Rejuvenation
Twilight ran through her checklist of every shard of the Launch Star again. Every piece was exactly where it had been yesterday—and the day before that, and the day before that. They hadn’t found a new piece in eight days. They were still missing over thirty percent of the launch star’s total mass, most of which was probably drifting in the endless darkness surrounding the place.
She was fairly certain she knew what the darkness was; a subdimension, separate from the physical world of Lumash, but still undoubtedly a part of it. It would require some kind of dimensional pass to escape, and the only one she knew of was the broken star sitting in front of her.
A star that hadn’t given her any new information in over a week.
Shaking her head, she ran through the checklist again. Every piece was in its place, no change. Just the same as the last time. Just the same as the last couple dozen times.
Her lower lip starting to tremble, she glanced at her piles upon piles of theory and work on the study of the Pure Heart and the shards. Everything was in its place. All the notes, all the theories, all the information… information that hadn't changed. Ideas that had gone nowhere.
“N… no…” she said, not believing what she was saying. “No. We’re not trapped. We’re not.” She sat down on her haunches, shaking all over now. “We’re not trapped. We can get out. We…” Tears began to roll down her cheeks onto the notes below her, but she no longer cared. “Data… I… I…”
Data walked over to her and very awkwardly patted her on the back. Twilight let out an amused snot-filled snort—he was trying, at least. Somewhere in that computerized brain of his, he was trying.
“...We’ve been… so terrible to them,” Twilight said.
“We have?”
“No… I’ve been terrible. Locking them out, focusing only on the work, ignoring them… I know I hurt Cosmo today and I have no idea how the rest of them are. Probably not well.” She tossed her head back and looked at the Pure Heart. “We can’t stay in here, Data.”
“I believe we can, but I understand your meaning.” Data stood up. “Should we go out for a walk?”
“Yes… I believe we should. Get out of all… this.”
~~~
Caspian fell to the ground, banging his functional arm on the ground. “Please, Aslan… Please… I cannot go on, I need you. You cannot leave the worlds to die! Remember your servants!”
The darkness was as quiet as it always was.
And yet, Caspian refused to give in. “I know… you’re listening. I know you’re out there. I know you can save us. I…” He ground his teeth. “Why don’t you? Is there something I have overlooked? Is there… something I still need to learn? Aslan, what am I missing? What is wrong with... us?” The moment the word left his mouth, he frowned. “Us…”
“You have been neglecting your friends, Caspian.”
Caspian whirled around, expecting to see Aslan behind him—but there was no one, no one at all. Not even a golden hair.
He smiled anyway—he knew what he’d heard. The smile vanished instantly. That… wasn’t a way to help them escape. It was… a kind admonition. Standing up, he pulled his sword out of the ground and started walking, brow furrowed.
“Whatever else… I will do as you say.” Caspian sheathed his sword and set out to find Vivian. A few moments later he realized he probably wasn’t going to be able to find her since she had a habit of disappearing into the shadows where no one could see her. However, he knew one little factoid: that while she was hidden in the darkness, she could still hear what was happening outside.
“Vivian!” Caspian called. “Vivian! I’ve… I’ve come to apologize!”
There was no response from the leaves and the vines this time. And, unlike when he was shouting at the darkness, he really had no inner assurance that he was being heard. This did not stop him from continuing to shout anyway.
“I have treated you harshly not for who you are, but for what you are. As though I were judging a badger for being a badger or a dwarf being a dwarf. And, perhaps worst of all, when you came to speak to me of Aslan… I pushed you away, as I pushed him away. This behavior is unbecoming of a friend, unbecoming of a man, and I ask—no beg—that you forgive my trespass.”
He plunged his sword into the ground and rested on it with his functional arm, letting out a deep sigh. Either she wasn’t here, or she wasn’t listening… no, he wouldn’t believe it. Aslan… please.
There was a slight warping sound, indicative of Vivian coming out of her shadowy hiding.
“Do you really… consider me a friend?”
Caspian didn’t turn around, but he smiled. “We have put our lives in each other’s hands in the midst of this gauntlet, and our swords are joined to a righteous quest. If we are not friends, I would love to speak to the man who writes definitions and give him a piece of my mind.”
