Chapter 1- The Pinkish Purple Pegasus
Midnight Nebula frowned and blinked her eyes open as the sun beamed through the small crack between the black curtains that hung at the entrance of her mountain home- a cave once inhabited by a dragon who threatened the ponies of Equestria a few years ago. It was mid afternoon, and by the position of the sun streaming heat into the cavern, Nebula could tell it was after three. She knew it was time to get up, but she wanted to remain in the coolness; it was the heat from the beam of light on her face and the rumbling in her stomach that finally forced her to submit to the day. Stretching the sleep from her hooves, the dark magenta colored pegasus rose from her bed lined with pillows and comforters, stepped over the remnants of last night's dinner- a box with only the crusts of four slices of pizza, and made her way to the curtains to pull them shut so she could prepare for her evening without the luminous interruption.
Deeper in the cave was a spring that formed a shallow pool before flowing out and down a crevace. Nebula made her way back to this pool, glancing at her artwork of various dragons on the upper walls and ceiling, etched in the dark stone that had been miscolored by the smoke that had risen from the previous tennant and illuminated by the various glowing quartz crystals Nebula had collected and arranged about the living space. Here, Nebula entered the cool water and bathed, sipping from the stream that fed the pool. As she scrubbed, she noticed a change on her flank. The cutie mark on it was a collage of astrological bodies- a ringed planet, a nautical star, a moon, and a dying white star- all enveloped in a purple nebula. The nautical star acted as a compass, and the other markings would move around it- a syncronized representation of the closest orbs in the solar system in which this world exists. The white star and the moon were beginning to migrate toward each other, and she knew this would warrant a holiday when the two satellites met at the top point of the compass. Nebula rolled her eyes; celestial events meant certain ponies from all over the region would flock to this mountain in hopes of being closer to what they believe is the union of the god and goddess that allows for new life to be created. Many think that if they are close enough to the event, they will be granted with blessings birthed as a direct result. Midnight Nebula knew the sky; she would look to it as a filly and imagine flying up into the heavens past the clouds and into her own freedom, and because she would track the movements of the heavenly orbs, she was granted a truly unique cutie mark that would evolve with the changes respectively, but she had never seen a so-called blessing as her mark of individuality seemed to have no purpose. "It doesn't show anything anypony else can't see by just looking up at the array of orbs in the night sky", she would often say, and it didn't; the only difference was the nebula- the purple cloud encompassing the ever-revolving images that swirled slowly. "... And I've certainly never seen any blessings come from the sky." If the pegasus wanted any solace of privacy from the inevitable pilgrim onslaught, she would have to relocate until the crowds dispatched toward their respective homes.
Stepping out of the pool, Nebula shook the water from her coat and wearily made her way toward the curtains. Blinking into the light as her sensitive blue eyes took time to adjust, she looked down on the little blur of a town below while she worked her wings in and out to make certain they were fully dried. She shook the daunting thoughts of upcoming events from her mane, trotted to the edge of the ledge just outside her cave and leapt. Wings outstretched in the afternoon sun, Nebula quickly picked up speed in her dive; then, just before reaching the tops of the trees that lined the base of the mountain, she drew up the front of her wings to create a lift, and with front hooves held tight to her chest to reduce lag, she coasted lazily toward Ponyville. The distant town clock chimed at the top of the hour; it was five o'clock by now, but the sound barely met Nebula's ears as the wind whipped past. She flapped her wings gleefully as she soaked in the experience. "This never gets old," she smiled. She glided over a petite cottage with a small chicken coop at the edge of the tree line as she entered the town's limits. A trio of goats grazed on a hill just on the other side of the creek nearby to her right, and up in the far distance to her left, Nebula could see the waterfall city of Canterlot. A train whistle from a steam engine met her ears as the train pulled out of the Ponyville Train Depot toward some unknown train station in a far town. Nebula sang to her heart's delight, then she slowed, quietly humming as she drifted lower, closing in on her destination- a small building at the very edge of the far side of town that appeared to be no more than an unimpressive hut. A sign hung above the door read "Hugz Pizza" and below, a smaller sign indicated "Delivery Only" The front door was locked although the little pizza hut was open. Nebula landed and trotted casually to the back entrance left cracked for ventilation and for her arrival.
