Riki and Liz's Grand Adventure!

Prologue

In a bathroom thick with steam, a man walks out of the shower, grabs a towel, and starts to dry himself off. He then walks up to the fogged mirror and wipes it off; a 23-year-old man with brown skin and black hair, Ricochet Gregory Phillips, or Riki for short.

Walking out of the bathroom into the hallway. I finally made it to my room. Tossing my dirty clothes onto my bed, I accidentally hit my cat. “Sorry, Louie. I didn’t see you there, my bad.” Louie rolls over and out a loud meow. Louie is a black and white tabby cat that is missing his left eye. The white fur on him makes it look like he’s wearing pants.

After I got dressed, I walked to my window and opened it. Since my lovely room is on the second floor, I have a good view of the city. Looking at the sky, I see a crescent moon and a few clouds but no stars. “Well, I haven’t seen Liz all day. She probably doesn’t know I came home.” Liz’s room is across from me. But, knowing her, she's not in there.

Walking to the back of the living room to the back of the house. A door has a sign that says, Liz’s Workshop and Do Not Disturb.... I walked in. The room is messy. The tables have a lot of piles of paper and unorganized tools. There is a blue Vespa flipped upside down in the corner. I see Liz in the back of the room, sitting on a small tool chest with two big ones next to her. “Oi Liz, this place is a mess.” I kick an empty energy drink, “You working hard?”

“I like how you just walked all up in here,” Liz said, annoyed. “But I’m happy to see you.”

“Really!?” I said as she turned towards me.

Elizabeth June Philips is my 16-year-old sister. She has the same skin tone as me, but since she stays inside a lot, her tone is lighter. Her hair is the same color as mine, and it’s in a curly faux hawk. Some of the hair is covering her left eye. She is wearing tattered gray overalls with the straps down to her sides. She has a blue shirt and black and white high tops. Around her neck are safety goggles.

“Yes, it’s something super cool!” Liz shouted gleefully.

“That’s good, but can you turn down the volume?”

“Riki, you know how I get when I work on something!” She puts on the goggles and giggles, “And sorry about the glitter bombs. I didn’t know that too much glitter is a bad thing.”

“It took me three days to get the glitter out of my hair,” I deadpan. “All I did was super glue your tools to the table. I think you overreacted." She grabs my arm and pulls me to the table. “What the hell am I looking at?”

“It’s a magnet gun!” She replies cheerfully. “You see that screwdriver next to you?” Picking up the gun and pointing at the screwdriver. Carefully aiming and pressing a button. The gun boots up and glows blue. The prongs vibrate while electric sparks shoot out, hitting the target. The screwdriver starts to shake, and I hear Liz’s voice pleading for this to work.

Then, the screwdriver stops moving.

The magnet gun starts sparking, and a plume of smoke comes from the side. This is not the first time one of Liz’s inventions. But I know how to deal with it. “It’s okay. At least it worked a little.” I try to cheer her up, putting a hand on her back.

Liz brushes off my hand and slams the gun on the table. She opens a panel to see the damaged circuit board and pulls out the soldering iron. “No, I have been working on this for weeks!” She snapped while putting on the goggles. “If I had more power or something… I don’t know.” Liz runs her hand through her hair, taking a few deep breaths. “….Sorry, can I be alone?”

"I’ll be in the living room if you need me, okay?” She nodded her head. “Good!”

I've been thinking about what to make in the kitchen. I don't know how long I've been here, but I need to think of something. "Maybe I should get takeout. Chinese, pizza, or..."

The house shakes.

Pots and pans begin to fall. A few plates fell from the cabinet, but I was able to catch a few. The light lights flicker a few times before everything goes dark. “What the fuck!?” was the only words that came out of my mouth. I pulled out my phone to see if I could call someone or check the news. “No signal? It's a blackout, but we have solar panels." Liz came in the running with her phone in flashlight mode.

“I can explain!”

“Explain, please! Why don’t we have power? Is this a blackout!?”

