Chapter Text
Princess Marina Moonbow had thought, that day, that the most exciting adventure that awaited her was building up the courage to ask to go to the beach on her own for the first time.
Well, not completely on her own. A royal traveling any part of Rainbow World alone was a dangerous idea, and so at the very least, she would need to take an escort in the form of her handmaiden Rosetta, as well as at least one of her pet Andersen. More than one Anders wanted to take the trip, but in the end, there was only one choice as far as Marina was concerned: a miniature opalescent unicorn she’d named Roy (short for Roy G. Biv). It wasn’t that she loved Roy particularly more than the other Andersen, but he was the Anders who seemed to love her the most, constantly sneaking into her bed and burrowing under her covers before she got there every night so he could snuggle up next to his favorite human.
With Rosetta and Roy at her sides, Marina stood before the thrones of her parents, King Caspian and Queen Maris. They looked to her expectantly as she took a shaking breath. What if they said no? She knew they had wanted her to come into her own independence eventually, but what if now wasn’t the time? What if they viewed her as a disappointment for pushing the boundaries too far?
“…I want to go to Moonbow Beach today,” she said, voice cracking. “I just want to take Rosetta and Roy. Is…is that okay?”
Caspian and Maris chuckled, grinning at one another. “Sorry,” said Caspian. “We don’t mean to laugh, but – “
“It’s really a small request,” Maris replied. “Of course you can go.”
“YAY!” Marina clapped, kicking one foot into the air.
Caspian and Maris had raised her since she was a small child. Of course that made them her parents. However, there were always some odd things about them that she didn’t ask about. For one, though both of them had blue hair, which had translated to Marina’s blue-white braids, they were both a good deal paler than Marina’s skin tone, and Marina was pretty sure that was a genetic impossibility. For another, they didn’t have the distinctive translucent glittering skin on their legs that most Rainbowans had. Marina certainly did – on days she wore shorts, one could see the sun sparkling off her calves. But Caspian and Maris had the exact same skin there as what was visible on their arms and faces. A phenomenon that Marina had never seen until people from the other world had started coming over to her side.
She figured that if they wanted to talk about the circumstances that had led to this discrepancy, be they adoption or otherwise, they would have brought it up by now. So she never asked. That time was better spent in discussion of the set of rules they’d raised her with, and the secret clause to only be found when she came of age, the one stating that all the rules could and should be abandoned. Marina had come of age very recently, and thanks to her otherworldly friends finding the secret clause hidden in the document, she was testing the limits of her independence, a little bit at a time. Hence the beach.
“C’mon, Roy!” She scooped up the Anders into her arms, taking off for a grooming room; Rosetta followed, laughing in glee. “Let’s go!”
Maris and Caspian watched the trio depart. Once they were all out of sight, the royals let their happy façade fall.
“Maybe we’ve been too protective of her,” Maris said. “She’s afraid to even ask to go to the beach.”
“I worry the same thing,” said Caspian. “But…what else were we supposed to do? Logically speaking…”
“I’m not sure logic had much to do with it,” Maris replied. “But I agree anyway. Do you still worry, sometimes, that letting her out of our sight – “
“Of course I do,” said Caspian. “But it’s not worth stifling who she is as a person. That’s just facts.”
Maris nodded sadly.
The past was full of pain and tragedy. Yet they had resolved to move forward, to only let those incidents define the present as absolutely necessary. Most days, it didn’t need to matter…even if they had little good excuse to have been as overprotective of Marina as they’d been.
Marina and Rosetta, of course, were oblivious to their regret. They were busy filling a tub with dyes of all colors to bathe Roy.
Andersen were strange creatures. Embodiments of pure Light in animal form, they were mostly small with large eyes, and all had unicorn horns as well as coats of crystal that sparkled in the light. Rainbow World had figured out a particular method of magitech that allowed one to harness the Light of an Anders by bathing it in a magically enhanced dye that matched its colors. This would fill it with a particular refined Light – colloquially termed “Sparkleglow” – that could be used to cast spells and open portals. Traveling by liquid rainbow portal was the premier way to get from Point A to Point B in Rainbow World, as it was extremely convenient, but it meant planning ahead and bringing extra dye or Sparkleglow to any situation.
Because Roy was opalescent, he could react to a number of enchanted dyes. Rosetta and Marina brewed him a rainbow, and he jumped in, splashing around happily. His crystal skin lit up with extra glitter, indicating the refinement of his Light into Sparkleglow.
“And we’re ready!” Rosetta declared.
“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” Marina babbled. “You think this is actually safe? You think maybe we’re making a mistake? Should we turn back? I don’t want to turn back. But I’m kinda scared – “
“Marina.” Rosetta smiled softly at her. “Relax. Everything will be fine. We’re going to have a good time.”
“Thanks, Rosetta,” Marina sighed. “I’m just…really nervous.”
“Really? Coulda fooled me.”
They laughed as Marina lifted Roy out of the tub. She gave him a scratch behind the ear, and he whinnied. A portal tinted in rainbow light opened up before the Anders and his humans, leading directly to an expanse of sand that complemented a gorgeous ocean.
Marina gasped in pure joy. She loved the ocean. After all, she’d been named for it.
Rosetta had to grab her hand and pull her along in order to snap her out of her reverie. Next thing Marina knew, she was standing on the sands, with Rosetta and Roy at her sides.
Almost immediately, there was a person running toward them, a familiar silhouette with waist-length braids of bright orange. “Marina!” Clementine put up a hand to wave. “Rosetta! You HAVE to try these new boards I – “ She pulled to a halt in the sand right in front of them. “Wait, where’s everyone else? The guards? Your parents?” She gasped, then gave a wicked grin. “Did you sneak out?”
“No!” Marina put up her hands. “Of course not! I just asked if I could go to the beach with just Rosetta and Roy today, and my parents said it was okay.”
Clementine shook her head. “I’m proud of you, Marina, but you’ve gotta stop doing things just based on if your parents say they’re okay.”
“Well, I don’t want to start lying to them,” Marina replied.
“Fair enough,” Clementine said. “Anyway, I made a few boards that I think are my best designs yet. Wanna give ‘em a whirl?”
The three girls and their small unicorn spent most of the day riding Clementine’s customized surfboards, catching waves and splashing into the waters every now and again. After sharing a lot of laughs out on the water, they hustled up to the beach itself, where damp sand was immediately recruited in the fine art of sand castle sculpting. Rosetta and Clementine designed palaces from their own imaginations, but Marina put all her effort into replicating Moonbow Palace, because what castle could be grander than her own home?
“HEY!”
Roy felt ignored after so long, and so, desperate to get some much-needed scritches, he plowed his entire body right into Rosetta’s sand castle, knocking it into a wet pile. “All right,” Rosetta sighed, petting the naughty little unicorn. “I shouldn’t be rewarding you for that, you know.”
Marina couldn’t help but chuckle as she looked over to where the commotion had gone down. Then she cast her gaze toward the sea. The sun was lower in the sky, and the water’s surface positively glittered.
However, one sparkle was more prominent. A glimmering object, washing ashore.
Overcome by curiosity, Marina leapt up, running to the water’s edge to see what treasure had washed up. The waters left in their wake a crystal orb, a perfect sphere with a rainbow sheen.
“What’d you find?” Clementine asked, pulling up next to Marina. Rosetta wasn’t far behind.
“I don’t know,” Marina said. She bent to pick up the orb. “It looks like a – “
The minute her hand made contact, visions danced before her eyes. An ornate crown studded with a rainbow of gems. Its metal shattering, scattering the gems. Rainbow World itself, a bird’s-eye view, seen going monochrome.
“…What?”
“Marina?” Rosetta asked. “Is everything okay?”
Marina stood, holding up the orb. It seemed to have…calmed down from whatever had just happened. “When I touched it, I thought I saw…it was weird.”
“Saw what?” Clementine asked. “A prophecy of the future?” She was teasing, but only to an extent. Clearly, there was some sort of magic going on here.
“Maybe,” Marina replied. “There was this gorgeous crown. It would’ve been the ultimate fashion accessory. But it broke and the gems all scattered. And then Rainbow World went…”
The thought of the last mental image gave her a shudder.
“Went what?” Clementine asked eagerly.
“Colorless,” Marina said. “Weird, right?”
“It has to be some kind of magic,” Rosetta identified. “But what was the point of it showing you those things?”
“Maybe my parents will know,” said Marina.
Rosetta nodded. “If anyone will, it’s them. Unless they know more about it in the other world.”
“I can try to put across a message through a liquid rainbow,” Clementine said. “I’ll ask if the girls can come meet us here again tomorrow. Maybe this is something that happens more often in Remnant.”
“Could you do that?” Marina asked. “That way, if my parents don’t know, we could get an answer.” She looked out to the horizon. “It’s getting late anyway, so I should be going home.”
“Try to come to the beach tomorrow if you can,” Clementine advised. “Then we can all talk it over…and maybe just hang out more. I could start on some new board designs just for you and Rosetta. It’ll be a party!”
Marina nodded. “I’ll do my best. But they might not want me to – “
“Don’t think about what THEY want,” Clementine laughed. “If YOU want to find out bad enough, then find a way! But if you can’t make it, I’ll tell you what I find out.”
“Thanks, Clem,” Marina said with a smile.
Rosetta scooped up Roy. “Let’s go.” She gave him a scratch behind the ear, and he squeaked happily as Sparkleglow rained from his coat.
The portal arrived to take Marina and Rosetta back to the palace. They stepped through, Marina still tightly clutching her prize.
“MOM?” Marina was already off down the halls looking for her parents. “DAD?”
Rosetta wanted to hear the results of the investigation, but Roy was headbutting her in a way that indicated he knew it was past his dinnertime and wasn’t about to let anyone forget it until he’d been fed. It seemed that she had to take him to the pets’ dining room for the communal Anders feast. She was sure Marina would fill her in later.
“MOM! DAD!” Marina’s cries grew more excited as she barreled through the halls.
