"...and then she said: Where's the Princess of Military Air Supremacy?" Cadence burst out laughing.
Tempest groaned, resting her head on the table. "How many times is she going to tell that story?" she whined, looking at her left to Twilight.
"Oh, come on, it's funny," the alicorn replied, suppressing a giggle.
"It was. The first fifty seven times we heard it." Tempest reclined back in her chair, closing her eyes as she looked up to the ceiling.
"I still think it's a good story." Radiant Hope took another bite out of her meal. "You really shouldn't be so grumpy all the time, Fizzy."
Tempest's eyes snapped open, and she threw a piercing stare at the unicorn sitting in front of her. "Only Dropsy gets to call me that. How many times do I need to remind you?"
"Sorry," Radiant said, rubbing the back of her neck and sheepishly grinning, "I promise I won't do that again."
"I've honestly lost count of how many times you've said that." Tempest began to absent-mindedly fiddle with her half-empty glass.
"It really is a shame that she couldn't make it," Cadence said, eating the last remains of food on her plate.
Tempest sighed, thinking back to the green unicorn.
"How are the guys doing?" Twilight asked, getting up from the table as she finished her dinner.
Cadence got up as well, and walked to a closed door leading into the nearby room. She placed an ear to the door, a habit gained after she'd once accidentally opened it as her husband was singing the end of the third verse of Crazy, Mad, Insane, and listened to the sounds coming from the other side. "Still singing," she declared, detaching her ear from the door and walking back to the table, "I think they've gotten to Dawn of Victory, around the third track. It sounds like Sunburst is giving a great performance."
"Oh, I wanna hear what Sombra does with track five," Radiant said, leaving the table and joining the others in the other room.
Cadence threw a look at the fireplace. "Seems like we're running out of wood. It's your turn, right?" she asked, looking at the two remaining ponies.
"It is." Twilight began to head for the corridor. "Tempest? Are you coming?" She stopped and turned around.
The unicorn lazily got up from her chair. "Sure," she said, walking up to the purple alicorn.
"This really isn't like you. You used to be excited about doing things. I thought you liked to throw yourself into adventure and to help around, at least from what I heard about your journey through Equestria." Twilight walked out of the room and into the corridor.
"Oh, sure. Forgive me for not buzzing with excitement at the marvellous prospect of a task as great and dangerous as that of fetching more wood." Tempest caught up to the alicorn and stopped at her side, looking around. "So where do you think it is this time?"
Twilight thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "I don't know, really. Left, I think?"
Tempest took a few steps forward and stared at the corridor ahead of them. "Twilight, I really don't want to be that pony, but..."
"Yeah, I guess that might be a legitimate question in this situation."
"So... Which way do you think the left is?"
Twilight craned her neck to the side, trying to follow the spiralling structure of the path in front of them. "There, I think," she said, pointing a hoof to an opening where once had been the floor, the tip of her horn almost touching the ground as she still tried to get a clearer vision of the path they were about to walk.
"Are you sure that's not the up?"
Twilight grunted, straightening her back. "No, I'm not. But it's not my fault if this things keeps shifting around."
"I know, I know. It's just... It feels pointless to go in there and search for things without any plan for how to find them." The unicorn looked at the ground.
"I get it. Really." The alicorn walked up to her friend. "But we should try to take what we can get. Really, we should be thankful that there is a corridor this time. Remember last time?"
Tempest rubbed the front of her right hoof with the back of the left one, recalling how she'd almost fallen down after not having checked if there was something to walk on outside of the room.
"So, are we going? Or do you have a better idea?" Twilight asked, staring at Tempest.
"We could go back in and let the fire go out."
"I asked for a better idea."
Tempest rolled her eyes, groaning, and the two of them began to walk up the corridor. "So," Tempest asked as they proceeded, sidestepping to avoid falling into a window on the wall she was walking on, "any idea of what happened?"
"Not really." came Twilight's voice from above her, the alicorn flying upside-down over what used to be a bedroom, now looking more like a cubist rendition of itself. "I still haven't made any progress with the research, and no one has contacted us from outside."
Tempest kicked a small chunk of rock out of a window as she walked past it. "It's weird that the End of the World had to come on Hearth's Warming."
Twilight pushed herself upwards and turned back, landing in front of the unicorn. "Tempest. This isn't the End of the World."
Tempest looked out of the window behind her. "I don't know, Twilight. It doesn't look like there's that much World left out there."
