Her brain merging with the constellations, Ocellus finally found the momentum needed to focus on her astronomy homework. All the bickering and jabbering around the cafeteria meant nothing; all that mattered were these last few pages. Not an utterance could break her concentration. Not the squeal of a dying whale could rip into her ears. Not the loudest tangent of a bird and his yak friend could —
“I’m just saying, it would have been much easier for both of us if you let me establish a supply line in Yakyakistan. Then maybe the Yaks wouldn’t have thought to snort it because I could have shown them how to make the hot cocoa instead!”
“Yona still not trust griffon. Yona think Gallus all talk.”
Gallus puffed out his chest plumage and scowled. “All talk!” He leaned over the table, jabbing a thumb into his breast. “I come from the land of more than talk: I come from Griffonstone! You think convincing some vulture to spare two bits is what kept me from starving? No way!”
“Yona begs differ!”
“Gallus begs not differ!”
“Either take your argument elsewhere or keep it down,” Ocellus blurted, hovering a ruler in her magic and slapping it against the hump of Yona’s back. The yak flinched from twelve inches of pain. “I’m trying to study.”
Gallus huffed in defeat, brushing his crest feathers back. “Whatever, we’ve been arguing about this all week. This year’s Hearth’s Warming was weird.”
“Aww, did griffon not get enough sales?” Yona mocked.
Gallus pointed a finger. “Watch it.”
“Guys!” Silverstream shot by in the air. The wind that followed picked up some the constellation papers, scattering them.
“Hey!” Ocellus shouted.
“Hey yourself!” Silverstream waved from midair. She circled around the table for a second and landed next to Gallus, who nervously began to fiddle with a spoon over this afternoon’s chowder. Holding her talons out, she presented a package. “Check out what finally came in the mail!”
“A box? So what? Yona get those all the time. Good for smashing!”
“No, no, it’s what’s inside the box!”
Yona’s face brightened. “Ooooh! Another box! That’s good. Good for extra smashing!”
“I certainly hope it’s a paperweight,” Ocellus added as she picked up the star-scattered constellation sheets.
Silverstream ran a claw through the tape and lifted the flaps. Reaching inside, she took out another box. This one was much smaller, almost looking as if it could hold something in it. Like a paperweight. Or a box.
“Why box so small?” Yona asked. “How yak supposed to get extra smash from that?”
“It’s what’s inside the box that makes it so small!” Silverstream exclaimed. She set it down on the table and ran another claw through the tape again. Reaching inside, she took out a crystal orb caked with styrofoam.
Gallus cocked a brow and folded his arms. “It’s a crystal ball. So what?”
“It’s not just a crystal ball, it’s a Bubble!”
Everyone froze. Gallus’s eyes narrowed and Yona’s brows raised more than usual. Ocellus remained fixated on her astronomy sheet. “What’s a Bubble?” Gallus was the first to inquire.
Silverstream gasped. “You mean — really? They’ve been advertising these things everywhere lately!”
Gallus slapped a stupid hand to his head. “I think I’ve heard about it! I saw an ad for it in a comic I was reading the other day.”
Ocellus looked up from her homework and between the two of them quizzically. “I’m confused. Why is this ‘Bubble’ such a big deal?”
“I dunno,” Silverstream said, juggling it in one talon. “I just thought it looked shiny.”
“You bought it because it looked shiny?”
“Yep!”
“Don’t you think you wasted your money?”
“Nope! Pretty-pretty, shiny-shiny!”
“It’s supposed to be magic.” Gallus interjected. “At least, that’s one of the words I remember from the ad.”
“They used big words!”
“They did.”
Ocellus tickled the quill against her chin. “Magic… huh...”
Silverstream hovered down toward the changeling, blowing more of her homework out of reach. “Ooh, are we deep in thought? I love being deep in thought! Do you think our existence in this universe matters if we live within a vast quantity of universes, or do you think that once we reach the end of space all we will perceive is a black abyss of nonexistence?”
“Silver, eat this cookie.” Gallus took a cookie out of a crinkled up aluminum wrapper from his saddlebag and handed it to her.
“Yay! Chocolate chip!” Dropping the orb, Silverstream fruitfully swept the cookie out of his talons and into her own, purring like a kitten.
Ocellus gave up trying to do her homework. Papers kept getting blown away and shoveling them all into one pile again and again was getting more tiring than trying to count the stars in the Faust Constellation. She was shoving all her papers in her saddlebag when a gleam caught her eye.
The orb gave off a trance. It could be because she liked how her face reflected against its surface or that it had a magical appeal, but it still seemed… worthless to her. There was nothing unique about this miscellaneous object. It was just another toy from the back of a cereal box — well, probably several cereal boxes considering how expensive it looked. Absolutely nothing about it was interesting, yet absolutely everything about it was interesting.
“Hey, Silverstream,” she spoke. Silverstream licked the crumbs off her beak, and looked over to her changeling friend.