“Honey, what is it?” Maris rounded the corner in concern. “Is everything okay – “
She gasped and stopped short, looking at what was in Marina’s hands. The crystal sphere, its rainbow shimmer.
“Look what I found on the beach!” Marina said excitedly. “Any idea what it is?”
“It’s…impossible,” Maris said slowly. “You found it? All by yourself?”
“Yeah!”
“Were you the first one to see it, or was it one of your friends?”
“I was. Mom, what’s going on? Is it something bad? Should I not have touched it?”
“No, sweetie, it’s not bad, it’s just…” Maris took in a deep breath, then called out, “XAR!”
“Huh?” Marina was perplexed.
“Ricci?” Caspian came hurrying around the corner. “What’s – “
He stopped in his tracks when he realized Marina was there. For Maris to have said his true name in front of their daughter was an anomaly in itself. When he spotted the item in her hands, he realized why she’d done it.
Marina had no idea what a “Xar” or a “Ricci” was. All she knew was that her parents were apparently horrified by her discovery, and she was regretting ever picking it up. “I’m sorry,” she said, almost about to cry. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but – “
“No,” Maris repeated. “It’s not anything you did wrong. It’s just…that orb shouldn’t have been able to find you. It’s literally not physically possible.”
“It found her?” said Caspian. “Are you sure it wasn’t one of her friends? Clementine? Rosetta? It could have been drawn in by the Anders…”
Maris shook her head. “It was Marina.”
“Oh,” said Caspian. “There has to be SOME explanation. Maybe if I do a bit of research…” He sighed. “But we can’t go on much longer without explaining, can we?”
“I’m afraid not,” said Maris. “Marina…I think we have to tell you something. Something we’ve been…keeping from you.”
“Keeping from me?” Marina repeated. “Is this about…me being adopted?”
“I figured she’d already have known that much,” said Caspian. “It’s kind of obvious.”
“It…goes further than that,” said Maris. “Why don’t we sit down somewhere more comfortable first? This is…going to be a lot.”
“All because of this crystal?” Marina said.
“It isn’t a crystal,” Caspian corrected. “It’s a wish.”
They made base camp in one of the side lounges, sitting on plush embroidered couches. All servants, Rosetta included, were locked out.
“Where do we even start?” Maris sighed.
“At the beginning, I’d say,” said Caspian.
“I wasn’t a royal, was I?” Marina asked. “You found me somewhere else and took me in.”
“Oh, no, I can see how you’d assume that,” said Caspian. “But your claim to the throne is…legitimate. There are…a couple of imposters involved, but neither of them is – “
“It’s us,” Maris said flatly. “We aren’t the true king and queen of Moonbow.”
Marina didn’t know how to react. “…What?”
“Well, you see,” Caspian said, “it’s complicated, but I’d best describe it – “
“I say we just show her,” said Maris.
Immediately, the queen was surrounded in bright light that obscured her form. It faded, and her royal garb was now missing, replaced by an athletic tracksuit that was the same cyan as her vividly bright bob of hair.
“…All right.” Caspian pulled the same trick, and now he was wearing a shimmering suit with long tails, blue with silver embroidery that sparkled under the light. Matching his own deeper blue hair.
“Cool outfits!” Marina gasped.
“This is what we’d wear back home, normally,” said Maris. “Before we came here.”
“Before we go any further, we should clear something else up, for the sake of confusion,” said Caspian. “You know us as specific names. King Caspian and Queen Maris. We…had to take those names because of the circumstances.”
“Your names aren’t what you said they were?” Marina gaped. “I’ve known you as that my whole life!”
Many, in fact most, would have been angry at this development. Marina, however, was simply in total awe. There was much she did not know about the world, and now, it seemed, much she did not know about her own parents. What secrets did they have to reveal? Her curiosity and natural disposition were in the lead. She was a difficult person to make angry. This certainly seemed to prove how far her limits extended.
The ones who’d called themselves Caspian and Maris didn’t question this. If this information was going down without a fight, it was just better for everyone. “My real name is…well, in this form, I’m Xarian,” said Caspian. “Most just call me Xar, though.”
“And I’m Ricciadoré,” said his wife.
“Why make up the names?” Marina asked. “You know I would’ve loved you the same!”
“You may have,” Xarian corrected. “But others…well…this is where it gets difficult. Marina, I need you to understand that what we did…we did out of necessity. We were given a dying wish, and it was our duty to fulfill it at any cost.”
“Dad,” Marina said. “I know you. Maybe not as well as I thought I did, but…you’re still the same person on the inside, right? And you wouldn’t so something that drastic without a reason.”
“Where did you get all this tolerance?” Xarian replied in surprise. “Certainly not from Ricci.”
Ricciadoré gave him a light, playful swat.
“I guess I just have faith in you,” Marina said. “I don’t have a reason not to.”
“Well, we might have gone a bit overboard with the rules,” Ricciadoré pointed out.
“But that’s getting ahead of ourselves,” Xarian stated. “Marina, what you have to understand is that…you’re human. What you found on the beach…it’s a wish. Normally, humans aren’t found by wishes. Some humans have magic that they can use to attract wishes to them, but as far as we know, you’ve never had any of that.”
“A wish?” Marina said, examining the sphere. In its edges, she could still see the shattered crown. “Someone wanted a crown to break?”
“Someone saw that crown break and wanted it forged back together,” Xarian corrected. “Ricci and I have seen a lot of wishes. We’ve granted a lot of them, too. See…wishes do have a habit of finding a certain other type of…being.”
“You’re human, Marina,” Ricciadoré insisted. “We’re not.”
“Not human?” Marina said, looking up from the wish. “But – “
She gasped, nearly dropping the precious orb. Both of the people she’d thought of as her parents were shimmering, glowing, surrounded by auras that matched their respective shades of blue. Clearly, not a feat a human could pull off, no matter how well-stocked their royal spa was.
“We are starlight,” Xarian said. “We are an evolution of the beings called ‘Lumas.’ But you would understand it best as…we’re stars, taking humanoid form.”
“Stars?” Marina gasped, her eyes wide. “STARS?” Once again, she was not angry, but rather full of awe. “Did you come from outer space? That’s why you grant wishes, isn’t it? People wish on you!”
“Please slow down,” said Ricciadoré. “The simple answer is yes. The longer answer…stars aren’t a monolith. Every star goes through a different journey. Not all of us decide to take this form or be wish-granters. That was the path that fit the both of us best.”
“We come from a place called…well, it’s Starland,” Xarian chuckled. “Not the most creative of names.”
“Neither is ‘Rainbow World,’” Ricciadoré reminded him.
“Well, you have to take into account that ‘Rainbow World’ is shortened from the original title of this world,” Xarian said. “Once you recognize its history as ‘Over-the-Rainbow World,’ things make a little more sense…but that’s a different topic entirely.”
“So you came from another world!” Marina was ecstatic. “Like Remnant!”
“Further away and far more mystical than Remnant,” Xarian told her. “Starland was a planet that many of our kind used as a base of operations for granting wishes across the many Wishworlds. Ricci and I went to a special school to learn how to do exactly that. Wishes would cross the galaxies to find us…the way that orb found you.”
“We had quite the adventures back in the day.” Ricciadoré kicked one leg up over the other in a most undignified, un-royal fashion, leaning back on the couch. “The cosmic exploration, the friends we made on the Wishworlds…and we cut our teeth on an incident with giant purple robots that I’ll never forget. We kicked their asses back to – “
“MOM!” Marina’s eyes were wide.
“Oh.” Ricciadoré covered her mouth. “I’ve been careful with my language as Maris. Guess now that the tracksuit is back on, it slips back out.”
“But you’re probably wondering how all of this connects to you,” said Xarian. “How we came here to…act in the roles of the former King Caspian and Queen Maris.”
“I was figuring you’d get to that part,” said Marina.
“After hundreds of years granting wishes – “ Xarian began.
“HUNDREDS?” Marina gaped again.
“Oh, that’s…probably something else I should have explained about stars,” said Xarian. “In fact, it’s been amusing to note the evolution of naming trends among stars. Ricci and I come from a more experimental time. Our elders were given more traditional names, like ‘Polari,’ but I hear now that names closer to Wishworld trends are in fashion, like ‘Astra’ or ‘Gemma’ – “
“Wishworld,” Marina interrupted. Which was a good thing, because Xarian would have gone on for hours about generational name trends if not stopped. “That’s what you call human worlds, isn’t it?”
“Good catch.” Ricciadoré winked. “Xar, you may not want to get lost in the exposition.”
“Right…right,” Xarian realized. “Well, we granted wishes for a long time, but they were often simple. Then, one day…a wish came to us from this world. Over-the-Rainbow world, connected to Remnant, made by the Primal Gods of Light and Darkn – “
Ricciadoré cleared her throat.
“Sorry,” said Xarian. “A wish came to us. And it was…different.”
(It had been bright red-orange, like the flames it portended. When Xarian had reached up to pluck it from the sky, it had burned his hands.)
“We knew we had to follow it right away.”
(“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Ricciadoré had said in horror. “Xar, you know we have to – “
“I know. I’ll tell the others, and then we’ll go.”)
“The wish was made by the dying Queen Maris Moonbow. That’s how we knew this kingdom was in trouble. When we arrived here…”
(The fire was consuming the inside of the castle. Xar quickly shifted shape, sending out waves of magical water to douse the inferno. Ricciadoré froze everything she could in a thick shell of ice that would stifle the flames. They rushed to see if there was anyone left alive.)
“The castle was on fire. To this day…we’re still not sure who set it. Someone wanted the Moonbow line gone. Someone…wanted to either control or destroy Over-the-Rainbow World. We searched everywhere, and when we found someone…”
(They’d looked more like Marina. Caspian had already expired, a massive beam of wood impaled through his chest. Maris was holding on as best she could, clawing at Xar’s skirt. “Please,” she coughed, blood spattering onto the floor.
A baby’s terrified wail could be heard.