Vivian giggled, floating over in front of Caspian, showing him her adorable little smile. “I thought… you hated me.”
“I found you unsettling, for you practice what… what, in my world, is known to be unholy and blasphemous. It is difficult to look past that. Alarmingly so. Yet… you are still a beautiful flower all the same, Vivian. Perhaps even the darkness has its place.”
“Thank you… I think?” She tilted her head to the side.
“You can thank me for realizing the fault in myself. I am not in my kingdom, you are not my citizen, I have no right to judge even internally.” He bowed slightly to her. “If Aslan takes issue with what you are, that is between you and him, not me.”
“...Would he really have a problem with… me?”
“He loves all, even those who hate him. Come. I shall tell you more of him as we return to the ship—we have other friends who need to know who they are.”
Vivian followed him through the vines of the gauntlet, journeying back to the ship. On the way they found Toph’s wheelchair overturned and Toph herself crawling by her hands along the branch. Wordlessly, Caspian righted the wheelchair and Vivian set Toph gently back in the wheelchair. For once, Toph didn’t let out a biting remark. She just hung her head in shame.
“All is well,” Caspian told her. “We are not right with each other. Let us set it right.”
~~~
Cosmo returned to the ship after a round of the lower gauntlet to a welcome sight: Data and Twilight, out of their mechanical cave, talking to Tippi over a lunch of sandwiches and tea.
“I don’t know what’s going on with my head…” Tippi admitted. “I keep getting flashes of things I never experienced, and then they’re gone.”
“Are you sure you never experienced them?” Data asked.
“Hmm… Perhaps I have.”
Twilight cocked her head. “How can you have memories you don’t know about? Don’t you have perfect recall, like Data?”
“I… may have some files from before my activation when I was sent to find you. I’m still working on it.”
Cosmo walked into their little house, sitting down at the table. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise.”
“Cosmo, I’m so sorry,” Twilight began. “I’ve been so inconsiderate and shut-in on this hopeless project that I hurt you—and probably everyone else. I don’t think I’ve even talked to anyone else for a week. I don’t even know…”
“Things… aren’t great,” Cosmo admitted. “But now that you’re out, you can bring us back together.”
“Catch me up on what’s been going on.”
“Toph’s angry and dejected, Caspian shouts to the void for Aslan to hear him every day, and Vivian swaps back and forth between being angry that we think of her as a monster, burning something, and then thinking she’s a monster.”
“...Where did she get that idea?”
“Something Caspian said a long time ago that he never refuted, and all of us basically… ignoring her. I tried to talk to her a few times but… I’m probably the least fireproof of all of us.”
Twilight blinked. “She… attacked you?”
“No, no, nothing like that! She’d just gotten into the habit of sitting in her own fire. I can’t exactly… get through that, so she always had a place to run away from me.”
“I… really have let my mind wander,” Tippi said. “I’m so sorry, I’ve been so distant.”
“We all have,” Data said. “I had suspected something was wrong with the way we were acting, but I was unsure of how to resolve it.”
“Talking, Data, talking.” Twilight smiled at him. “We’re not all as well-adjusted as the crew on the Enterprise. We haven’t really known each other that long, we’re not all part of the same organization, and we have no protocols to follow.”
“Perhaps we should instate some,” Data suggested.
“Right. From here on out, we don’t ignore each other. We’re friends. And I’m the Princess of Friendship! I need to act like it.”
“A good start,” Cosmo said, folding her hands together.
“Now… to find the others.”
“You won’t have to,” Tippi said, looking out the gaping hole in the side of the ship. “They’re coming up here. All three of them.”
To Cosmo’s surprise and glee, Tippi was right; Caspian and Vivian were walking alongside each other, talking amiably. Vivian was pushing Toph’s wheelchair, which carried the understandably sullen Toph.
Twilight waved to them, inviting them to come to the table.
“I wish to apologize,” Caspian said before Twilight could get a word in edgewise. “I have been rather selfish and focused on what I wanted, not what we needed.”
“I was trying to look at the big picture, completely ignoring all of you,” Twilight said. “A good leader balances both. I really should know better, as the Princess of Friendship. And I especially need to apologize to you, Vivian. I didn’t help you feel like part of the group.”