“Yeah?”
“Can I take a look at this?”
Silverstream landed on the table, brows raised. “Uh… sure? What do you want to do with it?”
Ocellus stared back down at her reflection. “I want to see what it does, I guess.”
Silverstream shrugged. “Eh, sure. We’ll look at it together in the dorms after class.”
·•·
Constellations swarmed in her vision as Ocellus stared down at the Bubble. A narrow-headed version of herself amidst a black, starry background stared back as she stood in the warmth of golden rays falling through the window. For a moment, she was too enraptured by the orb’s trance to see a talon swipe it out of her hooves.
“Maybe it’s a fortune-telling ball?” Silverstream suggested, picking it up in her claws and rolling it over in a single talon. Ocellus gave it a forelorning look but dropped it quickly.
“Actually,” she said matter-of-factly, “Even if predicting the future were possible, fortune telling balls are more see-through. You can perfectly make out your reflection on the orb’s surface.”
“Well, then I’m at a loss here!”
She slammed the orb back into its box in frustration, styrofoam peanuts cascading through the air.
“Did you read the instructions?”
Silverstream scratched a finger against her beak. “Huh, I don’t think I have.”
“See if there are some in the box!”
She dug a hand through the styrofoam peanuts, past the orb. Finally, she pulled out a sheet of paper.
“Congratulations!” she read. “You have ordered your first bona-fide Bubble! This magic orb is not only priceless, but inexpensive! (for Bubble Co.™ refund policy, see pg. 3) The crystal ball set before you was designed by the finest magic researchers to hold all the finest magical necessities. The Bubble is the new revolutionary embarkment on technology designed to aid ponies, griffons, and anycreature alike in their daily household needs! Have a question for the Bubble? Simply connect your thoughts to the orb by touching it to your head, and ask it anything!”
Flipping the page to the back, she read more.
“Bubble Co.™ is not liable to any death or injuries and any resulting lawsuits may be settled via mortal combat within a 30 day period. Not eligible for refund. (See pg. 4 ‘The previous page holds no relevance nor is existent.’)”
Silverstream reached back inside the box and pulled out the orb. She ran her claws along its surface, feeling the smoothness in her grasp. That goofy warped reflection of herself smiled back. “So I just touch this to my head and it will answer any question I have?”
“I’m not sure about this, Silverstream. There’s a reason magic items haven’t seen mass production in years.”
“Psh! You worry too much.” She wrapped her fingers around its slick surface and brought it to her head.
“Wait!” Ocellus cried, but it was too late.
The response wasn’t what either of them were anticipating. Upon touching it to her temple, the orb sparked into a bright light, almost like that of a star's.
“Eep!” She dropped the orb and watched it roll across the floor. It stopped when it banged against the wall, flickering a few times like an indecisive light bulb until its sunlit glow died down to a golden hue.
“Hello!” The two jolted back in surprise. “I’m your Bubble!”It flickered when it spoke, and it did so in a warm and syrupy female voice. “You must be Silverstream!”
Silverstream looked befuddled. “How… how do you know my name?”
“It’s what I was created to do! When you brought me to your head, my magic interface instantly became connected with your thoughts. It’s how my creators can ensure you have the best personalized experience. Ask me anything about yourself and I can answer it.”
Silverstream tapped her beak. “Where and when was I born?”
The orb brightened again. “Silverstream, you were born on Mountain Aris, Wednesday, July 1st, at 4:57 AM.”
Ocellus’s eyes widened. “Whoa.”
“How did you know that!”
“I’m personalized to know you, Silverstream. I can do many things, such as give you the time of day. However, I’m mostly designed to connect you socially to other users worldwide.”
Ocellus looked at the orb with her mouth agape. “You can do that?” The orb said nothing. Ocellus looked over to Silverstream for an answer, who just shrugged “Bubble?” Still nothing.
The quiet seemed to bother Silverstream, which became evident when her feet began to do a little dance and she squawked, “Hey, Bubble!”
The orb grew brightly again. “Yes?” it said in its modulated voice.
“Why didn’t you answer Ocellus?”
“For another creature to join, it needs to be connected with me.”
Ocellus walked over to the orb, sat on her haunches and picked it up in both hooves. Her contorted reflection stared back.
Lifting it up, she touched it to the area just below her horn. A cold chill ran down her spine for a moment and dissipated. She felt none the better after she pulled the orb away from her head, and somehow that made her feel terrible. She was really hoping beyond that strange reflection that she’d feel something interesting. Yet there was nothing.
But the orb still glowed its bright light. “Hello, Ocellus,” it said.
“Hi, Bubble,” she replied, not knowing what to say or do.
“I appreciate your greeting!”
“Thanks. I appreciate your... appreciation. So, uh, how can you connect us with anycreature?”