“Her name is Marina,” Maris choked. “Please…”)
“The…the true king and queen had already…it was too late for them. The wish we’d received was Maris’ dying wish. And all she wanted…”
(They knew what the wish was, but Maris, not knowing that, coughed it out before them. “Save her…take care of her…PLEASE…”)
“Was for someone to save you and make sure you were protected.”
There was a heavy silence as Ricciadoré and Xarian recalled how the queen had perished before their very eyes.
(“I think I know what we have to do,” said Ricciadoré. “But…it’s drastic. We might be saying goodbye to Starland for…a while.”
“It will be a relatively short amount of time for us, considering,” said Xar. “For her…” She looked down to the baby in her arms. Marina. “It will be her entire life.”
Ricciadoré nodded. “Then we have to stay.”)
“So…if I have this right,” Marina said softly. “My real parents died in a fire because someone tried to…end Moonbow. My mother’s dying wish upon a star was for someone to take care of me…and you answered. So you gave up your lives as stars…to be my parents.”
“That’s the long and short of it,” Ricciadoré said. “We tried our best to fill the roles. We didn’t look exactly right, but most people didn’t seem to care so long as everyone in the palace was relatively blue. Maris, of course, wore skirts far more often than I was used to.”
“And Caspian wore them fewer than I was used to,” Xarian muttered.
“Hm?” Marina looked to him. Yes, she knew that clothes were only clothes, and gender roles were just that…but even in Rainbow World, or Over-the-Rainbow World, most men still avoided wearing skirts. “Did you get to wear dresses more in Starland?”
“Yes,” Xarian sputtered, “but…well, it may go a little deeper than that – “
“I know you’ve been waiting to shift into something more comfortable,” Ricciadoré said with a wink.
“For almost twenty years,” Xarian sighed. “Marina, pardon me. I’m sure you can handle one more revelation…”
The blinding light surrounded Xarian again. When it faded, the person – or star – sitting on the couch bore virtually no resemblance to the Xarian who’d just introduced himself, nor the Caspian Marina had known all her life. Though the hair and skin tones were the same, and the face shape was similar, this was a woman, with a cascading waterfall of wavy hair partially bound in a ponytail. She wore an elaborate blue gown that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a royal ball.
Marina gasped, pressing both hands to your mouth. “You’re so pretty!”
“Thank you.” Her voice was softer now. “Now, in THIS form, I prefer ‘Xarchelyna’…though ‘Xar’ still works for short.”
“Did you have to turn yourself into a man to pretend to be my dad?” Marina asked.
“Well, it’s more complex than that,” Xarchelyna admitted. “I’m both Xarian and Xarchelyna, you see. Ever since I was a Luma – “
“Exposition,” Ricciadoré reminded her. “I think she understands.”
Xarchelyna nodded. “Well, you get the gist, I think.”
The gist, if Marina understood, was that Xar was a man sometimes and a woman other times. “It still must’ve been hard only getting to use one this whole time.”
“I got used to it well enough,” Xarchelyna reassured her. “I hope you realize that you’ll have to keep this…secret.”
“You’ll have to keep it ALL secret,” Ricciadoré insisted.
“Even from Rosetta?” said Marina. “Even from my friends?”
“No one can know that we are imposters,” Ricciadoré said. “I think you can imagine the reaction.”
“Wouldn’t they understand if you just told them what you told me?” Marina asked.
“See, I had wondered that same thing since the start,” Xarchelyna admitted. “The risk was a bit too great to test out, though. Then again, you took it well, so maybe – “
“Let’s not invite a coup to our door,” Ricciadoré cut off.
Marina was none too happy about having to hide this from her friends. After all, they were all meeting tomorrow to discuss an investigation into the wish orb. She now knew critical answers and couldn’t share them. Still, she wasn’t one to disobey her parents. Not ever. Which reminded her…
“Is…the reason you had so many strict rules for me…” she guessed. “Because you knew someone almost killed me when I was a baby, and you wanted to keep me safe?”
“Yes, but it was also the terms of the wish,” Xarchelyna said. “Well. Not the rules specifically. But Maris wanted us to take care of you. If we ever let anything happen to you…then we would have failed her dying wish.”
“As stars, our duty is to grant deserving wishes, especially dying wishes,” Ricciadoré reminded Marina. “Like a bolt out of the blue. But as we got to know you, then our duty as parents became to protect you just because you deserved to be safe.”
“We love you, Marina,” Xarchelyna insisted.
“I already know that, Da – “ Marina corrected herself. “Mom.”
“We just wanted to protect you from everything,” said Xarchelyna. “So we relied on Hydaelyn’s Andersen to guard you.”
“Trust me,” Ricciadoré broke in. “You don’t ever want to meet the creatures Zodiark created.”
“The problem is that it didn’t seem to end in you being very happy with your life,” Xarchelyna recalled.
“I…I just wanted enough freedom to do things for myself and enjoy my life,” Marina said. “That’s all I wanted. But…now I understand why you made it that way.”
“Hey, you figured out how to make your own way,” Ricciadoré reminded her.
“But that brings us to now.” Xarchelyna’s brow furrowed at the wish orb in Marina’s hands. “That orb…I had wondered if it had meant to come for us. Ever since we took up Moonbow Kingdom, we shut ourselves off from wishes. Nothing could take us away from this one, and we had no shortage of friends in Starland who could take care of everything else. But it couldn’t have come for us. You saw it. It came for you. And you’re…certainly not a star. I don’t know what it could mean if humans start receiving wish orbs.”
“But there is one thing about it that almost makes sense,” said Ricciadoré. “That crown was an artifact of this kingdom. You’re the heir…and someone wants it reforged.”
(She stepped on the shards of bronze that had once held the rainbow gems in place. All of them gone now. She looked to the portrait of the true Maris and Caspian, the latter of whom wore the crown the way it was supposed to be: a rainbow of heart-shaped gems.)
“It belonged to your parents,” Xarchelyna went on. “Whoever set the fire on this palace is likely the one who damaged the crown. All of its jewels have been lost. They say that its jewels were connected to different parts of Over-the-Rainbow World, and that each color was responsible for helping maintain a different region’s shine. Not fully responsible, of course. I wasn’t sure at first if it was a superstition.”
“Wait a minute,” Marina said. “My friends from Remnant started coming here because regions of this world were losing their shine more often.”
Shine. The ethereal quality of the colorful Light that came from the hearts of the people of a region. Here, in Rainbow World, it was what made the planet turn.
“But…I thought we figured out it was because Hydaelyn’s Prism had been knocked loose from the tree.”
With that, she referred to a multifaceted crystal that was the source of all magic in Rainbow World. One located at the Beginning of the Rainbow. The students of Rainbow High had at one point needed to right it from where it had fallen, but none of them had actually seen it, needing to send their Andersen into the sacred location instead – the Light creatures were the only ones that could crawl through the small stone aperture that led to the Grove of Light.
“And did we ever find out who did that? Ricciadoré asked.
“We don’t even know if anyone did it,” said Marina. “It could’ve just been the wind.”
“The wind?” Ricciadoré raised a brow. “Displace the most important gem in all Rainbow World? Please.”
“Ricci,” Xarchelyna cautioned. “Please don’t patronize her.”
“Sorry,” Ricciadoré muttered.
“But the two things don’t need to be mutually exclusive,” Xarchelyna mused. “While it seems fairly obvious that Hydaelyn’s Prism is the source of the disturbance, there is so little known about this crown…and it was said to have gems of many colors. Perhaps there is a link between the two. Especially since righting the Prism…seems not to have completely stopped errant loss of shine.”
“Which is why it might not have been a superstition,” Ricciadoré said. “Someone out there probably guessed that the dimming was connected to the missing gems. They wished that someone would put the crown back together…and that wish found the Moonbow heir. If wishes were known to find humans at all, then you would be the one it would make sense to go to.”
“Well, do we know what happened to the gems?” Marina asked.
“I’ve sent teams of guards to investigate almost all of Over-the-Rainbow World,” Xarchelyna stated. “They’re well-hidden to the point where I haven’t been able to find a single one. Sometimes I worry they’re not even on this world anymore, but there are so many Wishworlds…and other worlds…that I hope that isn’t the case. I wouldn’t know where to begin looking.”
“It feels like maybe I’m supposed to find them,” said Marina. “But I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“That’s not something you have to worry about tonight,” Xarchelyna insisted. “You’ve already had to hear…a lot.”
“I want to know everything, though!” Marina cried. “About Starland, about wishes and Wishworlds, about the first Caspian and Maris!”
She couldn’t refer to the deceased as her parents. Even though she knew they were. They hadn’t been the ones to watch her grow up and protect her from all harm.
“That might take days to explain,” Ricciadoré said with a wink. “Though Xar would probably be happy to ramble for that long.”
“And if no one stops me, I will,” Xarchelyna insisted. “Marina, you do need your sleep to be alert for the day tomorrow. And you haven’t eaten dinner yet, have you? I think we should all put a pause on this conversation until we have a chance to…process what had to be said here.”
Marina wanted to argue, but she knew that Xarchelyna was right. Once she’d slept on it, she’d know what questions she even wanted to ask.
“One more thing, though,” Ricciadoré broke in.
“We’ve already said – “ Xarchelyna tried to interrupt.
“I know,” said Ricciadoré. “But I have a bad feeling, all right? Like something’s coming and things might change. A fuc – a freaking wish orb found Marina. The rules don’t apply anymore.” She looked directly at Marina. “Marina, you know about the Moonbow Mare, right?”
Of course Marina did. The magical unicorn could often be found on Moonbow Beach. Clementine was especially familiar with it. “Yeah!”
“There’s one more secret about the Moonbow Kingdom you should know,” said Ricciadoré. “That mare is tied to the royal family. Not Xar and me. You. You’re the only member of the bloodline left. It’s said that if the royals were ever in danger, the Moonbow Mare can take them across worlds to safety. To where they need to be.”
“…Did Maris and Caspian try to use the Moonbow Mare?” Marina asked.
“We have no idea,” Xarchelyna informed her. “That’s another piece to the mystery that just doesn’t fit.”