"Tempest, there's-"
"There's just a lot of nothing. And some more nothing. And occasionally drifting banks of nothingness. And if you look really far, you might be able to spot more nothing behind the nothing that's closer to us."
"Come on, that's not really..."
Tempest somewhat blankly stared at Twilight.
The alicorn walked up to the window and looked down. "...Yeah, I guess there really is a lot nothing out there right now. But that's no reason to be like this," she said, looking back at Tempest with a smile. "We still have something here."
"I'm sorry. You know I get bored with nothing else to do other than being stuck here. Every day it's just eating and talking and maybe sometime singing, and the most exciting thing that happens is that occasionally I get to walk through a corridor." The unicorn sat down. "How much time has this been going on for?" she asked, looking up at Twilight.
"Only one day, technically speaking."
Tempest huffed, closing her eyes. "You know that's not what I meant. How many Hearth's Warmings have we gone through at this point? I know you've been keeping count."
Twilight looked to a side, ruffling her wings. "I'm not sure you want to know."
"Because it hasn't been as many as I think, and things just feel slower, or because we've been here for too long to still hope things are going to change?"
Twilight just looked to the side, without answering.
Tempest rolled her eyes. "Fine. Let's go get that wood," she said as she got up and started to walk along the corridor again.
Twilight silently walked behind her. "Anything you want to talk about?" she asked after a while, as Tempest stopped to decide in which direction they should have continued.
"Not really," the unicorn replied, choosing the path to her right.
Twilight had to momentarily accelerate to catch up with her, having stopped while she waited and having expected an answer. "Are you sure? Maybe we could talk about your impressions of the others. Like Sombra, I noticed-"
"He looked at me with a weird expression which was probably due to how at one point before he was reformed he lived as only a horn because of the way you defeated him by activating the Crystal Heart as he was inside the city after Spike carried it for you which is why Spike is seen as a hero in the Crystal Empire?" Tempest stopped and looked back at Twilight.
The alicorn stopped as well. "Oh. You've... heard that story already." She gave an awkward smile.
"A lot. I heard it from Dropsy when I asked her about the history of the Empire. Then I heard it from Cadence, then I heard it from Shining, then I heard it from Sunburst and then I heard it from Radiant. Sombra seems to be the only one who doesn't feel the need to tell the unicorn without a horn that there was a horn without a unicorn at one point."
Twilight stretched her smile a little wider. "Sorry."
Tempest turned and returned to walking. "I think I'll go with him."
"What?" Twilight looked up to the pony in front of her, startled out of her momentary distraction.
"After this is over. If this is over. I was thinking of joining him and Radiant for a while as they look for the last pieces of Amore. I like it here, helping Dropsy with the border patrols, but sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm doing enough. I've talked with him a bit, and he feels a lot like I do. Trying to do something to fix his mistakes. Plus I'd finally get some more action."
Twilight sped up a little and walked to Tempest's side. "Well, then I better find a way to get us out of here quickly." She smiled, looking at the unicorn.
"You do." Tempest smiled, too, still staring ahead. Then she stopped and her expression dropped.
"Tempest?" Twilight circled her friend. "Is everything alright?"
"I found the wood."
Twilight followed the direction of Tempest's stare. "Oh. That might be a problem."
The two walked up to the door, looking at the neatly stacked pile of wood behind it. And at the vast emptiness behind the broken edges of the platform it was resting on, what looked like the pavement of a ballroom that had replaced what should have been a balcony.
"It's..."
"It's outside, yes."
"It's never been outside before, right?"
"Not as far as I know."
"Hmm."
"You go."
"What?" Twilight stepped backwards, turning to Tempest. "Why me? And we can't go out there like this, we don't know what would happen and we've never been outside and for all we know there might not even be gravity out there or breathable air and-"
"And we don't have a better idea. Blame your sister in law for picking enchanted wood that bursts into flames when you try to move it with magic because doing it by hoof is more faithful to the tradition, but unless you want to give up one of us has to go out there and get that." Tempest pointed at the pile with a hoof.
Twilight sat, trying to calm down. "You're right. We have to."
"So you'll go."
Twilight jerked back once again. "Why me? I thought you were the brave one!"
"I thought you were the one who could teleport herself back to safety if she started falling towards the sky."
"Oh." Twilight swallowed. "I guess you have a point." The alicorn began to walk towards the door. "If something bad happens, t-"
"Tell everyone that you love them? Do you ponies really need to tell that to each other? Do you really think anyone could have even the slightest doubt about a thing like that at this point?"
