Meowtopia #1: Prisma's Quest Begins

Chapter 2

It was becoming rainier as Prisma walked down the street. The stores and cafés around her turned on the lights and glowy signs as the clouds darkened the sky. Prisma looked into the windows of some of her favorite stores as she walked past them. There was the "Pencil Point", where she bought her art supplies or just spent her time looking around. Next door was "Crowny's Cupcake Castle", a café which was mainly for kids. Lovelyn worked there as a cupcake baker. Prisma stopped and looked at the glowy sign above the door. It had the three mascots on it, one being Crowny, a pink cat wearing a crown, the second one being a blue dog with colorful dots on its fur, and the third one being a green and yellow budgie with a red bow on its head. "Maybe my characters will be on signs like that one day", Prisma said and sighed. She looked at her drawings, then at the sign. Raindrops fell onto her drawing and made the colors blur. "Aw, crap! I better keep going!", she said and hurried down the street, hoping that the people in the stores wouldn't see her through the windows running like an idiot.

Prisma finally arrived at her friends' bar. The sign above the door said "Berry's and Citrus' Smoothies and Cocktails". One side of the building was painted light pink with red and purple berry shapes on it, the other one yellow with green and orange citrus shapes. Berry's side of the building had blue curtains in the windows, Citrus' side pink ones. The two cats made the whole concept of the bar fitting their names quite well. They lived in the apartment that was above the bar.

Prisma entered the bar. To her surprise, the room was dark, even darker than usual, and appeared to be completely empty. The only light in the room came from the small lamps above the counter. Citrus stood there, watering some flowers standing on a shelf behind the counter, not noticing Prisma at first. "Hey Citrus", Prisma said. Citrus turned around. She was a yellow cat with green and pink, rather messy hair and orange eyes, wearing an orange top with a blue one underneath and camouflage pants. "Sup dude", she said. "Nothing much", Prisma replied. "I've been doing some... research about the "Pigasus" in the park when it started to rain like, really badly." "The Pigasus? Is that some sort of magical flying piggy bank coming for me to make me rich?", Citrus laughed, looking at Prisma's wet hair and clothes. "Well, they say that it makes those rich who find it and take care of it", Prisma said trying to sound serious, but she had to laugh too. She let her notebook fall onto the counter, causing some of the loose pages to fall out and scatter all over the place. "Dude, what the hell are you doing? I was just done cleaning up and I do not want to pick up your... stuff", Citrus complained. "Whoops", Prisma said. "I kinda forgot that my notebook is practically falling apart. Well, most of it is probably ruined now anyway after getting so wet... I better pick up my "stuff" now anyway." "Kay", Citrus said. "Hey, would you like something to drink? I got an idea for a cool new cocktail and need someone to try it on. Don't worry, it doesn't have alcohol... at least not much", she added and grinned. "Yeah, why not", Prisma answered as she picked up her drawings and put them onto the counter. "Ay Citrus, I think one of my drawings sorta floated over there", she said and pointed at the dark part of the room. "Could you turn the lights on?" "Uh... Can't you pick up that one later?", Citrus replied hesitantly. "Why not now? I'll probably forget it later", Prisma said confusedly. "Eh... The lights are... broken...?", Citrus smiled nervously. "Don't be silly, you've always been a bad liar, at least when you tried to lie to me." Prisma walked over to the light switches. "N-no! Don't...!", Citrus shouted. "Dude, chill out", Prisma said angrily and turned on the lights.