Vivian nodded. “I… think I was being a little silly. After talking with Caspian on the way over I think I understand sooooo much more, now.”
“Good. We’ll talk more later. For now…” Twilight turned to Toph. “I can’t apologize to you for what you want me to apologize for.”
Toph grimaced. “You think that matters?”
“I did all I could for your legs.” She used her wingtip to lift Toph’s face up. “I… couldn’t stand looking at my failure. I didn’t want to think about it. I just… locked myself away, fixating on the details of what I thought was important instead of focusing on what was really important. You. That’s what I’m sorry for.”
A small smile crawled up Toph’s face. “Twiggy, why do you have to be so insanely nice all the time?”
Twilight let out a soft giggle. “I learned from a group of five other ponies how to be what I am today. I never want to forget those lessons again.” She looked up, meeting the eyes of everyone around her. “Everyone, I’ve let this group fall apart. I’ve ignored all your cries for help and need for friendship. Today, that ends. Even if we’re trapped in the middle of Count Bleck’s dungeon, I will not leave you alone any longer. I promise.” A smile crawled up her face. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
Data cocked his head. “Is the phrase not ‘cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye,’ Twilight?”
Twilight blinked. “That’s… gruesome.”
“It is the equivalent expression.”
“We’re going to have to figure out cultural cross-references sometime.”
“After all this is over?” Toph suggested.
“Yes,” Twilight giggled. “After all this is over, my friends. Come here.” She levitated Toph out of the chair and pulled her into a hug, prompting a massive group hug from everyone. Tippi settled on top of Twilight’s horn while Data had to be dragged into the hug by Vivian.
Tippi let out a cry of shock. “Twilight! You…”
“I feel it…” Twilight said, looking up. There, just above her horn, a soft magenta starburst was levitating, the exact shape of the Element of Magic. She could feel her connection to it, however faint, rippling across existence. More than that… she could feel a connection to the Pure Heart. Carefully, she used her telekinesis to open the doors to Engineering, approaching the Pure Heart with the rest of her team in tow.
The Pure Heart rotated faster and faster the closer they got.
“I feel funny,” Toph said, arms shivering. “What’s going on?”
“I’m such an idiot!” Twilight declared, facehoofing and laughing in unison. “Every single journey for a Pure Heart we’ve had thus far has ended with a connection to love! We started with the love that ended a bloody feud between two cities, then the love of a mother for her distant daughter, then the love of a crew for their captain, and then a devoted love of service and loyalty. We had not encountered the love for this Pure Heart yet. And do you know what that love is?” Her eyes started to glow white.
Data cocked his head. “Would it be what you refer to as the ‘magic of friendship,’ Twilight?”
Twilight let out a laugh of delight. “Yes, Data. That’s exactly it. Our love for each other—even in hard times like this.” She lifted a hoof, and suddenly all six of the others felt the magic surge through them. Everyone’s eyes matched the glow of Twilight’s, with Tippi’s wings shimmering a brilliant white.
Colors came from each of the six around Tippi. Twilight was magenta, Toph was orange, Data was blue, Caspian was red, Cosmo was pink, and Vivian was dark purple. The colors focused on Tippi, enhancing at her and focusing into a white beam that hit the Pure Heart directly.
“Help us,” Twilight asked. It was not a command—but a plea from a long-lost friend.
The indigo Heart listened. Behind it, the shards of the launch star lifted into the air, fusing together into the correct shape. It was still missing much of its mass, but the Heart had a solution for that. It drained the energy Tippi was focusing on it, redirecting it into the cracks between the launch star’s pieces. With a burst of pastel rainbow purity, the launch star was completed, ready to return them to the Comet Observatory when they were ready.
The light in Twilight’s eyes died down. “So, the moment I stop focusing on trying to fix the launch star to help my friends, the launch star gets fixed. Let’s take a moment to review how much of an idiot I am, shall we?”
Cosmo shook her head. “Twilight, you aren’t an idio—”
“Yes she is!” Toph shouted, laughing in the midst of it. “Don’t take this away from me! Princess of Books is calling herself an idiot, I am going to cherish this moment.”