Twilight looked back with a flat expression. "Tempest, try to imagine how bad you'll have made things look if something does happen."
"Oh, so it's about looking cool in case things go wrong. Statistically speaking that seems like a poor choice, from what I've heard most of the time you come out of these things unharmed."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she sighed, turning back to face the door. She walked out and promptly fell upwards with a scream.
"Twilight!" Tempest cried out, rushing behind her through the door. As soon as she exited the castle she was greeted with the sound of laughter coming from behind her, and she turned to see Twilight resting on top of a stone bust jutting out of the wall above the exit. "Twilight!" she cried out again in a much different tone.
The alicorn kept on laughing, unable to respond. She was shortly thereafter silenced by an electrical bolt of magic from the unicorn which caused her to fall back to the ground. "Ouch," she said, getting up.
"That wasn't funny! Don't scare me like that again." Tempest helped Twilight get up with a hoof.
"So you do care about me, huh? Didn't think you'd care that much though. I mean, what were you thinking exactly? I'm the one with a pair of wings and a cutie mark in magic, it wasn't rational of you to risk like that."
Tempest looked back over her own shoulder. "I didn't do it for you. I'd just take falling into the void over hypothermia. And you know I never think that much about things before I do them."
"Yeah, yeah. Next time don't rush in like that though, I wouldn't want you to get-Tempest? Tempest, are you listening to me?" Twilight tapped the unicorn's front hooves.
"Sorry, Twilight, I just..." Tempest kept looking behind her. "Are those... stars?"
Twilight moved her head to look at what was behind the other. "I... I think they are."
The two began to walk towards the broken edge of the platform, looking up at the sky.
"It's weird," Twilight commented, "that means there's something else out there. I wonder why we couldn't see it before." She reached the edge and sat down, still looking up. "This could mean we are actually in space and the world was simply fractured, though I don't know if that would be good or not. And it still wouldn't explain anything of what's happening."
Tempest reached her and sat at her side. She looked at the stars for a while, both of them remaining silent, then she sighed and looked down. "Uh, Twilight?" Her expression shifted to one of mild concern and she nudged the alicorn in the side. "What is that?" she asked, pointing down with a hoof.
Twilight looked where the unicorn was pointing. "That's... a whale..."
"A what?"
"A whale. They are large mammals that live in the sea," Twilight explained, "I've never seen one before but I've read about them."
"And what's it doing in the literal middle of nowhere, floating through space?"
"I wouldn't call this the middle of nowhere, we don't have any point of reference to say that we're in the middle and-Wait!" Twilight looked back at the whale, then back at Tempest, smiling. "Do you know what this means?"
Tempest stared back at Twilight, confused. She gave one more look at the whale, trying to figure out what was going through her friend's brain, then returned to focusing on Twilight, a puzzled expression on her face. "It means that there's a whale floating through space?" she tried, unsure of what more there was to see.
"No-Well, technically yes, that too-But no!" Twilight excitedly got up and began to pace back and forth. "It means there's something else out there beside us! The others are probably somewhere, and maybe we could find them! This is great news, Tempest!"
"So... where are they?" Tempest asked.
Twilight stopped. "I have no idea yet. But this means they're still out there, and I'm going to find them!" She began to head back inside, still excited by her discovery.
"Twilight?"
The alicorn stopped once more. "Yes?"
"The wood."
"Oh. Yeah."
"We've got it!" Twilight announced as she entered back into the dining room, "And we've also got some news!"
Before the purple princess was allowed to continue, the door separating the room from the adjacent one burst open and a broken karaoke machine flew out, smashing on the ground.
"Oh, so we came back just in time for that part of the day," Tempest commented, putting down the logs she was carrying.
"Yep," Cadence replied, looking at the door. "It should begin about now. One, two, three..."
Out of the door came Shining Armor, his face pale and his eyes wide. "It broke," the stallion mumbled out. "What are we going to do now?" Shining began to walk in circles inside the room. "It broke! It broke!"
Radiant sat beside Cadence. "And four, five, six..."
Sunburst rushed out of the door, running up to Shining. "Shining, calm down, please! It's not the end of the world, it's just a karaoke machine!" The orange unicorn tried to grab on to the other.
"Seven, eight, nine..." Sombra looked at the two unicorns.
"Not the end of the world? Not the end of the world?" Shining dodged to a side, avoiding Sunburst's attempt at catching him. "We're lost in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do, and now the karaoke machine broke! What are we supposed to do, huh? What will we do now?" Shining began to look frantically look around. "I can't take this any more! I can't!"