The orb flickered again. “By fully attaching your brain to my magical interface, I can connect you with anyone worldwide who also uses a Bubble. Do you want to try it?”
“Uh… sure.”
“Okay! Just say, ‘Bubble, connect me to the Hub.’”
“Okay, uhh… Bubble, connect me to the Hub.”
“Connecting OCELLUS to the Hub Network.”
The orb glowed brightly all of the sudden, filling the room with its shine. Before Ocellus could even drop it, a beam struck her in the head.
Her body went numb and all thoughts became fuzzy as the orb rolled out of her hooves. She dropped to the ground almost at the same time as it did. She had barely heard Silverstream’s screams before everything went black.
·•·
Ocellus jolted up, breathing in-and-out, in-and-out. A beam just shot through my head. A beam just shot through my head and I’m still alive! What the heck is going on here?
Something about the environment looked off. It wasn’t that anything had shifted, but that the colors themselves had shifted. Where golden rays once fell through the window, it was now replaced with veils of purple. Infact, everywhere around her was cloaked in a violet shade.
“Silverstream!” she called.
No one answered.
“Silver, are you there?”
Nothing.
Realizing she was all alone, she searched the carpet for the orb. The glass sphere didn’t appear anywhere she could see. Even the space beneath the bed lacked its usual clutter. Come to think of it…
“Hey, where is all our stuff?” She looked around, and saw that indeed it was all gone, aside from a few pieces of furniture.
“Some personal items don’t appear inside the Hub for safety purposes,” said a voice. It sounded like...
“Bubble?”
“Yes?”
Ocellus blinked. Looking toward the ceiling (Maybe that’s where the voice was coming from, who knows?), she blurted, “Where are you?”
“I am everywhere. You are inside my Hub Network.”
“Um… how?”
“When you brought my orb to your head, you instantaneously connected your brain to the Hub Network. This form of data collecting allows me to connect to your brain per your command and submerge you into a magically generated world. Everything you see right now is a magically generated version of where you’re at right now.”
“Wait, so I’m dreaming?”
“Not dreaming, just connected to an artificial reality.”
“So, if this is what my dorm room looks like inside the Hub, then what does the outside look like?”
“Why don’t you take a look?”
Ocellus’s eyes shifted to the window, watching the purple rays filter through. Walking up to it, her vision was immediately obscured from the brightness of Celestia’s — no. Whatever was in the sky, it was not a sun, but rather two suns, like the eyes of something higher than a god looking down on her.
A purple dome covered the sky, but outside it she could make out spheres of what could only be recognized as larger Bubbles. Ponyville, meanwhile, looked how it always did from the window. With the exception of numerous creatures choking the streets.
The sky suddenly swirled away and became white. After a few seconds, a large bottle of what appeared to be alcohol appeared. A line of text appeared next to it:
Tired of not being able to focus on your work? Well, try Flim and Flam’s new focusing tonic!
After a few more seconds, the sky swirled back to its “natural” look.
“I don’t remember Ponyville being this busy.” Ocellus said. Some intuition that wasn’t hers told her what just happened was natural.
“Everyone you see now are not their physical selves, but, in fact, inside the Bubble’s Hub.”
“So everyone down there is also connected to a Bubble?”
“Yes. Upon connecting your brain, your thoughts are instantly transmitted to a place called the ‘Hub’. This is where any creature from all over can come together and greet! Would you like to meet them?”
“Well, yeah, sure, but —”
She was cut off by a bright flash and a hippogriff barreling toward her. “Eep!” Ocellus squeaked, shapeshifting into a parasprite so she could maneuver out of the way of oncoming creatures. Griffons, hippogriffs, giraffes, parrots, kirins, dragons, yaks, changelings, and many things alike cluttered the roadways, filtering in and out of buildings and clipping through each other — wait.
“What just happened?” she said in a squeaky voice, hoping to be heard through the loud rambles of the crowd. “How did I teleport here? Why is everyone walking through each other?”
“My creators designed the Hub Network for easy navigability. For quick travel, access your Hub’s map through your profile and select the coordinates you want to teleport to. To avoid overcrowding, you have the option to enable ‘clipping,’ which allows you to walk through other users on the interface.”
“My profile?”
“To access your profile, say, ‘Access Profile.’”
Ocellus hovered over the crowd for a second, still in parasprite form. “Uh, access Profile.”
A large rectangle resembling a see-through panel of some sort appeared before her. On it, was her face with some text displayed next to it. “Bio” it read. Dancing along the top and bottom of the screen were symbols or runes of some sort. Each one had a word beneath it, attributing to what they meant from what she could infer.
COSMETICS one said. CAMERA said another. Many more jumped out, such as PHOTOS and ATTENTION STATISTICS. But the one rune that drew her eyes the most had a boxed-up “1” next to it. MESSAGES it read.
“Uh… access messages?”