Chapter 2- The Green Earth Pony
When she entered the little kitchen and greeted the green earth pony with a pizza slice as his cutie mark with, "Hey you..", she was met with a passing wave acknowledging her. Hugz had been expecting her; she was only pony other than his sister that he allowed in here. This.. this was his masterpiece. An oven with rollers powered by a single red and orange crystal enchanted by an old unicorn spell cast by the previous owner pushed the hoof-tossed works of art through the heat, emitting a tantilizing aroma of oregano and garlic accompanied by melted cheeses. A pizza emerged from the warmth, and Hugz quickly placed it into a box. Nebula spoke quickly with a grin, "Would you like for me to deliver that for you?" She knew that her ability to fly would make for a fast delivery and perhaps a good tip, but Hugz declined with his own grin.
"I'm glad you came by today; I had hoped you would. I've been working on something that I'm pretty sure you will think is cool." Nebula's ears perked. 'What had he been working on and why was this the first time she'd heard about it?', she contemplated as Hugz slipped behind the oven. What he drew out of the corner was not anything she was expecting. He set the metallic filly-sized pony-shaped thing upright and smiled excitedly, "Do you remember that little mechanic's shop that went out of business a while back?" Nebula vaguely recalled the little building owned by a unicorn inventor that had moved down to Ponyville to set up shop. He had some neat contraptions, but his prices were way too high for this small area. He ended up going to Manehattan to sell his ideas to a manufacturer, or so she had heard, and he had left the building empty except for some machinery and a few unfinished projects. Hugz, seeing the recognition in his friend's face, continued, "I found this little guy in a heap as I was looking for some parts to repair my oven if it ever needs it." Hugz had always been good with his hooves and could modify nearly any unicorn mechanism for the use of an earth pony, but this.. "What in the Equestrian woods is that?!", Nebula started to blurt out, but before Nebula could finish asking, Hugz reached up with a hoof tenderly and pressed a button on one of the many copper lines that ran all along the pony-thing she was seeing. After a small whirr, there was movement in the thing's face, and Nebula, having been startled, shook off the moment of shock that had taken her. The eyes of the thing had sprung to life, scanning the kitchen. "Enter your destination," a childish monotone voice stated. Nebula realized then that Hugz had taken the robotic program and added an EPS (Equestrian Positioning System) to it. She had read about these in a futuristic science fiction novel once, but didn't think it was a thing. "Oh, it's a thing!", Hugz said as if reading her thoughts. Hugz then spoke directly into the microphone on the robot's nose. "Far Cry's apartment". The robot immediately responded, "Searching: Fur Dyes Department". With that, Nebula began laughing harder than she had in weeks. Hugz blushed and giggled slightly, sheepishly admitting, "It still has some kinks to be worked out, but I already programmed a name for it." The robot's voice sounded again, "No Location Found. Please try again." Hugz added, "I'm calling him 'Tiny'."
The robot retorted at the sound of the name, "Helping Hooves Ready. Please state your destination." Nebula had a hard time recovering; laughing that hard on an empty stomach made her lightheaded, but it was worth it. Slowly and with anunciating determination, Hugz repeated to the machine, "Far... Cry's... Apartment." With a slight whirring, the robot replied, "Searching: Far Cry's Apartment... Location Found. Would you like to visit this location? Say 'yes' if you would like to follow me. Say 'no' if you would like to begin a new search." Placing the freshly made pizza on the back of the robot, Hugz said "Yes" in a dutiful tone. Two wing-shaped metal flaps rose from the robot's sides, and fans underneath began to spin, lifting the small ponybot thing off the ground. The fans rotated slightly, and soon the robot was gliding slowly out the back door. "Now that's epic!", Nebula said. Hugz then asked her to follow the bot just to ensure it did find its way to deliver the pizza and promised a fresh pie of cheesy goodness would be waiting for her when she returned. Nebula agreed, put the money pouch around her neck, and was soon off following this thing that fascinated her so. She knew the destination; Far Cry- a gray unicorn artist- had been Hugz's longest-standing and most loyal customer. Although a loner to a fault, he did tip well, and Nebula had discovered his love of opera music one night while delivering a pizza, having heard him singing rather excitedly through his cracked window. She thought about this for a few moments, but as she followed the robot inspecting the awesome mechanics at work, she couldn't think about anything else.