"Ten," each one of the five onlookers said, more to themselves than to someone else.
Shining spotted the nearest window and jumped out of it. After a few seconds his body was brought back into the room, enveloped in a light yellow magical aura, and safely deposited at Flurry Heart's side by the small alicorn. Shining looked at his daughter for a few seconds. "Oh. Sorry everyone."
"One of these Hearth's Warmings I'm going to hide her in the other room, I want to see if he still jumps," Tempest whispered to Twilight.
"Well, goodnight I guess. Hopefully you'll be able to figure out what happened now that you have some more information." Cadence opened the door to her bedroom and walked inside. "See you girls next Hearth's Warming," she said, closing the door behind her.
Tempest sighed. "It wasn't funny the first time, nor any of the times after it. I wonder when she'll stop."
"Don't be so hard on her." Twilight walked up to the entrance to her own room. "Goodnight Tempest."
"Goodnight Twilight."
"Tempest? Open up your eyes, it's Hearth's Warming today. Your present is waiting for you."
Tempest rolled around in her bed to face Twilight, pretending to wake up. She had already been awake for a couple of hours, so used to waking up at dawn that she did it even if there wasn't a dawn any longer. "Hello, Twilight. Thank you for giving me a copy of Daring Do and the Isle of Forbidden Wonders." The unicorn placed the suspiciously book-shaped present that the alicorn was passing to her on the bed without even unwrapping it.
"Come on, you could at least pretend you don't know what's in there!" Twilight smiled.
Tempest smiled back and the two walked together out of the room and down the stairs.
"...and then I said: Princess of Explosions may be the perfect title for my daughter." Cadence burst out laughing.
"She's never going to stop telling that story, is she?" Tempest said to Twilight.
"Oh, Tempest, Twilight! Good morning." Cadence got up from the table and went to grab two new plates. "Happy Hearth's Warming," she added.
"Good morning," both Twilight and Tempest replied, sitting down, "and happy Hearth's Warming."
"Good morning, Shining. Happy Hearth's Warming," Radiant greeted the stallion as he came into the room.
"Good morning. Happy Hearth's Warming, everypony." Shining sat down at the table.
"Happy Hearth's warming, dear." Cadence served Twilight and Tempest their breakfast. "This is for you," she said, levitating a present towards her husband.
Shining grabbed the package in his own magic and quickly began to unwrap it. "A karaoke machine? Oh, thank you!" He threw his hooves around Cadence and hugged her.
"So..." Tempest leaned to he side to whisper into Sombra's ear. "Does he know the presents get reset every night like the rest of the castle, or does he think she's getting him a new one every time?"
Sombra quietly chuckled, still munching on his breakfast.
"I don't know, why don't you ask him?" Discord whispered to Tempest's ear.
Tempest turned around and almost jumped out of her chair.
"Discord? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked.
The draconequus moved to be behind Twilight. "Is this any way to treat a friend? No no no, Twilight, what you're supposed to say is happy Hearth's Warming, Discord," he said, grabbing Twilight's face to open and close her mouth, simulating her speech as he copied her voice.
"Thank you, Twilight," Discord replied from behind Tempest.
The unicorn looked back and forth between the two, confused. "Twilight, what's happening? Who's this?"
"Discord. You've probably heard about him from Glitter Drops, thought you didn't meet him back when you attacked Equestria. He's-" Twilight stopped, suddenly struck by a thought. "Wait a minute, what were you doing when she attacked Equestria? And what are you doing here, for that matter?"
"I'm here to deliver a message, though I guess I can leave if I'm not wanted." He grabbed Sunburst's plate and began to eat it.
The purple alicorn looked around, only now noticing that everypony other than her and Tempest was seemingly frozen in time. "What kind of message? Who sends it?"
"Celestia." Discord took another bite out of the dish. "And Luna, technically. They're still inside what's left of their castle, like you here. She says she's working on a way to bridge the gaps between the bubbles of reality still remaining." The remains of the plate were deposited back on the table. "Well, I really need to go. I'll tell them you're all alright." With a snap of his talons and a flash of light he teleported away.
"You really shouldn't make fun of him like that," Radiant said to Tempest.
Sunburst kept eating, unaware of how a large portion of his plate was now absent, the food above it floating in mid air.
Tempest closed the door behind her. "So, have you figured out what happened yet?"
Twilight looked up from her notebook. "No."