Her face on the screen swirled away, and a single square-shaped enveloped labeled INBOX appeared in the center of the screen, followed by another envelope with an arrow pointing above it labeled SENT and a plus sign labeled COMPOSE. Lingering above INBOX was another “1”.
“Access Inbox.”
“You have one new message from SILVERSTREAM. Would you like to listen to it?”
“Silverstream’s in the Hub? Yes, listen to the message!”
“Hey Ocellus, it’s Silverstream! Just wanted to let you know that I made it in the Bubble and that this place is soooo cool! Like, at first I freaked out because as soon as that beam shot into your head, you passed out on the floor and I screamed, but the Bubble kept reassuring me and that I should join you. And now I’m here in this tavern in Griffonstone, and some griffs keep asking for my profile number, and now I already have eight friends! All of which have sent me pics that do not equate to my knowledge of fish anatomy. Anyways, come to Griffonstone. Bye!”
Ocellus blinked. “Silverstream’s in Griffonstone? How did she get there so quickly?”
“By telling your Bubble to take you to any specific location in the world within reason, you can jump to that location.”
“Okay, take me to Griffonstone.”
“Please say, ‘Jump to’ and then the location you want to travel to.”
Ocellus fluttered over the crowd, taking her eyes away from the panel and looking up at the lucid sky. “You can’t just take me there?”
“My magic interface is run by a series of spells strung together called ‘coding.’ When designing me, my creators implemented specific commands you could use to avoid confusion. If you were in the middle of a conversation and said, ‘Show me ninety-nine puppies.’ and there wasn’t a right command to activate this, you would suddenly be bombarded by an endless swarm of puppies, and you would never see dalmatians the same way ever again. However would you be lured into purchasing one?”
“Why would I be in the middle of a conversation and suddenly say, ‘Show me ninety-nine puppies?’”
“I am only using an example.”
“Yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean to jump your butt, just why would I be lured into purchasing one if —”
“Jumping to The Hall of Butts.”
“No, wait, I —”
Ocellus blinked.
“That’s a lot of butts.”
Blushing, she realized she was still in parasprite form. Ocellus turned back to her former buggy self and looked back at her profile display. “Bubble, how do I get rid of this?”
“Say, ‘Exit Profile.’”
“Exit profile,” she said, and like a whirlpool the image of herself swirled away. “Jump to Griffonstone.”
“Jumping to Griffonstone.”
The Hall of Butts whisked by, replaced by a large street filled with creatures of many sorts. It was far less crowded than the tourist attraction that is Ponyville, but most were still clipping through each other. Afraid of being smashed by the oversized crowd, Ocellus said, “Turn on Clipping.”
“Clipping is now on.”
“Huh, I think I’m getting used to this already.”
“I’m so glad to hear that, Ocellus! If you would like others to identify you easier, we can set you up a profile record alongside the holder’s, or you can purchase the Easier Identification Tool!”
“I think I’ll hold off for now and find Silverstream. I think she said she was in a tavern somewhere?”
“If you want to find a tavern in Griffonstone, there are several I can point you toward. However, there is also the Meeting Center, which is a centerpoint of each Hub that allows users to meet and greet each other without the bombasticness of crowded streets.”
“Okay, she might be there. Jump to Griffonstone Meeting Center.”
“We are already at the Griffonstone Meeting Center. It is the first place you will spawn at every Hub unless you just connected.”
Ocellus turned around, and saw the Meeting Center in question. Unlike its fellow buildings, which were torn down to the point that roofs caved in and foundations crumbled like spewed chunks of minerals from a vomiting volcano, this one looked preserved. For instance: it had actual windows! All of which contained fliers of the finest advertisements: Hydrate yourself with Patootie Juice; Complete your daily workout routine with the Esco-Master!; Is your lawn’s grass on an elevated plain? Do you ever wish shoveling snow in the winter would be easier? Shear it all away with the new Esco-Mow!
Ocellus placed her hoof on the bat-wing doors and pushed them open. Almost immediately, she was greeted with the bludgeoning sound of chatter, chatter, chatter, chowder, and chatter. To put it in a much louder sense: “AHHHHHHHH!”
Yeah, like that.
If the streets weren’t crowded enough, the Meeting Center was something to fathom. All over, a hotpodge of species had congregated into this one space to socialize. There were tables dedicated to bizarre games she had never seen before; one such happened to feature a magically projected miniature farmer having to tend to his crops. Players could join in, and add or take away from the agriculture in exchange for trade. She observed all of this from the back of one particular group of parrots.
“YES!”
“Silverstream!” Upon hearing her friend’s voice, she dashed through the crowd, glad to have clipping turned on.
Ocellus burst through the crowd to see the pink hippogriff sitting at a poker table with an ecstatic grin on her face, surrounded by three griffons, all looking peeved.
“That’s five Celestias! I win!”
“Beat by an upbeat hippogriff.” One of the griffons grumbled. He was old and haggard looking. “Sacrificed so much just to lose it all… fine, here ya go.”