The lights flickered before they remained turned on and lighted up the room. To Prisma's surprise, the normal light bulbs had been replaced with colorful ones. There was a banner hanging from the ceiling that said "Surprise for Prisma!" in big, colorful letters. Underneath was a big cake standing on a table. Around the table stood the others, decorating the room - Lovelyn, Flashie and Nightsky, and also Prisma's sister Aurora, a mint green cat with purple, pink and light pink hair put together to a ponytail. She wore a white sweater, a pink and yellow skirt, white stockings and pink and purple shoes. All of the girls looked surprised and shocked. "Oh great, Citrus", Nightsky said angrily. "Say, is it so hard to keep Prisma busy there at the counter for like, two seconds without making her turn the lights on? We weren't done here!" "What do you expect me to do? Lie to my best friend?", Citrus exclaimed desperately. "Um... Yeah?", Nightsky countered with a serious expression. In that moment, a purple cat with blue and dark purple hair, wearing a pink top and a blue skirt with a strawberry on, it jumped out of the cake. "Surprise!", she shouted in a cheerful voice. She held her hands up in the air as cake frosting splattered onto the other girls. "Ew! Berry, watch out! This sweater is new!", Aurora complained. "Teehee, now your sweater tastes like cake! Isn't that great?", Lovelyn giggled. Berry put her hands down. "Ye are so right! Yay for cake sweaters!", she replied. "Yeah!", Lovelyn and Berry said as they high-fived.

"Wow, guys! You really did surprise me", Prisma said while the others still were upset about not having not enough time to finish preparing their surprise. "But what is all this for? It's not even my birthday or anything."  The other cats looked at each other and remained silent. Finally, Aurora stepped forward. "Listen, Prisma", she began, "We all know how much you'd like to become a famous artist and how horribly stuck you are because you get distracted by your weird... magic-research thing..." Prisma folded her arms and wanted to contradict. "It's not weird, it's –" "Shh, just let me finish!", Aurora said calmly. "We prepared a little something for you... Berry, hand me the gift!" Berry bent down and picked up an envelope in the cake. "Um, it's got cake on it, too!", she pointed out. "Whoo! More stuff that tastes like cake! Yeah!", Lovelyn said and the two of them high-fived again.

"Anyway...", Aurora said as she took the envelope, "We decided that this might help you to follow your dreams and make them come true." She held it right under Prisma's nose. "Uh, okay then", Prisma said confusedly, took the envelope and opened it up. Inside of it was something that appeared to be a letter. Prisma looked at it. "Hey, how about you read it out loudly?", Flashie suggested. "Yeah, sure..." Prisma cleaned her throat. "To Miss Prisma Colors. We received your application and were quite amazed by both your talent and your ideas. Times are tough and creative people like you are exactly what we need. We'd be glad if you would come and become part of our community. Sincerely, the Meowtopolis School of Art." Prisma just stood there and stared at the letter for a couple of seconds. Then she looked up and looked at her friends with a shocked expression before she began to smile. "Wow guys, this is the best gift ever!", she exclaimed. "How did you know that –" "Please Prisma, we're your friends!", Aurora said. "Yeah, we know that you're dreaming of becoming an artist", Flashie added. "Besides...", Nightsky said, "It's hard to ignore the fact that you're permanently drawing." "So you just sent them my drawings and some of my comics and scripts?", Prisma asked. "Yep, we knew that you'd never do so yourself because you're too shy and too lazy", Citrus replied. "Wow", Prisma said. "I... I think I need to sit down." Prisma sat down on one of the bar stools. "Your cocktail is ready now anyway", Citrus said. She smiled and put a glass with a pink and yellow drink in front of Prisma onto the counter.

"Hey, Prisma, yer train leaves tomorrow at nine am, so we better get this party started!", Berry said cheerfully. "What? I'm gonna go there tomorrow?", Prisma asked. "Yep! No time to lose when ye're making yer dream come true!", Berry replied with her weird pirate-like accent as she winked and put one of her hands on Prisma's shoulder. "I already packed your stuff while you were busy in the park, so don't worry about that", Aurora added. "Alright, Citrus! Turn up the music, dude!", Flashie shouted and put her hands in the air. "But there's still cake on the floor", Citrus said. "Even the floor tastes like cake! This is amazing!", Lovelyn pointed out happily. "Yeah!", Berry said as they high-fived again. "Ugh, okay, but you can clean that up tomorrow, sis", Citrus said and shrugged. She turned around and turned up the music. The disco ball on the ceiling started turning. "Woo! More bass!", Flashie shouted. The girls spent the last night before Prisma left dancing and laughing and having lots of fun.