“Maybe they just didn’t have time,” Ricciadoré said. “Which is why if something ever happens, my plan is to buy you time while you find the mare and ride to safety.” She looked to Xarchelyna. “And I would tell you to get to safety, too, but I know you’re going to be stubborn no matter what I say.”
“We go down fighting together or not at all,” Xarchelyna reminded her. “Of course, as stars, we can survive far more than the average human can.”
“If there’s danger, get to the Moonbow Mare,” Marina reiterated. “Got it.”
“And THAT is all I have to say on the subject,” Ricciadoré concluded. “They’re probably wondering where we are.”
“They are,” Xarchelyna agreed.
In a flash of light, the two were dressed as Maris and Caspian again. As if none of it had happened, as if it had all been a dream or a vivid hallucination.
“But what are we supposed to do about the wish I found?” Marina asked.
“I’ll be honest,” said Ricciadoré. “I have no idea.”
“Keep it safe for now,” said Xarchelyna. “Maybe, with a little investigation, we can clear this up.”
“And remember,” said Ricciadoré. “Don’t tell ANYONE.”
Marina nodded. “Right.”
So when she passed Rosetta in the hall later, and Rosetta asked “Did they know anything?”, Marina had to lie and say “No.”
“Then we’ll have to hope the girls have answers,” said Rosetta.
The girls from Remnant. They were coming to visit the beach tomorrow, and Marina was supposed to be there whether or not her parents approved. If she didn’t show, it might give away that she knew something. Still, it didn’t feel right to lie to them about all this, even if she didn’t see any other way to protect Xarchelyna and Ricciadoré. She’d play dumb for now, but really, really wished that she could confide in her friends about all that had happened.
Maybe that wish had become an orb somewhere and was being looked at by a star who was judging that it wasn’t worthy to grant.
Marina let the Andersen tuck her into bed, and Roy snuggled up next to her as usual. She did need sleep, but getting to it with all this new information was going to be a struggle. She simply let her thoughts race until she was unconscious, and she didn’t know what time it was when she actually dropped into slumber.
Far across the reaches of space, the former stronghold of an apocalyptic threat lay in ruin. Slabs of stone and floating plateaus marked out what used to be the domain of the monster known as Cursa, a Dark creature that had threatened many planets. Thanks to the actions of brave heroes, Cursa had been felled a while ago. However, she’d left something behind in her massive shadow.
She had created minions. Creatures forged from the small rabbitlike people called Rabbids, intended to be able to hunt down a particular hybrid breed of star. She’d combined Rabbids with wind, rock, and plant matter to make her monsters, her legion of Spark Hunters. She’d made them a leader; the leader had defected. She’d made them a second leader and that one had also defected, so she gave up on the task, deciding to command the elemental trio herself. The problem was that she had designed them to only be able to follow a leader. Without one, they were aimless. Meaning that once Cursa had been put to rest, her Spark Hunters had lost their purpose in life.
They spent most of their days at the abandoned stronghold, grieving their lost master.
“Cursaaaaaaaaa!” This melodramatic bawling came from a ghostly Rabbid, the one who had been fused with a bitter North wind. She was blue and delicate, with flowing hair and skirts, and she traveled exclusively by levitation. This one was called Midnite. She dabbed at her eyes with a diaphanous blue handkerchief. “What are we supposed to do without youuuuu?”
“Shut up, will ya?” This came from Daphne, the rabbid who’d been fused with plants and given mastery over them. Her blue bangs covered her eyes, her loose pink tunic was reminiscent of petals, and even then, vines curled out from the skin on her back, clenching to reflect her grumpy mood. “Things are bad enough without yer bawlin’!”
“WAAAAAAAAH!” This just made Midnite feel worse, and she made that loudly clear.
“Why, I oughta…” Two vines rose from behind Daphne, opening into flowers with hollow blooms. Cannons, ready to shoot acidic projectiles.
Instantly, their third stood between them. Bedrock was tall and square, a bulky Rabbid made of pink granite. She put out one hand to push Daphne to the right and another to push Midnite to the left. She then glowered at both of them.
“She’s right.” Midnite dabbed at her eyes again, trying honestly this time to stem the tide of tears. “This is no time to be fighting. We have to figure out some kind of plan!”
“We’ve been going over plans upon plans ever since Cursa was defeated, and none of them work,” Daphne grumbled. “What we need is a new leader.”
“If Edge hadn’t left…” Midnite sniffled.
“Oh, Edge Edge Edge!” Daphne spat. “Give it a rest already with her. She decided she was too good for us, so she might as well get thrown to the black holes!”
Midnite tensed with anger. “If I ever see her again, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Bedrock nodded. She had no love for their former pack leader either.
It seemed it would be just another day of quiet grieving and getting nowhere. However, today, something was different. Light footsteps pranced upon the stone of the broken stronghold, and a fourth appeared:
“Well, well, well! I wish I could say I was surprised!”
The Spark Hunters all knew that voice. It didn’t belong to Edge, but rather the other leader they’d been assigned. The other one who had walked out on them. In utter shock that she would show her face, Midnite, Bedrock, and Daphne turned around to stare wide-eyed at her.
This Rabbid had razor-sharp teeth and was dressed in a frilly black-and-red tutu that matched the shock of spikes atop her head, tied off with yellow ribbons. “So you followed Cursa to the ends of the earth,” she taunted, “and this is where it got you all?” She mimicked a long yawn. “How predictable.”
Kanya. Unlike Edge, there had been no love lost when Kanya had decided she was ready for bigger and better things. However, in this desperate time, the trio needed a pack leader, and they all knew it.
“What are you doing, showing your face around here?” Daphne grumbled, hoping that she could steer the answer around to something that would allow them to ensnare Kanya back into their fold so she could give them orders. It wasn’t that they particularly wanted to help with whatever orders Kanya had – mostly, she just served herself – but they needed something. Anything.
“I heard you three were out of a job,” Kanya sneered. “I remember back in the old days, when the three of you worked for me. You weren’t terrible, but I thought I could do better. Alas…things didn’t exactly pan out the way I wanted. Oh, well.”
“So you came crawling back to us,” Daphne guessed.
Midnite gasped; “Do you want to be our friend again?”
“Puh-lease!” Kanya rolled her eyes. “As if I WANT to pal around with you losers. But I think we can join forces to get something we all want, and maybe putting up with each other will be worth it.”
“What’ve you got for a lead?” Daphne asked.
“Whatever it is,” Midnite suggested, “we could still become friends along the way! You might warm up to us!”
Bedrock and Daphne fired Midnite glances that reminded her that Kanya wasn’t the only one with a cold heart about this relationship.
“Well, I’ve been dancing around the worlds for a while.” Kanya went en pointe and displayed a graceful arabesque to punctuate. “There’s a whole lot of folks out there who use the Darkness, but so few of them know about the power of the DarkMESS.”
Darkmess was in fact a form of Darkness, a distilled substance that was sticky and destructive, able to open portals to a dark dimension and send the residents of the real world flying across reality. It would gum up works, pollute environments, and attract monsters. It had been Cursa’s primary weapon, and all the Spark Hunters had made use of it.
“But I found one particular new best friend who was VERY interested in hearing about the Darkmess,” Kanya went on, executing a slow, graceful ballet. “When I told them all about what we used to do here for Cursa, they had a few great ideas about how to use Darkmess to cause misery all over the worlds. So we struck a little deal. I’d get them the Darkmess and spread it around where they told me to, and they’d pay me in whatever I wanted. Money, mech parts, pretty tutus, you name it! But honestly, I’m just happy to spread the hate and fear around the galaxies. It’s so much fun, you know!”
“You don’t gotta tell me how much fun it is to spread misery!” said Daphne, who had a penchant for exactly that.
“Well, I could’ve just scraped up some leftover Darkmess on my own,” Kanya stated. “But then I thought…you losers all worked for me before. Maybe, if I gave you a decent cut of my rewards, you could speed up the process of spreading it around. I’m willing to let bygones be bygones if you are. Sure, you’d have to take orders from me again, and I’m not gonna sit around crying over Cursa and how she always held me back. But I’d let you ask for whatever reward you wanted. And I know the three of you are DYING to be bossed around again.”
“I really wish we weren’t, y’know!” Daphne spat.
“You thought of us all on your own?” Midnite gasped. “I think you DO want to be friends with us now that Cursa is out of the way and we don’t work for her anymore! That’s why you came back!”
“WHAT?” Kanya spat. “NO! OF COURSE NOT! I’m just gonna be using you to get what I want, and you get to use me to get what YOU want! I don’t miss you! I don’t even LIKE you three!”
“Feeling’s mutual,” Daphne muttered.
“If you don’t miss us,” Midnite countered, “then why bring up missing us? None of us said that.”
Bedrock nodded affirmatively. She hadn’t bought it until Kanya’s overreaction just then. Perhaps there was something to Midnite’s speculation.
“Look, do you want in on the gig or not?” Kanya folded her tiny arms. “All you gotta do is help me round up the Darkmess and shoot it where we’re told to shoot it. Then we can watch everybody on those worlds freak out.”
“We gotta think it over!” Daphne insisted.
There was a pause for about five minutes. Then Daphne said “I thought it over. I’m in, but only if the other two are!”
“I still think you WANT us to be a team again,” Midnite teased. “Of course I’m in.”
Bedrock just nodded.
“Ugh, shut up about all this sappy friendship talk!” Kanya hissed. “But if you’re all on board, then the boss is gonna be real happy. Let’s start rounding up that stray Darkmess!”
“There’s a whole lot of it lying around here,” Daphne said, casting her glance around to where black pools with tarlike consistency bubbled in the wreckage of the stronghold. “Practically an ocean of it!”
“Then here’s where we can start!” Midnite chirped.
Bedrock held out a hand in order to get everyone’s attention. Then she pointed at Kanya. Then the Darkmess.
“What?” Kanya spat.
Bedrock gave a dramatic shrug. One that punctuated an unspoken question.