All the griffons made weird motions in the air with their talons, and Silverstream’s enthusiasm almost resembled a tea kettle bursting with ecstasy.
“Silverstream!”
The pink hippogriff turned to the changeling with glee. “Ocellus, you got here just in time! I just won three hundred Followers!”
Ocellus halted, arching a brow, or however changelings do that. “Who’s following you?”
“No, Followers! They’re creatures that know what you’re doing everytime you update! Which is great, because I’m always updating!”
“Why would you want everyone to know what you’re doing all the time?”
“It’s nothing but a popularity game.” The haggard looking griffon spat. “I didn’t even have that many Followers in the first place. Come on boys, let’s get out of here.”
Silverstream waved them away excitedly. When they were gone, Ocellus sat down next to the hippogriff. “So, you were all playing for Followers?”
“Well, I was playing for Followers, but yeah! If you ever need a way to get quick Followers, come here! You can play games and place bets on how many you want to donate to your opponent if they win.”
A shiver ran down Ocellus’s spine. “Why would you want to have so many creatures knowing what you’re doing every second of the day?”
“It feels great! When you tell everyone how you are and what you’re doing, it’s fun to get showered with affection! Like, here, let’s take a picture together!”
“I don’t think —”
She was cut off by the hippogriff wrapping her arms around the changeling and squishing their cheeks together. “Hey Bubble, take a picture!”
Silence fell between the two of them for the moment, as Ocellus awkwardly moved her eyes around the room to see what could possibly take a picture of them right now.
“I know, I do look cute in that photo!”
“Silver, what photo?”
Silverstream’s eyes widened in surprise and she released her friend. Throwing two stupid hands to the sides of her head, she exclaimed, “Oh, I forgot to turn on sharing! Bubble, share photo with Ocellus!”
A large panel similar to the one Ocellus used earlier appeared. The two friends looked back at each other, cheeks smashed together. Ocellus’s eyes looked away from where the supposed “camera” was, and she looked like she wanted to die in an avalanche. Silvestream, however, looked as ecstatic as always with the colorful smile she wore. Almost like one who started an avalanche and called a score.
At the bottom right corner of the panel, there was a heart and a number: ♡43
“We look so cute together!”
“Yeah,” Ocellus agreed shyly. “We do.”
“Ooo, ooo, let’s go show you to Raven.”
“Who?”
“Let’s go!”
Silverstream grabbed Ocellus by the wrist and dragged her through the crowd. After a few seconds of digging her hooves into the floor, she reluctantly ‘caught up’ in the best way her hooves could find rhythm with Silverstream’s skipping.
They arrived at a bar on the other side of the tavern. Well, to one particular area surrounded by a crowd of creatures. In the center of it, she could make out the crest feathers on the head of a jetblack hippogriff.
“Thank you, thank you, no need to thank me, thank you — no time for autographs now, rehearsing my thank you speech, thank you.”
“Hey, Raven! Here’s my changeling friend I told you about!” Silverstream bellowed over the crowd. Ocellus did the best she could to hide behind the pink hippogriff when all eyes in the room fell on the two. Including the Raven in reference.
“Caw, caw!” quoth the Raven. “What have you brought me this time, Silverstream dear?”
Silverstream stepped to the side, revealing the cowering changling for all to see. “Welcome, welcome deary! You may call me Radiant Raven, the Raving, Ravishing, Attention-Ravenous, Ravishment-to-Her-Peers, Not-Afraid-of-Rashing, Ravishing, Radiating Raven! Raven for short, of course. I’m somewhat a big deal, but nevermore!”
Ocellus looked at the hippogriff, still shaking on the floor. She was a fine looking chick, with a crest that went up and curved down and her very eccentric looking pearl necklace that covered almost the entirety of her chest. Never before had Ocellus seen someone so... Rarity.
“Uh…” she managed to utter. Her voice only cracked some, thankfully. “You said raving twice. And which part do I call you?”
Raven jumped down from the counter and strutted up to her. “There will be much time for ravishing in my ravishment later, my dear.” Throwing an arm around the changeling’s neck, and picking Ocellus up with surprising strength, she continued. “For now allow me to show you the amazing world this magically generated reality has to offer!”
Ocellus pushed Raven away and scowled. “Who are you?”
“Radiant Raven, the Raving, Ravishing Att —”
“No, why is it you’re so popular? What do you do here?”
Raven thought for a moment, not seeming to catch on to what Ocellus was saying. Then her eyes widened in realization. “Oh, you mean — well, it’s my lucky day to explain this to you.” She laid a talon to her chest in a my-backpack-is-better-than-your-backpack manner. “I am what they call a Social Influencer! By being my character self, strutting about in odd manners that would make any male ogle, not only have I acquired the highest of followings, but I use my popularity to influence others to join in on the game of popularity. Trust me deary, soon after we’re finished, you’re going to want to follow me everywhere!”