Liz starts to shift in place. “Well... A power outage will not affect us.”

“Okay, but why don’t we have power?” I said sternly.

She shifted again and hung her head low. “Well… I need power for the magnet gun. So, I connected the solar panel’s power box and transferred the power to the gun.” Tears start to form as she looks at me and takes my hand. “Sorry, it overloaded and sent out a big magnetic pulse. I got flown back a little. Also, purple lighting happened and hit the power box.” She looks like she’s about to burst into tears, using my hand to wipe her face.

“...Are you hurt?”

She shakes her head.

“Look, it’s late. We should talk about this in the morning, okay?”

Liz uses my hand to wipe her face again. “Okay. First thing in the morning, I will fix the power bo, " she says with a small smile.

“Get some sleep. I'll clean up here."

Today was a long day. I just need my bed, my lovely bed. Changed into my blue frog onesie, I drag my feet across the carpet and land face-first on my bed. I turned my head to see my still sleeping cat. “Good night, Louie. See you in the morning.” I yawned and pulled the covers over my head.

Louie wakes up from the movement. He does a nice stretch and hops off the bed. Then goes to the window sill to look at the night sky. He stares at the sky in curiosity and wonder. The last time he looked outside, the moon was not full, and there were no stars. He feels like something is off, but he’s just a cat, so he jumps on top of Riki and goes back to bed.

It’s morning… I need more sleep. Looking at the alarm clock, it says, ‘set time’ flashing in bright red. “Looks like Liz got the power on,” I said tiredly. Getting up and doing a few stretches for the body. I picked up my phone to see that it was showing 11 o’clock. Guess I got a few more hours of sleep. I think something is off, but I can’t put my finger on it. What is going on? Louie is not here, and my door is open. Was Liz in here?

Walking to the bathroom to clear my mind, I turn on the sink. Hot water will help.

Nothing.

Turning on the shower.

Nothing.

“We have no water,”

I walked out of the dry bathroom and headed downstairs to see if I could find Liz. Then, I started hearing voices from the kitchen, stopping halfway to listen.

“Wow, that’s amazing! You have to tell me more!” Said an overexcited voice.

“Well, where should I start?” Liz ponder.

“The super-duper muffins are almost done!!!”

“Louie, you are such an adorable cat. You should meet Angel; I bet two will get along.”

“Liz, are you sure your brother is okay with this?”

“I mean letting somepony he doesn’t know come into his house.”

“I still think this is all a trap!”

“I said, it’s fine... And not a trap!” Liz replied.

What is going on in there? Slowly entering the room, what I saw shook me to my core. Liz was the first to notice that I was there.

“Riki, look!” She said with excitement, “I met the locals!” Now everybody has their eyes on me. I rub my eyes to make sure I’m not seeing things. Right now, I am looking at six, about four feet tall horses, no too small…. Ponies, weirdly colored talking ponies.

I see a pink color pony with curly dark pink hair… um, mane and tail. She’s next to the oven. I look at Liz and see four ponies sitting with her. First is an orange body with a blonde mane, tail, and green eyes. She has freckles on her face and wearing a brown stetson hat. Next to her is a pony with a horn, so a unicorn. She has a white body, blue eyes, a violet mane, and a tail with small curls. She is wearing a bit too much makeup, but more power to her.

Another unicorn but purple. Her mane and tail are navy blue and dyed strands of pink and purple. She is sitting next to Liz, and I can see a paper and quill floating in a purple aura. Next to the purple pony is a yellow one with a pink mane and tail. She also has teal eyes. She was petting Louie. Now that she sees me, she tries to hide behind her mane. I can see her, so it’s not working. She has wings, so she is a pegasus. But it didn’t stop there because I could feel someone staring daggers at me. I see a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail in that direction. She is staring at me with those magenta eyes like she will attack me if I make a wrong move.

Okay, I’m standing here, wearing my frog onesie. For about a few minutes, we just stared at each other. Well, I have to say something, right?

“Who the fuck are you guys!?”