“You want to know WHY we’re spreading Darkmess?” Kanya replied. “I just told you! It’s to make everybody miserable! I dunno, maybe the boss has ulterior motives, but they’re letting me do what I want, UNLIKE a certain evil entity that used to live here, so I’m not gonna ask too many questions! I do know one thing, though. You know how we used to chase Sparks? And you know how Sparks are stars? Aaaaand you know how wishing on a star is supposed to make your dreams come true?”
Daphne, Midnite, and Bedrock all nodded. They knew the folktales.
“Well,” Kanya said, “let’s just say we’re gonna ruin a whole lot of people’s wishes!”
“Marina?” Rosetta asked as she and the princess dined together for breakfast the next morning. “You’re really quiet. Is something wrong?”
Marina was still trying to work out the practicality of it all. She had forbidden knowledge now. Knowledge that suggested she was supposed to be doing something, trying to find this crown or learn why the Moonbow Kingdom had been attacked when she was a baby, but she had no idea where to start. She had the biggest secret she could think of to keep about her parents. And she was supposed to go to the beach.
“I guess I just have a lot on my mind, with that weird crystal,” she said.
“Did you want to ask to go to the beach today?” Rosetta reminded her.
“I – “
She didn’t know if she should. Somehow, she felt that Maris – no, that Ricciadoré would have something to say against it. That maybe she would be suspected of telling the girls from Remnant about the secrets she was supposed to keep. Or maybe Xar wanted her around the palace in order to try and research the wish orb with her and find out why it had been attracted to her.
Everything had just become so complicated in the span of one night.
Marina was about to turn it down, but something occurred to her. She still was not angry that her parents had lied. It seemed they’d had good reasons, and she loved them dearly. However, logically, it had only just dawned on her that they had in fact been okay with lying to her. That their bond ran deep, but was not built on honesty.
There was a pang of sadness with this realization that Marina did not want to dig into too deeply. However, if she kept thinking logically, this meant that she no longer had to tell her parents everything. Why should she owe them honesty when they hadn’t given it to her? Yes, she still loved them, and she liked to share her life with them…but maybe it was time just to keep some things to herself.
(“Don’t think about what THEY want,” Clementine laughed. “If YOU want to find out bad enough, then find a way!”)
She wanted to go to the beach, if only just to see her friends. Even if she couldn’t talk about what was really going on.
“I don’t think we need to ask,” she said. “They’ll probably be fine with it. And if they aren’t…I mean, Clementine did tell me to start thinking for myself more.”
Rosetta was surprised to hear this, but smiled regardless. “They can’t be too upset so long as I go with you. And they know the girls.”
“Yeah,” Marina agreed, nodding.
They rounded up Roy and opened a portal to Moonbow Beach. Clementine was already waiting for them, having brought portable furniture to set up. “Wanna help me?”
Marina took hold of a beach umbrella and absolutely could not figure out how to open it. She turned it every which way, pressing and prodding at it, but it wouldn’t obey.
Rosetta and Clementine exchanged knowing glances of pity. All her life, Marina had had everything done for her, and she often struggled with doing certain tasks without help. Clementine was of the mind that Marina should learn more things the hard way, but Rosetta was always glad to help, as was her role as handmaiden. Therefore, it was Rosetta who stepped forward, said “Here, let me help,” and opened the umbrella to plant in the sand.
“Thanks,” Marina said sheepishly. “I’m gonna try to get it next time.”
Eight umbrellas were lined up. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and a shimmering iridescent umbrella that shone every color under the sun. As the last one was planted, the liquid rainbow portal connecting Remnant to Rainbow World opened up.
“MARINAAAAAA!” The first one through was of course Sunny Madison, whose golden blonde hair was tied up into a slightly elaborate ponytail. She flew at Marina, arms wide.
Marina laughed, catching Sunny for the hug. Sunny squeezed tight, babbling, “I’m soooooo glad you invited us! It feels like it’s been forever since we had a Rainbow World mission!”
“It’s literally been three days,” sighed Jade Hunter. She boasted waist-length wavy green hair, and usually was dressed in clothing that was loose and comfortable, with function prioritized over fashion. “Not that it’s not good to be back.”
The next to appear was Violet Willow, whose lavender hair swayed in the ocean breeze. She held up a scroll, recording herself; “And now we’re about to begin our beach day – “
“Nope!” Pink-haired, primly dressed Bella Parker swiped the scroll out of Violet’s hand shutting it off. “No recording things we shouldn’t! Believe me; I of all people know.”
“Right,” Violet remembered. “Everyone else doesn’t quiiiiiite know Rainbow World exists yet. Forgot about that. Thanks!”
“How is everyone?” asked the denim-clad, light-blue-haired Skyler Bradshaw.
“Doing fine as the waves on the ocean,” said Clementine.
“Uh…” Marina wasn’t sure how to answer. “Good! I’m doing good.”
“I hear we have a mystery investigation!” This from Ruby Anderson, whose hair was crimson as a rose and who wore athletic clothing with logos and patches she’d customized herself.
“Yeah,” Marina muttered. “Yeah, I guess we do.”
Next was Poppy Rowan, whose fire-orange hair offset the colorful earbuds she wore. She popped one out to wave; “Hi, everyone!” She quickly skipped over toward Rosetta. “Jewel says hi, by the way.”
Rosetta gasped and beamed. Rosetta had made a brief trip to Remnant – though she’d never left the safety of Vytal, where the fine arts schools were kept sequestered from the rest of the world’s chaos – and on that excursion, she’d developed quite an attachment to Poppy’s classmate Jewel. “Tell her I say hi back!”
Finally, Amaya Raine came through the portal. She changed her hair every so often, but now it was white with multicolored higlights. “HELLO, RAINBOW WORLD!” She extended her arms, smiling to feel the breeze from the ocean.
Their accompanying Andersen hopped through along with them, and then the portal closed. Not many in either world were blessed with the knowledge of the linking of the two. These eight had been chosen to help protect Rainbow World because of their many adventures back home, working to bring their school together and pull off artistic miracles. They also had a strong bond that had made them a likely team, able to work together like a well-oiled machine when problems needed solving.
“Soooo!” Violet urged. “Tell us all the scoop on this mystery orb you found!”
“There’s not much to tell so far,” Marina lied. “I, uh…I found it…and it’s in my room now, but it’s probably just glass.”
“I thought you had some kind of vision in it yesterday,” Clementine said with suspicion. “Something about a broken crown.”
“…Maybe I saw something,” Marina muttered. “I don’t remember.”
“Well, I do,” said Clementine. “It was about this big – “ she gestured with her hands. “And perfectly clear, but it also sparkled. Marina was the first one to see it. We wouldn’t have even noticed it if she hadn’t gotten to it first!”
“Any ideas what it could be?” Rosetta asked.
“I mean, it would help if we could see it,” Jade huffed. “Marina, why didn’t you bring it?”
“I forgot,” Marina said quietly and a little too quickly.
“It’s okay!” said Poppy. “I don’t think it’s too hard to imagine what a glass orb looks like.”
“I…might have some idea,” said Amaya. “But I can’t tell you much. I just…you know the Rainbow Archive?”
“No,” said Marina, Clementine, and Rosetta.
“Right,” Amaya realized. “We never showed it to you. So at Rainbow High, there’s a secret library. At the beginning of the school year, students are given hints about how to find it, but they have to put together the pieces on their own. We all found it, so I’ve been reading some of the books there, and there are some…weird old ones. Anyway, I found a book of fairy tales…like, the really old ones from our parents’ time? Or maybe from the Mantle war. And there was one about two brothers who were gods and created four mystic relics that had magical powers. It was pretty vague after that, but I think ‘mystic relic’ sounds a lot like what you found!”
Marina knew that was wrong, but she wasn’t in a position to say so without blowing the whole secret.
“What if it had something to do with the crystal we found at the Beginning of the Rainbow?” Skyler asked. “Or our pets found, anyway. What did you call it? Heather…hazel…”
“Hydaelyn’s Prism,” said Rosetta.
“We never did figure out how it got knocked down,” said Skyler.
“That is true,” Rosetta realized. “But…how could it be connected?”
“Any ideas, Marina?” Sunny asked.
Marina shook her head, saying nothing.
“Marina?” Bella observed. “Is everything okay? You’re kind of acting like something’s…wrong.”
“I know I said I wanted to try and figure out the orb,” Marina sighed, “but I’m kind of…tired of thinking about it. Can we just hang out? I’m feeling like I just…need to take a load off.”
“But what about the mystery?” Sunny moaned.
“The mystery can wait,” Bella said. “We’re here on the beach, and we’re all together. Why not just have some fun?”
“It kinda defeats the whole point of calling us out here,” Violet huffed.
“Yeah,” said Clementine. “Marina, what gives? It’s like you know something.”
“I just – I don’t want to talk about the orb, okay?” Marina said worriedly. “I don’t know what else there is to say about it, and I’d rather do something else!”
“But – “ Sunny attempted.
“If she doesn’t wanna talk about it, then she doesn’t wanna talk about it,” said Bella. “Let’s just forget about it for now, okay?”
Bella quietly theorized to herself that maybe, if they could all just loosen up a bit, Marina would feel more comfortable sharing whatever secret she was hiding. Hopefully, the other girls would catch on.
“It is a nice day,” Skyler reminded everyone. “Clementine, you mind if we borrow your boards? It looks like surfing weather!”
“You say that like I don’t have custom boards just WAITING for all of you,” Clementine said with a grin. “I’ve been working on them in secret, and they’re finally ready to roll out. All the colors of the rainbow!”
The girls gasped and began to chatter excitedly. A move was made to proceed to a nearby cabana to change into swimwear, and then Clementine showed off the new boards, each one made to the signature color of the corresponding Remnant resident – Amaya’s being a rainbow swirl.
They ran out into the shallows, boards splashing down. Jade was the first to pack it in after about five minutes in the waves, because her Anders was afraid of water and she wanted to split her time between having fun her way and being sensitive to her green companion. She moved further up the beach, onto the sand, to suntan with the little critter.