She leaned her beak into Ocellus’s ear, and whispered. “And just between you and me, I do have a secret on how I attract so many. Want to hear it?”
“Uh…” Ocellus uttered nervously. “Sure?”
“I drink Patootie Juice.”
“Huh?”
“Patootie Juice!” Raven exclaimed. She let go of Ocellus and walked back into the crowd, who all suddenly held cans labeled “Patootie Juice.” “I never leave my house without having a nip at the refreshing taste of Patootie Juice in the morning! However do you expect creatures to adore you when you’re dehydrated!”
Everyone simultaneously sipped from their cans of Patootie Juice.
“So what do you say?” The hippogriff held out a pretty talon, waiting for Ocellus to do something about it. “Any friend of Silverstream’s is a friend of mine!”
“I, umm… I’m just here for my friend.”
“That’s bull pringles!” shouted a bull from the crowd. “Nocreature rejects the offers of Radiant Raven, the Raving, Ravishing, Attention —”
Raven waved a talon in the bull’s direction. “Now calm down Ferdinand.”
“She said it — she almost got my name right! My name is Terdinand, but she came close!”
She turned back to Ocellus. “What Fortadamn is trying to say is it’s uncommon for creatures with low followings such as yours to reject my offer. I implore you to reconsider.”
Ocellus shook her head. “Sorry, we’re just visiting. We’re probably not going to be here much longer anyways.”
“Are you kidding!”
Silverstream slammed into Ocellus’s back, somehow managing not to knock her to the ground, and perched on her friend’s shoulders. Rearing her head down so that they were face to face, she screamed, “This place is amazing! You make friends twice as fast and there are so many things that you can do here that you can’t do in real life!”
Ocellus turned into a bugbear and back to her changeling self, causing Silverstream to fall to the ground in a huff. “Come on, Silverstream.” she said. “Let’s go.”
Silverstream got up and reluctantly followed behind Ocellus. “Bye guys!” she waved sadly.
“Bye Silverstream!” Everyone in the Meeting Center said in unison. Many of them proceeded to take out handkerchiefs and weep uncontrollably. Ocellus tried hard not to look at a pair of yak friends holding each other in the corner, but the bawling became too much.
What the heck is going on… she wondered.
“Halt!” came a voice.
Emerging from the nearest table to the door, the being in question blocked their only exit. The thing towering before them looked like a minotaur, only it had a horse’s head and a large, silver shell on its back. “Pink hippogriff stays! She does much influencing.”
“What are you?!” Ocellus exclaimed. Probably the wrong thing to say considering how intimidating he looked.
“I am Grogar, the Armataur — that is half armadillo, half minotaur, half horse.” He pointed a meaty hand in Silverstream’s direction. “We love the company of the pink hippogriff too much. She has to stay and tell us all about herself, and ultimately do a playthrough of Dungeon Masters with MashedButtons.”
“Really,” Ocellus said nervously. “We have to go! We’re supposed to be studying for an exam right now.”
“Study, you say!”
Both Silverstream and Ocellus turned their heads in the direction a female voice had come from, and saw a new creature towering over the crowd. “Why leave on an empty stomach? You’re going to need the energy to ace that exam, after all.”
Ocellus shook her head in surprise and blinked. “W-what are you?” If the Armataur wasn’t weird enough, this creature was much bigger, like a tree on herbal viagra. She was round and plump like a hippo, but wore a thick coat of gray fur; adding the warthog-like tusk, she looked monstrous. Held aloft in her paws was a pot, which she stirred continuously .
“I am Lil’ Miss Fabulous.” it barked, slugging chili from the pot and onto a yak's head. “The Hippopotomonstress. And I need Silverstream here to help promote my new recipe." — More chili slugged over the side — "In doing so, I hope to sponsor her in the future to promote my In-Hub cooking course: Lil’ Miss Fabulous the Hippopotomonstress’s Cooking Extravaganza: Now Lacking Influenza!”
Ocellus turned to the hippogriff. “Silverstream, how many friends did you make here?”
Silverstream sat on her haunches and scratched her beak. “Hmm… about a hundred thirty thousand worth.”
“What! Not too long ago you said you had eight!”
Silverstream shrugged. “What can I say? Time flies by here.”
“We’ve been here for almost the exact length of time!”
“If you two are done gobbling up all my time, I was promised a date!”
Another creature came barreling toward them, and to Ocellus’s non-xenophobic relief, it was a hippogriff. A handsome one with feathers of crimson clashing with feathers of gold. Finally, she thought. At least this creature I can recognize.
He stomped up to Silverstream, fuming. “I sent you a dating request and you accepted it. Now let’s go!”
Ocellus looked at Silverstream with surprise. “You received a dating request?”
Silverstream put on a sheepish grin. “What can I say? A gal likes her boys hot.”
