Lost at Home

Lost at Home: A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfic by the *Secondbestscribe*

Chapter Eight: Seeeeeeeen-sational! OW!

Ironically, right next to Caramel the blacksmith, one seamstress unicorn was in shock.

"Wha-wha-wha-whaaaat?" Rarity stammered, her eyes big round discs of pure surprise.

Standing in front of her was a pale-gold earth pony, who was slightly taller than normal and with heavy-lidded amber eyes. Her cobalt mane was similar to Pinkie Pie's, striped with azure. She was clad in a garment that Rarity herself had made, which was completely and skilfully covered in diamonds. The alabaster unicorn was held in awe and apprehension as the famous pop star replied with a wide grin.

"Why, ye-he-hes!" sang Sapphire Shores, the Pony of Pop, putting musical inflections into her voice because old habits die hard. "Five garments, like you did before, Miss Rari-TY! Ow!"

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu..." gabbled Rarity, her red designer's glasses slipping off her nose. Nervously, she pushed the glasses back up and, clearing her throat, repeated, "But... five garments? For each gem?!"

Sapphire waved a hoof around casually. "Oh, Miss Rarity, I'm SURE that you'll be able to accomplish this deee-signer feat, no pa-roblem!"

The Pony of Pop directed her hoof towards the piles of neatly-sorted gems in a corner of the Boutique. "Besides, Miss Rarity, I can cleeeeearly see that you, oh yes YOU - " The pale-gold hoof swung around to face Rarity's muzzle. " - have gathered more than enough gems for - "

"One suit for each gem, Miss Shores!" exclaimed the seamstress, cringing.

Sapphire frowned, but the downward inflection of her mouth was dashed away as she beamed widely and patted Rarity on the head. "We-ell, don't you worry your pretty horned head about it, Miss Rari-TY! I am SURE that YOU - " Rarity was poked in the stomach, not unkindly. " - oh yes YOU, will be able to ee-OW-saly be able to find the resources, amahright?"

"Well," said Rarity, unsure of herself, "there might be just enough gems around for them all, but... oh, but... no, no, never mind!" Suddenly, the unicorn was beaming widely. "Miss Shores, I would be honoured to make the suits for your new tour!"

Sapphire's amber eyes lit up and she whooped, in a voice that belonged to nopony but a pop star, "Seeeeeeeen-sational! OW!"

Twilight sighed, and looked down at the letter Princess Celestia had sent her.

"To my dearest and most faithful student,

Never once in the past have I doubted your skills and your instincts, and your previous letter heralds no difference. Luna and I have, after much assistance from Princess Cadence, scried the entirety of Equestria, and have come up with a particularly fearful result."

Twilight frowned as her eyes fell upon the word "scried", but she soon remembered its meaning. It was a rarely-practiced branch of magic, that loosely translated from its runic name as "seeing across the distance". Basically, it meant that the caster would be able to see something that was happening from somewhere else. It could be channelled in many different ways, from through reflecting surfaces to directly into the caster's mind's eye. Satisfied that she had unpacked this minor mystery, the newest alicorn princess read on.

"It would appear that a rip in the dimensional fabric of space-time has opened up, worryingly close to Ponyville. Although Luna and Cadence are firm in their belief that your magic is more than enough to close the rip, I am still enlisting your sister-in-law to visit Ponyville and assist you in the closing of the rip.

None of us have any idea how the rip opened up, or how we are going to close it; however, Luna has dealt with things like this before, and as such will also be visiting. I myself must remain here in Canterlot, but rest assured that I will be constantly reporting to you on matters once the closing has taken place.

I will not sugar-coat this, Twilight; the closing of the rip will be hard. Very hard. It will be trying and taxing, especially as you must be in close proximity to the rip, and that the rip in question is the source of the magical draining that is going on in Ponyville. Nopony has any idea where the rip opens up into, and so Cadence will be casting a protection spell - her specialty, as you know - around you and Luna as you take part in the closing.

I also request that you and the rest of the Element bearers be present, along with the Elements of Harmony. There is no telling what will possibly come out of the rip, and as such the chance of danger is high.

I know how much I am asking of you, faithful student. I ask you now, princess to princess as it were, to take up the mantle of responsibility Equestria has presented you. I turned you into an alicorn for good reason: you have potential. You, Twilight Sparkle, can close the rip, if anypony.

Yours ever faithfully,

Princess Celestia."

There wasn't enough.

There wasn't enough.

THERE WASN'T ENOUGH?!

The pony watched from her aerial position as the pretty-maned unicorn bowed her head. She thought that she could hear sniffles.

Well, THAT wasn't how it was supposed to go! The pretty one was supposed to find a secret hoard of gems or something, or maybe get the help of those funny dog creatures. She wasn't supposed to... to FAIL!

Almost on cue, it started raining.

The pony snorted to herself. Scheduled weather... who'd ever heard of it? It was much more fun to wait for the weather, to see what the day would bring.

Life had to come with its risks, after all.

Through the thin film of rain, the pony watched as the pretty-maned unicorn's pretty mane turned flat and soaking-wet, plastered to her pretty head as her bottom lip wobbled. The pony sighed, sympathetically. Poor, poor pretty-maned unicorn. Back home, there was TONS of gems.

Emeralds and sapphires and rubies and diamonds and topazes and amethysts every which way you turned. The dwarf-ponies were unwilling to give them up, of course, but if you had enough gold you could normally work out an agreement.

Or, if you weren't that rich, you nicked 'em.

The latter rarely worked, of course, but the pony was a well-known dwarf-friend. She knew that dwarf-friends were considered "pretty much dwarves" by dwarf-ponies, and as such she had free access to all dwarf hoards.

The pony grinned.

No saddy-waddy for you, pretty-maned unicorn...!