it still make people crazy?” Pinkie asked.

“Sure. But since the Ghosts have brought people back to life, and with crazy robot people like me, it’s not much of an issue anymore,” Nyx said.

“Oh. So what did you see in the machine?” Pinkie asked.

Nyx snapped her head around to stare at Pinkie, then turned back to the ship control console. “I saw the City in flames. I heard the people cry for salvation, but there was none to be had. I saw the Traveler encased in metal, the Light fading and dim. And I saw a false god, shining and bright, holding the galaxy in his grip. And when the Light is gone, twisted and corrupted, who is left to oppose a false god?”

Pinkie stepped back, unsure of what to say. Nyx looked back over her shoulder and saw the uncertainty on Pinkie’s face. “What’s wrong, little one? Do my words frighten you?”

“I...I don’t know,” Pinkie said with a quiver in her voice. “Maybe a little bit.” Nyx left Pinkie to her thoughts. After a while, Pinkie said asked, “But didn’t you say the future was unpredictable? Why did you get locked up just for using that weird machine?”

“Because I tried to make that future come true,” Nyx said.

This time, Pinkie visibly recoiled. “But why? Why would you want make such a terrible thing happen? Why not try and stop it?”

Nyx turned around to face Pinkie. “Didn’t Twilight Sparkle do the same thing?”

“Yeah, but she was trying to stop Starlight Glimmer,” Pinkie protested.

“And every time, each future was worse than the last, culminating in the total destruction of Equestria,” Nyx said.

“But that didn’t happen,” Pinkie said quietly. “Twilight stopped it, didn’t she?”

“All things must end,” Nyx said. “That is the way of things. And what I saw was meant to happen. The Story demanded it.”

“I don’t understand,” Pinkie said.

“It’s the same reason why all these bad things seem to happen to Equestria,” Nyx said. “Nightmare Moon, Tirek, Starlight Glimmer, Queen Chrysalis, the Storm King, Discord, all of it. The Story demands that a problem arise that only the Magic of Friendship can solve. That is the point, isn’t it?” Pinkie said nothing lay dejectedly on the floor.

“My world is a dreary and depressing place,” Nyx continued. “There is a legend from long ago about a girl named Pandora and her box. You see, Pandora was created as the first woman and all of the gods granted her different traits and characteristics. But most of all, she was given a box and told not to open it. In the end, she opened the box, and all the evils that plague the world, hunger, strife, war, pestilence, plague, famine, you name it, were released.”

“Why would you tell such a depressing story?” Pinkie asked as her mane went completely flat. “If you are trying to make me feel bad, congratulations, you win.” Pinkie half-heartedly threw bits of confetti into the air and sickly kazoo sounded from somewhere.

“Because, my little pony, there was one thing left in the box, and that was hope,” Nyx said. She moved her seat to the side and motioned for Pinkie to join her. Curious, Pinkie rose to her feet and slowly approached the window. What she saw took her breath away. The Earth filled the front window, suspended in space up ahead. From their current view, half of the planet was covered in shadow, the rest brilliantly illuminated by the sun. Wispy clouds covered various landmasses and Pinkie could see where large portions of land had been razed. Bits of metal glinted in the light and Pinkie realized these were the remains of ships, many similar to the one Nyx was piloting. While Pinkie was taking in the view, Nyx gently placed her hand on the pink pony’s head and rubbed between her ears. “There have been many horrible atrocities during and since the Collapse, but humans are a stubborn and resilient species. It’s things like The Dawning that give us hope that maybe someday, things will be better and we won’t have to fight so hard just to survive.”

“Hope,” Pinkie said quietly. “We have that in Equestria too, but sometimes it’s hard to have Hope.”

“I know,” Nyx said. They traveled the rest of the way to the Tower in silence. Before they departed the ship, Pinkie said, “You can be pretty scary sometimes, but I don’t think you are a bad person.” Nyx hesitated for a moment, the continued down the ramp. Pinkie frowned. What was that all about? She cautiously followed Nyx and tried to keep up, but it was so hard. Everything was so foreign and new. She wanted to stop and look at everything, but Pinkie suspected that Nyx wouldn’t like that very much. She put on her best smile and waved to everyone she saw. “Hi! How are you? Happy Dawning!”

Nyx saved the gifts for the Vanguard for last, since they were the most wary of her. Lord Shaxx tolerated Nyx only because she was an unholy terror in the Crucible (but only when she wanted to be). Banshie-44 said little and accepted his gift. The Drifter tried to make small talk, but Nyx had always been suspicious of him and his Gambit game. Once all the other gifts were handed out, Nyx went to see Ikora Rey. The Warlock mentor’s face was on the suspicious side of neutral when she saw Nyx, but accepted her gift with no issue. Commander Zavala was the same. Once the last gift had been given, Nyx and Pinkie found a quiet place to look down at the City. “It’s so big,” Pinkie said in awe.

“There used to be cities bigger than this one once upon a time,” Nyx said.

Pinkie looked up to the enormous white ball that hung over the City. “Is that the Traveler?” she asked and Nyx nodded. “You could say the Traveler is what started all of this in the first place.”

Pinkie hummed quietly to herself and absorbed the sights as much as she could. “I think it’s time for me to go back to Equestria now,” she said.

“Okay. I’ll take you back where I found you,” Nyx said.

Pinkie’s face clouded and she seemed to struggle with some inner turmoil. Finally she said, “I have a request for you.”

Nyx was a bit intrigued. “Okay Pinkie. I admit I’m curious as to what you could possibly want from me.”

“I want you to kill someone for me,” Pinkie said.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

What is this a crossover of?

[commissar craner]

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Destiny 2