The Armataur stomped up to the hippogriff, the two clashing foreheads. “Who do you think you are hogging pink hippogriff to self? Let pink hippogriff be free spirit!” he said, still blocking the exit.
“Don’t mess with the fire bird, or you get charred!”
A flash flew across their vision and not a second later was Grogar backing away, pressing his hand against three fine burn lines. Across from him the hippogriff stood in a golden blaze, white-hot fire flicking along his feathers like a great beast of the divine.
“Told ya!” Silverstream exclaimed.
Walking back up to Silverstream while ignoring the smoke rising from the floorboards with each step, he said, “Aye, let’s go.”
“Yeah, um…” Silverstream looked away from the fire bird in embarrassment. “You see, I kind of already have my eyes on someone. I mean, you’re great too, but your attitude just isn’t… blue enough.”
The flames on the bird’s back flared, almost scorching the ceiling. “You accepted my dating request!”
Silverstream held her hands up defensively. “And I also accept every ad I see. You can’t blame me for joining ‘Birds + Bees + Infinity’ on a whim!”
“Ardoven culture dictates that upon agreement of a gentleven’s wing, the two are supposed to find out whether they are right for each other after the agreed first escort!”
Silverstream threw both hands on her hips. “And hippogriff culture dictates that ya ain’t the right griff for me!”
Grogar tried swinging his fist into the ardoven’s face, but he saw it coming and ducked. The Armataur instead glocked Raven with the full hurling force of a baseball in an ecstasy haze, who fell to the floor in a loud thud!
“Oh no, Radiant Raven, the Raving, Ravishing, Attention-Ravenous, Ravishment-to-Her-Peers, Not-Afraid-of-Rashing, Ravishing, Radiating Raven who goes by Raven for short of course, I don’t know what got into me!” he knelt down and tried shaking the poor hippogriff awake, but all she gave him was a loll slur.
“He’s struck our Raven!” Terdinan yelled. He grabbed the nearest bottle that said IN CASE OF FIGHT BREAK BOTTLE in his mouth and smashed it against the counter. Spitting it out, he made a dash for Grogar, horns pointed for the Armatuar’s stomach.
The mighty armadillo-horse-thing caught the bull by the horns in the knick of time and laboriously slammed him into a table that said IN CASE OF FIGHT DO NOT BREAK TABLE (SERIOUSLY GUYS, IT COST TWO BITS TO MAGICALLY RECREATE THESE. STOP IT ALREADY.). A flock of griffons angrily got up around it and started punching each other. “I don’t care who started this fight, I just want to participate!” One of them screamed.
Chaos reigned as the tavern became one big fight — some would say to the death, but those who understood that death wasn’t necessary wisely chose to fight their opponent in combat until the two had a mutual understanding of each other and would let bygones be bygones. Also, Terdinan slammed his face into a pile of hot cocoa powder and lept into action with a mighty warcry.
Ocellus watched all the action go by, too shocked to know what to do. It took Silverstream grabbing one of her hooves and yelling, “Let’s go!” to snap her out of it.
They burst through the batwing doors, almost stumbling over themselves to get outside. When they made it down the steps, onto the warm gravel of Griffonstone, they ran. Ran and ran and ran until running became all they knew.
Their journey came to an end after a few blocks. The two sat exhausted, trying to catch their breaths. Ocellus breathed in… and giggled. Silverstream joined in. The giggling grew louder until it turned into hysteria, and their laughs sported the odd looks of creatures passing by.
“You joined a dating service?” Ocellus poked. The laughing had died down, but it took effort to say the question between small bursts.
“It was an impulse purchase. I do it all the time. Like what I did with the Bubble!”
“Yeah, probably the most interesting shiny object you ever bought.”
“Yeah. Besides, you know I already have a thing for Gallus silly!”
Ocellus tilted her head. “You never told me. How would I know?”
Silverstream playfully slapped — more so tapped — her on the head. “You’re a changeling, dummy! I might be birdbrained, but I also know you feed off love.”
“Oh, yeah.” Ocellus chuckled, slapping an ‘Of course, that’s how she knew!’hoof to her head. “So, I think we should go ahead and leave.”
Silverstream’s eyes widened, mouth hanging agape. “We can’t leave yet, this place is awesome!”
“I know Silver, but this isn’t real life. This is a magically generated reality. I’m not ready for something this big, and you think you’re ready for something this big, but all I see when I look everywhere is a reality that’s unambiguous. What’s the point in traveling the world and seeing new places and meeting new creatures if you can do all that in one quick teleport? We haven’t even been here an hour and you already have over a hundred thousand new friends — which by the way, how many of them do you actually talk to?”
Silverstream shrugged. “I don’t know, they just post in my Feed. I reply to whoever I can.”
“Wait, Feed? Like food?”
“No, Feed. It’s where you can look at everyone’s updates. You know, they’re having a nice meal and they take a picture of it for you to see — it’s almost like you’re there with them.”