As for the rest, they surfed, and they swam, and Marina did her best to forget all about the story she’d heard of her parents being stars from across space and of her being an orphan who was nearly assassinated along with the rest of the royal line. The mystical lost crown that someone wished very strongly would be rediscovered. The fact that such a wish had found her even though she was no star.
If she wasn’t burdened with such knowledge, she thought, it would be a perfect day out with her friends. All she had to do was find a way to…forget it all, focus only on what was happening right then. Yeah. She’d do that.
She sat on her floating surfboard, turning her face up to look into the blue sky –
And was the first to see the dark specks falling from high above.
She gasped. So Sunny looked up, then pointed; “Hey! What IS that?”
“Pollution?” Ruby guessed.
“Some kind of air show?” Skyler suggested.
“No,” Poppy realized as it all got closer, now identifiable as large clumps of black sludge. “It’s DANGEROUS!”
The girls all hastily paddled back to shore as the first of the Darkmess began to rain down on Moonbow Beach. Giant globs of black goop, stickier than tar, plunged from the sky, coming down hard and splattering on the sand. Whatever landed in the water spread over the ocean’s surface like an oil slick.
“WHAT EVEN IS THIS STUFF?” Sunny screamed as the girls did their best to avoid the hazardous rain.
“I – I don’t know!” Marina yelled back. “I’ve never seen this before!”
She had to get off the beach – they all did, she wasn’t about to leave a single friend here – was it just localized to the beach, or was all of Rainbow World under attack?
There came a new sound. A whinny of fright. They all recognized it. Marina turned to see, on the horizon, a shimmering white unicorn galloping toward the beach, her rainbow mane practically blazing as she tried to outrun the falling Darkmess.
(“That mare is tied to the royal family. Not Xar and me. You. You’re the only member of the bloodline left. It’s said that if the royals were ever in danger, the Moonbow Mare can take them across worlds to safety. To where they need to be.”)
The Mare seemed determined to reach Marina, but the Darkmess hail was persistent. A massive glob of it splashed down right before the Mare, too late for the unicorn to react –
“NO!”
And down the Mare went, galloping right into the puddle and sinking into it. Which shouldn’t have been possible. The sand of the beach should have been right under the Darkmess film. But the Mare had disappeared as though the goo went several feet down.
Marina felt a sharp pain in her heart. The Mare – her family – her parents –
Without thinking, she bolted toward the puddle.
“MARINA!” Rosetta shrieked. “DON’T!”
Marina jumped at the puddle, splashing right into it, following the mare –
At first, the horrible sensation of sinking into the slime. Then, all of a sudden, Marina stood on what seemed to be a floating island. All around her was blue, cloudy sky; where she had ended up was a twisted version of Moonbow Beach, all the same colors and sand and some of the water but much smaller.
She stood at one end of the isle. The Mare was visible at the other, glued down to the ground by a far shallower puddle that didn’t seem to contain a pocket dimension.
Marina began to run toward the Mare, but shapes rose from the shadows, forming into creatures that glowered at her. Rabbits in scaly cloaks, with voids for eyes. Ghosts draped in clanking chains, also with rabbit ears. Rabbits the size of large people, with massive rocks strapped to their backs, looking strong as could be.
Marina stopped short. There was an army of them between her and the Mare. She had to save the Mare – or at least reach her, see if there was any way to free her and bring them both back to reality – but she hadn’t the first clue as to how to fight monsters.
They converged, beginning to shamble toward her.
There was then the sense of ten other presences appearing all around Marina. Rosetta, Clementine, Violet, Sunny, Bella, Ruby, Jade, Skyler, Poppy, Amaya.
“MARINA!” Rosetta gasped.
“We had to make sure you were okay!” Skyler explained.
“Some of us did, anyway,” Jade huffed.
“Hey, I was worried too!” Violet said. “But the rest of you had it handled! …And then I fell in a different puddle anyway, so it’s not like it mattered.”
“What even is this place?” Bella gasped, looking around. “It’s like some kind of – “
“NO TIME FOR THAT!” Clementine pointed forward. “We’re in trouble!”
The monsters had frozen, doing a double take when reinforcements showed up, but now they resumed their forward march.
“The Mare!” Marina cried. “We have to save her – somehow – I’m not leaving her behind!”
“WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?” Sunny screamed. “WE’RE NOT HUNTRESSES! WE CAN’T FIGHT!”
“Well, we’re gonna have to try!” Jade barreled into the fray.
“JADE!” the others cried as one.
“HYAH!” Jade dealt a punch to one of the cloaked rabbits. It called water magic down upon her, and she was flung back with a splash, but she regained her footing, surging back toward the enemy with willpower blazing.
“I had no idea Jade could do that!” Amaya gasped.
“I mean, I’m not surprised,” Violet said.
“Well, she can’t do it alone!” Ruby urged. “We have to try!”
“Right!” Marina said, starting to run out toward the other monsters.
“NO!” Rosetta seized her wrist, holding her back. “I’m not supposed to let you get put in danger! Let me fight for you!”
“I can’t just LEAVE you!” Marina yelled.
“I know,” said Rosetta, “but I…”
Then her eyes widened. Marina, looking directly into those eyes, saw what many may have missed. A shimmering pink light crossing Rosetta’s irises.
“Weird,” Rosetta said, almost in a daze. “I feel…strange. Powerful. Confident. Like I could just…”
The rabbit monsters were nearly upon the other girls. Rosetta let go of Marina, stepping out front, and holding out her hands, as though casting some sort of spell.
But she did cast a spell. A wind filled with rose petals blasted into the enemy horde, pushing them back. Several of them rolled right off the edge of the floating isle.
“Rosetta!” Marina gasped. “I didn’t know you could do that!”
“I COULDN’T do that,” Rosetta said, looking at her own hands. “What happened to me?”
“Did we get cool superpowers from the goo?” Sunny asked excitedly. “Let me try!”
She flung her own hand out toward the monsters. It did nothing. A few of them were still being manhandled by Jade, who was holding her own well, but otherwise, the horde was unaffected.
One of the larger rabbits with a stone tied to its back launched itself high into the sky with a pig-like squeal. It started to come down hard and fast, with Sunny in the shadow of its trajectory.
“SUNNY, LOOK OUT!”
Both Marina and Violet reached over to pull Sunny away from the Squasher. When they had seized her arms, dragging her away, Sunny suddenly felt invigorated, energized. She wrenched one hand free of Violet, put out her arm again, and let forth a blazing golden sunburst of light that vaporized the Squasher in midair.
“SO COOL!” Sunny squealed.
“Whatever’s happening,” Clementine realized, “it’s because of people who touch Marina!”
“But it can’t be!” Marina said. “Why would that even happen?”
Did she have powers of her own? She focused on her own hands, gesturing toward the remaining monsters. And nothing happened.
“Try me!” Amaya grabbed Marina’s hand.
Marina just hoped that the others were right, that she somehow could gift the others with powers. Because otherwise, what else could she even do to help? Maybe she wasn’t good at wielding whatever magic this was, but Amaya – Amaya would be an amazing spellcaster –
Amaya let go of Marina and launched a shimmering ribbon of rainbow toward the monster horde, thinning their ranks yet again. “IT WORKED!” Amaya yelled.
“EVERYONE!” Ruby cried. “GET SOME POWER OFF MARINA!”
“I have no idea how this works,” Marina said, “but do it anyway!”
The others all brushed hands against Marina’s arms, shoulders, back, hair. Ruby was now able to wield fire, causing bursts of red. Poppy brought down a flock of ethereal monarch butterflies to carry one of the rabbit-mages away. Skyler was able to levitate any target of her choice wherever she wanted, and flung them over the side. Violet summoned purple flowers and vines to rise from the earth, wrapping around and immobilizing hostiles. Clementine commanded an orange tidal wave of water that swept the creatures away.
There was a shriek. Jade, who hadn’t been part of the group to take power from Marina, had fallen, an alarming amount of crimson blood staining her green beach clothes.
“JAAAAADE!” Bella screeched, hurtling across the battlefield without a second thought. She felt her own power from Marina bubbling up within her, but it was no priority at all, not next to making sure Jade was safe, her best friend, the most amazing person she knew –
She reached Jade, dropping to embrace her, shield her from the few remaining monsters. And as she put her arms around Jade, the power activated, a healing pink light that flowed from Bella to Jade.
“I’m…fine?” Jade realized. “Bella…you just closed my wound!”
Bella gasped, backing off enough to see her handiwork. The bloodstain remained, but there wasn’t so much as a scar. “No,” she said. “Marina did that.”
Marina knew her cue. She hurtled across the battlefield as quickly as she could, reaching out a hand. “JADE!”
Jade reached back and seized Marina’s hand. Once she took her own dose of power, she was on her feet again, and she made the ground of the entire isle shake. Her friends and allies were unaffected, but the last three ghostly monsters were shaken right out into the endless sky.
“…We’re sure those were the bad guys, right?” Violet said. “We didn’t just…kill a bunch of innocent fluffy bunnies, did we?”
One last hidden rabbit-made in a red cloak peered out from behind a palm tree to throw an incineration blast at Violet.
“NOT INNOCENT!” Violet screamed as Clementine doused the flames with her golden-orange water and Jade shook the rabbit into the blue void.
Now the path was clear. With little time to question literally anything that had happened, Marina sprinted across the floating isle to where the Moonbow Mare still struggled against the tarlike Darkmess that held her down. “It’s okay!” Marina said, trying to have as reassuring of a tone as possible. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. I’m here!”
She threw her arms around the horse’s neck, gently embracing the Mare. And then, in a flash of bright white light, they were all back on Moonbow Beach, the real one, and free of the Darkmess – which still cascaded from the sky around them.
“WHAT EVEN WAS THAT?” Violet yelled.
“It was like we went to this super cool but also really scary pocket dimension full of monsters!” Sunny said. “No, it wasn’t LIKE that! That’s what happened! Hey, I wonder if we got to keep our superpowers!” She threw out her hands toward one of the Darkmess puddles and nothing happened. “Aww…”
“But why would the powers have come from Marina?” Clementine asked. “Something weird’s going on here.” She whirled on Marina. “You NEED to tell us what you learned about that orb!”