Twilight giggled. “Go ahead! I deserve every bit of it. Every last one.”
“Is anyone going to explain what just happened?” Caspian asked.
“Oh, uh…” Twilight cleared her throat. “In my world, I’m connected to an artifact known as the Element of Magic that is keyed to the power of friendship. Apparently, that connection extends even to other universes, and I was able to activate it in the presence of all of you. Once I… well, tried.”
“Ah,” Caspian said.
“He doesn’t get it,” Toph said.
“Well,” Twilight began, “if we start with an understanding of magic theor—”
“That’s enough, Twilight,” Data said.
They all stared at him in shock. Toph burst out into laughter a second later. “You two are perfect for each other!”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Going to ignore that… Anyway, who wants to go home?”
“...Home?” Cosmo said, cocking her head.
“Flipside, I mean Flipside,” Twilight shook her head, chuckling nervously.
“Let’s go right now!” Toph shouted, slapping her wheelchair. “I want my legs back!”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Cosmo said, grinning wildly.
“Wha—oh. Right.” Twilight levitated the Pure Heart into the air and spread her wings. “Guess we forgot to do this earlier…” Twilight took in a deep breath. “We got a pure HEART!”
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This chapter had me in giggles at the end. The heroes have rallied and the Magic of Friendship shines once more.
Catharsis is a lovely thing
So Data is Laughter? Hmm, interesting.
Oh hey, I'm unusually late to this. Blame my weird sleep schedule and the fact I stayed up late watching Deep Space 9.
Mario's universe is just full of subdimensions, each more weird and wacky than the last. Including at least two dream based ones, kinda weird that happened twice.
Oh hey, Princess of Friendship doing her friendship thing. About damn time.
Aslan, having been watching Caspian blunder around for ages, facepalms and finally gives him a hint on what he's been doing wrong. It feels like Lion Jesus just gave in there and was like "Well, he just isn't gonna solve it on his own, the dunce..."
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain!"
On today's episode, Caspian learns a very special lesson about racism: To just not. (Probably a lesson more, uh, 'followers of Aslan' could benefit learning...)
This feels like a thinly veiled allegory for something...
MoodTwilight, this is not out of character for you...
Fun fact: Many plant species, especially those in Australia, use or even require fire to propagate their seeds. Less fun fact: Cosmo is not one of those plant species.
Pft- Okay, yeah, sure. Well adjusted. Totally. (Eh, to be fair, they're pretty well held together, I've just been watching so much DS9 and Voyager lately so I'm used to crew conflict)
Man, I knew there was a reason I identified with Twilight!
Notably, the Hume (and Earth) expression is widespread, where as the Equestrian one is used almost solely by Pinkie Pie and her friends. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to hypothesize that Pinkie stole it from Earth and changed it to suit her needs. Sounds about right for her.
GM you cheesy bastard. (Though, if the Heart of Friendship is here, then what's in Equestria? Hmmm...)
Wow, that's convenient! I guess the magic of friendship's ability to do whatever is necessary to solve the problem of the week is trans-universal, huh?
To be fair, being extremely smart and being an idiot are not mutually exclusive. I would know!
Once again, the Elements are OP as all hell. I swear, those things are cheating sometimes.
GM, I know you say you hate shipping, but holy crap you're good as hell at it.
(About damn time... oh, uh ahem)
The Sixth Pure Heart, the manifestation of The Magic of FriendshipTM, has been... well, they got it like, a month ago, but they finally found it! And with it, a magical freedom from their isolation! The heroes are back in action... but there's no telling how this delay has taken a toll. The Void grows with each passing minute, as worlds are consumed at differing rates. We can only pray it's not too late for some of them. It's been a while, but it's finally time for...
END OF CHAPTER!
TOPH!
TOPH, WE ARE NOT STARTING ANOTHER SHIPPING WAR!
Oh, of course. Friendship is the answer. How silly of me. Now it’s just a question of how much the heroes missed, both in terms of remaining time and whatever political quagmire everyone’s made while waiting for them.
10957182
Never underestimate the value of a good straight man.
I refuse to believe that was Aslan because that would involve Aslan actually being helpful. That was probably just Caspian having a hallucination.
10957783
Too late