“But Silverstream, you’re not there with them. If someone needs validation for the food they eat, then it sounds like the validation they already have in life isn’t enough. Come on Silver, let’s leave.”
Silverstream huffed and looked down at the ground. She found interest in a little patch of purple grass by twiddling it with a talon. She wrapped a blade around her fingers and pulled. Looking back at Ocellus, she opened her mouth ready to say something when her eyes opened wide.
“Ocellus, look!” she pointed.
Ocellus turned to the direction she was pointing and her eyes widened. The sky was black and dotted with many stars. However what was particularly interesting was how visible the constellations were.
“There’s Starswirl’s Cape! Lizo’s Phoenix! The Faust Constellation! Bobby Beheading the Colossal Feather-Headed Gurglepuff! They’re all here! Including Patootie Juice for some reason — that’s not a real constellation.”
“What’s a Gurglepuff?”
“This is amazing! I don’t even have to spend time trying to hunt for the right stars. This will be perfect studying for my constellation homework. Silverstream, we —” she stopped herself, realizing what she just said.
Do I… like it here?
No, she hated it here. None of this was real. None of it was reality. It was better to live in reality than in some artificially created one. Of course, it was only sensible thinking. No way she could ever be into this place!
But the more she thought about it the more she realized: I do like it here, and I don’t want to. She didn’t want to be one of these “users,” who spent their days trying to acquire a following. She didn’t want to be constantly bombarded with products, placebo-friends, sponsors… she didn’t want this reality. She wanted a bubble. Someplace she could be herself without having to worry about the pictures she takes.
Looking at the sky, and looking all around her, she found comfort. The dome made her feel isolated from reality. Reality she had to worry about homework, studying, exams, her...
“Silverstream, do you ever worry about the future?”
Silverstream looked at Ocellus quizzically. “I mean…” she rubbed a talon over her shoulder. “I try not to think about it. I know I usually seem upbeat and energetic all the time, but the truth is I’m worried I’ll never see all of you again after we graduate. I won’t lie to you Ocellus, it depresses me knowing that. So, I guess being here gave me a chance to really forget that.”
Ocellus sighed. “We’re not going to have much longer with them Silver. I mean, yeah, a semester is a lot of days to go through, but before you know it, those you care for in life will be gone, and you’ll regret you couldn’t be there more.”
Ocellus stared back at the sky and sighed again. This sky is fake. All of this is fake.
That reminder hit home. This is fake and her friends are real.
“I don’t want any of you to leave.” she choked. “I’ve been so caught up in trying to get you out of here, I didn’t think it was because I want to make every moment count with you. Not here, but out there! I’m sorry Silverstream. I should have let you just enjoy yourself.”
She felt a talon wrap around her shoulder. Turning around, she could see Silverstream’s famous smile stretched across her beak. “Ocellus, there’s no one I would want to spend more time with than you. Here is fun, but friends are funner. If you want to be happy, isn’t the time we put in together greater than one best moment of your life?”
Ocellus blinked. “Wow Silverstream, you’re making a lot of sense all of the sudden.”
“Like I said, birdbrained. But I know what’s important to my friends. Want to go home?”
Ocellus smiled. “Sure.”
“Okay!” Silverstream wrapped an arm around the changeling’s neck. “Exit Bubble!”
·•·
Ocellus jolted up, heart thumping in her chest. “Silverstream!” she cried.
“Hmm?”
Ocellus looked over to the pink hippogriff and relief waved over her as she saw her friend getting out of bed. Ocellus realized she was in her bed as well. Silverstream must have moved her here before going into the Bubble.
She slid out of bed, walking over to Silverstream, who was holding the crystal ball in reference. “So what are you going to do with it?”
Silverstream shrugged. “I dunno. Can’t return it. Throwing it away would be pointless since I spent so much money on it. Maybe keep it as a neat momento?”
“You could… or you could give it to Gallus as a Hearts and Hooves Day gift. He probably won’t even keep it, he might just sell it.”
“Wow, yeah, that’s a great idea. He loves getting gifts he can sell for a higher profit!”
Ocellus enveloped the crystal ball in her magic. The talon wrapped around the orb released and it followed her across the room, where the box was still sitting. Opening its flaps, she laid the Bubble down in its nest of styrofoam peanuts and made the final mistake of looking down.
A fish-eye reflection surrounded by a starry apparatus stared back. Swaths of purple swirled as her brain became submerged within cosmos. Beyond a plain of existence, she could still exist in this artificially generated world. She didn’t have to worry about homework, studying, exams, her future. Anyone could be her friend, and all she had to worry about was the following she had —
The thought was gone quicker than she could pick the Bubble up and watch it shatter against the floor in a million starry pieces.
the bubble
Author's Note
Sponsored by Hubba Bubba, a whole new kind of bubble!