“I will,” Marina promised, but she was already hoisting herself up, straddling the Moonbow Mare’s back. “But we don’t know how far this stuff is going, and I need to make sure my parents are okay!”
“MARINA!” Rosetta yelled.
“I’ll be fine!” Marina called back as the Moonbow Mare turned away from the group. “I’ll come back to you later and tell you everything! I PROMISE!”
The Mare took off at a fast gallop, a portal of shimmering, prismatic light appearing before horse and rider. The Mare plowed through, and Marina held tight to her back as they transported instantly from Moonbow Beach to the Moonbow Palace.
Darkmess did not actively rain here, but it certainly had, not too long ago. The black slime crawled down the outer walls of the normally pristine palace. Marina didn’t dismount as the Mare rode directly into the castle.
“MOM!” she shrieked, loud as she could. “DAD!”
They may not have given birth to her. She didn’t even know if she could prove their story true. But as far as she was concerned, they were her parents.
The Mare brought Marina on a tour through the dishearteningly empty castle. Darkmess puddles had bubbled up in many a room, but Ricciadoré and Xarchelyna were nowhere to be found. Then, all of a sudden, the Mare rode into the throne room, and there was the latter, sunk up to her chest in Darkmess.
“Marina!” Xarchelyna coughed.
Marina didn’t even notice at first the pools of water in the room. Someone had tried to fight the Darkmess with massive quantities of water magic. It wasn’t hard to guess who. And she’d lost.
“DAD!” Marina ran toward Xarchelyna, full tilt. “No, wait – I mean – Mom, I’m sorry – “
She caught Xarchelyna’s hand, and Xarchelyna’s first thought was that the last thing Marina should be worrying about was accidental misgendering.
“This is Darkmess,” Xarchelyna coughed out. She was sinking fast, and she had to admit defeat. This Darkmess was hungry for her and Ricciadoré in particular; it had taken Ricciadoré without a trace and not even left a portal to a pocket dimension where she could be fought for. Whatever this was, it was blatant enemy action. Xarchelyna had tried to fight it with tidal waves and typhoons, but the black sludge had bested her, and now all she could do was pass on a final message. “It’s Darkness, but more…concentrated! It took Ricci. Marina, you have to let go, you have to stay safe, and whatever this is, it came for US, us stars, so throw that wish as far as you can away and hide yourself in the suburbs!”
“I’m not letting go!” Marina’s eyes stung with hot tears. “You’re my mom! And my other mom! There’s a way to get her back!”
“Maybe later,” Xarchelyna told her, “but NOT NOW. You can’t sink in with me; you HAVE to save yourself! Ricci and I have escaped worse, and we WILL! Just remember to stay away from the Darkmess and its dimension!”
“Mom,” Marina choked out. Xarchelyna had sunk up to her neck.
“I love you,” Xarchelyna gasped. “Ricci does too. We’ll see you again when it’s – “
Before she could say the word “safe,” her head was under. Marina still held her hand, the last bit of her above sludge. Submerged, Xarchelyna focused the last of her energy into getting Marina to let go so she wouldn’t go down with the stars who’d been attacked.
A massive blast of water slammed into Marina, and she had no choice but to let go of Xarchelyna’s hand as she was thrown across the throne room. Xarchelyna’s hand disappeared.
When the Waterza spell faded, the water dissipating, Marina ran right back toward the puddle. She’d saved the Mare! All she had to do was dive in after Xarchelyna, fight the monsters tooth and nail, and –
The Darkmess puddle vanished. Sucking itself up into thin air. As if it had dried out.
“NO! MOM? MOM!”
Marina dropped to her knees, scratching at the cold tile of the throne room with her fingernails. Chipping them all in desperation. Not a single speck of Darkmess remained; only the water left from what Xarchelyna had used to counter it. The Darkmess had arrived, taken Ricciadoré and Xarchelyna away…and promptly left.
When she realized that it was truly hopeless, Marina collapsed, sobbing, onto the tile. Not long after, she heard the sound of footsteps, many of them, around her.
“Marina!” Rosetta was the first to kneel at her side.
“Sorry we took so long!” Amaya gasped. She’d come with Clementine, Ruby, Poppy, Sunny, Jade, Skyler, Violet, and Bella, as well as all the Andersen. Roy peered out sheepishly from the back of the crowd. Obviously, the Andersen’s Sparkleglow had facilitated their quick arrival. “What…what happened here?”
“My parents,” Marina choked. “It took my parents.”
“What?” Clementine said in disbelief. “It took – how? WHY?”
“Marina…” Rosetta said softly. Her own heart hurt; she’d loved the king and queen like parents of her own.
“Okay, something weird is going on,” Bella said. “Marina…if you know anything about any of this…we need to know too. We have to figure this out somehow!”
Marina didn’t even know if she had the energy to speak, or do anything but lay on the floor in tears. However, she knew she would have to find it. “Okay,” she sobbed. “I’ll tell you everything. Maybe…if I’d told you sooner…we could’ve done something to stop it.”
She told them all the story as she sat on the throne and they were spread out sitting on the floor in front of her. It was a lot to take in, but one thing was clear: even with the knowledge that the king and queen had secretly been stars raising Marina from birth after an assassination attempt, nothing about the Darkmess seemed any clearer, and even if Marina had told them sooner, none of them would have known a thing about how to stop it.
“Wow,” said Violet. “That…would make one really great episode of The Vi Life. Not that I want to broadcast it for views! It’s just…I couldn’t even script anything more dramatic if I tried.”
“What she MEANS is that it’s a lot to take in,” said Jade.
“But now I get why you didn’t tell us earlier,” Ruby added.
“Are we…sure you got told the truth?” Skyler said. “I mean…what if those people lied to get you to trust them?”
“I wouldn’t trust them if they’d kept something like that from me,” Clementine said coldly. “If they couldn’t tell the truth the first time, who knows if this was a lie too?”
“I…I guess I don’t know,” Marina stated. “But I know that they raised me and loved me, and I loved them for my whole life. Even if they lied to me again, I…I want them back. I want to save them. I don’t want anything bad to happen to them.”
“Isn’t anyone else thinking about the crystal?” Jade brought up. “The henna…the honeydew…the Prism. Someone tried to burn down Moonbow Palace about twenty years ago, and then, later, that Prism got knocked down when it really shouldn’t have. I wouldn’t be surprised if whoever tried to wreck things the first time came back for a second round.”
“But just leaving the Prism on the ground?” Sunny said. “That seems kinda…underdone for a villain scheme.”
“Well, we couldn’t get to it ourselves because of the rock tunnel,” Bella reminded her. “Maybe they couldn’t either. I mean, that wouldn’t explain how it got knocked down in the first place…but you definitely couldn’t pull the Prism out through that tunnel. You’d have to find some kind of way to levitate it over, and maybe that’s what our mystery criminal is missing. Presuming there’s actually a mystery criminal.”
“Curiouser and curiouser!” Violet said in a tone that she usually only got when on the trail of good gossip.
“In any case, Cas…the one posing as the king was right,” said Rosetta. “It isn’t safe for you to be here, I don’t think. And if that wish links you to the stars…”
“We seriously have no idea why a wish showed up to a total human?” Sunny said.
“No clue,” Marina said mournfully.
“I’ll arrange for a safehouse,” Rosetta went on. “I know where we can find one.”
“And throw that wish into the ocean,” Clementine said. “…Though probably not on Moonbow Beach. That one’s filled with slime. What even is ‘dark mess’ anyway? That doesn’t even make sense.”
“None of it does,” said Ruby. “But it’s what’s happening.”
“But if I go to a safehouse,” Marina said softly, “who will…”
She swallowed the question, changing it midsentence: “The people of Rainbow World. They still need someone to rule them.”
“We’ll…need to find a regent,” Rosetta supposed. “Though I don’t have any idea who that could be.”
“I mean…” Sunny said. “I’d trust Violet with anything, and she’s a really popular influencer back home. I’d vote for her to be queen in a minute!”
“You don’t vote for queens,” Jade reminded her.
“And I can’t just take over the throne of an entire kingdom!” Violet gasped. “All I know how to do is PR stuff! I couldn’t actually take care of people! That’s Bella’s thing! Or fight evil! Jade’s the one who’d probably do that!”
“Whoa, whoa,” said Jade. “I’m not queen material. Knight, MAYBE. In an emergency. But you are right that Bella could handle the people better.”
“Maybe,” said Bella. “But I got myself KICKED OUT of Rainbow High for breaking the rules, remember? How are you going to trust me with an entire kingdom?”
“You did whatever you could to make it right and get back into the school to be with us,” said Skyler. “That sounds pretty royal to me.”
“It’s still not like I could keep people’s spirits up,” said Bella. “People are probably panicking about this dark slime stuff. I wouldn’t even know what to say. Poppy would be able to come up with a mixtape that would remind everyone there’s hope in the world, but that’s not me.”
“You’re putting a lot of stock in my mixtapes,” said Poppy. “And that’s about all I even would know how to do. Not how to organize anything the way Ruby could, or even dress like a princess the way Skyler could!”
“I might be good at organizing,” said Ruby, “but I get so overwhelmed. You’d do a better job at staying cool than I would!”
“And the clothes are literally the least important part of the job,” said Skyler. “I don’t know…I think Sunny would be better. She’s sensitive and understands people, and she was the first one to get on board with even knowing there was another world.”
“What? No!” Sunny protested. “I’m bad at, like, literally everything else except animating cute cartoons, which is never gonna come in handy!”
Then Amaya said “…What if we all were the queen?”
“Huh?” Violet tilted her head.
“I mean…think about what we just said,” Amaya pointed out. “None of us has all the skills. But Ruby can organize, Poppy can give people hope, Sunny can hear people out and figure out anything to do with magic, Jade can protect from evil, Skyler can make sure we have the right aesthetic – which is way more important than you’re giving it credit for – Violet can handle PR, and Bella can come up with things to do to improve people’s lives and put in the hard work. Maybe if we put it all together, we can each contribute a little bit, and it would be like having one whole queen. And where we have flaws, we can help make up for them. Bella, I don’t think you’ll make a mistake like you think, but if you do, Violet will be there to catch it and smooth it over. Sunny, you’re not ‘bad at everything,’ but you do have specific skills, and I think Jade has the opposite skills, so she could help. Ruby might get overwhelmed, but Poppy could help her stay calm.”