Winding through the nearly empty streets on the outskirts of town, Midnight Nebula observed the little mechanical wonder. "How did he manage to do this?", she wondered. As she thought about all of the things that Hugz had to have done to get this working, she failed to notice that they were approaching the apartments and almost ran into the back of the thing when the robot's fans suddenly stopped about 20 feet from it's destination. The monotone voice announced, "Destination reached. Please enter new search or say, 'Return' to go back to the first point of origin." Nebula rolled her eyes in slight frustration; she understood now why Hugz wanted her to go along. Although the robot did take the delivery to the correct location, she still would have to be the one to deliver the food. "Return.", she instructed the machine as she took the pizza. "Hugz, you'll really have to fix that.." she thought out loud as she carried the box to the door. The robot's fan had already started spinning again, and it hovered along as it began to make its way back to the hut.
Nebula knocked and waited as she heard a voice cry out, "Just a minute..."
Chapter 3- The Gray Unicorn
Far Cry opened the door slowly, peeking through the small space alotted by the chain lock on his door. Immediately recognizing the pegasus, he shut the door with an, "Oh!" and slid back the lock to allow the door to be opened adequately for Nebula to complete her mission. "Come on in; I'll just be a moment getting the money," Far Cry stated as he turned to gather up a pouch sitting on the desk near the window through which Nebula had once heard him belting something about an angel of music. As she took in the scene, she glanced over the unicorn with a gray coat similar to the color of an overcast sky, she couldn't help but notice the strange blue design on his flank. "Hey! When did you get that?", Nebula asked as she stepped inside, curiosity overtaking her attentions once again. "Heh?", Far Cry questioned. "Oh!", he grinned in realization as Nebula placed the pizza in the desk chair next to the door and pointed a hoof toward his flank. "That was...(erm)... last week." Nebula looked quizzingly then asked the one question that she couldn't ignore, "Wh.. what is it? I mean I know it's a silhouette, but of what?!" "Eh... this.", Far Cry answered as he indicated toward his latest completed sculpture with the only big grin she'd ever seen on his face. She liked his smile and thought it was very attractive, but stuck to the conversation, "And that is...?" "Not sure.", Far Cry shrugged, answering honestly regarding the fanged short- muzzled bust he had created, "I saw it in a dream."
"Okeedokee.." Nebula shrugged as she thought to herself, 'What kind of dreams is he having?' but to her credit, she wasn't thinking out loud this time.
"You like it?!" Far Cry questioned, looking at Nebula with excited blue eyes that had been exhausted and blood shot from strain and lack of sleep. "Yeah... it's neat.", she liked the sculpting work but in her confusion, she added, "for whatever it is."
As Far Cry counted out bits, Nebula noticed a shiny piece of yellow and pink glittering in stark contrast to the unicorn's dark brown mane. "Uh... Far Cry?", she said sheepishly, feeling bad for interrupting his counting, "You have a.. thing in your hair." "Oh?", Far Cry said as he brushed the confetti from his hair. "Yeah... thanks.", he chuckled lightly. "A friend of mine insisted on throwing me a party since I finally got my cutie mark. I thought I'd gotten it all up, but apparently I missed a piece." Nebula was a bit surprised at the notion of Far Cry having a party not to mention one with confetti. For the past 3 years since she had taken up residence in the nearby cavern, she'd gotten back in touch with her friend Hugz and had inadvertently met Far Cry in the process. She found the unicorn quite intriguing; he had been the only adult unicorn of which she had ever heard- let alone seen- without a cutie mark, and she had attributed this matter-of-factly to his lifestyle: an isolated existence that made hers seem like that of a socialite. She had never known him to have company and had never even seen him outside his apartment when she glided into town for some cider or a quick bite to eat when she didn't feel like grazing on the few vegetables she would find at the small market on the other side of town closer to her home. This chain of thought reminded Nebula that she hadn't yet eaten, and she snapped back to the situation at hoof just in time to accept the payment of 17 bits and a gratituity of another 8 bits. Nebula let out a "Squee!" with her delight at the tip- a 5 bit increase from her last visit as she placed the bits in her pouch. Gleaming at her small wealth, she gleefully thanked Far Cry and offered a quick congratulations for his new cutie mark as she took her leave to head back to the pizza hut. Far Cry gave a slight smile and shut the door behind her. Midnight Nebula could hear the lock sliding back into place as she took to the air.