The more Amaya went on, the more they all implicitly agreed this would be a good solution. “You’re a genius!” Violet gasped. “And since you thought of the genius idea, we’ll need you around to have MORE genius ideas just like that!”
“And because you’re our friend,” Bella said with a smile.
“That’s the thing,” said Ruby. “All of us are best friends. We promised we’d be together forever. And we were all specially chosen to know about the portals to Rainbow World. I think maybe…this is what we’re SUPPOSED to do.”
“It’s not gonna be safe,” Clementine said. “You’re all students. Whatever rained all that sludge on the world isn’t going to go easy on you.”
“And that’s why I think…if we go through with this,” Jade said, “and I think we should…we should call on a few favors back home.”
“I was just thinking about home!” Sunny said. “If we miss too much school, we’ll be kicked out!”
“So we come to the palace in shifts,” said Ruby. “We can take notes for each other in class, and Miss Morton could probably set us up with a way to broadcast virtual lectures, since she’s the one who assigned us here in the first place.”
“I agree,” said Jade. “We need to keep the portals going back and forth between here and Remnant. And on some of our trips to Remnant…” She inhaled deeply, then sighed. “I don’t think we can escape…fighting anymore. Especially me. You all literally pointed that out right now.”
“Wh…what are you saying?” Violet said nervously.
“We all chose Rainbow High and to live on Vytal so we could shut out the rest of the world and not worry about things like Grimm or Huntsmen,” Jade said. “When Beacon fell…we were safe behind our rainbow walls. Then Miss Morton told us about Rainbow World, but that it would be easy missions, because there were no Grimm here, just Andersen. Well…things just changed big-time. I know we tried to just escape having to fight. But I don’t think we should do that anymore. I don’t think we CAN do that anymore. So…next time I visit Remnant, I’m going to reach out to some of the Huntsmen and Huntresses. See if anyone’s willing to come to Vytal to teach us the basics of how to fight and defend others.”
That was the moment when everyone realized how truly serious this all was. Rainbow High had been an escape. If they contacted those connected to the Huntsman Academies, it no longer would be.
“I…I’ve heard that there are a lot of Beacon students trying to figure out what to do after the collapse,” Ruby volunteered quietly. “Maybe…some of them have the time to…show us how.”
“We really can’t ignore the outside world anymore, can we?” said Bella. “Either of them.”
“You don’t have to do this,” said Marina.
That was what locked everyone down into reality. “Yes, we do,” said Bella. “For you. If we left you and this kingdom behind now, then what kind of friends would we be? We can help. We can finally learn how to fight. And you can go to the safehouse until your parents…figure out how to escape.”
Marina, however, had been pondering that very point, so much that she’d hardly even heard the details of how the girls had agreed to split the throne. “The safehouse,” she repeated. “…What if I don’t want to go to the safehouse?”
“You can’t even suggest that,” said Rosetta. “You’re practically a walking target! Someone’s after the Moonbow royals and Rainbow World. They went after your first parents, they went after your second parents, and they might’ve gone after Hydaelyn’s Prism. You’re the next thing they’ll go after!”
“But if I hide away,” said Marina, “then…it’s just…a wish found me. Even though I’m not a star. And when a wish finds a star, it’s up to the star to grant that wish, right? The crown is related to me. It’s ALL related to me. What if the crown is the way to save my parents, or protect the Prism? And even if it’s not, the answers might be out there, and the one who needs to find them is the Moonbow princess. Me. I’m also not just going to sit around waiting in some safehouse while my parents might need to be rescued.”
“No offense,” Clementine sighed, “but you can barely make lemonade on your own.”
“I have that recipe memorized now!” Marina argued. “And…that’s honestly part of why I feel like I need to do this. My parents tried to protect me from whatever this is, and because of that, I never learned how to do much for myself. I know why they did what I did, but sometimes I feel…just…useless! Like a waste of space! Something to look pretty and sit on the throne and do nothing at all! We only just learned that they always wanted me to move on from their rules, right?”
“I was the one who found that secret appendix to the rules!” Amaya reminded everyone excitedly.
“And that’s another reason Moonbow needs you to help it along,” Marina told Amaya with a smile. “But I have to learn how to fend for myself, and maybe there’s no better way than a trial by fire. To go out there and figure it out the hard way.”
“There are easier ways to learn,” said Rosetta.
“But it might be too late to go slow,” Marina said. “Listen, Clementine said that if I wanted to go to the beach today, I shouldn’t care what my parents think and I should just find a way to go. Rosetta, I want to find a way to go look for my parents and the crown from the wish. I…I decided I don’t care what you think, and none of you can stop me, because this is something I have to do!”
Rosetta was taken aback. Then, unexpectedly, she smiled. “You know…you might just have a point.”
“I can’t really argue with my own words,” said Clementine. “Yeah. Your heart will tell you what’s right. You gotta follow it.”
“Before she was taken,” Marina said, “Mom said that the Moonbow Mare could bring me somewhere else. She said it would be to safety. I don’t want…safety. But I do need somewhere to start, and maybe the Mare could show me where the old royals would go, and I could find some kind of clue there. That’d be the first thing I’d do.”
“Only two people could ride the Mare, max,” Ruby pointed out. “That’s not a lot.”
“It’s not,” said Marina. “And I…” She trembled even thinking about it. “I think that’s how it’s supposed to be. I’m the one who has to go. Rosetta, the eight new regents will need a handmaiden and the rest of the palace staff.”
“I…” Rosetta sighed. “You’re right, actually.”
“I’m not even gonna argue,” said Clementine. “Listen, the regent thing is a good plan, but you also need someone on the ground who’s actually part of the people and can figure things out from somewhere that isn’t up in the palace. Royals can get out of touch. That’s where I come in. Telling them what’s really going on in the different towns so they can help where it matters.”
“And I want to get a good scoop on that Prism,” said Violet. “I mean…WE need the scoop on that Prism so we can know what’s going on.”
Clementine fixed a suspicious glare upon Violet. “Are you going to release sensitive information about the state of Rainbow World in your vlogs?”
“No!” Violet said defensively. “Honest!”
“What she means to say is that I’m gonna be proofing EVERY vlog she uploads,” Sunny laughed, “and if she lets something slip, I’ll just edit it out!”
Violet meant well. But she constantly craved interaction from fans, and thus had some rather bad habits. She didn’t want to release secrets, but the reality was that she might become so tempted to do a piece that would encourage views that she would indeed say something forbidden on camera without even thinking it. “Good idea,” she told Sunny, because she trusted Sunny to keep her impulses in check. Even if Sunny had impulse control issues of her own. “I do think we should keep a news source going for the people, though, so they’re not too worried. We just won’t say anything classified. Though…how should we know what’s classified…”
“I’ll help with that,” said Clementine. “We just want to avoid talking about anything we don’t know enough about yet. If you do a piece on the Prism without us finding out why it really came loose from its tree, and if you pose a convincing enough theory that happens to be wrong, people are gonna draw their own conclusions and panic. But if we turn up something that we can prove, something that affects everyone, we shouldn’t keep it. Like if we find out the EXACT reason the Prism fell, and an EXACT identity of someone who’s after it.”
“You’re hired,” Violet told her.
“We definitely need to tell everyone that the palace was attacked,” Clementine said. “And that Marina is going into hiding. What we don’t need to tell anyone is where Marina’s going or why. And until we can prove that the crown is real and can be fixed, we treat her looking for it as not a fact yet. She might have to give up on that quest if it’s not, after all. We also need to make it very clear that we do NOT have enough information to tell people where all the goo came from or why the palace was attacked in the first place. That’s what I’d want to be told if it were me.”
“I think I see how I want to spin this!” Violet said. “A mysterious attack, an unknown substance raining from the skies, and a mystery two decades in the making, but with a glimmer – no, a spark of hope, because the heroes of two worlds are on the case!”
“A little sensationalized,” Clementine said, “but that’s what we should go for.”
“A spark of hope,” Marina repeated. Something about that phrase felt right. Inspirational, even. She was that spark. What she had to do was chase the one lead she had and try to unravel the rest.
Rosetta helped her pack the essentials. Marina led the Moonbow Mare out to the front courtyard of the palace, where Rosetta, Clementine, Ruby, Poppy, Sunny, Jade, Skyler, Violet, Bella, and Amaya all waved and cried out goodbyes and good-lucks.
Marina was suddenly aware of a shimmering presence at her feet. Roy G. Biv was trotting alongside her, looking up at her with sorrowful eyes.
“Well…” Marina looked back to the palace. Plenty of other Andersen lived there, and they weren’t clamoring to come. “I guess there’s no harm in it if just one of you comes along. And I could use someone to talk to.”
Roy squealed, so Marina picked him up before mounting the Mare. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s…go somewhere.”
The Mare broke into a trot, then sped up into a gallop. Shimmering colors appeared in the air before her and her passengers: a portal to another world.
“I’m ready!” Marina said, even though she didn’t know for sure that she was. But she was willing, at least, to try.
The Moonbow Mare galloped through the glimmering light, and for a moment, swirling colors were all that Marina could see. Then, all of a sudden, a burst of true daylight.
The Mare came to a halt on the dock of a massive isle, one situated between a sapphire sea and a topaz sky, that had been converted into a grand metropolis of white stone. A central tower rose from the isle’s zenith, scraping the sky, and around it, other buildings of pristine white were clustered in an aesthetically pleasing fashion.
Marina gasped as she stared up at the city that rose on the incline before her. Already, she could guess what sort of place this was. A place of great creations, full of surprise, where dreams and reality collided. A place far, far away from Rainbow World or Remnant, separated by unimaginable distances.
This was her first look at the kingdom of Rosas.